Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Remote Laboratories for Education and Research Purposes in Automatic Control Systems

This paper describes the experiences using remote laboratories for education and research in the field of Control Engineering. The use of remote laboratories for education in subjects of control is increasingly becoming a resorted method by the universities in order to offer a flexible service in schedules with greater and better operation of available resources. Nevertheless, for research activities, remote laboratories are not widely used. The aim of this contribution is thereby to apply the experience of remote laboratories in research applications in order to share complex equipments among different researchers. Some experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of using remote laboratories in research experiments related to robotic system. The results of the implementation of remote experimentations to control a 3-DOF parallel robot by using Distance Laboratory System (SLD) are exposed. The performance of the system is evaluated by the possibilities and functionality of the proposed remote laboratory platform.
Application of the fuzzy min-max neural network classifier to problems with continuous and discrete attributes

The fuzzy min-max classification network constitutes a promising pattern recognition approach that is based on hyberbox fuzzy sets and can be incrementally trained requiring only one pass through the training set. The definition and operation of the model considers only attributes assuming continuous values. Therefore, the application of the fuzzy min-max network to a problem with continuous and discrete attributes, requires the modification of its definition and operation in order to deal with the discrete dimensions. Experimental results using the modified model on a difficult pattern recognition problem establishes the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed approach. <<ETX>>
Heuristics for advertising revenue optimization in Online Social Networks

Recent increases in the adoption of Online Social Networks (OSNs) for advertising has resulted in the research and development of algorithms that can maximize the resulting revenue. OSN users are likely to be influenced by their friends; therefore, one can leverage friendship relationships to determine how advertisements should be distributed among users. If a user is given an indication that their friend clicked on an advertisement link (called an impression), then they are more likely to also click on the impression if it were to be provided to them. The problem of assigning impressions can be modeled as an optimization problem in which the goal is to maximize the expected number of clicks achieved given a fixed number of impressions. Hosein and Lawrence [1] formulated this as a Stochastic Dynamic Programming problem in which impressions are provided in stages and the outcomes of previous stages are used in making impression allocations for the present stage. However, the determination of the optimal solution is computationally intractable for large problems; hence we require heuristics that are efficient while providing near-optimal solutions. In this paper we provide and compare various heuristics for this problem.
Cross-sectional study of virological failure and multinucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor resistance at 12 months of antiretroviral therapy in Western India

Abstract The free antiretroviral therapy (ART) program in India has scaled up to register second largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS across the globe. To assess the effectiveness of current first-line regimen we estimated virological suppression on completion of 1 year of ART. The study describes the correlates of virological failure (VF) and multinucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) drug resistance mutations (DRMs). In this cross-sectional study conducted between June and August 2014, consecutive adults from 4 State sponsored ART clinics of western India were recruited for plasma viral load screening at 12 ± 2 months of ART initiation. Individuals with plasma viral load >1000 copies/mL were selected for HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) genotyping. Logistic regression analyses were performed to assess factors associated with VF and multi-NRTI resistance mutations. Criteria adopted for multi-NRTI resistance mutation were either presence of K65R or 3 or more thymidine analog mutations (TAMs) or presence of M184V along with 2 TAMs. Of the 844 study participants, virological suppression at 1 year was achieved in 87.7% of individuals. Factors significantly associated with VF (P < 0.005) were 12 months CD4 count of ⩽100 cells/&mgr;L (adjusted OR −7.11), low reported adherence (adjusted OR −4.44), and those living without any partner (adjusted OR −1.98). In patients with VF, the prevalence of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) DRM (78.75%) were higher as compared to NRTI (58.75%). Multi-NRTI DRMs were present in 32.5% of sequences and were significantly associated with CD4 count of ⩽100 cells/&mgr;L at baseline (adjusted OR −13.00) and TDF-based failing regimen (adjusted OR −20.43). Additionally, low reported adherence was negatively associated with multi-NRTI resistance (adjusted OR −0.11, P = 0.015). K65R mutation was significantly associated with tenofovir (TDF)-based failing regimen (P < 0.001). The study supports early linkage of HIV-infected individuals to the program for ART initiation, adherence improvement, and introduction of viral load monitoring. With recent introduction of TDF-based regimen, the emergence of K65R needs to be monitored closely among HIV-1 subtype C-infected Indian population.
Enhancing Query Formulation for Spoken Document Retrieval

The popularity and ubiquity of multimedia associated with spoken documents has spurred a lot of research interest in spoken document retrieval (SDR) in the recent past. Beyond much effort devoted to developing robust indexing and modeling techniques for representing spoken documents, a recent line of thought targets at the improvement of query modeling for better reflecting the user's information need. Pseudo-relevance feedback is by far the most commonly-used paradigm for query reformulation, which assumes that a small amount of top-ranked feedback documents obtained from the initial round of retrieval are relevant and can be utilized for this purpose. Nevertheless, simply taking all of the top-ranked feedback documents obtained from the initial retrieval for query modeling does not always perform well, especially when the top-ranked documents contain much redundant or non-relevant information. In the view of this, we explore in this paper an interesting problem of how to effectively glean useful cues from the top-ranked documents so as to achieve more accurate query modeling. Towards this end, various sources of information cues are considered and integrated into the process of feedback document selection so as to achieve better retrieval effectiveness. Furthermore, we also investigate representing the query and documents with different granularities of index features to work in conjunction with the query and document models. A series of experiments conducted on the TDT (Topic Detection and Tracking) task seem to demonstrate the effectiveness of our query modeling framework for SDR.
Signal-to-Interference-Plus-Noise Ratio Analysis for MIMO-OFDM with Carrier Frequency Offset and Channel Estimation Errors

In this paper, the authors derive the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in the presence of frequency offset and channel estimation errors. The channel is assumed to be frequency-selective Rayleigh fading. The analysis of the demodulated signal shows that the interference can be decomposed into two independent components: inter-carrier interference and interference contributed by other transmit antennas. The SINR for MIMO-OFDM systems with equal gain combining (EGC) and maximal ratio combining (MRC) are also derived.
Parathyroid Hormone Induction of Cyclooxygenase-2 in Murine Osteoblasts: Role of the Calcium-Calcineurin-NFAT Pathway

Murine MC3T3‐E1 and MC‐4 cells were stably transfected with −371/+70 bp of the murine cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) promoter fused to a luciferase reporter (Pluc371) or with Pluc371 carrying site‐directed mutations. Mutations were made in (1) the cAMP response element (CRE) at −57/−52 bp, (2) the activating protein‐1 (AP‐1)–binding site at −69/−63 bp, (3) the nuclear factor of activated T‐cells (NFAT)–binding site at −77/−73 bp, and (4) both the AP‐1 and NFAT sites, which comprise a composite consensus sequence for NFAT/AP‐1. Single mutation of CRE, AP‐1, or NFAT sites decreased parathyroid hormone (PTH)–stimulated COX‐2 promoter activity 40% to 60%, whereas joint mutation of NFAT and AP‐1 abrogated the induction. On electrophoretic mobility shift analysis, PTH stimulated binding of phosphorylated CREB to an oligonucleotide spanning the CRE and binding of NFATc1, c‐Fos, and c‐Jun to an oligonucleotide spanning the NFAT/AP‐1 composite site. Mutation of the NFAT site was less effective than mutation of the AP‐1 site in competing binding to the composite element, suggesting that cooperative interactions of NFATc1 and AP‐1 are more dependent on NFAT than on AP‐1. Both PTH and forskolin, an activator of adenylyl cyclase, stimulated NFATc1 nuclear translocation. PTH‐ and forskolin‐stimulated COX‐2 promoter activity was inhibited 56% to 80% by calcium chelation or calcineurin inhibitors and 60% to 98% by protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitors. These results indicate an important role for the calcium‐calcineurin‐NFAT signaling pathway in the PTH induction of COX‐2 and suggest that cross‐talk between the cAMP/PKA pathway and the calcium‐calcineurin‐NFAT pathway may play a role in other functions of PTH in osteoblasts. © 2010 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
Semantic Annotation and Classification in Practice : Use Cases of a Telecommunication Operator

The evolution of the traditional Web into a Semantic Web and the continuous increase in the amount of data published as Linked Data open up new opportunities for annotation and categorization systems to reuse these data as semantic knowledge bases. Accordingly, Linked Data has been used by information extraction systems to exploit the semantic knowledge bases, which can be interconnected and structured in order to increase the precision and recall of annotation and categorization mechanisms. This paper describes TellMeFirst a software for the classification and enrichment of textual documents written in English and Italian. Although nowadays there are various works presenting solutions for text annotation and classification, this work is focused on describing and studying the use case of a Telecommunications Operator that has adopted TellMeFirst in order to generate value-added to two services available to its users: FriendTV and SOCIETY.
doc Shadow Economies and Corruption all over the World : What do we really know ? * ) by

Estimations of the size and development of the shadow economy for 145 countries, including developing, transition and highly developed OECD economies over the period 1999 to 2003 are presented. The average size of the shadow economy (as a percent of “official” GDP) in 2002/03 in 96 developing countries is 38.7%, in 25 transition countries 40.1%, in 21 OECD countries 16.3% and in 3 Communist countries 22.3%. An increased burden of taxation and social security contributions, combined with a labor market regulation are the driving forces of the shadow economy. Furthermore, the results show that the shadow economy reduces corruption in high income countries, but increases corruption in low income countries. Finally, the various estimation methods are discussed and critically evaluated. JEL-class. : O17, O5, D78, H2, H11, H26.
Hybrid discrete-parametric optimization for trajectory planning in on-road driving scenarios

Dynamic on-road driving scenarios require robust methods for planning a safe and feasible vehicle motion coping with both static and dynamic obstacles. Many of the different approaches which have been proposed to tackle this challenge are based on optimal control and employ local continuous or discrete optimization schemes. While discrete methods possess the ability to find reasonable solutions in a search space incorporating local minima, they tend to sacrifice optimality for real-time performance. On the other hand, local continuous methods require suitable initialization to handle the combinatorial nature of on-road driving scenarios but are capable of quickly returning an optimized solution. The presented work proposes a hybrid solution which embraces both strategies to unite their distinct advantages. A discrete optimization scheme is augmented by parametric optimization to achieve both low planning times as well as robust (re-)initialization.
99-dB High-Performance Delta-Sigma Modulator for 20-kHz Bandwidth

In this paper, we present a fourth-order single-bit delta-sigma modulator with wide dynamic range. This modulator is suitable for distributed sensor and audio codec applications. This chip was fabricated in a 0.18- mum one-poly, four-metal CMOS technology, and occupies 1.22-mm2 active area. The circuit is clocked at 3.2 MHz and the overall power consumption is 5.6 mW from a 3.0 V power supply. Experimental results show a maximum dynamic range of 99 dB within a 20- kHz bandwidth.
Former , and Current Smokers in Relation to Tobacco Smoke : Distinct Patterns in Never , Mutation Load and Types in Lung Cancers

TP53 mutations are common in lung cancers of smokers, with high prevalence of G:C-to-T:A transversions generally interpreted as mutagen fingerprints of tobacco smoke. In this study, TP53 (exons 5-9) and KRAS (codon 12) were analyzed in primary lung tumors of never (n = 40), former (n = 27), and current smokers (n = 64; mainly heavy smokers). Expression of p53, cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2), and nitrotyrosine (N-Tyr), a marker of protein damage by nitric oxide, were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. TP53 mutations were detected in 47.5% never, 55.6% former, and 77.4% current smokers. The relative risk for mutation increased with tobacco consumption (P linear trend < 0.0001). G:C-to-T:A transversions (P = 0.06, current versus never smokers) and A:T-to-G:C transitions (P = 0.03, former versus never smokers) were consistently associated with smoking. In contrast, G:C-to-A:T transitions were associated with never smoking (P = 0.02). About half of mutations in current smokers fell within a particular domain of p53 protein, suggesting a common structural effect. KRAS mutations, detected in 20 of 131 (15.3%) cases, were rare in squamous cell carcinoma compared with adenocarcinoma [relative risk (RR), 0.2; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.071] and were more frequent in former smokers than in other categories. No significant differences in Cox-2 expression were found between ever and never smokers. However, high levels of N-Tyr were more common in never than ever smokers (RR, 10; 95% CI, 1.6-50). These results support the notion that lung tumorigenesis proceeds through different molecular mechanisms according to smoking status. In never smokers, accumulation of N-Tyr suggests an etiology involving severe inflammation. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(12): 5076-83)
Volume filling factors of the ISM phases in star forming galaxies. I. The role of the disk-halo interaction

The role of matter circulation between the disk and halo in establishing the volume filling factors of the different ISM phases in the Galactic disk (|z |≤ 250 pc) is investigated, using a modified version of the three-dimensional supernova- driven ISM model of Avillez (2000). We carried out adaptive mesh refinement simulations of the ISM with five supernova rates (in units of the Galactic value), σ/σGal = 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 (corresponding to starburst conditions) using three finer level resolutions of 2.5, 1.25 and 0.625 pc, allowing us to understand how resolution would affect the volumes of gas phases in pressure equilibrium. We find that the volume filling factors of the different ISM phases depend sensitively on the existence of a duty cycle between the disk and halo acting as a pressure release valve for the hot (T > 10 5.5 K) phase in the disk. The amount of cold gas (defined as the gas with T < 10 3 K) picked up in the simulations varies from a value of 19% for σ/σGal = 1 to ∼5% for σ/σGal = 4a nd≤1% for higher SN rates. Background heating prevents the cold gas from immediate collapse and thus ensures the stability of the cold gas phase. The mean occupation fraction of the hot phase varies from about 17% for the Galactic SN rate to ∼28%, for σ/σGal = 4, and to 44% for σ/σGal = 16. Overall the filling factor of the hot gas does not increase much as we move towards higher SN rates, following a power law offv, hot �∝ (σ/σGal) 0.363 . Such a modest dependence on the SN rate is a consequence of the evacuation of the hot phase into the halo through the duty cycle. This leads to volume filling factors of the hot phase considerably smaller than those predicted in the three-phase model of McKee & Ostriker (1977) even in the absence of magnetic fields.
Power Management of Wideband Code Division Multiple Access RF Power Amplifiers With Antenna Mismatch

This paper focuses on a combination of adaptive power supply and adaptive impedance tuning for WCDMA RF power amplifiers (RFPA) in wireless handsets in order to improve the system efficiency under different transmit power levels and antenna mismatch. The adaptive power supply is a noninverting buck-boost power converter. It is shown that precise output voltage positioning and low output voltage ripple over a wide output voltage range, including buck, boost, and buck/boost transition modes, can be accomplished using ¿-¿ modulation in combination with a small, low-resolution DPWM core. A two-mode digital controller is presented, in which the compensator parameters are changed upon buck/boost mode transitions in order to improve closed-loop dynamic performance. Furthermore, improvements in system efficiency are demonstrated using this adaptive power supply combined with an adaptive RF impedance tuner between the RFPA and the antenna. The results are verified on an experimental test bed that consists of a discrete RFPA, impedance tuner, a prototype 0.5 ¿m CMOS power stage IC that integrates power MOSFETs, drivers and deadtime control logic, and a digital power management controller implemented on an FPGA.
Policy Iteration Adaptive Dynamic Programming Algorithm for Discrete-Time Nonlinear Systems

This paper is concerned with a new discrete-time policy iteration adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) method for solving the infinite horizon optimal control problem of nonlinear systems. The idea is to use an iterative ADP technique to obtain the iterative control law, which optimizes the iterative performance index function. The main contribution of this paper is to analyze the convergence and stability properties of policy iteration method for discrete-time nonlinear systems for the first time. It shows that the iterative performance index function is nonincreasingly convergent to the optimal solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. It is also proven that any of the iterative control laws can stabilize the nonlinear systems. Neural networks are used to approximate the performance index function and compute the optimal control law, respectively, for facilitating the implementation of the iterative ADP algorithm, where the convergence of the weight matrices is analyzed. Finally, the numerical results and analysis are presented to illustrate the performance of the developed method.
EdIt: A Broad-Coverage Grammar Checker Using Pattern Grammar

We introduce a new method for learning to detect grammatical errors in learner's writing and provide suggestions. The method involves parsing a reference corpus and inferring grammar patterns in the form of a sequence of content words, function words, and parts-of-speech (e.g., "play ~ role in Ving" and "look forward to Ving"). At runtime, the given passage submitted by the learner is matched using an extended Levenshtein algorithm against the set of pattern rules in order to detect errors and provide suggestions. We present a prototype implementation of the proposed method, EdIt, that can handle a broad range of errors. Promising results are illustrated with three common types of errors in non-native writing.
ABSORPTION AND METABOLISM OF ASTRAGALI RADIX DECOCTION: IN SILICO, IN VITRO, AND A CASE STUDY IN VIVO

To profile absorption of Astragali Radix decoction and identify its orally absorbable constituents and their metabolites, four complementary in silico, in vitro, and in vivo methods, i.e., a computational chemistry prediction method, a Caco-2 cell monolayer model experiment, an improved rat everted gut sac experiment, and a healthy human volunteer experiment, were used. According to the in silico computation result, 26 compounds of Astragali Radix could be regarded as orally available compounds, including 12 flavonoids. In the in vitro and in vivo experiments, 21 compounds were tentatively identified by high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection-electrospray ion trap tandem mass spectrometry data, which involved calycosin, formononetin, (6aR,11aR)-3-hydroxy-9,10-dimethoxypterocarpan, 7,2′-dihydroxy-3′,4′-dimethoxyisoflavan, calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucoside, formononetin-7-O-β-d-glucoside, 7,2′-dihydroxy-3′,4′-dimethoxyisoflavan-7-O-β-d-glucoside-6″-O-malonate, (6aR,11aR)-3-hydroxy-9,10-dimethoxypterocarpan-3-O-β-d-glucoside, and phase II metabolites calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucuronide, formononetin-7-O-β-d-glucuronide, (6aR,11aR)-3-hydroxy-9,10-dimethoxypterocarpan-3-O-β-d-glucuronide, 7,2′-dihydroxy-3′,4′-dimethoxyisoflavan-7-O-β-d-glucuronide, and calycosin sulfate. Calycosin and formononetin were proved absorbable by four methods; (6aR,11aR)-3-hydroxy-9,10-dimethoxypterocarpan and 7,2′-dihydroxy-3′,4′-dimethoxyisoflavan were proved absorbable by three methods; formononetin-7-O-β-d-glucoside and (6aR,11aR)-3-hydroxy-9,10-dimethoxypterocarpan-3-O-β-d-glucoside were proved absorbable by two methods. The existence of calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucuronide, formononetin-7-O-β-d-glucuronide, (6aR,11aR)-3-hydroxy-9,10-dimethoxypterocarpan-3-O-β-d-glucuronide, 7,2′-dihydroxy-3′,4′-dimethoxyisoflavan-7-O-β-d-glucuronide, and calycosin sulfate was proved by two or three methods. We found that besides isoflavones, pterocarpans and isoflavans also could be metabolized by the intestine during absorption, and the major metabolites were glucuronides. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that the flavonoids in Astragali Radix decoction, including isoflavones, pterocarpans, and isoflavans, could be absorbed and metabolized by the intestine. These absorbable compounds, which were reported to have various bioactivities related to the curative effects of Astragali Radix decoction, could be regarded as an important component of the effective constituents of Astragali Radix decoction.