Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subcritical Elliptic Bursting of Bautin Type

Bursting behavior in neurons is a recurrent transition between a quiescent state and repetitive spiking. When the transition to repetitive spiking occurs via a subcritical Andronov{Hopf bifurcation and the transition to the quiescent state occurs via double limit cycle bifurcation, the burster is said to be of subcritical elliptic type. When the fast subsystem is near a Bautin (generalized Hopf) point, both bifurcations occur for nearby values of the slow variable, and the repetitive spiking has small amplitude. We refer to such an elliptic burster as being of local Bautin type. First, we prove that any such burster can be converted into a canonical model by a suitable continuous (possibly noninvertible) change of variables. We also derive a canonical model for weakly connected networks of such bursters. We nd that behavior of such networks is quite dierent from the behavior of weakly connected phase oscillators, and it resembles that of strongly connected relaxation oscillators. As a result, such weakly connected bursters need few (usually one) bursts to synchronize. In-phase synchronization is possible for bursters having quite dierent quantitative features, whereas out-of- phase synchronization may be dicult to achieve. We also nd that interactions between bursters depend crucially on the spiking frequencies. Namely, the interactions are most eective when the presynaptic interspike frequency matches the frequency of postsynaptic oscillations. Finally, we use the FitzHugh{Rinzel model to evaluate how studying local Bautin bursters can contribute to our understanding of the phenomena of subcritical elliptic bursting.
A Probabilistic Approach to Classification of Transients in Power Systems

This paper presents an in-depth study of classification of transients in power systems using two pattern classification methods, namely the maximum-likelihood, and the probabilistic neural networks. These methods, which stem from the Bayes rule, aim at estimating the underlying probability density functions that are required by the Bayes rule, but are often unavailable readily. The paper presents the mathematical foundations of classification using these two methods, followed by their implementation for classification of three types of transients, namely three-phase faults, breaker operations and capacitor switchings. Features used in this study are obtained using the wavelet and multifractal analyses of transient waveforms
[Influence of tonsillectomy in adults on the concentration and glycosylation profile of acute phase proteins].

Chronic tonsillitis (ch.t.) in adults can have the effect on immunological system and its function. The aims of this study were: 1. the estimation of concentration and glycosylation of acute-phase serum protein (a.ph.s.p.)--C-reactive protein (CRP), alpha 1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), alpha 1-antichymotrypsin (ACT), transferrin (Tf) and the concentration of immunoglobulins (Ig) and alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2-M) in adults with ch.t. 2. the influence of tonsillectomy on the concentration and glycosylation a.ph. s.p. in I week and 6-8 months after surgery and determination of normalization estimated parameters. 116 patients with ch.t. and 15 healthy persons were evaluated. In all patients with ch.t. the concentration of acute-phase serum protein, alpha 2-M and immunoglobulins were determined before, in I-II day, VII day and 6-8 months after surgery. In patients with ch.t. were observed the significantly higher the concentration of CRP, AGP, ACT, IgG and the significantly decreased the concentration of serum transferrin before tonsillectomy, as an effects of immunological response on chronic inflammation. Tonsillectomy induced further increases the concentration of a.ph. s.p. and the highest value attained the CRP level. The change of glycosylation of AGP and ACT were results of chronic inflammatory process and analysis the glycosylation of these proteins can be useful in the estimation of activity of inflammatory process. The normalization of the concentration of acute-phase serum protein were observed in 6-8 months after tonsillectomy and confirmed the withdrawal of inflammatory process.
A Distributed Multiagent Workflow System

The decentralized and distributed nature of workflow in organizations demands for support from decentralized and distributed computational systems. However, most conventional workflow applications use centralized architectures. Agent technology seems to be an adequate approach for supporting distributed systems. We have extended the capacities of a multiagent system for knowledge and information distribution in such a way that it can handle general workflow processes in a decentralized way. A working prototype is reported, and quantitative experiments have been conducted to show that the distributed workflow process flow control makes possible better scalability than the centralized counterpart.
Evaluation of an Internet-Short Message Service-Based Intervention for Promoting Physical Activity in Hong Kong Chinese Adolescent School Children: A Pilot Study

Evaluation of acceptability and preliminary efficacy of an Internet and short message service (SMS) intervention for promoting physical activity (PA) in Hong Kong Chinese school children. An 8-week quasi-experimental study non-randomly assigned 78 school children (mean age=12.8 years) to (a) an intervention group that received a stage-matched, Internet PA program two times a week and tailored SMS messages daily; or (b) a no-treatment control. Data were collected from September 2008 until June 2009. Acceptability measures included exposure rate and participant's satisfaction. Efficacy measures were changes in stage of motivational readiness (SMR) and self-reported PA level. Intervention participants demonstrated significant pre-post increments in SMR (Z=-2.558, p=0.011) and self-reported PA level [F(1, 76)=4.50, p=0.04]. There was a non-significant trend between groups in both SMR (p=0.24) and PA (p=0.13). Despite the similar ratings of satisfaction between Internet (M=3.12±0.74) and SMS (M=3.12±0.84), participants displayed distinct patterns of exposure with 66% exhibiting a weekly login rate of 0.5 times/person and an average of 3.75 minutes/visit/person. In contrast, 79% of participants read an average of 1.3 SMS/person/week and 47% voluntarily replied to ∼3.8 SMS/person. These findings demonstrate the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of an Internet-SMS-based intervention for promoting PA in Hong Kong school children. The divergent exposure rates between the Internet and SMS may be a unique pattern for adolescents in early SMR. Future research should be cognizant of the importance of SMR since it may influence utilization and/or adherence.
The second project for the 21-th century student: Let us try to use Schrödinger's hypothesis about the role of neg-entropy for life to help in solving the problem of hooliganism

This is a second (after [1]) suggestion of a topic for a project for a student who wishes to look forward in the wide thematic (here a biological measuring) of modern electronics. The idea is motivated by brochure [2] by Erwin Schrodinger, connecting life with negative "entropy". Not having as pure a psychological background as in [1], but extending the idea of [2] the present work touches the psychology of personality in the sense of a collective societal influence. The point is to fight against hooliganism in its modern organized version expressed in the days of violence, via the correct understanding of the causes of this very serious social phenomenon, and, consequently, to develop a just attitude to the defined "hooligans". The project's target is to check the state of the brain activity of different humans when they are receiving the "typical" information from radio or TV, and to develop relevant recommendations for the editors of the news.
Contour Box: Rejecting Object Proposals without Explicit Closed Contours

Closed contour is an important objectness indicator. We propose a new measure subject to the completeness and tightness constraints, where the optimized closed contour should be tightly bounded within an object proposal. The closed contour measure is defined using closed path integral, and we solve the optimization problem efficiently in polar coordinate system with a global optimum guaranteed. Extensive experiments show that our method can reject a large number of false proposals, and achieve over 6% improvement in object recall at the challenging overlap threshold 0.8 on the VOC 2007 test dataset.
Tissue engineering of the liver

Currently, the only cure for liver failure is orthotopic liver transplantation. However, there are insufficient donor organs available to treat every patient on the transplant list and many die before they are able to receive a liver transplant. The bioartificial liver (BAL) device is a potential extracorporeal treatment strategy utilising hepatocytes or hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs) within a bioreactor to recapitulate normal liver function and therefore ‘bridge’ a patient with liver failure until they receive a transplant. The work in this thesis utilised tissue engineering methods to develop novel approaches to BAL device design through development and characterisation of a polymer membrane scaffold (“PX”) for hollow fibre bioreactor (HFB) culture and a HLC source generated from the transdifferentiation of pancreatic AR42J-B13 (B13) cells. A flat sheet membrane model was used for the development of asymmetrical, hydrophobic polystyrene (PS) phase inversion membranes. Oxygen plasma significantly increased PS membrane surface wettability through addition of oxygen functional groups to create an environment conducive for cell culture. The treated membrane was henceforth referred to as “PX”. The culture medium HepatoZYME+ was investigated for its ability to induce transdifferentiation of B13 cells to HLCs and maintain the hepatic phenotype. Overall, HepatoZYME+-cultured cells experienced viability loss. A diluted version, “50:50”, showed induction of the hepatic markers carbamoylphosphate synthetase-1 (CPS-1) and HNF4α, as well as a change towards a HLC morphology. When using 50:50 as a maintenance medium, transdifferentiated HLCs retained loss of pancreatic amylase and also induction of hepatic markers, with comparable serum albumin secretion to the established Dex + OSM treatment. However, culture viability in 50:50 was still compromised. Therefore, HepatoZYME+ based media were deemed unsuitable for induction and maintenance compared to Dex-based protocols. PX flat sheet membranes were able to support culture of B13 cells and also the human osteosarcoma cell line, MG63, demonstrating improved cell attachment over non-surface treated PS membranes. PX membranes supported transdifferentiation of B13 cells to HLCs, presenting with loss of pancreatic amylase, induction of the hepatic markers transferrin, GS and CPS-1 and serum albumin secretion. Furthermore, PX showed no change in mass or loss of culture surface area over 15 days in culture conditions. Together, the novel membrane material and the media formulation and feeding regime developed have strong potential to be translated to a HFB setting and guide future BAL device design.
A high-performance reconfigurable VLSI architecture for vbsme in H.264

VBSME (variable block size motion estimation) is adopted in the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 standard. In order to increase the hardware utilization for VBSME with FSBMA (full search block matching algorithm), this paper proposed a new high-performance reconfigurable VLSI architecture to support "meander"-like scan format for a high data reuse of search area. The architecture can support the three data flows of the scan format through a reconfigurable computing array and a memory of the search area. The computing array can achieve 100% processing element (PE) utilization and can reuse the smaller blocks' SADs to calculate 41 motion vectors (MVs) of a 16X16 block in parallel. The design is implemented with TSMC 0.18 mum CMOS technology. Under a clock frequency of 180 MHz, the architecture allows the real-time processing of 1280 x 720 at 45 fps in a search range [-16, +16].
Mesenchymal Differentiation and Organ Distribution of Established Human Stromal Cell Lines in NOD/SCID Mice

Two human stromal cell lines were established previously from bone marrow-derived primary long-term cultures by immortalization using the SV40 large T antigen and cellular cloning. After irradiation, the fibroblast-like cell lines L87/4 and L88/5 support hematopoietic differentiation of allogeneic cord blood cells in vitro. The stromal cells do not express CD34 and CD50, but some adhesion molecules and integrins, such as CD44, CD54 and CD58. Their expression profiles on RNA and protein levels are suggestive of their osteogenic potency. The quality and quantity of osteocalcin and osteopontin protein expression depended on the culture conditions. Expression of the osteogenic markers increased over time in culture, especially in cells growing in clusters. The stromal cells also expressed collagens I and V, but did not show any expression of collagens II and III. The potentially osteoblastic stromal cells were transplanted into NOD/ SCID recipient mice by intravenous injection and were found in various mesenchymal organs up to 10 weeks after transplantation. Osteocalcin-positive human stromal cells could be detected in the bone marrow, thymus, liver, brain and gut of the recipient animals. In summary, there is evidence that human bone-marrow-derived stromal cells have to be considered mesenchymal progenitors, persistently expressing osteogenic markers in vitro and in vivo.
Design and Performance Analysis of Microstrip Array Antennas with Optimum Parameters for X-band Applications

This paper demonstrates simple, low cost and high gain microstrip array antennas with suitable feeding techniques and dielectric substrate for applications in GHz frequency range. The optimum design parameters of the antenna are selected to achieve the compact dimensions as well as the best possible characteristics such as high radiation efficiency, high gain, etc. In this paper different microstrip array antennas such as series feed, corporate feed and corporate series feed are designed, simulated, analyzed and compared regarding to the antenna performances. The designed antennas are 4x1, 4x1, and 4x2 arrays. The optimum feeding system is decided based on the various antenna parameters that are simulated. The simulation has been performed by using SO''ET version V12.56 simulator which is a commercially available antenna simulator. The designed antennas provide return losses in the range of 4.21dB to 25.456dB at frequencies around 10GHz by using Taconic TLY 5 dielectric substrate with permittivity, er= 2.2 and height, h =1.588 mm. The gain of these simulated antennas is found about 15dB and side lobe label is maintained lower than main lobe. Since, the resonance frequency of these antennas is around 10GHz, these antennas are suitable for X band applications such as satellite communication, radar, medical applications, and other wireless systems. Keywords-microstrip antenna; array antenna; corporate-series feed array; corporate feed array; series feed array
Maintaining Probabilistic Consistency for Frequently Offline Devices in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Maintaining cache consistency in mobile environment is an important issue which is extensively studied in the last decade. In mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), a large number of nonstationary mobile terminals connect with each other through multi-hop unreliable communication channels, coupling with the fact that disconnections from the network are very frequent. Most existing cache consistency strategies assume reliable communication between mobile terminals, which cannot handle frequently offline devices adequately. In this paper, we introduce the probabilistic cache consistency model for applications not requiring strong consistency. Based on this model, a probability consistency strategy (ProP) for frequently offline devices in MANETs is studied. ProP is a randomized pull-based Strategy. It is demostrated to guarantee cache consistency with a high probability. A theoretical model is developed to investigate the performance of the proposed cache consistency strategies, and design guidelines are provided for ProP to choose proper system parameters to achieve probabilistic cache consistency.
Multi-Inductive Learning approach for Information Extraction

The vast amount of information in the Internet is not easy to find and use. Information Extraction technology is one of alternatives that can solve this problem. Conventional Natural Language Processing approach is hampered by its portability, scalability and adaptability. Introduction of Machine Learning into Information Extraction is one of solutions. Inductive Learning only needs annotated training examples. The problem is there is no performance consistency of algorithms on various information domains. Automatic and smart classifier selection from various machine learning algorithms is one of the best way to handle this problem. The goal of this paper is to propose a method for Information Extraction System based on Inductive Learning and Meta Learning that have good performance. In this paper Multi-Inductive Learning is developed to answer that question. Multi-Inductive Learning is consist of several Inductive Learning algorithms that have significant difference in their mechanism. This is to ensure there is bias variance in this method. Through k-fold cross validation on training document, Multi-Inductive Learning algorithm can choose the best classifier for each slot on a certain domain. These best classifiers then employ to do full extraction on testing document. The conducted experiment shows that Multi-Inductive Learning has better performance than that of single Inductive Learning algorithm-based Information Extraction systems. On Reuters Corporate Acquisition, Multi-Inductive Learning gives a score of 46.3 % and has the best performance among other state of the art information systems. Out of nine slots that should be extracted, six of them give the best performance. Multi-Inductive Learning also gives better performance on Job Posting dataset. Average performance of it gives 82.1 % and is the best among other state of the art of Information Extraction. Out of 17 slots that should be tested, nine of them are extracted with the best performance.
Performance Analysis of Quality of Service Evaluation in IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Networks

The popularity of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have increased tremendously in recent time due to growth in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology. WSN has the potentiality to connect the physical world with the virtual world by forming a network of sensor nodes. IEEE 802.15. 4 is the emerging next generation standard designed for low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPAN). The work reported in this paper provides performance evaluation of quality of service parameters for WSN based on IEEE 802.15. 4 star topology. The performance studies have been evaluated for varying traffic loads using MANET routing pr otocol in QualNet . The data packet delivery ratio, average e nd-to-end delay, total energy consumption, network lifetime and percentage of time in sleep mode have been used as performance metrics. Simulation results show that D SR (Dynamic Source Routing) performs better than DYMO (Dynamic MANET On-demand) and AODV (Ad‐hoc On demand Distance Vector) routing protocol for varyin g traffic loads rates.
Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains Isolated from Both Pulmonary and Extra Pulmonary Samples and Their Resistance to Rifampicin: A Study from Kolkata and Surrounding Suburbs

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In India, nearly 1.8 million new cases of TB are reported annually, which accounts for a fifth of new cases in the world—greater than in any other country. Anti-tubercular drugs (ATDs) have been used for decades, and widespread resistance to them is a very serious public health concern in any part of the world. Aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Rifampicin (the first line Anti-TB drug) resistance among both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary samples tested positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and thereby predict the prevalence of Multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis in Kolkata and its Suburban regions. All 331 randomly collected clinical samples (both Pulmonary and Extra Pulmonary) were initially screened by Zeihl-Neelsen AFB staining followed by culture on BacT/Alert 3D system and on Lowenstein-Jensen medium and the positive samples were subjected to detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and simultaneous analysis of Rifampicin resistance by Xpert MTB/RIF assay. Out of the 51 (15.40%) culture positive samples, 13.7% of pulmonary samples and 9.09% of extra-pulmonary samples were Rifampicin resistant. The prevalence of Rifampicin resistant TB in our study is high and the possible reasons can be mixing of new as well as retreatment cases and smaller sample size but, yet it can help Government and public health regulatory bodies to formulate adequate strategies to fight against drug resistant tuberculosis, especially in this part of the world.
E2F-5, a new E2F family member that interacts with p130 in vivo

E2F DNA binding sites are found in a number of genes whose expression is tightly regulated during the cell cycle. The activity of E2F transcription factors is regulated by association with specific repressor molecules that can bind and inhibit the E2F transactivation domain. For E2F-1, E2F-2, and E2F-3, the repressor is the product of the retinoblastoma gene, pRb. E2f-4 interacts with pRb-related p107 and not with pRb itself. Recently, a cDNA encoding a third member of the retinoblastoma gene family, p130, was isolated. p130 also interacts with E2F DNA binding activity, primarily in the G0 phase of the cell cycle. We report here the cloning of a fifth member of the E2F gene family. The human E2F-5 cDNA encodes a 346-amino-acid protein with a predicted molecular mass of 38 kDa. E2F-5 is more closely related to E2F-4 (78% similarity) than to E2F-1 (57% similarity). E2F-5 resembles the other E2Fs in that it binds to a consensus E2F site in a cooperative fashion with DP-1. By using a specific E2F-5 antiserum, we found that under physiological conditions, E2F-5 interacts preferentially with p130.
Phyllodes tumor of the breast

Introduction: Breast Phyllodes tumors are rare breast tumors present in less than 1% of new cases of breast cancer, usually occurring among middle-aged women (40-50 yrs). Objective: This study shows diagnostic experience, surgical management and follows up of patients with this disease during a period of ten years in a oncology referral center. Methods: Retrospectively, breast cancer registries at the institution were reviewed, identifying 77 patients with Phyllodes tumors between 2002 and 2012, who had been operated on at the Instituto de Cancerología - Clínica Las Américas, in Medellín (Colombia). Clinical and histopathological data belonging to these cases was captured and analyzed and descriptive statistics were used. Results: The follow up median was 22.5 months (IQR: 10.5-60.0), average age was 47.2 yrs (SD: 12.4), mean tumor size was 3.6 cm (SD: 4.6), 88.3% of the patients (68 cases) presented negative margins and none of them received adjuvant chemotherapy. Of the patients with Phyllodes tumors; 33.8% had benign, 31.2% had borderline and 35.0% had malignant tumor. Disease-free survival was 85.8% and overall survival was 94.5%. Discussion: Reported data in this article is in accordance with what has been reported in worldwide literature. In our cohort even the high mean size of the tumors, the risk of local relapse and metastatic disease is low than previously reported in literature. Trials with longer follow up and molecular trials in Phyllodes tumors are necessary to understand the behavior of these tumors in Hispanics population.