Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fundamental Limits of Cloud and Cache-Aided Interference Management With Multi-Antenna Edge Nodes

In fog-aided cellular systems, content delivery latency can be minimized by jointly optimizing edge caching and transmission strategies. In order to account for the cache capacity limitations at the edge nodes (ENs), transmission generally involves both fronthaul transfer from a cloud processor with access to the content library to the ENs and wireless delivery from the ENs to the users. In this paper, the resulting problem is studied from an information-theoretic viewpoint by making the following practically relevant assumptions: 1) the ENs have multiple antennas; 2) only uncoded fractional caching is allowed; 3) the fronthaul links are used to send fractions of contents; and 4) the ENs are constrained to use one-shot linear zero-forcing precoding on the wireless channel. Assuming off-line proactive caching and focusing on a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) latency metric, the optimal information-theoretic performance is investigated under both serial and pipelined fronthaul-edge transmission modes. The analysis characterizes the minimum high-SNR latency in terms of normalized delivery time (NDT) for worst case users’ demands. The characterization is exact for a subset of system parameters and is generally optimal within a multiplicative factor of 3/2 for the serial case and 2 for the pipelined case. The results bring insights into the optimal interplay between edge and cloud processing in fog-aided wireless networks as a function of system resources, including the number of antennas at the ENs, the ENs’ cache capacity, and the fronthaul capacity.
ULNC: An Untraceable Linear Network Coding Mechanism for Mobile Devices in Wireless Mesh Networks

To protect user privacy in wireless mesh networks, it is important to address two major challenges, namely, flow untraceability and movement untraceability, which prevent malicious attackers from deducing the flow paths and the movement tracks of mobile devices. For these two privacy requirements, most existing approaches rely on encrypting the whole packet, appending random padding, and applying random delay for each message at every intermediate node, resulting in significant computational and communication overheads. Recently, linear network coding (LNC) has been introduced as an alternative, but the global encoding vectors (GEVs) of coded messages have to be encrypted by homomorphic encryption to conceal the relationships between incoming and outgoing messages. In this paper, we aim to explore the potential of LNC to ensure flow untraceability and movement untraceability. Specifically, we first determine the necessary and sufficient condition, with which the two privacy requirements can be achieved without encrypting either GEVs or message contents. We then design a deterministic untraceable LNC (ULNC) scheme to provide flow untraceability and movement untraceability when the sufficient and necessary condition is satisfied. We also provide extensive theoretical analysis on the probability that the condition is satisfied, as well as abundant discussions on the key parameters that affect the value of the probability. Finally, we discuss the effectiveness of the proposed ULNC scheme.
HATS: Histograms of Averaged Time Surfaces for Robust Event-Based Object Classification

Event-based cameras have recently drawn the attention of the Computer Vision community thanks to their advantages in terms of high temporal resolution, low power consumption and high dynamic range, compared to traditional frame-based cameras. These properties make event-based cameras an ideal choice for autonomous vehicles, robot navigation or UAV vision, among others. However, the accuracy of event-based object classification algorithms, which is of crucial importance for any reliable system working in real-world conditions, is still far behind their frame-based counterparts. Two main reasons for this performance gap are: 1. The lack of effective low-level representations and architectures for event-based object classification and 2. The absence of large real-world event-based datasets. In this paper we address both problems. First, we introduce a novel event-based feature representation together with a new machine learning architecture. Compared to previous approaches, we use local memory units to efficiently leverage past temporal information and build a robust event-based representation. Second, we release the first large real-world event-based dataset for object classification. We compare our method to the state-of-the-art with extensive experiments, showing better classification performance and real-time computation.
Collective organization of discourse expertise using information technology – CODE IT!

Abstract This paper offers a short report on a participatory citizen science project and offers some reflections on the lessons learned. In particular, we report on our aims and methods, and the development and use of a web application that we designed to enable a collective analysis of press releases allowing a high number of users. Specifically, we give a brief account of the HTML- and PHP-based platform, which was used to analyze and review press releases on a controversial vaccine.
A subset of ipRGCs regulates both maturation of the circadian clock and segregation of retinogeniculate projections in mice

The visual system consists of two major subsystems, image-forming circuits that drive conscious vision and non-image-forming circuits for behaviors such as circadian photoentrainment. While historically considered non-overlapping, recent evidence has uncovered crosstalk between these subsystems. Here, we investigated shared developmental mechanisms. We revealed an unprecedented role for light in the maturation of the circadian clock and discovered that intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) are critical for this refinement process. In addition, ipRGCs regulate retinal waves independent of light, and developmental ablation of a subset of ipRGCs disrupts eye-specific segregation of retinogeniculate projections. Specifically, a subset of ipRGCs, comprising ~200 cells and which project intraretinally and to circadian centers in the brain, are sufficient to mediate both of these developmental processes. Thus, this subset of ipRGCs constitute a shared node in the neural networks that mediate light-dependent maturation of the circadian clock and light-independent refinement of retinogeniculate projections. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.22861. 001
Infrared responsivity enhancement for silicon detectors by non-mask reactive ion etching

Near Infrared responsivity of silicon-based detectors is low for weak light absorption in the wavelengths exceeding 1000nm. For 1064nm wavelength applications, it is necessary to use thick Si wafers to manufacturing devices for higher NIR responsivity performance. However, this leads to high applied voltage, long response time, imposing limitations on device characteristics and applications. Black silicon (BS) appears very high absorptance of light from the near-ultraviolet (250nm) to the near-infrared (2500nm) wavelength region. And the black silicon detectors are many times more responsivity than conventional silicon detectors in the near infrared. In this article, BS is prepared using non-mask reactive ion etching technique and PIN BS detectors are fabricated. It is indicated that there is a disordered layer that is 2. 0μm -3. 5μm thick and made up of pillars with 90nm-400nm in diameter and 200nm-600nm in spacing interval. The reflectance of BS is less than 7% in the wavelength from 400nm to 1100nm, and rises from 1040nm. The absorptance of BS sample prepared by non-mask reactive ion etching remains more than 93% from 400nm to 1040nm, and the absorptance of 60% is observed at the wavelengths longer than 1500nm. High temperature annealing does not deteriorate its light absorption performance. The front-illuminated and back-illuminated BS PIN detectors are structured. At the wavelength of 1064nm, the responsivities of front-illuminated and back-illuminated BS PIN detectors are improved from 0.30A/W to 0.43A/W and 0.58A/W respectively.
The effect of meniscus on the permeability of micro-post arrays

This study aims to investigate the effect of meniscus curvature on the permeability of the micro-post arrays, which are widely used for applications of microfluidics. An analytical model that accounts for the meniscus curvature is developed. The model considers two common array types: quadratic and hexagonal arrays. The permeability of micro-post arrays is estimated using the capillary rate of rise experiment and numerical simulation. The results obtained from the analytical model match the experimental and numerical results within the error of 5% over the range of parameters commonly found in microfluidic applications (0.06 < d * < 0.6 and H * > 0.2), where d * and H * are the post-diameter and the post-height, respectively, which are normalized by the pitch. Based on the analytic results, the effects of the post-diameter, post-height and the contact angle on the permeability of post-arrays are investigated. It is shown that the previous permeability models based on the flat meniscus assumption overestimate the experimental value by 26% for the quadratic array and 24% for the hexagonal array when cos θ = 1, d * = 0.5 and H *=1. The effect of the meniscus curvature is shown to become more pronounced as the contact angle or the post-height decreases.
Addressing Cross-Lingual Word Sense Disambiguation on Low-Density Languages: Application to Persian

We explore the use of unsupervised methods in Cross-Lingual Word Sense Disambiguation (CL-WSD) with the application of English to Persian. Our proposed approach targets the languages with scarce resources (low-density) by exploiting word embedding and semantic similarity of the words in context. We evaluate the approach on a recent evaluation benchmark and compare it with the state-of-the-art unsupervised system (CO-Graph). The results show that our approach outperforms both the standard baseline and the CO-Graph system in both of the task evaluation metrics (Out-Of-Five and Best result).
The Arabidopsis Basic/Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factor Family Online version contains Web-only data. Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.013839.

The basic/helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins are a superfamily of transcription factors that bind as dimers to specific DNA target sites and that have been well characterized in nonplant eukaryotes as important regulatory components in diverse biological processes. Based on evidence that the bHLH protein PIF3 is a direct phytochrome reaction partner in the photoreceptor's signaling network, we have undertaken a comprehensive computational analysis of the Arabidopsis genome sequence databases to define the scope and features of the bHLH family. Using a set of criteria derived from a previously defined consensus motif, we identified 147 bHLH protein–encoding genes, making this one of the largest transcription factor families in Arabidopsis. Phylogenetic analysis of the bHLH domain sequences permits classification of these genes into 21 subfamilies. The evolutionary and potential functional relationships implied by this analysis are supported by other criteria, including the chromosomal distribution of these genes relative to duplicated genome segments, the conservation of variant exon/intron structural patterns, and the predicted DNA binding activities within subfamilies. Considerable diversity in DNA binding site specificity among family members is predicted, and marked divergence in protein sequence outside of the conserved bHLH domain is observed. Together with the established propensity of bHLH factors to engage in varying degrees of homodimerization and heterodimerization, these observations suggest that the Arabidopsis bHLH proteins have the potential to participate in an extensive set of combinatorial interactions, endowing them with the capacity to be involved in the regulation of a multiplicity of transcriptional programs. We provide evidence from yeast two-hybrid and in vitro binding assays that two related phytochrome-interacting members in the Arabidopsis family, PIF3 and PIF4, can form both homodimers and heterodimers and that all three dimeric configurations can bind specifically to the G-box DNA sequence motif CACGTG. These data are consistent, in principle, with the operation of this combinatorial mechanism in Arabidopsis.
An improved link prediction algorithm based on degrees and similarities of nodes

Link prediction is to calculate the probability of a potential link between a pair of unlinked nodes in the future. It has significance value in both theoretical and practical. The similarity of two nodes in the networks is an essential factor to determine the probability of a potential link between them. One of the important methods with the similarity of two nodes is to consider common neighbors of two nodes. However, the number of common neighbors only describes a kind of quantitative relationship without taking into account the topology of given networks and the information of local structure which consist of a pair of nodes and their common neighbors. Therefore, we introduce the concept of the degrees of nodes and the idea of community structure and propose a new similarity index, namely, local affinity structure(LAS). The LAS method describes the closeness of a pair of nodes and their common neighbors. We evaluated LAS on twelve different networks compared with other three similarity based indexes which consider the degree of nodes. From the experimental results, our method shows obvious superiority in improving the accuracy of link prediction.
Normal Development in Mice Over-Expressing the Intracellular Domain of DLL1 Argues against Reverse Signaling by DLL1 In Vivo

The Notch signaling pathway mediates the direct communication between adjacent cells and regulates multiple developmental processes. Interaction of the Notch receptor with its ligands induces the liberation of the intracellular portion of Notch (NICD) referred to as regulated intramembraneous proteolysis (RIP). NICD translocates to the nucleus, and by complexing with the DNA binding protein RBPjκ and other cofactors activates transcription of bHLH genes. RIP-like processing of various mammalian Notch ligands (DLL1, JAG1 and JAG2) and the translocation of their intracellular domains (ICDs) to the nucleus has also been observed. These observations together with effects of over-expressed ligand ICDs in cultured cells on cell proliferation, differentiation, and Notch activity and target gene expression have led to the idea that the intracellular domains of Notch ligands have signaling functions. To test this hypothesis in vivo we have generated ES cells and transgenic mice that constitutively express various versions of the intracellular domain of mouse DLL1. In contrast to other cell lines, expression of DICDs in ES cells did not block proliferation or stimulate neuronal differentiation. Embryos with ubiquitous DICD expression developed to term without any apparent phenotype and grew up to viable and fertile adults. Early Notch-dependent processes or expression of selected Notch target genes were unaltered in transgenic embryos. In addition, we show that mouse DICD enters the nucleus inefficiently. Collectively, our results argue against a signaling activity of the intracellular domain of DLL1 in mouse embryos in vivo.
Di ( n )-Butyl Phthalate Induced Neuronal Perturbations in Rat Brain Tissues : A Multigenerational Assessment

Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) is a well-known plasticizer and cause a wide range of reproductive or endocrine disruptive disorders. Exposure to DBP during gestation shown to disrupt testosterone synthesis and male sexual development in the fetal rat, however, the underlying mechanisms and its impact on the cortical and cerebellar neuronal development remain poorly understood. Here, we examine the effect of multigenerational exposure of DBP on rat cortical as well as cerebellar neurons. In this study 1/16 LD50 (i.e., 500mg/kg BW) administered through oral gavage during gestation day 6 to till parturition; exposure continued until they were weaned on postnatal (PND) 30. All pups at PND30 were analysed for cytoarchitectural alternations in brain cortex and cerebellum. Variations were observed in the rate of feed and water consumption, litter size, organ (brain) somatic index and mortality. Significant degenerative changes in neuroglial cells of brain cortex of F1; focal aggregates of inflammatory infiltration found invariably in the CC region of F2 and F3 rats while CB region showed a remarkable degeneration in Purkinje cell layer in experimental rats. These findings reveal that direct neuronal somatic injury as a consequence of oxidative stress origin, and developing brain tissues are vulnerable and multigenerational exposure to DBP caused disturbance elicited neuro-pathological changes within the CNS, generating heterogeneous injury and reactive alteration within both axons and neuronal somata in the same domains. In brief, these perturbations of neuronal structure and function are likely to contribute to the pathogenesis and affect the learning process.
The Clinical Significance of O6-Methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase Promoter Methylation Status in Adult Patients With Glioblastoma: A Meta-analysis

Background and objective Promoter status of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) has been widely established as a clinically relevant factor in glioblastoma (GBM) patients. However, in addition to varied therapy schedule, the prognosis of GBM patients is also affected by variations of age, race, primary or recurrent tumor. This study comprehensively investigated the association between MGMT promoter status and prognosis in overall GBM patients and in different GBM subtype including new diagnosed patients, recurrent patients and elderly patients. Methods A comprehensive search was performed using PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane databases to identify literatures (published from January 1, 2005 to April 1, 2017) that evaluated the associations between MGMT promoter methylation and prognosis of GBM patients. Results Totally, 66 studies including 7,886 patients met the inclusion criteria. Overall GBM patients with a methylated status of MGMT receiving temozolomide (TMZ)-containing treatment had better overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) [OS: hazard ratio (HR) = 0.46, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.41–0.52, p < 0.001, Bon = 0.017; PFS: HR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.40–0.57, p < 0.001, Bon = 0.014], but no significant advantage on OS or PFS in GBM patients with TMZ-free treatment was observed (OS: HR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.91–1.03, p = 0.08, Bon = 1; PFS: HR = 0.76, 95% CI 0.57–1.02, p = 0.068, Bon = 0.748). These different impacts of MGMT status on OS were similar in newly diagnosed GBM patients, elderly GBM patients and recurrent GBM. Among patients receiving TMZ-free treatment, survival benefit in Asian patients was not observed anymore after Bonferroni correction (Asian OS: HR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.64–0.95, p = 0.02, Bon = 0.24, I2 = 0%; PFS: HR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.50–0.94, p = 0.02, Bon = 0.24). No benefit was observed in Caucasian receiving TMZ-free therapy regardless of Bonferroni adjustment. Conclusion The meta-analysis highlights the universal predictive value of MGMT methylation in newly diagnosed GBM patients, elderly GBM patients and recurrent GBM patients. For elderly methylated GBM patients, TMZ alone therapy might be a more suitable option than radiotherapy alone therapy. Future clinical trials should be designed in order to optimize therapeutics in different GBM subpopulation.
On the Applicability of Off-Line Signatures to the Fuzzy Vault Construction

In the present contribution, the applicability of off-line handwritten signatures to the fuzzy vault construction is studied. Feature extraction is based on quantized maxima and minima from upper and lower envelopes of the signature. Baseline results are reported for skilled and random forgeries of the MCYT off-line signature database, showing that the proposed scheme is suitable for signers with good separability between genuine signatures and skilled forgeries.
Fungal Screening on Olive Oil for Extracellular Triacylglycerol Lipases: Selection of a Trichoderma harzianum Strain and Genome Wide Search for the Genes

A lipolytic screening with fungal strains isolated from lignocellulosic waste collected in banana plantation dumps was carried out. A Trichoderma harzianum strain (B13-1) showed good extracellular lipolytic activity (205 UmL−1). Subsequently, functional screening of the lipolytic activity on Rhodamine B enriched with olive oil as the only carbon source was performed. The successful growth of the strain allows us to suggest that a true lipase is responsible for the lipolytic activity in the B13-1 strain. In order to identify the gene(s) encoding the protein responsible for the lipolytic activity, in silico identification and characterization of triacylglycerol lipases from T. harzianum is reported for the first time. A survey in the genome of this fungus retrieved 50 lipases; however, bioinformatic analyses and putative functional descriptions in different databases allowed us to choose seven lipases as candidates. Suitability of the bioinformatic screening to select the candidates was confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The gene codifying 526309 was expressed when the fungus grew in a medium with olive oil as carbon source. This protein shares homology with commercial lipases, making it a candidate for further applications. The success in identifying a lipase gene inducible with olive oil and the suitability of the functional screening and bioinformatic survey carried out herein, support the premise that the strategy can be used in other microorganisms with sequenced genomes to search for true lipases, or other enzymes belonging to large protein families.
Aloperine activates the Nrf2-ARE pathway when ameliorating early brain injury in a subarachnoid hemorrhage model

Aloperine (ALO) exhibits neuroprotective effects against oxidative stress in vitro; however, its protective effect in early brain injury (EBI) following experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) remains to be elucidated. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity of ALO in EBI, and its association with nuclear factor erythroid-related factor 2 and the antioxidant responsive element (Nrf2-ARE) survival pathway. In the present study, an experimental SAH model was induced in rats following a prechiasmatic cistern injection. All rats were randomly divided into five groups: Sham, SAH, SAH+ vehicle, and an SAH+ ALO group (including low and high doses). ALO was administrated intraperitoneally at 2 and 24 h following induction of the SAH model. Brain samples were collected from each group at 48 h after SAH induction. Subsequently, western blotting, immunohistochemistry and cell apoptosis assays were performed, along with assessments for brain edema, neurological deficit, and the activity of oxidant/antioxidant factors. It was observed that the expression of Nrf2-ARE pathway-associated agents, including Nrf2, and heme oxygenase-1, were markedly increased in the high concentration ALO group compared with that of the SAH group. In addition, the level of oxidative damage was reduced. Furthermore, early brain damage, including brain edema, neurological deficit and cellular apoptosis were significantly ameliorated. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that ALO can ameliorate oxidative damage against EBI following SAH, most likely via the Nrf2-ARE survival pathway.