Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LEARNING DIFFICULTIES: WHAT THE NEUROLOGIST NEEDS TO KNOW

Learning difficulties have a very significant effect on individuals and on society. The affected individual will have difficulties in thinking, acquisition, and processing of new information and knowledge. As a result of these difficulties many individuals require additional care, education, and medical services. In some cases affected individuals will never achieve personal independence and the need for care will persist throughout their lifetime. In the UK the term learning difficulty (or learning difficulties) is now preferred to older terms such as mental handicap or mental retardation. The term learning disorder is used slightly differently in the USA where it usually refers to specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. Learning difficulty is not a specific diagnosis—it refers to a collection of disorders in all of which impaired cognitive functioning is a common feature. This review will briefly discuss the causes of learning difficulty and will give guidance as to appropriate investigation of individuals who present with learning difficulty. It will also highlight some of the issues in management of the learning difficulties, particularly at the transition between paediatric services and adult learning disability services. Learning difficulties are defined on the basis of IQ (intelligence quotient). Only those individuals who score below 70 on a standardised IQ test are defined as having a learning difficulty. The normal IQ is considered to be over 85 and individuals with an IQ of between 71 and 84 are often described as having borderline intellectual functioning. Learning difficulties are usually defined, on the basis of IQ score, as mild (IQ 50–70) or severe (IQ < 50). The severe category is often further subdivided into: Incidence and prevalence figures for learning difficulties vary throughout the world and within social class. The prevalence of mild learning difficulties is …
Modelling packet capturing in a traffic monitoring system based on Linux

The need to monitor and analyse network traffic grows with the deployment of new multimedia services over high speed networks. Predicting the overall capturing performance is crucial to know if the traffic monitoring system will be able to cope with all the traffic packets, or if it needs more processing power. In this paper, we present an analytical model based on a Markov chain to study the efficiency of the Linux network subsystem. Improving the capturing stage of Linux has been an extensively covered research topic in the past years. Although the majority of the proposals have been backed by experimental evaluations, there are few analytical models. We identify the softIRQ process as the main element in the Linux capturing stage and we have built a model that represents the different steps in the softIRQ and the computational cost for each one of them. The goodness of the model is checked by comparing analytical results with practical ones obtained from a real traffic monitoring system. Prior to obtaining the theoretical performance results, it is necessary to introduce some input parameters for the model. These initial necessary values are also extracted from experimental measurements, making use of an appropriate methodology. The results of all this process indicate us that the behaviour of the system performance depends on the network traffic rate and this has become our work in progress.
Match and replace — A functional ECO engine for multi-error circuit rectification

Functional ECO has been an indispensible technique in modern VLSI design flow. This paper proposes an ECO engine in a two-phase approach: a matching phase for rectification pair identification and a replacement phase for pair selection and patch minimization. The rectification pair identification algorithm explores rectification pairs between the original circuit and the golden circuit. The rectification pair selector determines final patches through a linear-time heuristic. A gate-recycle process performs patch minimization for final refinement. The experiments show that this ECO engine outperforms a state-of-the-art interpolation-based engine in both patch quality and runtime.
A secure and reliable coding scheme over wireless links in cyber-physical systems

Cyber-physical systems connect the physical world and the information world by sensors and actuators. These sensors are usually small embedded systems which have many limitations on wireless communication, computing and storage. This paper proposes a lightweight coding method for secure and reliable transmission over a wireless communication links in cyber-physical systems. The reliability of transmission is provided by forward error correction. And to ensure the confidentiality, we utilize different encryption matrices at each time of coding which are generated by the sequence number of packets. So replay attacks and other cyber threats can be resisted simultaneously. The issues of the prior reliable transmission protocols and secure communication protocols in wireless networks of a cyber-physical system are reduced, such as large protocol overhead, high interaction delay and large computation cost.
Enhancing real-time embedded systems development using artificial immune systems

The Consumer Electronics industry produces a large number of systems which exhibit both real-time and embedded properties (RTES). Frequently problems are encountered during the development of these systems due to a mismatch between the requirements of traditional real-time development techniques and the restrictions imposed on the development process by the retail market. There is therefore a requirement for a method which can be used to enhance the development process and improve the reliability of these systems, yet which does not require the intensive formal analysis often required by established real-time development techniques. Observing that organisms in the natural world often exhibit characteristics which would be desirable in computer systems, such as the ability to adapt to changing environments and protect themselves against attack from external agents, this thesis examines the potential for techniques inspired by biological observations to be employed as a means to detect common problems encountered in the development of RTES. The Dendritic Cell Algorithm (DCA), an algorithm derived from the observed operation of the innate immune system which has previously been applied to a number of anomaly-detection problems, is included in a simulated RTES to detect deadline overruns in a task scheduling system, and its effectiveness investigated over a variety of sample systems of varying sizes and complexities. In conjunction with this, the issues surrounding the incorporation of an immune-inspired technique into embedded systems are examined in detail, with focus on the optimisation of the DCA for maximum effectiveness, whilst still providing flexibility. Attention is paid towards ensuring that the DCA is able to function satisfactorily in a constrained environment, by establishing the level of system resources required and proposing further enhancements to the algorithm to enhance its suitability for constrained-resource implementation. The work makes contributions to the real-time community by proposing an original method by which software development for real-time embedded systems can be enhanced, to enable the production of reliable software without the need for the formal analysis procedures normally needed. There are also significant contributions made to the AIS community, by way of the introduction of an application domain in which the application of AIS techniques has not previously been proposed, and the enhancements made to the DCA to make it better suited to this domain than previously.
Self-triggered nonlinear model predictive control for networked control systems

In this paper, we propose a self-triggered formulation of Model Predictive Control for continuous-time nonlinear networked control systems. Our control method derives not only when to execute control tasks but also provides the way to discretize the optimal control trajectory so as to alleviate the communication burden as much as possible. Stability analysis under the sample-and-hold implementation is also given in detail, which guarantees that the state converges to a terminal region where the local linear state feedback can stabilize the system. A simulation example verifies our proposed framework.
Associations between children's socioeconomic status, weight status, and sex, with screen-based sedentary behaviours and sport participation.

OBJECTIVE The objective was to study associations between socioeconomic status (SES), weight status, and sex, with children's participation in sedentary behaviours and sport. METHODS Children (aged 9-10 years; n = 6,337) completed a questionnaire to establish how long they spent in sedentary behaviours and sport participation during week days and weekend days. Height and weight were measured to calculate body mass index. Associations between dependent and independent variables were investigated using hierarchical loglinear analysis. RESULTS A significantly greater proportion of boys than girls spent > or = 1 h per weekday and weekend day watching television (TV) (p < 0.001), playing video games (p < 0.001), and participating in sport (p < 0.001). TV viewing and video gaming for > or = 1 h per day were inversely associated with SES (p = 0.001), whilst the greatest proportion of children participating in sport for > or = 1 h were in the highest SES quartile (p < 0.001). Overweight girls were more likely than normal weight girls to use the internet for > or = 1 h per weekend day (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Relatively more lower SES children spent time in sedentary behaviours than sport participation. Weight status was not consistently associated with sedentary behaviours. Proportionately more boys than girls watched TV, played video games, and participated in sport, suggesting that boys find time for sedentary behaviours and physical activity. Efforts should be made to address inequalities in the prevalence of sedentary behaviours and sport participation for all children regardless of SES, weight status, or sex.
Homocysteine Determination in Plasma

occurring amino acid, high levels of which have been associated with coronary artery disease (1-5). The link was first suggested by Kilmer McCully, who extrapolated the association from studies of patients with homocystinuria, a genetic defect leading to abnormally high levels of homocysteine (4). Children with this defect typically die at an early age from the complications of arteriosclerosis. If huge excesses of homocysteine can cause this, McCully reasoned, could moderately elevated levels cause the heart disease seen in middle-aged and older people? And will therapy to lower homocysteine levels reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease? BAS hopes to contribute to the answers to these questions by making the determination of plasma homocysteine simple and reliable. Much excitement has developed over the homocysteine theory of arteriosclerosis from articles that appeared in the popular press—the New York Times, Time magazine, Newsweek, television talk shows, and web sites. Basically, two features of the homocysteine theory have generated this excitement.
Use of autologous conditioned serum (Orthokine®) for the treatment of the dege-nerative osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint. Review of the literature

Objectives: Treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) using autologous conditioned serum (ACS) has become in recent years an alternative to consider in the approach of the degenerative joint disease of the knee. There is no support in the literature for the use of ACS for the treatment of OA of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ), although the promising results obtained in human patients with knee joint disease as well as in animal studies are opening the way for its use at the TMJ. The aim of this paper is to conduct a review of the published literature regarding the use of the ACS for the treatment of OA in humans, considering the level of scientific evidence, and following the principles of the evidence-based medicine and dentistry. Material and Methods: A PubMed-MEDLINE search was carried out of articles published between 1980 and 2011. After an initial search, a total of 102 articles were obtained, followed by a selection of the most relevant articles according to the topic; a total of 8 articles were selected, which were stratified according to their level of scientific evidence using SORT criteria (Strength of Recommendation Taxonomy). Results: At the time of this review, there is no available literature referring the use of ACS at the TMJ. However, the use of the ACS in other joints is well documented, both experimentally and clinically, in humans and animals. The reviewed articles, with a level of evidence 1 and 2 according to the SORT criteria, have generally promising results. Discussion and Conclusions: The use of ACS in the treatment of OA in joints other than the TMJ, is endorsed by the level of evidence found in the literature, which opens the door to future studies to determine the feasibility of the use of the ACS in the treatment of degenerative OA that affects TMJ. Key words:Osteoarthritis, temporomandibular joint, autologous conditioned serum.
Opportunistic Service Composition in Dynamic Ad Hoc Environments

Mobile devices capture, process, and exchange sensory data about their operating environment making them attractive service providers for pervasive computing. Composing services from different devices supports context-aware applications for smart spaces. However, carrier mobility and participation autonomy cause frequent changes to the network and service topology and impose a high failure probability on composites. Decentralised composition solutions assign service providers at runtime to provide for flexibility and to avoid a single point of failure. However, existing solutions rely on a pre-established service overlay network and employ a conservative allocation strategy which limits their applicability for highly dynamic environments. This paper presents a novel service composition protocol that allocates and invokes service providers opportunistically to minimise the impact of topology changes and to reduce failure. The protocol supports service sequences and parallel service flows. Automated model checking verifies that the protocol does not deadlock and that it terminates in a valid end state after having allocated the correct number of service providers for all required sub-services. The results of the simulation-based evaluation demonstrate that the opportunistic approach generally reduces composition failure. At the same time, the evaluation reveals the protocol's limits with regard to composite complexity, network density, and service demand.
Medium access protocol design for time-critical applications in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for control and monitoring applications introduce critical constraints on the design of multiple access schemes to guarantee timely data delivery. However, existing WSNs are mainly designed to conserve energy consumption and not to support timely data transmission. In this paper, we present a novel media access method defined as Wireless Arbitration which grants each user in the network with a specific arbitration frequency representing the priority to access the wireless channel. This proposed method will guarantee that messages with high priority will access the channel and deliver within the deterministic deadline. A mathematical formulation of wireless arbitration is presented together with the corresponding performance analysis of the multiple access schemes. It is shown that the proposed multiple access scheme outperforms IEEE 802.15. 4.
Discrete ray tracing

Discrete ray tracing, or 3-D raster ray tracing (RRT), which, unlike existing ray tracing methods that use geometric representation for the 3-D scene employs a 3-D discrete raster of voxels for representing the 3-D scene in the same way a 2-D raster of pixels represents a 2-D image, is discussed. Each voxel is a small quantum unit of volume that has numeric values associated with it representing some measurable properties or attributes of the real object or phenomenon at that voxel. It is shown that RRT operates in two phases: preprocessing voxel and discrete ray tracing. In the voxel phase, the geometric model is digitized using 3-D scan-conversion algorithms that convert the continuous representation of the model into a discrete representation within the 3-D raster. In the second phase, RRT employs a discrete variation of the conventional recursive ray tracer in which 3-D discrete rays are traversed through the 3-D raster to find the first surface voxel. Encountering a nontransparent voxel indicates a ray-surface hit. Results obtained by running the RRT software one one 20-MIPS (25-GHz) processor of a Silicon Graphics 4D/240GTX are presented in terms of CPU time. >
SimSoC: A full system simulation software for embedded systems

The development of embedded systems requires the development of increasingly complex software and hardware platforms. Full system simulation makes it possible to run the exact binary embedded software including the operating system on a totally simulated hardware platform. Whereas most simulation environments do not support full system simulation, or do not use any hardware modeling techniques, or have combined different types of technology, SimSoC is developing a full system simulation architecture with an integrated approach relying only upon SystemC hardware modeling and transaction level modeling abstractions (TLM) for communications. To simulate processors at reasonably high speed, SimSoC integrates instruction set simulators (ISS) as SystemC modules with TLM interfaces to the other platform components. The ISS's use a variant approach of dynamic translation to run binary code. The paper describes the overall architecture of the SimSoC full system simulator, a description of the ISS implementation and integration with some other components. A final section reports results obtained, in particular simulation of an existing System On Chip that can run the Linux operating system.
DESIGNING LEARNING OBJECTS: A GENRE-BASED APPROACH

There are several models for designing educational content for learning objects (LOs). These models are based on the aggregation of learning resources in rational wholes that serve concrete learning objectives. However, they are characterized by heterogeneous views with respect to the determination of the size and the educational functions of LOs: should LOs serve one or more learning objectives? Should they be defined as components of a lesson or should they be equated with the lesson itself, perhaps even with a course or seminar? The definitions of LOs provided by these models are also determined by the wider social and educational purposes that particular communities state in terms of their reuse. Respectively, the aggregation of LOs as well as their reusability varies according to the educational expectations of the organizations/institutions or the teachers who will use them. Balatsoukas, Morris and O’ Brian (2008), have proposed the organization of object-oriented educational content, in three general aggregation levels:
Activation of Estrogen-Responsive Genes Does Not Require Their Nuclear Co-Localization

The spatial organization of the genome in the nucleus plays a role in the regulation of gene expression. Whether co-regulated genes are subject to coordinated repositioning to a shared nuclear space is a matter of considerable interest and debate. We investigated the nuclear organization of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) target genes in human breast epithelial and cancer cell lines, before and after transcriptional activation induced with estradiol. We find that, contrary to another report, the ERα target genes TFF1 and GREB1 are distributed in the nucleoplasm with no particular relationship to each other. The nuclear separation between these genes, as well as between the ERα target genes PGR and CTSD, was unchanged by hormone addition and transcriptional activation with no evidence for co-localization between alleles. Similarly, while the volume occupied by the chromosomes increased, the relative nuclear position of the respective chromosome territories was unaffected by hormone addition. Our results demonstrate that estradiol-induced ERα target genes are not required to co-localize in the nucleus.
Genomewide Scan Reveals Amplification of mdr1 as a Common Denominator of Resistance to Mefloquine, Lumefantrine, and Artemisinin in Plasmodium chabaudi Malaria Parasites

ABSTRACT Multidrug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites pose a threat to effective drug control, even to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Here we used linkage group selection and Solexa whole-genome resequencing to investigate the genetic basis of resistance to component drugs of ACTs. Using the rodent malaria parasite P. chabaudi, we analyzed the uncloned progeny of a genetic backcross between the mefloquine-, lumefantrine-, and artemisinin-resistant mutant AS-15MF and a genetically distinct sensitive clone, AJ, following drug treatment. Genomewide scans of selection showed that parasites surviving each drug treatment bore a duplication of a segment of chromosome 12 (translocated to chromosome 04) present in AS-15MF. Whole-genome resequencing identified the size of the duplicated segment and its position on chromosome 4. The duplicated fragment extends for ∼393 kbp and contains over 100 genes, including mdr1, encoding the multidrug resistance P-glycoprotein homologue 1. We therefore show that resistance to chemically distinct components of ACTs is mediated by the same genetic mutation, highlighting a possible limitation of these therapies.
Response-Contingent Positive Reinforcement: Incremental Validity in Predicting Depression Severity

Insufficient response-contingent positive reinforcement (RCPR), or pleasure obtained through interaction with the environment that increases the likelihood of rewarding behavior, has been hypothesized to directly contribute to the onset and persistence of depression symptoms (Lewinsohn, 1974; Lewinsohn, Sullivan, & Grosscup, 1980). The present study examined the utility of RCPR in predicting the presence and severity of depression symptoms relative to other well-established risk factors that included gender, stressful life events, traumatic life events, childhood maltreatment, and cognitive vulnerability. Based on bivariate and hierarchical regression analyses, all variables except gender were significantly associated with the severity of depression symptoms, with RCPR most strongly related to depression symptom severity. The incremental validity of RCPR in predicting depression symptom severity also was established, with RCPR accounting for an additional 12% of the variance when added to a regression equation. Implications for the conceptualization and treatment of depression are discussed.