Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of HIV and AIDS knowledge in rural Cameroon men with the use of a questionnaire

Introduction HIV/AIDS, the most important health problem in Africa, is the leading cause of death on the continent. Ignorance on HIV/AIDS status will hamper treatment and prevention. To investigate the level of HIV/AIDS knowledge among men in a rural area, we performed a questionnaire study on HIV/AIDS knowledge in men living in Banga Bakundu, a rural village in Cameroon. Methods Forty-eight men, aged 17-66 years, were interviewed. They were divided in 2 groups: ≤29 years, being those young enough to be able to have knowledge about HIV/AIDS at the time of their first sexual contact, and those > 29 years who weren't. A semi-structured clinical interview was performed to obtain information about socio-demographic characteristics, sexual activity, knowledge about HIV/AIDS and its prevention. Results There is an overall good HIV/AIDS knowledge and what should be done about it. Men with a higher level of education and more HIV/AIDS knowledge seem to take less preventive measures. The differentiation per age group showed that age influenced the data on knowledge and behaviour. Conclusion Our data are consistent with other studies. Remarkable is the difference in HIV/AIDS knowledge between the 2 age groups, and the relation between HIV/AIDS knowledge and sexual habits and prevention. Sufficient HIV/AIDS knowledge did not lead to significant changes in sexual behaviour. The questionnaire showed to provide sufficient information and was easy to use. Further research should be performed.
Defense Technical Information Center Compilation Part Notice ADP 013324 TITLE : Performance Measurement for Visualisation DISTRIBUTION : Approved for public release , distribution unlimited Availability

TITLE: Multimedia Visualization of Massive Military Datasets [Atelier OTAN sur la visualisation multimedia d'ensembles massifs de donnees militaires] To order the complete compilation report, use: ADA408812 The component part is provided here to allow users access to individually authored sections)f proceedings, annals, symposia, etc. However, the component should be considered within [he context of the overall compilation report and not as a stand-alone technical report.
The Origin and Advancement of Cardiovascular Physiology in Brazil: The Contribution of Eduardo Krieger to Research Groups

Since 1996, symposia devoted to the discussion of advances in cardiovascular physiology have been alternately organized by Brazilian research groups, most of which were created or joined by Ph.D. trainees of Eduardo M Krieger. Therefore, as Frontiers in Physiology is publishing a topic devoted to the celebration of the 20th edition of the Brazilian Symposium of Cardiovascular Physiology, it is a great opportunity to talk about the contributions of Eduardo Krieger to the development of cardiovascular physiology. In this historical mini-review, first, the influence of the Argentinian group of Bernardo Houssay and Braun Menéndez on cardiovascular physiology in Brazil is discussed. Second, the contribution of Eduardo Krieger to the creation of several of those groups and to the development of science and technology is reviewed. Finally, the origin and consolidation of the group of Vitoria is highlighted as an example of a research group that was influenced by the University of Sao Paulo-Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirao Preto and has trained hundreds of Master and Ph.D. students in the area of cardiovascular research.
Produktive Differenzen: Eine dynamische Netzwerkanalyse von Innovationsprozessen

Welches sind die produktiven Unterschiede, aus denen kreative Wendungen in Innovationsprozessen hervorgehen? Welche Menschen und Orte treten dabei miteinander in Kontakt? Welchen Einfluss haben die verschiedenen Formen von Nähe und Distanz auf die Ergebnisse gemeinsamen Lernens? Anhand eines Vergleichs von Innovationsbiographien aus der Rechtsberatung und der Biotechnologie werden in diesem Band typische Beziehungskonstellationen herausgearbeitet, in denen neuartige Ideen entstehen und sich durchsetzen. Die dabei eingenommene Forschungsperspektive eröffnet eine neue, dynamische Sichtweise auf die Räumlichkeit von Innovationsprozessen, die einige vermeintliche Gewissheiten aus der Innovationsund Regionalpolitik in neues Licht tauchen.
Surface acoustic wave humidity sensors: a comparison between different types of sensitive membrane

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors have been successfully exploited for the detection of both chemical and physical quantities. In this paper we report more recent results on SAW sensors for the detection of relative humidity (R.H.). Different chemical interactive materials (CIMs), of both organic and inorganic compounds, are tested and their performances in the R.H. range between 10 and 80% are reported and compared. All the devices analysed have been shown to operate in a reversible way, with a fairly good repeatibility and fast response times. The CIMs have been shown to produce a variety of different behaviours versus R.H. percentage, with respect to both the amplitude and linearity of the response. The response to R.H. has also been investigated for different orientations of both quartz and lithium niobate bare substrates. These data can be useful in order to investigate the effect of the R.H. of the surroundings on the performances of SAW based devices. In addition this test is of great importance in order to know how humidity influences the response of both chemical and physical sensors. The response of organic CIMs has also been tested toward hydroxylated molecules such as acetone and ethanol, and the relative calibration curves are reported.
BCI-based approaches for real-time applications

In recent years, the growth of low-cost, non-invasive and portable electrophysiological systems that record and process brain signals, has increased. As a result, Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems are becoming more and more accessible to the research community, serving various applications and needs, in contrast to earlier times, when these systems were more expensive, a lot more complex in their use, while their utilization focused particularly on health and medical applications. In this paper, information, on BCI systems, is provided and then, the overall procedure that has been followed, is described for the analysis and classification of signals acquired from an ElectroEncephaloGram (EEG). More specifically, there is a detailed description of the procedure of acquiring the data (i.e., EEG signals) from the brain as well as the steps for pre-processing and enhancing the recorded signals. Furthermore, some of the most common feature extraction techniques, along with associated classification algorithms, are combined and their performance is evaluated in terms of accuracy. The best combination is used for demonstrating the control of a flying drone both in simulated and real-world scenarios.
The use of Egyptian spoken Arabic in modern Egyptian novels

I would first like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Prof. Dalal Aboelseoud, for her continuous support of my research, patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her guidance has helped me throughout all stages of the research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my thesis. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee, Prof. Zeinab Taha and Prof. Mona Kamel Hassan, not only for their insightful comments and encouragement but also for the hard questions which incited me to expand my research from various perspectives. Also, my sincere thanks go to Dr. Raghda El Essawi for her help and support. I also place on record my sense of gratitude to all who have directly or indirectly lent a hand in seeing this project to completion. Finally, I offer my heartfelt thanks to my parents for their unfailing encouragement, support, and care throughout my academic and professional path, culminating in the completion of this endeavor.
A potential‐based path planning algorithm for hyper‐redundant manipulators

Abstract A novel collision avoidance algorithm based on the generalized potential model is proposed to solve the path‐planning problem of hyper‐redundant manipulators in 3‐D workspace. The approach computes repulsive force and torque between manipulator and obstacles by using the workspace information directly. A collision‐free path for a manipulator can then be obtained by locally adjusting the manipulator configuration to search for minimum potential configurations using these forces and torques. The proposed approach is efficient since these potential gradients are analytically tractable. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is also extended to dual‐arm systems. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm works well, in terms of computation time and collision avoidance.
A planner for the control of problem-solving systems

As part of research on sophisticated control for sensor interpretation, a planning-based control scheme for blackboard systems is developed. A planner's goal/plan/subgoal structure provides explicit context information that can be used to index and apply large amounts of context-specific control knowledge. The key obstacle to using planning for the control of problem solvers is the need to deal with uncertain and dynamically changing situations without incurring unacceptable overhead. These problems are addressed in several ways: the authors' planner is script-based, planning and execution are interleaved; plans can invoke information gathering actions; plan refinement is controlled by plan-specific focusing heuristics; and the system's focus of attention can be dynamically shifted by the refocusing mechanism. Refocusing makes it possible to postpone focusing decisions and maintain the opportunistic control capabilities of conventional blackboard systems. Planning with refocusing results in a view of the control process as both a search for problem solutions and a search for the best methods to determine these solutions. >
Insulin Secretion in Response to L-Arginine under Decreasing Tetrahydrobiopterin Content

Abstract Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) content in the pancreas from GK (Goto-Kakizaki) rats as a type II diabetic model was markedly decreased compared to Wistar rats as a healthy control. Moreover, insulin stimulated BH4 synthesis in a hamster pancreatic β-cell line, HIT-T15 cells. Therefore, in diabetic condition, the reduction of insulin action is likely to lead to the low levels of BH4 content in pancreatic β-cells. In this study, we examined the effects of the decrease in BH4 content on insulin secretion by L-arginine (L-Arg) or glucose using HIT-T15 cells. Cytosolic calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) in HIT-T15 cells was increased by L-Arg. Under the low BH4 content using 2,4- diamino-6-hydroxypyrimidine (DAHP), a selective inhibitor of BH4 synthesis, L-Arg-induced both Ca2+ response and insulin secretion were stimulated. These stimulating effects were recovered by BH4 content recovering, using sepiapterin, a precursor of BH4 biosynthesis. By contrast, glucose-induced Ca2+ response was not affected by the BH4 content. These results suggest that the decrease of BH4 content in β-cells may stimulate insulin secretion by L-Arg, but not by glucose, under diabetic conditions.
Effective Risk Management Techniques in Development of IVR Software

Every software project is exposed to adverse internal as well as external influences, called project risks that affect the cost and the duration of the project and possibly the quality of the products. With a risk analysis it can be determined for a specific project what the risks are. These risks then should be included in a systematic and formal manner in the project in order to obtain a realistic and reliable project estimate and a realistic project plan. Currently, software quality assurance does not apply completely on the development of software industry and this leads to some challenges in the industry of software, specially, concerning risk, cost and time consuming. While the success of software development project depends on the application quality assurance standards which starts by the pre-project and continue through the project till it reaches the user at the end. The aim of this paper is the challenge the risk factors incurred during the development of IVR software projects without defects but also the customer’s acceptance and satisfaction of the software. Thus to prevent software development projects failure, the risk should be analysed and managed at an early stage.
Distinct Subcellular Trafficking Resulting from Monomeric vs Multimeric Targeting to Endothelial ICAM-1: Implications for Drug Delivery

Ligand-targeted, receptor-mediated endocytosis is commonly exploited for intracellular drug delivery. However, cells-surface receptors may follow distinct endocytic fates when bound by monomeric vs multimeric ligands. Our purpose was to study this paradigm using ICAM-1, an endothelial receptor involved in inflammation, to better understand its regulation and potential for drug delivery. Our procedure involved fluorescence microscopy of human endothelial cells to determine the endocytic behavior of unbound ICAM-1 vs ICAM-1 bound by model ligands: monomeric (anti-ICAM) vs multimeric (anti-ICAM biotin–streptavidin conjugates or anti-ICAM coated onto 100 nm nanocarriers). Our findings suggest that both monomeric and multimeric ligands undergo a similar endocytic pathway sensitive to amiloride (∼50% inhibition), but not inhibitors of clathrin-pits or caveoli. After 30 min, ∼60–70% of both ligands colocalized with Rab11a-compartments. By 3–5 h, ∼65–80% of multimeric anti-ICAM colocalized with perinuclear lysosomes with ∼60–80% degradation, while 70% of monomeric anti-ICAM remained associated with Rab11a at the cell periphery and recycled to and from the cell-surface with minimal (<10%) lysosomal colocalization and minimal (≤15%) degradation. In the absence of ligands, ICAM-1 also underwent amiloride-sensitive endocytosis with peripheral distribution, suggesting that monomeric (not multimeric) anti-ICAM follows the route of this receptor. In conclusion, ICAM-1 can mediate different intracellular itineraries, revealing new insight into this biological pathway and alternative avenues for drug delivery.
LINEAR SIGNAL DETECTION FOR SPATIALLY MULTIPLEXED MIMO SYSTEMS USING ANTENNA DIVERSITY TECHNIQUE

Due to the ever increasing demand for faster data transmission speed in the recent or future telecommunication systems, the multiple antenna systems have been actively investigated and successfully deployed for the emerging broadband wireless access networks (e.g., Mobile WiMAX) . Even when a wireless channel with high channel capacity is given, we still need to find good techniques to achieve high speed data transmission or high reliability. Multiple antenna techniques can be broadly classified into two categories: diversity techniques and spatial-multiplexing techniques. The diversity techniques intend to receive the same information-bearing signals in the multiple antennas or to transmit them from multiple antennas, thereby improving the transmission reliability. Diversity techniques are used to mitigate degradation in the error performance due to unstable wireless fading channels, for example, subject to the multipath fading etc. A basic idea of the diversity techniques is to convert Rayleigh fading wireless channel into more stable AWGN-like channel without any catastrophic signal fading. When the spatial-multiplexing Techniques are used, the maximum achievable transmission speed can be the same as the capacity of the MIMO channel; however, when the diversity techniques are used, the achievable transmission speed can be much lower than the capacity of the MIMO channel . Spatially multiplexed MIMO (SM-MIMO) systems can transmit data at a higher speed than MIMO systems using antenna diversity. However, spatial demultiplexing or signal detection at the receiver side is a challenging task for SM MIMO systems. This paper addresses the signal detection techniques for SM MIMO systems.
NailSense: fingertip force as a new input modality

In this paper, we propose a new interaction technique, called NailSense, which allows users to control a mobile device by hovering and slightly bending/extending fingers behind the device. NailSense provides basic interactions equivalent to that of touchscreen interactions; 2-D locations and binary states (i.e., touch or released) are tracked and used for input, but without any need of touching on the screen. The proposed technique tracks the user's fingertip in real-time and triggers event on color change in the fingernail area. It works with conventional smartphone cameras, which means no additional hardware is needed for its utilization. This novel technique allows users to use mobile devices without occlusion which was a crucial problem in touchscreens, also promising extended interaction space in the air, on desktop, or in everywhere. This new interaction technique is tested with example applications: a drawing app and a web browser.
Revising claims and resisting ultimatums in bargaining problems

We propose a simple mechanism which implements a unique solution to the bargaining problem with two players in subgame-perfect equilibrium. The mechanism incorporates two important features of negotiations; players can revise claims in an attempt to reach a compromise or pursue their claims in an ultimate take-it-or-leave-it offer. Players restrain their claims to avoid a weak bargaining position or their resistance to uncompromising behavior to acquire leadership. The Nash solution and the Kalai–Smorodinsky solution are implemented in the extreme cases when respectively no and all revisions are allowed.
Modeling Dynamics in the Central Regions of Disk Galaxies

The central regions of disk galaxies are hosts to supermassive black holes whose masses show a tight correlation with the properties of surrounding stellar bulges. While the exact origin of this dependency is not clear, it can be related to the very basic properties of dark matter halos and the associated gas and stellar dynamics in the central kpc of host galaxies. In this review we discuss some of the recent developments in modeling the wide spectrum of dynamical processes which can be affiliated with the above phenomena, such as the structure of molecular tori in AGN, structure formation in triaxial halos, and dissipative and non‐dissipative dynamics in nested bar systems, with a particular emphasis on decoupling of gaseous nuclear bars. We also briefly touch on the subject of fueling the nuclear starbursts and AGN.
Generating All the Minimal Separators of a Graph

We present an efficient algorithm which computes the set of minimal separators of a graph in O(n3) time per separator, thus gaining a factor of n2 on the current best-time algorithms for this problem. Our process is based on a new structural result, derived from the work of Kloks and Kratsch on listing all the minimal separators of a graph.
On an alternative approach to Evolutionary Programming

The field of Genetic Programming (GP) is a popular approach to automatic programming. However, it is plagued by many issues which prevent it from being scalable. These issues include bloat, need for custom search spaces etc. We propose design for a system called Evolutionary Programming System or EPSys, a system in which we try to eliminate many problems plaguing Genetic Programming and hence preventing it from being scaled and being applied to larger real world problems. We then follow it up by a minimal implementation in which we solve a very simple problem. We then prove that this implementation is equivalent to GP. We also prove that this system is immune to bloat problem which has plagued GP since its inception. We also conclude that the current implementation is very much slower than GP due to huge overhead. We then propose some basic improvements to EPSys which could potentially make it the far more scalable than GP.
Consideration of security in telehealth wireless sensor network monitoring systems

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide the potential for effective and cost efficient remote and ubiquitous health care monitoring as they are easy to install, robust and secure. By their nature, these WSNs use asynchronous communications to reduce transmission power and improve efficiency. However this form of communication creates potential issues with the synchronization of the data received and stored by the telehealth system that they provide data to. This problem can be exacerbated if multiple sensors are employed, which is very likely due to the relatively low cost of such devices as well as the intended applications of these WSNs. Time synchronization is one essential component to maintain in the security of data transmission through wireless sensor networks (WSN). Each individual node in a WSN contains a crystal clock. Although the natural frequency of each crystal clock remains relatively constant, the quality of the crystal and environmental factors such as temperature cause the frequency to drift over time. In order to ensure that each node maintains and broadcasts the same global time within the micro-second range, a time synchronization protocol must be implemented. Several protocols have been developed; however, none has been developed with security in mind. It is easy for a system error or even a malicious third party to compromise a node, causing faulty time sync messages to be sent into the network. The Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP) [5] is proposed to ensure time sychrony in the telehealh WSN. The FTSP is made up of several component modules written in nesC and has been implemented in the TinyOS [1] environment. TinyOS is an open source operating system developed specifically for network systems. In order to investigate the effects of injecting bad time synchronization messages into a WSN implemented with the FTSP, one or two nodes in a testbed of Telos motes (a mote being a remote wireless sensor) have been programmed to send faulty time sync messages. In order to determine the level of security of the FTSP, the resulting global time errors are recorded and evaluated.
Large sample properties for estimators based on the order statistics approach in auctions

For symmetric auctions, there is a close relationship between distributions of or- der statistics of bidders’ valuations and observable bids that is often used to esti- mate or bound the valuation distribution, optimal reserve price, and other quanti- ties of interest nonparametrically. However, we show that the functional mapping from distributions of order statistics to their parent distribution is, in general, not Lipschitz continuous and, therefore, introduces an irregularity into the estimation problem. More specifically, we derive the optimal rate for nonparametric point es- timation of, and bounds for, the private value distribution, which is typically sub- stantially slower than the regular root-n rate. We propose trimming rules for the nonparametric estimator that achieve that rate and derive the asymptotic distri- bution for a regularized estimator. We then demonstrate that policy parameters that depend on the valuation distribution, including optimal reserve price and expected revenue, are irregularly identified when bidding data are incomplete. We also give rates for nonparametric estimation of descending bid auctions and strategic equivalents. Keywords. Empirical auctions, order statistics, bounds, irregular identification, uniform consistency. JEL classification. C13, C14, D44.
QUEL as a data type

This paper explores the use of commands in a query language as an abstract data type (ADT) in data base management systems Basically, an ADT facility allows new data types, such as polygons, lines, money, time, arrays of floating point numbers, bit vectors, etc, to supplement the built-in data types in a data base system. In this paper we demonstrate the power of adding a data type corresponding to commands in a query language We also propose three extensions to the query language QUEL to enhance its power in this augmented environment.