Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Porous titanium particles for acetabular reconstruction in total hip replacement show extensive bony armoring after 15 weeks

Background and purpose — The bone impaction grafting technique restores bone defects in total hip replacement. Porous titanium particles (TiPs) are deformable, like bone particles, and offer better primary stability. We addressed the following questions in this animal study: are impacted TiPs osteoconductive under loaded conditions; do released micro-particles accelerate wear; and are systemic titanium blood levels elevated after implantation of TiPs? Animals and methods — An AAOS type-III defect was created in the right acetabulum of 10 goats weighing 63 (SD 6) kg, and reconstructed with calcium phosphate-coated TiPs and a cemented polyethylene cup. A stem with a cobalt chrome head was cemented in the femur. The goats were killed after 15 weeks. Blood samples were taken pre- and postoperatively. Results — The TiP-graft layer measured 5.6 (SD 0.8) mm with a mean bone ingrowth distance of 2.8 (SD 0.8) mm. Cement penetrated 0.9 (0.3–1.9) mm into the TiPs. 1 reconstruction showed minimal cement penetration (0.3 mm) and failed at the cement-TiP interface. There were no signs of accelerated wear, metallic particle debris, or osteolysis. Median systemic titanium concentrations increased on a log-linear scale from 0.5 (0.3–1.1) parts per billion (ppb) to 0.9 (0.5–2.8) ppb (p = 0.01). Interpretation — Adequate cement pressurization is advocated for impaction grafting with TiPs. After implantation, calcium phosphate-coated TiPs were osteoconductive under loaded conditions and caused an increase in systemic titanium concentrations. However, absolute levels remained low. There were no signs of accelerated wear. A clinical pilot study should be performed to prove that application in humans is safe in the long term.
Incorporation of natural antimicrobial agents into starch-based material for food packaging

Antimicrobial (AM) films comprising of thermoplastic starch (TPS) and a commercial aliphatic polyester blended with thermoplastic starch (APTPS) were prepared and their properties, release of AM agents, and AM efficacy was studied in laboratory media and on a real foodstuff (Cheddar cheese). The AM films were prepared using two techniques: (i) direct incorporation of AM agents (carvacrol, linalool or thymol) into TPS films via a compression moulding technique; and (ii) by application of a coating containing the AM agents onto the commercial APTPS films.
Antibodies against the NG2 Proteoglycan Promote the Regeneration of Sensory Axons within the Dorsal Columns of the Spinal Cord

The NG2 chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan inhibits axon growth in vitro. Levels of NG2 increase rapidly in the glial scars that form at sites of CNS injury, suggesting that NG2 may inhibit axon regeneration. To determine the functions of NG2, we infused mixtures of neutralizing or non-neutralizing anti-NG2 monoclonal antibodies into the dorsally transected adult rat spinal cord and analyzed the regeneration of ascending mechanosensory axons anatomically. At 1 week after injury, ascending sensory axons in control animals terminated caudal to the lesion within an area containing dense deposits of NG2 immunoreactivity. In animals treated with the neutralizing anti-NG2 antibodies, labeled axons penetrated the caudal border of the lesion and grew into and beyond the lesion center. The low intrinsic growth capacity of adult neurons may also limit the ability of damaged axons to regenerate. To enhance growth, we combined antibody treatment with a peripheral nerve conditioning lesion. After a conditioning lesion and treatment with control, non-neutralizing antibodies, many sensory axons grew into the lesion core. These axons did not grow past the rostral border of the lesion; rather, they grew along the dorsal surface of the spinal cord and within any remaining pieces of the dorsal roots. In contrast, combining a peripheral nerve conditioning lesion with neutralizing anti-NG2 antibodies resulted in sensory axon regeneration past the glial scar and into the white matter rostral to the injury site. The combinatorial approach used here that neutralizes extrinsic inhibition and increases intrinsic growth results in anatomically correct axon regeneration, a prerequisite for functional recovery.
Control over the strength of connections between modules: a double dissociation between stimulus format and task revealed by Granger causality mapping in fMRI

Drawing on theoretical and computational work with the localist dual route reading model and results from behavioral studies, Besner et al. (2011) proposed that the ability to perform tasks that require overriding stimulus-specific defaults (e.g., semantics when naming Arabic numerals, and phonology when evaluating the parity of number words) necessitate the ability to modulate the strength of connections between cognitive modules for lexical representation, semantics, and phonology on a task- and stimulus-specific basis. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate this account by assessing changes in functional connectivity while participants performed tasks that did and did not require such stimulus-task default overrides. The occipital region showing the greatest modulation of BOLD signal strength for the two stimulus types was used as the seed region for Granger causality mapping (GCM). Our GCM analysis revealed a region of rostromedial frontal cortex with a crossover interaction. When participants performed tasks that required overriding stimulus type defaults (i.e., parity judgments of number words and naming Arabic numerals) functional connectivity between the occipital region and rostromedial frontal cortex was present. Statistically significant functional connectivity was absent when the tasks were the default for the stimulus type (i.e., parity judgments of Arabic numerals and reading number words). This frontal region (BA 10) has previously been shown to be involved in goal-directed behavior and maintenance of a specific task set. We conclude that overriding stimulus-task defaults requires a modulation of connection strengths between cognitive modules and that the override mechanism predicted from cognitive theory is instantiated by frontal modulation of neural activity of brain regions specialized for sensory processing.
MITIGATING ATTACKS AGAINST ADAPTATION MECHANISMS IN OVERLAY NETWORKS

Walters, AAron R. M.S., Purdue University, May, 2006. Mitigating Attacks Against Adaptation Mechanisms in Overlay Networks. Major Professor: Cristina Nita-Rotaru. Performance-aware measurement-based overlay networks offer increased performance and resilience to benign failures for end-to-end communication. Adaptation mechanisms are a critical component of overlay network design, enabling distributed construction of efficient overlays for performance-demanding applications in heterogeneous Internet settings. These mechanisms dynamically optimize applicationcentric metrics such as latency, jitter, bandwidth, and loss rate. However, endsystems are more vulnerable than core routers, making overlay networks susceptible to malicious attacks coming from untrusted outsiders, and especially from trusted (but compromised) members of the overlay. Unlike many outsider attacks, insider (or Byzantine) attacks can not be prevented by simply deploying cryptographic authentication mechanisms. In this work, we identify and classify insider attacks against adaptation mechanisms in overlay networks and demonstrate several of them against a mature, operationally deployed overlay multicast system. The attacks target the overlay network construction, maintenance, and availability and allow malicious nodes to control significant traffic in the network, facilitating further attacks such as selective forwarding, traffic analysis, and overlay partitioning. We present a comprehensive defense framework to address the identified attacks, focusing on a critical component, reducing the number of bad or unnecessary adaptations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the newly proposed techniques through real-life deployments and emulations conducted on the PlanetLab and DETER testbeds, respectively.
Numerical and experimental analyses of resin infusion manufacturing processes of composite materials

Liquid resin infusion (LRI) processes are promising manufacturing routes to produce large, thick, or complex structural parts. They are based on the resin flow induced, across its thickness, by a pressure applied onto a preform/resin stacking. However, both thickness and fiber volume fraction of the final piece are not well controlled since they result from complex mechanisms which drive the transient mechanical equilibrium leading to the final geometrical configuration. In order to optimize both design and manufacturing parameters, but also to monitor the LRI process, an isothermal numerical model has been developed which describes the mechanical interaction between the deformations of the porous medium and the resin flow during infusion. 1 , 2 With this numerical model, it is possible to investigate the LRI process of classical industrial part shapes. To validate the numerical model, first in 2D, and to improve the knowledge of the LRI process, this study details a comparison between numerical simulations and an experimental study of a plate infusion test carried out by LRI process under industrial conditions. From the numerical prediction, the filling time, the resin mass and the thickness of the preform can be determined. On another hand, the resin flow and the preform response can be monitored by experimental methods during the filling stage. One key issue of this research study is to highlight the changes in major process parameters during the resin infusion stage, such as the temperature of the preform and resin, and the variations of both thickness and fiber volume fraction of the preform. Moreover, this numerical/experimental approach is the best way to improve our knowledge on the resin infusion processes, and finally, to develop simulation tools for the design of advanced composite parts.
PLEASE DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHORS’ PERMISSION Infusing Sustainability into New Product Development Practices: The Role of External Triggers and Internal Actors in Pursuing Change

While there has been growing recognition that considering environmental and social aspects of sustainability is important for a firm’s reputation and long-term survival, research so far focused on strategic goals and how sustainability becomes relevant and less so on how sustainability practices become embedded and mainstreamed. Our paper addresses the change process of initiating sustainability practices in the context of new product development and how they unfold over time using results from a longitudinal case study in four multinational companies. Based on structuration theory and practice theory, we propose a theoretical framework for change processes around sustainability that incorporates the effects of external triggers and individual actors in initiating and mainstreaming sustainability-focused NPD practices.
Computational analysis of folding and mutation properties of C5 domain of myosin binding protein C

Thermal folding molecular dynamics simulations of the domain C5 of Myosin binding protein C were performed using a native‐centric model to study the role of three mutations related to Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Mutation of Asn755 causes the largest shift of the folding temperature, and the residue is located in the CFGA′ β‐sheet featuring the highest Φ‐values. The mutation thus appears to reduce the thermodynamic stability in agreement with experimental data. The mutations on Arg654 and Arg668, conversely, cause little change in the folding temperature and they reside in the low Φ‐value BDE β‐sheet, so that their pathological role cannot be related to impairment of the folding process but possibly to the binding with target molecules. As the typical signature of Domain C5 is the presence of a longer and destibilizing CD‐loop with respect to the other Ig‐like domains, we completed the work with a bioinformatic analysis of this loop showing a high density of negative charge and low hydrophobicity. This indicates the CD‐loop as a natively unfolded sequence with a likely coupling between folding and ligand binding. Proteins 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
AVEC 2012: the continuous audio/visual emotion challenge

We present the second Audio-Visual Emotion recognition Challenge and workshop (AVEC 2012), which aims to bring together researchers from the audio and video analysis communities around the topic of emotion recognition. The goal of the challenge is to recognise four continuously valued affective dimensions: arousal, expectancy, power, and valence. There are two sub-challenges: in the Fully Continuous Sub-Challenge participants have to predict the values of the four dimensions at every moment during the recordings, while for the Word-Level Sub-Challenge a single prediction has to be given per word uttered by the user. This paper presents the challenge guidelines, the common data used, and the performance of the baseline system on the two tasks.
Cyanidin-3-rutinoside, a Natural Polyphenol Antioxidant, Selectively Kills Leukemic Cells by Induction of Oxidative Stress*

Anthocyanins are a group of naturally occurring phenolic compounds widely available in fruits and vegetables in human diets. They have broad biological activities including anti-mutagenesis and anticarcinogenesis, which are generally attributed to their antioxidant activities. We studied the effects and the mechanisms of the most common type of anthocyanins, cyanidin-3-rutinoside, in several leukemia and lymphoma cell lines. We found that cyanidin-3-rutinoside extracted and purified from the black raspberry cultivar Jewel induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Paradoxically, this compound induced the accumulation of peroxides, which are involved in the induction of apoptosis in HL-60 cells. In addition, cyanidin-3-rutinoside treatment resulted in reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent activation of p38 MAPK and JNK, which contributed to cell death by activating the mitochondrial pathway mediated by Bim. Down-regulation of Bim or overexpression of Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL considerably blocked apoptosis. Notably, cyanidin-3-rutinoside treatment did not lead to increased ROS accumulation in normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and had no cytotoxic effects on these cells. These results indicate that cyanidin-3-rutinoside has the potential to be used in leukemia therapy with the advantages of being widely available and selective against tumors.
Morphology of developing rat genioglossal motoneurons studied in vitro: Changes in length, branching pattern, and spatial distribution of dendrites

The aim of this study is to describe the postnatal change in dendritic morphology of those motoneurons in the hypoglossal nucleus that innervate the genioglossus muscle. Forty genioglossal (GG) motoneurons from four age groups (1–2, 5–6, 13–15, and 19–30 postnatal days) were labeled by intracellular injection of neurobiotin in an in vitro slice preparation of the rat brainstem and were reconstructed in three‐dimensional space.
Quasi Maximum Likelihood Blind Deconvolution of Images Using Optimal Sparse Representations

A quasi maximum likelihood framework for blind deconvolution of images is presented. We generalize the relative Newton algorithm, previously proposed for quasi maximum likelihood blind source separation and blind deconvolution of time signals, and provide asymptotic analysis of its performance. Smooth approximation of the absolute value is used to model the log probability density function, which is suitable for sparse sources. In addition, we propose a method of sparsification, which allows to perform blind deconvolution of sources with arbitrary distribution, and show how to find optimal sparsifying transformations by training.
Human activity selectively impacts the ecosystem roles of parrotfishes on coral reefs

Around the globe, coral reefs and other marine ecosystems are increasingly overfished. Conventionally, studies of fishing impacts have focused on the population size and dynamics of targeted stocks rather than the broader ecosystem-wide effects of harvesting. Using parrotfishes as an example, we show how coral reef fish populations respond to escalating fishing pressure across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Based on these fish abundance data, we infer the potential impact on four key functional roles performed by parrotfishes. Rates of bioerosion and coral predation are highly sensitive to human activity, whereas grazing and sediment removal are resilient to fishing. Our results offer new insights into the vulnerability and resilience of coral reefs to the ever-growing human footprint. The depletion of fishes causes differential decline of key ecosystem functions, radically changing the dynamics of coral reefs and setting the stage for future ecological surprises.
Breaking of conformal supersymmetry by quantum p-branes with exotic supersymmetry

Quantum dynamics and symmetries of super p-branes preserving exotic fractions of supersymmetry are considered by studying branes which preserve 34 fraction of N = 1D = 4 global supersymmetry. Established is the presence of anomaly in the commutator of the conformal boost generators with generators of world-volume gauge symmetry. It indicates that the classical global supersymmetry OSp(1|8) of the exotic superstring and superbranes is explicitly broken in quantum theory.
Physician-patient communication. A key to malpractice prevention.

What factors put physicians at risk for being sued? This is a vital question to practicing physicians since being named in a malpractice suit or, worse yet, going to court is an emotionally distressing event. A suit can lead to personal isolation, humiliation, depression, and even physical illness for physicians. 1,2 Understanding malpractice risk factors is also important to malpractice insurance companies, hospitals, and health care systems that seek to provide high-quality care while minimizing their liability and financial risk. See also pp 1583 and 1588. This issue of JAMA contains two articles that explore the relationship between physicians' malpractice claims history and two potential risk factors: quality of medical care and interpersonal communication skills. The study by Entman et al 3 examined the relationship between malpractice claims history of Florida obstetricians and the quality of the clinical care they provided to patients 5 to 10 years after the claims.
Error estimates for measurements of cosmic shear

In the very near future, weak lensing surveys will map the projected density of the Universe in an unbiased way over large regions of the sky. In order to interpret the results of studies it is helpful to develop an understanding of the errors associated with quantities extracted from the observations. In a generalization of one of our earlier works, we present estimators of the cumulants and cumulant correlators of the weak lensing convergence field, and compute the variance associated with these estimators. By restricting ourselves to so-called compensated filters we are able to derive quite simple expressions for the errors on these estimates. We also separate contributions from the cosmic variance, shot noise and intrinsic ellipticity of the source galaxies.
Integrative analysis of type-I and type-II aberrations underscores the genetic heterogeneity of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia

Background Several studies of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia have described the various type-I or type-II aberrations and their relationship with clinical outcome. However, there has been no recent comprehensive overview of these genetic aberrations in one large pediatric acute myeloid leukemia cohort. Design and Methods We studied the different genetic aberrations, their associations and their impact on prognosis in a large pediatric acute myeloid leukemia series (n=506). Karyotypes were studied, and hotspot regions of NPM1, CEPBA, MLL, WT1, FLT3, N-RAS, K-RAS, PTPN11 and KIT were screened for mutations of available samples. The mutational status of all type-I and type-II aberrations was available in 330 and 263 cases, respectively. Survival analysis was performed in a subset (n=385) treated on consecutive acute myeloid leukemia Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster Study Group and Dutch Childhood Oncology Group treatment protocols. Results Genetic aberrations were associated with specific clinical characteristics, e.g. significantly higher diagnostic white blood cell counts in MLL-rearranged, WT1-mutated and FLT3-ITD-positive acute myeloid leukemia. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in the distribution of these aberrations between children below and above the age of two years. Non-random associations, e.g. KIT mutations with core-binding factor acute myeloid leukemia, and FLT3-ITD with t(15;17)(q22;q21), NPM1- and WT1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia, respectively, were observed. Multivariate analysis revealed a ‘favorable karyotype’, i.e. t(15;17)(q22;q21), t(8;21)(q22;q22) and inv(16)(p13q22)/t(16;16)(p13;q22). NPM1 and CEBPA double mutations were independent factors for favorable event-free survival. WT1 mutations combined with FLT3-ITD showed the worst outcome for 5-year overall survival (22±14%) and 5-year event-free survival (20±13%), although it was not an independent factor in multivariate analysis. Conclusions Integrative analysis of type-I and type-II aberrations provides an insight into the frequencies, non-random associations and prognostic impact of the various aberrations, reflecting the heterogeneity of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia. These aberrations are likely to guide the stratification of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia and may direct the development of targeted therapies.
ProTracer: Towards Practical Provenance Tracing by Alternating Between Logging and Tainting

—Provenance tracing is a very important approach to Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attack detection and investigation. Existing techniques either suffer from the depen- dence explosion problem or have non-trivial space and run-time overhead, which hinder their application in practice. We propose ProTracer, a lightweight provenance tracing system that alternates between system event logging and unit level taint propagation. The technique is built on an on-the-ﬂy system event processing infrastructure that features a very lightweight kernel module and a sophisticated user space daemon that performs concurrent and out-of-order event processing. The evaluation with different realistic system workloads and a number of attack cases show that ProTracer only produces 13MB log data per day, and 0.84GB(Server)/2.32GB(Client) in 3 months without losing any important information. The space consumption is only < 1.28% of the state-of-the-art, 7 times smaller than an off-line garbage collection technique. The run-time overhead averages < 7% for servers and < 5% for regular applications. The generated attack causal graphs are a few times smaller than those by existing techniques while they are equally informative.