Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The BiBa one-time signature and broadcast authentication protocol

We introduce the BiBa signature scheme, a new signature construction that uses one-way functions without trapdoors. BiBa features a low verification overhead and a relatively small signature size. In comparison to other one-way function based signature schemes, BiBa has smaller signatures and is at least twice as fast to verify (which probably makes it one of the fastest signature scheme to date for verification). On the downside, the BiBa public key is large, and the signature generation overhead is higher than previous schemes based on one-way functions without trapdoors (although it can be trivially parallelized). One of the main challenges of securing broadcast communication is source authentication, which allows all receivers to verify the origin of the data. An ideal broadcast authentication protocol should be efficient for the sender and the receiver, have a small communication overhead, allow the receiver to authenticate each individual packet, provide perfect robustness to packet loss, scale to large numbers of receivers, and provide instant authentication (no buffering of data at the sender or receiver side). We are not aware of any previous protocol that satisfies all these properties. We present the BiBa broadcast authentication protocol, a new construction based on the BiBa signature, that achieves all our desired properties, with the tradeoff that it requires a moderate computation overhead for the sender to generate the authentication information, and that it requires loose time synchronization between the sender and receivers.
Original article: INTERACTIONS OF AROMATIC ISOCYANATES WITH N-ACETYL-L- CYSTEINE UNDER PHYSIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS: FORMATION OF CONJUGATES, UREAS AND AMINES

Isocyanates are of toxicological relevance since they are considered to cause occupational asthma. The majority of polyurethanes is based on aromatic diisocyanates (e.g., TDI and MDI), they are used for foams, elastomers, adhesives and coatings. Therefore we studied reactions of p-tolylisocyanate (pTI), 2,4-toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and 4,4’methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (AcCys) with different molar ratios in aqueous buffer solutions of pH 5.0 – 7.4. Type and amounts of products formed in these reactions were identified and quantified. Conjugates of AcCys and the aromatic isocyanates have been synthesized and characterized as reference materials. Conjugates and ureas were found to be the main products. The ratio of these two compounds varied with the ratio of AcCys to isocyanate. Approximately 90 % of pTI conjugate were found for the 10 : 1 ratio, approximately 40 % conjugate for the 10 : 5 and around 15 % for the 10 : 15 ratio. For TDI yields of conjugate were comparable. Ureas, apart from minor amounts of TDA-urea could not be determined quantitatively due to formation of oligomeric ureas with different end groups. Minor amounts of MDI-conjugates were found apart from high amounts of insoluble material, which proved to be unreacted MDI encapsulated by oligomeric ureas. The reaction of the –SH group with the isocyanate moiety is independent of the pH of the solution in the range studied. No diamine, i.e. 2,4-TDA or 4,4’-MDA, could be detected in reactions of the diisocyanates 2,4-TDI or 4,4’-MDI. Small amounts of p-toluidine (pTA) were found in the reaction of the mono isocyanate pTI when it was in excess with respect to AcCys. Reactions of the isocyanates with an aqueous buffer solution of pH 6.5 in the absence of AcCys gave ureas as main products, while significant amounts of unreacted diisocyanates remained encapsulated in the mixture. No 2,4-TDA or 4,4’-MDA was detected under these conditions. Again small amounts of pTA were formed from the reaction of pTI with water.
A 273–301-GHz Amplifier With 21-dB Peak Gain in 65-nm Standard Bulk CMOS

This letter presents a world-first 300-GHz amplifier in 65-nm standard bulk CMOS (1P9M GP). The amplifier has gain from 273 to 301 GHz, and the peak gain is 21 dB at 298 GHz. The amplifier has 16-stage positive-feedback common-source topology. The power consumption is 35.4 mW from a 1.2-V supply. Transistor (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\,\,\mu \text{m}\,\,\times 8\,\,\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) layout is optimized for minimizing gate and channel resistance to increase gain corner frequency from 250 GHz (conventional design kit-based transistor measurement result) to 270 GHz, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm {max}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> from around 300 GHz (design kit based) up to 317 GHz. Four transistor widths of 8, 10, 20, and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$30~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with the optimized layout are compared with the terms of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm {max}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> proving that the 8-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> width transistor has the highest <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\mathrm {max}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and hence used in the 300-GHz amplifier design. The dc-blocking capacitors are 10-fF finger-based design, which has lower loss than conventional MOM capacitors, since the fingers are formed on the top metal that is the thickest metal layer in the process.
An Automated Tool for Generating UML Models from Natural Language Requirements

This paper describes a domain independent tool, named, UML Model Generator from Analysis of Requirements (UMGAR), which generates UML models like the Use-case Diagram, Analysis class model, Collaboration diagram and Design class model from natural language requirements using efficient Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools. UMGAR implements a set of syntactic reconstruction rules to process complex requirements into simple requirements. UMGAR also provides a generic XMI parser to generate XMI files for visualizing the generated models in any UML modeling tool. With respect to the existing tools in this area, UMGAR provides more comprehensive support for generating models with proper relationships, which can be used for large requirement documents.
Haptic Assistive Bracelets for Blind Skier Guidance

Blindness dramatically limits quality of life of individuals and has profound implications for the person affected and the society as a whole. Physical mobility and exercises are strongly spurred within people, as ways to maintain health and well-being. Such activities can be really important for people with disability as well, and their increase is paramount in the well-being and assistive care system. In this work, we aim at improving the communication between the instructor and a visual impaired subject during skiing. Up to now, only the auditory channel is used to communicate basic commands to the skier. We introduce a novel use of haptic feedback in this context. In particular, the skier can receive directional information through two vibrating bracelets worn on the forearms. Haptic interaction has been proven to be processed faster by the brain demanding a less cognitive effort with respect to the auditory modality. The connection between the instructor and the skier is done by Bluetooth protocol. We tested different guiding modalities including only audio commands, audio and haptic commands and only haptic commands. Preliminary results on the use of the system reveled the haptic channel to be a promising way for guidance of blind people in winter sports.
Enhanced Bone Apposition to a Chemically Modified SLA Titanium Surface

Increased surface roughness of dental implants has demonstrated greater bone apposition; however, the effect of modifying surface chemistry remains unknown. In the present study, we evaluated bone apposition to a modified sandblasted/acid-etched (modSLA) titanium surface, as compared with a standard SLA surface, during early stages of bone regeneration. Experimental implants were placed in miniature pigs, creating 2 circular bone defects. Test and control implants had the same topography, but differed in surface chemistry. We created the test surface by submerging the implant in an isotonic NaCl solution following acid-etching to avoid contamination with molecules from the atmosphere. Test implants demonstrated a significantly greater mean percentage of bone-implant contact as compared with controls at 2 (49.30 vs. 29.42%; p = 0.017) and 4 wks (81.91 vs. 66.57%; p = 0.011) of healing. At 8 wks, similar results were observed. It is concluded that the modSLA surface promoted enhanced bone apposition during early stages of bone regeneration.
Sex differences in socioemotional functioning, attentional bias, and gray matter volume in maltreated children: A multilevel investigation

Abstract While maltreatment is known to impact social and emotional functioning, threat processing, and neural structure, the potentially dimorphic influence of sex on these outcomes remains relatively understudied. We investigated sex differences across these domains in a large community sample of children aged 10 to 14 years (n = 122) comprising 62 children with verified maltreatment experience and 60 well-matched nonmaltreated peers. The maltreated group relative to the nonmaltreated comparison group exhibited poorer social and emotional functioning (more peer problems and heightened emotional reactivity). Cognitively, they displayed a pattern of attentional avoidance of threat in a visual dot-probe task. Similar patterns were observed in males and females in these domains. Reduced gray matter volume was found to characterize the maltreated group in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, bilateral middle temporal lobes, and bilateral supramarginal gyrus; sex differences were observed only in the supramarginal gyrus. In addition, a disordinal interaction between maltreatment exposure and sex was found in the postcentral gyrus. Finally, attentional avoidance to threat mediated the relationship between maltreatment and emotional reactivity, and medial orbitofrontal cortex gray matter volume mediated the relationship between maltreatment and peer functioning. Similar mediation patterns were observed across sexes. This study highlights the utility of combining multiple levels of analysis when studying the “latent vulnerability” engendered by childhood maltreatment and yields tentative findings regarding a neural basis of sex differences in long-term outcomes for maltreated children.
Potential of Nitrogen Gas (N2) Flushing to Extend the Shelf Life of Cold Stored Pasteurised Milk

For different reasons, the amount of food loss for developing and developed countries is approximately equivalent. Altogether, these losses represent approximately 1/3 of the global food production. Significant amounts of pasteurised milk are lost due to bad smell and unpleasant taste. Currently, even under the best cold chain conditions, psychrotolerant spore-forming bacteria, some of which also harbour virulent factors, limit the shelf life of pasteurised milk. N2 gas-based flushing has recently been of interest for improving the quality of raw milk. Here, we evaluated the possibility of addressing bacterial growth in pasteurised milk during cold storage at 6 °C and 8 °C. Clearly, the treatments hindered bacterial growth, in a laboratory setting, when N2-treated milk were compared to the corresponding controls, which suggests that N2-flushing treatment constitutes a promising option to extend the shelf life of pasteurised milk.
Structural Learning for Template-free Protein Folding

The thesis is aimed to solve the template-free protein folding problem by tackling two important components: efficient sampling in vast conformation space, and design of knowledge-based potentials with high accuracy. We have proposed the first-order and second-order CRF-Sampler to sample structures from the continuous local dihedral angles space by modeling the lower and higher order conditional dependency between neighboring dihedral angles given the primary sequence information. A framework combining the Conditional Random Fields and the energy function is introduced to guide the local conformation sampling using long range constraints with the energy function. The relationship between the sequence profile and the local dihedral angle distribution is nonlinear. Hence we proposed the CNF-Folder to model this complex relationship by applying a novel machine learning model Conditional Neural Fields which utilizes the structural graphical model with the neural network. CRF-Samplers and CNF-Folder perform very well in CASP8 and CASP9. Further, a novel pairwise distance statistical potential (EPAD) is designed to capture the dependency of the energy profile on the positions of the interacting amino acids as well as the types of those amino acids, opposing the common assumption that this energy profile depends only on the types of amino acids. EPAD has also been successfully applied in the CASP 10 Free Modeling experiment with CNF-Folder, especially outstanding on some uncommon structured targets.
A Video Game Improves Behavioral Outcomes in Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer: A Randomized Trial

OBJECTIVE. Suboptimal adherence to self-administered medications is a common problem. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a video-game intervention for improving adherence and other behavioral outcomes for adolescents and young adults with malignancies including acute leukemia, lymphoma, and soft-tissue sarcoma. METHODS. A randomized trial with baseline and 1- and 3-month assessments was conducted from 2004 to 2005 at 34 medical centers in the United States, Canada, and Australia. A total of 375 male and female patients who were 13 to 29 years old, had an initial or relapse diagnosis of a malignancy, and currently undergoing treatment and expected to continue treatment for at least 4 months from baseline assessment were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. The intervention was a video game that addressed issues of cancer treatment and care for teenagers and young adults. Outcome measures included adherence, self-efficacy, knowledge, control, stress, and quality of life. For patients who were prescribed prophylactic antibiotics, adherence to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was tracked by electronic pill-monitoring devices (n = 200). Adherence to 6-mercaptopurine was assessed through serum metabolite assays (n = 54). RESULTS. Adherence to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 6-mercaptopurine was greater in the intervention group. Self-efficacy and knowledge also increased in the intervention group compared with the control group. The intervention did not affect self-report measures of adherence, stress, control, or quality of life. CONCLUSIONS. The video-game intervention significantly improved treatment adherence and indicators of cancer-related self-efficacy and knowledge in adolescents and young adults who were undergoing cancer therapy. The findings support current efforts to develop effective video-game interventions for education and training in health care.
Bayesian predictive power for interim adaptation in seamless phase II/III trials where the endpoint is survival up to some specified timepoint

Integration of a phase II and a phase III clinical trial into a single confirmatory study aims to shorten the development time without compromising the chance of success for a development program. These seamless phase II/III trials involve complex adaptations at the interim analysis, such as treatment selection, sample size reassessment, and stopping for futility. Bayesian methods can support these interim adaptations, and make this decision process more transparent. Use of a frequentist combination test for the final evaluation ensures that the type I error is controlled regardless of the adaptation rule employed at the interim analysis. In this paper, an adaptive seamless phase II/III trial design is proposed for studies where the endpoint is survival up to some specified timepoint and where Bayesian predictive power (PP) guides interim adaptations. For the evaluation of PP at the interim analysis, the event time is modelled as a piecewise exponential distribution, with informative priors for the hazard rates. As an illustrative example, regimen selection at interim in a four‐arm trial with an active control is considered, where both non‐inferiority and superiority to the control arm are tested. Frequentist properties of the adaptation criterion based on Bayesian PP are assessed by simulations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Laser-induced molecular fluorescence diagnosis of aluminum monoxide evolution in laser-induced plasma

Molecular evolution in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is conventionally diagnosed by observing molecular spontaneous emission (SE). In this work, laser-induced molecular fluorescence (LIMF) was introduced to investigate molecular evolution in laser-induced plasma. Aluminium monoxide (AlO) was taken as a typical example for demonstration. AlO molecules in the X2Σ+ state were stimulated by a 484.82 nm laser beam, and then 510.21 nm fluorescence was observed. Compared with conventional SE in LIBS, the proposed LIMF demonstrated that it took more time to fully combine aluminum and oxygen atoms to AlO molecules. Moreover, the longer lifetime of the AlO in plasma was observed.
FPGA Implementation of Sparse Tree Adder

Sparse tree adder is a parallel prefix adder which is the advancement of kogge stone adder In this paper, we design the sparse tree adder using Xilinx Spartan 3E simulation tool.Weobtain the latency,number of LUT’S and Hardware Utilization using this tool. Compared to the other parallel prefix adders, Sparse tree adder isfaster andoccupies less area. Because of this advantage over the other adders, now a days most of the processors have started using sparse tree adder. Further the output can be obtained for various bit rate. In this paper, a comparative study of sparse tree adder and the existing koggestone adder were analyzed.
Characteristics of an in-situ unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of soil

ABSTRACT A soil hydraulic conductivity (K) indicates the ability of a soil to conduct water and is often assumed to be in one-to-one correspondence with matric head (h) or volumetric water content (θ) for mathematically analyzing field soil water regimes. However, to what extent this assumption represents K in a field is rarely questioned, and how h-K and θ-K relations actually behave under natural field conditions is seldom investigated sufficiently. Therefore, this study aimed at clarifying actual behaviors of h-K and θ-K relations under natural field conditions (in-situ K), and evaluated the degree to which the in-situ K(h) diverted from its equivalent h-K relations that were measured through drainage processes starting from water-saturated conditions (primary-drying K(h)). The in-situ K values were obtained in the range of 4×10-8 cm s-1 < K < 8×10-6 cm s-1 with -55 cm < h < -5 cm during a four-years monitoring in a field. And the variation among the observed in-situ K values for a given h was one to two orders of magnitude, implying that the amount and pattern of water-conducting pores for a given h had changed frequently through years of wetting-drying cycles of the field soil, and that the application of a single-valued K(h) function to quantifying in-situ soil water flow can cause errors in these orders of magnitude. Also the in-situ K was 10 to 100 times lower than the primary-drying K in any h. The in-situ K fluctuated even for a given θ. Thus, it was suggested that neither an h-K relation nor a θ-K relation can sufficiently work for understanding a field soil water regime if it is regarded as merely a single-valued function. And more knowledge about the temporal variability in in-situ K is required for understanding soil water regimes in a field.
Serological and Molecular Diagnosis of Hepatitis Delta Virus Infection: Results of a French National Quality Control Study

ABSTRACT A French national quality control study for the serological and molecular diagnosis of hepatitis delta virus (HDV) was organized. Total HDV antibodies were properly detected by all laboratories; 8/14 laboratories failed to detect low titers of IgM, and 6/11 failed to quantify and/or underestimated the RNA viral load in several samples. These discrepancies are likely related to the molecular diversity of HDV.
Chemokine receptor expression in rat adjuvant-induced arthritis.

OBJECTIVE Chemokine receptors mediate leukocyte migration into inflamed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial tissue (ST). Knowledge of their distribution is crucial for understanding the evolution of the inflammatory process. In this study, we used rat adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA), a model for RA, to define the temporospatial expression of chemokine receptors. METHODS ST from rats with AIA was immunostained, the percentage of cells expressing each receptor was determined, and findings were correlated with levels of inflammation. Chemokine receptor expression was evaluated on rat macrophages in vitro. RESULTS CCR1, a receptor for macrophage inflammatory protein 1alpha (MIP-1alpha)/CCL3 and RANTES/CCL5, exhibited high constitutive expression on macrophages in AIA. CCR5, binding MIP-1alpha/CCL3 and RANTES/CCL5, was up-regulated on ST macrophages during the course of AIA, correlating with macrophage expression of CCR2, a receptor for monocyte chemoattractant protein 1/CCL2. Endothelial cell (EC) CCR2 was down-regulated as arthritis progressed, inversely correlating with inflammation. CCR3, another RANTES/CCL5 receptor, was constitutively high on macrophages in vivo and in vitro, with down-regulation during AIA. CXCR4, a receptor for stromal cell-derived factor 1/CXCL12), was prominently up-regulated on ECs, preceding the peak of inflammation. CONCLUSION These findings show that 1) constitutive expression of CCR1 on macrophages remains high during AIA; 2) CCR2 and CCR3 may play a role in initial recruitment of leukocytes to ST in AIA; 3) macrophage expression of CCR2 and CCR5 may be important for sustaining inflammatory changes; and 4) EC CXCR4 may be a harbinger of inflammatory changes. Our results may help guide chemokine receptor blockade-targeting treatment strategies in inflammatory arthritis.
Amplitude, Latency, and Peak Velocity in Accommodation and Disaccommodation Dynamics

The aim of this work was to ascertain whether there are differences in amplitude, latency, and peak velocity of accommodation and disaccommodation responses when different analysis strategies are used to compute them, such as fitting different functions to the responses or for smoothing them prior to computing the parameters. Accommodation and disaccommodation responses from four subjects to pulse changes in demand were recorded by means of aberrometry. Three different strategies were followed to analyze such responses: fitting an exponential function to the experimental data; fitting a Boltzmann sigmoid function to the data; and smoothing the data. Amplitude, latency, and peak velocity of the responses were extracted. Significant differences were found between the peak velocity in accommodation computed by fitting an exponential function and smoothing the experimental data (mean difference 2.36 D/s). Regarding disaccommodation, significant differences were found between latency and peak velocity, calculated with the two same strategies (mean difference of 0.15 s and −3.56 D/s, resp.). The strategy used to analyze accommodation and disaccommodation responses seems to affect the parameters that describe accommodation and disaccommodation dynamics. These results highlight the importance of choosing the most adequate analysis strategy in each individual to obtain the parameters that characterize accommodation and disaccommodation dynamics.