Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plasticizers in total diet samples, baby food and infant formulae

The plasticizers di-n-butylphthalate (DBP), butylbenzylphthalate (BBP), di-2-(ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) and di-2-(ethylhexyl)adipate (DEHA) were analysed in 29 total diet samples, in 11 samples of baby food and in 11 samples of infant formulae. In all of the total diet samples the presence of one or more of the plasticizers was demonstrated. Maximum and minimum mean concentrations in the total diet samples were: 0.09-0.19mg DBP/kg, 0.017-0.019mg BBP/kg, 0.11-0.18mg DEHP/kg and 0.13-0.14mg DEHA/kg. One or more of the phthalates was also found in about 50% of the samples of baby food as well as in infant formulae. The calculated mean maximum intakes of the individual compounds from the total diet samples were below 10% of the restrictions proposed by the EU Scientific Committee for Food (SCF), and the spread in individual intakes was considerable. DEHP was the plasticizer determined most frequently and contributed the highest fraction of its tolerable daily intake (TDI). Hence, the maximum calculated intake of DEHP from single samples of the foodstuffs analysed could be up to one-third of the TDI. The calculated mean intake of DEHA was about 1% of the TDI with a maximum value of 13% of the TDI. Violations of the restrictions proposed by the EU Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) in the form of TDI values or specific migration limits were not found in this investigation.
Wideband planar wilkinson power divider using double-sided parallel-strip line technique

A new design of a wideband Wilkinson power divider using double-sided parallel strip line technique is presented in this paper. To obtain a good isolation value, the proposed design was integrated with three isolation resistors. The proposed power divider is designed for a wide range of frequencies between 2 GHz to 6 GHz with all the ports matched to 50Ω. The conventional quarter wavelength arms are divided into three different widths to ensure wideband capabilities. Moreover, the novelty of the proposed design is illustrated from the double-sided parallel-strip line technique where proposed design is using similar structure at both the top and bottom layers to ensure balance of transmission. All dimensions for the transmission line section were optimized to achieve wideband operation and were integrated with a lumped element. This design can be used as a doublesided feeder for a microstrip antenna.
Comparison of Yeast Growth in Mesquite Wood Hydrolysate

Hot-water extracts of mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) wood were assayed for their total carbohydrate, reducing sugar, and glucose content. These hydrolysates were then used as complete media for yeast growth. A total of 10 strains of yeasts were evaluated for their biomass production in the mesquite wood hydrolysates. Levels of utilizable carbohydrate proved to be the limiting factor for yeast growth in the hydrolysates.
Anomaly Detection Based on an Ensemble of Dereverberation and Anomalous Sound Extraction

To develop a sound-monitoring system for checking machine health, a method for detecting anomalous sounds is proposed. In real environments such as factories, reverberation and background noise are mixed in an observed signal, so detection performance is degraded. It can be expected that detection performance will be improved by using a front-end algorithm for acoustic signal processing such as dereverberation and denoising. However, any algorithm has pros and cons, so it is not possible to choose the best front-end algorithm only. To solve this problem, the proposed method is based on a front-end ensemble consisting of a blind-dereverberation algorithm and multiple anomalous-sound-extraction algorithms. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method improves detection performance significantly.
Main problems and proposed solutions for improving Template Matching

In this work we discuss the problems of template matching and we propose some solutions. Those problems are: 1) Template and image of search differ by a scale, 2) Template or image of search is object of rotation, 3) Template or image of search is object of an affinity. The well known method is NCC (Normalized Cross Correlation); this method can not handle scale, rotation, affinity or occlusion. Also the NCC is not preferred for binary image. So we propose here to use index similarity for example Jaccard index.
Partial Satisfaction (Over-Subscription) Planning as Heuristic Search

Many planning problems can be characterized as over-subscription problems in that goals have different utilities, actions have different costs and the planning system must choose a subset that will provide the greatest net benefit. This type of problems can not be solved by existing planning systems, where goals are assumed to have uniform utility, and the planner can terminate only when all of the goals are achieved. Existing methods for such problems use greedy approaches, which pre-select a subset of goals based on their estimated utility, and solve for those goals. Unfortunately, greedy methods, while efficient, can produce plans of arbitrarily low quality. In this paper, we introduce a more sophisticated heuristic search framework for over-subscription planning problems. In our framework, top-level goals are treated as soft-constraints and the search is guided by a relaxed-plan based heuristic that estimates the most beneficial set of goals from a given state. We implement this search framework in the context of Sapa, a forward state-space planner. We provide preliminary empirical results that demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in comparison to a greedy approach.
Ab-initio Calculation of Magnetic Anisotropy Energy of Iron-Gallium Alloy in ${\rm L}1_{2}$ Phase

We calculate magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of iron-gallium alloy in L12 phase using density functional theory with GGA and GGA+U approach to investigate the effect of Hubbard U on MAE. We find that the number of minority spins plays a key role to the MAE of iron-gallium alloy in L12 phase. Depending Hubbard U, the total MAE shows a complicated behavior, but most contribution is from Γ point instead of other high symmetric points in Brillouin zone.
Interchangeable High-Level Time Petri Nets

We present a definition for a generic Time Petri net class covering most Time Petri net types known to the community. Due to the generic approach presented in this paper, the proposed syntax may as well be used as a proposal for an expression syntax of High-level Petri nets. Furthermore we present an implementation of translations between different Statically Timed Petri nets based on the presented syntax. This translation, implemented as XSLT schemas, provides means for interchange of net models even across Petri net data types.
COMPARISON OF THE EFFICACY OF TWO DISINFECTANTS FOR CONTROLLING GRAM-POSITIVE BACTERIA ON THERMOPLASTIC RETAINERS IN DENTAL PLAQUES

Objective: Thermoplastic retainers are believed to be able to change the ecosystem for the oral cavity microflora. To prevent oral tissue damage,it is vital that retainers are subjected to appropriate cleaning techniques. This study compared the effectiveness of two disinfectants in cleaningthermoplastic retainers against Gram-positive bacteria in the dental plaque layer.Methods: The two disinfectants used in this study were Polident and 0.1% chlorhexidine gluconate. We performed laboratory studies on Gramnegativebacteria using a single-blind setup, with three groups of subjects, each with 13 participants.Results: The results showed that there was a significant reduction in the number of Gram-positive bacterial colonies in the dental plaque layer onretainers cleaned with Polident compared with the control, whereas cleaning the retainer with 0.1% chlorhexidine gluconate showed no significantdifference in the number of Gram-positive bacteria compared with the control.Conclusion: We conclude that there is a significant difference in the number of Gram-positive bacteria on the teeth before and after insertion of athermoplastic retainer in Polident solution, whereas immersion in Minosep did not reduce bacterial numbers compared with that in the control.
Ambulance Vibration Suppression via Force Field Domain Control

This PhD dissertation experimentally characterized the vibration amplitude, frequency, and energy associated with ambulance travel and defined the relationship of the vibration to safety, comfort and care of ambulance patients. Average vertical vibration amplitudes of . 46 to 2.55 m/sec 2 were recorded in the patient compartment of four ambulances over four road surfaces at three speed settings. Power spectrum analysis of the data revealed that the vibration energy and resulting vertical acceleration forces were concentrated in the . 1 to 6 Hz range. Relationships between the measured ambulance vibration and the impact of whole body vibration on human physiology and performance were quantified. It was found that the accelerations measured in the ambulances were in excess of what is considered to be a normal human comfort level. Furthermore, the vibration measured was in a spectrum which could present physical impediments to optimum task performance for the on-board medical team. Phase portrait analysis combined with the power spectrum data revealed the presence of nonlinearities, stochastic fluctuations and time delays inherent in the data. The ambulance vibration data was then used to create a unique analytical model and library of forcing functions corresponding to the vehicles, road surfaces and vehicle speeds that were tested. Using the example of a vibration absorbing force plate fit over an existing ambulance floor, it was demonstrated how the model and forcing functions could be used to develop a control law equation to select parameters for active control of vibration to produce sustainable regions of patient safety, comfort and care.
Optimality in Sentence Processing

In this chapter we explore the possibility that within Optimality Theory, a single syntactic grammar directly yields not only competence theoretic results on the grammatical distributions of elements, but also performance theoretic results on relative preferences when processing sentences with various syntactic ambiguities. Whereas the competence theory applies the grammar at the level of an entire sentence, the performance theory incrementally optimizes interpretation one word at a time. Rankings of syntactically motivated constraints yield correct predictions for a number of ambiguities in English sentence processing, and accounts for a range of cross-linguistic variation in parsing preferences for a widely studied ambiguity.
A Hierarchical Chemical Reaction Optimization for Varying Length Task Scheduling in Grid Computing

A grid computing system shares the load across multiple computers to complete tasks more efficiently and quickly. Grid computing is presently a full of life analysis space. In this paper a new method is proposed for scheduling the varying length jobs in the grid environment. It presents how the jobs can be scheduled effectively by using Hierarchical scheduling. The concept of Shortest Job First algorithm is used along with Chemical Reaction Optimization algorithm in order to schedule varying length jobs efficiently. The results show that the proposed method provides better flowtime and also it performs better than the existing methods.
Production of indole acetic acid by Kocuria rosea VB1 and Arthrobacter luteolus VB2 under the influence of L-tryptophan and maize root exudates

Phytohormones play a very important role in enhancing plant growth by direct or indirect mechanisms involving plant-microbe interactions. Indole acetic acid (IAA) is one of the key phytohormones that directly enhance plant development. Kocuria rosea VB1 (GenBank ID: KY608093.1) and Arthrobacter luteolus VB2 (GenBank ID: KY608094.1) from polluted industrial water samples were characterized through a biochemical assay, 16S rDNA sequencing, and for promoting plant growth abilities. IAA production by VB1 and VB2 was tested in pure culture conditions supplemented with various L-tryptophan (Trp) concentrations (0, 50, 100, 200, and 500 μg @ml). A significant difference in indole production by VB2 and VB1 inoculant at various L-Trp concentrations has been observed. VB1 has been reported to produce increased amounts of indole from 0.33 μg @ml to 18.16 μg @ml, while the increase in indole production was from 0.63 μg @ml to 9.22 μg @ml for VB2 for various L-Trp concentrations. The VB1 strain produced 85.07 ng @ml and 123.7 ng @ml IAA, whereas the VB2 strain produced 70.3 ng @ml and 78.4 ng @ml IAA, respectively at 200 and 500 μg @ml Trp concentrations. The growth pouch experiments with maize root exudates also showed a positive effect for both bacterial inoculants tested on IAA biosynthesis in comparison to non-inoculated seeds. Inoculation of maize seeds with VB2 and VB1 bacteria gave a significantly higher level of IAA production in comparison to non-inoculated seeds. Current study outcomes show the beneficial aspects of plant growth regulators produced by free-living bacteria which could play a significant role in plant growth promotion.
Tissue-Specific and Ubiquitous Expression Patterns from Alternative Promoters of Human Genes

Background Transcriptome diversity provides the key to cellular identity. One important contribution to expression diversity is the use of alternative promoters, which creates mRNA isoforms by expanding the choice of transcription initiation sites of a gene. The proximity of the basal promoter to the transcription initiation site enables prediction of a promoter's location based on the gene annotations. We show that annotation of alternative promoters regulating expression of transcripts with distinct first exons enables a novel methodology to quantify expression levels and tissue specificity of mRNA isoforms. Principal Findings The use of distinct alternative first exons in 3,296 genes was examined using exon-microarray data from 11 human tissues. Comparing two transcripts from each gene we found that the activity of alternative promoters (i.e., P1 and P2) was not correlated through tissue specificity or level of expression. Furthermore neither P1 nor P2 conferred any bias for tissue-specific or ubiquitous expression. Genes associated with specific diseases produced transcripts whose limited expression patterns were consistent with the tissue affected in disease. Notably, genes that were historically designated as tissue-specific or housekeeping had alternative isoforms that showed differential expression. Furthermore, only a small number of alternative promoters showed expression exclusive to a single tissue indicating that “tissue preference” provides a better description of promoter activity than tissue specificity. When compared to gene expression data in public databases, as few as 22% of the genes had detailed information for more than one isoform, whereas the remainder collapsed the expression patterns from individual transcripts into one profile. Conclusions We describe a computational pipeline that uses microarray data to assess the level of expression and breadth of tissue profiles for transcripts with distinct first exons regulated by alternative promoters. We conclude that alternative promoters provide individualized regulation that is confirmed through expression levels, tissue preference and chromatin modifications. Although the selective use of alternative promoters often goes uncharacterized in gene expression analyses, transcripts produced in this manner make unique contributions to the cell that requires further exploration.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Analyses of Threatened Amblyceps mangois from Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, India Through Rapd and ISSR Fingerprinting

Abstract Amblyceps mangois or the “Indian torrent catfish” is a tropical, freshwater, hill-stream species that has ornamental-commercial value and has been included within the “Endangered” category in the list of threatened freshwater fishes of India. A total fourteen populations from the Terai and Dooars region of northern West Bengal, India were analyzed to study the genetic architecture of this species with the help of RAPD and ISSR markers. The observed number of alleles (S), Nei’s gene diversity (H) and Shannon’s information index (H´ or I) showed the highest values in the Teesta river system and the lowest values in the Mahananda river system. The UPGMA-based dendrogram and PCoA, based on RAPD and ISSR fingerprints, showed that the Mahananda and the Teesta river populations formed a group distinct from the remaining Jaldhaka river population. We further considered the fourteen riverine populations into nine groups according to the continuity of the water flow for SHE analysis. It was found that the three components, i.e. the pattern of diversity (H´), richness (S) and evenness (E), have varied and fluctuated across all fourteen populations from higher to lower altitude as the river flows downstream. AMOVA, PhiPT and genetic hierarchical analyses showed that a distinct hierarchical structure is present in Amblyceps populations in the study region. Low levels of genetic diversity/variation and genetic hierarchical structure with high genetic divergence were found in the present study as an indicator of the recent picture of threatened status of this species. This study is the initial attempt to characterize and evaluate the genetic architecture of the species from this region and there is a scope to manage the evolutionary significant units (ESU) for conservation purpose.
Reverse Iterative Deepening for Finite-Horizon MDPs with Large Branching Factors

In contrast to previous competitions, where the problems were goal-based, the 2011 International Probabilistic Planning Competition (IPPC-2011) emphasized finite-horizon reward maximization problems with large branching factors. These MDPs modeled more realistic planning scenarios and presented challenges to the previous state-of-the-art planners (e.g., those from IPPC-2008), which were primarily based on domain determinization — a technique more suited to goal-oriented MDPs with small branching factors. Moreover, large branching factors render the existing implementations of RTDP- and LAO-style algorithms inefficient as well. In this paper we present GLUTTON, our planner at IPPC-2011 that performed well on these challenging MDPs. The main algorithm used by GLUTTON is LR2TDP, an LRTDP-based optimal algorithm for finite-horizon problems centered around the novel idea of reverse iterative deepening. We detail LR2TDP itself as well as a series of optimizations included in GLUTTON that help LR2TDP achieve competitive performance on difficult problems with large branching factors -- subsampling the transition function, separating out natural dynamics, caching transition function samples, and others. Experiments show that GLUTTON and PROST, the IPPC-2011 winner, have complementary strengths, with GLUTTON demonstrating superior performance on problems with few high-reward terminal states.
Vitamin D status and effect of low-dose cholecalciferol and high-dose ergocalciferol supplementation in multiple sclerosis

Background Vitamin D is important for bone health and immune regulation, and has been shown to be low in multiple sclerosis (MS). We sought to determine the effect of over the counter low dose cholecalciferol (LDC) and high dose ergocalciferol (HDE) on the vitamin D levels in MS patients. Methods We retrospectively evaluated serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels of 199 patients (CIS, n = 32; RRMS, n = 115; PPMS, n = 10; SPMS, n = 16; Transverse Myelitis (TM), n = 9; other neurological diseases, n = 16) attending our clinic between 2004 and 2008. We examined the change in 25(OH)D levels in 40 MS patients who took either LDC (≤800 IU/day) or HDE (50,000 IU/day for 7-10 days, followed by 50,000 IU weekly or biweekly). Results The average 25(OH)D level was 71 ± 39 nmol/L (Mean ± SD), and 167(84%) patients had insufficient levels (≤100 nmol/L) of 25(OH)D. The patients supplemented with LDC did not have a significant increase in their 25(OH)D levels. However, 25(OH)D levels increased by 42 nmol/L (P = 0.01) in the patients originally taking LDC and then prescribed HDE. Optimal levels (≥100 nmol/L) were only achieved in less than 40% of patients. Conclusions We conclude that large numbers of patients with MS and TM in our cohort are deficient in vitamin D. HDE significantly elevated 25(OH)D levels in MS patients and was more effective at increasing 25(OH)D levels than LDC. Prospective studies are required to determine appropriate dosing regimen to achieve optimal levels in the majority of MS patients and to ascertain the safety, immunological response, and ultimately the clinical efficacy of vitamin D replacement therapy.
Key detection through pitch class distribution model and ANN

Being one of the most well-known high-level music content concepts, music key reveals an important theoretical feature for Western music in music structure analysis, music note and chord transcription and music mood comprehension. Key finding becomes a main task of Music Information Retrieval (MIR). In this paper, we propose a novel approach with good robustness to detect keys in polyphonic music based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Constant Q transform (CQT) is firstly applied to music signal for CQT spectrum analysis. Then onset detection and pitch tuning are introduced in order to ensure a high robustness. Finally a distribution matrix is generated as music key feature. Considering the classifier, a neural network is applied to model the pitch class distribution and complete the task of key recognition. Experiments showed that the proposed strategy can reach a good performance in polyphonic music at a relatively lower computational cost, and proved our strategy to be quite promising.
SPMT: Statistical Machine Translation with Syntactified Target Language Phrases

We introduce SPMT, a new class of statistical Translation Models that use Syntactified target language Phrases. The SPMT models outperform a state of the art phrase-based baseline model by 2.64 Bleu points on the NIST 2003 Chinese-English test corpus and 0.28 points on a human-based quality metric that ranks translations on a scale from 1 to 5.
Seizure Activity Results in a Rapid Induction of Nuclear Factor‐κB in Adult but Not Juvenile Rat Limbic Structures

Abstract: Previous studies have indicated that increased formation of oxygen free radicals is likely to participate in the cascade of events leading to neuronal damage following kainic acid (KA)‐induced seizure activity. As reactive oxygen species are involved in signal transduction pathways leading to nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) activation, we examined the effects of KA treatment on the activation of NF‐κB in adult and juvenile rat brain. For comparison, changes in two other transcription factors, activator protein‐1 (AP‐1) and Sp1, were also determined. In adult rat piriform cortex and hippocampus, significant induction of NF‐κB was observed at 4 h after KA injection, and the maximal increase was reached at 8–16 h posttreatment. NF‐κB binding activities returned to control levels by 5 days after injection. NF‐κB binding activities were slightly decreased in adult rat cerebellum at 8 and 16 h after KA treatment. In the juvenile rat, no significant changes in NF‐κB binding activity were observed in piriform cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum after KA injection. Changes in AP‐1 binding activity were qualitatively similar to those observed with NF‐κB in adult but not juvenile rat brain, as AP‐1 was significantly induced in juvenile piriform cortex and hippocampus following KA injection. On the other hand, little or no changes in Sp1 activity were detected in adult and juvenile rat brain. Our results provide further evidence that oxidative stress participates in neuronal damage resulting from KA‐induced seizure activity.