Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavioral models as service descriptions

Interface descriptions, while adequate for describing relatively simple or uniform functionality, are too abstract to properly describe entities as complex as e-commerce services or feature rich telecommunications services. The web services community has partially acknowledged this, as description languages like WSCL and OWL-S have enriched interface information with additional fragments of component semantics. In this paper, we naturally extend this progression by proposing that services be described by (abstract) executable specification behavioral models instead of, or in addition to, these other descriptive formalisms. Our argument is based on the observation that at least three capabilities, service discovery, validation, and execution monitoring, are enabled or fundamentally improved by this idea. In addition to overviewing OpenModel, our distributed modeling framework, as one possible basis for this approach, we also describe case studies that support our claims, and review the limitations of existing approaches.
Metastasis-associated C4.4A, a GPI-anchored protein cleaved by ADAM10 and ADAM17

Abstract Metalloproteases play a complex role in tumor progression. While the activity of some ADAM, ADAMTS and matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) seems to be protumorigenic, the activity of others seems to prevent tumor progression. The identification of the array of substrates of a given metalloprotease (degradome) seems an adequate approach to predict the effect of the inhibition of a metalloprotease in tumors. Here, we present the proteomic identification of a novel substrate for ADAM10 and -17. We used SILAC (Stable Isotope Labeling by Amino acids in Cell culture), a proteomic technique based on the differential metabolic labeling of cells in different conditions. This was applied to MCF7 cells derived from an invasive mammary tumor, and the same cells expressing shRNAs that knock down ADAM10 or -17. Following this approach, we have identified C4.4A as a substrate to both metalloproteases. Since C4.4A is likely involved in tumor invasion, these results indicate that the cleavage of C4.4A by ADAM10 and ADAM17 contributes to tumor progression.
Beyond Virtual Data Centers : Toward an Open Resource Control Architecture

This paper summarizes recent research on networked virtual computing in the NICL lab at Duke. Over the past few years, we have constructed a service-oriented substrate for networked sharing and adaptive middleware environments based on a virtual on-demand computing. The goal of the project is to develop protocols and tools that can link together virtual computing clusters at different sites, and incorporate other kinds of resources (network tunnels, storage, and high-end computing resources) into a unified resource control plane for virtual computing. A key focus is to do this in a way that integrates well with existing middleware systems, to enable dynamic control of advanced virtual computing environments. Our approach is based on foundational abstractions for leasing resources and factoring control over leased resources across the infrastructure providers, application controllers, and brokering intermediaries, interacting through common leasing protocols in an Open Resource Control Architecture (Orca). The paper outlines the use of our resource leasing prototype (called Shirako) in several systems: as a foundation for manageable grid computing systems (based on Globus), in an interactive Web-based laboratory for autonomic services research (called Automat), and as a basis for virtualized cluster computing environments.
Robot reliability using fuzzy fault trees and Markov models

Robot reliability has become an increasingly important issue in the last few years, in part due to the increased application of robots in hazardous and unstructured environments. However, much of this work leads to complex and nonintuitive analysis, which results in many techniques being impractical due to computational complexity or lack of appropriately complex models for the manipulator. In this paper, we consider the application of notions and techniques from fuzzy logic, fault trees, and Markov modeling to robot fault tolerance. Fuzzy logic lends itself to quantitative reliability calculations in robotics. The crisp failure rates which are usually used are not actually known, while fuzzy logic, due to its ability to work with the actual approximate (fuzzy) failure rates available during the design process, avoids making too many unwarranted assumptions. Fault trees are a standard reliability tool that can easily assimilate fuzzy logic. Markov modeling allows evaluation of multiple failure modes simultaneously, and is thus an appropriate method of modeling failures in redundant robotic systems. However, no method of applying fuzzy logic to Markov models was known to the authors. This opens up the possibility of new techniques for reliability using Markov modeling and fuzzy logic techniques, which are developed in this paper.
The geometric constraint solving based on hybrid differential evolution and particle swarm optimization algorithm

Geometric constraint problem is equivalent to the problem of solving a set of nonlinear equations substantially. The constraint problem can be transformed to an optimization problem. We can solve the problem with a novel hybrid algorithm DE-PSO, which is proposed combining the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with differential evolution (DE) operators. It incorporates concepts from DE and PSO, updating particle not only by DE operators but also by mechanisms of PSO. The experiment shows that it can solve geometric constraint problems efficiently.
Making Racing Fun Through Player Modeling and Track Evolution

This paper addresses the problem of automatically constructing tracks tailor-made to maximize the enjoyment of individual players in a simple car racing game. To this end, some approaches to player modeling are investigated, and a method of using evolutionary algorithms to construct racing tracks is presented. A simple player-dependent metric of entertainment is proposed and used as the fitness function when evolving tracks. We conclude that accurate player modeling poses some significant challenges, but track evolution works well given the right track representation.
Physical Activity in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): A Review

Current recommendations indicate that children and youth ages 5–17 should partici- pate in 60 min and adults in 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. Research suggests that physical activity levels of individuals with autism spectrum dis- order (ASD) are lower than typically developing and developed peers. Despite evidence for PA decreasing negative behaviors and promoting positive behaviors, individuals with ASD may be less motivated and less likely to participate. Individuals with ASD may be more likely to be overweight or obese than their typically developing counter- parts as a result of decreased activity levels. Conflicting findings regarding PA levels in individuals with ASD have been reported. Given mixed evidence, further inquiry is warranted. The present chapter provides a review of literature pertaining to PA in individuals with ASD. Four databases were searched. Predetermined search terms and inclusion/exclusion criteria were clearly outlined to identify relevant articles which were then critically appraised. This research provides a greater understanding of the status of PA participation of individuals with ASD. Four to remove irrelevant articles and duplicates. The first two authors subsequently appraised abstracts. Finally, full texts were assessed based on the specific inclusion and exclusion criteria outlined previously. A total of 69 articles were included in the final review. Articles were sorted into five categories: (1) levels of PA (n = 10); (2) predictors related to PA (n = 4); (3) PA related to other outcome variables (n = 4): (4) PA interventions leading to changes in other outcome variables (n = 30); and (5) interven tions that lead to changes in PA (n = 5). Categories 1 (levels of PA) and 2 (predictors related to PA) were combined in consideration of articles that assessed both variables (n = 16 for a total n = 30). Each article was critically analyzed based on the following components: descriptive information, research methodology, participant characteristics, physical activity measures Findings then synthesized.
Neonatal feeding skills in preterm infants and the relationship to speech and expressive language skills at approximately ten years of age

This study sought to determine whether neonatal feeding skills in extremely preterm infants (EPT) had an association with scores on speech and expressive language measures at approximately ten years of age. Additionally, neonatal feeding abilities were analyzed to determine if there was an association with sensorimotor and visuomotor test measures at approximately ten years of age. Eighty-four EPT children were categorized based on feeding history at 34 weeks gestational age into two groups: infants who were primarily oral feeding (POF), and infants who were primarily tube feeding (PTF). There was no significant difference in size or sex between the two groups. Independent t-tests with a chi-square analysis were used to analyze the composition of the two groups. The majority of infants in the PTF group were characteristically white, had lower birth weights, and a history of bronochopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Only the variable of race, however, withstood statistical analysis for multiple t-tests. One-way ANOVA procedures determined that there was no significant difference between the performance of the two feeding groups on standardized measures of speech or oral expression at 10 years of age. The parent perceptions of the children’s speech and oral expression skills also did not differ between the two groups. Additionally, one feeding group did not perform better than the other on measures of sensorimotor or visuomotor skills. While no association was determined in the current study, results remained inconclusive and warrant further investigation with a greater variety of standardized measures of speech, oral expression, and sensorimotor and visuomotor skill.
Polyelectrolyte Complex Based Interfacial Drug Delivery System with Controlled Loading and Improved Release Performance for Bone Therapeutics

An improved interfacial drug delivery system (DDS) based on polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) coatings with controlled drug loading and improved release performance was elaborated. The cationic homopolypeptide poly(l-lysine) (PLL) was complexed with a mixture of two cellulose sulfates (CS) of low and high degree of substitution, so that the CS and PLL solution have around equal molar charged units. As drugs the antibiotic rifampicin (RIF) and the bisphosphonate risedronate (RIS) were integrated. As an important advantage over previous PEC systems this one can be centrifuged, the supernatant discarded, the dense pellet phase (coacervate) separated, and again redispersed in fresh water phase. This behavior has three benefits: (i) Access to the loading capacity of the drug, since the concentration of the free drug can be measured by spectroscopy; (ii) lower initial burst and higher residual amount of drug due to removal of unbound drug and (iii) complete adhesive stability due to the removal of polyelectrolytes (PEL) excess component. It was found that the pH value and ionic strength strongly affected drug content and release of RIS and RIF. At the clinically relevant implant material (Ti40Nb) similar PEC adhesive and drug release properties compared to the model substrate were found. Unloaded PEC coatings at Ti40Nb showed a similar number and morphology of above cultivated human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) compared to uncoated Ti40Nb and resulted in considerable production of bone mineral. RIS loaded PEC coatings showed similar effects after 24 h but resulted in reduced number and unhealthy appearance of hMSC after 48 h due to cell toxicity of RIS.
20 Interception and Rendezvous Between Autonomous Vehicles

The problem of pursuit and evasion is a classic problem that has intrigued mathematicians for many generations. Suppose a target or evader is moving along a given curve in the plane. A pursuer or chaser is moving such that its line of sight is always pointing towards the target. The classic problem is to determine the trajectory of the pursuer such that it eventually captures the target. There is extensive literature on this problem, see for example the recent book by Nahin (Nahin, 2007). A special case of the pursuit problem is the case where the curve of the target is a circle. This is a classic problem which was first treated by Hathaway (Hathaway, 1921), see also the book by Davis (Davis, 1962). In the classic problems, the line of sight is always pointing towards the target. This method of pursuit is also known as 'pure pursuit' or 'dog pursuit' or 'courbe de chien' in French. Although there have been some modern works on extensions of the classic problem of pursuit, see for example (Marshall, 2005), here we completely abandon the 'pure pursuit' restriction and we treat the problem where the pursuer is required to capture or intercept the target in a given prescribed time or in minimum time. Also, in the classic problem, the velocities of the target and pursuer are assumed constant and there is no consideration of the physics of the motion, such as thrust forces, hydrodynamic or aerodynamic drag and other forces that might be acting on the target and pursuer. In an active-passive rendezvous problem between two vehicles, the passive or target vehicle moves passively along its trajectory. The active or chaser vehicle is controlled or guided such as to meet the passive vehicle at a later time, matching both the location and the velocity of the target vehicle. An interception problem is similar to the rendezvous problem, except that there is no need to match the final velocities of the two vehicles. On the other hand, in a cooperative rendezvous problem, the two vehicles are active and maneuver such as to meet at a later time, at the same location with the same velocity. The two vehicles start the motion from different initial locations and might have different initial velocities. An optimal control problem consists of finding the control histories, i.e., the controls as a function of time, and the state variables of the dynamical system such as to minimize a performance index. The differential equations of motion of the vehicles are treated as dynamical constraints. One possible approach to the solution of the rendezvous problem is to formulate it as an optimal control problem in which one is seeking the controls such as to O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w . ite ch on lin e. co m
Laboratory Cultivation of Widespread and Previously Uncultured Soil Bacteria

ABSTRACT Most soil bacteria belong to family-level phylogenetic groups with few or no known cultivated representatives. We cultured a collection of 350 isolates from soil by using simple solid media in petri dishes. These isolates were assigned to 60 family-level groupings in nine bacterial phyla on the basis of a comparative analysis of their 16S rRNA genes. Ninety-three (27%) of the isolates belonged to 20 as-yet-unnamed family-level groupings, many from poorly studied bacterial classes and phyla. They included members of subdivisions 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the phylum Acidobacteria, subdivision 3 of the phylum Verrucomicrobia, subdivision 1 of the phylum Gemmatimonadetes, and subclasses Acidimicrobidae and Rubrobacteridae of the phylum Actinobacteria. In addition, members of 10 new family-level groupings of subclass Actinobacteridae of the phylum Actinobacteria and classes Alphaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria of the phylum Proteobacteria were obtained. The high degree of phylogenetic novelty and the number of isolates affiliated with so-called unculturable groups show that simple cultivation methods can still be developed further to obtain laboratory cultures of many phylogenetically novel soil bacteria.
Subspace angles and distances between ARMA models

In this paper we define a notion of subspace angles between two ARMA models as the principal angles between the column spaces generated by the observability matrices of the two models extended with the observability matrices of the inverse models. We show that these angles can be calculated via the observability Gramians of concatenations of the two given models and their inverses. Furthermore, we give their relation to different distance measures for ARMA models. Most attention is paid to a recently defined metric for ARMA models that is based on the cepstra of the models involved.
An SSMP traffic model based on network measurements

This paper gives an application of the knowledge of the parameters which have the greatest influence on the occupancy and the loss of a finite capacity queue. We show that it is possible to fit the decisive parameters of an SSMP(N) (special semi-Markov process with N states) to those of the measured data, which has been measured on a LAN-network located at the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). The SSMP is a discrete-time process and is a generalization of the Markov modulated Poisson process: each state is characterized by a general probability density function. The example taken to verify this affirmation is the comparison of the expected cell loss in a SSMP(N)/G/1/c queue and the expected cell loss of the converted LAN traffic/G/1/c queue which can be used as model of a LAN-MAN interconnection. The comparisons show that it is possible to correctly model the slotted traffic during a short period of time. <<ETX>>
A push-based scheduling algorithm for large scale P2P live streaming

this paper, we present a chunk scheduling algorithm for a mesh-based peer-to-peer live streaming system and we evaluate it by simulations over large-scale networks. Literature papers typically design chunk scheduling algorithms by considering the chunk delivery ratio as performance metric. We propose a push-based algorithm, which not only tries to maximize the chunk delivery ratio but it also takes into account and tries to minimize the delivery delay of chunks at the peer nodes. This is an important requirement, when dealing with realtime multimedia flows. Another important contribution of this paper is the design and implementation of a simulator able to evaluate the performance of large scale P2P networks (tens of thousands peers). The importance of this contribution lies in the fact that existing simulators and performance studies handle at most hundreds or few thousands of peers, while real-life P2P streaming systems aim at distributing contents to several hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of users. The performance evaluation study aims at providing a comprehensive view of what performance can be expected for mesh-based peer-to-peer streaming systems, both in terms of chunk delivery ratio and delay, for a large range of the number of users. The individual effect of a variety of system parameters, and especially number of partner nodes in the mesh, constrained link bandwidth, node heterogeneity, and network size, has been analyzed. Our results show that performances of the proposed push-based solution are already quite effective even with severely bandwidth constrained large scale networks.
A Combined Experimental and Computational Study of Vam3, a Derivative of Resveratrol, and Syk Interaction

Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) plays an indispensable role through preliminary extracellular antigen-induced crosslinking of Fc receptor (FcR) in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis. In this study, we identify Vam3, a dimeric derivative of resveratrol isolated from grapes, as an ATP-competitive inhibitor of Syk with an IC50 of 62.95 nM in an in vitro kinase assay. Moreover, docking and molecular dynamics simulation approaches were performed to get more detailed information about the binding mode of Vam3 and Syk. The results show that 11b-OH on ring-C and 4b-OH on ring-D could form two hydrogen bonds with Glu449 and Phe382 of Syk, respectively. In addition, arene-cation interaction between ring-D of Vam3 and Lys402 of Syk was also observed. These results indicate that ring-C and D play an essential role in Vam3–Syk interaction. Our studies may be helpful in the structural optimization of Vam3, and also aid the design of novel Syk inhibitors in the future.
Identities for sin x that Came from Medical Imaging

Abstract The article describes interesting nonlinear differential identities satisfied by standard exponential and trigonometric functions. They appeared as byproducts of medical imaging research and look like some type of non-commutative binomial formulas. A brief description of the origin of these identities is provided, as well as their direct algebraic derivation. Relations with separate analyticity theorems in several complex variables and some open problems are also mentioned.
PIWIs Go Viral: Arbovirus-Derived piRNAs in Vector Mosquitoes

Vector mosquitoes are responsible for transmission of the majority of arthropod-borne (arbo-) viruses. Virus replication in these vectors needs to be sufficiently high to permit efficient virus transfer to vertebrate hosts. The mosquito immune response therefore is a key determinant for arbovirus transmission. Mosquito antiviral immunity is primarily mediated by the small interfering RNA pathway. Besides this well-established antiviral machinery, the PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathway processes viral RNA into piRNAs. In recent years, significant progress has been made in characterizing the biogenesis and function of these viral piRNAs. In this review, we discuss these developments, identify knowledge gaps, and suggest directions for future research.
Noninvasive Evaluation of Bladder Wall Mechanical Properties as a Function of Filling Volume: Potential Application in Bladder Compliance Assessment

Purpose We propose a novel method to monitor bladder wall mechanical properties as a function of filling volume, with the potential application to bladder compliance assessment. The proposed ultrasound bladder vibrometry (UBV) method uses ultrasound to excite and track Lamb waves on the bladder wall from which its mechanical properties are derived by fitting measurements to an analytical model. Of particular interest is the shear modulus of bladder wall at different volumes, which we hypothesize, is similar to measuring the compliance characteristics of the bladder. Materials and Methods Three experimental models were used: 1) an ex vivo porcine model where normal and aberrant (stiffened by formalin) bladders underwent evaluation by UBV; 2) an in vivo study to evaluate the performance of UBV on patients with clinically documented compliant and noncompliant bladders undergoing UDS; and 3) a noninvasive UBV protocol to assess bladder compliance using oral hydration and fractionated voiding on three healthy volunteers. Results The ex vivo studies showed a high correlation between the UBV parameters and direct pressure measurement (R2 = 0.84–0.99). A similar correlation was observed for 2 patients with compliant and noncompliant bladders (R2 = 0.89–0.99) undergoing UDS detrusor pressure-volume measurements. The results of UBV on healthy volunteers, performed without catheterization, were comparable to a compliant bladder patient. Conclusion The utility of UBV as a method to monitor changes in bladder wall mechanical properties is validated by the high correlation with pressure measurements in ex vivo and in vivo patient studies. High correlation UBV and UDS in vivo studies demonstrated the potential of UBV as a bladder compliance assessment tool. Results of studies on healthy volunteers with normal bladders demonstrated that UBV could be performed noninvasively. Further studies on a larger cohort are needed to fully validate the use of UBV as a clinical tool for bladder compliance assessment.