Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein sequence alignment via anti-translation

Traditional protein alignment methods, which consist of aligning amino-acid pairs, fail to reveal protein relations when the divergence is caused by frameshift mutations. By aligning the putative DNA, we take into account both • point mutations which only affect one codon • frameshift mutations (insertions / deletions of bases) that can alter the reading frame of the ribosomes, affecting all the amino-acids coded after the frameshift.
Strong reduction of the field-dependent microwave surface resistance in YBCO with BaZrO3 inclusions

We present measurements of the magnetic field dependent microwave surface resistance in laser-ablated YBa2Cu3O7-? films on SrTiO3 substrates. BaZrO3 crystallites were included in the films using composite targets containing BaZrO3 inclusions with mean grain size smaller than 1 ? m. X-ray diffraction showed single epitaxial relationship between BaZrO3 and YBa2Cu3O7-? The effective surface resistance was measured at 47.7 GHz for 60<T<90 K and 0<? 0H<0.8 T. The magnetic field had a very different effect on pristine YBa2Cu3O7-? and YBa2Cu3O7-? /BaZrO3, while for ? 0H=0 only a reduction of Tc in the YBa2Cu3O7-? /BaZrO3 film was observed, consistent with dc measurements. At low enough T, in moderate fields YBa2Cu3O7-? /BaZrO3 exhibited an intrinsic thin film resistance lower than the pure film. The results clearly indicate that BaZrO3 inclusions determine a strong reduction of the field-dependent surface resistance. From the analysis of the data in the framework of simple models for the microwave surface impedance in the mixed state we argue that BaZrO3 inclusions determine very steep pinning potentials.
SAVINGS MOBILISATION AND FINANCIAL SECTOR DEVELOPMENT: THE NEXUS / MOBILISATION DE L'ÉPARGNE ET DÉVELOPPEMENT DU SECTEUR FINANCIER: LES LIENS

The paper seeks to shed more light on the important, though neglected so far, nexus between saving mobilisation and financial sector development and the significant implications for poverty-reducing growth in developing countries. This is done by critically evaluating the existing vast independent literature on financial sector development and savings mobilisation with a primary focus on the channels and the mechanisms through which financial sector development affects savings and thus, the entire growth process. Aspects of the literature which have not been properly discussed before are also looked at. Furthermore, the paper discusses a new booming literature on savings mobilisation, namely social security reforms and the way they affect savings. Finally, we discuss the plethora of formal as well as informal institutions through which savings mobilisation is influenced in developing countries. The paper is of particular interest to those studying and/or trying to implement financial sector reforms for saving mobilisation and sustainable growth in developing countries.
Robust statistical methods for detection of missing RFID tags

The technology of radio frequency identification is being deployed in many applications, such as logistics and inventorying. However, a generic problem in all RFID systems is to ensure that the RFID readers can reliably read a set of RFID tags, such that the probability of missing tags stays below some acceptable value. This article introduces statistical methods to deal with the problem of missing RFID tags. These methods are applied at the reliability layer, which initiates multiple reader sessions by invoking certain MAC-layer arbitration (anti-collision) protocols to collect tag responses. The reliability layer obtains a running estimate of the probability of having at least one tag missing. This estimate is used to detect if an additional reader session is required. We present several estimators, which can be used at the reliability layer to obtain an estimate of the probability of missed tags after R reader sessions have been carried out. These estimators are derived under idealized assumptions. However, when tested under more realistic conditions, which violate these ideal assumptions, the estimators exhibit high robustness and provide a very close approximation of the true probability of missing tags.
Speculative Behavior and the Operation of Competitive Markets Under Uncertainty

Profitable destabilizing speculation - comments by William J. Baumol and Jay H. Levin Arrow-Debreu theory - comment by Jack Hirshleifer the contingent claims model of speculation intrinsic uncertainty in financial economics - comment by Ronald E. Shrieves homogenous beliefs and speculation in asset pricing paradigms - comment by Merton H. Miller arbitrage pricing, common knowledge priors, and market completeness - comment by Robert F. Nau feedback effects and speculative bubbles in informational price theory - comment by Brendan O'Flaherty.
Achievable bandwidth of a quarter wavelength side-coupled ring resonator

Studies on the achievable range of bandwidth of a side-coupled ring resonator bandpass filter are presented. The elements of the resonator susceptible on varying the filter bandwidth are identified and design solutions are given in order to push the bandwidth to its minimum and maximum values. Based on the side-coupled ring resonator topology, two microstrip filters were designed at 10 GHz to achieve the narrowest and widest bandwidth with respect to insertion losses and technological limitation. Results of the studies with the given technology show that the ring resonator is suitable to address bandwidth from narrow (3.6%) to wide (31%). These concepts are validated through simulations and experiments for filters implemented on alumina substrate.
Watermark Image Recognition from Local Scale-Invariant Feature

This paper explains algorithm of digital imagewatermarking using DWT for copyright protection.The detail coefficients of second level host image aftertaking DWT is used as a watermark key for thewatermark logo insertion and extraction process. Awatermark image recognition system has beendeveloped that uses new class of local image features.These local features of image are invariant to rotation,scaling and are shown to provide robust matchingacross a substantial range of affine distortion, changein 3D viewpoint, addition of noise, and change inillumination. The recognition proceeds by matchingindividual features to a database of features fromknown watermark images using a fast nearestneighboralgorithm, followed by Hough transform toidentify clusters belonging to a single object. Theeffectiveness of local scale invariant feature is testedon original watermark logo, extracted watermarklogo. We were able to design a prototype system,which provides user authentication.
AODV Based Multipath Local Repairing Scheme for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks have many applications. Multiple ad hoc routing protocols have been proposed, of which on-demand routing protocols are very popular because they are easy to realize and have low routing overhead. The mobility of nodes and instability of the wireless environment may result in link breaks between neighboring nodes, even causes multiple routes to be invalid. Existing local repairing schemes of links breaking for Ad hoc On demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol can recover the disconnected path as needed. This paper proposes an effective path recovery scheme for AODV in which multiple active routes are repaired proactively without waiting for arrival of new packets. Hence incoming data packets for those routes will not be subject to the delay of repairing the route and can be immediately forwarded. The order of locally repairing the routes depends on the total number of packets that traversed the route before broken. The efficiency of the proposed protocol has been implemented and evaluated using ns2. There has been a noticeable improvement in the packet delivery ratio and also in the reduction of end-to-end delay and routing overheads compared to the original AODV. Key-words:Ad hoc networks, routing protocols, AODV, local repair.
Plenario: An Open Data Discovery and Exploration Platform for Urban Science

The past decade has seen the widespread release of open data concerning city services, conditions, and activities by government bodies and public institutions of all sizes. Hundreds of open data portals now host thousands of datasets of many different types. These new data sources represent enormous potential for improved understanding of urban dynamics and processes—and, ultimately, for more livable, efficient, and prosperous communities. However, those who seek to realize this potential quickly discover that discovering and applying those data relevant to any particular question can be extraordinarily difficult, due to decentralized storage, heterogeneous formats, and poor documentation. In this context, we introduce Plenario, a platform designed to automating time-consuming tasks associated with the discovery, exploration, and application of open city data—and, in so doing, reduce barriers to data use for researchers, policymakers, service providers, journalists, and members of the general public. Key innovations include a geospatial data warehouse that allows data from many sources to be registered into a common spatial and temporal frame; simple and intuitive interfaces that permit rapid discovery and exploration of data subsets pertaining to a particular area and time, regardless of type and source; easy export of such data subsets for further analysis; a user-configurable data ingest framework for automated importing and periodic updating of new datasets into the data warehouse; cloud hosting for elastic scaling and rapid creation of new Plenario instances; and an open source implementation to enable community contributions. We describe here the architecture and implementation of the Plenario platform, discuss lessons learned from its use by several communities, and outline plans for future work. Copyright 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. Bulletin of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Data Engineering
Face tracking and recognition in low quality video sequences with the use of particle filtering

A system for parallel face detection, tracking and recognition in real-time video sequences is being developed. The paper describes its particle filtering based face recognition module, which operates on low quality video sequences and utilizes the results of the preceding phases of face detection and tracking. The temporal information from video sequence is utilized for the purpose of object tracking and identity recognition through knowledge cumulation. The performance of the solution is presented in closed-set and open-set identification scenarios.
The Challenge and promise of a Catholic university

Contemporary Catholic higher education finds itself at a crucial crossroad. The issues are many and complex. How is the Catholic character of the university to be preserved and fostered while avoiding secularization on the one hand and insular sectarianism on the other? Must a majority of the faculty in a college or department be Catholic? How is Catholic to be defined in terms of culture, belief, or practice? What is the level of commitment to intellectual inquiry and the possibility of dissent that must be present on a Catholic campus? These are some of the issues that prompted Fr. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S. C. , to write a position paper and invite 29 distinguished members of the faculty and administration at the University of Notre Dame to address as they strive to envision and create a great Catholic university. The contributors explore these issues from a wide variety of religious and academic perspectives, and although their backgrounds and fields of study differ widely, they agree on a number of points. First, a great Catholic university must begin by being a great university that is also Catholic. Second, the catholicity, or universality, of a Catholic university fosters the centrality of philosophy and particularly theology as legitimate intellectual concerns, especially as they challenge the disintegration and turmoil of our modern predicament. Finally, how a Catholic university is seen as a community of service is also examined in both its intellectual and practical applications. Throughout, these essays describe a university community where reason and faith intersect and reinforce each other as they grapple with all the problems that face the transmission and growth ofknowledge and the multiplication of new and complex moral problems.
A Fault-Tolerant Causal Broadcast Algorithm to be Applied to Unreliable Networks

In this work we propose an efficient real-time causal broadcast algorithm with fault tolerance to unreliable networks. The algorithm allows for the delivery of causal messages with recovering capabilities on real-time systems by using the concept of redundancy. Redundancy, in our work, is calculated based on the causal distance. The concept of causal distance was first introduced to detect the immediate dependency relation (IDR,) which presents a distance equal to one. We extend the causal distance idea in order to add minimal redundancy information (d>1). With information redundancy we ensure the causal delivery property even in the presence of lost messages. Our algorithm is suitable to be used in real-time systems because it has the characteristic of forward error recovery.
Pedestrian Detection Based on HOG Features Optimized by Gentle AdaBoost in ROI

For the purpose of locating pedestrian ahead of vehicle faster and more accurately, this paper presents a pedestrian detection method using boosted histograms of oriented gradients (HOG) features in the region of interest (ROI). These features are extracted in the regions where the pedestrian’s legs may exist. Then the gentle AdaBoost learning algorithm is adopted to select some discriminative features and to form a strong cascaded classifier to identify pedestrian. The week classifiers are optimized by the weighted fisher linear discriminant (WFLD) combined with look up table (LUT) gentle AdaBoost instead of the linear SVM, which is helpful to accelerate the training and detection processes. Experimental results indicate that this method can address the computational problems and achieve a good accuracy.
Wavelet Thresholding Method Using Higher-Order Statistics for Seismic Signal De-Noising

We applied a third-order correlation technique for identification of wavelet coefficients uncorrupted by noise by considering triple correlation coefficients of wavelet-signal correlations for thresholding. Various important theoretical results are stated and discussed for the wavelet modulus maxima method, VisuShrink method and HOS-based thresholding method. Then key properties of each method are studied and compared through both real and synthetic data examples. Finally, the current work is applied in a real seismic section in China. By comparing several wavelet-based denoising techniques theoretically and numerically through synthetic and real seismic data, one can choose the appropriate techniques for different situations.
Do School Board Governance Best Practices Improve District Performance? Testing the Key Work of School Boards in Wisconsin

ABSTRACT The most prominent set of school board governance best practices used in the United States is the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA’s) Key Work of School Boards. In this article, we operationalize adherence to the Key Work of School Boards with multiple survey items answered by Wisconsin school board members. Using multivariate regression models, we find that adherence to the best practices results in improved achievement in districts represented by board members who have served for five or more years. The findings support the idea that school board governance behaviors are linked to district-level academic outcomes.
Antibacterial Activity of Mulinum spinosum Extracts against Slime-Producing Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Nasal Carriers

Nasal carriers of Staphylococcus aureus are important reservoirs with risk of developing endogenous infections or transmitting infections to susceptible individuals. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) are associated with higher rates of treatment failure. Some strains of S. aureus produce slime which is believed to make the microorganisms more resistant to antibiotics and host defenses. The antibacterial activity of ethyl acetate : n-hexane (EtOAc : HEX) extracts of Mulinum spinosum (5 : 95% EtOAc : HEX, 50 : 50% EtOAc : HEX, 70 : 30% EtOAc : HEX and mix 20 : 80/30 : 70% EtOAc : HEX, 50 : 50/70 : 30/100 : 0% EtOAc : HEX) were assayed against 3 slime-producing S. aureus strains and 2 MRSA strains isolated from nasal carriers. S. aureus ATCC 35556 slime-producing strain and MRSA ATCC 43300 strain were used as controls. The extracts were prepared using flash chromatography. M. spinosum 5 : 95% AcOEt : HEX showed antibacterial effect against all slime-producing strains (MIC: 500 µg/mL) and the highest activity against MRSA strains (MIC: 500 to 1000 µg/mL). All M. spinosum extracts assayed were active against slime-producing S. aureus and MRSA at doses between 500 and 4000 µg/mL. Both, slime-producing S. aureus and MRSA are highly contagious and hardly eradicated by antibiotic therapies. So, there is an increasing need to find new substances with the ability to inhibit these strains.
Serotonergic Modulation of the Prefrontal Cortex: From Neurons to Brain Waves

Humans are remarkably proficient at some sophisticated and abstract tasks such as learning, memory and flexibility. These tasks depend on the prefrontal cortex, the cortical region most evolved in primates (Fuster, 2001; Miller & Cohen, 2001). The prefrontal cortex includes the most anterior structures of the frontal lobes, with some imprecise anatomical boundaries between different species of mammals. It has been defined across species according to its reciprocal anatomical connections with the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus (nucleus MD). The prefrontal cortex controls the activity of many subcortical structures via the excitatory axons of pyramidal neurons. These projection neurons forward the output signals of a complex cortical microcircuit composed of distinct types of excitatory pyramidal neurons and numerous types of inhibitory interneurons. It receives, along with the thalamus, dense innervation from many brain regions, including the serotonergic nuclei of the brainstem. During the last decade, research conducted by many laboratories has revealed that serotonin is a major modulator of prefrontal functions at the behavioral, neuronal and network levels. Its influences on cortical processing are implemented through multiple receptors expressed by pyramidal neurons as well as interneurons. These complex modulatory signals are altered in many psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression, where changes in receptor expression, neuron activity and brain waves have been observed. Furthermore, many psychiatric treatments -for instance, some antipsychotics and antidepressantstarget the serotonergic system and the prefrontal cortex. Thus, understanding the role of serotonergic neurotransmission in prefrontal cortex function is of major importance. Here we present a summary of our findings on the anatomy, neurophysiology and pharmacology of the serotonergic system in the medial prefrontal cortex of the rat.
Optimization of iron-cored linear motor with trapezoidal magnet using finite-element analysis

This paper deals with the design optimization of iron-cored linear motor with trapezoidal permanent magnets (PMs) configurations. Such motor is a short-stroke, single-phase tubular linear permanent magnet motor (TLPMM). The motor equipped with a quasi-Halbach magnetized moving-magnet armature and stator with a single slot and a single coil. The predicted magnetic field distribution in the airgap, flux-linkage and winding inductance of the proposed design, are already presented in a previous papers. The design optimization of the proposed TLPMM for the leading design parameters has been conducted. The optimal values of the axial length of the magnet at the center to the pole-pitch ratio and the split ratio are found to be 0.64 and 0.52. The efficiencies at these optimal values are 93.13 % and 93.8 %, respectively. Also, the angle of the trapezoidal PMs is optimized, and it is found to be equal 60°. Meanwhile, the losses of the motor, such as iron loss and copper loss are predicted and analyzed. The finite-element analysis (FEA) was successfully implemented for this study.
Energy Harvesting from the Stray Electromagnetic Field around the Electrical Power Cable for Smart Grid Applications

For wireless sensor node (WSN) applications, this paper presents the harvesting of energy from the stray electromagnetic field around an electrical power line. Inductive and capacitive types of electrodynamic energy harvesters are developed and reported. For the produced energy harvesters, solid core and split-core designs are adopted. The inductive energy harvester comprises a copper wound coil which is produced on a mild steel core. However, the capacitive prototypes comprise parallel, annular discs separated by Teflon spacers. Moreover, for the inductive energy harvesters' wound coil and core, the parametric analysis is also performed. A Teflon housing is incorporated to protect the energy harvester prototypes from the harsh environmental conditions. Among the inductive energy harvesters, prototype-5 has performed better than the other harvesters and produces a maximum rms voltage of 908 mV at the current level of 155 A in the power line. However, at the same current flow, the capacitive energy harvesters produce a maximum rms voltage of 180 mV. The alternating output of the prototype-5 is rectified, and a super capacitor (1 F, 5.5 V) and rechargeable battery (Nickel-Cadmium, 3.8 V) are charged with it. Moreover, with the utilization of a prototype-5, a self-powered wireless temperature sensing and monitoring system for an electrical transformer is also developed and successfully implemented.