Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extraction of knowledge from Tunisian historical mosaics using fuzzy logic and semantic concepts similarity measure to create a fuzzy metadata

The objective of this this research is to attain a semantic interpretation of images of historical mosaics. We use fuzzy logic techniques and a modified semantic similarity measure to extract knowledge from the images. The extracted knowledge provides experts and laypersons with an intuitive way to describe and to query the images in the database. The knowledge we extract from a mosaic image consists of (a) the fuzzy spatial relationships between objects in the mosaic image encoded using fuzzy inference and if-then rules complemented with some semantic rules, and (b) the semantic classification of mosaic using a modified semantic similarity measure. The mosaic classification can accelerate the retrieval process or can be used as a visualization method to the returned result. The system was tested using a database of 100 mosaics. We have compared spatial relationships extracted automatically with manual predefined ones. So, the automatic extraction of spatial relationships gives a success rate equal to 82%. Also, we have classified 76% of image into a correct semantic class, this rate can reach 87% if we take into consideration that the pertinent semantic class is one among two or more classes.
Age-related changes in the contractile and passive arterial properties of murine mesenteric small arteries are altered by caveolin-1 knockout

Caveolin‐1, an integral protein of caveolae, is associated with multiple cardiovascular signalling pathways. Caveolin‐1 knockout (KO) mice have a reduced lifespan. As changes in artery structure and function are associated with ageing we have investigated the role of caveolin‐1 ablation on age‐related changes of small artery contractility and passive mechanical properties. Mesenteric small arteries isolated from 3 and 12‐month wild‐type (WT) and caveolin‐1 KO mice were mounted on a pressure myograph and changes in passive and functional arterial properties were continuously monitored. In WT mice ageing was associated with a reduction in arterial contractility to noradrenaline which was reversed by inhibition of nitric oxide synthase with L‐NNA. Similarly, in 3‐month‐old mice, caveolin‐1 KO reduced contractility to noradrenaline by an L‐NNA‐sensitive mechanism. However, ageing in caveolin‐1 KO mice was not associated with any further change in contractility. In WT mice ageing was associated with an increased passive arterial diameter and cross‐sectional area (CSA), consistent with outward remodelling of the arterial wall, and a reduced arterial distensibility. Caveolin‐1 ablation at 3 months of age resulted in similar changes in passive arterial properties to those observed with ageing in WT animals. However, ageing in caveolin‐1 KO mice resulted in a reduced arterial CSA indicating different effects on passive structural characteristics from that observed in WT mice. Thus, caveolin‐1 mice show abnormalities of small mesenteric artery function and passive mechanical characteristics indicative of premature vascular ageing. Moreover, caveolin‐1 ablation modulates the age‐related changes usually observed in mesenteric arteries of WT mice.
On the group orders of elliptic curves over finite fields

Given a prime power q, for every pair of positive integers m and n with m dividing the GCD of n and q-1, we construct a modular curve over F_q that parametrizes elliptic curves over F_q along with F_q-defined points P and Q of order m and n, respectively, with P and (n/m)Q having a given Weil pairing. Using these curves, we estimate the number of elliptic curves over F_q that have a given integer N dividing the number of their F_q-defined points.
In vitro localization of TIGR/MYOC in trabecular meshwork extracellular matrix and binding to fibronectin.

PURPOSE To determine whether trabecular meshwork-inducible glucocorticoid response/myocilin (TIGR/MYOC) protein associates with the extracellular matrix (ECM) of human trabecular meshwork (HTM) cells. METHODS The extracellular localization of TIGR/MYOC was examined by immunofluorescence microscopy in HTM cultures treated with and without dexamethasone and ascorbate and in a transformed HTM cell line, TM-1, transiently transfected with TIGR/MYOC cDNA. Antibodies to TIGR/MYOC, fibronectin, laminin, type IV collagen, or thrombospondin were used to determine the extracellular localization of TIGR/MYOC. Solid phase binding assays using 125I-recombinant TIGR/MYOC and types I and IV collagens, fibronectin, and laminin were done to examine the association of TIGR/MYOC with these proteins and to identify a specific TIGR/MYOC binding site within fibronectin. The domains of fibronectin tested were the fibrin/collagen binding domain, the RGD domain, and the Heparin II (Hep II) domain. RESULTS TIGR/MYOC colocalized with fibronectin, laminin, and type IV collagen, but not thrombospondin in both dexamethasone and dexamethasone/ascorbate-treated HTM cultures and in TM-1 cultures transfected with TIGR/MYOC cDNA. In solid phase binding assays, 125I-TIGR/MYOC bound fibronectin but not laminin or type IV collagen. Binding to fibronectin could be competed with excess TIGR/MYOC or fibronectin. Specific binding was found for the Hep II domain of fibronectin. CONCLUSIONS TIGR/MYOC can associate with components of the ECM via interactions with the Hep II domain of fibronectin. The interactions with the Hep II domain of fibronectin could alter cell-matrix interactions in the TM and provides an interesting lead to explore the role(s) of TIGR/MYOC in both steroid-induced and primary open angle glaucoma.
Aspects of Spirituality in German and Polish Adolescents and Young Adults—Factorial Structure of the ASP Students' Questionnaire

To cover a wider variety of specific aspects of spirituality, which are of relevance also in secular societies, the ASP (“Aspects of Spirituality”) questionnaire was developed. While it was used so far with healthy adults and with adolescents living in a secular society, it was meanwhile used also with Polish students who were predominantly Catholic. Here we compare the factorial structure of the ASP questionnaire in a sample of 871 German (73% non-religious) and 1,017 Polish adolescents/young adults (50% non-religious despite their Catholic denomination). The factorial structure of the ASP questionnaire with its four scales Religious Orientation: Prayer/Trust in God, Search for Insight/Wisdom, Conscious interactions/Compassion, Transcendence Conviction, were similar in the sample of German students and in the Polish students. By means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) we were able to use the number of items of the ASP in its student version (ASP-Students). Overall, the instrument is suited to measure a wide variety of vital aspects of spirituality, both religious and secular forms of spirituality. As the instrument avoids exclusive language and operationalizes also non-formal aspects of spirituality in terms of relational consciousness, it is suited, not only for individuals with a skeptical or a-religious attitude, but also for religious individuals.
Mechanism of immune evasion in breast cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant tumor among women, with high morbidity and mortality. Its onset, development, metastasis, and prognosis vary among individuals due to the interactions between tumors and host immunity. Many diverse mechanisms have been associated with BC, with immune evasion being the most widely studied to date. Tumor cells can escape from the body’s immune response, which targets abnormal components and foreign bodies, using different approaches including modification of surface antigens and modulation of the surrounding environment. In this review, we summarize the mechanisms and factors that impact the immunoediting process and analyze their functions in detail.
Reconfiguration strategies to reduce mismatch effects on PV array: An Arduino-based prototype

Today, solar energy represents a widespread source of electricity among all the renewable energies. One of the major problems concerning the photovoltaic (PV) arrays is the partial shading, that is the non-uniform irradiance on its parts. The partial shading leads to several undesired effects, such as mismatch between modules and a reduction of the production of electric energy. In order to alleviate the partial shading effects, different methods can be employed. Among them, the reconfiguration of the electrical connections between modules represents an alternative solution. In this paper, an algorithm of reconfiguration for a small-scale PV plant is proposed and experimental results showing the benefits brought by it in terms of energy recovery are reported.
Stacked inverter-based amplifier with bandwidth enhancement by inductive peaking

This paper presents a stacked inverter-based amplifier in a commercial 65nm CMOS technology. The proposed amplifier, based on an inverter, uses stacking to achieve high output swing and distributed inductive peaking to obtain ultra-wide bandwidth. Furthermore, the proposed topology is generalized for more stacked transistors for high output swing requirement which then utilizes distributive peaking inductors to maintain that swing over a large bandwidth. The simulated output swing for a 2-, 4- and 6-stacked amplifier is 4.0 V, 6.5 V and 8.0 V with 3 dB-voltage bandwidth of 50 GHz, 43 GHz and 41.5 GHz, respectively. All transistors are regular RF MOSFETs with a 1.2 V supply voltage.
The Color of the Cat is Gray: 1 Million Full-Sentences Visual Question Answering (FSVQA)

Visual Question Answering (VQA) task has showcased a new stage of interaction between language and vision, two of the most pivotal components of artificial intelligence. However, it has mostly focused on generating short and repetitive answers, mostly single words, which fall short of rich linguistic capabilities of humans. We introduce Full-Sentence Visual Question Answering (FSVQA) dataset, consisting of nearly 1 million pairs of questions and full-sentence answers for images, built by applying a number of rule-based natural language processing techniques to original VQA dataset and captions in the MS COCO dataset. This poses many additional complexities to conventional VQA task, and we provide a baseline for approaching and evaluating the task, on top of which we invite the research community to build further improvements.
A LOGICOF SPATIALQUALIFICATIONUSING QUALITATIVEREASONING APPROACH

The qualification problem is well known within the field of artificial intelligence. This paper introduced a specific aspect of qualification problem that deals with knowing the possibility of an agent’s presence at a specific location at a particular time as a qualification for carrying out an action or be participant in an event given its known location antecedents. A quantified modal logic was presented for reasoning with this problem. Logical axioms based on qualitative reasoning for inferring the possibility of an agent’s presence at a certain location and time were presented. A formal semantics that clarified the fact that our first order modal logic is a fixed domain logic was also presented. The resulting spatial qualification model was compared with existing S4 and S5 modal systems. The logic was seen to have all the properties of the S4 system but failed to satisfy axiom B in S5 system.
A reliability prediction model for complex systems using data flow dependency

Research on software reliability prediction is of great practical importance. Failure characteristic of large and complex software depends on the operations of individual components and their architecture. Complexity of the components as well as their dependency provides a greater impact on overall reliability of the software. Reliability prediction in the early stage of component based software requires the knowledge of interconnection between the components as well as propagation of errors between the components. In this paper we propose a reliability prediction model which not only considers the control flow of the component it also considers data sharing between the components and their deployment details. We propose a new graphical structure Data Flow Dependency Graph to estimate the effective reliability of the data processed by the components and then use the operational profile to predict the reliability.
Genetic Algorithm Based Optimization for Energy-aware Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling

Based on MATLAB/SimEvents simulation platform and genetic algorithm, the simulation and optimization of energy consumption in hybrid flow shop is studied. Considering workshop layout and workpiece path, machining process simulation in hybrid flow shop is realized. With the processing time, processing power and stand-by power introduced into simulation model, the energy consumption simulation in hybrid flow shop is achieved. Genetic algorithm based weighted optimization method is employed to optimize the energy consumption simulation model, which takes the minimum makespan and minimum energy consumption as optimization objectives. Finally, a case study is performed to verify the effectiveness of the simulation model and optimization method, and analysis on optimization results is carried out.
Validating the IS-Impact model in Australasian universities

This paper presents a novel study that aims to contribute to understanding the phenomenon of Enterprise Systems (ES) evaluation in Australasian universities. The proposed study addresses known limitations of arguably the most significant dependent variable in the Information System (IS) field - IS Success or IS-Impact. This study adopts the IS-Impact measurement model, reported by Gable et al. (2008), as the primary commencing theory-base and applies research extension strategy described by Berthon et al. (2002); extending both theory and the context. This study employs a longitudinal, multi-method research design, with two interrelated phases – exploratory and confirmatory. The exploratory phase aims to investigate the applicability and sufficiency of the IS-Impact dimensions and measures in the new context. The confirmatory phase will gather quantitative data to statistically validate IS-Impact model as a formative index.
Measures for Symmetric Rank-One Updates

Measures of deviation of a symmetric positive definite matrix from the identity are derived. They give rise to symmetric rank-one, SR1, type updates. The measures are motivated by considering the volume of the symmetric difference of the two ellipsoids, which arise from the current and updated quadratic models in quasi-Newton methods. The measure defined by the problem—maximize the determinant subject to a bound of 1 on the largest eigenvalue—yields the SR1 update. The measure σ( A ) = λ 1 ( A )/det( A ) 1/ n yields the optimally conditioned, sized, symmetric rank-one updates. The volume considerations also suggest a ‘correction’ for the initial stepsize for these sized updates. It is then shown that the σ-optimal updates, as well as the Oren-Luenberger self-scaling updates, are all optimal updates for the κ measure, the l 2 condition number. Moreover, all four sized updates result in the same largest (and smallest) ‘scaled’ eigenvalue and corresponding eigenvector. In fact, the inversesized BFGS is the mean of the σ-optimal updates, while the inverse of the sized DFP is the mean of the inverses of the σ-optimal updates. The difference between these four updates is determined by the middle n − 2 scaled eigenvalues. The κ measure also provides a natural Broyden class replacement for the SR1 when it is not positive definite.
Performance comparison of Pilot-symbol Aided Channel Estimation methods for the IEEE802.16d WMAN standard

This paper studies the effects of channel estimation in WiMAX system. Not too long has passed from IEEE802.16 standard emergence, but this wireless technology is about to revolutionize the broadband wireless industry. This technology is designed to provide wireless last mile broadband access in metropolitan area network (MAN), delivering performance comparable to traditional cable, DSL or Tl offerings. In this paper the channel estimation is based on the principle of pilot symbol aided channel estimation (PACE). The algorithms used here are based on the least squares (LS) and the minimum mean squares error (MMSE) approaches supported by piecewise constant, linear, second order and lowpass interpolations. Our result will quantitatively demonstrate the effect of LS and MMSE channel estimation algorithms in frequency domain with different interpolation approaches for coded and uncoded IEEE802.16d standard of WiMAX system.
LOCAL WELL-POSEDNESS BELOW THE CHARGE NORM FOR THE DIRAC–KLEIN–GORDON SYSTEM IN TWO SPACE DIMENSIONS

We prove that the Cauchy problem for the Dirac–Klein–Gordon equations in two space dimensions is locally well-posed in a range of Sobolev spaces of negative index for the Dirac spinor, and an associated range of spaces of positive index for the meson field. In particular, we can go below the charge norm, that is, the L2 norm of the spinor. We hope that this can have implications for the global existence problem, since the charge is conserved. Our result relies on the null structure of the system, and bilinear space-time estimates for the homogeneous wave equation.
Big changes, but are they big enough? Healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward transgender persons

ABSTRACT Media interest in transgender issues has increased substantially, yet empirical studies are lacking. Little is known about the attitudes of healthcare professionals regarding transgender identity and transgender persons. Previous studies are decades old or did not differentiate sexual orientation from gender identity. This study fills a gap in the literature and addresses shortcomings seen in previous research on healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward the LGBT population. The authors surveyed 243 healthcare workers, including 83 nurses, 60 doctoral-level healthcare professionals, and 100 other healthcare workers using the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (TABS). Results of two-way ANOVAs showed that healthcare professionals on the whole hold generally favorable attitudes toward transgender persons with no differences in attitudes across professions. The current study found gender differences in attitudes consonant with previous findings, with females displaying more-accepting attitudes toward transgender individuals compared to their male counterparts. A chi-square test for independence also found changes in healthcare professionals’ views regarding sex reassignment surgery and mental health potential for transgender persons over the past 30 years. The paper includes discussion of earlier studies along with hypothesized and known correlates of attitudes towards transgender persons in an effort to inform possible strategies to improve healthcare for transgender persons.
DObjects : A Metacomputing Framework with Dynamic Query Processing for Distributed Data Networks

Many contemporary applications rely heavily on large scale distributed and heterogeneous data sources; examples are enterprise end-system management, workflow management, and computer-supported collaborative work. The key constraints for building a distributed data query infrastructure for such applications are: 1) scalability: the system needs to scale both for number of data sources and number of clients without sacrificing data integrity, 2) heterogeneity: the system needs to provide a unified access for heterogeneous data sources, and 3) network and resource dynamics: query processing needs to adapt to dynamic network and resource conditions to maximize resources utilization and scalability. To address these issues, we designed and developed DObjects, a general-purpose distributed data objects framework that provides an easy and scalable way of querying and operating data from heterogeneous data sources. We describe our novel architecture built on top of a metacomputing platform. By hiding the details of resource sharing and using object/relational mapping, DObjects simplifies the development of efficient and scalable integrated distributed data networks. In addition, we present the details of the dynamic query execution engine within our metacomputing framework that dynamically adapts to network and node conditions. We present an extensive performance evaluation through simulations as well as a real implementation.
QEMPAR: QoS and Energy Aware Multi-Path Routing Algorithm for Real-Time Applications in Wireless Sensor Networks

Enabling real time applications in wireless sensor networks requires certain delay and bandwidth which pose more challenges in the design of routing protocols. The algorithm that is used for packet routing in such applications should be able to establish a tradeoff between end to end delay parameter and energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a new multi path routing algorithm for real time applications in wireless sensor networks namely QEMPAR which is QoS aware and can increase the network lifetime. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is more efficient than previous algorithms in providing quality of service requirements of real-time applications.
Spatial variability of arsenic in 6000 tube wells in a 25 km2 area of Bangladesh

Arsenic concentrations measured by graphite furnace atomic absorption range from < 5 to 900 μg/L in groundwater pumped from 6000 wells within a 25 km2 area of Bangladesh. The proportion of wells that exceed the Bangladesh standard for drinking water of 50 μg/L arsenic increases with depth from 25% between 8 and 10 m to 75% between 15 and 30 m, then declines gradually to less than 10% at 90 m. Some villages within the study area do not have a single well that meets the standard, while others have wells that are nearly all acceptable. In contrast to the distribution of arsenic in the 8–30 m depth range which does not follow any obvious geological feature, the arsenic content of groundwater associated with relatively oxic Pleistocene sand deposits appears to be consistently low. The depth of drilling necessary to reach these low‐As aquifers ranges from 30 to 120 m depth within the study area.
Development of Sub-Term Mapping Tools (STMT)

The Sub-Term Mapping Tools (STMT), developed at National Library of Medicine (NLM), are used to find 1) all sub-terms, all prefixes, and the longest prefix in a specified corpus; 2) all sub-term patterns; and 3) concept mapping of all permutations on synonym substitutions for a term. It has been successfully used in MetaMap, UMLS-CORE, and Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) projects. STMT is distributed by NLM via an Open Source License agreement.
Shrinking Wings for Ultrasonic Pitch Production: Hyperintense Ultra-Short-Wavelength Calls in a New Genus of Neotropical Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

This article reports the discovery of a new genus and three species of predaceous katydid (Insecta: Orthoptera) from Colombia and Ecuador in which males produce the highest frequency ultrasonic calling songs so far recorded from an arthropod. Male katydids sing by rubbing their wings together to attract distant females. Their song frequencies usually range from audio (5 kHz) to low ultrasonic (30 kHz). However, males of Supersonus spp. call females at 115 kHz, 125 kHz, and 150 kHz. Exceeding the human hearing range (50 Hz–20 kHz) by an order of magnitude, these insects also emit their ultrasound at unusually elevated sound pressure levels (SPL). In all three species these calls exceed 110 dB SPL rms re 20 µPa (at 15 cm). Males of Supersonus spp. have unusually reduced forewings (<0.5 mm2). Only the right wing radiates appreciable sound, the left bears the file and does not show a particular resonance. In contrast to most katydids, males of Supersonus spp. position and move their wings during sound production so that the concave aspect of the right wing, underlain by the insect dorsum, forms a contained cavity with sharp resonance. The observed high SPL at extreme carrier frequencies can be explained by wing anatomy, a resonant cavity with a membrane, and cuticle deformation.