Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Les ONG et l'efficacité du système de gouvernance de la Convention sur la diversité biologique

Puisque la Convention sur la diversite biologique (CDB) va bien au-dela de la protection de toutes les formes du vivant pour englober aussi l'utilisation durable des ressources et les questions de justice, de droits collectifs et de propriete intellectuelle, on s'attendrait a ce que les ONG aient joue ou jouent un role marque dans la negociation, le developpement et la mise en œuvre de la Convention. Toutefois, a quelques exceptions pres, leur role apparait moindre que prevu, bien que plus marque dans la phase de mise en œuvre que dans la negociation initiale.
Disclosing Gender-Based Violence During Health Care Visits: A Patient-Centered Approach

The purpose of this study was to better understand victims’ perspectives regarding decisions to disclose gender-based violence, namely, intimate partner violence (IPV) and human trafficking, to health care providers and what outcomes matter to them when discussing these issues with their provider. Twenty-five participants from racially/ethnically diverse backgrounds were recruited from a family justice center located in the southeastern United States. Two fifths had experienced human trafficking, and the remaining had experienced IPV. Upon obtaining informed consent, semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine interview data. Five primary themes emerged. Three themes focused on factors that may facilitate or impede disclosure: patient–provider connectedness, children, and social support. The fourth theme was related to ambiguity in the role of the health care system in addressing gender-based violence. The final theme focused on outcomes participants hope to achieve when discussing their experiences with health care providers. Similar themes emerged from both IPV and human trafficking victims; however, victims of human trafficking were more fearful of judgment and had a stronger desire to keep experiences private. Cultural factors also played an important role in decisions around disclosure and may interact with the general disparities racial/ethnic minority groups face within the health care system. Recognizing factors that influence patient engagement with the health care system as it relates to gender-based violence is critical. The health care system can respond to gender-based violence and its associated comorbidities in numerous ways and interventions must be driven by the patient’s goals and desired outcomes of disclosure. These interventions may be better served by taking patient-centered factors into account and viewing the effectiveness of intervention programs through a behavioral, patient-centered lens.
The voltage sharing of commercial IGBTS in series with passive components

In order to handle high voltage with limited voltage rating self turn-off devices, it is necessary to give a simple and reliable series connection technique of these devices, especially IGBTs for high voltage applications. This paper proposes a snubber circuit to guarantee the voltage balance for IGBTs in series connection both at static and dynamic transients. The proposed circuit features with simple control at the gate side, unlimited number of devices in series, high reliability and low loss. The simulation and experimental results verify these advantages. A 10A/3000V prototype with three series-connected IGBTs have been designed and implemented. It has exhibited excellent dynamic voltage balance and an accepted overshoot level with LC snubber circuits and auxiliary clamp circuits.
DNA replication errors produced by the replicative apparatus of Escherichia coli.

It has been hard to detect forward mutations generated during DNA synthesis in vitro by replicative DNA polymerases, because of their extremely high fidelity and a high background level of pre-existing mutations in the single-stranded template DNA used. Using the oriC plasmid DNA replication in vitro system and the rpsL forward mutation assay, we examined the fidelity of DNA replication catalyzed by the replicative apparatus of Escherichia coli. Upon DNA synthesis by the fully reconstituted system, the frequency of rpsL-mutations in the product DNA was increased to 1.9x10(-4), 50-fold higher than the background level of the template DNA. Among the mutations generated in vitro, single-base frameshifts predominated and occurred with a pattern similar to those induced in mismatch-repair deficient E. coli cells, indicating that the major replication error was slippage at runs of the same nucleotide. Large deletions and other structural alterations of DNA appeared to be induced also during the action of the replicative apparatus.
Investigation of temperature and temporal stability of AlGaAsSb avalanche photodiodes

Since avalanche gain and breakdown voltage in most semiconductor materials change with temperature, instruments utilizing Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) for their avalanche gains need to incorporate either temperature stabilization or voltage adjustment in the APD operation circuits. In this work we evaluated the temperature and temporal stability of avalanche gain in Al 0.85 Ga 0.15 As 0.56 Sb 0.44 , a wide bandgap semiconductor lattice-matched to InP substrates. We investigated the temperature and temporal stability of the gain and breakdown voltage at temperatures of 24 °C (room temperature) to 80 °C. The breakdown voltage varies linearly with temperature with a temperature coefficient of 1.60 mV/K. The avalanche gain reduces from 10 to 8.5, a reduction of 15%, when the temperature increases from 24 to 80°C. The temporal stability of gain was recorded when the APD was biased to achieve an avalanche gain of 10. Fluctuations are within ± 0.7% at 24°C, increasing to ± 1.33% at 80°C. The temperature and temporal stability of avalanche gain indicates the potential of using Al 0.85 Ga 0.15 As 0.56 Sb 0.44 APDs grown on InP substrates to achieve high tolerance to temperature fluctuation.
Microbiota, Innate Immune System, and Gastrointestinal Muscle: Ongoing Studies

Aim: To test the activities of culture-extracted or commercially available toll-like receptors (TLRs) ligands to establish their direct impact on target gastrointestinal motor cells. Methods: Short-term and long-term effects of Shigella flexneri M90T and Escherichia coli K-2 strains-extracted lipopolysaccharides (LPS), commercially highly purified LPS (E. coli O111:B4 and EH100), and Pam2CSK4 and Pam3CSK4, which bind TLR2/6 and TLR1/2 heterodimers, respectively, have been assessed on pure primary cultures of colonic human smooth muscle cells (HSMC). Results: Pathogenic Shigella-LPS and nonpathogenic E. coli K-2-LPS induced a time-dependent decrease of resting cell length and acetylcholine-induced contraction, with both alterations occurring rapidly and being more pronounced in response to the former. However, their effects differed, prolonging HSMC exposure with Shigella-LPS effects maintained throughout the 4 hours of observation compared with E. coli K-2-LPS, which disappeared after 60 minutes of incubation. Similar differences in magnitude and time dependency of myogenic effects were observed between pure TLR4 and TLR2/1 or TLR2/6 ligands. The specific activation of TLR4 with LPS from pathogen or nonpathogen E. coli, O111:B4 and EH100, respectively, induced smooth muscle alterations that progressively increased, prolonging incubation, whereas TLR2 ligands induced short-term alterations, of a lesser magnitude, which decreased over time. The real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that HSMC express mRNA for TLR1, 2, 4, and 6, substantiating a direct effect of TLR ligands on human colonic smooth muscle. Conclusions: This study highlights that bacterial products can directly affect gastrointestinal motility and that TLRs subtypes may differ in their cellular activity.
Low-Intensity Swimming Training after Weaning Improves Glucose and Lipid Homeostasis in MSG Hypothalamic Obese Mice

Low-intensity swimming training, started at an early age, was undertaken to observe glycemic control in hypothalamic obese mice produced by neonatal monosodium l-glutamate (MSG) treatment. Although swimming exercises by weaning pups inhibited hypothalamic obesity onset and recovered sympathoadrenal axis activity, this event was not observed when exercise training is applied to young adult mice. However, the mechanisms producing this improved metabolism are still not fully understood. Current work verifies whether, besides reducing fat tissue accumulation, low-intensity swimming in MSG-weaned mice also improves glycemic control. Although MSG and control mice swam for 15 min/day, 3 days a week, from the weaning stage up to 90 days old, sedentary MSG and normal mice did not exercise at all. After 14 h of fasting, animals were killed at 90 days of age. Retroperitonial fat accumulation was measured to estimate obesity. Fasting blood glucose and insulin concentrations were also measured. Mice were also submitted to ipGTT. MSG obese mice showed fasting hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. However, the exercise was able to block MSG treatment effects. Higher total cholesterol and triglycerides observed in MSG mice were normalized by exercise after weaning. Exercised MSG animals had higher HDLc than the sedentary group. Data suggest that early exercise training maintains normoglycemia, insulin tissue sensitivity, and normal lipid profile in mice programmed to develop metabolic syndrome.
Introduction to the Maldacena Conjecture on AdS / CFT

These lectures do not at all provide a general review of this rapidly growing field. Instead a rather detailed account is presented of a number of the most elementary aspects. Based on Lectures presented at “Quantum aspects of gauge theories, supersymmetry and unification”, School in Leuven, January 18-23, 1999; and on Lectures presented at “Nordic Course on Duality in String and Field Theories”, 4-14 August, 1998, Nordita, Copenhagen. Lecture notes prepared with the help of Troels Harmark.
The Core 2 β-1,6-N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferase-Mucin Encoded by Bovine Herpesvirus 4 Was Acquired from an Ancestor of the African Buffalo

ABSTRACT The Bo17 gene of bovine herpesvirus 4 (BoHV-4) is the only viral gene known to date that encodes a homologue of the cellular core 2 β-1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-mucin type (C2GnT-M). To investigate the origin and evolution of the Bo17 gene, we analyzed its distribution among BoHV-4 strains and determined the sequences of Bo17 from nine representative strains and of the C2GnT-M gene from six species of ruminants expected to encompass the group within which the gene acquisition occurred. Of 34 strains of BoHV-4, isolated from four different continents, all were found to contain the Bo17 gene. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that Bo17 was acquired from a recent ancestor of the African buffalo, implying that cattle subsequently acquired BoHV-4 by cross-species transmission. The rate of synonymous nucleotide substitution in Bo17 was estimated at 5 × 10−8 to 6 × 10−8 substitutions/site/year, consistent with previous estimates made under the assumption that herpesviruses have cospeciated with their hosts. The Bo17 gene acquisition was dated to around 1.5 million years ago. Bo17 sequences from BoHV-4 strains from African buffalo and from cattle formed two separate clades, estimated to have split about 700,000 years ago. Analysis of the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitutions revealed a burst of amino acid replacements subsequent to the transfer of the cellular gene to the viral genome, followed by a return to a strong constraint on nonsynonymous changes during the divergence of contemporary BoHV-4 strains. The Bo17 gene represents the most recent of the known herpesvirus gene acquisitions and provides the best opportunity for learning more about this important process of viral evolution.
An efficient algorithm for lip detection in color face images

In this paper, we present a new algorithm for finding lip area in color face images. Lip detection is used in many applications such as face detection, lip reading, and speech recognition. Our algorithm selects proper color space and saturation component for better separation of skin pixels from lip pixels. We consider the lower half part of image. We propose a modified Lip-Map algorithm to find lip area. Then, we apply wavelet transform to reduce the effect of noise. Next, the location of lips is obtained by considering the variance of different segments of lip area. We extract lip pixels from skin pixels by Top-Hat transform and region growing algorithm. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we use four databases named as CVL, IMM, GTAV, and CID, in which the size of face image and the rotation of face are variable. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has better performance than previously presented methods.
The right smile in left side : single tooth-implant restoration

One of today’s reliable treatment option to replace both anterior and posterior missing teeth,is an implant therapy due to its excellent esthetics and function.Replacement of single tooth,multiple missing teeth and complete edentulous cases or abutment of partial or complete dentures can be well achieved by dental implant therapy. The purpose of this case study is to briefly focusing on guidelines of placing a single-tooth dental implant in esthetic area with a high clinical and technical sensitivity for patient who missed his central left incisor and to communicate the outcomes of the case with other dental professionals.One of the important factor to consider for proper case management is the correct surgical placement of a dental implant which is so mandatory to obtain the ideal aesthetic result.The number of dental implants and correct position can be determined through proper treatment planning. Therefore,before surgical placement of a dental implant, adequate hard and soft tissues must be present.The clinician must also consider risks that may occur before,during and post-operatively and finding out the proper management procedures of such complications.
Basis for prokaryotic specificity of action of aminoglycoside antibiotics

The aminoglycosides, a group of structurally related antibiotics, bind to rRNA in the small subunit of the prokaryotic ribosome. Most aminoglycosides are inactive or weakly active against eukaryotic ribosomes. A major difference in the binding site for these antibiotics between prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomes is the identity of the nucleotide at position 1408 (Escherichia coli numbering), which is an adenosine in prokaryotic ribosomes and a guanosine in eukaryotic ribosomes. Expression in E.coli of plasmid‐encoded 16S rRNA containing an A1408 to G substitution confers resistance to a subclass of the aminoglycoside antibiotics that contain a 6′ amino group on ring I. Chemical footprinting experiments indicate that resistance arises from the lower affinity of the drug for the eukaryotic rRNA sequence. The 1408G ribosomes are resistant to the same subclass of aminoglycosides as previously observed both for eukaryotic ribosomes and bacterial ribosomes containing a methylation at the N1 position of A1408. The results indicate that the identity of the nucleotide at position 1408 is a major determinant of specificity of aminoglycoside action, and agree with prior structural studies of aminoglycoside–rRNA complexes.
Id fluctuations by stochastic single-hole trappings in high-κ dielectric p-MOSFETs

Random telegraph noise (RTN) in scaled FETs is one of the biggest concerns in the present and future LSIs. However, RTN in high-kappa gate dielectric FETs have not been fully studied yet. In this paper, we have studied RTN in high-kappa pFETs in comparison with that in SiO2 pFETs. It is found for the first time that the reduction of the RTN amplitude (DeltaId/Id) by the surface holes is smaller in high-kappa pFETs, comparing to the SiO2 pFETs. It is also found that slower traps in the high-kappa gate dielectric more severely degrade Id. It is considered that some key characteristics are understandable in terms of the higher dielectric constant and the smaller barrier height of the high-kappa gate dielectric.
Development and Validation of a Patient-Reported Measure of Physician Cultural Competency

While cultural competency is widely promoted, the lack of a measure of cultural competency limits our ability to evaluate interventions and to understand the effects of cultural competency on health care quality. Based on a conceptual framework of cultural competency derived from expert focus groups, we developed a patient-reported measure of physician culturally competent communication behaviors that we validated in a group of 429 adult primary-care patients with diabetes and/or hypertension and their 53 physicians. Construct validity was supported by a moderate association with both patient satisfaction (r = .32, p < .001) and patient trust (r = .53, p < .001). Predictive validity was supported by an association with a decrease in blood pressure among hypertensive patients (r = –.18; p < .05). This new measure may be useful in assessing levels of culturally competent provider behavior and investigating associations between provider cultural competency and health care processes and outcomes.
Gaussian Transfer Function Based on Boundary

In direct volume rendering, transfer functions map data points to optical properties such as color and opacity. This paper advances the use of boundary information in transfer functions with a methodology for computing high-quality boundary measurements. An efficient approach for the extraction of boundary from volume datasets was describes. First, boundary voxels are defined by gradient magnitude threshold to refine the dataset. And then an objective function to detect the good boundary can be defined as the surface integral of the mean gradient magnitude. The boundaries are detected as maxima in cumulative Laplacian-weighted gray value histograms divided by boundary area values, with a computationally efficient method that requires only a single pass through the boundary volume. Last, a Gaussian transfer function is designed by the boundaries for high-quality rendering, and the transfer function can be analytically integrated over a line segment under the assumption that data values vary linearly between two sampled points. Analytically integrated segment can then be composed using standard techniques.
CX3CR1-Mediated Dendritic Cell Access to the Intestinal Lumen and Bacterial Clearance

Dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages are critical to innate and adaptive immunity to the intestinal bacterial microbiota. Here, we identify a myeloid-derived mucosal DC in mice, which populates the entire lamina propria of the small intestine. Lamina propria DCs were found to depend on the chemokine receptor CX3CR1 to form transepithelial dendrites, which enable the cells to directly sample luminal antigens. CX3CR1 was also found to control the clearance of entero-invasive pathogens by DCs. Thus, CX3CR1-dependent processes, which control host interactions of specialized DCs with commensal and pathogenic bacteria, may regulate immunological tolerance and inflammation.
A Modular Physical-Simulation Methodology

Physical simulation is useful so that the behaviour of objects emerges from the actions performed on them. However, a simulation simulates only one thing: The mechanics of collision behaviour for example. Further physical properties require further simulators and the problems of making them work effectively together escalate. We offer a structured way of making multiple simulations cooperate. The methodology is reviewed, then demonstrated in use with examples of how users might construct novel objects, such as an electric motor, whose properties emerge from the combined effects of the simulations on its components. The approach has potentially wide uses, for example in interactive games, in a virtual teaching laboratory or in interactive virtual museum exhibits. Users can create new objects which behave in predictable ways, discover solutions other than those built in by a game designer or extend a virtual experiment in exploratory ways. For the designer of the game or experiment, our approach requires fewer scripts and gives more play value for the design effort.
The nose of the sperm whale: overviews of functional design, structural homologies and evolution

The hypertrophic and much elongated epicranial (nasal) complex of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) is a unique device to increase directionality and source levels of echolocation clicks in aquatic environments. The size and shape of the nasal fat bodies as well as the peculiar organization of the air sac system in the nasal sound generator of sperm whales are in favour of this proposed specialized acoustic function. The morphology of the sperm whale nose, including a ‘connecting acoustic window’ in the case and an anterior ‘terminal acoustic window’ at the rostroventral edge of the junk, supports the ‘bent horn hypothesis’ of sound emission. In contrast to the laryngeal mechanism described for dolphins and porpoises, sperm whales may drive the initial pulse generation process with air pressurized by nasal muscles associated with the right nasal passage (right nasal passage muscle, maxillonasolabialis muscle). This can be interpreted as an adaptation to deep-diving and high hydrostatic pressures constraining pneumatic phonation. Comparison of nasal structures in sperm whales and other toothed whales reveals that the existing air sac system as well as the fat bodies and the musculature have the same topographical relations and thus may be homologous in all toothed whales (Odontoceti). This implies that the nasal sound generating system evolved only once during toothed whale evolution and, more specifically, that the unique hypertrophied nasal complex was a main driving force in the evolution of the sperm whale taxon.