Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen Control of Atrazine Utilization in Pseudomonas sp. Strain ADP

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP uses the herbicide atrazine as the sole nitrogen source. We have devised a simple atrazine degradation assay to determine the effect of other nitrogen sources on the atrazine degradation pathway. The atrazine degradation rate was greatly decreased in cells grown on nitrogen sources that support rapid growth of Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP compared to cells cultivated on growth-limiting nitrogen sources. The presence of atrazine in addition to the nitrogen sources did not stimulate degradation. High degradation rates obtained in the presence of ammonium plus the glutamine synthetase inhibitor MSX and also with an Nas− mutant derivative grown on nitrate suggest that nitrogen regulation operates by sensing intracellular levels of some key nitrogen-containing metabolite. Nitrate amendment in soil microcosms resulted in decreased atrazine mineralization by the wild-type strain but not by the Nas− mutant. This suggests that, although nitrogen repression of the atrazine catabolic pathway may have a strong impact on atrazine biodegradation in nitrogen-fertilized soils, the use of selected mutant variants may contribute to overcoming this limitation.
Efecto de la cáscara de huevo en la producción de cápsulas de la lombriz roja (Eisenia andrei)

Con el objetivo de conocer la influencia de la adicion de cascara de huevo de gallina en la reproduccion de la lombriz roja (Eisenia andrei Bouche) en un sustrato compuesto por estiercol bovino, se realizo un experimento en el estado Trujillo, Venezuela, mediante un diseno completamente al azar con medidas repetidas en el tiempo y veinte replicas. Los sustratos con las diferentes proporciones de cascara constituyeron los tratamientos (C0=0, C1=1, C2=2 y C3= 3%). En la etapa inicial se formaron cuatro grupos de ochenta lombrices nacidas al mismo tiempo, las cuales fueron alimentadas durante el crecimiento bajo las proporciones determinadas de cascara en su dieta. A los tres meses de edad, los individuos de cada tratamiento se dividieron en 20 frascos. Cada 10 dias y durante un mes se cambiaron a frascos nuevos manteniendo la composicion del sustrato inicial respectivo. En cada periodo se contaron las capsulas depositadas. Se observo un efecto significativo de la inclusion de 2 y 3 % de cascara en la produccion de capsulas a los 20 y 30 dias de medicion (110 y 120 dias de vida). Las ecuaciones que presentaron los mayores ajustes en cuanto a la produccion de capsulas en el tiempo fueron las cuadraticas. Se concluye que la inclusion de 2 y 3% de cascara de huevo de gallina en un sustrato de estiercol bovino favorece la deposicion de capsulas de E. andrei a los 20 y 30 dias
First Isolation of a Rabid Bat Infected with European Bat Lyssavirus in Luxembourg

Rabid bats are regularly reported in Europe, especially in countries that have implemented a bat surveillance network. In May 2013, bat rabies was evidenced for the first time in Luxembourg (southern city of Differdange). The rabies virus, an EBLV‐1b strain, was diagnosed in a serotine bat that bit a 29‐year‐old male person while he was asleep. The man received rapidly a post‐exposure RABV treatment and was put under strict medical supervision.
Burst Coronary Artery: Managing A Type III Coronary Perforation

A 46 year old gentleman underwent a coronary angiogram for symptomatic ischemic heart disease. Angiogram showed diffuse lesions of the right coronary artery(RCA) with the tightest (~90%) in the proximal segment(Fig 1A). There were no significant angulations, tortuosities or calcifications. The lesion was crossed with a floppy-wire and predilated serially with a 1.25mm balloon, followed by 1.5mm balloon and finally by 2mm balloon(Fig 1 B). The lesion in mid-RCA was stented with a 3*24mm drug eluting stent(DES) (Fig 1 C). Finally the proximal lesion was stented with another 3*24mm DES. The patient developed hypotension and became dyspnoeic. Reinjection showed a free-flowing Type III perforation of the proximal RCA with hemopericardium, amounting to tamponade(Fig 1 D; supplementary file). He was managed by immediate balloon-tamponade followed by stenting with a polytetafluoroethylene(PTFE) covered stent(Fig 2A and 2B) and pericardiocentesis. He subsequently stabilized and was discharged in good condition. Coronary perforation is a rare complication of percutaneous intervention with an incidence <0.5%. Common risk factors include aggressive pre-dilatation, post-dilatation with an oversized balloon, Type C lesions, and use of cutting balloons and rotablators. According to the Ellis angiographic classification they are classified into three: Type I which is an extraluminal crater without extravasation, Type II where there is myocardial blush without contrast extravasation and Type III where there is free flowing extravasation through a 1mm rent in the artery 1 . Type III perforations, though extremely rare, are catastrophic. In a multicenter registry Type III perforations resulted in cardiac tamponade in 63%, the need for urgent bypass surgery in 63% and mortality of 19% 1 . While traditionally treated with emergency bypass surgery, several reports have advocated stenting with PTFE-covered stents with high success rates 2 .
Maitrise des excès d'eau hivernaux et de l'irrigation et leurs conséquences sur la productivité de la betterave sucrière dans le périmètre irrigue du Gharb (Maroc). Analyse expérimentale et modélisation.

La plaine du Gharb au Maroc, souffre d'exces d'eau pendant l'hiver et du deficit hydrique en ete. Cet etat de fait explique la faible rentabilite des investissements hydro agricoles realises a ce jour par le gouvernement. L'originalite de ce travail reside dans le fait de relier l'evacuation des eaux de surface excedentaires au cours de l'hiver, et la satisfaction des besoins en eau de la culture des le printemps ou elle commence a connaitre un deficit hydrique. Deux objectifs sont assignes a ce travail : (i) l'evaluation des performances hydrauliques et agronomiques du drainage de surface et (ii) l'evaluation de l'impact de l'exces d'eau sur la culture de la betterave a sucre. Il repose sur (i) une approche experimentale et (ii) une modelisation des processus en question. Pour ce faire, des comparaisons ont ete effectuees entre trois parcelles : (i) une parcelle nivelee selon une pente S0 de 0.2 % et irriguee a la raie, (ii) une parcelle non nivelee irriguee par aspersion et (iii) une parcelle nivelee selon une pente S0 de 0.2% dans la meme sens que la premiere parcelle mais depourvue de raies et irriguee par aspersion. L'etude experimentale a clairement demontre la capacite d'une parcelle avec raies a evacuer efficacement les exces d'eau pendant l'hiver comparativement a une parcelle non nivelee. Sur cette derniere, les submersions locales affectent fortement la production de la betterave a sucre. Le systeme de raies fournit les meilleurs rendements suivis de pres par le systeme nivele irrigue par l'aspersion. Un modele de ruissellement a ete specifiquement developpe pour la prediction du volume ruissele et du debit maximal de ruissellement a l'exutoire d'une parcelle avec raies soumise a des evenements pluvieux intermittents et d'intensites variables. Ce modele utilisant entre autre pour entree le hyetogramme de pluie d'une periode de retour 1 an met en evidence le sous dimensionnement des fosses destines a recueillir les eaux a l'aval des parcelles chez les agriculteurs. Les performances agronomiques de la raie ont ete evaluees a l'aide du modele SOFIP qui simule l'impact de l'irrigation a la raie sur la productivite de l'eau. Pour la parcelle non nivelee, le modele PILOTE a ete adapte pour simuler l'impact de la submersion sur la productivite de la betterave a sucre. Les simulations du rendement effectuees sur une serie de onze annees montrent clairement l'avantage du systeme gravitaire modernise par rapport au systeme aspersif non nivele et ce, pour differentes dates de semis. On peut pour conclure affirmer que le developpement agricole dans la plaine du Gharb doit etre raisonne en tenant compte des exces d'eau hivernaux prejudiciables aux cultures.
Extension of the NCAT phantom for the investigation of intra-fraction respiratory motion in IMRT using 4D Monte Carlo

The purpose of this work was to create a computational platform for studying motion in intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Specifically, the non-uniform rational B-spline (NURB) cardiac and torso (NCAT) phantom was modified for use in a four-dimensional Monte Carlo (4D-MC) simulation system to investigate the effect of respiratory-induced intra-fraction organ motion on IMRT dose distributions as a function of diaphragm motion, lesion size and lung density. Treatment plans for four clinical scenarios were designed: diaphragm peak-to-peak amplitude of 1 cm and 3 cm, and two lesion sizes—2 cm and 4 cm diameter placed in the lower lobe of the right lung. Lung density was changed for each phase using a conservation of mass calculation. Further, a new heterogeneous lung model was implemented and tested. Each lesion had an internal target volume (ITV) subsequently expanded by 15 mm isotropically to give the planning target volume (PTV). The PTV was prescribed to receive 72 Gy in 40 fractions. The MLC leaf sequence defined by the planning system for each patient was exported and used as input into the MC system. MC simulations using the dose planning method (DPM) code together with deformable image registration based on the NCAT deformation field were used to find a composite dose distribution for each phantom. These composite distributions were subsequently analyzed using information from the dose volume histograms (DVH). Lesion motion amplitude has the largest effect on the dose distribution. Tumor size was found to have a smaller effect and can be mitigated by ensuring the planning constraints are optimized for the tumor size. The use of a dynamic or heterogeneous lung density model over a respiratory cycle does not appear to be an important factor with a ≤ 0.6% change in the mean dose received by the ITV, PTV and right lung. The heterogeneous model increases the realism of the NCAT phantom and may provide more accurate simulations in radiation therapy investigations that use the phantom. This work further evaluates the NCAT phantom for use as a tool in radiation therapy research in addition to its extensive use in diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine research. Our results indicate that the NCAT phantom, combined with 4D-MC simulations, is a useful tool in radiation therapy investigations and may allow the study of relative effects in many clinically relevant situations.
On Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for tall data

Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are often deemed too computationally intensive to be of any practical use for big data applications, and in particular for inference on datasets containing a large number $n$ of individual data points, also known as tall datasets. In scenarios where data are assumed independent, various approaches to scale up the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm in a Bayesian inference context have been recently proposed in machine learning and computational statistics. These approaches can be grouped into two categories: divide-and-conquer approaches and, subsampling-based algorithms. The aims of this article are as follows. First, we present a comprehensive review of the existing literature, commenting on the underlying assumptions and theoretical guarantees of each method. Second, by leveraging our understanding of these limitations, we propose an original subsampling-based approach which samples from a distribution provably close to the posterior distribution of interest, yet can require less than $O(n)$ data point likelihood evaluations at each iteration for certain statistical models in favourable scenarios. Finally, we have only been able so far to propose subsampling-based methods which display good performance in scenarios where the Bernstein-von Mises approximation of the target posterior distribution is excellent. It remains an open challenge to develop such methods in scenarios where the Bernstein-von Mises approximation is poor.
POWER AMOUNT ANALYSIS: AN EFFICIENT MEANS TO REVEAL THE SECRETS IN CRYPTOSYSTEMS

In this paper we propose a novel approach to reveal the information leakage of cryptosystems by means of a side-channel analysis of their power consumption. We therefore introduce first a novel power trace model based on communication theory to better understand and to efficiently exploit power traces in side-channel attacks. Then, we discuss a dedicated attack method denoted as Power Amount Analysis, which takes more time points into consideration compared to many other attack methods. We use the well-known Correlation Power Analysis method as the reference in order to demonstrate the figures of merit of the advocated analysis method. Then we perform a comparison of these analysis methods at identical attack conditions in terms of run time, traces usage, misalignment tolerance, and internal clock frequency effects. The resulting advantages of the novel analysis method are demonstrated by mounting both mentioned attack methods for an FPGA-based AES-128 encryption module.
A Perceptual Investigation into Spatialization Techniques Used in Multichannel Electroacoustic Music for Envelopment and Engulfment

Abstract Composers of electroacoustic music have developed and creatively implemented various spatialization techniques for multichannel loudspeaker setups. What is not known is which of these spatialization techniques is most effective for exploiting the extended creative possibilities available in multidimensional sound. This article discusses an experiment investigating the perception of the spatial attributes of “envelopment” and “engulfment” within a high-density loudspeaker array. The spatialization techniques used in the experiment were timbre spatialization, spectral splitting, amplitude point-source panning, and dynamic spectral subband decorrelation. Three loudspeaker setups, or spatial dimensions, were investigated: horizontal-only; elevated-only; and three-dimensional, which consisted of both horizontal and elevated loudspeaker setups. Results suggest that dynamic spectral subband decorrelation was perceived as both the most enveloping and the most engulfing technique when compared to other techniques in these experimental loudspeaker configurations. We propose that the experimental results can be successfully implemented when composing electroacoustic music to exploit the creative possibilities in a high-density loudspeaker array or in other multichannel loudspeaker configurations.
Why do people volunteer for community first responder groups?

Background There is a growing number of community first responder (CFR) groups in the UK who provide emergency care in their local communities. Objective To understand why people volunteer for, and continue to be active in CFR groups. Design Qualitative study, using focus groups of CFRs. Five focus groups were conducted, with a total of 35 participants. Results Ideas of altruism and a sense of community were found to be important to volunteers, though motives were complex and individual. Many volunteers had some sort of prior experience relevant to the CFR role, either as health professionals or first-aiders. Conclusion Though volunteers' motives had some commonalities with the limited literature, there were issues that were unique to the CFR context. The flexibility and autonomy of CFR volunteering was particularly attractive to volunteers. It remains to be seen how sustainable the CFR model is.
Identifying sequentially untestable faults using illegal states

In this paper, we first present an algorithm (FILL) which efficiently identifies a large subset of the illegal states in a synchronous sequential circuit, without assuming a global reset mechanism. A second algorithm, FUNI, finds sequentially untestable faults whose detection requires some of the illegal states computed by FlLL. Although based on binary decision diagrams (BDDs), FILL is able to process large circuits by using a new functional partitioning procedure. The incremental building of the set of illegal states guarantees that FILL mill always obtain at least a partial solution. FUNI is a direct method that identifies untestable faults without using the exhaustive search involved in automatic test generation (ATG). Experimental results show that FUNI finds a large number of untestable faults up to several orders of magnitude faster than an ATG algorithm that targeted the faults identified by FUNI, Also, many untestable faults identified by FUNI were aborted by the test generator.
Eye-tracking verification of the strategy used to analyse algorithms expressed in a flowchart and pseudocode

The results of qualitative and quantitative investigations conducted with individuals who learned algorithms in school are presented in this article. In these investigations, eye-tracking technology was used to follow the process of solving algorithmic problems. The algorithmic problems were presented in two comparable variants: in a pseudocode and flowchart. The eye-tracking data resulted in both qualitative (films registering the gaze paths) and quantitative measures, which allowed the detection and interpretation of the differences in the task-solving strategies between those who found the correct answer and those that did not. The results confirmed a hypothesis that use of the formal notation characteristic of a programming language for presenting algorithms is often a practical difficulty in the process of solving even simple tasks. This study opens a new direction of research; they show that eye-tracking technology can be used to optimise the educational process of learning programming.
User Acceptance and Motivation of E-Governance Services Based on Employees Levels of Experience in the UAE SME

Th is research figure on the study of factors related to e-government acceptance and motivation in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) Small and Mediu m Enterprises (SM E). The study has been focused on the integration of mot ivation into the technology acceptance model (TAM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB) to wards using e-Government. An online survey was created to measure the user opin ion about the e-Govern ment ease of use, usefulness, and motivation. In this survey, we empirically validated the proposed framewo rk by use of 130 co mp leted questionnaires belonging to the users of e-government services offices in UA E SM E. The results of data analysis by SPSS show that, accepting of services provided by e-Government services offices can be exp lained in terms of mot ivation, ease o fuse, and usefulness.
Error Corrective Fusion of Classifier Scores for Spoken Language Recognition

This paper investigates a new method for fusion of scores generated by multiple classification sub-systems that help to further reduce the classification error rate in Spoken Language Recognition (SLR). In recent studies, a variety of effective classification algorithms have been developed for SLR. Hence, it has been a common practice in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Language Recognition Evaluations (LREs) to fuse the results from several classification sub-systems to boost the performance of the SLR systems. In this work, we introduce a discriminative performance measure to optimize the performance of the fusion of 7 language classifiers developed as IIR's submission to the 2009 NIST LRE. We present an Error Corrective Fusion (ECF) method in which we iteratively learn the fusion weights to minimize error rate of the fusion system. Experiments conducted on the 2009 NIST LRE corpus demonstrate a significant improvement compared to individual sub-systems. Comparison study is also conducted to show the effectiveness of the ECF method.
Exploring Intercultural Communication in Expats ’ Social Media Groups ZeynepAksoy

As international and global organizations grow, so the expatriate communities expand in different regions of the world. Professionals, who are assigned to positions abroad by multinational/international organizations, constitute a multicultural community in which they face similar challenges of settling in, adjusting and joining in social life in a new culture. Since digital communication technologies provide virtual spaces for interaction, expats are more likely to find opportunities to meet others who share common difficulties and expectations. Thus, online social networks enable a so-called interactive area for expats to communicate and share news, opinions or experiences. This study attempts to understand the intercultural communication themes of expat communities in social media groups. With this aim, Facebook groups of two expat communities, “Expats in Istanbul” and “Expats in Amsterdam”, have been examined through qualitative content analysis. Qualitative approach enhanced developing an insight into the meaning and the process of communication. The postings, shared on Facebook groups in March 2016, are investigated based on an open coding process. The study results demonstrate that members tend to use these social network groups with 'survival' concerns within the context of intercultural relationship.
Performance of adaptive fuzzy bandwidth expansion scheme for OFDM communication systems

In this paper, both effective bandwidth extension and distributed issues are investigated to improve the energy efficiency for the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) wireless communication systems. A Fuzzy based energy efficient bandwidth expansion (FBEEBE) scheme is proposed to fast infer the bandwidth extension factors (BEFs) for users based on fuzzy inference systems. The proposed fuzzy inference system can infer the BEFs from the two inputs of SNR and bandwidth requirement of users. Simulation results show that the proposed FBEEBE can improve the energy efficiency comparing to that of same bandwidth extension (SBE) scheme.
Effect of calcium chloride treatments on calcium content, anthracnose severity and antioxidant activity in papaya fruit during ambient storage.

BACKGROUND There have been no reports on the effects of preharvest calcium application on anthracnose disease severity, antioxidant activity and cellular changes during ambient storage of papaya, and therefore the objective of this study was to investigate these effects. RESULTS Higher calcium concentrations (1.5 and 2% w/v) increased calcium concentration in the peel and pulp tissues, maintained firmness, and reduced anthracnose incidence and severity. While leakage of calcium-treated fruit was lower for 1.5 and 2% calcium treatments compared to the control, microscopic results confirmed that pulp cell wall thickness was higher after 6 days in storage, for the 2% calcium treatment compared to the control. Calcium-treated fruit also had higher total antioxidant activity and total phenolic compounds during storage. CONCLUSION Calcium chloride, especially at higher concentrations, is effective in maintaining papaya fruit quality during ambient storage. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.