Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Equivalent Magnetic Noise of Micro-Patterned Multilayer Thin Films Based GMI Microsensor

The detection limit of thin film giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) magnetic sensors has been investigated by measuring their magnetic noise. The GMI sensing elements are multilayers based on Fe20Ni80 Permalloy (Py), deposited by sputtering and patterned by photolithography in the form of 2-mm long and 50- to 130-μm wide stripes. The multilayered samples had the following structure: [Py(170 nm)/Ti(6 nm)]3/Cu(250 nm)/[Ti(6 nm)/Py(170 nm)]3. As electronic conditioning circuits, different configurations of oscillators and detectors were tested in order to determine their influence on the total output voltage sensor noise. The latter was measured using a dynamic signal analyzer and the equivalent magnetic noise of the sensor was determined through the measured Fourier transfer function of the device at the operating point. Filtering and impedance matching strategies were implemented to minimize the equivalent magnetic sensor noise. Presently, a white noise level of 120 pT/√Hz at 2 kHz is obtained.
Learning search behaviour from humans

A frequent method for taking into account the partially observable nature of an environment in which robots interact lies in formulating the problem domain as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). By having humans demonstrate how to act in this partially observable context we can leverage their prior knowledge, experience and intuition, which is difficult to encode directly in a controller, to solve a task formulated as a POMDP. In this work we learn search behaviours from human demonstrators and transfer this knowledge to a robot in a context where no visual information is available. The task consists of finding a block on a table. This is a non-trivial problem since no visual information is available and as a result, the belief of the demonstrator's state (position in the environment) has to be inferred. We show that by representing the belief of the human's position in the environment by a particle filter (PF) and learning a mapping from this belief to their end-effector velocities with a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), we model the human's search process. We compare the different types of search behaviour demonstrated by the humans to that of our learned model, to validate that the search process has been successfully modelled. We then contrast the performance of this human-inspired search model to a greedy controller and show that (similarly to humans) the learned controller minimises uncertainty, hence demonstrating more robustness in the face of false belief.
Predator-prey naïveté, antipredator behavior, and the ecology of predator invasions

We present a framework for explaining variation in predator invasion success and predator impacts on native prey that integrates information about predator–prey naivete, predator and prey behavioral responses to each other, consumptive and non-consumptive eff ects of predators on prey, and interacting eff ects of multiple species interactions. We begin with the ‘naive prey’ hypothesis that posits that naive, native prey that lack evolutionary history with non-native predators suff er heavy predation because they exhibit ineff ective antipredator responses to novel predators. Not all naive prey, however, show ineff ective antipredator responses to novel predators. To explain variation in prey response to novel predators, we focus on the interaction between prey use of general versus specifi c cues and responses, and the functional similarity of non-native and native predators. Eff ective antipredator responses reduce predation rates (reduce consumptive eff ects of predators, CEs), but often also carry costs that result in non-consumptive eff ects (NCEs) of predators. We contrast expected CEs versus NCEs for non-native versus native predators, and discuss how diff erences in the relative magnitudes of CEs and NCEs might infl uence invasion dynamics. Going beyond the eff ects of naive prey, we discuss how the ‘naive prey’, ‘enemy release’ and ‘evolution of increased competitive ability’ (EICA) hypotheses are inter-related, and how the importance of all three might be mediated by prey and predator naivete. Th ese ideas hinge on the notion that non-native predators enjoy a ‘novelty advantage’ associated with the naivete of native prey and top predators. However, non-native predators could instead suff er from a novelty disadvantage because they are also naive to their new prey and potential predators. We hypothesize that patterns of community similarity and evolution might explain the variation in novelty advantage that can underlie variation in invasion outcomes. Finally, we discuss management implications of our framework, including suggestions for managing invasive predators, predator reintroductions and biological control.
Sustained extracellular signal‐regulated kinase activation by 6‐hydroxydopamine: implications for Parkinson's disease

Although the toxin 6‐hydroxydopamine (6‐OHDA) is utilized extensively in animal models of Parkinson's disease, the underlying mechanism of its toxic effects on dopaminergic neurons is not completely understood. We examined the effects of 6‐OHDA on the CNS‐derived tyrosine hydroxylase expressing B65 cell line, with particular attention to the regulation of the extracellular signal‐regulated protein kinases (ERK). 6‐OHDA elicited a dose‐dependent cytotoxicity in B65 cells. Toxic doses of 6‐OHDA also elicited a biphasic pattern of ERK phosphorylation with a prominent sustained phase, a pattern that differed from that observed with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment. 6‐OHDA‐elicited ERK phosphorylation was blocked by PD98059, an inhibitor of the upstream mitogen activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) that phosphorylates and activates ERK. PD98059 also conferred protection against 6‐OHDA cytotoxicity, but did not affect H2O2 toxicity in B65 cells. These results suggest that ERK activation plays a direct mechanistic role in 6‐OHDA toxicity, rather than representing a protective compensatory response, and raise the possibility that abnormal patterns of ERK activation may contribute to dopaminergic neuronal cell death.
Functional Role of G9a Histone Methyltransferase in Cancer

Post-translational modifications of DNA and histones are epigenetic mechanisms, which affect the chromatin structure, ultimately leading to gene expression changes. A number of different epigenetic enzymes are actively involved in the addition or the removal of various covalent modifications, which include acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and sumoylation. Deregulation of these processes is a hallmark of cancer. For instance, G9a, a histone methyltransferase responsible for histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9) mono- and dimethylation, has been observed to be upregulated in different types of cancer and its overexpression has been associated with poor prognosis. Key roles played by these enzymes in various diseases have led to the hypothesis that these molecules represent valuable targets for future therapies. Several small molecule inhibitors have been developed to specifically block the epigenetic activity of these enzymes, representing promising therapeutic tools in the treatment of human malignancies, such as cancer. In this review, the role of one of these epigenetic enzymes, G9a, is discussed, focusing on its functional role in regulating gene expression as well as its implications in cancer initiation and progression. We also discuss important findings from recent studies using epigenetic inhibitors in cell systems in vitro as well as experimental tumor growth and metastasis assays in vivo.
A performance study of dynamic replication techniques in continuous media servers

The stringent requirements of multimedia applications make design of cost-effective and scalable systems difficult; thus, efficient adaptive and dynamic resource management techniques can be of great help in improving performance and scalability characteristics of such systems. In this paper we focus on threshold-based policies for dynamic resource management in the context of continuous media (CM) servers; we do this without any knowledge of data access patterns and with provisions for full use of VCR functionality. We propose a mathematical model of user behavior and show through a performance study, that not only does the use of this model in conjunction with dynamic resource management policies improves the system's performance but that it also facilitates significantly reduced sensitivity to changes in: (a) system architecture, (b) workload characteristics, (c) skewness of data access patterns, (d) frequency of changes in data access patterns, and (e) choice of threshold values. We believe that not only is this a desirable property for a CM server, in general, but that furthermore, it suggests the usefulness of these techniques across a wide range of continuous media applications.
Empirical Research on Social Work Supervision: The State of the Art (1970-1995)

ABSTRACT This paper is a critical review of all the empirical research on supervision for social workers. Although supervision is taken to be an important and unique enabling social work process, only 30 empirical research articles have been published over the last 25 years. This is a reflection of the wide gap between practice and research on supervision. It has been suggested that there is a pressing need for changes in research topics and research methodology, and for researchers to investigate the impact of culture on supervision and the relationship between supervision and client outcomes. Regarding research methodology, longitudinal research and experiments should be encouraged. Qualitative research methods should also be part of future studies.
A Polypeptide with Similarity to Phycocyanin α-Subunit Phycocyanobilin Lyase Involved in Degradation of Phycobilisomes

ABSTRACT To optimize the utilization of photosynthate and avoid damage that can result from the absorption of excess excitation energy, photosynthetic organisms must rapidly modify the synthesis and activities of components of the photosynthetic apparatus in response to environmental cues. During nutrient-limited growth, cyanobacteria degrade their light-harvesting complex, the phycobilisome, and dramatically reduce the rate of photosynthetic electron transport. In this report, we describe the isolation and characterization of a cyanobacterial mutant that does not degrade its phycobilisomes during either sulfur or nitrogen limitation and exhibits an increased ratio of phycocyanin to chlorophyll during nutrient-replete growth. The mutant phenotype was complemented by a gene encoding a polypeptide with similarities to polypeptides that catalyze covalent bond formation between linear tetrapyrrole chromophores and subunits of apophycobiliproteins. The complementing gene, designated nblB, is expressed at approximately the same level in cells grown in nutrient-replete medium and medium devoid of either sulfur or nitrogen. These results suggest that the NblB polypeptide may be a constitutive part of the machinery that coordinates phycobilisome degradation with environmental conditions.
HIV/AIDS and individuals with disability.

AR hallmark of the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been its impact on vulnerable populations. Surprisingly, one of the world's most vulnerable populations - individuals who live with a permanent physical, sensory (deafness, blindness), intellectual, or mental health disability - has been almost entirely overlooked despite the fact that they are at equal or increased risk of exposure to all known risk factors for HIV. It is commonly assumed that individuals with disability are at low risk of HIV infection. ' They are incorrectly believed to be sexually inactive, unlikely to use drugs or alcohol, and at less risk of violence or rape than their non-disabled peers. Individuals with mental illness have received more attention, but a focus on this group still lags behind that for the
Aspect-Oriented Approach to Modeling Railway Cyber Physical Systems

The development of railway cyber physical systems is a challenging process. Railway cyber physical systems involve interactions between train controllers, communication networks, and physical world. In railway cyber physical systems, the behavior of the physical world such as the velocity, flow and density are dynamic and continuous changing with time while the process of communication and calculation in railway cyber system is discrete. Non-functional requirements address important issues of quality and restrictions for railway cyber physical systems. The high need for quality is beyond dispute as human life may be endangered if a railway controller is malfunctioning. The struggle for high-quality software development methods is of highest importance in railway cyber physical area. Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) is a standard architecture description language to design and evaluate software architectures for embedded systems already in use by a number of organizations around the world. In this paper we present our current effort to extend AADL to include new features for separation of concerns of railway cyber physical systems, we extend AADL in spatial aspect, dynamic continuous aspect, formal specification aspect. Finally, we illustrate the proposed method via an example of railway cyber physical system.
An Assessment of the Contingency Theory of Mis

The purpose of this paper is to define and critique the use of contingency theory in the field ofManagement Information Systems (MIS). The existence of such a theory is demonstrated through adetailed review of the MIS literature. The development of contingency theory in MIS is compared tothe development of Organization Theory. The developments in the two fields have been remarkablysimilar and the field of MIS can benefit from the experiences of organization theorists. We arguethat since MIS is at an early stage of development, it is now repeating some of the unproductiveassumptions and lines of development of contingency theory.The conclusion from this analysis is that the contingency theory implicit in MIS research isinadequate. Progress in the field has been hampered by the adoption of a naive meta-theory and anarrow research perspective. This has resulted in highly mixed empirical results, a prematurequantification strategy, and ill-defined concepts of performance and fit.A series of recommendations for improving the theoretical basis of MIS are given. Theserecommendations include relaxing the assumptions that constitute the naive meta-theory of acontingency theory in MIS. A more subjectivist, less functional, less unreflexive and lessdeterministic approach is advocated. In addition, changes in research methodologies are recommended.An increased emphasis on training in case study methodologies, longitudinal research andethnographic approaches is suggested.
Visualizing windows executable viruses using self-organizing maps

This paper concentrates on visualizing computer viruses without using virus specific signature information as a prior stage of the very important problem of detecting computer viruses. In this paper, we address the fact that each viruses have its own character to be distinguished although it is inserted in the executable file. They cannot hide their own feature through the SOM visualization; this feature is like a DNA to determine an individual's unique genetic code. We present how virus codes affect the whole program projection. Without each virus signature, we present how the virus pattern in Windows executable files tells us their family. We show that the variant of each virus also can be covered with each virus mask, which is produced by SOM. We also present the file structure based SOMs of Windows executable files.
Computer-aided language development in nonspeaking children.

A MAJESTIC ABSURDITY characterizes the classification system in psychiatry. Since there is such poor agreement among diagnosticians, the categories of classification are unreliable. And since there is little correlation between diagnosis, signs, and symptoms, the categories are of doubtful validity. Problems of classification are shunned by clinicians who confuse classification (forming classes in a collection of objects) with identification (identifying an object as a member of a class). Yet a more satisfactory taxonomy is crucial for clinical practice, and in particular for future research designed to yield dependable knowledge. In the studies reported here the usual diagnostic confusions found in the classification of mental disorders among children were seen. Children from psychiatric institutions were referred for study. Each child had been previously studied at length, and their records contained the familiar terms "brain-damaged," "aphasic," "autistic," "mentally retarded," "schizophrenic. " The most common terms
An empirical study on IMDb and its communities based on the network of co-reviewers

The advent of business oriented and social networking sites on the Internet have seen a huge increase in number of people using them in recent years. With the expansion of Web 2.0, new types of websites have emerged such as online social networks, blogs and wikis. Their popularity has resulted in exponential growth of information on the web and interactions overload thus making it harder to access useful or relevant information. Recommender systems are one of the applications employed to address this problem by filtering relevant information and enhancing user experience. They traditionally use either the content of items of the websites (content-filtering recommender systems) or the collaboration between the users and items such as rating (collaborative-filtering recommender systems) or a combination of them (hybrid recommender systems). However due to the nature of data they use, they all have one or more weaknesses such as cold start, sparsity of data, scalability problems and overspecialised recommendation. Social networks and other similar websites have new types of data which can be used in recommender systems thus have the potential to overcome these shortcomings. However without a good understanding of the properties and structure of these online social websites, the applications can not be accurate. This paper presents an empirical measurement study of the properties and structure of one such social websites. It examines an online movie database, and the interactions between reviewers and attempts to construct a social network graph based on the network of reviewers. The resulting network is confirmed as the power-law, small-world and scale-free. It identifies the highly connected clusters and shows that the content of these subgroups are diversified and not limited to similar tags. Finally the implication of these finding is discussed in order to enhance current recommender systems enabling them to provide diverse results while overcome their shortcomings.
Transcriptional control of stem cell fate by E2Fs and pocket proteins

E2F transcription factors and their regulatory partners, the pocket proteins (PPs), have emerged as essential regulators of stem cell fate control in a number of lineages. In mammals, this role extends from both pluripotent stem cells to those encompassing all embryonic germ layers, as well as extra-embryonic lineages. E2F/PP-mediated regulation of stem cell decisions is highly evolutionarily conserved, and is likely a pivotal biological mechanism underlying stem cell homeostasis. This has immense implications for organismal development, tissue maintenance, and regeneration. In this article, we discuss the roles of E2F factors and PPs in stem cell populations, focusing on mammalian systems. We discuss emerging findings that position the E2F and PP families as widespread and dynamic epigenetic regulators of cell fate decisions. Additionally, we focus on the ever expanding landscape of E2F/PP target genes, and explore the possibility that E2Fs are not simply regulators of general ‘multi-purpose’ cell fate genes but can execute tissue- and cell type-specific gene regulatory programs.
Study on an adaptive GMDH-PID controller using adaptive moment estimation

This research concerned about an online learning algorithm of the group method of data handling based proportional-integral-derivative (GMDH-PID) controller that is effective for nonlinear systems. Although a lot of PID controllers have been mainly used in industrial systems, it is difficult to maintain a desired control performance only by a PID controller with fixed control parameters due to system nonlinearities. In order to deal with such systems, a GMDH-PID controller that can adjust PID parameters according to a system change was proposed, and its effectiveness was evaluated. The GMDH-PID controller can maintain good control performance by appropriately setting its weight coefficients in the GMDH network. However, these coefficients are determined in an offline manner, thus the GMDH-PID controller cannot adapt a system if unexpected system change is happened while controlling. This paper proposes an online tuning method of the GMDH-PID controller based on the adaptive moment estimation that is one of recent attracted optimization methods. Thanks to this method, the GMDH-PID controller can adapt to unknown system change, thus applicable rage of the controller is expanded. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by simulation examples.
Interpersonal communication and diversity climate: promoting workforce localization in the UAE

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the rudiments of an organizational communication framework which can serve as a facilitator of a positive diversity climate, which, in turn, could enhance the integration of locals into the expatriate-dominated workforce of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As UAE citizens constitute a small minority of the workforce, the local style of communication is not, ipso facto, the dominant one in organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The study elicited 458 Emirati respondents’ narratives of positive and negative workplace communication experiences. The authors identified emerging themes to highlight the key features of interpersonal interactions likely to foster or hinder a supportive diversity climate. Findings – The critical incidents reported are interpreted in terms of UAE cultural traditions, more specifically, the communication patterns valued by local workers. Research limitations/implications – Outside of the Arabian Gulf, there are perhaps no other national wor.
Information Aggregation Mechanisms in Social Odometry

Multi-robot exploration and navigation is a challenging task, especially within the swarm robotics domain, in which the individual robots have limited capabilities and have access to local information only. An interesting approach to exploration and navigation in swarm robotics is social odometry, that is, a cooperative strategy in which robots exploit odometry for individual navigation, and share their own position estimation through peer-to-peer local communication to collectively reduce the estimation error. In this paper, the robots have to localize both a home and a goal location and navigate back and forth between them. The way in which navigational information is aggregated influences both the efficiency in navigation between the two areas, and the self-organized selection of better paths. We propose three new parameterfree mechanisms for information aggregation and we provide an extensive study to ascertain their properties in terms of navigation efficiency and collective decision.