Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The pH of the Host Niche Controls Gene Expression in and Virulence of Candida albicans

ABSTRACT Little is known of the biological attributes conferring pathogenicity on the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Infection by this pathogen, as for bacterial pathogens, may rely upon environmental signals within the host niche to regulate the expression of virulence determinants. To determine if C. albicans responds to the pH of the host niche, we tested the virulence of strains with mutations in either of two pH-regulated genes, PHR1 and PHR2. In vitro,PHR1 is expressed when the ambient pH is at 5.5 or higher and deletion of the gene results in growth and morphological defects at neutral to alkaline pHs. Conversely, PHR2 is expressed at an ambient pH below 5.5, and the growth and morphology of the null mutant is compromised below this pH. A PHR1 null mutant was avirulent in a mouse model of systemic infection but uncompromised in its ability to cause vaginal infection in rats. Since systemic pH is near neutrality and vaginal pH is around 4.5, the virulence phenotype paralleled the pH dependence of the in vitro phenotypes. The virulence phenotype of a PHR2 null mutant was the inverse. The mutant was virulent in a systemic-infection model but avirulent in a vaginal-infection model. Heterozygous mutants exhibited partial reductions in their pathogenic potential, suggesting a gene dosage effect. Unexpectedly, deletion of PHR2 did not prevent hyphal development in vaginal tissue, suggesting that it is not essential for hyphal development in this host niche. The results suggest that the pH of the infection site regulates the expression of genes essential to survival within that niche. This implies that the study of environmentally regulated genes may provide a rationale for understanding the pathobiology of C. albicans.
The Assessment of Reforms in Different Countries by Social-Economic Development Integral Index

The purpose of this report is to suggest a new methodology for the assessment of the comparative efficiency of the reforms made in different countries by an integral index. We have highlighted the reforms made in post-crisis period in 21 former socialist countries. The integral index describes the social-economic development level. The integral index contains of six indexes: The Global Competitiveness Index, Doing Business, The Corruption Perception, The Index of Economic Freedom, The Human Development, and The Democracy Index, which are reported by different international organizations. With the help of our methodology we first summarized the above-mentioned 6 indexes and attained 1 general index, besides, our new method enables us to assess the comparative efficiency of the reforms made in different countries by analyzing them. The purpose is to reveal the opportunities and threats of socialeconomic reforms in different directions. Keywords—Assessment, comparative, effectiveness, reforms.
SDN-SPS: Semi-Physical Simulation for Software-Defined Networks

Nowadays, software-defined networking (SDN) is one of the key technologies promoting the development of the next generation network. In addition, simulating and building the SDN real network is one of the most important approaches to do SDN research. However, there are many aspects that limit the test platform-based experiment and the traditional software-only simulation, such as the various demands of network, complex applications, and flexible network architecture. Combining test platform with the software-only simulation, this paper proposes a new hardware-in-the-loop emulation: to emulate a SDN. We use the system-in-the-loop technology of OPNET to build the SDN hardware-in-the-loop emulation platform. The emulation test platform includes the sensor network part, all of which will use the software simulation, together with the transmission network and the cloud data center both of which will use the real network. We run the simulation to generate a few applications in the cloud data center, and then collect the data through the transmission network and the sensor network, which makes these applications share the sensing data. This paper proves that the simulation test platform of hardware-in-the-loop can achieve energy efficiency under the demand of QoS.
SimBritain: a spatial microsimulation approach to population dynamics

In this paper we present an account of a 3-year research project that is aimed at dynamically simulating urban and regional populations in Britain. In the context of this project we are using data from the 1991 UK Census Small Area Statistics (SAS) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), in order to dynamically simulate the entire population of Britain into 2021 at the small area level. This paper discusses the structure, aims and objectives of SimBritain and presents some preliminary results. Firstly, alternative spatial microsimulation strategies are discussed and their advantages and drawbacks are outlined. Next, the difficulties in calibrating and validating dynamic microsimulation models such as SimBritain are highlighted and ways to tackle these difficulties are explored. The paper then presents some model outputs that highlight the geographical variation of a wide range of socio-economic variables through the 1990s. Moreover, in light of these outputs, the paper discusses the potential of SimBritain for policy analysis.
Elevation Differences Between MMPI-2 Clinical and Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales

The frequency, origin, and interpretative implications of elevation differences on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) clinical and restructured clinical (RC) scales were examined. Two large clinical samples consisting of 1,770 outpatients and 2,438 inpatients were used for this study. Three potential factors (Demoralization, subtle items, and K correction) were explored as to the extent to which they contributed to elevation differences between a clinical scale and its restructured counterpart. Results showed that differences in elevation between clinical and RC scales occurred between 10% and 35% of cases. Demoralization, subtle items, and K correction contributed substantially to elevation differences. Findings indicate that core descriptors of a clinical scale should be emphasized only when its corresponding RC scale is also elevated, whereas for Scales 4, 6, and 8, elevated scores on the RC scales are interpretable even when the corresponding clinical scales are not elevated.
Mathematical Modelling of Fixed Bed Adsorption Column for Liquid Phase Solute: Effect of Operating Variables

A mathematical model for pseudo one component adsorption on a fixed bed is developed. The model takes into account of external and internal mass transfer resistances with non ideal plug flow behaviour. In the present study, the Langmuir equilibrium isotherm is used to represent liquid-solid equilibrium relationship. The model consists of a set of couple partial differential equations, and the differential equations representing the mass balances of both fluid and pore phases are solved by the implicit backward Euler finite difference method and compared with previous models reported in literature. The effects of various important and influencing parameters such as flow rate, particle radius and bed porosity in breakthrough curve are studied in detail. Hence, the proposed model is suitable and applicable to study the fixed bed adsorption column performance under isothermal condition.
A Full Scale Superconducting Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) Vehicle Operational Line

This paper describes the construction and main components of a full-scale superconducting magnetic levitation vehicle. The prototype, comprising four 1.5-m-long wagons, will travel a short test line of 200 meters, connecting two buildings inside the campus of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The efforts to implement this technology started thirteen years ago with a small-scale prototype in an attempt to prove the concept. The second step was the construction of a functional prototype that could levitate more than one Ton. The actual stage of this project is the construction of an operational prototype mentioned above, designed to transport up to 24 passengers. This work has been reported in several previous editions of the ASC conference. New details about the elevated test line, the permanent magnetic (Nd-Fe-B) guideways, the cryostats with YBCO high critical temperature superconductors, the energy conditioning, the linear induction motor and its regenerative braking, as well as the automatic supply system of liquid nitrogen will be presented in the proposed paper. Tests with this operational prototype demonstrate the technology feasibility.
Hidden Markov model analysis of manufacturing process information

A method is presented for using hidden Markov models (HMMs) for the analysis of force, torque, and position signals from sensors in manufacturing machines. The HMM can detect the transitions between contact states and compute a measure of the task quality using a model of the task developed by the manufacturing engineer and optimized on training data. The HMM method has been evaluated in extensive experimentation with teleoperation and the results suggest even higher effectiveness in automation and manufacturing applications. <<ETX>>
Introduction of liquid‐based cytology and human papillomavirus testing in cervical cancer screening in Luxembourg

In 2014, liquid‐based cytology with HPV triage replaced conventional cytology. The aim of our study was to compare conventional and liquid‐based cytology (LBC), estimate the prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology and high risk HPV (hrHPV) infection and their correlation, among screened women in Luxembourg.
A Study for the Application of Body Sensing in Assisted Rehabilitation Training

Stroke patient usually has the goal to maintain rehabilitation training, which is mainly to avoid physical function degeneration and to prevent the triggering of related complications. Therefore, how to obtain optimal rehabilitation therapy and to shorten the training time is a topic filled with lots of challenges. Traditional rehabilitation equipment is very expensive. Large scale equipment usually needs sufficient space, and if the room is not enough, the hardware usually cannot exploit its function, which is usually a trouble to small hospital and the research department. In the system, rehabilitation action practice is designed for it, together with virtual reality, the operation of ball catching game is simulated. Meanwhile, Kinect sensing device is used to detect the body action of the patient, to perform face recognition and to recognize voice command. Body sensing technique in electronic entertainment has realized the association of new era technology with rehabilitation medical care to set up virtual reality together with the use of Kinect to be applied in rehabilitation training for stroke patient. As compared to traditional expensive rehabilitation equipment, it has the advantages of low price and clinical practical utility. Its interface design is active and attractive, and is converted from boring to happy state. After completing rehabilitation training mission, medical care rehabilitation quality can indeed be effectively enhanced. For example, the game can help the recovery of exercise function, can generate psychological reinforcement, can enhance the co-existence feeling, and can reduce three types of negative emotional indexes, namely, depression, confusion and tension. In other words, the patient shows great improvement in the delicacy and sense of balance of upper limb action.
CityCompass: A Collaborative Online Language Learning Application

CityCompass supports conversational spoken language learning by means of way finding tasks. In CityCompass, two remotely located users, a tourist and a guide, collaboratively navigate in 360 degree panoramic views of a city, to reach a preassigned destination. Over one hundred and fifty students from schools in Germany, Finland and India have used the application for foreign language learning within their classroom activities. The project's goal is to establish a global network of schools to connect students from various cultures and backgrounds for conversational foreign language learning.
Application of sentimental analysis in adaptive user interfaces

The objective of this project is to show how sentimental analysis can help improve the user experience over a social network or system interface. The learning algorithm will learn what our emotions are from statistical data then determine the mood. After that it will change our social interactions accordingly on our social network sites or other interfaces like desktop or system services or web-pages. Suppose you are bored or sad ,in the case of social networks one thing the computer could do is to be more suggestive of things that lighten your mood and change interactions like backgrounds color's ,icons services. The site could automatically try suggesting interactions with people and applications that would help improve the mood, while hiding others that might make it worse. The project aims to implement these in the social network community as well as services and interfaces of our systems, while making our lives better and our experience richer and efficient.
Modified Smith Predictor for Network Congestion Control

In this paper, a novel active queue management (AQM) control law using modified Smith predictor is proposed. The proposed method provides a stable response for a TCP flow dynamics which is highly oscillatory or unstable under practical conditions. The controller decouples the setpoint response from the load response. The proposed control scheme can track the desired buffer level and reject any additional load disturbance such as unknown buffer depletion rate. Simulation results show high performance for the setpoint response when the parameters of TCP flow dynamics are known
DeltaRNN: A Power-efficient Recurrent Neural Network Accelerator

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are widely used in speech recognition and natural language processing applications because of their capability to process temporal sequences. Because RNNs are fully connected, they require a large number of weight memory accesses, leading to high power consumption. Recent theory has shown that an RNN delta network update approach can reduce memory access and computes with negligible accuracy loss. This paper describes the implementation of this theoretical approach in a hardware accelerator called "DeltaRNN" (DRNN). The DRNN updates the output of a neuron only when the neuron»s activation changes by more than a delta threshold. It was implemented on a Xilinx Zynq-7100 FPGA. FPGA measurement results from a single-layer RNN of 256 Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) neurons show that the DRNN achieves 1.2 TOp/s effective throughput and 164 GOp/s/W power efficiency. The delta update leads to a 5.7x speedup compared to a conventional RNN update because of the sparsity created by the DN algorithm and the zero-skipping ability of DRNN.
THE USE OF POULTRY WASTE AS A DIETARY SUPPLEMENT FOR RUMINANTS

THE USE OF POULTRY WASTE AS A DIETARY SUPPLEMENT FOR RUMINANTS. The use of poultry waste as a dietary supplement in ruminant ration could have a considerable effect on reducing costs, insufficiency of protein in diet, and on solving disposal problems. The chemical composition of poultry waste and its safe use in ruminant nutrition were investigated prior to its use as a dietary supplement. No appreciable differences in chemical composition were noted in poultry wastes between oven and sun dried forms. The high content of protein, energy, and minerals in poultry waste indicated its importance as a partial substitute for concentrates in the diet. The numbers of total bacteria and pathogenic microorganisms such as Salmonella and E. coli detected in poultry waste were within the acceptable limits. Farm testing of rations containing poultry wastes were carried out on sheep (ewes and lambs), Friesian cattle and buffalo heifers. In ewes fed during late pregnancy and lactation, milk yield and performance did not show any significant changes. Lambs suckled from ewes fed on poultry waste did not show any significant difference in weaning weight, average daily weight gain or feed efficiency (kg feed used/kg weaned weight). However, the poultry waste group had shorter age at weaning than the control group. In another feeding trial on growing lambs after weaning, mean daily body weight gain was higher in lambs fed on a ration containing poultry waste than the control ration. In Friesian and buffalo calves, no significant differences in average daily body weight gain were found as a result of inclusion of poultry waste in the ration. In buffalo heifers various estimated reproductive parameters indicated no appreciable differences due to the inclusion of poultry waste in the diet except that the number of ovulations and number of services/conception were both higher in the group fed with poultry waste.
A comparative analysis of job scheduling algorithm

For complexity, randomness and dynamic characteristics, job scheduling problem is well known as NP-hard, and a lot of research about scheduling algorithms was conducted in the past. In this paper, the definition and classification of job scheduling problem are firstly given, and then a systematic and complete comparative analysis of job scheduling algorithms is carried out from the aspects of origin, characteristics, computation and application. Finally, some development trends and characteristics of job scheduling algorithms are proposed.
Higher Adiposity Is Associated With Slower Cognitive Decline in Hypertensive Patients: Secondary Analysis of the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial

Background Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases. However, the potential association between adiposity and cognitive decline in hypertensive patients is inconclusive. We performed a secondary data analysis of the CSPPT (China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial) to examine whether adiposity is correlated with longitudinal cognitive performance in hypertensive adults. Methods and Results The analysis included 16 791 patients in the CSPPT who received at least 2 cognitive assessments by the Mini‐Mental State Examination (MMSE) during the follow‐up (median, 4.5 years; interquartile range, 4.2–4.8 years). Outcomes included changes in MMSE scores and cognitive impairment (defined as MMSE score less than education‐specific cutoff point). A marked reduction in MMSE scores at the final (compared with at the 1‐year) follow‐up was apparent in both men (n=4838; mean [SD] score, 0.41 [3.62]) and women (n=7190; mean [SD] score, 1.07 [4.61]; both P<0.001). Analysis using a mixed‐effects model revealed an association between higher body mass index with less MMSE decline, even after controlling for demographics and comorbidities (men, β=0.0134 [SE, 0.0036]; women, β=0.0133 [SE, 0.0034]; both P<0.001). A total of 1037 men (15.3%) and 3317 women (33.1%) developed cognitive impairment. In multivariable Cox regression analyses, being obese in men (11.3% versus 18.0%; hazard ratio, 0.75; 95% confidence interval, 0.60–0.94) and women (30.1% versus 36.5%; hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.74–0.91) was a protective factor against cognitive impairment compared with normal body mass index. Conclusions Higher adiposity is independently associated with slower cognitive decline in Chinese hypertensive adults. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT00794885 CSPPT.
Characterization of OSR1, a Member of the Mammalian Ste20p/Germinal Center Kinase Subfamily*

In examining the protein kinase components of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (MAPK) cascades that regulate the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in Drosophila S2 cells, we previously found that distinct upstream kinases were involved in responses to sorbitol and lipopolysaccharide. Here we have extended that analysis to the possible MAPK kinase kinase kinases (MAP4Ks) in the JNK pathway. Fray, a putative Drosophila MAP4K, provided a major contribution to JNK activation by sorbitol. To explore the possible link to JNK in mammalian cells, we isolated and characterized OSR1 (oxidative stress-responsive 1), one of two human Fray homologs. OSR1 is a 58-kDa protein of 527 amino acids that is widely expressed in mammalian tissues and cell lines. Of potential regulators surveyed, endogenous OSR1 is activated only by osmotic stresses, notably sorbitol and to a lesser extent NaCl. However, OSR1 did not increase the activity of coexpressed JNK, nor did it activate three other MAPKs, p38, ERK2, and ERK5. A two-hybrid screen implicated another Ste20p family member, the p21-activated protein kinase PAK1, as an OSR1 target. OSR1 phosphorylated threonine 84 in the N-terminal regulatory domain of PAK1. Replacement of threonine 84 with glutamate reduced the activation of PAK1 by an active form of the small G protein Cdc42, suggesting that phosphorylation by OSR1 modulates the G protein sensitivity of PAK isoforms.
Some remarks on Puiseux Series for multiple imaginary characteristic roots of linear time-delay systems

Obtaining the Puiseux Series expansion of multiple imaginary (characteristic) roots (MIRs) is a fundamental issue in the stability analysis of time-delay systems. However, this issue has not been fully investigated up to date. This work focuses on the Puiseux Series expansion of MIRs for a class of linear time-delay systems including commensurate delays. For an MIR of any multiplicity, we propose an algorithm for defining the structure of the Puiseux Series, as well as the explicit computation of the corresponding coefficients. By using the proposed method, we can find all the Puiseux Series corresponding to all the root trajectories. Some illustrative examples complete the work.
A study on students' preferences in graphical design of algorithm visualizations

The main focus of research in algorithm visualization has lately been on pedagogical aspects, but graphical features also deserve be studied. This paper presents an evaluation conducted with students on the convenience of including several graphical elements (labels for identifiers, arrows and shadows) in the visualization of an iterative algorithm. Students performed two tasks: to answer an opinion questionnaire and to trace visually the execution of the algorithm. The results reveal students' higher preference for arrows than labels or shadows. However, the analysis of drawings reveals frequent use of labels, highlighting changes in variable values, and remarking relevant variables. Some results can potentially be generalizable to other algorithm visualizations, such as the use of labels.
A Comprehensive Survey on Storage Techniques in Cloud Computing

has been great development in cloud computing since past few years. It offers different kinds of services for example Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as Service (IaaS). Cloud computing enables the user and organizations to store their data remotely and enjoy good quality applications on the demand without having any burden associated with local hardware resources and software managements but it possesses a new security risk towards correctness of data stored at cloud. There has been different techniques which in turn provide correctness of data, for example Merkle Hash Tree (MHT), Distributed erasure-coded data & flexible distributed storage integrity auditing mechanism. This work is based on the survey of different techniques of cloud storage with their benefits, disadvantages and security challenges. This particular study allows you to discover long term research areas and techniques for bettering the current downsides.