Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Blockchain-Based Privacy-Awareness Authentication Scheme With Efficient Revocation for Multi-Server Architectures

Multi-server authentication technology has become more and more popular with the extensive applications of networks. Although it has brought great convenience to people’s life, security becomes a critical issue and attracts lots of attentions in both academia and industry. Over the past two decades, a series of multi-server authentication schemes without communication with the online registration center in each authentication phase using the self-certified public key cryptography have been proposed to enhance security. However, it may cause the single-point failure problem due to the centralized architecture. Besides, user revocation facility is not well resolved in these schemes. To the best of our knowledge, blockchain technology has lots of advantages, bringing a promising solution to the problems of single-point failure and user revocation compared with the traditional cryptography technologies. In this work, we apply the idea of blockchain technology to construct a privacy-awareness authentication scheme for the multi-server environment, which can achieve distributed registry and efficient revocation. Moreover, the proposed scheme not only provides multiple security requirements like mutual authentication, user anonymity and perfect forward secrecy, but also resists various kinds of malicious attacks. The security of the proposed scheme is proved by rigorous formal proof using the random oracle model. Compared with recently related schemes, the proposed scheme has better communication performance, which make it be very suitable for real-life applications.
Compressed LISTA Exploiting Toeplitz Structure

Iterative Shrinkage Thresholding Algorithm (ISTA) has been widely applied to solve linear inverse problems. To increase the rate of convergence, Learned-ISTA (LISTA) adopts deep learning techniques to learn the optimal algorithm parameters like the mutual inhibition matrices and filter matrices, which significantly reduces the number of iterations. However, the size of the learned mutual inhibition matrix exhibits quadratic growth in the length of sparse signal, which restricts the applicability of LISTA in some large-scale problems. In many applications such as direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation, the learned mutual inhibition matrix naturally has a Toeplitz structure. Here we exploit the Toeplitz structure and propose a convolutional network, namely LISTA-Toeplitz, to reduce the memory cost. Simulation results show that LISTA-Toeplitz outperforms traditional ISTA in convergence speed and achieves a level of accuracy comparable to LISTA in DOA simulation.
De novo CD5+ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, NOS: clinical characteristics and outcomes in rituximab era

Abstract CD5+ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), NOS represents a distinct subset of DLBCL associated with poorer outcomes and extranodal disease. We analyzed characteristics and outcomes for 102 CD5+ DLBCL patients diagnosed between 2001-2016. The majority had poor-risk disease based on R-IPI scores; 80% had extranodal disease at diagnosis. CNS relapse occurred 23% of the time. Median PFS and OS was 18.9 months and 112 months, respectively. Four-year PFS rates were 100%, 53%, and 41% for patients with R-IPI scores of very good, good, and poor, respectively. CD5+ DLBCL represents a subset of patients with poor outcomes despite rituximab and anthracycline-based regimens. There is a need for novel therapies and clinical trials for this high-risk group of patients. Given high rates of CNS relapse, better CNS prophylaxis with frontline therapy requires more study.
Transcriptome analysis of maize reveals potential key genes involved in the response to belowground herbivore H. parallela larvae feeding.

The larvae of Holotrichia parallela, a destructive belowground herbivore, causes tremendous damages to maize plants. However, little is known if there are any defense mechanisms in maize roots to defend themselves against this herbivore. In the current research, we carried out RNA-sequencing to investigate the changes in gene transcription level in maize roots after the H. parallela larvae infestation. A total of 644 up-regulated genes and 474 down-regulated genes was found. In addition, Gene ontology (GO) annotation analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were performed. A weight gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) indicated that peroxidase genes may be the hub genes that regulate maize defenses to the H. parallela larvae attack. We also found 105 transcription factors, 44 hormone-related genes and 62 secondary metabolism-related genes within differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Furthermore, the expression profiles of 12 DEGs from the transcriptome analysis were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR experiments. This transcriptome analysis provides insights into the molecular mechanisms of the underground defense in maize roots to H. parallela larvae attack and will help to select target genes of maize for defense against the herbivore belowground.
Mouse Tryptase Gene Expression is Coordinately Regulated by GATA1 and GATA2 in Bone Marrow-Derived Mast Cells

Mast cell tryptases have crucial roles in allergic and inflammatory diseases. The mouse tryptase genes represent a cluster of loci on chromosome 16p3.3. While their functional studies have been extensively performed, transcriptional regulation of tryptase genes is poorly understood. In this study, we examined the molecular basis of the tryptase gene expression in bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) of C57BL/6 mice and in MEDMC-BRC6 mast cells. The expression of the Tpsb2 and Tpsg1 genes, which reside at the 3′-end of the tryptase locus, is significantly decreased by the reduction of the GATA transcription factors GATA1 or GATA2. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays have shown that the GATA factors bind at multiple regions within the locus, including 1.0 and 72.8 kb upstream of the Tpsb2 gene, and that GATA1 and GATA2 facilitate each other’s DNA binding activity to these regions. Deletion of the −72.8 kb region by genome editing significantly reduced the Tpsb2 and Tpsg1 mRNA levels in MEDMC-BRC6 cells. Furthermore, binding of CTCF and the cohesin subunit Rad21 was found upstream of the −72.8 kb region and was significantly reduced in the absence of GATA1. These results suggest that mouse tryptase gene expression is coordinately regulated by GATA1 and GATA2 in BMMCs.
Diagnostic Performance of a Novel Multiplex PCR Assay for Candidemia among ICU Patients

Candidemia poses a major threat to ICU patients and is routinely diagnosed by blood culture, which is known for its low sensitivity and long turnaround times. We compared the performance of a novel, Candida-specific multiplex real-time PCR assay (Fungiplex® Candida IVD Real-Time PCR Kit) with blood culture and another established diagnostic real-time PCR assay (LightCycler SeptiFast Test) with respect to Candida detection from whole blood samples. Clinical samples from 58 patients were analyzed by standard blood culture (BC) and simultaneously tested with the Fungiplex Candida PCR (FP) and the SeptiFast test (SF) for molecular detection of Candida spp. Compared to BC, the FP test showed high diagnostic power, with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 94.1%. Overall diagnostic accuracy reached 94.6%. Using SF, we found a sensitivity of 60%, a specificity of 96.1%, and an overall diagnostic accuracy of 92.9%. The Fungiplex Candida PCR has shown good sensitivity and specificity on clinical samples of high-risk patients for direct detection of Candida species in whole blood samples. Together with conventional diagnostics (BC and antigen testing), this new multiplex PCR assay may contribute to a rapid and accurate diagnosis of candidiasis.
Lipophilic extracts from leaves, inflorescences and fruits of Prunus padus L. as potential sources of corosolic, ursolic and oleanolic acids with anti-inflammatory activity

Abstract Chloroform extracts from leaves, inflorescences and fruits of Prunus padus were analysed for anti-inflammatory activity and accumulation of corosolic (CA), ursolic (UA) and oleanolic (OA) acids. The analytes were identified and quantified by GC-MS and UHPLC-PDA. Their total levels depend on plant material type and harvesting time, and varied from 0.25 mg/g DW in fruits, through 0.76–1.09 mg/g DW in flowers, to 1.41–4.54 mg/g DW in leaves. Significant variation in the leaf analytes contents was observed during vegetation with the peak amounts in autumn, which indicated the optimal harvesting season. The plant extracts inhibited pro-inflammatory enzymes (lipoxygenase and hyaluronidase) in a concentration-dependent manner, and their activity parameters correlated with the levels and activity of pure triterpene acids, especially CA and UA. The results of the comparison with the positive controls (heparin, indomethacin, dexamethasone) might partly support the application of P. padus in anti-inflammatory therapies, reported by traditional medicine. Graphical Abstract
Health-related motivational and behavioral processes associated with DNA methylation of the TNF gene.

OBJECTIVE Epigenetics has been described as one of the most exciting areas of contemporary biology, and research has begun to explore whether epigenetic modifications are influenced by psychological processes. The present research explored the associations of health-related motivation and behavior with the DNA methylation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) gene. METHOD Participants (N = 88) completed questionnaires examining engagement with health-related behavior (i.e., physical activity, diet, and smoking) and health-related motivation from the perspective of self-determination theory. They also provided a capillary blood sample for DNA extraction and analysis of four CpG sites via bisulfite conversion within Exon 1 of TNF. RESULTS Health-related autonomous motivation was weakly but positively associated with TNF methylation (β = .18, p = .08). Indirect effects were identified in a subsequent step; autonomous motivation was positively associated with fruit consumption (β = .29, p = .004), negatively associated with smoking (β = -.22, p = .03), but not associated with physical activity (β = .10, p = .34). Moreover, TNF methylation was positively associated with lifetime physical activity (β = .18, p = .08) and negatively associated with smoking (β = -.23, p = .03). Direct effects of autonomous motivation on DNA methylation did not persist when these indirect effects were included (β = .09, p = .43). CONCLUSIONS Results support the idea that autonomous motivation is associated with DNA methylation, albeit indirectly through tobacco consumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
A physics-based analytical model of absorbed dose from primary, leakage, and scattered photons from megavoltage radiotherapy with MLCs

A burgeoning population of cancer survivors is at risk of late health effects following radiation therapy including second cancers, with the majority of these cancers occurring outside of the treatment volume of the primary cancer. Commercial radiotherapy treatment planning systems underestimate the out-of-field dose. Previous analytical models of out-of-field dose have assumed radial symmetry and/or approximated the dimensions of collimators as semi-infinite planes. The purpose of this work was to develop a physics-based analytical model of total absorbed dose from primary, scattered, and leakage radiation for square fields from a 6 MV beam at any arbitrary point in a phantom, including in-plane, cross-plane, and out-of-plane locations. The model includes the essential physics of radiation transport through beam-limiting-devices including rounded edges of MLC leaves. The model agreed well with measurements and Monte Carlo simulations of absorbed dose in a water-box phantom and was validated for field-sizes ranging from 2 2 to 20 20 cm2. The signed and unsigned average percent differences were and 15.9%, respectively, for all points and field-sizes considered. An extended gamma index analysis reveals a 92% pass rate with criteria of 3 mm distance-to-agreement, 3% relative dose difference in-field, and 3 mGy Gy−1 absolute dose difference out-of-field. The average wall-clock time to calculate dose to one million points was 3.3 min. These results suggest that it is feasible to calculate absorbed dose from both therapeutic and stray radiation using physics-based analytical models with good accuracy, thus overcoming a major obstacle to routinely assessing exposures. Additionally, this work demonstrates the importance of relaxing certain simplifications such as assuming a radially symmetric stray-dose distribution. Because the model is physics-based and may be reconfigured according to the dimensions of beam-limiting-devices, adapting it to other treatment units should be straight forward. Uses for such a model include clinical and research applications, such as clinical trials and epidemiological studies.
Transcriptional responses of LSm14A after infection of blue eggshell layers with Newcastle disease viruses

LSm14A is a key innate immunity component of processing body (P-body) that mediates interferon-β (IFN-β) signaling by viral RNA. This is the first study to report chicken LSm14A (cLSm14A) cloning from blue eggshell layer, high tibia and frizzle chickens. The cLSm14A gene, encoding 461 amino acids, is highly homologous in the three types of chickens. The cLSm14A was extensively expressed in several tissues. The transcriptional level of cLSm14A was significantly increased in various stages of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infection. In HEK293 cells, full length cLSm14A from blue eggshell layer was localized in the cytoplasm as dots. The results of this study indicated that cLSm14A is an important sensor that mediates innate immunity in chicken against NDV infections.
Sparse Fusion Imaging for Subaperture Through-wall Radar System

This paper formulates and solves a problem of multi-subaperture through wall radar imaging (TWRI). The multi-subaperture is formed by using multiple short arrays. Firstly, by treating the imaging results corresponding to each subaperture as individual solutions, the multiple-subaperture TWRI problem is modeled as a joint sparse representation problem. Then, by exploiting the common sparsity property of target pixels over all subaperture channels, we propose a novel sparse fusion imaging method extended from the multitask Bayesian compressive sensing (MT-BCS). Simulated and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can detect and locate stationary targets behind the wall effectively.
Impaired Fracture Healing in Sarco‐Osteoporotic Mice Can Be Rescued by Vibration Treatment Through Myostatin Suppression

Sarcopenia is highly prevalent in fragility fracture patients and is associated with delayed healing. In this study, we investigated the effect of low‐magnitude high‐frequency vibration (LMHFV) on osteoporotic fracture with sarcopenia and the potential role of myostatin. Osteoporotic fractures created in sarcopenic SAMP8, non‐sarcopenic SAMR1 were randomized to control or LMHFV (SAMP8, SAMR1, SAMP8‐V, or SAMR1‐V) groups. Healing and myostatin expression were evaluated at 2, 4, and 6 weeks post‐fracture. In vitro, conditioned‐media were collected from myofibers isolated from aged and young SAMP8 or C2C12 myoblasts with or without LMHFV. Osteoblastic MC3T3‐E1 under osteogenic differentiation were treated with plain or conditioned‐medium (±myostatin propeptide). LMHFV significantly enhanced callus formation was in non‐sarcopenic SAMR1 mice; but the enhancement effect was not significant in SAMP8 mice at week 2. Myostatin expressions in callus and biceps femoris of SAMP8 group were significantly higher all groups with significant negative correlation with callus size (R2 = 0.7256; p = 0.0004). Mechanical properties (week 4) and callus remodeling (week 6) were inferior in SAMP8 versus SAMR1 and were significantly enhanced by LMHFV. Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) and Runx2 expression of MC3T3‐E1 was lower in aged myofiber compared with young, but upregulated by LMHFV or myostatin inhibition; also confirmed with C2C12. LMHFV enhanced early callus formation, microarchitecture, callus remodeling and mechanical properties of fracture healing in both SAMP8 and SAMR1; however, more effective in non‐sarcopenic SAMR1 mice. Impaired fracture healing in sarcopenic SAMP8 mice is attributed by elevated myostatin expression in callus and muscle, which correlated negatively with callus formation. © 2019 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 38:277‐287, 2020
Non-Orthogonal Radar Probing for MIMO Channel Estimation

Both fully adaptive radar (FAR), and cognitive fully adaptive radar (CoFAR), require “input-output” knowledge of the composite radar channel to jointly optimize transmit-receive functions. Obtaining this information adaptively for single-input, single-output (SISO), and single-input, multiple-output (SIMO), is relatively straightforward. Multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) is far more challenging as the Green's function channel responses for each transmit degree-of-freedom must be estimated. While orthogonal MIMO probing can provide such an estimate, it generally comes at the expense of a loss in SNR due to the spoiled-beam transmit nature of orthogonal MIMO techniques and/or other radar resource expenditures (e.g., timeline, etc.). In this paper, we examine non-orthogonal (NO-MIMO) techniques that can yield full-rank MIMO channel matrix (Green's function) estimates. The new technique is illustrated with an application to adaptive beamforming.
Energy Provision Minimization in Wireless Powered Communication Networks With Network Throughput Demand: TDMA or NOMA?

Recently, the newly emerging wireless powered communication network (WPCN) has drawn significant interests, where the network nodes are powered by the energy harvested from the radio-frequency (RF) signal. This paper focuses on the widely studied WPCN, where one hybrid sink (H-sink) coordinates the wireless energy/information transmissions to/from a set of one-hop nodes powered by the harvested RF energy only, and aims to minimize the network-throughput constrained H-sink’s energy provision (EP). Specifically, we investigate the performance of two important MAC protocols: time-division multiple access (TDMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). For both the TDMA-based WPCN (T-WPCN) and NOMA-based WPCN (N-WPCN), we first formulate the EP minimization problems as the non-linear optimization problems, then transform them into convex problems, and finally propose an efficient algorithm, which jointly uses the golden-section search and bisection search methods to determine the optimal time allocation of H-sink’s energy transfer and each node’s information transmission as well as the optimal H-sink’s transmit power. Furthermore, for the scenarios where the circuit power is negligible, we first prove that the optimal H-sink’s transmit power is the maximum allowable value, then prove theoretically that the NOMA and TDMA achieve the same EP, and also present a more efficient algorithm for the EP minimization problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the TDMA outperforms NOMA when the circuit power is non-negligible because the circuit energy consumption of NOMA accounts for a large percentage of the total energy consumption.
Post-saccadic eye position contributes to oculomotor error estimation in saccadic adaptation.

We investigated if the proprioceptive eye position signal after the execution of a saccadic eye movement is used to estimate the accuracy of the movement. If so, saccadic adaptation, the mechanism that maintains saccade accuracy, could use this signal in a similar way as it uses visual feedback after the saccade. To manipulate the availability of the proprioceptive eye position signal we utilize the finding that proprioceptive eye position information builds up gradually after a saccade over a time interval comparable to typical saccade latencies. We confined the retention time of gaze at the saccade landing point by asking participants to make fast return saccades to the fixation point that preempt the usability of proprioceptive eye position signals. In five different experimental conditions we measured the influence of the visual and proprioceptive feedback, together and separately, on the development of adaptation. We found that the adaptation of the previously shortened saccades in case of visual feedback being unavailable after the saccade was significantly weaker when the use of proprioceptive eye position information was impaired by fast return saccades. We conclude that adaptation can be driven by proprioceptive eye position feedback.
Optimization of Modulation Methods for Solenoid Valves to Realize an Odor Generation System

An artificial olfactory system coupled with an odor generation system is herein reported. The artificial olfactory system is composed of four chemical sensors consisting of quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs) coated with room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). The sensors are interrogated by four vector network analyzers, which are used to measure the series resonant frequency and motional resistance. The odor generation system can generate eight different odors and mix them in any composition. Solenoid valves are used to switch the path and control the concentration of the different odors before blending. Two algorithms to control the solenoid valves, delta-sigma modulator, and simple pulse width modulation (PWM) are studied, optimized, and compared. Finally, the uncertainty of the odor generating system is calculated.
Signaling pathways in cytoskeletal responses to plasma membrane depolarization in corneal endothelial cells

In previous work, we reported that plasma membrane potential depolarization (PMPD) provokes cortical F‐actin remodeling in bovine corneal endothelial (BCE) cells in culture, which eventually leads to the appearance of intercellular gaps. In kidney epithelial cells it has been shown that PMPD determines an extracellular‐signal‐regulated kinase (ERK)/Rho‐dependent increase in diphosphorylated myosin light chain (ppMLC). The present study investigated the signaling pathways involved in the response of BCE cells to PMPD. Differently to renal epithelial cells, we observed that PMPD leads to a decrease in monophosphorylated MLC (pMLC) without affecting diphosphorylated MLC. Also, that the pMLC reduction is a consequence of cyclic adenosine 3′,5′‐monophosphate (cAMP)/protein kinase A (PKA) activation. In addition, we found evidence that the cAMP increase mostly depends on soluble adenylyl cyclase activity. Inhibition of this enzyme reduces the effect of PMPD on the cAMP rise, F‐actin remodeling, and pMLC decrease. No changes in phosho‐ERK were observed, although we could determine that RhoA undergoes activation. Our results suggested that active RhoA is not involved in the intercellular gap formation. Overall, the findings of this study support the view that, differently to renal epithelial cells, in BCE cells PMPD determines cytoskeletal reorganization via activation of the cAMP/PKA pathway.