Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gossip-Based Reputation Management for Unstructured Peer-to-Peer Networks*

To build an efficient reputation system for peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, we need fast mechanisms to aggregate peer evaluations and to disseminate updated scores to a large number of peer nodes. Unfortunately, unstructured P2P networks are short of secure hashing and fast lookup mechanisms as in structured P2P systems like the DHT-based Chord. In light of this shortcoming, we propose a gossiping mechanism to support unstructured P2P communications. This paper reports the design principles and performance results of a GossipTrust system. Gossip-based communications are shown effective to support fast peer scoring and distribution. Gossiping enables light-weight aggregation of local scores and spreading of updated scores to all nodes in O(log2 n) time, where n is the P2P network size. The GossipTrust works as follows: Each peer gossips with a few randomly selected other nodes to share reputation data, periodically. Gossip-based protocols do not require error recovery and thus enjoy the simplicity with a moderate processing overhead. Bloom filters are specially tailored for storing and retrieving global reputation rankings on each node. We apply identity-based cryptography to secure gossiped reputation data. We report simulation results on distributed file-sharing and parameter-sweeping applications on GossipTrust. These results prove the claimed advantages in low aggregation overhead, storage efficiency, and scoring accuracy in unstructured P2P networks. With minor modifications, the system is also applicable to structured P2P systems with projected even better performance, which is beyond the scope of this paper.
Biotelemetric passive sensor injected within tendon for strain and elasticity measurement

A passive and injectable (using hypodermic needle) biotelemetric sensor for measurements of tendon length changes has been developed. From these measurements tendon strain and Young's modulus of elasticity can be derived. The sensor(about 2.1 times 29mm) is a LC circuit fixed in tendon by metallic anchors (barbs), where the value of the resonance frequency is modulated by displacement of a mobile ferrite core. The sensor was injected into digital extensor tendon of pig,allowing the determination of its stress-strain curve and, consequently, of Young's modulus of elasticity of the tendon. Practical results, such as sensitivity of 18.199kHz/mm (correlation coefficient of 0.9891)for strains up to 5.17%, mechanical hysteresis of 6.5%, and Young's modulus of 0.9146 GPa for a pig tendon (post mortem),are presented and discussed
Grb-2–associated binder 1 (Gab1) regulates postnatal ischemic and VEGF-induced angiogenesis through the protein kinase A–endothelial NOS pathway

The intracellular signaling mechanisms underlying postnatal angiogenesis are incompletely understood. Herein we show that Grb-2–associated binder 1 (Gab1) plays a critical role in ischemic and VEGF-induced angiogenesis. Endothelium-specific Gab1 KO (EGKO) mice displayed impaired angiogenesis in the ischemic hindlimb despite normal induction of VEGF expression. Matrigel plugs with VEGF implanted in EGKO mice induced fewer capillaries than those in control mice. The vessels and endothelial cells (ECs) derived from EGKO mice were defective in vascular sprouting and tube formation induced by VEGF. Biochemical analyses revealed a substantial reduction of endothelial NOS (eNOS) activation in Gab1-deficient vessels and ECs following VEGF stimulation. Interestingly, the phosphorylation of Akt, an enzyme known to promote VEGF-induced eNOS activation, was increased in Gab1-deficient vessels and ECs whereas protein kinase A (PKA) activity was significantly decreased. Introduction of an active form of PKA rescued VEGF-induced eNOS activation and tube formation in EGKO ECs. Reexpression of WT or mutant Gab1 molecules in EGKO ECs revealed requirement of Gab1/Shp2 association for the activation of PKA and eNOS. Taken together, these results identify Gab1 as a critical upstream signaling component in VEGF-induced eNOS activation and tube formation, which is dependent on PKA. Of note, this pathway is conserved in primary human ECs for VEGF-induced eNOS activation and tube formation, suggesting considerable potential in treatment of human ischemic diseases.
Performance evaluation of a decision-theoretic approach for quality of experience measurement in mobile and pervasive computing scenarios

Measuring and predicting users quality of experience (QoE) in dynamic network conditions is a challenging task. This paper presents results related to a decision-theoretic methodology incorporating Bayesian networks (BNs) and utility theory for quality of experience (QoE) measurement and prediction in mobile computing scenarios. In particular, we show how both generative and discriminative BNs can be used to measure and predict users QoE accurately for voice applications under several wireless network conditions such as wireless signal fading, vertical handoffs, wireless network congestion and normal hotspot traffic. Through extensive simulation studies and results analysis, we show that our proposed methodology can achieve an average accuracy of 98.70% using three different types of Bayesian network.
Preferential Translation of Internal Ribosome Entry Site-containing mRNAs during the Mitotic Cycle in Mammalian Cells*

A cell synchronization protocol was established in which global and individual mRNA translational efficiencies could be examined. While global translational efficiency was reduced in mitotic cells, ∼3% of mRNAs remained predominantly associated with large polysomes during mitosis, as determined by cDNA microarray analyses. The 5′-non-coding regions of six mRNAs were shown to contain internal ribosome entry sites (IRES). However, not all known mRNAs that contain IRES elements were actively translated during mitosis, arguing that specific IRES sequences are differentially regulated during mitosis.
Coalitional Aggregation of Wind Power

This paper explores scenarios in which independent wind power producers form willing coalitions to exploit the reduction in aggregate power output variability obtainable through geographic diversity. In the setting of a two settlement electricity market, we examine the advantage gained through optimal coalitional contract offering strategies for quantity risk reduction. We show that a group of independent wind power producers can always improve their expected profit by cooperatively offering their aggregated power. Using coalitional game theory we identify sharing mechanisms to fairly allocate the profits to coalition members. We show that the resulting coalitional game is balanced, guaranteeing that the core of the game is necessarily nonempty. In addition, we propose a profit sharing mechanism that minimizes the worst-case dissatisfaction to recover an imputation in the core. Finally, we illustrate our theoretical results with empirical studies using data from five representative wind farms in upstate New York.
Shape Context Based Video Texture Synthesis from Still Images

A video texture provides a continuous varying stream of images. In this paper, we introduce a new algorithm that allows the user to easily produce a visually plausible video texture from a small collection of still images. In order to approximate the original temporal order of the scene, we apply a shape context based order recovery algorithm to the still images. The frame sequence is subsequently generated using a second order Markov Chain model. The final video texture is generated by frame interpolation which utilizes thin-plate spline warping and inverse distance weighting interpolation techniques. In conclusion, we show that significant improvements are obtained by using TPS warping technique instead of traditional optical flow method.
Non – Small Cell Lung Cancer Staging : Efficacy Comparison of Integrated PET / CT versus 3 . 0-T Whole-Body MR Imaging 1

Materials and Methods: Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained. The study included 165 patients (125 men, 40 women; mean age, 61 years) with NSCLC proved at pathologic examination who underwent both unenhanced PET/CT and whole-body MR imaging. Pathologic findings for T (n 123) and N (n 150) staging and pathologic or follow-up imaging findings (n 154) for M staging were reference standards. The efficacies of PET/CT and wholebody MR imaging for lung cancer staging were compared by using the McNemar test.
Selection of indicators for continuous monitoring of patient safety: recommendations of the project 'safety improvement for patients in Europe'.

BACKGROUND Initiatives to improve patient safety have high priority among health professionals and politicians in most developed countries. Currently, however, assessment of patient safety problems relies mainly on case-based methodologies. The evidence for their efficiency and reproducibility, proving that safety of care has improved with their usage, is questionable. The exact incidence and prevalence of patient safety quality problems are unknown. Therefore, there is a need for firm, evidence-based methods to survey and develop patient safety and derived activities. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to describe a method to select patient safety indicators and present the indicators derived through this process. METHODS The patient safety indicators were derived and recommended for use in a formalized consensus process based on literature review, targeted information gathering, expert consultation and rating procedures. RESULTS A total of 42 indicators, of which 28 originated from existing international indicator programmes, were selected. The processes and outcome indicators that were recommended for institutional-level use in Europe were 24, covering safety of care aspects such as culture, infections, surgical complications, medication errors, obstetrics, falls and specific diagnostic areas. CONCLUSION The patient safety indicators recommended present a set of possible measures of patient safety. One of the future perspectives of implementing patient safety indicators for systematic monitoring is that it will be possible to continuously estimate the prevalence and incidence of patient safety quality problems. The lesson learnt from quality improvement is that it will pay off in terms of improving patient safety.
Low Genetic Polymorphism at the Cytochrome C Oxidase I in Silkworm Strains of the Brazilian Germplasm Bank

Nucleotide sequences have been used to distinguish species and specimens for many years. More recently, the use of a partial sequence of 650 bp of the cytochrome c oxidase I, COI mitochondrial gene, has been proposed for species identification, known as DNA barcodes. In this work, a short sequence of the DNA barcode is described—approximately 250 bp, named as “DNA mini-barcode”—to molecularly identify different silkworm strains maintained at the unique public Germplasm Bank of Bombyx mori, at the Universidade Estadual de Maringa, UEM, Brazil. Analysis revealed no significant differences among the silkworm strains. The phylogenetic tree obtained by the neighbor-joining method and K2P distance, in which specimens of B. mandarina were used as outgroup, clustered all the specimens of B. mori in a unique clade. Genetic variability detect within B. mori was low or nonexistent. In conclusion, the partial region of 250 bp of the mitochondrial gene COI herein analyzed may not be efficient to discriminate silkworm strains from the UEM Germplasm Bank of Bombyx mori.
Exploring Word Embeddings for Unsupervised Textual User-Generated Content Normalization

Text normalization techniques based on rules, lexicons or supervised training requiring large corpora are not scalable nor domain interchangeable, and this makes them unsuitable for normalizing user-generated content (UGC). Current tools available for Brazilian Portuguese make use of such techniques. In this work we propose a technique based on distributed representation of words (or word embeddings). It generates continuous numeric vectors of high-dimensionality to represent words. The vectors explicitly encode many linguistic regularities and patterns, as well as syntactic and semantic word relationships. Words that share semantic similarity are represented by similar vectors. Based on these features, we present a totally unsupervised, expandable and language and domain independent method for learning normalization lexicons from word embeddings. Our approach obtains high correction rate of orthographic errors and internet slang in product reviews, outperforming the current available tools for Brazilian Portuguese.
Fast gaze-contingent optimal decompositions for multifocal displays

As head-mounted displays (HMDs) commonly present a single, fixed-focus display plane, a conflict can be created between the vergence and accommodation responses of the viewer. Multifocal HMDs have long been investigated as a potential solution in which multiple image planes span the viewer's accommodation range. Such displays require a scene decomposition algorithm to distribute the depiction of objects across image planes, and previous work has shown that simple decompositions can be achieved in real-time. However, recent optimal decompositions further improve image quality, particularly with complex content. Such decompositions are more computationally involved and likely require better alignment of the image planes with the viewer's eyes, which are potential barriers to practical applications. Our goal is to enable interactive optimal decomposition algorithms capable of driving a vergence- and accommodation-tracked multifocal testbed. Ultimately, such a testbed is necessary to establish the requirements for the practical use of multifocal displays, in terms of computational demand and hardware accuracy. To this end, we present an efficient algorithm for optimal decompositions, incorporating insights from vision science. Our method is amenable to GPU implementations and achieves a three-orders-of-magnitude speedup over previous work. We further show that eye tracking can be used for adequate plane alignment with efficient image-based deformations, adjusting for both eye rotation and head movement relative to the display. We also build the first binocular multifocal testbed with integrated eye tracking and accommodation measurement, paving the way to establish practical eye tracking and rendering requirements for this promising class of display. Finally, we report preliminary results from a pilot user study utilizing our testbed, investigating the accommodation response of users to dynamic stimuli presented under optimal decomposition.
β-Amyloid Inhibits Protein Prenylation and Induces Cholesterol Sequestration by Impairing SREBP-2 Cleavage

Accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) inside brain neurons is an early and crucial event in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Studies in brains of AD patients and mice models of AD suggested that cholesterol homeostasis is altered in neurons that accumulate Aβ. Here we directly investigated the role of intracellular oligomeric Aβ42 (oAβ42) in neuronal cholesterol homeostasis. We report that oAβ42 induces cholesterol sequestration without increasing cellular cholesterol mass. Several features of AD, such as endosomal abnormalities, brain accumulation of Aβ and neurofibrillary tangles, and influence of apolipoprotein E genotype, are also present in Niemann-Pick type C, a disease characterized by impairment of intracellular cholesterol trafficking. These common features and data presented here suggest that a pathological mechanism involving abnormal cholesterol trafficking could take place in AD. Cholesterol sequestration in Aβ-treated neurons results from impairment of intracellular cholesterol trafficking secondary to inhibition of protein prenylation. oAβ42 reduces sterol regulatory element-binding protein-2 (SREBP-2) cleavage, causing decrease of protein prenylation. Inhibition of protein prenylation represents a mechanism of oAβ42-induced neuronal death. Supply of the isoprenoid geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate to oAβ42-treated neurons recovers normal protein prenylation, reduces cholesterol sequestration, and prevents Aβ-induced neurotoxicity. Significant to AD, reduced levels of protein prenylation are present in the cerebral cortex of the TgCRND8 mouse model. In conclusion, we demonstrate a significant inhibitory effect of Aβ on protein prenylation and identify SREBP-2 as a target of oAβ42, directly linking Aβ to cholesterol homeostasis impairment.
Autogenous Regulation of Escherichia coli Polynucleotide Phosphorylase Expression Revisited

ABSTRACT The Escherichia coli polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase; encoded by pnp), a phosphorolytic exoribonuclease, posttranscriptionally regulates its own expression at the level of mRNA stability and translation. Its primary transcript is very efficiently processed by RNase III, an endonuclease that makes a staggered double-strand cleavage about in the middle of a long stem-loop in the 5′-untranslated region. The processed pnp mRNA is then rapidly degraded in a PNPase-dependent manner. Two non-mutually exclusive models have been proposed to explain PNPase autogenous regulation. The earlier one suggested that PNPase impedes translation of the RNase III-processed pnp mRNA, thus exposing the transcript to degradative pathways. More recently, this has been replaced by the current model, which maintains that PNPase would simply degrade the promoter proximal small RNA generated by the RNase III endonucleolytic cleavage, thus destroying the double-stranded structure at the 5′ end that otherwise stabilizes the pnp mRNA. In our opinion, however, the first model was not completely ruled out. Moreover, the RNA decay pathway acting upon the pnp mRNA after disruption of the 5′ double-stranded structure remained to be determined. Here we provide additional support to the current model and show that the RNase III-processed pnp mRNA devoid of the double-stranded structure at its 5′ end is not translatable and is degraded by RNase E in a PNPase-independent manner. Thus, the role of PNPase in autoregulation is simply to remove, in concert with RNase III, the 5′ fragment of the cleaved structure that both allows translation and prevents the RNase E-mediated PNPase-independent degradation of the pnp transcript.
Sub-threshold charge recovery circuits

Embedded systems account for wide range of applications. However, the design of such systems is faced with a diverse spectrum of criteria. The energy consumption, performance, and demanding security concerns are some of the most significant challenges in designing of such systems. With these challenges, the design process can be managed more easily if a flexible logic circuit with the ability of satisfying the above-mentioned concerns is taken into account. To achieve such a logic circuit, in this paper we have combined the sub-threshold operation and charge recovery techniques. Using our technique, lower power consumption, ability of operating at higher frequencies, and more security (to side channel attacks) than the existing logic circuits are achieved. This paper also presents an analytical proof about how sub-threshold charge recovery circuits can meet these characterizations. we have also confirmed our analytical discussions by examining our technique for full adder, and 8 × 8 carry-save multiplier in different frequencies, supply voltages, and CMOS technologies. Detailed SPICE simulations show significant improvements as compared to its existing counterparts in all simulated frequencies and supply voltages.
Sensitivity analysis and parameter estimation for distributed hydrological modeling: potential of variational methods

Variational methods are widely used for the analysis and control of computationally intensive spatially distributed systems. In particular, the adjoint state method enables a very efficient calculation of the derivatives of an objective function (response function to be analysed or cost function to be optimised) with respect to model inputs. In this contribution, it is shown that the potential of variational methods for distributed catchment scale hydrology should be considered. A distributed flash flood model, coupling kinematic wave overland flow and Green Ampt infiltration, is applied to a small catchment of the Thore basin and used as a relatively simple (synthetic observations) but didactic application case. It is shown that forward and adjoint sensitivity analysis provide a local but extensive insight on the relation between the assigned model parameters and the simulated hydrological response. Spatially distributed parameter sensitivities can be obtained for a very modest calculation effort (~6 times the computing time of a single model run) and the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the Jacobian matrix provides an interesting perspective for the analysis of the rainfall-runoff relation. For the estimation of model parameters, adjoint-based derivatives were found exceedingly efficient in driving a bound-constrained quasi-Newton algorithm. The reference parameter set is retrieved independently from the optimization initial condition when the very common dimension reduction strategy (i.e. scalar multipliers) is adopted. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis results suggest that most of the variability in this high-dimensional parameter space can be captured with a few orthogonal directions. A parametrization based on the SVD leading singular vectors was found very promising but should be combined with another regularization strategy in order to prevent overfitting.
Sparse Coding for Flexible, Robust 3D Facial-Expression Synthesis

Computer animation researchers have been extensively investigating 3D facial-expression synthesis for decades. However, flexible, robust production of realistic 3D facial expressions is still technically challenging. A proposed modeling framework applies sparse coding to synthesize 3D expressive faces, using specified coefficients or expression examples. It also robustly recovers facial expressions from noisy and incomplete data. This approach can synthesize higher-quality expressions in less time than the state-of-the-art techniques.
Production, Manufacturing and Logistics Supply chain networks, electronic commerce, and supply side and demand side risk

In this paper, we develop a supply chain network model in which both physical and electronic transactions are allowed and in which supply side risk as well as demand side risk are included in the formulation. The model consists of three tiers of decision-makers: the manufacturers, the distributors, and the retailers, with the demands associated with the retail outlets being random. We model the optimizing behavior of the various decision-makers, with the manufacturers and the distributors being multicriteria decision-makers and concerned with both profit maximization and risk minimization. We derive the equilibrium conditions and establish the finite-dimensional variational inequality formulation. We provide qualitative properties of the equilibrium pattern in terms of existence and uniqueness results and also establish conditions under which the proposed computational procedure is guaranteed to converge. We illustrate the supply chain network model through several numerical examples for which the equilibrium prices and product shipments are computed. This is the first multitiered supply chain network equilibrium model with electronic commerce and with supply side and demand side risk for which modeling, qualitative analysis, and computational results have been obtained. 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.