Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The attributes of Thai product quality , measurement , and validity

Product quality is subjective, very difficult to define and fairly undervalued by firms. This is mainly because there are very few studies about appropriate measurements and applicable methods in evaluating various types of product quality. This research proposes new product attributes particularly for measuring Thai product quality in three different product categories: electronics/IT products, automobile, and home appliance; and test for its validity. This research applies content analysis and statistics test by converting 86 of those three product categories reviewed from Thailand’s well-known public brands into a 5-point scale on overall product quality and 11-point scale on the proposed product attributes. These attributes are “Function”, “Ease of Use”, “Reliability”, “Durability”, “Design”, “Eco-Friendliness”, “Customer Satisfaction”, “Support Service”, “Value for Money”, and “Adaptability”. The results show high correlations and significant effects of attributes on overall Thai product quality, especially on automobile and electronics/IT products. Moreover, these proposed attributes also test the validity measurements of similar types of products. JEL Classification: L1, L15
CASHED : Cloud-Assisted Adaptive and Scalable Video Streaming for Heterogeneous End-User Devices

The Internet is a huge environment with a diversified number of connected terminals with different characteristics and specifications. In this reality, the heterogeneous nature of the end-user devices introduces several problems to the distribution of multimedia content. Despite the huge growth and evolution of multimedia distribution services, many still do not offer adaptive and scalable mechanisms suitable for the networks and the diversity of end-user devices. This paper presents CASHED, a Cloud-assisted streaming environment, where scalable and adaptive high-quality and high-definition multimedia contents can be consumed by common end-user devices (iOS or Android based) without requiring specialised decoding capabilities, but reaching a good experienced streaming quality. The evaluation of the implemented prototype demonstrated a smooth and stable streaming solution that embodies mechanisms for quality adaptation and control.
MicroRNA-33 b-5 p is overexpressed and inhibits GLUT 4 by targeting HMGA 2 in polycystic ovarian syndrome : An in vivo and in vitro study

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine and metabolic disease, but its pathogenesis remains largely unknown. The present study explored the role of microRNA-33b-5p (miR-33b-5p) in PCOS pathogenesis, with a particular focus on its role in regulating glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4). A rat model of PCOS was developed by injecting female SD rats with insulin and HCG. miR-33b-5p, GLUT4, sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBF1), and high mobility group A2 (HMGA2) expression in rat ovarian tissues was examined by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The effect of a high dose of either glucose or insulin on miR-33b-5p, GLUT4, SREBF1 and HMGA2 expression was also examined in cultured adipocytes by qRT-PCR and western blotting. Additionally, the luciferase reporter assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) were used to explore the role of miR-33b-5p in regulating HMGA2, SREBF-1 and/or GLUT4. Elevated levels of miR-33b-5p expression were detected in the ovarian tissues of insulin resistant PCOS rats, and those levels were negatively correlated with those of GLUT4, HMGA2 and SREBF1 expression (P<0.05). Immunohistochemistry studies revealed that GLUT4, SREBF1, and HMGA2 expression levels in the ovarian tissues of insulin resistant PCOS rats were significantly lower than those in other groups of rats. In cultured adipocytes, excess extracellular glucose or insulin increased miR-33b-5p expression but reduced GLUT4, SREBF1 and HMGA2 expression, whereas the levels of GLUT4, SREBF1 and HMGA2 were elevated by inhibition of miR-33b-5. HMGA2 could directly bind to the 5'-promoter region of GLUT4 and promote its expression, and could also promote SREBF1 expression. Moreover, SREBF1 could also directly bind to the 5'-promoter region of GLUT4 and promote its expression. Our findings revealed that miR‐33b‐5p was overexpressed in the ovarian tissues of insulin resistant PCOS rats, and thus may play an important role in the development of insulin resistance in PCOS patients. miR-33b-5p can inhibit GLUT4 production by targeting HMGA2, and in addition, HMGA2 and SREBF1 are important molecules involved in modulating GLUT4 expression.
Adaptable decentralized task allocation for hierarchically-defined domains

Many real-world domains can benefit from adaptable decentralized task allocation through emergent specialization, especially in large teams of agents. We begin with an existing bio-inspired response threshold reinforcement approach for decentralized task allocation and extend it to handle hierarchical task domains. We test the extension on self-deployment of a large team of non-communicating agents to patrolling a hierarchically-defined set of areas. Results show near-ideal performance across all areas, while minimizing wasteful task switching through the development of specializations and subsequent respecializations when area demands change.
Using RothC Model to Simulate Soil Organic Carbon Stocks under Different Climate Change Scenarios for the Rangelands of the Arid Regions of Southern Iran

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is strongly influenced by climate change, and it is believed that increased temperatures might enhance the release of CO2 with higher emission into the atmosphere. Appropriate models may be used to predict the changes of SOC stock under projected future scenarios of climate change. In this investigation, the RothC model was run for a period of 36 years under climate scenarios namely: P (no climate change) as well as CCH1 and CCH2 (climate change scenarios) in the arid rangelands of Ghir–O-Karzin’s BandBast in southern Iran. Model results have shown that after 11 years (2014–25), SOC stock decreased by 3.05% under the CCH1 scenario (with a projected annual precipitation decrease by 6.69% and mean annual temperature increase by 9.96%) and by 0.23% under the P scenario. In CCH2, with further decreases in rainfall (10.93%) and increase in temperature (12.53%) compared to CCH1, the model predicted that the SOC stock during the 25 years (2025–50) was reduced by 2.36% and 3.53% under the CCH1 and CCH2 scenario respectively. According to model predictions, with future climatic conditions (higher temperatures and lower rainfall) the decomposition rate may increase resulting in higher losses of soil organic carbon from the soil matrix. The result from this investigation may also be used for developing management techniques to be practiced in the other arid rangelands of Iran with similar conditions.
Set Identification viaQuasi-Clique Discovery

Author identification based on heterogeneous bibliographic networks, which is to identify potential authors given an anonymous paper, has been studied in recent years. However, most of the existing works merely consider the relationship between authors and anonymous papers, while ignore the relationships between authors. In this paper, we take the relationships among authors into consideration to study the problem of author set identification, which is to identify an author set rather than an individual author related to an anonymous paper. The proposed problem has important applications to new collaborator discovery and group building. We propose a novel Author Set Identification approach, namely ASI. ASI first extracts a task-guided embedding to learn the low-dimensional representations of nodes in bibliographic network. And then ASI leverages the learned embedding to construct a weighted paper-ego-network, which contains anonymous paper and candidate authors. Finally, converting the optimal author set identification to the quasi-clique discovery in the constructed network, ASI utilizes a local-search heuristic mechanism under the guidance of the devised density function to find the optimal quasiclique. Extensive experiments on bibliographic networks demonstrate that ASI outperforms the state-of-art baselines in author set identification.
SmartThings architecture IoT App PermissionSystem Smart Device Cloud Backend Groovy Sandbox Hub ZigBee , Zwave , WiFi SmartThings Mobile App

Broadly defined as the Internet of Things (IoT), the growth of commodity devices that integrate physical processes with digital systems have changed the way we live, play and work. Yet existing IoT platforms cannot evaluate whether an IoT app or environment is safe, secure, and operates correctly. In this paper, we present SOTERIA, a static analysis system for validating whether an IoT app or IoT environment (collection of apps working in concert) adheres to identified safety, security, and functional properties. SOTERIA operates in three phases; (a) translation of platform-specific IoT source code into an intermediate representation (IR), (b) extracting a state model from the IR, (c) applying model checking to verify desired properties. We evaluate SOTERIA on 65 SmartThings market apps through 35 properties and find nine (14%) individual apps violate ten (29%) properties. Further, our study of combined app environments uncovered eleven property violations not exhibited in the isolated apps. Lastly, we demonstrate SOTERIA on MALIOT, a novel open-source test suite containing 17 apps with 20 unique violations.
Professional Advice and the Utilization of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs at Community Pharmacies in the United Arab Emirates

The present study examined the pattern of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) in relation to the source of advice. Ten community pharmacies in the United Arab Emirates were randomly selected and patients visiting these sites were interviewed using a standard questionnaire. The interview covered “source of advice,” “name of medicine,” “type of disease,” “duration of disease,” and “knowledge of adverse effects and drug interactions. ” After a month the patients were contacted. On average 22.7% of prescriptions contained NSAIDs and 17.5% of visits were for these drugs. Advice from physicians was given to 33.3%, from pharmacists 32.5%, from friends 18.8%, and 15.4% depended on themselves. Other medicines were taken by 14.5% and 12% suffered from gastrointestinal upsets. Paracetamol followed by ibuprofen and diclofenac were the most frequently utilized agents. Headache, fever, and musculoskeletal pain were the common complaints. A month later, 50.7% of the patients continued taking their medications. This study revealed an association between the source of advice and knowledge of side effects. It is argued that, although self-care is important, professional advice in its support is essential since unsupervised self-medication exposes the patient to harmful consequences.
Effectiveness of a structured teaching program on the knowledge of emotional resilience among nursing undergraduates of a selected nursing college of Hyderabad

Background: Emotional resilience refers to one's ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises. More resilient people are able to “roll with the punches” and adapt to adversity without lasting difficulties; less resilient people have a harder time with stress and life changes, both major and minor. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the effect of structured training program on knowledge of emotional resilience and to seek association between knowledge scores and selected demographic variables. Material and Methods: The research approach selected for the present study was a quantitative approach. A preexperimental research design was adapted with one-group pretest–posttest design. The study was conducted in a selected nursing college of Hyderabad. The sample size was 32. The sample chosen for the study was B.Sc. Nursing 1st-year students. Convenient sampling technique was used. A questionnaire with multiple-choice questions was prepared. Results: Majority of the students that is 16 (50%) who participated in the study were aged 18 years. Most of them belonged to nuclear family that is 25(78%). The pretest mean scores were 12.4 and the posttest mean scores were 16.5. Paired “t” test value was 18.6 and table value is 2.05 at 0.05 and the df is 31 which indicated that structured teaching was effective in improving knowledge of the students. There was no association between knowledge and selected demographic variables, such as age, religion, and type of family. Conclusion: It is during this novice period that they experience a lot of emotional upheavals and find it difficult to cope with trivial matters. The knowledge about emotional resilience will help them to face the challenges of life with optimism, and it would help them to use their problem-solving skills and to solve complex problems in life.
Derivation of a new formula for the estimation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol

BACKGROUND: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc) is a well-known surrogate marker to assess the cardiovascular health and risk of atherosclerosis. Due to the feasibility of calculating the LDLc from the estimated values of other subfractions of cholesterol, it has been commonly applied in resource-limited settings. However, calculated LDLc presents with a significant bias, probably due to the lack of relevance of equation in the local population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 200 samples were assessed for serum lipid profile by automated method. Parallelly, based on the values of subfractions of cholesterol obtained, an equation was derived using polynomial multiregression analysis. We also tested the ability other published equations to accurately predict the LDLc value. RESULTS: We found the best fit equation as LDLcal= (0.88 × total cholesterol) − (0.02 × triglycerides) − (0.03 × high-density lipoprotein) − 37.48. The equation performed better than most other published equations, including Friedewald's equation. It was also noted that Chen's equation had the best prediction and Ahmidi's equation performed the poorest. CONCLUSION: This study highlights a significant need for improved formulas to estimate serum LDLc based on other cholesterol parameters.
Deficiencies in the Mitochondrial Electron Transport Chain Affect Redox Poise and Resistance Toward Colletotrichum higginsianum

To investigate if and how the integrity of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (mETC) influences susceptibility of Arabidopsis toward Colletotrichum higginsianum, we have selected previously characterized mutants with defects at different stages of the mETC, namely, the complex I mutant ndufs4, the complex II mutant sdh2-1, the complex III mutant ucr8-1, and a mutant of the uncoupling protein ucp1-2. Relative to wild type, the selected complex I, II, and III mutants showed decreased total respiration, increased alternative respiration, as well as increased redox charge of the NADP(H) pool and decreased redox charge of the NAD(H) pool in the dark. In the light, mETC mutants accumulated free amino acids, albeit to varying degrees. Glycine and serine, which are involved in carbon recycling from photorespiration, and N-rich amino acids were predominantly increased in mETC mutants compared to the wild type. Taking together the physiological phenotypes of all examined mutants, our results suggest a connection between the limitation in the re-oxidation of reducing equivalents in the mitochondrial matrix and the induction of nitrate assimilation into free amino acids in the cytosol, which seems to be engaged as an additional sink for reducing power. The sdh2-1 mutant was less susceptible to C. higginsianum and did not show hampered salicylic acid (SA) accumulation as previously reported for SDH1 knock-down plants. The ROS burst remained unaffected in sdh2-1, emonstrating that subunit SDH2 is not involved in the control of ROS production and SA signaling by complex II. Moreover, the ndufs4 mutant showed only 20% of C. higginsianum colonization compared to wild type, with the ROS burst and the production of callose papillae being significantly increased compared to wild type. This indicates that a restriction of respiratory metabolism can positively affect pre-penetration resistance of Arabidopsis. Taking metabolite profiling data from all investigated mETC mutants, a strong positive correlation of resistance toward C. higginsianum with NADPH pool size, pyruvate contents, and other metabolites associated with redox poise and energy charge was evident, which fosters the hypothesis that limitations in the mETC can support resistance at post-penetration stages by improving the availability of metabolic power.
Sleepiness as a Local Phenomenon

Sleep occupies a third of our life and is a primary need for all animal species studied so far. Nonetheless, chronic sleep restriction is a growing source of morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries. Sleep loss is associated with the subjective feeling of sleepiness and with decreased performance, as well as with detrimental effects on general health, cognition, and emotions. The ideas that small brain areas can be asleep while the rest of the brain is awake and that local sleep may account for at least some of the cognitive and behavioral manifestations of sleepiness are making their way into the scientific community. We herein clarify the different ways sleep can intrude into wakefulness, summarize recent scientific advances in the field, and offer some hypotheses that help framing sleepiness as a local phenomenon.
Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complex Isolates on the Slopes of Mount Etna, SICILY, Italy

This study investigated the presence of Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii species complex isolates on olive trees growing in the Eastern part of Sicily (Italy) characterized by the presence of the volcano Etna and the ability of these fungal pathogens to sexually reproduce on medium containing volcanic soil. Samples from 124 olive trees were collected from 14 different sites around Mount Etna. Eighteen trees (14.5%) resulted colonized by C. neoformans VNI-αA isolates, one (0.8%) by VNIV-αD isolates, and two (1.6%) by C. gattii VGI-αB isolates. The ability of environmental and reference strains belonging to VNI, VNIV, and VGI molecular types to sexually reproduce on a medium containing volcanic soil was also tested. VNI and VNIV strains were able to produce filaments and basiodiospores more vigorously than on the control medium, whereas VGI strains were not fertile. In conclusion, the present study identified which C. neoformans and C. gattii species complex genotypes are circulating in Eastern Sicily and confirmed the ecological role of olive trees as environmental reservoir of these pathogens. It also showed that Cryptococcus is able to colonize and sexually reproduce in inhospitable environments such as the slopes of a volcano.
Light Regulation of Axillary Bud Outgrowth Along Plant Axes: An Overview of the Roles of Sugars and Hormones

Apical dominance, the process by which the growing apical zone of the shoot inhibits bud outgrowth, involves an intricate network of several signals in the shoot. Auxin originating from plant apical region inhibits bud outgrowth indirectly. This inhibition is in particular mediated by cytokinins and strigolactones, which move from the stem to the bud and that respectively stimulate and repress bud outgrowth. The action of this hormonal network is itself modulated by sugar levels as competition for sugars, caused by the growing apical sugar sink, may deprive buds from sugars and prevents bud outgrowth partly by their signaling role. In this review, we analyze recent findings on the interaction between light, in terms of quantity and quality, and apical dominance regulation. Depending on growth conditions, light may trigger different pathways of the apical dominance regulatory network. Studies pinpoint to the key role of shoot-located cytokinin synthesis for light intensity and abscisic acid synthesis in the bud for R:FR in the regulation of bud outgrowth by light. Our analysis provides three major research lines to get a more comprehensive understanding of light effects on bud outgrowth. This would undoubtedly benefit from the use of computer modeling associated with experimental observations to deal with a regulatory system that involves several interacting signals, feedbacks, and quantitative effects.
Mechanisms Responsible for Genetic Hypertension in Schlager BPH/2 Mice

It has been 45 years since Gunther Schlager used a cross breeding program in mice to develop inbred strains with high, normal, and low blood pressure (BPH/2, BPN/3, and BPL/1 respectively). Thus, it is timely to gather together the studies that have characterized and explored the mechanisms associated with the hypertension to take stock of exactly what is known and what remains to be determined. Growing evidence supports the notion that the mechanism of hypertension in BPH/2 mice is predominantly neurogenic with some of the early studies showing aberrant brain noradrenaline levels in BPH/2 compared with BPN/3. Analysis of the adrenal gland using microarray suggested an association with the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Indeed, in support of this, there is a larger depressor response to ganglion blockade, which reduced blood pressure in BPH/2 mice to the same level as BPN/3 mice. Greater renal tyrosine hydroxylase staining and greater renal noradrenaline levels in BPH/2 mice suggest sympathetic hyperinnervation of the kidney. Renal denervation markedly reduced the blood pressure in BPH/2 but not BPN/3 mice, confirming the importance of renal sympathetic nervous activity contributing to the hypertension. Further, there is an important contribution to the hypertension from miR-181a and renal renin in this strain. BPH/2 mice also display greater neuronal activity of amygdalo-hypothalamic cardiovascular regulatory regions. Lesions of the medial nucleus of the amygdala reduced the hypertension in BPH/2 mice and abolished the strain difference in the effect of ganglion blockade, suggesting a sympathetic mechanism. Further studies suggest that aberrant GABAergic inhibition may play a role since BPH/2 mice have low GABAA receptor δ, α4 and β2 subunit mRNA expression in the hypothalamus, which are predominantly involved in promoting tonic neuronal inhibition. Allopregnanolone, an allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors, which increase the expression of these subunits in the amygdala and hypothalamus, is shown to reduce the hypertension and sympathetic nervous system contribution in BPH/2 mice. Thus far, evidence suggests that BPH/2 mice have aberrant GABAergic inhibition, which drives neuronal overactivity within amygdalo-hypothalamic brain regions. This overactivity is responsible for the greater sympathetic contribution to the hypertension in BPH/2 mice, thus making this an ideal model of neurogenic hypertension.