Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Network connectivity and area coverage for UAV fleet mobility model with energy constraint

Our main focus through the present paper is on developing an original distributed mobility model for autonomous fleet of interconnected UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) performing an area exploration mission. The UAVs, equipped with wireless ad-hoc capabilities, are required to optimally explore an area while maintaining connectivity with their neighboring UAVs and the base station. Because energy is a scarce resource, especially for UAVs, its wise management is quite beneficial for the network lifetime and mission success. Hence, the proposed mobility model, compared to other models in the literature, is the first to ever include the remaining energy level as decision criterion combined with area coverage and network connectivity. Based on these criterions and the information received from its neighbors, each UAV determines, using the information received from its neighbors, its next movement to be undertaken. The performances of the proposed approach are compared with those achieved through a randomized approach and a forces-based approach. Simulation results, using NS3, show that it outperforms the two other models in terms of coverage and connectivity.
Bristle-sensors—low-cost flexible passive dry EEG electrodes for neurofeedback and BCI applications

In this paper, we present a new, low-cost dry electrode for EEG that is made of flexible metal-coated polymer bristles. We examine various standard EEG paradigms, such as capturing occipital alpha rhythms, testing for event-related potentials in an auditory oddball paradigm and performing a sensory motor rhythm-based event-related (de-) synchronization paradigm to validate the performance of the novel electrodes in terms of signal quality. Our findings suggest that the dry electrodes that we developed result in high-quality EEG recordings and are thus suitable for a wide range of EEG studies and BCI applications. Furthermore, due to the flexibility of the novel electrodes, greater comfort is achieved in some subjects, this being essential for long-term use.
Inferring Demographic History from a Spectrum of Shared Haplotype Lengths

There has been much recent excitement about the use of genetics to elucidate ancestral history and demography. Whole genome data from humans and other species are revealing complex stories of divergence and admixture that were left undiscovered by previous smaller data sets. A central challenge is to estimate the timing of past admixture and divergence events, for example the time at which Neanderthals exchanged genetic material with humans and the time at which modern humans left Africa. Here, we present a method for using sequence data to jointly estimate the timing and magnitude of past admixture events, along with population divergence times and changes in effective population size. We infer demography from a collection of pairwise sequence alignments by summarizing their length distribution of tracts of identity by state (IBS) and maximizing an analytic composite likelihood derived from a Markovian coalescent approximation. Recent gene flow between populations leaves behind long tracts of identity by descent (IBD), and these tracts give our method power by influencing the distribution of shared IBS tracts. In simulated data, we accurately infer the timing and strength of admixture events, population size changes, and divergence times over a variety of ancient and recent time scales. Using the same technique, we analyze deeply sequenced trio parents from the 1000 Genomes project. The data show evidence of extensive gene flow between Africa and Europe after the time of divergence as well as substructure and gene flow among ancestral hominids. In particular, we infer that recent African-European gene flow and ancient ghost admixture into Europe are both necessary to explain the spectrum of IBS sharing in the trios, rejecting simpler models that contain less population structure.
Quantitative analysis of cluster-head selection for wireless sensor networks

The problem of power consumption in sensor data collection in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is considered in this paper. Since sensor nodes operate on batteries, power efficiency is a key issue in designing the network. The geographic deployment of sensor nodes is random, with an irregular network topology. In the existing clustering-based protocols for the WSN, the cluster-heads are usually selected at random, which may result in higher power consumption and shorter network lifetime. In this paper the position of cluster-head is an important factor for the network lifetime. Based on this observation, a non-random cluster-head selection scheme based on the concept of the center of mass in physics is proposed. The purpose of the scheme is to use minimal power in the process of data collection. It is shown that the proposed scheme can save up to 50% of power consumption.
Facilitating learning and change in the daily lives of stroke survivors: A comparative analysis of municipal stroke rehabilitation services in Norway and Denmark

Abstract Purpose: This study describes and compare the ability of professionals working in municipality stroke rehabilitation services to facilitate learning and change in the daily living of stroke survivors in two regions: one in northern Norway, the other central Denmark. Materials and Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with survivors 3 and 9 months after discharge from in-patient care. By contrast, field observations and focus group interviews were completed with professionals on multidisciplinary teams in the two regions. A sociocultural perspective on learning was applied during data analysis. Results: Altogether, the ability of municipal health services to facilitate learning and change for stroke survivors during the first year generally depended upon developing comprehensive integrated rehabilitation plans and ensuring access to coordinated, qualified multidisciplinary teams with professional knowledge and skills to support the survivors and their families during processes of adjustment, learning and change. However, Danish stroke survivors seemed positioned to be more active, proactive and empowered, and their processes of learning and change seemed more closely co-constructed with professional support. Conclusion: Findings reveal considerable differences in municipal stroke rehabilitation services in northern Norway and central Denmark and their ability to support stroke survivors in performing self-management.
Updated protocol for the examination of specimens from patients with carcinomas of the colon and rectum, excluding carcinoid tumors, lymphomas, sarcomas, and tumors of the vermiform appendix: a basis for checklists. Cancer Committee.

T protocol is intended to assist pathologists in providing clinically useful and relevant information as a result of the examination of surgical specimens. Use of this protocol is intended to be entirely voluntary. If equally valid protocols or similar documents are applicable, the pathologist is, of course, free to follow those authorities. Indeed, the ultimate judgment regarding the propriety of any specific procedure must be made by the physician in light of the individual circumstances presented by a specific patient or specimen. It should be understood that adherence to this protocol will not guarantee a successful result. Nevertheless, pathologists are urged to familiarize themselves with the document. Should a physician choose to deviate from the protocol based on the circumstances of a particular patient or specimen, the physician is advised to make a contemporaneous written notation of the reason for the procedure followed. The College recognizes that this document may be used by hospitals, attorneys, managed care organizations, insurance carriers, and other payers. However, the document was developed solely as a tool to assist pathologists in the diagnostic process by providing information that reflects the state of relevant medical knowledge at the time the protocol was first published. It was not developed for credentialing, litigation, or reimbursement purposes. The College cautions that any uses of the protocol for these purposes involve considerations that are beyond the scope of this document.
A Privacy-preserving Diffusion Strategy over Multitask Networks

We develop a privacy-preserving distributed strategy over multitask diffusion networks, where each agent is interested in not only improving its local inference performance via in-network cooperation, but also protecting its own individual task against privacy leakage. In the proposed strategy, at each time instant, each agent sends a noisy estimate, which is its local intermediate estimate corrupted by a zero-mean additive noise, to its neighboring agents. We derive a sufficient condition to determine the amount of noise to add to each agent’s intermediate estimate to achieve an optimal trade-off between the steady-state network mean-square-deviation and an inference privacy constraint. We show that the proposed noise powers are bounded and convergent, which leads to mean-square convergence of the proposed privacy-preserving multitask diffusion scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed strategy is able to balance the trade-off between estimation accuracy and privacy preservation.
High glucose concentration affects the oxidant‐antioxidant balance in cultured mouse podocytes

Hyperglycemia is well‐recognized and has long‐term complications in diabetes mellitus and diabetic nephropathy. In podocytes, the main component of the glomerular barrier, overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the presence of high glucose induces dysfunction and increases excretion of albumin in urine. This suggests an impaired antioxidant defense system has a role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. We studied expression of NAD(P)H oxidase subunits by Western blotting and immunofluorescence and the activities of the oxidant enzyme, NAD(P)H, and antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and catalase (CAT), in mouse podocytes cultured in a high glucose concentration (30 mM). We found long‐term (3 and 5 days) exposure of mouse podocytes to high glucose concentrations caused oxidative stress, as evidenced by increased expression of Nox4 and activities of NAD(P)H oxidase (Δ 182%) and SOD (Δ 39%) and decreased activities of GPx (Δ −40%) and CAT (Δ −35%). These biochemical changes were accompanied by a rise in intracellular ROS production and accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in extracellular space. The role of Nox4 in ROS generation was confirmed with Nox4 siRNA. In conclusion, high glucose concentration affects the oxidant–antioxidant balance in mouse podocytes, resulting in enhanced generation of superoxide anions and its attenuated metabolism. These observations suggest free radicals may play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. J. Cell. Biochem. 112: 1661–1672, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evaluación físico química de fruta de pitahaya (Selenicereus megalanthus) en diferentes estados de desarrollo

En esta investigación se evaluaron los cambios físicos y químicos que ocurren durante el crecimiento y maduración de la fruta llamada pitahaya. Utilizando la tabla de color de pitahaya amarilla (NTC-3554), se colectaron frutos en los seis estados de madurez (0 verde oscuro a 6 completamente amarillo) para evaluar el peso del fruto; mientras que para las variables porcentaje de pulpa y cáscara, firmeza de la pulpa (N), sólidos solubles (ºBrix), pH, acidez (%) y la evaluación sensorial de sabor y apariencia, se tomaron frutos solamente en dos estados (0 y 6). El porcentaje de cáscara disminuyó de 55.93 a 33.40 %; mientras que el de pulpa aumentó de 44.07 a 66.60 % entre el estado 0 y 6, respectivamente. El fruto al llegar al estado 6 presentó menor firmeza de pulpa (6.20 N), acidez titulable (0.14 %), y mayor contenido de sólidos solubles (20.74 ºBrix) y pH (4.86). Por otro lado, la prueba sensorial en los estados 0 y 6 fueron aceptados por el consumidor debido al alto contenido de grados Brix presentados en ambos estados.
Propagation Modes of an Electrical Discharge Along a Liquid Jet

This paper deals with the investigation of an electrical discharge propagated along a thin liquid jet. The propagation modes were studied. Three discharge areas were found out. The continuous degenerated glow discharge between an electrode and jet appeared at small current lower than ~5 mA and then transformed into a sliding surface pulse discharge propagated along the jet by increasing the current. The relative discharge pulse period was inversely proportional to the transit time for the jet. The surface discharge degenerated to an arc over the jet at a current above 20 mA. The surface discharge area was narrowed down at the increase of the electrical conductivity of liquid.
Succinate Dehydrogenase Is a Direct Target of Sirtuin 3 Deacetylase Activity

Background Sirtuins (SIRT1-7) are a family of NAD-dependent deacetylases and/or ADP-ribosyltransferases that are involved in metabolism, stress responses and longevity. SIRT3 is localized to mitochondria, where it deacetylates and activates a number of enzymes involved in fuel oxidation and energy production. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we performed a proteomic screen to identify SIRT3 interacting proteins and identified several subunits of complex II and V of the electron transport chain. Two subunits of complex II (also known as succinate dehydrogenase, or SDH), SDHA and SDHB, interacted specifically with SIRT3. Using mass spectrometry, we identified 13 acetylation sites on SDHA, including six novel acetylated residues. SDHA is hyperacetylated in SIRT3 KO mice and SIRT3 directly deacetylates SDHA in a NAD-dependent manner. Finally, we found that SIRT3 regulates SDH activity both in cells and in murine brown adipose tissue. Conclusions/Significance Our study identifies SDHA as a binding partner and substrate for SIRT3 deacetylase activity. SIRT3 loss results in decreased SDH enzyme activity, suggesting that SIRT3 may be an important physiological regulator of SDH activity.
Differences in distal lower extremity tissue masses and mass ratios exist in athletes of sports involving repetitive impacts

Abstract This study aimed to examine the effects of sex and sport on the tissue composition of the distal lower extremity of varsity athletes, in sports that involve repetitive-impact loading patterns. Fat mass, lean mass, bone mineral content and wobbling mass were predicted for the leg and leg + foot segments of varsity basketball, cross-country, soccer and volleyball athletes. The absolute masses were normalised to body mass, and also expressed relative to each other as ratios. Females and males differed on most normalised tissue masses and ratios by 11–101%. Characteristic differences were found in the normalised tissue masses across sports, with the lowest and highest values displayed by cross-country and volleyball (female)/basketball (male) athletes, respectively. Conversely, cross-country athletes had the highest wobbling mass:bone mineral content and lean mass:bone mineral content ratios for females by 10% and 16%, respectively. The differences between sports may be explained in part by different impact loading patterns characteristic of each sport. Tissue mass ratio differences between sports may suggest that the ratios of soft to rigid tissues are optimised by the body in response to typical loading patterns, and may therefore be useful in investigations of distal lower extremity injury mechanisms in athletes.
Notice of RetractionBoard independence, executive overconfidence and financial leverage

Based on the managerial overconfidence hypothesis in behavioral corporate finance,the paper studies the effect of executive confidence on corporate financing decisions. The empirical results indicate that there is an obvious positive correlation between executive overconfidence and capital structure, executive overconfidence can enhances corporate financial leverage ratio. But board independence can curb executive overconfidence,the more independent board is, the more restrained executive overconfidence is, and the positive relationship between executive overconfidence and financial leverage is much weaker.
Factors Related to Superior and Inferior Hemifield Defects in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma

Purpose We aimed to investigate factors related to superior and inferior hemifield defects in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Methods Sixty-seven subjects with newly diagnosed, untreated POAG underwent optical coherence tomography (OCT) of the disc area, macular ganglion cell complex (mGCC), and circumpapillary retinal nerve ﬁber layer (cpRNFL) thickness within 6 months of the visual field (VF) test. Based on the VF and OCT results, 40 subjects had a superior and 27 an inferior hemiﬁeld defect. Clinical data including visual acuity, refractive error, disc hemorrhage, VF indexes, and medical history were recorded. Results Average mGCC thickness corresponding to the defective hemifields was thinner in the superior VF defect group than in the inferior VF defect group (P=0.003). Average total deviation (TD) was comparable between the two groups. However, the superior VF defect group had a higher prevalence of defects (P=0.001) and lower TD (P=0.002) within central 5 degrees of VF than the inferior VF defect group. In multivariate regression analyses, the temporal-lower and inferior-temporal cpRNFL thicknesses were significant contributing factors to the inferior mGCC thickness in the superior VF defect group. In the inferior VF defect group, the disc area, family history of glaucoma, and temporal-upper cpRNFL thickness contributed to the superior mGCC thickness. Conclusion The inferior mGCC thickness corresponding to the superior hemifield defect group was significantly thinner than the superior mGCC thickness corresponding to the inferior hemifield defect group. The factors related to the reduction of the corresponding mGCC thickness may differ between superior VF defect and inferior VF defect groups.
An Efficient Design Space Exploration Methodology for On-Chip Multiprocessors Subject to Application-Specific Constraints

Multi-processor system on-chip (MPSoC) architectures represent an emerging paradigm for developing customized, application specific solutions meeting time-to-market, performance and power consumption constraints. Application-specific MPSoCs are usually designed by using a platform-based approach, where a wide range of customizable parameters must be tuned to find the best trade-offs in terms of the selected figures of merit (such as energy, delay and area). This optimization phase is called design space exploration (DSE) and it generally consists of a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem with multiple constraints. The design space for an application-specific MPSoC architecture consists of several parameters, mainly related to micro-architecture, memory hierarchy, and interconnection network. The total amount of possible architecture configurations is too large to be comprehensively evaluated. So far, several heuristic techniques have been proposed to address the DSE problem for MPSoC, but they are not efficient in handling constraints and identifying the Pareto front. In this paper, an efficient DSE methodology for application-specific MPSoC is proposed. The methodology combines design of experiments (DoEs) and response surface modeling (RSM) techniques to a new technique for handling system-level constraints. First, the DoE phase generates an initial plan of experiments used to create a coarse view of the target design space. Then, a set of RSM techniques are used to refine the exploration by exploiting application-specific constraints to identify the maximum number of feasible solutions. To trade-off accuracy and efficiency of the proposed techniques, a set of experimental results with actual workloads are reported in the paper.
Do State Growth Management Regulations Reduce Sprawl?

Thirteen states in the United States have adopted state growth management legislation that aims to preserve environmentally sensitive areas, improve the quality of urban areas, and reduce urban sprawl. Although there is a considerable amount of literature describing such policies, there is very little that examines the effectiveness of such policies. The author researched the efficacy of state growth management laws in controlling urban sprawl by examining the change in urban densities in 49 states over a 15-year period. He found that growth-managed states generally experienced a lesser density decline than states without growth management. However, regression analysis revealed that state growth management programs did not have a statistically significant effect in checking sprawl. The author concludes with several suggestions for modifying state regulations to curb sprawl more effectively.
The Role of Microsatellite Instability at Chromosome 11p15.5 in the Progression of Breast Ductal Carcinoma

The study of microsatellite instability (MSI) has provided the evidence to support asequential, progressive pathway for the development of cancer. In this study, we analyzed the role of MSI at chromosome 11p15.5 using microdissection of paraffin-embedded tissue from 68 matched normal and breast tumor samples. Components of intraductal, invasive and metastatic foci in lymph node were assessed for MSI using the polymorphic markers D11S922, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and D11S988. We found that MSI at D11S922 was relatively high incidence than other two markers and increased during breast cancer progression. The overall frequency of MSI at D11S922 was 26.7% in pure intraductal carcinoma, 36.4% in invasive carcinoma, and 40.0% in invasive carcinoma with metastases. We observed no significant correlation between MSI at chromosome 11p15.5 and the patient's age, tumor size, histological grade, or lymph node metastasis. We compared the MSI incidence with the expression of prognostic markers, such as p53, c-erb B2, estrogen receptor, and progesterone receptor, and found no significant correlation. We suggest that the MSI of chromosome 11p15.5 is increased during breast cancer progression, but long-term follow-up study would establish whether MSI at chromosome 11p15.5 could be useful as a potential prognostic marker for breast cancer.
A Two-Dimensional MEMS Scanning Mirror Using Hybrid Actuation Mechanisms With Low Operation Voltage

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel CMOS-compatible 2-D MEMS scanning mirror based on hybrid actuation mechanisms. Both electrothermal and electromagnetic (EM) actuations have been integrated in the same device for slow and fast scanning purposes, respectively. The added advantage of a CMOS-compatible fabrication process allows our device to be monolithically integrated with CMOS integrated circuits. Optical deflection angles of ±1.5° for a 74-Hz vertical scan at 12 mW by electrothermal actuation and ±10° for a horizontal scan frequency of 202 Hz at 1.26 mA and 1 Vac by EM actuation are reported. Our unique design of utilizing both electrothermal and EM actuation mechanisms is the first demonstration of such hybrid-driven CMOS-compatible MEMS mirror. Various Lissajous patterns have been demonstrated at low-power biasing condition, making our proposed hybrid actuation design approach suitable for mobile 2-D raster scanning applications powered by batteries with limited capacity.