Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aesthetic cybernetics: turning towards senses of man and machine

Experiences from simulation studies of industrial control systems and performing art oriented human-machine installation suggest how cybernetics may benefit from art and vice versa. We argue for a constructive and analytic multi-focus on control and communication in the animal and the machine aiming at a close integration of art, science and technology. An industrial simulation project for the design of a new container terminal (harbour-logistics) and four public performances demonstrating human/machine interaction are presented: theater of machines, sensory garden and others. Possible impacts for systems design and mechatronics education are discussed
Combined receiver for multi-block transmission

We proposed a new signal transmission scheme for a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) communication system, in which the signals are encoded to span multi-block channel realizations and received by a linear equalizer followed by a maximum likelihood (ML) detector. The proposed system achieves a diversity gain proportional to the number of blocks of channels over which the signals span. The detection complexity is comparable to that of a linear receiver, with additional complexity independent of the number of antennas. A general criterion for designing the optimal precoder is presented. A design example is provided. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of such a combination.
Transgenic DNA introgressed into traditional maize landraces in Oaxaca , Mexico

Brownell, R. L. Jr, Best, P. B. & Prescott, J. H. ) 145±151 (Rep. Int. Whaling Comm. Special Issue 10, Cambridge, 1986). 19. Knowlton, A. R. in Shipping/Right Whale Workshop (eds Knowlton, A. R., Kraus, S. D., Meck, D. F. & Mooney-Seus, M. L.) 31±36 (New England Aquarium Aquatic Forum Series Report 97±3, Massachusetts, 1997). 20. Planque, B. & Reid, P. C. Predicting Calanus ®nmarchicus abundance from a climatic signal. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. UK 78, 1015±1018 (1998). 21. Holden, C. Whale baby boomlet. Science 291, 429 (2001). 22. Hosmer, D. W. & Lemeshow, D. Applied Logistic Regression (Wiley, New York, 1989).
Quantum interference effects in electron transport through nitrobenzene with pyridil anchor groups

We present density-functional theory (DFT) based nonequilibrium Green's function calculations for the conductance through a nitrobenzene molecule, which is anchored by pyridil groups to Au electrodes. This work is building up on earlier theoretical studies where quantum interference effects (QIE) have been identified both in qualitative tight binding and in DFT descriptions for the same molecule with different chemical connections to the leads. The current contribution is twofold. (i) The pyridil anchors guarantee for the conductance to be determined by rather narrow peaks situated closely to the Fermi energy which is relevant because it might maximize the impact of quantum interferences on the $I/V$ behavior. In a scan of eight different junction setups, where the connection sites of aromatic rings, their torsion angle with respect to each other and the surface structure have been varied, QIE was found to dominate the conductance for only one planar geometry. For finite torsion angles between aromatic rings the effect moves to higher energies and would therefore only be accessible for experimental observation in a gated junction. (ii) A detailed comparison between simple topological models and DFT results for the investigated systems aims at assessing the usefulness of such models as analysis tools for a better understanding of the physics of QIE and its structure dependence.
BLACKHOLE DETECTION IN MANETS USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are one of the fastest growing areas of research. A MANET is a collection of communication devices or nodes that wish to communicate without any fixed infrastructure and predetermined organization of available links. Some characteristics of MANETs such as communication via wireless links, resource constraints (such as bandwidth and battery power), cooperation between the nodes due to communication protocols and dynamic topologies make it more vulnerable to attacks. Black hole attack is a wellknown security threat in mobile ad hoc networks. A black hole attack node attracts all packets by falsely claiming a fresh route to the destination node and absorbs them without forwarding them to destination. In recent years, different approaches have been implemented to improve the security of MANETs. The aim of this paper is to design a mechanism of blackhole detection based on artificial neural networks (ANNs). Using a simulated MANET environment, ANNs modelling for detecting the blackhole attack is investigated and it is showed that mopdel can detect nodes under blackhole attack effectively.
A mosaicing algorithm for series of microscope images based on minimum cost spanning tree

Available methods for a series of microscope images mosaicing can not meet the requirement of large scale microscope images mosaicing with high quality requirements. A mosaicing algorithm for a series of microscope images based on minimum cost spanning tree of mosaicing graph is proposed and implemented in 3 steps: a) the local registrations based on blocking-spatial clustering, b) the evaluation of the results of images registrations to assign weights of edges of the mosaicing graph, and c) the global images mosaicing approach based on minimum cost spanning tree to calculate optimal global position for every image in order to construct panorama in high quality. The algorithm can be implemented easily and features high accuracy in the experiments.
Inhibition of Cell Cycle Pathway by Flavopiridol Promotes Survival of Cerebellar Granule Cells after an Excitotoxic Treatment

Kainic acid (KA)-induced neuronal damage and the protective effects of flavopiridol were studied in primary cultures of rat cerebellar granule cells (CGNs). When neurons were treated with 500 μM KA, the percentage of cells with condensed nuclei measured by nuclear counting increased by up to 55%. After flavopiridol treatment, an antitumoral drug that is a broad inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases, the percentage of condensed nuclei decreased by up to 26%. Furthermore, this KA-mediated cell death was only partially dependent on the activation of the initiator caspase-9 and the effector caspases-3 and -6. This argues for a minor role of caspases in the intracellular pathway leading to KA-induced programmed cell death in CGNs. We examined the possible implication of cell cycle proteins in KA-induced neurotoxicity. We found an increase in the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen and E2F-1, two proteins implicated in S-phase, by Western blot. KA increased bromodeoxyuridine incorporation in CGNs, a marker of cell proliferation, and flavopiridol attenuated this effect. These results indicated that flavopiridol decreased the expression of cell cycle markers in CGNs after KA treatment. Flavopiridol might thus be used as a preventive agent against neurodegenerative diseases associated with cell cycle activation.
Does C-Reactive Protein Contribute to Atherothrombosis Via Oxidant-Mediated Release of Pro-Thrombotic Factors and Activation of Platelets?

Inflammation and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. Although C-reactive protein (CRP) has traditionally been considered to be a biomarker of inflammation, recent in vitro and in vivo studies have provided evidence that CRP, itself, exerts pro-thrombotic effects on vascular cells and may thus play a critical role in the development of atherothrombosis. Of particular importance is that CRP interacts with Fcγ receptors on cells of the vascular wall giving rise to the release of pro-thrombotic factors. The present review focuses on distinct sources of CRP-mediated ROS generation as well as the pivotal role of ROS in CRP-induced tissue factor expression. These studies provide considerable insight into the role of the oxidative mechanisms in CRP-mediated stimulation of pro-thrombotic factors and activation of platelets. Collectively, the available data provide strong support for ROS playing an important intermediary role in the relationship between CRP and atherothrombosis.
Trace Reduction and Pattern Analysis to Assist Debugging in Model-Based Testing

Model-based testing (MBT) is a technique for generating test cases from test models. One of the benefits of MBT is the ability to have a computer generate and execute extensive test sets from the test models, achieving high coverage. However, when such large test sets are automatically generated and executed, the resulting failure traces can be very large and difficult to debug for root cause analysis. In this paper, we present a technique for minimizing the length of a failure trace, creating variants of it, and for pattern mining the trace variants to assist in root cause analysis. We demonstrate the technique on a model of a GSM SIM card.
Response of serum C-reactive protein to percutaneous coronary intervention has prognostic value.

BACKGROUND Data are sparse regarding the association between C-reactive protein (CRP) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in long-term prognosis. Previous studies have shown that PCI evokes an inflammatory response. We tested the hypothesis that the CRP response to PCI has a prognostic value. METHODS We investigated 891 consecutive patients presenting with stable or unstable angina pectoris, with serum concentrations of cardiac troponin T < or =0.03 microg/L, who were undergoing a variety of PCIs. Serum concentrations of CRP and cardiac troponin T were determined before and the day after PCI. The mean follow-up time after PCI was 2.6 years, and the endpoint was death or nonfatal myocardial infarction. RESULTS Seventy-six patients reached the endpoint (4.6% death, 3.9% nonfatal myocardial infarction), whereas 21% developed myocardial infarction during the procedure. CRP increased more than 2-fold after the procedure. Patients in the third tertile of the CRP response to PCI had an increased risk for death or nonfatal myocardial infarction in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS Increased serum CRP in response to PCI is an independent predictor of death or nonfatal myocardial infarction independent of myocardial injury during the procedure. CRP determinations might be of value in risk stratification after PCI.
Machine Learning Based Autism Detection Using Brain Imaging

i ABBREVIATIONS . ii FIGURES. x TABLES. xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Autism Spectrum Disorder . 1 1.2 Importance of early detection of ASD . 2 1.3 Problem 1: Behavior based diagnosis of ASD is late and does not help to understand underpinnings of ASD . 3 1.4 Problem 2: Inconsistent brain anatomical findings in ASD . 4 1.5 Problem 3: Low Classification success in large multi-site data . 4 1.6 Thesis Contributions . 4 1.6. 1 Demonstrating MRI as a potential tool for detection . 5 1.6. 2 Relating inconsistent findings and low classification success to ASD heterogeneity and methodological differences . 5 1.6. 3 Providing the evidence of brain image processing tool dependent findings and suggesting multi-variate techniques as a partial solution . 6 1.6. 4 Divide and Conquer: we propose identifying brain biomarkers in sub-groups of ASD is easier and more meaningful than across the whole spectrum . 7 1.6. 5 Brain biomarkers discovery for early detection of ASD . 7 1.7 Thesis Organization . 8 1.7. 1 Chapter 1: Introduction . 8
Locating Post Offices Using Fuzzy Goal Programming and Geographical Information System (GIS)

This paper deals with the problem of locating new post offices in a megacity. To do so, a combination of geographical information system (GIS) and fuzzy goal programming (FGP) is used. In order to locate new offices, first six types of service facilities with high levels of interactions with post offices are defined. Then, aspiration level of proximity for each service facility is determined. Based on these values, a fuzzy goal programming model is constructed to find potential locations of facilities. In order to determine the optimal locations among potential facilities, a maximal covering location problem (MCLP) is solved and results are reported. Results show that although the current state is near-optimal, for future expansions of the network, the government should spend money on central and southern parts of this megacity.
Engineering Hedonic Attributes to Generate Perceptions of Luxury:Consumer Perception of an Everyday Sound

For the last twenty years, the perception of hedonic attributes has been a problematic matter in consumer research. We argue that the perception of a hedonic product attribute should not be considered as an irreducible holistic experience, but rather as a complex set of sensory experiences, the components of which are identifiable and quantifiable. We provide evidence for this position by proposing a reliable method linking the features of product-related sound stimuli to consumer perception of hedonic attributes. To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind offering a detailed investigation of consumer perception of everyday sounds (as opposed to music). We discuss managerial and consumer-level implications of the findings and provide an agenda for future research.
Functional Categories Associated with Clusters of Genes That Are Co-Expressed across the NCI-60 Cancer Cell Lines

Background The NCI-60 is a panel of 60 diverse human cancer cell lines used by the U.S. National Cancer Institute to screen compounds for anticancer activity. In the current study, gene expression levels from five platforms were integrated to yield a single composite transcriptome profile. The comprehensive and reliable nature of that dataset allows us to study gene co-expression across cancer cell lines. Methodology/Principal Findings Hierarchical clustering revealed numerous clusters of genes in which the genes co-vary across the NCI-60. To determine functional categorization associated with each cluster, we used the Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium database and the GoMiner tool. GO maps genes to hierarchically-organized biological process categories. GoMiner can leverage GO to perform ontological analyses of gene expression studies, generating a list of significant functional categories. Conclusions/Significance GoMiner analysis revealed many clusters of coregulated genes that are associated with functional groupings of GO biological process categories. Notably, those categories arising from coherent co-expression groupings reflect cancer-related themes such as adhesion, cell migration, RNA splicing, immune response and signal transduction. Thus, these clusters demonstrate transcriptional coregulation of functionally-related genes.
An error analysis on locally linear embedding

Locally linear embedding (LLE) has been proved to an efficient tool for nonlinear dimensionality reduction. It is an unsupervised learning method with various attractive properties, such as few parameters to select and non prone to local minima. However, few works have been done on analyzing learning errors for LLE. In this paper, we conduct an error analysis on the LLE method and show that under what conditions LLE would be able to correctly discover the underlying manifold structure. Besides, we also present reconstruction errors between the local weights in the embedding and the ambient space, which is crucial to the success of LLE.
Race, Prostitution and the New Left: the Postwar Inner City through Janet Mendelsohn's 'Social Eye'

In autumn 1967 Janet Mendelsohn, an American graduate of Radcliffe College, Harvard, enrolled as a student at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham, England. The two years that Mendelsohn spent in Birmingham were a period of rapid social change. Following the 1964 election of the Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths on an overtly anti-immigrant ticket in nearby Smethwick, the region became seen as an epicentre of growing hostilities towards the presence of recently arrived communities from the Caribbean, South Asia and East Africa. This was exacerbated when in April 1968 the Conservative shadow-cabinet member Enoch Powell made what quickly became a notorious intervention in debates around race and immigration with a speech at a central Birmingham hotel. Like other cities Birmingham’s built environment was also changing in this period, not least through an accelerated programme of slum clearance in many of the inner-city areas where immigrants had settled. Between 1967 and 1969 as many as 14,000 houses were demolished in such areas and Birmingham was ‘renewing itself faster than any other city in Europe’. The work Mendelsohn produced during this period was both a representation of such changes and an exploration into how they were experienced by those who were often most affected by them. In this respect, Mendelsohn’s work was to some extent in keeping with what had by the late 1960s become a significant strand of mainstream sociology. What was distinctive about her project was her methodology. Mendelsohn proposed to use photography as her primary tool for examining the changes taking place around her. Using her two cameras – a Leica M3 and a Nikon F – Mendelsohn was to take some 3,000 photographs in Birmingham, primarily in Balsall Heath, an inner-city ‘twilight zone’ less than two miles from the CCCS base on the University of Birmingham campus. As well as being a site of immigration, Balsall Heath was also significant as the city’s largest ‘red light’ district. This would provide the other critical strand of Mendelsohn’s work. Alongside her photography Mendelsohn also conducted numerous interviews with her subjects – including with ‘Kathleen’, a woman whom Mendelsohn identified as a sex worker
GrailOS: A micro-kernel based, multi-server, multi-personality operating system

A multi-server, multi-personality operating system has often been seen as the holy grail of the micro-kernel based systems research agenda. Unfortunately to date there have been limited success in achieving this grand vision, and it is no longer a hot-topic in the operating systems community, despite a recent renaissance of micro-kernels in general. In this paper I argue that new problems exist that motivate the need for such an operating system structure, and that recent advances in technology allow such a project to succeed now, where it had failed in the past. Finally I outline a set of research to be undertaken to attack this problem.
MicroRNA-directed cleavage of targets: mechanism and experimental approaches

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a large family of post-transcriptional regulators, which are 21-24 nt in length and play a role in a wide variety of biological processes in eukaryotes. The past few years have seen rapid progress in our understanding of miRNA biogenesis and the mechanism of action, which commonly entails a combination of target degradation and translational repression. The target degradation mediated by Argonaute-catalyzed endonucleolytic cleavage exerts a significant repressive effect on target mRNA expression, particularly during rapid developmental transitions. This review outlines the current understanding of the mechanistic aspects of this important process and discusses several different experimental approaches to identify miRNA cleavage targets. [BMB Reports 2014; 47(8): 417-423]
Perspectives of high-voltage SiC-semiconductors in high power conversion systems for wind and photovoltaic sources

SiC devices become increasingly interesting at higher blocking voltages against their Si-based counterparts in order to reduce losses and obtain cost savings by means of higher switching frequency and low component count. The possible gains along with an overview of related constraints valid at high power levels will be discussed in this publication, taking as example power conversion nstages for photovoltaic and wind energy systems.
LABERIO: Dynamic load-balanced Routing in OpenFlow-enabled Networks

In data center networks, how to balance workloads is a key issue with the fast growth of network applications. Open Flow protocol, which is a competitive candidate for solving the problem, provides each user the programmatic control for specific flows, so as to determine their paths through a network. However, existing solutions based on Open Flow only try to find a static routing path during initialization step while the static routing path often suffers from poor performance since the network configuration may change during the data transmission. To solve the problem, this paper proposes LABERIO, a novel path-switching algorithm, to balance the traffic dynamically during the transmission. Experiments on two kinds of network architectures demonstrate that LABERIO outperform other typical load balancing algorithms like Round Robin and LOBUS by reducing up to 13% transmission time.
Tool Condition Monitoring based on sound and vibration analysis and wavelet packet decomposition

Tool Condition Monitoring (TCM) is a vital demand of advanced manufacturing in order to develop automated unmanned production. Continuing the machining operation with a worn or damaged tool will result in damages to the workpiece. This problem becomes more important in supplementary machining processes like drilling which the workpiece usually has passed a lot of machining processes and any damage to workpiece at this stage results in high production losses. In this research features of sound pressure and vibration signals in drilling process are recorded and analyzed in order to detect tool wear. Signal statistical features are extracted in time domain, and the features trends as the tool becomes worn are extracted. Frequency spectrum of signals is calculated and Wavelet Packet Decomposition (WPD) is applied to focus on specific frequency bands. In this research capability of both sound and vibration signals for drill wear detection are shown and the most informative features of the signals for wear detection are evaluated and introduced. The results showed that the wavelet packets features make a better contrast between the sharp and the worn tool compared to the primary time domain signal.
SWSCF: A Semantic-based Web Service Composition Framework

Web service composition is gaining a considerable momentum as an approach to the effective integration of distributed, heterogeneous, and autonomous application. Current composed service processes are mostly generated in the syntactic level and in a manual way. The limitation of the approach is that it does not allow business to dynamic change partners and services. In order to avoid this disadvantage, it is critical to map complex business from abstract process to executable flows according to application domain semantics and dynamic business requirements. In this paper, we first present a semantic-based Web service composition framework called SWSCF based on both semantic process recommendation and semantic matchmaking. Then, we analyze some key technologies including: (1) Introducing hierarchical activity mechanism for dynamic decomposition of business requirements to find a suitable semantic process template; (2) Searching and selecting service chain to match a semantic activity template which is used to specify an abstract activity; (3) Devising heterogeneous message transforming mechanism to eliminate the incompatible message types during generating data flow of an executable process. Furthermore, by comparison with some service composition frameworks, we prove SWSCF to be more flexible and effective.