Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On computation of diffusion and fibre orientation distribution functions in high angular resolution diffusion imaging

Diffusion weighted MRI is a non-invasive image technique for obtaining information about the neural architecture of the brain. The measured diffusion signal is highly correlated with the direction of the white matter tracts. Based on the transformed signal (either in the form of orientation distribution function or fibre orientation density) it is possible to estimate the fibre orientations, provided the algorithm used can cope with the noise corrupted diffusion weighted image. This paper reviews the methods used to compute the diffusion and fibre orientation distribution functions.
Designing a Crowdsourcing Tool to Measure Perceived Causal Relationships Between Narrative Events

The computational study of narrative is important to multiple academic disciplines. However, prior research has been limited by the inability to quantify subjects’ comprehension of the causal structure within each narrative text. With the aid of big data technology and crowdsourcing tools, we aim to design a new approach to analysis the content of narratives in a data-driven manner, while also making these analyses scientifically replicable. The goal of this research is therefore to develop a tool that can be used to measure people’s understanding of the causal relationships within a piece of text.
THE STETH VOLUME 6, 2012 ISSN: 2094-5906

Bioactive compounds, such as the plant-derived allelochemicals, are of growing interest to the scientific community due to their known toxicity against several obnoxious vectors of pervasive diseases like dengue and malaria. Moreover, the development of resistance to synthetic insecticides has diverted the interest of researchers towards insecticides of plant origin. Hence, four Philippine plant species, Citrus microcarpa (Calamansi), Chromolaena odorata (Hagonoy), Nephelium lappaceum (Rambutan), and Jasminum sambac (Sampaguita) of the respective plant families Rutaceae, Asteriaceae, Sapindaceae and Oleaceae were evaluated of their larvicidal activities. The secondary metabolites tannin and citrus, both of which have shown larvicidal and insecticidal activities, have been found in plant families Sapindaceae and Rutaceae. Likewise, Jasminum sambac and Chromolaena odorata have been reported in the literature to contain terpenoids and organophosphates, two major constituents of agricultural pesticides both recognized for the potency. The larvicidal activities of ethanolic extracts in three concentrations (100, 200, 500ppm) from four plants were evaluated against third instar larvae of dengue mosquito, Aedes aegypti in the laboratory. Their activities were compared with black pepper, Piper nigrum (positive control) and the untreated control (distilled water and DMSO). Among the plants bioassayed, the 500 ppm ethanolic extract from C. microcarpa provided 24-hr mortality of 80%, which is slightly lower than the 100% mortality obtained in black pepper. Multiple regression analysis also revealed statistically significant relationship (p-value <0.05) between concentration of the extracts of four plants and mortality rate. Linearity between larval mortality and exposure time is most significant at 500 ppm concentration with a fitted regression model: % mortality = 16.16x – 25.6 X time interval (R2=0.944). Endpoint analysis of log-probit transformed curve of Citrus microcarpa indicates LC50 and LC90 of 451 and 628 mg/l (500 ppm) respectively. Since C. microcarpa is much cheaper than black pepper, more in depth study should be done in enhancing its activity by slightly increasing its concentration or through the addition of synergist and combination with other potent botanical insecticides. Moreover, the use of C. microcarpa is sage to humans and other non-target organisms and is an environment-friendly method of controlling dengue mosquito wrigglers. Keywordsbioactive compounds, Aedes aegypti, Citrus microcarpa, Chromolaena odorata, Nephelium lappaceum, Jasminum sambac, larvicidal activity THE STETH VOLUME 6, 2012 ISSN: 2094-5906
HUMAN HAIR KERATIN PROTEIN, HAIR FIBERS AND HYDROXYAPATITE (HA) COMPOSITE SCAFFOLD FOR BONE TISSUE REGENERATION

The field of tissue engineering aims at promoting the regeneration of tissues or replacement of failing or malfunctioning tissue by means of combining a scaffold material, adequate cells and bioactive molecules. Different materials have been proposed for use as three-dimensional porous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering procedures. Among them, polymers of natural origin are one of the most attractive options mainly due to their similarities with the extracellular matrix (ECM), chemical versatility as well as typically good biological performance. In this study, two biocompatible composite scaffolds were developed from natural polymer by tissue engineering approach and tested in vitro. The first Scaffold (SCAF-1) that was developed was composed of human hair keratin protein and human hair fibers (cuticle-cortex). The second scaffold (SCAF-2) was composed of human hair keratin protein, human hair fibers (cuticle-cortex) and hydroxyapatite (HA) particles. SEM and EDX were used to analyze the three dimensional structure, surface chemistry and pore size of the scaffolds. Both scaffolds showed a three-dimensional structure with a pore size ranging from 40-500μm and porosity greater than 50%. Compressive tests were carried out under dry as well as wet conditions for both scaffolds. SCAF-1 showed compressive modulus of 0.009 MPa in wet condition and 0.90 MPa in a dry condition. Likewise, SCAF-2 had compressive modulus of 0.09
Social Spam Detection in Microblog

: Microbloging sites are the most popular and commonly used social networking sites. Examples for micro blogs are Sina web, Face book, twitter etc. Since the importance of these sites attracts spammers widely, spammers are the person or an information hub, which copy a pieces of information or tweets from others and modify it. An improved LSH (locality sensitive hashing) technique is used to identify duplicate tweets, and also for identifying emotions of this duplicated tweets.
Hindi Optical Character Recognition For Printed Documents Using Fuzzy K-Nearest Neighbor Algorithm: A Problem Approach In Character Segmentation

: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is a technology that extracts all the text from the images, . pdf documents or scanned files. So OCR converts normal scanned documents text-searchable so to allow content search on the same. Hindi being the national language of India, with such huge population makes document managing and preservation difficult in government sector. Hence, this paper presents an efficient algorithm Fuzzy KNN for recognition of Hindi script characters from printed documents. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) systems developed for the Hindi language carry a very poor recognition rate due to shirorekha as well as joint characters. This paper proposes an OCR for printed Hindi text in Devanagari script, using Fuzzy KNN which improves its efficiency. One of the major reasons for the poor recognition rate is error in character segmentation also. The presence of touching characters in the scanned documents further complicates the segmentation process, creating a major problem, when designing an effective character segmentation technique. Here, Fuzzy KNN classifier in pair with two different features Geometric and Wavelet features are used to handle this problem.
Technical Features and Functionalities of Myo Armband: An Overview on Related Literature and Advanced Applications of Myoelectric Armbands Mainly Focused on Arm Prostheses

Abstract Technological advances in manufacturing smart high-performances electronic devices, increasingly available at lower costs, nowadays allow one to improve users’ quality of life in many application fields. In this work, the human–machine interaction obtained by using a next generation device (Myo armband) is analyzed and discussed, with a particular focus to healthcare applications such as upper-limb prostheses. An overview on application fields of the Myo armband and on the latest research works related to its use in prosthetic applications is presented; subsequently, the technical features and functionalities of this device are examined. Myo armband is a wearable device provided with eight electromyographic electrodes, a 9-axes inertial measurement unit and a transmission module. It sends the data related to the detected signals, via Bluetooth Low Energy technology, to other electronic devices which process them and act accordingly, depending on how they are programmed (in order to drive actuators or perform other specific functions). Applied to the prosthetic field, Myo armband allows one to overcome many issues related to the existing prostheses, representing a complete electronic platform that detects in real-time the main signals related to forearm activity (muscles activation and forearm movements in the three-dimensional space) and sends these data to the connected devices. Nowadays, several typologies of prostheses are available on the market; they can be mainly distinguished into low-cost prostheses, which are light and compact but allow for a limited number of movements, and high-end prostheses, which are much more complex and featured by high dexterity, but also heavy, bulky, difficult to control and very expensive. Finally, the Myo armband is an optimum candidate for prosthetic application (and many others) and offers an excellent low-cost solution for obtaining a reliable, easy to use system.
Characterization of PAHs and PCBs in Fly Ashes of Eighteen Coal-Fired Power Plants

ABSTRACTFor the management of coal fly ashes (CFAs) from coal-fired power plants (CFPPs), characterization of PAHs and PCBs in CFAs is imperative. The 18 PAH and 86 PCB congeners in CFAs collected from 18 large-scale CFPPs in China were detected using GC/MS system. The PAH concentrations were in the range of 5.51–70.9 ng g–1 for 16 CFPPs with individual block power capacity as 600 MW (IBPC-600), significantly lower than 886–916 ng g–1 for 2 CFPPs with IBPC as 200 and 300 MW (IBPC-200/300). Both PAH and PCB congeners for 18 CFPPs were dominated by low molecular weight ones. The 3- and 2-ring PAHs, di-, tri- and tetra-PCBs were the predominant homologs. PAH profiles for 16 CFPPs with IBPC-600 were significantly different from other industrial stacks based on higher coefficients of divergence. The BaP-based toxic equivalency (BaPeq) concentration and BaP-based equivalent carcinogenic power (BaPE) for 16 CFPPs with IBPC-600 were 0.834 ng g–1 and 0.570, much lower than corresponding 20.5 ng g–1 and 15.4 for 2 CFPPs with IBPC-200/300. No difference existed for Σ86PCBs between CPFFs with IBPC-600 and -200/300, which ranged from 9.60 to 32.1 ng g–1. Higher mean carcinogenic PAH concentrations for 2 CFPPs with IBPC-200/300 and PCBs-TEQ concentration for 18 CFPPs indicated the application of CFAs as soil amendment should be prohibited. The PAH concentrations for 18 CFPPs were well correlated with the total organic carbon (TOC) values, while PCB concentrations showed not this trend, indicated the different formation mechanism between PCBs and PAHs.
The Study of the Antioxidant Activity of Oil Extracts from the Seeds of Two Sorts of Red Onion in Morocco

This work aims at study the antioxidant activity of oils extracted using hexane and ethanol from the seeds of two types of red onion in Morocco, using the method of trapping the free radical DPPH° (2,2-diphenyl- 1 picrylhydrazyl). This study was carried out by comparing it to a natural antioxidant ascorbic acid. Both ethanol extracted from the sample of Doukkala (EED) and sample Tetouan (EET) respectively show an effective concentration IC50 33.63 g / ml and 34. 20μg / ml compared to the IC50 ascorbic acid, which is 10.79 g / ml with a reaction time reaches equilibrium TEC50 in 5 minutes, while the effective concentrations of EHD and EHT extracts have as IC50 values 54. 40μg / ml and 57. 11μg / ml. These results were confirmed by calculating the percentage of the anti-radical efficiency which shows that the EED and EET extracts possess anti-radical efficiency 11% higher than the EHD and EHT extracts (5%) are six times lower than that of ascorbic acid (69%).
The study of radiation effects in emerging micro and nano electro mechanical systems (M and NEMs)

The potential of micro and nano electromechanical systems (M and NEMS) has expanded due to advances in materials and fabrication processes. A wide variety of materials are now being pursued and deployed for M and NEMS including silicon carbide (SiC), III–V materials, thin-film piezoelectric and ferroelectric, electro-optical and 2D atomic crystals such as graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). The miniaturization, functionality and low-power operation offered by these types of devices are attractive for many application areas including physical sciences, medical, space and military uses, where exposure to radiation is a reliability consideration. Understanding the impact of radiation on these materials and devices is necessary for applications in radiation environments.
Molecular approach to clarify taxonomy of powdery mildew on Chilli plants caused by Oidiopsis sicula in Thailand

Causal agent of powdery mildew on five chilli plants in Thailand viz.: Capsicum frutescens, C. annuum var. grossum, C. frutescens × C. chinense (Bhut Jolokia), Capsicum sp. (maxican chilli) and Capsicum sp. (darby chilli) has been identified as Oidiopsis sp. based on morphological data in Thailand. Molecular phylogenetic analysis indicated that the powdery mildew on Capsicum spp. is Oidiopsis sicula which supports the morphological data. This result confirmed that Oidiopsis sicula is linked to Leveillula taurica in teleomorph state. Maximum Parsimony tree showed that all sequence data are located in a clade consisted of Leveillula taurica, a fungal agent causing powdery mildew of Capsicum sp.
Food and Fluid Intake in Adolescent Female Judo Athletes before Competition

Judo is a weight-class sport, meaning that there are weight-defined classes in competitions. Regular body weight restrictions and/or nutritional imbalances can alter growth and maturation states in adolescents. The aim of the present study was to estimate to what extent female judo athletes (age 16.1 ± 0.3 years) modified food and drink intakes 3 weeks and 1 week before competition. Our findings indicate that unbalanced dietary intakes and “weight cutting” might occur in female adolescent competitors. We conclude that dietary recommendations are compulsory in order to educate coaches and young judokas about adequate nutrition and safe weight control behaviors, as well as the dangers of rapid weight loss and dehydration during adolescence.
Phytochemical analysis, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations of selected phytoconstituents from four herbs as anti-dotes for snake bites

The Irula community constitutes a small tribal community living in different parts of India and their main occupation is snake catching. They have rich knowledge about medicinal plants and their uses against various ailments. Snake bites are the common acute medical emergency faced by rural people. Even though Anti Venom Serum (AVS) is used as a remedy for snake bites in hospitals and in primary health centres, the rural people still depend on antidotes from medicinal plants. To counter the emergencies due to snake bites, the plants/parts of the plants are used alone or in combinations with other plants to make anti-dotes. The survey reports thirty traditional medicinal plants which are used by Irula against snake bites. These plants must contain some compounds responsible for snake venom inhibition. Venom neutralization or anti-inflammatory properties of the compounds identified from these plants have not been reported. Our present study reports the phytochemical analysis of the extracts from four plants which are commonly found and some of these compounds are identified as anti-inflammatory agents. Screened compounds are chosen for finding the binding affinity with PLA2 targets using the commercial Schrodinger software. Molecular Dynamics simulations were also carried out for the most favourable compounds and stability was checked upto 50ns. Correspondence to: D. Velmurugan, UGC-BSR Faculty, CAS in Crystallography and Biophysics, University of Madras, Chennai-25. E-mail: shirai2011@gmail.com
New Real Evaluation Study of Rpl Routing Protocol Based on Cortex M3 Nodes of Iot-Lab Test Bed

RPL is a routing protocol for low power and lossy networks. It is an extensible proactive IPv6 distance vector protocol, which is a brand new proposed standard for including low power and lossy networks in the global realm of IPv6 networks. RPL has been implemented and tested in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) simulations with up to a thousand nodes. Recently, some of the research process has studied the operation of the protocol experimentally in small networks, which is not enough to illustrate the whole features of RPL. So, it is important to implement real large scenarios. In this paper, a new real evaluation study conducted in a large intensive test bed composed of more than 2728 wireless sensors nodes. Around 150 nodes tested the RPL characteristics and behavior on cortex M3-nodes giving a variety and intensive analysis. The results confirmed the stability of path length in dense networks with important control packet overhead while reduced packet delivery ratio. This work is a part of RPLstandardization process.
Subdirect products of rings and distributive lattices

Rings and distributive lattices can both be considered as semirings with commutative regular addition. Within this framework we can consider subdirect products of rings and distributive lattices. We may also require that the semirings with these restrictions are regarded as algebras with two binary operations and the unary operation of additive inversion (within the additive subgroup of the semiring). We can also consider distributive lattices with the two binary operations and the identity mapping as the unary operation. This makes it possible to speak of the join of ring varieties and distributive lattices. We restrict the ring varieties in order that their join with distributive lattices consist only of subdirect products. In certain cases these subdirect products can be obtained via a general construction of semirings by means of rings and distributive lattices.
The Effectiveness of a Brief Self-Compassion Intervention Program on Self-Compassion, Positive and Negative Affect and Life Satisfaction

Self-compassion (Neff, 2003b) is a newly developed construct of positive psychology while a plethora of studies has highlighted its beneficial outcomes on people’s psychological prosperity. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of a brief self-compassion training program on self-compassion, life satisfaction and positive and negative affect as well as to contribute new knowledge by investigating whether changes in self-compassion can significantly predict changes in positive affect. A sample of 42 students of Social Sciences, randomly assigned to either the intervention (N = 20) or the control group (N = 22) group where the first group participated in a psycho-educational training program aiming to train them to be more self-compassionate in challenging situations whilst the control group received no training. The results that revealed through the three different questionnaires (Self-Compassion Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale and Positive and Negative Affect Scale) that both groups completed before and after the completion of the program, showed that the intervention group indeed indicated increases in self-compassion, life satisfaction as well as positive affect scores and decrease in negative affect scores, compared to the control group which reported no changes. Furthermore, participants’ increases in self-compassion levels strongly predicted increases in positive affect levels, meaning that those who are high self-compassionate have also high positive affect. These findings suggest the importance of self-compassion on psychological well-being, testing through the implementation of specific intervention programs. Other possible implications and recommendations for future research are also considered.
Majorana fermions at the edge of superconducting islands

We investigate the properties of electron states localized at the edge of a superconducting island placed on the surface of a topological insulator in a magnetic field. In such systems, Majorana fermions emerge if an odd number of vortices (or odd multivortex vorticity) is hosted by the island; otherwise, no Majorana states exist. Majorana states emerge in pairs: one state is localized near the vortex core, and another at the island edge. We analyze in detail the robustness of Majorana fermions at the edge of the island threaded by a single vortex. If the system parameters are optimized, the energy gap between the Majorana fermion and the first excited state at the edge is of the order of the superconducting gap induced on the surface of the topological insulator. The stability of the Majorana fermion state against a variation of the gate voltage and its sensitivity to the magnetic field allows one to experimentally distinguish the edge Majorana fermion from conventional Dirac fermions.
The value of performing dual-source dual-energy computed tomography in analysis strategy for urinary mixed stone

The aim of this study was to characterize and explore the mixed urinary stones by using Dual-Source Dual-Energy Computed Tomography (DSDECT) in vitro. Study scanned 134 human pure and mixed stones that were embedded into fresh porcine kidneys. Image analysis of these stones gave us the mean attenuation values in Hounsfield units (HU) and dual-energy index (DEI) at 80 kVp and 140 kVp. The mean of attenuation values, dualenergy and DEI were statistically different between uric acid (UA) containing and other stones, including mixed stones. For mixed stone, COX/UA and COX/PH had significantly difference in DEI (P<0.05), and the HU of 80 kVp, 140 kVp, and dual-energy were significantly different among COX/PH and PH/UA groups. The 80 kVp HU, 140 kVp HU and dual energy HU were significantly higher in COX/PH group compared with PH/UA group (1316.31 vs 813.23, 717.60 vs 440.03, 951.49 vs 557.38, respectively). The value of 80 kVp HU, 140 kVp HU and dual energy HU in COX/ UA was 1052.54, 704.12, 802.94 respectively. DSDECT was precise in the differentiation of UA-containing stones and gave promising results for mixed stones of different types.
Onset of Convection in Porous Medium Saturated by Viscoelastic Nanoﬂuid: More Realistic Result

The present paper deals with the linear thermal instability analysis of viscoelastic nanofluid saturated porous layer. We consider a set of new boundary conditions for the nanoparticle fraction, which is physically more realistic. The new boundary condition is based on the assumption that the nanoparticle fraction adjusts itself so that the nanoparticle flux is zero on the boundaries. We use Oldroyd-B type viscoelastic fluid that incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. Expressions for stationary and oscillatory modes of convection have been obtained in terms of the Rayleigh number, which are found to be functions of various parameters. The numerical results have been presented through graphs.