Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fuzzy Empowered Cognitive Spatial Relation Identification and Semantic Action Recognition

Automatic labeling of the action held by the players in a live-in sports video is the main motivation of this paper. In this paper, we proposed a fuzzy-based action recognition system from a basketball sports image. This paper deals with the intellectual sports event action recognition from a live video stream. It required an intelligent system which would automatically and semantically label the action in the videos through machine understandability concept. The machine knowledge can be feed through the domain ontology of particular sports event. The major required component for this kind of system is an efficient image analysis component and automation action labelling component. The image is labelled using Type-2 Fuzzy set concept.
Investigation on the offshore wind energy potential over the north western Mediterranean sea in a regional climate system model

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy resources worldwide. The estimation of the wind resources depends on the atmospheric circulation data retrieved from meteorological observations or regional climate models outputs. These models provide weather and climate data over specific domains and over time periods where few or no observations exist. In this work we evaluate the sensitivity of the offshore wind to the horizontal resolution of the regional climate model (WRF) and to the air-sea interactions over the north western Mediterranean sea. Comparisons between different model configurations allowed us to highlight the complexity of the interactions between the atmospheric circulation, the local topography and the sea surface. Results show that the simulated wind potential energy is very sensitive to the model configuration which can modify substantially its space-time variability.
Two Na+ Sites Control Conformational Change in a Neurotransmitter Transporter Homolog*

In LeuT, a prokaryotic homolog of neurotransmitter transporters, Na+ stabilizes outward-open conformational states. We examined how each of the two LeuT Na+ binding sites contributes to Na+-dependent closure of the cytoplasmic pathway using biochemical and biophysical assays of conformation. Mutating either of two residues that contribute to the Na2 site completely prevented cytoplasmic closure in response to Na+, suggesting that Na2 is essential for this conformational change, whereas Na1 mutants retained Na+ responsiveness. However, mutation of Na1 residues also influenced the Na+-dependent conformational change in ways that varied depending on the position mutated. Computational analyses suggest those mutants influence the ability of Na1 binding to hydrate the substrate pathway and perturb an interaction network leading to the extracellular gate. Overall, the results demonstrate that occupation of Na2 stabilizes outward-facing conformations presumably through a direct interaction between Na+ and transmembrane helices 1 and 8, whereas Na+ binding at Na1 influences conformational change through a network of intermediary interactions. The results also provide evidence that N-terminal release and helix motions represent distinct steps in cytoplasmic pathway opening.
Lipid Remodeling of Murine Epididymosomes and Spermatozoa During Epididymal Maturation1

Abstract We have isolated vesicular structures from mouse epididymal fluid, referred to as epididymosomes. Epididymosomes have a roughly spherical aspect and a bilayer membrane, and they are heterogeneous in size and content. They originate from the epididymal epithelium, notably from the caput region, and are emitted in the epididymal lumen by way of apocrine secretion. We characterized their membranous lipid profiles in caput and cauda epididymidal fluid samples and found that epididymosomes were particularly rich in sphingomyelin (SM) and arachidonic acid. The proportion of SM increased markedly during epididymal transit and represented half the total phospholipids in cauda epididymidal epididymosomes. The cholesterol:phospholipid ratio increased from 0.26 in the caput to 0.48 in the cauda epididymidis. Measures of epididymosomal membrane anisotropy revealed that epididymosomes became more rigid during epididymal transit, in agreement with their lipid composition. In addition, we have characterized the membrane lipid pattern of murine epididymal spermatozoa during their maturation. Here, we have shown that mouse epididymal spermatozoa were distinguished by high percentages of SM and polyunsaturated membranous fatty acids (PUFAs), principally represented by arachidonic, docosapentanoic, and docosahexanoic acids. Both SM and PUFA increased throughout the epididymal tract. In particular, we observed a threefold rise in the ratio of docosapentanoic acid. Epididymal spermatozoa had a constant cholesterol:phospholipid ratio (average, 0.30) during epididymal transit. These data suggest that in contrast with epididymosomes, spermatozoal membranes seem to become more fluid during epididymal maturation.
Immunological investments reflect parasite abundance in island populations of Darwin's finches

The evolution of parasite resistance can be influenced by the abundance of parasites in the environment. However, it is yet unresolved whether vertebrates change their investment in immune function in response to variation in parasite abundance. Here, we compare parasite abundance in four populations of small ground finches (Geospiza fuliginosa) in the Galapagos archipelago. We predicted that populations exposed to high parasite loads should invest more in immune defence, or alternatively use a different immunological defence strategy. We found that parasite prevalence and/or infection intensity increased with island size. As predicted, birds on large islands had increased concentrations of natural antibodies and mounted a strong specific antibody response faster than birds on smaller islands. By contrast, the magnitude of cell–mediated immune responses decreased with increasing parasite pressure, i.e. on larger islands. The data support the hypothesis that investments into the immune defence are influenced by parasite–mediated selection. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that different immunological defence strategies are optimal in parasite–rich and parasite–poor environments.
Dual-Mode Transmissive Metasurface and Its Applications in Multibeam Transmitarray

A novel triple-layer dual-mode meta-atom wherein an H-shaped structure is combined with a pair of symmetric patches is proposed. The composite structure substantially lowered the operation frequency, and balanced phase agility with transmission magnitude bandwidth. The transmission phase limit of the proposed composite structure approaches the theoretical limit. Because this structure has appealing features, we employed a set of these ultrathin meta-atoms to implement the phase distribution of an optimized array using the alternating projection method. An X-band single-feed quad-beam transmitarray consisting of $25 \times 25$ elements, each carefully designed to exhibit the desired transmission phase, was designed, simulated, physically implemented, and measured. Feeding the meta-array using a horn at its focus, four-beam radiation patterns with satisfactory sidelobe levels and gain were numerically and experimentally demonstrated. The peak gain was found to be 18.8 dB at 9.6 GHz, and the aperture efficiency was calculated as 38.3%. Moreover, the half-power beamwidth of the array antenna was approximately 7°, which was 50° narrower than that of a bare feed horn. Moreover, the gain of each beam was higher than 17 dB in all studied cases, which was at least 7 dB higher than that of a bare feed horn.
Influence of photoactivation protocol and light guide distance on conversion and microleakage of composite restorations.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effect of light guide distance and the different photoactivation methods on the degree of conversion (DC) and microleakage of a composite. METHODS AND MATERIALS Three photoactivation protocols (600 mW/cm2 x 40 seconds; 400 mW/cm2 x 60 seconds or 200 mW/cm2 x 20 seconds, followed by 500 mW/cm2 x 40 seconds) and three distances from the light source (0, 3 or 7 mm) were tested. Cylindrical specimens (5 mm diameter; 2 mm tall; n=3) were prepared for the DC test (FT-Raman). Class V cavities were made in 90 bovine incisors to conduct the microleakage test. The specimens were conditioned for 15 seconds with phosphoric acid (37%), followed by application of the adhesive system Prime & Bond NT (Dentsply/Caulk). The preparations were restored in bulk. The specimens were stored for 24 hours in distilled water (37 degrees C) before being submitted to the silver-nitrate microleakage protocol. The restorations were sectioned and analyzed under 25x magnification. RESULTS Statistical analyses (two-way ANOVAs and Tukey test, alpha=0.05) found significance only for the factor distance (p=0.015) at the top of the composite for the DC test. Conversion was statistically lower for the 7 mm groups compared to the 0 and 3 mm groups, which were equivalent to each other. At the bottom of the specimens, none of the factors or interactions was significant (p<0.05). The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that, in general, the soft-start method led to lower microleakage scores when compared to the continuous modes, mainly when associated with a distancing of 7 mm (p<0.01). With the exception of specimens irradiated with 400 mW/cm2 that did not demonstrate variations on scores for the distances tested, higher microleakage was observed for shorter distances from the light source. CONCLUSIONS Soft-start methods may reduce microleakage when the light guide distancing provides a low level of irradiance, which also causes a discrete reduction in the DC.
PATPro: Power Aware Thin Provisioning of Resources in Virtualized Servers

In traditional virtualization systems Virtual Machines (VMs) are usually over-provisioned for guarantying peak performance of hosting applications and thus waste a lot of computing resources. Although virtual machine consolidation can save power consumptions, it also increases the power intensity in a rack and makes the servers more prone to failures. It also increases the probability of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) violations under constrained power budget. Due to the autonomy, workload dynamics and performance requirements of Virtual Machines, it is nontrivial to tradeoff between the power and performance in virtualized servers. In this paper, we proposed a power aware thin provisioning approach for resource allocation, named PATPro, to coordinate and tradeoff the power and performance among multiple virtual machines. In order to provide enough information about power characteristics of individual VM and applications, we use agent for real time power collection and workload characterization. We evaluated our algorithm in a real virtualization environment with 8 VMs. The results show that the proposed approach can save 5.41% to 6.33% power consumption to provide the same performance in applications including computing-intensive, I/O intensive and hybrid workloads such as web servers and database operations. The results also show the potential of our approach to be used in real virtualized environments.
Rob’s Robot: Current and Future Challenges for Humanoid Robots

The purpose of this chapter is both to review the current state of the art in robotics and to identify some of the challenges that the field has yet to face. This is done and illustrated by following an imaginary roboticist, Rob, who is currently designing a new humanoid robot from scratch. Rob’s ultimate vision is that this robot will be humanoid in the sense that it possesses the abilities of a human being. Therefore, his initial aim is to identify relevant work as well as areas in which innovations are still needed. Research in robotics has come a long way in the last few decades, whether one considers humanoids specifically or just any type of architecture. The world is increasingly moving away from being confined to industrial robots with precisely programmed movement plans and is beginning to include adaptive robots that can robustly operate in a variety of scenarios as well as robots that show increasing levels of cognitive abilities and intelligence. We have witnessed an increasing collaboration between research areas that, previously, had very little in common. Nowadays, it is not difficult to find research groups uniting neuroscientists, engineers, psychologists, linguists, even philosophers and musicians, all coming together to study the human body as well as the human mind. There is thus plenty of previous work that Rob can build upon when designing his robot. At the same time, it is clear that the field is still a long way from creating truly human-like machines and that there are thus significant challenges to overcome. In this chapter, we first provide a brief history of humanoid robotics research since it sets the background to Rob’s work. We then present the state of the art in the different components of a robot, hardware as well as software, discussed in contrast with Rob’s requirements and highlighting particular areas in which further research is needed before Rob’s robot can become reality.
Quantification of ammonia oxidation rates and ammonia‐oxidizing archaea and bacteria at high resolution in the Gulf of California and eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean

Ammonia‐oxidizing microorganisms compete with phytoplankton for reduced nitrogen in the euphotic zone and provide oxidized nitrogen to other microbes present in the sea. We report 15NH4+ oxidation rate measurements made at 5–20‐m resolution using an in situ array and quantification of ammonia‐oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia‐oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in corresponding samples from the upper water column and oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) of the Gulf of California (GOC) and eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean (ETNP). 15NH4+ oxidation rates varied substantially with depth and between stations: they were greatest at the base of the euphotic zone, and maximum rates were up to 28‐fold greater than rates measured within 5–10 m. Pyrosequencing and quantitative polymerase chain reactions (QPCR) indicated that AOA were present throughout the water column at all latitudes and always outnumbered AOB. AOB constituted only 39 of 432,240 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequences produced via pyrosequencing but were more abundant at greater depths and higher latitudes. 15NH4+ oxidation rates were correlated with AOA abundance at some stations and were detectable in 96% of samples, including depths where oxygen concentrations were < 5 µmol kg−1 and depths within the euphotic zone, where up to 42% of ammonia oxidation occurred. Ammonia is rapidly oxidized within discrete depth intervals in the GOC and ETNP; while pyrosequencing and QPCR demonstrate that AOB are confined to deeper portions of the water column, AOA appear to be active within the euphotic zone, where they may quickly respond to nitrogen inputs.
New K-nearest neighbor searching algorithm based on angular similarity

The k-nearest searching algorithm (KNNS) is widely used in the high dimension space. However, current KNNS use Euclidean distance to index dataset and retrieve the search object, which is not suitable for those applications based on angular similarity. In this paper, the angular similarity based on KNNS (AS-KNNS) is proposed. AS-KNNS firstly proposes the index structure (AS-INDEX) based on angular similarity, which refers to the axis and a reference-line to organize the dataset into some shell-hyper-cone, and it linearly stores them. Then it determines the storage location for the search object, making a hyper-cone which takes the line connecting the origin point and the search object as the axis, and searches the hyper-cone for k-nearest neighbors of the search object. The experiment shows that the performance of AS-KNNS is superior to those other KNNS.
Evaluation of Parlor Cleaning as an Intervention for Decreased Occupational Exposure to Dust and Endotoxin Among Dairy Parlor Workers—A Pilot Study

Agreater prevalence of respiratory symptoms has been observed among workers involved in animal production compared to other farmers and rural residents. (1) In addition, respiratory diseases such as byssinosis,(2) asthma,(3) allergic alveolitis,(4) chronic bronchitis,(5) and the organic dust toxic syndrome (ODTS)(6) have been reported among workers in the animal feed industry, slaughterhouses, compost facilities, and other agriculture-related industries. (7) Respiratory hazards such as organic dust, microorganisms, fungi, molds, and endotoxin are common in the dairy industry. (8) Exposure to organic dust and endotoxin may lead to pulmonary inflammation among dairy parlor workers. (9–11) Organic dusts are associated with intensive livestock operations, such as dairy, swine, and poultry production; however differences in the components of these organic dusts have been reported. (12,13) A substantial amount of work has evaluated the effects of organic dust exposure among swine workers, whereas less is known about these exposures among dairy parlor workers. (13–16) Sources of organic dust on dairy farms include feed/hay grinding and animal sources, such as hair and feces. (17) Little information is available on the impact of these exposures among workers in the dairy industry. However, a few studies have demonstrated an association of dust and endotoxin exposure with markers of lung inflammation among dairy parlor workers. (9,12,18) The primary task of dairy parlor workers is to milk the cows. Cows are moved through the parlor building using workers to guide the animals as well as mechanical gating systems. Cows enter the parlor on an elevated platform for milking. Cows are typically milked three times a day over a series of three 8-hr shifts. (19) The walkways and other surfaces that come into contact with the animals become soiled with animal waste. Workers use an automated cleaning system to remove animal waste from the parlor surfaces. Therefore, increasing the frequency in which these walkways and other surfaces are cleaned may reduce the concentration of aerosolized dust and endotoxin in the milking parlor. Parlor workers spend their work shift in proximity to cows and animal waste, which may be sources of inhalation exposure to organic dust and endotoxin. Therefore, these workers may be more exposed to inflammatory agents, as organic dust and endotoxin, compared to other workers on the dairy farm. The objective of our study was to assess occupational exposure to dust and endotoxin among dairy parlor workers. This study also evaluated the effectiveness of increasing the frequency of cleaning the dairy parlor surfaces on dust and endotoxin inhalation exposure among parlor workers.
Comparison of Hurdle Treatment and Thermal Treatment on Ascorbic Acid and Total Phenolic Content of Winter Melon Puree Stored at Different Temperature

Winter Melon (WM) is an important fruit in China, India, Philippines and elsewhere in Asia and due to its perishable characteristic it is a necessity to process it into a puree form. Hence in this study, WM fruit was processed into puree and hurdle technology (HT) treatment was compared with traditional thermal treatment (TT) to see the effect on Ascorbic acid (AAC) and Total Phenolic (TPC) content stored at different temperatures for 6 months of storage. HT WMP was adjusted to pH 3 using citric acid while for TT WMP was prepared by heating at 84. 5⁰C for 94 seconds. Both treated WMP were stored at 25⁰C, 5⁰C and -20⁰C and were analyzed at 1 months storage intervals till 6 months. AAC test was conducted using 2, 6- dichlorophenol-indophenol titration method and TPC was determine by using Folin-Ciocalteu. A gradual decrease in AAC and TPC were observed during storage for both treatments. These changes were more pronounced at 25⁰C storage for both treatments (P < 0.05), however, TT shows high reduction of AAC and TPC (P < 0.05) at 0 months throughout 6 months of storage as compared to HT. Overall, WMP for HT stored at 5⁰C and -20⁰C shows lowest reduction for AAC and TPC for the last 6 months of storage. By processing WM into puree, it will be more convenient to use especially by the food manufacturer. In contrast to traditional TT for common fruits puree preparation, HT could imply new opportunities for WMP in developing value-added product with reasonable shelf life.
Saturated fatty Acid–Induced Insulin Resistance in Rat Adipocytes

Palmitate has been shown to stimulate glucose transport, translocation of GLUT4 and insulin receptor autophosphorylation in isolated rat adipocytes (Biochem Biophys Res Commun 177:343–49, 1991). Here we further characterize the ability of short-term treatment with free fatty acids to stimulate glucose transport in isolated rat adipocytes and demonstrate that prolonged treatment induces insulin resistance. Treatment of adipocytes for 15 min with 1 mM myristate (14:0), palmitate (16:0), or stearate (18:0) stimulates glucose transport by 119 ± 33, 89 ± 29, and 114 ± 30%, respectively. In contrast, oleate (cis 18:1), 1), elaidate (trans 18:1), and linoleate (cis 18:2) do not stimulate glucose transport. Palmitate stimulates glucose transport in a concentration-dependent manner, demonstrating saturation at 1 mM and half-maximal stimulation at 0.25–0.5 mM. Prolonged treatment (4 h) of rat adipocytes with 1 mM palmitate induces insulin resistance. After a 4-h preincubation with palmitate (1 mM), insulin stimulates glucose transport in rat adipocytes by 4.4-fold ± 0.8, vs. 8.8-fold ± 0.8 in controls (n = 3). Palmitate-induced resistant cells demonstrated a 40% inhibition in maximal insulin responsiveness with little change in insulin sensitivity. Insulin binding is only slightly decreased (8%) in palmitate-pretreated cells. These studies indicate that saturated fatty acids stimulate glucose transport acutely and on prolonged exposure induce insulin resistance via a post-insulin binding defect. The underlying molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance induced by prolonged treatment with saturated fatty acids may now be investigated using this unique cellular model.
Baseline single-flow TCP results for TEACUP v 0 . 4 . 5 testbed

Abstract—This technical report summarises a basic set of single-flow TCP experiments designed to confirm correct operation of our TEACUP testbed under teacup-v0.4. 5 using pfifo (tail-drop) queue management at the bottleneck router. We document plausibly correct behaviour of FreeBSD’s NewReno, Cubic and CDG, Linux’s NewReno and CUBIC and Windows 7’s default TCP. We do not attempt to make any meaningful comparisons between the tested TCP algorithms.