Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tracking and forecasting ecosystem interactions in real time

Evidence shows that species interactions are not constant but change as the ecosystem shifts to new states. Although controlled experiments and model investigations demonstrate how nonlinear interactions can arise in principle, empirical tools to track and predict them in nature are lacking. Here we present a practical method, using available time-series data, to measure and forecast changing interactions in real systems, and identify the underlying mechanisms. The method is illustrated with model data from a marine mesocosm experiment and limnologic field data from Sparkling Lake, WI, USA. From simple to complex, these examples demonstrate the feasibility of quantifying, predicting and understanding state-dependent, nonlinear interactions as they occur in situ and in real time—a requirement for managing resources in a nonlinear, non-equilibrium world.
Ghrelin Administration Increases the Bax/Bcl-2 Gene Expression Ratio in the Heart of Chronic Hypoxic Rats.

PURPOSE Programmed cell death or apoptosis, is a biochemical procedure that initiates due to some conditions, including hypoxia. Bax and Bcl-2 are among the agents that regulate apoptosis. The amplification of the first one triggers the initiation of apoptosis, and the second one prevents it. Ghrelin is an endogenous peptide that antiapoptosis is its new effect. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of ghrelin on the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. METHODS Twenty four wistar rats were divided randomly in three groups; control, hypoxic + saline and hypoxic + ghrelin. Hypoxic animals lived in O2 11% for 2 weeks and received either saline or ghrelin subcutaneously daily. The bax and Bcl-2 gene expression were measured by Real-Time RT-PCR. RESULTS Chronic hypoxia increased the Bax gene expression significantly compared with normal animals (P = 0.008), but the Bcl-2 was not affected by hypoxia. The Bax/Bcl-2 ratio also amplified significantly (P=0.005). Ghrelin administration significantly increased the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio in the hypoxic animals compared to the hypoxic + saline and normal groups (p=0.042 and P= 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION In the present study, animals' treatment with ghrelin leads to an increment of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, which indicates a controversy related to cardioprotection of ghrelin.
A Comparative Study to Understanding about Poetics Based on Natural Language Processing

This paper tries to find out five poets’ (Thomas Hardy, Wilde, Browning, Yeats, and Tagore) differences and similarities through analyzing their works on nineteenth Century by using natural language understanding technology and word vector model. Firstly, we collect enough poems from these five poets, build five corpus respectively, and calculate their high-frequency words, by using Natural Language Processing method. Then, based on the word vector model, we calculate the word vectors of the five poets’ high-frequency words, and combine the word vectors of each poet into one vector. Finally, we analyze the similarity between the combined word vectors by using the hierarchical clustering method. The result shows that the poems of Hardy, Browning, and Wilde are similar; the poems of Tagore and Yeats are relatively close—but the gap between the two is relatively large. In addition, we evaluate the stability of our approach by altering the word vector dimension, and try to analyze the results of clustering in a literary (poetic) perspective. Yeats and Tagore possessed a kind of mysticism poetics thought, while Hardy, Browning, and Wilde have the elements of realism combined with tragedy and comedy. The results are similar comparing to those we get from the word vector model.
Receding horizon control of vectored thrust flight experiment

The application of a constrained receding horizon control technique to stabilise an indoor vectored-thrust flight experiment, known as the Caltech ducted fan, is given. The receding horizon control problem is formulated as a constrained optimal control problem and solved in real time with an efficient, computational method that combines nonlinear control theory, B-spline basis functions, and nonlinear programming. Characteristic issues, including non-zero computational times, convergence properties, choice of horizon length and terminal cost are discussed. The study validates the applicability of real-time receding horizon control for constrained systems with fast dynamics.
Diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection in adult and pediatric patients by using Pyloriset, a rapid latex agglutination test

Pyloriset (Orion Diagnostica, Espoo, Finland) is a rapid antibody test using latex particles coated with acid-extracted antigen of Helicobacter pylori. We evaluated its ability to predict infection in 100 adult patients and 50 pediatric patients referred for gastric endoscopy. Sixty of 65 H. pylori-infected adults were correctly identified by the test. There were 12 false-positive and 5 false-negative reactions seen. Pyloriset had a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 66%. The positive predictive value was 83% and the negative predictive value 82%. In contrast, sensitivity dropped to 36% in the pediatric patients and the positive predictive value was only 40%. Pyloriset could become an important alternative to other more time-consuming diagnostic tests for H. pylori-infected adult patients but is inadequate for diagnosis of pediatric H. pylori infection.
The antiseizure activity of dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonists in the conscious rat.

By using a rat seizure model, a comparison of the antiseizure activity of 12 dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonists (administered i.c.v.) to their binding affinities for the neuronal site known to regulate L-type calcium channels was made. For these dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonists a correlation between physiologic activity and binding affinities would provide evidence that these agents exert their antiseizure actions via a mechanism involving a binding site that regulates L-type neuronal calcium channels. Despite i.c. v. administration, a parallel in antiseizure activity and binding affinities could not be demonstrated precisely, suggesting that the dihydropyridines may be exerting their antiseizure activity by more than just simple neuronal calcium channel blockade.
The characterization of FTTH wavelength selective coupler

The purpose of this paper is to design and characterize the wavelength selective coupler (WSC). The device which use the concept of coupled mode theory is designed using SU-8 polymer on silica substrate parameters with compliance of FTTH wavelength such as wavelengths 1310 nm (upstream data/voice), 1480 nm (downstream data/voice), 1550 nm (video) and 1625 nm (testing). The performance of the devices was modeled using the beam propagation method (BPM-Cad) product from the Optiwave Inc. This paper also highlights the parameter studies and the effect to the design specification and performance. We analyze the following parameters such as: wavelength, separation between waveguides, waveguide width and refractive indices for substrate (n2) and waveguide (n1).
Performance Comparison of Tin Oxide Anodes to Commercially Available Dimensionally Stable Anodes

Dimensionally stable anodes (DSAs) demonstrate potential for the electrochemical treatment of industrial waste streams and disinfection of effluent. Oxidation by laboratory‐prepared tin oxide DSAs was compared with that of commercially available ruthenium oxide, iridium oxide, and mixed metal oxide DSAs, using hexanol as a probe molecule. The performance of the four anodes was similar in two‐chamber reactors, in which the anode cell was separated from the cathode cell by a Nafion membrane, which allows transmission of current between the chambers, but not passage of chemical constituents. The anodes were then evaluated in single‐cell reactors, which are more representative of potential treatment and disinfection applications. However, in the single‐cell reactors, the tin oxide anodes were significantly more effective at oxidation and generated higher quality cyclic voltammograms than the other DSAs. These results suggest that tin oxide anodes have greater potential than the three commercially available DSAs tested for industrial waste stream treatment and effluent disinfection.
Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg

Within the area of non-photorealistic rendering, many techniques have been developed to simulate a wide variety of different styles. However, these styles are usually globally applied to some form of model that is provided as input and specific local interaction is often not possible. This thesis explores the application of the paradigm of modeling with rendering primitives to enable users to fully influence the creation of digital imagery in various artistic styles. The application of this paradigm offers a more flexible and more interactive way of working with image components. The implemented system provides tools for the manipulation of a large number of primitives at once. The thesis and the implementation described aim at enabling new possibilities of interacting with digital paintings that allow more local control and artistic freedom within the creation process of digital imagery. As such the approach is a hybrid technique. It combines the advantages of visually rich but inflexible pixel graphics on the one hand and visually less rich but more flexible vector graphics on the other hand, and adds new possibilities to allow fluid interaction. To realize this concept, image components have been used that are easy to manipulate by offering many of the flexibilities of vector primitives while still maintaining the visual quality of pixel graphics. The interaction is facilitated by employing a buffer approach that retains a responsive interaction even with a large number of these primitives. In addition, a user interface has been developed that combines all the functionality on one compact widget. It is also applicable to large, interactive displays where features such as click-less interfaces are necessary. The presented system allows the users to create non-photorealistic images without being constrained by an encapsulated algorithm. Also, it provides a new way to explore painting by permitting a high degree of local control while still maintaining some degree of algorithmic support. This enables users to easily create expressive images and interesting effects.
A Review of Contemporary Diversity Literature in Pharmacy Education

Objective. To review and categorize published educational research concerning diversity within colleges and schools of pharmacy. Methods. The Three Models of Organizational Diversity Capabilities in Higher Education framework was used to guide the review efforts. Of the 593 documents retrieved, 11 met the inclusion criteria for review. Each included article was individually reviewed and coded according to the framework. Results. The reviewed articles were primarily influenced by contemporary drivers of change (eg, shifting demographics in the United States), focused on enhancing the compositional diversity of colleges and schools of pharmacy, examined the experiences of underrepresented groups, and suggested process improvement recommendations. Conclusion. There is limited published educational research concerning diversity within schools and colleges of pharmacy. Contemporary drivers of change are influencing this research, but more attention must be given to the focus of the research, individuals targeted, and recommendations suggested.
Usual and Dual-Task Walking Speed

Objective: In many countries, pedestrian light crossings require a minimum walking speed of 1.2 m/s. This study examined the proportion of adults in a nationally representative sample whose usual and dual-task walking speeds are <1.2 m/s. Method: Community-dwelling adults aged ≥50 years in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) completed walking speed tests on a GAITRite® walkway (N = 4,909). Results: One third of Irish adults aged 65 to 74 years and 61% of adults aged ≥75 years walked slower than 1.2 m/s. In dual-task walking, 54% of adults aged <65 years and 91% of adults aged ≥75 years walked slower than 1.2 m/s. Discussion: Based on these data, many older people would have insufficient time to cross the road at light-controlled pedestrian crossings. Increasing the time provided would be an advantage for many older pedestrians.
Grain yield and phosphorus use efficiency of wheat and pea in a high yielding environment

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the response of grain yield, phosphorus (P) use efficiency (PUE, g yield g –1 P available) and related root traits of wheat and pea to different P availabilities in a high yielding environment (e.g.: yield higher than 10 Mg ha -1 for wheat). Two experiments were conducted in southern Chile. Treatments consisted of the combination of (i) two crops (spring-bred wheat and pea) and (ii) three rates of P fertilization (0 (P0), 100 (P1) and 250 (P2) kg P ha –1 ). Grain yield of wheat was more sensitive to P deficiency than pea. Wheat showed consistently higher (P < 0.01) PUE than pea, averaging 195 and 125 g yield g –1 P available, respectively. This was principally ascribed to the highest (P < 0.01) P utilization efficiency of wheat (430 vs. 249 g yield g –1 P uptake for wheat and pea, respectively). On the contrary, the P uptake efficiency was slightly different for these crops (0.44 and 0.49 g P g –1 P available, respectively). However, these crops presented different strategies for P acquisition. Wheat had a higher (P < 0.01) soil exploratory capacity than pea, while pea showed a higher (P < 0.01) P uptake per unit of root length than wheat. Wheat showed higher PUE than pea; however, crop differences are ascribed to differences in phosphorus utilization rather than to phosphorus uptake efficiency. This information could contribute to optimized soil P use and improved crop fertilization management.
Tip60 acetylates six lysines of a specific class in core histones in vitro

Background: Tip60, an HIV‐1‐Tat interactive protein, is a nuclear histone acetyltransferase (HAT) with unique histone substrate specificity. Since the acetylation of core histones at particular lysines mediates distinct effects on chromatin assembly and gene regulation, the identification of lysine site specificity of the HAT activity of Tip60 is an initial step in the analysis of its molecular function.
Training and analysis of Support Vector Machine using Sequential Minimal Optimization

Maximizing the classification performance of the training data is a typical procedure in training a classifier. It is well known that training a Support Vector Machine (SVM) requires the solution of an enormous quadratic programming (QP) optimization problem. Serious challenges appeared in the training dilemma due to immense training and this could be solved using Sequential Minimal Optimization (SMO). This paper investigates the performance of SMO solver in term of CPU time, number of support vector and decision boundaries when applied in a 2-dimensional datasets. Next, the chunking algorithm is employed for comparison purpose. Initial results demonstrated that the SMO algorithm could enhance the performance of the training dataset. Both algorithms illustrated similar patterns from the decision boundaries attained. Classification rate achieved by both solvers are superb.
Two-dimensional hidden semantic information model for target saliency detection and eyetracking identification

Abstract. Saliency detection has been applied to the target acquisition case. This paper proposes a two-dimensional hidden Markov model (2D-HMM) that exploits the hidden semantic information of an image to detect its salient regions. A spatial pyramid histogram of oriented gradient descriptors is used to extract features. After encoding the image by a learned dictionary, the 2D-Viterbi algorithm is applied to infer the saliency map. This model can predict fixation of the targets and further creates robust and effective depictions of the targets’ change in posture and viewpoint. To validate the model with a human visual search mechanism, two eyetrack experiments are employed to train our model directly from eye movement data. The results show that our model achieves better performance than visual attention. Moreover, it indicates the plausibility of utilizing visual track data to identify targets.
Family history of prostate cancer: A multi‐center case‐control study in Canada

In a population‐based case‐control study of prostate cancer conducted in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver between 1989 and 1993, a total of 640 newly incident cases and 639 aged‐matched population controls were interviewed as to their family history of prostate cancer as well as nutritional and other lifestyle and environmental factors. In total, 94 cases (15%) reported at least one blood relative with a family history, as compared with 32 (5%) of controls, giving a relative risk of 3.32 (95% confidence interval 2.18–5.05). The association was very consistent across all 3 centers, and was similar for each specific type of relative considered (fathers or brothers). Thus, this study provides further evidence of familial aggregation of prostate cancer, and suggests the possibility that part or all of such clustering could be related to inherited genetic patterns; if so, the availability of screening procedures for the disease offers the possibility of useful early intervention in individuals with such inherited susceptibility. Int. J. Cancer 70:679–681, 1997.
Genetic Similarities Between Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, Type 1 Diabetes, and Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is often considered a slowly progressing subtype of type 1 diabetes, although the clinical picture more resembles type 2 diabetes. One way to improve classification is to study whether LADA shares genetic features with type 1 and/or type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—To accomplish this, we studied whether LADA shares variation in the HLA locus or INS VNTR and PTPN22 genes with type 1 diabetes or the TCF7L2 gene with type 2 diabetes in 361 LADA, 718 type 1 diabetic, and 1,676 type 2 diabetic patients, as well as 1,704 healthy control subjects from Sweden and Finland. RESULTS—LADA subjects showed, compared with type 2 diabetic patients, increased frequency of risk for the HLA-DQB1 *0201/*0302 genotype (27 vs. 6.9%; P < 1 × 10−6), with similar frequency as with type 1 diabetes (36%). In addition, LADA subjects showed higher frequencies of protective HLA-DQB1 *0602(3)/X than type 1 diabetic patients (8.1 vs. 3.2%, P = 0.003). The AA genotype of rs689, referring to the class I allele in the INS VNTR, as well as the CT/TT genotypes of rs2476601 in the PTPN22 gene, were increased both in type 1 diabetic (P = 3 × 10−14 and P = 1 × 10−10, respectively) and LADA (P = 0.001 and P = 0.002) subjects compared with control subjects. Notably, the frequency of the type 2 diabetes–associated CT/TT genotypes of rs7903146 in the TCF7L2 were increased in LADA subjects (52.8%; P = 0.03), to the same extent as in type 2 diabetic subjects (54.1%, P = 3 × 10−7), compared with control subjects (44.8%) and type 1 diabetic subjects (43.3%). CONCLUSIONS—LADA shares genetic features with both type 1 (HLA, INS VNTR, and PTPN22) and type 2 (TCF7L2) diabetes, which justifies considering LADA as an admixture of the two major types of diabetes.
Diamagnetic metasurfaces for performance enhancement of microstrip patch antennas

A cost-effective solution for enhanced performance of microstrip patch antennas is proposed in this paper. The squarering type metasurfaces are introduced and proved to have diamagnetic characteristics by using two retrieval methods. The conventional probe-fed linearly and circularly polarized patch antennas are shown to have simultaneous improvement in terms of broadside emission, bandwidths and efficiencies.
Secondary Organic Aerosols Formed from Photooxidation of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds in Forests

Photooxidation products of biogenic volatile organic compounds were characterized and measured in PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter les2.5 mum aerosol samples from forests. Aerosol sampling was conducted at four sites centred in and around major research stations located in four different regions of China: Xiaoxing'an Ling (boreal), Dongping national forest park (temperate), Dinghu mountain (subtropical) and Wuzhi mountain nature reserve (tropical) during summer periods when the meteorological conditions are believed to be favorable for photochemical processes. Thirty samples were collected; particular matter (PM), organic carbon, elemental carbon, organic compounds, inorganic ions, and trace gases were measured. Results indicate that the average concentrations of isoprene and alpha-pinene oxidation products, sugars and sugar alcohols vary systematically along gradients of ecological succession, except malic acid which may have both biogenic and anthropogenic origins. The maximum contributions of organic components, isoprene and alpha-pinene oxidation products, sugars, sugar alcohols, and inorganic ions, SO42-, NO3-, C2O42-, to the PM was 28%.
Optimal Dataflow Scheduling on a Heterogeneous Multiprocessor With Reduced Response Time Bounds

Heterogeneous computing platforms with multiple types of computing resources have been widely used in many industrial systems to process dataflow tasks with pre-defined affinity of tasks to subgroups of resources. For many dataflow workloads with soft real-time requirements, guaranteeing fast and bounded response times is often the objective. This paper presents a new set of analysis techniques showing that a classical real-time scheduler, namely earliest-deadline first (EDF), is able to support dataflow tasks scheduled on such heterogeneous platforms with provably bounded response times while incurring no resource capacity loss, thus proving EDF to be an optimal solution for this scheduling problem. Experiments using synthetic workloads with widely varied parameters also demonstrate that the magnitude of the response time bounds yielded under the proposed analysis is reasonably small under all scenarios. Compared to the state-of-the-art soft real-time analysis techniques, our test yields a 68% reduction on response time bounds on average. This work demonstrates the potential of applying EDF into practical industrial systems containing dataflow-based workloads that desire guaranteed bounded response times.
ReCSDN: Resilient Controller for Software Defined Networks

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is an emerging network paradigm that provides central control over the network. Although, this simplifies the network management and makes efficient use of network resources, it introduces new threats to network reliability and scalability. In fact, a single centralized controller is a single point of failure. Moreover, a single controller may become a performance bottleneck as processing overhead increases. Distributed SDN controller platforms improve the reliability and scalability to some extent, however they remain vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, specifically on control plane. We believe that there is a need for a distributed controller framework that is capable of providing service continuity without performance degradation in case of excessive network traffic or DDoS attacks on controller. In this paper, we aim to address the vulnerabilities of SDN control plane. We propose and implement an efficient and Resilient Controller for Software Defined Network (ReCSDN). This framework is capable of detecting and mitigating DDoS attacks timely and ensures the continuity of services without performance degradation. We created an experimental test bed using Mininet to conduct extensive experiments. We deployed ReCSDN on top of Open Network Operating System (ONOS) cluster to confirm the viability of our approach. The experiment results show that with ReCSDN, control plane is not only able to withstand excessive network load but will also continue to provide services in case of any controller failure.