Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automatic WBAN area recognition using P2P signal strength in office environment

The distance estimation between mobile devices is a fundamental issue for a lot of applications of indoor wireless body area network (WBAN). The RSSI have been used to estimate the distance based on the received signal strength from another mobile device. Theoretically, the signal strength is inversely proportional to squared distance, and there is a known radio propagation model that is used to convert the signal strength into distance. However, in real environments, it is hard to measure distance using RSSI because of noises, obstacles, and the type of antenna. Distance estimation using RSSI in real-world applications is still questionable because of inaccuracy. However, RSSI could become the most used technology of distance estimation from the cost/precision viewpoint because of low cost. Mobile devices need to recognize each other in office environment automatically. However, distance estimation using the RSSI of Bluetooth is difficult because of large deviation of RSSI value. This paper provides the experimental results of RSSI measurement between mobile devices in office environment. And it applies the Low Pass Filter (LPF) to reduce the deviation of RSSI value. This paper shows that the distance estimation to recognize WBAN area is possible clearly when Bluetooth RSSI LPF data are used.
Efficiency and Equilibrium in Task Allocation Economies with Hierarchical Dependencies

We analyze economic efficiency and equilibrium properties in decentralized task allocation problems involving hierarchical dependencies and resource contention. We bound the inefficiency of a type of approximate equilibrium in proportion to the number of agents and the bidding parameters in a particular market protocol. This protocol converges to an approximate equilibrium with respect to all agents, except those which may acquire unneeded inputs. We introduce a decommitment phase to allow such agents to decommit from their input contracts. Experiments indicate that the augmented market protocol produces highly efficient allocations on average.
Supporting Mobile Robot's Tasks through Qualitative Spatial Reasoning

In this paper, we present an application of qualitative spatial reasoning technologies for supporting mobile robot tasks. While focusing on detection of interaction ability, we provide a combination of the spatial reasoning calculi RCC-8 and CDC as well as their integration with OWL-based ontologies. An architecture that uses Prolog and complex-event processing implements our approach. We illustrate the results with a mobile robot scenario in a restaurant.
Fault detection for partial loss of effectiveness faults of actuators in a quadrotor unmanned helicopter

This paper presents and implements a method to detect actuator faults (loss of effectiveness) for a quadrotor unmanned helicopter (known as the Qball-X4) altitude control. Fault model is presented with the first principle physical modeling method. Mathematical model is further adjusted based on the grey-light-box scheme to adjust the model parameters and reduce model uncertainty of the Qball-X4. The Kalman filter is used for the fault detection and state estimation purpose with integration of a LQ (linear quadratic) technique based controller for controlling the altitude of the Qball-X4. The benefit of using this method is that it is robust to the process and measurement noises. The method is implemented and experimentally tested in the platform of the Qball-X4 helicopter.
Hemagglutinin Stalk-Based Universal Vaccine Constructs Protect against Group 2 Influenza A Viruses

ABSTRACT Current influenza virus vaccines contain H1N1 (phylogenetic group 1 hemagglutinin), H3N2 (phylogenetic group 2 hemagglutinin), and influenza B virus components. These vaccines induce good protection against closely matched strains by predominantly eliciting antibodies against the membrane distal globular head domain of their respective viral hemagglutinins. This domain, however, undergoes rapid antigenic drift, allowing the virus to escape neutralizing antibody responses. The membrane proximal stalk domain of the hemagglutinin is much more conserved compared to the head domain. In recent years, a growing collection of antibodies that neutralize a broad range of influenza virus strains and subtypes by binding to this domain has been isolated. Here, we demonstrate that a vaccination strategy based on the stalk domain of the H3 hemagglutinin (group 2) induces in mice broadly neutralizing anti-stalk antibodies that are highly cross-reactive to heterologous H3, H10, H14, H15, and H7 (derived from the novel Chinese H7N9 virus) hemagglutinins. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these antibodies confer broad protection against influenza viruses expressing various group 2 hemagglutinins, including an H7 subtype. Through passive transfer experiments, we show that the protection is mediated mainly by neutralizing antibodies against the stalk domain. Our data suggest that, in mice, a vaccine strategy based on the hemagglutinin stalk domain can protect against viruses expressing divergent group 2 hemagglutinins.
Extending the RETE algorithm for event management

A growing number of industrial applications use rule-based programming. Frequently, the implementation of the inference engine embedded in these applications is based on the RETE algorithm. Some applications supervise a flow of events in which time, through the occurrence dates of the events, plays an important role. These applications need to be able to recognize patterns involving events. However the RETE algorithm does not provide support for the expression of time-sensitive patterns. This paper proposes an extension of RETE through the concepts of time-stamped events and temporal constraints between events. This allows applications to write rules that process both facts and events.
Rectifying properties of the membrane of single freshly isolated smooth muscle cells.

Single smooth muscle cells freshly isolated from the stomach muscularis of the toad Bufo marinus were studied under direct microscopic observation using intracellular microelectrodes. The deviation of the membrane potential from rest was recorded when steps of current were injected into the cell. Outward-going rectification was consistently observed both in the presence of 1.8 mM and higher external concentrations of Ca2+. There was no indication of inward-going rectification even under conditions favoring its demonstration, i.e., when the external concentration of K+ was high (108 mM) and Cl-, low (39.6 mM). In the presence of tetraethylammonium chloride (TEA), there was a marked decrease in the rectification normally observed with depolarizing currents, suggesting that a K+ conductance contributes to the outward-going rectification. This K+ conductance increased by almost two orders of magnitude over the range from -20 to 0 mV, and displayed an e-fold increase with a depolarization as small as 4-7 mV. In response to hyperpolarizing currents, the membrane potential did not always reach a plateau but at times continued to become more negative. The feasibility of the depletion of ions from the caveolae as an explanation for this observation is discussed.
Speech Recognition Using Augmented Conditional Random Fields

Acoustic modeling based on hidden Markov models (HMMs) is employed by state-of-the-art stochastic speech recognition systems. Although HMMs are a natural choice to warp the time axis and model the temporal phenomena in the speech signal, their conditional independence properties limit their ability to model spectral phenomena well. In this paper, a new acoustic modeling paradigm based on augmented conditional random fields (ACRFs) is investigated and developed. This paradigm addresses some limitations of HMMs while maintaining many of the aspects which have made them successful. In particular, the acoustic modeling problem is reformulated in a data driven, sparse, augmented space to increase discrimination. Acoustic context modeling is explicitly integrated to handle the sequential phenomena of the speech signal. We present an efficient framework for estimating these models that ensures scalability and generality. In the TIMIT phone recognition task, a phone error rate of 23.0% was recorded on the full test set, a significant improvement over comparable HMM-based systems.
Chapter 3 MINDS-Minnesota Intrusion Detection System

This paper introduces the Minnesota Intrusion Detection System (MINDS), which uses a suite of data mining techniques to automatically detect attacks against computer networks and systems. While the long-term objective of MINDS is to address all aspects of intrusion detection, this paper focuses on two specific contributions: (i) an unsupervised anomaly detection technique that assigns a score to each network connection that reflects how anomalous the connection is, and (ii) an association pattern analysis based module that summarizes those network connections that are ranked highly anomalous by the anomaly detection module. Experimental results on live network traffic at the University of Minnesota show that our anomaly detection techniques are very promising and are successful in automatically detecting several novel intrusions that could not be identified using popular signature-based tools such as SNORT. Furthermore, given the very high volume of connections observed per unit time, association pattern based summarization of novel attacks is quite useful in enabling a security analyst to understand and characterize emerging threats.
Ataxia Telangiectasia-Mutated (ATM) Kinase Activity Is Regulated by ATP-driven Conformational Changes in the Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 (MRN) Complex*

Background: The Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 (MRN) complex regulates DNA repair and signaling through the Ataxia Telangiectasia-Mutated (ATM) kinase. Results: ATM activation requires ATP binding by Rad50 and the coiled-coils but not ATP hydrolysis, zinc hook connection, or Mre11 nuclease function. Conclusion: The ATP-bound form of MRN with Rad50 catalytic domains engaged is the form that activates ATM. Significance: ATP-driven changes in MRN conformation control ATM signaling. The Ataxia Telangiectasia-Mutated (ATM) protein kinase is recruited to sites of double-strand DNA breaks by the Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 (MRN) complex, which also facilitates ATM monomerization and activation. MRN exists in at least two distinct conformational states, dependent on ATP binding and hydrolysis by the Rad50 protein. Here we use an ATP analog-sensitive form of ATM to determine that ATP binding, but not hydrolysis, by Rad50 is essential for MRN stimulation of ATM. Mre11 nuclease activity is dispensable, although some mutations in the Mre11 catalytic domain block ATM activation independent of nuclease function, as does the mirin compound. The coiled-coil domains of Rad50 are important for the DNA binding ability of MRN and are essential for ATM activation, but loss of the zinc hook connection can be substituted by higher levels of the complex. Nbs1 binds to the “closed” form of the MR complex, promoted by the zinc hook and by ATP binding. Thus the primary role of the hook is to tether Rad50 monomers together, promoting the association of the Rad50 catalytic domains into a form that binds ATP and also binds Nbs1. Collectively, these results show that the ATP-bound form of MRN is the critical conformation for ATM activation.
Geochemical Study of Gneisses and Volcano Sedimentary Greenstone Complex in Parts of Bundelkhand Craton North Indian Shield Implications for Precambrian Crustal

OF THE THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in Geology Submitted by AUSAF RAZA Under the Supervision of Prof. M.E. A. MONDAL DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY) ALIGARH (INDIA) 2017
Two-sources Randomness Extractors for Elliptic Curves

This paper studies the task of two-sources randomness extractors for elliptic curves defined over finite fields $K$, where $K$ can be a prime or a binary field. In fact, we introduce new constructions of functions over elliptic curves which take in input two random points from two differents subgroups. In other words, for a ginven elliptic curve $E$ defined over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ and two random points $P \in \mathcal{P}$ and $Q\in \mathcal{Q}$, where $\mathcal{P}$ and $\mathcal{Q}$ are two subgroups of $E(\mathbb{F}_q)$, our function extracts the least significant bits of the abscissa of the point $P\oplus Q$ when $q$ is a large prime, and the $k$-first $\mathbb{F}_p$ coefficients of the asbcissa of the point $P\oplus Q$ when $q = p^n$, where $p$ is a prime greater than $5$. We show that the extracted bits are close to uniform. Our construction extends some interesting randomness extractors for elliptic curves, namely those defined in \cite{op} and \cite{ciss1,ciss2}, when $\mathcal{P} = \mathcal{Q}$. The proposed constructions can be used in any cryptographic schemes which require extraction of random bits from two sources over elliptic curves, namely in key exchange protole, design of strong pseudo-random number generators, etc.
SCA1 Model: Towards a concrete security approach to the design of cryptosystems secure against side-channel attacks

When implementing cryptosystems on general purpose cryptographic hardware, one takes profit of the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) displaced by the hardware to code the required cryptosystems. The functions made available by these APIs are divided into two groups, the group of the non-cryptographic functions and the group of the cryptographic primitives. When using these functions, one assumes that the functions of the first group are protected against simple side-channel attacks and the functions of the second group are protected against both simple and differential side-channel attacks. Nonetheless, the cryptosystems that make use of these functions may leak information through side-channels. To close this gap of security, a new model is introduced here. It deeply explains how the functions made available by the hardware's APIs must be protected against side-channel attacks and how this hardware must manage memory. In addition, it introduces an adversary that can undertake side-channel attacks against the cryptosystems to test; and it teaches how to represent these attacks in pseudo-code. This paper terminates with both the introduction of some security notions and the presentation of the results of testing some well known cryptosystems in accordance with the latter security notions.
Efficient algorithms for accurate hierarchical clustering of huge datasets: tackling the entire protein space

Motivation: UPGMA (average linking) is probably the most popular algorithm for hierarchical data clustering, especially in computational biology. However, UPGMA requires the entire dissimilarity matrix in memory. Due to this prohibitive requirement, UPGMA is not scalable to very large datasets. Application: We present a novel class of memory-constrained UPGMA (MC-UPGMA) algorithms. Given any practical memory size constraint, this framework guarantees the correct clustering solution without explicitly requiring all dissimilarities in memory. The algorithms are general and are applicable to any dataset. We present a data-dependent characterization of hardness and clustering efficiency. The presented concepts are applicable to any agglomerative clustering formulation. Results: We apply our algorithm to the entire collection of protein sequences, to automatically build a comprehensive evolutionary-driven hierarchy of proteins from sequence alone. The newly created tree captures protein families better than state-of-the-art large-scale methods such as CluSTr, ProtoNet4 or single-linkage clustering. We demonstrate that leveraging the entire mass embodied in all sequence similarities allows to significantly improve on current protein family clusterings which are unable to directly tackle the sheer mass of this data. Furthermore, we argue that non-metric constraints are an inherent complexity of the sequence space and should not be overlooked. The robustness of UPGMA allows significant improvement, especially for multidomain proteins, and for large or divergent families. Availability: A comprehensive tree built from all UniProt sequence similarities, together with navigation and classification tools will be made available as part of the ProtoNet service. A C++ implementation of the algorithm is available on request. Contact: lonshy@cs.huji. ac.il
Lactate Oxidation Coupled to Iron or Electrode Reduction by Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA

ABSTRACT Geobacter sulfurreducens PCA completely oxidized lactate and reduced iron or an electrode, producing pyruvate and acetate intermediates. Compared to the current produced by Shewanella oneidensis MR-1, G. sulfurreducens PCA produced 10-times-higher current levels in lactate-fed microbial electrolysis cells. The kinetic and comparative analyses reported here suggest a prominent role of G. sulfurreducens strains in metal- and electrode-reducing communities supplied with lactate.
Dynamic Programming Algorithms for Haplotype Blocks Partitioning with TagSNPs Minimization

Recent studies show that the patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) observed in human chromosome reveal a block-like structure; the high LD regions are called haplotype blocks. The existence of haplotype block structures has serious implications for association-based methods in mapping of disease genes. A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism or SNP is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide in the genome differs between members of species. In this paper, we propose several efficient algorithms for identifying haplotype blocks in the genome. Especially, we develop a dynamic programming algorithm for haplotype block partitioning to minimize the number of tagSNPs required to account for most of the common haplotypes in each block. We implement these algorithms and analyze the chromosome 21 haplotype data given by Patil et al. [14]. As a result, we identify a total of 2,266 blocks (3,260 tagSNPs) which is 45.2% (28.6%) smaller than those identified by Patil et al. or Zhang et al. [18].
Pharmacotherapy of vasculitis

The systemic vasculitides are characterized by inflammatory lesions in blood vessels. Therapeutic approaches should be based on the aetiology or pathophysiology of disease. Unfortunately, for many of these disorders neither is fully understood and empirical treatment based on clinical presentation and the pattern of organ involvement is used. This approach is effective in improving survival in the most serious forms. We undertook a systematic literature review to assess the evidence for using drug therapies in vasculitis. Glucocorticoids remain essential for many forms of vasculitis; indeed, in giant-cell arteritis, they may be the only therapy necessary. However, additional immunosuppressive agents are required for other forms of vasculitis: methotrexate in Takayasu's arteritis and non-renal small-vessel vasculitis and cyclophosphamide for classic Wegener's granulomatosis, microscopic polyangiitis, polyarteritis nodosa and Churg–Strauss syndrome with poor prognostic features. Subsequent disease control is with low-dose glucocorticoid and azathioprine or methotrexate. Biologic therapy is being used in resistant cases. Patients experience significant short- to medium-term toxicity, especially infection and steroid side effects. Late sequelae due to high cumulative doses of cyclophosphamide include infertility and malignancy. Such risks are being reduced due to more judicious use of short courses of cyclophosphamide followed by substitution by safer agents.
Left-to-Right Gradient of Atrial Frequencies During Acute Atrial Fibrillation in the Isolated Sheep Heart

Background—Recent studies demonstrated spatiotemporal organization in atrial fibrillation (AF). We hypothesized that waves emanating from sources in the left atrium (LA) undergo fragmentation, resulting in left-to-right frequency gradient. Our objective was to characterize impulse propagation across Bachmann’s bundle (BB) and the inferoposterior pathway (IPP) during AF. Methods and Results—In 13 Langendorff-perfused sheep hearts, AF was induced in the presence of acetylcholine (ACh). Fast Fourier transform of optical and bipolar electrode recordings was performed. Frequency-dependent changes in the left-to-right dominant frequency (DF) gradient were studied by perfusing D600 (2 &mgr;mol/L) and by increasing ACh concentration from 0.2 to 0.5 &mgr;mol/L. BB and IPP were subsequently ablated. At baseline, a left-to-right decrease in DFs occurred along BB and IPP, resulting in an LA-right atrium (RA) frequency gradient of 5.7±1.4 Hz. Left-to-right impulse propagation was present in 81±5% and 80±10% of cases along BB and IPP, respectively. D600 decreased the highest LA frequency from 19.7±4.4 to 16.2±3.9 Hz (P <0.01) and raised RA DF from 8.6±2.0 to 10.7±1.8 Hz (P <0.05). An increase in ACh concentration increased the LA-RA frequency gradient from 4.9±1.8 to 8.9±1.8 Hz (P <0.05). Ablation of BB and IPP decreased RA DF from 10.9±1.2 to 9.0±1.5 Hz (P <0.01) without affecting LA DF (16.8±1.5 versus 16.9±1.8 Hz, P =NS). Conclusions—Left-to-right impulse propagation and frequency-dependent changes in the LA-RA frequency gradient during AF strongly support the hypothesis that this arrhythmia is the result of high-frequency periodic sources in the LA, with fibrillatory conduction away from such sources.
Tryptophan as a Probe to Study the Anticancer Mechanism of Action and Specificity of α-Helical Anticancer Peptides

In the present study, a single tryptophan, as a fluorescence probe, was shifted from the N-terminus to the middle and to the C-terminus of a 26-residue α-helical anticancer peptide sequence to study the mechanism of action and specificity. The hydrophobicity of peptides, as well as peptide helicity and self-associating ability, were slightly influenced by the position change of tryptophan in the peptide sequence, while the hemolytic activity and anticancer activity of the peptide analogs remained the same. The tryptophan fluorescence experiment demonstrated that peptide analogs were more selective against LUVs mimicking cancer cell membranes than LUVs mimicking normal cell membranes. During the interaction with target membranes, the N-terminus of an anticancer peptide may be inserted vertically or tilted into the hydrophobic components of the phospholipid bilayer first. The thermodynamic parameters of the peptides PNW and PCW, when interacting with zwitterionic DMPC or negatively charged DMPS, were determined by ITC. DSC experiments showed that peptide analogs significantly altered the phase transition profiles of DMPC, but did not dramatically modify the phase transition of DMPS. It is demonstrated that hydrophobic interactions are the main driving force for peptides interacting with normal cell membranes, whilst, electrostatic interactions dominate the interactions between peptides and cancer cell membranes. Utilizing tryptophan as a fluorescence probe molecule appears to be a practicable approach to determine the interaction of peptides with phospholipid bilayers.