Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antimicrobial activity and antibiotic susceptibility of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium spp. intended for use as starter and probiotic cultures

Antimicrobial activity and antibiotic susceptibility were tested for 23 Lactobacillus and three Bifidobacterium strains isolated from different ecological niches. Agar-well diffusion method was used to test the antagonistic effect (against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and Candida albicans) of acid and neutralized (pH 5.5) lyophilized concentrated supernatants (cell-free supernatant; CFS) and whey (cell-free whey fractions; CFW) from de Man–Rogosa–Sharpe/trypticase-phytone-yeast broth and skim milk. Acid CFS and CFW showed high acidification rate-dependent bacterial inhibition; five strains were active against C. albicans. Neutralized CFS/CFW assays showed six strains active against S. aureus (L. acidophilus L-1, L. brevis 1, L. fermentum 1, B. animalis subsp. lactis L-3), E. coli (L. bulgaricus 6) or B. cereus (L. plantarum 24-4В). Inhibition of two pathogens with neutralized CFS (L. bulgaricus 6, L. helveticus 3, L. plantarum 24-2L, L. fermentum 1)/CFW (L. plantarum 24-5D, L. plantarum 24-4В) was detected. Some strains maintained activity after pH neutralization, indicating presence of active substances. The antibiotics minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined by the Epsilometer test method. All strains were susceptible to ampicillin, gentamicin, erythromycin and tetracycline. Four lactobacilli were resistant to one antibiotic (L. rhamnosus Lio 1 to streptomycin) or two antibiotics (L. acidophilus L-1 and L. brevis 1 to kanamycin and clindamycin; L. casei L-4 to clindamycin and chloramphenicol). Vancomycin MICs > 256 μg/mL indicated intrinsic resistance for all heterofermentative lactobacilli. The antimicrobially active strains do not cause concerns about antibiotic resistance transfer and could be used as natural biopreservatives in food and therapeutic formulations.
Improved sensing characteristics of dual-gate transistor sensor using silicon nanowire arrays defined by nanoimprint lithography

Abstract This work describes the construction of a sensitive, stable, and label-free sensor based on a dual-gate field-effect transistor (DG FET), in which uniformly distributed and size-controlled silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays by nanoimprint lithography act as conductor channels. Compared to previous DG FETs with a planar-type silicon channel layer, the constructed SiNW DG FETs exhibited superior electrical properties including a higher capacitive-coupling ratio of 18.0 and a lower off-state leakage current under high-temperature stress. In addition, while the conventional planar single-gate (SG) FET- and planar DG FET-based pH sensors showed the sensitivities of 56.7 mV/pH and 439.3 mV/pH, respectively, the SiNW DG FET-based pH sensors showed not only a higher sensitivity of 984.1 mV/pH, but also a lower drift rate of 0.8% for pH-sensitivity. This demonstrates that the SiNW DG FETs simultaneously achieve high sensitivity and stability, with significant potential for future biosensing applications.
Is there Hope for Interlingua methods? A CLIR Comparison Experiment between Interlingua and Query Translation

A comparison of interlingua and query translation is proposed in a particular cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) application which consists on retrieving a book from the collection by using one of its chapters in a different language as a query. The experiments are performed in three languages (English, Chinese and Spanish) and all the possible combinations. It is shown that interlin- gua is able to outperform the query translation approach in some cross-language tasks. Results are further analysed and it is found that, for this particular task, the quality of translation (in terms of BLEU and PER) is not directly correlated with the query translation performance.
Spinal SIRT1 Activation Attenuates Neuropathic Pain in Mice

Abnormal histone acetylation occurs during neuropathic pain through an epigenetic mechanism. Silent information regulator 1 (sir2 or SIRT1), a NAD-dependent deacetylase, plays complex systemic roles in a variety of processes through deacetylating acetylated histone and other specific substrates. But the role of SIRT1 in neuropathic pain is not well established yet. The present study was intended to detect SIRT1 content and activity, nicotinamide (NAM) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) in the spinal cord using immunoblotting or mass spectroscopy over time in mice following chronic constriction injury (CCI) or sham surgery. In addition, the effect of intrathecal injection of NAD or resveratrol on thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia was evaluated in CCI mice. Finally, we investigated whether SIRT1 inhibitor EX-527 could reverse the anti-nociceptive effect of NAD or resveratrol. It was found that spinal SIRT1 expression, deacetylase activity and NAD/NAM decreased significantly 1, 3, 7, 14 and 21 days after CCI surgery as compared with sham group. In addition, daily intrathecal injection of 5 µl 800 mM NAD 1 h before and 1 day after CCI surgery or single intrathecal injection of 5 µl 90 mM resveratrol 1 h before CCI surgery produced a transient inhibitory effect on thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia in CCI mice. Finally, an intrathecal injection of 5 µl 1.2 mM EX-527 1 h before NAD or resveratrol administration reversed the anti-nociceptive effect of NAD or resveratrol. These data indicate that the reduction in SIRT1 deacetylase activity may be a factor contributing to the development of neuropathic pain in CCI mice. Our findings suggest that the enhancement of spinal NAD/NAM and/or SIRT1 activity may be a potentially promising strategy for the prevention or treatment of neuropathic pain.
Automatically Mining Parallel Corpora for Minority Languages from Web Pages

Parallel corpora are indispensable resources for a variety of multilingual natural language processing. This paper describes a system, which mines automatically parallel corpora from web pages. It attempts to overcome the shortage of parallel corpora in minority languages. Learning from the existing technology of mining web bilingual corpora, and combining with the characteristics of minority languages bilingual websites, a method, mining parallel corpora in minority languages based on heuristic information extracted from content, is proposed. Experiments, carried out on the Chinese-Mongolian language pair, show that the system is successful in automatically identifying a significant amount of parallel texts from the World Wide Web.
Variance Estimates and Model Selection Variance Estimates and Model Selection 2

1 Earlier versions of this paper were presented at 1998 International Symposium on forecasting, Edinburgh, 1997 Computing in Economics and Finance, Stanford and Bilkent University seminar. We would like to thank to the participants. We also would like to thank to Karim Abadir and Michael P. Clements for their valuable comments. Abstract The large majority of the criteria for model selection are functions of the ^ 2 , the usual variance estimate for a regression model. The validity of the usual variance estimate depends on some assumptions, most critically the validity of the model being estimated. This is often violated in model selection contexts, where model search takes place over invalid models. A cross validated estimate of variance is more robust to speciication errors see, for example, Efron1983. We consider the eeects of replacing the usual estimate of variance by cross-validated estimates in the functions of several model selection criteria. Our Monte-Carlo study, in the context of selecting the right order for an autoregressive process, shows that these replacements improve the performance of some of the criteria for large sample sizes. Moreover forecasts based on the model selected by the criteria using cross-validated estimates of variance are better for both small and large sample sizes.
Cilia-Like Beating of Active Microtubule Bundles

In vitro–assembled microtubule bundles exhibit oscillatory beating patterns and organize into metachronal waves. The mechanism that drives the regular beating of individual cilia and flagella, as well as dense ciliary fields, remains unclear. We describe a minimal model system, composed of microtubules and molecular motors, which self-assemble into active bundles exhibiting beating patterns reminiscent of those found in eukaryotic cilia and flagella. These observations suggest that hundreds of molecular motors, acting within an elastic microtubule bundle, spontaneously synchronize their activity to generate large-scale oscillations. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that densely packed, actively bending bundles spontaneously synchronize their beating patterns to produce collective behavior similar to metachronal waves observed in ciliary fields. The simple in vitro system described here could provide insights into beating of isolated eukaryotic cilia and flagella, as well as their synchronization in dense ciliary fields.
Neural Network Modeling in Cross-Cultural Research: A Comparison with Multiple Regression

This article describes the use of neural networks as an alternative method to investigate the links between various dimensions of culture and perceptions of justice and demonstrates their ability to model the data relationships with higher accuracy than multiple regression analysis. A complete discussion of the development and validation of the neural network models is included as a guide to researchers in management who are interested in exploring this methodology.
Phytogeographical analysis of seed plant genera in China.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS A central goal of biogeography and ecology is to uncover and understand distributional patterns of organisms. China has long been a focus of attention because of its rich biota, especially with respect to plants. Using 290 floras from across China, this paper quantitatively characterizes the composition of floristic elements at multiple scales (i.e. national, provincial and local), and explores the extent to which climatic and geographical factors associated with each flora can jointly and independently explain the variation in floristic elements in local floras. METHODS A study was made of 261 local floras, 28 province-level floras and one national-level flora across China. Genera of seed plants in each flora were assigned to 14 floristic elements according to their worldwide geographical distributions. The composition of floristic elements was related to climatic and geographical factors. KEY RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Variations in percentages of cosmopolitan, tropical and temperate genera among local floras tend to be greater at higher latitudes than at lower latitudes. Latitude is strongly correlated with the proportions of 13 of the 14 floristic elements. Correlations of the proportions of floristic elements with longitude are much weaker than those with latitude. Climate represented by the first principal component of a principal component analysis was strongly correlated with the proportions of floristic elements in local floras (|r| = 0.75 +/- 0.18). Geographical coordinates independently explained about four times as much variation in floristic elements as did climate. Further research is necessary to examine the roles of water-energy dynamics, geology, soils, biotic interactions, and historical factors such as land connections between continents in the past and at present in creating observed floristic patterns.
CHARACTERIZATION OF PRODUCT END-OF-LIFE STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE RECYCLABILITY

This paper surveys end-of-life strategies currently used in the electronics and appliances industries and identifies product characteristics to guide designers to specify appropriate strategies. The survey indicates that characteristics such as wear-out life, design cycle, technology cycle, functional complexity, number of materials, number of parts and others are important in determining the end-of-life strategy. Two characteristics, product life and technology cycle, serve to demonstrate a possible categorization of products’ end-of-life path. The categorization leads to developing a methodology that guides product developers. By expanding the methodology to include all characteristics, designers will be able to specify endof-life strategies, to seek environmentally friendly designs, and to develop new recycling technologies. This paper concludes with a proposed web-based application for identifying suitable product end-of-life strategies early in the design cycle of a broad range of products based on key product characteristics.
VIDEO NAVIGATION TOOL: APPLICATION TO BROWSING A DATABASE OF DANCERS' PERFORMANCES

The purpose of this project is to provide a method and a software for browsing a dance video database. This work has been done in collaboration with the artistic project “DANCERS! ” [6]. A set of features describing dance are proposed, to quantify the gesture of the dancer, the usage of its personal space, the occupation of the stage and the temporal structure of the choreography. These quantities are extracted using the EyesWeb XMI platform [5], to which new features were added. The description of the video is used to compute the similarity between the dancers and then to help the exploration of the database. The management of the video and feature collection is done using the Mediacycle software [7] which has been extended from sounds and images to videos databases.
On Empirical Risk Measurement with Asymmetric Returns Data

By formulating a nested test of the asymmetric response model of Bawa, Brown, and Klein (1981), the mean-lower partial moment CAPM (LPMCAPM) of Bawa and Lindenberg (1977) and the mean-variance CAPM of Sharpe (1963, 1964), Lintner (1965) and Mossin (1969), this paper investigates the relative merits of symmetric and asymmetric risk measures using UK equity data for differently sized companies and at different frequencies. Our analysis shows that, when equity returns are not normal - which is the case for most daily and weekly returns, and for a large portion of smaller firms - the CAPM is rejected in 30%-50% of cases, and the optimal choice of alternative model is LPM-CAPM in over two thirds of these. These, and our further results, have strong consequences for the accurate measurement of equity risk, performance and prices, as downside and/or asymmetric risk measures often outperform the traditional CAPM framework, thus rendering it’s related and widely-used current approaches sub-optimal for some company sizes/data frequency combinations.
Routing and mobility approaches in IPv6 over LoWPAN mesh networks

It is foreseeable that any object in the near future will have an Internet connection—this is the Internet of Things vision. All these objects will be able to exchange and process information, most of them characterized by small size, power constrained, small computing and storage resources. In fact, connecting embedded low‐power devices to the Internet is considered the biggest challenge and opportunity for the Internet. There is a strong trend of convergence towards an Internet‐based solution and the 6LoWPAN may be the convergence solution to achieve the Internet of Things vision. Wireless mesh networks have attracted the interest of the scientific community in recent years. One of the key characteristics of wireless mesh networks is the ability to self‐organize and self‐configure. Mesh networking and mobility support are considered crucial to the Internet of Things success. This paper surveys the available solutions proposed to support routing and mobility over 6LoWPAN mesh networks. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Collateral Damage: Sizing and Assessing the Subprime CDO Crisis

This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of structured finance asset-backed securities collateralized debt obligations (SF ABS CDOs), the subset of CDOs that traded on the ABS CDO desks at the major investment banks and were a major contributor to the global financial panic of August 2007. Despite their importance, we have yet to determine the exact size and composition of the SF ABS CDO market or get a good sense of the write-downs these CDOs will generate. In this paper the authors identify these SF ABS CDOs with data from Intex©, the source data and valuation software for the universe of publicly traded ABS/MBS securities and SF ABS CDOs. They estimate that 727 publicly traded SF ABS CDOs were issued between 1999 and 2007, totaling $641 billion. Once identified, they describe how and why multisector structured finance CDOs became subprime CDOs, and show why they were so susceptible to catastrophic losses. The authors then track the flows of subprime bonds into CDOs to document the enormous cross-referencing of subprime securities into CDOs. They calculate that $201 billion of the underlying collateral of these CDOs was referenced by synthetic credit default swaps (CDSs) and show how some 5,500 BBB-rated subprime bonds were placed or referenced into these CDOs some 37,000 times, transforming $64 billion of BBB subprime bonds into $140 billion of CDO assets. For the valuation exercise, the authors estimate that total write-downs on SF ABS CDOs will be $420 billion, 65 percent of original issuance balance, with over 70 percent of these losses having already been incurred. They then extend the work of Barnett-Hart (2009) to analyze the determinants of expected losses on the deals and AAA bonds and examine the performance of the dealers, collateral managers, and rating agencies. Finally, the authors discuss the implications of their findings for the “subprime CDO crisis” and discuss the many areas for future work.
Building It Together: The Design and Implementation of Hillsborough County Public Schools' Teacher Evaluation System.

Acknowledgments Thank you to the Hillsborough County Public Schools teachers, principals and central office staff who participated in this study. Special thanks to Rachel Curtis works with school systems, foundations, and education policy organizations on teacher and principal human capital issues. In 2006, as assistant superintendent of the Boston Public Schools, she developed the system's teaching standards and aligned new teacher induction support and teacher evaluation to them. Her publications include the books Teaching Talent, Strategy in Action, and The Skillful Leader II. 3 Overview I n 2010-11, the Hillsborough County (FL) Public Schools (Hillsborough, HCPS) launched a teacher-evaluation system that has attracted attention from educators and policy makers across the country. All the stars aligned to make this new system possible. Five years of experience measuring teachers' contributions to student achievement gains and implementing pay-for-performance through the state's Merit Award Program (MAP) helped Hillsborough build the necessary infrastructure. Two, five-year Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants (awarded in 2007 and 2010) enabled the district to implement pay-for-performance on a broad scale and built a familiarity with the concept among teachers. Then, late in 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Hillsborough a $100 million Empowering Effective Teachers (EET) grant to support educator effectiveness. The grant focuses on implementation of a high-quality induction program for new teachers, enhanced professional development, new teacher and principal evaluation systems, a revamping of the system's compensation plan, and incentives for teachers to work with the highest-needs students. The new evaluation system also benefited from a deep collaboration between the school system and the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association (CTA). Together, the district and the union set the conditions for the early experiments in pay-for-performance, jumping at the chance to begin to figure out this complicated issue and leverage $10 million in state funds to reward effective teacher performance. The union president was one of the five members – along with the superintendent and school board chairman – of the work group that wrote the Empowering Effective Teachers grant. And teachers sit side-by-side with school and system administrators designing, supporting, and tracking the implementation of each element of the evaluation system. The system consists of two main components: observations of instruction and teachers' value-added scores, based on student test results. The observations are based on a framework and rubric adapted from a commonly used framework developed by the researcher Charlotte Danielson. Teachers engage in a pre-observation …
Hand and Finger Motion-Controlled Audio Mixing Interface

This paper presents a control interface for music mixing using real time computer vision. Two input sensors are considered: the Leap Motion and the Microsoft Kinect. The author presents predominant design considerations, including improvement of the user’s sense of depth and panorama, maintaining broad accessibility through integration of the system with Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software, and implementing a system that is portable and affordable. To provide the user with a heightened sense of sound spatialization over the traditional channel strip, the concept of depth is addressed directly using the stage metaphor. Sound sources are represented as colored spheres in a graphical user interface to provide the user with visual feedback. Moving sources back and forward controls volume, while left to right controls panning. To provide broader accessibility, the interface is configured to control mixing within the Ableton Live DAW. The author also discusses future plans to expand functionality and evaluate the system.
Control of power electronic interfaces in distributed generation microgrids

Technological advances and environmental pressures are driving the interconnection of renewable energy sources to the distribution network. The interconnection of large amounts of non-traditional generation however causes problems in a network designed for ‘conventional’ operation. The use of power electronics interfaces and the ‘bundling’ of micro-generation and loads into so-called Microgrids, offers a potential solution. Each Microgrid is designed to operate as a ‘good citizen’ or near ideal conventional load. This paper discusses the various elements of the new Microgrid concept and presents suggestions for some typical control strategies for the various system elements.
Using Maekawa's Algorithm to Perform Distributed Mutual Exclusion in Quorums

In distributed systems,cooperating process essh are both local and remoter sources. Chance is very high that multiple processes makesimultaneous requests to the same resource. If the resourcerequires mutually exclusive access (critical section - CS), then some regulation is needed to access it for ensuring synchronizedaccess of the resources thatonly one process could use the resource at a given time. This is the distributed mutual exclusion problem. The problem of coordinating the execution of critical sections by eachprocessissolved by providing mutually exclusive access to the CS. Mutual exclusion ensures that concurrent processes make a serialized access to shared resources.Quorum-based algorithms offer the advantage of protocol symmetry, spreading effort and responsibility uniformly across the distributed systems. In thispaper, we have proposed a permission baseddistributedmutual exclusion algorithmwhichis an improvement of Maekawa’s algorithm. The number of messages required by the improvisedalgorithmis in the range 3Mto 5Mper critical section invocation whereMis the number of intersection nodes1 in the system. A reduction in number of message by restricting the communication of anynodewith the intersection nodes of the quorums, withoutany modification of the basic structure of the algorithm.