Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Service function chain in small satellite-based software defined satellite networks

Software Defined Satellite Networks (SDSN) are proposed to solve the problems in traditional satellite networks, such as time-consuming configuration and inflexible traffic scheduling. The emerging application of small satellite and research of SDSN make it possible for satellite networks to provide flexible network services. Service Function Chain (SFC) can satisfy this need. In this paper, we are motivated to investigate applying SFC in the small satellite-based SDSN for service delivery. We introduce the structure of the multi-layer constellation-based SDSN. Then, we describe two deployment patterns of SFC in SDSN, the Multi-Domain (MD) pattern and the Satellite Formation (SF) pattern. We propose two algorithms, SFP-MD, and SFP-SF, to calculate the Service Function Path (SFP). We implement the algorithms and conduct contrast experiments in our prototype. Finally, we summarize the applicable conditions of two deployment patterns according to the experimental results in terms of hops, delay, and packet loss rate.
From Business Process Modelling to Business Process Automation

We first describe an agent-oriented business modelling technique that enables to create business process and domain models that are executable by software agents. The technique consists of the steps of analysis by goal-based use cases and design by the extended AOR Modelling Language. We then show how the models created can be represented in XML and executed by agents.
Cell cycle and complement inhibitors may be specific for treatment of spinal cord injury in aged and young mice: transcriptomic analyses

Previous studies have reported age-specific pathological and functional outcomes in young and aged patients suffering spinal cord injury, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we examined mice with spinal cord injury. Gene expression profiles from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (accession number GSE93561) were used, including spinal cord samples from 3 young injured mice (2–3-months old, induced by Impactor at Th9 level) and 3 control mice (2–3-months old, no treatment), as well as 2 aged injured mice (15–18-months old, induced by Impactor at Th9 level) and 2 control mice (15–18-months old, no treatment). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in spinal cord tissue from injured and control mice were identified using the Linear Models for Microarray data method, with a threshold of adjusted P < 0.05 and |logFC(fold change)| > 1.5. Protein–protein interaction networks were constructed using data from the STRING database, followed by module analysis by Cytoscape software to screen crucial genes. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway and Gene Ontology enrichment analyses were performed to investigate the underlying functions of DEGs using Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery. Consequently, 1,604 and 1,153 DEGs were identified between injured and normal control mice in spinal cord tissue of aged and young mice, respectively. Furthermore, a Venn diagram showed that 960 DEGs were shared among aged and young mice, while 644 and 193 DEGs were specific to aged and young mice, respectively. Functional enrichment indicates that shared DEGs are involved in osteoclast differentiation, extracellular matrix–receptor interaction, nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway, and focal adhesion. Unique genes for aged and young injured groups were involved in the cell cycle (upregulation of PLK1) and complement (upregulation of C3) activation, respectively. These findings were confirmed by functional analysis of genes in modules (common, 4; aged, 2; young, 1) screened from protein–protein interaction networks. Accordingly, cell cycle and complement inhibitors may be specific treatments for spinal cord injury in aged and young mice, respectively.
Development Life Cycle of Web Service-Based Business Processes. Enabling dynamic invocation of Web service at run time

Web service technology aims at application integration by providing stable service interfaces and standardized communication protocol. However, this is not yet a mature technology; it lacks certain features, among which ability to compose services in the most flexible way. We begin with a comparison of traditional workflow and the existing Web Services-based process technologies; the advantages of the emerging technologies and how they meet the new requirements imposed by both the business and Web services worlds are pointed out. We revise the process life cycle by including additional phases to the traditional division in only build time and run time. This fosters standardization, and allows for modeling adaptable business processes. We concentrate on the dynamic invocation of WSs from within a process instance and present a new way of finding, binding to and invoking WSs during process runtime. For this we introduce an additional run time sub-phase to accommodate the so-called “find and bind” mechanism, which involves policybased selection of services and binding to them at run time. The implications of the “find and bind” mechanism on the process model and the implementation of the execution environment are also discussed.
Influence of Codium tomentosum Extract in the Properties of Alginate and Chitosan Edible Films

The growing search for natural alternatives to synthetic food packaging materials and additives has increased, and seaweed extracts’ bioactivity has made them suitable candidates for incorporation in novel edible films. This study aims to investigate the effect of Codium tomentosum seaweed extract (SE) incorporation in alginate and chitosan edible films. Alginate- and chitosan-based films with and without the incorporation of 0.5% SE were characterized according to their physical, optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Seaweed extract incorporation in chitosan films resulted in an increase of film solubility (50%), elasticity (18%), and decrease of puncture strength (27%) and energy at break (39%). In alginate films, the extract incorporation significantly decreased film solubility (6%), water vapour permeability (46%), and elasticity (24%), and had no effect on thermal properties. Depending on the type of application, the addition of SE in edible films can bring advantages for food conservation.
In vivo bioluminescence imaging reveals copper deficiency in a murine model of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Significance Like all essential metals in mammals, deficiency or excess of copper can be detrimental to health. We present a bioluminescent reporter based on copper-dependent uncaging of a d-luciferin substrate for selective, sensitive, and tissue-specific longitudinal imaging of labile copper pools in animal model systems. Application of this technology to monitor a diet-induced mouse model of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a disorder affecting ca. 100 million Americans, reveals hepatic copper deficiency and altered expression levels of copper homeostatic proteins that accompany glucose intolerance and weight gain. The results demonstrate the viability of this molecular imaging approach and connect copper dysregulation to metabolic liver disease, providing a platform for designing reactivity-based reporters for cell- and tissue-specific in vivo metal imaging. Copper is a required metal nutrient for life, but global or local alterations in its homeostasis are linked to diseases spanning genetic and metabolic disorders to cancer and neurodegeneration. Technologies that enable longitudinal in vivo monitoring of dynamic copper pools can help meet the need to study the complex interplay between copper status, health, and disease in the same living organism over time. Here, we present the synthesis, characterization, and in vivo imaging applications of Copper-Caged Luciferin-1 (CCL-1), a bioluminescent reporter for tissue-specific copper visualization in living animals. CCL-1 uses a selective copper(I)-dependent oxidative cleavage reaction to release d-luciferin for subsequent bioluminescent reaction with firefly luciferase. The probe can detect physiological changes in labile Cu+ levels in live cells and mice under situations of copper deficiency or overload. Application of CCL-1 to mice with liver-specific luciferase expression in a diet-induced model of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease reveals onset of hepatic copper deficiency and altered expression levels of central copper trafficking proteins that accompany symptoms of glucose intolerance and weight gain. The data connect copper dysregulation to metabolic liver disease and provide a starting point for expanding the toolbox of reactivity-based chemical reporters for cell- and tissue-specific in vivo imaging.
Lung contusion Near-drowning INFECTION Viral pneumonia Gram-negative sepsis Bacterial pneumonia Tuberculosis Fungal pneumonia INHALATION OF TOXIC GASES Oxygen

The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is characterized by nonhydrostatic pulmonary edema and hypoxemia associated with a variety of etiologies that cause both direct and indirect insults to the lungs. The process develops acutely (usually within 72 hours of the precipitating event), requires immediate recognition, and often leads to death despite maximal medical support. The therapeutic goals in the setting of ARDS are to provide appropriate resuscitation measures and to quickly identify, address, and eliminate the precipitating event if possible. Adequate tissue perfusion and oxygenation must be maintained to support vital organs. Prevention of complications and the prompt recognition of their presence are critical to prevent late deaths (1).
Plasticity in Skeletal, Cardiac, and Smooth Muscle Invited Review: Contractile activity-induced mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle

Hood, David A. Invited Review: Contractile activity-induced mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle. J Appl Physiol 90: 1137–1157, 2001. —Chronic contractile activity produces mitochondrial biogenesis in muscle. This adaptation results in a significant shift in adenine nucleotide metabolism, with attendant improvements in fatigue resistance. The vast majority of mitochondrial proteins are derived from the nuclear genome, necessitating the transcription of genes, the translation of mRNA into protein, the targeting of the protein to a mitochondrial compartment via the import machinery, and the assembly of multisubunit enzyme complexes in the respiratory chain or matrix. Putative signals involved in initiating this pathway of gene expression in response to contractile activity likely arise from combinations of accelerations in ATP turnover or imbalances between mitochondrial ATP synthesis and cellular ATP demand, and Ca fluxes. These rapid events are followed by the activation of exercise-responsive kinases, which phosphorylate proteins such as transcription factors, which subsequently bind to upstream regulatory regions in DNA, to alter transcription rates. Contractile activity increases the mRNA levels of nuclearencoded proteins such as cytochrome c and mitochondrial transcription factor A (Tfam) and mRNA levels of upstream transcription factors like c-jun and nuclear respiratory factor-1 (NRF-1). mRNA level changes are often most evident during the postexercise recovery period, and they can occur as a result of contractile activity-induced increases in transcription or mRNA stability. Tfam is imported into mitochondria and controls the expression of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). mtDNA contributes only 13 protein products to the respiratory chain, but they are vital for electron transport and ATP synthesis. Contractile activity increases Tfam expression and accelerates its import into mitochondria, resulting in increased mtDNA transcription and replication. The result of this coordinated expression of the nuclear and the mitochondrial genomes, along with poorly understood changes in phospholipid synthesis, is an expansion of the muscle mitochondrial reticulum. Further understanding of 1) regulation of mtDNA expression, 2) upstream activators of NRF-1 and other transcription factors, 3) the identity of mRNA stabilizing proteins, and 4) potential of contractile activity-induced changes in apoptotic signals are warranted.
M Gene Reassortment in H9N2 Influenza Virus Promotes Early Infection and Replication: Contribution to Rising Virus Prevalence in Chickens in China

ABSTRACT Segment reassortment and base mutagenesis of influenza A viruses are the primary routes to the rapid evolution of high-fitness virus genotypes. We recently described a predominant G57 genotype of avian H9N2 viruses that caused countrywide outbreaks in chickens in China during 2010 to 2013, which led to the zoonotic emergence of H7N9 viruses. One of the key features of the G57 genotype is the replacement of the earlier A/chicken/Beijing/1/1994 (BJ/94)-like M gene with the A/quail/Hong Kong/G1/1997 (G1)-like M gene of quail origin. We report here the functional significance of the G1-like M gene in H9N2 viruses in conferring increased infection severity and infectivity in primary chicken embryonic fibroblasts and chickens. H9N2 virus housing the G1-like M gene, in place of the BJ/94-like M gene, showed an early surge in viral mRNA and viral RNA (vRNA) transcription that was associated with enhanced viral protein production and with an early elevated release of progeny virus comprising largely spherical rather than filamentous virions. Importantly, H9N2 virus with the G1-like M gene conferred extrapulmonary virus spread in chickens. Five highly represented signature amino acid residues (37A, 95K, 224N, and 242N in the M1 protein and 21G in the M2 protein) encoded by the prevalent G1-like M gene were demonstrated to be prime contributors to enhanced infectivity. Therefore, the genetic evolution of the M gene in H9N2 virus increases reproductive virus fitness, indicating its contribution to the rising virus prevalence in chickens in China. IMPORTANCE We recently described the circulation of a dominant genotype (genotype G57) of H9N2 viruses in countrywide outbreaks in chickens in China, which was responsible, through reassortment, for the emergence of H7N9 viruses that cause severe human infections. A key feature of the genotype G57 H9N2 virus is the presence of the quail-origin G1-like M gene, which had replaced the earlier BJ/94-like M gene. We found that H9N2 virus with the G1-like M gene, but not the BJ/94-like M gene, showed an early surge in progeny virus production and more severe pathology and extrapulmonary virus spread in chickens. Five highly represented amino acid residues in the M1 and M2 proteins derived from the G1-like M gene were shown to mediate enhanced virus infectivity. These observations enhance what we currently know about the roles of reassortment and mutations in virus fitness and have implications for assessing the potential of variant influenza viruses that can cause a rising prevalence in chickens.
School Contextual Features of Social Disorder and Mental Health Complaints—A Multilevel Analysis of Swedish Sixth-Grade Students

This study addressed school-contextual features of social disorder in relation to sixth-grade students’ experiences of bullying victimization and mental health complaints. It investigated, firstly, whether the school’s concentrations of behavioural problems were associated with individual students’ likelihood of being bullied, and secondly, whether the school’s concentrations of behavioural problems and bullying victimization predicted students’ emotional and psychosomatic health complaints. The data were derived from the Swedish National Survey of Mental Health among Children and Young People, carried out among sixth-grade students (approximately 12–13 years old) in Sweden in 2009. The analyses were based on information from 59,510 students distributed across 1999 schools. The statistical method used was multilevel modelling. While students’ own behavioural problems were associated with an elevated risk of being bullied, attending a school with a higher concentration of students with behavioural problems also increased the likelihood of being bullied. Attending a school with higher levels of bullying victimization and behavioural problems predicted more emotional and psychosomatic complaints, even when adjusting for their individual level analogues. The findings indicate that school-level features of social disorder influence bullying victimization and mental health complaints among students.
CytoMCS: A Multiple Maximum Common Subgraph Detection Tool for Cytoscape

Abstract Comparative analysis of biological networks is a major problem in computational integrative systems biology. By computing the maximum common edge subgraph between a set of networks, one is able to detect conserved substructures between them and quantify their topological similarity. To aid such analyses we have developed CytoMCS, a Cytoscape app for computing inexact solutions to the maximum common edge subgraph problem for two or more graphs. Our algorithm uses an iterative local search heuristic for computing conserved subgraphs, optimizing a squared edge conservation score that is able to detect not only fully conserved edges but also partially conserved edges. It can be applied to any set of directed or undirected, simple graphs loaded as networks into Cytoscape, e.g. protein-protein interaction networks or gene regulatory networks. CytoMCS is available as a Cytoscape app at http://apps.cytoscape. org/apps/cytomcs.
Low Speed Electric Vehicle Trajectory Following with Variable Rolling Resistance

This paper investigates the trajectory followed by a low-speed electric vehicle under varying tire/road rolling resistance. In particular, when an electric mobile platform is moving in a warehouse, the rolling surface characteristics may vary due to the different type of floors and material used in the warehouse. Hence, the conventional kinematic model (with fixed parameters) is not valid. Through an adaptive estimation of the kinematic parameters, a new approach that allows the low-speed electric vehicle to follow a trajectory whilst minimizing the kinematic energy, despite the complexity of the rolling surface characteristic, is discussed. Preliminary validations in simulation suggest that this approach is effective whilst reducing in the same time among of motion energy.
Experimental Observation on the Effectiveness of Fiber Sheet Strip Stirrups in Concrete Beams

Experimental observations were made for the effectiveness of fiber sheet strips (FSSs) as internal stirrups in comparison with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) rod stirrups and steel stirrups. A total number of 10 concrete beams were tested under three-point loading. Each beam measured 1,400 mm long, 150 mm wide, and 250 mm deep. Their shear span-depth ratios were 2.5. The beams were composed of different shear reinforcements: one without stirrups, two with steel stirrups, one with carbon FRP rod stirrups, and the rest with different types of FSS stirrups. The main variables include stirrup types, strengthening of bent portions of FSS stirrups, impregnation, and shear reinforcement ratio for FSS stirrups. Test results indicated that concrete beams reinforced with FSS stirrups had enhanced shear strength over the beam without shear reinforcements. Moreover, the FSS stirrup-reinforced beams could maintain comparable shear behavior to that of the concrete beam reinforced with steel stirrups in overall load-def.
Unifying quality metrics for reservoir networks

Several metrics for the quality of reservoirs have been proposed and linked to reservoir performance in Echo State Networks and Liquid State Machines. A method to visualize the quality of a reservoir, called the separation ratio graph, is developed from these existing metrics leading to a generalized approach to measuring reservoir quality. Separation ratio provides a method for estimating the components of a reservoir's separation and visualizing the transition from stable to chaotic behavior. This new approach does not require a prior classification of input samples and can be applied to reservoirs trained with unsupervised learning. It can also be used to analyze systems made up of multiple reservoirs to determine performance between any two points in the system.
Personal volunteer computing

We propose personal volunteer computing, a novel paradigm to encourage technical solutions that leverage personal devices, such as smartphones and laptops, for personal applications that require significant computations, such as animation rendering and image processing. The paradigm requires no investment in additional hardware, relying instead on devices that are already owned by users and their community, and favours simple tools that can be implemented part-time by a single developer. We show that samples of personal devices of today are competitive with a top-of-the-line laptop from two years ago. We also propose new directions to extend the paradigm.
Cross-Layer Exploitation of MAC Layer Diversity in Wireless Networks

The conventional function of the medium access control (MAC) layer in wireless networks is interference management. We show how the MAC can also be used to mitigate the effect of fading. We begin by providing experimental data to demonstrate that multipath fading effects are seen at the MAC layer. These effects appear at timescales on the same order of the IEEE 802.11 protocol and therefore, interact negatively with the RTS-CTS-DATA-ACK handshake. We identify two types of MAC diversities to jointly combat fading and interference, called multi-receiver diversity and multi-channel diversity respectively, through canonical scenarios. In order to harness these MAC layer diversities, we propose a simple dynamic-binding multichannel MAC (DB-MCMAC) protocol that is backward compatible with IEEE 802.11. DB-MCMAC exploits MAC diversities by opportunistically acquiring the floor for the best receiver on each channel, and dynamically binding data transmissions after the floor has been acquired. We employ a simple continuous time Markov chain model to analyze the expected performance of the DB-MCMAC protocol. A comprehensive performance evaluation of DB-MCMAC using ns-2 shows that it can successfully harness multi-receiver and multi-channel fading and interference diversities to provide considerable improvements over a baseline multi-channel MAC in several situations.
Phylogenetic study of complete cytochrome b genes in musk deer (genus Moschus) using museum samples.

As an endangered animal group, musk deer (genus Moschus) are not only a great concern of wildlife conservation, but also of special interest to evolutionary studies due to long-standing arguments on the taxonomic and phylogenetic associations in this group. Using museum samples, we sequenced complete mitochondrial cytochrome b genes (1140 bp) of all suggested species of musk deer in order to reconstruct their phylogenetic history through molecular information. Our results showed that the cytochrome b gene tree is rather robust and concurred for all the algorithms employed (parsimony, maximum likelihood, and distance methods). Further, the relative rate test indicated a constant sequence substitution rate among all the species, permitting the dating of divergence events by molecular clock. According to the molecular topology, M. moschiferus branched off the earliest from a common ancestor of musk deer (about 700,000 years ago); then followed the bifurcation forming the M. berezovskii lineage and the lineage clustering M. fuscus, M. chrysogaster, and M. leucogaster (around 370,000 years before present). Interestingly, the most recent speciation event in musk deer happened rather recently (140,000 years ago), which might have resulted from the diversified habitats and geographic barriers in southwest China caused by gigantic movements of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in history. Combining the data of current distributions, fossil records, and molecular data of this study, we suggest that the historical dispersion of musk deer might be from north to south in China. Additionally, in our further analyses involving other pecora species, musk deer was strongly supported as a monophyletic group and a valid family in Artiodactyla, closely related to Cervidae.