Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Software Defined Cooperative Offloading for Mobile Cloudlets

Device to Device communication enables the deployment of mobile cloudlets in LTE-advanced networks. The distributed nature of mobile users and dynamic task arrivals makes it challenging to schedule tasks fairly among multiple devices. Leveraging the idea of software defined networking, we propose a software defined cooperative offloading model (SDCOM), where the SDCOM controller is deployed at the PDN gateway and schedules tasks in a centralized manner to save the energy of mobile devices and reduce the traffic on access links. We formulate the minimum-energy task scheduling problem as a 0-1 knapsack problem and prove its NP-hardness. To compute the optimal solution as a benchmark, we design the conditioned optimal algorithm based on the aggregated analysis of energy consumption. The greedy algorithm with a polynominal-time complexity is proposed to solve large-scale problems efficiently. To address the problem without predicting future information on task arrivals, we further design an online task scheduling algorithm (OTS). It can minimize the energy consumption arbitrarily close to the optimal solution by appropriately setting the tradeoff coefficient. Moreover, we extend OTS to design a proportional fair online task scheduling algorithm to achieve the fair energy consumption among mobile devices. Extensive trace-based simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of SDCOM for a variety of typical mobile devices and applications.
Widening access, widening participation, widening success:an Indian case study

Multiple deprivations are widespread in rural India. Literacy levels remain stubbornly low, albeit gradually improving. Caste, class, religion, gender, age and disability all impact on access to education, participation and successful completion. The education of girls remains problematic given the higher value attached to sons, especially in rural communities; their frequent confinement to the home on reaching puberty; the cost of dowries (despite being outlawed); trafficking of adolescent girls and/or early marriage. The education of tribal communities and other scheduled castes in rural communities, despite principles of free education and equality of access, are inhibited by poor facilities and availability of provision; by economic circumstances and past family experiences and histories. Against a cultural and familial history of poverty, illiteracy, child labour, early marriage, increased abandonment of the elderly and extensive and entrenched patterns of discrimination, one NGO has developed a holistic and integrated approach to supporting some of the most disadvantaged groups in a poor rural area in West Bengal. This approach appears to fundamentally change, for the better, the life chances, educational outcomes and economic prospects of the target communities. While there can be no direct transfer of strategies between the two countries this paper will explore possible explanations for such success and what lessons, if any, might be learnt by educationalists working towards widening successful participation in education in England. Ghandi: intolerance is a form of violence
Troglitazone Reduces LDL Oxidation and Lowers Plasma E-selectin Concentration in NIDDM Patients

Troglitazone, an oral antidiabetic agent with antioxidant properties, has previously been shown to increase the resistance of LDL to oxidation in vitro and in vivo in healthy volunteers. In a randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study in 29 patients with NIDDM, we tested the effect of troglitazone (200 mg once daily) on the resistance of LDL to oxidation and on circulating levels of preformed lipid hydroperoxides and the adhesion molecule Eselectin. Resistance of LDL to oxidation was assessed by measuring 1) fluorescence development induced by copper treatment (lag phase), and 2) amount of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) generated by incubation with umbilical vein endothelial cells. At 8 weeks, the lag phase was increased by 23% (P < 0.01 by analysis of covariance [ANCOVA]) in the patients receiving troglitazone (n = 18) compared with the group receiving placebo (n = 11). At the same time, TBARS were 3.63 ± 0.10 nmol/1 (vs. 5.32 ± 0.10 nmol/1 in the placebo group, P = 0.009), LDL hydroperoxide concentration was reduced from 1.48 ± 0.03 to 1.19 ± 0.03 ng/mg (no change in the placebo group, P < 0.01), and plasma E-selectin levels decreased from 56.5 ± 2.33 to 43.7 ± 1.77 μg/l (no change in the placebo group, P < 0.01). In NIDDM, troglitazone may slow down the development of atherosclerosis by modifying LDLrelated atherogenic events.
Label-free high-throughput microRNA expression profiling from total RNA

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key biological regulators and promising disease markers whose detection technologies hold great potentials in advancing fundamental research and medical diagnostics. Currently, miRNAs in biological samples have to be labeled before being applied to most high-throughput assays. Although effective, these labeling-based approaches are usually labor-intensive, time-consuming and liable to bias. Besides, the cross-hybridization of co-existing miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs) is not adequately addressed in most assays that use total RNA as input. Here, we present a hybridization-triggered fluorescence strategy for label-free, microarray-based high-throughput miRNA expression profiling. The total RNA is directly applied to the microarray with a short fluorophore-linked oligonucleotide Universal Tag which can be selectively captured by the target-bound probes via base-stacking effects. This Stacking-Hybridized Universal Tag (SHUT) assay has been successfully used to analyze as little as 100 ng total RNA from human tissues, and found to be highly specific to homogenous miRNAs. Superb discrimination toward single-base mismatch at the 5′ or 3′ end has been demonstrated. Importantly, the pre-miRNAs generated negligible signals, validating the direct use of total RNA.
CA-074Me Protection against Anthrax Lethal Toxin

ABSTRACT Anthrax lethal toxin (LT) activates the NLRP1b (NALP1b) inflammasome and caspase-1 in macrophages from certain inbred mouse strains, but the mechanism by which this occurs is poorly understood. We report here that similar to several NLRP3 (NALP3, cryopyrin)-activating stimuli, LT activation of the NLRP1b inflammasome involves lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) and subsequent cytoplasmic cathepsin B activity. CA-074Me, a potent cathepsin B inhibitor, protects LT-sensitive macrophages from cell death and prevents the activation of caspase-1. RNA interference knockdown of cathepsin B expression, however, cannot prevent LT-mediated cell death, suggesting that CA-074Me may also act on other cellular proteases released during LMP. CA-074Me appears to function downstream of LT translocation to the cytosol (as assessed by mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase cleavage), K+ effluxes, and proteasome activity. The initial increase in cytoplasmic activity of cathepsin B occurs at the same time or shortly before caspase-1 activation but precedes a larger-scale lysosomal destabilization correlated closely with cytolysis. We present results suggesting that LMP may be involved in the activation of the NLRP1b inflammasome.
Wearable Bracelet Belt Resonators for Noncontact Wrist Location and Pulse Detection

This paper gives a complete evaluation of a new wearable microwave sensor module for pulse measurements. Three substantial contributions are reported. First, a frequency-multiplexed sensor array was developed using complementary split-ring resonators. Cylindrical bracelets can spatially resolve the positional changes of the wrist relative to the location of the sensors on the bracelets. Second, the proposed method requires only a transmission coefficient magnitude (decibels) response at the same frequency. The method does not need to track the resonance frequency shifts, but receives power at a selected frequency. Third, the mechanical movement of the artery perturbs the electrical field radiated from the source resonator; the proposed method detects this perturbation and verifies the biological information, which is utilized to modulate the signal. The proposed bracelet sensor combines position detection and pulse measurement to obtain a more accurate measurement of the pulse. The experimental results show that the bracelet can detect a relative distance change of 0–20 mm with a sensitivity of 1.16 (dB/mm). The bit rate of the measured pulse was verified through photoplethysmography.
A Systematical and Parallel Approach to Solve Problems Involving Special Properties of Bit-Vectors

Suppose that we are given a vector consisting of only 1’s and 0’s and we are interested in finding some special properties of this vector. For instance, we like to determine whether all of the bits from location s to location e in the vector are all 1’s or whether there exists a 1 from location s to location e. In more complicated cases, we are given two bit-vectors and we like to investigate the mutual properties between the two vectors. For instance, we want to find all locations i in vector B such that there exists a k in vector A, k ≤ i, such that A(k) = 1 and in vector B, locations from k to i all assume value 1. These problems all involve ‘for-all’or ‘there-exists’notations and can of course be solved by sequential programs. In this paper, we are interested in bit-parallel process to solve these problems. That is, we are interested in solving the problem efficiently by using ‘bitwise-and’, ‘bitwise-or’ and other bitwise logical operations. A sequence of logical operations can be expressed as a logical formula. This paper proposes a systematical method to find such logical formulas to solve problems involving bit-vectors with ‘for-all’and ‘there-exists’notations. Five logical prototype problems, named ‘single-for-all’ (1’s), ‘single-there-exists’, ‘multiple-for-all’, ‘multiple-there-exists’and ‘multiple-there-exists-and-for-all’, are defined in this paper. For each problem, we show that there exists a corresponding logical formula that can be computed using bit-parallel operations in O(n/w) time, where w is the word size of the machine. We also propose four variants for these five problems, and show that their logical formulas can be obtained using those of the five prototype problems.
Increasing pulse number during CO2 laser irradiation of dental enamel extends acid dissolution time

Several prior studies have shown that pretreatment of dental enamel by specific carbon dioxide laser conditions inhibited subsequent acid dissolution of the outer several μm of dental enamel. An initial low dissolution rate was followed by a return to the non-irradiated control dissolution rate from deeper regions. The aim of the present study was to examine the dissolution profiles following irradiation using 60 pulses per spot rather than the previously used 10 or 25. Bovine enamel blocks were irradiated at a wavelength of 9.6 μm at either 20 or 60 pulses per spot with a 20 μs pulse duration carbon dioxide laser using overlapping spots, and a fluence of 1.0 J/cm2. Dissolution profiles were measured in acetate buffer, versus non-irradiated controls. The higher number of pulses per spot produced a similar initial low dissolution rate, but the effect was deeper than with 20 pulses per spot. Supported by NIH/NIDCR grant DE 09958.
Complex-Valued Random Vectors and Channels: Entropy, Divergence, and Capacity

Recent research has demonstrated significant achievable performance gains by exploiting circularity/noncircularity or properness/improperness of complex-valued signals. In this paper, we investigate the influence of these properties on important information theoretic quantities such as entropy, divergence, and capacity. We prove two maximum entropy theorems that strengthen previously known results. The proof of the first maximum entropy theorem is based on the so-called circular analog of a given complex-valued random vector. The introduction of the circular analog is additionally supported by a characterization theorem that employs a minimum Kullback-Leibler divergence criterion. In the proof of the second maximum entropy theorem, results about the second-order structure of complex-valued random vectors are exploited. Furthermore, we address the capacity of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. Regardless of the specific distribution of the channel parameters (noise vector and channel matrix, if modeled as random), we show that the capacity-achieving input vector is circular for a broad range of MIMO channels (including coherent and noncoherent scenarios). Finally, we investigate the situation of an improper and Gaussian distributed noise vector. We compute both capacity and capacity-achieving input vector and show that improperness increases capacity, provided that the complementary covariance matrix is exploited. Otherwise, a capacity loss occurs, for which we derive an explicit expression.
Output-sensitive well-separated pair decompositions for dynamic point sets

The well-separated pair decomposition (WSPD) is a fundamental structure in computational geometry. Given a set P of n points in d-dimensional space and a positive separation parameter s, an s-WSPD is a concise representation of all the O(n2) pairs of P requiring only O(sdn) storage. The WSPD has numerous applications in spatial data processing, such as computing spanner graphs, minimum spanning trees, shortest-path oracles, and statistics on interpoint distances. We consider the problem of maintaining a WSPD when points are inserted to or deleted from P. Worst-case arguments suggest that the addition or deletion of a single point could result in the generation (or removal) up to Ω(sd) pairs, which can be unacceptably high in many applications. Fortunately, the actual number of well separated pairs can be significantly smaller in practice, particularly when the points are well clustered. This suggests the importance of being able to respond to insertions and deletions in a manner that is output sensitive, that is, whose running time depends on the actual number of pairs that have been added or removed. We present the first output-sensitive algorithms for maintaining a WSPD of a point set under insertion and deletion. We show that our algorithms are nearly optimal, in the sense that these operations can be performed in time that is roughly equal to the number of changes to the WSPD.
The Cortisol Paradox of Trauma-Related Disorders: Lower Phasic Responses but Higher Tonic Levels of Cortisol Are Associated with Sexual Abuse in Childhood

Objectives Inconsistent findings exist for the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in patients with stress related disorders. Recent studies point towards early life stress as a potential modulator. Methods We investigated the impact of childhood sexual abuse on phasic (saliva cortisol reactivity) and tonic (hair cortisol) regulation. Furthermore, we assessed predictors on cortisol accumulation in hair. Women (N = 43) with stress-related disorders underwent a standardized assessment of idiographic adverse and traumatic experiences and psychopathology, while measuring salivary cortisol and, heart rate and blood pressure. Results Comparing women with and without childhood sexual abuse revealed lower rates of responders and distinct levels of salivary cortisol to the interview in conjunction with a lower heart rate for the abused group. Childhood adversities, traumatic experiences, and depression contributed to higher hair cortisol levels. Conclusions Our finding of lower response rate and distinct salivary cortisol pattern in individuals with childhood sexual abuse compared to individuals without early sexual abuse supports the role of environmental programming for the HPA axis. Both, childhood adversities and traumatic stress emerge as crucial factors for long-term cortisol secretion. Lower or suppressed phasic cortisol responses to trauma-related stimuli may therefore be associated with higher tonic values. Thus, early exposure to adversities may result in a biological distinct phenotype in adult patients with stress-related disorders.
Dynamic Response of Electromagnetic Spatial Displacement Trackers

Overall system latency—the elapsed time from input human motion until the immediate consequences of that input are available in the display—is one of the most frequently cited shortcoming of current virtual environment (VE) technology. Given that spatial displacement trackers are employed to monitor head and hand position and orientation in many VE applications, the dynamic response intrinsic to these devices is an unavoidable contributor to overall system latency. In this paper, we describe a testbed and method for measurement of tracker dynamic response that use a motorized rotary swing arm to sinusoidally displace the VE sensor at a number of frequencies spanning the bandwidth of volitional human movement. During the tests, actual swing arm angle and VE sensor reports are collected and time stamped. By calibrating the time stamping technique, the tracker's internal transduction and processing time are separated from data transfer and host computer software execution latencies. We have used this test-bed to examine several VE sensors—most recently to compare latency, gain, and noise characteristics of two commercially available electromagnetic trackers: Ascension Technology Corp.'s Flock of Birds™ and Polhemus Inc.'s Fastrak™.
STOX2 but not STOX1 is differentially expressed in decidua from pre-eclamptic women: data from the Second Nord-Trøndelag Health Study

Variation in the Storkhead box-1 (STOX1) gene has previously been associated with pre-eclampsia. In this study, we assess candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in STOX1 in an independent population cohort of pre-eclamptic (n = 1.139) and non-pre-eclamptic (n = 2.269) women (the HUNT2 study). We also compare gene expression levels of STOX1 and its paralogue, Storkhead box-2 (STOX2) in decidual tissue from pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia and/or fetal growth restriction (FGR) (n = 40) to expression levels in decidual tissue from uncomplicated pregnancies (n = 59). We cannot confirm association of the candidate SNPs to pre-eclampsia (P > 0.05). For STOX1, no differential gene expression was observed in any of the case groups, whereas STOX2 showed significantly lower expression in deciduas from pregnancies complicated by both pre-eclampsia and FGR as compared with controls (P = 0.01). We further report a strong correlation between transcriptional alterations reported previously in choriocarcinoma cells over expressing STOX1A and alterations observed in decidual tissue of pre-eclamptic women with FGR.
A generalized Co-HITS algorithm and its application to bipartite graphs

Recently many data types arising from data mining and Web search applications can be modeled as bipartite graphs. Examples include queries and URLs in query logs, and authors and papers in scientific literature. However, one of the issues is that previous algorithms only consider the content and link information from one side of the bipartite graph. There is a lack of constraints to make sure the final relevance of the score propagation on the graph, as there are many noisy edges within the bipartite graph. In this paper, we propose a novel and general Co-HITS algorithm to incorporate the bipartite graph with the content information from both sides as well as the constraints of relevance. Moreover, we investigate the algorithm based on two frameworks, including the iterative and the regularization frameworks, and illustrate the generalized Co-HITS algorithm from different views. For the iterative framework, it contains HITS and personalized PageRank as special cases. In the regularization framework, we successfully build a connection with HITS, and develop a new cost function to consider the direct relationship between two entity sets, which leads to a significant improvement over the baseline method. To illustrate our methodology, we apply the Co-HITS algorithm, with many different settings, to the application of query suggestion by mining the AOL query log data. Experimental results demonstrate that CoRegu-0.5 (i.e., a model of the regularization framework) achieves the best performance with consistent and promising improvements.
Discovering Variable-Length Patterns in Protein Sequences for Protein-Protein Interaction Prediction

To predict Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs), there have recently been some attempts to use computational approaches and among them, sequence-based approaches are often preferred over other kinds of approaches as they do not require prior knowledge about proteins to perform their tasks. However, in deciding if two proteins may interact with each other, existing sequence-based approaches consider only fixed-length segments. We believe that if segments of variable-length can also be considered, interactions between proteins can be more accurately predicted. To consider variable-length segments for PPI predictions, we have developed a VLASPD algorithm. Given a database of protein sequences, VLASPD performs its tasks in several steps. The protein database is first searched to identify frequent sequence segments (FSSs) of different length. The different combinations of the presence and absence of these FSSs are then used to form different associative sequential patterns (ASPs). Based on a statistical measure, the ASPs that occur significantly frequently among proteins in the training set are then identified as significant associative sequential patterns (SASPs). If an SASP is found in a protein pair, it can be considered as providing some evidence to support or refute the existence of an interaction relationship between the protein pairs. The amount of evidence provided are then quantified with an information theoretic measure. How likely two proteins may interact with each other are then decided by the total amount of evidence provided by the SASPs found in the protein pairs. To test the effectiveness of VLASPD, we used several sets of real data. The experimental results show that VLASPD can be a promising approach for PPI prediction. The VLASPD is made available for use and testing at http://www.comp.polyu.edu. hk/~cslhu/resources/vlaspd/.
Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Proficiency Testing Trials: Toward European Harmonization of the Typing of Food and Clinical Strains of Listeria monocytogenes.

Abstract The European Union Reference Laboratory for Listeria monocytogenes (EURL for Lm) coordinates a European network of 35 National Reference Laboratories (NRLs), most of which perform food, environmental, and veterinary Lm strain surveillance in their respective countries. The EURL activities resulted in the recent creation of a database (EURL Lm DB). Typing and related epidemiological data submitted to the EURL Lm DB will be collected and shared by all the NRLs. For a given NRL, the only criterion required in order to submit pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiles to the database was the successful participation with at least one EURL PFGE and PFGE profile interpretation Proficiency Testing (PT) trial. In this context, the EURL organized a PT trial in 2012 to evaluate the NRL's ability to perform PFGE and profile interpretation. A total of 18 NRLs took part in this study. Upon request from the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Programme of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 10 National Public Health Reference Laboratories (NPHLs) also took part in this PT trial. Of the 28 participating laboratories, 16 obtained results classified as "good" or "satisfactory. " These 16 laboratories included 10 NRLs (56%) and 6 NPHLs (60%). Of the 22 NRLs and NHPLs that participated in the part of the PT trial related to PFGE profile interpretation, 11 laboratories obtained good results. These 11 laboratories included eight NRLs, which therefore can now submit profiles to the EURL Lm DB. This PT trial provided a valuable opportunity to facilitate and to stimulate the sharing of reproducible PFGE profiles between human and food reference laboratories.