Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formal Specification and Verification of Interactive Systems with Plasticity : Applications to Nuclear-Plant Supervision. (Spécification formelle et vérification de systèmes interactifs avec plasticité : applications à la supervision nucléaire)

The advent of ubiquitous computing and the increasing variety of platforms and devices change user expectations in terms of user interfaces. Systems should be able to adapt themselves to their context of use, i.e., the platform (e.g. a PC or a tablet), the users who interact with the system (e.g. administrators or regular users), and the environment in which the system executes (e.g. a dark room or outdoor). The capacity of a UI to withstand variations in its context of use while preserving usability is called plasticity.Plasticity provides users with different versions of a UI. Although it enhances UI capabilities, plasticity adds complexity to the development of user interfaces: the consistency between multiple versions of a given UI should be ensured. Given the large number of possible versions of a UI, it is time-consuming and error prone to check these requirements by hand. Some automation must be provided to verify plasticity.This complexity is further increased when it comes to UIs of safety-critical systems. Safety-critical systems are systems in which a failure has severe consequences. The complexity of such systems is reflected in the UIs, which are now expected not only to provide correct, intuitive, non-ambiguous and adaptable means for users to accomplish a goal, but also to cope with safety requirements aiming to make sure that systems are reasonably safe before they enter the market.Several techniques to ensure quality of systems in general exist, which can also be used to safety-critical systems. Formal verification provides a rigorous way to perform verification, which is suitable for safety-critical systems. Our contribution is an approach to verify safety-critical interactive systems provided with plastic UIs using formal methods. Using a powerful tool-support, our approach permits:-The verification of sets of properties over a model of the system. Using model checking, our approach permits the verification of properties over the system formal specification. Usability properties verify whether the system follows ergonomic properties to ensure a good usability. Validity properties verify whether the system follows the requirements that specify its expected behavior. -The comparison of different versions of UIs. Using equivalence checking, our approach verifies to which extent UIs present the same interaction capabilities and appearance. We can show whether two UI models are equivalent or not. When they are not equivalent, the UI divergences are listed, thus providing the possibility of leaving them out of the analysis. Furthermore, the approach shows that one UI can contain at least all interaction capabilities of another.We also present in this thesis three industrial case studies in the nuclear power plant domain which the approach was applied to, providing additional examples of successful use of formal methods in industrial systems.
Waveguide resonators for verification of enhancing evanescent field detection using metamaterials

This paper shows that DNG metamaterials enhance the sensitivity and range of the evanescent field probes. A conventional evanescent field probe produces all polarizations of the E and H fields. Therefore the experimental verification of the theory is not easy since a low loss, three dimensional DNG metamaterial is required. In this paper we propose a structure that can be used for verification of the sensitivity enhancement using a two dimensional DNG metamaterial. Theoretical results and numerical validation using the finite element method are presented.
Proposal of an Architecture to support High Quality Automatic Data Collection in the context of Multi-Centric Studies

The increasing ease of people to move from one place to another and the rapid emergence of multi-centric clinical trials make necessary an extensive multilayer integration of data from different health areas so that it is possible to minimize the need for human intervention. The idea behind this work is to exploit the information contextualization properties guaranteed by the Clinical Document Architecture Release 2.0 (CDA R2) together with the skills of Machine Learning so that it is possible to highlight values out of the therapeutic range or outside the range which generally data belong to. The proposed architecture it is composed by three elements designed for the purpose of supporting the automatic transfer of high-quality data from one system to another and to point out any outliers. The architecture supports the creation of a large, well-structured and well-contextualized database for multi-centric clinical studies.
Freedom and Fulfillment: Philosophical Essays

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsCh. 1Wrongful Life and the Counterfactual Element in Harming (1986)3Ch. 2Abortion (1979)37Ch. 3The Child's Right to an Open Future (1980)76Ch. 4Sentiment and Sentimentality in Practical Ethics (1982)98Ch. 5Limits to the Free Expression of Opinion (1975)124Ch. 6Civil Disobedience in the Modern World (1979)152Ch. 7The Moral and Legal Responsibility of the Bad Samaritan (1984)175Ch. 8In Defense of Moral Rights: Their Bare Existence (1990)197Ch. 9In Defense of Moral Rights: Their Social Importance (1990)220Ch. 10In Defense of Moral Rights: Their Constitutional Relevance (1990)245Ch. 11An Unpromising Approach to the "Right to Die" (1991)260Ch. 12Seven Modes of Reasoning That Can Justify Overlooking the Merits of the Individual Case - When the Facts Are Right (1991)283Ch. 13Absurd Self-Fulfillment (1980)297Ch. 14The Absurd and the Comic: Why Does Some Incongruity Please? (1989)331Index347
Evaluación de competencias: Un caso práctico en materias de química de titulaciones de Ingeniería

Se recoge una breve revision sobre el modelo de aprendizaje por competencias y de sus tecnicas de evaluacion (destacando la elaboracion de rubricas adecuadas sobre competencias genericas). Se indica el interes de los autores por avanzar en el desarrollo de metodos de evaluacion de competencias de alumnos de asignaturas de Quimica en titulaciones de Grado de Ingenieria. Se muestran algunas ideas iniciales que han llevado a cabo en su practica docente, destacando ventajas, inconvenientes, perspectivas de futuro y opinion de los alumnos.
Draft Genome Sequence of Ureolytic Environmental Isolate Bacillus galactosidilyticus PL133

ABSTRACT We report here the 5.19-Mb draft genome sequence of Bacillus galactosidilyticus PL133 isolated from poultry litter. The isolate was an important member of the cultivable aerobic bacteria identified to have ureolytic activity, which is responsible for ammonia generation in poultry litter residue.
Life satisfaction in patients with long-term non-malignant pain–relation to demographic factors and pain intensity

Purpose. Life satisfaction can be defined as a measure of a patient's perception of the difference between his reality and his needs or wants. Here we compare life satisfaction in patients with long-term pain to a reference group sampled from the normal population, and relate the results to pain intensity and to demographic factors. Method. Questionnaires containing the Life satisfaction (LiSat-11) checklist, a visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain, and questions on demographic background. Results. The prevalence of responders with low level of life satisfaction was larger among the patients than in the reference group. In particular, patients born outside Northern Europe scored significantly lower than patients born in Northern Europe in many of the LiSat-11 domains. Pain intensity did not correlate well to the level of life satisfaction, except for weak negative correlations to satisfaction with physical health and with financial situation. Conclusion. Long-term pain is strongly associated with low life satisfaction. In order to increase life satisfaction, interventions related to social factors seem to be important.
Evidence for cold events in the early Holocene from the Guliya ice core, Tibetan Plateau, China

Evidence for the “8.2 ka cold event” has been provided mostly from the circum-North Atlantic area. However, whether this cold event occurred in other places is a key to understanding its cause. Here, we provide the evidence for the “8.2 ka cold event” from the Guliya ice core in the northwest Tibetan Plateau, and it was found that the peak cooling (∼8.3-8.2 ka) in this ice core was about 7.8–10°C, which was larger than the cooling in the North Atlantic region. The primary causes for this episode were diminished solar activity and weakened thermohaline circulation. Moreover, another weak cold event, centered about 9.4 ka, was also recorded in the Guliya ice core record. These two cold events were concurrent with the ice-rafting episodes in the North Atlantic during the early Holocene, which implies that the millennial-scale climatic cyclicity might exist in the Tibetan Plateau as well as in the North Atlantic.
Comite de maquinas : uma abordagem unificada empregando maquinas de vetores-suporte

Os algoritmos baseados em metodos de kernel destacam-se entre as diversas tecnicas de aprendizado de maquina. Eles foram inicialmente empregados na implementacao de maquinas de vetores-suporte (SVMs). A abordagem SVM representa um procedimento de aprendizado nao-parametrico para classificacao e regressao de alto desempenho. No entanto, existem aspectos estruturais e parametricos de projeto que podem conduzir a uma degradacao de desempenho. Na ausencia de uma metodologia sistematica e de baixo custo para a proposicao de modelos computacionais otimamente especificados, os comites de maquinas se apresentam como alternativas promissoras. Existem versoes estaticas de comites, na forma de ensembles de componentes, e versoes dinâmicas, na forma de misturas de especialistas. Neste estudo, os componentes de um ensemble e os especialistas de uma mistura sao tomados como SVMs. O objetivo e explorar conjuntamente potencialidades advindas de SVM e comite de maquinas, adotando uma formulacao unificada. Varias extensoes e novas configuracoes de comites de maquinas sao propostas, com analises comparativas que indicam ganho significativo de desempenho frente a outras propostas de aprendizado de maquina comumente adotadas para classificacao e regressao Abstract
Ordonnancement avec communications pour architectures multiprocesseurs dans divers modèles d'exécution

En quelques dizaines d'annees, l'informatique a vu naitre et se developper des machines fonctionnant avec plusieurs processeurs. Les difficultes techniques rencontrees pour la conception de ces ordinateurs ont ete surmontees et l'un des defis majeur d'aujourd'hui est de fournir une plateforme pour la programmation parallele. Ce travail de these s'inscrit dans le cadre du projet IMAG APACHE qui a pour but la conception d'un tel environnement. Le modele de graphes que nous manipulons est un graphe de tâches oriente sans cycle. Le processus consistant a paralleliser une application est decoupe en trois phases principales, avec l'ordonnancement et le placement des differentes parties de l'application comme etape centrale. Dans ce contexte, nous avons concentres nos efforts sur la recherche de strategies d'ordonnancement presentant de reelles qualites de robustesse et d'efficacite pour des graphes de differentes granularites, et pour des ensembles d'hypotheses d'execution differents. A partir d'un algorithme produisant des ordonnancements optimaux dans le cas de graphes a structure arborescente formes de taches de durees unitaires et de communications unitaires, nous avons montre qu'il etait possible d'obtenir des ordonnancements, dont l'ecart par rapport a l'optimal est borne, pour des arbres de granularite differente. Nous avons montre egalement que ce meme algorithme permettait d'obtenir dans certains cas des ordonnancements optimaux pour un modele d'execution totalement different de celui pour lequel il avait ete originellement concu. Cette etude sur deux processeurs a ete mene pour un nombre superieur de processeurs identiques et pour deux processeurs uniformes. Enfin, une partie de ce travail est dediee a la recherche de strategies d'ordonnancement pour des graphes generes par l'environnement Athapascan (projet APACHE) qui presentent la particularite de permettre l'adaptation de la granularite en fonction de la machine cible.
The use of psychiatric services before imprisonment: a survey and case register linkage of sentenced prisoners in Melbourne

Synopsis Information about contact with psychiatric services before imprisonment was obtained for a stratified random sample of sentenced prisoners, who were not receiving prison psychiatric care, in Melbourne's three metropolitan prisons. The sample of 158 men and 31 women was matched with the longitudinal person-linked records of state psychiatric service use in the Victorian Psychiatric Case Register (VPCR). Records of contact with the state services were found for 54 men (34%) and 19 women (61%), including records of in-patient treatment for 25 men (16%) and 15 women (48%). For 64% of individuals with a positive match, the case-note diagnoses were substance use disorders only. Diagnoses of psychotic disorders were recorded for four prisoners, and mood disorders for another six. In addition, clinicians conducted standardized diagnostic interviews and enquired about treatment and personal history. A further 24 prisoners reported specialist psychiatric treatment outside the state treatment sector. This study links the findings from an interview survey of psychiatric morbidity in prisoners with the records available in the VPCR, and emphasizes a number of matters important to the public health. The high rates of previous treatment for substance abuse disorders, the apparent pool of prisoners with largely untreated major depression, and the service needs of those with chronic psychotic disorders are discussed.
Pregnancy in the patient with ileostomy and colectomy.

Surgeons have been reluctant to perform ileostomy for intractable ulcerative colitis in young women because the existence of the ileostomy was believed to militate against pregnancy and subsequent parturition. This belief is unsettled by a study of seven patients with ileostomy and colectomy. In all there were 13 subsequent pregnancies, of which 3 terminated in early spontaneous abortions while 10 went on to term and resulted in live births. In 9 of the 10 term pregnancies the patient was delivered per vaginam, and only one had to be delivered by cesarean section. There was no maternal mortality. In the past, unpredictable exacerbations of ulcerative colitis have been a serious danger in pregnancy. The experiences here recorded show that young women with otherwise intractable colitis can be treated by ileostomy and colectomy without fear of subsequent inability to bear children.
BFRF1 of Epstein-Barr Virus Is Essential for Efficient Primary Viral Envelopment and Egress

ABSTRACT The molecular mechanisms that underlie maturation and egress of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) virions are only partially characterized. We have recently shown that the BFRF1 gene, the EBV positional homolog of herpes simplex virus type 1 and pseudorabies virus UL34, is expressed early during EBV lytic replication and that it is found predominantly on the nuclear membrane (A. Farina, R. Santarelli, R. Gonnella, R. Bei, R. Muraro, G. Cardinali, S. Uccini, G. Ragona, L. Frati, A. Faggioni, and A. Angeloni, J. Virol. 74:3235-3244, 2000). These data suggest that the BFRF1 protein might be involved in viral primary envelopment. To precisely determine the function of this protein, we have constructed an EBV mutant devoid of the BFRF1 gene (BFRF1-KO). 293 cells carrying BFRF1-KO showed no differences in comparison with wild-type EBV in terms of DNA lytic replication or expression of late viral proteins upon induction of the lytic cycle. However, binding assays and infection experiments using cell lines or human cord blood lymphocytes showed a clear reduction in the viral mutant titers. Complementation experiments with BFRF1-KO and a BFRF1 expression vector restored viral titers to levels similar to those for the wild-type control, showing that the modifications that we introduced were limited to the BFRF1 gene. Electron microscopic observations showed that the reduction in viral titers was due to sequestration of EBV nucleocapsids in the nuclei of lytically induced cells. This suggests that BFRF1 is involved in transport of the maturing virion across the nuclear membrane. This hypothesis was further supported by the observation that BFRF1 is present in maturing intracellular virions but not in their extracellular counterparts. This implies that BFRF1 is a key protein for EBV maturation.
Gene cloning, expression and serological evaluation of the 12-kDa antigen-B subunit from Echinococcus granulosus

Abstract A 12-kDa subunit of antigen B from Echinococcus granulosus has recently been cloned, expressed and used in diagnostic ELISA to test human sera for evidence of cystic echinococcosis. The performance of the ELISA based on the recombinant antigen (rAgB) was compared with that of similar assays based on native antigen B (nAgB) or hydatid-cyst fluid. For the preparation of the rAgB, total RNA was extracted from Ec. granulosus protoscoleces so that antigen-B complementary DNA could be synthesised, amplified by PCR, and then cloned into the pQE30 expression vector. The recombinant plasmid was transformed in Escherichia coli and induced using isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyrano-side. Bacterial samples were collected, lysed and then analysed by SDS–PAGE and western blotting. The recombinant protein was purified by affinity chromatography. Although the performance of the ELISA based on cyst fluid appeared identical to that of the assay based on the recombinant antigen (with a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of 96.0%, 97.0%, 97.2% and 95.5%, respectively), the corresponding results for the ELISA based on nAgB (98.6%, 100%, 100% and 98.5%) were slightly better. Despite this difference (which was not statistically significant), the comparative ease with which large quantities of the recombinant antigen could be produced make the antigen a potentially useful tool in the diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis.
SETD6 regulates NF-κB signaling in urothelial cell survival: Implications for bladder cancer

Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer has a high recurrence rate of 45-70%, progressing to muscle invasive disease in about 15% of those patients over a 5-year period. Administration of the mycobacterium, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) that induces local inflammation resulting in tumor remission in responsive patients is frequently used for treatment. BCG-treated patients with NF-κB del/del genotype have an increased risk of recurrence suggesting an important role of NF-κB in bladder cancer. Since protein methyltransferases play critical roles in modulating chromatin structure and gene expression, we screened a focused array of epigenetic modification genes to identify differential expression between normal urothelial and bladder cancer cells. We found and validated high expression of the SET-domain-containing protein methyltransferase, SETD6. SETD6 monomethylates NF-κB-p65 at lysine 310. Our results show that primary urothelial cells and normal bladder tissue have nearly undetectable message and protein level of SETD6 that increases in transformed urothelial cells and is further increased in bladder cancer cells and tissues. Overexpression of SETD6 in transformed urothelial cells increased cell survival and colony formation while knockdown in cancer cells decreased both parameters. Luciferase reporter assays showed that SETD6 induced the canonical NF-κB signaling pathway. Further, the use of catalytic SETD6 and IκBα mutant shows that SETD6 positively regulates survival by affecting p65 message, protein level and its function as determined by increased expression of NF-κB target genes. Our findings suggest that SETD6 plays an important role in NF-κB regulation and may have an important role in NF-κB-mediated local inflammatory response following BCG treatment.
DistributedNet: A reasonable pricing and flexible network architecture for datacenter

Data Center Traffic has the nature of diversity, variability and unpredictability. Due to the varying link state, the network bandwidth value changes. Traditionally, most of the t cloud providers employ static strategies based on predicting or pre-testing tenants' traffic characteristics [5] [8] [6]. Since no perfect traffic prediction methods have been proposed so far, these static methods result in unsatisfactory resource utilization and unreasonable cost. Therefore, this paper aims at designing a decentralized resource allocation method and a dynamic pricing policy based on network state and tenant demands. We can achieve work conservation and adaptability pricing with our network architecture. The simulation results show that DistributedNet can provide performance isolation, differentiated service and min-bandwidth guarantee.
Factors Influencing the Attendance Rate at Accident and Emergency Departments in East London: The Contributions of Practice Organization, Population Characteristics and Distance

Objectives: To examine the contribution of general practice organisation, population characteristics and distance to practice attendance rates at four local accident and emergency departments. Design: Practice-based study examining variations in accident and emergency department attendance rates in 105 practices, using routine data from the Family Health Services Authority (FHSA), the District Health Authority and the 1991 Census. Setting: East London and the City Health Authority, covering practices based in the inner city boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham, and the City of London. Main outcome measure: Practice-based, age-standardized, adult attendance rates at accident and emergency departments in the year to 31 March 1994. Results: Annual age-standardized practice accident and emergency department attendance rates ranged from 10.3 to 29.4 per 100 population. The mean practice attendance rate was 17.6 per 100 (95% CI 16.8–18.4). No significant relationship was found between attendance rates and practice characteristics (number and sex of general practitioner (GP) principals, presence of practice manager or nurse, computerization and training status). There were strong positive relationships between attendance rates and households not owner-occupied (R = 0.55, P < 0.001) and pensioners living alone (R = 0.55, P < 0.001). There were negative correlations with Asian ethnicity (R = −0.31, P = 0.002) and residents lacking amenities (R = −0.26, P = 0.007). The distance to the nearest accident and emergency department also correlated negatively with attendance (R = −0.27, P = 0.006). A backwards multiple regression model showed that 48% of the variation in attendance rates could be accounted for by six factors: Percentage of households not owner occupied, percentage living in households without a car, percentage living in households lacking amenities, percentage of pensioners living alone, percentage of Asian ethnicity, and percentage living in households with a head born in the New Commonwealth and Pakistan. Optimal subsets regression identified a number of alternative models with similar explanatory value. Conclusions: Social deprivation is strongly linked with attendance rates at accident and emergency departments in East London. In contrast, the organizational characteristics of general practices appear to have no bearing on the rates. Both purchasers and providers need to take account of these findings when planning accident and emergency provision.