Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IMPROVING PERFORMANCE OF POLYVINYL BUTYRAL ELECTROSPINNING

Spinning performance (or throughput) is one of critical parameters influencing productivity and price of nanofiber webs. Besides molecular weight of polymer, kind of solvent and concentration of polymer solution, addition of some salts to polymer solution was found to be an effective way to influence both electrospinning throughput and quality of nanofiber web. Influence of the salt of complexing metal ZnCl 2 on the throughput and web quality of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) nanofibers was studied in this work. The salt was added to the solution of PVB in ethanol after molecular weight of polymer and concentration of solution was optimized. Various salt concentrations in terms of molar ratio Zn/–OH were tested using roller electrospinning device. Addition of salt influenced throughput and web quality considerably. Molar ratio Zn/–OH = 1/6 was found an optimum salt concentration.
ASSESSMENT OF HISTOPATHOLOGICAL DAMAGES IN SWISS ALBINO MALE MICE INDUCED BY AUTOMOBILE WASTE LEACHATE

The activities of auto-mechanic workshops in Nigeria are known to adversely affect the environment and pose threat to its biodiversity. This present study examined the testes, liver and kidney histopathological damages in Swiss albino male mice caused by automobile waste leachate from Ipata-Oloje, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. Six treatment groups of 0, 10, 15, 20 and 25% leachate and a positive control each containing four mice per replicate were intraperitoneally administered 0.5 mL leachate sample as well as negative and positive control for 5 consecutive days. The result of heavy metal analysis of the sample presented elements such as Pb, Cd, As, Hg, Cr, Cu, Fe and Zn at concentrations above the permissible limits. The histology of kidney, liver and testes show gross structural abnormalities compared to the negative control. Testes histopathological damage includes shrinking of the tubular epithelium, slight vacuolation, degeneration of the tubular epithelium and atrophy of the germinal epithelium. Liver damages include distorted liver tissue architecture with infiltration, unevenly distributed sinusoids around the hepatic and portal tracts. This study showed organ toxicity arising from automobile waste and will help in proper management and disposal of this waste.
ORIENTATION OF QUICKBIRD, IKONOS AND EROS A STEREOPAIRS BY AN ORIGINAL RIGOROUS MODEL

Interest in high-resolution stereopairs satellite imagery (HRSI) is spread ing in several application fields, mainly for the generation of Digital Elevation and Digital Surface Models (DEM/DSM) and for 3D feature extraction (e.g. for city modeling). The satellite images are possible alternative to aerial photogrammetric, especially in areas wh ere the organization of photogrammetric surveys may result critical. However, the real possibility of using HRSI for 3D applications stric tly depends on their orientation, whose accuracy is related on the imagery quality (noise and radiometry), on the Ground Control Poin ts (often obtained by GPS surveys) quality, and on the model chosen to perform the orientation. Since 2003, the research group at the Area di Geodesia e Geomatica S apienza Universit̀ a di Roma has been developing a specific and rigorous model designed for the orientation of single and stereo imagery cquired by pushbroom sensors carried on satellite platforms. This model has been implemented in the software SISAR (Software Immag ini Satellitari Alta Risoluzione). In this paper the attention is focused on the orientation of QuickBird, IKONOS and EROS A stereopairs. In the first version the model was able to manage along-track imagery acquired with a time delay in the orde r of s conds only; anyway, the cost of stereo data is usually very high, so that it became interesting to investigate which is the quality of the geometric information which can be extracted from stereopairs formed by imagery collected on different tracks and d tes. The SISAR model is tested on QuickBird, EROS A and IKONOS images with dif ferent features; to point out the effectiveness of the new model, SISAR results are compared with the corresponding ones ob tained by the software OrthoEngine 10.0 (PCI Geomatica), where Thierry Toutin’s rigorous model for the imagery elaboration of th e main high-resolution sensors is implemented.
Autonomous Multi-Robot Exploration in Communication-Limited Environments

Teams of communicating robots are likely to be used for a wide range of applications in the near future, such as robotic search and rescue or robotic exploration of hostile and remote environments. In such scenarios, environments are likely to contain significant interference and multi-robot systems must be able to cope with loss of communication. We propose a novel multi-robot exploration approach, role-based exploration, in which members of the team explicitly plan to explore beyond communication range limits. Rendezvous points are calculated carefully to improve the exploration efficiency. A dynamic team hierarchy leads to additional gains. The result is a hybrid centralised/distributed behaviour that adjusts reactively to communication availability and environment size.
ASL: A Domain Speciﬁc Language to Specify Complex Alarm Conditions in the Energy Domain

In energy management timeliness is a fundamental aspect, mainly because faster problem detection enables faster decision making and timely actions in order to solve problems. The combination of energy management systems (EMS) with alarms makes it possible to detect and report anomalies to building energy managers. Eﬀective alarms design typically involves a great deal of domain knowledge and also programming hours — specially when complex conditions are involved. Indeed, EMS alarm deﬁnitions require specifying conditions over streams of data collected from meters and sensors for which no adequate systematic solution exists yet. This work aims to create a solution to support building energy managers in the speciﬁcation of domain speciﬁc alarms involving complex conditions over energy meters and sensor data. This solution will enable users to create new alarms that capture complex patterns over streaming data through a graphical interface without the need to modify the application code. Using this solution building energy managers are able to get more control regarding existing alarms and conditions triggering them. To validate this solution we performed usability tests.
crRNA CRISPR targeting RNA DMD Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy Dmd Dystrophin Fah Fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase FIX Coagulation factor IX HBV Hepatitis B virus HDR Homology-directed repair HSC Hematopoietic stem cell NHEJ Non-homologous end joining OTC Ornithine transcarbamylase PCSK9 Proprotein conve

With the recent advent of several generations of targeted DNA nucleases, most recently CRISPR/Cas9, genome editing has become broadly accessible across the biomedical community. Importantly, the capacity of these nucleases to modify specific genomic loci associated with human disease could render new classes of genetic disease, including autosomal dominant or even idiopathic disease, accessible to gene therapy. In parallel, the emergence of adeno-associated virus (AAV) as a clinically important vector raises the possibility of integrating these two technologies towards the development of gene editing therapies. Though clear challenges exist, numerous proof-of-concept studies in preclinical models offer exciting promise for the future of gene therapy.
Hybrid multi-view reconstruction by Jump-Diffusion

We propose a multi-view stereo reconstruction algorithm which recovers urban scenes as a combination of meshes and geometric primitives. It provides a compact model while preserving details: irregular elements such as statues and ornaments are described by meshes whereas regular structures such as columns and walls are described by primitives (planes, spheres, cylinders, cones and tori). A Jump-Diffusion process is designed to sample these two types of elements simultaneously. The quality of a reconstruction is measured by a multi-object energy model which takes into account both photo-consistency and semantic considerations (i.e. geometry and shape layout). The sampler is embedded into an iterative refinement procedure which provides an increasingly accurate hybrid representation. Experimental results on complex urban structures and large scenes are presented and compared to multi-view based meshing algorithms.
A State-Space Approach to Modelling DC Distribution Systems

Many modelling methods for the analysis of dc distribution grids only consider monopolar configurations and do not allow for mutual couplings to be taken into account. The modelling method presented in this paper aims to deal with both of these issues. A state-space approach is chosen for its flexibility and computational speed. The derived approach can be applied to any dc distribution system regardless of its configuration and takes into account mutual couplings between phase conductors. Moreover, the state-space matrices can be derived in a programmatic manner. The derived model is verified empirically and by a reference model created in Simulink using PowerLib blocks. Subsequently, an illustrative system is analyzed, which shows the utility of the presented method in analyzing the dynamics of dc distribution systems. The presented method is especially useful for the analysis, design, and optimization of, for example, the stability and control systems of dc distribution systems.
Enhancing speech corrupted by nonstationary noise using NMF with multiple constraints

: The enhancement of speech corrupted by nonstationary noises under low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions is remaining open and still a very challenging task. To improve the traditional Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) based speech enhancement, in this paper, jointly taking the speech sparsity property in time-frequency domain and the low-rank property of nonstationary noise into account, a termed multi-constraint NMF speech enhancement method (MC-NMFSE) is developed. Essentially, in training stage, the speech and noise dictionaries have been constructed by using speech and noise training sets, respectively. In the speech enhancement stage, multi-constraint NMF method is adopted where the data matrix is factorized into two nonnegative sub-matrices with the sparsity and low rank constraints to guarantee the good representation of the speech components from their corrupted version by nonstationary noise. Compared with the traditional NMF speech enhancement method (NMF-SpEnM) and MC-NMFSE, intensive experiments under different nonstationary noise conditions and different Signal-to-Noise ratios have been carried out to evaluate their performance. Experimental results demonstrate that MC-NMFSE has lower speech distortion and better capability to suppress nonstationary noises.
Why Do Firms Export? Dumping, Marginal Costs, and the Gains from Trade

We nd that Chilean manufacturing plants are more likely to enter foreign markets when domestic demand is low and are more likely to exit them when domestic demand is high. We argue that this behavior is the result of costs created by limited rm-level capacity. To demonstrate our point, we build a heterogeneous rm model in which rms are endowed with di¤erent levels of xed capacity. The xed capacity gives rms (di¤erent) upward sloping marginal cost curves. With increasing marginal cost, a decline in domestic demand makes exporting cheap at the margin and so rms that didnt export begin to do so. When dometic demand is strong, exporting is expensive at the margin and so some rms exit exporting. The model has a number of additional predictions that are supported by the data. Speci cally, i) domestic and export sales are predicted to be negatively correlated, ii) domestic sales are predicted to fall when a rm enters exporting and to rise when a rm exits exporting and iii) rms should export to few destinations. The existence of increasing costs also have implications for predictions about the impact of free trade on rm level and aggregate productivity. Why Do Firms Export? Dumping, Marginal Costs, and the Gains from Trade.
THE INTERMEDIATE-MASS YOUNG STELLAR OBJECT 08576nr292: DISCOVERY OF A DISK–JET SYSTEM

We present observations of the embedded massive young stellar object (YSO) candidate 08576nr292, obtained with X-shooter and SINFONI on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). The flux-calibrated, medium-resolution X-shooter spectrum (300–2500 nm) includes over 300 emission lines, but no (photospheric) absorption lines, and is consistent with a reddened disk spectrum. Among the emission lines are three hydrogen series and helium lines, both permitted and forbidden metal lines, and CO first-overtone emission. A representative sample of lines with different morphologies is presented. The Hα and Ca ii triplet lines are very strong, with profiles indicative of outflow and—possibly—infall, usually observed in accreting stars. These lines include a blueshifted absorption component at ∼−125 km s−1. The He i and metal-line profiles are double peaked, with a likely origin in a circumstellar disk. The forbidden lines, associated with outflow, have a single blueshifted emission component centered at −125 km s−1, coinciding with the absorption components in Hα and Ca ii. SINFONI H- and K-band integral-field spectroscopy of the cluster environment demonstrates that the [Fe ii] emission is produced by a jet originating at the location of 08576nr292. Because the spectral type of the central object cannot be determined, its mass remains uncertain. We argue that 08576nr292 is an intermediate-mass YSO with a high accretion rate (–10−5 M☉ yr−1). These observations demonstrate the potential of X-shooter and SINFONI to study in great detail an accretion disk–jet system, rarely seen around the more massive YSOs.
Simultaneous Estimation of Telmisartan and Hydrochloro- thiazide by RP-HPLC

The aim of present study is to develop a validated high performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous analysis of two anti-hypertensive drugs, Telmisartan and Hydrochlorothiazide in their tablet dosage form. Chromatographic process was carried on a Hypersil gold C18, 25× 4.6 mm, 5 μm SS column employing degassed and filtered mobile phase of buffer: methanol in their 10:90 ratio. Flow rate was maintained at 0.7ml/min and the eluent was monitored at 327nm. Developed method was validated for the various validation parameters such as precision, specificity, accuracy, linearity, robustness, ruggedness and stability. A good linearity was observed for the drugs Telmisartan and Hydrochlorothiazide over the concentration range of 48-72 μg/ml and 32-48 μg/ml respectively. Results of accuracy and specificity studies assured that there was no interference of excipients from a dosage form with the analyte. The % recoveries of Telmisartan and hydrochlorothiazide were 98.3% and 100%respectively. Robustness and ruggedness results implied that the method was not affected even with the variations in the chromatographic column and analyst respectively. Thus the developed HPLC method was found to be precise, simple, accurate and economical for the simultaneous analysis of the antihypertensive drugs in their tablet dosage forms.
Management of traumatic labral tear in acetabular fractures with posterior wall component

Background: Posterior labral tear is frequently encountered in acetabular fractures with posterior wall component (AFPWC). However, there has been very little information in the literature on the type and management of traumatic labral tears in AFPWC. Hypothesis: Traumatic labral tear is a constant intracapsular injury in AFPWC and can be repaired using adequate methods according to its type and size. Materials and methods: A retrospective study of 14 patients (mean age 38 years [16–58]) who underwent open surgery for AFPWC was conducted using prospectively collected data. The types of posterior labral tear were investigated at intraoperative examination through the ruptured joint capsule or its extension, and were concomitantly managed. Surgical outcomes were clinically assessed using Merle d’Aubigné (PMA) score and Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and radiologically evaluated at final follow-up. Results: Posterior labral tears were present in all 14 patients. The types of labral tear were osseous avulsion and posterior root avulsion tear (n = 9), longitudinal peripheral tear and posterior root avulsion tear (n = 2), longitudinal peripheral tear (n = 2), and osseous avulsion tear (n = 1). All unstable labra in 12 patients (86%) were repaired. All avulsion tears of the posterior root were repaired using a suture anchor, longitudinal peripheral tears using suture fixation or/and suture anchors, and osseous avulsion tears using a spring plate. The mean PMA score and VAS were 16.4 (14–18) and 1.7 (0–3) at final follow-up, respectively. The radiologic grades at last follow-up were good or excellent in all patients. Discussion: All AFPWC in this study consistently revealed posterior labral tear. Posterior root avulsion tears accompanied with osseous avulsion was the most common type. Torn labra should be repaired as much as possible if unstable, considering the important functions of a normal labrum; fixation using a suture anchor may be useful for an avulsion tear of the posterior root. Level of evidence: Level IV, therapeutic case series. © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
ALTO: Active Learning with Topic Overviews for Speeding Label Induction and Document Labeling

Effective text classiﬁcation requires experts to annotate data with labels; these training data are time-consuming and expensive to obtain. If you know what labels you want, active learning can reduce the number of labeled documents needed. However, estab-lishing the label set remains difﬁcult. Annotators often lack the global knowledge needed to induce a label set. We introduce ALTO : Active Learning with Topic Overviews, an interactive system to help humans annotate documents: topic models provide a global overview of what labels to create and active learning directs them to the right documents to label. Our forty-annotator user study shows that while active learning alone is best in extremely resource limited conditions, topic models (even by themselves) lead to better label sets, and ALTO ’s combination is best overall.
Secure Password Management With Smart Cards

Currently, most user authentication services are based on passwords. To avoid mem-orization of multiple passwords, users tend to re-use the same password on multiple systems. As such, ﬁnding the password of the user gives the attacker access to several systems of the user. Some solutions mitigate this problem by allowing users to remember only one password. These solutions, such as Single Sign On or hash based password generators, require trustworthy external services or the generation of multiple dependent passwords. These systems are susceptible to DOS and brute force attacks. Another solution is the use of password managers that store passwords ciphered by a master password. Although being more resistant to DOS attacks, usually they are still susceptible to brute force ones. These solutions also provide weak access control after user authentication, enabling access from non-legitimate applications. The work herein presented proposes a password manager based on smart cards where the pass-words are securely stored inside the smart card and can only be accessed after mutual authentication, eliminating the problem of brute force attacks. To perform access control, the chosen policy bases itself on the identity of the applications, avoiding masquerade attacks. To enable users to access smart card solutions without requiring a reader, a virtual smart card is also proposed, allowing users to access smart cards contained inside smart phones.
Determinants of Democracy

A panel study of over 100 countries from 1960 to 1995 finds that improvements in the standard of living predict increase in democracy, as measured by a subjective indicator of electoral rights. The propensity for democracy rises with per capita GDP, primary schooling, and a smaller gap between male and female primary attainment. For a given standard of living, democaracy tends to fall with urbnization and with a greater reliance on natrual resources. Democracy has little relation to country size but rises with the middle‐class share of income. The apparently strong relation of democracy to colonial heritage mostly disappears when the economic variables are held constant. Similarly, the allowance for these economic variables weakens the interplay between democracy and religious affiliation. However, negative effects from Muslim and non‐religious affiliations remain intact.
Query and Document Models for Enterprise Search

We describe our participation in the TREC 2007 Enterprise track and detail our lan- guage modeling-based approaches. For document search, our focus was on estimating a mixture model using a standard web collection, and on constructing query models by employing blind relevance feedback and using the example docu- ments provided with the topics. We found that settings performing well on a web collection do not carry over to the CSIRO collection, but the use of advanced query models resulted in significant improvements. In expert search, our experiments concerned document representation, identification of candidate experts, and combinations of expert search strategies. We find no significant differ- ence in average precision but observe small overall positive effects of the advanced models, with large differences between individual topics.
Routing people and vehicles inside buildings

Most of the indoor routing systems found in our research lack the means to add new maps to the system and are not generic enough to fit all types of indoor spaces. In order to fill this gap, we propose an open and generic indoor routing system, in order to ease the addition of new maps and the disclosure of the system. The result is an Android smartphone application capable of answering the most challenging route searches. This work describes the application in great detail.The main application feature is generating instructions for the route returned by the route search between a start point and an end point, taking into account possible restrictions the user might choose to avoid such as stairs and elevators. This instructions help the user take the turns and also include reference points witch further enrich the instructions. A 2D map of the building is also shown. The application also includes other features like a point of interest directory, park near a target destination and providing instructions to return to the vehicle. For a building administrator the system will provide a mapping mechanism through the definition of a small set of concepts common to all kinds of buildings. This representation is done through a XML specification witch can be generated through JOSM.