Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pulse wave imaging in normal, hypertensive and aneurysmal human aortas in vivo: a feasibility study

Arterial stiffness is a well-established biomarker for cardiovascular risk, especially in the case of hypertension. The progressive stages of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) have also been associated with varying arterial stiffness. Pulse wave imaging (PWI) is a noninvasive, ultrasound imaging-based technique that uses the pulse wave-induced arterial wall motion to map the propagation of the pulse wave and measure the regional pulse wave velocity (PWV) as an index of arterial stiffness. In this study, the clinical feasibility of PWI was evaluated in normal, hypertensive, and aneurysmal human aortas. Radiofrequency-based speckle tracking was used to estimate the pulse wave-induced displacements in the abdominal aortic walls of normal (N = 15, mean age 32.5 ± 10.2 years), hypertensive (N = 13, mean age 60.8 ± 15.8 years), and aneurysmal (N = 5, mean age 71.6 ± 11.8 years) human subjects. Linear regression of the spatio-temporal variation of the displacement waveform in the anterior aortic wall over a single cardiac cycle yielded the slope as the PWV and the coefficient of determination r2 as an approximate measure of the pulse wave propagation uniformity. The aortic PWV measurements in all normal, hypertensive, and AAA subjects were 6.03 ± 1.68, 6.69 ± 2.80, and 10.54 ± 6.52 m s−1, respectively. There was no significant difference (p = 0.15) between the PWVs of the normal and hypertensive subjects while the PWVs of the AAA subjects were significantly higher (p < 0.001) compared to those of the other two groups. Also, the average r2 in the AAA subjects was significantly lower (p < 0.001) than that in the normal and hypertensive subjects. These preliminary results suggest that the regional PWV and the pulse wave propagation uniformity (r2) obtained using PWI, in addition to the PWI images and spatio-temporal maps that provide qualitative visualization of the pulse wave, may potentially provide valuable information for the clinical characterization of aneurysms and other vascular pathologies that regionally alter the arterial wall mechanics.
A novel geometry for a laboratory-based larval settlement assay

A novel configuration, consisting of two apposing surfaces bounding a vertical water column, is presented and evaluated for settlement assays using cyprids of Balanus amphitrite. Assays were conducted on planar surfaces, ranging from hydrophobic polystyrene to hydrophilic glass and including CH3- and NH3 +-terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). Identical apposing surfaces generated settlement rates comparable to those obtained in prior studies, while a choice assay yielded consistent results, with individual replicates each indicating the preferred surface for settlement. As gravity favours contact with the lower apposing surface, cyprids trapped at the air/water interface settled on or around the perimeter where the water column meets the lower substratum. These cyprids are capable of selecting a settlement location and are thus not lost to the assay. The assay geometry lends itself to assessing cyprid exploration and settlement on planar surfaces with chemical patterning, including relief microstructures, without using a confining material or requiring the coating of a three-dimensional well.
Hypercholesterolemia Stimulates Angiotensin Peptide Synthesis and Contributes to Atherosclerosis Through the AT1A Receptor

Background—Hypercholesterolemia-induced atherosclerosis is attenuated by either pharmacological antagonism of AT1 receptors or AT1A receptor deficiency. However, the mechanism underlying the pronounced responses to angiotensin II (Ang II) antagonism has not been determined. We hypothesized that hypercholesterolemia stimulates the production of angiotensin peptides to provide a rationale for the profound effect of AT1A receptor deficiency on atherogenesis. Methods and Results—Atherosclerotic lesions were analyzed in LDL receptor–deficient mice. Immunocytochemical analysis demonstrated that atherosclerotic lesions contained all the components of the conventional pathway for Ang II synthesis. AT1A receptor deficiency caused a marked decrease in atherosclerotic lesion size in both the aortic root and arch of male and female mice, without a discernible effect on composition. AT1A receptor deficiency–induced reductions in atherosclerosis were independent of systolic blood pressure and measurements of oxidation and chemoattractants. Aortic AT2 receptor mRNA expression was not altered in AT1A receptor–deficient mice, and AT2 receptor deficiency had no effect on lesion area or cellular composition. Hypercholesterolemia greatly augmented the systemic renin-angiotensin system, as demonstrated by large increases in plasma concentrations of angiotensinogen and angiotensin peptides (Ang II, III, IV, and 4–8). These increases were ablated in hypercholesterolemic AT1A receptor–deficient mice. Conclusions—AT1A receptor deficiency had a striking effect in reducing hypercholesterolemia-induced atherosclerosis in LDL receptor–negative mice. Hypercholesterolemia was associated with increased systemic angiotensinogen and angiotensin peptides, which were reduced in AT1A receptor–deficient mice. These results demonstrate that hypercholesterolemia-induced stimulation of angiotensin peptide production provides a basis for the marked effect of AT1A receptor deficiency in reducing atherosclerosis.
The effect of stereotype confirmation concerns on fear of negative evaluation and avoidance for those with social anxiety disorder

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between stereotype confirmation concerns (SCC) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE). It is hypothesized that SCC will predict FNE, and that this effect will be moderated by race, such that SCC and FNE will be stronger among African Americans than among European Americans. A sample of 53 Caucasians and 41 African Americans were diagnosed with social anxiety. A hierarchical multiple regression was run to predict FNE with SCC, race, and the product of the two. The final model explained 27.9% of the variance in participants’ FNE. Race significantly moderated the effects of SCC on FNE; SCC had a stronger effect on FNE for Caucasian (b = .380, p < .01) than for African Americans (b = .140, p < .05). This study shows that it may be helpful in treatment of social anxiety to address stereotype confirmation concerns and to discuss social situations during which negative stereotypes become salient. INDEX WORDS: Social Anxiety, Fear of negative evaluation, Race, Stereotypes THE EFFECT OF STEREOTYPE CONFIRMATION CONCERNS ON FEAR OF NEGATIVE EVALUATION AND AVOIDANCE FOR THOSE WITH SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER
Ectopic expression of AINTEGUMENTA in Arabidopsis plants results in increased growth of floral organs.

AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) was previously shown to be involved in floral organ initiation and growth in Arabidopsis. ant flowers have fewer and smaller floral organs and possess ovules that lack integuments and a functional embryo sac. The present work shows that young floral meristems of ant plants are smaller than those in wild type. Failure to initiate the full number of organ primordia in ant flowers may result from insufficient numbers of meristematic cells. The decreased size of ant floral organs appears to be a consequence of decreased cell division within organ primordia. Ectopic expression of ANT under the control of the constitutive 35S promoter results in the development of larger floral organs. The number and shape of these organs is not altered and the size of vegetative organs is normal. Microscopic and molecular analyses indicate that the increased size of 35S::ANT sepals is the result of increased cell division, whereas the increased sizes of 35S::ANT petals, stamens, and carpels are primarily attributable to increased cell expansion. In addition, 35S::ANT ovules often exhibit increased growth of the nucellus and the funiculus. These results suggest that ANT stimulates cell growth in floral organs.
Seven-Spot Ladybird Optimization: A Novel and Efficient Metaheuristic Algorithm for Numerical Optimization

This paper presents a novel biologically inspired metaheuristic algorithm called seven-spot ladybird optimization (SLO). The SLO is inspired by recent discoveries on the foraging behavior of a seven-spot ladybird. In this paper, the performance of the SLO is compared with that of the genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and artificial bee colony algorithms by using five numerical benchmark functions with multimodality. The results show that SLO has the ability to find the best solution with a comparatively small population size and is suitable for solving optimization problems with lower dimensions.
Internet security despite untrustworthy agents and components

As an Internet user, the security of your communications relies on a large number of agents: your own computer, its operating system, its Internet software (e.g. your web browser), your modem, telephone line, telephone company, ISP and their operators, computers, software, the DNS infrastructure, the links interconnecting the ISPs and the companies operating these links, the ISP of your correspondent (e.g. a web server), the hardware and the software run by this correspondent. Each of these agents are more or less likely to be hostile, and/or vulnerable to security attacks. The paper discusses the deliquescence of trust and considers some trustworthy Internet services.
Preparation and validation of implantable electrodes for the measurement of oxygen and glucose.

In realizing the continuous measurement of pO2 and glucose concentration in the subcutaneous tissue, miniaturized electrochemical oxygen- and enzyme glucose sensors, based on modified Clark-type electrodes for transient implantation, were developed and investigated. The electrodes were prepared by means of sequential dipping procedures in glucose oxidase and in different polymer solutions at well-defined environmental conditions in an incubator. By means of combining a hydrophobic membrane with a glucose permeable area and a hydrophilic membrane in the case of the glucose sensor, linearity of the glucose dependent electrode signal up to greater than 20 mmol/l could be achieved. After subcutaneous implantation in the neck of dogs, the enzyme sensor is able to follow glucose profiles in the normo- and in the hyperglycaemic range, e.g. as caused by oral glucose loads. Looking for the difference in sensitivity of the enzyme sensor measured in vitro and calculated from in vivo data, the influence of potential nonspecific, interfering substances in vivo such as urea, amino acids, electrolytes, and albumin was estimated.
A provisioning model and its comparison with best-effort for performance-cost optimization in grids

The resource availability in Grids is generally unpredictable due to the autonomous and shared nature of the Grid resources and stochastic nature of the workload resulting in a best effort quality of service. The resource providers optimize for throughput and utilization whereas the users optimize for application performance. We present a cost-based model where the providers advertise resource availability to the user community. We also present a multi-objective genetic algorithm formulation for selecting the set of resources to be provisioned that optimizes the application performance while minimizing the resource costs. We use trace-based simulations to compare the application performance and cost using the provisioned and the best effort approach with a number of artificially generated workflow-structured applications and a seismic hazard application from the earthquake science community. The provisioned approach shows promising results when the resources are under high utilization and/or the applications have significant resource requirements.
A Confluence of Column Stores and Search Engines: Opportunities and Challenges

IR and DB integration has been a long-withstanding research challenge. Most of the work trying to integrate the two elds is motivated by specic application scenarios. In this paper we approach this problem from another perspective. Instead of focusing on IR and DB as whole elds, we restrict the focus to search engines and column stores. We present observations of similarities in the two technologies, and aggregate information on parallel developments in the two elds. We argue that these developments point towards a conuence of column stores and search engines, and one may in fact argue that this conuence has already started. We evaluate the potential in developing an engine capable of handling the workloads traditionally supported by the dierent systems, namely decision support and search workloads, by identifying potential opportunities and challenges. The opportunities include potential areas for technology transfer and more ecient support for features. The identied challenges outline areas for future work whose successfulness will help decide whether a conuence of column stores and search engines is feasible.
A practical investigation of identity theft vulnerabilities in Eduroam

Eduroam offers secure access to the Internet at participating institutions, using authentication via IEEE 802.1X and secure forwarding of authentication data to the authentication server of the user's institution. Due to erroneous configuration manuals and a lack of knowledge on the user side, though, a big share of client devices lack the required root CA certificate to authenticate the Eduroam network, yet still being able to access the network. Moreover, deficient software implementations on client devices prevent users from the secure execution of the authentication process. In this paper, we present an attack that exploits this fact and uses the default behavior of wireless devices in order to capture authentication data. This MITM attack is performed in real-time. It is achieved using a modified version of hostapd, which exploits a compatibility setting of the widely used supplicant software wpa_supplicant. It enables an attacker to authenticate users in EAP-TTLS/PAP and in EAP-TTLS/MS-CHAPv2 without the necessity of cracking the user password hash on the fly and thus without inducing suspicious delays. In a practical study with several hundred users we could show that more than half of the tested devices were vulnerable to the attack. Based on the results of the study, we propose countermeasures to prevent the attack and minimize the amount of vulnerable devices.
A Secure Shopping Experience Based on Blockchain and Beacon Technology

The present work proposes a novel approach for a future shopping system. Customers’ personal data are protected by a blockchain-based storage network. Based on the bitcoin protocol, the system transacts encrypted data in a tamper-proof way and is able to run secure multiparty computations while no one but the data owner has access to the input data. Thus, a potential customer is able to allow a company to apply functions like a recommendation algorithm without revealing personal data. In combination with a low-energy transmitter (beacon), a completely new shopping experience arises. The beacon automatically triggers a recommendation process based on encrypted personal data. The resulting outcome is a recommendation system, a self-checkout system, and a payment system all in one, thereby full anonymity is guaranteed and the customer never lose control on her data.
Ophthalmologic Techniques for Evaluating Glaucoma Policy

Numerous articles describe findings from patients with known and suspected glaucoma using confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (CSLO), scanning laser polarimetry (SLP), and optical coherence tomography (OCT). These studies report that abnormalities may be detected on these examinations before functional changes are noted. (1) The literature, specialty society guidelines, and clinical input indicate that optic nerve analysis using CSLO, SLP, and OCT has become an additional test that may be used in the diagnosis and management of patients with glaucoma and those who are glaucoma suspects. These results are often considered along with other findings to make diagnostic and therapeutic decisions about glaucoma care. Thus, this testing may be considered medically necessary.
QTL Mapping of Combining Ability and Heterosis of Agronomic Traits in Rice Backcross Recombinant Inbred Lines and Hybrid Crosses

Background Combining ability effects are very effective genetic parameters in deciding the next phase of breeding programs. Although some breeding strategies on the basis of evaluating combining ability have been utilized extensively in hybrid breeding, little is known about the genetic basis of combining ability. Combining ability is a complex trait that is controlled by polygenes. With the advent and development of molecular markers, it is feasible to evaluate the genetic bases of combining ability and heterosis of elite rice hybrids through QTL analysis. Methodology/Principal Findings In the present study, we first developed a QTL-mapping method for dissecting combining ability and heterosis of agronomic traits. With three testcross populations and a BCRIL population in rice, biometric and QTL analyses were conducted for ten agronomic traits. The significance of general combining ability and special combining ability for most of the traits indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive effects on expression levels. A large number of additive effect QTLs associated with performance per se of BCRIL and general combining ability, and dominant effect QTLs associated with special combining ability and heterosis were identified for the ten traits. Conclusions/Significance The combining ability of agronomic traits could be analyzed by the QTL mapping method. The characteristics revealed by the QTLs for combining ability of agronomic traits were similar with those by multitudinous QTLs for agronomic traits with performance per se of BCRIL. Several QTLs (1–6 in this study) were identified for each trait for combining ability. It demonstrated that some of the QTLs were pleiotropic or linked tightly with each other. The identification of QTLs responsible for combining ability and heterosis in the present study provides valuable information for dissecting genetic basis of combining ability.
ClassStrength: A Multilingual Tool for Tweets Classification

In this paper we present our multilingual tweet classification tool. ClassStrength provides a set of classification models in different languages that classify tweets into 14 general-purpose categories, including: sports, politics, entertainment, comedy, etc. Our classifier uses a distant-supervision approach for creating training data in any available language on Twitter. The classifier uses a soft-classification scheme, where it generates a likelihood score for a tweet to match each of the 14 categories. The initial version of our tool covers five languages, namely: English, Arabic, French, German, and Russian. More languages are to be covered in next releases. The classification model created for each language is generated from hundreds of thousands of training tweets. Our evaluation to the classifier shows superior accuracy compared to standard manual methods. Our reported accuracy is 84% based on crowd preferences over a balanced test set of English tweets covering all 14 classes.
Curriculum, Personal Narrative and the Social Future

Introduction Part 1 Curriculum Change Processes and Historical Periods. The Context of Cultural Inventions: Learning and Curriculum. Times of Educational Change: Towards an Understanding of Patterns of Historical and Cultural Refraction. Curriculum as Narration: Tales from the Children of the Colonised with Ruth Deakin Crick Part 2 The Rise of the Life Narrative. Exploring the Teachers Professional Knowledge: Constructing Identity and Community with Ardra L. Cole. Listening to Professional Life Stories: Some Cross Professional Perspectives Part 3 All the Lonely People: The Struggle for Private Meaning and Public Purpose in Education. The Educational Researcher as Public Intellectual. Knowledge, Personal Narrative and the Social Future.
Human-robot partnership: A study on collaborative storytelling

This paper describes the current work on using humanoid robot to augment traditional storytelling for educational and entertainment purposes in casual contexts such as home and classroom. We explore a novel method of Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) for storytelling and address the question how robots may best augment storytelling. In the pilot study, a humanoid robot, Aldebaran's Nao, was programmed to recite a story to 60 students aged 14 to 15. Nao delivered the performance as either an independent storyteller, or as a collaborator with a human storyteller. We assessed the effectiveness of HRC by comparing the participants' preference over the two settings. We found that 1) most participants prefer HRC over the robot-only performance (RO) and considered HRC effective; and 2) the preference in HRC is explained by the complementary strengths of the robot and human storyteller in interacting with the participants. These results, provide a first step towards effective use of robots for collaborative storytelling in daily situations.
Detecting Lies and Deceit: The Psychology of Lying and the Implications for Professional Practice

The Social Psychology of Lying and Detecting Deceit. NON-VERBAL BEHAVIOUR AND DECEPTION. Non-Verbal Behaviour During Deception. Perception of Non-Verbal Behaviour During Deception. VERBAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DECEPTION. Initial Research Concerning Verbal Characteristics. Statement Validity Assessment. Reality Monitoring. PROFESSIONAL DETECTION OF DECEPTION. The Polygraph. Guidelines and Implications for Detecting Lies in Professional Practice. References. Index.
IL-2 Immunotoxin Therapy Modulates Tumor-Associated Regulatory T Cells and Leads to Lasting Immune-Mediated Rejection of Breast Cancers in neu-Transgenic Mice1

Studies in cancer patients have suggested that breast tumors recruit regulatory T cells (Tregs) into the tumor microenvironment. The extent to which local Tregs suppress antitumor immunity in breast cancer is unknown. We questioned whether inhibiting systemic Tregs with an IL-2 immunotoxin in a model of neu-mediated breast cancer, the neu-transgenic mouse, could impact disease progression and survival. As in human breast cancer, cancers that develop in these mice attract Tregs into the tumor microenvironment to levels of ∼10–25% of the total CD4+ T cells. To examine the role of Tregs in blocking immune-mediated rejection of tumor, we depleted CD4+CD25+ T cells with an IL-2 immunotoxin. The treatment depleted Tregs without concomitant lymphopenia and markedly inhibited tumor growth. Depletion of Tregs resulted in a persistent antitumor response that was maintained over a month after the last treatment. The clinical response was immune-mediated because adoptive transfer of Tregs led to a complete abrogation of the therapeutic effects of immunotoxin treatment. Further, Treg down-modulation was accompanied by increased Ag-specific immunity against the neu protein, a self Ag. These results suggest that Tregs play a major role in preventing an effective endogenous immune response against breast cancer and that depletion of Tregs, without any additional immunotherapy, may mediate a significant antitumor response.
1 Multiple F-κB sites in HIV-1 subtype C LTR confer superior magnitude of transcription and thereby the enhanced viral predominance

Mahesh Bachu, Swarupa Yalla, Mangaiarkarasi Asokan, Anjali Verma, Ujjwal Neogi, Shilpee Sharma, Rajesh V Murali, Anil Babu Mukthey, Raghavendra Bhatt, Snehajyothi Chatterjee, Roshan Elsa Rajan, Narayana Cheedarla, Venkat S Yadavalli, Anita Mahadevan, Susarla K Shankar, Nirmala Rajagopalan, Anita Shet, Shanmugam Saravanan, Pachamuthu Balakrishnan, Suniti Solomon, Madhu Vajpayee, Kadappa Shivappa Satish, Tapas K. Kundu, Kuan-Teh Jeang, and Udaykumar Ranga