Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography ( DHPLC ) for monitoring 3 sulfate reducing bacteria in oilfields 4 5

Manuscript for Applied and Environmental Microbiology 1 2 Application of denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) for monitoring 3 sulfate reducing bacteria in oilfields 4 5 Outi Priha, Mari Nyyssönen, Malin Bomberg, Arja Laitila, Jaakko Simell, Anu Kapanen and 6 Riikka Juvonen 7 8 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tietotie 2, Espoo, Finland 9 Kemira, Luoteisrinne 2, Espoo, Finland 10 Corresponding author: Outi Priha, outi.priha@vtt.fi 11 12 Abstract 13 Sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) participate in microbially induced corrosion (MIC) of equipment 14 and H2S-driven reservoir souring in oilfield sites. Successful management of industrial processes 15 requires methods that allow robust monitoring of microbial communities. This study investigated the 16 applicability of denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) targeting the 17 dissimilatory sulfite reductase ß-subunit (dsrB) gene for monitoring SRB communities in oilfield 18 samples from the North Sea, USA and Brazil. Fifteen of the 28 screened samples gave a positive 19 result in real-time PCR assays, containing 9 x 10 6 x 10 dsrB gene copies ml. DHPLC and 20 denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) community profiles of the PCR positive samples 21 shared an overall similarity; both methods revealed the same samples to have the lowest and highest 22 diversity. The SRB communities were diverse, and different dsrB compositions were detected at 23 different geographical locations. The identified dsrB gene sequences belonged to several 24 Copyright © 2013, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01015-13 AEM Accepts, published online ahead of print on 21 June 2013
A Flexible Wearable Sensor Network for Bio-Signals and Human Activity Monitoring

The work presented herein addresses the development, implementation, and evaluation of a new wearable system for monitoring bio-signals and physical human activity, namely for gait analysis and cardiovascular surveillance. It consists of a wearable textile substrate (pantyhose and/or T-shirt) with embedded conductive yarns interconnecting custom electronic devices, in a mesh or other network type, that acquire bio-signals and/or inertial data. All data are aggregated in a central processing module from where they are sent via a wireless link to a mobile phone or personal computer for final processing. The network topology, sensor nodes architecture and results obtained with first prototypes are presented.
The scaling region of the lattice O(N) sigma model at finite temperature

We present results from numerical studies of the finite temperature phase transition of the (3+1)d O(N)-symmetric non-linear sigma model for N = 1,2 and 3. We study the dependence of the width of the 3d critical region on N and we show that the broken phase scaling region is much wider for N = 2 and 3 than for N = 1. We also compare the widths of the critical region in the low T and high T phases of the O(2) model and we show that the scaling region in the broken phase is much wider than in the symmetric phase. We also report results for the width of the scaling regions in the low T phase (2+1)d Ising model and we show that the spatial correlation length has to be approximately twice the lattice temporal extent before the 2d scaling region is reached.
Conception and development of a video surveillance system for detecting, tracking and profile analysis of a person

Video surveillance is an important research area in the commercial sector as well. Many architecture of video surveillance systems are used increasingly in security systems and with good reason. Generally, with a video surveillance system, we are in the picture 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Actually, with the rapid development of hardware and software video surveillance systems, it is economically and technically feasible to build video surveillance system architecture and tailored to a specific need. Our proposed architecture software helps to: detect, track a moving person in video sequence and helps to specify his profile when is entering in a special region from controlled area. Especially, this proposed system triggers an alarm when the monitored person enters in the prohibited area or when it exceeds a lapse of time in this region. This developed system can be used for tracking people in real time and can be adapted to extract frames from the video sequence at different times and it can process the detection process, track and it can analyze the profile of the moving person in each time.
Modeling of MOS-Side Carrier Injection in Trench-Gate IGBTs

A compact trench-gate IGBT model that captures MOS-side carrier injection is developed. The model retains the simplicity of a one-dimensional solution to the ambipolar diffusion equation, but at the same time captures MOS-side carrier injection and its effects on steady-state carrier distribution in the drift region and on switching waveforms.
Glass transition of polymers in bulk, confined geometries, and near interfaces

When cooled or pressurized, polymer melts exhibit a tremendous reduction in molecular mobility. If the process is performed at a constant rate, the structural relaxation time of the liquid eventually exceeds the time allowed for equilibration. This brings the system out of equilibrium, and the liquid is operationally defined as a glass—a solid lacking long-range order. Despite almost 100 years of research on the (liquid/)glass transition, it is not yet clear which molecular mechanisms are responsible for the unique slow-down in molecular dynamics. In this review, we first introduce the reader to experimental methodologies, theories, and simulations of glassy polymer dynamics and vitrification. We then analyse the impact of connectivity, structure, and chain environment on molecular motion at the length scale of a few monomers, as well as how macromolecular architecture affects the glass transition of non-linear polymers. We then discuss a revised picture of nanoconfinement, going beyond a simple picture based on interfacial interactions and surface/volume ratio. Analysis of a large body of experimental evidence, results from molecular simulations, and predictions from theory supports, instead, a more complex framework where other parameters are relevant. We focus discussion specifically on local order, free volume, irreversible chain adsorption, the Debye–Waller factor of confined and confining media, chain rigidity, and the absolute value of the vitrification temperature. We end by highlighting the molecular origin of distributions in relaxation times and glass transition temperatures which exceed, by far, the size of a chain. Fast relaxation modes, almost universally present at the free surface between polymer and air, are also remarked upon. These modes relax at rates far larger than those characteristic of glassy dynamics in bulk. We speculate on how these may be a signature of unique relaxation processes occurring in confined or heterogeneous polymeric systems.
A H.264 Based Joint Source Channel Coding Scheme over Wireless Channels

Joint source channel coding (JSCC) is an effective method which trade off the efficiency and the quality of the video transmission. In this paper, a new rate-quality (R-Q) model is first proposed to represent the coding characteristics of H.264 instead of rate-distortion (R-D) model. Then, the end-to-end video transmission distortion is analyzed and an adaptive JSCC over wireless channel based on the R-Q model of the H.264 and the error protection characteristics of the Turbo code is proposed, which can optimize the rate allocation of the available network bandwidth between source coding and channel coding according to the current status of the wireless channels, so as to improve the robustness. The experiment results indicate that, compared with the scheme using the fixed channel coding rate, under the same channel conditions, our proposed JSCC scheme can greatly improve the transmission robustness and achieve better reconstructed video quality at the receiver.
Implementation and Performance Evaluation of Two Snapshot Methods on iSCSI Target Storages

While snapshots have been commonly used in data storages for backup and data protections, little is known in the open literature how such snapshots impact application performance. This paper presents an implementation and performance evaluation of two snapshot techniques: copy-on-write snapshot and redirect-on-write snapshot. Our implementation is carried out at block level on a standard iSCSI target. We carry out quantitative performance evaluations and comparisons of the two snapshot implementations using TPC-C, TPC-W, IoMeter, and PostMark benchmarks. Our measurements reveal many interesting observations regarding the performance characteristics of the two snapshot techniques. Depending on the applications and different I/O workloads, the two snapshot techniques perform quite differently. In general, copy-on-write performs well on read-intensive applications while redirect-on-write performs well on write-intensive applications.
The moderating effect of valenced contact: Slovak language media use, acculturation and L2 confidence among young Hungarian speakers

ABSTRACT Integrating the tenets of the social context model of L2 acquisition with insights from the parasocial contact hypothesis, the present paper addresses the role of mass media in L2 acquisition and acculturation among young Hungarian speakers in Slovakia. Questionnaire data were collected among Hungarian-speaking secondary school students (N = 310). The results indicated that integrative orientation guided individuals to seek media content in L2, and that L2 media use was associated with a higher L2 confidence and acculturation. Additionally, and in contrast to our expectations, L2 media use had a greater effect on acculturation and L2 confidence among those who had higher levels of positively valenced contact and lower levels of negatively valenced real-life contact with L2 speakers.
A subspace limited memory quasi-Newton algorithm for large-scale nonlinear bound constrained optimization

In this paper we propose a subspace limited memory quasi-Newton method for solving large-scale optimization with simple bounds on the variables. The limited memory quasi-Newton method is used to update the variables with indices outside of the active set, while the projected gradient method is used to update the active variables. The search direction consists of three parts: a subspace quasi-Newton direction, and two subspace gradient and modified gradient directions. Our algorithm can be applied to large-scale problems as there is no need to solve any subproblems. The global convergence of the method is proved and some numerical results are also given.
Does Immigration Benefit a Regional Economy With An Aging Population ? : Simulation Results from the Chicago CGE Model

Immigration has become one of the most debated topics because it has both positive and negative impacts on the host economy. This research is motivated by the conflicting evidence that has been assembled on the longer-term impacts of immigration on a regional (metropolitan) economy that is experiencing a demographic transition to an aging population. The research proposes to answer the following set of questions which were not properly answered in the previous studies: (1) How would the immigration mitigate the problems associated with aging population? (2) How would the policy mix affect the benefits of the immigration? (3) What would happen to income disparities with an increase in immigrants? And (4) How sensitive will the welfare effects be to changes in the size of immigration? The main contribution of this study is to evaluate these questions at the regional level as the first case study of this kind in the US. To address these issues, this study uses a two-region Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model, where all the economic interactions arising from demographic changes caused by aging population and immigration can be captured since the model contains detailed information about all commodity and factor markets together with each agent’s decision making process. The results reveal that immigration plays a critical role in maintaining labor force levels and through immigrant contributions to social security payments. The income distribution appeared to worsen with the higher immigration, while the welfare of all the populations is improved. Regarding the issues of the policy mix to maximize the regional welfare, a larger number of immigrants does not necessarily result in more desirable results. Instead, the result suggests that the regional welfare is optimized when the local government admits immigrants up to the national average. Further, pension reforms generating small benefits turn out to reduce the potential benefit of local immigration.
Spatially explicit Bayesian clustering models in population genetics

This article reviews recent developments in Bayesian algorithms that explicitly include geographical information in the inference of population structure. Current models substantially differ in their prior distributions and background assumptions, falling into two broad categories: models with or without admixture. To aid users of this new generation of spatially explicit programs, we clarify the assumptions underlying the models, and we test these models in situations where their assumptions are not met. We show that models without admixture are not robust to the inclusion of admixed individuals in the sample, thus providing an incorrect assessment of population genetic structure in many cases. In contrast, admixture models are robust to an absence of admixture in the sample. We also give statistical and conceptual reasons why data should be explored using spatially explicit models that include admixture.
Secured Cryptographic Key Generation From Multimodal Biometrics: Feature Level Fusion of Fingerprint and Iris

Human users have a tough time remembering long cryptographic keys. Hence, researchers, for so long, have been examining ways to utilize biometric features of the user instead of a memorable password or passphrase, in an effort to generate strong and repeatable cryptographic keys. Our objective is to incorporate the volatility of the user's biometric features into the generated key, so as to make the key unguessable to an attacker lacking significant knowledge of the user's biometrics. We go one step further trying to incorporate multiple biometric modalities into cryptographic key generation so as to provide better security. In this article, we propose an efficient approach based on multimodal biometrics (Iris and fingerprint) for generation of secure cryptographic key. The proposed approach is composed of three modules namely, 1) Feature extraction, 2) Multimodal biometric template generation and 3) Cryptographic key generation. Initially, the features, minutiae points and texture properties are extracted from the fingerprint and iris images respectively. Subsequently, the extracted features are fused together at the feature level to construct the multi-biometric template. Finally, a 256-bit secure cryptographic key is generated from the multi-biometric template. For experimentation, we have employed the fingerprint images obtained from publicly available sources and the iris images from CASIA Iris Database. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Parents’ and teachers’ opinions of preschool children's social problem-solving and behavioural problems

ABSTRACT The aim of our study was to shed light on (1) what Hungarian mothers, fathers and teachers of 4–6-year-olds think of these children's social problem-solving (SPS) and their difficulties in terms of problem-solving, adaptability and prosocial behaviour; (2) studying any correlation between the examined aspects and (3) the connection between one's opinion about SPS and some family background variables. We used three questionnaires (a modified version of SPSI-R [D'Zurilla, T. J., Nezu, A., & Maydeu-Olivares, A. (2002). Social problem-solving inventory–revised (SPSI–R): Technical manual. New York, NY: Multi-Health Systems, North Tonawanda]; Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire, [Goodman, R. (2001). Psychometric properties of the strength and difficulty questionnaire. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric, 40(11), 1337–1345]; Conners Parent/Teacher Rating Scale-Revised, [Conners, C. K. (1997). Parent rating scale–revised technical manual. New York, NY: Multi Health Systems, North Tonawanda]) and a background questionnaire in our research. Parents and teachers have different opinions in almost all studied aspects (e.g. positive and negative approach to SPS) and there is also a difference between how mothers and fathers rated most of the factors. Contrary to previous international research in the field, it is not teachers who have the most negative opinion but fathers.
Optimal Channel Selection for Spectrum-Agile Low-Power Wireless Packet Switched Networks in Unlicensed Band

This paper addresses the problem of optimal channel selection for spectrum-agile low-powered wireless networks in unlicensed bands. The channel selection problem is formulated as a multiarmed bandit problem enabling us to derive the optimal selection rules. The model assumptions about the interfering traffic that motivates this formulation are also validated through 802.11 traffic measurements as an example of a packet switched network. Finally, the performance of the optimal dynamic channel selection is investigated through simulation. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm consistently tracks the best channel compared to other heuristic schemes.
Constructing the object of research in the manner of Piet Mondrian

Drawing from the way the artist Piet Mondrian constructs objects in his paintings, we offer an epistemology for consumer research based on a five-step process for constructing the object of research. We show how the five steps fit with both existential phenomenology and the context of context approach. We also contribute to the current epistemological debate in consumer research showing commonalities between these two paradigms, often considered antagonistic due to their different unit of analysis. Finally, we encourage the shift towards art in consumer research, by studying artists to rethink the relationship between researchers and their objects of research.
CYSTOLITHALOPAXY USING CYBERWAND IS EFFICIENT AND SAFE FOR LARGE BLADDER STONE BURDENS

27 EUS Annual Meeting, May 19, 2012, Atlanta, GA Page 16 of 97 ABSTRACT 1 NOVEL LAPAROSCOPIC DEFOGGING AND CLEANING DEVICE UTILIZED DURING ROBOT-ASSISTED LAPAROSCOPIC PROSTATECTOMY (RALP): 20 CASE EXPERENCE Carson Wong, MD and Xiao Gu, MD, PhD SouthWest Urology, Inc. Ahuja Medical Center, University Hospitals Parma Community General Hospital The First Clinical Medical College at Yangzhou University Introduction: Maintaining efficiency and optimal visualization are critical components of any surgical procedure, particularly in robot-assisted cases, where removal of the laparoscope to defog or clean the lens requires time and can be cumbersome. We evaluate the Advanced Laparoscopic Care Kit (New Wave Surgical, Coral Springs, FL) as a novel set of accessories that defogs and cleans the laparoscope during RALP. Methods: Laparoscope warming and cleaning equipment were replaced in our operating suite with the Advanced Laparoscopic Care Kit (“Care Kit”) for 20 consecutive patients who underwent transperitoneal RALP. Our observations and the features of the Care Kit are reviewed. Results: The Care Kit includes a defogging device that heats an internal reservoir of surfactant based alcohol-free anti-fog solution to 120° F. The device remains heated for 5 hours. The heated surfactant acts as a soap that can quickly remove dried debris from the lens. Because the device is self-contained and hand held, it can be brought to the laparoscope with minimal displacement of the laparoscope from the trocar. The Care Kit also includes microfiber cleaning pads (fibers 2000 times smaller than surgical gauze) that clean oils better than surgical gauze and avoid scratching the delicate lens. A trocar cleaning sponge for removing debris that can be trapped inside the trocar cannula is also supplied. Subjectively, the Care Kit proved to be simple to use by the bedside assistant and effective at maintaining optimal laparoscope visualization. Transfer of the laparoscope to the back table for warming intraoperatively was not required in all 20 cases. The Care Kit protects the laparoscope while it is initially lying flat on the back table from the dangers of scratching and falling associated with using traditional laparoscope warmers. Conclusions: The Care Kit was effective in preventing fogging of the laparoscope during RALP. It has the potential to minimize delays that can result from laparoscope defogging and cleaning, thereby reducing operative times. Further studies will be required to quantify the potential time savings and determine whether there is a reduction in laparoscope damage and subsequent repair costs associated with use of this device.
Declarative Speciﬁcation of Gene Regulatory Networks and Query Evaluation in PathSys ∗ (Extended Abstract)

Biological pathways depict how biological entities interact among themselves to perform a certain task. Metabolic pathways present the complex cascade of reactions that occur to break down a metabolite into constituent chemicals for eventual uptake by the organism. Signal transduction pathways describe how activation of proteins and genes are carried out by a complex network of chemical information-passing that take place through events like transcription of genes and translocation of chemical objects from one compartment to another. Since these interactions are very complex, and may include a large number of smaller steps, a wide variety of modeling paradigms have been used to study and analyze pathways. Some scientists study them as compactly represented Boolean circuits where elements are activated and deactivated like binary switches. Discrete and hybrid Petri Net models of pathways have been proposed to study the state-transition, reachability, deadlock and liveliness properties of a biological network. Many computational cell biologists create deep models of biochemical reactions as ordinary differential equations involving the rate of production and consumption of the individual reactants and reaction products. The nature of model used to study a pathway depends heavily on the degree of available information and the purpose of analysis. Very often even for one pathway, information about different parts is known to scientists at different levels of detail – while some reactions in a large, intricate pathway can be modeled quantitatively, some other reactions may be known only superficially, and are easier to model as discrete events. The PathSys system aims to develop a general-purpose environment to construct, query, simulate and analyze biological networks by using multiple levels and paradigms. Toward this end, we have developed a graph-based data model to capture the inter-connectivity and nature of interactions between elements of a biological network. The graph-model is connected to a customized Petri Net engine that simulates the behavior of the network. A query engine sits atop both these modules to enable a user to query on both the graph-structured network as well as the states and transitions initiated by a simulation. A simulation can be run independently of the query module, and its results can be stored in a database. Alternatively, it can be invoked as part of a query execution.