Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sliding mode control for coordination in multi-agent systems with directed communication graphs

This paper focuses on the control of a team of agents designated either as leaders or followers and exchanging information over a directed communication network. The goal is to drive each follower to a target position that depends on its neighbors. To this purpose, we propose a decentralized control scheme based on sliding-mode techniques and study the position error propagation within the network using the notion of Input-to-State Stability (ISS). In particular, we derive sufficient conditions on the control parameters for guaranteeing that the error dynamics is ISS with respect to the leaders' velocities. Moreover, we show that, under suitable assumptions, the sliding-mode part of the control law is capable of steering the position errors to zero in finite time. The theoretical results are backed up by numerical simulations.
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Analyses of natural waters frequently show elevated levels of total aluminum (Al) attributable to acid extraction of Al from the total suspended solids (TSS) minerals. Hence, there is a need for an analytical method that measures only bioavailable Al. Natural waters high in TSS were collected to study the chronic effects of Al on Ceriodaphnia dubia. In the collected waters TSS ranged from 30 to 411mg/L; total Al concentrations ranged from 2.0 to 44.8mg/L. The TSS in natural waters inhibited reproduction of C. dubia up to 40% in comparison to the same filtered waters. This inhibition did not correlate with the concentration of TSS or total Al; it was attributed to nutritional deficiency and was prevented by increasing the food supply. To demonstrate that toxicity can be measured in natural waters, samples with elevated TSS were spiked with soluble Al, and survival and reproduction were measured in chronic studies performed at pH 6.3 and 8.0. To properly characterize the Al concentrations in the toxicity studies, a method was needed that could discriminate bioavailable Al from mineral forms of Al. An extraction method at pH 4 for bioavailable Al was developed and evaluated using C. dubia chronic toxicity studies in the presence of TSS. It is concluded that the proposed method is better able to discriminate chronic toxicity effects attributable to bioavailable Al from mineralized nontoxic forms of Al compared with existing methods using total or total recoverable Al (i.e., extraction at pH ≤ 1.5). We propose that this new method be used when assessing the potential for Al in natural surface waters to cause toxicity. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:1668–1681. © 2019 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.
Deficits in receptor-mediated endocytosis and recycling in cells from mice with Gpr107 locus disruption

ABSTRACT GPR107 is a type III integral membrane protein that was initially predicted to be a member of the family of G-protein-coupled receptors. This report shows that deletion of Gpr107 leads to an embryonic lethal phenotype that is characterized by a reduction in cubilin transcript abundance and a decrease in the representation of multiple genes implicated in the cubilin–megalin endocytic receptor complex (megalin is also known as LRP2). Gpr107-null fibroblast cells exhibit reduced transferrin internalization, decreased uptake of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor-related protein-1 (LRP1) cargo and resistance to toxins. Colocalization studies and proteomic analyses suggest that GPR107 associates with clathrin and the retromer protein VPS35 and that GPR107 might be responsible for the return of receptors to the plasma membrane from endocytic compartments. The highly selective deficits observed in Gpr107-null cells indicate that GPR107 interacts directly or indirectly with a limited subset of surface receptors.
Co-located 18S/5S rDNA arrays: an ancient and unusual chromosomal trait in Julidini species (Labridae, Perciformes)

Abstract Wrasses (Labridae) are extremely diversified marine fishes, whose species exhibit complex interactions with the reef environment. They are widely distributed in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Their species have displayed a number of karyotypic divergent processes, including chromosomal regions with complex structural organization. Current cytogenetic information for this family is phylogenetically and geographically limited and mainly based on conventional cytogenetic techniques. Here, the distribution patterns of heterochromatin, GC-specific chromosome regions and Ag-NORs, and the organization of 18S and 5S rDNA sites of the Atlantic species Thalassoma noronhanum (Boulenger, 1890), Halichoeres poeyi (Steindachner, 1867), Halichoeres radiatus (Linnaeus, 1758), Halichoeres brasiliensis (Bloch, 1791) and Halichoeres penrosei Starks, 1913, belonging to the tribe Julidini were analyzed. All the species exhibited 2n=48 chromosomes with variation in the number of chromosome arms among genera. Thalassoma noronhanum has 2m+46a, while species of the genus Halichoeres Rüppell, 1835 share karyotypes with 48 acrocentric chromosomes. The Halichoeres species exhibit differences in the heterochromatin distribution patterns and in the number and distribution of 18S and 5S rDNA sites. The occurrence of 18S/5S rDNA syntenic arrangements in all the species indicates a functionally stable and adaptive genomic organization. The phylogenetic sharing of this rDNA organization highlights a marked and unusual chromosomal singularity inside the family Labridae.
Dirt detection for archive film restoration using an adaptive spatio-temporal approach

We propose an adaptive spatio-temporal approach for the detection of dirt in archive film sequences. By combining useful features from conventional stand-alone spatial and temporal approaches our method achieves better performance in terms of both correct dirt detection rate and false alarm rate. Furthermore the incorporation of confidence weighting offers a useful control mechanism for semi-automatic restoration scenarios involving manual operator intervention. Overall our scheme offers a practical solution to the dirt detection problem without additional computational complexity overheads.
The Invisible Student: Benefits and Challenges of Part-time Doctoral Studies

This autoethnographic study explores the experiences of two part-time doctoral students as we document our journey of balancing our multiple competing roles. As we reflected and consulted the literature, we began to identify many benefits and challenges that part-time candidature brings to students, universities and employers. Through our autoethnographic analysis, considered in the context of research, we hope to shed light on the part-time doctoral student experience and raise awareness of the benefits that part-time students can bring to universities and to society. Cette etude auto-ethnographique explore les experiences de deux etudiants au doctorat a temps partiel qui documentent leur parcours alors qu’ils tentent d’equilibrer leurs divers roles concurrents. Au cours de reflexions personnelles et de consultation de la litterature, nous avons commence a identifier plusieurs avantages et defis que presentent aux etudiants, aux universites et aux employeurs les etudes doctorales a temps partiel. Nous esperons que cette analyse auto-ethnographique, consideree dans le contexte de la recherche, mettra en lumiere l’experience d’etudiants au doctorat a temps partiel, et fera mieux connaitre les avantages qu’apportent aux universites et a la societe les etudiants a temps partiel.
Show&Tell: A Semi-Automated Image Annotation System

A multimedia system for semi-automated image annotation, Show&Tell combines advances in speech recognition, natural language processing and image understanding. Show&Tell differs from map annotation systems and has tremendous implications for situations where visual data must be co-referenced with text descriptions, such as medical image annotation and consumer photo annotation.
Electromagnetic Articulography with AG 500 and AG 501

The AG500 (Carstens Medizinelektronik GmbH) is widely used in electromagnetic articulography, as it allows the recording in 3D of the movements of the articulatory organs. However some anomalies in sensor position tracking were recognized and analyzed in previous works, which ultimately attributed them to numerical issues and not to external interferences. Recently a new upgraded model, the AG501, has been introduced. By means of both speech experiments and numerical measurements, we analyzed the reliability of the AG501 and compared it to that of the previous model, the AG500. While, in some scenarios, the positions obtained via the AG500 are afflicted by external perturbations, the AG501 showed a greater degree of precision in all the numerical experiments, and in the speech analyses that have been performed so far.
Impact of Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance on Cardiac Structure and Function: Sex-Related Differences in the Framingham Heart Study

Background—Although insulin resistance has been implicated in the pathogenesis of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, previous studies have yielded inconsistent results and are limited by referral bias. Methods and Results—We examined the relations between echocardiographic LV measurements and glucose tolerance status in 2623 Framingham Study subjects (1514 women, mean age 53 years) free of myocardial infarction and heart failure. We also evaluated the relations of insulin resistance (homeostasis model, HOMA-IR) and LV and left atrial (LA) measures within the normal and abnormal glucose tolerance categories (the latter included impaired glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glucose, and newly diagnosed diabetes). LV mass (adjusted for age, height, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure) increased across categories of worsening glucose tolerance; the trend was more striking in women (P <0.001) compared with men (P =0.054). In subjects with normal (n=2022) and abnormal glucose tolerance (n=327), covariate-adjusted LV mass and LV wall thickness increased across HOMA-IR quartiles in women (P <0.001) but not men. In contrast, covariate-adjusted LA size increased with worsening glucose tolerance and across HOMA-IR quartiles in the normal and abnormal glucose tolerance groups in both sexes. Adjustment for body mass index considerably attenuated the relations of LV/LA measures and HOMA-IR, rendering them statistically nonsignificant in the normal glucose tolerance group. Conclusions—In our large community-based sample, LV mass and wall thickness increased with worsening glucose intolerance, an effect that was more striking in women compared with men. Insulin resistance was associated with increased LV mass in women alone, but this relation was largely accounted for by obesity.
Black-Blood Imaging of the Human Heart Using Rapid STEAM MRI

Introduction Adequate delineation of cardiac morphology remains a challenge. The image quality achievable by double inversion-recovery techniques [1,2] depends on the inversion time, imaging time, and stability of the heart rate. The approach may also lower the signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) of the desired signal from the myocardial wall and limits the number of simultaneously acquired sections in a multislice study, e.g. see [3,4]. Alternatively, high-speed STEAM (stimulated echo acquisition mode) MRI [5] offers inherent flow suppression due to the dephasing of moving spins [6]. The purpose of this work was to redesign rapid STEAM MRI sequences with use of state-ofthe-art equipment in order to evaluate its potential for blood-free multi-slice imaging of the myocardial wall.
Occupational exposure in ANCA-positive patients: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND Antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) are valuable biomarkers for the diagnosis and follow-up of small vessel vasculitis. The role of ANCA has not yet been fully established, but genetic, infectious, and/or environmental factors may increase susceptibility to these diseases. We performed an epidemiologic study to investigate whether the presence of ANCA was associated with silica or any other form of occupational exposure, regardless of the underlying disease. METHODS All consecutive ANCA-positive patients recorded at the institution's Laboratory of Immunology between 1990 and 2000 were included. Patients hospitalized in a unit of internal medicine matched for age and gender were selected as controls (two controls/case). Qualitative and semiquantitative professional exposure and smoking habits were analyzed by five experts blind to the diagnosis. RESULTS Univariate analysis showed that patients who reported dust exposure had a 2.6 greater risk of being ANCA-positive (P= 0.007) (odds ratio 2.6; 95% CI 1.3 to 5.3) and individuals with professional exposure to silica had a 3.4 higher risk of being ANCA-positive (P= 0.03) (odds ratio 3.4; 95% CI 1.1 to 9.9). None of the other environmental factors or smoking habits were different between ANCA-positive patients and controls. There was no difference in silica exposure between patients with cytoplasmic ANCA (c-ANCA), perinuclear ANCA (p-ANCA), or atypical ANCA. Semiquantitative analysis showed a dose effect of silica exposure with a nearly sevenfold greater risk of being ANCA-positive compared to controls (P= 0.02) (odds ratio 6.9; 95% CI 1.3 to 35.1). CONCLUSION These results support the hypothesis that the presence of ANCA in plasma might at least partially be related to occupational exposure.
Crop pollination from native bees at risk from agricultural intensification

Ecosystem services are critical to human survival; in selected cases, maintaining these services provides a powerful argument for conserving biodiversity. Yet, the ecological and economic underpinnings of most services are poorly understood, impeding their conservation and management. For centuries, farmers have imported colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) to fields and orchards for pollination services. These colonies are becoming increasingly scarce, however, because of diseases, pesticides, and other impacts. Native bee communities also provide pollination services, but the amount they provide and how this varies with land management practices are unknown. Here, we document the individual species and aggregate community contributions of native bees to crop pollination, on farms that varied both in their proximity to natural habitat and management type (organic versus conventional). On organic farms near natural habitat, we found that native bee communities could provide full pollination services even for a crop with heavy pollination requirements (e.g., watermelon, Citrullus lanatus), without the intervention of managed honey bees. All other farms, however, experienced greatly reduced diversity and abundance of native bees, resulting in insufficient pollination services from native bees alone. We found that diversity was essential for sustaining the service, because of year-to-year variation in community composition. Continued degradation of the agro-natural landscape will destroy this “free” service, but conservation and restoration of bee habitat are potentially viable economic alternatives for reducing dependence on managed honey bees.
Autophagy, a Novel Pathway to Regulate Calcium Mobilization in T Lymphocytes

The T lymphocyte response initiates with the recognition of MHC/peptides on antigen presenting cells by the T cell receptor (TCR). After the TCR engagement, the proximal signaling pathways are activated for downstream cellular events. Among these pathways, the calcium-signaling flux is activated through the depletion of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) calcium stores and plays pivotal roles in T cell proliferation, cell survival, and apoptosis. In studying the roles of macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as autophagy) in T cell function, we found that a pathway for intracellular degradation, autophagy, regulates calcium signaling by developmentally maintaining the homeostasis of the ER. Using mouse genetic models with specific deletion of autophagy-related genes in T lymphocytes, we found that the calcium influx is defective and the calcium efflux is increased in autophagy-deficient T cells. The abnormal calcium flux is related to the expansion of the ER and higher calcium stores in the ER. Because of this, treatment with the ER sarco/ER Ca2+-ATPase pump inhibitor, thapsigargin, rescues the calcium influx defect in autophagy-deficient T cells. Therefore, autophagy regulates calcium mobilization in T lymphocytes through ER homeostasis.
Set-Based Discriminative Measure for Electrocardiogram Beat Classification

Computer aided diagnosis systems can help to reduce the high mortality rate among cardiac patients. Automatical classification of electrocardiogram (ECG) beats plays an important role in such systems, but this issue is challenging because of the complexities of ECG signals. In literature, feature designing has been broadly-studied. However, such methodology is inevitably limited by the heuristics of hand-crafting process and the challenge of signals themselves. To address it, we treat the problem of ECG beat classification from the metric and measurement perspective. We propose a novel approach, named “Set-Based Discriminative Measure”, which first learns a discriminative metric space to ensure that intra-class distances are smaller than inter-class distances for ECG features in a global way, and then measures a new set-based dissimilarity in such learned space to cope with the local variation of samples. Experimental results have demonstrated the advantage of this approach in terms of effectiveness, robustness, and flexibility based on ECG beats from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database.
Fire Detection in Videos of Violent Crowds Acquired with Handheld Devices

Our paper proposes a novel method for fire detection in riot videos acquired with handheld cameras and smart-phones. This is a typical example of computer vision in the wild, where we have no control over the data acquisition process, and the quality of the video data varies considerably. We propose a novel spatial model for fire, based on Gaussian mixtures and on color adjacency in the visible spectrum of incandescence. We demonstrate that using this spatial model in concert with motion cues leads to highly accurate results for fire detection in noisy, complex scenes of violent crowds.
DDI-CPI, a server that predicts drug–drug interactions through implementing the chemical–protein interactome

Drug–drug interactions (DDIs) may cause serious side-effects that draw great attention from both academia and industry. Since some DDIs are mediated by unexpected drug–human protein interactions, it is reasonable to analyze the chemical–protein interactome (CPI) profiles of the drugs to predict their DDIs. Here we introduce the DDI-CPI server, which can make real-time DDI predictions based only on molecular structure. When the user submits a molecule, the server will dock user's molecule across 611 human proteins, generating a CPI profile that can be used as a feature vector for the pre-constructed prediction model. It can suggest potential DDIs between the user's molecule and our library of 2515 drug molecules. In cross-validation and independent validation, the server achieved an AUC greater than 0.85. Additionally, by investigating the CPI profiles of predicted DDI, users can explore the PK/PD proteins that might be involved in a particular DDI. A 3D visualization of the drug-protein interaction will be provided as well. The DDI-CPI is freely accessible at http://cpi.bio-x.cn/ddi/.
Synovial features of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis in clinical and ultrasound remission differ under anti-TNF therapy: a clue to interpret different chances of relapse after clinical remission?

Objective To define the synovial characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in clinical and ultrasound remission achieved by combination therapy with methotrexate (MTX) and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) blockers. Methods Patients with RA in remission (n=25) (disease activity score (DAS)<1.6 for at least 6 months), patients with RA in low disease activity (LDA) (n=10) (1.6<DAS<2.4 for at least 6 months) and patients with PsA in remission (n=18) (DAS<1.6 and Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI)=0 for at least 6 months) achieved by MTX+anti-TNF (adalimumab 40 mg or etanercept 50 mg) with power Doppler (PDUS)-negative synovial hypertrophy underwent synovial tissue biopsy. Patients with RA with high/moderate disease naïve to treatment (n=50) were included as a comparison group. Immunostaining for cluster designation (CD)68, CD21, CD20, CD3, CD31 and collagen was performed. Results PDUS-negative patients with RA in remission showed lower histological scores for synovial CD68+, CD20+, CD3+ cells and CD31+ vessels and collagen deposition (p<0.05 for both lining and sublining) compared with PDUS-positive patients with RA with high/moderate disease. In addition, there was no significant difference in terms of lining and sublining CD68+, CD20+, CD3+, CD31+ cells and collagen comparing PDUS-negative patients with RA in remission and in LDA, respectively. On the contrary, PDUS-negative patients with PsA in remission showed higher histological scores for sublining CD68+ (p=0.02) and CD3+ cells (p=0.04) as well as CD31+ vessels (p<0.001) than PDUS-negative patients with RA in remission. Conclusions PDUS-negative patients with RA in remission have comparable synovial histological features than PDUS-negative patients with RA in LDA. However, patients with PsA in remission are characterised by a higher degree of residual synovial inflammation than patients with RA in remission, despite PDUS negativity under TNF inhibition.
Location privacy in sparse environment

Privacy of personal location information is becoming an increasingly important issue. This paper develops new methods for location privacy in sparse environment based on dummy users. The true user has been mixed with a set of dummy users in that LBSs can't distinguish the true user so as to protect user location privacy. We present two techniques, the first one is called “dummy user trigger algorithm”, which is able to achieve the balance of user's Location privacy and system performance, and the second one is named “dummy user generation algorithm” based on the period density matrix which enhances the truthfulness of dummy user.
Manuscripts submitted for publication in the information profession in africa: a comparative analysis of characteristics of rejected and accepted papers

A comparative analysis of the characteristics of rejected manuscripts submitted for publication to the African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science and manuscripts accepted for publication over a five year period was carried out. The study reveals that 145 manuscripts were rejected as opposed to eighty papers accepted for publication. The findings reveal that there were no remarkable differences with regards to status and affiliations between the authors of rejected and accepted papers. While information technology, archives, user studies, academic libraries and bibliometrics constituted the topics of papers mostly rejected, papers accepted were mainly in the areas of archives, information service, information technology and rural information. Most of the papers were rejected because they contributed nothing new to knowledge (65.5 per cent), used unreliable data (13.1 per cent) and lacked focus (13.1 per cent). Datedness of references was not used in rejecting papers because the editorial board policy is to update references of papers accepted for publication where necessary. The paper recommends the need for training institutions in Africa to strengthen the research and writing skills component of their curricula, as well as the regular scheduling of research and writing skills workshops by information organisations in the region.