Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Analysis of a Novel Potassium Channel (KCNA1) Mutation in Hereditary Mokymia

Myokymia is characterized by spontaneous, involuntary muscle fiber group contraction visible as vermiform movement of the overlying skin. Myokymia with episodic ataxia is a rare, autosomal dominant trait caused by mutations in KCNA1, encoding a voltage-gated potassium channel. In the present study, we report a family with four members affected with myokymia. Additional clinical features included motor delay initially diagnosed as cerebral palsy, worsening with febrile illness, persistent extensor plantar reflex, and absence of epilepsy or episodic ataxia. Mutation analysis revealed a novel c.676C>A substitution in the potassium channel gene KCNA1, resulting in a T226K nonconservative missense mutation in the Kv1.1 subunit in all affected individuals. Electrophysiological studies of the mutant channel expressed in Xenopus oocytes indicated a loss of function. Co-expres-sion of WT and mutant cRNAs significantly reduced whole-oocyte current compared to expression of WT Kv1.1 alone.
Master Project in Mathematics PRICING CURRENCY OPTIONS USING PARABOLIC PDE Research Report in Mathematics , 2018

The amount spent on option contract is the main problem in option pricing. The problem further gets complicated when there is need to project the future possible price of the option. This is achievable if one can be able to correctly determine the probability of the price increasing, decreasing or remaining constant. Any investor wishing to invest in the stock exchange would wish to make a pro t thus the need for good formulas that give very close solutions to the market prices. This project aims at using nite di erence method to price options using partial di erential equations. Dissertations in Mathematics at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. ISSN 2410-1397: Research Report in Mathematics ©Kamande John Munene, 2018 DISTRIBUTOR: School of Mathematics, University of Nairobi, Kenya
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES WITHIN A CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT : AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

Accumulation of information and knowledge has been the basis of societal transformation since time immemorial. The acquisition and diffusion of knowledge not only leads to new ways of doing things, it provides the impetus for human and social evolution. More than four centuries ago, Francis Bacon, the English philosopher noted that” knowledge is power”. Similarly, about a century ago, Alfred Marshall wrote “knowledge is the engine of growth”. These two statements still hold true today. What has changed since the time of Bacon and Marshall is the pace and rapidity of change, the intensity, and the profound nature of the impacts of these developments on business and research and educational organizations, and indeed on our ways of life. Driven by the phenomenal developments in information and technology applications, led by visionary leaders of relevant business executives, governments and communities, the knowledge-based strategies are gaining increasingly competitive advantages over their rival competitors in significant ways. This paper explores the knowledge management and opportunities it presents particularly for Africa and its peoples. The paper further argues that in the present disposition knowledge has become the key factor in economic competitiveness and more important than raw materials, capital, labour, and exchange rates. Static comparative advantages are no longer enough for countries to be competitive. Countries and organizations that want to compete must become as it were, LEARNING NATIONS; they must continuously learn, upgrade, and seek to get to the future first. To paraphrase Aries de Geus (1998), “knowledge has become the only sustainable competitive advantage”. The 21 century is a knowledge – based century. The paper provides, based on the author’s experience, a glimpse of what can and should be done in terms of developing and managing knowledge in selected sectors of the economy; the use of technology as a catalyst to create value in the African knowledge economy. Equally, the paper points to the undervalued assets of Africa, in the form of tacit and explicit knowledge, which could be harnessed. In above context, the paper also analyzes the importance and the use of knowledge in developing corporate strategies, as well as advocates the need for sharing best practices across research and development institutes and think tanks. The International Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Research
Ascent trajectory tracking for an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle with guardian maps

The emphasis of this article lies in the development of a gain scheduling algorithm for the constant dynamic pressure ascent trajectory. Due to the broad flight envelope and nonlinear characteristics of hypersonic vehicles, a design method of adaptive control based on guardian maps is proposed. Two types of ascent trajectory are considered: acceleration within Scram mode and acceleration across the Ram–Scram mode transition. A velocity-based linear parameter varying model of an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle is established. The gain vector of controller is determined via optimal control theory based on linear quadratic regulator technology with the specified flying qualities. With the iteration of proposed guardian maps approach, the set of controller gain vector within the flight envelope is obtained. The results of nonlinear simulation show that the proposed approach of control system design has the ability to ensure the global stability through the flight envelope and to maintain the flying qualities.
Development of a Method to Produce Granulated Sugar from the Inflorescences Sap of Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) in Ivory Coast: Case of Hybrid PB113+

Aims: To develop a method for transforming inflorescences sap of coconut into crystalline sugar, with a view to diversifying coconut exploitation in Côte d'Ivoire. Study Design: The sap was extracted from inflorescences of row 8 of PB113 hybrid and harvested 03 times a day (07h, 12h and 17h). Three processes for transforming sap into crystalline sugar have been gradually tested, taking into account the quality of the sap, the temperature-treatment time combination and the physical constraints applied to the sap. Place and Duration of Studies: Marc Delorme Station for Coconut Research at the National Centre for Agricultural Research, between May 2015 and July 2016. Methodology: Six coconuts was selected from those that showed no evidence of a history of disease or pest attack. Then, in their leaf corona, the unopened inflorescences, rank 8, were used for sap extraction [12]. On each coconut tree, the sap was collected in a plastic container previously sanitized with water heated to 100°C in a boiling bath and was collected 03 times a day (07h, 12h and 17h). The collected samples were placed in an isothermal cooler before being sent to the laboratory for processing. The transformation of sap into derived products was carried out by thermal spraying of the raw material. The experiments were performed on an electric hot plate (TRIOMPH) equipped with a temperature and time regulator. Heating the sap also required a frying pan and stainless-steel spatulas. A pH meter, a 0.01 electronic precision balance (METTLER BD 202, made in USA) and a refractometer were also used to measure physico-chemical parameters of the sap before and during its transformation. Three (3) processes were tested in this study for the transformation of inflorescences sap into coconut sugar. In each process, variable time-temperature heating combinations were used. Results: Both first one’s processes tested did not produce sugar crystals. Their deficiencies were improved in the 3rd process which resulted in the clear crystallization of the sap. With this process, a first vaporization of the sap was carried out with gradually increasing temperatures up to 140°C for 30 min giving a fairly firm coconut syrup. The syrup was sprayed for a second time at 60°C for 30 minutes to obtain a massecuite, which was then destemmed, crumbled and dried at ambient temperature to provide crystalline coconut sugar. This sugar comes in the form of crystals of irregular grain size with a red coloring, similar to brown cane sugar. The results reveal that the production of 1 kg of crystalline coconut sugar requires the treatment of 6.25 L of coconut inflorescences sap. Conclusion: The extension of the method of production of crystalline coconut sugar must be encouraged and represents an important support for the development of coconut sap in Côte d'Ivoire. However, further studies must be carried out to determine the biochemical characteristics of the coconut sugar produced.
To be neutral or not neutral ? the in-network caching dilemma

ed as a single cache with a total storage of 40K contents. In Fig.2, we show the Hit-Rates experienced by the two CPs depending on the employed cooperative strategy. The Blind Partitioning approach penalizes CP1 and benefits CP2, which receives more cache storage than what it would deserve based on the global popularity of its contents. In fact, CP1 sees a significant increase of its performance if, instead, the Popularitybased Partitioning approach is used. Conversely, CP2 is penalized by such fair assignment of resources. CP1 maximally benefits from the Cooperative Partitioning approach, while CP2 experiences a null Hit-Rate because none of its contents are cached, which results in a discriminatory treatment. Fig. 2 also shows that the ISP significantly benefits from being net-neutral. However, the presented results are not sufficient to state that the ISP would always prefer to employ a NNcompliant caching. In fact, we are aware the maximization of the Hit-Rate is just one of its possible objectives. For example, the ISP may be concerned of performing an effective Traffic Engineering, which depends on other factors beside the global popularity of contents (e.g., their size). In the next Section, we describe the characteristics of a NN-compliant in-network caching. Figure 2: Hit-Rate experienced by CPs and ISP DISCUSSIONS AND FUTURE WORK In this final Section, we present a possible definition of NN-compliant in-network caching and we suggest few research directions toward its enforcement. A Net-Neutrality definition of in-network caching Since caching causes a differentiation of traffic generated by the CPs, the topic of in-network caching should be fully integrated in the NN debate. To take a first step in this direction, let us define NN-compliant in-network caching as the caching process that causes a traffic differentiation only on the basis of the global popularity of contents. Being aware that the maximization of the Hit-Rate is just one of the goals of the ISP, we also advocate a more general definition of NN-compliant caching, that is able to include other objectives based on which the ISP can legitimately perform traffic differentiation (e.g., minimizing the traffic load over their networks).
Towards a Process-Based Characterization of Syllable Effects in Visual Word Recognition

Existing evidence on the role of the syllable in visual word recognition is insufficient to inform the extention of models of single-syllable word reading to the more general case of multi-syllable words. Open questions include what syllable units are relevant (e.g., Max Onset, Max Coda), when and why are they relevant, and for whom? A common paradigm for addressing this issue is the word-splitting manipulation in visual lexical decision, where a visual boundary is introduced within words; this boundary is either consistent or inconsistent with that specified by a theoretical syllable unit. If an advantage is observed for the consistent condition, then a 'syllable effect' has been obtained. Recent work has focused on identifying variables that moderate the effect of such word-splitting manipulations in an attempt to explain the empirical inconsistency in this literature (Chen & Vaid, 2007; Taft, 2001, 2002). This line of enquiry was pursued in two studies employing the word-splitting paradigm in lexical decision. The first study reports a series of three experiments (N=48 x 3) where a combination of random coefficient analysis and multi-level modeling was used to examine the joint contribution of syllabic complexity, lexical frequency, and the tendency of participants to rely on phonology. The results indicate that participants who are most sensitive to homophone interference tend to prefer the 'phonological' Max Onset syllable with lowfrequency words, situating the locus of this effect in lexical phonology. A follow-up study (N=122) using the same analytical technique with a broad set of indicators provides some corroboration of this effect, and additional information suggesting that apparent patterns of syllable preference arise from multiple causes, some of which depend on Print Exposure and/or participant response speed. The results highlight the need to disentangle response speed from other participant characteristics in predicting syllable preference.
The sensitivity of R & D to financing constraints of firms as well of their banks before , during and after the financial crisis

This paper tests for the sensitivity of R&D to financing constraints conditional on restrictions in external financing. Financing constraints of firms are identified by an exogenously calculated rating index. Restrictions in external financing are determined by (i) the specific time period (crisis vs. non-crisis) and (ii) the balance sheet strength of the firm’s main bank in terms of bank capital. Results of difference-indifferences estimations utilizing three time periods: 2002-2006 (pre-crisis) 2007-2009 (crisis) and 2010-2012 (post-crisis) support the theoretical prediction that financing constraints affect R&D. Moreover, we find that the effect of firm financing constraints is more intense (i) in times of stress on financial markets and (ii) when the firm faces restrictions in external financing. Additionally, our results indicate that on average the effect does not persist over time.
Artificial Intelligence Capacity Visual Attention Networks

Inspired by recent work in machine translation and object detection, we introduce an attentionbased model that automatically learns to extract information from an image by adaptively assigning its capacity across different portions of the input data and only processing the selected regions of different sizes at high resolution. This is achieved by combining two modules: an attention sub-network which uses a mechanism to model a human-like counting process and a capacity sub-network. This subnetwork efficiently identifies input regions for which the attention model output is most sensitive and to which we should devote more capacity and dynamically adapt the size of the region. We focus our evaluation on the Cluttered MNIST, SVHN, and Cluttered GTSRB image datasets. Our findings indicate that the proposed model is able to drastically reduce the number of computations, compared with traditional convolutional neural networks, while maintaining similar or better performance.
Hydrologically induced slope deformations detected by GPS and 1 clinometric surveys in the Cansiglio Plateau , southern Alps 2 3 4

21 Changes in groundwater or surface water level may cause observable deformation of the drainage 22 basins in different ways. We describe an active slope deformation monitored with GPS and tiltmeter 23 stations in a karstic limestone plateau in southeastern Alps (Cansiglio Plateau). The observed 24 transient GPS deformation clearly correlates with the rainfall. Both GPS and tiltmeter equipments 25 react instantly to heavy rains displaying abrupt offsets, but with different time constants, 26 demonstrating the response to different catchment volumes. The GPS movement is mostly confined 27 in the horizontal plane (SSW direction) showing a systematic tendency to rebound in the weeks 28 following the rain. Four GPS stations concur to define a coherent deformation pattern of a wide area 29 (12x5 km 2 ), concerning the whole southeastern slope of the plateau. The plateau expands and 30 rebounds radially after rain by an amount up to a few centimeters and causing only small vertical 31 deformation. The effect is largest where karstic features are mostly developed, at the margin of the 32 plateau where a thick succession of Cretaceous peritidal carbonates faces the Venetian lowland. A 33 couple of tiltmeters installed in a cave at the top of the plateau, detect a much faster deformation, 34 that has the tendency to rebound in less than 6 hours. The correlation to rainfall is less 35 straightforward, and shows a more complex behavior during rainy weather. The different responses 36 demonstrate a fast hydrologic flow in the more permeable epikarst for the tiltmeters, drained by 37 open fractures and fissures in the neighborhood of the cave, and a rapid tensile dislocation of the 38 bedrock measured at the GPS stations that affect the whole slope of the mountain. In the days 39 following the rain, both tiltmeter and GPS data show a tendency to retrieve the displacement which 40 is consistent with the phreatic discharge curve. We propose that hydrologically active fractures 41 recharged by rainfall are the most likely features capable to induce the observed strain variations. 42
Cost-benefit analysis of climate change – A methodological overview of recent studies 4

Global warming16 has already begun. Climate change has become a self-propelling and self-reinforcing process as a result of the externality associated with greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Although it is an externality related to humankind, according to a number of unique features we should distinguish it from other externalities. Climate change is a global phenomenon in its causes and consequences. The long-term and persistent impacts of climate change will likely continue over centuries without further anthropogenic mechanism. The preindustrial (equilibrium) level of GHG concentration in the atmosphere cannot be restored since it is irreversible, but if we do not stabilise the actual level of atmospheric concentration, the situation will become much worse than it is now. Assessing the impacts of climate change requires careful considerations because of the pervasive uncertainties and risks associated with it.
coercion in languages in flux

The classical view of semantics that we inherited from Montague is that natural languages are formal languages where semantics specifies the interpretations which can be associated with expressions of the language. In this context coercion might be seen as a slight but formally specifiable disturbance in the formal semantics which shows how the canonical interpretation of an expression can be modified by its linguistic context. In recent years an alternative to the formal language view of natural language has developed which sees the interpretation of language as a more local and dynamic process where the interpretation of expressions can be modified for the purposes of the utterance at hand. This presents linguistic semantics as a dynamic, somewhat chaotic, system constrained by the need to communicate. An interpretation of an expression will work in communication if it is close enough to other interpretations your interlocutor might be familiar with and there is enough evidence in the ambient context for her to approximate the interpretation you intended. On this view of language as a system in flux, coercion is not so much a disturbance in the semantic system but rather a regularization of available interpretations leading to a more predictable system. I will present some of the reasons why I favour the view of language in flux (but nevertheless think that the techniques we have learnt from formal semantics are important to preserve). I will look at some of the original examples of coercion discussed in the Pustejovskian generative lexicon and suggest that the possibilities for interpretation are broader than might be suggested by Pustejovsky’s original work. Finally, I will suggest that coercion can play a central role in compositional semantics taking two examples: (1) individual vs. frame-level properties and (2) dynamic generalized quantifiers and property coercion. [1] how formal are natural languages? The view of natural languages as formal language was extremely important in 20th century linguistics since it gave us a mathematical approach to making precise the apparent chaos of natural language. The formal approach includes formal grammar where languages are seen as sets of strings and associating such strings with structural descriptions as in various forms of transformational grammar. With the advent of formal semantics interpreted languages could be seen as sets
On light by light interactions in QED Theoretical descriptions and experimental observations

In classical electrodynamics photons do not interact. However, in QED this becomes possible. The low energy effective field theory of Euler and Heisenberg is used to describe these interactions, which lead to non-linear corrections to the classical Maxwell equations in vacuum. The influence of effective QED light-by-light scattering on the polarization angle of light is discussed. Axions inducing a birefringence of the vacuum is mentioned. Recent experimental observations of the Very Large Telescope on the polarization angle and polarization degree of optical light from isolated neutron star RX J1856.5-3754 are compared to predictions of the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian in the weak field limit. A non-perturbative calculation could potentially yield better predictions. The measured values are too low to provide evidence for QED vacuum birefringence. Reduction of the experimental error in the future could lead to strong evidence for QED vacuum birefringence. In addition, possible observations on light-by-light scattering of the ATLAS collaboration at CERN are discussed. A non-zero virtuality and a diphoton invariant mass greater than 6 GeV exclude detection of real QED light-by-light scattering. ATLAS detects quasi-real QCD LbyL scattering. Better statistical information concerning the diphoton invariant mass spectrum around 10 GeV is necessary to conclude whether quasi-real QCD light-by-light scattering is detected at this point. At the moment, a diphoton detection from χb,0 and χb,2 diphoton decays cannot be excluded.
] 4 J un 2 01 9 P ATTERN AVOIDANCE IN PERMUTATIONS AND THEIR SQUARES

The vast and prolific area of permutation patterns considers permutations as linear orders. In this concept, a permutation p is a linear array p1p2 · · · pn of the first n positive integers in some order, so that each integer occurs exactly once. We say that a permutation p contains the pattern q = q1q2 · · · qk if there is a k-element set of indices i1 < i2 < · · · < ik so that pir < pis if and only if qr < qs. If p does not contain q, then we say that p avoids q. A recent survey on permutation patterns can be found in [9] and a book on the subject is [4]. This definition does not consider the other perspective from which permutations can be studied, namely that of the symmetric group, where the product of two permutations is defined, and the notion of a permutation’s inverse is defined. Therefore, it is not surprising that pattern avoidance questions become much more difficult if the symmetric group concept is present in them. (See [1], [2] or [5] for a few results in this direction.) One exception to this is the straightforward observation [3] that if p avoids q, then its inverse permutation p−1 avoids q−1.