Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Kinematic patterns for hindlimb obstacle avoidance during sheep locomotion

ABSTRACT Functional recovery following general nerve reconstruction is often associated with poor results. Comparing to rat and mice experimental studies, there are much fewer investigations on nerve regeneration and repair in the sheep, and there are no studies on this subject using gait analysis in the sheep model as an assessment tool. Additionally, this is the first study evaluating obstacle negotiation and the compensatory strategies that take place at each joint in response to the obstacle during locomotion in the sheep model. This study aims to get kinematic data to serve as a template for an objective assessment of the ankle joint motion in future studies of common peroneal nerve (CP) injury and repair in the ovine model. Our results show that a moderately high obstacle set to 10% of the sheep’s hindlimb length was associated to several spatial and temporal strategies in order to increase hoof height during obstacle negotiating. Sheep efficiently cleared an obstacle by increasing knee, ankle and metatarsophalangeal flexion during swing, whereas the hip joint is not affected. This study establishes the bounds of normal motion in the neurologically intact hindlimb when approached and cleared an obstacle and provides baseline data for further studies of peripheral nerve research in the ovine model.
SET7/9 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma progression through regulation of E2F1

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide. Histone-lysine N-methyltransferase SET7/9 is a protein lysine monomethylase that methylates histone H3K4 as well as various non-histone proteins. Deregulation of SET7/9 is frequently detected in human cancers. However, the role of SET7/9 in HCC development remains unclear. In the present study, upregulation of SET7/9 and E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) expression was detected in 68 samples of HCC tissues compared with these levels noted in the paired healthy liver samples. The expression levels of SET7/9 and E2F1 were significantly correlated with pathological stage and tumor size. Subcellular fractionation and co-immunoprecipitation analyses revealed protein-protein interaction between SET7/9 and E2F1 in the cytoplasm of HCC cells. Silencing of SET7/9, as well as treatment with 5′-deoxy-5′-methylthioadenosine (MTA), a protein methylation inhibitor, led to reduced E2F1 protein abundance in HCC cells. Using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, Transwell migration assay and wound healing assay, significantly decreased cell proliferation, migration and invasion were observed in cells exhibiting downregulation of SET7/9 and E2F1 expression, as well as in wild-type HCC cells treated with MTA. Furthermore, SET7/9 downregulation and MTA treatment resulted in reduced expression of downstream targets of E2F1, including cyclin A2, cyclin E1 and CDK2. In conclusion, the present study revealed an oncogenic function of SET7/9 in HCC and demonstrated that SET7/9 may be responsible for alterations in the proliferative ability, aggressiveness and invasive/metastatic potential of HCC cells through post-translational regulation of E2F1.
iNNvestigate neural networks!

In recent years, deep neural networks have revolutionized many application domains of machine learning and are key components of many critical decision or predictive processes. Therefore, it is crucial that domain specialists can understand and analyze actions and pre- dictions, even of the most complex neural network architectures. Despite these arguments neural networks are often treated as black boxes. In the attempt to alleviate this short- coming many analysis methods were proposed, yet the lack of reference implementations often makes a systematic comparison between the methods a major effort. The presented library iNNvestigate addresses this by providing a common interface and out-of-the- box implementation for many analysis methods, including the reference implementation for PatternNet and PatternAttribution as well as for LRP-methods. To demonstrate the versatility of iNNvestigate, we provide an analysis of image classifications for variety of state-of-the-art neural network architectures.
Early college high school achievement outcomes in North Carolina: End of grade and ACT performance

High school reform in the United States has a long and unremarkable history with regard to improving the outcomes of traditionally underrepresented youth. Beginning in 2002, North Carolina began to implement the Early College High School model. In 2012 the state of North Carolina adopted a new accountability program that includes the ACT as a measure of college readiness in addition to the long-standing end-of-course assessments in English, algebra, and biology. Several reports and research studies have been conducted to evaluate the performance outcomes of early college students to traditionally prepared high school students and found in general early college students do as well if not better than their peers. This study examines four years of performance outcomes using the North Carolina End of Grade Tests and one year of ACT results for all students in the testing program. Of particular interest was examining the achievement gaps between Hispanic, Black, and White students over time and then assessing EOC and ACT performance as an indicator of college readiness. The findings indicate that (a) early college high school students tend to perform better on EOC and ACT assessments, (b) that the benefits of attending an early college can in many cases mitigate the effects of race, gender, and poverty, and (c) early college students may be more college ready than traditionally prepared peers.
Overexpression of AR‐regulated lncRNA TMPO‐AS1 correlates with tumor progression and poor prognosis in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a leading cause of death in males all over the world; besides, the diagnosis and therapy of it are still challenging. Researchers have revealed that long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the genesis and progression of human cancers, including PCa.
Learning Task Specifications from Demonstrations

Real-world applications often naturally decompose into several sub-tasks. In many settings (e.g., robotics) demonstrations provide a natural way to specify the sub-tasks. However, most methods for learning from demonstrations either do not provide guarantees that the artifacts learned for the sub-tasks can be safely recombined or limit the types of composition available. Motivated by this deficit, we consider the problem of inferring Boolean non-Markovian rewards (also known as logical trace properties or specifications) from demonstrations provided by an agent operating in an uncertain, stochastic environment. Crucially, specifications admit well-defined composition rules that are typically easy to interpret. In this paper, we formulate the specification inference task as a maximum a posteriori (MAP) probability inference problem, apply the principle of maximum entropy to derive an analytic demonstration likelihood model and give an efficient approach to search for the most likely specification in a large candidate pool of specifications. In our experiments, we demonstrate how learning specifications can help avoid common problems that often arise due to ad-hoc reward composition.
Infection control measures to prevent hospital transmission of candida

ABSTRACT Invasive candida infections are the most important causes of nosocomial infections in intensive care units and in risky groups such as immunosuppressed patients. These infections lead to undesirable consequences such as increased morbidity and mortality in patients, prolongation of hospital stay, and increased hospital costs. In recent years, the incidence of non-albicans Candida spp. ’s has increased. Unfortunately, some of these species are naturally resistant to first-line antifungals. In addition, biofilm formation on the central venous catheter and invasive devices may cause treatment failure. The age of the patients, co-morbid diseases, the units where they are treated, the antibiotics and antifungals that are used for the treatment, and invasive devices are risk factors for invasive candida infections. Some of these risk factors can be reduced by the behavior of health-care workers. The most important goal is to take precautions before the occurrence of invasive candida infections. Infection control measures to prevent hospital transmission of candida are very important. Compliance with hand hygiene before and after contact with the patient is the most important step to prevent the spreading of Candida spp. Observation of maximal barrier precautions during invasive catheterization is another important clause of this aim. Avoiding unnecessary invasive devices, antibiotics, and parenteral nutrition are also important to reduce the colonization of candida.
A Power-Efficient Hybrid Architecture Design for Image Recognition Using CNNs

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are proving to be highly effective in vision recognition systems. However, it is a challenge to use them in real-time embedded systems because of their requirements for computation-intensive operations and high memory bandwidth. This paper proposes a power-efficient CNN architecture that has a pipelined streaming accelerator coupled to 4,096 SIMD Processing Elements. We reduce memory bandwidth via hierarchical intermediate data buffering and batch processing on the chip. As a result, we achieve high power-efficiency: Our proposed design processes 2,175 regions/second when operating at 500MHz with a power budget less than 7.5 Watts.
Investigation of a source model for a new electronic brachytherapy tandem by film measurement

Abstract Purpose To investigate the accuracy of a vendor‐supplied source model for a new Xoft Axxent 0‐degree titanium tandem by film measurement. Methods We measured the anisotropy factors at varying distances and angles from the tandem in water using radiochromic film (Gafchromic EBT3) and an Epson Perfection v750 desktop flatbed scanner (US Epson, Long Beach, CA). A 0‐degree tandem was placed vertically in a water phantom. Four pieces of film, each at varying depths, were positioned orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the tandem for azimuthal anisotropy measurements. Polar anisotropy measurements were taken with the film aligned parallel to the tandem. An absolute dose calibration for the film was verified with a PTW 34013 Soft X‐Ray Chamber. The film measurements were analyzed using different color channels. The measured polar anisotropy for varying source positions was compared to the vendor's data. Azimuthal anisotropy was measured as a function of the radius and angle, and normalized to the mean value over all angles at the specified radius. Results The azimuthal anisotropy of the tandem and source was found to be consistent for different positions along the tandem's longitudinal axis and at varying distances from the tandem. Absolute dose using a calibrated parallel plate chamber showed agreement to within 2% of expected TPS values. The custom tandem, which has a thicker tip than the wall, was attenuating the 50 kV photons more than expected, at the angles where the photons had more wall material to traverse. This discrepancy was verified at different distances from the tandem and with different measurement techniques. As distance increased, anisotropy values had better agreement. Conclusions We quantified the agreement between the measured and provided anisotropy factors for a new Xoft Axxent 0‐degree titanium tandem. Radiochromic film response at low kV energy was also investigated. Our results showed that vendor‐supplied TG‐43 values were appropriate for clinical use at majority of the angles. A rigorous quality assurance method for new electronic brachytherapy sources and applicators, along with complete knowledge of all dosimetric measuring tools, should be implemented for all parts of the verification and commissioning process.
Design of Low-loss and Highly Birefringent Porous-Core Photonic Crystal Fiber and Its Application to Terahertz Polarization Beam Splitter

We present the design of a porous-core PCF with elliptical holes in the core that achieved low loss, high birefringence, and flattened dispersion for guiding terahertz waves. The finite element method is used to study the properties of the designed waveguide in detail: effective material loss, birefringence, confinement losses, and dispersion. Simulation results show that the proposed structure exhibits simultaneously high modal birefringence of $1.32 \times 10 ^{-2}$ and a flattened dispersion over a broadband of 1.28 THz. Then, polarization splitters, based on both symmetric and asymmetric porous-core PCF structures, are designed and evaluated at 1 THz. We show that this kind of device exhibits a strong polarization-dependent coupling behavior. Numerical results show that the configuration based on dual-core waveguide with asymmetric cores can achieve a 10.9 cm long splitter with a broadband of 0.306 THz for x -polarization and 0.23 THz for y-polarization. Finally, this paper offers an effective method to design an ultrawideband polarization beam splitter to operate in the THz region, which might be relevant for future applications in technical areas, such as spectroscopy, sensing, and high-speed data transmission.
Linking Seasonal Reduction of Microbial Diversity to Increase in Winter Temperature of Waters of a Chilean Patagonia Fjord

Since microorganisms play a major role in the biogeochemistry of the ocean, understanding structure and dynamics of natural microbial communities is crucial in assessing the impact of environmental changes on marine ecosystems. In order to identify key environmental drivers of microbial community structure in Chilean Patagonian fjords, we analyzed composition of the prokaryotic community over an annual cycle at a single sampling site in Puyuhuapi Fjord. Distinctive communities represented mainly by Actinomycetales, Rhodobacteraceae, Cryomorphaceae and Flavobacteriaceae were associated with Estuarine Fresh Waters, whereas Cenarchaeaceae and Oceanospirillales were representative of Modified Sub Antarctic Waters present in the fjord. Salinity and oxygen were first-order factors explaining segregation of microbial communities in these contrasting water masses. Positive correlations of members of Flavobacteriaceae, Alteromonadales and Verrucomicrobiales with diatoms in subsurface waters and of Flavobacteriales (Cryomorphaceae and Flavobacteriaceae), Rhodobacteraceae and Pelagibacteraceae with dinoflagellates in surface waters suggest that phytoplankton composition could define specific niches for microorganisms in Puyuhuapi fjord waters. A dramatic reduction of richness and individual abundances within Flavobacteriaceae, Rhodobacteraceae and Cenarchaeaceae families was principally explained by seasonal increase of surface water temperature, with major reduction associated with changes in temperature during winter conditions. Taxa that are sensitive to increased temperature are key components of organic matter and element cycling, and we therefore suggest that potential decrease in diversity associated with rising of surface water temperature could impact current biogeochemical status of Patagonian fjord ecosystems.
Fragment-Based Lead Generation of 5-Phenyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide Derivatives as Leads for Potent Factor Xia Inhibitors

FXIa is suggested as a major target for anticoagulant drug discovery because of reduced risk of bleeding. In this paper, we defined 5-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxylic acid derivatives as privileged fragments for FXIa inhibitors’ lead discovery. After replacing the (E)-3-(5-chloro-2-(1H-tetrazol-1-yl)phenyl)acrylamide moiety in compound 3 with 5-(3-chlorophenyl)-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide, we traveled from FXIa inhibitor 3 to a scaffold that fused the privileged fragments into a pharmacophore for FXIa inhibitors. Subsequently, we synthesized and assessed the FXIa inhibitory potency of a series of 5-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide derivatives with different P1, P1′ and P2′moiety. Finally, the SAR of them was systematically investigated to afford the lead compound 7za (FXIa Ki = 90.37 nM, 1.5× aPTT in rabbit plasma = 43.33 μM) which exhibited good in vitro inhibitory potency against FXIa and excellent in vitro coagulation activities. Furthermore, the binding mode of 7za with FXIa was studied and the results suggest that the 2-methylcyclopropanecarboxamide group of 7za makes 2 direct hydrogen bonds with Tyr58B and Thr35 in the FXIa backbone, making 7za binds to FXIa in a highly efficient manner.
Culture and information architecture: A study of American and Arab academic websites

This paper investigates the information architecture (IA) of American and Arab academic websites in light of Hofestede's theory of culture and Marcus's elements of design reflecting culture. Using 60 academic websites from American and Arab cultures, the results show that IA is influenced by the cultural dimension of Power Distance and suggest that web designers and developers should strongly consider cultural factors when making design decisions, particularly those related to IA.
Architectural Techniques for Improving NAND Flash Memory Reliability

Raw bit errors are common in NAND flash memory and will increase in the future. These errors reduce flash reliability and limit the lifetime of a flash memory device. We aim to improve flash reliability with a multitude of low-cost architectural techniques. We show that NAND flash memory reliability can be improved at low cost and with low performance overhead by deploying various architectural techniques that are aware of higher-level application behavior and underlying flash device characteristics. We analyze flash error characteristics and workload behavior through experimental characterization, and design new flash controller algorithms that use the insights gained from our analysis to improve flash reliability at a low cost. We investigate four directions through this approach. (1) We propose a new technique called WARM that improves flash reliability by 12.9 times by managing flash retention differently for write-hot data and write-cold data. (2) We propose a new framework that learns an online flash channel model for each chip and enables four new flash controller algorithms to improve flash reliability by up to 69.9%. (3) We identify three new error characteristics in 3D NAND through a comprehensive experimental characterization of real 3D NAND chips, and propose four new techniques that mitigate these new errors and improve 3D NAND reliability by up to 66.9%. (4) We propose a new technique called HeatWatch that improves 3D NAND reliability by 3.85 times by utilizing self-healing effect to mitigate retention errors in 3D NAND.
CXCL6‐EGFR‐induced Kupffer cells secrete TGF‐β1 promoting hepatic stellate cell activation via the SMAD2/BRD4/C‐MYC/EZH2 pathway in liver fibrosis

Liver fibrosis is the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins in response to the inflammatory response that accompanies tissue injury, which at an advanced stage can lead to cirrhosis and even liver failure. This study investigated the role of the CXC chemokine CXCL6 (GCP‐2) in liver fibrosis. The expression of CXCL6 was found to be elevated in the serum and liver tissue of high stage liver fibrosis patients. Furthermore, treatment with CXCL6 (100 ng/mL) stimulated the phosphorylation of EGFR and the expression of TGF‐β in cultured Kupffer cells (KCs). Although treatment with CXCL6 directly did not activate the hepatic stellate cell (HSC) line, HSC‐T6, HSCs cultured with media taken from KCs treated with CXCL6 or TGF‐β showed increased expression of α‐SMA, a marker of HSC activation. CXCL6 was shown to function via the SMAD2/BRD4/C‐MYC/EZH2 pathway by enhancing the SMAD3‐BRD4 interaction and promoting direct binding of BRD4 to the C‐MYC promoter and CMY‐C to the EZH2 promoter, thereby inducing profibrogenic gene expression in HSCs, leading to activation and transdifferentiation into fibrogenic myofibroblasts. These findings were confirmed in a mouse model of CCl4‐induced chronic liver injury and fibrosis in which the levels of CXCL6 and TGF‐β in serum and the expression of α‐SMA, SMAD3, BRD4, C‐MYC, and EZH2 in liver tissue were increased. Taken together, our results reveal that CXCL6 plays an important role in liver fibrosis through stimulating the release of TGF‐β by KCs and thereby activating HSCs.
Hunting Observable Objects for Indication of Compromise

Shared Threat Intelligence is often imperfect. Especially so called Indicator of Compromise might not be well constructed. This might either be the case if the threat only appeared recently and recordings do not allow for construction of high quality Indicators or the threat is only observed by sharing partners lesser capable to model the threat. However, intrusion detection based on imperfect intelligence yields low quality results. Within this paper we illustrate how one is able to overcome these shortcomings in data quality and is able to achieve solid intrusion detection. This is done by assigning individual weights to observables listed in a STIX™ report to express their significance for detection. For evaluation, an automatized toolchain was developed to mimic the Threat Intelligence sharing ecosystem from initial detection over reporting, sharing, and determining compromise by STIX™-formated data. Multiple strategies to detect and attribute a specific threat are compared using this data, leading up to an approach yielding a F1-Score of 0.79.
Stepped Two-Level Operation of Nonisolated Modular DC/DC Converter Applied in High-Voltage DC Grid

Modular dc/dc converter (MDCC) based on cascaded submodules (SMs) has been an attractive converter topology for the interconnection of high-voltage dc (HVDC) grids for its low cost and high efficiency. The MDCC with sine-wave modulation has been developed and poses satisfactory performance; however, the high-frequency sorting of SM capacitor voltages, which aims to achieve their balance, results in quite large computation burden in HVDC application. To resolve the problem, the stepped two-level operation of the MDCC is proposed in this paper. Compared with the traditional sine-wave modulation, the stepped two-level modulation offers the following merits: 1) smaller SM capacitance requirement; 2) smaller ac circulating current; 3) the switching frequency is equal to the fundamental frequency, which avoids the extra switching actions existing in the sine-wave modulation; and 4) the sorting algorithm of the SM capacitor voltages needs only to be executed twice in a period, which poses a significant reduction of the computation burden, especially for ultrahigh voltage power conversion requiring hundreds of SMs. The simulation and experimental results verify the theoretical analysis.
Language Style Transfer from Sentences with Arbitrary Unknown Styles

Language style transfer is the problem of migrating the content of a source sentence to a target style. In many of its applications, parallel training data are not available and source sentences to be transferred may have arbitrary and unknown styles. First, each sentence is encoded into its content and style latent representations. Then, by recombining the content with the target style, we decode a sentence aligned in the target domain. To adequately constrain the encoding and decoding functions, we couple them with two loss functions. The first is a style discrepancy loss, enforcing that the style representation accurately encodes the style information guided by the discrepancy between the sentence style and the target style. The second is a cycle consistency loss, which ensures that the transferred sentence should preserve the content of the original sentence disentangled from its style. We validate the effectiveness of our model in three tasks: sentiment modification of restaurant reviews, dialog response revision with a romantic style, and sentence rewriting with a Shakespearean style.