Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pneumococcal meningitis induced neuronal injury in motor cortex and cerebellum in Wistar rats

Bacterial meningitis is known to cause neurodegenerations in the hippocampus, a region of the brain concerned with learning and memory. Aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of pneumococcal meningitis on motor cortex and cerebellum in rats. 30 days old rats were divided into normal control (NC) and meningitis (M) groups. Rats in the meningitis group were infected with Streptococcus pneumonia intracisternally on postnatal day 31. The concentration of the bacterial suspension in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) was 1 × 106 cfu/ml (colony forming units/ml). The rats were kept on observation for 18 h for clinical symptoms of meningitis to develop. After 18 to 24 h of incubation, 10 to 50 µl of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample was collected. Grams staining of the CSF smear was done and observed under oil immersion objective (100×) for Gram positive, lanceolate diplococci. The rats were perfused transcardially with saline followed by 10% formalin. Brain was removed, processed for paraffin sectioning, and stained with cresyl violet stain. The motor cortex and cerebellum showed neurodegeneration. Significant fractions of neurons in the motor cortex were darkly stained and a number of healthy neurons per unit area were decreased significantly. The purkinje cells were shrunken and their number was decreased significantly. Meningitis not only affected the hippocampus, but also other regions of the brain. Neurodegenerative changes were comparable to that observed in the hippocampus. Key words: Meningitis, motor cortex, cerebellum, purkinje cells, neurodegeneration.
EFFECTIVENES IN LARGE CORPORATION ( AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE )

The research reported in this paper looks at satisfaction with the intranet and the importance of information sources in a large corporation in Australia. 1251 subscribers to the intranet took part in the survey. This research has revealed that intranet is a major provider of information in this particular corporation. The participants of the survey indicated that the intranet should be able to make it easier to find and use information to its subscriber, as well as to satisfy its users with the quality of information provided, and its design. On the other hand the research has also revealed that the most important information sources include e-mail, local (C:) or network (G, H), the intranet, personal connections/network, document management or storage system, briefing from the manager, etc. Finally, this research has indicated that there is a significant relationship between the intranet on one hand and the importance of access to information; the ease of finding and using information; the satisfaction with the quality of information it provides; etc., on the other.
Cognitive Effort Requirements in Recall, Recognition, and Lexical Decision

Abstract : Cognitive effort requirements during study for free recall (e.g., essay-type test), recognition (e.g., multiple choice-type test), and an incidental learning task (e.g., word/nonword decisions) were assessed using a secondary reaction time task. Auditory probes were presented while individuals studied familiar or unfamiliar words and the time to respond to these probes was measured. Differences in latency scores provided information about the amount of cognitive effort expended during study for these memory tasks. Recall and recognition were tested to determine the relationship between cognitive effort requirements during study and later ability to remember studied items. Overall, the results of this research indicate that when individuals expect a recall test they use extensive or difficult processing operations which may involve elaborating the meaning of studied items. In contrast, when they expect a recognition test they use more superficial processing operations with less emphasis on meaning.
A Feedback Real-time Web Request Controller

We propose a feedback controller to efficiently control web requests with real-time characteristics, especially on overloaded networks. The controller is designed based on a feedback closed loop that prevents overload of web server and enforces target CPU utilization via controlling the amount of input web requests. The main contribution of this letter is the use of feedback control theory to design the controller that delicately regulates web requests even under the dynamic changes in processing power of web server. In contrast with many previous heuristic methods, the proposed controller uses a systematic approach to adaptively control web requests taking account of the dynamic behavior of web server. Simulation results performed in overloaded cases show that the proposed controller lets web server effectively control input web requests and reach its CPU utilization to desired values in relatively small settling times.
Investigation of reducing fatigue and musculoskeletal disorder with passive actuators

Robotic systems such as exoskeletons can be effectively used in the reduction of fatigue and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) associated with physical tasks, but robots which work in physical contact with humans pose problems with user safety. A novel approach to developing intrinsically safe robots is to use passive actuators which have the advantage of being safer, ensuring stability, high force/weight ratios and lower power consumption. It is however not clear how effective an exoskeleton utilizing passive actuators would be in reducing fatigue and the risk of MSD. This paper analyzes the benefit of using such a system with results from dynamic simulations and an experiment using a specially designed mechanism used for evaluation. Results indicate that fatigue and effort could be reduced if robot impedance is minimized. Experiments also highlighted issues of implementing such a system into practice.
PEMETAAN KEMAMPUAN PEMBUKTIAN MATEMATIS SEBAGAI PRASYARAT MATA KULIAH ANALISIS REAL MAHASISWA PENDIDIKAN MATEMATIKA

Masalah tentang kemampuan pembuktian matematis telah banyak dikaji oleh para ahli pendidikan matematika baik di dalam maupun di luar negeri. Studi pendahuluan ini untuk memetakan kemampuan pembuktian matematis mahasiswa yang sangat berperan penting dalam mempelajari mata kuliah Analisis Riil dan menganalisis learning obstacle yang dihadapi. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif yang lebih menekankan pada kajian interpretative namun dalam hal tertentu akan disajikan secara deskriptif kuantitatif. Data penelitian ini diperoleh melalui tes diagnostik terkait pembuktian matematik bentuk langsung, contrapositive, tidak langsung/ kontradiksi, dan counterexample. Subjek penelitian ini merupakan mahasiswa yang mengikuti mata kuliah Analisis Riil yang dipilih secara purposive sampling. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa: (1) kebanyakan mahasiswa tidak ingat tentang bentuk-bentuk pembuktian; (2) mahasiswa tidak mampu membuat pembuktian matematika bentuk kontrapositif dan kontradiksi; dan (3) dominan mahasiswa tidak mampu mengaplikasikan pembuktian bentuk counterexample. Salah satu faktor penyebab rendahnya kemampuan pembuktian matematis mahasiswa tersebut menurut hasil wawancara dengan mahasiswa, bahwa mereka lupa dan belum terbiasa dalam membuat pembuktian matematika dan belum banyak memahami tentang pembuktian matematika.
Mechanisms behind Functional Avidity Maturation in T Cells

During an immune response antigen-primed B-cells increase their antigen responsiveness by affinity maturation mediated by somatic hypermutation of the genes encoding the antigen-specific B-cell receptor (BCR) and by selection of higher-affinity B cell clones. Unlike the BCR, the T-cell receptor (TCR) cannot undergo affinity maturation. Nevertheless, antigen-primed T cells significantly increase their antigen responsiveness compared to antigen-inexperienced (naïve) T cells in a process called functional avidity maturation. This paper covers studies that describe differences in T-cell antigen responsiveness during T-cell differentiation along with examples of the mechanisms behind functional avidity maturation in T cells.
Fast Fractal Image Compression Scheme

Compression and decompression tools of digital image has become a significant aspect in the storing and transferring of digital image. Fractal image compression technique is recently used to compress images. The main problem with fractal image compression is that it takes a lot of computational time for searching blocks (domain block and range block) and then compares these blocks. There are many optimization techniques which are used to improve efficiency of fractal image compression. Some of these are particle swarm optimization, ant colony optimization and biogeography based optimization. In this paper the technique of biogeography based optimization (BBO) is applied for fractal image compression (FIC). With the help of this evolutionary algorithm effort is made to reduce the search complexity of matching between range block and domain block. The main drawback of FIC is that it involves more computational time due to global search. In order to improve the computational time and also the satisfactory quality of the decoded image, BBO algorithm is proposed. Investigational outcome show that the BBO is a better method than the traditional comprehensive search method in terms of encoding time. Results are calculated from wavelet based fractal image compression than BBO is applied over it to decrease the encode time and get better visual quality of image. In this paper compression time (encoding time) of fractal image compression is reduced.
Temporal-spatial orientation in first-grade pupils from elementary school participating in Physical Education classes using Edubal educational balls

Background The aim of the study was to determine the level and changes in the level of temporal-spa-tial orientation in first-grade pupils from elementary schools who participated in Physical Education classes integrated with subject-related contents that used Edubal educational balls. Material/Methods Research material comprised first-grade pupils from two classes in an elementary school in Wroclaw, Poland. The study was carried out during the second term of the 2013/2014 school year. Fifty-four pupils (26 girls and 18 boys) were diagnosed in total. The study employed the method of a pedagogical experiment that used the parallel groups technique (experimental class and control class). Results In the first examination, pupils from the control group obtained better results compared to pupils from the experimental group (p=0.04). In the second examination, pupils from the experimental class obtained better results compared to those from the control group. However, the difference between the results obtained in both groups was not statistically significant (p = 0.87). Conclusions The results obtained in the study lead to a conclusion that it is justified to carry out further studies in order to evaluate the level and possible changes in temporal-spatial orientation in first-grade pupils from elementary school who participate in Physical Education classes that use Edubal educational balls and to search for the relationships between the pupils’ temporal-spatial orientation and school performance.
Are we capable of being altruistic? Second Prize - 2 nd Year Undergraduate Category

Altruism is a social preference defined by unconditional kindness. That is, people benefiting their peers regardless of their own problems, material concerns, and in certain cases incomplete information of the recipient of such charity. Contrary to this uplifting ideal, it has been argued that people abide by more limited and self motivated rules, either in not donating at all, or in the donating for ‘selfish’ payoffs. It is paramount to consider firstly whether people act charitably in the first place, regardless of underlying motive. Following on from this, we also need to consider whether this apparently charitable nature translates into altruism or whether there is some other motivation. The impact of charitable behaviour alone in modern society is a convincing sign for its prevalence alone, with the massive economic impacts of charity noticeable even without statistical analysis. Numerous acts of goodwill transpire both on a minor scale (e.g. donating to the homeless) and nationwide, such as mass events “Comic Relief” and “Red Nose Day” (the latter of which earned over £74 million in 2011), not to mention government aid also.
On the Fitzhugh-Nagumo model

The initial value problem P0, in all of the space, for the spatio - temporal FitzHugh - Nagumo equations is analyzed. When the reaction kinetics of the model can be outlined by means of piecewise linear approximations, then the solution of P0 is explicitly obtained. For periodic initial data are possible damped travelling waves and their speed of propagation is evaluated. The results imply applications also to the non linear case.
Learning semantic kernels for scene classification

In this paper we propose to learn semantic kernels for scene classification. We first decompose the Object Bank representation into subspaces associated with each object, Anchor Objects are then created by clustering for each scene class separately. The Anchor Distances are computed to measure the distance between objects to scene classes. In order to take the advantage of the discriminative information from different scene classes, we propose semantic kernels based on the anchor distances to different classes for scene classification. Through extensive experiments on two benchmark datasets: UIUC-Sports dataset and 15-Scene dataset, we prove that the proposed Semantic Kernels can significantly improve the original Object Bank and achieve state-of-the-art performance.
The Epidemiology of Pulmonary Nontuberculous Mycobacteria: Data from a General Hospital in Athens, Greece, 2007–2013

Background. The epidemiology of pulmonary nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in Greece is largely unknown. Objectives. To determine the incidence and the demographic, microbiological, and clinical characteristics of patients with pulmonary NTM infection and pulmonary NTM disease. Methods. A retrospective review of the demographic, microbiological, and clinical characteristics of patients with NTM culture-positive respiratory specimens from January 2007 to May 2013. Results. A total of 120 patients were identified with at least one respiratory NTM isolate and 56 patients (46%) fulfilled the microbiological ATS/IDSA criteria for NTM disease. Of patients with adequate data, 16% fulfilled the complete ATS/IDSA criteria for NTM disease. The incidence of pulmonary NTM infection and disease was 18.9 and 8.8 per 100.000 inpatients and outpatients, respectively. The spectrum of NTM species was high (13 species) and predominated by M. avium-intracellulare complex (M. avium (13%), M. intracellulare (10%)), M. gordonae (14%), and M. fortuitum (12%). The ratio of isolation of NTM to M. tuberculosis in all hospitalized patients was 0.59. Conclusions. The first data on the epidemiology of pulmonary NTM in Athens, Greece, are presented. NTM infection is common in patients with chronic respiratory disease. However, only a significantly smaller proportion of patients fulfill the criteria for NTM disease.
Running Head : EFFECTS OF VEGF ON MACROPHAGES Encouraging Remyelination : Rejuvenating Aged Macrophages through the Use of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Chelsea Mursch

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a complex disease which has both an autoimmune and a neurological component (Huang et al., 2011). Affecting over 2.5 million people worldwide, MS is a progressive disease with debilitating physical and cognitive symptoms, such as: loss of vision, weakness, depression, both acute and chronic pain, and paralysis (Jadasz, Aigner, Rivera, & Kury, 2012). Each patient varies in regards to how their disease progresses, and what symptoms they present, however for the research being conducted in this study, MS will be discussed in terms of a type known as relapsing-remitting.
Role of N-Terminal Hydrophobic Region in Modulating the Subcellular Localization and Enzyme Activity of the Bisphosphate Nucleotidase from Debaryomyces hansenii

ABSTRACT 3′, 5′-Bisphosphate nucleotidase is a ubiquitous enzyme that converts 3′-phosphoadenosine-5′-phosphate to adenosine-5′-phosphate and inorganic phosphate. These enzymes are highly sensitive to sodium and lithium and, thus, perform a crucial rate-limiting metabolic step during salt stress in yeast. Recently, we have identified a bisphosphate nucleotidase gene (DHAL2) from the halotolerant yeast Debaryomyces hansenii. One of the unique features of Dhal2p is that it contains an N-terminal 54-amino-acid-residue hydrophobic extension. In this study, we have shown that Dhal2p exists as a cytosolic as well as a membrane-bound form and that salt stress markedly influences the accumulation of the latter form in the cell. We have demonstrated that the N-terminal hydrophobic region was necessary for the synthesis of the membrane-bound isoform. It appeared that an alternative translation initiation was the major mechanism for the synthesis of these two forms. Moreover, the two forms exhibit significant differences in their substrate specificity. Unlike the cytosolic form, the membrane-bound form showed very high activity against inositol-1,4-bisphosphate. Thus, the present study for the first time reports the existence of multiple forms of a bisphosphate nucleotidase in any organism.
USING SUB-MODELS FOR DYNAMIC DATA RECONCILIATION

Abstract The optimal approach for dynamic data reconciliation consists in using a complete and exact process model. Unfortunately, such a model is difficult to obtain in industrial practice. Through an example, several observers based on static, stationary and dynamic sub-models are designed and compared to the optimal approach. The comparisons illustrate that, for the given conditions, static observers generally lead to estimates that are less precise than the measurements. Stationary observers are slightly more precise than static observers but they obviously lack the power of temporal redundancy offered by dynamic models. Deterministic dynamic sub-models, that do not include all physical parameters (thus relatively easy to obtain), which stochastic models are added to, are shown to give good performances.
Closed Sequential Pattern Mining in High Dimensional Sequences

High dimensional sequences, such as biological sequences, are characterized by a small number of transactions, and a large number of items in each transaction. Mining sequential patterns in the sequences need to consider different forms of patterns, such as contiguous patterns, local patterns which appear more than one time in a special sequence, and so on. Mining closed patterns might lead to not only a more compact complete result set, but also better efficiency. In this paper, a novel algorithm based on BIDE (BI-Directional Extension) and multi-support is presented for high dimensional sequences specifically. It mainly mines three types of closed sequential patterns which are sequential patterns, local sequential patterns and total sequential patterns. Thorough experimental performances on biological sequences have demonstrated that the proposed algorithm could reduce memory consumption and generate more compact patterns.
Dynamic Multiobjective Optimization Algorithm Based on Average Distance Linear Prediction Model

Many real-world optimization problems involve objectives, constraints, and parameters which constantly change with time. Optimization in a changing environment is a challenging task, especially when multiple objectives are required to be optimized simultaneously. Nowadays the common way to solve dynamic multiobjective optimization problems (DMOPs) is to utilize history information to guide future search, but there is no common successful method to solve different DMOPs. In this paper, we define a kind of dynamic multiobjectives problem with translational Paretooptimal set (DMOP-TPS) and propose a new prediction model named ADLM for solving DMOP-TPS. We have tested and compared the proposed prediction model (ADLM) with three traditional prediction models on several classic DMOP-TPS test problems. The simulation results show that our proposed prediction model outperforms other prediction models for DMOP-TPS.
Dynamic Load Balanced Hop Selection Algorithm in Wireless Mesh Network

In mesh networks, various types of routing matrix are applicable. This document proposes a routing methodology, which makes use of the ETR (Expected Transmission Rate). The ETR is based on a load balancing metric contingent on the linked bandwidth of each integrated node. This routing methodology can be applied when selecting a relay node based on the present link efficiency between the available nodes determined dynamically while the service is used. The proposed method, called EETR (Efficient ETR), can improve the data relay speed by an average of 30% with small variance compared with ETR on a one-way link.
Surfacing a hidden literature

Scholars throughout the world are working to diversify the knowledge base in educational leadership and management (EDLM). In concert with this effort, this article reports the results of a systematic review of research on EDLM in Africa. The goals of the review were to describe trends with respect to the volume of journal publications, national sources, research designs, methods, topics, authors and citation impact. The review database was comprised of 506 journal articles published on EDLM in Africa. A conceptual framework was used to organize the review, consisting of context and personal antecedents, leadership/management, teachers and school, and school outcomes. Systematic methods were employed to identify sources and extract data from the articles. Data analysis relied on quantitative synthesis aimed at identifying trends within Africa as a region, across its composite societies, and in change over time. The review found a surprisingly large literature, 90% of which had been published since 2005. This impression of an ‘emerging literature’ was reinforced by other trends, which bore a striking resemblance to features of the American literature in the 1970s and Asia post-2000. Recommendations are made for topics and methods as well as areas where capacity development is warranted.
Translating Separation Logic into Dynamic Frames Using Fine-Grained Region Logic

Several techniques have been proposed for specification and verification of frame conditions, making it difficult for specification language designers to know which to pick. Ideally there would be a single mechanism that could be used to express specifications written in all techniques. In this paper we provide a single mechanism that can be used to write specifications in the style of both separation logic and dynamic frames. This mechanism shows common characters between the two methodologies.