Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Competition between Electricity Providers and Consumers: a Bilevel Model

Designing future electricity provider offers is a key component in the smart grid to effectively reduce power generation costs and user bills, and concretely describe – with fares or prices the interaction between different actors of the electrical system producers, network operators, providers and consumers. A Stackelberg game between providers and consumers is considered, in its standard bilevel form. At the upper level, providers maximize their profit (possibly integrating a cost due to the sourcing part on the electricity markets), which is directly based on the providers choices of the consumers. At the lower level, consumers compare their bill with the different providers; they choose the provider with the smallest associated bill. Three different consumer classes are considered, namely non-flexible, flexible, and flexible with renewable generation and a storage capacity. Decisions of each kind of consumers are constructed by solving sub-problems like scheduling the flexible electrical consumptions, predicting renewable generation and optimizing realtime storage management decisions. We study this model theoretically and numerically. Theoretically, an emerging lower level Nash equilibrium between consumers is characterized, when their decision interact, e.g. when the electricity fare paid by the consumers depend on the total load at the scale of the consumer pool ("endogenous price"). This allows deducing a few properties of the optimal decisions of the providers at the upper level. In particular, a supermodular game is introduced to represent the imperfect rationality of the consumers. Numerically, considering French household consumption data, a best-response like dynamics is implemented to represent the process of yearly decisions update. Choosing the base load as the non-flexible part and water-heating as the flexible one, switching decisions (from one class to another) are analyzed: if the electrical heating cost is significant, a consumer can choose gas instead (and thus becomes a non-flexible consumer, with a lower consumption); if the total energy-dependent bill is subsequent, a more competitive photovoltaic panel can be installed (such a consumer becomes a “prosumer”, reducing the volume sold by the provider). In particular, when the simulated dynamics converges, this gives some insights on the structure of the provider – consumer equilibrium in the proposed setting and how this configuration differs from the current situation.
Late hypoalbuminaemia and albumin metabolism in paraplegic and tetraplegic patients.

1. Plasma albumin concentration was decreased in thirty-five of eighty-six mobilized para- or tetra-plegic patients studied months or years after injury to the spinal cord causing a medullary cross-sectional syndrome. The colloid osmotic pressure was low in thirty-one of eighty-one patients in whom it was measured. Plasma volume was normal in thirty and slightly elevated in three of thirty-three patients in whom it was determined. None had oedema at the time of the investigation. 2. Albumin metabolism was studied in ten patients by means of 131I-labelled albumin. Six of these had a decreased plasma albumin concentration. This was probably caused by an increased fractional catabolic rate, although a statistically significant causal relationship could not be demonstrated. 3. in spite of the low plasma albumin concentration normal compensatory mechanisms such as an increase in rate of albumin synthesis and shift of albumin from the extravascular to the intravascular compartment were not found. On the contrary, for unexplained reasons, the average rate of synthesis and the ratio intravascular/total albumin mass were both decreased.
Outils virologiques dans le diagnostic et le suivi des hépatites C: Utilisation et apport des nouveaux tests

L a découverte du virus de l’hépatite C (VHC) remonte à 1989 [1]. Depuis cette date, de nombreux progrès ont été faits tant au point de vue de la connaissance du virus que celui du diagnostic des infections et de leur prise en charge thérapeutique et virologique. L’objet de cet article est de faire le point sur les différents outils virologiques utiles dans le diagnostic et le suivi thérapeutique des malades infectés par le VHC en tentant également une projection dans un futur proche.
Some remarks on random subsets of interval

In this paper we compare two methods of generation of finite random subsets of the interval [0,1]. Both methods are based on a independent family of random variables uniformly distributed on [0,1]. The first method uses the values of random variables directly as the splitting point. The second one uses i-th variable only for choosing an interval, which is then splitted precisely into two subintervals of equal lengths. We discuss some statistical properties of these methods. The first method corresponds to the well known routing protocol Chord. The second, with better statistical properties, may be used for some modification of Chord and, in fact, corresponds to one-dimensional version of another well known P2P protocol CAN. A modification of Chord based on the idea is very gentle and fairly practical.
Light Duty Tracking and Sensing System Using the Adafruit web

A prototype developed in ProteinLab UTEM for a tracking system and parametric control for light transport loads that require cold chain fulfillment validation in the interdisciplinary work between engineering and design is presented in this article. The work is performed using fast prototyping development boards, such as Arduino MEGA, a communication shield FONA808, and sensors associated with variables such as temperature and humidity, and the recorded data are sent to the IO.Adafruit. com platform in the cloud. The information is displayed in a dashboard and stored for later export and analysis. The use of these development boards optimizes the incorporation of compatible sensors that allow for a registry of variables that are relevant for future system requirement modifications, such as weight or impact sensors. Finally, the prototype development contemplates the concept of the final product being prepared for testing with end-users as part of the working methodology of ProteinLab UTEM, Center for Technological Innovation, which explores the different methods for comprehensively addressing current technological challenges.
Do not tell me what I cannot do! (The constrained device shouted under the cover of the fog): Implementing Symmetric Searchable Encryption on Constrained Devices (Extended Version)

: Symmetric Searchable Encryption (SSE) allows the outsourcing of encrypted data to possible untrusted third party services while simultaneously giving the opportunity to users to search over the encrypted data in a secure and privacy-preserving way. Currently, the majority of SSE schemes have been designed to ﬁt a typical cloud service scenario where users (clients) encrypt their data locally and upload them securely to a remote location. While this scenario ﬁts squarely the cloud paradigm, it cannot apply to the emerging ﬁeld of Internet of Things (IoT). This is due to the fact that the performance of most of the existing SSE schemes has been tested using powerful machines and not the constrained devices used in IoT services. The focus of this paper is to prove that SSE schemes can, under certain circumstances, work on constrained devices and eventually be adopted by IoT services. To this end, we designed and implemented a forward private dynamic SSE scheme that can run smoothly on resource-constrained devices. To do so, we adopted a fog node scenario where edge (constrained) devices sense data, encrypt them locally and use the capabilities of fog nodes to store sensed data in a remote location (the cloud). Consequently, end users can search for speciﬁc keywords over the stored ciphertexts without revealing anything about their content. Our scheme achieves efﬁcient computational operations and supports the multi-client model. The performance of the scheme is evaluated by conducting extensive experiments. Finally, the security of the scheme is proven through a theoretical analysis that considers the existence of a malicious adversary.
Low-Latency Privacy-Preserving Outsourcing of Deep Neural Network Inference

Efficiently supporting inference tasks of deep neural network (DNN) on the resource-constrained Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices has been an outstanding challenge for emerging smart systems. To mitigate the burden on IoT devices, one prevalent solution is to outsource DNN inference tasks to the public cloud. However, this type of “cloud-backed” solutions can cause privacy breach since the outsourced data may contain sensitive information. For privacy protection, the research community has resorted to advanced cryptographic primitives to support DNN inference over encrypted data. Nevertheless, these attempts are limited by the real-time performance due to the heavy IoT computational overhead brought by cryptographic primitives. In this article, we proposed an edge computing-assisted framework to boost the efficiency of DNN inference tasks on IoT devices, which also protects the privacy of IoT data to be outsourced. In our framework, the most time-consuming DNN layers are outsourced to edge computing devices. The IoT device only processes compute-efficient layers and fast encryption/decryption. Thorough security analysis and numerical analysis are carried out to show the security and efficiency of the proposed framework. Our analysis results indicate a 99%+ outsourcing rate of DNN operations for IoT devices. Experiments on AlexNet show that our scheme can speed up DNN inference for $40.6\times $ with a 96.2% energy saving for IoT devices.
P2055R0: A Relaxed Guide to memory_order_relaxed

The out-of-thin-air (OOTA) and read-from-untaken-branch (RFUB) properties of the speciﬁcation of memory_order_relaxed have resulted in considerable consternation over the years. Although there are no known instances of full-blown OOTA behavior, and no known RFUB-induced failures of production code, the theoretical possibility of these properties severely complicates automated analysis of large C and C++ code bases. Thus far, attempts to eliminate OOTA and RFUB properties from the memory model have resulted in otherwise needless added over-heads on weakly ordered systems on the one hand or excessive implementation complexity on the other. However, memory_order_relaxed never was intended to be used in arbitrary code, but rather as a part of deliberate application of speciﬁc concurrency designs. This paper forms an initial catalog of patterns underlying such designs
OPTIMIZATION OF FSW WELDING PARAMETERS ON MAXIMAL TEMPERATURE, VON MISES AND RESIDUAL STRESSES, AND EQUIVALENT PLASTIC DEFORMATION APPLIED TO A 6061 ALUMINIUM ALLOY OPTIMIZACIJA PARAMETARA ZAVARIVANJA TRENJEM SA MEŠANJEM, MAKSIMALNE TEMPERATURE, FON MIZES I ZAOSTALIH NAPONA I EKVIVALENTNE PLASTIČN

Friction stir welding (FSW) has become an important welding technique to join materials that are difficult to weld by traditional fusion welding. The model in this study is a simplified version of the thermomechanical model developed by Zhu and Chao for FSW of aluminium alloy A6061T6. Zhu and Chao presented nonlinear thermal and thermomechanical simulations using finite element analysis code Ansys APDL 16.2. They initially formulated a heat transfer problem using a moving heat source, and later used the transient temperature outputs from thermal analysis to determine maximum temperature, Von Mises stress, equivalent plastic strain and residual stresses in welded plates via a 3D elastoplastic thermomechanical simulation. In the first part we fixed the rotation speed and varied the welding speed (600 rpm; 80, 100, and 140 mm/min). The objective is to study the variation of transient temperature and distribution of Von Mises stress, equivalent plastic strain and evaluate the residual stress in a friction stir welded plate of A6061-T6. Results show that the simulation peak temperature is approximately near the measured one. However, the peak temperature of welded joints increases by increasing the welding frequency rotation for the same tool profile and welding speed. Residual stresses are affected by the FSW process, moreover, processing parameters influence the types of resultant stress, welding temperature and mixing. An increase in welding speed apparently has led to an increase in the residual stress. Residual stresses found by this FE model have never exceeded 54 % of the elastic limit. We conclude that the model gives a good result in terms of stress and the obtained results give a good theoretical basis for aluminium welding by FSW. Ključne reči • postupak FSW • numerička medijalizacija • fon Mizes naponi • ekvivalentna plastična deformacija • zaostali napon
GAMIFICATION; CHALLENGES TO TRANSCEND BEYOND ONLINE EDUCATION INTO THE 21 ST CENTURY CLASSROOM

Gamification, the use of game elements in non-gaming context has transcended beyond the reach of virtual classroom, into the real world. The existence of elements such as badges and leaderboard in classroom activities as well as its similarities seen in social networks and virtual learning environments; has exposed gamification to a wider audience in the past few years. Although its initial intention was to attract more usage and participation, the acceptance factors has varied based on the needs of users. The users’ needs can be measured based on their game personality traits; that changes based on the challenges put forth to them. Beyond that, the existence and familiarity towards using technology also plays a key part in promoting gamification in learning. Furthermore, the perception of people towards gamification and its use in education needs to be considered thoroughly to ensure a sustainable learning process that expands beyond the school environment into the homes of the students. Besides that, gamification has been proven to be successful in using extrinsic motivational factor to attract the users, yet the extent of its effects on the intrinsic motivation depends on whether the intervention is deemed meaningful or meaningless by its users. Therefore, based on the literary findings, tackling the challenges to implement gamification will depend on acknowledging the game elements, the difference in student game personality traits as well as the perceived motivation type that exists in a student.
The India HPV-vaccine suspension

resulted in extremely conformal treatment capabilities. Proton radiotherapy provides the most conformal approach with the lowest likelihood of radiation penetrating unintended regions of the body, and has been used for paediatric cancers, particularly CNS tumours, in centres with a proton facility. 11 Children suff er the most severe long-term sequelae from radiation and are the most likely to live decades if cured. Therefore proton facilities should make treating children with cancer a high priority, including young women requiring abdominal or pelvic radiation that might scatter to aff ect the uterus or ovary. For premenopausal women, potential options for preservation of fertility should be discussed. 12 Should uterine irradiation be unavoidable, parents should be informed that their daughter’s off spring might be at risk of stillbirth and neonatal death when their daughter reaches adulthood. For childhood cancer survivors, reproductive counselling and testing in a specialised centre to assess the feasibility and potential risks associated with a pregnancy should be discussed, and a plan implemented to ensure a successful outcome.
Metabolic consequences of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection.

: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a human respiratory pathogen with the ability to infect a wide variety of cell types. Most studies on the nature of metabolic consequences of infection have used cell culture and explant models. Lung fibroblast monolayer cell cultures and rodent tracheal explant cultures have both served as host cells for M. pneumoniae and display metabolic and morphological alterations post infection. Tracheal explants exhibit a decrease in ciliary motion and desquamation, along with a generalized shutdown of major metabolic pathways. Oxygen uptake, dehydrogenase activity, and ATP content all decrease significantly, though 24 to 96 h may be required for detection. Metabolism is affected more rapidly in homogeneous fibroblast monolayers. In those cells, a significant decrease in de novo purine synthesis occurs within 4 h, whereas other pathways, such as salvage DNA synthesis and RNA synthesis had an increased activity. The molecular signals that mediate these changes remain to be delineated, although the inventory of metabolic changes provides a critical step in this process.
Clean and Cost Effective Industrial Wastewater Treatment Technology for Developing Countries

Industrial processes create a variety of wastewater pollutants which are difficult and costly to treat. Wastewater characteristics and levels of pollutants vary significantly from industry to industry. The growth of industrialization leads to the rise of wastewater from various industries and so the pollution load on the environment is increasing. The high cost for the treatment and disposal of industrial wastewater is now become a challenging problem for developing countries. The sample used in this research was combine wastewater from distilleries, sugar factories, candy factories and textile dyeing factories. Among them, distilleries and textile dyeing factories are the most wastewater producing industries and the wastewater from these are not easily biodegradable. Total chemical oxygen demand COD of wastewater sample was too high about 30000 mg/l and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) also high over 7000 mg/l. Conventional wastewater treatment is not sufficient to treat this amount of pollution and chemical processes are now widely adapted. The main weak points of chemical treatment are highly cost and harmful effects of chemical residues. Ionizing radiation has more advantages over the weak points of chemical process. The ability of ionization radiation for converting nonbiodegradable substances to more readily degradable ones and its capacity to eliminate microorganisms can help the treatment of industrial wastewater. The collected sample was pre-treated with some chemical process and then was to be irradiated into the gamma chamber at a dose of 1 kGy to 18 kGy. Effects of gamma radiation on industrial wastewater and sludge were determined by the reduction rate of total microbial counts, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). The optimum dose for the disinfection of bacteria and degradation of organic and inorganic pollutants were obtained. The irradiation dose of 7 kGy was adequate for the disinfection of wastewater and the reduction of COD and BOD to the permissible level was achieved at 18 kGy irradiation dose.
HELLO STRANGER: A BIG DATA APPROACH TO ONLINE DATING

Almost half of all single adults in the United States have used online dating, a still-growing ﬁeld. Anonymity on dating sites is often marketed as a premium feature, but its effectiveness in different demographic groups has not been shown by published research. Therefore, our ﬁrst goal was to obtain permission for a popular online dating site to access a dataset containing demographics and interactions of 100,000 de-identiﬁed users. We then ran “Big Data” analytics on the dataset to compare the quality and quantity of online-dating matches when a user uses a dating site anonymously or non-anonymously. The authors used R-programming language to clean the set and sort users, as well as run advanced statistical tests. Results showed that anonymity signiﬁcantly decreases quantity of matches ( p < 0.0001) and does not signiﬁcantly increase quality of matches ( p > 0.05), despite the fact that the dating site markets anonymity as a beneﬁcial feature. The second goal was motivated by a literature search that revealed the Gale-Shapley deferred acceptance matching algorithm, which generates mathematically stable matches. First, linear regressions were programmed in R to generate preference formulae for all users. Then, preference-assigning software was written in Java to apply these formulae to established matches. Finally, the algorithm was programmed and adapted to use the preference-assigning software to produce matches. The authors’ application removes a massive limitation on the use of the Gale-Shapley algorithm, making it applicable to many ﬁelds, from matching residents and hospitals to students and colleges.
Maximum population growth rates and recovery times for Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua

-We examine the population to population variability of intrinsic rate of natural increase, rm' of Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua. The intrinsic rate of increase is positively related to temperature, contrary to the expectation that rm might increase as the high and low temperature limits of habitability for cod are approached. For the parameter regime considered, r m has a simple dependence on age-at-maturity and the number of replacements each spawner can produce at low population densities (Ii l. It is shown that Ii has no significant temperature dependence. and thus the covariation of rm and temperature arises from the influence oftemperature on age-at-maturity. We demonstrate that our estimates of rm are robust and thus may be of use in estimating the recovery time of depleted populations. Maximum population growth rates and recovery times for Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua
A Survey of Chord and its Improvements

The Chord pear-to-pear protocol was constructed in 2001. Despite of its logical simplicity, scalability, logarithmic in the number of nodes search time it was observed by many authors that it has some weakness. One of them is a quite nonuniform distribution of spaces controlled by nodes, which implies that some nodes are much more engaged than other. We will show that it is possible to make a very soft modiﬁcation of Chord, called by us a Binary Chord , which partially eliminates this failure and signiﬁcantly increases fairness of user workload. The second weakness concerns the problem of unexpected departures (or failures) of nodes from Chord. Namely, after such departure all pieces of information stored by such a node completely disappears from the sys-tem. We discuss three quite natural solutions of this problem. The ﬁrst one is based on the idea of multiplication of documents. The second one uses the notion of direct sum of Chords and the idea of the third ones relies of slight enlarging of the areas of the Chords virtual space controlled by each node. All proposed modiﬁcations can be easily implemented on the basis of the original Chord protocol.
The distribution of PageRank follows a power-law only for particular values of the damping factor

We show that the empirical distribution of the PageRank values in a large set of Web pages does not follow a power-law except for some particular choices of the damping factor. We argue that for a graph with an in-degree distribution following a power-law with exponent between 2.1 and 2.2, choosing a damping factor around 0.85 for PageRank yields a power-law distribution of its values. We suggest that power-law distributions of PageRank in Web graphs have been observed because the typical damping factor used in practice is between 0.85 and 0.90