Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Algorithm Based PID Controller Tuning Approach for Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

Genetic algorithm (GA) based PID (proportional integral derivative) controller has been proposed for tuning optimized PID parameters in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) process using a weighted combination of objective functions, namely, integral square error (ISE), integral absolute error (IAE), and integrated time absolute error (ITAE). Optimization of PID controller parameters is the key goal in chemical and biochemical industries. PID controllers have narrowed down the operating range of processes with dynamic nonlinearity. In our proposed work, globally optimized PID parameters tend to operate the CSTR process in its entire operating range to overcome the limitations of the linear PID controller. The simulation study reveals that the GA based PID controller tuned with fixed PID parameters provides satisfactory performance in terms of set point tracking and disturbance rejection.
Customer-based port service quality model

This port service quality study is an important precondition for an efficient development of port industry and traffic system as a whole. It is due to the complexity of any port, as a system consisting of a large number of stakeholders rendering services to customers with various requirements, that a unique set of port service quality indices has been still missing. For this reason, the paper explains the port service quality concept in compliance with stakeholders and their requirements within the context of port service quality. The aim of the paper is to present a proposal for a customer-based port service quality model based on empirical study and its reliability testing on a selected sample. The proposed model is defined by five factors and fits satisfactorily into the obtained poll questionnaire results. The statistical data processing package SPSS 16.0 and the LISREL 8.54 programme were used in the study. KEY WORDS: port service, customer, model, factor analysis
Recent Development of the DNN-based Singing Voice Synthesis System — Sinsy

This paper describes a singing voice synthesis system based on deep neural networks (DNNs) named Sinsy. Singing voice synthesis systems based on hidden Markov models (HMMs) have grown in the last decade. Recently, singing voice synthesis systems based on DNNs have been proposed. It has improved the naturalness of the synthesized singing voices. In this paper, we introduce several techniques, i.e., trajectory training, a vibrato model, and a time-lag model, into the DNN-based singing voice synthesis system to synthesize the high quality singing voices. Experimental results show that the DNN-based systems with these techniques outperformed the HMM-based systems. In addition, the present paper describes the details of the on-line service for singing voice synthesis.
The effects of sex and gender role identity on perceived stress and coping among traditional and nontraditional students

ABSTRACT Objective: This study examined differences in perceived stress and coping strategies based on gender role identity (GRI) and sex among traditional and nontraditional college students. Participants and Methods: Online surveys that assessed demographic information, GRI, and perceived stress were completed between October 2013 and March 2014 by 197 students. Results: Nontraditional masculine male students reported higher levels of perceived stress compared with nontraditional androgynous male students. Traditional androgynous female students showed significantly lower levels of perceived stress compared with their masculine counterparts. Nontraditional female students reported using more approach coping strategies than their traditional male students, but there were no differences in coping strategies among traditional students. Conclusions: These results suggest traditional and nontraditional students have different levels of perceived stress based on sex and GRI. Thus, colleges and universities should consider designing workshops, programs, and seminars to address the needs of students based on their sex, GRI, and student type.
Vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism and cardiovascular risk variables in elderly Polish subjects

The aim of this work was to evaluate whether the FokI and BsmI polymorphisms of the VDR gene are associated with anthropometric and biochemical features of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a Caucasian population aged over 65, participants of the Polish PolSenior study. We performed the study on randomly selected subjects: 427 women and 454 men aged over 65. Measurements of anthropometric parameters were carried out and biochemical parameters were estimated using commercial kits. VDR polymorphisms (rs10735810, rs1544410) were genotyped by PCR and FRLP. The prevalence of BsmI genotypes was 50% Bb, 23% bb, 27% BB in women and 48% Bb, 20% bb, 32% BB in men. The prevalence of FokI was 48% Ff, 22% ff, 30% FF in women and 50% Ff, 18% ff, 32% FF in men. The women bearing the rare allele b differ in homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) (p < 0.049) from women bearing common allele B, and the men differ in insulin level (p < 0.047) and HOMA (p < 0.017). There were no significant differences in anthropometric or biochemical parameters between genotypes in FokI in female and male groups. The common allele B is connected with biochemical risk factors of CVD in older Caucasian men and women.
Access of over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy products to minors.

BACKGROUND Public health policy guidelines recommend that health care providers (eg, physicians, nurses, others) counsel adolescent smokers to quit and that nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) may be considered to aid in smoking cessation for nicotine-dependent youth. This recommendation is discrepant with Food and Drug Administration-approved labeling of NRT products, stating that they not be sold to persons younger than 18 years. It is not clear how easily minors are able to purchase NRT products in retail markets. OBJECTIVE To explore youth access to NRT by conducting the first study, to our knowledge, to determine the ability of minors to purchase over-the-counter NRT products. DESIGN Observational case series of NRT purchase attempts and survey description of store characteristics. SETTING Retail businesses in Memphis, Tenn. PARTICIPANTS Population-based sample of 165 stores that sold over-the-counter medications. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Successfully completed purchase attempts of NRT by the minor buyer. RESULTS In most stores that stocked NRT products, the age of the minor was not queried at any time during the purchase attempt (79%) and the minor was able to successfully purchase the product (81%). If the minor was asked her age, the store was much less likely to sell the NRT product. Stores in which a cash register gave an age query prompt or in which alcohol was sold were more likely to inquire about the minor's age and less likely to sell NRT products. CONCLUSIONS Nicotine replacement therapy products were successfully obtained in most purchases by a minor buyer without proof of age. While ease of purchasing NRT products is potentially beneficial to young smokers attempting to quit, these purchases are discrepant with Food and Drug Administration labeling regarding the sale of NRT products to minors.
Identification of Parkinson's disease by using multichannel Vertical Ground Reaction Force signals

In this paper, we analyze Vertical Ground Reaction Force (VGRF) signals recorded from normal subjects as well as from subjects attained with Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study is to identify abnormal gait patterns in order to detect patients who are potentially attained with PD. This is done by extracting various significant features from sensors located at 16 different positions on the right and left foot. Finally, extracted features are used to classify between health control and PD subjects and predict the Parkinson phase. Results have shown that extracting parameters based on the summation of sensors output of each foot may hide the conveyed information of VGRF signals. Moreover, frequency-related features are able to classify between PD subjects with different Hoehn and Yahr stages. Finally, results have revealed the importance of power distribution in VGRF signals that vary with PD stages.
The SH3 Domain of Amphiphysin Binds the Proline-rich Domain of Dynamin at a Single Site That Defines a New SH3 Binding Consensus Sequence*

Amphiphysin is an SH3 domain-containing neuronal protein that is highly concentrated in nerve terminals where it interacts via its SH3 domain with dynamin I, a GTPase implicated in synaptic vesicle endocytosis. We show here that the SH3 domain of amphiphysin, but not a mutant SH3 domain, bound with high affinity to a single site in the long proline-rich region of human dynamin I, that this site was distinct from the binding sites for other SH3 domains, and that the mutation of two adjacent amino acids in dynamin I was sufficient to abolish binding. The dynamin I sequence critically required for amphiphysin binding (PSRPNR) fits in the novel SH3 binding consensus identified for the SH3 domain of amphiphysin via a combinatorial peptide library approach: PXRPXR(H)R(H). Our data demonstrate that the long proline-rich stretch present in dynamin I contained multiple SH3 domain binding sites that recognize interacting proteins with high specificity.
Limitation in Use of Heterologous Reporter Genes for Gene Promoter Analysis

Various heterologous reporter genes have been widely used for the functional characterization of gene promoters. Many such studies often found weak to very strong silencer activities to be associated with specific parts of the basal promoter or further upstream regions. In this study, we carried out a systematic study on human blood coagulation factor IX (hFIX) and anti-coagulant protein C (hPC) genes, previously shown to have silencer activities associated with their 5′-flanking regions containing promoter sequences. With newly constructed chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter vectors carrying hFIXor hPC gene promoter sequences, we confirmed the strong silencer activities associated with the regions nt −1895 through nt −416 of the hFIX gene or with the region nt −802 through nt −82 of the hPC gene. However, no such silencer activities associated with the specific regions were found when autologous hFIX cDNA, hFIX minigenes, orhPC minigenes were used as reporters in the expression vector system. Relative levels of CAT, hFIX, and hPC proteins produced in the transient assays correlated well with their mRNA levels. Human FIX minigene constructs containing a simian virus 40 (SV40) 3′-untranslated region (UTR) taken from the CAT reporter gene showed no silencer activity, indicating that SV40 3′-UTR sequence of the CAT reporter gene does not contribute to the silencer activity. Expression vectors constructed with the β-galactosidase gene under the control of hFIX gene promoter sequences also showed no silencer activity associated with the region nt −1895 through nt −416. These findings indicate that silencer activities associated with specific regions of promoter sequences as analyzed with CAT reporter genes may represent artifacts specific to the CAT reporter genes. Our findings strongly suggest a need for re-examination of promoter characterizations of many eukaryotic genes, which have been studied to date with CAT reporter genes.
Kinetic studies of adenosine kinase from L1210 cells: a model enzyme with a two-site ping-pong mechanism.

Purified adenosine kinase from L1210 cells displayed substrate inhibition by high concentrations of adenosine (Ado), ATP, and MgCl2. When incubated with ATP and MgCl2, the enzyme was phosphorylated, and the phosphorylated kinase transferred phosphate to adenosine in the absence of ATP and MgCl2. Substrate binding, isotope exchange, and kinetic studies suggested that the enzyme catalyzes the reaction by means of a two-site ping-pong mechanism with the phosphorylated enzyme as an obligatory intermediate. Among many possible pathways within this mechanism probably a random-bi ordered-bi route is the preferred sequence in which the two substrates, adenosine and MgATP, bind in a random order to form the ternary complex MgATP . E . Ado followed by the sequential dissociation of MgADP and AMP. Dissociation constants of various enzyme-substrate and enzyme-product complexes and the first-order rate constant of the rate-limiting step were estimated.
Low cost tangible glove for translating sign gestures to speech and text in Hindi language

Vocal Communication is a way to convey our thoughts, messages and information. However, each of us is not gifted to be able to share our thoughts in verbal mode with others due to some physical disabilities. The deaf and the mute are the one who face extreme difficulty in conveying their messages to others. Normally deaf and the mute people use sign language for communication but it turns out to be a difficult when others are not able to understand the sign language. A number of devices are available that converts the human gestures to English speech and text but no such device is available for Hindi Language. Hindi is the most spoken and National language in India and is widely used in the country. Keeping a pace with advent of technology there is a desperate need of cost effective devices which could convert the sign language into speech/text in Hindi to establish an independent communication and movement for deaf and mute people in every sphere of society. In this paper, we propose a tangible interface using a customized glove equipped with flex sensors. These sensors are placed across the length of fingers and the thumb. Hand gestures can be captured by the digital glove which are then converted to speech/text so that it could easily be understood by the common people. The experiments conducted with the design prototype have shown significant interaction improvements among the society and deaf-mute people. The experiments on modeling and improving the prototype is going on to improvise the interaction specially for mobile devices.
Tur\'an type inequalities for general Bessel functions

In this paper some Tur\'an type inequalities for the general Bessel function, monotonicity and bounds for its logarithmic derivative are derived. Moreover we find the series representation and the relative extrema of the Tur\'anian of general Bessel functions. The key tools in the proofs are the recurrence relations together with some asymptotic relations for Bessel functions.
Institutional Repository Cross domain knowledge verification : verifying knowledge in foundation based domain ontologies

Knowledge verification refers to the process of making sure that the knowledge shared between knowledge bases of two parties is correctly understood on both sides. Domain ontologies developed out of a foundation ontology have a potential to improve the knowledge verification methods. This can be done by following concepts in domain ontologies to their origin and constituent conceptualisations in the foundation ontology. This is possible when matching ontologies belonging to two different domains but developed out of a single foundation ontology. Along with the concepts, a prescribed way of using these concepts by domain ontology builders also needs to be included in the foundation ontology. This prescribed way can exist in the form of an ontology of constraints which governs and shapes the building of domain ontologies according to the needs of the verification system and thus makes them more interoperable.
Stability of difference approximations of dissipative type for mixed initial-boundary value problems. I

with A a diagonal matrix. Appropriate boundary and initial conditions are given. The amplification matrix Q(t) need not be diagonal. However, he required that IQ() I < 1. We use certain results in matrix theory and Wiener-Hopf factorization to replace this restrictive assumption by certain reasonable assumptions on accuracy of W(t) and smoothness of an associated positive-definite symmetric matrix. This technique will be important in half-space problems in many space variables since for such problems the amplification matrix will certainly not be diagonal. M
Mobile phones & behavioral modalities: Surveying users' practices

Mobile phones are one of the most popular means of access to the internet. Users, via the telephone, connect to different services such as: Google, social networks, work accounts, banks accounts, etc. Those services, are many times, left open in their device. This enables risks, such as, loss or/and the violation of their personal data. In addition, in case of device theft after login, full access to sensitive data and applications may be fully granted. The purpose of this research is to analyze the most salient patterns characterizing user practices regarding certain behavioral modalities including: the way of using the various applications, power consumption, touch gestures and guest users' habits. To this end, we used an original questionnaire, created for the needs of the specific survey, to examine whether we can find some trends among the users. This can give us a qualitative information, for the different behaviors / "characters" of users, in order to be used in further research regarding User's Continuous Authentication.
The impact of medical errors on ninety-day costs and outcomes: an examination of surgical patients.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the effect of medical errors on medical expenditures, death, readmissions, and outpatient care within 90 days after surgery. DATA SOURCES 2001-2002 MarketScan insurance claims for 5.6 million enrollees. STUDY DESIGN The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) were used to identify 14 PSIs among 161,004 surgeries. We used propensity score matching and multivariate regression analyses to predict expenditures and outcomes attributable to the 14 PSIs. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Excess 90-day expenditures likely attributable to PSIs ranged from $646 for technical problems (accidental laceration, pneumothorax, etc.) to $28,218 for acute respiratory failure, with up to 20 percent of these costs incurred postdischarge. With a third of all 90-day deaths occurring postdischarge, the excess death rate associated with PSIs ranged from 0 to 7 percent. The excess 90-day readmission rate associated with PSIs ranged from 0 to 8 percent. Overall, 11 percent of all deaths, 2 percent of readmissions, and 2 percent of expenditures were likely due to these 14 PSIs. CONCLUSIONS The effects of medical errors continue long after the patient leaves the hospital. Medical error studies that focus only on the inpatient stay can underestimate the impact of patient safety events by up to 20-30 percent.
Sources of DNA for detecting B cell monoclonality using PCR.

AIMS--To evaluate the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) demonstration of clonal immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangements using routinely prepared, unstained, and stained formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded tissue samples. METHODS--Extracts from (a) fresh frozen tissue samples, (b) unstained, and (c) haematoxylin and eosin stained formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded 5 microns tissue sections from 42 cases of low grade B cell lymphoma, all shown to be monoclonal by Southern blot analysis, were analysed using PCR. Two regions of the variable segment of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene were amplified (framework 2 to joining region [Fr2/JH] and framework 3 to joining region [Fr3/JH]). Twelve samples of reactive lymphoid tissue were studied as controls. Products from each case were directly compared on polyacrylamide gels. RESULTS--Using both primer combinations, monoclonality was detected in 38 of 42 (90%) cases using fresh material, 37 of 42 (88%) using unstained paraffin wax embedded samples, and in 35 of 42 (83%) cases using haematoxylin and eosin stained sections. No false positive results attributable to fixation, processing, or staining were identified, although the efficiency of amplification using the Fr2/JH primers was significantly reduced. CONCLUSIONS--PCR determination of B cell clonality using paraffin wax embedded material is sufficiently sensitive and reliable for use as a routine diagnostic adjunct to conventional morphological and immunocytochemical assessment of lymphoproliferative disease.
Validation of PCA and LDA for SAR ATR

Both principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) have long been recognized as tools for feature extraction and data analysis. There has been reports in the open literature regarding the performance of both LDA and PCA as feature extractors in various types of classification and recognition problems. Many of the reports claim a better performance with LDA than with PCA. However, the grounds of comparison have mostly been quite narrow. In the current paper PCA and LDA based classifiers are evaluated for the problem of synthetic aperture radar based automatic target recognition problem. The results show that in terms of absolute performance, PCA outperforms LDA. Results of PCA based classifier are also found to be of higher confidence than those from LDA based classifiers, as observed from the error-bar analysis of the classifiers.With decreased amount of training dataset, the degradation in the performance of the classifiers are almost similar in nature. The current work concludes that LDA is not suitable for radar image based target recognition task. This is in line with reports from some works in the open literature which claim that the success of LDA will depend on the type of data and whether there is exhaustive data available during the training phase or not.
The Capital Gains Tax: A Curse but Also a Blessing for Venture Capital Investment

Our study analyzes the effect of the capital gains tax on the individual investment decisions of venture capitalists. By doing so, we are able to study the decisions for a sample of 61,558 funding rounds in 32 countries from 2000 to 2012. Our results support the predictions of the theoretical model that higher capital gains tax rates are associated with fewer start‐ups financed and a lower probability of receiving follow‐up funding. However, the results concerning the effect on the probability of success of start‐ups show that a higher tax burden is associated with a higher probability of eventual start‐up success.