Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnetic field distribution in the quiet Sun: a simplified model approach

Context. The quiet Sun presents magnetized plasma whose field strengths vary from zero to about 2 kG. The probability density function of the magnetic field strength B efficaciously describes the statistical properties of the quiet Sun magnetic field. Aims. We simulate the dynamics and the evolution of quiet Sun magnetic elements to produce a probability density function of the field strengths associated with such elements. Methods. The dynamics of the magnetic field are simulated by means of a numerical model in which magnetic elements are driven passively by an advection field characterized by spatio-temporal correlations that mimick the granulation and mesogranulation scales observed on the solar surface. The field strength can increase due to an amplification process that occurs where the magnetic elements converge. Starting from a δ -like probability density function centered on $B=30$ G, we obtain magnetic field strengths of up to 2 kG (in absolute value). To derive the statistical properties of the magnetic elements, several simulation runs are performed. Results. Our model is able to produce kG magnetic fields in a time interval of the order of the granulation timescale. The mean unsigned flux density and the mean magnetic energy density of the synthetic quiet Sun reach values of $\langle B \rangle \simeq 100$ G and $\langle B^2 \rangle^{1/2}\simeq 350$ G respectively in the stationary regime. The derived probability density function of the magnetic field strength decreases rapidly from $B=30$ G to $B \sim 100$ G and has a secondary maximum at $B=2$ kG. From this result, it follows that magnetic fields ≥ 700 G dominate the unsigned flux density and magnetic energy density, although the probability density function of the field strength reaches a maximum at $B \sim 10$ G. Conclusions. A photospheric advection field with spatio-temporal correlations, driving the magnetic elements, and reduced magnetic amplification rules are able to create a realistic probability density function of the quiet Sun magnetic field. It has been found that they naturally produce an excess of magnetic fields around 2 kG if an upper limit is imposed on the field strength.
Open Access Research Article Predictors of Positive Blood Culture and Deaths among Neonates with Suspected Neonatal Sepsis in a Tertiary Hospital, Mwanza-tanzania

Background: Neonatal sepsis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in neonates. Appropriate clinical diagnosis and empirical treatment in a given setting is crucial as pathogens of bacterial sepsis and antibiotic sensitivity pattern can considerably vary in different settings. This study was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre (BMC), Tanzania to determine the prevalence of neonatal sepsis, predictors of positive blood culture, deaths and antimicrobial susceptibility, thus providing essential information to formulate a policy for management of neonatal sepsis. Methods: This was a prospective cross sectional study involving 300 neonates admitted at BMC neonatal unit between March and November 2009. Standard data collection form was used to collect all demographic data and clinical characteristics of neonates. Blood culture was done on Brain Heart Infusion broth followed by identification of isolates using conventional methods and testing for their susceptibility to antimicrobial agents using the disc diffusion method. Results: Among 770 neonates admitted during the study period; 300 (38.9%) neonates were diagnosed to have neonatal sepsis by WHO criteria. Of 300 neonates with clinical neonatal sepsis 121(40%) and 179(60%) had early and late onset sepsis respectively. Positive blood culture was found in 57 (47.1%) and 92 (51.4%) among neonates with early and late onset neonatal sepsis respectively (p = 0.466). Predictors of positive blood culture in both early and late onset neonatal sepsis were inability to feed, lethargy, cyanosis, meconium stained liquor, premature rupture of the membrane and convulsion. About 49% of gram negatives isolates were resistant to third generation cephalosporins and 28% of Staphylococcus aureus were found to be Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Deaths occurred in 57 (19%) of neonates. Factors that predicted deaths were positive blood culture (p = 0.0001), gram negative sepsis (p = 0.0001) and infection with ESBL (p = 0.008) or MRSA (p = 0.008) isolates. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that lethargy, convulsion, inability to feed, cyanosis, PROM and meconium stained liquor are significantly associated with positive blood culture in both early and late onset disease. Mortality and morbidity on neonatal sepsis is high at our setting and is significantly contributed by positive blood culture with multi-resistant gram negative bacteria. Background World Health Organization (WHO) estimates about 5 million neonatal deaths a year. Almost all deaths occur in developing countries; half of them in the African region [1]. Septicemia is a common cause of infants' morbidity and mortality in developing countries [1]. There is no pathognmonic …
An Exploration of Freshman Students' Attitude towards English Literature

Attitude has been considered by most researchers as an important variable that influences success in a learning task. Hence, analysing students' attitude is an important step that should precede making any changes in the course plan or content. This gains more importance when dealing with college students who have already finished school and look up to college to provide them with more interesting and varied content that addresses their needs. This study explores the attitude of Freshman students who plan to specialize in English towards English literature in general, its value in language learning and the utility of different literary genres. Analysis of these students attitude is essential for making decisions with regard to the kind of preparation they should get prior to embarking on the study of literary courses in their sophomore year. A five Likert scale questionnaire was used to analyze the different aspects of the students' attitude. Results showed that students have a positive attitude towards literature in general and fiction in particular. They believe that literary texts enhance their reading and writing skills and that they are a great source of learning about the target culture. Their attitude, however, is less favorable towards poetry and drama and towards the role of literature in enhancing their listening or speaking skills. Overall, they thought that certain literary genres are enjoyable and beneficial for language learning, yet they are not a core component of the language learning process.
Acetylcholine Receptors and Thresholds for Convulsions from Flurothyl and 1,2-Dichlorohexafluorocyclobutane

There are acetylcholine receptors throughout the central nervous system, and they may mediate some forms and aspects of convulsive activity. Most high-affinity binding sites on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors for nicotine, cytisine, and epibatidine in the brain contain the &bgr;2 subunit of the receptor. Transitional inhaled compounds (compounds less potent than predicted from their lipophilicity and the Meyer-Overton hypothesis) and nonimmobilizers (compounds that do not produce immobility despite a lipophilicity that suggests anesthetic qualities as predicted from the Meyer-Overton hypothesis) can produce convulsions. The nonimmobilizer flurothyl [di-(2,2,2,-trifluoroethyl)ether] blocks the action of &ggr;-aminobutyric acid on &ggr;-aminobutyric acidA receptors, whereas the nonimmobilizer 1,2-dichlorohexafluorocyclobutane (2N, also called F6) does not. 2N can block the action of acetylcholine on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. We examined the relative capacities of these compounds to cause convulsions in mice having and lacking the &bgr;2 subunit of the acetylcholine receptor. The partial pressure causing convulsions in half the mice (the 50% effective concentration [EC50]) was the same as in control mice. For the knockout mice, the EC50 for flurothyl was 0.00170 ± 0.00030 atm (mean ± sd), and for 2N, it was 0.0345 ± 0.0041 atm. For the control mice, the respective values were 0.00172 ± 0.00057 atm and 0.0341 ± 0.0048 atm. The ratio of the 2N to flurothyl EC50 values was 20.8 ± 3.5 for the knockout mice and 21.7 ± 7.0 for the control mice. These results do not support the notion that acetylcholine receptors are important mediators of the capacity of 2N or flurothyl to cause convulsions. However, we also found that both nonimmobilizers inhibit rat &agr;4&bgr;2 neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors at EC50 partial pressures (0.00091 atm and 0.062 atm for flurothyl and 2N, respectively) that approximate those that produce convulsions (0.0015 atm and 0.04 atm).
58 RADIO SOURCES NEAR BRIGHT NATURAL GUIDE STARS,

We present a preliminary survey of 58 radio sources within the isoplanatic patches (r < 25″) of bright (11 < R < 12) stars suitable for use as natural guide stars with high-order adaptive optics (AO). An optical and near-infrared imaging survey was conducted utilizing tip-tilt corrections in the optical and AO in the near-infrared. Spectral energy distributions were fit to the multi-band data for the purpose of obtaining photometric redshifts using the Hyperz code. Several of these photometric redshifts were confirmed with spectroscopy, a result that gives more confidence to the redshift distribution for the whole sample. Additional long-wavelength data from Spitzer, SCUBA, SHARC2, and VLA supplement the optical and near-infrared data. We find the sample generally follows and extends the magnitude–redshift relation found for more powerful local radio galaxies. The survey has identified several reasonably bright (H = 19 − 20) objects at significant redshifts (z > 1) that are now within the capabilities of the current generation of AO-fed integral-field spectrographs. These objects constitute a unique sample that can be used for detailed ground-based AO studies of galactic structure, evolution, and active galactic nucleus formation at high redshift.
Vers une meilleure compréhension du fonctionnement cognitif des personnes polyhandicapées

Du fait de la multiplicite et de la complexite de leurs handicaps, l’etude du fonctionnement cognitif des personnes polyhandicapees represente toujours un defi pour les praticiens comme pour les chercheurs. L’article propose d’abord un etat des lieux quant aux modeles theoriques de reference en matiere de comprehension du developpement cognitif des personnes polyhandicapees, ainsi qu’une revue des outils d’evaluation existants et des nouveaux paradigmes de recherche. La deuxieme partie propose une reflexion theorique autour de la construction des connaissances chez la personne polyhandicapee avec l’eclairage des connaissances recentes issues de la psychologie cognitive et des neurosciences. Enfin, des pistes pratiques visant a maximiser le developpement cognitif des personnes polyhandicapees sont proposees.
The self-assembly of paths and squares at temperature 1

We prove that the number of tile types required to build squares of size n x n, in Winfree's abstract Tile Assembly Model, when restricted to using only non-cooperative tile bindings, is at least 2n-1, which is also the best known upper bound. Non-cooperative self-assembly, also known as temperature 1, is where tiles bind to each other if they match on one or more sides, whereas in cooperative binding, some tiles can bind only if they match on multiple sides. Our proof introduces a new programming technique for temperature 1, that disproves the very intuitive and commonly held belief that, in the same model, assembling paths between two points A and B cannot be done with less tile types than the Manhattan distance between them. Then, we prove a necessary condition for these "efficient paths" to be assembled, and show that this necessary condition cannot hold in completely filled squares. This result proves the oldest conjecture in algorithmic self-assembly, published by Rothemund and Winfree in STOC 2000, in the case where growth starts from a corner of the square. As a corollary, we establish n as a lower bound on the tile complexity of the general case. The problem of determining the minimal number of tile types to self-assemble a shape is known to be Sigma^p_2-complete.
The python computer vision framework

PyCVF is an open source framework for computer vision and video-mining. It allows rapid development of applications and it provides standardized tools for common operations such as : browsing datasets, applying transformations to one dataset on-the-fly, computing features, indexing multimedia datasets, querying for nearest-neighbors, training a statistical model, or browsing the result in a 3d-space. PyCVF has a Python API, it also provides command line programs, QT Gui, and a web front-end. It can interacts nicely with other leading frameworks such as Weka, Orange, OpenCV, Django.
Reliable tracking algorithm for multiple reference frame motion estimation

Multiple reference frame motion estimation (MRF-ME) is one of the most crucial tools in H.264/AVC to improve coding efficiency. However, it disciplines an encoder by giving extra computational complexity. The required computation proportionally expands when the number of reference frames used for motion estimation increases. Aiming to reduce the computational complexity of the encoder, various motion vector (MV) composition algorithms for MRF-ME have been proposed. However, these algorithms only perform well in a limited range of reference frames. The performance deteriorates when motion vector composition is processed from the current frame to a distant reference frame. In this paper, a reliable tracking mechanism for MV composition is proposed by utilizing only the relevant areas in the target macroblock and taking different paths through a novel selection process from a set of candidate motion vectors. The proposed algorithm is especially suited for temporally remote reference frames in MRF-ME. Experimental results show that compared with the existing MV composition algorithms, the proposed one can deliver a remarkable improvement on the rate-distortion performance with similar computational complexity.
Ocean – Atmosphere Interaction over Agulhas Extension

Many years of high-resolution measurements by a number of space-based sensors and from Lagrangian drifters became available recently and are used to examine the persistent atmospheric imprints of the semipermanent meanders of the Agulhas Extension Current (AEC), where strong surface current and temperature gradients are found. The sea surface temperature (SST) measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) and the chlorophyll concentration measured by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) support the identification of the meanders and related ocean circulation by the drifters. The collocation of high and low magnitudes of equivalent neutral wind (ENW) measured by Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT), which is uniquely related to surface stress by definition, illustrates not only the stability dependence of turbulent mixing but also the unique stress measuring capability of the scatterometer. The observed rotation of ENW in opposition to the rotation of the surface current clearly demonstrates that the scatterometer measures stress rather than winds. The clear differences between the distributions of wind and stress and the possible inadequacy of turbulent parameterization affirm the need of surface stress vector measurements, which were not available before the scatterometers. The opposite sign of the stress vorticity to current vorticity implies that the atmosphere spins down the current rotation through momentum transport. Coincident high SST and ENW over the southern extension of the meander enhance evaporation and latent heat flux, which cools the ocean. The atmosphere is found to provide negative feedback to ocean current and temperature gradients. Distribution of ENW convergence implies ascending motion on the downwind side of local SST maxima and descending air on the upwind side and acceleration of surface wind stress over warm water (deceleration over cool water); the convection may escalate the contrast of ENW over warm and cool water set up by the dependence of turbulent mixing on stability; this relation exerts a positive feedback to the ENW–SST relation. The temperature sounding measured by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is consistent with the spatial coherence between the cloud-top temperature provided by the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) and SST. Thus ocean mesoscale SST anomalies associated with the persistent meanders may have a long-term effect well above the midlatitude atmospheric boundary layer, an observation not addressed in the past.
A Decision Tree Scoring Model Based on Genetic Algorithm and K-Means Algorithm

Credit scoring has been regarded as a critical topic and studied extensively in the finance field. Many artificial intelligence techniques have been used to solve credit scoring. The paper is to build a classification model based on a decision tree by learning historical data. Clustering algorithm and genetic algorithm are combined to further improve the accuracy of this credit scoring model. The clustering algorithm aims at removing noise data, while the genetic algorithm is used to reduce the redundancy attribute of data. The computational results on the two real world benchmark data sets show that the presented hybrid model is efficient.
Trends in low power digital signal processing

System level optimization will be required for the implementation of ultra low power portable devices. Often, system properties such as data distribution or network configuration can be exploited to minimize computational switching. Embedded power supply systems configured in performance feedback also minimize energy dissipation under varying temperature, process parameters and computational workload. If the power dissipation of digital processors can be scaled to low enough levels, self-powered techniques can be used to achieve "infinite" lifetime and low-maintenance wireless operation.
ON COMPUTING DETERMINANTS OF LARGE SYLVESTER TYPE MATRICES

Abstract This work is devoted to computation of large n-D polynomial determinants with a special structure. Applications involve n-D systems theory (e.g. coprimeness test for two n-D polynomials or the theory of algebraic equations. More specifically, these determinants were exploited in (Chiasson et al., 2003b; Chiasson et al., 2003a) to solve the practical problem of multilevel converter by a special computational procedure. To tackle the concerned problem it is essential to solve a system of polynomial equations with many unknowns. An algorithm was chosen based on elimination theory using resultants leading to the fundamental problem of computing determinants of large Sylvester type matrices with n-D polynomial entries. The aim of this work is to propose and test new numerical algorithms that would make it possible to solve the concerned problems more effectively.
Public Choice Failure and Voter Incompetence in France

This article explains failures of politics and government through the incompetence of voters and their perception biases. It illustrates this argument using the French case. If voters lack knowledge and develop irrational beliefs, then voting is probably not effective as a mechanism for sanctioning public policy. The incompetence of French voters and their anticapitalist bias is well documented. This incompetence can be partly explained by the low cost of holding irrational beliefs in politics. Voters' anti-capitalist attitudes are explained by the utility they obtain from expressing themselves in favour of state intervention, and by France's prohibitive level of justification costs of holding pro-capitalist views. The resulting biases contribute to the failure of public choice.
Effective distance measure for unusual facial expression detection of human face images

In this paper, a simple method for the facial expression detection to identify the normal and unusual of expression variations of the human face is proposed. The approach uses the binary edge image to present the shape of facial expression. The modified Hausdorff distance measure is adapted to our approach to compare between the unusual and normal face expression. In our algorithm, it just needs to use three face images per subject for training, which include two normal facial images and one unusual facial image to obtain individual thresholds for human face detection, respectively. Therefore, the proposed technique does not require a large number of images for training.
Relationship between Neural Activation and Electric Field Distribution during Deep Brain Stimulation

Models and simulations are commonly used to study deep brain stimulation (DBS). Simulated stimulation fields are often defined and visualized by electric held isolevels or volumes of tissue activated (VTA). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between stimulation held strength as defined by the electric potential V, the electric held E, and the divergence of the electric held ∇<sup>2</sup>V, and neural activation. Axon cable models were developed and coupled to finite-element DBS models in three-dimensional (3-D). Field thresholds (V<sub>T</sub>, E<sub>T</sub>, and ∇<sup>2</sup> V<sub>T</sub>) were derived at the location of activation for various stimulation amplitudes (1 to 5 V), pulse widths (30 to 120 μs), and axon diameters (2.0 to 7.5 μm). Results showed that thresholds for V<sub>T</sub> and ∇<sup>2</sup> V<sub>T</sub> were highly dependent on the stimulation amplitude while E<sub>T</sub> were approximately independent of the amplitude for large axons. The activation held strength thresholds presented in this study may be used in future studies to approximate the VTA during model-based investigations of DBS without the need of computational axon models.
A secure authenticated key agreement protocol

Authenticated key agreement protocols have an important role for building secure communications amongst two or more entities over the Internet. In this paper we propose an efficient and secure authenticated key agreement protocol based on Diffie-Hellman key agreement. Our protocol is more efficient than previous authenticated key agreement protocols because it requires only 1 integer multiplication. We show that our protocol meets the security attributes under the assumption that the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem is secure.