Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel gastroretentive floating system for zidovudine, based on calcium-silicate beads

The aim of the research effort entertained herein was to develop, evaluate and fully characterize a multiparticulate floating gastroretentive system for the modified release of zidovudine (AZT), an antiretroviral drug. AZT was used as a water-soluble model drug at therapeutic doses. The floating gastroretentive system was obtained via polymer coating of calcium silicate-adsorbed AZT. The proposed system was evaluated in vitro for particle micromorphology, lag time for floating and duration of floating, drug loading capacity, drug release profile, and drug release kinetics. The physicochemical properties of AZT were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses, and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses. Results from SEM analysis of the AZT-containing floating gastroretentive granules allowed observation of an irregular surface and the apparent absence of pores. Floating of the AZTcontaining gastroretentive granules was immediately achieved, that is lag time for floating was virtually zero and duration of floating was higher than 12 h. The drug loading capacity of the floating gastroretentive granules was ca. 81.09 ± 14.66%, and the release system thus obtained exhibited an extended drug release profile. Results from DSC and XRD analyses showed a modification in the AZT solid state, while the FTIR spectroscopy analyses revealed that the chemical structure of AZT remained unchanged upon adsorption to calcium silicate followed by polymeric coating. Hence, the coated granules produced presented gastroretentive, floating, and extended drug release properties.
Sound, space, and metaphor: Multimodal access to windows for blind users

As Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are now the standard in human-computer interaction, developing alternate modes of interaction for the blind becomes increasingly important. The goals of the PC-Access project were not only to provide blind users with direct access to GUIs within existing applications but also to allow blind users to reap the benefits of direct manipulation of these interfaces. To keep up with the spread of GUI applications, commercial screen readers are being adapted to these new interfaces (ANPEA, 1996; Andrews, 1995). These screen readers provide access to some of the graphical information on the screen by using voice-synthesis or braille and keyboard commands. These non-visual interfaces generally provide a concise verbal description of graphical elements along with linear access to the screen contents through commands and tabs. Prior to forming a mental image of concepts such as spatial arrangement and elements like icons, menus, window boxes and borders, non-visual interfaces can be very difficult to understand and manipulate. While GUIs may have made using computers easier for sighted people, the blind user remains at a disadvantage.
The Computational Complexity of Games and Markets: An Introduction for Economists

This is an expository survey of recent results in computer science related to the computation of fixed points, with the central one being that the problem of fin ding an approximate Nash equilibrium of a bimatrix game is PPAD-complete. This means that this problem is, in a certain sense, as hard as any fixed point problem. Subsequently many other problems have been shown to be PPADcomplete, including finding Walrasian equilibria in certai n simple exchange economies. We also comment on the scientific consequences of complexity as a bar rier to equilibration, and other sorts of complexity, for our understanding of how markets operate. It is argued that trading in complex systems of markets should be analogized to games such as chess, go, bridge, and poker, in which the very best players are much better than all but a small number of competitors. These traders make positive rents, and their presence is a marker of complexity. Consequences for the efficient markets hypothesis are sketched.
Instant infusion pasteurisation of bovine milk. II. Effects on indigenous milk enzymes activity and whey protein denaturation

Direct heat treatment of two milk types, skimmed and non-standardised, was performed by instant steam infusion and compared with indirect heating. Infusion conditions were temperatures of 72-120°C combined with holding times of 100-700 ms, and indirect heat conditions were 72°C/15s and 85°C/30 s. The activity of indigenous enzymes; alkaline phosphatase, lactoperoxidase, xanthine oxidase and -glutamyl transpeptidase was evaluated. Mainly the infusion temperature was determinant for inactivation. Whey protein denaturation represented by -lactoglobulin increased significantly with infusion temperature. The non-standardised milk had a higher denaturation rate than skimmed milk. The effect of instant infusion on pH and milk fat globule size in relation to whey protein denaturation and association is discussed.
A Prominent Superfood: Spirulina platensis

Our planet’s resources have been declining, as you know. The life qualities of humans have also changed a little because of their economy, nutrition, sports, and family life. Therefore, more alternative resources are being sought after by humans. Also, in the food supply for animals, scientists have been researching different and alternative supplements for growth performance, immunity, reproduction, and metabolism. Spirulina platensis and its contents have been linked to a nutritional component in both human and animal health and welfare. Growth and immunomodulation properties of this supplement have been widely studied in animals and humans, recently. Nowadays, nutritional specifics of S. platensis are a main focus for researchers. S. platensis is a single- cell protein due to its rich components, such as protein, essential amino acids, fatty acids, antioxidant pigments, carotenoids, beta-carotene, and phycocyanin. Today, researchers study the nutritional quality and investigate the effects of S. platensis on growth, immunity, antioxidant, antitoxicologic, anticancerogenic, cholesterol and glucose metabolism, and fertility. For these reasons, S. platensis may be acceptable as an alternative and/or superfood for the next generation. So, we review this information regarding S. platensis using historical background, literature reviews, qualitative studies, and microscopic appearances in this chapter.
Scale‐dependent post‐establishment spread and genetic diversity in an invading mollusc in South America

Aims Our study aimed to characterize the dispersal dynamics and population genetic structure of the introduced golden mussel Limnoperna fortunei throughout its invaded range in South America and to determine how different dispersal methods, that is, human‐mediated dispersal and downstream natural dispersal, contribute to genetic variation among populations.
Convexity and tightness for restrictions of Hamiltonian functions to fixed point sets of an antisymplectic involution

The Kostant convexity theorem for real flag manifolds is generalized to a Hamiltonian framework. More precisely, it is proved that if / is the momentum mapping for a Hamiltonian torus action on a symplectic manifold M and Q is the fixed point set of an antisymplectic involution of M leaving / invariant, then /((? ) — f(M) = a convex polytope. Also it is proved that the coordinate functions of /are tight, using "half-turn" involutions of Q.
Real-Time Depth Estimation from 2 D Images

Single image depth prediction allows depth information to be extracted from any 2-D image database or single camera sensors. We applied transfer learning to the NYU Depth Dataset V2 and the RMRC challenge dataset of indoor images to form a model for single image depth prediction. Prediction on test images had a Root Mean Square Error of . 833 which surpassed previous non-neural network methods. Through experimentation, we found that only performing backpropagation through the last five convolution layers of the VGG net used by transfer learning is better than performing backpropgation through the whole network. We also found that using upsampling/convolution instead of fully connected layers led to comparable results with 8 times less variables. Quantitative results show our predicted images contain course depth information of the objects in the input images. We attempt to explain the limitations of network by examining errors. Next, we attempted to run our model live on a Nvidia TK1 in real time. Using the Microsoft Kinect as a camera, we reached a test time classification rate of around 1 Hz. To test the model’s ability to adapt to settings, we experimented with real time training for the model which improved performance in a localized setting.
Bone resorbing osteoclasts reveal two basal plasma membrane domains and transcytosis of degraded matrix material

Changes of cellular polarity in osteoclasts during resorption cycle was studied. Targeting of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) G-protein has earlier been studied in epithelial cells and in neurons, in which it serves as a basolateral or dendritic marker protein, respectively. In osteoclasts it occupied only the peripheral parts of the circulation facing basal membrane, but not ruffled border membrane or sealing zone area. Apical or axonal markers including Influenza A haemagglutinin were neither targeted to ruffled border area. Instead, they were transported to a limited area in the middle of the osteoclast basal surface. This membrane domain also showed staining for organic bone matrix components. Further works were done to find out the route of degraded bone matrix components to this membrane domain. It is shown in the confocal laser scanning and transmission electron microscopic level that osteoclasts take both organic and inorganic bone matrix dissolution products into intracellular vesicles which then are transcytosed to basal surface and finally exocytosed. One biological function to the new membrane domain seems to be to serve as an endpoint for intracellular handling of degraded bone matrix components, and as a final secretion point to release these components to circulation. This specialized membrane area is named as functional secretory domain (FSD) in this study. Membrane associated fine structures on the FSD area showed some novel membrane associsted structures. Their appearance and amount correlated to the resorption activity of osteoclasts suggesting that these new structures, termed clastosomes and debris, could be directly involved in the handling of bone degradation products during resorption. It is also shown that the bone matrix itself has effect on the resorption activity of cultured osteoclasts.
Challenges in Identification in Future Computer Networks

The knowledge of user identity is a necessity for many network-related tasks, e.g. network management (Grégr et al., 2011), security incident backtracking (Scarfone et al., 2008), authentication and authorisation (Huang et al., 2012; Sanguanpong and KohtArsa, 2013), lawful interception (ATIS/TIA, 2006; ETSI, 2001), and quality of service (Laiping Zhao et al., 2012). Traditionally, an IPv4 address was a suitable identifier for the identification. With the advent of new technologies, such as IPv6 or carrier grade network address translation (CGN/NAT444), the methods for user identification need to be revised (Polčák et al., 2013a). In IPv4, a device usually leases an IPv4 address from a DHCP server in the custody of the network operator. Then, the device applies this unique IPv4 address for all its communication until the lease expires. In contrast, IPv6 introduced several new mechanisms for address assignments. For example, Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) (Thomson et al., 2007) allows an end device to generate as many IPv6 addresses as it needs, e.g. for privacy concerns (Groat et al., 2010; Narten et al., 2007), as long as the addresses are not already used by another device in the network. Note that the addresses are not handled centrally but generated by end devices. Some companies prefer to prioritize specific traffic, e.g. important video calls of a manager with high bandwidth demand. Lately, companies allow their employees to bring their own equipment to work (bring your own device policy). These devices are not registered in the network, consequently, their identity is unknown. Hence, a device of a manager is indistinguishable from other devices; and the traffic of such an equipment cannot be treated according to special rules easily. This Ph.D. research focuses on user identification in future computer networks. The aim is to study the information available in different parts of the network (e.g. local area networks — LANs, backbone networks, content provider networks etc.). The ultimate goal is to propose mechanisms that identify the user even though the user changes his or her IP address. Although the primary aim is at identification of traffic of a specific user, identification of data of a specific computer is also considered since it might ease the primary goal of user identification. In addition, the research takes into account latest network technologies: CGN/NAT444, IPv6 and software defined networking (SDN) are considered during the research. The research is divided into the following areas:
Enhancing Compressed Sensing 4D Photoacoustic Tomography by Simultaneous Motion Estimation

A crucial limitation of current high-resolution 3D photoacoustic tomography (PAT) devices that employ sequential scanning is their long acquisition time. In previous work, we demonstrated how to use compressed sensing techniques to improve upon this: images with good spatial resolution and contrast can be obtained from suitably sub-sampled PAT data acquired by novel acoustic scanning systems if sparsity-constrained image reconstruction techniques such as total variation regularization are used. Now, we show how a further increase of image quality can be achieved for imaging dynamic processes in living tissue (4D PAT). The key idea is to exploit the additional temporal redundancy of the data by coupling the previously used spatial image reconstruction models with sparsity-constrained motion estimation models. While simulated data from a two-dimensional numerical phantom will be used to illustrate the main properties of this recently developed joint-image-reconstruction-and-motion-estimation framework, measured data from a dynamic experimental phantom will also be used to demonstrate their potential for challenging, large-scale, real-world, three-dimensional scenarios. The latter only becomes feasible if a carefully designed combination of tailored optimization schemes is employed, which we describe and examine in more detail.
Nonlinear scanning laser microscopy by third harmonic generation

Third harmonic generation near the focal point of a tightly focused beam is used to probe microscopical structures of transparent samples. It is shown that this method can resolve interfaces and inhomogeneities with axial resolution comparable to the confocal length of the beam. Using 120 fs pulses at 1.5 μm, we were able to resolve interfaces with a resolution of 1.2 μm. Two-dimensional cross-sectional images have also been produced.
RRT based Path Planning for Autonomous Parking of Vehicle

Path planning is one of the most issues in the automatic parking system for vehicle. This paper presents a path planning method based on rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) with non-holonomic constraint and kinematics model of vehicle. First, the kinematics model of car parking according to the vehicle kinematics equation is set up, and the non-holonomic constraints are put forward. Based on this model, the RRT algorithm is used to search parking path with the constraints. And then, to optimize the search efficiency, two strategies--target preference and bi-RRT are used and also the cost function is added for optimization. Besides, because of the new detected obstacles, a replanning method is used to replan the path using the feature of the RRT algorithm. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is verified on a simulation model based on matlab.
Linearity of fisheries acoustics, with addition theorems

An experiment to verify the basic linearity of fisheries acoustics is described. Herring (Clupea harengus L.) was the subject fish. Acoustic measurements consisted of the echo energy from aggregations of encaged but otherwise free‐swimming fish, and the target strength functions of similar, anesthetized specimens. Periodic photographic observation of the encaged fish allowed characterization of their behavior through associated spatial and orientation distributions. The fish biology and hydrography were also measured. Computations of the echo energy from encaged aggregations, derived by exercising the linear theory with the target strength functions of anesthetized fish and gross behavioral characteristics of encaged fish, agreed well with observation. This success was obtained for each of four independent echo sounders operating at frequencies from 38 to 120 kHz and at power levels from 35 W to nearly 1 kW. In addition to demonstrating the basic linearity of fisheries acoustics, the experiment verified both conventional acoustic measurements on anesthetized fish, at least for averaging purposes, and the echo integration method. Two simple theorems summarizing the meaning of linearity for use with the echo integration method are stated.An experiment to verify the basic linearity of fisheries acoustics is described. Herring (Clupea harengus L.) was the subject fish. Acoustic measurements consisted of the echo energy from aggregations of encaged but otherwise free‐swimming fish, and the target strength functions of similar, anesthetized specimens. Periodic photographic observation of the encaged fish allowed characterization of their behavior through associated spatial and orientation distributions. The fish biology and hydrography were also measured. Computations of the echo energy from encaged aggregations, derived by exercising the linear theory with the target strength functions of anesthetized fish and gross behavioral characteristics of encaged fish, agreed well with observation. This success was obtained for each of four independent echo sounders operating at frequencies from 38 to 120 kHz and at power levels from 35 W to nearly 1 kW. In addition to demonstrating the basic linearity of fisheries acoustics, the experiment verified b.
Adaptive Regularization for Parseval Frames in Image Processing

For image data related to Parseval frames and Gaussian white noise, distributed (or locally adaptive) data fidelity weights for preserving image details while still considerably removing noise from homogeneous image regions in image reconstruction are computed automatically. While the underlying variational model is related to the Rudin-Osher-Fatemi (or total variation) model, the determination of the fidelity weights utilizes the Gumbel statistic for the maximum of a finite number of random variables associated with localized image residuals. An algorithm, which uses hierarchical image decompositions to speed up the iterative parameter adjustment process, is presented and tested numerically for reconstruction from partial Fourier data and for wavelet inpainting, respectively.
A network-based approach for semi-quantitative knowledge mining and its application to yield variability

Variability of crop yields is detrimental for food security. Under climate change its amplitude is likely to increase, thus it is essential to understand the underlying causes and mechanisms. Crop models are the primary tool to project future changes in crop yields under climate change. A systematic overview of drivers and mechanisms of crop yield variability (YV) can thus inform crop model development and facilitate improved understanding of climate change impacts on crop yields. Yet there is a vast body of literature on crop physiology and YV, which makes a prioritization of mechanisms for implementation in models challenging. Therefore this paper takes on a novel approach to systematically mine and organize existing knowledge from the literature. The aim is to identify important mechanisms lacking in models, which can help to set priorities in model improvement. We structure knowledge from the literature in a semi-quantitative network. This network consists of complex interactions between growing conditions, plant physiology and crop yield. We utilize the resulting network structure to assign relative importance to causes of YV and related plant physiological processes. As expected, our findings confirm existing knowledge, in particular on the dominant role of temperature and precipitation, but also highlight other important drivers of YV. More importantly, our method allows for identifying the relevant physiological processes that transmit variability in growing conditions to variability in yield. We can identify explicit targets for the improvement of crop models. The network can additionally guide model development by outlining complex interactions between processes and by easily retrieving quantitative information for each of the 350 interactions. We show the validity of our network method as a structured, consistent and scalable dictionary of literature. The method can easily be applied to many other research fields.
Modeling and Simulation of Piezoelectric Devices

The piezoelectric effect occurs in materials for which an externally applied elastic strain causes a change in electric polarization which produces a charge and a voltage across the material. The converse piezoelectric effect is produced by an externally applied electric field, which changes the electric polarization, which in turn produces an elastic strain. The most known piezoelectric material is quartz crystal. Many other natural crystalline solids, as Rochelle salt, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, lithium sulfate, and tourmaline as well as some man-made crystal as gallium orthophosphate, aluminium nitride (AlN), and langasite exhibit piezoelectric properties. A lot of artificial ceramics as barium titanate, lead titanate, lead zirconate titanate (PZT), potassium niobate, lithium niobate, and lithium tantalite have similar properties. The most known technical application is the piezoelectric transducer. In the last years electromechanical AlN resonators emerged as a very efficient solution for mobile communications filters due to the possibility to be integrated at a relatively low cost together with CMOS circuits in systems on a chip and systems in a package. In most applications the piezoelectric devices have a linear behaviour. In Section 2 the linear and nonlinear equations of the piezoelectric effect are described, a new iterative procedure for solving the nonlinear equations is given, and some aspects of the Finite Element solution are discussed. An electromechanical field analysis of a displacement transducer is presented in Section 3. Sections 4 and 5 show some recent applications in the mobile communication technology. The field analysis of a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator using 3D linear models is presented in Section 4. Some nonlinear effects in power BAW resonators together with their circuit models are discussed in Section 5.