Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonlinear waves in weakly-coupled lattices

We consider existence and stability of breather solutions to discrete nonlinear Schrödinger (dNLS) and discrete Klein Gordon (dKG) equations near the anti-continuum limit, the limit of the zero coupling constant. For su ciently small coupling, discrete breathers can be uniquely extended from the anti-continuum limit where they consist of periodic oscillations on excited sites separated by "holes" (sites at rest). In the anti-continuum limit, the dNLS equation linearized about its discrete breather has a spectrum consisting of the zero eigenvalue of nite multiplicity and purely imaginary eigenvalues of in nite multiplicities. Splitting of the zero eigenvalue into stable and unstable eigenvalues near the anti-continuum limit was examined in the literature earlier. The eigenvalues of in nite multiplicity split into bands of continuous spectrum, which, as observed in numerical experiments, may in turn produce internal modes, additional eigenvalues on the imaginary axis. Using resolvent analysis and perturbation methods, we prove that no internal modes bifurcate from the continuous spectrum of the dNLS equation with small coupling. Linear stability of small-amplitude discrete breathers in the weakly-coupled KG lattice was considered in a number of papers. Most of these papers, however, do not consider stability of discrete breathers which have "holes" in the anti-continuum limit. We use perturbation methods for Floquet multipliers and analysis of tail-to-tail interactions between excited sites to develop a general criterion on linear stability of multi-site breathers in the KG lattice near the anti-continuum limit. Our criterion is not restricted to small-amplitude oscillations and it allows discrete breathers to have "holes" in the anti-continuum limit.
Local Climate Zones (LCZs) and Urban Morphological Parameters Using GIS: An Application to Italian Cities

: LCZs refer to a classification system that exists out of 17 classes, 10 of which can be described as urban, proposed as new standard for characterizing and comparing urban landscapes. This work evaluates the reliability of the LCZ level 0 map obtained from WUDAPT by comparing it with a more detailed LCZ map inferred from morphological information of several Italian cities. Morphological data from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are used to obtain a detailed morphological characterization of each city. Preliminary results for the city of Lecce shows that the WUDAPT L0 method misclassified some LCZs especially at the core urban cells, whereas wider matching is observed at the boundary between urban and rural areas.
Anatomical and dimensional evaluation of the incisive canal in brazilians using cone-beam computed tomography

Objective: To evaluate the dimensions of the incisive canal (IC) and incisive foramen (IF) in dentate and maxillary anterior edentulous (MAE) individuals using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods: This retrospective, cross-sectional study analyzed dentate and MAE individuals aged ≥ 50 years of both sexes. Using CBCT, we measured the buccal-palatal (BPW) and mesial-distal (MDW) widths of the IF and the length of the buccal cortical (BC) and palatal cortical (PC) bones and the angulation (A) of the IC in relation to the nasal floor. Results: 151 CBCT were analyzed, of which 74 were MAE and 77 dentate with a mean age of 63.3 ± 7.9 and 61.4 ± 9.3, respectively. Compared to the dentate group, the MAE group showed higher MDW of the IF (p = 0.034) and, in the IC, lower BC (p = 0.000), PC (p = 0.006), and A (p = 0.000). In the MAE individuals, the PC was higher in men when compared to women (p = 0.030). Conclusion: IC dimensions were smaller, MDW of the IF was greater in Brazilian MAE, and the PC was greater in male MAE, highlighting the importance of CBCT in planning, in the absence of maxillary anterior teeth.
Examining the Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in BRICS

Purpose: The study’s objectives were twofold. Firstly, to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Secondly, the study explored whether the complementarity between trade openness and infrastructural development was one of the drivers of foreign direct investment inflows into BRICS during the period under study. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study used fixed effects, dynamic ordinary least squares (dynamic OLS) and the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) with data ranging from 1994 to 2020. Findings: Trade openness (FMOLS, dynamic OLS, fixed effects), economic growth (FMOLS) and exchange rates (fixed effects, FMOLS) were found to have had a significant positive effect on foreign direct investment inflow into BRICS. The study also noted that the influence of inflation (fixed effects), financial development (fixed effects, FMOLS) and human capital development (FMOLS, fixed effects) on foreign direct investment was significantly negative. Implications/Originality/Value: To attract more foreign direct investment inflows into their countries, BRICS authorities are urged to develop and implement policies geared towards enhancing trade openness, economic growth and strength of their local currencies.
Are Viral Infections Key Inducers of Autoimmune Diseases? Focus on Epstein–Barr Virus

It is generally accepted that certain viral infections can trigger the development of autoimmune diseases. However, the exact mechanisms by which these viruses induce autoimmunity are still not understood. In this review, we first describe hypothetical mechanisms by which viruses induce some representative autoimmune diseases. Then, we focus on Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and discuss its role in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The discussion is mainly based on our own previous findings that (A) EBV DNA and its products EBV-encoded small RNA (EBER) and latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) are present in the synovial lesions of RA, (B) mRNA expression of the signaling lymphocytic activation molecule-associated protein (SAP)/SH2D1A gene that plays a critical role in cellular immune responses to EBV is reduced in the peripheral T cells of patients with RA, and (C) EBV infection of mice reconstituted with human immune system components (humanized mice) induced erosive arthritis that is pathologically similar to RA. Additionally, environmental factors may contribute to EBV reactivation as follows: Porphyromonas gingivalis peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD), an enzyme required for citrullination, engenders antigens leading to the production of citrullinated peptides both in the gingiva and synovium. Anti-citrullinated peptides autoantibody is an important marker for diagnosis and disease activity of RA. These findings, as well as various results obtained by other researchers, strongly suggest that EBV is directly involved in the pathogenesis of RA, a typical autoimmune disease.
Electronic excitations in quasi-2D crystals: what theoretical quantities are relevant to experiment?

The ab initio theory of electronic excitations in atomically thin (quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D)) crystals presents extra challenges in comparison to both the bulk and purely 2D cases. We argue that the conventionally used energy-loss function − Im 1 ϵ ( q , &ohgr; ) ? > (where ϵ , q ? > , and &ohgr; ? > are the dielectric function, the momentum, and the energy transfer, respectively) is not, generally speaking, the suitable quantity for the interpretation of the electron–energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in the Q2D case, and we construct different functions pertinent to the EELS experiments on Q2D crystals. Secondly, we emphasize the importance and develop a convenient procedure of the elimination of the spurious inter-layer interaction inherent to the use of the 3D super-cell method for the calculation of excitations in Q2D crystals. Thirdly, we resolve the existing controversy in the interpretation of the so-called π and &pgr; + &sgr; ? > excitations in monolayer graphene by demonstrating that both dispersive collective excitations (plasmons) and non-dispersive single-particle (inter-band) transitions fall in the same energy ranges, where they strongly influence each other.
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

We present WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mid-infrared photometry of young stellar object candidates in the Canis Majoris clouds at a distance of 1 kpc. WISE has identified 682 objects with apparent 12 and 22 micron excess emission in a 7 deg x 10 deg field around the CMa Rl cloud . While a substantial fraction of these candidates are likely galaxies, AGB stars, and artifacts from confusion along the galactic plane, others are part of a spectacular cluster of YSOs imaged by WISE along a dark filament in the R1 cloud. Palomar Double Spectrograph observations of several sources in this cluster confirm their identity as young A and B stars with strong emission lines. In this contribution, we plot the optical -mid-infrared spectral energy distribution for the WISE YSO candidates and discuss potential contaminants to the sample . The data demonstrate the utility of WISE in performing wide-area surveys for young stellar objects.
Quantifying HVAC electrical flexibility from building thermal mass: a case study of the DOE reference building

As a means to adjust the temperature of the thermal zones in buildings, building thermal mass is regarded as one of the essential sources of energy flexibility. It is still challenging to quantify the energy flexibility of passive thermal mass, making it oppugning to use thermal mass for buildings’ demand response (DR). A method to accurately quantify the energy flexibility from heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC) is important for buildings to participate in DR projects. This paper proposes a novel data-driven model to quantify HVAC’s electrical demand under dynamic global temperature adjustment. The Markov chain is first used to implement an effective sampling method to produce a global temperature resetting schedule representing different temperature resetting. Next, EnergyPlus evaluates the HVAC electrical demand under the various temperature reset scenarios. In the end, the LightGBM algorithm is used to develop the data-driven model. Having validated the proposed model, the case study was conducted in a DOE reference office building for EnergyPlus. Results demonstrate that the Markov chain outperforms the probabilistic method when sampling temperature setpoint schedules. In the future, the proposed data-driven model can be used to evaluate the flexibility capacity of an energy management system in grid-integrated buildings.
XML-IR: coverage as a part of relevance

Relevance is a multidimensional concept, not only consisting of linguistic-only properties but also enriched by various other relevance dimensions that are largely orthogonal to the topicality (i.e. content-based relevance) of a document. The question is how to capture such dimensions of relevance effectively in a retrieval model. In this paper we propose a model where we regard additional relevance dimensions independent (given a document instantiation). The independence assumption is made because it is very difficult to predict influence of relevance dimensions a-priori. The model also reflects our belief that modeling of additional knowledge with prior probabilities (in a probabilistic setting) is a counter-intuitive approach because of 1) the orthogonality of additional relevance dimensions and 2) the difficulty to reliably (re-)estimate dimension models, due to possible `noise' introduced by nondimension related priors. Also, relevance feedback needs to be able to handle multiple dimensions of relevance effectively. Feedback in the model is done with dimension-specific feedback sets. We can only report informally on the results of our model; based on the experimental scenarios performed, the model is appearing to perform very well, although quantitative assessments using an assessed collection are necessary to confirm this and draw further conclusions.
Exploration of Ear Biometrics Using EfficientNet

Biometrics is the recognition of a human using biometric characteristics for identification, which may be physiological or behavioral. The physiological biometric features are the face, ear, iris, fingerprint, and handprint; behavioral biometrics are signatures, voice, gait pattern, and keystrokes. Numerous systems have been developed to distinguish biometric traits used in multiple applications, such as forensic investigations and security systems. With the current worldwide pandemic, facial identification has failed due to users wearing masks; however, the human ear has proven more suitable as it is visible. Therefore, the main contribution is to present the results of a CNN developed using EfficientNet. This paper presents the performance achieved in this research and shows the efficiency of EfficientNet on ear recognition. The nine variants of EfficientNets were fine-tuned and implemented on multiple publicly available ear datasets. The experiments showed that EfficientNet variant B8 achieved the best accuracy of 98.45%.
Wrist Movement Variability Assessment in Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease

(1) Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder represented by the progressive loss of dopamine-producing neurons, it decreases the individual’s motor functions and affects the execution of movements. There is a real need to include quantitative techniques and reliable methods to assess the evolution of PD. (2) Methods: This cross-sectional study assessed the variability of wrist RUD (radial and ulnar deviation) and FE (flexion and extension) movements measured by two pairs of capacitive sensors (PS25454 EPIC). The hypothesis was that PD patients have less variability in wrist movement execution than healthy individuals. The data was collected from 29 participants (age: 62.13 ± 9.7) with PD and 29 healthy individuals (60.70 ± 8). Subjects performed the experimental tasks at normal and fast speeds. Six features that captured the amplitude of the hand movements around two axes were estimated from the collected signals. (3) Results: The movement variability was greater for healthy individuals than for PD patients (p < 0.05). (4) Conclusion: The low variability seen in the PD group may indicate they execute wrist RUD and FE in a more restricted way. The variability analysis proposed here could be used as an indicator of patient progress in therapeutic programs and required changes in medication dosage.
A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study of Sleep Disturbances in Children with ADHD and Matched Controls

Background: Systematic reviews conducted on sleep disturbances in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have found inconsistent results due to the presence of several moderating variables which were not controlled for in previous studies. The aim of this study was to examine sleep disturbances in children with ADHD compared to their typically developing peers after controlling for moderating variables (age, sex, medication status, body mass index, and psychiatric and medical comorbidities). Methods: ADHD was diagnosed using DSM-IV-TR criteria (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and Conners’ Parent Rating Scales. Children recruited (aged 6–12 years) for the ADHD group (n = 40) met the following criteria: IQ > 80, unmedicated, and no psychiatric or medical comorbidities. The control group consisted of age- and sex-matched typically developing peers (n = 40). Sleep was assessed subjectively (through parent reported questionnaires and sleep logs) and objectively (using video polysomnography). Results: 65% of children with ADHD had a sleep disorder, as compared to 17% of controls. The ADHD group reported more sleep disturbances and disorders, both on subjective measures and objective measures. Conclusions: Sleep disturbances and primary sleep disorders in children with ADHD exist independent of moderating variables and differences in sleep assessment methods, thereby bolstering support for previously documented literature on the ADHD and sleep connection.
Sensitivity analysis of distributed erosion models: Framework

We introduce the (P, R, p) procedure for analysis of distributed erosion models, evaluating separate sensitivities to input fluxes (precipitations P), to the propensity of soil to surface flow (runoff conditions R), and to specific erosion properties (descriptive parameters p). For genericity and easier comparisons between models, superparameters of equivalent slope and equivalent erodibility are assembled from innate descriptive parameters: parameterization is reduced to four coded integers that are arguments of the soil loss function. Directional sensitivities are calculated in a deterministic way, associated with any selected displacement in parameter space. In this multistage and risk‐orientated procedure, special emphasis is placed on trajectories from best‐case toward worst‐case scenarios, involving one‐at‐a‐time variations and Latin Hypercube samples. Sensitivity maps are produced in the superparameter plane, tracing risk isovalues and estimating the relative importance of the equivalent parameters and of their spatial distributions.
The discretized polyhedra simplification (DPS): a framework for polyhedra simplification based on decomposition schemes

This work discusses simplification algorithms for the generation of a multiresolution family of solid representations from an initial polyhedral solid. We introduce the Discretized Polyhedra Simplification (DPS), a framework for polyhedra simplification using space decomposition models. The DPS is based on a new error measurement and provides a sound scheme for error-bounded, geometry and topology simplification while preserving the validity of the model. A method following this framework, Direct DPS, is presented and discussed. Direct DPS uses an octree for topology simplification and error control, and generates valid solid representations. Our method is also able to generate approximations which do not interpenetrate the original model, either being completely contained in the input solid or bounding it. Unlike most of the current methods, our algorithm can deal and also produces faces with arbitrary complexity. An extension of the Direct method for appearance preservation, called Hybrid DPS, is also discussed.
Boundary layer radar observations of the passage of the convection center over Serpong, Indonesia (6

An L-band (1357.5 MHz) boundary layer radar (BLR) has been in continuous successful operation at Serpong, Indonesia (6.4°S, 106.7°E) for more than two years from November 1992, including the Intensive Observation Period (IOP) of TOGA COARE (November 1992-February 1993). We found a striking reversal of the wind direction from easterly to westerly at the beginning of December 1992. It was confirmed from geostationary meteorological satellite (GMS) observation data that this reversal was associated with an eastward movement of the convection center (a super cluster) situated between the Indian Ocean monsoon (westerly) dominant area and the Pacific Ocean trade wind (easterly) dominant area. The lower-tropospheric wind variations associated with (super) cloud clusters are presented, and some differences are found between the eastern and western sides of the convection center (corresponding respectively to the easterly and westerly regimes; or to the dry and rainy seasons).
Monoamine Oxidase-Dependent Pro-Survival Signaling in Diabetic Hearts Is Mediated by miRNAs

Diabetes leads to cardiomyopathy and heart failure, the leading cause of death for diabetic patients. Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibition in diabetic cardiomyopathy prevents oxidative stress, mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum stress and the development of diastolic dysfunction. However, it is unclear whether, in addition to the direct effects exerted on the mitochondria, MAO activity is able to post-transcriptionally regulate cardiomyocyte function and survival in diabetes. To this aim, we performed gene and miRNA expression profiling in cardiac tissue from streptozotocin-treated mice (model of type 1 diabetes (T1D)), administered with either vehicle or MAOs inhibitor pargyline for 12 weeks. We found that inhibition of MAO activity in T1D hearts leads to profound transcriptomic changes, affecting autophagy and pro-survival pathways activation. MAO activity in T1D hearts increased miR-133a-3p, -193a-3p and -27a-3p expression. These miRNAs target insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 (Igf1r), growth factor receptor bound protein 10 and inositol polyphosphate 4 phosphatase type 1A, respectively, all components of the IGF1R/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Indeed, AKT activation was significantly downregulated in T1D hearts, whereas MAO inhibition restored the activation of this pro-survival pathway. The present study provides an important link between MAO activity, transcriptomic changes and activation of pro-survival signaling and autophagy in diabetic cardiomyopathy.
Can Overclaiming Technique Improve Self-Assessment Tools for Digital Competence? The Case of DigCompSat

Digital competence is crucial for living, working and participating in current societies. Despite its huge importance, objective measurement tools for it are scarce due to its developmental difficulty. Self-assessment of digital competence seems a promising proxy of objective tests, and it additionally offers the possibility for surveying otherwise unmeasurable constructs such as attitudes and beliefs. However, self-assessment tools are burdened with validity problems, most notably response biases such as overly positive descriptions, overclaiming or careless and insufficient effort responding. In this paper, we investigate how these problems can be mitigated by using the overclaiming technique, a technique that identifies and corrects the bias variance in self-assessments. Our main result was that the use of the overclaiming technique can lead to higher reliability and validity of digital competence self-assessment tools, especially for short scales. Moreover, it allows for correcting additional spurious variance in comparison with careless responding indexes, which allows the use of both these techniques in parallel to increase the quality of data. Our results are important in providing advances in enhanced information on digital competence that can result in better lifelong learning decisions when used at the individual level and in better policy-making decisions when used at the aggregate level.
Espaces projectifs anisotropes

RÉSUMÉ. — Cet article traite des espaces projectifs attachés aux algèbres de polynômes graduées de façon inhabituelle. On y démontre des propriétés analogues à celle du cas classique : cohomologie, complexe dualisant,. en dépit de différences notables : ces espaces ne sont pas lisses, les modules associés aux modules gradués libres ne sont pas inversibles. On donne comme application la construction de nombreux anneaux de Gorenstein non triviaux.