Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The perception of website effectiveness by West Australian small business owners in a B2B context

A major cause for the failure to increase use of any form of e-commerce given by smaller business owners is that they can see no benefits or return on their investment in the websites. This research uses multiple case studies of 13 smaller businesses in Western Australia to determine the effectiveness of the websites from the owners’ perspective. It makes reference to an earlier study of user perspectives of SME websites to give context to the evaluation. The contribution of this paper is to provide an understanding of how SMEs perceive their websites in terms of value to the company. An analysis in terms of SMEs’ recognition of quality constructs of a website and of how they seek to realise benefits provides a deeper understanding of why SMEs may fail to progress their adoption of e-commerce beyond the first stages of use. The conclusions find that there is some correlation between the SME’s vision of its site and the perception of effectiveness.
Reading Sentences of Uniform Word Length: Evidence for the Adaptation of the Preferred Saccade Length During Reading

In the current study, the effect of removing word length variability within sentences on spatial aspects of eye movements during reading was investigated. Participants read sentences that were uniform in terms of word length, with each sentence consisting entirely of three-, four-, or five-letter words, or a combination of these word lengths. Several interesting findings emerged. Adaptation of the preferred saccade length occurred for sentences with different uniform word length; participants would be more accurate at making short saccades while reading uniform sentences of three-letter words, while they would be more accurate at making long saccades while reading uniform sentences of five-letter words. Furthermore, word skipping was affected such that three- and four-letter words were more likely, and five-letter words less likely, to be directly fixated in uniform compared to non-uniform sentences. It is argued that saccadic targeting during reading is highly adaptable and flexible toward the characteristics of the text currently being read, as opposed to the idea implemented in most current models of eye movement control during reading that readers develop a preference for making saccades of a certain length across a lifetime of experience with a given language.
The NTNU System at SemEval-2017 Task 10: Extracting Keyphrases and Relations from Scientific Publications Using Multiple Conditional Random Fields

This study describes the design of the NTNU system for the ScienceIE task at the SemEval 2017 workshop. We use self-defined feature templates and multiple conditional random fields with extracted features to identify keyphrases along with categorized labels and their relations from scientific publications. A total of 16 teams participated in evaluation scenario 1 (subtasks A, B, and C), with only 7 teams competing in all sub-tasks. Our best micro-averaging F1 across the three subtasks is 0.23, ranking in the middle among all 16 submissions.
Revisiting Anonymous Two-Factor Authentication Schemes for IoT-Enabled Devices in Cloud Computing Environments

Investigating the security pitfalls of cryptographic protocols is crucial to understand how to improve security. At ICCCS’17, Wu and Xu proposed an efficient smart-card-based password authentication scheme for cloud computing environments to cope with the vulnerabilities in Jiang et al.’s scheme. However, we reveal that Wu-Xu’s scheme actually is subject to various security flaws, such as offline password guessing attack and replay attack. Besides security, user friendly is also another great concern. In 2017, Roy et al. found that in most previous two-factor schemes a user has to manage different credentials for different services and further suggested a user-friendly scheme which is claimed to be suitable for multiserver architecture and robust against various attacks. In this work, we show that Roy et al.’s scheme fails to achieve truly two-factor security and shows poor scalability. At FGCS’18, Amin et al. pointed out that most of existing two-factor schemes are either insecure or inefficient for mobile devices due to the use of public-key techniques and thus suggested an improved protocol by using only light-weight symmetric key techniques. Almost at the same time, Wei et al. also observed this issue and proposed a new scheme based on symmetric key techniques with formal security proofs in the random oracle model. Nevertheless, we point out that both Amin et al.’s and Wei et al.’s schemes cannot achieve the claimed security goals (including the most crucial goal of “truly two-factor security”). Our results invalidate any use of the scrutinized schemes for cloud computing environments.
Enhancing the Production of Fc Fusion Protein in Fed‐Batch Fermentation of Pichia pastoris by Design of Experiments

This study focuses on the feasibility of producing a therapeutic Fc fusion protein in Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris) and presents an optimization design of experiment (DOE) strategy in a well‐defined experimental space. The parameters examined in this study include pH, temperature, salt supplementation, and batch glycerol concentration. The effects of these process conditions were captured by statistical analysis focusing on growth rate and titer responses. Batch medium and fermentation conditions were also investigated prior to the DOE study in order to provide a favorable condition to enable the production of this Fc fusion protein. The results showed that approximately 373 mg/L of the Fc fusion protein could be produced. The pH was found to be particularly critical for the production of this Fc fusion protein. It was significantly higher than the conventional, recommended pH for P. pastoris fermentation. The development of this process shows that protein production in P. pastoris is protein specific, and there is not a set of pre‐defined conditions that can work well for all types of proteins. Thorough process development would need to be performed for every type of protein in order for large‐scale production in P. pastoris to be feasible.
Write optimization of log-structured flash file system for parallel I/O on manycore servers

In Manycore server environment, we observe the performance degradation in parallel writes and identify the causes as follows - (i) When multiple threads write to a single file simultaneously, the current POSIX-based F2FS file system does not allow this parallel write even though ranges are distinct where threads are writing. (ii) The high processing time of Fsync at file system layer degrades the I/O throughput as multiple threads call Fsync simultaneously. (iii) The file system periodically checkpoints to recover from system crashes. All incoming I/O requests are blocked while the checkpoint is running, which significantly degrades overall file system performance. To solve these problems, first, we propose file systems to employ a fine-grained file-level Range Lock that allows multiple threads to write on mutually exclusive ranges of files rather than the course-grained inode mutex lock. Second, we propose NVM Node Logging that uses NVM as an extended storage space to store file metadata and file system metadata at high speed during Fsync and checkpoint operations. In particular, the NVM Node Logging consists of (i) a fine-grained inode structure to solve the write amplification problem caused by flushing the file metadata in block units and (ii) a Pin Point NAT (Node Address Table) Update, which can allow flushing only modified NAT entries. We implemented Range Lock and NVM Node Logging for F2FS in Linux kernel 4.14. 11. Our extensive evaluation at two different types of servers (single socket 10 cores CPU server, multi-socket 120 cores NUMA CPU server) shows significant write throughput improvements in both real and synthetic workloads.
ENDOGENOUS RESPIRATION OF BACILLUS CEREUS

Clifton, C. E. (Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.), and J. M. Sobek. Endogenous respiration of Bacillus cereus. J. Bacteriol. 82:252–256. 1961. —The endogenous respiration of washed cells of Bacillus cereus varies with the nature of the growth medium and with time. The respiratory quotient of cells harvested from nutrient agar remained quite constant around 1.00 over a 2-hr period of respiration, whereas that of cells grown on glucose-nutrient agar decreased from 0.97 for the first hour to 0.87 for the second hour. Considerable amounts of ammonia were formed, the number of moles per mole of oxygen consumed decreasing with time for agar-grown cells and increasing for glucose-grown ones. C14-labeled, agar-grown cells utilized materials insoluble in cold or hot 5% trichloroacetic acid, ethanol, or chloroform as their endogenous substrate, the same behavior being noted with glucose-grown cells except that they utilized both hot trichloroacetic-soluble and -insoluble materials. These results indicate that the bulk of the endogenous substrates are chemically complex and, at least in part, are nitrogenous in character.
An Approach to Efficiently Storing Property Graphs in Relational Databases

Graph structured data can be found in an increasing amount of use-cases. While there exists a considerable amount of solutions to store graphs in NoSQL databases, the combined storage of relationally stored data with graph structured data within the same system is not well researched. We present a relational approach to storing and processing huge property graphs, which is optimized for read-only queries. This way, all the advantages of full-fledged relational database systems can be used and the seamless integration of classical relational data with graph-structured data is possible.
Histone methyltransferase SETDB1 contributes to melanoma tumorigenesis and serves as a new potential therapeutic target

Alterations in histone modifications play a crucial role in the progression of various types of cancer. The histone methyltransferase SETDB1 catalyzes the addition of methyl groups to histone H3 at lysine 9. Here, we describe how overexpression of SETDB1 contributes to melanoma tumorigenesis. SETDB1 is highly amplified in melanoma cells and in the patient tumors. Increased expression of SETDB1, which correlates with SETDB1 amplification, is associated with a more aggressive phenotype in in vitro and in vivo studies. Mechanistically, SETDB1 implements its effects via regulation of thrombospondin 1, and the SET‐domain of SETDB1 is essential for the maintenance of its tumorigenic activity. Inhibition of SETDB1 reduces cell growth in melanomas resistant to targeted treatments. Our results indicate that SETDB1 is a major driver of melanoma development and may serve as a potential future target for the treatment of this disease.
FADaC: a self-adapting data classifier for flash memory

Solid state drives (SSDs) implement a log-structured write pattern, where obsolete data remains stored on flash pages until the flash translation layer (FTL) erases them. erase() operations, however, cannot erase a single page, but target entire flash blocks. Since these victim blocks typically store a mix of valid and obsolete pages, FTLs have to copy the valid data to a new block before issuing an erase() operation. This process therefore increases the latencies of concurrent I/Os and reduces the lifetime of flash memory. Data classification schemes identify data pages with similar update frequencies and group them together. FTLs can use this grouping to design garbage collection strategies to find victim blocks that have less valid data with respect to having no data classification, and therefore to significantly reduce the number of additional I/Os. Previous data classification algorithms have been designed without leveraging special features of flash memory and often rely on workload-specific configurations. Our classifier FADaC tunes its parameters online and operates on any given amount of memory by storing additional information within the metadata of flash pages. Additional read() requests for the classification are so few that FADaC reduces the internal flash overhead by up to 45% compared to the best classifier from previous work.
Sex differences in COPD-related quadriceps muscle dysfunction and fibre abnormalities

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower limb dysfunction is associated with reduced exercise capacity, increased hospitalizations and mortality. We investigated sex differences in the prevalence of quadriceps dysfunction and fibre abnormalities in a large COPD cohort, controlling for the normal sex differences in health. We compared existing data from 76 male and 38 female COPD patients where each variable was expressed as a function of gender-specific normal values (obtained from 16 male and 14 female controls). Female COPD patients had lower quadriceps muscle strength and peak workload on a maximal incremental cycle ergometry protocol compared to male patients. Female patients had a smaller type II fibre cross-sectional area (CSA) compared to male patients, suggesting a greater female preponderance to fibre atrophy, although this result was largely driven by a few male patients with a large type II fibre CSA. Female patients had significantly higher concentrations of a number of plasma pro-inflammatory cytokines including tumour necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 8 (IL8), but not lower levels of physical activity or arterial oxygenation, compared to males. Our data confirm results from a previous small study and suggest that female COPD patients have a greater prevalence of muscle wasting and weakness. Larger studies investigating sex differences in COPD-related muscle atrophy and weakness are needed, as the results will have implications for monitoring in clinical practice and for design of clinical trials evaluating novel muscle anabolic agents.
DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION OF TOLL-LIKE RECEPTOR GENES: SEPSIS COMPARED WITH STERILE INFLAMMATION 1 DAY BEFORE SEPSIS DIAGNOSIS

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are critical components of innate immunity. This study was designed to evaluate differential expression of genes for TLR and associated signal transduction molecules in critically ill patients developing sepsis compared with those with sterile inflammation. Uninfected critically ill patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome were prospectively followed daily for development of sepsis. They were divided into two groups and compared in a case-control manner: (a) preseptic patients (n = 45) who subsequently developed sepsis, and (b) uninfected systemic inflammatory response syndrome patients (n = 45) who remained uninfected. Whole blood RNA was collected (PAXGene tube) at study entry and 1, 2, and 3 days before clinical sepsis diagnosis (or time-matched uninfected control) and analyzed via Affymetrix Hg_U133 Plus 2.0 microarrays. Genes were considered differentially expressed if they met univariate significance controlled for multiple comparisons at P < 0.005. Differentially expressed probes were uploaded into the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery. The TLR pathway (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes-KEGG) significance was determined via Expression Analysis Systematic Explorer (EASE) scoring. A total of 2,974 Affymetrix probes representing 2,190 unique genes were differentially expressed 1 day before sepsis diagnosis. Thirty-six probes representing 25 genes were annotated to the TLR pathway (KEGG) via the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery with an EASE score at P < 0.0004. Notable TLR genes demonstrating increased expression include TLR-4 (median, 1.43-fold change), TLR-5 (2.08-fold change), and MAPK14 (1.90-fold change). An additional 11 unique genes were manually annotated into the TLR pathway based on known relevance such as TLR-8 (1.54-fold change). The total 36 genes contained 28 showing increased expression and 8 showing decreased expression. Differential gene expression was noted for TLR receptors (eight genes), TLR intracellular signal transduction cascade molecules (27 genes), and TLR-related effector molecules (one gene). The TLR and downstream signaling genes are differentially expressed in critically ill patients developing sepsis compared with those with sterile inflammation. These expression differences occur before phenotypic-based diagnosis of clinical sepsis.
Associations of workplace violence and psychological capital with depressive symptoms and burn-out among doctors in Liaoning, China: a cross-sectional study

Objectives The purpose of this study was to (1) Identify the prevalence of workplace violence among doctors in Liaoning, China. (2) Examine the relationships between workplace violence and psychological capital with depressive symptoms and burn-out in Chinese doctors. Design A quantitative, cross-sectional study. Setting Eight hospitals in Liaoning Province were surveyed using a self-reported questionnaire. Participants The study population comprised 1800 doctors. Ultimately 1392 doctors completed valid questionnaires with a response rate of 77.3%. Results The prevalence of workplace violence was 77.5%. Compared with other types of workplace violence, the prevalence of psychological aggression was the highest (72.7%). Workplace violence (depressive symptoms: β[95% CI]=0.11 [0.06, 0.16]; emotional exhaustion: β[95% CI]=0.18 [0.13, 0.23]; depersonalisation: β[95% CI]=0.17 [0.12, 0.22]) and psychological capital (depressive symptoms: β[95% CI]=−0.32 [−0.37, –0.27]; emotional exhaustion: β[95% CI]=−0.23 [−0.28, –0.18]; depersonalisation: β[95% CI]=−0.23 [−0.28, –0.18]) were associated with depressive symptoms and burn-out. Workplace violence increased the level of depressive symptoms and burn-out by damaging psychological capital (depressive symptoms: a*b=1.61, bias-corrected and accelerated [BCa] 95% CI 1.08 to 2.25; emotional exhaustion: a*b=1.29, BCa 95% CI 0.86 to 1.83; depersonalisation: a*b=0.70, BCa 95% CI 0.45 to 1.00). Conclusions In China, most doctors will be exposed to workplace violence, especially psychological aggression. A safer work environment and psychological capital development may be considered in prevention and treatment strategies for improving mental health.
Biochemical and physiological investigations on adenosine 5’ monophosphate deaminase from Plasmodium spp.

HGXPRT - Hypoxanthine-guanine-xanthine phosphoribosyltransferase, ADSS - Adenylosuccinate synthetase, ASL - Adenylosuccinate lyase, GMPS - Guonosine monophosphate synthetase, IMPDH - Inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase, ISN1 - Inosine monophosphate specific nucleotidase, PNP - Purine nucleoside phosphorylase Summary Interplay between ATP generating and utilizing pathways in a cell is responsible for maintaining cellular ATP/energy homeostasis that is reflected by Adenylate Energy Charge (AEC) ratio. Adenylate kinase (AK), that catalyzes inter-conversion of ADP, ATP and AMP, plays a major role in maintaining AEC, and is regulated by cellular AMP levels. Hence, the enzymes AMP deaminase (AMPD) and nucleotidases, which catabolize AMP, indirectly regulate AK activity and in-turn affect AEC. Here, we present the first report on AMPD from Plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria. The recombinant enzyme expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was studied using functional complementation assay and residues vital for enzyme activity have been identified. Similarities and differences between Plasmodium falciparum AMPD (PfAMPD) and its homologs from yeast, Arabidopsis and humans are also discussed. The AMPD gene was deleted in the murine malaria parasite P. berghei and was found to be non-essential for intra-erythrocytic growth of the knockout parasites. However, when episomal expression was attempted, viable parasites were not obtained, suggesting that perturbing AMP homeostasis by over-expressing AMPD might be lethal. As AMPD is known to be allosterically modulated by ATP, GTP and phosphate, allosteric activators of PfAMPD could be developed as anti-parasitic agents.
Multifunctional nanocellulose/metal and metal oxide nanoparticle hybrid nanomaterials

Abstract Nanocellulose materials are derived from cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on the earth. Nanocellulose have been extensively used in the field of food packaging materials, wastewater treatment, drug delivery, tissue engineering, hydrogels, aerogels, sensors, pharmaceuticals, and electronic sectors due to their unique chemical structure and excellent mechanical properties. On the other hand, metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NP) such as Ag NP, ZnO NP, CuO NP, and Fe3O4 NP have a variety of functional properties such as UV-barrier, antimicrobial, and magnetic properties. Recently, nanocelluloses materials have been used as a green template for producing metal or metal oxide nanoparticles. As a result, multifunctional nanocellulose/metal or metal oxide hybrid nanomaterials with high antibacterial properties, ultraviolet barrier properties, and mechanical properties were prepared. This review emphasized recent information on the synthesis, properties, and potential applications of multifunctional nanocellulose-based hybrid nanomaterials with metal or metal oxides such as Ag NP, ZnO NP, CuO NP, and Fe3O4 NP. The nanocellulose-based hybrid nanomaterials have huge potential applications in the area of food packaging, biopharmaceuticals, biomedical, and cosmetics.
Robust in vitro assay for analyzing the neutralization activity of serum specimens against hepatitis B virus

ABSTRACT Anti-HBs is a well-known marker of protective capability against HBV. However, little is known about the association between the qAnti-HBs determined by immunoassays and the neutralization activity (NAT) derived from functional assays. We developed an in vitro assay for direct measurement of the NAT of human sera. The new assay was highly sensitive, with an analytical sensitivity of 9.6 ± 1.3 mIU/mL for the HBIG standard. For serum detection, the maximum fold dilution required to produce ≥50% inhibition (MDF50) of HBV infection was used as the quantitative index. In vitro NAT evaluations were conducted for a cohort of 164 HBV-free healthy individuals. The results demonstrated that the NAT positively correlated with the qAnti-HBs (R2 = 0.473, p < 0.001). ROC analysis indicated that the optimal cutoff value of the qAnti-HBs to discriminate significant NAT (MDF50 ≥ 8) was 62.9 mIU/mL, with an AUROC of 0.920. Additionally, we found that the qAnti-HBc was another independent parameter positively associated with the NAT (R2 = 0.300, p < 0.001), which suggested that antibodies against other HBV proteins generated by previous HBV exposure possibly also contribute to the NAT. In summary, the new cell-based assay provides a robust tool to analyse the anti-HBV NAT. Abbreviations: HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; Anti-HBs: Hepatitis B surface antibody; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen; Anti-HBc: Hepatitis B core antibody; qAnti-HBs: quantitative hepatitis B surface antibody; qAnti-HBc: quantitative hepatitis B core antibody; qHBeAg: quantitative hepatitis B e antigen; NAT: neutralization activity; HBIG: hepatitis B immune globulin; NTCP: Na+-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide; IRES: internal ribosome entry site; ccHBV: cell culture derived hepatitis B virus; GE/cell: genome equivalent per cell; MOI: multiplicity of infection; Dpi: day post infection; HepG2-TetOn: a HepG2-derived cell line that expresses the doxycycline-regulated transactivator; ROC: receiver operating characteristic curve; AUROC: area under receiver operating characteristic curve; LLOQ: the lower limits of quantification; MDF50: the maximum fold dilution required to produce ≥50% inhibition; IC50: half maximal inhibitory concentration