Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Period-One Rotating Solutions of Horizontally Excited Pendulum Based on Iterative Harmonic Balance

In this study, the iterative harmonic balance method was used to develop analytical solutions of period-one rotations of a pendulum driven horizontally by harmonic excitations. The performance of the method was evaluated by two criteria, one based on the system energy error and the other based on the global residual error. As a comparison, analytical solutions based on the multi-scale method were also considered. Numerical solutions obtained from the Dormand-Prince method (ODE45 in MATLAB©) were used as the baseline for evaluation. It was found that under lower-level excitations, the multi-scale method performed better than the iterative method. At higher-level excitations, however, the performance of the iterative method was noticeably more accurate.
Group Discovery with Multiple-Choice Exams and Consumer Surveys: The Group-Question-Answer Model

Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are a common data gathering tool. We extend the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) framework to a collection of MCQ surveys. Topic discovery is turned into group discovery based on survey response patterns. Question choices are equivalent to vocabulary words and are conditioned on the question and the latent group that is used to cluster the survey responders. The structured format of MCQ surveys creates correlations between document ‘authors’ not found in unstructured natural language documents. We demonstrate the utility of the model by considering two performance measures: How well can we predict held-out question answers? What is the discriminatory power of the survey questions? The model should be of interest to anybody that uses MCQ surveys or exams to identify social groups.
Cloning and characterization of the gene encoding glutamate 1-semialdehyde 2,1-aminomutase, which is involved in delta-aminolevulinic acid synthesis in Propionibacterium freudenreichii

The gene from Propionibacterium freudenreichii that encodes glutamate 1-semialdehyde 2,1-aminomutase (EC 5.4.3.8), which is involved in the C5 pathway for synthesis of delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), a precursor in heme and cobalamin biosynthesis, was cloned onto a multicopy plasmid, pUC18, via complementation of an ALA-deficient mutant (hemL) of Escherichia coli. Subcloning of fragments from the initial 3.3-kb chromosomal fragment allowed the isolation of a 1.9-kb fragment which could complement the hemL mutation. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the 1.9-kb DNA fragment revealed an open reading frame (ORF) that was located downstream from a potential ribosome-binding site. The ORF encoded a polypeptide of 441 amino acid residues, and the deduced molecular mass of this polypeptide is 45,932 Da. A high G+C content (70 mol%) of the codons of the ORF was found and was consistent with the taxonomic features of Propionibacterium species. The amino acid sequence showed a high degree of homology with those of the HemL proteins from other organisms, and a putative binding site for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate was conserved, with the exception of a single substitution of phenylalanine for leucine. These results suggest that ALA is synthesized via the C5 pathway in a producer of vitamin B12, P. freudenreichii.
Why has the demand for platelet components increased? A commentary

The strengths of this review are that the authors not only concentrate on the British medical system, but they also put the British data into the perspective of the development in the demand of platelet concentrates across Europe, North America and Canada. This analysis highlights an interesting point. The forecast development in population size differs considerably between countries. While the population number is expected to increase in the UK, Canada, the United States and Australia, it is expected to decrease in many others, e.g. Germany, Italy and Japan. Nevertheless, the demand in platelet concentrates is also increasing in the countries with a decreasing total population. This shows clearly that using population numbers alone can be misleading as the demand for platelet concentrates also depends on the age distribution in a population. The fundamental characteristic of the demographic change in most industrialised countries is a shift from a younger population to an older population, which will result in an increased demand for blood transfusion (Williamson & Devine, 2013). A relatively recent summary of these changes in different countries has been provided from the transfusion medicine viewpoint by Ali et al. (2010). They compared the ratio between the size
OBSERVATIONS OF THE SHELL-TYPE SUPERNOVA REMNANT CASSIOPEIA A AT TeV ENERGIES WITH VERITAS

We report on observations of very high energy γ rays from the shell-type supernova remnant (SNR) Cassiopeia A with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System stereoscopic array of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in Arizona. The total exposure time for these observations is 22 hr, accumulated between September and November of 2007. The γ-ray source associated with the SNR Cassiopeia A was detected above 200 GeV with a statistical significance of 8. 3σ. The estimated integral flux for this γ-ray source is about 3% of the Crab-Nebula flux. The photon spectrum is compatible with a power law dN/dE ∝ E−Γ with an index Γ = 2.61 ± 0.24stat ± 0.2sys. The data are consistent with a point-like source. We provide a detailed description of the analysis results and discuss physical mechanisms that may be responsible for the observed γ-ray emission.
Structural features important for the U12 snRNA binding and minor spliceosome assembly of Arabidopsis U11/U12-small nuclear ribonucleoproteins

ABSTRACT Although seven proteins unique to U12 intron-specific minor spliceosomes, denoted as U11/U12-65K, -59K, -48K, -35K, -31K, -25K, and -20K, have been identified in humans and the roles of some of them have been demonstrated, the functional role of most of these proteins in plants is not understood. A recent study demonstrated that Arabidopsis U11/U12-65K is essential for U12 intron splicing and normal plant development. However, the structural features and sequence motifs important for 65 K binding to U12 snRNA and other spliceosomal proteins remain unclear. Here, we demonstrated by domain-deletion analysis that the C-terminal region of the 65 K protein bound specifically to the stem-loop III of U12 snRNA, whereas the N-terminal region of the 65 K protein was responsible for interacting with the 59 K protein. Analysis of the interactions between each snRNP protein using yeast two-hybrid analysis and in planta bimolecular fluorescence complementation and luciferase complementation imaging assays demonstrated that the core interactions among the 65 K, 59 K, and 48 K proteins were conserved between plants and animals, and multiple interactions were observed among the U11/U12-snRNP proteins. Taken together, these results reveal that U11/U12-65K is an indispensible component of the minor spliceosome complex by binding to both U11/U12-59K and U12 snRNA, and that multiple interactions among the U11/U12-snRNP proteins are necessary for minor spliceosome assembly.
Fluid Passwords - Mitigating the effects of password leaks at the user level

Password leaks have been frequently reported in recent years, with big companies like Sony, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Walmart falling victim to breaches involving the release of customer information. Even though passwords are usually stored in a salted hash, attackers still guess passwords because of insecure password choices and password reuse. However, the adverse effects of a password breach can be mitigated by changing users' passwords. We introduce a simple yet powerful algorithm to reset user account passwords automatically, while still allowing users to authenticate without any additional effort on their part. We implemented our algorithm as a Firefox add-on that automatically resets a user's password when they log in to their account, and stores the new password in the built-in Firefox password manager.
L'intérieur des choses. Maladie, divination et reproduction sociale chez les Bisa du Burkina

Cet ouvrage propose une reflexion sur la fonction sociale des representations de la maladie et en particulier de son interpretation. Il montre que la gestion intellectuelle de l'evenement-maladie a ici non seulement une fonction de controle social mais, plus largement, de reproduction sociale. Le systeme n'est cependant pas clos puisqu'il permet parfois au malade de se soustraire a l'analyse sociale assumee par l'institution divinatoire. C'est le jeu combine de la soumission et de la resistance a cette institution qui est au principe de leurs pratiques quotidiennes.
Survey on the virtual commissioning of manufacturing systems

This paper reviews and identifies issues in the application of virtual commissioning technology for automated manufacturing systems. While the real commissioning of a manufacturing system involves a real plant system and a real controller, the virtual commissioning deals with a virtual plant model and a real controller. The expected benefits of virtual commissioning are the reduction of debugging and correction efforts during the subsequent real commissioning stage. However, it requires a virtual plant model and hence still requires significant amount time and efforts. Two main issues are identified, the physical model construction of a virtual device, and the logical model construction of a virtual device. This paper reviews the current literature related to the two issues and proposes future research directions to achieve the full utilization of virtual commissioning technology.
Analyzing French justice with a genetic-based inductive algorithm

Abstract This paper describes a genetic learning system called SIA, which learns rules from a set of preclassified examples where many attribute values are missing or have “don't care” or undefined values. SIA was motivated by a data analysis task in the French justice domain and by the fact that the general machine learning methods used to deal with unknown values are not appropriate for this task. SIA is somewhat similar to the AQ algorithm because it takes an example as a seed and generalizes it (here, using a genetic process) to find a rule maximizing a rule evaluation criterion. Two mechanisms are used to deal efficiently with unknown values: the dropping of the unknown attributes in the seed example and a restricted matching operator that prevents matching with unknown values. SIA is comparable to AQ and other algorithms on two standard learning tasks and can help understanding of the French justice domain.
Effect on weight gain of routinely giving albendazole to preschool children during child health days in Uganda: cluster randomised controlled trial

Abstract Objective To estimate the effectiveness of delivering an anthelmintic through a community child health programme on the weight gain of preschool children in Uganda. Design Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting Eastern Uganda. Participants 48 parishes participating in a new programme for child health: 24 offered children an additional service of anthelmintic treatment. The outcome is based on measurements from 27 995 children. Intervention Treatment of children aged between 1 and 7 years with 400 mg albendazole added to standard services offered during child health days over a three year period. Main outcome measure Weight gain. Results The provision of periodic anthelmintic treatment as a part of child health services in Uganda resulted in an increase in weight gain of about 10% (166 g per child per year, 95% confidence interval 16 to 316) above expected weight gain when treatments were given twice a year, and an increase of 5% when the treatment was given annually. Conclusion Deworming of preschool children in Uganda as part of regularly scheduled health services seems practical and associated with increased weight gain.
Drug Discovery of Therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic, lethal, muscle disorder caused by the loss of the muscle protein, dystrophin, leading to progressive loss of muscle fibers and muscle weakness. Drug discovery efforts targeting DMD have used two main approaches: (1) the restoration of dystrophin expression or the expression of a compensatory protein, and (2) the mitigation of downstream pathological mechanisms, including dysregulated calcium homeostasis, oxidative stress, inflammation, fibrosis, and muscle ischemia. The aim of this review is to introduce the disease, its pathophysiology, and the available research tools to a drug discovery audience. This review will also detail the most promising therapies that are currently being tested in clinical trials or in advanced preclinical models.
Generalized Policy Iteration Adaptive Dynamic Programming for Discrete-Time Nonlinear Systems

This paper is concerned with a novel generalized policy iteration algorithm for solving optimal control problems for discrete-time nonlinear systems. The idea is to use an iterative adaptive dynamic programming algorithm to obtain iterative control laws which make the iterative value functions converge to the optimum. Initialized by an admissible control law, it is shown that the iterative value functions are monotonically nonincreasing and converge to the optimal solution of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, under the assumption that a perfect function approximation is employed. The admissibility property is analyzed, which shows that any of the iterative control laws can stabilize the nonlinear system. Neural networks are utilized to implement the generalized policy iteration algorithm, by approximating the iterative value function and computing the iterative control law, respectively, to achieve approximate optimal control. Finally, numerical examples are presented to verify the effectiveness of the present generalized policy iteration algorithm.
Emergency mechanical ventilation at moderate altitude

Portable emergency ventilators are commonly used in the prehospital setting in the transport of critically ill patients in hypobaric environments. The aim of our trial was to evaluate the influence on minute ventilation and blood gas analysis of moderate altitude (3000 m) compared to 171 m in healthy volunteers during mechanical ventilation with the Draeger Oxylog ventilator. At 3000 m, the delivered minute volume increased by 9.8% in the air mix mode and by 14.6% in the no air mix mode. PaO2 at 3000 m altitude decreased by 33.3% in the air mix mode, and no statistical change was observed in the no air mix mode. PaCO2 at 3000 m altitude decreased by 9.0% in the air mix mode and by 12.8% in the no air mix mode. These changes are of sufficient magnitude and importance to require monitoring of minute volume to prevent barotrauma or volume-related trauma and to monitor oxygenation by pulse oximetry during emergency mechanical ventilation at moderate altitude.
Littoralisation et aménagement de l'espace : les modèles socio-spatiaux du golfe de Gabès (Tunisie)

Cette these traite la littoralisation et la maritimite dans le golfe de Gabes (Tunisie). La maritimite est le lien affectif qui existe entre les societes de bord de mer et la mer. La littoralisation, comme processus qui affecte la majorite des littoraux mediterraneens, n'est pas directement liee a la maritimite mais a l'action des acteurs externes a l'espace littoral. Dans le Golfe de Gabes certaines societes ont une maritimite et d'autres n'en ont pas. A travers des pratiques et des activites liees a la mer, certains groupes sociaux ont developpe des rapports etroits avec ce milieu. La maritimite est finalement la realite des acteurs sociaux, neanmoins la littoralisation est un processus developpe essentiellement par des acteurs externes a l'espace littoral ; en l'occurrence l'Etat et les entrepreneurs nationaux ou etrangers. La maritimite d'une societe est importante car si elle est liee aux actions externes, elle entrainerait le succes de ces operations. En effet, face aux contraintes du milieu, la mer developpe chez les societes littorales un esprit d'entreprise qui est une composante essentielle pour leur developpement. La planification et l'amenagement du territoire, qui sont l'action des divers acteurs du territoire (Etat, collectivites. . . ) se heurtent en aval a des logiques locales issues de la perception des gens de leurs espaces. Dans le Golfe de Gabes, ces combinaisons socio-spatiales modifient les anciens systemes territoriaux et donnent lieu a une nouvelle recomposition des territoires. L'analyse systemique et la modelisation graphique sont les principaux outils d'analyse dans ce travail.
Estrous asynchrony causes low birth rates in wild female chimpanzees

Estrous cycle asynchrony likely functions to elevate individual females' sexual attractiveness during female mate choice. Female chimpanzees show physiological estrus as anogenital swelling. Copulations are concentrated during the period of maximal tumescence, which is called the estrous period. A group of female chimpanzees in Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania, was shown to display asynchrony in both maximal tumescence and periovulatory periods. We tested the hypothesis that females establish asynchronous maximal tumescence or periovulatory periods with respect to other females to increase copulation frequency and birth opportunities (Hypothesis 1). We analyzed differences in birth rates between four asynchronous years and five nonasynchronous years. Counter to Hypothesis 1, females in periovulatory periods during asynchronous years showed significantly lower birth rates than those in nonasynchronous years. In addition, periovulatory females copulated more frequently on days on which no other female in a periovulatory period was present. These results suggest that birth rates tend to decrease when females experience nonoverlapping ovulation cycles, although copulation frequency is high. Such a decrease in the birth rate may have resulted from the cost associated with multiple copulations. We tested two other hypotheses: paternity confusion (Hypothesis 2) and sperm competition (Hypothesis 3). Both of these hypotheses were partially supported. The highest‐ranking male most effectively monopolized access to receptive females when relatively few other males and receptive females from the party (or subgroup) were present. The viability of Hypotheses 2 and 3 requires that dominant males are able to hinder a female from mating with other males. Given that the male‐biased operational sex ratio created by female asynchrony is likely to reduce the efficiency of mate guarding by dominant males, an asynchronous female may gain a fitness benefit by increasing the probability of mating with at least one male who produces superior sperm. Am. J. Primatol. 73:180–188, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Diagnosis of Conditions of the Equine Foot

Introduction The vast majority of lameness’s that occur in the horse originate in the foot. Unfortunately the horny hoof capsule severely limits the assessment of the internal structures of the foot. Clinical examination is an essential part of any lameness examination and frequently directs the clinician to an area that is suspected as the source of pain. However, diagnostic analgesia is necessary to isolate the source(s) of pain and to more accurately direct diagnostic imaging. Interpretation of diagnostic analgesia of the foot can be difficult due to significant overlap of these blocks. Inaccuracies in analgesia techniques can also occur due to diffusion of the local anesthetic proximally along the nerve or out of the distal interphalangeal joint/navicular bursa. Diagnostic imaging becomes even more important to further define the cause of the lameness originating in the foot. Imaging techniques available to the equine practitioner include radiography, ultrasonography, thermography, nuclear scintigraphy, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. To best utilize all of these imaging modalities the clinician should develop a good working knowledge of the anatomy of the foot. The clinician must also have an appreciation of the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of each imaging modality as well as the appearance of the anatomy and pathophysiology characteristic with each technique. With many of these imaging modalities it is necessary to appreciate the anatomical appearance of many of these structures in cross section, sagittal section and frontal section. With each imaging modality normal anatomical variations exist and it is important that the clinician recognize these variations as normal to prevent developing an inaccurate diagnosis. The opposite limb can and should be used for comparison when possible recognizing that disease can occur at the same location in the opposite foot. Successful management of foot lameness requires the clinician to incorporate all the information at their disposal from the clinical examination to the imaging results in order to develop an accurate diagnosis and to choose the most appropriate treatment. This paper is divided into a discussion of the normal anatomy of the foot and the imaging techniques frequently utilized to assess the foot. The discussion on imaging will highlight the advantages and limitations of the various imaging modalities in defining the normal anatomy.
Secure Code Distribution in Wireless Sensor Networks

After a WSN is deployed, there are occasions where the software (or interchangeably, firmware) in the sensor nodes needs to be updated. Due to the large number of nodes, it is impractical to update the software manually. Instead, software updates are sent to the nodes wirelessly, that is, the nodes are reprogrammed in situ. This feature or process is called remote network reprogramming, or simply network reprogramming. This paper is about the securing of this process. We believe the best approach to the problem is not piecing several components together, but a concerted effort at integrating the components and optimizing the components for each other. We first divide the problem into three design spaces: (1) data dissemination protocols, (2) cryptographic protocols for data dissemination, (3) code verification. We explore each of these design spaces, by reviewing state-of-the-art proposals. In our review, we perform detailed analysis, and offer new insights into the rationales and inner-workings of these designs. Our end goal is to integrate and cross-optimize these three components. Our conclusions for this work are as such. For data dissemination protocols, our deduction is that to surpass Deluge or any of its subsequent derivatives, revolutionary techniques are needed, otherwise incremental improvements might be achievable by looking into the cross-layer optimization between the TDMA-based media access control layer and the data dissemination protocol layer. For cryptographic protocols, we propose exploring the relative merits of Deng et al.'s scheme and the so-called intermediate scheme a bit further. For code verification algorithms, we propose exploring energy-storage trade-off in the latest implementations, and optimizing the implementations for emergent 8051-based SoC platforms.