Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phlebotomine sandflies and leishmaniasis risks in Colombian coffee plantations under two systems of cultivation

Abstract. The phlebotomine sandfly fauna of traditional (shaded) and intensified (unshaded) coffee plantations in Colombia was sampled by a variety of methods and the species composition and density under the two systems compared. Twenty species of Lutzomyia sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) were collected, of which eight were found only in the ‘Coffee Axis’ (‘Eje Cafetero’) of the departments of Caldas, Risaralda and Quindio, six were exclusive to the department of Norte de Santander and six occurred in both regions. Four species were collected only in traditional plantations and two exclusively in intensified ones. At least 13 species occurred in both plantation types. Fifteen species are opportunistic man‐biters and eight are suspected vectors of leishmaniasis caused by Le. braziliensis, Le. panamensis or Le. mexicana. Seven species were collected inside houses and may be involved in intradomiciliary transmission of Leishmania. The dominant species in Norte de Santander was Lu. spinicrassa, which made up 93.8% of all the sandflies collected in this department. This species was absent from the Eje Cafetero and a number of others among the 15 recorded there might be responsible for Leishmania transmission in this region, including Lu. trapidoi, Lu. yuilli, Lu. gomezi, L. hartmanni and Lu. ovallesi. Sandfly population densities were significantly higher in traditional plantations than in intensified ones. Residents of traditional plantations were able to describe sandflies in significantly more detail than those of intensified plantations, based on seven basic characteristics related to the appearance and biting behaviour of the insects.
Sea-level, topographical and sediment supply controls on Holocene sediment composition in the Humber Estuary, UK

To increase our understanding of the relative control of antecedent topography, sediment supply and sea-level change on grain size and organic content in the Humber Estuary, the composition of its Holocene fill over space and time has been evaluated. A model based-upon bed-by-bed description of over 3500 boreholes was sub-horizontally ‘sliced’ to analyse the composition of sediments in different parts of the estuary across the entire fill, as well as solely within estuary marginal sequences. Results demonstrate that different physiographic parts of the estuary are characterized by distinctive vertical sediment profiles that reflect the relative control of antecedent topography as well as sea-level upon them. The results raise questions about the processes controlling sand and gravel abundance in marginal sequences, where the estuary is physiographically most constrained. This semi-quantitative evaluation, the first of its kind on an estuarine fill, provides a technique for interpreting the relative importance of controls on an estuarine system, but highlights the need for improved modelling of estuarine channel form and dynamics over centurial to millennial time-scales.
In Vivo Pharmacodynamic Assays for M2 and M3 Muscarinic Receptors

M2 and M3 muscarinic receptor subtypes are attractive drug targets for the treatment of pulmonary and urological disorders. Described in this unit is an in vivo pithed rat assay for estimating agonist and antagonist potency at M2 and M3 receptors. In the pithed rat, the muscarinic agonist methacholine induces reduction in heart rate (bradycardia) and blood pressure (depressor response) through interaction with M2 and M3 receptors, respectively. The dissociation of the peripheral and central nervous system in the pithed rat preparation permits the direct assessment of compound effects on the heart and vasculature in the absence of cardiovascular reflexes. Estimates of antagonist potency can be reliably established by quantifying the shift in the agonist dose‐effect curve produced under appropriate equilibrium or non‐equilibrium conditions. Curr. Protoc. Pharmacol. 48:12.13. 1‐12.13. 10. © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Atlas: Understanding What Makes Systems Engineers Effective in the U.S. Defense Community

Atlas is a theory of what makes systems engineers effective. The primary data to date on which Atlas is based comes from the U.S. defense community, but indications are that the theory is applicable to other business sectors as well. Based primarily on qualitative analysis of interviews with 287 individuals from 20 organizations in the DoD, defense industrial base, and commercial industry, Atlas identifies the key characteristics of systems engineers, explains what promotes and inhibits their effectiveness, and identifies how organizations are attempting to improve effectiveness of their systems engineering workforce.
Minimax optimal control of stochastic uncertain systems with relative entropy constraints

Considers a class of discrete time stochastic uncertain systems in which the uncertainty is described by a constraint on the relative entropy between a nominal noise distribution and the perturbed noise distribution. The paper solves problems of worst case robust performance analysis and output feedback minimax optimal controller synthesis in a general nonlinear setting. Specializing these results to the linear case leads to a minimax LQG optimal controller.
Building façades reconstruction using multi-view tomosar point clouds

Rich scatterer information retrieved by very high resolution SAR tomography using multiple data stacks from different viewing angles enables us to generate 4D point clouds of the illuminated area from space. They can be potentially used for facade reconstruction and deformation monitoring in urban environment. In this paper, we propose an approach for façade detection and reconstruction from such point clouds. Firstly, the building façade points are extracted from the point density projected onto the ground plane. The extracted façade points are segmented into corresponding individual façades by means of orientation analysis. Surface (flat or curved) model parameters of the segmented building façades are further estimated. Finally, the elevation estimate of each raw TomoSAR point is refined by using its more accurate azimuth and range coordinates, and the corresponding reconstructed surface model of the façade. The proposed approach is illustrated and validated by examples using fused TomoSAR point clouds generated from two stacks of TerraSAR-X high spotlight images from both ascending and descending orbits.
DSP-based multiple peak power tracking for expandable power system

A DSP-based improved maximum power point tracking (MPPT) approach for multiple solar array application is presented. It incorporates a "shared bus" current sharing method that can regulate many paralleled current mode DC/DC converters. The modular architecture eases the expansion of system power. The current sharing and MPPT performance of the proposed system is validated and evaluated by a 500 W prototype with two solar arrays.
Biotin Uptake by Rabbit Corneal Epithelial Cells: Role of Sodium-Dependent Multivitamin Transporter (SMVT)

Purpose: The objective of this research was to investigate the presence of sodium-dependent multivitamin transporter (SMVT) on rabbit corneal epithelial cells. Methods: Primary cultured rabbit corneal epithelial cells (rPCECs)and freshly excised rabbit corneas were used for characterization of biotin uptake and transport, respectively. Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to confirm the molecular identity of SMVT. Liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis was performed to examine the presence of biotin in rabbit tears. Results: Uptake of biotin by rPCECs was found to be time and concentration dependent with Km of 32.52 μ M and Vmax of 10.43 pmol min− 1 mg protein− 1. Biotin was significantly inhibited in the presence of pantothenic acid and lipoic acid. Biotin uptake was found to be energy and Na+ dependent but H+ and Cl− independent. The uptake was inhibited by valeric acid in a concentration-dependent manner but not much affected in the presence of biotin methyl ester and biocytin with no free carboxyl group. Modulators of both PKC- and PKA-mediated pathways had no effect on biotin uptake, but calcium-calmodulin inhibitor significantly inhibited its uptake. Sodium-dependent multivitamin transporter was identified by RT-PCR in rPCECs. Transport experiments across the rabbit corneas revealed the functional localization of SMVT on the apical side of the cornea, and thereby corroborating with in vitro results with cultured corneal cells. Finally, LC-MS/MS analysis showed the presence of biotin in rabbit tears. Conclusions: Results obtained from both in vitro and ex vivo studies suggest the possible role of SMVT expressed on corneal epithelial cells for the uptake of biotin, which co-transports pantothenic acid and lipoic acid. Further, the presence of biotin in tears suggests the physiological significance of this transporter in rabbit corneal epithelium.
Adaptive Bit And Power-Loading For Multicast OFDM Transmissions In Rayleigh Fading Channels

Adaptive modulation techniques (bit/power- loading) allow great optimisation of spectral efficiency, power consumption and error rates in wireless multicarrier systems. However, multicast transmissions complicate their implementation as there is no longer one single channel to optimize the transmission for. In this paper, a new approach to loading for OFDM on wireless multicast systems is proposed. We show that a great performance enhancement can be expected in ideal conditions. After deriving an upper bound for the error rate in these conditions, we study the performance degradation occurring with imperfect channel state information.
Template‐directed patterning of polymers and biomaterials

A novel method of patterning surfaces with synthetic or biological polymers is demonstrated. It consists of using microcontact printing to pattern a gold surface with an adsorbate that imparts hydrophilicity; the remainder of the surface is covered with one that imparts hydrophobicity. 16‐Mercaptohexadecanoic acid (MHDA) and 1H,1H,2H,2H‐perfluorodecanethiol, respectively, have been used as the hydrophilic and hydrophobic adsorbates. This functionalized gold surface then serves as a template for patterning hydrophilic polymers and biomaterials, which are either spin‐coated or drop‐cast onto the surface. Using this methodology, it is shown by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and fluorescence microscopy that micron‐scale patterns of a poly(ethylene)‐block‐poly(ethylene oxide) copolymer, poly‐L‐tryptophan, and bovine collagen can be fabricated, with these mimicking the MHDA patterns. For the block copolymer, it is found by atomic force microscopy that the heights of the polymer patterns decrease as their widths decrease. This is believed to be due to the inherent instability of tall, narrow polymer structures and the tendency of the polymer to minimize its exposed surface area. For poly‐L‐tryptophan, two different molecular weights of this polyamino acid have been studied, and different morphologies within the patterned regions are observed. While oligomeric poly‐L‐tryptophan (1,000–5,000 g/mol) gives smooth MHDA‐covered patterns, the higher molecular weight (15,000–50,000 g/mol) yields fibrous ones. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Design-specific supply and threshold voltage optimization in nanometer era

With the scaling of VLSI technology and increase in leakage power, energy efficiency emerges as a design principle. This paper presents a methodology for constrained based optimization of energy-delay and finding the optimal associated supply and threshold voltages. These constraints are maximum temperature, maximum delay, EDP, and leakage to dynamic power ratio. Moreover, three methods for the continuous nonlinear optimization are compared where the problem is linearized in order to reduce the execution time. The methodology is illustrated for optimization of the energy delay product (EDP) subject to the design constraints but it is also applicable to other design metrics such as power-delay product (PDP) and power energy product (PEP). The results have been verified in 90 nm technology using Cadence Spectre simulator.
Contribution géostatistique au traitement des données sismiques

Comment concilier un determinisme impose par des lois physiques avec un alea du a la complexite de la nature ? Cette question, classique en sciences de la terre, est d'actualite chez les geophysiciens. La presente these tente d'y repondre en deux etapes. D'abord en linearisant les equations de propagation des ondes en milieux perturbes, ensuite en faisant appel a des techniques classiques de la geostatistique. Cette methodologie permet d'envisager: d'une part l'inversion de parametres statistiques du champ de vitesses a partir des temps d'arrivee, d'autre part la simulation des erreurs de migration lors de la localisation d'un reflecteur. Ces methodes sont validees sur des donnees synthetiques
The Natural Gradient as a control signal for a humanoid robot

This paper presents Natural Gradient Control (NGC), a control algorithm that efficiently estimates and applies the natural gradient for high-degree of freedom robotic control. In contrast to the standard task Jacobian, the natural gradient follows the direction of steepest descent with respect to a parameterized model with extra degrees of freedom injected. This procedure enables NGC to maneuver smoothly in regions where the task Jacobian is ill-conditioned or singular. NGC efficiently estimates the natural gradient using only forward kinematics evaluations. This sampling-based algorithm prevents the need for gradient calculations and therefore allows great flexibility in the cost functions. Experiments show NGC can even use statistics of rendered images as part of the cost function, which would be impossible with traditional inverse kinematics approaches. The advantages of NGC are shown on the full 41-degree upper body of an iCub humanoid, in simulation and on a real robot, and compared to a Jacobian-based controller. Experiments show that the natural gradient is robust and avoids common pitfalls such as local minima and slow convergence, which often affects the application of Jacobian-based methods. Demonstrations on the iCub show that NGC is a practical method that can be used for complex movements.
Excitation-contraction coupling and extracellular calcium transients in rabbit atrium: reconstruction of basic cellular mechanisms

Interactions of electrogenic sodium-calcium exchange, calcium channel and sarcoplasmic reticulum in the mammalian heart have been explored by simulation of extracellular calcium transients measured with tetramethylmurexide in rabbit atrium. The approach has been to use the simplest possible formulations of these mechanisms, which together with a minimum number of additional mechanisms allow reconstruction of action potentials, intracellular calcium transients and extracellular calcium transients. A 3:1 sodium-calcium exchange stoichiometry is assumed. Calcium-channel inactivation is assumed to take place by a voltage-dependent mechanism, which is accelerated by a rise in intracellular calcium; intracellular calcium release becomes a major physiological regulator of calcium influx via calcium channels. A calcium release mechanism is assumed, which is both calcium- and voltage-sensitive, and which undergoes prolonged inactivation. 200 μm cytosolic calcium buffer is assumed. For most simulations only instantaneous potassium conductances are simulated so as to study the other mechanisms independently of time- and calcium-dependent outward current. Thus, the model reconstructs extracellular calcium transients and typical action-potential configuration changes during steady-state and non-steady-state stimulation from the mechanisms directly involved in trans-sarcolemmal calcium movements. The model predicts relatively small trans-sarcolemmal calcium movements during regular stimulation (ca. 2 μmol kg-1 fresh mass per excitation); calcium current is fully activated within 2 ms of excitation, inactivation is substantially complete within 30 ms, and sodium-calcium exchange significantly resists repolarization from approximately -30 mV. Net calcium movements many times larger are possible during non-steady-state stimulation. Long action potentials at premature excitations or after inhibition of calcium release can be supported almost exclusively by calcium current (net calcium influx 5-30 μmol kg-1 fresh mass); action potentials during potentiated post stimulatory contractions can be supported almost exclusively by sodium-calcium exchange (net calcium efflux 4-20 μmol kg-1 fresh mass). Large calcium movements between the extracellular space and the sarcoplasmic reticulum can take place through the cytosol with virtually no contractile activation. The simulations provide integrated explanations of electrical activity, contractile function and trans-sarcolemmal calcium movements, which were outside the explanatory range of previous models.
A new method for rotor time constant tuning in indirect field oriented control

A novel adaptive controller for correction of the rotor time constant necessary for the calculation of the slip frequency in indirect field-oriented control of induction machines has been investigated and implemented. The implementation of the controller is based on the machine airgap field flux, which is measured by detecting the third harmonic component of the stator phase voltages. the adaptive controller depends only on a single, easily measurable machine parameter estimate, namely the magnetizing inductance. A correction strategy to compensate for changes of the magnetizing inductance when changes in the airgap flux level occur is also proposed. This strategy is based on a function that relates the value of this inductance to the amplitude of the third harmonic stator voltage component. This controller does not require any sensors in the airgap of the machine, nor does it require complex computations of machine parameters. Only access to the stator neutral connection is necessary to measure the airgap flux. Verification of the validity and feasibility of the technique is obtained from simulation and preliminary experimental results. <<ETX>>
Semantic Similarity Calculation with Multi-Information

Text similarity has a relatively wide range of applications in many fields, such as intelligent information retrieval, question answering system, text rechecking, machine translation, and so on. The text similarity computing based on the meaning has been used more widely in the similarity computing of the words and phrase. Using the knowledge structure of the <HowNet> and its method of knowledge description, taking into account the other factor and weight that influenced similarity, making full use of depth and density of the Concept-Sememe tree, an improved method of Chinese word similarity calculation based on semantic distance was provided in this paper. Finally the effectiveness of this method was verified by the simulation results.
Design, implementation and analysis of algorithms on multi-core systems

It was the main task of this thesis to analyze, design and implement a parallel version of a classical sequential algorithms. We have in this thesis selected to parallelize the classical sequential algorithm Push Relabel, using the general parallelization procedure described in [11]. Several different implementations, with or without heuristics, has been considered and tested against each other to get the most efficient algorithm for solving the maximum ow problem. The Push Relabel algorithm has been discussed and parallelized in previous studies (e.g. [2] and [3]), but they utilize the programming language C to implement the actual algorithms. Our thesis differs from previous studies by implementing the algorithms using the widely used object-oriented programming language Java. The main focus of the thesis is therefore not only to develop a parallel implementation of the Push Relabel algorithm but also to study the affect of using the parallelization tools available in Java. Our implementation also differs from earlier studies by being optimized and tested on public available multi-core computers instead of high-end supercomputers. All developed algorithms has been tested against reference implementations of other well known sequential algorithms, and for testing-purposes, three graph generators has been developed and implemented. The graph generators are inspired by graphs used in previous studies [10] and graphs used in the DIMACS implementation challenges [7]. The developed algorithms performs well in practice, and results in running time decreases proportional to the number of CPU cores. We have, however, discovered that the performance of the algorithms varies a lot depending on the operating system and Java version.
High-frequency sequential decimal multipliers

Multiplication, as one of the four basic operations embedded in arithmetic processors, is nowadays experiencing being spotlighted by the hardware designers involved in the revived decimal arithmetic. The decimal hardware units usually employ the sequential implementation for this operation, due to the high area cost of the parallel decimal multipliers. However, the main drawback of this iterative method is in regard to its high latency. This paper, with the intention of ameliorating this problem, proposes a high-frequency sequential decimal multiplier. The cycle time of the proposed multiplier is determined by a decimal carry-save adder which is about 22% less than that of the fastest previous design.
Enhancing Event-Based Semantics in the Ontology of Picture Books 2

Picture Books 2 generates fable-like stories for children age 6 to 8 years old based on an input picture comprising of three scenes. Currently the system is able to generate stories that show transitions and movement of characters and objects across the adjacent scenes of the input picture. However some of the stories produced are illogical. This study explores an approach to enhancing the ontology structure and the reasoning engine of the system to produce stories that follow a logical flow.
Mouse Cumulus-Denuded Oocytes Restore Developmental Capacity Completely When Matured with Optimal Supplementation of Cysteamine, Cystine, and Cumulus Cells1

Our objectives were to study how cysteamine, cystine, and cumulus cells (CCs), as well as oocytes interact to increase oocyte intracellular glutathione (GSH) and thereby to establish an efficient in vitro maturation system for cumulus-denuded oocytes (DOs). Using M16 that contained no thiol as maturation medium, we showed that when supplemented alone, neither cystine nor cysteamine promoted GSH synthesis of mouse DOs, but they did when used together. Although goat CCs required either cysteamine or cystine to promote GSH synthesis, mouse CCs required both. In the presence of cystine, goat CCs produced cysteine but mouse CCs did not. Cysteamine reduced cystine to cysteine in cell-free M16. When TCM-199 that contained 83 μM cystine was used as maturation medium, supplementation with cysteamine alone had no effect, but supplementation with 100 μM cysteamine and 200 μM cystine increased blastulation of DOs matured with CC coculture to a level as high as achieved in cumulus-surrounded oocytes (COCs). Similar numbers of young were produced after two-cell embryos from mouse COCs or CC-cocultured DOs matured with optimal thiol supplementation were transferred to pseudopregnant recipients. It is concluded that 1) mouse CCs can use neither cysteamine nor cystine to promote GSH synthesis, but goat CCs can use either one; 2) goat CCs promote mouse oocyte GSH synthesis by reducing cystine to cysteine, but how they use cysteamine requires further investigation; and 3) mouse DOs can use neither cystine nor cysteamine for GSH synthesis, but they restore developmental capacity completely when matured in the presence of optimum supplementation of cysteamine, cystine, and CCs.