Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of the dust/smoke aerosol that settled east of the World Trade Center (WTC) in lower Manhattan after the collapse of the WTC 11 September 2001.

The explosion and collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) was a catastrophic event that produced an aerosol plume impacting many workers, residents, and commuters during the first few days after 11 September 2001. Three bulk samples of the total settled dust and smoke were collected at weather-protected locations east of the WTC on 16 and 17 September 2001; these samples are representative of the generated material that settled immediately after the explosion and fire and the concurrent collapse of the two structures. We analyzed each sample, not differentiated by particle size, for inorganic and organic composition. In the inorganic analyses, we identified metals, radionuclides, ionic species, asbestos, and inorganic species. In the organic analyses, we identified polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, pesticides, phthalate esters, brominated diphenyl ethers, and other hydrocarbons. Each sample had a basic pH. Asbestos levels ranged from 0.8% to 3.0% of the mass, the PAHs were > 0.1% of the mass, and lead ranged from 101 to 625 microg/g. The content and distribution of material was indicative of a complex mixture of building debris and combustion products in the resulting plume. These three samples were composed primarily of construction materials, soot, paint (leaded and unleaded), and glass fibers (mineral wool and fiberglass). Levels of hydrocarbons indicated unburned or partially burned jet fuel, plastic, cellulose, and other materials that were ignited by the fire. In morphologic analyses we found that a majority of the mass was fibrous and composed of many types of fibers (e.g., mineral wool, fiberglass, asbestos, wood, paper, and cotton). The particles were separated into size classifications by gravimetric and aerodynamic methods. Material < 2.5 microm in aerodynamic diameter was 0.88-1.98% of the total mass. The largest mass concentrations were > 53 microm in diameter. The results obtained from these samples can be used to understand the contact and types of exposures to this unprecedented complex mixture experienced by the surviving residents, commuters, and rescue workers directly affected by the plume from 11 to 12 September and the evaluations of any acute or long-term health effects from resuspendable dust and smoke to the residents, commuters, and local workers, as well as from the materials released after 11 September until the fires were extinguished. Further, these results support the need to have the interior of residences, buildings, and their respective HVAC systems professionally cleaned to reduce long-term residential risks before rehabitation.
Participating or not in a cardiac rehabilitation programme: factors influencing a patient’s decision

Background: International research indicates that attendance of patients to a proposed cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programme varies between 21% and 75%. Addressing the reasons why cardiac patients are not participating will improve accessibility to CR. The objective of this study was to investigate patient compliance with cardiac rehabilitation and the reasons of refusing or abandoning the programme. Methods: Twenty hospital centres were recruited to participate. Each centre was asked to recruit patients from three patient groups, namely: percutaneous coronary intervention patients, patients that underwent major cardiac surgery, and patients being admitted because of an acute myocardial infarction and not belonging to the other two groups. Patients were asked to fill out a questionnaire during a follow-up outpatient consultation after the cardiac intervention. Results: In total, 226 patients participated in the survey. Most patients were proposed (86%) and accepted (81% out of proposed) to attend a CR programme. Of those who accepted, 77% completed the programme. The main reasons that led to patients’ refusal to participate in a CR programme were distance to the CR centre, patients’ belief they could handle their own problems, and lack of time. The main three reasons for not completing an initiated CR programme were other physical problems, patients’ belief they could handle their own problems, and the cost of rehabilitation. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the importance of raising patients’ awareness of the benefits of CR. Addressing potential barriers to attend a CR programme should be investigated with patients individually in order to ensure compliance.
DiProGB: the dinucleotide properties genome browser

Motivation: DiProGB is an easy to use new genome browser that encodes the primary nucleotide sequence by thermodynamical and geometrical dinucleotide properties. The nucleotide sequence is thus converted into a sequence graph. This visualization, supported by different graph manipulation options, facilitates genome analyses, because the human brain can process visual information better than textual information. Also, DiProGB can identify genomic regions where certain physical properties are more conserved than the nucleotide sequence itself. Most of the DiProGB tools can be applied to both, the primary nucleotide sequence and the sequence graph. They include motif and repeat searches as well as statistical analyses. DiProGB adds a new dimension to the common genome analysis approaches by taking into account the physical properties of DNA and RNA. Availability and Implementation: Source code and binaries are freely available for download at http://diprogb.fli-leibniz.de, implemented in C++ and supported on MS Windows and Linux (using e.g. WineHQ). Contact: maikfr@fli-leibniz.de; thomas.wilhelm@bbsrc.ac. uk
Hybrid Architecture of Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing

This paper discusses novel dedicated hardware architecture for hybrid optimization based on Genetic algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA). The proposed architecture achieves high speed processing. Moreover, it achieves the searching not only globally, but also locally. To keep general purpose, self-control processing by a handshake system is introduced. By adopting the handshake system, the proposed architecture can be applied to various combinatorial optimization problems by only changing an encoder, a decoder, and an evaluation circuit. Furthermore, the proposed architecture realizes flexibility for many genetic operations on GA. In order to evaluate the proposed architecture, we conduct two kinds of experiments. One is an experiment which applies the proposed architecture to TSP, and the other is an experiment which applies it to VLSI floorplanning. These experiment results prove that the proposed architecture achieves high speed processing, while keeping the quality of the solutions.
MChord: Chord Algorithm Based on Limited Multicasting

Chord is known to be limited in routing efficiency since all nodes are on the overlay without considering the underlying network topology. In this paper, a Chord routing algorithm based on limited network layer multicast, called MChord, is proposed, which uses multicast technology to obtain physical neighbor information for routing. Simulation shows that it can shorten network search delay greatly, reduce routing hops effectively and improve the routing performance.
Construction du sens : le cas de la veille stratégique et de l'exploitation collective des signes d'alerte précoce

La veille strategique est le processus volontariste par lequel l'entreprise traque, mais aussi assimile des informations a caractere anticipatif concernant les changements de son environnement socio-economique. Certaines de ces informations peuvent etre des signes d'alerte precoce. Nous concevons la phase d'assimilation des signes d'alerte precoce comme un processus de construction de sens collectif, presentiel et synchrone. Nous cherchons a comprendre ce processus et a construire des fragments de connaissances actionnables pour l'amorcer et le soutenir. Nous commencons par construire un cadre theorique de la construction de sens en articulant des points de vue theorique divers en provenance des theories des organisations et de la decision, de la psychologie cognitive et de la psychologie sociale. Quelques observations empiriques prolongent ce cadre theorique. Nous formulons enfin quelques recommandations provisoires pour animer cette phase d'exploitation de l'information.
Optimizing Memory-Bounded Controllers for Decentralized POMDPs

We present a memory-bounded optimization approach for solving infinite-horizon decentralized POMDPs. Policies for each agent are represented by stochastic finite state controllers. We formulate the problem of optimizing these policies as a nonlinear program, leveraging powerful existing nonlinear optimization techniques for solving the problem. While existing solvers only guarantee locally optimal solutions, we show that our formulation produces higher quality controllers than the state-of-the-art approach. We also incorporate a shared source of randomness in the form of a correlation device to further increase solution quality with only a limited increase in space and time. Our experimental results show that nonlinear optimization can be used to provide high quality, concise solutions to decentralized decision problems under uncertainty.
A Systematic Literature Review on Sustainability Studies in Software Engineering

The existing literatures onsustainable development in software engineering havemoved towards new paradigms of research and it is claimed as still immature in the sustainable development community.However, the sustainability study in software engineering is a new research field and has received a noteworthy attention lately in the year 2010. Therefore, this paper aimed to contribute a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) in this field to provide an overview of sustainability development in software engineering discipline with observe the research activity and related topics, limitation, approaches, methods, and available studies.The applied method is an SLR standard protocol produced by Kitchenham et al. (2007). The investigation is based on the 3059 articles in the first iteration searching query. Currently, almost 600 of related publications are selected and only 175 as relevant for our research questions. Consequently, too few studies in the literatures pertaining to sustainability in software engineering are published, whilst it is quite active in other disciplines. So, this research will be supported the limitation in the literatures with contributes the new paradigm in sustainability software engineering.
Detecting structural changes in early experimental osteoarthritis of tibial cartilage by microscopic magnetic resonance imaging and polarised light microscopy

Objectives: To detect changes in the collagen fibril network in articular cartilage in a canine experimental model of early osteoarthritis (OA) using microscopic magnetic resonance imaging (μMRI) and polarised light microscopy (PLM). Methods: Eighteen specimens from three pairs of the medial tibia of an anterior cruciate ligament transection canine model were subjected to μMRI and PLM study 12 weeks after surgery. For each specimen, the following experiments were carried out: (a) two dimensional μMRI images of T2 relaxation at four orientations; (b) the tangent Young’s modulus; and (c) two dimensional PLM images of optical retardance and fibril angle. Disease induced changes in tissue were examined across the depth of the cartilage at a μMRI resolution of 13.7–23.1 μm. Results: Several distinct changes from T2 weighted images of cartilage in OA tibia were seen. For the specimens that were covered at least in part by the meniscus, the significant changes in μMRI included a clear shift in the depth of maximum T2 (21–36%), a decrease in the superficial zone thickness (37–38%), and an increase in cartilage total thickness (15–27%). These μMRI changes varied topographically in the tibia surface because they were not significant in completely exposed locations in medial tibia. The μMRI results were confirmed by the PLM measurements and correlated well with the mechanical measurements. Conclusion: Both μMRI and PLM can detect quantitatively changes in collagen fibre architecture in early OA and resolve topographical variations in cartilage microstructure of canine tibia.
A High-Resolution Modeling Study of the 24 May 2002 Dryline Case during IHOP. Part II: Horizontal Convective Rolls and Convective Initiation

Abstract In Part I of this paper, the timing and location of convective initiation along a dryline on 24 May 2002 were accurately predicted, using a large 1-km-resolution nested grid. A detailed analysis of the convective initiation processes, which involve the interaction of the dryline with horizontal convective rolls, is presented here. Horizontal convective rolls (HCRs) with aspect ratios (the ratio of roll spacing to depth) between 3 and 7 develop in the model on both sides of the dryline, with those on the west side being more intense and their updrafts reaching several meters per second. The main HCRs that interact with the primary dryline convergence boundary (PDCB) are those from the west side, and they are aligned at an acute angle with the dryline. They intercept the PDCB and create strong moisture convergence bands at the surface and force the PDCB into a wavy pattern. The downdrafts of HCRs and the associated surface divergence play an important role in creating localized maxima of surface co.
Characterization of connectivity dynamics in intrinsic brain networks

Spontaneous fluctuations are a hallmark of neural recordings, emergent over time scales spanning milliseconds to tens-of-minutes. However, investigations of intrinsic brain organization based on resting-state functional connectivity (FC) have largely disregarded the presence and potential of temporal variability, as most current methods to examine FC implicitly assume that relationships are constant throughout the recording period. Recent studies have demonstrated the nonstationarity of spatial and temporal dynamics of resting state brain activity and highlighted the importance of understanding network dynamics to better characterize brain states. Here, we review recent findings, overview of different approaches, and future directions to access whole-brain connectivity dynamics in intrinsic networks (INs).
Effect of grounded electrode's width on electrical characteristics of nanosecond-pulse surface DBD

Surface dielectric barrier discharges with five different grounded electrode's widths are produced in order to investigate the effect of grounded electrode's width on electrical characteristics. The electrical parameters including applied voltage, total discharge current and transported charges are measured and calculated, respectively. Results show that the total discharge current has two obvious spikes. The first current spike of the total current has a peak which results in some fluctuations of transported charges in V-Q Lissajous figures, but the peak of the first current spike hardly changes with the electrode's width. The second spike peak value increases with the electrode's width, and reaches its maximum at an optimum width. All the V-Q loops at different electrode's widths are “almond-shape”, and the transported charges and energy per pulse increase with the electrode's width. The main plasma action area increases with the electrode's width, but keeps relatively constant when the grounded electrode's width is larger than the optimum width. In addition, the grounded electrode's width has no obvious influence on the plasma light intensity.
Small-Animal SPECT and SPECT/CT: Important Tools for Preclinical Investigation*

The need to study dynamic biologic processes in intact small-animal models of disease has stimulated the development of high-resolution nuclear imaging methods. These methods are capable of clarifying molecular interactions important in the onset and progression of disease, assessing the biologic relevance of drug candidates and potential imaging agents, and monitoring therapeutic effectiveness of pharmaceuticals serially within a single-model system. Single-photon–emitting radionuclides have many advantages in these applications, and SPECT can provide 3-dimensional spatial distributions of γ- (and x-) ray–emitting radionuclide imaging agents or therapeutics. Furthermore, combining SPECT with CT in a SPECT/CT system can assist in defining the anatomic context of biochemical processes and improve the quantitative accuracy of the SPECT data. Over the past decade, dedicated small-animal SPECT and SPECT/CT systems have been developed in academia and industry. Although significant progress in this arena has been realized through system development and biologic application, further innovation continues to address challenges in camera sensitivity, spatial resolution, and image reconstruction and quantification. The innumerable applications of small-animal SPECT and SPECT/CT in drug development, cardiology, neurology, and oncology are stimulating further investment in education, research, and development of these dedicated small-animal imaging modalities.
Closed-form Approximations for Coverage and Rate in a Multi-tier Heterogeneous Network in Nakagami-m Fading

In this paper, we consider the downlink in a K-tier heterogeneous network in the presence of Nakagami-m fading and noise. For such a system, we derive closed-form approximations of coverage probability and average rate achievable. A piece-wise linear approximation is employed in obtaining the simplified expressions. The proposed results are verified numerically through simulations. A comparison with existing work shows that the proposed work is a good approximation.
It Takes a Team! Making Sports Safe for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Athletes and Coaches. An Education Kit for Athletes, Coaches, and Athletic Directors.

This educational kit focuses on the safe education of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. It includes four sections that examine: (1) "Introduction" (e.g., why it is important to address homophobia in sport, educator responsibilities, and who this educational kit is for); (2) "The Core Program: Video and Discussion" (discussion leader preparation, introducing the video, discussion guidelines, discussing the video, discussion questions, handouts following the video and discussion, and evaluation tools); (3) "Additional Information and Handouts" (e.g., laws, policies, and procedures; terms and definitions; case studies; frequently asked questions about LGBT people in sport; guides to handling anti-gay harassment for administrators, educators, families, and students; a guide to handling student harassment at the time that it occurs; and assessing the athletic climate); and (4) "Resources" (books, videos, Webbased resource's and organizations, hotlines, and trainers and consultants). (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. IT TAKES A TEAM! MAKING SPORTS SAFE FOR LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER ATHLETES AND COACHES An Education Kit For Athletes, Coaches, and Athletic Directors Ob PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Prot ers . ) Written by Pat Griffin, Jeff Perrotti, Laurie Priest, Mike Muska Edited by Donna Lopiano, Marjorie Snyder, Lisa D. Thompson Foreword by Billie Jean King A publication of the Project to Eliminate Homophobia in Sport Collaborating Organizations Astraea Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Ms. Foundation National Center for Lesbian Rights National Collegiate Athletic Association Uncommon Legacy Foundation Women's Sports Foundation TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES V ) INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) ©Women's Sports Foundation®, 2002 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Ottice of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. BEST COPY AVAILABLE
Maximizing the lifetime of heterogeneous wireless sensor networks

A heterogeneous lifetime optimization model is proposed for wireless sensor networks (WSN), in which nodes are deployed based on a regular hexagonal topology. Retransmission is considered in the lifetime model and is proved to be essential through our case study. Using our optimization model, the optimal sensor deployment strategy is achieved by maximizing the lifetime with the constraints of coverage, connectivity and successful transmission rate for both uniform and non-uniform deployed WSN. Our case study shows that WSN can survive much longer in an optimal non-uniform deployed strategy than a uniform one when the same number of nodes is deployed.
Object tracking via Modified CamShift in Sequential Bayesian Filtering Framework

We present a robust object tracking algorithm which integrates Modified Continuous Adaptive Mean shift and Particle Filtering providing a framework for state estimation in nonlinear and non-Gaussian dynamic system. In order to overcome the various kinds of clutter and distracters problem, we employ a parameter associated with the similarity measurement to update window width adaptively via calculating histogram intersection between object and its background. Meanwhile, special morphological operations are adopted to improve the accuracy of object histogram back-projection. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust to partial occlusion, clutter and fast motion. Finally, we could obtain and analysis the target trajectory with fast motion as the basis for behavior analyze and understanding.
Mixture of Polyphenols and Anthocyanins from Vaccinium uliginosum L. Alleviates DNCB-Induced Atopic Dermatitis in NC/Nga Mice

Vaccinium uliginosum L. (VU) possesses various biological properties, such as antioxidant and protective effects against VU-induced skin photoaging. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of oral administration of a mixture of polyphenols and anthocyanins derived from VU on 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene- (DNCB-) induced atopic dermatitis (AD) in NC/Nga mice. We assessed anti-AD effects in NC/Nga murine model for a period of 9 weeks. Oral administration of the mixture significantly alleviated the AD-like skin symptoms and clinical signs including ear thickness and scratching behaviors. Orally administrated mixture reduced the level of IgE and IgG1, whereas it increased the level of IgG2a in a dose-dependent manner. The calculated IgG1/IgG2a ratio for each mouse revealed that the mixture derived from VU also significantly reduced the Th2/Th1 ratio, IL-4 and IL-13 (as Th2 cytokines), IFN-γ, and IL-12 (as a Th1 cytokine) in spleens. In addition, it significantly decreased gene expression, such as IL-4, IL-5, CCR3, eotaxin-1, IL- 12, IFN-γ, MCP-1, and IL-17, in AD-like lesions and suppressed Th17. Histological analyses revealed that the epidermis thickness and number of inflammatory cells were significantly reduced. In conclusion, oral administration of the mixture in the DNCB-induced AD is confirmed to improve AD disease in mice.
A Novel Multiagent Reinforcement Learning Algorithm Combination with Quantum Computation

A novel learning policy in multiagent reinforcement learning is presented, trying to find another tradeoff of exploration and exploitation efficiently, which is different from traditional greedy or softmax action selection method. The state and action of multiagent are represented with quantum superposition state, and probability amplitude is used to denote the probability of an action. Quantum search algorithm is adopted in multiagent action selection. The experiment results show that the new algorithm is effective and can help multiagent learn faster. This combination of quantum computing with multiagent reinforcement learning is an attempt, and the idea possibly brings more researches in multiagent reinforcement learning