Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Underlying system using dynamic clustering and structural similarity

We propose a new perspective on the identification of linear dynamic system using structural similarity. The proposal consists in the meaningful exploration of each model, specifically behavior of the state variable. The decomposition of the behavior of a state variable in different modes of behavior of a system, each one has a different set of weights and shows different patterns of behavior. These weights are more significant than eigenvalue to develop a new technique for identifying linear system and invariants over time. We use two methods based on different areas of knowledge such as linear algebra and statistics. This paper is a conceptual proof that enriches the implementation and validity not only from point of view algorithmic likewise physic mathematical.
Geodesic Fréchet distance inside a simple polygon

We present an alternative to parametric search that applies to both the nongeodesic and geodesic Fréchet optimization problems. This randomized approach is based on a variant of red-blue intersections and is appealing due to its elegance and practical efficiency when compared to parametric search. We introduce the first algorithm to compute the geodesic Fréchet distance between two polygonal curves <i>A</i> and <i>B</i> inside a simple bounding polygon <i>P</i>. The geodesic Fréchet <i>decision</i> problem is solved almost as fast as its nongeodesic sibling in <i>O</i>(<i>N</i><sup>2</sup> log <i>k</i>) time and <i>O</i>(<i>k</i>+<i>N</i>) space after <i>O(k)</i> preprocessing, where <i>N</i> is the larger of the complexities of <i>A</i> and <i>B</i> and <i>k</i> is the complexity of <i>P</i>. The geodesic Fréchet <i>optimization</i> problem is solved by a randomized approach in <i>O</i>(<i>k</i>+<i>N</i><sup>2</sup> log <i>kN</i> log <i>N</i>) expected time and <i>O</i>(<i>k</i>+<i>N</i><sup>2</sup>) space. This runtime is only a logarithmic factor larger than the standard nongeodesic Fréchet algorithm [Alt and Godau 1995]. Results are also presented for the geodesic Fréchet distance in a polygonal domain with obstacles and the geodesic Hausdorff distance for sets of points or sets of line segments inside a simple polygon <i>P</i>.
Lung cancer adrenal gland metastasis: Optimal fine‐needle aspirate and touch preparation smear cellularity characteristics for successful theranostic next‐generation sequencing

Multigene molecular testing to guide personalized therapy for oncology patients is of increasing clinical relevance. Molecular testing of fine‐needle aspiration samples is underused, but when acquired with minimally invasive techniques could become the standard of care to obtain theranostic specimens. The aims of the current study were to identify key cytology specimen selection criteria suitable for next‐generation sequencing (NGS) and to determine the prevalence and spectrum of pathogenic alterations in a cohort of patients with AJCC stage IV lung cancer.
Lingua franca or lingua frankensteinia? English in European integration and globalisation

The paper explores how we think of English and 'English Studies' in present-day Europe. It questions the apparent neutrality of the term lingua franca by suggesting a more differentiated set of terms. It relates the current consolidation and expansion of English to processes of global Americanisation and Europeanisation. The European Union (EU) member states are increasingly integrating their economies and cultures in a US-dominated world. The history and many divergent uses of the term lingua franca are explored, and related to discourses and policies that tend to reinforce English linguistic hegemony uncritically. The paper explores the policies of the EU for maintaining multilingualism, and contemporary constraints and pressures in European academia. It analyses the promotion of 'global' English in terms of the project, the product, and the processes, and considers criteria for assessing whether its advance is as a lingua franca or rather as a lingua frankensteinia.
Butanol Production from Lignocellulosic-based Hexoses and Pentoses by Fermentation of Clostridium Acetobutylicum

The Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation is receiving renewed interest as a way to upgrade renewable resources into valuable base chemicals and liquid fuels. Abundance and un-competitiveness with food sources are desired features of a potential substrate, and they are met by lignocellulosic biomass.This contribution is about the characterization of the ABE fermentation by C. acetobutylicum DSM 792 using sugars representative for hydrolysis products of lignocellulosic biomass: hexoses (glucose and mannose) and pentoses (arabinose and xylose). Batch fermentations of single sugars were carried out. The conversion process was characterized as a function of time in terms of biomass, acids and solvents concentrations as well as pH and total organic compounds. C. acetobutylicum was able to convert all investigated sugars. The conversion into solvents was strongly enhanced by the presence of CaCO3 in the fermentation medium.
Using Anticipative Malware Analysis to Support Decision Making

Abstract : A software tool allowing the safe monitoring of the execution of malicious software (malware), or more generally, programs that cannot be trusted is commonly referred to as a sandbox. Most of the time, a sandbox is implemented in a virtual machine or a simulated operating system and allows the behaviour of the program to be studied from the host's point of view. We are investigating the usefulness of a sandbox in the context of decision making. More specifically, we have designed and implemented a network sandbox, i.e. a sandbox that allows us to study malware behaviour from the network perspective. We plan to use this sandbox to generate malware-sample profiles that can be used by decision making algorithms to help network administrators and security officers decide on a course of action to be followed upon detection of a malware threat. This paper focuses on the implementation details of the sandbox. It is flexible enough to allow the study of malware behaviour in the presence of any given configuration of software and operating system. It also allows the user to specify the network topology to be used.
La diversité des réalités des femmes entrepreneures

Un nombre croissant d’entreprises sont créées, reprises et gérées par des femmes, qui contribuent de façon croissante à la dynamique entrepreneuriale. Les femmes détiennent 40% des entreprises aux États-Unis, soit près de deux fois le taux des entreprises gérées par des hommes. Cela représente 10,1 millions d'entreprises, 13 millions de travailleurs 1,9 billion de dollars en termes de ventes (Center for Women's Business Research, 2009). Au Canada, on retrouve 800000 femmes indépendantes, représentant un tiers du total des travailleurs indépendants. Le taux de femmes indépendantes a augmenté de 50% depuis le début des années 1990, soit 60% plus vite que le taux masculin (CIBC, 2005). La tendance est similaire en Belgique, avec 312330 femmes indépendantes représentant un tiers (33,7%) de la population des travailleurs indépendants en 2009, selon des statistiques de l'INASTI (2009). Le nombre d’indépendantes a augmenté de 37,9% entre 1999 et 2009, contre 9,6% pour les hommes indépendants. Dans l’Union Européenne, les femmes représentent 30,4% des travailleurs indépendants (OEE, 2010). L'entreprenariat des femmes contribue également au développement économique des pays à faible et moyen revenu, dans différentes parties du monde, y compris les pays de l'Europe de l’Est, du Moyen-Orient, d’Afrique, d’Amérique du Sud et des Caraïbes, selon un rapport du Babson College (2008). Parallèlement à ces tendances économiques, il y a aussi un intérêt croissant du monde politique et académique pour l’entrepreneuriat féminin. Aux États-Unis, au Canada comme en Europe, un certain nombre d'initiatives visant à promouvoir l'entreprenariat féminin ont vu le jour ces dernières années (OEE, 2010). Dans le monde académique, un nombre croissant d'articles ont été publiés sur ce thème au cours des deux dernières décennies (Greene, Hart, Gatewood, Brush, & Carter, 2003).
Winscale: an image-scaling algorithm using an area pixel model

We propose a new scaling algorithm, winscale, which performs the scale up/down transform using an area pixel model rather than a point pixel model. The proposed algorithm has low complexity: the algorithm uses a maximum of four pixels of an original image to calculate one pixel of a scaled image. Nevertheless, the algorithm has good characteristics such as fine-edge and changeable smoothness. We implemented a hardware design of winscale using an FPGA and displayed some test scenes in an liquid crystal display panel using a digital visual interface. The hardware cost and the image quality were compared with those of the conventional image scaling algorithms. It is proved that winscale has good scale property with low complexity. Winscale can be used in various digital display devices that need image scaling, especially in applications that require good image quality with low hardware cost.
Cyclic Stretch Facilitates Myogenesis in C2C12 Myoblasts and Rescues Thiazolidinedione-Inhibited Myotube Formation

Thiazolidinedione (TZD), a specific peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) agonist, was developed to control blood glucose in diabetes patients. However, several side effects were reported that increased the risk of heart failure. We used C2C12 myoblasts to investigate the role of PPARs and their transcriptional activity during myotube formation. The role of mechanical stretch during myogenesis was also explored by applying cyclic stretch to the differentiating C2C12 myoblasts with 10% strain deformation at 1 Hz. The myogenesis medium (MM), composed of Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium with 2% horse serum, facilitated myotube formation with increased myosin heavy chain and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) protein expression. The PPARγ protein and PPAR response element (PPRE) promoter activity decreased during MM induction. Cyclic stretch further facilitated the myogenesis in MM with increased α-SMA and decreased PPARγ protein expression and inhibited PPRE promoter activity. Adding a PPARγ agonist (TZD) to the MM stopped the myogenesis and restored the PPRE promoter activity, whereas a PPARγ antagonist (GW9662) significantly increased the myotube number and length. During the myogenesis induction, application of cyclic stretch rescued the inhibitory effects of TZD. These results provide novel perspectives for mechanical stretch to interplay and rescue the dysfunction of myogenesis with the involvement of PPARγ and its target drugs.
Entry Timing

Entry decisions—often critical to firm survival and growth, market evolution, and industry profitability—have been the subject of inquiry for decades. In particular, the timing of entry decisions, drawing primarily on the first-mover advantage (FMA) perspective, has emerged as a prominent area of study. While previous research confirms that entry timing is critical, a large number of contingencies create conceptual and methodological complexities that undermine the formation of a rigorous theory of entry timing. In this article, we review and synthesize management and marketing research on entry timing published in top-tier outlets from 1989 through 2013—the 25-year period that followed the publication of Lieberman and Montgomery’s seminal article on FMA. Distilling key lessons from this literature, our review tries to establish a foundational understanding of the conditions, methods, implications, and strategies of entry timing so that research might be reinvigorated in this domain. Our article concludes by offering a conceptual model of entry based on the lessons gleaned from the articles that we reviewed.
Measuring and mitigating targeted biometric impersonation

This study is concerned with the reliability of biometric verification systems when used in forensic applications. In particular, when such systems are subjected to targeted impersonation attacks. The authors expand on the existing work in targeted impersonation, focusing on how best to measure the reliability of verification systems in forensic contexts. It identifies two scenarios in which targeted impersonation effects may occur: (i) the forensic investigation of criminal activity involving identity theft; and (ii) implicit targeting as a result of the forensic investigation process. Also, the first partial countermeasure to such attacks is presented. The countermeasure uses client-specific Z-score normalisation to provide a more consistent false acceptance rate across all enrolled subjects. This reduces the effectiveness of targeted impersonation without impairing the systems accuracy under random zero-effort attacks.
Prolonged Salmonella Contamination of a Recreational Lake by Runoff Waters

In the summer and fall of 1968, various Salmonella serotypes were isolated from a portion of Lake Mendota, the major recreational lake for Madison Wis. The apparent sources of these organisms were a residential storm sewer and a University of Wisconsin Experimental Farms' washwater drain. Salmonellae were isolated with regularity from a swimming beach located approximately 0.5 mile (0.8 km) from these sources.
Frequency-Agile, Efficient, Circularly Polarized, Near-Field Resonant Antenna: Designs and Measurements

A frequency-agile, efficient, circularly polarized (CP), near-field resonant parasitic (NFRP) antenna is presented. It consists of two orthogonal capacitively loaded loops (CLLs) with similar configurations placed vertically with respect to a finite ground disc and serve as the NFRP elements. They are placed in the near held of two monopoles fed from a single coax feedline. A pair of varactor diodes is incorporated into the NFRP elements to achieve its frequency-agile behavior. The NFRP elements produce nearly complete matching at frequencies much lower than the fundamental modes of the monopoles without any matching circuit. Frequency tunability is demonstrated over a wide effective impedance bandwidth and the antenna is characterized as having good axial ratio (AR) and high radiation efficiency. A proof-of-concept experiment produced reasonable agreement with the simulation studies. The measured results demonstrate that the frequency-agile prototype produced a 3.92% fractional 3-dB AR bandwidth, which is more than four times larger than the 0.84% value of the original fixed-capacitor passive system. Moreover, good impedance matching (|S11|AR,min ≤ -13 dB); relatively high radiation efhciency (RE <; 85%); symmetrical, stable, and uniform radiation patterns; CP performance; and peak gain values between 5.81 and 5.93 dB were measured over this frequency-agile range.
Amelioration potentials of Vernonia calvaona ethanol leaf extract in paracetamol-treated rats

Paracetamol toxicity due to overdose amongst people living in the developing countries has been on the increase. This study investigated the amelioration potentials of Vernonia calvaona ethanol leaf extract in paracetamol-treated rats. Thirty five Wistar rats were divided into five groups of seven rats each. Hepatic damage was induced by administering 2 g/kg b.wt of paracetamol p.o for four day to all the groups except group 1 (normal control). This was followed by 21 days treatment with crude ethanol extract of V. calvaona (VC) leaf as well as vitamin E. Group 2 received 2 g/kg b.wt of paracetamol while groups 3 and 4 received 200 and 400 mg VC extracts/kg b.wt, respectively. Group 5 received vitamin E 100 mg/kg b.wt. and histology of the liver, respectively. The result showed a significant (p˂0.05) increase in serum alanine transferase (ALT), aspartate transferase (AST) and ALP during the pre-treatment phase while the treatment phase indicated a significant (p˂0.05) reduction in the serum ALT, AST and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels in a dose dependent pattern relative to the controls. The 400 mg VC extract/kg b.wt and the vitamin E 100 mg/kg b.wt reversed the levels of these enzymes to a non-significant (p˂0.05) difference relative to the controls. The histology of the liver in the VC extract treated groups indicated regeneration of the hepatocytes when compared to the control. It is therefore suggested that crude extract of V. calvaona leaf possesses protective effect against paracetamol induced hepatic damage in rats. Key words: Amelioration potentials, liver function biomarkers, Vernonia calvoana.
Theoretical Advances Spurred by “Stubborn Facts”

Economists have regarded behavioral economics as contributing evidence violating accepted theories. This paper contends that a second, perhaps more important, contribution is the new theory that has arisen to address these challenges. To illustrate, the paper examines how a single observed fact, cooperation in the finitely-repeated prisoners’ dilemma, has led to extensions of the folk theorem as well as to new concepts including sequential equilibrium, quantal response equilibrium, psychological game theory, and pregame and post-game perfection. Thus, the observed departures from previously-standard theories have led to not only new understandings of behavior, but also to additions to the economics toolkit.
RCP Supporting Emergency Applications of WSN

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) can be used to monitor our environment, objects in that environment and interactions of objects with each other. Use of WSN for emergency applications includes fire detection system in forest, soil motion detection, monitoring historical and public places, volcano monitoring etc. In WSN errors or faults tends to occur frequently due to node mobility or energy shortage (battery limitation). Faults cannot be tolerated in WSN for emergency applications hence fault tolerance is an important issue in network design and thus networks have to be tolerant of error and fault. This paper deals with a Reliable Communication Protocol (RCP) that will be fault tolerant and minimize both signaling overhead and power consumption and also support auto-recovery from failure.
Introduction: Locating gentrification in the Global East

This special issue, a collection of papers presented and debated at an Urban Studies Foundation-funded workshop on Global Gentrification in London in 2012, attempts to problematise contemporary understandings of gentrification, which is all too often confined to the experiences of the so-called Global North, and sometimes too narrowly understood as classic gentrification. Instead of simply confirming the rise of gentrification in places outside of the usual suspects of North America and Western Europe, a more open-minded approach is advocated so as not to over-generalise distinctive urban processes under the label of gentrification, thus understanding gentrification as constitutive of diverse urban processes at work. This requires a careful attention to the complexity of property rights and tenure relations, and calls for a dialogue between gentrification and non-gentrification researchers to understand how gentrification communicates with other theories to capture the full dynamics of urban transformation. Papers in this special issue have made great strides towards these goals, namely theorising, distorting, mutating and bringing into question the concept of gentrification itself, as seen from the perspective of the Global East, a label that we have deliberately given in order to problematise the existing common practices of grouping all regions other than Western European and North American ones into the Global South.
Review: Intelligent Modeling and Control in Anesthesia

This paper provides a detailed review of the clinical aspect and engineering view of how to measure, interpret, model, and control general anesthesia. The mechanisms of anesthesia in terms of unconsciousness, amnesia, analgesia, and akinesia in modern balanced anesthesia are reviewed. The assessment and interpretation of anesthesia according to clinical signs (i.e., lacrimation, sweating, papillary dilatation), physiological monitors (i.e., electromyography, electrocardiography, blood pressure, electroencephalography, oxyhemoglobin saturation), and evaluation indices (i.e., bispectral index scale, entropy, auditory evoked potentials, and surgical stress index) are reviewed in order to define the objectives of general anesthesia. Finally, the intelligent modeling and control of anesthesia are thoroughly reviewed. Modern general anesthesia is moving towards the monitoring, interpretation, modeling, and control of multi-inputs from quantitative and qualitative nonlinear physiological signals and multi-outputs for drug control of unconsciousness, amnesia, analgesia, and akinesia. A multistage hierarchical system should thus be developed for the modeling and control of general anesthesia in the future.
Are problems that contribute to divorce present at the start of marriage, or do they emerge over time?

Divorced individuals offer explanations for why their relationship ended, yet little is known about the development of these problems during the relationship. Problems that lead to divorce may exist at the beginning of the marriage (enduring dynamics model) or may develop over time (emergent distress model). We asked 40 divorced individuals about the reasons for their divorce and compared the development of problems that did and did not contribute to their divorce over the first few years of their marriage. Results support an emergent distress model for wives as they saw problems that lead to divorce increasing over time. Results for husbands indicated that they were less attuned to problems overall, suggesting that wives are the bellwether for relationship problems.
Dichloridobis[1-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)-1H-imidazole-κN 3]copper(II)

In the title complex, [CuCl2(C12H14N2)2], the Cu2+ cation is situated on an inversion centre and is coordinated by two N atoms from symmetry-related 1-mesityl-1H-imidazole ligands and by two chloride anions in a slightly distorted square-planar geometry. In the organic ligand, the dihedral angle between the benzene ring of the mesityl moiety and the imidazole ring is 76.99 (18)°. Weak intramolecular C—H⋯Cl hydrogen-bonding interactions consolidate the molecular conformation.
Quorum-quenching microbial infections: mechanisms and implications

The discovery of antibiotics early in the past century marked the beginning of active control and prevention of infectious microbial diseases. However, extensive use of antibiotics has also unavoidably resulted in the emergence of ‘superbugs’ that resist conventional antibiotics. The finding that many pathogens rely on cell-to-cell communication mechanisms, known as quorum sensing, to synchronize microbial activities essential for infection and survival in the host suggests a promising disease control strategy, i.e. quenching microbial quorum sensing or in short, quorum quenching. Work over the past few years has demonstrated that quorum-quenching mechanisms are widely conserved in many prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. These naturally occurring quorum-quenching mechanisms appear to play important roles in microbe–microbe and pathogen–host interactions and have been used, or served as lead compounds, in developing and formulating a new generation of antimicrobials. Characterization of the crystal structures of several types of quorum-quenching enzymes has provided valuable information to elucidate the catalytic mechanisms, as well as clues for future protein tailoring and molecular improvement. The discovery of quorum-sensing signal degradation enzymes in mammalian species represents a new milestone in quorum sensing and quorum quenching research. The finding highlights the importance of investigating their roles in host innate defence against infectious diseases and to determine the factors influencing their in vivo concentrations and catalytic activities.