Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictive and prognostic values of tau and ERCC1 in advanced breast cancer patients treated with paclitaxel and cisplatin.

OBJECTIVE We studied tau and excision repair cross-complementing 1 expression to evaluate their predictive values in advanced breast carcinoma patients. METHODS Patients treated with paclitaxel and cisplatin as the first-line chemotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer were enrolled. The expression levels of tau and excision repair cross-complementing 1 were assessed by immunohistochemistry and examined for their associations with treatment response and survival. RESULTS Fifty-four patients were included in this study. Despite the strong association between tau expression and lower histological grade and estrogen receptor expression, tau expression remained an independent predictor for a lower response rate in multivariate analysis (odd ratio = 0.24, P = 0.02). However, tau expression was a predictor for longer overall survival in both univariate analysis (median, 57.5 vs. 30.4 months, P = 0.02) and multivariate analysis (hazard ratio = 0.36, P = 0.008). Excision repair cross-complementing 1 was not associated with treatment response or overall survival. CONCLUSIONS Tau expression but not excision repair cross-complementing 1 in advanced breast cancer predicts poor response to combination chemotherapy of paclitaxel and cisplatin. However, tau expression is significantly associated with longer overall survival.
Logarithmic Compression of Sensory Signals within the Dendritic Tree of a Collision-Sensitive Neuron

Neurons in a variety of species, both vertebrate and invertebrate, encode the kinematics of objects approaching on a collision course through a time-varying firing rate profile that initially increases, then peaks, and eventually decays as collision becomes imminent. In this temporal profile, the peak firing rate signals when the approaching object's subtended size reaches an angular threshold, an event which has been related to the timing of escape behaviors. In a locust neuron called the lobula giant motion detector (LGMD), the biophysical basis of this angular threshold computation relies on a multiplicative combination of the object's angular size and speed, achieved through a logarithmic-exponential transform. To understand how this transform is implemented, we modeled the encoding of angular velocity along the pathway leading to the LGMD based on the experimentally determined activation pattern of its presynaptic neurons. These simulations show that the logarithmic transform of angular speed occurs between the synaptic conductances activated by the approaching object onto the LGMD's dendritic tree and its membrane potential at the spike initiation zone. Thus, we demonstrate an example of how a single neuron's dendritic tree implements a mathematical step in a neural computation important for natural behavior.
Edge-Linear First-Order Dependency Parsing with Undirected Minimum Spanning Tree Inference

The run time complexity of state-of-the-art inference algorithms in graph-based dependency parsing is super-linear in the number of input words (n). Recently, pruning algorithms for these models have shown to cut a large portion of the graph edges, with minimal damage to the resulting parse trees. Solving the inference problem in run time complexity determined solely by the number of edges (m) is hence of obvious importance. We propose such an inference algorithm for first-order models, which encodes the problem as a minimum spanning tree (MST) problem in an undirected graph. This allows us to utilize state-of-the-art undirected MST algorithms whose run time is O(m) at expectation and with a very high probability. A directed parse tree is then inferred from the undirected MST and is subsequently improved with respect to the directed parsing model through local greedy updates, both steps running in O(n) time. In experiments with 18 languages, a variant of the first-order MSTParser (McDonald et al., 2005b) that employs our algorithm performs very similarly to the original parser that runs an O(n^2) directed MST inference.
Dynamic resource allocation via video content and short-term traffic statistics

Dynamic resource allocation is critical in the transmission of VBR video. Our study shows that content is one of the major factors that controls the bandwidth of the video bit-stream, yet content alone may not be sufficient in predicting future traffic and in determining how much resource to request. A new framework of traffic prediction is proposed, taking into account both content features and available short-term bandwidth statistics.
Contribution to waste valorisation by producing biochars for different environmental purposes

Within the context of global change, the growing world population is placing ever-increasing demands on food and energy resources while also generating huge amounts of waste that are often not managed properly. Pyrolysis of waste materials to produce biochar is an excellent and suitable means of supporting a circular bio-based economy. Biochar is a solid material produced by the thermal decomposition of biomass in the absence of oxygen, which has a high organic C content and is highly resistant to decomposition. This research evaluated the potential use of biochar to address environmental problems, such as global change, by improving soil properties, decontaminating degraded areas and reducing the C footprint of industrial processes.
Detecting elevators and escalators in 3D pedestrian indoor navigation

In the field of indoor navigation, inertial measurement units (IMUs) are commonly used to track pedestrians. Unfortunately, in conjunction with dead reckoning localization approaches, the position accuracy is degraded by the accumulation of sensor errors. Most pedestrian dead reckoning systems are therefore adapted to human gait patterns to constraint this error growth. These interventions however make them ignore any user displacements different from doing steps, such as by elevators and escalators, and as a result they fail to track the full user trajectory indoors. In order to avoid such estimation failures, an elevator and escalator detection algorithm is proposed that is capable to detect such incidences in order to enhance the position estimation in an elevator/escalator ride.
Maternal expectations, mother-child connectedness, and adolescent sexual debut.

BACKGROUND This study examined 3 hypotheses: (1) adolescents who perceive maternal disapproval of sexual activity will initiate sexual intercourse later than other adolescents; (2) adolescents who feel highly connected to their mothers will initiate sexual intercourse later than others; and (3) adolescents who perceive maternal disapproval of sexual intercourse are more likely than others to experience high levels of connectedness to their mothers, and to have mothers who state strong disapproval and talk more frequently with them about sex. DESIGN/SETTING The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), a longitudinal study of US students in grades 7 through 12. The Add Health core in-home sample consisted of 12,105 students who completed in-school and in-home surveys at wave 1). Members of this sample completed a second in-home survey 9 to 18 months later at wave 2. PARTICIPANTS Wave 1 and wave 2 in-home surveys were completed by 3322 core sample members who had reported being virgins at wave 1, and had resident mothers who completed wave 1 surveys. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Time to first sexual intercourse, adolescents' wave 2 reports of month/year of first sexual intercourse. RESULTS Adolescents' perceptions of maternal disapproval and high levels of mother-child connectedness were directly and independently associated with delays in first sexual intercourse. Adolescents were most likely to perceive maternal disapproval if their mothers reported strong disapproval and if they reported being highly connected to their mothers. CONCLUSION Perceived maternal disapproval of sexual intercourse, along with mother-child relationships characterized by high levels of warmth and closeness, may be important protective factors related to delay in adolescents' first sexual intercourse. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2000;154:809-816
Painterly rendering for animation

We present a technique for rendering animations in a painterly style. The difficulty in using existing still frame methods for animation is getting the paint to “stick” to surfaces rather than randomly change with each frame, while still retaining a hand-crafted look. We extend the still frame method to animation by solving two major specific problems of previous techniques. First our method eliminates the “shower door” effect in which an animation appears as if it were being viewed through textured glass because brush strokes stick to the viewplane not to the animating surfaces. Second, our technique provides for frame-to-frame coherence in animations so that the resulting frames do not randomly change every frame. To maintain coherence, we model surfaces as 3d particle sets which are rendered as 2d paint brush strokes in screen space much like an artist lays down brush strokes on a canvas. We use geometric and lighting properties of the surfaces to control the appearanceof brush strokes. This powerful combination of using 3d particles, surface lighting information, and rendering 2d brush strokes in screen space gives us the painterly style we desire and forces the brush strokes to stick to animating surfaces. By varying lighting and choosing brush stroke parameters we can create many varied painterly styles. We illustrate the method with images and animated sequences and present specific technical and creative suggestions for achieving different looks. CR
A Scalable Transitive Human-Verifiable Authentication Protocol for Mobile Devices

The man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is the major threat for handheld devices to agree on a session key in which they do not share any prior secret in advance, even if these devices are physically located in the same place. Apart from insecurely typing passwords into handheld devices or comparing long hexadecimal keys displayed on the devices' screens, many other human-verifiable protocols have been proposed in the literature to solve the problem. Unfortunately, most of these schemes are unscalable to more users. Even when there are only three entities attempting to agree on a session key, these protocols need to be rerun three times. In this paper, we present a bipartite and a tripartite authentication protocol using a temporary confidential channel. Besides, we further extend the system into a transitive authentication protocol that allows multiple handheld devices to establish a conference key securely and efficiently. In addition, we provide a formal proof to our protocol to demonstrate our scheme is indeed secure. We also implement the prototype of the system on a mobile phone with satisfying performance.
Cloning and insertional inactivation of the dye (sfrA) gene, mutation of which affects sex factor F expression and dye sensitivity of Escherichia coli K-12

Deletions of the Escherichia coli K-12 chromosome between trpR and thr render the bacterium sensitive to the dye toluidine blue (Dye-), and if male (Hfr or F'), the strain is sterile (Fex-), failing to donate F' or chromosomal markers and resistant to male-specific phages as a consequence of its inability to elaborate F pili. A 6-kilobase SalI fragment of E. coli chromosomal DNA cloned into the plasmid pBR322 has been shown to complement both the Dye- and Fex- phenotypes. Insertion of the transposon gamma delta (Tn1000) into a specific part of this plasmid invariably results in both the Dye- and Fex- phenotypes, indicating that these phenotypes derive from mutation in a single gene. Complementation tests between such insertions and sfrA4, a previously isolated mutation resulting in a Fex- phenotype and reported to code for a transcriptional control factor for F (L. Beutin, P. A. Manning, M. Achtman, and N. Willetts, J. Bacteriol. 145:840-844, 1981), indicated that dye and sfrA4 were mutations in a single cistron. It is proposed that the dye (sfrA) gene product is necessary not only for efficient transcription of the F factor genes, but also for some component(s) of the bacterial envelope, loss of which results in sensitivity to toluidine blue.
A model-forest based horizontal fragmentation approach for disjunctive deductive databases

Disjunctive deductive databases (DDDBs) can capture indefinite information, i.e., imprecise or partial knowledge, of the real world. In this paper we present a method for horizontally fragmenting a DDDB based on the minimal-model forest approach. A minimal-model forest of a DDDB D is a collection of minimal-model trees of D such that each tree represents a set of facts that is disjoint from the set of facts represented in any other tree of D (All these facts are given in D.). Eventually, each tree T in the forest is assigned to a fragment along with the rules that utilize the facts represented in T to infer new facts. This approach minimizes the amount of data in D that needs to be processed for any query of D by taking the advantage of the natural partition of data that may appear in D.
An Activated Protein C Analog Stimulates Neuronal Production by Human Neural Progenitor Cells via a PAR1-PAR3-S1PR1-Akt Pathway

Activated protein C (APC) is a protease with anticoagulant and cell-signaling activities. In the CNS, APC and its analogs with reduced anticoagulant activity but preserved cell signaling activities, such as 3K3A-APC, exert neuroprotective, vasculoprotective, and anti-inflammatory effects. Murine APC promotes subependymal neurogenesis in rodents in vivo after ischemic and traumatic brain injury. Whether human APC can influence neuronal production from resident progenitor cells in humans is unknown. Here we show that 3K3A-APC, but not S360A-APC (an enzymatically inactive analog of APC), stimulates neuronal mitogenesis and differentiation from fetal human neural stem and progenitor cells (NPCs). The effects of 3K3A-APC on proliferation and differentiation were comparable to those obtained with fibroblast growth factor and brain-derived growth factor, respectively. Its promoting effect on neuronal differentiation was accompanied by inhibition of astroglial differentiation. In addition, 3K3A-APC exerted modest anti-apoptotic effects during neuronal production. These effects appeared to be mediated through specific protease activated receptors (PARs) and sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors (S1PRs), in that siRNA-mediated inhibition of PARs 1–4 and S1PRs 1–5 revealed that PAR1, PAR3, and S1PR1 are required for the neurogenic effects of 3K3A-APC. 3K3A-APC activated Akt, a downstream target of S1PR1, which was inhibited by S1PR1, PAR1, and PAR3 silencing. Adenoviral transduction of NPCs with a kinase-defective Akt mutant abolished the effects of 3K3A-APC on NPCs, confirming a key role of Akt activation in 3K3A-APC-mediated neurogenesis. Therefore, APC and its pharmacological analogs, by influencing PAR and S1PR signals in resident neural progenitor cells, may be potent modulators of both development and repair in the human CNS.
Generative technique of version control systems for software diagrams

In iterative software development methodology, a version control system is used in order to record and manage modification histories of products such as source codes and models described in diagrams. However, conventional version control systems cannot manage the models in a logical unit because the systems mainly handle with source codes. In this paper, we propose a technique of version control based in a logical unit for models described in diagrams. Then we illustrate the feasibility of our approach with the implementation of version control functions on a meta-CASE tool that is able to generate a modeling tool in order to deal with various diagrams.
Cloud reliability enhancement mechanisms A Survey

Abstract— In today’s era cloud computing becomes the hottest topic due to its ability to reduce the cost associated with computing. Cloud computing provides the on demand services like storage, servers, resources etc. to the users without physically acquiring them and the payment is according to pay per use. Since cloud provides the storage, reduces the managing cost and time for organization to the user but security and confidentiality becomes the one of the biggest obstacle in front of us. The major problem with cloud environment is, the number of user is uploading their data on cloud storage so sometimes due to lack of security there may be chances of loss of confidentiality. To overcome these obstacles a third party is required to prevent data, data encryption, and integrity and control unauthorized access for data storage to the cloud. To optimize better results we will review some paper and find the better results to remove the security barriers.
Introduction to Special Section on Oceanic Responses and Feedbacks to Tropical Cyclones

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most destructive natural hazards on Earth. The ocean can have dramatic responses to TCs and further imposes significant feedbacks to the atmosphere. A comprehensive understanding of the ocean-TC interaction is a challenging hindrance for improving the simulation and prediction of TCs and therefore avoidance of human and economic losses. A special section of JGR-Oceans was thus organized, in order to have a broad summary of latest progress in ocean-TC interactions. This introduction presents a brief overview of the contributions found in this collection. We hope it can also shed light on recent advance and future challenges in the studies on the oceanic responses and feedbacks to TCs.
A 70-$\mu$ m Pitch 8-$\mu$ W Self-Biased Charge-Integration Active Pixel for Digital Mammography

This paper presents a new low-power compact CMOS active pixel circuit specifically optimized for full-field digital mammography. The proposed digital pixel sensor (DPS) architecture includes self-bias capability at ±10% accuracy, up to 15 nA of dark-current autocalibration, built-in test mechanisms, selectable e-/h+ collection, 10-b lossless charge-integration analog-to-digital conversion, more than 1 decade of individual gain tuning for fixed pattern noise cancellation, and a 50-Mb/s digital-only input/output interface. Experimental results for a 70-μm pitch 8-μW DPS cell example are reported in 0.18-μm CMOS 1-polySi 6-metal technology.
Zip nucleic acids are potent hydrolysis probes for quantitative PCR

Zip nucleic acids (ZNAs) are oligonucleotides conjugated with cationic spermine units that increase affinity for their target. ZNAs were recently shown to enable specific and sensitive reactions when used as primers for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse-transcription. Here, we report their use as quantitative PCR hydrolysis probes. Ultraviolet duplex melting data demonstrate that attachment of cationic residues to the 3′ end of an oligonucleotide does not alter its ability to discriminate nucleotides nor the destabilization pattern relative to mismatch location in the oligonucleotide sequence. The stability increase provided by the cationic charges allows the use of short dual-labeled probes that significantly improve single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping. Longer ZNA probes were shown to display reduced background fluorescence, therefore, generating greater sensitivity and signal level as compared to standard probes. ZNA probes thus provide broad flexibility in assay design and also represent an effective alternative to minor groove binder- and locked nucleic-acid-containing probes.
Diversity and Richness of Ciconiiformes Species in Badagry Wetland Southwestern Nigeria

We examined the richness and diversity Ciconiiformes species in Badagry wetland southwestern Nigeria. Point count method was used to collect data on the richness and diversity of Ciconiiformes in the study area. Counting bands of the 50 m radius were used for all the stations. The minimum distance between two counting stations was 200 m, and 25 stations were used for this study. On arrival at the sites, birds were allowed time to settle before recording all the birds seen or heard for a predetermined time 20 min. From the result obtained, it indicates that the study area is rich Ciconiiformes species. A total of 16 Ciconiiformes species belonging to four families were recorded in the study area. The family Ardeidae has the highest number of bird species (11), this is followed by Ciconiidae family (3), Threskiornithidae and Scopidae families have one bird species each. The Shannon H index revealed that dry season (2.153) was lower than a wet season (2.357); this was based on the data collected during the period of the research study. From the result obtained of the relative abundance of bird species in the study area, it was revealed that the following four bird species Ardea cinerea, Ardea melanocephala, Scopus umbretta, and Bostrychia hagedash have the highest relative (4.44) individual bird species per square kilometer within the study area.
Outage Performance for Secure Communication over Correlated Fading Channels with Partial CSI

This paper considers the transmission of confidential data over a quasi-static fading wiretap channel where the main and eavesdropper channels are correlated. Assuming that before transmission the transmitter knows the channel state information (CSI) of the main channel, we derive the secrecy outage probability in a closed-form expression based on a new secrecy outage probability formula, which gives a more explicit measure on the level of security compared with the previous one. Remarkably, our results, which cover the corresponding results when the main channel and eavesdropper channels are independent as special cases, reveal that channel correlation has a significant impact on secrecy outage probability and such impact can be helpful or harmful depending on the relative channel conditions and transmission SNR threshold.
RLM: A General Model for Trust Representation and Aggregation

Reputation-based trust systems provide important capability in open and service-oriented computing environments. Most existing trust models fail to assess the variance of a reputation prediction. Moreover, the summation method, widely used for reputation feedback aggregation, is vulnerable to malicious feedbacks. This paper presents a general trust model, called RLM, for a more comprehensive and robust reputation evaluation. Concretely, we define a comprehensive reputation evaluation method based on two attributes: reputation value and reputation prediction variance. The reputation predication variance serves as a quality measure of the reputation value computed based on aggregation of feedbacks. For feedback aggregation, we propose the novel Kalman aggregation method, which can inherently support robust trust evaluation. To defend against malicious and coordinated feedbacks, we design the Expectation Maximization algorithm to autonomously mitigate the influence of a malicious feedback, and further apply the hypothesis test method to resist malicious feedbacks precisely. Through theoretical analysis, we demonstrate the robustness of the RLM design against adulating and defaming attacks, two popular types of feedback attacks. Our experiments show that the RLM model can effectively capture the reputation's evolution and outperform the popular summation-based trust models in terms of both accuracy and attack resilience. Concretely, under the attack of collusive malicious feedbacks, RLM offers higher robustness for the reputation prediction and a lower false positive rate for the malicious feedback detection.