Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization and Influence Mechanism of Sampling and Analysis of Airborne Endotoxin Based on Limulus Amebocyte Lysate Assay

ABSTRACTAirborne endotoxin, a bioaerosol component of Gram-negative bacterial cell walls, is a considerable risk to human health. In this study, a systematic optimization and the analysis of corresponding influence mechanism based on the Limulus amebocyte lysate assay were operated by changing sampling duration, sonication pretreatment, extraction solution, and impinger types. Moreover, the corresponding influential mechanisms of these four factors were identified. Experimental results showed that endotoxin concentration tended to increase initially and then declined over time, and that the extraction solution reached saturation after 15 min of sampling. The majority of the cells were disrupted by an ultrasonication pretreatment of less than 800 W, allowing the detection of free endotoxins by the Limulus amebocyte lysate assay. However, a sonication power greater than 800 W could destroy endotoxin structure. Furthermore, the lipophilic and hydrophilic groups in the molecular structure of Tween 20 promoted endotoxin dissolution. Three samplers with different pore sizes and aperture numbers were compared. The results showed that collection efficiency was directly proportional to nozzle aperture size. Small pore sizes and high aperture numbers enhanced airborne endotoxin absorption because they could generating more bubbles with small specific surface area, thereby increasing the interaction between the endotoxins and extraction solution and improving absorption efficiency. Therefore, an optimized sampling method was proposed that collecting air with an AGI-30 impinger and pyrogen-free, sterile purified water (PFW) containing 0.05% Tween 20 at a sampling duration of 10 min. The sample was then sonicated at 800 W for 10 min.
The many sides of RCW 86: a type Ia supernova remnant evolving in its progenitor's wind bubble

We present the results of a detailed investigation of the Galactic supernova remnant RCW 86 using the XMM-Newton X-ray telescope. RCW 86 is the probable remnant of SN 185 A.D., a supernova that likely exploded inside a wind-blown cavity. We use the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer to derive precise temperatures and ionization ages of the plasma, which are an indication of the interaction history of the remnant with the presumed cavity. We find that the spectra are well fitted by two non-equilibrium ionization models, which enables us to constrain the properties of the ejecta and interstellar matter plasma. Furthermore, we performed a principal component analysis on EPIC MOS and pn data to find regions with particular spectral properties. We present evidence that the shocked ejecta, emitting Fe K and Si line emission, are confined to a shell of approximately 2 pc width with an oblate spheroidal morphology. Using detailed hydrodynamical simulations, we show that general dynamical and emission properties at different portions of the remnant can be well reproduced by a Type Ia supernova that exploded in a non-spherically symmetric wind-blown cavity. We also show that this cavity can be created using general wind properties for a single degenerate system. Our data and simulations provide further evidence that RCW 86 is indeed the remnant of SN 185, and is the likely result of a Type Ia explosion of single degenerate origin.
Biologically Inspired Motion Modeling and Neural Control for Robot Learning From Demonstrations

In this paper, we propose a biologically inspired framework for robot learning based on demonstrations. The dynamic movement primitive (DMP), which is motivated by neurobiology and human behavior, is employed to model a robotic motion that is generalizable. However, the DMP method can only be used to handle a single demonstration. To enable the robot to learn from multiple demonstrations, the DMP is combined with the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to integrate the features of multiple demonstrations, where the conventional GMM is further replaced by the fuzzy GMM (FGMM) to improve the fitting performance. Also, a novel regression algorithm for FGMM is derived to retrieve the nonlinear term of the DMP. Additionally, a neural network-based controller is developed for the robot to track the generated motions. In this network, the cerebellar model articulation controller is employed to compensate for the unknown robot dynamics. The experiments have been performed on a Baxter robot to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Hardware Design and Implementation of Adaptive Multiple Transforms for the Versatile Video Coding Standard

Versatile video coding is the next generation video coding standard expected by the end of 2020. Several new contributions have been proposed to enhance the coding efficiency beyond the high efficiency video coding standard. One of these tools is the adaptive multiple transform (AMT) as a new approach of the transform core design. The AMT involves five discrete cosine transform/discrete sine transform types with larger and more flexible partitioning block sizes. However, the AMT coding efficiency comes with the cost of higher computational complexity, especially at the encoder side. In this paper, a efficient pipelined hardware implementation of the AMT including the five types of sizes <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4\times 4$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8\times 8$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$16\times 16$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$32\times 32$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is proposed. The architecture design takes advantage of the internal software/hardware resources of the target field-programmable gate array device such as library of parametrized modules core intellectual properties and digital signal processing blocks. The proposed 1-D 32-point AMT design allows to process 4K video at 44 frames/s. A unified 2-D implementation of the 4, 8, 16, and 32-point AMT design is also presented.The implementation takes into account all the asymmetric 2-D block size combinations from 4 to 32. The 2-D architecture design is able to sustain 2K video coding at 50 frames/s with an operational frequency up to 147 MHz.
TRUSTGUARD: A MODEL FOR PRACTICAL TRUST IN REAL SYSTEMS

All layers of todays computing systems, from hardware to software, are vulnerable to attack. Market and economic pressure generally result in companies focusing on performance and features, leaving security and correctness as post deployment concerns. Thus, systems must frequently be patched or augmented after deployment to fix security vulnerabilities. While this non-virtuous exploit-patch-exploit cycle is not the most secure, it is practical enough for companies to use. Formal methods in both software and hardware can give true guarantees as to the security they provide. Ideally, modern systems would be comprised of entirely formally verified and secure components. Unfortunately, such methods have not seen widespread adoption for a number of reasons, such as difficulty in scaling, lack of tools, and high skill requirements. Additionally, the economics involved in securing and replacing every component in all systems, both new and currently deployed, are a major factor in clean slate solutions being unrealistic. Thus, a practical solution should rely on a few, simple components and should be adoptable incrementally. As the first implementation of the Containment Architecture with Verified Output (CAVO) model developed at Princeton, TrustGuard showed how a simple trusted Sentry could protect against malicious or buggy hardware components to ensure integrity of external communications. This was accomplished by ensuring the correct execution of signed software, with support from a modified CPU and system architecture. However, TrustGuards practicality was limited due to its reliance on modified host hardware and its requirement to trust entire application stacks, including the operating system. The work presented in this dissertation seeks to make the CAVO model a practical solution for ensuring the integrity of data communicated externally in an untrusted commodity system. This work extends CAVO in two ways. The first extension is to make the Sentry compatible with a wide range of devices without requiring hardware modifications to the host system, thus increasing its flexibility and ease of integration into existing environments. The second extension is to give developers the option to use trusted code to verify
Advances in Chromatographic Separation on Al2O3 and Spectroscopic Characterization of the Higher Fullerenes

The basic C60 and C70, and the higher fullerenes, mainly C76 and C84 were extracted with a series of different and previously unapplied solvents or combinations of solvents, by original advanced procedures, from the samples of carbon soot, produced in electric arc. The solubility of the basic and the higher fullerenes in the applied series of solvents was compared. Chromatographic separations of fullerenes from the obtained extracts were performed by continue elution, in one phase of each process, under atmospheric pressure, with the original, defined gradients of solvents, from pure hexane or 5% toluene in hexane to pure toluene, on active Al2O3 columns, by the new, improved methods. Identifications of fullerenes in all the chromatographically purified fractions and the extracts were performed using determined techniques of IR and UV/VIS spectroscopy that have not been presented previously for the higher fullerenes. The advances in chromatographic purification using alumina, as well as in understanding of the unique and the main optical absorption properties of these molecules are reported.
Gender Bias in the Purchase of STEM-Related Toys (Fundamental)

Gender Bias in the Purchase of STEM-Related Toys (Fundamental) Jacob Inman, INSPIRE Institute for Pre-College Engineering Education Jacob Inman is an alumnus of the INSPIRE Undergraduate Pre-College Research in STEM particularly in Engineering (UPRISE) Academy. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering in 2014. Dr. Monica E Cardella, Purdue University, West Lafayette Monica E. Cardella is the Director of the INSPIRE Institute for Pre-College Engineering Education and is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University.
The Nutrient Digestibility of Locally Sheep Fed with Amofer Palm Oil Byproduct-Based Complete Feed

- Utilization of palm oil by-product such as palm fronds, leaves, empty fruit bunches (EFB), fiber fruit juice (FFJ), palm kernel cake (PKC), and palm oil sludge (POS) as the source of energy and protein for ruminants, especially sheep is an efficient effort to make a new opportunities in term of economical and beneficial product that will reduce environmental pollution. The objectives of this research were to analyze the effect of palm oil’s byproduct-based complete feed on sheep’s nutrient digestibility. Sixteen male sheeps of nine month old with average body weight 14.69+0.82 kg were used. The complete feed was formulated by ammoniated-fermented technology from palm fronds and leaves, EFB and FFJ, also Centrosema sp. , PKC, POS, ground corn, rice bran, cassava, molasses, urea, mineral mix and salt. The complete feed with different levels of crude protein (CP) and TDN were used in this research which consisted of T 1 =10,63% CP; 63.46% TDN; T 2 =12.27% CP; 62.38% TDN; T 3 =13.70% CP; 64.11% TDN; and T 4 =15.90% CP; 61.28% TDN. The study used a completely randomized design (CRD) which consisted of four treatments and four replications. Data was analyzed using ANOVA with significance level at 95% and followed by Duncan Multiple Range Test. The experimental results showed that the protein level affected the feed digestibility. The highest digestibility of dry matter, organic matter and crude protein were 65.79%, 70.30%, and 84.34% respectively, resulting in 14% protein level (T 3 ) were significantly different with treatment at protein level 10% (T 1 ), 12% (T 2 ) and 16% (T 4 ) at p<0.05. It can be concluded that by-product of palm oil plantation and mill had good nutritional value. Therefore, this feedstuff can be used to formulate complete feed for sheep and it successfully increased the nutrient digestibility.
Recent tectonic plate decelerations driven by mantle convection

We explore recent changes in tectonic plate velocities using a model of mantle flow that is based on a new high‐resolution global tomography model derived from simultaneous inversions of global seismic, geodynamic and mineral physical data sets. This plate‐coupled mantle convection model incorporates a viscosity structure that reconciles both glacial isostatic adjustment and global convection‐related data sets. The convection model successfully reproduces present‐day plate velocities and global surface gravity and topography constraints. We predict time‐dependent changes in mantle buoyancy that give rise to present‐day decelerations of several major plates, in particular the fast‐moving Pacific and Nazca plates. We verify the plausibility of these predicted plate decelerations using space geodetic and oceanic magnetic anomaly constraints on tectonic plate motions. These plate kinematic constraints are employed to determine a new global map of present‐day plate decelerations that agree well with the mantle flow predictions.
Effect of different tree mortality patterns on stand development in the forest model SIBYLA

Abstract Forest mortality critically affects stand structure and the quality of ecosystem services provided by forests. Spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) generates rather complex infestation and mortality patterns, and implementation of such patterns in forest models is challenging. We present here the procedure, which allows to simulate the bark beetle-related tree mortality in the forest dynamics model Sibyla. We explored how sensitive various production and stand structure indicators are to tree mortality patterns, which can be generated by bark beetles. We compared the simulation outputs for three unmanaged forest stands with 40, 70 and 100% proportion of spruce as affected by the disturbance-related mortality that occurred in a random pattern and in a patchy pattern. The used tree species and age class-specific mortality rates were derived from the disturbance-related mortality records from Slovakia. The proposed algorithm was developed in the SQLite using the Python language, and the algorithm allowed us to define the degree of spatial clustering of dead trees ranging from a random distribution to a completely clustered distribution; a number of trees that died in either mode is set to remain equal. We found significant differences between the long-term developments of the three investigated forest stands, but we found very little effect of the tested mortality modes on stand increment, tree species composition and diversity, and tree size diversity. Hence, our hypothesis that the different pattern of dead trees emergence should affect the competitive interactions between trees and regeneration, and thus affect selected productivity and stand structure indicators was not confirmed.
Suppression of pepper SGT1 and SKP1 causes severe retardation of plant growth and compromises basal resistance

SGT1 associates with suppressor of kinetochore protein (Skp1)-Cullin-F-box (SCF)–ubiquitin-ligase complexes playing important roles in controlling developmental processes and defense responses in plants, yeast, and human. In this study, full-length cDNAs of Sgt1 and Skp1 orthologues were isolated from pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) to characterize their functions. Protein sequences of CaSgt1 and CaSkp1 showed high degrees of similarities with their homologues in other plant species. Southern blot analyses revealed that CaSgt1 was a single copy gene in the pepper genome, whereas CaSkp1 corresponded to multi copy genes. Levels of CaSgt1 and CaSkp1 mRNAs increased in pepper leaves in response to incompatible pathogen challenge or salicylic acid treatment. Silencing of CaSgt1 or CaSkp1 using Tobacco rattle virus-based virus-induced gene-silencing (VIGS) system resulted in severe dwarfism and final damping-off symptom in the greenhouse. To identify factors determining damping-off symptom in CaSgt1- or CaSkp1-silenced plants, we employed VIGS under sterile conditions. Under such conditions, damping-off symptom was not observed suggesting that CaSgt1 and CaSkp1 play an essential role in plant growth and development as well as basal disease resistance in pepper plant.
Accounting for negation in sentiment analysis

Automated ways of analyzing sentiment in Web data are becoming more and more urgent as virtual utterances of opinions or sentiment are becoming increasingly abundant on the Web. The role of negation in sentiment analysis has been explored only to a limited extent. In this paper, we investigate the impact of accounting for negation in sentiment analysis. To this end, we utilize a basic sentiment analysis framework ‐ consisting of a wordbank creation part and a document scoring part ‐ taking into account negation. Our experimental results show that by accounting for negation, precision relative to human ratings increases with 1.17%. On a subset of selected documents containing negated words, precision increases with 2.23%.
Anesthetic management of an overweight pediatric patient with smaller size classic LMA

There is global epidemic of obesity affecting all ages.A 9 year old male child with height 139 cm and weight 56 kg (BMI 28.98) with penile hypospadias was posted for urethroplasty under general anesthesia. The attempts to secure the airway first with size four classic LMA (as per weight recommendation) and then with size three were unsuccessful. This case report describes successful management of airway with smaller size classic LMA.
Harp-DAAL for High Performance Big Data Computing

Large-scale data analytics is revolutionizing many business and scientific domains. Easy-touse scalable parallel techniques are necessary to process big data and gain meaningful insights. We introduce a novel HPC-Cloud convergence framework named Harp-DAAL and demonstrate that the combination of Big Data (Hadoop) and HPC techniques can simultaneously achieve productivity and performance. Harp is a distributed Hadoop-based framework that orchestrates efficient node synchronization [1]. Harp uses Intel Data Analytics Accelerator Library (DAAL) [2], for its highly optimized kernels on Intel Xeon and Xeon Phi architectures. This way the high-level API of Big Data tools can be combined with intra-node fine-grained parallelism that is optimized for HPC platforms. We illustrate this framework in detail with K-means clustering, a computation-bounded algorithm used in image clustering. We also show the broad applicability of Harp-DAAL by discussing the performance of three other big data algorithms: Subgraph Counting by color coding, Matrix Factorization and Latent Dirichlet Allocation. They share issues such as load imbalance, irregular structure, and communication issues that create difficult challenges.
Sperm cryopreservation of Indian major carp, Labeo rohita:cryodiluents, sperm: cryodiluent dilution ratio andcryoprotectan t concentration

Cryogenic preservation trials of spermatozoa of Labeo rohita were carried out. Twenty four cryodiluents (extender + cryoprotectant), with the combination of six extenders such as egg-yolk citrate, urea-egg-yolk, 0.9% NaCl, Kurokura-2, Ma and Mb and four cryoprotectants viz. DMSO, glycerol, methanol and ethanol, were used to screen out the suitable cryodiluents. Sperm was preserved in 0.25ml plastic straw in programmable freezer. Two step freezing method was followed. Sperm preserved with egg-yolk citrate and urea-egg-yolk containing 10% DMSO showed best post-thaw motility (80%) followed by 0.9% NaCl (60%) and Kurokura-2(30%) solutions. Sperm with the extenders M" and Mb clotted at the time of equilibration and also after few days of preservation. Egg-yolk citrate mixed with ethanol and methanol also showed good percentage of motility (80%) but egg-yolk citrate with glycerol showed less sperm motility (>60%). To determine suitable dilution ratio of milt and cryodiluent two best extender eggyolk citrate and urea-egg-yolk with four cryoprotectants such as DMSO, glycerol, methanol and ethanol at different ratio viz 1:2,1:4,1:7,1:10,1:15 and 1:20 were used. Highest post-thaw motility (>80%) was observed when milt was preserved with egg-yolk citrate containing 10% DMSO at 1:2, 1:4, 1:7 and 1:10 dilutions. Meanwhile using glycerol as cryoprotectants provided less post thaw motility at lower dilution ratio but with the increase of its dilution showed good sperm motility compared with other cryoprotectants. Finally, evaluation on the effect of cryoprotectant concentration on post-thaw sperm motility was conducted. Egg-yolk citrate and four cryoprotectant i.e. DMSO, glycerol, methanol and ethanol with six different concentrations namely 5%,7%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30%. were evaluated. Among the cryoprotectants DMSO, methanol and ethanol showed highest post-thaw motility (about 80%) at 7% and 10% concentrations. Although glycerol was not suitable at low concentration but its 20% and 30% concentration levels provided best post-thaw motility. No post-thaw motility was obtained with DMSO at 30% concentration. The overall analysis on cryoprotectant concentration indicated that below 5% and above 20% cryoprotectant concentrations could not be suitable for effective cryopreservation of spermatozoa.
EVALUATION OF ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY , QUANTITATIVE ES TIMATION OF A POLYHERBAL EXTRACT

INTRODUCTION Medicinal plants are major part of new pharmaceuticals and health care products. Due to th e availability of medicinal plants throughout the wor ld, herbal drugs are being used by 7580% of world population, especially in developing countries. As reported by World Health Organization (WHO), traditional medicinal plants are the best reservoir s to develop newer pharmaceuticals . Medicinal plants are renewable sources therefore farmers get encouraged to ABSTRACT Among the various causes of death in the world are degenerative diseases such as heart failure, anaemi a, Diabetes Mellitus and stroke, which are generally l inked to the oxidative stress. The therapeutic bene fit of medicinal plants in the treatment of degenerative d s ases is attributed to their antioxidant properti es. In the present study crude (PH) extract of nine different medicinal plants are used and were evaluated for th ei quantitative phytochemicals such as flavonoids, phe nols, tannins, carbohydrate, alkaloid, saponin, car diac glycosides and their antioxidant activities using D PPH, reducing power , hydroxyl radical scavenging, superoxide radical scavenging, Nitric oxide radical scavenging . Total antioxidant activity was done b y FTC assay and compared with TBA method. In the present tudy, results showed that the crude (PH) extract o f nine different medicinal plants have found to posse s a good antioxidant activity. This activity of PH formulation may be attributed to their free radical scavenging ability. The extent of antioxidant acti vity of PH was found to be significant.
Proficiency Effect on EFL Learners’ Realization of Complaints

Research on the effect of language proficiency on L2 pragmatics seems to provide somewhat mixed results (Xiao, 2015). On that account, this paper investigates the effect of English language proficiency on English language learner’s use of complaining strategies in contrasting situations which varied according to the sociopragmatic factors of social status, social distance and severity of offense. Results show that learners at two proficiency levels demonstrated similar patterns with regard their use of buffer and complaint super-strategies across situations. However, negotiation super-strategies were more frequent across situations in the higher proficiency group. These findings are discussed and pedagogical implications suggested.