Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Frequent and persistent, asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infections in African infants, characterized by multilocus genotyping.

To determine the duration and complexity of naturally acquired Plasmodium falciparum infections in small children, a longitudinal cohort study of 143 newborns was conducted in coastal Ghana. On average, children experienced 2 episodes of infection in their first 2 years of life, the median duration of an asymptomatic infection was <4 weeks, and estimates of the mean number of parasite genotypes per infection were 1.15-2.28. Nevertheless, 40% of the children experienced infections lasting </=12 weeks, and both the duration and complexity of infections increased with age. The longest period of continual infection was 64 weeks, and the maximum persistence of a single parasite genotype was 40 weeks. Thus, malaria infections in infants <5 months old tend to be asymptomatic and rapidly cleared; persistent asymptomatic parasitemia is more common in children >5 months old. The ability of very young children to clear or control malaria infections indicates the presence of effective innate or immune antiparasite mechanisms.
The Beat Alignment Test (BAT): Surveying beat processing abilities in the general population

The ability to perceive a musical beat (and move in synchrony with it) seems widespread, but we currently lack normative data on the distribution of this ability in musically untrained individuals. To aid in the survey of beat processing abilities in the general population, as well as to attempt to identify and differentiate impairments in beat processing, we have developed a psychophysical test called the Beat Alignment Test (BAT). The BAT is intended to complement existing tests of rhythm processing by directly examining beat perception in isolation from beat synchronization. The goals of the BAT are 1) to study the distribution of beat-based processing abilities in the normal population and 2) to provide a way to search for “rhythm deaf” individuals, who have trouble with beat processing in music though they are not tone deaf. The BAT is easily implemented and it is our hope that it is widely adopted. Data from a pilot study of 30 individuals is presented.
Progressive space frequency quantization for SAR data compression

The authors propose a new wavelet image coding technique for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data compression called a progressive space-frequency quantization (PSFQ). PSFQ performs spatial quantization via rate distortion-optimized zerotree pruning of wavelet coefficients that are coded using a progressive subband coding technique. They compared the performances of zerotree-based methods: EZW, SPIHT, SFQ, and PSFQ with the classical wavelet-based method (CWM), which uses uniform scalar quantization of subbands followed by recency rank coding. The performances of the methods based on zerotree quantization were better than the CWM in the rate distortion sense. The embedded coding techniques perform better SNR results than the methods using scalar quantization. However, the probability density function (PDF) of the reconstructed amplitude SAR data compressed using CWM, better corresponded to the PDF of the original data than the PDF of the reconstructed data compressed using the zerotree based methods. The amplitude PDF of the reconstructed data obtained using PSFQ compression algorithm better corresponded to the original PDF than the amplitude PDF of the data obtained using the multilook method.
PARTIAL MONADIC APPROACH IN PROCESS FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE

This paper is devoted to manipulating the state in process functional language (PFL) using monadic approach [13,19], preserving at the same time the visibility of memory cells. Instead of exploiting just pure functional expressions, as it is done in Haskell, balanced binding of functional and state aspects of computation in PFL using monads is presented. Monadic approach in PFL is partial in the sense that it may be exploited at any hierarchical level of computation, concentrating to the points in which state manipulation and pure functional evaluation are switched. From this point of view, this paper contributes to a systematic joining of function and state aspects of computation.
Wireless Information and Energy Transfer for Two-Hop Non-Regenerative MIMO-OFDM Relay Networks

This paper investigates the simultaneous wireless information and energy transfer for the non-regenerative multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) relaying system. By considering two practical receiver architectures, we present two protocols, time switching-based relaying (TSR) and power splitting-based relaying (PSR). To explore the system performance limits, we formulate two optimization problems to maximize the end-to-end achievable information rate with the full channel state information (CSI) assumption. Since both problems are non-convex and have no known solution method, we firstly derive some explicit results by theoretical analysis and then design effective algorithms for them. Numerical results show that the performances of both protocols are greatly affected by the relay position. Specifically, PSR and TSR show very different behaviors to the variation of relay position. The achievable information rate of PSR monotonically decreases when the relay moves from the source towards the destination, but for TSR, the performance is relatively worse when the relay is placed in the middle of the source and the destination. This is the first time such a phenomenon has been observed. In addition, it is also shown that PSR always outperforms TSR in such a MIMO-OFDM relaying system. Moreover, the effects of the number of antennas and the number of subcarriers are also discussed.
Implementing ERP systems in China

The paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of R/3 uses in China which was conducted in spring 2000. The broad purpose of the study has been to identify crucial implementation processes and context variables which warrant closer attention in the study of IT-enabled organizational change. Ownership characteristics, which display a great variety in China and thus can be studied in relatively greater detail here than elsewhere, are strongly associated with implementation process characteristics, and the association of ownership structures with implementation results is much less pronounced. In contrast, it emerged that project governance, specifically the role and decision making style of the steering committee, could be associated with a broad set of outcome variables after controlling for ownership and other important context factors.
Merge Path - Parallel Merging Made Simple

Merging two sorted arrays is a prominent building block for sorting and other functions. Its efficient parallelization requires balancing the load among compute cores, minimizing the extra work brought about by parallelization, and minimizing inter-thread synchronization requirements. Efficient use of memory is also important. We present a novel approach to partitioning the two sorted arrays into pairs of contiguous sequences of elements, one from each array, such that 1) each pair comprises any desired total number of elements, and 2) the elements of each pair form a contiguous sequence in the final merged sorted array. While the resulting partition and the computational complexity are similar to those of certain previous algorithms, our approach is different, extremely intuitive, and offers interesting insights. Based on this, we present a synchronization-free, cache-efficient merging (and sorting) algorithm. While we use CREW PRAM as the basis, our algorithm is easily adaptable to additional architectures. In fact, our approach is even relevant to sequential cache-efficient sorting. The algorithms and performance results are presented, along with important cache-related insights.
Genetics and immunity in the era of single-cell genomics

Recent developments in the field of single-cell genomics (SCG) are changing our understanding of how functional phenotypes of cell populations emerge from the behaviour of individual cells. Some of the applications of SCG include the discovery of new gene networks and novel cell subpopulations, fine mapping of transcription kinetics, and the relationships between cell clonality and their functional phenotypes. Immunology is one of the fields that is benefiting the most from such advancements, providing us with completely new insights into mammalian immunity. In this review, we start by covering new immunological insights originating from the use of single-cell genomic tools, specifically single-cell RNA-sequencing. Furthermore, we discuss how new genetic study designs are starting to explain inter-individual variation in the immune response. We conclude with a perspective on new multi-omics technologies capable of integrating several readouts from the same single cell and how such techniques might push our biological understanding of mammalian immunity to a new level.
Recent progress in synthetic biology for microbial production of C3–C10 alcohols

The growing need to address current energy and environmental problems has sparked an interest in developing improved biological methods to produce liquid fuels from renewable sources. While microbial ethanol production is well established, higher-chain alcohols possess chemical properties that are more similar to gasoline. Unfortunately, these alcohols (except 1-butanol) are not produced efficiently in natural microorganisms, and thus economical production in industrial volumes remains a challenge. Synthetic biology, however, offers additional tools to engineer synthetic pathways in user-friendly hosts to help increase titers and productivity of these advanced biofuels. This review concentrates on recent developments in synthetic biology to produce higher-chain alcohols as viable renewable replacements for traditional fuel.
A hands-on approach to high-dynamic-range and superresolution fusion

This paper discusses a new framework to enhance image and video quality. Recent advances in high-dynamic-range image fusion and superresolution make it possible to extend the intensity range or to increase the resolution of the image beyond the limitations of the sensor. In this paper, we propose a new way to combine both of these fusion methods in a two-stage scheme. To achieve robust image enhancement in practical application scenarios, we adapt state-of-the-art methods for automatic photometric camera calibration, controlled image acquisition, image fusion and tonemapping. With respect to high-dynamic-range reconstruction, we show that only two input images can sufficiently capture the dynamic range of the scene. The usefulness and performance of this system is demonstrated on images taken with various types of cameras.
Career Workshops as a Non‐Traditional Research Model for Enhanced Relationships between Higher Education and the Labour Market

Discussions surrounding the mismatch between labour market needs and graduate competences are timeworn but to date nothing much has been achieved. Solutions such as tracer studies, conferences, attachments and internships have been tried and have not yet brought satisfactory results. This paper contributes yet another strategy, career workshops. Though not commonly used, this approach can add significant impact because it provides a free flow of information and highly interactive learning experiences and can establish synergy between labour market needs and the needs of higher education institutions. A well‐organized career workshop provides opportunity for discussions, displays and other interactions which are rich strategies for data collection. Unfortunately, these workshops are usually not regarded as a research approach, hence they are referred herein as a non‐traditional approach. However, a workshop exhibits most of the characteristics of empirical research: it has a topic, objectives and systematic steps to follow as well as clear procedures for arriving at lessons. The outcomes are beneficial and they include networking, giving feedback to program staff and promoting the public image of adult education. The implications for both the labour market and higher institutions of learning include: increased collaboration between the two; improved understanding of products; regular exchange of ideas and implementation of lessons learned. Effective use of career workshops as research strategies should be supported by clear philosophies, structures and resources.
0.1 dB/cm waveguide losses in single-mode SOI rib waveguides

Waveguide losses as low as 0.1 dB/cm at a wavelength of /spl lambda/=1.3 /spl mu/m have been achieved in SOI rib waveguides fabricated by wet chemical etching. The single-mode waveguides have a large cross section yielding field mismatch losses to a standard single-mode fiber of only 0.17 dB/facet (both polarizations). Polarization independent fiber-chip-fiber insertion losses of 0.9 dB (best 0.5 dB) at a chip length of 60 mm have been measured.
Atropine and Roscovitine Release from Model Silicone Hydrogels

Purpose Drug delivery to the anterior eye has a low compliance and results in significant drug losses. In pediatric patients, eye diseases such as myopia and retinoblastoma can potentially be treated pharmacologically, but the risk associated with high drug concentrations coupled with the need for regular dosing limits their effectiveness. The current study examined the feasibility of atropine and roscovitine delivery from model silicone hydrogel materials which could potentially be used to treat myopia and retinoblastoma, respectively. Methods Model silicone hydrogel materials that comprised TRIS and DMA were prepared with the drug incorporated during synthesis. Various materials properties, with and without incorporated drug, were investigated including water uptake, water contact angle, and light transmission. Drug release was evaluated under sink conditions into phosphate buffered saline. Results The results demonstrate that up to 2 wt% of the drugs can be incorporated into model silicone hydrogel materials without adversely affecting critical materials properties such as water uptake, light transmission, and surface hydrophilicity. Equilibrium water content ranged from 15 to 32% and transmission exceeded 89% for materials with at least 70% DMA. Extended release exceeding 14 days was possible with both drugs, with the total amount of drug released from the materials ranging from 16% to over 76%. Although a burst effect was noted, this was thought to be due to surface-bound drug, and therefore storage in an appropriate packaging solution could be used to overcome this if desired. Conclusions Silicone hydrogel materials have the potential to deliver drugs for over 2 weeks without compromising lens properties. This could potentially overcome the need for regular drop instillation and allow for the maintenance of drug concentration in the tear film over the period of wear. This represents a potential option for treating a host of ophthalmic disorders in children including myopia and retinoblastoma.
Bulk soil moisture estimation using CosmOz cosmic ray sensor and ANFIS

This paper investigates a novel technique based on Fuzzy C means (FCM) algorithm and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) to estimate soil moisture using cosmic ray soil moisture probes deployed across Australia. These probes are a brand new sensing technology still being evaluated. Preliminary results indicate ANFIS is able to estimate soil moisture with 90% accuracy.
Signs of Agile Trends in Global Software Engineering Research: A Tertiary Study

In this paper we present preliminary findings from a tertiary study on global software engineering. In particular, we observe current trends in the software engineering research and perform an investigation of the role of agile topics in the GSE research literature. Our findings indicate that agility is one of the topics attracting attention in the research agenda for global software companies. In contrast to recent beliefs that agile and distributed are two incompatibilities Global Agile development becomes more and more accepted, a trend which we also see from the growing amount of research on GSE and agile. Finally we conclude that there are indications that both globalization and "agilization" of software companies are stable trends for the future but that there is a strong need for further studies on the particular challenges that distribution of work imposes on the principles of agile development.
Modeling and Analysis of Leakage Induced Damping Effect in Low Voltage LSIs

Although there has been extensive research on controlling leakage power, the fact that leaky transistors can act as a damping element for supply noise has been long ignored or unnoticed in the design community. This paper investigates the leakage induced damping effect that helps suppress the supply noise. By developing physics-based impedance models for active and leakage currents, we show that leakage, particularly gate tunneling leakage, provides more damping than strong-inversion current. Simulations were performed in a 32nm CMOS technology to validate our models under PVT variations and to explore the voltage dependent behavior of this phenomenon. Design example utilizing leakage induced damping such as decap assignment is discussed with results showing 15.6% saving in decap area
Robust Pseudo Feedback Estimation and HMM Passage Extraction: UIUC at TREC 2006 Genomics Track

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)participated in TREC 2006 Genomics Track. Our focus thisyear was to apply two language modeling techniques forinformation retrieval that have been proposed recently byour group [4, 1]. These two techniques have been shown tobe effective for general English text. It is not clear, though,how they perform on text in special domains such as thebiomedical domain. We therefore tested their effectivenessfor this year’s genomics task.First, we tried to improve the pseudo relevance feed-back mechanism in the retrieval model by applying a re-cently proposed regularized estimation method [4]. In theKL-divergence retrieval framework, pseudo relevance feed-back documents can be used to better estimate the querymodel [5]. While in the original proposed method [5], thisestimation involved two parameters that need to be empiri-cally set, recent work showed that a more robust, regular-ized estimation method that involves less parameter tun-ing can be effective [4]. We therefore applied this esti-mation method to this year’s genomics task to see whetherit can improve the pseudo relevance feedback mechanismin biomedical information retrieval as well. Second, sincethis year’s task is deﬁned as passage retrieval rather thandocument retrieval, a challenge is how to extract coherentand relevant passages from whole documents. Previously,we proposed a hidden Markov model (HMM)-based pas-sage extraction method that was shown to be effective inthe general English domain [1]. We applied this method tothis year’s genomics task to see whether this method is alsoeffective for biomedical text.Besides the two language modeling techniques, we alsotested the use of user relevance feedback for retrieval, tosee how much human interaction can help improve the per-formance. We obtained some manual judgments from twodomain experts, and used them in the two interactive runs.Our experiment results showed that the regularized es-timation method for pseudo relevance feedback performedsimilarly to the original estimation method when both meth-ods were under the optimal parameter setting, and outper-formed the original estimation method when both methodswere under the default parameter setting. Because in realitywe do not know the optimal parameter setting, the regular-ized estimation method is thus more robust than the originalestimation method. Our experiment results also showed thatthe HMM-based passage extraction method outperformed abaseline method that returns whole paragraphs as passages.However, our HMM-based passage extraction method tendsto return relatively long and coherent passages, which maynot be optimal for the genomics task this year, because inthis task the information need is more speciﬁc. Finally, ourexperiment results showed that user relevance feedback wasvery effective, as we expected.
Fine specificity of the human immune response to the major neutralization epitopes expressed on cytomegalovirus gp58/116 (gB), as determined with human monoclonal antibodies

The humoral immune response to human cytomegalovirus (CMV) membrane glycoprotein gp58/116 (gB) has been studied by establishing cell lines producing specific human monoclonal antibodies. These cell lines were generated from peripheral blood lymphocytes obtained from a healthy carrier. Hybridomas producing gp58/116-specific antibodies were detected by reactivity to procaryotically expressed proteins containing the major neutralizing epitopes of this glycoprotein complex. One antibody, ITC88, which recognized an epitope located between amino acid residues 67 and 86 of gp116, potently neutralized the virus at 1 to 2 micrograms of immunoglobulin G per ml. Only four of the six human antibodies detecting the major neutralizing domain of gp58 neutralized the virus, and none of them required complement for activity. All antibodies that bound mature, processed gp58 recognized a conformational epitope involving sequences between residues 549 and 635. However, small differences existed between the antibodies in the actual minimal requirement for C- and N-terminal parts of this epitope. By peptide mapping with several of the antibodies, the epitope was shown to consist mainly of residues between amino acids 570 to 579 and 606 to 619. Despite the conformational nature of the epitope, the antibodies recognized both reduced and denatured native antigen. Presence of carbohydrates was not required for antigen binding of these gp58-specific human antibodies, but in at least one case, it greatly enhanced antigen recognition, indicating an importance of carbohydrate structures in some epitopes within the major neutralizing specificity of gp58.
Fast Dynamic Model of a Moving-base 6-DOF Parallel Manipulator

Dynamic models play an important role in parallel manipulators simulation and control. Mainly in the later case, the efficiency of the involved computations is of paramount importance, because manipulator real-time control is usually necessary (Zhao & Gao, 2009). The dynamic model of a parallel manipulator operating in free space can be represented in Cartesian coordinates by a system of nonlinear differential equations, which may be written in matrix form as       f x G x x x V x x I          , (1)
A Ribosomal Protein AgRPS3aE from Halophilic Aspergillus glaucus Confers Salt Tolerance in Heterologous Organisms

High salt in soils is one of the abiotic stresses that significantly reduces crop yield, although saline lands are considered potential resources arable for agriculture. Currently, genetic engineering for enhancing salt tolerance is being tested as an efficient and viable strategy for crop improvement. We previously characterized a large subunit of the ribosomal protein RPL44, which is involved in osmotic stress in the extremely halophilic fungus Aspergillus glaucus. Here, we screened another ribosomal protein (AgRPS3aE) that also produced high-salt tolerance in yeast. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that AgRPS3aE encodes a 29.2 kDa small subunit of a ribosomal protein belonging to the RPS3Ae family in eukaryotes. To further confirm its protective function against salinity, we expressed AgRPS3aE in three heterologous systems, the filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and two model plants Arabidopsis and tobacco. Overexpression of AgRPS3aE in all tested transformants significantly alleviated stress symptoms compared with controls, suggesting that AgRPS3aE functions not only in fungi but also in plants. Considering that ribosomal proteins are housekeeping components in organisms from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, we propose that AgRPS3aE is one of the optimal genes for improving high-salt tolerance in crops.