Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extending Coupling Volume Theory to Analyze Small Loop Antennas for UHF RFID Applications

A simple illustration of the concept of a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system is provided in Fig. 1. Here a transmitter of interrogation signals which is contained within an interrogator communicates via electromagnetic waves with an electronically coded label to elicit from the label a reply signal containing useful data characteristic of the object to which the label is attached. The reply signal is detected by a receiver in the interrogator and made available to a control system.
Modelling and PD control of a novel reconfigurable robotic machining manipulator

Robotic machining is being applied in the manufacture of a broad spectrum of products and in a diverse industrial sectors ranging from aerospace, automotive to fashion. This paper presents a conceptual design, modelling and proportional-derivative (PD) control of a four degree-of-freedom (DOF) robotic machining manipulator (RMM) for use in a reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS). The conceptual design of the RMM is introduced, followed by its mathematical modelling, and then the PD controller for the multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) system is designed for position tracking in absence of a dither signal. The simulation results justify the application of the PD controller through the set point tracking performances.
Tipologia hoteleira baseada na competência em tecnologias da informação

This study aims to group hotels in terms of the level of IT competencies, and to characterize each group according to contingency factors (size, category, type of customer, among others) and the characteristics of the human resources that work in them. The study focuses on Portuguese hotel industry, based on a sample of 163 hotel professionals, across 3, 4 and 5 star hotels categories. The performance of a hierarchical grouping analysis using the Ward aggregation criterion allowed us to define three groups of hotels. The results show statistically significant differences between the groups in the level of IT competencies. The results of the group characterization present contradictions in relation to the literature, mainly in relation to the aspects of the category and the size of the hotels. In addition, the results show that the high level of IT skills can be closely related to the training and maturity of the professionals. This study helps to alert managers to the importance of integration between human resources and available IT.
Endorsement of therapeutic factors as a function of stage of group development and participant interpersonal attitudes

Yalom's (1985) hypotheses about the relationships between group participant interpersonal style, stage of group development, and endorsement of therapeutic factors were examined. Thirty-six growth-group participants filled out critical incident forms that were classified into 1 of 10 therapeutic factors with Bloch, Reibstein, Crouch, Holroyd, & Themen's (1979) taxonomy. As hypothesized, more affiliative participants placed greater emphasis on cognitive therapeutic factors, whereas more nonaffiliative participants placed greater emphasis on behavioral factors
Named Entity WordNet

This paper presents the automatic extension of Princeton WordNet with Named Entities (NEs). This new resource is called Named Entity WordNet. Our method maps the noun is-a hierarchy of WordNet to Wikipedia categories, identifies the NEs present in the latter and extracts different information from them such as written variants, definitions, etc. This information is inserted into a NE repository. A module that converts from this generic repository to the WordNet specific format has been developed. The paper explores different aspects of our methodology such as the treatment of polysemous terms, the identification of hyponyms within the Wikipedia categorization system, the identification of Wikipedia articles which are NEs and the design of a NE repository compliant with the LMF ISO standard. So far, this procedure enriches WordNet with 310,742 NEs and 381,043 instance of relations.
Observational learning and the raiding of food caches in ravens, Corvus corax: is it ‘tactical’ deception?

Abstract Group-foraging ravens scatter-hoard when they are competing for food and, to some extent, also raid the caches made by others. We investigated the effects of observational spatial memory on individual caching and raiding tactics. With captive ravens, we found visual observation was essential for locating and raiding the caches of conspecifics. Both captive and free-ranging ravens, food cachers as well as potential cache raiders, responded to each other's presence. Cachers withdrew from conspecifics and most often placed their caches behind structures, obstructing the view of potential observers. Raiders watched inconspicuously and kept at a distance to cachers close to their cache sites. In response to the presence of potential raiders or because of their initial movements towards caches, the cachers frequently interrupted caching, changed cache sites, or recovered their food items. These results suggest that ravens, regardless of whether they act as cachers or raiders, are capable of withholding information about their intentions and, hence, manipulate the other bird's attention either to prevent or to achieve social-learning opportunities. Such interactions may qualify as ‘tactical’ deception and may have created a considerable pressure selecting for social cognition in ravens. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .
Home-to-school transitions for financially disadvantaged children

This report focuses on children's readiness for school, considering the role of families, schools and communities as facilitators and inhibitors. The transition from home to school is a major change in children’s lives, being the first compulsory and universal point of contact between the child and broader social institutions. This can be a challenging period for children, as they adjust to a generally much larger institution than they have previously encountered—with its own culture, rules and expectations, along with new people (both teachers and school mates), and the new physical environments of classrooms and playgrounds. There is clear evidence that children vary in their “readiness” for this transition, with marked differences visible in children’s cognitive and social/emotional skills when they enter school. The importance of making a good transition into school is indicated by evidence that school readiness is predictive of later outcomes: children who are less “ready” are less likely to excel academically, are more likely to have behavioural and emotional problems, be retained in a grade and drop out of school. Such children are also more likely to become teenage parents, engage in criminal activities and have poorer employment records. Given this evidence that a “good start” to schooling is so influential for later wellbeing, researchers have tried to identify the factors and processes associated with children’s readiness for school. School readiness encompasses not only a child’s readiness for school, but also their school’s, family’s and community’s readiness for this transition. This report focuses on children’s readiness for school, considering the role of families, schools and communities as facilitators and inhibitors.
Dynamic random projection for biometric template protection

Random projection provides a good diversification effect for biometric template protection but is drawing increasing security concerns under the token-stolen (or public parameter) case. We propose a dynamic random projection method to alleviate these security concerns due to the stolen token by increasing the computational complexity to search for the unprotected biometric features. This is achieved by a projection process which dynamically assembles a random projection matrix from a set of candidate projection vectors. The selection of projection vectors is decided by the biometric feature vector itself and thus forms a nonlinear projection process. The proposed method permits the public and secure storage of all the candidate random vectors without the need for external secret keys. Experiments on the 800 samples in the database FVC2002DB2_A demonstrate the well-kept biométrie performance of the proposed method.
The Significance of Atrophy of the Testis in Schizophrenia

1. Atrophy of the testis with special histological features was found in a varying degree in biopsy specimens from the majority of 90 schizophrenics, but not in other psychotics and other mental cases. 2. It varied in severity with the malignancy of the psychosis, chronic deteriorated and chronic catatonic schizophrenia being associated with severe atrophy, mild arrested with moderate. Significant atrophy was not found in the paranoid form. 3. Every degree of atrophy was found in the series of early cases with duration of less than one year. In one case, aged 15, with duration of a few weeks there was most severe atrophy. 4. There is no relationship between the age of the patient, either at the time of examination or at the onset of the psychosis, and the severity of the atrophy, except in so far as an early onset is usually associated with very malignant schizophrenia. 5. The internal secretion of the testis appeared to be well preserved in most cases, and the excretion of the 17-ketosteroids bore no relationship to the degree of degeneration. 6. There was no correlation between physical type or family history of insanity and the state of the testis. 7. The atrophy is an integral part of the psychosis, and there is considerable evidence* that it may ante-date the appearance of mental change. It was found in one boy, aged 15, only a few weeks after onset of mental symptoms. Biopsy, therefore, can be a diagnostic measure. 8. The disorder of the testis is not causative of schizophrenia, but is evidence of a complex central imbalance of which it is one sign. It is not related to mental trauma or masturbation. 9. It has been suggested that some endocrine imbalance with relative and qualitative gonadotrophic failure is responsible for the atrophy, and, operating in a susceptible constitution, for the schizophrenia. Relevant questions have been discussed.
Nationwide Study on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in Iceland: Evidence of a MYBPC3 Founder Mutation

Background— The geographic isolation and homogeneous population of Iceland are ideally suited to ascertain clinical and genetic characteristics of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) at the population level. Methods and Results— Medical records and cardiac imaging studies obtained between 1997 and 2010 were reviewed to identify Icelandic patients with HCM. Surviving patients were recruited for clinical and genetic studies. A previously identified Icelandic mutation, MYBPC3 c.927-2A>G, was genotyped, and mutation-negative samples were sequenced for HCM genes and other hypertrophic genes. Record review identified 180 patients with HCM. Genetic analyses of 151 patients defined pathogenic mutations in 101 (67%), including MYBPC3 c.927-2A>G (88 patients, 58%), 4 other MYBPC3 or MYH7 mutations (5 patients, 3.3%), and 2 GLA mutations (8 patients, 5.3%). Haplotype and genetic genealogical data defined MYBPC3 c.927-2A>G as a founder mutation, introduced into the Icelandic population in the 15th century, with a current population prevalence of 0.36%. MYBPC3 c.927-2A>G mutation carriers exhibited phenotypic diversity but were younger at diagnosis (42 versus 49 years; P=0.001) and sustained more adverse events (15% versus 2%; P=0.02) than mutation-negative patients. All-cause mortality for patients with HCM was similar to that of an age-matched Icelandic population (hazard ratio, 0.98; P=0.9). HCM-related mortality (0.78%/y) occurred at a mean age of 68 compared with 81 years for non–HCM-related mortality (P=0.02). Conclusions— A founder MYBPC3 mutation that arose >550 years ago is the predominant cause of HCM in Iceland. The MYBPC3 c.927-2A>G mutation is associated with low adverse event rates but earlier cardiovascular mortality, illustrating the impact of genotype on outcomes in HCM.
Psychosocial Intimacy and Identity

Age and gender differences in patterns of behavior and experience, cognitive beliefs, affective involvement, and psychosocial functioning in romantic relationships were observed in 473 adolescents and emerging adults (ages 12-24). Older adolescents indicated more dating experiences, times in love, passion, identity, and intimacy. They also reported more commitment-related romantic beliefs but less romantic idealization. Across all grades, females indicated fewer times in love and less tendency to believe in love at first sight but greater intimacy and self-consciousness. In addition, predictions of psychosocial intimacy were examined. For both males and females, greater intimacy was associated with less self-consciousness but more passion, commitment-related beliefs, and psychosocial identity. Implications for creating empirically based resources for facilitating positive development in adolescents’ interpersonal lives are discussed.
The Impact of National Transformation Imperatives and Quality Monitoring on Programme Self-evaluation at a South African University: Lessons learned

In South Africa, the National Plan for Higher Education paved the way for major restructuring and transformation. In addition to employment equity legislation and a new funding formula, quality assurance has been identified as a steering element in the transformation process. The University of the Free State, being a historically-advantaged university, put tremendous effort into the transformation process and tried to respond to national policy priorities without losing its focus on quality and relevance. The self-evaluation instrument developed for the 2002 programme self-evaluation (a pilot project) clearly reflects a transformative character with a strong focus on the systemic development and adaptation of academic programmes. This paper reflects on the influence of external and internal forces on the development and nature of the framework used as instrument, as well as the way in which the implementation of the project was steered to induce reluctant faculty to come on board. Valuable lessons were learned on the way.
Estrogen-Related Receptor α Directs Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor α Signaling in the Transcriptional Control of Energy Metabolism in Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle

ABSTRACT Estrogen-related receptors (ERRs) are orphan nuclear receptors activated by the transcriptional coactivator peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) coactivator 1α (PGC-1α), a critical regulator of cellular energy metabolism. However, metabolic target genes downstream of ERRα have not been well defined. To identify ERRα-regulated pathways in tissues with high energy demand such as the heart, gene expression profiling was performed with primary neonatal cardiac myocytes overexpressing ERRα. ERRα upregulated a subset of PGC-1α target genes involved in multiple energy production pathways, including cellular fatty acid transport, mitochondrial and peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation, and mitochondrial respiration. These results were validated by independent analyses in cardiac myocytes, C2C12 myotubes, and cardiac and skeletal muscle of ERRα−/− mice. Consistent with the gene expression results, ERRα increased myocyte lipid accumulation and fatty acid oxidation rates. Many of the genes regulated by ERRα are known targets for the nuclear receptor PPARα, and therefore, the interaction between these regulatory pathways was explored. ERRα activated PPARα gene expression via direct binding of ERRα to the PPARα gene promoter. Furthermore, in fibroblasts null for PPARα and ERRα, the ability of ERRα to activate several PPARα targets and to increase cellular fatty acid oxidation rates was abolished. PGC-1α was also shown to activate ERRα gene expression. We conclude that ERRα serves as a critical nodal point in the regulatory circuitry downstream of PGC-1α to direct the transcription of genes involved in mitochondrial energy-producing pathways in cardiac and skeletal muscle.
Design of Static Synchronous Series Compensator Based Damping Controller Employing Real Coded Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents a systematic approach for designing Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) based supplementary damping controllers for damping low frequency oscillations in a single-machine infinite-bus power system. The design problem of the proposed controller is formulated as an optimization problem and RCGA is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. Simulation results are presented and compared with a conventional method of tuning the damping controller parameters to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed design approach.
Malicious Pdf Document Detection Based on Feature Extraction and Entropy

In this paper we present a machine learning based approach for detection of malicious PDF documents. We identify various features in PDF documents which are used by malware authors to construct a malicious file. Based on these feature set we arrive on models which is used to detect malicious PDF documents. Based on these feature sets, detection rate is high as compared to approaches which depends on analysis of JavaScript embedded in the PDF document.
Radio as an Instrument of Protest: The History of Bush Radio

This article provides a historical account of Bush Radio, the oldest community radio station in Africa, based in Cape Town, South Africa. The creation of Bush Radio's precursor, the Cassette Education Trust (CASET) was a pivotal moment for the emergence of community radio on the continent. This people's history of Bush Radio tells the full story through the voices of the founders and staff, together with other sources of historical data. The article argues that although the apartheid state constructed essentialist racial and ethnic categories, CASET and later Bush Radio constantly positioned themselves in a space of liminality to interrogate and redefine these categories. Privileging an instrumentalist approach, this article shows the connections between ideology, politics, and economics as they converge to form the industrial structure, the political environment, and the cultural product of broadcasting.
Improvement of three simultaneous speech recognition by using AV integration and scattering theory for humanoid

This paper presents improvement of recognition of three simultaneous speeches for a humanoid robot with a pair of microphones. In such situations, sound separation and automatic speech recognition (ASR) of the separated speech are difficult, because the number of simultaneous talkers exceeds that of its microphones, the signal-to-noise ratio is quite low (around -3 dB) and noise is not stable due to interfering voices. To improve recognition of three simultaneous speeches, two key ideas are introduced — acoustical modeling of robot head by scattering theory and two-layered audio-visual integration in both name and location, that is, speech and face recognition, and speech and face localization. Sound sources are separated in real-time by an active direction-pass filter (ADPF), which extracts sounds from a specified direction by using interaural phase/intensity difference estimated by scattering theory. Since features of sounds separated by ADPF vary according to the sound direction, multiple Directionand Speaker-dependent (DS-dependent) acoustic models are used. The system integrates ASR results by using the sound direction and speaker information by face recognition as well as confidence measure of ASR results to select the best one. The resulting system shows around 10% improvement on average against recognition of three simultaneous speeches, where three talkers were located 1 meter from the humanoid and apart from each other by 0 to 90 degrees at 10-degree intervals.
A New Look at Physical Layer Security, Caching, and Wireless Energy Harvesting for Heterogeneous Ultra-Dense Networks

Heterogeneous ultra-dense networks enable ultra-high data rates and ultra-low latency through the use of dense sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave small cells with different antenna configurations. Existing work has widely studied spectral and energy efficiency in such networks and shown that high spectral and energy efficiency can be achieved. This article investigates the benefits of heterogeneous ultra-dense network architecture from the perspectives of three promising technologies, physical layer security, caching, and wireless energy harvesting, and provides an enthusiastic outlook toward application of these technologies in heterogeneous ultra-dense networks. Based on the rationale of each technology, opportunities and challenges are identified to advance the research in this emerging network.
Lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2), a new regulator of cell polarity required for metastatic dissemination of basal-like breast carcinomas

Basal‐like breast carcinoma is characterized by the expression of basal/myoepithelial markers, undifferentiated phenotype, highly aggressive behaviour and frequent triple negative status (ESR−, PR−, Her2neu−). We have previously shown that epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) occurs in basal‐like breast tumours and identified Lysyl‐oxidase‐like 2 (LOXL2) as an EMT player and poor prognosis marker in squamous cell carcinomas. We now show that LOXL2 mRNA is overexpressed in basal‐like human breast carcinomas. Breast carcinoma cell lines with basal‐like phenotype show a specific cytoplasmic/perinuclear LOXL2 expression, and this subcellular distribution is significantly associated with distant metastatic incidence in basal‐like breast carcinomas. LOXL2 silencing in basal‐like carcinoma cells induces a mesenchymal‐epithelial transition (MET) associated with a decrease of tumourigenicity and suppression of metastatic potential. Mechanistic studies indicate that LOXL2 maintains the mesenchymal phenotype of basal‐like carcinoma cells by a novel mechanism involving transcriptional downregulation of Lgl2 and claudin1 and disorganization of cell polarity and tight junction complexes. Therefore, intracellular LOXL2 is a new candidate marker of basal‐like carcinomas and a target to block metastatic dissemination of this aggressive breast tumour subtype.
Celecoxib increases EGF signaling in colon tumor associated fibroblasts, modulating EGFR expression and degradation

We previously demonstrated that non-toxic doses of Celecoxib induced the immediate phosphorylation of Erk1-2 in colon tumor associated fibroblasts (TAFs), increasing their responsiveness to epidermal growth factor (EGF). We have now identified two concomitant mechanisms explaining the EGF-Celecoxib cooperation. We found that a 24-48h Celecoxib priming increased EGF receptor (EGFR) mRNA and protein levels in colon TAFs, promoting EGF binding and internalization. Celecoxib-primed TAFs showed a reduced EGFR degradation after EGF challenge. This delay corresponded to a deferred dissociation of EEA1 from EGFR positive endosomes and the accumulation of Rab7, pro Cathepsin-D and SQSTM1/p62, suggesting a shared bottleneck in the pathways of late-endosomes/autophagosomes maturation. Celecoxib modulated the levels of target proteins similarly to the inhibitors of endosome/lysosome acidification Bafilomycin-A1 and NH4Cl. Cytoplasmic vesicles fractionation showed a reduced maturation of Cathepsin-D in late endosomes and an increased content of EGFR and Rab7 in lysosomes of Celecoxib-treated TAFs. Our data indicate a double mechanism mediating the increased response to EGF of colon TAFs treated with Celecoxib. While EGFR overexpression could be targeted using anti EGFR drugs, the effects on endosome trafficking and protein turnover represents a more elusive target and should be taken into account for any long-term therapy with Celecoxib.