Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Space Time Combination Technique for Unsynchronized Cooperative Miso Transmission

In the context of cooperative multi-input multi-output (MIMO) techniques for wireless sensor networks, the transmission synchronization error impact is investigated in this paper and a new space-time combination technique is proposed. Cooperative MIMO techniques have been recently studied in order to reduce the energy consumption in distributed wireless sensor networks. Differing from classical MIMO systems, the cooperative antennas are physically separated in a cooperative system which leads to the unsynchronized cooperative transmission. The transmission synchronization error generates inter-symbol interference (ISI) and decreases the desired signal amplitude at the receiver, leading to a performance degradation and an additional energy required for data transmission. For small range of synchronization error, the performance degradation is negligible and the cooperative system performance is rather tolerant. However, for large range of error, the degradation is significant. A new space time combination technique is proposed for a cooperative multi-input single-output (MISO) system using Alamouti codes. The proposed technique combines two sequences of the received signal sampled at different times in order to perform an orthogonal combination. This technique has a better tolerance to the transmission synchronization error and also a low complexity. The significant advantage of using this new combination technique over traditional Alamouti combination is illustrated by simulations over a Rayleigh fading channel.
Effect of implant surface microtopography by hydroxyapatite grit-blasting on adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of osteoblast-like cell line, MG-63

Objective: This study examined the potential of the in vitro osteogenesis of microtopographically modified surfaces, RBM (resorbable blasting media) surfaces, which generate hydroxyapatite grit-blasting. Methods: RBM surfaces were modified hydroxyapatite grit-blasting to produce microtopographically modified surfaces and the surface morphology, roughness or elements were examined. To investigate the potential of the in vitro osteogenesis, the osteoblastic cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation were examined using the human osteoblast-like cell line, MG-63 cells. Osteoblastic cell proliferation was examined as a function of time. In addition, osteoblastic cell differentiation was verified using four different methods of an ALP activity assay, a mineralization assay using alizarin red-s staining, and gene expression of osteoblastic differentiation marker using RT-PCR or ELISA. Results: Osteoblastic cell adhesion, proliferation and ALP activity was elevated on the RBM surfaces compared to the machined group. The cells exhibited a high level of gene expression of the osteoblastic differentiation makers (osteonectin, type Ⅰ collagen, Runx-2, osterix). imilar data was represented in the ELISA produced similar results in that the RBM surface increased the level of osteocalcin, osteopontin, TGF-beta1 and PGE2 secretion, which was known to stimulate the osteogenesis. Moreover, alizarin red-s staining revealed significantly more mineralized nodules on the RBM surfaces than the machined discs. Conclusion: RBM surfaces modified with hydroxyapatite grit-blasting stimulate the in vitro osteogenesis of MG-63 cells and may accelerate bone formation and increase bone-implant contact.
Relationships among informal learning environments, teaching procedures and scientific reasoning ability

Informal learning experiences have risen to the forefront of science education as being beneficial to students' learning. However, it is not clear in what ways such experiences may be beneficial to students; nor how informal learning experiences may interface with classroom science instruction. This study aims to acquire a better understanding of these issues by investigating one aspect of science learning, scientific reasoning ability, with respect to the students' informal learning experiences and classroom science instruction. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate possible differences in students' scientific reasoning abilities relative to their informal learning environments (impoverished, enriched), classroom teaching experiences (non-inquiry, inquiry) and the interaction of these variables. The results of two-way ANOVAs indicated that informal learning environments and classroom science teaching procedures showed significant main effects on students' scientific reasoning abilities. Students with enriched informal learning environments had significantly higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those with impoverished informal learning environments. Likewise, students in inquirybased science classrooms showed higher scientific reasoning abilities compared to those in non-inquiry science classrooms. There were no significant interaction effects. These results indicate the need for increased emphases on both informal learning opportunities and inquiry-based instruction in science.
Botulinum toxin modulates cortical maladaptation in post‐stroke spasticity

Introduction: Maladaptive plasticity involving the unaffected hemisphere (UH) in stroke patients may contribute to post‐stroke deficits, including spasticity. We investigated the central and peripheral effects of botulinum toxin in post‐stroke spasticity to determine whether there is modulation of cortical processes in the UH. Methods: Transcranial magnetic stimulation and peripheral nerve excitability studies were undertaken in 5 stroke patients with upper limb spasticity before (T1) and 6 weeks after (T2) botulinum injection. Results: Transcranial magnetic stimulation demonstrated inexcitable motor cortices of the affected hemisphere at T1 and T2, and short‐interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) in the UH was significantly reduced at T1. At T2, SICI in the UH increased significantly compared with T1, normalizing to controls, and was found to be associated with clinical improvements in spasticity. Peripheral excitability parameters were unchanged after injection. Conclusion: Cortical excitability changes were demonstrated in UH, suggesting that the clinical benefits of botulinum toxin relate to modulation of abnormal central reorganization (maladaptive plasticity) in post‐stroke spasticity. Muscle Nerve, 2013
Usefulness of a new malodour-compound detection portable device in oral malodour diagnosis

A new device (BB Checker®) able to detect malodour compounds has recently been made available. This retrospective analysis aimed at evaluating the usefulness of this device as adjunct tool for the diagnosis of oral malodour. Data from 100 consecutive volunteers with bad breath complaints attending their first consultation at a halitosis clinic were analysed. In addition to the standard protocol (organoleptic ratings from mouth and nose air, and from tongue coating when present; OralChroma™ and Halimeter® measurements from mouth air; and intra-oral examinations), oral, exhaled and nasal air samples were examined with the BB Checker®. We could not establish a correlation between the BB Checker® values and the organoleptic scores, or the sulfur-compound levels determined by the OralChroma™ or the Halimeter® (R < 0.3, p > 0.05). The overall sensitivity and specificity of the new device did not exceed the 50%. The correlations between the organoleptic scores and the OralChroma™ and the Halimeter® measurements were good and in line with previous reports (R between 0.56 and 0.73). Our results do not favour the use of the BB Checker® as adjunct tool in the diagnosis of oral malodour.
20-Hydroxyeicosatetraeonic Acid: A New Target for the Treatment of Hypertension

Arachidonic acid is metabolized by enzymes of the CYP4A and 4F families to 20-hydroxyeicosatetraeonic acid (20-HETE), which plays an important role in the regulation of renal function, vascular tone, and the long-term control of arterial pressure. In the vasculature, 20-HETE is a potent vasoconstrictor, and upregulation of the production of this compound contributes to the elevation in oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction and the increase in peripheral vascular resistance associated with some forms of hypertension. In kidney, 20-HETE inhibits Na+ transport in the proximal tubule and thick ascending loop of Henle, and deficiencies in the renal formation of 20-HETE contributes to sodium retention and development of some salt-sensitive forms of hypertension. 20-HETE also has renoprotective actions and opposes the effects of transforming growth factor β to promote proteinuria and renal end organ damage in hypertension. Several new inhibitors of the synthesis of 20-HETE and 20-HETE agonists and antagonists have recently been developed. These compounds along with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α agonists that induce the renal formation of 20-HETE seem to have promise as antihypertensive agents. This review summarizes the rationale for the development of drugs that target the 20-HETE pathway for the treatment of hypertension and associated cardiovascular complications.
Short- and Long-Term Effects on the Victims of Terror in Sri Lanka

Summary Due to two decades of ethnic war in Sri Lanka, victims of terror have been profoundly affected psychologically and socially. The impact is seen at the individual, family, and community levels. Epidemiological surveys show that civilians have experienced widespread traumatization, with high levels of somatization, anxiety, depression, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), relationship problems, and alcohol abuse. At the community level, the cumulative effect of terror is collective trauma, with a general tendency to mistrust, dependence, silence, withdrawal, passivity, and lack of motivation. Socially, there is evidence of deterioration in values and ethics with marked increases in child abuse, violence against women, crime, and brutalization.
Institutionen för systemteknik Department of Electrical Engineering Examensarbete Autonomous Morphometrics using Depth Cameras for Object Classification and Identification

Identification of individuals has been solved with many different solutions around the world, either using biometric data or external means of verification such as id cards or RFID tags. The advantage of using biometric measurements is that they are directly tied to the individual and are usually unalterable. Acquiring dependable measurements is however challenging when the individuals are uncooperative. A dependable system should be able to deal with this and produce reliable identifications. The system proposed in this thesis can autonomously classify uncooperative specimens from depth data. The data is acquired from a depth camera mounted in an uncontrolled environment, where it was allowed to continuously record for two weeks. This requires stable data extraction and normalization algorithms to produce good representations of the specimens. Robust descriptors can therefore be extracted from each sample of a specimen and together with different classification algorithms, the system can be trained or validated. Even with as many as 138 different classes the system achieves high recognition rates. Inspired by the research field of face recognition, the best classification algorithm, the method of fisherfaces, was able to accurately recognize 99.6% of the validation samples. Followed by two variations of the method of eigenfaces, achieving recognition rates of 98.8% and 97.9%. These results affirm that the capabilities of the system are adequate for a commercial implementation.
Altruistically Inclined?: The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity (review)

in a distinctly normative framework, as “just another” type of technology with which our minds can interface. The consequences of Clark’s cyborg technologies are either mundane or gee-whizz, but they are certainly not transformative in the sense in which other theories of cyberculture or cyborg technology would claim. For Clark, cyborgs are potential combinations or interactions between humans and technology, particularly communication technologies. For many other cyborg theorists such statements are simply not possible. Cyborgs are combinations of the biological and the technological, but they are also much more: they are transformations of what being human, and being non-human, means. The cyborg breaks boundaries, challenges assumptions and categories, breaks rules and confronts our prejudices. In Clark’s analysis none of this is visible; quite the reverse. By using a positivist cognitive science framework Clark takes almost all meaning from the concept of cyborg and replaces it with discrete and fixed categories. Further, Clark’s theorising of this is from a position that itself is fixed, absolute and essentialist: we are natural-born cyborgs and this is “a plain and literal truth. I believe, to be clear, that it is above all a SCIENTIFIC truth” (p. 3 — capitalization in the original). The paradox of describing cyborgs in such absolutist terms are never addressed or even alluded to. This is certainly an interesting, readable book and one that may be of some use in cataloguing recent trends in ICT and other technological developments. However, Clark’s avoidance of any social, political or cultural theory, his avoidance of feminism (whether cyberor otherwise) and a general lack of any contextualisation provides a very meagre read for those interested in understanding technology and what it means to be (post)human in contemporary society.
The pattern of acute poisoning in a teaching hospital, north-west Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVES Poisoning by means of hazardous chemicals through ignorance, mishap or intentionally is becoming a serious health problem worldwide. Epidemiological data on this important health issue are, however, scarce in Ethiopia. The purpose of this study is to assess the pattern of acute poisonings and determine the approaches employed for the management of poisoning. PATIENTS AND METHODS The medical records of patients with acute poisonings presented to the Gondar University hospital between July 2001 and June 2004 were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS One hundred and two patients presenting to the emergency department of the hospital were due to acute poisoning; accounting for about 0.45% of emergency room admissions. Organophosphates, rat poison and alcohol were the commonly encountered poisoning agents (in about 70% of cases) mainly in adults possibly with suicidal or para-suicidal intention. The approaches employed in the management of poisoning mainly involved gastrointestinal decontamination procedures. Specific antidotes were used in a substantial number of patients. The fatality rate was 2.4%. CONCLUSION Poisoning with suicidal intention is becoming a serious health problem particularly in adults. Pesticides are commonly used toxicants. The approaches in the management of poisoning are justifiable in some cases. However, much is to be done to improve the recording of patient-related information and record-keeping processes. Further large scale studies are required to investigate national trends of poisoning and factors associated with poisoning.
Coordinated Path-Following Control for a Group of Underactuated Surface Vessels

This paper addresses the problem of coordinating a group of underactuated ships along given paths (path following) while holding a desired intership formation pattern. The solution to this problem unfolds into two basic subproblems. In the first step, a path-following controller is derived to force each underactuated ship to follow a reference path subject to constant disturbances induced by wave, wind, and ocean current. The controller is designed such that the ship moves on the path while its total velocity is maintained tangential to the path. In the second step, the speeds of the vehicles are adjusted so as to synchronize the positions of the corresponding virtual targets (or so-called coordination states), in the sense that the derivative of each path is left as a free input to synchronize the ships' motion. The proposed coordination controller uses a combination of Lyapunov direct method, backstepping, and concepts from graph theory. When dealing with the path-following coordination problem, it is considered that each ship transmits its coordination state to other ships with a varying time delay as determined by the communication topology. The coordination errors' convergence is achieved based on a proposed Lyapunov-Krasovskii function. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Managing Changes in Everyday Occupations: The Experience of Persons with Alzheimer's Disease

The aim of this study was to uncover how people with dementia respond to the problems and changes they experience in everyday occupations. Seven participants with dementia were included. Data were collected by means of repeated interviews and observations that focused on the person's experiences of competence and management in everyday occupations. The analysis was carried out from within a phenomenological perspective and resulted in a structure describing management strategies. It was concluded that the participants used a wide variety of strategies. Some strategies were directed toward managing the altered conditions caused by the disease while others served the purpose of responding to the occupational problems of everyday life. The latter strategies were of three types based mainly on environment, habituation, and cognition. Overall, the implicit and explicit cognitive awareness underpinning many strategies seems to call for great caution when assuming that people with dementia soon lose their awareness of disability.
Puzzle-based automatic testing: bringing humans into the loop by solving puzzles

Recently, many automatic test generation techniques have been proposed, such as Randoop, Pex and jCUTE. However, usually test coverage of these techniques has been around 50-60% only, due to several challenges, such as 1) the object mutation problem, where test generators cannot create and/or modify test inputs to desired object states; and 2) the constraint solving problem, where test generators fail to solve path conditions to cover certain branches. By analyzing branches not covered by state-of-the-art techniques, we noticed that these challenges might not be so difficult for humans. To verify this hypothesis, we propose a Puzzle-based Automatic Testing environment (PAT) which decomposes object mutation and complex constraint solving problems into small puzzles for humans to solve. We generated PAT puzzles for two open source projects and asked different groups of people to solve these puzzles. It was shown that they could be effectively solved by humans: 231 out of 400 puzzles were solved by humans at an average speed of one minute per puzzle. The 231 puzzle solutions helped cover 534 and 308 additional branches (7.0% and 5.8% coverage improvement) in the two open source projects, on top of the saturated branch coverages achieved by the two state-of-the-art test generation techniques.
ACE inhibitors improve endothelial function in type 1 diabetic patients with normal arterial pressure and microalbuminuria.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to test whether a short-course treatment with ACE inhibitors may restore endothelium-dependent and/or -independent vasodilation in the femoral artery of microalbuminuric patients with type 1 diabetes and normal arterial pressure. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We studied nine normotensive microalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients and two groups of control subjects matched for femoral artery diameter to type 1 diabetic patients after placebo (control group A, n = 17) and ACE inhibitor (control group B, n = 18) treatment, respectively. The patients were enrolled in a double-blind cross-over study with a 1-week trial of either placebo, captopril (25 mg t.i.d.), or enalapril (10 mg/day) in randomized order to ascertain whether short-term ACE inhibition obtained with (captopril) or without (enalapril) a sulfhydryl donor molecule ameliorates vessel wall function. Endothelium-mediated flow-dependent vasodilation and endothelium-independent vasodilation were evaluated in the right common femoral artery by echo Doppler. RESULTS Both captopril and enalapril normalized (control group B 22.9+/-3.2% per 8 min) endothelium-dependent response (19.6+/-7.5 and 18.0+/-5.3 vs. -10.4+/-4.1% per 8 min, P < 0.01, for both captopril and enalapril versus placebo, respectively) in the type 1 diabetic patients. Captopril (28.4+/-3.5 vs. 17.1+/-3.5% per 5 min during placebo, P < 0.05) but not enalapril (20.1+/-3.0 vs. 31.7+/-2.8% per 5 min, P < 0.05 for enalapril versus control group B, and NS for captopril vs. control group B) ameliorated endothelium-independent vasodilation in type 1 diabetic patients. CONCLUSIONS ACE inhibition improves endothelium-dependent vasodilation in the femoral artery of normotensive microalbuminuric type 1 diabetic patients. Captopril also ameliorates endothelium-independent vasodilation, possibly through its sulfhydryl donor properties. These results may be of pathophysiological relevance to prevent cardiovascular complications in these patients.
A Strategy for Identifying the Grid Stars for the Space Interferometry Mission

We present a strategy to identify several thousand stars that are astrometrically stable at the microarcsecond level for use in the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) astrometric grid. The requirements on the grid stars make this a rather challenging task. Taking a variety of considerations into account, we argue for K giants as the best type of stars for the grid, mainly because they can be located at much larger distances than any other type of star owing to their intrinsic brightness. We show that it is possible to identify suitable candidate grid K giants from existing astrometric catalogs. However, double stars have to be eliminated from these candidate grid samples, since they generally produce much larger astrometric jitter than tolerable for the grid. The most efficient way to achieve this is probably by means of a radial velocity survey. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, we repeatedly measured the radial velocities for a preselected sample of 86 nearby Hipparcos K giants with precisions of 5–8 m s−1. The distribution of the intrinsic radial velocity variations for the bona fide single K giants shows a maximum around 20 m s−1, which is small enough not to severely affect the identification of stellar companions around other K giants. We use the results of our observations as input parameters for Monte Carlo simulations on the possible design of a radial velocity survey of all grid stars. Our favored scenario would result in a grid which consists to 68% of true single stars and to 32% of double or multiple stars with periods mostly larger than 200 years, but only 3.6% of all grid stars would display astrometric jitter larger than 1 μas. This contamination level is probably tolerable.