Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clickstream User Behavior Models

The next generation of Internet services is driven by users and user-generated content. The complex nature of user behavior makes it highly challenging to manage and secure online services. On one hand, service providers cannot effectively prevent attackers from creating large numbers of fake identities to disseminate unwanted content (e.g., spam). On the other hand, abusive behavior from real users also poses significant threats (e.g., cyberbullying). In this article, we propose clickstream models to characterize user behavior in large online services. By analyzing clickstream traces (i.e., sequences of click events from users), we seek to achieve two goals: (1) detection: to capture distinct user groups for the detection of malicious accounts, and (2) understanding: to extract semantic information from user groups to understand the captured behavior. To achieve these goals, we build two related systems. The first one is a semisupervised system to detect malicious user accounts (Sybils). The core idea is to build a clickstream similarity graph where each node is a user and an edge captures the similarity of two users’ clickstreams. Based on this graph, we propose a coloring scheme to identify groups of malicious accounts without relying on a large labeled dataset. We validate the system using ground-truth clickstream traces of 16,000 real and Sybil users from Renren, a large Chinese social network. The second system is an unsupervised system that aims to capture and understand the fine-grained user behavior. Instead of binary classification (malicious or benign), this model identifies the natural groups of user behavior and automatically extracts features to interpret their semantic meanings. Applying this system to Renren and another online social network, Whisper (100K users), we help service providers identify unexpected user behaviors and even predict users’ future actions. Both systems received positive feedback from our industrial collaborators including Renren, LinkedIn, and Whisper after testing on their internal clickstream data.
Fuzzy-clustering embedded regression for predicting student academic performance

The prediction of student academic performance is important to both educational institutions and students themselves for a variety of reasons. However, previous techniques often consider only past numeric data for prediction, whereas others overuse different types of indicative attribute, leading to the creation of complicated predicting methods whose results are difficult to interpret. This paper proposes a novel approach to predicting student final period grade, using attributes related to student past academic records and attributes of normal study behaviour, which are readily obtainable and easily interpretable. The proposed approach works by employing fuzzy clustering and multi-variable regression within an integrated framework, which also includes an offset value mechanism to support the use of attributes that are related to normal student study behaviour. Comparative experimental investigations are carried out, demonstrating the potential of the proposed work in producing more accurate results.
Sexual Size Dimorphism in Relation to Age and Growth in Hypsiboas cordobae (Anura: Hylidae) from Córdoba, Argentina

—Most anurans exhibit sexual size dimorphism (SSD). This morphological variation between the sexes may be attributed to different ages at maturity, growth rate, or longevity. We present the first data on age structure and growth pattern of Hypsiboas cordobae using skeletochronology, and analyze SSD considering age-specific differences in body size based on 71 individuals. Snout-vent length (SVL) and body mass (BM) were significantly different between the sexes. Females were larger and heavier than males, but mean age between adult males and females was not significantly different. Minimum age at sexual maturity, longevity, and potential reproductive lifespan did not differ between the sexes. Female SVL and BM at sexual maturity were significantly larger than those of males. ANCOVA revealed significant sexual differences in body size and weight. The sexual dimorphism index in body size was 0.0679 (SVL) and 0.3621 (BM). Growth curves using the von Bertalanffy model showed a similar profile in both sexes, but the growth coefficient was higher in males. Age determination and the von Bertalanffy growth model for H. cordobae allowed us to determine SSD and our results may provide baseline data on the demography of H. cordobae.
Different involvement for aldolase isoenzymes in kidney glucose metabolism: Aldolase B but not aldolase A colocalizes and forms a complex with FBPase

The expression of aldolase A and B isoenzyme transcripts was confirmed by RT‐PCR in rat kidney and their cell distribution was compared with characteristic enzymes of the gluconeogenic and glycolytic metabolic pathway: fructose‐1,6‐bisphosphatase (FBPase), phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), and pyruvate kinase (PK). We detected aldolase A isoenzyme in the thin limb and collecting ducts of the medulla and in the distal tubules and glomerula of the cortex. The same pattern of distribution was found for PK, but not for aldolase B, PEPCK, and FBPase. In addition, co‐localization studies confirmed that aldolase B, FBPase, and PEPCK are expressed in the same proximal cells. This segregated cell distribution of aldolase A and B with key glycolytic and gluconeogenic enzymes, respectively, suggests that these aldolase isoenzymes participate in different metabolic pathways. In order to test if FBPase interacts with aldolase B, FBPase was immobilized on agarose and subjected to binding experiments. The results show that only aldolase B is specifically bound to FBPase and that this interaction was specifically disrupted by 60 μM Fru‐1,6‐P2. These data indicate the presence of a modulated enzyme–enzyme interaction between FBPase and isoenzyme B. They affirm that in kidney, aldolase B specifically participates, along the gluconeogenic pathway and aldolase A in glycolysis. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Muscle-actuated bio-hybrid mems by cell culture and differentiation on me tamaterial micro-scaffolds

This paper reports on a 3D bio-hybrid metamaterial MEMS scaffold for the culture and differentiation of C2C12 muscle precursor cells. For the first time, preferential cells differentiation on a technical surface into functional myotubes is demonstrated. The micro-scaffolds are based on concatenated bowtie elements fabricated by two-photon lithography and designed to achieve an equivalent Young's modulus of 12kPa. The high flexibility promotes the differentiation of the muscle cells into contractile myotubes [1]. Compared to state-of-the-art gel-based cell culture substrates, mechanical metamaterials can be shaped into arbitrary complex 3D geometries opening pathways towards muscle-driven biohybrid MEMS.
Power‐aware server consolidation for federated clouds

Cloud computing has evolved to provide computing resources on‐demand through a virtualized infrastructure, letting applications, computing power, data storage, and network resources to be provisioned and managed over private networks or over the Internet. Cloud services normally run on large data centers and demand a huge amount of electricity. Consequently, the electricity cost represents one of the major concerns of data centers, because it is sometimes nonlinear with the capacity of the data centers, and it is also associated with a high amount of carbon emission (CO2). However, energy‐saving schemes that result in too much degradation of the system performance or in violations of service‐level agreement (SLA) parameters would eventually cause the users to move to another cloud provider. Thus, there is a need to reach a balance between energy savings and the costs incurred by these savings in the execution of the applications. Therefore, in this paper, we propose and evaluate a power and SLA‐aware application consolidation solution for cloud federations. It comprises a multi‐agent system for server consolidation, taking into account SLA, power consumption, and carbon footprint. Different for similar solutions available in the literature, in our solution, when a cloud is overloaded, its data center needs to negotiate with other data centers before migrating the workload to another cloud. Simulation results show that our approach can reduce up to 46% of the power consumption while trying to meet performance requirements. Furthermore, we show that federated clouds can provide an adequate solution to deal with power consumption in the clouds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Role of Lipoprotein Processing by Signal Peptidase II in the Gram-positive Eubacterium Bacillus subtilis

Computer-assisted analyses indicate thatBacillus subtilis contains approximately 300 genes for exported proteins with an amino-terminal signal peptide. About 114 of these are lipoproteins, which are retained in the cytoplasmic membrane. We have investigated the importance of lipoprotein processing by signal peptidase II (SPase II) for cellular homeostasis, using cells lacking SPase II. The results show that lipoprotein processing is important for cell viability at low and high temperatures, suggesting that lipoproteins are essential for growth under these conditions. Although certain lipoproteins are required for the development of genetic competence, sporulation, and germination, these developmental processes were not affected in the absence of SPase II. Cells lacking SPase II accumulated lipid-modified precursor and mature-like forms of PrsA, a folding catalyst for secreted proteins. These forms of PrsA seem to have a reduced activity, as the secretion of α-amylase was strongly impaired. Unexpectedly, type I signal peptidases, which process secretory preproteins, were not involved in alternative amino-terminal processing of pre-PrsA in the absence of SPase II. In conclusion, processing of lipoproteins by SPase II in B. subtilis is not strictly required for lipoprotein function, which is surprising as lipoproteins and type II SPases seem to be conserved in all eubacteria.
A computation and energy reduction technique for HEVC Discrete Cosine Transform

In this paper, a novel computation and energy reduction technique for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) for all Transform Unit (TU) sizes is proposed. The proposed technique reduces the computational complexity of HEVC DCT significantly at the expense of slight decrease in PSNR and slight increase in bit rate by only calculating several pre-determined low frequency coefficients of TUs and assuming that the remaining coefficients are zero. It reduced the execution time of HEVC HM software encoder up to 12.74%, and it reduced the execution time of DCT operations in HEVC HM software encoder up to 37.27%. In this paper, a low energy HEVC 2D DCT hardware for all TU sizes is also designed and implemented using Verilog HDL. The proposed hardware, in the worst case, can process 53 Ultra HD (7680x4320) video frames per second. The proposed technique reduced the energy consumption of this hardware up to 18.9%. Therefore, it can be used in portable consumer electronics products that require a real-time HEVC encoder.
MODELING BISTATIC SURFACE SCATTERING STRENGTH INCLUDING A FORWARD SCATTERING LOBE WITH SHADOWING EFFECTS

Both the rough air-sea interface and entrapped air bubbles due to wave breaking scatter sound in all directions and contribute to so-called reverberation in active sonar. There are monostatic sonar systems where the source and receiver are at the same position, bistatic sonar systems where the source and receiver are separated, and multistatic sonar systems involving multiple sources and receivers at different positions. In monostatic situation, reverberation is mainly due to backscattering. In bistatic and multistatic situation, forward and out-of-plane scattering are significant contributors. The empirical Chapman-Harris formula is often used to predict surface backscattering strength in monostatic sonar. To better predict reverberation due to the sea surface in bistatic or multistatic sonar, a three-dimensional scattering formula that includes a forward scattering lobe will be desirable. Following the approach of earlier work, in this paper the separable form of backscattering models are extended by including an expression of forward scattering lobe obtained under the Kirchhoff approximation, taking into account shadowing effects. Comparison with another more sophisticated model shows that shadowing corrections are important at low grazing angles. The formula obtained here is simple and includes scattering effects from both the roughness of the sea surfaces and the sub-surface bubbles. It may be useful for modelling multistatic surface reverberations.
Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy type I: Clinical and neurographical features of the 17p duplication subtype

Forty‐four affected individuals, aged 8–68 years (mean 34 years), from six families with hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy type I (HMSN) I, Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease type (1) were investigated to determine the clinical and electroneurographical characteristics of the HMSN I subtype that is defined by the presence of a DNA duplication on chromosome 17p. Motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) and, to a lesser extent, compound muscle action potential amplitude, were inversely related to clinical severity. Neither clinical severity nor MNCV were significantly related to age. These results suggest that the primary pathological process is not, or only slightly active after childhood. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Everolimus and Long-Term Outcomes in Renal Transplantation

Josep M. Campistol A series of recent meetings brought together experts in the field of transplantation to discuss the challenge of improving long-term outcomes and establishing optimal strategies for immunosuppression after renal transplant. This supplement is a summary of these meetings, the objectives of which were to present the supporting data and rationale for using the mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor (mTORi) everolimus as a part of a preemptive strategy to improve long-term outcomes, and to discuss practical aspects and proposed algorithms for preemptive use of everolimus.
Prospective Evaluation of the Achievement of Mucosal Healing with Anti-TNF-α Therapy in a Paediatric Crohn's Disease Cohort.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS There is growing evidence that in Crohn's disease the achievement and maintenance of mucosal healing (MH) through anti-TNFα antibodies may change the natural history of the disease. Few studies evaluating such outcome as a therapeutic goal are available in paediatrics. The primary aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of biologics in obtaining MH in a paediatric Crohn's disease cohort. The secondary aims were: (1) to assess response based on early or late treatment introduction and on combination therapy with immunomodulators versus biologics alone; and (2) to evaluate clinical outcome 2 years after the second endoscopy. METHODS Biologic-naive paediatric Crohn's disease patients starting anti-tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα) treatment were enrolled. Patients' demographic and treatment data were recorded. Clinical [Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index (PCDAI)] and endoscopic [Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn's Disease (SES-CD)] evaluations were performed at time 0 (T0) and after 9-12 months (follow-up). Appropriate induction and maintenance therapeutic schemes were applied. RESULTS Thirty-seven patients were enrolled. At enrolment, mean age was 12.3 ± 3.4 years and mean disease duration was 13.0 ± 16 months. At follow-up there was a significant decrease in PCDAI and SES-CD compared with T0 (p < 0.01). No statistical difference in frequency of MH between the early and late treatment introduction groups was found. Combination therapy was superior in obtaining complete plus partial MH (p < 0.01). One and 2 years after the second endoscopy, all and 79% of patients with complete MH and 75 and 67% of those with partial MH were still in clinical remission, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Biologics improve mucosal lesions, apparently more effectively if given in combination with immunomodulators. MH appears to sustain a better disease course.
Phenotype and molecular diversity evaluation of some wild 2n Solanum species (super series Rotata)

Rotatamarkers. Totally 63 alleles of 20 cpSSR loci were detected i.e. 3.15 alleles on average per one microsatellite locus. Alleles ranged from two to six per locus. The highest polymorphism was detected in the locus ntcp9 and lowest were recorded having by two alleles in seven of loci. The average value of observed heterozygosity (H
Ventilator auto-cycling from cardiogenic oscillations: case report and review of literature.

BACKGROUND Brain death is the total loss of all brain and brain stem functions, and its diagnosis is often confirmed by an apnoea test, which relies on disconnecting the patient from the ventilator. Auto-triggering or auto-cycling is defined as a ventilator being triggered in the absence of patient effort, intrinsic respiratory drive or inspiratory muscle activity. Ventilator auto-triggering could delay the diagnosis of brain death leading to unnecessary admission for the patient and false hopes of recovery for the family. METHODS We report a case of ventilator auto-triggering associated with cardiogenic oscillations in a female patient. RESULTS We confirmed the finding of ventilator auto-triggering by changing the patient's position and reassessing the triggering thresholds. Brain death was then confirmed by apnoea test. CONCLUSION This case is presented to arouse the awareness of the medical staff and nurses to this phenomenon, which can mimic an intrinsic respiratory effort in patients allegedly diagnosed with brain death. Along with this case report, we review the English language publications for similar cases.
Lecithinase and lysolecithinase of intestinal mucosa.

Enzymes, capable of hydrolysing lecithin to liberate inorganic phosphate, are present in the kidney and intestinal mucosa (King, 1931). Since several pathways may lead from lecithin to inorganic phosphate and more than a single bnzyme must have been involved, it is uncertain which enzyme was the rate-limiting one in this investigation. In a recent paper Schmidt, Bessman & Thannhauser (1957) described a mitochondrial preparation of rat intestinal mucosa, which catalysed the splitting of fatty acids from kephalin. Some activity, though a much smaller one, was found with lecithin as substrate. The low activity of similar intestinalmucosa preparations towards lecithin was attributed by us, in a preliminary communication (Epstein & Shapiro, 1957), to the fact that lecithin degradation by the intestinal enzyme depends upon the presence of fatty acids. This activation by one of its reaction products puts the enzyme involved into a category apart from other lecithinases. As will be seen in the present paper, intestinal lecithinase differs from known lecithinases in several other respects.
Repellency of Skin-Surface Lipids of Humans to Mosquitoes

Skin lipids obtained from the washings, in acetone or diethyl ether, of the foreheads or arms of humans are very repellent to female Aedes aegypti when evaluated in a dual-port olfactometer. By means of thin-layer chromatography, the repellent substances can be separated from nonrepellent material also present in skin lipids.
Social Imitation Dynamics of Vaccination Driven by Vaccine Effectiveness and Beliefs

The invention of vaccine has significantly reduced the levels of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases. However, the success of vaccines is often impaired by the free-rider problem: while vaccinated individuals incur the cost of vaccination, unvaccinated individuals are protected from the disease given that population immunity is in effect. This provides self-interested individuals an incentive to forgo vaccination. An emerging literature has investigated the epidemiology of individuals facing the free-rider problem given the choice of voluntary vaccination. Such studies properly apply the framework of game theory to describe how individuals react when facing the vaccination dilemma. In this paper, we extend previous work in imitation dynamics of vaccine uptake by accounting for imperfect vaccines, whose effects on individuals’ vaccination behavior on spatial populations have not been fully answered. We combine vaccination dynamics with an epidemiological model, in particular the SIR model. We then further extend our model to account for varying perceived vaccination costs during the decision-making for vaccination. The results from this paper show incomplete information together with ineffective vaccines in a population of imitators further aggravate the problem of suboptimal level of vaccination if the initial vaccination rate is low. A bi-stability phenomenon is observed: two separate equilibrium vaccination rates exist for high initial vaccination and low initial vaccination. When initial vaccination rate is high, vaccination rate moves to a high equilibrium. When initial vaccination rate is low, vaccination rate moves to a low equilibrium. The effect is observed when the population is homogeneous in terms of beliefs of vaccination effectiveness or heterogeneous with fixed beliefs or spreading beliefs. Our results provide support for intensifying vaccination campaigns to overcome vaccine hesitancy and to boost initial vaccination rate.
Overview of control systems for the operation of DFIGs in wind energy applications

Doubly-Fed Induction Generators (DFIGs), often organized in wind parks, are the most important generators used for variable speed wind energy generation. This paper reviews the control systems for the operation of DFIGs in wind energy applications. Control systems for connections to balanced or unbalanced grids, and sensorless control.
Airborne levels of alpha-amylase allergens in bakeries.

BACKGROUND In the baking industry the use of enzymes has increased throughout the 1980s. Several studies have reported sensitization and respiratory disorders among bakery workers caused by enzymes in dough improvers. Fungal alpha-amylase is the most frequently reported cause of allergy. alpha-Amylase allergen exposure levels in the bakery industry, however, have not yet been reported. OBJECTIVE The main objective of this study was to quantify personal alpha-amylase exposure levels of bakery workers. METHODS alpha-Amylase allergens were measured in 507 personal samples of airborne dust taken in bakeries by using a newly developed sandwich enzyme immunoassay with affinity-purified polyclonal rabbit IgG antibodies. A cascade impactor was used to estimate the size of dust particles carrying alpha-amylase allergens. RESULTS The rabbit IgG antibodies used in the assay showed, in immunoblotting with commercially available alpha-amylase, a reaction profile very similar to that of IgE from sensitized bakers. The enzyme immunoassay appeared to be highly specific for fungal amylase. Allergen exposure levels varied considerably among bakery workers, depending on the type of bakery and job category (range, 0 to 40 ng/m3). In confectioneries no alpha-amylase allergens were detected. In other bakeries alpha-amylase exposure was only found for workers directly involved in dough making. Measurements of the particle size distribution in these bakeries showed that alpha-amylase allergens are most likely to be deposited in the nose and ciliated airways. CONCLUSION This study shows that personal monitoring of fungal amylase allergen exposure in bakeries is possible. This permits the identification of high-risk tasks and allergen sources, as well as the study of exposure-response relationships.