Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ingeniería de Usabilidad. Una Propuesta Tecnológica para Contribuir a la Evaluación de la Usabilidad del Software

La usabilidad es un atributo intangible del software, por lo tanto, es dificil de visualizar, medir y reconocer como un factor determinante de su calidad. La Ingenieria de Usabilidad (IU) promueve la evaluacion temprana de la usabilidad en el proceso de desarrollo de software y la participacion del usuario en todas las fases del ciclo de vida. Para conocer el grado de importancia que le conceden a la usabilidad las pequenas empresas, se realizo un estudio exploratorio en pymes de software del nordeste argentino, enfocado en dos aspectos principales: la participacion del usuario y las tecnicas de usabilidad que se utilizan. Los resultados indican que si bien las empresas no desconocen la importancia de la usabilidad en la calidad del software, las practicas promovidas por la IU no se encuentran incorporadas en la mayoria de los procesos de desarrollo. En este trabajo se presenta una propuesta tecnologica para evaluar la usabilidad durante el proceso de desarrollo, mediante cuestionarios que recaban y ponderan la percepcion de los usuarios y otros que comprueban el cumplimiento de los estandares y criterios heuristicos, con el objetivo de permitir a las empresas evaluar el cumplimiento de las recomendaciones vigentes en cuanto a criterios de usabilidad.
EL AMPLIFICADOR DE POTENCIA DE CARGA SINTONIZADA

Este articulo muestra el diseno y los resultados de simulacion de un amplificador de potencia de carga sintonizada. El amplificador fue disenado a 2.4 GHz, obteniendo una eficiencia en saturacion arriba del 70 %, junto con una ganancia a pequena senal de 15 dB. La deduccion de ecuaciones de diseno y analisis es presentada considerando condiciones de polarizacion clase AB y asumiendo el uso de dispositivos FET. Un dispositivo CGH40010F fabricado por Cree Corporation ha sido usado con un modelo no lineal valido hasta 6 GHz y una potencia de salida esperada de 10 W. La simulacion se ha llevado a cabo usando la herramienta CAD ADS.
Fast-Light Enhanced Brillouin Laser Based Active Fiber Optic Sensor for Simultaneous Measurement of Rotation and Strain

We have developed a conceptual design for an active fast light fiber optic sensor (AFLIFOS) that can perform simultaneously or separately as a gyroscope (differential mode effect) and as a sensor for strain and other common mode effects. Two Brillouin lasers in opposite directions and separated in frequency by several free spectral ranges are used for this sensor. By coupling two auxiliary resonators to the primary fiber resonator, we produce superluminal effects for the two laser modes. We develop a detailed theoretical model for optimizing the design of the AFLIFOS, and show that the enhancement factor of the sensitivity is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim \text{8.2}\times 10^{{3}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>, under the optimized condition, when the effective change in the length of the primary fiber resonator is 0.1 pm, corresponding to a rotation rate of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{1.4}\times \text{10}^{{- 3}}{\text{ deg/sec}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>. With this enhancement factor, the minimum detectable rotation rate is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $\text{2.4}\times \text{10}^{{- 11}}{\text{ deg/sec}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> when the output power is 1 mW and the measurement time is 1 s, which is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim \text{8.2}\times \text{10}^{{3}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> times better than that of the passive version with the same parameters. The minimum measurable strain is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{1.4}\times \text{10}^{{- 2}}{\text{ f}}\varepsilon/ \surd{\text{Hz}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> when 1/4 of the primary resonator is sensitive to strain and the linewidth of the master laser is taken to be 200 Hz. It may be possible to get much higher enhancement by adjusting parameters such as the length of the laser loops and the coupling coefficients.
Precoding and Symbol Grouping for NAF Relaying in BICM Systems

This paper considers the precoder design for a bandwidth-efficient bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) system over nonorthogonal amplify-and-forward (NAF) single-relay channels with an arbitrary length of cooperative frame 2N. Based on the tight union bound to the bit error probability (BEP), we first derive an asymptotic design criterion with regard to a general 2N × 2N rotation matrix. This expression allows us to develop a class of precoders that not only achieves full cooperative diversity but optimizes the asymptotic error performance as well. Interestingly, the developed class of optimal precoders indicates that the source should keep silent in the cooperative phase. In the broadcasting phase, it is shown that power is equally distributed to 2N information symbols at the source. By further examining the structure of the optimal class of 2N × 2N precoders, it is then revealed that precoding over a group of at least two information symbols is sufficient to fully exploit diversity and coding advantages. Such a precoding technique, which is referred to as symbol grouping, therefore significantly reduces the system complexity without sacrificing the error performance. Among the pool of optimal precoders with respect to the asymptotic performance, the design of a precoder that provides a good convergence property is also discussed. Numerical examples show that the proposed precoder greatly improves the error performance of the cooperative system with low complexity.
Aggregation of lens crystallins in an in vivo hyperbaric oxygen guinea pig model of nuclear cataract: dynamic light-scattering and HPLC analysis.

PURPOSE The role of oxygen in the formation of lens high-molecular-weight (HMW) protein aggregates during the development of human nuclear cataract is not well understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate lens crystallin aggregate formation in hyperbaric oxygen (HBO)-treated guinea pigs by using in vivo and in vitro METHODS methods. Guinea pigs were treated three times weekly for 7 months with HBO, and lens crystallin aggregation was investigated in vivo with the use of dynamic light-scattering (DLS) and in vitro by HPLC analysis of water-insoluble (WI) proteins. DLS measurements were made every 0.1 mm across the 4.5- to 5.0-mm optical axis of the guinea pig lens. RESULTS The average apparent diameter of proteins in the nucleus (the central region) of lenses of HBO-treated animals was nearly twice that of the control animals (P < 0.001). Size distribution analysis conducted at one selected point in the nucleus and cortex (the outer periphery of the lens) after dividing the proteins into small-diameter and large-diameter groups, showed in the O2-treated nucleus a threefold increase in intensity (P < 0.001) and a doubling in apparent size (P = 0.03) of large-diameter aggregate proteins, compared with the same control group. No significant changes in apparent protein diameter were detected in the O2-treated cortex, compared with the control. The average diameter of protein aggregates at the single selected location in the O2-treated nucleus was estimated to be 150 nm, a size capable of scattering light and similar to the size of aggregates found in human nuclear cataracts. HPLC analysis indicated that one half of the experimental nuclear WI protein fraction (that had been dissolved in guanidine) consisted of disulfide cross-linked 150- to 1000-kDa aggregates, not present in the control. HPLC-isolated aggregates contained alphaA-, beta-, gamma-, and zeta-crystallins, but not alphaB-crystallin, which is devoid of -SH groups and thus does not participate in disulfide cross-linking. All zeta-crystallin present in the nuclear WI fraction appeared to be there as a result of disulfide cross-linking. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that molecular oxygen in vivo can induce the cross-linking of guinea pig lens nuclear crystallins into large disulfide-bonded aggregates capable of scattering light. A similar process may be involved in the formation of human nuclear cataract.
Conjecture Regarding Posttranslational Modifications to the Arabidopsis Type I Proton-Pumping Pyrophosphatase (AVP1)

Agbiotechnology uses genetic engineering to improve the output and value of crops. Altering the expression of the plant Type I Proton-pumping Pyrophosphatase (H+-PPase) has already proven to be a useful tool to enhance crop productivity. Despite the effective use of this gene in translational research, information regarding the intracellular localization and functional plasticity of the pump remain largely enigmatic. Using computer modeling several putative phosphorylation, ubiquitination and sumoylation target sites were identified that may regulate Arabidopsis H+-PPase (AVP1- Arabidopsis Vacuolar Proton-pump 1) subcellular trafficking and activity. These putative regulatory sites will direct future research that specifically addresses the partitioning and transport characteristics of this pump. We posit that fine-tuning H+-PPases activity and cellular distribution will facilitate rationale strategies for further genetic improvements in crop productivity.
Reconsidering the Adoption Process: Enjoyment and Social Norms &#8212; Antecedents of Hedonic Mobile Technology Use

The Push to Talk (PTT) technology has been available for several years. Recently, new specifications and technical innovations based on Internet Protocols utilizing standard cellular packet data bearers have been introduced. This new approach makes Push to Talk a standard service on any cellular network which is called Push over Cellular (PoC). This paper identifies a model of PTT adoption in the Austrian market. The first explorative phase of research, consisting of interviews with experts and focus groups builds the basis of the proposed framework and measurement model. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach is used to assess the relative importance and the strength between different constructs, including enjoyment, social norm, usefulness, ease of use, intention to use, and quality of the service. Our results indicate that enjoyment and social norm are important antecedents for the adoption of PTT in Austria.
Chimeric Receptors of the Human C3a Receptor and C5a Receptor (CD88)*

Chimeras were generated between the human anaphylatoxin C3a and C5a receptors (C3aR and C5aR, respectively) to define the structural requirements for ligand binding and discrimination. Chimeric receptors were generated by systematically exchanging between the two receptors four receptor modules (the N terminus, transmembrane regions 1 to 4, the second extracellular loop, and transmembrane region 5 to the C terminus). The mutants were transiently expressed in HEK-293 cells (with or without Gα-16) and analyzed for cell surface expression, binding of C3a and C5a, and functional responsiveness (calcium mobilization) toward C3a, C5a, and a C3a as well as a C5a analogue peptide. The data indicate that in both anaphylatoxin receptors the transmembrane regions and the second extracellular loop act as a functional unit that is disrupted by any reciprocal exchange. N-terminal substitution confirmed the two-binding site model for the human C5aR, in which the receptor N terminus is required for high affinity binding of the native ligand but not a C5a analogue peptide. In contrast, the human C3a receptor did not require the original N terminus for high affinity binding of and activation by C3a, a result that was confirmed by N-terminal deletion mutants. This indicates a completely different binding mode of the anaphylatoxins to their corresponding receptors. The C5a analogue peptide, but not C5a, was an agonist of the C3aR. Replacement of the C3aR N terminus by the C5aR sequence, however, lead to the generation of a true hybrid C3a/C5a receptor, which bound and functionally responded to both ligands, C3a and C5a.
Individual Subtypes of Enteroendocrine Cells in the Mouse Small Intestine Exhibit Unique Patterns of Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate Receptor Expression

Enteroendocrine cells are a complex population of intestinal epithelial cells whose hormones play critical roles in regulating gastrointestinal and whole-animal physiology. There are many subpopulations of enteroendocrine cells based on the major hormone(s) produced by individual cells. Intracellular calcium plays a critical role in regulating hormone release. Inositol 1,4,5-trisphophate (IP3) receptors regulate calcium mobilization from endoplasmic reticulum-derived calcium stores in many endocrine and excitatory cells and are expressed in the intestine. However, the specific subtypes of enteroendocrine cells that express these receptors have not been reported. Immunohistochemical (IHC) studies revealed that enteroendocrine cells did not express detectable levels of type 2 IP3 receptors, whereas nearly all enteroendocrine cells that produced chromogranin A and/or serotonin expressed type 1 and type 3 IP3 receptors. Conversely, enteroendocrine cells that produced glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, glucagon-like peptide-1, cholecystokinin, or somatostatin did not express detectable levels of any IP3 receptors. Subsets of enteroendocrine cells that produced substance P or secretin expressed type 1 (33% or 18%, respectively) and type 3 (10% or 62%, respectively) IP3 receptors. Thus, different subtypes of enteroendocrine cells, as well as individual cells that express a particular hormone, exhibit remarkable heterogeneity in the molecular machineries that regulate hormone release in vivo. These results suggest that therapeutic agents can be developed that could potentially inhibit or promote secretion of hormones from specific subtypes of enteroendocrine cells.
Blood lead and chronic kidney disease in the general United States population: results from NHANES III.

BACKGROUND High lead exposure is associated with hypertension and renal dysfunction but the effect of low-level environmental exposure is not as well studied. METHODS We examined the association between blood lead and renal function among a representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized United States population with and without hypertension, age 20 years old or older, participating in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) (N=15211). Elevated serum creatinine was defined as >or=99th percentile of each race-sex specific distribution for healthy young adults and chronic kidney disease (CKD) as a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) <60 mL/min estimated using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) formula. RESULTS Among persons with and without hypertension, mean blood lead was 4.21 and 3.30 ug/dL, respectively, the prevalence of elevated serum creatinine was 11.5% and 1.8%, respectively, and CKD was 10.0% and 1.1%, respectively. Among persons with hypertension, a graded association was present between higher quartile of blood lead and a higher odds ratio of both an elevated serum creatinine and CKD. Comparing the highest to lowest quartile of blood lead, the multivariate adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) of an elevated serum creatinine and CKD were 2.41 (1.46, 3.97) and 2.60 (1.52, 4.45), respectively. The analogous adjusted odds ratios (95% CI) among normotensives were 1.09 (0.53, 2.22) and 1.09 (0.41, 2.89), respectively. Associations were consistent when modeling lead as a continuous variable and in all subgroups except smokers. CONCLUSION In the United States population with hypertension, exposure to lead, even at low levels, is associated with CKD. Reduction of lead exposure may reduce the burden of CKD in the community.
Computing Distances between Decision Makers Using Hesitant Fuzzy Linguistic Term Sets

Given a finite totally ordered set of linguistic terms, the operations intersection and connected union provide a lattice structure to the set of hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets. In this framework, hesitant fuzzy linguistic descriptions of a given set of alternatives are considered. A distance between hesitant fuzzy linguistic descriptions is introduced based on the properties of the lattice. This metric structure allows distances between decision makers to be computed. A centroid or group representative is defined in group decision-making processes where decision makers are assessing different alternatives by means of hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets.
A 0.065-mm2 19.8-mW Single-Channel Calibration-Free 12-b 600-MS/s ADC in 28-nm UTBB FD-SOI Using FBB

A 0.065-mm2 single-channel calibration-free 12-b analog-to-digital converter (ADC) sampling at 600 MS/s in 28-nm ultrathin body bias fully depleted silicon on insulator (FD-SOI) is presented. The selected hybrid architecture, incorporating pipelined and asynchronous successive approximation register ADC, demonstrates advantages and suitability of different design techniques utilizing forward body bias (FBB) capability of FD-SOI. Using an FBB voltage range of 0–1.8 V has enabled an signal-to-noise plus distortion ratio (SNDR) improvement of more than 9 dB. An integrated body bias generator ensures the required voltages for FBB. This paper demonstrates 61.5-dB and 60.7-dB SNDR at low and Nyquist input frequency, respectively, at 600-MS/s sampling frequency. The Walden FoM of 37.2 fJ/conv-step and Schreier FoM of 162.5 dB at 600 MS/s are achieved in Nyquist conditions. Speed robustness of the architecture has been demonstrated by achieving 57-dB SNDR at 800MS/s, >50-dB SNDR up to 950 MS/s, and 58.5-dB SNDR till 500-MHz input frequency at 600 MS/s.
Risk Factors for Anal Human Papillomavirus Infection Type 16 Among HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men in San Francisco

Background: HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk of anal cancer compared with the general population. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, particularly HPV 16, is causally associated with anal cancer. However, the risk factors for anal HPV 16 infection are poorly understood. We determined the prevalence and risk factors for anal HPV 16 infection in a population of HIV-positive MSM, most of whom were being treated with antiretroviral therapy. Design: Cross-sectional data from the baseline visit of a 4-year prospective cohort study. Methods: Three hundred forty-eight HIV-positive MSM were recruited in San Francisco, and they received a detailed sexual behavior risk factor questionnaire. An anal swab was used to collect specimens for HPV type–specific DNA testing using L1 HPV DNA polymerase chain reaction. We used log-binomial multivariable models to determine the risk factors for anal HPV 16 infection. Results: Ninety-two percent of HIV-positive MSM had at least 1 anal HPV type, 80% had at least 1 oncogenic HPV type, and 42% had HPV 16. Non-Hispanic white race and higher level of education were associated with a decreased risk of HPV 16 infection. A higher number of total male partners was associated with HPV 16 (relative risk: 1.6, 95% confidence interval 1.1 to 2.4, P = 0.01) for 201–1000 partners compared with 1–200. Injection drug use was independently associated with anal HPV 16 infection (relative risk: 1.5, 95% confidence interval 1.2 to 1.9, P = 0.003). Conclusions: The prevalence of anal HPV infection, including HPV 16, is high in HIV-positive MSM. HIV-positive MSM should be counseled about the risk associated with increased partners and injection drug use.
Body dissatisfaction predicts inflammatory status in asymptomatic healthy individuals

Body dissatisfaction may play some role in the pathophysiology of chronic diseases. This study examined relations between body dissatisfaction and circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers C-reactive protein, tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and anti-inflammatory adiponectin, and to explore positive changes in relevant lifestyle behaviour after these associations. A total of 33 asymptomatic overweight men and women were evaluated at the baseline and after a 6-month lifestyle behaviour intervention. Body dissatisfaction emerged as an important predictor of pro- and anti-inflammatory biomarkers and may promote the production of inflammatory cytokines by reducing the level of anti-inflammatory and increasing the level of pro-inflammatory cytokine production.
Kalman-Filtering-Based Prognostics for Automatic Transmission Clutches

Demands of low-cost prognostics tool for automatic transmission clutches (i.e., based on measurement data from sensors typically available) by industry have increased since the last few years. In this paper, a prognostics tool is developed by fusing a newly developed degradation model with the measurable pre-lockup feature under the extended Kalman filtering framework. As this feature can be extracted from sensory data typically available in wet clutch applications, the developed prognostics tool, hence, does not require extra cost for any additional sensor. New history data of commercially available wet clutches obtained from accelerated life tests using a fully instrumented SAE#2 test setup have been acquired and processed. The experimental results show that the prognostics algorithm developed in this paper outperforms the early developed prognostics algorithm, which is based on the weighted mean slope method (i.e., data-driven approach). It is shown that the clutch remaining useful life estimations with the novel prognostics algorithm remain in the desired accuracy region of 20% with relatively small uncertainty interval in comparison with the early developed prognostics algorithm.
UPBI: An Efficient Index for Continues Probabilistic Range Query of Moving Objects on Road Network

With the development of mobile terminal technology, the continuous range query of moving objects on road network has been widely applied in the field of transportation, military and communication. In practical applications, the sampling frequency of positioning equipment could not eliminate uncertainty, resulting in moving objects’ position uncertainty between two adjacent samples. The index existing for continues probabilistic range query are based on the centralized or the traditional cluster distributed environment. In this paper, we construct UPBI index structure for the continuous probability range queries on road network based on Hadoop firstly. Secondly, we design the continuous probability range query parallel algorithm considering moving objects’ position uncertainty on road network. Finally, we simultaneously give space constraint R-restrict and the probability calculation method. The experiment demonstrates that index and query algorithm proposed effectively solve the mass data problem about moving objects, and enhance query efficiency.
Dynamic cell activation and user association for green 5G heterogeneous cellular networks

The mobile traffic explosion predicted to be increased by 1000 times in the next 10 years has become a remarkable issue due to the proliferation of smart devices such as smart phones or tablets. Energy consumption of information processing is also becoming an economic issue for operators. It is a critical task to design the next generation cellular networks (5G) to be both spectral/energy efficient. This paper considers a future C-RAN based cloud cooperated HetNet which enables global resource optimization among smallcells. The architecture allows optimal user association for data offloading as well as dynamic ON/OFF of smallcell BSs in adaptation to daily data traffic. A joint optimization on both user association and dynamic ON/OFF scheme of BSs to maximizing the system rate over consumed energy of the network investigated in the paper reveals that without sacrificing the system's power resource, our proposed approach can effectively deactivate unnecessary BSs and attain the target 1000× system rate gain in the case of mm-wave smallcells.