Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Clustering Protocol for Maximum Coverage in Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

The optimum use of coverage in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is very important. The hierarchical routing protocol LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) is referred to as the basic algorithm of distributed clustering protocols. LEACH allows clusters formation. Each cluster has a leader called Cluster Head (CH). The selection of CHs is made with a probabilistic calculation. It is supposed that each non-CH node join a cluster and becomes a cluster member. Nevertheless, some CHs can be concentrated in a specific part of the network. Thus several sensor nodes cannot reach any CH. As a result, the remaining part of the controlled field will not be covered; some sensor nodes will be outside the network. To solve this problem, the authors propose O-LEACH (Orphan Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy), a routing protocol that takes into account the orphan nodes. O-LEACH presents two scenarios, a gateway and sub cluster that allow the joining of orphan nodes. A Clustering Protocol for Maximum Coverage in LargeScale Wireless Sensor Networks
Challenging Conventional Approaches to Managing Wastewater Use in Agriculture

In Drechsel, Pay; Scott, C. A. ; Raschid-Sally, Liqa; Redwood, M. ; Bahri, Akissa (Eds.). Wastewater irrigation and health: assessing and mitigating risk in low-income countries. London, UK: Earthscan; Ottawa, Canada: International Development Research Centre (IDRC); Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
Retrospective protocols in usability testing: a comparison of Post-session RTA versus Post-task RTA reports

ABSTRACT We present the results of a study that compared two placements of the Retrospective Think-aloud (RTA): A Post-session RTA where the think-aloud occurs after all tasks are complete, and a Post-task RTA where the think-aloud is elicited after each task. Data from task performance and verbal measures were collected from 24 participants. The results suggest that in terms of task performance, participants in the Post-session RTA condition performed tasks faster, with fewer errors and fewer clicks than in the Post-task RTA condition. In terms of utterances, participants in the Post-task RTA condition produced significantly more utterances that explained actions, expectations and procedural descriptions than in the Post-session RTA condition.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Malaysian Chinese: occupational exposures to particles, formaldehyde and heat.

BACKGROUND During 1990-1992, 282 Chinese residents of Selangor and the Federal Territory, Malaysia with histologically confirmed nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) were interviewed about occupational history, diet, alcohol consumption, and tobacco use, as were an equal number of Malaysian Chinese population controls, pair-matched to cases by age and sex. METHODS Exposures to 20 kinds of workplace substances, solar and industrial heat, and cigarette smoke, were analysed by univariate and multivariate methods. RESULTS Nasopharyngeal carcinoma was associated with occupational exposures to construction, metal and wood dusts; motor fuel and oil; paints and varnishes; certain other chemicals; industrial heat; solar heat from outdoor occupations; certain smokes; cigarette smoking; and childhood exposure to parental smoking. After adjustment for risk from diet and cigarette smoke, only wood dust (OR = 2.36; 95% CI : 1.33- 4.19), and industrial heat (OR = 2.21; 95% CI : 1.12-4.33) remained clearly associated. Wood dust remained statistically significant after further adjustment for social class. No significant crude or adjusted association was found between NPC and formaldehyde (adjusted OR = 0.71; 95% CI : 0.34-1.43). CONCLUSIONS This study supports previous findings that some occupational inhalants are risk factors for NPC. The statistical effect of wood dust remained substantial after adjustment for diet, cigarette smoke, and social class. Intense industrial heat emerged as a previously unreported risk factor, statistically significant even after adjustment for diet and cigarette smoke. No association was found between NPC and formaldehyde.
Taxonomic and Metabolite Diversity of Actinomycetes Associated with Three Australian Ascidians

Actinomycetes are known to be the most prolific producers of biologically active metabolites. Here, we investigated the host species-specificity and the related secondary metabolites of actinomycetes that are associated with three different Australian ascidians, namely Symplegma rubra, Aplidium solidum, and Polyclinum vasculosum. Results indicated that while isolates from the genera Streptomyces and Micromonospora were highly diverse in the ascidian samples, only two culturable actinomycete Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) overlapped between all of the ascidians, pointing to some degree of host species-specificity of the isolates and selective acquisition of microbial associates by the host from the surrounding environment. LC-MS/MS profiling of extracts obtained from the ascidians and their actinomycete associates revealed many overlapping ions between hosts and actinomycetes, indicating that these compounds were likely to be synthesised by the microbial associates. Laboratory cultures of the actinomycetes displayed even more diverse metabolomes than those of their ascidian hosts; thus, making ascidian-associated actinomycetes an excellent target for natural product drug discovery and biotechnology.
Older people with impaired mobility have specific loci of periventricular abnormality on MRI.

To the Editor: I read the article by Benson et al.1 with interest. My own data, based on CT imaging, support their conclusions. In a convenience sample of 343 patients, including patients with stroke, gait was examined with a standardized scale2 and leukoaraiosis rated in seven brain regions using a modification of the van Swieten method.2,3⇓ Neurologic abnormalities were quantified using the NIH Stroke Scale and supplemental scale. The brain region most correlated with gait disturbance was identified by …
Serum microRNA signatures identified in a genome-wide serum microRNA expression profiling predict survival of non-small-cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE Recent findings that human serum contains stably expressed microRNA (miRNA) have revealed a great potential of serum miRNA signature as disease fingerprints to predict survival. We used genome-wide serum miRNA expression analysis to investigate the role of serum miRNA in predicting prognosis of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). PATIENTS AND METHODS To control disease heterogeneity, we used patients with stages I to IIIa lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, who were treated with both operation and adjuvant chemotherapies. In the discovery stage, Solexa sequencing followed by individual quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays was used to test the difference in levels of serum miRNAs between 30 patients with longer survival (alive and mean survival time, 49.54 months) and 30 patients with shorter survival matched by age, sex, and stage (dead and mean survival time, 9.54 months). The detected serum miRNAs then were validated in 243 patients (randomly classified into two subgroups: n = 120 for the training set, and n = 123 for the testing set). RESULTS Eleven serum miRNAs were found to be altered more than five-fold by Solexa sequencing between longer-survival and shorter-survival groups, and levels of four miRNAs (ie, miR-486, miR-30d, miR-1 and miR-499) were significantly associated with overall survival. The four-miRNA signature also was consistently an independent predictor of overall survival for both training and testing samples. CONCLUSION The four-miRNA signature from the serum may serve as a noninvasive predictor for the overall survival of NSCLC.
A conjugate direction search algorithm for ML estimation of frequency offsets in OFDMA uplink

This paper deals with the maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation of carrier frequency offsets (CFO) in OFDMA uplink transmissions. A pilot preamble-based approach is proposed that makes use of the conjugate direction search algorithm. In many earlier works, the multidimensional optimization involved in this joint estimation problem is broken into a series of one-dimensional searches. All these methods calculate the frequency offsets of the different users one after the other. However in this work, the Powell's method of Conjugate Direction Search is made use of, which gives all estimates simultaneously regardless of the number of active users in the system. Its performance is compared with a computationally-efficient approximation of the Alternating Projection algorithm [8]. The method compares favourably in this regard and has the added advantage of flexibilty of application to any subcarrier assignment scheme in OFDMA systems. The performance advantages of this new method are substantiated through simulation studies.
Restrepia pandurata Una orquídea perdida

Esta singular especie se encontro por casualidad hace 136 anos y, como lo explicare mas adelante, el descubrimiento fue fortuito. No se sabe con exactitud el lugar y ni la zona, lo unico cierto es que fue encontrada por Henri Frederick Conrad Sander, entre Bogota y Fusagasuga.
Exogenous Ascorbic Acid Improves Defence Responses of Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus) Exposed to Multiple Stresses

Ascorbic acid is an important antioxidant that plays role both on growth and development and also stress response of the plant. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of ascorbate on physiological and biochemical changes of sunflower that was exposed to multiple stresses. Chlorophyll and carotenoid contents decreased and glutathione, ascorbate and malondialdehyde contents as well as antioxidant enzyme activities increased for sunflower plant that was exposed to 50 mM NaCl and pendimethalin at different concentrations. These changes were found to be more significant in groups simultaneously exposed to both stress factors. While malondialdehyde content decreased, chlorophyll, carotenoid, ascorbate, glutathione contents and antioxidant enzyme activities increased in plants treated exogenously with ascorbate, compared to the untreated samples. According to the findings of our study; compared to individual stress, the effect of stress is more pronounced in sunflower exposed to multiple stresses, and treatment with exogenous ascorbate reduces the negative effects of stress.
Impact of Prior Exercise on Hamstring Flexibility: A Comparison of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation and Static Stretching

Position stands from the American College of Sports Medicine and the Surgeon General site a need for strategies capable of enhancing the effectiveness of stretching on flexibility and joint range of motion. One strategy for enhancing flexibility that has received anecdotal support but lacks substantial experimental evidence is the impact of prior exercise. This study compared 5 minutes of static stretching and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) on hamstring flexibility performed with and without exercise. Forty undergraduate student-athletes participated in a repeated measure, counterbalanced experimental design. Within-group comparisons indicated that PNF resulted in a significant (p < 0.05) increase in flexibility after 60 minutes of exercise when compared with baseline (9.6%) and without exercise (7.8%). No differences were observed with static stretching across time. In addition, no differences were observed between the groups at any time point. Results demonstrated that PNF performed after exercise enhanced acute hamstring flexibility, and implementing a PNF stretching routine following exercise may augment current stretching practices among athletes.
Factors Affecting the Adsorption of Chromium (VI) on Activated Carbon

The aim of this investigation was to determine the adsorption behavior of chromium (VI) on two different activated carbon samples produced from Tuncbilek lignite. The effects of the initial chromium (VI) concentration (250–1000 mg/L), temperature (297–323 K) and pH (2.0–9.5) on adsorption were investigated systematically. The effectiveness of the parameters on chromium adsorption was found to be in the order of pH, the initial Cr(VI) concentration and the temperature. Increasing the pH from 2.0 to 9.5 caused a decrease in adsorption. However, the adsorption was increased by increasing the initial Cr(VI) concentration and temperature. The multilinear mathematical model was also developed to predict the Cr(VI) adsorption on activated carbon samples within the experimental conditions.
A New Fast Multi-Layer Line Detection For Embedded Robotic Application

This paper presents a new multi-layer line detection algorithm that can be used for embedded robotic applications. First, contour points are detected along equally spaced columns or rows. Points are stored into a multi-layer array. Then the line detection algorithm is run layer by layer. It is based on Wall and Danielson algorithm. Experiments have been carried out on real images taken from a robot's built-in camera. The line detection rate and accuracy are evaluated. This new algorithm features several parameters that can be adjusted for various embedded applications
Viral abundance in aquatic systems:a comparison between marine and fresh waters

In order to investigate the factors controlling viral abundance, 22 lakes In Quebec were surveyed. We measured viral and bacterial abundance, bacterial production, chlorophyll a, total phosphorus and DOC (dissolved organic carbon) concentrations. Regression models built with these data were compared to models based on literature data, which to date have been collected largely from marine sites Positive empirical relationships were found between viral abundance and (1) chlorophyll a concentrations, (2) bacterial abundances, (3) bacterial production, and (4 ) total phosphorus concentration. There was little to no trend in the virus-to-bacteria ratio with increasing trophy. Analysis of covariance revealed significant differences between relations in marine and freshwater systems. The virusto-bacteria ratio was significantly higher in freshwater (mode = 22.5) than marine environments (mode = 2.51, and there were significantly more bacteria per unit chlorophyll in our freshwater samples. We suggest that this difference is related to the increased dependence of freshwater bacteria on allochthonous material relative to marine systems, as well as the increased relative importance of photosynthetic cyanobacteria in lakes.
Multivalent Interactions of Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase II with the Postsynaptic Density Proteins NR2B, Densin-180, and α-Actinin-2*

Dendritic calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is dynamically targeted to the synapse. We show that CaMKIIα is associated with the CaMKII-binding proteins densin-180, the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor NR2B subunit, and α-actinin in postsynaptic density-enriched rat brain fractions. Residues 819-894 within the C-terminal domain of α-actinin-2 constitute the minimal CaMKII-binding domain. Similar amounts of Thr286-autophosphorylated CaMKIIα holoenzyme [P-T286]CaMKII bind to α-actinin-2 as bind to NR2B (residues 1260-1339) or to densin-180 (residues 1247-1495) in glutathione-agarose cosedimentation assays, even though the CaMKII-binding domains share no amino acid sequence similarity. Like NR2B, α-actinin-2 binds to representative splice variants of each CaMKII gene (α, β, γ, and δ), whereas densin-180 binds selectively to CaMKIIα. In addition, C-terminal truncated CaMKIIα monomers can interact with NR2B and α-actinin-2, but not with densin-180. Soluble α-actinin-2 does not compete for [P-T286]CaMKII binding to immobilized densin-180 or NR2B. However, soluble densin-180, but not soluble NR2B, increases CaMKII binding to immobilized α-actinin-2 by ≈10-fold in a PDZ domain-dependent manner. A His6-tagged NR2B fragment associates with GST-densin or GST-actinin but only in the presence of [P-T286]CaMKII. Similarly, His6-tagged densin-180 or α-actinin fragments associate with GST-NR2B in a [P-T286]CaMKII-dependent manner. In addition, GST-NR2B and His6-tagged α-actinin can bind simultaneously to monomeric CaMKII subunits. In combination, these data support a model in which [P-T286]CaMKIIα can simultaneously interact with multiple dendritic spine proteins, possibly stabilizing the synaptic localization of CaMKII and/or nucleating a multiprotein synaptic signaling complex.
Phosphatidylinositol‐4,5‐bisphosphate, PIP2, controls KCNQ1/KCNE1 voltage‐gated potassium channels: a functional homology between voltage‐gated and inward rectifier K+ channels

Phosphatidylinositol‐4,5‐bisphosphate (PIP2) is a major signaling molecule implicated in the regulation of various ion transporters and channels. Here we show that PIP2 and intracellular MgATP control the activity of the KCNQ1/KCNE1 potassium channel complex. In excised patch–clamp recordings, the KCNQ1/KCNE1 current decreased spontaneously with time. This rundown was markedly slowed by cytosolic application of PIP2 and fully prevented by application of PIP2 plus MgATP. PIP2‐dependent rundown was accompanied by acceleration in the current deactivation kinetics, whereas the MgATP‐dependent rundown was not. Cytosolic application of PIP2 slowed deactivation kinetics and also shifted the voltage dependency of the channel activation toward negative potentials. Complex changes in the current characteristics induced by membrane PIP2 was fully restituted by a model originally elaborated for ATP‐regulated two transmembrane‐domain potassium channels. The model is consistent with stabilization by PIP2 of KCNQ1/KCNE1 channels in the open state. Our data suggest a striking functional homology between a six transmembrane‐domain voltage‐gated channel and a two transmembrane‐domain ATP‐gated channel.
Demo: A solar-powered wireless parking guidance system for outdoor car parks

In this demonstration, we implement and deploy a solar-powered wireless sensor network in an outdoor carpark to provide parking guidance to motorists. Combining energy harvesting, multi-hop opportunistic routing and adaptive duty-cycling technologies, the system provides low-cost, real-time, sustainable and eco-friendly operation. We make use of solar energy harvesting sources to power our wireless vehicle detection sensor nodes. Upon detecting the presence of a car, this information is transmitted via a multi-hop wireless network to a base station, before being forwarded to the central server for information dissemination to motorists. We will display, in real-time, the variance in the duty cycle and energy level according to the time of day throughout the conference period. For similar demos we typically provide both a live video stream and real-time sensor data from the carpark, displayed on desktop web browsers and mobile devices, so that visitors can see parking lot occupancy data in real-time and compare it with a live video feed, but due to the time difference between Singapore and Seattle, we will be showing a video recording instead.
Econometric Forecasting of Irrigation Water Demand Conserves a Valuable Natural Resource

Natural causes (such as droughts), non-natural causes (such as competing uses), and government policies limit the supply of water for agriculture in general and irrigating crops in particular. Under such reduced water supply scenarios, existing physical models reduce irrigation proportionally among crops in the farmer's portfolio, disregarding temporal changes in economic and/or institutional conditions. Hence, changes in crop mix resulting from expectations about risks and returns are ignored. A method is developed that considers those changes and accounts for economic substitution and expansion effects. Forecasting studies based on this method with surface water in Georgia and Alabama demonstrate the relative strength of econometric modeling vis-à-vis physical methods. Results from a study using this method for ground water in Mississippi verify the robustness of those findings. Results from policy-induced simulation scenarios indicate water savings of 12% to 27% using the innovative method developed. Although better irrigation water demand forecasting in crop production was the key objective of this pilot project, conservation of a valuable natural resource (water) has turned out to be a key consequence.
Does MSI‐low exist?

Microsatellite instability is a well‐recognised phenomenon. Ten to 15% of sporadic colorectal cancers with a high level of MSI form a well defined group with distinct clinicopathological features. The set of tumours with low level of microsatellite instability (MSI‐low), though widely referred to, is not a clearly defined group. The definitions of MSI‐low have varied among groups and between different studies from the same group. Some studies have found associations between the MSI‐L phenotype and molecular features, notably a higher frequency of K‐ras mutations, and, possibly, methylation of methylguanine methyltransferase. Two recent independent studies, however, showed respectively that 68% and 79%, non‐MSI‐H cancers showed some MSI and could therefore be classed nominally as MSI‐L. There was no evidence for a qualitatively discrete MSI‐L group, but quantitative differences in the level of MSI were found. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Illness perception and treatment adherence in patients with chronic heart failure and sideropenic anemia

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to examine whether the perception of the patient’s disease and adherence to treatment process influence treatment outcomes of heart failure. The secondary aim was to analyze whether there were differences in perception and adherence in patients with heart failure in relation to anemia. Method. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 2015. One group consisted of 100 patients with heart failure and sideropenic anemia. The other group consisted of 100 patients without anemia. The standardized questionnaire was used to collect demographic data, the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire to measure the patients’ perception of the disease and modified Clinician rating scale to assess patient’ s adherence. Results: The majority of respondents in the first group were women 63%, while in the second group there were 58% male and 42% female respondents. Respondents from the first group had statistically significantly lower adherence compared to respondents from the second group (χ2 = 23.28; p=0.05). A significant difference was found between the groups of subjects in comparison to the perception of disease control (χ2=18.03; p=0.05). Conclusion: The illness perception and treatment adherence have a significant impact on treatment outcomes of heart failure. Comorbidities, such as anemia, contribute to the patients’ perception of their disease and influence their adherence. Кey words: heart failure, sideropenic anemia, illness perception, adherence doi:10.5937/opmed1902029D