Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive two-way relaying and outage analysis

This paper analyzes the outage performance of cooperative protocols for the two-way relaying model in which a half-duplex relay assists in the bi-directional communication of two terminals. We first define the outage events and derive closed form results for the outage probabilities of conventional nonadaptive amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) two-way relaying protocols.We then consider a simple adaptive protocol in the two-way relaying scenario, which switches between AF and DF depending on the decodability of the two bi-directional data streams at the relay. We also derive the outage probability for this adaptive scheme in closed form expressions, and our results show that it always outperforms the non-adaptive schemes. All the closed form results derived in this paper are applicable to arbitrary channel gains between terminals.
A novel identity-based anonymous authentication scheme from multilinear maps

Anonymous authentication is very useful to protect the user's privacy, and plays an important role in building e-commence where involves many partners, such as in cloud computing. With the anonymous property, ring signature provides a cryptographic tool to construct a secure authentication scheme. In this paper, we construct an identity-based ring signature (IBRS) based on Garg-Gentry-Halevi (GGH) graded encoding system which is a candidate multilinear maps from ideal lattice, and prove its security in random oracle model. Under the GGH graded decisional Diffie-Hellman (GDDH) assumption, the proposed ring signature guarantees the anonymity of signer against full keys exposure attacks. Considering unforgeability, under the GGH graded computational Diffie- Hellman (GCDH) assumption, the new scheme provides unforgeability both against selectively chosen subring attacks and insider corruption.
Poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid Nanoformulation of Small Molecule Antagonist GANT61 for Cancer Annihilation by Modulating Hedgehog Pathway

Targeting the self-renewal pathways (SRPs) in cancer has become one of the futuristic treatment strategies in order to prevent cancer relapse and drug resistance. One of the embryonic SRPs, Hedgehog (Hh) pathway is found to be aberrantly active in most of the cancers such as basal cell carcinoma, brain tumors, pancreas, prostate, leukemia’s to name a few. GANT61, a hexahydropyrimidine derivative is a specific GLI1 inhibitor of the Hedgehog pathway known for its anticancer activity and also its ability to inhibit the self-renewal properties of cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, its clinical efficacy is limited due to its low water solubility, bioavailability and poor permeability. The objective of this paper is to present an effective nano drug delivery system for GANT61 to improve its water solubility, enhanced drug delivery with low toxicity to the healthy cells without compromising on the native behavior of the drug. We synthesized GANT61 PLGA nanoparticles through single emulsion solvent evaporation technique and studied the physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles. GANT61 PLGA NPs showed cytotoxicity against the cancer cells, with only minimal effect towards the normal cells. Furthermore, we also analyzed the inhibition of GLI1 nuclear translocation by GANT61 PLGA NPs using immunofluorescence staining. Our studies report the successful encapsulation of GANT61 inside polymeric nanoparticles with improved aqueous solubility, which resulted in cancer cells cytotoxicity and elimination of CSCs.
Antibacterial Peptide-Based Gel for Prevention of Medical Implanted-Device Infection

Implanted medical devices are prone to infection. Designing new strategies to reduce infection and implant rejection are an important challenge for modern medicine. To this end, in the last few years many hydrogels have been designed as matrices for antimicrobial molecules destined to fight frequent infection found in moist environments like the oral cavity. In this study, two types of original hydrogels containing the antimicrobial peptide Cateslytin have been designed. The first hydrogel is based on alginate modified with catechol moieties (AC gel). The choice of these catechol functional groups which derive from mussel’s catechol originates from their strong adhesion properties on various surfaces. The second type of gel we tested is a mixture of alginate catechol and thiol-terminated Pluronic (AC/PlubisSH), a polymer derived from Pluronic, a well-known biocompatible polymer. This PlubisSH polymer has been chosen for its capacity to enhance the cohesion of the composition. These two gels offer new clinical uses, as they can be injected and jellify in a few minutes. Moreover, we show these gels strongly adhere to implant surfaces and gingiva. Once gelled, they demonstrate a high level of rheological properties and stability. In particular, the dissipative energy of the (AC/PlubisSH) gel detachment reaches a high value on gingiva (10 J.m-2) and on titanium alloys (4 J.m-2), conferring a strong mechanical barrier. Moreover, the Cateslytin peptide in hydrogels exhibited potent antimicrobial activities against P. gingivalis, where a strong inhibition of bacterial metabolic activity and viability was observed, indicating reduced virulence. Gel biocompatibility tests indicate no signs of toxicity. In conclusion, these new hydrogels could be ideal candidates in the prevention and/or management of periimplant diseases.
An analysis of contact instability in terms of passive physical equivalents

The authors explore the sources of and solutions to robot contact instability associated with force feedback. The behavior of several linear robot models is analyzed in terms of the properties of their admittances. Using the novel technique of passive physical equivalents, an explanation for the often-observed instability of a force-controlled robot contacting a stiff surface is offered, and it is shown that a fundamental limit exists to the efficacy of any force feedback controller implemented on a robot with noncolocated actuators and sensors. Suggestions for improved force control involving both mechanical design and compensator design are also presented. <<ETX>>
Localization of lens intrinsic membrane protein MP19 and mutant protein MP19(To3) using fluorescent expression vectors.

PURPOSE [corrected] MP19 is the second most abundant major intrinsic protein of the lens fiber cell membrane. A specific heritable mutation at amino acid 15 in the MP19 protein, termed MP19To3, results in total cataract and microphthalmia in the mouse. The goals of this study were to determine the specific localization of MP19 in the cell membrane and to determine whether the mutant MP19To3 protein migrates to the cell membrane in a similar fashion to normal MP19. METHODS MP19 and MP19To3 cDNAs were cloned into two different sets of expression vectors. The first set was composed of two vectors, pEGFP-N1 and pDsRed2-N1. The first vector expressed green fluorescent protein and the second expressed a red fluorescent protein when transfected into mammalian cells. The two lens membrane protein cDNAs were separately cloned into the vectors so that the cDNA was at the 5'-end of the fluorescent protein coding DNA. These vectors expressed each of the lens proteins fused to the fluorescent protein upon transfection into mammalian cell cultures. The second vector set was a single vector, pcDNA4/TO which must be induced in the transfected cells by tetracycline in order to express the cloned cDNAs. Each of the membrane cDNAs coupled to the fluorescent protein coding region was cut out of the first vector set and cloned into pcDNA4/TO and stable clones were isolated. Each of the prepared plasmids was transfected into human and chick embryo lens epithelial cells and human T-RexTM-293 cells. The fluorescent cells were viewed using confocal and episcopic-fluorescence microscopy. RESULTS Each of the transfected plasmids expressed fluorescent protein in all three cell lines. MP19 was observed to transport to the cell membrane. When compared to the distribution of another, separate fusion protein consisting of a signal peptide that targets to cell membranes fused to EGFP, MP19 did not distribute uniformly on the membrane, but appeared to localize into "spots" or pools of fluorescent material around the cell membrane. In contrast, MP19To3 protein appeared to not distribute to the cell membrane; it instead appeared to collect in a particular subcellular compartment within the cell. CONCLUSIONS The distribution of MP19 and MP19To3 in the cell appeared to be quite distinct. MP19 was observed to distribute to the cell membrane while MP19To3 did not. The fact that the MP19To3 did not traffic to the membrane, instead appearing to be trapped within a subcellular compartment within the cell sheds further light on the cause of the cataract and microphthalmia observed in the MP19To3 mutation, and further sheds information on the pathway of MP19 transport to the cell membrane.
A Type System for Algebraic Database Programming Languages

This paper presents a type system for logic programs which is intended to serve as the basis for algebraic database programming languages. This type system supports user—defined types, parametric polymorphism, union types, and subtypes. It has a particularly interesting treatment of type equivalence and the subtype relationship: predefined type constructors) such as union, are treated structurally and user—defined type constructors, such as list, are treated “by name”. Milner—style type inference rules for logic programs) which can be used to develop type—checking algorithms) are presented.
A prospective, population-based study of the role of visual impairment in motor vehicle crashes among older drivers: the SEE study.

PURPOSE To determine the role of vision and visual attention factors in automobile crash involvement. METHODS Drivers aged 65 to 84 years were identified during the baseline interview (1993-1995) of the Salisbury Eye Evaluation (SEE) Study. Crash involvement through December 1997 was determined from Maryland State motor vehicle records. Vision tests at baseline included distance acuity at normal and low luminance, contrast sensitivity, glare sensitivity, stereoacuity, and visual fields. Visual attention was evaluated with the Useful Field of View Test (UFOV; Visual Awareness, Chicago, IL). Survival analysis was used to determine the relative risk of a crash as a function of demographic variables, miles driven, vision, and visual attention. RESULTS One hundred twenty (6.7%) of the 1801 drivers were involved in a crash during the observation interval. Glare sensitivity and binocular field loss were significant predictors of crash involvement (P < 0.05). For those with moderate or better vision (<3 letters for glare sensitivity and <20 points missed for binocular visual fields) increased glare sensitivity or reduced visual fields were, paradoxically, associated with a reduction in crash risk, whereas for those with poorer levels of vision, increased glare sensitivity or reduced visual fields were associated with increased crash risk. Worse UFOV score was associated with increased crash risk. CONCLUSIONS Glare sensitivity, visual field loss, and UFOV were significant predictors of crash involvement. Acuity, contrast sensitivity, and stereoacuity were not associated with crashes. These results suggest that current vision screening for drivers' licensure, based primarily on visual acuity, may miss important aspects of visual impairment.
Assessment of Microbiological Diagnostic Procedures for Respiratory Specimens from Cystic Fibrosis Patients in German Laboratories by Use of a Questionnaire

ABSTRACT Respiratory specimens from cystic fibrosis (CF) patients challenge microbiological laboratories with their complexity of pathogens and atypical variants. We evaluated the diagnostic procedures in German laboratories by use of a questionnaire. Although most laboratories followed guidelines, some of them served only a small number of patients, while others did not use the recommended selective agars to culture the particular CF-relevant species.
Morphological changes in the Golgi complex correlate with actin cytoskeleton rearrangements.

In this report we have studied the morphological changes of the Golgi complex (GC) that specifically accompany F-actin reorganizations. In starved rat RBL-2H3 tumor mast cells, the GC, that was visualized at immunofluorescence level with antibodies raised against the Golgi-resident proteins giantin, mannosidase II, or TGN-38, showed a compacted morphology with a supranuclear positioning. Concomitant to membrane ruffle formation induced by epidermal growth factor (EGF) or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), and stress fiber formation induced by lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), specific GC morphological changes were observed. When cells were stimulated with EGF or PMA, the compacted GC morphology was transformed into a reticular network that was extended towards the cell periphery. When cells were incubated with LPA, the GC acquired a characteristic ring-shaped morphology. Brefeldin A (BFA) did not affect the PMA- or LPA-induced membrane ruffling and stress fiber formation, respectively, indicating that actin rearrangements occurred independent of the presence of the GC. Upon BFA removal, the presence of PMA or LPA during the recovery process induced the GC to acquire the morphological appearance described above for each agent. Moreover, the PMA- but not the LPA-induced GC rearrangements were sensitive to the actin perturbing agents cytochalasin D and jasplakinolide. When cells were preincubated with the phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors wortmannin or LY294002, the PMA-induced GC morphological changes were inhibited but not membrane ruffles. Finally, the PMA-induced increase in the post-Golgi transport of glycosaminoglycans to the cell surface was not altered by cytochalasin D or jasplakinolide. Altogether, these data suggest that: (1) the shape of the GC is influenced by the 3D arrangement of actin microfilaments; (2) PI3K regulates the association of the GC with actin microfilaments; and (3) actin microfilaments are not essential for the post-Golgi transport to the plasma membrane.
Event identification in social media using classification-clustering framework

In recent years, there has been increased interest in real-world event detection using publicly accessible data made available through Internet technology such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In these highly interactive systems the general public are able to post real-time reactions to “real world" events - thereby acting as social sensors of terrestrial activity. Automatically detecting and categorizing events, particularly smallscale incidents, using streamed data is a non-trivial task, due to the heterogeneity, the scalability and the varied quality of the data as well as the presence of noise and irrelevant information. However, it would be of high value to public safety organisations such as local police, who need to respond accordingly. To address these challenges we present an end-to-end integrated event detection framework which comprises five main components: data collection, pre-processing, classification, online clustering and summarization. The integration between classification and clustering enables events to be detected, especially “disruptive events" - incidents that threaten social safety and security, or that could disrupt social order. We present an evaluation of the effectiveness of detecting events using a variety of features derived from Twitter posts, namely: temporal, spatial and textual content. We evaluate our framework on large-scale, realworld datasets from Twitter and Flickr. Furthermore, we apply our event detection system to a large corpus of tweets posted during the August 2011 riots in England. We show that our system can perform as well as terrestrial sources, such as police reports, traditional surveillance, and emergency calls, even better than local police intelligence in most cases. The framework developed in this thesis provides a scalable, online solution, to handle the high volume of social media documents in different languages including English, Arabic, Eastern languages such as Chinese, and many Latin languages. Moreover, event detection is a concept that is crucial to the assurance of public safety surrounding real-world events. Decision makers use information from a range of terrestrial and online sources to help inform decisions that enable them to develop policies and react appropriately to events as they unfold. Due to the heterogeneity and scale of the data and the fact that some messages are more salient than others for the purposes of understanding any risk to human safety and managing any disruption caused by events, automatic summarization of event-related microblogs is a non-trivial and important problem. In this thesis we tackle the task of automatic summarization of Twitter posts, and present three methods that produce summaries by selecting the most representative posts from real-world tweet-event clusters. To evaluate our approaches, we compare them to the state-of-the-art summarization systems and human generated summaries. Our results show that our proposed methods outperform all the other summarization systems for English and non-English corpora.
Patients and clinicians have different perspectives on outcomes in arthritis.

Outcome measurement in arthritis has undergone a major shift during the past 2 decades, moving from process measures (e.g., plasma viscosity) to patient-centered outcome measures (e.g., pain, function). However, while patients self-report many of these outcomes, it is clinicians who judge those reports to guide clinical decisions and define the efficacy of treatments in clinical trials. It is important to ascertain whether patient or professional views converge or diverge and also whether the outcomes being measured are those of importance to patients. This article reviews some of the available evidence on the congruence (or otherwise) of patient and professional views of outcome, and reports considerable variation between the 2 views. Reasons why views might differ are discussed (for example, disease activity might be assessed using different variables by patients and clinicians), and the possibility of the effect of the personal meaning or impact of an outcome for a patient is raised. Finally the significance of these discrepant views is addressed, posing the challenge of how we might incorporate a measure of the personal meaning of an outcome to a patient into our outcome measures.
Human serum amyloid P is a multispecific adhesive protein whose ligands include 6‐phosphorylated mannose and the 3‐sulphated saccharides galactose, N‐acetylgalactosamine and glucuronic acid.

Carbohydrate recognition by amyloid P component from human serum has been investigated by binding experiments using several glycosaminoglycans, polysaccharides and a series of structurally defined neoglycolipids and natural glycolipids. Two novel classes of carbohydrate ligands have been identified. The first is 6‐phosphorylated mannose as found on lysosomal hydrolases, and the second is the 3‐sulphated saccharides galactose, N‐acetyl‐galactosamine and glucuronic acid as found on sulphatide and other acidic glycolipids that occur in neural or kidney tissues or on subpopulations of lymphocytes. Binding to mannose‐6‐phosphate containing molecules and inhibition of binding by free mannose‐6‐phosphate and fructose‐1‐phosphate are features shared with mannose‐6‐phosphate receptors involved in trafficking of lysosomal enzymes. However, only amyloid P binding is inhibited by galactose‐6‐phosphate, mannose‐1‐phosphate and glucose‐6‐phosphate. These findings strengthen the possibility that amyloid P protein has a central role in amyloidogenic processes: first in formation of focal concentrations of lysosomal enzymes including proteases that generate fibril‐forming peptides from amyloidogenic proteins, and second in formation of multicomponent complexes that include sulphoglycolipids as well as glycosaminoglycans. The evidence that binding to all of the acidic ligands involves the same polypeptide domain on amyloid P protein, and inhibition data using diffusible, phosphorylated monosaccharides, is potentially important leads to novel drug designs aimed at preventing or even reversing amyloid deposition processes without interference with essential lysosomal trafficking pathways.
Targeted exome sequencing profiles genetic alterations in leiomyosarcoma

Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) belongs to the class of genetically complex sarcomas and shows numerous, often non‐recurrent chromosomal imbalances and aberrations. We investigated a group of LMS using NGS platform to identify recurrent genetic abnormalities and possible therapeutic targets. Targeted exome sequencing of 230 cancer‐associated genes was performed on 35 primary soft tissue and visceral (extra‐uterine) LMS. Sequence data were analyzed to identify single nucleotide variants, small insertions/deletions (indels), and copy number alterations. Key alterations were further investigated using FISH assay. The study group included patients with median age of 64 years and median tumor size of 7 cm. The primary sites included retroperitoneal/intra‐abdominal, extremity, truncal, and visceral. Thirty‐one tumors were high grade LMS, while four were low grade. Losses of chromosomal regions involving key tumor suppressor genes PTEN (10q), RB1 (13q), CDH1 (16q), and TP53 (17p) were the most frequent genetic events. Gains mainly involved chromosome regions 17p11.2 (MYOCD) and 15q25‐26 (IGF1R). The most frequent mutations were identified in the TP53 gene in 13 of 35 (37%) cases. FISH analysis showed amplification of the myocardin (MYOCD) gene in 5 of 25 (20%) cases analyzed. None of the four low grade LMS showed losses or mutations of PTEN or TP53 genes. Genetic complexity is the hallmark of LMS with losses of important tumor suppressor genes being a common feature. MYOCD, a key gene associated with smooth muscle differentiation, is amplified in a subset of both retroperitoneal and extremity LMS. Further studies are necessary to investigate the significance of gains/amplifications in the development of these tumors. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A 27% reduction in transceiver power for single-ended point-to-point DRAM interface with the termination resistance of 4×Z0 at both TX and RX

The transceiver power is reduced by 27% in the single-ended point-to-point DRAM interface by increasing the termination resistance to 4×Z0 at both ends of TX and RX. The resultant increase of ISI and reflection is compensated for at RX by using the 1-tap and 2-tap integrating decision-feedback equalizer (IDFE), respectively, where the reflection tap position and the tap coefficients are found automatically during the training mode. This improves the bathtub opening of a 4-inch FR4 channel from 20% to 62.5% at 5Gb/s in 0. 13μm CMOS.
Effects of calcination temperature on microstructures and photocatalytic activity of titanate nanotube films prepared by an EPD method

Titanate nanotube films are fabricated on F-doped SnO2-coated glass substrates via an electrophoretic deposition method using hydrothermally prepared titanate nanotubes as precursors. The effects of calcination temperature on the microstructures and photoactivity of as-prepared titanate nanotube films are investigated and discussed. The results indicate that the intercalated sodium ions (Na+) in the as-prepared titanate nanotubes are easily removed during the electrophoretic deposition. The phase transformation of titanate to anatase and diffusion of Na+ ions from glass substrates into films occur at 400 °C. With increasing calcination temperature, the crystallization of anatase enhances and sodium content in the films increases. At 500 °C, the tubular structure still holds and the films show the highest photocatalytic activity probably due to their good crystallization, large specific surface areas and tubular structures.