Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A web questionnaire generating tool to aid for interactive systems quality subjective assessment

This paper is related to the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field and more specifically to the interactive system quality evaluation using a subjective method known by the questionnaire. Efforts and research have been performed to enhance subjective usability evaluation of Human - Computer interface of interactive systems by deploying various methods and techniques. The main contribution of this paper is the development of a subjective assessment tool to help designers measure the quality of evaluated interface. This article presents a new tool for generating a web questionnaire in order to collect the individuals' attitudes and feelings toward an interactive system. It is developed to facilitate the presentation and usage of questionnaires designated for the evaluation of interactive systems. The developed questionnaire tool is validated by the evaluation of traffic supervision system in Valenciennes (France) as a part of CISIT-ISART project.
Detection of a thick disk in the edge-on low surface brightness galaxy ESO 342-G017 - I. VLT photometry in V and R bands

We report the detection of a thick disk in the edge-on, low surface brightness (LSB), late-type spiral ESO 342-G017, based on ultra-deep images in the V and R bands obtained with the VLT Test Camera during Science Verification on UT1. All steps in the reduction procedure are fully described, which, together with an extensive analysis of systematic and statistic uncertainties, has resulted in surface brightness photometry that is reliable for the detection of faint extended structure to a level of V = 27.5 and R = 28.5 mag/sq arcsec. The faint light apparent in these deep images is well-modeled by a thick exponential disk with an intrinsic scale height about 2.5 times that of the thin disk, and a comparable or somewhat larger scale length. Deprojection including the effects of inclination and convolution with the PSF allow us to estimate that the thick disk contributes 20-40% of the total (old) stellar disk luminosity of ESO 342-G017. To our knowledge, this is the first detection of a thick disk in an LSB galaxy, which are generally thought to be rather unevolved compared to higher surface brightness galaxies.
Expert user validation of transplant management procedure simulations

The Spanish National Transplant Organization (ONT) in collaboration with the e-UCM research group of the Complutense University of Madrid has developed three screen-based simulations representing the ONT supra-hospital deceased donation management processes. As the ONT is using these game-like simulations as a support tool for its instructional approach, it was necessary to perform a validation of these simulations to assure the knowledge had been correctly represented. This paper describes the methodology followed to validate and estimate how accurately this ONT complex knowledge has been captured (including some tacit knowledge used by the transplant coordination experts) and transferred into these screen-based simulations. We present the results obtained from the validation done with 15 ONT experts and how their feedback was used to improve the simulations.
OpenAirInterface Traffic Generator (OTG): A Realistic Traffic Generation Tool for Emerging Application Scenarios

Traffic generation represents one of the main challenge in modeling and simulating the application and network load. In this work, we present a tool, called OpenAirInterface Traffic Generator (OTG), for the generation of realistic application traffic that can be used for testing and evaluating the performance of emerging networking architectures. In addition to the traffic of conventional applications, OTG is capable of accurately emulating the traffic of new application scenarios such as online gaming and machine-type communication. To highlight the capability and new features of the tool, the one-way delay of OpenArena online gaming application in the presence of the background traffic is analyzed over the LTE network using OpenAirInterface emulation platform.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa AmpR Is a Global Transcriptional Factor That Regulates Expression of AmpC and PoxB β-Lactamases, Proteases, Quorum Sensing, and Other Virulence Factors

ABSTRACT In members of the family Enterobacteriaceae, ampC, which encodes a β-lactamase, is regulated by an upstream, divergently transcribed gene, ampR. However, in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the regulation of ampC is not understood. In this study, we compared the characteristics of a P. aeruginosa ampR mutant, PAOampR, with that of an isogenic ampR+ parent. The ampR mutation greatly altered AmpC production. In the absence of antibiotic, PAOampR expressed increased basal β-lactamase levels. However, this increase was not followed by a concomitant increase in the PampC promoter activity. The discrepancy in protein and transcription analyses led us to discover the presence of another chromosomal AmpR-regulated β-lactamase, PoxB. We found that the expression of P. aeruginosa ampR greatly altered the β-lactamase production from ampC and poxB in Escherichia coli: it up-regulated AmpC but down-regulated PoxB activities. In addition, the constitutive PampR promoter activity in PAOampR indicated that AmpR did not autoregulate in the absence or presence of inducers. We further demonstrated that AmpR is a global regulator because the strain carrying the ampR mutation produced higher levels of pyocyanin and LasA protease and lower levels of LasB elastase than the wild-type strain. The increase in LasA levels was positively correlated with the PlasA, PlasI, and PlasR expression. The reduction in the LasB activity was positively correlated with the PrhlR expression. Thus, AmpR plays a dual role, positively regulating the ampC, lasB, and rhlR expression levels and negatively regulating the poxB, lasA, lasI, and lasR expression levels.
Evolution of Subway Network Systems, Subway Accessibility, and Change of Urban Landscape: A Longitudinal Approach to Seoul Metropolitan Area

The subway is one of the major passenger transport systems in Seoul, Korea. Over the last 30 years, the subway system has interacted with urban land use. This study aims to describe the subway system evolution and reveal the causal relations with land rent and population distributions in conjunction with the evolution of the subway system. Extensive and rapid expansion of subway networks have increased subway accessibility in all regional areas over time and have simultaneously strengthened the status of Central Business Districts (CBDs). These facts indirectly imply a possible strong association amongst land rent, population, and subway accessibility. To reveal these relationships, the Granger-causality test in vector auto-regression form is employed. The results confirm the hypothesis of a causal relationship, the influence of the subway accessibility to the land rent in nearby CBD areas. However, inverse causality also exists between these two variables, implying a more complex relationship. In contrast, population variables have a comparably weak causal relationship with subway accessibility in the spatial context of the subway system in Seoul.
COMPARISON OF RESPONSE SURFACE AND KRIGING MODELS FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY DESIGN OPTIMIZATION

In this paper, we compare and contrast the use of second-order response surface models and kriging models for approximating non-random, deterministic computer analyses. After reviewing the response surface method for constructing polynomial approximations, kriging is presented as an alternative approximation method for the design and analysis of computer experiments. Both methods are applied to the multidisciplinary design of an aerospike nozzle which consists of a computational fluid dynamics model and a finite-element model. Error analysis of the response surface and kriging models is performed along with a graphical comparison of the approximations, and four optimization problems are formulated and solved using both sets of approximation models. The second-order response surface models and kriging models—using a constant underlying global model and a Gaussian correlation function—yield comparable results. NOMENCLATURE
Impact of Serum Retinol-Binding Protein 4 Levels on Regulation of Remnant-Like Particles Triglyceride in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background. Although retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) associates with insulin resistance and remnant-like particles triglyceride (RLP-TG) elevated in the insulin resistant state, few data exist regarding the relationship between RBP4 and RLP-TG. Subjects and Methods. The study included 92 Japanese type 2 diabetic mellitus (T2DM) male patients (age 60.5 ± 13.6 years, body mass index (BMI) 24.7 ± 4.1 kg/m2, waist circumference (WC) 88.4 ± 10.7 cm, and HbA1c (NGSP) 7.2 ± 1.9%). Patients on medications affecting insulin sensitivity, including fibrates, biguanides, and thiazolidinedione, were excluded. Visceral fat area (VFA) and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) were measured by computed tomography. Results. RBP4 levels showed a significant positive correlation with RLP-TG (r = 0.2544 and P = 0.0056), TG (r = 0.1852 and P = 0.041), RLP-TG/TG (r = 0.23765 and P = 0.0241), and age (r = −0.2082 and P = 0.0219), although there was no significant correlation with VFA, SFA, adiponectin levels, or homeostasis model of assessment insulin resistance (HOMA-R). Multiple regression analysis revealed that RBP4 was an independent determinant of RLP-TG (P = 0.0193) but was not a determinant of TG. Conclusions. RBP4 correlates positively with serum RLP-TG independent of fat accumulation in T2DM. RBP4 may regulate remnant metabolism independent of glycemic control in T2DM.
Estimating Waveguide Model Elements from Acoustic Tube Measurements

One-dimensional digital waveguides are widely used to model traveling pressure waves along wind instrument bores comprised of concatenated cylindrical or conical sections. Waveguide filter elements model frequency-dependent losses and delay (dispersion) occurring during propagation and at any boundary or discontinuity producing reflected and transmitted waves. In this work, a technique is described for estimating wind instrument waveguide elements from several measurements of the system's impulse response, each measurement taken with the system having incrementally varying termination/boundary conditions. The measured impulse responses yield sequences of multiple arrivals from which estimates of waveguide element transfer functions may be formed. The measurement and post signal processing technique is explored using simple structures consisting of cylindrical and conical tubes, as these are well described theoretically and provide a basis for validating measured data. All waveguide elements necessary for modeling typical wind instrument bores are collected here, each presented with a theoretical description and accompanying measurement. The measurement and processing system is then shown to yield data closely matching the theory, thus providing confidence that the technique may be extended to accurately measure structures which are more difficult to describe theoretically, such as an instrument's flaring bell.
How HCI interprets the probes

We trace how cultural probes have been adopted and adapted by the HCI community. The flexibility of probes has been central to their uptake, resulting in a proliferation of divergent uses and derivatives. The varying patterns of adaptation of the probes reveal important underlying issues in HCI, suggesting underacknowledged disagreements about valid interpretation and the relationship between methods and their underlying methodology. With this analysis, we aim to clarify discussions around probes, and, more importantly, around how we define and evaluate methods in HCI, especially those grounded in unfamiliar conceptions of how research should be done.
Force and twist dependence of RepC nicking activity on torsionally-constrained DNA molecules

Many bacterial plasmids replicate by an asymmetric rolling-circle mechanism that requires sequence-specific recognition for initiation, nicking of one of the template DNA strands and unwinding of the duplex prior to subsequent leading strand DNA synthesis. Nicking is performed by a replication-initiation protein (Rep) that directly binds to the plasmid double-stranded origin and remains covalently bound to its substrate 5′-end via a phosphotyrosine linkage. It has been proposed that the inverted DNA sequences at the nick site form a cruciform structure that facilitates DNA cleavage. However, the role of Rep proteins in the formation of this cruciform and the implication for its nicking and religation functions is unclear. Here, we have used magnetic tweezers to directly measure the DNA nicking and religation activities of RepC, the replication initiator protein of plasmid pT181, in plasmid sized and torsionally-constrained linear DNA molecules. Nicking by RepC occurred only in negatively supercoiled DNA and was force- and twist-dependent. Comparison with a type IB topoisomerase in similar experiments highlighted a relatively inefficient religation activity of RepC. Based on the structural modeling of RepC and on our experimental evidence, we propose a model where RepC nicking activity is passive and dependent upon the supercoiling degree of the DNA substrate.
A Novel Role of OS-9 in the Maintenance of Intestinal Barrier Function from Hypoxia-induced Injury via p38-dependent Pathway

OS-9 is a lectin required for efficient ubquitination of glycosylated substrates of endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD). OS-9 has previously been implicated in ER-to-Golgi transport and transcription factor turnover. However, we know very little about other functions of OS-9 under endoplasmic reticulum stress. Here, we used gene knockdown and overexpression approaches to study the protective effect of OS-9 on intestinal barrier function of intestinal epithelial cell Caco-2 monolayer. We found that OS-9 attenuated intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction under hypoxia through up-regulating occludin and claudin-1 protein expression. Furthermore, we showed that the up-regulation of occludin and claudin-1 induced by OS-9 was mediated by p38 and ERK1/2 phosphorylation and did not involve HIF-1α. In summary, our results demonstrate that OS-9 up-regulates occludin and claudin-1 by activating the MAP kinase (MAPK) pathway, and thus protects the epithelial barrier function of Caco-2 monolayer under hypoxia condition.
Ruin Probabilities with Dependent Rates of Interest

In this paper, we study ruin probabilities in two generalized risk models. The effects of timing of payments and interest on the ruin probabilities in the models are considered. The rates of interest are assumed to have a dependent autoregressive structure. Generalized Lundberg inequalities for the ruin probabilities are derived by a renewal recursive technique. An illustrative application is given to the compound binomial risk process.
Feature-oriented image enhancement using shock filters

Shock filters for image enhancement are developed. The filters use new nonlinear time dependent partial differential equations and their discretizations. The evolution of the initial image $u_0 (x,y)$ as $t \to \infty $ into a steady state solution $u_\infty (x,y)$ through $u(x,y,t)$, $t > 0$, is the filtering process. The partial differential equations have solutions which satisfy a maximum principle. Moreover the total variation of the solution for any fixed $t > 0$ is the same as that of the initial data. The processed image is piecewise smooth, nonoscillatory, and the jumps occur across zeros of an elliptic operator (edge detector). The algorithm is relatively fast and easy to program.
Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Interacts with Proapoptotic Kinase Mst1 to Promote Cardiomyocyte Apoptosis

Mammalian sterile 20-like kinase 1 (Mst1) is a critical component of the Hippo signaling pathway, which regulates a variety of biological processes ranging from cell contact inhibition, organ size control, apoptosis and tumor suppression in mammals. Mst1 plays essential roles in the heart disease since its activation causes cardiomyocyte apoptosis and dilated cardiomyopathy. However, the mechanism underlying Mst1 activation in the heart remains unknown. In a yeast two-hybrid screen of a human heart cDNA library with Mst1 as bait, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was identified as an Mst1-interacting protein. The interaction of GAPDH with Mst1 was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation in both co-transfected HEK293 cells and mouse heart homogenates, in which GAPDH interacted with the kinase domain of Mst1, whereas the C-terminal catalytic domain of GAPDH mediated its interaction with Mst1. Moreover, interaction of Mst1 with GAPDH caused a robust phosphorylation of GAPDH and markedly increased the Mst1 activity in cells. Chelerythrine, a potent inducer of apoptosis, substantially increased the nuclear translocation and interaction of GAPDH and Mst1 in cardiomyocytes. Overexpression of GAPDH significantly augmented the Mst1 mediated apoptosis, whereas knockdown of GAPDH markedly attenuated the Mst1 activation and cardiomyocyte apoptosis in response to either chelerythrine or hypoxia/reoxygenation. These findings reveal a novel function of GAPDH in Mst1 activation and cardiomyocyte apoptosis and suggest that disruption of GAPDH interaction with Mst1 may prevent apoptosis related heart diseases such as heart failure and ischemic heart disease.
Aplikasi perisian visualisasi tiga dimensi dalam pembelajaran sains Biologi implikasi terhadap pelajar berbeza keupayaan spatial

Tujuan kajian ini adalah bagi mengenalpasti kesan perbezaan tahap keupayaan spatial pelajar terhadap prestasi kognitif dalam pembelajaran subjek biologi sel dengan menggunakan perisian visualisasi tiga dimensi. Perisian visualisasi tiga dimensi dihasilkan dengan menggunakan teknologi realiti maya dalam persekitaran web. Prestasi kognitif diukur dengan menggunakan ujian pencapaian. Reka bentuk kajian kuasi eksperimen digunakan dalam kajian ini. Seramai enam puluh satu orang pelajar daripada sebuah universiti telah dipilih sebagai sampel kajian yang pemilihan adalah berdasarkan kepada kumpulan kelas sedia ada. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan tiada perbezaan yang signifikan bagi pelajar berbeza keupayaan yang mengikuti pembelajaran dengan perisian visualisasi tiga dimensi. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan perisian visualisasi tiga dimensi dapat membantu pelajar berkeupayaan spatial rendah untuk mempelajari subjek sains biologi seiring dengan pelajar berkeupayaan spatial tinggi. Dapatan menunjukkan bahawa teknologi realiti mungkin berpotensi untuk digunakan dalam pembelajaran bidang berorientasikan spatial dalam disiplin sains biologi
Real-time motion classification of HD video sequences on embedded systems

Fast local and global motion estimation (ME) is crucial for a wide variety of different video processing applications, but poses significant requirements on CPU resources. Interestingly, application scenarios shift more and more from traditional PC processing to embedded devices, mostly driven by home automation, machine vision and autonomous navigation. In this paper, we demonstrate how to use DSP capabilities on embedded ARM-based OMAP Systems-On-Chip (SoCs) to provide motion analysis up to HD at speeds of 15-30 fps. We show how to acquire reliable classification of motion types like zoom, rotation or translation, and how to calculate and decompose the so-called homography matrix for further refinement. Our focus lies on navigation sequences from automotive test scenarios, but we also demonstrate the accuracy of the approach on natural video sequences.
Active duplicate detection with Bayesian nonparametric models

When multiple databases are merged, an essential step is identifying sets of records that refer to the same entity. Called duplicate detection , this task is typically tedious to perform manually, and so a variety of automated methods have been developed for partitioning a collection of records into coreference sets. This task is complicated by ambiguous or noisy field values, so systems are typically domain-specific and often fitted to a representative labeled training corpus. Once fitted, such systems can estimate a partition of a similar corpus without human intervention. While this approach has many applications, it is often infeasible to encode the appropriate domain knowledge a priori or to identify suitable training data. To address such cases, this thesis uses an active framework for duplicate detection, wherein the system initially estimates a partition of a test corpus without training, but is then allowed to query a human user about the coreference labeling of a portion of the corpus. The responses to these queries are used to guide the system in producing improved partition estimates and further queries of interest. This thesis describes a complete implementation of this framework with three technical contributions: a domain-independent Bayesian model expressing the relationship between the unobserved partition and the observed field values of a set of database records; a criterion for picking informative queries based on the mutual information between the response and the unobserved partition; and an algorithm for estimating a minimum-error partition under a Bayesian model through a reduction to the well-studied problem of correlation clustering. It also present experimental results demonstrating the effectiveness of this method in a variety of data domains. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)