Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Attitudes towards the uptake of open source software by small and medium enterprises in the Western Cape, South Africa

This paper focuses on the uptake of open source software in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Western Cape. SMEs aim to become more efficient and competitive, but often experience challenges. Open Source Software (OSS) is considered to yield key benefits for SMEs because it is free to access, distribute and customise, peer-reviewed for reliability. However, certain drawbacks can hinder SMEs from adopting OSS such as uncertain support, need for technical skill for usage, incomplete functionality to mention a few. The broadband initiative in the Western Cape looked to enable the access of OSS online through the provision of broadband internet for organisations including SMEs. This research was aimed, through a qualitative analysis, mainly at examining the attitude of S MEs toward OSS by analysing the benefits as well as the drawbacks of using OSS. The research also analysed the effect of the broadband initiative on the attitude of SMEs toward OSS uptake. Additionally, the roles that intermediaries undertake in OSS communities for promoting the uptake of OSS in SMEs, which were investigated were decentralised school, bridging school, arterial school, communities of practice and ecosystems school. These intermediary roles were analysed to find out which role would be most significant for facilitating OSS uptake.
Towards formal methods and software engineering for deep learning: Security, safety and productivity for dl systems development

Deep Learning (DL) techniques are now widespread and being integrated into many important systems. Their classification and recognition abilities ensure their relevance for multiple application domains far beyond pure signal processing. As a machine-learning technique that relies on training instead of explicit algorithm programming they offer a high degree of productivity. But recent research has shown that they can be vulnerable to attacks and the verification of their correctness is only just emerging as a scientific and engineering possibility. Moreover DL tools are not integrated into classical software engineering so software tools to specify, modify and verify them would make them even more mainstream as software-hardware systems. This paper surveys recent work and proposes research directions and methodologies for this purpose.
Protective Effects of Sinomenine Against Ankylosing Spondylitis and the Underlying Molecular Mechanisms

Background This study aimed to investigate the effect and underlying molecular mechanism of sinomenine (SIN) on ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Material/Methods To study the potential role of SIN in the pathogenesis of AS, an AS mouse model was established and mice were treated with different concentrations of SIN (10, 30, and 50 mg/kg, administered intraperitoneally). Markers of inflammation and oxidative stress were determined by ELISA assay. Western blot analysis and qRT-PCR were used to quantify the levels of related proteins and gene mRNA expression. Results The results suggest that AS mice has higher levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 (p<0.01 for all), and lower levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) (p<0.01 for all). SIN treatment reduced the level of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 in a dose-dependent manner, and the levels of SOD, CAT, and GSH-PX were dose-dependently increased (p<0.05 for all). The results also revealed that NF-κBp65 expression decreased, while the level of IκB increased, in a dose-dependent manner, after SIN treatment in AS mice (p<0.05 for all). The level of p-p38 was dose-dependently reduced in AS mice by SIN treatment (p<0.05). Moreover, SIN inhibited Cox-2 expression in AS mice in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05). Conclusions SIN has a beneficial role in AS through suppressing inflammatory mediators and by down-regulating oxidative stress via inhibiting the MAPKp38/NF-κB pathway and Cox-2 expression.
Auditing Cloud Environment Using Control Attribute Based Encryption

Cloud storage services have become increasingly popular. Because of the importance of privacy, many cloud storage encryption schemes have been proposed to protect data from those who do not have access. All such schemes assumed that cloud storage providers are safe and cannot be hacked; however, in practice, some authorities (i.e., coercers) may force cloud storage providers to reveal user secrets or confidential data on the cloud, thus altogether circumventing storage encryption schemes. In this paper, we present our design for a new cloud storage encryption scheme that enables cloud storage providers to create convincing fake user secrets to protect user privacy. Since coercers cannot tell if obtained secrets are true or not, the cloud storage provider ensure that user privacy is still securely protected. Keywords– Cloud computing, Deniable Encryption, Attribute Based Encryption, Data security and Privacy.
Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Testing in Breast Cancer: American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists Clinical Practice Guideline Focused Update.

Purpose To update key recommendations of the American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) testing in breast cancer guideline. Methods Based on the signals approach, an Expert Panel reviewed published literature and research survey results on the observed frequency of less common in situ hybridization (ISH) patterns to update the recommendations. Recommendations Two recommendations addressed via correspondence in 2015 are included. First, immunohistochemistry (IHC) 2+ is defined as invasive breast cancer with weak to moderate complete membrane staining observed in > 10% of tumor cells. Second, if the initial HER2 test result in a core needle biopsy specimen of a primary breast cancer is negative, a new HER2 test may (not "must") be ordered on the excision specimen based on specific clinical criteria. The HER2 testing algorithm for breast cancer is updated to address the recommended work-up for less common clinical scenarios (approximately 5% of cases) observed when using a dual-probe ISH assay. These scenarios are described as ISH group 2 ( HER2/chromosome enumeration probe 17 [CEP17] ratio ≥ 2.0; average HER2 copy number < 4.0 signals per cell), ISH group 3 ( HER2/CEP17 ratio < 2.0; average HER2 copy number ≥ 6.0 signals per cell), and ISH group 4 ( HER2/CEP17 ratio < 2.0; average HER2 copy number ≥ 4.0 and < 6.0 signals per cell). The diagnostic approach includes more rigorous interpretation criteria for ISH and requires concomitant IHC review for dual-probe ISH groups 2 to 4 to arrive at the most accurate HER2 status designation (positive or negative) based on combined interpretation of the ISH and IHC assays. The Expert Panel recommends that laboratories using single-probe ISH assays include concomitant IHC review as part of the interpretation of all single-probe ISH assay results. Find additional information at www.asco. org/breast-cancer-guidelines .
Efficacy of levetiracetam in premature infants: our experience and review of the literature

Abstract Objective: To evaluate levetiracetam (LEV) efficacy in preterm infants admitted in NICU. Study design: Clinical characteristics of 26 preterm infants treated with LEV were evaluated retrospectively. The results were compared with those of 44 preterm infants from the literature who were given LEV. Result: The mean gestational week of the infants receiving LEV was found as 26.7 ± 3.3 weeks, mean birth weight as 938 ± 561 g and mean dose of LEV as 17 ± 9.23 mg/kg. Overall seizure control rate with LEV was found as 65%, while seizure control was achieved by 11.5% when it was used as the first drug, 35% as the second drug and 15.3% as the third drug. The incidence of sepsis and intraventricular hemorrhage in seizure etiology was 73% in infants who received LEV. There was no side effect observed during LEV treatment. Conclusions: Seizure control was better achieved with LEV given as the 2nd antiepileptic in premature infants. Further studies with randomization of LEV and other antiepileptics in seizure control are needed.
Do Workers’ Remittances Increase Terrorism? Evidence from South Asian Countries

This study investigates the influence of workers’ remittances on terrorism in 5 South Asian countries. The panel data comprised of 20 years from the period of 1994 to 2013 is used. The advanced econometric techniques i.e, CIPS unit root test, bootstrap cointegration, Pedroni co-integration, FMOLS, fixed effect model and heterogeneous panel causality technique have been applied. The results suggest that the workers’ remittances have a significant positive impact on the terrorism in South Asian countries. The results also indicate that the control variables, i.e., Inflation, unemployment, and population size also have a significant positive relationship with terrorism. The result of causality shows that unidirectional causality exists of remittance, population, and inflation with unemployment, however, bidirectional causality exists between unemployment and terrorism.The sample size is restricted to South Asian countries only so the result cannot be generalized to other countries. This study will help the policymakers of the region, to make necessary amendments in law so that remittance amount does not be accessible to the group to use in terrorist activities. On a larger perspective, only two studies have been carried out that examines the relationship between terrorism and remittance. One study is conducted in the sub-Saharan region by Elu and Price (2011), and the other one is conducted on panel data by Mascarenhas and Sandler (2014). No study to the best of our knowledge has been done in the South Asian context, so this study is conducted to analyze the impact of workers’ remittance on terrorism in South Asian countries.
Interaction of microbial pathogens with host exocytic pathways

Many microbial pathogens co‐opt or perturb host membrane trafficking pathways. This review covers recent examples in which microbes interact with host exocytosis, the fusion of intracellular vesicles with the plasma membrane. The bacterial pathogens Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus subvert recycling endosomal pathways of exocytosis in order to induce their entry into human cells. By contrast, entry of the protozoan pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi or the virus adenovirus into host cells involves exploitation of lysosomal exocytosis. Toxins produced by Bacillus anthracis or Vibrio cholerae interfere with exocytosis pathways mediated by the GTPase Rab11 and the exocyst complex. By doing so, anthrax or cholera toxins impair recycling of cadherins to cell–cell junctions and disrupt the barrier properties of endothelial cells or intestinal epithelial cells, respectively. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is expelled from bladder epithelial cells through two different exocytic routes that involve sensing of bacteria in vacuoles by host Toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) or monitoring of the pH of lysosomes harbouring UPEC. The TLR4 pathway is mediated by multiple Rab GTPases and the exocyst, whereas the other pathway involves exocytosis of lysosomes. Expulsion of UPEC through these pathways is thought to benefit the host.
Empirical Investigation of TCP Incast Congestion in Wireless Cloud Computing Networks

The promising services offered by cloud computing environments have led to huge amount of data that need to be processed and stored. Wireless cloud networks rely on Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) for reliable transfer of data traffic between the cloud end-users and servers and vise-versa. Even though TCP has been successful for several applications, it, however, does not perform well in wireless cloud environments. The many-to-one communication pattern used in such environments with such huge amount of data resulted in TCP incast problem. Transmission Control Protocol incast problem happens in cluster based storage workloads where a lot of end-users communicate simultaneously to a server in the cloud through a bottleneck router, creating buffers overflows which lead to high packet loss. This paper presents an empirical study on TCP incast in current wireless cloud networks and how it is caused. It evaluates TCP-Vegas and TCP-Sack to examine their behaviors and suitability for short-lived connections in terms of queue occupancy level, packet drops, throughput, link utilization and bandwidth unfairness between the TCP connections. It was found that both protocols suffer from high packet loss and link underutilization with comparable throughput.
FLEXIBILIDADADE DO TRABALHO: UM ESTUDO SOBRE O BANCO DE HORAS EM UMA EMPRESA DE ELETRODOMÉSTICOS

O objetivo deste trabalho e analisar as estrategias de flexibilidade do trabalho em uma empresa de eletrodomesticos de linha branca, em especial o banco de horas. A reorganizacao das empresas a partir da decada de 1990 tem se conduzido pela busca de flexibilidade. No que diz respeito ao trabalho, as diferentes estrategias para obter a flexibilidade podem ser classificadas em dois tipos: flexibilidade funcional, que e a ampliacao das funcoes exercidas pelos trabalhadores, e flexibilidade numerica, relacionada a reducao do emprego por prazo indeterminado em tempo integral e ao crescimento de formas alternativas de contratacao, na qual se enquadra o banco de horas. Para obter as informacoes sobre essas estrategias, foram realizadas entrevistas com gerentes da fabrica sobre seu processo de reestruturacao. Sobre o banco de horas, em particular, a pesquisa envolveu entrevista com 51 trabalhadores, gerentes de recursos humanos e da fabrica supervisores da producao e um diretor do sindicato dos trabalhadores, para saber como avaliam essa forma de flexibilidade.
Serum miR-126 level combined with multi- detector computed tomography in the preoperative prediction of lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND Predicting lymph node metastasis (LNM) accurately is vital to design optimal treatment strategies preoperatively for gastric cancer (GC) patients. However, conventional tumor biomarkers and imaging techniques are not sufficient to predict LNM before surgery. miR-126 has been reported to play important roles in tumor metastasis which may represent a novel tumor biomarker. OBJECTIVE To assess the utility of the combination of serum miR-126 and multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) in predicting LNM preoperatively in GC. METHODS Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to examine the serum miR-126 expression levels in 338 GC patients. MDCT was also performed. The cut-off value of preoperative serum miR-126 level for LNM was determined by receiver characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine independent predictors for LNM. RESULTS The serum miR-126 levels of GC patients with LNM were significantly lower compared with those without LNM (p< 0.05). In addition, the later the N stage was, the lower the serum miR-126 level was in GC patients (p< 0.05). With a cut-off value of 63.4, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of serum miR-126 for predicating LNM were 83.2%, 79.0%, 81.9%, 90.4% and 66.4%, respectively. The combination of serum miR-126 level and MDCT increased the accuracy of MDCT prediction for LNM from 69.2% to 86.7%. Serum miR-126 was an independent predictor for LNM. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate for the first time that the combination of serum miR-126 and MDCT is useful for the prediction of LNM in GC.
Parallel image restoration with spatially variant point spread function: description and first clinical results

In this paper we present a parallel code which performs in iterative image deconvolution using either a spatially- invariant point spread function (SI-PSF) or a spatially- variant point spread function (SV-PSF). The basic algorithm is described as well as a description of the parallel implementation. Applications and results in the area of medical x-ray imaging is discussed.
Igevorse at SemEval-2018 Task 10: Exploring an Impact of Word Embeddings Concatenation for Capturing Discriminative Attributes

This paper presents a comparison of several approaches for capturing discriminative attributes and considers an impact of concatenation of several word embeddings of different nature on the classification performance. A similarity-based method is proposed and compared with classical machine learning approaches. It is shown that this method outperforms others on all the considered word vector models and there is a performance increase when concatenated datasets are used.
Optimizing the Relaxivity of MRI Probes at High Magnetic Field Strengths With Binuclear GdIII Complexes

The key criteria to optimize the relaxivity of a Gd(III) contrast agent at high fields (defined as the region ≥ 1.5 T) can be summarized as follows: (i) the occurrence of a rotational correlation time τR in the range of ca. 0.2–0.5 ns; (ii) the rate of water exchange is not critical, but a τM < 100 ns is preferred; (iii) a relevant contribution from water molecules in the second sphere of hydration. In addition, the use of macrocycle-based systems ensures the formation of thermodynamically and kinetically stable Gd(III) complexes. Binuclear Gd(III) complexes could potentially meet these requirements. Their efficiency depends primarily on the degree of flexibility of the linker connecting the two monomeric units, the absence of local motions and the presence of contribution from the second sphere water molecules. With the aim to maximize relaxivity (per Gd) over a wide range of magnetic field strengths, two binuclear Gd(III) chelates derived from the well-known macrocyclic systems DOTA-monopropionamide and HPDO3A (Gd2L1 and Gd2L2, respectively) were synthesized through a multistep synthesis. Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) experiments carried out on Eu2L2 at different pH showed the occurrence of a CEST effect at acidic pH that disappears at neutral pH, associated with the deprotonation of the hydroxyl groups. Then, a complete 1H and 17O NMR relaxometric study was carried out in order to evaluate the parameters that govern the relaxivity associated with these complexes. The relaxivities of Gd2L1 and Gd2L2 (20 MHz, 298 K) are 8.7 and 9.5 mM−1 s−1, respectively, +77% and +106% higher than the relaxivity values of the corresponding mononuclear GdDOTAMAP-En and GdHPDO3A complexes. A significant contribution of second sphere water molecules was accounted for the strong relaxivity enhancement of Gd2L2. MR phantom images of the dinuclear complexes compared to GdHPDO3A, recorded at 7 T, confirmed the superiority of Gd2L2. Finally, ab initio (DFT) calculations were performed to obtain information about the solution structure of the dinuclear complexes.
Do Physical Activity Friendly Neighborhoods Affect Community Members Equally? A Cross-Sectional Study

An activity-friendly environment may increase physical activity (PA) levels and decrease sedentary behavior (SB). This study investigated associations between socio-demographic characteristics, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), perceived environment and objectively measured PA outcomes. Socio-demographic characteristics were assessed using a questionnaire and HRQoL was measured using the EQ-5D. The Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) was used to assess the perceived environment. SB, light PA (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) were measured using the Actigraph GT3X+. Data from 622 Dutch adults were used in multivariate linear regression analyses to investigate associations between NEWS-A and PA outcomes. Analyses were controlled for socio-demographic characteristics and HRQoL. The presence of attractive buildings was associated with less SB (β = −0.086, p < 0.01) and more MVPA (β = 0.118, p < 0.01). Presence of destinations within walking distance was also positively associated with MVPA (β = 0.106, p < 0.01). Less crime was associated with less MVPA (β = 0.092, p < 0.05). Interactions between personal and environmental characteristics showed that the absence of PA-hindering characteristics (e.g., heavy traffic) was associated with less SB and more MVPA, but only for residents with problems regarding pain and usual activities. The presence of PA-facilitating characteristics (e.g., aesthetics and destinations) was associated with less SB, more LPA and more MVPA but only for the more advantaged people in society. Results suggest that to reduce health inequalities, it would be more helpful to remove barriers rather than introduce PA facilitating characteristics.
Energy Optimization for Task Offloading Based on Auction Mechanism in Ad Hoc Mobile Cloud

Ad hoc mobile cloud is a novel mobile task offloading framework, where mobile device users can share the computation resources with each other to achieve energy efficient task execution. This collaboration task execution strongly relies on nearby mobile user cooperation. Therefore, how to ensure the mobile users to share their computation resources is a challenging issue. In this paper, we propose an incentive-aware task offloading algorithm based on auction mechanism, aiming at stimulating mobile devices to participate in cooperative task processing and minimizing energy consumption. In the auction, service requester acts as the buyer, who collects the bid information from the nearby resource providers and matches the appropriate mobile device for each task according to the bid information and available resources. The proposed mechanism encourages nearby users to contribute their vacant resource with a reward return, which guarantees the long-term incentive of the collaboration. Through theoretical analysis and simulation verification, the proposed mechanism satisfies the performance of individual rationality, budget balance and truthfulness, as well as minimizes the energy consumption.
Trust-Based Dynamic Linear Threshold Models for Non-competitive and Competitive Influence Propagation

What are the key-features that enable an information diffusion model to explain the inherent dynamic, and often competitive, nature of real-world propagation phenomena? In this paper we aim to answer this question by proposing a novel class of diffusion models, inspired by the classic Linear Threshold model, and built around the following aspects: trust/distrust in the user relationships, which is leveraged to model different effects of social influence on the decisions taken by an individual; changes in adopting one or alternative information items; hesitation towards adopting an information item over time; latency in the propagation; time horizon for the unfolding of the diffusion process; and multiple cascades of information that might occur competitively. To the best of our knowledge, the above aspects have never been unified into the same LT-based diffusion model. We also define different strategies for the selection of the initial influencers to simulate non-competitive and competitive diffusion scenarios, particularly related to the problem of limitation of misinformation spread. Results on publicly available networks have shown the meaningfulness and uniqueness of our models.