Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic aspects for virtual organizations based on intelligent agent technology

The aim of this paper is to present a real time fuzzy expert system (as an agent) shell to meet the challenges of the dynamic environment, like Virtual Organizations. Time restrictions are not excessive in usual distributed applications. Critical time reasoning problems may occur in case of faulty operations and overloading. At present, the reasoning depth developed for such system is still poor. Conventional expert system shells are too slow for real-time environments, and their inference process is unbounded. We need a reactive, interruptible system that can assimilate data and asynchronous events, and present the operator with a reasoned opinion in a timely manner. Speed alone is not enough. There is a need for incorporating aspects of time and imprecision into knowledge management systems, considering appropriate semantic foundations. The Knowledge Management Systems based on Agent Technology (KMSAT) tries to provide computers the capabilities of performing various intelligent tasks for which their human users resort to their knowledge and collective intelligence.
Removing Beam Current Artefacts in Helium Ion Microscopy : A Comparison of Image Processing Techniques . Microscopy and Microanalysis 2016

The development of the helium ion microscope (HIM) enables the imaging of both hard, inorganic materials and soft, organic or biological materials. Advantages include outstanding topographical contrast, superior resolution down to <0.5 nm, high depth of field and no need for conductive coatings. The instrument relies on helium atom adsorption and ionisation at a cryogenically cooled tip that is atomically sharp. Under ideal conditions this arrangement provides a beam of ions that is stable for days to weeks, with beam currents in the order of picoamperes. Over time however this stability is lost as gaseous contamination builds up in the source region, leading to adsorbed atoms of species other than helium, which ultimately results in beam current fluctuations. This manifests itself as horizontal stripe artefacts in HIM images. We investigate post-processing methods to remove these artefacts from HIM images, such as median filtering, Gaussian blurring, fast Fourier transforms and principal component analysis. We arrive at a simple method for completely removing beam current fluctuation effects from HIM images while maintaining the full integrity of the information within the
Vocabulary on the move: Investigating an intelligent mobile phone-based vocabulary tutor

Mobile learning has long been identified as one of the natural directions in which CALL is expected to move, and as smaller portable technologies become less expensive, lighter and more powerful, they have the potential to become a more integral part of language learning courses as opposed to the more supplemental role often assigned to computer labs. Mobile phones have been the topic of a number of recent studies, including for learning pragmatic phrases via mobile email, and as electronic flash cards. With the development of mobile systems that can access the Internet, more sophisticated applications which allow the use of databases and interactive web content have been made possible. The current study describes one such application, investigating the use of a prototype mobile-based intelligent vocabulary tutor system by learners in an advanced EFL class. Learners used the tutor to complete vocabulary activities in a variety of task formats through either their mobile phone or through a computer, and the system kept logs of all access to the system. A profile of each learner was created in terms of the vocabulary that they had difficulty with, and presented these items to the learners more frequently than items that were less likely to cause learners problems. Learner access logs to the vocabulary activities and the learner profiles were analysed, and a survey was administered to learners at the completion of the project. The results are discussed in terms of learner usage patterns and learner perspectives regarding each platform.
Chitosan/Poly(γ-glutamic acid) Polyelectrolyte Complexes: From Self-Assembly to Application in Biomolecules Delivery and RegenerativeMedicine

Physically complexed Polyelectrolyte (PE) Complexes (PECs) have been widely used for different purposes. Mixing solutions of oppositely charged PEs leads to spontaneous formation of PEC dispersions (complex coacervates) of interpolymer complexes driven by electrostatic interactions. Assembling of poly(γ-glutamic acid) (γ-PGA) with chitosan (Ch) in PECs provides an easy and flexible technology for the delivery of biomolecules in tissue engineering. γ-PGA is an anionic polymer, recently explored but with interesting biological properties, namely nonimmunogenicity and in vivo biodegradability into glutamatic acid units. Its combination with cationic polymers, namely Ch, is being increasingly investigated. Here the formation of PECs, namely different architectures, as well as detailed features of biomedical applications of Ch/γ-PGA PECs as delivery systems and mediators of tissue regeneration is reviewed. Besides overviewing the literature on Ch/γ-PGA PECs applications, the main challenges to the use of Ch/γ-PGA PECs and the most promising applications of these structures in regenerative medicine are covered.
Capacity-Optimized Access Scheduling Control for Heterogeneous MANETs with MIMO Links

Multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technique can significantly improve transmission reliability and bandwidth efficiency in wireless networks. However, many upper layer aspects of MIMO links, especially in mobile networks with heterogeneous antennas and strong interference environments, need further investigation. In this paper, we study its impact on medium access and network capacity. Since MIMO links can enhance physical layer capacity and co-channel interference suppression that affects network access scheduling directly, we develop a capacity-optimized access scheduling control (COASC) scheme for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) with MIMO links. We formulate the distributed scheduling taking the key of optimization into design to improve the network capacity and transmission reliability. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Magnetic tunnel junctions with monolayer hexagonal boron nitride tunnel barriers

We report on the integration of atomically thin 2D insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) tunnel barriers into Co/h-BN/Fe magnetic tunnel junctions(MTJs). The h-BN monolayer is directly grown by chemical vapor deposition on Fe. The Conductive Tip Atomic Force Microscopy (CT-AFM) measurements reveal the homogeneity of the tunnel behavior of our h-BN layers. As expected for tunneling, the resistance depends exponentially on the number of h-BN layers. The h-BN monolayer properties are also characterized through integration into complete MTJ devices. A Tunnel Magnetoresistance of up to 6% is observed for a MTJ based on a single atomically thin h-BN layer.
1 Thiram-induced tibial dyschondroplasia : a model to study its pathogenesis and prevention

Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is a metabolic cartilage disease that causes major leg problems in poultry. We have developed a model to induce TD at high incidence and severity by feeding week-old broiler chickens diets containing 50-100 ppm thiram for two days that is amenable to study the mechanisms of the disease and screen for factors that may prevent it. The objectives for this study were to understand what causes avascularity of TD lesions and to determine if certain micronutrients added to their basal diets may protect the chickens from this disease. Week-old broiler chickens were fed 100 ppm thiram and monitored for the expression of selective genes associated with vascularization and cell survival at 48 and 166 h after feeding thiram. RT-PCR and capillary electrophoresis was used to determine the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), its receptors (VEGFR), and anti-apoptotic protein BCL-2 genes. The results showed maximal suppression of VEGFR and BCL-2 genes at 48 h following thiram feeding, when only sporadic capillary endothelial cell death was observed by histochemical methods. Except for BCL-2 these suppressions were not evident at 166 h when the lesions are visually discernible with chondrocyte death apparent histologically and histochemically. Further analysis suggested that the dead cells in the lesions were those affected early during thiram treatment. The avascularity of the TD lesion seems to be related to the early death of capillary endothelial cells which express VEGFR through which VEGF, produced by hypertrophic chondrocytes, transduce signals for angiogenesis. The thiram-initiated cell death was also evident by the suppression of BCL-2 gene. In order to test the potential of this model as a bioassay for nutrients that may protect birds against TD, selective micronutrients were added to the diets and the birds were subjected to TD-induction with 50 ppm thiram and examined for disease incidence and severity on day 15. Of the tested dietary supplements that included vitamin A, folic acid, trace minerals, and different forms of vitamin D, only folic acid at 5 times its NRC recommended concentration protected chickens against TD. These studies provide an example of how thiram-induced TD can be exploited to study the mechanisms of this economically important poultry metabolic disease. ______________________________________________________________________________
Worlds of Welfare and the Health Care Discrepancy

The nature of welfare regimes has been an ongoing debate within the comparative social policy literature since the publication of Esping-Andersen's ‘Three Worlds of Welfare’ (1990). This article draws upon recent developments within this debate, most notably Kasza's assertions about the ‘illusory nature’ of welfare regimes, to highlight the health care discrepancy. It argues that health care provision has been a notable omission from the wider regimes literature and one which, if included in the form of a health care decommodification typology, can give credence to Kasza's perspective by highlighting the diverse internal arrangements of welfare states and welfare state regimes.
Pesto: Automated migration of DOM‐based Web tests towards the visual approach

Test automation tools are widely adopted for testing complex Web applications. Three generations of tools exist: first, based on screen coordinates; second, based on DOM–based commands; and third, based on visual image recognition. In our previous work, we proposed Pesto, a tool able to migrate second‐generation Selenium WebDriver test suites towards third‐generation Sikuli ones. In this work, we extend Pesto to manage Web elements having (1) complex visual interactions and (2) multiple visual appearances. Pesto relies on aspect‐oriented programming, computer vision, and code transformations. Our new improved tool has been evaluated on two Web test suites developed by an independent tester. Experimental results show that Pesto manages and transforms correctly test suites with Web elements having complex visual interactions and multistate elements. By using Pesto, the migration of existing DOM–based test suites to the visual approach requires a low manual effort, since our approach proved to be very accurate.
A Two-Stage Mispronunciation Detection Approach for Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training

In this paper, we propose a two-stage mispronunciation detection approach for computer-assisted pronunciation training. In the first stage, the selected phonological rules are used to cooperate with ASR to detect mispronunciations based on language transfer. Because the first stage detection can only deal with the pronunciation errors in the scope of the phonological rules, and detection performance is depressed with the imperfect phoneme acoustic model. The rescoring method based on duration normalized log posterior probability (NLPP) is employed in the second stage to identify the recognition speech unit again. Furthermore, a new F -score ranking criterion is proposed for the first stage to balance the mispronunciation coverage and recognition confusion, in the aim of minimizing the cost of total detection errors. The experiment shows that the method only with phonological rules gets a best performance of 19991 total detection errors, and the normalized log posterior probability method costs 22264 total errors. Finally, the two-stage detection approach can reduce the total errors to 19498.
Growl Voice in Ethnic and Pop Styles

A dry etching method includes the steps of etching a transparent electrode film by reactive ion etching with a first etching gas, changing the first etching gas to a second etching gas, and etching the transparent electrode film by reactive ion etching with the second etching gas. A chlorine containing gas is employed as the second etching gas.
Lactulose: effect on apoptotic- and immunological-markers in the gastro-intestinal tract of pre-ruminant calves

The study was conducted to elucidate the effects of orally administered lactulose in combination with Enterococcus faecium on immune response of the intestinal tract in pre-ruminant calves. The mRNA expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and proliferation and apoptosis markers were investigated in jejunum, ileum, colon and caecum. Simmental calves were fed diets containing 1% (L1) or 3% (L3) lactulose and the probiotic strain of the genus E. faecium, and compared with a non treated control group. Primarily the high dose feeding with lactulose showed an effect on several mRNA gene expression parameters. In the jejunum a down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic marker Bcl-xl was determined and IL-10 mRNA gene expression was 2.6-fold up-regulated (P < 0.05). In the colon a 1.9-fold ( P < 0.05) up-regulation of IL-10 and only in caecum an about 2-fold increase of TGF-β 1 (P < 0.05) was found for both lactulose feedings. Caspase 3 was up-regulated in caecum only in the 3% lactulose treated group ( P < 0.05). The enhanced apoptotic rate of caspase 3 seems to be associated with a decrease in crypth depth due to lactulose supplementation. The results indicated that mainly the high 3% lactulose dose in probiotic-fed calves has an affect on the intestinal immune function and on diverse apoptotic markers.
DIGITISING 3 D SURFACES OF MUSEUM OBJECTS USING PHOTOMETRIC STEREO-DEVICE

The paper describes technical and procedural implementation of an optical method for digitisation of 3D surfaces for documentation, monitoring and virtual replication of cultural heritage objects. The technique is based on the so-called photometric stereo method utilising the relationship between apparent brightness of a point on the object's surface and its orientation towards direction of illuminating light. The method yields the field of surface slopes first, which can be further transformed into surface topography. Although used less frequently than methods based on stereoscopic principles, this technique can be advantageous for digital recordings of the objects for several reasons. For example, it is easy to acquire surface texture and the surface topography in order to preserve the complete information about the object. Another advantage, implied by underlying physical principle, concerns the precision of the method being independent on the distance to the studied object. Furthermore, the measurement resolution of the method can be easily tuned to roughness and variation of the object's surface. The authors explain the potential of the method further by demonstrating an innovative technique of image processing that may benefit from a set of redundant data acquired from the surface. The processing 'recognises' 'bad' areas in images and ignores them while mining out all useful data in remaining part of the image. Improvement of objects' surface depiction, using a multiple-image method over a minimal set of images required by the principles of the method is demonstrated in results section.
Multiframe super-resolution based on a high-order spatially weighted regularisation

Here, the authors propose a spatially weighted super-resolution (SR) algorithm, which takes into consideration the distribution of every information that characterise different image areas. The authors investigate to use a combined spatially weighted regularisation of the bilateral total variation and a second-order term increasing then the robustness of the proposed SR approach with respect to blur and noise degradations. In addition, the authors propose an iterative Bregman iteration algorithm to resolve the obtained optimisation SR problem. As a result, this regularisation is more efficient and easier to implement; moreover, it preserves well the smooth regions of the image and also sharp edges. Using different simulated and real tests, the authors prove the efficiency of the proposed algorithm compared to some SR methods.
Bridging the Attachment Transmission Gap with Maternal Mind-mindedness and Infant Temperament

Title of Document: BRIDGING THE ATTACHMENT TRANSMISSION GAP WITH MATERNAL MIND-MINDEDNESS AND INFANT TEMPERAMENT Laura Jernigan Sherman, Master of Science, 2009 Directed By: Professor Jude Cassidy, Psychology The goal of this study was to test (a) whether maternal mind-mindedness (MM) mediates the link between maternal attachment (from the Adult Attachment Interview) and infant attachment (in the Strange Situation), and (b) whether infant temperament moderates this model of attachment transmission. Eighty-four racially diverse, economically stressed mothers and their infants were assessed three times: newborn, 5, and 12 months. Despite robust meta-analytic findings supporting attachment concordance for mothers and infants in community samples, this sample was characterized by low attachment concordance. Maternal attachment was unrelated to maternal MM; and, maternal MM was related to infant attachment differences for ambivalent infants only. Infant irritability did not moderate the model. Possible reasons for the discordant attachment patterns and the remaining findings are discussed in relation to theory and previous research. BRIDGING THE ATTACHMENT TRANSMISSION GAP WITH MATERNAL MIND-MINDEDNESS AND INFANT TEMPERAMENT
Cas 9-mediated genome editing in plants

The increasing burden of the world’s population on agriculture necessitates the development of more robust crops. As the amount of information from sequenced crop genomes increases, technology can be used to investigate the function of genes in detail and to design improved crops at the molecular level. Recently, an RNA-programmed genome-editing system composed of a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-encoded guide RNA and the nuclease Cas9 has provided a powerful platform to achieve these goals. By combining versatile tools to study and modify plants at different molecular levels, the CRISPR/Cas9 system is paving the way towards a new horizon for basic research and crop development. In this review, the accomplishments, problems and improvements of this technology in plants, including target sequence cleavage, knock-in/gene replacement, transcriptional regulation, epigenetic modification, off-target effects, delivery system and potential applications, will be highlighted. 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
When is bigger better? Early marine residence of middle and upper Columbia River spring Chinook salmon

Early ocean residence is considered a critical period for juvenile salmon although specific survival mechanisms are often unidentified and may vary by species or life stage. Colum- bia River spring-run Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha abundance has declined dra- matically since the early 1900s. To elucidate mechanisms of early marine survival, we tested the 'bigger-is-better' and 'stage-duration' aspects of the 'growth-mortality' hypothesis, which posits that size and growth rate are important for future abundance. We tested the 'match-mismatch' hypothesis to determine whether early marine growth was related to indices related to regional productivity, including spring transition timing and copepod community composition. We gener- ated estimates of individual size at ocean entry and capture, marine growth rate, early marine migration rate, and emigration timing using data from ocean surveys, genetic stock-assignment, and otolith analyses of juveniles collected across 8 yr between 1998 and 2008. Size at capture and marine growth rate after ~30 d marine residence were positively related to future adult returns, whereas size at marine entry was not. Growth rate was not significantly related to indices of secondary production, but size at capture was significantly greater when lipid-rich copepods dominated. Although future adult abundance was not related to emigration timing, juveniles migrated more slowly when copepod biomass was high, perhaps responding to foraging condi- tions. Overall, processes during early ocean residence appear to be more important for cohort size establishment than those at marine entry. Approaches that combine genetic and otolith analyses have great potential to provide information on stock-specific variation in survival mechanisms.
Ablation of Copper by a Single Ultrashort Laser Pulse

Thermal ablation of copper films by a single Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser pulse of wavelength 800 nm and duration 100 fs was investigated experimentally and theoretically. The laser experiments were performed; the ablation depth and crater profiles were measured for laser fluences up to 1037 J/cm. A comprehensive axisymmetric model, including a two-temperature model, phase change models for rapid melting and evaporation, and a phase explosion model for ejecting metastable liquid and vapor, was developed to simulate the laser material ablation process. The simulated ablation depths and crater profiles agree well with the experimental measurements.
The Industrial Organization of Financial Market Information Production

In our model, information-producing agents can opt to produce from the sell-side, in which case they can only sell their information to other market participants, or produce from the buy-side, in which case they agent can trade in the financial market. If sell-side information substitutes for that produced on the buy-side, some form of subsidy is necessary to sustain sell-side production in equilibrium because sell-side agents cannot commit to narrow dissemination of their information among buy-side agents. Competition among buy-side agents leaves buy-side (private) information as the primary source of trading profits. Subsidizing sell-side research promotes welfare because such information enters financial market prices and thereby improves real investment decisions. But subsidies compromise welfare through conflicts of interest facing the sell-side analyst. We derive conditions under which the net welfare effect is positive and shed light on means of managing the tradeoff.