Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inducible expression of green fluorescent protein in porcine tracheal epithelial cells by the bovine tracheal antimicrobial peptide promoter

Tracheal antimicrobial peptides (TAP) are expressed primarily in respiratory epithelial cells of cattle. The TAP expression is inducible upon challenge with bacteria and bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In pigs, a promoter that can be activated by bacterial infection has yet to be identified. The objective of this study was to use green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter gene to determine the function and inducibility of the bovine TAP promoter in porcine primary tracheal epithelial cells. Thus, evaluating the feasibility of using this promoter to direct transgene expression in porcine cells.
An approach to knowledge assessment in an Intelligent Tutoring System

In this paper, we present an approach to student's evaluation in a well-defined domain based on a semantic network. A similarity matrix based on the semantic memory structure of humans is used to build a semantic distance model in order to describe an assessment technique to evaluate the student's state of knowledge. Our aim is to facilitate a deeper conceptual understanding of domain principles. We are developing a new student model including an assessment module with DistSem model.
Homosexuality : the disclosure process during adolescence

During no other time in history have sexual minority individuals been the recipients of so much attention, scrutiny and unprecedented acceptance and inclusion into mainstream culture. However, despite advances and society's ever increasing tolerance toward sexual minorities, many individuals with alternative sexual orientations remain fearful of disclosing their sexuality. Consequently, adolescents often hide their alternative sexual orientation from others or disclose to only a select few. Adolescents with alternative sexual orientations face unique challenges, such as the coming out process, during which they must recognise, explore, define and disclose their orientation in a way that heterosexual individuals need not. Disclosure of an alternative sexual orientation is a struggle for most lesbian, gay and bisexual youth due to fears of discrimination, ostracism and violence from others. Despite a growing body of scientific literature on homosexuality in general, little is known about the disclosure process and its impact on an adolescent. This study seeks to help fill the gaps by giving voice to the adolescent by exploring the experience of disclosure. Furthermore, this study seeks to provide insight and knowledge to mental health professionals to aid adolescent clients throughout the disclosure process. This study's research methodology can be described as qualitative research which is embedded within an interpretive/constructivist paradigm. Purposive sampling was used to select five male and five female research participants. The methods of data collection that were employed comprised semi-structured individual interviews and reflective notes. Furthermore, content analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings of this study suggest that many unique issues besides the normative challenges that lesbian and gay adolescents share with heterosexual adolescents characterise their development. This research study suggests that there are several milestones that are characteristic of lesbian and gay identity development, the negotiation of which may hinder development in other areas. The male and female participants described a similar trajectory to coming out, consistently identifying a feeling of being different during early childhood which resolved into an awareness of same-sex attraction that concluded in their self-labelling as gay or lesbian. The findings of this study suggest that the process of disclosure is continuous and emergent. The reactions of parents ranged from extreme outrage and expulsion from the home to support and acceptance of the fact that their child had disclosed his/her homosexual orientation. From the findings of this study it would appear that Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Visual Recognition in the EAGLE Project

In this paper, we present a system for visually retrieving ancient inscriptions, developed in the context of the ongoing Europeana network of Ancient Greek and Latin Epigraphy (EAGLE) EU Project. The system allows the user in front of an inscription (e.g, in a museum, street, archaeological site) or watching a reproduction (e.g., in a book, from a monitor), to automatically recognize the inscription and obtain information about it just using a smart-phone or a tablet. The experimental results show that the Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors is a promising encoding strategy for performing visual recognition in this specific context.
An empirical examination of the strategic decision-making process:the relationship between context, process, and outcomes

Despite concerted academic interest in the strategic decision-making process (SDMP) since the 1980s, a coherent body of theory capable of guiding practice has not materialised. This is because many prior studies focus only on a single process characteristic, often rationality or comprehensiveness, and have paid insufficient attention to context. To further develop theory, research is required which examines: (i) the influence of context from multiple theoretical perspectives (e.g. upper echelons, environmental determinism); (ii) different process characteristics from both synoptic formal (e.g. rationality) and political incremental (e.g. politics) perspectives, and; (iii) the effects of context and process characteristics on a range of SDMP outcomes. Using data from 30 interviews and 357 questionnaires, this thesis addresses several opportunities for theory development by testing an integrative model which incorporates: (i) five SDMP characteristics representing both synoptic formal (procedural rationality, comprehensiveness, and behavioural integration) and political incremental (intuition, and political behaviour) perspectives; (ii) four SDMP outcome variables—strategic decision (SD) quality, implementation success, commitment, and SD speed, and; (iii) contextual variables from the four theoretical perspectives—upper echelons, SD-specific characteristics, environmental determinism, and firm characteristics. The present study makes several substantial and original contributions to knowledge. First, it provides empirical evidence of the contextual boundary conditions under which intuition and political behaviour positively influence SDMP outcomes. Second, it establishes the predominance of the upper echelons perspective; with TMT variables explaining significantly more variance in SDMP characteristics than SD specific characteristics, the external environment, and firm characteristics. A newly developed measure of top management team expertise also demonstrates highly significant direct and indirect effects on the SDMP. Finally, it is evident that SDMP characteristics and contextual variables influence a number of SDMP outcomes, not just overall SD quality, but also implementation success, commitment, and SD speed.
Donner du sens. Trajectoires de bénévoles et communautés morales : Engagement social et politique dans le parcours de vie

L'analyse de la trajectoire des benevoles permet de comprendre quel role leur engagement joue dans la construction et le maintien de leur identite, et quelles formes d'ideal moral et de communaute sous-tendent leur action. L'etude dont nous presentons ici les premiers resultats repose sur une enquete menee dans trois regions du Quebec, aupres de benevoles oeuvrant dans les secteurs culturel, scolaire et religieux.
Learning Prototype Models for Tangent Distance

Simard, LeCun & Denker (1993) showed that the performance of nearest-neighbor classification schemes for handwritten character recognition can be improved by incorporating invariance to specific transformations in the underlying distance metric - the so called tangent distance. The resulting classifier, however, can be prohibitively slow and memory intensive due to the large amount of prototypes that need to be stored and used in the distance comparisons. In this paper we develop rich models for representing large subsets of the prototypes. These models are either used singly per class, or as basic building blocks in conjunction with the K-means clustering algorithm.
A neuronal reward inequity signal in primate striatum

Primates are social animals, and their survival depends on social interactions with others. Especially important for social interactions and welfare is the observation of rewards obtained by other individuals and the comparison with own reward. The fundamental social decision variable for the comparison process is reward inequity, defined by an asymmetric reward distribution among individuals. An important brain structure for coding reward inequity may be the striatum, a component of the basal ganglia involved in goal-directed behavior. Two rhesus monkeys were seated opposite each other and contacted a touch-sensitive table placed between them to obtain specific magnitudes of reward that were equally or unequally distributed among them. Response times in one of the animals demonstrated differential behavioral sensitivity to reward inequity. A group of neurons in the striatum showed distinct signals reflecting disadvantageous and advantageous reward inequity. These neuronal signals occurred irrespective of, or in conjunction with, own reward coding. These data demonstrate that striatal neurons of macaque monkeys sense the differences between other's and own reward. The neuronal activities are likely to contribute crucial reward information to neuronal mechanisms involved in social interactions.
Are the effects of community-based dance on Parkinson disease severity, balance, and functional mobility reduced with time? A 2-year prospective pilot study.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of participation in a 2-year community-based dance class on disease severity and functional mobility in people with Parkinson disease (PD). DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTINGS/LOCATION Dance classes took place in a community-based location. Outcome measures were collected in a university laboratory. PATIENTS Ten individuals with PD were randomly assigned to the Argentine tango (AT) group (n=5 [4 men]; mean age±standard deviation, 69.6±6.6 years) or the control group (n=5 [4 men]; mean age±standard deviation, 66±11.0 years). INTERVENTIONS The AT group participated in a community-based AT class for 1 hour twice weekly for 2 years. Control group participants were given no prescribed exercise. Blinded assessments occurred at baseline and 12 and 24 months. OUTCOME MEASURES Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) III, Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test (Mini-BESTest), gait velocity (forward and backward), Timed Up and Go and dual-task Timed Up and Go, Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), MDS-UPDRS II, MDS-UPDRS I, and Freezing of Gait Questionnaire. RESULTS There were no differences between groups at baseline. A significant group-by-time interaction (F [2,8]=17.59; p<0.0001) was noted for the MDS-UPDRS III, with the AT group having lower scores at 12 and 24 months than the controls. Significant interactions were also noted for the Mini-BESTest, MDS-UPDRS II and I, and 6MWT. CONCLUSION This is believed to be one of the longest-duration studies to examine the effects of exercise on PD. Participation in community-based dance classes over 2 years was associated with improvements in motor and nonmotor symptom severity, performance on activities of daily living, and balance in a small group of people with PD. This is noteworthy given the progressive nature of PD and the fact that the control group declined on some outcome measures over 2 years.
Antibiotic Resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Strains with Increased Mutation Frequency Due to Inactivation of the DNA Oxidative Repair System

ABSTRACT The chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection of the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients is characterized by the biofilm mode of growth and chronic inflammation dominated by polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs). A high percentage of P. aeruginosa strains show high frequencies of mutations (hypermutators [HP]). P. aeruginosa is exposed to oxygen radicals, both those generated by its own metabolism and especially those released by a large number of PMNs in response to the chronic CF lung infection. Our work therefore focused on the role of the DNA oxidative repair system in the development of HP and antibiotic resistance. We have constructed and characterized mutT, mutY, and mutM mutants in P. aeruginosa strain PAO1. The mutT and mutY mutants showed 28- and 7.5-fold increases in mutation frequencies, respectively, over that for PAO1. These mutators had more oxidative DNA damage (higher levels of 7,8-dihydro-8-oxodeoxyguanosine) than PAO1 after exposure to PMNs, and they developed resistance to antibiotics more frequently. The mechanisms of resistance were increased β-lactamase production and overexpression of the MexCD-OprJ efflux-pump. Mutations in either the mutT or the mutY gene were found in resistant HP clinical isolates from patients with CF, and complementation with wild-type genes reverted the phenotype. In conclusion, oxidative stress might be involved in the development of resistance to antibiotics. We therefore suggest the possible use of antioxidants for CF patients to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance.
Association between domestic violence and unintended pregnancies in India: findings from the National Family Health Survey-2 data.

BACKGROUND Violence against women, especially by their husbands, is a serious public health issue that is associated with physical, reproductive and mental health consequences. The association between physical violence and unintended pregnancies has not been explored in India. METHODS Data were drawn from the second round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), India conducted in 1998-99. Unintended pregnancy, defined as a pregnancy that was not wanted at the time of conception, was the dependent variable. A set of independent covariates such as age, place of residence, education, working status, religion, standard of living index, type of family, number of surviving sons, use of contraceptive methods, pregnancies terminated and physical mistreatment by the husband were evaluated using a step-wise multiple logistic regression model. RESULTS Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that women who had been physically mistreated by their husbands were 47% (OR 1.47; 95% CI 1.25-1.72) more likely to experience unintended pregnancies. CONCLUSION Preventing physical violence against women by their husbands could reduce unintended pregnancies.
Wolbachia infection suppresses both host defence and parasitoid counter-defence

Endosymbiotic bacteria in the genus Wolbachia have been linked to several types of reproductive parasitism, which enhance their own transmission, while their direct effects on the host vary from beneficial to neutral or detrimental. Here, we report negative effects of infection on immunity-related traits of Drosophila simulans and the parasitoid wasp Leptopilina heterotoma. Infected D. simulans showed a reduced ability to encapsulate parasitoid eggs, compared to a tetracycline-treated, bacterium-free line. Challenging the two lines with a fungal pathogen, Beauveria bassiana, on the other hand, revealed no differences in survival. Moreover, elimination of Wolbachia was beneficial for the parasitoid wasp, as eggs laid by uninfected females suffered significantly lower encapsulation rates. We discuss possible origins of these fitness costs and their implications for infection dynamics and the interactions between host species.
The role of trust for the functioning of teams in organisations

The acknowledgment that trust is important for the functioning of teams and organizations has increased the demand for research showing how this importance is reflected on the behavior of its members. This study focused on trust within teams and explored the relation with performance and dimensions of effectiveness at team and organizational level. Trust was defined as a multi-component variable with distinct but related dimensions. These include propensity to trust, perceived trustworthiness, cooperative and monitoring behaviors. Survey data from 112 teams was collected in three social care institutions in the Netherlands. A model relating trust with perceived team performance, team effectiveness and organizational dimensions was tested and analyzed with structural equation modeling. The results indicated that trust was positively related with team performance. In relation to the dimensions of effectiveness at team level, trust was positively related with team satisfaction and relationship commitment, and negatively related with stress. Yet, the strongest relationships were obtained between trust and affective commitment (positive), continuance (negative). The results also supported the multi-component structure of trust.
Explicit Modelling of QoS-Dependencies.

When specifying Quality of Service (QoS) for components the usual method employed is to specify regions of QoS oﬀers and requirements. The component oﬀers a certain QoS under the condition that it will be provided some speciﬁed QoS by the environment. The dependency between oﬀered and used QoS is essentially given through discrete examples, rather than an equation or inequity. In the COMQUAD project 3 we have come to the conclusion that in some cases it is both more natural and more eﬃcient to specify these dependencies more explicitly, and precisely. In this position paper we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches and give some ﬁrst ideas as to how QoS–dependencies can be speciﬁed explicitly.
Partly hidden Markov model and its application to speech recognition

A new pattern matching method, the partly hidden Markov model, is proposed and applied to speech recognition. The hidden Markov model, which is widely used for speech recognition, can deal with only piecewise stationary stochastic process. We solved this problem by introducing the modified second order Markov model, in which the first state is hidden and the second one is observable. In this model, not only the feature parameter observations but also the state transitions are dependent on the previous feature observation. Therefore, even the complicated transient can be modeled precisely. Some simulation experiments showed the high potential of the proposed model. From the results of the word recognition test is was observed that the error rate was reduced by 39% compared with the normal HMM.
Konrad-zuse-zentrum Für Informationstechnik Berlin on the Optimality of Least Recently Used on the Optimality of Least Recently Used

It is well known that competitive analysis yields results that do not reflect the observed performance of online paging algorithms. Many de-terministic paging algorithms achieve the same competitive ratio, ranging from inefficient strategies as flush-when-full to the well-performing least-recently-used (LRU). In this paper, we study this fundamental online problem from the viewpoint of stochastic dominance. We give simple proofs that when sequences are drawn from distributions modelling locality of reference, LRU stochastically dominates any other online paging algorithm. As a byproduct, we obtain simple proofs of some earlier results.
An Experimental Study on Deep Learning Based on Different Hardware Configurations

Deep learning has exhibited high accuracy and applicability in machine learning field recently, by consuming tremendous computational resources processing massive data. To improve the performance of deep learning, GPUs have been introduced to accelerate the training phase. The complex data processing infrastructure demands high-efficient collaboration among underlying hardware components, such as CPU, GPU, memory, and storage devices. Unfortunately, few work has presented a systematic analysis about the impact of hardware configurations on the overall performance of deep learning. In this paper, we aim to make an experimental study on a standalone system to evaluate how various hardware configurations affect the overall performance of deep learning. We conducted a series of experiments using varied configurations on storage devices, main memory, CPU, and GPU to observe the overall performance quantitatively. Based on analyzing these results, we found that the performance greatly relies on the hardware configurations. Specifically, the computation is still the primary bottleneck as double GPUs and triple GPUs shorten the execution time by 44\% and 59\% respectively. Besides, both CPU frequency and storage subsystem can significantly affect running time while the memory size has no obvious effect on the running time for training neural network models. We believe our experimental results can help shed light on further optimizing the performance of deep learning in computer systems.
Coverage in mmWave Cellular Networks With Base Station Co-Operation

Signal outage, due to shadowing and blockage, is expected to be the main bottleneck in millimeter wave (mmWave) networks. Moreover, the anticipated dense deployment of base stations in mmWave networks is expected to increase the interference from strong line-of-sight base stations too, thus further increasing the probability of outage. To address the issue of reducing outage, this paper explores the possibility of base station co-operation in the downlink of mmWave heterogenous networks. The main focus of this work is showing that, in a stochastic geometry framework that incorporates blockage, co-operation from randomly located base stations decreases the probability of outage/increases the coverage probability. Coverage probabilities are derived accounting for: blockage, different fading distributions on the direct links (but always Rayleigh fading on the interference links), antenna directionality, and different tiers. Numerical results suggest that coverage with base station co-operation in dense mmWave systems (i.e., with high average number of base stations per square meter), without small scale fading on the direct communications links, and with any probability of signal blockage, considerably exceeds coverage without co-operation. In contrast, a small increase in coverage is reported when mmWave networks are less dense, have a high probability of signal blockage and the direct communications links are affected by Rayleigh fading.