Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design decision competence: Supporting user participation in design decisions

The paper suggests the notion of design decision competence to describe the competence that users need to develop in order to participate in design decisions in Participatory Design (PD). We present two PD projects with older adults where they participated actively in making design decisions and we describe the competence they developed as a basis for these design decisions. We argue that experiences with materials and prototypes that demonstrate technical possibilities are important for developing such competence. We conclude by proposing a refined notion of design decision competence which enables real participation in design decisions.
Optimal fixed reconfiguration scheme for PV arrays power enhancement under mutual shading conditions

Mutual shading (MS) in photovoltaic (PV) plants occurs when a collector is shadowed by the front row of collectors. The prevention of MS is considered in designing of the PV plants (PVPs). Perforce, this can be ignored in places with low maximum Sun elevation angle during some days and rows spacing limitations. In MS conditions, the reduction in energy and increase in the payback time of PV systems occur. In this study, a new optimal fixed reconfiguration scheme is presented for minimising of the MS effects. In this scheme, the physical locations of modules in a total cross-tied (TCT) PV array are rearranged without altering the electrical interconnections. The presented scheme is able to minimise the MS effects independently from all shading parameters such as Sun position in the sky, latitude of PVP, and PV installation features. For this purpose, the MS pattern is initially determined and its features are explained. Then, an optimal physical arrangement is determined based on the aforementioned pattern. Minimisation of the resistance losses is also considered in the presented reconfiguration. Finally, the comparison of the optimal arrangement with the simple TCT and Sudoku arrangements is given in different conditions.
An h-infinity dynamic routing control of networked multi-agent systems

This research aims to introduce an analytical solution to the routing problem of Networked Multi-Agent Systems (NMAS) by taking advantage of control theory machinery. Routing problem can be defined as that of finding a route for messages among networked agents by adjusting the output flow of each link according to the traffic information of the network, such that some objective functions are minimized. In this research, a new objective function, namely worst-case queueing length is introduced based on which a novel routing methodology is presented. The propagating, transmitting and processing delays are inevitable characteristics of the queueing dynamics which is considered in the model of the network. The proposed dynamic optimization problem is formulated as a feedback control problem. First, a centralized H∞ optimal control scheme is proposed which can maintain a robust performance of the routing strategy in the presence of multiple and unknown time-varying delays for a fixed network topology. The routing problem is formulated as an H∞ optimal control problem for a time-delayed system. The resulting optimization problem is then recast as a minimization problem involving Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) constraints. The physical constraints are also formulated as LMI feasibility conditions. The proposed centralized routing scheme is then reformulated in a decentralized framework. This modification yields an algorithm that, obtains the "fastest route", provides robustness against multiple unknown time-varying delays, and enhances the scalability of the algorithm to large scale traffic networks. By stochastically changing the network topology due to the nodes' mobility the overall network model is described by a Markovian jump process. The proposed Markovian jump dynamics can also support changing number of nodes due to adding new nodes to the network or deleting them because of their low energy or faults/failures. The resulting problem which involves Markovian jump dynamics due to the time-varying delays appearing in control is more challenging to solve. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the interconnected terms also change at each switching mode. To stabilize this system, an H∞ controller is presented for the Markovian jump system for mode-dependent interconnected terms. Finally, the LMIs corresponding to the associated physical constrains are properly modified for the mobile networks.
ASSESSMENT OF FLOW INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CIRCULAR CYLINDERS AND NACA-0018 HYDROFOILS AT LOW REYNOLDS NUMBERS

Force oscillations and flow around submerged objects at low Reynolds numbers are very important subjects in marine environments. On the other hand, NACA hydrofoils and circular sections are two of the most prevalent shapes that are applied in marine systems and due to the stated reason their hydrodynamic investigation becomes immensely important. Accordingly, in this paper, a flow solver has been developed based on finite volume method, and flow interactions between circular cylinders and NACA-0018 hydrofoils have been considered. For this purpose, different parametric studies have been conducted on the angles of attack and the distance of the foil from the cylinder at three different Reynolds numbers of 100, 200, and 300. Moreover, frequency of the lift and drag coefficients have been analyzed in different cases. As a result, suitable arrangements of the cylinders and foils are determined in the context of an energy conversion system where force fluctuation is helpful and flow around foils and cylinders where fluctuation of forces around them are harmful and vibration or noise propagation should be controlled.
On the development of a Mach 10 scramjet engine for investigation of supersonic combustion regimes

Supersonic turbulent combustion presents many challenges and the regimes present in realistic scramjet combustors are not completely known. To experimentally investigate the combustion process in a scramjet engine, it is desirable that the flow be as representative as possible of a complete engine. In directconnect experiments, the flow is usually too uniform, motivated by the desire to keep the flow as simple as possible. However, the non-uniformities in the internal flow path of scramjet engines have been observed in simulations to drive a large variation in turbulent combustion regimes along the combustor. These considerations set constraints on the development of a flow-path for experimental investigation of scramjet combustion: it should be simple enough to allow detailed analysis and optical flow diagnostics, but also representative of the complex flow in realistic scramjets. This paper presents the development of one such flow-path for a Mach 10 free-stream condition. With the use of CFD analysis employed at the design stage of the experiment, a simplified two-dimensional scramjet engine has been developed, complete with fore-body. Simulations were used to evaluate fuelling conditions, the development of the combustion process and effects from side-walls and corner vortices. Through iterations on the engine design, a model is created that is more reliable and whose behaviour can be better anticipated.
A Hybrid Approach for Cloud Bandwidth and Cost Reduction System Using Predictive Acknowledgements

---During the last few years there has been a tremendous and efficient improvement in the computational world and one of the area that is leaving its footprints is cloud computing. One of the main trending issue in this computing is traffic redundancy elimination (TRE). Cloud-based TRE needs to apply a judicious use of cloud resources so that the bandwidth cost reduction is optimized together with the additional cost of TRE computation. Here, I present an approach that is suitable for cloud computing customers called Hybrid PACK(predictive acknowledgements) regarding TRE systems. Unlike other techniques PACK’s main advantage is its capability of offloading the cloud-server TRE effort to the end clients , and hence minimizing the overhead and processing costs induced by the TRE algorithm. In the present scenario the server keeps track of all the end clients. But this is not the case with the PACK as in this mechanism a client can manage his own status and hence the server is offloaded. This makes the PACK suitable for pervasive computing. I here present a hybrid implementation of the PACK in which there is an active involvement of client and server and moreover the chunking signatures are done using SHA 2 (secure hash algorithm) in order to process the any size of chunks.
Running title: Functional analysis of rice KRPs

Kip-related proteins (KRPs) play a major role in the regulation of the plant cell cycle. We report the identification of five putative rice (Oryza sativa) proteins that share characteristic motifs with previously described plant KRPs. To investigate the function of KRPs in rice development, we generated transgenic plants overexpressing the Orysa;KRP1 gene. Phenotypic analysis revealed that overexpressed KRP1 reduced cell production during leaf development. The reduced cell production in the leaf meristem was partly compensated by an increased cell size, demonstrating the existence of a compensatory mechanism in monocot species by which growth rate is less reduced than cell production, through cell expansion. Furthermore, Orysa;KRP1 overexpression dramatically reduced seed filling. Sectioning through the overexpressed KRP1 seeds showed that KRP overproduction disturbed the production of endosperm cells. The decrease in the number of fully formed seeds was accompanied by a drop in the endoreduplication of endosperm cells, pointing toward a role of KRP1 in connecting endocycle with endosperm development. Also, spatial and temporal transcript detection in developing seeds suggests that Orysa;KRP1 plays an important role in the exit from the mitotic cell cycle during rice grain formation. www.plantphysiol. org on August 20, 2017 Published by Downloaded from Copyright © 2006 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.
Variability of the Bacillus anthracis tryptophan operon CURRENT

Background Bacillus anthracis is a causal agent of a zoonotic disease relevant for many countries, and is an agent of bioterrorism. Meanwhile, the reasons for the dependence on tryptophan of some strains with altered virulence have not been established with an almost complete absence of information on the tryptophan operon of this pathogen. In this study, we report gene variability and the structure of the tryptophan operon in B. anthracis strains of the three main lineages. Results For in silico analysis we used 112 B. anthracis genomes, including 68 of those available at the GenBank database and 44 sequenced at our institute. The B. anthracis tryptophan operon has an ancestral structure with a complete set of seven partially overlapping genes. The results show that the variability of all seven tryptophan operon genes is determined by the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms and InDels. The trpA genes of strains of the main lineage B and trpG genes of strains of the C lineage are pseudogenes and the proteomes lack the corresponding enzymes of the biosynthetic pathway, which may explain the dependence of the strains of line B on tryptophan. on the intraspecific evolution of B. anthracis . Studies indicate that lineage C separated from the line
Transition of Socio-Demographic Characteristics in Urban Areas by Applying a Topic Model to Small Area Units

Under the depopulation society in Japan, the hollowing out and suburbanization of urban areas have become very serious problems, but an appropriate analytical tool for land use transition has not yet been proposed. This study analyzes the transitions in socio-demographic characteristics of small area units in the Fukuoka and Kitakyushu metropolitan areas by applying a topic model to geographical data. Plotting the topic shares on a map clarified the spatial distribution of topics, and the transitions between two cross-sections were analyzed along with other geographical characteristics. Our empirical study showed that the topic model could clearly and quantitatively describe the transitions between two cross-sections of these urban areas. The topic model revealed that the urban center of the Fukuoka metropolitan area was expanding, while the urban center of the Kitakyushu metropolitan area was shrinking. In suburban areas, both metropolitan areas had increasing low-density residential and commercial land use. In the Kitakyushu metropolitan area, this transition could seriously threaten the sustainability of land use, since the total population had significantly decreased.
E2-25K/Hip-2 regulates caspase-12 in ER stress – mediated A (cid:2) neurotoxicity

A (cid:2) in creases expression of E2-25K/Hip-2, which then stabilizes caspase-12 protein by inhibiting proteasome activity. This increase in E2-25K/Hip-2 also induces proteolytic activation of caspase-12 through its ability to induce calpainlike activity. Knockdown of E2-25K/Hip-2 expression suppresses neuronal cell death triggered by ER stress, and thus caspase-12 is required for the E2-25K/Hip-2 – mediated cell death. Finally, we ﬁ nd that E2-25K/Hip-2 – deﬁ cient cortical neurons are resistant to A (cid:2) toxicity and to the induction of ER stress and caspase-12 expression by A (cid:2) . E2-25K/Hip-2 is thus an essential upstream regulator of the expression and activation of caspase-12 in ER stress – mediated A (cid:2) neurotoxicity.
Fear of COVID-19, Nurse’s Stress, and Health Care Behaviors towardElderly People

: Elderly people are the most vulnerable group for high morbidity and mortality from Covid-19 and need high effort to meet their health needs. As nurses are at the front of fighting this pandemic in all geriatric settings, they have faced stress and fear of corona which can affect the provided elderly care. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore nurses' fear of Covid-19 and stress, and their relations to health care behaviors towards elderly people. Research design : A cross-sectional research design was conducted on 185 nurses from ten governorates of Egypt, who completed an online questionnaire distributed through Google Forms between September 2020 and February 2021. Tools: Demographic characteristics, added to, three research instruments were used: (1)The Expanded Nursing Stress Scale (ENSS), (2)The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), and (3)The Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBI). Results indicated that there was a significantly positive association between ENSS and the Fear of COVID-19 (r=.77,p <.001). Furthermore, significant negative correlations between (ENSS & FCV-19S) and CBI with (r= -.55, p <.001) & (r= -61, p <.001) respectively were found. Conclusion: Nurse’s fear of Covid19 and stress affects health care behaviors toward elderly people negatively.
E ﬀ ects of Pyrrole-Imidazole Polyamides Targeting Human TGF- β 1 on the Malignant Phenotypes of Liver Cancer Cells

: Synthetic pyrrole-imidazole (PI) polyamides bind to the minor groove of double-helical DNA with high a ﬃ nity and speciﬁcity, and inhibit the transcription of corresponding genes. In liver cancer, transforming growth factor (TGF)- β expression is correlated with tumor grade, and high-grade liver cancer tissues express epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers. TGF- β 1 was reported to be involved in cancer development by transforming precancer cells to cancer stem cells (CSCs). This study aimed to evaluate the e ﬀ ects of TGF- β 1-targeting PI polyamide on the growth of liver cancer cells and CSCs and their TGF- β 1 expression. We analyzed TGF- β 1 expression level after the administration of GB1101, a PI polyamide that targets human TGF- β 1 promoter, and examined its e ﬀ ects on cell proliferation, invasiveness, and TGF- β 1 mRNA expression level. GB1101 treatment dose-dependently decreased TGF- β 1 mRNA levels in HepG2 and HLF cells, and inhibited HepG2 colony formation associated with downregulation of TGF- β 1 mRNA. Although GB1101 did not substantially inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells compared to untreated control cells, GB1101 signiﬁcantly suppressed the invasion of HLF cells, which displayed high expression of CD44, a marker for CSCs. Furthermore, GB1101 signiﬁcantly inhibited HLF cell sphere formation by inhibiting TGF- β 1 expression, in addition to suppressing the proliferation of HLE and HLF cells. Taken together, GB1101 reduced TGF- β 1 expression in liver cancer cells and suppressed cell invasion; therefore, GB1101 is a novel candidate drug for the treatment of liver cancer.
Thyroid Hormones Regulate Rat Thyrotropin/? Gene Promoter Activity Expressed in GH 3 Cells

Thyroid hormones suppress the synthesis of TSH in part by decreasing the rate of a and TSH/? gene transcription. C/s-acting DNA sequences present in the rat TSH/3 subunit gene that are induced in transcriptional regulation by thyroid hormone have been identified by deletion-mutation and transient expression studies. Plasmid expression vectors were constructed including 2900, 900, 204, 77, 17 base pairs (bp) of 5'-flanking sequence and exon (5'-untrans-lated sequence, transcriptional start sites) fused to the coding region of the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene. The transfected chimaeric plasmids demonstrated expression (with TSH/3 DNA sequences in the 5'- to -3-but not 3'- to -5'-orientation) in both a clonal pituitary cell line, GH 3 , and primary pituitary cell cultures, both of which are responsive to thyroid hormones. T 3 (10~ 11 M to 10~ 7 M) treatment of transfected cells produced a dose-dependent decrease in CAT expression with a maximal 70% decrease at 10~ 8 M. While a decrease in the basal level of expression was noted with progressive removal of both 5'-flanking and intronic sequences adjacent to exon 1, the fold-decrease in response to T 3 was equivalent even in the 57 bp construct. In contrast, T 3 had no effect on CAT expression directed by the promoter of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene. Thus, the rat TSH/? gene 5'-flanking region can direct heterologous gene expression in GH 3 cells and contains sequences which have properties of a putative cis-active T 3 responsive regulatory element(s). The cis-element(s) resides within a 57 bp DNA fragment which includes 17 bases of 5'-flanking sequence, exon 1, and 13 bases of the first intron. (Molecular Endocrinology 3: 709-716, 1989)
Semantic Web-based Recommendation: Experimental Results and Test Cases

— eb contents including multimedia contents, Web services and documents, Web personalization recommendation plays an important role to meet the users’ information needs on the Web. Most of these commercial recommender systems are implemented based on Collaborative Filtering (CF), which is the method of considering preferences of multiple users in a collective way. CF assumes that if two users have shown similar interest on the same set of contents, in future also they may show a similar interest-pattern in choosing contents. However, users who have certain tastes on one specific category of contents, they may behave differently in choosing contents from other categories. Moreover, this collaborative filtering approaches may not work efficiently in certain situations like sparse data sets (data sparsity), where there are a small number of contents or a limited number of users in the content categories. Firstly, we proposed a framework of utilizing Linked Data to expand keywords extracted from content metadata to semantically enriched information. Secondly, we proposed a way of comparing semantic clusters generated from users’ viewing history to identify similar interests of users. We collect more data about users’ viewing history as well as the metadata about more number of contents. Especially, viewing history datasets for a longer period of time is essential to demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of our approach in terms of recommending more personalized contents. In addition, we will integrate users’ social network data to identify their implicit interests. We expect that it will be possible to produce more personalized semantic clusters from users’ social network data, and to improve the users’ satisfaction on the recommended contents that reflect more personalized preferences of the users. We proposed an approach of recommending contents across different categories by taking into consideration of semantic information of content and user interests. To find the appropriate semantics of the content extracted from user’s viewing history we use the Linked Data as the source. Then based on that similarity of semantics and relevance of the content we group together into semantic clusters. Our approach recommends the contents to the general users based on the leading user groups. The leading user groups are the group of users who frequently consume contents.
A Study to evaluate the use of Steinmann pin as Poller screw for diameta physeal fracture of distal tibia to avoid angular deformity

Introduction: There are several important technical points that need to be observed when using an intra medullarynail to fix diametaphyseal fractures of distal tibia, mainly the angular deformity. Objective: We aimed to describe a technique using 4.0-mm Steinmann pin which act like Poller screws, in conjunction with intra medullary nails to obtain alignment of diametaphyseal fractures of the distal tibia, and present our results. Methods: 25 distal tibial diametaphyseal fractures who were treated with this technique were identified. Results: There was no case of non-union or malunion at the last follow-up. all patients had postoperative fracture angulation that was less than 5° degrees in the coronal and sagittalplanes. Conclusion: Steinmann pin function essentially as a Poller screw for centralization of the nail and help to ensure reduction. Locking the nail in different directions, appropriate reduction can be maintained until the boneheals and there is no need for additional fixation material. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….