Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cardiovascular variability as a function of sleep–wake behaviour in narcolepsy with cataplexy

Hypocretin/orexin signalling varies among sleep–wake behaviours, impacts upon cardiovascular autonomic control and is impaired in patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy (NC). However, evidence concerning disturbed cardiovascular autonomic control in NC patients is contrasting, and limited mainly to waking behaviour. We thus investigated whether control of cardiovascular variability is altered in NC patients during wakefulness preceding sleep, light (1–2) and deep (3–4) stages of non‐rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Polysomnographic recordings and finger blood pressure measurements were performed on nine drug‐free male NC patients and nine matched healthy control subjects during spontaneous sleep–wake behaviour in a standardized laboratory environment. Indices of autonomic function were computed based on spontaneous fluctuations of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart period (HP). During wakefulness before sleep, NC patients showed significant decreases in indices of vagal HP modulation, cardiac baroreflex sensitivity and amplitude of central autonomic (feed‐forward) cardiac control compared with control subjects. During NREM sleep, the negative correlation between HP and subsequent SBP values was greater in NC patients than in control subjects, suggesting a greater contribution of central autonomic commands to cardiac control. Collectively, these results provide preliminary evidence that autonomic control of cardiac variability by baroreflex and central autonomic (feed‐forward) mechanisms is altered in NC patients during spontaneous sleep–wake behaviour, and particularly during wakefulness before sleep.
Toward a Critical Geography of the Border: Engaging the Dialectic of Practice and Meaning

Recent scholarship has pointed out the multidimensional character of national borders and the implausibility of the border as a single and coherent concept. In this article, I build on this scholarship as I discuss how geographers can critically engage in the dialectic of the border concept. To develop this argument, I review some of the existing literature on the concept of the border and cross-border migration and suggest that various material practices and meanings related to borders can be conceived of as “aspects” of the border concept. I argue that the impossibility of integrating these aspects into a coherent concept constitutes an important moment in the dialectic of the border. Critical geographers have an opportunity to engage with this border dialectic by offering meanings of borders that enable new possible border practices. I advocate a democratic aspect of the border concept decoupled from the state and implemented through a multitude of possible practices. I recognize that the consequences of such scholarly engagement in the border dialectic are not entirely foreseeable and therefore require continual reflection.
High-voltage compliant, capacitive-load invariant neural stimulation electronics compatible with standard bulk-CMOS integration

A neural stimulator architecture is described which can drive biphasic, constant-current waveforms through a wide range of electrode impedances with approximately ±11V compliance, while using a low-voltage, modern bulk-CMOS technology. The design, based on an H-bridge topology, utilizes a regulated “discharge” phase during biphasic delivery to account for “capacitive-looking” electrodes, extending the bipolar on-chip headroom of a CMOS stimulator. Stimulus current is supplied by integrated switched-capacitor, dynamic voltage supplies (0-12V), which operate with closed-loop control. The stimulator topology also uses a single, low-voltage current DAC to regulate the entire biphasic current waveform. The voltage supply block has been fabricated in 65nm standard CMOS. Cadence simulations of the proposed biphasic driver, designed for 250μA maximum current, are given for several “high” impedance electrode models. The efficacy of the proposed integrated electronics in potential neural stimulation applications is demonstrated with a board-level prototype, which has been designed and evaluated in-vivo (rat).
Verifying SCR Requirements Specifications Using State Exploration

Abstract : Researchers at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have been developing a formal method, known as the SCR (Software Cost Reduction) method, to specify the requirements of software systems using tables. NRL has developed a formal state machine model defining the SCR semantics and support tools for analysis and validation. Recently, a verification capability was added to the SCR toolset. Users can now invoke the Spin model checker within the toolset to establish properties of a specification. This paper describes the results of our initial experiments to verify properties of SCR requirements specifications using Spin. After reviewing the SCR requirements method and introducing our formal requirements model, we describe how SCR specifications can be translated into an imperative programming notation. We also describe how we limit state explosion by verifying abstractions of the original requirements specification. These abstractions are derived using the formula to be verified and special attributes of SCR specifications. The paper concludes with the results of our experiments with Spin and a discussion of ongoing and future work.
Traffic Sign Recognition For Computer Vision Project-Based Learning

: Our system is designed by using ARM 32-bit micro controller which supports different features and algorithms for the development of automotive vision systems. Here the camera is connected to ARM controller. The camera will capture traffic sign & colors and send the information to controller. While driving if any accident objects is present, the objects can be detected by using ultrasonic sensor which is connected to ARM board. The controller will recognize the signs using Open CV libraries and it will detect objects using sensor, based on this controller will perform particular operation like stop the vehicle etc. Also it displays the information on touch screen display unit.
A Survey of Social-Based Routing in Delay Tolerant Networks: Positive and Negative Social Effects

Delay tolerant networks (DTNs) may lack continuous network connectivity. Routing in DTNs is thus challenging since it must handle network partitioning, long delays, and dynamic topology in such networks. In recent years, social-based approaches, which attempt to exploit social behaviors of DTN nodes to make better routing decision, have drawn tremendous interests in DTN routing design. In this article, we summarize the social properties in DTNs, and provide a survey of recent social-based DTN routing approaches. To improve routing performance, these methods either take advantages of positive social characteristics such as community and friendship to assist packet forwarding or consider negative social characteristics such as selfishness. We conclude by discussing some open issues and challenges in social-based approaches regarding the design of DTN routing protocols.
The Effectiveness of Structured Group Education on Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients

Background Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a common inflammatory rheumatic disease that affects the axial skeleton which can lead to structural and functional impairments. It has a negative impact on the person's daily life activities. Early diagnosis, exercise and patient education are factors playing a major role on prognosis. Objective The purpose of the study was to compare the structured theoretical and exercise educational program with routine clinic educational efforts on the parameters of the disorder over a 3 month follow up. Materials and Methods This randomized, educational intervention study was performed on 41 AS patients. A 5 day structured education and exercise program was applied to the first group of patients (Group 1) in subgroups consisting 4–5 patients each. Patients had group exercises throughout the education program. The second group followed routine clinical care. The effectiveness of the treatment was assessed by Bath ankylosing spondylitis functional (BASFI), Bath ankylosing spondylitis disease activity (BASDAI), Bath ankylosing spondylitis global (BAS-G), Bath ankylosing spondylitis metrology indices (BASMI), chest expansion, short form-36 (SF-36), ankylosing spondylitis quality of life scale (ASQoL) and laboratory parameters in all patients. Patients were evaluated on initiation and after 3 months. Results Significant improvements in BASFI, BASDAI and BAS-G, chest expansion, SF-36 and ASQoL indices were observed in Group 1 No difference could be found in BASMI and chest expansion. Conclusion A structured educational and exercise intervention had a positive effect on the functional status,disease activity, and general well-being and quality of life. It also, shows that education programs should be within the routine treatment program for AS.
Factor IX gene sequencing by a simple and sensitive 15‐hour procedure for haemophilia B diagnosis: identification of two novel mutations

We have developed a simple, sensitive and cost‐effective direct DNA sequencing procedure for the molecular diagnosis of haemophilia B. All factor IX gene essential regions were amplified under identical thermocycling parameters allowing mutation identification in less than 15 h from blood sample collection. Identical results in terms of accuracy and speed were obtained when using a single hair as the source of DNA. Using this approach, we have found mutations in 10 out of 10 haemophilia B patients, two of which are novel (P287T and S123C). Very suitable for individual studies, this procedure can be easily scaled up for higher throughput.
Microcantilever deflection compensation with focused ion beam exposure

We report a silicon microcantilever deflection compensation technique using a focused ion beam (FIB). We find that microcantilevers fabricated in the top silicon layer of a silicon-on-insulator wafer often have a residual deflection up out of the plane of the silicon, after release by hydrofluoric (HF) acid in which the underlying silicon dioxide is removed. We investigate compensating the out-of-plane deflection with a dose of Ga ions in the anchoring region of each microcantilever. Using this technique, deflection compensation is performed on an array of twenty-two 300 µm long and 0.65 µm thick microcantilevers. The average deflection is reduced from 919 nm ± 232 nm after HF release to –9 nm ± 34 nm after FIB compensation.
Large Scale Global Optimization using Differential Evolution with self-adaptation and cooperative co-evolution

In this paper, an optimization algorithm is formulated and its performance assessment for large scale global optimization is presented. The proposed algorithm is named DEwSAcc and is based on Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, which is a floating-point encoding evolutionary algorithm for global optimization over continuous spaces. The original DE is extended by log-normal self-adaptation of its control parameters and combined with cooperative co-evolution as a dimension decomposition mechanism. Experimental results are given for seven high-dimensional test functions proposed for the Special Session on Large Scale Global Optimization at 2008 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence.
Quantification of retinex in enhancement of weather degraded images

The Images of outdoor scenes captured in bad weather suffer from poor contrast and color of images are drastically altered or degraded. It is imperative to remove weather effects from images in order to make vision systems more reliable. Also, there are often serious discrepancy existing between the images and the direct observation of the real scenes. Even with wide dynamic range imaging systems, the recorded images will not be seen same as real observation is because of its weaker dynamic range compression. The retinex is aimed to obtain the balance between the human vision and machine vision system along with color constancy. In this paper, MSRCR synthesizes dynamic range compression, color constancy, and color rendition and, thereby, approaches fidelity to direct observation to enhance the weather-degraded images. The paper also quantifies quality of MSR enhancement algorithm.
Bulgeless Galaxies and Their Angular Momentum Problem

The specific angular momentum of cold dark matter (CDM) halos in a ΛCDM universe is investigated. Their dimensionless specific angular momentum λ′ = j/(VvirRvir) with Vvir and Rvir the virial velocity and virial radius, respectively, depends strongly on their merging histories. We investigate a set of ΛCDM simulations and explore the specific angular momentum content of halos formed through various merging histories. Halos with a quiet merging history, dominated by minor mergers and accretion until the present epoch, acquire by tidal torques on average only 2%-3% of the angular momentum required for their rotational support (λ′ = 0.02). This is in conflict with observational data for a sample of late-type bulgeless galaxies that indicates that those galaxies reside in dark halos with exceptionally high values of λ′ ≈ 0.06-0.07. Minor mergers and accretion preserve or slowly increase the specific angular momentum of dark halos with time. This mechanism, however, is not efficient enough in order to explain the observed spin values for late-type dwarf galaxies. Energetic feedback processes have been invoked to solve the problem that gas loses a large fraction of its specific angular momentum during infall. Under the assumption that dark halos hosting bulgeless galaxies acquire their mass via quiescent accretion, our results indicate yet another serious problem: the specific angular momentum gained during the formation of these objects is not large enough to explain their observed rotational properties, even if no angular momentum would be lost during gas infall.
Finding Minimal Spanning Forests in a Grap

We propose two algorithms for solving a graph partitioning problem motivated by computational topology. Specifically, given a weighted, undirected graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, we desire to find $k$ disjoint trees within $G$ such that each vertex of $G$ is contained in one of the trees and the weight of largest tree is as small as possible. We are unable to find this problem in the graph partitioning literature, but we show that the problem is NP-complete. We propose two approximation algorithms, one that uses a spectral clustering approach and another that employs a dynamic programming strategy, that produce near-optimal partitions on a family of test graphs. We describe these algorithms and analyze their empirical performance.
Minimizing Statistical Bias with Queries

I describe an exploration criterion that attempts to minimize the error of a learner by minimizing its estimated squared bias. I describe experiments with locally-weighted regression on two simple kinematics problems, and observe that this "bias-only" approach outperforms the more common "variance-only" exploration approach, even in the presence of noise.
How individuals with self‐reported anxiety and depression experienced a combination of individual counselling with an adventurous outdoor experience: A qualitative evaluation

Background: Adventure therapy is a short-term experiential psychotherapeutic approach that utilises adventurous activities and being in natural environments in order to facilitate therapeutic change in clients. The present paper examines how students with self-reported anxiety and depression experienced participating in an innovative intervention that combined individual therapy with an adventurous outdoor experience. Clients participating in the Adventure Therapy Project received between 1015 one-to-one counselling sessions prior to the outdoor experience, as well as ongoing counselling following it. Method: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used in order to record and analyse the experiences of three male and three female students who presented at a major UK university student counselling service with self-reported depression and anxiety. Findings: Twelve themes emerged which were categorised into four major domains: enhancing intrapersonal relationships; improving interpersonal relationships; providing an experiential outdoor venue for achieving therapeutic change; offering a secure, personal place for achieving inner healing. The intervention was perceived to improve the ways in which interviewees related towards themselves and other people. Interviewees perceived the counselling sessions as offering a safe therapeutic space within which they could unveil their anxieties and achieve inner healing. Conclusions: Outdoor experiences offer an experiential venue for achieving personal change and, it appears enhance the therapeutic process. Prior and subsequent individual therapy increases the benefits of such experiences.
Community Policing: Broken Windows, Community Building, and Satisfaction with the Police

The concept of community policing dominates the law enforcement profession today. One would be hard pressed to find an advertisement for a police chief's position that does not require a thorough understanding of this method of policing. Like the Kansas City preventive patrol experiment and the Rand report on the criminal investigation process, the call for community policing has led to dramatic changes in the way that police carry out their responsibilities. In spite of its popularity, there have been a number of challenges to community policing from social scientists who are particularly concerned about the ‘broken windows' model of policing. These challenges have not been received well by the law enforcement community, which argues that sociologists are wedded to the idea that crime is caused by the structural features of capitalist society, including economic injustice, racism, and poverty. The purpose of this article is to bridge the gap between these two positions. Yes, there is a place for community policing, and, yes, social problems do contribute to crime. The article starts by reviewing the development of community policing in the United States. An analysis of the theoretical constructs that support community policing then follows. Finally, we argue that there is sound theoretical evidence to support community policing, particularly those programmes that improve citizen satisfaction with the manner in which police carry out their responsibilities.
Real time muscle deformations using mass-spring systems

We propose a method to simulate muscle deformation in real-time, still aiming at satisfying visual results; that is, we are not attempting perfect simulation but building a useful tool for interactive applications. Muscles are represented at 2 levels: the action lines and the muscle shape. The action line represents the force produced by a muscle on the bones, while the muscle shapes used in the simulation consist of a surface based model fitted to the boundary of medical image data. The algorithm to model muscle shapes is described. To physically simulate deformations, we used a mass-spring system with a new kind of springs called "angular springs" which were developed to control the muscle volume during simulation. Results are presented as examples at the end of the paper.
`I Love You Too Much to Ever Start Liking You': Redefining Romantic Relationships

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting the likelihood that a disengaged romantic relationship will be redefined as a friendship rather than completely terminated. College students were surveyed about a recalled romantic relationship that either broke up or evolved into a friendship. Respondents answered questions regarding characteristics of the relationship prior to its decline, strategies used to disengage the relationship, and feelings during the disengaging period. Results indicated that being friends prior to romantic involvement was a significant predictor of friendship, both for people who initiated the disengagement and for those who were recipients of partner's desire for disengagement. In addition, for those who initiated disengagement, withdrawal strategies and feelings of being taken advantage of in the relationship were negatively related to post-disengagement friendship. For persons who were recipients of partner's desire for disengagement, positive tone strategies were positively related to post-disengagement friendship while manipulation strategies were negatively related to post-disengagement friendship.
Compound words in large-vocabulary German speech recognition systems

The paper analyzes the impact of German compound words on speech recognition. It is well known that due to an idiosyncrasy of German orthography, compound words make up a major fraction of German vocabulary, and most out-of-vocabulary (OOV) compounds are composed of frequent words already in the lexicon. The paper introduces a new method for handling the components of compounds rather than the compounds themselves. This not only reduces the vocabulary, and therefore the complexity, but also improves word accuracy, and reduced complexity means a more robust language model.
A comparison of the effects of image-schema-based instruction and translation-based instruction on the acquisition of L2 polysemous words

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effectiveness of two types of vocabulary instruction — image-schema-based instruction (ISBI) and translation-based instruction (TBI) — on the acquisition of second language (L2) polysemous words. Fifty-eight Japanese high school learners of English were divided into two treatment groups (ISBI and TBI) and a control group. The treatment groups were given 20 minutes of instruction on the target words, namely the verb break and the preposition over. In order to examine the effectiveness of instruction, an acceptability judgment test and a production test were administered prior to instruction (pre-test), two days after instruction (post-test 1) and two weeks after instruction (post-test 2). The results showed that ISBI tended to be as effective as TBI for both acceptability judgment test and production test scores, except in one case where ISBI was significantly more effective than TBI. This study suggests that image-schema from the field of cognitive semantics can serve as a pedagogical devise in teaching L2 polysemous words.