Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Susceptibility to Emotional Contagion

Abstract This article reports a psychometric evaluation of a measure of susceptibility to emotional contagion, designed to measure the degree to which a person is vulnerable to “catching” and sharing the emotion experienced by another. The scale was examined to test its application to depression, burnout, and impairment among practicing social workers. Data from a probability sample of 751 practicing social workers were collected in an anonymous survey about social workers' health and work issues. The sample was split to conduct exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The factor analyses resulted in a revised scale that demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability, good content validity, excellent factorial validity, and preliminary construct validity. Susceptibility to emotional contagion was related to burnout, depression, and professional impairment. Future recommendations are made and this instrument may be a useful tool for the identification, prevention, intervention, and education of social workers at risk for depression, burnout, and professional impairment.
Neuroprotective role of Asiatic acid in aluminium chloride induced rat model of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, characterized by memory loss, cognitive impairment and personality disorders accompanied by diffuse structural abnormalities in the brain of elderly people. The current investigation explored the neuroprotective potential of asiatic acid (AA), a natural triterpene of Centella asiatica on aluminium chloride (AlCl3) induced rat model of AD. Oral administration of AlCl3 (100 mg/kg b.w.) for 42 days significantly elevated the levels of Al, activity of acetyl cholinesterase and expressions of amyloid precursor protein, amyloid beta1-42, beta and gamma secretases, glial fibrillary acidic protein, ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1, interleukins -1β, 6, 4, 2, tumor necrosis factor alpha, inducible nitric oxide synthase, nuclear factor- k beta and cyclooxygenase-2 in the hippocampus and cortex compared to the control group. Our observations suggested that AA treatment mitigated AlCl3 induced AD associated pathologies, which might be due to its multiple pharmacological actions. Further studies are necessary in order to explore the link between AlCl3-mediated oxidative stress and associated apoptosis to establish its neuroprotective role in AD.
Comparative Study of Performances of Banks Using Markov Chain Model and LSTM

Today, the share market has become a significant element of the worldwide economic state and has thus gained the attention of many people. Depending on demand-supply economics, the share prices vary day by day. This paper analyzes and forecasts future stock price changes for four Indian banks namely Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and SBI Bank—by comparing the predictions of Markov chain model and an LSTM model. The data for the study period spans from September 3, 2018, to September 1, 2023. The price change is treated as a random process throughout the study, and it is assumed to be a Markov process. The state space is defined as an increase, stable, or decrease in closing prices. The analysis shows that irrespective of the current closing price of the banks, the distributions of shares "up", "same," and "down" for all the banks favor an upward trend. Also, it was observed that if the closing price was up for the first day for all four banks, then it was expected to return to the same state approximately after two days. Furthermore, three-layer LSTM architecture is applied to capture sequential relationships over time to predict closing prices, using MSE as loss function. Using the Markov chain approach, all banks show an upward trend. Predictions using LSTM model shows slightly an over-fitting situation but the predictions are near to accurate. These predictions were obtained on employing different techniques such as dropouts and optimization.
Assessment of Internalization and Viability ofPorphyromonas gingivalis in KB Epithelial Cells by Confocal Microscopy

ABSTRACT Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) is considered to be one of the main periodontal pathogens. The goal of this work was to confirm the ability of P. gingivalis to invade host cells. We detected P. gingivalis inside KB cells by confocal microscopy and analyzed the various aspects of the adherence and internalization process. Lysates of P. gingivalis-infected KB cells were also examined using anaerobic growth techniques. The results showed the viability and ability to replicate, inside the host cells, of the internalized pathogen. The production of vesicles was also tracked for the first time. Confocal microscopy revealed P. gingivalis in a perinuclear position.
Spellcheckers for the South African languages, Part 2: The utilisation of clusters of circumfixes

The aim of this article is to introduce the utilisation of “clusters of circumfixes' as a new strategy to increase the lexical recall in spellcheckers for especially African languages. This strategy is particularly useful in the compilation of spellcheckers for conjunctively written languages such as those in the Nguni group, where even extensive lexica render lexical recall values of only 90%. It is not disputed that a full morphological decomposition, for instance by means of finite-state analysis, is a good strategy for obtaining improved lexical recall, especially for the Nguni group, and that it should be pursued as an excellent solution in the long run. The utilisation of clusters of circumfixes, however, offers a less comprehensive alternative or in-between strategy to increase the lexical recall. These clusters can furthermore be compiled in a short space of time and with standard word processing and database software.
Laser ablation as focal therapy for prostate cancer

Purpose of review Focal laser ablation (FLA) is an emerging treatment paradigm for prostate cancer that aims to successfully eradicate disease while also reducing the risk of side-effects compared with whole-gland therapies. Recent findings Preclinical and phase I clinical trials for low-risk prostate cancer have shown that FLA produces accurate, predictable, and reproducible ablation zones with negligible injury to the surrounding tissues. Because FLA is magnetic resonance compatible, the procedure can be monitored with real-time feedback to optimize targeted treatment of cancerous foci and minimize quality-of-life side-effects. The oncologic efficacy of MRI-guided FLA is currently being evaluated in ongoing phase II clinical trials. Summary FLA is a well tolerated and feasible therapy for low-risk prostate cancer, and the oncologic efficacy of this treatment modality is currently under investigation in phase II clinical trials at several institutions.
Shared Task: Statistical Machine Translation between European Languages

The ACL-2005 Workshop on Parallel Texts hosted a shared task on building statistical machine translation systems for four European language pairs: French-English, German-English, Spanish-English, and Finnish-English. Eleven groups participated in the event. This paper describes the goals, the task definition and resources, as well as results and some analysis.
A novel digital background calibration technique for pipelined ADCs

This paper presents a novel and simple digital background calibration technique to eliminate the linear errors of 1.5bit/stage pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) caused by capacitor mismatch and finite DC gain of stage amplifiers. In this technique, by injecting a determined calibration signal in a modified conventional multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) and split structure, the errors are measured while it is not necessary to use an accurate calibration signal. As a case study, the technique is tested on a prototype 12bit 1.5bit/stage split pipelined ADC with 60 dB amplifier DC gain and 0.1% capacitor mismatch using MATLAB and Simulink environment simulations. After calibration, the ADC achieves 71 dB SNDR and 82dB SFDR which are restricted to 58dB and 63dB respectively before calibration.
Multiple SH2-mediated interactions in v-src-transformed cells

The Src homology 2 (SH2) domain is a noncatalytic region which is conserved among a number of signaling and transforming proteins, including cytoplasmic protein-tyrosine kinases and Ras GTPase-activating protein (GAP). Genetic and biochemical data indicate that the SH2 domain of the p60v-src (v-Src) protein-tyrosine kinase is required for full v-src transforming activity and may direct the association of v-Src with specific tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins. To test the ability of the v-Src SH2 domain to mediate protein-protein interactions, v-Src polypeptides were expressed as fusion proteins in Escherichia coli. The bacterial v-Src SH2 domain bound a series of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins in a lysate of v-src-transformed Rat-2 cells, including prominent species of 130 and 62 kDa (p130 and p62). The p130 and p62 tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins that complexed v-Src SH2 in vitro also associated with v-Src in v-src-transformed Rat-2 cells; this in vivo binding was dependent on the v-Src SH2 domain. In addition to binding soluble p62 and p130, the SH2 domains of v-Src, GAP, and v-Crk directly recognized these phosphotyrosine-containing proteins which had been previously denatured and immobilized on a filter. In addition, the SH2 domains of GAP and v-Crk bound to the GAP-associated protein p190 immobilized on a nitrocellulose membrane. These results show that SH2 domains bind directly to tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins and that the Src SH2 domain can bind phosphorylated targets of the v-Src kinase domain. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Branded Selves

Theories of branding and self presentation inform an ethnographic study of how a group of classmates aged 11–12 construct identities by use of the brands and branded resources made available to them on the social network site and elsewhere on the Internet. In the analysis these resources are categorized as space, texts and tools. In using them the young people adopt commercial strategies for presentation of the self. Generally speaking, these users relate their self presentation to brands and branded resources in two different ways: either as collectors or as elaborators. Simple collection of branded resources appears to need less work and be more convincing and more unassailable than elaborating them into their digital self presentations. This gives rise to a disparity between the rich range of attractive and stimulating resources provided by marketers and the level of creativity shown when young users draw on them. Social competition plays a role in reinforcing a uniform use of brands and branded resources. This raises the threshold for free development of individual creativity in the production of digital self presentations on the commercial website.
Thin-section ratiometric Ca2+ images obtained by optical sectioning of fura-2 loaded mast cells

The availability of the ratiometric Ca2+ indicator dyes, fura-2, and indo-1, and advances in digital imaging and computer technology have made it possible to detect Ca2+ changes in single cells with high temporal and spatial resolution. However, the optical properties of the conventional epifluorescence microscope do not produce a perfect image of the specimen. Instead, the observed image is a spatial low pass filtered version of the object and is contaminated with out of focus information. As a result, the image has reduced contrast and an increased depth of field. This problem is especially important for measurements of localized Ca2+ concentrations. One solution to this problem is to use a scanning confocal microscope which only detects in focus information, but this approach has several disadvantages for low light fluorescence measurements in living cells. An alternative approach is to use digital image processing and a deblurring algorithm to remove the out of focus information by using a knowledge of the point spread function of the microscope. All of these algorithms require a stack of two-dimensional images taken at different focal planes, although the "nearest neighbor deblurring" algorithm only requires one image above and below the image plane. We have used a modification of this scheme to construct a simple inverse filter, which extracts optical sections comparable to those of the nearest neighbors scheme, but without the need for adjacent image sections. We have used this "no neighbors" processing scheme to deblur images of fura-2-loaded mast cells from beige mice and generate high resolution ratiometric Ca2+ images of thin sections through the cell. The shallow depth of field of these images is demonstrated by taking pairs of images at different focal planes, 0.5-microns apart. The secretory granules, which exclude the fura-2, appear in focus in all sections and distinct changes in their size and shape can be seen in adjacent sections. In addition, we show, with the aid of model objects, how the combination of inverse filtering and ratiometric imaging corrects for some of the inherent limitations of using an inverse filter and can be used for quantitative measurements of localized Ca2+ gradients. With this technique, we can observe Ca2+ transients in narrow regions of cytosol between the secretory granules and plasma membrane that can be less than 0.5-microns wide. Moreover, these Ca2+ increases can be seen to coincide with the swelling of the secretory granules that follows exocytotic fusion.
Wide area cluster monitoring with Ganglia

In this paper, we present a structure for monitoring a large set of computational clusters. We illustrate methods for scaling a monitor network comprised of many clusters while keeping processing requirements low. A design for presenting high-level Web-based summaries of the monitor network is provided, along with a generalization to a distributed, multiple-resolution monitoring tree. Emphasis is placed on scalability, fast query response, fault tolerance, and grid compatibility. Experimental evidence is presented that demonstrates the performance of our design.
Francisella Tularensis Blue–Gray Phase Variation Involves Structural Modifications of Lipopolysaccharide O-Antigen, Core and Lipid A and Affects Intramacrophage Survival and Vaccine Efficacy

Francisella tularensis is a CDC Category A biological agent and a potential bioterrorist threat. There is no licensed vaccine against tularemia in the United States. A long-standing issue with potential Francisella vaccines is strain phase variation to a gray form that lacks protective capability in animal models. Comparisons of the parental strain (LVS) and a gray variant (LVSG) have identified lipopolysaccharide (LPS) alterations as a primary change. The LPS of the F. tularensis variant strain gains reactivity to F. novicida anti-LPS antibodies, suggesting structural alterations to the O-antigen. However, biochemical and structural analysis of the F. tularensis LVSG and LVS LPS demonstrated that LVSG has less O-antigen but no major O-antigen structural alterations. Additionally, LVSG possesses structural differences in both the core and lipid A regions, the latter being decreased galactosamine modification. Recent work has identified two genes important in adding galactosamine (flmF2 and flmK) to the lipid A. Quantitative real-time PCR showed reduced transcripts of both of these genes in the gray variant when compared to LVS. Loss of flmF2 or flmK caused less frequent phase conversion but did not alter intramacrophage survival or colony morphology. The LVSG strain demonstrated an intramacrophage survival defect in human and rat but not mouse macrophages. Consistent with this result, the LVSG variant demonstrated little change in LD50 in the mouse model of infection. Furthermore, the LVSG strain lacks the protective capacity of F. tularensis LVS against virulent Type A challenge. These data suggest that the LPS of the F. tularensis LVSG phase variant is dramatically altered. Understanding the mechanism of blue to gray phase variation may lead to a way to inhibit this variation, thus making future F. tularensis vaccines more stable and efficacious.
Dynamic optimization of tendon tensions in biomorphically designed hands with rolling constraints

Biomorphic structures for robotic manipulation based on tendon-driven mechanisms have been considered in robotic design for several decades, since they provide lightweight end-effectors with high dynamics. Following this trend, many new robot designs have being proposed based on tendon driven systems. Quite noticeably, the most advanced ones include also higher kinematic pairs and unilateral types of constraints. In this paper, we present a general framework for modeling the above class of mechanical systems for robotic manipulation. Such systems, including biomorphically designed devices, consist of articulated limbs with redundant tendinous actuation and unilateral rolling constraints. Methods based on convex analysis are applied to attack this broader class of mechanisms, and are shown to provide a basis for the dynamic control of co-contraction and internal forces that guarantee the correct operation of the system, despite limited friction between contacting surfaces or object fragility. An algorithm is described and tested that integrates a computed torque law, and allows to control tendon actuators to “optimally” comply with the prescribed constraints.
Journal of Digital Information Management Snippets and Component-based Authoring Tools for Reusing and Connecting Documents

This paper presents the Snippet System, a new operating system environment that aims at providing enhanced document management facilities. For this, the proposed system utilizes a novel document model based on finer-grained entities, so-called Snippets. These support Relations, which capture the context of individual document excerpts. Snippets furthermore enable a flexible reuse of documents, i.e., user-defined excerpts can be included in several other documents with only selected properties remaining synchronized between different instances. Moreover, dedicated mechanisms allow for the efficient retrieval of these instances and thus support the user in keeping track of reused excerpts and synced properties. The Snippet System relies on a component-based authoring tool architecture that enables different authoring tools to collaborate for handling documents. This allows for combining the contents created by various tools in a single document, independently of the type of content and tools involved, thus making possible the reuse of documents and the definition of Relations across tool boundaries.
CENTERIS 2014-Conference on ENTERprise Information Systems / ProjMAN 2014-International Conference on Project MANagement / HCIST 2014-International Conference on Health and Social Care Information Systems and Technologies Behaviour attributes that nurture the sense of e-learning community perception

Today organizations have attempted to define and implement feasible models of building and nurturing e-learning communities in order continuously activate group dynamics, gain highly interactive learning experiences of different types, by significantly enhance their members’ sense of community. These conducts to efficient collaborative learning processes, customize to each virtual learner and facilitate the knowledge transfer into organizational practice. Through this research, there have been identify some behaviour attributes (the membership perception, individual – group influence, perception on needs fulfillment and perception on sharing emotional connections) that characterize and nurture the sense of community perception. After a brief introduction into the research context there will be described the considered conceptual model (Presage – Process – Product, (3P) model) that have been adapted for the exploitation reason. The presented case study will show the state of the behavior elements in order to characterize the sense of a cluster e-learning community (for the European Certification and Qualification Association, ECQA). © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committees of CENTERIS/ProjMAN/HCIST 2014
An improved cross layer cooperative routing for vehicular networks

Cooperative routing has gained promising approach in Adhoc networks where nodes are assumed to be static. Recently there has been an increased heed in the cellular and vehicular Adhoc Networks (VANETs) where links between vehicles to vehicle are not fixed and inefficient. Towards this there exists onlyc one cooperative routing scheme, Cross layer Cooperative Routing (CLCR) for route discovery on the fly similar to AODV, which requires more transmission power and energy consumption due to redundant transmission of Hello messages. Here an efficient cross layer routing mechanism is identified by the use of weighted Neighbor stability algorithm (WNS), which provides more stable, reliable routing path. Furthermore based on the simulation results using Network Simulator 2(NS-2) shows the new routing mechanism shows graceful performance in terms of packet delivery ratio, average end to end delay and throughput.
International Conference on Information Fusion ( FUSION ) A Fusion Process Based on Belief Theory for Classification of Facial Basic Emotions

Thispaperpresents a system offacial expressions classification based on a datafusion process using the belief theory. The considered expressions correspond to the six universal emotions joy, surprise, disgust, sadness, anger, fear) as well as to the neutral expression. Since some of the six basic emotions are difficult to simulate by non-actor people, the performances of the classification system are evaluated onlyforfour expressions (joy, surprise, disgust and neutral). The proposed algorithm is based on the analysis of characteristic distances measuring the deformations offacial features, which are computed on skeletons ofexpression. The skeletons are the result ofa contour segmentation process of facial perinanent features (mouth, eyes and eyebrows). The considered distances are used to develop an expert systemfor classification. The performances and the limits of the recognition system and its ability to deal with diferent databases are highlighted thanks to the analysis of a great number of results on three different databases: the HammalCaplier database, the Cohn-Kanade database and the Cottrel database.