Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Risk of Incident Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: a Meta ‐ Analysis.

Objective : Several studies explored the impact of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) on risk of incident diabetes. However, the extent to which NAFLD may confer risk of incident diabetes remains uncertain. We performed a meta ‐ analysis of relevant studies to quantify the magnitude of the association between NAFLD and risk of incident diabetes. Research Methods and Design : We searched PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science using pre ‐ defined keywords to identify large observational studies with a follow ‐ up duration >1 year, in which NAFLD was diagnosed by imaging methods and that were published up to July 2017. Data from selected studies were extracted, and meta ‐ analysis was performed using random ‐ effects modeling. Results : A total of 19 observational studies with 296,439 individuals (30.1% with NAFLD) and nearly 16,000 cases of incident diabetes over a median of 5 years were included in the final analysis. Patients with NAFLD had a greater risk of incident diabetes than those without NAFLD (random ‐ effects hazard ratio [HR] 2.22, 95% CI 1.84 ‐ 2.60; I 2 =79.2%). Patients with more ‘severe’ NAFLD were also more likely to develop incident diabetes; this risk increased across the ultrasonographic scores of steatosis (n=3 studies), but it appeared to be even greater among NAFLD patients with high NAFLD fibrosis score (n=1 study; random ‐ effects HR 4.74, 95% CI 3.54 ‐ 5.94). Sensitivity analyses did not alter these findings. Funnel plot and Egger’s test did not reveal significant publication bias. Conclusions : NAFLD is associated with a two ‐ fold increased risk of incident diabetes. However, the observational design of the eligible studies does not allow for proving causality.
Developing Instructional Design Agents to Support Novice and K-12 Design Education

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to dramatically reshape areas of application has drifted into and out of our public and academic discourse over several peroids. With advances in computing and cloud technology it has seen another revival garnering attention as Google’s Alphago, a simulated Go player, resoundingly defeated the most skilled human players, personal assistants such as Siri or Alexa use natural language processing to respond to our queries and commands over a bevy of electronic devices and the National Science Foundation makes numerous proposal calls emphasizing AI applications, such as the Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier which seeks new vision and research into human-technology partnerships.
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF REAL-TIME PRECISE POINT POSITIONING IN EGYPT

: Recently, the International GNSS Service (IGS) has confirmed the availability of open access real-time (RT) GNSS precise orbital and clock products. Until a recent time, GNSS users were able to use the IGS orbit and clock precise corrections only for Precise Point Positioning (PPP) in post processing mode, which confining the accessibility of using PPP to be employed in wide range of real-time navigation applications. However, with the availability of real-time precise products, precise real-time navigation applications can be feasible through PPP with only one receiver reducing the cost and complexity of current navigation techniques. In Egypt, for precise real-time navigation, a real-time kinematic technique with minimum two GNSS receivers are commonly employed to reach to centimetre- level accuracy for surveying applications. However, recently, commercial organizations started to present its GNSS correction services in the Egyptian market through global GNSS virtual network in real time mode using only one user receiver. The providers of the commercial products have claimed to reach to decimetre- level accuracy (5 cm) however; the main limitation of such networks is the low resolution of the global stations used in corrections estimation in addition to the cost of the service. In contrast, the RT-IGS services are free and available online with high resolution of the IGS global stations employed in GNSS corrections estimation. As a result, in this research, we study the performance of RT-PPP comparing its accuracy with respect to the post-processing based PPP and relative positioning system.
Suppression of near-field coupling in plasmonic antennas on epsilon-near-zero substrates: supplementary material

This document provides supplementary information to “Suppression of n ear- f ield c oupling in p lasmonic a ntennas on e psilon- n ear- z ero s ubstrates , ” Included are the details of our Fabry-Pérot model, sample fabrication procedures, ellipsometry fitting, and numerical and experimental procedures. Furthermore, we provide additional near-field maps of antennas on Al:ZnO, and cross-section calculations of dimer antennas situated in non-dispersive materials.
Improving the Prediction of Protein-Protein Interaction Sites Using a Novel Over-Sampling Approach and Predicted Shape Strings

Identification of protein-protein interaction (PPI) sites is one of the most challenging tasks in bioinformatics and many computational methods based on support vector machines have been developed. However, current methods often fail to predict PPI sites mainly because of the severe imbalance between the numbers of interface and non-interface residues. In this study, we propose a novel over-sampling method that relaxes the class-imbalance problem based on local density distributions. We applied the proposed method to a PPI dataset that includes 2,829 interface and 24,616 non-interface residues. The experimental result showed a significant improvement in predictive performance comparing with the other state-of-the-art methods according to the six evaluation measures
Сompression for texture images in different basis functions using system criteria analysis

This paper considers image compression for texture images. For texture representation we consider the orthogonal decomposition of two-dimensional signals (images) using spectral transform in the different basis functions. This paper focuses on the analysis of the following basis DCT, FFT, Haar, Hartley, and Walsh using system criteria analysis. The error of the orthogonal representation of images and the computational cost are considered when choosing a basis system, which is based on the Bellman-Zadeh concept using fuzzy sets. It is shown that the Haar transform can represent textural images more efficiently with smaller average risk than other basis functions.
EXTREME VALUE THEORY, ERGODIC THEORY AND THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN SHORT MEMORY AND LONG MEMORY FOR STATIONARY STABLE PROCESSES 1

We study the partial maxima of stationary α -stable processes. We relate their asymptotic behavior to the ergodic theoretical properties of the ﬂow. We observe a sharp change in the asymptotic behavior of the sequence of partial maxima as ﬂow changes from being dissipative to being conservative, and argue that this may indicate a change from a short memory process to a long memory process.
(COVID-19)-Induced Flight to Quality

During crises, investment re-allocation from risky to safe assets, constitutes a flight to quality market environment. This study investigates the flight to quality in Thailand from risky stocks to safe government bonds. It describes returns using the modified, conditional regression model, and extracts the unobserved abnormal returns using the Kalman filtering technique. Estimates of abnormal returns were used in tests for the Granger causality of stocks to bonds, and for investigating the significance of the contributions of abnormal returns to a decreasing correlation. Flight to quality implies these test hypotheses. The data are returns representative of stocks listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and of bonds registered on the Thai Bond Market Association. The full period runs from August 28, 2018 to June 30, 2020, whereas the COVID-19 period covers November 18, 2019, to June 30, 2020. The return correlation in the COVID-19 period is more negative than that in the pre-(COVID-19) period. Stocks Granger cause bonds. The contribution share of COVID-19 to the falling correlation is 89.2080%. While the joint Wald-test for the non-significance of COVID-19's contributing correlations yields a p-value of 0.1144, the impulse response analyses suggest that they are all significant. Thailand has experienced flight to quality during the COVID-19 crisis.
Sharing to improve services: a study of shared servicescapabilities

Motivation: Shared Services (SS) is a cost cutting and quality improvement strategy, which is receiving increasing attention from academics and practitioners. However, previous research focuses primarily on the potential benefits of these strategies; while very little research explains the role of SS resources and capabilities in the achievement of SS goals. The purpose of this thesis is to address this gap by explaining how SS resources and capabilities influence the achievement of SS goals. Approach: A multiple-case study approach is adopted, following a qualitative methodology, with data collection occurring at four SS organisations. Findings: This thesis introduces a taxonomy of SS resources and identifies three SS operational capabilities and seven SS dynamic capabilities, grouped into four areas of competence. Furthermore, this research uncovers the capability development process in an SS context, through the identification of the specific routines that precede each capability. Finally this research extends SS research, not only by identifying additional SS goals not mentioned by previous research, but also by recognising what specific SS capabilities contribute to what goals, thus uncovering the goal achievement process in a shared service centre. Academic Contributions: This research contributes to the negligible literature focusing on SS resources and capabilities and responds to the claims that a further understanding of shared services is needed in order to provide practitioners with advice and procedural guidelines on how to design, implement and manage SS. It also lays the foundation for future research on resources and capabilities in an SS context. Managerial Contributions: The findings enable managers to identify and further develop the necessary resources, routines and capabilities to achieve their specific SS goals. Additionally, this research supports managers in identifying additional goals they can achieve, considering the resources, routines and capabilities their SSCs already have.
Scientific application and design of small unmanned aircraft systems

Project SUBVENTO is a joint research project of the research facility Technische Universit t Braunschweig, the industry partner BBR - Baudis Bergmann R sch Verkehrstechnik GmbH and in close cooperation with the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW). Therein an integrated system for the fast and automated remote detection of heat sources using an infrared camera is being developed. In this way in the event of a disaster the detection of fires or persons is made possible. The heat sources are displayed together with their position in the ground station software. Since the mentioned sensor equipment exceeds the current UAVs' payload limit, a new Carolo type aircraft with a wingspan of 3.6 m is developed in combination with an emergency landing system.
DMSO_A_206270 1249..1261

Guoxi Jin Qiong Wang Xiaoyan Pei Xiaoli Li Xiaolei Hu Erqin Xu Minglong Li 1Department of Endocrinology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250021, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, Anhui 233004, People’s Republic of China; 3Room of Physical Diagnostics, Clinical College of Medicine, Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, Anhui 233030, People’s Republic of China Purpose: A long-term “memory” of hyperglycemic stress, even when glycemia is normalized, has been previously reported in endothelial cells. However, the molecular mechanism of “metabolic memory” (MM) remains unknown. In this report, we sought to screen at the whole transcriptome level the genes that participate in MM. Methods: In the present research, RNA sequencing was used to determine the proteincoding mRNA expression profiles of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) under normal-glucose concentration (LG), high-glucose concentration (HG), and MM. A series of bioinformatic analyses was performed. HG-induced MM-involved up-regulated genes (up-HGMMGs) and HG-induced MM-involved down-regulated genes (downHGMMGs) were identified. Afterward, based on up-HGMMGs and down-HGMMGs, the biological functions and signaling pathways were analyzed using Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). In addition, several of the identified genes were validated by RT-qPCR. Results: A total of 726 HGMMGs were identified, including 210 downand 516 upHGMMGs, which were enriched in the cell cycle (hsa04110), oocyte meiosis (hsa04114), p53 signaling pathway (hsa04115), and oxidative phosphorylation (hsa00190), among others. The protein–protein-interaction (PPI) network consisted of 462 nodes and 2656 connections, and four main modules were identified by MCODE. The cell cycle (hsa04110), oocyte meiosis (hsa04114), p53 signaling pathway (hsa04115), and oxidative phosphorylation (hsa00190), among others, could be potential therapeutic targets of HG-induced MM in endothelial cells. The real-time PCR results validated the RNA-seq data. Conclusion: This study identified crucial mRNAs related to MM-persistent injury in endothelial cells even after switching the cells from highglucose to normal glucose levels. Further research focusing on these mRNA may unravel new ways to modify MM in diabetes.
Why We Need Static Analyses of Service Compositions Fault vs. Error Analysis of Soundness

—The programming of classic software systems is well-supported by integrated development environments. They are able to give immediate information about syntax and some logic failures. Although service compositions are widely used within modern systems, such a support for building service compositions is expandable. In this paper, we plead for the creation of an integrated development environment for service compositions, which enables immediate failure feedback during the development. To this end, there is a need for new research activities on occurring failures and how they can be found. Since most current failure ﬁnding techniques are based on dynamic approaches, e.g., state space exploration, we show in a case study on soundness that the application of dynamic techniques is not a suitable solution for integrated development environments. In most cases, they are either too time consuming or their output does not lead easily to the root of a failure. As a result, we suggest new advanced (static) analyses of service compositions. To accentuate that pleading, the paper demonstrates a static analysis tool, Mojo , which can be used to check soundness and to get detailed fault diagnostics. With the help of this tool, it was possible to compare the behaviour of dynamic and static analysis techniques in a practical context. For this, a benchmark of real world service compositions was checked regarding soundness with a state space-based (dynamic) and a compiler-based (static) tool. Altogether, the case study and the comparison in a practical context show that dynamic analyses are not suitable for development support. Static analyses should be used instead.
Comparing the utility of different multilocus sequence typing 1 schemes for identifying outbreak strains of Mycobacterium 2 abscessus subspecies massiliense 3

Outbreaks of infections by Mycobacterium abscessus , particularly subspecies 26 massiliense , are increasingly reported worldwide. Several multilocus sequence 27 typing (MLST) protocols for grouping international outbreak strains have been 28 developed but not yet directly compared. Using the 3-gene ( hsp65, rpoB, secA1 ), 7- 29 gene ( argH, cya, glpK, gnd, murC, pta, and purH ) and 13-gene (all above plus gdhA , 30 pgm , pknA ) MLST schemes, we identified 22, 38 and 40 unique sequence types 31 (STs), respectively, among a total of 139 non-duplicated M. abscessus isolates. 32 Among subspecies massiliense , the 3-gene MLST, not only clustered all outbreak 33 strains together (in 100% agreement with the 7-gene and 13-gene schemes), it also 34 distinguished between two new STs that would have been grouped together by the 35 7-gene MLST, but were distinct by the 13-gene MLST owing to differences in hsp65 , 36 rpoB and pknA . Here, we show that an abbreviated MLST may be useful for 37 simultaneous subspeciation of M. abscessus and for screening M. abscessus subsp. 38 massiliense isolates with outbreak potential. 39 40 41
Instrument Timbre Transformation using Gaussian Mixture Models

Timbre is one the fundamental elements for the identification of a musical instrument and is closely connected with its perceived quality and production type (blown, plucked, etc.). Thus, timbre is heavily responsible for each instrument’s character and color and consequently responsible for its perceptual identification. An application that aims to the timbral transformation of one instrument into another, should address the issues of capturing the timbral characteristics of both source and target and converting one into another. This must be carried out in such a way, so that the listener, ideally, should not be able to distinguish a recording of the target instrument from the result of the transformation. In this thesis, we consider a method that is based on timbre modeling by means of the spectral envelope and using Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) extracts a function for instrument transformation. Our proposed framework is based on prior work and theory on voice conversion and incorporates a Line Spectral Frequencies (LSFs)-based representation of an all-pole model of the spectral envelope to perform transformation of the source instrument envelope into that of the target. We
Correlation and Consolidation of Distributed Logging Data in Enterprise Clouds

—Due to the availability of virtualization technologies and related cloud infrastructures, the amount and also the complexity of logging data of systems and services grow steadily. Automated correlation and aggregation techniques are required to support a contemporary processing and interpretation of relevant logging data. In the past, this was achieved using highly centralized logging systems. Based on this fact, the paper introduces a prototype for an automated semantical correlation, aggregation and condensation of logging information. The prototype relies on a NoSQL storage back-end that is used to persist consolidated messages of distributed logging sources in a highly performant manner. This step of consolidation includes strategies for minimizing long-term storage, and by using correlation techniques also offers possibilities to detect anomalies in the stream of processed messages. In this context, we will present the special requirements of handling scalable logging systems in highly dynamic infrastructures like enterprise cloud environments, which provide dynamic systems, services and applications.
Induction of Th17 Cells Adjuvant Relative to CpG Is Linked to Encephalitogenicity of Complete Freund's

For decades, CFA has been the classic adjuvant for the induction of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Its encephalitogenic activity has been originally linked to the induction of Th1 responses. CpG, which is also a potent Th1 inducer, has been suggested by some studies to be comparably encephalitogenic. In this study, using the SJL proteolipid protein (PLP) 139–151 peptide EAE model, we show that active immunizations using CFA but not CpG 1826/IFA as an adjuvant induced disease. Passive induction of EAE resulted in severe disease when cells were transferred from PLP in CFA-primed mice but resulted in only a mild, transient disease when cells originated from PLP in CpG 1826/IFA-primed mice. In accordance with these ﬁndings, immunizations using CFA but not CpG 1826/IFA as an adjuvant elicited a delayed-type hypersensitivity response. ELISPOT analysis revealed that CFA promoted the differentiation of much higher levels of PLP-speciﬁc, IL-17-secreting cells compared with CpG 1826/IFA. Both adjuvants induced comparable frequencies of PLP-speciﬁc, IFN- (cid:1) -secreting cells and also induced Ag-speciﬁc proliferation to the same extent. The severity of EAE in PLP in CFA-immunized mice was reduced when IL-17 was neutralized in vivo, demonstrating the crucial role of this cytokine in disease induction. The data show that immunizations using the autoantigen in CpG 1826/IFA result in very low frequencies of Ag-speciﬁc IL-17 cells, suggesting a lower risk of Th17-mediated pathology when using this adjuvant. The Journal of Immunology, 2009, 183: 5654–5661. Immunization of PLP 139–151 in either CFA or CpG/IFA adjuvant results in comparable Ag-speciﬁc proliferative responses
Expediting Finite Element Analyses for Subject-Speciﬁc Studies of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Literature Review

: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that affects the synovial joints, especially the knee joint, diminishing the ability of patients to perform daily physical activities. Unfortunately, there is no cure for this nearly irreversible musculoskeletal disorder. Nowadays, many researchers aim for in silico-based methods to simulate personalized risks for the onset and progression of OA and evaluate the effects of different conservative preventative actions. Finite element analysis (FEA) has been considered a promising method to be developed for knee OA management. The FEA pipeline consists of three well-established phases: pre-processing, processing, and post-processing. Currently, these phases are time-consuming, making the FEA workﬂow cumbersome for the clinical environment. Hence, in this narrative review, we overviewed present-day trends towards clinical methods for subject-speciﬁc knee OA studies utilizing FEA. We reviewed studies focused on understanding mechanisms that initiate knee OA and expediting the FEA workﬂow applied to the whole-organ level. Based on the current trends we observed, we believe that forthcoming knee FEAs will provide nearly real-time predictions for the personalized risk of developing knee OA. These analyses will integrate subject-speciﬁc geometries, loading conditions, and estimations of local tissue mechanical properties. This will be achieved by combining state-of-the-art FEA workﬂows with automated approaches aided by machine learning techniques.
Specificity of the Murine NK Cell Inhibitory Restricts the Allelic d Domain of H-2D 2 a The

Mouse NK lymphocytes express Ly-49 receptors, which inhibit cytotoxicity upon ligation by speciﬁc MHC I molecules on targets. Different members of the lectin-like mouse Ly-49 receptor family recognize distinct subsets of murine H-2 molecules, but the molecular basis for the allelic speciﬁcity of Ly-49 has not been deﬁned. We analyzed inhibition of natural killing by chimeric MHC I molecules in which the a 1 , a 2 , or a 3 domains of the Ly-49A-binding allele H-2D d were exchanged for the corresponding domains of the nonbinding allele H-2D b . Using the Ly-49A-transfected rat NK cell line, RNK-mLy-49A.9, we demonstrated that the H-2D d a 2 domain alone accounts for allelic speciﬁcity in protection of rat YB2/0 targets in vitro. We also showed that the H-2D d a 2 domain is sufﬁcient to account for the allele-speciﬁc in vivo protection of H-2 b mouse RBL-5 tumors from NK cell-mediated rejection in D8 mice. Thus, in striking contrast to the a 1 speciﬁcity of Ig-like killer inhibitory receptors for human HLA, the lectin-like mouse Ly-49A receptor is predominantly restricted by the H-2D d a 2 domain in vitro and in vivo. The Journal of Immunology, 1998, 160: 5971–5978.