Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The determinants of personality.

What determines your personality? Is your personality inherited from your family or something that evolved over the years as you encountered many psychological changes and events that transformed you? Psychologists say that our personality is mainly a result of four major determinants, i.e. Physical (Biological/Hereditary), Social (the community you are brought up in and your role in the community), Psychological (your behaviour, emotions and inner thought patterns) and Intellectual (your values and beliefs). These determinants of personality further also include various cultural, situational and environmental factors that you might come across in life. Let’s further understand the meaning of personality, its types, determinants, characteristics, nature, perception and more!
Power efficient state estimation using multiple sensors

This paper considers state estimation of scalar linear systems using analog amplify and forwarding with multiple sensors, under a multiple access communication scheme. Optimal state estimation can be achieved using a Kalman filter. We show that in many situations, the error covariance decays at a rate of 1/M when the number of sensors M is large. Optimal allocation of transmission powers subject to constraints on the error covariance or sum power is also considered.
Goniothalamin induces mitochondria-mediated apoptosis associated with endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced activation of JNK in HeLa cells

Goniothalamin, a natural occurring styryl-lactone isolated from Goniothalamus macrophyllus (Blume) Hook. f. & Thomson var. macrophyllus, can trigger cancer cell death in various types of cancer cell. The present study focused on elucidation of the mitochondria-mediated apoptosis associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced activation of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) by goniothalamin in HeLa cervical cancer cells. Cell viability was determined using an MTT assay, and DNA condensation and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential were determined using Hoechst 33342 and JC-1 staining, respectively. Flow cytometry was used for cell cycle and phosphatidyl-serine exposure analyses. Apoptotic-associated ER stress signaling pathways were determined using immunoblotting, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and RT-quantitative PCR analyses. The results suggested that goniothalamin suppressed cell proliferation in a time- and dose-dependent manner. The induction of apoptosis was confirmed by increased DNA condensation, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and cell surface phosphatidyl-serine presentation. The cell cycle analysis demonstrated that the goniothalamin-treated HeLa cells were in G2/M arrest. Determination of the caspase cascade and apoptotic proteins indicated the induction of apoptosis through the intrinsic pathway. In addition, the levels of phosphorylated JNK and the transcription factor, C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), an ER stress-associated apoptotic molecule, were increased in the goniothalamin-treated cells. These data indicated that goniothalamin exerted a cytotoxic effect against HeLa cells via the induction of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis, associated with ER stress-induced activation of JNK.
A BANGLA PREDICTIVE KEYBOARD FOR PEOPLE WITH NEURO-MOTOR DISORDERS

The Indian population suffering from severe neuro-motor impairments (like those with cerebral palsy) faces an acute problem with electronic-learning because of the dearth of quality learning aids available for them. Quality learning aids in this case refers to certain softwares that can help this section of special users to learn fast and at the same time with maximal ease. Similar systems that are available in the international market are very costly for an average Indian user. Moreover these products are packaged in foreign languages which in no way can facilitate the learning of the Indian languages. Keeping these two problems in focus, the current work has been aimed at developing a low cost Bangla virtual keyboard enabled with both word and character level prediction support.
Measuring flow in gaming platforms

This paper describes the work in measuring flow while interacting with multi-platform games interfaces. We identified different gaming platforms which are mobile and non-mobile platform. The objective of the study is to identify and measure the variation of flow in different platforms. The early pilot data are collected through a survey form that are designed based on GameFlow criteria. The GameFlow criteria consist of eight elements which are: concentration; challenge; skills; control; clear goals; feedback; immersion and social interaction. In this exploratory study, the questionnaires of the survey are slightly altered from the GameFlow criteria identified in the previous work. From the early survey data collected, it shows the variation of player's expression and thought towards different kind of gaming platforms. Finding also shows that PC and Console are preferred by the respondent as their main platform to play games. The finding of this exploratory study can be used as additional guidelines in the future development of games application.
Robust resource allocation for predictive video streaming under channel uncertainty

Novel mobility-aware resource allocation schemes have recently been introduced for efficient transmission of stored videos. The essence of such mechanisms is to lookahead at the future rates users will experience, and then strategically buffer content into user devices when they are at peak radio conditions. For example, a user approaching poor coverage will be preallocated additional video segments to ensure smooth streaming. Advances in mobility prediction and real-time radio environment map updates are driving forces for such Predictive Video Streaming (PVS) mechanisms. Although previous efforts have demonstrated the large potential gains of PVS, ideal channel predictions were assumed. This paper addresses the problem of channel uncertainty in PVS, and proposes a robust resource allocation framework that 1) models channel uncertainty, 2) solves the PVS problem with a tunable level of quality of service guarantees, and 3) learns the degree of uncertainty, and adapts the channel model accordingly. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach for PVS under channel variability.
Control of the Orientation of Cilia by Adenosinetriphosphate, Calcium, and Zinc in Glycerol-Extracted Paramecium caudatum

The predominant orientation of cilia in glycerol-extracted Paramecium is toward the posterior of the specimen in a KCl solution. The cilia became reoriented toward the anterior shortly after transfer of the extracted cell to a mixture of ATP, calcium, and zinc. The degree of response was graded as a function of the concentration of each of the three essential factors. Minimum concentrations for the maximum response were 0.2 mM in ATP, 0.8 mM in calcium, and 0.0002 mM in zinc. The observations support the hypothesis that cation-induced ciliary reversal in live specimens is initiated by calcium ions which become displaced from an inferred cellular cation exchanger system.
Chapter 7 Stuck in a Moment : EEG Alpha Power Predicts Perceptual Perseveration

A major question in neuroscience is how the intrinsic state of the neuronal network determines the perception of a complex stimulus and enhances the propensity to either switch or remain attentive to a particular perceptual interpretation. To understand the mechanisms of the spontaneous drive of the brain to explore alternative interpretations of unchanging stimuli, we recorded high-density electroencephalography (EEG) while participants reported the durations of the alternating representations of a bistable perception. We found that medial occipital and parietal alpha (7–11 Hz) power within the first second after the onset of a representation predicts the fate of its duration. High alpha power promotes the stability of a perceptual representation and suppresses switching to the alternative. An experimentally induced increase in alpha power by means of sleep deprivation mediates in part the concurrent increase in the average duration of individual representations. The findings support the hypothesis that synchronization of alpha oscillations across a wide neuronal network promotes the maintenance of its current configuration of activity and the corresponding perceptual representation. This concept of stabilization could be a plausible common explanation for a considerable number of findings on alpha across multiple cognitive domains and paradigms. Elevated alpha could also be the key to the poorly understood cognitive deficits, such as the loss of mental flexibility and lapses of responsiveness, that typically accompany sleep deprivation.
Optimal Allocation of SVC for Minimization of Power Loss and Voltage Deviation using NSGA-II

Modern this paper proposes non dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) which has feature of adaptive crowding distance for finding optimal location and sizing of Static Var Compensators (SVC) in order to minimize real power losses and voltage deviation and also to improve voltage profile of a power system at the same time. While finding the optimal location and size of SVC, single line outages are considered as contingencies and voltage limits for the buses are taken as security constraints. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, NSGA-II has been applied for finding optimal location and sizing of SVC on IEEE 30-bus test system. The obtained results are highly encouraging and reveal the capability of the NSGA-II to generate well-distributed non-dominated Pareto front.
Kidney function predicts the rate of bone loss in older individuals: the Cardiovascular Health Study.

BACKGROUND Results of cross-sectional analyses of the association of kidney function with bone mineral density (BMD) have been conflicting. We examined the association of cystatin-C, a new marker of kidney function that is unrelated to lean mass, with initial and follow-up BMD, in an ancillary study of the Cardiovascular Health Study, a population-based cohort of individuals > or = 65 years old. METHODS Two years after measurement of cystatin-C and other covariates, the first BMD was measured in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Davis, California, by using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Follow-up BMD was measured in Pittsburgh 4 years later. Associations of cystatin-C with initial BMD and the change in BMD (%/y) at the hip were examined with linear regression. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women. RESULTS In 1519 participants who had cystatin-C and initial BMD assessed, 614 had follow-up BMD. The percent annual change in BMD at the total hip by cystatin-C quartiles was -0.24, -0.13, -0.40, and -0.66%/y (first to fourth quartile) in women and -0.02, -0.30, -0.18, and -0.94%/y in men. After adjusting for potential confounders, cystatin-C was marginally associated with initial BMD in men but not women. Cystatin-C was associated with bone loss in men; after adjustment for weight loss, cystatin-C was not associated with bone loss in women. CONCLUSION Kidney dysfunction, as assessed by cystatin-C, is associated with a more rapid loss of BMD at the hip, especially in men. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and to determine whether this loss leads to an elevated risk of fracture.
Resistance Training and Testosterone Levels in Male Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease Undergoing Dialysis

Background. We investigated serum testosterone and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels' associations with muscle fibre size and resistance training in male dialysis patients. Methods. Male patients were included in a 16-week control period followed by 16 weeks of resistance training thrice weekly. Blood samples were obtained to analyse testosterone, luteinizing hormone (LH), IGF-1, and IGF-binding protein 3. Muscle fibres' size was analysed in biopsies from m. vastus lateralis. Results. The patients' testosterone levels were within the normal range at baseline (n = 20) (19.5 (8.2–52.1) nmol/L versus 17.6 (16.1–18.0), resp. ) whereas LH levels were higher (13.0 (5.5–82.8) U/L versus 4.3 (3.3–4.6), P < 0.001, resp. ). IGF-1 and IGF-binding protein 3 levels were higher in the patients compared with reference values (203 (59–590) ng/mL versus 151 (128–276), P = 0.014, and 5045 (3370–9370) ng/mL versus 3244 (3020–3983), P < 0.001, resp. ). All hormone levels and muscle fibre size (n = 12) remained stable throughout the study. Age-adjusted IGF-1 was associated with type 1 and 2 fibre sizes (P < 0.05). Conclusion. Patients' total testosterone values were normal due to markedly increased LH values, which suggest a compensated primary insufficiency of the testosterone producing Leydig cell. Even though testosterone values were normal, resistance training was not associated with muscle hypertrophy. This trial is registered with ISRCTN72099857.
Morin hydrate promotes inner ear neural stem cell survival and differentiation and protects cochlea against neuronal hearing loss

We aimed to investigate the effect of morin hydrate on neural stem cells (NSCs) isolated from mouse inner ear and its potential in protecting neuronal hearing loss. 3‐(4,5‐dimethyl‐2‐thiazolyl)‐2,5‐diphenyl‐2‐H‐tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and bromodeoxyuridine incorporation assays were employed to assess the effect of morin hydrate on the viability and proliferation of in vitro NSC culture. The NSCs were then differentiated into neurons, in which neurosphere formation and differentiation were evaluated, followed by neurite outgrowth and neural excitability measurements in the subsequent in vitro neuronal network. Mechanotransduction of cochlea ex vivo culture and auditory brainstem responses threshold and distortion product optoacoustic emissions amplitude in mouse ototoxicity model were also measured following gentamicin treatment to investigate the protective role of morin hydrate against neuronal hearing loss. Morin hydrate improved viability and proliferation, neurosphere formation and neuronal differentiation of inner ear NSCs, and promoted in vitro neuronal network functions. In both ex vivo and in vivo ototoxicity models, morin hydrate prevented gentamicin‐induced neuronal hearing loss. Morin hydrate exhibited potent properties in promoting growth and differentiation of inner ear NSCs into functional neurons and protecting from gentamicin ototoxicity. Our study supports its clinical potential in treating neuronal hearing loss.
Elastic virtualized network services

As public could offerings get more numerous and a growing number of enterprises embrace cloud-based IT solutions, the shortcomings of deploying traditional network gear and architectures in virtualized environments become more apparent. In scenarios where (virtual) end-systems are dynamically provisioned, dimensioned, and moved, the network services they use - ranging from mere connectivity to sophisticated application layer communication support - need to feature a similar level of flexibility, configurability and elasticity. These principles inspired the design of heleos, a software platform for powering elastic virtual network services that can be dynamically provisioned on general purpose hosts and modified as needed to match the changes in traffic requirements as well as the number and location of (virtual) end-systems. This paper reports on experiments demonstrating the scalability benefits of heleos-powered services and dismissing concerns on additional latency that might stem from their distributed architecture.
Optimal Kinodynamic Planning For Autonomous Vehicles

This paper presents a two-phase kinodynamic planning algorithm, which uses a randomized planner to compute low-cost robotic motions, and optimal control to locally optimize them. The direct transcription approach is used with an NLP numerical optimization algorithm. The algorithms are tested on motion planning for a non-holonomic autonomous vehicle. The results indicate that the two-phase approach is effective in computing optimal motions. However, the dense algebra NLP solver is very time consuming for the optimization of long paths and sparse algebra solvers should be utilized. Index Terms – kinodynamic, planning, optimal, direct transcription, NLP.
Automatic 3D feature extraction from structuralized LIDAR data

Abstract: LIDAR, or laser scanning, is capable of collecting accurate 3D coordinates of scanned points densely and sub-randomly distributed on scanned object surfaces. The huge amount of 3D points implies abundant recessive spatial information which can be turned into dominant information through various data processing methods. To explore valuable spatial information from LIDAR data automatically becomes an active research topic, for example extracting digital elevation model, buildings, and trees from LIDAR data. It has long been recognized that extracting features from implicit data is the first and essential step of deriving explicit information from data. In contrast to 2D features can be extracted from image data, this paper focuses on extracting 3D features from a point cloud data set. Because the most prominent features in point cloud are co-plane points, the proposed method begins with extracting 3D plane features. Then, 3D edges and corners can be extracted by intersecting neighboring planes. Most significant 3D features can be extracted automatically through the proposed data processing method. In order to handle the large amount of sub-randomly distributed point cloud data efficiently, organizing the data set is required during the data processing. This paper proposes an octree-based split-merge-intersect method to organize LIDAR point cloud and extract 3D features. The proposed method was applied on both airborne and ground LIDAR data. The test results show the promising capability of extracting 3D features from point cloud data. The need of economic computation time demonstrates the efficiency of the developed method.
Network service embedding across multiple providers with nestor

The migration of network functions (NFs) into virtualized network infrastructures brings significant benefits to enterprise networks, while creating opportunities for new cloud service models (i.e., NF-as-a-Service). Network service embedding (NSE) entails serious challenges, stemming from middle-box policies prescribed by network operators and the implications of NFs on network traffic (i.e., bandwidth conservation or traffic amplification) that complicate the estimation of bandwidth demands. The NSE problem is further exacerbated by the location dependencies of certain NFs, which, in conjunction with the limited geographic footprint of NF providers, raise the need for network service mapping across multiple providers. In this paper, we present a holistic approach to multi-provider NSE. We introduce a new service model that simplifies the specification of network service requests and the estimation of bandwidth demands. We further define topology abstractions tailored to NSE that are exposed to a network service composition layer (NSCL), interposed between the clients and the NF providers. Based on this service model and topology abstractions, we propose Nestor, a system that generates efficient network service embeddings via network graph rendering, request partitioning among datacenters (DCs), and request segment mappings onto DC networks.
Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films on zirconium membranes for micromechanical applications

An efficient, electrically conductive, chemical barrier for the integration of piezoelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) films on reactive metal substrates has been developed, opening new possibilities for PZT integration on micromechanical and semiconductor devices. Very reactive zirconium films have been taken in order to test the quality of the specially designed RuO2/Cr buffer under the condition of in situ sputter deposition of PZT at 600 °C. The PZT/RuO2 interface was found to be free of intermediate phases. A PZT activated metallic micromechanical element was demonstrated with a thin film Zr membrane.
Governance challenges in temporary organizations: a case of evolution and representations

According to the literature, formal project governance often stops at the steering committee, which is also identified as the main link between the permanent and temporary organizations. Generally, top managers play an active role as sponsors in this committee until the project is approved and launched. Afterwards, the project execution is usually delegated, enabling middle managers to participate in strategy operationalization. As such, they are likely to take part in the project governance and its operationalization. In this study, we are especially interested in the governance zone reporting to the steering committee. Within this zone, formal and informal governance is intertwined, and there is likely to be considerable overlap with the permanent organization. Our study focuses on a specific liaison device within this zone: the Project Coordination Committee, which has rarely been studied. We explore how project governance evolves and is represented by project participants. Our results show a surprising diversity in participants’ representations. This allows us to identify a number of conclusions that go beyond the governance form issues and relate to the complexity of this governance zone and its influence on the disruptions between permanent and temporary governance structures within a large organization.
A GPU accelerated algorithm for compressive sensing based video super-resolution

This paper presents a parallel algorithm designed for video reconstruction based on Compressive sensing on the platform of GPU. The reconstruction algorithm based on compressive sensing can achieve a good performance than traditional algorithm, but the process is more complex. With the aid of the GPU acceleration and the redundancy calculation between the adjacent frames, we can achieve real-time video reconstruction result. During the process of acceleration, we divided the whole process into four stages, and find that all the stages are suit for parallel computing. Compared to the sequentialalgorithm, the parallel algorithm achieved a speed up of 35 times. Excepted for GPU acceleration, some other methods to reduce computation of reconstruction for video-frame is proposed. At last, the result of the parallel algorithm is shown and analyzed.