Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Colorimetric detection of pesticides based on calixarene modified silver nanoparticles in water

Highly stable silver nanoparticles modified with p-sulfonatocalix[n]arene (n = 4, 8) were synthesized via a one-pot protocol in aqueous media and characterized by transmission electron microscopy, FT-IR and UV–vis spectroscopy. In comparison with p-sulfonatocalix[8]arene modified silver nanoparticles, p-sulfonatocalix[4]arene modified silver nanoparticles can be utilized as a novel colorimetric probe for optunal, allowing a rapid quantitative assay of optunal down to a concentration of 10−7 M, showing a great potential for application to real-time in situ detection of optunal. The possible mechanism is discussed.
Camera-based interactions for augmented reality

We investigate camera-based interaction techniques suitable for generating simple, easy-to-use augmented reality applications. All the interaction techniques described are based on using only the camera as input device, so that users can interact with 3D content of the application by gesturing with camera movements. With two test applications, we have identified several camera-based interaction techniques that work well with interactive augmented reality 3D content and are intuitive to use and reliable to detect. The test applications are interesting also in their own right, demonstrating technical features such as markerless tracking as well as mobile phone implementation.
Rome II and Tort Conflicts: A Missed Opportunity

This article reviews the European Union's new Regulation on tort conflicts ("Rome II"), which unifies and "federalizes" the member states' laws on this subject. The review accepts the drafters' pragmatic premise that a rule-system built around the lex loci delicti as the basic rule, rather than American-style "approaches," was the only politically viable vehicle for unification. Within this framework, the review examines whether Rome II provides sufficient and flexible enough exceptions as to make the lex loci rule less arbitrary and the whole system more workable.The author's answer is negative. For example, the common-domicile exception is too broad in some respects and too narrow in other respects. Likewise, the "manifestly closer connection" escape is phrased in exclusively geographical terms unrelated to any overarching principle and is worded in an all-or-nothing way that precludes issue-by-issue deployment and prevents it from being useful in all but the easiest of cases. The review concludes that, although attaining a proper equilibrium between legal certainty and flexibility is always difficult, Rome II errs too much on the side of certainty, which ultimately may prove elusive.On the whole, Rome II is a missed opportunity to take advantage of the rich codification experience and sophistication of modern European conflicts law. Nevertheless, Rome II represents a major political accomplishment in unifying and equalizing the member states' laws on this difficult subject. If this first step is followed by subsequent improvements, Europe would have achieved in a relatively short time much more than American conflicts law could ever hope for.
Minimum-cost wireless backhaul network planning with full-duplex links

In this work we address the joint design of the wireless backhauling network topology, as well as the frequency/power allocation on the wireless links, where the nodes are capable of full-duplex (FD) operation. The proposed joint design enables the coexistence of multiple access/backhaul links at the same channel, resulting in an enhanced spectral efficiency. Moreover, it enables the usage of FD capability when/where it is gainful. In this regard, a mixed-integer-linear-program (MILP) design framework is proposed, aiming at a minimum cost design for the wireless backhaul network, considering the required rate demand at each base station, as well as the various operational limits. The numerical simulations show a reduction in the network cost via the utilization of the proposed designs, thanks to the coexistence of multiple links on the same channel due to the FD capability.
nProbe: an Open Source NetFlow Probe for Gigabit Networks

Cisco NetFlow is an industry standard protocol suitable for monitoring network traffic. Although most of high-end network routers support NetFlow, very often flows are computed only on a small portion of the overall traffic due to performance limitation of NetFlow probe implementations. This paper covers the design and implementation of an open source software NetFlow probe designed for handling Gigabit traffic. As nProbe uses little CPU and memory, it has been successfully used to monitor high-speed networks at full wire speed without packet sampling in scenarios where commercial NetFlow probes could not be used due to their limitations. Finally, the paper shows how nProbe has been successfully integrated into an embedded computer named nBox.
Moving toward a Culture of Evidence: Documentation and Action Research in the Practice of Arts Partnerships

Arts organizations that partner with schools to design, implement, and evaluate arts education programs are rethinking traditional practices of evaluation to more directly engage school partners, artists, and administrators. External arts partners are also being held accountable for learning outcomes that result from their programs. In this article, the authors describe an urban arts organization that is moving toward an institutional culture that engages teachers, artists, students, parents, and administrators in a process of documentation and action research that enhances the ability to evaluate teaching and learning. This layered research approach within an arts organization enables participants to link teaching standards to student work and contributes to the larger dialogue about arts education programs in schools.
Receiver-side opportunism in cognitive networks

Cognitive radios may increase spectral efficiency by filling in spectral gaps, transmitting under the interference-temperature, or by exploiting transmitter-side information - all methods which rely on transmitter-side cognition. In this work we shift our focus to receiver-side cognition by extending work on opportunistic interference cancellation (OIC) to multi-user scenarios. We consider a single primary transmitter-receiver link which communicates simultaneously with a group of cognitive (secondary) users that form one of three classical multi-user channels: 1) a multiple access channel (MAC), 2) interference channel (IC), or 3) a broadcast channel (BC). When these cognitive users are permitted to transmit subject to peak interference at the primary receiver, we illustrate the benefit of having the primary share its transmission rate and codebook with the cognitive receivers. With these codebooks, when the channel conditions permit, the cognitive receivers decode both the primary and the intended cognitive message, which boosts the secondary rates as compared to treating the primary signal as noise. The primary users must not change their encoders/decoders and remain oblivious to the secondary operation. We obtain achievable rate regions for the secondary MAC, IC and BC in which the cognitive receivers opportunistically cancel the primary interference to achieve higher rates at the cost of codebook knowledge and, perhaps, increased decoding complexity.
Your Floor Knows Where You Are: Sensing and Acquisition of Movement Data

This paper describes the first results on a sensor floor, which can be integrated in home environments to assist old and frail persons living independently at home. The sensor floor works with a dense array of piezo elements. Its purpose is not only to monitor the inhabitant's position within the room but also to analyze impact patterns for later activation of stable rescue procedures in case of fall or other emergency events. Algorithms were developed to gain information on steps of persons in the room from the piezo impulses. The sensors are invisibly integrated in the room's floor, which is part of a living lab (the Future Care Lab) developed and built within the eHealth project at RWTH Aachen University.
Strengthening families in Head Start: the impact of a parent education programme on the emotional well‐being of Latino families

This study explores the impact of a Head Start add‐on programme, a matrix of services for parents which provides educational and vocational supports, on maternal depression and children’s behaviour in Latino families. We hypothesise that after having completed training, parents who participated in the add‐on programme would have lower levels of reported depression than parents receiving Head Start services alone. It was also hypothesised that decreased levels of reported depression would be related to increases in children’s social skills and reductions in their behaviour problems. Fifty Latino children from a local Head Start programme and their primary caregivers participated in the study. Results indicate that intervention group mothers had significantly lower levels of reported depression when compared to mothers who received regular services. Children’s social skills appeared to increase and their behaviour problems decrease, regardless of whether their parents were involved in self‐sufficiency promoting activities in the programme.
Can Classrooms Learn

Classrooms are conceptualized as collectives with variable properties, such as the differentiation of the instructional technology, delegation of authority, and interdependence of work arrangements. Class members' achievement is seen as an outcome of the operation of these variables. Testing hypotheses derived from contingency theory in organizational sociology, the authors related, under conditions of task uncertainty, measures of differentiation, the supervision of teachers, and lateral communication among students to outcomes on standardized achievement tests. They analyzed two data sets containing observational measures and test scores from linguistically and academically heterogeneous classrooms using the same classroom management system dnd curricular materials. Students were mostly from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The training of participating teachers was standardized. The results supported the hypotheses.
MANET link performance using Ant Colony Optimization and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithms

End-to-end delay and Communication cost are the most important metrics in MANET (Mobile Adhoc Network) routing from source to destination. Recent approaches in Swarm intelligence (SI) technique, a local interaction of many simple agents to meet a global goal, prove that it has more impact on routing in MANETs. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm uses mobile agents as ants to discover feasible and best path in a network. ACO helps in finding the paths between two nodes in a network and acts as an input to the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique, a metaheuristic approach in SI. PSO finds the best solution over the particle's position and velocity with the objective of cost and minimum End-to-end delay. This hybrid algorithm exhibits better performances when compared to ACO approach.
Crystal structure of a covalent intermediate in DNA cleavage and rejoining by Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I

DNA topoisomerases control DNA topology by breaking and rejoining DNA strands via covalent complexes with cleaved DNA substrate as catalytic intermediates. Here we report the structure of Escherichia coli topoisomerase I catalytic domain (residues 2–695) in covalent complex with a cleaved single-stranded oligonucleotide substrate, refined to 2.3-Å resolution. The enzyme-substrate intermediate formed after strand cleavage was captured due to the presence of the D111N mutation. This structure of the covalent topoisomerase-DNA intermediate, previously elusive for type IA topoisomerases, shows distinct conformational changes from the structure of the enzyme without bound DNA and provides detailed understanding of the covalent catalysis required for strand cleavage to take place. The portion of cleaved DNA 5′ to the site of cleavage is anchored tightly with extensive noncovalent protein–DNA interactions as predicted by the “enzyme-bridged” model. Distortion of the scissile strand at the -4 position 5′ to the cleavage site allows specific selectivity of a cytosine base in the binding pocket. Many antibacterial and anticancer drugs initiate cell killing by trapping the covalent complexes formed by topoisomerases. We have demonstrated in previous mutagenesis studies that accumulation of the covalent complex of bacterial topoisomerase I is bactericidal. This structure of the covalent intermediate provides the basis for the design of novel antibiotics that can trap the enzyme after formation of the covalent complex.
An energy-efficient OFDM-based baseband transceiver design for ubiquitous healthcare monitoring applications

This work proposes an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based baseband transceiver design for wireless body area network (WBAN) application. Based on the analysis of the WBAN operation behavior, high transmission data rate and low power implementation techniques are proposed to reduce the transmission energy. An electrocardiography (ECG) transmission platform is also established with proposed design for system evaluation. This chip is implemented in a 90nm CMOS technology with the core size of 2.85 mm2, and this baseband transceiver dissipates 357.14 uW with supply voltage 0.5 V. The proposed chip provides maximum 9.7 Mbps data rate, resulting in active duty cycle of 0.1763% and the transmission energy of 0.37 nJ / bit.
Development of intracellular bacterial communities of uropathogenic Escherichia coli depends on type 1 pili

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli, the predominant causative agent of urinary tract infections, use type 1 pili to bind and invade bladder epithelial cells. Upon entry, the bacteria rapidly replicate and enter a complex developmental pathway ultimately forming intracellular bacterial communities (IBCs), a niche with biofilm‐like properties protected from innate defences and antibiotics. Paradoxically, bacteria within IBCs produce type 1 pili, an organelle thought only to be an extracellular colonization factor. Thus, we investigated the function of type 1 pili in IBC development. The cystitis isolate, UTI89, was genetically manipulated for conditional fim expression under control of the tet promoter. In this strain, UTI89‐tetR/Ptet fim, piliation is constitutively inhibited by the tetracycline repressor, TetR. Repression is relieved by anhydrotetracycline (AHT) treatment. UTI89‐tetR/Ptet fim and the isogenic control strain, UTI89‐tetR, grown in the presence of AHT, colonized the bladder and invaded the superficial umbrella cells at similar levels at early times in a murine model of infection. However, after invasion UTI89‐tetR/Ptet fim became non‐piliated and was unable to form typical IBCs comprised of tightly packed, coccoid‐shaped bacteria in contrast to the control strain, UTI89‐tetR. Thus, this work changes the extracellular colonization functional paradigm of pili by demonstrating their intracellular role in biofilm formation.
An Applicable Family of Data Flow Testing Criteria

The authors extend the definitions of the previously introduced family of data flow testing criteria to apply to programs written in a large subset of Pascal. They then define a family of adequacy criteria called feasible data flow testing criteria, which are derived from the data-flow testing criteria. The feasible data flow testing criteria circumvent the problem of nonapplicability of the data flow testing criteria by requiring the test data to exercise only those definition-use associations which are executable. It is shown that there are significant differences between the relationships among the data flow testing criteria and the relationships among the feasible data flow testing criteria. The authors discuss a generalized notion of the executability of a path through a program unit. A script of a testing session using their data flow testing tool, ASSET, is included. >
Geodesic closest point constrained inter-subject non-rigid registration

In this paper, we propose an inter-subject brain registration method by combining the intensity and the geodesic closest point based similarity metric. Each of the brain hemispheres can be topologically equalized into a sphere. The inter subject variance can be better reduced by using cortical surface based analysis method. A one to one mapping of the points on spherical surfaces of two subjects can be achieved by using this technique. We find the geodesic correspondence between subjects by using spherical registration first, then the correspondence on the cortical surface between subjects are used to guide the volumetric inter-subject registration. By adding these anatomical constraints of the cortical surface, the inter-subject registration result is more anatomically meaningful and accurate. The cortical surface correspondence between subjects can be combined with the general non-rigid registration. In our experiments, the proposed method performs better than the method of Hartkens et al.
Systemic Medical Management of Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetes mellitus (DM) has assumed epidemic proportions and as a consequence, diabetic retinopathy is expected to be a major societal problem across the world. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) affects the vision by way of proliferative disease that results in vitreous hemorrhage and traction retinal detachment or by way of diabetic maculopathy (DME). The present-day management of diabetic retinopathy revolves around screening the diabetics for evidence of retinopathy and treating the retinopathy with laser photocoagulation. DME is treated with laser photocoagulation and/or intra- vitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents or steroids. Laser remains the mainstay of treatment and is potentially destructive. Systemic management aims at preventing or delaying the onset of retinopathy; reversing the early retinopathy; or delaying the progression of established retinopathy. Evidence from multiple studies has confirmed the protective role of rigid control of blood glucose and blood pressure. The evidence for lipid control versus maculopathy was less definitive. However, the use of fenofibrates (originally used for lowering serum lipids) has shown a benefit on both proliferative disease and maculopathy outside their lipid-lowering effect. Other drugs being tried are the Protein Kinase C (PKC) inhibitors, other peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR) agonists, Forsoklin (which binds GLUT 1 receptor), minocycline (for its anti inflammatory effect), and Celecoxib (Cox-2 inhibitor).
TTRAP, a Novel Protein That Associates with CD40, Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) Receptor-75 and TNF Receptor-associated Factors (TRAFs), and That Inhibits Nuclear Factor-κB Activation*

CD40 belongs to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family. CD40 signaling involves the recruitment of TNF receptor-associated factors (TRAFs) to its cytoplasmic domain. We have identified a novel intracellular CD40-binding protein termedTRAF and TNFreceptor-associated protein (TTRAP) that also interacts with TNF-R75 and CD30. The region of the CD40 cytoplasmic domain that is required for TTRAP association overlaps with the TRAF6 recognition motif. Association of TTRAP with CD40 increases profoundly in response to treatment of cells with CD40L. Interestingly, TTRAP also associates with TRAFs, with the highest affinity for TRAF6. In transfected cells, TTRAP inhibits in a dose-dependent manner the transcriptional activation of a nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB)-dependent reporter mediated by CD40, TNF-R75 or Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and to a lesser extent by TRAF2, TRAF6, TNF-α, or interleukin-1β (IL-1β). TTRAP does not affect stimulation of NF-κB induced by overexpression of the NF-κB-inducing kinase (NIK), the IκB kinase α (IKKα), or the NF-κB subunit P65/RelA, suggesting it acts upstream of the latter proteins. Our results indicate that we have isolated a novel regulatory factor that is involved in signal transduction by distinct members of the TNF receptor family.
Contact Angles and Wettability of Cellulosic Surfaces: A Review of Proposed Mechanisms and Test Strategies

Contact angle methods are widely used to evaluate the wettability of cellulose-based surfaces and to judge their suitability for different applications. Wettability affects ink receptivity, coating, absorbency, adhesion, and frictional properties. There has been a continuing quest on the part of researchers to quantify the thermodynamic work of adhesion between cellulosic surfaces and various probe liquids and to account for such components of force as the London/van der Waals dispersion force, hydrogen bonding, and acid and base interactions. However, due in part to the rough, porous, and water-swellable nature of cellulosic materials, poor fits between various theories and contact angle data have been observed. Such problems are compounded by inherent weaknesses and challenges of the theoretical approaches that have been employed up to this point. It appears that insufficient consideration has been given to the challenging nature of cellulosic materials from the perspective of attempting to gain accurate information about different contributions to surface free energy. Strong hysteresis effects, with large differences between advancing and receding contact angles, have been overlooked by many researchers in attempting to quantify the work of adhesion. Experimental and conceptual approaches are suggested as potential ways to achieve more reliable and useful results in future wettability studies of cellulosic surfaces.
The willingness to donate blood: an empirical analysis of socio-demographic and motivation-related determinants

Since the willingness to donate blood is not very high among large parts of the population, a better understanding of the determinants for the willingness to donate blood is of significant importance. This article is intended to contribute to higher uniformity of results in the context of research on blood donation behaviour. Exploratory factor analysis and non-parametric tests are used to accomplish this. Potentially important socio-demographic and motivation-related variables particularly affecting the willingness to donate blood are examined. As an addition to the existing literature, the influence of the individual importance of structural characteristics of blood donation facilities, such as the standard of the facility's medical equipment or the training of the facility's staff, will be tested for its effects on the willingness to donate blood. The analysis will also include the influence of direct or indirect personal involvement on the part of the respondent. The results of the study indicate that typical blood donors are young women or men who are studying or possess a higher level of education. Furthermore, potential blood donors can easily be attracted by pecuniary incentives and word of mouth. Unlike non-donors, potential blood donors are not idle, have no fear of infections due to the donation and want reasonable opening hours of blood donation facilities.