Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unpredictability assessment of biometric hashing under naive and advanced threat conditions

Recent years have witnessed the use of biometric recognition systems in increasing number of applications with the number of users growing at a steady pace. However, security and privacy problems have arisen from this upsurge of interest to biometric systems. Template protection methods solve such security and privacy problems where unpredictability is a crucial goal. Here, we study the unpredictability of biohashing (a transformation-based template protection method) using entropy as a measure. Our novel work outlines a systematic approach for theoretical evaluation of biohashes using estimated entropy which is based on degree of freedom of Binomial distribution. Our experiments demonstrate that biohash unpredictability varies in different threat models where the entropy of a biohash is almost equal to its bit length under the naive scenario and is significantly low in the advanced scenario, implying that the amount of information kept hidden in a biohash is more likely to be predicted.
Advanced Oxidation Process sanitization of hatching eggs reduces Salmonella in broiler chicks

&NA; The microbial quality of eggs entering the hatchery is an important critical control point for biosecurity, pathogen reduction, and food safety programs in poultry production. Developing interventions to reduce Salmonella contamination of eggs is important to improving the microbial food safety of poultry and poultry products. The hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ultraviolet light (UV) Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) has been previously demonstrated to be effective in reducing Salmonella on the surface of experimentally contaminated eggs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of treating eggs with an egg‐sanitizing apparatus using the H2O2/UV AOP on Salmonella contamination during incubation, hatching, and in broiler chicks during grow‐out. Experimentally contaminated eggs were treated using the automated H2O2/UV AOP egg sanitizer and incubated for 21 d. AOP sanitization reduced Salmonella up to 7 log10 cfu egg‐1 (P < 0.05) from the surface of experimentally contaminated eggs and reduced the number of Salmonella positive eggs by up to 75% (P < 0.05) when treated 1 h post‐inoculation. AOP treatment also reduced the number of Salmonella‐positive eggs during incubation. Additionally, Salmonella was recovered from more chicks hatched from untreated eggs than from eggs treated using the H2O2/UV AOP egg sanitizer (P < 0.05) through 14 d posthatch. These data suggest reduction of Salmonella contamination on the surface of eggs using the H2O2/UV AOP egg sanitizer prior to incubation may reduce the gastrointestinal colonization of chicks by Salmonella.
Testing BPR common wisdom

The purpose of the research was to empirically determine what benefits were realized by organizations that have undertaken a business process reengineering (BPR) project. The survey's respondents indicated that they were generally satisfied with their BPR projects. The findings suggest that BPR enabled organizations to increase productivity, to raise the quality of products and services, to increase costs savings, and to improve the quality of the organizational environment. The success factors, which lead to these advantages, are the compliance with BPR principles, the methodological rigor of the BPR approach and the diversity of the project resources, in turn determined by the level of organizational support.
Lumen Thiol Oxidoreductase1, a Disulfide Bond-Forming Catalyst, Is Required for the Assembly of Photosystem II in Arabidopsis[C][W]

This study demonstrates that Arabidopsis thaliana Lumen Thiol Oxidoreductase1 (LTO1) catalyzes disulfide bond formation in the thylakoid lumen of the chloroplast. Loss of LTO1 function yields an assembly defect in photosystem II, a photosynthetic complex that requires a disulfide bond in a structural subunit localized in the lumen. Here, we identify Arabidopsis thaliana Lumen Thiol Oxidoreductase1 (LTO1) as a disulfide bond–forming enzyme in the thylakoid lumen. Using topological reporters in bacteria, we deduced a lumenal location for the redox active domains of the protein. LTO1 can partially substitute for the proteins catalyzing disulfide bond formation in the bacterial periplasm, which is topologically equivalent to the plastid lumen. An insertional mutation within the LTO1 promoter is associated with a severe photoautotrophic growth defect. Measurements of the photosynthetic activity indicate that the lto1 mutant displays a limitation in the electron flow from photosystem II (PSII). In accordance with these measurements, we noted a severe depletion of the structural subunits of PSII but no change in the accumulation of the cytochrome b6f complex or photosystem I. In a yeast two-hybrid assay, the thioredoxin-like domain of LTO1 interacts with PsbO, a lumenal PSII subunit known to be disulfide bonded, and a recombinant form of the molecule can introduce a disulfide bond in PsbO in vitro. The documentation of a sulfhydryl-oxidizing activity in the thylakoid lumen further underscores the importance of catalyzed thiol-disulfide chemistry for the biogenesis of the thylakoid compartment.
An investigation of the phenomenon of “set” in Parkinson's disease

It has been suggested that patients with Parkinson's disease have a basic deficit in shifting “set. ” Previous authors have used this hypothesis as an explanation for deficits on a range of cognitive tasks. An experiment was conducted to investigate this phenomenon. A reaction time paradigm was used in which the subject had to make left‐right decisions under two stimulus conditions. Both patients and controls showed a facilitation in performance with repetition within each blcok of trials, followed by a deterioration in performance when the stimulus type switched. Furthermore, the shapes of the reaction‐time functions were equivalent in both groups, suggesting that the patients had no deficit in either switching or establishing set in this task. In contrast, they were impaired on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. This dissociation suggests that patients with Parkinson's disease do not have a generalized deficit in switching set. It is suggested that patients with Parkinson's disease are impaired on tasks where they have to rely upon internal control for the regulation of behaviour, but are relatively unimpaired on tasks where external cues are available.
Hardware accelerated constrained random test generation

Recent design and verification languages, such as SystemVerilog, support a rich test bench language, which provides significant support towards developing layered, structured, constrained random test bench architectures. Typically, the test bench language offers many features that are not synthesisable and therefore cannot be carried into the hardware for hardware accelerated simulation. One of the main challenges in improving the performance of hardware accelerated simulation is to run the task of random value selection under specified constraints in hardware. This problem (possibly for the first time) is addressed and a two-step approach is presented. In the first step, the constraints are pre-processed in software to generate a set of entailed regions. In the second step, random value selection is performed in hardware using the entailed regions pre-computed in the first step. It is shown that this method has modest area overhead and produces constraint satisfying random valuations within very few cycles. Results on test bench architectures for the ARM AMBA Bus and IBM CoreConnect protocol suites have been reported.
Ex Vivo Model Unravelling Cell Distribution Effect in Hydrogels for Cartilage Repair

Summary The implantation of chondrocyte-laden hydrogels is a promising cartilage repair strategy. Chondrocytes can be spatially positioned in hydrogels and thus in defects, while current clinical cell therapies introduce chondrocytes in the defect depth. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of spatial chondrocyte distribution on the reparative process. To reduce animal experiments, an ex vivo osteochondral plug model was used and evaluated. The role of the delivered and endogenous cells in the repair process was investigated. Full thickness cartilage defects were created in equine osteochondral plugs. Defects were filled with (A) chondrocytes at the bottom of the defect, covered with a cell-free hydrogel, (B) chondrocytes homogeneously encapsulated in a hydrogel, and (C, D) combinations of A and B with different cell densities. Plugs were cultured for up to 57 days, after which the cartilage and repair tissues were characterized and compared to baseline samples. Additionally, at day 21, the origin of cells in the repair tissue was evaluated. Best outcomes were obtained with conditions C and D, which resulted in well-integrated cartilage-like tissue that completely filled the defect, regardless of the initial cell density. A critical role of the spatial chondrocyte distribution in the repair process was observed. Moreover, the osteochondral plugs stimulated cartilage formation in the hydrogels when cultured in the defects. The resulting repair tissue originated from the delivered cells. These findings confirm the potential of the osteochondral plug model for the optimization of the composition of cartilage implants and for studying repair mechanisms.
Consensus in networked multi-agent systems via sampled control: Switching topology case

In this paper, consensus problems of continuous-time networked multi-agent systems via sampled control are investigated. The sampled control protocols are induced from continuous-time linear consensus protocol by using periodic sampling technology and zero-order hold circuit. A sufficient condition for reaching average-consensus under undirected networks with sampling delay and switching topology is obtained. Some numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the utility of our theoretical results.
Therapeutic potential of anti-CD137 (4-1BB) monoclonal antibodies

Introduction: 4-1BB (CD137) is an important T-cell stimulating molecule. The 4-1BB mAb or its variants have shown remarkable therapeutic activity against autoimmunity, viral infections, and cancer. Antibodies to 4-1BB have recently entered clinical trials for the treatment of cancer with favorable toxicity profile. In this article, we present a review documenting the efficacy and pitfalls of 4-1BB therapy. Areas covered: An extensive literature search has been made on 4-1BB, spanning two decades, and a comprehensive report is presented here highlighting the origins, biological effects, therapeutic potential, and mechanistic basis of targeting 4-1BB as well as the side effects associated with such therapy. Expert opinion: Research so far indicates that 4-1BB is highly protective against various pathological conditions including cancer. However, a few important side effects of 4-1BB therapy such as liver toxicity, thrombocytopenia, anemia, and suppressive effects on certain immune competent cells should be taken into consideration before it is used for human therapy.
Replication of Routines and Capabilities: From Knowledge Transfer to Replication as a Social Practice

Replication of routines and capabilities has been largely neglected in recent research. In this paper we present the current state of research on replication and suggest conceptualizing replication as a social practice. Replication as a social practice goes beyond knowledge transfer between a replicator and a replicatee and involves how routines and capabilities as well as the process of replication itself are constructed and shaped by multiple actors in the organization. Moreover, this perspective acknowledges the role of artefacts in the process of replication. Based on recent literature on routines and organizational rules we differentiate replication into three interrelated sub-practices: rule (re-) creation, rule translation and rule performance. The theoretical framework suggested in this paper has several significant theoretical implications for research on replication. In addition, we point out important research design implications for future empirical research.
Automatic retrieval of similar content using search engine query interface

We consider the coverage testing problem where we are given a document and a corpus with a limited query interface and asked to find if the corpus contains a near-duplicate of the document. This problem has applications in search engines for competitive coverage testing. To solve this problem, we propose approaches that work in three main steps: generate a query signature from the document, query the corpus using the query signature and scrape the returned results, and validate the similarity between the input document and the returned results. We discuss techniques to control and bound the performance of these methods. We perform large-scale experimental validation and show that these methods perform well across different search engine corpora and documents in multiple languages. They also are robust against performance parameter variations.
Energy-efficient gear-shift LDPC decoders

In this paper, we present LDPC decoder designs based on gear-shift algorithms, which can use multiple decoding algorithms or update rules over the course of decoding a single frame. By first attempting to decode using low-complexity algorithms, followed by high-complexity algorithms, we increase energy efficiency without sacrificing error correction performance. We present the GSP and IGSP algorithms, and ASIC designs of these algorithms for the 10 Gbps Ethernet (2048,1723) LDPC code. In 65nm CMOS, our pipelined GSP decoder achieves a core area of 5.29mm2, throughput of 88.1 Gbps, and energy efficiency of 39.3 pJ/bit, while our IGSP decoder achieves a core area of 6.00mm2, throughput of 100.3 Gbps, and energy efficiency of 14.6 pJ/bit. Both algorithms achieve error correction performance equivalent to the offset min-sum algorithm. The throughput per unit area and energy efficiency of these decoders improve upon state-of-the-art decoders with comparable error correction performance.
TAODV : A Trusted AODV Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper, we design and formulate a novel trust-based routing protocol for secure transactions, such as military and disaster relief operations, in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). The innovative approach is employing the idea of a trust model in the network layer of MANET so as to achieve security in mobile ad hoc networks cost-effectively. A salient feature of this approach is that, by establishing formal trust relationships among nodes, computation-intensive digital signature authorization and verification are not required for most of the secure transactions in the MANET, and hence the computation cost of the whole network can be considerably reduced. Specifically, in our trust model, trust among nodes is represented by opinion, a term derived from the subjective logic. The values of opinions are updated during a routing information exchange process. If a node performs healthy behaviors, its credibility from the viewpoints of other nodes is increased; otherwise, the credibility will be decreased, and this node will be eventually denied by the whole network. We also devise an effective recommendation mechanism to exchange the trust information among nodes. The performance of our protocol is evaluated through analyses and simulations. The results demonstrate that the whole MANET system can be maintained at a satisfactory security level with reasonable short convergence time and significant lower computation overheads. More importantly, the security level can be easily customized to meet the diverse demands from applications over ad hoc networks.
A Passivity-based Concurrent Whole-Body Control (cWBC) of Persistently Interacting Human-Exoskeleton Systems

This paper presents a concurrent whole-body control (cWBC) for human-exoskeleton systems that are tightly coupled at a Cartesian level (e.g., feet, hands, torso). The exoskeleton generates joint torques that i) cancel the effects of gravity on the coupled system, ii) perform a primary task (e.g., maintaining the balance of the system), and iii) exploit the kinematic redundancy of the system to amplify the forces exerted by the human operator. The coupled dynamic system is demonstrated to be passive, as its overall energy always goes dissipated until a minimum is reached. The proposed method is designed specifically to control exoskeletons for power augmentation worn by healthy operators in applications such as manufacturing, as it allows to increase the worker's capabilities, therefore reducing the risk of injuries.
Effects of melatonin on the thermoregulatory responses to intermittent exercise

Abstract: We examined the effects of a single 2.5‐mg dose of melatonin on the thermoregulatory and circulatory responses to intermittent exercise at a room temperature of 27.2 ± 0.4°C (mean ± S.D.), a relative humidity of 55 ± 3% (mean ± S.D.), and a light intensity of 200–300 lux. In a double‐blind cross‐over study, six male participants ingested either melatonin or placebo at 11:45 hr. Participants then rested in a semi‐supine position for 75 min and completed an intermittent running protocol for 66 min at alternating intensities of 40, 60 and 80% of maximal oxygen uptake. Rectal and mean skin temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, skin blood flow, subjective alertness and sleepiness, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and thermal strain were recorded. No effects of melatonin were found on these variables measured during the resting period (P > 0.10). During exercise, melatonin was found to moderate the increase in rectal temperature by approximately 0.25°C (P = 0.050) and magnify the increase in skin blood flow (P = 0.047). Postexercise systolic blood pressure was 7.8 ± 2.5 mmHg (mean ± S.D.) lower than before the exercise in the melatonin trial; a change which differed significantly to that in the placebo trial (P = 0.018). Melatonin did not influence subjective alertness and sleepiness before or after exercise and did not change the responses of mean skin temperature, RPE and thermal strain during the exercise (P > 0.10). In summary it is apparent that a 2.5‐mg dose of melatonin has hypothermic, but not soporific, effects during 66 min of intermittent exercise performed under moderate heat stress. Whether such effects improve endurance athletic performance in hot conditions remains to be confirmed. Our data also suggest that postexercise systolic hypotension is more marked after ingestion of melatonin.
Closed loop navigation for multiple non-holonomic vehicles

In this paper we incorporate dipolar potential fields used for nonholonomic navigation into a novel potential function designed for multi-robot navigation. The derived navigation function is suitable for navigation of multiple nonholonomic vehicles. A properly designed discontinuous feedback control law is applied to steer the nonholonomic vehicles. The derived closed form control scheme provides robust navigation with guaranteed collision avoidance and global convergence properties, as well as fast feedback, rendering the methodology particularly suitable for real time implementation. Collision avoidance and global convergence properties are verified through non-trivial computer simulations.
Advances and Continuing Challenges in Achieving Realistic and Predictive Simulations of the Properties of Organic and Biological Molecules

Can the theoretical/computational chemist correctly predict the structures and free energies of molecular systems? It is an assumption of our research that classical molecular mechanics/dynamics is or can be made sufficiently accurate to accurately represent not only conformational (intramolecular) energetics but also nonbonded (both intramolecular and intermolecular) energetics. Even though these classical mechanical energy functions are not perfect representations of the BornOppenheimer surface, progress has been made during the last decade in improving them. If the force fields are proven accurate on rigid or degenerate systems such as liquids, where we can sample enough of the system to be confident of convergence, then they can be usefully applied to systems of greater complexity, where the main difficulty is sampling enough configurations of the system.1-3 Given the importance of an accurate molecular mechanical model, we first present the recent efforts to develop an improved one, dividing our discussion into (a) philosophy and approach to a molecular mechanical model, (b) testing the molecular mechanical model on simple systems, (c) nonadditive molecular mechanical models, and (d) the importance of long-range electrostatic effects in complex systems. We then turn to applications of such models to molecules of organic and biochemical interest. Here we highlight a number of themes: (a) solvation in simple and complex systems, (b) molecular recognition, (c) more complex systems, octanol and DNA, and (d) chemical reactions in solutions and in enzymes. We then conclude with perspectives for the future. [Accounts of Chemical Research articles are intended to emphasize research in the author’s lab; thus, we have been quite selective in our discussions. A recent exhaustive review of free energy calculations has attempted to note all the contributions to 1993.4 However, we note that the many exciting studies being carried out in other labs attest to the vitality of computational chemistry and biochemistry. ]
Mechanisms of oncogenesis in colon versus rectal cancer

Observations support the theory that development of left‐ and right‐sided colorectal cancers may involve different mechanisms. This study investigated different genes involved in oncogenesis of colon and rectal cancers and analysed their prognostic value. The study group comprised 35 colon and 42 rectal cancers. Rectal cancer patients had been treated with standardized surgery performed by an experienced rectal cancer surgeon. Mutation analysis was performed for p53 in eight colon cancers and for APC and p53 in 22 rectal cancers. MLH1, MSH2, Bcl‐2, p53, E‐cadherin and β‐catenin were investigated by immunohistochemistry in all colorectal tumours. APC mutation analysis of the MCR showed truncating mutations in 18 of 22 rectal tumours (82%), but the presence of an APC mutation was not related to nuclear β‐catenin expression (p=0.75). Rectal cancers showed significantly more nuclear β‐catenin than colon cancers (65% versus 40%, p=0.04). p53 mutation analysis corresponded well with p53 immunohistochemistry (p<0.001). Rectal cancers showed significantly more immunohistochemical expression of p53 than colon cancers (64% versus 29%, p=0.003). In rectal cancers, a significant correlation was found between positive p53 expression and worse disease‐free survival (p=0.008), but not in colon cancers. Cox regression showed that p53‐expression (p=0.03) was an independent predictor for disease‐free survival in rectal cancers. This study concluded that rectal cancer may involve more nuclear β‐catenin in the APC/β‐catenin pathway than colon cancer and/or nuclear β‐catenin may have another role in rectal cancer independently of APC. The p53‐pathway seems to be more important in rectal cancer, in which it also has independent prognostic value. When prognostic markers are investigated in larger series, differences in biological behaviour between colon and rectal cancer should be considered. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.