Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithms for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output System Modelling using Convolved Gaussian Process Models

Convolved Gaussian Process (CGP) is able to capture the correlations not only between inputs and outputs but also among the outputs. This allows a superior performance of using CGP than standard Gaussian Process (GP) in the modelling of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems when observations are missing for some of outputs. Similar to standard GP, a key issue of CGP is the learning of hyperparameters from a set of input-output observations. It typically performed by maximizing the Log-Likelihood (LL) function which leads to an unconstrained nonlinear and non-convex optimization problem. Algorithms such as Conjugate Gradient (CG) or Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) are commonly used but they often get stuck in local optima, especially for CGP where there are more hyperparameters. In addition, the LL value is not a reliable indicator for judging the quality intermediate models in the optimization process. In this paper, we propose to use enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms to solve this problem by minimizing the model output error instead. This optimization criterion enables the quality of intermediate solutions to be directly observable during the optimization process. Two enhancements to the standard PSO algorithm which make use of gradient information and the multi- start technique are proposed. Simulation results on the modelling of both linear and nonlinear systems demonstrate the effectiveness of minimizing the model output error to learn hyperparameters and the performance of using enhanced algorithms.
Molecular-dynamics simulations of nickel oxide surfaces.

Molecular-dynamics-simulation techniques have been used to investigate the effect of temperature on the three low index surfaces of nickel oxide. The surface energies for the {100}, {110}, and Ni {111} surfaces have been calculated as a function of temperature for NiO. The surface energies for all three surfaces were essentially constant up to 2000 K, when surface melting was observed for the less densely packed surfaces such as the {110} and Ni {111} surfaces. The {110} surface reconstructed to give {100} microfacets that are densely packed, and hence the surface disorder was less than the Ni {111} surface. The defective (${\mathrm{Ni}}^{3+}$) Ni {111} surface showed a similar tendency but was less marked, partly due to the increased charge at the surface. The oxidation energy was negative, indicating that thermodynamically the surface would oxidize.
Particle Size Reduction of Polyaniline Assisted by Anionic Emulsifier of Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS) Through Emulsion Polymerization

Reduction of particle size of Polyaniline (PANI) evaluated after anionic surfactant assisted polymerization reaction was observed during synthesis. The use of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) during the reaction has reduced the particle size of PANI to the smallest 212 nm from original size 713 nm obtained from a synthesis of SDS free. The single compound of SDS has specific fingerprint at wavenumbers of 1247 and 1216 cm-1 indicating an asymmetric stretching, vibration and a symmetric stretching vibration of SO2 molecule at 1080 cm-1. After SDS assisted polymerization reaction completely, the fingerprint specifically appears in the range of 950 - 1000 cm-1 wavenumber for SO2 molecule peaks. It indicates that there was SO2 molecule bonded into PANI molecule. It was obtained that the higher SO2 content in PANI of a high SDS concentration shows a wider of spectra and higher absorbency. In addition, there was no pH effect during the polymerization reaction under various SDS concentrations. It is concluded that the particles of PANI were reduced with the addition of SDS during polymerization reaction. The smallest average particle size obtained through the emulsion polymerization technique containing 0.67 % SDS was 212 nm.
TS-MC: Two Stage Matrix Completion Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor network (WSN) data is prone to huge losses and corruption. Hence, the existing matrix completion algorithms experience high estimation errors in such scenarios. Therefore, a robust matrix completion algorithm is required for WSN data to meet the above challenges. This paper proposes a robust "two stage matrix completion (TS-MC)" algorithm to recover data from missing and corrupted values. The proposed TS-MC algorithm consists of two stages. For the first stage, two different methods have been proposed for recovering the incomplete data that exploit the double DCT sparsity as WSN data varies smoothly in both time and spatial domain. In the second stage, the recovered data of the first stage is de-noised in the matrix factorization framework, wherein the rank of the data is estimated from the data recovered from the first stage. Simulations are performed on two real datasets of Intel Lab and Data Sensing Lab. Results demonstrate that the proposed TS-MC algorithm achieves high accuracy even when 90% of the data is missing.
CDC55, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene involved in cellular morphogenesis: identification, characterization, and homology to the B subunit of mammalian type 2A protein phosphatase

Microscopic screening of a collection of cold-sensitive mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae led to the identification of a new gene, CDC55, which appears to be involved in the morphogenetic events of the cell cycle. CDC55 maps between CDC43 and CHC1 on the left arm of chromosome VII. At restrictive temperature, the original cdc55 mutant produces abnormally elongated buds and displays a delay or partial block of septation and/or cell separation. A cdc55 deletion mutant displays a cold-sensitive phenotype like that of the original isolate. Sequencing of CDC55 revealed that it encodes a protein of about 60 kDa, as confirmed by Western immunoblots using Cdc55p-specific antibodies. This protein has greater than 50% sequence identity to the B subunits of rabbit skeletal muscle type 2A protein phosphatase; the latter sequences were obtained by analysis of peptides derived from the purified protein, a polymerase chain reaction product, and cDNA clones. An extragenic suppressor of the cdc55 mutation lies in BEM2, a gene previously identified on the basis of an apparent role in bud emergence.
Pulled elbow: A paediatrician's experience

Pulled elbow is a common condition but may not be recognized by most of the paediatric physician. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the common age, mechanism, site of pain, reduction maneuver and its efficacy among paediatric population. Among 40 patients, 31 patients meeting the inclusion criteria were included in this study. Simple analytical method was used to analyze the data due to small number of patients. Supination-flexion maneuver was used for reduction. Among 31, 15 (48.38%) were male and 16(51.61%) were female. The mean age was 3.12 years, mean arrival time was 13.03 hours. 32.25% of patients had history of pulling the child up and 41.93% of patient complained of pain around forearm. All patient underwent supination- flexion maneuver and was successful in first attempt, except one, that required second attempt. There were no recurrences. There should be a high index of suspicion among paediatricians, so that they can correctly diagnose and treat this condition satisfactorily.
Candidate Fragments Prediction and their Assembly with a Greedy Algorithm and a Coarse-Grained Force Field to solve Protein Folding

Prediction of proteins tertiary structure, starting from i ts amino acids sequence, still remains a challenge in computational biology . We are developing a method to fold proteins in silico, starting from a HMM based structu ral alphabet which consists of a local 3D description of the structure. Candidate protei n fragments are selected by SAFrAN, a new original approach combining SA-Search and pro file prediction conditionned by PSIPRED results. Selected fragments cover the ta rg t sequence with more than 90% and can approximate the native structure at high acc uracy (less than 2̊A). Fragment assembly is performed by an improved greedy algori thm, and the relevance of the models is evaluated by a simplified version of the coarseg ained Optimized Potential for Efficient structure Prediction (sOPEP). We discuss the e ff ctiveness of the approach to generate de novo 3D models of proteins.
A Polynomial-time Bicriteria Approximation Scheme for Planar Bisection

Given an undirected graph with edge costs and node weights, the minimum bisection problem asks for a partition of the nodes into two parts of equal weight such that the sum of edge costs between the parts is minimized. We give a polynomial time bicriteria approximation scheme for bisection on planar graphs. Specifically, let W be the total weight of all nodes in a planar graph G. For any constant ε > 0, our algorithm outputs a bipartition of the nodes such that each part weighs at most W/2 + ε and the total cost of edges crossing the partition is at most (1+ε) times the total cost of the optimal bisection. The previously best known approximation for planar minimum bisection, even with unit node weights, was ~O(log n). Our algorithm actually solves a more general problem where the input may include a target weight for the smaller side of the bipartition.
Neural network compensation technique for standard PD-like fuzzy controlled nonlinear systems

In this paper, a novel neural fuzzy control method is proposed to control nonlinear systems. A standard PD-like fuzzy controller is designed and used as a main controller for the system. A neural network controller is added to the reference trajectories to form a neural-fuzzy control structure and used to compensate for time-varying effects. We study two neural-fuzzy control schemes based on two well-known neural network control schemes such as the FEL scheme and the RCT scheme. Those schemes are tested to control the angle and the position of the inverted pendulum and their performances are compared.
Toward Cost-Sensitive Modeling for Intrusion Detection and Response

Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) must maximize the realization of security goals while minimizing costs. In this paper, we study the problem of building cost-sensitive intrusion detection models. We examine the major cost factors associated with an IDS, which include development cost, operational cost, damage cost due to successful intrusions, and the cost of manual and automated response to intrusions. These cost factors can be qualified according to a defined attack taxonomy and site-specific security policies and priorities. We define cost models to formulate the total expected cost of an IDS, and present cost-sensitive machine learning techniques that can produce detection models that are optimized for user-defined cost metrics. Empirical experiments show that our cost-sensitive modeling and deployment techniques are effective in reducing the overall cost of intrusion detection.
Effects of Increasing Afterload on Left Ventricular Output in Fetal Lambs

Fetal ventricular performance has been considered limited because ventricular output does not increase with rapid volume expansion above mean left atrial pressures (mLAPs) of 5–7 mm Hg. To explore relations between preload, afterload, and stroke volume (SV) in the fetal left ventricle, we instrumented 126–129 days gestation fetal lambs with ascending aortic electromagnetic flow transducers, vascular catheters, and inflatable occluders around the aortic isthmus (n=8) or descending aorta (n=7). At 24–48 hours after surgery, blood was withdrawn or infused to reach various mLAPs. The aorta was then slowly occluded as aortic flow and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were measured continuously. Isthmus constriction produced linear decreases in SV as MAP increased; mLAP was unchanged. Descending aortic constriction produced no decrease in SV until high MAPs were reached. SV decreased as MAP increased further, and mLAP rose significantly. The curve relating mLAP and SV before constriction showed little increase in SV above mLAPs of 5–7 mm Hg; however, when curves were derived relating SV and mLAP at relatively constant MAPs, SV continued to increase even above an mLAP of 8–10 mm Hg. Our studies indicate that the fetal left ventricle responds to progressive increases in mLAP to at least 10 mm Hg. The lack of increase in SV above an mLAP of 5–7 mm Hg with rapid volume expansion is related to the concomitant increase in MAP and afterload. {Circulation Research 1989;65:127–134)
N ° 2007-01 Exports , sunk costs and financial restrictions in Argentina during the 1990 s

This paper examines firms’ export decisions in Argentina during the 1990s. Using a sample of 1600 Argentine industrial firms with information for the years 1992, 1996, 1998 and 2001, we test which factors affect the probability of entering foreign markets. We focus on the role of sunk costs and the access to financial markets as key determinants of firms’ export decisions. The estimation of a nonlinear binary variable model using export prior experience and explicit sunk costs variables confirms self-selection hypothesis on export markets participation. Results also suggest that firm-specific characteristics are significant to explain export decisions, particularly firm’s access to the financial system.
A Voltage-Based STDP Rule Combined with Fast BCM-Like Metaplasticity Accounts for LTP and Concurrent “Heterosynaptic” LTD in the Dentate Gyrus In Vivo

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) are widely accepted to be synaptic mechanisms involved in learning and memory. It remains uncertain, however, which particular activity rules are utilized by hippocampal neurons to induce LTP and LTD in behaving animals. Recent experiments in the dentate gyrus of freely moving rats revealed an unexpected pattern of LTP and LTD from high-frequency perforant path stimulation. While 400 Hz theta-burst stimulation (400-TBS) and 400 Hz delta-burst stimulation (400-DBS) elicited substantial LTP of the tetanized medial path input and, concurrently, LTD of the non-tetanized lateral path input, 100 Hz theta-burst stimulation (100-TBS, a normally efficient LTP protocol for in vitro preparations) produced only weak LTP and concurrent LTD. Here we show in a biophysically realistic compartmental granule cell model that this pattern of results can be accounted for by a voltage-based spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) rule combined with a relatively fast Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro (BCM)-like homeostatic metaplasticity rule, all on a background of ongoing spontaneous activity in the input fibers. Our results suggest that, at least for dentate granule cells, the interplay of STDP-BCM plasticity rules and ongoing pre- and postsynaptic background activity determines not only the degree of input-specific LTP elicited by various plasticity-inducing protocols, but also the degree of associated LTD in neighboring non-tetanized inputs, as generated by the ongoing constitutive activity at these synapses.
Defining the cellular repertoire of GPCRs identifies a profibrotic role for the most highly expressed receptor, protease‐activated receptor 1, in cardiac fibroblasts

G‐protein‐coupled receptors (GPCRs) have many roles in cell regulation and are commonly used as drug targets, but the repertoire of GPCRs expressed by individual cell types has not been defined. Here we use an unbiased approach, GPCR RT‐PCR array, to define the expression of nonchemosensory GPCRs by cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) isolated from Rattus norvegicus. CFs were selected because of their importance for cardiac structure and function and their contribution to cardiac fibrosis, which occurs with advanced age, after acute injury (e.g., myocardial infarction), and in disease states (e.g., diabetes mellitus, hypertension). We discovered that adult rat CFs express 190 GPCRs and that activation of protease‐activated receptor 1 (PAR1), the most highly expressed receptor, raises the expression of profibrotic markers in rat CFs, resulting in a 60% increase in collagen synthesis and conversion to a profibrogenic myofibroblast phenotype. We use siRNA knockdown of PAR1 (90% decrease in mRNA) to show that the profibrotic effects of thrombin are PAR1‐dependent. These findings, which define the expression of GPCRs in CFs, provide a proof of principle of an approach to discover previously unappreciated, functionally relevant GPCRs and reveal a potential role for thrombin and PAR1 in wound repair and pathophysiology of the adult heart. —Snead, A. N. , Insel, P. A. Defining the cellular repertoire of GPCRs identifies a profibrotic role for the most highly expressed receptor, protease‐activated receptor 1, in cardiac fibroblasts. FASEB J. 26, 4540–4547 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Microscopic models for Fourier's law

The object of research of this thesis is the derivation of heat equation from the underlying microscopic dynamics of the system. Two main models have been studied: a microscopic system described by the discrete Schrodinger equation and an anharmonic chain of oscillators in presence of a gradient of temperature. The first model considered is the one-dimensional discrete linear Schrodinger (DLS) equation perturbed by a conservative stochastic dynamics, that changes the phase of each particles, conserving the total norm (or number of particles). The resulting total dynamics is a degenerate hypoelliptic diffusion with a smooth stationary state. It has been shown that the system has a hydrodynamical limit given by the solution of the heat equation. When it is coupled at the boundaries to two Langevin thermostats at two different chemical potentials, it has been proven that the stationary state, in the limit to infinity, satisfies the Fourier’s law. The second model considered is a chain of anharmonic oscillators immersed in a heat bath with a temperature gradient and a time varying tension applied to one end of the chain while the other side is fixed to a point. We prove that under diffusive space-time rescaling the volume strain distribution of the chain evolves following a non-linear diffusive equation. The stationary states of the dynamics are of non-equilibrium and have a positive entropy production, so the classical relative entropy methods cannot be used. We develop new estimates based on entropic hypocoercivity, that allows to control the distribution of the positions configurations of the chain. The macroscopic limit can be used to model isothermal thermodynamic transformations between non-equilibrium stationary states. CEMRACS project on simulating Rayleigh- Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov turbulent mixing zones with a probability density function method at last.
HOL delay based scheduling in wireless networks with flow-level dynamics

How to design a throughput-optimal scheduling algorithm in a heterogeneous wireless network with flow-level dynamics is a challenging problem. In this paper, we investigate the properties of a Head-of-Line (HOL) delay based scheduling algorithm, and prove that it can achieve throughput-optimality with flow-level dynamics. The algorithm is easy to implement because it requires no prior knowledge of the statistics of the arrival traffic and channel state information. Extensive simulations have been conducted to validate the theoretical conclusion and evaluate the performance. It is shown that, at the presence of flow-level dynamics, the HOL delay based scheduling algorithm can outperform the classic queue-length based MaxWeight scheduling, and can achieve a similar performance as other known throughput-optimal scheduling while it is simpler and more practical to implement.
Transcriptomic Analysis of the Mussel Elliptio complanata Identifies Candidate Stress-Response Genes and an Abundance of Novel or Noncoding Transcripts

Mussels are useful indicator species of environmental stress and degradation, and the global decline in freshwater mussel diversity and abundance is of conservation concern. Elliptio complanata is a common freshwater mussel of eastern North America that can serve both as an indicator and as an experimental model for understanding mussel physiology and genetics. To support genetic components of these research goals, we assembled transcriptome contigs from Illumina paired-end reads. Despite efforts to collapse similar contigs, the final assembly was in excess of 136,000 contigs with an N50 of 982 bp. Even so, comparisons to the CEGMA database of conserved eukaryotic genes indicated that ∼20% of genes remain unrepresented. However, numerous candidate stress-response genes were present, and we identified lineage-specific patterns of diversification among molluscs for cytochrome P450 detoxification genes and two saccharide-modifying enzymes: 1,3 beta-galactosyltransferase and fucosyltransferase. Less than a quarter of contigs had protein-level similarity based on modest BLAST and Hmmer3 statistical thresholds. These results add comparative genomic resources for molluscs and suggest a wealth of novel proteins and noncoding transcripts.
Ku band filter based on low loss alumina octagonal dielectric resonators made by 3D ceramic stereolithography

This paper presents a new filter topology using alumina dielectric resonators made by 3D ceramic stereolithography. Thanks to the low loss tangent of the alumina used with this manufacturing process (tan δ= 5 10-5 at 15 GHz), high unloaded quality factor of 6500 could be achieved with this dielectric resonators. The resonators with their brass housing have an unloaded Q factor which is about 35% higher than for an equivalent metallic resonant cavity while being 25% smaller. The proposed narrow band two pole filter presents an experimental 1.19% bandwidth at 14.95 GHz demonstrating the validity of the proposed structure.
Degraded hydrophobic, particulate starches and their use in paper sizing

The present invention relates to a method for providing a low porosity in the modified hydrophobic, the decomposed sign language particulate starch, and paper, resistance to liquid penetration, and a high surface strength, the method comprising the effective amount comprising a starch of the present invention a surface sizing composition includes the step of applying to the surface of the paper substrate. In particular, the starch is from about 10 to 80 number or the degraded starch flowing road, or a substantially equivalent amount of the disintegrating and substantially the same reaction conditions, a modified starch and / or particulate starch decomposition by using a. These starches by groups hydrophobic hydrocarbon comprising from 5 to 23 carbon atoms is substituted with the level of bonding a hydrophobic group, based on the weight of the starch such that from about 1 to 20% by weight and modified with hydrophobic, hydrated starch is the volume mean hydration of about 20 microns, at least of at least about 5% of the starch grain size and 1% solids and has a volume fraction of hydrated particles. Hydrated starch, hydrocarbons, hydrophobic, film formers, disintegrating