Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Image feature conversion of pathological image for registration with ultrasonic image

In order to analyze the relationship between ultrasonic signal and tissue structure, accurate image registration is required. However, spatial resolution and image features are different between pathological and ultrasonic images. Thus, this paper proposed an image feature conversion method including downscale process using convolutional neural network. The proposed method was applied to the pathological images and we confirmed that the converted pathological images were similar to the ultrasonic images from visual assessment and image registration was also successfully conducted.
Changes in lipid composition of Escherichia coli resulting from growth with organic solvents and with food additives

Cells of Escherichia coli contain an altered fatty acid and phospholipid composition when grown in the presence of sublethal concentrations of a variety of organic solvents and food additives. The diversity of compounds examined which caused these changes indicates that no single catabolic pathway is involved. Many of the observed changes are consistent with the hypothesis that cells adapt their membrane lipids to compensate for the presence of these compounds in the environment. Both sodium benzoate and calcium propionate caused the synthesis of unusual fatty acids.
WSWDC: VLC Enabled Wireless Small-World Data Centers

The Visible Light Communication (VLC) has the potential to provide dense and fast connectivity at low cost. In this paper, we propose WSWDC, a novel VLC enabled wireless small-world data center. It employs VLC links to achieve a fully wireless data center network (DCN) across racks for the first time. The using of VLC links eliminates hierarchical switches and inter-rack cables, and thus reducing hardware investment, as well as maintenance cost. More precisely, to simplify the configuration and control operations, we propose three DCN design rationales: (1) fully-wireless, all inter-rack links are wireless; (2) easy-deployable, it is not necessary to change the existing infrastructure inside data center; (3) plug-and-play, no extra centralized control operations are required. Previous proposals, however, cannot achieve the three rationales simultaneously. To this end, we first use regular VLC links to interconnect racks as a regular grid DCN. To further exploiting the benefits of VLC links, a few random VLC links are carefully introduced to update the wireless grid DCN as a wireless small-world DCN. To avoid the potential interference among VLC links, we deploy VLC transceivers at different height on the top of each rack. In this way, VLC links would not interfere with others at each height level. Moreover, we design a greedy but efficient routing method for any pair of racks using their identifiers as inputs. Comprehensive evaluation results indicate that our WSWDC exhibits good network performance.
Axiomatic Foundations and Algorithms for Deciding Semantic Equivalences of SQL Queries

Deciding the equivalence of SQL queries is a fundamental problem in data management. As prior work has mainly focused on studying the theoretical limitations of the problem, very few implementations for checking such equivalences exist. In this paper, we present a new formalism and implementation for reasoning about the equivalences of SQL queries. Our formalism, U-semiring, extends SQL's semiring semantics with unbounded summation and duplicate elimination. U-semiring is defined using only very few axioms and can thus be easily implemented using proof assistants such as Lean for automated query reasoning. Yet, they are sufficient enough to enable us reason about sophisticated SQL queries that are evaluated over bags and sets, along with various integrity constraints. To evaluate the effectiveness of U-semiring, we have used it to formally verify 68 equivalent queries and rewrite rules from both classical data management research papers and real-world SQL engines, where many of them have never been proven correct before.
Enhanced Bandwidth Artificial Magnetic Ground Plane for Low-Profile Antennas

In this letter, it is shown that using magneto-dielectric materials as substrate can increase the in-phase reflection bandwidth of electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures. To show this, a compact wideband EBG structure is designed and simulated. The numerical results show that this EBG has an in-phase reflection bandwidth of 70% which is several times greater than a conventional EBG resonating at the same frequency. Additionally, the new EBG surface has a smaller cell size, an important feature in the design of small antennas. As a demonstration of the effectiveness of the new structure, a low-profile unidirectional spiral antenna is designed to operate from 8 to 18 GHz. The improvement in the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) and gain of this antenna is presented while comparison is made to the case when using conventional EBG surface.
THE ROLE OF THE RETINOBLASTOMA PROTEIN IN mTINAL DEVELOPMENT

Although RB1 was the first turnor suppressor gene identified, its role during retinal development is poorly understood. We first attempted to determine this by performing in vivo misexpression studies in the post-natal rat retina. Retroviral lineage analysis revealed that clone size in pRB-infected eyes was significantly reduced when compared to control eyes. This suggested that pRB has a role in regulating progenitor ce11 cycle in the developing retina. The results fiom in vivo misexpression studies also suggested a possible pRB involvement in ce11 fate determination ancUor re-specification, but more expenments must be performed before concluding this. In vitro rescue experiments with the RB-'retina is the second expenmental approach that rnay help us clai@ the role of pRB in retinal development. To this end, we established a retinal culturing protocol wherein development itz vitro mimics that in vivo, thus laying the groundwork for future rescue expenments in the RB" retina. This study presents significant findings that may help us elucidate the role pRB plays during retinal development.
Adaptive sliding mode control for spacecraft formation flying with thruster faults

This paper studies the problem of spacecraft formation flying control with external disturbance and thruster faults. The Clohessy-Wiltshire equation without linearization is employed to describe the relative dynamic model. An adaptive sliding mode control scheme is designed to eliminate the effects of the thruster faults and external disturbances, such that the reachability of the proposed integral sliding surface is ensured. Finally, a numerical example is established to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.
Design and Application of NFC-Based Identity and Access Management in Cloud Services

 Abstract — In response to a changing world and the fast growth of the Internet, more and more enterprises are replacing web-based services with cloud-based ones. Multi-tenancy technology is becoming more important especially with Software as a Service (SaaS). This in turn leads to a greater focus on the application of Identity and Access Management (IAM). Conventional Near-Field Communication (NFC) based verification relies on a computer browser and a card reader to access an NFC tag. This type of verification does not support mobile device login and user-based access management functions. This study designs an NFC-based third-party cloud identity and access management scheme (NFC-IAM) addressing this shortcoming. Data from simulation tests analyzed with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) suggest that the NFC-IAM not only takes less time in identity identification but also cuts time by 80% in terms of two-factor authentication and improves verification accuracy to 99.9% or better. In functional performance analyses, NFC-IAM performed better in salability and portability. The NFC-IAM App (Application Software) and back-end system to be developed and deployed in mobile device are to support IAM features and also offers users a more user-friendly experience and stronger security protection. In the future, our NFC-IAM can be employed to different environments including identification for mobile payment systems, permission management for remote equipment monitoring, among other applications.
Bidirectional Increase in Permeability of Nuclear Envelope upon Poliovirus Infection and Accompanying Alterations of Nuclear Pores

ABSTRACT Poliovirus and some other picornaviruses trigger relocation of certain nuclear proteins into the cytoplasm. Here, by using a protein changing its fluorescence color with time and containing a nuclear localization signal (NLS), we demonstrate that the poliovirus-triggered relocation is largely due to the exit of presynthesized nuclear protein into the cytoplasm. The leakiness of the nuclear envelope was also documented by the inability of nuclei from digitonin-permeabilized, virus-infected (but not mock-infected) cells to retain an NLS-containing derivative of green fluorescent protein (GFP). The cytoplasm-to-nucleus traffic was also facilitated during infection, as evidenced by experiments with GAPDH (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase), cyclin B1, and an NLS-lacking derivative of GFP, which are predominantly cytoplasmic in uninfected cells. Electron microscopy demonstrated that a bar-like barrier structure in the channel of the nuclear pores, seen in uninfected cells, was missing in the infected cells, giving the impression of fully open pores. Transient expression of poliovirus 2A protease also resulted in relocation of the nuclear proteins. Lysates from poliovirus-infected or 2A-expressing cells induced efflux of 3×EGFP-NLS from the nuclei of permeabilized uninfected cells. This activity was inhibited by the elastase inhibitors elastatinal and N-(methoxysuccinyl)-l-alanyl-l-alanyl-l-prolyl-l-valine chloromethylketone (drugs known also to be inhibitors of poliovirus protease 2A), a caspase inhibitor zVAD(OMe), fmk, and some other protease inhibitors. These data suggest that 2A elicited nuclear efflux, possibly in cooperation with a zVAD(OMe). fmk-sensitive protease. However, poliovirus infection facilitated nuclear protein efflux also in cells deficient in caspase-3 and caspase-9, suggesting that the efflux may occur without the involvement of these enzymes. The biological relevance of nucleocytoplasmic traffic alterations in infected cells is discussed.
RING: NUMA-Aware Message-Batching Runtime for Data-Intensive Applications

We present RING, a NUMA-aware Message-batching runtime system for in-memory data-intensive applications. This library allows users to focus on developing algorithms for big data analysis, rather than wrestling with synchronization, data consistency, and memory management. The goal of RING is to improve efficiency mainly for irregular applications, which means less CPU stall on local or remote memory access. RING adopts partitioned global address space (PGAS) model to manage the memory and leverages one-sided RDMA verbs to directly write the message into the NUMA-aware buffer in the remote node. A coroutine yields after posting a long-latency request, allowing considerable overlap of computation and communication. We compare our design with Grappa [21], the state-of-the-art DSM runtime. The experimental results show that RING is 42%˜85% faster than Grappa on RandomAccess benchmark, and 1.4x˜3.7x faster than Grappa on several graph benchmarks.
L0 norm restricted LIC with ADMM

LIC (Local Intensity Compensation) is an intra-frame motion compensation for video coding, and was a candidate for HEVC. To obtain reference blocks and their coefficients in linear combination, Inoue et al. have applied AHIT (Accelerated Hard Iterative Thresholding) as a solver. However, this algorithm is heuristic; then, this paper proposes to use a sophisticated convex optimization solver ADMM (Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers). Experimental results demonstrate that our method provides higher PSNR values in the same reference block numbers than the conventional method.
Potential of Microbial Solubilization of Rock Phosphate for Use in Sustainable Agriculture: Does Biochar Application Enhance Microbial Solubilization?

The present study was carried out to investigate the strategies for microbial solubilization of Eppawala rock phosphate in Sri Lanka as an alternative to chemical acidulation by using biochar and microbial inoculants. A pot experiment was carried out in the plant house at Faculty of Applied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Mihintale, Sri Lanka. The treatments were different combinations of field soil, biochar, mycorrhizae and Pseudomonas fluorescens with rock phosphate (RP). The experimental treatments were arranged in a completely randomized block design (CRBD) with eight replicates and the treatment means were compared by the Tukey’s test (p<0.05). The soil available phosphorus (P) and leaf P were estimated after 120 days of growing maize in pots. Total bacterial and fungal counts of the soil and mycorrhizal colonization were also estimated. Results showed that the highest available soil phosphorus was observed in biochar, mycorrhizae and P. fluorescens addition with 3% RP and highest leaf phosphorus was observed in biochar and Original Research Article Jayawardhane and Yapa; JAMB, 8(2): 1-8, 2018; Article no.JAMB. 32544 2 mycorrhizae with 3% RP. The addition of biochar to the soil containing RP caused a significant increase (p<0.05) of solubilized P in soil. These results suggested that biochar can be used to enhance microbial RP solubilization and mycorrhizae inoculants to increase P uptake. Significantly high bacterial count and fungal count were observed in biochar, P. fluorescens and RP added and mycorrhizae, P. fluorescens and RP treatments respectively. Greater efficiency of P solubilizing bacteria has shown with the addition of biochar and through co-inoculation with mycorrhizae. Findings of this research increase the prospects of using biochar and P solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) including P. fluorescens and mycorrhizae for RP solubilization.
Identification of Highly Potent and Selective α-Glucosidase Inhibitors with Antiglycation Potential , Isolated from Rhododendron arboreum

This study explored antidiabetic potential of eight known pure compounds, isolated from the bark of Rhododendron arboreum. In vitro studies of these compounds against α and β-glucosidases revealed them as very potent and selective inhibitors of α-glucosidase. Compound 7 (3-O-acetylursolic acid) was found to be the most potent inhibitor of α-glucosidase with 3.3±0. 1μM IC50 value which was many folds higher than standard inhibitor acarbose. Antiglycation studies of compounds showed that all compounds were also very active antiglycation agents. The studied biological properties of these compounds suggest that they are therapeutically interesting and important tools for treatment of diabetes.
Context-dependent male mate choice: the effects of competitor presence and competitor size

Differences in the intensity of male–male competition for high- and low-quality females affect their value as mates. This can favor the evolution of mating preferences that vary with inherent male competitiveness and/or context-dependent mate choice. In the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) we investigated how a male's choice of mate is influenced by his absolute size when alone (baseline mating preference) and by the presence and relative size of a competitor (context dependent). In standard 2-choice mating trials, we compared the time in association with the larger of 2 females in: 1) the absence of a rival; 2) the presence of a same-sized rival, and 3) the presence of a different-sized rival. We predicted which female the focal male would choose based on his estimated reproductive success. In all 3 social contexts, large and small focal males spent significantly more time with large females, but large males had a stronger association bias, indicating an effect of male size (competitiveness) on male mating preference. In contrast, neither the presence of a competitor nor his relative size affected the time the focal male spent with the large female. There was therefore no evidence that males facultatively adjust mate choice decisions to avoid competitors. This suggests that males do not maximize their expected reproductive success in the context of the current social setting.
Comparison of EEG signals during alert and sleep inertia states using fractal dimension

Human performances are reported to decrease during the period of sleep-to-wake transition, which is called sleep inertia. Lack of awareness of the performance impairment during this state may lead us to make mistakes, especially during driving. This study aims to investigate the difference in the electroencephalography (EEG) signals between alert and sleep inertia during eyes-closed condition based on fractal dimension and examine the differences between Fz, Cz, Pz, FCz and Oz. Nine healthy subjects had performed two sessions of the experiment; alert and sleep inertia. To obtain the sleep inertia state, subjects were needed to sleep in the provided room and the EEG signals were recorded and monitored by the researcher. Subjects were awakened from sleep after they reached the stage 3 of the first cycle of sleep for five minutes to reduce the inter-individual variation in the EEG signal. Each EEG signal were analyzed based on its fractal dimension estimated using Higuchi's algorithm. A kmax parameter of 80 has been selected for analyzing every 60 seconds of the signal with 512 Hz sampling rate. To support this analysis, a power spectrum of each signal was obtained and the correlation with the fractal dimension can be determined. The differences of fractal dimension and power spectrum between alert and sleep inertia state have been tested statistically using t-test. Fractal dimension estimated in sleep inertia EEG signal was higher than alert state and there were significant differences at Fz. Based on spectrum power, delta, theta and alpha power showed a significant difference at Fz and FCz. The significant difference of fractal dimension and delta, theta and alpha power found at Fz and FCz during eyes closed may be associated with the impairment of subject performances which related to the brain regions' functions.
Dissecting the major African snake radiation: a molecular phylogeny of the Lamprophiidae Fitzinger (Serpentes, Caenophidia)

The Elapoidea includes the Elapidae and a large (~60 genera, 280 sp.) and mostly African (including Madagascar) radiation termed Lamprophiidae by Vidal et al. (2007), that includes at least four major groups: the psammophiines, atractaspidines, lamprophiines and pseudoxyrhophiines. In this work, we reviewed the recent taxonomic history of the lamprophiids, and built a data set including two nuclear protein-coding genes (c-mos and RAG2), two mitochondrial rRNA genes (12S and 16S rRNA) and two mitochondrial protein-coding genes (cytochrome b and ND4) for 85 species belonging to 45 genera (thus representing about 75% of the generic diversity and 30% of the specific diversity of the radiation), in order to clarify the phylogenetic relationships of this large and neglected group at the subfamilial and generic levels. To this aim, 480 new sequences were produced. The vast majority of the investigated genera fall into four main monophyletic clusters, that correspond to the four subfamilies mentioned above, although the content of atractaspidines, lamprophiines and pseudoxyrhophiines is revised. We confirm the polyphyly of the genus Stenophis, and the relegation of the genus name Dromophis to the synonymy of the genus name Psammophis. Gonionotophis brussauxi is nested within Mehelya. The genus Lamprophis Fitzinger, 1843 is paraphyletic with respect to Lycodonomorphus Fitzinger, 1843. Lamprophis swazicus is the sister-group to Hormonotus modestus, and may warrant generic recognition. Molecular data do not support the traditional placement of Micrelaps within the Atractaspidinae, but its phylogenetic position, along with that of Oxyrhabdium (previously considered to belong to the Xenodermatidae), requires additional molecular data and they are both treated as Elapoidea incertae sedis. The interrelationships of Psammophiinae, Atractaspidinae, Lamprophiinae, Pseudoxyrhophiinae, Prosymna (13 sp.), Pseudaspis (1 sp.) and Pythonodipsas (1 sp.), Buhoma (2 species), and Psammodynastes (1 sp.) remain unresolved. Finally, the genus Lycognathophis, endemic to the Seychelles, does not belong to the African radiation, but to the Natricidae.
The Structure of Cultural Identity in an Ethnically Diverse Sample of Emerging Adults

The present study was designed to examine the structure of cultural identity in the United States, both across variables and across persons. An ethnically diverse sample of 349 emerging-adult university students completed measures of orientation toward American and heritage cultural practices, acculturation strategies, individualism-collectivism, independence-interdependence, ethnic identity, and familism. Across variables, results of factor-analytic procedures yielded three dimensions of cultural identity: American-culture identity, heritage-culture identity, and biculturalism. This factor structure was consistent across the three largest ethnic groups in the sample (Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics). Ethnic differences emerged in the associations of these cultural identity factors to familial ethnic socialization, acculturative stress, and perceived ethnic discrimination. Across persons, cluster-analytic procedures revealed two groups of participants–those who endorsed American-culture identity highly and those who endorsed both American and heritage cultures highly. Implications for theory and for further research are discussed.
Assessment of Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Essential Oil and Extracts of Boswellia carteri Resin

The present study aimed to investigate the chemical composition of essential oil (EO) and the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of methanol extract (Me-OH), ethyl acetate extract (ETOAC) and EO of B. carteri resin. Using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), 40 components were identified in B. carteri resin essential oils, and the most abundant components were, verticiol (14.48 %), isobutylcyclopentane (12.25 %) and n-octyl acetate (9.20 %). The Me-OH extract exhibited the highest antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging, Fe chelating and the reducing power assays compared to ETOAC extract and EO. Also, the Me-OH extract showed the highest antimicrobial activity against all the tested bacterial and yeast microorganisms compared to ETOAC extract and EO. The Me-OH and ETOAC extracts exhibited the highest antimicrobial activity against Streptococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus circulans with MIC value 25μg/ml. In conclusion, Me-OH and ETOAC extracts as well as EO of B. carteri resin may be considered as a natural source for antimicrobial and antioxidant agents and could be used for application in pharmaceutical and food industries.