Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Benchmarking efficiency of children's garment production process using alpha and ILP replayer techniques

Recently, the production process of a manufacturer and exporter of children's garment company encountered some problems. Many of clients of the company were consistently complaining about delays in delivery of their orders. This situation was badly and negatively affecting the image and reputation of the company. To solve the problem, a research team was set up. The team conducted couple of interviews with 25 supervisors of the company as well as 4 top-managers (including production manager, general manager, quality assurance manager, and packing manager), who all were unanimously agreeing on the act that the number of the complaint letters and calls from customers were increasing day by day. Unfortunately the company was using a very traditional and out-of-fashion approach to track and trace the placement of each order, since no information system was being used and everything was handled manually following a paper-based approach. The research team spent 4 months to collect, study and investigate all the available data while transferring and transforming the data from printed documents into digital event logs (including timestamp, process type, activity name, resources, and other additional attributes and so on). Thanking to process mining techniques. The researchers were able to overcome and end this undesirable situation. In general, this study is divided into 3 main parts. In the first part, Alpha Miner algorithm, which is a Petri net-based process discovery approach, was applied in order to simulate and visualize the overall workflow of the processes within the garment manufacturer and exporter company. In the second part, ILP Replayer technique, which is a conformance checking approach, was used with the purpose of comparing and replaying the authentic event logs in hand with a standard model (i.e., a master key previously generated by top production managers) in order to investigate the compatibility and compliance of the real data with the pre-defined rules and conditions. The findings showed 15 violations of the rules (i.e., so-called bottlenecks) or undesirable situations which need to be addressed carefully and immediately. The third part of the work emphasizes on offering solutions and suggestions on how the identified problems were solved and undertaken. Eventually, the proposed approach could significantly improve the efficiency of the orders delivery process leading to increased customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and added-value on the company's brand image and reputation.
Viscous Dissipation Impact on Free Convection Flow of Cu-water Nanofluid in a Circular Enclosure with Porosity Considering Internal Heat Source

In this work, free convection of Cu-water nanofluid in an enclosure by considering internally heat generated in the porous circular cavity and the impacts of viscous dissipation are numerically evaluated by control volume finite element method (CVFEM). The outer and inner sides of the circular porous enclosure are maintained at a fixed temperature while insulating the other two walls. The impacts of diverse effective parameters including the Rayleigh number, viscous dissipation, and nanofluid concentration on features of heat transfer and fluid flow are examined. Moreover, a new correlation for the average Nusselt number is developed according to the study’s active parameters. It can be deduced by the results that the maximum value of the temperature is proportional to the viscous dissipation parameter.
Luopan: Sampling based load balancing in data center networks

Data center networks demand high-performance, robust, and practical data plane load balancing protocols. Despite progress, existing work falls short of satisfying these requirements. We design and evaluate Luopan, a novel sampling based load balancing protocol that overcomes these challenges. Luopan operates at flowcell granularity similar to Presto. It periodically samples a few paths to each destination switch and directs flowcells to the least congested one. By being congestion-aware, Luopan improves flow completion time (FCT), and is more robust to topological asymmetries compared to Presto. The sampling approach simplifies the protocol and makes it much more scalable for implementation in large-scale networks compared to existing congestion-aware schemes. We conduct comprehensive packet-level simulations with a production workload. The results show that Luopan consistently outperforms state-of-the-art schemes in large-scale symmetric and asymmetric topologies. Compared to Presto, Luopan with 2 samples improves the 99%ile FCT of mice flows by up to 45%, and average FCT of medium flows by ~20%.
Prolonged release melatonin in the treatment of primary insomnia: evaluation of the age cut-off for short- and long-term response

Abstract Objectives: The authors recently reported on efficacy and safety of prolonged-release melatonin formulation (PRM; Circadin 2 mg) in elderly insomnia patients. The age cut-off for response to PRM and the long-term maintenance of efficacy and safety were further evaluated by looking at the total cohort (age 18–80 years) from that study and subsets of patients aged 18–54 and 55–80 years (for whom the drug is currently indicated). Design: Randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trial. Setting: Multicentre, outpatients, primary care setting. Methods: A total of 930 males and females aged 18–80 years with primary insomnia who reported mean nightly sleep latency (SL) >20 min were enrolled and 791 entered the active phase of the study. The study comprised a 2-week, single-blind placebo run-in period followed by 3 week’s double-blind treatment with PRM or placebo, one tablet per day at 2 hours before bedtime. PRM patients continued whereas placebo completers were re-randomised 1:1 to PRM or placebo for 26 weeks followed by 2-weeks run-out on placebo. Main outcome measures: SL and other sleep variables derived from sleep diary, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Quality of life (WHO-5), Clinical Global Impression of Improvement (CGI-I) and adverse effects, recorded each visit, withdrawal and rebound effects during run-out. Results: In all, 746 patients completed the 3-week and 555 (421 PRM, 134 placebo) completed the 6-month period. The principal reason for drop-out was patient decision. At 3 weeks, significant differences in SL (diary, primary variable) in favour of PRM vs. placebo treatment were found for the 55–80-year group (−15.4 vs. −5.5 min, p = 0.014) but not the 18–80-year cut-off which included younger patients. Other variables (SL-PSQI, PSQI, WHO-5, CGI-I scores) improved significantly with PRM in the 18–80-year population, more so than in the 55–80-year age group. Improvements were maintained or enhanced over the 6–month period with no signs of tolerance. No withdrawal symptoms or rebound insomnia were detected. Most adverse events were mild with no significant differences between PRM and placebo groups in any safety outcome. Conclusions: The results demonstrate short- and long-term efficacy of PRM in insomnia patients aged 18–80 years, particularly those aged 55 and over. PRM was well-tolerated over the entire 6-month period with no rebound or withdrawal symptoms following discontinuation. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00397189.
Endosymbiosis in Trypanosomatids as a Model to Study Cell Evolution

Some trypanosomatids harbor a symbiotic bacterium, which maintains a close association with the host, consti- tuting an excellent model to study organelle origin and cellular evolution. Molecular data show that all endosymbiont- harboring trypanosomatids are grouped together in a single phylogenetic branch. According to rRNA sequences, symbi- onts of different species are similar, being classified in the s division of Proteobacteria, thus suggesting that a single evo- lutionary event gave rise to the symbiosis in the Trypanosomatidae family. The bacterium is enclosed by two unit mem- branes and presents a reduced peptidoglycan layer, which is essential for cell division and morphological maintenance. Regarding the protein composition, the number of intramembrane particles in the endosymbiont envelope is similar to that described for Gram-negative bacteria. Lipid analyses of purified endosymbionts show absence of sterols and indicate phosphatidylcholine as a major component of the envelope, as described in other intracellular bacteria. The presence of the endosymbiont is associated with distinct ultrastructural and physico-chemical alterations in the trypanosomatid and in- fluences the protozoan interaction with the insect host and mammalian cells. Symbiont-containing trypanosomatids are able to infect and to replicate inside fibroblasts and macrophages, whose microbicidal activity was deactivated by HIV-1 infection. The symbiosis in trypanosomatids is characterized by intensive metabolic exchanges; the bacterium expresses enzymes and metabolic precursors that complete essential biosynthetic pathways of the protozoan. Conversely, the sym- biont is capable of obtaining part of the required energetic molecules from the host glycosomes. Taken together data sug- gest that endosymbiosis in trypanosomatids represents an interesting model to study cell evolution.
An Atlas of Altered Expression of Deubiquitinating Enzymes in Human Cancer

Background Deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) are proteases that process ubiquitin (Ub) or ubiquitin-like gene products, remodel polyubiquitin(-like) chains on target proteins, and counteract protein ubiquitination exerted by E3 ubiquitin-ligases. A wealth of studies has established the relevance of DUBs to the control of physiological processes whose subversion is known to cause cellular transformation, including cell cycle progression, DNA repair, endocytosis and signal transduction. Altered expression of DUBs might, therefore, subvert both the proteolytic and signaling functions of the Ub system. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we report the first comprehensive screening of DUB dysregulation in human cancers by in situ hybridization on tissue microarrays (ISH-TMA). ISH-TMA has proven to be a reliable methodology to conduct this kind of study, particularly because it allows the precise identification of the cellular origin of the signals. Thus, signals associated with the tumor component can be distinguished from those associated with the tumor microenvironment. Specimens derived from various normal and malignant tumor tissues were analyzed, and the “normal” samples were derived, whenever possible, from the same patients from whom tumors were obtained. Of the ∼90 DUBs encoded by the human genome, 33 were found to be expressed in at least one of the analyzed tissues, of which 22 were altered in cancers. Selected DUBs were subjected to further validation, by analyzing their expression in large cohorts of tumor samples. This analysis unveiled significant correlations between DUB expression and relevant clinical and pathological parameters, which were in some cases indicative of aggressive disease. Conclusions/Significance The results presented here demonstrate that DUB dysregulation is a frequent event in cancer, and have implications for therapeutic approaches based on DUB inhibition.
Towards characterizing international routing detours

There are currently no requirements (technical or otherwise) that routing paths must be contained within national boundaries. Indeed, some paths experience international detours, i.e., originate in one country, cross international boundaries and return to the same country. In most cases these are sensible traffic engineering or peering decisions at ISPs that serve multiple countries. In some cases such detours may be suspicious. Characterizing international detours is useful to a number of players: (a) network engineers trying to diagnose persistent problems, (b) policy makers aiming at adhering to certain national communication policies, (c) entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to deploy new networks, or (d) privacy-conscious states trying to minimize the amount of internal communication traversing different jurisdictions. In this paper we characterize international detours in the Internet during the month of January 2016. To detect detours we sample BGP RIBs every 8 hours from 461 RouteViews and RIPE RIS peers spanning 30 countries. We use geolocation of ASes which geolocates each BGP prefix announced by each AS, mapping its presence at IXPs and geolocation infrastructure IPs. Finally, we analyze each global BGP RIB entry looking for detours. Our analysis shows more than 5K unique BGP prefixes experienced a detour. 132 prefixes experienced more than 50% of the detours. We observe about 544K detours. Detours either last for a few days or persist the entire month. Out of all the detours, more than 90% were transient detours that lasted for 72 hours or less. We also show different countries experience different characteristics of detours.
Transgenic models for the study of prostate cancer

Transgenic model systems provide tools for obtaining information that clarifies important relationships between genetic alterations and carcinogenesis. One such relationship is the induction of specific growth factor activities by dominantly acting oncogenes. Using a “transgenie organ” model referred to as mouse prostate reconstitution (MPR) under conditions where the ras and myc oncogenes were introduced using a recombinant retrovirus into both the mesenchymal and epithelial compartments of the urogenital sinus, poorly differentiated prostate cancer (PC) was produced with high frequency (> 90%) in inbred C57BL/6 mice. Time‐course studies using northern blotting and immunohistochemical analysis showed that the transition from benign to malignant status invariably was associated with the induction of elevated transforming growth factor‐beta 1 (TGF‐β1) expression. Additional immunohistochemical analysis of TGF‐β1 in human PC and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) showed that positive extracellular staining was significantly more extensive in PC compared with BPH. This differential staining pattern was evident in focal areas of PC adjacent to BPH. These findings in both the MPR model system and human PC suggest that elevated TGF‐β1 expression is involved in the progression to malignancy and that its pattern of expression may become a useful marker of PC. Additional studies using transgenic animal models will continue to provide important clinically useful information about PC in man.
The 5G Cellular Backhaul Management Dilemma: To Cache or to Serve

To reap the benefits of cache-enabled small cell networks, new backaul management mechanisms are needed to prevent the predicted files that are downloaded at the small base stations (SBSs) for caching purposes from jeopardizing the urgent requests that need to be served via the backhaul. Such mechanisms must account for the heterogeneity of the backhaul that will encompass both wireless backhaul links (at various frequency bands) and a wired backhaul component. In this paper, the heterogeneous backhaul management problem is formulated as a minority game in which each SBS has to define the number of predicted files to download, without affecting the required transmission rate of the current requests. For the formulated game, it is shown that a unique fair proper mixed Nash equilibrium (PMNE) exists. A self-organizing reinforcement learning algorithm is then proposed and shown to converge to a unique Boltzmann-Gibbs equilibrium, which approximates the desired PMNE. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed approach can be close to that of the ideal optimal algorithm while it outperforms a centralized greedy approach in terms of the amount of data that is cached without jeopardizing the quality-of-service of current requests.
Mechanical and Fracture Properties of Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted much interest because of their superior electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. These unique properties of CNTs have come to the attention of many scientists and engineers worldwide, eager to incorporate these novel materials into composites and electronic devices. However, before the utilization of these materials becomes mainstream, it is necessary to develop protocols for tailoring the mate - rial properties, so that composites and devices can be engineered to given specifications. In this chapter, we review our recent studies, in which we investigate the nominal tensile strength and strength distribution of multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) synthesized by the catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, followed by a series of high-tempera - ture annealing steps that culminate with annealing at 2900°C. The structural-mechanical relationships of such MWCNTs are investigated through tensile-loading experiments with individual MWCNTs, Weibull-Poisson statistics, transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation, and Raman spectroscopy analysis. ported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) 16 K20904 and a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) 15H05502.
Cation Chloride Cotransporters Interact with the Stress-related Kinases Ste20-related Proline-Alanine-rich Kinase (SPAK) and Oxidative Stress Response 1 (OSR1)*

Cells respond to stress stimuli by mounting specific responses. During osmotic and oxidative stress, cation chloride cotransporters, e.g. Na-K-2Cl and K-Cl cotransporters, are activated to maintain fluid/ion homeostasis. Here we report the interaction of the stress-related serine-threonine kinases Ste20-relatedproline-alanine-rich kinase (SPAK) and oxidative stress response 1 (OSR1) with the cotransporters KCC3, NKCC1, and NKCC2 but not KCC1 and KCC4. The interaction was identified using yeast two-hybrid assays and confirmed via glutathione S-transferase pull-down experiments. Evidence for in vivo interaction was established by co-immunoprecipitation of SPAK from mouse brain with anti-NKCC1 antibody. The interacting region of both kinases comprises the last 100 amino acids of the protein. The SPAK/OSR1 binding motif on the cotransporters consists of nine residues, starting with an (R/K)FX(V/I) sequence followed by five additional residues that are essential for binding but for which no consensus was found. Immunohistochemical analysis of choroid plexus epithelium revealed co-expression of NKCC1 and SPAK on the apical membrane. In contrast, in choroid plexus epithelium from NKCC1 null mice, SPAK immunostaining was found in the cytoplasm. We conclude that several cation chloride co-transporters interact with SPAK and/or OSR1, and we hypothesize that this interaction might play a role during the initiation of the cellular stress response.
Analysis of Temperature Characteristics of Electro-hydraulic Servo Valve Based on AMESim

In order to study the influence of the change of hydraulic oil temperature on the control characteristics of the electro-hydraulic servo valve, simulation analysis was carried out based on AMESim software. According to the structural characteristics and working principle of the dual-nozzle type baffle electro-hydraulic servo valve, a graphical physical model of the servo valve is established. The control variable method was used to group and set the oil viscosity parameters at different temperatures, and the results from batch processing were compared and analyzed. It shows that under low temperature conditions, the servo valve output amplitude is greatly attenuated and the hysteresis is also large. At higher temperatures, the step response speeds up, and the overshoot increases. As the temperature increases, the servo valve width and the phase width increase to varying degrees, but at the same time, the internal leakage of the valve also increases, and the increase is significant.
SHORT VS.LONG REST PERIOD BETWEEN THE SETS IN HYPERTROPHIC RESISTANCE TRAINING: INFLUENCE ON MUSCLE STRENGTH,SIZE, AND HORMONAL ADAPTATIONS IN TRAINED MEN

Acute and long-term hormonal and neuromuscular adaptations to hypertrophic strength training were studied in 13 recreationally strength-trained men. The experimental design comprised a 6-month hypertrophic strength-training period including 2 separate 3-month training periods with the crossover design, a training protocol of short rest (SR, 2 minutes) as compared with long rest (LR, 5 minutes) between the sets. Basal hormonal concentrations of serum total testosterone (T), free testosterone (FT), and cortisol (C), maximal isometric strength of the leg extensors, right leg 1 repetition maximum (1RM), dietary analysis, and muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) of the quadriceps femoris by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were measured at months 0, 3, and 6. The 2 hypertrophic training protocols used in training for the leg extensors (leg presses and squats with 10RM sets) were also examined in the laboratory conditions at months 0, 3, and 6. The exercise protocols were similar with regard to the total volume of work (loads 3 sets 3 reps), but differed with regard to the intensity and the length of rest between the sets (higher intensity and longer rest of 5 minutes vs. somewhat lower intensity but shorter rest of 2 minutes). Before and immediately after the protocols, maximal isometric force and electro-myographic (EMG) activity of the leg extensors were measured and blood samples were drawn for determination of serum T, FT, C, and growth hormone (GH) concentrations and blood lactate. Both protocols before the experimental training period (month 0) led to large acute increases (p < 0.05–0.001) in serum T, FT, C < and GH concentrations, as well as to large acute decreases (p < 0.05–0.001) in maximal isometric force and EMG activity. However, no significant differences were observed between the protocols. Significant increases of 7% in maximal isometric force, 16% in the right leg 1RM, and 4% in the muscle CSA of the quadriceps femoris were observed during the 6-month strength-training period. However, both 3-month training periods performed with either the longer or the shorter rest periods between the sets resulted in similar gains in muscle mass and strength. No statistically significant changes were observed in basal hormone concentrations or in the profiles of acute hormonal responses during the entire 6-month experimental training period. The present study indicated that, within typical hypertrophic strength-training protocols used in the present study, the length of the recovery times between the sets (2 vs. 5 minutes) did not have an influence on the magnitude of acute hormonal and neuromuscular responses or long-term training adaptations in muscle strength and mass in previously strength-trained men.
Mg–3Zn–0.5Zr/HA nanocomposites fabricated by high shear solidification and equal channel angular extrusion

ABSTRACT Magnesium alloy matrix and hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticle reinforced composites for biomedical applications were fabricated by combined high shear solidification and equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE). The high shear treatment was performed immediately prior to casting at 680°C using a rotor–stator mechanism. The as-cast composite ingots were processed by ECAE at 300°C to various strains. The high shear treatment effectively reduced HA particle agglomeration and produced a fine grain structure for all HA contents. ECAE processing resulted in further grain refinement and an improved HA particle distribution, with the formation of a desirable HA dispersion. The composites with 3–5 wt-% HA displayed an optimum combination of strength and ductility, with a yield strength of 150–210 MPa and compressive reductions of 9∼13% before fracture.