Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linear matrix inequality based dynamic output feedback sliding mode control for uncertain plants

The development of a synthesis methodology to design compensator-based sliding mode output feedback controllers using linear matrix inequalities is considered in this paper. The class of dynamical system dealt with belongs to the class of uncertain plants with matched, and mismatched uncertainties in polytopic form. The efficacy of the proposed design methodology is demonstrated by a numerical design and computer simulations.
[Modern bacterial taxonomy: techniques review--application to bacteria that nodulate leguminous plants (BNL)].

Taxonomy is the science that studies the relationships between organisms. It comprises classification, nomenclature, and identification. Modern bacterial taxonomy is polyphasic. This means that it is based on several molecular techniques, each one retrieving the information at different cellular levels (proteins, fatty acids, DNA.). The obtained results are combined and analysed to reach a "consensus taxonomy" of a microorganism. Until 1970, a small number of classification techniques were available for microbiologists (mainly phenotypic characterization was performed: a legume species nodulation ability for a Rhizobium, for example). With the development of techniques based on polymerase chain reaction for characterization, the bacterial taxonomy has undergone great changes. In particular, the classification of the legume nodulating bacteria has been repeatedly modified over the last 20 years. We present here a review of the currently used molecular techniques in bacterial characterization, with examples of application of these techniques for the study of the legume nodulating bacteria.
Reduction of the Clipping Noise for OFDM/OQAM System

Orthogonal frequency division multiplex/offset QAM (OFDM/OQAM) has been proven to be a promising multi-carrier modulation (MCM) technique for the transmission of signals over multipath fading channels. However, OFDM/OQAM has also the intrinsic disadvantage of high peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) that should be alleviated. This paper focuses on the reduction of the clipping noise and out-of band radiation caused by the clipping process. The basic principle is to estimate the clipping noise and then eliminate it from the received signal. Analysis and simulation results show that, with one time iteration, the proposed method can effectively improve the bit error ratio (BER) performance.
Risk Preference and Sequential Choice in Evolutionary Games

There is much empirical evidence that human decision-making under risk does not coincide with expected value maximization, and much effort has been invested into the development of descriptive theories of human decision-making involving risk (e.g. Prospect Theory). An open question is how behavior corresponding to these descriptive models could have been learned or arisen evolutionarily, as the described behavior differs from expected value maximization. We believe that the answer to this question lies, at least in part, in the interplay between risk-taking, sequentiality of choice, and population dynamics in evolutionary environments. In this paper, we provide the results of several evolutionary game simulations designed to study the risk behavior of agents in evolutionary environments. These include several evolutionary lottery games where sequential decisions are made between risky and safe choices, and an evolutionary version of the well-known stag hunt game. Our results show how agents that are sometimes risk-prone and sometimes risk-averse can outperform agents that make decisions solely based on the maximization of the local expected values of the outcomes, and how this can facilitate the evolution of cooperation in situations where cooperation entails risk.
Determination of Paraoxonase 1 Status and Genotypes at Specific Polymorphic Sites

The procedures for determining paraoxonase (PON1) status and for determining PON1 genotypes for polymorphisms in coding and important regulatory regions are described. PON1 status is determined by a functional two‐substrate analysis of plasma PON1 activities. Differences in catalytic efficiency of the PON1192Q and PON1192R alloforms result in the clear separation of all three phenotypes at position 192 (Q/Q, Q/R, R/R) and at the same time, the two‐substrate analysis indicates activity levels of PON1. Because the enzyme activity levels are as important as the polymorphic genotypes, this two‐substrate analysis of PON1 status provides the most relevant information for investigating the association of PON1 genetics with susceptibilities to disease, organophosphorus insecticide sensitivity, and pharmacokinetic status of drug metabolism. Genotyping of polymorphic sites alone fails to provide this important information but can be useful for gene frequency determination and forensic analysis. Analytical procedures for determining PON1 status and genotypes are described.
Face detection and tracking in real time sequence of images independent of environment illumination

One of important topics in image processing and machine vision is face detection and tracking. There are problems and difficulties into face detection and tracking scope, for example: change environment illumination, presence glasses and beard on the face. In this paper, one hardware system based on infrared light is designed and implemented to solve these problems. In proposed method after face detection, bright face image (illuminated face image by infrared light) is subtracted from dark face image, and then face tracking is done by following rectangular frame on face. The proposed method regardless solving problems, has benefits such as: simplicity, good performance and accuracy and low computational cost (proper for real time applications). The described system, unlike many existing methods that are laboratorial, has been implemented and tested in a real environment.
Exploring issues influencing the use of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool by nurses in two Australian hospitals.

BACKGROUND Nutrition screening using evidence-based clinical practice is important for identifying patients whose nutritional status may be compromised, so that they receive appropriate treatment. Introduction of the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool ('MUST') in two wards in two Melbourne hospitals resulted in low screening completion rates by nursing staff. Nurses' screening practices were explored to understand personal and workplace barriers to compliance. METHODS Surveys of patients' medical records and focus groups with nurses were used to gather data. Audio-recorded group narratives were transcribed verbatim, and then coded thematically to develop understandings of response patterns. RESULTS A survey of admitted patients (n = 46) showed low screening rates by ward (17% and 62%). Eighteen nurses in two wards participated in three focus groups. The five main themes that emerged were: 'screening role', 'task priorities', 'recognition of evidence-based practice', 'uncertainty of protocols' and 'degree of competence'. Screening completion was limited by workloads, uncertainty about screening policy and also individuals' skill in use of the tool. CONCLUSIONS Application of 'MUST' can be facilitated by increasing nurses' competence through training and by the provision of ongoing support. When implementing nutrition risk screening, dietitians' roles should include continually working with nurses to identify and reduce the barriers that prevent the adoption of universal screening. Enhancement of collaboration is essential to ensure that optimal nutrition care occurs.
Cutoff rate optimal binary inputs with imperfect CSI

We use the cutoff rate to study the optimal binary input distributions for the Rayleigh flat-fading channel with imperfect receiver channel state information (CSI). First, we evaluate the cutoff rate and analyze the optimal binary input as a function of the CSI quality and receiver SNR. Next, we study the limiting distributions - BPSK and on-off keying (OOK) - and derive an analytic design rule that allows adaptive switching between these two as the receiver CSI changes. We establish the virtues of a modulation scheme that employs only these limiting distributions, rather than the full spectrum of binary inputs. Finally, we use our results to design an adaptive modulation scheme for pilot symbol assisted modulation systems. We show that switching between just BPSK and equiprobable-OOK is nearly optimal for moderate to large SNR, and that switching between BPSK and generalized-OOK is nearly optimal for all SNR
LOW METABOLIC RATES IN SALAMANDERS ARE CORRELATED WITH WEAK SELECTIVE CONSTRAINTS ON MITOCHONDRIAL GENES

Mitochondria are the site for the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), the final steps of ATP synthesis via cellular respiration. Each mitochondrion contains its own genome; in vertebrates, this is a small, circular DNA molecule that encodes 13 subunits of the multiprotein OXPHOS electron transport complexes. Vertebrate lineages vary dramatically in metabolic rates; thus, functional constraints on mitochondrial‐encoded proteins likely differ, potentially impacting mitochondrial genome evolution. Here, we examine mitochondrial genome evolution in salamanders, which have the lowest metabolic requirements among tetrapods. We show that salamanders experience weaker purifying selection on protein‐coding sequences than do frogs, a comparable amphibian clade with higher metabolic rates. In contrast, we find no evidence for weaker selection against mitochondrial genome expansion in salamanders. Together, these results suggest that different aspects of mitochondrial genome evolution (i.e., nucleotide substitution, accumulation of noncoding sequences) are differently affected by metabolic variation across tetrapod lineages.
MOSDEN: An Internet of Things Middleware for Resource Constrained Mobile Devices

The Internet of Things (IoT) is part of Future Internet and will comprise many billions of Internet Connected Objects (ICO) or `things' where things can sense, communicate, compute and potentially actuate as well as have intelligence, multi-modal interfaces, physical/ virtual identities and attributes. Collecting data from these objects is an important task as it allows software systems to understand the environment better. Many different hardware devices may involve in the process of collecting and uploading sensor data to the cloud where complex processing can occur. Further, we cannot expect all these objects to be connected to the computers due to technical and economical reasons. Therefore, we should be able to utilize resource constrained devices to collect data from these ICOs. On the other hand, it is critical to process the collected sensor data before sending them to the cloud to make sure the sustainability of the infrastructure due to energy constraints. This requires to move the sensor data processing tasks towards the resource constrained computational devices (e.g. mobile phones). In this paper, we propose Mobile Sensor Data Processing Engine (MOSDEN), an plug-in-based IoT middleware for mobile devices, that allows to collect and process sensor data without programming efforts. Our architecture also supports sensing as a service model. We present the results of the evaluations that demonstrate its suitability towards real world deployments. Our proposed middleware is built on Android platform.
ON THE EFFECT OF ANTENNAS ON UWB SYSTEMS

Ultra-wideband (UWB) communication systems are emerging as the most promising solution for high rate, short range wireless communication, with applications in home networking and high quality multimedia content delivery. This technique is being studied in numerous research projects and is the subject of a standardization work within the IEEE 802.15. 3a task group. UWB systems are characterised by a radio signal whose fractional bandwidth, i.e the ratio between 3-dB bandwidth and center frequency, is greater than 25% and by a very low radiated power ( 41:3dBm/MHz at most, by FCC requirements (1)). UWB systems cover a spectrum of several gigahertz and the transmitted pulses are very short, in the order of a few nanoseconds. For these kind of pulses, antennas act as pulse shaping filters for which the impulse response depends on the direction of arrival (DoA) of the received waveform. During the standardization work in IEEE802.15. 3a, a new UWB channel model was proposed, following the Saleh- Valenzuela cluster model (2) with some modifications (3). The model is parameterised in four scenarios describing different communication situations, e.g., line-of-sight (LOS) or non line-of-sight (NLOS) communication and shadowing effect. A model for the direction of arrival was proposed in (4). Combining these two models, we obtained a description of the channel suitable for including antennas in the system model. The antenna is modeled using a bank of discrete FIR filters with one filter for each direction of arrival. The antenna under study is a UWB monocone antenna designed at ENSTA as reported in (5). The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of antennas in UWB systems on channel estimation and equalisation algorithms. We look at two different system proposals, both using the frequency band between 3:1 and 4:6 GHz. One uses direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS-SS) modulation and the other multiband orthogonal division frequency multiplexing (MB-OFDM). The effect of having non ideal antennas can be seen in higher requirements on the receiver complexity, e.g more complex transceiver algorithms as well as a loss in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The full paper will include antenna and systems models, transceiver algorithms description and commented simulation results for the four channel scenarios using the DS-SS and MB-OFDM systems. From these results we will draw a proposal for a modified design for UWB systems which will account for the antenna imperfections. Keywords - Ultra-wideband, MB-OFDM, DS-SS, Saleh-Valenzuela model, DoA, antenna.
H. pylori receptor MHC class II contributes to the dynamic gastric epithelial apoptotic response.

AIM To investigate the role of MHC class II in the modulation of gastric epithelial cell apoptosis induced by H pylori infection. METHODS After stimulating a human gastric epithelial cell line with bacteria or agonist antibodies specific for MHC class II and CD95, the quantitation of apoptotic and anti-apoptotic events, including caspase activation, BCL-2 activation, and FADD recruitment, was performed with a fluorometric assay, a cytometric bead array, and confocal microscopy, respectively. RESULTS Pretreatment of N87 cells with the anti-MHC class II IgM antibody RFD1 resulted in a reduction in global caspase activation at 24 h of H pylori infection. When caspase 3 activation was specifically measured, crosslinking of MHC class II resulted in a marked reduced caspase activation, while simple ligation of MHC class II did not. Crosslinking of MHC class II also resulted in an increased activation of the anti-apoptosis molecule BCL-2 compared to simple ligation. Confocal microscope analysis demonstrated that the pretreatment of gastric epithelial cells with a crosslinking anti-MHC class II IgM blocked the recruitment of FADD to the cell surface. CONCLUSION The results presented here demonstrate that the ability of MHC class II to modulate gastric epithelial apoptosis is at least partially dependent on its crosslinking. Furthermore, while previous research has demonstrated that MHC class II signaling can be pro-apoptotic during extended ligation, we have shown that the crosslinking of this molecule has anti-apoptotic effects during the earlier time points of H pylori infection. This effect is possibly mediated by the ability of MHC class II to modulate the activation of the pro-apoptotic receptor Fas by blocking the recruitment of the accessory molecule FADD, and this delay in apoptosis induction could allow for prolonged cytokine secretion by H pylori-infected gastric epithelial cells.
Association Optimization in Wi-Fi Networks: Use of an Access-based Fairness

Densification of Wi-Fi networks has led to the possibility for a station to choose between several access points (APs). On the other hand, the densification of APs generates interference, contention and decreases the global throughput as APs have to share a limited number of channels. Optimizing the association step between APs and stations can alleviate this problem and increase the overall throughput and fairness between stations. In this paper, we propose an original solution to this optimization problem based on two contributions. First, we present a mathematical model for the association optimization problem based on a realistic share of the medium between APs and stations and among APs when using the 802.11 DCF (Distributed Coordination Function) mode. Then, we introduce a local search algorithm to solve this problem through a suitable neighborhood structure. This approach has the benefit to be tuned according to the CPU and time constraints of the WLAN controller. Our evaluation, based on simulations, shows that the proposed solution improves the overall throughput and the fairness of the network.
Integrating a Closed World Planner with an Open World Robot: A Case Study

In this paper, we present an integrated planning and robotic architecture that actively directs an agent engaged in an urban search and rescue (USAR) scenario. We describe three salient features that comprise the planning component of this system, namely (1) the ability to plan in a world open with respect to objects, (2) execution monitoring and replanning abilities, and (3) handling soft goals, and detail the interaction of these parts in representing and solving the USAR scenario at hand. We show that though insufficient in an individual capacity, the integration of this trio of features is sufficient to solve the scenario that we present. We test our system with an example problem that involves soft and hard goals, as well as goal deadlines and action costs, and show that the planner is capable of incorporating sensing actions and execution monitoring in order to produce goal-fulfilling plans that maximize the net benefit accrued.
Wavelets for Multi-resolution Analysis of Triangular Surface Meshes

The application of Wavelets to the Multi-resolution Analysis of surfaces provides an elegant, mathematically rigorous framework for the implementation of subdivision surfaces. We present a method similar to [Lou95] for multiresolution analysis of surfaces with subdivision connectivity. However, due to error incurred during surface remeshing (as with [EDD 95, LSS 98]) we find Wavelets an unsuitable technique for feature preservation during surface compression.
Interaction Between MAOA and FOXP2 in Association With Autism and Verbal Communication in a Korean Population

Expression levels of monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), the enzyme that related to monoamine neurotransmitters metabolism such as serotonin, are related to schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder. Forkhead box protein P2 (FOXP2), a transcription factor, is associated with abnormal language development and is expressed in several areas of the central nervous system in response to serotonin. For this reason, we undertook interaction analysis between MAOA and FOXP2 in autism spectrum disorder, including testing the verbal communication score of the childhood autism rating scale. In interaction analysis, the FOXP2-TCGC (rs12531289-rs1350135-rs10230087-rs2061183) diplotype and MAOA-TCG (rs6323-rs1801291-rs3027407) haplotype were significantly associated with autism spectrum disorder in males. However, when the interaction term was omitted, neither MAOA nor FOXP2 was associated with autism spectrum disorder or verbal communication. These results indicate that language and speech ability is affected by an interaction between FOXP2 and MAOA, but not by either gene separately.
Fluorescence detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in human fecal specimens by using monoclonal antibodies

With the discovery that the coccidian parasite Cryptosporidium sp. can cause severe symptoms in humans, implementation of many diagnostic techniques rapidly followed. The infection is self-limiting in patients with normal immune systems but chronic in the immunosuppressed patient. With the eventual development and use of therapeutic agents, it will become very important to find Cryptosporidium sp. , even in low numbers, in fecal specimens. Production of a highly specific and sensitive antibody by use of cloning techniques has provided another diagnostic tool. Formalinized positive human fecal specimens (n = 99) and negative specimens (n = 198), of which 115 contained yeastlike fungi and other organisms, were tested in blind trials by use of a monoclonal antibody. Sensitivity was 100% with 3- to 4+ fluorescence on all cryptosporidial oocysts, both in light and heavy infections. The organisms were round and easily visible (4 to 6 micron), showing apple-green to yellow fluorescence against a dark background free of nonspecific fluorescence. Specificity was also 100% with all 99 positive Cryptosporidium sp. specimens exhibiting fluorescence and all 198 negative specimens showing no fluorescence. All positive and negative specimens were previously confirmed by the hot modified acid-fast technique. However, seven specimens previously considered negative by this acid-fast method were positive by the monoclonal antibody technique. These specimens were confirmed as positive, after extensive examination of additional smears prepared by the modified hot acid-fast method revealed rare organisms, emphasizing the increased sensitivity of the monoclonal antibody technique. Since acid-fast stains do not always consistently stain all oocysts, the increased sensitivity of the monoclonal reagent provides an excellent screening method.
In Vivo and In Vitro Antiarrhythmic Effects of SSR149744C in Animal Models of Atrial Fibrillation and Ventricular Arrhythmias

SSR149744C (2-butyl-3-{4-[3-(dibutylamino)propyl]benzoyl}-1-benzofuran-5-carboxylate isopropyl fumarate) is a new noniodinated benzofuran derivative structurally related to amiodarone and dronedarone that is currently undergoing clinical trials as an antiarrhythmic agent. As SSR149744C exhibits electrophysiological and hemodynamic properties of class I, II, III, and IV antiarrhythmic agents, the aim of this study was to evaluate its acute intravenous (IV) or oral (PO) antiarrhythmic activities in in vitro and in vivo animal models of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. In vagally induced atrial fibrillation (AF) in anesthetized dogs, SSR149744C (3 and 10 mg/kg IV) terminated AF in all 7 dogs and prevented reinduction in 4 out of 7 dogs; effective refractory periods of right atrium were dose-dependently and frequency-independently lengthened. In low-K+ medium-induced AF models, SSR149744C (0.1 to 1 μM) prevented AF in isolated guinea pig hearts in a concentration-dependent manner. At the ventricular level, SSR149744C (0.1 to 10 mg/kg IV and 3 to 90 mg/kg PO) prevented reperfusion-induced arrhythmias in anesthetized rats with a dose-effect relationship, and, at doses of 30 to 90 mg/kg PO, it reduced early (0-24 hours) mortality following permanent left coronary artery ligature in conscious rats. The present results show that SSR149744C is an effective antiarrhythmic agent in atrial fibrillation and in ventricular arrhythmias. Like amiodarone and dronedarone, its efficiency in these animal models of arrhythmias is likely be related to its multifactorial mechanism of action.