Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unconditionally secure searchable encryption

Searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) enables us to search encrypted data with an arbitrarily chosen keyword without leaking information on the data and keyword. SSE is expected to be used in, for example, cloud computing and genome analyses. In particular, privacy of genome data must be guaranteed for long periods, and therefore unconditionally secure cryptographic protocols, rather than computationally secure ones, should be used for protecting genome data. For this reason, we propose new constructions of unconditionally secure SSE schemes in this paper. Specifically, we define a model and security of unconditionally secure SSE, and we show a lower bound on secret-key sizes. We propose two kinds of constructions of unconditionally secure SSE schemes: One is asymptotically optimal in the sense of the secret-key size with some restriction on the security definition; and the other achieves full security at the sacrifice of the secret-key size.
Motion-Compensated Frame Rate Up-Conversion—Part I: Fast Multi-Frame Motion Estimation

Motion-compensated frame rate up-conversion is used to convert video/film materials of low frame rates to a higher frame rate so that the materials can be displayed with smooth motion and high-perceived quality. It consists of two key elements: motion estimation and motion-compensated frame interpolation. It requires accurate motion trajectories to ensure quality results and low computational cost to ensure practical applications. This paper presents a novel motion estimation algorithm that combines the accuracy of maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) estimation with the speed of hierarchical block-matching algorithm (BMA). This MAP estimation uses three consecutive pictures, instead of the conventional two, and one previously estimated motion field to exploit the temporal correlation between motion fields and to determine motion in occluded areas. The optimization of the MAP estimation is performed using full-search and implemented by means of look-up tables. The full search ensures that the optimization converges to the global minimum, while the look-up tables dramatically reduce the computational cost. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm provides motion trajectories that are much more accurate than those obtained using either the full-search BMA or hierarchical BMA alone. Also, it is much faster than the full-search BMA.
Functional Characterization of PaLAX 1 , a Putative Auxin Permease , in Heterologous Plant Systems 1 [ W ] [ OA ]

Institute of Experimental Botany (K.H., L.P., M.L., J.K., E.Z.) and Institute of Molecular Genetics (J.P.), Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ–142 20 Prague 4, Czech Republic; HRI/University of Warwick, Wellesbourne, Warwick CV35 9EF, United Kingdom (P.H., S.M., R.N.); Biological Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v. i. , Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, CZ–370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic (T.K.); and Department of Biochemistry (M.L.) and Department of Plant Physiology (E.Z.), Faculty of Science, Charles University, CZ–128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic
Distinctive Phonetic Feature (DPF) Extraction Based on MLNs and Inhibition/Enhancement Network

This paper describes a distinctive phonetic feature (DPF) extraction method for use in a phoneme recognition system; our method has a low computation cost. This method comprises three stages. The first stage uses two multilayer neural networks (MLNs): MLNLF-DPF, which maps continuous acoustic features, or local features (LFs), onto discrete DPF features, and MLNDyn, which constrains the DPF context at the phoneme boundaries. The second stage incorporates inhibition/enhancement (In/En) functionalities to discriminate whether the DPF dynamic patterns of trajectories are convex or concave, where convex patterns are enhanced and concave patterns are inhibited. The third stage decorrelates the DPF vectors using the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization procedure before feeding them into a hidden Markov model (HMM)-based classifier. In an experiment on Japanese Newspaper Article Sentences (JNAS) utterances, the proposed feature extractor, which incorporates two MLNs and an In/En network, was found to provide a higher phoneme correct rate with fewer mixture components in the HMMs.
Relative potencies of thyroxine and triiodothyronine based on various criteria in thiouracil-treated chickens.

Relative sensitivities of various criteria, which were found to be suitable qualitative indicators of thyroxine and triiodothyronine, were determined by calculating and comparing the amounts of each hormone necessary to maintain the control level of each criterion in thiouracil-treated chicks. Relative sensitivities of the criteria used for determining action of thyroxine were: feather length > rectal temperature > weight of the thyroid > oxygen consumption rate > heart rate > suffocation time; of triiodothyronine: feather length > rectal temperature > suffocation time > thyroid weight > oxygen consumption rate > heart rate. Relative potencies of thyroxine and triiodothyronine were determined by comparing the magnitudes of responses of each of the above criteria to equal or equivalent quantities of these two hormones. Thyroxine and triiodothyronine exhibited equal potency in affecting the above criteria in thiouracil-treated chicks except for a ) antigoiterogenic action in which case thyroxine was more potent than triiodothyronine and possibly b ) elevation of rectal temperature for which action triiodothyronine appeared to be the more potent hormone.
Large Scale Kernel Methods for Online AUC Maximization

Learning to optimize AUC performance for classifying label imbalanced data in online scenarios has been extensively studied in recent years. Most of the existing work has attempted to address the problem directly in the original feature space, which may not suitable for non-linearly separable datasets. To solve this issue, some kernel-based learning methods are proposed for non-linearly separable datasets. However, such kernel approaches have been shown to be inefficient and failed to scale well on large scale datasets in practice. Taking this cue, in this work, we explore the use of scalable kernel-based learning techniques as surrogates to existing approaches: random Fourier features and Nyström method, for tackling the problem and bring insights to the differences between the two methods based on their online performance. In contrast to the conventional kernel-based learning methods which suffer from high computational complexity of the kernel matrix, our proposed approaches elevate this issue with linear features that approximate the kernel function/matrix. Specifically, two different surrogate kernel-based learning models are presented for addressing the online AUC maximization task: (i) the Fourier Online AUC Maximization (FOAM) algorithm that samples the basis functions from a data-independent distribution to approximate the kernel functions; and (ii) the Nyström Online AUC Maximization (NOAM) algorithm that samples a subset of instances from the training data to approximate the kernel matrix by a low rank matrix. Another novelty of the present work is the proposed mini-batch Online Gradient Descent method for model updating to control the noise and reduce the variance of gradients. We provide theoretical analyses for the two proposed algorithms. Empirical studies on commonly used large scale datasets show that the proposed algorithms outperformed existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of both AUC performance and computational efficiency.
An atomic force microscopic study of the ultrastructure of dental enamel afflicted with amelogenesis imperfecta

The ultrastructure of human tooth enamel from a patient diagnosed to have amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) was investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and compared with normal human tooth enamel. AI is a hereditary defect of dental enamel in which the enamel is deficient in either quality or quantity. Tissue-specific proteins, especially amelogenins, have been postulated to play a central role in amelogenesis. The secondary structure of amelogenin has been assigned an important role in directing the architecture of hydroxyapatite (HA) enamel crystallites and an alteration of the secondary structure of amelogenin is expected to result in an altered architecture of the mineral phase in human enamel. Previous studies have shown that the human amelogenin gene encodes for a mutant protein in which a conserved Pro is mutated to a Thr residue (Pro → Thr); such a mutation should be expected to cause a disoriented pattern of the mineral phase in enamel. AFM results presented for the AI tooth enamel clearly demonstrate that the apatite crystal morphology in AI tooth enamel is perturbed in the diseased state; this might result from a defective synthesis of the extracellular matrix proteins, e.g. amelogenin, by the ameloblasts.
CastFlow: Clean-slate multicast approach using in-advance path processing in programmable networks

Multipoint communication is an important requirement for many types of applications such as videoconferencing, IPTV and online radio. However, the division of Internet in autonomous systems hinders the widespread adoption of traditional multicast protocols, which, for using distributed algorithms, delay the group control events processing. This paper proposes a multicast clean-slate approach logically centralized based on programmable networks and anticipated processing for all routes from each possible source, aiming to reduce event delays. A prototype was implemented based on OpenFlow technology. In addition, extensive evaluation was performed and results show promising delays comparable to the requirements of multipoint applications.
Novel Vibrio cholerae O139 genes involved in lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis

The sequence of part of the rfb region of Vibrio cholerae serogroup O139 and the physical map of a 35-kb region of the O139 chromosome have been determined. The O139 rfb region presented contains a number of open reading frames which show similarities to other rfb and capsular biosynthesis genes found in members of the Enterobacteriaceae family and in V. cholerae O1. The cloned and sequenced region can complement the defects in O139 antigen biosynthesis in transposon insertions within the O139 rfb cluster. Linkage is demonstrated among IS1358 of V. cholerae O139, the rfb region, and the recently reported otnA and otnB genes (E. M. Bik, A. E. Bunschoten, R. D. Gouw, and F. R. Mooi, EMBO J. 14:209-216, 1995). In addition, the whole of this region has been linked to the rfaD gene. Furthermore, determination of the sequence flanking IS1358 has revealed homology to other rfb-like genes. The exact site of insertion with respect to rfaD is defined for the novel DNAs of both the Bengal and the Argentinian O139 isolates.
Establishment of a folliculo-stellate-like cell line from a murine thyrotropic pituitary tumor.

An isologously transplantable mouse thyrotropic pituitary tumor (TtTb) that had been induced by radiothyroidectomy was found to form lobules composed of parenchymal glandular cell elements. The surfaces of these lobules were covered by stellate cells bearing long processes that gave a strong immunopositive reaction with a specific antiserum against glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). GFAP was also positive in pituitary folliculo-stellate cells (FS cells). Since in the anterior pituitary gland, no other cellular component showing positive staining with anti-GFAP antibody was observed, it seems probable that the GFAP-positive cells in the thyrotropic tumor are related to the FS cells in the anterior pituitary. Upon cultivation of the thyrotropic tumor, cells with long processes appeared. These cells showed strong staining for GFAP and were dependent on basic fibroblast growth factor for cell growth. By repeated passage, the GFAP-positive cells became a stably growing immortal cell line, which was tentatively named TtT/GF. Since the characteristics of TtT/GF were similar to those of FS cells in the anterior pituitary, i.e. the presence of many lysosomes and numerous intermediate filaments in the cytoplasm, phagocytic activity, follicle formation, and GFAP and S-100 protein positivity, we suggest that TtT/GF cells are derived from pituitary FS cells.
Human colonic epithelial cells, HT29/C1, treated with crude Bacteroides fragilis enterotoxin dramatically alter their morphology

Bacteroides fragilis has been associated with causation of diarrheal disease in livestock and humans. To date, conventional tissue culture and animal assays used to detect the biologic activity of bacterial enterotoxins have failed with enterotoxigenic B. fragilis. Although enterotoxigenic B. fragilis stimulates intestinal secretion in lamb and calf ligated intestinal loops, infant rabbits, and adult rabbits with ligated ceca, these animal systems are costly and complicated, which limits their usefulness for identification of enterotoxigenic B. fragilis strains. Using the cloned human colonic-epithelial-cell line HT29/C1, we have developed an in vitro assay that is 89% sensitive and 100% specific in detecting enterotoxigenic B. fragilis strains as defined by the lamb ligated-intestinal-loop assay. Subconfluent HT29/C1 cells treated with concentrated bacterium-free culture supernatants of enterotoxigenic B. fragilis strains develop specific and striking morphologic changes including loss of cell-to-cell attachments, rounding, swelling, and, in some cases, pyknosis. These morphologic changes are initially visible at 1 h after treatment and progress over at least the first 24 h. This tissue culture assay should prove useful in epidemiologic studies of enterotoxigenic B. fragilis and may facilitate basic studies to identify the B. fragilis toxin(s) and its mechanism of action.
An Application Adaptive Generic Module-based Reflective Framework for Real-time Operating Systems

In low-resource real-time embedded systems, dynamically changing demands of applications in the form of resource requests, strict deadlines, fault recovery, etc. are nondeterministic in nature. It is difficult for the underlying real-time operating system (RTOS) to satisfy such demands of each and every application. There is no single existing solution to overcome this problem. This paper proposes a generic module-based reflective framework for an RTOS that self modifies and adapts itself to the dynamically changing demands of applications.
Toxicity of iron nanoparticles towards primary cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells

Air pollution is a public health issue and the toxicity of ambient particulate matter (PM) is well‐recognized. Although it does not mostly contribute to the total mass of PM, increasing evidence indicates that the ultrafine fraction has generally a greater toxicity than the others do. A better knowledge of the underlying mechanisms involved in the pathological disorders related to nanoparticles (NPs) remains essential. Hence, the goal of this study was to determine better whether the exposure to a relatively low dose of well‐characterized iron‐rich NPs (Fe‐NPs) might alter some critical toxicological endpoints in a relevant primary culture model of human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs). We sought to use Fe‐NPs representative of those frequently found in the industrial smokes of metallurgical industries. After having noticed the effective internalization of Fe‐NPs, oxidative, inflammatory, DNA repair, and apoptotic endpoints were investigated within HBECs, mainly through transcriptional screening. Taken together, these results revealed that, despite it only produced relatively low levels of reactive oxygen species without any significant oxidative damage, low‐dose Fe‐NPs quickly significantly deregulated the transcription of some target genes closely involved in the proinflammatory response. Although this inflammatory process seemed to stay under control over time in case of this acute scenario of exposure, the future study of its evolution after a scenario of repeated exposure could be very interesting to evaluate the toxicity of Fe‐NPs better.
SERCA2 Deficiency Impairs Pancreatic β-Cell Function in Response to Diet-Induced Obesity

The sarcoendoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ ATPase 2 (SERCA2) pump is a P-type ATPase tasked with the maintenance of ER Ca2+ stores. Whereas β-cell SERCA2 expression is reduced in diabetes, the role of SERCA2 in the regulation of whole-body glucose homeostasis has remained uncharacterized. To this end, SERCA2 heterozygous mice (S2HET) were challenged with a high-fat diet (HFD) containing 45% of kilocalories from fat. After 16 weeks of the HFD, S2HET mice were hyperglycemic and glucose intolerant, but adiposity and insulin sensitivity were not different between HFD-fed S2HET mice and HFD-fed wild-type controls. Consistent with a defect in β-cell function, insulin secretion, glucose-induced cytosolic Ca2+ mobilization, and the onset of steady-state glucose-induced Ca2+ oscillations were impaired in HFD-fed S2HET islets. Moreover, HFD-fed S2HET mice exhibited reduced β-cell mass and proliferation, altered insulin production and proinsulin processing, and increased islet ER stress and death. In contrast, SERCA2 activation with a small molecule allosteric activator increased ER Ca2+ storage and rescued tunicamycin-induced β-cell death. In aggregate, these data suggest a critical role for SERCA2 and the regulation of ER Ca2+ homeostasis in the β-cell compensatory response to diet-induced obesity.
THE EFFECTS OF CARBOHYDRATE LOADING ON REPETITIVE JUMP SQUAT POWER PERFORMANCE

The beneficial role of carbohydrate (CHO) supplementation in endurance exercise is well documented. However, only few data are available on the effects of CHO loading on resistance exercise performance. Because of the repetitive use of high-threshold motor units, it was hypothesized that the power output (power-endurance) of multiple sets of jump squats would be enhanced following a high-CHO (6.5 g CHO kg body mass−1) diet compared to a moderate-CHO (4.4 g CHO kg body mass−1) diet. Eight healthy men (mean ± SD: age 26.3 ± 2.6 years; weight 73.0 ± 6.3 kg; body fat 13.4 ± 5.0%; height 178.2 ± 6.1 cm) participated in 2 randomly assigned counterbalanced supplementation periods of 4 days after having their free-living habitual diet monitored. The resistance exercise test consisted of 4 sets of 12 repetitions of maximal-effort jump squats using a Plyometric Power System unit and a load of 30% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM). A 2-minute rest period was used between sets. Immediately before and after the exercise test, a blood sample was obtained to determine the serum glucose and blood lactate concentrations. No significant difference in power performance existed between the 2 diets. As expected, there was a significant (p ≤ 0.05) decrease in power performance between the repetitions in every set. Blood lactate concentrations were significantly higher postexercise with both the high-CHO and the moderate- or lower-CHO diet, but there were no differences between conditions. The results indicated that the power output during multiple sets of maximal jump squats was not enhanced following a higher-CHO diet compared to a moderate- or lower-CHO diet. These data show that elevated carbohydrate intake is not needed to optimize a repetitive power-endurance performance when it is done as the first exercise in a workout.
Planning sonography to assess the feasibility of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinomas.

OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to evaluate the feasibility rate and the reasons for infeasibility of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) at planning sonography. MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively evaluated 248 patients who had been referred for planning sonography at our department between October 2005 and February 2006. We reviewed the radiologic reports of 256 planning sonography examinations in terms of the rate of feasible cases and the reasons for infeasibility. The reasons for infeasibility were classified in six categories: an inconspicuous tumor, an inadequate electrode path, an organ vulnerable to collateral thermal damage, a tumor that was too large or too many tumors, and a high risk of the heat sink effect. In addition, we assessed the treatment modality for the patients who were determined to have HCCs for which percutaneous radiofrequency ablation was not feasible. RESULTS In 141 (55%) of the 256 planning sonography examinations, percutaneous radiofrequency ablation was feasible. The remaining 115 (45%) planning sonography examinations revealed that radiofrequency ablation was not a feasible procedure. The reasons for infeasibility included an inconspicuous tumor in 77 patients (55.8%), an inadequate electrode path in 33 patients (23.9%), an organ vulnerable to collateral thermal damage in 14 patients (10.1%), a tumor that was too large or too many tumors in eight patients (5.8%), a high risk of the heat sink effect in five patients (3.6%), and a portal vein thrombosis in one patient (0.7%). One reason for infeasibility was found in 96 patients, two reasons in 19 patients, and four reasons in one patient. Seventy (61.9%) of 113 patients for whom radiofrequency ablation was not feasible underwent transcatheter arterial chemoembolization as an alternative treatment. CONCLUSION In approximately half of the patients for whom percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of HCC is requested, the procedure is not feasible, mainly due to inconspicuous tumors, at planning sonography. Additional objective criteria for assessing the feasibility of radiofrequency ablation and therapeutic strategies according to the reasons for infeasibility should be investigated further.
Three forms of rat basic fibroblast growth factor are made from a single mRNA and localize to the nucleus

The molecular weight of rat basic fibroblast growth factor is predicted to be 18 kDa when the amino acid sequence is read from the single AUG initiation codon found in the cDNA. DNA sequencing upstream of this AUG codon indicated, however, that there was an extended open reading frame. In vitro translation of the rat cDNA for basic F‐GF gave three proteins of 18.0, 21.5, and 22.0 kDa in equal abundance. The same proteins were produced in vivo by COS cells transfected with the rat cDNA. Deletion of 81 base pairs from the reading frame upstream of the AUG codon resulted in the expression of only one protein observed at 18.0 kDa. These results indicated that the 22.0 and 21.5 kDa forms of rat basic FGF were formed when translation initiates at the alternative upstream non‐AUG codons. Rat cell lines and tissues were found to express all three forms of basic FGF protein. The cDNA was used to analyze the subcellular distribution of the different forms of rat basic FGF. Sub cellular fractionation and immunoflu‐orescence of transfected COS cells showed that all three forms of the protein localized preferentially in the nucleus. Expression of a truncated cDNA from which 81 base pairs (27 amino acids) of the upstream reading frame had been deleted, showed localization of the smaller form of bFGF alone in the nucleus. These results demonstrated that although the amino acids that were deleted from the N‐terminus of rat basic fibroblast growth factor have a sequence characteristic of nuclear localization motifs, they are not obligatory for the transport of the growth factor into the nucleus. Nuclear extracts taken from transfected cells also contained two smaller proteins of 16 and 12 kDa that were detected by Western blot analysis. It is possible that these are proteolytic products of bFGF.