Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secondhand exposure to vapors from electronic cigarettes.

INTRODUCTION Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are designed to generate inhalable nicotine aerosol (vapor). When an e-cigarette user takes a puff, the nicotine solution is heated and the vapor is taken into lungs. Although no sidestream vapor is generated between puffs, some of the mainstream vapor is exhaled by e-cigarette user. The aim of this study was to evaluate the secondhand exposure to nicotine and other tobacco-related toxicants from e-cigarettes. MATERIALS AND METHODS We measured selected airborne markers of secondhand exposure: nicotine, aerosol particles (PM(2.5)), carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in an exposure chamber. We generated e-cigarette vapor from 3 various brands of e-cigarette using a smoking machine and controlled exposure conditions. We also compared secondhand exposure with e-cigarette vapor and tobacco smoke generated by 5 dual users. RESULTS The study showed that e-cigarettes are a source of secondhand exposure to nicotine but not to combustion toxicants. The air concentrations of nicotine emitted by various brands of e-cigarettes ranged from 0.82 to 6.23 µg/m(3). The average concentration of nicotine resulting from smoking tobacco cigarettes was 10 times higher than from e-cigarettes (31.60±6.91 vs. 3.32±2.49 µg/m(3), respectively; p = . 0081). CONCLUSIONS Using an e-cigarette in indoor environments may involuntarily expose nonusers to nicotine but not to toxic tobacco-specific combustion products. More research is needed to evaluate health consequences of secondhand exposure to nicotine, especially among vulnerable populations, including children, pregnant women, and people with cardiovascular conditions.
RSIM x 86 : A COST-EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE SIMULATOR

In this paper we present RSIM x86, a port of the widely used RSIM performance simulator for cc-NUMA multiprocessors to GNU/Linux and x86 hardware. Then, we evaluate the simulation throughput obtained by RSIM in several platforms with respect to the hardware cost of each platform. We show that this port of RSIM obtains much better execution times using cheaper and more easily available hardware than the original RSIM, allowing a more efficient usage of our research resources.
Using Instance Typicality to Build Compact and Accurate Neural Network Classifiers

Classification is one of the commonly used tasks in data mining. Classification accuracy, training time and storage requirement are some of the important issues in the design of the classifiers. Techniques, such as bagging, boosting and ensembles exist to improve accuracy of classifiers. Feature selection and instance selection algorithms are often used to reduce training times and storage requirements of the models. Instance-based classifiers use concept of instance typicality to improve the accuracy of the classifiers by selecting most typical instances from the training set by computing typicality scores explicitly. The cost of this computation is high, especially for large datasets. Neural network classifiers, however, need not compute typicality scores explicitly as the values at the outputs of neurons in the output layer represent typicality scores. This paper presents a novel wrapper model to construct compact classifiers using an algorithm that selects only prototype instances. Experimental results show that the model results into significant reduction in storage space without affecting the classification accuracy in certain problem domains.
Adaptation strategies for streaming SVC video

This paper aims to determine the best rate adaptation strategy to maximize the received video quality when streaming SVC video over the Internet. Different bandwidth estimation techniques are implemented for different transport protocols, such as using the TFRC rate when available or calculating the packet transmission rate otherwise. It is observed that controlling the rate of packets dispatched to the transport queue to match the video extraction rate resulted in oscillatory behavior in DCCP CCID3, decreasing the received video quality. Experimental results show that video should be sent at the maximum available network rate rather than at the extraction rate, provided that receiver buffer does not overflow. When the network is over-provisioned, the packet dispatch rate may also be limited with the maximum extractable video rate, to decrease the retransmission traffic without affecting the received video quality.
A reappraisal of the roles of past experience and innate organizing processes in visual perception.

Twenty years ago, in his Principles of Gestalt Psychology, Kurt Koffka posed the problem of visual perception in the succinct question, "Why do things look as they do? " He took issue with the usual answer that things look as they do because of our past experience with them, arguing that an empiristic theory not only failed to account for many of the facts of visual perception, but, in addition, entailed a number of logical difficulties. Few of Koffka's arguments have been satisfactorily met; nevertheless, two decades later, a survey would show that his analysis has had little or no impact on the psychological literature dealing with this problem. For example, a widely used textbook states: "With the few possible exceptions provided by primitive organizations, all perceiving is dependent upon past experience—the so-called habit factor" (45, p. 410). Moreover, the empiristic theory has reemerged in the currently popular assumption that perceptions are governed by motivational and affective forces; in this remodeling, however,
Development of Welding Fumes Health Index (WFHI) for Welding Workplace’s Safety and Health Assessment

Abstract Background This study aimed to develop an index that can rank welding workplace that associate well with possible health risk of welders. Methods Welding Fumes Health Index (WFHI) were developed based on data from case studies conducted in Plant 1 and Plant 2. Personal sampling of welding fumes to assess the concentration of metal constituents along with series of lung function tests was conducted. Fifteen metal constituents were investigated in each case study. Index values were derived from aggregation analysis of metal constituent concentration while significant lung functions were recognized through statistical analysis in each plant. Results The results showed none of the metal constituent concentration was exceeding the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for all plants. However, statistical analysis showed significant mean differences of lung functions between welders and non-welders. The index was then applied to one of the welding industry (Plant 3) for verification purpose. The developed index showed its promising ability to rank welding workplace, according to the multiple constituent concentrations of welding fumes that associates well with lung functions of the investigated welders. Conclusion There was possibility that some of the metal constituents were below the detection limit leading to ‘0’ value of sub index, thus the multiplicative form of aggregation model was not suitable for analysis. On the other hand, maximum or minimum operator forms suffer from compensation issues and were not considered in this study.
Robust frame synchronization scheme for the Chinese TDS-OFDM-based DTTB systems

As an effective technique for combating multipath fading and for high-bit-rate transmission over wireless channels, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is extensively used in modern digital television terrestrial broadcasting (DTTB) systems to support high performance bandwidth-efficient multimedia services. Chinese digital television terrestrial broadcasting standard recommends three kinds of Frame Head mode with PN420/PN595/PN945 as training sequences for the time domain synchronous OFDM (TDS-OFDM) based DTTB systems. At receiver side, Frame Head mode detection and symbol detection should be done before subsequent synchronization and channel estimation. In this paper, robust frame synchronization scheme is proposed for the Chinese TDS-OFDM-based DTTB systems. System performance studies under different channel situations are used to verify the efficiency of the proposed scheme.
Design and fabrication of a fiber-reinforced pneumatic bending actuator

Flexible pneumatic actuators have been broadly explored in soft robotic engineering field where large strokes are required to interface with human body in delicate environments. Some of them have successfully demonstrated the capability of contracting, extending, bending, and/or twisting. This paper presents a precise and effective way of designing a pneumatic bending actuator by using finite element analysis (FEA) modelling and pure winding technique. The proposed pneumatic bending actuator (PBA) is capable of generating satisfactory force and bending displacement upon internal air pressurization, and also maintains low profile, light weight, compliant nature and robustness against pressurization. The prototype actuators with a length of 220 mm, internal diameter of 9 mm and a thickness of 2 mm have been verified to achieve an angular displacement of 171° at its free end and produce bending force 7.1 N at an operating pressure of 0.675 MPa. Simulation and experimental results were compared and demonstrated good consistency.
A Multi-user DoS-Containment Broadcast Authentication Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Broadcast authentication is an essential service in wireless sensor networks. There are two general approaches for broadcast authentication in wireless sensor networks: digital signatures and μTESLA-based techniques. Digital signature is based on Public Key Cryptography (PKC). With the advance of technology, PKC will sooner or later be widely used in wireless sensor networks. However, signature-based broadcast authentication is vulnerable to Denial of Services (DoS) attacks: An attacker can inject bogus broadcast packets to force sensor nodes to perform expensive signature verifications, thus exhausts their limited battery power and delays their response to authentic broadcast messages. This paper presents a multi-user, signature-based broadcast authentication scheme with the capability of containing such DoS attack. We address multi-user supporting problem with Bloom Filter. We propose RRAS (Reputation-based Randomized Authentication Scheme) to contain the DoS attack. RRAS employs reputation management and risk management to decide whether to authenticate a message or not. Extensive evaluations in glomosim demonstrate that RRAS can effectively confine the DoS attack to a small range of the network. The communication, computation and storage overhead are minimized and affordable for sensor nodes.
Cross talk between ABC transporter mRNAs via a target mRNA-derived sponge of the GcvB small RNA

There is an expanding list of examples by which one mRNA can posttranscriptionally influence the expression of others. This can involve RNA sponges that sequester regulatory RNAs of mRNAs in the same regulon, but the underlying molecular mechanism of such mRNA cross talk remains little understood. Here, we report sponge‐mediated mRNA cross talk in the posttranscriptional network of GcvB, a conserved Hfq‐dependent small RNA with one of the largest regulons known in bacteria. We show that mRNA decay from the gltIJKL locus encoding an amino acid ABC transporter generates a stable fragment (SroC) that base‐pairs with GcvB. This interaction triggers the degradation of GcvB by RNase E, alleviating the GcvB‐mediated mRNA repression of other amino acid‐related transport and metabolic genes. Intriguingly, since the gltIJKL mRNA itself is a target of GcvB, the SroC sponge seems to enable both an internal feed‐forward loop to activate its parental mRNA in cis and activation of many trans‐encoded mRNAs in the same pathway. Disabling this mRNA cross talk affects bacterial growth when peptides are the sole carbon and nitrogen sources.
A trajectory-based ball detection and tracking algorithm in broadcast tennis video

Ball locations over frames facilitate tennis video analysis to a great extent. But so far no algorithm is able to obtain satisfactory result in locating the ball in broadcast tennis video (BTV). This paper presents a trajectory-based algorithm to detect and track the ball in BTV. Unlike the object-based algorithm, it does not decide whether an object is the ball. Instead it decides whether a candidate trajectory is a ball trajectory. This algorithm is able to obtain ball locations for most frames in a BTV, making use of four cues, namely, (1) an antimodel method to produce ball candidates from each frame, (2) a trajectory-based scheme to generate, identify and extend the ball trajectories from a set of candidates, (3) a method to infer the ball locations according to players' locations and the points of hitting, (4) a method to estimate missing ball locations from known ball locations. The experimental results show that our algorithm obtains the ball locations for above 96% frames in a sufficient accuracy for summarization.
Coopertive surveillance in video sensor networks

In the energy-constrained medium of video sensor networks, the objective of much research has been to statistically minimize the number of nodes that will achieve a sufficient degree of coverage. We consider increasing the number of nodes beyond the threshold of full coverage, and cooperatively filtering out the high level of redundant data in the video streams to minimize per-node capacity requirements. The scenario we study is that of a swarm of robots, all with wireless communication capabilities. Some of the robots are equipped with video cameras and are thus considered sensors. A few select robots have sufficient battery and computational power to perform machine vision processing of the video stream. The goal of this scenario is to get the video from the sensors to the video-processing robots, which can then extract high-level surveillance information about the observed environment. We present an optimization framework for minimizing redundant visual data transmissions, while maximizing the throughput from sensors to processing nodes. We also characterize through simulation the performance gain on the sensor network as the video coverage increases.
A Collaborative Framework for Designers and Developers of Software-Intensive Systems

This paper presents a framework supporting collaborative efforts between the designer and developer of software-intensive systems. The framework realizes a two-layered meta-tool concept: a powerful specification language in the form of a grammar for the designer at the upper layer; and a generative mechanism for generating domain-specific design languages at the lower layer. The paper introduces the spatial graph grammar formalism as the specification language and the generation mechanism. We also describe successful and potential application domains of the two-layered framework
Dynamic resource allocation in 3GPP SIP overlay networks

The session initiation protocol (SIP) is the IETF alternative for session related signalling. SIP was used in the IP multimedia subsystem of 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) UMTS networks. To be able to guarantee quality of service (QoS) to customers in carrier grade networks it is required to ensure QoS for signalling. Resources provided by the multiservices transport network have to be allocated to the signalling traffic. This paper introduces a methodology that enables dynamic resource allocation (DRA) on the basis of current message numbers. In particular, it can be used to dimension virtual SIP links (VSLs). The paper defines the DRA scheme, outlines its operation and gives simulation results that underline the advantages of dynamic resource allocation.
Causal perturbation theory in general FRW cosmologies: Energy momentum conservation and matching conditions

We describe energy-momentum conservation in relativistic perturbation theory in general Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) backgrounds with causal source terms, such as the presence of cosmic defect networks. A prescription for a linear energy-momentum pseudotensor in a curved FRW universe is provided, and it is decomposed using eigenfunctions of the Helmholtz equation. Conserved vector densities are constructed from the conformal geometry of these spacetimes and related to our pseudotensor, demonstrating the equivalence of these two approaches. We also relate these techniques to the role played by residual gauge freedom in establishing matching conditions at early phase transitions, which we can express in terms of components of our pseudotensor. This formalism is concise and geometrically sound on both sub- and superhorizon scales, thus extending existing work to a physically (and numerically) useful context.
Please Scroll down for Article Language and Cognitive Processes the Balance between Memory and Unification in Semantics: a Dynamic Account of the N400 the Balance between Memory and Unification in Semantics: a Dynamic Account of the N400

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. At least three cognitive brain components are necessary in order for us to be able to produce and comprehend language: a Memory repository for the lexicon, a Unification buffer where lexical information is combined into novel structures, and a Control apparatus presiding over executive function in language. Here we describe the brain networks that support Memory and Unification in semantics. A dynamic account of their interactions is presented, in which a balance between the two components is sought at each word-processing step. We use the theory to provide an explanation of the N400 effect.
Characterising doctor-parent communication in counselling for impending preterm delivery

Objective: To examine the counselling of women admitted to hospital in preterm labour. Such women and their partners are often asked to participate in difficult decisions including mode of delivery, fetal monitoring, and resuscitation. Study design: Questionnaire based descriptive study. Study setting: A tertiary level perinatal referral centre. Patients: Forty nine women in preterm labour at 22–30 weeks gestation, admitted in two separate periods between March 1997 and May 1999. Intervention and outcome measure: Within 24 hours of counselling, parents were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing recall of the management plan, desire for involvement in decision making, anxiety, and feelings of control over their health. A parallel questionnaire was completed by the clinicians. Results: Parents and clinicians on recall agreed well about obstetric issues but poorly about neonatal issues. Overall 27% of parents felt: “I would prefer to have the doctors advise me, rather than asking me to decide”. In 79% of cases, clinicians believed parents preferred advice rather than to make decisions, but in 45% of these, they misidentified those who wished to make their decisions. Anxiety levels for one third of the mothers were high, and associated with poorer concordance of recall between parents and clinicians. Conclusions: Serious deficiencies exist in parent-clinician encounters during extremely preterm labour. Concordance between parents and clinicians is poor and anxiety very high. A quarter of parents appear to prefer to relinquish decision making autonomy, but clinicians cannot correctly identify this subgroup. Standardised counselling in the perinatal period, using formal decision aids, should be investigated.
CovS Inactivates CovR and Is Required for Growth under Conditions of General Stress in Streptococcus pyogenes

ABSTRACT The gram-positive human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus [GAS]) causes diseases ranging from mild and often self-limiting infections of the skin or throat to invasive and life-threatening illnesses. To cause such diverse types of disease, the GAS must be able to sense adverse environments and regulate its gene expression accordingly. The CovR/S two-component signal transduction regulatory system in GAS represses about 15% of the GAS genome, including many genes involved in virulence, in response to the environment. We report that CovR is still able to repress transcription from several promoters in the absence of the putative histidine kinase sensor for this system, CovS. We also show that a phosphorylation site mutant (D53A) of CovR is unable to repress gene expression. In addition, we report that a strain with a nonpolar mutation in CovS does not grow at a low pH, elevated temperature, or high osmolarity. The stress-related phenotypes of the CovS mutant were complemented by expression of covS from a plasmid. Selection for growth of a CovS mutant under stress conditions resulted in isolation of second-site mutations that inactivated covR, indicating that CovR and CovS act in the same pathway. Also, at 40°C in the wild-type strain, CovR appeared to be less active on the promoter tested, which is consistent with the hypothesis that it was partially inactivated by CovS. We suggest that under mild stress conditions, CovS inactivates CovR, either directly or indirectly, and that this inactivation relieves repression of many GAS genes, including the genes needed for growth of GAS under stress conditions and some genes that are necessary for virulence. Growth of many gram-positive bacteria under multiple-stress conditions requires alteration of promoter recognition produced by RNA polymerase association with the general stress response sigma factor, σB. We provide evidence that for GAS, which lacks a sigB ortholog, growth under stress conditions requires the CovR/S two-component regulatory system instead. This two-component system in GAS thus appears to perform a function for which other gram-positive bacteria utilize an alternative sigma factor.