Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simulating sustainability: a resources perspective

A global population–economy–resource model explores the future impact of declining resource availability on the world economy. The model tracks the likely future consumption of renewable resources, fossil fuels and non-renewable materials and the economic impact of availability. Scarcity will likely become evident during the latter part of this century and constrain economic production, reducing income per capita, living standards and ultimately population. Policy interventions involving a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, reduced resource intensity and materials recycling are necessary to correct this trajectory and facilitate ongoing improvements in global average living standards.
MRI can detect nigral volume loss in patients with Parkinson's disease: evidence from a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Parkinson's disease (PD) involves the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra (SN) compacta. However, it is still a contentious issue whether magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can detect the nigral volume loss in PD patients. OBJECTIVE We synthesized the results of published research on SN volumetry using a meta-analysis method in order to clarify this issue. METHODS A comprehensive literature search yielded 8 eligible studies. Nigral size was expressed as the standardized mean difference (SMD) between normal controls and PD patients. In addition, subgroup analysis was performed in order to identify the best condition for nigral volumetry. The proportion of variation due to heterogeneity was computed and expressed as I2. RESULTS Eight studies involved 172 normal control and 193 PD patients. The overall effect indicated that nigral volume in PD was significantly smaller than normal controls with homogeneous studies (SMD = -0.65, P < 0.0001; I2 = 47%). Maximum of subgroup effect was observed in 'volumetry' among three approaches ('thickness': SMD = -0.35, P = 0.18, I2 = not available; 'area': SMD = -0.39, P = 0.14, I2 = 0%; 'volumetry': SMD = -0.82, P = 0.0006, I2 = 56%). The approach including T1-weighted images (T1WI) showed larger effect ('with T1WI': SMD = -1.11, P < 0.00001, I2 = 36%; 'without T1WI': SMD = -0.32, P = 0.04, I2 = 0%). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that volumetry based on T1WI could be the most sensitive option to identify nigral volume loss in PD patients.
What is the Correct Level of National Investment in Climate Science

Society (and climate science) views past climate change through two sets of "fuzzy" lenses. The first is natural variability in the climate system which acts as noise to confuse early signals of anthropogenic climate change. The second is uncertainty in our observations of climate change, including drifting calibration of instruments or orbit sampling uncertainties. Figure 2 below shows an example of these uncertainties for observing one of the critical measures of climate sensitivity: changes in the amount of global mean solar energy reflected back to space by clouds as climate changes.
Functional suppression of sodium channels by beta(1)-subunits as a molecular mechanism of idiopathic ventricular fibrillation.

Ventricular fibrillation leading to sudden cardiac death can occur even in the absence of structural heart disease. One form of this so-called idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF) is characterized by ST segment elevation (STE) in the electrocardiogram. Recently we found that IVF with STE is linked to mutations of SCN5A, the gene encoding the cardiac sodium channel alpha -subunit. Two types of defects were identified: loss-of-function mutations that severely truncate channel proteins and missense mutations (e.g. a double mutation, R1232W and T1620M) that cause only minor changes in channel gating. Here we show that co-expression of the R1232W+T1620M missense mutant alpha -subunits in a mammalian cell line stably transfected with human sodium channel beta(1)-subunits results in a phenotype similar to that of the truncation mutants. In the presence of beta(1)subunits the expression of both ionic currents and alpha -subunit-specific, immunoreactive protein was markedly suppressed after transfection of mutant, but not wild-type alpha -subunits when cells were incubated at physiological temperature. Expression was partially restored by incubation at reduced temperatures. Our results reconcile two classes of IVF mutations and support the notion that a reduction in the amplitude of voltage-gated sodium conductance is the primary cause of IVF.
Metal templated design of protein interfaces

Metal coordination is a key structural and functional component of a large fraction of proteins. Given this dual role we considered the possibility that metal coordination may have played a templating role in the early evolution of protein folds and complexes. We describe here a rational design approach, Metal Templated Interface Redesign (MeTIR), that mimics the time course of a hypothetical evolutionary pathway for the formation of stable protein assemblies through an initial metal coordination event. Using a folded monomeric protein, cytochrome cb562, as a building block we show that its non-self-associating surface can be made self-associating through a minimal number of mutations that enable Zn coordination. The protein interfaces in the resulting Zn-directed, D2-symmetrical tetramer are subsequently redesigned, yielding unique protein architectures that self-assemble in the presence or absence of metals. Aside from its evolutionary implications, MeTIR provides a route to engineer de novo protein interfaces and metal coordination environments that can be tuned through the extensive noncovalent bonding interactions in these interfaces.
Production Planning and WIP Assignment for Wafer Fabrication Tools With Availability Constraints

This paper deals with a short-term production plan of a single toolset during a shift at a semiconductor fabrication plant. We propose a cost-based optimization model that seeks to minimize the cost of the shift while meeting the following conditions: 1) the shift produces its required output, measured in work-in-process (WIP) levels; 2) preventive maintenance (PM) tasks are carried out in compliance with the manufacturer's recommended PM policy; and 3) the equipment undergoes cleaning operations, as recommended by the manufacturer, in a way that minimizes the production of blank wafers (a by-product of the cleaning process). A linear programming model is formulated and a practical procedure is provided to solve this production plan problem. Data from a real fab are used to demonstrate the optimality and applicability of the proposed approach. Results of various sensitivity analyzes further demonstrate how the model can be used to analyze the impact of changes in cost parameters, WIP levels and production rate parameters on the optimal solution.
Compact bandstop filters using coupled lines and open/short stubs with multiple transmission poles

A compact bandstop filter (BSF) using parallel-coupled lines and open stubs with four transmission poles (TPs) is proposed. Through theoretical equation deduction, the positions of these four TPs can be obtained. Good roll-off skirts and stopband suppression characteristics of the BSF can be realised with the help of multiple TPs. To improve transition band roll-off rates, another BSF with five TPs is designed, where a short-circuited T-stub is loaded on the middle of the above BSF circuit structure. For demonstration, two filter examples with centre frequencies at 2 and 1.8 GHz are implemented with generation of four and five TPs, respectively, for theoretically calculated certification. Good agreement between simulated and measured results validates the design method.
Indexing Design Considerations

This paper deals with the structure and use of indexes that facuitate the retrieval and storage of records based on a specific value, value range, or value sequence of a given field of a record within one or more data sets. Specifically, it examines general index structures, maintenance, index entry compression, and complex indexes as considered in the basic design of VSAM (Virtual Storage Access Method). Under complex indexes, indirect secondary indexes and indexes to multiple data sets are considered.
Comparative research

The teaching of research methods has been at the core of public administration education for almost 30 years. But since 1990, this journal has published only two articles on the teaching of research methods. Given the increasing emphasis on data driven decision-making, greater insight is needed into the best practices for teaching public administration research methods. This research note attempts to build on these previous articles to offer a new approach to the teaching of undergraduate research methods within a department of political science and public administration. The approach combines traditional approaches to experiential education with a focus on comparison among different methodological tools. Grounded in both learning theory and developmental psychology, the article outlines a research method assignment that encourages comparison and uses focus groups and pre-/post-tests of substantive knowledge to demonstrate learning. Implications and advice for teaching are provided.
Neuroprotection by melatonin from glutamate‐induced excitotoxicity during development of the cerebellum in the chick embryo

This work investigated the ability of melatonin to prevent cell damage in the cerebellar cortex of chick embryo caused by glutamate administration. Cell injury was evaluated estimating, at ultrastructural level, the phenomenon of cell death and the synaptogenesis of the Purkinje cells and the cerebellar glomerular synaptic complex. Administration of glutamate during cerebellar development of the chick provokes excitotoxic neuronal degeneration characterized by a phenomenon of neuronal cell death that exhibits essentially the features of a death pattern described as necrosis and the deletion of synaptogenic processes. Our results show that melatonin has a neuroprotective effect against glutamate‐induced excitotoxicity. This effect is morphologically revealed by the lack of neural cell death in the embryos treated with melatonin prior to glutamate injection and also by the degree of a synaptogenesis similar to that exhibited by the control group. Likewise, we corroborate the absence of teratological effects of melatonin on chick cerebellar development. Although the possible mechanisms involved in the neuroprotective effect of melatonin are discussed, i.e., direct antioxidant effects, up‐regulating endogenous antioxidant defenses, and inhibiting nitric oxide formation activated by glutamate, further studies are required to establish the actual mechanism involved in the neuroprotective effect of melatonin.
Enzymatic and Structural Similarities between theEscherichia coli ATP-dependent Proteases, ClpXP and ClpAP*

Escherichia coli ClpX, a member of the Clp family of ATPases, has ATP-dependent chaperone activity and is required for specific ATP-dependent proteolytic activities expressed by ClpP. Gel filtration and electron microscopy showed that ClpX subunits (M r46,000) associate to form a six-membered ring (M r ∼ 280,000) that is stabilized by binding of ATP or nonhydrolyzable analogs of ATP. ClpP, which is composed of two seven-membered rings stacked face-to-face, interacts with the nucleotide-stabilized hexamer of ClpX to form a complex that could be isolated by gel filtration. Electron micrographs of negatively stained ClpXP preparations showed side views of 1:1 and 2:1 ClpXP complexes in which ClpP was flanked on either one or both sides by a ring of ClpX. Thus, as was seen for ClpAP, a symmetry mismatch exists in the bonding interactions between the seven-membered rings of ClpP and the six-membered rings of ClpX. Competition studies showed that ClpA may have a slightly higher affinity (∼2-fold) for binding to ClpP. Mixed complexes of ClpA, ClpX, and ClpP with the two ATPases bound simultaneously to opposite faces of a single ClpP molecule were seen by electron microscopy. In the presence of ATP or nonhydrolyzable analogs of ATP, ClpXP had nearly the same activity as ClpAP against oligopeptide substrates (>10,000 min−1/tetradecamer of ClpP). Thus, ClpX and ClpA interactions with ClpP result in structurally analogous complexes and induce similar conformational changes that affect the accessibility and the catalytic efficiency of ClpP active sites.
Risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transmission in a Low-Incidence Country Due to Immigration from High-Incidence Areas

ABSTRACT Does immigration from a high-prevalence area contribute to an increased risk of tuberculosis in a low-incidence country? The tuberculosis incidence in Somalia is among the highest ever registered. Due to civil war and starvation, nearly half of all Somalis have been forced from their homes, causing significant migration to low-incidence countries. In Denmark, two-thirds of all tuberculosis patients are immigrants, half from Somalia. To determine the magnitude ofMycobacterium tuberculosis transmission between Somalis and Danes, we analyzed DNA fingerprint patterns of isolates collected in Denmark from 1992 to 1999, comprising >97% of all culture-positive patients (n = 3,320). Of these, 763 were Somalian immigrants, 55.2% of whom shared identical DNA fingerprint patterns; 74.9% of these were most likely infected before their arrival in Denmark, 23.3% were most likely infected in Denmark by other Somalis, and 1.8% were most likely infected by Danes. In the same period, only 0.9% of all Danish tuberculosis patients were most likely infected by Somalis. The Somalian immigrants in Denmark could be distributed into 35 different clusters with possible active transmission, of which 18 were retrieved among Somalis in the Netherlands. This indicated the existence of some internationally predominant Somalian strains causing clustering less likely to represent recent transmission. In conclusion, M. tuberculosis transmission among Somalis in Denmark is limited, and transmission between Somalis and Danes is nearly nonexistent. The higher transmission rates between nationalities found in the Netherlands do not apply to the situation in Denmark and not necessarily elsewhere, since many different factors may influence the magnitude of active transmission.
Ant colony based hybrid optimization for data clustering

Purpose – A new algorithm based on ant colony optimization (ACO) for data clustering has been developed.Design/methodology/approach – ACO technique along with simulated annealing, tournament selection (GA), Tabu search and density distribution are used to solve unsupervised clustering problem for making similar groups from arbitrarily entered large data.Findings – Distinctive clusters of similar data are formed metaheuritically from arbitrarily entered mixed data based on similar attributes of data.Research limitations/implications – The authors have run a computer program for a number of cases related to data clustering. So far, there are no problems in convergence of results for formation of distinctive similar groups with given data set quickly and accurately.Practical implications – ACO‐based method developed here can be applied to practical industrial problems for mobile robotic navigation other than data clustering and travelling salesman.Originality/value – This paper will enable the solving of pro.
Power-aware task scheduling for big.LITTLE mobile processor

The heterogeneous multiprocessor architecture is more energy-efficient than homogeneous multiprocessor architecture. It can be possible, however, when the operating system schedules tasks to appropriate processors based on their architectural properties. In mobile world, ARM revealed their big.LITTLE architecture to satisfy two conflicting requirements: the powerful performance and the energy-efficient processing. Heterogeneous Multi Processing for big.LITTLE processor works by assigning each task by its nature. If a task consumes proportionally high CPU resource rather than others, then HMP scheduler assigns this task to big core, and in opposite case, HMP scheduler assigns to LITTLE core. By observing each task during runtime, if a task's characteristic is changed, HMP scheduler will move the task to the opposite core. Some power saving techniques like, DVFS (Dynamic Voltage & Frequency Scaling), Dynamic hot plug, change the performance of system to fit in current required performance level. So, the CPU frequency and the number of online cores can be changed during runtime. If HMP scheduler assigns a task to big core without this power information which is changed by these power saving techniques, HMP scheduler would use big core involuntary. In this paper, we evaluate a power-aware task scheduling for the big.LITTLE mobile processor and demonstrate power awareness in task scheduler consumes less power still staying on same performance in mobile processor. And we list up some possible power information that can improve HPM scheduler for further works.
TWITTER AS A REPORTING TOOL FOR BREAKING NEWS

This study focuses on journalists Paul Lewis (The Guardian) and Ravi Somaiya (The New York Times), the most frequently mentioned national and international journalists on Twitter during the 2011 UK summer riots. Both actively tweeted throughout the four-day riot period and this article highlights how they used Twitter as a reporting tool. It discusses a series of Twitter conventions in detail, including the use of links, the taking and sharing of images, the sharing of mainstream media content and the use of hashtags. The article offers an in-depth overview of methods for studying Twitter, reflecting critically on commonly used data collection strategies, offering possible alternatives as well as highlighting the possibilities for combining different methodological approaches. Finally, the article makes a series of suggestions for further research into the use of Twitter by professional journalists.
Towards a predictive test of adjustment to shift work.

A questionnaire was developed to distinguish between people who differed in the degree to which their circadian rhythms adjusted to night work. This was administered to 48 ‘ permanent ’ night nurses taking part in a large shift work study. Factor analyses indicated that there were three main factors. These were (I) rigidity/flexibility of sleeping habits, (ii) ability/inability to overcome drowsiness, and (iii) morningness/eveningness. Correlations were computed between the nurses'scores on each of these factors and a range of measures of adjustment of circadian rhythm. A number of significant correlations were found with both psychological and physiological measures, thus indicating that the factors had at least concurrent validity. It is concluded that it may prove feasible to develop a questionnaire that would predict the degree to which people's rhythms would adjust to shift work, and that flexibility of sleeping habits and the ability to overcome drowsiness should be components of such a questionnaire.
New method for decoupling the articular stiffness identification: Application to an industrial robot with double encoding system on its 3 first axis

In order to be able to perform complex and arduous tasks, stiffness articular identification of industrial robots is a current approach to predict the deflection under static or dynamic loading. Manufacturers propose new features to take the loading into account and a new generation of industrial robot equiped with double encoding systems are proposed. However, current methods brings some drawbacks when the ratio between the stiffness arm and the wrist one is too high. In this paper, we propose a new approach to take this aspect into account by decoupling the arm identification and the wrist one. We compare then our method regarding two current methods and applied it on this new industrial robot. The results highligh the stability and the quality of the stiffness articular estimation with and without activating the double encoding system. On our data, we are able to take into account 84% of the global deflection.
ADDED VALUES OF SOCIAL CRM: THE EXAMINATION OF CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE

Background: Social media allow companies to create more "friendly" and personal interaction with their customers on an individual basis affecting the relationship development. Generally, people have more confidence in their friends’ recommendations. On the other hand, companies prefer this type of direct and targeted communication considering its reasonably lower costs, greater ability to target specific categories of visitors, the speed of response, etc. Objectives This paper aims to investigate the characteristics and benefits of using Social Customer Relationship Management (or abbreviated SCRM) for developing relations that many customers nowadays perceive as the most valuable component of the business offer. Methods/Approach The most important characteristics of SCRM were examined using factor analysis and logistic regression in order to explore how respondents’ gender and variables with highest weight from each factor re -late to customers’ choice of social media-based interaction. Sampling technique was applied via an online questionnaire containing four sections of questions with a link posted to ensure a greater response rate for analysis. Results This study indicates that the most significant added values of SCRM compared to traditional CRM, of often called classic CRM, are: customers’ mutual collaboration and interactions, customers’ engagement and interactions with company, available and flexible interaction, and customers’ involvement. The final logistic model indicates that two variables were statistically significant for the probability of making decision on further interaction. Conclusions Paper provides some important practical contributions, offering managers a framework of important factors that need to be considered when planning and implementing their CRM strategies. Precisely, they can establish and adjust their social-media based inter -action in line with identified added values from customer perspective.
Scheduling and memory optimizations for sparse direct solver on multi-core/multi-gpu duster systems. (Ordonnancement et optimisations mémoire pour un solveur creux par méthodes directes sur des machines hétérogènes)

The ongoing hardware evolution exhibits an escalation in the number, as well as in the heterogeneity, of computing resources. The pressure to maintain reasonable levels of performance and portability forces application developers to leave the traditional programming paradigms and explore alternative solutions. PaStiX is a parallel sparse direct solver, based on a dynamic scheduler for modern hierarchical manycore architectures. In this thesis, we study the benefits and the limits of replacing the highly specialized internal scheduler of the PaStiX solver by two generic runtime systems: PaRSEC and StarPU. Thus, we have to describe the factorization algorithm as a tasks graph that we provide to the runtime system. Then it can decide how to process and optimize the graph traversal in order to maximize the algorithm efficiency for thetargeted hardware platform. A comparative study of the performance of the PaStiX solver on top of its original internal scheduler, PaRSEC, and StarPU frameworks is performed. The analysis highlights that these generic task-based runtimes achieve comparable results to the application-optimized embedded scheduler on homogeneous platforms. Furthermore, they are able to significantly speed up the solver on heterogeneous environments by taking advantage of the accelerators while hiding the complexity of their efficient manipulation from the programmer. In this thesis, we also study the possibilities to build a distributed sparse linear solver on top of task-based runtime systems to target heterogeneous clusters. To permit an efficient and easy usage of these developments in parallel simulations, we also present an optimized distributed interfaceaiming at hiding the complexity of the construction of a distributed matrix to the user.