Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CD66‐mediated phagocytosis of Opa52 Neisseria gonorrhoeae requires a Src‐like tyrosine kinase‐ and Rac1‐dependent signalling pathway

The interaction of Neisseria gonorrhoeae with human phagocytes is a hallmark of gonococcal infections. Recently, CD66 molecules have been characterized as receptors for Opa52‐expressing gonococci on human neutrophils. Here we show that Opa52‐expressing gonococci or Escherichia coli or F(ab) fragments directed against CD66, respectively, activate a signalling cascade from CD66 via Src‐like protein tyrosine kinases, Rac1 and PAK to Jun‐N‐terminal kinase. The induced signal is distinct from Fcγ‐receptor‐mediated signalling and is specific for Opa52, since piliated Opa− gonococci, commensal Neisseria cinerea or E.coli do not stimulate this signalling pathway. Inhibition of Src‐like kinases or Rac1 prevents the uptake of Opa52 bacteria, demonstrating the crucial role of this signalling cascade for the opsonin‐independent, Opa52/CD66‐mediated phagocytosis of pathogenic Neisseria.
Heterogeneous Network Handover Using 3GPP ANDSF

In this paper, we propose an improved IP-based handover scheme, named the Heterogeneous Network Handover by using 3GPP ANDSF (HNH3A for short) for S-PMIPv6 where S-PMIPv6 is a MIPv6 family protocol developed in one of our previous studies, and ANDSF (standing for Access Network Discovery and Selection Function) is an entity within an evolved packet core (EPC) of the system architecture evolution (SAE) for 3GPP compliant mobile networks. The purpose of using the ANDSF is to assist user equipment (UE) to discover non-3GPP access networks, such as WiFi or WIMAX. The HNH3A can help the handover among mobile WiMAX (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), 3GPP (i.e., 3rd Generation Partnership Project) family (including 3GPP systems, 3G LTE and 4G LTE-A) and WiFi based on existing handover techniques among the three heterogeneous networks. The analytical results demonstrate that the HNH3A can effectively mitigate handover delays and handover signaling costs.
A versatile scalable smart waste-bin system based on resource-limited embedded devices

This work presents the architecture, modelling, simulation, and physical implementation of a versatile, scalable system for use in common-type waste-bins that can perform and transmit accurate fill-level estimates while consuming minimal power and consisting of low-cost embedded components. The sensing units are based on ultrasonic sensors that provide ranging information which is translated to fill-level estimations based on extensive simulations in MATLAB and physical experiments. At the heart of the proposed implementation lies RFID technology with active RFID tags retrieving information and controlling the sensors and RFID readers receiving and interpreting information. Statistical processing of the simulation in combination with physical experiments and field tests verified that the system works accurately and efficiently with a tiny data-load fingerprint.
Isolation-by-Drift: Quantifying the Respective Contributions of Genetic Drift and Gene Flow in Shaping Spatial Patterns of Genetic Differentiation

Spatial patterns of neutral genetic diversity are often investigated to infer gene flow in wild populations. However, teasing apart the influence of gene flow from the effect of genetic drift is challenging given that both forces are acting simultaneously on patterns of genetic differentiation. Here, we tested the relevance of a distance-based metric -based on estimates of effective population sizes or on environmental proxies for local carrying capacities- to assess the unique contribution of genetic drift on pairwise measures of genetic differentiation. Using simulations under various models of population genetics, we demonstrated that one of three metrics we tested was particularly promising: it correctly and uniquely captured variance in genetic differentiation that was due to genetic drift when this process was modelled. We further showed that (i) the unique contribution of genetic drift on genetic differentiation was high (up to 20 %) even when gene flow was high and for relatively high effective population sizes, and (ii) that this metric was robust to uncertainty in the estimation of local effective population size (or proxies for carrying capacity). Finally, using an empirical dataset on a freshwater fish (Gobio occitaniae), we demonstrated the usefulness of this metric to quantify the relative contribution of genetic drift and gene flow in explaining pattern of genetic differentiation in this species. We conclude that considering Isolation-by-Drift metrics will substantially improve the understanding of evolutionary drivers of observed spatial patterns of genetic variation.
The analysis of influence of polymer admixtures on properties of lightweight concrete

The article presents the results of testing physical and strength properties of concrete with the addition of lightweight perlite in the amount of 10 and 20%. The additive was introduced by volume substituting a part of the sand. In addition, the effect of using siloxane admixtures and a vinyl acetate copolymer with different degree of dosing, as well as applied simultaneously, were analysed. The tests were carried out in the field of bulk density and proper density, determination of tightness and porosity, compressive strength and tensile strength after 28 days of maturation. In terms of durability of concrete, absorption and resistance of concretes to the freeze-up effects after 100 freezing and thawing cycles were tested. The results of the study were subjected to statistical analysis using the analysis of variance. The analysed factors of influence were the amount of perlite addition, as well as the type and amount of the added admixture
Relative Effects of Real-world and Virtual-World Latency on an Augmented Reality Training Task: An AR Simulation Experiment

In Augmented Reality (AR), virtual objects and information are overlaid onto the user’s view of the physical world and can appear to become part of the real world. Accurate registration of virtual objects is a key requirement for an effective and natural AR system, but misregistration can break the illusion of virtual objects being part of the real world and disrupt immersion. End-to-end system latency severely impacts the quality of AR registration. In this research, we present a controlled study that aims at a deeper understanding of the effects of latency on virtual and real world imagery and its influences on task performance in an AR training task. We utilize an AR Simulation approach, in which an outdoor AR training task is simulated in a high-fidelity VR system. The real and augmented portions of the AR training scenarios are simulated in VR, affording us detailed control over a variety of immersion parameters and the ability to explore the effects of different types of simulated latency. We utilized a representative task inspired by outdoor AR military training systems to compare various AR system configurations, including optical see-through and video see-through setups with both matched and unmatched levels of real and virtual objects latency. Our findings indicate that users are able to perform significantly better when virtual and real-world latencies are matched (as in the case of simulated video-see-through AR with perfect augmentation-to-real-world registration). Unequal levels of latency led to reduction in performance, even when overall latency levels were lower compared to the matched case. The relative results hold up with increased overall latency.
Resistance Training With Blood Flow Restriction Using the Modulation of the Muscle's Contraction Velocity

SUMMARY THERE IS AN INCREASING INTEREST IN DEVELOPING LOW-INTENSITY RESISTANCE TRAINING METHODS TO REDUCE BOTH THE MECHANICAL STRESS ON JOINTS IN INDIVIDUALS FROM DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS AND THE RISK OF INJURIES IN ATHLETES. BLOOD FLOW RESTRICTION RESISTANCE TRAINING (BFRRT) HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE AN EFFECTIVE METHOD FOR IMPROVING MUSCULAR FUNCTION, USING LOW AND MODERATE LOAD INTENSITY. THEREFORE, THE PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT ARTICLE IS TO HIGHLIGHT THE MAIN METABOLIC AND NEUROMUSCULAR ADAPTATIONS TO BFRRT AND TO SUGGEST AN ALTERNATIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF BFRRT THROUGH THE MODULATION OF THE VELOCITY OF THE MUSCLE CONTRACTION.
Wearable Sensor System Powered by a Biofuel Cell for Detection of Lactate Levels in Sweat.

An NAD+-dependent enzymatic sensor with biofuel cell power source system for non-invasive monitoring of lactate in sweat was designed, developed, and tested. The sensor component, based on lactate dehydrogenase, showed linear current response with increasing lactate concentrations with limits of detection from 5 to 100 mM lactate and sensitivity of 0.2 µA. mM-1 in the presence of target analyte. In addition to the sensor patch a power source was also designed, developed and tested. The power source was a biofuel cell designed to oxidize glucose via glucose oxidase. The biofuel cell showed excellent performance, achieving over 80 mA at 0.4 V (16 mW) in a footprint of 3.5 × 3.5 × 0.7 cm. Furthermore, in order to couple the sensor to the power source, system electronic components were designed and fabricated. These consisted of an energy harvester (EH) and a micropotentiostat (MP). The EH was employed for harvesting power provided by the biofuel cell as well as up-converting the voltage to 3.0 V needed for the operation of the MP. The sensor was attached to MP for chronoamperometric detection of lactate. The Sensor Patch System was demonstrated under laboratory conditions.
DE2: Localization with the Rotating RSS Using a Single Beacon

Wireless localization technology has become an important part of pervasive computing applications. This paper presents DE2, a wireless localization approach that is responsive to single beacon conditions. Unlike previous work that needs a priori knowledge of the scenario during the pre-deployment phase with significant human effort, or uses a certain number of beacons during the localization phase with high energy consumption, to accomplish localization, DE2 leverages a single beacon without much prior human effort to locate multiple targets. The key challenge is how to utilize the limited information caught by a single beacon and little human effort to obtain the positions of multiple unknowns. The intuition underlying DE2 is that, direction and distance constraints between an unknown position and the single beacon are adequate to determine the unknown position. When a user rotates around an RF receiver (the single beacon), the human body acts as a signal-blocking obstacle. It causes the signal from a transmitter (position-unknown) to the single receiver to attenuate in a certain scope. The blocking effect caused by a human body can be utilized to obtain the direction constraint between the unknown position and the single beacon. Moreover, a corresponding distance constraint is also concluded in the rotating RSS according to the RF propagation model. DE2 pushes the limit of minimum beacons needed for localization without much pre-configuration effort. To demonstrate the utility of DE2, we implement DE2 in realworld single beacon wireless networks. The results show that these applications can significantly benefit from DE2.
An IPv6 address lookup algorithm based on recursive balanced multi-way range trees with efficient search and update

Internet routers forward packets based on the destination address of the packet. A packet's address is matched against the destination prefixes stored in the router forwarding table, and the packet is sent to the output interface determined by the Longest Matching Prefix (LMP). Internet migration from IPv4 to IPv6 has introduced more challenge to IP address lookup problem. Nowadays, there are some existing address lookup algorithms working well for IPv4 addresses, however, none of the current schemes scales well to IPv6 both in lookup and update speed. As IPv6 uses 128 bit addresses, schemes whose lookup time grows with address length, such as patricia or multi- bit tries, become less attractive. In this paper, we propose a new IP lookup scheme with worst case search and update time of O(logN), where N is the number of prefixes in the forwarding table. Since the lookup and updates are irrelevant from IP address length, this scheme is promising for IPv6. This scheme is based on a novel data structure, called recursive balanced multi-way range trees, which is able to achieve the optimal lookup time of binary search, and can also be updated in logarithmic time when a prefix is added or deleted. Intensive experiments have been done to evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results show that our scheme outperforms all existing schemes in terms of search and update speed. Moreover, our scheme has small storage requirement (2N nodes), which also suggests that the proposed algorithm is a promising approach for IPv6 address lookup.
The Essential Design Principles of Verifiable Non-interactive OT Protocols

OT (oblivious transfer) is an important e-commerce technique to make information buyers be able to get desired information and preserve privacy at the sametime. Recently, Kim et al. proposed two 1-out-of-2 NIOT (non-interactive OT) schemes. They claimed the message sender can be verified in their schemes. Unfortunately, their schemes are insecure. In this paper, we will make thorough discussions on the design principles of secure verifiable NIOT schemes.
Performance evaluation of a Pose Estimation method based on the SwissRanger SR4000

This paper presents an experimental study on the performance of a Pose Estimation (PE) method based on a 3D time-of-flight camera - the SwissRanger SR4000. The PE method tracks the visual features in the camera's intensity image and computes the camera's pose change from the 3D data of the matched features. To attain a small PE error, the noises of the sensor's intensity and range data are analyzed and a Gaussian filter is applied to reduce the noises. The statistical property of the filtered data is then characterized and the result is used to determine the minimum number of 3D data points that are required for a satisfactory PE accuracy. Two feature extractors, the SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) and SURF (Speed Up Robust Features) extractors, are used for the PE method and their performances are compared in term of PE error and computational time. Experimental results with various combinations of rotation and translation movements demonstrate that the SIFT extractor outperforms the SURF extractor in both PE accuracy and repeatability.
CANNY FILTER APPLICATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION WITH GRASS

In this work an edge detecting filter using the Canny algorythm is implemented and applied to test images in order to assess its potential in detecting borders of elements. The filter will also be used on a real application in order to detect changes in image geometry. The role played by GRASS GIS is crucial because of its open source written in C language, its portability on different platforms and the ease of having new code added to implement new modules in a GIS environment.
One-dimensional Particle-In-Cell simulation of electron beam plasma interaction

The theory of the two-stream instability is used to validate the initial phase of a developing code which ultimately aims to simulate the generation of VLF chorus. A one dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulation shows that waves are generated when a warm electron beam is injected into a cold background plasma with components of the electric field being excited. After a few time steps the phase space reveals a distortion of the beam and the creation of potential holes, causing electrons to oscillate.
CLARITY-compatible lipophilic dyes for electrode marking and neuronal tracing

Fluorescent lipophilic dyes, such as DiI, stain cellular membranes and are used extensively for retrograde/anterograde labeling of neurons as well as for marking the position of extracellular electrodes after electrophysiology. Convenient histological clearing techniques, such as CLARITY, enable immunostaining and imaging of large volumes for 3D-reconstruction. However, such clearing works by removing lipids and, as an unintended consequence, also removes lipophilic dyes. To remedy this wash-out, the molecular structure of the dye can be altered to adhere to both membranes and proteins so the dye remains in the tissue after lipid–clearing. Nevertheless, the capacity of such modified dyes to remain in tissue has not yet been tested. Here, we test dyes with molecular modifications that make them aldehyde-fixable to proteins. We use three Dil–analogue dyes, CM-DiI, SP-DiI and FM 1–43FX that are modified to be CLARITY-compatible candidates. We use the challenging adult, myelin-rich spinal cord tissue, which requires prolonged lipid–clearing, of rats and mice. All three dyes remained in the tissue after lipid–clearing, but CM-DiI had the sharpest and FM 1–43FX the strongest fluorescent signal.
Twenty-Four Genes are Upregulated in Patients with Hypospadias

ABSTRACT Hypospadias is a congenital hypoplasia of the penis, with displacement of the urethral opening along the ventral surface, and has been reported to be one of the most common congenital anomalies, occurring in approximately 1:250 to 1:300 live births. As hypospadias is reported to be an easily diagnosed malformation at the crossroads of genetics and environment, it is important to study the genetic component in order to elucidate its etiology. In this study, the gene expression profiles both in human hypospadias tissues and normal penile tissues were studied by Human Gene Expression Array. Twentyfour genes were found to be upregulated. Among these, ATF3 and CYR61 have been reported previously. Other genes that have not been previously reported were also found to be upregulated: BTG2, CD69, CD9, DUSP1, EGR1, EIF4A1, FOS, FOSB, HBEGF, HNRNPUL1, IER2, JUN, JUNB, KLF2, NR4A1, NR4A2, PTGS2, RGS1, RTN4, SLC25A25, SOCS3 and ZFP36 (p <0.05). Further studies including genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with expression studies in a large patient group will help us for identifiying the candidate gene(s) in the etiology of hypospadias
Using acoustic condition clustering to improve acoustic change detection on broadcast news

We have developed a system that breaks input speech into segments using an acoustic similarity measure. The aim is to detect the time points where the acoustic characteristics change, usually due to speaker changes but also resulting from changes in the acoustic environment. We have also developed a system to cluster the segments generated by the first system into clusters composed of homogeneous acoustic conditions. In this paper, we present a technique to improve the robustness of the acoustic change detection by feeding back the results of the segment clustering, exploiting the extra information available in the distance between the two clusters to which the segments belong. The interaction between the acoustic change detection and clustering systems gives us a substantial improvement over results previously reported on the 1997 Hub-4 Broadcast News test set that we employed [1][2]: Feedback of clustering information improved the Equal Error Rate (EER) of our acoustic change detection (ACD) system from 26.5% to 18%.
From Hoare Logic to Matching Logic

Matching logic has been recently proposed as an alternative program verification approach. Unlike Hoare logic, where one defines a language-specific proof system that needs to be proved sound for each language separately, matching logic provides a language-independent and sound proof system that directly uses the trusted operational semantics of the language as axioms. Matching logic thus has a clear practical advantage: it eliminates the need for an additional semantics of the same language in order to reason about programs, and implicitly eliminates the need for tedious soundness proofs. What is not clear, however, is whether matching logic is as powerful as Hoare logic. This paper introduces a technique to mechanically translate Hoare logic proof derivations into equivalent matching logic proof derivations. The presented technique has two consequences: first, it suggests that matching logic has no theoretical limitation over Hoare logic; and second, it provides a new approach to prove Hoare logics sound.
3 D Dynamic Foot Scanning using Time-of-Flight Cameras

In the literature, most of the systems use laser scanners, multiple video cameras, motion capture systems or projectorcamera sets to measure feet, which can provide high accuracy measurements with sub-millimeter error. However, the shortcomes of these systems are the following: Laser scanners are accurate, but not suitable for capturing dynamic sequences (mechanical moving parts are needed). Multiple video cameras and multiple pairs of projector-camera systems require accurate correspondence between images (stereo vision approach) which cannot be solved easily [2]. Motion capture systems are limited by the number and density of markers. In this paper, we present a new method to measure the human foot using multiple Time-of-Flight (ToF) cameras.
GLOMERULAR PERMEABILITY

1. Glomerular permeability was studied by ultrastructural cytochemistry, using as protein tracers two intravenously injected peroxidases of differing molecular weight. 2. Horseradish peroxidase (molecular weight 40,000) passed rapidly through the endothelial fenestrae, across the basement membrane, and through the epithelial slits into the urinary space. Human myeloperoxidase (molecular weight 160,000 to 180,000) also passed rapidly through the endothelial fenestrae and across the basement membrane, but was impeded at the level of the epithelial slits. Both proteins were taken up in large amounts by the mesangial cells. 3. The present findings indicate that the epithelial slits are the primary filtration barrier responsible for the differential permeability to proteins of varying molecular size. 4. The observations also support the concept that an important function of the mesangial cells is the incorporation and disposal of glomerular filtration residues.
Database-Driven Web Mashups

In most web mashup applications, the content is generated using either web feeds or an application programming interface (API) based on web services. Both approaches have limitations. Data models provided by web feeds are not powerful enough to permit complex data structures to be transmitted. APIs based on web services are usually different for each web application, and thus different implementations of the APIs are required for each web service that a web mashup application uses. We propose a database-driven approach to web mashups that supports integration at the database level and enables mashup developers to work with a uniform abstract model and have direct access to powerful features of database systems. We describe how we have implemented this approach based on an object-oriented database system with a rich object model and a generic proxy mechanism for data integration and synchronisation.