Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel Synthesis, Characterization and Antimicrobial Activities of Silver Nanoparticles in Room- Temperature Ionic Liquids

Stable silver nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by chemical reduction of silver nitrate in ionic liquids 1Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [Emim] BF4 and 1Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [Emim] PF6 at room temperature. The characterization of the silver nanoparticles such as their size and shape was performed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) techniques which indicated a size range of 50 to 55 nm. The antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles for three gram negative bacteria and three gram positive bacteria were investigated. It appeared that [Emim] PF6 and its Ag nanoparticles are the most effective products against the tested bacterial stains compared with [Emim] BF4 and its Ag nanoparticles.
Adaptive Classification of EEG Features with Sparse Feedback

Analysis of EEG for Brain Computer Interfacing (BCI) requires robust tools for discerning between brain states. In this paper, we explore an algorithm for extracting movement/non-movement data from EEG. We begin by projecting features from a dynamical system model of the EEG onto a nonlinear basis space. The basis function responses are then mapped via a logistic classifier onto a class-posterior decision space. The non-stationarity of the EEG signals is captured by parameterizing this mapping via a set of dynamically adaptive, time-dependent weights. We update these weights under a sequential Bayesian learning paradigm. Importantly, we aim such an adaptive classifier toward a system in which very few class labels are known such as is the case for self-paced BCI experiments.
Teachers Learning Technology by Design

Abstract Although there has been much debate about what teachers need to know about technology, less attention has been paid to how they are supposed to learn it. Teacher preparation programs need to go beyond merely training teachers in how to use specific software and hardware tools, and instead focus on developing an understanding of the complex set of interrelationships between artifacts, users, tools, and practices. In this paper, we introduce and advocate a Learning By Design approach that can help teachers develop a flexible and situated understanding of technology. In this approach, inservice teachers work collaboratively in small groups to develop technological solutions to authentic pedagogical problems. We introduce the Learning by Design strategy and provide examples of its use in three different courses. We summarize what teachers learn in this approach, focusing on learning about technology, learning about design, and learning about learning.
Serotonin protects NK cells against oxidatively induced functional inhibition and apoptosis

High concentrations of the neurotransmitter serotonin can be found ininflamed and ischemic peripheral tissues, but the role of serotonin inimmunoregulation is largely unknown. Here we report that serotoninprotected human natural‐killer (NK) cells from oxidatively inducedinhibition inflicted by autologous monocytes in vitro. Serotoninprotected NK cells from monocyte‐mediated apoptosis and suppression ofcytotoxicity and maintained the activation of NK cells induced byinterleukin‐2 despite the presence of inhibitory monocytes. A detailedanalysis of these protective effects revealed that serotonin scavengedreactive oxygen species (ROS) derived from theH2O2‐myeloperoxidase (‐MPO) system. Serotoninshared this scavenger activity with its precursor, 5‐hydroxytryptophan(5‐HTP); however, serotonin was >10‐fold more potent than 5‐HTP inprotecting NK cells against functional inhibition and apoptosis. Wepropose that serotonin, by scavenging peroxidase‐derived ROS, may serveto protect NK cells from oxidative damage at inflammatory sites.
Perceptions and Acceptance of Levonorgestrel Implants among Family Planning Clients within greater Banjul Area, The Gambia

A better understanding of women’s perception of levonorgestrel implants has the potential to help women and their partners freely choose the number and spacing of their children and thus, increase contraceptive prevalence. The contraceptive prevalence rate is very low in the Gambia; only 8 per cent of the women of reproductive age use modern methods of family planning and 1 per cent using traditional methods and an implant utilization rate of 3.9%. Therefore, the purpose of the study is centered on exploring the perceptions and acceptance level of Levonorgestrel Implants among family planning (FP) clients in Western Health Region One (WHR, 1). The perception and acceptance of implants among users is not well documented in the Gambia despite established knowledge of availability at little or no cost in most health facilities. A phenomenological qualitative study design was employed and twelve women were purposively selected from two hospitals to serve as participants. Focus group discussions were used as data collection method among six women per discussion. Qualitative data analysis method used for the study was the Editing Analysis Style where, the data were interpreted in search of meaningful segments and units. The data were analyzed using themes and categorizing the responses of the participants under each theme with verbatim quotes used wherever necessary. Sociodemographic findings revealed that majority of the women were between the ages of 30-39 (SD± 5.35) ranging from 25 to 45 years with a mean age of 32.75 years. More than half of the study participants had between 1-4 children (n = 7, 58.33), with a mean parity of 3.75 (SD±2.48). Almost all of them were Muslims (n =11, 91.66 %). All of them received some form of education with the highest level being secondary (Conventional) (n = 6, 50%). Majority were housewives (n= 6, 50%), married (n = 11, 91.66%). The findings showed that six themes emerged from both Focus Group Discussions where the majority of the respondents gave similar answers. The themes that were reported on were; efficacy, service provider’s attitude, husband/spousal approval, undesired effects, myths and misconceptions, and satisfaction. In conclusion, the use of Implants for family planning depends on clients’ perceptions. Therefore, understanding client’s perceptions on implants would help to improve prevalence, thus reducing unintended pregnancies, induced abortions, short birth intervals, fertility rates and maternal mortality and morbidity in the country.
Neuroprotective Effect of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell on Dopaminergic Neurons by Anti-inflammatory Action

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A first look at HTTP(S) intrusion detection using NetFlow/IPFIX

Brute-force attacks against Web site are a common area of concern, both for Web site owners and hosters. This is mainly due to the impact of potential compromises resulting therefrom, and the increased load on the underlying infrastructure. The latter may even result in a Denial-of-Service (DoS). Detecting brute-force attacks - and ultimately mitigating them - is therefore of great importance. In this paper, we take the first step in this direction, by presenting a network-based approach for detecting HTTP(S) dictionary attacks using NetFlow/IPFIX. We have developed a prototype Intrusion Detection System (IDS), released as open-source software, by means of which we can achieve accuracies close to 100%.
ATM-dependent phosphorylation of MRE11 controls extent of resection during homology directed repair by signalling through Exonuclease 1

The MRE11/RAD50/NBS1 (MRN) complex plays a central role as a sensor of DNA double strand breaks (DSB) and is responsible for the efficient activation of ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase. Once activated ATM in turn phosphorylates RAD50 and NBS1, important for cell cycle control, DNA repair and cell survival. We report here that MRE11 is also phosphorylated by ATM at S676 and S678 in response to agents that induce DNA DSB, is dependent on the presence of NBS1, and does not affect the association of members of the complex or ATM activation. A phosphosite mutant (MRE11S676AS678A) cell line showed decreased cell survival and increased chromosomal aberrations after radiation exposure indicating a defect in DNA repair. Use of GFP-based DNA repair reporter substrates in MRE11S676AS678A cells revealed a defect in homology directed repair (HDR) but single strand annealing was not affected. More detailed investigation revealed that MRE11S676AS678A cells resected DNA ends to a greater extent at sites undergoing HDR. Furthermore, while ATM-dependent phosphorylation of Kap1 and SMC1 was normal in MRE11S676AS678A cells, there was no phosphorylation of Exonuclease 1 consistent with the defect in HDR. These results describe a novel role for ATM-dependent phosphorylation of MRE11 in limiting the extent of resection mediated through Exonuclease 1.
An Algorithm for Real-Time Pulse Waveform Segmentation and Artifact Detection in Photoplethysmograms

Photoplethysmography has been used in a wide range of medical devices for measuring oxygen saturation, cardiac output, assessing autonomic function, and detecting peripheral vascular disease. Artifacts can render the photoplethysmogram (PPG) useless. Thus, algorithms capable of identifying artifacts are critically important. However, the published PPG algorithms are limited in algorithm and study design. Therefore, the authors developed a novel embedded algorithm for real-time pulse waveform (PWF) segmentation and artifact detection based on a contour analysis in the time domain. This paper provides an overview about PWF and artifact classifications, presents the developed PWF analysis, and demonstrates the implementation on a 32-bit ARM core microcontroller. The PWF analysis was validated with data records from 63 subjects acquired in a sleep laboratory, ergometry laboratory, and intensive care unit in equal parts. The output of the algorithm was compared with harmonized experts’ annotations of the PPG with a total duration of 31.5 h. The algorithm achieved a beat-to-beat comparison sensitivity of 99.6%, specificity of 90.5%, precision of 98.5%, and accuracy of 98.3%. The interrater agreement expressed as Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.927 and as F-measure was 0.990. In conclusion, the PWF analysis seems to be a suitable method for PPG signal quality determination, real-time annotation, data compression, and calculation of additional pulse wave metrics such as amplitude, duration, and rise time.
Simulating aerosol microphysics with the ECHAM/MADE GCM Part II: Results from a first multiannual integration

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Simulating aerosol microphysics with the ECHAM/MADE GCM ? Part II: Results from a first multiannual integration A. Lauer, J. Hendricks
Opus: University of Bath Online Publication Store Category Theoretic Understandings of Universal Algebra and Its Dual: Monads and Lawvere Theories, Comonads and What?

This version is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. w Abstract Universal algebra is often known within computer science in the guise of algebraic specification or equational logic. In 1963, it was given a category theoretic characterisation in terms of what are now called Lawvere theories. Unlike operations and equations, a Lawvere theory is uniquely determined by its category of models. Except for a caveat about nullary operations, the notion of Lawvere theory is equivalent to the universal algebraist's notion of an abstract clone. Lawvere theories were soon followed by a further characterisation of universal algebra in terms of monads, the latter quickly becoming preferred by category theorists but not by universal algebraists. In the 1990's began a systematic attempt to dualise the situation. The notion of monad dualises to that of comonad, providing a framework for studying transition systems in particular. Constructs in universal algebra have begun to be dualised too, with different leading examples. But there is not yet a definitive dual of the concept of Lawvere theory, or that of abstract clone, or even a definitive dual of operations and equations. We explore the situation here.
Correcting partial volume artifacts of the arterial input function in quantitative cerebral perfusion MRI

To quantify cerebral perfusion with dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI (DSC‐MRI), one needs to measure the arterial input function (AIF). Conventionally, one derives the contrast concentration from the DSC sequence by monitoring changes in either the amplitude or the phase signal on the assumption that the signal arises completely from blood. In practice, partial volume artifacts are inevitable because a compromise has to be reached between the temporal and spatial resolution of the DSC acquisition. As the concentration of the contrast agent increases, the vector of the complex blood signal follows a spiral‐like trajectory. In the case of a partial‐volume voxel, the spiral is located around the static contribution of the surrounding tissue. If the static contribution of the background tissue is disregarded, estimations of the contrast concentration will be incorrect. By optimizing the correspondence between phase information and amplitude information one can estimate the origin of the spiral, and thereupon correct for partial volume artifacts. This correction is shown to be accurate at low spatial resolutions for phantom data and to improve the AIF determination in a clinical example. Magn Reson Med 45:477–485, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On-chip tap-delay measurements for a digital delay-line used in high-speed inter-chip data communications

During the last few years, new synchronization techniques to send data between ICs at increasingly high data-rates have been developed. Some of them rely on digital delay lines. The timing accuracy of the delay lines is crucial for good functionality of the synchronization mechanism. This paper presents a strategy to measure the tap-delays of a digital delay-line, using the well-known oscillation technique. The occurring measurement error for the presented technique has been calculated. Towards the end of the paper, a new delay-line scheme is shown. The tap-delay, measurement becomes much more accurate for this delay-line than for a standard delay-line.
Reconstructed Image by hypergeometric function Of Legendre

— This paper introduces a new set of orthogonal moments function hypergeometric based on the discrete Legendre polynomials. The Legendre moments can be effectively used as pattern features in the analysis of two-dimensional images. The implementation of moments proposed in this paper does not involve any numerical approximation, since the basis set is orthogonal in the discrete domain of the image coordinate space. The paper presents the experimental results of Legendre moments with hypergeometric function and demonstrates their feature representation capability using the method of image reconstruction.
Comparative Analyses of Plastid Sequences between Native and Introduced Populations of Aquatic Weeds Elodea canadensis and E. nuttallii

Non-indigenous species (NIS) are species living outside their historic or native range. Invasive NIS often cause severe environmental impacts, and may have large economical and social consequences. Elodea (Hydrocharitaceae) is a New World genus with at least five submerged aquatic angiosperm species living in fresh water environments. Our aim was to survey the geographical distribution of cpDNA haplotypes within the native and introduced ranges of invasive aquatic weeds Elodea canadensis and E. nuttallii and to reconstruct the spreading histories of these invasive species. In order to reveal informative chloroplast (cp) genome regions for phylogeographic analyses, we compared the plastid sequences of native and introduced individuals of E. canadensis. In total, we found 235 variable sites (186 SNPs, 47 indels and two inversions) between the two plastid sequences consisting of 112,193 bp and developed primers flanking the most variable genomic areas. These 29 primer pairs were used to compare the level and pattern of intraspecific variation within E. canadensis to interspecific variation between E. canadensis and E. nuttallii. Nine potentially informative primer pairs were used to analyze the phylogeographic structure of both Elodea species, based on 70 E. canadensis and 25 E. nuttallii individuals covering native and introduced distributions. On the whole, the level of variation between the two Elodea species was 53% higher than that within E. canadensis. In our phylogeographic analysis, only a single haplotype was found in the introduced range in both species. These haplotypes H1 (E. canadensis) and A (E. nuttallii) were also widespread in the native range, covering the majority of native populations analyzed. Therefore, we were not able to identify either the geographic origin of the introduced populations or test the hypothesis of single versus multiple introductions. The divergence between E. canadensis haplotypes was surprisingly high, and future research may clarify mechanisms that structure native E. canadensis populations.
Halftone Image Watermarking Based on the Binary Pseudo-Wavelet Transform

With halftone images widely used in books, magazines, printer outputs, and fax documents, it is desirable to embed data in halftone images for copyright protection, content authentication and tamper detection. This paper proposes a novel watermarking method for error diffused halftone images based on the binary pseudo-wavelet transform. We employ the binary pseudo-wavelet coefficients' distribution properties to embed data by modifying some highest frequency coefficients. Then the modified coefficients are inverse transformed into the spatial domain and meanwhile the watermarked image is obtained. Watermark extraction is the inverse process of watermark embedding. Experimental results show that this method is robust to attacks such as human marking and cropping, furthermore it achieves a good tradeoff between the high data capacity and the slight visual distortion.
Radial nerve injury associated with humeral shaft fracture: a retrospective study

Objective: To determine the profile of patients with humeral diaphyseal fractures in a tertiary hospital. Methods: We conducted a survey from January 2010 to July 2012, including data from patients classified under humeral diaphyseal fracture (S42.3) according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The variables analyzed were: age, gender, presence of radial nerve injury, causal agent and the type of treatment carried out. Results: The main causes of trauma were car accidents. The radial nerve lesion was present in some cases and was caused by the same trauma that caused the fracture or iatrogenic injury. Most of these fractures occurred in the middle third of humeral diaphysis and was treated conservatively. Conclusion: The profile of patients with fracture of humeral shaft, in this specific sample, was composed mainly of adult men involved in traffic accidents; the associated radial nerve lesion was present in most of these fractures and its cause was strongly related to the trauma mechanism. Level of Evidence II, Retrospective Study.
MCMC for joint noise reduction and missing data treatment in degraded video

Image sequence restoration has been steadily gaining importance with the increasing prevalence of visual digital media. Automated treatment of archived video material typically involves dealing with replacement noise in the form of "blotches" that have varying intensity levels and "grain" noise. In the case of replacement noise, the problem is essentially one of missing data that must be detected and then reconstructed based on surrounding spatio-temporal information, whereas the additive noise can be treated as a noise-reduction problem. It is typical to treat these problems as separate issues; however, it is clear that the presence of noise has an effect on the ability to detect missing data and vice versa. This paper therefore introduces a fully Bayesian specification for the problem that allows an algorithm to be designed that acknowledges and exploits the influences from each of the subprocesses, causing the observed degradation. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methodology is applied to the joint detection and removal of both replacement and additive noise components. It can be seen that many of the previous processes presented for noise reduction and missing data treatment are special cases of the framework presented here.
Procedural Authorship: A Case-Study Of the Interactive Drama Façade

essence of the computer as a representational m edium is procedurality - the ability of the computer to enga ge in arbitrary mechanical processes to which observers can ascribe meaning. Taking full representational advantage of the compu ter thus requires procedurally literate authorship, that is, artists and writers who are able to think about and work within computational frameworks; in the extreme case of developing new modes of computational expression, authors must be highly pr oficient in the use of general purpose programming languages. We examine issues of procedural authorship using the interacti ve drama Facade as a case study. Facade's explicit design goal is to provide the player with local and global agency ove r the evolution of the dramatic experience; this requires a level o f procedurality previously not implemented in interactive narrative . of a process. In the extreme case of developing new modes of computational expression, authors must be highly pr oficient in the use of general purpose programming languages, used to construct new languages and tools specialized for the new rep resentational mode. In this paper we provide a case-study, using the in teractive drama Facade , of this last case of procedural authorship. Facade represents a new mode of computational representati on, interactive drama , combining the game-like pleasure of moment- by-moment interaction with believable characters, with the story- like pleasure of participating in and influencing a long-term dramatic progression. As procedural authors, we und ertook several design-plus-programming tasks: deconstructi ng a dramatic narrative into a hierarchy of story and behavior pi eces; designing an AI (artificial intelligence) architecture, and c ollection of special purposes languages within the architecture, that respond to and integrate the player's moment-by-moment interactions to reconstruct a real-time dramatic performance from t hose pieces; and writing an engaging, compelling story within th is new framework. This paper makes a case for the importance of proce dural authorship, describes the design goals of Facade and how these goals could only be met through a highly procedural approach to interactive narrative, and finally describes Facade's architecture, content organization, and the experience of authori ng within this framework.