Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postpartum Reversal of the Pregnancy-Induced Uterine Artery Remodeling in Young, Aging, and eNOS-Deficient Mice

Objectives. The progressive rise in uterine blood flow (UBF) during pregnancy is accompanied by outward hypertrophic remodeling of the uterine artery (UA). After birth, UBF falls in concert with the sudden decline in uterine metabolic demands. Arterial remodeling associated with the reversal of increased blood flow has been described in large arteries. It is unclear whether this situation applies to small-sized resistance arteries such as the UA. We investigated the pattern of UA remodeling postpartum in relation to age and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) deficiency. Methods. Uterine artery of 2 and 10 days postpartum young (age 12 weeks), aged (age 40 weeks), and eNOS-deficient (eNOS —/—, age 12 weeks) mice were dissected and processed for either morphometric analysis (lumen, wall mass) or immunohistochemistry (cellular differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis). We used data of previously studied control (nonpregnant) and late-pregnant (17 days gestation) mice as reference. Results. By 2 days postpartum, morphometric and cellular characteristics of the UA did not differ from those of late-pregnant UA. By 10 days postpartum, the UA was wider with wall mass being decreased by ~30%. Cytological parameters indicated a stable smooth muscle media. Apoptosis was only present in UA of 2 and 10 days pregnant mice. In eNOS— /— and aged mice, changes were smaller or absent, respectively. Conclusions. The outward hypertrophic response of the UA induced by pregnancy regresses gradually postpartum. We speculate that persisting UA widening facilitates UA remodeling in a next pregnancy thereby favoring placentation and with it, allowing for a higher birth weight as usually observed in a second mammalian pregnancy.
Inductive verification of cryptographic protocols

The dissertation aims at tailoring Paulson’s Inductive Approach for the analysis of classical cryptographic protocols towards real-world protocols. The aim is pursued by extending the approach with new elements (e.g. timestamps and smart cards), new network events (e.g. message reception) and more expressive functions (e.g. agents’ knowledge). Hence, the aim is achieved by analysing large protocols (Kerberos IV and Shoup-Rubin), and by studying how to specify and verify their goals. More precisely, the modelling of timestamps and of a discrete time are first developed on BAN Kerberos, while comparing the outcomes with those of the BAN logic. The machinery is then applied to Kerberos IV, whose complicated use of session keys requires a dedicated treatment. Three new guarantees limiting the spy’s abilities in case of compromise of a specific session key are established. Also, it is discovered that Kerberos IV is subject to an attack due to the weak guarantees of confidentiality for the protocol responder. We develop general strategies to investigate the goals of authenticity, key distribution and non-injective agreement, which is a strong form of authentication. These strategies require formalising the agents’ knowledge of messages. Two approaches are implemented. If an agent creates a message, then he knows all components of the message, including the cryptographic key that encrypts it. Alternatively, a broad definition of agents’ knowledge can be developed if a new network event, message reception, is formalised. The concept of smart card as a secure device that can store long-term secrets and perform easy computations is introduced. The model cards can be stolen and/or cloned by the spy. The kernel of their built-in algorithm works correctly, so they spy cannot acquire unlimited knowledge from their use. However, their functional interface is unreliable, so they send correct outputs in an unspecified order. The provably secure protocol based on smart cards designed by Shoup & Rubin is mechanised. Some design weaknesses (unknown to the authors’ treatment by Bellare & Rogaway’s approach) are unveiled, while feasible corrections are suggested and verified. We realise that the evidence that a protocol achieves its goals must be available to the peers. In consequence, we develop a new a principle of prudent protocol design, goal availability, which holds of a protocol when suitable guarantees confirming its goals exist on assumptions that both peers can verify. Failure to observe our principle raises the risk of attacks, as is the case, for example, of the attack on Kerberos IV.
Evolution of the plankton paleome in the Black Sea from the Deglacial to Anthropocene

The complex interplay of climate shifts over Eurasia and global sea level changes modulates freshwater and saltwater inputs to the Black Sea. The dynamics of the hydrologic changes from the Late Glacial into the Holocene remain a matter of debate, and information on how these changes affected the ecology of the Black Sea is sparse. Here we used Roche 454 next-generation pyrosequencing of sedimentary 18S rRNA genes to reconstruct the plankton community structure in the Black Sea over the last ca. 11,400 y. We found that 150 of 2,710 species showed a statistically significant response to four environmental stages. Freshwater chlorophytes were the best indicator species for lacustrine conditions (>9.0 ka B.P.), although the copresence of previously unidentified marine taxa indicated that the Black Sea might have been influenced to some extent by the Marmara Sea since at least 9.6 ka calendar (cal) B.P. Dinoflagellates, cercozoa, eustigmatophytes, and haptophytes responded most dramatically to the gradual increase in salinity after the latest marine reconnection and during the warm and moist mid-Holocene climatic optimum. According to paired analysis of deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) isotope ratios in fossil alkenones, salinity increased rapidly with the onset of the dry Subboreal after ∼5.2 ka B.P., leading to an increase in marine fungi and the first occurrence of marine copepods. A gradual succession of dinoflagellates, diatoms, and chrysophytes occurred during the refreshening after ∼2.5 ka cal B.P. with the onset of the cool and wet Subatlantic climate and recent anthropogenic perturbations.
Recovery from Swimming‐Induced Hypothermia in King Penguins: Effects of Nutritional Condition

We investigated changes in the rate of oxygen consumption (V̇o2) and body temperature of wild king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) in different nutritional conditions during recovery after exposure to cold water. Over time, birds undertook an identical experiment three times, each characterized by different nutritional conditions: (1) having recently completed a foraging trip, (2) after fasting for many days, and (3) having been refed one meal after the fast. The experiments consisted of a 2‐h session in a water channel followed by a period of recovery in a respirometer chamber on land. Refed birds recovered significantly more quickly than fed birds, in terms of both time to reach resting V̇o2 on land and time to reach recovery of lower abdominal temperature. Previous work found that when penguins are in cold water, abdominal temperatures decrease less in refed birds than in fed or fasted birds, suggesting that refed birds may be vasoconstricting the periphery while perfusing the gut region to access nutrients. This, alongside an increased resting V̇o2, seems the most reasonable explanation for why refed birds recovered more quickly subsequent to cold‐water exposure in this study; that is, vasoconstriction of the insulative periphery meant that they lost less heat generated by the body core.
Combining Multiple Feature Extraction Techniques for Handwritten Devnagari Character Recognition

In this paper, we present an OCR for handwritten Devnagari characters. Basic symbols are recognized by neural classifier. We have used four feature extraction techniques namely, intersection, shadow feature, chain code histogram and straight line fitting features. Shadow features are computed globally for character image while intersection features, chain code histogram features and line fitting features are computed by dividing the character image into different segments. Weighted majority voting technique is used for combining the classification decision obtained from four multi layer perceptron(MLP) based classifier. On experimentation with a dataset of 4900 samples the overall recognition rate observed is 92.80% as we considered top five choices results. This method is compared with other recent methods for handwritten Devnagari character recognition and it has been observed that this approach has better success rate than other methods.
Clonal Distribution of Common Pneumococcal Serotypes Not Included in the 7-Valent Conjugate Vaccine (PCV7): Marked Differences between Two Ethnic Populations in Southern Israel

ABSTRACT This study aimed to compare the clonal distribution of common pneumococcal strains not included in the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) that were isolated from cases of acute otitis media (AOM) and invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in two distinct ethnic populations in southern Israel during the decade (1999 to 2008) preceding PCV7 implementation. Isolates recovered from Jewish and Bedouin children <5 years old were characterized by antibiotic resistance and molecular epidemiology using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing. Of 5,236 AOM and 425 IPD isolates, 43% and 57% were from Jewish and Bedouin children, respectively. PCV7 accounted for 54% and 45% of the AOM and IPD episodes, respectively. Eleven major non-PCV7 serotypes (1, 3, 5, 6A, 7F, 12F, 15B/C, 19A, 21, 33F, and 35B) constituted 31% and 42% of the AOM and IPD episodes, respectively. The clonal distributions of the 11 non-PCV7 serotypes and their antibiotic susceptibilities were significantly different among the two ethnic populations in both the AOM and IPD groups. About half of the AOM and IPD cases resulted from non-PCV7 pneumococci, even before PCV7 implementation. The significant differences between the two ethnic populations suggest that lifestyle and microenvironment are major determinants in the clonal distribution of disease-causing pneumococci. Post-PCV7 surveillance is important in understanding non-PCV7 clonal expansion in the two distinct populations.
Automatic Metaphor Interpretation as a Paraphrasing Task

We present a novel approach to metaphor interpretation and a system that produces literal paraphrases for metaphorical expressions. Such a representation is directly transferable to other applications that can benefit from a metaphor processing component. Our method is distinguished from the previous work in that it does not rely on any hand-crafted knowledge about metaphor, but in contrast employs automatically induced selectional preferences. Being the first of its kind, our system is capable of paraphrasing metaphorical expressions with a high accuracy (0.81).
Iterative methods for solving linear matrix equation and linear matrix system

In this paper, an efficient iterative method is presented to solve the linear matrix equation (X) = E with real matrix X. By this iterative method, the solvability of the linear matrix equation can be determined automatically. When the matrix equation is consistent, then, for any initial matrix X 0, a solution can be obtained within finite iteration steps in the absence of roundoff errors, and the least norm solution can be obtained by choosing a special kind of initial matrix. We also propose an iterative algorithm to obtain the solution or the least norm solution of the consistent matrix system. The given numerical examples demonstrate the efficiency of these two algorithms.
The relationship between structure and function in locally observed complex networks

Recently, studies looking at the small scale interactions taking place in complex networks have started to unveil the wealth of interactions that occur between groups of nodes. Such findings make the claim for a new systematic methodology to quantify, at node level, how dynamics are influenced (or differentiated) by the structure of the underlying system. Here we define a new measure that, based on the dynamical characteristics obtained for a large set of initial conditions, compares the dynamical behavior of the nodes present in the system. Through this measure, we find that the geographic and Barabási–Albert models have a high capacity for generating networks that exhibit groups of nodes with distinct dynamics compared to the rest of the network. The application of our methodology is illustrated with respect to two real systems. In the first we use the neuronal network of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to show that the interneurons of the ventral cord of the nematode present a very large dynamical differentiation when compared to the rest of the network. The second application concerns the SIS epidemic model on an airport network, where we quantify how different the distribution of infection times of high and low degree nodes can be, when compared to the expected value for the network.
Conformational Changes in Sindbis Virus Induced by Decreased pH Are Revealed by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

ABSTRACT Alphaviruses, such as Sindbis virus, undergo dramatic changes in three-dimensional structure upon exposure to low pH, and such exposure can establish conditions allowing fusion of the virus membrane with a cell plasma membrane upon return to neutral pH. While exposure to low pH is not required for entry of Sindbis virus into vertebrate or invertebrate cells, the conformational changes occurring at low pH may mimic those occurring upon virus-receptor interaction. Here, we employed small-angle neutron scattering with contrast variation to probe how the structure of a mammalian-grown Sindbis virus responds to moderately acidic pH. Several changes took place throughout the virion structure when the pH decreased from 7.2 to 6.4. Specifically, the RNA in the virion core underwent a conformational change. Additionally, the protein was redistributed. A significant amount of protein moved from the layer containing the lipid bilayer to the exterior of the virion. The results improve our understanding of the pH-driven alteration of Sindbis virus structure.
Meta‐analysis of microRNA expression in lung cancer

The prognostic and diagnostic value of microRNA (miRNA) expression aberrations in lung cancer has been studied intensely in recent years. However, due to the application of different technological platforms and small sample size, the miRNA expression profiling efforts have led to inconsistent results between the studies. We performed a comprehensive meta‐analysis of 20 published miRNA expression studies in lung cancer, including a total of 598 tumor and 528 non‐cancerous control samples. Using a recently published robust rank aggregation method, we identified a statistically significant miRNA meta‐signature of seven upregulated (miR‐21, miR‐210, miR‐182, miR‐31, miR‐200b, miR‐205 and miR‐183) and eight downregulated (miR‐126‐3p, miR‐30a, miR‐30d, miR‐486‐5p, miR‐451a, miR‐126‐5p, miR‐143 and miR‐145) miRNAs. We conducted a gene set enrichment analysis to identify pathways that are most strongly affected by altered expression of these miRNAs. We found that meta‐signature miRNAs cooperatively target functionally related and biologically relevant genes in signaling and developmental pathways. We have shown that such meta‐analysis approach is suitable and effective solution for identification of statistically significant miRNA meta‐signature by combining several miRNA expression studies. This method allows the analysis of data produced by different technological platforms that cannot be otherwise directly compared or in the case when raw data are unavailable.
Architectural Support for Eecient Multicasting in Irregular Networks Architectural Support for Eecient Multicasting in Irregular Networks

Parallel computing on networks of workstations is fast becoming a cost-eeective high-performance computing alternative to MPPs. Such a computing environment typically consists of processing nodes interconnected through a switch-based irregular network. Many of the problems that were solved for regular networks have to be solved anew for these systems. One such problem is that of eecient multi-cast communication. In this paper, we propose two broad categories of schemes for eecient multicasting in such irregular networks: network interface-based (NI-based) and switch-based. The NI-based multi-casting schemes use the network interface of intermediate destinations for absorbing and retransmitting messages to other destinations in the multicast tree. In contrast, the switch-based multicasting schemes use hardware support for packet replication at the switches of the network and a concept known as multidestination routing to convey a multicast message from one source to multiple destinations. We rst present alternative schemes for eecient multi-packet forwarding at the NI, and derive an optimal k-binomial multicast tree for multi-packet NI-based multicast. We then propose a spectrum of switch-based multicasting schemes that diier in the power of the encoding scheme, and the complexity of the decoding logic at the switches. These multicasting schemes range from using multidestination worms that can only cover the nodes of a single switch, to path-based multidestination worms that can cover all nodes connected to switches along a valid unicast path, to tree-based multidestination worms that can cover entire destination sets in a single phase using one worm. For each scheme, we describe the associated header encoding and decoding operation, the method for deriving multidestination worms that cover arbitrary multicast destination sets, and the multicasting scheme using the derived multides-tination worms. We then compare the NI-based multicasting scheme to the switch-based multicasting schemes with path-based and tree-based multidestination worms using simulation to determine the system parameters that aaect each of the schemes, and the range of system parameters for which each scheme performs best. Our results show that the switch-based multicasting scheme using a single tree-based multidestination worm performs the best among the three schemes. However, the NI-based multicasting scheme is capable of delivering high performance compared to the switch-based multicast using path-based worms especially when the software overhead at the network interface is less than half of the overhead at the host. We therefore conclude that support for multicast at the NI is an important rst step to improving multicast performance. However, there is still …
Effective design technique for improvement of electrostatics behaviour of dopingless TFET: proposal, investigation and optimisation

Rapid tunnelling junction formation is a much crucial issue with conventional sub-nanometre tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) to obtain improved electrostatics characteristics. This task becomes more problematic and complicated for dopingless TFET as a result of wide tunnelling barrier at channel/source junction. In this regard, a new approach has been employed by implanting the metal angle (MA) inside the dielectric layer near channel/source joint to obtain enhanced electrical behaviour of the proposed structure. Employment of MA of small work-function increases electron density at channel/source interface to have improved electron tunnelling rate. Work-function optimisation of MA on RF/DC parameters is analysed in device optimisation part of this work. Simultaneously length optimisation of MA is also presented in the device optimisation section to ease the complex fabrication steps. In addition to these, circuit level performance of proposed and conventional structures is also analysed in this study.
Drug-induced renal disorders

Drug-induced nephrotoxicity are more common among infants and young children and in certain clinical situations such as underlying renal dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. Drugs can cause acute renal injury, intrarenal obstruction, interstitial nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and acid-base and fluid electrolytes disorders. Certain drugs can cause alteration in intraglomerular hemodynamics, inflammatory changes in renal tubular cells, leading to acute kidney injury (AKI), tubulointerstitial disease and renal scarring. Drug-induced nephrotoxicity tends to occur more frequently in patients with intravascular volume depletion, diabetes, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and sepsis. Therefore, early detection of drugs adverse effects is important to prevent progression to end-stage renal disease. Preventive measures requires knowledge of mechanisms of drug-induced nephrotoxicity, understanding patients and drug-related risk factors coupled with therapeutic intervention by correcting risk factors, assessing baseline renal function before initiation of therapy, adjusting the drug dosage and avoiding use of nephrotoxic drug combinations
Cellular uptake and toxicity effects of silver nanoparticles in mammalian kidney cells

The rapid progress and early commercial acceptance of silver‐based nanomaterials is owed to their biocidal activity. Besides embracing the antimicrobial potential of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), it is imperative to give special attention to the potential adverse health effects of nanoparticles owing to prolonged exposure. Here, we report a detailed study on the in vitro interactions of citrate‐coated AgNPs with porcine kidney (Pk15) cells. As uncertainty remains whether biological/cellular responses to AgNPs are solely as a result of the release of silver ions or whether the AgNPs themselves have toxic effects, we investigated the effects of Ag+ on Pk15 cells for comparison. Next, we investigated the cellular uptake of both AgNPs and Ag+ in Pk15 cells at various concentrations applied. The detected Ag contents in cells exposed to 50 mg l−1 AgNPs and 50 mg l−1 Ag+ were 209 and 25 µg of Ag per 106 cells, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicated that the Pk15 cells internalized AgNPs by endocytosis. Both forms of silver, nano and ionic, decreased the number of viable Pk15 cells after 24 h in a dose‐dependent manner. In spite of a significant uptake into the cells, AgNPs had only insignificant toxicity at concentrations lower than 25 mg l−1, whereas Ag+ exhibited a significant decrease in cell viability at one‐fifth of this concentration. The Comet assay suggested that a rather high concentration of AgNP (above 25 mg l−1) is able to induce genotoxicity in Pk15 cells. Further studies must seek deeper understanding of AgNP behavior in biological media and their interactions with cellular membranes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Enhanced Algorithm for MIESM

The link adaptation technique based on MIESM (Mutual Information based exponential SNR Mapping) has been extensively used in the literature for 802.16 based systems. The previous work on MIESM uses equal modulation order for all the subcarriers in an OFDM block. We have proposed the concept of unequal modulation for the subcarriers in the single OFDM block, and derived a mathematical model based on bivariate Gaussian distribution, based on this a mathematical equation has been derived for joint PDF and the average probability of performance equation has been obtained. The difficulty in generating a probability of error for bivariate Gaussian is the motivation for this paper. Results show that for bivariate case the performance is related to the correlation parameter.