Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extending UML from software to systems engineering

" The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a graphical language for visualizing, specifying, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of a software-intensive system " [1]. This panel of domain and tool development experts discusses the features needed to extend UML to support systems engineering, and together with the audience, investigates the advisability and feasibility of the extensions. Audience participation is an important part of this session. The audience is invited and urged to contribute. While probably in agreement that consistent modeling methods between the two domains will lead to more effective and efficient system development, members of the audience may be concerned that an extended UML may not meet their needs and may be too complex. Since the audience has had diverse experience is engineering systems and using system-engineering methods, audience contributions can lead to an improved UML standard. The primary objective for systems engineering is to develop cost effective system solutions, which satisfy customer and stakeholder needs. Over the past few years, several process standards have been introduced to help accomplish this objective, including ANSI/EIA 632, IEEE 1220, ISO 15288, and the CMMI. However, a critical missing element has been a standardized modeling language to specify, design, and verify complex systems. A standard modeling language for systems engineering, is intended to bridge the semantic gap between systems, software, and other engineering disciplines, and improve the ability to exchange systems engineering information amongst tools. The Unified Modeling Language has become a de-facto standard amongst the software community for analyzing and designing software. The language is believed to be sufficiently robust to support extensions to address the needs of systems engineering. However, there are significant challenges for UML to provide a complete, unambiguous, and intuitive representation for modeling systems. This includes representing hierarchical behavior, continuous time systems, inputs and outputs, physical structure, performance, physical, and other system characteristics, such as reliability and safety, and parametric relationships. In July 2001, the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and the OMG initiated a collaboration to address this need. The Systems Engineering Domain Special Interest Group (SE DSIG) was formed, and held its kickoff meeting in September 2001, with the goal of extending UML for systems engineering. This effort is closely aligned with the ISO AP-233 effort to develop a data interchange standard for systems engineering, which is focused on tool interoperability. The SE DSIG is establishing a set of requirements for UML for systems …
Teaching portfolio as a source of pre-service teacher training programme needs analysis

The present study aims to portray the information value of the pre-service teachers’ portfolios within the particular study programme needs analysis with respect to the profile of effectively prepared novice teachers. The study focuses on the values of portfolios with respect to teacher training programme needs. The portfolio was used to examine the gaps in pre-service teacher training and practice needs. Student teacher training observations, semi-structured interviews with teacher trainers and structured interviews with supervisors were carried out to confront the findings. The research results may represent a further step towards using student-teacher portfolios as a significant source of information for students (teacher trainee), teachers, managers (author of the study programme). Keywords: pre-service teacher training, portfolio, qualitative research, self-reflection, needs analysis.
Exploring cellular cholesterol-focused strategies in the treatment of cardiometabolic diseases.

The pathogenesis of atherosclerotic lesions is complex. Dysregulation of cholesterol balance in macrophages continues to occupy a critical role [1]. It begins with uptake of cholesterol-rich lipoproteins, especially, those of modified LDL by macrophages through scavenger receptors that overwhelm the homeostatic insulin induced gene/SREBP cleavage-activating protein/sterol response element binding protein (SREBP) machinery and other compensatory mechanisms, permitting accumulation of free cholesterol, which is deleterious to cell function and survival when in excess. Reduction of lipoprotein loading through lipid lowering pharmacologically has proven effective in reducing the atherosclerosis burden and is in wide clinical use. Similar dysregulation of cellular cholesterol has been implicated in other metabolic disorders, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and pancreatic b-cell dysfunctions. Effective reduction of cellular cholesterol as therapeutic strategy in each of these chronic diseases remains to be explored.
A new genetic algorithm approach to smooth path planning for mobile robots

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the smooth path planning problem for a mobile robot based on the genetic algorithm (GA) and the Bezier curve. Design/methodology/approach The workspace of a mobile robot is described by a new grid-based representation that facilitates the operations of the adopted GA. The chromosome of the GA is composed of a sequence of binary numbered grids (i.e. control points of the Bezier curve). Ordinary genetic operators including crossover and mutation are used to search the optimum chromosome where the optimization criterion is the length of a piecewise collision-free Bezier curve path determined by the control points. Findings This paper has proposed a new smooth path planning for a mobile robot by resorting to the GA and the Bezier curve. A new grid-based representation of the workspace has been presented, which makes it convenient to perform operations in the GA. The GA has been used to search the optimum control points that determine the Bezier curve-based smooth path. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been verified by a numerical experiment, and some performances of the obtained method have also been analyzed. Research limitations/implications There still remain many interesting topics, for example, how to solve the specific smooth path planning problem by using the GA and how to promote the computational efficiency in the more grids case. These issues deserve further research. Originality/value The purpose of this paper is to improve the existing results by making the following three distinctive contributions: a rigorous mathematical formulation of the path planning optimization problem is formulated; a general grid-based representation (2n × 2n) is proposed to describe the workspace of the mobile robots to facilitate the implementation of the GA where n is chosen according to the trade-off between the accuracy and the computational burden; and the control points of the Bezier curve are directly linked to the optimization criteria so that the generated paths are guaranteed to be optimal without any need for smoothing afterwards.
Leptospira and leptospirosis in China

Purpose of review In this review, we introduce the epidemiological features, clinical types, laboratory diagnosis, and routine surveillance of leptospirosis in China. Recent findings Leptospirosis has been prevalent sporadically in China in recent years, but its incidence has decreased, probably due to the lower leptospire-carrying rate in pigs. Leptospira interrogans serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae serovar Lai is the most common pathogen in Chinese leptospirosis patients and Apodemus agrarius is its major animal host. At least 75% of Chinese leptospirosis patients suffer from the mild influenza-like type of leptospirosis that is caused by any serovars of L. interrogans. However, leptospirosis patients with the pulmonary diffuse hemorrhagic type have a high mortality (40–60%). L. interrogans serovar Lai is the causative agent in 75% of the pulmonary diffuse hemorrhagic leptospirosis patients. Several outer membrane protein antigens exist in all the L. interrogans serovars prevailing in China and predominant T- and B-cell combined epitopes in the outer membrane protein antigens have been identified that can be used for developing novel universal leptospirosis vaccines. Summary Leptospirosis cases in the Chinese population have gradually decreased in recent years, but it is still an important zoonotic infectious disease. The development of universal vaccines is critical for the prevention and control of leptospirosis.
Genetic and Transgenic Evidence That Phytochromes A and B Act to Modulate the Gravitropic Orientation of Arabidopsis thaliana Hypocotyls

Hypocotyls of Arabidopsis thaliana exhibit negative gravitropism in the dark, growing against the gravity vector. The direction of growth is randomized in red light (R). In single mutants lacking either phytochrome A or B randomization of hypocotyl orientation in R is retained. However, a double mutant lacks this response, indicating that either phytochrome A or B is capable of inducing randomization and phytochrome A and B are the only phytochromes involved in this process. The induction of randomization was confirmed using lines that express to different levels PHYA and PHYB cDNAs. Overexpression of PHYA cDNAs induced randomization of hypocotyl orientation in the dark. Dark randomization was also seen in the phyB-1 mutant but not in two other phyB alleles, suggesting that dark randomization in the phyB-1 line may be due to a second mutation. When germination was induced by gibberellin, rather than exposure to brief white light, randomization in the dark associated with phytochrome A overproduction was not observed but was retained in the phyB-1 mutant. Overexpression of PHYB cDNAs induced a light-dependent randomization of hypocotyl orientation that responded to R:far-red light ratio. We conclude that the default situation in Arabidopsis hypocotyls is, therefore, negative gravitropism, and either phytochrome A or phytochrome B can mediate randomization.
Information Theoretic Source Seeking Strategies for Multiagent Plume Tracking in Turbulent Fields

We present information theoretic search strategies for single and multi-robot teams to localize the source of biochemical contaminants in turbulent flows. The robots synthesize the information provided by sporadic and intermittent sensor readings to optimize their exploration strategy. By leveraging the spatio-temporal sensing capabilities of a mobile sensing network, our strategies result in control actions that maximize the information gained by the team while minimizing the time spent localizing the biochemical source. By leveraging the team’s ability to obtain simultaneous measurements at different locations, we show how a multi-robot team is able to speed up the search process resulting in a collaborative information theoretic search strategy. We validate our proposed strategies in both simulations and experiments.
Aspects of the aesthetics of telecommunications

this year's report primarily with respect to telecommunications. Read more. Presentation. today engraved in the "technologies" of communication. â€ ​[3] It is this analysis of the formal and functional aspects of communication that Communication Aesthetics calls for. Â â€œThe hooking-up of computers to each other, and also to other machines, is a fore-runner of the opening out of the telecommunications network and the abolition of certain constraints of distance. â€ ​[3] And, once again, it is for the artist to understand and harness these modifications and constraints so as to engage with these evolutions in the name of communication: â€œWe. Â Lastly, Communication Aesthetics engages with another more problematic implication of technological innovations, the increasing intangibility of perception and sensuality resulting from the rise of the virtual.
Lumbar Disc Herniation in the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial: Does Educational Attainment Impact Outcome?

Study Design. Randomized trial with concurrent observational cohort. A total of 1171 patients were divided into subgroups by educational attainment: high school or less, some college, and college degree or above. Objective. To assess the influence of education level on outcomes for treatment of lumbar disc herniation. Summary of Background Data. Educational attainment has been demonstrated to have an inverse relationship with pain perception, comorbidities, and mortality. Methods. The Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial enrolled surgical candidates (imaging-confirmed disc herniation with at least 6 weeks of persistent signs and symptoms of radiculopathy) from 13 multidisciplinary spine clinics in 11 US states. Treatments were standard open discectomy versus nonoperative treatment. Outcomes were changes from baseline for 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), bodily pain (BP), and physical function (PF) scales and the modified Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and yearly through 4 years. Results. Substantial improvement was seen in all patient cohorts. Surgical outcomes did not differ by level of education. For nonoperative outcomes, however, higher levels of education were associated with significantly greater overall improvement over 4 years in BP (P = 0.007), PF (P = 0.001), and ODI (P = 0.003). At 4 years a “dose-response” type relationship was shown for BP (high school or less = 25.5, some college = 31, and college graduate or above = 36.3, P = 0.004) and results were similar for PF and ODI. The success of nonoperative treatment in the more educated cohort resulted in an attenuation of the relative benefit of surgery. Conclusion. Patients with higher educational attainment demonstrated significantly greater improvement with nonoperative treatment while educational attainment was not associated with surgical outcomes.
Sistema de detección de intrusiones con mantenimiento asistido de bases de datos de ataques mediante aprendizaje automático

Los sistemas de detecci´on de intrusiones (o IDS, del ingl´es Intrusion Detection System) tienen como fin la detecci´on de ataques en redes de comunicaciones. Como tales, constituyen un elemento de inter´es en la provisi´on de seguridad en gesti´on de redes ante la asunci´on de existencia de agujeros de seguridad en los sistemas hardware y software. Por otro lado, existen sistemas de detecci´on de intrusiones de c´odigo abierto basados en reglas, cuya principal desventaja consiste en el esfuerzo t´ecnico de matenimiento de la base de datos de reglas. En este documento se analizan las t´ecnicas m´as utilizadas en sistemas de detecci´on de intrusiones y se reutilizan sistemas de intrusiones basados en reglas para proponer un sistema de detecci´on de intrusiones con mantenimiento asistido de bases de datos de ataques mediante aprendizaje autom´atico.
Reference 55 . 1 , a gene of unknown function of phage T 4 , impacts on Escherichia coli folate metabolism and blocks DNA repair by the NER

Phage T4, the archetype of lytic bacterial viruses, needs only 62 genes to propagate under standard laboratory conditions. Interestingly, the T4 genome contains more than 100 putative genes of unknown function, with few detectable homologues in cellular genomes. To characterize this uncharted territory of genetic information, we have identified several T4 genes that prevent bacterial growth when expressed from plasmids under inducible conditions. Here, we report on the various phenotypes and molecular characterization of 55.1, one of the genes of unknown function. High-level expression from the arabinose-inducible P(BAD) promoter is toxic to the bacteria and delays the intracellular accumulation of phage without affecting the final burst size. Low-level expression from T4 promoter(s) renders bacteria highly sensitive to UV irradiation and hypersensitive to trimethoprim, an inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase. The delay in intracellular phage accumulation requires UvsW, a T4 helicase that is also a suppressor of 55.1-induced toxicity and UV sensitivity. Genetic and biochemical experiments demonstrate that gp55.1 binds to [. ] MATTENBERGER, Yves Benoît, et al. 55.1, a gene of unknown function of phage T4, impacts on Escherichia coli folate metabolism and blocks DNA repair by the NER. Molecular Microbiology, 2011, vol. 82, no. 6, p. 1406-21 DOI : 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011. 07897.x
A Genomewide Screen for Suppressors of par-2 Uncovers Potential Regulators of PAR Protein-Dependent Cell Polarity in Caenorhabditis elegans

The PAR proteins play an essential role in establishing and maintaining cell polarity. While their function is conserved across species, little is known about their regulators and effectors. Here we report the identification of 13 potential components of the C. elegans PAR polarity pathway, identified in an RNAi-based, systematic screen to find suppressors of par-2(it5ts) lethality. Most of these genes are conserved in other species. Phenotypic analysis of double-mutant animals revealed that some of the suppressors can suppress lethality associated with the strong loss-of-function allele par-2(lw32), indicating that they might impinge on the PAR pathway independently of the PAR-2 protein. One of these is the gene nos-3, which encodes a homolog of Drosophila Nanos. We find that nos-3 suppresses most of the phenotypes associated with loss of par-2 function, including early cell division defects and maternal-effect sterility. Strikingly, while PAR-1 activity was essential in nos-3; par-2 double mutants, its asymmetric localization at the posterior cortex was not restored, suggesting that the function of PAR-1 is independent of its cortical localization. Taken together, our results identify conserved components that regulate PAR protein function and also suggest a role for NOS-3 in PAR protein-dependent cell polarity.
Intracochlear electrical stimulation of normal and deaf cats investigated using brainstem response audiometry.

Brainstem response audiometry for intracochlear electrical stimulation of normal-hearing and deafened cats was investigated. In normal cochleas the brainstem response amplitude grew slowly near threshold as a current-amplitude dependent process, identified as electrophonic in origin. This terminated in a rapidly growing charge-dependent process at approximately 20 dB above threshold, identified as direct electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. Small levels of white noise (25-35 dB SPL) were sufficient to mask most of the electrophonic response, leaving the direct stimulation process essentially unmodified. In cochleas damaged with d.c. currents and loud sounds, only a rapidly growing charge-dependent process was observed which grew similarly to that in normal-hearing cats but occurred at lower currents. This indicates that possibly the electrical properties of the cochlea were altered in the deafening process, suggesting the inadequacy of normal animals as deaf models for electrical stimulation. Using the technique of derived brainstem responses, it was shown that direct electrical stimulus components were localized to the vicinity of the stimulus electrode with electrophonic components distributed more widely. However, at high currents there was some evidence of the stimulus spreading into the internal auditory meatus.
Functional Heteromerization of HCN1 and HCN2 Pacemaker Channels*

An important step toward understanding the molecular basis of the functional diversity of pacemaker currents in spontaneously active cells has been the identification of a gene family encoding hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-sensitive cation nonselective (HCN) channels. Three of the four gene products that have been expressed so far give rise to pacemaker channels with distinct activation kinetics and are differentially distributed among the brain, with considerable overlap between some isoforms. This raises the possibility that HCN channels may coassemble to form heteromeric channels in some areas, similar to other K+ channels. In this study, we have provided evidence for functional heteromerization of HCN1 and HCN2 channels using a concatenated cDNA construct encoding two connected subunits. We have observed that heteromeric channels activate several-fold faster than HCN2 and only a little slower than HCN1. Furthermore, the voltage dependence of activation is more similar to HCN2, whereas the cAMP sensitivity is intermediate between HCN1 and HCN2. This phenotype shows marked similarity to the current arising from coexpressed HCN1 and HCN2 subunits in oocytes and the native pacemaker current in CA1 pyramidal neurons. We suggest that heteromerization may increase the functional diversity beyond the levels expected from the number of HCN channel genes and their differential distribution.
Protecting Critical Information Infrastructure: Developing Cybersecurity Policy

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Future applications of Optical Wireless and combination scenarios with RF technology

Optical Wireless Communications, (OWC), also known as Free Space Optics (FSO) is presented in this contribution for future applications. OWC in combination (as hybrid transmission method) with other telecommunication technologies (including WLAN and satellite communications) is shown as innovative approach for alternative network scenarios. Modular communication systems are considered, which allows worldwide access to the Internet or other networks by combining satellite communications, FSO, Wireless LAN, Local Multipoint Distribution System (LMDS) and DVB-T (terrestrial digital video broadcast). Current and future applications of OWC, including deep space missions and autonomous driving systems (cars, ships, planes) combined with 5G networks are shown.
Talent Management as a Core Source of Innovation and Social Development in Higher Education

In the new millennium, talent management (TM) has become more important and has received attention from institutions that seek a foundation on the map institutions of excellence. Higher education institutions are represented by their possession of highly qualified employees who are able to show initiative, creativity and excellence in performance. Those individuals are the core resources of innovation and social development. It is apparent that there is a great competition among institutions in this modern technology era, driving an increase in knowledgeable employees along with vast market changes. Consequently, academic institutions have started to rethink their procedures and policies to achieve better attraction, development and retention of those employees. Therefore, this chapter aims to improve the theoretical and pragmatic comprehension of TM as an essential source of innovative and educational development. Through pragmatic use of elements of previous research approaches combined with a comprehensive qualitative study, this study concludes that higher education institutions are aware of innovation sources that are currently used in managing talent in their divisions and faculties. These were talent attraction, talent development, and talent retention. Both empirical research represented by the case study in the higher education sector and previous research confirm that the best practices of TM are considered as attraction, development and retention of talent.