Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Study on Network Analyzer Self-Calibration Using an Arbitrary Device

This paper studies the feasibility of calibrating a vector network analyzer with an arbitrary device serving as a calibration standard. The short-open-load-reciprocal and thru-attenuator-network (TAN) procedures are, respectively, extended to develop short-open-load-device and thru-attenuator-device algorithms. The developed algorithms eliminate the limitations and broaden the applicable range of the thru-open-load-reciprocal and TAN procedures by using the device under test as a transfer standard. To benchmark the developed algorithms against the thru-reflect-line algorithm, experiments are conducted with a nonreciprocal device having theoretically symmetrical reflections. Results of the experiments verify the applicability of the developed algorithms.
Persistence of Viruses in Desert Soils Amended with Anaerobically Digested Sewage Sludge

Pima County, Ariz. , is currently investigating the potential benefits of land application of sewage sludge. To assess risks associated with the presence of pathogenic enteric viruses present in the sludge, laboratory studies were conducted to measure the inactivation rate (k = log10 reduction per day) of poliovirus type 1 and bacteriophages MS2 and PRD-1 in two sludge-amended desert agricultural soils (Brazito Sandy Loam and Pima Clay Loam). Under constant moisture (approximately -0.05 × 105 Pa for both soils) and temperatures of 15, 27, and 40°C, the main factors controlling the inactivation of these viruses were soil temperature and texture. As the temperature increased from 15 to 40°C, the inactivation rate increased significantly for poliovirus and MS2, whereas, for PRD-1, a significant increase in the inactivation rate was observed only at 40°C. Clay loam soils afforded more protection to all three viruses than sandy soils. At 15°C, the inactivation rate for MS2 ranged from 0.366 to 0.394 log10 reduction per day in clay loam and sandy loam soils, respectively. At 27°C, this rate increased to 0.629 log10 reduction per day in clay loam soil and to 0.652 in sandy loam soil. A similar trend was observed for poliovirus at 15°C (k = 0.064 log10 reduction per day, clay loam; k = 0.095 log10 reduction per day, sandy loam) and 27°C (k = 0.133 log10 reduction per day, clay loam; k = 0.154 log10 reduction per day, sandy loam). Neither MS2 nor poliovirus was recovered after 24 h at 40°C. No reduction of PRD-1 was observed after 28 days at 15°C and after 16 days at 27°C. At 40°C, the inactivation rates were 0.208 log10 reduction per day in amended clay loam soil and 0.282 log10 reduction per day in sandy loam soil. Evaporation to less than 5% soil moisture completely inactivated all three viruses within 7 days at 15°C, within 3 days at 27°C, and within 2 days at 40°C regardless of soil type. This suggests that a combination of high soil temperature and rapid loss of soil moisture will significantly reduce risks caused by viruses in sludge.
Business to Business Relationship in Tourism Supply Chain of Rural Green Tourism Destination: Case of Pinge Village and Nyambu Village, Tabanan Regency, Bali Province, Indonesia

The concept of Tourism Supply Chain (TSC) has become a concern of tourism firms to enhance their competitive advantage. Tourism firms nurture their relationships with tourism organizations supplying different products and services to satisfy their customers. This is also applied by urban green tourism destination in this case refer to tourism village. The purpose of this paper is to explore the business to business relationship in Tourism Supply Chain of tourism village particularly firms that involve in providing attraction, accommodation and amenities (3 A’s) as the main components of a tourism village. The research was took place in two tourism villages that are Pinge village and Nyambu village located in Tabanan Regency, Bali Province, Indonesia. Those two villages was chosen based on the reason that each of them has different size and popularity. The data collection methods used are in-depth interview, direct observation and documentation review. Data is analyzed using Miles and Huberman method comprising of data reduction, data display, conclusion drawing and verification. The findings reveal that in Pinge the relationship among 3 A’s tourism firms are strong and well organized. On the other hand in Nyambu, the relationships are weak and very loose. The recommendation for future research is to link the business to business relationships among 3 A’s tourism firms with the concept of sustainability or green marketing tourism that are people, economy and environment. Keywords—business to business, tourism supply chain, tourism village, trust, commitment, communication
Correlation-Assisted Imbalance Multimedia Concept Mining and Retrieval

In the past decades, we have witnessed an explosion of multimedia data, especially with the development of social media websites and blooming popularity of smart devices. As a result, multimedia semantic concept mining and retrieval whose objective is to mine useful information from the large amount of multimedia data including texts, images, and videos has become more and more important. The huge amount of multimedia data and the semantic gap between low-level features and high-level semantic concepts have made it even more challenging. To address these challenges, the correlations among the classes can provide important context cues to help bridge the semantic gap. Meanwhile, many real-world datasets do not have uniform class distributions while the minority instances actually represent the concept of interests, like frauds in transactions, intrusions in network security, and unusual events in surveillance. Despite extensive research efforts, imbalanced concept retrieval remains one of the most challenging research problems in multimedia data mining. Different from existing frameworks regarding concept correlations among labels, this paper presents a novel concept correlation analysis model using the correlation between the retrieval scores and labels. Experimental results on the TRECVID benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed framework can enhance imbalanced concept mining and retrieval even with trivial scores from the minority class.
Hidden Markov model-based predictive maintenance in semiconductor manufacturing: A genetic algorithm approach

The accuracy of data-mining based predictive maintenance often relies on extensive process and machine knowledge to enable appropriate feature selection and data preprocessing. Measurement data obtained may be asynchronous and result in inaccurate features, affecting the accuracy of maintenance prediction. To overcome this drawback, this paper introduces an approach to automatically select a feature subset through a genetic algorithm. The full feature set is created based on different sliding windows characterizing different time shifts on adopted statistical metrics of the measurement data. The fitness function of the genetic algorithm is then developed based on the preliminary fitting of a hidden Markov model (HMM) on the selected subset of features and assumed machines' condition in the training data. Ultimately the fittest subset of features is used to enable HMM-based predictive maintenance. The proposed approach is evaluated using data from semi-conductor wafer production equipment, recorded over a period of one year.
Arabic hand-written text-line extraction

This paper describes a text-line extraction based method. The typical segmentation for a printed binary document is based on the horizontal projection analysis and then the regrouping of the connected components. These techniques can't be used for handwritten unconstrained text because data frequently contain undulations and shifts in the baseline, baseline-skew variability and inter-line distance variability. So, we think that the border line for a handwritten unconstrained documents should be a collection of horizontal line segments. From this point of view, we use a partial contour following based method to detect the separating lines. In the current version of our algorithm, we proceed to text slant detection, text line number evaluation by using partial projection. Then we carry out a partial contour following of every line; first in the direction of the writing, then in the opposite direction. After the treatment, the adjacent lines are separated. In the experimental session, we describe the application of the algorithm used for the extraction of text line. Database images contains about one hundred handwritten Arabic texts written by different writers. Results about diacritical points affectation are also reported.
Zoon’s balanitis with mucinous metaplasia: A case report and review of literature

Mucinous metaplasia of the squamous epithelium of the glans penis is very rarely seen in the setting of Zoon’s balanitis. We report a case of 40 year old male with a past medical history of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, status-post allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation from an HLA-matched sibling 6 years prior to evaluation, complicated by oral and cutaneous chronic graft-versus-host disease. Mucinous metaplasia was confirmed by PAS and Mucin stains, and plasmacytosis was confirmed by immunohistochemistry for CD138 and MUM1 markers. Kappa and Lambda immunostains revealed a polyclonal pattern. The etiology of zoon’s balanitis as well as the significance of mucinous metaplasia in these setting are unclear and need to be further investigated.
Disentangling the psychological effects of luxury fashion brands on social capital and WOM

Extrinsic goals of human lives are to become famous and be admired along with having attractive appearance (Kasser & Ryan, 1996). Individuals desire to be accepted by others and be a part of social group (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). Such social capital -related questions have never been fully investigated in luxury consumption studies. With the prevalence of luxury usage, it is worth considering whether luxury brands make people more connected. Despite the numerous studies on luxury brands, there is a lack of research that addresses the critical issue of how luxury consumption influences social capital of individuals and their wordof-mouth behaviour. We aim to answer the following research questions: what and how do determinants collectively affect social capital of consumers and word-of-mouth by luxury consumption? Specifically, authenticity, creativity, and brand symbolism are proposed to affect social capital and word of mouth through body image, selfesteem and social identity.
Use and Assessment of E-Voting Systems: Findings from an Online-Survey
 among Swiss Nationals Living Abroad

Digitalization has led to an increase in electronic government services and democratic developments. One crucial aspect in the context of e-government for democracies consists of e-voting systems, which enable citizens to vote electronically. The Swiss government recently decided on the nationwide introduction of e-voting systems. One target group, which could particularly benefit from the introduction of e-voting systems, are Swiss nationals living abroad. However, the introduction of e-voting systems entails costs, thus an estimation of the willingness of Swiss nationals abroad to make use of the possibility of voting electronically is central to the introduction of e-voting systems. In November 2017, 596 Swiss citizens living abroad completed a questionnaire addressing their experience with and assessment of e-voting systems. Results yield a very high willingness to use e-voting among the respondents. Swiss nationals living abroad seem to perceive e-voting as being very useful and efficient. In addition, the findings show that concerns about data security seem to be of high importance for potential users of e-voting systems.
Notice of RetractionIn Silico Investigation of Interaction between Human Neutrophil Elastase and Sea Anemone Heteractis crispa Kunitz Polypeptides

Serine proteinase neutrophil elastase plays a principle role in inflammatory processes. Therefore, explanation of the selective elastase inhibitors action mechanisms attracts the great interest of the modern biomedicine and bioinformatics. Currently, there are many investigations devoted to search of polypeptide agents effectively suppressing the inflammatory process. Recent studies have shown that some Kunitz type serine proteinase inhibitors may render an anti-inflammatory effect. Here we represent model of complexes of sea anemone Heteractis crispa Kunitz polypeptides (HCPs) with human neutrophil elastase (HNE) and discuss driving forces of the enzyme-inhibitor interaction. Proposed models allow for the first time to clarify the molecular mechanism of these polypeptides anti-inflammatory action.
Gene Cloning, Purification, and Characterization of a Novel Peptidoglutaminase-Asparaginase from Aspergillus sojae

ABSTRACT Glutaminase is an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of l-glutamine to l-glutamate, and it plays an important role in the production of fermented foods by enhancing the umami taste. By using the genome sequence and expressed sequence tag data available for Aspergillus oryzae RIB40, we cloned a novel glutaminase gene (AsgahA) from Aspergillus sojae, which was similar to a previously described gene encoding a salt-tolerant, thermostable glutaminase of Cryptococcus nodaensis (CnGahA). The structural gene was 1,929 bp in length without introns and encoded a glutaminase, AsGahA, which shared 36% identity with CnGahA. The introduction of multiple copies of AsgahA into A. oryzae RIB40 resulted in the overexpression of glutaminase activity. AsGahA was subsequently purified from the overexpressing transformant and characterized. While AsGahA was located at the cell surface in submerged culture, it was secreted extracellularly in solid-state culture. The molecular mass of AsGahA was estimated to be 67 kDa and 135 kDa by SDS-PAGE and gel filtration chromatography, respectively, indicating that the native form of AsGahA was a dimer. The optimal pH of the enzyme was 9.5, and its optimal temperature was 50°C in sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). Analysis of substrate specificity revealed that AsGahA deamidated not only free l-glutamine and l-asparagine but also C-terminal glutaminyl or asparaginyl residues in peptides. Collectively, our results indicate that AsGahA is a novel peptidoglutaminase-asparaginase. Moreover, this is the first report to describe the gene cloning and purification of a peptidoglutaminase-asparaginase.
[Detection of anti-ENA and anti-dsDNA antibodies using line immunoassay in systemic autoimmune diseases].

BACKGROUND Detection of antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens (ENAs) and dsDNA is needed for the diagnosis of and predicting prognosis in systemic autoimmune diseases. Recently introduced line immunoassay (LIA) has the advantage of detecting several autoantibodies simultaneously, and we evaluated its usefulness in the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases in comparison with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). METHODS Samples were collected from 437 patients referred by rheumatologists. FANA (fluorescent antinuclear antibody) test and LIA for the detection of 13 different autoantibodies, including 6 ENAs and dsDNA were performed. LIA-positive samples for ENA or dsDNA antibodies were further tested with ELISA. Final diagnosis was made by rheumatologists according to the diagnostic criteria. Agreement of results between LIA and ELISA was analyzed in 53 selected patients with systemic autoimmune diseases. RESULTS The LIA detected antibodies to ENA and dsDNA in 118 and 22 patients, respectively, and ELISA detected 70.3% (83/118) and 45.5% (10/22) of LIA positive samples. Especially, 60.2% (71/118) of patients with positive ENA antibody on LIA was diagnosed as systemic autoimmune diseases. Patients having strong FANA titer and homogenous/speckled pattern showed higher prevalence of autoantibodies, but a small proportion of FANA negative patients also showed positive reactivity (LIA 10.8%, ELISA 5.2%). LIA showed a good agreement with ELISA for the anti-ENA antibodies (> or =80%), and a lower agreement for the anti-dsDNA antibody (67.9%). CONCLUSIONS LIA detecting several autoantibodies simultaneously might replace ELISA for anti-ENA antibodies, but not for anti-dsDNA antibodies. When LIA is performed considering clinical manifestations and FANA, it could contribute to the diagnosis of systemic autoimmune disease.
A Reliable 2T2MTJ Nonvolatile Static Gain Cell STT-MRAM With Self-Referencing Sensing Circuits for Embedded Memory Application

This paper presents a reliable nonvolatile static gain cell made of two transistors and two magneto-tunneling junctions (MTJs) for cache memory application. The wide distribution in the resistance of MTJs in parallel and anti-parallel states and the variations in the threshold voltage of gain cells are overcome by connecting two complementary MTJs and self-reference sensing circuits, respectively. An enhanced sensing margin and immunity to read disturbance are achieved by applying high voltage across the stacked complementary MTJs. The sensing margin of $8\sigma $ is assured after the Monte Carlo simulation using the measured parameters of the MTJ, including a tunneling magneto-resistance of 200%, a 5% distribution of resistance, and a 5% distribution of threshold voltage in the 65 nm standard CMOS process.
Cooperative Spectrum Allocation for Cognitive Radio Network: An Evolutionary Approach

Cooperative sharing of spectrum among one primary user (PU) and multiple secondary users (SUs) helps to enhance the throughput of the whole system. In this paper, we propose a two-tier game in the sharing of spectrum in which SUs make their decisions on whether to cooperate under replicator dynamics and the PU adjusts its strategy to allocate time slots for the cooperative SUs' transmission. Furthermore, we develop the distributed algorithm to describe the learning process of SUs, and prove that the dynamics can converge to the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) efficiently, which is actually the optimal strategies of both PU and SUs. Simulation results show that our proposed mechanism converges to ESS automatically, at which point all the SUs will remain their strategies. In addition, it is shown that this mechanism helps the SU to share information and gain higher transmission rate than fully cooperative or non-cooperatively scenario.
Articulation estimation and real-time tracking of human hand motions

This thesis deals with the problem of estimating and tracking the full articulation of human hands. Algorithmically recovering hand articulations is a challenging problem due to the hand’s high number of degrees of freedom and the complexity of its motions. Besides the accuracy and efficiency of the hand posture estimation, hand tracking methods are faced with issues such as invasiveness, ease of deployment and sensor artifacts. In this thesis several different hand tracking approaches are examined, including marker-based optical motion capture, data-driven discriminative visual tracking and generative tracking based on articulated registration, and various contributions to these areas are presented. The problem of optimally placing reduced marker sets on a performer’s hand for optical hand motion capture is explored. A method is proposed that automatically generates functional reduced marker layouts by optimizing for their numerical stability and geometric feasibility. A data-driven discriminative tracking approach based on matching the hand’s appearance in the sensor data with an image database is investigated. In addition to an efficient nearest neighbor search for images, a combination of discriminative initialization and generative refinement is employed. The method’s applicability is demonstrated in interactive robot teleoperation. Various real human hand motions are captured and statistically analyzed to derive low-dimensional representations of hand articulations. An adaptive hand posture subspace concept is developed and integrated into a generative real-time hand tracking approach that aligns a virtual hand model with sensor point clouds based on constrained inverse kinematics. Generative hand tracking is formulated as a regularized articulated registration process, in which geometrical model fitting is combined with statistical, kinematic and temporal regularization priors. A registration concept that combines 2D and 3D alignment and explicitly accounts for occlusions and visibility constraints is devised. High-quality, non-invasive, real-time hand tracking is achieved based on this regularized articulated registration formulation.
GnRH vaccine , GonaConTM , for prevention and treatment of drenocortical disease ( ACD ) in domestic ferrets

Adrenocortical disease (ACD) is a common problem in surgically sterilized, middle-aged to old ferrets (Mustela putorius furo). The adrenal tissues of these ferrets develop hyperplasia, adenomas, or adenocarcinomas, which produce steroid hormones including estradiol, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, and androstenedione. Major clinical signs attributable to overproduction of these hormones are alopecia (hair loss) in both sexes and a swollen vulva in females. Pruritus, muscle atrophy, hind limb weakness, and sexual activity or aggression are also observed in both sexes. Males can develop prostatic cysts, prostatitis, and urethral obstruction. ACD is thought to be linked to continuous and increased LH secretion, due to lack of gonadal hormone feedback in neutered ferrets. This continuous elevated LH acts on adrenal cortex LH receptors, resulting in adrenal hyperplasia or adrenal tumor. This study investigated whether the immunocontraceptive vaccine GonaConTM, a GnRH vaccine developed to reduce the fertility of wildlife species and the spread of disease, could prevent or delay onset of ACD and treat alopecia in ferrets with existing ACD. Results showed that GonaCon provided relief from ACD by causing production of antibodies to GnRH, probably suppressing production and/or release of LH. Treatment caused many ACD symptoms to disappear, allowing the ferrets to return to a normal life. The study also found that the probability of developing ACD was significantly reduced in ferrets treated with GonaCon when young (1–3 years old) compared to untreated control animals. GonaCon caused injection site reaction in some animals when administered as an intramuscular injection but caused few side effects when administered subcutaneously. Both intramuscular and subcutaneous vaccination resulted in similar levels of GnRH antibody titers. Subcutaneous vaccination with GonaCon is thus recommended to prevent the onset of ACD and as a possible treatment for ACD-signs in domestic ferrets. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Identifying Determinants of Organizational Development as the Key Developers of Employee Soft Skill

The purpose of this article is to identify the determinants of organizational development as the key developers of employee soft skills. Various studies have been taken where determinants of organizational development defining soft skills in employees are discussed. However, the current study is different in Pakistani industry context as the link was missing about the determinants of organizational development which in synchronized way help in developing soft skills in employees of firm. This research uses explanatory approach; incorporating secondary data extracted under the light of existing school of thoughts paired with quantification through data collected from respondents in Pakistani corporate sector. Hypotheses are tested using structural equation model (SEM) technique. Results This research showed an affirmative link between determinants of organizational development and development of soft skills in employees. Finally, the study proposes enriching insights on few missing links that can be researched and triggered achieving maximized outcomes.