Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hepatocyte-Specific Depletion of UBXD8 Induces Periportal Steatosis in Mice Fed a High-Fat Diet

We showed previously that UBXD8 plays a key role in proteasomal degradation of lipidated ApoB in hepatocarcinoma cell lines. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the functions of UBXD8 in liver in vivo. For this purpose, hepatocyte-specific UBXD8 knockout (UBXD8-LKO) mice were generated. They were fed with a normal or high-fat diet, and the phenotypes were compared with those of littermate control mice. Hepatocytes obtained from UBXD8-LKO and control mice were analyzed in culture. After 26 wk of a high-fat diet, UBXD8-LKO mice exhibited macrovesicular steatosis in the periportal area and microvesicular steatosis in the perivenular area, whereas control mice exhibited steatosis only in the perivenular area. Furthermore, UBXD8-LKO mice on a high-fat diet had significantly lower concentrations of serum triglyceride and VLDL than control mice. A Triton WR-1339 injection study revealed that VLDL secretion from hepatocytes was reduced in UBXD8-LKO mice. The decrease of ApoB secretion upon UBXD8 depletion was recapitulated in cultured primary hepatocytes. Accumulation of lipidated ApoB in lipid droplets was observed only in UBXD8-null hepatocytes. The results showed that depletion of UBXD8 in hepatocytes suppresses VLDL secretion, and could lead to periportal steatosis when mice are fed a high-fat diet. This is the first demonstration that an abnormality in the intracellular ApoB degradation mechanism can cause steatosis, and provides a useful model for periportal steatosis, which occurs in several human diseases.
Models of the Structure and Evolution of Protoplanetary Disks

We review advances in the modeling of protoplanetary disks. This review will focus on the regions of the disk beyond the dust sublimation radius, i.e. beyond 0.1 - 1 AU, depending on the stellar luminosity. We will be mostly concerned with models that aim to fit spectra of the dust continuum or gas lines, and derive physical parameters from these fits. For optically thick disks, these parameters include the accretion rate through the disk onto the star, the geometry of the disk, the dust properties, the surface chemistry and the thermal balance of the gas. For the latter we are mostly concerned with the upper layers of the disk, where the gas and dust temperature decouple and a photoevaporative flow may originate. We also briefly discuss optically thin disks, focusing mainly on the gas, not the dust. The evolution of these disks is dominated by accretion, viscous spreading, photoevaporation, and dust settling and coagulation. The density and temperature structure arising from the surface layer models provide input to models of photoevaporation, which occurs largely in the outer disk. We discuss the consequences of photoevaporation on disk evolution and planet formation.
Enculturating NNES Engineering Students in Taiwan: A Comparative Case Study

This study aims to investigate how two NNES (non-native English speaking) Taiwanese engineering graduate students became enculturated through various disciplinary practices of their disciplines. In particular, it focused on the learning challenges they had encountered during their overall process of disciplinary enculturation through the lens of legitimate peripheral participation. This study was conducted for the fall semester over the academic year of 2017 and 2018 at two universities in Taiwan. Multiple sources of data such as transcripts of student interviews, writing samples, and lab observations were collected and analysed. The findings indicated that the overall English proficiency of these students played a crucial role in their overall process of disciplinary enculturation. In addition, both students longed for more guidance from their disciplinary mentors/instructors regarding how to present their research and write for journal papers more effectively in English. Moreover, participants encountered varying degrees of writing challenges in writing for scholarly publications. The findings supported previous studies that NNES students often struggled most with various linguistic challenges relevant to their English language proficiency and they needed more guidance from advisors to facilitate their acquisition of genres in their target discipline. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18. 3.4
An intelligent system for diabetes prediction

With the emerging increase of diabetes, that recently affects around 346 million people, of which more than one-third go undetected in early stage, a strong need for supporting the medical decision-making process is generated. A number of researches have focused either in using one of the algorithms or in the comparisons of the performances of algorithms on a given, usually predefined and static datasets that are accessible through the Internet. This paper focuses on the joint implementation of the support vector machine (SVM) and Naïve Bayes statistical modeling, in the dataset acquired from the medical examinations of 402 patients, in order to improve the computer-supported diagnosis reliability. The dataset contains some attributes that have not been previously used in computer-based evaluations. The results show that the joint implementation of two algorithms improves significantly the overall reliability of the system outcome, which is crucial in the computer-supported diabetes diagnostic process.
The Effect of Different Rollover Conditions of the Vibrator on Human Injury

Vibrator, as a crucial vehicle of oil and gas exploration, is challenged by the complex terrains. The probability of rollover accident is therefore high in bumpy terrain in which the drivers' life is seriously threatened. Finite element numerical analysis was used to study the injury of the driver's head, neck and chest in the rollover accidents of domestic KZ-28 type vibrator on different conditions. The injuries of three parts were evaluated based on the human injury criteria. Driver's safety on different rollover conditions was comparatively analyzed. The results indicated that the injury degree of human head caused by vibrator rollover accident is at a low level. In comparison with head, the human neck is more likely to be injured than head and chest. In three different rollover accidents, the injury degree of drivers on the rollover condition of the vibrator colliding with slope multiply is most serious. Besides, the results demonstrated that the safety of driver can be enhanced by the rollover protective structures of KZ-28 type vibrator. This structure requires to be improved in energy absorption and isolation buffer. In addition, the safety belt and collision angle between the cab and the ground are also significantly associated with the injury degree. This research is of guiding significance to vibrator driver for taking safety protection measures.
Integrated Contextual Representation for Objects' Identities and Their Locations

Visual context plays a prominent role in everyday perception. Contextual information can facilitate recognition of objects within scenes by providing predictions about objects that are most likely to appear in a specific setting, along with the locations that are most likely to contain objects in the scene. Is such identity-related (semantic) and location-related (spatial) contextual knowledge represented separately or jointly as a bound representation? We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) priming experiment whereby semantic and spatial contextual relations between prime and target object pictures were independently manipulated. This method allowed us to determine whether the two contextual factors affect object recognition with or without interacting, supporting a unified versus independent representations, respectively. Results revealed a Semantic Spatial interaction in reaction times for target object recognition. Namely, significant semantic priming was obtained when targets were positioned in expected (congruent), but not in unexpected (incongruent), locations. fMRI results showed corresponding interactive effects in brain regions associated with semantic processing (inferior prefrontal cortex), visual contextual processing (parahippocampal cortex), and object-related processing (lateral occipital complex). In addition, activation in fronto-parietal areas suggests that attention and memory-related processes might also contribute to the contextual effects observed. These findings indicate that object recognition benefits from associative representations that integrate information about objects' identities and their locations, and directly modulate activation in object-processing cortical regions. Such context frames are useful in maintaining a coherent and meaningful representation of the visual world, and in providing a platform from which predictions can be generated to facilitate perception and action.
Primal-dual algorithms and in nite-dimensional Jordan algebras

We consider primal-dual algorithms for certain types of innnite-dimensional optimization problems. Our approach is based on the generalization of the technique of nite-dimansional Eu-clidean Jordan algebras to the case of innnite-dimensional JB-algebras of nite rank. This generalization enables us to develop polynomial-time primal-dual algorithms for \innnite-dimensional second-order cone programs. " We consider as an example a primal-dual long-step algorithm based on the Nesterov-Todd direction. It is shown that this algorithm can be generalized along with complexity estimates to the innnite-dimensional situation under consideration. An application is given to the Fermat location problem with linear equality constraints in a Hilbert space. The interpretation of this problem as a multi-target tracking problem of control theory is considered. The calculation of the Nesterov-Todd direction requires in this case solving one matrix diierential Riccati equation oo-line plus solving a nite-dimensional system of linear algebraic equations on each iteration. The size of this algebraic system is 2m by 2m, where m is a number of targets. Finite-dimensional Euclidean Jordan algebras proved to be very useful for the analysis of interior-point algorithms of optimization 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 14]. In the present paper we analyze the possibility of using innnite-dimensional Jordan algebras of nite rank in a similar fashion for the analysis of an innnite-dimensional situation. In particular, we concentrate on primal-dual algorithms which constitute probably the most important class of interior-point algorithms though other classes of interior-point algorithms can be generalized following the pattern presented here.
Optimal component substitution within system evolution planning considering multiple-vendor, functionally equivalent commercial products

The use of commercial-off-the-shelf components (COTS) in systems with long-term life cycles eventually affects system functionality. Such systems must undergo component substitutions to avoid component obsolescence and maintain the system operationally effective. While performing such substitutions, sustainment costs must be kept within projected budgets, and system and component evolution must seamlessly provide continued availability. However, planning system evolution while minimising costs becomes a competing resource allocation problem (even more so when multiple manufacturers offer functionally equivalent COTS that can satisfy the system requirements). This research presents a mathematical model for calculating system life cycle costs while considering different substitution alternatives, and proposes an optimisation approach and a network model to obtain an optimal substitution sequence based on a minimisation criteria of life cycle costs. It was observed that upgrading the system with available technologies often results in better affordability than keeping the same technologies for the entire system life cycle.
Effect of Oxygen Supply on Flavor Formation during Continuous Alcohol-Free Beer Production: A Model Study

The influence of oxygen supply on the formation and conversion of the most important flavor compounds during continuous, alcohol-free beer production was studied in a complex model medium. The medium contained inorganic salts, nutrients, and aldehydes (hexanal, 2-methyl propanal, 3-methyl butanal, and furfural) and mimicked real brewery wort, with the advantage of a constant composition. Fermentation experiments were carried out in a continuously operating gas-lift reactor, with brewing yeast immobilized on spent grains. The formation (ethanol, higher alcohols, esters, vicinal diketones, and acetaldehyde) and reduction (aldehydes) of flavor-active compounds at different aeration rates were observed. The results suggest that the oxygen supply represents an influential tool for controlling the degree of fermentation and flavor formation carried out by an immobilized biocatalyst. Under optimal oxygen supply conditions in the continuously operating gas-lift reactor, it was possible to obtain a fermented model medium with a composition approaching that of commercial alcohol-free beers produced by batch process.
Physical performance and decision making in association football referees: a naturalistic study

Although researchers have independently investigated the physical and decision-making (DM) demands experienced by sports officials, the combined impact of locomotion and physiological factors upon DM has received little attention. Using an innovative combination of video and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology this study explored the movement, heart rate (HR) and DM of experienced football referees in their natural performance environment. A panel of independent referees analysed incidents (n = 144) taken from five referees in seven games in the New Zealand Football Championship (2005/06). The match-day referees made accurate decisions on 64% of the incidents, although their accuracy levels were not related to variables such as movement speed, HR, and cumulative distance covered. Interestingly, referees were on average only 51% accurate in the opening fifteen minutes of each half compared to 70% accuracy at all other times. This study demonstrated that it is possible to combine new emerging technologies to conduct a comprehensive study of naturalistic decision-making in sport.
Towards Multimedia Opinion Mining

Both opinion mining and multimedia retrieval are active research areas with challenging applications, but as far as we know the present vision paper is the first attempt to integrate them into multimedia opinion mining. Here we address the specific case of satirical comments in politics by exploiting the presence of photomontage to infer a tendentially negative opinion. In order to do so, we introduce a novel digital forensics technique allowing source identification from a single image.
Methuselah mesons: heirs to a perjured parity Fermionic UV completions of little Higgs models

We consider fermionic UV completions of little Higgs models and their associated T -parity-violating anomalous vertices. We show that the vacuum state of these models is unlikely to achieve the alignment necessary to realize anomaly-free coset theories. However, we will see that multi-link moose models posses an additional parity resulting in a novel phenomenology with long lived T -odd particles. Finally, we briefly discuss a method for identifying anomalous decays in colliders. ∗dkrohn@princeton.edu, iyavin@princeton.edu
Recent Trends in Mortality in the United Kingdom

written by members or affiliates of the Actuarial and Demographic Studies Department, Macquarie University. Although unrefereed, the papers are under the review and supervision of an editorial board. Additional copies of the papers are available from the World Wide Web site of the Views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Actuarial Studies and Demography Department. This paper examines trends in mortality rates in the United Kingdom over the decade 1982 to 1992. Whilst the overall rate of mortality has declined, the extent of improvements has varied by sex, age and cause. Male mortality has improved slightly more than female mortality over the period, resulting in a narrowing of the sex differential. Analyses of mortality by age indicate that the greatest improvements have occurred in the 45 and over age group and in the year after birth, with male mortality at the young adult ages actually increasing over the period. Trends in cause of death patterns over the period have also been studied, and the impact of these changes on the shape of the mortality curve described.
Measuring the Effectiveness of a Minority Parliament

Canada? s plurality electoral system often allows parties earning less than half of the popular vote to receive a majority of Parliamentary seats. Several analysts have suggested that this problem should be corrected by changing the electoral system to increase the proportionality between a party? s share of the vote and its share of legislative seats. However, while this type of reform would increase proportionality, it would also greatly increase the frequency of minority governments. This paper uses the minority government that took place in the 38th Parliament as a test case to see how Canada? s political system might be affected if the country adopts a new electoral system that produces minority governments more frequently. The paper sets out the procedural context of the 38th Parliament and develops six criteria for evaluating its behaviour. It then explores each criteria using a qualitative and quantitative comparison of the actions of the 36th, 37th, and 38th Parliaments. This evaluation shows that the 38th Parliament was no less efficient than its predecessors, featured greater legislative deliberation, and was better able to hold the executive accountable for its actions. As a result the paper concludes that while minority governments are by no means perfect, the example of 38th Parliament suggests that an electoral system which produced more minority governments could increase the quality of democracy in Canada.
Visual Acuity Results in School-Aged Children and Adults: Lea Symbols Chart Versus Bailey-Lovie Chart

Purpose. To compare visual acuity results obtained using the Lea Symbols chart with visual acuity results obtained with the Bailey-Lovie chart in school-aged children and adults using a within-subjects comparison of monocular acuity results. Methods. Subjects were 62 individuals between 4.5 and 60 years of age, recruited from patients seen in five optometry clinics. Each subject had acuity of the right eye and the left eye tested with the Lea Symbols chart and the Bailey-Lovie chart, with order of testing varied across subjects. Outcome measures were monocular logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) visual acuity and inter-eye acuity difference in logMAR units for each test. Results. Correlation between acuity results obtained with the two charts was high. There was no difference in absolute inter-eye acuity difference measured with the two acuity charts. However, on average, Lea Symbols acuity scores were one logMAR line better than Bailey-Lovie acuity scores, and this difference increased with worse visual acuity. Conclusions. The Lea Symbols chart provides a measure of inter-eye difference that is similar to that obtained with the Bailey-Lovie chart. However, the monocular acuity results obtained with the Lea Symbols chart differ from those obtained with the Bailey-Lovie chart, and the difference is dependent on the individual’s absolute level of visual acuity.
Detecting cloning attack in Social Networks using classification and clustering techniques

Social Networks (SN) are popular among the people to interact with their friends through the internet. Users spending their time in popular social networking sites like facebook, Myspace and twitter to share the personal information. Cloning attack is one of the insidious attacks in facebook. Usually attackers stole the images and personal information about a person and create the fake profile pages. Once the profile gets cloned they started to send a friend request using the cloned profile. Incase if the real users account gets blocked, they used to send a new friend request to their friends. At the same time cloned one also sending the request to the person. At that time it was hard to identify the real one for users. In the proposed system the clone attack is detected based on user action time period and users click pattern to find the similarity between the cloned profile and real one in facebook. Using Cosine similarity and Jaccard index the performance of the similarity between the users is improved.
Dietary Regulation of the Gut Microbiota Engineered by a Minimal Defined Bacterial Consortium

We have recently reported that Altered Schaedler Flora (ASF) can be used to durably engineer the gut microbiota to reduce ammonia production as an effective modality to reduce morbidity and mortality in the setting of liver injury. Here we investigated the effects of a low protein diet on ASF colonization and its ability to engineer the microbiota. Initially, ASF inoculation was similar between mice fed a normal protein diet or low protein diet, but the outgrowth of gut microbiota differed over the ensuing month. Notable was the inability of the dominant Parabacteroides ASF taxon to exclude other taxa belonging to the Bacteroidetes phylum in the setting of a low protein diet. Instead, a poorly classified yet highly represented Bacteroidetes family, S24-7, returned within 4 weeks of inoculation in mice fed a low protein diet, demonstrating a reduction in ASF resilience in response to dietary stress. Nevertheless, fecal ammonia levels remained significantly lower than those observed in mice on the same low protein diet that received a transplant of normal feces. No deleterious effects were observed in host physiology due to ASF inoculation into mice on a low protein diet. In total, these results demonstrate that low protein diet can have a pronounced effect on engineering the gut microbiota but modulation of ammonia is preserved.
On Training Efficiency and Computational Costs of a Feed Forward Neural Network: A Review

A comprehensive review on the problem of choosing a suitable activation function for the hidden layer of a feed forward neural network has been widely investigated. Since the nonlinear component of a neural network is the main contributor to the network mapping capabilities, the different choices that may lead to enhanced performances, in terms of training, generalization, or computational costs, are analyzed, both in general-purpose and in embedded computing environments. Finally, a strategy to convert a network configuration between different activation functions without altering the network mapping capabilities will be presented.
Measuring UK crime gangs

This paper describes the output of a study to tackle the problem of gang-related crime in the UK; we present the intelligence and routinely gathered data available to a UK regional police force, and describe an initial social network analysis of gangs in the Greater Manchester area of the UK between 2000-2006. By applying social network analysis techniques, we attempt to detect the birth of two new gangs based on local features (modularity, cliques) and global features (clustering coefficient). Thus for the future, identifying the changes in these can help us identify the possible birth of new gangs (sub-networks) in the social system. Furthermore, we study the dynamics of these networks globally and locally, and have identified the global characteristics that tell us that they are not random graphs - they are small world graphs - implying that the formation of gangs is not a random event. However, we are not yet able to conclude anything significant about scale-free characteristics due to insufficient sample size.