Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CBiLSTM: A Hybrid Deep Learning Model for Efficient Reputation Assessment of Cloud Services

The cloud market is characterized by fierce rivalry among cloud service providers. The availability of various services with identical functionalities on the market complicates the selection decision for service requesters. Although objective trust measurements can be used to evaluate the trustworthiness of services, they are not always available and are static in nature. Subjective approaches are not always viable because they often require repeated service invocations to collect client feedback. To overcome these limitations, we propose, in this paper, a reputation-based trust assessment approach that combines the Net Brand Reputation (NBR) measure with a deep learning-based sentiment analysis model using online user reviews. CBiLSTM is the name of the proposed deep learning model that hybridizes the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and the Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) layers. The CNN layers deal with text inputs’ high dimensionality, while the BiLSTM layer explores the context of the extracted features in both forward and backward directions. CBiLSTM was trained on a new dataset named CLOSER-DREAM, containing more than 13,000 reviews relating to several emerging cloud services to classify these reviews and assess the overall reputation of the cloud services providers. The results of the series of experiments that were conducted have shown that CBiLSTM outperforms the classic deep learning models with 98% of precision, 99% of recall, 98% as an F1-score, and 99.7% of accuracy. Also, CBiLSTM offered a reasonable training time of about 519ms with the CLOSER-DREAM dataset. The classification obtained by applying CBiLSTM was proven to be an effective method to calculate the NBR measure used for the reputation assessment of cloud service providers. The proposed technique yielded an NBR score of 98.3% for Google cloud services, which is close to the real/actual NBR of 96.25%.
Study of the performance characteristics of a surface permanent magnet motor at various magnetization patterns

Purpose In the present paper the influence of the magnetization patterns of rotor magnets on the performance characteristics of a surface permanent magnet (SPM) motor has been investigated. The purpose of this paper is to show how the electromagnetic and electromechanical characteristics of this type of motor can be significantly changed by applying various magnetization patterns of permanent magnets (PM) on the rotor surface. Design/methodology/approach First, a survey of possible and most frequently used magnetization patterns for PM motors is presented. The research is focussed on the comparison of performance characteristics and is developed at three levels. The study starts with investigation of a conventional SPM motor having segmented PM, and two magnetization patterns are considered: parallel and radial. As there was no significant difference in motor performance at parallel and radial magnetization, for further investigation only radial magnetization, being more conventional, was considered. In the second step, the counterparts of SPM with two Halbach array configurations, under the constraint of fixed magnet volume, are studied. Finally, detailed comparative analyses of SPM at radial, Halbach 1, and Halbach 2 magnetic patterns are presented. The advantages and drawbacks of the suggested magnetic configurations are then discussed. Findings The authors have shown how the magnetization pattern of rotor PM can have a substantial impact on the SPM motor performance characteristics. From the analysis of magnetic field properties at various types of magnetization, it is observed that both the shape and the rates of the characteristics, for radial magnetization and Halbach 2 configuration, exhibit similar features. This is because the Halbach 2 array cancels the magnetic flux above the PM – that is, it strengthens the magnetic field in the rotor, and enhances the coupling between the rotor and stator magnetic field. It is worth emphasizing that, because of less saturation of the magnetic core and lower iron loss at Halbach 1 and Halbach 2 magnetization, it is possible to increase the armature current and consequently increase the electromagnetic torque. This finding could be an interesting for further research. Originality/value The paper presents an original comparative analysis of the performance characteristics of a surface permanent motor at various magnetization patterns. The novelty of the paper is seen in the introduction of two Halbach magnetization arrays for PM and improvement of the performance characteristics of the analysed motor.
Simulation optimization using stochastic kriging with robust statistics

Abstract Metamodels are widely used as fast surrogates to facilitate the optimization of simulation models. Stochastic kriging (SK) is an effective metamodeling tool for a mean response surface implied by stochastic simulation. In SK, it is usually assumed that the experimental data are normally distributed and uncontaminated. However, these assumptions can be easily violated in many practical applications. This paper proposes a new type of SK for simulation models that may have non-Gaussian responses; this new SK uses robust estimators of location (or central tendency) and scale (or variability) that are well-known in the literature on robust statistics. Statistical properties of the robust estimators used in this paper are briefly analyzed and the performances of the proposed methods are compared through numerical examples of different features. The comparison results show that the proposed robust SK with the robust estimators is quite efficient, no matter whether the standard assumptions hold or not.
Protein Kinase A Regulates Autophagy-Associated Proteins Impacting Growth and Virulence of Aspergillus fumigatus

Cellular recycling via autophagy-associated proteins is a key catabolic pathway critical to invasive fungal pathogen growth and virulence in the nutrient-limited host environment. Protein kinase A (PKA) is vital for the growth and virulence of numerous fungal pathogens. However, the underlying basis for its regulation of pathogenesis remains poorly understood in any species. Our Aspergillus fumigatus PKA-dependent whole proteome and phosphoproteome studies employing advanced mass spectroscopic approaches identified numerous previously undefined PKA-regulated proteins in catabolic pathways. Here, we demonstrate reciprocal inhibition of autophagy and PKA activity, and identify 16 autophagy-associated proteins as likely novel PKA-regulated effectors. We characterize the novel PKA-phosphoregulated sorting nexin Atg20, and demonstrate its importance for growth, cell wall stress response, and virulence of A. fumigatus in a murine infection model. Additionally, we identify physical and functional interaction of Atg20 with previously characterized sorting nexin Atg24. Furthermore, we demonstrate the importance of additional uncharacterized PKA-regulated putative autophagy-associated proteins to hyphal growth. Our data presented here indicate that PKA regulates the autophagy pathway much more extensively than previously known, including targeting of novel effector proteins with fungal-specific functions important for invasive disease.
A low-cost Q-learning-based approach to handle continuous space problems for decentralized multi-agent robot navigation in cluttered environments

This paper addresses the problem of navigating decentralized multi-agent systems in partially cluttered environments and proposes a new machine-learning-based approach to solve it. On the basis of this approach, a new robust and flexible Q-learning-based model is proposed to handle a continuous space problem. As in reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms, Q-learning does not require a model of the environment. Additionally, Q-Learning (QL) has the advantages of being fast and easy to design. However, one disadvantage of QL is that it needs a massive amount of memory, and it grows exponentially with each extra feature introduced to the state space. In this research, we introduce an agent-level decentralized collision avoidance low-cost model for solving a continuous space problem in partially cluttered environments, followed by introducing a method to merge non-overlapping QL features in order to reduce its size significantly by about 70% and make it possible to solve more complicated scenarios with the same memory size. Additionally, another method is proposed for minimizing the sensory data that is used by the controller. A combination of these methods is able to handle swarm navigation low memory cost with at least18 number of robots. These methods can also be adapted for deep q-learning architectures so as to increase their approximation performance and also decrease their learning time process. Experiments reveal that the proposed method also achieves a high degree of accuracy for multi-agent systems in complex scenarios.
AHSWFM: Automated and Hierarchical Surface Water Fraction Mapping for Small Water Bodies Using Sentinel-2 Images

Accurately mapping surface water fractions is essential to understanding the distribution and area of small water bodies (SWBs), which are numerous and widespread. Traditional spectral unmixings based on the linear mixture model require high-quality prior endmember information, and are not appropriate in situations such as dealing with multiple scattering effects. To overcome difficulties with unknown mixing mechanisms and parameters, a novel automated and hierarchical surface water fraction mapping (AHSWFM) for mapping SWBs from Sentinel-2 images was proposed. AHSWFM is automated, requires no endmember prior knowledge and uses self-trained regression using scalable algorithms and random forest to construct relationships between the multispectral data and water fractions. AHSWFM uses a hierarchical structure that divides pixels into pure water, pure land and mixed water-land pixels, and predicts their water fractions separately to avoid overestimating water fractions for pure land pixels and underestimating water fractions for pure water pixels. Results show that using the hierarchical strategy can increase the accuracy in estimating SWB areas. AHSWFM predicted SWB areas with a root mean square error of approximately 0.045 ha in a region using more than 1200 SWB samples that were mostly smaller than 0.75 ha.
A Qualitative Research on the Challenges Faced by Healthcare Professionals During the Covid-19 Pandemic

: The COVID-19 pandemic is a deadly, never-before-seen epidemic that is spreading rapidly around the world. This epidemic affected the whole society, especially health workers, both physiologically and psychologically. In this context, our study aimed to examine the difficulties faced by our healthcare professionals working under difficult conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, a semi-structured questionnaire was created and qualitative interviews were conducted with 8 health personnel. As a result of the study, it was determined that the factor that the participants experienced the most difficulty during the Covid-19 period was related to the changes in working conditions. It was revealed that these factors were followed by the psychological problems experienced by the participants in this period and the excessive workload.
Islam and identity: a study among young German-Turks

ABSTRACT While religiosity can help immigrants maintain their ethnic identity, some have argued that it can hinder national identification with the host country. This study looks at the relationship of religiosity with both German and Turkish identification among Germans of Turkish descent, the largest minority group in Germany. Adopting a three-dimensional conception of religiosity, it distinguishes between individual, subjective and communal forms. The results of ordered logistic regression analyses underscore a significantly positive relationship between subjective religiosity and Turkish identification. Concerning German identity, the findings do not show, in the full model, any form of religiosity having a significant relationship with German identity. The results demonstrate that not all forms of religiosity are of equal importance for identity formation. Furthermore, the findings also call into question the importance of religiosity on the identity formation of allochthonous groups, especially when compared to other factors.
Mental Health Symptoms among General Practitioners Facing the Acute Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Detecting Different Reaction Groups

During the 2020 first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, general practitioners (GPs) represented the first line of primary care and were highly exposed to the pandemic risks, with a consequent risk of developing a wide range of mental health symptoms. However, scant data are still available on factors associated with a worse outcome. The aim of the present study was to investigate mental health symptoms in 139 GPs in the aftermath of the first COVID-19 national lockdown in Italy, detecting groups of subjects with different depressive, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptom severity. The impact of the mental health symptoms on quality of life and individual functioning were also evaluated. A cluster analysis identified three groups with mild (44.6%), moderate (35.3%), and severe psychopathological burden (20.1%). Higher symptom severity was related to younger age, fewer years in service as GPs, working in a high incidence area for the pandemic, having a relative at risk of medical complications due to COVID-19, besides more severe global functioning impairment, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. The present findings showed that GPs, forced to perform their professional activity in extremely stressful conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, were at high risk of developing mental health problems and a worse quality of life.
Photoelectrochemical Energy Conversion over 2D Materials

The solar motivated photoelectrochemical (PEC), used in water splitting systems, shows superior talent in converting solar energy in the form of cleaning and in sustaining a chemical energy evolution. PEC systems present by integrating a photoelectrode, which involves light-harvesting to absorb solar energy, thereby introducing an interlayer for the transformation of photogenerated electrons and holes, along with a co-catalyst to trigger oxidation and reduce the chemical reactions. In this review, we describe a variety of two-dimensional (2D) layered photoanodes and photocathodes, such as graphitic carbon nitrides, transition metal dichalcogenides, layered double hydroxides, MXenes, and co-catalysts for the assembly of combined photoelectrodes belonging to oxygen evolution and/or hydrogen evolution chemical reactions. The basic principles of PEC water splitting associated with physicochemical possessions relating to photoelectrodes unified with catalytic chemical reactions have been investigated. Additionally, the mechanisms attributing to a relationship with 2D photoelectrodes have been incorporated as a supplementary discussion. The improvement strategies, which include the construction of heterostructures, surface functionalization, and formations of heterojunctions, have also been discussed. The issues and challenges relevant to the field have been acknowledged for facilitating future research, indicating optimized conversion activity corresponding to PEC water splitting.
High step-up DC-DC converter based on double self-lift switched-coupled-inductor

ABSTRACT This paper presents a novel switched-inductor based DC-DC converter with high step-up capability for interfacing the low voltage input from renewable energy sources to a high voltage DC bus. In the proposed converter, coupled inductors (CIs) are employed in lieu of discrete switched inductors to enhance the voltage gain and reduce the voltage stress on the switches. The number of turns in the CI windings is properly designed and one diode-capacitor multiplier cell (DCM) is connected at each of the two secondary windings to obtain the desired high voltage gain value. Since the required voltage conversion ratio value of 15.833 is obtained by employing CIs, the switches experience only lower voltage stress levels of about 5.79% and 26.3% of output voltage under practical conditions. Experimental results obtained from 24 V-380 V, 175 W prototype converter confirm that it operates at 93.6% full-load efficiency. Further, the supply current drawn by the converter is continuous with 15.4% ripple. Simple closed-loop control is implemented to regulate the converter’s output voltage against variations in line voltage and load current.
Psychiatric assistance in the hospitalization of adolescents with chronic diseases

Hospitalization is an unpleasant experience for all patients, likewise for adolescent patients. The most common stressors experienced by adolescents undergoing hospitalization include loss of freedom, control, and privacy; fear of injury to the body or changes in self-image; fear of disability, pain, and death; as well as separation with peers, home, and school. The stressor can trigger mental and behavioral disorders, so it can ultimately affect the therapy process and outcome. The role of psychiatrists in adolescent hospitalization is to assist, detect mental disorders that may occur, and provide appropriate procedures to overcome the disorder and prevent worsening of symptoms. This case report describes a 17-year-old teenage girl patient who was consulted to the psychiatry department because she looked sad. Patient experienced long periods of hospitalization, including having been cared in isolation and intensive care room, and had invasive procedures as well. The patient was diagnosed with a Major Depressive Episode without Psychotic Symptoms. Pharmacological therapy with 0.5 mg Risperidone tablet every 24 h orally (evening), while the non-pharmacological therapy given was supportive psychotherapy and psychoeducation to the parent.
Nociceptors: Their Role in Body’s Defenses, Tissue Specific Variations and Anatomical Update

Abstract The human body is constantly under the influence of numerous pathological factors: both external and internal. These factors can be potentially harmful and are perceived as such with a specialized nervous system subunit: the nociceptive system. The functional unit of the nociceptive system is the nociceptor. Recent studies have shown that nociceptors play a crucial role in maintaining of defensive homeostasis (responsive, immune, behavioral). Nociceptors respond to potentially harmful stimuli within viscera, bones, muscles, skin and specialized sensory organs. They function as complex predictors of harm through formation of pain stimulus. Their function and structures vary within different tissues. This variability reflects the anatomical and pathological peculiarities of varying tissues. Nociceptors play a significant role in adaptive, protective and behavioral reactions. Their functional capabilities and vast spread throughout the body make them the main units of the body’s defense system, allowing us to interact with the inner and outer environments.
Rifting of the Kalahari Craton Through Botswana? New Seismic Evidence

Botswana is a country with relatively low seismic activity that experienced an unexpected Mw 6.5 earthquake on 3 April 2017. Using data from the first countrywide seismic network, we established a Botswana earthquake catalog for the period January 2014 to February 2018. Two areas of elevated seismic activity were detected. The first one is the Okavango Rift Zone in northern Botswana, an area that is known to be active. The other one is associated with the 2017 mainshock and its aftershocks in central Botswana; it follows the Paleoproterozoic suture between the Limpopo Belt and the Kaapvaal Craton. Double‐difference relocation of these events revealed a reactivated fault system with a northwesterly strike with the aftershocks occurring at shallower depths than the mainshock at 29 km. The focal mechanisms of the mainshock and selected aftershocks are of normal faulting type with strikes similar to the orientation of the fault system. The unidirectional rupture of the mainshock in the lower crust combined with the upward migration of the aftershocks along the Moiyabana Fault and a thin low velocity anomaly the uppermost mantle are consistent with the events being produced by eclogitization of a dry metastable granulite facies rock by fluid intrusion from the mantle in an extensional stress regime. The Okavango Rift Zone is generally interpreted as the terminus of the southwestern branch of the East African Rift System. We suggest that the recent earthquakes in central Botswana may be considered as the southern continuation of this branch.
Screening of Grain Development Heterosis Candidate Genes by Integrating QTL Mapping and RNA-Seq in Super Hybrid Rice WFYT025

The application of heterosis during plant breeding increases rice grain yield. However, there have been limited studies on heterosis during rice grain development during the grain-filling stage; therefore, the genetic basis of heterosis for grain development during the grain-filling stage should be highly valued. In this study, a hybrid combination with the super hybrid rice WFYT025 was used to perform a transcriptomic dynamic analysis in grains at the beginning and middle grain-filling stages. A total of 1556 and 1507 transcripts that were differentially expressed between WFYT025 and its parents (DGHP) were identified at 1-day post-anthesis (DPA) and at 10 DPA, respectively. The analysis of the genetic effects of heterosis showed that the over-dominant effect (66.90% and 55.87%) was the main mode of action during grain development. The KEGG pathway and GO analysis of the DGHP indicated that the gibberellin biosynthetic, starch metabolic, and diterpenoid biosynthetic signaling pathways may be associated with heterosis during grain development. To further explore the candidate genes for grain development heterosis, a recombinant inbred line (RILs) population with a high-density genetic map of 2578 bin markers was constructed by crossing the parents of WFYT025, and nine stable QTLs for grain weight-related traits were identified. By comparing the DGHP with 20 QTLs, LOC_Os02g28820, LOC_Os02g32580, LOC_Os04g25440, and LOC_Os12g04980 were identified as grain development heterosis-related candidate genes. These findings provide resources for the study of heterosis during the grain development of super hybrid rice and provide valuable theoretical references for the cloning and functional analysis of heterosis-related genes.
Demography Predicts Genetic Effective Size in a Desert Stream Fish Community

Patterns of genetic diversity and effective size should be predicted by life history traits (intrinsic), landscape properties (extrinsic), and population dynamics. Theoretical models portray complicated relationships among population subdivision, rates of extirpation and recolonization, and metapopulation genetic effective size (metaNe) but make simplifying assumptions about effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Using previously published data sets, we compared estimates of genetic effective size to demographic time-series data gathered for nine dominant species in a desert stream fish community. These species occupy a common desert stream network and experience the same disturbance regime but differ in abundance, distribution, and life history traits that should affect reproduction, dispersal, local persistence, and genetic diversity patterns. Measures of genetic effective size were positively related to network-wide abundance and mean adult density across species and were negatively related to extirpation probability. Comparative data supported the theoretical prediction that population subdivision decreases metapopulation genetic effective size relative to panmictic populations of the same size. Estimates of metaNe reflected differences in intrinsic traits and population dynamics across species measured over ecological timescales. This comparative study exemplifies why ecological differences are important considerations when seeking to preserve genetic diversity.