Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The consequences of climate change at an avian influenza ‘hotspot’

Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) pose significant danger to human health. A key step in managing this threat is understanding the maintenance of AIVs in wild birds, their natural reservoir. Ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) are an atypical bird species in this regard, annually experiencing high AIV prevalence in only one location—Delaware Bay, USA, during their spring migration. While there, they congregate on beaches, attracted by the super-abundance of horseshoe crab eggs. A relationship between ruddy turnstone and horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) population sizes has been established, with a declining horseshoe crab population linked to a corresponding drop in ruddy turnstone population sizes. The effect of this interaction on AIV prevalence in ruddy turnstones has also been addressed. Here, we employ a transmission model to investigate how the interaction between these two species is likely to be altered by climate change. We explore the consequences of this modified interaction on both ruddy turnstone population size and AIV prevalence and show that, if climate change leads to a large enough mismatch in species phenology, AIV prevalence in ruddy turnstones will increase even as their population size decreases.
Online Transfer Learning for Differential Diagnosis Determination

In this paper we present a novel online transfer learning approach to determine the set of tests to perform, and the sequence in which they need to be performed, in order to develop an accurate diagnosis while minimizing the cost of performing the tests. Our learning approach can be incorporated as part of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) with which clinicians can interact. The approach builds on a contextual bandit framework and uses online transfer learning to overcome limitations with the availability of rich training data sets that capture different conditions, context, test results as well as outcomes. We provide confidence bounds for our recommended policies, which is essential in order to build the trust of clinicians. We evaluate the algorithm against different transfer learning approaches on real-world patient alarm datasets collected from Neurological Intensive Care Units (with reduced costs by 20%).
Feasibility of Three‐Dimensional Placement of Human Therapeutic Stem Cells Using the Intracerebral Microinjection Instrument

The ability to safely place viable intracerebral grafts of human‐derived therapeutic stem cells in three‐dimensional (3D) space was assessed in a porcine model of human stereotactic surgery using the Intracerebral Microinjection Instrument (IMI) compared to a conventional straight cannula.
Observer design using a time scaled block triangular observer form

This paper presents an observer design for unforced nonlinear multi-output systems using a time scaled block triangular observer form (TBTOF). The TBTOF generalizes an established block triangular observer Form (BTOF) to include a time scaling function. Such a generalization broadens the class of systems to which a BTOF-based observer design can be applied. A TBTOF-based observer design proceeds subsystem-at-a-time starting with the uppermost subsystem. Designs for each subsystem effectively treat upper subsystem states as known measurements and are relatively simple given their reduced dimension. A necessary condition for the time scaling function is provided. Global uniform asymptotic and exponential observer estimate error stability results are given. These results provide a formula for the observer gain. An example illustrates the construction of a TBTOF and a typical observer design with simulation
The Design of Free Structure Granular Mappings: The Use of the Principle of Justifiable Granularity

The study introduces a concept of mappings realized in presence of information granules and offers a design framework supporting the formation of such mappings. Information granules are conceptually meaningful entities formed on a basis of a large number of experimental input-output numeric data available for the construction of the model. We develop a conceptually and algorithmically sound way of forming information granules. Considering the directional nature of the mapping to be formed, this directionality aspect needs to be taken into account when developing information granules. The property of directionality implies that while the information granules in the input space could be constructed with a great deal of flexibility, the information granules formed in the output space have to inherently relate to those built in the input space. The input space is granulated by running a clustering algorithm; for illustrative purposes, the focus here is on fuzzy clustering realized with the aid of the fuzzy C-means algorithm. The information granules in the output space are constructed with the aid of the principle of justifiable granularity (being one of the underlying fundamental conceptual pursuits of Granular Computing). The construct exhibits two important features. First, the constructed information granules are formed in the presence of information granules already constructed in the input space (and this realization is reflective of the direction of the mapping from the input to the output space). Second, the principle of justifiable granularity does not confine the realization of information granules to a single formalism such as fuzzy sets but helps form the granules expressed any required formalism of information granulation. The quality of the granular mapping (viz. the mapping realized for the information granules formed in the input and output spaces) is expressed in terms of the coverage criterion (articulating how well the experimental data are “covered” by information granules produced by the granular mapping for any input experimental data). Some parametric studies are reported by quantifying the performance of the granular mapping (expressed in terms of the coverage and specificity criteria) versus the values of a certain parameters utilized in the construction of output information granules through the principle of justifiable granularity. The plots of coverage-specificity dependency help determine a knee point and reach a sound compromise between these two conflicting requirements imposed on the quality of the granular mapping. Furthermore, quantified is the quality of the mapping with regard to the number of information granules (implying a certain granularity of the mapping). A series of experiments is reported as well.
Prenatal sonographic findings in a fetus with splenogonadal fusion limb defect syndrome

Splenogonadal fusion limb defect syndrome (SGFLD) is a very rare abnormality. We report on a case with prenatal sonographic findings of a fetus with postnatally diagnosed SGFLD syndrome. This is also the second case of prenatal ultrasonographic diagnosis of gastrointestinal malrotation associated with SGFLD. A 26‐year‐old primigravid woman was referred to our clinic because of nonvisualization of both fetal femoral bones at 20 weeks of gestation. A detailed sonographic examination showed complete bilateral absence of lower limbs, micrognathia, single umbilical artery and a right‐sided stomach. Autopsy confirmed prenatal sonographic findings and additionally showed that the spleen was abnormally connected to the left gonad by a fibrous band. In conclusion, although all limbs and both sides were equally affected in most of the reported cases, SGFLD syndrome should be considered in cases with terminal limb defects of lower limbs. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound, 2009
Road Accidents Prevention system using Driver's Drowsiness Detection

Driver Fatigue is one of the most common reasons for fatal road accidents around the world. This shows that in the transportation industry especially, where a driver of a heavy vehicle is often exposed to hours of monotonous driving which causes fatigue without frequent rest period. Due to the frequent incidence of driver fatigue this has become an area of great socio economic concern. Consequently, a road accidents prevention system by detecting driver's drowsiness, which measure the level of driver inattention and provide a warning when a potential hazard exists, have received a great deal of attention as a measure to prevent accidents caused by driver inattention. In this paper an efficient driver's drowsiness detection system is designed using yawn detection by taking eye detection and mouth detection into consideration simultaneously so that road accidents can be avoided successfully.
Performance evaluation of RAKE reception of ultra wideband signals over multipath channels from energy capture perspective

In this paper, we derive the SEP for time-hopping M-ary PPM (TH-MPPM) UWB communication systems as a function of captured SNR per symbol and simplify the results for TH-BPSK. For the TH-MPPM system, we incorporate the effect of modulation index (/spl delta/) on SEP. The results obtained give us way to evaluate the performance of RAKE reception of UWB signals in dense multipath channels from the energy capture perspective. We present more general results that can be applied for verification of RAKE implementations. We present simulation results using IEEE 802.15. 3a UWB channel models for various pulsewidths. We evaluate the performance of optimum and ordinary all RAKE (ARAKE) and selective RAKE (SRAKE) receivers in different channel models (CM1 to CM3). We compare relative costs of simplifying various RAKE complexities. Conditioned on some parameters, we present an optimum pulse width for UWB communications while SRAKE is employed.
LinRegInteractive: An R Package for the Interactive Interpretation of Linear Regression Models

The package provides the generic function fxInteractive() to facilitate the interpretation of various kinds of regression models. It allows to observe the effects of variations of metric covariates in an interactive manner by means of termplots for different model classes. Currently linear regression models, generalized linear models, generalized additive models and linear mixed-effects models are supported. Due to the interactive approach the function provides an intuitive understanding of the mechanics of a particular model and is therefore especially useful for educational purposes. Technically the package is based on the package rpanel and the only mandatory argument for the main function is an appropriate fitted-model object. Given this, the linear predictors, the marginal effects and, for generalized linear models, the responses are calculated automatically. For the marginal effects a numerical approach is used to handle non-constant marginal effects automatically. If there are two or more categorical covariates the corresponding effects are presented in a novel way. For publication purposes the user can customize the appearance of the termplots to a large extent. Tables of the effects and marginal effects can be printed to the R Console, optionally as copy-and-paste-ready LaTeX-code.
Finite–Element Analyses of Combined Void Shape and Plastic Anisotropy Effects in Ductile Fracture

Prediction of ductile fracture in structural metallic materials requires some representation of microstructural effects, including the plastic anisotropy that is associated with initial or induced polycrystalline textures and the microscopic processes of void growth and coalescence. With the objective of characterizing existing continuum models, we present a finite-element study of cylindrical unit cells, consisting of spheroidal voids embedded in an orthotropic Hill matrix, subjected to proportional loading paths. Twodimensional axisymmetric calculations are employed for the case of transverse isotropy and axisymmetric loading about the void axis. The effective cell model responses are compared with predictions from an extended model of anisotropic void growth, which is the subject of an accompanying paper
Dynamic thermal management in 3D multi-core architecture through run-time adaptation

3D multi-core architectures are seen to provide increased transistor density, reduced power consumption, and improved performance through wire length reduction. However, 3D suffers from increased power density, which exacerbates thermal hotspots. In this paper, we present a novel 3D multi-core architecture that reduces processor activity on the die distant to the heat sink and a core-level dynamic thermal management technique based on the architectural adaptation, e.g. dynamically adapting core-resources depending on diverse application requirements and thermal behavior. The proposed thermal management technique synergistically combines the benefits of the architectural adaptation supported by our 3D multi-core architecture with dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. Our proposed technique provides 19.4% (maximum 24.4%, minimum 15.5%) improvement in the instruction throughput compared to the state-of-the-art thermal management techniques [4, 5] applied to the thermal-aware 3D processor architecture without considering run-time adaptation [10].
On‐Target Contrast Diagnostic via Specular Reflectivity Measurement

High‐power laser contrast is challenging to measure, especially in the real target irradiation conditions. We present a convenient and relatively simple contrast diagnostic technique based on the measurement of target specular reflectivity at full laser power. The reflectivity remains high even at intensities above 1019 W/cm2 in the case of a high‐contrast prepulse‐free laser. On the contrary, the specular reflectivity drops in the case of lower contrast, due to the beam break‐up and increased absorption caused by the preformed plasma. The technique was demonstrated using three different laser systems with several contrast conditions: Astra (CLF, RAL), TiS laser at APRI, GIST, and J‐KAREN (APRC, JAEA).
Approximation de requête basée sur une ontologie , pour la recherche sur le Web sémantique avec Corese

The semantic web relies on ontologies representing domains through their main concepts and the relations between them. Such a domain knowledge is the keystone to represent the semantic contents of web resources and services in metadata associated to them. These metadata then enable us to search for information based on the semantics of web resources rather than their syntactic forms. However, in the context of the semantic web there are many possibilities of executing queries that would not retrieve any resource. The viewpoints of the designers of ontologies, of the designers of annotations and of the users performing a Web search may not completely match. The user may not completely share or understand the viewpoints of the designers and this mismatch may lead to missed answers. Approximate query processing is then of prime importance for efficiently searching the Semantic Web. In this paper we present the Corese ontology-based search engine we have developped to handle RDF(S) and OWL Lite metadata. We present its theoretical foundation, its query language, and we stress its ability to process approximate queries. Key-words: Semantic Web, Web Search, RDF(S), OWL Lite, Ontology, Approximate Queries ∗ INRIA National Institute of Research in Computer Science of Sophia Antipolis, France † I3S Institute of Research in Computer Science of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, France Approximation de requête basée sur une ontologie, pour la recherche sur le Web sémantique avec Corese Résumé : Le web sémantique repose sur des ontologies pour représenter un domaine à travers ses principaux concepts et leurs inter-relations. Une telle connaissance du domaine est la clé pour représenter le contenu sémantique des ressources et services web dans des métadonnées associées. Ces métadonnées permettent une recherche d’information basée sur la sémantique des ressources web plutôt que sur leur forme syntaxique. Cependant, dans le contexte du web sémantique, il y a de multiples occasions d’exprimer des requêtes pour lesquelles aucune ressource n’est trouvée. Les points de vue de l’auteur des ontologies, de l’auteur des annotations et des utilisateurs effectuant une recherche sur le web peuvent ne pas coïncider complètement. L’utilisateur peut ne pas complètement partager ou comprendre le point de vue des auteurs, ce qui peut conduire à des réponses perdues. Le traitement de requêtes approchées devient decefait un enjeu pour rechercher efficacement sur le web. Dans cet article, nous présentons le moteur de recherche sémantique Corese, que nous avons développé pour raisonner sur des métadonnées RDF(S) et OWL Lite. Nous présentons ses fondements théoriques, son langage de requête et nous mettons l’accent sur sa capacité à exécuter des recherches approchées. Mots-clés : Web sémantique, Recherche sur le Web, RDF(S), OWL Lite, Ontologies, Requêtes approchées Ontology-based Approximate Query Processing for the Semantic Web with Corese 3
Assistive technology as reading interventions for children with reading impairments with a one-year follow-up

Abstract Purpose: This pilot study investigated the possible transfer effect on reading ability in children with reading difficulties after a systematic intervention to train and compensate for reading deficiencies by using applications in smartphones and tablets. The effects of using assistive technology (AT) one year after the interventions were completely studied. School related motivation, independent learning and family relations were also considered. Method: 35 pupils aged 10–12 years participated. They were assessed five times with reading tests. The participants, their parents and teachers were surveyed with questionnaires regarding their experience of using AT. The data from the assessments were analyzed with paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed using content analysis. Results: The paper shows that using AT can create transfer effects on reading ability one year after the interventions were finished. This means that reading impaired children may develop at the same rate as non-impaired readers. Also, increased school motivation and an increase in independent learning and family effects have been shown. Conclusions: This paper provides implications in how to facilitate reading impaired pupils’ learning process and realizes the need to challenge the concept of reading to change to fit modern means of gaining information. Implications for rehabilitation Children with reading impairment could benefit from assistive technology in regards of their reading development process and increase their chances of not falling behind peers. Assistive technology as applications in smartphones and tablets may aid children with reading impairment to have an equal platform for learning in school as their peers without reading difficulties. Assistive technology could facilitate the information gaining process and subsequently increase motivation to learn and increase interest in reading activities. Assistive technology had wider effects on its users: stigmatizing situations when leaving the classroom for special education were avoided and positive effects on family life were noted.
Radial gradient of modulus of elasticity of wood and tracheid cell walls in dominant pine trees (Pinus sylvestris L.)

SYNOPSIS. This paper presents results of measurements of radial gradients of density and wood elasticity modulus determined in the tensile test for microtome samples obtained from earlyand latewood in annual growth rings of pine trees dominant in the tree stand. On the basis of the results, the elasticity modulus of cell walls has been determined and then analysed as a function of the microfibril angle in tangent tracheid walls.
Reader Activation Scheduling in Multi-reader RFID Systems: A Study of General Case

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology where a reader device can "sense'' the presence of a close by object by reading a tag device attached to the object. To guarantee the coverage quality, multiple RFID readers can be deployed in the given region. In this paper, we consider the problem of activation schedule for readers in a multi-reader environment. In particular, we try to design a schedule for readers to maximize the number of served tags per time-slot while avoiding various interferences. We first develop a centralized algorithm under the assumption that different readers may have different interference and interrogation radius. Next, we propose a novel algorithm which does not need any location information of the readers. Finally, we extend the previous algorithm in distributed manner in order to suit the case where no central entity exists. We conduct extensive simulations to study the performances of our proposed algorithm. And our evaluation results corroborate our theoretical analysis.
Symbolic behavioral model generation of current-mode analog circuits

A novel extended method to approximate the behavioral model of current-mode analog circuits (CMACs) is presented. The nullor is employed to model the behavior of a MOS Transistor (MOST) together with its parasitic elements. In a first part, the signal-path (SP) into a CMAC is approached by using the nullor properties. In the second part, the behavioral model associated to each MOST is generated and it is more simple in comparison with the original model. As a consequence, in the third part, an admittance matrix of reduced size is built and used to compute small-signal characteristics of CMACs, where the order is given by the number of SP-nodes minus the number of nullors. The proposed technique is illustrated by computing the fully-symbolic transfer function of a Positive Second Generation Current Conveyor (CCII+) and compared with Hspice simulation.
Dispersion of carbon nanotubes in vinyl ester polymer composites

Dispersion of Carbon Nanotubes in Vinyl Ester Polymer Composites by Laura Pena-Paras This work focused on a parametric study of dispersions of different types of carbon nanotubes in a polymer resin. Single-walled (SWNTs), double-walled (DWNTs), multiwalled (MWNTs) and XD-grade carbon nanotubes (XD-CNTs) were dispersed in vinyl ester (VE) using an ultra-sonic probe at a fixed frequency. The power, amplitude, and mixing time parameters of sonication were correlated to the electrical and mechanical properties of the composite materials in order to optimize dispersion. The quality of dispersion was quantified by Raman spectroscopy and verified through optical and scanning electron microscopy. By Raman, the CNT distribution, unroping, and damage was monitored and correlated with the composite properties for dispersion optimization. Increasing the ultrasonication energy was found to improve the distribution of all CNT materials and to decrease the size of nanotube ropes, enhancing the electrical conductivity and storage modulus. However, excessive amounts of energy were found to damage CNTs, which negatively affected the properties of the composite. Based on these results the optimum dispersion energy inputs were determined for the different composite materials. The electrical resistivity was lowered by as much as 14, 13, 13, and 11 orders of magnitude for SWNT/VE, DWNT/VE, MWNT/VE, and XD-CNT/VE respectively, compared to the neat resin. The storage modulus was also increased compared to the neat resin by 77%, 82%, 45%, 40% and 85% in SWNT, SAP-f-SWNT, DWNT, MWNT and