Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conformational Analysis of Clostridium difficile Toxin B and Its Implications for Substrate Recognition

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is an opportunistic pathogen that can cause potentially lethal hospital-acquired infections. The cellular damage that it causes is the result of two large clostridial cytotoxins: TcdA and TcdB which act by glucosylating cytosolic G-proteins, mis-regulation of which induces apoptosis. TcdB is a large flexible protein that appears to undergo significant structural rearrangement upon accommodation of its substrates: UDP-glucose and a Rho-family GTPase. To characterize the conformational space of TcdB, we applied normal mode and hinge-region analysis, followed by long-timescale unbiased molecular dynamics. In order to examine the TcdB and RhoA interaction, macromolecular docking and simulation of the TcdB/RhoA complex was performed. Generalized Masked Delaunay analysis of the simulations determined the extent of significant motions. This combination of methods elucidated a wide range of motions within TcdB that are reiterated in both the low-cost normal mode analysis and the extensive MD simulation. Of particular interest are the coupled motions between a peripheral 4-helix bundle and a small loop in the active site that must rearrange to allow RhoA entry to the catalytic site. These extensive coupled motions are indicative of TcdB using a conformational capture mechanism for substrate accommodation.
Moving Towards e-Learning Paradigm: Readiness of Higher Education Institutions in Palestine.

E-learning paradigm has grown significantly in the tertiary education sector in Palestine. For Palestinian education, e-learning has become a necessity rather than a luxury to miti - gate the negative effects of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the access to quality education. Substantial invest - ment has been made in developing the e-learning approach since 2002. However, the use of e-learning by higher educa - tion instructors is still underutilized and considerable efforts should be made to enable them to take full advantage of the potential of e-learning. Thus, the purpose of the research re - ported in this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the attitude of higher education instructors towards the adop - tion of e-learning through a proposed Technology Accep - tance Model (TAM) with multidimensional; socio-technical and organizational factors. Triangulation data were collected through semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire. Dif - ferent teaching staff at Birzeit University from a cross section of different academic programs was asked to identify patterns and variations in their experiences, perspectives, and inter - pretations about the adoption of e-learning. The study find - ings show that instructors have positive attitudes to embark on e-learning initiatives. This research further demonstrates that individual characteristics and technological factors have a significant influence on instructors to adopt e-learning. However, organizational factors were found to be the most significant determinant for adopting e-learning. Political will and the capacity of the university to respond quickly and appropriately to the transition change is crucial to facilitate wider adoption. In practice, this requires decision makers to take an active interest in and provide visible support for the e-learning approach in order to ‘bridge the chasm’ between early adopters and the early majority and promote the rate of diffusion of the e-learning approach.
Perception of image based on the psychophysical property

The paper presents a limit analysis of psychophysical methods which is designed for the changes in visual perception of when visual stimulus appear alternately. The purpose of this experiment is to reveal the quantizing relationship between stimulate and feeling response. Meanwhile, we studied the perception of image on visual information considering the color psychological attributes to clarify the changes of visual perception when image information presented by limit analysis approach. Based on the psychological scale, the test images were divided into three types using psychophysical analysis. The test results of psychophysical methods also were validated, focusing the verifications on the correctness of the main image date behind the limit analysis. The images data is derived from entropy, moment of inertia, local balance, and correlation. Both the two kinds of analysis arrived at the same conclusion, which turned out that the image perception happens in emotional process and depends upon the psychophysical property and signal superposition response.
Experimental validation and field performance metrics of a hybrid mobile robot mechanism

This paper presents the experimental validation and field testing of a novel hybrid mobile robot (HMR) system using a complete physical prototype. The mobile robot system consists of a hybrid mechanism whereby the locomotion platform and manipulator arm are designed as one entity to support both locomotion and manipulation symbiotically and interchangeably. The mechanical design is briefly described along with the related control hardware architecture based on an embedded onboard wireless communication network between the robot's subsystems, including distributed onboard power using Li‐ion batteries. The paper focuses on demonstrating through extensive experimental results the qualitative and quantitative field performance improvements of the mechanical design and how it significantly enhances mobile robot functionality in terms of the new operative locomotion and manipulation capabilities that it provides. In terms of traversing challenging obstacles, the robot was able to surmount cylindrical obstacles up to 0.6‐m diameter; cross ditches with at least 0.635‐m width; climb and descend step obstacles up to 0.7‐m height; and climb and descend stairs of different materials (wood, metal, concrete, plastic plaster, etc.), different stair riser and run sizes, and inclinations up to 60 deg. The robot also demonstrated the ability to manipulate objects up to 61 kg before and after flipping over, including pushing capacity of up to 61 kg when lifting objects from underneath. The above‐mentioned functions are critical in various challenging applications, such as search and rescue missions, military and police operations, and hazardous site inspections. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Informal learning in the workplace

This paper focuses mainly on theoretical frameworks for understanding and investigating informal learning in the workplace, which have been developed through a series of large‐ and small‐scale projects. The main conclusions are included but readers are referred to other publications for more detailed accounts of individual projects. Two types of framework are discussed. The first group seeks to deconstruct the ‘key concepts’ of informal learning, learning from experience, tacit knowledge, transfer of learning and> intuitive practice to disclose the range of different phenomena that are embraced by these popular terms. The second group comprises frameworks for addressing the three central questions that pervaded the research programme: what is being learned, how is it being learned and what are the factors that influence the level and directions of the learning effort?
Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management Approach to Building and Implementing Business Intelligence Systems

The article aims at describing processes of building Business Intelligence (BI) systems. Taking the BI systems specifics into consideration, the authors present a suggested methodology of the systems creation and implementation in organisations. The considerations are focused on objectives and functional areas of the BI in organisations. Hence, in this context the approach to be used while building and implementing the BI involves two major stages that are of interactive nature, i.e. BI creation and BI " consumption ". A large part of the article is devoted to presenting objectives and tasks that are realised while building and implementing BI.
Bandwidth efficient broadcasting in VANETs

Wireless communications amongst vehicles bring the opportunity for a wide range of applications, from safety aid to passenger entertainment. The necessity to broadcast information to several-hop neighbors is common to most of the potential application protocols. Broadcast protocols for VANETs based on diverse techniques have already been proposed. In this article, we compare basic broadcast schemes that are not dependent on neighbor knowledge using ns-2 - simple flooding, probabilistic, counter-based, distance-based and traffic-based broadcast. The objective is to obtain general directions for the design of a bandwidth efficient broadcast. Based on this comparison, we have selected distance-based flooding and proposed a scheme that is easy to adjust to the application's necessities.
Research on Personalized Services for Users of Education Resources Net

In order to users be able to find their own favorite resources quickly and accurately, this paper presents a personalized service which recommends resources for users at massive education resources net. On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of users and resources, this paper discusses the model of resource’s description and user’s interest, and the treatment of user’s interest drift, then designs and describes the personalized service model and implementation. The service is applied to Basic Education Resources Net of Liaoning Province. The effectiveness of such service is proved.
Efficient Query Processing in Dynamic Networks of Autonomous Sources

In this paper we investigate different optimisation techniques for query processing in networks of autonomous data sources, interconnected in a peer-to-peer fashion by means of GLAV mapping rules at the schema level. There are no restrictions on the topology of the network, in particular, cyclic networks are allowed. We have shown that knowledge of network structure may help to significantly improve the efficiency of query processing, both in the number of exchanged messages and in the time to get a complete answer. However, our optimization methods do not require advance knowledge of this topology, since the topology is discovered during query processing. The contributions of this paper include a definition of soundness and completeness for query processing in dynamically changing networks. Moreover, the query answering algorithm is shown to be efficient with respect to changes of the network. In particular, when the size of the change during query processing is sensibly less than the size of the network itself, query processing time is comparable to that of query processing in a stable network. The assumption that a change is small with respect to the size of whole network is reasonable for large scale networks. The results of an experimental evaluation of the algorithm are presented.
Towards Facilitating the Accessibility of Web 2 . 0 Texts through Text Normalisation

The Web 2.0, through its different platforms, such as blogs, social networks, microblogs, or forums allows users to freely write content on the Internet, with the purpose to provide, share and use information. However, the non-standard features of the language used in Web 2.0 publications can make social media content less accessible than traditional texts. For this reason we propose TENOR, a multilingual lexical approach for normalising Web 2.0 texts. Given a noisy sentence either in Spanish or English, our aim is to transform it into its canonical form, so that it can be easily understood by any person or text simplification tools. Our experimental results show that TENOR is an adequate tool for this task, facilitating text simplification with current NLP tools when required and also making Web 2.0 texts more accessible to people unfamiliar with these text types.
Putting women first : ethical and safety recommendations for research on domestic violence against women

This document is not a formal publication of the World Health Organization (WHO), and all rights are reserved by the Organization. The document may, however, be freely reviewed, abstracted, reproduced or translated, in part or in whole, but not for sale or for use in conjunction with commercial purposes. 3 The views expressed in documents by named authors are solely the responsibility of those authors.
Non-LTE line formation for Pr ii and Pr iii in A and Ap stars

Aims. Non-local thermodynamical equilibrium (non-LTE) line formation for singly-ionized and doubly-ionized praseodymium is considered for a range of effective temperatures between 7250 K and 9500 K. We evaluate the influence of departures from LTE on Pr abundance determinations and determine a distribution of the Pr abundance in the atmosphere of the roAp star HD 24 712 from a non-LTE analysis of the Pr ii and Pr iii lines. Methods. A comprehensive model atom for Pr ii/iii is presented based on the measured and the predicted energy levels, in total, 6708 levels of Pr ii and Pr iii and the ground state of Pr iv. Calculations of the Pr ii energy levels and oscillator strengths for the transitions in Pr ii and Pr iii are described. Results. The dependence of non-LTE effects on the atmospheric parameters is discussed. At Teff ≥ 8000 K, departures from LTE lead to the overionization of Pr ii and, therefore, to systematically depleted total absorption in the line and positive abundance corrections. At the lower temperatures, different lines of Pr ii may be either weakened or amplified depending on the line strength. The non-LTE effects strengthen the Pr iii lines and lead to negative abundance corrections. Non-LTE corrections grow with effective temperature for the Pr ii lines, and, in contrast, they decline for the Pr iii lines. The Pr ii/iii model atom is applied to determine the Pr abundance in the atmosphere of the roAp star HD 24 712 from the lines of two ionization stages. In the chemically uniform atmosphere with [Pr/H] = 3, the departures from LTE may explain only a small part (approximately 0.3 dex) of the difference between the LTE abundances derived from the Pr ii and Pr iii lines (� 2 dex). We find that the lines of both ionization stages are fitted for the vertical distribution of praseodymium, where the Pr enriched layer with [Pr/H] ≥ 4 exists in the outer atmosphere at log τ5000 < −4. The departures from LTE for Pr ii/iii are strong in the stratified atmosphere and have the opposite sign for the Pr ii and Pr iii lines. The praseodymium stratification analysis of roAp stars has to be performed based on non-LTE line formation. Using the revised partition function of Pr ii and experimental transition probabilities, we determine the solar non-LTE abundance to be log (Pr/H)� = −11.15 ± 0.08.
Title: Genetic and chemical differentiation of Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni lipooligosaccharide pathways Running title: Campylobacter coli LOS

1Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Agnes Sjobergin katu 2, Helsinki, FI-00014, Finland. 2College of Medicine, Institute of Life Science, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom. 3Institute for Biological Sciences, National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6, Canada. 4Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom * Corresponding author: e-mail: aleja.culebro@helsinki.fi; Phone: +3580294157428; Mobile: +3580504486622
Online binding of applications to multiple clock domains in shared FPGA-based systems

Modern FPGA-based platforms provide multiple clock domains and their frequencies can be changed at runtime by using PLLs and clock multiplexers. This is especially beneficial for platforms that run several applications simultaneously (e.g. modern wireless sensor nodes that are shared by multiple users), as different processing modules may be fed by different clock frequencies at different time windows. However, since the number of clock domains on a platform is limited, several processing modules need to share the same clock domain. In this paper, we study the problem of binding multiple applications to multiple clock domains, such that the latest finishing time of any application (i.e. the makespan) is minimized. We present an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation and then propose a novel algorithm that (i) quickly identifies those applications that are dominated by others (and thus can be ignored without losing optimality) and that (ii) uses the ascending property of the optimal binding to reduce the search space. The experimental results show up to 17% makespan reduction compared to state-of-the-art. The overhead when executing on a low-power SmartFusion2 SoC equipped with an ARM Cortex-M3 core is on average 8.9 ms, i.e. our algorithm is suitable for runtime decisions.
Property Directed Generation of First-Order Test Data

Random testing is a powerful method for verifying program properties. However, as the complexity of the program and properties increases, writing customized input data generators quickly becomes necessary. We present a method for systematic generation of input data by lazy instantiation using meta variables and parallel partial evaluation of properties. This is applied on specification based program verification. We claim that some program verification problems can be handled by systematic generation without the need of writing custom generators, and that some problems, for which writing generators is not a solution and random testing fails, are still simple enough for systematic generation. The system we present is related to functional logic programming.
Arm trajectory and representation of movement processing in motor cortical activity

We review experiments in which single‐cell primary motor cortical activity was recorded from Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) while they performed reaching and drawing tasks. The directional tuning curves generated during reaching were modulated by the speed of movement and this was reflected in the magnitude of population vectors calculated from firing rates of a large population of cells. Directional and speed representation in the firing rates of these cells is robust across both reaching and drawing. Several behavioural invariants related to the speed of drawing were represented in the time‐series of population vectors. This high fidelity neural representation of velocity found in motor cortex can be used to visualize the dynamics of motor cortical activity during drawing and suggests that the cost function governing the rate of drawing is bound by neural processing.
The many manifestations of downsizing: hierarchical galaxy formation models confront observations

It has been widely claimed that several lines of observational evidence point towards a ‘downsizing’ of the process of galaxy formation over cosmic time. This behaviour is sometimes termed ‘antihierarchical’, and contrasted with the ‘bottom-up’ (small objects form first) assembly of the dark matter structures in cold dark matter (CDM) models. In this paper, we address three different kinds of observational evidence that have been described as ‘downsizing’: the stellar mass assembly (i.e. more massive galaxies assemble at higher redshift with respect to low-mass ones), star formation rate (SFR) (i.e. the decline of the specific star formation rate is faster for more massive systems) and the ages of the stellar populations in local galaxies (i.e. more massive galaxies host older stellar populations). We compare a broad compilation of available data sets with the predictions of three different semi-analytic models
Simple model for estimation of mutual coupling impedance in microstrip patch array

An empirical formulation for the estimation of mutual coupling between elements in a microstrip patch array has been proposed. The formulation is expressed in closed form in terms of simple functions of element spacing and azimuthal angular separation between elements. The least square method is used to evaluate the mutual impedance values computed by the proposed formulations with sample data obtained by numerical simulation to determine the coefficients in the formulations. The formulation can be used to estimate the mutual coupling between any elements in the same array within certain ranges of element spacing and azimuthal angular separation. The validity and accuracy of the proposed formulation is examined and illustrated by numerical results.
Postchallenge hyperglycemia and mortality in a national sample of U.S. adults.

OBJECTIVE Although postchallenge hyperglycemia is a well-established feature of type 2 diabetes, its association with risk of mortality is uncertain. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the independent association of fasting and 2-h glucose levels with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed data from the Second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) Mortality Study, a prospective cohort study of U.S. adults examined in the NHANES II, and focused on the 3,092 adults aged 30-74 years who underwent an oral glucose tolerance test at baseline (1976-1980). Deaths were identified from U.S. national mortality files from 1976 to 1992. To account for the complex survey design, we used SUDAAN statistical software for weighted analysis. RESULTS Compared with their normoglycemic counterparts (fasting glucose [FG] < 7.0 and 2-h glucose < 7.8 mmol/l), adults with fasting and postchallenge hyperglycemia (FG > or =7.0 and 2-h glucose > or =11.1 mmol/l) had a twofold higher risk of death after 16 years of follow-up (age- and sex-adjusted relative hazard [RH] 2.1, 95% CI 1.4-3.2). However, adults with isolated postchallenge hyperglycemia (FG < 7.0 and 2-h glucose > or =11.1 mmol/l) were also at higher risk of death (1.6, 1.0-2.6). In proportional hazards analysis, FG (fully adjusted RH 1.10 per 1 SD; 95% CI 1.01, 1.22) and 2-h glucose (1.14, 1.00-1.29) showed nearly identical predictive value for mortality. Similar trends were observed for CVD mortality. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that postchallenge hyperglycemia is associated with increased risk of all-cause and CVD mortality independently of other CVD risk factors.
Application of photoionization models based on radiative transfer and the Helmholtz equations to studies of streamers in weak electric fields

Recent advances in development of photoionization models in air based on radiative transfer and Helmholtz equations open new perspectives for efficient solution of nonthermal gas discharge problems involving complex geometries. Many practical applications require accurate modeling of streamer discharges developing in weak electric fields, in which the photoionization process significantly contributes to discharge dynamics. This paper (1) reports original studies, which demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the recently proposed photoionization models for studies of streamers in weak electric fields, and (2) introduces efficient boundary conditions for the photoinization models based on radiative transfer theory.
P Wave Morphology in Guiding the Ablation Strategy of Focal Atrial Tachycardias and Atrial Flutter

Focal atrial tachycardias arise preferentially from specific locations within the atria. Careful analysis of the P wave can provide useful information about the chamber and likely site of origin within that chamber. Macro-reentrant atrial flutter also tends to occur over a limited number of potential circuits. In this case, the ECG usually gives a guide to the chamber of origin, but unless it shows a specific morphology it is less useful in delineating the circuit involved. Nonetheless, prior knowledge of the likely chamber of origin helps to plan the ablation strategy.