Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and implementation of a GPS based DCS network time synchronization board

In today's world of computer based control systems, there are so many applications which require precise timing. In order to maintain a precise time in those time needing systems, the time synchronization idea has been developed. Today there are many Commercial Products doing this job. In this paper we are trying to build a simple and Low Cost GPS Based Computer Network Time Synchronization Board, using NTP Protocol. This small leap can help effectively toward a giant leap of making an industrial Time Synchronization Product capable of synchronizing time of a real Distributed Control Systems(DCS).
A novel and simple fabrication method of embedded SU-8 micro channels by direct UV lithography

In this paper, we presents a novel and simple method to fabricate embedded micro channels. The method based on different light absorption properties of the SU-8 thick photoresist under different incident UV wavelengths. The channel structures are defined by the ordinary I-line, while the cover layer is patterned by the deep UV. Because the deep UV is obtained directly on the same aligner with a set of filter mirrors, the embedded channel can be easily produced without other rare facilities. Besides, the relationship between the thickness of the top layer and the exposure dose of the deep UV has been measured by an ingeniously designed experiment. The specific thickness of the top layer of the embedded micro channel can then be secured by the specific deep-UV exposure dose. Further more, many meaningful mechanical structures have been realized by this method, the material property of the top layer are also measured.
A Dictionary Learning Approach for Factorial Gaussian Models

In this paper, we develop a parameter estimation method for factorially parametrized models such as Factorial Gaussian Mixture Model and Factorial Hidden Markov Model. Our contributions are two-fold. First, we show that the emission matrix of the standard Factorial Model is unidentifiable even if the true assignment matrix is known. Secondly, we address the issue of identifiability by making a one component sharing assumption and derive a parameter learning algorithm for this case. Our approach is based on a dictionary learning problem of the form $X = O R$, where the goal is to learn the dictionary $O$ given the data matrix $X$. We argue that due to the specific structure of the activation matrix $R$ in the shared component factorial mixture model, and an incoherence assumption on the shared component, it is possible to extract the columns of the $O$ matrix without the need for alternating between the estimation of $O$ and $R$.
Microreview Streptococcal toxins : role in pathogenesis and disease

Timothy C. Barnett, Jason N. Cole, Tania Rivera-Hernandez, Anna Henningham, James C. Paton, Victor Nizet and Mark J. Walker* Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre and School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia. Department of Pediatrics and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA. Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Alterations in reflex function contributing to syncope: orthostatic hypotension, carotid sinus hypersensitivity and drug-induced dysfunction.

Orthostatic hypotension and related neurologic symptoms are frequently encountered in clinical practice. The maintenance of appropriate blood pressure and heart rate responses upon assuming the upright posture are dependent upon: 1. intact mechanical (venous valves) mechanisms, 2. functioning arterial and cardiopulmonary baroreceptors, 3. normal peripheral neural pathways, 4. normal central neural integration, and 5. appropriate neurohormonal secretion. Dysfunction at one or more of these loci may facilitate the occurrence of orthostatic hypotension and syncope. In general, the mechanisms of orthostatic hypotension may be divided into three categories. In the first category, processes interfere with normal compensatory responses to upright posture. Examples of this mechanism include age related autonomic changes, diabetic neuropathy and central nervous system disease such as Shy-Drager syndrome. The second principal mechanism involves overwhelming otherwise normal reflexes by an intense orthostatic stimulus. An obvious example of this mechanism is syncope related to hemorrhage. A final category of orthostatic hypotension relates to interference with reflex responses by drugs that may limit vasoconstriction, heart rate or cardiac output adjustments or exaggerate venous pooling. These are commonly used medications such as vasodilators, beta-adrenergic blockers and nitrates. The treatment of orthostatic hypotension revolves around the recognition of underlying causes or contributing factors amenable to correction or avoidance. Other helpful treatment options include nocturnal head-up tilting and mineralocorticoids, both of which help to expand blood volume. Many other therapeutic agents have been tried in small and selected patient populations, often with disappointing results. While many of the drugs available (phenylephrine, ephedrine, tyramine, dihydroergotamine) can improve upright blood pressure, side effects are common, and supine hypertension is problematic in many patients. Interventions of this type should be carefully initiated in a monitored setting. The carotid sinus is an important component of a neural control system responsible for heart rate and blood pressure homeostasis. Excessive heart rate and blood pressure responses to distortion of the carotid sinus are the basis for the carotid sinus syndrome (CSS). Patients with CSS tend to be elderly males and local pathology in the neck is frequently involved. Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease and hypertension are important clinical correlates. Two major categories of carotid sinus hypersensitivity (CSH) are recognized: cardioinhibitory and vasodepressor. Cardioinhibitory CSH is the most common, and in its purest form consists of sinus bradycardia or arrest, asystole or AV block during carotid sinus massage. This vagally-mediated response is eliminated by atropine. Cardiac pacing is nearly universally successful in preventing severe symptoms. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
MAClets: active MAC protocols over hard-coded devices

We introduce MAClets, software programs uploaded and executed on-demand over wireless cards, and devised to change the card's real-time medium access control operation. MAClets permit seamless reconfiguration of the MAC stack, so as to adapt it to mutated context and spectrum conditions and perform tailored performance optimizations hardly accountable by an once-for-all protocol stack design. Following traditional active networking principles, MAClets can be directly conveyed within data packets and executed on hard-coded devices acting as virtual MAC machines. Indeed, rather than executing a pre-defined protocol, we envision a new architecture for wireless cards based on a protocol interpreter (enabling code portability) and a powerful API. Experiments involving the distribution of MAClets within data packets, and their execution over commodity WLAN cards, show the flexibility and viability of the proposed concept.
Molecular determinants for the interaction between AMPA receptors and the clathrin adaptor complex AP-2

α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA)-type glutamate receptors undergo constitutive and ligand-induced internalization that requires dynamin and the clathrin adaptor complex AP-2. We report here that an atypical basic motif within the cytoplasmic tails of AMPA-type glutamate receptors directly associates with μ2-adaptin by a mechanism similar to the recognition of the presynaptic vesicle protein synaptotagmin 1 by AP-2. A synaptotagmin 1-derived AP-2 binding peptide competes the interaction of the AMPA receptor subunit GluR2 with AP-2μ and increases the number of surface active glutamate receptors in living neurons. Moreover, fusion of the GluR2-derived tail peptide with a synaptotagmin 1 truncation mutant restores clathrin/AP-2-dependent internalization of the chimeric reporter protein. These data suggest that common mechanisms regulate AP-2-dependent internalization of pre- and postsynaptic membrane proteins.
Nutritional Solutions to Major Health Problems of Preschool Children: How to Optimise Growth and Development

Despite major economic development in the last few decades, childhood nutrition remains a great challenge for the human species. A combination of undernutrition, overnutrition, and poor dietary quality affect to a variable extent all of the world's populations, and are often combined in the same areas and even in the same families. Malnutrition is part of the life of many individuals since conception and is transmitted by 1 generation to the next. Countries with lower income per capita and poor socioeconomic strata are mainly affected and, in turn, malnutrition hampers their development. The eradication of child malnutrition is crucial in the fight against poverty. This article examines whether this goal will be achieved within the time frame the United Nations has set.
The impact of imperfect scheduling on cross-Layer congestion control in wireless networks

In this paper, we study cross-layer design for congestion control in multihop wireless networks. In previous work, we have developed an optimal cross-layer congestion control scheme that jointly computes both the rate allocation and the stabilizing schedule that controls the resources at the underlying layers. However, the scheduling component in this optimal cross-layer congestion control scheme has to solve a complex global optimization problem at each time, and is hence too computationally expensive for online implementation. In this paper, we study how the performance of cross-layer congestion control will be impacted if the network can only use an imperfect (and potentially distributed) scheduling component that is easier to implement. We study both the case when the number of users in the system is fixed and the case with dynamic arrivals and departures of the users, and we establish performance bounds of cross-layer congestion control with imperfect scheduling. Compared with a layered approach that does not design congestion control and scheduling together, our cross-layer approach has provably better performance bounds,and substantially outperforms the layered approach. The insights drawn from our analyzes also enable us to design a fully distributed cross-layer congestion control and scheduling algorithm for a restrictive interference model.
Alcohol use and abuse in adolescence: proposal of an alternative analysis.

BACKGROUND A national, representative, school-based sample of Portuguese youths was used to examine the prevalence of alcohol use in this population and to analyse differences between demographic variables such as gender and age, as well as to propose a statistical procedure that optimally quantifies categorical variables. METHODS Data on 6109 state school students from Portugal, in the 6th, 8th and 10th grades, aged 11-18, who participated in the 2002 (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children/WHO) survey of adolescent health, were analysed. Adolescents aged between 11 and 14 were placed in the younger group, and those 15-18 years old were placed in the older group. Optimal scaling was used to optimize the computation of factor scores, which were subsequently submitted to multiple regression analysis in order to analyse the impact of gender and age on alcohol use. RESULTS The results of this study show that the majority of Portuguese school-aged adolescents attending regular school at 6th, 8th and 10th grades do not drink alcoholic beverages (beer, wine or spirits) on a regular basis (at least once a month). However, about 8% of these adolescents do drink beer, 3% do drink wine and 12% do drink spirits on a regular basis. With regard to age and gender, about a quarter of the older boys stated that they drink beer or spirits regularly. The multiple regression analysis showed that age and gender had a significant impact on alcohol use. CONCLUSION Alcohol - in particular spirits - is a substance used by some Portuguese adolescents. Alcohol use and abuse is more frequent in boys and increases with age. The importance of these findings for health promotion strategies is discussed.
The semantic foundations of concurrent constraint programming

Concurrent constraint programming [Sar89 ,SR90] is a simple and powerful model of concurrent computation based on the notions of store-as-constraint and process as information transducer. The store-as-valuation conception of von Neumann computing is replaced by the notion that the store is a constraint (a finite representation of a possibly infinite set of valuations) which provides partial information about the possible values that variables can take. Instead of “reading” and “writing” the values of variables, processes may now ask (check if a constraint is entailed by the store) and tell (augment the store with a new constraint). This is a very general paradigm which subsumes (among others) nondeterminate data-flow and the (concurrent) (constraint) logic programming languages. This paper develops the basic ideas involved in giving a coherent semantic account of these languages. Our first contribution is to give a simple and general formulation of the notion that a constraint system is a system of partial information (a la the information systems of Scott). Parameter passing and hiding is handled by borrowing ideas from the cylindric algebras of Henkin, Monk and Tarski to introduce diagonal elements and “cylindrification” operations (which mimic the projection of information induced by existential quantifiers).
Regulation of Expression of Oxacillin-Inducible Methionine Sulfoxide Reductases in Staphylococcus aureus

Cell wall-active antibiotics cause induction of a locus that leads to elevated synthesis of two methionine sulfoxide reductases (MsrA1 and MsrB) in Staphylococcus aureus. To understand the regulation of this locus, reporter strains were constructed by integrating a DNA fragment consisting of the msrA1/msrB promoter in front of a promoterless lacZ gene in the chromosome of wild-type and MsrA1-, MsrB-, MsrA1/MsrB-, and SigB-deficient methicillin-sensitive S. aureus strain SH1000 and methicillin-resistant S. aureus strain COL. These reporter strains were cultured in TSB and the cellular levels of β-galactosidase activity in these cultures were assayed during different growth phases. β-galactosidase activity assays demonstrated that the lack of MsrA1, MsrB, and SigB upregulated the msrA1/msrB promoter in S. aureus strain SH1000. In S. aureus strain COL, the highest level of β-galactosidase activity was observed under the conditions when both MsrA1 and MsrB proteins were absent. The data suggest that the msrA1/msrB locus, in part, is negatively regulated by MsrA1, MsrB, and SigB in S. aureus.
Application of rotatable central composite design in the preparation and optimization of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles for controlled delivery of paclitaxel

Context: Polymeric carrier systems of paclitaxel (PCT) offer advantages over only available formulation Taxol® in terms of enhancing therapeutic efficacy and eliminating adverse effects. Objective: The objective of the present study was to prepare poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles containing PCT using emulsion solvent evaporation technique. Methods: Critical factors involved in the processing method were identified and optimized by scientific, efficient rotatable central composite design aiming at low mean particle size and high entrapment efficiency. Twenty different experiments were designed and each formulation was evaluated for mean particle size and entrapment efficiency. The optimized formulation was evaluated for in vitro drug release, and absorption characteristics were studied using in situ rat intestinal permeability study. Results: Amount of polymer and duration of ultrasonication were found to have significant effect on mean particle size and entrapment efficiency. First-order interactions of amount of miglyol with amount of polymer were significant in case of mean particle size, whereas second-order interactions of polymer were significant in mean particle size and entrapment efficiency. The developed quadratic model showed high correlation (R2 > 0.85) between predicted response and studied factors. The optimized formulation had low mean particle size (231.68 nm) and high entrapment efficiency (95.18%) with 4.88% drug content. The optimized formulation showed controlled release of PCT for more than 72 hours. In situ absorption study showed faster and enhanced extent of absorption of PCT from nanoparticles compared to pure drug. Conclusion: The poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles containing PCT may be of clinical importance in enhancing its oral bioavailability.
Commodity resource pricing in dynamic computational grids

We investigate resource management in computational grids based on an economic perspective. Specifically, we model the grid as a commodity market of CPU resources that are traded at prices determined by the supply-and- demand equilibrium. This approach has been shown to function for small, static grids. We present simulation results to demonstrate it can be extended to grids with a dynamic fabric and large (thousands) number of resources.
Understanding the Meaning of Satisfaction With Treatment Outcome

Objective:Although satisfying patients is an important goal in health care, what is meant by satisfaction in relation to treatment outcome is not clear. The objective of this study was to explore patients’ perspectives on the meaning of satisfaction with treatment outcome. Design:We conducted a qualitative exploratory study. Setting:This study was conducted at an adult tertiary care hospital. Patients:Individuals who had undergone elective hand surgery were included in this study. Intervention:In-depth, open-ended interviews in which 31 participants described their experience of a hand condition, how they evaluated the outcome of surgical interventions, and what it meant to be satisfied or dissatisfied with these outcomes were examined. Analysis:Interview transcripts were analyzed using Gadow's conceptualization of embodiment states: “object body” (disunity between the affected hand and the self) or “cultivated immediacy” (harmony between the hand and the self). Results:Eight of 9 dissatisfied individuals were categorized as “object body” and 15 of 19 satisfied individuals were in, or in transition to, “cultivated immediacy. ” These states fluctuated and were also dependent on context (eg, social setting) and time since surgery. Conclusion:In relation to the outcome of hand surgery, satisfaction was experienced as a relative lack of tension between the patient's sense of self and the affected hand (ie, satisfaction was having a hand that could be lived with unself-consciously). Emotional and social effects of interventions and the influence of context should be considered in future measures of satisfaction with treatment outcome. Finally, interventions directed toward facilitating patients’ experience of body–self unity could promote satisfaction with treatment outcome.
Neuropathology of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Pathologic findings in surgical resections from patients with temporal lobe epilepsy include a wide range of diagnostic possibilities that can be categorized into different groups on the basis of etiology. This paper outlines the various pathologic entities described in temporal lobe epilepsy, including some newly recognized epilepsy-associated tumors, and briefly touch on the recent classification of focal cortical dysplasia. This classification takes into account coexistent pathologic lesions in focal cortical dysplasia.
Dalitz plot analysis of B±→π±π±π decays

We present a Dalitz plot analysis of charmless B± decays to the final state π±π±π using a sample of (465±5) ×106 BB pairs collected by the BABAR experiment at s=10.58GeV. We measure the branching fractions B(B±→π±π±π)= (15.2±0.6±1.2±0.4)×10-6, B(B±→ρ0(770) π±)=(8.1±0.7±1.2-1.1+0.4)×10-6, B(B±→f2(1270)π±)=(1.57±0.42±0.16-0.19+0.53) ×10-6, and B(B±→π±π±πnonresonant)=(5. 3±0.7±0.6-0.5+1.1)×10-6, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and model-dependent, respectively. Measurements of branching fractions for the modes B±→ρ0(1450)π± and B±→f0(1370)π± are also presented. We observe no significant direct CP asymmetries for the above modes, and there is no evidence for the decays B±→f0(980)π±, B±→χc0π ±, or B±→χc2π±. © 2009 The American Physical Society.
Video-based biometric identification using eye tracking technique

Recently, biometric identification techniques have attracted great attention due to increasing demand of high-performance security systems. Compared with conventional identification methods, biometric techniques provide more reliable and robust solutions. In this paper, a novel video-based biometric identification model based on eye tracking technique is proposed. Inspired by visual attention, video clips are designed for subjects to view in order to capture eye tracking data reflecting their physiological and behavioral characteristics. Various visual attention characteristics, including acceleration, geometric, and muscle properties, are extracted from eye gaze data and used as biometric features to identify persons. An algorithm based on mutual information of features is adopted to perform feature evaluation for obtaining a set of the most discriminative features for biometric identification. Experiments are conducted by using two types of classifiers, Back-Propagation (BP) neural network and Support Vector Machine (SVM). Experimental results show that using video-based eye tracking data for biometric identification is feasible. In particular, eye tracking can be used as an additional biometric modal to enhance the performance of current biometric person identification systems.
Data-Enhanced Predictive Modeling for Sales Targeting

We describe and analyze the idea of data-enhanced predictive modeling (DEM). The term “enhanced” here refers to the case that the data used for modeling is sampled not from the true target population, but from an alternative (closely related) population, from which much larger samples are available. This leads to a “bias-variance” tradeoff, which implies that in some cases, DEM can improve predictive performance on the true target population. We theoretically analyze this tradeoff for the case of linear regression. We illustrate DEM on a problem of sales targeting for a set of software products. The “correct” learning problem is to differentiate non-customers from newly acquired customers. The latter, however, are scarce. We illustrate how we can build better prediction models by using more flexible definitions of interesting targets, which give bigger learning samples.