Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Teleosts as Model Organisms To Understand Host-Microbe Interactions

ABSTRACT Host-microbe interactions are influenced by complex host genetics and environment. Studies across animal taxa have aided our understanding of how intestinal microbiota influence vertebrate development, disease, and physiology. However, traditional mammalian studies can be limited by the use of isogenic strains, husbandry constraints that result in small sample sizes and limited statistical power, reliance on indirect characterization of gut microbial communities from fecal samples, and concerns of whether observations in artificial conditions are actually reflective of what occurs in the wild. Fish models are able to overcome many of these limitations. The extensive variation in the physiology, ecology, and natural history of fish enriches studies of the evolution and ecology of host-microbe interactions. They share physiological and immunological features common among vertebrates, including humans, and harbor complex gut microbiota, which allows identification of the mechanisms driving microbial community assembly. Their accelerated life cycles and large clutch sizes and the ease of sampling both internal and external microbial communities make them particularly well suited for robust statistical studies of microbial diversity. Gnotobiotic techniques, genetic manipulation of the microbiota and host, and transparent juveniles enable novel insights into mechanisms underlying development of the digestive tract and disease states. Many diseases involve a complex combination of genes which are difficult to manipulate in homogeneous model organisms. By taking advantage of the natural genetic variation found in wild fish populations, as well as of the availability of powerful genetic tools, future studies should be able to identify conserved genes and pathways that contribute to human genetic diseases characterized by dysbiosis.
Distributed resource allocation for D2D communication underlaying cellular networks

In the paper, the distributed joint spectrum sharing and power allocation scheme is proposed to improve the local services in the Device-to-Device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular networks (CNs) with limited signaling overhead. The scheme aims to optimize the throughput of D2D communications over the shared uplink frequency spectrum meanwhile the base station (BS) protects the cellular users (CUs) from the interference of D2D users. Stackelberg game (SG) is formulated to model the problem for deriving the distributed scheme. In the game, the BS, as a leader, coordinates the interference from the D2D users to the cellular uplinks and maximizes its own profit by pricing the interference. On the other hand, D2D pairs, as followers, compete for the spectrum as a Nash non-cooperative game to maximize their own data rates individually. The pricing mechanism at the BS converging to the Stackelberg Equilibrium is studied. Finally, numerical examples are presented to verify the proposed scheme. It is shown that the scheme is effective on the resource allocation and the CU protection with limited signaling overhead.
Balancing Query Performance and Security on Relational Cloud Database: An Architecture

Data outsourcing has become a trend in the information technology industry because it offers scalability to the enormous amount of digital content stored and generated on a daily basis by individuals and corporations. Of significance, is the security and privacy of the data outsourced to cloud servers when at rest and on transit. This challenge can be addressed by encrypting data before outsourcing in other to insure its privacy from internal and external intruders. Encryption implies a sacrifice of functionality for security. Querying encrypted data is performed by decrypting the entire data before retrieval. This leads to performance degradation. While several architectures, techniques and tools have been proffered to ensure that security and performance are balanced and optimized, each of these approaches has its limitations. We propose a novel framework based on the hash map principle, that enhances the security and performance of cloud database by reducing client SQL query response time on encrypted data without limiting the type of queries performed or compromising the security of data. Also, a performance analysis of the traditional method as compared with the proposed method is done using varying number of records. General Terms Security, Query Efficiency, Data Outsourcing
Genetics of Species Differences in the Wild Annual Sunflowers, Helianthus annuus and H. petiolaris

Much of our knowledge of speciation genetics stems from quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies. However, interpretations of the size and distribution of QTL underlying species differences are complicated by differences in the way QTL magnitudes are estimated. Also, many studies fail to exploit information about QTL directions or to compare inter- and intraspecific QTL variation. Here, we comprehensively analyze an extensive QTL data set for an interspecific backcross between two wild annual sunflowers, Helianthus annuus and H. petiolaris, interpret different estimates of QTL magnitudes, identify trait groups that have diverged through selection, and compare inter- and intraspecific QTL magnitudes. Our results indicate that even minor QTL (in terms of backcross variance) may be surprisingly large compared to levels of standing variation in the parental species or phenotypic differences between them. Morphological traits, particularly flower morphology, were more strongly or consistently selected than life history or physiological traits. Also, intraspecific QTL were generally smaller than interspecific ones, consistent with the prediction that larger QTL are more likely to spread to fixation across a subdivided population. Our results inform the genetics of species differences in Helianthus and suggest an approach for the simultaneous mapping of inter- and intraspecific QTL.
MARSUI: malleable audio-reactive shape-retaining user interface

MARSUI is a hardware deformable prototype exhibiting plastic (shape-retaining) behavior. It can track the shape that the user creates when deforming it. We envision that a set of predefined shapes could be mapped onto particular applications and functions. In its current implementation, we present three shapes that MARSUI can be deformed into: circular band, flat surface and sharp bent. These shapes map respectively onto the following applications: wristwatch, mobile phone and media player. Since the malleable interface can also take other forms, feedback plays an important role in guiding the user towards the predefined shapes. In this paper, we focus on investigating the possibilities that auditory feedback could offer in guiding the user towards reaching the intended shapes.
The relationship between intraoral air pressure and tongue/palate contact during the articulation of norwegian /t/ and /d/

Our paper addresses the question of covariation between intraoral air pressure and size of contact area between tongue and palate during the articulation of the Norwegian stop consonants /t/ and /d/. An EPG investigation of the two plosives shows a larger contact area between tongue and palate for /t/ than for /d/. An investigation of intraoral air pressure during the articulation of the two plosives shows higher air pressure for /t/ than for /d/. We suggest that the covariation between intraoral air pressure and contact area between tongue and palate may be accounted for in terms of general phonetic-physiological factors. In order to prevent air from escaping between the tongue and the palate during the closing stage of the plosive, and thus producing a fricative, a larger contact area is needed for the voiceless than for the voiced plosive since the air pressure is stronger for the voiceless than for the voiced plosive.
Reactive oxygen/nitrogen species and contractile function in skeletal muscle during fatigue and recovery

The production of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) is generally considered to increase during physical exercise. Nevertheless, direct measurements of ROS/RNS often show modest increases in ROS/RNS in muscle fibres even during intensive fatiguing stimulation, and the major source(s) of ROS/RNS during exercise is still being debated. In rested muscle fibres, mild and acute exposure to exogenous ROS/RNS generally increases myofibrillar submaximal force, whereas stronger or prolonged exposure has the opposite effect. Endogenous production of ROS/RNS seems to preferentially decrease submaximal force and positive effects of antioxidants are mainly observed during fatigue induced by submaximal contractions. Fatigued muscle fibres frequently enter a prolonged state of reduced submaximal force, which is caused by a ROS/RNS‐dependent decrease in sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release and/or myofibrillar Ca2+ sensitivity. Increased ROS/RNS production during exercise can also be beneficial and recent human and animal studies show that antioxidant supplementation can hamper the beneficial effects of endurance training. In conclusion, increased ROS/RNS production have both beneficial and detrimental effects on skeletal muscle function and the outcome depends on a combination of factors: the type of ROS/RNS; the magnitude, duration and location of ROS/RNS production; and the defence systems, including both endogenous and exogenous antioxidants.
Developing composite membranes for desalination

II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . IV CONTENTS . V LIST OF FIGURES . IX LIST OF TABLES. XVII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . XIX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 23 1. 1 Seawater Desalination Technologies . 25 1.1.1 Vapour-compression distillation . 25 1.1.2 Multi-stage flash (MSF) distillation . 27 1.1.3 Multiple effect distillation . 29 1.1.4 Reverse osmosis (RO) . 31 1.1. 5 Solar evaporation . 32 1.1. 6 Freezing . 33 1. 2 Membrane Separation Technology for Water Filtration . 33 1.2. 1 Microfiltration (MF) and ultrafiltration (UF) membranes . 37 1.2. 2 Reverse osmosis (RO) membranes . 38 1.2. 3 Nano-filtration (NF) membranes . 40 1.2. 4 Mechanisms of membrane separation . 40 1. 3 Current Issues with Membranes for Water-Filtration Applications . 42 1.3. 1 Pore size and pore-size distribution control . 42 1.3. 2 Chlorine degradation . 43 1.3. 3 Biological/protein fouling . 43 1. 4 Materials Used for Water Filtration Membranes . 44 1.4. 1 Polymer membranes . 44 1.4. 2 Thin-film composite (TFC) membranes . 46 3.4. 1 Zeolite membranes . 47 1.4. 4 Polymerisable lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) . 48 1.4. 5 Carbon nanotubes membranes . 50 1.4. 6 Biopolymer Materials as Membranes . 62 1. 5 Thesis Objectives . 65 CHAPTER 2: EXPERIMENTAL . 68
Longitudinal associations between marine omega-3 supplement users and coronary heart disease in a UK population-based cohort

Objectives Assess the association between marine omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n-3 PUFA) intake from supplements, mainly cod liver oil, and coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality. Design Prospective cohort study, with three exposure measurements over 22 years. Setting Norfolk-based European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC-Norfolk, UK). Participants 22 035 men and women from the general population, 39–79 years at recruitment. Exposure Supplement use was assessed in three questionnaires (1993–1998; 2002–2004; 2004–2011). Participants were grouped into non-supplement users (NSU), n-3 PUFA supplement users (SU+n3) and non–n-3 PUFA supplement users (SU-n3). Cox regression adjusted for time-point specific variables: age, smoking, prevalent illnesses, body mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity and season and baseline assessments of sex, social class, education and dietary intake (7-day diet diary). Primary and secondary outcome measures During a median of 19-year follow-up, 1562 CHD deaths were registered for 22 035 included participants. Results Baseline supplement use was not associated with CHD mortality, but baseline food and supplement intake of n-3 PUFA was inversely associated with CHD mortality after adjustment for fish consumption. Using time-varying covariate analysis, significant associations were observed for SU+n3 (HR: 0.74, 95% CI 0.66 to 0.84), but not for SU-n3 versus NSU. In further analyses, the association for SU+n3 persisted in those who did not take other supplements (HR: 0.83, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.97). Those who became SU+n3 over time or were consistent SU+n3 versus consistent NSU had a lower hazard of CHD mortality; no association with CHD was observed in those who stopped using n-3 PUFA-containing supplements. Conclusions Recent use of n-3 PUFA supplements was associated with a lower hazard of CHD mortality in this general population with low fish consumption. Residual confounding cannot be excluded, but the findings observed may be explained by postulated biological mechanisms and the results were specific to SU+n3.
Lightweight monitor for Java VM

| This paper introduces the lightweight monitor in Java VM that is fast on single-threaded programs as well as on multi-threaded programs with little lock contention. A 32-bit lock is embedded into each object for eecient access while the lock queue and the wait set is managed through a hash table. The lock manipulation code is highly optimized and inlined by our Java VM JIT compiler called LaTTe wherever the lock is accessed. In most cases, only 9 SPARC instructions are spent for lock acquisition and 5 instructions for lock release. Our experimental results indicate that the lightweight monitor is faster than the monitor in the latest SUN JDK 1.2 Release Candidate 1 by up to 21 times in the absence of lock contention and by up to 7 times in the presence of lock contention.
Phase Field Modeling of Solute Trapping in a Al-Sn Alloy during Rapid Solidification

During rapid solidification, interfaces are often driven far from equilibrium and the "solute trapping" phenomenon is usually observed. Very recently, a phase field model with finite interface dissipation, in which separate kinetic equations are assigned to each phase concentration instead of an equilibrium partitioning condition, has been newly developed. By introducing the so-called interface permeability, the phase field model with finite interface dissipation can nicely describe solute trapping during solidification in the length scale of micrometer. This model was then applied to perform a phase field simulation in a Al-Sn alloy (Al-0.2 at.% Sn) during rapid solidification. A simplified linear phase diagram was constructed for providing the reliable driving force and potential information. The other thermophysical parameters, such as interface energy and diffusivities, were directly taken from the literature. As for the interface mobility, it was estimated via a kinetic relationship in the present work. According to the present phase field simulation, the interface velocity increases as temperature decreases, resulting in the enhancement of solute trapping. Moreover, the simulated solute segregation coefficients in Al-0.2 at. % Sn can nicely reproduce the experimental data.
Identification, properties, and differential counts of cell populations using electron microscopy of dry cows secretions, colostrum and milk from normal cows

Summary Differential counts of electron microscope sections of cell pellets isolated from bovine udder secretions showed that no secretory epithelial cells and very few ductal epithelial cells were present at any stage. The predominant cell type was the macrophage in dry and lactating cows or the polymorphonuclear leucocyte (PMNL) in colostrum. Lymphocytes were also present but no plasma cells were found. The macrophages took up polystyrene latex particles (as did the PMNL) and adhered toglass in culture. Neither macrophage-nor PMNL-rich cell suspensions produced any increase in free fatty acid levels when incubated with fresh milk.
A Modeling Method of Scientific Workflow Based on Cloud Environment

In Cloud environment, a number of compute resources are distributed in a resource pool, and a variety of applications can get computing resources, storage space and all kinds of software services if they need through information sharing and real-time communication on the internet. SWF focuses on the data analysis, so the correctness, integrity, consistency and independence of data are the premises to guarantee the normal execution of the workflow. Scientific workflow is based on a large-scale data calculation and dynamic execution of scientific computing is the foundation of efficient execution of the scientific workflow. Here, we construct a platform based on Hadoop and propose an XML-DMM that could execute effectively and flexibly in Cloud environment. Finally, we also design a SST Fusion experiment to prove the rationality and availability of the modeling method, and the superiority of dynamic execution mechanism in scientific workflow.
Endothelium dependent vasomotor responses to endogenous agonists are potentiated following ACE inhibition by a bradykinin dependent mechanism.

OBJECTIVE The aim was to investigate the effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition on agonist induced endothelium dependent vasodilatation in vivo. METHODS Chronically instrumented conscious dogs (n = 8) were prepared for the measurement of coronary blood flow, diameter of the left circumflex coronary artery, mean arterial blood pressure, and heart rate. Intracoronary infusions of acetylcholine, adenosine, and bradykinin that induced dose dependent increases in coronary blood flow and diameter were performed with and without intracoronary administration of captopril (1 mg.kg-1) and enalapril (0.4 mg.kg-1). The effects were studied of concomitant inhibition of bradykinin actions by the specific B2 kinin antagonist HOE-140 (10(-7) M), NO-synthesis by NG-nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME, 2 x 10(-5) M), or cyclo-oxygenase by indomethacin (10(-7) M) (all intracoronary). RESULTS Neither captopril nor enalapril had significant vasodilating effect on the coronary vasculature when given alone. In contrast, both ACE inhibitors potentiated the agonist induced increases in coronary blood flow by bradykinin and acetylcholine (p < or = 0.01). HOE-140 strongly antagonised the effects of infused bradykinin and prevented the potentiation of acetylcholine responses by ACE inhibition. L-NAME caused hypertension and bradycardia and abolished the responses to acetylcholine and adenosine, but only partially attenuated the bradykinin induced increases in coronary blood flow. Simultaneous ACE inhibition reduced the hypertensive effect of L-NAME and partially restored the responses to bradykinin. Indomethacin reduced the responses to bradykinin but did not affect acetylcholine and adenosine induced coronary vasodilatation. The potentiation of the response to acetylcholine induced by ACE inhibition was, however, diminished by indomethacin. CONCLUSIONS In the coronary vasculature of the dog, ACE inhibitors enhance vasomotor responses to endothelium dependent agonists by facilitating the release of both NO and PGI2, a mechanism which is coupled to endogenously formed bradykinin. ACE inhibitors may thus mediate their effects in vivo partly by increasing the capacity of the endothelium to release autacoids.
Inferring Emotional Tags From Social Images With User Demographics

Social images, which are images uploaded and shared on social networks, are used to express users’ emotions. Inferring emotional tags from social images is of great importance; it can benefit many applications, such as image retrieval and recommendation. Whereas previous related research has primarily focused on exploring image visual features, we aim to address this problem by studying whether user demographics make a difference regarding users’ emotional tags of social images. We first consider how to model the emotions of social images. Then, we investigate how user demographics, such as gender, marital status, and occupation, are related to the emotional tags of social images. A partially labeled factor graph model named the demographics factor graph model (<bold>D-FGM</bold> ) is proposed to leverage the uncovered patterns. Experiments on a data set collected from the world's largest image sharing website Flickr<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1"><sup>1</sup></xref><fn id="fn1"><label><sup>1</sup></label> <p>[Online]. Available: <uri>http://www.flickr. com/</uri></p></fn> confirm the accuracy of the proposed model. We also find some interesting phenomena. For example, men and women have different patterns to tag “anger” for social images.
Preparation and linear rheological behavior of polypropylene/MMT nanocomposites

Maleic anhydride grafted low isotactic homopolypropylene elastomer (LiPP-g-MAH) is used as a compatibilizer in the melting mixing of polypropylene (PP) and clay. The microstructures of the composites of PP/clay (PPCN) are investigated using a wide-angle X-ray diffractometer (WAXD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) as well as parallel rheometer, which show that PPCN with different phase morphologies have been obtained. It is found that the weight ratio of LiPP-g-MAH to clay and the weight content of LiPP-g-MAH in PPCN have a strong effect on the final dispersibility of the clay. The rheological response to small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) shows that the storage modulus (G') at the low frequencies is greatly sensitive to the microstructures in comparison with WAXD measurements. The investigation further indicates that the virgin clay particles, intercalated silicate crystallites. and exfoliated layers may coexist in the matrix at the same time, resulting in the great enhancement of G' plateau at low frequency region.
Improving security in ID tokens through HW/SW co-design

Nowadays, more biometric systems are used. These systems used for identification or verification purposes have shown a more secure solution than conventional identification systems; however the consequences of a successful attack in these systems are worst than in previous one. A successful attack can compromise personal data, such the biometric template, attempt against user's privacy and furthermore, requires changes in the system infrastructure. In this paper, the authors examine these attacks to make a new biometric ID token proposal. The new approach made tries to reduce these attacks by an effective combination on hardware and software implementations. This proposal covers several aspects which these systems are subjected to, taking advantages of the two platforms they use for reducing computational time or hardware area, but also to increase security or minimize misidentification errors.
Student’s t-test for scale mixture errors

: Generalized t-tests are constructed under weaker than normal con- ditions. In the ﬁrst part of this paper we assume only the symmetry (around zero) of the error distribution (i). In the second part we assume that the error distribution is a Gaussian scale mixture (ii). The optimal (smallest) critical values can be computed from generalizations of Student’s cumulative distri- bution function (cdf), t n ( x ). The cdf’s of the generalized t -test statistics are denoted by (i) t S n ( x ) and (ii) t G n ( x ), resp. As the sample size n → ∞ we get the counterparts of the standard normal cdf Φ( x ): (i) Φ S ( x ) := lim n →∞ t Sn ( x ), and (ii) Φ G ( x ) := lim n →∞ t Gn ( x ). Explicit formulae are given for the under- lying new cdf’s. For example Φ G ( x ) = Φ( x ) iﬀ | x | ≥ √ 3. Thus the classical 95% conﬁdence interval for the unknown expected value of Gaussian distribu- tions covers the center of symmetry with at least 95% probability for Gaussian scale mixture distributions. On the other hand, the 90% quantile of Φ G is 4 √ 3 / 5 = 1 . 385 ··· > Φ − 1 (0 . 9) = 1 . 282 .