Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Praxiologia motriz: novas proposições para o treinamento dos jogos esportivos coletivos

O processo de treinamento dos Jogos Esportivos Coletivos (JECs) vem sofrendo críticas pela forma como é materializado, pois o treinador nem sempre possui argumentos e métodos de ensino que condizem com o que vem sendo defendido na bibliografia científica. Ainda se percebe um treinamento descontextualizado da lógica do jogo, acreditando que o aperfeiçoamento técnico irá suprir todos os elementos que compõem os JECs. Em contrapartida, a praxiologia motriz apresenta-se como uma importante teoria que poderá nortear a prática pedagógica do treinador, na qual sistematiza a lógica interna dessas modalidades. Assim, realizou-se uma pesquisa bibliográfica e exploratória que objetivou analisar as implicações dos conceitos da praxiologia motriz no processo de treinamento dos JECs. A partir da praxiologia motriz e de seus elementos, apresentaram-se novos pressupostos para o treinamento com o intuito de auxiliar os treinadores a materializar sua prática pedagógica na busca por um desempenho mais eficaz neste processo.
Semi-Blind Equalization for OFDM using Space-Time Block Coding and Channel Shortening Final Report Multidimensional Digital Signal Processing Spring 2008

Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications has become a stalwart in high speed communication systems. By using multiple antennas along with space-time coding, one can leverage spatial diversity gain, or multiple propagation paths, for transmitted signals. This in turn can improve reliability in communication systems. Channel shortening is necessary when the channel impulse response is longer than the cyclic prefix (CP) in a multi-carrier modulation scheme. This precludes low complexity signal recovery, also known as equalization, in the frequency domain. Equalization at the receiver can only be achieved by properly estimating the channel. While known symbols can be transmitted in order to achieve channel shortening and estimation, frequently sending out these pilot symbols may consume precious bandwidth. As an alternative, semi-blind approaches, which use known symbol structure and limited pilot symbols, have been receiving more attention. We propose a cascaded receiver design, which first performs channel shortening with a blind algorithm, using only the structure of the CP, developed by Martin et al. in [1]. The receiver then estimates the channel using a semi-blind technique [2], and uses the resulting channel estimate to perform frequency domain equalization. In this paper, we evaluate the combination of a blind channel shortening algorithm and semiblind channel estimation in a linearly precoded space-time (ST) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system.
A DATA DISSEMINATION MODEL FOR VEHICULAR ADHOC NETWORK

Vehicular adhoc network (VANET) is an emerging network which is depend on the communication of data through vehicular network via data pushing. Data pushing in between the vehicles was done by the data pushing communication model. In this paper, we present a formal model of data dissemination in between the vehicles by the mobility of vehicles and describe also the affects of data dissemination and study their characteristics which define the mobility if data dissemination in bidirectional mobility, we also study the data push model in the context of Traffic View, a system that we have implemented to disseminate information about the vehicles on the road. Traffic data could be disseminated using the cars moving on the same direction, cars moving in the opposite direction, or cars moving in both directions.
Effects of Alcohol in the Lung

Alcohol abuse is a systemic disorder and increases the risk of lung injury. After ingestion, alcohol freely diffuses from the bronchial circulation directly through the ciliated epithelium where it vaporizes as it moves into the conducting airways. Some of vaporized alcohol can deposit back into the airway lining fluid and results in repeated exposure of the airway epithelium to high local concentrations of alcohol. Chronic alcohol ingestion is associated with increased renin-angiotensin system, induces oxidative stress through angiotensin (Ang) II stimulated NADPH oxidase expression and activity, and superoxide production. Alcohol metabolism within the lung through the cytochrome P 450 system may also be sufficient to exert significant oxidative stress. Alcohol inhibits the expression of GM-CSF and impairs immune system. Chronic ingestion of ethanol altered cellular functions and viability such as decreased surfactant processing, decreased barrier integrity, increased sensitivity to cytotoxin-induced apoptosis in vitro and in vivo in alveolar type II cells, and decreased phagocytosis of microorganisms in alveolar macrophages. The lung becomes more susceptible when a second hit such as sepsis occurs. Though dietary supplementation with glutathione precursors or selective Ang II type 2 receptor inhibition limits lung injury in animal model, the most attractive candidate for treating the alcoholic lung in the acute setting is recombinant GM-CSF. Whether any of these therapeutic strategies will prove to be effective in decreasing the consequences of alcohol abuse on acute pulmonary diseases is at present unknown.
Speech Dereverberation by Combining Mint-Based Blind Deconvolution and Modified Spectral Subtraction

A dereverberation technique is developed to provide an alternative means of reducing reverberation in speech signals. The conventional MINT (the multiple-input/output inverse-filtering theorem) method uses the room impulse responses to calculate the inverse filters, so it cannot recover speech signals in practice, where the room impulse responses are unknown in advance. Our method blindly estimates the inverse filters by computing the correlation matrix between input signals that can be observed, instead of room impulse responses. We also combine the inverse filtering with modified spectral subtraction against the estimation error of inverse filters used in the field. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated using actual room impulse responses
COGRE: A Configuration Memory Reduced Reconfigurable Logic Cell Architecture for Area Minimization

Because of the redundancy factors of FPGAs, there is a performance gap between FPGAs and ASICs. In this paper, we propose a small-memory logic cell, COGRE, to minimize the FPGA area. Our approach is to investigate the appearance ratio of the logic functions in a circuit implementation. Moreover, we group the logic functions on the basis of the NPN-equivalence class. The results of our investigation show that only small portions of the NPN-equivalence class can cover large portions of the logic functions used to implement circuits. Further, we found that NPN-equivalence classes with a high appearance ratio can be implemented by using a small number of AND gates, OR gates, and NOT gates. On the basis of this observation, we develop 5-input and 6-inputCOGRE architectures composed of several NAND gates and programmable inverters. The experimental results show that the logic area in 6-COGRE is 46.3% smaller than that in 6-LUT. The logic area of 5-COGRE is 32.6% smaller than that of 5-LUT and 10.0% smaller than that of 4-LUT. Further, the total number of configuration memory bits in 6-COGRE is32.1% smaller than the number of configuration memory bits in 6-LUT.
DC-SIGN Is the Major Mycobacterium tuberculosis Receptor on Human Dendritic Cells

Early interactions between lung dendritic cells (LDCs) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiological agent of tuberculosis, are thought to be critical for mounting a protective anti-mycobacterial immune response and for determining the outcome of infection. However, these interactions are poorly understood, at least at the molecular level. Here we show that M. tuberculosis enters human monocyte-derived DCs after binding to the recently identified lectin DC-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-3 grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN). By contrast, complement receptor (CR)3 and mannose receptor (MR), which are the main M. tuberculosis receptors on macrophages (Mφs), appeared to play a minor role, if any, in mycobacterial binding to DCs. The mycobacteria-specific lipoglycan lipoarabinomannan (LAM) was identified as a key ligand of DC-SIGN. Freshly isolated human LDCs were found to express DC-SIGN, and M. tuberculosis–derived material was detected in CD14−HLA-DR+DC-SIGN+ cells in lymph nodes (LNs) from patients with tuberculosis. Thus, as for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which is captured by the same receptor, DC-SIGN–mediated entry of M. tuberculosis in DCs in vivo is likely to influence bacterial persistence and host immunity.
Toll Cordon Design

Pricing is one of the best tools to improve the efficiency of highly congested transportation networks. It has been shown that an optimal toll pattern can be determined by applying the welfare-economics principle of marginal pricing. Because implementing the marginal pricing solution to the toll optimization problem requires charging each arc of the network any real valued toll, which is not realistic, then it is worth addressing the problem with reference to specific pricing schemes. This paper discusses the case where the use of private vehicles traveling into a distinct area of the city are charged tolls. The aim of the work is to define a methodology capable of determining the optimal shape of the cordon delimiting such a charged-access area, while the toll is assumed to be given and constant.
Using SRAM Based FPGAs for Power-Aware High Performance Wireless Sensor Networks

While for years traditional wireless sensor nodes have been based on ultra-low power microcontrollers with sufficient but limited computing power, the complexity and number of tasks of today’s applications are constantly increasing. Increasing the node duty cycle is not feasible in all cases, so in many cases more computing power is required. This extra computing power may be achieved by either more powerful microcontrollers, though more power consumption or, in general, any solution capable of accelerating task execution. At this point, the use of hardware based, and in particular FPGA solutions, might appear as a candidate technology, since though power use is higher compared with lower power devices, execution time is reduced, so energy could be reduced overall. In order to demonstrate this, an innovative WSN node architecture is proposed. This architecture is based on a high performance high capacity state-of-the-art FPGA, which combines the advantages of the intrinsic acceleration provided by the parallelism of hardware devices, the use of partial reconfiguration capabilities, as well as a careful power-aware management system, to show that energy savings for certain higher-end applications can be achieved. Finally, comprehensive tests have been done to validate the platform in terms of performance and power consumption, to proof that better energy efficiency compared to processor based solutions can be achieved, for instance, when encryption is imposed by the application requirements.
Hopf decomposition and horospheric limit sets

By looking at the relationship between the recurrence properties of a countable group action with a quasi-invariant measure and the structure of its ergodic components we establish a simple general description of the Hopf decomposition of the action into the conservative and the dissipative parts in terms of the Radon--Nikodym derivatives of the action. As an application we prove that the conservative part of the boundary action of a discrete group of isometries of a Gromov hyperbolic space with respect to any invariant quasi-conformal stream coincides (mod 0) with the big horospheric limit set of the group.
Energy economy gait analysis of an autoadaptive prosthetic knee

For trans-femoral amputees the energy expenditure required for ambulation is significantly greater than that required for non-amputated individuals. The Leg Laboratory at MIT, in conjunction with Ossur, has developed an autoadaptive, electronic, magnetorheological (MR) prosthetic knee (Rheo) to address this problem. Unlike currently available prosthetic knee technologies that utilize hydraulic valves, the Rheo controls knee damping by adjusting magnetic field strength through the modulation of electromagnetic current. A study at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital with eight established unilateral trans-femoral amputees was conducted to test the hypothesis that MR technology improves metabolic economy. The Rheo and the electronic, hydraulic based C-LEG were compared along three axes-metabolic cost, kinematics and kinetics, and muscle activity. A significant metabolic improvement using the Rheo was found, although evaluation of the speculated mechanisms for energy conservation was inconclusive. The results are encouraging in that the Rheo knee promises to enable unilateral trans-femoral amputees to lead more active lives.
Packer Detection for Multi-Layer Executables Using Entropy Analysis

Packing algorithms are broadly used to avoid anti-malware systems, and the proportion of packed malware has been growing rapidly. However, just a few studies have been conducted on detection various types of packing algorithms in a systemic way. Following this understanding, we elaborate a method to classify packing algorithms of a given executable into three categories: single-layer packing, re-packing, or multi-layer packing. We convert entropy values of the executable file loaded into memory into symbolic representations, for which we used SAX (Symbolic Aggregate Approximation). Based on experiments of 2196 programs and 19 packing algorithms, we identify that precision (97.7%), accuracy (97.5%), and recall ( 96.8%) of our method are respectively high to confirm that entropy analysis is applicable in identifying packing algorithms.
Rank As You Go: User-Driven Exploration of Search Results

Whenever users engage in gathering and organizing new information, searching and browsing activities emerge at the core of the exploration process. As the process unfolds and new knowledge is acquired, interest drifts occur inevitably and need to be accounted for. Despite the advances in retrieval and recommender algorithms, real-world interfaces have remained largely unchanged: results are delivered in a relevance-ranked list. However, it quickly becomes cumbersome to reorganize resources along new interests, as any new search brings new results. We introduce uRank and investigate interactive methods for understanding, refining and reorganizing documents on-the-fly as information needs evolve. uRank includes views summarizing the contents of a recommendation set and interactive methods conveying the role of users' interests through a recommendation ranking. A formal evaluation showed that gathering items relevant to a particular topic of interest with uRank incurs in lower cognitive load compared to a traditional ranked list. A second study consisting in an ecological validation reports on usage patterns and usability of the various interaction techniques within a free, more natural setting.
Do Scores on an Attention Test Predict Scores on Executive Function Tests?

Cognition encompasses many different abilities, including attention and executive functions. Yogev-Seligmann et al. [1] define attention as the ability to receive a stimulus and correctly respond to the stimulation. In essence, individuals orient and alert to stimuli [2,3] and decide if the focus should continue to be processed or ignored [4]. Several different types of attention exist including selective, divided, sustained, and alternating attention [2,5]. Selective attention is described as the ability to concentrate on a certain stimulus (e.g., auditory, visual) and suppress irrelevant factors [6,7]. Gaspelin Purpose: This study sought to determine if younger and older adults’ scores on the Attention Process Test predicted scores on the Behavioral Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome and Functional Assessment of Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies.
Improvement of Das's Two-Factor Authentication Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks

User authentication is essential for customized services and privileged access control in wireless sensor network. In 2009, Das proposed a novel two-factor authentication scheme for wireless sensor network, where a user must prove the possession of both a password and a smart card. His scheme is well-designed for sensor nodes which typically have limited resources in the sense that its authentication procedure requires no public key operations but it utilizes only cryptographic hash function. In this letter, we point out that Das’s protocol is vulnerable to an offline password guessing attack, and also show a countermeasure to overcome the vulnerability without sacrificing any efficiency and usability. Besides the patch, we suggest a method to protect query response messages from wireless a sensor node to a user, which is necessary in serving a user in a confidential and authentic way.
Zero-calibration BMIs for sequential tasks using error-related potentials

Do we need to explicitly calibrate Brain Machine Interfaces (BMIs)? Can we start controlling a device without telling this device how to interpret brain signals? Can we learn how to communicate with a human user through practical interaction? It sounds like an ill posed problem, how can we control a device if such device does not know what our signals mean? This paper argues and present empirical results showing that, under speciﬁc but realistic conditions, this problem can be solved. We show that a signal decoder can be learnt automatically and online by the system under the assumption that both, human and machine, share the same a priori on the possible signals' meanings and the possible tasks the user may want the device to achieve. We present results from online experiments on a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) and a Human Robot Interaction (HRI) scenario.
Identification and Functional Analysis of the erh1 + Gene Encoding Enhancer of Rudimentary Homolog from the Fission Yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The ERH gene encodes a highly conserved small nuclear protein with a unique amino acid sequence and three-dimensional structure but unknown function. The gene is present in animals, plants, and protists but to date has only been found in few fungi. Here we report that ERH homologs are also present in all four species from the genus Schizosaccharomyces, S. pombe, S. octosporus, S. cryophilus, and S. japonicus, which, however, are an exception in this respect among Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. The ERH protein sequence is moderately conserved within the genus (58% identity between S. pombe and S. japonicus), but the intron-rich genes have almost identical intron-exon organizations in all four species. In S. pombe, erh1+ is expressed at a roughly constant level during vegetative growth and adaptation to unfavorable conditions such as nutrient limitation and hyperosmotic stress caused by sorbitol. Erh1p localizes preferentially to the nucleus with the exception of the nucleolus, but is also present in the cytoplasm. Cells lacking erh1+ have an aberrant cell morphology and a comma-like shape when cultured to the stationary phase, and exhibit a delayed recovery from this phase followed by slower growth. Loss of erh1+ in an auxotrophic background results in enhanced arrest in the G1 phase following nutritional stress, and also leads to hypersensitivity to agents inducing hyperosmotic stress (sorbitol), inhibiting DNA replication (hydroxyurea), and destabilizing the plasma membrane (SDS); this hypersensitivity can be abolished by expression of S. pombe erh1+ and, to a lesser extent, S. japonicus erh1+ or human ERH. Erh1p fails to interact with the human Ciz1 and PDIP46/SKAR proteins, known molecular partners of human ERH. Our data suggest that in Schizosaccharomyces sp. erh1+ is non-essential for normal growth and Erh1p could play a role in response to adverse environmental conditions and in cell cycle regulation.
Evidence against a Beneficial Effect of Irisin in Humans

Brown adipose tissue has gained interest as a potential target to treat obesity and metabolic diseases. Irisin is a newly identified hormone secreted from skeletal muscle enhancing browning of white fat cells, which improves systemic metabolism by increasing energy expenditure in mice. The discovery of irisin raised expectations of its therapeutic potential to treat metabolic diseases. However, the effect of irisin in humans is unclear. Analyses of genomic DNA, mRNA and expressed sequence tags revealed that FNDC5, the gene encoding the precursor of irisin, is present in rodents and most primates, but shows in humans a mutation in the conserved start codon ATG to ATA. HEK293 cells transfected with a human FNDC5 construct with ATA as start codon resulted in only 1% full-length protein compared to human FNDC5 with ATG. Additionally, in vitro contraction of primary human myotubes by electrical pulse stimulation induced a significant increase in PGC1α mRNA expression. However, FNDC5 mRNA level was not altered. FNDC5 mRNA expression in muscle biopsies from two different human exercise studies was not changed by endurance or strength training. Preadipocytes isolated from human subcutaneous adipose tissue exhibited differentiation to brite human adipocytes when incubated with bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) 7, but neither recombinant FNDC5 nor irisin were effective. In conclusion, our findings suggest that it is rather unlikely that the beneficial effect of irisin observed in mice can be translated to humans.
Role for the Burkholderia pseudomallei Capsular Polysaccharide Encoded by the wcb Operon in Acute Disseminated Melioidosis

ABSTRACT The capsular polysaccharide of Burkholderia pseudomallei is an essential virulence determinant that is required for protection from host serum cidal activity and opsonophagocytosis. In this study, the immune response directed against a B. pseudomallei capsule mutant (JW270) was investigated in an acute respiratory murine model. JW270 was significantly attenuated in this model (∼2 logs) to levels resembling those of avirulent Burkholderia thailandensis. At lethal doses, JW270 colonized the lung, liver, and spleen at levels similar to the wild-type strain levels and was found to trigger reduced pathology in the liver and spleen. Several cytokine responses were altered in these tissues, and importantly, the levels of gamma interferon were reduced in the livers and spleens of JW270-infected mice but not in the lungs. These results suggest that the capsular polysaccharide of B. pseudomallei is a critical virulence determinant in respiratory tract infections and that it is an important antigen for generating the Th1 immune response commonly observed in systemic melioidosis. Furthermore, the data suggest that host recognition of B. pseudomallei capsular polysaccharide in the lungs may not be as important to the disease outcome as the innate immune response in the peripheral organs.