Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NOTES SUR QUELQUES RONGEURS DU SAHARA OCCIDENTAL

Au cours d'une Mission du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle efFectuee pendant les mois d'octobre et novembre 1950 dans la region de Beni-Abbes (Sud-Oranais), il m'a ete possible de recolter des specimens de piusieurs especes de Rongeurs desertiques, et pour certaines, j'ai rassemble quelques observations concernant leur identification sur le terrain et leur comportement, dans 1'espoir d'apporter une contribution elementaire a la biologie si par· ticuliere de ces Mammiferes. Les notes qui suivent se rapportent h cinq especes : deux Gerbilles, deux Meriones, et un Goundi.
Text entry using five to seven physical keys

We designed, implemented, and evaluated a small physical keyboard, composed of four to five keys with a variety of mappings for the letters, along with one or two navigational function keys operated by the thumb. The small size allows it to be used for smartwatch text entry, and can be mounted on various body parts as a wearable keyboard. It is primarily used as an ambiguous keyboard, akin to T9, although a multi-tap mode is also present. Our keyboard layouts include Alphabetic, Collapsed QWERTY, Mnemonic (where letters are grouped based on their shapes), and Optimized (which minimizes the number of conflicts). In a between-users study, participants achieved an average of 15.4 words per minute (WPM) across all layouts, with one user with the Collapsed QWERTY layout reaching a top speed of 30.6 WPM after 4 hours of practice. User feedback was generally favorable.
Bias dependence of total dose effects in the irradiated EEPROM devices

Total ionizing dose irradiation effect in EEPROM Devices with different bias was studied in this paper. Three biases, concluded with NONE bias, Zero bias and Work bias, were used in EEPROM devices with “1” state and "0" state in this paper. It was indicated that the threshold voltage shift negatively as total dose increased in EEPROM devices with "1" state and the threshold voltage shift positively as total dose increased in EEPROM devices with "0" state, and the Work bias was the worst irradiation bias regardless of "1" state or "0" state.
Algorithm for predicting CHD death risk in Turkish adults: conventional factors contribute only moderately in women

Objective: To assist the management strategy of individuals, we determined an algorithm for predicting the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) death in Turkish adults with a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Methods: The risk of CHD death was estimated in 3054 middle-aged adults, followed over 9.08±4.2 years. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to predict risk. Discrimination was assessed using C-statistics. Results: CHD death was identified in 233 subjects. In multivariable analysis, the serum high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) level was not predictive in men and the non-HDL-C level was not predictive in women. Age, presence of diabetes, systolic blood pressure ≥160 mm Hg, smoking habit, and low physical activity were predictors in both sexes. The exclusion of coronary disease at baseline did not change the risk estimates materially. Using an algorithm of the 7 stated variables, individuals in the highest category of risk score showed a 19- to 50-fold higher spread in the absolute risk of death from CHD than those in the second lowest category. C-index of the model using age alone was as high as 0.774 in men and 0.836 in women (p<0.001 each), while the incorporation of 6 conventional risk factors contributed to a C-index of 0.058 in males and 0.042 in females. Conclusion: In a middle-aged population with prevalent MetS, men disclosed anticipated risk parameters (except for high HDL-C levels) as determinants of the risk of CHD death. On the other hand, serum non-HDL-C levels and moderate systolic hypertension were not relevant in women. The moderate contribution of conventional risk factors (beyond age) to the estimation of the risk of CHD death in women is consistent with the operation of autoimmune activation.
Postmortem succession of gut microbial communities in deceased human subjects

The human microbiome has demonstrated an importance for the health and functioning in living individuals. However, the fate of the microbiome after death is less understood. In addition to a better understanding of microbe-mediated decomposition processes, postmortem succession of human-associated microbial communities has been suggested as a possible forensic tool for estimating time since death, or postmortem interval (PMI). The objective of our study was to document postmortem changes in human gut bacterial communities. Gut microflora were repeatedly sampled from the caeca of cadavers as they decayed under natural environmental conditions. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed that over time, bacterial richness significantly increased (rs = 0.449) while diversity decreased (rs = − 0.701). The composition of gut bacterial communities changed in a similar manner over time towards a common decay community. OTUs belonging to Bacteroidales (Bacteroides, Parabacteroides) significantly declined while Clostridiales (Clostridium, Anaerosphaera) and the fly-associated Gammaproteobacteria Ignatzschineria and Wohlfahrtiimonas increased. Our examination of human caeca microflora in decomposing cadavers adds to the growing literature on postmortem microbial communities, which will ultimately contribute to a better understanding of decomposition processes.
Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) for Cellular Future Radio Access

This paper presents a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) concept for cellular future radio access (FRA) towards the 2020s information society. Different from the current LTE radio access scheme (until Release 11), NOMA superposes multiple users in the power domain although its basic signal waveform could be based on the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) or the discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-spread OFDM the same as LTE baseline. In our concept, NOMA adopts a successive interference cancellation (SIC) receiver as the baseline receiver scheme for robust multiple access, considering the expected evolution of device processing capabilities in the future. Based on system-level evaluations, we show that the downlink NOMA with SIC improves both the capacity and cell-edge user throughput performance irrespective of the availability of the frequency-selective channel quality indicator (CQI) on the base station side. Furthermore, we discuss possible extensions of NOMA by jointly applying multi-antenna/site technologies with a proposed NOMA/MIMO scheme using SIC and an interference rejection combining (IRC) receiver to achieve further capacity gains, e.g., a three-fold gain in the spectrum efficiency representing a challenging target for FRA.
Evaluation of a scatter/gather interface for supporting distinct health information search tasks

Web search engines are important gateways for users to access health information. This study explored whether a search interface based on the Bing API and enabled by Scatter/Gather, a well‐known document‐clustering technique, can improve health information searches. Forty participants without medical backgrounds were randomly assigned to two interfaces: a baseline interface that resembles typical web search engines and a Scatter/Gather interface. Both groups performed two lookup and two exploratory health‐related tasks. It was found that the baseline group was more likely to rephrase queries and less likely to access general‐purpose sites than the Scatter/Gather group when completing exploratory tasks. Otherwise, the two groups did not differ in behavior and task performance, with participants in the Scatter/Gather group largely overlooking the features (key words, clusters, and the recluster function) designed to facilitate the exploration of semantic relationships between information objects, a potentially useful means for users in the rather unfamiliar domain of health. The results suggest a strong effect of users' mental models of search on their use of search interfaces and a high cognitive cost associated with using the Scatter/Gather features. It follows that novel features of a search interface should not only be compatible with users' mental models but also provide sufficient affordance to inform users of how they can be used. Compared with the interface, tasks showed more significant impacts on search behavior. In future studies, more effort should be devoted to identify salient features of health‐related information needs.
Maximally coherent states

Relative entropy measure quantifying coherence, a key property of quantum system, is proposed recently. In this note, we investigate the maximally coherent state (MCS) with respect to relative entropy measure. %(denoted by $\mathcal C_{RE}$)%. We show that there are not mixed maximally coherent states and give a complete characterization of pure maximally coherent states. Based on this characterization, for a bipartite MCS with $d_A=d_B$, we obtain that the super-additivity equality of relative entropy measure holds if and only if the state is a product state of its reduced states. From the viewpoint of resource in quantum information, we find there exists a MCS with maximal entanglement. Originated from the behaviour of quantum correlation under the influence of noisy operations, we further classify the incoherent operations which send maximally coherent states to themselves.
Positive orientation: explorations on what is common to life satisfaction, self-esteem, and optimism

Aim – Literature documents that the judgments people hold about themselves, their life, and their future are important ingredients of their psychological functioning and well-being, and are commonly related to each other. Methods – We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) under the classical test theory, regression analysis, and a cross national design. Results – This study provides new findings attesting to the hypothesis that evaluations about oneself, one's life, and one's future rest on a common mode of viewing experiences which we named “Positive Orientation”. Conclusions – Results from an Italian and a Canadian study are resented, attesting to a latent dimension that lies at the core of positive evaluations and that corroborates the utility of the new construct as a critical component of individuals’ well-functioning. Declaration of Interest: This study was partially supported by Grants from the MIUR, 2002 and 2005, and by a Grant from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 2002 to Gian Vittorio Caprara. Authors declare “no potential conflict of interest”.
Empirical Mode Decomposition for Modeling of Parallel Applications on Intel Xeon Phi Processors

For modern parallel applications, modeling their general execution characteristics, such as power and time, is difficult due to a great many factors affecting software-hardware interactions, which is also exacerbated by the dearth of measuring and monitoring tools for novel architectures, such as Intel Xeon Phi processors. To address this modeling challenge, the present work proposes to employ the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method to describe an execution as a series of modes culminating in a single residual trend, for which, in its turn, a model equation is obtained as a non-linear fit. As outcome, an overall energy consumption may be predicted using this model. A real-world quantum-chemistry application GAMESS and a molecular-dynamics proxy application CoMD were considered in the experiments. The results demonstrate that the energy modeled ranges within 10–30% of the measured energy, depending on the length of execution.
Assessment of Radiation Dose and Image Quality in Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography Using Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction and a Body Mass Index-adapted Protocol

Adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) is a new method for reduction of the radiation dose in CT scans. We aimed to evaluate the radiation dose and image quality after employing ASIR and a body mass indexadapted protocol in coronary CT angiography. We evaluated 66 patients who underwent coronary CTA using 50% ASIR. The tube voltage (100~120 kVp), current (300~550 mA) and filter (Bowtie small and large) were chosen according to body mass index (BMI). Patients with a sinus rhythm and a heart beat ≤ 65 beats/min underwent a prospective gating (PG) scan, and the others underwent a retrospective gating (RG) scan. The image noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and effective dose were measured and calculated. The objective image quality was evaluated according to the image noise and SNR, and the subjective image quality was assessed on a 5-point scale for the coronary segments. The mean effective dose in the PG group was 1.8 ± 0.7 mSv (range: 0.3–3.2 mSv), while that in the RG group was 8.6 ± 2.4 mSv (range: 3.8–14.3 mSv). The effective dose was correlated with BMI (r = 0.52, p < 0.001). There was neither a significant correlation between BMI and image noise (r = -0.12, p = 0.362) nor between BMI and SNR (r = -0.15, p = 0.226). Of 864 segments, 851 (98.5%) were of a diagnostic image quality (score 1–3). The mean score of the subjective image quality according to the 5-point scale was 1.6 ± 0.4. The subjective image quality was not correlated with BMI (r = 0.019, p = 0.881). By using ASIR and BMI-based scanning parameters, the radiation dose was effectively lowered in comparison with previous studies of coronary CTA. The image noise and study interpretability were also preserved.
Secretion of lipids induced by inhibition of peptidoglycan synthesis in streptococci

Inhibition of peptidoglycan synthesis causes an immediate and massive secretion of both newly synthesized and "old" lipids from several species of bacteria, including streptococci, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Bacillus subtilis. Lipid secretion occurs in the absence of detectable bacterial lysis. This novel phenomenon was examined in more detail in three strains of streptococci: S. sanguis (group H), S. pyogenes (group A), And S. pneumoniae. The secretion of lipids is specifically induced by inhibitors of peptidoglycan synthesis; it is not caused by inhibitors of protein, ribonucleic acid, or deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis. The occurrence appears to be reversible since penicillin-induced secretion comes to a halt upon the timely addition of penicillinase, correlating with resumption of culture growth. All cellular lipids are secreted in essentially the same proportions as those found in the drug treated bacteria. It is suggested that continued peptidoglycan synthesis may be essential for the integration and retention of lipid material in the plasma membrane.
The SMAP Level 4 Carbon Product for Monitoring Ecosystem Land–Atmosphere CO2 Exchange

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission Level 4 Carbon (L4C) product provides model estimates of the Net Ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE) incorporating SMAP soil moisture information. The L4C product includes NEE, computed as total ecosystem respiration less gross photosynthesis, at a daily time step posted to a 9-km global grid by plant functional type. Component carbon fluxes, surface soil organic carbon stocks, underlying environmental constraints, and detailed uncertainty metrics are also included. The L4C model is driven by the SMAP Level 4 Soil Moisture data assimilation product, with additional inputs from the Goddard Earth Observing System, Version 5 weather analysis, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite vegetation data. The L4C data record extends from March 31, 2015 to present with ongoing production and 8–12 day latency. Comparisons against concurrent global CO2 eddy flux tower measurements, satellite solar-induced canopy florescence, and other independent observation benchmarks show favorable L4C performance and accuracy, capturing the dynamic biosphere response to recent weather anomalies. Model experiments and L4C spatiotemporal variability were analyzed to understand the independent value of soil moisture and SMAP observations relative to other sources of input information. This analysis highlights the potential for microwave observations to inform models where soil moisture strongly controls land CO2 flux variability; however, skill improvement relative to flux towers is not yet discernable within the relatively short validation period. These results indicate that SMAP provides a unique and promising capability for monitoring the linked global terrestrial water and carbon cycles.
Thermalization constraints and spectral distortions for massive unstable relic particles.

Spectral distortions to the cosmic background radiation due to massive unstable relic particles which decayed during the thermalization epoch are calculated. We impose stringent constraints on such particles from recent observations. Early energy injection of this type generates characteristic spectral distortions which could potentially serve to measure the baryon density of the Universe.
Effect of drying methods and blending ratios on dough rheological properties, physical and sensory properties of wheat–taro flour composite bread

Abstract The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of taro drying methods and blending ratios on the physical quality attributes and sensory quality of wheat–taro bread and rheological properties of the blend dough. Farinographic properties like water absorption capacity, dough development time, dough stability time, time to break down, mixing tolerance index, and farinographic quality number were significantly (p < .05) affected by drying methods and blending ratio and their interaction. Increased taro flour (10–20 g) per 100 g of wheat flour resulted in an increased water absorption capacity (57.38%–58.23%) and mixing tolerance index (67.33–70.21 FU). The sensory analysis had revealed that as taro flour blending ratio increased the acceptability of blended breads were reduced. With respect to physical and sensory properties, the control bread had better acceptability than that of 10, 15, and 20 g taro flour‐mixed bread. The study revealed that there is possibility of incorporating taro flour up to 15 g per 100 g of wheat flour with acceptable sensory attributes of the composite bread.
Diversité fonctionnelle des graminées prairiales: conséquences pour la productivité et pour la valeur nutritive

L'objectif de cette etude a ete d'evaluer la productivite et la valeur nutritive de 13 especes de graminees natives, issues de prairies permanentes de fertilite moyenne, et de comprendre les bases fonctionnelles de ces processus grâce a la mesure de traits fonctionnels aeriens. Ces especes ont ete cultivees en culture pure dans un dispositif factoriel complet, croisant deux facteurs de gestion : la frequence de coupe (3 ou 6 coupes par an) et le niveau de fertilisation azotee ( 120 et 360 kg N ha-1 an-1). Nous montrons que des syndromes distincts de traits d'effet determinent la productivite et la valeur nutritive. Les differences de nutrition azotee ( indice de nutrition et efficience d'utilisation de l'azote) entre especes affectent la productivite aerienne. Deux traits (teneur en azote et teneur en matiere seche des limbes) se demarquent comme indicateur de la productivite et de la valeur nutritive des especes etudiees. Celles-ci ont ete classees en quatre groupes selon la valeur de leurs traits. Une augmentation de la frequence de coupe a modifie des traits foliaires entrainant une baisse de digestibilite des limbes, ce qui a ete interprete comme une strategie d'evitement du pâturage. Une reduction de l'apport d'azote a entraine une augmentation de la teneur en matiere seche et de la duree de vie des feuilles, ce qui a ete interprete comme une strategie de conservation des nutriments. Les especes issues d'habitats plus perturbes presentaient des valeurs de traits qui tendaient a reduire leur digestibilite. Nos resultats soulignent la diversite fonctionnelle elevee des graminees prairiales, diversite qui contribue a la coexistence de ces especes dans la prairie permanente et favorise la stabilite de la production et de la valeur nutritive dans une prairie permanente
The behavioral and molecular evaluation of effects of social instability stress as a model of stress-related disorders in adult female rats

Abstract The study aimed to test the hypotheses that chronic social instability stress (CSIS) alters behavioral and physiological parameters and expression of selected genes important for stress response and social behaviors. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to the 4-week CSIS procedure, which involves unpredictable rotation between phases of isolation and overcrowding. Behavioral analyses (Experiment 1) were performed on the same rats before and after CSIS (n = 16) and physiological and biochemical measurements (Experiment 2) were made on further control (CON; n = 7) and stressed groups (CSIS; n = 8). Behaviors in the open field test (locomotor and exploratory activities) and elevated-plus maze (anxiety-related behaviors) indicated anxiety after CSIS. CSIS did not alter the physiological parameters measured, i.e. body weight gain, regularity of estrous cycles, and circulating concentrations of stress hormones and sex steroids. QRT-PCR analysis of mRNA expression levels was performed on amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex (PFC), and hypothalamus. The main finding is that CSIS alters the mRNA levels for the studied genes in a region-specific manner. Hence, expression of POMC (pro-opiomelanocortin), AVPR1a (arginine vasopressin receptor), and OXTR (oxytocin receptor) significantly increased in the amygdala following CSIS, while in PFC and/or hypothalamus, POMC, AVPR1a, AVPR1b, OXTR, and ERβ (estrogen receptor beta) expression decreased. CSIS significantly reduced expression of CRH-R1 (corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor type 1) in the hippocampus. The directions of change in gene expression and the genes and regions affected indicate a molecular basis for the behavior changes. In conclusion, CSIS may be valuable for further analyzing the neurobiology of stress-related disorders in females.
On the non-minimality of the largest weight codewords in the binary Reed-Muller codes

The study of minimal codewords in linear codes was motivated by Massey who described how minimal codewords of a linear code define access structures for secret sharing schemes. As a consequence of his article, Borissov, Manev, and Nikova initiated the study of minimal codewords in the binary Reed-Muller codes. They counted the number of non-minimal codewords of weight $2d$ in the binary Reed-Muller codes RM$(r,m)$, and also gave results on the non-minimality of codewords of large weight in the binary Reed-Muller codes RM$(r,m)$. The results of Borissov, Manev, and Nikova regarding the counting of the number of non-minimal codewords of small weight in RM$(r,m)$ were improved by Schillewaert, Storme, and Thas who counted the number of non-minimal codewords of weight smaller than $3d$ in RM$(r,m)$. This article now presents new results on the non-minimality of large weight codewords in RM$(r,m)$.