Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed Constrained Optimization by Consensus-Based Primal-Dual Perturbation Method

Various distributed optimization methods have been developed for solving problems which have simple local constraint sets and whose objective function is the sum of local cost functions of distributed agents in a network. Motivated by emerging applications in smart grid and distributed sparse regression, this paper studies distributed optimization methods for solving general problems which have a coupled global cost function and have inequality constraints. We consider a network scenario where each agent has no global knowledge and can access only its local mapping and constraint functions. To solve this problem in a distributed manner, we propose a consensus-based distributed primal-dual perturbation (PDP) algorithm. In the algorithm, agents employ the average consensus technique to estimate the global cost and constraint functions via exchanging messages with neighbors, and meanwhile use a local primal-dual perturbed subgradient method to approach a global optimum. The proposed PDP method not only can handle smooth inequality constraints but also non-smooth constraints such as some sparsity promoting constraints arising in sparse optimization. We prove that the proposed PDP algorithm converges to an optimal primal-dual solution of the original problem, under standard problem and network assumptions. Numerical results illustrating the performance of the proposed algorithm for a distributed demand response control problem in smart grid are also presented.
Multi-Metric Optimization Using Ensemble Tuning

This paper examines tuning for statistical machine translation (SMT) with respect to multiple evaluation metrics. We propose several novel methods for tuning towards multiple objectives, including some based on ensemble decoding methods. Pareto-optimality is a natural way to think about multi-metric optimization (MMO) and our methods can effectively combine several Pareto-optimal solutions, obviating the need to choose one. Our best performing ensemble tuning method is a new algorithm for multi-metric optimization that searches for Pareto-optimal ensemble models. We study the effectiveness of our methods through experiments on multiple as well as single reference(s) datasets. Our experiments show simultaneous gains across several metrics (BLEU, RIBES), without any significant reduction in other metrics. This contrasts the traditional tuning where gains are usually limited to a single metric. Our human evaluation results confirm that in order to produce better MT output, optimizing multiple metrics is better than optimizing only one.
Repercussions of severe preeclampsia in neonatal outcomes: a cross-sectional study

Objetivo: analisar os fatores associados aos desfechos neonatais de gestantes com diagnostico de pre-eclâmpsia grave. Metodo: trata-se de um estudo transversal desenvolvido em uma maternidade escola, cuja populacao correspondeu aos fetos/neonatos de gestantes com diagnostico de pre-eclâmpsia grave. A amostra correspondeu a 157 prontuarios, em um recorte de 12 meses. Para analise descritiva foram utilizados valores de frequencia e porcentagem, enquanto que os resultados da analise inferencial foram apresentados por meio dos valores de medias e desvio-padrao. A analise dos dados foi realizada por meio do SPSS 2.0. A pesquisa seguiu a Resolucao 466/2012 do Conselho Nacional de Saude. Resultados esperados: Espera-se produzir evidencias que sinalizem as repercussoes provocadas pela pre-eclâmpsia grave sobre os desfechos perinatais .
Comparable Antigenicity and Immunogenicity of Oligomeric Forms of a Novel, Acute HIV-1 Subtype C gp145 Envelope for Use in Preclinical and Clinical Vaccine Research

ABSTRACT Eliciting broadly reactive functional antibodies remains a challenge in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) vaccine development that is complicated by variations in envelope (Env) subtype and structure. The majority of new global HIV-1 infections are subtype C, and novel antigenic properties have been described for subtype C Env proteins. Thus, an HIV-1 subtype C Env protein (CO6980v0c22) from an infected person in the acute phase (Fiebig stage I/II) was developed as a research reagent and candidate immunogen. The gp145 envelope is a novel immunogen with a fully intact membrane-proximal external region (MPER), extended by a polylysine tail. Soluble gp145 was enriched for trimers that yielded the expected “fan blade” motifs when visualized by cryoelectron microscopy. CO6980v0c22 gp145 reacts with the 4E10, PG9, PG16, and VRC01 HIV-1 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), as well as the V1/V2-specific PGT121, 697, 2158, and 2297 MAbs. Different gp145 oligomers were tested for immunogenicity in rabbits, and purified dimers, trimers, and larger multimers elicited similar levels of cross-subtype binding and neutralizing antibodies to tier 1 and some tier 2 viruses. Immunized rabbit sera did not neutralize the highly resistant CO6980v0c22 pseudovirus but did inhibit the homologous infectious molecular clone in a peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) assay. This Env is currently in good manufacturing practice (GMP) production to be made available for use as a clinical research tool and further evaluation as a candidate vaccine. IMPORTANCE At present, the product pipeline for HIV vaccines is insufficient and is limited by inadequate capacity to produce large quantities of vaccine to standards required for human clinical trials. Such products are required to evaluate critical questions of vaccine formulation, route, dosing, and schedule, as well as to establish vaccine efficacy. The gp145 Env protein presented in this study forms physical trimers, binds to many of the well-characterized broad neutralizing MAbs that target conserved Env epitopes, and induce cross-subtype neutralizing antibodies as measured in both cell line and primary cell assays. This subtype C Env gp145 protein is currently undergoing good manufacturing practice production for use as a reagent for preclinical studies and for human clinical research. This product will serve as a reagent for comparative studies and may represent a next-generation candidate HIV immunogen.
Overheating threshold and its effect on time-temperature-transformation diagrams of zirconium based bulk metallic glasses

A pronounced effect of overheating is observed on the crystallization behavior for the three zirconium-based bulk metallic glasses: Zr41.2Ti13. 8Cu12.5Ni10Be22. 5, Zr57Cu15.4Ni12. 6Al10Nb5, and Zr52.5Cu17. 9Ni14.6Al10Ti5. A threshold overheating temperature is found for each of the three alloys, above which there is a drastic increase in the undercooling level and the crystallization times. Time–temperature-transformation (TTT) diagrams were measured for the three alloys by overheating above their respective threshold temperatures. The TTT curves for Zr41.2Ti13. 8Cu12.5Ni10Be22. 5 and Zr57Cu15.4Ni12. 6Al10Nb5 are very similar in shape and scale with their respective glass transition temperatures, suggesting that system-specific properties do not play a crucial role in defining crystallization kinetics in these alloys. The critical cooling rates to vitrify the alloys as determined from the TTT curves are about 2 K/s for Zr41.2Ti13. 8Cu12.5Ni10Be22. 5 and 10 K/s for Zr57Cu15.4Ni12. 6Al10Nb5. The measurements were conducted in a high-vacuum electrostatic levitator.
Auxin Depletion from the Leaf Axil Conditions Competence for Axillary Meristem Formation in Arabidopsis and Tomato[W][OPEN]

During vegetative development of tomato and Arabidopsis, auxin is depleted from leaf axils, resulting in a low auxin environment that is required for axillary bud formation. Local manipulation of auxin levels or auxin signaling disrupts the plants ability to form axillary meristems. The enormous variation in architecture of flowering plants is based to a large extent on their ability to form new axes of growth throughout their life span. Secondary growth is initiated from groups of pluripotent cells, called meristems, which are established in the axils of leaves. Such meristems form lateral organs and develop into a side shoot or a flower, depending on the developmental status of the plant and environmental conditions. The phytohormone auxin is well known to play an important role in inhibiting the outgrowth of axillary buds, a phenomenon known as apical dominance. However, the role of auxin in the process of axillary meristem formation is largely unknown. In this study, we show in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) that auxin is depleted from leaf axils during vegetative development. Disruption of polar auxin transport compromises auxin depletion from the leaf axil and axillary meristem initiation. Ectopic auxin biosynthesis in leaf axils interferes with axillary meristem formation, whereas repression of auxin signaling in polar auxin transport mutants can largely rescue their branching defects. These results strongly suggest that depletion of auxin from leaf axils is a prerequisite for axillary meristem formation during vegetative development.
Does my service have unspecified behavior?

Services are loosely coupled interacting software components. Since two or more services are usually composed to one software system, the behavior of an implemented service should not differ to its specification. Therefore we propose an approach to test, if the implementation contains unspecified behavior. Due to the interacting nature of services this is a nontrivial task.
Redox Responsive Hyaluronic Acid Nanogels for Treating RHAMM (CD168) Over-expressive Cancer, both Primary and Metastatic Tumors

It remains a substantial challenge to targetedly deliver drug to both primary tumors and metastatic lesions employing a single nanoparticle delivery system. Here aiming at the receptor for hyaluronic acid mediated motility (RHAMM or CD168), a specific receptor for hyaluronic acid (HA), the bioreductive responsive HA nanogels loaded doxorubicin were prepared. The targeting effects of HA nanogels in high RHAMM-expressed cancer cells, primary and metastatic tumors were investigated. It was found that HA nanogels show a strong in vitro and in vivo RHAMM-mediated cellular uptake and drug delivery. The cellular uptake of HA nanogels in high RHAMM-expressed LNCaP and H22 cells was far more than the uptake in low RHAMM-expressed NIH3T3 cells. The IC50 value of drug-loaded HA nanogels against H22 cells was lower than that of free drug. In vivo antitumor activity examinations showed that the HA nanogels not only had significantly superior antitumor efficacy in murine H22 and human LNCaP tumor-bearing mice but also exhibited much deep tumor penetration. The drug delivery of lymph node metastasis by systemically administering HA nanogels demonstrated that the HA nanogels could sufficiently increase drug concentration in metastatic lymph node by RHAMM-HA interaction and inhibit the growth of metastatic lymph node, even completely heal malignant lymph node metastasis. Thus, RHAMM-directed drug delivery is a promising therapy route for treating both primary and metastatic tumors.
The Analysis of Implementation of Discovery Based Learning to improve Students Higher Order Thinking Skills in Solving r-Dynamic Vertex Coloring Problem Based on Their Reflective Thinking Skill

This study aims to analyse the implementation of discovery-based learning in improving students’ high-order thinking skills in solving r-dynamic problems based on their reflective thinking ability. The method used in this study is a mixed method, which mix up the qualitative and quantitative methods. The subjects consisted of 18 students in experiment class and 18 students in control class. The post-test result of the experiment class of 11.11% students having low level of high-order thinking ability, and 88.89% having high level of high-order thinking ability with their reflective thinking skill 25% of low level, 68,75% of medium level, 6,25% of high level. In the post-test result of the control class, there are 27.78% students having low level of high-order thinking ability and 72.22% students having high level of high-order thinking ability with their reflective thinking skill 53,85% of low level, 46,15% of medium level. The data analysis presents the score of independent sample t-test of post-test is sig. 0.05 (p≤0,05), so it is significant. Therefore, there is a different of their high-order thinking skill ability between the experiment and control classes. The regression equation of both variables expresses 1.497 (Ῡ = −51.067 + 1.497X). The coefficient of determination is 0.575 of 57.5% effect, contribution of the dependent variable (the result of the test post) by the free variable (Discovery based learning) is 57.5% and 42.5% explained by other variables. It implies that we accept the positive hypothesis as tcount>ttable (4.649> 2.119). Thus, there is an impact of the implementation of discovery based learning in improving the students’ higher order thinking skills in solving the r-dynamic vertex coloring problem based on their reflective thinking skill.
Synergistic hemolytic activity of Staphylococcus lugdunensis is mediated by three peptides encoded by a non-agr genetic locus

Some strains of the coagulase-negative Staphylococcus lugdunensis produce a synergistic hemolytic activity (SLUSH), phenotypically similar to the delta-hemolysin of S. aureus. Reverse-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography of supernatants from S. lugdunensis 307 yielded three late-eluting peaks of 3.5 kDa with synergistic hemolytic activity. A degenerate oligonucleotide probe was designed from partial amino acid sequences of the 23-amino-acid (aa) tryptic fragments from one of the three peaks and hybridized to a single 2.8-kb HindIII chromosomal fragment. The relevant portion of this fragment was cloned by PCR, and sequencing showed the presence of three related open reading frames (ORFs), SLUSH-A, SLUSH-B, and SLUSH-C, preceded by an unrelated short potentially coding sequence (ORF-X), cotranscribed on a polycistronic 838-nucleotide mRNA. The amino acid sequences of the peptides from the three peaks align perfectly with the predicted sequences from the three SLUSH ORFs (peak I = SLUSH-B; peak II = SLUSH-C; peak III = SLUSH-A). These three peptides are closely related (amino acid homology, >76%) and do not show significant homology to S. aureus delta-hemolysin but do resemble a Salmonella typhimurium invasin and the "gonococcal growth inhibitor," a bacteriocin secreted by Staphylococcus haemolyticus. The predicted ORF-X gene product is a 24-aa peptide with no homology to the SLUSH peptides.
Comparative study on biodiesel production from Jatropha Curcas oil by supercritical and chemical catalytic method: a mathematical approach

ABSTRACT Jatropha curcas oil is a renewable raw material which has been widely used for the production of biodiesel (BD) using various processes. This research article presents a study about BD production via chemical catalytic transesterification reaction method, supercritical methanol (SCM) method, and SCM with stirrer method. On this viewpoint, mathematical models of transesterification reaction process are formulated. The model systems are solved mathematically as well as numerically and the optimum value of important parameters, including reaction temperature, stirrer speed, and the molar ratio of methanol to oil, are found out. A comparative mathematical study has been made among these three processes with respect to product efficiency, reaction conditions, and mass transfer. Furthermore, control theoretic approach is applied in mixing intensity through supercritical process for cost-effective production of BD from Jatropha curcas oil. The optimum conditions were found to be 323K temperature, 6:1 mol/mol for methanol to oil ratio, and 561 rpm for stirrer speed. It may be concluded that SCM with stirrer is a promising alternative to produce BD from Jatropha curcas oil due to its economical benefit, high productivity, and good quality of the product. The validity of the models is established by experimental results available in literature.
Toxicology of Carbon Nanotubes - A Review

A large number of nanoparticles are present in the environment in which some are unintentionally produced; ultra fine particles or intentionally produced engineered nanoparticle (ENPs). The carbon based ENPs include singlewalled and multi walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs and MWCNTs), spherical fullerenes and dendrimers. Among all ENPs, the carbon based ENPs are attracting much attention for potential biomedical applications, such as biosensors design, drug design, drug delivery, tumor therapy and tissue engineering, because of their electronic, optical and mechanical properties. The pristine CNTs are inert in nature so it needs to be functionalized to make it reactive. The functionalization appends different functional group e.g. C=O, C–O, –OH and –COOH to CNTs, which make it dispersible and suitable for different applications. The biocompatibility of these functionalized CNTs and their composite has to be tested before real time applications in the biological system. Determining the toxicity of CNT is the most persistent questions in nanotechnology. Inconsistent reports on toxicity of CNTs often appear in the literature and a mechanistic explanation of the reported toxicity remains incomprehensible. Results from various scientific tests on cells have so far proven confusing, with some results indicating it to be highly toxic and others showing no signs of toxicity. Several toxicity mechanisms have been proposed for CNTs including interruption of trans membrane electron transfer, disruption/penetration of the cell envelope, oxidation of cell components, and production of secondary products such as dissolved heavy metal ions or reactive oxygen species (ROS). Toxicity of a CNT sample is dependent on its composition along with its geometry and surface functionalization. Several studies have suggested that wellfunctionalized CNTs are safe to animal cells, while raw CNTs or CNTs without functionalization show severe toxicity to animal or human cells at even moderate dosage.
The monotonic increasing relationship between average powers of CMOS VLSI circuits with and without delay and its applications

The authors theoretically describe the monotonic increasing relationship between average powers of a CMOS VLSI circuit with and without delay. The power of an ideal circuit without delay, which can be fast computed, has been used as the evaluation criterion for the power of a practical circuit with delay, which needs more computing time, in such fields as fast estimation for the average power and the maximum power, and fast optimization for the low test power. The authors propose a novel simulation approach that uses delay-free power to compact a long input vector pair sequence into a short sequence and then, uses the compacted one to fast simulate the average (or maximum) power for a CMOS circuit. In comparison with the traditional simulation approach that uses an un-compacted input sequence to simulate the average (or maximum) power, experiment results demonstrate that in the field of fast estimation for the average power, the present approach can be 6–10 times faster without significant loss in accuracy (less than 3.5% on average), and in the field of fast estimation for the maximum power, this approach can be 6–8 times faster without significant loss in accuracy (less than 5% on average). In the field of fast optimization for the test power, the authors propose a novel delay-free power optimization approach for the test power. Experiment results demonstrate that, in comparison with the approach of direct optimization and the approach of Hamming distance optimization, this approach is of the highest optimization efficiency because it needs shorter time (16.84%) to obtain a better optimization effect (reducing 35.11% test power).
PetroAdvisor: A Volunteer-based Information System for Collecting and Rating Petroglyph Data

In this paper we exploit a volunteer-based information paradigm for archaeological aims. In particular, we present PetroAdvisor, a system supporting several fundamental activities to digitally preserve petroglyph sites. The system also uses a rewarding strategy in order to stimulate people participation to the project, so that those entering useful information gain free archaeological data, tips on excursions and tours, opinions and rating from previous tourists, and so forth. User provided information typically consists of petroglyph pictures, descriptions, and several useful metadata, such as geo-referenced information, petroglyph contours, and so forth, empowering the work of the archaeologists, and enabling them to tackle technology shortfalls.
X-band receiver for passive imaging based on TerraSAR-X illuminator

The paper describes an X-band receiver constructed from Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) elements that was used to capture a radar signal transmitted by the TerraSAR-X satellite. The motivation was to use recorded waveforms to perform ground-based imaging of the surrounding area. The paper describes the motivation, receiver setup and the results of the measurement campaign.
A new learning approach for Digital Construction

The construction industry is embracing a journey towards digitalisation, and Building Information Modelling (BIM) is playing a key role in this transformation towards digital construction. However, some studies claim that the lack of BIM-related skills among construction professionals is a major barrier to this change. Therefore, adopting a new learning approach is vital to develop the skills which can produce a radical shift in employees’ perception of working to achieve the project goals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and a case study was examined to evaluate current construction practices. These were viewed through the lens of connectivism to understand the complex learning that happens in a rapidly changing digital world. In connectivism, learning is the formation of connections in a network which is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. This study explores how learning takes place in BIM construction projects and recommends that stakeholders within such projects need to approach their learning environment in a connected way to achieve their project goals. Moreover, this allows people to learn continuously and respond appropriately to information on the changing project environment.
Food security and nutrition in the Russian Federation – a health policy analysis

Background In the Russian Federation (Russia), an elevated burden of premature mortality attributable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has been observed since the country's economic transition. NCDs are largely related to preventable risk factors such as unhealthy diets. Objective This health policy study's aim was to analyze past and current food production and nutritional trends in Russia and their policy implications for Russia's NCD burden. Design We examined food security and nutrition in Russia using an analytical framework of food availability, access to food, and consumption. Results Agricultural production declined during the period of economic transition, and nutritional habits changed from high-fat animal products to starches. However, per-capita energy consumption remained stable due to increased private expenditures on food and use of private land. Paradoxically, the prevalence of obesity still increased because of an excess consumption of unsaturated fat, sugar, and salt on one side, and insufficient intake of fruit and vegetables on the other. Conclusions Policy and economic reforms in Russia were not accompanied by a food security crisis or macronutrient deprivation of the population. Yet, unhealthy diets in contemporary Russia contribute to the burden of NCDs and related avoidable mortality. Food and nutrition policies in Russia need to specifically address nutritional shortcomings and food-insecure vulnerable populations. Appropriate, evidence-informed food and nutrition policies might help address Russia's burden of NCDs on a population level.