Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A naive particle swarm algorithm for constrained optimization problems

In this paper, a naive particle swarm algorithm for constrained optimization problems is proposed. Also, a direct constraint handling method is adopted, which is more direct and easier to be implemented in comparison with other constraint handling methods, such as penalty function, etc. The experimental results on benchmark problems show that the proposed algorithm can solve constrained optimization problems effectively and has a robust performance.
Adaptive latent fingerprint indexing

Based on biometric system, identification of individual is complex and very interesting task. In law and forensic applications, fingerprint plays an important role in person recognition. Earlier focus was on full fingerprint but today latent fingerprint matching which is poor in quality, having non-linear distortion and small overlapping area is still a challenge for researchers. Latent prints contains noise in it, therefore to deal with latent matching having larger database, indexing techniques are required. Using indexing technique, matching process is speeded up because it places most possible match at the top from large database therefore reduces the time required for matching. In this paper, we have proposed an efficient latent indexing technique that reduces manual intervention and maintain latent matching accuracy. In this technique we have used manually extracted features as well as automatically extracted features and applied three approaches i.e. MCC, triplets, hybrid orientation field on both manually marked and derived minutiae and orientation field for indexing. We have carried out our implementation on NIST SD27 Database, to determine the performance of proposed approach by using large background database of approximately 200K of fingerprints. The results of this proposed algorithm has 96.7% hit rate at penetration rate of 39%, which is better than Paulino et al. and the latent matching accuracy was also maintained.
A Brief History of British Drug Policy, 1950-2001

Following the establishment of the so-called 'New British System' (based on the recommendations of the Rolleston Committee in 1926), numbers of recorded opiate and cocaine addicts fell significantly in the early 1930s and remained stable and at a relatively low level for the next two decades. It was in the latter part of the 1950s that reports of a new drug 'epidemic' began to circulate. Concerns centred on the use of drugs by ethnic minorities, notably black West Indians and Africans in 'blues clubs' and visiting black American musicians in jazz clubs. Once again the drugs epidemic was associated with jazz ('jungle') music and colour. By the end of the 1960s, young white teenagers had become involved too and the world had seen the student riots in Paris; the birth of Swinging London with its attendant Merseybeat; the hippy revolution in San Francisco; and a growing youth protest, both in the USA and Britain, over Western military involvement in Vietnam. Politicians and journalists invariably associated these events with the use of drugs by young people. Over the last four decades of the 20th century, the use of drugs by young people (and the attendant treatment industry) has grown exponentially and the focus has moved from individual treatment to public health and infection control to the current preoccupation with the drugs-crime connection. This brief history attempts to summarize these developments in a short article chronicling the major milestones and events.
Inhibition of Diabetes-Associated Complications by Nucleophilic Compounds

Mono- and diaminoguanidine inhibited ambient glucose-induced glycosylated end product formation of albumin and collagen 125I-labeled albumin covalent binding in vitro. Diaminoguanidine was a stronger inhibitor than monoaminoguanidine. These compounds also inhibited rat eye lens aldose reductase activity in vitro noncompetitively with respect to NADPH with Ki = 30.6 mM for monoaminoguanidine and Ki = 12.5 mM for diaminoguanidine. When administered daily for 98 days at a dose of 25 mg/kg body wt i.p., both compounds lowered eye lens sorbitol and aldose reductase activity in normoglycemic and alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Again, diaminoguanidine was a better inhibitor. Daily long-term administration of mono- and diaminoguanidine (25 mg/kg body wt i.p.) inhibited and prevented experimental diabetes–induced lens opacity in rats, respectively. It appears that diaminoguanidine has a better therapeutic potential in controlling diabetic complications.
Gender, conflict, and building sustainable peace: Recent lessons from Latin America

Latin American experiences of conflict and building sustainable peace have tended to show a clear neglect of a gender analysis of the impacts of conflict and the peace negotiations that end it, much to the detriment of many women and men affected by and involved in the civil conflicts that have ravaged the region during the last thirty years. What do Colombian women and men have to learn from these experiences? In May 2000, a workshop entitled 'Latin American Experiences of Gender, Conflict, and Building Sustainable Peace' was held in Bogotá, Colombia with representatives from several Latin American countries. This paper briefly highlights some of the issues raised at the workshop and aims to provide lessons and recommendations for others working in the fields of conflict analysis and resolution, humanitarian assistance, and interventions for peace and development.
Control of FES thumb force using slip information obtained from the cutaneous electroneurogram in quadriplegic man.

A tetraplegic volunteer was implanted with percutaneous intramuscular electrodes in hand and forearm muscles. Furthermore, a sensory nerve cuff electrode was implanted on the volar digital nerve to the radial side of the index finger branching off the median nerve. In laboratory experiments a stimulation system was used to produce a lateral grasp (key grip) while the neural activity was recorded with the cuff electrode. The nerve signal contained information that could be used to detect the occurrence of slips and further to increase stimulation intensity to the thumb flexor/adductor muscles to stop the slip. Thereby the system provided a grasp that could catch an object if it started to slip due to, e.g., decreasing muscle force or changes in load forces tangential to the surface of the object. This method enabled an automatic adjustment of the stimulation intensity to the lowest possible level without loosing the grip and without any prior knowledge about the strength of the muscles and the weight and surface texture of the object.
The Zinc-Responsive Regulon of Neisseria meningitidis Comprises 17 Genes under Control of a Zur Element

ABSTRACT Zinc is a bivalent cation essential for bacterial growth and metabolism. The human pathogen Neisseria meningitidis expresses a homologue of the Zinc uptake regulator Zur, which has been postulated to repress the putative zinc uptake protein ZnuD. In this study, we elucidated the transcriptome of meningococci in response to zinc by microarrays and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). We identified 15 genes that were repressed and two genes that were activated upon zinc addition. All transcription units (genes and operons) harbored a putative Zur binding motif in their promoter regions. A meningococcal Zur binding consensus motif (Zur box) was deduced in silico, which harbors a conserved central palindrome consisting of hexameric inverted repeats separated by three nucleotides (TGTTATDNHATAACA). In vitro binding of recombinant meningococcal Zur to this Zur box was shown for the first time using electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Zur binding to DNA depended specifically on the presence of zinc and was sensitive to mutations in the palindromic sequence. The Zur regulon among genes of unknown function comprised genes involved in zinc uptake, tRNA modification, and ribosomal assembly. In summary, this is the first study of the transcriptional response to zinc in meningococci.
Are there differences between men and women prescribed bisphosphonate therapy in canadian subspecialty osteoporosis practices?

OBJECTIVE To determine if there are differences between men and women referred for treatment of osteoporosis in Canada. METHODS We performed an observational study of 1588 patients (163 men, 1425 women), 50 years of age and older, who were prescribed cyclic etidronate or alendronate for treatment of osteoporosis or osteopenia and had at least 2 years of followup registered in the Canadian Database for Osteoporosis and Osteopenia Patients (CANDOO). Comparisons of characteristics between men and women were performed using Pearson chi-square test, Student's t test, or a Kruskal-Wallis test, whichever was most appropriate. RESULTS Mean baseline femoral neck and lumbar spine bone mineral densities were significantly higher in men than women at both the femoral neck and lumbar spine (p < 0.05, respectively). Men had double the rate of prevalent vertebral fractures (44%, 72/163) compared to women (22%, 315/1425; p < 0.001) and triple the rate of multiple prevalent vertebral fractures (10%, 17/163) compared to women (3%, 37/1425, p < 0.001). Furthermore, men were twice as likely as women to sustain a fracture within 2 years of starting treatment during observation in the CANDOO study (men: 4%, 7/163, women: 2%, 24/1425, p = 0.033). CONCLUSION Osteoporosis may be under-recognized in men until the condition is at an advanced stage. A form of gender bias may exist in recognition and treatment (or referral for treatment) of osteoporosis in men.
Perspectives on biologically inspired hybrid and multi-modal locomotion

KHLow, TianjiangHu, SamerMohammed, JamesTangorra andMirkoKovac 1 School ofMechanical andAerospace Engineering,Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Republic of Singapore 2 College ofMechatronics andAutomation,NationalUniversity ofDefense Technology, Changsha 410073, People’s Republic of China 3 Laboratory of Image, Signal and Intelligent Systems—LISSI, University of Paris Est Créteil (UPEC), Vitry Sur Seine 94400, France 4 Department ofMechanical Engineering andMechanics, Drexel University, Philadelphia 19104,USA 5 Aerial Robotics Laboratory, Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ,UK 6 Author towhomany correspondence should be addressed.
Optimum LDPC decoder: A memory architecture problem

This paper addresses a frequently overlooked problem: designing a memory architecture for an LDPC decoder. We analyze the requirements to support the codes defined in the IEEE 802.11n and 802.16 e standards. We show a design methodology for a flexible memory subsystem that reconciles design cost, energy consumption and required latency on a multistandard platform. We show results after exploring the design space on a CMOS technology of 65 nm and analyze various use cases from the standardized codes. Comparisons among representative work reveal the benefits of our exploration.
Web Survey Methods Introduction

A key characteristic of Web surveys is their diversity. Unlike other modes of data collection, where the method tells us something about both the sampling process and the method of data collection, the term “Web survey” is too broad to give us much useful information about how the study was carried out. For example, referring to an RDD telephone survey describes both the method of sampling (in part) and the mode of data collection. But there are so many different ways to identify sampling frames for Web surveys, to invite people to complete such surveys, and to administer surveys over the Internet (see Couper 2000) that the term “Web survey” conveys little evaluative information. The implications of this diversity are twofold. First, broad generalizations or claims about Web surveys relative to other methods of data collection are ill-advised. Second, much more detail about the process is needed in order for the reader to make judgments about the quality of the process itself or about the resulting data. The papers in this special issue reflect some of the many ways that the Internet can be used—whether alone or in combination with other methods—to conduct surveys. Despite their relatively short history, Web surveys have already had a profound effect on survey research. The first graphic browser (NCSA Mosaic) was released in 1992, with Netscape Navigator following in 1994 and Internet Explorer in 1995. The first published papers on Web surveys appeared in 1996. Since then, there has been a virtual explosion of interest in the Internet generally, and World Wide Web specifically, as a tool for survey data collection (see www.WebSM.org for a detailed bibliography). This is not to say that the early claims that Web surveys will make all other methods of data collection obsolete have come to pass. But it is fair to say that the methodological attention that Web surveys have received has exceeded other modes in a similar time period. In part, this is because the relative cost of Web surveys makes them a more accessible method of data collection than telephone or face-to-face surveys. In addition, the computerized nature of Web surveys facilitates conducting
Adaptive LOD editing of quad meshes

We present a method for editing the LOD of quad meshes, which supports both adaptive refinement and adaptive coarsening. Starting at a base mesh, we generate a quad-dominant mesh which is consistent with the Catmull-Clark subdivision. Consistency is both topological and geometrical: an adaptively subdivided mesh coincides with the uniformly subdivided mesh wherever the level of subdivision is uniform, and the limit surface is the same. Subdivided meshes contain a majority of quad elements and a moderate amount of triangles and pentagons in the regions of transition across different levels of detail. Topological LOD editing is controlled with local conforming operators, which support both mesh refinement and mesh coarsening and work on a plain mesh without the need of cumbersome hierarchical data structures.
Picture Appraisal Rating ( PAR )-A Single-ended Picture Quality Measure for MPEG-2 Mike Knee

A method of estimating the picture quality of an MPEG-2 bitstream without requiring reference to the source picture is presented. The method uses information readily available from the early stages of decoding the bitstream. It is therefore highly suited to applications in which it is required to monitor several video channels and provide an automatic warning of possible picture quality problems. A theoretical treatment of the subject is presented, followed by a description of how the PAR algorithm for the PAR measure was obtained. Test results are given which show that the PAR measure correlates well with the conventional peak signal-to-noise measure (PSNR), which itself remains largely unsurpassed as a method of picture quality
Enterprise Discourse, Professional Identity and the Organizational Control of Hospital Clinicians

Recent reform of the healthcare sector in New Zealand involved the corporatization of public hospitals, and the contractualization of social relations between and within institutions. Various attempts were made to incorporate hospital clinicians within some system of organizational control in order to make them accountable for the resources consumed as a consequence of their treatment decisions. This paper considers how the general intention of government to control, curtail or influence the professional autonomy of hospital clinicians was played out in the context of a single New Zealand hospital. It considers the possibility that power effects of discourses associated with such neo-liberal programmes of reform could influence the subjectivity of hospital clinicians, aligning their clinical behaviour with the broader goals of the governmental programme. It explores how individuals manoeuvre in relation to these discourses of management and enterprise, whether in acceptance, resistance or compromise. The resulting outcomes are complex and varied, as individuals negotiate dominant discourses in the construction of identity and self.
The Selection of an Interim CEO

More and more boards are tapping interim CEOs to temporarily fill the corner office. Prior research indicates the negative performance implications of this decision; yet, little is known about the rationale behind this decision. Our aim is to fill this research gap. Drawing on agency and human capabilities frameworks, we examined the contextual elements that influence a board’s decision to pursue temporary leadership. Within a sample of 375 successions occurring between 1998 and 2005, we found that boards of directors were more likely to select interim CEOs under certain succession conditions, namely, when the prior CEO was forced out and there was no heir apparent or when the prior CEO had served for a short tenure. Our results highlight the importance of context in succession selections and provide insights into why a board would pursue a decision with seemingly negative repercussions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Mapping the Onset of Psychosis: The Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States

Objective: Recognizing the prodrome of a first psychotic episode prospectively creates the opportunity of intervention, which could delay, ameliorate or even prevent onset. Valid criteria and a reliable methodology for identifying possible prodromes are needed. This paper describes an instrument, the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS), which has been designed for such a purpose. It has two functions: (i) to assess psychopathology thought to indicate imminent development of a first-episode psychotic disorder; and (ii) to determine if an individual meets criteria for being at ultra high risk (UHR) for onset of first psychotic disorder. This paper describes the pilot evaluation of the CAARMS. Method: Several methodologies were used to test the CAARMS. First, CAARMS scores in a group of UHR young people and the association between CAARMS scores and the risk of transition to psychotic disorder, were analysed. Second, CAARMS scores in a UHR group were compared to a control group. To assess concurrent validity, CAARMS-defined UHR criteria were compared to the existing criteria for identifying the UHR cohort. To assess predictive validity, the CAARMS-defined UHR criteria were applied to a sample of 150 non-psychotic help-seekers and rates of onset of psychotic disorder at 6-month follow-up determined for the CAARMS-positive (i.e. met UHR criteria) group and the CAARMS-negative (i.e. did not meet UHR criteria) group. The inter-rater reliability of the CAARMS was assessed by using pairs of raters. Results: High CAARMS score in the UHR group was significantly associated with onset of psychotic disorder. The control group had significantly lower CAARMS scores than the UHR group. The UHR criteria assessed by the CAARMS identified a similar group to the criteria measured by existing methodology. In the sample of non-psychotic help-seekers those who were CAARMS-positive were at significantly increased risk of onset of psychotic disorder compared to those who were CAARMS-negative (relative risk of 12.44 (95% CI=1.5–103.41, p=0.0025)). The CAARMS had good to excellent reliability. Conclusions: In these preliminary investigations, the CAARMS displayed good to excellent concurrent, discriminant and predictive validity and excellent inter-rater reliability. The CAARMS instrument provides a useful platform for monitoring sub threshold psychotic symptoms for worsening into full-threshold psychotic disorder.
ASP 2062 Introduction to Astrophysics Planet formation II —

1. The two main models for planet formation in discs are ‘core accretion’ and ‘gravitational instability’ 2. Gravitational instability requires massive discs that satisfy the Toomre criterion and a sufficiently fast cooling rate 3. Core accretion proceeds in stages from dust to planetesimals, to terrestrial planets and eventually gas giants. Several ‘growth barriers’ must be overcome. 4. Both models predict a phase where planets interact strongly with the disc
A Clustered Global Phrase Reordering Model for Statistical Machine Translation

In this paper, we present a novel global reordering model that can be incorporated into standard phrase-based statistical machine translation. Unlike previous local reordering models that emphasize the reordering of adjacent phrase pairs (Till-mann and Zhang, 2005), our model explicitly models the reordering of long distances by directly estimating the parameters from the phrase alignments of bilingual training sentences. In principle, the global phrase reordering model is conditioned on the source and target phrases that are currently being translated, and the previously translated source and target phrases. To cope with sparseness, we use N-best phrase alignments and bilingual phrase clustering, and investigate a variety of combinations of conditioning factors. Through experiments, we show, that the global reordering model significantly improves the translation accuracy of a standard Japanese-English translation task.
Taking Coase Seriously

In this essay I advance two related theses. First, economic theory predicts that organizations will be a mess but not a mystery. Second, classic case studies conducted by organizational sociologists support this prediction. Fully articulating and defending these theses will require a book, so my goal here is simply to render them plausible. I begin by pointing toward the relevant economic theory and sociological evidence, but I devote the bulk of the essay to a particular example: I develop a formal economic model inspired by a passage from Michel Crozier's The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. I conclude by discussing the potential roles of formal economic modeling in organizational research.
Human choriogonadotrophin protein core and sugar branches heterogeneity: basic and clinical insights.

BACKGROUND Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) is measured in serum and urine for the early detection of ectopic pregnancy, patients with higher risk of miscarriage, embryos or fetuses with chromosome abnormalities, prediction of pre-eclampsia or fetal growth restriction and identification or follow-up of trophoblast neoplasia. This review examines basic knowledge on the heterogeneity of hCG protein core and sugar branches and its relevance to assays used in a clinical setting. METHODS The databases Scielo and Medline/Pubmed were consulted for identification of the most relevant published papers. Search terms were gonadotrophin, glycoprotein structure, hCG structure and molecular forms of hCG. RESULTS The synthesis of alpha (hCGalpha) and beta (hCGbeta) peptide chains and their further glycosylation involve the complex action of different enzymes. After assembly, hCG reaches the cell surface and is secreted as a bioactive heterodimer. The complex cascade of enzymes acting in hCG secretion results in heterogeneous molecular forms. The hCG molecules are differently metabolized by the liver, ovary and kidney, but the majority of hCG forms are excreted in the urine. Intact hCG, hCGalpha, hCGbeta, hyperglycosylated (hCGh), nicked (hCGn) and core fragment of hCGbeta (hCGbetacf) forms have relevant clinical use. The immunogenicity of each hCG variant, their epitopes distribution and the available antibodies are important for the development of specific assays. Depending on the prevalent form or proportion in relation to the intact hCG, the choice of assay for measurement of a specific molecule in a particular clinical setting is paramount. CONCLUSIONS Measurement of hCG and/or its related molecules is useful in clinical practice, but greater awareness is needed worldwide regarding the use of new sensitive and specific assays tailored for different clinical applications.