Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RECENT TECHNIQUES FOR AMELIORATION THE EFFECT OF HEAT STRESS CONDITIONS ON MALE RABBITS

The present work was conducted to study the effect of selenium (Se) plus vitamin E(Vitam E) and AD3E vitamins (Vitam AD3E) mixture as two alleviation techniques on heat stressedrabbits during hot summer season of Egypt. In total 45 New Zealand white (NZW) male rabbits wereused in this research. The animals were divided into three equal groups. The 1st group was keptwithout any treatment and served as control group. The 2nd and 3rd groups were supplemented daily1m/l in drinking water with Se plus E and AD3E vitamins mixture, respectively. The experiment lasted7 weeks during hot summer season (from third week of July to the end of August, 2017). Resultsshowed that adding both of Se plus vitamin E and AD3E vitamins mixture in drinking water decreased(P≤0.001) rectal, skin, ear temperature and respiration rate compared with the control group. Addingboth of Se plus vitamin E and AD3E vitamins mixture in drinking water improved (P≤0.05) final livebody weight and feed intake and decreased (P≤0.001) daily water intake in comparative with controlgroup. Adding both of Se plus vitamin E and AD3E vitamins mixture in drinking water increased(P≤0.01) serum total protein, albumin and globulin concentrations and decreased (P≤0.05) urea-N andcreatinine concentrations in male rabbits. Serum cortisol level was (P≤0.001) lower whileTriiodothyronine (T3), Thyroxin (T4) hormonal levels were (P≤0.001) higher in both two treatmentgroups compared with control. Normal sperm, volume, count, motility and live sperm increased(P≤0.001) while dead sperm was decreased (P≤0.001) in the two treatment groups compared withcontrol group. It can be concluded that the two techniques can alleviate the negative effects of heatstress on rabbits under hot summer season in Egypt
Inferring public interest from search engine data requires caution

Front Ecol Environ doi:10.1002/fee.2048 © The Ecological Society of America of an increase in news media attention toward climatechange topics during these periods (Legagneux et al. 2018). Overall, our results suggest that temporal changes in public interest toward conservation are different and more nuanced than those presented in Burivalova et al. (2018). In our experience, temporal dynamics of search engine usage are complex, and inferences on changes in public interest derived from such data should be approached with caution. Accounting (or not) for multiple confounding factors such as the growth in internet access, search engine usage, time spent online, and the changing nature of internet usage (eg work versus leisure; see Ficetola [2013]) is likely to produce markedly different results. Furthermore, as Burivalova and colleagues rightly point out, Google Furthermore, the rapid growth of search engine use over time means that the absolute number of searches is likely to have increased for any topic, independently of public interest. Given this, a more reasonable assessment of how public interest for conservation topics has changed might be achieved by comparing the rate of change across topics (Nghiem et al. 2016). Calculating the ratio between searches for conservation topics and searches for the topic “climate change”, we find results are not constant over time. The ratio decreases for all terms between 2004 and 2007, and again after 2014, indicating that searches for “climate change” took prominence in relation to conservation topics during these periods (Figure 1c). Repeating the analysis with “global warming” produces similar results, which concur with reports Inferring public interest from search engine data requires caution
Efficient Hardware Design of In-Loop Filter for High-Performance HEVC Encoder

Background/Objectives : An HEVC encoder consists of an in-loop and deblocking filter. In this paper, we propose an efficient in-loop filter hardware architecture for high performance HEVC encoder. Methods/Statistical analysis : The proposed in-loop filter hardware structure is divided into deblocking filter, SAO, and in-loop filter scheduler. The proposed deblocking filter uses an internal line buffer to reduce the overhead of external memory access in order to minimize hardware footprint. SAO has a high throughput with a 4x4 block size unit operation. It uses minimal hardware area by simplifying the equation used to determine the offset value. Findings : The in-loop filter hardware structure of the HEVC encoder proposed in this paper is synthesized at 260MHz with 90nm cell library, and it is possible to process 262.78K gates and 8K@120Fps in real time. Improvements/Applications : The proposed in-loop filter hardware architecture can be applied to high-performance HEVC video codec hardware, and it can be used as an individual filter because of in-loop filter characteristics.
Prevalence of different dairy cattle diseases in selected dairy areas and farms of Bangladesh

The present study was designed to have a comprehensive epidemiological data of the circulating diseases in Pubna cattle in Pubna and sirajgonj districts of Bangladesh. Two sites were selected for the study as the Nucleus Breeding Hard (NBH); which is located in the BLRI-RS, Baghabari, Sahjadpur, Siragjang and the community; consists of three villages of Bera upazila of Pabna district namely Khar-bagan, Hatail-aralia and Char-sabolla. The total cattle population was 576 (506 in the community and 70 in the NBH). The overall weather was hot and humid. A total of 965 clinical cases of cattle of different age and sex were diagnosed during the period from July, 2017 to June, 2018.The descriptive statistics suggested that endo-parasites (15.67%), FMD (27.51%), non-specific diarrhea (7.73%) and post-partum anoestrus (7.78%) are the most prevailing diseases in the community and endo-parasites (21.82%), foot-rot (15.15%), non-specific fever (7.27%), dermatochalasis (5.45%) and conjunctivitis (4.85%) are the most prevailing diseases in the NBH. Population data shows that there was an endemic outbreak of FMD in the community between March to May 2018 where almost 50% cattle were affected by the disease though calf morbidity was low (2.69%) but all the affected calf died. Non-specific diarrhea was more common in older individuals (14% in over 3years old cattle) mostly in cows (14.2%) and occurred in summer (9.84%) and winter (8.81%) may be because of the ignorance of the farmers to supply clean water to their animals. Although, we routinely de-worm our cows in the community and in the NBH round the year we found many cases of parasitic gastro-enteritis in both the locations which suggested that our de-worming practice is not working. Repeated study of the same kind can provide us a large set of data on cattle disease prevailing in the area which may provides valuable insight to design and implement priority based research on specific disease and to take efficient control strategies against that disease. Asian Australas. J. Biosci. Biotechnol. 2018, 3 (3), 231-236
A COMPACT SINGLE-ELEMENT PATTERN RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNA WITH WIDE-ANGLE SCANNING TUNED BY A SINGLE VARACTOR

In this paper, we propose a convenient fixed-frequency beam steering method, using a single patch antenna controlled by only one electronically tunable component. The antenna is based on coupled-mode patch antenna (CMPA) [1] that is capable to scan the beam as the function of frequency. A ground-etched slot loaded with one varactor diode is tuned to be capacitive, resonant, or inductive. In order to test broader tuning range, two kinds of varactors with the ranges of 9.24 pF–1.77 pF and 2.67 pF–0.63 pF are implemented respectively. By analyzing how the loaded slot affects the cavity modes and fields, we demonstrate how the voltage bias tunes the frequency responses and steers beam of the antenna. Perturbed by the loaded slot, the frequency response of the antenna shifts from center frequency of 2.35 GHz with the bandwidth of 4.26% down to the band centered at 2.3 GHz with the bandwidth of 4.35%. The maximum scanning range is realized at around 2.29 GHz where the measured main beam continuously scans from −34◦ to +32◦ when the varactor with lower tuning range is used and biased. Meanwhile, the main beam of 2.35 GHz scans from +32◦ to +54◦ when the higher-range varactor is biased. The proposed single-element antenna is able to maintain high gain and efficiency that are comparable to a regular patch antenna with same size and substrate.
Design & Development of a Public Key Cryptosystem to Securely Share Data in Cloud Storage

Data sharing is an important functionality in cloud storage. In this research paper, we show how to securely, efficiently, and flexibly share data with others in cloud storage. We describe new public-key cryptosystems that produce constant-size cipher texts such that efficient delegation of decryption rights for any set of cipher texts are possible. The novelty is that one can aggregate any set of secret keys and make them as compact as a single key, but encompassing the power of all the keys being aggregated. In other words, the secret key holder can release a constant-size aggregate key for flexible choices of cipher text set in cloud storage, but the other encrypted files outside the set remain confidential. This compact aggregate key can be conveniently sent to others or be stored in a smart card with very limited secure storage. We provide formal security analysis of our schemes in the standard model. We also describe other application of our schemes. In particular, our schemes give the first public-key, patient-controlled encryption for flexible hierarchy, which was yet to be known. KEYWORDS: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS); Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS); Software-as-a-Service (SaaS); Provable Data Possession (PDP); Third-Party Auditor (TPA); National Institute of Standards and Terminology (NIST)
Deep Convolutional Neural Network with Structured Prediction for Weakly Supervised Audio Event Detection

Audio event detection (AED) is a task of recognizing the types of audio events in an audio stream and estimating their temporal positions. AED is typically based on fully supervised approaches, requiring strong labels including both the presence and temporal position of each audio event. However, fully supervised datasets are not easily available due to the heavy cost of human annotation. Recently, weakly supervised approaches for AED have been proposed, utilizing large scale datasets with weak labels including only the occurrence of events in recordings. In this work, we introduce a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model called DSNet based on densely connected convolution networks (DenseNets) and squeeze-and-excitation networks (SENets) for weakly supervised training of AED. DSNet alleviates the vanishing-gradient problem and strengthens feature propagation and models interdependencies between channels. We also propose a structured prediction method for weakly supervised AED. We apply a recurrent neural network (RNN) based framework and a prediction smoothness cost function to consider long-term contextual information with reduced error propagation. In post-processing, conditional random fields (CRFs) are applied to take into account the dependency between segments and delineate the borders of audio events precisely. We evaluated our proposed models on the DCASE 2017 task 4 dataset and obtained state-of-the-art results on both audio tagging and event detection tasks.
Self-Scheduling Approach to Coordinating Wind Power Producers With Energy Storage and Demand Response

The uncertainty of wind energy makes wind power producers (WPPs) incur profit/loss due to balancing costs in electricity markets, a phenomenon that restricts their participation in markets. This paper proposes a stochastic bidding strategy based on virtual power plants (VPPs) to increase the profit of WPPs in short-term electricity markets in coordination with energy storage systems and demand response. To implement the stochastic solution strategy, the Kantorovich method is used for scenario generation and reduction. The optimization problem is formulated as a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming problem. From testing the proposed method for a Spanish WPP, it is inferred that the proposed method enhances the profit of the VPP compared to previous models.
Gamma correction circuit and gamma correction method

一种显示设备具有基于线图近似的γ校正电路。 存储器存储显示设备的γ特征数据。 γ特征值、白电平值、对比度值和黑电平值被输入用于调节输入视频信号的亮度特征。 γ转换部分设置γ校正的斜率和截距,使得输入视频信号可以被转换为显示器的理想输出亮度值。
Function of two redox sensing kinases from the methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina acetivorans

MsmS is a heme-based redox sensor kinase in Methanosarcina acetivorans consisting of alternating PAS and GAF domains connected to a C-terminal kinase domain. In addition to MsmS, M. acetivorans possesses a second kinase, MA0863 with high sequence similarity. Interestingly, MA0863 possesses an amber codon in its second GAF domain, encoding for the amino acid pyrrolysine. Thus far, no function of this residue has been resolved. In order to examine the heme iron coordination in both proteins, an improved method for the production of heme proteins was established using the Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917. This method enables the complete reconstitution of a recombinant hemoprotein during protein production, thereby resulting in a native heme coordination. Analysis of the full-length MsmS and MA0863 confirmed a covalently bound heme cofactor, which is connected to one conserved cysteine residue in each protein. In order to identify the coordinating amino acid residues of the heme iron, UV/vis spectra of different variants were measured. These studies revealed His702 in MsmS and the corresponding His666 in MA0863 as the proximal heme ligands. MsmS has previously been described as a heme-based redox sensor. In order to examine whether the same is true for MA0863, redox dependent kinase assays were performed. MA0863 indeed displays redox dependent autophosphorylation activity, which is independent of heme ligands and only observed under oxidizing conditions. Interestingly, autophosphorylation was shown to be independent of the heme cofactor but rather relies on thiol oxidation. Therefore, MA0863 was renamed in RdmS (redox dependent methyltransferase-associated sensor). In order to identify the phosphorylation site of RdmS, thin layer chromatography was performed identifying a tyrosine as the putative phosphorylation site. This observation is in agreement with the lack of a so-called H-box in typical histidine kinases. Due to their genomic localization, MsmS and RdmS were postulated to form two-component systems (TCS) with vicinal encoded regulator proteins MsrG and MsrF. Therefore, protein-protein interaction studies using the bacterial adenylate two hybrid system were performed suggesting an interaction of RdmS and MsmS with the three regulators MsrG/F/C. Due to these multiple interactions these signal transduction pathways should rather be considered multicomponent system instead of two component systems.
CuZnInSe3‐based solar cells: Impact of copper concentration on vibrational and structural properties and device performance

CuZnInSe3 (CZISe) is an interesting alternative for the acknowledged Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber layer in thin film solar cells. While the partial replacement of scarce and expensive indium and gallium by zinc decreases manufacturing costs, the solid solution between CuInSe2 and ZnSe opens interesting options for band gap tuning and grading. Its potential as an absorber layer in photovoltaic devices has been demonstrated by obtaining 7.4 and 7.6 % efficiency in CZISSe‐ and CZISe‐based devices, respectively. On the other hand, the inherent complexity of the quaternary CZISe together with a lack of fundamental insights puts a limit to its current development. We present insights on the influence of the copper content ([Cu]/([Zn] + [In]) ratio) on the structural and optoelectronic properties of CZISe as well as the formation of secondary phases. By means of XRD and Raman scattering analyses, in addition to the sphalerite CZISe structure, a chalcopyrite Cu‐In‐Zn‐Se phase was found for high copper concentrations. On the contrary, for low Cu concentrations, unambiguous indications of a new ordered vacancy compound (OVC)–like phase formation both in XRD patterns and in Raman spectra were found. Conditions of pre‐resonant Raman scattering were applied to emphasize the new found phase and to estimate its concentration. Finally, the influence of each phase on the optoelectronic parameters and performance of solar cells with efficiencies of up to 7.4 % was studied.
Optimizing the Delivery of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): An Evaluation of Risk Compensation, Disengagement, and the PrEP Cascade

Author(s): Hojilla, J. Carlo | Advisor(s): Carrico, Adam W; Vlahov, David | Abstract: IntroductionTo inform the optimal implementation of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), we conducted three studies that evaluated serodisclosure, identified correlates of PrEP disengagement, and characterized the PrEP cascade of care.MethodsStudy 1 examined the association of PrEP use with participant non-disclosure and lack of knowledge of partner HIV status in the iPrEx Open Label Extension (OLE). Study 2 examined the effects of stimulant use and binge drinking (i.e., ≥5 drinks on one occasion) on PrEP disengagement in a nested case-cohort in OLE. PrEP disengagement was defined as failure to show for a follow-up visit or tenofovir drug levels l700fmol/punch. Study 3 characterized the PrEP cascade (i.e., seeking services, initiating PrEP, and retention in care) and identified predictors of non-retention among those who started PrEP in a clinic-based cohort of men who have sex with men in San Francisco.ResultsWe analyzed data from 1,184 participants in Study 1. PrEP use was not significantly associated with non-disclosure or lack of knowledge of partner status in adjusted analyses (p-values≥.16). However, relationship characteristics were significantly associated with both outcomes. Of the 330 MSM and transgender women included in Study 2, 16% used stimulants and 22% reported binge drinking in the previous three months. Stimulant users had more than 5-fold greater odds of PrEP disengagement (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=5.24, 95% CI [1.64-16.76]). Binge drinking was not significantly associated with PrEP disengagement after adjusting for stimulant use and baseline confounders (aOR=0.78 [0.33-1.88]). Of the 344 men who sought PrEP services in Study 3, 268 (78%) initiated PrEP. Cost was the most commonly cited reason for not starting. Among patients who initiated PrEP, cumulative incidence of non-retention at 13 months was 38%. Men with an STI diagnosis at enrollment had a 79% greater rate of non-retention (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]=1.79 [1.06-3.01]). ConclusionWe found no evidence to suggest that PrEP use is associated with non-disclosure or not knowing partner status. Comprehensive prevention approaches that enhance uptake, reduce stimulant use, and support PrEP adherence and persistence are needed to address the heightened risk of HIV infection of those who use stimulants and those with STI diagnoses.
La contribución de la valorización en Colombia.

La Contribucion de Valorizacion en Colombia ha sido una de las instituciones juridicas y politicas mas importantes del Estado colombiano a lo largo de toda su existencia, dicha institucion ha permitido que hoy en dia la Nacion, los departamentos y los municipios, cuenten con incalculables obras realizadas con ayuda de la Valorizacion. Para ello, esta investigacion pretende en cada linea presentar los aspectos mas relevantes de la Contribucion de Valorizacion, como una institucion fiscal implementada en Colombia en el ano 1921 con la Ley 25, asi como la transformacion que sufrio a partir del ano de 1966 con la expedicion del Decreto 1604 que le otorgo el rango de “Contribucion”, y por supuesto la adaptacion a la que tuvo lugar con la expedicion de la Constitucion Politica en el ano 1991.
Estrategias moleculares de protección del daño vascular inducido por la uremia en pacientes con Enfermedad Renal Crónica

La enfermedad renal crónica (ERC) puede afectar en sus diferentes estadios a cerca del 14% de la población y supone una elevada morbilidad y mortalidad. Los pacientes con enfermedad renal crónica sufren una acumulación de toxinas urémicas en sangre que interaccionan negativamente con las funciones biológicas desencadenando inflamación y mayor riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular. Un fenómeno común a la disfunción renal progresiva y al daño vascular asociado a la aterioesclerosis es la acumulación de proteínas de matriz en las estructuras renales o vasculares. Las proteínas de matriz extracelular condicionan cambios fenotípicos celulares a través de la interacción con determinadas proteínas de membrana como las integrinas produciendo la activación de la quinasa de adhesión focal (FAK) y la quinasa ligada a integrinas (ILK). La ILK interacciona con la subunidad β de las integrinas formando un complejo con otras proteínas implicadas en el mantenimiento de la necesaria rigidez celular, que tiene como sustrato de fosforilación a las proteínas GSK3β y AKT, y que es indispensable en la regulación de la supervivencia, la proliferación y la migración celular. Se ha demostrado recientemente que ILK también puede estar activada por factores solubles como peróxido de hidrógeno. Por todo ello el objetivo de este estudio es analizar las consecuencias funcionales de las principales toxinas urémicas responsables del daño endotelial y vascular, Indoxil sulfato y p-cresol sobre las células humanas del músculo liso vascular de aorta (HAOSMC) y su relación con el contenido y/o la actividad de la quinasa ligada a integrinas (ILK). Nuestros resultados indican que al tratar con las toxinas urémicas a las células se produce un aumento de la actividad de ILK, sin modificaciones en su expresión, un aumento en la producción de la citoquina TGF-β1, y consecuencias en la función celular determinada por un aumento de producción de ROS y un aumento de apoptosis.
Échec de cathétérisation cervicale en curiethérapie utéro-vaginale : facteurs de risque, complications et valeur pronostique

Introduction : la catheterisation cervicale en vue d’une curietherapie utero-vaginale (CUV) peut s’averer difficile du fait de la distorsion cervicale induite par la tumeur et les remaniements post-therapeutiques. Materiel et methodes : les patientes adressees au Centre Francois Baclesse de 2013 a 2017 en vue d’une CUV et ayant beneficie d’au moins une tentative de catheterisation cervicale ont ete incluses. Resultats : 184 patientes ont ete incluses pour 325 implantations. 101 implantations n’etaient pas correctes (14.5% d’echec de catheterisation, 10.8% d’implantation partielle dans le myometre et 5.8% de perforation uterine constates sur le scanner de simulation post-implant), pour 88 patientes soit 48% de la cohorte. Les facteurs de risque etaient l’âge, la retroversion uterine et l’envahissement du myometre. La survenue d’un tel evenement etait associee a une diminution du controle local a la limite de la significativite : OR=1.95 [0.96 – 3.97], p=0.059, mais sans impact sur la survie globale. La realisation de la curietherapie et la dose totale etaient significativement associees a la survie sans rechute locale. Discussion : on constate que l’echec de catheterisation ou la perforation uterine en tant que tels n’etaient pas associes a une diminution du controle local. Toutefois les patientes redirigees vers une poursuite en radiotherapie externe suite a la survenue d’un tel evenement avaient une perte de chance en termes de controle local, par defaut d’une escalade de dose suffisante sur la tumeur. Conclusion : les difficultes de catheterisation sont une reelle problematique en CUV. L’echographie preimplantatoire pourrait etre utile pour reduire le taux d’echecs.