Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Difference between Toxicities of Iron Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles with Various Surface-Functional Groups against Human Normal Fibroblasts and Fibrosarcoma Cells

Recently, many nanomedical studies have been focused on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) because MNPs possess attractive properties for potential uses in imaging, drug delivery, and theranostics. MNPs must have optimized size as well as functionalized surface for such applications. However, careful cytotoxicity and genotoxicity assessments to ensure the biocompatibility and biosafety of MNPs are essential. In this study, Fe3O4 MNPs of different sizes (approximately 10 and 100–150 nm) were prepared with different functional groups, hydroxyl (–OH) and amine (–NH2) groups, by coating their surfaces with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) or TEOS/APTMS. Differential cellular responses to those surface-functionalized MNPs were investigated in normal fibroblasts vs. fibrosarcoma cells. Following the characterization of MNP properties according to size, surface charge and functional groups, cellular responses to MNPs in normal fibroblasts and fibrosarcoma cells were determined by quantifying metabolic activity, membrane integrity, and DNA stability. While all MNPs induced just about 5% or less cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in fibrosarcoma cells at lower than 500 μg/mL, APTMS-coated MNPs resulted in greater than 10% toxicity against normal cells. Particularly, the genotoxicity of MNPs was dependent on their dose, size and surface charge, showing that positively charged (APTMS- or TEOS/APTMS-coated) MNPs induced appreciable DNA aberrations irrespective of cell type. Resultantly, smaller and positively charged (APTMS-coated) MNPs led to more severe toxicity in normal cells than their cancer counterparts. Although it was difficult to fully differentiate cellular responses to various MNPs between normal fibroblasts and their cancer counterparts, normal cells were shown to be more vulnerable to internalized MNPs than cancer cells. Our results suggest that functional groups and sizes of MNPs are critical determinants of degrees of cytotoxicity and genotoxicity, and potential mechanisms of toxicity.
Intelligent model system for tourism flow prediction: a study of Xi'an Museum

Tourism flow is influenced by many factors, so accurate tourism flow forecasting is a most important and difficult issue in tourism industry. Here a new intelligent model system for tourism flow prediction is proposed which combine statistical methods with BPNN model (SMBPS). SMBPS is divided into three stages. The first stage is data analysis and preprocessing. Official holiday is seen as emergency event, trend extrapolation is used to smooth the tourist flow of emergency event which fluctuate remarkably, the formula of the human body comfort is used to acquire the comfort-index level and Monthly index is used to divide a year into four tourist seasons; The second stage, four BPNN models are built for four tourist seasons respectively in order to predict the tourist flow in normal working days as different tourist season has different characteristics; in the last stage, the fluctuation coefficient is used to predict the tourist flow of emergency event dynamically. The experimental results indicate that the SMBPS is an effective approach which is more accurate than any other models and can be used as a suitable forecasting tool to solve the problem of scenic spot forecasting.
An Evaluation of Four Solutions to the Forking Paths Problem: Adjusted Alpha, Preregistration, Sensitivity Analyses, and Abandoning the Neyman-Pearson Approach

Gelman and Loken (2013, 2014) proposed that when researchers base their statistical analyses on the idiosyncratic characteristics of a specific sample (e.g., a nonlinear transformation of a variable because it is skewed), they open up alternative analysis paths in potential replications of their study that are based on different samples (i.e., no transformation of the variable because it is not skewed). These alternative analysis paths count as additional (multiple) tests and, consequently, they increase the probability of making a Type I error during hypothesis testing. The present article considers this forking paths problem and evaluates four potential solutions that might be used in psychology and other fields: (a) adjusting the prespecified alpha level, (b) preregistration, (c) sensitivity analyses, and (d) abandoning the Neyman-Pearson approach. It is concluded that although preregistration and sensitivity analyses are effective solutions to p-hacking, they are ineffective against result-neutral forking paths, such as those caused by transforming data. Conversely, although adjusting the alpha level cannot address p-hacking, it can be effective for result-neutral forking paths. Finally, abandoning the Neyman-Pearson approach represents a further solution to the forking paths problem.
Some control variates for exotic options

There are no known exact formulas for the valuation of a number of exotic options, and this is particularly true for options under discrete monitoring and for American style options. Therefore, one usually recourses to a Monte Carlo Simulation approach, amongst other numerical methods, to estimate the value of these options. The problem which then arises with this method is one of variance reduction. Control variates are often used, and we present some results for the optimization of these control variables, for the valuation of Asian and lookback options. An inequality on functions of correlations useful for comparing estimators in variance reduction procedures is also provided.
Measuring sexual interests with pupillary responses

During the visual processing of sexual content, pupillary responses have been positively associated with observers' sexual orientation. The question of whether this measure also reflects age-specific sexual preferences, however, is rarely considered. This is remarkable given the potential applied value of pupillary responses for directly measuring unhealthy and inappropriate sexual desires in clinical and forensic settings. The experiments in this thesis addressed this question with a series of tasks whereby observers' viewed images of adults and children while their eye movements and pupil responses were recorded. These results were then compared with sexual appeal ratings for these images and self-report questionnaires relating to sexual interests and experiences. The main findings indicate that pupil dilation is a measure of sexual orientation that is particularly robust and consistent for male participants (Chapters 2 to 4). Furthermore, these experiments provide initial evidence that pupil dilation could also be used as an age-specific measure of sexual interest in males and females (Chapters 2 and 3). Additionally, this thesis explored the influence of low-level stimulus artefacts within the scenes on pupillary patterns (Chapter 2). Findings provide further evidence that the pupillary responses obtained in these experiments are driven by the person content in the scenes. These findings are discussed in relation to existing research on eye-tracking and other current measurements of sexual interest.
Pre-placement of VLSI blocks through learning neural networks

This paper presents a new neural network approach to the pre-placement of VLSI blocks. The authors' innovation consists in considering the pre-placement problem as a classification problem, and in implementing a neural network learning algorithm, derived from Kohonen maps, to accomplish this task. The neural network has been simulated and the results have been compared with those obtained from a classical min-cut algorithm. The comparison shows as the authors' technique offers comparable quality of solutions, but presents a more favourable computational complexity. <<ETX>>
Monte Carlo-Free Prediction of Spurious Performance for ECDLL-Based Synthesizers

Misalignment of delay-locked loop (DLL) output edges creates an undesired periodicity, resulting in reference harmonic tones at the output spectrum of edge-combining DLL (ECDLL)-based frequency synthesizers. These spurious tones corrupt the spectral purity to an unacceptable level for wireless applications. The spur magnitude is a random variable defined by the reference frequency, number of DLL phases, harmonic order, stage-delay standard deviation (SD), duty cycle distortion (DCD) of the reference clock, and static phase error (SPE) of the locked-loop due to charge pump/phase detector imperfections. Hence, to estimate the spurious performance of such synthesizers, exhaustive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are inevitable. Based on closed-form expressions, this paper proposes a generic predictive model for harmonic spur characterization of ECDLL-based frequency synthesizers, whose prediction accuracy is independent of synthesizer design parameters and system non-idealities. Therefore, it can replace MC method to significantly accelerate the iterative design procedure of the synthesizer, while providing comparable predictions in terms of robustness and accuracy to those of MC. Validity, accuracy, and robustness of the proposed prediction method against wide-range values of non-idealities are verified through MC simulations of both the behavioral model and transistor-level model of the synthesizer in a standard 65-nm CMOS technology.
Privacy-preserving collaborative filtering based on horizontally partitioned dataset

Nowadays, recommender systems have been increasingly used by companies to improve their services. Such systems are employed by companies in order to satisfy their existing customers and attract new ones. However, many small or medium companies do not possess adequate customer data to generate satisfactory recommendations. To solve this problem, we propose that the companies should generate recommendations based on a joint set of customer data. For this purpose, we present a privacy-preserving collaborative filtering algorithm, which allows one company to generate recommendations based on its own customer data and the customer data from other companies. The security property is based on rigorous cryptographic techniques, and guarantees that no company will leak its customer data to others. In practice, such a guarantee not only protects companies' business incentives but also makes the operation compliant with privacy regulations. To obtain precise performance figures, we implement a prototype of the proposed solution in C++. The experimental results show that the proposed solution achieves significant accuracy difference in the generated recommendations.
Association between the stress fracture and bone metabolism/quality markers in lacrosse players

Background Overuse injury including stress fracture is a serious problem for athletes. Recently, the importance of bone metabolism and quality as factors preventing overuse injury has been increasingly recognized. Hence, we hypothesized that markers of bone metabolism and quality are related to overuse injuries. Methods The subjects, which were elite university lacrosse players (male, n = 35; age, 19.8 ± 1.1; female, n = 49; age, 20.0 ± 1.0), were divided into a stress fracture group and a control group. We measured the subjects’ physical characteristics (height, weight, body mass index, and body fat) and bone architecture was evaluated using quantitative ultrasound. Bone alkaline phosphatase, N-telopeptide cross-link of type I collagen, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRAP-5b), homocysteine, and pentosidine were measured from blood samples obtained from all subjects. Results No significant difference was observed between groups with respect to height, weight, body mass index, and body fat, as well as quantitative ultrasound. Further, there were no significant differences in the levels of bone alkaline phosphatase, N-telopeptide cross-link of type I collagen, or TRAP-5b between stress fracture and control groups in all subjects and in male subjects. However, a significant increase in TRAP-5b level was observed in the stress fracture group compared with the control in the female subjects (409.9 ± 209.3 and 318.6 ± 81.6 mU/dL, respectively; P < 0.05). Homocysteine and pentosidine did not differ between groups. Conclusion These results suggest that osteoclast activity of female athletes with stress fractures may be enhanced by TRAP-5b.
Query Expansion Using Topic and Location

Users use a few keywords to post queries to search engines. Search engines, often, fail to return answers that their users seek because the keyword queries incompletely specify the information being sought and because of the ambiguity of natural language terms. Query expansion, where additional keywords are added automatically or semi-automatically to the user's query before it is run, has been used to improve the accuracy of search engines. We propose a framework where first, we identify whether a query should be expanded based on its features. We focus on identifying queries whose results are location-sensitive and expand them using keywords from similar queries from similar locations. Similarity between queries is derived using a novel LDA-based topic-level query similarity measure. We conducted experiments with query log data from the CiteSeer digital library and see a small improvement of results due to our query expansion.
Stochastic first order methods in smooth convex optimization

In this paper, we are interested in the development of efficient first-order methods for convex optimization problems in the simultaneous presence of smoothness of the objective function and stochasticity in the first-order information. First, we consider the Stochastic Primal Gradient method, which is nothing else but the Mirror Descent SA method applied to a smooth function and we develop new practical and efficient stepsizes policies. Based on the machinery of estimates sequences functions, we develop also two new methods, a Stochastic Dual Gradient Method and an accelerated Stochastic Fast Gradient Method. Convergence rates on average, probabilities of large deviations and accuracy certificates are studied. All of these methods are designed in order to decrease the effect of the stochastic noise at an unimprovable rate and to be easily implementable in practice (the practical efficiency of our method is confirmed by numerical experiments). Furthermore, the biased case, when the oracle is not only stochastic but also affected by a bias is considered for the first time in the literature.
Steady-state Performance of Incremental LMS Strategies For Parameter Estimation Over Fading Wireless Channels

We study the effect of fading in the communication channels between nodes on the performance of the incremental least mean square (ILMS) algorithm. We derive steady-state performance metrics, including the mean-square deviation (MSD), excess mean-square error (EMSE), and mean-square error (MSE). We obtain the sufficient conditions to ensure mean-square convergence, and verify our results through simulations. Simulation results show that our theoretical analysis closely matches the actual steady state performance.
Comparison of local feature descriptors for mobile visual search

We evaluate the performance of MPEG-7 image signatures, Compressed Histogram of Gradients descriptor (CHoG) and Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) descriptors for mobile visual search applications. We observe that SIFT and CHoG outperform MPEG-7 image signatures greatly in terms of feature-level Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) performance and image-level matching. Moreover, CHoG descriptors demonstrate such gains while being comparable with MPEG-7 image signatures in bit-rate.
Fact learning: How information accuracy, delay, and repeated testing change retention and retrieval experience

Previous classroom studies have shown that the phenomenology of studied facts changes over time. However, pedagogical needs preclude both the study of errors and the separation of the effects that delay and repeated testing have on retention and retrieval experience. We addressed these issues together in an experiment where participants read stories containing correct and misleading information and provided Remember, Just Know, and Familiar judgements on immediate and delayed general knowledge tests. After 2 days, information learned from the stories shifted from Remembered to Just Known, but repeated testing attenuated this shift. Interestingly, similar patterns of retrieval and phenomenology were observed for correct and misleading information with one important difference—the shift over time to Just Knowing was significantly greater for correct than for misleading information. Together, these findings show the roles of information accuracy, delay, and testing in determining both retention and the subjective experience of retrieval.
Stabilizing Impacts in Force-Reflecting Teleoperation Using Distance-to-Impact Estimates

The level of force that can be stably reflected to the human operator in a force-reflecting teleoperator is constrained by the dynamics of impact between the slave arm and its environment. This paper models the underlying dynamics of impact and describes how the impact effects can be minimized using estimates of the distance between the slave and objects in its workspace. Our approach is based on stochastic variational principles and seeks to limit the momentum of the slave arm at impact. Preliminary experimental results show that the approach allows extension of the range of frequencies that can be stably reflected to the human operator.
Combined Effects of Smoking and Alcohol on Metabolic Syndrome: The LifeLines Cohort Study

Introduction The development of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is influenced by environmental factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption. We determined the combined effects of smoking and alcohol on MetS and its individual components. Methods 64,046 participants aged 18–80 years from the LifeLines Cohort study were categorized into three body mass index (BMI) classes (BMI<25, normal weight; BMI 25–30, overweight; BMI≥30 kg/m2, obese). MetS was defined according to the revised criteria of the National Cholesterol Education Program’s Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III). Within each BMI class and smoking subgroup (non-smoker, former smoker, <20 and ≥20 g tobacco/day), the cross-sectional association between alcohol and individual MetS components was tested using regression analysis. Results Prevalence of MetS varied greatly between the different smoking-alcohol subgroups (1.7–71.1%). HDL cholesterol levels in all alcohol drinkers were higher than in non-drinkers (0.02 to 0.29 mmol/L, P values<0.001). HDL cholesterol levels were lower when they were also a former or current smoker (<20 and ≥20 g tobacco/day). Consumption of ≤1 drink/day indicated a trend towards lower triglyceride levels (non-significant). Concurrent use alcohol (>1 drink/day) and tobacco showed higher triglycerides levels. Up to 2 drinks/day was associated with a smaller waist circumference in overweight and obese individuals. Consumption of >2 drinks/day increased blood pressure, with the strongest associations found for heavy smokers. The overall metabolic profile of wine drinkers was better than that of non-drinkers or drinkers of beer or spirits/mixed drinks. Conclusion Light alcohol consumption may moderate the negative associations of smoking with MetS. Our results suggest that the lifestyle advice that emphasizes smoking cessation and the restriction of alcohol consumption to a maximum of 1 drink/day, is a good approach to reduce the prevalence of MetS.
Design of radix 4 divider circuit using SRT algorithm

The arithmetic operations are widely used in calculators and digital system. High speed methods of calculating are currently being requested, hence the design of fast divider is an important issues in high speed computing. In this paper we present fast radix-4 SRT division architecture with the digit-recurrent approach in which the quotient is obtained one digit per iteration. In this we estimating quotient digit instead of finding the exact one. The speculated quotient digit is used to calculate two possible partial remainders, in parallel with updating the new partial remainder for the next step whiles the quotient digit is being corrected. The two step processes does not affect the division speed, the approach has fast speed performance due to significant reduction in table size and by using higher radix, proposed divider takes power of 32. 92μw with delay of 1.18 ns with 0. 18μm CMOS technology.
Single Cell Measurements of Vacuolar Rupture Caused by Intracellular Pathogens

Shigella flexneri are pathogenic bacteria that invade host cells entering into an endocytic vacuole. Subsequently, the rupture of this membrane-enclosed compartment allows bacteria to move within the cytosol, proliferate and further invade neighboring cells. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is phagocytosed by immune cells, and has recently been shown to rupture phagosomal membrane in macrophages. We developed a robust assay for tracking phagosomal membrane disruption after host cell entry of Shigella flexneri or Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The approach makes use of CCF4, a FRET reporter sensitive to β-lactamase that equilibrates in the cytosol of host cells. Upon invasion of host cells by bacterial pathogens, the probe remains intact as long as the bacteria reside in membrane-enclosed compartments. After disruption of the vacuole, β-lactamase activity on the surface of the intracellular pathogen cleaves CCF4 instantly leading to a loss of FRET signal and switching its emission spectrum. This robust ratiometric assay yields accurate information about the timing of vacuolar rupture induced by the invading bacteria, and it can be coupled to automated microscopy and image processing by specialized algorithms for the detection of the emission signals of the FRET donor and acceptor. Further, it allows investigating the dynamics of vacuolar disruption elicited by intracellular bacteria in real time in single cells. Finally, it is perfectly suited for high-throughput analysis with a spatio-temporal resolution exceeding previous methods. Here, we provide the experimental details of exemplary protocols for the CCF4 vacuolar rupture assay on HeLa cells and THP-1 macrophages for time-lapse experiments or end points experiments using Shigella flexneri as well as multiple mycobacterial strains such as Mycobacterium marinum, Mycobacterium bovis, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
A unified approach for motion estimation and super resolution reconstruction from structural Magnetic Resonance imaging on moving subjects

This paper presents a unified formulation for between slice motion correction and 3D reconstruction in fast multi-slice Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI). In addition, the approach applies a motion prior for multi-scale registration instead of the usual motion parameterization and includes a slice resolution model. The approach was benchmarked against the slice intersection-based motion correction (SIMC) method in two synthetic data experiments as well on two clinical fetal MR scans. On the synthetic dataset and on the clinical scans the proposed method had similar performance to SIMC. The experiments on synthetic data also showed that slice resolution modeling increases the registration accuracy significantly in slice-to-volume-based motion estimation.