Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DARM: a privacy-preserving approach for distributed association rules mining on horizontally-partitioned data

Extracting association rules helps data owners to unveil hidden patterns from their data for the purpose of analyzing and predicting the behavior of their clients. However, mining association rules in a distributed environment is not a trivial task due to privacy concerns. Data owners are interested in collaborating with each other to mine association rules on a global level; however, they are concerned that sensitive information related to the individuals involved in their database might get compromised during the mining process. In this paper, we formulate and address the problem of answering association rules queries in a distributed environment such that the mining process is confidential and the results are differentially private. We propose a privacy-preserving distributed association rules mining approach, named DARM, where global strong association rules are determined in a confidential way, and the results returned satisfy ε-differential privacy. We conduct our experiments on real-life data, and show that our approach can efficiently answer association rules queries and is scalable with increasing data records.
Glass-transition temperature behavior of alumina/PMMA nanocomposites

Alumina/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanocomposites were synthesized by an in situ free-radical polymerization process with 38 and 17 nm diameter γ-alumina nanoparticles. At extremely low filler weight fractions (<1.0 wt % of 38 nm fillers or < 0.5 wt % of 17 nm fillers) the glass-transition temperature (Tg) of the nanocomposites drops by 25 °C when compared to the neat polymer. Further additions of filler (up to 10 wt %) do not lead to additional Tg reductions. The thermal behavior is shown to vary with particle size, but this dependence can be normalized with respect to a specific surface area. The nanocomposite Tg phenomenon is hypothesized to be because of nonadhering nanoparticles that serve as templates for a porous system with many internal interfaces that break up the percolating structure of dynamically heterogeneous domains recently suggested by Long, D. ; and Lequeux, F. Eur Phys J E 2001, 4, 371 to be responsible for the Tg reductions in polymer ultrathin films. The results also point to a far field effect of the nanoparticle surface on the bulk matrix. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4371–4383, 2004
A Preformed Binding Interface in the Unbound Ensemble of an Intrinsically Disordered Protein: Evidence from Molecular Simulations

Intrinsically disordered proteins play an important role in cellular signalling, mediated by their interactions with other biomolecules. A key question concerns the nature of their binding mechanism, and whether the bound structure is induced only by proximity to the binding partner. This is difficult to answer through experiment alone because of the very heterogeneous nature of the unbound ensemble, and the probable rapid interconversion of the various unbound structures. Here we report the most extensive set of simulations on NCBD to date: we use large-scale replica exchange molecular dynamics to explore the unbound state. An important feature of the study is the use of an atomistic force field that has been parametrised against experimental data for weakly structured peptides, together with an accurate explicit water model. Neither the force field nor the starting conformations are biased towards a particular structure. The regions of NCBD that have high helical propensity in the simulations correspond closely to helices in the ‘core’ unbound conformation determined by NMR, although no single member of the simulated unbound ensemble closely resembles the core conformation, or either of the two known bound conformations. We have validated the results against NMR spectroscopy and SAXS measurements, obtaining reasonable agreement. The two helices which most stabilise the binding of NCBD with ACTR are formed readily; the third helix, which is less important for binding but is involved in most of the intraprotein contacts of NCBD in the bound conformation, is formed more rarely, and tends not to coexist with the other helices. These results support a mechanism by which NCBD gains the advantages of disorder, while forming binding-competent structures in the unbound state. We obtain support for this mechanism from coarse-grained simulations of NCBD with, and without, its binding partner.
Endogenous opioid analgesia in peripheral tissues and the clinical implications for pain control

Opioid receptors are widely expressed in the central and peripheral nervous system as well as in numerous nonneuronal tissues. Both animal models and human clinical data support the involvement of peripheral opioid receptors in analgesia, particularly in inflammation where both opioid receptor expression and efficacy are increased. Immune cells have been shown to contain numerous opioid peptides such as β-endorphin (END), met-enkephalin (ENK), and dynorphin-A (DYN), although the predominant opioid peptide involved in immune-cell mediated antinociception is thought to be END. These opioid-containing immune cells migrate to inflamed tissues during a complex process of recruitment by chemokines, adhesion, and extravasation. In these tissues, opioid peptide is released from the immune cells upon stimulation with corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF), noradrenaline, and interleukin 1β (IL-1β), and the immune cells return to the local lymph node depleted of peptide. Consistent with this model, systemic immunosuppression may lead to impaired endogenous analgesia as competent immune cells are essential to achieve release of endogenous opioid peptides within inflamed tissue. A further level of complexity is added by the observation that exogenous opioids may impair immune cell function, although there is some evidence to suggest that endogenous opioid peptides do not share this immunosuppressive effect. Improving our understanding of endogenous opioid mechanisms will provide valuable insight towards the development of novel treatments for pain with improved side effect profiles.
Self-Consistent Reaction Field Model for Aqueous and Nonaqueous Solutions Based on Accurate Polarized Partial Charges.

A new universal continuum solvation model (where "universal" denotes applicable to all solvents), called SM8, is presented. It is an implicit solvation model, also called a continuum solvation model, and it improves on earlier SMx universal solvation models by including free energies of solvation of ions in nonaqueous media in the parametrization. SM8 is applicable to any charged or uncharged solute composed of H, C, N, O, F, Si, P, S, Cl, and/or Br in any solvent or liquid medium for which a few key descriptors are known, in particular dielectric constant, refractive index, bulk surface tension, and acidity and basicity parameters. It does not require the user to assign molecular-mechanics types to an atom or group; all parameters are unique and continuous functions of geometry. It may be used with any level of electronic structure theory as long as accurate partial charges can be computed for that level of theory; we recommend using it with self-consistently polarized Charge Model 4 or other self-consistently polarized class IV charges, in which case analytic gradients are available. The model separates the observable solvation free energy into two components: the long-range bulk electrostatic contribution arising from a self-consistent reaction field treatment using the generalized Born approximation for electrostatics is augmented by the non-bulk-electrostatic contribution arising from short-range interactions between the solute and solvent molecules in the first solvation shell. The cavities for the bulk electrostatics calculation are defined by superpositions of nuclear-centered spheres whose sizes are determined by intrinsic atomic Coulomb radii. The radii used for aqueous solution are the same as parametrized previously for the SM6 aqueous solvation model, and the radii for nonaqueous solution are parametrized by a training set of 220 bare ions and 21 clustered ions in acetonitrile, methanol, and dimethyl sulfoxide. The non-bulk-electrostatic terms are proportional to the solvent-accessible surface areas of the atoms of the solute and have been parametrized using solvation free energies for a training set of 2346 solvation free energies for 318 neutral solutes in 90 nonaqueous solvents and water and 143 transfer free energies for 93 neutral solutes between water and 15 organic solvents. The model is tested with three density functionals and with four basis sets: 6-31+G(d,p), 6-31+G(d), 6-31G(d), and MIDI! 6D. The SM8 model achieves mean unsigned errors of 0.5-0.8 kcal/mol in the solvation free energies of tested neutrals and mean unsigned errors of 2.2-7.0 kcal/mol for ions. The model outperforms the earlier SM5.43R and SM7 universal solvation models as well as the default Polarizable Continuum Model (PCM) implemented in Gaussian 98/03, the Conductor-like PCM as implemented in GAMESS, Jaguar's continuum model based on numerical solution of the Poisson equation, and the GCOSMO model implemented in NWChem.
ISOLATION AND MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIALLY PATHOGENIC Escherichia coli AND Campylobacter jejuni IN FERAL PIGEONS FROM AN URBAN AREA IN THE CITY OF LIMA, PERU

SUMMARY Feral pigeons (Columbia livia) live in close contact with humans and other animals. They can transmit potentially pathogenic and zoonotic agents. The objective of this study was to isolate and detect strains of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli and Campylobacter jejuni of urban feral pigeons from an area of Lima, Peru. Fresh dropping samples from urban parks were collected for microbiological isolation of E. coli strains in selective agar, and Campylobacter by filtration method. Molecular identification of diarrheagenic pathotypes of E.coli and Campylobacter jejuni was performed by PCR. Twenty-two parks were sampled and 16 colonies of Campylobacter spp. were isolated. The 100% of isolates were identified as Campylobacter jejuni. Furthermore, 102 colonies of E. coliwere isolated and the 5.88% resulted as Enteropathogenic (EPEC) type and 0.98% as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). The urban feral pigeons of Lima in Peru can act as a reservoir or carriers of zoonotic potentially pathogenic enteric agents.
Enhanced Laser-Based Magneto-Optic Imaging System for Nondestructive Evaluation Applications

An enhanced and innovative laser-based magneto-optic (MO) imaging (LMOI) system is presented in this paper to detect buried subsurface flaws in metallic structures for structural nondestructive evaluation. Several key improvements for the new imaging device have been discussed, including the following: the optimization of the MO sensor, the design of the magnetic excitation device, and the development of the image processing approaches, which result in the enhanced MO image quality comparing to the first generation of LMOI. Experimental data have also been obtained that clearly demonstrated the improvement in imaging results.
Application of Splines to Three-dimensional Map Building for Mobile Robot

In mobile robot applications, building a map for mobile robot is very important task. In this work, a surface-based on numerical method such as Splines is used to investigate a model for the robot path planning. The developed algorithm generates a free collision path starting from the initial position to the target position through the use of the Splines for extracting the triangular mesh in the 3D environment surface. The triangular mesh helps the robot to locate the different obstacles which are stationary as well as mobile and to track the target position free of collision. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors are used for acquiring the data related to the environment and the obstacles. The obtained results are very satisfactory.
An edge and color oriented optical flow estimation using block matching

For most tasks in image sequence analysis, the estimation of optical flow is the primary step towards the final solution. Block matching, which is adopted by many current coding standards, is the most popular method among other approaches. Research in this area mainly focuses on three aspects: matching criteria, searching criteria and the determination of block size. In this paper, we propose a block matching approach taking into account edge information and color information to improve matching accuracy. Edge detection is first performed on the frames to be matched. Block matching is then carried out by comparing intensity, edge and color similarity of the blocks. In order to offset the computational cost introduced by the edge and color matching, a fast searching algorithm of four step searching is exploited in the searching stage. Preliminary results show it performed better than the common intensity based methods.
Visual Adaptation.

Sensory systems continuously mold themselves to the widely varying contexts in which they must operate. Studies of these adaptations have played a long and central role in vision science. In part this is because the specific adaptations remain a powerful tool for dissecting vision, by exposing the mechanisms that are adapting. That is, "if it adapts, it's there. " Many insights about vision have come from using adaptation in this way, as a method. A second important trend has been the realization that the processes of adaptation are themselves essential to how vision works, and thus are likely to operate at all levels. That is, "if it's there, it adapts. " This has focused interest on the mechanisms of adaptation as the target rather than the probe. Together both approaches have led to an emerging insight of adaptation as a fundamental and ubiquitous coding strategy impacting all aspects of how we see.
Cervical Spine Deformity—Part 2: Management Algorithm and Anterior Techniques

A sound operative plan based on solid understanding of the pathology and biomechanics is the most important part of cervical deformity correction. Many different surgical options exist for operative management of cervical spine deformities. However, selecting the correct approach that ensures the optimal clinical outcome can be challenging and often controversial. In Part 2 of this three-part review series, we discuss the pre-operative planning, management algorithm, and anterior surgical techniques for cervical deformity correction.
Evaluation of Metarhizium anisopliae Strain F52 (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) for Control of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae)

ABSTRACT Field efficacy of an emulsifiable concentrate formulation of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae strain F52 for the control of Ixodes scapularis nymphs was evaluated at residential sites in northwestern Connecticut in 2007. Two spray applications with two rates, 3.2 × 105 and 1.3 × 106 spores/cm2, were made: the first on 8–9 May, 2–3 wk before nymphal activity, and the second on 29 June or 2 July when ticks were active. There was no significant difference in nymphal abundance between the three treatment groups (P = 0.490) after the first application, indicating that preseason or early applications are not effective, despite a bioasaay with yellow mealworms that showed spores in the treated areas was infective for at least 1 mo postapplication. By contrast, there was a significant difference in the number of nymphs collected between the treatments and control 3 wk (F = 16.928, df = 2, P < 0.001) and 5 wk (F = 6.627, df = 2, P = 0.002) after the second application. During the 3 wk after the second application, 87.1 and 96.1% fewer ticks were collected from lower and higher rate-treated sites, respectively, and after 5 wk, tick reductions were 53.2 and 73.8%, respectively. Over one- third (36.4% of 173) of the nymphs collected from the treated sites developed mycosis from M. anisopliae. The application of M. anisopliae strain F52 could provide another tool for the integrated approach to managing ticks in the residential landscape.
Notes on direct and gridding-based Fourier inversion methods

Numerous imaging methods, including MRI and CT, lead to the problem of reconstructing a square-integrable function. The problem of reconstructing a function f from a non-equidistantly sampled version of its Fourier transform /spl Fscr/ f may be tackled with direct and gridding-based Fourier inversion methods. Both approaches require a weighting of the data. We present a favorable and generally applicable weighting strategy and show that gridding-based Fourier inversion provides a fast way of computing a highly accurate approximation to the result that would be produced by direct Fourier inversion.
A multivariate treatment of bias for sequential data assimilation: Application to the tropical oceans

This paper discusses the problems arising from the presence of system bias in ocean data assimilation taking examples from the ECMWF ocean reanalysis used for seasonal forecasting. The examples illustrate how in a biased system, the non‐stationary nature of the observing system is a handicap for the reliable representation of climate variability. It is also shown how the bias can be aggravated by the assimilation process, as is the case for the temperature bias in the eastern equatorial Pacific, linked to a spurious vertical circulation generated by the data assimilation.
Ordering and precipitation of γ′ phase in low supersaturated Ni-Cr-Al model alloy: An atomic scale investigation

Abstract Both three-dimensional (3D) atom probe (AP) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques have been used to study the early stages of precipitation of the Ni3Al-type ordered γ′ phase in a model Ni-based superalloy Ni-Al-Cr. Investigations were conducted on a low supersaturated alloy (5·2 at.% Al and 14·7 at.% Cr) aged at 600°C. Atom probe and TEM data indicate that clustering and ordering already occur after ageing for 15 min on a very fine scale (about three unit cells). 3D images reveal that small ordered γ′ particles, 2 nm in diameter, are present after 1 h. Their composition is close to the equilibrium composition of the γ′ phase and does not evolve as ageing proceeds. The time evolution of particle size and composition of the matrix suggests that a growth mechanism is involved before 4 h, followed by a coarsening regime up to 64 h. The comparison of the coarsening rate constant with data available in the literature for binary Ni-Al and ternary Ni-Cr-Al alloys leads to the conclusion .
Autophagy: an emerging therapeutic target in vascular diseases

Autophagy is a cellular catabolic process responsible for the destruction of long‐lived proteins and organelles via lysosome‐dependent pathway. This process is of great importance in maintaining cellular homeostasis, and deregulated autophagy has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a wide range of diseases. A growing body of evidence suggests that autophagy can be activated in vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis. Autophagy occurs under basal conditions and mediates homeostatic functions in cells but in the setting of pathological states up‐regulated autophagy can exert both protective and detrimental functions. Therefore, the precise role of autophagy and its relationship with the progression of the disease need to be clarified. This review highlights recent findings regarding autophagy activity in vascular cells and its potential contribution to vascular disorders with a focus on atherogenesis. Finally, whether the manipulation of autophagy represents a new therapeutic approach to treat or prevent vascular diseases is also discussed.
Learning and Testing the Bounded Retransmission Protocol

Using a well-known industrial case study from the verication literature, the bounded retransmission protocol, we show how active learning can be used to establish the correctness of protocol implementation I relative to a given reference implementation R. Using active learning, we learn a model MR of reference implementation R, which serves as input for a model based testing tool that checks conformance of implementation I to MR. In addition, we also explore an alternative approach in which we learn a model MI of implementation I, which is compared to model MR using an equivalence checker. Our work uses a unique combination of software tools for model construction (Uppaal), active learning (LearnLib, Tomte), model-based testing (JTorX, TorXakis) and verication (CADP, MRMC). We show how these tools can be used for learning these models, analyzing the obtained results, and improving the learning performance.
Optimizing the Block I/O Subsystem for Fast Storage Devices

Fast storage devices are an emerging solution to satisfy data-intensive applications. They provide high transaction rates for DBMS, low response times for Web servers, instant on-demand paging for applications with large memory footprints, and many similar advantages for performance-hungry applications. In spite of the benefits promised by fast hardware, modern operating systems are not yet structured to take advantage of the hardware’s full potential. The software overhead caused by an OS, negligible in the past, adversely impacts application performance, lessening the advantage of using such hardware. Our analysis demonstrates that the overheads from the traditional storage-stack design are significant and cannot easily be overcome without modifying the hardware interface and adding new capabilities to the operating system. In this article, we propose six optimizations that enable an OS to fully exploit the performance characteristics of fast storage devices. With the support of new hardware interfaces, our optimizations minimize per-request latency by streamlining the I/O path and amortize per-request latency by maximizing parallelism inside the device. We demonstrate the impact on application performance through well-known storage benchmarks run against a Linux kernel with a customized SSD. We find that eliminating context switches in the I/O path decreases the software overhead of an I/O request from 20 microseconds to 5 microseconds and a new request merge scheme called Temporal Merge enables the OS to achieve 87% to 100% of peak device performance, regardless of request access patterns or types. Although the performance improvement by these optimizations on a standard SATA-based SSD is marginal (because of its limited interface and relatively high response times), our sensitivity analysis suggests that future SSDs with lower response times will benefit from these changes. The effectiveness of our optimizations encourages discussion between the OS community and storage vendors about future device interfaces for fast storage devices.
Molecular Dissection of the Microtubule Depolymerizing Activity of Mitotic Centromere-associated Kinesin*

Mitotic centromere-associated kinesin (MCAK) is a microtubule depolymerizer that is consistent with its role in promoting chromosome segregation during mitosis. Here we show that the conserved motor domain of MCAK is necessary but not sufficient for microtubule depolymerization in cells or in vitro. The addition of only 30 amino acids N-terminal to the motor restores depolymerization activity. Furthermore, dimerization studies revealed that the smallest functional MCAK deletion constructs are monomers. These results define a highly conserved domain within MCAK and related (KIN I) kinesins that is critical for depolymerization activity and show that this depolymerization is not dependent on MCAK dimerization.