Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Use of Visualization for Analysis and Recommendation on People Replacement on Virtual Communities and Teams in the Brazilian Scientific Scenario

Due to the lack of resources and the low number of official examinations, turnover is high in the scientific environment. The search for an appropriated substitute researcher to be hired or to moderate communities involves the analysis of a large amount of information. Consequently, we base our choices on the recommendation of others. To solve this problem, this approach indicates professionals through the support of information visualization techniques that assess competences and the working contexts of the researcher that is leaving a post. The visualization usage streamlines the replacement process as it provides a clear and concise representation of parameter values used during the assessment of applicants. This approach is part of the Scientific Knowledge Management Project.
Object Interaction Using Tabulated Spheres Subsets

Tabulated Sphere Subsets (TSSs) provide a fast way to approximate collision tests between objects whose motion is constrained. A TSS is a subset of a set of spheres that approximate the shape of two objects that might collide. The subset represents only those spheres that can collide under the constrained motion. A TSS is created in three steps: 1) approximating the mesh with spheres; 2) searching the space of possible motion to ﬁnd which spheres may collide: 3) extracting the spheres required for collision tests and building the table. We applied TSSs to jaw motion and skin/muscle interaction in a model dog and measured the number of spheres generated and the number of calculations needed for collision tests. In these cases TSSs outperforms several standard techniques.
National instrument-based experimental validation of a nonlinear real-time induction motor model in an EV simulation system

Real-time simulation of an electrical vehicle (EV) with hardware-in-the-loop is a cost-effective approach in evaluating the behavior of electrical vehicles and its controllers before applying them in a real system. This paper demonstrates a nonlinear approach of a real-time induction motor model implemented in a National Instrument real-time platform. Many studies have been conducted concerning on the real-time modelling of induction motors, but lots of the models are limited to linear ones. This paper presents the modeling, real-time implementation and experimental validation of a nonlinear induction motor model mounted on an electrical vehicle. The experimental validation system consists of two parts, the motor controller and the model motor. The model motor is a real-time simulation model based on the nonlinear stator flux model. The consistency of electrical characteristics between the model motor and the real motor is guaranteed by adding the external electrical interface circuit. The system can be used to deliver the testing and researching of motor control systems instead of the real ones. The experimental results show that the model motor can effectively simulate the characteristics of true induction motors. Thus, it can be applied in studies of electrical vehicle systems.
A Cbr-Based Support System of Quick BOT Projects Bids

This paper describes the architecture and uses of a CBR-based support system called QuickBids as a support system of quick bids for BOT projects. The QuickBids is designed to host the process of forming bid in a BOT project investment firm in which the users from bidding-related branches interact to form a final bid by employing a CBR-based historical database via a Web-based user interface. The QuickBids environment is meant to be flexible so as to allow cooperative mechanisms by setting different decision-making routines
Analyses of Advanced Rice Anther Transcriptomes Reveal Global Tapetum Secretory Functions and Potential Proteins for Lipid Exine Formation1[W][OA]

The anthers in flowers perform important functions in sexual reproduction. Several recent studies used microarrays to study anther transcriptomes to explore genes controlling anther development. To analyze the secretion and other functions of the tapetum, we produced transcriptomes of anthers of rice (Oryza sativa subsp. japonica) at six progressive developmental stages and pollen with sequencing-by-synthesis technology. The transcriptomes included at least 18,000 unique transcripts, about 25% of which had antisense transcripts. In silico anther-minus-pollen subtraction produced transcripts largely unique to the tapetum; these transcripts include all the reported tapetum-specific transcripts of orthologs in other species. The differential developmental profiles of the transcripts and their antisense transcripts signify extensive regulation of gene expression in the anther, especially the tapetum, during development. The transcriptomes were used to dissect two major cell/biochemical functions of the tapetum. First, we categorized and charted the developmental profiles of all transcripts encoding secretory proteins present in the cellular exterior; these transcripts represent about 12% and 30% of the those transcripts having more than 100 and 1,000 transcripts per million, respectively. Second, we successfully selected from hundreds of transcripts several transcripts encoding potential proteins for lipid exine synthesis during early anther development. These proteins include cytochrome P450, acyltransferases, and lipid transfer proteins in our hypothesized mechanism of exine synthesis in and export from the tapetum. Putative functioning of these proteins in exine formation is consistent with proteins and metabolites detected in the anther locule fluid obtained by micropipetting.
A Rabbit Model of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Useful for Studies of Neuropsychiatric SLE

The aim of this review is to present in one place a summary of the development of a rabbit model of SLE conducted using pedigreed rabbits bred and selected at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH. We provide an overview of the knowledge gained by using rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) as models for SLE, and eliciting autoantibodies typical of those produced by patients with SLE. We present here summaries of work by ourselves and coauthors that can contribute to improved understanding of neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE) (Sanches-Guerro et al., 2008). Our gene expression studies (Rai, et al., 2010) and extensive evaluations of autoantibody responses coupled with observed clinical symptoms of animals immunized against peptides from the Smith antigen (Sm) or the NMDA glutamate receptor have shown promise to improve understanding NPSLE. An overview of immune system development, genetic diversity of immunoglobulin genes and somatic diversification during B-cell development in rabbits can be found in a review by Mage et al., (2006) and reference therein. Investigations of autoantibodies found in patients with NPSLE and the problems of diagnosis and specific treatments are addressed in other chapters in this volume.
Effect of casting flow rate on steel flow phenomena in tundish

T. Merder: Silesian University of Technology, Department of Metallurgy, Katowice, Poland Article presents results of numerical simulation of steel fl ow and mixing in real two strand tundish working in on of polish steelworks. In calculation diff erent casting fl ow rates were tested. They were analyzed taking into account their infl uence on the h ydrodynamic c onditions oc curring in r eactor. Ansy sFluent c ode was used f or numerical simulation of 3D turbulent steel fl ow in tundish for steady and transient conditions. As a result of calculation spatial velocity fi elds and steel turbulence intensity were obtained. Research was complemented by residence time distribution – typical for analyzed calculated. Whereas basing on F curves the kinetic of steel mixing were estimated.
Learning Deep Representations of Time Series Supervisor :

Time series data are ubiquitous. The explosion of new sensing technologies (wearable sensors, satellites, mobile phones, etc.), combined with increasingly cheap and effective storage, is generating an unprecedented and growing amount of time series data in a variety of domains [1]. Understanding this time series data is important for many Artificial Intelligence tasks. Recently, recurrent neural networks using the Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) architecture have been used successfully to perform various supervised sequence learning tasks, such as speech recognition, machine translation, and caption generation for images [2]. However, most of the available data is ”unlabeled”. There is a need for methods that are able to describe the hidden structure from ”unlabeled” data. Srivastava et al. used LSTM to learn representations of video sequences [2]. The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate methods based on LSTM for learning representations of time series. As a part of the project you will implement at least two methods and apply them on at least two different datasets. The aim of the next phase of the project will be to extend one of the methods and improve its performance on the datasets.
Developing and introducing evidence based clinical practice guidelines for serious illness in Kenya

Kenya, in common with many developing countries, has committed itself to Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-4, which calls for a two-third reduction in 1990 mortality levels in under 5-year-old children by 2015.1 Improving the management of common severe childhood illnesses is one of many strategies likely to be needed to achieve this goal since hospital mortality rates as high as 15% are reported.2 3 Two further points also suggest the potential value of improved basic care to improve outcomes. First, the majority of deaths are attributable to a handful of illnesses and second, assessments demonstrate that the quality of care provided to children in low-income countries is often poor and has considerable scope for improvement.3 4 Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are intended to assist the health provider in evidence-based decision making and promote the provision of optimal care. Previous studies have shown that adherence to such evidence-based guidelines is associated with improved health outcomes.5–7 For some conditions such as pneumonia8 and diarrhoea,9 10 the World Health Organization has made CPGs available for many years. In 2000 evidence and expert opinion were used to provide comprehensive advice on the care of sick children in hospital with common conditions.11 However, few hospitals or health workers in Kenya have access to either the WHO recommendations or modern local practice guidelines3 and it is known that a wide range of factors affect the actual ability to improve care and outcomes.12–15 We therefore aimed to develop simple CPGs for conditions commonly associated with mortality in Kenyan hospitals and an in-service training package to facilitate their implementation. The effect on quality of hospital care of a multifaceted intervention project (including these CPGs and training) is the subject of ongoing research. Here we report the …
Extracellular histidine residues identify common structural determinants in the copper/zinc P2X2 receptor modulation

To assess the mechanism of P2X2 receptor modulation by transition metals, the cDNA for the wild‐type receptor was injected to Xenopus laevis oocytes and examined 48–72 h later by the two‐electrode voltage‐clamp technique. Copper was the most potent of the trace metals examined; at 10 μm it evoked a 25‐fold potentiation of the 10 μm ATP‐gated currents. Zinc, nickel or mercury required 10‐fold larger concentrations to cause comparable potentiations, while palladium, cobalt or cadmium averaged only 12‐ and 3‐fold potentiations, respectively. Platinum was inactive. The non‐additive effect of copper and zinc at 10–100 μm suggests a common site of action; these metals also shifted to the left the ATP concentration–response curves. To define residues necessary for trace metal modulation, alanines were singly substituted for each of the nine histidines in the extracellular domain of the rat P2X2 receptor. The H120A and H213A mutants were resistant to the modulator action of copper, zinc and other metals with the exception of mercury. Mutant H192A showed a reduction but not an abrogation of the copper or zinc potentiation. H245A showed less affinity for copper while this mutant flattened the zinc‐induced potentiation. Mutant H319A reduced the copper but not the zinc‐induced potentiation. In contrast, mutants H125A, H146A, H152A and H174A conserved the wild‐type receptor sensitivity to trace metal modulation. We propose that His120, His192, His213 and His245 form part of a common allosteric metal‐binding site of the P2X2 receptor, which for the specific coordination of copper, but not zinc, additionally involves His319.
Predator–prey interactions, flight initiation distance and brain size

Prey avoid being eaten by assessing the risk posed by approaching predators and responding accordingly. Such an assessment may result in prey–predator communication and signalling, which entail further monitoring of the predator by prey. An early antipredator response may provide potential prey with a selective advantage, although this benefit comes at the cost of disturbance in terms of lost foraging opportunities and increased energy expenditure. Therefore, it may pay prey to assess approaching predators and determine the likelihood of attack before fleeing. Given that many approaching potential predators are detected visually, we hypothesized that species with relatively large eyes would be able to detect an approaching predator from afar. Furthermore, we hypothesized that monitoring of predators by potential prey relies on evaluation through information processing by the brain. Therefore, species with relatively larger brains for their body size should be better able to monitor the intentions of a predator, delay flight for longer and hence have shorter flight initiation distances than species with smaller brains. Indeed, flight initiation distances increased with relative eye size and decreased with relative brain size in a comparative study of 107 species of birds. In addition, flight initiation distance increased independently with size of the cerebellum, which plays a key role in motor control. These results are consistent with cognitive monitoring as an antipredator behaviour that does not result in the fastest possible, but rather the least expensive escape flights. Therefore, antipredator behaviour may have coevolved with the size of sense organs, brains and compartments of the brain involved in responses to risk of predation.
Model-Free Optimal Control of VAR Resources in Distribution Systems: An Extremum Seeking Approach

Distributed power electronic reactive power sources-such as smart PV inverters-may play an important role in regulating customer voltages and reducing system losses in future distribution systems. Though it is natural to consider model-based optimal control algorithms to coordinate these resources, those strategies typically require relatively large communications capabilities and accurate models. In this paper we present an alternative way to implement the optimization problem that circumvents these communications and modeling challenges. We present an Extremum Seeking (ES) control algorithm to modulate the reactive power output of VAR resources to minimize total real power delivery at the feeder substation subject to voltage magnitude constraints, without an explicit feeder model. We present results that guarantee a variety of distribution feeder objective functions are convex over a broad range of power flows and perform an analysis showing the convergence of the ES approach. Simulation results demonstrate that the method is equivalent to recently developed convex relaxations used to solve distribution optimal power flow problems.
Synergistic Enhancement of Nuclear Receptor Function by p160 Coactivators and Two Coactivators with Protein Methyltransferase Activities*

Nuclear receptors (NRs) activate gene transcription by binding to specific enhancer elements and recruiting coactivators of the p160 family to promoters of target genes. The p160 coactivators in turn enhance transcription by recruiting secondary coactivators, including histone acetyltransferases such as CREB-binding protein (CBP) and p300/CBP-associated factor (p/CAF), as well as the recently identified protein methyltransferase, coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1). In the current study, protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1), another arginine-specific protein methyltransferase that shares a region of high homology with CARM1, was also found to act as a coactivator for NRs. PRMT1, like CARM1, bound to the C-terminal AD2 activation domain of p160 coactivators and thereby enhanced the activity of NRs in transient transfection assays. The shape of the graphs of reporter gene activity versus the amounts of CARM1 or PRMT1 expression vector indicated a cooperative relationship between coactivator concentration and activity. Moreover, CARM1 and PRMT1 acted in a synergistic manner to enhance reporter gene activation by both hormone-dependent and orphan NRs. The synergy was most evident at low levels of transfected NR expression vectors, where activation of reporter genes was almost completely dependent on the presence of NR and all three exogenously supplied coactivators, i.e. GRIP1, CARM1, and PRMT1. In contrast, with the higher levels of NR expression vectors typically used in transient transfection assays, NR activity was much less dependent on the combination of coactivators, suggesting that target gene activation occurs by different mechanisms at high versus low cellular concentrations of NR. Because multiple coactivators are presumably required to mediate transcriptional activation of native genes in vivo, the low-NR conditions may provide a more physiologically relevant assay for coactivator function.
Gaze Estimation in Children's Peer-Play Scenarios

Gaze is a powerful cue for children's social behavior analysis. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to estimate children's gaze orientation in the experimental data of developmental psychology based on head pose estimation. In consideration of the possible errors of head pose estimation results, temporal information and potential targets are both introduced to improve the results of gaze estimation. At last, this method is evaluated by a dataset of children's peer-play scenarios and the results show that this method has a good performance. According to the experimental valuation and analysis, in a certain peer-play scenario, potential targets are powerful spatial cues for children's gaze estimation and temporal information also provides some cues to improve the estimation results.
The Effect of the Expansion of the Voting Franchise on the Size of Government

This paper examines the claim that expansion of the voting franchise has been an important factor in the growth of government. State government spending and state and local spending are explained using a panel of 46 states for 1950-88. Elimination of poll taxes and literacy tests led to higher turnout, particularly among the poor, and a poorer pivotal voter. As predicted, we find that these changes, a fall in the income of voters relative to state income, and the ouster of Republicans from state government led to a sharp rise in welfare spending but no change in other spending.
Molecular Update of β-Thalassemia Mutations in the Syrian Population: Identification of Rare β-Thalassemia Mutations

Abstract β-Thalassemia (β-thal) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by variable degrees of anemia, bone marrow hyperplasia, splenomegaly, and complications related to the severity of the anemic state. The β-thalassemias result from mutations in and around the β-globin gene (HBB) located as a cluster on the short arm of chromosome 11. In Syria, β-thal is highly prevalent. The main aim of this study was to identify the frequency of HBB mutations in 189 Syrian β-thal patients and carriers of β-thal. Out of the 189 patients and carriers recruited in this study, 181 patients had at least one HBB mutation and eight patients did not show any mutation. The 10 most frequent ones constituted 77.5% of all HBB mutations. These mutations in order of frequency were: IVS-I-110 (G > A) (17.0%), IVS-I-1 (G > A) (14.7%), codon 39 (C > T) (14.4%), IVS-II-1 (G > A) (9.8%), codon 8 (–AA) (6.2%), IVS-I-6 (T > C) (5.2%), IVS-I-5 (G > C) (4.9%), codon 5 (–C) (3.2%), IVS-I-5 (G > A) (3.2%) and codon 37 (G > A) (2.2%). Another 21 mutations were less frequent or sporadic. These results provide important tools for adapting a prenatal molecular diagnostic test for the Syrian population.
Putting Health and Behavior in Context: Current Knowledge and Future Directions on Research Embracing Ecological Perspectives

Context matters. Social scientists (eg, social epidemiologists and medical sociologists) have long recognized the salience of context in health. For instance, Louis Ren e Villerm e, a noted French physician and statistician, studied neighborhood effects on health in the 1830s in Paris. In 1830, he published a paper examining mortality patterns in different Parisian arrondissements (ie, districts) finding that observed differences in death rates correlated nearly perfectly with the degree of poverty in the arrondissement. Other individuals throughout the history of public health and medicine have emphasized the role of context in health. Sadly, though, over the years research has been focused primarily on biomedical individualism (ie, individual-level factors). However, there has been a resurgence of interest in context as it relates to health, which stems from increasing appreciation of a social determinist framework, ie, recognizing that myriad macro-social factors are important for health. , To illustrate, the World Health Organization strongly recognizes the social determinants of health, especially through its Commission on Social Determinants of Health and their reports. Furthermore, as an additional example, Dr. Frank Hu’s Obesity Epidemiology book includes a chapter on the “Social Determinants of Obesity. ” In this special issue of Behavioral Medicine, 11 articles investigated various aspects of the theme “Health and Context. ” Merriam Webster defines “context” as “the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs. ” Not surprisingly, then, these articles examined a range of diverse conditions or contexts—from school to neighborhood to social network contexts, at different levels (area/ group, regional, national). In addition, these article focus on a range of health outcomes, populations across the lifecourse spectrum, and geographic locations while applying diverse methodological approaches. One unifying theme predominant in many of the articles is a focus on health disparities, or differences in health in certain population subgroups. The purpose of the present article is to briefly summarize the 11 studies contained in this issue of Behavioral Medicine in addition to providing some thoughts and suggestions for future research directions.
Workplace Weight Loss Program: Impact on Quality of Life

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a 12-week workplace intervention program (WIP) focused on weight loss and reduction of cardiovascular risk factors on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the effect of delivery method on outcomes. Methods: A retrospective analysis of data collected in a 12-week trial comparing in-person (IP) and Internet-based (IB) intervention to identify the impact on HRQOL by utilizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention HRQOL-14 questionnaire. Results: Repeated-measure analysis of variance indicated no significant intervention effect for HRQOL by group assignment. Within subjects, significant main effect was noted for improvement in Summative Index of unhealthy days, sleeplessness, and vitality days at weeks 12 and 26. At week 26, significant main effect was found for improved mentally unhealthy and depression days. Conclusions: Improvement in HRQOL following a 12-week university-based WIP can occur independent of method of delivery (IP vs IB).