Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solar Thermal and Geothermal Hybrid Process

This paper is based on a project combining solar and geothermal energies used for heating an individual home located in a mountainous region of southern France (Saint-Pierre Dels Forcats town). A solar field composed of 10 thermal solar collectors, with a total area of 21.25m2 increases the borehole (one hundred meters of depth) temperature. A heat pump extracts the heat energy to restore it to the home with a heating floor of 100m2. The project objective is to develop a control on the global system to realize financial and energy savings (thermal and electric). This paper presents (i) the study of the process (data acquisition and energy analysis) and (ii) the first results of the modeling and the control strategy that will be developed.
In vitro response of Staphylococcus aureus from cystic fibrosis patients to combinations of linoleic and oleic acids added to nutrient medium

The effect of supplementing nutrient substrate with various combinations of concentrations of oleic and linoleic acids on the growth of 11 strains of Staphylococcus aureus was assessed. Whereas increasing the concentration of linoleic acid by itself greatly diminished the growth of all 11 strains, concomitant increases in oleic acid greatly diminished the inhibitory effect of linoleic acid. With oleic acid in the nutrient substrate, most of the strains were induced to produce slime which surrounded the cells. Since the slime incorporated oleic but not linoleic acid, such slime production isolated the cells from direct contact with the growth inhibitor, linoleic acid.
The development of a Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale for Medically Ill Elders (DASMIE)

Objective: In this paper we developed a scale to measure dysfunctional attitudes in medically ill elderly, examined its test characteristics, and explored associations with other health variables. Sample and Methods: Eight items were selected from Weissman and Beck's Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale based on factor loadings from an earlier analysis of the scale. Twenty-two additional items, based on information learned from elderly patients during a pilot study and the clinical experience of a geropsychiatrist and cognitive therapist, were added to create a 30-item scale called DASMIE. The scale was administered to 92 consecutive vatients aged 60 or over admitted to the general medicine, cardiology, and neurology services of a university teaching hospital. It was then factor analyzed and its test characteristics determined Individual items and total scale score was next correlated with depressive symptoms (CES-D); relationships between total score and functional disability, cognitive status, medical diagnosi.
Why Americans Don’t Trust the Media

An alarming number of Americans no longer trust the media to report the news fairly—a serious problem in a democracy that depends so much on news organizations to inform its citizens. As a first step toward explaining this phenomenon, this study explores various factors that explain individual-level variation in media trust. One key factor appears to be trust in government, suggesting that the media’s lowly stature may stem more from general political malaise than from the many shortcomings of contemporary news coverage. Interestingly, trust in the media is particularly low among conservative Republicans, especially those who listen to political talk radio. For these Americans, perhaps the problem with the media rests on what they see as a liberal bias, not declining journalistic standards.
Message Passing and Combinatorial Optimization

Graphical models use the intuitive and well-studied methods of graph theory to implicitly represent dependencies between variables in large systems. They can model the global behaviour of a complex system by specifying only local factors. This thesis studies inference in discrete graphical models from an algebraic perspective and the ways inference can be used to express and approximate NP-hard combinatorial problems. We investigate the complexity and reducibility of various inference problems, in part by organizing them in an inference hierarchy. We then investigate tractable approximations for a subset of these problems using distributive law in the form of message passing. The quality of the resulting message passing procedure, called Belief Propagation (BP), depends on the influence of loops in the graphical model. We contribute to three classes of approximations that improve BP for loopy graphs A) loop correction techniques; B) survey propagation, another message passing technique that surpasses BP in some settings; and C) hybrid methods that interpolate between deterministic message passing and Markov Chain Monte Carlo inference. We then review the existing message passing solutions and provide novel graphical models and inference techniques for combinatorial problems under three broad classes: A) constraint satisfaction problems such as satisfiability, coloring, packing, set / clique-cover and dominating / independent set and their optimization counterparts; B) clustering problems such as hierarchical clustering, K-median, K-clustering, K-center and modularity optimization; C) problems over permutations including assignment, graph morphisms and alignment, finding symmetries and traveling salesman problem. In many cases we show that message passing is able to find solutions that are either near optimal or favourably compare with today's state-of-the-art approaches.
Treatment of achalasia in the era of high-resolution manometry

Esophageal achalasia is a primary motility disorder characterized by impaired lower esophageal sphincter relaxation and absence of esophageal peristalsis leading to impaired bolus transit, manifested with symptoms such as dysphagia, regurgitation, retrosternal pain, and weight loss. The standard diagnostic tool is esophageal manometry which demonstrates incomplete relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and impaired esophageal peristalsis. Recently, a new advanced technique, high-resolution manometry (HRM) with the addition of pressure topography plotting, using multiple sensors to capture the manometric data as a spatial continuum, allows a detailed pressure recording of the esophageal motility. This technique, currently the gold standard for the diagnosis of achalasia, has led to a subclassification of three manometric types that seem to have different responsiveness to treatment. Because its pathogenesis is as yet unknown, achalasia treatment options are not curative. Type II achalasia patients respond better to treatment compared to those with types I and III. Low-risk patients with type I or II achalasia have good outcome with both graded pneumatic dilatations and laparoscopic Heller myotomy, while type III achalasia patients respond better to laparoscopic Heller myotomy. Although, type III achalasia patients responds less in comparison to types I and II to laparoscopic Heller myotomy. Peroral endoscopic myotomy is a promising new technique but long-term follow-up studies for its safety and efficacy must be performed. This article reviews the current therapeutic options, highlighting the impact of HRM to predict the outcome and the new insights for the treatment of achalasia.
12 GHz MMIC Series Feedback LNA Based on a Novel Analytical Design Procedure for Simultaneous Noise and Power Match

This paper demonstrates a recently developed procedure that is independent of the technology in use as well as of the design frequency. A Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) is designed for simultaneous noise and power match at 12 GHz according to the design procedure [9],[10] and fabricated as a Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC). Good agreement is achieved between simulated and tested results within the practical constraints related to the research-oriented nature of this work Since the validity of the same technique has already been demonstrated at 1 GHz with discrete components on a Duroid substrate, the conclusion is that different technologies can successfully carry out the novel procedure at the required design frequency.
PCB INTEGRATED MICRO-GENERATOR FOR WIRELESS SYSTEMS

A fire suppression system for use with a cookstove or range operates in several modes or stages to warn of, prevent, and extinguish stovetop fires. The system includes a pressurized supply of fire retardant connected to a nozzle. A fusible link releases the fire retardant through the nozzle. Several sensors are attached to a circuit so that increasing ambient temperature can be monitored. The supply of fire retardant is provided with a low pressure sensor which may be overridden. On sensing a first temperature increase, a fan is switched on. At a second temperature, an alarm is activated. At a third temperature, the stove is shut down. The fusible link is designed to melt at a temperature higher than the third temperature so that provisional measures may be activated prior to dispensing the fire retardant. Methods related to the fire suppression system are also disclosed.
Ketamine: 50 Years of Modulating the Mind

Ketamine was introduced into clinical practice in the 1960s and continues to be both clinically useful and scientifically fascinating. With considerably diverse molecular targets and neurophysiological properties, ketamine’s effects on the central nervous system remain incompletely understood. Investigators have leveraged the unique characteristics of ketamine to explore the invariant, fundamental mechanisms of anesthetic action. Emerging evidence indicates that ketamine-mediated anesthesia may occur via disruption of corticocortical information transfer in a frontal-to-parietal (“top down”) distribution. This proposed mechanism of general anesthesia has since been demonstrated with anesthetics in other pharmacological classes as well. Ketamine remains invaluable to the fields of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, in large part due to its ability to maintain cardiorespiratory stability while providing effective sedation and analgesia. Furthermore, there may be an emerging role for ketamine in treatment of refractory depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this article, we review the history of ketamine, its pharmacology, putative mechanisms of action and current clinical applications.
The Effectiveness of Advertisements Utilizing Four Types of Endorsers

Abstract Four groups of students were presented with identical advertisements for sangria wine, attributed to one of four different types of endorsers: a celebrity, student, professional expert, and company president. A fifth group serving as a control was presented with the same advertisement, but it was not attributed to an endorser. Subjects were asked to rate the wine on three scales: expected selling price, probable (anticipated) taste and intent-to-purchase. In addition, the advertisements were rated on their believability. While endorsers did not significantly affect the expected selling price or believability, they had an effect on probable taste and intent-to-purchase. The authors conclude that it is probably worthwhile for an advertiser to use an endorsement for his product, rather than utilize a similar advertisement without an endorsement.
Personalized Document Retrieval Using Text Mining

The data produces in the last two years has outweighed all the data existing up until then. Therefore, there is a need to organize and classify this information so that its retrieval is ideally relevant and smooth. The project in hand employs text mining and machine learning techniques to offer a solution to the problem. The project enables a user to upload a document and search for the document. A graphical user Interface is developed to enable a user to upload and type his search query. The documents are stored in a database. Naive Bayesian classification algorithm is used to classify the uploaded documents into respective categories. A novel algorithm is developed based on tf - idf and cosine similarity and used for searching the database and retrieving documents relevant to the user’s query by considering user’s personal interests.
Antiretroviral therapy and the kidney: balancing benefit and risk in patients with HIV infection

The widespread introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has revolutionised the treatment and course of HIV infection, with complications of chronic HIV infection and HAART playing an increasingly important role in morbidity and mortality. Both HIV infection and HAART have been associated with the development of acute and chronic kidney disease. The incidence of HIV-associated nephropathy, the classic kidney disease of HIV, reached a plateau following the introduction of HAART, consistent with the pathogenic role of direct viral infection of the kidney. At the same time, antiretroviral agents and related therapies have demonstrated a range of nephrotoxic effects, including crystal-induced obstruction, lactic acidosis, tubular toxicity, interstitial nephritis and electrolyte abnormalities. This article reviews the impact of HAART on the epidemiology of HIV-related kidney disease, the potential nephrotoxicity of specific antiretroviral agents and related medications, and guidelines for monitoring kidney function in HAART-treated patients.
Power Dispatch and Voltage Control in Multiterminal HVDC Systems: A Flexible Approach

This paper deals with the power dispatch and direct voltage control in multiterminal high voltage direct current (MT-HVDC) systems. Generalized voltage droop (GVD) control is adopted for voltage source converters (VSC)s of a MT-HVDC system. A mechanism has been designed based on the power ratio within the GVD controlled stations to achieve flexible autonomous coordination control among VSC-HVDC stations, without need for communication. In this paper, several alternatives are considered to guarantee fault ride through of onshore converter stations. The performance of the proposed control strategy is analyzed with time-domain dynamic simulations, in an EMDTC/PSCAD platform, and experimentally validated. Results demonstrate the robust performance and capabilities of the proposed control strategy during changes in the power demand of the ac grids, unexpected change in wind power generation, and eventual permanent VSC-HVDC station disconnection.
The Public and the Private in Contemporary French Politics

This article examines selected aspects of the changing public/private interface in the mediatisation of politicians in contemporary France. It argues that there is normative confusion surrounding attempts to establish an agreed dividing line between the public and the private in both politicians' mediated communication and journalists' political coverage. Such confusion is a product of mutually reinforcing changes in the interdependent relationship between three sets of actors: politicians, journalists and the public. Politicians need to use the media for the purposes of self-publicity and the projection of a coherent electoral image; journalists operate in highly competitive media markets which are dominated by the pursuit of audiences and advertising revenue; and the public as voters have become disenchanted with the political class, while as media users they have become accustomed to the exposure of the private lives of celebrities.
Entrepreneurship Research in Europe: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

With this article, as introduction to a special issue on entrepreneurship research in Europe, we hope to initiate a discussion about the importance of grounding entrepreneurship research in its national context. Different European researchers, all knowledgeable about the entrepreneurship research scene in their respective country, present the state of the research field for France, Germany, the United Kingdom (Blackburn & Smallbone, 2008); and Scandinavia. Two articles from U.S. authors complement this issue, reviewing differences in how entrepreneurship scholars measure the phenomenon and assessing the European approach(es). This special issue sets out to demonstrate the value of variety in the field—variety that very much depends on the different national, methodological, and thematic contexts entrepreneurship research takes place in.
SHIFTING DEMOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF A PERENNIAL BUNCHGRASS ALONG A NATURAL HABITAT GRADIENT 1 KIRKA

The relative importance of competition vs. other environmental factors in determining the local distribution of a perennial bunchgrass species, Danthonia sericea, was investigated in two experiments, one in 1984 and another in 1985. Seeds were planted in a two-way split-plot experimental design under field conditions on the campus of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA. One treatment, four planting regions in distinct demographic zones along a soil/vegetation gradient, was used to investigate the effect of gradient position on germination rates, early establishment success, growth rates, and early reproduction of Danthonia sericea. The second treatment, vegetation left intact or vegetation removed, was used to assess the relative importance of competition from neighboring herbaceous plants in regulating the same demographic processes. The demographic success of Danthonia sericea was enhanced at all positions along the gradient by vegetation removal. However, the magnitude of the response varied with year of experiment and with gradient position, indicating that the intensity of competition is dependent upon a variety of factors that shift over time and space. It is suggested that a complete understanding of the importance of any one factor, such as competition, in regulating species distributions can only be obtained by conducting experiments over a range of habitats and years.
Loving her into well-being one day at a time: Narratives of caring for daughters with eating disorders

When a child is diagnosed with an eating disorder, parents are expected to help the child recover. Yet, parents often feel under-prepared and alone, their experiences inadequately known to healthcare professionals. The research aim was to examine the meaning to parents of caring for a child with an eating disorder. Qualitative interviews with 29 parents were analyzed and the parents’ experiences were represented by a collective story of loving her into well-being one day at a time which consisted of two themes: Running on nerves and caring through transformational activism. Running on nerves included threads of feeling lost, traumatized, scarred, and disengaged that mitigated as parents engaged in transformational activism processes directed toward helping themselves, their child, and other parents and children. The findings illustrate the importance of hearing parents’ stories in order to create supportive healing environments and to build capacity within families and health care systems.
The Role of Visual Indicators in Dual Sensory Mode Instruction

Advances in our knowledge of the structure of working memory suggest that under some circumstances, effectively more processing capacity is available to learners if instructional materials use multiple information modes (e.g. auditory and visual) instead of equivalent single mode formats. This paper examined this modality effect from a cognitive load perspective in three experiments using geometry instruction. In accordance with cognitive load theory, it was predicted that the additional processing capacity provided in an audio/visual format would only enhance learning if mental resources were not devoted to extensive visual based search in order to coordinate auditory and visual information. Using two different areas of geometry, Experiments 1 and 2 found that if visual search was clearly high, then audio‐visual instruction was only beneficial if visual indicators in the form of electronic flashing were incorporated into the instructional format. Under high search conditions, a standard audio/visual form.
Using speed measures to predict performance in x-ray luggage screening tasks

The visual inspection of x-ray images of luggage items at airports is a challenging task, where detection rates suffer when threat item complexity increases [1]. The relationship between threat-item types, aspects of image difficulty, and decision time are explored using a combination of Drury's Two-Component Model [2] and Signal Detection Theory [3]. 67 professional screeners completed a 2048-image battery that manipulated various image-based difficulty factors. A strong linear relationship between hit rate and decision time was found (r2 = 0.64), with the hardest images showing a marked increase in decision time and decrease in hit-rate. The search time was found to be relatively stable across the threat categories, but decision time increased in proportion to detection rate decreases. Decision time is shown to closely reflect changes in detection sensitivity caused by different threat and image difficulties.
Current status of pharmacist-operated drug information centers in the United States.

PURPOSE Pharmacist-operated drug information centers (DICs) in the United States and Puerto Rico were surveyed, and the results were compared with those of similar surveys conducted over the past 30 years. METHODS In January 2003, surveys were mailed to 151 institutions that were thought to have an organized DIC, defined as a center that regularly accepts a broad scope of requests from health care professionals, regardless of the location or affiliation of those professionals. The survey covered such topics as affiliations, staffing, services, resources, quality assurance, involvement in education, and funding. RESULTS One hundred nineteen DICs responded (79%), of which 81 met the criteria. Hospitals and medical centers and colleges and schools of pharmacy continued to be the most commonly reported affiliations. The number of DICs declined in the past decade, and the number of DIC pharmacists and other personnel was the lowest reported in the past 30 years. Drug information pharmacists appeared to be better trained than in the past, and a larger percentage had advanced degrees. Services provided by DICs remained consistent with previous findings, except for greater participation in the training and education of pharmacy students and residents. The resource most commonly reported by DICs as useful was Micromedex Healthcare Series, followed by MEDLINE and AHFS Drug Information. The percentage of DICs with formal quality assurance programs did not change significantly in the past decade. Funding sources and fee-for-service activities remained the same. CONCLUSION The number of DICs has declined steadily since 1986, and the number of drug information pharmacists is at its lowest in 30 years. DIC services continue to be comprehensive. Only half of the DICs surveyed had a formal quality assurance program.
Reliability Characterization and Modeling Solution to Predict Aging of 40-nm MOSFET DC and RF Performances Induced by RF Stresses

In the framework of MOSFET reliability for RF/AMS applications, a deep investigation of RF parameters degradation is performed. An innovative flow, composed of DC and RF stresses with DC and RF aging characterization, is presented. Degradation kinetics of main parameters are physically explained and modeled using PSP compact model to predict the behavior of stressed devices.
Community Structure Discovery algorithm on GPU with CUDA

The automatic search and community discovery in large and complex network has important practical application. It is difficult to be tradeoff in computing speed and clustering exactness. To improve clustering exactness have to decrease the time complexity. In this paper a novel single instruction Multiple Data architecture processors based on Newman algorithm is proposed. The simulation results show that the method works well.