Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Internet comes to Morocco

The Kingdom of Morocco is the most recent African country to enter cyberspace. Since the infrastructure necessary to establish Internet connectivity was simply nonexistent, connection was a monumental task. Major infrastructure complications and the fact that full Internet connectivity or Internet service providers (ISPs) did not exist anywhere in Morocco didn't help. There was also minimal telecommunications expertise within the country, and the university that elected to establish Internet connectivity had just broken ground outside a remote village in the Middle Atlas mountains. Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI) was inaugurated in January 1995. It is an institution of higher learning, based on the U.S. academic model. One of AUI's major goals is the advancement of science and technology to both local and international communities—Internet connectiv-ity was a major factor in achieving this goal. The university's plan for Internet connection was accomplished in four stages: • Formation of an in-house computer network • Implementation of a router to control traffic flows between the in-house system and the Internet • Subscription of Internet service from an ISP • The establishment of a dedicated circuit access to the ISP. AUI started from ground zero in meeting these requirements. Although the remote physical location was problematic , designing the campus network before construction of the university proved advantageous. Cables could be laid or strung wherever they needed to be, there were no walls or constraints in regard to dependence upon existing equipment. The accepted design for the AUI campus network consisted of an FDDI backbone, connecting administrative , academic, and dormitory building networks at a speed of 100Mbps. These administrative, student , and housing networks are Ethernet LANs with a capacity of 10Mbps running on either twisted pair wire or fiber-optic cable. Computers are connected to a variety of Novell Netware servers for office software and disk and print sharing. They operate under both IPX/SPX and TCP/IP protocols. The Unix system (Sun Sparc Systems ranging from entry-level Sparc Classics to high-end Sparc 1000s) utilize the TCP/IP protocol, in-house system, and Internet connection. Once the design of AUI's campus network was in place, the next step was to connect the campus backbone to an Internet hub. Interconnection between AUI and the Internet hub was done by a Cisco 2501 router. Some of the provisions AUI's network relies on include Ethernet interfaces, high-speed synchronous and asynchronous serial ports, and routing support for IP and IPX …
On Making Data Actionable

In this paper, we examine how activist organizations, focused on human rights violations (HRVs) in Mexico, obtain and translate data to produce actionable insight for social change. Through interviews with 15 participants working in think tanks, human rights centers, non-governmental organizations, and nonprofit organizations, we identified two key data challenges that impact their work: absent and conflicting data. We then describe how these nonprofits try to understand these issues by building alliances to address specific, detrimental knowledge and data gaps. Next, we articulate how these activists use data to work towards social change by informing citizens, requesting action, and building capacity. Lastly, we propose recommendations on how to design for HRVs-focused data practices, focusing on issues related to addressing technology and infrastructure constraints, designing for safety, and supporting community data collection and dissemination.
Gradient Estimation Using Stochastic Computation Graphs

In a variety of problems originating in supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, the loss function is defined by an expectation over a collection of random variables, which might be part of a probabilistic model or the external world. Estimating the gradient of this loss function, using samples, lies at the core of gradient-based learning algorithms for these problems. We introduce the formalism of stochastic computation graphs—directed acyclic graphs that include both deterministic functions and conditional probability distributions—and describe how to easily and automatically derive an unbiased estimator of the loss function's gradient. The resulting algorithm for computing the gradient estimator is a simple modification of the standard backpropagation algorithm. The generic scheme we propose unifies estimators derived in variety of prior work, along with variance-reduction techniques therein. It could assist researchers in developing intricate models involving a combination of stochastic and deterministic operations, enabling, for example, attention, memory, and control actions.
Implementing a New Dense Symmetric Eigensolver on Multicore Systems

Implementing a New Dense Symmetric Eigensolver on Multicore Systems Dalal Ersan Sukkari We present original advanced architecture implementations of the QDWHeig algorithm for solving dense symmetric eigenproblems. The algorithm (Y. Nakatsukasa and N. J. Higham, 2012) performs a spectral divide-and-conquer, which recursively divides the matrix into smaller submatrices by finding an invariant subspace for a subset of the spectrum. The main contribution of this thesis is to enhance the performance of QDWHeig algorithm by relying on a high performance kernels from PLASMA [1] and LAPACK [2]. We demonstrate the quality of the eigenpairs that are computed with the QDWHeig algorithm for many matrix types with different eigenvalue clustering. We then implement QDWHeig using kernels from LAPACK and PLASMA, and compare its performance against other divide-and-conquer symmetric eigensolvers. The main part of QDWHeig is finding a polar decomposition. We introduce mixed precision to enhance the performance in finding the polar decomposition. Our evaluation considers speed and accuracy of the computed eigenvalues. Some applications require finding only a subspectrum of the eigenvalues; therefore we modify the algorithm to find the eigenpairs in a given interval of interest. An experimental study shows significant improvement on the performance of our algorithm using mixed precision and PLASMA routines.
A FUTURE VISION FOR THE ENGINEERING DESIGN ENVIRONMENT: A FUTURE SOCIOTECHNICAL SCENARIO

This paper presents a future vision for the working practices of designers within a manufacturing organisation. By its very nature the engineering design environment is highly distributed in nature and is characterised by a large number of information sources, which together with the designers forms a complex sociotechnical system. In discussions with designers it is apparent that changes are required to this environment to reflect the changes in the design process and organisations. We have developed a scenario that incorporates many of the features requested by designers and managers to improve the design environment. The scenario sets out a route map for the development of technical and social tools that aid the designer.
Isoprostanes-Biomarkers of Lipid Peroxidation: Their Utility in Evaluating Oxidative Stress and Analysis

Isoprostanes (IsoPs) are key biomarkers for investigating the role of free radical generation in the pathogenesis of human disorders. To solve IsoPs-related problems with regard to isoprostanes, analytical tools are required. This paper reviews the problems and trends in this field focusing on the methodology for assaying biomarkers in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) samples. A large amount of work has been done in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of IsoPs, but a standardized method has yet to emerge. The methodologies described differ, either in the sample preparation steps or in the detection techniques, or both. Requiring a number of chromatographic steps, the relevant extraction and purification procedures are often critical and time-consuming, and they lead to a substantial loss of target compounds. Recent data show that EBC is a promising non-invasive tool for the evaluation of different diseases. Two main analytical approaches have been adopted for IsoPs measurement: immunological methods and mass spectrometry. The methodologies for the extraction, purification and analysis of IsoPs in EBC samples are presented.
Supertube dynamics in diverse backgrounds

We study the homogeneous and time dependent dynamics of the supertube in diverse backgrounds. After deriving a general form of the hamiltonian in general background, we use a particular gauge fixing, relevant to our analysis to derive a simpler hamiltonian. We then study the homogeneous solutions of the equations of motion in various backgrounds and study the effective potential in detail.
Role of the STAT1-SH2 Domain and STAT2 in the Activation and Nuclear Translocation of STAT1*

Interferon (IFN) induction of immediate-early response genes is mediated through the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs). Activation of STAT1 by IFNα or IFNγ through its tyrosine phosphorylation involves members of the Jak tyrosine kinases. In addition, STAT2 is activated by IFNα, and, together with STAT1 and p48/ISGF3γ, forms the transcription factor complex ISGF3. Previous findings suggested that the STAT1-SH2 domain, which is required for the homo- or heterodimerization of STAT1, also participates in the recruitment of STAT1 to the IFN-receptors, because mutations in the SH2-domain abolished STAT1 activation by IFNγ. Furthermore, STAT2 was reported to be required for the activation of STAT1 by IFNα. We were able to induce STAT1 tyrosine phosphorylation by IFNα/β in the absence of STAT2 or a functional STAT1-SH2 domain. In contrast, IFNγ was unable to cause tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT1-(SH2:Arg → Gln). Interestingly, although STAT1 was found in the nucleus in STAT2-deficient cells, the nuclear accumulation of the tyrosine phosphorylated SH2-mutant STAT1 was impaired. In summary, our results indicate that the SH2 domain of STAT1 is not required for its ligand-dependent activation by IFNα/β. Moreover, tyrosine phosphorylation is not sufficient to target STAT1 to the nucleus; rather, dimerization appears to play a critical role in the subcellular distribution of STAT1.
Satisfaction with a fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) lifestyle: Is it related to rosters, children and support resources utilised by Australian employees and partners and does it impact on relationship quality and stress?

The phenomenal growth currently being experienced in the Australian resources industry has seen unprecedented interest in the practice of fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) work practices. This study explores a number of factors that have been previously identified as having possible negative impacts on those involved in FIFO. A sample of 314 FIFO partners and 245 workers were surveyed on roster satisfaction, roster length, relationship quality, children, perceived stress and perceived social support. Resources and supports were also examined to determine awareness, utilisation and usefulness to partners and workers. This study found that overall workers were satisfied with their rosters and relationships, including those on longer rosters. Partners however, were less satisfied with rosters and relationships, particularly those who had children between six and twelve years of age, although roster length was not a factor. Children’s ages did not influence partners’ perceived stress however partners without children reported higher perceived stress than those with children. Less than half of the partners were aware of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) however personal supports, such as family, friends, co-workers, and FIFO specific support websites, had a positive effect on partners’ perceived stress. When compared to other resources, both partners and workers rated personal support as the most useful. Keywords: FIFO; rosters, relationships; children; stress; support
Evaluation of distributed processing of caffe framework using poor performance device

The spread of various sensors and Cloud technologies has made it easy to acquire life-logs and accumulate data. As a result, many life-log analysis applications, which transfer data from sensors, especially cameras to a Cloud and analyze them in the Cloud, have been developed. Cameras with a server function called network cameras have become cheap and readily available for security services and the monitoring of pets and children from remote locations. In these services, raw data from sensors, including cameras, are generally transferred to a Cloud and processed there. However, it is difficult to transfer raw data from sensors to a Cloud because of the limitation of network bandwidth between sensors and a Cloud and privacy issues caused by sending raw sensor data to a Cloud.
Workload Assessment in Flight using Dense Array Eeg

As cockpit technologies advance and increase information-rich content is provided to aircrews, and it is possible that we are reaching the cognitive limits of the human operator. With additional layers of automation, crew alertness becomes equally important as high levels of workload. Foundational tools, methods, and technology components to quantitatively assess cognitive limits and to characterize operator state are needed to improve aircraft safety and enable full realization of the next generation air transport system (NGATS). Over the last two years, we have built up a neural imaging capability onboard our computerized airborne research platform (CARP) research aircraft, a Beech Bonanza. A similar system shall be deployed on the National Research Council (NRC, Canada) Bell 412 Advanced Systems Research Aircraft (ASRA). Flight trials on the ASRA are slated for November, 2006. We have collected preliminary physiological data using the CARP in flight to demonstrate that minute EEG signals can in fact be collected in the ecologically valid context of real flight. A secondary goal of our work was to develop data synchronization and artifact removal methods. In future research, we hope to automate these methods and collect physiological data to develop sophisticated operator state classification and feedback models. This research program is a collaborative effort between the National Research Council Canada and the Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL)
Biodiversity, Biocomplexity, and the Economics of Genetic Dissimilarity

Some economists have advocated the use of measures of genetic dissimilarity to guide species preservation priorities. It is argued here that such policies are: 1) possible for only a very small number of species for which data are available; 2)impractical as a general guide to biodiversity preservation for that reason and because it is impossible, given the present state of knowledge, to account for species interdependence; and critically, 3) misguided because, at least over the relatively small species sets for which data exist, there are generally no established or theoretically convincing relationships between genetic dissimilarity and species value. (JEL Q21, Q28)
Identification of a 31-bp Deletion in the RELN Gene Causing Lissencephaly with Cerebellar Hypoplasia in Sheep

Lissencephaly is an inherited developmental disorder in which neuronal migration is impaired. A type of lissencephaly associated with cerebellar hypoplasia (LCH) was diagnosed in a commercial flock of Spanish Churra sheep. The genotyping of 7 affected animals and 33 controls with the OvineSNP50 BeadChip enabled the localization of the causative mutation for ovine LCH to a 4.8-Mb interval on sheep chromosome 4 using genome-wide association and homozygosity mapping. The RELN gene, which is located within this interval, was considered a strong positional and functional candidate because it plays critical roles in neuronal migration and layer formation. By performing a sequencing analysis of this gene’s specific mRNA in a control lamb, we obtained the complete CDS of the ovine RELN gene. The cDNA sequence from an LCH-affected lamb revealed a deletion of 31 bp (c.5410_5440del) in predicted exon 36 of RELN, resulting in a premature termination codon. A functional analysis of this mutation revealed decreased levels of RELN mRNA and a lack of reelin protein in the brain cortex and blood of affected lambs. This mutation showed a complete concordance with the Mendelian recessive pattern of inheritance observed for the disease. The identification of the causal mutation of LCH in Churra sheep will facilitate the implementation of gene-assisted selection to detect heterozygous mutants, which will help breeders avoid at-risk matings in their flocks. Moreover, the identification of this naturally occurring RELN mutation provides an opportunity to use Churra sheep as a genetically characterized large animal model for the study of reelin functions in the developing and mature brain.
Dual Mechanism of Ion Permeation through VDAC Revealed with Inorganic Phosphate Ions and Phosphate Metabolites

In the exchange of metabolites and ions between the mitochondrion and the cytosol, the voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) is a key element, as it forms the major transport pathway for these compounds through the mitochondrial outer membrane. Numerous experimental studies have promoted the idea that VDAC acts as a regulator of essential mitochondrial functions. In this study, using a combination of molecular dynamics simulations, free-energy calculations, and electrophysiological measurements, we investigated the transport of ions through VDAC, with a focus on phosphate ions and metabolites. We showed that selectivity of VDAC towards small anions including monovalent phosphates arises from short-lived interactions with positively charged residues scattered throughout the pore. In dramatic contrast, permeation of divalent phosphate ions and phosphate metabolites (AMP and ATP) involves binding sites along a specific translocation pathway. This permeation mechanism offers an explanation for the decrease in VDAC conductance measured in the presence of ATP or AMP at physiological salt concentration. The binding sites occur at similar locations for the divalent phosphate ions, AMP and ATP, and contain identical basic residues. ATP features a marked affinity for a central region of the pore lined by two lysines and one arginine of the N-terminal helix. This cluster of residues together with a few other basic amino acids forms a “charged brush” which facilitates the passage of the anionic metabolites through the pore. All of this reveals that VDAC controls the transport of the inorganic phosphates and phosphate metabolites studied here through two different mechanisms.
Component Analysis Based Facial Expression Recognition

: The Intelligence of Human-Computer Interaction is one of the hot researching areas. Facial expression recognition is an important part of human-computer interaction. At present, the research of facial expression recognition has entered an era of a new climax. In real-time facial expression recognition system, the paper presents an expression feature extraction method that combined canny operator edge detection with the AAM(active appearance model) algorithm. During the Canny edge detection, the adaptively generated high and low thresholds, increased the capability of noise suppression, and the time complexity of the algorithm is less than the traditional canny operator. Finally, by using leas squares method, we can classify and identify the feature information
Saturated Semantics for Reactive Systems

The semantics of process calculi has traditionally been specified by labelled transition systems (LTS), but with the development of name calculi it turned out that reaction rules (i.e., unlabelled transition rules) are often more natural. This leads to the question of how behavioural equivalences (bisimilarity, trace equivalence, etc.) defined for LTS can be transferred to unlabelled transition systems. Recently, in order to answer this question, several proposals have been made with the aim of automatically deriving an LTS from reaction rules in such a way that the resulting equivalences are congruences. Furthermore these equivalences should agree with the standard semantics, whenever one exists. In this paper we propose saturated semantics, based on a weaker notion of observation and orthogonal to all the previous proposals, and we demonstrate the appropriateness of our semantics by means of two examples: logic programming and a subset of the open pi-calculus. Indeed, we prove that our equivalences are congruences and that they coincide with logical equivalence and open bisimilarity respectively, while equivalences studied in previous works are strictly finer
Representing a Problem Space: Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Practice of Instructional Leadership

Understanding how principals solve the problems they encounter in practice is a critical step in improving instructional leadership in schools. Traditional approaches to extracting expertise in principals are sufficient to capture some differences in behavior and may hint at cognitive differences, but we argue that they do not tackle differences in the architecture of the problem space that principals construct when they are working on instructional problems. Drawing on a subset of data from a larger study of 40 principals, we present our visual approach to understanding how principals reason through problems. We conclude the paper with a discussion of how our approach could be used to better understand the practice of instructional leadership.
Dietary Botanicals for Chemoprevention of Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer typically develops later in life. Hence, identi‐ fying the botanical compounds that can prevent or delay disease progression may have a positive effect on the quality of life and reduce the healthcare costs of the aging population. [1] Supporting the statement, it could be accepted that the burden of increasing morbidity and mortality due to prostate cancer imposes a need for new, effective measures of prevention in daily life. Chemopreven‐ tion, a prophylactic approach that uses nontoxic natural or synthetic compounds to reverse, inhibit, or prevent cancer by targeting spe‐ cific steps in the carcinogenic pathway, is gaining traction among healthcare practitioners. [2] The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80% of the population of developing countries relies on traditional medicine for their primary care needs. The emergence of resistance to cancer chemotherapy has forced researchers to turn to natural products of plant and marine origin. [3] Additionally, treatments for advanced disease are limited to hormone ablation techniques and palliative care. Thus, new methods of treatment and prevention are necessary for inhibiting disease progression to a hormone refractory state. One of the approaches to control pros‐ tate cancer is prevention through diet, which inhibits one or more neoplastic events and reduces the cancer risk. For centuries, Ayurveda has recommended the use of bitter melon (Momordica charantia) as a functional food to prevent and treat human health related issues. [4] A study conducted by Ru et al. demonstrated that prostate cancer cells treated with bitter melon extract (BME) delayed the progression to high‐grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia in transgenic adenocarcinoma of mouse prostate (TRAMP) mice by 31%. Prostate tissue from BME‐fed mice displayed approximately 51% reduction of proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression. Together, results suggest that oral administration of BME inhibits prostate cancer progression in TRAMP mice by Dietary Botanicals for Chemoprevention of Prostate Cancer