Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On the UWB medical radars working principles

In the last 20 years, a lot of research activity has been carried out on UWB radar in medicine. Over the years, many implementations of medical UWB radars have been presented in literature. An interesting medical application for these devices is the wireless monitoring of vital signs. Heart and breath rate were successfully detected with such devices but in spite of the many working examples presented, the authors are still convinced that a solid explanation of the operation of such radars is lacking. UWB radar output signals are indubitably correlated with the respiration and heart activities but where do they come from? The classic explanation as per the McEwan's patent of 1996 proposes that the signal is due to deep echoes reflections from the heart wall and blood. This fact does not seem a realistic explanation of the phenomenon.
Marker-free Object Recognition on Tabletops: An Exploratory Study

In the last decade, object recognition placed on tabletop has been advertised as a near future ability on next generation tabletops by several major information technology companies. Markers-based recognition seems the straightforward solution, but one can easily understand that this may not be a lasting solution for real word scenarios. In this paper, we study the marker-free object recognition ability of a commonly used tabletop. This tabletop does not rely on external cameras and thus fits perfectly a future connected house scenario. A proof-of-concept system has been developed and experimented on various objects. Based on this study, we raise some conclusions and perspectives on both software and hardware levels.
A clinical trial of WRL 105 strain live attenuated influenza vaccine comparing four methods of intranasal vaccination

SUMMARY A single intranasal dose of 107.0 EID50 recombinant WRL 105 strain live attenuated influenza vaccine was administered intranasally to 193 volunteers either as nose drops or by one of three spray devices which produced sprays of differing physical characteristics. In volunteers with homologous haemagglutinating inhibiting antibody titres of ⋜ 20 before vaccination, seroconversion rates varied widely from 80% following the administration of drops to 71%, 57% and 28% with the three spray devices. In the week following vaccination 16 (22%) of 74 volunteers who were found to show a fourfold or greater antibody response took analgesics to control symptoms in comparison with 4 (7%) of 58 volunteers who exhibited no sero-logical response to vaccination (P < 0.05). However, neither the occurrence of upper respiratory nor systemic symptoms were significantly different in these two groups and the degree of attenuation of the recombinant WRL 105 strain appears to be acceptable for future use.
Infections in Organ Transplant Recipients

Abstract Since the introduction and widespread performance of transplant surgery in the 1950s and 1960s, infectious complications have been a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The risks of infection are directly related to the potency and duration of immunosuppressive therapies, organ-donor selection, surgical techniques, and postoperative exposures to invasive procedures or treatments. Despite impressive advancements to decrease the risks of infection, between 40% and 80% of renal transplant patients become infected within the first two or three postoperative years. Infections that occur during the first month following transplantation are often caused by common nosocomial pathogens and are secondary to invasive procedures or therapies. Infections that occur between one and six months post-surgery are often caused by opportunistic pathogens. Symptomatic and subclinical cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections are common during this time and may contribute to a further impairment of host defenses. Late infections involve both opportunistic and conventional pathogens; opportunistic infections occur in patients with poor transplant function who require high levels of immunosuppression and conventional infections occur in patients who require little immunosuppression. During the past two decades, there has been a significant decrease in deaths from infectious complications among renal transplant recipients. Further reductions in morbidity and mortality will occur with the development of more specific approaches for immunosuppressive therapy, new strategies to prevent CMV infections and methods to eliminate sources of nosocomial infections.
A New Measure of Anti‐Arab Prejudice: Reliability and Validity Evidence

Two studies were conducted to provide reliability and validity support for a new anti-Arab prejudice scale. The scale was designed to fit to the European context and showed very satisfactory reliability. Moreover, both studies provided convergent validity support. Anti-Arab prejudice was correlated with authoritarianism, anti-Semitism, and conservatism. The correlation between the new scale and an adapted version of McConahay's (1986) Modern Racism scale was very strong. Furthermore, the second study provided predictive validity support. Scores in the new scale explained 20% of the variance in an ulterior actual behavior (to return a signed form supporting an association aimed to defend European values and culture against Islamization).
Mathematics For Students with Learning Disabilities from Language-Minority Backgrounds: Recommendations for Teaching

This article examines characteristics and cultural and linguistic factors relevant to mathematics instruction of students with learning disabilities from language-minority backgrounds. Recommendations and strategies are introduced with attention given to balancing the influences of language, culture, and disability. Specific recommendations relate to: 1) appraising math ability; 2) selecting the language of instruction; 3) moving from concrete to abstract understanding; 4) using strategies that help students develop mathematical concepts; 5) using math for language development; and 6) taking student strengths into consideration.
Interparental Conflict as Intrusive Family Process

SUMMARY A rapidly growing body of research indicates that marital conflict, often referred to as interparental conflict (IPC), 'spills over' into family processes, and thus has negative impact on child development. With increasing clarity, this research documents the spillover phenomenon as intrusive to children both in terms of discrete and broad indices of child well-being, and also through IPC's links to ineffective and intrusive parenting. In addition, new research suggests that covert conflict styles are particularly intrusive-and potentially coercive-to children due to IPC's linkages with parental psychological control. Taken together, these findings underscore the need for integrative interventions that address the components of the spillover model; that is, interventions that help parents deal well with conflict and that support good parenting, and interventions that assist children in coping with the difficulties of IPC.
Fine-Grained Multitask Allocation for Participatory Sensing With a Shared Budget

For participatory sensing, task allocation is a crucial research problem that embodies a tradeoff between sensing quality and cost. An organizer usually publishes and manages multiple tasks utilizing one shared budget. Allocating multiple tasks to participants, with the objective of maximizing the overall data quality under the shared budget constraint, is an emerging and important research problem. We propose a fine-grained multitask allocation framework (MTPS), which assigns a subset of tasks to each participant in each cycle. Specifically, considering the user burden of switching among varying sensing tasks, MTPS operates on an attention-compensated incentive model where, in addition to the incentive paid for each specific sensing task, an extra compensation is paid to each participant if s/he is assigned with more than one task type. Additionally, based on the prediction of the participants' mobility pattern, MTPS adopts an iterative greedy process to achieve a near-optimal allocation solution. Extensive evaluation based on real-world mobility data shows that our approach outperforms the baseline methods, and theoretical analysis proves that it has a good approximation bound.
Modelling the effects of ionospheric disturbances on quasi-vertically incident ionograms using 3D magneto-ionic raytracing

Ionospheric disturbances are manifest over a large range of spatial and temporal scales. Currently DSTO has a good understanding of these disturbances at the largest scales (> 1000 km and > 15 min) through its network of vertical incident (VI) sounders. However, we are interested in investigating these disturbances at much smaller scale sizes. To this end DSTO has initiated an experimental programme, SpICE (Spatial Ionospheric Correlation Experiment), utilising state-of-the-art DSTO designed high frequency (HF) digital receivers. This programme seeks to understand ionospheric disturbances at scales < 150 km and temporal resolutions under 1 minute through the simultaneous observation and recording of quasi-vertical ionograms (QVI) with closely spaced ionospheric control points. The rst experimental campaign was conducted in February 2008. A detailed description of and early results from this campaign were presented by [1] and [2]. Since then there have been a further 2 campaigns which are described by [3]. In this paper we show how 3D magneto-ionic Hamiltonian raytracing techniques can be used to model and understand the various ionospheric disturbances seen in the data.
An Intersubunit Interaction between S4-S5 Linker and S6 Is Responsible for the Slow Off-gating Component in Shaker K+ Channels*

Voltage-gated ion channels are controlled by the membrane potential, which is sensed by peripheral, positively charged voltage sensors. The movement of the charged residues in the voltage sensor may be detected as gating currents. In Shaker K+ channels, the gating currents are asymmetric; although the on-gating currents are fast, the off-gating currents contain a slow component. This slow component is caused by a stabilization of the activated state of the voltage sensor and has been suggested to be linked to ion permeation or C-type inactivation. The molecular determinants responsible for the stabilization, however, remain unknown. Here, we identified an interaction between Arg-394, Glu-395, and Leu-398 on the C termini of the S4-S5 linker and Tyr-485 on the S6 of the neighboring subunit, which is responsible for the development of the slow off-gating component. Mutation of residues involved in this intersubunit interaction modulated the strength of the associated interaction. Impairment of the interaction still led to pore opening but did not exhibit slow gating kinetics. Development of this interaction occurs under physiological ion conduction and is correlated with pore opening. We, thus, suggest that the above residues stabilize the channel in the open state.
Characterization of the mechanism of action of Escherichia coli heat-stable enterotoxin

The mechanism of activation of intestinal guanylate cyclase by Escherichia coli heat-stable enterotoxin (STa) has been studied by using isolated rat intestinal epithelial cells and purified brush border membrane (BBM) preparations. Inhibitors of prostaglandin biosynthesis, quinacrine and 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraynoic acid (ETYA), significantly reduced intracellular levels of cyclic guanosine 3', 5'-monophosphate in isolated cells treated with STa. Although these data suggested that activation of phospholipase A2 and metabolism of arachidonic acid are involved in the mechanism of action of STa, other data ruled out such a mechanism. (i) The rate of release of [3H]arachidonic acid by prelabeled intestinal cells incubated with STa was the same as control cells not treated with STa. (ii) Thin-layer chromatography of lipid extracts of intestinal cells treated with STa and untreated cells did not reveal any quantitative or qualitative differences in free fatty acids, neutral lipids, and phospholipids. (iii) Amounts of prostaglandin PGE2, prostaglandin PGF2 alpha, and thromboxane B2 in intestinal cells and BBM incubated with STa did not increase compared with controls not incubated with STa. When purified BBM preparations were incubated with phospholipase A2 inhibitors (p-bromophenacyl bromide and quinacrine) or cyclooxygenase inhibitors (ETYA and indomethacin), basal and STa-induced guanylate cyclase activities were significantly reduced. Inhibitors of calcium-calmodulin-mediated reactions (EGTA [ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N-tetraacetic acid], trifluoperazine, and chlorpromazine) and calcium channel blockers (verapamil and nifedipine) also nonspecifically inhibited both basal and STa-stimulated guanylate cyclase in BBM preparations. Lanthanum, a competitive inhibitor of membrane-bound calcium, did not affect either basal or STa-stimulated guanylate cyclase of BBM preparations. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Neurospora crassa PP2A Regulatory Subunits RGB1 and B56 Are Required for Proper Growth and Development and Interact with the NDR Kinase COT1

COT1 is the founding member of the highly conserved nuclear Dbf2-related (NDR) Ser/Thr kinase family and plays a role in the regulation of polar growth and development in Neurospora crassa and other fungi. Changes in COT1 phosphorylation state have been shown to affect hyphal elongation, branching, and conidiation. The function of NDR protein kinases has been shown to be regulated by type 2A protein phosphatases (PP2As). PP2As are heterotrimers comprised of a catalytic and scaffolding protein along with an interchangeable regulatory subunit involved in determining substrate specificity. Inactivation of the N. crassa PP2A regulatory subunits rgb-1 and b56 conferred severe hyphal growth defects. Partial suppression of defects observed in the rgb-1RIP strain (but not in the Δb56 mutant) was observed in cot-1 phosphomimetic mutants, demonstrating that altering COT1 phosphorylation state can bypass, at least in part, the requirement of a functional RGB1 subunit. The functional fusion proteins RGB1::GFP and B56::GFP predominantly localized to hyphal tips and septa, respectively, indicating that their primary activity is in different cellular locations. COT1 protein forms exhibited a hyperphosphorylated gel migration pattern in an rgb-1RIP mutant background, similar to that observed when the fungus was cultured in the presence of the PP2A inhibitor cantharidin. COT1 was hypophosphorylated in a Δb56 mutant background, suggesting that this regulatory subunit may be involved in determining COT1 phosphorylation state, yet in an indirect manner. Reciprocal co-immunoprecipitation analyses, using tagged COT1, PPH1, RGB1, and B56 subunits established that these proteins physically interact. Taken together, our data determine the presence of a functional and physical link between PP2A and COT1 and show that two of the PP2A regulatory subunits interact with the kinase and determine COT1 phosphorylation state.
Shayla: A Portrait of the Schooling Experiences of an Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Youth

Native youth have complex schooling experiences. To better understand Indigenous youths' experience in public schools and in order to inform schooling practices and teacher preparation for both Native and non-Native teachers we share this portrait of Shayla. Through this research, particularly in the use of portraiture to document “goodness” in the lives of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian youth in schools, a more complicated picture of success and challenges for Native youth emerges. We particularly highlight Shayla's experience in seventh and eighth grades in a rural middle school adjacent to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian Qualla Boundary. One finding suggests a need to better contextualize and understand students not only as individuals but also as members of families and cultural groups by non-Native teachers. Specifically, teachers must be aware of the historical and cultural significance of the place in which teaching and learning occurs in order to be culturally responsive. In sharing Shayla's complex experiences of schooling we hope to contribute to the ongoing discussions in teaching and teacher education about culturally relevant schooling for Native youth.
Motivation and Its Impact on Organizational Effectiveness in Albanian Businesses

Organizations wish to perform successfully in the market and if possible to have a sustainable economic growth. However, in the current circumstances of globalization and strong competition, technology is advancing at a rapid pace, hence making the market an unsafe environment. The business organizations (BOs) would have to make full use of all resources available. It is already a well-known fact that human resources or organization personnel constitute a key asset for achieving success. Yet, what makes the employees of a BO satisfied or motivated to achieve the planned objectives? In this research, we analyze some of the factors influencing the motivation of employees to enhance their performance. Through empirical and theoretical analysis, the study will identify the relationship between the motivation of employees and organizational effectiveness and finally the increase of BO revenues. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact produced by the motivation of employees on organizational effectiveness. Personnel motivation will involve criteria such as employees’ bonus, good communication within the working premises, and satisfaction at their job place.
Protocols for Maintaining Consistency ofReplicated

Data replication is a useful technique for improving the performance and availability in distributed database systems. Most of the protocols proposed in the literature to control the access to the replicated data use some form of voting for maintaining the data consistent, and follow a pessimistic approach, in the sense that they prevent possibly unsafe changes to the replicated data. In this paper several of those protocols are described and compared. Some optimistic protocols, and some protocols not based on voting are also brieey presented.
Efficient key management model and scheme for content access control in hierarchies

Content access control within hierarchies is an ubiquitous problem. It occurs in any context where users have different access rights to a set of resources. Resources are encrypted using cryptographic keys and key management schemes are used to generate, distribute and renew them. We propose a new key management model and build an efficient key management scheme on top of it. We start by introducing the content access control problem and review the most important works on key management for content access control from both multicast and information technology communities. The main contribution of this paper is twofold: first, we propose a key management model that takes advantage of the implicit relations between resources to optimize the number of keys in the hierarchy; second, we propose a key management scheme our model.
Performance comparison of different element shapes used in printed reflectarrays

This paper presents a systematic performance comparison of reflectarray elements with different shapes. Four parameters are defined as "figures of merit" of the element performance the range of the reflection phase (i.e., the maximum phase variation), the sensitivity to mechanical tolerances, the bandwidth, and the cross-polarization level. Both classical shapes (like rectangles, dipoles, and rectangles with tuning stubs) and a novel ridge shape are analyzed and compared.
Cloud Readiness Assessment of Legacy Application

: Applications and services hosted in the cloud are increasing continuously. Cloud technology offers important perspectives (performance, high availability, elasticity) and it enables new business models. Unfortunately, this new paradigm faces unprecedent requirements not addressed in legacy application (multi-tenancy, scalability, etc.). This leads to complex re-engineering phases in order to to migrate existing software into a cloud environment. Before starting a migration, it is important to analyze the cloud compliance of the application, what to expect after the migration and the effort required to fulﬁll these expectations. This paper assesses a way to extract an index that describes the feasibility of the re-engineering. We test the metric with a real application that needs to be migrated to a private cloud.
A unifying framework for structure and motion recovery from image sequences

The paper proposes a statistical framework that enables 3D structure and motion to be computed optimally from an image sequence, on the assumption that feature measurement errors are independent and Gaussian distributed. The analysis and results demonstrate that computing both camera/scene motion and 3D structure is essential to computing either with any accuracy. Having computed optimal estimates of structure and motion over a small number of initial images, a recursive version of the algorithm (previously reported) recomputes sub optimal estimates given new image data. The algorithm is designed explicitly for real time implementation, and the complexity is proportional to the number of tracked features. 3D projective, affine and Euclidean models of structure and motion recovery have been implemented, incorporating both point and line features into the computation. The framework can handle any feature type and camera model that may be encapsulated as a projection equation from scene to image. <<ETX>>
Viewing chelonian reproductive ecology through acoustic windows: cranial and inguinal perspectives.

Ultrasonography is a powerful new tool in reproductive physiology and ecology but quantitative evaluations of acoustic window efficacies are necessary to assess methodological accuracy. We evaluated the efficacy of the left inguinal, right inguinal and cranial acoustic windows for detecting ovarian follicles and oviducal eggs in three tortoise species. Incorporating cranial results improved upon inguinal efficacies for detecting follicles in the three species, and for detecting eggs in Chersina angulata, which had small inguinal apertures for its body size. The cranial window provided the best follicle results (highest numbers detected) but the left inguinal window provided the best egg results. This asymmetry was probably due to the primarily posterior position of the oviducts (eggs) and the pliable ovarian sheets allowing follicles to move cranially. The left-right asymmetry may result from intestinal asymmetry (i.e., between the cecum and descending colon) in obscuring ultrasound transmission or displacing follicles and eggs. Seasonal influences upon efficacies varied with species, partially due to species differences in a) reproductive cycles and b) size and number of follicles and eggs. We attributed other efficacy differences among species to differences in body size and shell morphology, especially the inguinal apertures. Correlation analyses revealed strong individual influences upon window efficacy, suggesting that individuals varied in the position of follicles and eggs and the degree of obfuscation by nonreproductive structures. The paucity of correlations between efficacies and body size reflects the complex interactions of body size, shell morphology, reproductive structures and reproductive cycles on efficacies.