Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Core-based reconfiguration for reliable overlay networks

In P2P overlay networks, the continual arrival and departure of nodes leads to the necessity of running periodically a specific reconfiguration algorithm able to renew the overlay. This paper presents a new reconfiguration mechanism for overlay networks. The algorithm exploits a characteristic observed in many overlay networks: the presence of a core composed by reliable nodes (nodes that never leave the overlay). Even if members of the core are a-priori unknown, the algorithm is able to eventually select one of them that will carry out the periodic renewing of the overlay. Once the reconfiguration is performed by a core node, the overlay will never lose its reliability, letting any query, issued from this time on, be ever satisfied.
Pre-proparathyroid hormone, proparathyroid hormone, and parathyroid hormone: the biologic role of hormone structure.

In the last several years, major advances have occurred in the understanding of the manner in which protein hormones, e.g., parathyroid hormone (PTH), are biosynthesized and secreted by cells, and the mechanisms by which hormonal messages are translated into physiologic actions at the level of the target tissue. PTH is biosynthesized in one form and secreted in another, and passes through an intermediate form along the way. Analysis of the relation of structure to hormonal function for PTH has identified and provided important insights into the biologic role of certain critical regions of the hormone molecule. Much of this new information has been obtained through evaluation of the biologic properties of discrete regions of the hormone molecule that have been chemically synthesized. Thus far, approximately 80 analogues or fragments of PTH or its biosynthetic precursors have been synthesized and evaluated in numerous in v i m and in vivo systems to determine their
Construction and Immunological Characterization of a Novel Nontoxic Protective Pneumolysin Mutant for Use in Future Pneumococcal Vaccines

ABSTRACT Pneumolysin, the pore-forming toxin produced by Streptococcus pneumoniae, may have an application as an immunogenic carrier protein in future pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Most of the 90 S. pneumoniae serotypes identified produce pneumolysin; therefore, this protein may confer non-serotype-specific protection against pneumococcal infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, and otitis media. However, as pneumolysin is highly toxic, a nontoxic form of pneumolysin would be a more desirable starting point in terms of vaccine production. Previous pneumolysin mutants have reduced activity but retain residual toxicity. We have found a single amino acid deletion that blocks pore formation, resulting in a form of pneumolysin that is unable to form large oligomeric ring structures. This mutant is nontoxic at concentrations greater than 1,000 times that of the native toxin. We have demonstrated that this mutant is as immunogenic as native pneumolysin without the associated effects such as production of the inflammatory mediators interleukin-6 and cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant KC, damage to lung integrity, and hypothermia in mice. Vaccination with this mutant protects mice from challenge with S. pneumoniae. Incorporation of this mutant pneumolysin into current pneumococcal vaccines may increase their efficacy.
Global motion model based on B-spline wavelets: application to motion estimation and video indexing

This paper describes a framework to estimate a global motion model based on B-spline wavelets. The wavelet-based model allows optical flow to be recovered at different resolution levels from the image derivatives. By combining estimation from different resolution levels in a coarse to fine scheme, our algorithm is able to recover a large range of velocity magnitudes. Our algorithm is evaluated on artificial and real image sequences and provides accurate optical flows. The wavelet coefficients of the model at low resolution levels also provide features to index video or to recognize activities. Preliminary experiments on video indexing based on coarse wavelet coefficients are presented. As an example, we have considered video sequences containing different human activities. Wavelet coefficients are efficient to give a database partition related to the kind of human activities.
Plagiarism as Literacy Practice: Recognizing and Rethinking Ethical Binaries

In this article, I assert that plagiarism is a literacy practice that involves social relationships, attitudes, and values as much as it involves rules of citation and students’ texts. In addition, I show how plagiarism is complicated by a discourse about academic dishonesty, and I consider the implications that recognizing such complexity has for teaching.
Intrahepatic hepatitis C virus–specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity and response to interferon alfa therapy in chronic hepatitis C

Hepatitis C virus (HCV)‐specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) have been shown to play a role in host defense and pathogenesis of chronic HCV infection. Our aim was to test the hypothesis that intrahepatic HCV‐specific CTL activity may impact subsequent response to interferon alfa (IFN‐α) therapy. Of the 37 patients that we have prospectively evaluated for HCV‐specific CTL activity in liver, 21 received IFN therapy, and 19 completed a 6‐month course and attended 6 to 18 months of follow‐up. Intrahepatic CD8+ cells were isolated from liver biopsy tissue and tested against target cells expressing HCV antigens to determine intrahepatic CTL activity. The relationship between treatment response and HCV‐specific CTL activity and other factors known to associate with response (genotype, viremia, histology) was analyzed. HCV‐specific CTL activity was detected in 9 of 21 patients (and 9 of 19 who completed therapy). After 6 months of IFN therapy, 8 of 19 (42%) patients had normal serum alanine transaminase (ALT) (complete responders). After 18 months of follow‐up, only 3 patients (16%) had a sustained biochemical response. Of the 9 patients with detectable HCV‐specific CTL activity in their liver before treatment, 7 (78%) developed a complete response. In contrast, only 1 of the 10 patients with no detectable HCV‐specific CTL activity developed a complete response to IFN (P < .01). In 6 of 8 patients with a complete response, including the 3 sustained responders, the CTL response appeared to be directed predominately to the HCV core region. These data suggest that the host immune response, particularly that mediated by CD8+ CTL, may be important in determining the outcome of IFN therapy for chronic HCV infection. Further understanding of the mechanism of action of IFN should impact the design of better therapeutic strategies against chronic HCV infection.
CuddleBits: Friendly, Low-cost Furballs that Respond to Touch

We present a real-time touch gesture recognition system using a low-cost fabric pressure sensor mounted on a small zoomorphic robot, affectionately called the `CuddleBit'. We explore the relationship between gesture recognition and affect through the lens of human-robot interaction. We demonstrate our real-time gesture recognition system, including both software and hardware, and a haptic display that brings the CuddleBit to life.
Training Level Does Not Affect Auditory Perception of The Magnitude of Ball Spin in Table Tennis

Abstract Identifying the trajectory and spin of the ball with speed and accuracy is critical for good performance in table tennis. The aim of this study was to analyze the ability of table tennis players presenting different levels of training/experience to identify the magnitude of the ball spin from the sound produced when the racket hit the ball. Four types of “forehand” contact sounds were collected in the laboratory, defined as: Fast Spin (spinning ball forward at 140 r/s); Medium Spin (105 r/s); Slow Spin (84 r/s); and Flat Hit (less than 60 r/s). Thirty-four table tennis players of both sexes (24 men and 10 women) aged 18-40 years listened to the sounds and tried to identify the magnitude of the ball spin. The results revealed that in 50.9% of the cases the table tennis players were able to identify the ball spin and the observed number of correct answers (10.2) was significantly higher (χ2 = 270.4, p <0.05) than the number of correct answers that could occur by chance. On the other hand, the results did not show any relationship between the level of training/experience and auditory perception of the ball spin. This indicates that auditory information contributes to identification of the magnitude of the ball spin, however, it also reveals that, in table tennis, the level of training does not interfere with the auditory perception of the ball spin.
Classwise hyperspectral image classification with PerTurbo method

A new classification technique, PerTurbo, has been investigated in the context on hyperspectral remote sensing images context. In this framework, each class is characterised by its Laplace-Beltrami operator, then approximated by the spectrum of K(S), whose terms are derived from the Gaussian kernel. The method is very simple, easy to implement and involves few parameters to tune. It also allows the definition of a simple multi-class strategy, and, as a class-wise classification method, the addition of a new class does not requires the re-training of the pre-existing class models. We conducted experiments on two datasets: results for Pavia Centre dataset are encouraging, while results obtained on Pavia University show that SVM clearly outperforms PerTurbo. Nevertheless, we believe that this difference comes from a bad parametrization of the algorithm (for which we used a rule of thumb, contrarily to the SVM procedure which was fully optimized). Hence, a systematic search for the optimal value of the parameter would improve the results. Moreover, there are several other possible improvements coming from the fields of regularization methods of dimensionality reduction techniques which let us think that this first experiment is promising. In the near future, we also plan to investigate rules leading to a better choice of s. We are also interested in studying the behavior of PerTurbo when the classes are heterogeneous with only few training samples available, or when the classes in the training set are highly unbalanced.
Learning Models of Opponent's Strategy Game Playing

Most of tile aclivity ill tile area of game playing progran,s is concerued wit h efficient ways of searching game troos. There is substantial evidence that game playing involves additiolml types of intelligent processes. One such pl-OCoss porformed by human experts is the acquisil ion and usage of a model of their opponent’s strategy. This work studies the problem of opponent mod,. lling in game playing. A simplified version of a model is d,’tim’d as a pair of search depth and evaluation funclion. M*. a generalization of the minimax algorithm thai can handle an opponent model, is described. The Iwm’tiI of using opllouent models is demonstrated by comparing the performance of hi* with that of the traditional miuimax algoritlml. An algorithm for learning lho opponent’s strategy using its moves as examples was developed. Experiments demonstrated its ability Io acquire very accurate models. Finally, a full modelh’arniug game-playing system was developed and exp,,rimontally demonstrated to have advantage over nouh,arning player.
EXISTENCE OF COMPETITIVE EQUILIBRIUM IN AN OPTIMAL GROWTH MODEL WITH HETEROGENEOUS AGENTS AND ENDOGENOUS LEISURE

This paper proves the existence of competitive equilibrium in a single-sector dynamic economy with heterogeneous agents, elastic labor supply, and complete asset markets. The method of proof relies on some recent results concerning the existence of Lagrange multipliers in infinite-dimensional spaces and their representation as a summable sequence and a direct application of the inward-boundary fixed point theorem.
Septic arthritis with Listeria monocytogenes during low‐dose methotrexate

Jansen TLThA, van Heereveld HAEM, Laan RFLM, Barrera P, van de Putte LBA (University Hospital Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands). Septic arthritis with Listeria monocytogenes during low‐dose methotrexate (Case Report). J Intern Med 1998; 244: 87–90.
Days to Cover and Stock Returns

The short ratio - shares shorted to shares outstanding - is an oft-used measure of arbitrageurs’ opinion about a stock’s over-valuation. We show that days-to-cover (DTC), which divides a stock’s short ratio by its average daily share turnover, is a more theoretically well-motivated measure because trading costs vary across stocks. Since turnover falls with trading costs, DTC is approximately the marginal cost of the shorts. At the arbitrageurs’ optimum it equals the marginal benefit, which is their opinion about over-valuation. DTC is a better predictor of poor stock returns than short ratio. A long-short strategy using DTC generates a 1.2% monthly return.
Discriminant analysis with Gabor phase for robust face recognition

This paper presents an occlusion robust image representation method and apply it to face recognition. Inspired from the recent work [15], we propose a Gabor phase difference representation for occlusion robust face recognition. Based on the good ability of Gabor filters to capture image structure and the robustness to image occlusion shown in this paper, Gabor phase features are expected to be discriminative and robust for face representation in occlusion case. Besides, we adopt spectral regression based discriminant analysis with the extracted Gabor phase features to find the most discriminant subspace to classify different faces. In this way, an occlusion robust face image discriminant subspace is derived. Extensive experiments with various occlusion cases show the efficacy of the proposed method.
Cell nuclei segmentation using fuzzy logic engine

The task of segmenting cell nuclei in microscope images is a classical image analysis problem. The accurate nuclei segmentation may contribute to development of successful system which automate the analysis of microscope images for pathology detection. In this article we describe a method for semi-supervised training of fuzzy logic engine. The fuzzy logic engine is applied to connect a set of parameters proven to be important for nucleus segmentation. In addition each parameter for itself is detected using a set of fuzzy logic rules. We present results of nuclei segmentation using fuzzy logic set of rules.
Cooperative Spectrum Sensing and Weighted- Clustering Algorithm for Cognitive Radio Network

Cognitive radio is a promising technique for efficient utilization of idle authorized spectrum since it is able to sense the spectrum and reuse the frequency when the primary user is absent. In order to overcome the fading, shadowing or hidden terminals in independent detection, cooperative detection is presented. The performance of cooperative sensing is studied in this paper. To enhance the sensing ability, some weighted-cooperative spectrum sensing techniques have been proposed. In this paper, different from the previous studies, we propose a novel weighted-clustering cooperative spectrum sensing algorithm based on distances for cognitive radio network. We firstly classify the secondary users into a few clusters according to several existent methods, and then use cluster-head to collect the observation results come from different secondary users in the same cluster and make a cluster-decision. Considering the different distances between the clusters and the fusion center, different weightings are used to weight the cluster- decisions before combining. The simulation results show that our proposed method improve the probability of detection and reduce the probability of error.
Transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of the plasminogen activator system

Summary The core protein components of the plasminogen activator (PA) system are two plasminogen activators, two plasminogen activator inhibitors and a urokinase type plasminogen activator-specific cell surface receptor. Various types of biological regulation are exerted through the interplay of these components mutually and with extracellular matrix proteins and cell membrane proteins, with or without involving proteolytic activity. Reflecting these diverse biological roles, the level and activity of each component of the PA system is under the control of a variety of regulatory mechanisms. The expression level of a protein reflects the level of the corresponding mRNA, which is essentially the net result of de novo synthesis, i.e. transcription, and degradation. Many recent studies have shown that the regulation of mRNA stability is dynamic and cell specific. Accordingly, we are learning that the mRNAs of the PA system are also the subject of diverse regulatory mechanisms. In this short review, we summarize current understanding of the transcriptional and mRNA-stability regulation of the PA system.
Investigation on CQI Definition for CoMP in LTE-Advanced Downlink

In order to support dynamic switching among different coordinated multi-point (CoMP) schemes, the eNodeB must have channel quality indicator (CQI) information for different schemes to perform scheduling. The full feedback scheme can provide accurate CQI for different CoMP schemes but it comes at the cost of a large feedback overhead. A new CQI definition of relative interference is proposed to reduce the feedback overhead while enabling the eNodeB to obtain various types of CQI for different CoMP schemes through CQI updates. In this paper, we compare the proposed scheme with other four candidate CQI definitions, and clarify their performance impact under different traffic loads. Evaluation results show that the proposed CQI definition of relative interference works effectively under different traffic loads for different CoMP schemes.
Ssa miRNAs DB: Online repository of in silico predicted miRNAs in Salmo salar

The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is a very valuable commercial salmonid species. As with other aquaculture species, intensive aquaculture of Atlantic salmon often faces disease problems especially in early life stages which can limit stable production of the species. ‘Ssa miRNAs DB’, a bioinformatics and manually curated database, aims at providing a comprehensive resource of microRNA in Altantic salmon, with a user friendly interface for a convenient retrieval of each entry by microRNA ID or target gene. The current version of Ssa miRNAs DB involved the prediction of 41 and 266 homologous and novel microRNAs, respectively. Availability The database is available for free at http://www.molgenv. com/ssa_mirnas_db_home. php
Image seeds: a communal picture-based narrative

Bitmapping is an art exhibition that seeks to create a linear story path through a collection of photographs. Bitmapping sends registered participants an image to their mobile phone. The participants must then take a related picture within two hours and send that image to the organisers. This is then forwarded to the next participant to create a chain. While Bitmapping fosters an interesting roadmap of images, it is limited by physical location and the linear stories that it seeks to create. Image Seeds is a global communal hypermedia art experiment that extends Bitmapping. Rather than receiving a single image, participants are invited to navigate a web of images, all of which can act as seeds of inspiration. If participants stumble across an image that inspires, they are invited to add their own image to the hypermedia and create a link from the image that instigated the inspiration. Images can have multiple links to create an evolving story that unfolds into a unique and diverse narrative as participants follow paths through the pictures.
Phospholipase A2 inhibitors in the treatment of atherosclerosis: a new approach moves forward in the clinic

Phase II results of the trials of two phospholipase A2 inhibitors which may be of value in the treatment of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease have been reported in the past year. Darapladib (GlaxoSmithKline) is an inhibitor of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 and varespladib (Anthera) inhibits several forms of the secreted phospholipase A2s. Despite the apparent similarity of mechanism, which is also built into the compounds' names, the role of the two types of phospholipase in atherogenesis is very different. Evidence for this comes from a range of preclinical studies and from epidemiological data which are summarised here. These data provide a basis for the Phase II studies and support decisions to move into Phase III, a decision which in the case of darapladib has been made and studies commenced (STABILITY trial). For varespladib the FRANCIS-ACS trial in acute coronary syndrome patients is in progress.
Detecting Dominant Vanishing Points in Natural Scenes with Application to Composition-Sensitive Image Retrieval

Linear perspective is widely used in landscape photography to create the impression of depth on a 2D photo. Automated understanding of linear perspective in landscape photography has several real-world applications, including aesthetics assessment, image retrieval, and on-site feedback for photo composition, yet adequate automated understanding has been elusive. We address this problem by detecting the dominant vanishing point and the associated line structures in a photo. However, natural landscape scenes pose great technical challenges because often the number of strong edges converging to the dominant vanishing point is inadequate. To overcome this difficulty, we propose a novel vanishing point detection method that exploits global structures in the scene via contour detection. We show that our method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on a public ground truth landscape image dataset that we have created. Based on the detection results, we further demonstrate how our approach to linear perspective understanding provides on-site guidance to amateur photographers on their work through a novel viewpoint-specific image retrieval system.
Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: functional variance among individual cardiomyocytes as a trigger of FHC-phenotype development

Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) is the most frequent inherited cardiac disease. It has been related to numerous mutations in many sarcomeric and even some non-sarcomeric proteins. So far, however, no common mechanism has been identified by which the many different mutations in different sarcomeric and non-sarcomeric proteins trigger development of the FHC phenotype. Here we show for different MYH7 mutations variance in force pCa-relations from normal to highly abnormal as a feature common to all mutations we studied, while direct functional effects of the different FHC-mutations, e.g., on force generation, ATPase or calcium sensitivity of the contractile system, can be quite different. The functional variation among individual M. soleus fibers of FHC-patients is accompanied by large variation in mutant vs. wildtype β-MyHC-mRNA. Preliminary results show a similar variation in mutant vs. wildtype β-MyHC-mRNA among individual cardiomyocytes. We discuss our previously proposed concept as to how different mutations in the β-MyHC and possibly other sarcomeric and non-sarcomeric proteins may initiate an FHC-phenotype by functional variation among individual cardiomyocytes that results in structural distortions within the myocardium, leading to cellular and myofibrillar disarray. In addition, distortions can activate stretch-sensitive signaling in cardiomyocytes and non-myocyte cells which is known to induce cardiac remodeling with interstitial fibrosis and hypertrophy. Such a mechanism will have major implications for therapeutic strategies to prevent FHC-development, e.g., by reducing functional imbalances among individual cardiomyocytes or by inhibition of their triggering of signaling paths initiating remodeling. Targeting increased or decreased contractile function would require selective targeting of mutant or wildtype protein to reduce functional imbalances.