Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Convergent LMI Relaxations for Quadratic Stabilizability and  ${{\mathscr H}}_{\infty}$  Control of Takagi–Sugeno Fuzzy Systems

This paper investigates the quadratic stabilizability of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems by means of parallel distributed state feedback compensators. Using Finsler's lemma, a new design condition assuring the existence of such a controller is formulated as a parameter-dependent linear matrix inequality (LMI) with extra matrix variables and parameters in the unit simplex. Algebraic properties of the system parameters and recent results of positive polynomials are used to construct LMI relaxations that, differently from most relaxations in the literature, provide certificates of convergence to solve the control design problem. Due to the degrees of freedom obtained with the extra variables, the conditions presented in this paper are an improvement over earlier results based only on Polya's theorem and can be viewed as an alternative to the use of techniques based on the relaxation of quadratic forms. An extension to cope with guaranteed H infin attenuation levels is also given, with proof of asymptotic convergence to the global optimal controller under quadratic stability. The efficiency of the proposed approach in terms of precision and computational effort is demonstrated by means of numerical comparisons with other methods from the literature.
Characteristic Features of Project Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The trend of specificity in studies on small and medium-sized enterprises management focuses on the search for characteristic qualitative and quantitative features distinguishing these entities from others, particularly from large enterprises. Research conducted within this trend may concern the general characteristics of small and medium-sized companies, as well as their functional characteristics connected with particular areas of management. One such area of growing importance for today’s organizations is project management. This approach plays an important role in a dynamic, complex and uncertain environment, providing a response to accelerated competition, increased economic pressures, and rapid technological change. Use the project management by small and medium-sized enterprises enables cost reduction and facilitates the introduction of new products and services to the market, primarily including innovative solutions in response to individual and changing client requirements. However, project management should be implemented with consideration for the individual needs and possibilities of specific business entities, including SMEs. Taking this facts into consideration, the goal of the paper is to identify and evaluate select areas related to qualitative characteristics of project management in SMEs. The analysis refers to individual phases of a project life cycle, is of comparative nature, and is based on the results of studies conducted on a sample of 563 small and medium-sized enterprises and 334 large enterprises. The test of the difference between two population proportions was used to identify the areas of project management characteristic to SMEs statistically. Based on the study results, five research hypotheses have been verified concerning the basic goals, role of the owner, inter- organizational cooperation, and limited formalization in the process of project management in small and medium-sized enterprises.
GreenShelter for telecom applications a new generation of shelters for telecom applications integrating fuel cell electric backup and a new cooling approach

A new generation of shelter for telecom application has been designed and manufactured. The basic approach was to overcome the limit of the current technology regarding cooling needs and energy consumption as well as maintenance costs and backup autonomy. In this perspective the following elements have been considered: to implement an active cooling with very low energy consumption or passive cooling, to backup the apparatus with fuel cell based power system, to integrate as much as possible both the technologies. Shelter cooling without air conditioning is possible with free-cooling and phase changing materials (PCM). Fuel cell based power systems give advantages in terms of wide range of accepted working temperature (from -5degC to 45degC) and very low maintenance needs. The fuel cell based power systems have been tested by several different Telecom operators but up to now very small activities have been performed for a complete integration into the shelter. In this application a 3 kW power system provides 24 hours of autonomy to all the equipments installed in the shelter. To accomplish to a complete integration work a new generation of power system has been generated: the new release consist in a 19rdquo core component equipped with fuel cell, power management and control system and a separated thermal split to dissipate the heat generated during the working time (backup). The result is a new generation of shelter with very interesting specifications. Experimental tests on the manufactured GreenShelter are in progress. Preliminary results confirm that in the same conditions of temperature and heat dissipation, the energetic gain of the GreenShelter solution can be up to 70% with respect to a traditional shelter with air conditioning. Not less important, the gain in terms of CapEx and OpEx could assest around 10% and 50divide70%, respectively.
Argumentation based Preference Aggregation

The objective of this research project is to aggregate the preferences of different stakeholders using argumentation in a Negotiation Phase. This is done in the context of a specific project, which is explained in this thesis. The aggregation of several stakeholders' preferences may incur into different conflicts due to differences in the needs of each stakeholder. This is where argumentation can be used in order to solve conflicts, as new information may appear and lead to changes in the preferences, even adding new preferences or removing old ones. The concept of Negotiation Phase is introduced in order to allow stakeholders to review their preferences, discuss, argue, and enter new information. As a result of this phase, preferences may be changed in order to solve conflicts, or we may find out that a conflict is not solvable by argumentation, leading to other solutions such as splitting a scenario in order to manage different choices separately.
Antifungal activity of two Lactobacillus strains with potential probiotic properties.

Aflatoxin (highly toxic and carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced by fungi) contamination is a serious problem worldwide. Modern agriculture and animal production systems need to use high-quality and mycotoxin-free feedstuffs. The use of microorganisms to preserve food has gained importance in recent years due to the demand for reduced use of chemical preservatives by consumers. Lactic acid bacteria are known to produce various antimicrobial compounds that are considered to be important in the biopreservation of food and feed. Lactobacillus rhamnosus L60 and Lactobacillus fermentum L23 are producers of secondary metabolites, such as organic acids, bacteriocins and, in the case of L60, hydrogen peroxide. The antifungal activity of lactobacilli strains was determined by coculture with Aspergillus section Flavi strains by two qualitative and one quantitative methods. Both L23 and L60 completely inhibited the fungal growth of all aflatoxicogenic strains assayed. Aflatoxin B (1) production was reduced 95.7-99.8% with L60 and 27.5-100% with L23. Statistical analysis of the data revealed the influence of L60 and L23 on growth parameters and aflatoxin B (1) production. These results are important given that these aflatoxicogenic fungi are natural contaminants of feed used for animal production, and could be effectively controlled by Lactobacillus L60 and L23 strains with probiotic properties.
Prognostic Significance of Autophagy-Related Protein Expression in Resected Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Objectives Autophagy is a critical intracellular pathway for the removal of aggregated proteins and damaged organelles. The aim of this study was to explore the contribution of autophagy-related proteins to clinical outcomes of patients with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Methods The expression of 5 autophagy-related proteins in the PDAC tissues of 73 patients was evaluated by immunohistochemistry using a tissue array method. In addition, clinicopathological characteristics and survival were compared with the expression of autophagy-related proteins. Results Of the 73 patients, autophagy-related protein expression frequencies were 49.3% (36/73) for Atg5, 63.9% (46/72) for Ambra1, 47.9% (35/73) for beclin-1, 83.3% (60/72) for LC3B, and 69.9% (51/73) for Bif-1. The correlation between the expressions of autophagy-related proteins was significant for all protein pairs. Advanced T stage was marginally associated with a higher number of protein changes (P = 0.059). Multivariate analysis revealed that beclin-1 overexpression and increases in the alteration of autophagy-related proteins were independently associated with poor prognosis (hazard ratio of 5.365, P = 0.001 and hazard ratio of 5.270, P = 0.022, respectively). Conclusions The acquisition of autophagy-related proteins is associated with poor clinical outcome in PDAC. The detection and inhibition of autophagy offers a potential therapeutic target for PDAC.
Trading Rules on the Stock Markets using Genetic Network Programming with Candlestick Chart

A new evolutionary method named "genetic network programming, GNP" has been proposed. GNP represents its solutions as directed graph structures which have some useful features inherently. For example, GNP has the implicit memory function which memorizes the past action sequences of agents, and GNP can re-use nodes repeatedly in the network flow, so very compact graph structures can be made. In this paper, buying/selling model for stock market using GNP with candlestick chart has been proposed and its effectiveness is confirmed by simulations.
Identification and relative contributions of human cytochrome P450 isoforms involved in the metabolism of glibenclamide and lansoprazole: evaluation of an approach based on the in vitro substrate disappearance rate

1. The identification and relative contributions of human cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes involved in the metabolism of glibenclamide and lansoprazole in human liver microsomes were investigated using an approach based on the in vitro disappearance rate of unchanged drug. 2. Recombinant CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 catalysed a significant disappearance of both drugs. When the contribution of CYPs to the intrinsic clearance (CLint) of drugs in pooled human microsomes was estimated by relative activity factors, contributions of CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 were determined to be 4.6 and 96.4% for glibenclamide, and 75.1 and 35.6% for lansoprazole, respectively. 3. CLint of glibenclamide correlated very well with CYP3A4 marker activity, whereas the CLint of lansoprazole significantly correlated with CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 marker activities in human liver microsomes from 12 separate individuals. Effects of CYP-specific inhibitors and anti-CYP3A serum on the CLint of drugs in pooled human liver microsomes reflected the relative contributions of CYP2C19 and CYP3A4. 4. The results suggest that glibenclamide is mainly metabolized by CYP3A4, whereas lansoprazole is metabolized by both CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 in human liver microsomes. This approach, based on the in vitro drug disappearance rate, is useful for estimating CYP identification and their contribution to drug discovery.
System for application of contrast therapy and Transcutaneous Electrical Nervous Stimulation for pain treatment

There are two methods widely used by physiotherapists for pain treatment and rehabilitation purposes. These methods are: Thermal contrast therapy and Transcutaneous Electrical Nervous Stimulation (TENS). Thermal contrast therapy usually consists on the application of hot and cold pads over the site of interest during a determined period of time (usually less than 30 minutes). Sometimes, the hot and cold sessions are intercalated for better therapeutic results. The problem with the application of such therapy nowadays is that it is based on pads which must be heated or cooled by mean of external devices (ovens, hot bath and freezers) using energy during the whole day to keep the pads at the correct temperature ready for their use. Another problem is the loss of thermal energy of the pads during their use on the patient skin. Thus, if at the beginning of the therapy the cold (or hot) pad was at the right temperature, after few minutes the temperature will not be enough for the therapeutic result. Furthermore, usually these thermal therapies are applied simultaneously with TENS, thus the physiotherapist requires at least two devices, making their application cumbersome. This paper presents an electronic system for the application of heat or cold and TENS therapies simultaneously. Design and preliminary results on the characterization of the system are presented showing the viability of the proposal. Temperatures over the range of 8 °C - 50 °C were reached and maintained independently of the ambient temperature. TENS was generated with a voltage range of 10 - 50V and frequency from 1 - 300Hz and current output until 50 mA.
The association between allergy and chronic rhinosinusitis with and without nasal polyps: an evidence‐based review with recommendations

The relationship between allergy and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) remains ill‐defined and controversial. The association between the 2 is unclear, making an evidence‐based decision of whether to evaluate and treat allergies in CRS patients difficult. The purposes of this systematic review are to (1) examine the relationship between allergy and CRS without nasal polyps (CRSsNP), (2) examine the same for allergy and CRS with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), and (3) recommend evaluation and treatment based on the evidence.
Review of Barriers to Green Building Adoption

The need to implement sustainable development (SD) in the construction industry has given birth to the green building (GB) movement. GB is a promising construction approach through which the construction industry contributes to SD. However, the adoption of GB has been hampered in many parts of the world by numerous barriers. To date, no attention has been paid to the need to review existing knowledge of barriers affecting GB adoption. This paper presents a systematic review of literature on barriers to GB adoption published in academic journals. It has been found that lack of information, cost, lack of incentives, lack of interest and demand, and lack of GB codes and regulations are the most reported barriers in the literature. Recommendations are offered to overcome the barriers to facilitate the adoption of GB. This review provides a valuable reference for both industry practitioners and policy makers to implement GB. Moreover, a developed checklist of GB barriers in this paper can be useful to scholars for further empirical studies. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
N-Cadherin and Keratinocyte Growth Factor Receptor Mediate the Functional Interplay between Ki-RASG12V and p53V143A in Promoting Pancreatic Cell Migration, Invasion, and Tissue Architecture Disruption

ABSTRACT The genetic basis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, which constitutes the most common type of pancreatic malignancy, involves the sequential activation of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Among the pivotal genetic alterations are Ki-RAS oncogene activation and p53 tumor suppressor gene inactivation. We explain that the combination of these genetic events facilitates pancreatic carcinogenesis as revealed in novel three-dimensional cell (spheroid cyst) culture and in vivo subcutaneous and orthotopic xenotransplantation models. N-cadherin, a member of the classic cadherins important in the regulation of cell-cell adhesion, is induced in the presence of Ki-RAS mutation but subsequently downregulated with the acquisition of p53 mutation as revealed by gene microarrays and corroborated by reverse transcription-PCR and Western blotting. N-cadherin modulates the capacity of pancreatic ductal cells to migrate and invade, in part via complex formation with keratinocyte growth factor receptor and neural cell adhesion molecule and in part via interaction with p120-catenin. However, modulation of these complexes by Ki-RAS and p53 leads to enhanced cell migration and invasion. This preferentially induces the downstream effector AKT over mitogen-activated protein kinase to execute changes in cellular behavior. Thus, we are able to define molecules that in part are directly affected by Ki-RAS and p53 during pancreatic ductal carcinogenesis, and this provides a platform for potential new molecularly based therapeutic interventions.
Association between the XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and breast cancer risk: an updated meta-analysis of 36 case-control studies.

BACKGROUND The X-ray repair cross-complementing group 3 (XRCC3) is a highly suspected candidate gene for cancer susceptibility. Attention has been drawn upon associations of the XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism with breast cancer risk. However, the previous published findings remain controversial. Hence, we performed a meta-analysis to accurately evaluate any association between breast cancer and XRCC3 T241M (23, 812 cases and 25, 349 controls) in different inheritance models. MATERIALS AND METHODS PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched systematically until December 31, 2013 to obtain all the records evaluating the association between the XRCC3 Thr241Met polymorphism and breast cancer risk. Crude odds ratios (ORs) together with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the strength of associations. RESULTS When all eligible studies were pooled into the meta analysis of XRCC3 T241M polymorphism, a significantly increased breast cancer risk was observed in heterozygote comparison (OR=1.06, 95%CI=1.01-1.12). No significant associations were found in other models. In subgroup analysis, this polymorphism seemed to be associated with elevated breast risk in Asians. No publication bias was detected. CONCLUSIONS This meta-analysis suggests that the T241M polymorphism confers a weakly increased breast cancer risk. A study with the larger sample size is needed to further evaluate gene-gene and gene-environment interactions of the XRCC3 T241M polymorphism with breast cancer risk.
Electrooptical Comparator: From Formula to Implementation

This paper is concerned with a process of transforming the mathematical representation of a multithreshold comparator to electrooptical implementations. The basic comparator converts an analog input into one of two levels at its (binary) output. If this functionality can be made periodic (as a function of the analog input), efficient implementation of analog-to-digital conversion can be realized. This paper begins by modeling such functionality as a square-wave via its representation as a Fourier series. Some mathematical manipulations are then performed aimed at tailoring the obtained representation for implementation by optical components such as waveguides and microring resonators. Thus, three basic integrated-optical devices are proposed for realizing a comparator with well-defined binary output levels and a steep transition slope between these levels.
Guide-wire detecting using a modified cascade classifier in interventional radiology

Endovascular surgery is becoming a widespread procedure to treat cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) such as abdominal aortic aneurysm and peripheral artery disease. The guide-wire is a crucial surgical instrument inserted into vessels to offer guidance to physicians during the surgery. There are some approaches for tracking the guide-wire, most algorithms consist of two phases, namely, the initialization phase and the tracking phase. In the initialization phase, most algorithms use B-splines for modeling the guide-wire which requires manually annotated data. In the tracking phase, the guide-wire motion is non-linearity because it is deforming and changing its shape and size as a result of patients' respiration, some algorithms decompose the non-linearity motion into rigid motion and non-rigid motion, while the computational complexity is high especially for the non-rigid motion. This paper mainly presents an approach to detect the guide-wire. The algorithm has two main advantages. First, without modeling the guide-wire, this approach uses a cascade classifier which can detect the guide-wire under arbitrary motion automatically. Second, by taking the guide-wire motion direction into consideration, the detection accuracy improves significantly. The presented work has been validated on a test set of 349 frames, and the mean tracking accuracy achieves more than 95% which proves the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Rhinovirus Infection Induces Expression of Its Own Receptor Intercellular Adhesion Molecule 1 (ICAM-1) via Increased NF-κB-mediated Transcription*

Virus infections, the majority of which are rhinovirus infections, are the major cause of asthma exacerbations. Treatment is unsatisfactory, and the pathogenesis unclear. Lower airway lymphocyte and eosinophil recruitment and activation are strongly implicated, but the mechanisms regulating these processes are unknown. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) has a central role in inflammatory cell recruitment to the airways in asthma and is the cellular receptor for 90% of rhinoviruses. We hypothesized that rhinovirus infection of lower airway epithelium might induce ICAM-1 expression, promoting both inflammatory cell infiltration and rhinovirus infection. We therefore investigated the effect of rhinovirus infection on respiratory epithelial cell ICAM-1 expression and regulation to identify new targets for treatment of virus-induced asthma exacerbations. We observed that rhinovirus infection of primary bronchial epithelial cells and the A549 respiratory epithelial cell line increased ICAM-1 cell surface expression over 12- and 3-fold, respectively. We then investigated the mechanisms of this induction in A549 cells and observed rhinovirus-induction of ICAM-1 promoter activity and ICAM-1 mRNA transcription. Rhinovirus induction of ICAM-1 promoter activity was critically dependent upon up-regulation of NF-κB proteins binding to the −187/−178 NF-κB binding site on the ICAM-1 promoter. The principal components of the rhinovirus-induced binding proteins were NF-κB p65 homo- or heterodimers. These studies identify ICAM-1 and NF-κB as new targets for the development of therapeutic interventions for virus-induced asthma exacerbations.