Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
αA Crystallin May Protect against Geographic Atrophy—Meta-Analysis of Cataract vs. Cataract Surgery for Geographic Atrophy and Experimental Studies

Background Cataract and geographic atrophy (GA, also called advanced “dry” age-related macular degeneration) are the two major causes of visual impairment in the developed world. The association between cataract surgery and the development of GA was controversial in previous studies. Methods/Principal Findings We performed a meta-analysis by pooling the current evidence in literature and found that cataract is associated with an increased risk of geographic atrophy with a summary odds ratio (OR) of 3.75 (95% CI: 95% CI: 1.84–7.62). However, cataract surgery is not associated with the risk of geographic atrophy (polled OR = 3.23, 95% CI: 0.63–16.47). Further experiments were performed to analyze how the αA-crystallin, the major component of the lens, influences the development of GA in a mouse model. We found that theαA-crystallin mRNA and protein expression increased after oxidative stress induced by NaIO3 in immunohistochemistry of retinal section and western blot of posterior eyecups. Both functional and histopathological evidence confirmed that GA is more severe in αA-crystallin knockout mice compared to wild-type mice. Conclusions Therefore, αA-crystallin may protect against geographic atrophy. This study provides a better understanding of the relationship between cataract, cataract surgery, and GA.
High School Employment: Meaningful Connections for At-Risk Youth.

This paper examines some of the short- and long-term costs and benefits of high school employment for youth using the High School and Beyond Survey collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. It focuses on whether the effects of working while in school differ for different types of students, particularly for students at risk of long-term employment problems. It also compares the effects of working on youths considered not at-risk to the at-risk population.
Online secret sharing

First secret sharing with infinitely many participants is looked at, showing that even the threshold cases are non trivial to achieve. We present some interesting infinite ramp shemes supporting the conjecture that all access structure can be realized by some ramp scheme. Secondly we introduce online secret sharing, where the shares should be distributed knowing only the trace of the access structure on the participants seen so far. We show that for graph based access structures the online complexity can be bounded by the graph degree, even in the infinite case.
Direct adaptive fuzzy control for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems

In this paper, a robust direct adaptive fuzzy control scheme is presented for a class of discrete-time nonlinear systems in the strict-feedback form. The fuzzy logic system (FLS) is used to approximate the unknown system function of the system, and backstepping design procedure is employed in adaptive controller and the adaptation laws design. Compared with the existing results, the proposed controller lighten the online computational burden. It is shown via Lyapunov theory that all the signals in the closed-loop system are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) and the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of zero by choosing the design parameters ap- propriately. A simulation example is employed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Immune T lymphocyte to tumor cell adhesion. Magnesium sufficient, calcium insufficient

The prelytic adhesion of immune cytolytic thymus-derived lymphocytes to specific antigen-bearing ascites tumor target cells has been studied. A new assay was used in which adhesions are permitted to form for 2.5 min; the cells are then dispersed to prevent further adhesion, and the predispersion adhesions are quantitated by subsequent 51Cr release from the tumor cells as a result of cytolytic activity of the adhering lymphocytes. There were the following new findings: (a) magnesium is sufficient to support optimal adhesion formation even when EGTA is added to remove contaminating traces of calcium; (b) calcium supports no adhesion formation when traces of contaminating magnesium are removed by pretreating the medium with a chelating ion exchange resin; (c) calcium synergizes with suboptimal magnesium, increasing the apparent adhesion-supporting potency of magnesium 20-fold in the presence of 50 microM calcium; (d) in the presence of optimal magnesium (2--4 mM), calcium has not effect on the properties of the adhesion by any of six criteria; and (e) manganese supports adhesion better than magnesium, and strontium is ineffective. A survey of previous literature indicates that these results are remarkably similar to the predominant pattern for nonimmunologic cell adhesion (e.g., fibroblasts) involving cells from a variety of tissues in late embryonic and adult avians and mammals. This suggests that a "magnesium sufficient, calcium insufficient" mechanism may be found among the latter types of cell adhesions when appropriately examined. Moreover, it seems that the present lymphocyte-tumor cell adhesion, although evoked by specific receptor-antigen recognition, relies predominantly on mechanisms common to nonimmunologic intercellular adhesion processes.
PORTABLE ABSOLUTE POSITION TRACKING SYSTEM FOR HUMAN HAND FINGERTIPS

There is absence of high precision truly portable human hand and fingertip trackers that are able to provide absolute position and motion data. Data of this format is vital to work in telerobotics, VR and human performance assessment. This paper will show the development of a new light weight, high precision and dedicated human hand magnetic tracking system. It will be shown that this magnetic tracker has distinct benefits compared to other tracking techniques. The tracker presented is smaller then any other hand tracking system currently reported and moreover provides absolute fingertip tracking in all six degrees of freedom with absolute accuracy of 0.2 mm. The paper will describe the operation of the device which is based on near magnetic field coupling and consists of one transmitter antenna triad and six receiver antenna triads. The transmitter and receiver antennas triads are enclosed in a cubical casing. The base transmitter station is mounted on the dorsal surface of the hand and the receivers are mounted on the fingertips and any arm point to be tracked. The tracker is completely battery powered and has complete wireless compatibility with the Bluetooth wireless specification. Use of the Bluetooth standard, ensures that the tracker can have a cable-free connection to computers, PDAs or other electronic equipment.
Partially-indirect Bimanual Input with Gaze, Pen, and Touch for Pan, Zoom, and Ink Interaction

Bimanual pen and touch UIs are mainly based on the direct manipulation paradigm. Alternatively we propose partially-indirect bimanual input, where direct pen input is used with the dominant hand, and indirect-touch input with the non-dominant hand. As direct and indirect inputs do not overlap, users can interact in the same space without interference. We investigate two indirect-touch techniques combined with direct pen input: the first redirects touches to the user's gaze position, and the second redirects touches to the pen position. In this paper, we present an empirical user study where we compare both partially-indirect techniques to direct pen and touch input in bimanual pan, zoom, and ink tasks. Our experimental results show that users are comparatively fast with the indirect techniques, but more accurate as users can dynamically change the zoom-target during indirect zoom gestures. Further our studies reveal that direct and indirect zoom gestures have distinct characteristics regarding spatial use, gestural use, and bimanual parallelism.
Learning Tractable Graphical Models Using Mixture of Arithmetic Circuits

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in learning tractable graphical models in which exact inference is efficient. Two main approaches are to restrict the inference complexity directly, as done by low-treewidth graphical models and arithmetic circuits (ACs), or introduce latent variables, as done by mixtures of trees, latent tree models, and sum-product networks (SPNs). In this paper, we combine these approaches to learn a mixtures of ACs (MAC). A mixture can represent many distributions exponentially more compactly than a single AC. By using ACs as mixture components, MAC can represent complex distributions using many fewer components than required by other mixture models. MAC generalizes ACs, mixtures of trees, latent class models, and thin junction trees, and can be seen as a special case of an SPN. Compared to state-of-the-art algorithms for learning SPNs and other tractable models, MAC is consistently more accurate while maintaining tractable inference.
Contribution of consonant versus vowel information to sentence intelligibility by normal and hearing‐impaired listeners

The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of information provided by vowels versus consonants to sentence intelligibility in young normal‐hearing (YNH) and elderly hearing‐impaired (EHI) listeners. Sentences were presented in three conditions, with either the vowels or the consonants replaced with speech shaped noise, or unaltered. Sentences from male and female talkers in the TIMIT database were selected. EHI subjects listened at 95 dB SPL, and YNH subjects at both 95 and 70 dB SPL. Subjects listened to each sentence twice and were asked to repeat the entire sentence after each presentation. Words were scored correct if identified exactly. Average performance for unaltered sentences was greater than 94%. Vowel‐present conditions were always significantly more intelligible than consonant‐present conditions, similar to data reported by Cole and colleagues [Proceedings of ICASSP, 1996]. Across groups, performance in the vowel‐present conditions exceeded that in the consonant‐present conditions by 14% to 40%, although EHI subjects performed more poorly than YNH subjects. In contrast to written English, vowels in spoken language carry more information about sentences than consonants for both normal and hearing‐impaired listeners. [Work supported by NIDCD‐02229. ]
Towards a Security Cockpit

Building systems that are guaranteed to be secure or to remain secure over time is still an unachievable goal. The need for a security cockpit that helps to determine security assurance level of a system in a near real time manner is therefore vital in order to maintain and improve overall security. This paper discusses different steps in the whole security assurance assessment process in order to build such cockpit. To test and evaluate the applicability of our approach, we introduce then a system capable of assessing the security assurance level of a network system. Currently, this assessment system focuses on the availability aspect of the security.
Blazing Trails: Microquasars as Head-Tail Sources and the Seeding of Magnetized Plasma into the ISM

We discuss the dynamics of microquasar jets in the interstellar medium, with specific focus on the effects of the X-ray binaries’ space velocity with respect to the local Galactic standard of rest. We argue that, during late stages in the evolution of large scale radio nebulae around microquasars, the ram pressure of the interstellar medium due to the microquasar’s space velocity becomes important, and that microquasars with high velocities form the Galactic equivalent of extragalactic head-tail sources, i.e., that they leave behind trails of stripped radio plasma. Because of their higher space velocities, low-mass X-ray binaries are more likely to leave trails than high-mass X-ray binaries. We show that the volume of radio plasma released by microquasars over the history of the Galaxy is comparable to the disk volume, and argue that a fraction of a few percent of the radio plasma left behind by the X-ray binary is likely mixed with the neutral phases of the ISM before the plasma is removed from the disk by buoyancy. Because the formation microquasars is an unavoidable by-product of star formation, and because they can travel far from their birthplaces, their activity likely has important consequences for the evolution of magnetic fields in forming galaxies. We show that radio emission from the plasma inside the trail should be detectable at low frequencies. We suggest that LMXBs with high detected proper motions, such as XTE J1118+480, will be the best candidates for such a search.
Feline Panleucopenia Virus NS2 Suppresses the Host IFN-β Induction by Disrupting the Interaction between TBK1 and STING

Feline panleucopenia virus (FPV) is a highly infectious pathogen that causes severe diseases in pets, economically important animals and wildlife in China. Although FPV was identified several years ago, little is known about how it overcomes the host innate immunity. In the present study, we demonstrated that infection with the FPV strain Philips-Roxane failed to activate the interferon β (IFN-β) pathway but could antagonize the induction of IFN stimulated by Sendai virus (SeV) in F81 cells. Subsequently, by screening FPV nonstructural and structural proteins, we found that only nonstructural protein 2 (NS2) significantly suppressed IFN expression. We demonstrated that the inhibition of SeV-induced IFN-β production by FPV NS2 depended on the obstruction of the IFN regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) signaling pathway. Further, we verified that NS2 was able to target the serine/threonine-protein kinase TBK1 and prevent it from being recruited by stimulator of interferon genes (STING) protein, which disrupted the phosphorylation of the downstream protein IRF3. Finally, we identified that the C-terminus plus the coiled coil domain are the key domains of NS2 that are required for inhibiting the IFN pathway. Our study has yielded strong evidence for the FPV mechanisms that counteract the host innate immunity.
Generalized software quality assurance technique for maintenance parameter evaluation

In present times software reengineering has become an important domain of research to increase the shelf life of legacy system. The major objective for reengineering revolves around reducing the cost of investment in Information Technology (IT) infrastructure by reducing the maintenance cost and capitalizing on the current existing IT infrastructure. This can be achieved by making it more adaptable to the changing requirements. The decision for reengineering system is quite challenging as one has to select from the available option of investing in new system or legacy system. Further cost of reengineering is not a true decisive parameter for taking up reengineering. A better approach is finding out return on investment (ROI). ROI of reengineering a system is difficult to calculate as one has to assume the cost of project and the project also depends on the requirement of reengineering. This paper gives a generalized approach towards decision making for reengineering the legacy system. This paper presents a requirement specific approach of cost estimation and proposes ROI computation for the assessment of reengineering.
Sunk Capital and Negotiated Resolutions of Environmental Conflicts

Two nations seek a cooperative agreement to control bilateral flows of an industrial pollutant. From previous noncooperative production choices, the nations hold a certain amount of sunk capital. If production requires relatively large investments in sunk capital, the nations may find that they cannot negotiate production quotas that improve on their noncooperative choices. When the nations find cooperation worthwhile, negotiated levels of production will be higher than in the absence of sunk capital. Furthermore, both nations are motivated to attempt to manipulate the terms of the agreement by making strategic investments in sunk capital prior to its completion.
Poster: ParkGauge: Gauging the Congestion Level of Parking Garages with Crowdsensed Parking Characteristics

Finding available parking spaces in dense urban areas is a globally recognized issue in urban mobility. Whereas prior studies have focused on outdoor/street parking, we target at (indoor) parking garages where the infrastructure supports (e.g., GPS and Wi-Fi) assumed by existing proposals are unavailable and counting vehicles by crowdsensing is difficult. To this end, we present ParkGauge as a system gauging the congestion level of parking garages; it infers (coarse-grained) parking occupancy from crowdsensed parking characteristics instead of counting the parked vehicles. ParkGauge adopts mostly low-power sensors in the driver's smartphone to determine driving states, contexts and temporal parking characteristics of a garage, including time-to-park and time-in-cruising/queuing. Mining such data collected from a crowd of drivers at various garages yields a good measure of their congestion levels and provide recommendations (in real-time) to drivers coming to these venues.
Intelligent combination of kernels information for improved classification

In this paper, we are proposing a combination scheme of kernels information of support vector machines (SVMs) for improved classification task using genetic programming. In the scheme, first, the predicted information is extracted by SVM through the learning of different kernel functions. GP is then used to develop an optimal composite classifier (OCC) having better performance than individual SVM classifiers. The experimental results demonstrate that OCC is more effective, generalized and robust. Specifically, it attains high margin of improvement at small features. Another side advantage of our GP based intelligent combination scheme is that it automatically incorporates the issues of optimal kernel and model selection to achieve a higher performance prediction model.
Dynamics of a Pregnancy When Two Become Four: A Case Report and Literature Review

The incidence of pregnancies with multiple gestational sacs has increased with the use of assisted reproductive technology because more than one embryo is frequently transferred. The splitting of one or more embryos further complicates the pregnancy. Some of these complications include intrauterine fetal death, growth restriction, discordant birth weight, and preterm delivery. Monozygotic twins suffer from a few unique complications including twin-twin transfusion syndrome, twin reversed arterial perfusion sequence, and twin anemia-polycythemia sequence. Therefore, patients should be informed about the possible obstetric complications regarding monozygotic twinning after embryo transfer as poor obstetric/perinatal outcome is significantly impacted by the presence of an "extra" fetus. The etiology of monozygotic twinning is not fully understood although a few risk factors have been identified. The objective of this communication is to report successful management of a pregnancy resulting in four gestational sacs after transfer of two embryos on day-three post retrieval.
Decentralized control for discrete-time switched large-scale linear systems

Based on convex combination technique and LMI (linear matrix inequality) approach, the problems of asymptotic stability and decentralized state feedback stabilization for a class of discrete-time switched large-scale linear systems are considered. Under the condition that any subsystem of each low-dimensional discrete-time subsystem is unstable or can not be stabilized, decentralized controllers and decentralized switching laws are designed to guarantee closed-loop systems be asymptotically stable. A sufficient condition of stabilization is expressed as the solvability problems of linear matrix inequalities. Feasible algorithm is presented. A numerical example shows the effectiveness of the method.
A COMMON MODEL FOR XML DESCRIPTIONS IN AUTOMATION

Abstract The use of XML as a description language has become state of the art within the automation and control domain. Use cases and application scenarios are manifold, resulting in heterogeneous XML document structures. However, a common basic model for XML Applications is still lacking. This paper describes requirements and principle structures for such a common model, which has been developed for use within PROFIBUS and PROFINET systems.
User-friendly interaction/interface control of intelligent home for movement-disabled people

This paper comments some aspects of the project “Intelligent Sweet Home” that is primarily focused on development of control strategies and human-machine interaction in the smart house for assisting aged people and persons with disabilities. In our study, we propose a conception for control of the robot and home appliances by predefined hand gestures remotely sensed by ceilingmounted CCD cameras. Pointing at the equipments by his/her hand, user can select the device that should be controlled. Then, by gesturing and changing the hand posture, user sets the operation that should be executed. The approach complements the inconvenience of the conventional remote controllers giving additional freedom to persons with movement deficits and people without disabilities.
Lesson 3 : Component Interoperability

Component-based software development is gaining recognition as the key technology for the construction of high-quality, evolvable, large software systems in timely and affordable manners. In this new setting, interoperability is one of the essential issues, since it enables the composition of reusable heterogeneous components developed by different people, at different times, and possibly with different uses in mind. Currently most object and component platforms (such as CORBA, DCOM, or EJB) already provide the basic infrastructure for component interoperability at the lower levels, i.e., they sort out most of the “plumbing” issues. However, interoperability goes far beyond that; it also involves behavioral compatibility, protocol compliance, agreements on the business rules, etc. This chapter tries to go through the basic concepts related to component interoperability, with special emphasis in the syntactic, protocol and operational specifications of components. Our main goal is to point out the existing problems, survey the current solutions and how they address those problems, and to draw attention towards some of the still open issues and challenges in this interesting research area.
In corporations we trust? A critique of contractarian- based corporate social responsibility models

This paper presents a philosophical critique of contractarian-based corporate social responsibility mod- els. Specifically, attention is given to Freeman’s (and Philips’s) justification for voluntary agreements between corporations and their stakeholders. The critique is conducted at the hand of the claim that the social contract is a helpful tool for circumscribing the obligations of contracting parties, and that these derived obligations form a trust relation between the contracting parties. By analysing the logic of these relations, an argument is developed for why the structural conditions necessary to inspire trust in contracts are not met in the case of certain corporate-stakeholder relations.