Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
OnDroad Planner: Building Tourist Plans Using Traveling Social Network Information

One of the key challenges in automated planning is to define the sources of information that will feed the initial state and goals of each planning task. In many domains, the information comes from company's databases. In other applications, the information is harder to obtain and it is usually partial. In this paper, we will describe an application on travel planning, where the initial state and goals will be obtained by crowdsourcing. Travel planning requires the use of plenty Internet-based resources; some of them are related to human generated opinions on all kinds of matters (e.g. hotels, places to visit, restaurants, .). We present the OnDroad planner, a system that creates personalized tourist plans using the human generated information gathered from the minube traveling social network. OnDroad proposes an initial tourist guide according to the recommendation of the users profiles and their contacts. In addition, this guide can be continuously updated with newly generated data.
An Application of Knowledge Management using Intelligent Agents

In this paper we shall outline an approach for using some new technologies to create a knowledge management system that uses both explicit and tacit knowledge to provide a service for a user. The technologies used are Communities of Practice, Web Services and agents. Explicit knowledge will be provided from a Content Repository or from the internet through Web Services and then tacit knowledge held in the minds of the experts shall be provided through Communities of Practice. Intelligent agents shall be used as the software paradigm to implement the system. A user will firstly inspect freely available explicit knowledge held in a Content Repository or retrieved from the internet. He will formulate some preconditions for a service based on this knowledge. The experts will then be queried and asked to apply their tacit knowledge which cannot be codified. Based on their response the service will or will not be performed. This system is to be developed as part of the much larger ICONS knowledge management system as an Intelligent Agent Development Environment (IADE) module. Correspondence address: Kieran Greer, The University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Shore Road, Newtownabbey, Belfast BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland. Telephone: +44 (0) 28 90368209 Email: krc.greer@ulster.ac. uk
L'évaluation des politiques publiques : cadres conceptuel et étude de son utilisation par les décideurs des institutions régionales de santé en France

Contexte : Malgre une volonte affichee traduite dans des textes et procedures, l’evaluation en France n’est que peu integree dans le processus de decision. Pourtant, dans le secteur de la sante confronte a de multiples defis, l’evaluation pourrait etre une approche utile a la determination des choix. L’utilisation de l’evaluation depend d’une pluralite de facteurs, dont les connaissances produites et leur mode de production, les caracteristiques des decideurs et autres utilisateurs et le contexte sociopolitique et institutionnel de l’evaluation. Objectifs : Les objectifs de ce travail sont d’apprecier l’utilisation de l’evaluation dans les politiques de sante, d’identifier les leviers associes a cette utilisation et d’apprecier la capacite de l’evaluation a satisfaire les attentes et favoriser l’utilisation de ses productions. Methode : Une revue de litterature a permis d’enrichir la comprehension du concept d’utilisation, d’identifier les facteurs influents et de faire emerger les problematiques associees. Considerant l’evaluation comme un systeme d’action complexe, un modele base sur une approche systemique a ete construit et mis a l’epreuve a travers quatre etapes d’analyse des evaluations des plans regionaux de sante publique (PRSP) : (1) analyse globale de 16 evaluations ; (2) lien processus/utilisation dans une region ; (3) resultats a court/moyen terme dans 9 regions ; (4) etudes de cas approfondies et analyse multicriteres dans 5 regions. Resultats : Une premiere analyse a eclaire les enjeux du contexte et la contribution des PRSP a la coherence des politiques regionales de sante. L’examen du processus d’evaluation dans une region a montre la relation entre finalites, demarche et utilisations de l’evaluation. L’observation des suites de l’evaluation dans neuf regions a identifie differentes formes d’utilisation et les principaux facteurs intervenant. La dynamique de changement a ete apprehendee dans la globalite des interactions entre le contexte, les acteurs et l’evaluation dans cinq regions. Discussion : Les retombees de l’evaluation sont plus a chercher du cote des savoirs accumules et des evolutions des pratiques que dans des decisions formelles transformant de facon radicale les politiques. Le contexte, la credibilite de l’evaluation, l’engagement et la motivation des acteurs sont des facteurs determinants. Des pistes de recherche sont envisagees en vue d’approfondir les conditions du developpement des capacites et de la culture d’evaluation, elles-memes indispensables a une meilleure exploitation de l’evaluation
AODV-based multipath routing protocol with preferential path selection probabilities

We develop an AODV (Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector)-based Multipath routing protocol with Preferential Path Selection Probabilities (AODVM-PPSP) for a Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET). This protocol introduces a new method, in which an appropriate policy is decided deliberately between the best selection policy and the moderate load balancing policy, providing corresponding preferential path selection probabilities (P i) to each node for selecting a route among the multipath. The best selection policy uses one route and saves backup routes information for fault tolerance. The moderate load balancing policy uses route diversity to balance network load. So the path selection policy is adapted with consideration of the global dynamic network performance. We evaluate our protocol with Omnet simulator and compare the performance with some conventional methods under various network loads. The simulation results show that our proposed protocol has a significant improvement over the others.
Assessment of Paclitaxel Induced Sensory Polyneuropathy with “Catwalk” Automated Gait Analysis in Mice

Neuropathic pain as a symptom of sensory nerve damage is a frequent side effect of chemotherapy. The most common behavioral observation in animal models of chemotherapy induced polyneuropathy is the development of mechanical allodynia, which is quantified with von Frey filaments. The data from one study, however, cannot be easily compared with other studies owing to influences of environmental factors, inter-rater variability and differences in test paradigms. To overcome these limitations, automated quantitative gait analysis was proposed as an alternative, but its usefulness for assessing animals suffering from polyneuropathy has remained unclear. In the present study, we used a novel mouse model of paclitaxel induced polyneuropathy to compare results from electrophysiology and the von Frey method to gait alterations measured with the Catwalk test. To mimic recently improved clinical treatment strategies of gynecological malignancies, we established a mouse model of dose-dense paclitaxel therapy on the common C57Bl/6 background. In this model paclitaxel treated animals developed mechanical allodynia as well as reduced caudal sensory nerve action potential amplitudes indicative of a sensory polyneuropathy. Gait analysis with the Catwalk method detected distinct alterations of gait parameters in animals suffering from sensory neuropathy, revealing a minimized contact of the hind paws with the floor. Treatment of mechanical allodynia with gabapentin improved altered dynamic gait parameters. This study establishes a novel mouse model for investigating the side effects of dose-dense paclitaxel therapy and underlines the usefulness of automated gait analysis as an additional easy-to-use objective test for evaluating painful sensory polyneuropathy.
Detecting Moving Objects using a Single Camera on a Mobile Robot in an Outdoor Environment

Robust detection of moving objects from a mobile robot is required for safe outdoor navigation, but is not easily achievable since there are two motions involved: the motions of moving objects and the motion of the sensors used to detect the objects. We have experimented with a probabilistic approach for moving object detection from a mobile robot using a single camera in outdoor environments. The ego-motion of the camera is compensated using corresponding feature sets and outlier detection, and the positions of moving objects are estimated using an adaptive particle lter and EM al- gorithm. The algorithms are implemented and tested on three different robot platforms (robotic helicopter, Segway RMP, and Pioneer2 AT) in an outdoor environment, and the detection results are analyzed.
Selective Permeabilization of the Blood–Brain Barrier at Sites of Metastasis

Background Effective chemotherapeutics for primary systemic tumors have limited access to brain metastases because of the blood–brain barrier (BBB). The aim of this study was to develop a strategy for specifically permeabilizing the BBB at sites of cerebral metastases. Methods BALB/c mice were injected intracardially to induce brain metastases. After metastasis induction, either tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or lymphotoxin (LT) was administered intravenously, and 2 to 24 hours later gadolinium- diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, horseradish peroxidase, or radiolabeled trastuzumab (111In-BnDTPA-Tz) was injected intravenously. BBB permeability was assessed in vivo using gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and confirmed histochemically. Brain uptake of 111In-BnDTPA-Tz was determined using in vivo single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography. Endothelial expression of TNF receptors was determined immunohistochemically in both mouse and human brain tissue containing metastases. Group differences were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance followed by post hoc tests, Wilcoxon signed rank test, and Kruskal–Wallis with Dunn’s multiple comparison test. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results Localized expression of TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1) was evident on the vascular endothelium associated with brain metastases. Administration of TNF or LT permeabilized the BBB to exogenous tracers selectively at sites of brain metastasis, with peak effect at 6 hours. Metastasis-specific uptake ratio of 111In-BnDTPA-Tz was also demonstrated after systemic TNF administration vs control (0.147±0.066 vs 0.001±0.001). Human brain metastases displayed a similar TNF receptor profile compared with the mouse model, with predominantly vascular TNFR1 expression. Conclusions These findings describe a new approach to selectively permeabilize the BBB at sites of brain metastases to aid in detection of micrometastases and facilitate tumor-specific access of chemotherapeutic agents. We hypothesize that this permeabilization works primarily though TNFR1 activation and has the potential for clinical translation.
Effects of Teacher-to-Student Relatedness on Adolescent Male Motivation in a Weight Training Class.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the motivational profiles of male junior high weight training students differ across levels of teacher-to-student relatedness. One hundred and sixty six students participated in one of two units of instruction. Contextual motivation was measured using the Sport Motivation Scale II–Physical Education (SMS II–PE). Situational motivation and relatedness measurements were assessed using the Situational Motivation Scale-Physical Education (SIMS–PE), Amotivation Inventory–Physical Education Scale (AI–PE), and the Interpersonal Behavior Scale (IBS). Results revealed that situational motivation was not affected by the intervention in either group. Significant differences were observed in students’ contextual motivation. That is, both within-groups’ contextual motivation increased. Though the intervention did not reveal significant differences in students’ situational motivation, it may confirm the complimentary nature of relatedness and autonomy constructs in fostering student self-determination in a physical education setting.
INAOE's participation at ImageCLEF 2016: Text Illustration Task

In this paper we describe the participation of the Language Technologies Lab of INAOE at ImageCLEF 2016 teaser 1: Text Illustration (TI). The goal of the TI task consists in finding the best image that describes a given document query. For evaluating this task, there is a dataset containing web pages having text and images. We address the TI as a purely Information Retrieval (IR) task, for a given document query we search for the most similar web pages and use the associated images to them as illustrations. In this way, queries are used to retrieve related images from web pages, but the retrieval result are only the associated images. For this, we represent the web pages and queries using state-of-the-art text representations. Those representations incorporate information that allows us to exploit textual or semantic aspects. According to ImageCLEF 2016 evaluation, the proposed approach holds the best performance for the TI task.
The ghost of families past: Domestic violence legislation and policy in post-apartheid South Africa

abstract High levels of domestic violence are a prominent feature of post-apartheid South Africa and stand in stark contrast to the country's prominent image as being committed to gender equality. Both the State and women's organisations have mobilised around the issue, drafting law and policy responsive to the problem as well as initiating a host of campaigns and other interventions intended to combat it. Yet these have been to limited effect, and domestic violence persists. To explore this conundrum, this article briefly reviews the plethora of State documents issued in relation to domestic violence over the last 20 years, showing how high-level policy commitments have been leached of their transformatory content over time, through changing notions of gender equality and discursive shifts emphasising women's vulnerability. The increasing articulation of domestic violence with familialism, moralism and traditionalism is also highlighted. This discursive milieu is then located within the workings of the Department of Social Development in particular, showing how women have once again been made derivative of the family.
Wolbachia Infections Are Virulent and Inhibit the Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Falciparum in Anopheles Gambiae

Endosymbiotic Wolbachia bacteria are potent modulators of pathogen infection and transmission in multiple naturally and artificially infected insect species, including important vectors of human pathogens. Anopheles mosquitoes are naturally uninfected with Wolbachia, and stable artificial infections have not yet succeeded in this genus. Recent techniques have enabled establishment of somatic Wolbachia infections in Anopheles. Here, we characterize somatic infections of two diverse Wolbachia strains (wMelPop and wAlbB) in Anopheles gambiae, the major vector of human malaria. After infection, wMelPop disseminates widely in the mosquito, infecting the fat body, head, sensory organs and other tissues but is notably absent from the midgut and ovaries. Wolbachia initially induces the mosquito immune system, coincident with initial clearing of the infection, but then suppresses expression of immune genes, coincident with Wolbachia replication in the mosquito. Both wMelPop and wAlbB significantly inhibit Plasmodium falciparum oocyst levels in the mosquito midgut. Although not virulent in non-bloodfed mosquitoes, wMelPop exhibits a novel phenotype and is extremely virulent for approximately 12–24 hours post-bloodmeal, after which surviving mosquitoes exhibit similar mortality trajectories to control mosquitoes. The data suggest that if stable transinfections act in a similar manner to somatic infections, Wolbachia could potentially be used as part of a strategy to control the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria.
Whole-Genome Transcriptional Profiling of Bradyrhizobium japonicum during Chemoautotrophic Growth

ABSTRACT Bradyrhizobium japonicum is a facultative chemoautotroph capable of utilizing hydrogen gas as an electron donor in a respiratory chain terminated by oxygen to provide energy for cellular processes and carbon dioxide assimilation via a reductive pentose phosphate pathway. A transcriptomic analysis of B. japonicum cultured chemoautotrophically identified 1,485 transcripts, representing 17.5% of the genome, as differentially expressed when compared to heterotrophic cultures. Genetic determinants required for hydrogen utilization and carbon fixation, including the uptake hydrogenase system and components of the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle, were strongly induced in chemoautotrophically cultured cells. A putative isocitrate lyase (aceA; blr2455) was among the most strongly upregulated genes, suggesting a role for the glyoxylate cycle during chemoautotrophic growth. Addition of arabinose to chemoautotrophic cultures of B. japonicum did not significantly alter transcript profiles. Furthermore, a subset of nitrogen fixation genes was moderately induced during chemoautotrophic growth. In order to specifically address the role of isocitrate lyase and nitrogenase in chemoautotrophic growth, we cultured aceA, nifD, and nifH mutants under chemoautotrophic conditions. Growth of each mutant was similar to that of the wild type, indicating that the glyoxylate bypass and nitrogenase activity are not essential components of chemoautotrophy in B. japonicum.
Computational Methods for Residential Energy Cost Optimization in Smart Grids

A smart power grid transforms the traditional electric grid into a user-centric, intelligent power network. The cost-saving potential of smart homes is an excellent motivating factor to involve users in smart grid operations. To that end, this survey explores the contemporary cost-saving strategies for smart grids from the users’ perspective. The study shows that optimization methods are the most popular cost-saving techniques reported in the literature. These methods are used to plan scheduling and power utilization schemes of household appliances, energy storages, renewables, and other energy generation devices. The survey shows that trading energy among neighborhoods is one of the effective methods for cost optimization. It also identifies the prediction methods that are used to forecast energy price, generation, and consumption profiles, which are required to optimize energy cost in advance. The contributions of this article are threefold. First, it discusses the computational methods reported in the literature with their significance and limitations. Second, it identifies the components and their characteristics that may reduce energy cost. Finally, it proposes a unified cost optimization framework and addresses the challenges that may influence the overall residential energy cost optimization problem in smart grids.
Explaining Well-Being Over the Life Cycle: A Look at Life Transitions During Young Adulthood

Early adulthood is a time of important transitions that shape the future of young adults. How do these transitions affect well-being, and to what degree can they account for the life satisfaction path followed during young adulthood? To answer these questions, longitudinal data from the Swedish Young Adult Panel Study are used for three cohorts interviewed in 1999, 2003, and 2009. Four age intervals covering ages 22 through 40 are constructed. The well-being changes and the main transitions undergone during each age interval are examined. Life satisfaction at ages 22 to 40 follows a slight inverse U-shape peaking around age 30/32 and declining thereafter. The common transition pattern during this time is represented by young adults ages 22 through 30/32 going mainly through partnership (marriage or cohabitation) formation, the school-to-work transition, and the early years of parenting. After age 30 parenting continues as an important life transition, and is joined by an increase in partnership dissolution. This set of transitions alone is found to account for the inverse U-shape of overall life satisfaction. Partnership formation, the school-to-work transition, and parenting younger children are all associated with increasing life satisfaction, mainly through their positive relationship with the financial, and family domains of well-being. After age 30, the monetary burdens, and strains on relationship with partner associated with parenting older children start to set in, and life satisfaction begins to decline.
THE DETECTION RATE OF EARLY UV EMISSION FROM SUPERNOVAE: A DEDICATED GALEX/PTF SURVEY AND CALIBRATED THEORETICAL ESTIMATES

The radius and surface composition of an exploding massive star, as well as the explosion energy per unit mass, can be measured using early UV observations of core-collapse supernovae (SNe). We present the first results from a simultaneous GALEX/PTF search for early ultraviolet (UV) emission from SNe. Six SNe II and one Type II superluminous SN (SLSN-II) are clearly detected in the GALEX near-UV (NUV) data. We compare our detection rate with theoretical estimates based on early, shock-cooling UV light curves calculated from models that fit existing Swift and GALEX observations well, combined with volumetric SN rates. We find that our observations are in good agreement with calculated rates assuming that red supergiants (RSGs) explode with fiducial radii of 500 R⊙, explosion energies of 1051 erg, and ejecta masses of 10 M⊙. Exploding blue supergiants and Wolf–Rayet stars are poorly constrained. We describe how such observations can be used to derive the progenitor radius, surface composition, and explosion energy per unit mass of such SN events, and we demonstrate why UV observations are critical for such measurements. We use the fiducial RSG parameters to estimate the detection rate of SNe during the shock-cooling phase (<1 day after explosion) for several ground-based surveys (PTF, ZTF, and LSST). We show that the proposed wide-field UV explorer ULTRASAT mission is expected to find >85 SNe per year (∼0.5 SN per deg2), independent of host galaxy extinction, down to an NUV detection limit of 21.5 mag AB. Our pilot GALEX/PTF project thus convincingly demonstrates that a dedicated, systematic SN survey at the NUV band is a compelling method to study how massive stars end their life.
Relaxivity of Gd‐EOB‐DTPA in the normal and biliary obstructed guinea pig

After injection of Gd‐EOB‐DTPA, T1 and T2 were determined on a clinical MR scanner (1.5 T) in the liver and kidneys of sacrificed but intact guinea pigs with normal and obstructed biliary systems and in bile, urine, and blood collected postmortem. Tissue [Gd] was determined by radioassay of 153Gd and relaxivities (R1 and R2; units of s−1·mmol−1·kg) of Gd‐EOB‐DTPA calculated. Compared with R1 in 2% agarose gel (4.49 ± 0.03), in normal animals R1 was increased in liver (9.3 ± 0.5), similar in kidney cortex (4.1 ± 0.5), but reduced in kidney medulla (2.5 ± 0.4) and papilla (2.7 ± 0.4). Chronic biliary obstruction did not change R1 in liver (9.7 ± 4.3) but reduced R1 further in kidney tissues (1.0–0.4). In normal animals, R2 values of all tissues (9.5–18.4) were greater than R2 in gel (5.72 ± 0.12). Biliary obstruction possibly elevated R2 in liver (40.1 ± 63.5), severely depressed R2 in kidney cortex (−4.2 ± 6.2) and medulla (−2.3 ± 5.4), and reduced R2 in papilla (5.4 ± 4.6). Obstruction had little effect on R1 and R2 in bile and urine. Water content, macromolecular binding, microviscosity, compartmentalization, and susceptibility effects can readily account for the R1 and R2 observed in liver and kidney. Negative R2 could be a result of several factors, including reduced endogenous magnetic field gradients due to “susceptibility matching” as [Gd] increased, changes in tissue T2 with period of ligation, or a physiological effect of EOB‐DTPA. These results show that disease can alter both R1 and R2 from their values in normal tissues.