Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New Security Development and Trends to Secure the SCADA Sensors Automated Transmission during Critical Sessions

Modern technology enhancements have been used worldwide to fulfill the requirements of the industrial sector, especially in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems as a part of industrial control systems (ICS). SCADA systems have gained popularity in industrial automations due to technology enhancements and connectivity with modern computer networks and/or protocols. The procurement of new technologies has made SCADA systems important and helpful to processing in oil lines, water treatment plants, and electricity generation and control stations. On the other hand, these systems have vulnerabilities like other traditional computer networks (or systems), especially when interconnected with open platforms. Many international organizations and researchers have proposed and deployed solutions for SCADA security enhancement, but most of these have been based on node-to-node security, without emphasizing critical sessions that are linked directly with industrial processing and automation. This study concerns SCADA security measures related to critical processing with specified sessions of automated polling, analyzing cryptography mechanisms and deploying the appropriate explicit inclusive security solution in a distributed network protocol version 3 (DNP3) stack, as part of a SCADA system. The bytes flow through the DNP3 stack with security computational bytes within specified critical intervals defined for polling. We took critical processing knowledge into account when designing a SCADA/DNP3 testbed and deploying a cryptography solution that did not affect communications.
Increased T Regulatory Cells Are Associated with Adverse Clinical Features and Predict Progression in Multiple Myeloma

Background Regulatory T (Treg) cells play an important role in the maintenance of immune system homeostasis. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a plasma cell disorder frequently associated with impaired immune cell numbers and functions. Methods We analyzed Treg cells in peripheral blood (n = 207) and bone marrow (n = 202) of pre-malignant and malignant MM patients using flow cytometry. Treg cells and their subsets from MM patients and healthy volunteers were functionally evaluated for their suppressive property. A cohort of 25 patients was analyzed for lymphocytes, CD4 T cells and Treg cells before and after treatment with cyclophosphamide, thalidomide plus dexamethasone (CTD). Results We found elevated frequencies of Treg cells in newly diagnosed (P<0.01) and relapsed MM patients (P<0.0001) compared to healthy volunteers. Also, Treg subsets including naïve (P = 0.015) and activated (P = 0.036) Treg cells were significantly increased in MM patients compared to healthy volunteers. Functional studies showed that Treg cells and their subsets from both MM and healthy volunteers were similar in their inhibitory function. Significantly increased frequencies of Treg cells were found in MM patients with adverse clinical features such as hypercalcemia (>10 mg/dL), decreased normal plasma cell (≤5%) count and IgA myeloma subtype. We also showed that MM patients with ≥5% of Treg cells had inferior time to progression (TTP) (13 months vs. median not reached; P = 0.013). Furthermore, we demonstrated the prognostic value of Treg cells in prediction of TTP by Cox regression analysis (P = 0.045). CTD treatment significantly reduced frequencies of CD4 T cells (P = 0.001) and Treg cells (P = 0.018) but not Treg cells/CD4 T cells ratio compared to pre-treatment. Conclusions Our study showed immune deregulation in MM patients which is evidenced by elevated level of functionally active Treg cells and patients with increased Treg cells have higher risk of progression.
Grafting of Polycaprolactone on Oxidized Nanocelluloses by Click Chemistry

The main objective of this work is the grafting of polycaprolactone diol (PCL) on the surface of oxidized nanocelluloses (ONC) in order to enhance the compatibility between the hydrophilic cellulose nanofibres and the hydrophobic polymer matrix. This grafting was successfully realized with a new strategy known as click chemistry. In this context, the oxidized nanocelluloses bearing alkyl groups (ONC-PR) were prepared by reacting amino groups of propargylamine (PR) with carboxyl groups of ONC. In parallel, PCL was converted into azido-polycaprolactone (PCL-N3) in two steps: (i) tosylation of polycaprolactone (PCL-OTs) and (ii) conversion of PCL-OTs into PCL-N3 by nucleophilic displacement using sodium azide. Finally, ONC-PR was reacted with PCL-N3 in heterogeneous conditions through click chemistry in order to prepare polycaprolactone grafted oxidized nanocellulose (ONC-g-PCL), which could be suitable for improving the interfacial adhesion in the composite materials. The grafted samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (13C-NMR) spectroscopic techniques.
SODIUM PICOSULPHATE COMPARED WITH POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL SOLUTION FOR LARGE BOWEL LAVAGE: A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMISED TRIAL

SUMMARY Mechanical efficiency, patient acceptability and minimal biochemical perturbation are important factors in the choice of lavage solution for bowel preparation. This prospective randomised trial of 59 patients compared a polyethylene glycol bowel lavage solution (Klean Prep) to a sodium picosulphate solution (Picolax) considering their efficacy from both colonoscopists' and radiologists' points of view, patient acceptibility, and plasma biochemical changes. The sodium picosulphate solution was more acceptable to patients than the polyethylene glycol, and resulted in significantly less nausea and vomiting (p=0.0025), and far fewer consumption difficulties (p<0.0001). Mean plasma biochemical changes were significantly different for magnesium (p<0.001), chloride (p<0.01) and potassium (p<0.02). Because neither lavage solution displayed a marked advantage for the colonoscopist or radiologist, and sodium picosulphate was more acceptable to patients, sodium picosulphate is the preferred solution for bowel preparation. The changes in plasma biochemistry values are unlikely to cause clinical problems.
Age and Employee Green Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

Recent economic and societal developments have led to an increasing emphasis on organizational environmental performance. At the same time, demographic trends are resulting in increasingly aging labor forces in many industrialized nations. Commonly held stereotypes suggest that older workers are less likely to be environmentally responsible than younger workers. To evaluate the degree to which such age differences are present, we meta-analyzed 132 independent correlations and 336 d-values based on 4676 professional workers from 22 samples in 11 countries. Contrary to popular stereotypes, age showed small positive relationships with pro-environmental behaviors, suggesting that older adults engaged in these workplace behaviors slightly more frequently. Relationships with age appeared to be linear for overall, Conserving, Avoiding Harm, and Taking Initiative pro-environmental behaviors, but non-linear trends were observed for Transforming and Influencing Others behaviors.
The Effect of Nutrient Deficiency on Removal of Organic Solvents from Textile Manufacturing Wastewater During Activated Sludge Treatment

Textile manufacturing wastewater is often deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus and contains hazardous solvents, including methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), toluene (TOL), and xylenes (XYL). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of a short-term batch assay for predicting when a nutrient deficient condition exists in textile wastewater activated sludge, and to determine if nutrient deficiency affects biodegradation of MEK, MIBK, TOL, and p-XYL to a greater or lesser extent than bulk soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD). Addition of N + P significantly improved sCOD removal during treatment of textile wastewater in laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs). Batch tests using mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) from the SBRs correctly predicted the nutrient deficiency in the reactors that received unamended wastewater. During batch tests in sealed containers (to prevent volatilization) when N + P were added, the solvents biodegraded faster and to a greater extent than the bulk wastewater sCOD. MEK and MIBK were also completely consumed in MLSS from the SBR that received unamended wastewater, indicating that a shortage of nutrients did not significantly impact biodegradation of these ketones. However, nutrient deficient conditions significantly decreased the rate of TOL and p-XYL biodegradation. The difference in biodegradability of the ketones and monoaromatics under nutrient deficient conditions may be related to loss of plasmids required for aerobic catabolism of TOL and p-XYL. These results demonstrate that N + P addition to nutrient-deficient textile wastewater improves bulk sCOD removal and also significantly improves the biodegradability of TOL and p-XYL, thereby reducing the amount released to the atmosphere by volatilization.
Study of tack properties of uncrosslinked natural rubber

The purpose of this study was to better understand the effect of non-rubber substances (mainly proteins and lipids) on adhesion (against glasses) and self-adhesion tack properties of uncrosslinked natural rubber (NR). Various types of NR, with or without non-rubber constituents, were prepared. Synthetic polyisoprene rubber was also used as a reference material. All the rubbers were first characterized by many techniques (FT-IR, DSC, GPC, etc.). Two experimental tests were specially utilized to measure the level of adhesion and self-adhesion: (i) at very short contact times (from a few milliseconds up to 0.1 s) the impact of a pendulum and (ii) for longer contact times (from 0.1 s to a few h) the contact of a probe using a tensile testing machine. The tack energy increased with contact time for all the rubbers studied. Natural rubber which did not contain proteins and lipids exhibited the highest adhesion and self-adhesion tack abilities. In contrast, whole natural rubber, containing both proteins and lipids, showed the lowest tack property. In each case, self-adhesion levels are higher than those of adhesion, presumably due to interdiffusion of macromolecular chains or chain segments at the interface.
Zoledronic acid boosts γδ T-cell activity in children receiving αβ+ T and CD19+ cell-depleted grafts from an HLA-haplo-identical donor

ABSTRACT We demonstrated that γδ T cells of patients given HLA-haploidentical HSCT after removal of αβ+ T cells and CD19+ B cells are endowed with the capacity of killing leukemia cells after ex vivo treatment with zoledronic acid (ZOL). Thus, we tested the hypothesis that infusion of ZOL in patients receiving this type of graft may enhance γδ T-cell cytotoxic activity against leukemia cells. ZOL was infused every 28 d in 43 patients; most were treated at least twice. γδ T cells before and after ZOL treatments were studied in 33 of these 43 patients, till at least 7 mo after HSCT by high-resolution mass spectrometry, flow-cytometry, and degranulation assay. An induction of Vδ2-cell differentiation, paralleled by increased cytotoxicity of both Vδ1 and Vδ2 cells against primary leukemia blasts was associated with ZOL treatment. Cytotoxic activity was further increased in Vδ2 cells, but not in Vδ1 lymphocytes in those patients given more than one treatment. Proteomic analysis of γδ T cells purified from patients showed upregulation of proteins involved in activation processes and immune response, paralleled by downregulation of proteins involved in proliferation. Moreover, a proteomic signature was identified for each ZOL treatment. Patients given three or more ZOL infusions had a better probability of survival in comparison to those given one or two treatments (86% vs. 54%, respectively, p = 0.008). Our data indicate that ZOL infusion in pediatric recipients of αβ T- and B-cell-depleted HLA-haploidentical HSCT promotes γδ T-cell differentiation and cytotoxicity and may influence the outcome of patients.
Rules That Matter: Political Institutions and the Diversity—Conflict Nexus

One controversy in the study of civil war relates to the role that institutions play in ethnically diverse societies. `Constitutional engineers' advance various institutional arrangements, ranging from democracy in general to specific constitutional and electoral rules, as those mechanisms that help divided societies to resolve disputes peacefully. Political sociologists, by contrast, maintain that political institutions are largely an epiphenomenon. Synthesizing the two conflicting schools of thought, the authors examine how different institutions in conjunction with three forms of ethnic diversity — fractionalization, dominance and polarization — affect the risk of civil war. It is argued that groups perceive institutions as a constraint and that they consider the usage of political violence if they cannot achieve their goals peacefully. The examination of these conditional institutionalist hypotheses for the period between 1950 and 2000 shows, in accordance with recent theoretical work, that fractionalization can indeed be linked to low-intensity civil wars and that this effect is particularly strong in democracies in comparison to autocracies. Interacting the measures of diversity with different democratic institutions, the authors confirm that rules that encourage power-sharing lower the risk of war in diverse societies. The event-history models, moreover, show that the combination of fractionalization and majoritarian voting forebodes badly for the internal stability of a state. Within the set of democratic regimes studied in this article, presidential systems are the most war-prone institutional setting.
Adsorption of Sulfonamide Antimicrobial Agents to Clay Minerals

Adsorption of three sulfonamide antimicrobials to clay minerals was investigated as a function of pH, ionic strength, and type of exchangeable cation. Sulfonamide antimicrobial adsorption exhibited pronounced pH dependence consistent with sorbate speciation and clay properties. Sulfonamide antimicrobials did not intercalate into montmorillonite, and surface charge density influenced sorption by determining adsorption domain size. Adsorption edge data were best fit to a model including terms for the cationic and uncharged species. Adsorption of uncharged sulfamethazine to montmorillonite was relatively insensitive to pH, ionic strength, and type of exchangeable cation, while that to kaolinite was highly sensitive to ionic strength. Adsorption of cationic sulfamethazine to montmorillonite exceeded that of the neutral species by 1-2 orders of magnitude, but was unimportant for kaolinite at the pH values examined. Cation exchange appeared to contribute to sorption of cationic sulfonamide species to montmorillonite. Anionic sulfamethazine adsorption was negligible. The nature of the sulfonamide R group influenced the degree of adsorption of cationic and neutral species. Our results highlight the importance of considering sulfonamide speciation and clay surface charge density in predicting the transport of these antimicrobials.
Evaluating the co-relationship between concrete flexural tensile strength and compressive strength

The relationship of flexural tensile strength and compressive strength for different range of concrete strength proposed by various authors and country standards indicate diverse and wide variations in recommendations to predict the concrete flexural tensile strength. This paper presents the experimental study to predict flexural tensile strength and compressive strength improved empirical relations using statistical procedures for wide range of concrete strength (35 to 100 MPa) and for different member depth of concrete (80 to 250 mm). It is concluded from study that the flexural tensile strength and compressive strength proportionality equations should be derived in power model for more precision, and the size of the member should also be included in the proportionality equations in addition to compressive strength.
Structures and application of oligosaccharides in human milk

Comparative study of the oligosaccharide profiles of individual human milk revealed the presence of three different patterns. Four oligosaccharides containing the Fucα1-2Gal group were missing in the milk of non-secretor, and three oligosaccharides containing the Fucα1-4GlcNAc group were missing in the milk of Lewis negative individuals. Disappearance of some major oligosaccharides in these samples led to the finding of five novel minor oligosaccharides, which were hidden under the missing oligosaccharides. Following these studies, structures of many novel milk oligosaccharides were elucidated. At least 13 core oligosaccharides were found in these oligosaccharides. By adding α-fucosyl residues and sialic acid residues to these core oligosaccharides, more than one hundred oligosaccharides were formed. All these oligosaccharides contain lactose at their reducing termini. This evidence, together with the deletion phenomena found in the milk oligosaccharides of non-secretor and Lewis negative individuals, suggested that the oligosaccharides are formed from lactose by the concerted action of glycosyltransferases, which are responsible for elongation and branching of the Galβ1-4GlcNAc group in the sugar chains of glycoconjugates on the surface of epithelial cells. Therefore, oligosaccharides in human milk could include many structures, starting from the Galβ1-4GlcNAc group in the sugar chains of various glycoconjugates. Many lines of evidence recently indicated that virulent enteric bacteria and viruses start their infection by binding to particular sugar chains of glycoconjugates on the target cell surfaces. Therefore, milk oligosaccharides could be useful for developing drugs, which inhibit the infection of bacteria and viruses.
The Brain Tumor Window Model: A Combined Cranial Window and Implanted Glioma Model for Evaluating Intraoperative Contrast Agents

OBJECTIVEOptical contrast agents for brain tumor delineation have been previously evaluated in ex vivo specimens from animals with implanted gliomas and may not reflect the true visual parameters encountered during surgery. This study describes a novel model system designed to evaluate optical contrast agents for tumor delineation in vivo. METHODSBiparietal craniectomies were performed on 8-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats. 9L glioma cells were injected intraparenchymally. A cover slip was bonded to the cranial defect with cyanoacrylate glue. When the tumor radius reached 1 mm, Coomassie Blue was administered intravenously while the appearance of the cortical surface was recorded. Computerized image analysis of the red/green/blue color components was used to quantify visible differences between tumor and nonneoplastic tissue and to compare delineation in the brain tumor window (BTW) model with the conventional 9L glioma model. RESULTSThe tumor margin in the BTW model was poorly defined before contrast administration but readily apparent after contrast administration. Based on red component intensity, tumor delineation improved 4-fold at 50 minutes after contrast administration in the BTW model (P < .002). The conventional 9L glioma model overestimated the degree of delineation compared with the BTW model at the same dose of Coomassie Blue (P < .03). CONCLUSIONWindow placement overlying an implanted glioma is technically possible and well tolerated in the rat. The BTW model is a valid system for evaluating optical contrast agents designed to delineate brain tumor margins. To our knowledge, we have described the first in vivo model system for evaluating optical contrast agents for tumor delineation.
Percolation constraints in the use of conductor-filled polymers for interconnects

The properties of composite systems are understood in terms of percolation phenomena; when a sufficient amount of conductive filler is loaded into an insulating polymer matrix, the composite transforms from an insulator to a conductor, the result of continuous linkages of filler particles. The critical volume fraction at which this transformation occurs, V/sub c/, is the focus of the investigation reported. The concentration is on the properties of some silver-filled silicon rubber composites, and it is shown how the artificial percolation restrictions affect both the critical volume fraction and the resistivity of the composite. A computer simulation of the two-dimensional case shows that these restrictions affect V/sub c/ in a predictable manner. An empirical method of predicting V/sub c/ for non-restricted systems is presented. <<ETX>>
Quality Assurance of RDB 2 RDF Mappings

Since datasets in the Web of Data stem from many different sources, ranging from automatic extraction processes to extensively curated knowledge bases, their quality also varies. Thus, significant research efforts were made to measure and improve the quality of Linked Open Data. Nevertheless, those approaches suffer from two shortcomings: First, most quality metrics are insufficiently formalised to allow an unambiguous implementation which is required to base decision on them. Second, they do not take the creation process of RDF data into account. A popular extraction approach is the mapping of relational databases to RDF (RDB2RDF). RDB2RDF techniques allow to create large amounts of RDF data with only few mapping definitions. This also means that single errors in an RDB2RDF mapping can affect a considerable portion of the generated data. In this paper we present an approach to assess RDB2RDF mappings also considering the actual process of the RDB to RDF transformation. This allows to detect and fix problems at an earlier stage before resulting in potentially thousands of data quality issues in published data. We propose a formal model and methodology for the evaluation of the RDB2RDF mapping quality and introduce actual metrics. We evaluate our assessment framework by applying our reference implementation on different real world RDB2RDF mappings.
Active varactor tunable bandpass filter

A microstrip active varactor tunable bandpass filter is presented. The filter is based upon the negative resistance method using a microstrip combline network. A 1.8-GHz, two-pole device with a bandwidth of 2% was constructed. 0.6 octave tuning with significant improvement in passband performance was achieved compared with its passive counterpart. <<ETX>>
Mitochondria play no roles in Mn(II)-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells

Manganese(II) has been shown to exhibit catalase-like activity under physiological conditions. In the course of studies to test the antioxidant activity of Mn(II) on HeLa cells, it was observed at high concentrations (1–2 mM) that Mn(II) also induced apoptosis, as judged by changes in cell morphology, caspase-3 activation, cleavage of poly(ADP) ribose, and DNA condensation. However, in contrast to established mechanisms, the Mn(II)-induced apoptosis is associated with an increase rather than a decrease in mitochondrial inner-membrane potential, as monitored by the fluorescent probe tetramethylrhodamine ethyl ester. Based on immunochemical analysis, Mn(II)-induced apoptosis does not lead to the release of cytochrome c into the cytosol. These and other measurements show that treatment with Mn(II) leads to enhancement of the mitochondrial “membrane mass,” has no effect on mitochondrial volume, and does not affect the permeability transition pore. Together, these results support the view that Mn(II)-induced apoptosis occurs by a heretofore unrecognized mechanism. In addition, it was demonstrated that Mn(II) treatment leads to an increase in the production of reactive oxygen species (peroxides) and to the induction of the manganese superoxide dismutase and catalase activities but has no effect on the Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase level.