Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Collaborative Knowledge Making and Sharing across sites: the Role of boundary Objects

A number of researchers on Science and Technology Studies (STS) have criticized the western view treating knowledge as objective and universal, with the argument that all knowledges are locally situated. In this article we draw on this view of decentring of scientific knowledge and on the concept of boundary objects to discuss an empirical case of a ‘global’ collaborative network called Health Information System Programme (HISP) involving a number of countries in a process of knowledge creation and sharing. The network consists of knowledge objects with seemingly universal characteristics shareable across sites. The paper discuss the ‘localness’ of the knowledge produced by looking at its originality and how it is made mobile, thereby giving it the seemingly universal characteristics. The article further, discuss how the involved multiple social worlds characterized by different knowledge practices, cultures and visions, participate through boundary objects shareable across the network and thereby contribute new knowledge in the network. The collective boundary objects created and shared within the network play a significant role in creating synergies which in turn sustains the involved countries’ local initiatives.
The long-term effects of probiotics in the therapy of ulcerative colitis: A clinical study.

AIM Intestinal dysbiosis seems to be the leading cause of inflammatory bowel diseases, and probiotics seems to represent the proper support against their occurrence. Actually, probiotic blends and anti-inflammatory drugs represent a weapon against inflammatory bowel diseases. The present study evaluates the long-term (2 years) effects of combination therapy (mesalazine plus a probiotic blend of Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidus strain BGN4) on ulcerative colitis activity. METHOD Sixty patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis were enrolled: 30 of them were treated with a single daily oral administration of mesalazine 1200 mg; 30 patients received a single daily oral administration of mesalazine 1200 mg and a double daily administration of a probiotic blend of Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidus strain BGN4. The treatment was carried out for two years and the clinical response evaluated according to the Modified Mayo Disease Activity Index. RESULTS All patients treated with combination therapy showed better improvement compared to the controls. In particular, the beneficial effects of probiotics were evident even after two years of treatment. CONCLUSIONS A long-term treatment modality of anti-inflammatory drugs and probiotics is viable and could be an alternative to corticosteroids in mild-to moderate ulcerative colitis.
Computational approaches for improving the performance of path tracking controllers for mobile robots

Performance of path tracking controllers for mobile robots is usually constrained to the tuning of a set of gains within previously known boundaries. In industrial applications, controller tuning is a time consuming task, which is especially critical when the gain values have a considerable impact on the use of the robot's energy resources. In this paper, we propose a set of approaches to automatically improve the performance of well-known path tracking controllers used for agricultural applications of automated agricultural machinery. The effect of the proposed strategy can be better appreciated during the transient response of the robot when it has to maneuver along a non-kinematically compatible path. The results presented in this work show that the robot's path tracking performance is improved up to 15% using the proposed approaches.
Estimating the access link quality by active measurements

The access link quality experienced by the end users depends on the amount of traffic and on the presence of network anomalies. Different techniques exist to detect anomalies, but little attention has been devoted to quantify the access link quality and to which extent network anomalies affect the end user's access link experience. We refer to this aspect as the impact factor of the anomaly, that we define as the percentage of affected destinations. In the ideal case, a node should continuously monitor all possible routes to detect any degradation in performance, but this is not practical in reality. In this paper we show how a node can estimate the quality of Internet access through a limited set of measurements. We initially study the user's access network to understand the typical features of its connectivity tree. Then, we define an unbiased estimator for the quality of access and we compute the minimum number of paths to monitor, so that the estimator achieves a desirable accuracy without knowing the underlying topology. We use real data to construct a network graph and we validate our solution by causing a large number of anomalies and by comparing the real and the estimated quality of access for all available end hosts. Our results show that the impact factor is a meaningful metric to evaluate the quality of Internet access.
Online submission of coursework - a technological perspective

The development of an online submission system at the authors' computer science department over the last few years is described. The changing technologies used by the in-house software are discussed, together with the pedagogic and administrative issues that are affected by the process. The authors conclude by examining the issues that currently direct the future development of the software.
Sensor data fusion for terrain exploration by collaborating unmanned ground vehicles

This paper presents work in progress for the pre-Runners project. The goal is to experimentally demonstrate the value of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in collaboration with a main vehicle in an outdoor setting. With uneven terrain and unexpected obstacles the main vehicle benefits from a priori information of the terrain ahead. This information can be gathered by a smaller, more agile, and risks tolerant autonomous ldquoprerunnerrdquo. The results presented, represent the first steps toward the important task of determining the traversable surfaces and communicating the results within the team. The information sharing between vehicles is based on Collaborative Smoothing and Mapping (C-SAM). The horizontal position is also estimated within the C-SAM. In parallel the vertical component and orientation is estimated by a filter fusing data from odometry, an imu and two lasers to allow computation of traversability maps to be shared within the team.
Time-resolved Mass Spectrometry of Tyrosine Phosphorylation Sites in the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Signaling Network Reveals Dynamic Modules*S

Ligand binding to cell surface receptors initiates a cascade of signaling events regulated by dynamic phosphorylation events on a multitude of pathway proteins. Quantitative features, including intensity, timing, and duration of phosphorylation of particular residues, may play a role in determining cellular response, but experimental data required for analysis of these features have not previously been available. To understand the dynamic operation of signaling cascades, we have developed a method enabling the simultaneous quantification of tyrosine phosphorylation of specific residues on dozens of key proteins in a time-resolved manner, downstream of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation. Tryptic peptides from four different EGFR stimulation time points were labeled with four isoforms of the iTRAQ reagent to enable downstream quantification. After mixing of the labeled samples, tyrosine-phosphorylated peptides were immunoprecipitated with an anti-phosphotyrosine antibody and further enriched by IMAC before LC/MS/MS analysis. Database searching and manual confirmation of peptide phosphorylation site assignments led to the identification of 78 tyrosine phosphorylation sites on 58 proteins from a single analysis. Replicate analyses of a separate biological sample provided both validation of this first data set and identification of 26 additional tyrosine phosphorylation sites and 18 additional proteins. iTRAQ fragment ion ratios provided time course phosphorylation profiles for each site. The data set of quantitative temporal phosphorylation profiles was further characterized by self-organizing maps, which resulted in identification of several cohorts of tyrosine residues exhibiting self-similar temporal phosphorylation profiles, operationally defining dynamic modules in the EGFR signaling network consistent with particular cellular processes. The presence of novel proteins and associated tyrosine phosphorylation sites within these modules indicates additional components of this network and potentially localizes the topological action of these proteins. Additional analysis and modeling of the data generated in this study are likely to yield more sophisticated models of receptor tyrosine kinase-initiated signal transduction, trafficking, and regulation.
Historical species losses in bumblebee evolution

Investigating how species coped with past environmental changes informs how modern species might face human-induced global changes, notably via the study of historical extinction, a dominant feature that has shaped current biodiversity patterns. The genus Bombus, which comprises 250 mostly cold-adapted species, is an iconic insect group sensitive to current global changes. Through a combination of habitat loss, pathogens and climate change, bumblebees have experienced major population declines, and several species are threatened with extinction. Using a time-calibrated tree of Bombus, we analyse their diversification dynamics and test hypotheses about the role of extinction during major environmental changes in their evolutionary history. These analyses support a history of fluctuating species dynamics with two periods of historical species loss in bumblebees. Dating estimates gauge that one of these events started after the middle Miocene climatic optimum and one during the early Pliocene. Both periods are coincident with global climate change that may have extirpated Bombus species. Interestingly, bumblebees experienced high diversification rates during the Plio-Pleistocene glaciations. We also found evidence for a major species loss in the past one million years that may be continuing today.
Global F0 control parameter prediction based on impressions for communicative prosody generation

Aiming at communicative speech synthesis, prosody control using impressions has been proposed by applying the correlation between impressions of input lexicons and prosody. In this paper, as the first step to compute communicative prosody, we attempt to predict the F0 generation model parameters by estimating the impressions of input sentence from its constituent lexicons. To obtain an impression vector consisting of three dimensional factors (positive-negative, confident-doubtful and allowable-unacceptable) for a given input utterance, we proposed a computational scheme to calculate impression vectors using impression scores of constituent words. Using obtained sentence impression vectors, F0 control parameters are predicted by applying three-layered feed-forward neural networks. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed computational framework, we experimentally confirmed that F0 parameters of communicative speech could be generated from the impressions of input lexicons.
Micro and Nano-Scale Technologies for Cell Mechanics

Cell mechanics is a multidisciplinary field that bridges cell biology, fundamental mechanics, and micro and nanotechnology, which synergize to help us better understand the intricacies and the complex nature of cells in their native environment. With recent advances in nanotechnology, microfabrication methods and micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS), we are now well situated to tap into the complex micro world of cells. The field that brings biology and MEMS together is known as Biological MEMS (BioMEMS). BioMEMS take advantage of systematic design and fabrication methods to create platforms that allow us to study cells like never before. These new technologies have been rapidly advancing the study of cell mechanics. This review article provides a succinct overview of cell mechanics and comprehensively surveys micro and nano-scale technologies that have been specifically developed for and are relevant to the mechanics of cells. Here we focus on micro and nano-scale technologies, and their applications in biology and medicine, including imaging, single cell analysis, cancer cell mechanics, organ-on-a-chip systems, pathogen detection, implantable devices, neuroscience and neurophysiology. We also provide a perspective on the future directions and challenges of technologies that relate to the mechanics of cells.
DESKTOP VIRTUAL REALITY IN E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Session PS WG VI/2-4-1 ABSTRACT: In recent years distributing knowledge via Internet and World Wide Web has become standard for universities, institutes and companies. Many of them offer E-Learning-Environments. The advantages seem to be obvious: easier distribution, independence of space and time, potentialities of hypertext and multimedia etc. In the field of Geoinformation and Earth Sciences a lot of projects have been carried out to use the potentials of the World Wide Web. This paper describes the current situation of E-Learning-tools in the field of Geoinformatics and Earth Sciences with some emphasis on German examples. One of them is the project "Virtual Landscape" of the "E-Learning-Academic Network" (ELAN) in Lower Saxony, Germany. The project aims to develop an E-Learning-Environment for students in Earth Sciences, such as Geodesy, Geoinformatics, Geography, Environmental Studies, Landscape Planning as well as students in Applied Computer Science. By supporting the action-oriented teaching concept the development of a "Virtual Landscape" will provide an interactive tool to explore and work with geodata. Special modules will guide students through the work with the data and give problems to solve. The main characteristics of this project is therefore - as opposed to projects providing only E-Learning material in terms of courseware - the explorative learning approach. Furthermore, the multidisciplinary focus is also unique. The article gives an overview on the concepts of that E-Learning-Environment as well as to the technical structure of web-based geodata visualization and interaction.
Assessment of issue handling efficiency

We mined the issue database of GNOME to assess how issues are handled. How many issues are submitted and resolved? Does the backlog grow or decrease? How fast are issues resolved? Does issue resolution speed increase or decrease over time? In which subproject are issues handled most efficiently? To answer such questions, we apply several visualization and quantification instruments to the raw issue data. In particular, we aggregate issues into four risk categories, based on their resolution time. These categories are the basis both for visualizing and ranking, which are used in concert for issue database exploration.
Automatic target recognition using a feature-decomposition and data-decomposition modular neural network

A modular neural network classifier has been applied to the problem of automatic target recognition using forward- looking infrared (FLIR) imagery. The classifier consists of several independently trained neural networks operating on features extracted from a local portion of a target image. The classification decisions of the individual networks are combined to determine the final classification. Experiments show that decomposition of the input features results in performance superior to a fully connected network in terms of both network complexity and probability of classification. Performance of the classifier is further improved by the use of multi-resolution features and by the introduction of a higher level neural network on the top of expert networks, a method known as stacked generalization. In addition to feature decomposition, we implemented a data decomposition classifier network and demonstrated improved performance. Experimental results are reported on a large set of FLIR images.
Organic matter characterization and distribution in the Lake Shkodra/Skadar and the Buna/Bojana River, Albania, a case study in May 2009.

The Lake Shkodra - River Buna wetland complex (Albania) is included in Ramsar sites and is one of the most important on the Adriatic coast. Dissolved organc carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), surface active substances (SAS), copper complexing capacity (CuCC) and polymeric organic material containing nitrogen atoms (N-POM) were measured in the area. DOC concentrations were in the range 0.335-4.535 mg CL-1, while POC was in the range 0.010-4.147 mg CL-1. SAS concentrations expressed as equiv. of Triton-X-100 were in the range 0.083-0.302 mg T-X-100 L-1 . CuCC values were in the range 110-758 nM Cu2+. The measured concentrations are increased only for certain sites (e.g. lagoon site, B1), where the highest DOC, POC and SAS were measured. At these sites polymeric organic material (N-POM) was measured. Normalized surfactant activity values (NSA) determined showed that the organic material present in the this aquatic system is similar in adsorption properties to the model fulvic acid and protein albumin.
A Systematic Taxonomy of Metamodel Evolution Impacts on OCL Expressions

Metamodel evolution is prevalent in Model-Driven Engineering, necessitating the co-evolution of dependent artifacts like models and transformations. Whereas model co-evolution has been extensively studied, the co-evolution of transformations and especially its substantial ingredient in terms of OCL expressions has received little attention up to now. Thus, the goal of this paper is a systematic analysis of potential impacts of metamodel evolution on OCL expressions in model transformations. For this, a complete and minimal set of atomic metamodel changes has been derived from Ecore, which is analyzed with respect to its effects on structural complexity and information capacity. This analysis builds the basis for investigating the impacts concerning syntactical conformance and scope of affected OCL expressions. Finally, we report on lessons learned gained from establishing the set of changes and examining the impacts thereof.
HSV-2 Specifically Down Regulates HLA-C Expression to Render HSV-2-Infected DCs Susceptible to NK Cell Killing

Both NK cells and CTLs kill virus-infected and tumor cells. However, the ways by which these killer cells recognize the infected or the tumorigenic cells are different, in fact almost opposite. CTLs are activated through the interaction of the TCR with MHC class I proteins. In contrast, NK cells are inhibited by MHC class I molecules. The inhibitory NK receptors recognize mainly MHC class I proteins and in this regard practically all of the HLA-C proteins are recognized by inhibitory NK cell receptors, while only certain HLA-A and HLA-B proteins interact with these receptors. Sophisticated viruses developed mechanisms to avoid the attack of both NK cells and CTLs through, for example, down regulation of HLA-A and HLA-B molecules to avoid CTL recognition, leaving HLA-C proteins on the cell surface to inhibit NK cell response. Here we provide the first example of a virus that through specific down regulation of HLA-C, harness the NK cells for its own benefit. We initially demonstrated that none of the tested HSV-2 derived microRNAs affect NK cell activity. Then we show that surprisingly upon HSV-2 infection, HLA-C proteins are specifically down regulated, rendering the infected cells susceptible to NK cell attack. We identified a motif in the tail of HLA-C that is responsible for the HSV-2-meduiated HLA-C down regulation and we show that the HLA-C down regulation is mediated by the viral protein ICP47. Finally we show that HLA-C proteins are down regulated from the surface of HSV-2 infected dendritic cells (DCs) and that this leads to the killing of DC by NK cells. Thus, we propose that HSV-2 had developed this unique and surprising NK cell-mediated killing strategy of infected DC to prevent the activation of the adaptive immunity.
Characterization of Polymorphic Microsatellites in the Giant Bulldog Ant, Myrmecia brevinoda and the Jumper Ant, M. pilosula

Abstract The ant genus Myrmecia Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is endemic to Australia and New Caledonia, and has retained many biological traits that are considered to be basal in the family Formicidae. Here, a set of 16 dinucleotide microsatellite loci were studied that are polymorphic in at least one of the two species of the genus: the giant bulldog ant, M. brevinoda Forel, and the jumper ant, M. pilosula Smith; 13 are novel loci and 3 are loci previously published for the genus Nothomyrmecia Clark (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). In M. brevinoda, the total of 12 polymorphic microsatellites yielded a total of 125 alleles, ranging from 3 to 18 with an average of 10.42 per locus; the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.4000 to 0.9000 and from 0.5413 to 0.9200, respectively. In M. pilosula, the 9 polymorphic loci yielded a total of 67 alleles, ranging from 3 to 12 with an average of 7.44 per locus; the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.5625 to 0.9375 and from 0.4863 to 0.8711, respectively. Five loci were polymorphic in both target species. In addition, 15 out of the 16 loci were successfully amplified in M. pyriformis. These informative microsatellite loci provide a powerful tool for investigating the population and colony genetic structure of M. brevinoda and M. pilosula, and may also be applicable to a range of congeners considering the relatively distant phylogenetic relatedness between M. pilosula and the other two species within the genus Myrmecia.
Sensitivity and Specificity of Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography versus Endoscopic Ultrasonography against Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography in Diagnosing Choledocholithiasis: The Indonesian Experience

Background/Aims Biliary stone disease is one of the most common conditions leading to hospitalization. In addition to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) are required in diagnosing choledocholithiasis. This study aimed to compare the sensitivity and specificity of EUS and MRCP against ERCP in diagnosing choledocholithiasis. Methods This retrospective study was conducted after prospective collection of data involving 62 suspected choledocholithiasis patients who underwent ERCP from June 2013 to August 2014. Patients were divided into two groups. The first group (31 patients) underwent EUS and the second group (31 patients) underwent MRCP. Then, ERCP was performed in both groups. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of EUS and MRCP were determined by comparing them to ERCP, which is the gold standard. Results The male to female ratio was 3:2. The mean ages were 47.25 years in the first group and 52.9 years in the second group. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for EUS were 96%, 57%, 87%, 88%, and 80% respectively, and for MRCP were 81%, 40%, 68%, 74%, and 50%, respectively. Conclusions EUS is a better diagnostic tool than MRCP for diagnosing choledocholithiasis.