Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PDAgent: a platform for developing and deploying mobile agent-enabled applications for wireless devices

Mobile agents (MAs) can support mobile computing by carrying out tasks autonomously for a mobile user temporarily disconnected from the network. We describe PDAgent, a lightweight and highly portable platform for developing and deploying mobile agent-enabled applications on wireless handheld devices. Our approach offers the following advantages: (i) It does not require installing MA server on handheld devices and supports the adoption of any kind of mobile agent system at network hosts, while at the same time allow mobile users to have control of mobile agent activities; (ii) It support dynamic downloading of MA-enabled applications which can be made aware of and adaptive to the user's current context, and deploying the application to perform various tasks on behalf of the user over the wired network; (iii) It requires the minimum network connectivity and cost for users to deploy their applications. PDAgent provides APIs which allow developers to build new mobile applications on top of PDAgent. Example applications have been developed for PDAgent. We report on and discuss the results of experimental performance evaluations of PDAgent.
Using WYSIWYM to Create an Open-ended Interface for the Semantic Grid

Central to the vision of the Semantic Grid is the adoption of metadata and ontologies to describe resources, to promote and enhance collaboration (De Roure et al., 2005). This raises the question of how such metadata comes into existence. Ideally the users should create it themselves, which raises the issue of how a scientist should create RDF. In our work in the area of e-social science, we aim to support social scientists in their research, using (Semantic) Grid technologies. For this, a tool is needed that facilitates easy creation of RDF by non-experts, to enable researchers to deposit and describe their own data. We believe that, for social scientists, natural language is the best medium to use, as the way they conduct their research and the structure of their documents and data indicate that they are more oriented towards text than graphics.
Rapamycin Ameliorates Kidney Fibrosis by Inhibiting the Activation of mTOR Signaling in Interstitial Macrophages and Myofibroblasts

Interstitial fibrosis is an inevitable outcome of all kinds of progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD). Emerging data indicate that rapamycin can ameliorate kidney fibrosis by reducing the interstitial infiltrates and accumulation of extra cellular matrix (ECM). However, the cellular mechanism that regulates those changes has not been well understood yet. In this study, we revealed the persistent activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in the interstitial macrophages and myofibroblasts, but rarely in injured proximal epithelial cells, CD4+ T cells, neutrophils, or endothelial cells, during the development of kidney fibrosis. Administration of rapamycin to unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) mice significantly suppressed the immunoreactivity of mTOR signaling, which decreased the inflammatory responses and ECM accumulation in the obstructed kidneys. Isolated macrophages from rapamycin-treated obstructed kidneys presented less inflammatory activity than vehicle groups. In vitro study confirmed that rapamycin significantly inhibited the fibrogenic activation of cultured fibroblasts (NIH3T3 cells), which was induced by the stimulation of TGF-β1. Further experiment revealed that rapamycin did not directly inhibit the fibrogenesis of HK2 cells with aristolochic acid treatment. Our findings clarified that rapamycin can ameliorate kidney fibrosis by blocking the mTOR signaling in interstitial macrophages and myofibroblasts.
A comparison of edge detection algorithm using for driver fatigue detection system

Edge detection is an important issue in computer vision and image processing. Of course, it is a crucial work for the location of pupil and mouth in the driver fatigue detection system. This paper introduces most important and commonly used edge detection algorithms, such as Roberts, Prewitt, Sobel, Canny and so on, which are applied to the driver fatigue detection system. Subjective evaluation of comparative simulation result showed that, under noisy conditions, Prewitt and Sobel edge methods exhibit better performances.
Android Shape Independent of Aerobic Fitness: A Risk Factor for Low Bone Mineral Content in Overweight and Obese Latina Women

Objective The link between central adiposity and osteopenia has not been extensively studied in Latina women. In particular, the association between abdominal weight and bone mineral content (BMC) and bone mineral density (BMD), independent of total weight and aerobic capacity, remains uncertain, especially in overweight and obese individuals. Methods Trunk weight, total body fat mass, fat-free mass, BMC, and BMD of 33 premenopausal Latina women age 22 to 51 years from Los Angeles, California were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Waist circumference (WC) was measured without clothing at the smallest circumference of the torso. Peak aerobic capacity (peak VO2) was determined by treadmill ergometry with direct measurement of oxygen consumption. Results Partial correlations controlling for total body fat mass, fat-free mass, and peak VO2 revealed a significant inverse relationship between BMC and WC (r = −0.54, P < 0.05) but not between BMD and WC (r = −0.18, P = 0.41). Similarly, while controlling for total body fat, fat-free mass, and peak VO2, BMC was inversely associated with trunk fat (r = −0.75, P < 0.001), with trunk lean (r = −0.61, P < 0.05) and with total trunk weight (r = −0.75, P < 0.001); results were non-significant for BMD. When these analyses were repeated separately in overweight (n = 10) versus in the obese (n = 18) women, inverse relationships between BMC and trunk fat as well as between BMC and total trunk weight became stronger in the obese compared with the overweight women. Conclusion Although general obesity may prevent osteoporosis, these findings suggest that abdominal obesity (ie, trunk weight) specifically and independently may adversely influence bone mass.
Improved Qualitative Color Image Steganography Based on DWT

In this paper we propose a new steganography technique which embeds secrete color image into color cover work in frequency domain. Unlike the spatial domain approach, secrete image or data are embedded in the low frequency coefficients resulted from Discrete Wavelet Transform, as it is much sensitive to Human Visual System several researchers are not preferring to embed data in low frequency coefficients. This low frequency region provides excellent secure location for data hiding. So, firstly detecting low frequency region is performed in cover images and then Secret image, data embedding will be performed in Discrete Wavelet Transform domain as Discrete Wavelet Transform gives better performance than Discrete Cosine Transform while compression. Watermark algorithm is implemented in two way using Single level Discrete Wavelet Transform and Three levels Discrete Wavelet Transform taking single plane of the cover image for embedding secrete image or data as 4X4 blocks. Experimental results show that Peak Signal Noise Ratio generated by proposed method is better than previous with large amount data embedding.
Subset Optimization through the Fireworks Algorithm

Software estimation models are vital in the software industry, given the fact that most sof tware development projects over-run the time and budget l imi s. Recently, data mining algorithms have been a pplied to further improve the prediction accuracy of the soft ware cost estimation models that are routinely used in industry. This paper introduces a novel Swarm Intelligence te chnique to fine-tune such models. It chooses the Fe atur Selection Method (FSS) to reduce the number of inpu t parameters in the dataset. Further, it applies th Fireworks Algorithm (FWA) to deal with the combinatorial expl osion problem in determining the optimal subset of features. The FWA-FSS method improves the prediction accuracy when tested on publicly available software develop ment project datasets.
1 A generative architecture as an aspect-multi-agent prototype-based membrane

Agile software development as well as other recent trends stresses the need for a radical rethinking of the software object likening its nature to the semiotic object. The MultiDimensional Separation of Concerns paradigm emerges as a result of the felt need for grasping the true nature of the software object. This brought a proliferation of approaches where the Babel effect is transparent. Hence I introduce Greimas’s semiotic project, hoping to throw light on the true nature of software. The outcome highlights the need to focus on the various levels of the software system as differentiated to shape a unique language. And the architectural level emerges as a stage for narrative structures and discoursive structures, triggering the need to extend the prototype to cope with this demand. Both the generative nature of the ecodesign model to design and plan sustainable cities as well as its underlying associated cognitive processes brings to the fore the concern with functional quality attributes as well as nonfunctional blurring the difference between them. Its untamable nature dictates an efficient and highly expressive programming language like Self/US. 1.Introduction Galal H. Galal and Tom Mens in a series of Workshops on Object-Oriented Architectural Evolution at ECOOPs together with the participants have been grasping that, on the one hand, in the conceptual view domain terms predominate as the main descriptors of the architecture, and it is where among others the impact of changes in requirements or the domain are studied
A Temperature-Compensation Technique for Substrate Integrated Waveguide Cavities and Filters

A new temperature compensation method is proposed and demonstrated in this paper for cavities and filters realized in substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). The SIW structures largely preserve the well-known advantages of conventional rectangular waveguide, namely, high Q and high power capacity, and have the advantages of microstrip lines, such as low profile, small volume, and light weight. In this paper, we demonstrate that by an adequate selection of substrate properties, SIW cavities can provide self-temperature drift compensation. The compensation is achieved by using an appropriate ratio between the coefficient of thermal expansion and the thermal coefficient of the permittivity. The theoretical prediction is confirmed by an experimental investigation using inductive post filters. Three commercially available substrates are used to design cavities at 10 GHz with the Roger TMM10 substrate providing a close fit to the required characteristics for temperature compensation. The results for the cavity show a stability of 2 ppm/°C in calculation and 8 ppm/°C in measurement. A SIW fourth-order Chebyshev filter, centered at 10 GHz with 1-GHz bandwidth, has also been designed. The measured frequency drift is 9.1 ppm/°C and the bandwidth variation is 0.13% over the temperature range of 40°C to 80°C.
Enzymatic Treatment of Specimens before DNA Extraction Directly Influences Molecular Detection of Infectious Agents

Introduction Biological samples, pharmaceuticals or food contain proteins, lipids, polymers, ammoniums and macromolecules that alter the detection of infectious agents by DNA amplification techniques (PCR). Moreover the targeted DNA has to be released from the complex cell walls and the compact nucleoprotein matrixes and cleared from potential inhibitors. The goal of the present work was to assess the efficiency of enzymatic pretreatments on infectious agents to make DNA available for further extraction and amplification. Methods Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus mitis, Propionibacterium acnes, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Fusarium solani were mixed with an internal control virus and treated with: 1) proteinase K; 2) lyticase and 3) lyticase followed by proteinase K. DNAs was manually extracted using the QIAmp DNA Mini kit or the MagNA Pure Compact automate. DNA extraction yields and the inhibitors were assessed with a phocid Herpesvirus. Bacterial detection was performed using TaqMan real-time PCR and yeasts and filamentous Fungi with HRM (real-time PCR followed by high-resolution melting analysis). Results Viral DNA was released, extracted and detected using manual and automatic methods without pre enzymatic treatments. Either the manual or the automatic DNA extraction systems did not meet the sensitivity expectations if enzymatic treatments were not performed before: lyticase for Fungi and Proteinase K for Bacteria. The addition of lyticase and proteinase K did not improve results. For Fungi the detection after lyticase was higher than for Proteinase K, for which melting analysis did not allow fungal specification. Discussion Columns and magnetic beads allowed collecting DNA and separate PCR inhibitors. Detection rates cannot be related to DNA-avidity of beads or to elution but to the lack of proteolysis.
Mathematical Programming for Joint Protection / Restoration of IP over DWDM Networks

A novel joint multilayer restoration scheme for IP-over-DWDM networks is proposed, where the restoration algorithm manages network resources from both the IP layer and the optical layer in a synergistic manner. Since IP router ports are typically more expensive than optical switch ports, the essence of the approach is to attempt to reuse IP service ports or the service wavelengths associated with optical switch ports for restoration rather than reserve additional standby IP ports exclusively for network recovery. This can be done when there are concerted actions between the IP and optical layers. Since in our approach network recovery is performed by joint actions in the IP and optical layers, we compare this to an approach where a node failure is recovered in the IP layer alone with no assistance from the optical layer.
Improving the stability of discretization zeros with the Taylor method using a generalization of the fractional-order hold

Abstract Remarkable improvements in the stability properties of discrete system zeros may be achieved by using a new design of the fractional-order hold (FROH) circuit. This paper first analyzes asymptotic behaviors of the limiting zeros, as the sampling period T tends to zero, of the sampled-data models on the basis of the normal form representation for continuous-time systems with a new hold proposed. Further, we also give the approximate expression of limiting zeros of the resulting sampled-data system as power series with respect to a sampling period up to the third order term when the relative degree of the continuous-time system is equal to three, and the corresponding stability of the discretization zeros is discussed for fast sampling rates. Of particular interest are the stability conditions of sampling zeros in the case of a new FROH even though the relative degree of a continuous-time system is greater than two, whereas the conventional FROH fails to do so. An insightful interpretation of the obtained sampled-data model can be made in terms of minimal intersample ripple by design, where multirate sampled systems have a poor intersample behavior. Our results provide a more accurate approximation for asymptotic zeros, and certain known results on asymptotic behavior of limiting zeros are shown to be particular cases of the ideas presented here.
Is the long‐wavelength geoid sensitive to the presence of postperovskite above the core‐mantle boundary?

The analysis of seismic data represents today the primary tool in the search for the presence of postperovskite in the lowermost mantle (D″). This work aims at testing whether the inversion of gravitational data can also contribute to the detection of postperovskite in D″. We assume that the transition from perovskite to postperovskite is accompanied by a reduction in viscosity and test the effects of such viscosity change on the prediction of the dynamic geoid with a numerical model of subducted lithosphere. Our results show that the long‐wavelength component of the geoid is very sensitive to the presence of postperovskite areas in D″, especially if their viscosity is significantly lower than the viscosity of the surrounding perovskite and if these areas are located close to density anomalies, i.e. subducted slabs.
Validity of physical activity monitors during daily life in patients with COPD

Symptoms during physical activity and physical inactivity are hallmarks of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Our aim was to evaluate the validity and usability of six activity monitors in patients with COPD against the doubly labelled water (DLW) indirect calorimetry method. 80 COPD patients (mean±sd age 68±6 years and forced expiratory volume in 1 s 57±19% predicted) recruited in four centres each wore simultaneously three or four out of six commercially available monitors validated in chronic conditions for 14 consecutive days. A priori validity criteria were defined. These included the ability to explain total energy expenditure (TEE) variance through multiple regression analysis, using TEE as the dependent variable with total body water (TBW) plus several physical activity monitor outputs as independent variables; and correlation with activity energy expenditure (AEE) measured by DLW. The Actigraph GT3X (Actigraph LLC, Pensacola, FL, USA), and DynaPort MoveMonitor (McRoberts BV, The Hague, the Netherlands) best explained the majority of the TEE variance not explained by TBW (53% and 70%, respectively) and showed the most significant correlations with AEE (r=0.71, p<0.001 and r=0.70, p<0.0001, respectively). The results of this study should guide users in choosing valid activity monitors for research or for clinical use in patients with chronic diseases such as COPD. This study validates six activity monitors in the field against indirect calorimetry (DLW) in patients with COPD http://ow.ly/o9VIE
Extraction and analysis of short-time excursions in RR-interval time series

RR-interval time series often present impulses corresponding to short-duration increases or decreases in the heart rate, most probably due to bursts in autonomic activity. The time-domain heartrate variability index pNN50 is obviously linked to these spikes. As linear filtering is not appropriate for the extraction of these spikes, we developed a nonlinear algorithm for this task. In this study we demonstrate the potential of this approach to assess caffeine-induced changes in the autonomic tone, and discuss the potential of this approach.
Robust control of a mobile inverted pendulum robot using a RBF neural network controller

This article presents robust control of the mobile inverted pendulum system(MIPS) whose structure is a combination of a wheeled mobile robot and an inverted pendulum with two arms. The MIPS navigates on the horizontal plane while balancing the pendulum. Control of the MIPS is difficult since the system is non-holonomic and nonlinear so that simple linear controllers may have poor performances for the system. The radial basis function(RBF) network is used as an auxiliary controller to help the primary PID controllers to perform better. The back propagation algorithm has been developed for the RBF function network. Real time control of the RBF network has been achieved by embedding the learning algorithm onto the DSP board. The performance of the RBF network controller has been tested for the remotely controlled MIPS by conducting experiments of climbing the slanted surface while balancing.
Determination of anaerobic threshold through heart rate and near infrared spectroscopy in elderly healthy men.

BACKGROUND Aging leads to low functional capacity and this can be reversed by safe and adequate exercise prescription. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to identify the anaerobic threshold (AT) obtained from the V-slope method as well as visual inspection of oxyhemoglobin ( O2Hb) and deoxyhemoglobin (HHb) curves and compare findings with the heteroscedastic (HS) method applied to carbon dioxide production ( CO2), heart rate (HR), and HHb data in healthy elderly men. A secondary aim was to assess the degree of agreement between methods for AT determination. METHOD Fourteen healthy men (61.4±6.3 years) underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPX) on a cycle ergometer until physical exhaustion. Biological signals collected during CPX included: ventilatory and metabolic variables; spectroscopy quasi-infrared rays - NIRS; and HR through a cardio-frequency meter. RESULTS We observed temporal equivalence and similar values of power (W), absolute oxygen consumption (O2 - mL/min), relative O2 ( mL.Kg - 1.min -1), and HR at AT by the detection methods performed. In addition, by the Bland-Altman plot, HR confirmed good agreement between the methods with biases between -1.3 and 3.5 beats per minute. CONCLUSIONS (i) all detection methods were sensitive in identifying AT, including the HS applied to HR and (ii) the methods showed a good correlation in the identification of AT. Thus, these results support HR as valid and readily available parameter in determining AT in healthy elderly men.
The Terrorism Information Environment: Analysing Terrorists’ Selection of Ideological and Facilitative Media

ABSTRACT This article studies media material which individuals who planned or carried out acts of terrorism in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2017 collected before their involvement in these activities concluded. It explores the nature and type of content found, the “levels” of extremities that can be detected in these narratives as well as their source. It identifies repetitions in selection and differences in selection between lone actors and those who operated together in a group. Finally, it traces any temporal changes that emerged over the period under examination. The article presents the subjects’ collection of ideological and facilitative media as reflections of the information environment which was available to them that helped to shape their perspective. It argues that subjects’ selections and choices from a much wider pool of available sources of information represent actions or behaviours that are observable. Moreover, it argues that studying these patterns and dynamics should form an essential part of our understanding of the way in which terrorism features and unfolds in different contexts.
Case Studies for Method and Tool Evaluation

Case studies help industry evaluate the benefits of methods and tools and provide a cost-effective way to ensure that process changes provide the desired results. However, unlike formal experiments and surveys, case studies do not have a well-understood theoretical basis. This article provides guidelines for organizing and analyzing case studies so that they produce meaningful results. >