Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Road-Shape Recognition Using On-Vehicle Millimeter-wave Radar

In this paper, we present a method for estimating road shape using on-vehicle millimeter-wave radar. The radar detects not only the backscatter from vehicles but also from stationary objects such as crash barriers and sound barrier walls that are generally installed along roads. This indicates that we can estimate road shape by collecting information on the distribution of these objects. We adopt the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm for increasing the azimuth resolution. Moreover, to apply the MUSIC algorithm into real-time radar systems, the computational cost is reduced by introducing the technique of bi-iteration singular value decomposition (Bi-SVD). The estimated road shapes exhibit good agreement with the actual shapes. Therefore, this technique is expected to improve the reliability of driving support systems.
Analysis of Naturally Occurring Resistant Mutations to Hepatitis C Virus NS3 Protease Inhibitors: A Preliminary Study in South of Iran

Background: Exploring the rate of naturally occurring NS3 protease mutants in HCV infected population is influential in the future therapeutic approaches. Objectives: This study explored naturally occurring resistant mutations to protease inhibitors in a pilot study. Patients and Methods: We analyzed NS3 gene sequences in 7 HCV infected patients, referred to the central liver center, south of Iran. The protease domain was amplified by PCR followed by product extraction. Amplified NS3 genes were cloned by TA/cloning system. For each patient, clonal-sequencing was performed to improve mutation detection sensitivity. Then, the obtained sequences were compared with the reference sequences and final phylogenic tree was constructed. Afterwards, the sequences were studied to investigate point mutations. Results: Phylogenetic analysis between reference and amplified sequences demonstrated high similarity of all sequences with genotype 1. Interestingly, crucial protease resistant mutations were detected in V36 and R155 positions in one patient’s sequence. Checking different clones of this patient confirmed V36L, as the dominant mutation while R155K was detected only in a few cases. Conclusions: As revealed, naturally occurring resistant mutations, especially R155K in protease sequence were identified in 1 out of the 7 patients, so the rate of such mutations is estimated to be high. It seems that checking HCV patients before protease inhibitor treatment are necessary in the region.
Dealing with workflow change: identification of issues and solutions

Adaptability has become one of the major research topics in the area of workflow management. Today’s workflow management systems have problems dealing with both momentary changes and evolutionary changes. As a result, the workflow management system is not used to support dynamically changing workflow processes or the workflow process is supported in a rigid manner, i.e. changes are not allowed or handled outside of the workflow management system. In this paper we focus on the potential problems caused by changes. To structure these problems we use a partitioning based on five perspectives. Errors resulting from change limited to one of these perspectives and multiple-perspective errors are distinguished. To clearly identify the potential problems caused by change, we distinguish between transient and incessant errors, and syntactic and semantic errors. Based on a classification of change and potential errors we point out stepping stones for solving some of the problems.
Stabilization of a quasi-linear parabolic Cauchy problem associated with ergodic control of diffusions

We study the relative value iteration for the ergodic control problem under a near-monotone running cost structure for a nondegenerate diffusion controlled through its drift. This algorithm takes the form of a quasilinear parabolic Cauchy initial value problem in ℝd. We show that this Cauchy problem stabilizes, or in other words, that the solution of the quasilinear parabolic equation converges for every bounded initial condition in C2(ℝd) to the solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation associated with the ergodic control problem.
Implications of Nubian-Like Core Reduction Systems in Southern Africa for the Identification of Early Modern Human Dispersals

Lithic technologies have been used to trace dispersals of early human populations within and beyond Africa. Convergence in lithic systems has the potential to confound such interpretations, implying connections between unrelated groups. Due to their reductive nature, stone artefacts are unusually prone to this chance appearance of similar forms in unrelated populations. Here we present data from the South African Middle Stone Age sites Uitpanskraal 7 and Mertenhof suggesting that Nubian core reduction systems associated with Late Pleistocene populations in North Africa and potentially with early human migrations out of Africa in MIS 5 also occur in southern Africa during early MIS 3 and with no clear connection to the North African occurrence. The timing and spatial distribution of their appearance in southern and northern Africa implies technological convergence, rather than diffusion or dispersal. While lithic technologies can be a critical guide to human population flux, their utility in tracing early human dispersals at large spatial and temporal scales with stone artefact types remains questionable.
Single exponential decay waveform; a synergistic combination of electroporation and electrolysis (E2) for tissue ablation

Background Electrolytic ablation and electroporation based ablation are minimally invasive, non-thermal surgical technologies that employ electrical currents and electric fields to ablate undesirable cells in a volume of tissue. In this study, we explore the attributes of a new tissue ablation technology that simultaneously delivers a synergistic combination of electroporation and electrolysis (E2). Method A new device that delivers a controlled dose of electroporation field and electrolysis currents in the form of a single exponential decay waveform (EDW) was applied to the pig liver, and the effect of various parameters on the extent of tissue ablation was examined with histology. Results Histological analysis shows that E2 delivered as EDW can produce tissue ablation in volumes of clinical significance, using electrical and temporal parameters which, if used in electroporation or electrolysis separately, cannot ablate the tissue. Discussion The E2 combination has advantages over the three basic technologies of non-thermal ablation: electrolytic ablation, electrochemical ablation (reversible electroporation with injection of drugs) and irreversible electroporation. E2 ablates clinically relevant volumes of tissue in a shorter period of time than electrolysis and electroporation, without the need to inject drugs as in reversible electroporation or use paralyzing anesthesia as in irreversible electroporation.
Delay in Presentation After an Acute Stroke in a Multiethnic Population in South London: The South London Stroke Register

Background Delayed presentation to hospital after an acute stroke is a major explanation given for low thrombolysis rates. This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with delays in presentation after an acute stroke and changes after a mass media campaign. Methods and Results Data were from a population-based study involving 1392 patients with first-ever strokes between 2002 and 2010 in a multiethnic South London population. Associations were determined between prehospital delay (≥3 hours) and variables of interest, including ethnicity, by using multivariate logistic regression analyses. Differences in prehospital delay and thrombolysis rates were determined for the period immediately before and after the FAST mass media campaign (2007/2008 versus 2009/2010). The median (Q1 to Q3) time to presentation was 4.73 (1.55 to 12.70) hours, and 550 (39.5%) presented within 3 hours of symptom onset. In multivariate analysis, patients of black ethnicity had increased odds of delay (odds ratio: 1.63; 95% confidence interval, 1.11 to 2.38), whereas those with more severe strokes characterized by a higher National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (odds ratio: 0.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.20 to 0.61) had reduced odds of delay. There was no difference in the proportion of patients who arrived within 3 hours (P=0.30) in the period immediately before and after the FAST campaign (40.7% in 2007/2008 versus 44.9% in 2009/2010). Among patients with ischemic stroke, 119 (11.0%) received thrombolysis between 2002 and 2010, with no difference observed between the pre- and postcampaign periods (16.9% versus 16.4%). Conclusion Significant delays in seeking care after stroke still occur in this population despite efforts to increase public awareness. Future educational programs must identify and specifically address factors that influence behavior and should target those at higher risk of delay. (J Am Heart Assoc. 2012;1:e001685 doi: 10.1161/JAHA.112.001685.)
Functional Characterization of an Evolutionarily Distinct Phosphopantetheinyl Transferase in the Apicomplexan Cryptosporidium parvum

ABSTRACT Recently, two types of fatty acid synthases (FASs) have been discovered from apicomplexan parasites. Although significant progress has been made in characterizing these apicomplexan FASs, virtually nothing was previously known about the activation and regulation of these enzymes. In this study, we report the discovery and characterization of two distinct types of phosphopantetheinyl transferase (PPTase) that are responsible for synthesizing holo-acyl carrier protein (ACP) from three apicomplexan parasites: surfactin production element (SFP) type in Cryptosporidium parvum (CpSFP-PPT), holo-ACP synthase (ACPS)-type in Plasmodium falciparum (PfACPS-PPT), and both SFP and ACPS types in Toxoplasma gondii (TgSFP-PPT and TgACPS-PPT). CpSFP-PPT and TgSFP-PPT are monofunctional, cytosolic, and phylogenetically related to animal PPTases. However, PfACPS-PPT and TgACPS-PPT are bifunctional (fused with a metal-dependent hydrolase), likely targeted to the apicoplast, and more closely related to proteobacterial PPTases. The function of apicomplexan PPTases has been confirmed by detailed functional analysis using recombinant CpSFP-PPT expressed from an artificially synthesized gene with codon usage optimized for Escherichia coli. The recombinant CpSFP-PPT was able to activate the ACP domains from the C. parvum type I FAS in vitro using either CoA or acetyl-CoA as a substrate, or in vivo when coexpressed in bacteria, with kinetic characteristics typical of PPTases. These observations suggest that the two types of fatty acid synthases in the Apicomplexa are activated and regulated by two evolutionarily distinct PPTases.
Using zero-index metamaterial to enhance the gain of an broadband microstrip patch antenna

This article designed an zero-index metamaterial (ZIM) superstrate for an broadband microstrip patch antenna, we finally achieved a higher gain and thinner main lobe antenna with 19.5% impedance bandwidth at 10GHz(X-band) and an average 10.95dB gain over the whole operating frequency.
Bootstrapping security associations in opportunistic networks

Key management in opportunistic networks is a challenging problem that cannot be solved with existing solutions. In this paper, we analyze the requirements of key management in the framework of opportunistic networks and content-based forwarding. We then present a specific key management scheme that enables the bootstrapping of local, topology-dependent security associations between a node and its neighbors along with the discovery of the neighborhood topology, thanks to the use of pseudonym certificates and encapsulated signatures. This key management solution relies on two phases: a first phase where nodes are connected to an Identity Manager that provides them with unique pseudonyms to prevent Sybil attacks, and a second phase where the opportunistic communication and the security associations bootstrapping take place without the need for the Identity Manager. This solution with an offline Identity Manager is well-suited to opportunistic networks and can be used as an anchor to provide end-to-end confidentiality based on local and self-organized key management.
Efficient Memory Partitioning for Parallel Data Access via Data Reuse

In this paper, we propose an efficient memory partitioning algorithm for parallel data access via data reuse. We found that for most of the applications in image and video processing, a large amount of data can be reused among different iterations in a loop nest. Motivated by this observation, we propose to cache these reusable data by on-chip registers. The on-chip registers used to cache the re-fetched data can be organized as chains of registers. The non-reusable data are then partitioned into several memory banks by a memory partition algorithm. We revise the existing padding method to cover cases occurring frequently in our method that some components of partition vector are zeros. Experimental results have demonstrated that compared with the state-of-the-art algorithms the proposed method can reduce the required number of memory banks by 59.8% on average. The corresponding resources for bank mapping is also significantly reduced. The number of LUTs is reduced by 78.6%. The number of Flip-Flops is reduced by 66.8%. The number of DSP48Es is reduced by 41.7%. Moreover, the storage overheads of the proposed method are zeros for most of the widely used access patterns in image filtering.
Lifting options for stratospheric aerosol geoengineering: advantages of tethered balloon systems

The Royal Society report ‘Geoengineering the Climate’ identified solar radiation management using albedo-enhancing aerosols injected into the stratosphere as the most affordable and effective option for geoengineering, but did not consider in any detail the options for delivery. This paper provides outline engineering analyses of the options, both for batch-delivery processes, following up on previous work for artillery shells, missiles, aircraft and free-flying balloons, as well as a more lengthy analysis of continuous-delivery systems that require a pipe connected to the ground and supported at a height of 20 km, either by a tower or by a tethered balloon. Towers are shown not to be practical, but a tethered balloon delivery system, with high-pressure pumping, appears to have much lower operating and capital costs than all other delivery options. Instead of transporting sulphuric acid mist precursors, such a system could also be used to transport slurries of high refractive index particles such as coated titanium dioxide. The use of such particles would allow useful experiments on opacity, coagulation and atmospheric chemistry at modest rates so as not to perturb regional or global climatic conditions, thus reducing scale-up risks. Criteria for particle choice are discussed, including the need to minimize or prevent ozone destruction. The paper estimates the time scales and relatively modest costs required if a tethered balloon system were to be introduced in a measured way with testing and development work proceeding over three decades, rather than in an emergency. The manufacture of a tether capable of sustaining the high tensions and internal pressures needed, as well as strong winds, is a significant challenge, as is the development of the necessary pumping and dispersion technologies. The greatest challenge may be the manufacture and launch of very large balloons, but means have been identified to significantly reduce the size of such balloons or aerostats.
Climate change impacts and adaptation in South Africa

In this paper we review current approaches and recent advances in research on climate impacts and adaptation in South Africa. South Africa has a well‐developed earth system science research program that underpins the climate change scenarios developed for the southern African region. Established research on the biophysical impacts of climate change on key sectors (water, agriculture, and biodiversity) integrates the climate change scenarios but further research is needed in a number of areas, such as the climate impacts on cities and the built environment. National government has developed a National Climate Change Response White Paper, but this has yet to translate into policy that mainstreams adaptation in everyday practice and longer‐term planning in all spheres and levels of government. A national process to scope long‐term adaptation scenarios is underway, focusing on cross‐sectoral linkages in adaptation responses at a national level. Adaptation responses are emerging in certain sectors. Some notable city‐scale and project‐based adaptation responses have been implemented, but institutional challenges persist. In addition, a number of knowledge gaps remain in relation to the biophysical and socio‐economic impacts of climate change. A particular need is to develop South Africa's capacity to undertake integrated assessments of climate change that can support climate‐resilient development planning. WIREs Clim Change 2014, 5:605–620. doi: 10.1002/wcc.295
The uptake of SO 2 on Saharan dust: a flow tube study

Abstract. The uptake of SO2 onto Saharan mineral dust from the Cape Verde Islands was investigated using a coated wall flow tube coupled to a mass spectrometer. The rate of loss of SO2 to the dust coating was measured and uptake coefficients were determined using the measured BET surface area of the sample. The uptake of SO2, with an initial concentration between (2-40)x1010molecule cm-3 (0.62-12 µTorr), was found to be strongly time dependent over the first few hundred seconds of an experiment, with an initial uptake γ0,BET of (6.6±0.8)x10-5 (298 K), declining at longer times. The amount of SO2 adsorbed on the dust samples was measured over a range of SO2 concentrations and mineral dust loadings. The uptake of SO2 was found to be up to 98% irreversible over the timescale of these investigations. Experiments were also performed at 258 K, at a relative humidity of 27% and at 298 K in the presence of ozone. The initial uptake and the amount of SO2 taken up per unit area of BET dust surface was the same within error, irrespective of the conditions used; however the presence of ozone reduced the amount of SO2 released back into the gas-phase per unit area once exposure of the surface ended. Multiple uptakes to the same surface revealed a loss of surface reactivity, which did not return if the samples were exposed to gas-phase water, or left under vacuum overnight. A mechanism which accounts for the observed uptake behaviour is proposed and numerically modelled, allowing quantitative estimates of the rate and amount of SO2 removal in the atmosphere to be estimated. Removal of SO2 by mineral dust is predicted to be significant at high dust loadings.
Word Alignment with Synonym Regularization

We present a novel framework for word alignment that incorporates synonym knowledge collected from monolingual linguistic resources in a bilingual probabilistic model. Synonym information is helpful for word alignment because we can expect a synonym to correspond to the same word in a different language. We design a generative model for word alignment that uses synonym information as a regularization term. The experimental results show that our proposed method significantly improves word alignment quality.
Left ventricular mass predicts left atrial appendage thrombus in persistent atrial fibrillation.

AIMS Atrial fibrillation (AF) can result in the development of left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombi. We sought to examine demographic and echocardiographic predictors of LAA thrombus in patients with persistent AF. METHODS AND RESULTS One hundred and sixty-five patients in persistent AF (36 with LAA thrombus and 129 without thrombus) were studied. Demographic and cardiovascular risk factors were retrospectively examined. Transthoracic (TTE) and transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) were performed to assess the size and function of the left ventricle (LV), left atrium (LA), LAA, and spontaneous echo contrast (SEC) in the LA and right atrium (RA). Univariate demographic predictors of LA thrombus included systolic blood pressure, ischaemic heart disease and congestive heart failure. Indexed LV mass and septal E' velocity on TTE and mean LAA emptying velocity and the presence of SEC in both the LA and RA on TOE were predictors of thrombus. In a multiple logistic regression analysis the only independent predictor of thrombus was indexed LV mass (P < 0.001). Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis also demonstrated that indexed LV mass had the highest area under the curve (AUC: 0.98). CONCLUSION In the present study, increased LV mass was the strongest predictor of LAA thrombus in persistent AF. LA SEC and RA SEC were univariate predictors of LAA thrombus but did not add predictive value to a multivariate model including LV mass. This study highlights the importance of diagnosing and treating LV hypertrophy associated with persistent AF, which may reduce the risk of LAA thrombus and thrombo-embolic stroke.
Monitoring and Comparison of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Their Resistance Genes in Municipal and Hospital Wastewaters

Background: Human exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) is a public health concern which could occur in a number of ways. Wastewaters seem to play an important role in the dissemination of bacteria and antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in our environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of three groups of ARB and their resistance genes in hospital and municipal wastewaters (MWs) as possible sources. Methods: A total of 66 samples were collected from raw MWs and hospital wastewaters (HWs) and final effluents of related wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Samples were analyzed for the detection of three groups of ARB including gentamicin (GM), chloramphenicol (CHL) and ceftazidime resistant bacteria and their ARGs (aac (3)-1, cmlA1 and ctx-m-32, respectively). Results: The mean concentration of GM, CHL and ceftazidime resistant bacteria in raw wastewater samples was 1.24 × 107, 3.29 × 107 and 5.54 × 107 colony forming unit/100 ml, respectively. There is a variation in prevalence of different groups of ARB in MWs and HWs. All WWTPs decreased the concentration of ARB. However, high concentration of ARB was found in the final effluent of WWTPs. Similar to ARB, different groups of ARGs were found frequently in both MWs and HWs. All genes also detected with a relative high frequency in effluent samples of MWs WWTPs. Conclusions: Discharge of final effluent from conventional WWTPs is a potential route for dissemination of ARB and ARGs into the natural environment and poses a hazard to environmental and public health.
An extraction method of hierarchical Web communities for Web video retrieval

This paper presents an extraction method of hierarchical Web communities for Web video retrieval. In the proposed method, Web communities containing Web videos whose topics are similar to each other are extracted by using hyperlinks between Web pages including Web videos and their video features. Furthermore, we focus on graph structure of hyperlinks between Web pages including Web videos which belong to the Web communities. Then, by using strongly connected components and betweenness centrality of the graph, hierarchical structure of the Web communities can be estimated. Consequently, users can easily find Web videos including related topics in each hierarchy, and desired Web videos can be effectively retrieved.