Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Networked RFID for use in the Food Chain

Much work has been done in the field of food technology and processing [on both the product and the supply chain side] to increase consumer safety and to drive towards increased customer satisfaction. However, there are still many concerns raised by both the consumers and the food standards bodies with respect to potential problems that could arise from unexpected conditions or when track and tracing in the food supply chain breaks down. The development of networked systems to ensure integrity of data throughout the supply chain are a key tool to provide the full traceability of food products. The addition of wireless identification technologies to provide persistent identifiers for food products will become a key mechanism to enhance the consumer experience. This paper presents the use of RFID track and tracing technology to help create a safer food supply chain.
Expected total counts for the self-interrogation neutron resonance densitometry measurements of spent nuclear fuel

The Self-Interrogation Neutron Resonance Densitometry (SINRD) is a passive neutron technique that aims at a direct quantification of 239Pu in spent fuel assemblies by measuring the attenuation of the neutron flux in the energy region close to the 0.3 eV resonance of 239Pu. The 239Pu mass is estimated by calculating the SINRD signature, that is the ratio between the neutron counts in the fast energy region and around the 0.3 eV resonance region. The SINRD measurement approach in this study consisted in introducing a small neutron detector in the central guide tube of a PWR 17×17 fuel assembly. In order to measure the neutron flux in the energy regions defined in the SINRD signature, different detector types were used. The response of a bare 238U fission chamber is considered for the determination of the fast neutron flux, while other thermal-epithermal detectors wrapped in neutron absorbers are envisaged to measure the neutron flux around the resonance region. This paper provides an estimation of the total neutron counts that can be achieved with the detector types proposed for the SINRD measurement. In the first section a set of detectors are evaluated in terms of total neutron counts and sensitivity to the 239Pu content, in order to identify the optimal measurement configuration for each detector type. Then a study is performed to increase the total neutron counts by increasing the detector size. The study shows that the highest total neutron counts are achieved by using either 3He or 10B proportional counters because of the high neutron efficiency of these detectors. However, the calculations indicate that the biggest contribution to the measurement uncertainty is due to the measurement of the fast neutron flux. Finally, similar sensitivity to the 239Pu content is obtained by using the different detector types for the measurement of the neutron flux close to the resonance region. Therefore, the total neutron counts associated to each detector type will play a major role in the selection of the detector types used for the SINRD measurement.
Anisotropic Superpixel Generation Based on Mahalanobis Distance

Superpixels have been widely used as a preprocessing step in various computer vision tasks. Spatial compactness and color homogeneity are the two key factors determining the quality of the superpixel representation. In this paper, these two objectives are considered separately and anisotropic superpixels are generated to better adapt to local image content. We develop a unimodular Gaussian generative model to guide the color homogeneity within a superpixel by learning local pixel color variations. It turns out maximizing the log‐likelihood of our generative model is equivalent to solving a Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) problem. Moreover, we provide the theoretical guarantee that the CVT result is invariant to affine illumination change, which makes our anisotropic superpixel generation algorithm well suited for image/video analysis in varying illumination environment. The effectiveness of our method in image/video superpixel generation is demonstrated through the comparison with other state‐of‐the‐art methods.
Effect of intrapulmonary tetrahydrocannabinol administration in humans

This randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study was designed to identify which pharmacodynamic parameters most accurately quantify the effects of delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the predominantly psychoactive component of cannabis. In addition, we investigated the acceptability and usefulness of a novel mode of intrapulmonary THC administration using a Volcano® vaporizer and pure THC instead of cannabis. Rising doses of THC (2, 4, 6 and 8 mg) or vehicle were administered with 90 minutes intervals to twelve healthy males using a Volcano® vaporizer. Very low between-subject variability was observed in THC plasma concentrations, characterising the Volcano® vaporizer as a suitable method for the administration of THC. Heart rate showed a sharp increase and rapid decline after each THC administration (8 mg: 19.4 bpm: 95% CI 13.2, 25.5). By contrast, dose dependent effects of body sway (8 mg: 108.5%: 95% CI 72.2%, 152.4%) and different subjective parameters did not return to baseline between doses (Visual Analogue Scales of 'alertness' (8 mg: -33.6 mm: 95% CI -41.6, -25.7), 'feeling high' (8 mg: 1.09 U: 95% CI 0.85, 1.33), 'external perception' (8 mg: 0.62 U: 95% CI 0.37, 0.86)). PK/PD-modeling of heart rate displayed a relatively short equilibration half-life of 7.68 min. CNS parameters showed equilibration half-lives ranging between 39.4 - 84.2 min. Some EEG-frequency bands, and pupil size showed small changes following the highest dose of THC. No changes were seen in saccadic eye movements, smooth pursuit and adaptive tracking performance. These results may be applicable in the development of novel cannabinoid agonists and antagonists, and in studies of the pharmacology and physiology of cannabinoid systems in humans.
On Universal Properties of the Degree Distributions and Cycles of Capacity-Approaching LDPC Ensembles

This paper provides some universal information-theoretic bounds related to the degree distributions and the average cardinality of the fundamental system of cycles of low-density parity-check (LDPC) ensembles. The transmission of these ensembles is assumed to take place over an arbitrary memoryless binary-input output-symmetric (MBIOS) channel, and the bounds are expressed in terms of the gap between the design rates of these ensembles and the channel capacity. Some of these bounds hold under maximum-likelihood decoding (and hence, they also hold under any sub-optimal decoding algorithm) whereas the others hold particularly under the sum-product iterative decoding algorithm. The tightness of some of these bounds is exemplified numerically for capacity-approaching LDPC ensembles under iterative decoding; the bounds are reasonably tight for general MBIOS channels, and are tightened for the binary erasure channel where the tightness in the latter case is also demonstrated analytically. Index terms – Cycles, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, maximum-likelihood decoding, memoryless binary-input output-symmetric (MBIOS) channels, stability condition, sum-product decoding algorithm, Tanner graphs. ∗The paper was submitted as a regular paper to the IEEE Trans. on Information Theory in September 2007. This research work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 1070/07).
A dielectric lens antenna fed by a flexible dielectric waveguide at 160 GHz

Flexible antennas in radar applications enable the user to go around obstacles or detect targets at hidden places. In this paper, two elliptical lenses of different size made of high density polyethylene and stacked on a flexible dielectric waveguide are designed and measured from 140 GHz to 180 GHz. The feeding dielectric waveguide and the mode transition from metallic waveguide to dielectric waveguide was investigated with full wave simulations. The elliptical lenses were designed with a geometrical optics approach. The realized antennas have a gain larger than 24 dBi and 27 dBi and a maximum side lobe level below −15.8 dB.
Buffer-Aided Relaying For The Two-Hop Full-Duplex Relay Channel With Self-Interference

In this paper, we investigate the fading two-hop full-duplex (FD) relay channel with self-interference, which is comprised of a source, an FD relay impaired by self-interference, and a destination, where a direct source-destination link does not exist. For this channel, we propose three buffer-aided relaying schemes with adaptive reception-transmission at the FD relay for the cases when the source and the relay both perform continuous-rate transmission with adaptive-power allocation, continuous-rate transmission with fixed-power allocation, and discrete-rate transmission, respectively. The proposed buffer-aided relaying schemes enable the FD relay to adaptively select to either receive, transmit, or simultaneously receive and transmit in a given time slot based on the qualities of the receiving, transmitting, and self-interference channels, a degree-of-freedom unavailable without buffer-aided relaying. Our numerical results show that significant performance gains are achieved using the proposed buffer-aided relaying schemes compared with conventional FD relaying, where the FD relay is forced to always simultaneously receive and transmit, and to buffer-aided half-duplex relaying, where the half-duplex relay cannot simultaneously receive and transmit. The main implication of this paper is that FD relaying systems without buffer-aided relaying miss-out on significant performance gains.
Joining the Circle: Exploring the Biopsychosocial, and Spiritual Effects of Hoop Dance

An increasing number of people around the world are joining a blossoming community of hoop dancers and reporting positive holistic benefits and sharing stories of transformation and healing attributed to their hooping practice. The hoop is being reported to provide relief and support for people with depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD by igniting their bodies and providing a soothing rhythm and a pathway to dance, movement, self-expression, social connections, personal insight, and meditational benefits. This qualitative study explores the biopsychosocial and spiritual effects of hooping reported during seven non-scheduled standardized interviews with professional hoopers. Stories of change and healing are consistently reported and thematic contextualizing and categorizing data analysis revealed significant effects of hooping on participants’ physical, mental, social, and spiritual wellbeing. Significant improvements in participants’ mental health are described, including decreased symptoms of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and increased feelings of happiness, meaning and purpose. Participants report achieving self-acceptance, and the repair of the mind-body-spirit connection. The hoop is reported to reduce personal competitive tendencies, and bring people together to create open and accepting communities. The data reveals insight into the therapeutic elements of hooping that are helping people achieve embodiment, transcendence, integration, and healing. The implications of these findings are far reaching and contain deep wells for clinical and community social work practices to draw upon for insight into the nature of emotion, bringing people together for a common good, and the development of affordable, enjoyable, resiliency and holistically-based alternatives to deficits-based models of mental health care.
Pronounced genetic population structure in a potentially vagile fish species (Pristipomoides multidens, Teleostei; Perciformes; Lutjanidae) from the East Indies triangle

The East Indies triangle, bordered by the Phillipines, Malay Peninsula and New Guinea, has a high level of tropical marine species biodiversity. Pristipomoides multidens is a large, long‐lived, fecund snapper species that is distributed throughout the East Indies and Indo‐Pacific. Samples were analysed from central and eastern Indonesia and northern Australia to test for genetic discontinuities in population structure. Fish (n = 377) were collected from the Indonesian islands of Bali, Sumbawa, Flores, West Timor, Tanimbar and Tual along with 131 fish from two northern Australian locations (Arafura and Timor Seas) from a previous study. Genetic variation in the control region of the mitochondrial genome was assayed using restriction fragment length polymorphism and direct sequencing. Haplotype diversity was high (0.67–0.82), as was intraspecific sequence divergence (range 0–5.8%). FST between pairs of populations ranged from 0 to 0.2753. Genetic subdivision was apparent on a small spatial scale; FST was 0.16 over 191 km (Bali/Sumbawa) and 0.17 over 491 km (Bali/Flores). Constraints to dispersal that contribute to, and maintain, the observed degree of genetic subdivision are experienced presumably by all life history stages of this tropical marine finfish. The constraints may include (1) little or no movement of eggs or larvae, (2) little or no home range or migratory movement of adults and (3) loss of larval cohorts due to transport of larvae away from suitable habitat by prevailing currents.
Free Flap Blood Flow Evaluated Using Two-Dimensional Laser Speckle Flowgraphy

Objective. We investigated the efficiency of laser speckle flowgraphy for evaluating blood flow in free flaps used for plastic surgery. Methods. We measured blood flow using a visual laser meter capable of providing two-dimensional color graphic representations of flow distribution for a given area using a dynamic laser speckle effect. Using laser speckle flowgraphy, we examined the blood flow of 20 free flaps applied following the excision of head and neck tumors. Results. After anastomosis of the feeding and draining blood vessels and sewing the flap, musculocutaneous (MC) flaps showed significantly lower blood flow than jejunal or omental flaps (P < .05). The ratio of blood flow decrease from the edge to the center was significantly greater in MC flaps than in jejunal or omental flaps (P < .001). Conclusion. Laser speckle flowgraphy is useful for the perioperative measurement of blood flow in free flaps used in plastic surgery. This method is a highly useful, practical, and reliable tool for assessing cutaneous blood flow and is expected to be applicable to several clinical fields.
Lifted Variable Elimination: A Novel Operator and Completeness Results

Various methods for lifted probabilistic inference have been proposed, but our understanding of these methods and the relationships between them is still limited, compared to their propositional counterparts. The only existing theoretical characterization of lifting is for weighted first-order model counting (WFOMC), which was shown to be complete domain-lifted for the class of 2-logvar models. This paper makes two contributions to lifted variable elimination (LVE). First, we introduce a novel inference operator called group inversion. Second, we prove that LVE augmented with this operator is complete in the same sense as WFOMC.
Expression of Autotaxin–Lysophosphatidate Signaling-Related Proteins in Breast Cancer with Adipose Stroma

This research aimed to evaluate the expression and clinical implication of autotaxin (ATX)-lysophosphatidate (LPA) signaling-related proteins in breast cancer with adipose stroma. To this end, a tissue microarray (TMA) was constructed from 137 breast cancer tissues with adipose stroma and 329 breast cancer tissues with non-adipose stroma (inflammatory stroma: n = 81, 24.6%; fibrous stroma: n = 246, 75.4%). Immunohistochemical staining for ATX-LPA signaling-related proteins (ATX, LPA1, LPA2, and LPA3) was performed on the TMA. The results showed that LPA2 in tumor cells and LPA3 in stromal cells were highly expressed in breast cancer with adipose stroma and breast cancer with adipose and inflammatory stroma, respectively. Stromal LPA1 positivity (p = 0.017) and stromal LPA3 positivity (p = 0.004) were higher in breast cancer with adipose stroma containing CD68-positive crown-like structures (CLS). Stromal ATX positivity (p = 0.010) and stromal LPA3 positivity (p = 0.009) were higher in breast cancer with adipose tissue containing CD163-positive CLS. In breast cancer with adipose stroma, the number of CD163-positive macrophages was greater with stromal ATX positivity (p = 0.003), and the number of CD68-positive and CD163-positive macrophages were greater in cases with stromal LPA3 positivity. In conclusion, ATX-LPA signaling-related proteins are highly expressed in breast cancer with adipose stroma, with associated macrophage infiltration.
Location of pacemaker in chick embryo heart at the time of initiation of heartbeat

VAN MIEROP, LODEWYK H. S. Location of pacemaker in chick embryo heart at the time of initiation of heartbeat. Am. J. Physiol. 2 I 2 (2) : 407-q I 5. 1 g67. -Electrograms and intracellular action potentials were recorded of the hearts of chick embryos during the 1st week of incubation. All studies were carried out with the embryos in situ and with spontaneously beating hearts. It has been possible to show that the pacemaker even before initiation of the heartbeat (8 somite embryos) is already located in the sinoatrial portion of the heart, i. e. , there is no pacemaker shift from ventricle to sinus venosus during the early phases of cardiac development, as is often stated. The (sino) atria1 conduction time has been found remarkably constant at go-100 msec throughout development. Short bursts of sinoatrial ectopic beats often occurred on impaling a sinoatrial cell. Such tachycardia never resulted from impalement of a ventricular cell. Ventricular action potentials rarely exhibited prepotentials, and then only in the younger specimens.
Undercovering research trends: Network analysis of keywords in scholarly articles

In this study we present a network approach to uncovering trends in an area of research by analyzing keywords appearing in scholarly articles. We represent keywords as nodes. We link a pair of keywords if they appear in the same article. Each link is assigned a weight, representing the number of co-occurrences of the pair in different articles. We perform a statistical and visual analysis of the network's structural and temporal characteristics. These characteristics or patterns provide a broad understanding of how keywords are organized and research areas evolved over time. Our findings show that keywords organize themselves into three categories: topical keywords, complimentary keywords and, diverse keywords. Through comparative analysis of the networks built from articles published in two successive time windows, we are able to detect some interesting keyword patterns and emerging areas. Results from this analysis can be used for identifying emerging research areas or updating academic programs and course curricula. To demonstrate the approach we use keywords from the European Journal of Operational Research.
On the Validity of the Likelihood Ratio Test and Consistency of Resulting Parameter Estimates in Joint Linkage and Linkage Disequilibrium Analysis under Improperly Specified Parametric Models

It has been shown that parametric analysis of linkage disequilibrium conditional on linkage using an overly deterministic model can be optimal for family‐based association analysis. However, if one applies this strategy carelessly, there is a risk of false inference. We analyse properties of such likelihood ratio tests when the assumed disease mode of inheritance is inaccurate. Under some conditions, problems result if one is not careful to consider what null hypothesis is being tested. We show that: (a) tests for which the null hypothesis assumes the absence of both linkage and association are independent of the true mode of inheritance; (b) likelihood ratio tests assuming either linkage or association under the null hypothesis may depend on the true mode of inheritance, leading to inconsistent parameter estimates, in particular under extremely deterministic models; (c) this problem cannot be eliminated by increasing sample size or adding population controls – as sample size increases, the chance of false positive inference goes to 100%; (d) this issue can lead to systematic false positive inference of association in regions of linkage. This is important because highly deterministic models are often used intentionally in model‐based analyses because they can have more power than the true model, and are implicit in many model‐free analysis methods.
Daxx Upregulation within the Cytoplasm of Reovirus-Infected Cells Is Mediated by Interferon and Contributes to Apoptosis

ABSTRACT Reovirus infection is a well-characterized experimental system for the study of viral pathogenesis and antiviral immunity within the central nervous system (CNS). We have previously shown that c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and the Fas death receptor each play a role in neuronal apoptosis occurring in reovirus-infected brains. Death-associated protein 6 (Daxx) is a cellular protein that mechanistically links Fas signaling to JNK signaling in several models of apoptosis. In the present study, we demonstrate that Daxx is upregulated in reovirus-infected brain tissue through a type I interferon-mediated mechanism. Daxx upregulation is limited to brain regions that undergo reovirus-induced apoptosis and occurs in the cytoplasm and nucleus of neurons. Cytoplasmic Daxx is present in Fas-expressing cells during reovirus encephalitis, suggesting a role for Daxx in Fas-mediated apoptosis following reovirus infection. Further, in vitro expression of a dominant negative form of Daxx (DN-Daxx), which binds to Fas but which does not transmit downstream signaling, inhibits apoptosis of reovirus-infected cells. In contrast, in vitro depletion of Daxx results in increased expression of caspase 3 and apoptosis, suggesting that Daxx plays an antiapoptotic role in the nucleus. Overall, these data imply a regulatory role for Daxx in reovirus-induced apoptosis, depending on its location in the nucleus or cytoplasm.
Relevance of mineral texture on bidirectional reflectance and emission spectroscopy: Implications for geological remote sensing

This study evaluates the effect of grain-size, fabric, and composition of minerals on bidirectional reflectance and emission spectra. For this purpose, mineral grains of quartz (high albedo), feldspar (moderate albedo), and amphibole (low albedo) with four different grain-size ranges were analyzed using a goniometer system equipped with a spectroradiometer. Reflectance and emission spectra of bi-component mineral assemblages prearranged in seven different fabrics were analysed. It was observed that the parameters under investigation significantly influenced the intensity of reflection, scattering directions, spectral shape, and absorption depth, which in turn affected quantitative abundances estimated by techniques based on spectral similarity like Linear Mixture Model (LMM). It was observed that the error in abundances estimated by LMM varied from 3% to 15%. The authors conclude that the parameters under investigation, if neglected can introduce significant errors in geological interpretations.