Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epistemological positions informing theories of design research: implications for the design discipline and design practice

Design research is not simply concerned with speculations regarding the relationship of theory and practice. Design research also brings out significant questions regarding the nature of research and the position of the doctorate in university education. This paper presents analyses of examples of objectivist, constructionist, and subjectivist theories of design research. The assumptions that underpin their perspectives are outlined, their powers of generalisation considered. The implications for the position of the design discipline in relation to the greater academic community, and the characterisations of design practice that they contain, are drawn out. The paper concludes by considering the pedagogical implications of the role of disciplines in the knowledge building cycle between research and professional practice.
Implication des neurones exprimant NUCB2/nesfatine-1 dans la régulation de l'homéostasie énergétique

Le maintien de notre poids corporel resulte d'un equilibre entre les depenses et les apports energetiques. Cet equilibre appele « homeostasie energetique » implique un grand nombre de molecules. Parmi elles, la nesfatine-1, decouverte en 2006, est un peptide de 82 acides amines issu du clivage de la proteine NUCB2. L'interet genere par la nesfatine-1 reside dans son action anorexigene exercee independamment de la signalisation a la leptine. La nesfatine-1 est exprimee dans plusieurs organes tels que le tissu adipeux, l'estomac, le pancreas, ainsi que le cerveau. Dans le cerveau, son expression se limite principalement a quelques groupes neuronaux localises dans l'hypothalamus et le complexe vagal dorsal. Au cours de ce travail, nous avons analyse la sensibilite des neurones exprimant NUCB2/nesfatine-1 aux signaux peripheriques physiologiques et physiopathologiques affectant la prise alimentaire. Nous montrons que ces neurones sont sensibles a une hypoglycemie et qu'ils pourraient contribuer a la contre-regulation mise en place afin de retablir la glycemie de base. De plus, nous montrons qu'ils sont actives en reponse a deux stimuli inflammatoires : l'administration de lipopolysaccharide et l'intoxication alimentaire avec une mycotoxine appelee deoxynivalenol. Ainsi, les neurones exprimant NUCB2/nesfatine-1 pourraient contribuer au developpement de l'anorexie inflammatoire. Cette etude a constitue la premiere mise en evidence d'une implication de ce peptide en situation pathologique. L'ensemble de ces resultats suggere qu'en plus de son effet satietogene, la nesfatine-1 participe a la signalisation centrale impliquee dans la glucodetection et les reponses inflammatoires.
Synaptic organization of columnar elements in the lamina of the wild type in Drosophila melanogaster

The synaptic connections within the lamina, the first of the optic neuropiles underlying the insect's compound eye, have been little studied in Drosophila melanogaster until now, despite the genetic advantages of this animal. Here we report the reconstruction through its entire depth of one of the lamina modules, or cartridges, of a female wild‐type Drosophila, for which a series of EM cross sections was analysed at levels extending from the retinal basement membrane to the first optic chiasma. A complete, comprehensive catalogue of the synaptic connections of all columnar elements has been compiled from this single series, confirmed from comparisons with less completely photographed cartridges. Combinations of the 12 types of cartridge neurons form divergent multiple‐contact synapses (dyads, triads, and tetrads) throughout the lamina's depth. These 12 neuron types include 11 narrow‐field elements (one class of receptor terminal, R1–R6, providing input to the cartridge; two types of long visual fiber from the ommatidium, R7 and R8; five types of monopolar cell, L1–5; and three types of medulla cell–two centrifugal neurons C2 and C3, and a third, T1) as well as a wide‐field intrinsic or amacrine cell. Connections within the lamina formed by L4 from two adjacent cartridges (posterodorsal and posteroventral) contribute to the matrix of connections. In addition, connections of at least one other wide‐field element have also been incorporated.
Toxicokinetics of Aflatoxin in Pregnant Mice

Our objective was to study the toxicokinetics of aflatoxin (AF) in pregnant mice. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) was administered intraperitoneally (IP) to groups of pregnant mice in single doses of 20 mg/kg on gestation day (GD) 13 and orally at the same gestational age. Controls received (IP and oral) a proportionate volume of solvent only. Maternal blood was collected at 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 150 minutes posttreatment. Their AFB1 contents were determined. Aflatoxin B1 concentrations following maternal exposure to AFB1 were highly correlated with time after exposure. The serum concentrations were predictable and the highest serum levels were seen immediately at 15 minutes in mice given AFs IP and at 30 minutes in those given it orally. The absorption was 5.0 μg/min and elimination was 3.0 μg/min. The toxicokinetics of AFB1 have been delineated. Aflatoxins are easily and rapidly absorbed both from the gastrointestinal tract (GI) tract and through the peritoneum.
Low Voltage Ride Through of Wind Farms With Cage Generators: STATCOM Versus SVC

This paper analyzes the extent to which the low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability of wind farms using squirrel cage generators can be enhanced by the use of a STATCOM, compared to the thyristor controlled static var compensator (SVC). The transient stability margin is proposed as the indicator of LVRT capability. A simplified analytical approach based on torque-slip characteristics is first proposed to quantify the effect of the STATCOM and the SVC on the transient stability margin. Results from experiments with a STATCOM and a 7.5 kW induction machine emulating a wind turbine are used to validate the suggested analytical approach. Further verifications based on detailed time-domain simulations are also provided. Calculations, simulations and measurements confirm how the increased STATCOM rating can provide an increased transient stability margin and thus enhanced LVRT capability. Compared to the SVC, the STATCOM gives a larger contribution to the transient margin as indicated by both calculations and simulations. The inaccuracies introduced by neglecting the flux transients in the suggested approach are discussed and found reasonable for an estimation method when considering the simplicity compared to detailed time-domain simulation studies. A method for estimating the required rating of different compensation devices to ensure stability after a fault is suggested based on the same approach.
Three dimensional displacement maps of the Bam, Iran, earthquake by applying DINSAR and MAI methods

We presented an application of the novel MAI approach and DInSAR to obtain 3D estimation maps of the ground displacement produced by Bam earthquake, which struck Bam city and the surrounding Kerman province of southeast Iran on December 26, 2003. In our work, ENVISAT ASAR SLC images were processed with ROI_PAC software to produce line-of-sight and along-track displacement maps, and then yielded 3D coseismic displacement maps.
Exploratory analysis on prediction of loan privilege for customers using random forest

In Banking Industry loan Processing is a tedious task in identifying the default customers. Manual prediction of default customers might turn into a bad loan in future. Banks possess huge volume of behavioral data from which they are unable to make a judgement about prediction of loan defaulters. Modern techniques like Machine Learning will help to do analytical processing using Supervised Learning and Unsupervised Learning Technique. A data model for predicting default customers using Random forest Technique has been proposed. Data model Evaluation is done on training set and based on the performance parameters final prediction is done on the Test set. This is an evident that Random Forest technique will help the bank to predict the loan Defaulters with utmost accuracy
THE IMPACT OF HOT JUPITERS ON THE SPIN-DOWN OF THEIR HOST STARS

We present a numerical magnetohydrodynamic study of the dependence of stellar mass and angular momentum loss rates on the orbital distance to close-in giant planets. We find that the mass loss rate drops by a factor of ≈1.5–2, while the angular momentum loss rate drops by a factor of ≈4 as the distance decreases past the Alfvén surface. This reduction in angular momentum loss is due to the interaction between the stellar and planetary Alfvén surfaces, which modifies the global structure of the stellar corona and stellar wind on the hemisphere facing the planet, as well as on the opposite hemisphere. The simulation also shows that the magnitude of change in angular momentum loss rate depends mostly on the strength of the planetary magnetic field and not on its polarity. The interaction, however, begins at greater separation if the overall field topology of the star and the planet are anti-aligned. Our results are consistent with evidence for excess angular momentum in stars harboring close-in giant planets and show that the reduction in wind-driven angular momentum loss can compete with, and perhaps dominate, spin-up due to tidal interaction.
Farm-level factors influencing farmers satisfaction with their work

Well-being of farm workers is necessary in order to foster farming sustainability. We contribute with the research on well-being, exploring on what extent farm-level features influence farmers satisfaction with their work and with their quality of life, using a data sample of 1099 farms in nine European countries. Results suggest that satisfaction with the farm work has a significant and large influence on the satisfaction with the quality of life. Farm-level aspects such as working time, age of assets, financial situation of the farm and social engagement significantly influence farmers satisfaction with farming but their joint effect explains less than a quarter of it. Acknowledgement : We acknowledge FLINT project. This work was funded by the EU Seventh Framework Programme grant number 613800. The opinions expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of the EU. This article is based on the deliverable D.5.
EFFICACY OF ICE AND SHORTWAVE DIATHERMY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF OSTEOARTHRITIS OF THE KNEE - A PRELIMINARY REPORT

This study was designed to compare the effects of shortwave diathermy (SWD) and ice on pain, range of motion and function in osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. Subjects were fourteen patients (4 males and 10 females) aged 40-70years diagnosed as having OA of the knee. Subjects were assigned into either the SWD or ice treatment groups, as they became available. All subjects received routine adjunct therapeutic exercises, were excluded from analgesic drugs and were treated thrice weekly during the four-week duration of the study. Subjects were assessed at the beginning and end of the study for pain, range of motion (ROM) and function using visual analog scale, universal goniometer and functional index questionnaire respectively. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics of means and standard deviation and inferential statistics of independent and paired t-tests. Results showed that while the subjects in the SWD group had significantly greater ROM and function than the ice group at the beginning of the study, both groups were not statistically significantly different on all dependent variables at the end of the study. Paired t-test also indicated that the ice group improved significantly on all three dependent variables while the SWD group improved significantly in pain and ROM only. The improvements in pain, ROM and function effected by SWD and ice were however not significantly different. It was concluded that SWD and ice are equally effective on OA of the knee and that ice can be substituted for SWD in the treatment of OA of the knee.
A new security model to prevent denial‐of‐service attacks and violation of availability in wireless networks

Wireless networks are deployed in many critical areas, such as health care centers, hospitals, police departments, and airports. In these areas, communication through the networks plays a vital role, and real‐time connectivity along with constant availability of the networks is highly important. However, one of the most serious threats against the networks availability is the denial‐of‐service attacks. In wireless networks, clear text form of control frames is a security flaw that can be exploited by the attackers to bring the wireless networks to a complete halt. To prevent the denial‐of‐service attacks against the wireless networks, we propose two distinct security models. The models are capable of preventing the attacks by detecting and discarding the forgery control frames belonging to the attackers. The models are implemented and evaluated under various experiments and trials. The results have proved that the proposed models significantly improve the security performance of the wireless networks. This gives advantage of safe communication that can substantially enhance the network availability while maintaining the quality of the network performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analysis and study of Zeta converter fed by solar photovoltaic array

Due to the increasing demand of electricity and the limited conventional energy resources, Solar Photovoltaic energy becomes a favorable alternative as it is pollution free, freely available and has less maintenance cost. This paper presents basic steady state analysis of Zeta Converter by using State Space Averaging Method in continuous inductor current mode. The Zeta converter is a fourth order DC-DC converter which is capable of operating in Buck and Boost Mode. The Zeta Converter is cascaded between Solar Photovoltaic Panel and Load. The input voltage to Zeta converter is fed by a photovoltaic panel. The modeling of solar panel is done by considering the design equation of photon current and reverses saturation current. The objective of this paper is to analyze the performance of Zeta converter by a change in Temperature, Irradiance, Duty Cycle and Load Resistance. The effectiveness of model with the result is verified by using simulation done in MATLAB™ Simulink.
ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF MANIPULATORS WITH IMPROVED ADAPTATION TRANSIENTS BY USING ON-LINE SUPERVISION OF THE FREE-PARAMETERS OF THE ADAPTATION ALGORITHM AND OF THE SAMPLING RATE

An adaptive control scheme for mechanical manipulators is proposed. The control loop essentially consists of a network for learning the robot's inverse dynamics and on-line generating the control signal. Some simulation results are provided to evaluate the design. A supervisor is used to improve the system's performances during the adaptation transients. The supervisor exerts two supervisory actions. The first one consists basically in updating the free-design adaptive controller parameters so that the value of a quadratic loss function is maintained sufficiently small. Such a function involves past tracking errors and their predictions both on appropriate time horizons of low performances during the adaptation transients. The supervisor exerts two supervisory actions. The second supervisory action consists basically of a on-line adjustment of the sampling period within an interval centered in a nominal value of the sampling period. The sampling period is selected so that the transient of the tracking error is improved according to the simple intuitive rule of sampling faster as the tracking error changes faster.
As Easy as Pie: How Retirement Savers Use Prescribed Investment Disclosures

Using a laboratory experiment, we study how retirement plan members choose investment options using five information items prescribed by regulators. We found that asset allocation information for pre-mixed investment options – normally presented as a pie chart or a table – had the largest impact on choices. Participants preferred investment options with more, and more evenly weighted, asset class allocations. This novel application of a 1/n strategy differs significantly from the existing findings of naive diversification in ‘mix-it-yourself’ conditions where participants spread resources evenly across funds or categories. When asset allocation information was included, coefficients on return and risk information had unexpected signs, but when asset allocation was omitted, participants preferred options with high Sharpe ratios. We also demonstrate that none of the five prescribed information items was significant in explaining individual choices of more than 35% of participants. These findings highlight that information contained in prescribed investment disclosures might not be used in the manner intended by the regulator. The results raise important methodological questions about the way ‘user-friendly’ information prescribed by regulators is validated before being legislated.
Biochemical changes in wheat plants as affected by residues of dimethoate and pirimicarb

Wheat plants were grown in field plots of 3×3m area. After growth period of two months, the growing plants were sprayed with dimethoate and pirimicarb at the recommended dose. Spraying was repeated after a further 45 days. Plant samples were taken at intervals of zero, three, six, nine, 12 and 15 days after each application. A gradual and continuous degradation of the applied pesticides had taken place in the treated wheat shoots up to the end of the experiment. However, dimethoate showed more residues and persistence rather than pirimicarb. The break down and metabolism of the applied pesticides was correlated with some biochemical changes in the sprayed plants. Sampling dates of three and six days after application were the most critical periods to affect plant metabolism. A decline was noticed in chlorophyll, sugars and carbohydrates, total proteins and RNA content of wheat shoots as a function of the applied pesticides. Free amino acids were accumulated in the sprayed plants, meanwhile the DNA content did not show observable changes as a consequence of the applied pesticides treatment.
Nonlinear Lensing in an Unpumped Antiresonant Semiconductor Disk Laser Gain Structure

We characterize the nonlinear lens in an antiresonant 11 quantum well InGaAs/GaAsP semiconductor disk laser gain structure designed for operation at 1035 nm using a reflection-type z-scan technique. We probe at a wavelength of 1035 nm and with a sub-picosecond pulse duration. The measured n<sub>2</sub> was within the range of -5.6 × 10<sup>-13</sup> cm<sup>2</sup>/W <; n<sub>2</sub> <; -3.1 × 10<sup>-13</sup> cm<sup>2</sup>/W.
Cerebellar secretin modulates eyeblink classical conditioning

We have previously shown that intracerebellar infusion of the neuropeptide secretin enhances the acquisition phase of eyeblink conditioning (EBC). Here, we sought to test whether endogenous secretin also regulates EBC and to test whether the effect of exogenous and endogenous secretin is specific to acquisition. In Experiment 1, rats received intracerebellar infusions of the secretin receptor antagonist 5-27 secretin or vehicle into the lobulus simplex of cerebellar cortex immediately prior to sessions 1–3 of acquisition. Antagonist-infused rats showed a reduction in the percentage of eyeblink CRs compared with vehicle-infused rats. In Experiment 2, rats received intracerebellar infusions of secretin or vehicle immediately prior to sessions 1–2 of extinction. Secretin did not significantly affect extinction performance. In Experiment 3, rats received intracerebellar infusions of 5-27 secretin or vehicle immediately prior to sessions 1–2 of extinction. The secretin antagonist did not significantly affect extinction performance. Together, our current and previous results indicate that both exogenous and endogenous cerebellar secretin modulate acquisition, but not extinction, of EBC. We have previously shown that (1) secretin reduces surface expression of the voltage-gated potassium channel α-subunit Kv1.2 in cerebellar cortex and (2) intracerebellar infusions of a Kv1.2 blocker enhance EBC acquisition, much like secretin. Kv1.2 is almost exclusively expressed in cerebellar cortex at basket cell–Purkinje cell pinceaus and Purkinje cell dendrites; we propose that EBC-induced secretin release from PCs modulates EBC acquisition by reducing surface expression of Kv1.2 at one or both of these sites.
Tight Junction Protein Par6 Interacts with an Evolutionarily Conserved Region in the Amino Terminus of PALS1/Stardust*

Tight junctions are the structures in mammalian epithelial cells that separate the apical and basolateral membranes and may also be important in the establishment of cell polarity. Two evolutionarily conserved multiprotein complexes, Crumbs-PALS1 (Stardust)-PATJ and Cdc42-Par6-Par3-atypical protein kinase C, have been implicated in the assembly of tight junctions and in polarization of Drosophila melanogaster epithelia. These two complexes have been linked physically and functionally by an interaction between PALS1 and Par6. Here we identify an evolutionarily conserved region in the amino terminus of PALS1 as the Par6 binding site and identify valine and aspartic acid residues in this region as essential for interacting with the PDZ domain of Par6. We have also characterized, in more detail, the amino terminus of Drosophila Stardust and demonstrate that the interaction mechanism between Stardust and Drosophila Par6 is evolutionarily conserved. Par6 interferes with PATJ in binding PALS1, and these two interactions do not appear to function synergistically. Taken together, these results define the molecular mechanisms linking two conserved polarity complexes.
MicroRNAs and small interfering RNAs can inhibit mRNA expression by similar mechanisms

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenously encoded small noncoding RNAs, derived by processing of short RNA hairpins, that can inhibit the translation of mRNAs bearing partially complementary target sequences. In contrast, small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which are derived by processing of long double-stranded RNAs and are often of exogenous origin, degrade mRNAs bearing fully complementary sequences. Here, we demonstrate that an endogenously encoded human miRNA is able to cleave an mRNA bearing fully complementary target sites, whereas an exogenously supplied siRNA can inhibit the expression of an mRNA bearing partially complementary sequences without inducing detectable RNA cleavage. These data suggest that miRNAs and siRNAs can use similar mechanisms to repress mRNA expression and that the choice of mechanism may be largely or entirely determined by the degree of complementary of the RNA target.
Analogous Enzymes : Independent Inventions in Enzyme Evolution

It is known that the same reaction may be catalyzed by structurally unrelated enzymes. We performed a systematic search for such analogous (as opposed to homologous) enzymes by evaluating sequence conservation among enzymes with the same enzyme classification (EC) number using sensitive, iterative sequence database search methods. Enzymes without detectable sequence similarity to each other were found for 105 EC numbers (a total of 243 distinct proteins). In 34 cases, independent evolutionary origin of the suspected analogous enzymes was corroborated by showing that they possess different structural folds. Analogous enzymes were found in each class of enzymes, but their overall distribution on the map of biochemical pathways is patchy, suggesting multiple events of gene transfer and selective loss in evolution, rather than acquisition of entire pathways catalyzed by a set of unrelated enzymes. Recruitment of enzymes that catalyze a similar but distinct reaction seems to be a major scenario for the evolution of analogous enzymes, which should be taken into account for functional annotation of genomes. For many analogous enzymes, the bacterial form of the enzyme is different from the eukaryotic one; such enzymes may be promising targets for the development of new antibacterial drugs.