Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy of Locally Isolated Lactic Acid Bacteria Against Antibiotic-Resistant Uropathogens

Background: Antibiotic resistance represents a serious global health threat to public health, so infections such as pneumonia and urinary tract infection (UTI) are becoming harder to treat. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an action plan to restrain the problem of antibiotic resistance. One approach in UTI control could be the use of lactobacilli because these indigenous inhabitants in human intestine have been found to play an important role in protecting the host from various infections. Objectives: We sought to check the efficacy of locally isolated Lactobacillus species to eradicate antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria causing UTI. Materials and Methods: Lactic acid bacteria isolated from spoiled fruits and vegetables and grown in MRS medium were screened against multi-drug-resistant Candida albicans, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, and Enterococcus fecalis. Results: Fifty-four lactic acid bacteria were isolated from spoiled fruits and vegetables, of which 11 Gram-positive and catalase-negative Lactobacillus isolates were identified by carbohydrate assimilation profiles as Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. paracasei, L. delbrueckii, L. casei, L. helveticus, L. brevis, L. salivarius, L. fermentum, L. rhamnosus, L. animalis, and L. plantarum. The latter organism had the highest abundance of all the samples, so its isolates were also verified through 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The isolated Lactobacilli were screened against multi-drug-resistant uropathogens, viz. C. albicans, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, E. fecalis, and E. coli. The growth inhibition zone (GIZ) was over 10 mm against all the uropathogenic test organisms, where L. fermentum and L. plantarum strains demonstrated remarkable inhibitory activities against E. coli and E. faecalis, with a GIZ up to 28 mm. The susceptibility test to 16 antibiotics showed multidrug resistance (3 to 5 antibiotics) among all the tested uropathogens. Conclusions: The obtained results revealed that all the Lactobacillus isolates displayed antimicrobial activity against 6 out of 7 antibiotic-resistant uropathogens, indicating that these bacteria could represent a good ecological plan for the control and prevention of UTI.
Quantization Methods for Equal Gain Transmission With Finite Rate Feedback

We consider the design and analysis of quantizers for equal gain transmission (EGT) systems with finite rate feedback-based communication in flat-fading multiple input single output (MISO) systems. EGT is a beamforming technique that maximizes the MISO channel capacity when there is an equal power-per-antenna constraint at the transmitter, and requires the feedback of t-1 phase angles, when there are t antennas at the transmitter. In this paper, we contrast two popular approaches for quantizing the phase angles: vector quantization (VQ) and scalar quantization (SQ). On the VQ side, using the capacity loss with respect to EGT with perfect channel information at transmitter as performance metric, we develop a criterion for designing the beamforming codebook for quantized EGT (Q-EGT). We also propose an iterative algorithm based on the well-known generalized Lloyd algorithm, for computing the beamforming vector codebook. On the analytical side, we study the performance of Q-EGT and derive closed-form expressions for the performance in terms of capacity loss and outage probability in the case of i.i. d. Rayleigh flat-fading channels. On the SQ side, assuming uniform scalar quantization and i.i. d. Rayleigh flat-fading channels, we derive the high-resolution performance of quantized EGT and contrast the performance with that of VQ. We find that although both VQ and SQ achieve the same rate of convergence (to the capacity with perfect feedback) as the number of feedback bits B increases, there exists a fixed gap between the two
Real-Time Volume Caustics with Image-Based Photon Tracing

Rendering of volume caustics in participating media is often expensive, even with different acceleration approaches. Basic volume photon tracing is used to render such effects, but rather slow due to its massive quantity of photons to be traced. In this paper we present an image-based volume photon tracing method for rendering volume caustics at real-time frame rates. Motivated by multi-image based photon tracing, our technique uses multiple depth maps to accelerate the intersection test procedure, achieving a plausible and fast rendering of volume caustics. Each photon dynamically selects the depth map layer for intersection test, and the test converges to an approximate solution using image space methods in a few recursions. This allows us to compute photon distribution in participating media while avoiding massive computation on accurate intersection tests with scene geometry. We demonstrate that our technique, combined with photon splatting techniques, is able to render volume caustics caused by multiple refractions.
Randomized Phase II Designs

As the use of molecularly targeted agents, which are anticipated to increase overall survival (OS)and progression-free survival (PFS) but not necessarily tumor response, has increased in oncology, there has been a corresponding increase in the recommendation and use of randomized phase II designs. Such designs reduce the potential for bias, existent in comparisons with historical controls, but also substantially increase the sample size requirements. We review the principal statistical designs for historically controlled and randomized phase II trials, along with their advantages, disadvantages, and statistical design considerations. We review the arguments for and against the use of randomization in phase II studies, the situations in which the use of historical controls is preferred, and the situations in which the use of randomized designs is preferred. We review methods used to calculate predicted OS or PFS values from historical controls, adjusted so as to be appropriate for an experimental sample with particular prognostic characteristics. We show how adjustment of the type I and type II error bounds for randomized studies can facilitate the detection of appropriate target increases in median PFS or OS with sample sizes appropriate for phase II studies. Although there continue to be differences among investigators concerning the use of randomization versus historical controls in phase II trials, there is agreement that each approach will continue to be appropriate, and the optimal approach will depend upon the circumstances of the individual trial.
Communicative designs for input solicitation during organizational change: implications for providers’ communicative perceptions and decisions

OF THE DISSERTATION.ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.vi List of Tables.viii List of Figures. ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE . 2 COMMUNICATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE . 6 CURRENT STUDY . 13 RESEARCH QUESTIONS . 14 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE . 17 ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND COMMUNICATION . 17 PARTICIPATIVE WORKPLACES AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE . 22 COMMUNICATION DESIGN OF INPUT SOLICITATION . 30 DESIGN CHALLENGES . 47 THE STUDY CONTEXT . 48 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY . 56 SITE INFORMATION . 56 RESEARCH TIMELINE . 58 SAMPLING AND DATA COLLECTION . 60 DATA ANALYSIS . 69 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS . 77 FINDINGS FOR RQ1A: WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF DESIGN THAT ARE PERCEIVED AS PROBLEMATIC OR BENEFICIAL DURING INPUT SOLICITATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE? 77 BENEFICIAL DESIGN FEATURES: EXECUTIVES AND IMPLEMENTERS . 78 BENEFICIAL DESIGN FEATURES: STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS . 81 BENEFICIAL DESIGN FEATURES: NURSE PROVIDERS . 84 PROBLEMATIC DESIGN FEATURES OR FLAWS: IMPLEMENTERS . 85 PROBLEMATIC DESIGN FEATURES OR FLAWS: STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS . 86 PROBLEMATIC DESIGN FEATURES OR FLAWS: NURSE PROVIDERS . 88 CHANGE-RELATED CHALLENGES . 91 LONG-STANDING CHALLENGES . 92 FINDINGS FOR RQ1B: HOW DO THOSE EMPOWERED TO EXECUTE THE CHANGE OR IMPLEMENT THE CHANGE SEE THESE DESIGNS DIFFERENTLY? 99 MISSING DIALOGUE: KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER VERSUS INPUT SOLICITATION . 101 TIME RESTRICTED STRUCTURE OF MEETINGS . 103 OPAQUE INFORMATION . 104 PROBES FOR SILENCE MANAGEMENT . 105 ANONYMOUS FEEDBACK. 106 SELECTION OF INDIVIDUALS . 107 FINDINGS FOR RQ1C: HOW DO DESIGN TEAMS MANAGE CHALLENGES WITH COLLECTIVE DESIGN? 108 PROACTIVE DESIGNABLE FEATURES . 109 EMERGENT/REACTIVE DESIGN FEATURES . 114 RQ1 SUMMARY . 118 CHAPTER 5: RESULTS . 121
CrimeFighter Investigator: A Novel Tool for Criminal Network Investigation

Criminal network investigation involves a number of complex tasks and faces many problems. Overall tasks include collection, processing, and analysis of information, in which analysis is the key to successful use of information, it transforms raw data into intelligence. Problems such as information abundance or scarcity and information complexity are typically resolved by adding more manpower resources, inhibiting information sharing. This paper presents a novel tool that supports a human-centered, target-centric model for criminal network investigation. The developed tool provides more comprehensive support for analysis tasks than existing tools.
An overview of a constraint solving engine with multiple optimization algorithms

This article is concerned with the classes of the Constraint Solving Engine and a Constraint Programming Library for problems that can be defined as Constraint Satisfaction Problems. The theoretical and mathematical foundations of our ideas and the problem solving process are explained. Among the first problems that were solved was the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The results and conclusions for TSP solution are given in the closing part of the paper.
Comparison of analytical and numerical models for anomalous diffusion in the Bloch-Torrey equation

In this paper we use a numerical simulation to analyze the time evolution of the net spin magnetization in diffusion weighted MRI. We compare the integer and fractional cases by simulating the Bloch-Torrey equation for several different types of gradient pulses. This generalization of the diffusion process is based on the Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) model, where the order of the fractional time derivative a, and the order of the fractional space derivative β, encode the distributions of waiting time and jump length increments that underly anomalous dynamics in heterogeneous materials. We examine the time evolution of the net magnetization for a constant gradient field, for a pair of bipolar gradient pulses, for the Stejskal-Tanner pulse sequence, and for a set of oscillating gradients. We compare the numerical results with analytical expressions in particular cases, and present the overall system response for selected values of α and β. One novel observation is a slow recovery of magnetization in the case of non-integer fractional time derivatives, which seems to reflect the persistence (or memory) of the earlier states of magnetization that is encoded in the definition of the Caputo time-domain fractional derivative.
A Novel Approach for Ranking Ontologies on the Semantic Web

In this paper, a novel approach ARRO (approach for ranking and retrieval ontologies) has been proposed for ranking ontologies on the semantic Web. The hierarchy of the ontology is regarded as one of the most important measures for ranking ontologies in ARRO. The semantic relations among the classes of the ontologies will be measured and the logic views of the query terms are formed. ARRO can combine the logic inference and ranking together through the logic view. At the end of the paper, experiments are performed and the validation of ARRO is proven
SPARSE REPRESENTATIONS AND DICTIONARY LEARNING BASED LONGITUDINAL SEGMENTATION OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS LESIONS

Sparse representations allow modeling data using a few basis elements of an over-complete dictionary and have been used in many image processing applications. We propose to use the sparse representation and dictionary learning paradigm to automatically segment Multiple Sclerosis (MS) lesions from longitudinal MR data. The dictionaries are learned for the lesion and healthy brain tissue classes, and a reconstruction error based classification approach is proposed for validation on challenge data set.
A novel microstrip Yagi antenna with an improved end‐fire radiation pattern under operation of the TM20 mode

In this article, a novel microstrip Yagi antenna under operation of the TM20 mode is proposed to obtain an enhanced end‐fire radiation pattern. First, a two‐element microstrip Yagi antenna is theoretically analyzed under different dimensions of the parasitic element. The results demonstrate that the parasitic element can act as either a reflector or director when its size is smaller or larger than the size of the driven patch, respectively. After that, the equivalent magnetic currents and electric fields of the two‐element antenna are formed to provide physical insight into the working principle and radiation performance of the antenna. With these arrangements, an array of four patch elements including one driver, one director, and two reflectors are selected for the antenna design. Unlike the traditional microstrip Yagi operating with the TM10 mode, all the patch elements involved in this design resonate with the TM20 mode, thus effectively enhancing the tilted beam angle toward the desired end‐fire direction on an infinite ground. Finally, the proposed antenna is designed, fabricated and tested. The measured results show that its impedance bandwidth is maintained at approximately 3.3%, ranging from 4.76 to 4.92 GHz. Most importantly, the maximum deviation angle of the antenna is significantly improved to approximately 58° from the broadside direction at the center frequency (4.84 GHz), while maintaining a low profile and compact size.
Developing a scale to measure employee service quality in Indian SMEs

Article history: Received: November 26, 2017 Received in revised format: January 31, 2018 Accepted: March 30, 2018 Available online: March 30, 2018 The objective of the present study is to bring out a multidimensional metric to measure service quality delivered by employees serving in Indian small & medium manufacturing enterprises. 144 executives working at top/middle level in different small-medium manufacturing units of north India responded to a questionnaire survey. The respondents were asked to assess service quality being delivered by the shop-floor workers serving their respective units on the 1-5 perception scale. Application of exploratory factor analysis resulted in an interpretable latent structure comprising of 5 determinants and 22 indicator items. Confirmatory factor analysis condensed this scale to bring out the final scale 4 determinants viz., Dependability, Agility, Professionalism and Understanding with 13 indicator statements. This scale thus emerged is tested for validity and reliability using established tools. The study provides a framework to SME managers to assess services of their workforce. It also contributes to researchers to build up more such metrics for similar situations in other sectors so that more concrete generalizations can be made. © 2018 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada
Social interaction between robots, avatars & humans

With the recent development of the field of social robotics and in particular the need to negotiate explicit social interaction and behaviour between both socially capable robots and between robots and humans, this work presents the development of a framework which supports coherent social interaction between real and artificial systems. The social robot architecture is implemented in conjunction with the virtual robotic workbench, a cohesive framework which integrates physical robots, virtual robot avatars and humans in a shared social space.
Liquid cell management for reducing energy consumption expenses in hybrid energy powered cellular networks

To reduce the fossil energy consumption and the operational expenses, the hybrid energy powered cellular network (HybENet) with BSs powered by on-grid or renewable energy is studied. To minimize the total expenses of energy consumption (EEC) and guarantee the quality of service of HybENet, a liquid cell management algorithm, which adaptively and cooperatively adjusts the service coverage of BSs according to the actual load, is proposed. Specifically, the problem of minimizing the total EEC under constraints of the fluctuating arrivals of the renewable energy and the QoS is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem. Then, we prove that the problem can be decomposed into two sub-problems: 1) the mean of per-link energy minimization problem, from which the closed expression of power allocation is derived; 2) the traffic block assignment problem, which is solved by ant colony optimization. Simulation results show that the total EEC can be effectively reduced.
A face recognition algorithm based on LLE-SIFT feature descriptors

Scale Invariant Feature Transform(SIFT) could influence the real time due to a higher dimension calculation and a longer computation time in large-scale data storage and computing. This paper presents a concept about LLE-SIFT feature descriptors with LLE algorithm. The first step is to calculate feature points of all train images by the standard SIFT algorithm, and searching the neighbor area of these points in the original image, then calculating the gradient of the horizontal direction and the vertical direction to form a vector matrix, whose dimension is reduced by LLE algorithm to obtain a projection matrix. The second step is to obtain the neighbor area using the critical information of points in the scale image, and calculating the horizontal direction and the vertical direction of the neighbors area to form a vector matrix, then the LLE-SIFT feature descriptor is the multiplied of the vector matrix and the projection matrix. Experiments shows that LLE-SIFT is effective.
Feeling better or worse? The lived experience of non-suicidal self-injury among Malaysian University students

ABSTRACT This article explores subjective experiences related to non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) through a qualitative analysis of interviews with 7 Malaysian university students who had recently engaged in NSSI. Participants discussed their feelings, motivations, and experiences related to self-injury in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to identify shared themes across participants’ accounts of their involvement with non-suicidal self-injury. Four major themes were identified: (a) Emotion dysregulation, (b) NSSI as emotion regulation strategy, (c) Negative self-perceptions, and (d) Struggling with the adverse consequences of self-injury. Implications of these findings for the support and treatment of those engaging in non-suicidal self-injury are discussed.
Towards a many-core architecture for HPC

Many-core architectures are a current avenue of research, seeking alternative higher efficiency computing, and HPC is one domain which may benefit most from such a model. While at an initial prototyping stage we present here the design of a MIMD many-core processor, Fynbos and, considering the problems of programmability, an autoparallelising Fortran pipeline. Our initial operating results demonstrate functionality, and the effectiveness of the compiler as the system efficiency increases with problem size in a test case multi-body simulation. The test case also serves to highlight system weaknesses. We conclude that the demonstration offers sufficient motivation for the future work discussed.
Quantitative Analysis of Shared Workspace Usability

In this paper we propose a discount analytical approach for quantitatively evaluating shared workspace usability. We started with existing models of human performance, developed in the Human-Computer Interaction field and thus focused on single user interactions, and studied the benefits of extending them to collaborative scenarios. The obtained results indicate that the proposed approach: (1) facilitates the fine-grained analysis of intensive concerted work scenarios; (2) provides quantitative estimates of collaborative actions performed in shared workspaces; and (3) affords comparing alternative design decisions, using shared workspace usability metrics derived from the aforementioned quantitative estimates.
An Efﬁcient WordNet-Based Summarizer for Large Text Documents

The current information overload problem has called for the need to develop an automatic text summarization system. This paper presents an efﬁcient sentence-based extraction summarizer which can be used for the above purpose. Lexical chains were used as a basis and knowledge resources such as WordNet and a sentence boundary disambiguation tool were integrated to the system for better performance. Three different summary extraction heuristics were used and compared. An intrinsic evaluation which involved the comparison of our summarizer with a commercial product to the human written abstracts was performed. The results obtained have been encouraging, and it is found that our system favors the human judgement than the other system. The algorithm used in this paper demonstrated a linear runtime behavior. This not only suggests a positive position in the scalability of our system but also its potentiality in handling documents of longer length.
Active Zones on Motor Nerve Terminals Contain α3β1 Integrin

Active zones are the sites along nerve terminals where synaptic vesicles dock and undergo calcium-dependent exocytosis during synaptic transmission. Here we show, by immunofluorescent staining with antibodies generated against Xenopus laevis integrins, that α3β1 integrin is concentrated at the active zones ofXenopus motor nerve terminals. Because integrins can link extracellular matrix molecules to cytoskeletal elements and participate in the formation of signaling complexes, the localization of integrin at active zones suggests that it may play a role in the adhesion of the nerve terminals to the synaptic basal lamina, in the formation and maintenance of active zones, and in some of the events associated with calcium-dependent exocytosis of neurotransmitter. Our findings also indicate that the integrin composition of the terminal Schwann cells differs from that of the motor nerve terminals, and this may account at least in part for differences in their adhesiveness to the synaptic basal lamina.
Optimal Design of Pilot Proportional Relief Valve's Structural Parameters in Giant Forging Hydraulic Press

Pilot proportional relief valve is an important component in synchronization control system of the giant forging hydraulic press, through the establishment of mathematical models and simulation analysis of the valve, and optimized design its structural parameters, in order to improve the performance of the valve's dynamic response, so that the synchronization control system to achieve high response speed, high precision synchronous control purposes.
Putting logic-based distributed systems on stable grounds

Abstract In the Declarative Networking paradigm, Datalog-like languages are used to express distributed computations. Whereas recently formal operational semantics for these languages have been developed, a corresponding declarative semantics has been lacking so far. The challenge is to capture precisely the amount of nondeterminism that is inherent to distributed computations due to concurrency, networking delays, and asynchronous communication. This paper shows how a declarative, model-based semantics can be obtained by simply using the well-known stable model semantics for Datalog with negation. We show that the model-based semantics matches previously proposed formal operational semantics.