Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exercise Training Prevents TNF-α Induced Loss of Force in the Diaphragm of Mice

Rationale Inflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) are elevated in congestive heart failure and are known to induce the production of reactive oxygen species as well as to deteriorate respiratory muscle function. Objectives Given the antioxidative effects of exercise training, the aim of the present study was to investigate if exercise training is capable of preventing a TNF-α induced loss of diaphragmatic force in mice and, if so, to elucidate the potential underlying mechanisms. Methods Prior to intraperitoneal injection of TNF-α or saline, C57Bl6 mice were assigned to four weeks of exercise training or sedentary behavior. Diaphragmatic force and power generation were determined in vitro. Expression/activity of radical scavenger enzymes, enzymes producing reactive oxygen species and marker of oxidative stress were measured in the diaphragm. Main Results In sedentary animals, TNF-α reduced specific force development by 42% concomitant with a 2.6-fold increase in the amount of carbonylated α-actin and creatine kinase. Furthermore, TNF-α led to an increased NAD(P)H oxidase activity in both sedentary and exercised mice whereas xanthine oxidase activity and intramitochondrial ROS production was only enhanced in sedentary animals by TNF-α. Exercise training prevented the TNF-α induced force reduction and led to an enhanced mRNA expression and activity of glutathione peroxidase. Carbonylation of proteins, in particular of α-actin and creatine kinase, was diminished by exercise training. Conclusion TNF-α reduces the force development in the diaphragm of mice. This effect is almost abolished by exercise training. This may be a result of reduced carbonylation of proteins due to the antioxidative properties of exercise training.
Chemical process monitoring and fault diagnosis based on independent component analysis

Multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) has been successfully applied to performance monitoring and fault diagnosis for chemical processes. However, classical methods of MSPC are based on the premise that the separated latent variable must be subjected to normal distribution, which sometimes can't be satisfied. In this paper, a new method based on independent component analysis OCA) whose goal is to find a line representation of nomgaussian data to depict the chemical process and improve the monitoring performance of the system is presented. Due to the uncertainty of the probability distribution of the independent component, the paper devises a kind of classifier with Parzen density estimation for classifjring the normal data and fault data. Then the nonisothemal CSTR is monitored and diagnosed by the present method, the simulation result verifies the effectiveness of ICA-based monitoring method.
Values in Action Inventory of Strengths in College Students: Reliability and Validity

Objective: Study the applicability of Simplified Chinese VIA-IS in Chinese college students.Methods: Valid data were collected from 837 students with VIA-IS,and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were systematically assessed.Results: VIA-IS had a higher reliability;the construct validity of 24 character strengths was acceptable after Item Parceling,while 6 merits' were comparatively poor;the convergent validity and discriminant validity were limited,demonstrating again that the merits structure was unreasonable.Conclusion: VIA-IS can be used to measure the character strengths of Chinese students.Yet the merits structure is subsided unreasonably,and requires further researches.
5′UTR Variants of Ribosomal Protein S19 Transcript Determine Translational Efficiency: Implications for Diamond-Blackfan Anemia and Tissue Variability

Background Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a lineage specific and congenital erythroblastopenia. The disease is associated with mutations in genes encoding ribosomal proteins resulting in perturbed ribosomal subunit biosynthesis. The RPS19 gene is mutated in approximately 25% of DBA patients and a variety of coding mutations have been described, all presumably leading to haploinsufficiency. A subset of patients carries rare polymorphic sequence variants within the 5′untranslated region (5′UTR) of RPS19. The functional significance of these variants remains unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings We analyzed the distribution of transcriptional start sites (TSS) for RPS19 mRNAs in testis and K562 cells. Twenty-nine novel RPS19 transcripts were identified with different 5′UTR length. Quantification of expressed w.t. 5′UTR variants revealed that a short 5′UTR correlates with high levels of RPS19. The total levels of RPS19 transcripts showed a broad variation between tissues. We also expressed three polymorphic RPS19 5′UTR variants identified in DBA patients. The sequence variants include two insertions (c.-147_-146insGCCA and c.-147_-146insAGCC) and one deletion (c.-144_-141delTTTC). The three 5′UTR polymorphisms are associated with a 20–30% reduction in RPS19 protein levels when compared to the wild-type (w.t.) 5′UTR of corresponding length. Conclusions The RPS19 gene uses a broad range of TSS and a short 5′UTR is associated with increased levels of RPS19. Comparisons between tissues showed a broad variation in the total amount of RPS19 mRNA and in the distribution of TSS used. Furthermore, our results indicate that rare polymorphic 5′UTR variants reduce RPS19 protein levels with implications for Diamond-Blackfan anemia.
On Protecting Link Failure of Wavelength Routed Mesh Network

The Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) is the most cost-effective way to upgrade the optical links to the wavelength-routed optical network, while each link can carry a certain number of wavelengths. The mesh is recognized as the topology to serve the optical networks since it has higher reliability and requires lower spare bandwidth. To decide whether a wavelength-routed mesh network with W wavelengths can support a set of requests has been shown to be NP complete. To consider rerouting the requests on the single link failure makes the problem even harder. This paper proposes polynomial-time approximation algorithms for this problem. The performance ratio of the approximation is also being analyzed.
Mental ability and common sense in an artificial society

We read newspapers and watch TV every day. There are many issues and many controversies. Since media are free, we can hear arguments from every possible side. How do we decide what is wrong or right? The first condition to accept a message is to understand it; messages that are too sophisticated are ignored. So it seems reasonable to assume that our understanding depends on our ability and our current knowledge. Here we show that the consequences of this statement are surprising and funny.
Packet Content Anonymization by Hiding Words

This demo shows a novel technique to anonymize payload data contained in network traces, while preserving the capability of verifying the presence of short substrings of certain length. The method is based on shuffling the substrings of the input payload. It can be shown that it is very hard to reconstruct the original payload, while presence of a particular short string can be verified with a low false positive rate (and no false negatives). This enables network traces payloads to be made available for searches for malicious content (e.g. worms), while preventing reconstruction of the actual data in the payload.
Compositional analysis of deadlock-freedom for tree-like component architectures

We study architectural constraints for component systems in order to be able to guarantee safety-properties. Representing safety-properties, we investigate deadlock-freedom. We present a compositional and hence polynomial time condition for deadlock-freedom for a class of component-systems whose architecture is tree-like. The architectural constraints that are developed can be understood as a design pattern that helps to construct systems satisfying safety-properties on the one hand. On the other hand, they might help to draw attention to potentially critical situations in a design. To model component-systems we use the formalism of interaction systems as proposed by Sifakis et al. The ideas can be transferred to other formal models where subsystems are cooperating via synchronous communication.
Improving Efficiency by Weaving at Run-time

Since the appearance of Java several tools have been developed to allow making dynamic changes in Java programs. In general, these tools trades the flexibility for the efficiency of the program. In this paper I present RtJAC, an aspect-oriented framework for Java based on JAC [3], which makes possible to create aspects, specify their join points and weave them into an application, all at run-time. I show that weaving at run-time not only provides more flexibility but can significantly improve the performance of a dynamic aspect-oriented system.
Spiral array design with particle swarm optimization

In this paper, a novel optimization method based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for the array design is proposed. The PSO is introduced to search for the optimal microphone distribution on the Archimedes spiral line with the minimum sidelobe level and the narrow mainlobe width. Numerical simulation show the better performance of the array reconfiguration designed by means of PSO algorithm. Experiments in the semi-anechoic room demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Physics-Based Urban Earthquake Simulation Enhanced by 10.7 BlnDOF × 30 K Time-Step Unstructured FE Non-Linear Seismic Wave Simulation

With the aim of dramatically improving the reliability of urban earthquake response analyses, we developed an unstructured 3-D finite-element-based MPI-OpenMP hybrid seismic wave amplification simulation code, GAMERA. On the K computer, GAMERA was able to achieve a size-up efficiency of 87.1% up to the full K computer. Next, we applied GAMERA to a physics-based urban earthquake response analysis for Tokyo. Using 294,912 CPU cores of the K computer for 11 h, 32 min, we analyzed the 3-D non-linear ground motion of a 10.7 BlnDOF problem with 30 K time steps. Finally, we analyzed the stochastic response of 13,275 building structures in the domain considering uncertainty in structural parameters using 3 h, 56 min of 80,000 CPU cores of the K computer. Although a large amount of computer resources is needed presently, such analyses can change the quality of disaster estimations and are expected to become standard in the future.
SOLUBILITY AND DISSOLUTION ENHANCEMENT OF POORLY WATER SOLUBLE GLIMEPIRIDE BY USING SOLID DISPERSION TECHNIQUE

Glimepiride is one of the third generation sulfonylurea used for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Poor aqueous solubility and slow dissolution rate of the glimepiride lead to irreproducible clinical response or therapeutic failure in some cases due to subtherapeutic plasma drug levels. Consequently, the rationale of this study was to improve the solubility, dissolution rate and biological performance of the drug. Solid dispersion of glimepiride in polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP K30)with water soluble polymers were prepared by the solvent evaporation method, and then formulating solid dispersion (SDs) tablets of the best formulation of SDs. Tablet formulations were prepared by direct compression technique using superdisintegrant crospovidone in different concentrations. SDs was evaluated for FTIR, XRD, SEM, in vitro dissolution profiles. Among different formulations of SDs, SD prepared by solvent evaporation method containing drug to PVP K30 polymer in the ratio of 1:5 gives best dissolution profile, and among tablet formulations, formulations containing 5% crospovidone gives best disintegration and dissolution profiles compared with other formulations. Results showed that polyvinylpyrrolidone is a promising polymer for enhancing the solubility of glimepiride.Prepared tablets were evaluated for routine Pharmacopoeial tests.Stability studies and FT-IR studies clearly indicated that there is no drug-polymer interaction.
ElastO : Dynamic , Efficient , and Robust Maintenance of Low Fan-out Overlays for Topic-based Publish / Subscribe under Churn

We propose, ElastO, a distributed system for constructing and maintaining scalable churn-resistant overlay networks for topic-based publish/subscribe (pub/sub) systems. ElastO is designed to dynamically tread the balance among several key dimensions: (a) topic-connected overlay (TCO), i.e., the sub-overlay induced by nodes interested in any topic is connected, (b) low maximum and average node fan-outs, (c) high efficiency to maintain the overlay in presence of churn, (d) balanced computation and communication overhead across all the nodes. Existing approaches for maintaining pub/sub TCOs are either static and runtime-costly algorithms, or decentralized protocols that produce significantly higher node degrees. One main challenge is to effectively overcome departure of nodes central to the TCO. ElastO carefully maintains local view at each node and efficiently computes sets of shadow nodes upon churn events, so that all links adjacent to a failed node can be quickly replaced by adding links among the shadow nodes. We evaluate ElastO using both synthetical pub/sub workloads and practical workloads extracted from Facebook and Twitter, and using realworld cluster churn traces released by Google. We show analytically and experimentally that ElastO achieves low fan-out close to static algorithms and high efficiency comparable to decentralized protocols.
A Mobile Application for Improving Functional Performance and Health Education in Older Adults: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this pilot study was to test a mobile app that combines exercise, health education, and bingo (Bingocize®) to improve functional performance, health knowledge, and adherence. Senior volunteers were assigned to use the app on tablets twice a week for 10 weeks or a use the app to play only modified bingo. Pre/post functional performance and health education knowledge were compared using Mixed ANOVA (p<.05). Health knowledge ( λ=6.06, F (1,10)=6.50, p=. 029, =. 394), Short Physical Performance Battery ( λ=.584, F(1, 10) =6.41, p=. 032, =. 416) , and gait velocity (λ=6.10, F (1,10)=6.40, improved in the experimental group only. Adherence was equivalent in both groups. Bingocize®and ef fective way to teach older adults health information, while improving functional performance.
Investigating the effects of using biofeedback as visual stress indicator during video-mediated collaboration

During remote video-mediated assistance, instructors often guide workers through problems and instruct them to perform unfamiliar or complex operations. However, the workers' performance might deteriorate due to stress. We argue that informing biofeedback to the instructor, can improve communication and lead to lower stress. This paper presents a thorough investigation on mental workload and stress perceived by twenty participants, paired up in an instructor-worker scenario, performing remote video-mediated tasks. The interface conditions differ in task, facial and biofeedback communication. Two self-report measures are used to assess mental workload and stress. Results show that pairs reported lower mental workload and stress when instructors are using the biofeedback as compared to using interfaces with facial view. Significant correlations were found on task performance with reducing stress (i.e. increased task engagement and decreased worry) for instructors and declining mental workload (i.e. increased performance) for workers. Our findings provide insights to advance video-mediated interfaces for remote collaborative work.
Physically-based Modeling for Graphics and Vision

The elastic properties of materials constrain the motion and dynamics of objects in the real world, hence modeling and simulating the physical characteristics of these objects is essential to obtain realistic computer modeling for graphics, vision and animation. This type of modeling is referred to as physically-based modeling and is the main focus of this chapter. A major problem for physically-based modeling has been to establish a unified approach for representing geometry that allows efficient calculation of both geometric relations (e.g., surface-to-point distances) and the non-rigid physical response to imposed forces. This problem has been addressed by researchers in both computer graphics [7, 38, 31, 44], and machine vision [40, 12, 25, 41, 30, 28]. In computer graphics, the central goal is efficient detection of collisions and simulation of the resulting non-rigid motion. In machine vision the hope is to develop general purpose models that are capable of accurately representing the free-form shapes and nonrigid motions of natural objects. As part of this chapter, we will present a general overview of this past research and then present our approach to 3-D physical modeling in graphics and vision. Our approach to geometric modeling is based on the use of parameterized implicit functions, particularly polynomial deformations of superquadric functions. The physical model is developed by discretizing the geometric model via the finite element method, making use of Galerkin polynomial approximations for shape interpolation. The geometric and physical models are then combined into a unified model by using the finite element modal shape functions as polynomial deformations applied to an underlying superquadric implicit function. These polynomial deformations are known as the object’s “deformation modes” and are derived directly from the finite element equations. This approach significantly reduces the computational cost of both geometric distance calculations and modeling of physical response. By describing the finite element equations in terms of the object’s free vibration modes, the system of equations is decoupled into a sum of independent, frequency-ordered deformations. This not only allows closed-form solutions of the finite element equations,but also allows us to smoothly trade accuracy against computational cost. Similarly, by using an implicit function representation for geometry we can greatly reduce the computational cost of contact detection and collision response. By combining the vibration mode deformations with an underlying implicit function representation, we obtain both of these advantages.
Energy substrate requirements of rat retinal pigmented epithelial cells in culture: relative importance of glucose, amino acids, and monocarboxylates.

PURPOSE To determine the metabolic conditions that provide maintenance of viability for cultured rat RPE cells and to determine whether monocarboxylates such as lactate or pyruvate, which are known to exist at high concentrations in the subretinal space, can provide an alternative energy source to maintain cells when other nutritive supplies are limited. METHODS Cultured rat RPE cells (passage 2-4), in the absence of serum, were subjected to different metabolic challenges relating to glucose, amino acid, or oxygen deprivation. Lactate or pyruvate was added to some cells in each instance to determine whether cells could be maintained by using these substances as fuel sources for metabolic reactions. Cell viability was assessed after treatments, and in some cases proliferation rates and appearance of apoptosis-like DNA cleavage were also investigated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase UTP-linked nick-end labeling (TUNEL). Western blot analysis was used to determine the expression of transporters for glucose and monocarboxylates in these cells. RESULTS RPE cell viability was partially reduced in the absence of glucose or with glycolytic inhibition. Lactate or pyruvate did not prevent these reductions. Inhibition of transaminase reactions with aminooxyacetic acid (AOAA) in the absence of glucose caused a complete loss of viability that was reversed by pyruvate or lactate. MCT inhibition was detrimental to RPE cell viability only at high concentrations (500 microM) in the presence of glucose but blocked the protective effect of pyruvate-lactate in the presence of AOAA at 1 microM. CONCLUSIONS Rat RPE cells require glucose as their primary metabolic substrate in culture, but can metabolize glutamine in its absence. When glucose and glutamine are limiting, RPE cells can metabolize monocarboxylates such as lactate or pyruvate. These data provide evidence that such cells are able to withstand various types of insult brought about by nutrient deprivation, by altering their pathways of energy production.
Scalable and Efficient Resource Discovery in P2P Grids

Distributed computing enables us to harness all the resources and computing power of the millions of computers connected to the Internet. Therefore, this work describes the construction of an efficient and scalable resource discovery mechanism, capable of searching not only for physical resources (e.g. CPU, Memory, etc.), but also services (e.g. facial recognition, high-resolution rendering, etc.) and applications (e.g. ffmpeg video encoder, programming language compilers, etc.) from computers connected to the same Peer-to-Peer Grid network. This is done in a novel way by combining all resource information into Attenuated Bloom Filters, which also allows us to efficiently route messages in a completely decentralized unstructured P2P network (no super-peers). The research shows that previous P2P, Grid, and Cycle Sharing systems tackled this problem by focusing on each resource type in isolation, such as (physical) resource discovery and service discovery. Methods to minimize storage and transmission costs were also researched. The discovery mechanism was evaluated with a number of different test scenarios that varied resource distribution, resource values, topologies, etc. For comparison, we also evaluated the Random Walk discovery method which served as a baseline. The results were favorable over Random Walk, having higher query success rates with less hops while requiring increase in message size and storage space at each node (for routing information), thus attaining our objectives of effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability.
Maximum Margin Matrix Factorization with Netflix Data

Maximum Margin Matrix Factorization (MMMF), a collaborative filtering method, was recently introduced in [7] followed by an iterative solution presented in [6]. In this paper we analyze the performance of MMMF on a subset of the Netflix data based on RMSE and classification rate. We also present several modifications to improve the performance of the algorithm on the Netflix problem.
A framework for classifying personalization scheme used on e-commerce Websites

Personalization is a new system development approach for designing information systems that change configurations based on each user's needs and preferences. Although personalization capabilities are present throughout a large number of commercial software packages, they are just beginning to be incorporated into electronic commerce. Most of this personalization has been done in an ad hoc fashion. In this paper, we present a categorization framework for organizing the various types of personalization that have been attempted on Web sites. We develop an algorithm for classifying Web sites into high, medium and low personalization support and apply it to a set of well-known Web sites such as amazon.com. Finally, we discuss why various Web sites have high or low degrees of personalization depending on the organization's goals and product mix and also how personalization might have little or large impact on a Web site's achieving its intended goal (e.g., sales, customer service, information dissemination, etc.) We also present future research that needs to be done to support our theories on how personalization impacts a Web site's success.