Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability of creatine monohydrate and guanidinoacetic acid during manufacture (retorting and extrusion) and storage of dog foods

Abstract The stability of creatine monohydrate (CrMH), crystallised guanidinoacetic acid (GAA‐C) and granulated GAA (GAA‐G) in a moist retorted and a dry extruded dog food formulation during production and storage was investigated. Commercial food mixtures were supplemented with CrMH, GAA‐C or GAA‐G. Uniformity after mixing and retorting or extrusion was determined based on replicate samples (moist n = 8, dry n = 10). Storage stability was evaluated at 25°C/60% relative humidity for 15 months and 40°C/75% for 6 months. Foods with CrMH were analysed for creatine (Cr) and creatinine (Crn), whereas GAA‐C and GAA‐G foods were analysed for GAA concentrations. Coefficients of variation (CV) for uniformity of the additives after mixing of moist and dry pet food formulations were below 15%, and the CV was lower in processed mixtures. Recoveries after retorting and extrusion were higher for GAA‐G (79 and 99%) and GAA‐C (89 and 86%) compared to CrMH (36 and 85%) foods. In moist CrMH food, Cr concentrations re‐increased by 54% whilst Crn concentrations decreased by 39% after storage at 25°C for 15 months. With total molar Cr + Crn remaining stable throughout storage, Crn and Cr appeared to effectively interconvert. Storage of the extruded CrMH food at 25°C for 15 months resulted in a 63% decrease in Cr and a 39% increase in Crn concentration. The decrease in Cr concentration was larger at 6 months storage at 40°C compared to 15 months storage at 25°C. Both GAA‐C and GAA‐G moist and dry foods were stable during storage (<10% decrease). This study showed that GAA is highly stable during production and storage of moist and dry canine foods whilst CrMH is relatively unstable, particularly during storage. The latter makes it difficult to establish a guaranteed Cr content in finished moist retorted and dry extruded foods with CrMH.
A comparative view of regenerative neurogenesis in vertebrates

In all vertebrate species studied thus far, the adult central nervous system harbors neural stem cells that sustain constitutive neurogenesis, as well as latent neural progenitors that can be awakened in lesional contexts. In spite of this common theme, many species differ dramatically in their ability to recruit constitutive progenitors, to awaken latent progenitors, or to enhance or bias neural progenitor fate to achieve successful neuronal repair. This Review summarizes the striking similarities in the essential molecular and cellular properties of adult neural stem cells between different vertebrate species, both under physiological and reparative conditions. It also emphasizes the differences in the reparative process across evolution and how the study of non-mammalian models can provide insights into both basic neural stem cell properties and stimulatory cues shared between vertebrates, and subsequent neurogenic events, which are abortive under reparative conditions in mammals. Summary: This Review article provides a comparative view of neuronal repair across vertebrate species, with a particular focus on the molecular pathways that enable repair in some, but not all animals.
Network Intrusion Detection using a Secure Ranking of Hidden Outliers

Network intrusion detection has recently attracted a lot of attention in both research and industry of computer network security. By intrusion, attackers try to perform malicious activities inside the network using harmless-looking connections. Network intrusion detection systems try to differentiate these attacks from normal connections by grouping them into families based on similarity. As new forms of intrusions different from the already detected ones are usually seen, clustering of network connections is widely used to deal with that. In data mining, clustering aims at dividing objects into different groups (called clusters) such that objects in one cluster are similar to each other and dissimilar to objects from other clusters. Some sparse objects deviate from all available clusters and are not dense enough to form a new cluster. These objects are called outliers and they usually do not belong to any of available clusters. For network security, when clustering the connections in the network, many connections could be considered as outliers when compared to the clusters of normal connections but nevertheless they are not real intrusions. Considering every outlier connection as a network intrusion will result in too many false alarms. Previous solutions which handled this problem were not effective enough for detecting intrusions which are hidden in subspaces of the connection data. We suggest an oultier ranking algorithm for ranking these outlier connections. Using a scoring function, our algorithm gives higher degree of “outlierness” for strongly-deviated outliers hidden in subspaces of the network connection data. We see another challenge when seeking for intrusions in the network. Attackers usually try slight modifications of previously-successful intrusions for producing new attacks. Our novel scoring function carefully gives higher degree of outlierness for outliers found in subspaces which contain known intrusions. Thus we should considerably reduce false alarms since only strongly-deviated outliers and outliers detected in suspected subspaces of the connections will be considered as intrusions.
Susceptibilities of periodontopathogenic and cariogenic bacteria to antibacterial peptides, {beta}-defensins and LL37, produced by human epithelial cells.

OBJECTIVES Antimicrobial peptides are one of the factors involved in innate immunity. The susceptibility of periodontopathogenic and cariogenic bacteria to the major antimicrobial peptides produced by epithelia was investigated. METHODS Synthetic antimicrobial peptides of human beta-defensin-1 (hBD1), hBD2, hBD3 and LL37 (CAP18) were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against oral bacteria. They included Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (20 strains), Porphyromonas gingivalis (6), Prevotella intermedia (7), Fusobacterium nucleatum (7), Streptococcus mutans (5), Streptococcus sobrinus (5), Streptococcus salivarius (5), Streptococcus sanguis (4), Streptococcus mitis (2) and Lactobacillus casei (1). RESULTS Although the four peptides had bactericidal activity against all bacteria tested, the degree of antibacterial activity was variable against the different strains and species. The antibacterial activity of hBD1 was lower than that of the other peptides. Among the bacteria tested in this study, F. nucleatum was highly susceptible to hBD3 and LL37, and S. mutans was highly susceptible to hBD3. We measured the Zeta-potential, representing the net charge of whole bacteria, to study the relationship between susceptibility to cationic peptide and the net charge of the bacteria. Although we found some correlation in A. actinomycetemcomitans strains, we did not find a definite correlation with all the bacterial species. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that beta-defensins and LL37 have versatile antibacterial activity against oral bacteria.
Skin Stretch Haptic Feedback to Convey Closure Information in Anthropomorphic, Under-Actuated Upper Limb Soft Prostheses

Restoring hand function in individuals with upper limb loss is a challenging task, made difficult by the complexity of human hands from both a functional and sensory point of view. Users of commercial prostheses, even sophisticated devices, must visually attend to the hand to know its state, since in most cases they are not provided with any direct sensory information. Among the different types of haptic feedback that can be delivered, particularly information on hand opening is likely to reduce the requirement of constant visual attention. In recent years, there has been a trend of using underactuated, compliant multi-fingered hands as upper limb prostheses, in part due to their simplicity and ease of use attributed to low degree-of-freedom (d.o.f.) actuation. The trend toward underactuation encourages the design of one d.o. f. haptic devices to provide intuitive sensory feedback from the prosthesis. However, mapping the closure of a multi-d.o. f. prosthetic hand to a simple and intuitive haptic cue is not a trivial task. In this paper, we explore the use of a one d.o. f. skin stretch haptic device, the rice haptic rocker, to provide intuitive proprioceptive feedback indicating overall hand closure of an underactuated prosthesis. The benefits and challenges of the system are assessed in multi-tasking and reduced vision scenarios for an object-size discrimination task, in an effort to simulate challenges in daily life, and are compared against the haptic resolution of the device using the just noticeable difference. Finally, an evaluation done with a prosthesis user, in the form of a truncated version of the Activities Measure for Upper Limb Amputees (AM-ULA), shows possible benefits of the addition of haptic feedback in tasks with reduced visual attention.
Current Imaging Modalities for assessing Ocular Blood Flow in Glaucoma

Glaucoma may be caused by an interplay of elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), vascular, genetic, anatomical, brain, and immune factors. The direct assessment of ocular hemodynam-ics offers promise for glaucoma detection, differentiation, and possibly new treatment modalities. All the methods currently in use to measure ocular blood flow have inherent limitations and measure different aspects of ocular blood flow. This review article attempts to provide detailed information on ocular perfu-sion pressure as well as an overview of the newly developed imaging technologies used to investigate ocular blood flow in glaucoma patients. How to cite this article Mohindroo C, Ichhpujani P, Kumar S. Current Imaging Modalities for assessing Ocular Blood Flow in Glaucoma. J Curr Glaucoma Pract 2016;10(3):104-112.
Draft Genome Sequence of a Rare Israeli Clinical Isolate of Burkholderia pseudomallei

We report here the draft genome sequence of Burkholderia pseudomallei MAA2018. This highly virulent strain was isolated in 2018 from the first melioidosis case in Israel associated with recreational travel to Goa, India. ABSTRACT We report here the draft genome sequence of Burkholderia pseudomallei MAA2018. This highly virulent strain was isolated in 2018 from the first melioidosis case in Israel associated with recreational travel to Goa, India.
Draft Genome Sequence of an Antarctic Isolate of the Black Yeast Fungus Exophiala mesophila

A 30.43-Mb draft genome sequence with 10,355 predicted protein-coding genes was produced for the ascomycete fungus Exophiala mesophila strain CCFEE 6314, a black yeast isolated from Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities. The sequence will be of importance for identifying differences among extremophiles and mesophiles and cataloguing the global population diversity of this organism. ABSTRACT A 30.43-Mb draft genome sequence with 10,355 predicted protein-coding genes was produced for the ascomycete fungus Exophiala mesophila strain CCFEE 6314, a black yeast isolated from Antarctic cryptoendolithic communities. The sequence will be of importance for identifying differences among extremophiles and mesophiles and cataloguing the global population diversity of this organism.
Design for Locomotion Interface in a Large Scale Virtual Environment ATLAS: ATR Locomotion Interface for Active Self Motion

In this paper, we focus on the sense of locomotion, in particular, the sense one feels while walking in a large space. Walking is the most basic way of moving around, and a lot of information can be obtained by doing so, e.g., sensing, hardness, humidity, and so on of the space. The locomotion interface we have developed is named ATLAS (ATR locomotion interface for active self motion). Our design goal was to eliminate the need for a walker to “learn” how to walk and for equipping the walker with obstructive sensors. We employ a treadmill approach for ATLAS. In the initial trial state, ATLAS can estimate the working speed from the walking motion visually, and control the speed of a belt to synthesize the real feeling of walking in a virtual space. First, we describe related works of locomotion interfaces and our design. Next, we show the method utilized for motion analysis and how to control the belt speed. Finally, we conclude with a description of our first trial ATLAS and the experimental results.
Early toll‐like receptor 4 blockade reduces ROS and inflammation triggered by microglial pro‐inflammatory phenotype in rodent and human brain ischaemia models

Ischaemic stroke is a leading cause of death, disability, and a high unmet medical need. Post‐reperfusion inflammation and an up‐regulation of toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4), an upstream sensor of innate immunity, are associated with poor outcome in stroke patients. Here, we identified the therapeutic effect of targeting the LPS/TLR4 signal transduction pathway.
Electrophysiological Brain Connectivity: Theory and Implementation

We review the theory and algorithms of electrophysiological brain connectivity analysis. This tutorial is aimed at providing an introduction to brain functional connectivity from electrophysiological signals, including electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, electrocorticography, and stereoelectroencephalography. Various connectivity estimators are discussed, and algorithms introduced. Important issues for estimating and mapping brain functional connectivity with electrophysiology are discussed.
Achieve Secure Handover Session Key Management via Mobile Relay in LTE-Advanced Networks

Internet of Things is expanding the network by integrating huge amount of surrounding objects which requires the secure and reliable transmission of the high volume data generation, and the mobile relay technique is one of the efficient ways to meet the on-board data explosion in LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks. However, the practice of the mobile relay will pose potential threats to the information security during the handover process. Therefore, to address this challenge, in this paper, we propose a secure handover session key management scheme via mobile relay in LTE-A networks. Specifically, in the proposed scheme, to achieve forward and backward key separations, the session key shared between the on-board user equipment (UE) and the connected donor evolved node B (DeNB) is first generated by the on-board UE and then securely distributed to the DeNB. Furthermore, to reduce the communication overhead and the computational complexity, a novel proxy re-encryption technique is employed, where the session keys initially encrypted with the public key of the mobility management entity (MME) will be re-encrypted by a mobile relay node (MRN), so that other DeNBs can later decrypt the session keys with their own private keys while without the direct involvement of the MME. Detailed security analysis shows that the proposed scheme can successfully establish session keys between the on-board UEs and their connected DeNB, achieving backward and forward key separations, and resisting against the collusion between the MRN and the DeNB as the same time. In addition, performance evaluations via extensive simulations are carried out to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
The Feasibility and Validity of Autism Spectrum Disorder Screening Instrument: Behavior Development Screening for Toddlers (BeDevel)—A Pilot Study

Although early screening is critical for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in order to receive early intervention and improve function later in life, screening is often delayed. Limitations of existing screening instruments, and the need for a culturally appropriate early screening tool in Korean children, led us to develop Behavior Development Screening for Toddlers (BeDevel). The BeDevel assessment consists of two parts: BeDevel‐Interview, a structured interview measure for parents/primary caregivers; and BeDevel‐Play, a play‐based semi‐structured observational measure in children. To examine the feasibility and validity of BeDevel, 155 children (N = 75 ASD, N = 55 typical development, N = 25 developmentally delayed) aged 18–42 months (M = 31.54 months, SD = 7.60) were examined through parent‐reported screening questionnaires, BeDevel, and standard diagnostic assessments. When BeDevel items were analyzed using Cohen's kappa statistics, most items in BeDevel‐Interview and all items in BeDevel‐Play were reasonably consistent with diagnoses. We identified primary items, which were significantly interacted with actual diagnosis in the chi‐squared test (P < 0.05, range = 0.000–0.032). Using cutoff numbers of items determined using the receiver operating characteristics curve, BeDevel showed satisfactory levels of sensitivity (83.33%–100%), specificity (81.25%–100%), positive predictive values (80.65%–100%), and negative predictive values (83.87%–100%), as well as high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.866–959). The agreement between BeDevel and most other screening/diagnostic instruments was moderate (k = 0.419–1.000). These results suggest that BeDevel can be a useful instrument for early screening of ASD. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1112–1128. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Elevated levels of CRP and IL-8 are related to reduce survival time: 1-year follow-up measurements of different analytes in frail elderly nursing home residents

Abstract There are only few studies with specific focus on predictors of survival in nursing home residents (NHRs). The aim was to study whether 1-year changes in complete blood count (including hemoglobin, red blood cells, erythrocyte volume fraction, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, white blood cells count and platelet count), C-reactive protein and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-1Ra, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10, are associated with 8-year survival in elderly NHRs, aged ≥ 80 years. Complete blood count, C-reactive protein and interleukins were measured at baseline, after 6 and 12 months from 167 NHRs aged 80–101 years, mean age 88 ± 4.5 years, 75% of whom were women. Dates of death were collected from the National Death Register 8 years after baseline. Levels of hemoglobin, red blood cells and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration were lower after 1-year, but higher for mean corpuscular volume and IL-1β, compared to baseline or 6 month follow-up. In the Cox regression model with a time-dependent covariate, raised levels of C-reactive protein and IL-8 were associated with reduced survival time. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein and IL-8 during 1-year follow-up were related to reduce lengths of survival in elderly NHRs.
Silibinin encapsulation in polymersome: A promising anticancer nanoparticle for inducing apoptosis and decreasing the expression level of miR‐125b/miR‐182 in human breast cancer cells

Silibinin, a polyphenolic flavonolignan, is well‐known as a safe therapeutic drug without any side effects in the treatment of many malignancies especially cancerous cells. In this study, to overcome problems such as low solubility of silibinin and to enhance its delivery to cancerous cells, we encapsulated silibinin in polymersome nanoparticles. Physicochemical measurements such as dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy confirmed the proper encapsulation of silibinin in nanoparticles. Furthermore, antiproliferative and apoptotic activities of silibinin encapsulated in polymersome nanoparticles (SPNs) on MDA‐MB‐231 breast cancer cell line were validated by 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, Annexin V/Propidium Iodide measurement, and cell cycle analysis. In addition, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis confirmed that SPNs can repress oncogenic microRNAs (miRNAs) such as miR‐125b and miR‐182, as well as antiapoptotic genes such as Bcl2. SPNs can also induce overexpression of proapoptotic target genes such as P53, CASP9, and BAX directly and/or indirectly (through regulation of miRNAs). Our results suggested that polymersomes can be used as stable carriers in nano‐dimensions and SPNs can be considered as a promising pharmacological agent for cancer therapy.
Analysis and performance evaluation of various image segmentation methods

Image segmentation is a primary stage in image processing for identifying objects of interest. Segmentation methods are classified into region based, transform based, edge based and clustering based segmentation. In this paper, segmentation methods including histogram, watershed, Canny edge detector and K-means clustering techniques are studied and analyzed. The experimental results obtained are compared with different evaluation measures including three standard image segmentation indices: rand index, globally consistency error and variation of information.
Using linear and non-linear kriging interpolators to produce probability maps

Probability maps are used to define areas with high and low certainty of exceeding a threshold value. The most popular methods for creating these maps are variants of indicator kriging. However, such methods are questionable when the data exhibit a trend or contain measurement errors, the latter of which is common in most data sets. This paper presents an alternative approach that maps the risk of exceeding a threshold value after detrending and/or transforming the data. These methods are otherwise known as kriging on residuals and lognormal, Gaussian, and trans-Gaussian kriging. To illustrate this point an environmental case study is used to compare the predicted results for six different kriging method. All predictions and maps were made using the Geostatistical Analyst extension to ESRI ArcGIS software.
Dymaxion: Optimizing memory access patterns for heterogeneous systems

Graphics processors (GPUs) have emerged as an important platform for general purpose computing. GPUs offer a large number of parallel cores and have access to high memory bandwidth; however, data structure layouts in GPU memory often lead to sub-optimal performance for programs designed with a CPU memory interface — or no particular memory interface at all! — in mind. This implies that application performance is highly sensitive irregularity in memory access patterns. This issue is all the more important due to the growing disparity between core and DRAM clocks; memory interfaces have increasingly become bottlenecks in computer systems. In this paper, we propose a simple API, Dymaxion1, that allows programmers to optimize memory mappings to improve the efficiency of memory accesses on heterogeneous platforms. Use of Dymaxion requires only minimal modifications to existing CUDA programs. Our current framework extends NVIDIA's CUDA API with the addition of memory layout remapping and index transformation. We consider the overhead of layout remapping and effectively hide it through chunking and overlapping with PCI-E transfer. We present the implementation of Dymaxion and its optimizations and evaluate a variety of important memory access patterns. Using four case studies, we are able to achieve 3.3× speedup on GPU kernels and 20% overall performance improvement, including the PCI-E transfer, over the original CUDA implementations on an NVIDIA GTX 480 GPU. We also explore the importance of maintaining per-device data layouts and cross-device data mappings with a case study of concurrent CPU-GPU execution.