Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AuNP Coupled Rapid Flow-Through Dot-Blot Immuno-Assay for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) Explicit IgG Antibody Revelation

Background: Flow-through dot-blot assay (FT-DBA) for SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG detection will provide a reliable and affordable immunoassay for the rapid serosurveillance against COVID-19. Method: SARS-CoV-2 antigens were immobilized on nitrocellulose membrane to capture IgG immunoglobulins, which were then detected with AuNP anti-human IgG. A total of 181 samples were characterized with in-house and commercial immunoassay. The positive panel consisted of RT-PCR positive samples from patients with both <14 days and >14 days from the onset of symptoms, while the negative panel contained samples collected either from the pre-pandemic era dengue patients from healthy donors during the pandemic period. Results: In-house ELISA selected a total of 79 true seropositive and 100 seronegative samples. The sensitivity of samples with <14 days using FT-DBA was 94.7% which increased to 100% for samples >14 days. The overall detection sensitivity and specificity were 98.8% and 98%, respectively, whereas the overall PPV and NPV were 97.6% and 99%. Moreover, comparative analysis between ELISA and FT-DBA revealed clinical agreement of Cohen’s Kappa value of 0.944. Conclusion: The assay can confirm past SARS-CoV-2 infection with high accuracy within 2 minutes compared to ELISA. It can help track SARS-CoV-2 disease progression, population screening, and vaccination response.
Differential invariants of measurements, and their connection to central moments

Due to the principle of minimal information gain, the measurement of points in an affine space V determines a Legendrian submanifold of V × V ∗ × R. Such Legendrian submanifolds are equipped with additional geometric structures that come from the central moments of the underlying probability distributions and are invariant under the action of the group of affine transformations on V . We investigate the action of this group of affine transformations on Legendrian submanifolds of V × V ∗ × R by giving a detailed overview of the structure of the algebra of scalar differential invariants. We show how the central moments can be used to construct the scalar differential invariants. In the end, we view the results in the context of equilibrium thermodynamics of gases, where we notice that the heat capacity is one of the differential invariants.
Utilizing Citation Context in a Two-Level Topic Model for Knowledge Discovery

—Knowledge discovery from academic articles has received increasing attention since full text has been made available by the development of the digital databases. In a corpus of scientific articles, documents are connected by citations and one document has two different parts in the corpus: citation context and autonomous text. We believe that the topic distributions of these two parts are different and related in a certain way. In the existing topic models, little effort is made to incorporate the citation context. In this paper, we propose a citation context topic model which considers the corpus at two levels: cited topic level and citing topic level, utilizing citation context extracted from the full text. Each document has two different representations in the latent topic space. We apply our model to a dataset of PubMed Central, where the full text is available from the XML data. The results clearly show that the citation context can help to discover the latent two-level topics and demonstrate a very promising knowledge discovery capability.
Direct synthesis of H2O2 on Pd/Al2O3 contactors: Understanding the effect of Pd particle size and calcination through kinetic analysis

The direct synthesis of H2O2 on Pd-based catalysts, although recognized as a potential route for the sustainable production of H2O2, is still limited by the low catalytic selectivity and safety concerns. Here, the calcination treatment effect, with the dispersion of Pd NPs and its interaction with Al2O3, is investigated. Catalysts have been prepared by the sol-immobilization procedure (SI) on Al2O3 as asymmetric alumina membranes (AAS) and tested in both reduced and calcined form (450°C, 1°C/min, 8 h) for the direct synthesis of H2O2. Finally, the catalytic performance was compared with other catalysts, prepared by hydrazine-reduction (NRC) and impregnation-decomposition (IDC) already reported in a previous paper and calcined for a shorter time (450°C, 1°C/min, 6 h). TEM micrographs showed the formation of Pd NPs with average diameters of 12 (NR), 3.8 (IDC), and 3.3 nm (SI), respectively. The reduced SI catalyst has shown a 2-4% selectivity. However, after calcination (SIC), a 69 % selectivity to H2O2 was reached. Compared with NRC and IDC catalysts, the selectivity increased within the series NRC IDC > SIC. The SIC catalyst's improved performance was related to the increased interaction with the support, stabilizing Pd in its oxidized form.
The influence of sensory feedbacks and their associations on intentional binding

Introduction Intentional binding refers to the subjective compression of interval between voluntary action and the consequence that followed by action (Haggard et al., 2002). In terms of the influencing factor of intentional binding, Zhao et al. (2013) has found that binding effect aroused by pressing action was stronger than that aroused by releasing action. As the reason of the result, Zhao et al. (2016) argued that the different situation of tactile sensory feedback between pressing and releasing condition led to the discrepancy of binding effect because pressing action evoked the onset of tactile sensory feedback whereas releasing action evoked the offset of tactile sensory feedback, so they used laser beams as the surrogate of key to strike the involvement of tactile sensory and found no difference of binding effect between pressing and releasing condition. Hence, they gave conclusion that tactile sensory feedback is irreplaceable for binding effect. However, considered that only the appearance of visual stimulus was conducted as the outcome of two types of tactile stimulus’ change, results of previous studies may be caused by the consistency of sensory feedback’s changing tendency between action and outcome instead of the presence of tactile sensory feedback. As the influencing factor of binding effect, many studies have proved that the consistency of action and outcome impacted the magnitude of binding effect. For example, Ebert and Wegner (2010) manipulated the consistency of moving direction between action and outcome, and they found that binding effect in moving direction consistent trials was stronger than that observed in inconsistent trials. Thus, our research was to investigate whether changing tendency’s consistency of sensory feedback between actions and outcomes could influence binding effect or not. Besides, we assumed that binding effect was stronger in sensory feedback changing consistent trials than that observed in inconsistent trials. Compared with previous studies, we added the disappearance of visual stimulus to create different combinations of action and outcome (press vs release × appearance vs disappearance), and examine whether the consistency of sensory feedback’s changing tendencies between action and outcome could influence binding effect or not.
A Data-parallel Approach for Efficient Resource Utilization in Distributed Serverless Deep Learning

A Data-parallel Approach for Efficient Resource Utilization in Distributed Serverless Deep Learning Kevin Tunder Elom Assogba Supervisor: Dr. M. Mustafa Rafique Serverless computing is an integral part of the recent success of cloud computing, offering cost and performance efficiency for small and large scale distributed systems. Owing to the increasing interest of developers in integrating distributed computing techniques into deep learning frameworks for better performance, serverless infrastructures have been the choice of many to host their applications. However, this computing architecture bears resource limitations which challenge the successful completion of many deep learning jobs. In our research, an approach is presented to address timeout and memory resource limitations which are two key issues to deep learning on serverless infrastructures. Focusing on Apache OpenWhisk as severless platform, and TensorFlow as deep learning framework, our solution follows an in-depth assessment of the former and failed attempts at tackling resource constraints through system-level modifications. The proposed approach employs data parallelism and ensures the concurrent execution of separate cloud functions. A weighted averaging of intermediate models is afterwards applied to build an ensemble model ready for evaluation. Through a fine-grained system design, our solution executed and completed deep learning workflows on OpenWhisk with a 0% failure rate. Moreover, the comparison with a traditional deployment on OpenWhisk shows that our approach uses 45% less memory and reduces the execution time by 58%.
Rocklines as Cradles for Cosmic Spherules and Chondrules

In our solar system, terrestrial planets and meteoritical matter exhibit various bulk compositions. To understand this variety of compositions, formation mechanisms of meteorites are usually investigated via a thermodynamic approach that neglect the processes of transport throughout the protosolar nebula. Here, we investigate the role played by rocklines (condensation/sublimation lines of refractory materials) in the innermost regions of the protosolar nebula to compute the composition of particles migrating inward the disk as a function of time. To do so, we utilize a one-dimensional accretion disk model with a prescription for dust and vapor transport, sublimation and recondensation of refractory materials (ferrosilite, enstatite, fayalite, forsterite, iron sulfur, kamacite and nickel). We find that the diversity of the bulk composition of cosmic spherules and chondrules can be explained by their formation close to rocklines, suggesting that solid matter is concentrated in the vicinity of these sublimation/condensation fronts. Although our model relies a lot on the number of considered species and the availability of thermodynamic data governing state change, it suggests that rocklines played a major role in the formation of small and large bodies in the innermost regions of the protosolar nebula. Our model gives insights on the mechanisms that might have contributed to the formation of Mercury's large core.
A Generalized Online Algorithm for Translation and Scale Invariant Prediction with Expert Advice

In this work, we aim to create a completely online algorithmic framework for prediction with expert advice that is translation-free and scale-free of the expert losses. Our goal is to create a generalized algorithm that is suitable for use in a wide variety of applications. For this purpose, we study the expected regret of our algorithm against a generic competition class in the sequential prediction by expert advice problem, where the expected regret measures the difference between the losses of our prediction algorithm and the losses of the ’best’ expert selection strategy in the competition. We design our algorithm using the universal prediction perspective to compete against a specified class of expert selection strategies, which is not necessarily a fixed expert selection. The class of expert selection strategies that we want to compete against is purely determined by the specific application at hand and is left generic, which makes our generalized algorithm suitable for use in many different problems. We show that no preliminary knowledge about the loss sequence is required by our algorithm and its performance bounds, which are second order expressed in terms of sums of squared losses. Our regret bounds are stable under arbitrary scalings and translations of the losses.
Naver Labs Europe at TREC 2020 Fair Ranking Track

In our participation to the TREC 2020 Fair Ranking Track, as Naver Labs Europe, we focused on the re-ranking task and we investigated the performance of a controller as a way to minimize unfairness over time, with minimal loss of utility. We used a two-step approach, based on (1) a relevance probability estimator, and (2) a controller that aims to bring the actual exposure close to the target exposure. This paper describes the components we designed in more detail. It contains a comparison of the performance of the controller to a baseline, which consists of a Plackett-Luce sampler. It also analyses the effect of the quality of the estimated relevance probabilities (closeness to the true binary relevance values) on the controller performance.
Turbulent mixing in the confined swirling flow of a multi‐inlet vortex reactor

Turbulent mixing in the confined swirling flow of a multi-inlet vortex reactor (MIVR) was investigated using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). The investigated Reynolds numbers based on the bulk inlet velocity ranged from 3290 to 8225, and the Schmidt number of the passive scalar was 1250. Measurements were taken in the MIVR at three different heights (¼, ½, and ¾ planes). The mixing characteristics and performance of the MIVR were investigated using instantaneous PLIF fields and pointwise statistics such as mixture fraction mean, variance, and one-point concentration probability density function. It was found that the scalar is stretched along velocity streamlines, forming a spiral mixing pattern in the free-vortex region. In the forced-vortex region, mixing intensifies as the turbulent fluctuations increase significantly there. The mixing mechanisms in the MIVR were revealed by identifying specific segregation zones. At Re = 8225 the mixing in the free-vortex region was dominated by both large-scale structures and turbulent diffusion, while in the forced-vortex region mixing is dominated by turbulent diffusion. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2409–2419, 2017
A review on Internet of Things (IOT) based Smart Irrigation System

— Water is one of the most basic and necessary resources for human survival. Water depletion has been growing in recent years as the population has increased. As a consequence, this has turned into a global crisis. Since the old irrigation scheme uses a lot of water, smart strategies for reducing the amount of water wasted for irrigation are needed. In any domain, from tiny and basic applications to massive and complicated applications, we've seen a significant increase in demand for Internet of Things. In practise, implementing a Smart Irrigation system is a difficult task, but when combined with IoT and the use of smart wireless sensors, it creates an excellent control system. The Humidity and Temperature Sensor detects the amount of water vapour present in the air as well as the temperature around the crop. The Soil Moisture Sensor senses the moisture content of a plant's soil; if the content is below the minimum requirement, water is supplied from a reservoir through a relay, and an ultrasonic sensor tests the reservoir's water level before transmitting the data to the ESP8266 NodeMCU. The ESP8266 NodeMCU is a microcontroller that receives data from smart wireless sensors, processes it, and sends it to its intended destination.
Effect of counterions on comb-like polycarboxylate conformation in aqueous solutions

ABSTRACT Laser light scattering (LLS) and conductivity experiments were performed to investigate the effect of counterions on the conformation of polycarboxylate comb-like copolymers (PCEs) in aqueous solutions. The addition of monovalent ions (i.e., Na+ and K+) to dilute polycarboxylate comb-like copolymer solutions induced a slight shrinking of the molecular chains because of the screening of electrostatic intramolecular repulsion. Varying complexation phenomena, such as the formation of intramolecular complexation at certain Ca2+ concentrations and a transition between intermolecular and intramolecular complexations at different Ca2+ concentrations, were closely associated with Ca2+ concentration. Therefore, Ca2+ exerted a more complex influence on the conformation of PCEs with side chains containing polyethylene oxide (PEO) with different grafting densities. In addition, various combination types of Ca2+ with carboxylic groups were confirmed by theoretical simulation. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Detection and Identification of Activated Oncogenes in Human Skin Cancers Occurring on Sun-exposed Body Sites1

High-molecular-weight DNA isolated from eight fresh human skin cancers occurring on sun-exposed body sites were assayed for their ability to transform NIH 3T3 cells. A cotransfection protocol using pSV2-nÂ«o DNA, which confers resistance to the antibiotic (Â¡418, was used to select cells that had taken up the transfected DNA. About 2 weeks after transfection, G418-resistant colonies were pooled and injected s.c. into athymic nude mice. The NIH 3T3 cells transfected with DNA from six of the human skin cancers induced tumors in nude mice. DNAs from all six tumor cell lines contained human ulu sequences. Southern blot hy bridization with nw-specific probes revealed that DNAs from the four o/u-rich tumors contained the human lin-ras oncogene, in addition to that of the NIH 3T3 controls. In contrast, DNAs from the other two tumors did not contain any of the known oncogenes tested, except those endogenous to NIH 3T3 cells. DNAs from three of four first cycle tumorigenic transformants gave rise to morphologically transformed foci when assayed in a second cycle of transfection. DNAs from all three secondary transformants contained discrete human ala sequences, and in addition, contained I la-rus sequences similar to those present in their respective primary transformants. Interestingly, DNA from both primary and secondary transformants of one particular human squamous cell carcinoma contained highly amplified copies of the Ila-ras oncogene. These results suggest that activation of the UÃ -ras oncogene may be common in human skin cancers originating on sun-exposed body sites. Further characterization of the Ha-ru.voncogenes present in these human skin cancers may provide information on the molecular mechanisms by which IV radiation of the sun induces human neoplasms on exposed body sites.
Test-case reduction and deduplication almost for free with transformation-based compiler testing

Recent transformation-based approaches to compiler testing look for mismatches between the results of pairs of equivalent programs, where one program is derived from the other by randomly applying semantics-preserving transformations. We present a formulation of transformation-based compiler testing that provides effective test-case reduction almost for free: if transformations are designed to be as small and independent as possible, standard delta debugging can be used to shrink a bug-inducing transformation sequence to a smaller subsequence that still triggers the bug. The bug can then be reported as a delta between an original and minimally-transformed program. Minimized transformation sequences can also be used to heuristically deduplicate a set of bug-inducing tests, recommending manual investigation of those that involve disparate types of transformations and thus may have different root causes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach via a new tool, spirv-fuzz, the first compiler-testing tool for the SPIR-V intermediate representation that underpins the Vulkan GPU programming model.
Exploring the critical points of teaching STEM subjects in the time of COVID 19: the experience of the course "Microscopy Techniques for Forensic Biology"

Background: The University was among the first structures to be hit by the health emergency, transferring all its teaching and research activities remotely. It was not easy for teachers and students to find themselves suddenly shifted into different teaching and socializing context. Results: This article describes and analyzes the online teaching experience carried out for the course of Microscopy Techniques for Forensic Biology offered as a part of the Master's degree program in Biology at the University of Calabria (Italy). A cross-sectional survey (pilot study) was designed to investigate the accessibility of distance learning along with an evaluation of adjustments needed for the conversion from offline to online instruction. Particular attention has been paid to learning material and lesson duration, with specific emphasis on practical activities. Conclusions: The author's intent is that of opening a comparison between the strengths and weaknesses that emerged in this experience, highlighting, in particular, how the educational relationship between teacher and student has changed.
On Mass-Spring System Implementation in Cluster-Based MANETs for Natural Disaster Applications

—Communication after natural disasters is paramount. Disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis leave the affected area reachable only to wireless devices. In such conditions, Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) play a critical role. The issue of MANETs communication backbone can be addressed by self-organized cluster-based algorithms. The virtual backbone will maintain an efﬁcient communication on the MANET, adapting to the dynamic topology changes thanks to its self-organized nature. Nevertheless, they do not take into account the node’s mobility. If a node moves away from its neighboring nodes, connectivity will be lost and thus, network segmentation will occur. Therefore, it is fundamental to maintain the connectivity and the communication between nodes while exploring the area. In this paper, we propose the application of a mass-spring system on the Energy-Efﬁcient Self-Organized Algorithm (EESOA) for Disaster Area applications. Results will show that our proposal performs best when deployment of MANET’s nodes is dense while maintaining a connected network.
Achievable Rates for the Relay Channel with Orthogonal Receiver Components

This paper studies lower bounds on the capacity of the relay channel with orthogonal receiver components (also referred to as primitive relay channel). We show that the lower bound in Theorem 7 of Cover and El Gamal, which uses mixed decode-forward and compress-forward strategies, is identical to the lower bound of Chong, Motani and Garg, and is always larger than or equal to the recent lower bound of Mondelli, Hassani and Urbanke. We provide a simplified expression for the lower bound in Theorem 7 of Cover and El Gamal and interpret one of its auxiliary variables as implementing the randomized time-sharing strategy. Next, we compare the lower bound for the Gaussian relay channel with orthogonal receiver components to existing upper bounds. Finally, we disprove a conjecture by Ahlswede and Han on the capacity of the subclass of relay channels with orthogonal receiver components and i.i. d. output. A full version of this paper is accessible at: http://chandra.ie. cuhk.edu. hk/pub/papers/NIT/Prim-Rel-LB.pdf