Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The sonic hedgehog signaling pathway stimulates anaplastic thyroid cancer cell motility and invasiveness by activating Akt and c-Met

The sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway is highly activated in thyroid neoplasms and promotes thyroid cancer stem-like cell phenotype, but whether the Shh pathway regulates thyroid tumor cell motility and invasiveness remains unknown. Here, we report that the motility and invasiveness of two anaplastic thyroid tumor cell lines, KAT-18 and SW1736, were inhibited by two inhibitors of the Shh pathway (cyclopamine and GANT61). Consistently, the cell motility and invasiveness was decreased by Shh and Gli1 knockdown, and was increased by Gli1 overexpression in KAT-18 cells. Mechanistic studies revealed that Akt and c-Met phosphorylation was decreased by a Gli1 inhibitor and by Shh and Gli1 knockdown, but was increased by Gli1 overexpression. LY294002, a PI-3 kinase inhibitor, and a c-Met inhibitor inhibited the motility and invasiveness of Gli1-transfected KAT-18 cells more effectively than the vector-transfected cells. Knockdown of Snail, a transcription factor regulated by the Shh pathway, led to decreased cell motility and invasiveness in KAT-18 and SW1736 cells. However, key epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers including E-cadherin and vimentin as well as Slug were not affected by cyclopamine and GANT61 in either SW1736 or WRO82, a well differentiated follicular thyroid carcinoma cell line. Our data suggest that the Shh pathway-stimulated thyroid tumor cell motility and invasiveness is largely mediated by AKT and c-Met activation with little involvement of EMT.
Secure Top-k Query Processing on Encrypted Databases

Privacy concerns in outsourced cloud databases have become more and more important recently and many efficient and scalable query processing methods over encrypted data have been proposed. However, there is very limited work on how to securely process top-k ranking queries over encrypted databases in the cloud. In this paper, we focus exactly on this problem: secure and efficient processing of top-k queries over outsourced databases. In particular, we propose the first efficient and provable secure top-k query processing construction that achieves adaptively IND-CQA security. We develop an encrypted data structure called \emph{EHL} and describe several secure sub-protocols under our security model to answer top-k queries. Furthermore, we optimize our query algorithms for both space and time efficiency. Finally, in the experiments, we empirically analyze our protocol using real world datasets and demonstrate that our construction is efficient and practical.
Distributed LQR design for multi-agent systems on directed graph topologies

In this paper, the inverse optimal approach is employed to design distributed cooperative control protocols for identical linear systems that guarantee consensus and global optimality with respect to a positive (semi-) definite quadric performance index. Cooperative control and pinning control problems are considered, where the communication graphs are assumed to be directed and have fixe topology. Simple sufficient conditions are established, which indicate that the global optimality is achieved using local distributed protocols which are designed by the linear quadric regulator (LQR) based optimal control method. Examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Agents of aspiration: the (often unintended) benefits to university students working in outreach programmes

Abstract Background: Universities in many countries increasingly deliver outreach programmes to raise aspirations and encourage participation in higher education. At the University of Canberra in Australia, these programmes target schools that have been identified as having a large number of students from rural/regional, financially disadvantaged and/or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds – groups that continue to be underrepresented in higher education. Involved in the delivery of these programmes are current university students – at the University of Canberra termed ‘Aspiration Agents’ – many of whom come from similar backgrounds to the students with whom they work. Although not the focus of the outreach programmes, the Aspiration Agents themselves also derive benefits from the experience. Purpose: This research aimed to explore the reasons why students choose to become Aspiration Agents, and the perceived benefits of the mentoring/ambassador role. Sample, Design and Methods: The data collection comprised two small-scale exploratory questionnaire studies (N = 12; N = 20). Qualitative methods were used to investigate participants’ self-reported motivations for, and experiences of being Aspiration Agents. Findings: Findings suggest that students perceived benefits in personal, student-related and future professional domains. Dominating all these areas, however, was the recurring theme that the students were both motivated to, and derived satisfaction from, helping others. These findings are discussed in terms of the specific role of the Aspiration Agent and how this form of employment can positively, rather than negatively, impact on the student’s own university experience.
Atherosclerotic Peripheral Vascular Disease Symposium II: stroke intervention: state of the art.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability in the United States.1 From a global perspective, stroke is also a leading cause of death and disability. The past 20 years have seen significant improvements in stroke prevention, yet each year, >700 000 people have a new or recurrent stroke.2,3 The medical and societal costs of stroke exceed $62 billion in the United States alone.4 Any intervention that could reverse or limit the effects of a stroke would have dramatic medical, societal, and public health benefits. This section will focus on treatment of acute ischemic stroke, which accounts for 80% to 85% of all strokes. Other recent publications have focused on therapies for intracerebral hemorrhage. Acute interventions to reduce the effects of an ischemic stroke can be organized into several main approaches: (1) reperfusion strategies (lytics, endovascular/mechanical); (2) neuroprotection; and (3) restoration, regeneration, and rehabilitation. ### Medical Therapies Thrombolytic therapies for acute ischemic stroke have been used or under study for 30 to 40 years, yet only recently has an agent been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and included in the treatment guidelines. Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) is the only FDA-approved medical therapy proven to reduce the effects of an ischemic stroke.5,6 Its main mechanism of action is to lyse a clot that is occluding a cerebral vessel, thereby reperfusing distal ischemic brain tissue and preventing or limiting the area of cell death and tissue necrosis. The efficacy of intravenous rtPA was proven in the pivotal National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) rtPA study, which showed improved outcomes for patients treated within 3 hours of stroke onset.7 The NINDS tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) trial had an efficacy end point that was equivalent to the …
A Neurodegenerative Vascular Burden Index and the Impact on Cognition

A wide range of vascular burden factors has been identified to impact vascular function and structure as indicated by carotid intima–media thickness (IMT). On the basis of their impact on IMT, vascular factors may be selected and clustered in a vascular burden index (VBI). Since many vascular factors increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a multifactorial neurodegenerative VBI may be related to early pathological processes in AD and cognitive decline in its preclinical stages. We investigated an elderly cohort at risk for neurodegeneration (TREND study, n = 1102) for the multifactorial influence of vascular burden factors on IMT measured by ultrasound. To create a VBI for this cohort, vascular factors and their definitions (considering medical history, medication, and/or blood marker data) were selected based on their statistical effects on IMT in multiple regressions including age and sex. The impact of the VBI on cognitive performance was assessed using the Trail-Making Test (TMT) and the consortium to establish a registry for Alzheimer’s disease (CERAD) neuropsychological battery. IMT was significantly predicted by age (standardized β = 0.26), sex (0.09; males > females) and the factors included in the VBI: obesity (0.18), hypertension (0.14), smoking (0.08), diabetes (0.07), and atherosclerosis (0.05), whereas other cardiovascular diseases or hypercholesterolemia were not significant. Individuals with 2 or more VBI factors compared to individuals without had an odds ratio of 3.17 regarding overly increased IMT ( ≥ 1.0 mm). The VBI showed an impact on executive control [log(TMT B−A), p = 0.047] and a trend toward decreased global cognitive function (CERAD total score, p = 0.057) independent of age, sex, and education. A VBI established on the basis of IMT may help to identify individuals with overly increased vascular burden linked to decreased cognitive function indicating neurodegenerative processes. The longitudinal study of this risk cohort will reveal the value of the VBI as prodromal marker for cognitive decline and AD.
Service availability oriented p-cycle protection design in elastic optical networks

In this paper, we develop a theoretical model to precisely analyze the service availability of networks with preconfigured cycles (p-cycles). By considering the dependence among protection domains and all the scenarios when a lightpath is available, our model can estimate the service availability more precisely than those in previous work. Then, based on the availability analysis, we propose a service availability oriented p-cycle configuration algorithm for dynamic elastic optical networks (EONs), namely, the number of relevant links (NRL)-based p-cycle design algorithm (NRL-p-cycle). The simulations compare the proposed algorithm with two benchmark p-cycle design algorithms that are based on the protection efficiency of p-cycles. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively improve the service availability in EONs while keeping the blocking probability almost unchanged.
Some Observations Toward Decentralized Control Under Saturation By BABAK MALEK

by Babak Malek, M.S. Washington State University December 2009 Co-Chairs: Ali Saberi and Sandip Roy This dissertation is mainly about discrete-time decentralized control system design. Many largescale systems’ dynamics are characterized by their wide-spread topology and so these systems are considered to be decentralized. Subsequently, analysis of the decentralized systems is generally a really complicated task because one should consider all the inter-connections within the structure of such system. Furthermore input saturation is a practical constraint for many existing systems. This document tries to address some of the existing problems regarding analysis and design of decentralized control system. Here we achieve two goals. First we find necessary and sufficient condition for design of linear time invariant decentralized controller for a specific but broad class of linear time invariant system under input saturation. Second, we take one step further and find time-varying decentralized controller for linear time invariant systems.
Periodical motion analysis by variations on silhouettes

This paper presents a new novel approach is described for realtime human/vehicle classification and motion analysis in real visual surveillance scene. Spatio-temporal 1-D signals based on the distances between the outer contour of binarized silhouette of a motion object and a bounding box placed around the silhouette are chosen as the basic image features called the distance vectors. The spatio-temporal distance vectors are extracted using four view directions to the outer of the silhouette from the bounding box, they are top-, bottom-, left-, and right-views. Depending on the distance vectors, correlation-based a similarity function in the time domain is produced for each view directions to classify the motion objects and a similarity function in the frequency domain is then also extracted to analysis human motions. Experimental results on the different test image sequences demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has an encouraging performance with relatively robust and low computational cost.
Improv Remix: Mixed-Reality Video Manipulation Using Whole-Body Interaction to Extend Improvised Theatre

Improv Remix is a mixed-reality system for live onstage video editing, using whole-body interaction, as an extension of improvised theatre. This work documents the process of analyzing an art form, then building technology that supports its extension. We tested the potential for video integration in improv in a exploratory workshop, then determined features and interaction techniques through iterative development with improvisors. We demonstrated the final iteration in a public showcase. Our contributions are (1) the documentation of the process, (2) a basic set of always-on interaction techniques tailored for performers standing adjacent to a large display, (3) methods to remix stage performance video, and, (4) a collection of creative use cases for the system, with an analysis of how the system extends improvisation.
Reasoning about Policy Behavior in Logic-Based Trust Management Systems: Some Complexity Results and an Operational Framework

In this paper we show that the logical framework proposed by Becker et al. [1] to reason about security policy behavior in a trust management context can be captured by an operational framework that is based on the language proposed by Miller in 1989 to deal with scoping and/or modules in logic programming. The framework of Becker et al. uses propositional Horn clauses to represent both policies and credentials, implications in clauses are interpreted in counterfactual logic, a Hilbert-style proof system is defined and a system based on SAT is used to prove whether properties about credentials, permissions and policies are valid, i.e. true under all possible policies. Our contributions in this paper are three. First, we show that this kind of validation can rely on an operational semantics (derivability relation) of a language very similar to Miller's language, which is very close to derivability in logic programs. Second, we are able to establish that, as in propositional logic, validity of formulas is a co-NP-complete problem. And third, we present a provably correct implementation of a goal-oriented algorithm for validity.
Deciding the way forward of construction contracts during cash flow deficits

When a developer is building different construction projects simultaneously, cash flow management is very important. If the actual cash flow has been reduced than expected, the developer may need to decide which of the projects need to proceed and which need to be either suspended or terminated. This paper builds a financial model that evaluates the various construction projects based on the status of the project technically and financially to determine the decision path that needs to be undertaken for each project, based on a multivariate approach from the expected cash inflow, priority, likelihood, and time of construction. The model builds a chain of possible outcomes, where a project may be temporarily put on hold for a while and then resumed by cash inflow expected from previous projects.
A frequent itemset storing structure

Many decision support systems need to support online interactive frequent itemset mining, however, frequent itemset mining is an intensive computation process. This paper proposes an Fp-tree-based structure—BFp-tree to store frequent itemsets. This structure store pre-computed frequent itemsets on a disk to support online mining requests.
The Fudan-UIUC Participation in the BioASQ Challenge Task 2a: The Antinomyra system

This paper describes the Antinomyra System that participated in the BioASQ Task 2a Challenge for the large-scale biomedical semantic indexing. The system can automatically annotate MeSH terms for MEDLINE citations using only title and abstract information. With respect to the official test set (batch 3, week 5), based on 1867 annotated citations out of all 4533 citations (June 6, 2014), our best submission achieved 0.6199 in flat Micro F-measure. This is 9.8% higher than the performance of official NLM solution Medical Text Indexer (MTI), which achieved 0.5647 in flat F-measure.
3D Perception and Environment Map Generation for Humanoid Robot Navigation

A humanoid robot that can go up and down stairs, crawl underneath obstacles or simply walk around requires reliable perceptual capabilities for obtaining accurate and useful information about its surroundings. In this work we present a system for generating three-dimensional (3D) environment maps from data taken by stereo vision. At the core is a method for precise segmentation of range data into planar segments based on the algorithm of scan-line grouping extended to cope with the noise dynamics of stereo vision. In off-line experiments we demonstrate that our extensions achieve a more precise segmentation. When compared to a previously developed patch-let method, we obtain a richer segmentation with a higher accuracy while also requiring far less computations. From the obtained segmentation we then build a 3D environment map using occupancy grid and floor height maps. The resulting representation classifies areas into one of six different types while also providing object height information. We apply our perception method for the navigation of the humanoid robot QRIO and present experiments of the robot stepping through narrow space, walking up and down stairs and crawling underneath a table.
Optimal Periodic Transmission Power Schedules for Remote Estimation of ARMA Processes

We consider periodic sensor transmission power allocation with an average energy constraint. The sensor sends its Kalman filter-based state estimate to the remote estimator through an unreliable link. Dropout probabilities depend on the power level used. To encompass applications where the estimator needs to attend to multiple tasks, we allow for irregular sampling, following a periodic pattern. Using properties of an underlying Markov chain model, we derive an explicit expression for the estimation error covariance. The results are then used to study optimal sensor power scheduling which minimizes the average error covariance.
Disposable, Paper-Based, Inkjet-Printed Humidity and H2S Gas Sensor for Passive Sensing Applications

An inkjet-printed, fully passive sensor capable of either humidity or gas sensing is presented herein. The sensor is composed of an interdigitated electrode, a customized printable gas sensitive ink and a specialized dipole antenna for wireless sensing. The interdigitated electrode printed on a paper substrate provides the base conductivity that varies during the sensing process. Aided by the porous nature of the substrate, a change in relative humidity from 18% to 88% decreases the electrode resistance from a few Mega-ohms to the kilo-ohm range. For gas sensing, an additional copper acetate-based customized ink is printed on top of the electrode, which, upon reaction with hydrogen sulphide gas (H2S) changes, both the optical and the electrical properties of the electrode. A fast response time of 3 min is achieved at room temperature for a H2S concentration of 10 ppm at a relative humidity (RH) of 45%. The passive wireless sensing is enabled through an antenna in which the inner loop takes care of conductivity changes in the 4–5 GHz band, whereas the outer-dipole arm is used for chipless identification in the 2–3 GHz band.
Book Review: Thomas Janoski, David Luke and Christopher Oliver, The Causes of Structural Unemployment: Four Factors that Keep People from the Jobs They Deserve

likely explanation is that many of our received notions about social change are not so much analytical theories as straightforward descriptions of social change as it has occurred in Europe. Goodman is too modest to make this claim but Goodman’s findings can be construed to make the claim on his behalf. China is the ultimate laboratory for studying social change, the place where social change is occurring faster and on a larger scale than anywhere else in the world. This book should be read by China scholars, of course. But it should be read by everyone else as well.
A Free-Form Database Query Language for Mobile Phones

Due to the display area and resource restrictions of small mobile devices, currently, most reported database query systems developed for them are only offering a small set of pre-determined queries that can be posed by users. This not only limits the usage of such systems in their own domain of application, it also prevents them from being used to query other databases. Thus, the abilities to support different query types as well as unplanned queries are essential for these systems in order to make them generic. Hence, this paper presents a new free-form database query language that is suitable for these devices. The language which is used as the query formulation method in a database query system prototype for WAP-enabled mobile phones has been found to be effective based on results from usability tests.
Value of Travel Time Reliability: A Review of Current Evidence

Travel time reliability is a fundamental factor in travel behavior. It represents the temporal uncertainty experienced by users in their movement between any two nodes in a network. The importance of the time reliability depends on the penalties incurred by the users. In road networks, travelers consider the existence of a trip travel time uncertainty in different choice situations (departure time, route, mode, and others). In this paper, a systematic review of the current state of research in travel time reliability, and more explicitly in the value of travel time reliability is presented. Moreover, a meta-analysis is performed in order to determine the reasons behind the discrepancy among the reliability estimates.
Using GIS as a Marketing Decision Support System to Help Amari Studios Locate New Customers and Effectively Direct Marketing and Advertising Efforts

Amari Studios is a small yet very successful company. Currently the company gains customers through word of mouth advertising, website promotion, and limited radio advertising. This has worked well for Amari Studios and has allowed it to establish itself in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota USA market. However, management believes it is ready to increase business by enlarging its client base. Before Amari Studios begins searching for new customers, it must define its customer profile and then geographically locate those consumer groups. A customer profile defines the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of a business’s target customer segment (Sliwinski, 2002). For a business to grow, a business needs to know what type of customer it serves and where to find more of them. This project analyzed the city’s census data to locate census blocks containing high percentages of potential customers best-fitting Amari Studios customer profile. These criteria were integrated into a GIS model. Once identified, a subset of 100 of the best “ideal” census block addresses along with another 100 addresses from another census block not selected as “ideal” were used in a direct mailing marketing campaign to determine the level of customer interest and validate the GIS model.