Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk Gene AIRE Is Induced by Cytokines in Fibroblast-Like Synoviocytes and Augments the Pro-inflammatory Response

The autoimmune regulator AIRE controls the negative selection of self-reactive T-cells as well as the induction of regulatory T-cells in the thymus by mastering the transcription and presentation of tissue restricted antigens (TRAs) in thymic cells. However, extrathymic AIRE expression of hitherto unknown clinical significance has also been reported. Genetic polymorphisms of AIRE have been associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but no specific disease-mediating mechanism has been identified. Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by a systemic immune activation and arthritis. Activated fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) are key effector cells, mediating persistent inflammation, and destruction of joints. In this study, we identified AIRE as a cytokine-induced RA risk gene in RA FLS and explored its role in these pathogenic stroma cells. Using RNA interference and RNA sequencing we show that AIRE does not induce TRAs in FLS, but augments the pro-inflammatory response induced by tumor necrosis factor and interleukin-1β by promoting the transcription of a set of genes associated with systemic autoimmune disease and annotated as interferon-γ regulated genes. In particular, AIRE promoted the production and secretion of a set of chemokines, amongst them CXCL10, which have been associated with disease activity in RA. Finally, we demonstrate that AIRE is expressed in podoplanin positive FLS in the lining layer of synovial tissue from RA patients. These findings support a novel pro-inflammatory role of AIRE at peripheral inflammatory sites and provide a potential pathological mechanism for its association with RA.
Concrete vs. Abstract Processing in Repetitive Negative Thinking: Distinct Functional Effects on Emotional Reactivity and Attentional Control

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic process linked to emotional regulation impairment and involved in mood, anxiety, eating disorders and addictions. Attentional disengagement impairment is one of the factors hypothesized to be responsible for the recurrent and uncontrollable character of RNT. The aim of the present study was to empirically test this hypothesis with evaluation of disengagement from negative and RNT-related stimuli separately. Sixty participants were randomly allocated to one of three experimental conditions: abstract RNT, concrete RNT, and control condition (distraction). The change in their negative affect (PANAS) and their attentional disengagement impairment (exogenous cueing task) were measured. The analysis revealed that participants in abstract RNT condition presented higher emotional reactivity comparing to concrete or distraction conditions. The results indicated no differences between induction conditions in attentional disengagement. However, participants after concrete RNT induction had longer mean response times in exogenous cueing task comparing to control induction suggesting that they detected presented stimuli slower than participants in control condition. The results raised an important, from clinical point of view, question of distinctive impact of two types of RNT on emotional reactivity and attentional processes.
It's Not What You Expected! The Surprising Nature of Cleft Alternatives in French and English

While much prior literature on the meaning of clefts—such as the English form “it is X who Z-ed”—concentrates on the nature and status of the exhaustivity inference (“nobody/nothing other than X Z”), we report on experiments examining the role of the doxastic status of alternatives on the naturalness of c'est-clefts in French and it-clefts in English. Specifically, we study the hypothesis that clefts indicate a conflict with a doxastic commitment held by some discourse participant. Results from naturalness tasks suggest that clefts are improved by a property we term “contrariness” (along the lines of Zimmermann, 2008). This property has a gradient effect on felicity judgments: the more strongly interlocutors appear committed to an apparently false notion, the better it is to repudiate them with a cleft.
Constraining the molecular gas in the environs of a z ~ 8 gamma-ray burst host galaxy

GRB 090423 is the most distant spectroscopically confirmed source observed in the Universe. Using observations at 37.5 GHz, we place constraints on molecular gas emission in the CO (3-2) line from its host galaxy and immediate environs. The source was not detected either in line emission or in the rest-frame 850-μm continuum, yielding an upper limit of S 8mm = 9.3 μJy and M(H 2 ) < 4.3 × 10 9 M ⊙ (3σ), applying standard conversions. This implies that the host galaxy of GRB 090423 did not possess a large reservoir of warm molecular gas but was rather modest either in star formation rate or in mass. It suggests that this was not an extreme starburst and hence that gamma ray bursts at high redshift trace relatively modest star formation rates, in keeping with the behaviour seen at lower redshifts. We do, however, identify a millimetre emission-line source in the field of GRB 090423. Plausible interpretations include a CO (1-0) emitting galaxy at z = 2.1, CO (2-1) at z = 5.2 and CO (3-2) at z = 8.3. Efforts to identify a counterpart for the molecular line emitter and to further characterize this source are continuing.
Perceived environmental change as a determinant of managerial information seeking behavior

Environmental scanning is a necessary component of the strategic management process. Several prior studies have examined aspects of purposeful information search behavior related to the business environment because it is deemed to be a necessary component of the formulation of business policy and strategy. This study used a sample of managers in the credit union industry to assess how the managers’ information search behavior related to various environmental sectors was affected by their perceived rate of change in those sectors. The study measured the managers' use of five different types of information sources related to each of six environmental sectors. The five types of information sources included internal and external personal and written sources and the use of the Internet in their environmental scanning behavior. The six sectors were equally divided between the task and general environments. The hypothesized positive relationship between perceived sector importance and search behavior, measured by the frequency of information source usage, was supported for sectors related to the general environment, but not for sectors related to the task environment.
"Jekyll and Hyde" is Risky: Shared-Everything Threat Mitigation in Dual-Instance Apps

Recent developed application-level virtualization brings a groundbreaking innovation to Android ecosystem: a host app is able to load and launch arbitrary guest APK files without the hassle of installation. Powered by this technology, the so-called "dual-instance apps" are becoming increasingly popular as they can run dual copies of the same app on a single device (e.g., login Facebook simultaneously with two different accounts). Given the large demand from smartphone users, it is imperative to understand how secure dual-instance apps are. However, little work investigates their potential security risks. Even worse, new Android malware variants have been accused of skimming the cream off application-level virtualization. They abuse legitimate virtualization engines to launch phishing attacks or even thwart static detection. We first demonstrate that, current dual-instance apps design introduces serious "shared-everything" threats to users, and severe attacks such as permission escalation and privacy leak have become tremendously easier. Unfortunately, we find that most critical apps cannot discriminate between host app and Android system. In addition, traditional fingerprinting features targeting Android sandboxes are futile as well. To inform users that an app is running in an untrusted environment, we study the inherent features of dual-instance app environment and propose six robust fingerprinting features to detect whether an app is being launched by the host app. We test our approach, called DiPrint, with a set of dual-instance apps collected from popular app stores, Android systems, and virtualization-based malware. Our evaluation shows that DiPrint is able to accurately identify dual-instance apps with negligible overhead.
The Ability of MM5 to Simulate Ice Clouds: Systematic Comparison between Simulated and Measured Fluxes and Lidar/Radar Profiles at the SIRTA Atmospheric Observatory

The ability of the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) to simulate midlatitude ice clouds is evaluated. Model outputs are compared to long-term meteorological measurements by active (radar and lidar) and passive (infrared and visible fluxes) remote sensing collected at an atmospheric observatory near Paris, France. The goal is to understand which of four microphysical schemes is best suited to simulate midlatitude ice clouds. The methodology consists of simulating instrument observables from the model outputs without any profile inversion, which allows the authors to use fewer assumptions on microphysical and optical properties of ice particles. Among the four schemes compared in the current study, the best observation-to-simulations scores are obtained with Reisner et al. provided that the particles’ sedimentation velocity from Heymsfield and Donner is used instead of that originally proposed. For this last scheme, the model gives results close to the measurements for clouds with medium optical depth of typically 1 to 3, whatever the season. In this configuration, MM5 simulates the presence of midlatitude ice clouds in more than 65% of the authors’ selection of observed cloud cases. In 35% of the cases, the simulated clouds are too persistent whatever the microphysical scheme and tend to produce too much solid water (ice and snow) and not enough liquid water.
An Investigation of Abnormal Fluid Pressure within an Evaporitic Cap Rock in the Gavbandi Area of Iran and its Impact on the Planning of Gas Exploration Wells

A synthesis of well logs was carried out and drilling mud weight data were analyzed to figure out anomalous high fluid pressure within the Triassic evaporitic cap rock (the Dashtak formation) and study its impact on the geometry of anticlinal traps in the gas rich Gavbandi province located in the southeast part of the Zagros Mountains. The results indicated that the location of anticlinal traps at the depth in which the Permian Dehram Group reservoir unit exists is horizontally displaced with respect to surficial crest of many anticlines within the Gavbandi area. This crestal shift may be induced by abnormally high fluid pressure in the “An evaporate “member of the Dashtak formation, detected in many exploration wells across the area. When fluid pressure increases due to compaction during shortening, the higher shaliness could probably cap more fluids and consequently increase the fluid pressure within the Dashtak formation. Anomalous high fluid pressure decreases internal friction and shear strength of rock units and facilitates fracturing and faulting within the Dashtak formation, which consequently causes crestal shift of anticlinal traps. This should be taken into account when planning a new exploration well in Gavbandi area in order to prevent trap drilling.
SEEjang: Smart, Easy, and Economical Offline Shopping Assist App Development through a Design Thinking Proces (poster)

It is difficult for shoppers to estimate the amount of cost spent while shopping offline. Existing mobile platforms can be used to assist offline shoppers, but there still remain questions about the usability and affordability of such platforms. To reduce this gap, we propose SEEjang, a prototype for providing users with a smart, easy, and economical experience with offline shopping. We developed the application through a design thinking process to maximize consumer satisfaction with offline shopping.
Identifying mechanisms for achieving voluntary data sharing in cross-sector partnerships for public good*

It has been advocated that sharing business data can generate public value. Still this information sharing often needs to be done on voluntary basis and that often poses major challenges. The main research question addressed in this paper is: How is voluntary information sharing to create public value achieved and what are the drivers and mechanisms to achieve that? While voluntary information sharing to achieve public value is recognized in the eGovernment literature, this literature is limited to understand how such information sharing can be achieved. To address the research question, we borrow a framework of platforms for cross sector social partnerships from organization studies and use it as a conceptual lens to structure the analysis of three case studies where voluntary information sharing was achieved in different domains. Building on the framework and our case analysis, we distinguish three types of information sharing collaborations, namely Resource-dependence platform, Social Issue platform, and Societal Sector platform which allow to distinguish the motivations why parties enter into voluntary information sharing collaborations. Our analysis suggests that while the higher goal of the voluntary information sharing may be the same (i.e. to create public value), parties are driven by different motivations of why they enter into the information sharing collaborations. Furthermore, in each of these different types of collaborations the mechanisms of how the information sharing was achieved, as well as the role the government can play, differ.
RemoteGL - Towards Low-latency Interactive Cloud Graphics Experience for Mobile Devices (demo)

can enable futuristic applications including many Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and cloud gaming applications on resource constraint mobile devices. While RGR requires a high-level of networking bandwidth for seamless servicing, emerging high-speed communication technologies such as IEEE 802.11ax and millimeter wavebased communications are expected to provide high-bandwidth and low-latency networking performance. Thus, they can potentially resolve the transmission latency constraint, which is one of the most tricky obstacles to resolve prior to applying various RGR applications in the real world.
No Frequency Reuse: Wearable Steerable MIMO Microstrip Antenna Array for Mobile Ad Hoc Applications

Aim: The principle of eliminating the frequency reuse in the mobile Ad Hoc system among the sectors of theunit cell using Multi Inputs Multi Outputs (MIMO) antenna array is investigated in this paper. Antenna Design: The size of the proposed antenna array is 10◊10 cm 2 to obtain a bandwidth around 1 GHz. The single antenna element is constructed from sub -patches that are connected with feeding network through pin diodes, as switches, that are mounted on an FR-4 substrate. Antenna Performance :The antenna elements are characterized from 0.8 GHz to 2 GHz in terms ofS-parameters and radiation patterns with differ ent switching OFF/ON categories. Methodology: A numerical investigation based on Finite Integral Techniques (FIT) of Time Domain (TD) formulations is conducted using CST MWS to evaluate the antenna performance. A Frequency Domain (FD) solver based on CST f ormulations is conducted for validation. Original ResearchArticle
Branch Scheduling: DAG-Aware Scheduling for Speeding up Data-Parallel Jobs

A data-parallel job is characterized as a directed acyclic graph (DAG) which usually consists of multiple computation stages and across-stage data transfers. However, classical DAG scheduling strategies like the critical path method ignore other stages off the main path and do not give specific consideration of data locality, transfer costs, etc. In practice, complicated DAGs include multiple paths which overlap with each other. The intersection of different paths in a DAG job forms an important synchronization. The synchronization significantly impacts the job completion time and however, no known scheduling methods are designed to speed up the completion time of the synchronization especially when complicated DAGs involve nested and hierarchical synchronizations. To the end, we propose a new abstraction, named branch, which is referred to a disjoint path in DAGs, and design a branch scheduling method to decrease the average job completion time of multiple data-parallel jobs. The branch scheduling method leverages the urgency of branches to speed up the synchronization of multiple parallel branches. We have implemented the BS method on Apache Spark and conducted prototype-based experiments. Compared with Spark FIFO and the shortest-job-first with the critical path methods, results show that the branch scheduling method achieves around 10–15% reduction in the average job completion time.
Visually Analyzing Students' Gaze on C++ Code Snippets

The paper presents an eye tracking study with 17 students (12 novices, 5 non-novices) reading C++ methods. The novices were students who participated in the study during the last week of their semester learning C++. The non-novices were senior students who had been exposed to programming before. We report on the reading behavior of three C++ methods that use different language constructs. We analyze fixations at the line level of the code using visualizations to derive insights into code reading. Results show that most transitions were made to code lines that are close to the current line read. We observe that a large percentage of the total fixation duration is made on a small number of lines and that related lines are often viewed together in a series of short fixations.
pH Watch - Leveraging Pulse Oximeters in Existing Wearables for Reusable, Real-time Monitoring of pH in Sweat (demo)

Most present day fitness trackers and smart watches measure critical health indicators such as heart rate, SpO2 concentration, sleep cycle etc. but they fail in their ability to track health indicators at the molecular level. This has attracted rapid research in the development of chemical sensors which can non-invasively measure analytes available in raw biofluids such as sweat, tears and urine. Of all the available raw bio-fluids, sweat can be obtained non-intrusively and readily, and thus is the most suitable choice for continuous real-time monitoring of indicators at a molecular level.
Automatic meter extraction from MIDI files

This paper presents an automatic meter extraction system which relies on auto-correlation coefficients. The input format for music is MIDI, and we assume that a beat and its ocurrences in the musical sequence are known. As output, our algorithm provides a set of possible metric groupings sorted by a confidence criteria. The algorithm has been tested on several pieces of Rameau and results are encouraging.
Adversarial Machine Learning in Smart Energy Systems

Smart Energy Systems represent a radical shift in the approach to energy generation and demand, driven by decentralisation of the energy system to large numbers of low-capacity devices. Managing this flexibility is often driven by machine learning, and requires real-time control and aggregation of these devices, involving a diverse set of companies and devices and creating a longer chain of trust. This poses a security risk, as it is sensitive to adversarial machine learning, whereby models are fooled through malicious input, either for financial gain or to cause system disruption. We show the feasibility of such an attack by analysing empirical data of a real system, and propose directions for future research related to detection and defence mechanisms for these kind of attacks.
pH-dependent production of molecular chlorine, bromine, and iodine from frozen saline surfaces

Abstract. The mechanisms of molecular halogen production from frozen saline surfaces remain incompletely understood, limiting our ability to predict atmospheric oxidation and composition in polar regions. In this laboratory study, condensed-phase hydroxyl radicals (OH) were photochemically generated in frozen saltwater solutions that mimicked the ionic composition of ocean water. These hydroxyl radicals were found to oxidize Cl−, Br−, and I−, leading to the release of Cl2, Br2, I2, and IBr. At moderately acidic pH (buffered between 4.5 and 4.8), irradiation of ice containing OH precursors (either of hydrogen peroxide or nitrite ion) produced elevated amounts of I2. Subsequent addition of O3 produced additional I2, as well as small amounts of Br2. At lower pH (1.7–2.2) and in the presence of an OH precursor, rapid dark conversion of I− to I2 occurred from reactions with hydrogen peroxide or nitrite, followed by substantial photochemical production of Br2 upon irradiation. Exposure to O3 under these low pH conditions also increased production of Br2 and I2; this likely results from direct O3 reactions with halides, as well as the production of gas-phase HOBr and HOI that subsequently diffuse to frozen solution to react with Br− and I−. Photochemical production of Cl2 was only observed when the irradiated sample was composed of high-purity NaCl and hydrogen peroxide (acting as the OH precursor) at pH = 1.8. Though condensed-phase OH was shown to produce Cl2 in this study, kinetics calculations suggest that heterogeneous recycling chemistry may be equally or more important for Cl2 production in the Arctic atmosphere. The condensed-phase OH-mediated halogen production mechanisms demonstrated here are consistent with those proposed from recent Arctic field observations of molecular halogen production from snowpacks. These reactions, even if slow, may be important for providing seed halogens to the Arctic atmosphere. Our results suggest the observed molecular halogen products are dependent on the relative concentrations of halides at the ice surface, as we only observe what diffuses to the air–surface interface.
An Efficient Secure Three-Party Sorting Protocol with an Honest Majority

We present a novel three-party sorting protocol secure against passive adversaries in the honest majority setting. The protocol can be easily combined with other secure protocols which work on shared data, and thus enable different data analysis tasks, such as data deduplication, set intersection, and computing percentiles. The new sorting protocol is based on radix sort. It is asymptotically better compared to previous sorting protocols since it does not need to shuffle the entire length of the items after each comparison step. We further improve the concrete efficiency by using not only optimizations but also novel protocols, which are independent of interest. We implemented our sorting protocol with those optimizations and protocols. Our experiments show that our implementation is concretely fast. For example, sorting one million 20-bit items takes 4.6 seconds in 1G connection. It enables a new set of applications on large-scale datasets since the known implementations handle thousands of items about 10 seconds.