Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Atomistic-to-Continuum Couplings without Ghost Forces in Three Dimensions

In this paper, we construct energy-based numerical methods free of ghost forces in three-dimensional lattices arising in crystalline materials modeled by pair interaction potentials. The analysis hinges on establishing a connection of the coupled system to conforming finite elements. Key ingredients are: (i) a new representation of discrete derivatives related to long range interactions of atoms as volume integrals of gradients of piecewise linear functions over bond volumes, and (ii) the construction of an underlying globally continuous function representing the coupled modeling method.
Evaluation of Vaginal Cysts and Masses by 3‐Dimensional Endovaginal and Endoanal Sonography

The purpose of this pictorial essay is to describe the utility of 3‐dimensional endovaginal and endoanal sonography in the assessment of vulvovaginal cysts and masses. It is accepted that compared with transabdominal pelvic sonography, transvaginal end‐fire sonography provides improved resolution for visualization of female reproductive organs with fewer artifacts. To visualize the structures that are located in or lateral to the vaginal canal, side‐fire 3‐dimensional endovaginal or endoanal sonography can be used. This special technique has the advantage of maintaining the spatial anatomic relationship of any abnormality in the vagina.
ISSUES IN IT GOVERNANCE & IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT - A Study of their adoption in Australian Universities

IT service management (ITSM) has emerged as one of the approaches to implementing IT Governance in Australian Universities. A number of ITSM frameworks have been proposed however, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Control OBjectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) have been most widely accepted and implemented internationally and within Australia. The research reported in this thesis was undertaken to shed light on the issues related to ITIL adoption and implementation within Australian universities. To date academic research in ITIL adoption and implementation has not been extensive as it is comparatively a new framework, especially within Australian universities. The theoretical framework proposed in this thesis has IT service management as the central concept, implementing IT Governance to align the university and technology. This framework is used to examine the experience of ITIL adoption in seven Australian universities, plus a detailed case study on one university’s experience. This research reveals a complex web of factors relating to ITIL implementation including; the pre-implementation process; processes implemented; order of implementation; hiring external expertise;, tool selection;, staff training; ongoing assessments; managing cultural change; managing learning curve and resource strain. The findings provide an insight into practical lessons for other Australian universities or similar organisations considering implementing IT Governance through IT Service management frameworks. The method used in this research may be useful for other organisations and researchers analysing universities and similar organisations implementing ITIL. IT Governance and IT service management frameworks are diverse and important areas which open a poorly researched field for further work.
CexE Is a Coat Protein and Virulence Factor of Diarrheagenic Pathogens

CexE is a 12 kDa protein that was originally reported to be present in just three strains of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC); a frequent cause of diarrheal illnesses worldwide. However, an examination of sequenced genomes has revealed that CexE is actually present in a majority of ETEC strains. In addition, homologs of CexE are present in enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC), Yersinia enterocolitica, Providencia alcalifaciens, and Citrobacter rodentium. Although it has been hypothesized that CexE and its homologs are virulence factors, this has yet to be tested. Thus the primary aim of this study was to determine if these proteins contribute to pathogenicity. Our secondary aim was determine if they are secreted coat proteins. Here we report that all neonatal mice infected with a wild-type strain of C. rodentium perished. In contrast a cexE mutant was significantly attenuated with 45% neonate survival. In adult mice the wild-type strain reached significantly higher loads in the large intestines and were shed in greater numbers than cexE mutants. Secretion of the CexE homolog in EAEC is dependent upon an atypical Type I secretion system that accepts its client from the periplasm rather than the cytoplasm. Insertion mutants of cexC, the putative ATPase of the CexE secretion system, were attenuated in our murine model. In vitro we found that CexC is required for the secretion of CexE to the outer membranes of both ETEC and C. rodentium. Secretion is not constitutive because CexE accumulates in the periplasm when the two pathogens are cultured under noninducing conditions. Although secretion conditions differ between ETEC and C. rodentium, secreted CexE remains predominantly associated with the outer membranes of both species. In aggregate these findings demonstrate that CexE is a secreted coat protein and virulence factor that promotes colonization of host intestinal tissues by enteric pathogens.
A System-call Behavior Language System for Malware Detection Using A Sensitivity-based LSTM Model

With the increasing number and variety of malware, it is imperative to design behavior analysis system to detect them. In this paper, we propose a sensitivity-based LSTM model to design a System-call Behavioral Language (SBL) system for malware detection. The behavior of software can be represented by a System-call sequence. Each System-call has different sensitivity which is related with the resource it handles and so should be paid different attention. The model we designed in SBL system consists of two parts: behavior language learning and sensitivity-based attention calculation. Our model obtains the AUC values of 0.99 on the test dataset, and 0.93 on the unknown dataset which is 0.15 higher than KNN and 0.02 higher than Random Forest. Especially, our model achieves 78% specificity on the unknown attack dataset, while the classic language model can only reach 66%.
Design and Optimization of a Superconducting Contiguous Diplexer Comprising Doubly Terminated Filters

This paper presents a simple and efficient method for the design of a microstrip contiguous diplexer comprising doubly terminated filters. The equivalent circuit for the channel filters is presented, which can accurately represent both the in-band and out-of-band characteristics of the channel filters. By analyzing and properly adjusting the input impedance of the channel filters, the equivalent circuit of the diplexer can be easily optimized. A high-temperature superconducting diplexer at S-band is successfully designed with this method and fabricated on a MgO substrate with a compact size of 32.6 mm × 18 mm. The measured results show high performance and agree well with the simulations.
An Empirical Study of Customer Value, Customer Trust and CustomerLoyalty Based on E-Commerce

In today’s business world, computers are connected to the broadband wide area network (WAN), allowing businesses to integrate industrial value chains and provide customers with various value-added services. Consequently, the virtual community of a public service network can be created and marketing channels in e-generation can be established to provide customers with relevant information or commodities and services through the use of highspeed transmission systems and interactive delivery. However, if e-commerce operators are not fully aware of the characteristics of e-generation consumers, if website operators lack the necessary competitive edge, or if the Internetbased transaction mechanism is not secure, consumers may not be attracted to or continue their interest in online shopping. In the Internet world of e-commerce, it is difficult to fully grasp the changes in customer demands along with the gradual opening of information on the web. To be profitable, it is more important to obtain the value created by loyal customers for businesses in addition to a wide range of online visitors. By integrating the analyses of e-commerce with 244 questionnaires and validating the data with statistical analysis methods, this study provides e-commerce business owners with suggestions on marketing strategies and proposes future directions for subsequent research based on the research findings.
Malaria toxins: effects on murine spleen and bone marrow cell proliferation and cytokine production in vitro

The ability of deproteinated malaria exoantigens from Plasmodium falciparum (Pf-MT) and P. berghei ANKA (PbA-MT) to activate murine haematopoietic cells was analysed in vitro. Malaria toxins (MT) of both plasmodium species induced cell proliferation and the production of IFN-γ in overnight and long-term (5 days) spleen and bone marrow cultures and a reduction of the number of TNF-α spot forming cells (SFC). When added to cells of malaria-experienced animals, MT decreased the number of IL-4 SPC and increased the number of IL-5 SPC. However, the same proliferative and IFN-γ induction properties as in naive cells were observed. Simultaneous addition of IL-2 and PbA-MT to spleen cells inhibited the proliferation but increased the IFN-γ production usually induced by IL-2. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that the addition of MT triggered an expansion of CD3+ and GR1+ cell populations. Our results suggest that malaria toxins of different species can induce an immediate and strong proliferation and a TH1-type cytokine release by murine cells, independently of previous in vivo priming.
Life events and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo: A case-controlled study

Conclusions. Within the poorly understood mechanisms implicated in the aetiology of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), the results of this trial provide clinical evidence of a potential role of emotional stress connected to adverse life events as a trigger of otoconial dysfunction. High levels of anxiety, depression and somatization were recorded and considered psychogenic precursors of BPPV, thus emphasizing the role of psychological distress in precipitating peripheral vestibular disorders. Therefore, appraisal of life stress and psychological attitudes may have potential implications in the clinical assessment of this labyrinthine vertigo and its frequent relapses. Objectives. BPPV is one of the most common peripheral vestibular disorders, and although it has been the subject of several studies and debates, its aetiology still remains unknown in most cases. Because it has been shown that emotional stress is related to the onset or worsening of other inner ear dysfunctions such as Ménière's disease and sudden hearing loss, this study investigated the hypothesis that life events, mood and psychological attitudes may have a causal relationship with BPPV. Patients and methods. Fifty patients (40 females and 10 men; mean age 43.5±10.1 years, range 30–65 years) were recruited and compared with 50 healthy volunteers matched for sex, age and socio-demographc variables. Patients were selected among dizzy patients who were referred to the ENT Clinic of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia from the emergency unit with a primary diagnosis of ‘positional vertigo’ and enrolled in the study only if they had a paroxysmal positional nystagmus as diagnosed by Dix-Hallpike and Semont's manoeuvres. Patients with a history of recurrent vertigo and additional otoneurological diseases were excluded. The Paykel Life Events Scale, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Symptom Check List-90 Revisited and Hamilton Depression Scale were the psychometric questionnaires used to complete the audiological and vestibular examinations. Results: Patients with BPPV reported significantly more life events than control subjects in the year preceding the onset of vertigo (p<0.005). Negative life events, objective negative impact and a poor degree of control were also significantly more frequent in patients compared with controls (p<0.005). There were no significant differences between groups concerning positive life events (p>0.05). Psychometric questionnaires recorded significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression and somatization in the pathological sample (p<0.005), as well as an increased obsessive-compulsive attitude (p<0.05).
Collaboration and Commitment in a Regional Supermarket Supply Chain

This article presents findings from a longitudinal case study of efforts by a 100-store regional grocery store chain to localize its supply of fresh produce. The study was conducted to better understand the development of collaborative supply chains between farmers and grocery stores, and the broader potential that grocery store chains might play in localizing food systems. Data consists of three years of the chain's local produce purchases via direct-store-delivery from farms to stores; a survey of store managers and farmer-vendors; and interviews with farmers and grocery store and chain-level management. Analysis is structured by a conceptual framework that links collaboration to trust, which undergirds mutual commitment and mutual dependency between supply chain members, and which is dependent upon effective communication and positive prior market exchanges. The study finds that organizational structures constraining single-store autonomy in purchasing and pricing, coupled with supply variability from farms, limits trust-building and the establishment of mutual commitments and dependencies. These constraints, however, do not completely exclude direct-store-delivery as a strategy for food system localization and grower market diversification. Practitioners can support the building of collaborative supply chains through capacity-building and shepherding of early market exchanges between growers and stores, and supporting individual growers or groups of growers to become "preferred vendors" for regional grocery chains.
Primary marine aerosol‐cloud interactions off the coast of California

Primary marine aerosol (PMA)‐cloud interactions off the coast of California were investigated using observations of marine aerosol, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), and stratocumulus clouds during the Eastern Pacific Emitted Aerosol Cloud Experiment (E‐PEACE) and the Stratocumulus Observations of Los‐Angeles Emissions Derived Aerosol‐Droplets (SOLEDAD) studies. Based on recently reported measurements of PMA size distributions, a constrained lognormal‐mode‐fitting procedure was devised to isolate PMA number size distributions from total aerosol size distributions and applied to E‐PEACE measurements. During the 12 day E‐PEACE cruise on the R/V Point Sur, PMA typically contributed less than 15% of total particle concentrations. PMA number concentrations averaged 12 cm−3 during a relatively calmer period (average wind speed 12 m/s1) lasting 8 days, and 71 cm−3 during a period of higher wind speeds (average 16 m/s1) lasting 5 days. On average, PMA contributed less than 10% of total CCN at supersaturations up to 0.9% during the calmer period; however, during the higher wind speed period, PMA comprised 5–63% of CCN (average 16–28%) at supersaturations less than 0.3%. Sea salt was measured directly in the dried residuals of cloud droplets during the SOLEDAD study. The mass fractions of sea salt in the residuals averaged 12 to 24% during three cloud events. Comparing the marine stratocumulus clouds sampled in the two campaigns, measured peak supersaturations were 0.2 ± 0.04% during E‐PEACE and 0.05–0.1% during SOLEDAD. The available measurements show that cloud droplet number concentrations increased with >100 nm particles in E‐PEACE but decreased in the three SOLEDAD cloud events.
Addressing obesity in the dental setting: What can be learned from oral health care professionals' efforts to screen for medical conditions

PURPOSE This scoping review focused on what can be learned from oral health professionals' (OHCPs) efforts to provide screenings for medical conditions in the dental setting that could guide strategies for addressing childhood obesity. METHODS PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Grey Literature, and CINAHL were searched (limitation English language). Search terms covered OHCPs and various oral systemic conditions of interest (details provided in the paper. Nineteen unduplicated, relevant articles were categorized based on relationship to question. RESULTS Screening for diabetes and heart disease risk in the dental setting has been shown to be effective and patients and providers are willing to participate, although not yet routinely implemented. Screening/counseling for tobacco-cessation has been shown to be effective, but few (<10 percent) OHCPs provided this activity or received tobacco cessation training. For obesity screening/counseling, the majority of dentists (82 percent) reported they would be more willing to offer this service if obesity were directly related to oral disease. The one healthy weight intervention pilot study was well received by caregivers/patients and resulted in improved food choices. Successful implementation included a dedicated staff member, the dental hygienist. Lack of adequate training was a commonly reported barrier for all of these conditions; in addition, for obesity screening/counseling fear of appearing judgmental, and fear of patient rejection were also commonly reported. CONCLUSIONS Systematic studies are needed building on existing literature and exploring best implementation practices. Enhanced training is needed on relationship of oral health and systemic health and OHCPs' role.
ADP-mimicking Platelet Aggregation Caused by Rugosin E, an Ellagitannin Isolated from Rosa rugosa Thunb

Summary Among the nine ellagitannins, rugosin E was the most potent platelet aggregating agent with an EC50 of 1.5 ± 0.1 µM in rabbit platelets and 3.2 ±0.1 µM in human platelets. The aggregations caused by rugosin E and ADP were inhibited by EGTA, PGE1, mepacrine, sodium nitroprusside and neomycin, but not by indomethacin, verapamil, TMB-8, BN52021 and GR32191B. Rugosin E-induced thromboxane formation was suppressed by indomethacin, EGTA, PGE,, verapamil, mepacrine, TMB-8 and neomycin. ADP-scavenging agents, such as CP/CPK and apyrase inhibited concentration-dependently ADP (20 εM)-, but not rugosin E (5 εM)-induced platelet aggregation. In thrombin (0.1 U/ml)-treated and degranulated platelets, rugosin E and ADP still caused 63.5 ± 3.0% and 61.2 ± 3.5% of platelet aggregation, respectively. Selective ADP receptor antagonists, ATP and FSBA inhibited rugosin E- and ADP-induced platelet aggregations in a concentration-dependent manner. Both rugosin E and ADP did not induce platelet aggregation in ADP (1 mM)-desensitized platelets. In contrast to ADP, rugosin E did not decrease cAMP formation in washed rabbit platelets. Both rugosin E and ADP did not cause phosphoinositide breakdown in [3H]myo-inositol-labeled rabbit platelets. In fura-2/AM- load platelets, both rugosin E and ADP induced increase in intracellular calcium concentration and these responses were inhibited by ATP and PGEj. All these data suggest that rugosin E may be an ADP receptor agonist in rabbit platelets.
Virus attenuation and identification of structural proteins of vaccinia virus that are selectively modified during virus persistence

To investigate the genetic stability of vaccinia virus DNA, we have tested whether alterations occurred in the polypeptide composition of this complex virus during persistent infections. We found that variants isolated at various passages in Friend erythroleukemia cells persistently infected with vaccinia virus contained, in addition to an 8-megadalton (MDa) deletion on the left terminus of the viral genome, major alterations in the sizes of three structural proteins with molecular masses of about 39, 21, and 14 kDa. Alterations in isoelectric points were also observed in proteins of 48, 27, and 14 kDa. The 14-kDa protein is part of the virus envelope, and the variants increased the size of this protein from 0.5 to 3 kDa with increasing passage number. Alteration in size of the 14-kDa protein is a dominant trait since it appeared in the whole virus population by passage 48. With more passages, some variants were found to increase or decrease the size of a 39-kDa core protein by about 2 kDa and to decrease the size of an envelope protein of 21 kDa by about 2 kDa. These three proteins were immunogenic in mice and elicited a strong host immune response. Major alterations in the sizes of these proteins were prevented by continuous treatment of the persistently infected cultures with interferon. However, after interferon was removed, protein modifications appeared with increasing passage number. Generation of the 8-MDa deletion and alterations in the size of the 14-kDa protein correlated with a marked decrease in virulence of these variants. Our findings suggest that during virus persistence, specific mutations are introduced in the vaccinia virus genome that lead to protein alterations and to highly attenuated viruses.
Estimates of Water-Column Nutrient Concentrations and Carbonate System Parameters in the Global Ocean: A Novel Approach Based on Neural Networks

A neural network-based method (CANYON: CArbonate system and Nutrients concentration from hYdrological properties and Oxygen using a Neural-network) was developed to estimate water-column biogeochemically relevant variables in the Global Ocean. These are the concentrations of 3 nutrients [nitrate (NO3−), phosphate (PO43−) and silicate (Si(OH)4)] and 4 carbonate system parameters [total alkalinity (AT), dissolved inorganic carbon (CT), pH (pHT) and partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2)], which are estimated from concurrent in situ measurements of temperature, salinity, hydrostatic pressure and oxygen (O2) together with sampling latitude, longitude and date. Seven neural-networks were developed using the GLODAPv2 database, which is largely representative of the diversity of open-ocean conditions, hence making CANYON potentially applicable to most oceanic environments. For each variable, CANYON was trained using 80 % randomly chosen data from the whole database (after eight 10° x 10° zones removed providing an “independent data-set” for additional validation), the remaining 20 % data were used for the neural-network test of validation. Overall, CANYON retrieved the variables with high accuracies (RMSE): 0.93 mol kg-1 (NO3−), 0.07 mol kg-1 (PO43-), 3.0 mol kg-1 (Si(OH)4), 0.019 (pHT), 7 mol kg-1 (AT), 10 mol kg-1 (CT) and 28 atm (pCO2). This was confirmed for the 8 independent zones not included in the training process. CANYON was also applied to the Hawaiian Time Series site to produce a 22-years long simulated time series for the above 7 variables. Comparison of modeled and measured data was also very satisfactory (RMSE in the order of magnitude of RMSE from validation test). CANYON is thus a promising method to derive distributions of key biogeochemical variables. It could be used for a variety of global and regional applications ranging from data quality control to the production of datasets of variables required for initialization and validation of biogeochemical models but difficult to obtain. In particular, combining the increased coverage of the global Biogeochemical-Argo program, where O2 is one of the core variables now very accurately measured, with the CANYON approach offers the fascinating perspective of obtaining large-scale estimates of key biogeochemical variables with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions.