Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Demo: MilliCat: Real-Time Autonomous Image Suggestion for Mobile Messaging

Text based communication has become the most popular form of communication using smartphones. We believe that suggesting images while typing is will innovate the mobile text communication. We suggest real-time autonomous image suggestion system based on natural language processing, sentiment analysis, machine learning, human computer interaction, networking and systems. MiliiCat is a mobile messaging API service that autonomously suggests images with real-time based on chat context to improve emotion expression, nuance delivery, and information delivery of a conversation. This system shows a solution to the text communication in mobile environment by reducing latency and data consumption.
Herpes simplex virus type 2 inhibition of Fas ligand expression

Herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2) are common human pathogens. In this report we demonstrate the capacity of HSV-2, but not HSV-1, to inhibit the activity and cell surface expression of Fas ligand, an important molecule involved in T-cell apoptosis and cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Cells infected with HSV-2 retained Fas ligand intracellularly instead of expressing it on the cell surface. Addition of anti-Fas antibodies markedly inhibited HSV-2 viral production, suggesting that the capacity of the virus to regulate Fas ligand expression, and thereby programmed cell death, may represent a powerful mechanism for the virus to enhance viral replication.
Novel Reporter T-Cell Line Highly Susceptible to Both CCR5- and CXCR4-Using Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and Its Application to Drug Susceptibility Tests

ABSTRACT CCR5-using (R5) human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a major viral population that is transmitted by sexual intercourse and that replicates in infected individuals during the asymptomatic stage of HIV-1 infection, suggesting that agents effective against R5 HIV-1 can be expected to prevent viral transmission and delay disease progression. However, R5 HIV-1 is unable to replicate in human T-cell lines, which is an apparent obstacle to efficient and reliable susceptibility tests of compounds for their activities against R5 HIV-1. To establish a simple and rapid assay system for the monitoring of R5 HIV-1 replication and drug susceptibility, we have established a novel reporter T-cell line, MOCHA (which represents MOLT-4 cells stably expressing CCR5 and carrying the HIV-1 long terminal repeat-driven secretory alkaline phosphatase). Cells of this cell line express CD4, CXCR4, and CCR5 on their surfaces and secrete human placental alkaline phosphatase into the culture supernatants during HIV-1 infection. MOCHA cells proved to be highly permissive for the replication of R5 HIV-1 as well as CXCR4-using (X4) HIV-1, and the alkaline phosphatase activity increased in parallel with increasing HIV-1 p24 antigen levels in the culture supernatants. When HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, and entry inhibitors, including the CCR5 antagonist TAK-779 and the CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100, were examined for their inhibitory effects on R5 and X4 HIV-1 replication in MOCHA cells, the antiviral activities of these compounds were found to be almost identical to those previously reported in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Thus, MOCHA cells are an extremely useful tool for detection of R5 and X4 HIV-1 replication and drug susceptibility tests.
Facultative polypeptide translocation allows a single mRNA to encode the secreted and cytosolic forms of plasminogen activators inhibitor 2.

Two forms of plasminogen activators inhibitor 2 (PAI‐2) are synthesized by human and murine monocytes/macrophages: one accumulates in the cytosol, while the other is translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum, glycosylated and secreted. We show here that a single mRNA encodes both forms of PAI‐2. Firstly, a single PIA‐2 mRNA was detected by Northern blot hybridization and by RNase protection. Secondly, transfection of a PAI‐2 cDNA led to the synthesis of both forms of PAI‐2. Finally, in vitro translation of an mRNA transcript of the PAI‐2 cDNA in the presence of microsomal membranes generated two topologically distinct forms of PAI‐2. The cytosolic and secreted forms of PAI‐2 do not result from the use of two translation start sites, since their synthesis initiates at the same AUG, in a sequence context that is conserved between the human and murine genes. Thus, the accumulation of one polypeptide into two topologically distinct cellular compartments can be achieved by facultative translocation.
International Journal of Microscale and Nanoscale Thermal and Fluid Transport Phenomena

Effective and versatile microfluidic pumps can be produced by utilizing various electrokinetic effects, such as electrohydrodynamics (EHD), induced-charge electroosmosis (ICEO) and dielectrophoresis (DEP). Among these, traveling-wave EHD (twEHD) has emerged as a powerful pumping mechanism due to its potential for miniaturization and the ability to pump a variety of liquids. However, when twEHD is used to deliver colloidal suspensions, the simultaneous presence of EHD effect may favorably or adversely influence the overall pumping performance, or vice versa. The net flow depends on the particle-fluid combination and the frequency range of the applied electric field. In this paper, the coupled EHD-twDEP flow was studied numerically in a microchannel with a three-phase interdigitated microelectrode array fabricated at the bottom surface. The results show that, depending on the frequency range of the travelingwave electric field and the applied thermal boundary condition, the EHD-induced flow can significantly enhance or weaken the twDEP-induced flow.
Impact of a Late Entrant on the Diffusion of a New Product/Service

Starting with Bass's (1969) article, diffusion researchers have predominantly focused on modeling category-level sales growth and issues surrounding it. In this article, the authors propose a brand-level diffusion model and demonstrate its managerial use by applying it to the following issue: If a new brand enters a category that has not attained its peak sales, how can a practicing manager evaluate its impact on the category and on the incumbent brands? The proposed model helps the manager diagnose whether the late entrant affects the market potential and/or the diffusion speed of the category and of the incumbent brands. The authors test the model using brand-level sales data from the cellular telephone industry in multiple markets.
A Bilateral Ankle Manipulator to Investigate Human Balance Control

The ankles play an important role in human balance. In most studies investigating balance control the contribution of the left and right leg is not separated. However, in certain pathologies such as stroke and Parkinson's disease, balance control can be asymmetric. Here, a bilateral ankle perturbator (BAP) is presented, which applies support surface rotations to both ankles independently. The device consists of two small foot-size support surfaces, which are independently actuated. The BAP device can operate in either angle or torque control mode. The device is able to apply support surface rotations up to 8.6° with a bandwidth of 42 Hz. Additionally the platforms can be replaced by 6-DoF force plates to measure the center of pressure underneath each foot. With the optional force plates the bandwidth decreases to 16 Hz as a result of the additional weight. Two possible applications of the device to investigate human balance control are demonstrated: ankle stiffness by applying minimum jerk profiles and sensory reweighting of the proprioceptive information. In conclusion, we developed a bilateral ankle perturbator which is able to apply support surface rotations to both ankles independently. The major application of the device will be to investigate the contribution of both ankles to human balance control, and the interactions in balance control between both legs.
Computational memory architectures for autobiographic and narrative virtual agents

This thesis develops computational memory architectures for autobiographic and narrative virtual agents. Humans and many animals naturally possess a sophisticated memory system for reasoning, learning and also sharing information with others. However it has been a difficult challenge to model the characteristics of such a memory system in the research fields of both Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life. We propose a framework for enhancing reactive autonomous agents to retrieve meaningful information from their dynamic memories in order to adapt and survive in their environments. Our approach is inspired by psychology research in human memory and autobiographic memory – through remembering the significance of episodic events that happened in the past, agents with autobiographic memory architectures are capable of reconstructing past events for the purpose of event re-execution and story-telling. The memory architectures that were developed are capable of organizing and filtering significant events which originate in agents’ own experiences as well as stories told by other agents. To validate our memory architectures, both simple and complex Artificial Life type of virtual environments with static as well as dynamic resources distribution were implemented that provide events with different levels of complexity and affect the internal variables of the agents. The performance of various types of agents with different memory control architectures are first compared in single-agent experiments. Each agent’s behaviour is observed and analysed quantitatively together with its lifespan and internal states measurements. Group performance with and without communication are measured in experiments with multiple autobiographic ii agents. Results confirm our research hypothesis that autobiographic memory can prove beneficial – resulting in increases in the lifespan of an autonomous, autobiographic, minimal agent. Furthermore, higher communication frequency brings better group performance for Long-term Autobiographic Memory agents in multi-agent experiments. An interface has been developed to visualise agents’ dynamic autobiographic memory to help human observers to understand the underlying memory processes. This research leads to insights into how bottom-up story-telling and autobiography reconstruction in artificial autonomous agents allow temporally grounded behaviour to emerge. This study therefore results in a contribution to knowledge in Artificial Life and Artificial Intelligence.
Recognition of arrhythmic electrocardiogram using wavelet based feature extraction

Arrhythmia is one of the most common cardiac diseases. Efficient methods of detecting arrhythmia have been proposed in literatures. Our study proposes a unique feature extraction approach with entropy and Hjorth descriptor to classify a set of ECG signals into normal and arrhythmic with a considerable amount of accuracy. The conventional approach involving wavelet decomposition as the primary feature extraction method yields classification accuracy of 81.8%. The method proposed in the study using entropy and Hjorth descriptor provides higher classification rate at 82.9%. Our study is validated by a reliable dataset.
Performance, degradation monitors, and reliability of the CHISEL injection regime

This work reviews recent results concerning the performance and reliability of the channel initiated secondary electron (CHISEL) injection regime, often used to boost the programming speed of Flash memories. In order to relate the CHISEL behavior to the physical conditions existing in the device, the injection efficiency of CHISEL is studied on single transistors. A comparison between the degradation in the CHISEL injection and in the channel hot electron (CHE) stress regime has been also performed, and the most relevant electrical monitor for the degradation is assessed. It is confirmed that the CHISEL mechanism is promising for the realization of faster and more efficient Flash memory cells.
Environment management and disclosure practices of Indian companies

The corporations in the developed economies closely link their performance with the extent, quality and timeliness of environmental disclosures. The increasing trend towards liberalisation and globalization demands increased integration and the convergence to global environment reporting and accounting standards. Therefore it is not only important for the companies to be transparent, accountable and socially responsible but also need to ensure adequate returns to the shareholders and satisfy various stakeholders and society at large about their conduct. This paper studies the environment management and disclosures practices in India, identifies the nature and assesses the extent to which environmental disclosures and to identify the association, if any, between the corporate attributes.
Operations management practices and perceived service quality a case study of Kenya sugar industry

Globalization and rapid technological developments have contributed to industries adopting new tools and techniques to produce goods and services through excellence in operations management practices, to compete and survive in the market. The most challenging factor is to deliver products and services at low cost, at the right time and good quality. Application of Operations management tools and techniques will influence the perceived service quality and address the issue of excellence in an organization. Sugar industry in Kenya is characterized by global competition and technological changes in business environment. This study sought to identify the operations management practices adopted in the Kenya Sugar Industry and establish their influence on perceived service quality. This study was a census survey covering five government-owned sugar companies in western Kenya and those which have been in operations for over five years. Data was collected from 45 management staff in all departments and 25 distributors/supply of cane in all five sugar companies using two structured questionnaires consisting mainly of closed-ended questions. The study identified to a large extent that Kenya Sugar companies in western Kenya have not fully adopted the operations management practices. It also indicates that organization for quality practices, people and job designs, and process and services designs practices influences the perceived service quality. The study concludes that sugar companies lack understanding that full adoption of the operations management tools influences achievement of perceived service quality. Recommendations made were that Kenya sugar industry needs to focus on operations management practices to enhance reliability, responsiveness, assurance, quality and standard to meet customers‘ expectations. The study established that people and job designs, facilities improvements, and process and service designs practices are at the centre stage of achieving perceived service quality.The paper has provided insights into the adoption of operations management practices using survey data and provide further evidence that these practices are significant in enhancing service quality in the Kenya sugar industry. The study recommends that another study should be conducted covering a different sector of the economy in Kenya to give a broader perspective and also identify operations management practices that are specific to companies in certain industries within manufacturing industries.
DPSK modulation format for optical communication using FBG demodulator

The task of the project was to evaluate a differential phase shift keying demodulation technique by replacing a Mach-Zehnder interferometer receiver with an optical filter (Fiber Bragg Grating). Computer simulations were made with single optical transmission, multi channel systems and transmission with combined angle/intensity modulated optical signals. The simulations showed good results at both 10 and 40 Gbit/s. Laboratory experiments were made at 10 Gbit/s to verify the simulation results. It was found that the demodulation technique worked, but not with satisfactory experimental results. The work was performed at Eindhoven University of Technology, Holland, within the framework of the STOLAS project at the department of Electro-optical communication.
Stochastic Models of Interpurchase Time with Time-Dependent Covariates

Consumers’ purchase time decisions are important elements of their buying decision process. Stochastic models of interpurchase time, which have been used extensively in the marketing literature, are parsimonious, easy to estimate, and usually fit and predict the data well. However, there has been a striking omission of marketing variables in these models. Because empirical evidence suggests that marketing variables, such as promotions, can affect consumers’ purchase time decisions, the author presents a methodology for including such variables in these stochastic models. Four commonly used models are discussed: exponential, Erlang-2 (no heterogeneity), and these two models with gamma heterogeneity. Thus one can include duration dependence, heterogeneity, and nonstationarity in the model, and also account for right-censored data. Special care is shown to be needed when covariates, such as marketing variables, vary over time. The models are analytically tractable, which makes their estimation and validation simple and fast. An illustration of the methodology is provided with scanner panel data for coffee. Inclusion of duration dependence, heterogeneity, and marketing variables is shown to improve the model's diagnostics, fit, and predictions.
Title : Proteomic Testing for Targeted Therapy in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Populations Interventions Comparators Outcomes Individuals: With EGFR-negative or EGFRstatus unknown non-small-cell lung cancer with disease progression after first-line treatment Interventions of interest are: Management with a serum proteomic test to select targeted therapy Comparators of interest are: • Standard medical management Relevant outcomes include: • Overall survival • Disease-specific survival
Case Studies in Process Improvement through Retrospective Analysis of Release Planning Decisions

The process of selecting requirements for a release of a software product is challenging as the decision-making is based on uncertain predictions of customer value and development cost. This paper presents a method aimed at supporting software product development organisations in the identification of process improvement proposals to increase requirements selection quality. The method is based on an in-depth analysis of requirements selection decision outcomes after the release has been launched to the users. The method is validated in two separate case studies involving real requirements and industrial requirements engineering experts. The conclusions from the two case studies are that the method seems valuable in situations with complex release planning decisions, such as in market-driven projects. It also appears essential that participants with different viewpoints attend the root cause discussion. Requirements interdependencies seem to play a big role in release planning decision-making. In addition, successful projects can also be a source of learning.
A linkage analysis of sex determination in Bombus terrestris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

We constructed a linkage map of Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera, Apidae) phase unknown. The map contains 79 markers (six microsatellite and 73 RAPD markers) in 21 linkage groups and spans over 953.1 cM. The minimal recombinational size of the B. terrestris genome was estimated to be 1073 cM. Using flow cytometry, the physical size of the haploid genome of B. terrestris was calculated to be 274 Mb. This is the second linkage map for a social insect species. Bombus terrestris has on average five times less recombinational events per kb than the honey bee Apis mellifera. Male haploidy, chromosome size, and eusociality can now be excluded as reasons for the high recombination frequency of Apis mellifera. Finally, the sex determination locus of B. terrestris was placed on the map using bulked segregant analysis.
Detection of in-vivo chloroquine resistance in Plasmodium falciparum from Rameswaram Island, a pilgrim centre in southern India

Abstract Resistance to chloroquine (CQ) in Plasmodium falciparum is one of the main causes of the wide-spread resurgence of malaria in India and a challenge to the effective control of the disease. In the pilgrim centre of Rameswaram Island, malaria has persisted despite the various control measures undertaken over the years. When CQ resistance in Rameswaram was investigated in vivo, recrudescent parasitaemias were observed in 25 (58%) of the 43 study subjects who were given CQ and completed follow-up, all occurring between days 10 and 28 (late treatment failures). The results of the msp1, msp2 and glurp genotyping of paired samples of P. falciparum, collected on day 0 and the day of recrudescence from 23 of the apparent treatment failures, indicated that 21 (91%) of the 23 were probably true treatment failures. All of the paired samples harboured parasites with the K76T mutation in their pfcrt genes, and subsequent sequencing of nine day-0 samples revealed the SVMNT haplotype in all nine. This is the first report of in-vivo drug resistance in P. falciparum from Rameswaram Island. Such resistance, which is probably the result of the indiscriminate use of CQ and/or the import of malaria from mainland India, warrants a change in the drug regimen used locally for the first-line treatment of uncomplicated, P. falciparum malaria, to make treatment more effective and slow the development and spread of more foci of CQ resistance.
Study on interconnection standards of photovoltaic power generation

Under the force of environment issue and energy issue, distributed generation has achieved prodigious progress recently. And it is deemed to be the future development of modern power system. How to interconnect the new energy power generation with power system safely and reliably is a major challenge in the development of Smart Grid. New energy power generation interconnection standards are the technology base, which will push the development of smart grid. In this paper the distributed generation interconnection standards of home and abroad are studied. And the inadequacy of existing standards and that the distributed generation interconnection standards should focus on power quality, protection and control. This paper can be provided as a reference to improve existing standards and establish interconnection standards.
Année académique 2008-2009 Working paper 09 / 12 Generating user interface from task , user and domain models

Researchers have greatly studied the importance of automatic database user interface generation based on declarative models. The task, domain and user models are three important declarative models on which the user interface can be built. This paper then proposes a framework, i.e., a methodological process and a software prototype to drive the automatic database user interface design and code behind generation from the task, user and domain model combined together. This includes both the user interface and the sound and complete data update, definition and manipulation. The case study used in this paper is Translogistic, a project supported by the Walloon Region that aims to develop a highly capable, competitive and complete combined transport as well as a high value quality logistics. Keywords-Task Model, Domain Model, User Model, Automatic Generation, User Interface