Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
English Reading Proficiency and Academic Performance Among Lower Primary School Children in Ghana

There have been several issues about the reading skills and abilities of children in Ghana, and how reading proficiency might influence the academic performance of children. In view of the above, this study examined the influence of reading proficiency on the academic performance of lower primary school children in Accra. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 383 participants (Grades 1-3) were sampled in Accra. The children were administered questionnaires that measured their English reading proficiency, paternal involvement, maternal involvement, financial situation, and demographic characteristics as well as their academic performance. Results showed that reading proficiency was significantly and positively related with children’s performance on all standard performance tests after controlling for paternal involvement, maternal involvement, financial situation, and age. Type of school significantly affected academic performance, however, no gender differences were observed in the children’s academic performance. The implications for educational practice and research are espoused.
A silicon-based, all-passive, 60 GHz, 4-element, phased-array beamformer featuring a differential, reflection-type phase shifter

This paper presents an all-passive, 4-element, phased-array beamformer based on a differential, reflection-type phase shifter (RTPS) operating in the 60GHz band. The RTPS consists of a differential, vertically-coupled, coupled-line hybrid and variable, parallel-LC, resonant, reflective loads, both of which enable low-loss millimeter-wave operation. The design considerations for a silicon-based implementation of all the beamformer elements are discussed in detail. In particular, the influence of the different RTPS components on its insertion loss is analyzed. The beamformer IC and a breakout of the RTPS are implemented using CMOS-only features of IBM's 8HP 0.13¡jm SiGe BiCMOS process, and employ areas of 2.1mm2 and 0.33mm2, respectively, without probe pads. Differential s-parameter measurements at 60GHz show a phase-shift range greater than 150°, insertion losses of 4–6.2dB in the RTPS and 14–16dB in the beamformer, and an isolation better than 35dB between adjacent beamformer channels. Measurements across temperature and process variations are also presented.
Discovery of Small-Molecule Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Entry Inhibitors That Target the gp120-Binding Domain of CD4

ABSTRACT The interaction between human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp120 and the CD4 receptor is highly specific and involves relatively small contact surfaces on both proteins according to crystal structure analysis. This molecularly conserved interaction presents an excellent opportunity for antiviral targeting. Here we report a group of pentavalent antimony-containing small molecule compounds, NSC 13778 (molecular weight, 319) and its analogs, which exert a potent anti-HIV activity. These compounds block the entry of X4-, R5-, and X4/R5-tropic HIV-1 strains into CD4+ cells but show little or no activity in CD4-negative cells or against vesicular stomatitis virus-G pseudotyped virions. The compounds compete with gp120 for binding to CD4: either immobilized on a solid phase (soluble CD4) or on the T-cell surface (native CD4 receptor) as determined by a competitive gp120 capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay or flow cytometry. NSC 13778 binds to an N-terminal two-domain CD4 protein, D1/D2 CD4, immobilized on a surface plasmon resonance sensor chip, and dose dependently reduces the emission intensity of intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence of D1/D2 CD4, which contains two of the three tryptophan residues in the gp120-binding domain. Furthermore, T cells incubated with the compounds alone show decreased reactivity to anti-CD4 monoclonal antibodies known to recognize the gp120-binding site. In contrast to gp120-binders that inhibit gp120-CD4 interaction by binding to gp120, these compounds appear to disrupt gp120-CD4 contact by targeting the specific gp120-binding domain of CD4. NSC 13778 may represent a prototype of a new class of HIV-1 entry inhibitors that can break into the gp120-CD4 interface and mask the gp120-binding site on the CD4 molecules, effectively repelling incoming virions.
Visual Exploration of Network Hostile Behavior

This paper presents a graphical interface to identify hostile behavior in network logs. The problem of identifying and labeling hostile behavior is well known in the network security community. There is a lack of labeled datasets, which make it difficult to deploy automated methods or to test the performance of manual ones. We describe the process of searching and identifying hostile behavior with a graphical tool derived from an open source Intrusion Prevention System, which graphically encodes features of network connections from a log-file. A design study with two network security experts illustrates the workflow of searching for patterns descriptive of unwanted behavior and labeling occurrences therewith.
Distinct but Spatially Overlapping Intestinal Niches for Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium and Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae

Antibiotic resistance among enterococci and γ-proteobacteria is an increasing problem in healthcare settings. Dense colonization of the gut by antibiotic-resistant bacteria facilitates their spread between patients and also leads to bloodstream and other systemic infections. Antibiotic-mediated destruction of the intestinal microbiota and consequent loss of colonization resistance are critical factors leading to persistence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The mechanisms underlying microbiota-mediated colonization resistance remain incompletely defined and are likely distinct for different antibiotic-resistant bacterial species. It is unclear whether enterococci or γ-proteobacteria, upon expanding to high density in the gut, confer colonization resistance against competing bacterial species. Herein, we demonstrate that dense intestinal colonization with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) does not reduce in vivo growth of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. Reciprocally, K. pneumoniae does not impair intestinal colonization by VRE. In contrast, transplantation of a diverse fecal microbiota eliminates both VRE and K. pneumoniae from the gut. Fluorescence in situ hybridization demonstrates that VRE and K. pneumoniae localize to the same regions in the colon but differ with respect to stimulation and invasion of the colonic mucus layer. While VRE and K. pneumoniae occupy the same three-dimensional space within the gut lumen, their independent growth and persistence in the gut suggests that they reside in distinct niches that satisfy their specific in vivo metabolic needs.
An Augmented Genetic Algorithm for Auto Corrective Prediction Model for Pest Attacks

Genetic algorithms or GAs are adaptive search algorithms. These algorithms are based upon the principles of evolution and natural selection. GAs are adept at searching large, non-linear search spaces and efficiently determining near optimal solutions in reasonable time frames by simulating biological evolution. We propose a model based on neural network for predicting pest attacks. This model takes a different approach where GA is used to prune faulty input training samples and also to retain and induce new good samples using reproduction operators: mutation and crossovers. The results show an improvement in the prediction error margin and convergence time in leaning phase of the model. Keyword: Feedforward Neural Network, Genetic Algorithm, Backpropogation algorithm
Image encryption algorithm based on Henon chaotic system

In this paper, a new image encryption algorithm is presented based on Henon chaotic system in order to meet the requirements of secure image transfer. Shuffling the positions and changing the grey values of image pixels are combined to shuffle the relationship between the cipher-image and the original-image. First, the Arnold cat map is used to shuffle the positions of the image pixels. Second, the shuffled-image is encrypted based on Henon's chaotic system pixel by pixel. There are several parameters in this kind of chaos system and Arnold cat map. The results of several experimental, statistical analysis and key sensitivity tests show that the proposed image encryption scheme provides an efficient and secure way for image encryption. The distribution of grey values of the encrypted image exhibits a random-like behavior.
Replication Protein A (RPA) Hampers the Processive Action of APOBEC3G Cytosine Deaminase on Single-Stranded DNA

Background Editing deaminases have a pivotal role in cellular physiology. A notable member of this superfamily, APOBEC3G (A3G), restricts retroviruses, and Activation Induced Deaminase (AID) generates antibody diversity by localized deamination of cytosines in DNA. Unconstrained deaminase activity can cause genome-wide mutagenesis and cancer. The mechanisms that protect the genomic DNA from the undesired action of deaminases are unknown. Using the in vitro deamination assays and expression of A3G in yeast, we show that replication protein A (RPA), the eukaryotic single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) binding protein, severely inhibits the deamination activity and processivity of A3G. Principal Findings/Methodology We found that mutations induced by A3G in the yeast genomic reporter are changes of a single nucleotide. This is unexpected because of the known property of A3G to catalyze multiple deaminations upon one substrate encounter event in vitro. The addition of recombinant RPA to the oligonucleotide deamination assay severely inhibited A3G activity. Additionally, we reveal the inverse correlation between RPA concentration and the number of deaminations induced by A3G in vitro on long ssDNA regions. This resembles the “hit and run” single base substitution events observed in yeast. Significance Our data suggest that RPA is a plausible antimutator factor limiting the activity and processivity of editing deaminases in the model yeast system. Because of the similar antagonism of yeast RPA and human RPA with A3G in vitro, we propose that RPA plays a role in the protection of the human genome cell from A3G and other deaminases when they are inadvertently diverged from their natural targets. We propose a model where RPA serves as one of the guardians of the genome that protects ssDNA from the destructive processive activity of deaminases by non-specific steric hindrance.
Mitochondrial mislocalization and altered assembly of a cluster of Barth syndrome mutant tafazzins

None of the 28 identified point mutations in tafazzin (Taz1p), which is the mutant gene product associated with Barth syndrome (BTHS), has a biochemical explanation. In this study, endogenous Taz1p was localized to mitochondria in association with both the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes facing the intermembrane space (IMS). Unexpectedly, Taz1p does not contain transmembrane (TM) segments. Instead, Taz1p membrane association involves a segment that integrates into, but not through, the membrane bilayer. Residues 215–232, which were predicted to be a TM domain, were identified as the interfacial membrane anchor by modeling four distinct BTHS mutations that occur at conserved residues within this segment. Each Taz1p mutant exhibits altered membrane association and is nonfunctional. However, the basis for Taz1p dysfunction falls into the following two categories: (1) mistargeting to the mitochondrial matrix or (2) correct localization associated with aberrant complex assembly. Thus, BTHS can be caused by mutations that alter Taz1p sorting and assembly within the mitochondrion, indicating that the lipid target of Taz1p is resident to IMS-facing leaflets.
Terminal Axonal Arborization and Synaptic Bouton Formation Critically Rely on Abp1 and the Arp2/3 Complex

Neuronal network formation depends on properly timed and localized generation of presynaptic as well as postsynaptic structures. Although of utmost importance for understanding development and plasticity of the nervous system and neurodegenerative diseases, the molecular mechanisms that ensure the fine-control needed for coordinated establishment of pre- and postsynapses are still largely unknown. We show that the F-actin-binding protein Abp1 is prominently expressed in the Drosophila nervous system and reveal that Abp1 is an important regulator in shaping glutamatergic neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) of flies. STED microscopy shows that Abp1 accumulations can be found in close proximity of synaptic vesicles and at the cell cortex in nerve terminals. Abp1 knock-out larvae have locomotion defects and underdeveloped NMJs that are characterized by a reduced number of both type Ib synaptic boutons and branches of motornerve terminals. Abp1 is able to indirectly trigger Arp2/3 complex-mediated actin nucleation and interacts with both WASP and Scar. Consistently, Arp2 and Arp3 loss-of-function also resulted in impairments of bouton formation and arborization at NMJs, i.e. fully phenocopied abp1 knock-out. Interestingly, neuron- and muscle-specific rescue experiments revealed that synaptic bouton formation critically depends on presynaptic Abp1, whereas the NMJ branching defects can be compensated for by restoring Abp1 functions at either side. In line with this presynaptic importance of Abp1, also presynaptic Arp2 and Arp3 are crucial for the formation of type Ib synaptic boutons. Interestingly, presynaptic Abp1 functions in NMJ formation were fully dependent on the Arp2/3 complex, as revealed by suppression of Abp1-induced synaptic bouton formation and branching of axon terminals upon presynaptic Arp2 RNAi. These data reveal that Abp1 and Arp2/3 complex-mediated actin cytoskeletal dynamics drive both synaptic bouton formation and NMJ branching. Our data furthermore shed light on an intense bidirectional functional crosstalk between pre- and postsynapses during the development of synaptic contacts.
Does Cosmetic Rhinoplasty Affect Nose Function?

Objective. To evaluate the changes in nasal dimensions of healthy Iranian volunteered for cosmetic rhinoplasty after surgery using acoustic rhinometry. Methods. Pre- and postoperative nasal dimension of 36 cases undergoing cosmetic rhinoplasty were compared using acoustic rhinometry (AR), and the measured variables were distance to first and second constriction (d1, d2), first and second minimal cross-sectional area (MCA1, 2), and volume. Results. Mean age (SD) of cases were 24.63 (4.4) years. Septoplasty was performed in 12 cases (33.3%). After surgery, bilateral d1 and both MCA2 decreased significantly, while significant increase was observed in MCA1 postoperatively using decongestant. Cases with septoplasty experienced more increase in MCA1 and less constriction in MCA2 postoperatively. In cases with rhinoplasty alone, they received benefit from double osteotomy in MCA1. In either group of rhinoplasty with and without septoplasty, placing a strut was beneficial for patients. Discussion. The cross-sectional area of the nose is a major factor in the determination of airflow. Cosmetic rhinoplasty may generate a mix effect on nose function. Performing osteotomy may better help patients to save nasal patency, septoplasty is beneficial even in mildly deviated septums, and placing a strut may be beneficial in most of the cases.
Impact of supply chain actor citizenship behavior on supply chain learning processes

Critical evaluation of early literature into supply chain learning indicates lack of research into the impact of supply chain actor citizenship behavior on supply chain learning processes. Therefore, this study explores the impact of supply chain actor citizenship behavior impact on supply chain learning processes. The study uses constructivist epistemology, interpretative theoretical perspective, case study research methodology and grounded theory thematic technique in data analysis. Findings of the study indicate that different elements of the supply chain actor citizenship behavior concept are connected to different levels of supply chain learning processes. Self-development is found to have an impact on intuition process, helping behavior is found to have an impact on interpretation process, tolerance is found to have an impact on integration process and constructiveness is found to have an impact on institutionalization process. An original contribution to theory includes extending organizational learning theory and citizenship behavior concept to supply chain context. And practitioners are recommended to explore dynamics of self-development, helping behavior, tolerance, and constructiveness on enhancing supply chain learning processes.
Recombinants proteins for industrial uses: utilization of Pichia pastoris expression system

The innovation in industrial process with impact in the efficient production is the major challenge for actual industry. A high numerous of enzymes are utilized in at different level of process; the search for new alternatives with better characteristic has become a field of study of great interest, the recombinant protein achievement in a different host system is an alternative widely assessed for production of this. The microorganism Pichia pastoris has been used like a successful expression system in diverse areas, improved the yield and extraction-recovery of the product expressed. The reported of diverse authors in the production of enzymes with different application in industry is varied, in this review the different industry areas and the characteristic of the enzymes produced are detailed.
PULSE, a Flexible P2P Live Streaming System

With the widespread availability of inexpensive broadband Internet connections for home-users, a large number of bandwidth-intensive applications previously not feasible have now become practical. This is the case for multimedia live streaming, for which end-user's dial-up/ISDN modem connections once were the bottleneck. The bottleneck is now mostly found on the server side: the bandwidth required for serving many clients at once is large and thus very costly to the broadcasting entity. Peer-to-peer systems for on-demand and live streaming have proved to be an encouraging solution, since they can shift the burden of content distribution from the server to the users of the network. In this work we introduce PULSE, a P2P system for live streaming whose main goals are flexibility, scalability, and robustness. We present the fundamental concepts that stand behind the design of PULSE along with its intended global behavior, and describe in detail the main algorithms running on its nodes.
Using automatic signature generation as a sensor backend

The techniques and supporting tools for signature based intrusion detection have reached a high level of maturity. They are well understood by the community and have hardware implementations capable of matching rules at high speed. Their major shortcomings involve handling "zero-day" attacks. Anomaly or protocol-adherence based sensors are capable of detecting zero-day attacks, but with high false alarm rates and at more limited speeds. The design proposed here combines the zero-day detection capabilities already supplied by anomaly detection front ends with the speed, hardware compatability and mature infrastructure of signature based systems. A unique capability of this proposed technology is that false alarm rates of matched rules can be reduced to arbitrarily low levels by increasing the amount of training on benign traffic. A goal of future work would be to produce an efficient and secure mechanism to distribute automatically generated signatures with the goal of broadening the perimeter of protection and blocking attacks farther away from sensitive servers and hosts.
An HMM-based bilingual (Mandarin-English) TTS

We propose to build an HMM-based, Mandarin and English, bilingual TTS system. Starting with a simple baseline of two TTS systems built separately from Mandarin and English databases recorded by the same speaker, we construct a new, mixed-language TTS by designing language specific and independent questions to facilitate phone sharing across the two languages. With shared phones, the new system has a smaller footprint than the baseline system. The synthesis quality is either the same for non-mixed, Mandarin or English synthesis as the baseline or much better for mixed-language synthesis. The higher quality of mixed-language synthesis is confirmed by preference scores of 60.2% vs 39.8%, obtained in a subjective listening test. A preliminary Mandarin synthesis experiment was also performed by using the model parameters in the leaf nodes of an English decision tree where Kullback-Leibler divergence is used to establish the nearest neighbor based mapping between leaf nodes in the decision trees of the two languages. A subjective transcription test shows a character accuracy of 93.9%.
A new modeling method of component interaction behavior

The behavioral semantics of component interfaces plays a significant role in the reuse, integration, validation and maintenance of components. However, the interface description specification of COTS component usually only contains syntax information, and lacks behavioral semantics information. This paper presents a method, called EKBehavior, for incrementally inferring a behavior model that represents the interplay between variable values and method invocations. EKBehavior extends the KBehavior algorithm for extracting finite state automata from execution traces, to the case of finite state automata with parameters. Popular dynamic analysis techniques synthesize either information on the values of the variables or information on relations between invocations of methods. Thus, these approaches do not capture the important relations that exist between data values and invocation sequences. Compared with the existing techniques, method generates model that represents the sequence constraints of invocations of methods, constraints of variable values, and the relations between variable values and method invocations.
Toward Visual Analytics of Unlinked Documents by Textual Analysis and Network Visualization

We describe a tool to analyze unlinked documents by visualizing networks extracted using textual analysis. Our focus is on developing an interactive visual analytics tool that enables a user to interactively observe data to detect features of the documents that may be known or unknown in advance. We have tested our tool using two data sets, one consisting of 1000 documents and the other of 360 documents. The resulting visualization showed that our tool provides a simple yet powerful method to identify trends and to find facts in the documents quickly due to its interactivity.
A STEM extended learning project to raise awareness of social justice in a Year 3 primary classroom

ABSTRACT Governments worldwide are advocating for STEM curricula as essential to economic viability but the opportunity for STEM to create a re-envisioned world where there is equal access to wealth, opportunities, and privileges is less prominent. The literature has also not clearly articulated how the combination of the individual disciplines areas: science, technology, engineering and maths should be structured to form a cohesive paradigm within a contextual real-world problem. This paper details one example of a STEM unit had with an equity and social justice agenda. The teacher orchestrated a range of learning experiences to develop student intellectual and emotional engagement with the learning experience sequence, which was to design a pair of shoes for students in a refugee camp using resources that might be available there. Her teaching approach involved the choreography of student attention to the different dimensions of STEM. While all were in play particular disciplinary concepts and practices were foregrounded at different times. We propose that teaching STEM involves a choreography of focus on the different disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, with the relative weight at any one time and overall depending on the nature of the task that is to be accomplished.