Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing inner and outer overinformation in EcoLexicon: an environmental ontology

EcoLexicon is a Terminological Knowledge Base (TKB) on environment. Our TKB is primarily hosted in a relational database (RDB) but at the same time integrated in an ontological model. Ontologies provide a suitable schema for sharing semantic resources. Nevertheless, before considering the interoperability of other environmental knowledge-based projects, we must first deal with overinformation in our RDB. Such a wide domain as the environment has caused an information overload and contextual constraints seem a plausible way to structure knowledge in a similar way to how things relate in the real world. The global domain is divided into different sub-domains according to multidimensionality. That means that concepts' dimensions are only activated when particular contexts arise. On the other hand, other environmental sources can be used to widen knowledge according to the Semantic Web initiative. Linked Data provide a useful and easy mechanism for the interaction of current infrastructures keeping them as independent resources.
Evolutionary Foundations of Mathematics

We propose a simple cognitive model where qualitative and quantitative comparisons enable animals to identify objects, associate them with their properties held in memory and make naive inference. Simple notions like equivalence relations, order relations are used. We then show that such processes are at the root of human mathematical reasoning by showing that the elements of totally ordered sets satisfy the Peano axioms. The process through which children learn counting is then formalized. Finally association is modeled as a Markov process leading to a stationary distribution.
5 ROBUSTNESS IN BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS : A PROVISIONAL TAXONOMY

Biology is a domain of tension: on the one hand, biology is concerned with transformation and the generation of diversity; on the other, biology is concerned with the persistence of improbable structural regularities. The historical sciences in biology, principally evolution, have focused on change. The mechanistic sciences in biology, principally medicine, have focused on stability. Robustness, as a research program, aims to uncover those evolved mechanisms promoting the persistence of regularities. Here I organize mechanisms of robustness into a phenomenological taxonomy, grouping biological mechanisms into principles of robust organization. These include: Redundancy, Purging, Feedback, Modularity, Spatial Compartmentalization, Distributed Processing, and the Extended Phenotype. I present case studies in which mechanisms representative of each principle are described. These case studies serve to illustrate the ubiquity of specialized robustness mechanisms in all complex biosystems.
Ensemble Modeling of Cancer Metabolism

The metabolic behavior of cancer cells is adapted to meet their proliferative needs, with notable changes such as enhanced lactate secretion and glucose uptake rates. In this work, we use the Ensemble Modeling (EM) framework to gain insight and predict potential drug targets for tumor cells. EM generates a set of models which span the space of kinetic parameters that are constrained by thermodynamics. Perturbation data based on known targets are used to screen the entire ensemble of models to obtain a sub-set, which is increasingly predictive. EM allows for incorporation of regulatory information and captures the behavior of enzymatic reactions at the molecular level by representing reactions in the elementary reaction form. In this study, a metabolic network consisting of 58 reactions is considered and accounts for glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and includes allosteric regulation of key enzymes. Experimentally measured intracellular and extracellular metabolite concentrations are used for developing the ensemble of models along with information on established drug targets. The resulting models predicted transaldolase (TALA) and succinyl-CoA ligase (SUCOAS1m) to cause a significant reduction in growth rate when repressed, relative to currently known drug targets. Furthermore, the results suggest that the synergistic repression of transaldolase and glycine hydroxymethyltransferase (GHMT2r) will lead to a threefold decrease in growth rate compared to the repression of single enzyme targets.
Fiber Bragg Gratings as e-Health Enablers: An Overview for Gait Analysis Applications

Nowadays, the fast advances in sensing technologies and ubiquitous wireless networking are reflected in medical practice. It provides new healthcare advantages under the scope of e-Health applications, enhancing life quality of citizens. The increase of life expectancy of current population comes with its challenges and growing health risks, which include locomotive problems. Such impairments and its rehabilitation require a close monitoring and continuous evaluation, which add financial burdens on an already overloaded healthcare system. Analysis of body movements and gait pattern can help in the rehabilitation of such problems. These monitoring systems should be noninvasive and comfortable, in order to not jeopardize the mobility and the day-to-day activities of citizens. The use of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) as e-Health enablers has presented itself as a new topic to be investigated, exploiting the FBGs’ advantages over its electronic counterparts. Although gait analysis has been widely assessed, the use of FBGs in biomechanics and rehabilitation is recent, with a wide field of applications. This chapter provides a review of the application of FBGs for gait analysis monitoring, namely its use in topics such as the monitoring of plantar pressure, angle, and torsion and its integration in rehabilitation exoskeletons and for prosthetic control.
Enhancing of Cotton Fabric Antibacterial Properties by Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized by New Egyptian Strain Fusarium Keratoplasticum A1-3

Spectral analysis of biogenic silver nano-particles (AgNPs) produced by Fusarium keratoplasticum A1-3 showed absorption at 400 nm which is used as a monitor for the formation of silver nanoparticles. TEM analysis indicated the formation of spherical AgNPs in size range from 6 to 36 nm. The band at 1650.13 cm−1 in FTIR analysis refers to the binding vibrations of amide I band of protein with N–H stretching band. XRD pattern of Ag-NPs indicated silver Ag crystalline phase indexed; the particle size of the so obtained AgNPs was poly dispersed mixture with diameter average of 54.33 (92.7%) with Zeta potential (mV) -23.7. AgNPs were applied to enhance antibacterial properties of cotton fabric with 86% and 93% growth reduction of test pathogenic bacterial strains.
Joint time delay and DOA estimation using 2-D matrix pencil algorithms and IEEE 802.11ac

The IEEE 802.11ac is an emerging WLAN standard for the 5 GHz band in which multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and wider channel bandwidths are enhanced compared to 802.11n. In this paper, we present the problem of estimating the propagation time delay, and the relative direction of arrival (DOA) associated with signals in a multipath communication channel for wireless indoor positioning. The recent subspace based algorithms, represented by two-dimensional matrix pencil (2-D MP) algorithms, are applied in a new way to estimate these parameters simultaneously from an estimated space channel frequency response (S-CFR). The performance of using multiple antennas and wideband orthogonal multicarrier signals are presented. Non line of sight (NLOS) experimental results show that accuracy in the range of a few hundreds of picoseconds, and a fraction of one degree could be achieved.
Chronic exercise confers neuroprotection in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the CNS, resulting in accumulated loss of cognitive, sensory, and motor function. This study evaluates the neuropathological effects of voluntary exercise in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS. Two groups of C57BL/6J mice were injected with an emulsion containing myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein and then randomized to housing with a running wheel or a locked wheel. Exercising EAE mice exhibited a less severe neurological disease score and later onset of disease compared with sedentary EAE animals. Immune cell infiltration and demyelination in the ventral white matter tracts of the lumbar spinal cord were significantly reduced in the EAE exercise group compared with sedentary EAE animals. Neurofilament immunolabeling in the ventral pyramidal and extrapyramidal motor tracts displayed a more random distribution of axons and an apparent loss of smaller diameter axons, with a greater loss of fluorescence immunolabeling in the sedentary EAE animals. In lamina IX gray matter regions of the lumbar spinal cord, sedentary animals with EAE displayed a greater loss of α‐motor neurons compared with EAE animals exposed to exercise. These findings provide evidence that voluntary exercise results in reduced and attenuated disability, reductions in autoimmune cell infiltration, and preservation of axons and motor neurons in the lumbar spinal cord of mice with EAE. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A stereoscopic camera employing a single main lens

A camera for extracting depth information from a scene is described. It incorporates a single main lens along with a lenticular array placed at the sensor plane. The resulting plenoptic camera provides information about how the scene would look when viewed from a continuum of possible viewpoints bounded by the main lens aperture. Deriving depth information is simpler than in a binocular stereo system because the correspondence problem is minimized. The camera extracts information about both horizontal and vertical parallax, which improves the reliability of the depth estimates. <<ETX>>
Atomistic simulations reveal bubbles, kinks and wrinkles in supercoiled DNA

Although DNA is frequently bent and supercoiled in the cell, much of the available information on DNA structure at the atomistic level is restricted to short linear sequences. We report atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of a series of DNA minicircles containing between 65 and 110 bp which we compare with a recent biochemical study of structural distortions in these tight DNA loops. We have observed a wealth of non-canonical DNA structures such as kinks, denaturation bubbles and wrinkled conformations that form in response to bending and torsional stress. The simulations show that bending alone is sufficient to induce the formation of kinks in circles containing only 65 bp, but we did not observe any defects in simulations of larger torsionally relaxed circles containing 110 bp over the same MD timescales. We also observed that under-winding in minicircles ranging in size from 65 to 110 bp leads to the formation of single stranded bubbles and wrinkles. These calculations are used to assess the ability of atomistic MD simulations to determine the structure of bent and supercoiled DNA.
Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein for Prehospital Diagnosis of Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Background: Both, acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and hemorrhage stroke (intracerebral hemorrhage, ICH) require early attention but different treatment strategies. Plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels were found to be elevated in ICH patients after they arrived in the hospital. Because treatment options differed, we sought to determine whether GFAP can be used to accurately differentiate between of AIS and ICH in the prehospital setting. Methods: We assessed acute stroke patients in the Stroke Emergency Mobile (STEMO). STEMO is a stroke ambulance staffed by a specialized team including a neurologist and equipped with a computed tomography scanner plus a point-of-care laboratory. The STEMO ambulance is integrated in the emergency medical system of Berlin, Germany. Following prehospital stroke diagnosis, blood was drawn and subsequently analysed using research assays from Roche diagnostics. The clinical accuracy of plasma GFAP was tested using a cut-off value of 0.29 ng/ml. Results: Blood samples of 74 patients were analysed. Twenty-five patients had ICH (mean age 69 ± 11 years, median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) 15) and 49 IS (mean age 75 ± 10 years, median NIHSS 6). Nine ICH (0 IS patients) had GFAP-levels above 0.29 ng/ml. The sensitivity and specificity of GFAP for differentiating between ICH and AIS were 36.0 and 100%. The sensitivity for ICH volume >15 ml was 61.5%. ICH patients without GFAP elevation had significantly smaller hemorrhage volumes (median 4.5 vs. 37.6 ml, p = 0.004) and were less likely to deteriorate (19 vs. 56%, p = 0.087). Conclusions: GFAP levels >0.29 ng/ml were seen only in ICH, thus confirming the diagnosis of ICH during prehospital care. However, sensitivity is low particularly in smaller hemorrhages.
The augmentation of BK channel activity by nitric oxide signaling in rat cerebral arteries involves co-localized regulatory elements

Large conductance, Ca2+-activated K+ (BK) channels control cerebrovascular tone; however, the regulatory processes influencing these channels remain poorly understood. Here, we investigate the cellular mechanisms underlying the enhancement of BK current in rat cerebral arteries by nitric oxide (NO) signaling. In isolated cerebral myocytes, BK current magnitude was reversibly increased by sodium nitroprusside (SNP, 100 μM) and sensitive to the BK channel inhibitor, penitrem-A (100 nM). Fostriecin (30 nM), a protein phosphatase type 2A (PP2A) inhibitor, significantly prolonged the SNP-induced augmentation of BK current and a similar effect was produced by sildenafil (30 nM), a phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitor. Using proximity ligation assay (PLA)-based co-immunostaining, BK channels were observed to co-localize with PP2A, PDE5, and cGMP-dependent protein kinase (cGKI) (spatial restriction < 40 nm); cGKI co-localization increased following SNP exposure. SNP (10 μM) reversibly inhibited myogenic tone in cannulated cerebral arteries, which was augmented by either fostriecin or sildenafil and inhibited by penitrem-A. Collectively, these data suggest that (1) cGKI, PDE5, and PP2A are compartmentalized with cerebrovascular BK channels and determine the extent of BK current augmentation by NO/cGMP signaling, and (2) the dynamic regulation of BK activity by co-localized signaling enzymes modulates NO-evoked dilation of cerebral resistance arteries.
Experience in deploying wearable devices for office analytics

Paste the appropriate copyright statement here. ACM now supports three different copyright statements: • ACM copyright: ACM holds the copyright on the work. This is the historical approach. • License: The author(s) retain copyright, but ACM receives an exclusive publication license. • Open Access: The author(s) wish to pay for the work to be open access. The additional fee must be paid to ACM. This text field is large enough to hold the appropriate release statement assuming it is single spaced in a sans-serif 7 point font. Every submission will be assigned their own unique DOI string to be included here. Abstract In this paper, we discuss our experience with the deployment of a wrist-worn wearable device to study proximity patterns and social dynamics in the offices of an architecture and design focussed firm. We present the challenges we faced and the adopted solutions. Through an online survey and in-person interviews we gather participants’ feedback regarding their experience with the device. Although the device has been in general well received, our participants pointed out some areas of improvement. Our analysis of the deployment together with the feedback from our participants provides insights that we believe might be useful for other researchers in the same area.
Clinical usefulness of classification by transabdominal ultrasonography for detection of small-bowel stricture

Abstract Objective. To assess the clinical usefulness of transabdominal ultrasonography (TUS) for detection of small-bowel stricture. Patients and methods. Subjects were 796 patients undergoing double-balloon endoscopy (DBE), December 2003–October 2011. All underwent TUS prior to DBE. The TUS findings were classified by type as intestinal narrowing and distension at the oral side (Type A); extensive bowel wall thickening (Type B); focal bowel wall thickening (Type C) or no abnormality detected (Type D). We compared TUS findings against DBE findings with respect to small-bowel stricture, defined as failure of the enteroscope to pass through the small bowel. Results. Small-bowel stricture was detected by DBE in 11.3% (90/796) of patients. Strictures resulted from Crohn's disease (n = 36), intestinal tuberculosis (n = 24), malignant lymphoma (n = 9), ischemic enteritis (n = 6), NSAID ulcer (n = 5), radiation enteritis (n = 2), surgical anastomosis (n = 2) and other abnormalities (n = 6). Stricture was detected by TUS in 93.3% (84/90) of patients, and each such stricture fell into one of the three types of TUS abnormality. The remaining 6 strictures were detected only by DBE. DBE-identified strictures corresponded to TUS findings as follows: 100% (43/43) to Type A, 59.1% (29/49) to Type B, 14.8% (12/81) to Type C and 1% (6/623) to Type D. Correspondence between stricture and the Type A classification (vs. Types B, C and D) was significantly high, as was correspondence between stricture and Type B (vs. Types C and D). Conclusions. TUS was shown to be useful for detecting small-bowel stricture. We recommend performing TUS first when a small-bowel stricture is suspected.
Construction of an Image Quality Assessment Model for Use On Board an LEO Satellite

As processor and memory technology advances, it becomes feasible to undertake more complex processing tasks on board of a satellite, which increases the autonomy of the spacecraft and can reduce data rates, leading to cost savings [1, pp. 539-550]. The model discussed in this abstract is part of an image quality assessment (IQA) system that is to be used to compare acquired images on board of an LEO satellite. A quality score is generated for each image and images are ranked according to these scores. Given that the number of images that can be downloaded in a day is fewer than can be acquired, optimal use of available downlink time is ensured by downloading images from the top of this ranked list. IQA algorithms are either full-reference [2, 3, 4, 5], where the original image, f(x, y), is available for comparison with the potentially degraded image g(x, y), or no-reference [6, 7, 8, 9], where image quality is appraised without reference, i.e., using only g(x, y). No-reference IQA algorithms generally incorporate statistical models which are trained on subjective data. The IQA process can thus be divided into feature estimation and quality estimation. During feature estimation, certain features of the image are considered and given numerical values. During quality estimation the trained model maps these numerical values onto an image quality score. Three degradation measures, namely cloud cover, additive noise and the defocus extent of the telescope are chosen as features. An image quality assessment model is constructed to combine the effects of the three features into a single quality score. The model is based on a large dataset of subjective evaluations to ensure generality. The images and degradation types in existing image quality datasets are not valid for a remote sensing context. Therefore an experiment is conducted to collect appropriate data. The methods described by Sheikh et al. [5] are followed during the design of the experiment and processing of the data. However, to enable rapid collection of data, the example of Gastaldo et al. [8] is followed and the experiment is conducted over the internet. This allows the data to be collected within about one month. Remote sensing images are corrupted to varying degrees using the three degradation types and participants are asked to judge the image quality. The number of subjective human judgements collected is 18623, while the number of unique degraded images assessed is 489, which is comparable with existing IQA literature. The experimental data provides insight into the behaviour of the input variables: non-linear relationships between the measured features and image quality are supported; ∗Corresponding Author. E-mail addresses: imarais@sun.ac.za †whsteyn@sun.ac.za ‡dupreez@dsp.sun.ac.za
A Primer in Meta-Analysis for the Plastic Surgeon

Meta-analyses are useful tools for clinicians to remain current in their field of study. Meta-analyses are used to gain statistical power through the pooling of results from multiple smaller studies. As the highest level of evidence is considered meta-analysis of high-quality randomized-controlled trials, it is important that the plastic surgeons understand the methodology behind a meta-analysis—herein lies the goal of this article.
The KCNQ1 channel – remarkable flexibility in gating allows for functional versatility

The KCNQ1 channel (also called Kv7.1 or KvLQT1) belongs to the superfamily of voltage‐gated K+ (Kv) channels. KCNQ1 shares several general features with other Kv channels but also displays a fascinating flexibility in terms of the mechanism of channel gating, which allows KCNQ1 to play different physiological roles in different tissues. This flexibility allows KCNQ1 channels to function as voltage‐independent channels in epithelial tissues, whereas KCNQ1 function as voltage‐activated channels with very slow kinetics in cardiac tissues. This flexibility is in part provided by the association of KCNQ1 with different accessory KCNE β‐subunits and different modulators, but also seems like an integral part of KCNQ1 itself. The aim of this review is to describe the main mechanisms underlying KCNQ1 flexibility.