Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TOWARDS TIME-SERIES PROCESSING OF VHR SATELLITE IMAGES FOR SURFACE DEFORMATION DETECTON AND MEASUREMENTS

Abstract. The increasing fleet of VHR optical satellites (e.g. Pleiades, Spot 6/7, WorldView-3) offers new opportunities for the monitoring of surface deformation resulting from gravitational (e.g. glaciers, landslides) or tectonic forces (coseismic slip). Image correlation techniques have been developed and successfully employed in many geoscientific studies to quantify horizontal surface deformation at sub-pixel precision. The analysis of time-series, however, has received less attention in this context and there is still a lack of techniques that fully exploit archived image time-series and the increasing flux of incoming data. This study targets the development of an image correlation processing chain that relies on multiple pair-wise matching to exploit the redundancy of deformation measurements recorded at different view angles and over multiple time steps. The proposed processing chain is based on a hierarchical image correlation scheme that readily uses parallel processing. Since pair-wise matching can be performed independently the distribution of individual tasks is straightforward and yields to significant reductions of the overall runtime scaling with the available HPC infrastructure. We find that it is more convenient to implement experimental analytical tasks in a high-level programming language (i.e. R) and explore the use of parallel programming to compensate for performance bottlenecks of the interpreted language. Preliminary comparisons against maps from domain expert suggest that the proposed methodology is suitable to eliminate false detections and, thereby, enhances the reliability of correlation-based detections of surface deformation.
Social and ecological correlates of space use patterns in Bwindi mountain gorillas

Space use patterns determine access to resources necessary for survival and reproduction. Although it is recognized that the interplay between social and ecological variables shapes spacing patterns, few studies in group‐living animals have simultaneously assessed their importance in a comprehensive approach using different spatiotemporal space use measures. In territorial species, such patterns are strongly determined by between‐group competition, but its impact in non‐territorial species is poorly understood. To better understand the role of social and ecological variables in non‐territorial mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), we simultaneously evaluated the impact of between‐group competition (local gorilla population density and frequency of intergroup encounters) and within‐group competition (group size) on space use patterns in 13 gorilla groups in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, while also examining variation in food availability (herbaceous food availability and level of frugivory). We found evidence of between‐group competition, indicated by a decline of both monthly home range size and frequency of revisits to each part of the home range as the local gorilla population density increased and by an increase in daily travel distance on days when intergroup encounters occurred. Within‐group feeding competition was inferred by a decrease in the frequency of revisits as group size increased. Lastly, food availability influenced the gorillas' spacing patterns, as indicated by a decline in monthly home range size as herbaceous food availability increased and by an increase in daily travel distance as the degree of frugivory increased. In sum, our results suggest that Bwindi gorillas adapted their space use according to the constraints of intraspecific competition and the availability of food resources. We provide some of the first evidence of between‐group competition influencing spacing patterns in a non‐territorial species. This study suggests a gradient between territoriality and non‐territoriality, along which the level of between‐group competition varies.
Asymptotic Performance Analysis for Landmark Learning in Indoor Localization

Landmarks are widely used to assist localization of mobile users in indoor environments. Learning a priori unknown or imprecise landmark positions through users’ localization processes can in turn improve their localization performance. In this letter, we develop an analytical framework for landmark learning in localization, in which the positions of the landmarks are continually refined by the inter-landmark measurements from users. We derive the limit and convergence rate of the localization accuracy in asymptotic regimes. Our results characterize the effects of the number of landmarks, the number of inter-landmark measurements, and other non-ideal effects on the localization performance. Theoretical results are validated by simulations and experiments.
Short monadic second order sentences about sparse random graphs

In this paper, we study zero-one laws for the Erdős--Renyi random graph model $G(n,p)$ in the case when $p = n^{-\alpha}$ for $\alpha>0$. For a given class $\mathcal{K}$ of logical sentences about graphs and a given function $p=p(n)$, we say that $G(n,p)$ obeys the zero-one law (w.r.t. the class $\mathcal{K}$) if each sentence $\varphi\in\mathcal{K}$ either a.a. s. true or a.a. s. false for $G(n,p)$. In this paper, we consider first order properties and monadic second order properties of bounded \textit{quantifier depth} $k$, that is, the length of the longest chain of nested quantifiers in the formula expressing the property. Zero-one laws for properties of quantifier depth $k$ we call the \textit{zero-one $k$-laws}. The main results of this paper concern the zero-one $k$-laws for monadic second order properties (MSO properties). We determine all values $\alpha>0$, for which the zero-one $3$-law for MSO properties does not hold. We also show that, in contrast to the case of the $3$-law, there are infinitely many values of $\alpha$ for which the zero-one $4$-law for MSO properties does not hold. To this end, we analyze the evolution of certain properties of $G(n,p)$ that may be of independent interest.
Notice of RetractionRough set theory in analyzing the knowledge on construction project customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is very important for construction project management which is a technical-oriented service for construction project customers. Evaluating the customer satisfaction is beneficial both to purchasers, enabling them to appraise the service received, and to provider, helping them to improve their services. This study developed the customer satisfaction for construction project management (CPM) services by using rough set theory. Test results show that perceived quality plays a very important role in CPM customer satisfaction with acceptable accuracy in predicating customer satisfaction. The developed method is a good reference for construction firms to improve their services.
Experimental reconstitution of chronic ER stress in the liver reveals feedback suppression of BiP mRNA expression

ER stress is implicated in many chronic diseases, but very little is known about how the unfolded protein response (UPR) responds to persistent ER stress in vivo. Here, we experimentally reconstituted chronic ER stress in the mouse liver, using repeated injection of a low dose of the ER stressor tunicamycin. Paradoxically, this treatment led to feedback-mediated suppression of a select group of mRNAs, including those encoding the ER chaperones BiP and GRP94. This suppression was due to both silencing of the ATF6a pathway of UPR-dependent transcription and enhancement of mRNA degradation, most likely via regulated IRE1-dependent decay (RIDD). The suppression of Bip mRNA was phenocopied by ectopic overexpression of BiP protein, and was also observed in obese mice. Our findings suggest that persistent cycles of UPR activation and deactivation create an altered, quasi-stable setpoint for UPR-dependent transcriptional regulation—an outcome that could be relevant to conditions such as metabolic syndrome.
Early Improvement in Work Productivity Predicts Future Clinical Course in Depressed Outpatients: Findings From the CO-MED Trial.

OBJECTIVE Depression symptom severity, the most commonly studied outcome in antidepressant treatment trials, accounts for only a small portion of burden related to major depression. While lost work productivity is the biggest contributor to depression's economic burden, few studies have systematically evaluated the independent effect of treatment on work productivity and the relationship between changes in work productivity and longer-term clinical course. METHOD Work productivity was measured repeatedly by the Work Productivity and Activity Impairment self-report questionnaire in 331 employed participants with major depression enrolled in the Combining Medications to Enhance Depression Outcomes trial. Trajectories of change in work productivity during the first 6 weeks of treatment were identified and used to predict remission at 3 and 7 months. RESULTS Participants reported reduced absence from work and increased work productivity with antidepressant treatment even after controlling for changes in depression severity. Three distinct trajectories of changes in work productivity were identified: 1) robust early improvement (24%), 2) minimal change (49%), and 3) high-impairment slight reduction (27%). Compared with other participants, those with robust improvement had 3-5 times higher remission rates at 3 months and 2-5 times higher remission rates at 7 months, even after controlling for select baseline variables and remission status at week 6. CONCLUSIONS In this secondary analysis, self-reported work productivity improved in depressed patients with antidepressant treatment even after accounting for depressive symptom reduction. Early improvement in work productivity is associated with much higher remission rates after 3 and 7 months of treatment.
Location- and time-dependent meeting point recommendations for shared interurban rides

Abstract Drivers offering spare seats in their vehicles on long-distance (interurban) trips often have to pick up or drop off passengers in cities en route. In that case, it is necessary to agree on a meeting point. Often, this is done by proposing well-known locations like train stations, which frequently induces unnecessary detours through the inner-city districts. In contrast, meeting points in the vicinity of motorways and arterial roads with good public transport connection can reduce driving time and mileage. This work proposes a location-based approach to enable a fast and automatic recommendation of suitable pick up (and drop off) points for drivers and passengers using a GIS workflow and comprehensive precomputation of travel times.
Autistic traits and social anxiety predict differential performance on social cognitive tasks in typically developing young adults

The current work examined the unique contribution that autistic traits and social anxiety have on tasks examining attention and emotion processing. In Study 1, 119 typically-developing college students completed a flanker task assessing the control of attention to target faces and away from distracting faces during emotion identification. In Study 2, 208 typically-developing college students performed a visual search task which required identification of whether a series of 8 or 16 emotional faces depicted the same or different emotions. Participants with more self-reported autistic traits performed more slowly on the flanker task in Study 1 than those with fewer autistic traits when stimuli depicted complex emotions. In Study 2, participants higher in social anxiety performed less accurately on trials showing all complex faces; participants with autistic traits showed no differences. These studies suggest that traits related to autism and to social anxiety differentially impact social cognitive processing.
Influence of Viable Cells on the Resuscitation of Dormant Cells in Micrococcus luteus Cultures Held in an Extended Stationary Phase: the Population Effect

A high proportion of Micrococcus luteus cells in cultures which had been starved for 3 to 6 months lost the ability to grow and form colonies on agar plates but could be resuscitated from their dormancy by incubation in an appropriate liquid medium (A. S. Kaprelyants and D. B. Kell, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 59:3187-3196, 1993). In the present work, such cultures were studied by both flow cytometry and conventional microbiological methods and were found to contain various numbers of viable cells. Pretreatment of such cultures with penicillin G, and subsequent dilution, was used to vary this number. When the initial number of colony-forming cells per 30-ml flask was approximately nine (±five) or more, resuscitation of 10 to 40% of the cells, and thus culture growth, was observed. The lag period before the appearance of a population of cells showing significant accumulation of the fluorescent dye rhodamine 123 (i.e., of cells with measurable membrane energization) decreased from 70 to 27 h when the number of viable cells was increased from 30 to 105 per flask, while the lag period before an observable increase in the number of colony-forming cells occurred was almost constant (at some 20 h). Provided there were more than nine (±five) initially viable cells per flask, the number of initially viable cells did not affect the final percentage of resuscitable cells in the culture. The lag period could be ascribed in part to the time taken to restore the membrane permeability barrier of starved cells during resuscitation, as revealed by flow cytometric assessment of the uptake of the normally membrane-impermeant fluorescent DNA stain PO-PRO-3 {4-[3-methyl-2, 3-dihydro-(benzo-1, 3-oxazole)-2-methylidene]-1-(3′-trimethylammonium propyl)-pyridinium diiodide}. Although cell populations which contained fewer than nine ±five viable cells per flask failed to grow, 4 to 20% of the cells (of 1.2 X 106) were able to accumulate rhodamine 123 after 80 to 100 h of incubation, showing the ability of a significant number of the cells in the population at least to display “metabolic resuscitation. ” Resuscitation and cell growth under such conditions were favored by the use of a 1:1 mixture of fresh lactate medium and supernatant from late-logarithmic-phase M. luteus cultures as the resuscitation medium. We conclude that the presence of a small fraction of viable cells at the onset of resuscitation facilitates the recovery of the majority of the remaining (dormant) cells. The cell density dependence of the kinetics, or population effect, suggests that this recovery is due to the excretion of some factor(s) which promoted the transition of cells from a state in which they are incapable of growth and division to one in which they are capable of colony formation.
Combining acellular nerve allografts with brain-derived neurotrophic factor transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells restores sciatic nerve injury better than either intervention alone

In this study, we chemically extracted acellular nerve allografts from bilateral sciatic nerves, and repaired 10-mm sciatic nerve defects in rats using these grafts and brain-derived neurotrophic factor transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Experiments were performed in three groups: the acellular nerve allograft bridging group, acellular nerve allograft + bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells group, and the acellular nerve allograft + brain-derived neurotrophic factor transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells group. Results showed that at 8 weeks after bridging, sciatic functional index, triceps wet weight recovery rate, myelin thickness, and number of myelinated nerve fibers were significantly changed in the three groups. Variations were the largest in the acellular nerve allograft + brain-derived neurotrophic factor transfected bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells group compared with the other two groups. Experimental findings suggest that chemically extracted acellular nerve allograft combined nerve factor and mesenchymal stem cells can promote the restoration of sciatic nerve defects. The repair effect seen is better than the single application of acellular nerve allograft or acellular nerve allograft combined mesenchymal stem cell transplantation.
SafeBricks: Shielding Network Functions in the Cloud

With the advent of network function virtualization (NFV), outsourcing network processing to the cloud is growing in popularity amongst enterprises and organizations. Such outsourcing, however, poses a threat to the security of the client’s traffic because the cloud is notoriously susceptible to attacks. We present SafeBricks, a system that shields generic network functions (NFs) from an untrusted cloud. SafeBricks ensures that only encrypted traffic is exposed to the cloud provider, and preserves the integrity of both traffic and the NFs. At the same time, it enables clients to reduce their trust in NF implementations by enforcing least privilege across NFs deployed in a chain. SafeBricks does not require changes to TLS, and safeguards the interests of NF vendors as well by shielding NF code and rulesets from both clients and the cloud. To achieve its aims, SafeBricks leverages a combination of hardware enclaves and language-based enforcement. SafeBricks is practical, and its overheads range between ∼0–15% across applications.
Trypanosoma cruzi 80 kDa prolyl oligopeptidase (Tc80) as a novel immunogen for Chagas disease vaccine

Background Chagas disease, also known as American Trypanosomiasis, is a chronic parasitic disease caused by the flagellated protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi that affects about 8 million people around the world where more than 25 million are at risk of contracting the infection. Despite of being endemic on 21 Latin-American countries, Chagas disease has become a global concern due to migratory movements. Unfortunately, available drugs for the treatment have several limitations and they are generally administered during the chronic phase of the infection, when its efficacy is considered controversial. Thus, prophylactic and/or therapeutic vaccines are emerging as interesting control alternatives. In this work, we proposed Trypanosoma cruzi 80 kDa prolyl oligopeptidase (Tc80) as a new antigen for vaccine development against Chagas disease. Methodology/Principal findings In a murine model, we analyzed the immune response triggered by different immunization protocols based on Tc80 and evaluated their ability to confer protection against a challenge with the parasite. Immunized mice developed Tc80-specific antibodies which were able to carry out different functions such as: enzymatic inhibition, neutralization of parasite infection and complement-mediated lysis of trypomastigotes. Furthermore, vaccinated mice elicited strong cell-mediated immunity. Spleen cells from immunized mice proliferated and secreted Th1 cytokines (IL-2, IFN-γ and TNF-α) upon re-stimulation with rTc80. Moreover, we found Tc80-specific polyfunctional CD4 T cells, and cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity against one Tc80 MHC-I peptide. Immunization protocols conferred protection against a T. cruzi lethal challenge. Immunized groups showed a decreased parasitemia and higher survival rate compared with non-immunized control mice. Moreover, during the chronic phase of the infection, immunized mice presented: lower levels of myopathy-linked enzymes, parasite burden, electrocardiographic disorders and inflammatory cells. Conclusions/Significance Considering that an early control of parasite burden and tissue damage might contribute to avoid the progression towards symptomatic forms of chronic Chagas disease, the efficacy of Tc80-based vaccines make this molecule a promising immunogen for a mono or multicomponent vaccine against T. cruzi infection.
Spontaneous bilateral subclavian vein thrombosis in a 40-year-old man

Rationale: Paget–Schroetter syndrome (PSS) is an uncommon condition that refers to primary (spontaneous) thrombosis of the deep veins that drain the upper extremities because of anatomical anomalies or repetitive strenuous arm activity. Bilateral spontaneous upper extremity deep-vein thrombosis (UEDVT) is an extremely rare phenomenon in adults, which may be misdiagnosed by physicians in acute settings. Patient concerns: A 40-year-old man presented to our emergency department because of progressive left upper arm swelling for 1 day. He denied fever, chest pain, dyspnea, trauma, or any other systemic disease before. The swollen left arm also had no local heat or redness with normal radius pulsation. He was a laborer who lifted heavy objects. Diagnoses: Blood examination included tests for complete blood count, renal function, liver function, blood coagulation profile, cardiac enzyme levels, and D-dimer level. Results showed that the white blood cell count, renal and liver functions, and cardiac enzyme levels were all within their normal ranges, except for the elevated D-dimer level (1.93 mg/L). Chest radiography and electrocardiography were performed with nonspecific findings. Subsequently, computed tomographic angiography was recommended for the suspected deep-vein thrombosis. The report showed venous thrombosis involving the bilateral subclavian and internal jugular veins. Interventions: Heparin and enoxaparin were prescribed for this patient, with loading and maintenance doses. He was then admitted to our cardiovascular ward for further treatment. Outcomes: The patient was discharged 9 days later in a stable condition. Lessons: Emergency physicians should consider the rare condition of UEDVT when a healthy patient presents with acute arm swelling. Patient history taking should be thorough, especially concerning the risk factors of secondary causes and possible frequent vigorous heavy lifting and overhead motion. Without secondary risk factors, primary upper deep-vein thrombosis might be suspected. Further laboratory tests and imaging studies, especially bilateral imaging, should be arranged to exclude secondary causes and to confirm the diagnosis.
Oligodendroglioma Cells Lack Glutamine Synthetase and Are Auxotrophic for Glutamine, but Do not Depend on Glutamine Anaplerosis for Growth

In cells derived from several types of cancer, a transcriptional program drives high consumption of glutamine (Gln), which is used for anaplerosis, leading to a metabolic addiction for the amino acid. Low or absent expression of Glutamine Synthetase (GS), the only enzyme that catalyzes de novo Gln synthesis, has been considered a marker of Gln-addicted cancers. In this study, two human cell lines derived from brain tumors with oligodendroglioma features, HOG and Hs683, have been shown to be GS-negative. Viability of both lines depends from extracellular Gln with EC50 of 0.175 ± 0.056 mM (Hs683) and 0.086 ± 0.043 mM (HOG), thus suggesting that small amounts of extracellular Gln are sufficient for OD cell growth. Gln starvation does not significantly affect the cell content of anaplerotic substrates, which, consistently, are not able to rescue cell growth, but causes hindrance of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and protein synthesis attenuation, which is mitigated by transient GS expression. Gln transport inhibitors cause partial depletion of intracellular Gln and cell growth inhibition, but do not lower cell viability. Therefore, GS-negative human oligodendroglioma cells are Gln-auxotrophic but do not use the amino acid for anaplerosis and, hence, are not Gln addicted, exhibiting only limited Gln requirements for survival and growth.