Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a Specifically Enhanced Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for the Detection of Melamine in Milk

An indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) with enhanced specificity for melamine in milk was developed. Three haptens of melamine with different spacer-arms were used to prepare different plate coating antigens. It was found that the icELISA show best sensitivity and specificity to melamine when using the coating antigen prepared by coupling 3-(4,6-diamino-1,6-dihydro-1,3,5-triazin-2-ylthio)propanoic acid (Hapten C) with ovalbumin (OVA). The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) value was 35.4 ng·mL−1, the limit of detection (LOD) was 8.9 ng·mL−1 and the detectable working range (20–80% inhibitory concentration) was from 14.9 to 108.5 ng·mL−1, respectively. Compared to the ELISA results previously reported, the developed icELISA in the present study showed a much lower cross-reactivity to cyromazine, a fly-killing insecticide widely used in vegetables and stables. Recoveries obtained from milk samples in this study were in agreement with those obtained using the HPLC-MS method, indicating the detection performance of the icELISA could meet the requirement of the residue limit set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Therefore, the developed immunoassay can be applied for the analysis of melamine presented in milk.
Measurement Error Model Report # 1

In microarray experiments, scientists and biologists are often interested in identify differentially expressed genes, genes whose mean expression intensities are different across patient and control. Two sample t-test is a commonly practiced routine to carry out the statistical inference. However, this simple method has been found to be a less powerful procedure(Callow et al. 2000; Cui et al. 2005), primarily resulted from the conventional pooled variance estimator is unstable due to the limited number of arrays. Moreover, it is commonly observed that the variance of gene expression is not constant but inflates proportionally with the intensity. Assuming the variance being a function of mean, various parametric and nonparametric methods have been proposed in the literature (Rocke and Durbin 2001; Kamb and Ramaswami 2001). In this paper, the authors assumed a modified classical measurement error model. The key difference lies on the fact that the modified model, taking the biological phenomenon into consideration, assumed the variance is not constant but depends on the true value.
Sparse topic models by parameter sharing

We propose a sparse Bayesian topic model, based on parameter sharing, for modeling text corpora. In Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), each topic models all words, even though many words are not topic-specific, i.e. have similar occurrence frequencies across different topics. We propose a sparser approach by introducing a universal shared model, used by each topic to model the subset of words that are not topic-specific. A Bernoulli random variable is associated with each word under every topic, determining whether that word is modeled topic-specifically, with a free parameter, or by the shared model, with a common parameter. Results of our experiments show that our model achieves sparser topic presence in documents and higher test likelihood than LDA.
Establishment of a Developmental Compartment Requires Interactions between Three Synergistic Cis-regulatory Modules

The subdivision of cell populations in compartments is a key event during animal development. In Drosophila, the gene apterous (ap) divides the wing imaginal disc in dorsal vs ventral cell lineages and is required for wing formation. ap function as a dorsal selector gene has been extensively studied. However, the regulation of its expression during wing development is poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed ap transcriptional regulation at the endogenous locus and identified three cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) essential for wing development. Only when the three CRMs are combined, robust ap expression is obtained. In addition, we genetically and molecularly analyzed the trans-factors that regulate these CRMs. Our results propose a three-step mechanism for the cell lineage compartment expression of ap that includes initial activation, positive autoregulation and Trithorax-mediated maintenance through separable CRMs.
The Rho GTPase Family Genes in Bivalvia Genomes: Sequence, Evolution and Expression Analysis

Background Rho GTPases are important members of the Ras superfamily, which represents the largest signaling protein family in eukaryotes, and function as key molecular switches in converting and amplifying external signals into cellular responses. Although numerous analyses of Rho family genes have been reported, including their functions and evolution, a systematic analysis of this family has not been performed in Mollusca or in Bivalvia, one of the most important classes of Mollusca. Results In this study, we systematically identified and characterized a total set (Rho, Rac, Mig, Cdc42, Tc10, Rnd, RhoU, RhoBTB and Miro) of thirty Rho GTPase genes in three bivalve species, including nine in the Yesso scallop Patinopecten yessoensis, nine in the Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri, and twelve in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. Phylogenetic analysis and interspecies comparison indicated that bivalves might possess the most complete types of Rho genes in invertebrates. A multiple RNA-seq dataset was used to investigate the expression profiles of bivalve Rho genes, revealing that the examined scallops share more similar Rho expression patterns than the oyster, whereas more Rho mRNAs are expressed in C. farreri and C. gigas than in P. yessoensis. Additionally, Rho, Rac and Cdc42 were found to be duplicated in the oyster but not in the scallops. Among the expanded Rho genes of C. gigas, duplication pairs with high synonymous substitution rates (Ks) displayed greater differences in expression. Conclusion A comprehensive analysis of bivalve Rho GTPase family genes was performed in scallop and oyster species, and Rho genes in bivalves exhibit greater conservation than those in any other invertebrate. This is the first study focusing on a genome-wide characterization of Rho GTPase genes in bivalves, and the findings will provide a valuable resource for a better understanding of Rho evolution and Rho GTPase function in Bivalvia.
Evaluation of a User-adapted Spoken Language Dialogue System - Measuring the Relevance of the Contextual Information Sources

We present an evaluation of a spoken language dialogue system with a module for the management of userrelated information, stored as user preferences and privileges. The ﬂexibility of our dialogue management approach, based on Bayesian Networks (BN), together with a contextual information module, which performs different strategies for handling such information, allows us to include user information as a new level into the Context Manager hierarchy. We propose a set of objective and subjective metrics to measure the relevance of the different contextual information sources. The analysis of our evaluation scenarios shows that the relevance of the short-term information (i.e. the system status) remains pretty stable throughout the dialogue, whereas the dialogue history and the user proﬁle (i.e. the middle-term and the long-term information, respectively) play a complementary role, evolving their usefulness as the dialogue evolves.
Dynamic Channel Access for Energy Efficient Data Gathering in Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) operating in the license-free spectrum suffer from uncontrolled interference as those spectrum bands become increasingly crowded. The emerging cognitive radio sensor networks (CRSNs) provide a promising solution to address this challenge by enabling sensor nodes to opportunistically access licensed channels. However, since sensor nodes have to consume considerable energy to support CR functionalities, such as channel sensing and switching, the opportunistic channel accessing should be carefully devised for improving the energy efficiency in CRSN. To this end, we investigate the dynamic channel accessing problem to improve the energy efficiency for a clustered CRSN. Under the primary users' protection requirement, we study the resource allocation issues to maximize the energy efficiency of utilizing a licensed channel for intra-cluster and inter-cluster data transmission, respectively. With the consideration of the energy consumption in channel sensing and switching, we further determine the condition when sensor nodes should sense and switch to a licensed channel for improving the energy efficiency, according to the packet loss rate of the license-free channel. In addition, two dynamic channel accessing schemes are proposed to identify the channel sensing and switching sequences for intra-cluster and inter-cluster data transmission, respectively. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed channel accessing schemes can significantly reduce the energy consumption in CRSNs.
Minimally Restrictive Decision Support Systems

Decision-making behavior is heterogeneous. We therefore suggest building a decision support system for online purchase decisions that can support various different decision strategies and also allows users to mix them. We design this minimally restrictive system by decomposing different strategies into their component steps and implementing aids for supporting these steps. We empirically compare this system to a typical one, which restricts the users by supporting only one normative, utilitymaximizing strategy. Users perceive the minimally restrictive system as requiring lesser effort and being more enjoyable to use than the typical decision support system. Furthermore, they exhibit a higher intention to re-use the minimally restrictive system. However, there is no difference with respect to the perceived usefulness. Our results imply that webstores should implement minimally restrictive systems not only because of high user satisfaction, but also because analyzing clicks on the aids provides information as to which strategies are being used.
Probabilistic Language Modelling

Language models assign probabilities to strings of symbols. Their interpretation is reviewed and applied to text classification. A language recogniser is constructed from Bayes’ theorem and a simple bigram model. This provides near perfect results on sentences of text and motivates a mixture language model. Hidden Markov models (HMM) are reviewed as a method of capturing order over different length scales and used to construct a mixture model. This allows segmentation of text into unknown languages and the extraction of foreign words in known languages from English text. Future directions are discussed.
Parallel Computing for Detecting Processes for Distorted Signal

Wireless devices such as hand phones and broadband modems rely heavily on forward error correction techniques for their proper functioning, thus sending and receiving information with minimal or no error, while utilizing the available bandwidth. Major requirements for modern digital wireless communication systems include high throughput, low power consumption and physical size. This research focused on the speed. The design of a four state convolutional encoder and Viterbi decoder has been studied and implemented. In order to solve the Viterbi decoding of lower speed problem, a Viterbi decode method has been parallelized. Message passing interface (MPI) with dual core personal computer (PC) and with cluster is selected as the environments to parallelize VA by distributing the states on the cluster and then by using block based technique. It is found that parallel Viterbi code when the states have been distributed on a number of computers provide poor performance; due to the communication overhead. So, in order to obtain better performance; it is suggested that to replace the multicomputer system (LAN with 100Mbps) with multiprocessor system (its speed tenth of Gbps). Block based parallelism can reach a maximum efficiency of 94.25 % and speed-up of 1.88497 when 2 PCs are used on a cluster with message length of 3000 bits. On 3 PCs, maximum efficiency of 95% and speedup of 2.85 have been obtained with message length of 9000 bits. However; on 4 PCs; the system reaches maximum efficiency of 58.333, maximum speed-up of 2.33 with message length of 3000 bits.
Exploration of population fixed-points versus mutation rates for functions of unitation

Using a dynamic systems model for the Simple Genetic Algorithm due to Vose, we analyze the fixed point behavior of the model without crossover applied to functions of unitation. Unitation functions are simplified fitness functions that reduce the search space into a smaller number of equivalence classes. This reduction allows easier computation of fixed points. The effect of model fixed points that are outside of the population space, but near enough to influence behavior of the Simple GA will be examined. This analysis will be applied to several fitness functions of unitation.
An Evaluation of Input Devices for Timbre Space Navigation

This thesis presents experimental research into the impact of input devices on human performance in a four-dimensional timbre space navigation task using ISEE, a highlevel synthesizer-independent user interface. Subjects carried out two tasks: in the first task four different input device types (mouse, relative joystick, absolute joystick and dataglove) were used to reach target positions in a perceptual space using audio-visual feedback; in the second task only the glove was used in audio-visual and auditory-only feedback conditions. Data was analysed for speed, accuracy and control integration (the amount of cross-dimensional motion) of the devices. Results indicate a highly significant effect of the choice of input device on the efficacy of timbre manipulation. The mouse was the fastest and most accurate device, then come the absolute joystick, relative joystick and glove. The glove scored significantly better in control integration with 3 out of 4 dimensions, which might indicate a closer correspondence of the perceptual structure of the timbre space with that of the glove. The visual 2 x 2-D representation had no significant effect on control integration and visual feedback did improve accuracy significantly, but not speed. These results have significant implications for the design of intuitive interfaces for direct control of sounds in composition and performance activities.
Visualizing software for telecommunication services

An active research area in telecommunications concerns how to specify and control the addition of new services, such as call waiting or instant messaging, into existing software. One approach is to rely on a component-based architecture such as Distributed Feature Composition (DFC), by which a new service can be specified as a composition of primitive features over time. Formally, a communication episode is represented by a dynamic graph of software feature boxes, called a usage. This serves as the fundamental model for how services are invoked and how they interact with other services.This paper, after providing some background on DFC, discusses a technique for visualizing the usages which arise through DFC specifications. With the visualization, users can monitor and validate service protocols and feature interactions in real time or through playback logs. The principal display component uses a novel variation of force-directed layouts for undirected graphs. The resulting graphical interface has become a principal tool for developers building services using DFC.
Novel 3-Amino-6-chloro-7-(azol-2 or 5-yl)-1,1-dioxo-1,4,2-benzodithiazine Derivatives with Anticancer Activity: Synthesis and QSAR Study

A series of new 3-amino-6-chloro-7-(azol-2 or 5-yl)-1,1-dioxo-1,4,2-benzodithiazine derivatives 5a–j have been synthesized and evaluated in vitro for their antiproliferative activity at the U.S. National Cancer Institute. The most active compound 5h showed significant cytotoxic effects against ovarian (OVCAR-3) and breast (MDA-MB-468) cancer (10% and 47% cancer cell death, respectively) as well as a good selectivity toward prostate (DU-145), colon (SW-620) and renal (TK-10) cancer cell lines. To obtain a deeper insight into the structure-activity relationships of the new compounds 5a–j QSAR studies have been applied. Theoretical calculations allowed the identification of molecular descriptors belonging to the RDF (RDF055p and RDF145m in the MOLT-4 and UO-31 QSAR models, respectively) and 3D-MorSE (Mor32m and Mor16e for MOLT-4 and UO-31 QSAR models) descriptor classes. Based on these data, QSAR models with good robustness and predictive ability have been obtained.
An overview of Medusa: simplified graph processing on GPUs

Graphs are the de facto data structures for many applications, and efficient graph processing is a must for the application performance. GPUs have an order of magnitude higher computational power and memory bandwidth compared to CPUs and have been adopted to accelerate several common graph algorithms. However, it is difficult to write correct and efficient GPU programs and even more difficult for graph processing due to the irregularities of graph structures. To address those difficulties, we propose a programming framework named Medusa to simplify graph processing on GPUs. Medusa offers a small set of APIs, based on which developers can define their application logics by writing sequential code without awareness of GPU architectures. The Medusa runtime system automatically executes the developer defined APIs in parallel on the GPU, with a series of graph-centric optimizations. This poster gives an overview of Medusa, and presents some preliminary results.
A new transplantable mouse liver tumor of spontaneous origin.

A transplantable primary liver tumor 1st observed in a 2-month-old female Swiss-Webster mouse is described. Morphologically, it was poorly differentiated. It was easily converted into an ascitic form. The tumor grew rapidly and uniformly without regression in 100% of Swiss-Webster mice after the 2nd transplant generation. Several characteristics of this tumor distinguish it from other transplantable primary liver tumors of the mouse; growth was rapid and invasive, and by Generation 4 no host-conditioning (X-irradiation and/or cortisone) was required; strain specificity was minimal, with progressive tumor growth in 100% of C3HeB/FeJ, DBA/2J, C57BL/6 Millerton, AKR/J, and C56BR/cdJ inbred, and in ICR/Ha Swiss random-bred mice.
Augur: A delay aware forwarding protocol for delay-tolerant networks

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) are characterized by the absence of continuous connectivity resulting in high delivery delays that may exceed the acceptable limit for practical applications. In this paper, we address this issue by introducing Augur. Augur is a new routing protocol for DTNs targeted to minimize delays of message delivery. The routing scheme benefits from the spatiotemporal history data of the nodes to route message s only through gateways having less expected delay to deliver a message to its destination. We demonstrate through a comparative evaluation that Augur outperforms the state of the art DTN protocols in terms of delivery probability, overhead ratio and latency. We found that at low traffic rates Augur reduces the overhead ratio by up to 94%, and by up to 88% at high traffic. We also observed that the improvement in latency was reduced by up to half over the existing protocols in both traffic rates while still improving the delivery probability of messages.
'Coase vs Hayek': Economic Organization and the Knowledge Economy

Many writers argue that economic organization is undergoing major transformation in the emerging knowledge economy; authority relations are withering; legal and ownership-based definitions of the boundaries of firms are becoming irrelevant and there are increasingly few constraints on the set of feasible combinations of coordination mechanisms. The present paper critically deals with these claims, beginning from the basic idea that they may be analysed as turning on the implications for the Coasian firm of the Hayekian notion that the distributed knowledge is a strong constraint on the use of planned coordination. It argues that there are efficiency reasons for the existence of authority under Hayekian distributed knowledge; that the increasing importance of knowledge in production does not render legal and ownership-based notions of the boundaries of the firm irrelevant; and that coordination mechanisms will also cluster in certain, predictable combinations in the emerging knowledge economy. Thus, Coasian firm organization is consistent with Hayekian knowledge conditions.
TrAVis to Enhance Students’ Self-Monitoring in Online Learning Supported by Computer-Mediated Communication Tools

This paper presents TrAVis (Tracking Data Analysis and Visualization Tools), a Web-based system that assists the students in visualizing their communication activities in distance learning situations. While most of the existing systems in the same genre are exclusively dedicated to the teachers, TrAVis is objectively designed and implemented for both teachers and students. In particular, TrAVis is considered a “reflective tool” that helps students analyze and evaluate their own activities in relation to those of others. This paper focuses on how TrAVis provides the students with new ways to monitor in real-time their individual and group activities. It also discusses the experiment in an authentic learning situation along with students’ feedback on the usability and utility of TrAVis.
Long-term Stress of Simply Supported Steel-concrete Composite Beams

The theoretical model to compute the long-term stress of simply supported steel-concrete composite beam was deduced. The model includes the effects of steel bars in concrete slab, concrete shrinkage and creep. The computed results agreed well with the test results. On this basis, the effects of factors such as concrete age to loading, longitudinal rein- forcement ratio in concrete slab, concrete slab width, steel beam height, environmental yearly average relative humidity, external load value and concrete strength on the long-term stress of steel-concrete composite beams are discussed. The re- sults show that the additional stress at the top of concrete slab is tensile stress and that at the bottom of steel beam is com- pressive stress. The ratio of steel beam to concrete slab thickness, as well as concrete slab width and the longitudinal rein- forcement ratio in concrete slab can not be ignored. Concrete strength, external load value and concrete age to loading have relatively bigger effect as well, But the environmental yearly average relative humidity has less impact. The fruits are useful to the design and application of steel-concrete composite beams.
Top (k1, k2) Distance-based outliers detection in an uncertain dataset

In this paper, we focus on distance-based outliers detection in an uncertain dataset, which is very useful in large social network. Based on the x-tuple model and the possible world semantics, we propose the concept of tuple outlier score, top k1 probability and top (k1, k2) distance-based outlier. We then design an algorithm using dynamic programming technique to calculate tuple outlier scores and detect top (k1, k2) distance-based outliers. The local neighbor region is proposed to detect approximate outliers with high precision efficiently. We also propose two pruning strategies to avoid additional computation overhead and prune data objects that cannot be outliers. After theory analysis, we conduct experiments in two real datasets to verify good performance of our method.