Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Network robustness versus multi-strategy sequential attack

We examine the robustness of networks under attack when the attacker sequentially selects from a number of different attack strategies, each of which removes one node from the network. Network robustness refers to the ability of a network to maintain functionality under attack, and the problem-dependent context implies a number of robustness measures exist. Thus, we analyze four measures: (1) entropy, (2) efficiency, (3) size of largest network component, and suggest to also utilize (4) pairwise connectivity. Six network centrality measures form the set of strategies at the disposal of the attacker. Our study examines the utility of greedy strategy selection versus random strategy selection for each attack, whereas previous studies focused on greedy selection but limited to only one attack strategy. Using a set of common complex network benchmark networks, in addition to real-world networks, we find that randomly selecting an attack strategy often performs well when the attack strategies are of high quality. We also examine defense against the attacks by adding k edges after each node attack and find that the greedy strategy is most useful in this context. We also observed that a betweenness-based attack often outperforms both random and greedy strategy selection, the latter often becoming trapped in local optima.
Characterization of nonlinear modal interaction using normal forms and Hilbert analysis

In this paper, normal form (NF) theory and Hilbert-spectral analysis are used to characterize and quantify nonlinear modal interaction in stressed power systems. The method of NF is utilized to obtain a second-order approximation to system behavior following large disturbances. Based on this representation, nonlinear interaction measures are obtained to assess the extent and distribution of nonlinearity in the system. Hilbert spectral analysis is then applied to characterize and quantify the time evolution of the modulation process directly from the simulated power system data obtained from transient stability simulations as well as to validate normal form results. The use of the analysis methods is demonstrated on a 11-bus, 4-machine test system. Examples of application of the developed approaches are given to determine the strength of nonlinear interactions in power system behavior, and estimating the distribution of nonlinearity in the system states. The results of the simulations show that the combined application of these techniques leads to a more in depth analysis of system behavior.
Food Composition Databases: Considerations about Complex Food Matrices

Nowadays, many countries have their own national Food Composition Databases, whose continuous updating allows the inclusion of a large number of foods, reflecting the food habits of the population and the growing number of foods on the market in the best way possible. Therefore, particular attention should be directed to the study not only of individual foods or food components but also of the nutritional characteristics of dishes, meals and diets, as they are really consumed. Recently, a reviewed sensitivity in Europe towards the implementation of standardized procedures for generating reliable composition data for composite dishes has been carried out. Although direct chemical analysis is the most accurate method to determine food composition, the nutrient content of complex matrices and composite dishes is often calculated from the nutrient contents of the individual ingredients, considering the different thermal treatments and using some preparation factors. In this context, this paper aims to give an updated picture on Food Composition Databases; in particular, their application regarding complex matrices is examined together with the need to optimize their calculated nutritional values. Results obtained by this calculation should almost always be observed as approximations.
Effect of sucralfate on gastric mucosal inflammatory responses induced by Helicobacter pylori lipopolysaccharide.

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori lipopolysaccharide is emerging as a primary factor in the bacterium virulence, and its involvement in causing gastric mucosal responses typical of gastritis has recently been shown. In this study we investigated the effect of the antiulcer agent sucralfate on the expression of regulatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-4 (IL-4), and epithelial cell apoptosis during H. pylori lipopolysaccharide-induced acute gastritis. METHODS The experiments were conducted with rats pretreated intragastrically twice daily for 3 days with sucralfate at 100 mg/kg or the vehicle. The rats were then subjected to intragastric surface epithelial application of H. pylori lipopolysaccharide at 50 microg per animal and maintained on the sucralfate or vehicle regimen for an additional 4 days. The animals were killed 16 h after the last dose, and their gastric mucosal tissue used for histologic assessment, quantitation of TNF-alpha and IL-4 expression, and the assay of epithelial cell apoptosis. RESULTS In the absence of sucralfate, H. pylori lipopolysaccharide induced acute mucosal responses characterized by the inflammatory infiltration of the lamina propria, hyperemia, and epithelial hemorrhage. This was accompanied by an 11-fold increase in gastric epithelial cell apoptosis and a 9-fold enhancement of the mucosal expression of TNF-alpha, but the level of IL-4 fell by 15%. Intragastric administration of sucralfate produced a 62% reduction in the extent of mucosal damage caused by H. pylori lipopolysaccharide, a 51% decrease in the mucosal expression of TNF-alpha, and a 7-fold reduction in the extent of epithelial cell apoptosis, whereas the expression of IL-4 increased by 52%. CONCLUSIONS Gastric mucosal inflammatory responses to H. pylori lipopolysaccharide are characterized by a massive enhancement of the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha and epithelial cell apoptosis and repression of IL-4. Our data also show that sucralfate is capable of inducing expression of the regulatory cytokine IL-4 and the suppression of apoptotic events triggered in gastric mucosa by the increase in TNF-alpha that is elicited by H. pylori lipopolysaccharide.
Experimental demonstration of the optical Stern-Gerlach effect.

We report the observation of the splitting of an atomic beam by the optical Stern-Gerlach effect. A beam of metastable He atoms interacts with a nearly or exactly resonant laser field with a well-defined intensity gradient perpendicular to the atomic beam. The coherent splitting of the atomic beam is produced in the case of exact resonance. For the nonresonant case, a deflection of the atomic beam is observed. We have studied the splitting and deflection of the atomic beam as a function of laser detuning from resonance. Our results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions.
Selective hippocampal lesions abolish the contextual specificity of latent inhibition and conditioning.

The contextual specificity of the conditioned response (CR) and latent inhibition (LI) was examined in rats with selective hippocampal lesions. Acquisition of the CR to a novel conditioned stimulus (CS) was equally rapid in control and hippocampal rats (Experiments 1 and 2), and CS preexposure disrupted acquisition, (i.e., produced LI) to an equal extent in both groups (Experiment 2). In control subjects, however, the CR established in one context transferred incompletely to a second context (Experiment 1), and LI was attenuated when CS preexposure and conditioning occurred in different contexts (Experiment 3). This context specificity of the CR and LI was not apparent in hippocampal rats--the CR and LI transferred readily from one context to another. In addition, hippocampal rats were impaired in a spatial learning task (Experiment 2) but were unimpaired in learning a Pavlovian contextual discrimination (Experiment 3). These results suggest that a common contextual retrieval process underlies the contextual dependence of the CR and of LI and that this process is mediated by the hippocampus.
Depression Prevalence: Is it Really Increasing?

Objective: There is conflicting evidence as to whether depression prevalence is increasing or is stable. Although birth cohort analysis studies show increasing prevalence, longitudinal studies do not. To date there are no published Australian studies providing long-term estimates of depression prevalence. The aim of the present study was to examine the increasing depression prevalence hypothesis in an Australian context. Method: Data from the 1998 and 2004 South Australian Health Omnibus Surveys were re-analysed. In each survey there were >3000 participants who were interviewed. The data were weighted to achieve representativeness prior to analysis. Depression status was classified by the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders scale (the PRIME – MD) into major, other and no depressions. Both univariate and multivariable analyses were used to examine depression trends over time and to adjust the data for significant background variables. Results: There was no significant increase in the cases of patients classified with major depression between 1998 and 2004; there was, however, a significant decrease in other depression. The overall unadjusted prevalence of major depression was 7.4% (6.8% in 1998 and 8.0% in 2004) and for other depression it was 9.5% (10.6% in 1998 and 8.4% in 2004). The highest levels of depression, both major and other, were observed among females aged 15–29 years, and the lowest levels among those aged ≥50 years. The strongest predictor of depression was poor overall health status. Conclusion: It is time for the conventional wisdom that depression is increasing to be reconsidered, and for a more realistic perspective, developed from evidence-based analyses, to be accepted.
In Vitro and In Vivo: The Story of Nonoxynol 9

There is an urgent need to expand the range of interventions to prevent HIV transmission and acquisition, especially those that can be controlled by women. Microbicides, defined as antimicrobial products that can be applied topically for the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, may offer one of the most promising preventive interventions, because they could be inexpensive, readily available, and widely acceptable. The first microbial product to be clinically evaluated contained Nonoxynol-9 (nonylpenoxypolyethoxyethanol [N-9]), a nonionic surfactant, as the active agent. This article presents a review of the in vitro, ex vivo, and animal model data on the safety of N-9 and a critical analysis of their predictive power based on the results of multiple safety and efficacy trials.
Serine protease identification (in vitro) and molecular structure predictions (in silico) from a phytopathogenic fungus, Alternaria solani

Serine proteases are involved in an enormous number of biological processes. The present study aims at characterizing three‐dimensional (3D) molecular architecture of serine proteases from early blight pathogen, Alternaria solani that are hypothesized to be markers of phytopathogenicity. A serine protease was purified to homogeneity and MALDI‐TOF‐MS/MS analysis revealed that protease produced by A. solani belongs to alkaline serine proteases (AsP). AsP is made up of 403 amino acid residues with molecular weight of 42.1 kDa (Isoelectric point – 6.51) and its molecular formula was C1859H2930N516O595S4. AsP structure model was built based on its comparative homology with serine protease using the program, MODELER. AsP had 16 β‐sheets and 10 α‐helices, with Ser350 (G347–G357), Asp158 (D158–H169), and His193 (H193–G203) in separate turn/coil structures. Biological metal binding region situated near 6th‐helix and His193 residue is responsible for metal binding site. Also, calcium ion (Ca2+) is coordinated by the carboxyl groups of Lys84, Ile85, Lys86, Asp87, Phe88, Ala89, Ala90 (K84–A90) for first Ca2+ binding site and carbonyl oxygen atom of Lys244, Gly245, Arg246, Thr247, Lys248, Lys249, and Ala250 (K244–A250), for second Ca2+ binding site. Moreover, Ramachandran plot analysis of protein residues falling into most favored secondary structures were determined (83.3%). The predicted molecular 3D structural model was further verified using PROCHECK, ERRAT, and VADAR servers to confirm the geometry and stereo‐chemical parameters of the molecular structural design. The functional analysis of AsP 3D molecular structure predictions familiar in the current study may provide a new perspective in the understanding and identification of antifungal protease inhibitor designing.
Blended Learning Approach Using Moodle and Student’s Achievement at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman

This study attempts to identify factors behind the usage of a blended learning approach that could have an effect on students' achievement, motivation, collaboration and communication as perceived by students. It also aims to analyze obstacles faced by students in using Moodle in blended learning. A sample of 283-students from all colleges at Sultan Qaboos University was randomly selected. A questionnaire of 45 items is developed to collect data. The results reveal that using Moodle in blended learning has an average level of effectiveness related to students' motivation with a mean of 3.216 and mean of 3.164 for students' achievements, and mean of 3.199 is related to students' collaborations and communication. The results showed there is no statistical significant difference among student perceptions related to gender and college type. The results also revealed that the highest obstacles facing students related to frequent disturbance in computer devices with mean 3.090. Based on the result of the study, many recommendations have been developed.
A novel effort estimation approach for requirement changes during software development phase

Managing software changes and achieving an effective change acceptance decision is one of the crucial factors in ensuring the software project success. Accepting too many changes will cause expense and delay and rejecting the changes may cause customer dissatisfaction. One of the inputs that help in achieving an effective change acceptance decision is by having reliable estimation on the change effort. From software development perspective, the estimation has to take into account the inconsistent states of software artifacts across project lifecycle i.e., fully developed or partially developed. These inconsistent states require different ways of estimation such as the fully developed artifacts may have different calculation compared to the partially developed artifacts. Many change effort estimation approaches have been developed and one of them is using impact analysis. One main challenge of this technique from software development perspective is that this technique is specifically used for software maintenance phase in which all software artifacts have been completely developed. This research introduces a new change effort estimation approach that is able to use different estimation techniques for different states of software artifacts. The outcome of this research is a new change effort estimation approach for software development phase using the extended version of the static and dynamic analysis techniques from our previous works.
A comparative analysis of pulsating vs. rotating vector carrier signal injection-based sensorless control

This paper analyzes the sensitivity to non-ideal physical attributes of pulsating and rotating vector carrier-injection based sensorless techniques, as well as of the impact on the accuracy and robustness of the sensorless control. The analysis is mainly done on the basis of terminal attributes of machines. Initial observations on the subsequent finite element study are also given. Commonly used filtering and position estimation techniques associated with each carrier signal are considered. The analysis is supported by experimental evidence obtained using interior PM synchronous machines, but the findings are applicable to other AC machines as well.
Influence of Condensed Tannins Supplementation through Leaf Meal Mixture on Urinary excretion of Purine Derivatives, Microbial Protein Synthesis and Performance of Haemonchus contortus Infected Sheep

Study was carried out to assess the effect of condensed tannins (CT) containing leaf meal mixture (LMM) on feed intake, body weight changes, parasitic load, urinary excretion of purine derivatives (PD) and microbial protein synthesis (MP) in Haemonchus contortus infected sheep. Eighteen adult male sheep of similar age and body weight (25.03±1.52) were randomly divided into three groups (negative control; NC, infected control; C and treatment; T) of six each in a completely randomized block design (CRD) for a period of 90 days. Twelve H. contortus infected sheep were allocated into C and T groups, containing 0 and 1.5% of CT, respectively. Six non-infected sheep was taken in NC group to compare their performance with C group. Concentrate intake was significantly (P<0.000) lower in T group as compared to C group, while roughage intake did not differ significantly irrespective of groups. Final body weights were comparable (P<0.063) among all three groups. Faecal egg counts (FECs) were significantly (P<0.001) higher in C group as compared to T group. MP synthesis was calculated by estimating urinary excretion of PD through High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Total PD excretion, absorption of PD and Microbial nitrogen (MN) supply (g d−1) were comparatively (P<0.05) higher in T group than in the C group. It may be concluded that CT supplementation (1.5%) decreased H. contortus load in sheep by reducing FECs and has a potential benefits on protein nutrition by altering partitioning of nutrients towards higher microbial yield and absence of any depressing effect on rumen MN synthesis.
Robust Convex Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming with Mixed-Integer Uncertainty

We study robust convex quadratically constrained quadratic programs where the uncertain problem parameters can contain both continuous and integer components. Under the natural boundedness assumption on the uncertainty set, we show that the generic problems are amenable to exact copositive programming reformulations of polynomial size. The emerging convex optimization problems are NP-hard but admit a conservative semidefinite programming (SDP) approximation that can be solved efficiently. We prove that this approximation is stronger than the popular approximate S-lemma method for problem instances with only continuous uncertainty. We also show that all results can be extended to the two-stage robust optimization setting if the problem has complete recourse. We assess the effectiveness of our proposed SDP reformulations and demonstrate their superiority over the state-of-the-art solution schemes on stylized instances of least squares, project management, and multi-item newsvendor problems.
A posteriori calculation of δ 18 O and δD in atmospheric water vapour from ground-based near-infrared FTIR retrievals of H 2 16 O, H 2 18 O, and HD 16 O

Abstract. This paper investigates the scientific value of retrieving H218O and HDO columns in addition to H216O columns from high-resolution ground-based near-infrared spectra. We present a set of refined H216O, H218O, and HDO spectral windows. The retrieved H216O, H218O, and HDO columns are used for an a posteriori calculation of columnar δD and δ18O. We estimate the uncertainties for the so-calculated columnar δD and δ18O values. These estimations include uncertainties due to the measurement noise, errors in the a priori data, and uncertainties in spectroscopic parameters. Time series of δ18O obtained from ground-based FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectra are presented for the first time. For our study we use a full physics isotopic general circulation model (ECHAM5-wiso). We show that the full physics simulation of HDO and H218O can already be reasonably predicted from the H216O columns by a simple linear regression model (scatter values between full physics and linear regression simulations are 35 and 4‰ for HDO and H218O, respectively). We document that the columnar δD and δ18O values as calculated a posteriori from the retrievals of H216O, H218O, and HDO show a better agreement with the ECHAM5-wiso simulation than the δD and δ18O values as calculated from the H216O retrievals and the simple linear regression model. This suggests that the H218O and HDO column retrievals add complementary information to the H216O retrievals. However, these data have to be used carefully, because of the different vertical sensitivity of the H216O, H218O, and HDO columnar retrievals. Furthermore, we have to note that the retrievals use reanalysis humidity profiles as a priori input and the results are thus not independent of the reanalysis data.
Conditional production of acyl-homoserine lactone-type quorum-sensing signals in clinical isolates of enterobacteria.

Single-celled bacteria exchange small, self-produced chemical molecules to monitor their population density and control a variety of physiological functions in a cell-density-dependent manner, a process called quorum sensing (Fuqua et al., 1994; Waters & Bassler, 2005). Many Gram-negative bacteria use acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) as cell–cell communication molecules. In these LuxR–LuxI-type quorum-sensing systems, the AHL signalling molecule is usually synthesized by a protein related to the LuxI protein of Vibrio fischeri and binds to an intracellular receptor protein that resembles the V. fischeri LuxR protein, which activates transcription of target genes (Whitehead et al., 2001). Several quorum-sensing systems are also extremely important to human health, as they regulate virulence determinants in bacterial pathogens. One example involves the LasR/ LasI, RhlR/RhlI quorum-sensing systems of the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Venturi, 2006). In the Enterobacteriaceae, however, only a few AHL-based quorum-sensing systems, such as in Yersinia (Atkinson et al., 2006) and Serratia (Daniels et al., 2004), have been reported, whilst many other members of the family, including Escherichia and Salmonella, are generally thought to produce and utilize non-AHL signal molecules (Kaper & Sperandio, 2005; Xavier & Bassler, 2003). All quorum-sensing systems in enterobacteria identified so far control different physiological functions related to their pathogenesis.
Transient elastography for patients with chronic hepatitis B and C virus infection: Non‐invasive, quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis

Aim/Methods: The aim of the present study was to compare the diagnostic performance of transient elastography (FibroScan) with that of serum fibrosis markers and stages of hepatic fibrosis by biopsy in 68 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and in 161 patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.
Medicago truncatula symbiosis mutants affected in the interaction with a biotrophic root pathogen.

We wish to thank numerous members of the symbiosis community for providing plant material and fruitful discussions (see table S1), to S. Whisson and H. Judelson for providing fluorescent protein expression vectors and M. Smoker and T. Yunusov for help with P. palmivora culturing and transformation. We are grateful to S. Kamoun for his continued support and input into an early draft of this manuscript. This work was supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation [RG62472 to S.S. ]; by the Royal Society (RG69135 to S.S.) and by a Marie Curie Intra-European fellowship [FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, SYMUNITY- EC project 624398 to T.R. ].