Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Non-networked rfid-puf authentication

An integrated circuit, comprising: a sequence generator configured to generate a series of challenges; hidden output generator is configured to generate a series of hidden outputs, each hidden output a function of a corresponding challenge in the series of the password; and a bit reduction circuit configured to generate a response sequence including a plurality of partial response, each response part a function of a plurality of hidden outputs corresponding.
High risk of active tuberculosis in HIV-infected drug users with cutaneous anergy.

OBJECTIVES To determine the incidence of active tuberculosis in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive and HIV-seronegative drug injectors with cutaneous anergy and to examine the effectiveness of isoniazid chemoprophylaxis in preventing tuberculosis among drug injectors with positive tuberculin test results. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective observational study linked to an ongoing study of HIV infection within a New York City (NY) methadone program; subjects also underwent routine intradermal tuberculin testing and multiple-antigen delayed-type hypersensitivity skin testing. The 31-month study period ended December 31, 1990. METHODS Anergic subjects and tuberculin reactors who were HIV seropositive were compared by HIV disease status and CD4+ T-lymphocyte levels. Tuberculosis incidence was calculated for anergics (none treated with isoniazid) and for treated and untreated tuberculin reactors, by HIV serological status. RESULTS Among those seropositive for HIV, anergic subjects had more advanced HIV disease and fewer CD4+ cells (median 0.33 vs 0.56 x 10(9)/L, P less than . 01) compared with tuberculin reactors, although neither clinical status nor CD4+ cell counts consistently predicted anergy. Five (7.6%) of 68 anergic subjects who were HIV seropositive and none of 52 anergic subjects who were HIV seronegative (n = 18) or of unknown (n = 34) HIV serological status developed active tuberculosis during the study period (P less than .05). The tuberculosis incidence rate among anergic subjects who were HIV seropositive was 6.6 cases per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval [Cl], 2.1 to 15.3). Of 25 HIV-seropositive tuberculin reactors who did not receive or complete 12 months of isoniazid prophylaxis, tuberculosis incidence was 9.7 cases per 100 person-years (95% Cl, 2.6 to 24.7; P = 0.56, compared with the rate among anergic HIV seropositives); there were no cases of tuberculosis in 53.4 person-years of follow-up for 27 HIV-seropositive tuberculin reactors who received 12 months of prophylaxis (rate difference between treated and untreated groups, 9.7 cases per 100 person-years, 95% Cl, 1.3 to 18.0). CONCLUSION Drug injectors with cutaneous anergy who are seropositive for HIV are at high risk of active tuberculosis, similar to that among untreated HIV-seropositive tuberculin reactors. A decreased incidence of active tuberculosis was seen in HIV-seropositive tuberculin reactors receiving 12 months of isoniazid chemoprophylaxis, compared with untreated or partially treated subjects. These results support the routine use of delayed-type hypersensitivity testing to accompany tuberculin testing for drug injectors with known or suspected HIV infection, and consideration of isoniazid prophylaxis for anergic as well as tuberculin-reactive subjects who are HIV seropositive, in populations with a high prevalence of coexisting HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.
Improved Correlation Attack on RC5

Various attacks against RC5 have been analyzed intensively([1], [2], [4]–[7]). A known plaintext attack([2]) has not been reported that it works on so higher round as a chosen plaintext attack([1]), but it can work more efficiently and practically. In this paper we investigate a known plaintext attack against RC5 by improving a correlation attack ([7]). As for a known plaintext attack against RC5, the best known result is a linear cryptanalysis([2]). They have reported that RC5-32 with 10 rounds can be broken by 264 plaintexts under the heuristic assumption: RC5-32 with r rounds can be broken with a success probability of 90% by using 26r+4 plaintexts. However their assumption seems to be highly optimistic. Our known plaintext correlation attack can break RC5-32 with 10 rounds (20 halfrounds) in a more strict sense with a success probability of 90% by using 263.67 plaintexts. Furthermore our attack can break RC5-32 with 21 half-rounds in a success probability of 30% by using 263.07 plaintexts. key words: RC5, a known plaintext attack, a correlation attack
Chordin-like 1, a bone morphogenetic protein-4 antagonist, is upregulated by hypoxia in human retinal pericytes and plays a role in regulating angiogenesis

Purpose Pericytes play a specialized role in regulating angiogenesis and vascular function by providing vascular stability and controlling endothelial cell proliferation. Disorders in pericyte function and pericyte-endothelial interaction have been observed in several disease states including tumor angiogenesis and diabetic microangiopathy. In ischemic retinal disease, hypoxia is a potent driver of retinal angiogenesis. This study investigated the effects of hypoxia on retinal pericyte gene expression, and demonstrates a role in angiogenesis regulation for the hypoxia driven gene, chordin-like 1 (CHL-1). Methods In the current studies, we investigated hypoxia-induced gene expression in human retinal pericytes and found that expression of CHL-1, a member of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) superfamily, is upregulated by hypoxia. We investigated regulation of CHL-1 expression and the ability of CHL-1 to antagonize the antiangiogenic properties of BMP-4 using a human cell-based angiogenesis assay. Results We report that hypoxia induced hypoxia inducible factor-1α-driven expression of CHL-1. Both CHL-1 and BMP-4 were secreted from human retinal pericytes. We found that CHL-1 complexes with BMP-4 to antagonize the antiangiogenic effects of BMP-4, and that BMP-4 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) co-regulate angiogenesis. Conclusions We propose that hypoxia-induced upregulation of CHL-1 alters the homeostatic balance between BMP-4 and VEGF to synergize with VEGF in driving retinal angiogenesis.
Development of a Molecular Cytogenetic Recombination Assay for Barley

Distal localisation of chiasmata is common to many cereals and grasses, which consigns many genes of the complement to recombination backwaters. Releasing this potential untapped genetic variation for use in advanced breeding programmes is an ambitious and technically demanding challenge, necessitating controlled shifts in the distribution of crossover events. As part of a collaborative programme to manipulate recombination in barley, we are developing a robust and reliable molecular cytogenetic assay for recombination in this species, which will be used to gauge the success of our forward and reverse genetic interventions. Single-locus bacterial artificial chromosome clones and rDNA probes identify the 7 somatic chromosomes of the complement. Meiocytes at pachytene of meiosis were embedded in polyacrylamide and hybridised in situ with centromere and telomere probes, followed by immunolocalisation of the synaptonemal complex-associated protein Asy1 which highlights the bivalents’ axes. Optical sectioning, deconvolution and image analysis of the z-stacks of the nuclei allowed the disentanglement of each bivalent and the construction of an accurate meiotic ideogram. The landing of single-locus bacterial artificial chromosomes and the detection of late recombination proteins will complete the assay and provide a means of discerning subtle changes in recombination in this species.
Coping with communication gray zones in IEEE 802.11b based ad hoc networks

Our experiments with IEEE 802.11b based wireless ad hoc networks show that neighbor sensing with broadcast messages introduces "communication gray zones": in such zones data messages cannot be exchanged although the HELLO messages indicate neighbor reachability. This leads to a systematic mismatch between the route state and the real world connectivity, resulting in disruptive behavior for multi-media data transfer over ad hoc routing protocols. Concentrating on AODV we explore this issue and evaluate three different techniques to overcome the gray zone problem. We present quantitative measurements of these improvements and discuss the consequences for ad hoc routing protocols and their implementations.
MYOSIN MOTORS AND NOT ACTIN COMETS ARE MEDIATORS OF THE ACTIN-BASED GOLGI-TOER PROTEIN TRANSPORT

MYOSIN MOTORS AND NOT ACTIN COMETS ARE MEDIATORS OF THE ACTIN-BASED GOLGI-TO-ER PROTEIN TRANSPORT Juan M. Durán, Ferran Valderrama, Susana Castel, Juana Magdalena, Mónica Tomás, Hiroshi Hosoya, Jaime Renau-Piqueras, Vivek Malhotra, and Gustavo Egea Departament de Biologia Cel.lular i Anatomia Patològica, Facultat de Medicina, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Universitat de Barcelona, E-08036 Barcelona (Spain); Serveis CientificoTècnics, Universitat de Barcelona, E-08028 Barcelona (Spain); School of Biosciences, Molecular Cell Division, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15-2TT (United Kingdom); Centro de Investigación, Hospital La Fe, E-46009 Valencia (Spain); Dept. of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, 739-8526 Hiroshima (Japan); Dept. of Biology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (USA).
Virtual Clusters on the Fly - Fast, Scalable, and Flexible Installation

One of the advantages in virtualized computing clusters compared to traditional shared HPC environments is their ability to accommodate user-specific system customization. However, past attempts to providing virtual clusters are not scalable with increasing number of VMs, nor do they allow fine-grained customization of VMs, assuming that preconfigured VM images are always available on the grid. We propose a new virtual cluster installation technique that achieves efficiency and scalability, and yet simultaneously fine-grained customizability. It allows the user to create VMs on the fly for fine-grained customization of VMs, and pipelined data transfer for scalable installation with increasing number of VMs. To achieve efficiency in the presence of such full customization, it automatically caches frequently-constructed virtual disk images to save software installation time in common cases. Our experimental studies using a prototype implementation show that installation of a 190-node virtual cluster can be done in 40 seconds. From this result along with a scalability study, we estimate that installation of a 1000-node virtual cluster could be done in less than two minutes.
Time-Dependent Inhibition of CYP2C19 by Isoquinoline Alkaloids: In Vitro and In Silico Analysis

The cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19) enzyme plays an important role in the metabolism of many commonly used drugs. Relatively little is known about CYP2C19 inhibitors, including compounds of natural origin, which could inhibit CYP2C19, potentially causing clinically relevant metabolism-based drug interactions. We evaluated a series (N = 49) of structurally related plant isoquinoline alkaloids for their abilities to interact with CYP2C19 enzyme using in vitro and in silico methods. We examined several common active alkaloids found in herbal products such as apomorphine, berberine, noscapine, and papaverine, as well as the previously identified mechanism-based inactivators bulbocapnine, canadine, and protopine. The IC50 values of the alkaloids ranged from 0.11 to 210 µM, and 42 of the alkaloids were confirmed to be time-dependent inhibitors of CYP2C19. Molecular docking and three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship analysis revealed key interactions of the potent inhibitors with the enzyme active site. We constructed a comparative molecular field analysis model that was able to predict the inhibitory potency of a series of independent test molecules. This study revealed that many of these isoquinoline alkaloids do have the potential to cause clinically relevant drug interactions. These results highlight the need for studying more profoundly the potential interactions between drugs and herbal products. When further refined, in silico methods can be useful in the high-throughput prediction of P450 inhibitory potential of pharmaceutical compounds.
Pilot design for MIMO channel estimation: An alternative to the Kronecker structure assumption

This work seeks to design a pilot signal, under a power constraint, such that the channel can be estimated with minimum mean square error. The procedure we derive does not assume Kronecker structure on the underlying covariance matrices, and the pilot signal is obtained in three main steps. Firstly, we solve a relaxed convex version of the original minimization problem. Secondly, its solution is projected onto the feasible set. Thirdly we use the projected solution as starting point for an augmented Lagrangian method. Numerical experiments indicate that this procedure may produce pilot signals that are far better than those obtained under the Kronecker structure assumption.
The Evolution of Ego-Centric Triads: A Microscopic Approach toward Predicting Macroscopic Network Properties

Scalability issues make it time-consuming to estimate even simple characteristics of large scale, online networks, and the constantly evolving qualities of these networks make it challenging to capture a representative picture of a particular network's properties. Here we focus on the evolution of all triads (ties between three nodes) in a graph, as a method of studying changeover time in large scale, online social networks. For three month snapshots, we examine, and predict, transitions among all sixteen triad types (i.e., triad census) in a sample of three years of Facebook wall-post interactions. We introduce a new sampling approach for examining triads in online graphs, based on ego-centric networks of random seeds. We examine tendencies in the data toward properties related to balance theory, including structural balance, cluster ability, ranked clusters, transitivity, hierarchical clusters, and the presence of "forbidden" triads. In a time series analysis, we successfully predict the evolution over time in the wall post network dataset, with relatively low levels of error. The findings demonstrate the utility of our ego-centric, two-step, random seed sampling approach for studying large scale networks and predicting macroscopic graph properties, as well as the advantages of examining transitions in the complete triad census for an online network.
Müller and macrophage-like cell interactions in an organotypic culture of porcine neuroretina

Purpose: To analyze the in vitro Müller cell modifications in an organotypic culture of porcine neuroretina in response to the addition of a blood-derived mononuclear fraction (MNF; monocytes and lymphocytes) as a source of macrophages. Methods: Control and MNF-stimulated neuroretinal explants were examined at 3, 6, and 9 days of culture. Specimens were processed for epoxy-resin embedding and cryosectioning. Light and immunofluorescence microscopy were performed, using toluidine blue staining and antibodies against glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), as a reactive gliosis marker, and cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein (CRALBP), as a Müller cell marker. Results: Compared to controls, explants cocultured with MNF displayed increased cellular disorganization and larger tissue invasion of the subretinal space at 9 days of culture. Immunostaining of the MNF-treated explants revealed evidence of more reactive gliosis and greater number of GFAP-immunoreactive Müller cells that had increased width and processes extending into the subretinal space and forming a multilayer tissue. Astrocytes also responded to the MNF addition, producing extensions that invaded the neuroretinal outer layers. Conclusions: Addition of MNF stimulates modifications of Müller cells, producing a wider intraretinal reactive gliosis and tissue proliferation at the subretinal space (outer layers of the retina). These findings emphasize the role of macrophage-like cells in the production of changes in retinal structure observed after retinal detachment in humans.
Effectiveness of hybrid soliwave technique in mitigation of microbiologically influenced corrosion

The applications of Ultraviolet (UV) radiation as an alternative approach to toxic chemical biocide for disinfecting bacteria such as Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) to mitigate Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) in steel pipeline systems are already established. However, in the case of poor quality effluents, the UV radiation becomes less effective. Recently, Ultrasound technique (US) was observed to be attractive as pre-treatment for various types of physical disinfectant such as UV radiation. Hence, this research aims to investigate the performance of hybrid treatment known as Hybrid Soliwave Technique (HyST) to control MIC activity. The investigation was performed by utilizing two SRB strains namely pure strain ATCC 7757 and isolated SRB species from local site from BARAM, Sarawak. The study focused on three types of disinfection experiments which were individual UV radiation, individual US irradiation and HyST treatment, a combination of US and UV. Turbidity measurement and SRB cells were recorded to determine the most preferable pH and temperature for both SRB strain to proliferate actively. Corrosion rate was determined using weight loss method by exposing the steel coupons to SRB activity and abiotic sample. Both graphical and statistical analyses were performed using a statistical software (SPSS 20), to investigate the significance of SRB remaining cell number and SRB towards the corrosion rate of untreated and treated steel coupons. This study revealed that the preferable pH and temperature for ATCC 7757 and BARAM to grow actively in the Modified Baar’s Media is at pH of 8.5 and temperature of 37˚C. While, the corrosion rate of steel coupons in ATCC 7757 and BARAM strain was 0.5058 mm/year and 0.3209 mm/year respectively. These rates were at least 44% higher as compared to the corrosion rate in abiotic sample (0.1791 mm/year). The treatment results show that the HyST treatment succeeded to reduce the number of active bacteria, hence reducing the corrosion rate by 55%. The results proved that the presence of SRB increased the corrosion rate significantly compared to samples without SRB. The present study also revealed that the HyST treatment is an effective and a feasible approach in substituting toxic chemical biocides in controlling the MIC problems especially for the pipelines. Overall, the HyST treatment shows better efficiency against individual UV radiation treatment.
Growth promotion mediated by endophytic fungi in cloned seedlings of Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus urophylla hybrids

Eucalyptus cultivation has expanded considerably in Brazilian systems, leading to the current search for technologies to optimize growing conditions and the production of seedlings in nurseries. Based on the understanding that the development of tree species such as Eucalyptus sp. can be influenced by endophytic fungi that act directly as plant growth-promoting species, cloned seedlings of Eucalyptus grandis x Eucalyptus urophylla hybrids grown from minicuttings we stimulated with three species of endophytic fungi and the effects of inoculation on seedling growth was evaluated. Strains of Trichoderma sp. , Fusarium sp. and Papulaspora sp. were forced to colonize the root system of the plants, which were continuously maintained under protected cultivation. Inoculation of the symbionts had positive effects on stem length, stem diameter and the fresh and dry biomass of the treated plants. Non-inoculated plants presented a shorter stem length than the plants treated with any of the endophytic species. The cloned seedlings inoculated with Trichoderma sp. exhibited the greatest stem measurements at 120 days after transplanting. The seedlings inoculated with Fusarium sp. displayed a greater number of leaves than the other seedlings as well as greater amounts of fresh and dry biomass. The authors also conducted quarterly evaluations of the increment in seedling growth promoted by the inoculants, which were more effective in the early stages, up to 60 days after transplanting. Keywords: Inoculants, microorganisms, minicutting, tree species
The CFC-Ozone Issue: Progress on the Development of Alternatives to CFCs

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are now believed to be major contributors to the seasonal ozone depletion over the Antarctic continent. However, because they are so important to many aspects of Modern society, it would be irresponsible to immediately cease their production. The identification of suitable substitutes is difficult when issues such as toxicity, flammability, cost, environmental impact, and physical properties are considered. Several candidates that meet these criteria have been selected by the industry and significant research and development programs are under way to commercialize them. Unlike the simple, fully halogenated CFCs, which can only be made in the single step, there are many potentially viable routes to the alternatives, but these will require significant improvements in catalysis. Many other important issues such as materials compatibility, energy efficiency, the needs of developing countries, and the product life cycle of the alternatives need to be resolved before a timely transition to substitutes can be accomplished.
The quorum‐sensing transcription factor TraR decodes its DNA binding site by direct contacts with DNA bases and by detection of DNA flexibility

TraR of Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a member of the LuxR family of transcriptional regulators, and binds to specific DNA sequences (tra boxes) at target promoters of the tumour‐inducing (Ti) plasmid. Each tra box has a pronounced dyad symmetry, and each subunit of a TraR dimer binds to one half of a tra box via a helix–turn–helix (HTH) DNA binding motif. Structural analysis has suggested that TraR makes extensive sequence‐specific contacts with tra box DNA. In this study, we tested these predictions using synthetic self‐complementary oligonucleotides containing variant tra box sequences. Some predictions made from structural analysis were confirmed, while others were shown to be incorrect. Unexpectedly, these experiments also showed that six nucleotides at the centre of the tra box that make no direct contact with TraR are nevertheless critical for high‐affinity binding and probably act by facilitating a previously described DNA bend. Variant tra boxes were also tested for transcription activity in vivo. Most transcription assays reflected in vitro binding assays. However, alterations of the outermost nucleotides had little effect on TraR binding but blocked transcription, probably by altering an overlapping −35 promoter motif.