Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Locally Linear Embedding on Grassmann Manifold for Performance Degradation Assessment of Bearings

In recent years, a significant amount of research work has been undertaken to address the problem about prognostic and health management (PHM) systems. Performance degradation assessment, an essential part of PHM systems, is still a challenge. Subspaces, forming a non-Euclidean and curved manifold that is known as Grassmann manifold, are able to capture dynamic behaviors and accommodate the effects of variations. In this paper, we propose a novel local subspace model for performance degradation assessment termed locally linear embedding on Grassmann manifold (GM-LLE), where subspaces are treated as points on Grassmann manifold. Due to the nonstationary property of vibration signal, second generation wavelet package is used to decompose the vibration signal into different levels. Subspaces are modeled by optimal statistical features of different frequency bands, and then GM-LLE is used to assess bearing performance degradation by embedding the subspaces into reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces. Finally, simulated and experimental vibration signals are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method can assess the bearing's degradation effectively, and performs better compared with locally linear embedding.
REGIONAL BIODIVERSITY DATABASE (REBIDA) – THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE DATABASE OF BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

The expert reports state that Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the presence of diverse and valuable natural resources, lacks systematic, coordinated and harmonized pipeline for biomonitoring. Successful solutions to serious problems regarding environmental protection, management and research rely on the efficient use of exhaustive and unfailing information on the nature around us. However, more often than not, transitional and developing countries lack any centralized, nationally funded databases that could be used as dependable source of information in decision making process. University of Sarajevo-Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (INGEB) developed the Regional Biodiversity Database – REBIDA with the aim to collate all known biological data on wild and domesticated natural resources of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This internet-based database represents a comprehensive, searchable and open access platform for science community, academia, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders and general public. Besides its scientific value, REBIDA will serve as an educational tool for discovering the diversity and importance of natural resources, with special emphasis on indigenous and endemic flora, fungia and fauna from the Balkans. It is the only such database in the country, consisting of three functionally connected segments: tissue database, DNA database and digital genetic database on plant, animal and human samples. To complement REBIDA, a mobile application called REBIDA SCANNER was also developed. It will be free to download for IOS and Android platforms and will enable professionals, nature enthusiasts and any other interested parties to contribute to REBIDA through data collection, field sampling and documentation of B&H wild life.
A hybrid adaptive antenna array

Owing to the excessive demand on signal processing and space constraint, a full digital implementation of a large adaptive antenna array at millimeter wave frequencies is very challenging. Targeted at long range high data rate point-to-point link in the 70/80 GHz bands, a novel hybrid adaptive antenna array which consists of analogue subarrays followed by a digital beamformer is presented in this paper to overcome the digital implementation difficulty. Two subarray configurations, the interleaved subarray and the side-by-side subarray, are proposed, and two Doppler resilient adaptive angle-of-arrival estimation and beamforming algorithms, the differential beam tracking (DBT) and the differential beam search (DBS), are developed. Simulation results on the DBT and DBS performance are provided using a 64 element hybrid planar array of four 4 by 4 element subarrays with the two subarray configurations, respectively. Recursive mean square error (MSE) bounds of the developed algorithms are also analyzed and compared with simulated MSEs.
Relations among Heart Rate, Immediate Memory, and Time Estimation under Two Different Instructions

The present study was done to elucidate the relations among heart rate, digit memory, and time estimation under two different instructions, standard and evaluative. 60 women heard and recalled 8 digits. Subjects reproduced 4-, 8-, and 16-sec. durations of a buzzer and also estimated the durations. Data were discussed in terms of the hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between arousal and performance. These data suggest relations among the three variables which were influenced by two different instructions.
Corporate governance and firm performance in the Saudi banking industry

The current research aims to explore the impact of corporate governance on the Saudi banking performance for the period of 2014–2017. Though many researchers tested the relationship of corporate governance and firm performance, globally as well as in Saudi Arabia, however, during the literature review, it was found that many excluded the banking industry. This study tries to fill the gap by looking exclusively at the Saudi banking industry. Firm performance is measured through return on assets, return on equity, and Tobin’s Q as the dependent variables. The corporate governance practices are measured through the board characteristics (size, meeting, number of committees, independence, foreign board membership), and an audit committee (size, meeting, independence) as the independent variables. Firm size and firm age are the controls. Panel data analysis was implemented, using both descriptive and multivariate analysis through multiple regression to investigate the governance practices and firm performance. The empirical findings demonstrate that board size, audit committee meeting and bank size have a positive impact on ROE, whereas board independence has a negative impact on ROE. Similarly, board size and bank size have a positive relationship with ROA and board meeting has a negative relationship with ROA. Further, board (size and independence) and bank size have a positive relationship with Tobin’s Q, whereas number of board committees and bank age have a negative relationship with Tobin’s Q. Finally, audit committee (size and independence) and foreign board membership have no impact on the bank performance.
EVIDENCE ON THE SIMPLE STRUCTURE AND FACTOR INVARIANCE ACHIEVED BY FIVE ROTATIONAL METHODS ON FOUR TYPES OF DATA.

Five methods of factor rotation-Maxplane, Oblimax, Promax, Harris- Kaiser, and Varimax-were applied to four types of data-questionnaire, objeckive test, a physical problem, and a plasmode. In addition, the Maxplane procedure was followed in each case by Rotoplot-assisted visual robations. The results were compared with respect to simple structure (hyperplane percentages) and factor invaniance (congruence coefficient). It was concluded that, in general, the oblique methods were superior to Varimax in terms of simple structure although not consistently in terms of factor invariance. Among the oblique methods, the Rotoplot-assisted Maxplane usually resulted in the maximum simple structure at the f . 10 hyperplane width but not consistently at either of the other two arbitrarily chosen widths. The unassisted Maxplane was generally excelled by the less expensive oblique methods both wiith respect to hyperplane count and factor invariance. The Harris-Kaiser method was generally more satisfadory in terms of the two criteria combined.
Risk Stratification in Multiple Myeloma: Putting the Pieces Together

Contemporary treatments have greatly extended survival in multiple myeloma (MM), and when relapse occurs, clinicians have numerous effective options at their disposal. Genetic profiling of the tumor allows for risk stratification that guides treatment selection. “Survival is improving, thanks to new treatments,” according to Angela Mayo, MS, PA-C. The proteasome inhibitors—bortezomib (Velcade), carfilzomib (Kyprolis), and ixazomib (Ninlaro, the new oral agent)—and the immunomodulating drugs (IMiDs)—thalidomide (Thalomid), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and pomalidomide (Pomalyst)—“have revolutionized treatment,” she said. “But multiple myeloma is still not a curable malignancy,” she noted. “We remind our patients, this is a marathon, not a sprint, and longterm therapy will be required. ” Ms. Mayo and Craig Reeder, MD, both of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, discussed how multiple myeloma is diagnosed and treated at JADPRO Live.
Towards a unified software attack model to assess software protections

Attackers can tamper with programs to break usage conditions. Different software protection techniques have been proposed to limit the possibility of tampering. Some of them just limit the possibility to understand the (binary) code, others react more actively when a change attempt is detected. However, the validation of the software protection techniques has been always conducted without taking into consideration a unified process adopted by attackers to tamper with programs. In this paper we present an extension of the mini-cycle of change, initially proposed to model the process of changing program for maintenance, to describe the process faced by an attacker to defeat software protections. This paper also shows how this new model should support a developer when considering what are the most appropriate protections to deploy.
Effects of age and hearing loss on articulatory precision for sibilants

This study investigates the effects of adult age and speaker abilities on articulatory precision for sibilant productions. Normal-hearing young adults with better sibilant discrimination have been shown to produce greater spectral sibilant contrasts. As reduced auditory feedback may gradually impact on feedforward commands, we investigate whether articulatory precision as indexed by spectral mean for [s] and [S] decreases with age, and more particularly with agerelated hearing loss. Younger, middle-aged and older adults read aloud words starting with the sibilants [s] or [S]. Possible effects of cognitive, perceptual, linguistic and sociolinguistic background variables on the sibilants’ acoustics were also investigated. Sibilant contrasts were less pronounced for male than female speakers. Most importantly, for the fricative [s], the spectral mean was modulated by individual high-frequency hearing loss, but not age. These results underscore that even mild hearing loss already affects articulatory precision.
Russian food and agricultural import ban: The impact on the domestic market for cattle, pork and poultry [Russisches Agrar- und Lebensmittelimportverbot: Auswirkungen auf den heimischen Markt für Rind-, Schweine- und Geflügelfleisch]

This study analyses the impact of the Russian food and agricultural import ban on import of meat, the structural changes of trade pattern and reallocation of import flows of meat and meat products, and the price development in the import market and its impact on producers and consumers market for cattle, pork and poultry meat in the Russian Federation (RF). There is empirical evidence that the collapse of meat exports to Russia and, hence, the increase of meat prices happened even long before the import ban was introduced. The structure of Russian import market for meat has significantly changed. Brazil became the largest meat exporter in the Russian meat import market achieving market share in the total meat import of the RF almost 50% in 2015-2016. The structural changes of the Russian import market suggests that the beef and pork exporters are not price-takers on the one hand. On the other hand, they may be able to discriminate prices in the Russian import markets.
Non-iterative Label Propagation on Optimal Leading Forest

Graph based semi-supervised learning (GSSL) has intuitive representation and can be improved by exploiting the matrix calculation. However, it has to perform iterative optimization to achieve a preset objective, which usually leads to low efficiency. Another inconvenience lying in GSSL is that when new data come, the graph construction and the optimization have to be conducted all over again. We propose a sound assumption, arguing that: the neighboring data points are not in peer-to-peer relation, but in a partial-ordered relation induced by the local density and distance between the data; and the label of a center can be regarded as the contribution of its followers. Starting from the assumption, we develop a highly efficient non-iterative label propagation algorithm based on a novel data structure named as optimal leading forest (LaPOLeaF). The major weaknesses of the traditional GSSL are addressed by this study. We further scale LaPOLeaF to accommodate big data by utilizing block distance matrix technique, parallel computing, and Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH). Experiments on large datasets have shown the promising results of the proposed methods.
Visual Data Augmentation through Learning

The rapid progress in machine learning methods has been empowered by i) huge datasets that have been collected and annotated, ii) improved engineering (e.g. data pre-processing/normalization). The existing datasets typically include several million samples, which constitutes their extension a colossal task. In addition, the state-of-the-art data-driven methods demand a vast amount of data, hence a standard engineering trick employed is artificial data augmentation for instance by adding into the data cropped and (affinely) transformed images. However, this approach does not correspond to any change in the natural 3D scene. We propose instead to perform data augmentation through learning realistic local transformations. We learn a forward and an inverse transformation that maps an image from the high-dimensional space of pixel intensities to a latent space which varies (approximately) linearly with the latent space of a realistically transformed version of the image. Such transformed images can be considered two successive frames in a video. Next, we utilize these transformations to learn a linear model that modifies the latent spaces and then use the inverse transformation to synthesize a new image. We argue that the this procedure produces powerful invariant representations. We perform both qualitative and quantitative experiments that demonstrate our proposed method creates new realistic images.
Enumeration of Viable Listeria monocytogenes Cells by Real-Time PCR with Propidium Monoazide and Ethidium Monoazide in the Presence of Dead Cells

ABSTRACT Propidium monoazide (PMA) and ethidium monoazide were used for enumeration of viable Listeria monocytogenes cells in the presence of dead cells. PMA had no antimicrobial effect on L. monocytogenes. Viable cell counts were linearly related to real-time PCR threshold cycle values for PMA-treated cells from planktonic and biofilm sources over a 4-log range.
Forthcoming in Discrete Optimization SUPERMODULAR COVERING KNAPSACK POLYTOPE

The supermodular covering knapsack set is the discrete upper level set of a non-decreasing supermodular function. Submodular and supermodular knapsack sets arise naturally when modeling utilities, risk and probabilistic constraints on discrete variables. In a recent paper Atamtürk and Narayanan [6] study the lower level set of a non-decreasing submodular function. In this complementary paper we describe pack inequalities for the supermodular covering knapsack set and investigate their separation, extensions and lifting. We give sequence-independent upper bounds and lower bounds on the lifting coefficients. Furthermore, we present a computational study on using the polyhedral results derived for solving 0-1 optimization problems over conic quadratic constraints with a branch-and-cut algorithm.
Plasma Apolipoproteins AI, AII, B, CI, and E Are Glucosylated in Hyperglycemic Diabetic Subjects

Nonenzymatic posttranslational glucosylation of the free amine of lysine residues can occur in hyperglycemic diabetic subjects. Using monoclonal antibodies that specifically bind the reduced conjugate of glucose covalently bound to the epsilon amine of lysine, glucitollysine, plasma lipoprotein glucosylation was demonstrated by radioimmunoassays in all subjects tested. Lipoproteins isolated from the plasma of diabetic subjects in poor metabolic control contained up to 33-fold increases in glucitollysine residues/mg of isolated lipoprotein protein, and on an absolute basis contained between 36 and 383 nmol of glucitollysine in their total lipoprotein fraction compared with normals, who had a mean of 2.9 ± 0.06 nmol. The majority of the glucosylated protein in the d < 1.125 g/ml fraction was present in the triglyceride-rich lipoproteins of hyperglycemic subjects, whereas the majority of the glucosylated protein in the d < 1.125 g/ml fraction of euglycemic subjects was present in the high-density lipoproteins (HDL). A number of immunochemical approaches were used to demonstrate that, in diabetic plasma, apo Al, apo All, apo B, apo Cl, apo E, and albumin were glucosylated. Detailed studies of the apoproteins of a d ≤ 1.019 g/ml lipoprotein fraction and of an HDL fraction isolated from a hyperglycemic diabetic subject indicated that glucitollysine-specific antibodies can be sed to preparatively isolate proteins containing glucosylated amino acid residues so that the extent of glucosylation in specific proteins can be measured. The results indicate that some of the lysine residues of the apoproteins can be modified in hyperglycemic diabetic subjects by the covalent attachment of glucose. The possible significance of these observations is discussed.
Gene Therapy Insertional Mutagenesis Insights

In a milestone study describing the first “cure” of a genetic disease by retroviral gene therapy, 9 out of 10 infants born with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1, also known as γc or IL2RG deficiency) were successfully treated with autologous bone marrow stem cells infected ex
Complete Genome Sequence of the p-Nitrophenol-Degrading Bacterium Pseudomonas putida DLL-E4

ABSTRACT The first complete genome sequence of a p-nitrophenol (PNP)-degrading bacterium is reported here. Pseudomonas putida DLL-E4, a Gram-negative bacterium isolated from methyl-parathion-polluted soil, can utilize PNP as the sole carbon and nitrogen source. P. putida DLL-E4 has a 6,484,062 bp circular chromosome that contains 5,894 genes, with a G+C content of 62.46%.
How to Improve Innovation Capability? : The Role of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Motivation of Manufacturing Firms in Sri Lanka

The intellectual capital creates a crucial factor for the achievement of the innovation of firm. Numerous studies have been documented that intellectual capital positively influences innovation capability, which is conceptualized as the degree to achieve its firm performance. However, there is a lack of studies examining the specific means through which organizational motivation influences innovation capability at firm level. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to exhibit the Intellectual capital effects on firm innovation capability by influence the organizational motivation. This study investigates the multidimensional and contingent gradual effect of intellectual capitals and organizational motivation on innovation capability. Manufacturing sectors have shown commendable progress over the past few decades in Sri Lankan. The structured questionnaires were administrated as a research instrument and random sampling technique was used to collect the data from 462 senior executives and senior managers from manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka. The study revealed that the intellectual capital have significant positive relationship on innovation capability with strong influence of organizational motivation. The intellectual capital mediated by organizational motivation that lies outside and inside of the firm have an indirect effect on innovation capability. The findings of this study will be useful for manufacturing industry to apply intellectual capital management and identify organizational motivation to create innovation in their organizations.
Power Loss Determination, Assessment and Enhancement of the Nigerian Power System Network

For sustainability to be recorded in the Nigeria power sector (NPS), there must be a well-integrated system that is not easily prone to failure and is readily available when called into action. The NPS has overtime suffered from degraded infrastructure, policy paralysis to mention but few. However, if the needful is done with respect to identifying weak links in the network and a corresponding fast action in clearing failures along the line(s) then, some remarkable achievements could be recorded. This paper, therefore, carried out power flow analysis using the Newton Raphson Algorithm on the Electrical Transient Analyser Program (ETAP) version 12.6 on the NPS network using Maryland transmission station (MTS), Lagos, Nigeria as a case study. The choice of the location was as a result of the sensitivity of Lagos State in the economic activities of Nigeria. Results from the load flow indicated several voltage violations at load1 bus, load3 bus and load5 bus with magnitudes of 94.51, 94.91 and 94.79 % respectively. Consequently, transformers designated as T2A and T3A were said to have the highest and lowest branch losses of 150.0kW and 18.2kW respectively. Compensation of the losses along the line was carried out using optimal capacitor placement (OCP) subjected to constraints on the ETAP environment. The results from the OCP showed that it optimally sized and placed four capacitor banks on four of the candidate buses, which include load1 bus, load2 bus, load3 bus and load5 bus. An improvement of 2.26%, 1.12%, 1.93%, 1.12% and 2.006% were recorded for load1 bus, load2 bus, load3 bus, load4 bus and load5 bus respectively.
The macrophage-activating tetrapeptide tuftsin induces nitric oxide synthesis and stimulates murine macrophages to kill Leishmania parasites in vitro

The macrophage-activating tetrapeptide tuftsin was able to activate, in a dose-dependent manner, murine macrophages to express nitric oxide (NO) synthase and to produce NO. Tuftsin required lipopolysaccharides for the optimal induction of NO production and synergized with gamma interferon in the induction of NO synthesis. Tuftsin-dependent NO production was sensitive to inhibition by dexamethasone and the NO synthase specific inhibitor LGN-monomethylarginine (L-NMMA). Murine peritoneal macrophages activated by tuftsin were able to kill the amastigotes of the intracellular protozoan parasite Leishmania major in vitro.
OPEN GLOBE OCULAR TRAUMA: Functional Outcome of Eyes with No Light Perception at Initial Presentation

Purpose: To evaluate characteristics and prognostic factors for functional success in eyes that present with no light perception (NLP) after open globe trauma. Methods: The medical records of all subjects presenting to a single university referral center with visual acuity (VA) of NLP after sustaining an open globe eye injury from January 1, 2001, through June 30, 2010, were retrospectively analyzed to determine epidemiologic and clinical factors associated with visual outcomes. Results: Of the 73 NLP eyes (73 patients) that underwent primary repair and were included in the study, final VA was 20/100 in 1 eye (1%), counting fingers in 2 eyes (3%), hand motion in 9 eyes (12%), light perception in 5 eyes (7%), and NLP in 56 eyes (77%). Recovery of some vision on postoperative Day 1, pars plana vitrectomy operation, and Zone 2 injury were significantly associated with an improvement in final VA. Zone 3 injuries were the most likely to result in NLP final VA, although this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Visual recovery to light perception or better on postoperative Day 1 increases the likelihood of having a long-term improvement in VA. Pars plana vitrectomy may be beneficial in such eyes if posterior segment abnormalities are noted.