Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Host-Pathogen Interactions of Retroviruses

Retroviruses, such as HIV-1, are enveloped RNA viruses that use the enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT) to make a DNA copy of their RNA genome during replication in the host cell. The retrovirus life cycle is generally divided into two distinct phases: the early and late phase. The early phase encompasses virion entry into the host cell, reverse transcription of the viral RNA, nuclear import of the pre-integration complex (PIC), and integration of viral DNA into the host chromosome. The late phase involves transcription of viral DNA to multiple copies of viral RNA, translation of viral proteins, trafficking of viral proteins and genome to assembly sites, budding of viral particles, and, finally, maturation. A number of host factors have been implicated in specific steps of virus replication, and identification of such factors is a rapidly growing field. Recently, many host proteins were identified in genome-wide siRNA screens as being required for HIV-1 replication [1–3].
Switched-inductor/switched-capacitor active-network converters

High step-up voltage gain DC/DC converters are widely used in renewable energy power generation, uninterruptible power system, etc. In order to avoid the influence of leakage inductor in coupled inductors based converters, switched-inductor Boost converter (SL-Boost), switched-capacitor Boost converter (SC-Boost) and active-network converter (ANC) have been developed. With the transition in series and parallel connection of the inductors and capacitors, high step-up voltage conversion ratio can be achieved. This paper discusses the characteristics of the switched inductor (SL) and switched-capacitor (SC) cell and makes some comparisons between the ANC and Boost converter. Based on the above analysis, this paper proposed the multicell switched-inductor/switched-capacitor combined active network converters (MSL/SC-ANC). The proposed converters combine the advantages of SL/SC unit and active-network structure. Compared with previous high step-up converters, the novel converter provides a higher voltage conversion ratio with a lower voltage/current stress on the power devices. Moreover, the structure of proposed SL/SC-ANC is very flexible, which means the quantity of SL and SC cells can be adjusted according to required voltage gain. A 20 times voltage gain prototype is designed as an example to show the design procedure. Theoretical analysis and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the feature of the proposed converter.
The Prevalence and Severity of Burnout among Physiotherapists in an Arabian Setting and the Influence of Organizational Factors: An Observational Study

Burnout has been shown to be present in different health professions, but the prevalence among physiotherapists working in an Arabian setting has not been established. [Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the burnout levels of physiotherapists working in Saudi Arabia and the association of burnout with work and organization-related factors. [Subjects and Methods] A cross-sectional study was conducted at government hospitals in Saudi Arabia. One hundred and nineteen Saudi physiotherapists were included. They electronically completed a questionnaire that included the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Areas of Worklife Survey. [Results] Participants showed a moderate degree of burnout as reflected by mean scores of the three subscales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The majority of participants demonstrated moderate to high burnout levels across the three subscales. A significant association was found between the exhaustion subscale and the subspecialty in which participants worked. A strong association was found between workload and exhaustion subscale scores. [Conclusion] This study was the first to explore burnout and related factors among physiotherapists in an Arabian setting. A moderate degree of burnout and associations of burnout with work and organizational factors were found. The findings may help human resource planning and managing the physiotherapy services.
Evaluation of a 3-bout exercise laboratory protocol in development of psychophysiological markers of training stress indicative of functional overreaching

The prevalence of overtraining (OT) may vary anywhere from 10-60%, depending on the sport and athletic level. OT poses many problems to coaches, teams, and athletes as it leads to performance decrements, injury, and lost playing time. The physiological development of OT is not well understood and coaches lack affordable and easy-to-use tools that can be used for the early detection of OT, aside from psychometric tests. The purpose of this pilot study was to develop a protocol that could be used to examine the early psychophysiological development of OT, or functional overreaching (FOR) in order to better identify tools for the early detection of OT. Ten age-group cyclists completed 3 40k cycling time trials (TT) on 3 consecutive days with a 48-hour follow-up period to try to elicit a FOR response. Five measurements were used in this study to examine neuromuscular fatigue, changes in mood, affect, and perceived muscle pain and fatigue. Despite signs of acute fatigue, there were no changes in performance ( p > 0.582) or in neuromuscular fatigue ( p > 0.360) from one TT to the next. There was, however, a significant decrease in heart rate ( p < 0.005) and changes in mood and affect indicative of some cumulative fatigue. The Fatigue subscale of the Profile of Mood States increased and remained elevated across three pre-TT time points, and positive affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) decreased across two time points ( p < 0.05 and 0.02, respectively). While these results do not support the conclusion that FOR was achieved in these age-group cyclists according to the definition provided by Meeusen et
An Algorithm to Compute the Character Access Count Distribution for Pattern Matching Algorithms

We propose a framework for the exact probabilistic analysis of window-based pattern matching algorithms, such as Boyer–Moore, Horspool, Backward DAWG Matching, Backward Oracle Matching, and more. In particular, we develop an algorithm that efficiently computes the distribution of a pattern matching algorithm’s running time cost (such as the number of text character accesses) for any given pattern in a random text model. Text models range from simple uniform models to higher-order Markov models or hidden Markov models (HMMs). Furthermore, we provide an algorithm to compute the exact distribution of differences in running time cost of two pattern matching algorithms. Methodologically, we use extensions of finite automata which we call deterministic arithmetic automata (DAAs) and probabilistic arithmetic automata (PAAs) [1]. Given an algorithm, a pattern, and a text model, a PAA is constructed from which the sought distributions can be derived using dynamic programming. To our knowledge, this is the first time that substring- or suffix-based pattern matching algorithms are analyzed exactly by computing the whole distribution of running time cost. Experimentally, we compare Horspool’s algorithm, Backward DAWG Matching, and Backward Oracle Matching on prototypical patterns of short length and provide statistics on the size of minimal DAAs for these computations.
Personal involvement, task complexity, and the decision making process: An information search analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of personal involvement and task complexity on the decision making process. Seventy-four female university students were randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 (personal involvement: low or high) × 3 (task complexity: 2, 6, or 10 alternatives) design. The main results were as follows. (1) The subjects spent a greater amount of time reaching decisions in which they had greater involvement. (2) The subjects inquired about a greater amount of information during the decision task in which they had greater involvement. (3) The subjects more often returned to the information that they had already inquired about during the decision task in which they had greater involvement. (4) An interaction effect between involvement and task complexity was observed
Optimal Selling Strategies under Uncertainty for a Discriminating Monopolist When Demands Are Interdependent

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This paper deals with the optimal design of resource allocation mechanisms in the presence of asymmetric information. A buyer's valuation function is allowed to depend on the characteristics of other buyers as well as his own and sufficient conditions are provided under which the seller can extract the full surplus from the buyers in an "ex post Nash" equilibrium. The result is then applied to the important problem of optimal auction design.
Mraky zastřeno Soukromí v cloud computingu : možnosti a implikace

Cloud computing je založen na poskytování služeb informačních technologií prostřednictvím specializované třetí strany, spíše než jejich tvorbou a správou interně samotnu organizací. Poskytovatelé těchto specializovaných výpočetních služeb mohou využívat úspor vyplývajících z jejich škálovatelnosti a tak dosáhnout úrovně výpočetních zdrojů nedosažitelné prostřednictvím tradičních přístupů. Cloud computing lze chápat jako prostředek k poskytování výpočetních zdrojů prostřednictvím obdobného modelu jako u elektrických rozvodných sítí a telekomunikačních sítí.
Development of an Urban Search and Rescue Robot

Abstract : The September 11th, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Centers in New York illustrated the many problems associated with rescuing the survivors of a collapsed building. The fact that those trapped beneath the rubble have low probability of survival after forty-eight hours, combined with the massive amount of debris that needs to be searched, make the urban search and-rescue mission extremely daunting. The solution to such a complicated problem lies in creating robots capable of quickly exploring a collapsed building and pinpointing the location of any survivors. The goal of this Trident Scholar project was to build an urban search-and-rescue robot. The primary goal was to develop a physical structure that would be unique and versatile enough to traverse a variety of terrain challenges. A design's effectiveness was judged on its ability to overcome the set of selected terrain types. The secondary goal was to produce a simulation that could be used to develop pre-programmed inputs: a 'fly-by-wire' style controller. This entailed creating an accurate model of the robot and its environment using a physics simulator. Using the simulation, various methods, including genetic algorithms, could be used to develop locomotive methods, or 'gaits,' for various types of motion (e.g., straight lines or parameterized curves). The movements could then be translated to the physical prototype and their effectiveness (the ability to move as predicted) analyzed. The end result of this project would be a robot with versatile mobility and a set of simulation tools. In the future, these simulation tools could be used to design and tune gaits for effective locomotion in a variety of terrain, with very little operator effort.
Structural and metabolic changes in language areas linked to formal thought disorder.

BACKGROUND The role of the language network in the pathophysiology of formal thought disorder has yet to be elucidated. AIMS To investigate whether specific grey-matter deficits in schizophrenic formal thought disorder correlate with resting perfusion in the left-sided language network. METHOD We investigated 13 right-handed patients with schizophrenia and formal thought disorder of varying severity and 13 matched healthy controls, using voxel-based morphometry and magnetic resonance imaging perfusion measurement (arterial spin labelling). RESULTS We found positive correlations between perfusion and the severity of formal thought disorder in the left frontal and left temporoparietal language areas. We also observed bilateral deficits in grey-matter volume, positively correlated with the severity of thought disorder in temporoparietal areas and other brain regions. The results of the voxel-based morphometry and the arterial spin labelling measurements overlapped in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus and left angular gyrus. CONCLUSIONS Specific grey-matter deficits may be a risk factor for state-related dysfunctions of the left-sided language system, leading to local hyperperfusion and formal thought disorder.
Agent Communication with Differentiated Ontologies: Eight New Measures of Description Compatibility

We propose an approach to achieve appropriate exchange of services and data in distributed systems subject to semantic heterogeneity. We assume differentiated ontologies: that terms have formal definitions as concepts related to other concepts, that local concepts inherit from concepts that are shared, and that most or all primitives are shared. We then develop measures of description compatibility using the structure of the source and target definitions. We evaluate these measures by generating description-logic ontologies in artificial worlds. In our simulations, the “meaning” of a concept is its denotation in a finite universe of instances. The accuracy of the description-compatibility measures can thus be judged by their success in predicting the overlap of concept denotations. Description compatibility can be used to guide agent search for services across communities that subscribe to differentiated ontologies.
A Three-Stage Method to Select Informative Genes from Gene Expression Data in Classifying Cancer Classes

The process of gene selection for the cancer classification faces with a major problem due to the properties of the data such as the small number of samples compared to the huge number of genes, irrelevant genes, and noisy data. Hence, this paper aims to select a near-optimal (small) subset of informative genes that is most relevant for the cancer classification. To achieve the aim, a three-stage method has been proposed. It has three stages: 1) pre-selecting genes using a filter method; 2) optimizing the gene subset using a multi-objective hybrid method; 3) analyzing the frequency of appearance of each gene. By performing experiments on three public gene expression data sets, classification accuracies and the number of selected genes of the proposed method are better than those of other experimented methods and previous works. A list of informative genes in the final gene subsets is also presented for biological usage.
Characterization of excitonic features in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dot superlattice structures via surface photovoltage spectroscopy

This work systematically investigates the influence of InAs growth conditions and superlattice parameters on the optical properties of InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) superlattice structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Using surface photovoltage spectroscopy, one directly obtains the absorption spectra up to the highest confined QD levels at room temperature. Based on photoluminescence measurements at different excitation wavelengths, a feature below the fundamental transition is attributed to the transition from uncoupled dots in the bottom layers. The QD transition energy shift was found to be correlated with material intermixing, driven by enhanced strain strength with the increase of layer number and the decrease of spacer thickness, and the growth rate of InAs. A blueshift observed in low growth rate samples is indicative of greatly enhanced intermixing. For QD superlattices grown at a relatively high deposition rate of InAs, the material intermixing effect is gradually enhanced with increasing layer.
A Model of Predictive Coding Based on Spike

Several decades of research have made many advances towards the goal of interpreting the neural spike train but a comprehensive understanding remains elusive. This paper pursues this goal in the context of a new class of models termed predictive models. Predictive models characterize the cortex as a memory whose parameters can be used to predict its input. This allows the input to be economically coded as a residual diierence between itself and the prediction. Such models have recently had considerable success in modeling features of visual cortex. This paper shows that the predictive coding model can be extended to a lower level of detail that includes individual spikes as primitives. This is a signiicant improvement in per-spicuity compared to the ring rate variables used by most current models. The speciic model we describe exploits the use of coincidence of spike arrival times and the fact that neural representations can be distributed over large numbers of cells.
Multispectral analysis of solar EUV images: linking temperature to morphology

Context. Solar images taken simultaneously at different wavelengths in the EUV are widely used for understanding structures such as flares, coronal holes, loops, etc. The line-of-sight integration and the finite spectral resolution of EUV telescopes, however, hinders interpretation of these individual images in terms of temperature bands. Traditional approaches involve simple visualisation or explicit modelling. We take a more empirical approach, using statistical methods. Aims. The morphology of solar structures changes with the wavelength of observation and, therefore, with temperature. We explore the possibility of separating the different solar structures from a linear combination of images. Methods. Using a blind source separation approach, we build a new set of statistically independent “source” images from the original EUV images. Two techniques are compared: the singular value decomposition and independent component analysis. Results. The source images show more contrast than the original ones, thereby easing the characterisation of morphological structures. A comparison with the differential emission measure shows that each source image also isolates structures with specific emission temperatures.
Isolation of an avianlike group A rotavirus from a calf with diarrhea

An atypical group A rotavirus (993/83) was isolated from a 3-day-old German calf with diarrhea. It differed from 35 conventional German bovine rotavirus isolates analyzed previously with respect to subgroup (strain 993/83 was non-subgroup I and non-subgroup II), serotype (strain 993/83 showed a two-way cross-reaction with serotype 7 and a one-way cross-reaction with serotype 3), and electropherotype (strain 993/83 showed comigrating gene segments 10 and 11). Isolate 993/83 reacted with only one of four monoclonal antibodies that recognized a common VP6 epitope(s). In addition, VP6 and VP2 of isolate 993/83 showed one-dimensional peptide maps that differed substantially from the peptide maps of VP6 and VP2 from all bovine rotavirus isolates. By RNA-RNA hybridization, the 993/83 probe failed to react with a panel of mammalian rotavirus strains, including bovine rotaviruses. It hybridized, however, to genomic RNA of an avian rotavirus strain. Isolate 993/83 could thus represent a candidate for a natural interspecies transmission of rotavirus between different classes of vertebrates.
Multiscale simulations of Langmuir cells and submesoscale eddies using XSEDE resources

A proper treatment of upper ocean mixing is an essential part of accurate climate modeling. This problem is difficult because the upper ocean is home to many competing processes. Vertical turbulent mixing acts to unstratify the water column, while lateral submesoscale eddies attempt to stratify the column. Langmuir turbulence, which often dominates the vertical mixing, is driven by an interaction of the wind stress and surface wave (Stokes) drift, while the submesoscale eddies are driven by lateral density and velocity changes. Taken together, these processes span a large range of spatial and temporal scales. They have been studied separately via theory and modeling. It has been demonstrated that the way these scales are represented in climate models has a nontrivial impact on the global climate system. The largest impact is on upper ocean processes, which filter air-sea interactions. This interaction is especially interesting, because it is the interface between nonhydrostatic and hydrostatic, quasigeostrophic and ageostrophic, and small-scale and large-scale ocean dynamics. Previous studies have resulted in parameterizations for Langmuir turbulence and submesoscale fluxes, but these parameterizations assume that there is no interaction between these important processes. In this work we have utilized a large XSEDE allocation (9 million SUs) to perform multi-scale simulations that encompass the Langmuir scale (O(10-100m)) and submesoscale eddies (O(1-10km)). One simulation includes a Stokes drift, and hence Langmuir turbulence, while the other does not. To adequately represent such disparate spatial scales is a challenge in numerous regards. Numerical prediction algorithms must balance efficiency, scalability, and accuracy. These simulations also present a large challenge for data storage and transfer. However, the results of these simulations will influence climate modeling for decades.
Occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides and cytokine pathways in chronic diseases (Review)

Pesticides can exert numerous effects on human health as a consequence of both environmental and occupational exposures. The available knowledge base suggests that exposure to pesticides may result in detrimental reproductive changes, neurological dysfunction and several chronic disorders, which are defined by slow evolution and long-term duration. Moreover, an ever increasing amount of data have identified an association between exposure to pesticides and the harmful effects on the immune system. The real impact of alterations in humoral cytokine levels on human health, in particular in the case of chronic diseases, is still unclear. To date, studies have suggested that although exposure to pesticides can affect the immune system functionally, the development of immune disorders depends on the dose and duration of exposure to pesticides. However, many of the respective studies exhibit limitations, such as a lack of information on exposure levels, differences in the pesticide administration procedures, difficulty in characterizing a prognostic significance to the weak modifications often observed and the interpretation of obtained results. The main challenge is not just to understand the role of individual pesticides and their combinations, but also to determine the manner and the duration of exposure, as the toxic effects on the immune system cannot be separated from these considerations. There is a clear need for more well-designed and standardized epidemiological and experimental studies to recognize the exact association between exposure levels and toxic effects and to identify useful biomarkers of exposure. This review focuses on and critically discusses the immunotoxicity of pesticides and the impact of cytokine levels on health, focusing on the development of several chronic diseases.