Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparing People in the Enterprise

Enterprise Search Systems are requested to provide more and more functionalities for supporting decision at the management level. An important aspect to consider is the human power and the knowledge which is available. For this reason, in this paper, after extracting a list of requirements out of a specific scenario, and presenting the previous work, we describe an improved approach to compare experts in order to retrieve and present to the user the most appropriate candidates for a given project.
Association of physical activity with risk of metabolic syndrome: findings from a cross-sectional study conducted in rural area, Nantong, China

ABSTRACT The prevalence of metabolic syndrome increases rapidly worldwide, and its association with physical activity (PA) varies with race and lifestyles. Little is known about the association in rural China. The Nantong Metabolic Syndrome Study recruited 13,505 female and 6997 male participants in 2007 and 2008. Socio-demographic characteristics, and physiological and behavioural data were collected. Logistic regression model was applied to estimate associations of metabolic syndrome and its components with different PAs. The overall metabolic syndrome prevalence was 21.6% in current study. Increasing total PA or moderate-to-vigorous-intensity occupational PA was associated with decreasing 5%–60% risk of having metabolic syndrome and abnormal metabolic syndrome components in both genders. An association between leisure-time PA and blood pressure was found in men, but no associations between leisure-time PA and metabolic syndrome components were found in women. Commuting PA, such as walking and taking bus, by bicycle and walking only, was associated with decrease of 20%–45% risk of several abnormal metabolic syndrome components in women. This study provides information for future investigation into the nature of these associations so that recommendations can be developed to reduce the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components among rural population in China.
Relationships Between Osteocalcin, Glucose Metabolism, and Adiponectin in Obese Children: Is there Crosstalk Between Bone Tissue and Glucose Metabolism?

Objective: Recently, scientific interest has focused on the association between osteocalcin, which originates from the skeletal system, and glucose metabolism. Although the association between lipid metabolism, adiponectin, and metabolic syndrome is well known, that between obesity, insulin resistance, and osteocalcin have not been clarified yet in children. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of insulin resistance in obese children and adolescents, as well as to investigate the effects of adiponectin and osteocalcin on the development of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. Methods: A total of 150 obese nondiabetic children and adolescents, aged between 5 and 18 years, were included in the study. Serum adiponectin, osteocalcin and insulin levels were measured, and the association of the components of metabolic syndrome with adiponectin and osteocalcin levels was investigated. Insulin resistance was evaluated by Homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Results: Metabolic syndrome was identified in 28% of the cases, all older than 10 years of age. No significant association was identified between insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome parameters, and osteocalcin levels. Adiponectin levels were significantly low in cases with metabolic syndrome, hyperinsulinemia, and in those with dyslipidemia. No significant association was found between adiponectin and osteocalcin levels. Conclusions: We failed to show the effect of osteocalcin on insulin resistance in obese children and adolescents. This finding may be due to absence of hypergycemic blood glucose levels in our cases. Conflict of interest:None declared.
Adrenergic Nerves to the Eye and to Related Structures in Man and in the Cynomolgus Monkey (Macaca Irus)

The number of adrenergic nerves in the •primate eye (Homo and cynomolgus monkey) is generally less than that seen in many lower mammals, as revealed by the fluorescence technique of Falck and Hillarp. Adrenergic nerves were found, in various numbers, to reach the limbus corneae, scleral aqueous drainage channels, dilator pupillae, sphincter pupillae, ciliary muscle, ciliary part of the nveal meshwork of the chamber angle, chorioid, lacrimal gland, tarsal muscle, and smooth muscles of the gland of Meibom. In the ciliary ganglion, monoaminecontaining neurons can be found under certain conditions. The perivascular sheath of adrenergic nerves has a peculiar spacious arrangement in the iris, similar to that found in the iris of other mammals. In some of the iridic vessels, adrenergic fibers are found throughout the smooth musculature. Varicose adrenergic nerves can be found to a considerable extent in nerve trunks as they approach their target organs. The retina contains a layer of adrenergic fibers between the inner nuclear and plexiform layers. Adrenergic cell bodies are found in the inner nuclear layer and, to a lesser extent, in the ganglion cell layer. No adrenergic fibers or cells were identified in the scleral trabeculae, at the canal of Schlemm, in the sclera proper, or in the optic nerve.
Molecular systematics of the anchovy genus Encrasicholina in the Northwest Pacific

The anchovy genus Encrasicholina is an important coastal marine resource of the tropical Indo-West Pacific (IWP) region for which insufficient comparative data are available to evaluate the effects of current exploitation levels on the sustainability of its species and populations. Encrasicholina currently comprises nine valid species that are morphologically very similar. Only three, Encrasicholina punctifer, E. heteroloba, and E. pseudoheteroloba, occur in the Northwest Pacific subregion of the northeastern part of the IWP region. These species are otherwise broadly distributed and abundant in the IWP region, making them the most important anchovy species for local fisheries. In this study, we reconstructed the phylogeny of these three species of Encrasicholina within the Engraulidae. We sequenced 10 complete mitochondrial genomes (using high-throughput and Sanger DNA sequencing technologies) and compared those sequences to 21 previously published mitochondrial genomes from various engraulid taxa. The phylogenetic results showed that the genus Encrasicholina is monophyletic, and it is the sister group to the more-diverse "New World anchovy" clade. The mitogenome-based dating results indicated that the crown group Encrasicholina originated about 33.7 million years ago (nearby the limit Eocene/Oligocene), and each species of Encrasicholina has been reproductively isolated from the others for more than 20 million years, despite their morphological similarities. In contrast, preliminary population genetic analyses across the Northwest Pacific region using four mitogenomic sequences revealed very low levels of genetic differentiation within Encrasicholina punctifer. These molecular results combined with recent taxonomic revisions are important for designing further studies on the population structure and phylogeography of these anchovies.
Automatic identification of persons in TV series S UBMITTED

In recent years, more and more video content in digital form is becoming available, for example through websites like YouTube. For effective search in these large amounts of video data, content-based approaches are necessary. An important sub-task of search in videos is the search for specific persons. The goal of this work is to develop a baseline system for person identification in videos, more specifically in TV series. The system has to be built from the ground up, starting with shot boundary detection, which segments the video into separate shots and is an important first step for all work in the area of video analysis. Furthermore, persons have to be detected and tracked in the video. For this purpose, a face tracker is developed, which is based on the particle filter approach and uses skin color segmentation and Haar cascade-based face detectors as features. The Haar cascades are extended to supply confidence values, and not only binary decisions, which has significant advantages for the tracking algorithm. From the extracted face images, features are extracted using a successful local appearance-based approach, and three application scenarios are explored: closed-set identification, automatic retrieval and interactive retrieval. Experiments are performed with eye location-based alignment for the first two scenarios and without alignment for the last scenario. The system is evaluated using episodes of TV series on DVD, as well as a standard evaluation for shot boundary detection. The shot boundary detector achieves very good results for the TV series, as well as for the shorter shot transitions in the standard evaluation. There is still room for improvement, especially for longer shot transitions. The face tracker is also shown to have good performance. It finds a large percentage of the persons in a video and can successfully track them. It is also demonstrated that the tracks are very reliable and that they switch persons only very rarely. The results of the application scenarios show the viability of the local appearance-based face recognition approach to the video retrieval domain and also point to possible enahncements of the system, especially in the area of alignment.
Read What You Touch with Intelligent Audio System for Non-Visual Interaction

Slate-type devices allow Individuals with Blindness or Severe Visual Impairment (IBSVI) to read in place with the touch of their fingertip by audio-rendering the words they touch. Such technologies are helpful for spatial cognition while reading. However, users have to move their fingers slowly, or they may lose their place on screen. Also, IBSVI may wander between lines without realizing they did. We addressed these two interaction problems by introducing a dynamic speech-touch interaction model and an intelligent reading support system. With this model, the speed of the speech will dynamically change with the user’s finger speed. The proposed model is composed of (1) an Audio Dynamics Model and (2) an Off-line Speech Synthesis Technique. The intelligent reading support system predicts the direction of reading, corrects the reading word if the user drifts, and notifies the user using a sonic gutter to help him/her from straying off the reading line. We tested the new audio dynamics model, the sonic gutter, and the reading support model in two user studies. The participants’ feedback helped us fine-tune the parameters of the two models. A decomposition study was conducted to evaluate the main components of the system. The results showed that both intelligent reading support with tactile feedback are required to achieve the best performance in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. Finally, we ran an evaluation study where the reading support system is compared to other VoiceOver technologies. The results showed preponderance to the reading support system with its audio dynamics and intelligent reading support components.
Near-independently regulated 5-output single-inductor DC-DC buck converter delivering 1.2W/mm2 in 65nm CMOS

For minimizing the power consumption in portable devices, efficient DC-DC converters with a wide range of regulated voltages and currents are needed. Considering the required footprint area, cost, and chip count, integration of single-inductor-multiple-output (SIMO) DC-DC converters into the system, particularly in scaled CMOS processes, is highly desirable. However, the cross regulation and low power density of SIMO solutions are obstacles to system integration [1-5]. Another problem is the capability of handling high battery voltage in advanced CMOS processes. This paper presents control and circuit techniques used in a 65nm CMOS SIMO buck converter with near-independently regulated five outputs and high power density.
Design and characterization of the non-native military air traffic communications database (nnMATC)

This paper describes the speech database that has a central role in the Interspeech 2007 special session "Novel techniques for the NATO non-native Air Traffic Communications database. " The rationale for recording and distributing this common research object is given, and details about the acquisition and annotation are given, as well as some statistics. Further, a summary is given of potential uses of the database, in terms of evaluation measures and protocols.
Photometric Stereo with Nearby Planar Distributed Illuminants

This paper considers the problem of shape-from-shading using nearby planar distributed illuminants. It is shown that a rectangular planar nearby distributed uniform isotropic illuminant shining on a small Lambertian surface patch is equivalent to a single isotropic point light source at infinity. A closed-form solution is given for the equivalent point light source direction in terms of the illuminant corner locations. Equivalent point light sources can be obtained for multiple rectangular illuminants allowing standard photometric stereo algorithms to be used. An extension is given to the case of a rectangular planar illuminant with arbitrary radiance distribution. It is shown that a Walsh function approximation to the arbitrary illuminant distribution leads to an efficient computation of the equivalent point light source directions. A search technique employing a solution consistency measure is presented to handle the case of unknown depths. Applications of the theory presented in this paper include visual user-interfaces using shape-from-shading algorithms making use of the illumination from computer monitors, or movie screens.
Channelless Fabrication for Large‐Scale Preparation of Room Temperature Liquid Metal Droplets

The room‐temperature liquid metal (RTLM), which is far from being fully exploited, is emerging as an ideal material for fabricating micro‐droplets owing to its strong surface tension and easy phase control property. In order to find out a low‐cost and technically simple way for quickly preparing metal particles in large‐scale, here a channelless fabrication method based on stream jetting and self breaking up mechanisms of the RTLM when injected into and interact with the matching solution was proposed. Various typical factors on influencing the droplets generation behavior were experimentally investigated and clarified, such as the effects of the aperture size of the injection needle, the density, viscosity of the liquids and surfactants etc. Further, as an illustration of the flexibility of the present method, the direct construction of a three‐dimensional porous metal block with foam‐structures inside was also demonstrated. This study opened an extremely simple way for large scale fabrication of liquid metal micro‐droplets and particles which has rather important practical values. It also suggests a highly efficient approach for visualizing and investigating the fundamental mechanisms of fluids interactions between RTLM and general solution.
Robust dynamic programming for min-max model predictive control of constrained uncertain systems

We address min-max model predictive control (MPC) for uncertain discrete-time systems by a robust dynamic programming approach, and develop an algorithm that is suitable for linearly constrained polytopic systems with piecewise affine cost functions. The method uses polyhedral representations of the cost-to-go functions and feasible sets, and performs multiparametric programming by a duality based approach in each recursion step. We show how to apply the method to robust MPC, and give conditions guaranteeing closed loop stability. Finally, we apply the method to a tutorial example, a parking car with uncertain mass.
Novel device for calibration-free flow rate measurements in micro gas chromatographic systems

Accurate knowledge of flow rate is critical when quantifying analytes in a chromatographic separation. Using the flow rate, the area of a peak and the response factor of a detector one can calculate the total quantity of the analyte being examined. To date, this quantification has not been possible since no in situ method for flow rate detection within a detector existed. We have developed and tested a novel device and method for measuring the linear flow rate in a micro-gas chromatography (GC) system. Our design utilizes a high-sensitivity micro thermal conductivity detector (μTCD), which is capable of replacing a traditional TCD and requires no calibration for the precise measurement of flow rates. Furthermore, this measurement occurs exactly where the solute elutes from the GC separation column, the point at which knowledge of flow rate is most critical for analyte quantification. To the best of our knowledge, no other method of measuring the flow rate directly at the sensor currently exists.
Fostering accessible urban mobility through smart mobile applications

Cities have evolved as a natural environment for cars rather than people. This has limited people's ability to move around, living and interacting with the urban space affecting the experienced quality of life. Clearly, this regards all of us and, in particular, people affected by impairments. One of the main barriers in building services to fill the gap between the urban environment and people living in it is surprisingly represented by the lack of information. Think for instance to Google maps; you can ask for a path between any two destinations and you will receive a response with the shortest path whether you are travelling by car, public transportation or just walking. Yet, there is no path or information available regarding people on a wheelchair or blind. Instead, we discuss in this paper how the vast popularity of sensor-endowed smartphones can be exploited to create unprecedented services able to improve the interaction with the environment, the social inclusion and the quality of life.
Laser-induced microstructures on silicon for laser-driven acceleration experiments

Ultrashort laser pulses are used to create surface structures on thin ( $25~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ ) silicon (Si) wafers. Scanning the wafer with a galvanometric mirror system creates large homogeneously structured areas. The variety of structure shapes that can be generated with this method is exemplified by the analysis of shape, height and distance of structures created in the ambient media air and isopropanol. A study of the correlation between structure height and remaining wafer thickness is presented. The comparatively easy manufacturing technique and the structure variety that allows for custom-tailored targets show great potential for high repetition rate ion acceleration experiments.
Systematic Literature Review Protocol: Teaching Novices Programming Using Robots.

Learning to program a computer has long been recognised as a difficult task for novices [1]. This has resulted in introductory programming courses suffering high drop-out rates [2] and many first-time programmers making little progress in their studies [3]. Programming is also associated with several negative stereotypes. These include the misconceptions that programming is so complex that most novices will never be able to become competent programmers [4] and that learning to program is rarely anything but a solitary and uninspiring experience [5]. Various efforts have been made by educators to try and overcome the difficulties that novice programmers encounter. Such attempts are often referred to as interventions. This study employs the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology [6] in order to investigate the use of robots as tools to aid the process of teaching programming. The SLR is a trustworthy, rigorous and auditable tool [7] and is one that allows for existing evidence to be collected and summarised while identifying gaps in current research [6]. This work will form part of a larger project that is investigating innovative methods which can assist novice programmers in their studies. No past SLR has been found to examine the use of robotics in such a context. The Protocol that is presented will specify the plan that is to be followed in order to ensure the successful implementation of the SLR.
Evaluation of factors affecting serum IgG concentrations in bottle-fed calves.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of time interval from birth to first colostrum feeding on colostrum intake and serum IgG concentration and the effect of varying colostral volume intake and colostral IgG concentration on the probability of failure of passive transfer (FPT) in bottle-fed calves. DESIGN Randomized controlled study. ANIMALS 104 calves. PROCEDURES Equal numbers of calves were randomly assigned to groups and fed 3 L of their dam's colostrum at 1, 2, 3, or 4 hours after birth by use of a nipple bottle. Calves were allowed to feed for 15 minutes, and intake was recorded. A second 3-L bottle feeding of colostrum was offered at 12 hours of age. RESULTS 17.2% of calves ingested 3 L of colostrum at the first feeding and 3 L at 12 hours of age. Calf age, up to 4 hours, had no significant effect on the calf's ability to ingest colostrum or on 48-hour serum IgG concentration. Colostral intake at 1, 2, 3, or 4 hours had no effect on intake at the second feeding. Probability of FPT in calves ingesting 3 L at both feedings was < 0.05. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Allowing calves fed by nipple bottle to ingest as much colostrum as they can within 4 hours after birth and at 12 hours of age substantially reduced the probability of FPT. Bottle-fed calves that do not ingest 3 L of colostrum within the first 4 hours after birth should be targeted for oroesophageal intubation.
Termination of Term Rewriting by Semantic Labelling

A new kind of transformation of term rewriting systems (TRS) is proposed, depending on a choice for a model for the TRS. The labelled TRS is obtained from the original one by labelling operation symbols, possibly creating extra copies of some rules. This construction has the remarkable property that the labelled TRS is terminating if and only if the original TRS is terminating. Although the labelled version has more operation symbols and may have more rules (sometimes infinitely many), termination is often easier to prove for the labelled TRS than for the original one. This provides a new technique for proving termination, making classical techniques like path orders and polynomial interpretations applicable even for non-simplifying TRS’s. The requirement of having a model can slightly be weakened, yielding a remarkably simple termination proof of the system SUBST of [11] describing explicit substitution in λ-calculus.
The Human Rap1 Protein Complex and Modulation of Telomere Length*

Proper maintenance of telomere length and structure is necessary for normal proliferation of mammalian cells. Mammalian telomere length is regulated by a number of proteins including human repressor activator protein (hRap1), a known association factor of TRF2. To further delineate hRap1 function and its associated proteins, we affinity-purified and identified the hRap1 protein complex through mass spectrometry analysis. In addition to TRF2, we found DNA repair proteins Rad50, Mre11, PARP1 (poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase), and Ku86/Ku70 to be in this telomeric complex. We demonstrated by deletional analysis that Rad-50/Mre-11 and Ku86 were recruited to hRap1 independent of TRF2. PARP1, however, most likely interacted with hRap1 through TRF2. Interestingly, knockdown of endogenous hRap1 expression by small hairpin interference RNA resulted in longer telomeres. In addition, overexpression of full-length and mutant hRap1 that lacked the BRCA1 C-terminal domain functioned as dominant negatives and extended telomeres. Deletion of a novel linker domain of hRap1 (residues 199–223), however, abolished the dominant negative effect of hRap1 overexpression. These results indicate that hRap1 negatively regulates telomere length in vivo and suggest that the linker region of hRap1 may modulate the recruitment of negative regulators of telomere length.