Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Methodology for Accurate and Redundancy-Free Business Requirements Description Using Ontology

Data deluge and changing business environment are considered to be serious in that data in corporate information systems are too conveniently and frequently replicated for companies to make decisions properly. Inaccurate and redundant data would induce erroneous decision making which bases on error-infectious information systems. We report that most of inaccuracy and redundancy can be effectively removed from the very start of information system development using business description. Over the last few decades, a few efforts to make business descriptions correctly have been directed toward ontology for business requirements elicitation. However, due to excessive reliance on stale knowledge of past documents, most ontology based systems have failed to formulate appropriate business requirements for up-to-date business circumstances. We propose a new enhanced method which can formulate a flexible business description on the basis of local domain ontology as well as prior knowledge bases. In addition to utilizing ontology as business requirements description, our method focuses on accuracy and redundancy in business requirements description. To evaluate the methodology, we devised a new system of ontology integration for business requirements description.
Real-time energy-efficient fall detection based on SSR energy efficiency strategy

Falling of the elderly has become a growing concern of the community due to the increase of the ageing population and the serious consequences caused by falling. Devising a fall detection system that is not only highly accurate and reliable, but energy efficient and durable is a challenge. In this paper, we proposed an energy efficient fall detection algorithm based on segmented sampling rates. Most of the time, the algorithm uses a low sampling rate to minimise the energy consumption, but a higher sampling rate when a possible fall is sensed. This unique design helps to increase the fall detection accuracy, while reducing the total energy consumption. Results of comprehensive performance evaluation show that the accuracy rate of the proposed fall detection algorithm is 98.33%, meanwhile, the system can save energy by 9.13% comparing to other algorithms running with a high sampling rate without an energy efficient strategy.
Ieee Ipas'14: International Image Processing Applications and Systems Conference 2014 an Improved Interest Point Matching Algorithm for Human Body Tracking

—The interest point (IP) matching algorithms match the points either locally or spatially. We propose a local-spatial IP matching algorithm usable for articulated human body tracking. The local-based stage finds matched IP pairs of two reference and target IP lists using a local-feature-descriptors-based matching method. Then, the spatial-based stage recovers more matched pairs from the remaining unmatched IPs through based on the result of the previous stage using the Shape Contexts (SC) feature vectors. The proposed approach benefits from the speed of local matching algorithms as well as the accuracy and robustness of spatial matching methods. Experimental results show that not only the proposed algorithm increases the precision rate from 44.71% to 97.41%, but also it improves the recall rate from 80.88% to 84.96%.
Transcriptome Analysis Revealed Changes of Multiple Genes Involved in Haliotis discus hannai Innate Immunity during Vibrio parahemolyticus Infection

Abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) is one of the most valuable marine aquatic species in Korea, Japan and China. Tremendous exposure to bacterial infection is common in aquaculture environment, especially by Vibrio sp. infections. It’s therefore necessary and urgent to understand the mechanism of H. discus hannai host defense against Vibrio parahemolyticus infection. However studies on its immune system are hindered by the lack of genomic resources. In the present study, we sequenced the transcriptome of control and bacterial challenged H. discus hannai tissues. Totally, 138 MB of reference transcriptome were obtained from de novo assembly of 34 GB clean bases from ten different libraries and annotated with the biological terms (GO and KEGG). A total of 10,575 transcripts exhibiting the differentially expression at least one pair of comparison and the functional annotations highlight genes related to immune response, cell adhesion, immune regulators, redox molecules and mitochondrial coding genes. Mostly, these groups of genes were dominated in hemocytes compared to other tissues. This work is a prerequisite for the identification of those physiological traits controlling H. discus hannai ability to survive against Vibrio infection.
Discrete-Time Model Representation for Biochemical Pathway Systems

This paper presents the importance of formulating general discrete-time model representations for current pathway deterministic modeling study. Discrete-time models can be considered as a link between continuous-time kinetic reactions and discrete-time experimentation as well as computer based simulation and analysis. In the paper, different discretization techniques are investigated according to different sorts of ODE model structures. Two discretization strategies are mainly focused, that are one-step Taylor/Lie series based method and multi-step Runge-Kutta method. A new discretization approach based on Taylor expansion and Carleman linearization is proposed for bilinear in states pathway models. Finally, the superiority of using Runge-Kutta based approach as general discrete-time model representations are concluded.
Psychiatric Comorbidity and Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) Profiles in Eating Disorder Patients

Objective: This study examines potential overlaps between psychiatric comorbidity (Axis I and II) and scores on the subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) in women with eating disorders (EDs). Method: In a sample of 248 women (72 with anorexia nervosa, 140 with bulimia nervosa, and 36 with eating disorders not otherwise specified), we determined psychiatric comorbidity using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Behavioural and psychological characteristics of EDs were quantified with the EDI. Results: Psychiatric comorbidity was high in both axes (74% for Axis I and 68% for Axis II). While most EDI subscales pertaining to psychological traits showed significant associations with Axis I and II disorders, the subscales concerning eating and perception of weight and shape were much less associated with psychiatric comorbidity. Affective and anxiety disorders, as well as personality disorders of clusters A and C, showed a similar pattern with links to most psychological subscales. The profile for substance-related disorders was different, showing associations with the Ineffectiveness and Interoceptive Awareness scales. Personality disorders of cluster B were related only to the Bulimia subscale and not to any of the psychological subscales. Conclusions: The EDI appears to primarily reflect Axis I and II disorders related to affective and anxiety problems. Clinicians and researchers employing the EDI should be aware that it is not sensitive for all forms of comorbidity prevalent in ED patients.
Chemical Synthesis of the β-Subunit of Human Luteinizing (hLH) and Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) Glycoprotein Hormones

Human luteinizing hormone (hLH) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) are human glycoprotein hormones each consisting of two subunits, an identical α-subunit and a unique β-subunit, that form noncovalent heterodimers. Structurally, β-hCG shares a high degree of sequence similarity with β-hLH, including a common N-glycosylation site at the N-terminus but differs mainly in the presence of an extended C-terminal portion incorporating four closely spaced O-linked glycans. These glycoproteins play important roles in reproduction and are used clinically in the treatment of infertility. In addition, the role of hCG as a tumor marker in a variety of cancers has also attracted significant interest for the development of cancer vaccines. In clinical applications, these hormones are administered as mixtures of glycoforms due to limitations of biological methods in producing homogeneous samples of these glycoproteins. Using the powerful tools of chemical synthesis, the work presented herein focuses on the highly convergent syntheses of homogeneous β-hLH and β-hCG bearing model glycans at all native glycosylation sites. Key steps in these syntheses include a successful double Lansbury glycosylation en route to the N-terminal fragment of β-hCG and the sequential installation of four O-linked glycosyl-amino acid cassettes into closely spaced O-glycosylation sites in a single, high-yielding solid-supported synthesis to access the C-terminal portion of the molecule. The final assembly of the individual glycopeptide fragments involved a stepwise native chemical ligation strategy to provide the longest and most complex human glycoprotein hormone (β-hCG) as well as its closely related homologue (β-hLH) as discrete glycoforms.
Body Weight, Body Composition and Longevity

The question of the effect of variations in body weight on longevity is of enormous importance. Due in large part to the industrial and agricultural revolutions, relative body weight has been steadily increasing in the United States and most of the Western world (1). Consequently, rates of obesity have risen dramatically (2). As agricultural and industrial technology spreads into much of the nonWestern world, evidence suggests that the relative body weights and rates of obesity are increasing in those populations as well (1). Given this background and the fact that weight is something that is possessed by all humans and therefore of potential interest to all humans, it is not surprising that enormous attention has been focused on relative body weight. Relative body weight is the subject of government policies and guidelines (1), employment policies and guidelines, public education campaigns, insurance policies, a target of the food and pharmaceutical industries, and substantial scientific investigation. Despite all of this effort and attention, the effect of variations in relative body weight on longevity remains the subject of considerable debate (3—6). At one extreme, some authors suggest that the relationship between relative body weight and longevity is monotonic decreasing (7). In other words, one can never be too thin. At the other extreme, some authors have suggested that relative body weight has little important impact on longevity (8). In the middle, several authors have suggested that the relationship between relative body weight and mortality within a given period of time is U-shaped or J-shaped (9), that the relationships may vary as a function of individuals’ demographic characteristics such as age, sex, and race (10,11), or that the relationships are simply not fully understood at this time (12,13). We divide this chapter in two broad sections. First, because methodological issues have been and continue to be so prominent in this area, we begin with a review of a few methodological points. We then follow this with a discussion focusing on current findings and needs for future research.
Ellipse and Arc Routing Algorithms for Delaunay Triangulations

Oblivious online routing (OOR) algorithms are suitable when applications only have local information available to make routing decisions. This paper presents two new OOR algorithms for Delaunay triangulations: the Ellipse Routing algorithm and the Arc Routing algorithm. Both of their names come from the shapes of their searching areas for the next-hop neighbor. This paper also evaluates and compares the presented algorithms with three existing OOR algorithms in terms of link distances and Euclidean distances. The experimental results show that (1) the two new algorithms both perform better than the other three OOR algorithms in terms of Euclidean distance, but worse in terms of link distance and (2) Delaunay triangulations with random node placement have the property that the shortest paths in link distance metric and in Euclidean distance metric are discrepant in a large proportion. Finally, this paper poses two open problems based on the observations on the experimental results. Keywords— geometric graph; Delaunay triangulations; oblivious online routing; shortest paths.
Nitric Oxide and Salmonella Pathogenesis

Nitric oxide (NO) and its congeners contribute to the innate immune response to Salmonella. This enteric pathogen is exposed to reactive nitrogen species (RNS) in the environment and at different anatomical locations during its infectious cycle in vertebrate hosts. Chemical generation of RNS enhances the gastric barrier to enteropathogenic bacteria, while products of the Salmonella pathogenicity island 1 type III secretion system and Salmonella-associated molecular patterns stimulate transcription of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) by cells of the mononuclear phagocytic cell lineage. The resulting NO, or products that arise from its interactions with oxygen (O2) or iron and low-molecular weight thiols, are preferentially bacteriostatic against Salmonella, while reaction of NO and superoxide (O2−) generates the bactericidal compound peroxynitrite (ONOO−). The anti-Salmonella activity of RNS emanates from the modification of redox active thiols and metal prosthetic groups of key molecular targets of the electron transport chain, central metabolic enzymes, transcription factors, and DNA and DNA-associated proteins. In turn, Salmonella display a plethora of defenses that modulate the delivery of iNOS-containing vesicles to phagosomes, scavenge and detoxify RNS, and repair biomolecules damaged by these toxic species. Traditionally, RNS have been recognized as important mediators of host defense against Salmonella. However, exciting new findings indicate that Salmonella can exploit the RNS produced during the infection to foster virulence. More knowledge of the primary RNS produced in response to Salmonella infection, the bacterial processes affected by these toxic species, and the adaptive bacterial responses that protect Salmonella from nitrosative and oxidative stress associated with NO will increase our understanding of Salmonella pathogenesis. This information may assist in the development of novel therapeutics against this common enteropathogen.
Generating an Educational Domain Checklist through an Adaptive Framework for Evaluating Educational Systems

The growth of the Internet and related technologies has enabled the development of a new breed of dynamic websites that is growing rapidly in use and that has had a huge impact on many businesses. One type of websites that have been widely spread and are being widely adopted is the educational websites. There are many forms of educational websites, such as free online websites and Web-based server software. This creates challenges regarding their continuing evaluation and monitoring in order to measure their efficiency and effectiveness, to assess user satisfaction and, ultimately, to improve their quality. The lack of an adaptive usability checklist for improvement of the usability assessment process for educational systems represents a missing piece in ‘usability testing’. This paper presents an adaptive Domain-Specific Inspection (DSI) checklist as a tool for evaluating the usability of educational systems. The results show that the adaptive educational usability checklist helped evaluators to facilitate the evaluation process. It also provides an opportunity for website owners to choose the usability area(s) that they think need to be evaluated. Moreover, this method was more efficient and effective than user testing (UT) and heuristics evaluation (HE) methods.
Direct regulation of topoisomerase activity by a nucleoid-associated protein

The topological homeostasis of bacterial chromosomes is maintained by the balance between compaction and the topological organization of genomes. Two classes of proteins play major roles in chromosome organization: the nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) and topoisomerases. The NAPs bind DNA to compact the chromosome, whereas topoisomerases catalytically remove or introduce supercoils into the genome. We demonstrate that HU, a major NAP of Mycobacterium tuberculosis specifically stimulates the DNA relaxation ability of mycobacterial topoisomerase I (TopoI) at lower concentrations but interferes at higher concentrations. A direct physical interaction between M. tuberculosis HU (MtHU) and TopoI is necessary for enhancing enzyme activity both in vitro and in vivo. The interaction is between the amino terminal domain of MtHU and the carboxyl terminal domain of TopoI. Binding of MtHU did not affect the two catalytic trans-esterification steps but enhanced the DNA strand passage, requisite for the completion of DNA relaxation, a new mechanism for the regulation of topoisomerase activity. An interaction-deficient mutant of MtHU was compromised in enhancing the strand passage activity. The species-specific physical and functional cooperation between MtHU and TopoI may be the key to achieve the DNA relaxation levels needed to maintain the optimal superhelical density of mycobacterial genomes.
Strengthening the Chillon viaducts deck slabs with reinforced UHPFRC

Located in Switzerland, Chillon viaducts are two parallel highway posttensioned concrete bridges built in the late 1960s. The concrete of the deck slabs of these bridges shows signs of early stages of the alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR), which will induce, in time, a decrease of the concrete strength. To insure structural safety for future traffic demands, it was decided to strengthen the slab by adding a layer of 40 mm of an Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced cement-based Composite (UHPFRC) material, reinforced with steel rebars. Strain-hardening UHPFRC, with its low permeability, is used as a waterproofing layer protecting the slabs from the water to reduce the rate of AAR. UHPFRC has excellent mechanical properties and also acts as an external tensile reinforcement for the slab, increasing its bending and shear resistance and extending the fatigue life. To investigate this increase in structural resistance, an analytical calculation is done using models previously developed based on extensive experimental campaigns. Finally, the choice of UHPFRC for strengthening was also the most efficient in terms of intervention duration and cost.
Automated loading of fragmented rock in mining : A literature and technology survey

Increased competition and globalization in the mineral industry has resulted in demands for advanced equipment technology. The automated loading problem entails the design of a system capable of regulating complicated bucket-rock interactions that occur during excavation. A notable amount of previous work has been performed to address this issue, although such work has mainly focused on the excavation of granular material such as soil rather than on rock. Moreover, none has resulted in widespread industry adoption of automated rock loading technologies. Provided is an extensive survey of the state-of-the-art in autonomous excavation, with a focus given to the automation of load-haul-dump (LHD) underground mining machines that operate in fragmented rock.
E-care: a telecommunications technology intervention for family caregivers of dementia patients.

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the effectiveness of a technology-based psychoeducational intervention for family caregivers of dementia patients. An additional objective was to determine if the intervention could be implemented by a community-based social service agency. METHODS Forty-six caregivers were randomly assigned to either a technology-based intervention or an information-only control condition. RESULTS Caregivers assigned to the intervention condition reported a significant decrease in burden postintervention and those who evidenced high depression at baseline experienced a significant decline in depression. CONCLUSION This study provides evidence that technology offers a cost-effective and practical method for delivering interventions to caregivers.
Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and transforming growth factor alpha in rat testis during chronic renal failure.

INTRODUCTION Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to influence testis function. Transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-α) is expressed in the postnatal testis, and has been demonstrated to stimulate testis development. Systemic diseases such as chronic renal failure (CRF) interfere with hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, which may cause defective steroidogenesis and gonadal functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and localization of VEGF and TGF-α in testicular tissues of experimental CRF model. MATERIAL AND METHODS Experimental CRF was induced in rats by the resection of more than 85% of renal mass. The expression of VEGF and TGF-α in testicular tissues were assessed by immunohistochemistry on paraffin sections of control, CRF-nondialysed and CRF-dialysed rats. RESULTS The microscopic evaluation of the testicular structure showed that CRF did not affect testicular histology. Immunohistochemical evaluation showed that VEGF was expressed in the cytoplasm of primary and secondary spermatocyte series as well as the early spermatids. Staining intensity was lower in spermatocytes going through the first meiotic division. TGF-α was expressed in the nuclei of spermatogonia and primary spermatocytes with stronger staining intensity in spermatogonia. The intensity of VEGF staining was similar in control and experimental animals, however, TGF-α expression was lower in the CRF group. CONCLUSIONS The continuous expression of VEGF in spermatocytes and spermatids suggests that the applied model of CRF does not directly disrupt morphology of seminiferous epithelium, thus also spermiogenesis. However, difference between control rats and CRF group in TGF-α immunopositivity, which was localised in spermatogonial mitosis step, may suggest the interference of CRF with early stages of spermatogenesis.
Public Choice III: What have we learned?

This book represents a considerable revision and expansion of Public Choice II (1989). Six new chapters have been added, and several chapters from the previous edition have been extensively revised. The discussion of empirical work in public choice has been greatly expanded. As in the previous editions, all of the major topics of public choice are covered. These include: why the state exists, voting rules, federalism, the theory of clubs, two-party and multiparty electoral systems, rent seeking, bureaucracy, interest groups, dictatorship, the size of government, voter participation, and political business cycles. Normative issues in public choice are also examined including a normative analysis of the simple majority rule, Bergsonâ€“Samuelson social welfare functions, the Arrow and Sen impossibility theorems, Rawls's social contract theory and the constitutional political economy of Buchanan and Tullock.