Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using an approximated One-Time Pad to Secure Short Messaging Service (SMS)

—Short Message Service (SMS) is a hugely popular and easily adopted communications technology for mobile devices. Yet due to a lack of understanding in its insecure implementation, it is generally trusted by people. Users conduct business, disclose passwords and receive sensitive notiﬁcation reports from systems using this communication technology. SMS was an “after-thought” in the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) design which uses SS7 for signalling. SMSs by default are sent in cleartext form within the serving GSM’s SS7 network, Over The Air (OTA), and potentially over the public Internet in a predictable format. This allows anyone accessing the signaling system to read, and or modify the SMS content on the ﬂy. In this paper, we focus our attention on alleviating the SMS security vulnerability by securing messages using an approximate one-time pad. A one-time pad, considered to be the only perfectly secure cryptosystem, secures an SMS message for transport over any medium between a mobile device and the serving GSM network. Our approach does not alter the physical underlying GSM architecture.
Basic techniques for long distance axon tracing in the spinal cord

The regeneration of axons after a spinal cord injury or disease is attracting a significant amount of interest among researchers. Being able to assess these axons in terms of morphology, length and origin is essential to our understanding of the regeneration process. Recently, two specific axon tracers have gained much recognition; biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) 10 kDa as an anterograde tracer and cholera toxin‐B as a retrograde tracer. However, there are still several complexities when using these tracers, including the volume that should be administered and the best administration site so that a significant amount of axons are labeled in the area of interest. In this article, we describe some simple procedures for injecting the tracers and detecting them. We also quantified the number of axons at different locations of the spinal cord. Our results show axons labeled from motor cortex injections traveled down to the lumbosacral spinal cord in 2 weeks, while BDA injections into the lateral vestibular nucleus and reticular formation took 3 weeks to label axons in the lumbosacral spinal cord. Moreover, this protocol outlines some basic procedures that could be used in any laboratory and gives insight into the number of axons labeled and how procedures could be tailored to meet specific researcher's needs. Microsc. Res. Tech. 76:1240–1249, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Effects of Combined Early In-Patient Cardiac Rehabilitation and Structured Home-based Program on Function among Patients with Congestive Heart Failure: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Aims: To determine the effects of combined in-patient rehabilitation with a home-based program on function and quality of life. Setting and Design: Tertiary care, university teaching hospital, randomized controlled trial. Patients and Methods: Thirty admitted patients with congestive heart failure with New York Heart Association class II -IV. A five step individualised phase-1 cardiac rehabilitation program followed by a structured home based rehabilitation for eight weeks was given to the experimental group while the control group only received physician directed advice. Six minute walk distance was assessed at discharge and follow-up, while quality of life (SF36) was assessed at admission, discharge, and follow-up. Statistical analysis used: Independent t-test, paired t-test and repeated measures ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc analysis. Results: At admission patients in both the groups were comparable. After the phase-1 cardiac rehabilitation, there was a change in the six minute walk distance between control and experimental group (310 m vs. 357 m, respectively; P = 0.001). Following the eight week home-based program, there was a greater increase in six minute walk distance in the experimental group when compared to the control group (514 m vs. 429 m; P < 0.001). Quality of life as measured by the SF-36 at the end of 8-weeks showed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) in the experimental group for both the mental and physical components. Conclusion: Early in-patient rehabilitation followed by an eight week home based exercise program improves function and quality of life in patients with congestive heart failure.
Adenocarcinoma of the lung in Chinese patients: a revisit and some perspectives from the literature

AIM To establish an updated clinical profile of adenocarcinoma of the lung. DESIGN Retrospective review of clinical charts, chest radiography, and computed tomography of consecutive patients who attended Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong between June 1995 and December 1997. RESULTS In the 115 patients studied, 13% were <40 years of age (33.3% ever smokers). Haemoptysis is more common among patients with early disease, while finger clubbing was detected more commonly among smokers and ex-smokers. Most (98.3%) patients had abnormal chest radiology including presence of mass lesion, pleural effusion, collapse/consolidation, and effusion. Patients with adenocarcinoma were significantly more likely to be younger, female, in advanced disease (stage IIIB and IV), non-smoker, and symptomatic on presentation (p<0.05) than those with squamous cell lung cancer (n=128). CONCLUSION The clinical profile of Chinese adenocarcinoma patients should help clinicians in the diagnosis and management of these patients.
Increasing cortical activity in auditory areas through neurofeedback functional magnetic resonance imaging

We report a functional magnetic resonance imaging method to deliver task-specific brain activities as biofeedback signals to guide individuals to increase cortical activity in auditory areas during sound stimulation. A total of 11 study participants underwent multiple functional magnetic resonance imaging scan sessions, while the changes in the activated cortical volume within the primary and secondary auditory areas were fed back to them between scan sessions. On the basis of the feedback information, participants attempted to increase the number of significant voxels during the subsequent trial sessions by adjusting their level of attention to the auditory stimuli. Results showed that the group of individuals who received the feedback were able to increase the activation volume and blood oxygenation level-dependent signal to a greater degree than the control group.
The propagation of low-viscosity fingers into fluid-filled branching networks

We consider the motion of a finger of low-viscosity fluid as it propagates into a branching network of fluid-filled microchannels – a scenario that arises in many appli- cations, such as microfluidics, biofluid mechanics (e.g. pulmonary airway reopening) and the flow in porous media. We perform experiments to investigate the behaviour of the finger as it reaches a single bifurcation and determine under what conditions the finger branches symmetrically. We find that if the daughter tubes have open ends, the finger branches asymmetrically and will therefore tend to reopen a single path through the branching network. Conversely, if the daughter tubes terminate in elastic chambers, which provide a lumped representation of the airway wall elasticity in the airway reopening problem, the branching is found to be symmetric for sufficiently small propagation speeds. A mathematical model is developed to explain the experimentally observed behaviour.
PowerPlay: Training an Increasingly General Problem Solver by Continually Searching for the Simplest Still Unsolvable Problem

Most of computer science focuses on automatically solving given computational problems. I focus on automatically inventing or discovering problems in a way inspired by the playful behavior of animals and humans, to train a more and more general problem solver from scratch in an unsupervised fashion. Consider the infinite set of all computable descriptions of tasks with possibly computable solutions. Given a general problem-solving architecture, at any given time, the novel algorithmic framework PowerPlay (Schmidhuber, 2011) searches the space of possible pairs of new tasks and modifications of the current problem solver, until it finds a more powerful problem solver that provably solves all previously learned tasks plus the new one, while the unmodified predecessor does not. Newly invented tasks may require to achieve a wow-effect by making previously learned skills more efficient such that they require less time and space. New skills may (partially) re-use previously learned skills. The greedy search of typical PowerPlay variants uses time-optimal program search to order candidate pairs of tasks and solver modifications by their conditional computational (time and space) complexity, given the stored experience so far. The new task and its corresponding task-solving skill are those first found and validated. This biases the search toward pairs that can be described compactly and validated quickly. The computational costs of validating new tasks need not grow with task repertoire size. Standard problem solver architectures of personal computers or neural networks tend to generalize by solving numerous tasks outside the self-invented training set; PowerPlay’s ongoing search for novelty keeps breaking the generalization abilities of its present solver. This is related to Gödel’s sequence of increasingly powerful formal theories based on adding formerly unprovable statements to the axioms without affecting previously provable theorems. The continually increasing repertoire of problem-solving procedures can be exploited by a parallel search for solutions to additional externally posed tasks. PowerPlay may be viewed as a greedy but practical implementation of basic principles of creativity (Schmidhuber, 2006a, 2010). A first experimental analysis can be found in separate papers (Srivastava et al., 2012a,b, 2013).
Antibodies against Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Improve Early Renal Dysfunction in Experimental Diabetes Materials and Methods Laboratory Animals

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a cy-tokine that potently stimulates angiogenesis, microvascular hyperpermeability, and endothelium-dependent vasodilation, effects that are largely mediated by endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). The expression of VEGF is pronounced in glomerular visceral epithelial cells, but its function in renal physiology and pathophysiology is unknown. VEGF expression is upregulated by high ambient glucose concentrations in several cell types in vitro and in glomeruli of diabetic rats. To assess the role of VEGF in the pathophysiology of early renal dysfunction in diabetes, monoclonal anti-VEGF antibodies (Ab) were administered to control and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats for 6 wk after induction of diabetes. Based on in vitro binding studies, an adequate serum VEGF inhibitory activity was achieved during the entire course of anti-VEGF Ab administration. Anti-VEGF Ab treatment but not administration of isotype-matched control Ab decreased hyperfiltra-tion, albuminuria, and glomerular hypertrophy in diabetic rats. VEGF blockade also prevented the upregulation of eNOS expression in glomerular capillary endothelial cells of diabetic rats. Antagonism of VEGF had no effect on GFR and glomer-ular volume in control rats. These results identify VEGF as a pathogenetic link between hyperglycemia and early renal dys-function in diabetes. Targeting VEGF may prove useful as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of early diabetic nephropathy. It is well established that hyperglycemia is a major risk factor for the development and progression of diabetic nephropathy. Hyperglycemia induces multiple cellular and molecular alterations that presage the development of renal vascular dysfunc-tion. However, the exact sequence of events from exposure to high glucose concentrations to development of renal damage remains equivocal. Early alterations in the diabetic kidney include the development of glomerular hyperfiltration and glo-merular hypertrophy, followed by thickening of the glomerular basement membrane, mesangial matrix accumulation, increased urinary albumin excretion rate (UAER), and ultimately progression to glomerular sclerosis. There is compelling evidence for the involvement of various growth factors, including insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and transforming growth factor-␤ (TGF-␤), in the early renal changes in diabetes (1,2). Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a member of a family of heparin-binding growth factors that very potently stimulate endothelial cell proliferation and play a pivotal role in physiologic and pathologic angiogenesis (3). In addition, VEGF is one of the most potent vascular permeabilizing agents known and has the capacity to induce endothelium-dependent vasodilation. Several lines of evidence indicate that endotheli-um-derived nitric oxide (NO) acts as a downstream mediator for VEGF (4,5). …
SNUMedinfo at TREC CDS track 2014: Medical case-based retrieval task

Abstract : This paper describes the participation of the SNUMedinfo team at the TREC Clinical Decision Support track 2014. This task is about medical case-based retrieval. Case description is used as query text. Per each query, one of three categories (Diagnosis, Test and Treatment) is designated as target information need. Firstly, we used external tagged knowledge-based query expansion method for the relevance ranking. Secondly, machine learning classifier based text categorization method is used for the task-specific ranking. Finally, we combined relevance ranking and task-specific ranking with Borda-fuse method. Our method showed significant performance improvements.
The importin-β binding domain of snurportin1 is responsible for the Ran- and energy-independent nuclear import of spliceosomal U snRNPs in vitro

The nuclear localization signal (NLS) of spliceosomal U snRNPs is composed of the U snRNA's 2,2,7-trimethyl-guanosine (m3G)-cap and the Sm core domain. The m3G-cap is specifically bound by snurportin1, which contains an NH2-terminal importin-β binding (IBB) domain and a COOH-terminal m3G-cap–binding region that bears no structural similarity to known import adaptors like importin-α (impα). Here, we show that recombinant snurportin1 and importin-β (impβ) are not only necessary, but also sufficient for U1 snRNP transport to the nuclei of digitonin-permeabilized HeLa cells. In contrast to impα–dependent import, single rounds of U1 snRNP import, mediated by the nuclear import receptor complex snurportin1–impβ, did not require Ran and energy. The same Ran- and energy-independent import was even observed for U5 snRNP, which has a molecular weight of more than one million. Interestingly, in the presence of impβ and a snurportin1 mutant containing an impα IBB domain (IBBimpα), nuclear U1 snRNP import was Ran dependent. Furthermore, β-galactosidase (βGal) containing a snurportin1 IBB domain, but not IBBimpα-βGal, was imported into the nucleus in a Ran-independent manner. Our results suggest that the nature of the IBB domain modulates the strength and/or site of interaction of impβ with nucleoporins of the nuclear pore complex, and thus whether or not Ran is required to dissociate these interactions.
Using Deep Belief Nets to Learn Covariance Kernels for Gaussian Processes

We show how to use unlabeled data and a deep belief net (DBN) to learn a good covariance kernel for a Gaussian process. We first learn a deep generative model of the unlabeled data using the fast, greedy algorithm introduced by [7]. If the data is high-dimensional and highly-structured, a Gaussian kernel applied to the top layer of features in the DBN works much better than a similar kernel applied to the raw input. Performance at both regression and classification can then be further improved by using backpropagation through the DBN to discriminatively fine-tune the covariance kernel.
Survivin expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma using tissue microarray.

BACKGROUND The additional prognostic information closely related to tumor cell biology is essential for the identification of patients with poor prognosis. Survivin, an identified inhibitor of apoptosis, is unique for its expression in human malignancies but not in normal adult cells. This study examined the expression, and potential prognostic value of survivin in colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC) on tissue microarray (TMA) sections. Analysis of large numbers of tissue samples, improved tissue salvage, cost reduction, ease of interpretation, and significant time saving were realized by using the arrays. MATERIAL AND METHODS Two-hundred and eighty cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma were arrayed. Immunohistochemical stains of TMA sections were performed for survivin, bcl-2, and p53. Cases were followed up for 5 years. RESULTS Survivin was detected in 147 of 230 cases (63.9%). No expression of survivin was observed in normal tissues. There was no correlation between survivin immunoreactivity and age, sex, tumor site, tumor size, histopathologic subtype, tumor grade and clinical stage (p >0.05). Prevalence of survivin expression was significantly higher in bcl-2 positive than in bcl-2 negative cases (88.1% versus 42.1%, p <0.0001), but was not associated with p53 (p=0.09). The 5-year disease free survival (DFS) for patients with survivin positive colorectal adenocarcinoma was significantly lower than that for patients with survivin negative tumors (46% versus 68.7%, p=0.001). CONCLUSION Survivin expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma provides an important prognostic parameter and targeted antagonists of survivin may be beneficial as apoptosis-based therapy for colon cancer.
Revealing details: whole mount microRNA in situ hybridization protocol for zebrafish embryos and adult tissues

Summary Non-coding microRNA (miRNA) molecules bind their target mRNAs and thereby modulate the amount of protein produced. To understand the significance of a potential miRNA-mRNA interaction, temporal and spatial information on miRNA and mRNA expression is essential. Here, we provide a detailed protocol for miRNA whole mount in situ hybridization. We introduce the use of Morpholino based oligos as antisense probes for miRNA detection, in addition to the current “gold standard” locked nucleic acid (LNA) probes. Furthermore we have modified existing miRNA in situ protocols thereby improving both sensitivity and resolution of miRNA visualization in whole zebrafish embryos and adult tissues.
Degradation of railway rails from a materials point of view

From time to time railway rails need to be replaced. In that case and when new track is built, a decision has to be made about which rail grade that is going to be installed. The intention of this work was to compare different rail steels concerning their suitability from a mechanical durability perspective. The most common steel types used for rails are presented as well as the most common damages that occur as part of the degradation process. The rail-wheel contact is the primary source for damages. Two types of damages were studied in detail, white etching layers (WEL) and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) cracks. The WEL that was investigated originates from a metro rail with heavy traffic. It can be shown, that the WEL is more brittle than the pearlitic base material of the rail. Also, evidence can be provided for a type of crack that is exclusive to WEL in rails. This crack type is perpendicular to the surface of the rail and can initiate or be connected to other cracks in the base material. Retained austenite measurements in the WEL prove that the microstructure was produced under the influence of high temperatures and suggests that there is martensite present. Rolling contact fatigue cracks from field samples and from test rig samples were investigated. Three-dimensional images were produced. Interaction between the plastically deformed microstructure and cracks could be shown as well as shielding of cracks by other cracks or their own branches. When determining which rail grade is best suited, a holistic view must be adopted, including all relevant influencing factors, such as traffic, track geometry, maintenance regime and climate. The problem of rail degradation cannot be solved by material choice alone.
Data Clustering: Algorithms and Applications

A g garw al • R ed d y Research on the problem of clustering tends to be fragmented across the pattern recognition, database, data mining, and machine learning communities. Addressing this problem in a unified way, Data Clustering: Algorithms and Applications provides complete coverage of the entire area of clustering, from basic methods to more refined and complex data clustering approaches. It pays special attention to recent issues in graphs, social networks, and other domains.
Changes in the Response of the Northern Hemisphere Carbon Uptake to Temperature Over the Last Three Decades

The CO2 seasonal cycle amplitude (SCA) in the Northern Hemisphere has increased since the 1960s—a feature attributed mainly to enhanced vegetation activity along climate warming and CO2 increase. We identified a temporal change in the sign of the correlation between SCA and air temperature (T) from positive to negative around the year 2000 at most Northern Hemisphere ground stations, consistent with signals from satellite column CO2 measurements since the mid‐2000s. Further, we explored potential causes of this change using net biome productivity estimates from three atmospheric inversions for the period 1980–2015. The change in the SCA‐T relationship is primarily attributable to changes in the net biome productivity‐T relationship: positive correlations weakened in the spring in the high latitudes, confirming a limit to the “warmer spring‐bigger carbon sink” mechanism; negative correlations diminished in the autumn/winter in the mid‐to‐high latitudes, challenging the “warmer winter‐larger carbon release” assumption and highlighting the complexity of carbon processes outside the peak growing season.
Bringing Laboulbeniales into the 21st century: enhanced techniques for extraction and PCR amplification of DNA from minute ectoparasitic fungi

Laboulbeniales is one of the most peculiar orders of Ascomycota. These fungi are characterized by an ectoparasitic life-style on arthropods, determinate growth, lack of an asexual stage, high species richness, and intractability to culture. The order Laboulbeniales, sister to Pyxidiophorales, has only recently been assigned a separate class, the Laboulbeniomycetes, based on very few ribosomal DNA sequences. So far, DNA isolations and PCR amplifications have proven difficult. Here, we provide details of isolation techniques and the application of commercially available kits that enable efficient and reliable genetic analyses of these fungi. We provide 43 newly generated Laboulbeniales ribosomal DNA sequences, among which are the first published sequences for species in the genera Gloeandromyces, Herpomyces, Laboulbenia, Monoicomyces, and Polyandromyces. DNA extractions were possible using from 1 to 30 thalli from hosts preserved in ethanol (70–100 %). In two cases, we successfully isolated DNA from thalli on dried insect collections. Laboulbeniales molecular systematics could be substantially enhanced through these improved methods by allowing more complete sampling of both taxa and gene regions.