Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavioural Types for Synchronous Software Composition 1

Digital signal–processing (DSP) development tools such as Ptolemy, LabView and iConnect allow application developers to assemble reactive systems by connecting predefined components in generalised dataflow graphs and by hierarchically building new components by encapsulating sub–graphs. We follow the literature in calling this approach dataflow-oriented development. Previous work has shown how a novel process calculus, CaSE, can provide a model for this form of software, and how this can be used as the basis for a system of behavioural types. Well-typedness in this system implies reactivity (non-termination) in terms of a generalisation to the dataflow principle of consistency, which was previously unable to handle, in general, statefulness and non-determinism. In the previous presentation the typing rules were parameterised in a semantic behavioural equivalence, temporal observation congruence, which specialises CCS’s notion of weak bisimulation to this setting. In this work, we show how a complete axiom system for CaSE allows these equivalences to be reduced to a syntactic check, which is more fitting to a type system.
Affective modulation of the startle reflex in schizophrenic patients

Startle reflex can be influenced by valence of emotion. This is known as affective modulation of the startle reflex. This effect can provide an objective measure of emotional processes. Affective modulation of the startle reflex was studied in 17 schizophrenic patients and 33 healthy control subjects to investigate possible emotional deficits in schizophrenic patients. Results indicated that there were no significant differences in affective modulation of the startle response between patients and controls. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in the subjective ratings of the pictures between patients and controls. However, because patients as well as controls did not exhibit a typical startle pattern, it cannot be conclusively argued from this data that schizophrenics have a normal affective startle modulation. Further research is needed to conclude if schizophrenics have deficits in affective startle modulation.
Accounting students’ experiences of peer assessment: A tool to develop lifelong learning

The accounting profession highlights lifelong learning as a vital fundamental competency. Peer assessment, self-assessment and self-directedness contribute to the development of lifelong learning skills. These interrelated skills should be fostered through higher education programmes, requiring intentional interventions. Peer assessment is regarded as an under-utilised intervention in the undergraduate accounting programme of South African universities. In order to assess the experience of students of a peer assessment intervention, students were required to mark the assignment of a peer and provide him or her with feedback. The peer was then allowed to attempt to improve on the assignment, based on feedback: a ‘review – revise – resubmit’ approach. The research is based on a mixed methods design called concurrent triangulation. It was found that students recognised the value of peer assessment in contributing to their ability to learn independently, take responsibility for their own learning, assume the position of a peer assessor and self-assess, all aspects ascribed to self-directedness. The research furthermore found that peer assessment could enhance students’ understanding of the assessment process and stimulate collaborative learning, both aspects impacting the development of lifelong learning skills needed for future academic development and application in professional careers.
Genetic and Epigenetic Investigations on Pulmonary Hypertension Syndrome in Meat Type- Chickens

This dissertation presents a collection of studies that investigate the genetic and epigenetic associations to ascites phenotype in broiler chickens. Ascites is a significant metabolic disease associated with fast-growing meat-type chickens (broilers) and is a terminal result of pulmonary hypertension syndrome PHS. It is a multi-factorial syndrome caused by interactions between genetic, physiological, environmental, and managemental factors. It was estimated that ascites accounts for losses of about US$1 billion annually worldwide and for over 25% of broilers mortality. Although traditional and molecular genetic methods in the selection and in performance improvements, has greatly reduced ascites frequency, yet it has not eliminated its occurrence. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to 1) develop SNP assays for the gene region of HTR2B to examine the possible association with ascites phenotype and measure gene and allele specific expression in different tissues at different developmental age stages under hypoxic conditions, 2) investigate the association of mitochondrial prevalence in multiple tissues with ascites susceptibility and resistance in broilers, and genes known to regulate mitochondrial biogenesis were assessed, and 3) mapping genome-wide changes in chromatin accessibility for pulmonary artery tissue in ascites susceptible and ascitesresistant lines under normal and hypoxic conditions using ATAC-seq technology (Assay for Transposase accessible Chromatin with highthroughput sequencing). Altogether, this collection of studies provides new insights into the genetic and epigenetic basis of the ascites syndrome in chicken. ©2018 by Khaloud Alzahrani All Rights Reserved
Anti-Inflammatory and Analgesic Effects of the Marine-Derived Compound Excavatolide B Isolated from the Culture-Type Formosan Gorgonian Briareum excavatum

In recent years, several marine-derived compounds have been clinically evaluated. Diterpenes are secondary metabolites from soft coral that exhibit anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and cytotoxic activities. In the present study, we isolated a natural diterpene product, excavatolide B, from cultured Formosan gorgonian Briareum excavatum and investigated its anti-inflammatory activities. We found that excavatolide B significantly inhibited the mRNA expression of the proinflammatory mediators, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged murine macrophages (RAW 264.7). We also examined the anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects of excavatolide B on intraplantar carrageenan-induced inflammatory responses. Excavatolide B was found to significantly attenuate carrageenan-induced nociceptive behaviors, mechanical allodynia, thermal hyperalgesia, weight bearing deficits and paw edema. In addition, excavatolide B inhibited iNOS, as well as the infiltration of immune cells in carrageenan-induced inflammatory paw tissue.
Efficient numerical techniques for flow simulation in bubble column reactors

A dynamic Euler-Euler model for gas-liquid flows subject to mass transfer and simultaneous chemical reaction is assembled. The bubble size distribution is computed from an equation governing the evolution of average bubble mass. Highperformance finite element tools for numerical solution of the problem at hand are discussed. Computational results for the chemisorption of CO2 into NaOH shed some light on the implications of reaction enhanced mass transfer in bubble columns and call for further research in this field.
Differences in Functional Brain Connectivity Alterations Associated with Cerebral Amyloid Deposition in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

Despite potential implications for the early detection of impending Alzheimer’s disease (AD), very little is known about the differences of large-scale brain networks between amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) with high cerebral amyloid-beta protein (Aβ) deposition (i.e., aMCI+) and aMCI with no or very little Aβ deposition (i.e., aMCI−). We first aimed to extend the current literature on altering intrinsic functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode network (DMN) and salience network (SN) from cognitively normal (CN) to AD dementia. Second, we further examined the differences of the DMN and the SN between aMCI−, aMCI+, and CN. Forty-three older adult (12 CN, 10 aMCI+, 10 aMCI−, and 11 AD dementia) subjects were included. All participants received comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological assessment, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, structural MRI, and Pittsburgh compound-B-PET scans. FC data were preprocessed using multivariate exploratory linear optimized decomposition into independent components of FMRIB’s Software Library. Group comparisons were carried out using the “dual-regression” approach. In addition, to verify presence of gray matter volume changes with intrinsic functional network alterations, voxel-based morphometry was performed on the acquired T1-weighted data. As expected, AD dementia participants exhibited decreased FC in the DMN compared to CN (particularly in the precuneus and cingulate gyrus). The degree of alteration in the DMN in aMCI+ compared to CN was intermediate to that of AD. In contrast, aMCI− exhibited increased FC in the DMN compared to CN (primarily in the precuneus) as well as aMCI+. In terms of the SN, aMCI− exhibited decreased FC compared to both CN and aMCI+ particularly in the inferior frontal gyrus. FC within the SN in aMCI+ and AD did not differ from CN. Compared to CN, aMCI− showed atrophy in bilateral superior temporal gyri whereas aMCI+ showed atrophy in right precuneus. The results indicate that despite the similarity in cross-sectional cognitive features, aMCI− has quite different functional brain connectivity compared to aMCI+.
Four-Body Scoring Function for Mutagenesis

MOTIVATION There is a need for an efficient and accurate computational method to identify the effects of single- and multiple-residue mutations on the stability and reactivity of proteins. Such a method should ideally be consistent and yet applicable in a widespread manner, i.e. it should be applied to various proteins under the same parameter settings, and have good predictive power for all of them. RESULTS We develop a Delaunay tessellation-based four-body scoring function to predict the effects of single- and multiple-residue mutations on the stability and reactivity of proteins. We test our scoring function on sets of single-point mutations used by several previous studies. We also assemble a new, diverse set of 237 single- and multiple-residue mutations, from over 24 different publications. The four-body scoring function correctly predicted the changes to the stability of 169 out of 210 mutants (80.5%), and the changes to the reactivity of 17 out of 27 mutants (63%). For the mutants that had the changes in stability/reactivity quantified (using reaction rates, temperatures, etc.), an average Spearman rank correlation coefficient of 0.67 was achieved with the four-body scores. We also develop an efficient method for screening huge numbers of mutants of a protein, called combinatorial mutagenesis. In one study, 64 million mutants of a cold-shock nucleus binding domain protein 1CSQ, with six of its residues being changed to all possible (20) amino acids, were screened within a few hours on a PC, and all five stabilizing mutants reported were correctly identified as stabilizing by combinatorial mutagenesis.
SmartNails: display- and image-dependent thumbnails

In order to overcome poor readability of text and recognizability of image features in low resolution thumbnails, a novel image representation of compound document images - a SmartNail representation - is presented. SmartNails are replacements or supplements to traditional thumbnails for compound documents and contain cropped and scaled image and text segments. Image- and text-based analysis are merged to generate a layout for a particular display size with selected readable text and recognizable image regions. The analysis is efficiently performed by using information from document layout analysis and JPEG 2000 compressed file headers.
Serum cardiac troponin I and ST-segment elevation in patients with acute pericarditis.

OBJECTIVE ST-segment elevation in acute pericarditis is believed to be caused by superficial myocardial inflammation or epicardial injury. We used cardiac troponin I, a sensitive and specific marker of myocardial injury, to assess myocardial lesions in idiopathic acute pericarditis and its relationship to ST-segment elevation. PATIENTS AND METHODS Sixty-nine consecutive patients (53 men, 48+/-17 years) with idiopathic acute pericarditis were included. We used an enzymoimmunoflurometric method to measure serum cardiac troponin I on admission (myocardial infarction threshold was 1.5 ng. ml(-1)). RESULTS Cardiac troponin I was detectable in 34 patients (49%) and was beyond the 1.5 ng. ml(-1)threshold in 15 (22%). Coronary angiography performed in seven of these 15 patients was normal in all of them. ST-segment elevation was observed in 93% of the patients with cardiac troponin I >1.5 ng. ml(-1)vs 57% of those without (P<0.01). Sensitivity of ST-segment elevation to detect myocardial injury was 93% and specificity 43%. Patients with a cardiac troponin I increase higher than 1.5 ng. ml(-1)were more likely to have had a recent infection (66% vs 31%;P=0.01) and were younger (37+/-14 vs 52+/-16 years;P=0.002). There was no significant relationship with other parameters such as pericardial friction rub, fever, PR segment abnormalities, echocardiographic findings or C-reactive protein. CONCLUSION In patients with idiopathic acute pericarditis, an increase in cardiac troponin I is frequently observed, especially in younger patients and those with a recent infection. Although ST-segment elevation does not reliably indicate myocardial injury, a significant cardiac troponin I increase is only seen in these patients.
The adolescent friendship structure inventory (AFSI): A review and empirical consolidation of existing measures

Abstract The aim of this study was to empirically consolidate previous friendship measures in order to identify a set of items to include in a tool for assessing positive and negative qualities of adolescents’ friendships. Existing self-report measures were identified and 91 items were selected from the measures. Following a pilot study undertaken to reduce the number of items for use in a larger study, the primary study included 415 Australian adolescents (249 boys and 166 girls, aged 12–17 years) who completed a questionnaire at school. The questionnaire included a reduced set of 47 of the 91 items. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted with 50% of the sample (n = 208). In the final factor analysis, 26 items loaded highly on one of four factors. The factors were labeled emotional support, positive interactions, coercive power, and conditional social regard. The factor structure was confirmed with the other 50% of the sample (n = 207). This confirmatory factor model had a good fit to the data and the four subscales on the new Adolescent Friendship Structure Inventory (AFSI) had sound inter-item correlations. In addition, the AFSI subscales were validated against a measure of friendship satisfaction, with all four subscales associated with satisfaction in the expected direction.
A simple and effective saliency detection approach

This paper presents a simple and effective method to compute the pixel saliency with full resolution in an image. First, the proposed method creates an image representation of four color channels through the modified computation on the basis of Itti et al.[5]. Then the most informative channel is automatically identified from the derived four color channels. Finally, the pixel saliency is computed through the simple combination of contrast feature and spatial attention function on the individual channel. The proposed method is computationally very simple, but it achieves a very good performance in the comparison experiments with six other saliency detection methods. On the challenging database with 1,000 images, it outperforms six other methods in both identifying salient pixels and segmenting salient regions.
Rapid declines in total lymphocyte counts and hemoglobin concentration prior to AIDS among HIV-1-infected men

Objective: To describe temporal patterns in total lymphocyte count (TLC) and hemoglobin (Hgb) concentration during HIV infection and relate these patterns to changes in other markers and to clinical disease. Design: Prospective cohort study Methods: Longitudinal trajectories of total lymphocyte count and hemoglobin from men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study were studied by applying, to each individual, a segmented regression model to capture changes in marker trajectories at an inflection point. The estimated slope of these markers before and after the inflection point were examined to determine whether those with AIDS onset could be distinguished from those remaining free of AIDS through the use of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: Prior to the estimated inflection points, TLC and Hgb marker slopes were distributed around zero in all men; afterwards, those who developed AIDS showed rapid declines in both markers. A TLC decline greater than 10% and Hgb decline greater than 2.2% was present in over 77% of HIV-positive men who developed AIDS but only 23% of HIV-positive men who did not. Among those who developed AIDS, rapid declines in TLC and Hgb began as CD4+ cell counts fell from 350 to 200 × 106 cells/l and preceded clinical AIDS by a median of about 1.6 years. Conclusions: Both TLC and Hgb showed a period of stability, which was followed by a rapid decline beginning shortly before the onset of AIDS. These results suggest that TLC and Hgb might be useful for monitoring disease progression in resource-limited settings.
An offer you cannot refuse: down-regulation of immunity in response to a pathogen's retaliation threat

According to the Red Queen hypothesis, hosts and pathogens are engaged in an escalating coevolutionary arms race between resistance and virulence. However, the vast majority of symbionts colonize their hosts' mucosal compartments without triggering any immune response, resulting in durable commensal associations. Here, I propose a simple extension of previous mathematical models for antagonistic coevolution in which the host can mount a delayed immune response; in response, the symbiont can change its virulence following this activation. Even though the levels of virulence in both phases are assumed to be genetically determined, this simple form of plasticity can select for commensal associations. In particular, coevolution can result in hosts that do not activate their immune response, thus preventing phenotypically plastic pathogens from switching to a higher virulence level. I argue that, from the host's point of view, this state is analogous to the mafia behaviour previously described in avian brood parasites. More importantly, this study provides a new hypothesis for the maintenance of a commensal relationship through antagonistic coevolution.
Transport layer design for named data wireless networking

The Named Data Networking (NDN) project is emerging as one of the most promising information-centric future Internet architectures. So far, NDN performance in wireless networks has been largely unexplored, especially for what concerns transport mechanisms, which are crucial to ensure reliable and efficient data delivery while accounting for available resources and network dynamics. In this paper, we propose a transport scheme that effects self-regulating Interest rate control (SIRC), reduces the content completion time and more efficiently utilizes channel resources in a wireless ad hoc domain. The presented strategy provides a reliable service that pairs better than most other proposals so far, with the NDN's content multi-homing semantics. A comprehensive evaluation with different traffic loads and propagation settings has been conducted by means of the official NDN simulator, ndnSIM. Our evaluation results show that SIRC outperforms the vanilla NDN approach as well as the often proposed window-based timeout-driven Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) solutions in wired networks.
Evaluation of cancer risk in patients with periodontal diseases

Background/aim In this study, we aimed to assess the cancer risk among patients with periodontal disease. Materials and methods Patients diagnosed with periodontal diseases at Hacettepe University between 2007 and 2012 were included and data on the diagnosis of any cancer after periodontal disease were collected from patient files. The age- and sex-standardized incidence rates (SIRs) were calculated using Turkish National Cancer Registry 2013 data. Results A total of 5199 patients were included. Median follow-up was 7.2 years. Patients with periodontal diseases had 17% increased risk of cancer compared with the expected counts for the corresponding age and sex groups (SIR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.04–1.3, P = 0.006). The increased cancer risk was statistically significant in women (SIR: 1.24; 95% CI: 1.05–1.45, P = 0.008) but not in men. Among women with periodontal disease, the risks of breast cancer (SIR: 2.19) and head and neck cancer (SIR: 4.71) were significantly increased. Among men, the risks of prostate cancer (SIR: 1.84), head and neck cancer (SIR: 3.55), and hematological cancers (SIR: 1.76) were significantly increased. Conclusion This study showed that periodontal diseases were associated with increased risk of several cancers. Besides other well-known benefits for health, the provision of oral/dental health should be considered and employed as a cancer prevention measure.
UPML: A Framework for Knowledge System Reuse

Problem-solving methods provide reusable architectures and components for implementing the reasoning part of knowledge-based systems. The Unified Problem-solving Method Development Language, UPML, has been developed to describe and implement such architectures and components and to facilitate their semiautomatic reuse and adaptation. In a nutshell, UPML is a framework for developing knowledge-intensive reasoning systems based on libraries of generic problem-solving components. The paper describes the components, architectural constraints, development guidelines, and tools provided by UPML. Our focus is hereby on the meta ontology that has been developed to formalize the architectural structure and elements of UPML.
Local and temporal predicates in distributed systems

The definitions of the predicates Possibly &fgr; and Definitely &fgr;, where &fgr; is a global predicate of a distributed computation, lead to the definitions of two predicate transformers <italic>P</italic> and <italic>D</italic>. We show that <italic>P</italic> plays the same role with respect to <italic>time</italic> as the predicate transformers <italic>K<subscrpt>i</subscrpt></italic> in knowledge theory play with respect to <italic>space</italic>. Pursuing this analogy, we prove that local predicates are exactly the fixed points of the <italic>K<subscrpt>i</subscrpt></italic>'s while the stable predicates are the fixed points of <italic>P</italic>. In terms of the predicate transformers <italic>P</italic> and <italic>D</italic>, we define a new class of predicates that we call <italic>observer-independent</italic> predicates and for which the detection of Possibly &fgr; and Definitely &fgr; is quite easy. Finally, we establish a temporal counterpart to the knowledge change theorem of Chandy and Misra which formally proves that the global view of a distributed system provided by its various observations does not differ too much from its truth behavior.