Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase for Renal Health

A soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) mediates the metabolism of epoxy fatty acids to form the corresponding vicinal diols, which are usually inactive or less active than the epoxide substrates. The sEH enzyme presents in many organs, including but not limited to the liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidney. Here we summarized the changes in the expression and activity of sEH in multiple renal diseases, such as acute kidney injury (AKI), diabetic nephrology (DN), chronic kidney diseases (CKD), hypertension-mediated renal damage, and other renal dysfunctions. We also discussed the pharmacologic effects and the underlying mechanisms of sEH inhibition by using an inhibitor of sEH and/or the generic deletion of sEH on multiple renal diseases. We believe that sEH is a potential therapeutic target for renal dysfunction although the target disease needs further investigation.
Host Specificity and Spatial Distribution Preference of Three Pseudomonas Isolates

Plant hosts recruit and maintain a distinct root-associated microbiota based on host and bacterium traits. However, past studies disregarded microbial strain-host specificity and spatial micro-heterogeneity of the root compartment. Using genetic manipulation, confocal laser scanning microscopy, real-time quantitative PCR, and genome sequencing we characterized the colonization patterns of three Pseudomonas spp. isolates native to wheat roots, on the micro-scale. Namely, isolates P. fluorescens NT0133, P. stutzeri NT124, and P. stutzeri NT128. All three isolates preferentially colonized wheat over cucumber roots that served as control for host specificity. Furthermore, not only had the isolates strong host specificity but each isolate had a distinct spatial distribution on the root, all within a few millimeters. Isolate P. stutzeri-NT0124 preferentially colonized root tips, whereas P. fluorescens-NT0133 showed a preference for zones distant from the tip. In contrast, isolate P. stutzeri-NT0128 had no preference for a specific niche on the root. While all isolates maintained genetic potential for motility and biofilm formation their phenotype varied significantly and corresponded to their niche preference. These results demonstrate the importance of spatial colonization patterns, governed by both niche and bacterial characteristics which will have great importance in future attempts to manipulate the plant microbiome by constructing synthetic microbial consortia.
A density-based approach for detecting network-constrained clusters in spatial point events

ABSTRACT Existing spatial clustering methods primarily focus on points distributed in planar space. However, occurrence locations and background processes of most human mobility events within cities are constrained by the road network space. Here we describe a density-based clustering approach for objectively detecting clusters in network-constrained point events. First, the network-constrained Delaunay triangulation is constructed to facilitate the measurement of network distances between points. Then, a combination of network kernel density estimation and potential entropy is executed to determine the optimal neighbourhood size. Furthermore, all network-constrained events are tested under a null hypothesis to statistically identify core points with significantly high densities. Finally, spatial clusters can be formed by expanding from the identified core points. Experimental comparisons performed on the origin and destination points of taxis in Beijing demonstrate that the proposed method can ascertain network-constrained clusters precisely and significantly. The resulting time-dependent patterns of clusters will be informative for taxi route selections in the future.
Ambient Dice

We present a family of basis functions designed to accurately and efficiently represent illumination signals on the unit sphere. The bases are built of locally supported functions, needing three to six basis functions in a given direction. This minimizes the number of memory transactions and bandwidth requirements needed for reconstruction. There are three variations of our basis. All are based on storing coefficients at the 12 vertices of an icosahedron. The first one stores the values directly, together with their directional derivatives and hybrid Bezier patches are used for interpolation. This allows one to achieve quality comparable to 3rd-5th order spherical harmonics while still requiring 27 coefficients for the reconstruction. The second variation encodes the signal in YCoCg space and uses a reduced quality, linear reconstruction for the chromaticity components - requiring only 15 coefficients while marginally reducing the quality. The third option exploits the partition of unity formed by cos2 and cos4 restricted to a hemisphere oriented along the directions of the icosahedron vertices. It uses 18 coefficients for the reconstruction, but trades the additional bandwidth requirements for simpler calculations. The quality of that version is still comparable to 3rd order spherical harmonics (SH). We name the basis Ambient Dice as a reference to both: the Ambient Cube basis - as ours is an extension of some of its properties - and the 20-sided dice commonly used in pen-and-paper role-playing games, which is an icosahedron.
MatCap Decomposition for Dynamic Appearance Manipulation

In sculpting software, MatCaps (a shorthand for "Material Capture") are often used by artists as a simple and efficient way to design appearance. Similar to LitSpheres, they convey material appearance into a single image of a sphere, which can be easily transferred to an individual 3D object. Their main purpose is to capture plausible material appearance without having to specify lighting and material separately. However, this also restricts their usability, since material or lighting cannot later be modified independently. Manipulations as simple as rotating lighting with respect to the view are not possible. In this paper, we show how to decompose a MatCap into a new representation that permits dynamic appearance manipulation. We consider that the material of the depicted sphere act as a filter in the image, and we introduce an algorithm that estimates a few relevant filter parameters interactively. We show that these parameters are sufficient to convert the input MatCap into our new representation, which affords real-time appearance manipulations through simple image re-filtering operations. This includes lighting rotations, the painting of additional reflections, material variations, selective color changes and silhouette effects that mimic Fresnel or asperity scattering.
BitTorrent를 이용한 저작물

Sharing copyrighted files without copyright holder’s permission is illegal. But, a number of illegal file sharers using BitTorrent increase. However, it is difficult to find appropriate digital evidences and legal basis to punish them. And, there are no framework for digital investigation of illegal sharing using BitTorrent. Additionally, role of server in BitTorrent had been reduced than server in conventional P2P. So, It is difficult to apply investigation framework for illegal sharing using conventional P2P to investigation process of illegal sharing using BitTorrent. This paper proposes the methodology about punishing illegal sharer using BitTorrent by suggesting the digital investigation framework
Beating Greedy for Stochastic Bipartite Matching

We consider the maximum bipartite matching problem in stochastic settings, namely the query-commit and price-of-information models. In the query-commit model, an edge e independently exists with probability $p_e$. We can query whether an edge exists or not, but if it does exist, then we have to take it into our solution. In the unweighted case, one can query edges in the order given by the classical online algorithm of Karp, Vazirani, and Vazirani to get a $(1-1/e)$-approximation. In contrast, the previously best known algorithm in the weighted case is the $(1/2)$-approximation achieved by the greedy algorithm that sorts the edges according to their weights and queries in that order. Improving upon the basic greedy, we give a $(1-1/e)$-approximation algorithm in the weighted query-commit model. We use a linear program (LP) to upper bound the optimum achieved by any strategy. The proposed LP admits several structural properties that play a crucial role in the design and analysis of our algorithm. We also extend these techniques to get a $(1-1/e)$-approximation algorithm for maximum bipartite matching in the price-of-information model introduced by Singla, who also used the basic greedy algorithm to give a $(1/2)$-approximation.
A reconfiguration strategy for modular robots using origami folding

Reconfigurability in versatile systems of modular robots is achieved by changing the morphology of the overall structure as well as by connecting and disconnecting modules. Recurrent connectivity changes can cause misalignment that leads to mechanical failure of the system. This paper presents a new approach to reconfiguration, inspired by the art of origami, that eliminates connectivity changes during transformation. Our method consists of an energy-optimal reconfiguration planner that generates an initial 2D assembly pattern and an actuation sequence of the modular units, both resulting in minimum energy consumption. The algorithmic framework includes two approaches, an automatic modeling algorithm as well as a heuristic algorithm. We further demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by applying the algorithms to Mori, a modular origami robot, in simulation. Our results show that the heuristic algorithm yields reconfiguration schemes with high quality, compared with the automatic modeling algorithm, simultaneously saving a considerable amount of computational time and effort.
Adaptive Fuzzy-Based Energy and Delay-Aware Routing Protocol for a Heterogeneous Sensor Network

In a heterogeneous sensor actor network, packet loss may occur due to bad link quality, overflow of buffer, and low energy levels. Retransmission of the lost packets leads to more energy consumption and delay. Ensuring data reliability and minimum delay requirement while improving energy efficiency are challenging issues in a resource-constrained heterogeneous sensor actor network. In this paper, a fuzzy-based delay and energy-aware intelligent routing mechanism has been proposed to select efficient routes. In the proposed mechanism, routing decisions are taken using a fuzzy logic system by considering network resources, such as residual energy, quality of link, available buffer size, and distance (proximity). In a network, a node with higher residual energy, higher free available buffer, good link quality, and close distance (proximity) gets opportunity to become a next hop node in a routing path. Furthermore, network performance has been analyzed with various network states. Simulation has been carried out using Network Simulator 3 by considering performance metrics, such as delay, number of retransmissions, energy consumption, lifetime, and network stability of the network.
Approximating LCS in Linear Time: Beating the √n Barrier

Longest common subsequence (LCS) is one of the most fundamental problems in combinatorial optimization. Apart from theoretical importance, LCS has enormous applications in bioinformatics, revision control systems, and data comparison programs. Although a simple dynamic program computes LCS in quadratic time, it has been recently proven that the problem admits a conditional lower bound and may not be solved in truly subquadratic time. In addition to this, LCS is notoriously hard with respect to approximation algorithms. Apart from a trivial sampling technique that obtains a $n^{x}$ approximation solution in time $O(n^{2-2x})$ nothing else is known for LCS. This is in sharp contrast to its dual problem edit distance for which several linear time solutions are obtained in the past two decades.
Single-Pass Stereoscopic GPU Ray Casting Using Re-Projection Layers

Stereoscopic rendering of volume data for virtual reality applications is costly, as the computation complexity virtually doubles compared to common monoscopic rendering. This paper presents a single-pass stereoscopic GPU volume ray casting technique which significantly reduces the time needed to produce the second view. The approach builds upon previous work on ray segment re-projection techniques for non-parallel software ray casting that is initially inapplicable to GPU ray casting. Following the previous approach, ray casting is only executed for the left view. At the same time, ray segments are re-projected to layers of a texture array which leverages the constraints of the previous approach. In a subsequent compositing pass the layers are blended to produce the final image. Additionally, ways to determine an appropriate set of parameters are presented. Performance experiments show significant time savings on producing the second view over the naive two-pass approach achieving well over 60% speed-up in a typical virtual reality setup. The trade-off is an overhead of memory consumption that is proportional to the number of layers and image resolution and a marginal reduction in image quality. In qualitative experiments, average DSSIM values of less than 1% were recorded.
Constructive Polynomial Partitioning for Algebraic Curves in R3 with Applications

In 2015, Guth proved that, for any set of k-dimensional varieties in Rd and for any positive integer D, there exists a polynomial of degree at most D whose zero-set divides Rd into open connected "cells," so that only a small fraction of the given varieties intersect each cell. Guth's result generalized an earlier result of Guth and Katz for points.Guth's proof relies on a variant of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem, and for k > 0, it is unknown how to obtain an explicit representation of such a partitioning polynomial and how to construct it efficiently. In particular, it is unknown how to effectively construct such a polynomial for curves (or even lines) in R3.We present an efficient algorithmic construction for this setting. Given a set of n input curves and a positive integer D, we efficiently construct a decomposition of space into O(D3 log3D) open cells, each of which meets at most O(n/D2) curves from the input. The construction time is O(n2), where the constant of proportionality depends on D and the maximum degree of the polynomials defining the input curves. For the case of lines in 3-space we present an improved implementation, whose running time is O(n4/3 polylog n). As an application, we revisit the problem of eliminating depth cycles among non-vertical pairwise disjoint triangles in 3-space, recently studied by Aronov et al. (2017) and De Berg (2017). Our main result is an algorithm that cuts n triangles into O(n3/2+e) pieces that are depth cycle free, for any e > 0. The algorithm runs in O(n3/2+e) time, which is nearly worst-case optimal. We also sketch several other applications of our effective partitioning for curves in R3.
Flexible fair and collusion resistant pseudonym providing system

In service providing systems, user authentication is required for different purposes such as billing, restricting unauthorized access, etc., to protect the privacy of users, their real identities should not be linked to the services that they use during authentication. A good solution is to use pseudonyms as temporary identities. On the other hand, it may also be required to have a backdoor in pseudonym systems for identity revealing that can be used by law enforcement agencies for legal reasons. Existing systems that retain a backdoor are either punitive (full user anonymity is revealed), or they are restrictive by revealing only current pseudonym identity of. In addition to that, existing systems are designed for a particular service and may not fit into others. In this paper, we address this gap and we propose a novel pseudonym providing and management system. Our system is flexible and can be tuned to fit into services for different service providers. The system is privacy-preserving and guarantees a level of anonymity for a particular number of users. Trust in our system is distributed among all system entities instead of centralizing it into a single trusted third party. More importantly, our system is highly resistant to collusions among the trusted entities. Our system also has the ability to reveal user identity fairly in case of a request by law enforcement. Analytical and simulation based performance evaluation showed that Collusion Resistant Pseudonym Providing System (CoRPPS) provides high level of anonymity with strong resistance against collusion attacks.
Improving the prediction of learning outcomes in educational platforms including higher level interaction indicators

One of the most investigated questions in education is to know which factors or variables affect learning. The prediction of learning outcomes can be used to act on students in order to improve their learning process. Several studies have addressed the prediction of learning outcomes in intelligent tutoring systems environments with intensive use of exercises, but few of them addressed this prediction in other web‐based environments with intensive use not only of exercises but also, for example, of videos. In addition, most works on prediction of learning outcomes are based on low level indicators such as number of accesses or time spent in resources. In this paper, we approach the prediction of learning gains in an educational experience using a local instance of Khan Academy platform with an intensive use of exercises and taking into account not only low level indicators but also higher level indicators such as students' behaviours. Our proposed regression model is able to predict 68% of the learning gains variability with the use of six variables related to the learning process. We discuss these results providing explanation of the influence of each variable in the model and comparing these results with other prediction models from other works.
Identification and handling of intensifiers for enhancing accuracy of Urdu sentiment analysis

Just like other languages, a large number of intensifiers are used in Urdu language. There may be a single occurrence of an intensifier or there may be multiple consecutive occurrences. While performing sentiment analysis of Urdu text, these intensifiers need special treatment for obtaining more accurate results, which is the main focus of this research work. A wide coverage Urdu sentiment lexicon is developed where intensifiers are identified and placed in a separate file. While developing Urdu sentiment analyser, rules are specifically formulated for assigning polarities to the intensifiers in text, if they are surrounded by the positive or negative words. Results show that the method proved to be effective in attaining the correct classification of Urdu sentences as positive, negative, or neutral, compared with traditional methods. Implementation of rules for intensifiers increased the accuracy of Urdu sentiment analyser from 78.33% to 83.42%, which is a statistically significant improvement. It is concluded that intensifiers cannot be ignored while performing sentiment analysis. Effective handling of intensifiers can significantly improve the performance of sentiment analyser.
Development of an effective motion capture system based on data fusion and minimal use of sensors

This paper describes the work which has been conducted to further the development of an effective motion capture system toed on data fusion and the minimal use of sensing devices. Application of the inverse kinematics method is first described along with its shortcoming and limitations. Next, in order to address the problems associated with this method, the Springs method and the concept of Discomfort Potential are introduced. The spring method is based on the idea that the stiffness of a spring located at a articulation may be used to avoid dislocations in the virtual character. The concept of discomfort potential governs the range of motion of specific articulations such as elbows and knees, thereby allowing motion to be effectively monitored and smoothly represented using less sensors or lack of data. Experimental results are also discussed.
STSDB: spatio-temporal sensor database for smart city query processing

Modern world smart devices are equipped with several sensors which continuously generate the data. Managing and analyzing these data efficiently is a key need of the current sensor world. Present applications require real-time analysis of past sensor data for decision making. The goal of this work is to efficiently process the spatio-temporal queries for sensor data. Spatio-Temporal Sensor Index STSI helps in managing the sensor details and leads to faster query processing. The types of queries that have been considered are; 1) Spatio-Time Travel, 2) Temporal Aggregation and 3) Time Travel, 4) Spatio-temporal Aggregation. Spatio-Temporal Sensor Database STSDB is built by including STSI index in HBase. The STSDB performance is compared with HBase on two parameters Data Insertion Time DIT, and Query Execution Time QET. The DIT of STSDB is almost identical as compared to HBase. While the QET averaged over all four types of queries show 49% improvement for STSDB over HBase. Both the performance parameters continue to show similar trends for scaled data in HBase and STSDB. STSDB is demonstrated in this work using smart city data.
A novel trajectory planning-based adaptive control method for 3-D overhead cranes

ABSTRACT A three-dimensional (3-D) overhead crane is a complicated nonlinear underactuated mechanical system, for which high-speed positioning and anti-sway control are the kernel objective. Existing trajectory-based methods for 3-D overhead cranes focus on combining efficient and smooth trajectories with anti-sway tracking controllers without regard for payload motion; moreover, the exact value of plant parameters is required for accurate compensation during the control process. Motivated by these facts, we present a two-step design tracking strategy which consists of a trajectory planning stage and an adaptive tracking control design stage for 3-D overhead cranes. As shown by Lyapunov techniques and Barbalat's Lemma, the proposed controller guarantees asymptotic swing elimination and trolley positioning result in the presence of system uncertainties including unknown parameters and external disturbances. Simulation results also showed the applicability of the proposed method with good robustness against parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.