Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Source Apportionment for Water Soluble Organic Matter of Submicron Aerosol: A Comparison between Foggy and Nonfoggy Episodes

An extensive filter-based ambient aerosol measurement was carried out at a region that is mostly affected by fog almost every winter. A few fogwater samples were also collected during the study period. Water soluble organic matter (WSOM) was extracted in the aqueous media. The filter extracts and fogwater were analyzed for their chemical constituents using a High Resolution-Time of Flight-Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS). Data from the HR-ToF-AMS were used in positive matrix factorization (PMF) for the source apportionment to understand the sources of WSOM. Three major sources were identified, namely water soluble biomass burning organic aerosol (WS-BBOA), water soluble oxygenated organic aerosol (WS-OOA), and water soluble primary aerosol (WS-PA). The contributions of WS-BBOA and WS-OOA to WSOM were lower during foggy episodes than during clear (nonfoggy) episodes. The wet scavenging and removal of the aerosols from these sources were the prime causes of their lower contributions. The contribution of WS-PA to WSOM was higher during foggy episodes than during nonfoggy episodes. The higher contribution of this source is attributed to the accumulation of aerosol generated from this source, due to poor dispersion and the calm conditions prevalent during foggy episodes. Surprisingly, the contribution of WS-PA to WSOM was highest among the three sources during both foggy and nonfoggy episodes.
Vulnerability Analysis of Urban Agriculture Projects: A Case Study of Community and Entrepreneurial Gardens in the Netherlands and Switzerland

We identified the main challenges and perturbations faced when an urban agriculture (UA) project is established. The analysis was based on a vulnerability and resilience framework. Perturbations stemming from biophysical factors did not have a decisive impact on the continuity of UA projects. Perturbations related to socio‐institutional factors were the most threatening to the continuity of UA projects. Our case studies give an insight in potential perturbations and responses by UA projects in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The Monetary Policy Committee's Reaction Function: An Exercise in Estimation

Abstract Owing to lags in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, central banks put much weight on forecasts of the future paths of output and inflation. So there has been considerable recent interest in forward-looking Taylor-type reaction functions. Using publicly available data on the Monetary Policy Committee’s forecasts for UK inflation and output growth, 1997-2003, we examine how the coefficients in such reaction functions changed as we switched between ex post forecasts – those published after, and incorporating, the preceding interest rate decision – and ex ante forecasts – those presented to the MPC before that decision – and also as we vary the (forecast) horizon, out to eight quarters ahead. In our data set, the coefficients vary sensitively as the horizon/forecast basis changes. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the MPC tried aggressively to eliminate any predicted, ex ante, deviation of inflation from target immediately it emerged, with no apparent indication of intended inertia, or gradualism, in response. Nevertheless the time path of official short term interest rates during these years shows the usual record of consecutive similarly-signed small steps.
STRUCTURAL MODELLING OF REVERSIBLE PHOTODARKENING IN a-AsxSe

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. STRUCTURAL MODELLING OF REVERSIBLE PHOTODARKENING IN a-AsxSe R. Grigorovici, A. Vancu
Apocynin Exerts Dose-Dependent Cardioprotective Effects by Attenuating Reactive Oxygen Species in Ischemia/Reperfusion

Ischemia/reperfusion results in cardiac contractile dysfunction and cell death partly due to increased reactive oxygen species and decreased endothelial-derived nitric oxide bioavailability. NADPH oxidase normally produces reactive oxygen species to facilitate cell signalling and differentiation; however, excessive release of such species following ischemia exacerbates cell death. Thus, administration of an NADPH oxidase inhibitor, apocynin, may preserve cardiac function and reduce infarct size following ischemia. Apocynin dose-dependently (40 μM, 400 μM and 1 mM) attenuated leukocyte superoxide release by 87 ± 7%. Apocynin was also given to isolated perfused hearts after ischemia, with infarct size decreasing to 39 ± 7% (40 μM), 28 ± 4% (400 μM; p < 0.01) and 29 ± 6% (1 mM; p < 0.01), versus the control’s 46 ± 2%. This decrease correlated with improved final post-reperfusion left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, which decreased from 60 ± 5% in control hearts to 56 ± 5% (40 μM), 43 ± 4% (400 μM; p < 0.01) and 48 ± 5% (1 mM; p < 0.05), compared to baseline. Functionally, apocynin (13.7 mg/kg, I.V.) significantly reduced H2O2 by nearly four-fold and increased endothelial-derived nitric oxide bioavailability by nearly four-fold during reperfusion compared to controls (p < 0.01), which was confirmed in in vivo rat hind limb ischemia/reperfusion models. These results suggest that apocynin attenuates ischemia/reperfusion-induced cardiac contractile dysfunction and infarct size by inhibiting reactive oxygen species release from NADPH oxidase.
EFFECT OF ENSILING RED CLOVER-RYEGRASS USING BLENDS OF HOMO-AND HETEROFERMENTATIVE LACTIC ACID BACTERIA ON FERMENTATION CHARACTERISTICS, AEROBIC STABILITY AND HYGIENIC PARAMETERS

The second cut of a second-year red clover (Trifolium pretense L.) and perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) mixture (50:50 on fresh weight basis; 265 g dry matter kg -1 ) was ensiled in 3.0 litre laboratory bottles. The forage was ensiled (I) without additive, and (I1) with homo-and heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria (LAB) blend (L. plantarum, E. faecium and L. buchneri) or (I2) homofermentative LAB blend (E. faecium, L. lactis, L. plantarum). Application rates of the additives I1 and I2 were 250 000 cfu g -1 and 150 000 cfu g -1 fresh forage weight respectively. Both inoculants significantly increased dry matter content and retained significantly higher water-soluble carbohydrates compared to the uninoculated controls. Bacterial blends I1 and I2 had a positive effect on red clover-ryegrass silages with significantly lower pH and shifting fermentation toward lactic acid with homofermentative LAB (I2) or toward acetic acid with homo-and heterofermentative LAB (I1). Both inoculated silages had significantly lower ammonia-N, butyric acid, alcohols concentrations and in-silo DM loss. The application of both the additives was sufficient to inhibit clostridia, yeast and moulds growth and increased silages aerobic stability.
Identifying Bad Leverage Points in Logistic Regression Model Based on Robust Deviance Components

High leverage points are outliers in X variables. In logistic regression, high leverage points can either be good or bad leverage points but bad leverage points cause severe inferential effect. Diagnostic methods such as Distance from the Mean and Robust Logistic Diagnostic are some recent diagnostic tools used to identify high leverage points. These methods take into account the distance in X without determining whether these high leverage points are good or bad. Therefore, in this study we propose a diagnostic method to identify only the bad leverage points. This new detection method is based on deviance components and is referred as Robust Deviance Component (robDEVC) method. Numerical example and simulation study show that the proposed method always ensures only the bad leverage points are correctly identified. Key-Words: Logistic regression, High leverage, Bad leverage, Deviance Residuals
Mimicking water striders’ legs superhydrophobicity and buoyancy with cabbage leaves and nanotube carpets

In this work, we have studied the superhydrophobicity and buoyancy of two types of nanostructured surfaces: the cabbage leaf and a vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) carpet. The wettability of these surfaces were characterized by contact angle, tilting angle, sliding volume and sliding speed measurements. The results were correlated to the related surface topologies, which were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Buoyancy of different surfaces has been investigated through measurements of the forces acting on the surface. Finally, we demonstrate that cabbage leaves and VACNT carpets have some common features with the water strider’s leg, better understanding the mechanisms of buoyancy related to the structural shape and size of natural or artificial nanostructures.
Do Multinational Banks Create or Destroy Economic Value?

Multinational banks are a distinctive feature of today's globalized economy, with some institutions now operating in more than 100 countries. Despite the thorough analyses of bank internationalization over the last decades, the literature has failed to provide clear evidence that crossborder expansion is a profitable process from a firm's perspective. Following the long tradition of the analyses of the costs and benefits of focusing or diversifying the activities of a firm, in this paper we provide an answer to the question of whether bank cross-border diversification is value enhancing, comparing the value of internationally diversified commercial banks with that of more domestically focused intermediaries. Adapting the methodology of Laeven and Levine (2007), we measure a bank's excess value as the difference between its Tobin's q and the benchmark of multinational banks, and relate it to the degree of international diversification of its activities. In a large sample of more than 500 banks from 56 countries between 2001 and 2007, we find evidence of a statistically and economically significant diversification premium, that is robust to the use of different definitions of diversification, to the possible effects of outliers, and to controlling for potential endogeneity problems. Our results shown that the benefits of scale and scope economies generated by multinational banks more than offset the typical agency costs of managing larger and more complex companies, thus providing a strong rationale for the rapid growth in banks' international activities during the last couple of decades.
Protecting SGX Enclaves From Practical Side-Channel Attacks

Numerous recent works have experimentally shown that Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) are vulnerable to cache timing and page table side-channel attacks which could be used to circumvent the data confidentiality guarantees provided by SGX. Existing mechanisms that protect against these attacks either incur high execution costs, are ineffective against certain attack variants, or require significant code modifications. We present Varys, a system that protects unmodified programs running in SGX enclaves from cache timing and page table side-channel attacks. Varys takes a pragmatic approach of strict reservation of physical cores to security-sensitive threads, thereby preventing the attacker from accessing shared CPU resources during enclave execution. The key challenge that we are addressing is that of maintaining the core reservation in the presence of an untrusted OS. Varys fully protects against all L1/L2 cache timing attacks and significantly raises the bar for page table sidechannel attacks—all with only 15% overhead on average for Phoenix and PARSEC benchmarks. Additionally, we propose a set of minor hardware extensions that hold the potential to extend Varys’ security guarantees to L3 cache and further improve its performance.
Positioning Performance of LTE Signals in Rician Fading Environments Exploiting Antenna Motion

A navigation framework based on a multi-state constraint Kalman filter (MSCKF) is proposed to reduce the effect of time-correlated pseudorange measurement noise of cellular long-term evolution (LTE) signals. The proposed MSCKF navigation framework uses a tightly-coupled inertial navigation system (INS) aided by pseudoranges to multiple eNodeBs to estimate the position of the receiver along with the difference of the clock bias of the receiver and each of the eNodeBs. Simulation results with a Rician fading channel multipath environment are presented showing a reduction of 44.31% in the two-dimensional (2D) position root mean squared-error (RMSE) using the proposed approach compared to an extended Kalman filter (EKF) approach. Experimental results on a ground vehicle navigating in an urban environment are presented showing a 2D RMSE of 6.05 m over a trajectory of 1380 m using the proposed approach. The results show a reduction of 48% in the 2D position RMSE and 50% in the 3D position RMSE using the proposed framework compared to an EKF.
In situ analysis of the spatial distribution of methanogenic Archaea in the anoxic sediment of Lake Rotsee

Anoxic sediments and soils are the natural habitat for the strict anaerobic methanogenic Archaea, which can be detected ubiquitously. Methanogens play a significant role in carbon mineralization, nutrient recycling and the emission of the trace gas CH4. The current study aimed to characterize the dynamics of methanogens in the anoxic sediment of lake Rotsee. Therefore in situ hybridization was used to quantify the spatial ditribution of methanogens, besides total Bacteria and Archaea, throughout the upper 10 cm of a sediment core. The results were compared with the methane profile from corresponding depths.
Keeping an eye on gestures: Visual perception of gestures in face-to-face communication

Since listeners usually look at the speaker's face, gestural information has to be absorbed through peripheral visual perception. In the literature, it has been suggested that listeners look at gestures under certain circumstances: 1) when the articulation of the gesture is peripheral; 2) when the speech channel is insufficient for comprehension; and 3) when the speaker him- or herself indicates that the gesture is worthy of attention. The research here reported employs eye tracking techniques to study the perception of gestures in face-to-face interaction. The improved control over the listener's visual channel allows us to test the validity of the above claims. We present preliminary findings substantiating claims 1 and 3, and relate them to theoretical proposals in the literature and to the issue of how visual and cognitive attention are related.
Biochemical and genetic identification of Senegalese cattle breeds ( Artiodactyla : Bovidae )

In Senegal, the genetic improvement of cattle herd by crossbreeding between local cattle (Gobra, N’dama or Djakoré) and exotic breeds originated from Europe or Brasilia, has led to an uncontrolled dissemination of crossbreds throughout the country. And this fact may lead to a failure in the management of the local cattle genetic resources. Therefore, purebred and crossbred can no longer be distinguished one to another. The aim of this work was to analyze the variations of some serum biochemical markers and the partial Cytochrome B gene sequences in order to identify Senegalese cattle breeds. The biochemical analysis showed variations in total protein, albumin, cholesterol and magnesium concentration in the different breed’s sera. The sequencing of partial Cytochrome B gene revealed 22 haplotypes of supposed purebreds and crossbreds. A high haplotype diversity (Hd =1) was observed in each breed population. The intra – breed genetic distance among supposed pure N’dama from Santamba village, showed that 29% of the total genetic variability was due to sequence divergence between haplotypes of the same breed. A low genetic distance (D = 0.15) was distinguished between the assumed pure Gobra from Birkelane and Dahra localities. Different phylogenetic trees were constructed and revealed that only the local breed Gobra was pure and the other N’dama and Djakoré were not pure. Moreover Senegalese cattle breeds had no direct relationship with European or Asian or American Bos taurus, Asian Bos indicus, Bos javanicus and Bos grunniens.
Control algorithm for echelon platoon based on a 2-spring virtual link

This paper presents a reactive multi-agent system for echelon platoon organization. Platoon systems are sets of vehicles that move together while keeping a predefined geometrical configuration without any material coupling. Each vehicle represents an autonomous agent that behaves based only on its own perceptions. The vehicle platoon organization problem consists in defining the algorithms to be executed by each vehicle embedded software, in order to maintain the desired platoon configuration during displacements. Platoon systems found in literature deal generally with column formations adapted to urban or highway transportation systems. Other formations such as line, echelon,. can be encountered in fields like agriculture and the military. In this paper, we focus on the platoon echelon formation. An approach based on a virtual vehicle-to-vehicle interaction model composed of two springs is proposed. Five different geometries of attachment of the considered model are proposed then compared in order to conclude about the more suitable one.
Molecular Detection of Bacterial and Viral PathogensÃ¢ÂÂWhere Do We Go FromHere?

Nucleic acid amplification tests (NATs) are rapidly becoming the cornerstone of clinical virology laboratories around the world. While polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification has served laboratories well since the 1990s, providing sensitive and specific tests to detect clinically important viruses, PCR tests have significant disadvantages as they are cumbersome, labor intensive, and relatively slow compared with newer isothermal amplification methods. Commercially available multiplex PCR tests have recently become popular and are being implemented in many laboratories. Following the introduction of the first isothermal amplification formats of the 1990s, newer isothermal methods have been developed including loop-mediated amplification (LAMP) or recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), which can yield results in as little as 10 to 20 minutes. Specimen preparation has now fallen behind advances in amplification technology with specimen preparation now taking longer than these newer isothermal amplification methods. Coupled with advances in amplicon detection employing microfluidics, biosensors and nanotechnology, these new isothermal amplification methods provide unique opportunities for the development of new laboratory-based tests and inexpensive, one-time use, point-of-care (POC) diagnostics.
Technical Embroidery for Smart Textiles: Review

Traditionally embroidery is known as a conventional technique of textile decoration. Since the niche of technical textiles is rapidly expanding and is the main field of innovation and research in textile and apparel industry, embroidery is found in a variety of new functional applications due to the unique opportunity of creating three-dimensional light-weight structures and laying threads on the base material in all directions. As the field of smart textiles is vast per se and is associated with technical textiles and wearable technologies, the main applications of the embroidery may be described accordingly as ones for technical applications. In the sphere of medical textiles, embroidery is a relatively new technique, but is successfully used for wound-dressing development and innovative solutions for tissue engineering due to the opportunity of creating three-dimensional structures from fine polymer materials. Another advantageous characteristic of goods developed by embroidery is dimensional stability of manufactured textile structures. Due to these particularities embroidery is used widely also for such technical applications as development of heating grids, shielding, conductive interconnections, intelligent textile sensors and interfaces etc. Moreover, a large variety of materials and threads can be used in prototyping by the technique, e.g., conductive threads, metal wires, laminated polymer and carbon fibers. One of the challenging sub-sectors of intelligent textiles and smart textiles for healthcare applications is the research and development of textile sensors for biometrics and measurement of physical parameters. Most of the mentioned biosensors are implemented by transferring the principles of conventional actuators to the textile structures.
Towards Context-Aware and Privacy-Sensitive Systems

Current global trends push enterprises to be increasingly efficient and flexible, and at the same time compliant with legislation regarding privacy, security, and transparency. The latest IoT (Internet-of-Things) developments offer opportunities for enterprises but at the same time those developments lead to an increased complexity with regard to the underlying software, this in turn leading to new risks. Hence, more advanced modeling methods and techniques may be necessary, especially in the area of enterprise information systems (often featured currently by enterprise-aligned IoT-enabled software systems), such that both the enterprise needs are captured (and understood) and software features are specified accordingly. We need a common modeling ground for this, allowing us to properly align enterprise modeling and software specification. Such a common ground can be co-created by enterprise engineers and software engineers, featuring: (a) technologyindependent enterprise models rooted in social theories; (b) technology-specific software models rooted in computing paradigms. An approach is needed on top of that because such an integrated enterprise-software modeling requires to be greased by modeling guidelines and notations, such that adequate modeling generations and transformations are possible. This means that taking as input unstructured business information, we should be able to usefully apply a modeling and design process, such that we come through enterprise models and reach as far as the specification and implementation of software. We argue that an existing approach has those capabilities, namely the approach SDBC (Software Derived from Business Components). Hence, we adopt SDBC in the current research. Further, we have opted for an explicit consideration of context-awareness and privacy, claiming their relevance with regard to some current IoTrelated demands (mentioned above). Nevertheless, it has not yet been extensively studied how SDBC can be used for modeling software systems with requirements on those properties. For this reason, we aim at enriching the SDBC-rooted enterprise-modeling-driven software specification, by weaving in contextawareness and privacy enforcement. We partially demonstrate our proposed way of modeling, by means of a case example featuring land border security.