Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efavirenz Promotes β-Secretase Expression and Increased Aβ1-40,42 via Oxidative Stress and Reduced Microglial Phagocytosis: Implications for HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND)

Efavirenz (EFV) is among the most commonly used antiretroviral drugs globally, causes neurological symptoms that interfere with adherence and reduce tolerability, and may have central nervous system (CNS) effects that contribute in part to HIV associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) in patients on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Thus we evaluated a commonly used EFV containing regimen: EFV/zidovudine (AZT)/lamivudine (3TC) in murine N2a cells transfected with the human “Swedish” mutant form of amyloid precursor protein (SweAPP N2a cells) to assess for promotion of amyloid-beta (Aβ) production. Treatment with EFV or the EFV containing regimen generated significantly increased soluble amyloid beta (Aβ), and promoted increased β-secretase-1 (BACE-1) expression while 3TC, AZT, or, vehicle control did not significantly alter these endpoints. Further, EFV or the EFV containing regimen promoted significantly more mitochondrial stress in SweAPP N2a cells as compared to 3TC, AZT, or vehicle control. We next tested the EFV containing regimen in Aβ - producing Tg2576 mice combined or singly using clinically relevant doses. EFV or the EFV containing regimen promoted significantly more BACE-1 expression and soluble Aβ generation while 3TC, AZT, or vehicle control did not. Finally, microglial Aβ phagocytosis was significantly reduced by EFV or the EFV containing regimen but not by AZT, 3TC, or vehicle control alone. These data suggest the majority of Aβ promoting effects of this cART regimen are dependent upon EFV as it promotes both increased production, and decreased clearance of Aβ peptide.
Fingerprinting Smart Devices Through Embedded Acoustic Components

The widespread use of smart devices gives rise to both security and privacy concerns. Fingerprinting smart devices can assist in authenticating physical devices, but it can also jeopardize privacy by allowing remote identification without user awareness. We propose a novel fingerprinting approach that uses the microphones and speakers of smart phones to uniquely identify an individual device. During fabrication, subtle imperfections arise in device microphones and speakers which induce anomalies in produced and received sounds. We exploit this observation to fingerprint smart devices through playback and recording of audio samples. We use audio-metric tools to analyze and explore different acoustic features and analyze their ability to successfully fingerprint smart devices. Our experiments show that it is even possible to fingerprint devices that have the same vendor and model; we were able to accurately distinguish over 93% of all recorded audio clips from 15 different units of the same model. Our study identifies the prominent acoustic features capable of fingerprinting devices with high success rate and examines the effect of background noise and other variables on fingerprinting accuracy.
The Erasmus undergraduate exchange programme: a highly qualified success story?

ABSTRACT Erasmus is regarded as a European success story: an example of cross-border cooperation and an opportunity for students to improve their inter-cultural skills and work capacities. This article takes an in-depth look at this success, examining recent trends in Erasmus mobility. Analysis shows that while certain countries have greater numbers of students outgoing than incoming, the converse situation is found in countries such as Portugal. To explain this imbalance, evidence is drawn from a study of Erasmus in Portugal conducted during 2016. While the popularity of the country as a destination is related to low cost of living, friendliness and educational quality, interviews with managers of the Erasmus programme reveal other factors that limit the participation of local students. This includes the low level of Erasmus scholarships for undergraduates from families affected by the economic crisis, with exchange students also increasingly viewed as tourists and consumers as well as learners.
Are Self-Presentation Influenced by Friendship-Contingent Self-Esteem and Fear of Missing Out?

One social media platform that is still highly favored by most people in this day and age is Instagram. Instagram users can present themselves in a visual form (eg, pictures and video) and text. Instagram promotes visual use, coupled with editing features which enable Instagram users to present themselves distinctly on social media. Friendship-contingent self-esteem is an important factor in presenting one's behavior in the context of friendly relations. However, there are negative impacts of use of social networking sites, such as lowering self-esteem, which is mediated by the fear of losing or fear of missing out (FoMO). This study aims to analyze the influence of friendship-contingent self-esteem and fear of missing out on self-presentation of Instagram users. Participants of this study were 326 male and female Instagram users spread across several provinces in Indonesia. This study uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to construct an empirical model of friendship-contingent self-esteem, fear of missing out, and self-presentation which fits the data. Results show adequate goodness of fit, however, the only variable found to influence self-presentation was only fear of missing out. Friendship-contingent self-esteem was found to affect the fear of missing out, while friendship-contingent self-esteem did not affect self-presentation.
Exome Sequencing Identifies DLG1 as a Novel Gene for Potential Susceptibility to Crohn's Disease in a Chinese Family Study

Background Genetic variants make some contributions to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). More than 100 susceptibility loci were identified in Western IBD studies, but susceptibility gene has not been found in Chinese IBD patients till now. Sequencing of individuals with an IBD family history is a powerful approach toward our understanding of the genetics and pathogenesis of IBD. The aim of this study, which focuses on a Han Chinese CD family, is to identify high-risk variants and potentially novel loci using whole exome sequencing technique. Methods Exome sequence data from 4 individuals belonging to a same family were analyzed using bioinformatics methods to narrow down the variants associated with CD. The potential risk genes were further analyzed by genotyping and Sanger sequencing in family members, additional 401 healthy controls (HC), 278 sporadic CD patients, 123 UC cases, a pair of monozygotic CD twins and another Chinese CD family. Results From the CD family in which the father and daughter were affected, we identified a novel single nucleotide variant (SNV) c.374T>C (p.I125T) in exon 4 of discs large homolog 1 (DLG1), a gene has been reported to play mutiple roles in cell proliferation, T cell polarity and T cell receptor signaling. After genotyping among case and controls, a PLINK analysis showed the variant was of significance (P<0.05). 4 CD patients of the other Chinese family bore another non-synonymous variant c.833G>A (p.R278Q) in exon 9 of DLG1. Conclusions We have discovered novel genetic variants in the coding regions of DLG1 gene, the results support that DLG1 is a novel potential susceptibility gene for CD in Chinese patients.
Identifying Cross-origin Resource Status Using Application Cache

HTML5 Application Cache (AppCache) allows web applications to cache their same- and cross-origin resources in the local storage of a web browser to enable offline access. However, cross-origin resource caching in AppCache has potential security and privacy problems. In this paper, we consider a novel web privacy attack that exploits cross-origin AppCache. Our attack allows a remote web attacker to exploit a victim web browser to exactly identify the status of target URLs: existence, redirection, or error. Especially, our attack can be performed without using client-side scripts, can concurrently identify the status of multiple URLs, and can exactly identify the redirections of target URLs. We further demonstrate advanced attacks that leverage the basic attack to de-anonymize and fingerprint victims. First, we determine the login status of a victim web browser by identifying URL redirections or errors due to absent or erroneous login information. Second, we probe internal web servers located in the local network of a victim web browser by identifying URL existence. We also suggest an effective countermeasure to mitigate the proposed attacks.
Outage minimized relay selection with partial channel information

Selection relaying is a promising technique for practical implementation of cooperative systems with multiple relays. However, to select the best relay, globe channel knowledge is required at the selecting entity. In this paper, we consider the relay selection problem in dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) communication systems with partial channel state information (CSI). We present relay selection strategies aiming at minimizing the outage probability with different kinds of channel knowledge available, including perfect, statistical and quantized CSI. Simulation results show that near optimal performance is achievable with a few bits feedback to the selecting entity. Thus the signaling overhead of relay selection can be greatly reduced with quantized CSI feedback.
Aclome: Agile Cloud Environment Management Platform

With the proliferation of virtualization and cloud related technologies, computing, storage and network resources provided by physical devices are virtualized and integrated into a resource pool. For cloud resources tenants, they can apply these resources for use in a self-service style. The resources applying process is much simpler than ever. However, for the data center administrator, in confronting with the infrastructures cloudified by hypervisors and cloud enabling tools, the data center is becoming much complex and prone to error. In this paper, we propose a hypervisor and cloud neutral agile cloud environment management platform: ACLOME. It aims to simplify and automate the process of dynamic cloud environment management. According to the type of issues related to cloud environment management, there are two kinds of uniform portals provided in ACLOME: Management Center and Business Center. The two kinds of portals aim to solving resources provisioning and management issues of cloud environment management in a more simple and agile way.
Role of personality type and leadership style in the choice of the conflict handling style of the college principals and directors of the colleges in the state of Punjab

Two hundred and forty three college principals and Directors were surveyed in the state of Punjab in India. The most common conflict handling style among the college Principals and Directors were Compromising and Accommodating. Collaborating and Avoiding were almost at par with each other. Least common style of conflict handling was Competing. Compromising and Accommodating style of conflict handling were most common among the leading personalities ESTJ and ESFJ and with the most common Transformational and Transactional leadership styles. All these factors made the job of college principals in the government as well as in the private sector, very tough and challenging. College Principals and Directors were having their own set of personality type, conflict handling style and a distinct leadership style. In their investigation on the relationship between Big Five personality traits and conflict and facilitation between work and family roles it was found that extraversion was related to greater facilitation between roles but was negatively related to conflict, whereas neuroticism was related to greater conflict but only weakly related to facilitation.
Sum of Absolute Differences algorithm in stereo correspondence problem for stereo matching in computer vision application

This paper presents a method to solve the correspondence problem in matching the stereo image using Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD) algorithm. The computer vision application in this paper is using an autonomous vehicle which has a stereo pair on top of it. The estimation of range is using curve fitting tool (cftool) for each detected object or obstacles. This tool is provided by Matlab software. The disparity mapping is produced by block matching algorithm Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD). The range determined by cftool will be used as a reference for navigation of autonomous vehicle. The process of camera calibration, image rectification and obstacles detection is also discussed in this paper.
Distant activity of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014: Ground-based results during the Rosetta pre-landing phase

Context. As the ESA Rosetta mission approached, orbited, and sent a lander to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014, a large campaign of ground-based observations also followed the comet. Aims. We constrain the total activity level of the comet by photometry and spectroscopy to place Rosetta results in context and to understand the large-scale structure of the comet’s coma pre-perihelion. Methods. We performed observations using a number of telescopes, but concentrate on results from the 8 m VLT and Gemini South telescopes in Chile. We use R-band imaging to measure the dust coma contribution to the comet’s brightness and UV-visible spectroscopy to search for gas emissions, primarily using VLT/FORS. In addition we imaged the comet in near-infrared wavelengths (JHK) in late 2014 with Gemini-S/Flamingos-2. Results. We find that the comet was already active in early 2014 at heliocentric distances beyond 4 au. The evolution of the total activity (measured by dust) followed previous predictions. No gas emissions were detected despite sensitive searches. Conclusions. The comet maintains a similar level of activity from orbit to orbit, and is in that sense predictable, meaning that Rosetta results correspond to typical behaviour for this comet. The gas production (for CN at least) is highly asymmetric with respect to perihelion, as our upper limits are below the measured production rates for similar distances post-perihelion in previous orbits.
Modified gravity N-body code comparison project

Self-consistent N-body simulations of modified gravity models are a key ingredient to obtain rigorous constraints on deviations from general relativity using large-scale structure observations. This paper provides the first detailed comparison of the results of different N-body codes for the f (R), Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati and Symmetron models, starting from the same initial conditions. We find that the fractional deviation of the matter power spectrum from Lambda cold dark matter agrees to better than 1 per cent up to k ˜ 5-10 h Mpc-1 between the different codes. These codes are thus able to meet the stringent accuracy requirements of upcoming observational surveys. All codes are also in good agreement in their results for the velocity divergence power spectrum, halo abundances and halo profiles. We also test the quasi-static limit, which is employed in most modified gravity N-body codes, for the Symmetron model for which the most significant non-static effects among the models considered are expected. We conclude that this limit is a very good approximation for all of the observables considered here.
Making Sense of College Readiness in a Low-Performing Urban High School: Perspectives of High-Achieving First Generation Youth

Policy efforts to enhance postsecondary access and completion often emphasize the construct of college readiness (CR). While most research has focused on defining and measuring CR, less has examined the perspectives of first generation students and the urban high school contexts in which many prepare for college. This study utilizes data from an ethnography of college preparation in a low-performing urban high school. Drawing on sensemaking theory, I explore how high-achieving college-bound seniors make sense of CR and what factors shape their sensemaking. Findings offer insight into how CR discourses manifest at the local level to shape opportunity for urban youth.
Social learning and social cognition: The case for pedagogy

We propose that humans are adapted to transfer knowledge to, and receive knowledge from, conspecifics by teaching. This adaptation, which we call 'pedagogy', involves the emergence of a special communication system that does not presuppose either language or high-level theory of mind, but could itself provide a basis facilitating the development of these human-specific abilities both in phylogenetic and ontogenetic terms. We speculate that tool manufacturing and mediated tool use made the evolution of such a new social learning mechanism necessary. However, the main body of evidence supporting this hypothesis comes from developmental psychology. We argue that many central phenomena of human infant social cognition that may seem puzzling in the light of their standard functional explanation can be more coherently and plausibly interpreted as reflecting the adaptations to receive knowledge from social partners through teaching.
Signals of radicalization among Dutch muslim youth : comparing theory with practice

This study focused on the radicalization process and the signals that can be observed during the different stages of the process. It is important and relevant to have a good model of the different phases of the radicalization process with associated signals, that can be used by first line practitioners to interpret if Dutch Muslim youth may be radicalizing. Therefore, in this Master thesis a literature based model is proposed that divides the radicalization process into three different phases: 1) sensitivity, 2) group membership, and 3) action, with associated signals. Next the model is tested with a survey among first line practitioners (N = 80): community officers, youth workers, and high school teachers. The survey consisted of three parts: 1) general information, 2) a card-sorting task, whereby the participants had to group different literature based signals of the radicalization process that were included in the model that is proposed in this current study, and c) a task, whereby participants had to indicate per signal how useful a signal is to recognize in which phase of the radicalization process a radicalizing youngster is. Results show that first line participants distinguish more than three phases. The first two phases of the proposed model largely correspond with the results of both tasks. Notable is the strong difference that the first line practitioners made between ‘mental preparation for attack’ and ‘performing an attack’ in the third action phase of the proposed model.
Cell fate specification in the C. elegans embryo

Cell specification requires that particular subsets of cells adopt unique expression patterns that ultimately define the fates of their descendants. In C. elegans, cell fate specification involves the combinatorial action of multiple signals that produce activation of a small number of “blastomere specification” factors. These initiate expression of gene regulatory networks that drive development forward, leading to activation of “tissue specification” factors. In this review, the C. elegans embryo is considered as a model system for studies of cell specification. The techniques used to study cell fate in this species, and the themes that have emerged, are described. Developmental Dynamics 239:1315–1329, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Intermittent Hypoxia Promotes Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Produces Antidepressant-Like Effects in Adult Rats

Increasing evidence indicates that stimulating hippocampal neurogenesis could provide novel avenues for the treatment of depression, and recent studies have shown that in vitro neurogenesis is enhanced by hypoxia. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential regulatory capacity of an intermittent hypobaric hypoxia (IH) regimen on hippocampal neurogenesis and its possible antidepressant-like effect. Here, we show that IH promotes the proliferation of endogenous neuroprogenitors leading to more newborn neurons in hippocampus in adult rats. Importantly, IH produces antidepressant-like effects in multiple animal models screening for antidepressant activity, including the forced swimming test, chronic mild stress paradigm, and novelty-suppressed feeding test. Hippocampal x-ray irradiation blocked both the neurogenic and behavioral effects of IH, indicating that IH likely produces antidepressant-like effects via promoting neurogenesis in adult hippocampus. Furthermore, IH stably enhanced the expression of BDNF in hippocampus; both the antidepressant-like effect and the enhancement of cell proliferation induced by IH were totally blocked by pharmacological and biological inhibition of BDNF–TrkB (tyrosine receptor kinase B) signaling, suggesting that the neurogenic and antidepressant-like effects of IH may involve BDNF signaling. These observations might contribute to both a better understanding of physiological responses to IH and to developing IH as a novel therapeutic approach for depression.
Differential Mammary Gland Development in FVB and C57Bl/6 Mice: Implications for Breast Cancer Research

A growing body of research suggests a linkage between pubertal mammary gland development and environmental factors such as diet as modifiers of long term breast cancer risk. Much of this research is dependent upon mouse models, which may vary between studies. However, effects may be strain dependent and further modified by diet, which has not been previously examined. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to determine whether mammary gland development differs between FVB and C57Bl/6 strains on diets containing either n-6 or n-3 polyunsaturated fats. Developmental measures related to onset of puberty and mammary gland development differed between strains. Mice fed the n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) diet were shown to have lower numbers of terminal end buds, a marker of mammary gland development. This study helps to further clarify differences in development and dietary response between FVB and C57Bl/6 mice in order to more appropriately relate mammary gland research to human populations.
Understanding Insider Threat: A Framework for Characterising Attacks

The threat that insiders pose to businesses, institutions and governmental organisations continues to be of serious concern. Recent industry surveys and academic literature provide unequivocal evidence to support the significance of this threat and its prevalence. Despite this, however, there is still no unifying framework to fully characterise insider attacks and to facilitate an understanding of the problem, its many components and how they all fit together. In this paper, we focus on this challenge and put forward a grounded framework for understanding and reflecting on the threat that insiders pose. Specifically, we propose a novel conceptualisation that is heavily grounded in insider-threat case studies, existing literature and relevant psychological theory. The framework identifies several key elements within the problem space, concentrating not only on noteworthy events and indicators- technical and behavioural- of potential attacks, but also on attackers (e.g., the motivation behind malicious threats and the human factors related to unintentional ones), and on the range of attacks being witnessed. The real value of our framework is in its emphasis on bringing together and defining clearly the various aspects of insider threat, all based on real-world cases and pertinent literature. This can therefore act as a platform for general understanding of the threat, and also for reflection, modelling past attacks and looking for useful patterns.