Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
REACTIVITY OF B A S A L SURFACES, STEPS A N D EDGES OF MUSCOVITE: A N AFM S T U D Y

Abs t rac t -The reactivity of basal surfaces, steps and edges of muscovite was studied by imaging surface precipitates of PbC12 using atomic force microscopy (AFM). We reacted PbC12 solution with freshly cleaved muscovite surfaces and found that PbC12 precipitates were formed on the basal surfaces, steps and edges. It was observed that PbC12 precipitated preferentially along the steps compared to the basal surfaces and that PbC12 precipitates at multiple-layer edges were needle-shaped and oriented in different directions. One of the muscovite samples we cleaved had muscovite fragments sitting on the freshly cleaved surfaces. These fragments resulted from previously formed cracks. Thus, we were able to compare the reactivity of the weathered surfaces with that of freshly cleaved surfaces. It was found that PbC12 was not precipitated along the edges of previously cracked muscovite fragments. These results clearly demonstrated that the edges of freshly cleaved muscovite are the most reactive surface sites, whereas the edges of weathered muscovite are not as reactive. We believe that the surface reactivity of the edges of freshly cleaved muscovite is likely due to terminal A1-OH~/2~ or A1-OH 1/2-groups on these crystalline surfaces, which favor adsorption of Pb 2+ ions and the subsequent nucleation and precipitation reactions. We also investigated the effect of drying rate on the morphology of the surface precipitates. Fast drying resulted in a nearly complete covered surface with a leaflike morphology, whereas slow drying resulted in more isolated surface clusters. Key Words----AFM, Morphology, Muscovite, Precipitation, Reactivity, Surfaces.
Penggunaan Media Balok Huruf Pada KemampuanMengenal Huruf Anak Usia 5-6 tahun diTK Beringin Raya Bandar LampungTahun Ajaran 2014/2015

Penelitian ini berlatar belakang dari kemampuan mengenal huruf anak yang rendah. Salah satu cara untuk mengembangkan kemampuan mengenal huruf anak yaitu menggunakan media balok huruf, karena melalui media balok huruf anakanak belajar dengan benda kongkrit dan balok huruf dapat disusun mendatar atau ke atas. Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu untuk mengetahui peningkatan melalui penggunaan media balok huruf dalam kemampuan mengenal huruf, sehingga mampu mengembangkan kemampuan mengenal huruf pada anak usia dini. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif yang dilakukan pada kelompok B2 usia 5-6 tahun dengan subjek sebanyak 16 anak di TK Beringin Raya Bandar Lampung. Teknik pengumpulan data dengan melakukan observasi dan personal documents. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah teknik deskriptif. Hasil pada penelitian ini menunjukkan adanya peningkatan terhadap kemampuan mengenal huruf anak melalui media balok huruf. Kata kunci : mengenal huruf, media balok huruf, anak usia dini
Assessing the Expressivity of Planning Formalisms through the Comparison to Formal Languages

From a theoretical perspective, judging the expressivity of planning formalisms helps to understand the relationship of different representations and to infer theoretical properties. From a practical point of view, it is important to be able to choose the best formalism for a problem at hand, or to ponder the consequences of introducing new representation features. Most work on the expressivity is based either on compilation approaches, or on the computational complexity of the plan existence problem. Recently, we introduced a new notion of expressivity. It is based on comparing the structural complexity of the set of solutions to a planning problem by interpreting the set as a formal language and classifying it with respect to the Chomsky hierarchy. This is a more direct measure than the plan existence problem and enables also the comparison of formalisms that can not be compiled into each other. While existing work on that last approach focused on different hierarchical problem classes, this paper investigates STRIPS with and without conditional effects; though we also tighten some existing results on hierarchical formalisms. Our second contribution is a discussion on the language-based expressivity measure with respect to the other approaches.
Dendritic Cell (DC)-Specific Targeting Reveals Stat3 as a Negative Regulator of DC Function

Dendritic cells (DCs) must achieve a critical balance between activation and tolerance, a process influenced by cytokines and growth factors. IL-10, which transduces signals through Stat3, has emerged as one important negative regulator of DC activation. To directly examine the role Stat3 plays in regulating DC activity, the Stat3 gene was targeted for deletion with a CD11c-cre transgene. Stat3 CKO mice developed cervical lymphadenopathy as well as a mild ileocolitis that persisted throughout life and was associated with impaired weight gain. Consistent with this, Stat3-deficient DCs demonstrated enhanced immune activity, including increased cytokine production, Ag-dependent T-cell activation and resistance to IL-10–mediated suppression. These results reveal a cell-intrinsic negative regulatory role of Stat3 in DCs and link increased DC activation with perturbed immune homeostasis and chronic mucosal inflammation.
Climate Change Adaptation and Vulnerability Assessment of Water Resources Systems in Developing Countries: A Generalized Framework and a Feasibility Study in Bangladesh

Water is the primary medium through which climate change influences the Earth’s ecosystems and therefore people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. Besides climatic change, current demographic trends, economic development and related land use changes have direct impact on increasing demand for freshwater resources. Taken together, the net effect of these supply and demand changes is affecting the vulnerability of water resources. The concept of ‘vulnerability’ is not straightforward as there is no universally accepted approach for assessing vulnerability. In this study, we review the evolution of approaches to vulnerability assessment related to water resources. From the current practices, we identify research gaps, and approaches to overcome these gaps a generalized assessment framework is developed. A feasibility study is then presented in the context of the Lower Brahmaputra River Basin (LBRB). The results of the feasibility study identify the current main constraints (e.g., lack of institutional coordination) and opportunities (e.g., adaptation) of LBRB. The results of this study can be helpful for innovative research and management initiatives and the described framework can be widely used as a guideline for the vulnerability assessment of water resources systems, particularly in developing countries.
Nuclear Factor κ-B Is Activated in the Pulmonary Vessels of Patients with End-Stage Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Objectives To assess activation of the inflammatory transcription factor NF-kappa B (NF-κB) in human idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Background Idiopathic PAH is a severe progressive disease characterized by pulmonary vascular remodeling and excessive proliferation of vascular cells. Increasing evidence indicates that inflammation is important in disease pathophysiology. Methods NF-κB-p65 and CD68, CD20 and CD45 were measured by immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy on lung specimens from patients with idiopathic PAH (n = 12) and controls undergoing lung surgery (n = 14). Clinical data were recorded for all patients including invasive pulmonary hemodynamics for the PAH patients. Immunohistochemical images were analyzed by blinded observers to include standard pulmonary vascular morphometry; absolute macrophage counts/mm2 and p65-positivity (p65+) using composite images and image-analysis software; and cytoplasmic:nuclear p65+ of individual pulmonary arterial endothelial and smooth muscle cells (PASMC) in 10–20 pulmonary arteries or arterioles per subject. The expression of ET-1 and CCL5 (RANTES) in whole lung was determined by RT-qPCR. Results Macrophage numbers were increased in idiopathic PAH versus controls (49.0±4.5 vs. 7.95±1.9 macrophages/100 mm2, p<0.0001): these macrophages demonstrated more nuclear p65+ than in macrophages from controls (16.9±2.49 vs. 3.5±1.25%, p<0.001). An increase in p65+ was also seen in perivascular lymphocytes in patients with PAH. Furthermore, NF-κB activation was increased in pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (62.3±2.9 vs. 14.4±3.8, p<0.0001) and PASMC (22.6±2.3 vs. 11.2±2.0, p<0.001) in patients with PAH versus controls, with similar findings in arterioles. Gene expression of both ET-1 mRNA ((0.213±0.069 vs. 1.06±0.23, p<0.01) and CCL5 (RANTES) (0.16±0.045 vs. 0.26±0.039, p<0.05) was increased in whole lung homogenates from patients with PAH. Conclusions NF-κB is activated in pulmonary macrophages, lymphocytes, endothelial and PASMC in patients with end-stage idiopathic PAH. Future research should determine whether NF-κB activation is a driver or bystander of pulmonary vascular inflammation and if the former, its potential role as a therapeutic target.
The Effect of Covalently Immobilized FGF-2 on Biphasic Calcium Phosphate Bone Substitute on Enhanced Biological Compatibility and Activity

The purpose of this research was to covalently graft fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) onto biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) via a bifunctional cross-linker technique and to estimate the optimal dose of FGF-2 resulting in the best osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). SEM observation revealed that the surface of the 100 ng FGF-2 coated BCP was completely covered with the nanoparticles expected to be from the silane coupling agent. XRD, FT-IR, and XPS analysis showed that silane treatment, bifunctional cross-linker coating, and FGF-2 covalent grafts were conducted successfully without deforming the crystalline structure of BCP. An MTT assay demonstrated that FGF-2 coated BCP had good biocompatibility, regardless of the concentration of FGF-2, after 24 or 48 h of incubation. An alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity assay (14 days of incubation) and the ALP gene expression level of real-time PCR analysis (7 days of incubation) revealed that 50, 100, and 200 ng FGF-2 coated BCP induced the highest activities among all experimental groups and control group (P < 0.05). Thus, low concentrations of FGF-2 facilitated excellent osteogenesis and were effective at enhancing osteogenic potential. Also, the bifunctional cross-linker technique is expected to be a more feasible way to induce osteogenic differentiation while minimizing the risk of FGF-2 overdose.
Elliptic curve cryptosystems

We discuss analogs based on elliptic curves over finite fields of public key cryptosystems which use the multiplicative group of a finite field. These elliptic curve cryptosystems may be more secure, because the analog of the discrete logarithm problem on elliptic curves is likely to be harder than the classical discrete logarithm problem, especially over GF(2'). We discuss the question of primitive points on an elliptic curve modulo p, and give a theorem on nonsmoothness of the order of the cyclic subgroup generated by a global point.
Secure Multi-Party Sorting and Applications

Research within the area of cryptography constitutes the core of this the- sis. In addition to cryptography, we also present results in peer-assisted streaming and web security. We present results on two specific cryptographic problems: broadcast encryption and secure multi-party computation. Broad- cast encryption is the problem of efficiently and securely distributing content to a large and changing group of receivers. Secure multi-party computation is the subject of how a number of parties can collaborate securely. All in all, this thesis spans from systems work discussing the Spotify streaming system with millions of users, to more theoretic, foundational results. Streaming is among the largest applications of the Internet today. On- demand streaming services allow users to consume the media content they want, at their convenience. With the large catalogs offered by many services, users can access a wide selection of content. Live streaming provides the means for corporations as well as individuals to broadcast to the world. The power of such broadcasts was shown in the recent (early 2011) revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, where protesters streamed live from demonstrations. To stream media to a large global audience requires significant resources, in particular in terms of the bandwidth needed. One approach to reduce the requirements is to use peer-to-peer techniques, where clients assist in distributing the media. Spotify is a commercial music-on-demand streaming system, using peer-to-peer streaming. In this thesis, we discuss the Spotify protocol and measurements on its performance. In many streaming systems, it is important to restrict access to content. One approach is to use cryptographic solutions from the area of broadcast encryption. Within this area, we present two results. The first is a protocol which improves the efficiency of previous systems at the cost of lowered secu- rity guarantees. The second contains lower-bound proofs, showing that early protocols in the subset cover framework are essentially optimal. Many streaming systems are web-based, where the user accesses content in a web browser. Apart from this usage of the web, subscriptions for streaming services are bought using a web browser. This means that to provide a secure streaming service, we must understand web security. This thesis contains a result on a new type of attack, using an old history detection vulnerability to time the execution of a redirect of a victim’s browser. Within the area of secure multi-party computation, this thesis has three contributions. Firstly, we give efficient protocols for the basic functions of summation and disjunction which adapt to the network they run on. Secondly, we provide efficient protocols for sorting and aggregation, by using techniques from the area of sorting networks. Finally, we prove a dichotomy theorem, showing that all functions with three distinct outputs are either maximally easy or maximally difficult with regards to the security provided.
Effects of lateral ligament sectioning on the stability of the ankle and subtalar joint

Patients with subtalar joint instability are often diagnosed with ankle instability. Only after a prolonged period of time in which a patient does not improve after treatment for ankle instability is subtalar joint instability considered. To develop a clinically relevant method to diagnose subtalar joint instability, the kinematics of the simulated unstable subtalar joint were examined. A 6 degree‐of‐freedom positioning and loading device was developed. Plantarflexion/dorsiflexion, inversion/eversion, and internal/external rotation were applied individually or as coupled motions along with an anterior/posterior drawer. Kinematic data were collected from sensors attached to the calcaneus, talus, and tibia by keeping all the ligaments intact, and by serially sectioning anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL), calcaneofibular ligament (CFL), cervical ligament, and talocalceneal interosseous ligament. Kinematic results were reported using Euler angles. The ATFL and CFL contributed talocrural instability, similar to previous studies. The interosseous ligament was the greatest contributor to subtalar joint stability. The hindfoot motion (calcaneus relative to tibia) showed significant increases in motion when the ankle and/or subtalar joint was made to be unstable. Therefore, it is difficult to diagnose subtalar joint instability on physical examination alone. © 2011 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 29: 1459–1464, 2011
Automatic Affective Feedback in an Email Browser

This paper demonstrates a new approach to recognizing and presenting the affect of text. The approach starts with a corpus of 400,000 responses to questions about everyday life in Open Mind Common Sense. This so-called commonsense knowledge is the basis of a textual affect sensing engine. The engine dynamically analyzes a user’s text and senses broad affective qualities of the story at the sentence level. This paper shows how a commonsense affect model was constructed and incorporated into Chernov face style feedback in an affectively responsive email browser called EmpathyBuddy. This experimental system reacts to sentences as they are typed. It is robust enough that it is being used to send email. The response of the few dozen people that have typed into it is dramatically enthusiastic. This paper debuts a new style of user interface technique for creating intelligent responses. Instead of relying on specialized handcrafted knowledge bases this approach relies on a generic commonsense repository. Instead of relying on linguistic or statistical analysis alone to “understand” the affect of text, it relies on a small society of approaches based on the commonsense repository.
Tabu Search vs. Simulated Annealing for Solving Large Quadratic Assignment Instances

Performance comparisons between algorithms have a long tradition in metaheuristic research. An early example are comparisons between Tabu Search (TS) and Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithms for tackling the Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP). The results of these comparisons are to a certain extent inconclusive, even when focusing on only these two types of algorithms. While comparisons of SA and TS algorithms were based on rather small-sized instances, here we focus on possible dependencies of the relative performance between SA and TS algorithms on instance size. In fact, our experimental results show that the assertion whether one algorithm is better than the other can depend strongly on QAP instance size even if one focuses on instances with otherwise same charateristics.
Distraction-Based Neural Networks for Modeling Document

Distributed representation learned with neural networks has recently shown to be effective in modeling natural languages at fine granularities such as words, phrases, and even sentences. Whether and how such an approach can be extended to help model larger spans of text, e.g., documents, is intriguing, and further investigation would still be desirable. This paper aims to enhance neural network models for such a purpose. A typical problem of document-level modeling is automatic summarization, which aims to model documents in order to generate summaries. In this paper, we propose neural models to train computers not just to pay attention to specific regions and content of input documents with attention models, but also distract them to traverse between different content of a document so as to better grasp the overall meaning for summarization. Without engineering any features, we train the models on two large datasets. The models achieve the state-of-the-art performance, and they significantly benefit from the distraction modeling, particularly when input documents are long.
Increased cerebrospinal fluid ganglioside GM1 concentrations indicating neuronal involvement in all stages of HIV-1 infection.

UNLABELLED Measurements of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of gangliosides can be used as markers of central nervous system (CNS) neuronal involvement. We have analysed the CSF concentrations of the four major brain gangliosides GM1, GD1a, GD1b, and GT1b at different stages of HIV-1 infection. CSF samples were collected from 44 HIV-1-infected patients and from 24 HIV-negative, healthy controls. A significantly higher mean CSF concentration of the ganglioside GM1 was found in HIV-1-infected patients than in HIV-negative controls (27 and 19 nmol/l, respectively, P<0.01). The HIV-infected patients also had a higher mean GM1 proportion of the total ganglioside concentration (11% compared with 8.5%, P < 0.01). Nine out of 27 patients with asymptomatic HIV-1 infection, three of ten with AIDS without neurological complications, and three of seven with AIDS dementia complex had CSF GM1 concentrations above the mean+2SD in the HIV-negative control group. CONCLUSION Biochemical signs of ongoing neuronal involvement could be found in about one third of HIV-1-infected patients. The same frequency was found regardless of stage, although the highest levels of CSF gangliosides were found in patients with AIDS.
Overlaying Time Scales and Persistence Estimation of Financial Volatility Data

A common finding in the empirical literature is that financial volatility exhibits high persistence, or slow mean reversion of the order of months. We present evidence that financial volatility data contains more than a single time scale. When occasional parameter changes are not accounted for in global GARCH(1,1) estimations, they lead to an estimated persistence far above the average data-generating persistence. For parameter changes within realistic ranges for stock-price volatility we obtain global estimates close to integration while the average data-generating mean reversion is of the order of a few days. We find that the sensitivity of the maximum likelihood estimation of the GARCH(1,1) model to parameter changes is so high that it can be used to detect them. Using synthetic data, we compare this heuristic method to an established changepoint detector. We apply the heuristic to the annualized daily volatility series of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P500 index between 1985 and 2001 and identify segmentations that compare to each other and reduce the estimated average mean-reversion time to about a week. Spectral analysis supports our findings, it reveals a short time scale of the magnitude of 5-10 days present in the Dow Jones and in the S&P500. We propose a two-scale extension of the analogue to GARCH(1,1) in continuous time.
Behaviour profiling for transparent authentication for mobile devices

Since the first handheld cellular phone was introduced in 1970s, the mobile phone has changed significantly both in terms of popularity and functionality. With more than 4.6 billion subscribers around the world, it has become a ubiquitous device in our daily life. Apart from the traditional telephony and text messaging services, people are enjoying a much wider range of mobile services over a variety of network connections in the form of mobile applications. Although a number of security mechanisms such as authentication, antivirus, and firewall applications are available, it is still difficult to keep up with various mobile threats (i.e. service fraud, mobile malware and SMS phishing); hence, additional security measures should be taken into consideration. This paper proposes a novel behaviour-based profiling technique by using a mobile user’s application usage to detect abnormal mobile activities. The experiment employed the MIT Reality dataset. For data processing purposes and also to maximise the number of participants, one month (24/10/2004-20/11/2004) of users’ application usage with a total number of 44,529 log entries was extracted from the original dataset. It was further divided to form three subsets: two intra-application datasets compiled with telephone and message data; and an inter-application dataset containing the rest of the mobile applications. Based upon the experiment plan, a user’s profile was built using either static and dynamic profiles and the best experimental results for the telephone, text message, and application-level applications were an EER (Equal Error Rate) of: 5.4%, 2.2% and 13.5% respectively. Whilst some users were difficult to classify, a significant proportion fell within the performance expectations of a behavioural biometric and therefore a behaviour profiling system on mobile devices is able to detect anomalies during the use of the mobile device. Incorporated within a wider authentication system, this biometric would enable transparent and continuous authentication of the user, thereby maximising user acceptance and security.