Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Elucidation of Nemopilema nomurai and Cyanea nozakii Nematocyst Venoms’ Lytic Activity Using Mass Spectrometry and Zymography

Background: Medusozoans utilize explosively discharging penetrant nematocysts to inject venom into prey. These venoms are composed of highly complex proteins and peptides with extensive bioactivities, as observed in vitro. Diverse enzymatic toxins have been putatively identified in the venom of jellyfish, Nemopilema nomurai and Cyanea nozakii, through examination of their proteomes and transcriptomes. However, functional examination of putative enzymatic components identified in proteomic approaches to elucidate potential bioactivities is critically needed. Methods: In this study, enzymatic toxins were functionally identified using a combined approach consisting of in gel zymography and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The potential roles of metalloproteinases and lipases in hemolytic activity were explored using specific inhibitors. Results: Zymography indicated that nematocyst venom possessed protease-, lipase- and hyaluronidase-class activities. Further, proteomic approaches using LC-MS/MS indicated sequence homology of proteolytic bands observed in zymography to extant zinc metalloproteinase-disintegrins and astacin metalloproteinases. Moreover, pre-incubation of the metalloproteinase inhibitor batimastat with N. nomurai nematocyst venom resulted in an approximate 62% reduction of hemolysis compared to venom exposed sheep erythrocytes, suggesting that metalloproteinases contribute to hemolytic activity. Additionally, species within the molecular mass range of 14–18 kDa exhibited both egg yolk and erythrocyte lytic activities in gel overlay assays. Conclusion: For the first time, our findings demonstrate the contribution of jellyfish venom metalloproteinase and suggest the involvement of lipase species to hemolytic activity. Investigations of this relationship will facilitate a better understanding of the constituents and toxicity of jellyfish venom.
Information technologies and financial prformance: The effect of technology diffusion among competitors

This research analyzes the implications that uneven diffusion of IT among firms populating an industry has on profitability. With this aim we move away from the dominant RBV approaches and focus on the competitive dimension of the technology. We argue that the IT imitation process is much more complex and heterogeneous than implicitly assumed on current research. Indeed, in our framework it is this heterogeneity what allows for the existence of IT-based competitive advantages. We investigate how the adoption patterns of competitors influences firm profitability through its relative position in terms of IT implementation. We test our propositions through the analysis of ATM diffusion in the Spanish Savings Banks between 1986 and 2004. We find that it is not the absolute but the relative level of implementation what drives the profitability impact of IT. In addition, we find that over time, as a �technological race� takes place, any potential benefit obtained with IT adoption is dissipated, resulting on an aggregated negative impact on profitability.
Unfolding and Shrinking Neural Machine Translation Ensembles

Ensembling is a well-known technique in neural machine translation (NMT) to improve system performance. Instead of a single neural net, multiple neural nets with the same topology are trained separately, and the decoder generates predictions by averaging over the individual models. Ensembling often improves the quality of the generated translations drastically. However, it is not suitable for production systems because it is cumbersome and slow. This work aims to reduce the runtime to be on par with a single system without compromising the translation quality. First, we show that the ensemble can be unfolded into a single large neural network which imitates the output of the ensemble system. We show that unfolding can already improve the runtime in practice since more work can be done on the GPU. We proceed by describing a set of techniques to shrink the unfolded network by reducing the dimensionality of layers. On Japanese-English we report that the resulting network has the size and decoding speed of a single NMT network but performs on the level of a 3-ensemble system.
Management system of wireless signal coverage based on baidu maps API

In recent years, with the rapid development of geographic information systems and internet technology, more and more methods are used to build location-based geographic information system. Under such circumstances, as a basic service, network map came into being and has been inserted into restaurants, buses, tourist industry and other industries. Therefore, the internet based map of the Internet applications is considered to be a treasure of the Internet industry. Recently, Google and Baidu opened the application programs development interface to map data itself in order to bring convenience for developers to develop personalized. In this paper, we studied the Javascript-based Baidu map API contrals. It can parse the wireless signal test data and can store and display the geographic information of the objects efficiently. This paper provides a reference for building a low-cost WebGIS.
Multi-level processing of phonetic variants in speech production and visual word processing: evidence from Mandarin lexical tones

Two picture–word interference experiments provide new evidence on the nature of phonological processing in speech production and visual word processing. In both experiments, responses were significantly faster either when distractor and target matched in tone category, but had different overt realisations (toneme condition) or when target and distractor matched in overt realisation, but mismatched in tone category (contour condition). Tone 3 sandhi is an allophone of Beijing Mandarin Tone 3 (T3). Its contour is similar to another tone, Tone 2. In Experiment 1, sandhi picture naming was faster with contour (Tone 2) and toneme (low Tone 3) distractors, compared to control distractors. This indicates both category and context-specific representations are activated in sandhi word production. In Experiment 2, both contour (Tone 2) and toneme (low Tone 3) picture naming was facilitated by visually presented sandhi distractors, compared to controls, evidence that category and context-specific instantiated representations are automatically activated during processing of visually presented words. Combined, the results point to multi-level processing of phonology, whether words are overtly produced or processed visually. Interestingly, there were differences in the time course of effects.
VERY PRELIMINARY, COMMENTS ARE WELCOME ASYMMETRIC ALL-PAY AUCTIONS WITH INCOMPLETE INFORMATION, THE TWO PLAYER CASE REDUX

We re-visit the all-pay auction model of Amann and Leininger (1996) allowing for interdependent values and correlation à la Lizzeri and Persico (1998) and Siegel (2013). We study both monotone and non-monotone pure strategy equilibria (MPSE and NPSE). For MPSE with continuous signals: First, we show the allocation and bidding strategies of MPSE can be obtained in the same manner as in the independent private values environment. For correlated private values, the allocation is the same regardless of correlation. For common-values, the allocation sorts players according to their signals’ percentiles. Second, we present a local single-crossing condition which is necessary for MPSE, and the standard single crossing, which is sufficient. Third, we exhibit families of common-value, all-pay auctions that violate the local single-crossing and thus lack MPSE. Also, we construct a correlated private values example, where the slightest amount of correlation breaks down MPSE that exists under independence. Finally, we explicitly obtain NPSE for quadratic interdependent valuations in cases where no MPSE exists.
The “Dashpot” Mechanism of Stretch-dependent Gating in MscS

The crystal structure of the small conductance mechanosensitive channel (MscS) has been an invaluable tool in the search for the gating mechanism, however many functional aspects of the channel remain unsettled. Here we characterized the gating of MscS in Escherichia coli spheroplasts in a triple mutant (mscL − , mscS − , mscK −) background. We used a pressure clamp apparatus along with software developed in-lab to generate dose–response curves directly from two-channel recordings of current and pressure. In contrast to previous publications, we found that MscS exhibits essentially voltage-independent activation by tension, but at the same time strong voltage-dependent inactivation under depolarizing conditions. The MscS activation curves obtained under saturating ramps of pressure, at different voltages, gave estimates for the energy, area, and gating charge for the closed-to-open transition as 24 kT, 18 nm2, and +0.8, respectively. The character of activation and inactivation was similar in both K+ and Na+ buffers. Perhaps the most salient and intriguing property of MscS gating was a strong dependence on the rate of pressure application. Patches subjected to various pressure ramps from 2.7 to 240 mmHg/s revealed a midpoint of activation almost independent of rate. However, the resultant channel activity was dramatically lower when pressure was applied slowly, especially at depolarizing pipette voltages. It appears that MscS prefers to respond in full to abrupt stimuli but manages to ignore those applied slowly, as if the gate were connected to the tension-transmitting element via a velocity-sensitive “dashpot. ” With slower ramps, channels inactivate during the passage through a narrow region of pressures below the activation midpoint. This property of “dumping” a slowly applied force may be important in environmental situations where rehydration of cells occurs gradually and release of osmolytes is not desirable. MscS often enters the inactivated state through subconducting states favored by depolarizing voltage. The inactivation rate increases exponentially with depolarization. Based on these results we propose a kinetic scheme and gating mechanism to account for the observed phenomenology in the framework of available structural information.
Loss of transverse-tubules promotes the development of ectopic activity in guinea-pig ventricle

Intracellular calcium cycling plays an important role in healthy and pathophysiological cardiac behavior. One such behavior is the development of ectopic activity, which is linked to rapid arrhythmias such as tachycardia and fibrillation. Calcium dynamics are strongly dependant on the function of the dyad; a restricted space which contains the L-type calcium channels and intracellular calcium release units. Dyads are observed in both the surface and T-tubular membrane. In this study, we use a stochastic mathematical model of the guinea-pig ventricle to investigate the effect of a loss of the T-tubular membrane on the dynamics of intracellular calcium cycling and its affect on membrane ion currents. It was demonstrated that in the presence of beta-stimulation, loss of T-tubules promotes significant triggered activity at the cellular level, which may develop into ectopic activity at the tissue level. The primary mechanism by which this occurs is two-fold: (1) increased activity of L-type calcium channels under beta-stimulation leads to large triggered and spontaneous intracellular calcium transients, promoting enhanced sodium-calcium exchanger activity; (2) a loss of the time-independent potassium channels raises the resting potential, allowing the threshold for activation of the fast sodium current to be surpassed.
Subspace Clustering Through Parametric Representation and Sparse Optimization

We consider the problem of recovering a finite number of linear subspaces from a collection of unlabeled data points that lie in the union of the subspaces. The data are such that it is not known which data point originates from which subspace. To address this challenge, we show that the clustering problem is amenable to a sparse optimization problem. Considering a candidate subspace and the distances of the data points to that subspace, the foundation of the proposed method lies in the maximization of the number of zero distances. This can be relaxed into a convex optimization. Efficiency of the relaxation can be significantly increased by solving a sequence of reweighted convex optimization problems.
A mechanism of improving subscriber registration in P2PSIP network

In this paper an approach is proposed to improve subscriber registration and reduce failover latency in P2PSIP network in order to ameliorate the P2PSIP fault tolerance and reduce the failure recovery time for multimedia session. Network simulation proves that this approach has better performance and is suitable to apply in P2PSIP multimedia session.
Are the Profession’s Education Standards Promoting the Religious Literacy Required for Twenty-First Century Social Work Practice?

This article analyses regulations and standards that frame social work education and practice across a set of English-speaking countries including the UK, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA, as well as the Global Standards for the Education and Training of the Social Work Profession. All documents were keyword searched and also read in their entirety. Religion and belief appear briefly and incoherently and are often deprioritised, unless particularly problematic. There is a common elision of religion, belief and spirituality, often expressed in the designation ‘religion/spirituality’. References to religion and belief, and their inclusion and removal, are recognisably subject to debates between policymakers who frame the guidelines. This makes them issues of agency which might themselves benefit from analysis. Religion and belief may frequently be addressed by the use of overarching frameworks such as ‘anti-oppressive’ or ‘anti-discriminatory’ practice. Yet, such proxies may prove merely apologetic and result in standards that aim only to establish what is the minimum required. It is hard to argue that religious literacy has been a priority in the English-speaking social work countries, though new law and emerging best practice may make it so.
Converged optical network and data center virtual infrastructure planning

This paper presents a detailed study of planning virtual infrastructures (VIs) over a physical infrastructure comprising integrated optical network and data center resources with the aim of enabling sharing of physical resources among several virtual operators and services. Through the planning process, the VI topology and virtual resources are identified and mapped to the physical resources. Our study assumes a practical VI demand model without any in advance global knowledge of the VI requests that are handled sequentially. Through detailed integer linear program modeling, two objective functions - one that minimizes the overall power consumption of the infrastructure and one that minimizes the wavelength utilization - are compared. Both are evaluated for the virtual wavelength path and wavelength path optical network architectures. The first objective results in power consumption savings and the two optical network architectures provide similar performances. However, the trend changes for higher load values, due to the inefficient wavelength utilization that the first objective leads to. Finally, we compare the virtual infrastructures created by the two objectives through online traffic provisioning simulations. The objective minimizing wavelength utilization results in VIs suffering higher request blocking compared to the VIs created by the objective minimizing the overall power consumption.
Effect of Chemical Reaction on Convective Instability in a Horizontal Porous Layer Saturated with a Couple-Stress Fluid

The problem of onset of convective instability in a horizontal inert porous layer saturated with a couple-stress fluid subject to zero-order chemical reaction is investigated by the method of small perturbation. Modified Darcy-couple-stress model is used to describe the fluid motion. The horizontal porous layer is cooled from the upper boundary while an isothermal boundary condition is imposed at the lower boundary. Closed form solution pertaining to the equilibrium state is obtained. The resulting eigenvalue problem, subject to realistic flow boundary conditions, is solved approximately using the Galerkin method. The media DarcyRayleigh number, characterizing the stability of the system, is calculated as a function of the Frank-Kamenetskii number, wavenumber and the couple-stress parameter. It is found that the destabilizing effect of chemical reaction on the system is more pronounced and the aspect ratio of convection cells becomes uniform provided that the couple-stress parameter is large.
Multisensory Architecture for Intelligent Surveillance Systems - Integration of Segmentation, Tracking and Activity Analysis

Intelligent surveillance systems deal with all aspects of threat detection in a given scene; these range from segmentation to activity interpretation. The proposed architecture is a step towards solving the detection and tracking of suspicious objects as well as the analysis of the activities in the scene. It is important to include different kinds of sensors for the detection process. Indeed, their mutual advantages enhance the performance provided by each sensor on its own. The results of the multisensory architecture offered in the paper, obtained from testing the proposal on CAVIAR project data sets, are very promising within the three proposed levels, that is, segmentation based on accumulative computation, tracking based on distance calculation and activity analysis based on finite state automaton.
Vision and graphics in producing mixed reality worlds

This paper introduces prominent topics of our Mixed Reality (MR) project and states what kind of role computer vision and graphics play in the project. MR is a part of VR in broader sense, but it treats the physical space as well as the virtual space created in computers. Here we use the term "mixed reality" instead of often used "augmented reality" (AR). This is because MR is not only the mixture of real world and virtual world but also the mixture of AR and "augmented virtuality" (AV). In that sense, we first describe that there is no clear distinction between AR and AV, then introduce some research results at the early stage of our MR project.
A fast and robust grasp planner for arbitrary 3D objects

In order to grasp and manipulate real world objects, grasp planning systems are required, and they have to be very fast in order to be integrated in online planning systems for robots. This paper presents a method to compute a desirable grasp quality measure very fast and accurately. Based on this measure a heuristic approach towards fast planning of precision grasps for arbitrarily shaped 3D objects is described. A number of feasible grasp candidates are generated heuristically. These grasp candidates are qualified using the described grasp quality measure and the best candidate is chosen. The planned grasps are robust with respect to grasp placement. It is shown that only a relatively small number of grasp candidates has to be generated in order to obtain a good, although not optimal, grasp.
Teacher Empathy: A Model of Empathy for Teaching for Student Success

Abstract This paper defines teacher empathy, argues that teacher empathy enhances student learning, and offers suggestions for increasing teacher empathy. Teacher empathy is the degree to which an instructor works to deeply understand students’ personal and social situations, to feel care and concern in response to students’ positive and negative emotions, and to respond compassionately without losing the focus on student learning. Teacher empathy is communicated to students through course policies as well as the instructor’s behavior toward students. To increase teacher empathy, we review non-pejorative explanations for undesirable student behavior (e.g., fear of failure), and we suggest ways in which faculty can learn about their students and can structure course policies to increase teacher empathy. Ultimately, we call for research on teacher empathy and student learning.
Towards a Unified Approach for Business Process Modeling Using Context-Based Artifacts and Web Services

Service-Oriented Architecture is a paradigm for modeling and enacting business processes that promotes improved flexibility and monitor ability through the composition of loosely-coupled Web services. However, such process-centric composition, with focus on invoking Web services to reach a stated goal, still does not provide the desired flexibility. Web services implementations are typically locked into the business logic of the business processes that they implement. Additionally,monitoring such Web services compositions becomes cumbersome especially for business analysts and managers who are not IT experts. To address these issues, this paper presents a unified process- and data-centric approach with focus on Web services as a driving element to the changes affecting both processes and data. In this approach a business process is modeled as a collection of interacting (business) artifacts, each of which behaves as per a predefined state transition system called Artifact Life-Cycle (ALC). An ALC is enriched with contextual details, which permits business process execution monitoring. Throughout this paper, a realistic running example in the purchase order domain is used for illustration purposes.
Influence of Pistia stratiotes Plant Quality on Fecundity and Egg Distribution of the Biological Control Agent Spodoptera pectinicornis.

Abstract : The potential fecundity of an insect may be influenced by the quality of the larval diet. Moreover, the distribution of eggs on the leaf surface may determine the success of that species colonizing the plant. This study determined the influence of larval host quality of the aquatic weed Pistia stratiotes on the fecundity and egg distribution of the biological control agent Spodoptera pectinicornis. Plants were grown with relatively low and high levels of N:P:K fertilizer. The results indicated that all three elements were higher overall in the high treatment and that nitrogen and potassium levels decreased in the high treatments from the inner to the outer leaves. The phosphorus and potassium levels increased in the low fertilizer treatment from the inner to the outer leaves. Female and male pupal biomass was significantly greater in the high fertilized treatments. Adult females that emerged from larvae fed the low fertilizer treatment lived 4.6 days or about one day longer than those from the high treatment. Most of the eggs were laid in egg masses, while overall about 12 percent were laid as solitary eggs. A significantly greater percentage of solitary eggs were laid by females from the low fertilizer treatment (17.3 +/- 3.4 percent) compared with those from the high fertilizer treatment (8.3 +/- 2.3 percent). Total fecundity was greater (P=0.15) in the high fertilizer treatment. Females that emerged from larger pupae, regardless of larval diet, produced significantly more eggs. Most of the egg masses were laid on the lower surface of leaves, on leaf positions 5-8 (counting from the young inner to the outer leaves) and on days 1 and 2. Leaf position and day significantly influenced solitary egg position, where more eggs were found on leaves 1-8 during days 1-4.