Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DPI Solutions in Practice: Benchmark and Comparison

Having a clear insight on the protocols carrying traffic is crucial for network applications. Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) has been a key technique to provide visibility into traffic. DPI has proven effective in various scenarios, and indeed several open source DPI solutions are maintained by the community. Yet, these solutions provide different classifications, and it is hard to establish a common ground truth. Independent works approaching the question of the quality of DPI are already aged and rely on limited datasets. Here, we test if open source DPI solutions can provide useful information in practical scenarios, e.g., supporting security applications. We provide an evaluation of the performance of four open-source DPI solutions, namely nDPI, Libprotoident, Tstat and Zeek. We use datasets covering various traffic scenarios, including operational networks, IoT scenarios and malware. As no ground truth is available, we study the consistency of classification across the solutions, investigating rootcauses of conflicts. Important for on-line security applications, we check whether DPI solutions provide reliable classification with a limited number of packets per flow. All in all, we confirm that DPI solutions still perform satisfactorily for well-known protocols. They however struggle with some P2P traffic and security scenarios (e.g., with malware traffic). All tested solutions reach a final classification after observing few packets with payload, showing adequacy for on-line applications.
Understanding Noise Injection in GANs

Noise injection has been proved to be one of the key technique advances in generating high-fidelity images. Despite its successful usage in GANs, the mechanism of its validity is still unclear. In this paper, we propose a geometric framework to theoretically analyze the role of noise injection in GANs. Based on Riemannian geometry, we successfully model the noise injection framework as fuzzy equivalence on the geodesic normal coordinates. Guided by our theories, we find that the existing method is incomplete and a new strategy for noise injection is devised. Experiments on image generation and GAN inversion demonstrate the superiority of our method.
High-Efficiency High Voltage Hybrid Charge Pump Design With an Improved Chip Area

A hybrid charge pump was developed in a 0.13- $\mu \text{m}$ Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process which utilised high drain-source voltage MOS devices and low-voltage integrated metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors. The design consisted of a zero-reversion loss cross-coupled stage and a new self-biased serial-parallel charge pump design. The latter has been shown to have an area reduction of 60% in comparison to a Schottky diode-based Dickson charge pump operating at the same frequency. Post-layout simulations were carried out which demonstrated a peak efficiency of 38% at the output voltage of 18.5 V; the maximum specified output voltage of 27 V was also achieved. A standalone serial-parallel charge pump was shown to have a better transient response and a flatter efficiency curve; these are preferable for time-sensitive applications with a requirement of a broader range of output currents. These findings have significant implications for reducing the total area of implantable high-voltage devices without sacrificing charge pump efficiency or maximum output voltage.
A Mobility-Aware and Sociality-Associate Computation Offloading Strategy for IoT

Mobile edge computing, a promising paradigm, brings services closer to a user by leveraging the available resources in an edge network. The crux of MEC is to reasonably allocate resources to satisfy the computing requirements of each node in the network. In this paper, we investigate the service migration problem of the offloading scheme in a power-constrained network consisting of multiple mobile users and fixed edge servers. We propose an affinity propagation-based clustering-assisted offloading scheme by taking into account the users’ mobility prediction and sociality association between mobile users and edge servers. The clustering results provide the candidate edge servers, which greatly reduces the complexity of observing all edge servers and decreases the rate of service migration. Besides, the available resource of candidate edge servers and the channel conditions are considered to optimize the offloading scheme to guarantee the quality of service. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that our offloading strategy can enhance the data processing capability of power-constrained networks and reach computing load balance.
Suicidality Presented to a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Emergency Service: Increasing Rate and Changing Characteristics

Background: Children and adolescents who present to child and adolescent psychiatric emergency departments show a variety of reasons for their presentations. Suicidality, in particular suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, as well as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) play a large and important role. In this context, inpatient admissions frequently serve as crisis intervention. Methods: In this study, face-to-face emergency presentations to the emergency department at our Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) were analyzed over the years 2014-2018, the 4th quarter (October-December) of each year. Data from 902 emergency presentations were evaluated, primarily with regard to suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and NSSI as reasons for presentation. Results: Data demonstrated that the number of emergency presentations increased in general and especially for suicidal thoughts and NSSI as reasons for presentation. In addition, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and NSSI as reasons for emergency presentation were more likely to result in crisis-related inpatient admissions. Furthermore, reporting suicide attempts at emergency presentation was associated with longer inpatient stays. Finally, cases with multiple diagnoses increased independent of the general increase in emergency presentations. Conclusion: The increase of utilization of clinics with CAP outpatient emergency patients and following admissions to the inpatient units for crisis intervention poses a major challenge for the future. It is important to prepare for the assessment and treatment of suicidality, which is of extraordinary importance in the care of emergency patients.
Time-Varying Light Exposure in Chronobiology and Sleep Research Experiments

Light exposure profoundly affects human physiology and behavior through circadian and neuroendocrine photoreception primarily through the melanopsin-containing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. Recent research has explored the possibility of using temporally patterned stimuli to manipulate circadian and neuroendocrine responses to light. This mini-review, geared to chronobiologists, sleep researchers, and scientists in adjacent disciplines, has two objectives: (1) introduce basic concepts in time-varying stimuli and (2) provide a checklist-based set of recommendations for documenting time-varying light exposures based on current best practices and standards.
Developing C2-Aroyl Indoles as Novel Inhibitors of IDO1 and Understanding Their Mechanism of Inhibition via Mass Spectroscopy, QM/MM Calculations and Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO1) and tryptophan dioxygenases are two heme based metalloenzymes that catalyze the tryptophan oxidation reaction by inserting molecular dioxygen to cleave the pyrrole ring. The mechanism of such ring cleavage reaction is of carcinogenic importance as the malignant tumors recruit this mechanism for immune invasion. In the presence study, we have synthesized a Novel C2 aroyl indoles inhibitor, 8d, which shows significant inhibition of 180 nM at IC50 scale. The binding and conformational changes that transpire after inhibitor binding were thoroughly studied by molecular docking and MD simulations. The subsequent QM/MM (Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical) calculations were used to proposed the mechanism of inhibition. The QM/MM calculations show that the reaction proceeds via multistep processes where the dioxygen insertion to the substrate 8a is the rate determining process. Theoretical mechanism is further supported by mass spectroscopy, and drug metabolism/pharmacokinetics study (DMPK) and metabolic stability of compound 8d was investigated in rat and human liver microsomes.
How to Arrange Follow-Up Time-Intervals for Longitudinal Brain MRI Studies in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Background Longitudinal brain MRI monitoring in neurodegeneration potentially provides substantial insights into the temporal dynamics of the underlying biological process, but is time- and cost-intensive and may be a burden to patients with disabling neurological diseases. Thus, the conceptualization of follow-up time-intervals in longitudinal MRI studies is an essential challenge and substantial for the results. The objective of this work is to discuss the association of time-intervals and the results of longitudinal trends in the frequently used design of one baseline and two follow-up scans. Methods Different analytical approaches for calculating the linear trend of longitudinal parameters were studied in simulations including their performance of dealing with outliers; these simulations were based on the longitudinal striatum atrophy in MRI data of Huntington’s disease patients, detected by atlas-based volumetry (ABV). Results For the design of one baseline and two follow-up visits, the simulations with outliers revealed optimum results for identical time-intervals between baseline and follow-up scans. However, identical time-intervals between the three acquisitions lead to the paradox that, depending on the fit method, the first follow-up scan results do not influence the final results of a linear trend analysis. Conclusions This theoretical study analyses how the design of longitudinal imaging studies with one baseline and two follow-up visits influences the results. Suggestions for the analysis of longitudinal trends are provided.
Factors Associated With Response to Pilot Home-Based Light Therapy for Fatigue Following Traumatic Brain Injury and Stroke

Background: Fatigue and sleep disturbance are common and debilitating problems after brain injury. Light therapy shows promise as a potential treatment. We conducted a trial of in-home light therapy to alleviate fatigue and sleep disturbance. The aim of the current study was to identify factors moderating treatment response. Methods: Participants were 24 individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) (n = 19) or stroke (n = 5) reporting clinically significant fatigue. Outcomes included fatigue on Brief Fatigue Inventory (primary outcome), sleep disturbance on Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, reaction time (RT) on Psychomotor Vigilance Task and time spent in productive activity. Interactions of demographic and clinical variables with these outcomes were examined in linear mixed-model analyses. Results: Whilst there were no variables found to be significantly associated with change in our primary outcome of fatigue, some variables revealed medium or large effect sizes, including chronotype, eye color, injury severity as measured by PTA, and baseline depressive symptoms. Chronotype significantly moderated sleep quality, with evening chronotype being associated with greater improvement during treatment. Injury type significantly predicted mean RT, with stroke participants exhibiting greater post-treatment reduction than TBI. Age significantly predicted productive activity during Treatment, with younger participants showing stronger Treatment effect. Conclusion: Light therapy may have a greater impact on sleep in younger individuals and those with an evening chronotype. Older individuals may need higher treatment dose to achieve benefit. Clinical Trial Registration: www.anzctr. org.au, identifier: ACTRN12617000866303.
Identification, Characterization, and Expression Profile Analysis of the mTERF Gene Family and Its Role in the Response to Abiotic Stress in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Plant mitochondrial transcription termination factor (mTERF) family regulates organellar gene expression (OGE) and is functionally characterized in diverse species. However, limited data are available about its functions in the agriculturally important cereal barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). In this study, we identified 60 mTERFs in the barley genome (HvmTERFs) through a comprehensive search against the most updated barley reference genome, Morex V2. Then, phylogenetic analysis categorized these genes into nine subfamilies, with approximately half of the HvmTERFs belonging to subfamily IX. Members within the same subfamily generally possessed conserved motif composition and exon-intron structure. Both segmental and tandem duplication contributed to the expansion of HvmTERFs, and the duplicated gene pairs were subjected to strong purifying selection. Expression analysis suggested that many HvmTERFs may play important roles in barley development (e.g., seedlings, leaves, and developing inflorescences) and abiotic stresses (e.g., cold, salt, and metal ion), and HvmTERF21 and HvmTERF23 were significant induced by various abiotic stresses and/or phytohormone treatment. Finally, the nucleotide diversity was decreased by only 4.5% for HvmTERFs during the process of barley domestication. Collectively, this is the first report to characterize HvmTERFs, which will not only provide important insights into further evolutionary studies but also contribute to a better understanding of the potential functions of HvmTERFs and ultimately will be useful in future gene functional studies.
Combining Genome-Wide Gene Expression Analysis (RNA-seq) and a Gene Editing Platform (CRISPR-Cas9) to Uncover the Selectively Pro-oxidant Activity of Aurone Compounds Against Candida albicans

Candida albicans is the major fungal cause of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections worldwide with a 40% mortality rate. The scarcity of antifungal treatments due to the eukaryotic origin of fungal cells has challenged the development of selectively antifungal drugs. In an attempt to identify novel antifungal agents, aurones SH1009 and SH9051, as synthetically bioactive compounds, have been recently documented as anti-Candida agents. Since the molecular mechanisms behind the inhibitory activities of these aurones in C. albicans are unclear, this study aimed to determine the comprehensive cellular processes affected by these aurones and their molecular targets. Genome-wide transcriptional analysis of SH1009- and SH9051-treated C. albicans revealed uniquely repressed expression in different metabolic pathways, particularly trehalose and sulfur amino acid metabolic processes for SH1009 and SH9051, respectively. In contrast, the most commonly enriched process for both aurones was the up-regulation of RNA processing and ribosomal cleavages as an indicator of high oxidative stress, suggesting that a common aspect in the chemical structure of both aurones led to pro-oxidative properties. Additionally, uniquely induced responses (iron ion homeostasis for SH1009 and arginine biosynthesis for SH9051) garnered attention on key roles for the aurone functional groups. Deletion of the transcription factor for the trehalose biosynthesis pathway, Tye7p, resulted in an SH1009-resistant mutant, which also exhibited low trehalose content, validating the primary molecular target of SH1009. Aurone SH9051 uniquely simulated an exogenous supply of methionine or cysteine, leading to sulfur amino acid catabolism as evidenced by quantifying an overproduction of sulfite. Phenyl aurone, the common structure of aurones, contributed proportionally in the pro-oxidative activity through ferric ion reduction effects leading to high ROS levels. Our results determined selective and novel molecular mechanisms for aurone SH1009 and also elucidated the diverse cellular effects of different aurones based on functional groups.
Super-Enhancer Induced IL-20RA Promotes Proliferation/Metastasis and Immune Evasion in Colorectal Cancer

Unveiling key oncogenic events in malignancies is the key to improving the prognosis and therapeutic outcome of malignancies. Lines of evidence have shown that super-enhancers control the expression of genes that determine the cell fate, but the oncogenic super-enhancers in colorectal cancer (CRC) and their impact on carcinogens remain largely unexplored. Here, we identified a new oncogenic super-enhancer-regulated gene, IL-20RA, in CRC. Using the integrative analysis of H3K27ac ChIP-seq and RNA-seq in CRC tumors and normal colon tissues, we obtained a series of oncogenic super-enhancers in CRC. We found that super-enhancer inhibition by JQ-1 or iBET-151 suppressed the growth of tumor cells and inhibited the expression of IL-20RA. We found that IL-20RA was highly expressed in the tumor tissue of CRC and related to the advanced stage. Further functional studies showed that knockdown of IL-20RA inhibited the growth and metastasis of CRC. In addition, we found that IL-20RA was involved in regulating oncogenic and immune pathways and affecting the expression of genes related to cell proliferation and immune evasion in CRC. Together, our study demonstrated a novel oncogene in CRC and shed new light on oncogenic super-enhancer contributions to cell proliferation and immune escape.
The Effects of Virtual Reality on Procedural Pain and Anxiety in Pediatrics: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Distraction and procedural preparation techniques are frequently used to manage pain and anxiety in children undergoing medical procedures. An increasing number of studies have indicated that Virtual Reality (VR) can be used to deliver these interventions, but treatment effects vary greatly. The present study is a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that have used VR to reduce procedural pain and anxiety in children. It is the first meta-analytic assessment of the potential influence of technical specifications (immersion) and degree of user-system interactivity on treatment effects. 65 studies were identified, of which 42 reported pain outcomes and 35 reported anxiety outcomes. Results indicate large effect sizes in favor of VR for both outcomes. Larger effects were observed in dental studies and studies that used non-interactive VR. No relationship was found between the degree of immersion or participant age and treatment effects. Most studies were found to have a high risk of bias and there are strong indications of publication bias. The results and their implications are discussed in context of these limitations, and modified effect sizes are suggested. Finally, recommendations for future investigations are provided.
Intrinsic Network Brain Dysfunction Correlates With Temporal Complexity in Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD) are the two severe subtypes of anxiety disorders (ADs), which are similar in clinical manifestation, pathogenesis, and treatment. Earlier studies have taken a whole-brain perspective on GAD and PD in the assumption that intrinsic fluctuations are static throughout the entire scan. However, it has recently been suggested that the dynamic alternations in functional connectivity (FC) may reflect the changes in macroscopic neural activity patterns underlying the critical aspects of cognition and behavior, and thus may act as biomarkers of disease. Methods: In this study, the resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) data were collected from 26 patients with GAD, 22 patients with PD, and 26 healthy controls (HCs). We investigated dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) by using the group spatial independent component analysis, a sliding window approach, and the k-means clustering methods. For group comparisons, the temporal properties of DFC states were analyzed statistically. Results: The dynamic analysis demonstrated two discrete connectivity “States” across the entire group, namely, a more segregated State I and a strongly integrated State II. Compared with HCs, patients with both GAD and PD spent more time in the weakly within-network State I, while performing fewer transitions and dwelling shorter in the integrated State II. Additionally, the analysis of DFC strength showed that connections associated with ADs were identified including the regions that belonged to default mode (DM), executive control (EC), and salience (SA) networks, especially the connections between SA and DM networks. However, no significant difference was found between the GAD and PD groups in temporal features and connection strength. Conclusions: More common but less specific alterations were detected in the GAD and PD groups, which implied that they might have similar state-dependent neurophysiological mechanisms and, in addition, could hopefully help us better understand their abnormal affective and cognitive performances in the clinic.
Heterophylly Quantitative Trait Loci Respond to Salt Stress in the Desert Tree Populus euphratica

Heterophylly, or leaf morphological changes along plant shoot axes, is an important indicator of plant eco-adaptation to heterogeneous microenvironments. Despite extensive studies on the genetic control of leaf shape, the genetic architecture of heterophylly remains elusive. To identify genes related to heterophylly and their associations with plant saline tolerance, we conducted a leaf shape mapping experiment using leaves from a natural population of Populus euphratica. We included 106 genotypes grown under salt stress and salt-free (control) conditions using clonal seedling replicates. We developed a shape tracking method to monitor and analyze the leaf shape using principal component (PC) analysis. PC1 explained 42.18% of the shape variation, indicating that shape variation is mainly determined by the leaf length. Using leaf length along shoot axes as a dynamic trait, we implemented a functional mapping-assisted genome-wide association study (GWAS) for heterophylly. We identified 171 and 134 significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in control and stressed plants, respectively, which were annotated as candidate genes for stress resistance, auxin, shape, and disease resistance. Functions of the stress resistance genes ABSCISIC ACIS-INSENSITIVE 5-like (ABI5), WRKY72, and MAPK3 were found to be related to many tolerance responses. The detection of AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR17-LIKE (ARF17) suggests a balance between auxin-regulated leaf growth and stress resistance within the genome, which led to the development of heterophylly via evolution. Differentially expressed genes between control and stressed plants included several factors with similar functions affecting stress-mediated heterophylly, such as the stress-related genes ABC transporter C family member 2 (ABCC2) and ABC transporter F family member (ABCF), and the stomata-regulating and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling gene RESPIRATORY BURST OXIDASE HOMOLOG (RBOH). A comparison of the genetic architecture of control and salt-stressed plants revealed a potential link between heterophylly and saline tolerance in P. euphratica, which will provide new avenues for research on saline resistance-related genetic mechanisms.