Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experiment and analysis of retrieving land surface parameters using polarization radar images in Genhe area of China

For supporting the applications of GF-3 and GEOSAR satellite projects, which have been approved by Chinese government, a multi surface parameter inversion algorithm using alternative Radarsat-2 polarimetric images is tested and improved in this study. Result shows that, though the algorithm can retrieve vegetation height and water content with relatively good accuracies, soil moisture and surface roughness inversed results are poor when the above two vegetation parameters retrieved values as inputs to inverse two soil parameters. Analyzing the reason, scattering model could amplify the errors caused by the two retrieved vegetation parameters, which are inputted as “true value” in the model. The conclusion of this study is that, surface parameters can not be inversed step by step as the idea of engineering, scientists should focus on certain parameter(s), and take other parameters as disturbance factors to eliminate or suppress.
Outsourcing Network Services via the NBI of the SDN. (Externalisation de services réseau via l'interface nord de SDN)

Over the past decades, Service Providers (SPs) have been crossed through several generations of technologies redefining networks and requiring new business models. The ongoing network transformation brings the opportunity for service innovation while reducing costs and mitigating the locking of suppliers. Digitalization and recent virtualization are changing the service management methods, traditional network services are shifting towards new on-demand network services. These ones allow customers to deploy and manage their services independently and optimally through a well-defined interface opened to the SP? s platform. To offer this freedom to its customers, the SP must be able to rely on a dynamic and programmable network control platform. We argue in this thesis that this platform can be provided by Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology.We first characterize the perimeter of this class of new services. We identify the weakest management constraints that such services should meet and we integrate them in an abstract model structuring their lifecycle. This one involves two loosely coupled views, one specific to the customer and the other one to the SP. This double-sided service lifecycle is finally refined with a data model completing each of its steps.The SDN architecture does not support all stages of the previous lifecycle. We extend it through an original Framework allowing the management of all the steps identified in the lifecycle. This Framework is organized around a service orchestrator and a resource orchestrator communicating via an internal interface. Its implementation requires an encapsulation of the SDN controller. The example of the MPLS VPN serves as a guideline to illustrate our approach. A PoC based on the OpenDaylight controller targeting the main parts of the Framework is proposed. We propose to value our Framework by introducing a new and original control model called BYOC (Bring Your Own Control) which formalizes, according to various modalities, the capability of outsourcing an on-demand service by the delegation of part of its control to an external third party. An outsourced on-demand service is divided into a customer part and an SP one. The latter exposes to the former APIs which allow requesting the execution of the actions involved in the different steps of the lifecycle. We present an XMPP-based Northbound Interface (NBI) allowing opening up a secured BYOC-enabled API. The asynchronous nature of this protocol together with its integrated security functions, eases the outsourcing of control into a multi-tenant SDN framework. We illustrate the feasibility of our approach through a BYOC-based Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) service example.
Pathophysiology of heart failure and frailty: a common inflammatory origin?

Frailty, a clinical syndrome that typically occurs in older adults, implies a reduced ability to tolerate biological stressors. Frailty accompanies many age‐related diseases but can also occur without overt evidence of end‐organ disease. The condition is associated with circulating inflammatory cytokines and sarcopenia, features that are shared with heart failure (HF). However, the biological underpinnings of frailty remain unclear and the interaction with HF is complex. Here, we describe the inflammatory pathophysiology that is associated with frailty and speculate that the inflammation that occurs with frailty shares common origins with HF. We discuss the limitations in investigating the pathophysiology of frailty due to few relevant experimental models. Leveraging current therapies for advanced HF and current known therapies to address frailty in humans may enable translational studies to better understand the inflammatory interactions between frailty and HF.
Spontaneous emergence of catalytic cycles with colloidal spheres

Significance Biological systems inspire a new paradigm for material synthesis, aiming to design materials that emulate living systems, providing both functionality and self-replication. Colloidal particles endowed with specific interactions provide a particularly promising approach for realizing this vision. Here, we consider a set of colloidal spheres with specific, time-dependent interactions and demonstrate that the interactions can be designed so that clusters of particles create other clusters through templating reactions. Surprisingly, simple templating rules generically give rise to the production of a sea of clusters of various sizes. The sea of clusters grows exponentially in a catalytic cycle. This is a specific realization of Dyson’s notion of an exponentially growing metabolism, emerging naturally from a simple scheme. Colloidal particles endowed with specific time-dependent interactions are a promising route for realizing artificial materials that have the properties of living ones. Previous work has demonstrated how this system can give rise to self-replication. Here, we introduce the process of colloidal catalysis, in which clusters of particles catalyze the creation of other clusters through templating reactions. Surprisingly, we find that simple templating rules generically lead to the production of huge numbers of clusters. The templating reactions among this sea of clusters give rise to an exponentially growing catalytic cycle, a specific realization of Dyson’s notion of an exponentially growing metabolism. We demonstrate this behavior with a fixed set of interactions between particles chosen to allow a catalysis of a specific six-particle cluster from a specific seven-particle cluster, yet giving rise to the catalytic production of a sea of clusters of sizes between 2 and 11 particles. The fact that an exponentially growing cycle emerges naturally from such a simple scheme demonstrates that the emergence of exponentially growing metabolisms could be simpler than previously imagined.
The positioning of palliative care in acute care: A multiperspective qualitative study in the context of metastatic melanoma

Abstract Objective: The positioning and meaning of palliative care within the healthcare system lacks clarity which adds a level of complexity to the process of transition to palliative care. This study explores the transition to the palliative care process in the acute care context of metastatic melanoma. Method: A theoretical framework drawing on interpretive and critical traditions informs this research. The pragmatism of symbolic interactionism and the critical theory of Habermas brought a broad orientation to the research. Integration of the theoretical framework and grounded-theory methods facilitated data generation and analysis of 29 interviews with patients, family carers, and healthcare professionals. Results: The key analytical findings depict a scope of palliative care that was uncertain for users of the system and for those working within the system. Becoming “palliative” is not a defined event; nor is there unanimity around referral to a palliative care service. As such, ambiguity and tension contribute to the difficulties involved in negotiating the transition to palliative care. Significance of Results: Our findings point to uncertainty around the scopes of practice in the transition to palliative care. The challenge in the transition process lies in achieving greater coherency of care within an increasingly specialized healthcare system. The findings may not only inform those within a metastatic melanoma context but may contribute more broadly to palliative practices within the acute care setting.
Sensor Fusion for Public Space Utilization Monitoring in a Smart City

Public space utilization is crucial for urban developers to understand how efficient a place is being occupied in order to improve existing or future infrastructures. In a smart cities approach, implementing public space monitoring with Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors appear to be a viable solution. However, choice of sensors often is a challenging problem and often linked with scalability, coverage, energy consumption, accuracy, and privacy. To get the most from low cost sensor with aforementioned design in mind, we proposed data processing modules for capturing public space utilization with renewable wireless sensor network (RWSN) platform using pyroelectric infrared (PIR) and analog sound sensor. We first proposed a calibration process to remove false alarm of PIR sensor due to the impact of weather and environment. We then demonstrate how the sounds sensor can be processed to provide various insight of a public space. Lastly, we fused both sensors and study a particular public space utilization based on one month data to unveil its usage.
Electroconvulsive stimulation results in long‐term survival of newly generated hippocampal neurons in rats

Electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS) is one of the strongest stimulators of hippocampal neurogenesis in rodents that represents a plausible mechanism for the efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in major depressive disorder. Using design‐based stereological cell counting, we recently documented an initial 2.6‐fold increase in neurogenesis following a clinical relevant schedule of ECS, a treatment also rescuing depression‐like behavior in rats. However, these results gave no demonstration of the longevity of newly generated neurons. The present study is a direct continuation of the previous work aiming to test the hypothesis that rats subjected to ECS in combination with chronic restraint stress (CRS) display increased formation of new hippocampal neurons, which have a potential for long‐term survival. Furthermore, using mediation analysis, we tested if an ECS‐induced increase in neurogenesis facilitates the behavioral outcome of the forced swim test (FST), an animal model of depression. The results showed that ECS in conjunction with CRS stimulates hippocampal neurogenesis, and that a significant quantity of the newly formed hippocampal neurons survives up to 12 months. The new BrdU‐positive neurons showed time‐dependent attrition of ∼40% from day 1 to 3 months, with no further decline between 3 and 12 months. ECS did not affect the number of pre‐existing dentate granule neurons or the volume of the dentate granule cell layer, suggesting no damaging effect of the treatment. Finally, we found that, while ECS increases neurogenesis, this formation of new neurons was not associated to ameliorated immobility in the FST. This implies that other ECS‐induced effects than neurogenesis must be part of mediating the antidepressant action of ECS. Taken together, the results of the present study contribute to the basic understanding of the neurogenic effects of ECT, and demonstrate that ECS, neurogenesis and anti‐depressant behavior are not directly linked. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Social Promoter Score (SPS) and Review Network: A Method and a Tool for Predicting Financial Health of an Online Shopping Brand

The conventional way of summarizing ratings or sentiment of reviews of customers on products of an online shopping brand are not sufficient to evaluate the financial health of that brand. It overlooks the social standing and influence of individual customers. In this paper, we have proposed a tool named as Review Network for measuring the influence of customers in online merchandise sites like Amazon.com. Using this measured influence, we have proposed a method that evaluates loyalty of customers of a brand based on their ratings and sentiments of their reviews collected from online merchandise sites. Review network of a brand is built from all the reviews of all the products from that brand where nodes are customers and an edge is created if a customer becomes a potential reader of a review written by another customer. The centrality of a customer in that review network represents her influence. Our proposed method named as Social Promoter Score combines loyalty and centrality of all customers of a brand. We have compared our method with a baseline approach based on the concept of Net Promoter Score . We have applied Social Promoter Score on Amazon.com review data set of some well-known brands. Results show that Social Promoter Score predicts financial health of a brand in terms of future sales much better than baseline method. We have noticed that in general effects of Social Promoter Score reflect on the product sales in one to five months.
5azadC treatment upregulates miR-375 level and represses HPV16 E6 expression

High-risk human papillomaviruses are the etiological agents of cervical cancer and HPV16 is the most oncogenic genotype. Immortalization and transformation of infected cells requires the overexpression of the two viral oncoproteins E6 and E7 following HPV DNA integration into the host cell genome. Integration often leads to the loss of the E2 open reading frame and the corresponding protein can no longer act as a transcriptional repressor on p97 promoter. Recently, it has been proposed that long control region methylation also contributes to the regulation of E6/E7 expression. To determine which epigenetic mechanism is involved in HPV16 early gene regulation, 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine was used to demethylate Ca Ski and SiHa cell DNA. Decreased expression of E6 mRNA and protein levels was observed in both cell lines in an E2-independent manner. E6 repression was accompanied by neither a modification of the main cellular transcription factor expression involved in long control region regulation, nor by a modification of the E6 mRNA splicing pattern. In contrast, a pronounced upregulation of miR-375, known to destabilize HPV16 early viral mRNA, was observed. Finally, the use of miR-375 inhibitor definitively proved the involvement of miR-375 in E6 repression. These results highlight that cellular DNA methylation modulates HPV16 early gene expression and support a role for epigenetic events in high-risk HPV associated-carcinogenesis.
EFFECTOF SHOT PEENING FACTORS ON FRETTING FATIGUE RESISTANCE TITANIUM ALLOY

The effects of the three factors, i.e., compressive residual stress (CRS), surface roughness (SR) and micro-structure hardening in shot peened (SP) surface on fretting fatigue (FF) resistance were evaluated. The mechanisms of SP on FF were investigated. The experimental results show that the compressive residual stress and surface roughness are predominant factors in improving FF resistance of Ti alloy, and CRS plays more important role than SR which decreases decaying of CRS. Compressive residual stress induced by SP arrests the crack into closure and slow growth. When the contact stress plays a dominant role in FF, the crack propagation controls FF process and the effect. of CRS is more remarkable than other factors of SP.
Weakly Relativistic Ion-Acoustic Solitary Waves in Dusty Plasma

The streaming speeds of relativistic electrons (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{e0})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and ions (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{i0})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> together with the negative dust charge <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Z_{d}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of immobile dust particles are observed to play characteristic role in the formation of dust ion-acoustic (DIA) compressive and rarefactive relativistic solitons in this plasma model. The critical value of the electron streaming (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{e0})_{\mathrm{ crit}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the process of generating solitary waves in this relativistic dusty plasma is shown to lie in the vicinity of the point/points, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{e0} \approx v_{i0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Further, the existence of compressive (rarefactive) solitons of much higher amplitudes is reflected in the immediate left (right) of this critical value (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{e0})_{\mathrm{ crit}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> within a short span of interval. Otherwise, the interval of existence of high-amplitude DIA compressive and rarefactive relativistic solitons is found to coincide with the assigned parametric domain of ion’s initial streaming (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{i0})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> within the vicinity of electron’s (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{e0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>’s) critical values. Moreover, the existence of critical range of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{i0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in a much lower domain suggests that the role of the massive ions in the presence of dust particles in the plasma is found predominant. A definite existence interval of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{i0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> can be predicted for the generation of only DIA compressive relativistic solitons corresponding to every negligible value of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{e0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and large <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Z_{d}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in this model of dusty plasma. The high impact from the massive increase of negative charges <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Z_{d}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> causes the extinction of compressive solitons at some upper limit of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$v_{io}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to earmark the interval of existence corresponding to each <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Z_{d}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.
A rabbit sized phantom for validation of quantitative imaging of magnetic nanoparticle distributions

To tailor magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) for peculiar biomedical applications qualitative and quantitative information about the particles and their magnetic characteristics is required. In biological environments effects like immobilization and aggregation may alter the magnetic behavior and biomedical functionality of the particles. In this study we deliberately aggregated MNP to examine their magnetic properties applying temperature dependent magnetorelaxometry (TMRX). We found that the underlying interaction process is independent from the macroscopic concentration and thus a well known quantification method could be employed in this case as well.
Developmental aspects of a life course approach to healthy ageing

We examine the mechanistic basis and wider implications of adopting a developmental perspective on human ageing. Previous models of ageing have concentrated on its genetic basis, or the detrimental effects of accumulated damage, but also have raised issues about whether ageing can be viewed as adaptive itself, or is a consequence of other adaptive processes, for example if maintenance and repair processes in the period up to reproduction are traded off against later decline in function. A life course model places ageing in the context of the attainment of peak capacity for a body system, starting in early development when plasticity permits changes in structure and function induced by a range of environmental stimuli, followed by a period of decline, the rate of which depends on the peak attained as well as the later life conditions. Such path dependency in the rate of ageing may offer new insights into its modification. Focusing on musculoskeletal and cardiovascular function, we discuss this model and the possible underlying mechanisms, including endothelial function, oxidative stress, stem cells and nutritional factors such as vitamin D status. Epigenetic changes induced during developmental plasticity, and immune function may provide a common mechanistic process underlying a life course model of ageing. The life course trajectory differs in high and low resource settings. New insights into the developmental components of the life course model of ageing may lead to the design of biomarkers of later chronic disease risk and to new interventions to promote healthy ageing, with important implications for public health.
Phosphoproteomic analysis of the antitumor effects of ginsenoside Rg3 in human breast cancer cells

The incidence of breast cancer has been increasing in China and the age of breast cancer onset is earlier compared with Western countries. Compounds commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are an important source of anticancer drugs. Ginseng is one of the most common medicines used in TCM. Ginsenosides, which are saponins found in the ginseng plant, are the major active components responsible for the chemopreventive effects of ginseng in cancer. However, the mechanisms by which ginsenosides exert their anticancer effects remain elusive. The current study combined tandem mass tag (TMT)-based quantification with titanium dioxide-based phosphopeptide enrichment to quantitatively analyze the changes in phosphoproteomes in breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells that occur following treatment with the ginsenoside Rg3. A total of 5,140 phosphorylation sites on 2,041 phosphoproteins were quantified and it was demonstrated that the phosphorylation status of 13 sites were altered in MDA-MB-231 cells following treatment with Rg3. The perturbed phosphoproteins were: Cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor subunit 7, elongation factor 2 (EEF2), HIRA-interacting protein 3, melanoma-associated antigen D2, myosin phosphatase Rho-interacting protein, probable E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase MYCBP2, PRKC apoptosis WT1 regulator protein, protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 12A, E3 SUMO-protein ligase RanBP2, Septin-9, thymopoietin, and E3 UFM1-protein ligase 1. Western blotting confirmed that Rg3 increased the phosphorylation of EEF2 on Thr57 but did not alter the protein expression of EEF2 in MDA-MB-231 and HCC1143 cells. These ginsenoside Rg3-regulated proteins are involved in various biological processes, including protein synthesis, cell division and the inhibition of nuclear factor-κB signaling. The results of the present study revealed that Rg3 exerts its anticancer effects via a combination of different signaling pathways.
Effects of Group-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Coaching Program on Depressive Symptoms in a Sample of Inmates in a Nigerian Prison

This study investigated the effects that a group-focused cognitive-behavioral coaching program had on depressive symptoms of a sample of inmates from Nsukka Prisons, Enugu State, Nigeria. The design of the study was pretest–posttest control group . The participants were 30 male inmates, experiencing high levels of depressive symptoms, and randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The primary outcome measure was depression symptoms as measured using Beck’s Depression Inventory. Repeated-measures ANOVA and the Mann–Whitney U Test were used for data analysis. Results show that exposing inmates to the group-focused cognitive-behavioral coaching program significantly reduced the depressive symptoms of inmates in the treatment group compared with those in the control group. Our results support the use of cognitive-behavioral coaching interventions designed to assist the severely depressed inmates in Nigeria. Further studies should be conducted both in other states of Nigeria and in other countries.