Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capsule-Oriented Programming

“Explicit concurrency should be abolished from all higher-level programming languages (i.e. everything except - perhaps- plain machine code.). ” Dijkstra [1] (paraphrased). A promising class of concurrency abstractions replaces explicit concurrency mechanisms with a single linguistic mechanism that combines state and control and uses asynchronous messages for communications, e.g. active objects or actors, but that doesn't remove the hurdle of understanding non-local control transfer. What if the programming model enabled programmers to simply do what they do best, that is, to describe a system in terms of its modular structure and write sequential code to implement the operations of those modules and handles details of concurrency? In a recently sponsored NSF project we are developing such a model that we call capsule-oriented programming and its realization in the Panini project. This model favors modularity over explicit concurrency, encourages concurrency correctness by construction, and exploits modular structure of programs to expose implicit concurrency.
Reconstruction of Sparse-View X-ray Computed Tomography Based on Adaptive Total Variation Minimization

Sparse-view reconstruction has garnered significant interest in X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging owing to its ability to lower radiation doses and enhance detection efficiency. Among current methods for sparse-view CT reconstruction, an algorithm utilizing iterative reconstruction based on full variational regularization demonstrates good performance. The optimized direction and number of computations for the gradient operator of the regularization term play a crucial role in determining not only the reconstructed image quality but also the convergence speed of the iteration process. The conventional TV approach solely accounts for the vertical and horizontal directions of the two-dimensional plane in the gradient direction. When projection data decrease, the edges of the reconstructed image become blurred. Exploring too many gradient directions for TV terms often comes at the expense of more computational costs. To enhance the balance of computational cost and reconstruction quality, this study suggests a novel TV computation model that is founded on a four-direction gradient operator. In addition, selecting appropriate iteration parameters significantly impacts the quality of the reconstructed image. We propose a nonparametric control method utilizing the improved TV approach as a solution to the tedious manual parameter optimization issue. The relaxation parameters of projection onto convex sets (POCS) are determined according to the scanning number and numerical proportion of the projection data; according to the image error before and after iterations, the gradient descent step of the TV item is adaptively adjusted. Compared with several representative iterative reconstruction algorithms, the experimental results show that the algorithm can effectively preserve edges and suppress noise in sparse-view CT reconstruction.
MUCOPOLYSACCHARIDOSIS TYPE I : IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MUTATIONS AFFECTING α-L-IDURONIDASE ACTIVITY

Department of Biology, National Taiwan Normal University, and Department of Pediatrics, Genetic Section, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei. Received: 19 September 2001. Revised: 23 January 2002. Accepted: 5 March 2002. Reprint requests and correspondence to: Dr. Guey-Jen Lee-Chen, Department of Biology, National Taiwan Normal University, 88 Ting-chow Road, Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan. MUCOPOLYSACCHARIDOSIS TYPE I: IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MUTATIONS AFFECTING α-L-IDURONIDASE ACTIVITY
COMPROMISSIONI SEMANTICO-LESSICALI NEI PAZIENTI ITALOFONI AFFETTI DA DEMENZA: UN’ANALISI CORPUS-BASED

Lo studio si pone l’obiettivo di indagare la compromissione semantico-lessicale indotta dall’insorgenza di malattie dementigene per la lingua italiana. A tale scopo è stato reclutato un campione di 40 soggetti anziani lucani, divisi in due gruppi bilanciati per sesso ed età: 20 soggetti cognitivamente integri e 20 soggetti con diagnosi conclamata di demenza (morbo di Alzheimer, demenza mista, demenza frontotemporale, demenza vascolare o demenza non specificata), assistiti nella RSA Universo Salute - Opera Don Uva (PZ). Mediante la somministrazione di tre task linguistici, è stato acquisito un corpus di circa 9 ore di sonoro: completata l’annotazione a livello ortografico, fonetico-acustico, morfosintattico, semantico-lessicale e sintattico, sono stati estratti 151 indici linguistici, poi comparati tra le due coorti in ottica quantitativa/qualitativa al fine di evidenziare tratti linguistici che significativamente distinguono l’eloquio di soggetti affetti da una forma di declino cognitivo. In questa sede proponiamo i risultati dell’analisi semantico-lessicale condotta sui testi orali raccolti: la valutazione delle molteplici feature estratte, arricchita da riflessioni di tipo qualitativo, consente di caratterizzare con maggiore precisione i deficit semantico-lessicali riconducibili all’insorgenza di una patologia dementigena. Lexical-semantic impairments in Italian-speaking patients with dementia: a corpus-based analysis This study aims at characterizing the linguistic-communicative profile of dementia diseases in the Italian language. To this purpose, we recruited a sample of 40 elderly subjects from Basilicata, divided into two groups balanced by sex and age: 20 cognitively intact subjects and 20 patients with a diagnosis of dementia (i.e., Alzheimer's disease, mixed dementia, frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, or unspecified dementia) resident in the nursing home RSA Universo Salute - Opera Don Uva (PZ). We acquired a corpus of about 9 hours of semi-spontaneous speech exploiting three linguistic tasks. After annotating the spoken texts at the orthographic, phonetic-acoustic, morphosyntactic, and semantic levels, we extracted 151 linguistic indexes (i.e., the so-called “Digital Linguistic Biomarkers” DLBs). Then we quantitatively/qualitatively compared them between the cohorts to highlight linguistic markers that significantly distinguish the speech of each group. Here we present the findings of the lexical-semantic analysis conducted on the oral texts. The high number of statistically relevant features related to this linguistic level enables us to depict more precisely the degradation of linguistic skills induced by the disease
The mental health benefits of Nordic walking training in natural therapeutic landscape of Karlovy Vary

Mental health is a real challenge for global society today. The COVID-19 pandemic also has a significant negative impact on people mental health through increased exposure to stressors. The results of many scientific studies show a relationship between outdoor activity and increasing general mental health. Outdoor treatments in the natural environment are a part of the complex spa care in all famous spas in the Czech Republic. This study aimed to conduct a standardized Profile of Mood States questionnaire and to find out the effect of Nordic Walking training in the natural environment of Karlovy Vary on the mood states (tension, anger, fatigue, depression, confusion, vigour) of the participants. The questionnaires were completed by 36 participants (25 women, 11 men) aged between 20 and 65 years (average 45 years). Based on the statistical evaluation, positive changes were observed in most of the investigated mood states. First of all, significantly increased vitality and, on the contrary, decreased fatigue (p-value <0.001) were confirmed. The training also had a positive effect on the anger and depressive states, with a significant reduction in both cases (p-value <0.05). This study results have confirmed that Nordic walking training in the natural environment of Karlovy Vary forests has a positive effect on the mood states of the participants and their mental health. These results will be the basis for follow-up research investigating the impact of physical activity in spa environments on the mental health of visitors and residents of spa towns.
Crises and extinction in the fossil record—a role for ultraviolet radiation?

Abstract A number of natural events can cause ozone depletion, including asteroid and comet impacts, large-scale volcanism involving the stratospheric injection of chlorine, and close cosmic events such as supernovae. These events have previously been postulated to have been sole or contributory causes of mass extinctions. Following such events, UV-B radiation would have been elevated at the surface of the earth. The possibilities for detecting elevated UV-B as a kill mechanism in the fossil record are discussed. In the case of impact events and large-scale volcanism, the taxa affected by increases in UV-B radiation are likely to be similar to those affected by cooling and by the initial drop in irradiance caused by stratospheric dust injection. Thus UV-B may synergistically exacerbate the effects of these other environmental changes and contribute to stress in the biosphere, although UV-B alone is unlikely to cause a mass extinction. By the same token, however, this similarity in affected taxa is likely to make delineating the involvement of UV-B radiation in the fossil record more difficult. Cosmic events such as supernovae may produce smaller extinction events, but ones that are “cleaner” UV catastrophes without the involvement of other environmental changes.
Constraint Admissible Positive Invariant Sets for Vehicles in SE(3)

This letter characterizes a class of constraint admissible positive invariant (CAPI) sets for vehicles with constrained nonlinear dynamics operating in SE(3). We present a robust linearization wherein the nonlinearities are eliminated using a combination of feedback-linearization and norm-bounded disturbances. We show that robust positive invariant sets for this robust linearization are positive invariant sets for the nonlinear dynamics. We present a trio of linear matrix inequalities for synthesizing the desired positive invariant sets. We present another pair of linear matrix inequalities which ensure that the feedback-linearizing controller is constraint admissible. We empirically show our candidate CAPI sets are invariant and constraint admissible through nonlinear simulation and compare with a candidate CAPI set synthesized using a non-robust linearization.
Development of a Novel Bronchodilator Vaping Drug Delivery System Based on Thermal Degradation Properties

This work aims to investigate bronchodilator delivery with the use of different vaping drug delivery systems (VDDS) by determining the dose equivalence delivered in relation to different references: a clinical jet nebulizer, a pMDI (pressurized metered dose inhaler) and a DPI (dry powder inhaler). Three different bronchodilators were used (terbutaline, salbutamol hemisulfate, ipratropium bromide). The e-liquids contained the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in powder form. Two different VDDS were tested (JUUL and a GS AIR 2 atomizer paired with a variable lithium-ion battery (i-stick TC 40 W), 1.5 ohm resistance, and 15 W power). Samples were collected using a glass twin impinger (GTI). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to quantify the drugs. A next-generation impactor (NGI) was used to measure the particle size distribution. Terbutaline emerged as the optimal API for bronchodilator delivery in both VDDS devices. It achieved the delivery of a respirable dose of 20.05 ± 4.2 µg/puff for GS AIR 2 and 2.98 ± 0.52 µg/puff for JUUL. With these delivered doses, it is possible to achieve a dose equivalence similar to that of a jet nebulizer and DPI, all while maintaining a reasonable duration, particularly with the GS AIR 2. This study is the first to provide evidence that vaping bronchodilators work only with appropriate formulation, vaping technology, and specific drugs, depending on their thermal degradation properties.
Oral and long-acting injectable antipsychotic discontinuation and relationship to side effects in people with first episode psychosis: a longitudinal analysis of electronic health record data

Background: Discontinuation of treatment in people with first episode psychosis (FEP) is common, but the extent to which this is related to specific adverse effects of antipsychotic medications is unclear. Objectives: To investigate whether antipsychotic discontinuation is associated with the prescription of particular antipsychotics and particular adverse effects. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: We assembled de-identified electronic health record (EHR) data from 2309 adults with FEP who received care from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust between 1st April 2008 and 31st March 2019. Associations between antipsychotic medications, clinician-recorded side effects and treatment discontinuation were investigated across a mean follow-up period of 34.2 months using Cox regression. Results: The mean age of patients was 26.7 years and 1492 (64.6%) were male. Among first prescribed antipsychotic medications, discontinuation occurred earlier with haloperidol [hazard ratio (HR) = 2.78, 95% CI = 1.69–4.60] and quetiapine (HR = 1.43, 95% CI = 1.16–1.80) than with olanzapine. Discontinuation occurred sooner when there was evidence of extrapyramidal symptoms (HR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.08–1.64) or sexual dysfunction (HR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.03–2.46). Among antipsychotics prescribed at any point during treatment, lurasidone (HR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.10–1.78) and aripiprazole (HR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.01–1.19) were associated with earlier discontinuation than olanzapine. Conversely, clozapine (HR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.41–0.73) and paliperidone 1-monthly (PP1M) long-acting injectable (HR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.68–0.94) were associated with later discontinuation. Unexpectedly, for antipsychotics prescribed at any stage of treatment, sedation (HR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.81–0.97), weight gain (HR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.64–0.83), and multiple side effects (HR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.76–0.90) were associated with later discontinuation. Conclusion: Earlier treatment discontinuation associated with sexual or extrapyramidal side effects could be related to their rapid onset and poor tolerability. Later treatment discontinuation associated with clozapine and PP1M could be related to the relative efficacy of these treatments. These findings merit consideration when selecting antipsychotic therapy for people with FEP.
Reactive oxygen species and its effect on germination of seeds

Within the realm of plant biology, a sophisticated and intricate antioxidative system (AOS) exists to combat detrimental reactive species (RS), with a primary focus on reactive oxygen species (ROS). This intricate network functions to preserve cellular homeostasis. Originally, reactive oxygen species (ROS) were identified as harmful byproducts of aerobic metabolic processes. It is a review paper that descries ROS in brief along with its production, source, reactivity, functions and many more. At first it describes about peroxisomes that helps in production of H2O2 & O2- & Production of ROS in vivo & in vitro. Secondly it describes about its Source or origin i.e. from Mitochondria, Transition Metal Ions, ER etc and it also describes about its chemical properties & reactivity of different ROS i.e. H2O2, HO , O2- & HO2 in different ways including Haber- Weiss Reaction which are mentioned in details . We also report about the role of ROS in germination process and its functions. To conclude we have reviewed ROS and compiled in a manner which will altogether shed a new light on the roles of ROS in a plant species.
Using Big Data to enhance data envelopment analysis of retail store productivity

PurposeThe concept of productivity is central to performance management and decision-making, although it is complex and multifaceted. This paper aims to describe a methodology based on the use of Big Data in a cluster analysis combined with a data envelopment analysis (DEA) that provides accurate and reliable productivity measures in a large network of retailers.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is described using a case study of a leading kitchen furniture producer. More specifically, Big Data is used in a two-step analysis prior to the DEA to automatically cluster a large number of retailers into groups that are homogeneous in terms of structural and environmental factors and assess a within-the-group level of productivity of the retailers.FindingsThe proposed methodology helps reduce the heterogeneity among the units analysed, which is a major concern in DEA applications. The data-driven factorial and clustering technique allows for maximum within-group homogeneity and between-group heterogeneity by reducing subjective bias and dimensionality, which is embedded with the use of Big Data.Practical implicationsThe use of Big Data in clustering applied to productivity analysis can provide managers with data-driven information about the structural and socio-economic characteristics of retailers' catchment areas, which is important in establishing potential productivity performance and optimizing resource allocation. The improved productivity indexes enable the setting of targets that are coherent with retailers' potential, which increases motivation and commitment.Originality/valueThis article proposes an innovative technique to enhance the accuracy of productivity measures through the use of Big Data clustering and DEA. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no attempts have been made to benefit from the use of Big Data in the literature on retail store productivity.
Antarctic Circumpolar Current as a density-driven flow

The paper considers the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) as a current formed due to the specific density field in the Southern Ocean characterized by relatively strong frontal zones. Unlike the approach founded on the geostrophic balance only, the suggested model takes into account turbulence effects caused by the baroclinic instability. The approach is grounded on the theory of rotationally anisotropic turbulence (RAT theory). While classical treatments of the ACC are based on the momentum balance, the RAT theory is founded on a simultaneous consideration of the momentum and moment of momentum balance. The equation of the moment of momentum is introduced due to the rotational anisotropy of turbulence in frontal region(s) coinciding with the observed ACC occurrence. For the realistic density field, estimated from the measured and optimally analysed temperature and salinity long-term data in the Southern Ocean with the density increasing to the south, the resulting velocity is directed to the east. This velocity is interpreted as the turbulence-generated ageostrophic constituent of the flow field. In the regions where turbulence effects are missing, the ageostrophic velocity constituent vanishes and the model reduces to the classical geostrophic balance condition. The model predictions are illustrated by velocity profiles calculated for the case where turbulent effects prevail over the geostrophic balance.
L’aprenentatge cooperatiu i les pédagogies coopératives: dues concepcions diferents de treballar en grup cooperatiu

Moltes pedagogies i pràctiques educatives recomanen l’ús de la cooperació entre alumnes. Aquest article teòric intenta diferenciar dues de les pràctiques més utilitzades de dues concepcions de la cooperació escolar: el treball en grup cooperatiu de l’aprenentatge cooperatiu (cooperative learning, provinent del món anglosaxó) i el treball en grup (travail en groupe) de les pedagogies cooperatives (pédagogies coopératives, provinents del món francòfon). Mentre que l’aprenentatge cooperatiu prioritza més aviat el desenvolupament de les habilitats cooperatives (aprendre a cooperar) per a després cooperar per aprendre, les pédagogies coopératives es presenten de diverses formes a través de dispositius que majoritàriament busquen que els estudiants aprenguin cooperant. L’article consisteix a introduir el travail en groupe de les pédagogies coopératives, i a eliminar els possibles malentesos en referència al treball en grups cooperatius de l’aprenentatge cooperatiu. No es tracta de pràctiques cooperatives que xoquen o competeixen, són més aviat lògiques amb tradicions diferents, proposades per contribuir a l’aprenentatge i que presenten formes de complementarietat.
The factors obstaculating adherence to the gluten free diet in the youth bands: an observational study

ABSTRACT Introduction Celiac Disease (CD) affects the small intestine and it’s characterized by a high sensitivity to gluten. Among the main signs and symptoms, there are typical or intestinal ones such as abdominal pain, abdominal swelling, diarrhea, weight loss, atrophy of the intestinal villi. At the moment, the only effective therapy is to follow a gluten-free diet during a long-life. The aim of the study is to investigate the difficulties of adherence to GFD in young people with CD. Materials and methods A questionnaire was administered to the population under study (15-30 years), between 9 July 2022 and 29 August 2022. The interviewees answered 28 questions: 5 concerning the socio-demographic variable, 23 concerning the difficulties of adherence to the GFD. Results 227 people answered the questionnaire. Among them, a low percentage was sent to the attention of a dietician or psychologist. 78.8% prepare their own meal independently. 78.4% believe they know very well the foods they can eat and 93% say they follow the diet stringently. Discussion Following the GF diet is a challenge for most young people with CD. Restaurants offering GF meals are limited and this could be a reason for giving up leisure and socializing, or in the worst-case scenario, the person with CD is forced not to join the GFD. The risk of contamination that can involve fear, isolation, embarrassment in asking questions, is another factor to always keep in mind. Conclusion Adherence difficulties begins with the CD diagnosis and the taking charge. The main problem in related to the social setting of young people, who wants to live without complications due to crance of places with GF food. Literature should investigate about adherence difficulties, instead of quality of life and behaviour CD related. It’s necessary to improve the attention on GF world to decrease discomfort about medical conditions. Keywords FD, celiac disease, gluten-free foods, therapy, adherence difficulties.
Bottled Water Quality in Lubumbashi, Assessment of Producer Label Information

The preference for the consumption of drinking water in bottles in the city of Lubumbashi is a reality almost present in developing countries, where tap water is not drinkable. This study examined the quality of the information carried by the labels of drinking water bottles sold in the city of Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The purpose of this assessment was to compare the information of the physico-chemical parameters as stated by the producer of the water brand with the composition as recommended by the 2001 WHO guidelines for bottled water. And we collected information on 30 brands of bottled water produced and marketed in the city of Lubumbashi. It emerges from this research that 7 brands presented no useful information to consumers and of the remaining 23 brands we observed a difference in the labeling of the bottles and discrepancies in the chemical composition. None of the bottles met all the parameters required by the WHO. The article highlighted the need for strict regulations on labeling standards and related information to adjust water bottle labels according to water characteristics.