Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microfiber Bragg Grating Sandwiched Between Standard Optical Fibers for Enhanced Temperature Sensing

Ultrafast laser-based direct writing of a millimeter long Bragg grating in a microfiber spliced between standard single-mode fibers is presented for highly sensitive temperature measurement. Periodic filamentary voids are written in the core of microfiber using point-by-point inscription method to achieve refractive index modulation. The structural configuration of the sensor offers strong grasp around the microfiber grating when buried in materials of higher thermal expansion coefficients. Any change in ambient temperature causes the molding material to apply higher thermal strain on the grating and amplifies its temperature sensitivity. A maximum temperature sensitivity of 479.48 pm/°C is demonstrated when molded with acetal. The proposed fiber structure can also potentially allow the molding/coating materials to retain strong grip around the fiber in event of adhesion weakening.
INTERACTION OF FLAVONOIDS: MORIN, QUERCETIN AND RUTIN, WITH DNA

Studies of interaction of flavonoids: morin, quercetin and rutin, with DNA at 0.002 M ionic strength solution have been carried out by square wave voltammetry (SWV) method. SWV curves of the mentioned flavonoids and their complexes with DNA were obtained. Based on titration curves coordinates of r and Cf (Scatchard’s coordinates) were obtained and the curves of r/Cf dependence on r were constructed. Nonlinear binding curves were obtained, which were interpreted from the point of view of existing at least two modes of binding the mentioned flavonoids with DNA. From the curves for two modes of interaction, values of the binding constant (K) and the number of DNA base pairs (n) per one binding molecule of flavonoid were determined.
Radial Basis Function Neural Network Application to Power System Restoration Studies

One of the most important issues in power system restoration is overvoltages caused by transformer switching. These overvoltages might damage some equipment and delay power system restoration. This paper presents a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) to study transformer switching overvoltages. To achieve good generalization capability for developed RBFNN, equivalent parameters of the network are added to RBFNN inputs. The developed RBFNN is trained with the worst-case scenario of switching angle and remanent flux and tested for typical cases. The simulated results for a partial of 39-bus New England test system show that the proposed technique can estimate the peak values and duration of switching overvoltages with good accuracy.
Association of molecular biomarkers expression with biochemical recurrence in prostate cancer through tissue microarray immunostaining

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic role of metallothionein-2A (MT-2A), E-cadherin, interleukin-6 (IL-6), cyclin-E, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and B cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2 in the biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer (PCa) using tissue microarray immunostaining. Tissue specimens from 128 PCa patients who underwent radical prostatectomy were processed and transferred onto tissue microarrays. The clinicopathological parameters of PCa patients were also recorded. Following immunohistochemical examination of MT-2A, E-cadherin, IL-6, cyclin-E, PCNA and Bcl-2 expression in PCa specimens, association analysis of biomarkers expression with the biochemical recurrence of PCa was performed. The results revealed that the overall rate of biochemical recurrence was 30.5% (39/128) and the median biochemical recurrence-free time was 19 months (range, 6–35 months). The biochemical recurrence rates in low-, intermediate- and high-risk PCa classification were 14.8 (8/54), 38.7 (24/62) and 58.3% (7/12), respectively. Survival analysis demonstrated that a decreased biochemical recurrence-free survival rate was noted in PCa cases with positive MT-2A and cyclin E expression as well as those with negative E-cadherin expression (P=0.022, 0.028 and 0.011, respectively). Subsequent multivariate Cox analysis revealed that MT-2A [hazard ratio (HR)=2.01; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.08–3.15; P=0.005], E-cadherin (HR=1.79; 95% CI=1.08–2.21; P=0.042) and cyclin E (HR=1.92; 95% CI=1.22–2.45; P=0.020) were independent predictors of the biochemical recurrence of PCa. In conclusion, the present study provided clinical evidence that evaluation of molecular biomarkers expression may improve clinical prognostic accuracy for the biochemical recurrence of PCa. Of note, the expression of MT-2A, cyclin E and E-cadherin may serve as independent predictors for biochemical recurrence of PCa.
BSE in Northern Ireland: epidemiological patterns past, present and future

By 30 January 1998, there had been 170 259 confirmed cases of BSE in Great Britain (GB), 1766 confirmed cases in Northern Ireland (NI) (2 January 1998), and 276 confirmed cases in the Republic of Ireland (31 January 1998). Analysis of the epidemiological patterns in the NI epidemic reveals significant clustering of cases in herds and counties. The observed clustering of cases within herds results in lower per capita incidence of BSE in previously unaffected herds, providing support for the introduction of a certified herd scheme in NI. By fitting a backcalculation model to the case data, we can estimate the number of animals infected with the aetiological agent of BSE and project the number of future cases. We predict that the epidemic will decline rapidly, with approximately 99 cases (95% confidence interval: 30, 504) occurring in the five year period 1997 to 2001.
Video Enhancement Using a Robust Iterative SRR Based on a Geman&McClure Stochastic Estimation

Most video enhancement algorithms assume that the noise model of the imaging system is known as AWGN thereby imaging process model violations often occur since the real noise model is not known in many practical applications. Robust statistics has emerged as a family of theories and techniques for estimation while dealing with deviations from the idealized model assumptions. In this paper, we propose a novel robust video enhancement algorithm using SRR (Super-Resolution Reconstruction) based on the stochastic regularization technique by minimizing a cost function. First, the registration process is used to estimate the relationship between the reference frame and other neighboring frames. Then, the Geman&McClure norm is used for measuring the difference between the projected estimate of the high quality image and each low high quality image and for removing outliers in the data. Moreover, Tikhonov regularization is incorporated in the proposed framework in order to remove artifacts from the final answer and to improve the rate of convergence. Finally, experimental results are presented to demonstrate the outstanding performance of the proposed algorithm in comparison to several previously published methods using standard sequences such as Foreman and Susie that are corrupted by several noise models such as AWGN, Poisson Noise, Salt & Pepper Noise and Speckle Noise.
Characterizing Client Behavior of Commercial Mobile Video Streaming Services

HTTP Adaptive Streaming dominates most of the traffic on the Internet today and a large fraction is driven by video consumption on mobile phones and tablet devices. The client player implementations from different popular commercial services make different parameter and architectural choices, which result from heterogeneous APIs and device limitations. As a result, they exhibit quite different behaviors even for the same service, with very different traffic consumption characteristics. In this paper, we examine three major streaming services -- Netflix, Youtube, and Hulu, over the two dominant mobile platforms -- iOS and Android, in order to understand the impact of these design choices. We infer detailed session behavior based on passively collected packet traces over a large set of experiments across the providers and network types. We discover varying amounts of "redundant" traffic in the presence of bandwidth adaptation across the services, which negatively impacts network resources. We also find these design choices lead to unfairness in bandwidth consumption on shared networks across different platforms. In particular, we find the Android Netflix player is able to take a larger fraction of shared bandwidth when competing with the iOS implementation.
Mode of Vascularization of Control and Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor‐Stimulated Prefabricated Skin Flaps

&NA; This study, using 62 rabbits, examines the rate and pattern of vascular outgrowth from a subcutaneously implanted vascular pedicle, how the newly formed vessels connect to preexisting skin vessels, and whether local application of basic fibroblast growth factor can accelerate the angiogenic process. When the femoral artery and vein of rabbits are implanted beneath the skin, angiogenesis from both the pedicle and small blood vessels within the adjacent skin begins within 3 days. Perfusion with India ink reveals connections between the pedicle and dermal vessels as early as 5 days after implantation of the pedicle. Provided the pedicle does not thrombose, skin flaps based on it may survive completely when elevated as early as 2 weeks after implantation. Flap survival depends on the development of a small number of vascular connections between vessels arising from the pedicle and preexisting dermal vessels. If elevation is delayed until 4 weeks after implantation a flap may survive even if its pedicle has thrombosed. Prolonged release of basic fibroblast growth factor adjacent to the pedicle significantly increases the survival of flaps elevated 1 week after implantation but does not alter the survival of flaps elevated at 2 and 4 weeks. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 101: 1296, 1998.)
Software Distribution Transparency and Auditability

A large user base relies on software updates provided through package managers. This provides a unique lever for improving the security of the software update process. We propose a transparency system for software updates and implement it for a widely deployed Linux package manager, namely APT. Our system is capable of detecting targeted backdoors without producing overhead for maintainers. In addition, in our system, the availability of source code is ensured, the binding between source and binary code is verified using reproducible builds, and the maintainer responsible for distributing a specific package can be identified. We describe a novel "hidden version" attack against current software transparency systems and propose as well as integrate a suitable defense. To address equivocation attacks by the transparency log server, we introduce tree root cross logging, where the log's Merkle tree root is submitted into a separately operated log server. This significantly relaxes the inter-operator cooperation requirements compared to other systems. Our implementation is evaluated by replaying over 3000 updates of the Debian operating system over the course of two years, demonstrating its viability and identifying numerous irregularities.
Slip‐Deficit Rate Distribution Along the Nankai Trough, Southwest Japan, With Elastic Lithosphere and Viscoelastic Asthenosphere

In southwest Japan, great earthquakes have occurred on the plate interface along the Nankai trough with a recurrence time of approximately 100 years. Most previous studies estimated slip deficits on the seismogenic zone from interseismic Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) velocity data assuming slip‐response functions for an elastic medium. The observed surface velocities, however, include effects of viscoelastic relaxation in the asthenosphere caused by slip motion associated with seismic cycles. If the elastic responses cannot adequately approximate the deformation of the viscoelastic medium, the results of an inversion analysis could be biased. If the recurrence interval is greater than the effective relaxation time in the elastic‐viscoelastic layered structure, we were able to formulate an inverse problem for the estimation of slip‐deficit rates from GNSS velocity data with completely relaxed slip‐response functions for a later stage of the seismic cycle. Analyzing surface velocity data from GNSS daily coordinate data between March 2005 and February 2011 together with seafloor geodetic data, we estimated the slip‐deficit rate distribution by the strain data inversion method. There were significant differences between the results using elastic and completely relaxed responses. Although the result with elastic responses shows a high coupling zone in the coastal region, it was located trenchward when completely relaxed responses were used. We found that the peak slip‐deficit rate increases as the thickness of the lithosphere becomes thinner. Moreover, we succeeded in appropriately separating elastic‐viscoelastic deformation due to plate coupling from rigid block motion.
A comparison of multi temporal interferometry techniques for landslide susceptibility assessment in urban area: an example on stigliano (MT), a town of Southern of Italy

Abstract In this work, Multi Temporal Interferometry techniques (MTI) based on advanced synthetic aperture radar differential interferometry (A-DInSAR) have been investigated for the monitoring of deformation phenomena in slow kinematics. A-DInSAR methodologies include both Coherence-based type, as well as Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) that Permanent Scatterers (PS). These techniques are capable to provide wide-area coverage and precise, spatially dense information on ground surface deformations. MTI techniques have been applied to the town of Stigliano (MT) in Basilicata Region (Southern Italy), where the social center building has been destroyed after the reactivation of a known landslide. A direct comparison of the results has been shown that PS and SBAS techniques are comparable in terms of obtained coherent areas and displacement patterns, with slightly different velocity values for individual points. In particular, PS furnished a range of velocity between −5/−25 mm/year, while for SBAS we found values around −5/−15 mm/year. Furthermore, on the crown of the landslide body, a Robotics Total Station measuring distance values on 24 points has been installed. The displacement values obtained are in agreement with the results of the MTI analysis, showing as these techniques could be a useful in the case of early-warning situations.
IFRD1 gene polymorphisms are associated with nasal polyposis in cystic fibrosis patients.

BACKGROUND Nasal polyposis (NP) is an inflammatory disease of the upper nasal airways frequently present in CF patients. Interferon-Related Developmental Regulator 1 (IFRD1) gene was reported as a possible modifier of CF lung disease severity. Three IFRD1 SNPs were analyzed to investigate a possible effect on the development of NP in CF patients. METHODS AND PATIENTS The DNA of 143 patients with CF (40 with and 103 without NP) was purified from peripheral blood samples. IFRD1 SNPs (rs7817, rs3807213, rs6968084) were genotyped by restriction enzyme analysis. RESULTS The T allele of the common polymorphisms rs7817 and the rs7817-rs3807213 haplotype were associated with NP (p = 0.002 and 0.004, respectively). CONCLUSIONS These results showed the association of the IFRD1-rs7817 polymorphism with NP in CF patients.
PLA(2) dependence of diaphragm mitochondrial formation of reactive oxygen species.

Contraction-induced respiratory muscle fatigue and sepsis-related reductions in respiratory muscle force-generating capacity are mediated, at least in part, by reactive oxygen species (ROS). The subcellular sources and mechanisms of generation of ROS in these conditions are incompletely understood. We postulated that the physiological changes associated with muscle contraction (i.e., increases in calcium and ADP concentration) stimulate mitochondrial generation of ROS by a phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2))-modulated process and that sepsis enhances muscle generation of ROS by upregulating PLA(2) activity. To test these hypotheses, we examined H(2)O(2) generation by diaphragm mitochondria isolated from saline-treated control and endotoxin-treated septic animals in the presence and absence of calcium and ADP; we also assessed the effect of PLA(2) inhibitors on H(2)O(2) formation. We found that 1) calcium and ADP stimulated H(2)O(2) formation by diaphragm mitochondria from both control and septic animals; 2) mitochondria from septic animals demonstrated substantially higher H(2)O(2) formation than mitochondria from control animals under basal, calcium-stimulated, and ADP-stimulated conditions; and 3) inhibitors of 14-kDa PLA(2) blocked the enhanced H(2)O(2) generation in all conditions. We also found that administration of arachidonic acid (the principal metabolic product of PLA(2) activation) increased mitochondrial H(2)O(2) formation by interacting with complex I of the electron transport chain. These data suggest that diaphragm mitochondrial ROS formation during contraction and sepsis may be critically dependent on PLA(2) activation.
Mail Search: It's Getting Personal!

Web Mail has significantly changed in the last decade. It keeps growing with 90% of its traffic being generated by automated scripts or "machines", [1]. At the same time, major mail services offer more and more free storage, ranging from 15GB for Gmail and Outlook.com to 1TB for Yahoo mail. As a result, we keep accumulating messages in our inbox, rarely deleting (and sometimes not even opening) many, [2]. Our inbox has become a big store mixing important information, such as e-tickets or bills, together with newsletters or promotions, from which we forgot to unsubscribe. Search is therefore a critical mechanism in order to retrieve the specific messages we need. Unfortunately, search in mail is far from being as trusted (and used) as in the Web today. Everything is personal and often private, from the content of the mailbox, to the search strategies, users' needs and queries, thus making traditional Web search techniques inapplicable "as is". Failure is evident when we can't find a message that we remember having read, and this increases our frustration. Most mail search services return sorted-by-time results in order for us to scan results chronologically and increase our perception of perfect recall. At the same time, the ranking mechanism drops less relevant results, in order to prevent them from being ranked first if recent. So in order to increase a (false) perception of recall, these systems actually hurt recall! Ranking results by mail-specific relevance would actually increase search success, [3] yet it is not widely adopted, with the exceptions of Inbox by Gmail and Yahoo Mail that show a few relevant results on top of traditional ranked-by-time results [4]. In addition, many of us still struggle with expressing our needs, typically issuing very short queries, like in the early days of the Web [5]. In this talk, I will first highlight the key characteristics of mail search and how they differ from Web search, in terms of searchers' needs and behavior [2,5]. I will then present recent progress in mail ranking [3,4] as well as in query assistance tools [5,6]. Finally, I will discuss directions for future research, and the need to revisit mail search and invent search mechanisms specifically tailored to the personal data store that our inbox has become.
An optimal energy allocation algorithm for energy harvesting wireless sensor networks

With the use of energy harvesting technologies, the lifetime of a wireless sensor network (WSN) can be prolonged significantly. Unlike a traditional WSN powered by non-rechargeable batteries, the energy management policy of an energy harvesting WSN needs to take into account the energy replenishment process. In this paper, we study the energy allocation for sensing and transmission in an energy harvesting sensor node with a rechargeable battery and a finite data buffer. The sensor node aims to maximize the total throughput in a finite horizon subject to time-varying energy harvesting rate, energy availability in the battery, and channel fading. We formulate the energy allocation problem as a sequential decision problem and propose an optimal energy allocation (OEA) algorithm using dynamic programming. We conduct simulations to compare the performance between our proposed OEA algorithm and the channel-aware energy allocation (CAEA) algorithm from [1]. Simulation results show that the OEA algorithm achieves a higher throughput than the CAEA algorithm under different settings.
A fast HEVC transcoder based on content modeling and early termination

In this paper, a fast transcoding solution from H.264/AVC to HEVC bitstreams is presented. This solution is based on two main modules: a coding unit (CU) classification module that relies on a machine learning technique in order to map H.264/AVC macroblocks into HEVC CUs; and an early termination technique that is based on statistical modeling of the HEVC rate-distortion (RD) cost in order to further speed-up the transcoding. The transcoder is built around an established two-stage transcoding. In the first stage, called the training stage, full re-encoding is performed while the H.264/AVC and the HEVC information are gathered. This information is then used to build both the CU classification model and the early termination sieves, that are used in the second stage (called the transcoding stage). The solution is tested with well-known video sequences and evaluated in terms of RD and complexity. The proposed method is 3.83 times faster, on average, than the trivial transcoder, and 1.8 times faster than a previous transcoding solution, while yielding a RD loss of 4% compared to this solution.
Colonisation of acrylic denture fitting surfaces by Candida species

Denture-associated candidal infection is usually painless and localised to a relatively small area of the mouth but may lead to serious complications such as systemic yeast infection in susceptible patients. This includes those who have a compromised immune system, particularly the elderly. One of the factors predisposing to denture-associated candidal infection is dentureinduced trauma, where an ill-fitting denture creates a more favourable environment for the growth of the yeast. In this research project, we investigated the patterns of the colonisation by Candida spp. of the oral mucosal and acrylic denture fitting surface in patients with ill-fitting dentures and following delivery of new dentures. Sixteen edentulous patients attending the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago, for fabrication of new complete dentures were enrolled in the study; ten of these participants completed the study. Saliva and mucosal swab samples were collected from each participant and incubated on CHROMagar Candida plates. CHROMagar Candida impressions were captured from the fitting surfaces of boxed maxillary complete dentures. The numbers of colony forming units (CFU) of yeast present in the saliva samples and on the dentures were counted and the yeast species presumptively identified by their colony colour. Sampling was repeated following delivery and review of new dentures after 1 month, 3 months and 6 months. Before delivery of new dentures, 8 of the 10 participants had yeast in their saliva at concentrations ranging from 20-4,280 CFU/ml. Half the participants had C. albicans in their saliva and 7 only had one species present, saliva from one participant contained 3 species. Only one participant had yeast in their saliva 1 month after delivery of their new denture, but this increased to 4 participants after 6 months. The old dentures of 6 of the participants were colonised with yeast, mostly C. albicans but C. krusei was detected on 4 of the old dentures. After 1 month only 2 dentures were colonised, but after 6 months 6 dentures were colonised with a variety of species. The new dentures were colonised by C. albicans and C. tropicalis, but after 6 months C. krusei was also present.