Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘It's Labour, but Not as we Know it.’ Media Lesson-Drawing and the Disciplining of Social Democracy: A Case Study

A qualitative content analysis of New Zealand newspapers from 1997 to 2002 shows how the overwhelmingly conservative print media in that country used a highly partial version of Tony Blair's New Labour to try to help set parameters for its New Zealand counterpart and point it in what it saw as the right direction. Globalisation rests on the flow of ideas as well as the flow of trade: it has an important ideational component that the media—internationally owned though often parochially focused—helps construct by drawing lessons from abroad. The thrust of the coverage analysed was to transnationalise a business-friendly common sense concerning the proper—indeed the inevitable—response of a modern social democratic party to a globalised political economy. Whether this actually affected the behaviour of the New Zealand variant of social democracy, however, is a moot point. Finally, in keeping with Lijphart's seminal discussion of the purpose of case studies, this one generates the following hypothesis: that the print media in one country will interpret the domestic politics of other countries (other than those which are geographically closest or economically crucial) in such a way as to try to influence the outcome of political and policy debates at home.
Fast flux botnet detection framework using adaptive dynamic evolving spiking neural network algorithm

A botnet, a set of compromised machines controlled distantly by an attacker, is the basis of numerous security threats around the world. Command and Control servers are the backbones of botnet communications, where the bots and botmasters send report and attack orders to each other. Botnets are also categorized according to their C&C protocols. A Domain Name System method known as Fast-Flux Service Network (FFSN) — a special type of botnet — has been engaged by bot herders to cover malicious botnet activities and increase the lifetime of malicious servers by quickly changing the IP addresses of the domain name over time. Although several methods have been suggested for detecting FFSNs, they have low detection accuracy especially with zero-day domain. In this research, we propose a new system called Fast Flux Killer System (FFKS) that has the ability to detect FF-Domains in online mode with an implementation constructed on Adaptive Dynamic evolving Spiking Neural Network (ADeSNN). The proposed system proved its ability to detect FF domains in online mode with high detection accuracy (98.77%) compare with other algorithms, with low false positive and negative rates respectively. It is also proved a high level of performance. Additionally, the proposed adaptation of the algorithm enhanced and helped in the parameters customization process.
Effect of compaction degree on permittivity of water-glass containing moulding sand

B. Gal, K. Granat, D. Nowak, Wroclaw University of Technology, Department of Foundry Engineering, Plastics and Automation and Automation, Wrocław, Poland The presented basic research was aimed at determining a correlation between compaction degree of moulding sand and its permittivity εr at 2,45·10 9 s-1. The measurement results make a basis for mathematical description of a multilayer technological system as is a combination of moulding sand and foundry instrumentation. Analysis of the results shows that compaction significantly influences permittivity of the sandmix containing water-glass, because permittivity value increases with increasing compaction degree.
Membrane and protein properties of freeze-dried mouse platelets

Membrane properties and the overall protein secondary structure of freeze-dried trehalose-loaded mouse platelets were studied using steady state fluorescence anisotropy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). FTIR results showed that fresh control mouse platelets have a main phase transition at ~14°C, whereas, freeze-dried platelets exhibited a main phase transition ~12°C. However, the cooperativity of the transition of the rehydrated platelets was greatly enhanced compared to that of control platelets. Anisotropy experiments performed with 1,6 diphenyl-1,3,5 hexatriene (DPH) complemented FTIR results and showed that the lipid order in the core of the membrane was affected by freeze-drying procedures. Similar experiments with trimethyl ammonium 1,6 diphenyl-1,3,5 hexatriene (TMA-DPH), a membrane surface probe, indicated that membrane properties at the membrane/water interface were less affected by freeze-drying procedures than the core of the membrane. Lyophilization did not result in massive protein denaturation, but the overall protein secondary structure was altered, based on in situ assessment of the amide-I and amide-II band profiles. Lyophilization-induced changes to endogenous platelet proteins were further investigated by studying the protein's heat stability. In fresh control platelets, proteins denatured at 42°C, whereas proteins in the rehydrated platelets denatured at 48°C.
Physical and Chemical Characterization of Asphalt (Bitumen) Paving Exposures

The purpose of this research was to characterize the physical and chemical properties of asphalt (bitumen) fume and vapor in hot mix asphalt roadway paving operations. Area and personal air samples were taken using real-time equipment and extractive sampling and analytical methods to determine worker asphalt exposure, as well as to characterize the properties of the particulate and vapor phase components. Analysis of personal inhalation and dermal samples by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy showed that the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon profile is dominated by compounds with molecular weights below 228, and that substituted and heterocyclic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons comprised approximately 71% of the detectable mass concentration (vapor and particulate combined). Principal components analysis shows that the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with molecular weights greater than 190 are the driving force behind the polycyclic aromatic compound exposures measured for the dermal and particulate phases; there was no clear trend for the vapor phase Most of the aerosol particles are fine (mass median aerodynamic diameter 1.02 μ m; count median diameter 0.24 μ m).
The pathway to orthopaedic surgery: a population study of the role of access to primary care and availability of orthopaedic services in Ontario, Canada

Objective To examine the impact of access to primary care physicians (PCPs), geographic availability of orthopaedic surgeons, socioeconomic status (SES), proportion of older population (≥65 years) and proportion of rural population on orthopaedic surgeon office visits and orthopaedic surgery. Design Population multilevel study. Setting Ontario, Canada. Participants Ontario residents 18 years or older who had visits to orthopaedic surgeons or an orthopaedic surgery for musculoskeletal disorders in 2007/2008. Primary and secondary outcomes Office visits to orthopaedic surgeons and orthopaedic surgery. Results Access to PCPs and the index of geographic availability of orthopaedic surgeons, but not SES, were significantly associated with orthopaedic surgeon office visits. There was a significant interaction between access to PCPs and orthopaedic surgeon geographic availability for the rate of office visits, with access to PCPs being more important in areas of low geographic availability of orthopaedic surgeons. After controlling for office visits with orthopaedic surgeons, the index of geographic availability of orthopaedic surgeons was no longer significantly associated with orthopaedic surgery. Conclusions The findings suggest that, particularly, in areas with low access to PCPs or with fewer available orthopaedic surgeons, residents are less likely to have orthopaedic surgeon office visits and in turn are less likely to receive surgery. Efforts to address adequate access to orthopaedic surgery should also include improving and facilitating access to PCPs for referral, particularly in geographic areas with low orthopaedic surgeon availability.
Chlamydia trachomatis and sexually transmitted disease

Chlamydial organisms are small bacteria that need to be inside cells to multiply. There are three species, Chlamydia trachomatis, C psittaci, and C pneumoniae. Serotypes A, B, and C of C trachomatis are the cause of the blinding disease trachoma. Serotypes D to K are sexually transmitted and, world wide, are an important cause of morbidity in both men and women. In men chlamydial infection causes up to half of all acute non-gonococcal urethritis and at least one third of acute epididymitis.1 In women such infection causes up to half of all mucopurulent or follicular cervicitis, and in developed countries up to 60% of pelvic inflammatory disease,1 a condition associated with a substantial risk of subsequent infertility and ectopic pregnancy. C trachomatis infection may also trigger reactive arthritis in men and women.2 Transmission of the organisms to newborn infants from mothers, usually during birth, may lead to neonatal conjunctivitis and pneumonia.epididymitis. Progress in understanding the pathogenesis of genital chlamydial infections has come with the recognition that some persistent or recurrent disease (including chronic non-gonococcal …
Test site for the analysis of subsoil GPR signal propagation

This paper describes the design and construction of a GPR test site and some radar profdes obtained with it. The test site is flled with layers of three soils with different dielectric properties containing a distribution of manufactured elements of various materials and sizes. It is designed for teaching and research, and can be used to check the penetration and resolution of different types of GPR in detecting and distinguishing anomalies.
Strategic Allocation, Asset Pricing and Prior Return Patterns: Evidence from Indian Commodity Market

In this article we employ data for 12 commodities, four commodity indices and one stock market proxy from July 2006 to February 2011 for India. We find that commodities that provide higher average returns also exhibit higher price volatility. The return distributions for commodities as well as for indices do not seem to follow a random walk. Combining gold with stock market index provides large portfolio diversification benefits. Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) seems to be a better descriptor of asset pricing in commodity markets when one uses commodity index instead of stock market index to represent market portfolio. It is further observed that there are no discernible prior return patterns in very short term and short term commodity returns that can be used by investors to develop portfolio trading strategies, as is the case in equity markets. Our findings are relevant for policymakers as well as for market traders. This study contributes to the alternative investment literature for emerging markets.
Results of early cranial decompression as an initial approach for damage control therapy in severe traumatic brain injury in a hospital with limited resources

Introduction: Severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) is a disease that generates significant mortality and disability in Latin America, and specifically in Colombia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the 12-month clinical outcome in patients with sTBI managed with an early cranial decompression (ECD) as the main procedure for damage control (DC) therapy, performed in a University Hospital in Colombia over a 4-year period. Materials and Methods: A database of 106 patients who received the ECD procedure, and were managed according to the strategy for DC in neurotrauma, was analyzed. Variables were evaluated, and the patient outcome was determined according to the Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) at 12 months postinjury. This was used to generate a dichotomous variable with “favorable” (GOS of 4 or 5) or “unfavorable” (GOS of 1–3) outcomes; analysis of variance was performed with the Chi-square, Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney and Fisher tests. Results: An overall survival rate of 74.6% was observed for the procedure, At 12 months postsurgery, a favorable clinical outcome (GOS 4–5) was found in 70 patients (66.1%), Unfavorable outcomes in patients were associated with the following factors: Closed trauma, an Injury Severity Score >16 , obliterated basal cisterns, subdural hematoma as the main injury seen on the admission computed tomography, and nonreactive pupils observed in the emergency department. Conclusion: Twelve months outcome of patients with sTBI managed with ECD in a neuromonitoring limited resource University Hospital in Colombia shows an important survival rate with favorable clinical outcome measure with GOS.
Mobile Delivery Server (MDS) A Solution for Resolving Problems and Limitations in Mobile E-Learning Scenarios

Traditional e-learning scenarios are based on a client/ server architecture and are not primarily designed for mobile scenarios. To offer e-learning in mobile scenarios, difficult technical challenges involving platform heterogeneity, wireless communication protocols, screen resolution and other usability matters must be dealt with. Ultimately, e-learning objects have to be dynamically converted and customized according to the target platform. This applies to multimedia content, as well as to the native format (e.g. XML) in which the content is stored. The "Mobile Delivery Server" (MDS) is our advanced software approach to resolve some of the problems and limitations described above. The MDS introduces a new middle layer service for the technical needs of mobile e-learning scenarios. The MDS also provides compatibility of learning objects with a broad variety of mobile clients and allows the distribution of platform dependent players.
Multivariate Tests for Stochastic Dominance Efficiency of a Given Portfolio

Abstract We develop empirical tests for stochastic dominance efficiency of a given investment portfolio relative to all possible portfolios formed from a given set of assets. Our tests use multivariate statistics, which result in superior statistical power properties compared to existing stochastic dominance efficiency tests and increase the comparability with existing mean-variance efficiency tests. Using our tests, we demonstrate that the mean-variance inefficiency of the CRSP all-share index relative to beta-sorted portfolios can be explained by tail risk not captured by variance.
Nonlinear Jitter of a Clock Path Due to Electromagnetic Interference on the Supply

The paper presents a simple time-domain model for the nonlinear behavior of the jitter of a clock path due to electromagnetic interference on the power supply. A programming algorithm based on the model is developed to calculate the numerical value of the jitter. Transistor-level simulations and test-board measurements are performed on clock paths of various lengths to verify the jitter model. Good agreement between the experiments and MATLAB calculations are observed over wide ranges of interference frequencies and amplitudes. Interesting phenomena, such as the jitter-minimum shift and jitter inflection, can be explained and precisely predicted using the jitter model. An analytical equation is derived for the relationship between the interference frequency and amplitude for the jitter-minimum. The model requires only simple information from the gate circuit for the jitter calculation. It can be further developed into an analytical tool for predicting clock jitter under external electromagnetic interference.
Induced expression of the alcohol acetyltransferase gene ATF1 in industrial yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus TUM 34/70

Targeted induced gene expression for industrial fermentation processes in food and beverage production could fulfill future demands. To avoid metabolic burden and disturbances owing to the fermentation procedure, induced gene expression is necessary for combating stress, such as that caused by temperature shifts that occur during the transition from fermentation to maturation in the brewing process. The aim of this study was to target gene expression in industrial yeast using stress‐responsive promoters and homologues of the selection marker SMR1. Self‐cloning strains of the industrial brewing yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus TUM 34/70 were constructed to overexpress the alcohol acetyltransferase (ATF1) gene under the control of inducible promoters PSSA3, PHSP104 and PUBI4. Transcription analysis shows the highest induction after 72 h of shock situation for PHSP104 with 1.3‐fold and PUBI4 with 2.2‐fold. Further, at the end of shock situation the concentrations of ethyl acetate were 1.2‐ and 1.3‐fold higher than the wild type for PHSP104 and PUBI4, respectively. In addition, the influence of the final temperature and temporal sequence of temperature shock to 4°C had a major impact on expression patterns. Therefore, these data show that temperature‐induced gene expression of self‐cloning industrial yeast could be an option for optimization of the beverage fermentation.
Determination of plasma amine oxidase activity.

A detailed study of the Akerfeldt test for plasma oxidase activity has been carried out and it has been found that: 1. The optimum activity of the enzyme system involved occurs at pH 5.5-6.0. 2. The amount of plasma needed for the test at pH 6.0 can be reduced to 0.2 ml. 3. The reduced amount of plasma removed the inhibitory influence of albumin and a linear response was always obtained. 4. The inhibitory effect of albumin and glutathione is due in part to inhibiting the enzyme system, and in part to the reduction of oxidized DPP. 5. The inhibiting influence of Versene appears to be due to the chelating and inactivation of heavy metal catalysts. 6. The effect of ascorbic acid is solely one of increasing the lag period without inhibiting the enzyme system. As a result of this study a modification of the Akerfeldt test is proposed. With this proposed method it was determined that the plasma oxidase activity, ACA, of 77 normal individuals was 8.0 ± 2.8 units. 4101 Woolworth Ave. Omaha 5, Neb.
Network Transfer of Control Data: An Application of the NIST SMART DATA FLOW

Pervasive Computing environments range from basic mobile point of sale terminal systems, to rich Smart Spaces with many devices and sensors such as lapel microphones, audio and video sensor arrays and multiple interactive PDA acting as electronic brief cases, providing authentication, and user preference data to the environment. These systems present new challenges in distributed human-computer interfaces such as how to best use sensor streams, distribute interfaces across multiple devices, and dynamic network management as users come an go, and as devices are added or fail. The NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY SMART DATA FLOW system is a low overhead, high bandwidth transport mechanism for standardized multi-modal data streams. It is designed to allow integration of multiple sensors with distributed processing needed for the sense-recognize-respond cycle of multi modal user interfaces. Its core is a server/client architecture, allowing clients to produce or subscribe to data flows, and supporting steps toward scalable processing, distributing the computing requirements among many network connected computers and pervasive devices. This article introduces the communication broker and provides an example of an effective real time sensor fusion to track a speaker with a video camera using data captured from multi-channel microphone array.
Anti-quorum Sensing Activities of Selected Coral Symbiotic Bacterial Extracts From the South China Sea

The worldwide increase in antibiotic-resistant pathogens means that identification of alternative antibacterial drug targets and the subsequent development of new treatment strategies are urgently required. One such new target is the quorum sensing (QS) system. Coral microbial consortia harbor an enormous diversity of microbes, and are thus rich sources for isolating novel bioactive and pharmacologically valuable natural products. However, to date, the versatility of their bioactive compounds has not been broadly explored. In this study, about two hundred bacterial colonies were isolated from a coral species (Pocillopora damicornis) and screened for their ability to inhibit QS using the bioreporter strain Chromobacterium violaceum ATCC 12472. Approximately 15% (30 isolates) exhibited anti-QS activity, against the indicator strain. Among them, a typical Gram-positive bacterium, D11 (Staphylococcus hominis) was identified and its anti-QS activity was investigated. Confocal microscopy observations showed that the bacterial extract inhibited the biofilm formation of clinical isolates of wild-type P. aeruginosa PAO1 in a dose-dependent pattern. Chromatographic separation led to the isolation of a potent QS inhibitor that was identified by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as DL-homocysteine thiolactone. Gene expression analyses using RT-PCR showed that strain D11 led to a significant down-regulation of QS regulatory genes (lasI, lasR, rhlI, and rhlR), as well as a virulence-related gene (lasB). From the chemical structure, the target compound (DL-homocysteine thiolactone) is an analog of the acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs), and we presume that DL-homocysteine thiolactone outcompetes AHL in occupying the receptor and thereby inhibiting QS. Whole-genome sequence analysis of S. hominis D11 revealed the presence of predicted genes involved in the biosynthesis of homocysteine thiolactone. This study indicates that coral microbes are a resource bank for developing QS inhibitors and they will facilitate the discovery of new biotechnologically relevant compounds that could be used instead of traditional antibiotics.
Transposon mutagenesis and cloning analysis of the pathways for degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 3-chlorobenzoate in Alcaligenes eutrophus JMP134(pJP4)

Plasmid pJP4 permits its host bacterium, strain JMP134, to degrade and utilize as sole sources of carbon and energy 3-chlorobenzoate and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (R. H. Don and J. M. Pemberton, J. Bacteriol. 145:681-686, 1981). Mutagenesis of pJP4 by transposons Tn5 and Tn1771 enabled localization of five genes for enzymes involved in these catabolic pathways. Four of the genes, tfdB, tfdC, tfdD, and tfdE, encoded 2,4-dichlorophenol hydroxylase, dichlorocatechol 1,2-dioxygenase, chloromuconate cycloisomerase, and chlorodienelactone hydrolase, respectively. No function has been assigned to the fifth gene, tfdF, although it may encode a trans-chlorodiene-lactone isomerase. Inactivation of genes tfdC, tfdD, and tfdE, which encode the transformation of dichlorocatechol to chloromaleylacetic acid, prevented host strain JMP134 from degrading both 3-chlorobenzoate and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, which indicates that the pathways for these two substrates utilize common enzymes for the dissimilation of chlorocatechols. Studies with cloned catabolic genes from pJP4 indicated that whereas all essential steps in the degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid are plasmid encoded, the conversion of 3-chlorobenzoate to chlorocatechol is specified by chromosomal genes.