Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards a microservices development approach for the crisis management field in developing countries

This article outlines a first attempt toward aligning IT assets and business processes within the crisis management (CM) field in Developing Countries. We propose to provide service designers/developers with a comprehensive framework to the design, implementation and deployment of microservices based software systems. The proposition is illustrated by a case study in Algeria.
Autotaxin-Lysophosphatidic Acid: From Inflammation to Cancer Development

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a ubiquitous lysophospholipid and one of the main membrane-derived lipid signaling molecules. LPA acts as an autocrine/paracrine messenger through at least six G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), known as LPA1–6, to induce various cellular processes including wound healing, differentiation, proliferation, migration, and survival. LPA receptors and autotaxin (ATX), a secreted phosphodiesterase that produces this phospholipid, are overexpressed in many cancers and impact several features of the disease, including cancer-related inflammation, development, and progression. Many ongoing studies aim to understand ATX-LPA axis signaling in cancer and its potential as a therapeutic target. In this review, we discuss the evidence linking LPA signaling to cancer-related inflammation and its impact on cancer progression.
Modeling and Control of Thin Film Surface Morphology: Application to Thin Film Solar Cells

Thin film solar cells, which consist of multiple layers such as the PIN layers and the Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) layers, are playing a more and more important role in the overall solar cell market owing to the potential of improving light conversion efficiencies (currently on the order of 10$\%$ for production modules). Over the last decade, it has been widely recognized that the surface morphology at each interface, which is characterized by surface root-mean-square roughness and slope, has crucial influence on the light conversion efficiency of thin film solar cells. Therefore, precisely shaping the surface morphologies of different layers in thin film solar cells during the thin film deposition process is a promising way to improve solar cell efficiency. Despite its importance, the computational modeling and control of the surface morphology, especially of the root-mean-square surface mean slope, during the thin film deposition process and its application to improve solar cell performance have not received enough attention.This dissertation presents a systematic framework for modeling and control of thin film surface morphology in both PIN layers and TCO layers. Specifically, we will present novel definitions for describing surface morphology by introducing both the surface root mean square roughness and slope to describe the surface morphology, study its physical properties and dependence on model parameters such like lattice size, activation energies and temperature, introduce and identify stochastic closed-form equations describing surface morphology, and finally design model predictive controllers to control the surface morphology to desired levels. Extensive simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and control framework.
A Scan-Line-Based Hole Filling Algorithm for Vehicle Recognition

The existence of holes in vehicle object makes it difficult to extract the feature. existing hole-filling method are capable of filling holes on small and smooth regions of a object, for large holes whit complex boundaries or in curved region in vehicle object, they may not obtain the satisfactory results. For resolving this problem, a novel hole-filling algorithm based on horizontal scan line was proposed to fill arbitrary holes in vehicle object obtained from vehicle image. Experiments show that the algorithm has good performance and efficiency, and in the filling processing, the feature of the area and perimeter of an object can be obtained at the same time.
Effect of CaF2 in Precursors on Steel Pipe Lined Fe-Al Intermetallic-TiB2-Al2O3 Composite Coating by Centrifugal-SHS Process

Steel pipe lined Fe-Al intermetallic-TiB2-Al2O3 composite were prepared by centrifugal-self-propagating high temperature synthesis (centrifugal-SHS) process from FeTiO3, B2O3, Fe2O3, Al and CaF2 as raw materials. The standard Gibbs energy minimization method was used to calculate the equilibrium compositions of the reacting species. The effect of adding CaF2 to the precursors on the result product were investigated. The phase separation between less porosity Fe-Al intermetallics-TiB2 with Al2O3 layer were affected greatly by adding CaF2. The phase compositions and morphology were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) couple with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), respectively.
Induction of hypoxia and necrosis in multicellular tumor spheroids is associated with resistance to chemotherapy treatment

Culture of cancerous cells in standard monolayer conditions poorly mirrors growth in three-dimensional architectures typically observed in a wide majority of cancers of different histological origin. Multicellular tumor spheroid (MCTS) culture models were developed to mimic these features. However, in vivo tumor growth is also characterized by the presence of ischemic and necrotic areas generated by oxygenation gradients and differential access to nutrients. Hypoxia and necrosis play key roles in tumor progression and resistance to treatment. To provide in vitro models recapitulating these events in highly controlled and standardized conditions, we have generated colorectal cancer (CRC) cell spheroids of different sizes and analyzed their gene expression profiles and sensitivity to treatment with 5FU, currently used in therapeutic protocols. Here we identify three MCTS stages, corresponding to defined spheroid sizes, characterized by normoxia, hypoxia, and hypoxia plus necrosis, respectively. Importantly, we show that MCTS including both hypoxic and necrotic areas most closely mimic gene expression profiles of in vivo-developing tumors and display the highest resistance to 5FU. Taken together, our data indicate that MCTS may mimic in vitro generation of ischemic and necrotic areas in highly standardized and controlled conditions, thereby qualifying as relevant models for drug screening purposes.
Adaptive Steganalysis Based on Selection Region and Combined Convolutional Neural Networks

Digital image steganalysis is the art of detecting the presence of information hiding in carrier images. When detecting recently developed adaptive image steganography methods, state-of-art steganalysis methods cannot achieve satisfactory detection accuracy, because the adaptive steganography methods can adaptively embed information into regions with rich textures via the guidance of distortion function and thus make the effective steganalysis features hard to be extracted. Inspired by the promising success which convolutional neural network (CNN) has achieved in the fields of digital image analysis, increasing researchers are devoted to designing CNN based steganalysis methods. But as for detecting adaptive steganography methods, the results achieved by CNN based methods are still far from expected. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach by designing a region selection method and a new CNN framework. In order to make the CNN focus on the regions with complex textures, we design a region selection method by finding a region with the maximal sum of the embedding probabilities. To evolve more diverse and effective steganalysis features, we design a new CNN framework consisting of three separate subnets with independent structure and configuration parameters and then merge and split the three subnets repeatedly. Experimental results indicate that our approach can lead to performance improvement in detecting adaptive steganography.
Impaired memory is more closely associated with brain beta-amyloid than leukoaraiosis in hypertensive patients with cognitive symptoms

Background Hypertension is the strongest modifiable risk factor for subcortical ischemic changes and is also a risk factor for Alzheimer’s dementia. We used neuroimaging to investigate the pathological basis of early cognitive symptoms in patients with hypertension. Methods In this cross-sectional cohort study 67 patients age >60 years with hypertension and Clinical Dementia Rating scale score of 0.5 without dementia, and without history of symptomatic stroke, underwent MRI for measurement of subcortical vascular changes and positron emission tomography (PET) scan with Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB-PET) to detect beta-amyloid deposition. These imaging measures were related to neuropsychological tests of memory, executive function and processing speed. Results Mean age was 75.0 (standard deviation, SD, 7.3). Mean neuropsychological Z scores were: episodic memory -0.63 (SD 1.23), executive function -0.40 (SD 1.10), processing speed -0.24 (SD 0.88); 22 of the 67 subjects met criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and the remaining 45 subjects had subjective cognitive concerns only. In multivariable models adjusting for age and years of education, each 0.1 unit increase in mean cortical PiB-PET binding was associated with 0.14 lower mean Z score for episodic memory (95% CI -0.28 to -0.01). This means that for every 0.1 unit increase in mean cortical PiB-PET, episodic memory was 0.14 standard deviations lower. White matter hyperintensity volume, silent brain infarcts and microbleeds were not associated with neuropsychological test scores. Conclusions Episodic memory was prominently affected in hypertensive participants with MCI or subjective cognitive concerns, and was associated with PiB-PET binding. This suggests a prominent role for Alzheimer pathology in cognitive impairment even in hypertensive participants at elevated risk for vascular cognitive impairment.
Noradrenergic signaling in the VTA modulates cocaine craving

Exposure to drug‐associated cues evokes drug‐seeking behavior and is regarded as a major cause of relapse. Conditional stimulus upregulates noradrenaline (NA) system activity, but the drug‐seeking behavior depends particularly on phasic dopamine signaling downstream from the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The VTA dopamine‐ergic activity is regulated via the signaling of alpha1‐adrenergic and alpha2‐adrenergic receptors (α1‐ARs and α2‐ARs); thus, the impact of the conditional stimulus on drug‐seeking behavior might involve NAergic signaling in the VTA. To date, the role of VTA ARs in regulating cocaine seeking was not studied. We found that cocaine seeking under extinction conditions in male Sprague–Dawley rats was attenuated by intra‐VTA prazosin or terazosin—two selective α1‐AR antagonists. In contrast, cocaine seeking was facilitated by intra‐VTA administration of the selective α1‐AR agonist phenylephrine as well as α2‐AR antagonist RX 821002, whereas the selective β‐AR antagonist propranolol had no effects. In addition, blockade of α1‐AR in the VTA prevented α2‐AR antagonist‐induced enhancement of cocaine seeking. Importantly, the potential non‐specific effects of the VTA AR blockade on cocaine seeking could be excluded, because none of the AR antagonists influenced sucrose seeking under extinction conditions or locomotor activity in the open field test. These results demonstrate that NAergic signaling potently and selectively regulates cocaine seeking during early cocaine withdrawal via VTA α1‐AR and α2‐AR but not β‐AR. Our findings provide new insight into the NAergic mechanisms that underlie cocaine craving.
Study on Elastic Deformation Properties of the Blanket in Offset Printing

This paper analyzes elastic deformation properties of the blanket in offset printing due to a contact load of the impression(or plate)cylinder with the blanket cylinder, considering anisotropic properties and the laminated construction of the blanket. The two dimensional elastic theory is applied to solve the contact problem of the blanket and the numerical solution provides details of the contact pressure distribution, the deformation of the blanket, and the contact width of the blanket with the impression(or plate)cylinder. Influences of Young's moduli and thickness of each layer of the blanket on the contact pressure distribution and the deformation of the blanket, are examined by the theory. The experiments are carried out for measuring the contact pressure distribution and the deformation of the blanket and the calculated results are in fair agreement with those of experiment.
Analysis of the cell association for decoupled wireless access in a two tier network

In this paper, we analyze the association of a user terminal in a two-tier network (i.e., macrocells and millimeter wave small cells). We assumed a decoupled wireless access where a user terminal has the liberty to choose different base stations (BSs) in uplink and downlink based on the received power and the channel quality. A practical blockage model where a human body is a blockage to millimeter wave (mmW) is considered. An in-depth simulation study is done to explore the effectiveness of decoupled wireless access in a crowded environment. In addition to that, a detailed analysis on the intuitiveness and the mathematical tractability of the blockage model used is also provided. In the end, few research questions on the efficacy of decoupled wireless access are raised in this paper.
Metallic superlens designed with close-to-cutoff of long-range SPP mode

The metallic superlens of a single negative permittivity is easier to implement than the double negative material superlens and can be applied to nano-scale resolution lithography. The metallic superlens amplifies by the resonance the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waves, which carry the sub-wavelength detail information of the object. However, the excitations of the long- and the short-range SPP modes of the metal slab lead to two peaks in the transfer function which enhance the spatial frequencies disproportionally, resulting in strong sidelobes in the image. Conventionally the metallic superlens is designed by trials without rules to follow. We propose to design the metallic superlens by approaching the cutoff condition of the long-range SPP mode in order to flatten the transfer function and to improve the imaging performance significantly. Design experiments of Al and Ag superlens with both the transfer-matrix approach and the numerical Finite Difference in Time Domain method are shown.
Bone Healing in Extraction Sockets Covered With Collagen Membrane Alone or Associated With Porcine-Derived Bone Graft: a Comparative Histological and Histomorphometric Analysis

ABSTRACT Objectives The present paper reports data of a randomized study aimed to analyse and compare the histologic and histomorphometric aspects of bone healing in extraction sites covered with collagen membrane alone or associated with porcine-derived bone graft. Material and Methods Thirty patients, with single extraction sockets without severe bone wall defects in the premolar/molar region, were included. Ten extraction sockets were grafted with porcine-derived bone and covered with collagen membrane (group 1), 10 sites were covered with collagen membrane alone (group 2), and 10 sites healed spontaneously (group 3). After 4 months of healing, 26 (8 in group 1, 9 in group 2, and 9 in group 3) bone core specimens were harvested for histologic evaluation, then dental implants were placed. Results Sites in the group 1 and in the group 2 showed similar histologic and histomorphometric results without significantly differences in the percentage of vital bone (57.43% [SD 4.8] vs. 60.01% [SD 3.2]), and non-mineralized connective tissue 22.99% (SD 5.3) vs. 18.53% (SD 6.2). In group 1 a 16.57% (SD 3.8) of residual material was found. Conclusions Results showed that the use of collagen membrane alone or associated to porcine-derived bone improves the healing bone process compared to that of extraction sites spontaneously healed. Moreover, histomorphometric data related to bone quality, indicated that extraction sites without severe walls defects and with a vestibular bone thickness > 1.5 mm, treated with a low resorbtion rate collagen membrane alone, do not need more than 4 months for dental implant insertion.
SSED: Servers Under Software-Defined Network Architectures to Eliminate Discovery Messages

The high speed, low cost, sharing of peripheral devices and central administration features of the Ethernet have led to it being widely trusted as the backbone for recent networks. However, it suffers from many practical limitations leading to a lack of scalability, owing to its broadcast and multicast mechanisms, particularly in relation to the discovery processes. Whilst software-defined networks (SDN) have overcome many legacy network problems, scalability remains a major issue, because broadcasting and multicasting have been inherited. Moreover, the problem is exacerbated with increasing network traffic, which results in higher bandwidth consumption, congestion, and increased probability of a single point of failure. To address this, servers under software-defined network architectures to eliminate discovery messages (SSED) is designed in this paper, and a backbone of floodless packets in an SDN LAN network is introduced. For SSED, flood discovery packets created by the dynamic host configuration protocol in the application layer and the address resolution protocol in the data link layer are considered, respectively. SSED eliminates any broadcast discovery packets with better performance, lowers peak overhead, and introduces an innovative mechanism for defining the relationship between the servers and SDN architecture. Experimental results after constructing and applying an authentic testbed verify that our proposed model has the ability to improve the scalability by removing broadcast packets from the data plane, reduction of control packets in the control plane, lessening peak overhead on the controller, preventing it experiencing failed requests, offering better response time, and providing more efficient performance.
Forty Years Trends in Timing of Pubertal Growth Spurt in 157,000 Danish School Children

Background Entering puberty is an important milestone in reproductive life and secular changes in the timing of puberty may be an important indicator of the general reproductive health in a population. Too early puberty is associated with several psychosocial and health problems. The aim of our study was to determine if the age at onset of pubertal growth spurt (OGS) and at peak height velocity (PHV) during puberty show secular trends during four decades in a large cohort of school children. Methods and Findings Annual measurements of height were available in all children born from 1930 to 1969 who attended primary school in the Copenhagen Municipality. 135,223 girls and 21,612 boys fulfilled the criteria for determining age at OGS and age at PHV. These physiological events were used as markers of pubertal development in our computerized method in order to evaluate any secular trends in pubertal maturation during the study period (year of birth 1930 to 1969). In this period, age at OGS declined statistically significantly by 0.2 and 0.4 years in girls and boys, respectively, whereas age at PHV declined statistically significantly by 0.5 and 0.3 years in girls and boys, respectively. The decline was non-linear with a levelling off in the children born between 1940 and 1955. The duration of puberty, as defined by the difference between age at OGS and age at PHV, increased slightly in boys, whereas it decreased in girls. Conclusion Our finding of declining age at OGS and at PHV indicates a secular trend towards earlier sexual maturation of Danish children born between 1930 and 1969. Only minor changes were observed in duration of puberty assessed by the difference in ages at OGS and PHV.
A Framework for Hardware Efficient Reusable IP Core for Grayscale Image CODEC

This paper proposes two major novelties. First, we provide a mathematical framework for hardware resource efficient IP core-based image compression and decompression (CODEC). The framework includes CODEC functions that are capable of determining the pixel intensities of a compressed gray scale image using significantly lesser hardware resources. Digital pixel values of the original image are fed as an input to the functions of proposed IP framework and compressed digital pixel values of compressed image generated. Similarly, digital pixel values of the compressed image are fed into other functions of the proposed framework for image decompression. Second, the second novelty is using the derived IP functions to propose designs of reusable IP cores for complete Haar wavelet transformation (HWT)-based lossy image CODEC. Testing of images from various data sets (NASA, medical applications, and so on) in terms of hardware resources, image quality, and compression efficiency have indicated that the proposed IP core framework was successful in achieving hardware efficient CODEC compared with JPEG and conventional HWT CODECs.
Structural Engineering of 2D Nanomaterials for Energy Storage and Catalysis

Research on 2D nanomaterials is rising to an unprecedented height and will continue to remain a very important topic in materials science. In parallel with the discovery of new candidate materials and exploration of their unique characteristics, there are intensive interests to rationally control and tune the properties of 2D nanomaterials in a predictable manner. Considerable attention is focused on modifying these materials structurally or engineering them into designed architectures to meet requirements for specific applications. Recent advances in such structural engineering strategies have demonstrated their ability to overcome current material limitations, showing great promise for promoting device performance to a new level in many energy‐related applications. Existing in many forms, these strategies can be categorized based on how they intrinsically or extrinsically alter the pristine structure. Achieved through various synthetic routes and practiced in a range of different material systems, they usually share common descriptors that predestine them to be effective in certain circumstances. Therefore, understanding the underlying mechanism of these strategies to provide fundamental insights into structural design and property tailoring is of critical importance. Here, the most recent development of structural engineering of 2D nanomaterials and their significant effects in energy storage and catalysis technologies are addressed.