Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gastrointestinal Nematode Infection Exacerbates Malaria-Induced Liver Pathology1

Mixed parasite infections are common in many parts of the world, but little is known of the effects of concomitant parasite infections on the immune response or severity of clinical disease. We have used the nonlethal malaria infection model of Plasmodium chabaudi AS in combination with the gastrointestinal nematode Heligmosomoides bakeri polygyrus to investigate the impact of nematode infections on malarial morbidity and antimalarial immunity. The data demonstrate that wild-type C57BL/6 mice coinfected with both parasites simultaneously exhibit a striking increase in mortality, while mice deficient in IFN-γ or IL-23 survive coinfection. The increase in mortality in wild-type mice was associated with severe liver pathology characterized by extensive coagulative necrosis and an increase in hepatic IFN-γ, IL-17, and IL-22 mRNA expression. This is the first demonstration of increased malaria-associated pathology associated with a switch toward a proinflammatory environment, involving not only IFN-γ but also the IL-17/IL-23 axis, as a result of coinfection with a gastrointestinal helminth.
Practical hydrodynamic optimization of a trimaran

An illustrative application of practical CFD tools to a simple ship design problem is presented. Four methods of analysis - a nonlinear method based on Euler's equations and three linear potential flow methods - are used to determine the optimal location of the outer hulls of a trimaran. The main center hull and the outer hulls of the trimaran are shown in the frontispiece, together with the parameters a and b that define the arrangement of the hulls. The three potential flow methods correspond to a hierarchy of simple approximations based on the Fourier-Kochin representation of ship waves and the slender-ship approximation.
Heat Transfer Enhancement Using Hybrid Nanoparticles in Ethylene Glycol Through a Horizontal Heated Tube

Heating hybrid nanofluids by the mixing of solid nanoparticles suspended in liquid represents a new class of heat transfer enhancement. To enhance heat transfer for many industrial applications, a computational fluid dynamics modelling simulation using the finite volume method and adopting the SIMPLE algorithm was performed. The mixture of aluminium nitride nanoparticles into ethylene glycol which acts as a base fluid is considered as a new concept of hybrid nanofluids that can increase heat transfer. The hybrid nanofluid was prepared experimentally with a volume fraction range of 1% to 4%. The size diameter of nanoparticles, heat flux around a horizontal straight tube, and Reynolds number is approximately 30 nm, 5000 w/m2 and 5,000 to 17,000, respectively. The computational method had been successfully validated using available experimental data reported in the literature. It was found that 1% to 3% Aluminum nitride hybrid nanofluids can significantly affect efficiency, while more than 3% volume fraction are insignificant as they obtain less than one efficiency. Results show that a combination of aluminium nitride nanoparticles with the EG base fluid tends to augment heat transfer performance significantly.
Markup Languages and Menu Structure Transformation During the Internationalisation Process of Driver Information Systems

Driver Information Systems (DISs) are used in a mobile environment, which implies that the ease of communication between driver and system is determined by the navigation between different options from the graphical user interface. The way a driver interacts with a menu can differ among cultures, which can lead to decreased fluency when navigating through an insufficiently localised menu structure. Therefore, menu structures of a DIS should be subjected to localisation, and software should be internationalised to allow a variable menu structure. This paper shows an implementation approach that facilitates the adaptation of menu structures in DISs. We use XML to represent a common menu structure which can subsequently, and independently, be transformed into new versions for each culture using XSLT Stylesheets. With this approach we can not only achieve separation of the content of the menu from its structure, but also the possibility of varying the structure itself without changing the basic program version.
Sustainable Dietary Supplements: An Analytical Study of AfricanYam Bean- Sphenostylis Sternocarpa and Corn- Zea Maiz

African yam bean -Sphenostylis sternocarpa and Corn -Zea maiz are nutritional food sources that are valuable industrially even in consideration for enzyme production purposes. African yam bean Sphenostylis sternocarpa is a leguminous crop grown in West African particularly in Cameroon, Cote d’lvoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. It is used extensively in various dietary preparations and has potential for supplementing the protein requirement of many families throughout the year. In this study, African yam bean seeds was soaked for 12 hours and dehulled after which it was boiled for 1 hours and it was then sieved and poured hot in calabashes laid with plantain leaves. It was covered and wrapped with jute bags and allowed to ferment naturally at room temperature for 72 hours. Bacteria such as Aerococcus viridans and Pediococcus cerevisiae were isolated and used as starter culture for controlled fermentation. The results of the proximate analysis show that protein content and the fat content of the sample fermented with Aerococcus viridans was higher than the one fermented with Pediococcus cerevisiae while moisture content and carbohydrate content decreased when fermented with Aerococcus viridans and increased when fermented with Pediococcus cerevisiae. The result of anti-nutrient content showed that there was an increase in phytic acid, oxalic acid and tannic acid of sample fermented with Aerococcus viridans than the ones fermented with Pediococcus cerevisiae. Corn, another dietary source is a cereal carbohydrate source that is widely cultivated in tropical Africa and the world at large for various domestic and industrial uses. The microbial source of the genus Bacillus used for this study utilized white cornstarch substrate as a sole carbon substrate as well as soluble starch used for comparative purpose. The enzyme production values of test organisms range from 0.022 unit/cfu x 102 in B.circulans (WBC) to 0.912 unit/cfu x 102 in B.licheniformis (WBL) for cornstarch and 0.01 unit/cfu x 102 in both B.megaterium (SBG) and B.licheniformis (SBL) to 0.693 unit/cfu x 102 in B.subtilis (WBS) for soluble starch.
Characterization and experimental infection of Vibrio harveyi isolated from diseased Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer)

Aims: Vibrio harveyi causes vibriosis to Asian seabass ( Lates calcarifer ). The disease spreads rapidly among fish stocked in the same cage. It causes high mortality especially in weak and small sized fish stocked at high density in poorly managed net cage. Study to determine the virulence levels of the bacterial pathogen in various aquaculture animals is a key to prevent vibriosis in marine aquaculture. Methodology and Result: Isolation of bacteria from diseased Asian seabass was done using tryptic soy agar (TSA) and thiosulphate citrate bile sucrose agar (TCBS) plates. Virulence of two strains of Vibrio harveyi (VHJR4 and VHJR7) was tested against clinically healthy aquaculture animals. The analysis revealed that the two bacterial strains differ in pathogenicity. The V. harveyi strain VHJR7 was virulent to Asian seabass at 1.40 x 10 4 c.f. u. g �1 , humpback grouper (Cromileptis altivelis ) at LD 50 8.33 x 10 3 c.f. u. g �1 and black tiger shrimp ( Penaeus monodon ) at LD 50 3.26 x 10 4 c.f. u. g �1 , respectively. The V. harveyi strain VHJR4 was not virulent to Asian seabass and humpback grouper but it caused mortality to black tiger shrimp at LD 50 1.32 x 10 6 c.f. u. g �1 . Phenotypically, the two strains shared most of the biochemical features except that the V. harveyi strain VHJR7 was a urease positive and grew at 8.5 % NaCl, and at 10 °C. The percentage similarity of nucleotide sequences of 16S rDNA in V. harveyi VHJR4 and V. harveyi VHJR7 was higher (99 %) but reduced at 95 % in hemolysin gene. Conclusion, significance and impact of study: Pathogenic strain of V. harveyi causes mortality and affects aquaculture production of Asian seabass. Hence, vaccine development against the bacterial pathogen is urgently needed for sustainability of Asian seabass aquaculture in Malaysia.
Simulation of intense organized convective precipitation observed during the Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment (ARMEX)

[1] We examine a deep precipitating system that formed over the west coast of India during 26–28 June 2002 producing heavy rainfall of 2–61 cm day−1. The system developed into a well-marked low pressure area due to interaction between an eastward moving westerly trough and a westward moving monsoon low. We used the PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) to make 10-day interactively nested simulations at 90, 30, and 10 km grid-resolutions. We used observations from a special data set collected during an Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment (ARMEX) conducted June–August, 2002. Nudging the observations produced a balanced atmosphere which, in turn, matched the location of vortex with cloud clusters observed from satellite. The simulated rainfall corresponded well with observations. We then use the simulated fields as forcing and boundary conditions for MM5 run in cloud-system resolving mode at 2 km grid-resolution to detail cloud-clusters embedded within the monsoon disturbance. We examined the sensitivity to different physical parameterizations and also the effect of continuous nudging four dimensional data assimilation (FDDA) on the rainfall forecasts. While the simulation of the convective event improved with certain combinations of physical parameterizations, the rainfall was not forecasted at the correct location, no matter which parameterization was used, unless continuous FDDA was performed in all domains throughout the integrations. Finally, cloud-cluster properties of the cloud-system resolving simulations were compared with observations.
How not to Rényi-generalize the quantum conditional mutual information

We study the relation between the quantum conditional mutual information and the quantum α-Rényi divergences. Considering the totally antisymmetric state we show that it is not possible to attain a proper generalization of the quantum conditional mutual information by optimizing the distance in terms of quantum α-Rényi divergences over the set of all Markov states. The failure of the approach considered arises from the observation that a small quantum conditional mutual information does not imply that the state is close to a quantum Markov state.
Conflicts of Interest in the Underwriting of IPOs and Price Stabilization

Banks that supply capital and simultaneously underwrite securities for the same clients may benefit themselves or their clients at the expenses of investors by overpricing securities. We investigate this issue by analyzing price stabilization and short-term returns of IPOs. Our analysis suggests that equity-conflicted underwriters overprice IPOs and use price stabilization to disguise overpricing. The same does not happen with loan-conflicted underwriters. We also show that the partial adjustment phenomenon may result from price stabilization, since it disappears after the stabilization is over. JEL codes: G24
Flow and Noise Control in High Speed and High Reynolds Number Jets Using Plasma Actuators

The idea of manipulating flow to change its characteristics is over a century old. Manipulating instabilities of a jet to increase its mixing and to reduce its radiated noise started in the 1970's. While the effort has been successful in low-speed and low Reynolds number jets, available actuators' capabilities in terms of their amplitude, bandwidth, and phasing have fallen short in control of high-speed and high Reynolds number jets of practical interest. Localized arc filament plasma actuators have recently been developed and extensively used at Gas Dynamics and Turbulence Laboratory (GDTL) for control of high-speed and high Reynolds number jets. While the technique has been quite successful and is very promising, all the work up to this point had been carried out using small high subsonic and low supersonic jets from a 2.54 cm diameter nozzle exit with a Reynolds number of about a million. The preliminary work reported in this paper is a first attempt to evaluate the scalability of the technique. The power supply/plasma generator was designed and built in-house at GDTL to operate 8 actuators simultaneously over a large frequency range (0-200 kHz) with independent control over phase and duty cycle of each actuator. This allowed forcing the small jet at GDTL with azimuthal modes m = 0, 1, 2, 3, ±1, ±2, and ±4 over a large range of frequencies. This power supply was taken to and used, with minor modifications, at NASA Acoustic Test Rig (NATR). At NATR, 32 actuators were distributed around the 7.5" nozzle (a linear increase with nozzle exit diameter would require 60 actuators). With this arrangement only 8 actuators could operate simultaneously, thus limiting the forcing of the jet at NATR to only three azimuthal modes m = ±1, 4, and 8. Very preliminary results at NATR indicate that the trends observed in the larger NASA facility in terms of the effects of actuation frequency and azimuthal modes are similar in both small GDTL and larger NASA jets. However, the actuation authority seems to fall short in the larger jet at higher Mach numbers, resulting in decreased amplitude response compared to the small jet, which is attributed at this point to the lack of sufficient number of actuators. The preliminary results seem also to suggest that amplitude of actuation tones is similar in both the small and larger jets.
Determination of Kozeny Constant Based on Porosity and Pore to Throat Size Ratio in Porous Medium with Rectangular Rods

Abstract Kozeny-Carman permeability equation is an important relation for the determination of permeability in porous media. In this study, the permeabilities of porous media that contains rectangular rods are determined, numerically. The applicability of Kozeny-Carman equation for the periodic porous media is investigated and the effects of porosity and pore to throat size ratio on Kozeny constant are studied. The continuity and Navier-Stokes equations are solved to determine the velocity and pressure fields in the voids between the rods. Based on the obtained flow field, the permeability values for different porosities from 0.2 to 0.9 and pore to throat size ratio values from 1.63 to 7.46 are computed. Then Kozeny constants for different porous media with various porosity and pore to throat size ratios are obtained and a relationship between Kozeny constant, porosity and pore to throat size ratio is constructed. The study reveals that the pore to throat size ratio is an important geometrical parameter that should be taken into account for deriving a correlation for permeability. The suggestion of a fixed value for Kozeny constant makes the application of Kozeny-Carman permeability equation too narrow for a very specific porous medium. However, it is possible to apply the Kozeny-Carman permeability equation for wide ranges of porous media with different geometrical parameters (various porosity, hydraulic diameter, particle size and aspect ratio) if Kozeny constant is a function of two parameters as porosity and pore to throat size ratios.
Essai comparatif d'efficacité des deux souches vaccinale T1/44 et T1st contre la préripneumonie contagieuse bovine

La peripneumonie est une maladie infectieuse qui touche uniquement les bovides et connait actuellement une recrudescence en Afrique. Dans le passe de nombreux pays ont pu controler la maladie, voire l'eradiquer, grâce a une prophylaxie medicale basee sur l'utilisation de deux souches vaccinales : T1/44 et sa variante streptomycino-resistante T1sr. Des echecs recents ont pu jeter un doute sur l'identite et l'efficacite de la souche T1sr. Depuis, son identite a ete confirmee. Il devenait indispensable de verifier son efficacite dans des conditions controlees. Les deux souches ont ete utilisees en primovaccination a la dose minimum recommandee, soit 10 7 mycoplasmes par dose vaccinale. La reproduction experimentale de la maladie a ete realisee par intubation endobronchique de 40 zebus du Nord-Cameroun qui ont servi a infecter par contact des animaux vaccines et des animaux temoins. Tous les animaux ont fait l'objet d'un suivi clinique et serologique. La transmission de la maladie a pleinement reussi et pres de 40 p. 100 des animaux temoins ont succombe a la peripneumonie. La mortalite a ete inferieure chez les animaux vaccines mais la difference est a la limite de la signification statistique (p = 0,054). Quelle que soit la souche, la protection conferee par la vaccination, calculee sur la reduction de la mortalite, avoisine 37 p. 100 seulement. Il est difficile de comparer ces resultats avec des essais anciens qui etaient pratiquement tous realises avec des doses vaccinales beaucoup plus elevees et qui utilisaient une souche d'epreuve isolee en Australie. Les resultats obtenus soulignent le caractere partiel de la protection conferee par la vaccination actuellement pratiquee. Ils appellent d'une part a une meilleure definition des strategies actuelles de lutte contre la peripneumonie et d'autre part a la mise au point de vaccins plus efficaces. (Resume d'auteur)
Frontal Gamma Asymmetry in Response to Soft Skills Stimuli: A Pilot Study

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to explore associations between self-reported rank ordering of a set of 23 job-related soft skills and frontal gamma (38 to 42 Hz) asymmetry emerging during exposure to the same set of soft skills. Method: Fourteen individuals responded to a soft skill assessment, then were exposed to a randomized list of the same soft skills’ key words while collecting electroencephalographic (EEG) data, using a new implementation of standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) to analyze and view voxel images of real-time brain activity. A differential calculation, as a measure of approach or avoidance to the key word stimulus (Approach-Avoidance-Differential; AAD), was used to quantify the asymmetry in response to the stimuli. Spearman’s Rank correlations (rs) were calculated for the paired occurrences between the self-reported ranking of the soft skills and the AAD. Results: Overall, 71% of the cases resulted in correlations, indicating soft skill directionality response. Reduction in gamma response intensity was seen when participants’ ranked their highest to lowest soft skills, as indicated in their self-reported assessments. Conclusions: These results will inform further organizational neuroscience research which has potential to lead to a new approach to self-report validation and methods to detect individual approach or avoidance biases which impact self-reporting assessments.
Universal Stagewise Learning for Non-Convex Problems with Convergence on Averaged Solutions

Although stochastic gradient descent (SGD) method and its variants (e.g., stochastic momentum methods, AdaGrad) are the choice of algorithms for solving non-convex problems (especially deep learning), there still remain big gaps between the theory and the practice with many questions unresolved. For example, there is still a lack of theories of convergence for SGD and its variants that use stagewise step size and return an averaged solution in practice. In addition, theoretical insights of why adaptive step size of AdaGrad could improve non-adaptive step size of {\sgd} is still missing for non-convex optimization. This paper aims to address these questions and fill the gap between theory and practice. We propose a universal stagewise optimization framework for a broad family of {\bf non-smooth non-convex} (namely weakly convex) problems with the following key features: (i) at each stage any suitable stochastic convex optimization algorithms (e.g., SGD or AdaGrad) that return an averaged solution can be employed for minimizing a regularized convex problem; (ii) the step size is decreased in a stagewise manner; (iii) an averaged solution is returned as the final solution that is selected from all stagewise averaged solutions with sampling probabilities {\it increasing} as the stage number. Our theoretical results of stagewise AdaGrad exhibit its adaptive convergence, therefore shed insights on its faster convergence for problems with sparse stochastic gradients than stagewise SGD. To the best of our knowledge, these new results are the first of their kind for addressing the unresolved issues of existing theories mentioned earlier. Besides theoretical contributions, our empirical studies show that our stagewise SGD and ADAGRAD improve the generalization performance of existing variants/implementations of SGD and ADAGRAD.
Nonnormality Increases Variance

Abstract Recently, a new theoretical and conceptual model of quasigeostrophic turbulence has been advanced in which eddy variance is regarded as being maintained by transient growth of perturbations arising from sources including the nonlinear interactions among the eddies, but crucially without a direct contribution of unstable modal growth to the maintenance of variance. This theory is based on the finding that stochastic forcing of the subcritical atmospheric flow supports variance arising from induced transfer of energy from the background flow to the disturbance field that substantially exceeds the variance expected from the decay rate of the associated normal modes in an equivalent normal system. Herein the authors prove that such amplification of variance is a general property of the stochastic dynamics of systems governed by nonnormal evolution operators and that consequently the response of the atmosphere to unbiased forcing is always underestimated when consideration is limited to the response o.
Determinants of parents' choice of a paediatric dentist: an application of factor analysis

Summary findings in terms of the original 19 items Table 1 summarises the findings in terms of the 19-item in the researchers’ conceptual framework. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability of the conceptual framework. The Alpha score was 0.8343, whi-ch confirmed the reliability of the scale. In summary, the findings indicate that 13 of the 19 items in conceptual model are important in influencing parents’ choice of a pedodontist on the basis of mean scores. Using factor analysis, four factors were identified namely quality of services rendered, accessibility, physical evidence and processes in the dental environment (Table 2). Table 3 synthesizes the results in terms of the initial propositions in the study. Only two of the propositions were rejected. t Discussion and managerial implications The authors’ conceptual framework contained 19 factors Muzondo et al. 161 as shown in Table 1 above, which were, reduced to four factors namely service quality, access/ distribution of dental services, physical evidence in the dental environ-ment and processes in the dental office.