Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Etude des generateurs de permutations pseudo-aleatoires bases sur le schema du d. E. S

Dans la partie i, on presente une nouvelle demonstration d'un resultat obtenu en 1988 par m. Luby et c. Rackoff sur les generateurs de permutations bases sur le schema du d. E. S. On met ainsi en lumiere d'importantes proprietes de base de ces generateurs. Dans la partie ii, les principaux nouveaux resultats obtenus sont les suivants: 1) il est possible d'obtenir un generateur de permutations pseudo-aleatoires avec trois passes du schema du d. E. S. Et une unique fonction aleatoire; 2) il est possible d'obtenir un generateur de permutations super pseudo-aleatoires avec quatre passes du schema du d. E. S. Et une unique fonction aleatoire. Ces resultats sont optimaux. Dans la partie iii on observe finement ce qui se passe lorsque l'on augmente le nombre de passes. On observe alors une decroissance exponentielle de la probabilite de distinguer les permutations generees de permutations aleatoires. Enfin, la partie iv, independante des autres, indique comment casser la fonction de hachage proposee par i. Damgard a crypto'89
Effects of a dressed quark-gluon vertex in pseudoscalar heavy-light mesons

Using a simple model in the context of the Dyson-Schwinger-Bethe-Salpeter approach, we investigate the effects of a dressed-quark-gluon vertex on pseudoscalar meson masses. In particular, we focus on the unequal-mass case and investigate heavy-light meson masses; in addition, we study the premise of the effective treatment of heavy quarks in our approach.
Effects of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors, Musculoskeletal Health, and Physical Fitness on Occupational Performance in Firefighters—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Firefighting is a strenuous occupation, which necessitates that firefighters stay in good physical condition and maintain adequate cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness to perform their duties with minimal health and safety risks. The aim of this review is to determine the effects of cardiovascular disease risk factors, musculoskeletal health, and physical fitness on the occupational performance of firefighters. Methods: PubMed/Medline, SCOPUS, Web of Science, EBSCOHost, and ScienceDirect were searched without time-restriction. The appraisal tool for cross-sectional studies and the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme toolkit were used to conduct the methodological assessment. Data were analyzed using Review Manager 5.3, and MedCalc® statistical software. Results: Age had a moderate effect on occupational performance (Z = 5.15, p < 0.001), whereas gender had a large effect size on occupational performance (Z = 4.24, p < 0.001). A significant moderate negative correlation was found between cardiorespiratory fitness and occupational performance (R = −0.584, p < 0.001). Significant low negative correlations were found between upper body endurance (R = −0.344, p < 0.001), abdominal endurance (R = −0.308, p < 0.001), grip strength (R = −0.421, p < 0.001), upper body strength (R = −0.318, p < 0.001), and lower body strength (R = −0.216, p = 0.020) and occupational performance. Conclusions: Aged firefighters with poor body composition and lower levels of physical fitness performed worse on all occupational performance tasks.
A new realization of quantum geometry

We construct in this article a new realization of quantum geometry, which is obtained by quantizing the recently-introduced flux formulation of loop quantum gravity. In this framework, the vacuum is peaked on flat connections, and states are built upon it by creating local curvature excitations. The inner product induces a discrete topology on the gauge group, which turns out to be an essential ingredient for the construction of a continuum limit Hilbert space. This leads to a representation of the full holonomy-flux algebra of loop quantum gravity which is unitarily-inequivalent to the one based on the Ashtekar–Isham–Lewandowski vacuum. It therefore provides a new notion of quantum geometry. We discuss how the spectra of geometric operators, including holonomy and area operators, are affected by this new quantization. In particular, we find that the area operator is bounded, and that there are two different ways in which the Barbero–Immirzi parameter can be taken into account. The methods introduced in this work open up new possibilities for investigating further realizations of quantum geometry based on different vacua.
Efficient and Stable Cephalometric Landmark Localization Using Two-Stage Heatmaps’ Regression

Cephalometry is commonly used as an integral component in orthodontic treatment and visual treatment objects (VTOs). Accurate and stable tissue landmarks’ localization is an essential precondition for orthodontic diagnosis and treatment. In practice, expert manual annotation is often time-consuming and subjective. Recent works based on deep learning have two approaches for automatic cephalometric assessment, namely, multimodel-and end-to-end model-based methods, leading to substantial differences in landmarks’ localization accuracy. The multimodel-based methods predict each landmark with higher localization accuracy, but they are complex, and their parameters have to be adjusted iteratively. The end-to-end models are both lightweight and efficient, and are able to predict all landmarks at once, but their localization accuracy is significantly lower than that of the multimodel-based methods. This article aims at rethinking the different natures among models and presents an effective solution for the low accuracy end-to-end model. On the one hand, we design a two-stage network architecture to improve the model representation ability. We found that the input image with high resolution and multistage strategy can effectively improve the localization accuracy of the model. Therefore, the former stage employs an HR-Net to output multiple-scale feature maps in parallel from high-resolution radiography images. The latter stage further refines the landmark location from the generated features. On the other hand, thanks to its spatial representation of landmark location, the network-based heatmap prediction has become a mainstream method for regressing the landmarks’ coordinates thanks. However, the decoding method of heatmap has not been studied in cephalometry. Thus, we propose an improved heatmaps’ decoding method that effectively reduces the landmarks’ localization error during training. Furthermore, experimental results show that our approach outperforms previous related works on a public dataset and yields state-of-the-art (SoTA) accuracy in cephalometric landmarks’ detection.
Data Analytics on Online Student Engagement Data for Academic Performance Modeling

In large MOOC cohorts, the sheer variance and volume of discussion forum posts can make it difficult for instructors to distinguish nuanced emotion in students, such as engagement levels or stress, purely from textual data. Sentiment analysis has been used to build student behavioral models to understand emotion, however, more recent research suggests that separating sentiment and stress into different measures could improve approaches. Detecting stress in a MOOC corpus is challenging as students may use language that does not conform to standard definitions, but new techniques like TensiStrength provide more nuanced measures of stress by considering it as a spectrum. In this work, we introduce an ensemble method that extracts feature categories of engagement, semantics and sentiment from an AdelaideX student dataset. Stacked and voting methods are used to compare performance measures on how accurately these features can predict student grades. The stacked method performed best across all measures, with our Random Forest baseline further demonstrating that negative sentiment and stress had little impact on academic results. As a secondary analysis, we explored whether stress among student posts increased in 2020 compared to 2019 due to COVID-19, but found no significant change. Importantly, our model indicates that there may be a relationship between features, which warrants future research.
Weighted Hardy spaces associated to operators and boundedness of singular integrals

Let $(X, d, \mu)$ be a space of homogeneous type, i.e. the measure $\mu$ satisfies doubling (volume) property with respect to the balls defined by the metric $d$. Let $L$ be a non-negative self-adjoint operator on $L^2(X)$. Assume that the semigroup of $L$ satisfies the Davies-Gaffney estimates. In this paper, we study the weighted Hardy spaces $H^p_{L,w}(X)$, $0 < p \le 1$, associated to the operator $L$ on the space $X$. We establish the atomic and the molecular characterizations of elements in $H^p_{L,w}(X)$. As applications, we obtain the boundedness on $\HL$ for the generalized Riesz transforms associated to $L$ and for the spectral multipliers of $L$.
Mundane Reasoning by Parallel Constraint Satisfaction

This thesis describes a frame system similar to KL-ONE, called micro-KLONE, for representing and reasoning about knowledge which may be incomplete or inconsistent. An unusual semantics appropriate to familiar situations is proposed. It is based on probabilistic sampling to find a single plausible model of the domain in order to answer a query. Correct answering of queries is intractable, so the implementation make two approximations in order to run quickly: (1) The underlying connectionist architecture is only large enough to represent partial models of the domain, and (2) the system is only allowed to search for a limited time, so it may not even find the best partial intepretation. Lacking a provably correct implementation, the usefulness of the system becomes an empirical question. The "Ted Turner" problem is presented as an example in which the system draws an interesting common sense conclusion to a counterfactual query.
A Comprehensive Analysis of LoRaWAN Key Security Models and Possible Attack Solutions

Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) is a wireless WAN technology that connects low-powered and low-bandwidth devices with low bit rates atop Long Ranges (LoRa). It is characterized by improved scalability, wide area coverage, and low power consumption, which are beneficial to resource-constrained devices on the Internet of Things (IoT) for effective communication and security. Security in Long-Range Wide-Area Networks (LoRaWAN) widely employs Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-bit symmetric encryption as the accepted security standard for a key generation that secures communication and entities. However, designing an efficient key manifestation and management model is still a challenge as different designs are based on different research objectives. To date, there is no global and well-accepted LoRaWAN security model for all applications. Thus, there is a need to continually improve the LoRaWAN security model. This paper, therefore, performed an in-depth analysis of some existing LoRaWAN key security models to identify security challenges affecting these security models and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed solutions. The goal is to improve some of the existing LoRaWAN security models by analysing and bringing together several challenges that affect them. Several relevant studies were collected and analysed; the analysis shows that though there are few research works in this area, several existing LoRaWAN security models are not immune to attacks. Symmetry encryption is found to be the most used approach to manage key security due to its less computational operations. Moreover, it is possible to improve existing key security models in LPWAN with consideration of the resource constrained. Again, trusted third parties for key management were also widely used to defend against possible attacks and minimize operational complexities. We, therefore, recommend the design of lightweight and less complex LPWAN security models to sustain the lifespan of LPWAN devices.
Local Rigidity of Partially Hyperbolic Actions: Solution of the General Problem via KAM Method

We consider a broad class of partially hyperbolic algebraic actions of higher-rank abelian groups. Those actions appear as restrictions of full Cartan actions on homogeneous spaces of Lie groups and their factors by compact subgroups of the centralizer. The common property of those actions is that hyperbolic directions generate the whole tangent space. For these actions we prove differentiable rigidity for perturbations of sufficiently high regularity. The method of proof is KAM type iteration scheme. The principal difference with previous work that used similar methods is very general nature of our proofs: the only tool from analysis on groups is exponential decay of matrix coefficients and no specific information about unitary representations is required.
Signal processing with alpha-stable distributions and applications

The Stable Distribution Symmetric Stable Random Processes Covariation and Conditional Expectation Parameter Estimates for Symmetric Stable Distributions Estimation of Covariations Parametric Models of Stable Processes Linear Theory of Stable Processes Symmetric Stable Models for Impulsive Noise Signal Detection in Stable Noise Current and Future Trends in Signal Processing with Alpha-Stable Distributions.
A Study on the Mechanism of Herbal Drug FDY003 for Colorectal Cancer Treatment by Employing Network Pharmacology

Colorectal cancer (CRC) originates from the uncontrolled growth of epithelial cells in the colon or rectum. Annually, 1.9 million new CRC cases are being reported, causing 0.9 million deaths worldwide. The suppressive effects of the herbal prescription FDY003, a mixture of Cordyceps militaris, Lonicera japonica Thunberg, and Artemisia capillaris Thunberg, against CRC have previously been reported. Nonetheless, the multiple compound-multiple target mechanisms of FDY003 in CRC cells have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we used network pharmacology (NP) to analyze the polypharmacological mechanisms of action of FDY003 in CRC treatment. FDY003 promoted the suppression of viability of CRC cells and strengthened their sensitivity to anticancer drugs. The NP study enabled the investigation of 17 pharmaceutical compounds and 90 CRC-related genes that were targets of the compounds. The gene ontology terms enriched with the CRC-related target genes of FDY003 were those involved in the control of a variety of phenotypes of CRC cells, for instance, the decision of apoptosis and survival, growth, stress response, and chemical response of cells. In addition, the targeted genes of FDY003 were further enriched in various Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways that coordinate crucial pathological processes of CRC; these are ErbB, focal adhesion, HIF-1, IL-17, MAPK, PD-L1/PD-1, PI3K-Akt, Ras, TNF, and VEGF pathways. The overall analysis results obtained from the NP methodology support the multiple-compound-multiple-target-multiple-pathway pharmacological features of FDY003 as a potential agent for CRC treatment.
Contribution of non-linear structure to the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich power spectrum

In the last two decades, a satisfactory standard cosmological model has been established. On the other side, a wealth of new precise data from various astronomical observations is becoming available, leading to increased interest in details of the CMB foreground physics. In this thesis we investigate a very promising foreground effect, the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effect, and calculate its contribution to the CMB power spectrum. The kSZ effect is due to the interaction of CMB photons with a moving structure between the observer and the surface of last scattering, such as a cluster of galaxies, that contains ionized gas and moves with a certain peculiar velocity. The strength of the effect is determined by both the non-linear density distribution of matter inside clusters and the peculiar velocity which is governed by the linearly perturbed matter density around them. We analyze the relative importance of the the linear and non-linear contributions to the kSZ considering only gravitational interactions. We find that the non-linear contribution significantly changes the power spectrum at very small scales, thus we believe including baryonic physics, which also governs the nonlinear evolution of the structures, is necessary. The effect of baryons is to redistribute matter toward the centres of halos, which can be dramatic when the baryon component is allowed to cool. We calculate this deviation as well as its impact on the kSZ CMB power spectrum.
VALUABLE, RARE, INIMITABLE, NON-SUBSTITUTABLE AND EXPLOITABLE (VRINE) RESOURCES ON COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

This study seeks to extend and advance knowledge and understanding of the RBV as a model conceptualized in literature. The study tested the relationship between VRINE resources and competitive advantage. It focused on how banks particularly those operating in a highly unstable economy with high degree of inconsistency in policy making and high competition use resources to realize competitive advantage. A quantitative survey research was done which focused on descriptive survey design to explore the relationship between selected independent and dependent variables. A sample size of 204 respondents consisting of CEOs and Directors, managers, supervisors and senior employees was used to gather data using a self-administered questionnaire. SPSS version 16 was used to analyze the data. The results of the study shows that resources that suit the VRINE criteria leads to competitive advantage. All the VRINE attributes showed a significant relationship with competitive advantage except for non-substitutability. The findings indicate that there is need for banks to modify resources to keep up with the market demands.
Effect of Feeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii CNCM I-1079 to Sows and Piglets on Piglets’ Immune Response after Vaccination against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae

Simple Summary The production of high-quality pigs starts with sow nutrition. In this study, we tested the effect of feeding the live yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii CNCM I-1079 to sows and their piglets on litter performance and some immunity parameters of piglets vaccinated against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Our results indicate that feeding lactating sows with the live yeast improves litter growth and weaning weight. For that reason, the pigs are likely better prepared for the challenges they are going to encounter after weaning. The piglets from supplemented sows show higher mucosal protection and less inflammation in the lung after the vaccine, explained by the gut–lung axis, which is defined as the cross-talk between the gut microbiota and the lung. Abstract The aim of this study was to assess the effect that feeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii CNCM I-1079 (LSB) to lactating sows and their progeny has on inflammatory response and mucosal immunity after vaccination against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. Sixty-seven Danbred sows were allotted into two treatments when they entered the farrowing room seven days before the expected farrowing date: control (CON: lactation diet) and LSB (CON + 12 × 109 colony forming units (CFU)/d until weaning). At weaning, piglets were equally allotted into two experimental diets according to sow diet: control (CON: 2-phase post-weaning diets) and LSB (CON + 2 × 109 CFU/kg and 1 × 109 CFU/kg in phases 1 and 2, respectively). The piglets were vaccinated at days 26 and 49 post-weaning. Growth performance and number of IgA producing cells and cytokine’s gene expression in lung, lymph node, and intestine samples at day 70 post-weaning were assessed and analyzed in SPSS Statistics 26: performance with a general linear model with sex, room, sow diet, piglet diet, and their interactions as main effects, and immunity with a Kruskal–Wallis test for k unrelated samples. Piglets from LSB-fed sows displayed a higher average daily gain (ADG; p < 0.01) and a heavier body weight (BW; p < 0.05) during lactation, tended (p < 0.1) to be heavier at day 49, and to have a higher ADG between days 26 and 49; had fewer number of IgA producing cells in the lymph node (p < 0.05); and all the cytokines studied were significantly under-regulated (p < 0.05) in the lung. It is concluded that feeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii CNCM I-1079 to sows improved piglet performance during lactation and showed a clear reduction in the inflammatory status of the lungs after vaccination against A. pleuropneumoniae, suggesting that there was a maternal imprinting effect on mucosal protection and a cross-talk between the gut microbiota and the lung.
The augmented multiplicative coalescent and critical dynamic random graph models

Random graph models with limited choice have been studied extensively with the goal of understanding the mechanism of the emergence of the giant component. One of the standard models are the Achlioptas random graph processes on a fixed set of $n$ vertices. Here at each step, one chooses two edges uniformly at random and then decides which one to add to the existing configuration according to some criterion. An important class of such rules are the bounded-size rules where for a fixed $K\geq 1$, all components of size greater than $K$ are treated equally. While a great deal of work has gone into analyzing the subcritical and supercritical regimes, the nature of the critical scaling window, the size and complexity (deviation from trees) of the components in the critical regime and nature of the merging dynamics has not been well understood. In this work we study such questions for general bounded-size rules. Our first main contribution is the construction of an extension of Aldous's standard multiplicative coalescent process which describes the asymptotic evolution of the vector of sizes and surplus of all components. We show that this process, referred to as the standard augmented multiplicative coalescent (AMC) is `nearly' Feller with a suitable topology on the state space. Our second main result proves the convergence of suitably scaled component size and surplus vector, for any bounded-size rule, to the standard AMC. The key ingredients here are a precise analysis of the asymptotic behavior of various susceptibility functions near criticality and certain bounds from [8], on the size of the largest component in the barely subcritical regime.