Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generating digital signatures on mobile devices

With the explosion of the mobile communication market, more and more handheld devices act as clients in the Internet. People use these devices to purchase books, play games, receive emails, etc. For protecting privacies, such applications should integrate digital signature schemes. Since handheld devices have poor computational capabilities and limited battery life, traditional computation intensive digital signature protocols that are based on asymmetric cryptographic algorithms are not suitable for mobile devices. We propose a server based signature (SBS) scheme for mobile devices. Besides achieving the same security level of the traditional digital signature protocols, the SBS scheme also: 1) reduces the computation complexity on the mobile devices; 2) reduces the communication consumption between signer and verifier. Application results show that our scheme is very useful for mobile communication systems.
NOTCH decoys that selectively block DLL/NOTCH or JAG/NOTCH disrupt angiogenesis by unique mechanisms to inhibit tumor growth.

UNLABELLED A proangiogenic role for Jagged (JAG)-dependent activation of NOTCH signaling in the endothelium has yet to be described. Using proteins that encoded different NOTCH1 EGF-like repeats, we identified unique regions of Delta-like ligand (DLL)-class and JAG-class ligand-receptor interactions, and developed NOTCH decoys that function as ligand-specific NOTCH inhibitors. N110-24 decoy blocked JAG1/JAG2-mediated NOTCH1 signaling, angiogenic sprouting in vitro, and retinal angiogenesis, demonstrating that JAG-dependent NOTCH signal activation promotes angiogenesis. In tumors, N110-24 decoy reduced angiogenic sprouting, vessel perfusion, pericyte coverage, and tumor growth. JAG-NOTCH signaling uniquely inhibited expression of antiangiogenic soluble (s) VEGFR1/sFLT1. N11-13 decoy interfered with DLL1-DLL4-mediated NOTCH1 signaling and caused endothelial hypersprouting in vitro, in retinal angiogenesis, and in tumors. Thus, blockade of JAG- or DLL-mediated NOTCH signaling inhibits angiogenesis by distinct mechanisms. JAG-NOTCH signaling positively regulates angiogenesis by suppressing sVEGFR1-sFLT1 and promoting mural-endothelial cell interactions. Blockade of JAG-class ligands represents a novel, viable therapeutic approach to block tumor angiogenesis and growth. SIGNIFICANCE This is the first report identifying unique regions of the NOTCH1 extracellular domain that interact with JAG-class and DLL-class ligands. Using this knowledge, we developed therapeutic agents that block JAG-dependent NOTCH signaling and demonstrate for the first time that JAG blockade inhibits experimental tumor growth by targeting tumor angiogenesis.
Robust 3D human face reconstruction by consumer binocular-stereo cameras

This paper describes a robust 3D human face reconstruction approach by consumer binocular-stereo cameras. It aims to handle the ambiguity due to the captured noisy or distorted stereo images and the textureless nature of human face. First, seven facial feature points are extracted to deform a generic 3D face for initialization. A novel two-pass seed searching algorithm is then employed to deliver a set of sparse seeds. Also proposed is the seed outlier detection algorithm by using polynomial curves to introduce the smoothness prior. The resulting seeds significantly reduce the ambiguity, and propagate to remaining pixels using a modified seed growing strategy. The discussion also addresses polynomial curve fitting based disparity map denoising, stereo refinement and multibase-line matching for epipolar misalignment. They allow us to produce dense and detail preserving face models despite the low quality of image capture with consumer cameras. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluations demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance of our approach, and the accuracy is comparable to some active systems. Our approach can also deal with large facial expressions.
GABAergic and glutamatergic identities of developing midbrain Pitx2 neurons

Pitx2, a paired‐like homeodomain transcription factor, is expressed in post‐mitotic neurons within highly restricted domains of the embryonic mouse brain. Previous reports identified critical roles for PITX2 in histogenesis of the hypothalamus and midbrain, but the cellular identities of PITX2‐positive neurons in these regions were not fully explored. This study characterizes Pitx2 expression with respect to midbrain transcription factor and neurotransmitter phenotypes in mid‐to‐late mouse gestation. In the dorsal midbrain, we identified Pitx2‐positive neurons in the stratum griseum intermedium (SGI) as GABAergic and observed a requirement for PITX2 in GABAergic differentiation. We also identified two Pitx2‐positive neuronal populations in the ventral midbrain, the red nucleus, and a ventromedial population, both of which contain glutamatergic precursors. Our data suggest that PITX2 is present in regionally restricted subpopulations of midbrain neurons and may have unique functions that promote GABAergic and glutamatergic differentiation. Developmental Dynamics 240:333–346, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Marginal and internal fit of nano-composite CAD/CAM restorations

Objectives The purpose of this study was to compare the marginal and internal fit of nano-composite CAD-CAM restorations. Materials and Methods A full veneer crown and an mesio-occluso-distal (MOD) inlay cavity, which were prepared on extracted human molars, were used as templates of epoxy resin replicas. The prepared teeth were scanned and CAD-CAM restorations were milled using Lava Ultimate (LU) and experimental nano-composite CAD/CAM blocks (EB) under the same milling parameters. To assess the marginal and internal fit, the restorations were cemented to replicas and were embedded in an acrylic mold for sectioning at 0.5 mm intervals. The measured gap data were pooled according to the block types and measuring points for statistical analysis. Results Both the block type and measuring point significantly affected gap values, and their interaction was significant (p = 0.000). In crowns and inlays made from the two blocks, gap values were significantly larger in the occlusal area than in the axial area, while gap values in the marginal area were smallest (p < 0.001). Among the blocks, the restorations milled from EB had a significantly larger gap at all measuring points than those milled from LU (p = 0.000). Conclusions The marginal and internal gaps of the two nano-composite CAD/CAM blocks differed according to the measuring points. Among the internal area of the two nano-composite CAD/CAM restorations, occlusal gap data were significantly larger than axial gap data. The EB crowns and inlays had significantly larger gaps than LU restorations.
Relationship between hyaluronic acid binding assay and outcome in ART: a pilot study

The sperm–hyaluronan binding assay (HBA) is a diagnostic kit for assessing sperm maturity, function and fertility. The aim of this prospective cohort pilot study was to evaluate the relationship between HBA and WHO sperm parameters (motility, concentration and detailed morphology) and possible influence of sperm processing on hyaluronic acid binding. A cohort of 68 patients undergoing a first combo in vitro fertilisation/intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment after failure of three or more intrauterine insemination cycles were included in the study. Outcome measures studied were fertilisation rate, embryo quality, ongoing pregnancy rate and cumulative pregnancy rate. HBA outcome improved after sperm preparation and culture, but was not correlated to detailed sperm morphology, concentration or motility. HBA did not provide additional information for identifying patients with poor or absent fertilisation, although the latter had more immature sperm cells and cells with cytoplasmic retention present in their semen. HBA outcome in the neat sample was significantly correlated with embryo quality, with miscarriage rates and ongoing pregnancy rates in the fresh cycles, but not with the cumulative ongoing pregnancy rate. No threshold value for HBA and outcome in combo IVF/ICSI treatment could be established. The clinical value for HBA in addition to routine semen analysis for this patient population seems limited.
Ecosystem development of a sandbar emergent tidal marsh, Altamaha River Estuary, Georgia, USA

Vegetation structure and soil properties were measured on a sandbar, a three year old sandbar emergent marsh (SEM), and five mature Spartina alterniflora Loisel marshes located near the mouth of the Altamaha River (Georgia, USA) to determine how quickly tidal marsh vegetation and soils develop during primary succession. Those data were compared to published data collected from young (10–16 yr old) natural marshes in Virginia and young (1–28 yr old) constructed marshes in North Carolina to determine if the rate of ecosystem development is similar among tidal marshes of the southeastern US coast. Within three years of emergence, aboveground biomass of SEM was comparable to mature marshes in the area, although stem height and density were distinctly different as the SEM contained more stems that were of shorter height than mature marshes. Following colonization by vegetation, soil properties (0–30 cm) of SEM had begun to differentiate from sediments of the sandbar. Surface (0–10 cm) and subsurface (10–30 cm) soil bulk density was less, and organic carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and percent silt (0–10 cm) were greater in sediments of SEM than in the sandbar. Even so, soils of SEM contained less organic C, N, silt, and clay than mature marshes. However, accumulation rates of organic C (260 ± 40 g m− yr−1) and N (11 ± 3 g m−2 yr−1) in soils of SEM was 5 to 7 times greater than in mature marshes (35 ± 4 g C m−2 yr−1, 2 ± 0.2 g N m−2 yr−1). Trajectories of development for soil organic C and N pools were similar for our SEM, young natural S. alterniflora marshes in Virginia, and young constructed S. alterniflora marshes in North Carolina suggesting that soil development proceeds at similar rates for tidal marshes along much of the southeast US coast.
Two‐Stage Cooling and Exhumation of Deeply Subducted Continents

The burial and exhumation of continental crust during collisional orogeny exert a strong control on the dynamics of mountain belts and plateaus. Constraining the rates and style of exhumation of deeply buried crust has proven difficult due to complexities in the local geology and thermochronometric methods typically used. To advance this field, we applied trace‐element and U‐Pb laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analyses to rutile from eclogite and amphibolite samples from the Western Gneiss Complex of Norway—an archetypal continental (ultra)high‐pressure (UHP) terrane. Peak temperature and timing of midcrustal cooling were constrained for samples collected along a subduction‐ and exhumation‐parallel transect, using Zr‐in‐rutile thermometry and U‐Pb rutile geochronology, respectively. Peak temperatures decrease from 830 °C in the UHP domain to 730 °C at the UHP‐HP transition, remain constant at 730 °C across most of the terrane, and decrease to 620 °C at the eclogite‐out boundary. U‐Pb results show that most of the terrane cooled through 500 °C at 380–375 Ma except for the lowest grade region, where cooling occurred approximately 20 million years earlier. The results indicate that exhumation was a two stage process, involving (1) flexural rebound and slab flattening at depth combined with foreland‐directed extrusion, followed by (2) synchronous cooling below 500 °C across the, by then, largely flat‐lying Western Gneiss Complex. The latter implies and requires relatively homogeneous mass removal across a large area, consistent with erosion of an overlying orogenic plateau. The Caledonides were at near‐equatorial latitudes at the time. A Caledonian paleo‐plateau thus may represent a so far unrecognized factor in Devonian and Carboniferous atmospheric circulation and climate forcing.
Electrochemical Chloride Extraction and Inhibitor Injection in Salt-Contaminated Repair Mortar

Repair mortar is commonly used to rehabilitate reinforced concrete structures or components that exhibit a relatively high level of distresses. Yet, the repair mortar can be contaminated by salt from its service environment. This work employs a two-dimensional finite element model to investigate the non-stationary transport behavior of ionic species in salt-contaminated and water-saturated repair mortar under an externally applied electric field. The model was experimentally validated and then utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of electrochemical chloride extraction (ECE) with or without electrical injection of corrosion inhibitor (EICI). In the case study, both the ECE alone and the simultaneous ECE+EICI treatment was found effective in decontaminating the zone in front of the steel rebar. In both techniques, the magnitude of current density had a significant effect on removing chloride out of the mortar and increasing the pH of the pore solution near the rebar, whereas the treatment time did not have a significant effect under some scenarios. The injection of the organic corrosion inhibitor significantly slowed down the removal of chloride. Changes in the ionic distribution in the mortar were generally beneficial in reducing the corrosion risk of the steel rebar and thus extending the service life of the repair mortar.
Delay Characterization of Multihop Transmission in a Poisson Field of Interference

We evaluate the end-to-end delay of a multihop transmission scheme that includes a source, a number of relays, and a destination, in the presence of interferers located according to a Poisson point process. The medium access control (MAC) protocol considered is a combination of TDMA and ALOHA, according to which nodes located a certain number of hops apart are allowed to transmit with a certain probability. Based on an independent transmissions assumption, which decouples the queue evolutions, our analysis provides explicit expressions for the mean end-to-end delay and throughput, as well as scaling laws when the interferer density grows to infinity. If the source always has packets to transmit, we find that full spatial reuse, i.e., ALOHA, is asymptotically delay-optimal, but requires more hops than a TDMA-ALOHA protocol. The results of our analysis have applications in delay-minimizing joint MAC/routing algorithms for networks with randomly located nodes. We simulate a network where sources and relays form a Poisson point process, and each source assembles a route to its destination by selecting the relays closest to the optimal locations. We assess both theoretically and via simulation the sensitivity of the end-to-end delay with respect to imperfect relay placements and route crossings.
Quasi-dense Wide Baseline Matching for Three Views

This paper proposes a method for computing a quasi-dense set of matching points between three views of a scene. The method takes a sparse set of seed matches between pairs of views as input and then propagates the seeds to neighboring regions. The proposed method is based on the best-first match propagation strategy, which is here extended from two-view matching to the case of three views. The results show that utilizing the three-view constraint during the correspondence growing improves the accuracy of matching and reduces the occurrence of outliers. In particular, compared with two-view stereo, our method is more robust for repeating texture. Since the proposed approach is able to produce high quality depth maps from only three images, it could be used in multi-view stereo systems that fuse depth maps from multiple views.
Efficient and Accurate Value Prediction Using Dynamic Classification

In an effort to increase instruction level parallelism in superscalar microprocessors, several recent works have proposed using value prediction mechanisms to break the data dependency links between value-producing and value-consuming instructions. Some of these mechanisms achieve very high prediction accuracies, albeit at considerable hardware cost. Other mechanisms have low hardware cost but obtain mediocre prediction performance. In this paper, we propose combining three prediction mechanisms into a hybrid predictor. Each predictor has different hardware cost and prediction capability. The choice of a predictor for each instruction is guided by a dynamic classification mechanism. This mechanism partitions the instruction stream to maximize the prediction rate for each predictor. It also utilizes the predictors more efficiently by allocating an entry for each static instruction in at most one predictor. We achieve prediction rates of 72% and 43% with two possible realistic classification mechanisms for the SPECint95 benchmark set.
A Warm-up Laparoscopic Exercise Improves the Subsequent Laparoscopic Performance of Ob-Gyn Residents: a Low-Cost Laparoscopic Trainer

Introduction: Residents traditionally acquire surgical skills through on-the-job training. Minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques present additional demands to master complex surgical procedures in a remote 2-dimensional venue. We examined the effectiveness of a brief warm-up laparoscopic simulation toward improving operative proficiency. Methods: Using a “Poor-Man's Laparoscopy Simulator,” 12 Ob/Gyn residents and 12 medical students were allocated 10 minutes to transfer 30 tablets with a 5-mm grasper from point A to point B via laparoscopic visualization in a warm-up exercise. Participants repeated the exercise following a 5-minute pause. Mean scores, expressed in seconds/tablet, and overall improvement (percentage difference between warm-up and follow-up) were analyzed according to postgraduate standing (PGY1-4), dexterity skills, and pertinent vocational activities. Results: Significant improvements were noted for both residents (+25%) and medical students (+29%), P<0.0001. Scores between the 2 groups, however, were not significant (P=0.677). Proficiency was not influenced by PGY standing. Interestingly, the best (8.73 sec/pill) and the worst (25 sec/pill) scores were attained by a medical student and a chief resident, respectively, suggesting the contribution of individual aptitude. Conclusion: A brief warm-up exercise before an actual laparoscopic surgical procedure significantly improves subsequent laparoscopic performance.
Distinct levels of Notch activity for commitment and terminal differentiation of stem cells in the adult fly intestine

proposed to be regulated by differential Notch signaling, whereby low signaling promotes ee fate and high signaling promotes EC fate and Spradling, 2007). This model supported by the Tight regulation of self-renewal and differentiation of adult stem cells ensures that tissues are properly maintained. In the Drosophila intestine, both commitment, i.e. exit from self-renewal, and terminal differentiation are controlled by Notch signaling. Here, we show that distinct requirements for Notch activity exist: commitment requires high Notch activity, whereas terminal differentiation can occur with lower Notch activity. We identified the gene GDP-mannose 4,6-dehydratase ( Gmd ), a modulator of Notch signaling, as being required for commitment but dispensable for terminal differentiation. Gmd loss resulted in aberrant, self-renewing stem cell divisions that generated extra ISC-like cells defective in Notch reporter activation, as well as wild-type-like cell divisions that produced properly terminally differentiated cells. Lowering Notch signaling using additional genetic means, we provided further evidence that commitment has a higher Notch signaling requirement than terminal differentiation. Our work suggests that a commitment requirement for high-level Notch activity safeguards the stem cells from loss through differentiation, revealing a novel role for the importance of Notch signaling levels in this system.
The Bacillus thuringiensis Linear Double-Stranded DNA Phage Bam35, Which Is Highly Similar to the Bacillus cereus Linear Plasmid pBClin15, Has a Prophage State

ABSTRACT Bam35, a 15-kbp double-stranded DNA phage, infects Bacillus thuringiensis. Recently, sequencing of the related Bacillus cereus revealed a 15.1-kbp linear plasmid, pBClin15. We show that pBClin15 closely resembles Bam35 and demonstrate conversion of Bam35 to a prophage. This state is common, as several B. thuringiensis strains release Bam35-related viruses.
Cytogenetic polyclonality of breast carcinomas : Association with Clinico‐Pathological Characteristics and Outcome

Routinely used prognostic factors fail to predict clinical outcome in a significant proportion of breast cancer patients, implying that they can not detect some important biological characteristics. Chromosomal changes have been described in breast carcinomas for many years but their significance is not clear. We compared chromosomal changes with clinico‐pathological characteristics and clinical outcome in 203 breast cancer patients with a follow‐up of 9–18 years. Combining data from classical cytogenetics and flow cytometry revealed chromosomal abnormalities in 142 cases (70%). Of these, 51 (35.9%) contained two or more cytogenetically abnormal clones. Polyclonality was significantly associated with poor breast‐cancer‐specific survival (P = 0.03) within 5 years, independent of tumor size, lymph node metastases, and hormone receptors. Specific changes were similar to those previously described, but a new finding was a significant association between del 3p12p21 and poor survival. Polyclonality was significantly associated with TP53‐mutations but not with a germline BRCA2 mutation. Less than one third of the polyclonal samples were identified by flow cytometry alone. Cytogenetic changes were detected in 17 out of 114 samples from non‐tumorous tissue (15%), two of them identical with a clone in the corresponding tumor. Several samples contained clearly unrelated clones within the tumor and outside, implying either multifocal origin or early divergence. In conclusion, the common deletion on Chromosome 3p12p21 was associated with poor clinical outcome. Chromosomal polyclonality is common in breast carcinomas and predicts poor survival. Polyclonality was poorly detected by one‐sample flow cytometry. Multiple sampling might improve the detection rate. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
THE ARMS2 A69S VARIANT AND BILATERAL ADVANCED AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION

Purpose: To identify genetic associations between specific risk genes and bilateral advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in a retrospective, observational case series of 1,003 patients: 173 patients with geographic atrophy in at least 1 eye and 830 patients with choroidal neovascularization in at least 1 eye. Methods: Patients underwent clinical examination and fundus photography. The images were subsequently graded using a modified grading system adapted from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. Genetic analysis was performed to identify genotypes at 4 AMD-associated variants (ARMS2 A69S, CFH Y402H, C3 R102G, and CFB R32Q) in these patients. Results: There were no statistically significant relationships between clinical findings and genotypes at CFH, C3, and CFB. The genotype at ARMS2 correlated with bilateral advanced AMD using a variety of comparisons: unilateral geographic atrophy versus bilateral geographic atrophy (P = 0.08), unilateral choroidal neovascularization versus bilateral choroidal neovascularization (P = 9.0 × 10−8), and unilateral late AMD versus bilateral late AMD (P = 5.9 × 10−8). Conclusion: In this series, in patients with geographic atrophy or choroidal neovascularization in at least 1 eye, the ARMS2 A69S substitution strongly associated with geographic atrophy or choroidal neovascularization in the fellow eye. The ARMS2 A69S substitution may serve as a marker for bilateral advanced AMD.