Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cyclic entropy of collaborative complex networks

Recent models of complex networks rely on degree-based properties evaluation, a new approach is proposed based on other microstructures existing in networks that are cycles (loops). Degree-based entropy measures the uncertainties in relationship whereas cycle-based (cyclic) entropy measures the uncertainties associated with the information feedback in collaboration network, namely WikipediaTM. On the basis of the values of cyclic and degree entropies measured in three different experiments on Wikipedia, the authors conclude that citation activity level in Wikipedia is low, specialisation level is high and low tendency toward contribution in topics with different authors.
Secret Key Generation and Agreement in UWB Communication Channels

It has been shown that the radio channel impulse response for a pair of legitimate Ultra-wide band (UWB) transceivers can be used to generate secret keys for secure communications. Past proposed secret key generation algorithms under-exploited the available number of secret key bits from the radio channel. This paper proposes a new efficient method for generation of the shared key where the transceivers use LDPC decoders to resolve the differences in their channel impulse response measurements caused by measurement noise. To ensure secret key agreement, a method of public discussion between the two users is performed using the syndrome from Hamming (7,3) binary codes. An algorithm is proposed to check the equality of generated keys for both legitimate users, and ensure error-free secure communication. The security of this algorithm has been verified by AVISPA. Comparisons are performed with previous work on secret key generation and it has been shown that this algorithm reliably generates longer secret keys in standard UWB radio channels.
Nanostructured p-Type Semiconductor Electrodes and Photoelectrochemistry of Their Reduction Processes

This review reports the properties of p -type semiconductors with nanostructured features employed as photocathodes in photoelectrochemical cells (PECs). Light absorption is crucial for the activation of the reduction processes occurring at the p -type electrode either in the pristine or in a modified/sensitized state. Beside thermodynamics, the kinetics of the electron transfer (ET) process from photocathode to a redox shuttle in the oxidized form are also crucial since the flow of electrons will take place correctly if the ET rate will overcome that one of recombination and trapping events which impede the charge separation produced by the absorption of light. Depending on the nature of the chromophore, i.e. , if the semiconductor itself or the chemisorbed dye-sensitizer, different energy levels will be involved in the cathodic ET process. An analysis of the general properties and requirements of electrodic materials of p -type for being efficient photoelectrocatalysts of reduction processes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) will be given. The working principle of p -type DSCs will be described and extended to other p -type PECs conceived and developed for the conversion of the solar radiation into chemical products of energetic/chemical interest like non fossil fuels or derivatives of carbon dioxide.
Diet affects the immune defence and life-history traits of an Arctiid moth Parasemia plantaginis

Questions: Does herbivores’ diet per se affect their immunocompetence? Do other fitness measures vary accordingly? Can the observed differences be explained by the chemical composition of the diets? Organisms: Full-sib families of Parasemia plantaginis (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). Methods: We reared larvae in laboratory on five different diets. We tested the encapsulation ability of the larvae with standard artificial implants. We also analysed the phenols, tannins and antioxidants in the diets. We then compared the encapsulation and chemical analysis results to other fitness measurements (pupal mass, development time, growth rate, survival and egg production). Results: We found that the ability of P. plantaginis to encapsulate a foreign object varies depending on the host plant species and that the ability corresponds with the amount of antioxidants in the diet. However, the other fitness measures did not correlate with encapsulation ability. We also found a significant host plant–genotype interaction in encapsulation ability suggesting heritable variation and a possible trade-off in specialization to different host plant species.
Terbuthylazine persistence in an organic amended soil

The aim of this work was to study the effect of the application of a solid waste from olive oil production (alperujo) on the movement and persistence of the herbicide terbuthylazine (N2-tert-butyl-6-chloro-N4-ethyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine). An experimental olive grove was divided in two plots: (i) Plot without organic amendment (blank) and (ii) Plot treated with alperujo during 3 years at a rate of 17920 kg of alperujo ha− 1. Terbuthylazine was applied to both plots at a rate of 2 kg ha− 1 a.i. Triplicates from each plot were sampled at 3 depths (0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm), air-dried, remains of olive leaves, grass roots, and stones removed and sieved through a 5 mm mesh sieve. Terbuthylazine was extracted with methanol 1:2 weight:volume ratio, the extracts were evaporated to dryness, resuspended in 2 mL of methanol, filtered and anylized by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Higher amounts of terbuthylazine were detected at each sampling depth in plots treated with alperujo. The increase in soil organic matter content upon amendment with alperujo slightly increased sorption, suggesting that other factors beside sorption affect terbuthylazine degradation rate in organic amended soils.
Short Proline‐Rich Antimicrobial Peptides Inhibit Either the Bacterial 70S Ribosome or the Assembly of its Large 50S Subunit

Short proline‐rich antimicrobial peptides (PrAMPs) are a promising class of antibiotics that use novel mechanisms, thus offering the potential to overcome the health threat of multiresistant pathogens. The peptides bind to the bacterial 70S ribosome and can inhibit protein translation. We report that PrAMPs can be divided into two classes, with each class binding to a different site, and thus use different lethal mechanisms. Oncocin‐type peptides inhibit protein translation in Escherichia coli by binding to the exit tunnel of the 70S ribosome with half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC50 values) of around 2 to 6 μmol L−1, whereas apidaecin‐type peptides block the assembly of the large (50S) subunit of the ribosome, resulting in similar IC50 values. The revealed mechanisms should allow the design of new antibiotics to overcome current bacterial resistance mechanisms.
Adaptive Tesselation of Subdivision Surfaces in OpenSG

For a variety of reasons subdivision surfaces have developed into a prominent member of the family of freeform shapes. Based on a standard polygonal mesh modeller can build various kinds of shapes using an arbitrary topology and special geometrical features like creases. However, the interactive display of subdivision surfaces in current scenegraph systems based on static levels of detail is unpractical, because of the exponentially increasing number of polygons during the subdivision steps. Therefore, an adaptive algorithm choosing only the necessary quads and triangles is required to obtain high-quality images at high frame rates. In this paper we present a rendering algorithm which dynamically adapts to static surface properties like curvature as well as to view-dependent properties like silhouette location and projection size. Without modifying the basis mesh, the method works patchwise and tesselates each patch recursively using a new data structure, called slate . Besides these geometric properties the algorithm can also adapt to the graphics load in order to achieve a desired frame rate in the scenegraph system OpenSG.
Projecting the Long-Term Impact of School- or Community-Based Mass-Treatment Interventions for Control of Schistosoma Infection

Background Schistosomiasis remains a significant health burden in many areas of the world. Morbidity control, focused on limiting infection intensity through periodic delivery of anti-schistosomal medicines, is the thrust of current World Health Organization guidelines (2006) for reduction of Schistosoma-related disease. A new appreciation of the lifetime impact of repeated Schistosoma infection has directed attention toward strategies for greater suppression of parasite infection per se, with the goal of transmission interruption. Variations in drug schedules involving increased population coverage and/or treatment frequency are now undergoing field trials. However, their relative effectiveness in long-term infection suppression is presently unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings Our study used available field data to calibrate advanced network models of village-level Schistosoma transmission to project outcomes of six different community- or school age-based programs, as compared to the impact of current 2006 W.H. O. recommended control strategies. We then scored the number of years each of 10 typical villages would remain below 10% infection prevalence (a practicable level associated with minimal prevalence of disease). All strategies that included four annual treatments effectively reduced community prevalence to less than 10%, while programs having yearly gaps (‘holidays’) failed to reach this objective in half of the communities. Effective post-program suppression of infection prevalence persisted in half of the 10 villages for 7–10 years, whereas in five high-risk villages, program effects on prevalence lasted zero to four years only. Conclusions/Significance At typical levels of treatment adherence (60 to 70%), current WHO recommendations will likely not achieve effective suppression of Schistosoma prevalence unless implemented for ≥6 years. Following more aggressive 4 year annual intervention, some communities may be able to continue without further intervention for 8–10 years, while in higher-risk communities, annual treatment may prove necessary until eco-social factors fostering transmission are removed. Effective ongoing surveillance and locally targeted annual intervention must then become their mainstays of control.
How to Easily Make Self-Sensing Pneumatic Inverse Artificial Muscles

Wearable mechatronics for powered orthoses, exoskeletons and prostheses require improved soft actuation systems acting as ‘artificial muscles’ that are capable of large strains, high stresses, fast response and self-sensing and that show electrically safe operation, low specific weight and large compliance. Among the diversity of soft actuation technologies under investigation, pneumatic devices have been the focus, during the last couple of decades, of renewed interest as an intrinsically soft artificial muscle technology, due to technological advances stimulated by applications in soft robotics. As of today, quite a few solutions are available to endow a pneumatic soft device with linear actuation and self-sensing ability, while also easily achieving these features with off-the-shelf materials and low-cost fabrication processes. Here, we describe a simple process to make self-sensing pneumatic actuators, which may be used as ‘inverse artificial muscles’, as, upon pressurisation, they elongate instead of contracting. They are made of an elastomeric tube surrounded by a plastic coil, which constrains radial expansions. As a novelty relative to the state of the art, the self-sensing ability was obtained with a piezoresistive stretch sensor shaped as a conductive elastomeric body along the tube’s central axis. Moreover, we detail, also by means of video clips, a step-by-step manufacturing process, which uses off-the-shelf materials and simple procedures, so as to facilitate reproducibility.
Harvard Medical School Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Course: What is the Global Impact? Three Year’s Results

Purpose: This paper describes and documents an innovative blended learning Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery certificate training course. This course combines a two-week face-to-face training in Orvieto, Italy with a five-month follow-up online virtual training as a learning experience for global health care practitioners. Continuing medical education (CME) accreditation is offered upon completion. This course utilized an innovative blended learning model with a community of practice approach, a combination of lectures and discussions, and online in-depth group case study discussions. Methodology: Data was collected by self-reported anonymous evaluation by participants of three continuous years of the CME Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery certificate training course sponsored by Harvard Medical School. One hundred fifty-five participants (n= 39 in 2011; n = 57 in 2012; n=59 in 2013) underwent a pre- and post-course evaluation to determine sustained confidence in performing medical and psychiatric care to traumatized patients and communities, as well as to determine their learning of the Global Mental Health Action Plan (GMHAP). Results: Over the course of three independent years, a total of 155 participants were evaluated. There was evidence for significant improvement in their confidence levels in all clinical areas (diagnosis; treatment of trauma; use of psychotropic medication) when comparing baseline to completion of the six-month course. All ten dimensions of the GMHAP and nine medical and psychiatric aspects of treatment revealed significant improvement in confidence levels. Regression analysis also indicated similar results after the adjustment of demographic covariates. Physicians and participants with mental health and social work background had significantly higher confidence. Participants who were MD’s or psychiatrists had higher confidence in most of the categories of confidence except for self-care, understanding culture, collaboration, and policy and financing. The model showed no difference in learning based upon gender and level of development of country of origin. Conclusion: The evaluation of this blended learning CME program provides evidence of significant enhancement of clinical practice and planning skills in health care practitioners working with highly traumatized patients and communities worldwide. This successful training over the past 18 years has gone far to achieve the health and mental health capacity building as requested by the Ministers of Health from post-conflict societies in the historic Rome meeting in 2004.
Data Assimilation of Terrestrial Water Storage to Adjust Precipitation Fluxes

GRACE Observations Motivation & Background Data Assimilation of Terrestrial Water Storage to Adjust Precipitation Fluxes Manuela Girotto, Rolf Reichle, Matthew Rodell, Viviana Maggioni, Bart Forman 1 Global Modeling and Assimilation Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA; 2 GESTAR, Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, USA; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA ; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
On generating compact, passive models of frequency-described systems

Increasing system integration and tighter design constraints and specifications make it necessary to account for the non-ideal behavior of all the elements in a system. For high-speed digital, and microwave systems, it is increasingly important to model previously neglected frequency domain effects. In this context, the problem of creating time domain models from tabulated frequency data, representing a device's input-output relationship is of paramount importance. Such models must possess acceptable accuracy and also be very compact as they may be extensively used in later simulations. An important class of devices that are often described by, tabulated frequency domain data is that of passive devices. In this paper we discuss several two-step algorithms based on a combination of rational interpolation with standard model order reduction procedures that is aimed at generating accurate multiport models from tabulated S-parameter data. We show that important system properties such as passivity can be maintained while generating compact models that are amenable to direct inclusion in standard time-domain simulators.
Smartphone sensing for large data set collection of potholes

Smartphone sensing for large data set collection of potholes is useful for monitoring transportation system intelligently. Collecting large data set of different information sources such as frequency of taking brakes, honks, potholes,black-spots etc becomes gigantic task by manual method. We have developed smartphone sensing based method which uses crowdsourcing to collect real large data set of pothole data from the field. In this work the method to locate and sense potholes using sensors in smartphones is discussed along with its implimentation results.We have shown how we have used crowdsourcing techniques to collect large data set on potholes efficiently using sensors available in smartphones and processing the data obtained as required for our purpose.
Mexican Version of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale

The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) has been reputed as a quick, valid, and reliable method to assess Daytime sleepiness (DS). Since its publication, it has been translated into a number of languages. Our aim was to determine valid- ity and reliability indicators of an Spanish language version ESS for Mexican population. Considering that in developing countries the majority of persons use public transportation, validity and reliability indicators were also assessed utilizing the ESS without item 8. ESS was applied to a Group of college students (GCS), a selected group of Healthy subjects (HS), and a Group of patients with Sleep disorders (GPSD). We made an ESS comparison among the 3 groups, calculated the correlation between the ESS and the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and determined construct validity and internal consistency. GCS and GHS had lower ESS scores than GPSD. Regarding convergence validity, we obtained a negative correlation between the ESS and the MSLT; we also found a rise in the ESS score associated with an increase in the Ap- nea-hypopnea index (AHI). With respect to construct validity (employing main component analysis and varimax rotation), we found that one factor explains 52.01% of variance. We determined that the ESS internal consistency was 0.85. When item eight was suppressed, validity and reliability remained acceptable. The present ESS Spanish-language exhibited suit- able levels of validity and reliability. Use of the ESS, suppressing item eight, allows assessment of DS more accurately in individuals who do not travel by automobile on a regular basis.
Measure of the color of beach nourishment sands: A case study from the Belgium coast

The aesthetical perception of a beach as a recreational place is closely linked to the sand color. This is one of the most perceptible characteristics of a beach. Sand color can be altered after a nourishment work. This type of works is becoming more and more popular since they represent a good tool for preserving beaches from erosion. However, only little (or none) attention has been paid to sand color during nourishment works. Colors of the sands from the Belgian coast were determined in the Cielab space, together with their granulometry and composition. Color coordinates range between 50 and 60 for L*, 0.5 to 4.0 for a*, and 10.5 to 16.5 for b*. The composition shows a dominant quartz fraction, followed by shell fragments and finally rock fragments. Granulometry is rather homogeneous, being the grain distribution for the east part of the coast narrower than for the west coast. This work describes the methodology for performing colorimetric analysis in sand beaches before a nourishment work, together with the main acceptance criteria when choosing the appropriate sand for replacement.
Improved Low Voltage Grid-Integration of Photovoltaic Systems in Germany

This work discusses the technical and economical benefits of different active and reactive power control strategies for grid-connected photovoltaic systems in Germany. The aim of these control strategies is to limit the voltage rise, caused by a high local photovoltaic power feed-in and hence allow additional photovoltaic capacity to be connected to the mains. Autonomous inverter control strategies, which do not require any kind of data communication between the inverter and its environment, as well as an on-load tap changer for distribution transformers, is investigated. The technical and economical assessment of these strategies is derived from 12-month root mean square (rms) simulations, which are based on a real low voltage grid and measured dc power generation values. The results show that the provision of reactive power is an especially effective way to increase the hosting capacity of a low voltage grid for photovoltaic systems.
The nature of protein dipole moments: experimental and calculated permanent dipole of alpha-chymotrypsin.

The electric dichroism of alpha-chymotrypsin has been measured in buffers of various pH values and ion compositions. The stationary dichroism obtained as a function of the electric field strength is not compatible with an induced dipole mechanism and clearly shows that alpha-chymotrypsin is associated with a substantial permanent dipole moment. After correction for the internal directing electric field according to a sphere model, the dipole moment is 1.6 X 10(-27) C m at pH 8.3 (corresponding to 480 D). This value decreases with decreasing pH (to 1.2 X 10(-27) C m at pH 4.2), but is almost independent of the monovalent salt concentration in the range from 2 to 12 mM and of Mg2+ addition up to 1 mM. The assignment of the permanent dipole moment is confirmed by analysis of the dichroism rise curves. The dichroism decay time constants of (31 +/- 1) ns at 2 degrees C can be represented by a spherical model with a radius of 25-26 A, which is consistent with the known X-ray structure. The limiting linear dichroism is slightly dependent on the buffer composition and demonstrates subtle variations of the protein structure. As a complement to the experimental results, electric and hydrodynamic parameters of alpha-chymotrypsin have been calculated according to the known X-ray structure. Bead model simulations provide the center of diffusion, which is used to calculate dipole moments according to the equilibrium charge distribution evaluated from standard pK values. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)