Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polar codes for secret sharing

A secret can be an encrypted message or a private key to decrypt the ciphertext. One of the main issues in cryptography is keeping this secret safe. Entrusting secret to one person or saving it in a computer can conclude betrayal of the person or destruction of that device. For solving this issue, secret sharing can be used between some individuals which a coalition of a specific number of them can only get access to the secret. In practical issues, some of the members have more power and by a coalition of fewer of them, they should know about the secret. In a bank, for example, president and deputy can have a union with two members by each other. In this paper, by using Polar codes secret sharing has been studied and a secret sharing scheme based on Polar codes has been introduced. Information needed for any member would be sent by the channel which Polar codes are constructed by it.
You Are the Only Possible Oracle: Effective Test Selection for End Users of Interactive Machine Learning Systems

How do you test a program when only a single user, with no expertise in software testing, is able to determine if the program is performing correctly? Such programs are common today in the form of machine-learned classifiers. We consider the problem of testing this common kind of machine-generated program when the only oracle is an end user: e.g., only you can determine if your email is properly filed. We present test selection methods that provide very good failure rates even for small test suites, and show that these methods work in both large-scale random experiments using a “gold standard” and in studies with real users. Our methods are inexpensive and largely algorithm-independent. Key to our methods is an exploitation of properties of classifiers that is not possible in traditional software testing. Our results suggest that it is plausible for time-pressured end users to interactively detect failures-even very hard-to-find failures-without wading through a large number of successful (and thus less useful) tests. We additionally show that some methods are able to find the arguably most difficult-to-detect faults of classifiers: cases where machine learning algorithms have high confidence in an incorrect result.
Engaged Learning in MOOCs: A Study Using the UK Engagement Survey.

This study sets out to answer the question: how can we know what learning is taking place in MOOCs? From this starting point, the study then looks to identify MOOCs’ potential for future use in HE? Using a specially-adapted version of the HEA’s UK Engagement Survey (UKES) 2014, the research team at the University of Southampton asked participants who had completed one of two MOOCs delivered through the FutureLearn platform and designed and run at the university about their experiences as learners and their engagement with their respective MOOC. The results also show that both of the MOOCs were successful in enabling many participants to feel engaged in intellectual endeavours such as forming new understandings, making connections with previous knowledge and experience, and exploring knowledge actively, creatively and critically. In response to the open access approach – in which no one taking part in a MOOC is required to have a minimum level of previous educational achievement - the report shows that persistent learners engaged, regardless of prior educational attainment.
Us and Them: Adversarial Politics on Twitter

Social-media debates on longitudinal political topics often take the form of adversarial discussions: highly polarized user posts, favoring one of two opposing parties, over an extended time period. Recent prominent cases are the US Presidential campaign and the UK Brexit referendum. This paper approaches such discussions as a multi-faceted data space, and applies data mining to identify interesting patterns and factors of influence. Specifically, we study how topics are addressed by different parties, their factual and "post-factual" undertones, and the role of highly active "power users" on either side of the discussion.
Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli: A Combination of Virulence with Antibiotic Resistance

Escherichia coli represents an incredible versatile and diverse enterobacterial species and can be subdivided into the following; (i) intestinal non-pathogenic, commensal isolates. (ii) Intestinal pathogenic isolates and (iii) extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli or ExPEC isolates. The presence to several putative virulence genes has been positively linked with the pathogenicity of ExPEC. E. coli remains one of the most frequent causes of nosocomial and community-acquired bacterial infections including urinary tract infections, enteric infections, and systemic infections in humans. ExPEC has emerged in 2000s as an important player in the resistance to antibiotics including the cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones. Most importantly among ExPEC is the increasing recognition of isolates producing “newer β-lactamases” that consists of plasmid-mediated AmpC β-lactamases (e.g., CMY), extended-spectrum β-lactamases (e.g., CTX-M), and carbapenemases (e.g., NDM). This review will highlight aspects of virulence associated with ExPEC, provide a brief overview of plasmid-mediated resistance to β-lactams including the characteristics of the successful international sequence types such as ST38, ST131, ST405, and ST648 among ExPEC.
Toxicoproteomics: Serum Proteomic Pattern Diagnostics for Early Detection of Drug Induced Cardiac Toxicities and Cardioprotection

Proteomics is more than just generating lists of proteins that increase or decrease in expression as a cause or consequence of pathology. The goal should be to characterize the information flow through the intercellular protein circuitry which communicates with the extracellular microenvironment and then ultimately to the serum/plasma macroenvironment. The nature of this information can be a cause, or a consequence, of disease and toxicity based processes as cascades of reinforcing information percolate through the system and become reflected in changing proteomic information content of the circulation. Serum Proteomic Pattern Diagnostics is a new type of proteomic platform in which patterns of proteomic signatures from high dimensional mass spectrometry data are used as a diagnostic classifier. While this approach has shown tremendous promise in early detection of cancers, detection of drug-induced toxicity may also be possible with this same technology. Analysis of serum from rat models of anthracycline and anthracenedione induced cardiotoxicity indicate the potential clinical utility of diagnostic proteomic patterns where low molecular weight peptides and protein fragments may have higher accuracy than traditional biomarkers of cardiotoxicity such as troponins. These fragments may one day be harvested by circulating nanoparticles designed to absorb, enrich and amplify the diagnostic biomarker repertoire generated even at the critical initial stages of toxicity.
An 11-Bit 45 MS/s Pipelined ADC With Rapid Calibration of DAC Errors in a Multibit Pipeline Stage

A technique to rapidly correct for both DAC and gain errors in the multibit first stage of an 11-bit pipelined ADC is presented. Using a dual-ADC based approach the digital background scheme is validated with a proof-of-concept prototype fabricated in a 1.8 V 0.18 CMOS process, where the calibration scheme improves the peak INL of the 45 MS/s ADC from 6.4 LSB to 1.1 LSB after calibration. The SNDR/SFDR is improved from 46.9 dB/48.9 dB to 60.1 dB/70 dB after calibration. Calibration is achieved in approximately 104 clock cycles.
A case of rheumatoid arthritis that developed autoimmune hepatitis associated with anti-Golgi complex antibody

Abstract A 50-year-old woman, who had been diagnosed as having rheumatoid arthritis (RA) 7 months earlier, was admitted to our hospital because of liver dysfunction. Her laboratory data and histological findings satisfied the criteria for autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) as revised by the International AIH Group. Laboratory examinations (indirect immunofluorescence and immunoblotting analyses) revealed that anti-Golgi complex antibodies (AGA) were positive in her serum. AGA are thought to be closely associated with AIH and/or liver dysfunction according to several reports.
The matricellular protein CCN1 controls retinal angiogenesis by targeting VEGF, Src homology 2 domain phosphatase-1 and Notch signaling

Physiological angiogenesis depends on the highly coordinated actions of multiple angiogenic regulators. CCN1 is a secreted cysteine-rich and integrin-binding matricellular protein required for proper cardiovascular development. However, our understanding of the cellular origins and activities of this molecule is incomplete. Here, we show that CCN1 is predominantly expressed in angiogenic endothelial cells (ECs) at the leading front of actively growing vessels in the mouse retina. Endothelial deletion of CCN1 in mice using a Cre-Lox system is associated with EC hyperplasia, loss of pericyte coverage and formation of dense retinal vascular networks lacking the normal hierarchical arrangement of arterioles, capillaries and venules. CCN1 is a product of an immediate-early gene that is transcriptionally induced in ECs in response to stimulation by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). We found that CCN1 activity is integrated with VEGF receptor 2 (VEGF-R2) activation and downstream signaling pathways required for tubular network formation. CCN1-integrin binding increased the expression of and association between Src homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase-1 (SHP-1) and VEGF-R2, which leads to rapid dephosphorylation of VEGF-R2 tyrosine, thus preventing EC hyperproliferation. Predictably, CCN1 further brings receptors/signaling molecules into proximity that are otherwise spatially separated. Furthermore, CCN1 induces integrin-dependent Notch activation in cultured ECs, and its targeted gene inactivation in vivo alters Notch-dependent vascular specification and remodeling, suggesting that functional levels of Notch signaling requires CCN1 activity. These data highlight novel functions of CCN1 as a naturally optimized molecule, fine-controlling key processes in physiological angiogenesis and safeguarding against aberrant angiogenic responses. Summary: Mice lacking endothelial CCN1 show severe defects in retinal vessel network formation and barrier integrity, associated with endothelial cell hyperproliferation.
Power, Communicator Styles, and Conflict Management Styles: A Web of Interpersonal Constructs for the School Principal

Contemporary thought regarding school leadership has focused on reconceptualizing the superior/subor­ dinate relationships between the principal and the faculty. The effectiveness of the traditional top-down hierarchical model has been challenged. School re­ structuring and reform efforts have introduced col­ laborative decision making and collaborative school culture concepts. For such concepts to be im­ plemented, it is assumed that school leaders must be effective in cooperative and supportive interpersonal relationships with subordinates. This study examines three constructs of principals' interpersonal relationships : power, communicator styles, and conflict management styles. It is designed to gain understanding of leadership processes between principals and teachers. In this context, leadership by the principal is broadly defined as "influence pro­ cesses affecting the interpretation of events for [teach­ ers] , the choice of objectives for the [school] , the motivation of the [teachers] to achieve the objectives, [and] the maintenance of cooperative relationships and teamwork" (Yuki, 1994 , p. 5) .
Cooperative Game Theoretic Approach for Distributed Resource Allocation in Heterogeneous Network

Small cells are low-powered cellular radio access nodes which make best use of available spectrum by reusing the same frequencies many times within a geographical area. However, the deployment of small cells (e.g., femtocells) may introduce extra interferences such as cross-tier(macrocellfemtocell) and co-tier (femtocell-femtocell) interferences. In this regard, an effective interference management mechanism is required for improving the performance of the network. In this study, a distributed resource allocation is introduced to deal with the interference problem in two-tier network. Specifically, we first apply FFR scheme to mitigate interference for crosstier problem. To reduce co-tier interference, a cooperative game model is proposed where each femtocells are regard as players of the game. Simulation results reveal that the proposed approach significantly improves capacity of the networks.
Enhancing the production effect in memory

The production effect is the finding that subsequent memory is better for words that are produced than for words that are not produced. Whereas the current literature demonstrates that reading aloud is the most effective form of production, the distinctiveness account used to explain the production effect predicts that there is nothing special about reading aloud per se: Other forms of vocal production that include an additional distinct element should produce even greater subsequent memory benefits than reading aloud. To test this, we presented participants with study words that they were instructed to read aloud loudly, read aloud, or read silently (Experiment 1); sing, read aloud, or read silently (Experiment 2); and sing, read aloud loudly, read aloud, or read silently (Experiment 3). We observed that both reading items aloud loudly (Experiments 1 and 3) and singing items (Experiments 2 and 3) at study resulted in greater subsequent recognition than reading items aloud in a normal voice; singing had a larger memory benefit than reading aloud loudly (Experiment 3). Our findings support the distinctiveness hypothesis by demonstrating that there are other forms of production, such as singing and reading aloud loudly that have a more pronounced effect on memory than reading aloud.
PNETMAP : Virtual Network Implementation on a Partially-known Physical Network

This paper presents PNETMAP, an algorithm that maps virtual communication networks of a Cyber Physical System onto a partially-known, physical network of reconfigurable embedded systems. The paper describes in detail the algorithm and offers an extensive set of experimental results on the quality of the produced communication structures for different network topologies. Experiments use a network of reconfigurable PSoC devices, from Cypress Semiconductor Inc. Keywords-cyber physical systems; virtual network; physical network; reconfigurable embedded systems;
Photocontrol of DNA Duplex Formation by Using Azobenzene‐Bearing Oligonucleotides

The duplex‐forming activities of oligonucleotides can be photomodulated by incorporation of an azobenzene unit. Upon isomerizing the trans‐azobenzene to the cis form by irradiation with UV light, the Tm value of the duplex (with the complementary DNA) is lowered so that the duplex is dissociated. The duplex is formed again when the cis‐azobenzene is converted to the trans‐azobenzene by irradiation with visible light. The photoregulation is successful irrespective of the position of the azobenzene unit in the oligonucleotides. The trans‐azobenzene in the oligonucleotides intercalates between two DNA base pairs in the duplexes and stabilizes them because of a favorable enthalpy change. The nonplanar structure of a cis‐azobenzene is unfavorable for such an interaction. These photoresponsive oligonucleotides are promising candidates for the regulation of various bioreactions.
Anaplasma phagocytophilum Infects Mast Cells via α1,3-Fucosylated but Not Sialylated Glycans and Inhibits IgE-Mediated Cytokine Production and Histamine Release

ABSTRACT Mast cells are sentinels for infection. Upon exposure to pathogens, they release their stores of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and histamine. Mast cells are also important for the control of certain tick-borne infections. Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an obligate intracellular tick-transmitted bacterium that infects neutrophils to cause the emerging disease granulocytic anaplasmosis. A. phagocytophilum adhesion to and infection of neutrophils depend on sialylated and α1,3-fucosylated glycans. We investigated the hypotheses that A. phagocytophilum invades mast cells and inhibits mast cell activation. We demonstrate that A. phagocytophilum binds and/or infects murine bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs), murine peritoneal mast cells, and human skin-derived mast cells. A. phagocytophilum infection of BMMCs depends on α1,3-fucosylated, but not sialylated, glycans. A. phagocytophilum binding to and invasion of BMMCs do not elicit proinflammatory cytokine secretion. Moreover, A. phagocytophilum-infected cells are inhibited in the release of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), IL-13, and histamine following stimulation with IgE or antigen. Thus, A. phagocytophilum mitigates mast cell activation. These findings potentially represent a novel means by which A. phagocytophilum usurps host defense mechanisms and shed light on the interplay between mast cells and vector-borne bacterial pathogens.
BonnMotion: a mobility scenario generation and analysis tool

Simulation and emulation are techniques frequently used for performance evaluation of wireless multi-hop networks. If the wireless devices are mobile, the movement patterns of these objects are found to have significant impact on the simulation and emulation results. This is quite obvious as the movements influence the topology of the network. In this paper we describe and present BonnMotion. BonnMotion is an open-source Java software which creates and analyzes mobility scenarios. It has been developed at the University of Bonn, Germany, where it serves as a tool for the investigation of mobile multi-hop network scenario characteristics. The scenarios can also be exported for the network simulators ns-2, GloMoSim/QualNet, COOJA, and MiXiM.
Two Domains of the Erythropoietin Receptor Are Sufficient for Jak2 Binding/Activation and Function

ABSTRACT Biochemical and genetic studies have shown that Jak2 is an essential component of EpoR signal transduction which is required for normal erythropoiesis. However, whether Jak2 is the sole direct mediator of EpoR signal transduction remains controversial. To address this issue, we have used an extensive and systematic mutational analysis across the EpoR cytoplasmic tail and transmembrane domain with the goal of determining whether mutants that negatively affected EpoR biological activity but retained Jak2 activation could be identified. Analysis of over 40 mutant receptors established that two large domains in the membrane-proximal region, which include the previously defined Box1 and Box2 domains as well as a highly conserved glycine among cytokine receptors, are required for Jak2 binding and activation and to sustain biological activity of the receptor. Importantly, none of the mutants that lost the ability to activate Jak2 retained the ability to bind Jak2, thus questioning the validity of models of receptor reorientation for Jak2 activation. Also, no correlation was made between cell surface expression of the receptor and its ability to bind Jak2, thus questioning the role of Jak2 in trafficking the receptor to the plasma membrane. Collectively, the results suggest that Jak2 is the sole direct signaling molecule downstream of EpoR required for biological activity.
Sister-Scanning: a Monte Carlo procedure for assessing signals in recombinant sequences

MOTIVATION To devise a method that, unlike available methods, directly measures variations in phylogenetic signals in gene sequences that result from recombination, tests the significance of the signal variations and distinguishes misleading signals. RESULTS We have developed a method, that we call 'sister-scanning', for assessing phylogenetic and compositional signals in the various patterns of identity that occur between four nucleotide sequences. A Monte Carlo randomization is done for all columns (positions) within a window and Z-scores are obtained for four real sequences or three real sequences with an outlier that is also randomized. The usefulness of the approach is demonstrated using tobamovirus and luteovirus sequences. Contradictory phylogenetic signals were distinguished in both datasets, as were regions of sequence that contained no clear signal or potentially misleading signals related to compositional similarities. In the tobamovirus dataset, contradictory phylogenetic signals were separated by coding sequences up to a kilobase long that contained no clear signal. Our re-analysis of this dataset using sister-scanning also yielded the first evidence known to us of an inter-species recombination site within a viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene together with evidence of an unusual pattern of conservation in the three codon positions.
Robust speaker recognition based on multi-stream features

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the G.723. 1 (6.3kbps) on speaker recognition system. In order to improve the robustness of codec mismatch, we used the Power Normalized Cepstral Coefficients (PNCC) which is a new robustness acoustic feature, to improve the performance of speaker verification system. And a modified SCF speech feature is propose to improve the robustness under codec mismatch. We proposed a new method to improving the performance of I-vector based speaker recognition system by combining PNCC and the modified SCF feature. Three type of fusion method is introduced and compared in this paper. The experiment results of speaker recognition towards G.723. 1 resynthesized coded speech demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. Compared with traditional speaker recognition system, the EER improved 72% by the multi-stream features based speaker recognition system.
The treatment of tissue defects related to the compartment syndrome occurring in the fibula osteocutaneous free flap donor area with vacuum assisted closure therapy

Today, fibula osteocutaneous flap is commonly used for the reconstruction of segmental mandible defect. Early and late donor site complications have been reported in the literature. The most serious early complication of flap donor sites is compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome in the donor area may develop depending on the increase in the intracompartmental pressure as a result of the largeness of skin flap and the primary closure of the donor area. In this letter, we present a case of the compartment syndrome which is developed in osteocutaneous fibula flap donor area containing 4-cm wide skin area, and the treatment of related tissue defect with vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy. A 58-year-old male patient applied to our clinic complaining of wounds in the jaw and mouth existing for 5 months. In physical examination, a 9 3 6 cm expansive mass was identified as fixed to mandible and invaded in the mouth. Bone destruction was observed in radiological examination. Routine laboratory examinations were in normal range. In surgical treatment, segmental mandibulectomy and unilateral neck dissection was performed. Fibula osteocutaneous flap was planned for oral cavity mucosa defect and segmental mandible reconstruction. On the posterior crural intermuscular septum, perforator artery was determined with Doppler ultrasound. Under the pneumatic tourniquet, with standard lateral approach 12 3 4 cm flap