Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunostimulatory Effects of Antigen-Conjugated InP/ZnS Quantum Dot Nanoparticles in an Avian Model

Due to their unique physicochemical and enhanced immunostimulatory properties, quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles have shown increasing promise in biomedical research applications including bioimaging, drug delivery, and as vaccine adjuvants. Toxicity, however, remains a concern for the use of QD in these applications and thus, there is an increased demand for effective in vitro and in vivo systems to measure the bioactivity of QD. In this study in vitro and in vivo chicken models were used to investigate the effects of QD on innate and adaptive immunity. Chicken macrophage cultures were treated in vitro with QD to measure macrophage activation and the effect of QD on cell viability. The chicken growing feather (GF) injection model was used as the cutaneous test-site to monitor leukocyte infiltration in response to intradermal injection of QD without and with conjugation to a protein antigen. Additionally, the humoral and cellular adaptive immune responses to protein antigen conjugated to QD were examined in chickens. In vitro results showed negligible macrophage activation in response to QD treatment; however, cell viability was negatively affected by QD in a dose-dependent manner. Leukocyte infiltration results of in vivo GF injections with QD revealed immunostimulatory activity of QD, independent of whether or not QD were conjugated to protein antigen. When used as a vaccine platform, immunization with QD conjugated with protein antigen generated a higher primary and secondary antibody response compared to antigen mixed with alum adjuvant. The adaptive cellular responses to protein antigen examined in GF of immunized chickens also support an important role of B cells in the local effector phases of the responses, while T cells appear to primarily help in B cell activation and differentiation, including antibody isotype switching from IgM to IgG. These results provide additional evidence that QD possess promising vaccine adjuvant properties while demonstrating the viability and utility of the minimally invasive chicken GF cutaneous test-site to study the immunostimulatory effects of nanoparticles initiated in vivo. Further investigation of nanoparticles using the chicken GF injection model should provide additional valuable knowledge of the relative risks and rewards of using QD in biological applications.
Characterizing embedded applications for instruction-set extensible processors

Extensible processors, which allow customization for an application domain by extending the core instruction set architecture, are becoming increasingly popular for embedded systems. However, existing techniques restrict the set of possible candidates for custom instructions by imposing a variety of constraints. As a result, the true extent of performance improvement achievable by extensible processors for embedded applications remains unknown. Moreover, it is unclear how the interplay among these restrictions impacts the performance potential. Our careful examination of this issue shows that significant speedup can only be obtained by relaxing some of the constraints to a reasonable extent. In particular, to the best of our knowledge, ours is the first work that studies the impact of relaxing control flow constraint by identifying instructions across basic blocks and indicates 5--148% relative speedup for different applications.
Tracing and revoking leaked credentials: accountability in leaking sensitive outsourced data

Most existing proposals for access control over outsourced data mainly aim at guaranteeing that the data are only accessible to authorized requestors who have the access credentials. This paper proposes TRLAC, an a posteriori approach for tracing and revoking leaked credentials, to complement existing a priori solutions. The tracing procedure of TRLAC can trace, in a black-box manner, at least one traitor who illegally distributed a credential, without any help from the cloud service provider. Once the dishonest users have been found, a revocation mechanism can be called to deprive them of access rights. We formally prove the security of TRLAC, and empirically shows that the introduction of the tracing feature incurs little costs to outsourcing.
DeAnnCNV: a tool for online detection and annotation of copy number variations from whole-exome sequencing data

With the decrease in costs, whole-exome sequencing (WES) has become a very popular and powerful tool for the identification of genetic variants underlying human diseases. However, integrated tools to precisely detect and systematically annotate copy number variations (CNVs) from WES data are still in great demand. Here, we present an online tool, DeAnnCNV (Detection and Annotation of Copy Number Variations from WES data), to meet the current demands of WES users. Upon submitting the file generated from WES data by an in-house tool that can be downloaded from our server, DeAnnCNV can detect CNVs in each sample and extract the shared CNVs among multiple samples. DeAnnCNV also provides additional useful supporting information for the detected CNVs and associated genes to help users to find the potential candidates for further experimental study. The web server is implemented in PHP + Perl + MATLAB and is online available to all users for free at http://mcg.ustc. edu.cn/db/cnv/.
A 110-dB Dynamic Range, 76-dB Peak SNR Companding Continuous-Time ?S Modulator for Audio Applications

This paper presents a companding continuous-time ΔΣ ADC for audio applications. The 3rd-order modulator uses a 3-bit companding quantizer and has an over sampling rate of 64. The companding quantizer is implemented by a log amplifier followed by a flash ADC. The modulator, in simulation, achieves a peak signal-to-noise ratio of 76 dB, a dynamic range of 110 dB in a 24 kHz bandwidth and dissipates 860 μW of power.
Effect of Extraction Methods on the Properties of Althea Officinalis L. Fibers

ABSTRACT In this study, the effect of extraction methods on the properties of Althea officinalis l. (marshmallow) fibers was investigated. For this purpose, obtaining the fibers from stem was done by water and chemical extraction. After the extraction process, mechanical and thermal properties of althea fibers were investigated and morphological structure was examined. Crystallinity indexes (CI) of fibers were determined. Scanning electron microscopy results revealed that extraction of althea officinalis fibers by alkali boiling in 5% NaOH solution led to removal of surface impurities and also according to X-ray diffraction results, crystallinity index of fibers was improved by 14%. Chemically extracted fibers showed 37% higher tensile strength when compared to water extracted fibers. Density measurements revealed that chemically retted fibers have higher density. Also, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis showed that chemical extraction caused change of chemical composition by decreasing and/or disappearing of some peaks which belong to hemicellulose and lignin.
Efficient Additive Models via the Generalized Lasso

We propose a framework for learning generalized additive models at very little additional cost (a small constant) compared to some of the most efficient schemes for learning linear classifiers such as linear SVMs and regularized logistic regression. We achieve this through a simple feature encoding scheme followed by a novel approach to regularization which we term ``generalized lasso''. Addtive models offer an attractive alternative to linear models for many large scale tasks as they have significantly higher predictive power while remaining easily interpretable. Furthermore, our regularizations approach extends to arbitrary graphs, allowing, for example, to explicitly incorporate spatial information or similar priors. Traditional approaches for learning additive models, such as back fitting, do not scale to large datasets. Our new formulation of the resulting optimization problem allows us to investigate the use of recent accelerated gradient algorithms and demonstrate speed comparable to state of the art linear SVM training methods, making additive models suitable for very large problems. In our experiments we find that additive models consistently outperform linear models on various datasets.
Improving package recommendations through query relaxation

Recommendation systems aim to identify items that are likely to be of interest to users. In many cases, users are interested in package recommendations as collections of items. For example, a dietitian may wish to derive a dietary plan as a collection of recipes that is nutritionally balanced, and a travel agent may want to produce a vacation package as a coordinated collection of travel and hotel reservations. Recent work has explored extending recommendation systems to support packages of items. These systems need to solve complex combinatorial problems, enforcing various properties and constraints defined on sets of items. Introducing constraints on packages makes recommendation queries harder to evaluate, but also harder to express: Queries that are under-specified produce too many answers, whereas queries that are over-specified frequently miss interesting solutions. In this paper, we study query relaxation techniques that target package recommendation systems. Our work offers three key insights: First, even when the original query result is not empty, relaxing constraints can produce preferable solutions. Second, a solution due to relaxation can only be preferred if it improves some property specified by the query. Third, relaxation should not treat all constraints as equals: some constraints are more important to the users than others. Our contributions are threefold: (a) we define the problem of deriving package recommendations through query relaxation, (b) we design and experimentally evaluate heuristics that relax query constraints to derive interesting packages, and (c) we present a crowd study that evaluates the sensitivity of real users to different kinds of constraints and demonstrates that query relaxation is a powerful tool in diversifying package recommendations.
NHERF2 Protein Mobility Rate Is Determined by a Unique C-terminal Domain That Is Also Necessary for Its Regulation of NHE3 Protein in OK Cells*

Background: PDZ domain-containing scaffolds, NHERF1-3, anchor NHE3 in the epithelial apical membrane, but their own mobility is unknown. Results: In renal OK cells, microvillar NHERF1-3 are highly mobile with NHERF2 having the slowest mobility. Conclusion: NHERF2-restricted mobility is conferred by its C terminus, which is also required for its regulation of NHE3. Significance: A newly recognized NHERF2 C-terminal domain is functionally important. Na+/H+ exchanger regulatory factor (NHERF) proteins are a family of PSD-95/Discs-large/ZO-1 (PDZ)-scaffolding proteins, three of which (NHERFs 1-3) are localized to the brush border in kidney and intestinal epithelial cells. All NHERF proteins are involved in anchoring membrane proteins that contain PDZ recognition motifs to form multiprotein signaling complexes. In contrast to their predicted immobility, NHERF1, NHERF2, and NHERF3 were all shown by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching/confocal microscopy to be surprisingly mobile in the microvilli of the renal proximal tubule OK cell line. Their diffusion coefficients, although different among the three, were all of the same magnitude as that of the transmembrane proteins, suggesting they are all anchored in the microvilli but to different extents. NHERF3 moves faster than NHERF1, and NHERF2 moves the slowest. Several chimeras and mutants of NHERF1 and NHERF2 were made to determine which part of NHERF2 confers the slower mobility rate. Surprisingly, the slower mobility rate of NHERF2 was determined by a unique C-terminal domain, which includes a nonconserved region along with the ezrin, radixin, moesin (ERM) binding domain. Also, this C-terminal domain of NHERF2 determined its greater detergent insolubility and was necessary for the formation of larger multiprotein NHERF2 complexes. In addition, this NHERF2 domain was functionally significant in NHE3 regulation, being necessary for stimulation by lysophosphatidic acid of activity and increased mobility of NHE3, as well as necessary for inhibition of NHE3 activity by calcium ionophore 4-Br-A23187. Thus, multiple functions of NHERF2 require involvement of an additional domain in this protein.
Refractive Error and Monocular Viewing Strengthen the Hollow-Face Illusion

We measured the strength of the hollow-face illusion—the ‘flipping distance’ at which perception changes between convex and concave—as a function of a lens-induced 3 dioptre refractive error and monocular/binocular viewing. Refractive error and closing one eye both strengthened the illusion to approximately the same extent. The illusion was weakest viewed binocularly without refractive error and strongest viewed monocularly with it. This suggests binocular cues disambiguate the illusion at greater distances than monocular cues, but that both are disrupted by refractive error. We argue that refractive error leaves the ambiguous low-spatial-frequency shading information critical to the illusion largely unaffected while disrupting other, potentially disambiguating, depth/distance cues.
Sunlight and vitamin D: both good for cardiovascular health.

Fahrleitner et al.1 report that patients with severe peripheral artery disease (PAD) had a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. The authors should be congratulated for realizing that many of the non-specific symptoms associated with PAD and immobility, i.e., muscle pain and weakness, bone aches and pains, and fatigue are also indicative for vitamin D deficiency. They found that 71% of patients with severe PAD had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels that were below 9 ng/mL. Remarkably, 13% had serum calciums below the normal range and 40% had overt secondary hyperparathyroidism. The serum calcium levels are usually normal, but can be low in severe, chronic vitamin D deficiency. The hallmark for vitamin D deficiency is the measurement of a low or undetectable level of 25(OH)D in the blood.2 Although the lower limit of the normal range was 9 ng/mL, as noted by the authors, there is strong evidence that blood levels of less than 20 ng/mL lead to secondary hyperparathyroidism.2,3 Thus, if the authors had used 20 ng/mL as their cutoff, it is likely that essentially 100% of their patients were vitamin D insufficient or deficient. The clinical signs and symptoms of vitamin D deficiency are extremely subtle or nonspecific. Vitamin D deficiency causes a decrease in the efficiency of intestinal calcium absorption, which in turn, leads to an increase in the production of parathyroid hormone (PTH). PTH stimulates the kidney to produce 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D], which increases the intestinal calcium absorption and with PTH stimulates osteoclast precursors to become mature osteoclasts, which in turn mobilize calcium stores from the skeleton. The increase in osteoclastic activity can precipitate and exacerbate osteoporosis. The more subtle effect, however, is that PTH also causes phosphaturia and hypophosphatemia. As a result, the calcium x-phosphate product in the blood is inadequate for normal mineralization of the bone collagen matrix resulting in osteomalacia. In adults, it is not possible to distinguish osteoporosis and osteomalacia, either by x-ray examination or by bone densitometry. Osteoporosis, i.e., holes in the bones does not cause bone pain. In contrast, osteomalacia can cause isolated or generalized bone aches and pains. Although the mechanism for bone pain is not well understood, it is possible that the unmineralized collagen matrix becomes hydrated and expands, causing outward pressure on the periosteal covering, which is innervated by pain fibers. On physical examination the application of minimum pressure with the thumb on the sternum, anterior tibia or radius and ulna will often elicit pain and discomfort, which is a helpful diagnostic sign for osteomalacia. Vitamin D deficiency also causes muscle weakness and muscle aches and pains. Glerup et al.4 reported that 88% of Danish women of Arab decent who presented with muscle pains and weakness (symptoms similar to fibromyalgia) were severely vitamin D deficient.
A Cross-Layer Approach to Cognitive MAC for Spectrum Agility

Opportunistic spectrum access aims to exploit the instantaneous spectrum availability using sophisticated signal processing and networking techniques. Cognitive MAC that enables instantaneous detection and efficient utilization of spectrum opportunities is one of the key components of opportunistic spectrum access. In this paper, we pursue a cross-layer approach that integrates opportunity assessment and opportunity allocation for optimal spectrum utilization. We develop optimal cognitive MAC protocols for multihop ad hoc networks
Enhancement of surface plasmon resonance in a coupled graphene waveguide-cavity system

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are envisioned to play an important role in improving confinement of surface plasmon resonance. Here, a coupled graphene-cavity-waveguide (GCW) system is proposed to investigate the characteristics of the resonant modes with finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. It is found that the surface plasmon characteristics can be modulated with the change of geometrical parameters of the structure and physical parameters of graphene. The resonant wavelength is sensitive to the Fermi level; and the resonant depth can be adjusted by the altering of carrier mobility. Moreover, the quality factor can be affected by the separation of cavity-cavity. The proposed GCW coupling system has potential applications in graphene-based integrated nanophotonic devices, optical filters, slow light and other active photonic devices.
Flurbiprofen loaded gel based topical delivery system: formulation and in vitro characterization with new developed uplc method

Objective: The purpose of this study was to formulate flurbiprofen (FLB) loaded methylcellulose (MC), hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and Carbopol®940 (C-940) based gel formulations with the help of dispersion method for topical application. Additionally, in this study also a new ultra performance liquid chromatography method was developed for the determination of FLB, which was not previously entered into the literature. Method: FLB loaded gel formulations with the help of dispersion method for topical application and to characterize the formulations according to physical appearance, pH, rheology, drug content, dissolution study and release kinetic study with the DDSolver software program. The UPLC method developed was validated for linearity, specificity, precision, sensitivity, accuracy, range and robustness. Results: Linearity was determined to be at a concentration range of 5-50 μg. mL-1. The method developed for FLB was decided to be precise due to RSD values of <2%. Recovery of the method was satisfactory owing to <2%RSD value. The drug content was found to be in the range of 98.14-99.02% indicating the uniformity of the high drug content. At the 6th hour in dissolution study, the FLB release from gels prepared with MC, HPMC, C-940 reached 99.7%,99.5% and 87.60%, respectively. In the release kinetic tests with DDSolver, the release of gels prepared with MC and HPMC showed conformity with the weibull model, whereas the gel formulation prepared with C-940 showed a zero-order kinetics. Conclusion: According to the results, all gel formulations prepared have longer release times than the release of pure FLB.
A model-driven approach to describe and predict the performance of composite services

Distributed applications are rapidly converging towards the adoption of a computing paradigm based on service-oriented architectures (SOA), according to which an application results from the composition of a set of services in execution on networked server hosts. In a SOA context, service providers are strategically interested both to describe the performance characteristics of offered services, to better qualify their offer and gain a significant advantage in the global marketplace, and to predict the level of performance that can be offered to service consumers when building composite web services that make use of services managed by various service providers. This paper introduces a model-driven approach for integrating performance prediction into service composition processes carried out by use of BPEL (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services). The proposed approach is founded on P-WSDL (Performance-enabled WSDL), a performance-oriented extension of WSDL, the language for describing the information about service capabilities and invocation mechanisms. P-WSDL is a lightweight WSDL extension for the description of performance characteristics of a web service. The approach is illustrated by use of an example application to a composite web service for travel planning.
Benefits, variants and applications of cyclic delay diversity

Cyclic delay diversity (CDDx) is a simple multiple antenna technologyxs which provides additional diversity in Rayleigh fading channels, and therefore, improves the system performance. We recall the principles of CDD and discuss the properties and impact of this transmit (TX) antenna diversity technology. Different applications motivate variations of the CDD principle. This variants are briefly introduced and discussed. We show the application to several types of wireless systems, in particular terrestrial digital video broadcasting, cellular mobile radio communications systems and a wireless communications system using adaptive bit loading (ABL). Simulation results highlight the benefits of CDD for these kind of systems.
Stable Models in Generalized Possibilistic Logic

Possibilistic logic is a well-known logic for reasoning under uncertainty, which is based on the idea that the epistemic state of an agent can be modeled by assigning to each possible world a degree of possibility, taken from a totally ordered, but essentially qualitative scale. Recently, a generalization has been proposed that extends possibilistic logic to a meta-epistemic logic, endowing it with the capability of reasoning about epistemic states, rather than merely constraining them. In this paper, we further develop this generalized possibilistic logic (GPL). We introduce an axiomatization showing that GPL is a fragment of a graded version of the modal logic KD, and we prove soundness and completeness w.r. t. a semantics in terms of possibility distributions. Next, we reveal a close link between the well-known stable model semantics for logic programming and the notion of minimally specific models in GPL. More generally, we analyze the relationship between the equilibrium logic of Pearce and GPL, showing that GPL can essentially be seen as a generalization of equilibrium logic, although its notion of minimal specificity is slightly more demanding than the notion of minimality underlying equilibrium logic.