Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Refining binned aggregation of unevenly spaced, real-time data for visualisation and control

The resource constrained environment in South Africa has led to an increased interest in the monitoring and control of electricity demand. The associated proliferation of smart meters/sensors and the collection of their data allows for monitoring and control of demand on a much wider scale than previously possible. A homeowner, business or utility may now make use of real-time data to track and control their electricity demand with potentially widespread economic effect. We examine the characteristics that a system must exhibit to excel at high volume, low latency real-time data stream processing to support such applications. A robust, scalable and fast method for real-time processing of streamed electricity demand data is suggested. This method also addresses the problems associated with developing countries in that the data received are sometimes inconsistent, unevenly spaced and interrupted. Processing these unevenly spaced data for visualisation is an important requirement in order for users to more easily understand and analyse their usage trends. Binned aggregation is explored as an effective strategy for minimizing the negative effects of inconsistent data of different frequencies. It is also used to reduce the data to manageable dimension, while real-time processing determines where and how to use the data. A sensor's data are stored in several rolling arrays of differing size that represent different time-frames. We keep the most detailed information for the current time-frame. The format chosen allows for data reduction yet allows redundant data to contribute to the model and refine the aggregation. The reduced amount of data stored allows fast retrieval of those data for visual display and analysis and improved scalability.
On the origin of nonexponential fluorescence decay in tryptophan and its derivatives

The nonexponential fluorescence decay of tryptophan and its derivatives is discussed in terms of a simple model based on conformers about the Ca-CB bond and the relative rates of charge transfer from indole to various electrophiles. Accurate predictions concerning the relative fluorescence lifetimes and the form of the fluorescence decay law are made for tryptophan and 17 of its derivatives, including three new derivatives synthesized specifically to test the model.
A Survey on the Privacy Preserving Algorithm of Association Rule Mining

We provide an overview of privacy preserving association rule mining, which is one of the most popular pattern-discovery methods in the new and rapidly emerging research area of privacy preserving data mining. Various proposals and algorithms have been designed for it in recent years. In this paper, we summarize them and survey current existing techniques, and analyze their advantage and disadvantage. We divide the proposals of privacy preserving association rule mining into three categories: heuristic-based techniques, reconstruction-based techniques, cryptography-based techniques. Then we give a simple review of the work accomplished. Finally, we conclude further research directions of privacy preserving algorithms of association rule mining by analyzing the existing work.
Verification and simulation of a discrete energy function based nonlinear controller for an AC/DC boost PFC converter

The conventional two loops PI control system of a Power Factor Correction (PFC) boost converter has a slow dynamic response against load variations due to the fact that the voltage loop must have a very low bandwidth in order to avoid distortions in the input current waveform. To allow the ac/dc boost PFC converter to operate with faster dynamic response and simultaneously maintain near unity input power factor, a new control approach that is based on a novel discrete energy function minimization control law has been proposed. To evaluate the performance of the new control approach, a simulation of a 6.4 kW PFC boost converter was conducted with Simulink and PLECS. Difficulties and potential flaws in control system implementation were discussed. Finally, a new method to synthesize load resistance and reference input current was proposed based on the result of simulation. Results show that the duration of transients can be limited to 2~3 line cycles and the overshoot/undershoot of the output voltage can be limited to several volts when there is a load change.
Newborn Screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism

Newborn screening (NS) for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is one of the major achievements in preventive medicine. Most neonates born with CH have normal appearance and no detectable physical signs. Hypothyroidism in the newborn period is almost always overlooked, and delayed diagnosis leads to the most severe outcome of CH, mental retardation, emphasizing the importance of NS. Blood spot thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) or thyroxine (T4) or both can be used for CH screening. The latter is more sensitive but not cost-effective, so screening by TSH or T4 is used in different programs around the world. TSH screening was shown to be more specific in the diagnosis of CH. T4 screening is more sensitive in detecting especially those newborns with rare hypothalamic-pituitary-hypothyroidism, but it is less specific with a high frequency of false positives mainly in low birth weight and premature infants. The time at which the sample is taken may vary. In the majority of the centers, blood is obtained from a heel prick after 24 hours of age to minimize the false positive high TSH due to the physiological neonatal TSH surge that elevates TSH levels and causes dynamic T4 and T3 changes in the first 1 or 2 days after birth. Early discharge of mothers postpartum has increased the ratio of false positive TSH elevations. Although transient hypothyroidism may occur frequently, all these infants should be treated as having CH for the first 3 years of life, taking into account the risk of mental retardation. A reevaluation after 3 years is needed in such patients. The goal of initial therapy in CH is to minimize neonatal central nervous system exposure to hypothyroidism by normalizing thyroid function, as rapidly as possible. Conflict of interest:None declared.
Chain Stability in Trading Networks

We consider general trading networks with bilateral contracts. We show that a suitably adapted chain stability concept is equivalent to stability if all agents' preferences are jointly fully substitutable and satisfy the Laws of Aggregate Supply and Demand (a condition we call monotone - substitutability). We also present three examples to show that are results are sharp, demonstrating that: If preferences of some agents do not satisfy the Laws of Aggregate Supply and Demand, then chain stable outcomes may not be stable. " If preferences of some agents are not fully substitutable, then chain stable outcomes may likewise not be stable. " If blocking sets are restricted to chains that do not "cross" themselves (i.e., chains that involve each agent in at most two contracts), then an outcome that is robust to such blocks may not be robust to richer blocks. Our results imply that in trading networks with transferable utility, an outcome is consistent with competitive equilibrium if and only if it is not blocked by any chain of contracts. We show moreover that, from a computational perspective, checking whether an outcome is chain stable is substantially easier than checking whether that outcome is stable directly. Indeed, we show that as the size of the economy grows, the number of chains of trades (corresponding to possible blocking chains) becomes infinitely smaller than the number of general sets of trades (corresponding to possible blocking sets).
An Improved and Efficient Tool for Analyzing Industrial Security Protocols

Formal methods and automatic tools are always necessary for analyzing security protocols, and model checking has become a hot spot of research for its ability of verifying finite-state concurrent system automatically. In this paper, we propose a model of security protocols based on MSR (multi-set rewriting), coupled with PLTL describing security properties. Based on the model, a series of key automatic analysis algorithms close to the implementation are designed for our own tool. By using the tool, we illustrate the method’s effectiveness with some typical protocols and give the experimental results.
Integrated Modeling of Software Product Lines with Feature Models and Classification Trees

Software Product Lines (SPLs) are an approach to improve reusability of software in a large number of products that share a common set of features. In SPLs, Feature Models (FMs) are frequently used to model commonalities and variabilities. However, according to the best of our knowledge, there are no approaches to automatically generate test cases on the basis of a stand-alone FM. We introduce a method, which fills this gap. In single system software testing, Classification Trees (CTs) are a proven approach for generating test cases derived from the original system specification. In this paper, we explore the relations and similarities between FMs and CTs and integrate both methods to a unified approach called Feature Model for Testing (FMT).
Performing sound flash device measurements: some lessons from uFLIP

It is amazingly easy to get meaningless results when measuring flash devices, partly because of the peculiarity of flash memory, but primarily because their behavior is determined by layers of complex, proprietary, and undocumented software and hardware. In this demonstration, we share the lessons we learnt developing the uFlip benchmark and conducting experiments with a wide range of flash devices. We illustrate the problems that are actual obstacles to sound performance and energy measurements, and we show how to mitigate the effects of these problems. We also present the uFlip web site and its on-line visualization tool that should help the research community investigate flash device behavior.
Implementation of RSA Algorithm Using SOPC Technology

In a highly connected world, security in networks is still a significant challenge for researchers. However, cryptographic algorithms are computationally intensive and a number of security schemes have recently emerged intended to overcome the limit processing and power resource. The processors used in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) embedded systems are known to have a modest performance. This paper presents an innovative system-on-a-programmable-chip (SOPC) based approach for the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) algorithms evaluation which is implemented on an Altera Cyclone II FPGA. As compared to traditional customize processor design, the proposed implementation of the RSA processor is believed to be low cost, more flexible.
High fructose corn syrup and diabetes prevalence: A global perspective

Abstract The overall aim of this study was to evaluate, from a global and ecological perspective, the relationships between availability of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Using published resources, country-level estimates (n =43 countries) were obtained for: total sugar, HFCS and total calorie availability, obesity, two separate prevalence estimates for diabetes, prevalence estimate for impaired glucose tolerance and fasting plasma glucose. Pearson's correlations and partial correlations were conducted in order to explore associations between dietary availability and obesity and diabetes prevalence. Diabetes prevalence was 20% higher in countries with higher availability of HFCS compared to countries with low availability, and these differences were retained or strengthened after adjusting for country-level estimates of body mass index (BMI), population and gross domestic product (adjusted diabetes prevalence=8.0 vs. 6.7%, p=0.03; fasting plasma glucose=5.34 vs. 5.22 mmol/L, p=0.03) despite similarities in obesity and total sugar and calorie availability. These results suggest that countries with higher availability of HFCS have a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes independent of obesity.
F0 contour and segmental duration modeling using prosodic features

This paper proposes a framework of F0 contour generation and segmental duration modeling for application in a unit-selection speech synthesis system for Polish – BOSS. We describe the design of the F0 and duration modeling modules and emphasize the role of prosodic features (related to stress, pitch accent and phrase) in these two tasks.
Foreign aid , urbanization and green cities

Rapid urbanization, and particularly the associated problems of urban poverty, unsustainable development and environmental degradation, pose an enormous challenge to many developing countries. In the last decade more foreign aid has been diverted to urbanization and green city development. This paper studies aid’s implementation strategies and effectiveness by investigating ‘what works in foreign aid on urbanization and green cities’, ‘what could work’, and ‘what is scalable and transferable in foreign aid on urbanization and green cities’. Three case studies are carried out: Tianjin City which was constructed according to a newly designed eco-city plan, Wenchuan and Beichuan which needed to be rebuilt after an earthquake, and Curitiba which rose from an existing city. The paper shows that a transferable and scalable aid framework which combines concerns related to poverty, environment and governance both at policy and implementation level is needed in order for aid to succeed in supporting developing countries’ urbanization and green city development.
Cardinality-constrained feature selection for classification

We are concerned with the selection of a small subset of characteristics for which the classification of a system according to one of the states in its state set is optimal according to the Rayleigh quotient criterion. This problem is relevant in various scenarios where a few explanatory variables have to be selected from a large set, including sensor selection in sensor networks, classification in image processing, and feature selection in data mining for bioinformatics applications. We show that the optimization is equivalent to finding the submatrix of the features covariance matrix for which the sum of elements of its inverse is maximized, and we present bounds related to a similar metric based on elements of the original covariance matrix.
Sensitivity to initial conditions at bifurcations in one-dimensional nonlinear maps: Rigorous nonextensive solutions

Using the Feigenbaum renormalization group (RG) transformation we work out exactly the dynamics and the sensitivity to initial conditions for unimodal maps of nonlinearity ζ > 1 at both their pitchfork and tangent bifurcations. These functions have the form of q-exponentials as proposed in Tsallis' generalization of statistical mechanics. We determine the q-indices that characterize these universality classes and perform for the first time the calculation of the q-generalized Lyapunov coefficient λq. The pitchfork and the left-hand side of the tangent bifurcations display weak insensitivity to initial conditions, while the right-hand side of the tangent bifurcations presents a super-strong (faster than exponential) sensitivity to initial conditions. We corroborate our analytical results with a priori numerical calculations.
First- and Second-Generation Migrants in German: What Do We Know and What Do People Think?

This Paper provides a snapshot of the stock of immigrants in Germany using the 1995 wave of the Mikrozensus, with a particular emphasis on distinguishing first- and second-generation migrants. On the basis of this portrait, we draw attention to the empirically most relevant groups of immigrants and review the received literature on economic migration research in the three principal avenues of migration research. The aspect that we concentrate on in our empirical application, the welfare dependence of immigrants, is a matter of intense debate among economists and policy makers. We contrast the very moderate actual public transfer payment dependence of migrants to Germany with the perception of migrants dependence on public assistance from Germans of various population strata.
Outer Membrane Vesicles from the Probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 and the Commensal ECOR12 Enter Intestinal Epithelial Cells via Clathrin-Dependent Endocytosis and Elicit Differential Effects on DNA Damage

Interactions between intestinal microbiota and the human host are complex. The gut mucosal surface is covered by a mucin layer that prevents bacteria from accessing the epithelial cells. Thus, the crosstalk between microbiota and the host mainly rely on secreted factors that can go through the mucus layer and reach the epithelium. In this context, vesicles released by commensal strains are seen as key players in signaling processes in the intestinal mucosa. Studies with Gram-negative pathogens showed that outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are internalized into the host cell by endocytosis, but the entry mechanism for microbiota-derived vesicles is unknown. Escherichia coli strains are found as part of normal human gut microbiota. In this work, we elucidate the pathway that mediate internalization of OMVs from the probiotic E.coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) and the commensal ECOR12 strains in several human intestinal epithelial cell lines. Time course measurement of fluorescence and microscopy analysis performed with rhodamine B-R18-labeled OMVs in the presence of endocytosis inhibitors showed that OMVs from these strains enter epithelial cells via clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Vesicles use the same endocytosis pathway in polarized epithelial monolayers. Internalized OMVs are sorted to lysosomal compartments as shown by their colocalization with clathrin and specific markers of endosomes and lysosomes. OMVs from both strains did not affect cell viability, but reduce proliferation of HT-29 cells. Labeling of 8-oxo-dG adducts in DNA revealed that neither OMVs from EcN nor from ECOR12 promoted oxidative DNA damage. In contrast, flow cytometry analysis of phosphorylated γH2AX evidenced that OMVs from the probiotic EcN significantly produced more double strand breaks in DNA than ECOR12 OMVs. The EcN genotoxic effects have been attributed to the synthesis of colibactin. However, it is not known how colibactin is exported and delivered into host cells. Whether colibactin is secreted via OMVs is an open question that needs further study.
ParaDB: a tool for paralogy mapping in vertebrate genomes

We present ParaDB (http://abi.marseille.inserm.fr/paradb/), a new database for large-scale paralogy studies in vertebrate genomes. We intended to collect all information (sequence, mapping and phylogenetic data) needed to map and detect new paralogous regions, previously defined as Paralogons. The AceDB database software was used to generate graphical objects and to organize data. General data were automatically collated from public sources (Ensembl, GadFly and RefSeq). ParaDB provides access to data derived from whole genome sequences (Homo sapiens, Mus musculus and Drosophila melanogaster): cDNA and protein sequences, positional information, bibliographical links. In addition, we provide BLAST results for each protein sequence, InParanoid orthologs and 'In-Paralogs' data, previously established paralogy data, and, to compare vertebrates and Drosophila, orthology data.
Comparing the Implications of Expanded Income-Based Measures of Living Standards with an Application to Older Australians

Abstract The standard of living of older people is a critical policy matter, given Australia's ageing population. Conventional living standard assessments continue to rely on disposable income as a defining indicator, despite it not encompassing the full range of potential consumption possibilities that affect an individual's economic living standard. This article proposes a series of three economic resource metrics that sequentially append the disposable income metric with the value of non-cash benefits and services arising from the receipt of public goods and/or services from home ownership in the form of a ‘full’ income metric, and then the inclusion of wealth in the form of two derived ‘potential consumption’ metrics. Using data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, the findings demonstrate that augmenting disposable income with income streams from non-cash services and annuitised wealth substantially improves the relative economic position of older Australians. It also highlights the heterogeneity in economic living standard outcomes for different demographic sub-groups of older people that would otherwise be drawn using a disposable income analytic lens. The article argues that an expanded economic resource perspective is necessary for informing ageing and social policy.
The Vibrio cholerae Minor Pilin TcpB Initiates Assembly and Retraction of the Toxin-Coregulated Pilus

Type IV pilus (T4P) systems are complex molecular machines that polymerize major pilin proteins into thin filaments displayed on bacterial surfaces. Pilus functions require rapid extension and depolymerization of the pilus, powered by the assembly and retraction ATPases, respectively. A set of low abundance minor pilins influences pilus dynamics by unknown mechanisms. The Vibrio cholerae toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) is among the simplest of the T4P systems, having a single minor pilin TcpB and lacking a retraction ATPase. Here we show that TcpB, like its homolog CofB, initiates pilus assembly. TcpB co-localizes with the pili but at extremely low levels, equivalent to one subunit per pilus. We used a micropillars assay to demonstrate that TCP are retractile despite the absence of a retraction ATPase, and that retraction relies on TcpB, as a V. cholerae tcpB Glu5Val mutant is fully piliated but does not induce micropillars movements. This mutant is impaired in TCP-mediated autoagglutination and TcpF secretion, consistent with retraction being required for these functions. We propose that TcpB initiates pilus retraction by incorporating into the growing pilus in a Glu5-dependent manner, which stalls assembly and triggers processive disassembly. These results provide a framework for understanding filament dynamics in more complex T4P systems and the closely related Type II secretion system.
Representation Learning for Aspect Category Detection in Online Reviews

User-generated reviews are valuable resources for decision making. Identifying the aspect categories discussed in a given review sentence (e.g., “food” and “service” in restaurant reviews) is an important task of sentiment analysis and opinion mining. Given a predefined aspect category set, most previous researches leverage hand-crafted features and a classification algorithm to accomplish the task. The crucial step to achieve better performance is feature engineering which consumes much human effort and may be unstable when the product domain changes. In this paper, we propose a representation learning approach to automatically learn useful features for aspect category detection. Specifically, a semi-supervised word embedding algorithm is first proposed to obtain continuous word representations on a large set of reviews with noisy labels. Afterwards, we propose to generate deeper and hybrid features through neural networks stacked on the word vectors. A logistic regression classifier is finally trained with the hybrid features to predict the aspect category. The experiments are carried out on a benchmark dataset released by SemEval-2014. Our approach achieves the state-of-the-art performance and outperforms the best participating team as well as a few strong baselines.