Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Degradation of different photovoltaic technologies under field conditions

Over the past years a number of testing facilities have been monitoring the performance and degradation of PV systems according to the established standards of indoor and outdoor testing. The objective of this paper is to present the initial first year and longer-term rate of degradation of different PV technologies installed at the testing facility of the University of Cyprus, based on outdoor field measurements and methodologies. The first year degradation of the technologies was obtained using a data filtering technique of DC generated power at Maximum Power Point (MPP) at irradiation points of higher than 800 W/m2 and normalising the measured power to Standard Test Conditions (STC). Over the first year, mono-crystalline silicon technologies showed degradations in the range 2.12 % – 4.73 % while for multi-crystalline technologies the range was 1.47 % – 2.40 %. The amorphous silicon system demonstrated the highest first year decrease in power with an average degradation of 13.82 %. For validation purposes the first year degradation was also obtained using a second technique by evaluating outdoor measured data-sets under Air Mass (AM) 1.5 (morning and afternoon) conditions and during noon (high irradiance and temperature). In this case the evaluated results showed deviations of up to 6 % and 3 % for mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline technologies respectively whereas for thin-film this was 5 %. Finally, the longer-term degradation rates were evaluated by using the least-square fit method on average monthly data-set blocks of (i) Performance Ratio (PR), (ii) PR evaluated by filtering outage data-sets and restricting to high irradiance conditions and (iii) the Photovoltaic for Utility Systems Applications (PVUSA) rating methods, for the period June 2007 – June 2009.
Proteome Analyses of Hydrogen-producing Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Thermococcus onnurineus NA1 in Different One-carbon Substrate Culture Conditions*

Thermococcus onnurineus NA1, a sulfur-reducing hyperthermophilic archaeon, is capable of H2-producing growth, considered to be hydrogenogenic carboxydotrophy. Utilization of formate as a sole energy source has been well studied in T. onnurineus NA1. However, whether formate can be used as its carbon source remains unknown. To obtain a global view of the metabolic characteristics of H2-producing growth, a quantitative proteome analysis of T. onnurineus NA1 grown on formate, CO, and starch was performed by combining one-dimensional SDS-PAGE with nano UPLC-MSE. A total of 587 proteins corresponding to 29.7% of the encoding genes were identified, and the major metabolic pathways (especially energy metabolism) were characterized at the protein level. Expression of glycolytic enzymes was common but more highly induced in starch-grown cells. In contrast, enzymes involved in key steps of the gluconeogenesis and pentose phosphate pathways were strongly up-regulated in formate-grown cells, suggesting that formate could be utilized as a carbon source by T. onnurineus NA1. In accordance with the genomic analysis, comprehensive proteomic analysis also revealed a number of hydrogenase clusters apparently associated with formate metabolism. On the other hand, CODH and CO-induced hydrogenases belonging to the Hyg4-II cluster, as well as sulfhydrogenase-I and Mbx, were prominently expressed during CO culture. Our data suggest that CO can be utilized as a sole energy source for H2 production via an electron transport mechanism and that CO2 produced from catabolism or CO oxidation by CODH and CO-induced hydrogenases may subsequently be assimilated into the organic carbon. Overall, proteomic comparison of formate- and CO-grown cells with starch-grown cells revealed that a single carbon compound, such as formate and CO, can be utilized as an efficient substrate to provide cellular carbon and/or energy by T. onnurineus NA1.
Ribbon spacing in Venusian tessera: Implications for layer thickness and thermal state

We report on measurements of characteristic extensional wavelength represented by ribbons in Venusian tessera terrain. Fourier power spectra for ribbons in 35 areas from 9 geographic regions show dominant wavelengths of 2 to 6 km. We used these values to estimate mechanical layer thickness during ribbon formation at 0.6 to 2.9 km. Because ribbons accommodate extension of a single strong layer overlying a ductile substrate, we conclude that the base of this mechanical layer corresponded to the local brittle‐ductile transition (BDT) during ribbon formation. Maintaining a BDT at <3 km depth for a significant length of time requires a locally hot environment, as over a plume impinging on thin lithosphere. These results indicate that locally hot conditions prevailed at widely distinct locations in the past.
Rank based statistics in analyzing high-throughput genomic data

Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisors Dr. Zohar Yakhini from Agilent Labs and the Technion and Prof. Benny Chor from Tel Aviv University for their guidance and support. I would especially like to thank Zohar for giving me the opportunity to work in this exciting field of computational biology. Specifically, for his dedicated attention, his inexhaustible patience, for the captivating numerous discussions on math, computer science, biology and their integration and for teaching me that making science is not limited only to the borders of the office/lab. Special thanks goes to my lab member – Israel Steinfeld, for his friendship, for being an important part of all the studies described in this thesis and for numerous fruitful discussions. During my studies I found myself battling cancer, not only scientifically. I would like to thank my colleagues, advisors, Agilent Technologies Israel, friends and family for being there for me when I needed them the most. Last, but not least, I would like to thank my parents Ruth and Gil Navon for raising me to be curious and for showing me the passion for science and learning. Abstract High throughput methods (such as microarrays) have revolutionized experimental biology. New statistical methods that facilitate analysis of the vast amounts of data generated by these experiments became a critical part of general study workflow. Gaps and variants that address specific situations are the subject of ongoing research and development efforts. Such methods were, indeed, developed and optimized to address various aspects of high-throughput genomic data analysis. This thesis focuses on specific aspects of expression data analysis. Chapter ‎ 2, describes GOrilla-a GO enrichment tool that provides statistically sound methods for identifying GO terms enriched at the top of a ranked list of genes. Chapter ‎ 3 addresses semi-supervised class discovery – finding meaningful partitions in the data based on genomic and phenotypic data. The third method, presented in Chapter ‎ 4 – RCoS, is a rank consistency score, which is useful in analyzing matched data. The statistical methods presented in the thesis are not limited to the analysis of gene expression, but the examples used are based on gene (and miRNA) expression. The methods presented herein are currently in use by a growing number of bioinformaticians and data analysis professionals. For example, GOrilla had over 5,000 visits in the first year following the publication of the paper.
Empirical Examination of the Role of Three Sets of Innovation Attributes for Determining Adoption of IRCTC Mobile Ticketing Service

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited’s (IRCTC) mobile ticketing was recently introduced in India. In this study of its adoption, three competing attribute-sets are compared. This study aims to reveal the attribute-set best predicting its adoption. The research model was empirically tested and validated using SPSS. Four attributes from the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory, four from the PCI theory, and four from Tornatzky and Klein’s meta-analysis significantly affected behavioral intentions. Only complexity failed to influence use intentions, and behavioral intention and riskiness significantly impacted adoption.
Lyophilized Platelets: Fifty Years in the Making

Starting with the work of Klein et al. in the early 1950s, there has been a concerted effort to apply the process of freeze-drying for the preservation of platelets in order to provide hemorrhagic patients with a stable infusible hemostatic agent to stop bleeding. The original attempts did not preserve platelet structural integrity and proved to be of little clinical benefit. However, it was known that fixation by various cross-linking agents rendered platelets able to withstand structurally intact the stresses of lyophilization but with (assumed) complete loss of functionality. Read and coworkers showed that fixed and freeze-dried platelets could respond to ristocetin-induced agglutination, and thus devised a widely accepted assay for von Willebrands factor that demonstrated that reconstituted platelets participated well in this in vitro model of an important interaction in primary hemostasis. This review chronicles the efforts of the authors to refine the fixation process so that the freeze-dried and reconstituted platelets retain fundamental hemostatic properties necessary to stop bleeding. The resultant product has demonstrated correction or reduction of the bleeding times in animal models with platelet deficits including the thrombocytopenic rabbit model of Blajchman and coworkers, a canine cardiopulmonary bypass model of open-heart surgery at East Carolina University (ECU), and a porcine trauma model at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) involving exsanguination and complete blood exchange with a hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC). In addition, it has been shown that the fixation process kills viruses and bacteria spiked into the platelet suspension, indicating that the final material may indeed be the first truly sterile cellular transfusion product. The initial goal for clinical benefit is to prevent exsanguination and hypovolemic shock in combat casualties of armed services personnel, for whom platelet transfusions are most often unavailable. Commercial interests are being brought to bear by Entegrion Inc. (formerly known as Hemocellular Therapeutics Corporation) to transfer this technology to a scaleable manufacturing platform for the production of StasixTM, a pharmaceutical preparation of fixed and freeze-dried platelets for intravenous or topical use in the arrest of active hemorrhage in a wide variety of patients with a platelet-related bleeding diathesis. It has taken fifty + years from the first attempt at making a clinically useful freeze-dried platelet preparation to get to the rapidly-approaching clinical trials of StasixTM; stabilization of the platelets has been the key to realizing this advance.
Experiments on the test case length in specification based test case generation

Many different techniques have been proposed to address the problem of automated test case generation, varying in a range of properties and resulting in very different test cases. In this paper we investigate the effects of the test case length on resulting test suites: Intuitively, longer test cases should serve to find more difficult faults but will reduce the number of test cases necessary to achieve the test objectives. On the other hand longer test cases have disadvantages such as higher computational costs and they are more difficult to interpret manually. Consequently, should one aim to generate many short test cases or fewer but longer test cases? We present the results of a set of experiments performed in a scenario of specification based testing for reactive systems. As expected, a long test case can achieve higher coverage and fault detecting capability than a short one, while giving preference to longer test cases in general can help reduce the size of test suites but can also have the opposite effect, for example, if minimization is applied.
Detection, distribution and probable fate of Escherichia coli O157 from asymptomatic cattle on a dairy farm

The use of commercial anti‐Escherichia coli O157‐labelled magnetic beads was investigated to improve detection of E. coli O157 by immunomagnetic separation (IMS) from a range of environments on a dairy farm. Immunomagnetic separation proved effective for separation of target cells from laboratory mixtures and during stress in sterile and non‐sterile pond water. The IMS procedure was possible with a range of samples (water, faeces, slurry, grass and soil). Non‐specific binding of non‐target bacterial cells proved problematic in a number of sample types. However, indigenous E. coli O157 cells were detected from samples with a high faecal load, and only with use of IMS. Data on the probable survival and spread of the organism around the farm environment are also discussed.
EMPIRICAL ASESSMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AGRICULTURAL CROPS: PANEL DATA ANALYSIS IN PAKISTAN

The purpose of present study is to empirically analyze the impact of climate change on three major agricultural crops of Punjab, Pakistan. A variant of Cobb-Douglas production function is applied on the panel of districts of Punjab covering period from 1982 to 2014. It is observed that temperature; rainfall and Humidity have different effects on agricultural crops at different stages of production. This study analyzes the impact of climate change at three different stages of production such as; planting, flowering and harvesting. Overall findings of the study reveal that area and fertilizer have positive effect on all three crops at each stage. Temperature has positive impact on wheat production during the planting and harvesting stage. However, temperature negatively affects the production of wheat during the flowering stage. Rainfall has negative association with the production of wheat during all three stages. Further, results indicate that rainfall, minimum temperature and humidity positively affect the production of rice crop during planting and negatively affect during harvesting. On the basis of empirical analysis, this study suggests that Government should develop new varieties of seeds and allocation of more resources should be encouraged to provide the security against the problems of climate change.
Topological and functional characterization of WbpM, an inner membrane UDP‐GlcNAc C6 dehydratase essential for lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

WbpM is essential for the biosynthesis of B‐band lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in many serotypes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Homologues that can functionally complement a wbpM null mutant and that are also necessary for virulence have been identified in numerous pathogenic bacteria. WbpM and most of its homologues are large membrane proteins, which has long hampered the elucidation of their biochemical function. This paper describes the detailed characterization of WbpM using both in vivo and in vitro approaches. LacZ and PhoA fusion experiments showed that WbpM was anchored to the inner membrane via four N‐terminal transmembrane domains, whereas the C‐terminal catalytic domain resided in the cytoplasm. Although the membrane domains did not have any catalytic activity, complementation experiments suggested that they were important for the polymerization of high‐molecular‐weight B‐band LPS. The biochemical characterization of a soluble truncated form of WbpM, His‐S262, showed that WbpM was a C6 dehydratase specific for UDP‐GlcNAc. It exhibited unusual low temperature (25–30°C) and high pH (pH 10) optima. Although WbpM possessed an altered catalytic triad composed of SMK as opposed to SYK commonly found in other dehydratases, its catalysis was very efficient, with a kcat of 168 min−1 and a kcat/Km of 58 mM−1 min−1. These unusual physico‐kinetic properties suggested a potentially different mechanism of C6 dehydration for WbpM and its large homologues. His‐S262 is now a precious tool for further structure–function studies.
Selective Transfer Machine for Personalized Facial Expression Analysis

Automatic facial action unit (AU) and expression detection from videos is a long-standing problem. The problem is challenging in part because classifiers must generalize to previously unknown subjects that differ markedly in behavior and facial morphology (e.g., heavy versus delicate brows, smooth versus deeply etched wrinkles) from those on which the classifiers are trained. While some progress has been achieved through improvements in choices of features and classifiers, the challenge occasioned by individual differences among people remains. Person-specific classifiers would be a possible solution but for a paucity of training data. Sufficient training data for person-specific classifiers typically is unavailable. This paper addresses the problem of how to <italic>personalize</italic> a generic classifier without additional labels from the test subject. We propose a transductive learning method, which we refer to as a Selective Transfer Machine (STM), to personalize a generic classifier by attenuating person-specific mismatches. STM achieves this effect by simultaneously learning a classifier and re-weighting the training samples that are most relevant to the test subject. We compared STM to both generic classifiers and cross-domain learning methods on four benchmarks: CK+ <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref44">[44]</xref> , GEMEP-FERA <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref67">[67]</xref> , RU-FACS <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4">[4]</xref> and GFT <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref57">[57]</xref> . STM outperformed generic classifiers in all.
An Efficient Video Alignment Approach for Non-Overlapping Sequences with Free Camera Movement

This paper describes a method to align two videos. The idea can be extended for alignment of multiple video sequences. The sequences are recorded by un-calibrated video cameras with fixed (but unknown) internal parameters. It is shown that by using a combination of spatial information, temporal changes and the inbuilt frame-to-frame transformation of the video sequences, efficient video alignment can be achieved. The sequences used in the algorithm described may have no or minimal spatial overlap and the camera sources are also allowed free movement in space. Video alignment gives rise to a wide variety of new applications that are not possible when only image-to-image alignment is used
The finite difference frequency domain method for the eigenanalysis of open periodic structures

The eigenanalysis of periodic stuctures is presented herein by extending our previous two - dimensional curvilinear frequency domain finite difference domain (FDFD) toward the eigenanalysis of open/radiating periodic structures. Initially, the open/radiating structures are simulated using the Perfectly Matched Layer (PML), while later Mur's Absorbing Boundary Conditions (ABC) will be introduced within the FDFD formulation. In parallel, the periodicity of the structure is accounted through the enforcement of Periodic Boundary conditions (PBC) within the FDFD formulation. The periodicity can be either in one or in two dimensions, while out of plane propagation is assumed along the third dimension with propagation constant different from zero.
Time Estimation: Effects of Cognitive Task, Presentation Rate, and Delay

The variables of which subjective time is a function extend throughout a myriad of “people, places, and things. ” This study measured subjective estimations of time as a function of complexity of cognitive task including arithmetic and recall (within subjects), the rate of stimulus (digit span) information (between subjects), and the delay between stimulus presentation and estimations of time (between subjects). A mixed analysis of variance 2 × 2 × 3 (repeated-measures) factorial design showed that retrospective time estimations were significantly different as a function of the main effects of rate of digit presentation and delay. Men and women showed no differences with no significant interactions so their data were pooled. Quotient values for ratios of delayed versus immediate estimates and slow versus fast rates showed overestimates of “real time. ” Explanations based on the “storage-size model,” the “attention-allocation” model, and comparisons with Pedri and Hesketh's 1993 data are discussed.
Safety and Immunogenicity of the Quadrivalent Meningococcal Serogroups A, C, W and Y Tetanus Toxoid Conjugate Vaccine Coadministered With Routine Childhood Vaccines in European Infants: An Open, Randomized Trial

Background: This was the first study evaluating the immunogenicity and safety of the quadrivalent meningococcal tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine (MenACWY-TT) coadministered with routine childhood vaccines in young infants. Methods: In this open, randomized, controlled, phase III study (NCT01144663), 2095 infants (ages 6–12 weeks) were randomized (1:1:1:1) into 4 groups to receive MenACWY-TT at 2, 3, 4 and 12 months of age, or MenACWY-TT, MenC-cross-reactive material (CRM197) or MenC-TT at 2, 4 and 12 months of age. All participants received PHiD-CV and DTPa-HBV-IPV/Hib at 2, 3, 4 and 12 months of age. Immune responses were measured by serum bactericidal activity assays using rabbit (rSBA) and human (hSBA) complement. Solicited and unsolicited symptoms were recorded during 8 and 31 days post-vaccination, respectively, and serious adverse events throughout the study. Results: Noninferiority of immune responses to MenC induced by 2 or 3 doses of MenACWY-TT versus 2 doses of MenC-TT or MenC-CRM197 was demonstrated. Predefined criteria for the immunogenicity of MenACWY-TT to MenA, MenW and MenY were met. One month after 2 or 3 primary MenACWY-TT doses, ≥93.1% and ≥88.5% of infants had rSBA and hSBA titers ≥1:8 for all serogroups. The robust increases in rSBA and hSBA titers observed for all vaccine serogroups postbooster vaccination suggested that MenACWY-TT induced immune memory. MenACWY-TT coadministered with childhood vaccines had a clinically acceptable safety profile. Conclusions: This study supports the coadministration of MenACWY-TT with routine childhood vaccines as 2 or 3 primary doses during infancy followed by a booster dose in the second year of life.
Peptidyl α‐keto amide inhibitor of calpain blocks excitotoxic damage without affecting signal transduction events

The cysteine protease calpain is activated by calcium and has a wide range of substrates. Calpain‐mediated cellular damage is associated with many neuropathologies, and calpain also plays a role in signal transduction events that are essential for cell maintenance, including the activation of important kinases and transcription factors. In the present study, the hippocampal slice culture was used as a model of excitotoxicity to test whether the neuroprotection elicited by selective calpain inhibition is associated with changes in cell signaling. Peptidyl α‐keto amide and α‐keto acid inhibitors reduced both calpain‐mediated cytoskeletal damage and the concomitant synaptic deterioration resulting from an N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate exposure. The α‐keto amide CX295 was protective when infused into slice cultures before or after the excitotoxic episode. The slices protected with CX295 exhibited normal activation levels of mitogen‐activated protein kinase and the transcription factor nuclear factor‐κB. Thus, selective inhibition of calpain provides neuroprotection without influencing critical signaling pathways. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Robust MMSE filtering for single-microphone speech enhancement

MMSE filtering of signals contaminated with additive noise is addressed with explicit uncertainty of the second-order target signal statistics. The unfortunate lack of stationarity of speech, and hence the phenomenon of musical noise in speech enhancement, is an ideal problem for the proposed approach. Specifically, we complement the established short-time power-spectral subtraction for speech power estimation with a prior of the momentary speech-power level. The MMSE estimator for Gaussian speech amplitudes is then derived under these circumstances. The potential for the enhancement of noisy speech is briefly demonstrated by SNR and PESQ analysis.