Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Number is the Beast: A Political Economy of Organic-Coffee Certification and Producer Unionism

The author argues that organic-coffee certification enacted under the rubric of transnational certification norms alters the logic and practice of economic management and governance in an Oaxacan (Mexican) peasant producers' union. As the title indicates, these changes are productive of social and economic tensions. An economic and ethnographic analysis of ‘certification labor’ demonstrates (a) that the work of certification is distributed within producer organizations such that village and regional leaders become burdened by significant new responsibilities, and (b) that practical changes—including a new producer logic (‘market-price interdependence’) and village certification-service providers (‘peasant inspectors’ and ‘community technical officers’)—have a significant qualitative impact upon household and village economic governance. In addition, certification (c) affects the operation of statewide producer unions, altering the ways in which these interact both with their member organizations and with certifiers: unions must intervene to aid (regional) member organizations in their efforts to certify, yet also find that certification norms, such as conflict-of-interest provisions, constrain the union's ability to promote producer interests. Thus a qualification to an organic and ethical-products literature that conflates quality certification with the protection of smallholder cultural and economic independence is provided. The author concludes that a rethinking of certification norms, together with efforts to assist producer certification, should be a priority for supporters of sustainable agriculture.
Cloud based security solution for android smartphones

In this paper, we define SIEM and we discuss Android security monitoring as well as recent research in Android security systems. Then, we propose a cloud based security system for collection, visualization, analysis and correlation of application logs, statistics and determining abnormal application and network behavior on the device. If abnormal behavior is detected an appropriate alert is sent back to the device for remedial action. In the case of abnormal network traffic, then firewall rules to be updated on an implementation of an IPTABLES/ NETFILTER firewall to block unwarranted network traffic. Furthermore a web interface is created to enable visualization of logs and all data collected from the device. So it serves as an intrusion mitigation solution coupled with security information audit web portal. This paper highlights the architecture of the proposed system.
A software system for causal reasoning in causal Bayesian networks

Knowing the cause and effect is important to researchers who are interested in modeling the effects of actions, and Artificial Intelligence researchers are among them. One commonly used method for modeling cause and effect is graphical model. Bayesian Network is a probabilistic graphical model for representing and reasoning uncertain knowledge. It has been used as a fundamental tool and is becoming a more and more important area for research and application in the AI field. A common graphical causal model used by many researchers in AI field is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) with causal interpretation known as the causal Bayesian network (BN). Causal reasoning and causal understanding are the causal interpretation part of a causal Bayesian Network. They enable people to find meaningful order in events that might otherwise appear random and chaotic. Further more, they can even help people to plan and predict the future. In this thesis, we develop a software system, which is a set of tools to solve causal reasoning problems, such as to identify unconditional causal effects, to identify conditional causal effects and to find constraints in a causal Bayesian Networks with hidden variables. The features of the software system are presented in detail and the applications of the software system are discussed.
Comparing Evolutionary Programs and Evolutionary Pattern Search Algorithms: A Drug Docking Application

Evolutionary programs (EPs) and evolutionary pattern search algorithms (EPSAs) are two general classes of evolutionary methods for optimizing on continuous domains. The relative performance of these methods has been evaluated on standard global optimization test functions, and these results suggest that EPSAs more robustly converge to near-optimal solutions than EPs. In this paper we evaluate the relative performance of EPSAs and EPs on a real-world application: flexible ligand binding in the Autodock docking software. We compare the performance of these methods on a suite of docking test problems. Our results confirm that EPSAs and EPs have comparable performance, and they suggest that EPSAs may be more robust on larger, more complex problems.
BRANE FLUCTUATIONS AND SUPPRESSION OF KALUZA-KLEIN MODE COUPLINGS

In higher dimensional models where the gauge and gravity fields live in the bulk and the matter fields only in a brane, we point out the importance of the brane (transverse) coordinate modes, which are the Nambu-Goldstone bosons appearing as a result of spontaneous breaking of the translation symmetry. The brane recoil effect suppresses the couplings of higher Kaluza-Klein modes to the matter, and gives a natural resolution to the divergence problem caused by the exchange of infinitely many Kaluza-Klein modes.
β-Catenin-Dependent and -Independent Effects of ΔN-Plakoglobin on Epidermal Growth and Differentiation

ABSTRACT Both β-catenin and plakoglobin can stimulate the expression of Lef/Tcf target genes in vitro. β-Catenin is known to associate with Lef/Tcf factors and to participate directly in transactivation in vivo, whereas the role of plakoglobin in transcriptional regulation has been less studied. To analyze the functions of plakoglobin in vivo, we generated transgenic mice expressing in the epidermis N-terminally truncated plakoglobin (ΔN122-PG) lacking the glycogen synthase kinase 3β phosphorylation sites and therefore protected against degradation (transgenic line K5-ΔN122-PG). The expression of ΔN122-PG led to the formation of additional hair germs, hyperplastic hair follicles, and noninvasive hair follicle tumors, a phenotype reminiscent of that induced by expression of N-terminally truncated β-catenin. However, if expressed in β-catenin-null epidermis, ΔN122-PG did not induce new hair follicle germs and follicular tumors. Thus, ΔN122-PG cannot substitute for β-catenin in its signaling functions in vivo and the phenotype observed in K5-ΔN122-PG mouse skin must be due to the aberrant activation of β-catenin signaling. On the other hand, the expression of ΔN122-PG in β-catenin-null skin significantly increased the survival rate of mutant mice, rescued differentiation, and limited excessive proliferation in the interfollicular epidermis, suggesting that plakoglobin may be involved in the intracellular signaling events essential for epidermal differentiation.
High resolution microscopy reveals the nuclear shape of budding yeast during cell cycle and in various biological states

ABSTRACT How spatial organization of the genome depends on nuclear shape is unknown, mostly because accurate nuclear size and shape measurement is technically challenging. In large cell populations of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we assessed the geometry (size and shape) of nuclei in three dimensions with a resolution of 30 nm. We improved an automated fluorescence localization method by implementing a post-acquisition correction of the spherical microscopic aberration along the z-axis, to detect the three dimensional (3D) positions of nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) in the nuclear envelope. Here, we used a method called NucQuant to accurately estimate the geometry of nuclei in 3D throughout the cell cycle. To increase the robustness of the statistics, we aggregated thousands of detected NPCs from a cell population in a single representation using the nucleolus or the spindle pole body (SPB) as references to align nuclei along the same axis. We could detect asymmetric changes of the nucleus associated with modification of nucleolar size. Stereotypical modification of the nucleus toward the nucleolus further confirmed the asymmetric properties of the nuclear envelope. Summary: This novel method to explore 3D geometry of the nuclear envelope with enhanced resolution and post-acquisition correction of z-axis aberration revealed increased NPC density near the SPB and the nucleolus.
A Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein, Pumpkin RBP50, Forms the Basis of a Phloem-Mobile Ribonucleoprotein Complex[W]

RNA binding proteins (RBPs) are integral components of ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes and play a central role in RNA processing. In plants, some RBPs function in a non-cell-autonomous manner. The angiosperm phloem translocation stream contains a unique population of RBPs, but little is known regarding the nature of the proteins and mRNA species that constitute phloem-mobile RNP complexes. Here, we identified and characterized a 50-kD pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima cv Big Max) phloem RNA binding protein (RBP50) that is evolutionarily related to animal polypyrimidine tract binding proteins. In situ hybridization studies indicated a high level of RBP50 transcripts in companion cells, while immunolocalization experiments detected RBP50 in both companion cells and sieve elements. A comparison of the levels of RBP50 present in vascular bundles and phloem sap indicated that this protein is highly enriched in the phloem sap. Heterografting experiments confirmed that RBP50 is translocated from source to sink tissues. Collectively, these findings established that RBP50 functions as a non-cell-autonomous RBP. Protein overlay, coimmunoprecipitation, and cross-linking experiments identified the phloem proteins and mRNA species that constitute RBP50-based RNP complexes. Gel mobility-shift assays demonstrated that specificity, with respect to the bound mRNA, is established by the polypyrimidine tract binding motifs within such transcripts. We present a model for RBP50-based RNP complexes within the pumpkin phloem translocation stream.
Fungos endofíticos associados às plantas de Catharanthus roseus no Estado do Ceará.

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don. ou vulgarmente conhecida como vinca--de-Madagascar, vinca-de-gato, maria--sem-vergonha e boa-noite, e uma planta originaria da Ilha de Madagascar (no Oceano Indico), encontrando-se em processo de extincao em seu habitat natural em virtude da destruicao de areas para atividades agricolas. Entretanto, sua disseminacao para paises tropicais e subtropicais tem garantido sua sobrevivencia. Ademais, a descoberta de que a boa-noite e uma rica fonte de alcaloides tem contribuido para sua propagacao. Alcaloides isoindolicos encontrados nas folhas da boa-noite tem se mostrado eficientes no tratamento de varios tipos de cânceres e em diabetes, alem de uma eficiente acao anti-inflamatoria
Endothermy in birds: underlying molecular mechanisms

SUMMARY Endothermy is significant in vertebrate evolution because it changes the relations between animals and their environment. How endothermy has evolved in archosaurs (birds, crocodiles and dinosaurs) is controversial especially because birds do not possess brown adipose tissue, the specialized endothermic tissue of mammals. Internal heat production is facilitated by increased oxidative metabolic capacity, accompanied by the uncoupling of aerobic metabolism from energy (ATP) production. Here we show that the transition from an ectothermic to an endothermic metabolic state in developing chicken embryos occurs by the interaction between increased basal ATP demand (Na+/K+-ATPase activity and gene expression), increased oxidative capacity and increased uncoupling of mitochondria; this process is controlled by thyroid hormone via its effect on PGC1α and adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) gene expression. Mitochondria become more uncoupled during development, but unlike in mammals, avian uncoupling protein (avUCP) does not uncouple electron transport from oxidative phosphorylation and therefore plays no role in heat production. Instead, ANT is the principal uncoupling protein in birds. The relationship between oxidative capacity and uncoupling indicates that there is a continuum of phenotypes that fall between the extremes of selection for increased heat production and increased aerobic activity, whereas increased cellular ATP demand is a prerequisite for increased oxidative capacity.
Denial of Service Attacks in Cognitive Radio Networks through Channel Eviction Triggering

Security issues associated with successful operation of cognitive radio networks (CRNs) recently are gaining a lot of attention. In this paper we focus on a specific class of Denial of Service attack that is executed through Channel Eviction Triggering (CET), whereby the adversary nodes unduly invoke mechanisms inherent in CRN operation to protect the licensed users and thus disrupt secondary access to the otherwise idle licensed bands. Skewing the spectrum sensing decision of a CRN through sensing mis-reports is a manifestation of CET attacks. Whereas most studies in the literature focus on making the cooperative sensing more robust against such sensing misreports, we tackle the problem from an incentive perspective and develop strategies to minimize the utility difference of truthful and cheating cognitive radios so as to alleviate the incentive of mis-reporting. Our numerical results verify the effectiveness of the proposed CET defense scheme.
Forecasts and Inflation Reports : An Evaluation

This paper argues that the most important aspect of central bank transparency is communication about the future path of the policy rate. Despite great progress on transparency, communication on this topic remains shrouded in an obscure code. Central banks can enhance transparency by providing, in decreasing order of importance: i) an unconditional forecast of the policy interest rate; ii) an unconditional forecast of goal variables; iii) conditional forecasts of rates and goal variables.
An Alternative Selection Based Detection Method for Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radio

For a cognitive radio, its primary task is to find unutilized portion of the spectrum more precisely for successful implementation of dynamic spectrum sensing. In this paper, first a comparison of two spectrum sensing techniques namely energy detection and covariance absolute value detection method is done for various input data. A new spectrum sensing method named as an alternative selection based detection method which comprises of both energy detection and covariance absolute value detection method to improve the detection probability is described. The simulation results prove that the performance of an alternative selection based detection method is better compared to energy detection and covariance absolute value detection method alone.
Efficient Large Integer Squarers on FPGA

This paper presents an optimised high throughput architecture for integer squaring on FPGAs. The approach reduces the number of DSP blocks required compared to a standard multiplier. Previous work has proposed the tiling method for double precision squaring, using the least number of DSP blocks so far. However that approach incurs a large overhead in terms of look-up table (LUT) consumption and has a complex and irregular structure that is not suitable for higher word size. The architecture proposed in this paper can reduce DSP block usage by an equivalent amount to the tiling method while incurring a much lower LUT overhead: 21.8% fewer LUTs for a 53-bit squarer. The architecture is mapped to a Xilinx Virtex 6 FPGA and evaluated for a wide range of operand word sizes, demonstrating its scalability and efficiency.
Robust Automatic Traffic Signs Recognition Using Fast Polygonal Approximation of Digital Curves and Neural Network

Traffic Sign Detection and Recognition (TSDR) has many features help the driver in improving the safety and comfort, today it is widely used in the automotive manufacturing sector, a robust detection and recognition system a good solution for driver assistance systems, it can warn the driver and control or prohibit certain actions which significantly increase driving safety and comfort. This paper presents a study to design, implement and test a method of detection and recognition of road signs based on computer vision. The approach adopted in this work consists of two main modules: a detection module which is based on color segmentation and edge detection to identify areas of the scene may contain road signs and a recognition module based on the multilayer perceptrons whose role is to match the patterns detected with road signs corresponding visual information. The development of these two modules is performed using the C/C++ language and the OpenCV library. The tests are performed on a set of real images of traffic to show the performance of the system being developed.
A simulation annealing based anti-collision protocol for RFID tag identification

The advanced properties like low cost, increased communication range, own battery source etc. preferred Radio frequency identification (RFID) over bar codes for object identification and tracking. In RFID systems, reader-to-reader, tag-to-tag, reader-to-tag collisions are major challenges during object identification. The performance analysis of state-of-art protocols shows that the majority of probabilistic and deterministic algorithms are inefficient. In this work, the proposed protocol uses simulated annealing mechanism which concentrates on parameters of physical state of the RFID readers while selecting the reader for interrogation. If readers with best physical state are selected for interrogation then chances of better network performance also increases. The physical state parameters include energy efficiency, mobility, distance to tag etc. The simulation analysis of proposed scheme shows better performance with parameters like tag identification ratio, total successful interrogation cycles, total time cycles, total IDLE cycles, total number of collisions, delay, and total number of packets sent and received. It is also observed that a collision free RFID network is possible with integration of simulated annealing mechanism.
High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound in Small Renal Masses

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) competes with radiofrequency and cryotherapy for the treatment of small renal masses as a third option among ablative approaches. As an emerging technique, its possible percutaneous or laparoscopic application, low discomfort to the patient and the absence of complications make this technology attractive for the management of small renal masses. This manuscript will focus on the principles, basic research and clinical applications of HIFU in small renal masses, reviewing the present literature. Therapeutic results are controversial and from an clinical view, HIFU must be considered a technique under investigation at present time. Further research is needed to settle its real indications in the management of small renal masses; maybe technical improvements will certainly facilitate its use in the management of small renal masses in the near future.
NoΔ: Leveraging delta compression for end-to-end memory access in NoC based multicores

As the number of on-chip processing elements increases, the interconnection backbone bears bursty traffic from memory and cache accesses. In this paper, we propose a compression technique called NoΔ, which leverages delta compression to compress network traffic. Specifically, it conducts data encoding prior to packet injection and decoding before ejection in the network interface. The key idea of NoΔ is to store a data packet in the Network-on-Chip as a common base value plus an array of relative differences (Δ). It can improve the overall network performance and achieve energy savings because of the decreased network load. Moreover, this scheme does not require modifications of the cache storage design and can be seamlessly integrated with any optimization techniques for the on-chip interconnect. Our experiments reveal that the proposed NoΔ incurs negligible hardware overhead and outperforms state-of-the-art zero-content compression and frequent-value compression.
Design for Input and Output Card of Triple Redundant Control System

In order to meet the requirements of high reliability, high-availability and high-safety for of the control system in industrial production, a hardware design for input and output card of the triple redundancy control system is introduced. Firstly, this paper introduces the design of the overall structure of triple redundant DCS. The structure of triple redundant DCS uses the same three equipments in parallel and they are running at the same time. The same three equipments transfer the output result to the voting system and the voting system will determine the final output. And then this paper has a detailed design on the I/O card of triple redundant DCS and it gives the figure of structure and hardware circuit diagram of main unit. Having a test on the system and the result shows the system can work normally. The result proves that the system achieves the effect of triple redundancy.
A DUAL NEURAL NETWORK FOR TREATMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

A course of medical treatment attacks a target (such as a tumor) with one or more agents. The action of the agents on the human body is complex, both with respect to the interaction of the medications with one another, and with respect to secondary effects on systems unrelated to the target. A system consisting of two neural networks is presented for optimizing the effect(s) on an individual. The technique is borrowed from neural network control systems. One network is trained to predict the outcome of treatment, and the other netowk optimizes the predicted outcome. The system is tested with a variety of types of artificially generated data. Results give a proof of the concept and indicate how the system can be adjusted to optimize combinations of multiple symptoms (primary and side effects) using multiple interacting agents.
Orthogonal Concatenation: Language Equations and State Complexity

A language L is the orthogonal concatenation of languages L1 and L2 if every word of L can be written in a unique way as a concatenation of a word in L1 and a word in L2. The notion can be generalized for arbitrary language operations. We consider decidability properties of language orthogonality and the solvability of language equations involving the orthogonal concatenation operation. We establish a tight bound for the state complexity of orthogonal concatenation of regular languages.
An intelligent robotic assistive living system

This paper describes an intelligent robotic system designed to operate in an assistive technology environment in the aid of elderly and disabled people at home or in a caring institution, to improve their quality of life, giving them more independence from humans for carrying out trivial tasks which, in turn, releases the human helpers to concentrate on the more nurturing aspects of care. Details of progress, to date, are provided.
Condition monitoring in intralogistic systems by the utilization of mobile measurement units

For optimal performance a modern intralogistic system needs to monitor its maintenance state to avoid unnecessary down-times. This paper proposes the Smart Drive concept of a distribution of static and mobile sensors and presents an approach to localize mobile measurement units on conveyor tracks and to map disturbances and areas of potential future failure. The localization is performed using stochastically robust methods to allow applicability under real-world conditions including imperfect sensor calibration or imprecise information about the tracks. The proposed algorithm is evaluated using real sensor data gathered in an experimental scenario.