Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stem Cells for Modeling Human Disease

Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) in the form of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are capable of growing indefinitely in vitro , maintaining their capacity to differentiate into the three primary germ layers: mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm. Different protocols have been developed to differentiate PSCs into almost any cellular type with different degree of success. This technology has allowed scientists to use patient‐derived iPSCs to study the physiopa‐ thology of the disease by analyzing the phenotype of the cells derived from these iPSCs. However, control iPSCs obtained from healthy individuals will always have different genomic environment than patient's iPSCs, making it difficult the interpretation of the cells phenotype. The recent appearance of specific nucleases [zinc‐finger nucleases (ZFNs), the transcription activator‐like effector nucleases (TALENs) and the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)] has made it possible to edit the genome of PSCs. We can now generate syngeneic hESCs or iPSCs harboring the desired mutation and comparing the emerging cells with those derived from genetical‐ ly identical PSCs that will differ only in the mutated gene. In this chapter, we summa‐ rize the progress made in this field and discuss the different approaches that have been used recently for the generation of syngeneic human pluripotent cellular models for different pathologies.
Chronobiological Aspects of Mood Disorders

Mood disorders, especially those related to depression, are among the most prevalent mental impairments. Therefore, understanding their etiology is important for prevention and improving therapy. Sub-clinical depressive symptoms, which predict the onset of mood and anxiety disorders (Gentil et al., 2007), are correlated with slow information processing, poor memory functioning (Simons et al., 2009) and cardiovascular dysfunction (Taillard et al., 1993; Wassertheil-Smoller et al., 2004 ).
Trends in Sex Ratios of Turtles in the United States: Implications of Road Mortality

Abstract: Road mortality has been implicated as a significant demographic force in turtles, particularly for females, which are killed disproportionately on overland nesting movements. Moreover, the United States' road network has expanded dramatically over the last century. We therefore predicted that historical trends in sex ratios of turtle populations would be male biased. To test this prediction, we synthesized published estimates of population‐level sex ratios in freshwater and terrestrial turtles in the United States (165 estimates for 36 species, published 1928–2003). Our analysis suggests that the proportion of males in populations has increased linearly (p= 0.001); the trend in male bias is synchronized with the expansion of the surfaced portion of the road network since 1930; sex ratios became more male biased in states with higher densities of roads; and populations have become more male biased in aquatic species, in which movement differentials between males and females are greatest, and are least biased in semiaquatic and terrestrial species, in which overland movements are more comparable between sexes. Our results suggest an ongoing depletion of breeding females from wild turtle populations over the last century because of many factors, including, and perhaps chiefly, road mortality.
Assisting Nature: Ducks, “Ding” and DU

Jay “Ding” Darling (1876-1962) was a newspaper editorial cartoonist and duck hunter. Because of his pro-conservation cartoons, he had become one America’s most prominent conservationists by the early 1930s. Joseph P. Knapp (1864-1951) was a prominent businessman, philanthropist, conservationist, and duck hunter who, like Darling, had become concerned about the decline of waterfowl populations. Both worked to reverse this duck decline. Darling was appointed chief of the Bureau of Biological Survey in 1934 by President Franklin Roosevelt. During his short tenure as its chief (1934-1935), he focused the Bureau’s mission more on wildlife conservation and he oversaw the expansion of the national wildlife refuge system. In 1930, Knapp founded the More Game Birds in America Foundation. This Foundation through its waterfowl surveys documented that western Canada was the major breeding ground of ducks in North America. This resulted in the Foundation establishing Ducks Unlimited, Inc. in the US and Ducks Unlimited (Canada) in 1937.
Impact of Heat Pump Flexibility in a French Residential Eco-District

This paper investigates the impact of load shedding strategies on a block of multiple buildings. It particularly deals with the quantification of the factors i.e., peak shaving, occupants’ thermal comfort or CO 2 emission reduction and how to quickly quantify them. To achieve this goal, the paper focuses on a new residential district, thermally fed by heat pumps. Four modeling approaches were implemented in order to estimate buildings’ response towards load shedding. Two schemes were combined in order to study an overall load shedding. This strategy for the neighborhood has proved itself efficient for both peak shaving and thermal comfort. Most of the clipped heating load during the peak period is shifted to low-consumption periods, providing an effective peak shaving. The thermal comfort is guaranteed for at least 96% of the time. For CO 2 emissions reduction, the link between consumption reduction and CO 2 emissions savings should be realized carefully, since shifting the consumption could increase these emissions.
Ecosystem functioning from a geomicrobiological perspective - a conceptual framework for biogeochemical iron cycling

Environmental context. Microbial ecosystems are characterised by the interplay of various microorganisms with their biotic and abiotic environment. Biogeochemical niches host adapted microbial communities that are in constant competition for substrates and nutrients. Their natural distribution, interactions and responses to fluctuating environmental conditions are often impossible to simulate in laboratory studies. Using biogeochemical iron redox cycling as an example, we suggest the application of a conceptual framework to improve our understanding of the principal functioning of (geo)microbial ecosystems.
The effect of job strain on British general practitioners' mental health

Questionnaires assessing mental health, job satisfaction, psychological job demands and job control were distributed randomly to 1000 GPs and 400 white-collar workers in the North of England. First, levels of mental health and job satisfaction were compared between the groups. GPs were significantly more depressed and less satisfied with their job compared to the white-collar sample. Surprisingly, female GPs experienced similar levels of poor mental health and job dissatisfaction as their male counterparts. Secondly, GPs were classified according to Karasek's (1979) job strain model as 'high strain' GPs (defined as high demands & low job control), 'active' GPs (high demands & high control), 'passive' GPs (low demands & low control) and 'low strain' GPs (low demands & high control). As hypothesised, 'high strain' GPs exhibited significantly greater levels of job dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms (e.g. suicidal ideation, loss of sexual interest, feeling hopeless about the future) than all other groups, with 38% scoring equal to or above the threshold for potential clinical depression. These findings are considered within the job strain paradigm and the implications for patient care and future interventions are discussed.
Variation in floral morphology and reproductive success in Petrocoptis grandiflora (Caryophyllaceae)

We examined variation in the floral morphology of Petrocoptis grandiflora Rothm. (Caryophyllaceae), a plant endemic to the northwest Iberian Peninsula. First, we investigated whether peduncle length, calyx length and petal-limb length influence reproductive success (as measured by seed production). Second, we investigated whether floral morphology varies with position in the inflorescence and/or among the six populations studied. Peduncle length and calyx length showed no significant relationship with seed production; however, petal-limb length was significantly and positively correlated with the number of seeds produced by the flower. All three morphometric characters, and the number of ovules per ovary, varied significantly with position in the inflorescence, but not among populations.
1 ENHANCING DECISION MAKING OF CRITICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS THROUGH OPTIMIZATION MODELS AND THE IMPROVED PARALLEL CONJUGATE METHOD ALGORITHM

Diverse classes of information systems provide time sensitive technical support in critical information systems problem domains. These classes of information systems, which include emergency notification response systems, intrusion detection systems, and fraud detection systems, incorporate linear optimization models. Since these systems require very fast response, the algorithms for solving the linear models are less efficient imposing penalties on the desired system performance. In this paper, we propose the reformulation of linear optimization models for critical information systems to take advantage of the improved parallel conjugate gradient method. This approach provides a means by which decision makers can gain access to critical information in time sensitive situations.
Characterization of Ferroelectric Materials by Photopyroelectric Method

During last decades, the photothermal techniques have been largely applied to the study of thermal and optical properties of condensed matter. Photothermal techniques are based on the same physical principle: the optical energy, absorbed by given material, is partially converted into heat; depending on the way used to measure the quantity of heat and to follow its propagation through the material, several photothermal techniques have been developed (photoacoustic calorimetry, photothermal radiometry, photothermal deflection, thermal lensing, photopyroelectric method) (Tam, 1986). In this chapter we will focus on the simplest one, the photopyroelectric calorimetry and its applications concerning the investigation of some thermal and electrical properties of ferroelectric materials. The photopyroelectric (PPE) detection was introduced in 1984, as a powerful tool for highresolution measurement of thermal properties of materials (Coufal, 1984; Mandelis, 1984). The pyroelectric effect consists in the induction of spontaneous polarization in a noncentrosymmetric, piezoelectric crystal, as a result of temperature change in the crystal. Single crystals as LiTaO3 and TGS, ceramics as PZT or polymers as PVDF were used as pyroelectric sensors, for the main purpose of measuring temperature variations. In principle, in the PPE method, the temperature variation of a sample exposed to a modulated radiation is measured with a pyroelectric sensor, situated in intimate thermal contact with the sample (Mandelis & Zver, 1985; Chirtoc & Mihailescu, 1989). The main advantages of this technique were found to be its simplicity, high sensitivity, non-destructive character and adaptability to practical restrictions imposed by the experimental requirements. From theoretical point of view, in the most general case, the complex PPE signal depends on all optical and thermal parameters of the different layers of the detection cell. A large effort was dedicated in the last decades to simplify the mathematical expression of the PPE signal. As a final result, several particular cases were obtained, in which the information is contained both in the amplitude and phase of the PPE signal (Mandelis & Zver, 1985; Chirtoc & Mihailescu, 1989); the amplitude and phase depend in these cases on one or, in a simple way, on two of the sample's related thermal parameters. The thermal parameters resulting directly from PPE measurements are usually the thermal diffusivity and effusivity. It is well known that the four thermal parameters, the static volume specific heat, C, and the dynamic thermal diffusivity, α , conductivity, k, and effusivity, e, are
Design of a miniaturized dual‐band antenna for improved directivity using a dielectric‐loaded cavity

This article proposes the design of a dual‐band global positioning system (GPS) antenna using a high‐permittivity dielectric‐loaded cavity. The cavity structure is filled with a dielectric material to miniaturize the size, and its width and depth are adjusted to maximize the front‐to‐back ratio for high directivity. Dual‐band circular polarization characteristics are achieved by placing two radiating polygon loops at the aperture of the cavity, and the loops are electromagnetically coupled to a microstrip line for a coupled feeding network. The proposed antenna is fabricated, and its antenna characteristics are measured in a full anechoic chamber. The results demonstrate that the antenna is suitable for dual‐band GPS applications with high bore‐sight gain values of 3.4 dBic at 1.2276 GHz and 3.7 dBic at 1.5754 GHz. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:1591–1595, 2016
The role of agroforestry in building livelihood resilience to floods and drought in semiarid Kenya

Climate change may create serious problems for farmers by increasing precipitation variability and drought and flood events. Understanding how to build livelihood resilience to these effects is a pressing need. Agroforestry is one potential solution. Although many people intuitively link agroforestry with livelihood resilience to floods and drought, little comprehensive empirical evidence exists. Here, we strive to answer the call for more empirical evidence by drawing on field work in Isiolo County, Kenya to ask the research question: How does agroforestry help smallholder farmers build livelihood resilience to floods and drought? We used a mixed-methods approach that included 20 qualitative case study households and 338 quantitative household surveys. Our major findings are: (1) practicing agroforestry can influence perceptions of floods and drought, (2) specific environmental and livelihood benefits of agroforestry contribute to livelihood resilience, and (3) agroforestry directly and indirectly builds livelihood resilience to floods and drought. Identifying potential climate change adaptation strategies is crucial for smallholder farmers. Our research indicates that agroforestry is one promising option.
Interfirm Alliances: A Collaborative Entrepreneurship Perspective

For several years, competing meant reducing costs, as this concept was closely linked to scale economies, and the same strategies were systematically applied. The term of competitiveness was used to characterise firms’ greater or lesser capacity to face the competition. Nowadays, the European Union forces firms to adopt stronger competitive positions, so as to respond to market changes, and to some extent, to be able to survive in their sphere of operation. The continuing need for improvement and constantly increased productivity is an important challenge faced by firms today. For this reason, it can be stated that firms have difficulty in competing individually supported exclusively by its own resources. In fact, at present, and even more so in the future, competitiveness appears in firms’ relationships and networks. Therefore, to compete in a highly complex market, firms must establish cooperations as a business strategy to face difficulties that may emerge.
Dynamic financial planning: certainty equivalents, stochastic constraints and functional conjugate duality

This paper studies portfolios under risk and stochastic constraints. Certainty equivalents combine risk aversion and exponential utility to form the objective. Budget and stochastic constraints on the account balance are used to ensure a positive net worth over time. These portfolio models are analyzed by functional conjugate duality for general distributions and by conjugate duality for the normal distribution. All the programs are convex. The duals provide insight into this approach and relate it to other stochastic and financial concepts.
Mode interaction in horses, tea, and other nonlinear oscillators: the universal role of symmetry

This paper is about mode interaction in systems of coupled nonlinear oscillators. The main ideas are demonstrated by means of a model consisting of two coupled, parametrically driven pendulums. On the basis of this we also discuss mode interaction in the Faraday experiment (as observed by Ciliberto and Gollub) and in running animals. In all these systems the interaction between two modes is seen to take place via a third mode: This interaction mode is a common daughter, born by means of a symmetry breaking bifurcation, of the two interacting modes. Thus, not just any two modes can interact with each other, but only those that are linked (in the system's group-theoretical hierarchy) by a common daughter mode. This is the quintessence of mode interaction. In many cases of interest, the interaction mode is seen to undergo further bifurcations, and this can eventually lead to chaos. These stages correspond to lower and lower levels of symmetry, and the constraints imposed by group theory become less and less restrictive. Indeed, the precise sequence of events during these later stages is determined not so much by group-theoretical stipulations as by the accidental values of the nonlinear terms in the equations of motion.
Lessons for REDD+ from Cameroon's past forestry law reform: a political economy analysis

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks (REDD+) is gaining traction in Cameroon. However, given the deep-rooted trans-sectoral drivers of forest loss, enforcing REDD+ policies will require major policy change and reform both within and beyond the forestry sector. In this paper, we view the REDD+ policy arena in Cameroon within a political economy framework and conduct policy network analysis to explore the factors that will enable or hinder efforts to implement the broad policy change required to realize REDD+. As the REDD+ context is shaped by the history of Cameroon's forestry sector, we draw lessons for REDD+ from the forestry law reform undertaken in 1994. We focus our analysis on three factors considered necessary for REDD+ success: (i) autonomy of the nation state from interests behind deforestation and forest degradation, (ii) national ownership over reform processes, and (iii) inclusiveness of policy processes. We find that the REDD+ policy process in Cameroon is repeating the weaknesses of the earlier forestry law reform, as seen in the minimal ownership of REDD+ by national actor groups and low inclusiveness among domestic actors at both national and local levels, as well as the absence of a national coalition for REDD+. Furthermore, politics and private agendas are compromising state agencies' autonomy in making decisions about forest resources. Our findings suggest that responses to these weaknesses, as well as to inconsistencies between sectoral policies and to competition over forest resources, will determine whether REDD+ can induce change within and beyond Cameroon's forestry sector.
Effects of Electrical Feedbacks on Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Planar-solid-oxide-fuel-cell stacks (PSOFCSs), in PSOFC-based power-conditioning systems (PCSs), are subjected to electrical feedbacks due to the switching power electronics and the application loads. These feedbacks (including load transient, current ripple due to load power factor and inverter operation, and load harmonic distortion) affect the electrochemistry and the thermal properties of the planar cells thereby potentially deteriorating the performance and reliability of the cells. In this paper, a detailed study on the impact of these electrical effects on the performance of the PSFOC is conducted. To analyze the impact of such feedbacks, a spatiotemporal numerical system model is developed on a low-cost Simulink modeling platform and the model under transient and steady-state conditions is validated experimentally. Using this validated model, parametric analyses on the impacts of transience, power factor, and distortion of the application load as well as low-frequency current ripple is conducted. Finally, using experimental data, we demonstrate the long-term impact of two most significant electrical feedbacks on the area-specific resistance and the corresponding loss of effective stack power.
An FPGA-based Topographic Computer for Binary Image Processing

Initial processing steps in a computer vision system usually consist of low complex operations replicated on all the pixels of the image under processing. These operations are often very time consuming, particularly when they are executed on conventional serial computers. Every pixel-level processing represents millions of operations when moderate image sizes are considered. These processing stages provide the set of features of interest (object edges, movement, area, shape,.) with a considerable reduction of the data flow to subsequent processing stages. Higher level processing will benefit from such data to produce an abstract description of the scene and, if needed, to make a decision. In visual processing, a great deal of computation is made on B/W images. This is particularly relevant for intermediate level image processing. Pattern recognition, texture detection and classification, or prediction and estimation of motion, are some examples of operations managing binary data. This fact has motivated an intense research focused on the design and implementation of efficient algorithms dealing with 1-bit data flows. Traditionally, most of the algorithms in computer vision are executed on general-purpose computers using data from imagers as inputs. Recently, new bioinspired systems integrate together both sensing and processing stages, exploiting the massively parallelism inherent to early vision. These vision systems are usually analog or mixed-signal implementations allowing high density of integration as well as fast computation, with low/moderate accuracy. Often, these systems are not optimized to compute B/W images. Nevertheless, in some practical applications, (e.g., tracking with cellular active contours), the set of operations involving binary images are the main bottleneck from the time performance point of view. Keeping in mind the main constraints featuring integrated circuits: speed, area and reliability; the design of a special unit for binary image processing would be advantageous to be part of a complete computer vision system or even like an independent module. As for the suitable hardware platform, the ever larger availability of hardware resources and faster clock signals on today FPGAs permit to do image processing with similar timeefficiency to that of custom ASICs from the recent past. Also, the time to market of FPGAbased systems clearly outperforms that of ASICs. Altogether makes FPGAs a good candidate to host proof-of-concept systems or even ended solutions.
Interactions, Transitions and Inference Rules in Semantically Integrated Conceptual Modelling

To obtain value from the graphical representations that are used by different stakeholders during the system development process, they must be integrated. This is important to achieve a holistic understanding about system specification. Integration can be reached via modelling process. Currently, most of information system modelling methods present different modelling aspects in disparate modelling dimensions and therefore it is difficult to achieve semantic integrity of various diagrams. In this paper, we present semantically integrated conceptual modelling method for information system analysis and design. The foundation of this modelling method is based on interactions. This way of modelling provides possibility of integration of business processes and business data. The inference rules of interactions help in reasoning about the decomposition of concepts. In this method, decomposition of the system is graphically described as classification, inheritance or composition of organizational and technical system components.