Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vulnerability Analysis and Consequences of False Data Injection Attack on Power System State Estimation

An unobservable false data injection (FDI) attack on AC state estimation (SE) is introduced and its consequences on the physical system are studied. With a focus on understanding the physical consequences of FDI attacks, a bi-level optimization problem is introduced whose objective is to maximize the physical line flows subsequent to an FDI attack on DC SE. The maximization is subject to constraints on both attacker resources (size of attack) and attack detection (limiting load shifts) as well as those required by DC optimal power flow (OPF) following SE. The resulting attacks are tested on a more realistic non-linear system model using AC state estimation and ACOPF, and it is shown that, with an appropriately chosen sub-network, the attacker can overload transmission lines with moderate shifts of load.
Rent seeking games with tax evasion

We consider the static and dynamic models of Cournot duopoly with tax evasion. In the dynamic model we introduce the time delay and we analyze the local stability of the stationary state. There is a critical value of the delay when the Hopf bifurcation occurs. Mathematics Subject Classification: 34K18, 47N10; Jel Classification: C61, C62, H26
Error Assessment of Robot Soccer Imaging System

Position and angle errors are an obstacle to accurate, high-speed control of micro-robots in a robot soccer system. Systematic errors resulting from constraints on the global imaging system are identified, and their magnitude estimated. A full calibration procedure is proposed to minimise these errors that only uses information available from the soccer field. This calibration method has a residual error of 1.75 mm, or 0.3 pixel, and may be applied in real-time with negligible additional computational expense.
An investigation into utilising gestational body mass index as a screening tool for adverse birth outcomes and maternal morbidities in a group of pregnant women in Khayelitsha

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of the gestational body mass index (BMI) method to screen for adverse birth outcomes and maternal morbidities. Design: This was a substudy of a randomised controlled trial, the Philani Mentor Mothers’ study. Setting and subjects: The Philani Mentor Mothers’ study took place in a peri-urban settlement, Khayelitsha, between 2009 and 2010. Pregnant women living in the area in 2009-2010 were recruited for the study. Outcome measures: Maternal anthropometry (height and weight) and gestational weeks were obtained at baseline to calculate the gestational BMI, which is maternal BMI adjusted for gestational age. Participants were classified into four gestational BMI categories: underweight, normal, overweight and obese. Birth outcomes and maternal morbidities were obtained from clinic cards after the births. Results: Pregnant women were recruited into the study (n = 1 058). Significant differences were found between the different gestational BMI categories and the following birth outcomes: maternal (p-value = 0.019) infant hospital stay (p-value = 0.03), infants staying for over 24 hours in hospital (p-value = 0.001), delivery mode (p-value = 0.001), birthweight (p-value = 0.006), birth length (p-value = 0.007), birth head circumference (p-value = 0.007) and pregnancy-induced hypertension (p-value = 0.001). Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that has used the gestational BMI method in a peri-urban South African pregnant population. Based on the findings that this method is able to identify unfavourable birth outcomes, it is recommended that it is implemented as a pilot study in selected rural, peri-urban and urban primary health clinics, and that its ease and effectiveness as a screening tool is evaluated. Appropriate medical and nutritional advice can then be given to pregnant women to improve both their own and their infants’ birth-related outcomes and maternal morbidities.
Efficient learning for spoken language understanding tasks with word embedding based pre-training

Spoken language understanding (SLU) tasks such as goal estimation and intention identiﬁ-cation from user’s commands are essential components in spoken dialog systems. In recent years, neural network approaches have shown great success in various SLU tasks. However, one major diﬃculty of SLU is that the annotation of collected data can be expensive. Often this results in insuﬃcient data being available for a task. The performance of a neural network trained in low resource conditions is usually inferior because of over-training. To improve the performance, this paper investigates the use of unsupervised training methods with large-scale corpora based on word embedding and latent topic models to pre-train the SLU networks. In order to capture long-term characteristics over the entire dialog, we pro-pose a novel Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) architecture. The proposed RNN uses two sub-networks to model the diﬀerent time scales represented by word and turn sequences. The combination of pre-training and RNN gives us a 18% relative error reduction compared to a baseline system
Parallel implementation of local derivative pattern algorithm for fast image retrieval

The advancements in the field of internet and cloud computing has resulted in a huge amount of multimedia data and processing of this data have become more complex and computationally intensive. As a result, it has become very challenging for image retrieval algorithms to efficiently extract useful information from these data. Local Derivative Pattern (LDP) is a higher order local pattern operator used for image retrieval. Originally proposed for face recognition, LDP encodes the distinctive spatial relationships contained in a local region of an image as the feature vector. However LDP results in a very large feature vector thereby becoming computationally very expensive. In this paper, we propose efficient techniques for extracting parallelism from LDP algorithm and propose strategies for implementing it on GPGPUs. We show that with the optimal configuration of GPGPU kernels we can perform image retrieval at a much faster rate that would facilitate improved performance for image retrieval applications. We show that by porting LDP algorithm on CUDA a speedup of the order of 36X can be achieved as compared to its sequential counterpart for images having resolution of 192×192, 256×256 and 512×512 pixels.
Invasion of Human Coronary Artery Cells by Periodontal Pathogens

ABSTRACT There is an emerging paradigm shift from coronary heart disease having a purely hereditary and nutritional causation to possibly having an infectious etiology. Recent epidemiological studies have shown a correlation between periodontal disease and coronary heart disease. However, to date, there is minimal information as to the possible disease mechanisms of this association. It is our hypothesis that invasion of the coronary artery cells by oral bacteria may start and/or exacerbate the inflammatory response in atherosclerosis. Since a few periodontal pathogens have been reported to invade oral epithelial tissues, we tested the ability of three putative periodontal pathogens—Eikenella corrodens, Porphyromonas gingivalis, and Prevotella intermedia—to invade human coronary artery endothelial cells and coronary artery smooth muscle cells. In this study we demonstrate by an antibiotic protection assay and electron microscopy that specific species and strains invade coronary artery cells at a significant level. Actin polymerization and eukaryotic protein synthesis in metabolically active cells were required since the corresponding inhibitors nearly abrogated invasion. Many intracellular P. gingivalis organisms were seen to be present in multimembranous vacuoles resembling autophagosomes by morphological analysis. This is the first report of oral microorganisms invading human primary cell cultures of the vasculature.
Expression of a Mitochondrial Peroxiredoxin Prevents Programmed Cell Death in Leishmania donovani

ABSTRACT Leishmania promastigote cells transmitted by the insect vector get phagocytosed by macrophages and convert into the amastigote form. During development and transformation, the parasites are exposed to various concentrations of reactive oxygen species, which can induce programmed cell death (PCD). We show that a mitochondrial peroxiredoxin (LdmPrx) protects Leishmania donovani from PCD. Whereas this peroxiredoxin is restricted to the kinetoplast area in promastigotes, it covers the entire mitochondrion in amastigotes, accompanied by dramatically increased expression. A similar change in the expression pattern was observed during the growth of Leishmania from the early to the late logarithmic phase. Recombinant LdmPrx shows typical peroxiredoxin-like enzyme activity. It is able to detoxify organic and inorganic peroxides and prevents DNA from hydroxyl radical-induced damage. Most notably, Leishmania parasites overexpressing this peroxiredoxin are protected from hydrogen peroxide-induced PCD. This protection is also seen in promastigotes grown to the late logarithmic phase, also characterized by high expression of this peroxiredoxin. Apparently, the physiological role of this peroxiredoxin is stabilization of the mitochondrial membrane potential and, as a consequence, inhibition of PCD through removal of peroxides.
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 Integrating Structure-from-motion Photogrammetry with Geospatial Software as a Novel Technique for Quantifying 3d Ecological Characteristics of Coral Reefs

The structural complexity of coral reefs plays a major role in the biodiversity, productivity, and overall functionality of reef ecosystems. Conventional metrics with 2-dimensional properties are inadequate for characterization of reef structural complexity. A 3-dimensional (3D) approach can better quantify topography, rugosity and other structural characteristics that play an important role in the ecology of coral reef communities. Structure-from-Motion (SfM) is an emerging low-cost photogrammetric method for high-resolution 3D topographic reconstruction. This study utilized SfM 3D reconstruction software tools to create textured mesh models of a reef at French Frigate Shoals, an atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The reconstructed orthophoto and digital elevation model were then integrated with geospatial software in order to quantify metrics pertaining to 3D complexity. The resulting data provided high-resolution physical properties of coral colonies that were then combined with live cover to accurately characterize the reef as a living structure. The 3D reconstruction of reef structure and complexity can be integrated with other physiological and ecological parameters in future research to develop reliable ecosystem models and improve capacity to monitor changes in the health and function of coral reef ecosystems.
Analysis of reflectance spectra of UV-absorbing aerosol scenes measured by SCIAMACHY

[1] Reflectance spectra from 280–1750 nm of typical desert dust aerosol (DDA) and biomass burning aerosol (BBA) scenes over oceans are presented, measured by the space-borne spectrometer Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY). DDA and BBA are both UV-absorbing aerosols, but their effect on the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance is different due to differences in the way mineral aerosols and smoke reflect and absorb radiation. Mineral aerosols are typically large, inert particles, found in warm, dry continental air. Smoke particles, on the other hand, are usually small particles, although often clustered, chemically very active and highly variable in composition. Moreover, BBA are hygroscopic and over oceans BBA were invariably found in cloudy scenes. TOA reflectance spectra of typical DDA and BBA scenes were analyzed, using radiative transfer simulations, and compared. The DDA spectrum was successfully simulated using a layer with a bimodal size distribution of mineral aerosols in a clear sky. The spectrum of the BBA scene, however, was determined by the interaction between cloud droplets and smoke particles, as is shown by simulations with a model of separate aerosol and cloud layers and models with internally and externally mixed aerosol/cloud layers. The occurrence of clouds in smoke scenes when sufficient water vapor is present usually prevents the detection of optical properties of these aerosol plumes using space-borne sensors. However, the Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI), a UV color index, is not sensitive to scattering aerosols and clouds and can be used to detect these otherwise obscured aerosol plumes over clouds. The amount of absorption of radiation can be expressed using the absorption optical thickness. The absorption optical thickness in the DDA case was 0.42 (340 nm) and 0.14 (550 nm) for an aerosol layer of optical thickness 1.74 (550 nm). In the BBA case the absorption optical thickness was 0.18 (340 nm) and 0.10 (550 nm) for an aerosol/cloud layer of optical thickness 20.0 (550 nm). However, this reduced the cloud albedo by about 0.2 (340 nm) and 0.15 (550 nm). This method can be an important tool to estimate the global impact of absorption of shortwave radiation by smoke and industrial aerosols inside clouds.
Ultrasound elastography in the head and neck. Part I. Basic principles and practical aspects

Abstract Ultrasound elastography (USE) is a rapidly developing field of imaging that measures and displays tissue elasticity or stiffness properties using ultrasound. In recent years, real-time USE modes have appeared on commercially available clinical ultrasound machines, stimulating an explosion of research into potential oncologic and non-oncologic clinical applications of USE. Preliminary evidence suggests that USE can differentiate benign and malignant conditions accurately in several different tissues. This article presents an overview of the basic principles of different USE technologies that are currently under investigation in the head and neck region. In addition, more practical aspects pertaining to the optimal performance of USE at this site are discussed.
SWOT analysis of the marketing of badminton premier league of Islamic Republic of Iran

espanolEl presente estudio tuvo como objetivo el analisis DAFO de la comercializacion de la liga Premier de badminton. Fue un estudio descrip- tivo-analitico. La poblacion estadistica incluyo 120 individuos que fueron expertos, reporteros, entrenadores y supervisores y vicepresidentes de las juntas provinciales, entre los cuales se seleccionaron 92 individuos como la muestra del estudio mediante un metodo de muestreo aleatorio estrati- ficado. La recoleccion de datos se llevo a cabo utilizando un cuestionario DAFO disenado por un investigador que fue confirmado por 10 expertos universitarios y academicos. La confiabilidad del cuestionario se confirmo en base a un estudio primario en 30 individuos (alfa de Cronbach α = 0,88). Los resultados indicaron que la comercializacion del badminton de prime- ra division tuvo 10 puntos fuertes, 10 puntos debiles y 10 amenazas, y se recomienda que se utilicen las oportunidades para convertir las amenazas en oportunidades y las debilidades en fortalezas para tener una liga mas dinamica. EnglishThe present study was aimed at SWOT analysis of the marke- ting of badminton premier league. It was a descriptive-analytical study. The statistical population included 120 individuals who were experts, repor- ters, coaches and supervisors, and vice-presidents of the provincial boards among whom 92 individuals were selected as the study sample by a stra- tified random sampling method. Data collection was carried out using a researcher-designed SWOT questionnaire that was confirmed by 10 university and academic experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed based on a primary study on 30 individuals (Cronbach’s Alpha α=0.88). The results indicated that marketing of badminton premier league had 10 strengths, 10 weaknesses, and 10 threats, and it is recommended that opportunities should be utilized to turn threats to opportunity and weaknesses to strengths in order to have a more dynamic league.
Quantitative Normative Gait Data in a Large Cohort of Ambulatory Persons with Parkinson’s Disease

Background Gait performance is widely evaluated to assess health status in older adult populations. While several investigators have presented normative values for spatiotemporal gait parameters drawn from older adult populations, the literature has been void of large-scale cohort studies, which are needed in order to provide quantitative, normative gait data in persons with Parkinson’s disease. The aim of this investigation was to provide reference values for clinically important gait characteristics in a large sample of ambulatory persons with Parkinson’s disease to aid both clinicians and researchers in their evaluations and treatments of gait impairment. Methodology/Principal Findings Gait performance was collected in 310 individuals with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease as they walked across a pressure sensitive walkway. Fourteen quantitative gait parameters were measured and evaluated with respect to Hoehn and Yahr disease staging and gender. Disease duration and age were controlled for in all analyses. Individuals with the greatest Parkinson’s disability walked significantly slower with shorter steps and stride lengths than the mild and moderately affected groups. Further, the most affected patients spent more time with both feet on the ground, and walked with a wider base of support than the moderately disabled patients. No differences were detected between the mild and moderate disability groups on any of the gait parameters evaluated. Conclusions/Significance Reference values for 14 gait parameters in a large cohort of ambulatory patients with Parkinson’s disease are provided and these may be highly useful for assessing and interpreting an individual’s gait dysfunction. It is important for clinicians and researchers to appreciate the lack of change in quantitative parameters as PD patients move from mild to moderate gait impairment.
Disruption management for complicated operation systems: A model study on CTC in 2006

The disruption management of China Telecom Corporation (CTC) in 2006 is firstly reinvestigated. Interestingly, similar practices are found in other complicated operation systems, such as communication system, refinery and semiconductor fab when their critical capacities are injured by earthquake, fire, intentional attack et al. In this paper, a mathematical model is presented to describe the actions after disruption: injured capacity could be restored in a multiple period and shortage capacity could be acquired (or supported) from capacity-sharing partners in regular and expedite support modes. And the risk attitude of decision maker is considered as another important factor in this model. The model is proved to be convex in a loss function which means a minimum loss could be promised. Finally, a genetic algorithm is used to sensitive analysis towards some key parameters, and 3 interesting managerial insights are obtained.
A New Foundation of Economic Theory and its Application to Trade Analysis

In the last two decades, a lot of models have been developed about the new trade theory. The work by Avinash Dixit and Joseph Stiglitz (1977) is often credited as the crucial innovation that made the new trade theory possible. In Dixit and Stiglitz (1977) and later works, models of production costs involve fixed costs and variable costs, which makes economy of scale easy to understand. In these models, fixed costs and variable costs are independent constants. Although it is intuitively clear that a production system with higher fixed cost generally have lower variable costs, a lack of analytical theories make it difficult to implement this intuition. In this chapter, we propose an economic theory based on the foundation of thermodynamics. From this new foundation, we develop an analytical theory to obtain a formula that explicitly representing the relation of fixed costs, variable costs and the uncertainty of the environment, which is the core concern in most economic decisions. It enables us to make detailed comparison of returns of systems with different fixed costs in different kinds of markets. It offers a clear understanding on why countries at different stages of development will adopt different trade policies. This understanding is highly consistent with the historical patterns that all latecomers that emerged into industrial powers, such as USA, adopted protectionist policies in the period of takeoff and shifted to free trade policy to access larger market for their products after their industries became highly competitive. This theory also shows that patterns in trade are intrinsically linked to migration restriction and explains why the current trade and migration system is not sustainable over the long term.
2012 American College of Rheumatology guidelines for management of gout. Part 1: Systematic nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic therapeutic approaches to hyperuricemia

DINESH KHANNA, JOHN D. FITZGERALD, PUJA P. KHANNA, SANGMEE BAE, MANJIT K. SINGH, TUHINA NEOGI, MICHAEL H. PILLINGER, JOAN MERILL, SUSAN LEE, SHRADDHA PRAKASH, MARIAN KALDAS, MANEESH GOGIA, FERNANDO PEREZ-RUIZ, WILL TAYLOR, FREDERIC LIOTE, HYON CHOI, JASVINDER A. SINGH, NICOLA DALBETH, SANFORD KAPLAN, VANDANA NIYYAR, DANIELLE JONES, STEVEN A. YAROWS, BLAKE ROESSLER, GAIL KERR, CHARLES KING, GERALD LEVY, DANIEL E. FURST, N. LAWRENCE EDWARDS, BRIAN MANDELL, H. RALPH SCHUMACHER, MARK ROBBINS, NEIL WENGER, AND ROBERT TERKELTAUB
Exome Sequencing Identifies a Mutation in EYA4 as a Novel Cause of Autosomal Dominant Non-Syndromic Hearing Loss

Autosomal dominant non-syndromic hearing loss is highly heterogeneous, and eyes absent 4 (EYA4) is a disease-causing gene. Most EYA4 mutations founded in the Eya-homologous region, however, no deafness causative missense mutation in variable region of EYA4 have previously been found. In this study, we identified a pathogenic missense mutation located in the variable region of the EYA4 gene for the first time in a four-generation Chinese family with 57 members. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed on samples from one unaffected and two affected individuals to systematically search for deafness susceptibility genes, and the candidate mutations and the co-segregation of the phenotype were verified by polymerase chain reaction amplification and by Sanger sequencing in all of the family members. Then, we identified a novel EYA4 mutation in exon 8, c.511G>C; p.G171R, which segregated with postlingual and progressive autosomal dominant sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). This report is the first to describe a missense mutation in the variable region domain of the EYA4 gene, which is not highly conserved in many species, indicating that the potential unconserved role of 171G>R in human EYA4 function is extremely important.
Subgraph Queries by Context-free Grammars

Summary We describe a method for querying vertex- and edge-labeled graphs using context-free grammars to specify the class of interesting paths. We introduce a novel problem, finding the connection subgraph induced by the set of matching paths between given two vertices or two sets of vertices. Such a subgraph provides a concise summary of the relationship between the vertices. We also present novel algorithms for parsing subgraphs directly without enumerating all the individual paths. We evaluate experimentally the presented parsing algorithms on a set of real graphs derived from publicly available biomedical databases and on randomly generated graphs. The results indicate that parsing the connection subgraph directly is much more effective than parsing individual paths separately. Furthermore, we show that using a bidirectional parsing algorithm, in most cases, allows for searching twice as long paths as using a unidirectional search strategy.