Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is link signature dependable for wireless security?

A fundamental assumption of link signature based security mechanisms is that the wireless signals received at two locations separated by more than half a wavelength are essentially uncorrelated. However, it has been observed that in certain circumstances (e.g., with poor scattering and/or a strong line-of-sight (LOS) component), this assumption is invalid. In this paper, a Correlation ATtack (CAT) is proposed to demonstrate the potential vulnerability of the link signature based security mechanisms in such circumstances. Based on statistical inference, CAT explicitly exploits the spatial correlations to reconstruct the legitimate link signature from the observations of multiple adversary receivers deployed in vicinity. Our findings are verified through theoretical analysis, well-known channel correlation models, and experiments on USRP platforms and GNURadio.
Inferring Efficient Hierarchical Taxonomies for MIR Tasks: Application to Musical Instruments

A number of approaches for automatic audio classification are based on hierarchical taxonomies since it is acknowledged that improved performance can be thereby obtained. In this paper, we propose a new strategy to automatically acquire hierarchical taxonomies, using machine learning methods, which are expected to maximize the performance of subsequent classification. It is shown that the optimal hierarchical taxonomy of musical instruments (in the sense of inter-class distances) does not follow the traditional and more intuitive instrument classification into instrument families.
Radiation-Induced Cardiovascular Disease: A Clinical Perspective

Cancer survival has improved dramatically, and this has led to the manifestation of late side effects of multimodality therapy. Radiation (RT) to the thoracic malignancies results in unintentional irradiation of the cardiac chambers. RT-induced microvascular ischemia leads to disruption of capillary endothelial framework, and injury to differentiated myocytes results in deposition of collagen and fibrosis. Coexistence of risk factors of metabolic syndrome and preexisting atherosclerosis in addition to RT exposure results in accelerated occurrence of major coronary events. Hence, it becomes pertinent to understand the underlying pathophysiology and clinical manifestations of RT-induced cardiovascular disease to devise optimal preventive and surveillance strategies.
Effects of nucleophiles on the breakdown of the benzylpenicilloyl-enzyme complex EI formed between benzylpenicillin and the exocellular DD-carboxypeptidase--transpeptiase of Streptomyces strain R61.

Serine is one of the enzyme residues with which benzylpenicillin collides as a result of its binding to the Streptomyces strain-R61 DD-carboxypeptidase-transpeptidase enzyme. Nucleophilic attack occurs on C(7) of the bound antibiotic molecule with formation of a benzylpenicilloyl-serine ester linkage, i.e. formation of the benzylpenicilloyl-enzyme EI complex. To reject the bound penicilloyl moiety and consequently to recover its initial activities, the strain-R61 enzyme has developed two possible mechanisms. Pathway A is a direct attack of the serine ester linkage by an exogenous nucleophile, resulting in the transfer of the benzylpenicilloyl moiety to this nucleophile. In pathway B, the benzylpenicilloyl moiety is first fragmented by C(5)-C(6) cleavage and the enzyme-bound phenylacetylglycyl residue thus produced is in turn transferred to the nucleophile. Pathway B occurs with water, glycylglycine and other amino compounds. Both pathways A and B occur with glycerol, other ROH nucleophiles and neutral hydroxylamine. The nucleophilic attacks are enzyme-catalysed.
Physiological Roles of Vascular Nucleoside Transporters

Nucleoside transporters (NTs) comprise 2 widely expressed families, the equilibrative nucleoside transporters (diffusion-limited channels) and concentrative nucleoside transporters (sodium-dependent transporters). Because of their anatomic position at the blood-tissue interface, vascular NTs are in an ideal position to influence vascular nucleoside levels, particularly adenosine, which among others plays an important role in tissue protection during acute injury. For example, endothelial NTs contribute to preserving the vascular integrity during conditions of limited oxygen availability (hypoxia). Indeed, hypoxia-inducible factor-1-dependent repression of NTs results in enhanced extracellular adenosine signaling and thus attenuates hypoxia-associated increases in vascular leakage. In addition, vascular NTs also contribute to cardiac ischemic preconditioning, coronary vasodilation, and inhibition of platelet aggregation. Moreover, vascular nucleoside uptake via NTs is important for nucleoside recovery, particularly in cells lacking de novo nucleotide synthesis pathways (erythrocytes, leukocytes). Taken together, vascular NTs are critical in modulating adenosine-mediated responses during conditions such as inflammation or hypoxia.
Evaluation of a topical treatment for the relief of sensitive skin

Background Approximately, 50% of the population claim to have sensitive skin, which has created an important challenge for dermatologists and the cosmetic industry. This study evaluates the properties of QV Face Rescue Gel (Rescue Gel) that contains a combination of moisturizing and anti-irritant ingredients, and which is used to relieve the symptoms of sensitive facial skin. Methods The ability of Rescue Gel to induce collagen types I and III in cultured neonatal human foreskin fibroblasts compared to transforming growth factor beta 1, a known potent inducer of collagen types I and III, was measured using immunofluorescence staining. Furthermore, healthy volunteers were recruited to measure the potential for Rescue Gel to reduce erythema induced by solar-simulated ultraviolet radiation on the skin compared to 0.5% hydrocortisone cream (positive control) as well as it’s ability to decrease transepidermal water loss compared to baseline levels. In addition, the formulation was tested for its potential to be 1) nonstinging using a facial sting/discomfort assay performed on volunteers who reacted positively to lactic acid, 2) nonirritating as determined by repeat insult patch tests, and 3) noncomedogenic. Results Rescue Gel significantly induced collagen types I and III in cultured human foreskin fibroblasts similarly to transforming growth factor beta 1. In volunteers, Rescue Gel was shown to significantly reduce erythema induced by solar-simulated ultraviolet radiation similarly to 0.5% hydrocortisone, and to significantly reduce transepidermal water loss compared to baseline levels. Further, the formulation was found to be nonstinging, nonirritating, and noncomedogenic. No adverse events were observed. Conclusion In this study, Rescue Gel has been shown to exhibit properties that make it effective for use on sensitive or irritated facial skin, without exacerbation of the symptoms associated with sensitive skin.
HOCTracker: Tracking the Evolution of Hierarchical and Overlapping Communities in Dynamic Social Networks

In this paper, we propose a unified framework, HOCTracker, for tracking the evolution of hierarchical and overlapping communities in online social networks. Unlike most of the dynamic community detection methods, HOCTracker adapts a preliminary community structure towards dynamic changes in social networks using a novel density-based approach for detecting overlapping community structures, and automatically tracks evolutionary events like birth, growth, contraction, merge, split, and death of communities. It uses a novel and efficient log-based approach to map evolutionary relations between communities identified at two consecutive time-steps of a dynamic network, which considerably reduces the number of community comparisons. Moreover, it does not require an ageing function to remove old interactions for identifying community evolutionary events. HOCTracker is applicable to directed/undirected and weighted/unweighted networks. Experimental results have shown that community structures identified by HOCTracker on some well-known benchmark networks are significant and in general better that the community structures identified by the state-of-the-art methods.
Proceedings of the Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society Symposium: Diabetes DIABETIC RETINOPATHY EARLY FUNCTIONAL CHANGES

1. The present review reports some of the earliest physiological changes that occur in the diabetic retina prior to any clinical or anatomical changes in an animal model of diabetes. 2. Using chemically induced diabetes (by streptozotocin) in rats, retinal blood flow and vitreal and retinal oxygen tension were determined after 5 weeks of sustained hyperglycaemia. Blood flow was greater and was also redistributed in the diabetic group compared with values for the control group. At the same time, oxygen tension distribution was altered around retinal arterioles, implying an increase in retinal oxygen consumption in these early diabetic retinas. 3. The possibility that the blood flow changes could he due to altered control mechanisms in the retinal vasculature was confirmed using an isolated, perfused eye preparation. In diabetic eyes an altered reactivity to test pharmacological agents was demonstrated after 4 weeks of diabetes. 4. To further explore these vascular response changes we developed an isolated, perfused retinal arteriolar preparation in which individual segments of the vasculature can be tested. The possibility that insulin has a direct vasodilator effect on retinal arterioles was confirmed and was demonstrated to act via nitric oxide released from the vascular endothelial cells. These data may implicate the diabetic-induced insulin changes in early retinal changes. 5. Evidence is presented that although early glucose control may be vital in stopping the onset of diabetic retinopathy, there comes a stage in the induced diabetic cascade where if the retinopathy has commenced, good glucose control cannot stop the further progression of the retinopathy.
Federation proxy for cross domain identity federation

Identity federation is a key factor for a user to access multiple service providers seamlessly. Many protocols that federate between the providers have been proposed. Such protocols are operated under the same rules of identity management between the federated providers. Moreover, cross-protocol federation that uses different protocols for federation between the providers has also been proposed. However, the providers cannot federate all user information even though they do so using the cross-protocol federation because they do not confirm whether the federated providers obey the same rules or not. A federation bridge that converts and regulates the interaction messages between the providers is described herein. With it, the provider can federate based on the rules that a user and the providers determine.
Minimum storage regenerating codes for all parameters

Regenerating codes for distributed storage have attracted much research interest in the past decade. Such codes trade the bandwidth needed to repair a failed node with the overall amount of data stored in the network. Minimum storage regenerating (MSR) codes are an important class of optimal regenerating codes that minimize (first) the amount of data stored per node and (then) the repair bandwidth. Specifically, an [n, k, d]-(α) MSR code C over Fq is defined as follows. Using such a code C, a file F consisting of αk symbols over Fq can be distributed among n nodes, each storing α symbols, in such a way that: . the file F can be recovered by downloading the content of any k of the n nodes; and . the content of any failed node can be reconstructed by accessing any d of the remaining n -1 nodes and downloading α/(d-k+1) symbols from each of these nodes. A common practical requirement for regenerating codes is to have the original file F available in uncoded form on some k of the n nodes, known as systematic nodes. In this case, several authors relax the defining node-repair condition above, requiring the optimal repair bandwidth of dα/(d-k+1) symbols for systematic nodes only. We shall call such codes systematic-repair MSR codes. Unfortunately, explicit constructions of [n, k, d] MSR codes are known only for certain special cases: either low rate, namely k/n ≤ 0.5, or high repair connectivity, namely d = n -1. Although setting d = n - 1 minimizes the repair bandwidth, it may be impractical to connect to all the remaining nodes in order to repair a single failed node. Our main result in this paper is an explicit construction of systematic-repair [n, k, d] MSR codes for all possible values of parameters n, k, d. In particular, we construct systematic-repair MSR codes of high rate k/n > 0.5 and low repair connectivity k ≤ d ≤ n - 1. Such codes were not previously known to exist. In order to construct these codes, we solve simultaneously several repair scenarios, each of which is expressible as an interference alignment problem. Extension of our results beyond systematic repair remains an open problem.
Mechanisms of transmurally varying myocyte electromechanics in an integrated computational model

The mechanical properties of myocardium vary across the transmural aspect of the left ventricular wall. Some of these functional heterogeneities may be related to differences in excitation–contraction coupling characteristics that have been observed in cells isolated from the epicardial, mid-myocardial and endocardial regions of the left ventricle of many species, including canine. Integrative models of coupled myocyte electromechanics are reviewed and used here to investigate sources of heterogeneous electromechanical behaviour in these cells. The simulations (i) illustrate a previously unrecognized role of the transient outward potassium current in mechanical function and (ii) suggest that there may also exist additional heterogeneities affecting crossbridge cycling rates in cells from different transmural regions.
Characterization of management and outcomes of patients with acromegaly in Vancouver over 30 years.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to characterize the management and outcomes of patients with acromegaly seen in single center in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada over a 30 year period. METHODS The study involved retrospective data collection from charts of patients diagnosed with acromegaly since 1980: 130 patients (63 male and 67 female) were included in the analysis, with a mean age at diagnosis of 43 years (male) and 47 years (female). RESULTS The most common presenting features included acral enlargement, coarse facial features, sweating/oily skin and headache. All cases were caused by pituitary adenomas, of which 58.5% were macroadenomas and of these, 30.8% were invasive. The most common co-morbidities were hypertension 31.5%, arthralgia 28%, diabetes 27.7% and sleep apnea 23.8%. The vast majority (88.5%) of patients was treated surgically and of these patients, 21.5% also received radiotherapy and 66.9% received medical therapy. When stringent cure criteria were applied (based on latest growth hormone (GH) and IGF-1 results) the outcomes were 35.4% cured or controlled, 30% remained active, 15.4 discordant results and 19.2 % with no results reported. Twenty eight percent of patients who underwent surgery and 32% of patients who underwent radiotherapy were not cured but symptoms were moderately well controlled with medical therapy. CONCLUSION Based on the size of population studied, this study showed a prevalence of acromegaly of 29 per million. The cure rate was low following surgery but with adjuvant medical treatment disease control was achieved in most individuals.
Vascular endothelial growth factor promotes physical wound repair and is anti-apoptotic in primary distal lung epithelial and A549 cells

Objective:There is evidence to suggest a beneficial role for growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), in tissue repair and proliferation after injury within the lung. Whether this effect is mediated predominantly by actions on endothelial cells or epithelial cells is unknown. This study tested the hypothesis that VEGF acts as an autocrine trophic factor for human adult alveolar epithelial cells and that under situations of pro-apoptotic stress, VEGF reduces cell death. Design:In vitro cell culture study looking at the effects of 0.03% H2O2 on both A549 and primary distal lung epithelial cells. Measurement and Main Results:Primary adult human distal lung epithelial cells express both the soluble and membrane-associated VEGF isoforms and VEGF receptors 1 and 2. At physiologically relevant doses, soluble VEGF isoforms stimulate wound repair and have a proliferative action. Specific receptor ligands confirmed that this effect was mediated by VEGF receptor 1. In addition to proliferation, we demonstrate that VEGF reduces A549 and distal lung epithelial cell apoptosis when administered after 0.03% H2O2 injury. This effect occurs due to reduced caspase-3 activation and is phosphatidylinositol 3′–kinase dependent. Conclusion:In addition to its known effects on endothelial cells, VEGF acts as a growth and anti-apoptotic factor on alveolar epithelial cells. VEGF treatment may have potential as a rescue therapy for diseases associated with alveolar epithelial damage such as acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Faster Asynchronous SGD

Asynchronous distributed stochastic gradient descent methods have trouble converging because of stale gradients. A gradient update sent to a parameter server by a client is stale if the parameters used to calculate that gradient have since been updated on the server. Approaches have been proposed to circumvent this problem that quantify staleness in terms of the number of elapsed updates. In this work, we propose a novel method that quantifies staleness in terms of moving averages of gradient statistics. We show that this method outperforms previous methods with respect to convergence speed and scalability to many clients. We also discuss how an extension to this method can be used to dramatically reduce bandwidth costs in a distributed training context. In particular, our method allows reduction of total bandwidth usage by a factor of 5 with little impact on cost convergence. We also describe (and link to) a software library that we have used to simulate these algorithms deterministically on a single machine.
‘My late husband Mr Anua was a hard-working man’

I was approximately 12–13 years old when Dr Carleton Gajdusek came into the Purosa Valley to do research on kuru. My late husband Mr Anua was a hard-working man. He helped Carleton and Michael Alpers in their fieldwork. Sometimes when he was asked to go to other villages to report on kuru patients, I had to accompany him and we both went out. I have seen more of the villages to the south and west of Okapa than any of the other women in my village. Many of Mr Anua's workmates retired from this arduous rural employment but he kept on working in the field—when death approached him and took his life. I am grateful to those who helped him to have a family and live the life in his village that he preferred. I myself have also been helping Jerome Whitfield and his staff when they travel down to the Purosa Valley to collect the histories and cultural practices of the Pamusa people and study kuru patients. I am proud to see that some of our children, including my own sons Sena and Tuli, have been employed by the Kuru Project like their fathers.
Multi-featured Multi-scale Deformable Model for Three-dimensional Surface Extractio from Volumetric Image

Deformable surface models provide a very attractive method for segmenting the three-dimensional shape of complex and various internal organs from volumetric medical images. However, although researchers have succeeded in overcoming some of the limitations of this approach, there still exist several significant unsolved problems. In this paper, we propose a multi-featured multi-scale deformable surface model as a solution to three of these problems: model initialization dependency, inability to extract object concavities, and model selfintersection. The multi-scale approach, in which w progressively resample our deformable triangulated surface model globally and locally in order to match its resolution to the level of a 3-D image pyramid, provides insensitivity to local minima and model initialization as well as the ability to extract object concavities . The multifeatured energy function including internal, external, and geometric self-collision constraint force prevents selfintersection effectively. We have applied our model to the challenging problem of brain cortex boundary extraction and preliminary results are presented.
Augmented touch without visual obtrusion

Visuo-haptic mixed reality consists of adding to a real scene the ability to see and touch virtual objects. It requires the use of see-through display technology for visually mixing real and virtual objects, and haptic devices for adding haptic interaction with the virtual objects. However, haptic devices tend to be bulky items that appear in the field of view of the user. In this work, we propose a novel mixed reality paradigm where it is possible to touch and see virtual objects in combination with a real scene, but without visual obtrusion produced by the haptic device. This mixed reality paradigm relies on the following three technical steps: tracking of the haptic device, visual deletion of the device from the real scene, and background completion using image-based models. We have developed a successful proof-of-concept implementation, where a user can touch virtual objects in the context of a real scene.
CD8α+ and CD8α− Subclasses of Dendritic Cells Direct the Development of Distinct T Helper Cells In Vivo

Cells of the dendritic family display some unique properties that confer to them the capacity to sensitize naive T cells in vitro and in vivo. In the mouse, two subclasses of dendritic cells (DCs) have been described that differ by their CD8α expression and their localization in lymphoid organs. The physiologic function of both cell populations remains obscure. Studies conducted in vitro have suggested that CD8α+ DCs could play a role in the regulation of immune responses, whereas conventional CD8α− DCs would be more stimulatory. We report here that both subclasses of DCs efficiently prime antigen-specific T cells in vivo, and direct the development of distinct T helper (Th) populations. Antigen-pulsed CD8α+ and CD8α− DCs are separated after overnight culture in recombinant granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor and injected into the footpads of syngeneic mice. Administration of CD8α− DCs induces a Th2-type response, whereas injection of CD8α+ DCs leads to Th1 differentiation. We further show that interleukin 12 plays a critical role in Th1 development by CD8α+ DCs. These findings suggest that the nature of the DC that presents the antigen to naive T cells may dictate the class selection of the adaptative immune response.