Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional characterizationandvirulence studyofADE 8 andGUA 1 genes involved in the denovopurine biosynthesis inCandida albicans

Functional characterizationandvirulence studyofADE8 andGUA1 genes involved in the denovopurine biosynthesis inCandida albicans Linghuo Jiang, Jingwen Zhao, Rui Guo, Jing Li, Liquan Yu & Deming Xu Tianjin Research Center of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China; and Department of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Antioxidant status and level of oxidants in patients of coronary heart disease

Objectives: The aim of our study was to investigate the predictive value of an oxidative stress and free radical scavenger enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) in patients having coronary heart disease (CHD). Material & Methods: The study population contained 200 subjects divided into two groups, 150 patients with CHD & 50, age & sex matched healthy control subjects. All biochemical parameters MDA, SOD & Lipid profile were analyzed by spectrophotometer and autoanalyser. P value <0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: In our study we have found that lipid profile level (Mean ± SD) of CHD patients & controls i.e. total cholesterol (TC) level 241.24 ± 45.83 in CHD patients & in control subjects were 169.6 ± 22.24, triglycerides (TG) levels 191.15 ± 52.54 in CHD patients & in control subjects were 113.32 ± 22.82, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) 167.69 ± 39.5 in CHD patients & in control were 97.03 ± 21.51, very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL) levels 38.43 ± 10.51in CHD patients & 22.67 ± 4.56 in controls. We have also found that the level of MDA in CHD patients & in control (Mean ± SD) were 5.68 ± 1.20 & 3.73 ± 1.17 & the level of SOD in CHD patients & in control (Mean ± SD) were 2.50 ± 0.18 & 3.31 ± 0.49. Conclusion: Our study indicates an imbalance between lipid peroxidation, status of antioxidants & free radical scavenger enzyme in CHD. Therefore these biomarkers may be useful in diagnosis of coronary heart disease.
Strategies for superior performance under adverse conditions: A focus on small and medium-sized high-growth firms

This article explores the strategies pursued by small and medium-sized firms to actively sustain growth within declining markets. A critical analysis of relevant growth theories informs the development of a semi-structured interview schedule; findings drawn from 20 case studies indicate that firms adopt a multiple-strategy approach in which they simultaneously pursue an innovative differentiation and product or service-customisation strategy. Following this strategy, it was found that firms make an intentional search for high-margin products, avoid aggressive price competition and maintain tight control of costs. The article demonstrates that an adverse environment does not necessarily inhibit firm growth and that individual firm-specific strategies can be invoked to overcome volatile market conditions.
Fluxes and gas transfer rates of the biogenic trace gas DMS derived from atmospheric gradients

[1] Gas transfer rates were determined from vertical profile measurements of atmospheric dimethylsulfide (DMS) gradients over the equatorial Pacific Ocean obtained during the GasEx-2001 cruise. A quadratic relationship between gas transfer velocity and wind speed was derived from the DMS flux measurements; this relationship was in close agreement with a parameterization derived from relaxed eddy accumulation measurements of DMS over the northeastern Pacific Ocean. However, the GasEx-2001 relationship results in gas transfer rates that are a factor 2 higher than gas transfer rates calculated from a parameterization that is based on coincident eddy correlation measurements of CO2 flux. The measurement precision of both the profiling and eddy correlation techniques applied during GasEx-2001 is comparable; the two gas transfer data sets are in agreement within their uncertainty. Differences in the number of samples and the wind speed range over which CO2 and DMS fluxes were measured are likely causes for the observed discrepancy.
Formal Verification of Collision Free Mobility Adaptive Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

There has been a rapid growth in the need to support mobile nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This may lead to several uncertainties and stochastic events such as messages loss, collisions on medium and even loss of nodes. Therefore, it is essential to ensure the efficiency of mobility based wireless sensor protocols. A lot of protocols have been proposed to consider mobility in the MAC layer as well as in the network layer. We opt to study formally one of these protocols using Statistical Model Checking (SMC). The chosen protocol is CFMA (Collision Free Mobility Adaptive) MAC protocol, for WSNs. This protocol performs well in both static and mobile scenarios. In this paper, we make a formal study for its principal algorithms by modeling, first, its work-flow using probabilistic timed automata. This stochastic formalism leads to consider several random events with more realism. Furthermore, a performance analysis is performed by verifying the qualitative and quantitative properties of this protocol using UPPAAL SMC tool. Keywords—WSN; CFMA MAC protocol; Statistical Model Checking; UPPAAL SMC.
Investigation of droplet path in a rain erosion tester

Erosion of the leading edges of wind turbine blades due to the repeated impact of rain droplets at high speed over time can wear down the blade surfaces to the extent that power production is significantly reduced for the wind turbines. Therefore a rain erosion tester, which is a test bench for accelerated test of leading erosion due to rain impact, can be used to assess the durability of different leading edge materials and coatings. Since the droplet relative speed and size at impact is of key importance to the erosion process, it is important to know how these are affected by the complex flow disturbances stemming from the rain erosion tester itself. This is investigated in the present work using high speed camera recordings and CFD. The high speed camera recordings reveal that the droplets do not break up before impact at the surface, and that the path of the droplets is relatively undisturbed by the flow induced by the rain erosion tester. The comparison with droplet paths simulated in CFD is in good agreement with this result. The CFD simulations further indicate that an inaccurately set pitch angle of the blades can result in a very different flowfield in the RET, which can significantly alter the droplet trajectories.
Title The wizard of OZ : instilling a resilient heart into self-servicebusiness applications

Speech enabled business applications are characterized by complex implementations that bring together language processing technologies, applications development, and end-user psychology. Resilience is critical to maintaining business to customer relationships when implementing these self-service solutions. The Wizard-of-Oz experiment is a valuable technique for simulating and building human–machine prototypes to ensure successful deployment of the completed service. This paper proposes the simplification and diffusion of the methodology to facilitate the growth in demand for automated e-business transactions.
The Country of Origin and Brand Image Effect on Purchase Intention of Smartphone in Surabaya - Indonesia

At present, borderless among countries makes international companies spread their business all over the world. Goods that produced in one country are being sold in other countries. This phenomenon forces global marketers to understand factors that influence consumers’ evaluation on a product. Consumer buying behavior on global brand mostly based on extrinsic information. Evaluation on a product is conducted by perception to brand (Brand Image) and country where the product is manufactured (Country of Origin). This study examined the effect of country of origin and brand image on consumers’ purchase intention of smartphone in Surabaya and employed 150 visitors of smartphone trade centre in Surabaya. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied to measure the relationships among constructs. The data analysis is performed by Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS Graph version 16). The results of this study showed that country of origin have an influence on brand image and attitude. Brand image have an effect on attitude and purchase intention. Subjective norm have an influences on purchase intention. Otherwise, attitude does not have an effect on purchase intention. This study supports the idea that extrinsic information (country of origin and brand image) has an effect on attitude and purchase intention. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015. v6n5s5p64
Verification , Validation and Uncertainty Quantification Workflow in CASL

The overall conduct of verification, validation and uncertainty quantification (VVUQ) is discussed through the construction of a workflow relevant to CASL. The workflow contained herein is defined at a high level and constitutes an overview of the activity. Nonetheless, the workflow represents an essential activity in predictive simulation and modeling. VVUQ is complex and necessarily hierarchical in nature. The particular characteristics of VVUQ elements depend upon where the VVUQ activity takes place in the overall hierarchy of physics and models. In this document, we focus on the differences between and interplay among validation, calibration and UQ, as well as the difference between UQ and sensitivity analysis. The discussion in this document is at a relatively high level and attempts to explain the key issues associated with the overall conduct of VVUQ. The intention is that CASL developers and analysts can refer to this document for guidance regarding how VVUQ analyses fit into their efforts toward conducting truly predictive calculations.
Enhancement of the Bose glass phase in the presence of an artificial gauge field

We study the effect of diagonal disorder on zero and finite temperature phase diagrams of two dimensional Bose Hubbard model. Employing single site and cluster Gutzwiller mean field theory we incorporate the effect of disorder which results in the formation of Bose glass phase. This inhibits direct transition from Mott insulator to superfluid phase. The use of cluster Gutzwiller mean field improves the correlation and there is enlargement of the Bose glass phase region. Similar enlargement is observed on introducing artificial gauge field. More importantly, to relate with the experimental realization we include finite temperature effects, and this leads to melting of Bose glass as well as the Mott insulator phase.
Human language identification with reduced segmental information

We conducted human language identification experiments using signals with reduced segmental information with Japanese and bilingual subjects. American English and Japanese excerpts from the OGI Multi-Language Telephone Speech Corpus were processed by spectral-envelope removal (SER), vowel extraction from SER (VES) and temporal-envelope modulation (TEM). The processed excerpts of speech were provided as stimuli for perceptual experiments. We calculated D indices from the subjects' responses, ranging from � 2 to þ2 where positive/negative values indicate correct/incorrect responses, respectively. With the SER signal, where the spectral-envelope is eliminated, humans could still identify the languages fairly successfully. The overall D index of Japanese subjects for this signal was þ1:17. With the VES signal, which retains only vowel sections of the SER signal, the D index was lower (þ0:35). With the TEM signal, composed of white-noise-driven intensity envelopes from several frequency bands, the D index rose from þ0:29 to þ1:69 corresponding to the increasing number of bands from 1 to 4. Results varied depending on the stimulus language. Japanese and bilingual subjects scored differently from each other. These results indicate that humans can identify languages using signals with drastically reduced segmental information. The results also suggest variation due to the phonetic typologies of languages and subjects' knowledge.
Use and misuse of PRP clinical trial proposal to help find PRP’s true efficacy

Introduction: Since the early 1970s, Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been used in many fields as a potential remedy for having regenerative properties. In dermatology, its use is extended to different hair diseases: alopecia areata, traction alopecia, androgenetic alopecia (AGA), and even cicatricial alopecia. Despite its increasing use in the clinical practice, the protocol used to produce PRP differs greatly between researchers and its efficacy has not been clearly demonstrated. Particularly, AGA is an illness characterized by a progressive hair thinning and miniaturization caused by the effect of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) on the hair follicle. This type of alopecia is the most common in men, increasing its incidence with age. Until the date, there are only two efficient treatments approved by the FDA: Finasteride and Minoxidil. PRP seems to be a potential new candidate according to recent studies, but multiple PRP obtaining techniques have raised ambiguous results about the real efficacy of PRP in patients with AGA. Thus, we have elaborated a methodology to help researchers designing future clinical trials on PRP therapy. We propose a randomized clinical trial with a uniformed PRP obtaining technique in order to properly assess the PRP efficacy as a treatment for AGA. Objective: Analyze the objective data published until the date in order to define the real efficacy of PRP as a treatment for AGA, and offer a design of a clinical phase trial with a standardized methodology to obtain proper scientific evidence of PRP efficacy. Methods: Retrospective systematic review of the literature published and a randomized placebo-controlled, double-bind, half-head study clinical trial proposal with a uniformed PRP obtaining methodology to properly assess its efficacy as a future AGA treatment.
AN INTERPRETATION OF FLARE-INDUCED AND DECAYLESS CORONAL-LOOP OSCILLATIONS AS INTERFERENCE PATTERNS

We present an alternative model of coronal-loop oscillations, which considers that the waves are trapped in a two-dimensional waveguide formed by the entire arcade of field lines. This differs from the standard one-dimensional model which treats the waves as the resonant oscillations of just the visible bundle of field lines. Within the framework of our two-dimensional model, the two types of oscillations that have been observationally identified, flare-induced waves and “decayless” oscillations, can both be attributed to MHD fast waves. The two components of the signal differ only because of the duration and spatial extent of the source that creates them. The flare-induced waves are generated by strong localized sources of short duration, while the decayless background can be excited by a continuous, stochastic source. Further, the oscillatory signal arising from a localized, short-duration source can be interpreted as a pattern of interference fringes produced by waves that have traveled diverse routes of various pathlengths through the waveguide. The resulting amplitude of the fringes slowly decays in time with an inverse square root dependence. The details of the interference pattern depend on the shape of the arcade and the spatial variation of the Alfvén speed. The rapid decay of this wave component, which has previously been attributed to physical damping mechanisms that remove energy from resonant oscillations, occurs as a natural consequence of the interference process without the need for local dissipation.
Different contact angle distributions for heterogeneous ice nucleation in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5

Abstract. In order to investigate the impact of different treatments for the contact angle (α) in heterogeneous ice nucleating properties of natural dust and black carbon (BC) particles, we implement the classical-nucleation-theory-based parameterization of heterogeneous ice nucleation (Hoose et al., 2010) in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) and then improve it by replacing the original single-contact-angle model with the probability-density-function-of-α (α-PDF) model to better represent the ice nucleation behavior of natural dust found in observations. We refit the classical nucleation theory (CNT) to constrain the uncertain parameters (i.e., onset α and activation energy in the single-α model; mean contact angle and standard deviation in the α-PDF model) using recent observation data sets for Saharan natural dust and BC (soot). We investigate the impact of the time dependence of droplet freezing on mixed-phase clouds and climate in CAM5 as well as the roles of natural dust and soot in different nucleation mechanisms. Our results show that, when compared with observations, the potential ice nuclei (IN) calculated by the α-PDF model show better agreement than those calculated by the single-α model at warm temperatures (T; T > −20 °C). More ice crystals can form at low altitudes (with warm temperatures) simulated by the α-PDF model than compared to the single-α model in CAM5. All of these can be attributed to different ice nucleation efficiencies among aerosol particles, with some particles having smaller contact angles (higher efficiencies) in the α-PDF model. In the sensitivity tests with the α-PDF model, we find that the change in mean contact angle has a larger impact on the active fraction at a given temperature than a change in standard deviation, even though the change in standard deviation can lead to a change in freezing behavior. Both the single-α and the α-PDF model indicate that the immersion freezing of natural dust plays a more important role in the heterogeneous nucleation than that of soot in mixed-phase clouds. The new parameterizations implemented in CAM5 induce more significant aerosol indirect effects than the default parameterization.
Kinetics of superoxide reactions with dissolved organic matter in tropical Atlantic surface waters near Cape Verde (TENATSO)

The decay kinetics of superoxide (O2−) reacting with organic matter was examined in oligotrophic waters at, and nearby, the TENATSO ocean observatory adjacent to the Cape Verde archipelago. Superoxide is the short-lived primary photochemical product of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) photolysis and also reacts with CDOM or trace metals (Cu, Fe) to form H2O2. In the present work we focused our investigations on reactions between CDOM and superoxide. O2− decay kinetics experiments were performed by adding KO2 to diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) amended seawater and utilizing an established chemiluminescence technique for the detection of O2− at nM levels. In Cape Verdean waters we found a significant reactivity of superoxide with CDOM with maximal rates adjacent to the chlorophyll maximum, presumably from production of new CDOM from bacteria/phytoplankton. This work highlights a poorly understood process which impacts on the biogeochemical cycling of CDOM and trace metals in the open ocean.
Resistant starch in cassava products

Found in different foods, starch is the most important source of carbohydrates in the diet. Some factors present in starchy foods influence the rate at which the starch is hydrolyzed and absorbed in vivo. Due the importance of cassava products in Brazilian diet, the objective of this study was to analyze total starch, resistant starch, and digestible starch contents in commercial cassava products. Thirty three commercial cassava products from different brands, classifications, and origin were analyzed. The method used for determination of resistant starch consisted of an enzymatic process to calculate the final content of resistant starch considering the concentration of glucose released and analyzed. The results showed significant differences between the products. Among the flours and seasoned flours analyzed, the highest levels of resistant starch were observed in the flour from Bahia state (2.21%) and the seasoned flour from Parana state (1.93%). Starch, tapioca, and sago showed levels of resistant starch ranging from 0.56 to 1.1%. The cassava products analyzed can be considered good sources of resistant starch; which make them beneficial products to the gastrointestinal tract.
Vision-based target geolocation and optimal surveillance on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

A real-time computer vision algorithm for the identification and geolocation of ground targets was developed and implemented on the Penn State University / Applied Research Laboratory Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (PSU/ARL UAV) system. The geolocation data is filtered using a linear Kalman filter, which provides a smoothed estimate of target location and target velocity. The vision processing routine and estimator are coupled with an onboard path planning algorithm that optimizes the vehicle trajectory to maximize surveillance coverage of the targets. The vision processing and estimation routines were flight tested onboard a UAV system with a human pilot-in-the-loop. It was found that GPS latency had a significant effect on the geolocation error, and performance was significantly improved when using latency compensation. The combined target geolocation and path planning system was tested on the ground using a hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and resulted successful tracking and observation of a fixed target. Timing results showed that is is feasible to implement total system in real time.
Dairy Value Chain Management in Bulgaria

The dairy sector is among the most fundamentally affected by post-communist transition and EU integration of Bulgaria. This paper presents the dairy chain management in the country at current present stage of development. First, it analyses the state and forms of dairy value chain management identifying the dominant and prospective models of dairy chain management. Second, it outlines the features, factors and efficiency of a new business model of dairy farms inclusion in supply chain.
Technical Term Similarity Model for Natural Language Based Data Retrieval in Civil Infrastructure Projects

Recent advances in data and information technologies have enabled extensive digital datasets to be available to decision makers during the life cycle of a civil infrastructure project. However, much of the data is not yet fully reused due to the challenging and time consuming process of extracting the desired data for a specific purpose. Digital datasets are presented only in computer-readable formats and they are mostly complicated. In order to accurately extract a required subset of data, end users need to have deep understanding of the structure of the data schema, the meaning of each data entity and a query language. Thus, to truly facilitate the reuse of digital project data, a computational platform is needed to allow users to present their data needs in natural language. One of the critical requirements for a computer to perform this task is the ability to understand and interpret users' natural language inputs where keywords are a basic linguistic component. This research aims to collect technical terms commonly used in the civil infrastructure domain and develop a semantic similarity model that can measure the meaning relatedness/similarity between terms. Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and C-value method are used to automatically extract terms from text documents. A machine learning model called Skip-gram model is then employed to learn the semantic relatedness between technical terms using an unlabeled highway corpora as the input data. The input corpus includes 10 million words mainly collected from roadway design guidelines across the U.S. The model is evaluated by comparing the mapping results performed by a computer and a human.