Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bio-inspired sensor swarms to detect leaks in pressurized systems

Revolutionary technologies for quickly locating and repairing leaks in the pressurized environment of the International Space Station are a critical NASA need. Leaks caused by the malfunction of on-board vacuum systems, or leaks caused by impact with space debris pose very serious safety concerns that must be dealt with rapidly and effectively. The detection of a pressure drop by any one of several primary cabin pressure sensors distributed throughout the pressurized environment release a swarm of highly sensitive pressure sensors in the vicinity of pressure change. Sensors shaped for navigating in microgravity environments compute the air-flow direction and are swept along a decreasing pressure gradient towards the leak. Self-organizing abilities enable the sensor swarm to follow the pressure gradient and quickly detect and plug the leak source. A sensor swarm is a novel bio-inspired technology to detect and fix leaks in any pressurized containment in microgravity environments.
Automatic Extraction of Kinetic Information from Biochemical Literatures

Software for computational analysis and simulation of biochemical systems has become one of the major computational tools in systems biology in recent years. Most of them use parameterized differential equations to model and describe biochemical systems. Although biochemical principles, such as enzyme mechanics, have been developed to derive kinetic rate equations, measuring and providing parameters in the equations are expensive and laborious. Observe that many kinetic parameters have been experimentally measured in previous research, and recorded in published literatures. Instead of measuring kinetic parameters from experiments, one of the alternatives is to find parameters from literatures. However, the amount of such literatures is huge, and reading them is very time-consuming. About the previous research of kinetic parameters are focused on literature including kinetic parameters or not. In this paper, we present a software tool (KIND) for automatic extraction of kinetic parameters from full-length literatures. In order to help biologist easy to retrieve kinetic parameters information, KIND can automatic generate table format to present kinetic parameters information from literatures. We aim at developing a tool that can be used to compile a database of kinetic parameters from literatures to aid the modeling of biological processes.
A study of adverse events in an intensive care unit in Morocco

Adverse events in an intensive care unit can raise important medical, ethical, legal and economic problems. This study aims at pointing out these adverse events, by assessing their severity, identifying the very risk factors associated with them, and comparing our results with existing evidence-based data. Material and methods: This is a retrospective study in the intensive care unit of the Military Hospital of Instruction Mohammed V, at RABAT, carried out over a period of 3 years and half. Included in the study are medical records of patients with an adverse event (AE) during their hospitalization in the IC (Intensive Care) or elsewhere, and who required a stay in Intensive care. We excluded nosocomial infections and adverse events due to medicated side effects, as there is no conclusive evidence of the accountability of the event to the product. Results: The study focuses on 813 patients. 44 patients experienced at least one adverse event, with an incidence of 5.4%. They were dominated by those of respiratory type (34%), followed by cardiovascular events and neurological disorders. All events were considered as preventable. The identified risk factors were due to human errors in 95% of cases: mainly, careless mistakes. The consequences of adverse events were of varying severity, with a mortality rate of 39% and a residence time of 12 days on average, comparable to those of other patients without iatrogenic complications. Conclusion: In our study, AE are dominated by events of respiratory type, and human error is the main associated factor. The specific impact of these events on prognosis is difficult to assess because they occur in serious situations. The monitoring of AE may constitute a care quality indicator.
Factors associated with self-perception of health among Brazilian women 50 years or older: a population-based study

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate factors associated with self-perception of health among women 50 years or older living in a Brazilian city. Methods A cross-sectional, population-based study was conducted using self-reported data from a household survey carried out in a sample of 622 women 50 years or older. Sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with the women’s perception of their own health (very good, good, fair, poor, or very poor) were assessed. &khgr;2 test and Poison multiple logistic regression analysis were used to select the principal factors associated with a poorer perception of health at a significance level of 5%. Results Multiple analyses showed that the probability of association of chronic diseases with a woman’s perception of her health as fair, poor, or very poor increased by 97% when at least two morbidities were present, whereas for each point (kg/m2) increase in body mass index, the probability of association with her perceiving her health as poorer increased by 2% (95% CI, 1.01-1.04). The probability of association decreased by 50% if she had more than 8 years of schooling (95% CI, 0.36-0.70), by 29% if she had health insurance (95% CI, 0.59-0.86), and by 32% if she performed physical exercise weekly (95% CI, 0.54-0.86). Conclusions The presence of multimorbidities and a higher body mass index increases the probability of association with a woman’s poorer perception of her own health, whereas having more than 8 years of schooling, having medical insurance, and performing physical exercise weekly decreases the probability of association with a poorer perception of health.
Does Board Voting Efficiency Affect Corporate Performance and Governance? Evidence from the Even-Odd Effects of Corporate Board

We analyze a simple model of board voting and find that in comparison to boards with an even number of directors (even boards), those with an odd number of directors (odd boards) improve voting efficiency by better aggregating directors’ information. Consistent with the model’s implications, our empirical analysis reveals that firms with an odd board derive higher Tobin’s Q, deliver better operating performance, exhibit stronger Chief Executive Officer (CEO) turnover-performance sensitivity, and have lower CEO compensation but higher CEO pay-performance sensitivity, than do firms with an even board. Furthermore, these even-odd effects diminish as board size increases. Overall, our findings are consistent with the even-odd characteristic of board playing an important role in influencing board voting efficiency and thus the quality of board decisions.
Large Scale Monodisperse Hexagonal Arrays of Superparamagnetic Iron Oxides Nanodots: A Facile Block Copolymer Inclusion Method

Highly dense hexagonal ordered arrays of superparamagnetic iron oxides nanodots are fabricated by a simple and cost-effective route. Spectroscopic, microscopic and magnetic measurements show that the nanodots have uniform size, shape and their placement mimics the original self-assembled block copolymer pattern. The nanodots show good thermal stability and strong adherence to the substrate surface, making them useful for practical device applications.
Interdependent Regulation of Afferent Renal Nerve Activity and Renal Function: Role of Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid Type 1, Neurokinin 1, and Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide Receptors

Our previous studies have shown that the activation of the transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) expressed in the renal pelvis leads to an increase in ipsilateral afferent renal nerve activity (ARNA) and contralateral renal excretory function, but the molecular mechanisms of TRPV1 action are largely unknown. This study tests the hypothesis that activation of receptors of neurokinin 1 (NK1) or calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) by endogenously released substance P (SP) or CGRP following TRPV1 activation, respectively, governs TRPV1-induced increases in ARNA and renal excretory function. Capsaicin (CAP; 0.04, 0.4, and 4 nM), a selective TRPV1 agonist, administered into the renal pelvis dose-dependently increased ARNA. CAP (4 nM)-induced increases in ipsilateral ARNA or contralateral urine flow rate (Uflow) and urinary sodium excretion (UNa) were abolished by capsazepine (CAPZ), a selective TRPV1 antagonist, or 2-[1-imino-2-(2-methoxyphenyl)ethyl]-7,7-diphenyl-4-perhydroisoindolone (3aR,7aR) (RP67580) or cis-2-(diphenylmethyl)-N-[(2-iodophenyl)-methyl]-1 azabicyclo[2.2. 2]octan-3-amine (L703,606), selective NK1 antagonists, but not by CGRP8-37, a selective CGRP receptor antagonist. Both SP (7.4 nM) and CGRP (0.13 μM) increased ARNA, Uflow, or UNa, and increases in these parameters induced by CGRP but not SP were abolished by CAPZ. CAP at 4 nM perfused into the renal pelvis caused the release of SP and CGRP, which was blocked by CAPZ but not by RP67580, L703,606, or CGRP8-37. Immunofluorescence results showed that NK1 receptors were expressed in sensory neurons in dorsal root ganglion and sensory nerve fibers innervating the renal pelvis. Taken together, our data indicate that NK1 activation induced by SP release upon TRPV1 activation governs TRPV1 function and that a TRPV1-dependent mechanism is operant in CGRP action.
Análise do Desempenho Contábil-Financeiro de Seguradoras no Brasil no Ano de 2007: um Estudo Apoiado em Análise Hierárquica (AHP)

This article aims to analyze the accounting and financial performance in the Brazilian insurance companies, applying Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to information in the year 2007. For this, we use information about profitability, management efficiency (operational expenses), claims and risk (use of debt), that are the factors resulting from factor analysis done with the accounting and financial ratios available in the database of Conjuntura Economica Magazine (2008). To analyze the performance, the factors are consolidated into a single multicriterial indicator of accounting and financial performance obtained by applying the AHP. An innovation in the application of AHP in this study is the use of Cluster Analysis as a tool for the alternatives pairwise comparison, when we have a large number of comparisons. The performance analysis shows that the best insurance is the Safra and the worst result is due to the Sulina. The results show that there is no relationship between the accounting and financial performance, obtained by applying the AHP, and size, considering the earned premiums values as a proxy. Nevertheless, it was possible to observe the impact of size on accounting and financial performance, with significance level of 5 %, because the performance of five smaller insurers was significantly higher than the top five. Even in an incipient way, this may be showing a change in the standards of performance in the insurance sector, where the focus may be out of financial issues (common to large insurance companies that belong to large financial conglomerates) for more operational as the portfolio quality and other congeners.
Exploring Citations for Conflict of Interest Detection in Peer-review System

Peer review in scientific communications plays an important role in the advancement of any given field of study. However, different sorts of conflict of interest (COI) situations between authors and reviewers can compromise the review decision. Current COI detection systems primarily rely on co-authors networks, inferred from publicly available bibliographic databases as an implicit measure of collaborative and social relationships between researchers. However, different citations relationships have also been claimed to be indicative of various social and cognitive relationships between authors. This can be useful to identify those hidden relationships that can not be handled by traditional systems. This paper is an effort in the direction where we investigate to find any pattern in citations that can predict existence or non-existence of social relationships. It also explores citations relationships as a potential indicator of different types of cognitive relationships between researchers.
Universal banking : financial system design reconsidered

This guide to the issues and opinions surrounding financial systems shows the impact universal banking has had historically on the efficiency and stability of national economic peformance and growth. It also considers how universal banks should be regulated; explains how they will perform against specialist firms in national and global markets; and examines whether banks should be in the securities or insurance business.
High Interlaboratory Reproducibility of DNA Sequence-Based Typing of Bacteria in a Multicenter Study

ABSTRACT Current DNA amplification-based typing methods for bacterial pathogens often lack interlaboratory reproducibility. In this international study, DNA sequence-based typing of the Staphylococcus aureus protein A gene (spa, 110 to 422 bp) showed 100% intra- and interlaboratory reproducibility without extensive harmonization of protocols for 30 blind-coded S. aureus DNA samples sent to 10 laboratories. Specialized software for automated sequence analysis ensured a common typing nomenclature.
Matching heads of multiple people in multiple camera networks

In this paper, we aim to find the matches of head detections from different cameras. Matching of heads detected in different cameras and assigning the same label to the detection results which are actually from the same person can help to track the person robustly in severe occlusion because matching process can give more clues when the tracked person is even totally occluded in one camera. We present two similarity measurement methods for head matching based on geometry information: homography similarity and epipolar similarity. Each similarity is based on homography and fundamental matrix respectively. Experimental results show that our similarity measures have validity to use for matching head detections. We also compare two similarities and analyze what strong point of each method is.
Immunolocalization of glutathione reductase in the murine brain

Free radical species arise from the univalent reduction of oxygen. The cytosolic agent H2·O2, produced during enzymatic scavenging of the superoxide radical (O2−) is in turn removed predominantly via the oxidation of reduced glutathione (GSH) to the oxidized form (GSSG) by glutathione peroxidase. Subsequently GSSG is recycled back to GSH by glutathione reductase (GSH‐red). Little is known about the distribution of this enzyme in the brain. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of this enzyme in the brain of different murine species by means of immunocytochemical techniques, although most attention was given to the distribution of GSH‐red in the forebrain. In most brain areas GSH‐red positive neurons were detected, but the regional intracellular staining intensity differed markedly. The pre‐piriform and piriform cortices, the pyramidal cell layers of the hippocampus, and the dentate gyrus were heavily stained. The caudate nucleus displayed a progressive increase in the intracellular staining intensity from the rostral to the caudolateral parts. Furthermore, in the thalamus, there was a gradual decrease in GSH‐red staining from the medial to the lateral parts. The mesencephalon was poor in immunopositive cells, and in the substantia nigra pars reticulata, almost no labeling was detected. However, the substantia nigra pars compacta showed an intense GSH‐red immunoreactivity. The results show a specific localization of glutathione reductase in distinct brain regions, suggesting a variable potency of different brain areas in dealing with the damaging oxidative actions of free radicals. Also, differential GSH‐red expression patterns were found in the various murine species. Some species showed a pronounced GSH‐red immunoreactivity in glial cells, specifically in regions that lacked neuronal GSH‐red immunoreactivity. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Rizatriptan, a Novel 5‐HT1B/1D Agonist for Migraine: Single‐ and Multiple‐Dose Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics in Healthy Subjects

Rizatriptan is a novel 5‐HT1D/1B agonist for relief of migraine headache. The pharmacokinetics, metabolite profiles, and tolerability of rizatriptan were examined in a multiple‐dose study in healthy subjects. Rizatriptan (N = 24) (orplacebo, N = 12) was administered as a single 10 mg dose, followed 48 hours later by administration of one 10 mg dose every 2 hours for three doses on 4 consecutive days, corresponding to the maximum daily dose for a migraine attack. The AUC of rizatriptan and its active N‐monodesmethyl metabolite after three 10 mg doses was approximately threefold greater than the plasma concentrations following a single 10 mg dose. Metabolite profiles were similar after single and multiple doses. Adverse events during rizatriptan were mild and transient; similar events occurred during placebo, with a somewhat reduced incidence. Diastolic blood pressure tended to increase compared with placebo (∼5 mmHg), particularly on the first multiple‐dose day (p < .01 vs. placebo). In conclusion, rizatriptan is well tolerated by healthy subjects during multiple‐dose administration, with no unexpected accumulation of drug in plasma.
Effects of Inventory Management System on Organizational Performance: Case Study of Grain Bulk Handlers Limited

This study sought to critically analyze Inventory Management System as a determinant for performance of Grain Bulk. It sought to establish effects of inventory management system on organizational performance. Specifically it evaluated effects of inventory; control, speed, cost and accountability on organization performance. Having not yet adopted inventory management systems, organizations face stock out cost, which results into great loss. This study developed research questions such as what are the effects of inventory; control, speed, cost and accountability on organization performance. The study adopted a descriptive research design which ascertained and described characteristics of the variable of interest in a situation. The target population for this study was 672 workers with a size sample of 100. -----------------------------------------------------------------------* Corresponding author. E-mail address: jefwam@gmail.com.
Chemotactic Activity Generated by Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) has significant toxicity for several mammalian species by both oral and parenteral routes. When highly purified SEB was incubated for 1 hr at 37 C with fresh serum from normal young adult men with little or no antibody activity for SEB, a factor(s) chemotactic for human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) was formed. Similar experiments using rabbit serum and autologous peritoneal PMN also demonstrated chemotactic activation. All chemotactic activity generated at 37 C was destroyed by heating at 56 C for 30 min. In human studies, precipitating antibody to SEB prevented generation of chemotactic activity by SEB. Based on heat lability and antibody sensitivity, the chemotactic factor(s) generated by SEB differs from that generated by endotoxin, and suggests a mechanism by which the PMN may participate in the pathophysiology of enterotoxemia.
Flexibility of Dividend Policies and Shareholders' Returns in the European Union

We study dividend policies and dividend flexibility and use the annual abnormal return methodology to investigate the impact of more or less flexible policies for stock returns. We focus on the European Union which accommodates two corporate governance systems. We show that common law companies focus on cash dividends while civil law companies are more frequent repurchasers. This indicates that common law companies have more rigid dividend policies. Common law companies also have larger target payout ratios and smaller speeds of adjustment than civil law companies. Concomitantly, stockholders' reactions to cash dividends initiations and changes are fiercer in common law companies. In civil law companies relatively large repurchase amounts increase average abnormal returns, while a frequent use of repurchases diminishes abnormal returns. Common law shareholders strongly prefer an increase of cash dividends above an increase in repurchases, if a company already distributed through repurchases and cash dividends in the previous year. In civil law companies, repurchase increases are then slightly preferred.
Real life emotion classification using VOP and pitch based spectral features

In this work, vowel onset points (VOPs) and pitch based spectral features are used for speech emotion classification. VOP is an anchor point from which vowel begins in a CV unit (generally a syllable). These are estimated using energy values of linear prediction (LP) residual, short time spectrum and modulation spectrum. Identification of vowel, consonant and CV transition regions of a syllable is done based on VOP locations. Spectral features are separately extracted from vowel, consonant and CV transition regions. Emotion recognition models (ERMs) are developed separately using these spectral features. Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) are used as classifiers. Pitch synchronous analysis is done on speech signal and spectral features are extracted from each pitch period to develop emotion models. Simulated emotion speech corpus, IITKGP-SESC is used as a database. Results of IITKGP-SESC are compared with those of Berlin emotion speech database Emo-DB. Emotion recognition performance observed is about 92% and 89% for IITKGP-SESC and Emo-DB respectively. Later the approach has been extended to the recognition of real life emotions, using IITKGP-movie emotion speech corpus (IITKGP-MESC). About 82% of emotion recognition performance is observed in this case.
Maintaining Unlinkability in Group Based P2P Environments

In the wake of the success of peer-to-peer networking, privacy has arisen as a big concern. Even though steps have been taken in order to attain an anonymous communications channel, all approaches consider the overlay network as a single entity and none of them take into account peer group based environments. In this paper, we describe a method in order to maintain unlinkability in group membership authentication attempts when using peer groups relying on web-of-trust. Using this method, it is not possible to ultimately pinpoint a peer's identity despite the constraints of a group membership scenario.
Network Methods to Characterize Brain Structure and Function

Network science provides tools that can be used to understand the structure and function of the human brain in novel ways using simple concepts and mathematical representations. Network neuroscience is a rapidly growing field with implications for systems neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical medicine. In this chapter, we describe the methodology of network science as applied to neuroimaging data. We cover topics in constructing networks, probing network structure, generating network ‘diagnostics’, and experimental design. We discuss several current frontiers and the associated methodological challenges and considerations. We aim to provide a practical introduction to the field: we supplement the explanations and examples with pointers to resources for students or researchers interested in using these methods to address their own questions in empirical and theoretical neuroscience.