Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of New Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization and Gravitational Search Algorithm for Non Convex Economic Load Dispatch Problem

The Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) is a novel optimization method based on the law of gravity and mass interactions. It has good ability to search for the global optimum, but its searching speed is really slow in the last iterations. So the hybridization of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and GSA can resolve the aforementioned problem. In this paper, a modified PSO, which the movement of particles is also based on getting away from individual worst solution other than going toward the best ones, is combined with GSA, named (PSOGSA) and is applied on ELD problem. A 6 unit case study considering transmission loss, prohibited zones and ramp rate limits and also a 40 unit system with valve point loading effect has been used to show the feasibility of the method. The results show fast and great convergence compared to the many other previously applied methods.
Mortality Caused by Bath Exposure of Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Larvae to Nervous Necrosis Virus Is Limited to the Fourth Day Postfertilization

ABSTRACT Nervous necrosis virus (NNV) is a member of the Betanodavirus genus that causes fatal diseases in over 40 species of fish worldwide. Mortality among NNV-infected fish larvae is almost 100%. In order to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the susceptibility of fish larvae to NNV, we exposed zebrafish larvae to NNV by bath immersion at 2, 4, 6, and 8 days postfertilization (dpf). Here, we demonstrate that developing zebrafish embryos are resistant to NNV at 2 dpf due to the protection afforded by the egg chorion and, to a lesser extent, by the perivitelline fluid. The zebrafish larvae succumbed to NNV infection during a narrow time window around the 4th dpf, while 6- and 8-day-old larvae were much less sensitive, with mortalities of 24% and 28%, respectively.
Complete Genome Sequence of Herbinix luporum SD1D, a New Cellulose-Degrading Bacterium Isolated from a Thermophilic Biogas Reactor

ABSTRACT A novel cellulolytic bacterial strain was isolated from an industrial-scale biogas plant. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the strain SD1D showed 96.4% similarity to Herbinix hemicellulosilytica T3/55T, indicating a novel species within the genus Herbinix (family Lachnospiraceae). Here, the complete genome sequence of Herbinix luporum SD1D is reported.
Bitcoin: its influence on the global World and its relationship with the stock exchange

The new technological advances have brought a revolution on how economic agents interact with society and markets. Nowadays, the use of virtual currencies is more frequent in the financial transactions and bitcoin has been defined as the most important world cryptocurrency due to its high market capitalization and its technological infrastructure. Several studies have been conducted to discuss bitcoin advantages and disadvantages; however, few papers in literature have examined its connection and influence on the stock market. The objective of this paper is precisely cover this gap. Firstly, by providing tools and concepts to understand bitcoin’s dynamic, and then determining its relationship with stock market indexes. In that context, this manuscript examines the definition and function of bitcoin in the global world and its presence in Ecuador. Besides, exploratory and visual analyses are provided using the evolution of bitcoin and other market indexes. Finally, a linear correlation is computed between bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, stock exchange indexes and commodities. The results in this study, employing visual and statistical analyses, demonstrated that bitcoin has: a strong relationship with other cryptocurrencies; a lineal correlation, not as strong as the previous one, with the main stock market indexes; and no linear correlation with commodities.
Technology forecasting (TF) and technology assessment (TA) methodologies: a conceptual review

Purpose Technology forecasting (TF) and assessment (TA), all in all, apply to any intentional and deliberate endeavours to forecast and view the potential heading, rate, attributes and impacts of technological change, especially for development, advancement, selection and utilisation of resources, which ultimately helps in the benchmarking. A vast variety of methods are available for TF and TA. Till now, practically, no exertion has been made to choose proper, satisfactory innovation methods or technology. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, there is an endeavour to summarise the vast field of TF and TA, through its evolution, functions, applications and techniques. This paper provides the in-depth review of the utilisation of TF and TA methodologies and its improvement, which helps the users in selecting the appropriate method of TF and TA for a specific situation. Findings This study concludes that the quest for a single strategy for doing forecast and assessment is a misconception. This neglects to perceive that forecast and assessment oblige a suitable blend of strategies and methods drawn from a variety of fields. Researchers and practitioners must be innovative, imperative and specialised in choosing TF and TA methodologies, and cannot be programmed. Practical implications The technology seems to be the most significant driver of the present day global developments. Some technologies have far-reaching implications, and the authors need to understand these issues regarding its’ forecasting and its assessment. Originality/value The decision of proper worthy procedure amid a circumstance may have an impact on the exactness and reliability of the forecast and assessment. Significant observations regarding learning, action/s, actor/s and expected outcomes are discussed.
Various Fusion Schemes to Recognize Simulated and Spontaneous Emotions

This paper investigates the performance of combining geometric features and appearance features with various fusion strategies in a facial emotion recognition application. Geometric features are extracted by a distancebased method; appearance features are extracted by a set of Gabor filters. Various fusion methods are proposed from two principal classes namely early fusion and late fusion. The former combines features in the feature space, the latter fuses both feature types in the decision space by a statistical rule or a classification method. Distance-based method, Gabor method and hybrid methods are evaluated on simulated (CK+) and spontaneous (FEEDTUM) databases. The comparison between methods shows that late fusion methods have better recognition rates than the early fusion method. Moreover, late fusion methods based on statistical rules perform better than the other hybrid methods for simulated emotion recognition. However in the recognition of spontaneous emotions, the statistical-based methods improve the recognition of positive emotions, while the classification-based method slightly enhances sadness and disgust recognition. A comparison with hybrid methods from the literature is also made.
Comparison of VoIP and Video Content Performance Over WiMAX and LTE

IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is an emerging broadband wireless communication standard used as a model of transmission and high speed Internet access. 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the leading standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile users. In this report we compare the performance of voice and video applications over WiMAX and LTE. We use Opnet 16.0. A and Riverbed modeler 18.5 to build simulation models for WiMAX and LTE, respectively.
A Technique to Identify Key Players that Helps to Improve Businesses Using Multilayer Social Network Analysis

—Social network analysis has gained importance in the current era of online networks. Companies nowadays are using the social network analysis tools and techniques to enhance their business positions. Analyzing the social networks provide the massive amount of useful information for the business. In this paper, we have analyzed the online social networks of leading mobile phone company Huawei. The importance of any individual (Node) can be determined by the participation and behavior of the node in the OSN. Centrality measure is the key factor to visualize any social network. Centrality in term includes Density, Closeness Centrality, Degree Centrality, Eigenvector Centrality and some other metrics such as Coefficient Clustering, Page Rank. These metrics can be used to determine the most important node (key player) in a network. Visualization of the social network is a complicated task as it is expanded every minute as thousands of users join the social network daily. We have put an effort to analyze the social network and determine the influential node with the calculation of above-mentioned metrics. The overall aim of our research is to improve the business by identifying the most influential node. The experimental results and a detailed quantitative analysis show that this is the more efficient and effective way to detect the influential nodes in an online social network.
Over‐expression of candida albicans mitochondrial ribosomal protein S9 (MrpS9p) disturbs mitochondrial function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A Candida albicans mitochondrial ribosomal protein S9 (MRPS9 ) cDNA was identified in a screen for sequences whose expression induce galactose lethality in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. MRPS9 appears to encode a protein of 346 amino acids with an N‐terminal mitochondrial targeting sequence and an internal S9 signature that is conserved amongst eukaryotic mitochondrial and prokaryotic ribosomal protein S9 sequences. Expression of a GAL1–CaMRPS9 fusion in S. cerevisiae caused the slow development of a galactose‐negative phenotype upon repeated subculturing, and this correlated with an increased frequency of petite mutant formation. Therefore, over‐expression of CaMRPS9 interferes with S. cerevisiae mitochondrial function, which accounts for the inhibition of growth on galactose. The sequence has been entered in the EMBL data library under Accession Number AF067962. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Incremental learning control of the DLR-HIT-Hand II during interaction tasks

In this paper a bio-inspired control architecture for a robotic hand is presented. It relies on the same mechanisms of learning inverse internal models studied in humans. The control is capable of developing an internal representation of the hand interacting with the environment and updating it by means of the interaction forces that arise during contact. The learning paradigm exploits LWPR networks, which allow efficient incremental online learning through the use of spatially localized linear regression models. Additionally this paradigm limits negative interference when learning multiple tasks. The architecture is validated on a simulated finger of the DLR-HIT-Hand II performing closing movements in presence of two different viscous force fields, perturbing its motion.
The relationship between institutions and value creation in software development models

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the possibility for firms to consider institutional settings to systematically direct dispersed individual efforts of discovery and invention towards objects (products or processes) of their interest in order to enhance their value creation capacity. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a comparative analysis of the different institutional settings within which software products are invented and produced – closed producer-centred model, open user-centred model, and hybrid interactive producer-user model. Findings The authors draw indications regarding the possibility to design institutional settings for value creation and the potential pitfalls tied to these strategic tools. Originality/value A theoretical framework is elaborated in order to understand the different ways in which institutional contexts influence and direct value creation processes. The model analysed shows the firms’ deliberate attempt to stimulate a dynamic process of social interaction and communication which may foster higher levels of creativity and innovation. In order to guarantee the necessary accessibility and to sufficiently motivate external programmers towards the perception of a new code, the firm has to surrender the traditional source through which it appropriates value: barriers to the accessibility of the code developed through IPRs. The adoption of an institutional setting which facilitates dynamic value creation processes suggests, therefore, the need to turn to dynamic mechanisms for value appropriation in parallel.
Open-domain extraction of future events from Twitter †

Abstract Explicit references on Twitter to future events can be leveraged to feed a fully automatic monitoring system of real-world events. We describe a system that extracts open-domain future events from the Twitter stream. It detects future time expressions and entity mentions in tweets, clusters tweets together that overlap in these mentions above certain thresholds, and summarizes these clusters into event descriptions that can be presented to users of the system. Terms for the event description are selected in an unsupervised fashion. 1 We evaluated the system on a month of Dutch tweets, by showing the top-250 ranked events found in this month to human annotators. Eighty per cent of the candidate events were indeed assessed as being an event by at least three out of four human annotators, while all four annotators regarded sixty-three per cent as a real event. An added component to complement event descriptions with additional terms was not assessed better than the original system, due to the occasional addition of redundant terms. Comparing the found events to gold-standard events from maintained calendars on the Web mentioned in at least five tweets, the system yields a recall-at-250 of 0.20 and a recall based on all retrieved events of 0.40.
Airborne Laser Scanning of Forest Stem Volume in a Mountainous Environment

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) is an active remote sensing technique that uses the time-of-flight measurement principle to capture the three-dimensional structure of the earth's surface with pulsed lasers that transmit nanosecond-long laser pulses with a high pulse repetition frequency. Over forested areas most of the laser pulses are reflected by the leaves and branches of the trees, but a certain fraction of the laser pulses reaches the forest floor through small gaps in the canopy. Thus it is possible to reconstruct both the three-dimensional structure of the forest canopy and the terrain surface. For the retrieval of quantitative forest parameters such as stem volume or biomass it is necessary to use models that combine ALS with inventory data. One approach is to use multiplicative regression models that are trained with local inventory data. This method has been widely applied over boreal forest regions, but so far little experience exists with applying this method for mapping alpine forest. In this study the transferability of this approach to a 128 km2 large mountainous region in Vorarlberg, Austria, was evaluated. For the calibration of the model, inventory data as operationally collected by Austrian foresters were used. Despite these inventory data are based on variable sample plot sizes, they could be used for mapping stem volume for the entire alpine study area. The coefficient of determination R2 was 0.85 and the root mean square error (RMSE) 90.9 m3ha−1 (relative error of 21.4%) which is comparable to results of ALS studies conducted over topographically less complex environments. Due to the increasing availability, ALS data could become an operational part of Austrian's forest inventories.
Effect of market access provided by farmer organizations on smallholder vegetable farmer’s income in Tanzania

Abstract Limited market information and market access are two major obstacles to increased smallholder farmers’ income in Tanzania. Formation of a farmer organization is one way to overcome these challenges by improving access to markets while reducing transaction costs. This paper evaluates the effect of market accessed through farmer organizations on household income in Babati District, Tanzania. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to elicit information from 250 smallholder vegetable farmers using a structured questionnaire. Propensity score matching was used to estimate the effect of market accessed through farmer organizations on smallholder vegetable farmer’s income. Except for gender of the household head, average farm size owned, distance to the market, and transportation cost, there were no statistically significant differences between vegetable growers who belonged to a farmer organization and those who do not. Market access has a significant positive and robust effect on farm income. Smallholder vegetable farmers with an average farm size of 0.5 acre who had access to the market provided by farmer organization have more income per season (USD 220.11) than vegetable farmers who did not belong to the group membership (USD 177.90). Also, the cost incurred for transporting vegetables to the market and the distance was different between farmers who belonged to a group USD 0.22 and those who were not members USD 0.68. A government supported policy environment that will facilitate establishing and/or strengthening of farmer organizations be supported in sourcing, disseminating market information market accessibility to enhance smallholder livelihoods. This will assist in sustainably transforming smallholder vegetable farming as a viable business venture through increased productivity and incomes.
Triglyceride lowering by chromium picolinate in type 2 diabetic people

In some studies in diabetic people, chromium picolinate supplementation has lowered readings for both plasma triglycerides and blood sugar. In the present study, relatively low dose supplementation (200 µg chromium) did not lower blood sugar readings, but did lower triglyceride values in people with the following characteristics: type 2 diabetes, moderately elevated blood sugar, and not using insulin therapy. These results support the supposition that chromium picolinate can affect triglyceride concentrations independently of effects on carbohydrate metabolism. Key words: Chromium, diabetes, triglycerides.
Footprint Analysis of Recombination Signal Sequences in the 12/23 Synaptic Complex of V(D)J Recombination

ABSTRACT In V(D)J joining of antigen receptor genes, two recombination signal sequences (RSSs), 12-RSS and 23-RSS, are paired and complexed with the protein products of recombination-activating genes RAG1 and RAG2. Using magnetic beads, we purified the pre- and postcleavage complexes of V(D)J joining and analyzed them by DNase I footprinting. In the precleavage synaptic complex, strong protection was seen not only in the 9-mer and spacer regions but also near the coding border of the 7-mer. This is a sharp contrast to the single RSS-RAG complex where the 9-mer plays a major role in the interaction. We also analyzed the postcleavage signal end complex by footprinting. Unlike what was seen with the precleavage complex, the entire 7-mer and its neighboring spacer regions were protected. The present study indicates that the RAG-RSS interaction in the 7-mer region drastically changes once the synaptic complex is formed for cleavage.
Factors Affecting Hemagglutination by Enteroviruses

Discussion and summary Some of the factors that are known to affect the agglutination of various erythrocytes by viruses are the age of the donor animal, the hydrogen ion concentration of the diluent and the temperatures at which erythrocytes are allowed to sediment. The results reported here indicate that these factors, either singly or in combination, also affect the agglutination of human erythrocytes by enteroviruses known to possess this property. Cord erythrocytes or diluents of specific hydrogen ion concentration are not usually necessary for demonstration of enterovirus hemagglutinins. However, the use of these cells and of diluents other than those buffered at or above pH 7.0 has enabled us to detect hemagglutinating activity where it existed in what might be termed a “borderline state. ” This was exemplified by our demonstration of hemagglutination by ECHO virus type 24. Other reports(15,29,30) have indicated that the pH optimum for hemagglutination reactions with certain enteroviruses was other than at pH 7.0 to 7.3. Temperature has been shown to be the determining factor in whether or not hemagglutination is demonstrable in an unbuffered diluent with ECHO virus types 3, 11, 13 and 30, with Coxsackie group A types 21 and 24 and with Toluca-1 and JV-9 viruses. While several reports have appeared concerning utilization of hemagglutination and HI reactions to identify enteroviruses, there has been little effort to determine the optimal environmental conditions necessary to propagate enteroviruses in order to produce maximal titers of their hemagglutinins. We have been able to demonstrate hemagglutination regularly with tissue culture fluids of nearly all the serotypes utilized in these experiments, but difficulty has been encountered with a few serotypes such as the prototype strain of ECHO virus type 24. We have consistently been able to produce hemagglutinins with other strains of this same serotype.
Identification by a proteomic approach of a plasma protein as a possible biomarker of illicit dexamethasone treatment in veal calves

Corticosteroids have become the most widespread illegal growth promoters in veal calves and beef cattle. Testing for corticosteroids relies on either direct detection of compounds or their metabolites or indirect detection to identify changes in biological pathways. We used a comparative proteomic approach, based on two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE), to identify plasma protein markers after short-term dexamethasone administration in veal calves. Twenty-three male Friesian veal calves were treated experimentally with dexamethasone sodium phosphate: 10 received low-dose administration of the drug (0.4 mg day–1 per os) for 20 consecutive days (treatment group); 10 received the drug at therapeutic dosage (2–4 mg kg–1 i.m.) for 3 consecutive days (comparison group). Three animals were not treated (control group). Plasma samples were collected from each animal at six time points (T1–T6; treatment and control group) and at four time points (T1–T4; comparison group) and stored at –80°C until analysis. Plasma proteins were quantified and analysed in triplicate by 2DE. The images were analysed with Bionumerics® software. Comparison of 2DE maps obtained from blood samples at T1 (before treatment) and at T6 (final sampling) showed a significant disappearance (p < 0.001) of two protein spots at T6 in the treatment group. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis and immunoblotting identified these isoforms as serum paraoxonase/arylesterase 1 precursor (PON1). Synthesised in the liver and released into the blood, PON1 has an important role in lipid metabolism. The absence of variation of this protein in the comparison group suggests that the marker has good specificity for detecting illicit corticosteroid treatment.