Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disturbance rejection for leader-follower tracking of linear multi-agent systems under a directed graph

In this paper, the leader-follower tracking problem of linear multi-agent systems with distinct disturbances is studied. Unlike the existing leader-follower tracking algorithms, where all agents share common control gains, we allow the control gains to be heterogenous. A lower bound of heterogenous control gains is given based on Lyapunov method for each agent. A disturbance rejection tracking law is proposed under a directed graph, which consists of a disturbance observer. The disturbance observers are designed for each agent only using relative state information.
Countertransference to psychiatric patients in a clinical setting: Development of the Feeling Checklist–Japanese version

Abstract Countertransference is an important dimension of the therapeutic alliance between care providers and patients. The Feeling Checklist (FC) is a self‐report questionnaire for the assessment of countertransference by hospital staff toward patients. The FC was translated from English into Japanese and its factor structure, reliability, and validity in the Japanese version (FC‐J) were examined. A total of 281 Japanese psychiatric nurses were tested with the FC‐J. All nurses were primarily involved in provision of psychiatric care. Principal‐component factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed to identify the potential components of the FC‐J. In a factor analysis of the FC‐J, seven factors were extracted. The five subscales that were determined and labeled included Reject, Distance, Helpfulness, Closeness, and Involvement, which collectively accounted for 56.0% of the variance. Cronbach’s α, a measure of internal consistency, for individual subscales was 0.833 for Reject, 0.763 for Distance, 0.768 for Helpfulness, 0.617 for Closeness, and 0.663 for Involvement. Notably, there was a significant correlation between the FC‐J and the Nurse Attitude Scale (P < 0.0001). Moreover, one‐way anova was performed with each FC‐J subscale to examine differences among psychiatric diagnoses in the study sample. A significant difference was found for Involvement (P < 0.001), with the total score on Involvement being the highest in the personality disorder group. These results are considered to verify the reliability and validity of the FC‐J as a scale to measure countertransference among Japanese care providers. The use of this scale allows individual care providers to recognize and be cognizant of their own countertransference objectively and thereby contributes to improve the relationship between patients and care providers.
Identification of leaf diseases in pepper plants using soft computing techniques

Images convey relevant data and information in biological sciences. Digital image processing and the image analysis technology have a vital role in biology and agricultural sectors. Automatic detection of plant diseases and cultivation of healthy plants is of great importance and agricultural automation. [1] The case of a plant, the term disease is defined as any impairment happening to the normal physiological function, producing characteristic symptoms. The studies of plant diseases refer to studying the visually observable patterns of a particular plant. The identification of plants, leaves, stems and finding out the pests or diseases, or its percentage is found very effective in the successful cultivation of crops. The naked eye observation is the approach adopted by many of the farmers for the detection and identification of plant diseases. It requires continuous monitoring and found less useful on large farms. Also, the farmers are unaware of non-native diseases. [1,2] With the aid of imaging technology the plant disease detection systems automatically detect the symptoms that appear on the leaves and stem of a plant and helps in cultivating healthy plants in a farm. These systems monitor the plant such as leaves and stem and any variation observed from its characteristic features, variation will be automatically identified and also will be informed to the user. This paper provides an evaluative study on the existing disease detection systems in plants.
Dynamic Changes in Nucleosome Occupancy Are Not Predictive of Gene Expression Dynamics but Are Linked to Transcription and Chromatin Regulators

ABSTRACT The response to stressful stimuli requires rapid, precise, and dynamic gene expression changes that must be coordinated across the genome. To gain insight into the temporal ordering of genome reorganization, we investigated dynamic relationships between changing nucleosome occupancy, transcription factor binding, and gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast responding to oxidative stress. We applied deep sequencing to nucleosomal DNA at six time points before and after hydrogen peroxide treatment and revealed many distinct dynamic patterns of nucleosome gain and loss. The timing of nucleosome repositioning was not predictive of the dynamics of downstream gene expression change but instead was linked to nucleosome position relative to transcription start sites and specific cis-regulatory elements. We measured genome-wide binding of the stress-activated transcription factor Msn2p over time and found that Msn2p binds different loci with different dynamics. Nucleosome eviction from Msn2p binding sites was common across the genome; however, we show that, contrary to expectation, nucleosome loss occurred after Msn2p binding and in fact required Msn2p. This negates the prevailing model that nucleosomes obscuring Msn2p sites regulate DNA access and must be lost before Msn2p can bind DNA. Together, these results highlight the complexities of stress-dependent chromatin changes and their effects on gene expression.
Biomechanical evaluation of early fracture healing in normal and diabetic rats

Diabetes mellitus has been shown to alter the properties of bone and impair fracture healing in both humans and animals. The objective of this study was to document changes in the structural and material properties of intact bone and bone with healed fractures in diabetic rats compared with nondiabetic controls after 3 and 4 weeks of healing. Rods were inserted in the right femurs of control rats and rats with streptozotocin‐induced diabetes, and the femurs were fractured in a standardized procedure and then allowed to heal for 3 and 4 weeks. After death, all femurs were mechanically tested to failure in torsion. The degree of healing was quantified for each animal by normalizing mechanical parameters for the femur with a healed fracture with those for the intact contralateral femur. At both time points of healing, diabetic rats exhibited inferior healing compared with that of control animals in terms of failure torque, failure stress, structural stiffness, and material stiffness of the femur with the healed fracture relative to the intact contralateral femur (p < 0.05). Our results demonstrate that the recovery of structural and material strength in femurs with healed fractures in diabetic rats is delayed by at least 1 week compared with that in controls.
Effect of thermal annealing on TSV Cu protrusion and local stress

Through silicon vias (TSVs) are regarded as one of the key enabling component to achieve three-dimensional (3D) integrated circuit (IC) functionality. In this paper, we present the investigation on TSV protrusion and stress at different annealing conditions tested by means of optical profiler and high efficiency micro-Raman microscopy. Finite element method is utilized to model and simulate the thermo-mechanical behavior of the TSV having a diameter of 20 μm and a depth of 120 μm under different annealing temperatures. The measured protrusion increases with annealing temperature below 400°C, and then decreases when being further annealed. The maximum measured silicon stress as a function of annealing temperature has shown similar trend to the protrusion. The pre-annealing has limited effect on protrusion, but is helpful to reduce the silicon stress.
How post-socialist is gentrification? Observations in East Berlin and Saint Petersburg

Abstract Over the last several years, an increasing number of scholarly contributions have questioned the usefulness of the concept of gentrification for cases outside of the context in which the term was originally developed. The paper builds on this debate and explores the unfolding of gentrification in two contrasting environments undergoing post-socialist transformations. It analyzes the course of urban upgrading in Prenzlauer Berg in East Berlin as well as in the central city of Saint Petersburg, arguing that while the transformation from a planned economy to a market system generally made gentrification possible, the specific conditions of property transfer, the transformation of inherited social rights, as well as the different setup of planning institutions have produced very different patterns of neighborhood change. In sum, it is suggested that “gentrification” is in fact an umbrella term for fairly disparate socio-spatial formations which result in different dynamics of regeneration and population change.
Chronic intestinal pseudo‐obstruction caused by an intestinal inflammatory myopathy: case report and review of the literature

Abstract Chronic intestinal pseudo‐obstruction (CIP) is an uncommon disorder that may be of primary or secondary origin. We report a case of a 37‐year‐old woman with CIP due to inflammatory disorder of unknown origin involving the skin (eosinophilic fasciitis), the lungs (decreased diffusion capacity) and the gastrointestinal tract. History, clinical examination, plain abdominal film, barium X‐ray and colonoscopy established a diagnosis of recurrent pseudo‐obstruction. A full‐thickness biopsy was performed during explorative laparotomy, and histological examination revealed findings compatible with an inflammatory myopathy due to a dense lymphoid infiltrate and extensive loss of the muscularis propriae layers. Immunosuppressive therapy with cyclosporin was initiated, with significant clinical improvement. This case illustrates another form of CIP, characterized by an inflammatory myopathy, which is histologically distinct from other known visceral myopathies and neuropathies.
Physiological changes following a 12 week gym based stair-climbing, elliptical trainer and treadmill running program in females.

AIM Despite the growing popularity in recent years of the elliptical trainer aerobic exercise modality the physiological changes induced following a training program using elliptical trainers remains unknown. The present study investigated the metabolic and cardiorespiratory improvements following a 12-week aerobic training program using elliptical trainer, treadmill or stair-climbing modalities. METHODS Twenty-two moderately active females (28.6 +/- 5.3 y, 1.65 +/- 0.05 m) were randomly assigned to treadmill running (n=7), elliptical trainer (n=8) or stair-climber (n=7) groups and trained 3 days x week(-1) initially at 70-80% of maximum heart rate (HRmax) for 30 min, progressing to 80-90% HRmax for 40 min. Subjects performed incremental exercise to volitional exhaustion using an electronically loaded cycle ergometer before and upon completion of the program. In addition, subjects performed sub-maximal fixed load tests at 0, 4, 8 and 12 weeks, using ergometers specific to their exercise group. RESULTS No significant inter-group differences were recorded for pre-training VO2max or VEmax. Significant (p<0.05) post-training increases in cycling VO2max and VEmax were observed for treadmill (mean +/- SEM, 40.7 +/- 2.2 vs 43.4 +/- 2.6 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) and 82.9 +/- 5.1 vs 90.2 +/- 6.4 l x min(-1)), elliptical trainer (36.9 +/- 2.5 vs 39.6 +/- 2.4 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) and 86.8 +/- 2.3 vs 92.5 +/- 4.1 l x min(-1)) and stair-climber (37.4 +/- 2.9 vs 39.2 +/- 3.1 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1) and 95.9 +/- 5.8 vs 97.4 +/- 5.8 l x min(-1)) modalities, however, the increases were not significantly different between groups. For all groups, sub-maximal HR significantly decreased from week 0 to 4, and from week 4 to 8. CONCLUSION In moderately active females similar physiological improvements were observed using stair-climber, elliptical trainer and treadmill running when training volume and intensity were equivalent.
Thiophene-based material for non volatile organic memory devices: A combined experimental and theoretical study

A diphenyl bithiophene derivative (DPBT), which shows electrical bistability when tested in a two-terminal memory cell, has been extensively characterized with the aim to highlight the molecular root of the bistable behavior. A vibrational spectroscopic characterization has been carried out, supported by first-principles theoretical studies and X-ray analysis. Spectroscopic markers suitable to distinguish the different stable conformers of the molecule have been predicted and detected. These evidences have been further confirmed by the characterization of molecular species related to DPBT. The result obtained can be applied to determine the molecular isomers present in the organic active layer of the memory cell and opens the way to the identification of the molecular species involved in such electrical bistability.
Plant architecture

Plant architecture is species specific, indicating that it is under strict genetic control. Although it is also influenced by environmental conditions such as light, temperature, humidity and nutrient status, here we wish to focus only on the endogenous regulatory principles that control plant architecture. We summarise recent progress in the understanding of the basic patterning mechanisms involved in the regulation of leaf arrangement, the genetic regulation of meristem determinacy, i.e. the decision to stop or continue growth, and the control of branching during vegetative and generative development. Finally, we discuss the basis of leaf architecture and the role of cell division and cell growth in morphogenesis.
Endolymphatic Hydrops in Ménière’s Disease: Cause, Consequence, or Epiphenomenon?

Objective To determine the relationship of endolymphatic hydrops to Ménière’s disease. Data Sources Comprehensive review of articles from 1938 through 2012 via Medline and Index Medicus. Study Selection Articles discussing Ménière’s disease and/or endolymphatic hydrops that include temporal bone autopsy data. Data Extraction Fifty-three case reports and series were studied containing examination of 541 hydropic temporal bones and including 276 patients with Ménière’s disease. These were divided into those meeting the 1995 American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery criteria for Ménière’s disease and those that failed to meet these criteria. Conclusion An individual meeting the 1995 criteria for Ménière’s disease has a near certain probability of having endolymphatic hydrops in at least 1 ear. Autopsy data do not support the view that the association of MD and EH is an epiphenomenon or that MD causes EH; this leaves us with the probability that EH causes MD. If it is causative, hydrops alone is insufficient to cause Ménière’s disease, indicating that there must be one or more additional cofactors that cause asymptomatic hydrops to become symptomatic Ménière’s disease. Vascular risk factors should be studied as possible cofactors.
The Political Economy of Heterogeneity and Conflict

In this paper we present a conceptual framework linking cultural heterogeneity to inter-group conflict. When conflict is about control of public goods, more heterogeneous groups are expected to fight more with each other. In contrast, when conflict is about rival goods, more similar groups are more likely to engage in war with each other. We formalize these ideas within an analytical model and discuss recent empirical studies that are consistent with the model's implications.
The Identification of Unfolding Facial Expressions

We asked whether the identification of emotional facial expressions (FEs) involves the simultaneous perception of the facial configuration or the detection of emotion-specific diagnostic cues. We recorded at high speed (500 frames s−1) the unfolding of the FE in five actors, each expressing six emotions (anger, surprise, happiness, disgust, fear, sadness). Recordings were coded every 10 frames (20 ms of real time) with the Facial Action Coding System (FACS, Ekman et al 2002, Salt Lake City, UT: Research Nexus eBook) to identify the facial actions contributing to each expression, and their intensity changes over time. Recordings were shown in slow motion (1/20 of recording speed) to one hundred observers in a forced-choice identification task. Participants were asked to identify the emotion during the presentation as soon as they felt confident to do so. Responses were recorded along with the associated response times (RTs). The RT probability density functions for both correct and incorrect responses were correlated with the facial activity during the presentation. There were systematic correlations between facial activities, response probabilities, and RT peaks, and significant differences in RT distributions for correct and incorrect answers. The results show that a reliable response is possible long before the full FE configuration is reached. This suggests that identification is reached by integrating in time individual diagnostic facial actions, and does not require perceiving the full apex configuration.
The use of a non cultured autologous cell suspension to repair chronic ulcers

The purpose of this uncontrolled study was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of ReCell® system in the treatment of chronic ulcers. From October 2011 to July 2012, 20 patients, 8 men and 12 women with a mean age of 70 years, with chronic ulcers of different aetiology that were unresponsive to conventional therapies were recruited and treated using the ReCell® system. Patient pain rate, scar aesthetics and patient satisfaction were assessed using a Visual Analogue Scale, Manchester Scar Scale and the Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale, respectively. Complete ulcer healing, defined as 100% reepithelialisation was observed between 40 and 60 days in 14 patients (70%) depending on the type of ulcer and comorbidity. At day 60 postprocedure, 80% reepithelialisation was present in five patients (25%), while one patient with concomitant psoriasis had 50% reepithelialisation. Pain scores improved by day 7 postprocedure. The function and aesthetics of the ReCell‐treated patients were good. It is concluded that the ReCell technique may have provided the regenerative tissue stimulation necessary for the rapid healing of chronic ulcers, including those not responsive to more traditional methods.
An Assessment Center Examination to Select Administrative Interns

BARRY L. WAGMAN INTRODUCTION The "administrative intern" job classification is one of the most critical in Philadelphia's position classification plan. It is defined as work of a training nature designed to develop knowledges, skills, and abilities in the areas of management and fiscal analysis and operations. The training period lasts one year and consists of planned rotational assignments, seminars, and other learning experiences. The only requirement for admittance to the test is the completion of a master's degree program in certain fields-for example, public administration or business administration. Traditionally, the city has relied exclusively on oral tests to evaluate candidates for this job. These tests were highly structured and were administered by a panel of experienced public administrators under the guidance of an examinations technician. They typically consisted of four or five standardized items setting forth hypothetical problematic situations likely to be encountered by administrative interns. The test normally consumed approximately 45 minutes. On the basis of this small behavioral sample, the panel was required to judge the relative fitness of each candidate, using a standardized rating scale. Although oral tests have made an acceptable contribution to the selection process over the years, increased concern regarding job relatedness and fairness has made improvement in this area a major goal. It was toward the achievement of this goal that the city developed and administered an assessment center examination.
Fluoride dentifrice containing xylitol: in vitro root caries formation.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effects of experimental xylitol dentifrices with and without fluoride on in vitro root caries formation. METHODS Root surfaces from caries-free human permanent teeth (n = 10) underwent debridement and a fluoride-free prophylaxis. The tooth roots were sectioned into quarters, and acid-resistant varnish was placed with two sound root surface windows exposed on each tooth quarter. Each quarter from a single tooth was assigned to a treatment group: (1) No treatment control; (2) Aquafresh Advanced (0.15% F = 1,150 ppm F); (3) Experimental xylitol dentifrice without fluoride (0.45% xylitol); and (4) Diamynt fluoride dentifrice with xylitol (0.83% sodium monofluorophosphate = 1,100 ppm F and 0.20% xylitol). Tooth root quarters were treated with fresh dentifrice twice daily (3 minutes) followed by fresh synthetic saliva rinsing over a 7-day period. Controls were exposed twice daily to fresh synthetic saliva rinsing daily over a 7-day period. In vitro root caries were created using an acidified gel (pH 4.25, 21 days). Longitudinal sections (three sections/tooth quarter, 60/group) were evaluated for mean lesion depths (water inhibition, polarized light, ANOVA, DMR). RESULTS Mean lesion depths were 359 +/- 37 microm for the control Group; 280 +/- 28 microm for Aquafresh Advanced; 342 +/- 41 microm for the experimental xylitol dentifrice without fluoride; and 261 +/- 34 microm for Diamynt. Aquafresh Advanced and Diamynt had mean lesion depths significantly less than those for the no treatment control and the experimental xylitol without fluoride dentifrice (P< 0.05). There were minimal non-significant differences in mean lesion depths between Aquafresh Advanced and Diamynt (P > 0.05).
The Role of Risk in Improving Goal Setting in Performance Management Practices within Public Sector: An Explorative Research in Courts Offices in Italy

ABSTRACT The study investigates whether the adoption of a risk-based approach that allows public managers to take into account the context and external not-controllable factors during goal setting may contribute to overcome unintended managerial side effects of performance management (PM) practices that hamper their success within public organizations. An explorative research is carried out on court officials of Italian public administration. The results from this study show that the adoption of a risk-based approach could enhance goal setting within the PM process and provide interesting insights to policy-makers invested of the responsibility to improve the effectiveness of current PM procedures.
Guided lamb wave electroacoustic devices on micromachined AlN/Al plates

An electroacoustic micro-device based on the propagation of guided acoustic Lamb waves in AlN/Al plate is described. The AlN thin film is deposited by sputtering technique, optimized to achieve a high degree of orientation (rocking curve full-width at half-maximum ¿ 3.5°) of the c-axis perpendicular to the plate surface. The AlN plate is micromachined using anisotropic reactive ion etching (RIE), followed by isotropic RIE to remove the silicon underlayer. Simulation results for the dispersion phase velocity curves and the electromechanical coupling coefficient (K2) are obtained by the matrix method and by the finite element method and compared with experimental data. A delay line is implemented on the structure and tested for the propagation of the first symmetrical Lamb mode (s0) at the frequency of 1.22 GHz. Measurements have shown that the structure is suitable for implementation of arrays of electroacoustic devices on a single chip for application to both sensing devices and signal processing systems.