Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extending SysML to explore non-functional requirements: the case of information system design

Model-driven system design is facilitated by SysML language, which provides distinct diagrams to describe system structure and components, explore allocation policies and identify system requirements. While non-functional requirements play a significant role in system design, their are not effectively supported by SysML. This paper emphasizes on a SysML extension to facilitate the effective description and verification of non-functional quantitative requirements. The introduction of a distinct SysML diagram to explore evaluation results enhances requirement verification capabilities, while the visualization of verification process helps system engineers to explore design decisions and properly adjust system design. Based on the proposed SysML extension, a profile for Enterprise Information System architecture design was developed. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach, the description and verification of software performance requirements using this profile are discussed, as an example.
An Architecture for Internet Data Transfer

This paper presents the design and implementation of DOT, a flexible architecture for data transfer. This architecture separates content negotiation from the data transfer itself. Applications determine what data they need to send and then use a new transfer service to send it. This transfer service acts as a common interface between applications and the lower-level network layers, facilitating innovation both above and below. The transfer service frees developers from re-inventing transfer mechanisms in each new application. New transfer mechanisms, in turn, can be easily deployed without modifying existing applications. We discuss the benefits that arise from separating data transfer into a service and the challenges this service must overcome. The paper then examines the implementation of DOT and its plugin framework for creating new data transfer mechanisms. A set of microbenchmarks shows that the DOT prototype performs well, and that the overhead it imposes is unnoticeable in the wide-area. End-to-end experiments using more complex configurations demonstrate DOT's ability to implement effective, new data delivery mechanisms underneath existing services. Finally, we evaluate a production mail server modified to use DOT using trace data gathered from a live email server. Converting the mail server required only 184 lines-of-code changes to the server, and the resulting system reduces the bandwidth needed to send email by up to 20%.
Various Approaches of Community Detection in Complex Networks: A Glance

Identifying strongly associated clusters in large complex networks has received an increased amount of interest since the past decade. The problem of community detection in complex networks is an NP complete problem that necessitates the clustering of a network into communities of compactly linked nodes in such a manner that the interconnection between the nodes is found to be denser than the intra-connection between the communities. In this paper, different approaches given by the authors in the field of community detection have been described with each methodology being classified according to algorithm type, along with the comparative analysis of these approaches on the basis of NMI and Modularity for four real world networks.
Sliding Mode Strategy for PEM Fuel Cells Stacks Breathing Control Using a Super-Twisting Algorithm

A second-order sliding mode strategy to control the breathing subsystem of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack for transportation applications is presented. The controller is developed from a design model of the plant derived from open literature, and well suited for the design of second-order sliding mode strategies. Stability issues are solved using a super twisting algorithm. The resulting approach exhibits good dynamic characteristics, being robust to uncertainties and disturbances. Simulations results are provided, showing the feasibility of the approach.
Investigation of extensional rheological behaviors of polypropylene for foaming

This study investigated the relationship between the extensional rheological behaviors and the foamability of polypropylenes (PPs). Both the shear and extensional rheological properties of four types of PPs with different molecular structures (linear PP, linear PP with high-molecular component, long-chain-branched PP, and cross-linked PP) were tested by rheometers and the PPs were foamed by batch process with supercritical carbon dioxide as foam agent. It was found that when the PP showed strain-hardening behavior at certain strain rates (on the order of 1 s−1), the obtained foams had high expansion ratio and fine cell structures. Otherwise, the strain-hardening behavior of PP had limited effects on the foamability. In addition, a theoretical analysis suggested that the strain-hardening behavior provided higher melt strength and simultaneously changed the rupture behavior of the melt, thus the gas bubble could be stable during expansion step and the cellular structure was generated. The foamability of PPs can be predicted from the extensional properties without considering their molecular structures.
FXR Deficiency Causes Reduced Atherosclerosis in Ldlr−/− Mice

Objective—Based on the observation that Fxr−/− mice exhibit a proatherogenic lipoprotein profile, we investigated the role of FXR in the development of atherosclerosis. Methods and Results—Administration of a western diet to Fxr−/− mice or wild-type mice does not result in the development of significant atherosclerotic lesions. Consequently we generated Fxr−/−Ldlr−/− (DKO) mice and compared lesion development with Ldlr−/− mice. After 16 weeks on a Western diet, en face analysis of the aorta indicated that the male DKO mice had reduced atherosclerotic lesions as compared with Ldlr−/− mice. Plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were reduced by 40% to 50%, whereas triglyceride levels increased 4-fold in the male DKO mice. Finally, peritoneal macrophages freshly isolated from male DKO mice had reduced expression of CD36 mRNA and decreased neutral lipid accumulation, as compared with Ldlr−/− mice. Conclusions—FXR deficiency in male, but not female, Ldlr−/− mice results in a reduction in the size of atherosclerotic lesions in the aorta. The reduction in atherosclerosis may result from a decrease in plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, coupled with reduced expression of CD36 in macrophages of DKO mice.
SDFog: A Software Defined Computing Architecture for QoS Aware Service Orchestration over Edge Devices

Cloud computing revolutionized the information technology (IT) industry by offering dynamic and infinite scaling, on-demand resources and utility-oriented usage. However, recent changes in user traffic and requirements have exposed the shortcomings of cloud computing, particularly the inability to deliver real-time responses and handle massive surge in data volumes. Fog computing, that brings back partial computation load from the cloud to the edge devices, is envisioned to be the next big change in computing, and has the potential to address these challenges. Being a highly distributed, loosely coupled and still in the emerging phase, standardization, quality-of-service management and dynamic adaptability are the key challenges faced by fog computing research fraternity today. This article aims to address these issues by proposing a service-oriented middleware that leverages the convergence of cloud and fog computing along with software defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) to achieve the aforementioned goals. The proposed system, called "Software Defined Fog" (SDFog), abstracts connected entities as services and allows applications to orchestrate these services with end-to-end QoS requirements. A use-case showing the necessity of such a middleware has been presented to show the efficacy of the SDN-based QoS control over the Fog. This article aims at developing an integrated system to realize the software-defined control over fog infrastructure.
Bacterial Species-Specific Activity of a Fluoroquinolone against Two Closely Related Pasteurellaceae with Similar MICs: Differential In Vitro Inoculum Effects and In Vivo Efficacies

We investigated the antimicrobial activity of a fluoroquinolone against two genetically close bacterial species belonging to the Pasteurellaceae family. Time-kill experiments were used to measure the in vitro activity of marbofloxacin against two strains of Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida with similar MICs. We observed that marbofloxacin was equally potent against 105 CFU/mL inocula M. haemolytica and P. multocida. However, an inoculum effect was observed with P. multocida, meaning that marbofloxacin activity was decreased against a 108 CFU/mL inoculum, whereas no inoculum effect was observed with M. haemolytica. Marbofloxacin activity was also tested in a lung infection model with immunocompromised mice intratracheally infected with 109 CFU of each bacteria. At the same dose, the clinical and bacteriological outcomes were much better for mice infected with M. haemolytica than for those infected with P. multocida. Moreover, bacteriological eradication was obtained with a lower marbofloxacin dose for mice infected with M. haemolytica. Our results suggest that the differential in vivo marbofloxacin efficacy observed with the two bacterial species of similar MIC could be explained by a differential inoculum effect. Consequently, MICs determined on 105 CFU inocula were not predictive of the differences in antibiotic efficacies against high bacterial inocula of closely related bacterial strains. These results could stimulate further investigations on bacterial species-specific antibiotic doses in a clinical setting.
On the design of MIMO block-fading channels with feedback-link capacity constraint

In this paper, we propose a combined adaptive power control and beamforming framework for optimizing multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) link capacity in the presence of feedback-link capacity constraint. The feedback channel is used to carry channel state information only. It is assumed to be noiseless and causal with a feedback capacity constraint in terms of maximum number of feedback bits per fading block. We show that the hybrid design could achieve the optimal MIMO link capacity, and we derive a computationally efficient algorithm to search for the optimal design under a specific average power constraint. Finally, we shall illustrate that a minimum mean-square error spatial processor with a successive interference canceller at the receiver could be used to realize the optimal capacity. We found that feedback effectively enhances the forward channel capacity for all signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values when the number of transmit antennas (n/sub T/) is larger than the number of receive antennas (n/sub R/). The SNR gain with feedback is contributed by focusing transmission power on active eigenchannel and temporal power waterfilling . The former factor contributed, at most, 10log/sub 10/(n/sub T//n/sub R/) dB SNR gain when n/sub T/>n/sub R/, while the latter factor's SNR gain is significant only for low SNR values.
Effects of Itraconazole on the Plasma Kinetics of Quazepam and Its Two Active Metabolites after a Single Oral Dose of the Drug

&NA; The effects of itraconazole, a potent inhibitor of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4, on the plasma kinetics of quazepam and its two active metabolites after a single oral dose of the drug were studied. Ten healthy male volunteers received itraconazole 100 mg/d or placebo for 14 days in a double‐blind randomized crossover manner, and on the fourth day of the treatment they received a single oral 20‐mg dose of quazepam. Blood samplings and evaluation of psychomotor function by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test and Stanford Sleepiness Scale were conducted up to 240 h after quazepam dosing. Itraconazole treatment did not change the plasma kinetics of quazepam but significantly decreased the peak plasma concentration and area under the plasma concentration‐time curve of 2‐oxoquazepam and N‐desalkyl‐2‐oxoquazepam. Itraconazole treatment did not affect either of the psychomotor function parameters. The present study thus suggests that CYP 3A4 is partly involved in the metabolism of quazepam.
Low-rank matrix completion via Riemannian pursuit for topological interference management

This paper considers the topological interference management problem in a partially connected K-user interference channel, where no channel state information at transmitters (CSIT) is available beyond the network topology knowledge. Due to the practical CSI assumption, this problem has recently received enough attention. In particular, it has been established that the topological interference management problem, in terms of degrees of freedom (DoF), is equivalent to the index coding problem with linear schemes. However, so far only a few index coding problems have been solved, and thus there is a lack of a systematic way to characterize optimal DoF of an arbitrary network topology. In this paper, we present a low-rank matrix completion (LRMC) approach to find linear solutions to maximize the achievable symmetric DoF for any given network topology. To decode the desired messages at each receiver, we also propose an LRMC based channel acquisition scheme, which can obtain interference-free measurements of the desired channel at each receiver while minimizing the pilot training length. To address the NP-hardness of the non-convex rank objective function in the resulting LRMC problem, we further present a Riemannian pursuit (RP) algorithm to solve it efficiently. This algorithm alternatively performs fixed-rank optimization using Riemannian optimization and rank increase by exploiting the manifold structure of the fixed-rank matrices. The LRMC approach aided by the RP algorithms not only recovers the existing optimal DoF results but also provides insights for general network topologies.
Metagenomic analysis of nitrogen and methane cycling in the Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) are areas in the global ocean where oxygen concentrations drop to below one percent. Low oxygen concentrations allow alternative respiration with nitrate and nitrite as electron acceptor to become prevalent in these areas, making them main contributors to oceanic nitrogen loss. The contribution of anammox and denitrification to nitrogen loss seems to vary in different OMZs. In the Arabian Sea, both processes were reported. Here, we performed a metagenomics study of the upper and core zone of the Arabian Sea OMZ, to provide a comprehensive overview of the genetic potential for nitrogen and methane cycling. We propose that aerobic ammonium oxidation is carried out by a diverse community of Thaumarchaeota in the upper zone of the OMZ, whereas a low diversity of Scalindua-like anammox bacteria contribute significantly to nitrogen loss in the core zone. Aerobic nitrite oxidation in the OMZ seems to be performed by Nitrospina spp. and a novel lineage of nitrite oxidizing organisms that is present in roughly equal abundance as Nitrospina. Dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia (DNRA) can be carried out by yet unknown microorganisms harbouring a divergent nrfA gene. The metagenomes do not provide conclusive evidence for active methane cycling; however, a low abundance of novel alkane monooxygenase diversity was detected. Taken together, our approach confirmed the genomic potential for an active nitrogen cycle in the Arabian Sea and allowed detection of hitherto overlooked lineages of carbon and nitrogen cycle bacteria.
Automatic content-based indexing of digital documents through intelligent processing techniques

The availability of large, heterogeneous repositories of electronic documents is increasing rapidly, and the need for flexible, sophisticated document manipulation tools is growing correspondingly. This work presents DOMINUS a system for automated electronic documents processing characterized by the intensive exploitation of intelligent techniques in each step of the process from document acquisition in electronic format to document indexing for categorization and information retrieval purposes. It embeds incremental learning techniques useful in the context of web libraries where documents are acquired in an incremental fashion. Since the system is general and flexible, it can be embedded as a document management engine into many different domain-specific applications. Here, we present the exploitation of the system on the conference management domain, and show how DOMINUS can usefully support some of the more critical and knowledge-intensive tasks involved by the organization of a scientific conference
A Study on the Physical Characteristics of Acryl Concretes for Thin Bridge Deck Pavements

This study focuses on evaluating the applicability of an acryl based polymer concrete to the thin bridge deck pavements. The acryl concrete developed in this study is composed of Methyl Methacrylate(MMA) resin, benzol peroxide and fillers. To study the effects of the types and amounts of the components on the physical characteristics of the acryl concrete, viscosity, compressive strength and bending tests were conducted. The optimum mixture design was then determined based on the testing results. Several different types of laboratory tests, such as water and chlorine ion penetration tests, shrinkage and thermal coefficients tests, and tensile bonding strength tests were performed for the optimum acryl concrete and conventional cement concrete. The testing results show that water and chroline ion resistance, bonding strength between acryl and cement concrete and crack resistance of the acryl concrete is better than those of the conventional cement concrete. There are shortcomings that the conventional acryl concrete has a higher shrinkage and thermal coefficients. However, it was confirmed that to use newly developed rubberized MMA resin in this study reduces the crack resistance with substantially increased ductility.
Fast convergence algorithm for decoding of low density parity check codes

In this paper, a fast-convergence algorithm is proposed for the decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. By putting more weight on the message update from check node to variable node in current iteration, the proposed method speeds up the decoding significantly. Simulation results show that compared with the standard layered min-sum decoding algorithm, the proposed scheme may reduce about 1/6 iteration numbers for LDPC codes used in DVB-S2, with hardware complexity overhead less than 2%.
HIV viral dynamics.

BACKGROUND Elucidation of the underlying rapid turnover of virus and HIV infected cells in vivo was perhaps the most informative and exciting discovery in HIV and AIDS research in the last few years. This observation, based on the rapid drop in virus load following antiviral drug therapy promises to change significantly the way we view important aspects of interaction of the virus and its host. As a result, the paradigm for HIV infection has shifted from considering the long period of clinical latency as one of viral inactivity, to viewing it as an active steady state of constant virus replication and cell death. This period should also be viewed as an integral part of the disease process, not simply a prolog to frank AIDS. METHODS Here, I discuss the theoretical basis of the steady state model of HIV infection as well as its important consequences for understanding and controlling HIV pathogenesis. These include the significance of genetic variation and the establishment and evolution of the virus quasispecies, the evolution of resistance of the virus to antiviral therapy, and the theoretical and practical significance of virus load measurements. Emphasis is on discussion of recent developments as well as areas where our understanding still has significant gaps.
An Approach to Combined Laplacian and Optimization-Based Smoothing for Triangular, Quadrilateral, and Quad-Dominant Meshes

Automatic finite element mesh generation techniques have become commonly used tools for the analysis of complex, real-world models. All of these methods can, however, create distorted and even unusable elements. Fortunately, several techniques exist which can take an existing mesh and improve its quality. Smoothing (also referred to as mesh relaxation) is one such method, which repositions nodal locations, so as to minimize element distortion. In this paper, an overall mesh smoothing scheme is presented for meshes consisting of triangular, quadrilateral, or mixed triangular and quadrilateral elements. This paper describes an efficient and robust combination of constrained Laplacian smoothing together with an optimization-based smoothing algorithm. The smoothing algorithms have been implemented in ANSYS and performance times are presented along with several example models.
Song-specific bootstrapping of singing voice structure

We present some experiments in the semi-automatic extraction of singing voice structure. The main characteristic of the proposed approach is that the segmentation is performed specifically for each individual song using a process we call bootstrapping. In bootstrapping, a small random sampling of the song is annotated by the user. This annotation is used to learn the song-specific voice characteristics and the trained classifier is subsequently used to classify and segment the whole song. We present experimental results on a collection of pieces with jazz singers that show the potential of this approach and compare it with the traditional approach of using multiple songs for training. It is our belief that the idea of song-specific bootstrapping is applicable to other types of music and audio computer-supported annotation.
Reduced chondrocyte proliferation and chondrodysplasia in mice lacking the integrin-linked kinase in chondrocytes

Chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation requires their attachment to the collagen type II–rich matrix of developing bone. This interaction is mediated by integrins and their cytoplasmic effectors, such as the integrin-linked kinase (ILK). To elucidate the molecular mechanisms whereby integrins control these processes, we have specifically inactivated the ILK gene in growth plate chondrocytes using the Cre-lox methodology. Mice carrying an ILK allele flanked by loxP sites (ILK-fl) were crossed to transgenic mice expressing the Cre recombinase under the control of the collagen type II promoter. Inactivation of both copies of the ILK-fl allele lead to a chondrodysplasia characterized by a disorganized growth plate and to dwarfism. Expression of chondrocyte differentiation markers such as collagen type II, collagen type X, Indian hedgehog and the PTH-PTHrP receptor was normal in ILK-deficient growth plates. In contrast, chondrocyte proliferation, assessed by BrdU or proliferating cell nuclear antigen labeling, was markedly reduced in the mutant growth plates. Cell-based assays showed that integrin-mediated adhesion of primary cultures of chondrocytes from mutant animals to collagen type II was impaired. ILK inactivation in chondrocytes resulted in reduced cyclin D1 expression, and this most likely explains the defect in chondrocyte proliferation observed when ILK is inactivated in growth plate cells.