Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Platform-Aware Design of Embedded Controllers

Correctness, implementation efficiency and good quality of control (QoC) are essential for embedded controllers in cyber-physical systems. Awareness of the implementation platform plays a key role in achieving these goals. Recent results from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) report substantial improvements in the design of embedded controllers.
Finite Element Method for the Space and Time Fractional Fokker-Planck Equation

We develop the finite element method for the numerical resolution of the space and time fractional Fokker-Planck equation, which is an effective tool for describing a process with both traps and flights; the time fractional derivative of the equation is used to characterize the traps, and the flights are depicted by the space fractional derivative. The stability and error estimates are rigorously established, and we prove that the convergent order is $O(k^{2-\alpha}+h^\mu)$, where $k$ is the time step size and $h$ the space step size. Numerical computations are presented which demonstrate the effectiveness of the method and confirm the theoretical claims.
Age, phylogeography and population structure of the microendemic banded spring snail, Mexipyrgus churinceanus

Recent theoretical and empirical studies of phylogeography and population structure indicate that many processes influence intraspecific evolutionary history. The present study represents the first examination of various forces influencing the spatial and temporal patterns of sequence variation in the freshwater Mexican banded spring snail, Mexipyrgus churinceanus. This snail occurs in one of the most critically endangered centres of freshwater endemism, the desert ecosystem of Cuatro Ciénegas. From cytochrome b mtDNA sequence variation, there is strong evidence of long‐term isolation of three regions, suggesting that these regions represent evolutionarily distinct lineages. Molecular clock estimates of clade age indicate a time to most recent common ancestor of approximately 2.5 million years ago (Ma). The three regions differ considerably in the historical and demographic forces affecting population structure. The western populations have extremely low mtDNA diversity consistent with a severe bottleneck dating to 50 000 years before present (bp). The nearby Rio Mesquites drainage is characterized by fragmentation events, restricted gene flow with isolation by distance, and higher levels of mtDNA polymorphism. These patterns are consistent with the long‐term stability of this drainage along with habitat heterogeneity and brooding contributing to population isolation and restricted gene flow. Southeastern populations show evidence of range expansion and a strong influence of genetic drift. Migration rates between drainages indicate very little gene flow between drainages except for asymmetric migration from the Rio Mesquites into both western and southeastern drainages.
Nebivolol: a review

Nebivolol is a vasodilating β-blocker, which can be distinguished from other β-blockers by its haemodynamic profile. It combines β-adrenergic blocking activity with a vasodilating effect mediated by the endothelial L-arginine nitric oxide (NO) pathway. The blood pressure lowering effect of nebivolol is linked to a reduction in peripheral resistance and an increase in stroke volume and preservation of cardiac output. The effects of nebivolol have been compared with other β-blockers and also with other classes of antihypertensive agents. In general, response rates to treatment are higher and the frequency and severity of adverse events are either comparable or lower with nebivolol. Endothelium-derived NO is important in the regulation of large arterial stiffness, which in turn is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Therefore, antihypertensive drugs, such as nebivolol, that also improve endothelial function and decrease arterial stiffness, may contribute to a reduction in cardiovascular risk.
A Multimedia Tool for Teaching Reconfigurable Computing

This paper proposes a method for efficient teaching of reconfigurable computing. Nowadays, reconfigurable systems, in general, and FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) based systems, in particular, constitute an essential part of engineering practice. The paper argues importance of reconfigurable systems in education and suggests a multimedia tool augmented with an FPGA-based prototyping system, which could contribute to productive teaching of reconfigurable computing.
Local tissue-weight-based nonrigid registration of lung images with application to regional ventilation

In this paper, a new nonrigid image registration method is presented to align two volumetric lung CT datasets with an application to estimate regional ventilation. Instead of the sum of squared intensity difference (SSD), we introduce the sum of squared tissue volume difference (SSTVD) as the similarity criterion to take into account the variation of intensity due to respiration. This new criterion aims to minimize the local difference of tissue volume inside the lungs between two images scanned in the same session or over short periods of time, thus preserving the tissue weight of the lungs. Our approach is tested using a pair of volumetric lung datasets acquired at 15% and 85% of vital capacity (VC) in a single scanning session. The results show that the new SSTVD predicts a smaller registration error and also yields a better alignment of structures within the lungs than the normal SSD similarity measure. In addition, the regional ventilation derived from the new method exhibits a much more improved physiological pattern than that of SSD.
Deviant Peers and Deviant Behavior: Further Elaboration of a Model

In an earlier analysis we estimated a model in which later deviance was explained by the direct positive effects of disposition to deviance and early deviance, the direct negative effect of self-rejection, and the indirect positive effects of self-rejection and early deviance. This analysis estimates an elaborated model which specifies, in addition to the above effects, the direct effect of association with deviant peers on later deviance. Deviant peer association mediates the influence of early deviance, self-rejection, and disposition to deviance upon later deviance. The model is estimated using the LISREL VI program for analysis of linear structural relationships among latent constructs in a three-wave panel data set.
Interpreting satellite column observations of formaldehyde over tropical South America

Space-borne column measurements of formaldehyde (HCHO), a high-yield oxidation product of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), represent important constraints for quantifying net regional fluxes of VOCs. Here, we interpret observed distributions of HCHO columns from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) over tropical South America during 1997–2001. We present the first comparison of year-long in situ isoprene concentrations and fire-free GOME HCHO columns over a tropical ecosystem. GOME HCHO columns and in situ isoprene concentrations are elevated in the wet and dry seasons, with the highest values in the dry season. Previous analysis of the in situ data highlighted the possible role of drought in determining the elevated concentrations during the dry season, inferring the potential of HCHO columns to provide regional-scale constraints for estimating the role of drought on isoprene emissions. The agreement between the observed annual cycles of GOME HCHO columns and Along-Track Scanning Radiometer firecount data over the Amazon basin (correlations typically greater than 0.75 for a particular year) illustrates the potential of HCHO column to provide quantitative information about biomass burning emissions.
Language-Independent Sentiment Analysis Using Subjectivity and Positional Information

We describe a novel language-independent approach to the task of determining the polarity, positive or negative, of the author's opinion on a specific topic in natural language text. In particular, weights are assigned to attributes, individual words or word bi-grams, based on their position and on their likelihood of being subjective. The subjectivity of each attribute is estimated in a two-step process, where first the probability of being subjective is calculated for each sentence containing the attribute, and then these probabilities are used to alter the attribute's weights for polarity classification. The evaluation results on a standard dataset of movie reviews shows 89.85% classification accuracy, which rivals the best previously published results for this dataset for systems that use no additional linguistic information nor external resources.
Primary-care mental-health workers’ views of clinical supervision

Abstract Clinical supervision is an essential component of psychological work with clients. This article presents views of a group of primary-care mental-health workers on the introduction of clinical supervision. A focus group interview was analysed. The key themes extracted were: the supervisor's approach that provided an educative, safe, boundaried space that allowed exploration, support and validation; the advantages and disadvantages of group supervision; helpful and unhelpful ingredients of supervision; the governance and facilitative functions of supervision; and the dangers inherent in not having supervision for both client and worker. Key recommendations are made encompassing: training in supervision and a psychological approach; encouraging theory–practice consolidation; balancing competency with curiosity; and reviewing supervision regularly. Limitations of the study are also discussed.
Activation of Murine CD4+ and CD8+ T Lymphocytes Leads to Dramatic Remodeling of N-Linked Glycans1

Differentiation and activation of lymphocytes are documented to result in changes in glycosylation associated with biologically important consequences. In this report, we have systematically examined global changes in N-linked glycosylation following activation of murine CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells, and B cells by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry profiling, and investigated the molecular basis for those changes by assessing alterations in the expression of glycan transferase genes. Surprisingly, the major change observed in activated CD4 and CD8 T cells was a dramatic reduction of sialylated biantennary N-glycans carrying the terminal NeuGcα2-6Gal sequence, and a corresponding increase in glycans carrying the Galα1-3Gal sequence. This change was accounted for by a decrease in the expression of the sialyltransferase ST6Gal I, and an increase in the expression of the galactosyltransferase, α1-3GalT. Conversely, in B cells no change in terminal sialylation of N-linked glycans was evident, and the expression of the same two glycosyltransferases was increased and decreased, respectively. The results have implications for differential recognition of activated and unactivated T cells by dendritic cells and B cells expressing glycan-binding proteins that recognize terminal sequences of N-linked glycans.
Knowledge Sharing Investigation in Social Networks

This paper answered a question – why people want to share knowledge in virtual community setting. Without sharing volition, mass collaboration, often happened on the Internet, becomes non-existential. Mass collaboration has been a significant base for the success of Wikipedia, open source software, Yahoo! Answers, etc. With a model modified from Rational Action Theory (TRA) and data collected in Taiwan, we found that self-esteem and absorptive ability are two driving forces to share. Taiwan posits an important role in knowledge sharing in online social networks. The success of Yahoo Knowledge+ brought about Yahoo Answers. The latter then has the largest market share of its kind. We did not find expected return has impact. Albeit counterintuitive, this confirms today’s open business environment where unexpected return usually goes to those who have deep involvement.
Managers’ and teachers’ perspectives of dyslexic teachers in the English and Finnish Further Education workforce: new insights from organisational routines

Abstract This article explores the topic of diversity in the teaching workforce though the enactment of policy concentrating on teachers with dyslexia within the Further/Vocational Education and Training sectors of England and Finland. Two research projects from Finland and England focusing, respectively, on individual teachers’ perspectives and managers’ understandings of hidden diversity (such as dyslexia) are re-analysed through the use of the distinction between the ostensive and the performative aspects of organisational routines. The article contributes a new application of theory by drawing upon organisational routines as sources of flexibility and change rather than continuity alone. Avoiding the confusion between the ostensive and performative aspects of routines enables a more dynamic and emancipatory understanding of the identification and support for the promotion of workforce diversity to emerge.
Database Application Developer Tools Using Static Analysis and Dynamic Profiling

Database application developers use data access APIs such as ODBC, JDBC and ADO.NET to execute SQL queries. Although modern program analysis and code profilers are extensively used during application development, there is a significant gap in these technologies for database applications because these tools have little or no understanding of data access APIs or the database system. In our project at Microsoft Research, we have developed tools that: (a) Enhance traditional static analysis of programs by leveraging understanding of database APIs to help developers identify security, correctness and performance problems early in the application development lifecycle. (b) Extend the existing DBMS and application profiling infrastructure to enable correlation of application events with DBMS events. This allows profiling across application, data access and DBMS layers thereby enabling a rich class of analysis, tuning and profiling tasks that are otherwise not easily possible.
Analisis Pemberdayaan Usaha Mikro Kecil Dan Menengah Sebagai Penggerak Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Daerah (Studi Kasus Pada Kota Mojokerto)

Penelitian ini didasarkan pada fenomena yang terjadi yaitu jumlah keberadaan Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah di Kota Mojokerto semakin meningkat dan kontribusi terhadap PDRB terus meningkat serta berbagai peran strategis dimiliki oleh Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah, namun Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah juga dihadapkan berbagai permasalahan yang bersumber dari kelemahan Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah itu sendiri. Maka dari itu perlu adanya pemberdayaan dari pemerintah daerah untuk menjadi usaha yang tangguh, mandiri, berdaya saing tinggi, dan tumbuh berkembang secara berkelanjutan serta mampu berperan dalam pertumbuhan ekonomi daerah. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kualitatif. Hasilpenelitianinimenunjukkanbahwa pemberdayaan yang dilakukan pemerintah daerah seperti permodalan, pelatihan, pemasaran, sarana prasarana, dan iklim usaha yang kondusif dapat mengatasi berbagai permasalahan yang dihadapi Usaha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah, menjadikan usaha yang tangguh, mandiri, berdaya saing tinggi, berkembang secara berkelanjutan, dan memberikan andil dalam perekonomian daerah. Kata Kunci: U saha Mikro Kecil dan Menengah, Pemberdayaan
Scaling Up Decentralized MDPs Through Heuristic Search

Decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes (Dec-POMDPs) are rich models for cooperative decision-making under uncertainty, but are often intractable to solve optimally (NEXP-complete). The transition and observation independent Dec-MDP is a general subclass that has been shown to have complexity in NP, but optimal algorithms for this subclass are still inefficient in practice. In this paper, we first provide an updated proof that an optimal policy does not depend on the histories of the agents, but only the local observations. We then present a new algorithm based on heuristic search that is able to expand search nodes by using constraint optimization. We show experimental results comparing our approach with the state-of-the-art Dec-MDP and Dec-POMDP solvers. These results show a reduction in computation time and an increase in scalability by multiple orders of magnitude in a number of benchmarks.
A Robot Attracted to the Cricket Species Gryllus bimaculatus

Unlike most Arti cial Life studies, we use biological data to verify a hypothesis about control mechanisms. We recorded male cricket Gryllus bimaculatus calling song, built a robot with the hypothesised control mechanism for phonotaxis behaviour and veri ed that it could account for the behaviour by observing the robot doing phonotaxis to the real cricket song. Further, we present a set of robot experiments that show how frequency dependence of the ear directionality in crickets can account for frequency selectivity in phonotaxis. Further, the results suggest that this mechanism also might account for part of the female choice behaviour.
Effective Recovery of Bacterial DNA and Percent-Guanine-Plus-Cytosine-Based Analysis of Community Structure in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Broiler Chickens

ABSTRACT A DNA-based, direct method for initial characterization of the total bacterial community in ileum and cecum of the chicken gastrointestinal (GI) tract was developed. The efficiencies of bacterial extraction and lysis were >95 and >99%, respectively, and therefore the DNA recovered should accurately reflect the bacterial communities of the ileal and cecal digesta. Total bacterial DNA samples were fractionated according to their percent G+C content. The profiles reflecting the composition of the bacterial community were reproducible within each compartment, but different between the compartments of the GI tract. This approach is independent of the culturability of the bacteria in the consortium and can be used to improve our understanding of how diet and other variables modulate the microbial communities of the GI tracts of animals.
A Shoe to Shoe RF Ranging Sensor for Aiding Inertial Navigation

An RF ranging sensor based on time-interleaved Dual Frequency Continuous Wave (DFCW) radar is proposed to measure the absolute distance between two shoes to aid a dead reckoning system for pedestrian navigation. Conventional single frequency Continuous Wave (CW) radar provides accurate but ambiguous range measurement, while DFCW techniques are employed to find the approximate range of the target and to remove the ambiguity of the single frequency CW radar. The two frequencies in the proposed DFCW radar work in a Time-division Duplexing (TDD) manner so that they can share the same transceiver hardware. Such a composite DFCW/CW system can be implemented with a simple direct conversion receiver which is desirable for applications such as pedestrian navigation where compact and low power consumption devices are required. The feasibility of the proposed sensor is demonstrated by a sensor prototype based on Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) components in a practical environment. An absolute accuracy (RMS) of 0.92 mm has been achieved for a maximum test range of 600 mm. The results show that the proposed ranging sensor is promising for measuring the distance in short range applications.
Toxicity of glyphosate as Glypro® and LI700 to red‐eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) embryos and early hatchlings

More than 8.2 billion ha of cropland, gardens, and forests are treated with the herbicide glyphosate each year. Whereas the toxicity of glyphosate and associated adjuvants has been measured in other vertebrates, few, if any, studies have looked at their effects in reptiles. In some instances, management of turtle habitat requires control of successional stages through application of herbicides. Adults and juvenile turtles may be exposed directly, whereas embryos may contact the chemicals through the soil. In the present study, we exposed eggs of red‐eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) to single applications of herbicide ranging from 0 to 11,206 ppm wet weight of glyphosate in Glypro® and 0 to 678 ppm of the surfactant, LI700. Hatching success at the highest concentration was significantly lower (73%) than in other treatments (80–100%). At hatch, turtles at the highest concentration weighed less than those at other concentrations. During a 14‐d holding period, we observed dose–response relationships in the ability of hatchlings to right themselves when turned on their backs. At the end of the holding period, hatchlings at the highest dose level were still lighter, and somatic indices were lower, than those in other treatments. Genetic damage, as measured by flow cytometry, increased with treatment concentration except for the highest dose. We conclude that because of the high concentrations needed to produce effects and the protection offered by several centimeters of soil or sediment, glyphosate with LI700 poses low levels of risk to red‐eared slider embryos under normal field operations with regards to the endpoints measured in the present study. Carelessness in handling glyphosate or failure to follow label directions may produce adverse effects. There also is a risk that the health of turtle embryos may be affected in ways not measured in the present study.
Legume species differ in the responses of their functional traits to plant 1 diversity 2 3

Plants can respond to environmental impacts by variation in functional traits, thereby increasing their performance relative to neighbors. We hypothesized that trait adjustment should also occur in response to influences of the biotic environment, in particular different plant diversity of the community. We used 12 legume species as a model and assessed their variation in morphological, physiological, life-history and performance traits in experimental grasslands of different plant species (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 60) and functional group (1–4) numbers. Mean trait values and their variation in response to plant diversity varied among legume species and from trait to trait. The tall-growing Onobrychis viciifolia showed little trait variation in response to increasing plant diversity, whereas the species with shorter statures responded in apparently adaptive ways. The formation of longer shoots with elongated internodes, increased biomass allocation to supporting tissue at the cost of leaf mass, reduced branching, higher specific leaf areas and lower foliar d13C values indicated increasing efforts for light acquisition in more diverse communities. Although leaf nitrogen concentrations and shoot biomass:nitrogen ratios were not affected by increasing plant diversity, foliar d15N values of most legumes decreased and the application of the 15N natural abundance method suggested that they became more reliant on symbiotic N2 fixation. Some species formed fewer inflorescences and delayed flowering with increasing community diversity. The observed variation in functional traits generally indicated strategies of legumes to optimize light and nutrient capturing, but they were largely speciesdependent and only partly attributable to increasing canopy height and community biomass with increasing plant diversity. Thus, the analysis of individual plant species and their adjustment to growth conditions in communities of increasing plant diversity is essential to get a deeper insight into the mechanisms behind biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1735-9 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-42712 Accepted Version Originally published at: Roscher, C; Schmid, B; Buchmann, N; Weigelt, A; Schulze, E D (2011). Legume species differ in the responses of their functional traits to plant diversity. Oecologia, 165(2):437-452. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-010-1735-9