Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploiting Lack of Hardware Reciprocity for Sender-Node Authentication at the PHY Layer

This paper proposes to exploit the so-called {\it reciprocity parameters} (modelling non-reciprocal communication hardware) to use them as decision metric for binary hypothesis testing based authentication framework at a receiver node Bob. Specifically, Bob first learns the reciprocity parameters of the legitimate sender Alice via initial training. Then, during the test phase, Bob first obtains a measurement of reciprocity parameters of channel occupier (Alice, or, the intruder Eve). Then, with ground truth and current measurement both in hand, Bob carries out the hypothesis testing to automatically accept (reject) the packets sent by Alice (Eve). For the proposed scheme, we provide its success rate (the detection probability of Eve), and its performance comparison with other schemes.
On deterministic linear network coded broadcast and its relation to matroid theory

Deterministic linear network coding (DLNC) is an important family of network coding techniques for wireless packet broadcast. In this paper, we show that DLNC is strongly related to and can be effectively studied using matroid theory without bridging index coding. We prove the equivalence between the DLNC solution and matrix matroid. We use this equivalence to study the performance limits of DLNC in terms of the number of transmissions and its dependence on the finite field size. Specifically, we derive the sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of perfect DLNC solutions and prove that such solutions may not exist over certain finite fields. We then show that identifying perfect solutions over any finite field is still an open problem in general. To fill this gap, we develop a heuristic algorithm which employs graphic matroids to find perfect DLNC solutions over any finite field. Numerical results show that its performance in terms of minimum number of transmissions is close to the lower bound, and is better than random linear network coding when the field size is not so large.
Sparse Online Co-regularization Using Conjugate Functions

In this paper, we propose a novel sparse online co-regularization framework for multiview semi-supervised learning, which concerns using a small portion of the arrived training examples to represent predictors during the online learning process. This framework makes use of Fenchel conjugates to perform sparse online co-regularization process in the dual function. The use of tolerance function enforces sparsity. Detailed experiments on artificial and real world data sets verify the utility of our approaches. This paper paves a way to the design and analysis of sparse online co-regularization algorithms.
Atherosclerosis Induced by Chlamydophila pneumoniae: A Controversial Theory

More than a century ago, inflammation and infection were considered to have atherogenic effects. The old idea that coronary heart disease (CHD) possibly has an infectious etiology has only reemerged in recent years. Atherosclerosis is the main pathological process involved in CHD and is, logically, the first place to look for infectious etiology. The process of atherosclerosis itself provides the first hints of potential infectious cause. Smooth muscle proliferation, with subsequent intimal thickening, luminal narrowing, and endothelial degeneration, constitutes the natural history of atherosclerosis, being with the severity and speed of these changes. Both viral and bacterial pathogens have been proposed to be associated with the inflammatory changes found in atherosclerosis. Recently, Chlamydophila pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) has been implicated as a possible etiologic agent of coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis. New evidence which supports a role for C. pneumoniae in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis has emerged. C. pneumoniae has been detected in atherosclerotic arteries by several techniques, and the organism has been isolated from both coronary and carotid atheromas. Recent animal models have suggested that C. pneumoniae is capable of inducing atherosclerosis in both rabbit and mouse models of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, human clinical treatment studies which examined the use of antichlamydial macrolide antibiotics in patients with coronary atherosclerosis have been carried out. The causal relationship has not yet been proven, but ongoing large intervention trials and research on pathogenetic mechanisms may lead to the use of antimicrobial agents in the treatment of CHD in the future.
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Metal Cutting with Local Hydrostatic Pressure Field Formation

Improving machined surface integrity is one of the important issues in the precision machining. This study aims to develop a cutting tool, which enables to generate a local hydrostatic pressure field in the vicinity of the cutting point to suppress the extra plastic flow in the workpiece, because it is known that materials including metals never cause plastic flow and fracture no matter how much greater hydrostatic pressure field is given. In this paper, a simple cutting tool with planer jig is proposed and a molecular dynamics simulation of cutting is performed as the first step. As a result, it is confirmed that the reduction of the plastic deformation, mainly in the burr formation become remarkable with the proposed model due to the suppression of extra side plastic flow, and relatively high-hydrostatic stress field is formed in the vicinity of cutting point. However, it is also observed that relatively many dislocations are generated beneath the cutting groove.
Area-specific temporal control of corticospinal motor neuron differentiation by COUP-TFI

Transcription factors with gradients of expression in neocortical progenitors give rise to distinct motor and sensory cortical areas by controlling the area-specific differentiation of distinct neuronal subtypes. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this area-restricted control are still unclear. Here, we show that COUP-TFI controls the timing of birth and specification of corticospinal motor neurons (CSMN) in somatosensory cortex via repression of a CSMN differentiation program. Loss of COUP-TFI function causes an area-specific premature generation of neurons with cardinal features of CSMN, which project to subcerebral structures, including the spinal cord. Concurrently, genuine CSMN differentiate imprecisely and do not project beyond the pons, together resulting in impaired skilled motor function in adult mice with cortical COUP-TFI loss-of-function. Our findings indicate that COUP-TFI exerts critical areal and temporal control over the precise differentiation of CSMN during corticogenesis, thereby enabling the area-specific functional features of motor and sensory areas to arise.
Guiding Inference with Policy Search Reinforcement Learning

Symbolic reasoning is a well understood and effective approach to handling reasoning over formally represented knowledge; however, simple symbolic inference systems necessarily slow as complexity and ground facts grow. As automated approaches to ontology-building become more prevalent and sophisticated, knowledge base systems become larger and more complex, necessitating techniques for faster inference. This work uses reinforcement learning, a statistical machine learning technique, to learn control laws which guide inference. We implement our learning method in ResearchCyc, a very large knowledge base with millions of assertions. A large set of test queries, some of which require tens of thousands of inference steps to answer, can be answered faster after training over an independent set of training queries. Furthermore, this learned inference module outperforms ResearchCyc’s integrated inference module, a module that has been hand-tuned with considerable effort.
The Pepper RING Finger E3 Ligase, CaDIR1, Regulates the Drought Stress Response via ABA-Mediated Signaling

Drought stress from soil or air limits plant growth and development, leading to a reduction in crop productivity. Several E3 ligases positively or negatively regulate the drought stress response. In the present study, we show that the pepper (Capsicum annuum) Drought Induced RING type E3 ligase 1, CaDIR1, regulates the drought stress response via abscisic acid (ABA)-mediated signaling. CaDIR1 contains a C3HC4-type RING finger domain in the N-terminal region; this domain functions during protein degradation via attachment of ubiquitins to the substrate target proteins. The expression levels of the CaDIR1 gene were suppressed and induced by ABA and drought treatments, respectively. We conducted loss-of-function and gain-of function genetic studies to examine the in vivo function of CaDIR1 in response to ABA and drought stress. CaDIR1-silenced pepper plants displayed a drought-tolerant phenotype characterized by a low level of transpirational water loss via increased stomatal closure and elevated leaf temperatures. CaDIR1-overexpressing (OX) Arabidopsis plants exhibited an ABA-hypersensitive phenotype during the germination stage, but an ABA-hyposensitive phenotype—characterized by decreased stomatal closure and reduced leaf temperatures—at the adult stage. Moreover, adult CaDIR1-OX plants exhibited a drought-sensitive phenotype characterized by high levels of transpirational water loss. Our results indicate that CaDIR1 functions as a negative regulator of the drought stress response via ABA-mediated signaling. Our findings provide a valuable insight into the plant defense mechanism that operates during drought stress.
Advances in the treatment of hepatitis B virus/hepatitis C virus coinfection

Introduction: Patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV)/hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection are at a high risk of developing liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, and consequently, warrant effective treatment. Areas covered: Effective treatment should eradicate HCV infection and inhibit HBV replication but without serious adverse reactions. Careful evaluation of disease progression, predominance of one virus over another, comorbidities and concomitant hepatitis delta virus and/or HIV infection are essential for better therapy choices. In the case of HCV predominance, Peg-interferon plus ribavirin with or without a first-generation directly acting antiviral (DAA) should be the first choice, but future treatments will be DAA-based and interferon-free. In the case of HBV predominance, tenofovir or entecavir should be part of treatment. Patients should be closely monitored for early identification and treatment of HCV or HBV reactivation. Expert opinion: High potency and high genetic barrier nucleos(t)ide analogues to inhibit HBV replication have been used for years, with no urgency for new drugs. Several DAAs for interferon-free therapy for HCV eradication will be available in the near future. We hope that the high cost of these drugs will not be a limitation to their use in developing countries. Further investigation of HBV/HCV interaction is needed before and during the administration of new therapies.
Tertiary control for optimal unbalance compensation in islanded microgrids

In order to achieve desirable power quality in the critical bus (CB) in microgrids, primary and secondary control can be used to realize unbalance compensation and at the same time, to make distributed generators (DGs) share the compensation efforts. Considering that the power quality requirements in different areas and for different consumers can be different, this paper implements a tertiary control over secondary and primary control levels so as to achieve optimal unbalance compensation control. Hardware-in-the-loop results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.
Counting Pedestrians in Crowds Using Viewpoint Invariant Training

This paper describes a learning-based method for counting people in crowds from a single camera. Our method takes into account feature normalization to deal with perspective projection and different camera orientation. Thus, our system is trained to be viewpoint invariant and can be deployed with minimal setup for a new site. This is achieved by applying background subtraction and edge detection to each frame and extracting edge orientation and blob size histograms as features. A homography is computed between the ground plane and the image plane coordinates for the region of interest (ROI). A density map that measures the relative size of individuals and a global scale measuring camera orientation are also estimated and used for feature normalization. The relationship between the feature histograms and the number of pedestrians in the crowds is learned from labeled training data. The two training methods used in the current system are linear fitting and neural networks. Experimental results from different sites with different camera orientation demonstrate the performance and the potential of our method.
Polyethylene composite fibers. I. Composite fibers of high-density polyethylene

Polymer matrix composites are generally studied in the form of bulk solids, and very few works have examined composite fibers. The research described here extended such bulk studies to fibers. The question is whether or not what has been reported for bulk polymers will be the same in fibers. In this article are reported studies of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), whereas those of linear low-density polyethylene are reported in part II of this article series. Two types of filler were used, that is, organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT), in which the nanosized filler particles had a high aspect ratio, and microsized calcium carbonate (CaCO3), with an aspect ratio nearer to unity. Composite fibers of both as-spun and highly drawn forms were prepared, and their structures, morphology, and mechanical properties were studied. It was found that the microsized particles gave HDPE composite fibers with mechanical properties that were the same as those of the neat polymer. In the case of clay composite fibers, the clay interfered with the yield process, and the usual yield point could not be observed. The particle shape did not affect the mechanical properties. The fibers showed different deformation morphologies at low draw ratios. The CaCO3 composite fibers showed cavities, which were indicative of low interaction between the polymer and the filler. The OMMT composite fibers showed platelets aligned along the fibers and good polymer–filler interaction. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012
SAR11 lipid renovation in response to phosphate starvation

Significance Nonphosphorus lipids produced by heterotrophic bacteria have been measured in marine ecosystems without an understanding of their origins or role. This work shows SAR11 chemoheterotrophic bacteria synthesize multiple nonphosphorus lipids in response to phosphate depletion. Because this process results in a reduced cellular P:C ratio, it impacts our understanding of ocean processes related to cellular elemental stoichiometry by showing how different environmental parameters alter P:C ratios in heterotrophs. Also, SAR11 grown with excess organophosphonate synthesized phosphorus-free lipids. This finding contrasts the contemporary view of organophosphorus utilization because organophosphate-derived phosphorus did not equally substitute for inorganic phosphate in lipids. Considering lipid phosphorus content was lower in cells using organophosphonate, phosphorus-based productivity estimates may vary as a function of phosphorus source. Phytoplankton inhabiting oligotrophic ocean gyres actively reduce their phosphorus demand by replacing polar membrane phospholipids with those lacking phosphorus. Although the synthesis of nonphosphorus lipids is well documented in some heterotrophic bacterial lineages, phosphorus-free lipid synthesis in oligotrophic marine chemoheterotrophs has not been directly demonstrated, implying they are disadvantaged in phosphate-deplete ecosystems, relative to phytoplankton. Here, we show the SAR11 clade chemoheterotroph Pelagibacter sp. str. HTCC7211 renovates membrane lipids when phosphate starved by replacing a portion of its phospholipids with monoglucosyl- and glucuronosyl-diacylglycerols and by synthesizing new ornithine lipids. Lipid profiles of cells grown with excess phosphate consisted entirely of phospholipids. Conversely, up to 40% of the total lipids were converted to nonphosphorus lipids when cells were starved for phosphate, or when growing on methylphosphonate. Cells sequentially limited by phosphate and methylphosphonate transformed >75% of their lipids to phosphorus-free analogs. During phosphate starvation, a four-gene cluster was significantly up-regulated that likely encodes the enzymes responsible for lipid renovation. These genes were found in Pelagibacterales strains isolated from a phosphate-deficient ocean gyre, but not in other strains from coastal environments, suggesting alternate lipid synthesis is a specific adaptation to phosphate scarcity. Similar gene clusters are found in the genomes of other marine α-proteobacteria, implying lipid renovation is a common strategy used by heterotrophic cells to reduce their requirement for phosphorus in oligotrophic habitats.
Effects of head movement on perceptions of humanoid robot behavior

This paper examines human perceptions of humanoid robot behavior, specifically how perception is affected by variations in head tracking behavior under constant gestural behavior. Subjects were invited to the lab to "play with Nico," an upper-torso humanoid robot. The follow-up survey asked subjects to rate and write about the experience. A coding scheme originally created to gauge human intentionality was applied to written responses to measure the level of intentionality that subjects perceived in the robot. Subjects were presented with one of four variations of head movement: a motionless head, a smooth tracking head, a tracking head without smoothed movements, and an avoidance behavior, while a pre-scripted wave and beckon sequence was carried out in all cases. Surprisingly, subjects rated the interaction as most enjoyable and Nico as possessing more intentionality when avoidance and unsmooth tracking were used. These data suggest that naïve users of robots may prefer caricatured and exaggerated behaviors to more natural ones. Also, correlations between ratings across modes suggest that simple features of robot behavior reliably evoke notable changes in many perception scales.
Functional characterization of bacterial sRNAs using a network biology approach

Small RNAs (sRNAs) are important components of posttranscriptional regulation. These molecules are prevalent in bacterial and eukaryotic organisms, and involved in a variety of responses to environmental stresses. The functional characterization of sRNAs is challenging and requires highly focused and extensive experimental procedures. Here, using a network biology approach and a compendium of gene expression profiles, we predict functional roles and regulatory interactions for sRNAs in Escherichia coli. We experimentally validate predictions for three sRNAs in our inferred network: IsrA, GlmZ, and GcvB. Specifically, we validate a predicted role for IsrA and GlmZ in the SOS response, and we expand on current knowledge of the GcvB sRNA, demonstrating its broad role in the regulation of amino acid metabolism and transport. We also show, using the inferred network coupled with experiments, that GcvB and Lrp, a transcription factor, repress each other in a mutually inhibitory network. This work shows that a network-based approach can be used to identify the cellular function of sRNAs and characterize the relationship between sRNAs and transcription factors.
Lithium-sulfur batteries

Markets for energy storage that go beyond portable electronics have emerged rapidly this decade, including powering electric vehicles and “leveling the grid” fed by renewable sources such as solar energy, which are intermittent in supply. These new demands require a significant step-up in energy density that will probably not be met by Li-ion batteries; estimates suggest they are starting to approach their theoretical limits. But in the world of “beyond Li-ion,” the options are limited. One of the most hopeful is the Li-S battery, for which greater energy storage can potentially be realized through phase-transformation chemistry using elemental sulfur as a positive electrode material, which converts to lithium sulfide. These future generation systems offer up to a five-fold increased specific energy and greatly reduced cost factors, but commercialization has been hindered owing to key challenges. Efforts over the last two years to better manipulate the cell chemistry and overcome these challenges are presented.
Role of aromatic amine acetyltransferases, NAT1 and NAT2, in carcinogen-DNA adduct formation in the human urinary bladder.

The metabolic activation and detoxification pathways associated with the carcinogenic aromatic amines provide an extraordinary model of polymorphisms that can modulate human urinary bladder carcinogenesis. In this study, the metabolic N-acetylation of p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) to N-acetyl-PABA (NAT1 activity) and of sulfamethazine (SMZ) to N-acetyl-SMZ (NAT2 activity), as well as the O-acetylation of N-hydroxy-4-aminobiphenyl (OAT activity; catalyzed by NAT1 and NAT2), were measured in tissue cytosols prepared from 26 different human bladder samples; then DNA was isolated for determination of NAT1 and NAT2 genotype and for analyses of carcinogen-DNA adducts. Both PABA and OAT activities were detected, with mean activities +/- SD of 2.9 +/- 2.3 nmol/min/mg protein and 1.4 +/- 0.7 pmol bound/mg DNA/min/mg protein, respectively. However, SMZ activities were below the assay limits of detection (< 10 pmol/min/mg protein). The levels of putative carcinogen-DNA adducts were quantified by 32P-postlabeling and averaged 2.34 +/- 2.09 adducts/10(8) deoxyribonucleotide phosphate (dNp). Moreover, the DNA adduct levels in these tissues correlated with their NAT1-dependent PABA activities (r = 0.52; P < 0.01) but not with their OAT activities. Statistical and probit analyses indicated that this NAT1 activity was not normally distributed and appeared bimodal. Applying the NAT1:OAT activity ratios (N:O ratio) allowed arbitrary designation of rapid and slow NAT1 phenotypes, with a cutpoint near the median value. Within each of these subgroups, NAT1 correlated with OAT (P < 0.05); DNA adduct levels were elevated 2-fold in individuals with the rapid NAT1 or NAT1/OAT phenotype. Examination of DNA sequence polymorphisms in the NAT1 gene by PCR have demonstrated that an NAT1 polyadenylation polymorphism is associated with differences in tissue NAT1 enzyme activity; accordingly, NAT1 activity in the bladder of individuals with the heterozygous NAT1*10 allele was 2-fold higher than in subjects homozygous for the putative wild-type NAT1*4 allele. Likewise, DNA adduct levels in the mucosa of the urinary bladder were found to be 2-fold (P < 0.05) higher in individuals with the heterozygous NAT1*10 allele (3.5 +/- 2.1 adducts/10(8) dNp) as compared to NAT1*4 homozygous (1.8 +/- 1.9 adducts/10(8) dNp). Thus, these data provide strong support for the hypothesis that NAT1 activity in the urinary bladder mucosa represents a major bioactivation step that converts urinary N-hydroxy arylamines to reactive N-acetoxy esters that form covalent DNA adducts. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)