Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust stability of discrete-time uncertain stochastic BAM neural networks with time-varying delays

Summary In this paper, the global exponential stability is investigated for the discrete-time uncertain stochastic bidirectional associate memory neural networks with time-varying delays. For the neural networks under study, a generalized activation function is considered, and the traditional assumptions on the boundedness, monotony and differentiability of the activation functions are removed. By utilizing suitable Lyapunov–Krasovsky functional and using stochastic analysis theory and inequality technique, several sufficient conditions for checking the global robust exponential stability of the addressed neural networks are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which can be checked numerically using the effective LMI toolbox in MATLAB. An example is given to show the effectiveness and less conservatism of the proposed criteria.
Mechanotransduction as an Adaptation to Gravity

Gravity has played a critical role in the development of terrestrial life. A key event in evolution has been the development of mechanisms to sense and transduce gravitational force into biological signals. The objective of this manuscript is to review how living organisms on Earth use mechanotransduction as an adaptation to gravity. Certain cells have evolved specialized structures, such as otoliths in hair cells of the inner ear and statoliths in plants, to respond directly to the force of gravity. By conducting studies in the reduced gravity of spaceflight (microgravity) or simulating microgravity in the laboratory, we have gained insights into how gravity might have changed life on Earth. We review how microgravity affects prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells at the cellular and molecular levels. Genomic studies in yeast have identified changes in genes involved in budding, cell polarity, and cell separation regulated by Ras, PI3K, and TOR signaling pathways. Moreover, transcriptomic analysis of late pregnant rats have revealed that microgravity affects genes that regulate circadian clocks, activate mechanotransduction pathways, and induce changes in immune response, metabolism, and cells proliferation. Importantly, these studies identified genes that modify chromatin structure and methylation, suggesting that long-term adaptation to gravity may be mediated by epigenetic modifications. Given that gravity represents a modification in mechanical stresses encounter by the cells, the tensegrity model of cytoskeletal architecture provides an excellent paradigm to explain how changes in the balance of forces, which are transmitted across transmembrane receptors and cytoskeleton, can influence intracellular signaling pathways and gene expression.
Clustering approach for user location data privacy in telecommunication services

User location has become an important aspect of user's context that may bring valuable insights into user habits and preferences. Various services and applications tend to collect user location data for the purpose of analysis and providing personalized content to the users. This paper examines location data privacy across some aspects of location data processing regarding to European Commission ePrivacy directives. The intent of the new legislation is to strengthen and unify data protection for individuals within the European Union. It is necessary to strike a reasonable balance between the data controllers' business interests and the privacy of data subjects. The Data Protection Directive requires data controllers to observe a number of principles when they process personal data. These principles not only protect the rights of those about whom the data is collected but also reflect good business practices that contribute to reliable and efficient data processing. For this purpose, we propose a new approach for location data processing in which the location data is scaled corresponding to the type of service. Neural processing technique is used for location data clustering. This approach proposes a dedicated server used for location data clustering with adaptive cluster dimensions.
What Does it Mean to Be a Child

What does it mean to be a child? What is the nature of human childhood? What are the processes underlying human development? These are the big questions that motivate the theorizing and research of child and developmental psychologists. However, most psychological research and theorizing investigating these universal questions has been done by Western scholars living in what have recently been described as WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) cultures (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010). People from WEIRD cultures are, statistically speaking, some of the most unusual people in the world, and this may be especially true of children, and this calls into question the validity of any conclusions psychologists make about children and their development. David Lancy brings this fact to the forefront in his book The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, and Changelings as he takes readers on a tour of childhood across the globe and over time. In slightly over 400 pages and 10 chapters, Lancy presents thousands of observations from hundreds of cultures, present and past, describing the many facets of childhood, from infancy through adolescence. In the process, he reminds us that the picture we scientists from WEIRD cultures paint of children is a biased one and that any claims of universality must be viewed with great caution. There are a number of important messages psychologists can glean from Lancy’s book, three of which I will highlight here. The most central message, from Lancy’s perspective, is “to offer a correction to the ethnocentric lens that sees children only as precious, innocent, and preternaturally cute cherubs” (pp. 2, 3). He reminds us that in much of the world today and throughout much of human history, infants and children are viewed as property (chattel) of their parents, are the “low person on the totem pole” when it comes to receiving resources, and may in fact be valued for their economic contribution to the family rather than for any inherent quality that immaturity affords. This is related to the second message, that the varied conditions in which children survive and often thrive—frequently in environments that westerners would describe as harsh and perhaps stultifying— reveal the substantial plasticity of human development. A third message is that children in much of the world educate themselves, with parents and adults in general providing little direct teaching. Lancy’s rich description and interpretation of the lives of children from diverse societies is viewed not only through the lens of a cultural anthropologist but also from the perspective of an evolutionary theorist. Throughout the book Lancy reminds us that children and childhood are products of a long evolutionary history. However, biology is not destiny, and culture operates on children’s evolved characteristics to produce adaptive outcomes, often unique to specific societal contexts.
Complexity Analysis of a Parallel Lattice Basis Reduction Algorithm

Lattice basis reduction is an important problem in geometry of numbers with applications in combinatorial optimization, computer algebra, and cryptography. The well-known sequential LLL algorithm finds a short vector in O(n4 log B) arithmetic operations on integers having binary length O(n log B), where n denotes the dimension of the lattice and B denotes the maximum L2 norm of the initial basis vectors. In this paper a new analysis of the parallel algorithm of Roch and Villard is presented. It is shown that on an n x n mesh it needs O(n2 log B) arithmetic operations on integers having binary length O(n log B). This improves the previous analysis and shows that an asymptotical speedup of n2 is possible using n2 processors.
Exocytosis through the Lens

Exocytosis, the process in which material is transported from the cell interior to the extracellular space, proceeds through a complex mechanism. Defects in this process are linked to a number of serious illnesses including diabetes, cancer, and a range of neuropathologies. In neuroendocrine cells, exocytosis involves the fusion of secretory vesicles, carrying signaling molecules, with the plasma membrane through the coordinated interplay of proteins, lipids, and small molecules. This process is highly regulated and occurs in a complex three-dimensional environment within the cell precisely coupled to the stimulus. The study of exocytosis poses significant challenges, involving rapidly changing, nano-scale, protein–protein, and protein–lipid interactions, at specialized sites in the cell. Over the last decade our understanding of neuroendocrine exocytosis has been greatly enhanced by developments in fluorescence microscopy. Modern microscopy encompasses a toolbox of advanced techniques, pushing the limits of sensitivity and resolution, to probe different properties of exocytosis. In more recent years, the development of super-resolution microscopy techniques, side-stepping the limits of optical resolution imposed by the physical properties of light, have started to provide an unparalleled view of exocytosis. In this review we will discuss how advances in fluorescence microscopy are shedding light on the spatial and temporal organization of the exocytotic machinery.
Learning associations between places and visual cues without learning to navigate: Neither fornix nor entorhinal cortex is required

Rats with fornix transection, or with cytotoxic retrohippocampal lesions that removed entorhinal cortex plus ventral subiculum, performed a task that permits incidental learning about either allocentric (Allo) or egocentric (Ego) spatial cues without the need to navigate by them. Rats learned eight visual discriminations among computer‐displayed scenes in a Y‐maze, using the constant‐negative paradigm. Every discrimination problem included two familiar scenes (constants) and many less familiar scenes (variables). On each trial, the rats chose between a constant and a variable scene, with the choice of the variable rewarded. In six problems, the two constant scenes had correlated spatial properties, either Allo (each constant appeared always in the same maze arm) or Ego (each constant always appeared in a fixed direction from the start arm) or both (Allo + Ego). In two No‐Cue (NC) problems, the two constants appeared in randomly determined arms and directions. Intact rats learn problems with an added Allo or Ego cue faster than NC problems; this facilitation provides indirect evidence that they learn the associations between scenes and spatial cues, even though that is not required for problem solution. Fornix and retrohippocampal‐lesioned groups learned NC problems at a similar rate to sham‐operated controls and showed as much facilitation of learning by added spatial cues as did the controls; therefore, both lesion groups must have encoded the spatial cues and have incidentally learned their associations with particular constant scenes. Similar facilitation was seen in subgroups that had short or long prior experience with the apparatus and task. Therefore, neither major hippocampal input–output system is crucial for learning about allocentric or egocentric cues in this paradigm, which does not require rats to control their choices or navigation directly by spatial cues. Hippocampus 2003;13:445–460. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Early childhood holocaust survivial and the influence on well-being in later life

No specific, systematic research existed focusing exclusively on late effects of surviving the Holocaust and its aftermath on the youngest child Holocaust survivors. Born between 1935 and 1944, they had endured persecution and deprivation in their first and most formative years. From trauma-experiential and child-developmental points of view, their peri-Holocaust experiences are different from older child survivors. They hold no recollections of a world that was peaceful and benevolent to enhance early development of basic trust. This set of studies focuses on the associations between early childhood peri-Holocaust experiences and adaptations at the beginning of old age in a __with-in design__ that compares three age cohorts in a non-convenience sample of 203 child Holocaust survivors, now living in Israel. Late-life implications of early traumatic stress for the adreno-cortical system were examined by assessing basal circadian cortisol release and cortisol reactivity to a stressor. Through several inventories severity of Holocaust survival exposure, current physical and psycho-social quality of life, and the role of Antonovsky__s Sense of Coherence as a protective factor were assessed. Results show mild to severe present-day repercussions of the Nazi persecutions, and a potentially moderating effect of the Sense of Coherence on later life impact of Holocaust survival experience.
Bacteriological and clinical evaluation of twelve cases of post-surgical sepsis of odontogenic tumours at a referral centre

Objective: to determine the bacterial aetiology of sepsis occurring following surgery of odontogenic tumours and assess the effect of prompt and proper antibiotic usage. Design: a prospective study. Setting: a tertiary referral centre in lagos, nigeria. Subjects: twelve patients with odontogenic tumours that developed sepsis postoperatively. eight of the patients were referred from private hospitals, the remaining were in-patients who sought for alternative medical attention following interruption of health care services at the referral centre. Intervention: adequate review of patient’s medical history, bacteriological investigations and antibiotic therapy. Main outcome measures: Bacteriological and clinical cure following antibiotic therapy based on susceptibility test results. Results: Two categories of patients were identified; those who completed the course of antibiotics prescribed post-surgery and patients who failed to conform to antibiotic prescription. sepsis developed in the non-compliance group much earlier than in the group that complied (p<0.001). infections were polybacterial with aerobes accounting for 77.4% (α-haemolytic streptococci 29.0%, Streptococcus pyogenes 16.1%, Staphylococcus aureus 16.1%, diphtheroids 9.7%, Klebsiella pneumoniae 6.5%) and anaerobes 22.6% (Porphyromonas gingivalis 9.7%, Peptostreptococcus spp. 6.5%, Prevotella melaninogenica 3.2%, Clostridium perfringens 3.2%). mixed aerobic and anaerobic aetiology occurred more in osteosarcoma and fibrosarcoma. Clostridium perfringens was isolated from a case of osteosarcoma with necrotic tissues. the anaerobic bacteria were 100% sensitive to metronidazole, ciprofloxacin and augmentin, 65-85% sensitivity to ampicloxacillin, amoxicillin and erythromycin. over 92% of the streptococci were sensitive to the β-lactams contrast low susceptibility with s. aureus and K. pneumoniae. Conclusion: Interruption of healthcare service was the sole factor identified in the development of sepsis as the patients could not be monitored to ensure compliance to prescription. East African Medical Journal Vol. 85 No. 6 June 2008 BactEriological and clinical Evaluation of tWElvE casEs of post-surgical sEpsis of odontogEnic tuMours at a rEfErral cEntrE l.o. Egwari, phd, n.n. nwokoye, Msc. , aMils, department of Botany and Microbiology, faculty of science, university of lagos, akoka, lagos, nigeria, B. obisesan, ddpHrcs (Engl), fpMcn, department of oral and Maxillofacial surgery, a.o. coker, phd, frcpath (uk), fas (nigeria), f.o. nwaokorie, Msc. fiMls, department of Medical Microbiology and parasitology and k.o. savage, Msc, fMcds, EWacs, department of preventive dentistry, college of Medicine, university of lagos, lagos, nigeria request for reprints to: dr. l.o. Egwari, department of Botany and Microbiology, faculty of science, university of lagos, akoka, lagos, nigeria
Growth and Endocrine Function in Long-term Adult Survivors of Childhood Stem Cell Transplant

The number of long-term surviving stem cell transplant (SCT) recipients has increased steadily, and attention has now extended to the late complications of this procedure. The objective of this study was to investigate relationship among growth and endocrine functions in long-term adult survivors of childhood SCT. The inclusion criteria of this study were survival at least 5 yr after SCT and achievement of adult height. Fifty-four patients (39 males) fulfilled these criteria and were included in this study. Growth was mainly evaluated by height standard deviation score (SDS) and individual longitudinal growth curves. Among the 54 patients, those that received SCT before 10 yr of age showed significantly greater reductions in changes in height SDS (mean –1.75, range –4.80 to –0.10) compared with those that received SCT at or after 10 yr of age (mean –0.50, range –1.74 to 1.20; P<0.001). The mean loss of height for all patients who received SCT during childhood was estimated to be approximately 1 SDS/6.5 yr (r=0.517). Individual longitudinal growth curves indicated that a significant growth spurt was absent in severe short stature patients during the pubertal period without severe endocrine dysfunctions including GH deficiency. The incidence of growth disorder in long-term adult survivors depends on the age at SCT and whether they received radiation therapy. Life-long follow-up is necessary for survivors to detect, prevent and treat the late endocrine complications in SCT survivors.
Read optimisations for append storage on flash

Append-/Log-based Storage Managers (LbSM) for database systems represent a good match for the characteristics and behaviour of Flash technology. LbSM alleviate random writes reducing the impact of Flash read/write asymmetry, increasing endurance and performance. A recently proposed combination of Multi-Versioning database approaches and LbSM called SIAS [9] offers further benefits: it substantially lowers the write rate due to tuple version append granularity and therefore improves the performance. In SIAS a page contains versions of tuples of the same table. Once appended such a page is immutable. The only allowable operations are reads (lookups, scans, version visibility checks) in tuple version granularity. Optimising for them offers an essential performance increase. In the present work-in-progress paper we propose two types of read optimisations: Multi-Version Index and Ordered Log Storage. Benefits of Ordered Log Storage: (i) Read efficiency due to the use of parallel read streams; (ii) Write efficiency since larger amounts of data are appended sequentially; (iii) fast garbage collection: read multiple sorted runs, filter dead tuples and write one single, large (combined) sorted run. (iv) possible cache-efficiency optimisations (for large scans) Benefits of Multi-Version Indexing: (i) index only visibility checks; (ii) postponing of index reorganisations; (iii) no invalid tuple bits in the index (in-place updates); (iv) pre-filtering of invisible tuple versions; (v) facilitate easy identification of tuple versions to be garbage collected. Benefits of the combination of both approaches: (i) Index and ordered access; (ii) Facilitate range searches in sorted runs; (iii) on the fly garbage collection (checking of one bit).
Effect of ENSO and the MJO on western North Pacific tropical cyclones

Prior work has suggested that Rossby wave accumulation in the lower troposphere may be an important mechanism for the development of synoptic‐scale disturbances in the western north Pacific in northern summer. This work examines the intraseasonal and interannual variability of wave accumulation by computing the barotropic wave activity flux divergence at 850 hPa for different phases of the Madden‐Julian oscillation (MJO) and El Niño/southern oscillation (ENSO). Indirectly, and without ruling out other influences, the results suggest a physical mechanism behind previously identified relationships between tropical cyclogenesis statistics and these two modes of variability (MJO and ENSO).
Representation of weak limits and definition of nonconservative products

The goal of this article is to show that the notion of generalized graphs is able to represent the limit points of the sequence { g(un), dun} in the weak-$\star$ topology of measures when {un} is a sequence of continuous functions of uniformly bounded variation. The representation theorem induces a natural definition for the nonconservative product g(u), du in a BV context. Several existing definitions of nonconservative products are then compared, and the theory is applied to provide a notion of solutions and an existence theory to the Riemann problem for quasi-linear, strictly hyperbolic systems.
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Using DNA-Fragmented Sperm in Mice Negatively Affects Embryo-Derived Embryonic Stem Cells, Reduces the Fertility of Male Offspring and Induces Heritable Changes in Epialleles

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in mice using DNA-fragmented sperm (DFS) has been linked to an increased risk of genetic and epigenetic abnormalities both in embryos and offspring. This study examines: whether embryonic stem cells (ESCs) derived from DFS-ICSI embryos reflect the abnormalities observed in the DFS-ICSI progeny; the effect of DFS-ICSI on male fertility; and whether DFS-ICSI induces epigenetic changes that lead to a modified heritable phenotype. DFS-ICSI-produced embryos showed a low potential to generate ESC lines. However, these lines had normal karyotype accompanied by early gene expression alterations, though a normal expression pattern was observed after several passages. The fertility of males in the DFS-ICSI and control groups was compared by mating test. Sperm quantity, vaginal plug and pregnancy rates were significantly lower for the DFS-ICSI-produced males compared to in vivo-produced mice, while the number of females showing resorptions was higher. The epigenetic effects of DFS-ICSI were assessed by analyzing the phenotype rendered by the Axin1Fu allele, a locus that is highly sensitive to epigenetic perturbations. Oocytes were injected with spermatozoa from Axin1Fu /+ mice and the DFS-ICSI-generated embryos were transferred to females. A significantly higher proportion of pups expressed the active kinky-tail epiallele in the DFS-ICSI group than the controls. In conclusion: 1) ESCs cannot be used as a model of DFS-ICSI; 2) DFS-ICSI reduces sperm production and fertility in the male progeny; and 3) DFS-ICSI affects the postnatal expression of a defined epigenetically sensitive allele and this modification may be inherited across generations.