Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular remission after allogeneic or autologous transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells for multiple myeloma.

PURPOSE To assess the clinical relevance of minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with multiple myeloma (MM), 50 patients were monitored while they were in complete clinical remission (CCR) after autologous or allogeneic stem-cell transplantation. PATIENTS AND METHODS Stringent molecular monitoring using clonal markers based on rearranged immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes was performed in 44 of 50 MM patients in CCR. Molecular clinical remission (MCR) was defined as more than one consecutive negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result. RESULTS Twelve (27%) of 44 molecularly monitored patients achieved MCR; four of the 12 became PCR-positive, and one of these four relapsed. In comparison with patients who did not achieve MCR, patients who achieved MCR had a significantly lower relapse rate (41% v 16%; P <.05) and longer relapse-free survival (35 v 110 months; P <.005). Fourteen of 26 patients in CCR who had received allografts were evaluated on a molecular basis: seven (50%) of the 14 achieved MCR and did not relapse; one of the seven remaining patients relapsed. Thirty of 47 patients in CCR who received autografts were evaluated on a molecular basis: five (16%) of the 30 achieved MCR; two of these five became PCR-negative, and one of these two relapsed. Ten of the 25 remaining patients later relapsed. For these nonrandomized groups, the higher MCR rate after allograft procedures was statistically significant (P <.01; Fisher's exact test). CONCLUSION MCR can be obtained in a relatively high proportion of MM patients who have achieved CCR after undergoing allograft procedures and in a smaller fraction of patients after undergoing autograft procedures. In approximately one fourth of MM patients who achieve CCR after transplantation, it may be possible to keep the disease burden constantly below the PCR threshold. Because MCR was associated with prolonged relapse-free survival, these patients could have a relatively favorable clinical outcome.
Optical time-domain eavesdropping risks of CRT displays

A new eavesdropping technique can be used to read cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays at a distance. The intensity of the light emitted by a raster-scan screen as a function of time corresponds to the video signal convolved with the impulse response of the phosphors. Experiments with a typical personal computer color monitor show that enough high-frequency content remains in the emitted light to permit the reconstruction of readable text by deconvolving the signal received with a fast photosensor These optical compromising emanations can be received even after diffuse reflection from a wall. Shot noise from background light is the critical performance factor In a sufficiently dark environment and with a large enough sensor aperture, practically significant reception distances are possible. This information security risk should be considered in applications with high confidentiality requirements, especially in those that already require "TEMPEST"-shielded equipment designed to minimize radio-frequency emission-security concerns.
Native x86 Decompilation Using Semantics-Preserving Structural Analysis and Iterative Control-Flow Structuring

There are many security tools and techniques for analyzing software, but many of them require access to source code. We propose leveraging decompilation, the study of recovering abstractions from compiled code, to apply existing source-based tools and techniques to compiled programs. A decompiler should focus on two properties to be used for security. First, it should recover abstractions as much as possible to minimize the complexity that must be handled by the security analysis that follows. Second, it should aim to recover these abstractions correctly. Previous work in control-flow structuring, an abstraction recovery problem used in decompilers, does not provide either of these properties. Specifically, existing structuring algorithms are not semantics-preserving, which means that they cannot safely be used for decompilation without modification. Existing structural algorithms also miss opportunities for recovering control flow structure. We propose a new structuring algorithm in this paper that addresses these problems. We evaluate our decompiler, Phoenix, and our new structuring algorithm, on a set of 107 real world programs from GNU coreutils. Our evaluation is an order of magnitude larger than previous systematic studies of endto-end decompilers. We show that our decompiler outperforms the de facto industry standard decompiler Hex-Rays in correctness by 114%, and recovers 30× more control-flow structure than existing structuring algorithms in the literature.
Unsupervised gait detection using biomechanical restrictions

Quantification of human gait with sensors has enormous potential in health and rehabilitation applications. Objective measurement of gait features in the home and community can reveal the true nature of impact of disease on activities of daily living or response to interventions. Previously reported gait event detection methods have achieved good success, yet can produce errors in some irregular gait patterns. In this paper, we propose a novel unsupervised detection of gait events and gait duration by combining two exclusive processes: (i) exploration of gait event candidates based on iterative running of existing methods with changing parameters and, (ii) selection of the candidate which satisfies gait-specific biomechanical restrictions (e.g., when one leg is in swing, another leg is likely to be in stance). We evaluated this approach using data from a single-axis gyroscope on the left and right ankles in three experimental conditions. The proposed method decreased the timing error for detection of gait events (toe off and heel strike) in irregular gait patterns compared with the conventional method. It also improved the accuracy of measurement of gait duration in a longitudinal free-living dataset and distinguishing gait from non-gait actions.
Sarcomeric Ca2+ gradients during activation of frog skeletal muscle fibres imaged with confocal and two‐photon microscopy

1 Intra‐sarcomeric gradients of [Ca2+] during activation of action potential stimulated frog single fibres were investigated with the Ca2+ indicator fluo‐3 and confocal and two‐photon microscopy. The object of these experiments was to look for evidence of extra‐junctional Ca2+ release and examine the microscopic diffusion of Ca2+ within the sarcomere. 2 By exploiting the spatial periodicity of sarcomeres within the fibre, we could achieve a high effective line‐scanning rate (≈8000 lines s−1), although the laser scanning microscope was limited to < 1000 lines s−1. At this high time resolution, the time course of fluorescence changes was very different at the z‐ and m‐lines, with a significant delay (≈1 ms; 22 °C) between the rise of fluorescence at the z‐line and the m‐line. 3 To calculate the expected fluorescence changes, we used a multi‐compartment model of Ca2+ movements in the half‐sarcomere in which Ca2+ release was restricted to triadic junctions (located at z‐lines). Optical blurring by the microscope was simulated to generate fluorescence signals which could be compared directly to experimental data. The model which reproduced our experimental findings most accurately included Ca2+ binding by ATP, as well as indicator binding to immobile sarcomeric proteins. After taking sarcomeric misregistration within the fibre into account, there was very good agreement between the model and experimental results. 4 We conclude that there is no experimental evidence for Ca2+ release at locations other than at z‐lines. In addition, our calculations support the conclusion that rapidly diffusing Ca2+ buffers (such as ATP) are important in shaping the Ca2+ transient and that the details of intracellular indicator binding need to be considered to explain correctly the time course of fluorescence change in the fibre.
Gas chromatographic determination of phosphorus-containing pesticide metabolites via benzylation.

Monoand di-protic alkyl and aryl phosphates, phosphonates, and thio analogues were determined in spiked samples of bacterial growth medium and human urine using a new procedure wlth a detection llmit of less than 2 pmol each. The acids were fully protonated by passing the aqueous samples through BioRad AG 50W-X8 (H') resin and dried thoroughly before refluxing with 3-benzyl-1-p-tolyltriazene in acetone. The benzyl esters that formed partitioned quantitatively into cyclohexane and were determined by gas-liquid chromatography with a flame-photometric detector (phosphorus mode) and a glass column (5% OV-210 on 80/100 mesh Gas Chrom 0) . Linear recovery curves were obtained. Inorganic orthophosphate did not interfere with urine analysis, although it could be easily removed by Ca(OH), precipitation.
TOP-PIM: throughput-oriented programmable processing in memory

As computation becomes increasingly limited by data movement and energy consumption, exploiting locality throughout the memory hierarchy becomes critical to continued performance scaling. Moving computation closer to memory presents an opportunity to reduce both energy and data movement overheads. We explore the use of 3D die stacking to move memory-intensive computations closer to memory. This approach to processing in memory addresses some drawbacks of prior research on in-memory computing and is commercially viable in the foreseeable future. Because 3D stacking provides increased bandwidth, we study throughput-oriented computing using programmable GPU compute units across a broad range of benchmarks, including graph and HPC applications. We also introduce a methodology for rapid design space exploration by analytically predicting performance and energy of in-memory processors based on metrics obtained from execution on today's GPU hardware. Our results show that, on average, viable PIM configurations show moderate performance losses (27%) in return for significant energy efficiency improvements (76\% reduction in EDP) relative to a representative mainstream GPU at 22nm technology. At 16nm technology, on average, viable PIM configurations are performance competitive with a representative mainstream GPU (7% speedup) and provide even greater energy efficiency improvements (85\% reduction in EDP).
Expression of Recombination Activating Genes in Germinal Center B Cells: Involvement of Interleukin 7 (IL-7) and the IL-7 Receptor

Mouse germinal center (GC) B cells have been shown to undergo secondary V(D)J (V, variable; D, diversity; J, joining) recombination (receptor editing) mediated by the reexpressed products of recombination activating gene (RAG)-1 and RAG-2. We show here that interleukin (IL)-7 as well as IL-4 was effective in inducing functional RAG products in mouse IgD+ B cells activated via CD40 in vitro. Blocking of the IL-7 receptor (IL-7R) by injecting an anti– IL-7R monoclonal antibody resulted in a marked suppression of the reexpression of RAG-2 and subsequent V(D)J recombination in the draining lymph node of immunized mice, whereas RAG-2 expression was not impaired in immunized IL-4–deficient mice. Further, these peripheral B cells activated in vitro or in vivo were found to express IL-7R. These findings indicate a novel role for IL-7 and IL-7R in inducing receptor editing in GC B cells.
Factors Influencing Employees' Deep Usage of Information Systems

The adoption process within organizational settings, which is different from traditional individual adoption, involves both the primary adoption by managers and the secondary adoption by employees. Understanding what determinants influence employees to deeply use information systems (IS) would help managers improve the process of facilitating system implementation. This study explores the determinants that can affect employees to deeply use information systems, in particular when there is an organizational mandate to adopt an IS. A new framework is developed that combines insights from the individual innovation postacceptance model as well as from organizational adoption and assimilation frameworks. The research methodology used to test the hypotheses is discussed, and contributions of this study are presented.
Hierarchical shaped deficit round-robin scheduling

We describe a hierarchical traffic shaper-scheduler, hierarchical SDRR (HSDRR), for flows of variable-length packets that is low-complexity (scales with the number of queues). That is, HSDRR can be used channelize the output link of a router to satisfy service-level agreements (token bucket constraints) struck at network-to-network boundaries. HSDRR is a hybrid round-robin/time-stamp scheduler (S. Ramabhadran and J. Pasquale, 2003) that employs shaped deficit round-robin (SDRR) (S. Jiwasurat and G. Kesidis, 2004) scheduling in the first stage and shaped virtual clock (SVC) (D. Stiliadis and A. Varma, 1997) in the second and final stage.
An asynchronous on-chip network router with quality-of-service (QoS) support

This paper presents an asynchronous on-chip network router with quality-of-service (QoS) support. The router uses a virtual channel architecture with a priority-based scheduler to differentiate between multiple connections with various QoS requirements sharing the same physical channel. A gate-level prototype of the router has been built and its functionality and performance evaluated. The simulations show that the router is capable of offering a high-level of QoS within the capacity limitations of the network.
Systematic investigations of calcium phosphates produced by wet chemistry method and supercritical processing techniques

Calcium phosphate (CaP) based material, especially hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles have a wide range of applications in a number of fields, such as drug delivery, gene therapy, bone cements, dental applications, chromatography and waste water remediation. Depending on the application, there is often a need for the nanoparticles to be in a particular size range. One of the potential applications of HAp is for drug delivery; as a transfection vector in specific. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of various produced CaP nanoparticles for this matter. The HAp and CaP nanoparticles in this study were systematically investigated and produced by several methods, firstly by the wet chemistry method of sol-gel, where the process conditions of varying its stirring rates and temperatures were taken into consideration; secondly by the supercritical fluid techniques of Gas Anti-Solvent (GAS) and Solution Enhanced Dispersion of Supercritical Fluids (SEDS), where the process conditions of varying the processing temperature, pressure and supply of antisolvent flowrate were investigated. Lastly, several phases of CaPs were produced by a systematic investigation of CaP precipitation processes (via direct precipitation method and SEDS processing technique) by varying the Ca/P ratios. The processing conditions such as the stirring rate, temperature, pressure and antisolvent flowrate played a significant role on the nanoparticle size and morphology.
Fungal endosymbionts of plants reduce lifespan of an aphid secondary parasitoid and influence host selection

Complex biotic interactions shape ecological communities of plants, herbivores and their natural enemies. In studies of multi-trophic interactions, the presence of small, invisible micro-organisms associated with plants and those of a fourth above-ground trophic level have often been neglected. Incorporating these neglected factors improves our understanding of the processes within a multi-trophic network. Here, we ask whether the presence of a fungal endosymbiont, which alters plant quality by producing herbivore-toxic substances, trickles up the food chain and affects the performance and host-selection behaviour of aphid secondary parasitoids. We simultaneously offered hosts from endophyte-free and endophyte-infected environments to secondary parasitoids. Older and more experienced parasitoid females discriminated against hosts from the endophyte-infected environment. Developing in lower quality hosts from the endophyte-infected environment reduced the lifespan of secondary parasitoids. This indicates that aphid secondary parasitoids can perceive the disadvantage for their developing offspring in parasitoids from the endophyte environment and can learn to discriminate against them. In the field, this discrimination ability may shift the success of primary parasitoids to endophyte-infected plants, which co-occur with endophyte-free plants. Ultimately, the control of aphids depends on complex interactions between primary and secondary parasitoids and their relative sensitivity to endophytic fungi.
The ATM Signaling Cascade Promotes Recombination-Dependent Pachytene Arrest in Mouse Spermatocytes

Most mutations that compromise meiotic recombination or synapsis in mouse spermatocytes result in arrest and apoptosis at the pachytene stage of the first meiotic prophase. Two main mechanisms are thought to trigger arrest: one independent of the double-strand breaks (DSBs) that initiate meiotic recombination, and another activated by persistent recombination intermediates. Mechanisms underlying the recombination-dependent arrest response are not well understood, so we sought to identify factors involved by examining mutants deficient for TRIP13, a conserved AAA+ ATPase required for the completion of meiotic DSB repair. We find that spermatocytes with a hypomorphic Trip13 mutation (Trip13mod/mod) arrest with features characteristic of early pachynema in wild type, namely, fully synapsed chromosomes without incorporation of the histone variant H1t into chromatin. These cells then undergo apoptosis, possibly in response to the arrest or in response to a defect in sex body formation. However, TRIP13-deficient cells that additionally lack the DSB-responsive kinase ATM progress further, reaching an H1t-positive stage (i.e., similar to mid/late pachynema in wild type) despite the presence of unrepaired DSBs. TRIP13-deficient spermatocytes also progress to an H1t-positive stage if ATM activity is attenuated by hypomorphic mutations in Mre11 or Nbs1 or by elimination of the ATM-effector kinase CHK2. These mutant backgrounds nonetheless experience an apoptotic block to further spermatogenic progression, most likely caused by failure to form a sex body. DSB numbers are elevated in Mre11 and Nbs1 hypomorphs but not Chk2 mutants, thus delineating genetic requirements for the ATM-dependent negative feedback loop that regulates DSB numbers. The findings demonstrate for the first time that ATM-dependent signaling enforces the normal pachytene response to persistent recombination intermediates. Our work supports the conclusion that recombination defects trigger spermatocyte arrest via pathways than are genetically distinct from sex body failure-promoted apoptosis and confirm that the latter can function even when recombination-dependent arrest is inoperative. Implications of these findings for understanding the complex relationships between spermatocyte arrest and apoptosis are discussed.
HPDL Laser Alloying of Al-Si-Cu Alloy with ZrO2 Powder

The purpose of this paper was the investigation of laser treatment influence on the microstructure and properties of the surface layer of heat treated Al-Si-Cu cast aluminium alloys, using the high power diode laser (HPDL). The performed laser treatment involves remelting and feeding of ZrO2 ceramic powder into the aluminium surface. Based on the performed investigations it was possible to obtain the layer consisting of the heat affected zone, transition zone and remelted zone, without cracks and defects as well as has with a slightly higher hardness value compared to the non remelted material. The laser power range was chose as 1.5 to 2.0 kW and implicated by one process speed rate of 0.25 m/min. Also a powder size was used for alloying with the particle size of ca. 100 μm. The hardness value increases according to the laser power used so that the highest power applied gives to highest hardness value in the remelted layer [1-8]. The carried out investigations allow to conclude, that as a result of alloying of the heat-treated cast aluminium alloys with oxide ceramic powder the surface layer can be enriched with the powder particle and in some cases a high-quality top layer is possible to obtain. Very often to determine conditions of laser treatment are being used the numerical methods that would significantly shorten the time to find the most optimal parameters. [8]. Concerning original practical implications of this work there was important to investigate the appliance possibility of High Power Diode Laser (HPDL) for enhancement of the aluminium surface properties, especially the wear resistance and hardness. the scientific reason was also to describe structure changes and processes occurred in the laser remelted surface aluminium layer after ZrO2 feeding using HPDL laser [10-1.
Cardiovascular Disease Self-Management: Pilot Testing of an mHealth Healthy Eating Program

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is crucial in the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD), yet attendance is poor. Mobile technology (mHealth) offers a potential solution to increase reach of CR. This paper presents two development studies to determine mobile phone usage in adults with CVD and to evaluate the acceptability of an mHealth healthy eating CR program. Methods: CR attendees were surveyed to determine mobile phone usage rates. A second single-subject pilot study investigated perceptions of a 4-week theory-based healthy eating mHealth program and explored pre-post changes in self-efficacy. Results: 74 adults with CVD completed the survey (50/74 male; mean age 63 ± 10). Nearly all had mobile phones (70/74; 95%) and used the Internet (69/74; 93%), and most were interested in receiving CR by text message (57/74; 77%). 20 participants took part in the healthy eating pilot study. Participants read all/most of the text messages, and most (19/20) thought using mobile technology was a good way to deliver the program. The website was not widely used as visiting the website was reported to be time consuming. Exploratory t-tests revealed an increase in heart healthy eating self-efficacy post program, in particular the environmental self-efficacy subset (Mean = 0.62, SD = 0.74, p = 0.001). Conclusions: Text messaging was seen as a simple and acceptable way to deliver nutrition information and behavior change strategies; however, future research is needed to determine the effectiveness of such programs.
Bayesian linkage analysis, or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the posterior probability of linkage.

We should really like to know, at the end of study, the probability that we have found a linkage, as pointed out by Cedric Smith (1959) >35 years ago. (Elston 1997)Bayes' Theorem has the advantage that, unlike any other method of statistical inference, it gives the answer directly as a probability. …This probability has a direct meaning, and does not need to be hedged about with qualifications, unlike a significance level. (Smith 1959)
Core structure of a screw dislocation in the b.c.c. lattice and its relation to slip behaviour of α-iron

Abstract Using various interatomic row potentials, the atomistic structure of the core of a screw dislocation in the b.c.c. lattice has been computed. Stable core structure is either of a degenerate or a non-degenerate type depending on the shape of the interatomic row potential; the criterion for the core type is presented. A non-degenerate stable core is always accompanied by the existence of a metastable core structure of a split type. Characteristic features of slip in α-iron are reasonably interpreted based on the translation of a non-degenerate core over a camel-hump Peierls potential.