Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental and biological monitoring of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX) exposure in residents living near gas stations

ABSTRACT The volatile organic compounds benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) are emitted into the atmosphere at gas stations (GS) leading to chronic exposure of nearby residents, which raises public health concerns. This study aimes at determining the contribution of GS emissions to BTEX exposure in nearby residents. Three Control and Exposed areas to BTEX emissions from GS were defined in a medium-sized European city (Porto, Portugal). BTEX atmospheric levels were determined in Control and Exposed areas using passive samplers deployed outdoors (n = 48) and indoors (n = 36), and human exposure was estimated for 119 non-smoking residents using the first urine of the day. Results showed that median BTEX outdoor and indoor concentrations were significantly higher for Exposed than Control areas, with exception of ethylbenzene and xylene indoor concentrations, where no marked differences were found. Comparison of urinary concentrations between Exposed and Control residents demonstrated no significant differences for benzene and ethylbenzene, whereas levels of toluene and xylene were significantly higher in Exposed residents. No marked correlation was obtained between atmospheric BTEX concentrations and urinary concentrations. Data indicate the potential impact on air quality of BTEX emissions from GS, which confirms the importance of these findings in urban planning in order to minimize the impact on health and well-being of surrounding populations.
Multipoint Fiber Loop Ringdown Sensors for Large Strain Measurement Using Frequency-Shifted Interferometry

A novel multipoint fiber loop ringdown (FLRD) strain sensing system using frequency-shifted interferometry (FSI) is proposed and experimentally validated. Compared to conventional multipoint FLRD techniques, this scheme measures the decay rate of the continuous wave (CW) light in the space domain and thus greatly reduces the cost without the requirement of expensive devices. A serial dual-point strain sensing system was experimentally constructed and a biconical tapered multimode fiber (MMF) as the sensor head was used for obtaining the large measuring range. By applying different strains on the sensor heads through translation stages, a linear response between strain and additional loss induced by strain sensor was obtained, and the static strain sensitivities of 0.13676 dB/mε and 0.19665 dB/mε were achieved, corresponding to the detection limit of 0.0123 dB and 0.0360 dB, respectively. Moreover, a large measuring range of approximately 6 mε was achieved for both strain sensors. The experimental results indicate that our proposed method offers a promising multipoint strain sensor which has the advantages of low cost, a simple sensing structure and a large measuring range.
The 35Spromoter-driven mDII auxin control sensor is uniformly distributed in leaf primordia.

The DII auxin sensor has been an invaluable tool for mapping the spatiotemporal auxin response and distribution in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The DII sensor and the mDII control sensor are driven by the widely used constitutive 35 S promoter. Recently, however, the reliability of the DII sensor has been questioned(Bhatia et al. 2019). They argued that the 35 S promoter activity is biased toward leaf primordium adaxial side that face the shoot apical meristem (SAM). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
An overview of the phenological observation network and the phenological database of Germany's national meteorological service (Deutscher Wetterdienst)

Abstract. First phenological observations have been performed in Germany already in the 18th century. The onset dates of characteristic phases of plant development (phenological phases) are observed and recorded. Today, Germany's national meteorological service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) maintains a dense phenological observation network and a database with phenological observations. The data are used in many applications, esp. for advisory activities to agriculture or pollen dispersion information.
Invasive Aspergillosis by Aspergillus flavus: Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Antifungal Resistance, and Management

Aspergillus flavus is the second most common etiological agent of invasive aspergillosis (IA) after A. fumigatus. However, most literature describes IA in relation to A. fumigatus or together with other Aspergillus species. Certain differences exist in IA caused by A. flavus and A. fumigatus and studies on A. flavus infections are increasing. Hence, we performed a comprehensive updated review on IA due to A. flavus. A. flavus is the cause of a broad spectrum of human diseases predominantly in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa possibly due to its ability to survive better in hot and arid climatic conditions compared to other Aspergillus spp. Worldwide, ~10% of cases of bronchopulmonary aspergillosis are caused by A. flavus. Outbreaks have usually been associated with construction activities as invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients and cutaneous, subcutaneous, and mucosal forms in immunocompetent individuals. Multilocus microsatellite typing is well standardized to differentiate A. flavus isolates into different clades. A. flavus is intrinsically resistant to polyenes. In contrast to A. fumigatus, triazole resistance infrequently occurs in A. flavus and is associated with mutations in the cyp51C gene. Overexpression of efflux pumps in non-wildtype strains lacking mutations in the cyp51 gene can also lead to high voriconazole minimum inhibitory concentrations. Voriconazole remains the drug of choice for treatment, and amphotericin B should be avoided. Primary therapy with echinocandins is not the first choice but the combination with voriconazole or as monotherapy may be used when the azoles and amphotericin B are contraindicated.
Investigation into Undergraduate International Students' Use of Digital Technology and Their Application in Formal and Informal Settings.

Digital technologies are being increasingly used in wider society including in educational settings. There are many examples that illustrate how universities embed technology enhanced learning within their educational provision. However there has been less research and evaluation of how these and other readily available technology based resources are being used in practice by students. This study aims to provide an in depth understanding of how a specific subset of higher education students, international STEM undergraduates in a large UK university are using digital technologies to support their studies. The results of a survey with a small group of students are reported. Initial findings show that students use technology in both formal and informal settings drawing on university resources but also other widely available resources. They are also routinely using more than one device to support their studies. Although they often use technology to support collaborative learning, more formal systems such as university provided discussion forums are not widely used. The results suggest that higher education should evaluate its use of digital technology and digital learning environments to determine if they are fully supporting their learners’ needs and are effective. Furthermore higher education should consider how students are already using other widely available digital technology resources to support their learning and what they can learn from this to inform their own programme design and delivery.
SISTEMA DE ALTA DISPONIBILIDADE EM BANCO DE DADOS MYSQL UTILIZANDO LINUX LVS

Este trabalho visa oferecer uma solucao de baixo custo no armazenamento de informacoes em um sistema tolerante a falhas por meio da utilizacao de um cluster computacional. Viavel as pequenas empresas devido seu baixo custo de implantacao, este cluster oferece alta disponibilidade no funcionamento de um banco de dados em funcao das configuracoes que permitem monitorar possiveis falhas em nos secundarios, continuando seu servico de forma transparente ao usuario. Conclui-se que esta estrutura pode ser construida com hardwares low-end e softwares open-source , sendo uma opcao viavel para empresas se manterem competitivas e eficientes na area de gerenciamento de informacoes com baixo investimento.
Evaluating software maintenance support tools for their support of program comprehension

New tools that purport to help programmers understand software during maintenance and evolution are appearing on the market with increasing frequency. Just how good are they at supporting software comprehension is frequently only "demonstrated" by anecdote or hearsay. This paper reports on an analysis infrastructure for formally performing such evaluation, and on an application of the evaluation instrument to an existing tool, Lemma.
In the Intersubjective Space: Hypnosis Through a Neuropsychological Lens

This article explores five interwoven principles about relationship that impact on attentional focus as it relates to the practice of clinical hypnosis. It first reviews how relationship is an irreducible feature of life that greatly predates the arrival of human beings. Second, it describes brain structures that, from an evolutionary perspective, appeared relatively recently, and the neuropsychological abilities those structures confer on human relationships. Third, it links those social brain structures to trance, an inborn response to novelty that is an important feature of our adaptive learning capacity. It further suggests that narrative is a multilevel concept that is deeply embodied and constitutes the sorbate from which hypnotic interactions can draw their rich impact. Finally, the article posits that hypnosis represents a skill set through which attuned clinicians engage in co-creative dances with clients, where the choreography of their interaction attends and responds to spontaneously arising and/or deliberately seeded opportunities for adaptive change. Reconstructed descriptions of interactions with clients are provided to illustrate the application of the principles presented.
Mixed Mode VLSI Implementation of a Neural Associative Memory

A mixed mode digital/analog special purpose VLSI hardware implementation of an associative memory with neural architecture is presented. The memory concept is based on a matrix architecture with binary storage elements holding the connection weights. To enhance the processing speed analog circuit techniques are applied to implement the algorithm for the association. To keep the memory density as high as possible two design strategies are considered. First, the number of transistors per storage element is kept to a minimum. In this paper a circuit technique that uses a single 6-transistor cell for weight storage and analog signal processing is proposed. Second, the device precision has been chosen to a moderate level to save area as much as possible. Since device mismatch limits the performance of analog circuits, the impact of device precision on the circuit performance is explicitly discussed. It is shown that the device precision limits the number of rows activated in parallel. Since the input vector as well as the output vector are considered to be sparsely coded it is concluded, that even for large matrices the proposed circuit technique is appropriate and ultra large scale integration with a large number of connection weights is feasible.
Syntax and semantics of a high-level intermediate representation for ASF+SDF

Developing a compiler for \asdf\ has been a challenging task. The compilation of \asdf\ is performed using an intermediate language \muasf, an abstract syntax representation of \asdf. Although \asdf\ is quite simple to use, it provides a number of features which have an unclear semantics. By means of a number of examples in \muasf\ and a more mathematical notation a number of these semantic issues are clarified. These examples are helpful for both the compiler designer and the specification writer.
Silencing of GPR82 with Interference RNA Improved Metabolic Profiles in Rats with High Fructose Intake

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a clinical condition, constituted by alterations that lead to the onset of type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It has been reported that orphan G-protein-coupled receptor 82 (GPR82) participates in metabolic processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the function of GPR82 in MS using a small interfering RNA (siRNA) against this receptor. We used Wistar rats of 10–12 weeks of age fed with a high-fructose solution (70%) for 9 weeks to induce MS. Subsequently, the rats were treated with an intrajugular dose of an siRNA against GPR82 and the effects were evaluated on day 3 and 7 after administration. On day 3 the siRNA had a transient effect on decreasing blood pressure and triglycerides and increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which recovered to the MS control on day 7. Decreased gene expressions of GPR82 mRNA in the aorta and heart were observed on day 3; moreover, decreased gene expression was maintained in the aorta on day 7. Therefore, we conclude that the orphan receptor GPR82 participates in the development of MS induced by fructose and the silencing of this receptor could ameliorate metabolic components.
A characterization of changes in the dynamics of muscle contraction during prolonged electrical stimulation

Reports the use of EMG signals, obtained from surface electrodes, to track changes in the generated torque at the knee, when the quadriceps muscle in paraplegic subjects was electrically stimulated using percutaneous intramuscular electrodes. This was done under isometric conditions, during six minutes of sustained stimulation at constant amplitude, pulse width and pulse frequency. It was observed that the generated torque and the mean absolute value of the evoked EMG decrease, but that the relationship between these to quantities is approximately linear. An autoregressive model of the joint torque was identified and analyzed. It was found that the corresponding z-plane poles move outwards toward the unit circle during sustained stimulation, in a path that indicates decreasing stability, decreasing damping and decreasing natural frequency of a corresponding continuous time model. <<ETX>>
A NEW DISTRIBUTED WEIGHTED MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING ALGORITHM FOR LOCALIZATION IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

There are various applications in wireless sensor networks which require knowing the relative or actual position of the sensor nodes, but adding GPS receivers or other sophisticated sensors to every node can be expensive. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a recent localization technique that it uses connectivity information. In this paper, we propose a new iterative distributed localization algorithm based on Multidimensional Scaling in which each sensor updates its position estimate by minimizing the corresponding local cost function, after taking measurements and initial position estimate from its neighboring nodes. The experiments show the proposed algorithm reduces communication cost, complexity, and convergence time.
SINS/Landmark Integrated Navigation Based on Landmark Attitude Determination

Based on the situation that the traditional SINS (strapdown inertial navigation system)/CNS (celestial navigation system) integrated navigation system fails to realize all-day and all-weather navigation, this paper proposes a SINS/Landmark integrated navigation method based on landmark attitude determination to solve this problem. This integrated navigation system takes SINS as the basic scheme and uses landmark navigation to correct the error of SINS. The way of the attitude determination is to use the landmark information photographed by the landmark camera to complete feature matching. The principle of the landmark navigation and the process of attitude determination are discussed, and the feasibility of landmark attitude determination is analyzed, including the orthogonality of the attitude transform matrix, as well as the influences of the factors such as quantity and geometric position of landmarks. On this basis, the paper constructs the equations of the SINS/Landmark integrated navigation system, testifies the effectiveness of landmark attitude determination on the integrated navigation by Kalman filter, and improves the navigation precision of the system.
Vagal innervation of the stomach reassessed: brain−gut connectome uses smart terminals

Brain−gut neural communications have long been considered limited because of conspicuous numerical mismatches. The vagus, the parasympathetic nerve connecting brain and gut, contains thousands of axons, whereas the gastrointestinal (GI) tract contains millions of intrinsic neurons in local plexuses. The numerical paradox was initially recognized in terms of efferent projections, but the number of afferents, which comprise the majority (≈ 80%) of neurites in the vagus, is also relatively small. The present survey of recent morphological observations suggests that vagal terminals, and more generally autonomic and visceral afferent arbors in the stomach as well as throughout the gut, elaborate arbors that are extensive, regionally specialized, polymorphic, polytopic, and polymodal, commonly with multiplicities of receptors and binding sites—smart terminals. The morphological specializations and dynamic tuning of one‐to‐many efferent projections and many‐to‐one convergences of contacts onto afferents create a complex architecture capable of extensive peripheral integration in the brain−gut connectome and offset many of the disparities between axon and target numbers. Appreciating this complex architecture can help in the design of therapies for GI disorders.
Take a Look at This! Form, Function and Productivity of English Light Verb Constructions

English light verb constructions (LVCs), such as make an offer and take a bath, are semi-productive constructions: while some novel combinations of a light verb and eventive or stative noun are acceptable, others are not. LVCs tend to occur in families defined by a shared light verb and semantically similar nominal complements, but it remains mysterious precisely how such families are circumscribed; this presents both theoretical and natural language processing (NLP) challenges. This research first aims to address the void in linguistic resources identifying LVCs in a consistent fashion with the development of annotation guidelines for LVCs within the PropBank project. Using the resulting annotated corpus of LVCs, another theoretically important question of why LVCs exist alongside semantically similar lexical verbs is addressed: corpus evidence demonstrates that the ease and variety with which LVCs can be modified is the primary motivating factor for their use over a lexical verb. Finally, large-scale acceptability studies are used to examine the constraints on LVC productivity; the results reveal the importance of statistical preemption in modeling productivity.
PARAMETRIC STUDY OF A MULTISCALE FLUIDIC SYSTEM USING A HYBRID CFD-MD APPROACH

Hybrid continuum uid dynamics (CFD) molecular dynamics (MD) simula- tion methodology is a reliable simulation approach capable of accurately describing the ow at both molecular and macroscopic scales. In this approach the continuum and molecular domains are coupled through an overlap region that facilitates the exchange of information between them forcing the two descriptions to match each other by imposing constrained molecular dynamics and boundary conditions based on time and spatial averaging of rel- evant physical properties in the overlap region. Despite the recent developments reported in literature, most of them tested against small idealized pure atomistic simulations, there are a few methodological and implementation issues that need further renement, testing
Instructions for Formatting JIOS Articles: A Microsoft Word Template

This document describes the required formatting of JIOS papers, including margins, fonts, citation styles, and figure placement. The template provided here is made to coincide with jios.sty LaTeX style. While the format requirements are only compulsory for final submissions, we strongly encourage authors to adopt this template, as well as its recommendations throughout the submission process.
Applications of Photobiomodulation Therapy to Musculoskeletal Disorders and Osteoarthritis with Particular Relevance to Canada.

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders caused by osteoarthritis (MSDs/OA) are a growing problem in the modern industrialized society in Canada. Overall aging of the general population and a progressive lack of exercise contribute to this alarming increase. Moreover, a range of chronic conditions including cardiovascular and mental diseases show significantly higher comorbidity with MSDs/OA. Conventional medical treatment for MSDs/OA includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and opiate pain killers. These drugs have major drawbacks such as a relative lack of efficacy, potential for addiction, and even death (Vioxx scandal). Photobiomodulation (PBM) was discovered over 50 years ago but has still not attained widespread acceptance by the medical community. This is partly due to uncertainty about the precise molecular mechanisms of action and a bewildering array of different wavelengths and dosimetric parameters employed in reported studies. Objective: The goal of this review was to survey literature reports of PBM, also known as low-level laser therapy used for treatment of MSDs/OA, concentrating on the growth over time, different wavelengths employed, and application to different joints. Methods: We searched the PubMed database for publication of study on PBM to treat the most common joints. Results: We show that the field of PBM to treat MSDs/OA is expanding exponentially over the past 20 years. A trend has emerged over time for more power to achieve better effective treatments, and the understanding of the physiological effect of safe parameters has improved. There is, however, no consensus on the best set of parameters to treat a specific patient indication. Conclusions: Finally, we highlight gaps in our knowledge and the barriers to further clinical trials. We suggest that the growing body of evidence indicating efficacy, and the almost total lack of side effects, should encourage continued clinical research to support clinical applications where better rehabilitation treatments are much needed.
Accuracy analysis of the serial-parallel micromotion manipulator

The 6 DOF serial-parallel micromotion manipulator discussed in this paper comprises two 3 DOF parallel mechanisms connected in series with one another. Manufacturing tolerances, actuation errors, link offsets, and connection errors of two stages cause deviations with respect to the nominal structural parameters of the manipulator. If the nominal values of these parameters are used within the control software of the manipulator, the resulting pose of the end-effector will be inaccurate. In order to evaluate the effects of the above factors upon the pose accuracy, a vector arithmetic method is applied to establish the relations between the pose accuracy and manufacturing tolerances, actuation errors, and connection errors of two parallel mechanisms. Some results which are very useful to the design and manufacture of the micromotion manipulator are derived. The analysis method can also be used on the accuracy analysis of other type parallel or serial-parallel mechanisms.