Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Evolution With Neighborhood Mutation for Multimodal Optimization

In this paper, a neighborhood mutation strategy is proposed and integrated with various niching differential evolution (DE) algorithms to solve multimodal optimization problems. Although variants of DE are highly effective in locating a single global optimum, no DE variant performs competitively when solving multi-optima problems. In the proposed neighborhood based differential evolution, the mutation is performed within each Euclidean neighborhood. The neighborhood mutation is able to maintain the multiple optima found during the evolution and evolve toward the respective global/local optimum. To test the performance of the proposed neighborhood mutation DE, a total of 29 problem instances are used. The proposed algorithms are compared with a number of state-of-the-art multimodal optimization approaches and the experimental results suggest that although the idea of neighborhood mutation is simple, it is able to provide better and more consistent performance over the state-of-the-art multimodal algorithms. In addition, a comparative survey on niching algorithms and their applications are also presented.
Brain segmentation is more accurate if scan time is optimized for quantitative rather than conventional magnetic resonance imaging

Segmentation of MR brain images into its constituent compartments of white matter (WM), gray matter (GM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has many clinical applications from measuring and visualizing these tissues and their pathological changes to surgical planning and image-guided interventions. We introduce a new framework for brain tissue segmentation which benefits from quantitative MRI (qMRI) advantages.
RFID 13.56MHz transponder IC frontend

This paper presents a new receiver frontend for 13.56 MHz carrier frequency smart card transponders. The designed frontend is compatible with ISO14443 and ISO15693 standards, and can be easily adapted for other ISO standards. The included asynchronous ASK demodulator has high sensitivity compared with standard diode demodulators. Amplifier gain and common mode are adjustable using a configuration register.
Wideband artificial magnetic conductor structure for Ku-band antenna applications

Artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) has proved to be very useful to design low-profile antennas. In this paper, the research concerns a novel AMC structure for wideband applications is presented. It consists of four square patches and a printed cross in the center with unclosed rectangular loop surrounded are proposed as components of a unit cell. This structure can act as high impedance surfaces in a wide frequency band covering the entire Ku-band for both TE and TM polarizations with relatively angular stabilization. The analysis was validated by HFSS simulations and experiment.
Polarimetric SAR Feature Extraction With Neighborhood Preservation-Based Deep Learning

As an advanced nonlinear technique, deep learning, which is based on deep neural networks (DNNs), has attracted considerable attentions. In this paper, we propose a novel neighborhood preserved deep neural network (NPDNN) for polarimetric synthetic aperture radar feature extraction and classification. The spatial relation between pixels is exploited by a jointly weighting strategy. Not only the spatial neighbors but also the pixels in the same superpixel are utilized to weight each pixel. This strategy maintains the spatial dependence leading to superior homogeneity of the terrains without extra computational memory. Moreover, a few labeled samples and their nearest neighbors are employed to train the multilayer NPDNN, which preserves the local structure and reduces the number of labeled samples for classification. Experimental results on synthesized and real PolSAR data show that the proposed NPDNN can improve the classification accuracy compared with state-of-the-art DNNs despite a few input samples.
Extracranial-Intracranial Vein Graft Bypass for Giant Intracranial Aneurysm Surgery for Pediatric Patients: Two Technical Case Reports

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE Herein we describe two cases of extracranial-intracranial vein graft bypasses for the treatment of giant intracranial aneurysms in prepubertal pediatric patients. One patient is, we think, the youngest patient reported in the literature to have been successfully treated in such a manner, with a good long-term outcome. Such grafts seem to enlarge longitudinally during the growth spurt, making such techniques reasonable long-term therapeutic options for the management of complex intracranial aneurysms in pediatric patients. CLINICAL PRESENTATION Patient 1, a 13-year-old boy, presented with headaches and rapidly progressive right cavernous sinus syndrome. Computed tomography and cerebral angiography revealed a giant, fusiform, right intracavernous internal carotid artery aneurysm. Patient 2, a 23-month-old girl, was discovered to harbor an asymptomatic, recurrent, giant, fusiform, left M1 middle cerebral artery aneurysm 1 year after presenting with seizures related to subarachnoid hemorrhage from the aneurysm, for which she had been treated with clipping and an M2-M2 anastomosis. INTERVENTION Both patients underwent craniotomies, with sacrifice of the proximal parent vessel (the distal cervical internal carotid artery and the proximal middle cerebral artery, respectively), combined with cerebral revascularization through extracranial-intracranial saphenous vein bypass grafts. Both patients experienced excellent long-term clinical outcomes, have undergone significant growth, and exhibit excellent long-term graft patency and aneurysm obliteration. CONCLUSION These two cases highlight the safety and efficacy of extracranial-intracranial vein graft bypasses among prepubertal pediatric patients. The indications for bypass procedures to treat giant intracranial aneurysms are discussed, and the technical aspects of maximizing vein bypass graft patency are reviewed.
Information spread in the age of the internet

The following work compares the spread of novel ideas through social networks by a `word-of-mouth' scheme compared to the spread of ideas through websites, by which ideas are published on the web and spread through search engines. Simulations of these two spreading models show that the spread by `word-of-mouth' is more effective than the spread through web pages and search engines. Search engines are indeed highly effective as information searching tools, but less effective as spreading tools for diverse new and previously unknown ideas.
Macroscopic properties of carbon nanotubes from molecular-mechanics simulations

Since their discovery in 1991, both single wall and multiwall carbon nanotubes have become an active area of research. This is partly due to their having an extremely high specific strength and stiffness. These properties and their cylindrical shape allow for their potential applications in such diverse fields as fibrous reinforcement, atomic level piping, and nanostructures. The structural applications of carbon nanotubes require that we ascertain their macroscopic properties. Previous experimental and theoretical studies have tacitly presumed that they can be modeled as linear elastic and isotropic. Tables I and II summarize, respectively, values of Young’s modulus E computed by various investigators, from molecular mechanics ~MM! simulations and experimental data. Except for the work of Yakobson et al., 1 Halicioglu 2 and Zhou et al., 3 they all assume a wall thickness of 3.4 A, which is the separation distance between adjacent walls in a multiwall nanotube ~MWNT! The scatter in the experimental data is partly due to the poor resolution at these extremely small scales. There is less scatter in the values of E computed from the MM simulations; E so found is close to
Fuelwood Resources and Forest Regeneration on Fallow Land in Uganda

Abstract East African forests have been largely converted to agriculture. The remaining forests hold many endangered species but are threatened by the heavy local demand for fuelwood. Here we evaluate fallow land in western Uganda as an alternate fuel source to diverse forests. We quantify the regeneration process on fallows, calculate tree bio-mass increases, and measure grass and woody herb biomass over 44 months. The biomass values we measured were typical or slightly below the average from 11 studies elsewhere in the tropics. Variation in biomass between our neighboring study sites exceeded that between sites on different continents, indicating the sensitivity of vegetation regeneration to local land use. Tree regeneration was extremely slow (0.46 g/m2/year); however, the woody herbs and grasses on a 4 year old fallow of ∼0.5 ha can provide much of a family's domestic fuel. Fallow land is generally abundant in western Uganda and can partially alleviate pressure on forests for domestic fuels. Fallows cannot however provide the trees demanded by charcoal, brick, and gin manufacturers. In the future, conserving forests while meeting fuelwood demands will require improving local land tenure security, enhancing the productivity of cultivated and abandoned land, promoting more efficient stoves, stills and kilns, and curtailing illicit, inefficient charcoal manufacture.
Fine‐scale environmental control of hybridization in oaks

Natural hybridization is attracting much interest in modern speciation and conservation biology studies, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In particular, it is unclear why environmental changes often increase hybridization rates. To study this question, we surveyed mating events in a mixed oak stand and developed a spatially explicit individual‐based hybridization model. This model, where hybridization is frequency‐dependent, pollen is nonlimiting and which allows immigrant pollen to compete with local pollen, takes into account species‐specific pollen dispersal and sexual barriers to hybridization. The consequences of pollen limitation on hybridization were studied using another simple model. The results indicate that environmental changes could increase hybridization rates through two distinct mechanisms. First, by disrupting the spatial organization of communities, they should decrease the proportion of conspecific pollen available for mating, thus increasing hybridization rates. Second, by decreasing the density of conspecifics, they should increase pollen limitation and thus hybridization rates, as a consequence of chance pollination predominating over deterministic pollen competition. Altogether, our results point to a need for considering hybridization events at the appropriate level of organization and provide new insights into why hybridization rates generally increase in disturbed environments.
Antipituitary Antibodies in Patients with Lymphocytic Hypophysitis

Background: Lymphocytic hypophysitis is one of the causes of hypopituitarism, which is considered an autoimmune reaction in the anterior pituitary. Method: We examined antipituitary antibodies in patients with lymphocytic hypophysitis and related diseases by immunoblotting method. Results: Autoantibodies to a 22-kDa human pituitary cytosolic protein were identified in significantly higher frequencies in sera from patients with lymphocytic hypophysitis (11 of 15, 73.3%) and isolated ACTH deficiency (7 of 9, 77.8%) compared with Hashimoto thyroiditis, Basedow’s disease and normal control subjects. Also, reactivity against a 49-kDa human pituitary cytosolic protein was seen in 6 of 15 patients (40%) with lymphocytic hypophysitis. N-terminal amino acid sequences of 22-kDa human and rat pituitary cytosolic protein were FPTIPLSVL and FPAMPLSSLFAN, respectively, suggesting that they are human and rat growth hormone, respectively. The pituitary dysfunction (at least one hormone dysfunction) was observed in 11 of 14 patients. Nine of them (82%) showed 22 kDa antibody but 2 of them (18%) did not. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that pituitary autoantibodies could be involved in the pathogenesis of lymphocytic hypophysitis and could be a positive marker for the disease.
Memristor-based balanced ternary adder

This paper introduces a memristor based ternary adder, which is an essential building block for any arithmetic ternary operations. The proposed ternary adder circuit tries to achieve the theoretical advantages of the ternary system, increase the density and decrease the processing time by using the memristor properties such as its hysteresis and nanotechnology. The general block diagram of the proposed circuit is illustrated based on memristors and its operation has been validated via different examples using PSPICE where simulation results show a great match.
Mindsets and Math/Science Achievement

Mindsets Students (and their teachers) can have different beliefs about intellectual abilities. Some believe that intellectual abilities are basically fixed – that people have different levels of ability and nothing can change that. In contrast, others believe that intellectual abilities can be cultivated and developed through application and instruction. They do not deny that people may differ in their current skill levels but they believe that everyone can improve their underlying ability (Dweck, 1999). Students’ mindsets are measured by asking them to agree or disagree on a 6 point scale with statements such as:
The Atypical Response Regulator Protein ChxR Has Structural Characteristics and Dimer Interface Interactions That Are Unique within the OmpR/PhoB Subfamily*

Typically as a result of phosphorylation, OmpR/PhoB response regulators form homodimers through a receiver domain as an integral step in transcriptional activation. Phosphorylation stabilizes the ionic and hydrophobic interactions between monomers. Recent studies have shown that some response regulators retain functional activity in the absence of phosphorylation and are termed atypical response regulators. The two currently available receiver domain structures of atypical response regulators are very similar to their phospho-accepting homologs, and their propensity to form homodimers is generally retained. An atypical response regulator, ChxR, from Chlamydia trachomatis, was previously reported to form homodimers; however, the residues critical to this interaction have not been elucidated. We hypothesize that the intra- and intermolecular interactions involved in forming a transcriptionally competent ChxR are distinct from the canonical phosphorylation (activation) paradigm in the OmpR/PhoB response regulator subfamily. To test this hypothesis, structural and functional studies were performed on the receiver domain of ChxR. Two crystal structures of the receiver domain were solved with the recently developed method using triiodo compound I3C. These structures revealed many characteristics unique to OmpR/PhoB subfamily members: typical or atypical. Included was the absence of two α-helices present in all other OmpR/PhoB response regulators. Functional studies on various dimer interface residues demonstrated that ChxR forms relatively stable homodimers through hydrophobic interactions, and disruption of these can be accomplished with the introduction of a charged residue within the dimer interface. A gel shift study with monomeric ChxR supports that dimerization through the receiver domain is critical for interaction with DNA.
Quantitative Estimation of Catechol/Methylcatechol Pathways in Human Phenytoin Metabolism

Summary: A gas‐liquid chromatographic (GLC) assay utilizing an on‐column methylation technique has been developed to assay urinary concentration of a phenytoin (5,5‐diphenylhydantoin, PHT) metabolite, 5‐(4‐hydroxy‐3‐methoxyphenyl)‐5‐phenylhydantoin (MCAT). Assay of MCAT in 35 24‐h urine samples from patients receiving chronic phenytoin (PHT) therapy indicated that 0.3–4.0% of the daily dose could be accounted for as MCAT. The GLC assay was specific for MCAT, and provided a minimal estimate of the fraction of the PHT dose being metabolized via the catechol/MCAT route. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the amount of urinary MCAT was dependent on the quantities of both dihydrodiol (DHD) and p‐phenolic (p‐HPPH) metabolites. Oxidative pathways involving both DHD and p‐HPPH as substrates appear to be responsible for catechol/MCAT production.
EPIDEMIOLOGY OF STROKE

Stroke is the most common neurologic disease and the leading cause of adult disability in Western countries. The number of patients affected by stroke will increase by the effect of aging. Mainly due to increased life expectancy, the proportion of individuals over 65 years in the L'Aquila district showed an increase of 18.3% in a 10 years period (1981-1991). Among the resident population, in a five-year period (1994-1998) we collected all the patients with a first-ever stroke, and we found high crude and standardized (European population 1996) incidence rates. There was a significant correlation between crude and standardized incidence rates and proportion of individuals aged 65 and over, suggesting that the high incidence was due to an increased stroke risk linked to aging. As a cosequence, the number of subjects with atherosclerotic comorbidity will increase and the quality of life will worsen.
Glasgow Blatchford, pre-endoscopic Rockall and AIMS65 scores show no difference in predicting rebleeding rate and mortality in variceal bleeding

Abstract Objective: To compare the performance of the Glasgow Blatchford score (GBS), pre-endoscopic Rockall score (PRS) and AIMS65 score in predicting specific clinical endpoints following variceal upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (UGIH). Material and methods: Between January 2008 and December 2013, we retrospectively analyzed 225 consecutive hospitalized patients managed for endoscopically confirmed UGIH. Results: A total of 225 patients (mean age 61.3 years), mostly diagnosed with alcoholic cirrhosis (195/86.7%), presented with variceal UGIH during the study period. Rebleeding occurred in 22 (9.8%) patients and 30-day mortality was 39 (17.3%). Initial hemostasis was achieved with N-butyl cyanoacrylate (151/79.1%) and endoscopic variceal ligation (40/20.9%), while secondary rebleeding prophylaxis in 110 (48.9%) patients was accomplished using endoscopic variceal ligation (92%). The majority of patients died from the underlying disease, while 12 (30.8%) died from bleeding. Median hospital stay was 6 (1–35) days. There was no statistically significant difference among AIMS65, GBS and PRS in predicting mortality (AUROC 0.70 vs. 0.64 vs. 0.66) or rebleeding rates (AUROC 0.74 vs. 0.60 vs. 0.67). The GBS was superior in predicting the need for blood transfusion compared to AIMS65 score (AUROC 0.75 vs. 0.61, p = 0.01) and PRS (AUROC 0.75 vs. 0.58, p = 0.009). Conclusions: The AIMS65, GBS and PRS scores are comparable but not useful for predicting outcome in patients with variceal UGIH because of poor discriminative ability. The GBS is superior in predicting the need for transfusion compared to AIMS65 score and PRS.
MICROWAVE SCATTERING AND ABSORPTION BY A MULTILAYERED LOSSY METAMATERIAL-GLASS CYLINDER

Here we present the rigorous electrodynamical solution of difiraction problem about the microwave scattering by a multilayered cylinder. The number and thickness of layers is not limited. We ofier the solution when the central core of multilayered cylinder can be made of difierent isotropic materials as a metamaterial, a ceramic matter or a semiconductor as well as of a perfect metal. The isotropic coated layers can be of strongly lossy materials. The signs of the complex permittivity and complex permeability can be negative or positive in difierent combinations. Here we present dependencies of the scattered power of the incident perpendicularly and parallel polarized microwaves by the metamaterial-glass cylinder on signs of metamaterial permittivity as well as permeability. The glass layer absorbed power and metamaterial core absorbed power dependent on the hypothetic metamaterial permittivity and permeability signs at the wide range frequencies 1{120GHz are also presented here. The metamaterial core of cylinder has a radius equal to 0.0018 m and the thickness of the coated acrylic-glass layer is 0.0002m. We have found some conditions when the scattered-power has minimal values and the absorbed power by the coated acrylic glass layer is constant in a very wide frequency range. We have discovered that the glass layer absorbed power increases with increasing of the frequency at the range 1{120GHz for both microwave polarizations.
CULTURA: Supporting Enhanced Exploration of Cultural Archives through Personalisation

A key challenge facing curators and providers of digital cultural heritage across Europe and Worldwide is to instigate, increase and enhance engagement with cultural archives. To achieve this, a fundamental change in the way cultural resources are experienced and contributed to by communities is required. Furthermore, it is of central importance to create systems which can support the full spectrum of the user community from professional researchers engaged in answering complex queries, to supporting novice students or members of the public in finding their way through the vast collection of resources. This paper presents CULTURA, a personalisation environment for navigating digitised cultural heritage archives. An initial description of a case study surrounding the 1641 Depositions Archive is followed by an analysis of the results of trials with students in the humanities.
An Efficient Clustering of Sensors using a Meta Heuristic Algorithm for IoT

In recent years, with the increase in the devices like Smartphone’s, Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring devices, tablets, surveillance cameras etc.The numbers of devices that have been connected to the Internet have crossed the world population. The decrease in the cost of the devices, with increase in their capability was one of the major reasons for this change. With the increase in the devices connected to the network, there is enormous data that is produced by the devices on daily basis which has caused problem of selecting the devices (sensors) based on the data produced by them. The users have to face the problem of manually selecting the set of sensors required by them. To target this problem, the proposed work has implemented, the ant based clustering algorithm with some novel changes in order to provide the user with the optimal set of sensors. The algorithm intakes the whole sensor space and outputs the clusters from which the user can choose the one which is most optimal according to the user needs. The antclust algorithm strives to provide optimal solution and maintain its performance while fighting the dynamicity of the Internet. The proposed work shows better scalability and adaptability. Also has faster search of the sensors than the other works