Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recommendations-based location privacy control

In this paper, we propose and investigate a user-centric device-cloud architecture for intelligently managing user data. The architecture allows users to keep their (private) data on their mobile devices and decide what to share with the service providers on the cloud, based on their individual privacy preferences, in order to get personalized services. Our architecture strives to help ease users' burden on managing privacy by giving automatic recommendations on how to configure their privacy profiles on devices. One focused contribution of this paper is that we instantiate this proposed general architecture to location-based service due to the privacy sensitivity of location data. We derive and validate our location-sharing recommendations using online user experiments. Our results show that the recommendations are accurate, and that they help users with the decisions involved in the privacy profile configuration process. Our results also demonstrate that the quality of personalized location-based services can be maintained even when the increased user privacy control leads to a situation where not all location data is shared with the service provider. These results lead the way to powerful location-based and other personalized services that improve user privacy.
Cartridge Methods for Oligonucleotide Purification

Protocols are given for purification of oligonucleotides by dimethoxytrityl‐sensitive and affinity desalting methods. The protocols are applicable for many of the convenient disposable products available for rapid oligonucleotide purification, clean‐up by selective adsorption, and elution on solid‐phase media. Many of these products are prepackaged, single‐use cartridges or columns filled with affinity or size‐exclusion media.
Cutting Edge: Localization of Linker for Activation of T Cells to Lipid Rafts Is Not Essential in T Cell Activation and Development1

It has been proposed that upon T cell activation, linker for activation of T cells (LAT), a transmembrane adaptor protein localized to lipid rafts, orchestrates formation of multiprotein complexes and activates signaling cascades in lipid rafts. However, whether lipid rafts really exist or function remains controversial. To address the importance of lipid rafts in LAT function, we generated a fusion protein to target LAT to nonraft fractions using the transmembrane domain from a nonraft protein, linker for activation of X cells (LAX). Surprisingly, this fusion protein functioned well in TCR signaling. It restored MAPK activation, calcium flux, and NFAT activation in LAT-deficient cells. To further study the function of this fusion protein in vivo, we generated transgenic mice that express this protein. Analysis of these mice indicated that it was fully capable of replacing LAT in thymocyte development and T cell function. Our results demonstrate that LAT localization to lipid rafts is not essential during normal T cell activation and development.
Kant and the Capacity to Judge: Sensibility and Discursivity in the Transcendental Analytic of the Critique of Pure Reason

Acknowledgments Ch. 1 Synthesis and Judgment Ch. 2 The "Threefold Synthesis" and the Mathematical Model Ch. 3 The Transition to Judgment Ch. 4 Logical Definitions of Judgment Ch. 5 How Discursive Understanding Comes to the Sensible Given: Comparison of Representations and Judgment Ch. 6 Concepts of Comparison, Forms of Judgment, Concept Formation Ch. 7 Judgments of Perception and Judgments of Experience Ch. 8 Synthesis Speciosa and Forms of Sensibility Ch. 9 The Primacy of Quantitative Syntheses Ch. 10 The Real as Appearance: Imagination and Sensation Ch. 11 The Constitution of Experience Conclusion: The Capacity to Judge and "Ontology as Immanent Thinking" Bibliography Index Index of Citations of Kant's Works
Validation of LC for the determination of alpha-mangostin in mangosteen peel extract: a tool for quality assessment of Garcinia mangostana L.

Mangosteen, Garcinia mangostana L. , is known as the "Queen of fruits" and can be cultivated in the tropical rainforest such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Compounds isolated from the fruit peel of mangosteen contain abundant xanthones (especially alpha-mangostin). It has been used as traditional medicine such as anti-inflammatory and antibacterial and is popularly applied to cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. However, there is little information for quality and quantity determination of alpha-mangostin in mangosteen. Thus, the aim of this study was to set up a validated and stability-indicated isocratic reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method for quality control and quantity determination of a-mangostin from mangosteen peel extract. The assay was fully validated and shown to be linear (r(2) > 0.999), sensitive (LOD = 0.02 microg/mL and LOQ = 0.08 microg/mL), accurate (intra-day was between 98.1-100.8%, inter-day was between 90.0-101.3%), precise (intra-day variation < or = 1.8%, inter-day variation < or = 4.3%), specific, and with good recovery. Total analysis was approximately 8 min. The finalized method is also a stability-indicating assay. The present method should be useful for analytical research and for routine quality control analysis of alpha-mangostin in mangosteen peel extract and products of mangosteen.
Gender, cognitive, social functioning, social cognition and social skills in schizotypal personality disorder of general population

Objective: The present study aims to explore the deficit of cognitive, social functioning, social cognition and social skill with the SPD of general population. Additionally, the relationship between social functioning and rejection sensitivity is also investigated. Furthermore, this paper wants to explore how social functioning and rejection sensitivity can predict the score in the SPQ so as to build up the indirect relationship between SPQ score and rejection sensitivity. Lastly, gender effect on cognitive and social functioning will also be explored. To our knowledge, the present study is the first study using Hong Kong Cantonese version questionnaires to assess the impairment in cognitive, social functioning and social skills in general population. Method: 213 university students completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), the Sensitivity to Rejection Scale (SRS), the Social Adaptation Self-evaluation Scale (SASS), the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), the Brief Visuo-spatial Memory Test (BVMT), the self-description game, the Social Skill Inventory (SSI) and the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ). Results: In the present study, most measures can not find the deficits in cognitive functioning when comparing high SPQ group with low SPQ group. In social cognition, part of it can find there had the significant difference between high SPQ group and low SPQ group. The result shows that there is significantly positive correlation between RSQ and SRS. For SPD in general population 4 RSQ, it was negative significantly correlated to SASS. Linear regressions indicated that RSQ and SASS could predict the score in SPQ. In SRS, it was negative significantly correlated to SASS. Linear regressions indicated SASS and SRS could predict the score in SPQ. However, the present study can not find there have the gender by SPQ classification interaction effect on cognitive, social functioning, social cognition as well as social skills. Conclusion: The present study can’t find high SPQ group having the cognitive deficit when comparing with low SPQ group, but it can find that there was the social skill and social functioning deficits in high SPQ group when comparing with low SPQ group. It also establishes a new way to look for the score in SPQ which is the rejection sensitivity. However, the present study can not find the gender difference on cognitive, social functioning, social cognition and social skills in high SPQ group when comparing with low SPQ group. SPD in general population 5 Page no. Acknowledgements 2 Abstract 3-4 Table of
Learning from Demonstration to Be a Good Team Member in a Role Playing Game

We present an approach that uses learning from demonstration in a computer role playing game to create a controller for a companion team member. We describe a behavior engine that uses case-based reasoning. The behavior engine accepts observation traces of human playing decisions and produces a sequence of actions which can then be carried out by an artificial agent within the gaming environment. Our work focuses on teambased role playing games, where the agents produced by the behavior engine act as team members within a mixed human-agent team. We present the results of a study we conducted, where we assess both the quantitative and qualitative performance difference between human-only teams compared with hybrid human-agent teams. The results of our study show that human-agent teams were more successful at task completion and, for some qualitative dimensions, hybrid teams were perceived more favorably than human-only teams.
Total unimodularity and decomposition method for large-scale air traffic cell transmission model

In an earlier work, Sun and Bayen built a Large-Capacity Cell Transmission Model for air traffic flow management. They formulated an integer programming problem of minimizing the total travel time of flights in the National Airspace System of the United States subject to sector capacity constraints. The integer program was relaxed to a linear program for computational efficiency. In this paper the authors formulate the optimization problem in a standard linear programming form. We analyze the total unimodular property of the constraint matrix, and prove that the linear programming relaxation generates an optimal integral solution for the original integer program. It is guaranteed to be optimal and integral if solved by a simplex related method. In order to speed up the computation, we apply the Dantzig–Wolfe Decomposition algorithm, which is shown to preserve the total unimodularity of the constraint matrix. Finally, we evaluate the performances of Sun and Bayen’s relaxation solved by the interior point method and our decomposition algorithm with large-scale air traffic data. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A Novel TGR5 Activator WB403 Promotes GLP-1 Secretion and Preserves Pancreatic β-Cells in Type 2 Diabetic Mice

The G protein-coupled receptor TGR5 is a membrane receptor for bile acids. Its agonism increases energy expenditure and controls blood glucose through secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 in enteroendocrine cells. In this study, we explored the therapeutic potential of WB403, a small compound activating TGR5 which was identified by combining TGR5 targeted luciferase assay and active GLP-1 assay, in treating type 2 diabetes. After confirmation of TGR5 and GLP-1 stimulating activities in various cell systems, WB403 was examined in oral glucose tolerance test, and tested on different mouse models of type 2 diabetes for glycemic control and pancreatic β-cell protection effect. As a result, WB403 exhibited a moderate TGR5 activation effect while promoting GLP-1 secretion efficiently. Interestingly, gallbladder filling effect, which was reported for some known TGR5 agonists, was not detected in this novel compound. In vivo results showed that WB403 significantly improved glucose tolerance and decreased fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose and HbA1c in type 2 diabetic mice. Further analysis revealed that WB403 increased pancreatic β-cells and restored the normal distribution pattern of α-cell and β-cell in islets. These findings demonstrated that TGR5 activator WB403 effectively promoted GLP-1 release, improved hyperglycemia and preserved the mass and function of pancreatic β-cells, whereas it did not show a significant side effect on gallbladder. It may represent a promising approach for future type 2 diabetes mellitus drug development.
Using automated source code analysis for software evolution

Software maintenance is one of the most expensive and time-consuming phases in the software life-cycle. The size and complexity of commercial applications probably present the greatest difficulty that maintainers face when making changes to their applications. As a result of the corresponding loss of understanding, business knowledge encapsulated within the system becomes fragmented, and any changes made as a result of new business initiatives become difficult to implement and hence may mean a loss of business opportunities. The paper outlines an approach to regaining understanding of software which has been used in the Release project at Durham University. This approach involves determining the calling structure of a program in terms of a call-graph, and from this call-graph extracting a dominance tree. Various problems which have been encountered during the construction of tools to perform this task are described.
Low Frequency Pulsed Resonant Converter for Energy Harvesting

A pulsed-resonant ac-dc converter and an integrated circuit (IC) controller have been designed, fabricated, and tested for harvesting energy from low-voltage (1.2V), low-power (1-100muW) energy transducers with output frequency in the 10-Hz-1-kHz range. Simulations using foundry models suggest that the silicon loss could be as low as 0.6muW, and the efficiency could reach 70%. With the IC experimentally packaged, the measured efficiency is between 50% and 70%, depending on the size and the loss in the resonant inductor
Distributed Graph Summarization

Graph has been a ubiquitous and essential data representation to model real world objects and their relationships. Today, large amounts of graph data have been generated by various applications. Graph summarization techniques are crucial in uncovering useful insights about the patterns hidden in the underlying data. However, all existing works in graph summarization are single-process solutions, and as a result cannot scale to large graphs. In this paper, we introduce three distributed graph summarization algorithms to address this problem. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms can produce good quality summaries and scale well with increasing data sizes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to study distributed graph summarization methods.
Common Hepatic Branch of Vagus Nerve-Dependent Expression of Immediate Early Genes in the Mouse Brain by Intraportal L-Arginine: Comparison with Cholecystokinin-8

Information from the peripheral organs is thought to be transmitted to the brain by humoral factors and neurons such as afferent vagal or spinal nerves. The common hepatic branch of the vagus (CHBV) is one of the main vagus nerve branches, and consists of heterogeneous neuronal fibers that innervate multiple peripheral organs such as the bile duct, portal vein, paraganglia, and gastroduodenal tract. Although, previous studies suggested that the CHBV has a pivotal role in transmitting information on the status of the liver to the brain, the details of its central projections remain unknown. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the brain regions activated by the CHBV. For this purpose, we injected L-arginine or anorexia-associated peptide cholecystokinin-8 (CCK), which are known to increase CHBV electrical activity, into the portal vein of transgenic Arc-dVenus mice expressing the fluorescent protein Venus under control of the activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) promotor. The brain slices were prepared from these mice and the number of Venus positive cells in the slices was counted. After that, c-Fos expression in these slices was analyzed by immunohistochemistry using the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method. Intraportal administration of L-arginine increased the number of Venus positive or c-Fos positive cells in the insular cortex. This action of L-arginine was not observed in CHBV-vagotomized Arc-dVenus mice. In contrast, intraportal administration of CCK did not increase the number of c-Fos positive or Venus positive cells in the insular cortex. Intraportal CCK induced c-Fos expression in the dorsomedial hypothalamus, while intraportal L-arginine did not. This action of CCK was abolished by CHBV vagotomy. Intraportal L-arginine reduced, while intraportal CCK increased, the number of c-Fos positive cells in the nucleus tractus solitarii in a CHBV-dependent manner. The present results suggest that the CHBV can activate different brain regions depending on the nature of the peripheral stimulus.
The Yeast Retrograde Response as a Model of Intracellular Signaling of Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Mitochondrial dysfunction activates intracellular signaling pathways that impact yeast longevity, and the best known of these pathways is the retrograde response. More recently, similar responses have been discerned in other systems, from invertebrates to human cells. However, the identity of the signal transducers is either unknown or apparently diverse, contrasting with the well-established signaling module of the yeast retrograde response. On the other hand, it has become equally clear that several other pathways and processes interact with the retrograde response, embedding it in a network responsive to a variety of cellular states. An examination of this network supports the notion that the master regulator NFκB aggregated a variety of mitochondria-related cellular responses at some point in evolution and has become the retrograde transcription factor. This has significant consequences for how we view some of the deficits associated with aging, such as inflammation. The support for NFκB as the retrograde response transcription factor is not only based on functional analyses. It is bolstered by the fact that NFκB can regulate Myc–Max, which is activated in human cells with dysfunctional mitochondria and impacts cellular metabolism. Myc–Max is homologous to the yeast retrograde response transcription factor Rtg1–Rtg3. Further research will be needed to disentangle the pro-aging from the anti-aging effects of NFκB. Interestingly, this is also a challenge for the complete understanding of the yeast retrograde response.
The Interpretive Shaping of Embodied Musical Structure in Piano Performance

Research has indicated that the magnitude of physical expressive movements during a performance helps to communicate a musician's affective intent. However, the underlying function of these performance gestures remains unclear. Nine highly skilled solo pianists are examined here to investigate the effect of structural interpretation on performance motion patterns. Following previous findings that these performers generate repeated patterns of motion through overall upper-body movements corresponding to phrasing structure, this study now investigates the particular shapes traced by these movements. Through this we identify universal and idiosyncratic features within the shapes of motion patterns generated by these performers. Gestural shapes are examined for performances of Chopin’s explicitly structured A major Prelude (Op. 28, No. 7) and are related to individual interpretations of the more complex phrasing structure of Chopin’s B minor Prelude (Op. 28, No. 6). Findings reveal a universal general embodiment of phrasing structure and other higher-level structural features of the music. The physical makeup of this embodiment, however, is particular to both the performer and the piece being performed. Examining the link between performers' movements and interpreted structure strengthens understanding of the connection between body and instrument, furthering awareness of the relations between cognitive interpretation and physical expression of structure within music performance.
Quantifying the relationship between the power delivery network and architectural policies in a 3D-stacked memory device

Many of the pins on a modern chip are used for power delivery. If fewer pins were used to supply the same current, the wires and pins used for power delivery would have to carry larger currents over longer distances. This results in an "IR-drop" problem, where some of the voltage is dropped across the long resistive wires making up the power delivery network, and the eventual circuits experience fluctuations in their supplied voltage. The same problem also manifests if the pin count is the same, but the current draw is higher. IR-drop can be especially problematic in 3D DRAM devices because (i) low cost (few pins and TSVs) is a high priority,(ii)3D-stacking increases current draw within the package without providing proportionate room for more pins, and (iii) TSVs add to the resistance of the power delivery network. This paper is the first to characterize the relationship between the power delivery network and the maximum supported activity in a 3D-stacked DRAM memory device. The design of the power delivery network determines if some banks can handle less activity than others. It also determines the combinations of bank activities that are permissible. Both of these attributes can feed into architectural policies. For example, if some banks can handle more activities than others, the architecture benefits by placing data from high-priority threads or data from frequently accessed pages into those banks. The memory controller can also derive higher performance if it schedules requests to specific combinations of banks that do not violate the IR-drop constraint. We first define an IR-drop-aware scheduler that encodes a number of activity constraints. This scheduler, however, falls short of the performance of an unrealistic ideal PDN that imposes no scheduling constraints by 4.6x. By addressing starvation phenomena in the scheduler, the gap is reduced to only 1.47×. Finally, by adding a dynamic page placement policy, performance is within 1.2× of the unreal­istic ideal PDN. We thus show that architectural polices can help mitigate the limitations imposed by a cost constrained design.
Green multimedia wireless sensor networks: distributed intelligent data fusion, in-network processing, and optimized resource management

In developing new applications for green wireless media, power-efficient paradigms and distributed platforms for pervasive sensing, efficient fusion, QoE dissemination, and real-time recovery of multimedia data are of paramount importance. In particular, these topics are challenging in MWSN applications to be compliant with the green wireless media paradigm. In this article, we review the current state of the art in green QoE MWSNs, with reference to mobile users and remote applications. At first, the most relevant aspects regarding the fusion, storage, transmission, and retrieval of multimedia data are reviewed and critically discussed. Afterward, we present some recent paradigms and trends in power-efficient QoE multimedia data fusion and clustering, and collaborative context-aware realtime in-network processing that may serve as guidelines for future green media applications.
BLM Deficiency Is Not Associated with Sensitivity to Hydroxyurea-Induced Replication Stress

Bloom's syndrome (BS) displays one of the strongest known correlations between chromosomal instability and a high risk of cancer at an early age. BS cells combine a reduced average fork velocity with constitutive endogenous replication stress. However, the response of BS cells to replication stress induced by hydroxyurea (HU), which strongly slows the progression of replication forks, remains unclear due to publication of conflicting results. Using two different cellular models of BS, we showed that BLM deficiency is not associated with sensitivity to HU, in terms of clonogenic survival, DSB generation, and SCE induction. We suggest that surviving BLM-deficient cells are selected on the basis of their ability to deal with an endogenous replication stress induced by replication fork slowing, resulting in insensitivity to HU-induced replication stress.