Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of Endocrine Metabolism in AL Amyloidosis Patients

Background To explore characteristics of thyroid gland and glucose metabolism in light chain (AL) amyloidosis patients.Methods A total of 20 amyloidosis patients were recruited. Thyroid function and biochemical indices were tested. Intravenous glucose tolerance test was performed in all patients. Thyroid ultrasound was also determined.Results 1.There was 7 patients with hypothyroidism (35%) and 4 patients with subclinical hypothyroidism (20%). Additionally, a total of 6 patients manifested as euthyroid sick syndrome (30%); 2. A number of 15 patients showed thyroid nodule (75%); 3. The fast blood glucose was 4.85±0.8 mmol/l. The level of blood glucose after intravenous glucose tolerance test showed 8.03±1.88 mmol/l at 30 minutes and 7.1±3.22 mmol/l at 120 minutes. 4. The blood insulin levels in fasting, 30 minutes and 120 minutes were 5.2±2.59 mIU/L, 308.3±199.4 mIU/Land 245.66±176.44 mIU/L. Further, the values of C-peptide showed 2.47±1.43 ng/ml, 6.74±3.16 ng/ml and 8.98±4.83 ng/ml. Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance and Homeostasis model assessment of β cells of the patients were 1.2±0.62 and 88.45±46.17, respectively. There were 2 patients diagnosed with diabetes and 1 patient with impaired glucose tolerance.Conclusions AL amyloidosis patients revealed high prevalence of hypothyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism and euthyroid sick syndrome. However, glucose metabolism showed no influence in amyloidosis patients.
Intrahousehold Relationships and Decision-making in Extended Households of the Luguru Community

This article analyses intrahousehold decision-making in extended households of the matrilinear Luguru community in the Morogoro Region of Tanzania. Our research focuses on the participation of adult “extended” household members, mainly relatives such as in-laws, grandparents, and cousins, in household decision-making. It complements studies that conceptualise household decision-making as a bargaining process between two decision-makers. We explore whether factors such as age, education, life cycle and gender play a role in this process. As decision-making processes often vary depending on the decision-making area, we differentiate between seven broad decision-making fields which are relevant in their respective settings. Our study adopts a qualitative approach and mainly draws upon data from primary sources, including expert interviews, life stories, participatory spider diagram exercises, and participant observation. The findings underscore the complexity of decision-making in extended household structures, with some decisions taking place within sub-units and others at the extended household level. The involvement of “extended” household members also differs according to different decisionmaking domains. Participation is overall more pronounced in the areas of agriculture (particularly minor decisions), money management, and child and family matters in comparison to employment outside the household and more generally labour allocation, and access/control over land/assets. Factors such as age, education level, gender, and life-cycle position of the “extended” household member are important to consider; an intersectional perspective is necessary for studies that aim to unravel intrahousehold decision-making processes.
In Defense of Posthuman Vulnerability

Transhumanism is a challenging movement that invites us to rethink what defines humanity, including what we value and regret the most about our existence. Vulnerability is a key concept that require thorough philosophical scrutiny concerning transhumanist proposals. Vulnerability can refer to a universal condition of human life (ontological vulnerability) or, rather, to the specific exposure to certain harms due to particular situations (social vulnerability). Even if we are all vulnerable in the first sense, there are also different sources and levels of vulnerability depending on concrete social circumstances. Recently, Michael Hauskeller (2019) argued about a fundamental incompatibility between transhumanism and vulnerability. He understands vulnerability as an existential category, linked to woundability and mortality. This idea is akin to ontological vulnerability, but it does not notice some important features of social vulnerability. On the other side, transhumanism is a complex and non-homogeneous movement. Here we distinguish between a strong and a weak version of transhumanism. We will propose that the salience of vulnerability is only diminished In Defense of Posthuman Vulnerability BELÉN LIEDO, JON RUEDA
ALPACA: Application Layer Protocol Confusion - Analyzing and Mitigating Cracks in TLS Authentication

TLS is widely used to add confidentiality, authenticity and integrity to application layer protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and FTP. However, TLS does not bind a TCP connection to the intended application layer protocol. This allows a man-in-the-middle attacker to redirect TLS traffic to a different TLS service endpoint on another IP address and/or port. For example, if subdomains share a wildcard certificate, an attacker can redirect traffic from one subdomain to another, resulting in a valid TLS session. This breaks the authentication of TLS and cross-protocol attacks may be possible where the behavior of one service may compromise the security of the other at the application layer. In this paper, we investigate cross-protocol attacks on TLS in general and conduct a systematic case study on web servers, redirecting HTTPS requests from a victim’s web browser to SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and FTP servers. We show that in realistic scenarios, the attacker can extract session cookies and other private user data or execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of the vulnerable web server, therefore bypassing TLS and web application security. We evaluate the real-world attack surface of web browsers and widely-deployed email and FTP servers in lab experiments and with internet-wide scans. We find that 1.4M web servers are generally vulnerable to cross-protocol attacks, i.e., TLS application data confusion is possible. Of these, 114k web servers can be attacked using an exploitable application server. Finally, we discuss the effectiveness of TLS extensions such as Application Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN) and Server Name Indiciation (SNI) in mitigating these and other cross-protocol attacks.
Recent Advances in Maturation of Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes Promoted by Mechanical Stretch

Stem cells have significant potential use in tissue regeneration, especially for treating cardiac diseases because of their multi-directional differentiation capability. By mimicking the in vivo physiological environment of native cardiomyocytes during their development and maturation, researchers have been able to induce pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (PSC-CMs) at high purity. However, the phenotype of these PSC-CMs is immature compared with that of adult cardiomyocytes. Various strategies have been explored to improve the maturity of PSC-CMs, such as long-term culturing, mechanical stimuli, chemical stimuli, and combinations of these strategies. Among these strategies, mechanical stretch as a key mechanical stimulus plays an important role in PSC-CM maturation. In this review, the optimal parameters of mechanical stretch, the effects of mechanical stretch on maturation of PSC-CMs, underlying molecular mechanisms as well as existing problems are discussed. Mechanical stretch is a powerful approach to promote the maturation of SC-CMs in terms of morphology, structure, and functionality. Nonetheless, further research efforts are needed to reach a satisfactory standard for clinical applications of PSC-CMs in treating cardiac diseases.
Animal Detection using Deep Learning

: Efficient and reliable monitoring of wild animals in their natural habitat is essential. This project develops an algorithm to detect the animals in wildlife. Since there are large number of different animals manually identifying them can be a difficult task. This algorithm classifies animals based on their images so we can monitor them more efficiently. Animal detection and classification can help to prevent animal-vehicle accidents, trace animals and prevent theft. This can be achieved by applying effective deep learning algorithms.
Factors Associated with Age-Related Changes in Non-Smoking Urban Men and Women in China Determined by Low-Dose Computed Tomography Imaging

Background Respiratory function usually worsens in the elderly with aging. This study aimed to retrospectively investigate tracheal changes caused by “normal aging” through use of low-dose CT (LDCT) in non-smoking asymptomatic urban residents and the related factors influencing tracheal changes. Material/Methods A total of 733 Chinese subjects who underwent LDCT were recruited. The trachea shape, width, and calcification degree of the tracheal wall were measured and compared between males and females and among different age groups. The effects of age, sex, trachea morphology, BMI, BP, GLU, TC, TG, HDL, and LDL on the width and calcification of tracheal wall were analyzed by multiple linear regression. Results Significant sex differences in trachea shape were found, as type II and type I were found mainly in the males and females, respectively. The values of anterior-posterior inner diameter (AP), left-right inner diameter (LR), width, and calcification score of tracheae in the males were higher than that in the females. In both males and females, trachea AP, wall width, and calcification scores increased with age, but this trend was not observed in tracheal LR. Age, sex, and trachea shape had significant effects on the width and calcification scores of tracheal walls, and trachea calcification was one of the factors influencing tracheal wall width. Conclusions Tracheal aging can be evaluated by measuring trachea shape, thickness, and the degree of calcification of the tracheal wall by LDCT, while sex and age should be taken into consideration comprehensively for judging normal trachea aging. In addition, obesity may aggravate trachea aging.
Performance Evaluation Using Balance Scorecard: Comparison of Bbgl and Ebg in Ghana Banking Industry

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how BSC is developed and used in evaluating the performance of banks in several dimensions. Using the concepts of Kaplan and Norton, and the data made available from the banks that were studied, a BSC was derived to measure the performance of the banks from 2010-2012. The analysis assisted the cause-effect relationships between the non-financial and the financial dimensions of the BSC. Both banks showed high performances in their financial perspectives as compared to the other individual perspectives of customers, internal business process, and learning and growth which is an indication of their reliance on that perspective. The paper proposed some future research in this area and other sectors of the Ghanaian economy. The BSC developed and used in the study is limited to the banks studied. However, the approach could trigger off reflections among policy makers such as the Bank of Ghana, other banks in the industry as well as companies in other sectors to start using the BSC.
Se-Methylselenocysteine Alleviates Liver Injury in Diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma Rat Model by Reducing Liver Enzymes, Inhibiting Angiogenesis, and Suppressing Nitric Oxide (NO)/Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS) Signaling Pathway

Background Hepatocellular carcinoma is the third leading cause of cancer-associated mortality. This study aimed to investigate the effects of se-methylselenocysteine (MSC) on oncogenesis of diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma. Material/Methods A hepatocellular carcinoma rat model was established by administering DEN. Rat models were divided into Model (0.1 mg/kg MSC), Model+0.3 mg/kg MSC, Model+1 mg/kg MSC, and Model+3 mg/kg MSC groups. A Normal control group consisted of mice not administered MSC. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was used to determine liver injury. Immunohistochemical analysis was conducted to identify CD34 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. VEGF gene transcription was detected with RT-PCR. Biochemical analyses were performed to determine alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin, γ-glutamyl transpeptidase, alkaline phosphatase, and albumin levels in serum, and nitric oxide (NO)/nitric oxide synthase (NOS) levels in liver tissues. Transmission electron microscopy was used to observe the ultra-microstructures of hepatocytes. Results MSC treatment markedly alleviated liver injury and nuclear lesions in the treatment groups compared to the Model group. MSC treatment significantly improved liver functions in the treatment groups compared to the Model group (P<0.05). MSC treatment significantly decreased CD34 expression and NO and NOS levels in liver tissues and suppressed VEGF expression compared to the Model group (all P<0.05). Conclusions MSC administration alleviated liver injury in a DEN-induced hepatocellular carcinoma rat model through reducing liver enzymes, inhibiting angiogenesis, and suppressing the NO/NOS signaling pathway.
Determinants influencing green consumption behaviour of household appliances in Vietnam

Ha Thu Luonga*, Manh Dung Trana*, Duc Canh Leb, Son Khanh Tranc, Chi Ngoc Bao Nguyend, Huyen Khanh Ngoe, Trang Nhat Trand, aNational Economics University, Vietnam, bSchool of Advanced Education Programs, National Economics University, Vietnam, cDepartment of Excellence Business Administration, National Economics University, Vietnam. dDepartment of Advanced Accounting, National Economics University, Vietnam. eDepartment of Excellence HRM, National Economics University, Vietnam. Email: a*haluongthu@neu.edu. vn; a*manhdung@ktpt.edu. vn
mmHRV: Contactless Heart Rate Variability Monitoring Using Millimeter-Wave Radio

Heart rate variability (HRV), which measures the fluctuation of heartbeat intervals, has been considered as an important indicator for general health evaluation. To alleviate the user burden and explore the usability for long-term health monitoring, noncontact methods for HRV monitoring have drawn tremendous attention. In this article, we present mmHRV, the first contact-free multiuser HRV monitoring system using commercial millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio. The design of mmHRV consists of two key components. First, we develop a calibration-free target detector to identify each user’s location. Second, a heartbeat signal extractor is devised, which can optimize the decomposition of the phase of the channel information modulated by the chest movement and, thus, estimate the heartbeat signal. The exact time of heartbeats is estimated by finding the peak location of the heartbeat signal while the interbeat intervals (IBIs) can be further derived for evaluating the HRV metrics of each target. We evaluate the system performance and the impact of different settings, including the distance between human and the device, user orientation, incidental angle, and blockage. Experimental results show that mmHRV can measure the HRV accurately with a median IBI estimation error of 28 ms (with respect to 96.16% accuracy). In addition, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) measured in the nonline-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios is 31.71 ms based on the experiments with 11 participants. The performance of the multiuser scenario is slightly degraded compared with the single-user case; however, the median error of the 3-user case is within 52 ms for all three tested locations.
HHT: Hardware Support For Accelerating Sparse Matrix Algorithms

Matrix algorithms such as matrix multiplication, matrix-vector product and convolutions have witnessed a resurgence with ever-expanding application of deep neural networks and other machine learning algorithms. In many cases, matrices are sparse, and leveraging sparsity of data enables efﬁ-ciency of storage and computation by avoiding storing and processing zeroes. However, sparse representations incur metadata computational overheads – software ﬁrst needs to ﬁnd row/column locations of non-zero values before performing necessary computations. Such metadata accesses involve indirect memory accesses (of the form a [ b [ i ]] where a [ . ] and b [ . ] are large arrays) and they are cache and prefetch-unfriendly, resulting in frequent load stalls. We propose Hardware Helper Thread ( HHT ) – a memory-side accelerator for sparse data computations in embedded or edge computing devices. HHT works with embedded cores by relieving computational cores of metadata processing and management. HHT provides a simple streaming interface by supplying the cores with appropriately aligned non-zero values. This reduces dynamic instruction count and improves compute-memory overlap resulting in performance gains for sparse data computations. We only accelerate index accesses unlike other studies that accelerate the entire computational kernel. In this paper we will explore using both a dedicated hardware for HHT and a simple RISC-like programmable core. We show both performance gains and energy savings of HHT for sparse matrix-dense vector multiplication ( SpMV ), sparse vector-sparse vector multiplication ( SpMSpV ) and convolutions with sparse input feature data. With sparse matrix-vector multiplication algorithm, our ASIC-HHT shows 1.73 times speedup on average and Programmable-HHT shows 1.24 times speedup on average over vectorized software-only baselines running on low-power micro-controllers. The dedicated ASIC HHT was designed using System Verilog and implemented using 28nm Arm library in Synopsys Design Compiler-2020.09 and compared with PULP v1 like RISCV processor. It was observed that ASIC HHT requires less than 1% of a RISCV core area while saving 55% of energy consumed for SpMV .
Certiﬁcateless Public-key Authenticate Searchable Encryption with Probabilistic Trapdoor Generation

Boneh et al. proposed the cryptographic primitive public key encryption with keyword search (PEKS) to search on encrypted data without exposing the privacy of the keyword. Most standard PEKS schemes are vulnerable to inside keyword guessing attacks (KGA), i.e., a malicious server may generate a ciphertext by its own and then to guess the keyword of the trapdoor by testing. Huang et al. solved this problem by proposing the public-key authenticated encryption with keyword search (PAEKS) achieving single trapdoor indistinguishability (TI). Certiﬁcateless public-key authenticated encryption with keyword search (CLPAEKS) is ﬁrst formally proposed by He et al. as a combination of the Huang’s PAEKS and the certiﬁcateless public key cryptography (CLPKC). Lin et al. revised He’s work and re-formalize the security requirements for CLPAEKS in terms of both trapdoor indistinguisha-bility and ciphertext indistinguishability. However, trapdoor generation algorithms of all above works are deterministic. In this case, given two trapdoors, it’s obviously to check whether the target keywords are identical embedded in them. This feature conﬂicts with trapdoor indis-tinguishability security. In this paper, we initially propose a CLPAEKS scheme with probabilistic trapdoor generation. Formal proof shows that our scheme is provable secure in the random oracle model.
“Oil Palm – Livestock Integration towards a Sustainable and Future Oil Palm Plantatation

The policy formulation of animal feed development in Indonesia is essentially to respond two big issues, namely (1) feed security, the availability of feed and feed ingredients; and (2) quality and safetyfeed, the adequacyof animal nutritional needed and free from feed hazards and contaminants (physical, chemical and biological hazards). Indonesia is an agricultural country and located in tropical area, there is a huge potency to provide animal feed. Therefore,the implementation of those policies should be local resource base. One of potential local resource for animal feed is in oil palm plantation. At the present time, there are about 9 million hectares of oil palm plantation in Indonesia.There areabundance of undergrowth in oil palm plantation offers a free source of forage, oil palm plant by-product and by product of oil palm industry that can use as feed. It is potentially applied in livestockoil palm plant integrated system. Livestock and oil palm plantation have some negative issues for enviromental impact such as the causes of increasing greenhouse gases. By application this integration, hopefully that the negative environmental impact of livestock and oilpalm plantation can be reduced.
Stream-Based IP Flow Analysis

As the complexity of Internet services, transmission speed, and data volume increases, current IP flow monitoring and analysis approaches cease to be sufficient, especially within high-speed and large-scale networks. Although IP flows consist only of selected network traffic features, their processing faces high computational demands, analysis delays, and large storage requirements. To address these challenges, we propose to improve the IP flow monitoring workflow by stream-based collection and analysis of IP flows utilizing a distributed data stream processing. This approach requires changing the paradigm of IP flow data monitoring and analysis, which is the main goal of our research. We analyze distributed stream processing systems, for which we design a novel performance benchmark to determine their suitability for stream-based processing of IP flow data. We define a stream-based workflow of IP flow collection and analysis based on the benchmark results, which we also implement as a publicly available and open-source framework Stream4Flow. Furthermore, we propose new analytical methods that leverage the stream-based IP flow data processing approach and extend network monitoring and threat detection capabilities.
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

In this study, CdTe (up to 2.0 μm thick) and oxygenated CdS (CdS:O, up to 100 nm thick) films were deposited by magnetron sputtering and optimum conditions of film growth were investigated for CdS:O/CdTe solar cells. Favourable TeO2 has been confirmed in XRD after the CdCl2 heat treatment of the CdTe films. Moreover, improved structural, optical and electrical properties are observed in the CdCl2 heat treated films. A detailed quantitative study has also been executed using XPS that finds sulfide, sulfate and an intermediate oxide as a function of oxygen content. In many cases, CdS contribution remains predominant, however, the CdSOx contribution increases with the increase of oxygen's partial pressure and decrease of growth rate. The complete solar cell device was fabricated of various CdTe thin films with different growth rates in sputtering. A highly resistive transparent (HRT) buffer layer ZnO:Sn was placed in between the FTO and CdS:O to avoid the forward leakage problem and screen printed C:Cu/Ag is used as the back contact for low cost fabrication. The J-V characteristics and external quantum efficiency (EQE) were measured for the solar cells under the illumination of AM 1.5G and the highest efficiency of 10.3% was achieved for the optimized CdTe growth rate of 5.4 Å/s, while CdS:O growth
Predicting Supercritical Extraction of St. John’s Wort by Simple Quadratic Polynomial Model and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System- Firefly Algorithm

In this study, the applicability of the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and response surface methodology (RSM) was evaluated to forecasting the supercritical extraction of St. John’s Wort. In this case, the ANFIS model was optimized by the firefly algorithm (FFA) to develop the performance of the model. The accuracy of the models was investigated by comparing the result of the models with experimental data. The precision of the RSM model has been investigated using statistical analysis (P-value<0.05, F-value=148.13, R2=0,99 R2 Adjusted=0.98, R2 Predicted =0.96). The data transfer power was proved by the Box-Cox plot. Also, the polynomial model shows that it is much simpler and easier than other complex models. The results show, the ANFIS-FFA with R2=0.99, RMSE=1.79 and AARD%=2.79 have a high capability of predicting the St. John’s Wort extraction amount