Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Materialized view evolution support in data warehouse environment

As a sufficiently abstract level, the data in the data warehouse can be seen as a set of materialized views, where the base data resides at the information sources. These materialized views are designed based on the users' requirements (e.g., frequently asked queries). However, a data warehouse is a dynamic environment, i.e., when user query requirement changes, the existing materialized views should evolve to meet the new requirement. These changes will demand schema changes at the warehouse and should be handled with as little disruption or modification to other components of the warehousing system as possible. We propose a framework to determine if the existing materialized views will be affected by the requirement changes, and how they are affected. Algorithms are proposed to deal with the situation when a new query is added in. The aim of the algorithms is to efficiently get the new materialized views by analysing the relationships among queries using MVPP, a specification for a query processing plan.
Towards Securing Peer-to-Peer SIP in the MANET Context: Existing Work and Perspectives

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a key building block of many social applications, including VoIP communication and instant messaging. In its original architecture, SIP heavily relies on servers such as proxies and registrars. Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) are networks comprised of mobile devices that communicate over wireless links, such as tactical radio networks or vehicular networks. In such networks, no fixed infrastructure exists and server-based solutions need to be redesigned to work in a peer-to-peer fashion. We survey existing proposals for the implementation of SIP over such MANETs and analyze their security issues. We then discuss potential solutions and their suitability in the MANET context.
Application of swarm approach and aritficial neural networks for airfoil shape optimization

The Direct Numerical Optimization (DNO) approach for airfoil shape design requires the integration of modules: a) A geometrical shape function; b) Computational flow solver and; c) Search model for shape optimization. These modules operate iteratively until convergence based on defined objectives and constraints. The DNO architecture is to be validated to ensure efficient optimization simulations and is the focus of this paper. The PARSEC airfoil shape function is first validated by observing the effect of design coefficients on airfoil geometry and aerodynamics. The design variables provide independent one-to-one control over airfoil geometry, for imposing shape constraints. The aerodynamic performance of PARSEC airfoils through variable perturbations, conform to established aerodynamic principles. It confirms the design flexibility of the shape function in providing direct control over airfoil geometry. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is introduced as the search agent. A PSO simulation requires userinputs to define the search pattern. A methodology is presented to validate these parameters on pre-defined benchmark mathematical functions. Self Organizing Maps (SOM) are applied to illustrate trade-offs between PSO search variables. An Adaptive Inertia Weight (APSO) scheme that dynamically alters the search path of the swarm by monitoring the position of the particles, provides an acceptable convergence. Validation tests indicated the maximum velocity of the particles is less than 1% of computational domain size for convergence. The DNO approach is computationally inefficient, thus a surrogate model to address this issue is presented. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model with a training dataset of 3000 airfoils is applied to develop a model that applies the PARSEC airfoil geometry variables as inputs and the equating aerodynamic coefficient as output. System validation with 1000 randomly generated airfoils indicated 70% of the simulated solutions were within 10% of actual solver run. Future research will involve reducing the percentage error of the surrogate model against the theoretical solution.
The association between DNA methylation and exon expression in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas

Background DNA methylation is one of the most important epigenetic modifications of eukaryotic genomes and is believed to play integral roles in diverse biological processes. Although DNA methylation has been well studied in mammals, data are limited in invertebrates, particularly Mollusca. The Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas is an emerging genetic model for functional analysis of DNA methylation in Mollusca. Recent studies have shown that there is a positive association between methylation status and gene expression in C. gigas; however, whether this association exists at the exon level remains to be determined. Results In this study, we characterized the genome-wide methylation pattern across two different tissues of C. gigas and found that methylated genes are expressed in more tissues and development stages than unmethylated genes. Furthermore, we found that different types of exons had different methylation levels, with the lowest methylation levels in the first exons, followed by the last exons, and the internal exons. We found that the exons included in the gene transcript contained significantly higher DNA methylation levels than skipped exons. We observed that the DNA methylation levels increased slowly after the start sites and end sites of exons seperately, and then decreased quickly towards the middle sites of exons. We also found that methylated exons were significantly longer than unmethylated exons. Conclusion This study constitutes the first genome-wide analysis to show an association between exon-level DNA methylation and mRNA expression in the oyster. Our findings suggest that exon-level DNA methylation may play a role in the construction of alternative splicing by positively influencing exon inclusion during transcription.
Simple Analytical Dispersion Equations for the Shielded Sievenpiper Structure

Closed form expressions for the dispersion curves of the shielded Sievenpiper structure are derived in terms of the geometric and electromagnetic parameters of the structure. A compact form of the dispersion equation is presented in this paper, arrived at by using multiconductor transmission-line theory and assuming that the series loading capacitor and shunt loading inductor are added to the per-unit length impedance and admittance matrices in a continuous (homogeneous) manner. This approximate model is shown to yield excellent agreement with the full model (in which the loading parameters are not incorporated in a continuous manner), under suitable conditions. The dispersion curve provided by this model is analyzed and it is shown that there exists a frequency band (stopband) supporting complex modes. Analytical expressions for the edges of this complex-mode band are derived, and the variation of these expressions as functions of the geometry is explored
Crowdseeding Conflict Data

Poor quality data about conflict events can hinder humanitarian responses and bias academic research. There is increasing recognition for the role new information technologies can play in producing more reliable data faster. We piloted a novel datagathering system in the Democratic Republic of Congo in which villagers in a set of randomly selected communities report on events in real time via SMS. We first describe the data and assess its reliability. We then examine the usefulness of such “crowdseeded” data in two ways. First, we implement a downstream experiment on aid and conflict and find evidence that aid can lead to fewer conflict events. Second, we examine conflict diffusion in Eastern Congo and find evidence that key dynamics operate at very micro levels. Both applications highlight the benefit of collecting conflict data via cell phones in real time. ∗Corresponding author: pv2160@columbia.edu. We would like to thank Junior Bulabula, Ruth Carlitz, Simon Collard-Wexler, Yair Ghitza, Stefan Lehmeier, Steven Livingston, Neelanjan Sircar and Patrick Meier. We also thank Tracy Longacre, Desire Cimerhe and Alain Kabeya for outstanding in-country work. Voix des Kivus has been presented at a number of occasions: 2009 International Conference for Conflict Mapping, UNOCHA’s Coordination Meeting, 2010 Folke Bernadotte Conference, 2011 World Bank Workshop (Bukavu), Free University Berlin (2011), 2012 MPSA, the University of British Columbia (2012), and 2013 ISA (San Fransisco). We thank the participants at these meetings. The Voix des Kivus pilot project was funded by USAID and benefited from support from the group’s learning network; we thank especially Borany Penh and John Berry. Thanks too to the IRC for their partnership on the larger study of the development interventions in Congo. Peter also thanks Wageningen University where part of this paper was written. Most of all we thank our 54 phone holders who, by sending thousands of SMS-messages, made it possible to learn about events that take place in Eastern Congo.
Information Technologies as a Vital Channel for an Internal E-Communication Strategy

IntroductIon The use of traditional marketing tools with the purpose to increase effectiveness and efficacy within organizations has been studied among different authors. This topic known as internal marketing (IM) starts defining employees as internal clients to whom the organization must satisfy a group of needs and expectations to achieve their engagement and motivation on work, looking forward to increased productivity and competitively within the organization. Among the most important aspects and maybe the least discussed on IM are the information technologies (IT), in first place, as a method to ease the work increasing the labor life quality (LLQ). Furthermore, the information technologies are a vital channel to develop an internal e-communication (internal electronic communication) effective strategy. In both cases, the new technologies give enormous possibilities as supporting strategies to IM, allowing the organization to have a direct and permanent relationship with its workers in any place, important aspect to have a successful integration, and participation on the global economy. The present article talks about the challenges and possibilities that offer the IT as IM support, mainly, being an important channel to the internal e-communication.
Chinese Parenting Reconsideration: Parenting Practices in Taiwan.

This study examined authoritative and authoritarian parenting and specific parenting practices among Chinese mothers with preschoolers. The final sample consisted of 463 mothers with their 3 to 7 year-olds from 11 preschools, in Taiwan. Mothers completed a Chinese translation of the Parenting Behavior Questionnaire that assessed their parenting practices. Findings indicated that the subscales of the Authoritative scale were positively related to each other. Subscales of the Authoritarian scale were also positively related to each other. The Authoritarian and Authoritative total scores were negatively. related to each other. The majority of the mothers (over 65 percent) could be classified as authoritative. None of the mothers in this sample were classified as authoritarian. Four parenting patterns were identified for the sample: (1) high authoritative, low authoritarian (65 percent of mothers); (2) high authoritative, medium authoritarian (12 percent); (3) medium authoritative, low authoritarian (15 percent); and (4) medium authoritative, medium authoritarian (7 percent). Contrary to the impression from many previous cross-cultural studies presenting Chinese parents as controlling and authoritarian, the findings of this study showed that the authoritative pattern was predominant among participants. (Contains 22 references.) (KB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. O 00 Chinese Parenting Reconsideration: Parenting Practices in Taiwan Fu-mei Chen and Tom Luster Department of Family and Chid Ecology Michigan State University East Lansing, MI 48824-1030 Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to: Dr. Fu-mei Chen Department of Applied Life Science College of Human Ecology Fu Jen Catholic University Hsin-Chuang, Taipei, Taiwan, 242 Phone: 886-2-29031111 ext.2104 E-mail: chenfume@mails.u. edu.tw BEST COPY AVAILABLE PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as eceived from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy.
Posterior leaflet segment 2 plication in ischemic mitral regurgitation repair

Aim To evaluate the medium-term results of plication of posterior leaflet segment 2 in addition to ring annuloplasty in patients with functional ischemic mitral regurgitation. Methods The study included 136 patients who underwent mitral valve repair with plication of posterior leaflet segment 2 for ischemic mitral regurgitation between 2004 and 2012. The direction and correlation of left ventricle sphericity and tethering area were established by Pearson correlation analysis in patients with or without recurrent mitral regurgitation in the medium term. Results Medium-term survival was 91.9% and freedom from moderate or severe mitral regurgitation was 89.6%. In medium-term follow-up, transthoracic echocardiography found a significant decrease in tethering area, coaptation height, and distance between the commissures compared to the pre-surgery values (p = 0.0001 in all). The distance between the papillary muscles was reduced compared to the pre-surgery period but it was not significant (p = 0.204). Pearson correlation analysis found no significant correlation between the tethering area and left ventricle sphericity in patients without recurrent mitral regurgitation (r = 0.15, p = 0.36), a highly positive correlation (r = 0.44, p < 0.001) in patients with mild recurrent mitral regurgitation, and a moderately positive correlation (r = 0.71, p < 0.01) in patients with moderate or severe recurrent mitral regurgitation. Conclusions The tethering area, coaptation height, and distance between the commissures decreased significantly, thus posterior leaflet segment 2 plication in addition to ring annuloplasty may be the optional procedure to ensure freedom from moderate or severe mitral regurgitation.
Vitreous IGFBP-3 effects on Müller cell proliferation and tractional force generation.

PURPOSE Previous studies from this laboratory revealed that vitreous insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) is a biologically active fragment of the intact protein. The goal of this study was to characterize its effects on Müller cell proliferation and tractional force generation, activities relevant to proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). METHODS Müller cells were isolated from normal porcine retina. The vitreous-type IGFBP-3 fragment was isolated from normal human plasma and compared with intact recombinant protein for the ability to modulate Müller cell proliferation and tractional force generation in tissue culture models. RESULTS Müller cells were stimulated to proliferate by serum and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), but not insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I or IGF-II. The cells were similarly unresponsive to IGFBP-3 or the IGFBP-3 fragment alone or in combination with IGF-I or IGF-II. In contrast, Müller cells demonstrated robust extracellular matrix contraction in response to IGF-I, IGF-II, and PDGF. Intact IGFBP-3 attenuated extracellular matrix contraction in response to IGF-I and IGF-II while the IGFBP-3 fragment modulated cell responses to IGF-II only. Neither binding protein altered cell responses to PDGF. CONCLUSIONS Intact IGFBP-3 modulates Müller cell tractional force generation stimulated by IGF-I and IGF-II while the effects of the vitreous-type fragment are limited to IGF-II. Porcine Müller cells proliferate in response to PDGF, but not IGF-I or IGF-II. Both forms of IGFBP-3 are also without mitogenic effects alone or in combination with IGFs. It appears that Müller cell tractional force generation in PDR is driven by vitreous IGF activity and proliferation is stimulated by growth factors outside of the IGF system.
Comparison of the ileal and faecal digestibility of dietary amino acids in adult humans and evaluation of the pig as a model animal for digestion studies in man

The aim of the study was to determine if there is a difference between ileal and faecal assays for determining amino acid and N digestibilities in adult human subjects. Comparison of true ileal amino acid and N digestibilities was also made between adult human subjects and growing pigs to establish the usefulness of the pig as a model animal. Five subjects with established ileostomies and six subjects with intact large bowels consumed a constant diet consisting of meat, vegetables, fruit, bread and dairy products for 7 d with collection of ileostomy contents or faeces respectively over the last 4 d. The study was repeated using 25 kg body weight ileostomized and intact pigs. Apparent amino acid and N digestibility coefficients were determined. For human subjects the faecal digestibility values were significantly higher (P < 0·05) than the ileal values for Arg, Asp, Gly, Phe, Pro, Ser, Thr and Trp. The faecal digestibility of Met was significantly lower than the ileal value. Determination of DNA, diaminopimelic acid (DAPA) and the digestibilities of pectin, hemicellulose and cellulose in human subjects indicated that some microbial colonization had occurred at the terminal ileum after formation of an ileostomy; however, this was not as extensive as in the large intestine. True ileal amino acid and N digestibilities were calculated after correcting for the endogenous contribution of amino acids at the terminal ileum determined using a protein-free diet. There were no significant differences between adult human subjects and pigs for true ileal dietary amino acid digestibility except for Thr, Phe, Cys and Met. There were no significant differences between adult humans and pigs for the ileal digestibility of dry matter and the faecal digestibility of gross energy.
Lossy coding improvement of EBCOT design for onboard JPEG2000 image compression

This paper presents new Rate Distortion Optimization (RDO) algorithm and its implementation for JPEG2000. The proposed algorithm simplifies the computational complexity of the RDO and detects Optimal Truncation (OT) point for rate control in parallel with bit-plane coding. It is easy to implement and implemented RDO module brings small hardware cost with slight clock frequency degradation. Experimental results showed that proposed algorithm provides close compression rates with the targets and obtained PSNR values are comparable with the performance of the former designs.
The Cell Wall-Associated Glyceraldehyde-3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase of Candida albicans Is Also a Fibronectin and Laminin Binding Protein

ABSTRACT By immunoelectron microscopy with a polyclonal antibody against the cytosolic glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) from Candida albicans (anti-GAPDH PAb), the protein was clearly detected at the outer surface of the cell wall, particularly on blastoconidia, as well as in the cytoplasm. Intact blastoconidia were able to adhere to fibronectin and laminin immobilized on microtiter plates, and this adhesion was markedly reduced by both the anti-GAPDH PAb and soluble GAPDH fromSaccharomyces cerevisiae. In addition, semiquantitative flow cytometry analysis with the anti-GAPDH PAb showed a decrease in antibody binding to cells in the presence of soluble fibronectin and laminin. Purified cytosolic C. albicans GAPDH was found to bind to fibronectin and laminin in a ligand Western blot assay. These observations suggest that the cell wall-associated form of the GAPDH in C. albicans could be involved in mediating adhesion of fungal cells to fibronectin and laminin, thus contributing to the attachment of the microorganism to host tissues and to the dissemination of Candida infection.
Modelling the polypeptide backbone with 'spare parts' from known protein structures.

An automatic procedure for building a protein polyalanine backbone from C alpha positions and 'spare parts' retrieved from a data base of 66 high-resolution protein structures is described. Protein backbones are constructed from overlapping fragments of variable length, which allows the backbone of regular secondary structure elements to be built in one block. The procedure is shown to yield backbones which compare very favourably with those from highly refined X-ray structures (r.m.s. deviation between generated and crystal structures less than 1A). The method is furthermore quite insensitive to experimental errors in C alpha positions as well as to the size of the data base, and is seen to yield valuable insight into the relationships between sequence and 3-D structure: one example on triose phosphate isomerase, a beta-barrel protein, shows that beta alpha loops can be considered as structurally more uncommon than alpha beta loops. The 'spare parts' approach is also found to be useful for general-purpose modelling of local structural changes produced by insertion or deletion of residues. It should, however, be used with caution. Crude selection criteria based solely on fragment length and geometric fit to the loop base regions yield realistic backbones in about two-thirds of the test cases (r.m.s. deviations from refined crystal structure approximately 1A). In the remaining cases, sequence information, in particular the presence of glycine residues which tend to adopt more unusual backbone conformations, must be considered to obtain comparable results.
Speech Enhancement Using Dual Transform-Normalized LMS Algorithm for Speech Recognition Application

Speech enhancement is one of the important preprocessing techniques required for any speech processing applications. This work represents dual channel speech enhancement where the desired signal is available and the input noisy speech is enhanced based on the reference signal, this method of speech enhancement can be used in robots where the machine can recognize the comments given by human. In this paper noisy and the desired speech signals are dual transformed using discrete cosine transform and Hadamard transform and applied to the adaptive filter using Normalized Least Mean Square algorithm. In NLMS the step size parameter is varying based on the input signal rather in LMS the step size is constant. This variable step size will lead to fast convergence of noisy speech towards desired speech and the enhanced signal gives better performance compared to conventional LMS algorithm. The performance analysis is done through various subjective and objective measures.