Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CONIKS: Bringing Key Transparency to End Users

We present CONIKS, an end-user key verification service capable of integration in end-to-end encrypted communication systems. CONIKS builds on transparency log proposals for web server certificates but solves several new challenges specific to key verification for end users. CONIKS obviates the need for global third-party monitors and enables users to efficiently monitor their own key bindings for consistency, downloading less than 20 kB per day to do so even for a provider with billions of users. CONIKS users and providers can collectively audit providers for non-equivocation, and this requires downloading a constant 2.5 kB per provider per day. Additionally, CONIKS preserves the level of privacy offered by today's major communication services, hiding the list of usernames present and even allowing providers to conceal the total number of users in the system.
Distribution, Sources and Risk Assessment of Polychlorinated Biphenyls in Soils from the Midway Atoll, North Pacific Ocean

Concentrations of 28 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were assessed in soils from the Midway Atoll in the central North Pacific Ocean. The analytical procedure involved the application of accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and gas chromatography coupled with ion trap mass spectrometric detection (GC/ITMS) for identification and quantification. Among the 28 PCB congeners studied, 26 of them, except CB195 and CB209, were detected in the analyzed samples at different frequencies. The total concentrations of 28 indicator PCBs (ΣPCBs) ranged from 2.6 to 148.8 ng g−1 with an average value of 50.7 ng g−1 and median of 39.5 ng g−1. Sources and congeners’ pattern of PCB were investigated in the soil of Midway Atoll. The principal component analysis indicated that the compositions of PCBs in most of the soil samples were similar. The total concentrations of PCBs were used to assess the cancer risk probabilities in humans via ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation of soil particles. Very low cancer risk was found in all soil samples caused by ΣPCBs.
Alexithymia Is Associated with Tinnitus Severity

Objective Alexithymia is considered to be a personality trait with a tendency to express psychological distress in somatic rather than emotional form and, therefore, may play a vital role in somatization. Although, such a propensity can be found in patients suffering from tinnitus, the relationship between alexithymic characteristics and the subjective experience of tinnitus severity remains yet unclear. Our aim was to evaluate which alexithymic characteristics are linked to the subjective experience of tinnitus symptomatology. Methods We evaluated tinnitus severity (Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, THI), alexithymia (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20), and depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI) in 207 outpatients with tinnitus. Correlation analyses and multiple regression analyses were calculated in order to investigate the relationship between alexithymic characteristics, tinnitus severity, and depression. Results Highly significant positive correlations were found between THI total score and TAS-20 total score as well as BDI score. Regarding the TAS-20 subscales, multiple regression analyses showed that only the TAS-20 subscale “difficulty in identifying feelings” (DIF) and the BDI significantly predicted the subjective experience of tinnitus severity. Regarding the THI subscales, only higher scores of the THI subscale “functional” demonstrated an independent moderate association with higher scores for DIF. Conclusion We found an independent association between the subjective experience of tinnitus severity and alexithymic characteristics, particularly with regard to limitations in the fields of mental, social, and physical functioning because of tinnitus and the difficulty of identifying feelings facet of alexithymia. These findings are conducive to a better understanding of affect regulation that may be important for the psychological adaptation of patients suffering from tinnitus.
Genetics and Pathogenesis of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease: 20 Years On

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), the most common inherited kidney disorder, is characterized by the progressive development and expansion of bilateral fluid‐filled cysts derived from the renal tubule epithelial cells. Although typically leading to end‐stage renal disease in late middle age, ADPKD represents a continuum, from neonates with hugely enlarged cystic kidneys to cases with adequate kidney function into old age. Since the identification of the first causative gene (i.e., PKD1, encoding polycystin 1) 20 years ago, genetic studies have uncovered a large part of the key factors that underlie the phenotype variability. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of these significant advances as well as those related to disease pathogenesis models, including mutation analysis of PKD1 and PKD2 (encoding polycystin 2), current mutation detection rate, allelic heterogeneity, genotype and phenotype relationships (in terms of three different inheritance patterns: classical autosomal dominant inheritance, complex inheritance, and somatic and germline mosaicism), modifier genes, the role of second somatic mutation hit in renal cystogenesis, and findings from mouse models of polycystic kidney disease. Based upon a combined consideration of the current knowledge, we attempted to propose a unifying framework for explaining the phenotype variability in ADPKD.
FiVaTech: Page-Level Web Data Extraction from Template Pages

Web data extraction has been an important part for many Web data analysis applications. In this paper, we formulate the data extraction problem as the decoding process of page generation based on structured data and tree templates. We propose an unsupervised, page-level data extraction approach to deduce the schema and templates for each individual deep Website, which contains either singleton or multiple data records in one Webpage. FiVaTech applies tree matching, tree alignment, and mining techniques to achieve the challenging task. In experiments, FiVaTech has much higher precision than EXALG and is comparable with other record-level extraction systems like ViPER and MSE. The experiments show an encouraging result for the test pages used in many state-of-the-art Web data extraction works.
MYADM controls endothelial barrier function through ERM-dependent regulation of ICAM-1 expression

Myeloid-associated differentiation marker (MYADM) protein belongs to the MAL family and regulates raft domains in epithelial cells. Membrane rafts participate in inflammatory responses. This study shows that MYADM is expressed in endothelial cells and controls the endothelial barrier by regulating ICAM-1 expression through ezrin, radixin, and moesin proteins, connectors between plasma membrane domains and actin cytoskeleton.
Abstractionist versus Exemplar-Based Theories of Visual Word Priming: A Subsystems Resolution

Three experiments addressed abstractionist versus exemplar-based theories of the visual representations underlying word priming. Participants first read centrally presented whole words (each displayed in all lowercase or in all uppercase letters), and then they completed laterally presented word stems (each displayed in all lowercase or in all uppercase letters). Word stem completion priming was letter-case specific (greater for same-case primed items than for different-case primed items) when stems were presented directly to the right cerebral hemisphere but not when stems were presented directly to the left cerebral hemisphere. This interaction was not influenced by the typicality of the test stems, but it was observed only for stems composed of letters with visually dissimilar lowercase and uppercase structures (e.g., bea/BEA) and not for stems composed of letters with visually similar lowercase and uppercase structures (e.g., sco/SCO). In contrast, cued recall was letter-case specific when similar-case or dissimilar-case stems were presented directly to the right hemisphere. Results do not support strongly abstractionist or exemplar-based theories. Instead, they suggest a resolution to these differing perspectives: Relatively independent neural subsystems operate in parallel to underlie abstract-category and specific-exemplar priming of word forms.
Mechanical properties of few layer graphene cantilever

We report the resonant frequency measurement of few-layer (1-, 2-, and 3-layer) graphene (FLG) cantilevers by optical heterodyne interferometry. The micro-sized FLG cantilevers with and without the diamond-like carbon weights were fabricated using focused ion beam. The Young's modulus was able to be calculated from the measured resonant frequency. The calculated Young's modulus was larger than the literature data [1]. This result suggests that the overlapped structure of the FLG cantilever makes the structure rigid.
Cross auditory‐spatial learning in early‐blind individuals

Cross‐modal processing enables the utilization of information received via different sensory organs to facilitate more complicated human actions. We used functional MRI on early‐blind individuals to study the neural processes associated with cross auditory‐spatial learning. The auditory signals, converted from echoes of ultrasonic signals emitted from a navigation device, were novel to the participants. The subjects were trained repeatedly for 4 weeks in associating the auditory signals with different distances. Subjects' blood‐oxygenation‐level‐dependent responses were captured at baseline and after training using a sound‐to‐distance judgment task. Whole‐brain analyses indicated that the task used in the study involved auditory discrimination as well as spatial localization. The learning process was shown to be mediated by the inferior parietal cortex and the hippocampus, suggesting the integration and binding of auditory features to distances. The right cuneus was found to possibly serve a general rather than a specific role, forming an occipital‐enhanced network for cross auditory‐spatial learning. This functional network is likely to be unique to those with early blindness, since the normal‐vision counterparts shared activities only in the parietal cortex. Hum Brain Mapp, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Critical points and supersymmetric vacua, II: Asymptotics and extremal metrics

Motivated by the vacuum selection problem of string/M theory, we study a new geometric invariant of a positive hermitian line bundle (L,h) → M over a compact Kahler manifold: the expected distribution K crit (z) of critical points dlog |s(z)|h = 0 of a Gaussian random holomorphic section s ∈ H 0 (M,L) with respect to h. It is a measure on M whose total mass is the average number N crit h of critical points of a random holomorphic section. We are interested in the metric dependence of N crit h , especially metrics h which minimize N crit h . We concentrate on the asymptotic minimization problem for the sequence of tensor powers (L N ,h N ) → M of the line bundle and their critical point densities K critN (z). We prove that K critN (z) has a complete asymptotic expansion in N whose coefficients are curvature invariants of h. The first two terms in the expansion of N crit hN are topological invariants of (L,M). The third term is a topological invariant plus a constantm 2 (depending only on the dimension m of M) times the Calabi functional R M � 2 dV olh, whereis the scalar curvature of the curvature form of h. We give an integral formula form 2 and show, by a computer assisted calculation, thatm 2 > 0 for m ≤ 3, hence that N crit hN is asymptotically minimized by the Calabi extremal metric (when one exists). We conjecture thatm 2 > 0 in all dimensions, i.e. that the Calabi extremal metric is always the asymptotic minimizer.
Pharmacologic Management of Isolated Low High-Density Lipoprotein Syndrome

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is a heterogeneous group of lipoproteins exhibiting a variety of properties like prostacyclin production stimulation, decrease in platelet aggregation, endothelial cell apoptosis inhibition, and low-density lipoprotein oxidation blockade. Epidemiologic studies have shown an inverse relation between HDL cholesterol levels and cardiovascular risk. Low HDL cholesterol is associated with increased risk for myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden death, peripheral artery disease, and postangioplasty restenosis. In contrast, high HDL levels are associated with longevity and protection against atherosclerotic disease development. Given the evolving epidemic of obesity, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome, the prevalence of low HDL will continue to rise. In the United States, low HDL is present in 35% of men, 15% of women, and approximately 63% of patients with coronary artery disease. Data extracted from the Framingham study highlight that 1-mg increase in HDL levels decreases by 2% to 3% the risk of cardiovascular disease. There is no doubt regarding clinical importance about isolated low HDL, but relatively few clinicians consider a direct therapeutic intervention of this dyslipidemia. In this sense, lifestyle measures should be the first-line strategy to manage low HDL levels. On the other hand, pharmacologic options include niacin, fibrates, and statins. Fibrates appear to reduce risk preferentially in patients with low HDL with metabolic syndrome, whereas statins reduce risk across all levels of HDL. Torcetrapib, a cholesteryl esters transfer protein inhibitor, represented a hope to raise this lipoprotein; however, all clinical trials on this drug had ceased after ILLUMINATE, RADIANCE and ERASE trials had recorded an increase in mortality, rates of myocardial infarction, angina, and heart failure. In the near future, drugs as β-glucans, Apo-A1 mimetic peptides, and ACAT inhibitors, are the new promises to treat this condition.
Network topology exploration of mesh-based coarse-grain reconfigurable architectures

Several coarse-grain reconfigurable architectures proposed recently consist of a large number of processing elements (PEs) connected in a mesh-like network topology. We study the effects of three aspects of network topology exploration on the performance of applications on these architectures: (a) changing the interconnection between PEs; (b) changing the way the network topology is traversed while mapping operations to the PEs; and (c) changing the communication delays on the interconnects between PEs. We propose network topology traversal strategies that first schedule PEs that are spatially close and that have more interconnections among them. We use an interconnect aware list scheduling heuristic as a vehicle to perform the network topology exploration experiments on a set of designs derived from DSP applications. Our experimental results show that a spiral traversal strategy, coupled with a two neighbor interconnect topology leads to good performance for the DSP benchmarks considered. Our prototype framework thus provides an exploration environment for system architects to explore and tune coarse-grain reconfigurable architectures for particular application domains.
Bioimpedance vector pattern in women with breast cancer detected by bioelectric impedance vector analysis. Preliminary observations.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The study was conducted to evaluate soft tissue hydration and mass through pattern analysis of vector plots as height, normalized resistance, and reactance measurements by bioelectric impedance vector analysis (BIVA) in patients with breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Whole-body measurements were made with ImpediMed bioimpedance analysis SFB7 BioImp v1.55 (Pinkenba Qld 4008, Australia) in 68 adult, white, female subjects: 34 adult, white female (age 31-82) patients with breast cancer and 34 healthy volunteers matched by age, gender and BMI as a control group. The measurements were performed prior to oncological and surgical treatment, without the need for active nutritional interventions. RESULTS Mean vectors of women with breast cancer versus the healthy women groups were characterized by a slight increase of the normalized resistance and reactance components (separate 95% confidence limits, p < 0.05) indicating that there were slight differences of soft tissue hydration and mass. CONCLUSION The results observed in the presented study provide valuable information on the nutritional status of the patient prior to surgery. This quick assessment of the patient nutritional status can allow for early corrective intervention. Further observational research investigating these properties in larger groups would be beneficial to elucidate and/or confirm these findings.
Phenology of particle size distributions and primary productivity in the North Pacific subtropical gyre (Station ALOHA)

Abstract The particle size distribution (PSD) is a critical aspect of the oceanic ecosystem. Local variability in the PSD can be indicative of shifts in microbial community structure and reveal patterns in cell growth and loss. The PSD also plays a central role in particle export by influencing settling speed. Satellite‐based models of primary productivity (PP) often rely on aspects of photophysiology that are directly related to community size structure. In an effort to better understand how variability in particle size relates to PP in an oligotrophic ecosystem, we collected laser diffraction‐based depth profiles of the PSD and pigment‐based classifications of phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) on an approximately monthly basis at the Hawaii Ocean Time‐series Station ALOHA, in the North Pacific subtropical gyre. We found a relatively stable PSD in the upper water column. However, clear seasonality is apparent in the vertical distribution of distinct particle size classes. Neither laser diffraction‐based estimations of relative particle size nor pigment‐based PFTs was found to be significantly related to the rate of 14C‐based PP in the light‐saturated upper euphotic zone. This finding indicates that satellite retrievals of particle size, based on particle scattering or ocean color would not improve parameterizations of present‐day bio‐optical PP models for this region. However, at depths of 100–125 m where irradiance exerts strong control on PP, we do observe a significant linear relationship between PP and the estimated carbon content of 2–20 μm particles.
HIF-mediated innate immune responses: cell signaling and therapeutic implications

Leukocytes recruited to infected, damaged, or inflamed tissues during an immune response must adapt to oxygen levels much lower than those in the circulation. Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are key mediators of cellular responses to hypoxia and, as in other cell types, HIFs are critical for the upregulation of glycolysis, which enables innate immune cells to produce adenosine triphosphate anaerobically. An increasing body of evidence demonstrates that hypoxia also regulates many other innate immunological functions, including cell migration, apoptosis, phagocytosis of pathogens, antigen presentation and production of cytokines, chemokines, and angiogenic and antimicrobial factors. Many of these functions are mediated by HIFs, which are not only stabilized posttranslationally by hypoxia, but also transcriptionally upregulated by inflammatory signals. Here, we review the role of HIFs in the responses of innate immune cells to hypoxia, both in vitro and in vivo, with a particular focus on myeloid cells, on which the majority of studies have so far been carried out.
Functional Diversity of AAA+ Protease Complexes in Bacillus subtilis

Here, we review the diverse roles and functions of AAA+ protease complexes in protein homeostasis, control of stress response and cellular development pathways by regulatory and general proteolysis in the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis. We discuss in detail the intricate involvement of AAA+ protein complexes in controlling sporulation, the heat shock response and the role of adaptor proteins in these processes. The investigation of these protein complexes and their adaptor proteins has revealed their relevance for Gram-positive pathogens and their potential as targets for new antibiotics.
Augmented Phosphorylation of Cardiac Troponin I in Hypertensive Heart Failure*

Background: Phosphorylation of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is critical in modulating contractility. Results: cTnI is hyperphosphorylated at Ser22/23 and Ser42/44 in spontaneously hypertensive rat of heart failure. Conclusion: The augmented phosphorylation of cTnI in hypertensive heart failure is correlated with elevated protein levels of PKC-α and -δ. Significance: This is the first in vivo evidence of cTnl phosphorylation at Ser42/44 in an animal model of hypertensive heart failure. An altered cardiac myofilament response to activating Ca2+ is a hallmark of human heart failure. Phosphorylation of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is critical in modulating contractility and Ca2+ sensitivity of cardiac muscle. cTnI can be phosphorylated by protein kinase A (PKA) at Ser22/23 and protein kinase C (PKC) at Ser22/23, Ser42/44, and Thr143. Whereas the functional significance of Ser22/23 phosphorylation is well understood, the role of other cTnI phosphorylation sites in the regulation of cardiac contractility remains a topic of intense debate, in part, due to the lack of evidence of in vivo phosphorylation. In this study, we utilized top-down high resolution mass spectrometry (MS) combined with immunoaffinity chromatography to determine quantitatively the cTnI phosphorylation changes in spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) model of hypertensive heart disease and failure. Our data indicate that cTnI is hyperphosphorylated in the failing SHR myocardium compared with age-matched normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats. The top-down electron capture dissociation MS unambiguously localized augmented phosphorylation sites to Ser22/23 and Ser42/44 in SHR. Enhanced Ser22/23 phosphorylation was verified by immunoblotting with phospho-specific antibodies. Immunoblot analysis also revealed up-regulation of PKC-α and -δ, decreased PKCϵ, but no changes in PKA or PKC-β levels in the SHR myocardium. This provides direct evidence of in vivo phosphorylation of cTnI-Ser42/44 (PKC-specific) sites in an animal model of hypertensive heart failure, supporting the hypothesis that PKC phosphorylation of cTnI may be maladaptive and potentially associated with cardiac dysfunction.
OPTIMAL CONTROL AND GEODESICS ON MATRIX LIE GROUPS

In this paper we analyze left invariant geodesic problems on matrix Lie groups from both the continuous and discrete viewpoint; the discrete approach approximates the continuous description. We show how the dynamic systems characterizing the extremals also arise from a generalization of the geodesic problem posed as an optimal control problem. We investigate conserved quantities and invariant manifolds. All the results presented have continuous and discrete formulations. In particular we obtain the same conserved quantities and invariant manifolds for both the continuous and discrete dynamics. c ©Controlo 2010
Effect of aluminium on hydrogen-induced fracture behaviour in austenitic Fe–Mn–C steel

It is known empirically that the addition of aluminium as a solute in high-Mn austenitic steels dramatically improves their resistance to hydrogen-induced embrittlement. A variety of experimental techniques, including the characterization of trapping sites and high-resolution observation of fracture facets, have been used to reveal the mechanism by which aluminium induces this effect. It is found that transgranular fracture is promoted by the segregation of hydrogen to mechanical twin interfaces and to any ε-martensite that is induced during deformation. Because aluminium increases the stacking fault energy of austenite, the tendency for mechanical twinning is reduced, and the formation of deformation-induced martensite eliminated. These two effects contribute to the resistance of the aluminium-alloyed steel to hydrogen embrittlement.