Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Information literacy and informed learning: Conceptual innovations for IL research and practice futures

Our paper draws together conceptual innovations emerging from the work of a group of researchers focussed on the relational approach to information literacy, more recently labelled ‘informed learning’. Team members have been working together in various configurations for periods ranging from seven to seventeen years. Our collaborative approach continues to yield new concepts and constructs which we believe to be of value to ongoing research and practice. Some of the ideas discussed have been previouly published, while others are being put forward for the first time. All are significant in that they together form new constructs that have emerged from a focus on the relational approach to information literacy. In this paper, Christine Bruce introduces the background to this work and the contributing researchers. Then the individual authors present the key directions which they have developed and are leading, typically working with one or more of the wider network. The key ideas presented are: The expressive window for information literacy (Mandy Lupton); information experience design (Elham Sayyad Abdi); cross-contextuality and experienced identity (Andrew Demasson); informed learning design (Clarence Maybee); spaces for inclusive informed learning (Hilary Hughes); and informed systems (Mary Somerville and Anita Mirjamdotter). In each piece, authors reflect on what the idea is about, where it came from and what it might mean for research and practice.
Air-Ground Integrated Mobile Edge Networks: Architecture, Challenges, and Opportunities

The ever increasing mobile data demands have posed significant challenges in the current radio access networks, while the emerging computation- heavy Internet of Things applications with varied requirements demand more flexibility and resilience from the cloud/edge computing architecture. In this article, to address the issues, we propose a novel air-ground integrated mobile edge network (AGMEN), where UAVs are flexibly deployed and scheduled, and assist the communication, caching, and computing of the edge network. Specifically, we present the detailed architecture of AGMEN, and investigate the benefits and application scenarios of drone cells, and UAV-assisted edge caching and computing. Furthermore, the challenging issues in AGMEN are discussed, and potential research directions are highlighted.
An image analysis method for quantification of hepatic perfusion based on contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging

Information about hepatic perfusion is used in clinical liver disease diagnosis. An image analy-sis system can help physicians make efficient and accurate diagnosis. The objective of this study is to propose an image analysis method for the quantification of the hepatic perfusion based on contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging (CEUI). The proposed method contains frame selection, image registration, digital subtraction and grey-scale calculation. Then, by processing an image sequence, a time-intensity curve (TIC) for hepatic perfusion is derived. The kernel of this image analysis technology is digital subtrac-tion and its accuracy is improved by frame selec-tion and image registration. The advantage of this method is that it can obtain the perfusion information of the whole liver which is rarely ob-tained by traditional image analysis technology; therefore, it is a supplement of the traditional image analysis method. This method is applied on the quantification of a rabbit’s hepatic perfu-sion and the result shows the efficiency of it.
Foundations Tone Effect on the Moisture Level of the Stratum Corneum

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of two foundations, of different tones, on the moisture level of the stratum corneum. These foundations are equal in composition, except for the percentage of pigments, being one lightcolored and the other one dark. We report significant differences between moisture levels after the application of the products of different tones, so we conclude that the amount of pigment affects the parameter under study.
Computer System for Maintaining Records on Strains at the Salmonella Genetic Stock Centre

Data management is becoming increasingly important within the laboratory for routine use and legal accountability. For the bacterial geneticist, careful strain maintenance and data management practices are required. Computer-readable files offer many advantages, but few software applications are available for the laboratory market, which is relatively small. This chapter describes the design of the database used by the Salmonella Genetic Stock Centre (SGSC) to maintain its collection. In addition, other options for computerization of strain information management are presented.
Patient and Provider Dilemmas of Type 2 Diabetes Self-Management: A Qualitative Study in Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Communities in Stockholm

Studies comparing provider and patient views and experiences of self-management within primary healthcare are particularly scarce in disadvantaged settings. In this qualitative study, patient and provider perceptions of self-management were investigated in five socio-economically disadvantaged communities in Stockholm. Twelve individual interviews and four group interviews were conducted. Semi-structured interview guides included questions on perceptions of diabetes diagnosis, diabetes care services available at primary health care centers, patient and provider interactions, and self-management support. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Two overarching themes were identified: adopting and maintaining new routines through practical and appropriate lifestyle choices (patients), and balancing expectations and pre-conceptions of self-management (providers). The themes were characterized by inherent dilemmas representing confusions and conflicts that patients and providers experienced in their daily life or practice. Patients found it difficult to tailor information and lifestyle advice to fit their daily life. Healthcare providers recognized that patients needed support to change behavior, but saw themselves as inadequately equipped to deal with the different cultural and social aspects of self-management. This study highlights patient and provider dilemmas that influence the interaction and collaboration between patients and providers and hinder uptake of self-management advice.
Molecular and pathological identification of feline coronavirus type I

The coronavirus in cats has been described as feline infectious peritonitis (FIPV) and feline enteric coronavirus (FECV). FIPV is highly fatal and caused immune-mediated pyogranulomatous disease, whereas FECV causes mild enteric infection. In this study, we described the isolation and molecular characterization of naturally occurring feline coronavirus from domestic cat in Malaysia. Additionally, the resultant pathological conditions observed in the infected cat were reported. Ascitic fluid sample was collected from 3-year-old domestic cat clinically suspected of effusive (wet form) FIP and subjected to virus isolation in Felis catus whole fetus cell cultures (Fcwf-4). The result of virus isolation was confirmed using one step reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). To gain insight on the genetic variant of FCoV, the S-gene sequence was amplified using type 1 specific primers. Virus isolation showed cytopathic effect (CPE) characterized by giant cells, ballooning and cells detachment. Ultrastructural findings showed virus particles attached to plasma membrane and later invaginated from the cell membrane. Virus-like particles were also observed in the vacuoles, likely as a result of spillage of mature virus-like particles into the cytoplasmic matrix. Histopathological examination of kidney, spleen and intestine organ samples revealed coagulative necrosis with infiltration of neutrophils and mononuclear cells. In conclusion, this study reports the first isolation of feline coronavirus in Malaysian cats and importantly the isolated virus was confirmed to be type I using S-gene amplification. Key words: Feline coronavirus, Fcwf-4, RT-PCR, effusive FIP, ultrastructure, histopathology.
Intrinsic disentanglement: an invariance view for deep generative models

Deep generative models such as Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and Variational AutoEncoders (VAEs) are important tools to capture and investigate the properties of complex empirical data. However, the complexity of their inner elements makes their functioning challenging to interpret and modify. In this respect, these architectures behave as black box models. In order to better understand the function of such network, we analyze the modularity of these system by quantifying the disentanglement of their intrinsic parameters. This concept relates to a notion of invariance to transformations of internal variables of the generative model, recently introduced in the field of causality. Our experiments on generation of human faces with VAEs supports that modularity between weights distributed over layers of generator architecture is achieved to some degree, and can be used to understand better the functioning of these architectures. Finally, we show that modularity can be enhanced during optimization.
Tou k Mekkaoui Chaos synchronization of a fractional nonautonomous system

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the dynamic behavior of a nonautonomous fractional-order biological system. With the stability criterion of active nonlinear fractional systems, the synchronization of the studied chaotic system is obtained. On the other hand, using a Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) analogy we synchronize the same system. The numerical results demonstrate the e ectiveness of the proposed methods.
Bifurcation of axillary artery – an unusual case

A male cadaver (approximately 60 years old) was seen to have a variant pattern of axillary artery branching. On the right side, the axillary artery bifurcated behind the pectoralis minor into two trunks - superficial and deep. The median nerve was formed by the union of the two roots between these trunks. The deep trunk trifurcated in the upper arm into subscapular, a common trunk which gave origin to anterior and posteror circumflex humeral arteries, a branch that ran distally that gave rise to profunda brachii artery. The superficial trunk continued as the brachial artery and it bifurcated at the level of head of radius into radial and ulnar arteries. On the left side, the axillary artery branching pattern was as usual. The implication of this study occurs in various streams especially vascular surgery, general surgery, as well as in radiodiagnosis in Doppler and contrast imaging of vessels. © Int J Anat Var (IJAV). 2013; 6: 161-164.
Nutritional Quality during Development Alters Insulin-Like Peptides’ Expression and Physiology of the Adult Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti

Mosquitoes have distinct developmental and adult life history, and the vectorial capacity of females has been shown to be affected by the larval nutritional environment. However, little is known about the effect of developmental nutrition on insulin-signaling and nutrient storage. In this study, we used Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, to determine whether larval nutrition affects insulin gene expression. We also determined the traits regulated by insulin signaling, such as stored-nutrient levels and fecundity. We raised mosquito larvae on two different diets, containing either high protein or high carbohydrates. Development on a high-carbohydrate diet resulted in several life-history phenotypes indicative of suboptimal conditions, including increased developmental time and decreased fecundity. Additionally, our data showed that insulin transcript levels are affected by a high-carbohydrate diet during development. Females, not males, reared on high-carbohydrate diets had much higher transcript levels of insulin-like peptide 3 (ILP3), a mosquito equivalent of human insulin, and these females more readily converted sugar meals into lipids. We also found that AaILP4, not AaILP3, transcript levels were much higher in the males after a sugar meal, suggesting sex-specific differences in the insulin-signaling pathway. Our findings suggest a conserved mechanism of carbohydrate-mediated hyperinsulinemia in animals.
A precipitation-based regionalization for Western Iran and regional drought variability

The spatial distribution of the seasonal and an- nual precipitation was analyzed in western Iran using data from 140 stations covering the period 1965-2000. Apply- ing the Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI), the intra- annual precipitation variability was also studied. Further- more, nine precipitation-derived parameters were used to re- gionalize climate in western Iran using principal component analysis and clustering techniques. Results suggest that five spatially homogenous sub-regions can be identified charac- terized by different precipitation regimes. The spatial pattern of seasonal precipitation seems to be highly controlled by the wide latitudinal extent of the region and by the pronounced orographic relieves, and the time of occurrence of the max- imum precipitation varies from spring in the north to winter in the south. The time variability of dry and wet periods in the identi- fied sub-regions was analyzed using the Precipitation Index (PI) and the existence of any long-term trend was tested. Re- sults show that the northern and southern regions of western Iran are characterized by different climatic variability. Fur- thermore, a negative long-term linear trend in the north and a weak positive trend in the south of the study area have been detected though they are not statistically significant.
T hesis for the degree of L icentiate of E ngineering Multidimensional Modulation Formats for Coherent Optical Communication Systems

Coherent optical receivers have enabled the use of multilevel modulation formats with high spectral efficiencies and long transmission reaches. Traditionally, modulation formats utilizing the two dimensions spanned by the amplitude and the phase of the signal have been dominating. This thesis is devoted to novel modulation formats exploring the possibilities of modulation formats in higher dimensional signal spaces to find formats with a good tradeoff between spectral efficiency and sensitivity. The work included in this thesis can be divided into two parts, experimental and theoretical. The first part includes experimental demonstrations of several fourand eight-dimensional modulation formats where the sensitivity as well as the performance in terms of transmission reach is evaluated and compared to conventional modulation formats. 128-level set-partitioning QAM (128-SP-QAM) is demonstrated with 50 % increased transmission distance over polarization-multiplexed 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (PM-16QAM). Binary pulse position modulation in combination with QPSK (2PPM-QPSK) is shown to achieve 40 % increased transmission reach over PM-QPSK. Further, the eight-dimensional modulation format frequency and polarization switched QPSK (4FPS-QPSK) is shown to have 84 % increased transmission reach over polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying (PM-QPSK) in a dual-carrier setup. The second part includes theoretical work where the spectral efficiency and asymptotic power efficiency is evaluated for modulation formats in high dimensional signal spaces. The high dimensionality is achieved by considering multidimensional position modulation, which is a generalization of pulse position modulation, in combination with QPSK and polarization-switched QPSK. The different dimensions can be achieved by time slots, polarizations, frequency slots, modes of multimode fibers or cores of a multicore fiber.
A Short Introduction to Topological Quantum Computation

This review presents an entry-level introduction to topological quantum computation -- quantum computing with anyons. We introduce anyons at the system-independent level of anyon models and discuss the key concepts of protected fusion spaces and statistical quantum evolutions for encoding and processing quantum information. Both the encoding and the processing are inherently resilient against errors due to their topological nature, thus promising to overcome one of the main obstacles for the realisation of quantum computers. We outline the general steps of topological quantum computation, as well as discuss various challenges faced by it. We also review the literature on condensed matter systems where anyons can emerge. Finally, the appearance of anyons and employing them for quantum computation is demonstrated in the context of a simple microscopic model -- the topological superconducting nanowire -- that describes the low-energy physics of several experimentally relevant settings. This model supports localised Majorana zero modes that are the simplest and the experimentally most tractable types of anyons that are needed to perform topological quantum computation.
An integrated model for the assessment of global water resources – Part 1: Model description and input meteorological forcing

To assess global water availability and use at a subannual timescale, an integrated global water resources model was developed consisting of six modules: land sur- face hydrology, river routing, crop growth, reservoir opera- tion, environmental flow requirement estimation, and anthro- pogenic water withdrawal. The model simulates both natural and anthropogenic water flow globally (excluding Antarc- tica) on a daily basis at a spatial resolution of 1 ◊1 (lon- gitude and latitude). This first part of the two-feature re- port describes the six modules and the input meteorologi- cal forcing. The input meteorological forcing was provided by the second Global Soil Wetness Project (GSWP2), an in- ternational land surface modeling project. Several reported shortcomings of the forcing component were improved. The land surface hydrology module was developed based on a bucket type model that simulates energy and water balance on land surfaces. The crop growth module is a relatively simple model based on concepts of heat unit theory, poten- tial biomass, and a harvest index. In the reservoir operation module, 452 major reservoirs with >1 km 3 each of storage capacity store and release water according to their own rules of operation. Operating rules were determined for each reser- voir by an algorithm that used currently available global data such as reservoir storage capacity, intended purposes, simu- lated inflow, and water demand in the lower reaches. The environmental flow requirement module was newly devel- oped based on case studies from around the world. Simulated runoff was compared and validated with observation-based global runoff data sets and observed streamflow records at 32 major river gauging stations around the world. Mean annual runoff agreed well with earlier studies at global and conti- nental scales, and in individual basins, the mean bias was less than ±20% in 14 of the 32 river basins and less than ±50% in 24 basins. The error in the peak was less than ±1 mo in 19 of the 27 basins and less than ±2 mo in 25 basins. The per- formance was similar to the best available precedent studies with closure of energy and water. The input meteorological forcing component and the integrated model provide a frame- work with which to assess global water resources, with the potential application to investigate the subannual variability in water resources.
Processing quantum coherence using the spin-boson model

In light of the growing interest in the resource theory formulation of quantum mechanics, one of the key open questions concerns how one may convert one resource into another, similarly in spirt to what happens in classical thermodynamics. In this paper we show how this can be accomplished using the energy-preserving spin-boson model, which offers an ideal platform for processing quantum coherence of multiple qubits. We discuss the general exact solution for the dynamics of a system of $N$ qubits collective phase-coupled to $K$ bosonic modes. We then show that, by tuning the system-environment interaction one may use the bosonic modes to process the coherence in the qubit system. As a proof of principle, we show that local coherence of an initially product state can be consumed and converted into entanglement. Interestingly, this task requires no energetics, hence correspond to a purely informational process.
Daldinia eschscholtzii (Ascomycota, Xylariaceae) isolated from the Brazilian Amazon: taxonomic features and mycelial growth conditions

A Amazonia apresenta alta diversidade de fungos, incluindo Daldinia (Ascomycota, Xylariaceae), cujas especies produzem metabolitos secundarios com reconhecida atividade antimicrobiana e nematicida. O papel ecologico e importante, visto que estromas servem de abrigo para muitos insetos e artropodes, alem de contribuir na degradacao da materia orgânica vegetal. O objetivo desse estudo foi analizar as caracteristicas taxonomicas e as condicoes do crescimento micelial in vitro de um especime de Daldinia coletado na Amazonia brasileira. Estudos morfologicos e moleculares do fungo o indetificaram como D. eschscholtzii. Para avaliacao do crescimento micelial o fungo foi cultivado nas temperaturas de 20, 25, 30, 35 e 40 °C e nos meios de cultura extrato de malte-peptona agar (EMPA), extrato de malte-peptona (EMP), batata dextrose (BD) e meio minimo (MM). O melhor crescimento micelial ocorreu a 35 °C, entretanto, a maior quantidade de biomassa foi obtida a 25 e 30 °C. O meio BD provou ser o melhor meio para producao de biomassa.
Enhanced transmission and beaming via a zero-index photonic crystal

Certain types of photonic crystals with Dirac cones at the Γ point of their band structure have a zero effective index of refraction at Dirac cone frequency. Here, by an appropriate design of the photonic structure, we obtain a strong coupling between modes around the Dirac cone frequency of an all-dielectric zero-index photonic crystal and the guided ones supported by a photonic crystal waveguide. Consequently, we experimentally demonstrate that the presence of the zero-index photonic crystal at the inner side of the photonic crystal waveguide leads to an enhancement in the transmission of some of the guided waves passing through this hybrid system. Moreover, those electromagnetic waves extracted from the structure with enhanced transmission exhibit high directional beaming due to the presence of the zero-index photonic crystal at the outer side of the photonic crystal waveguide.