Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apport des modalités vibratoires pour la navigation en environnement virtuel. (Contribution of vibrational modalities for navigation in virtual environments)

La navigation en environnement virtuel est susceptible d’induire le mal du simulateur selon les conditions et le profil des utilisateurs. Le caractere potentiellement multimodal de la realite virtuelle est susceptible d’apporter des solutions a ces problemes tout en ameliorant le sentiment de presence. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de ce travail de recherche est de determiner quel est l’impact sur la simulation de l’apport des modalites vibratoires pour l’aide a la navigation dans un environnement virtuel.Pour cela une taxonomie des methodes de navigation est proposee. Il en resulte 4 types, concrete ego-centree, concrete exo-centree, abstraite ego-centree et abstraite exo-centree. Dans un premier temps, des vibrations utilisees pour simuler des bandes rugueuses lors d’une simulation de conduite sont etudiees. L’experimentation permet de conclure que ces vibrations rendent le conducteur plus attentif a l’environnement et donc sa conduite plus sure. Par la suite nous avons developpe les 3 modalites vibratoires suivantes, vibrations proprioceptives, vibrations synchronisees sur le pas et vibrations continues. L’evaluation de ces vibrations combinees avec differents types de methode de navigation ont permis de montrer que les vibrations permettent de diminuer le mal du simulateur et d’augmenter le sentiment de presence. Ces travaux ont mis en evidence l’importance du choix de la modalite vibratoire a utiliser suivant l’effet souhaite en fonction de la methode de navigation utilisee dans la simulation. Enfin, deux langages vibratoires ont ete developpes et evalues, le « Pushing Pattern » et le « Compass Pattern ». L’evaluation de ces langages a montre que le « Compass Pattern » etait plus performant pour guider l’utilisateur dans un environnement virtuel.
Realistic and very fast simulation of individual electricity consumptions

The incoming smart grid represents a significant break for the European utilities in terms of data volume to be processed. In France, one year of individual consumptions represents more than 600 billion data points. Since real data is not yet available, our objective consists in simulating realistic individual consumptions. A new generative model of time series is proposed which combines the MODL coclustering approach with Markov chains. This approach is evaluated on a real dataset provided by the Irish CER. Our experiments demonstrate the ability of the generative model to efficiently reproduce the dynamic of the original time series.
Characterizing Spatial Correlation of Blockage Statistics in Urban mmWave Systems

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) systems suffer from a significant loss in performance when the line-of- sight (LoS) path between the transmitter and the receiver is obstructed due to blockage caused by humans or other obstacles. However, due to blocker or user motion, the mmWave receiver may transition between the LoS and non-LoS (nLoS) states. Following the recent 3GPP requirements on spatial consistency for channel modeling, this paper aims to analyze the spatial correlation of blockage statistics and characterize their evolution due to user mobility in a static field of blockers in urban mmWave systems. In particular, we derive conditional probabilities of residing in LoS or nLoS state at a given time t1, provided that a user was in LoS/nLoS state at a prior time t0. We demonstrate that for realistic values of user speed, the angle of motion, height of transmitter and receiver, as well as the density of blockers, there always is a significant correlation between user channel states at time t0 and t1, across the time scales relevant for mmWave resource scheduling. Hence, our model can serve as an important tool for optimizing system performance in the presence of blockage.
Amniotic Membrane Loading Epidermal Stem Cells Accelerate Impaired Wound Healing in Diabetic Rats

Epidermal stem cells are essential in wound healing, but their amount and activity are decreased in diabetes which contributes to the impaired healing. This study evaluated the efficacy of amniotic membrane loading epidermal stem cells in the management of impaired wound in diabetes. Epidermal stem cells derived from SD rats were isolated, cultured, identified and labled with BrdU in vitro. The wound model of diabetic rats were established, then amniotic membrane loading labled BrdU epidermal stem cells were implanted to impaired wound. The results showed that wound healing rate in amniotic membrane loading epidermal stem cells was significantly higher than that in control groups 14 days after treatment. BrdU-positive cells in the wounds and newborn epidermis were visible. This indicated that amniotic membrane loading epidermal stem cells accelerates epidermal migration of wound margin and wound epithelialization in diabetic rats.
A MixDemonstrator for teaching Security in the Virtual University

Mixes, first discussed in 1981, conceal who communicates with whom in telecommunication networks. This paper presents the MixDemonstrator which is a software application for teaching the functionality of a mix network, and discusses how to use it for teaching and learning communication security. This demonstrator simulates and animates a network, mixes, participants and attackers. In a playful manner, the functionality and special features of mixes and their infrastructure can be taught and studied. The MixDemonstrator is useful for private learning, lectures and teleteaching sessions.
Catalytic peroxidation of nitrogen monoxide and peroxynitrite by globins

Globins are generally considered as carriers of diatomic gaseous ligands (e.g., O2 and NO) in metazoa. Recently, the (pseudo‐)enzymatic activity of globins towards reactive nitrogen and oxygen species has been elucidated. In particular, some globins (e.g., hemoglobin and myoglobin) catalyze the enzymatic scavenging of NO and peroxynitrite in the presence of H2O2. Indeed, H2O2 oxidizes some globins leading to the formation of water and of the heme‐protein ferryl derivative, which, in turn, oxidizes NO and peroxynitrite leading to the formation of the globin ferric species, NO2−, and NO3−. Here, we hypothesize that NO, peroxynitrite, and H2O2 are co‐substrates for the peroxidase activity of some globins, this catalytic activity was reported in 1900 for the first time, even though the substrates have never been identified firmly up to now. © 2008 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 61(1): 62–73, 2009
Bin-Completion Algorithms for Multicontainer Packing and Covering Problems

Bin-completion, a bin-oriented branch-and-bound approach, was recently shown to be promising for the bin packing problem. We propose several improvements to bin-completion that significantly improves search efficiency. We also show the generality of bin-completion for packing and covering problems involving multiple containers, and present bin-completion algorithms for the multiple knapsack, bin covering, and min-cost covering (liquid loading) problems that significantly outperform the previous state of the art. However, we show that for the bin packing problem, bin-completion is not competitive with the state of the art solver.
Pinpointing Interrupts in Embedded Real-Time Systems Using Hashed Execution Contexts

Cyclic debugging is the process of iteratively re-executing a failed execution in order to determine the cause of the failure, i.e., the bug. In this process, being able to correctly reproduce the faulty execution is an absolute necessity. In sequential, deterministic, non-real-time software, this reproducibility is inherent. However, when the execution is preempted by interrupts, this has severe effects on program reproducibility, since, during the reproduction, it is required for interrupts to occur at the exact same instructions. Previously, this problem has been solved using instruction counters, that induce large execution-time perturbations, or by special hardware solutions which impose a risk of inexact results. In this paper, we propose an alternative method for pinpointing interrupts using hashed values of selected parts of the program execution context. Although our method in some cases can be ambiguous, we show that it serves as a pragmatic method for pinpointing and reproducing interrupts in embedded real-time systems. Moreover, our method does not rely on special hardware or compilers, is simple to implement and use, and requires little execution-time and memory.
Impact of Robotic Dispensing Machines in German Pharmacies on Business Performance Indicators

Aims and objectives: To assess the impact of robotic dispensing machines in community pharmacies on staff efficiency and sales of over-the-counter drugs. Setting: The study was done on 253 community pharmacies in Germany that use a robotic dispensing machine manufactured by ROWA during 2008. Method: Data concerning the financial and economic impact of using a robotic dispensing machine in community pharmacies was gathered using a structured questionnaire and analysed in terms of its financial implications. Key findings: The response rate was 29%. In most pharmacies (79%) the robotic dispensing machine was retrofitted. In 59% of the pharmacies additional space was gained for self-service and behind-the-counter display. As a result of using a robotic dispensing machine, personnel costs were reduced by an average of 4.6% during the first 12 months after start-up. Over-the-counter sales increased in the same period by an average of 6.8%. Despite average initial costs of 118,000 euros, total costs within the first 12 months fell in 50% of cases and at least remained the same in 44%. Conclusions: On average, robotic dispensing machines lead to modest savings in personnel costs and slight increases in sales of over-the-counter drugs. Substantial savings can be achieved only if the staffing level is adapted to the changed personnel requirements.
Generalized expectation consistent signal recovery for nonlinear measurements

In this paper, we propose a generalized expectation consistent signal recovery algorithm to estimate the signal x from the nonlinear measurements of a linear transform output z = Ax. This estimation problem has been encountered in many applications, such as communications with front-end impairments, compressed sensing, and phase retrieval. The proposed algorithm extends the prior art called generalized turbo signal recovery from a partial discrete Fourier transform matrix A to a class of general matrices. Numerical results show the excellent agreement of the proposed algorithm with the theoretical Bayesian-optimal estimator derived using the replica method.
Microarray Analysis of Juvenile Hormone Response in Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells

Abstract A microchip array encompassing probes for 14,010 genes of Drosophila melanogaster was used to analyze the effect of juvenile hormone (JH) on genome-wide gene expression. JH is a member of a group of insect hormones involved in regulating larval development and adult reproductive processes. Total RNA was isolated from Drosophila S2 cells after 4 hours treatment with 250 ng/ml (10R) JH III or 250 ng/ml methyl linoleate. A collection of 32 known or putative genes demonstrated a significant change with JH III treatment (r > 2.0, P ≤ 0.005). Of these, the abundance of 13 transcripts was significantly increased and 19 decreased. The expression of a subset of these loci was analyzed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Three loci that exhibited constant expression in the presence and absence of JH III (RP49 [FBgn0002626], FBgn0023529, and FBgn0034354) were evaluated and found to be reliable invariant reference transcripts for real-time RT-qPCR analysis using BestKeeper and geNorm software. Increased expression in presence of JH III was confirmed by real-time RTqPCR analysis. However, only one of five loci that exhibited reduced expression on microarrays could be confirmed as significantly reduced (P ≤ 0.05). Among the confirmed JH III up-regulated genes were two loci of unknown function (FBgn0040887 and FBgn0037057) and Epac, an exchange protein directly activated by cyclic AMP, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rap1 small GTPase.
Nutritional Status of Young Children with Inherited Blood Disorders in Western Kenya

There is demonstrated high prevalence of hemoglobinopathies in Africa; however, it is unknown how blood disorders affect nutrition status. To determine the burden of anemia, iron and vitamin A deficiency, stunting, wasting, and underweight amongst young children in western Kenya with one or more blood disorders (haptoglobin 2‐2, glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, sickle cell hemoglobin, and α‐thalassemia), we conducted a cross sectional survey of 882 children aged 6–35 months, randomly selected from 60 villages. Hemoglobin (Hb), ferritin, transferrin receptor (TfR), C‐reactive protein (CRP), alpha‐1‐acid glycoprotein (AGP), retinol binding protein (RBP), anthropometry, and blood disorders using PCR were measured. Of 861 children with Hb results, 71.7% were anemic (Hb<11 g/dL), 27.2% iron deficient (ferritin<12 μg/L, CRP<10 mg/L), and 16.8% vitamin A deficient (RBP<0.7 μmol/L, CRP<10 mg/L). Of the four blood disorders, anemia burden only differed between α‐thalassemics (82.3%), trait (75.6%), or without (66.8%) (p=0.002). Differences in vitamin A and iron deficiency, stunting, wasting, and underweight were not significant. The crude results suggest that in young children in western Kenya, α‐thalassemia is the only blood disorder associated with nutrition status, with children more likely to be anemic.
Retinal arterial and venous oxygen saturation is altered in diabetic patients.

PURPOSE To determine the retinal oxygen saturation trend with onset of diabetes and increasing severity of diabetic retinopathy by comparing diabetic groups with and without retinopathy to controls. METHODS A fundus camera-based dual-wavelength snapshot oximeter imaged retinas of healthy subjects and patients with and without diabetic retinopathy. The images were analyzed to determine oxygen saturation in major retinal arteries and veins, which is inversely proportional to optical density ratio. RESULTS Control retinal oxygen saturation (n = 14) in arteries was 92.3 ± 4.2% and in veins, 57.2 ± 6.0%. Retinal oxygen saturation for diabetic patients with no signs of diabetic retinopathy (NDR, n = 45) in arteries was 96.3 ± 8.6% (P = 0.662) and in veins, 58.7 ± 7.5% (P = 0.998). Retinal oxygen saturation for diabetics with mild to moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR, n = 23) in arteries was 97.7 ± 5.8% (P = 0.590) and in veins, 61.1 ± 7.6% (P = 0.658). Retinal oxygen saturation for diabetics with severe NPDR (n = 12) in arteries was 102 ± 10.2% (P = 0.023) and in veins, 66.8 ± 8.4% (P < 0.001). Retinal oxygen saturation for patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR, n = 13) in arteries was 103.6 ± 8.7% (P = 0.003) and in veins, 66.6 ± 10.2% (P = 0.026). Retinal oxygen saturation for all diabetics with retinopathy combined (all DR, n = 48) in arteries was 100.4 ± 7.6% (P = 0.004) and in veins, 64.2 ± 8.4% (P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS A trend of increasing retinal oxygen saturation was found from controls to NDR group to increasing levels of diabetic retinopathy, though significance was only reached for the comparison of controls to severe-NPDR, PDR, and all-DR groups.
Auditory System Abnormalities in Human Albinos

Auditory abnormalities were evaluated in human albinos using temporary threshold shift and dichotic listening tasks. Albinos exhibited a greater temporary threshold shift than did normally pigmented individuals after exposure to a fatiguing tone. In the dichotic listening task, albinos demonstrated a significantly larger right ear advantage than normally pigmented individuals. These results support earlier work indicating that hemispheric asymmetries are present in the albino auditory system and suggest that abnormalities may be present at the cochlear level as well.
Inactive dynamical phase of a symmetric exclusion process on a ring

We investigate the nature of the dynamically inactive phase of a simple symmetric exclusion process on a ring. We find that as the system’s activity is tuned to a lower-than-average value, the particles progressively lump into a single cluster, thereby forming a kink in the density profile. All dynamical regimes, and their finite-size range of validity, are explicitly determined.
Efficacy of Alfuzosin After Shock Wave Lithotripsy for the Treatment of Ureteral Calculi

Purpose We evaluated the efficacy of alfuzosin for the treatment of ureteral calculi less than 10 mm in diameter after extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL). Materials and Methods A randomized, single-blind clinical trial was performed prospectively by one physician between June 2010 and August 2011. A total of 84 patients with ureteral calculi 5 to 10 mm in diameter were divided into two groups. Alfuzosin 10 mg (once daily) and loxoprofen sodium 68.1 mg (as needed) were prescribed to group 1 (n=41), and loxoprofen sodium 68.1 mg (as needed) only was prescribed to group 2 (n=44). The drug administration began immediately after ESWL and continued until stone expulsion was confirmed up to a maximum of 42 days after the procedure. Results Thirty-nine of 41 (95.1%) patients in group 1 and 40 of 43 (93.0%) patients in group 2 ultimately passed stones (p=0.96). The number of ESWL sessions was 1.34±0.65 and 1.41±0.85 in groups 1 and 2, respectively (p=0.33). The patients who required analgesics after ESWL were 8 (19.5%) in group 1 and 13 (30.2%) in group 2 (p=0.31). Visual analogue scale pain severity scores were 5.33±1.22 and 6.43±1.36 in groups 1 and 2, respectively (p=0.056). The time to stone expulsion in groups 1 and 2 was 9.5±4.8 days and 14.7±9.8 days, respectively (p=0.005). No significant adverse effects occurred. Conclusions The use of alfuzosin in combination with ESWL seems to facilitate stone passage and to reduce the time of stone expulsion but does not affect the stone-free rate.
In-Use Stock of Copper Analysis Using Satellite Nighttime Light Observation Data

We have developed a novel methodology for analyzing the worldwide copper stock-in-use by using nighttime light images. Radiance calibrated nighttime light imaged data (RCD) for the entire world has been assembled from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) by the National Geophysical Data Center. It has been recognized that the intensity of nighttime light is strongly associated with such aspects of human settlement as population density and energy consumption. We assumed that the presence of light implies the use of electrical conducting material, namely copper. The stock-in-use data for copper in Japan, North America, Australia and China were obtained from previous material flow analysis studies. We analyzed the relationship between light accumulation and the size of the copper stock in those countries. A significant correlation was found and the feasibility of this method was confirmed. We employed this method to analyze the stock-in-use in other Asian countries. The in-use stock of copper was correlated with the gross domestic product (GDP). [doi:10.2320/matertrans.M2009030]
Code Cloning: The Analysis, Detection and Removal

The coping, modifying a block of code is identified as cloning and is the most basic means of software reuse. It has been extensively used within the software development community. An official survey which is carried out within large, long term software development project suggested that 25-30% of modules in system may be cloned. This paper begins with background concept of code cloning, presents overcall taxonomy of current techniques and tools, and classify evolution tools in two different format as static code clone and dynamic code cloning, this together presented with program analysis, secondly as a solution the static code is divided into four parts as T1, T2, T3, T4, to finally develop a process to detect and remove code cloning.
TRH‐Catecholamine Interactions in Brain and Spinal Cord a

It is well-established that the central actions of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) are not confined to its role as a hormone in the hypothalamus-pituitarythyroid axis. In rodents, this tripeptide has been shown to produce behavioral excitation and increased locomotor activity when injected either peripherally'-' or into specific brain regions such as the nucleus a c c u m b e n ~ ~ ~ ~ . ~ and hypothalamus. lo Various pharmacological and biochemical investigations have indicated that TRH probably produces some of these behavioral effects by increasing dopamine turnover and release in the n. a c c ~ m b e n s . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ l ~ This interaction between TRH and the mesolimbic dopamine system is likely to be of physiological importance because (a) this brain region is densely innervated with TRH-containing nerve terminals and fibers and contains a large number of TRH receptors,15-17 and (b) changes in response to a TRH analogue injected into the n. accumbens is sensitized following central infusion of TRH antibodies. I* The evidence that TKHinduced hyperactivity may, in part, involve the interaction of this peptide with mesolimbic (and possibly striatal) dopamine has been reviewed recently elsewhere. l9 There is evidence to suggest that TRH may also influence the function of another catecholamine neurotransmitter, noradrenaline. For example, rearing behavior in rats appears to be mediated by a noradrenergic mechanism.2o Various groups have shown previously that peripheral administration of TRH increases noradrenaline turnover in rodent b r a i r ~ . ~ ' ~ ~ Furthermore, various behavioral effects of TRH or a TRH analogue (MK 771) were inhibited using adrenoceptor antagonists, and the depletion of brain noradrenaline by a-methyl-p-tyrosine was enhanced by TRH.25 Ascending noradrenergic pathways in brain are well-documented and noradrenaline-containing neurones richly innervate cortical and limbic regions, including the hypothalamus.26 In addition to ascending pathways,
Computational model of the process of learning vowel categories in language acquisition

We examine how infants organize phonetic categories by using neural network model. In this study, we consider Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) model which was based on knowledge how infants organize their vowel categories. Our model learns values of Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficient (MFCC) of a natural continuation utterance from multi corpora and organizes a learning process of the vowel categories. This result demonstrated that this model could acquire number and boundaries of the vowel categories of an input language, and its learning process was achieved with a little quantity of data. Then, these results show the possibility that statistical frequency of the specific sound properties input by neighbouring adults may play an important role in language acquisition.
AUTOMATIC DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF STOP CONSONANTS USING AN ACOUSTIC-PHONETIC FEATURE-BASED SYSTEM

A new acoustic-phonetic feature-and knowledge-based approach for the detection and classification of stop consonants in speakerindependent continuous speech is proposed. A system is built which automatically extracts stop consonants from continuous speech. The detected stop consonants are then passed to the classification system, which classifies them according to their voicing and place of articulation. The system combines multiple static and dynamic features in a multi-level decision process. It uses an auditory-based front-end processing and incorporates new algorithms for the extraction and manipulation of the acoustic-phonetic features that proved to be useful in the recognition process. The system is tested on 300 sentences from 30 different speakers of the TIMIT database with 6 different dialects. The stops were detected with an accuracy of 88% (8% substitution, 3% insertion and 1% deletion errors). The classification accuracy was 86%, with 97% voicing accuracy and 90% place of articulation accuracy.