Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Semantic Locations in Online Communities

Humans usually think of a location not as pair of coordinates but rather in a semantic way as place. In this paper, we are presenting a concept to integrate places in a framework for the development of user- centered community platforms. We follow a grassroots approach for collecting places and introduce an ontology-based place model along with concepts for mapping geographic coordinates to places. Furthermore, a place cloud is established as an intuitive user interface for localization, place visualization, and the retrieval of multimedia contents based on places. The prototypical implementation of our concepts proofs that places are well suited for personalization and the semantic annotation of multimedia contents in a social environment.
Obesity interventions in African American faith‐based organizations: a systematic review

African Americans, especially women, have higher obesity rates than the general US population. Because of the importance of faith to many African Americans, faith‐based organizations (FBOs) may be effective venues for delivering health messages and promoting adoption of healthy behaviours. This article systematically reviews interventions targeting weight and related behaviours in faith settings. We searched literature published through July 2012 for interventions in FBOs targeting weight loss, diet and/or physical activity (PA) in African Americans. Of 27 relevant articles identified, 12 were randomized controlled trials; seven of these reported a statistically significant change in an outcome. Four of the five quasi‐experimental and single‐group design studies reported a statistically significant outcome. All 10 pilot studies reported improvement in at least one outcome, but most did not have a comparison group. Overall, 70% of interventions reported success in reducing weight, 60% reported increased fruit and vegetable intake and 38% reported increased PA. These results suggest that interventions in African American FBOs can successfully improve weight and related behaviours. However, not all of the findings about the success of certain approaches were as expected. This review identifies gaps in knowledge and recommends more rigorous studies be conducted to strengthen the comparative methodology and evidence.
Visual Exploration across Biomedical Databases

Though biomedical research often draws on knowledge from a wide variety of fields, few visualization methods for biomedical data incorporate meaningful cross-database exploration. A new approach is offered for visualizing and exploring a query-based subset of multiple heterogeneous biomedical databases. Databases are modeled as an entity-relation graph containing nodes (database records) and links (relationships between records). Users specify a keyword search string to retrieve an initial set of nodes, and then explore intra- and interdatabase links. Results are visualized with user-defined semantic substrates to take advantage of the rich set of attributes usually present in biomedical data. Comments from domain experts indicate that this visualization method is potentially advantageous for biomedical knowledge exploration.
S p 2 ⊆ ZPP NP

We show that the class Sp 2 is a subclass of ZPP. The proof uses universal hashing, approximate counting and witness sampling. As a consequence, a collapse first noticed by Samik Sengupta that the assumption NP has small circuits collapses PH to Sp 2 becomes the strongest version to date of the Karp-Lipton Theorem. We also discuss the problem of finding irrefutable proofs for Sp 2 in ZPP.
SPARC (BM-40, Osteonectin) Inhibits the Mitogenic Effect of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor on Microvascular Endothelial Cells*

SPARC (secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine) is a matricellular protein that modulates cell adhesion and proliferation and is thought to function in tissue remodeling and angiogenesis. In this study, we demonstrate that SPARC inhibits DNA synthesis by >90% in human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC) stimulated by the endothelial cell mitogen vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Peptides derived from SPARC domain IV, which contains a disulfide-bonded EF-hand sequence and binds to endothelial cells, mimicked the effect of native SPARC. The inhibition was also observed with a peptide from the follistatin-like domain II, whereas peptides from SPARC domains I and III had no effect on VEGF-stimulated DNA synthesis. The inhibition of HMEC proliferation was mediated in part by the binding of VEGF to SPARC. The binding of125I-VEGF to HMEC was reduced by SPARC and SPARC peptides from domain IV in a concentration-dependent manner. In a radioimmune precipitation assay, peptides from SPARC domains II and IV each competed with native SPARC for its binding to VEGF. It has been reported that VEGF stimulates the tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases Erk1 and Erk2. We now show that SPARC reduces this phosphorylation in VEGF-stimulated HMEC to levels of unstimulated controls. SPARC thus modulates the mitogenic activity of VEGF through a direct binding interaction and reduces the association of VEGF with its cell-surface receptors. Moreover, an additional diminution of VEGF activity by SPARC is accomplished through a reduction in the tyrosine phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases.
Comparison of Leakage Power Reduction Techniques in 65nm Technologies

The rapid progress in semiconductor technology have led the feature sizes of transistor to be shrunk there by evolution of Deep Sub-Micron (DSM) technology; there by the extremely complex functionality is enabled to be integrated on a single chip. In the growing market of mobile hand-held devices used all over the world today, the battery-powered electronic system forms the backbone. To maximize the battery life, the tremendous computational capacity of portable devices such as notebook computers, personal communication devices (mobile phones, pocket PCs, PDAs), hearing aids and implantable pacemakers has to be realized with very low power requirements. Leakage power consumption is one of the major technical problem in DSM in CMOS circuit design. A comprehensive study and analysis of various leakage power minimization techniques have been presented in this paper comparison of Leakage reduction technique is developed in Cadence Virtuoso in 65nm regime with the combination of stack with sleepy keeper approach with Low Vth & High Vth which reduces the Average Power with respect Basic Nand Gate 29.43%, 39.88%, Force Stack 56.98, 63.01%, sleep transistor with Low Vth & High Vth 13.90, 26.61% & 33.03%, 75.24% with respect to sleepy Keeper 93.70, 56.01% of Average Power is saved.
The co-occurrence of mtDNA mutations on different oxidative phosphorylation subunits, not detected by haplogroup analysis, affects human longevity and is population specific

To re‐examine the correlation between mtDNA variability and longevity, we examined mtDNAs from samples obtained from over 2200 ultranonagenarians (and an equal number of controls) collected within the framework of the GEHA EU project. The samples were categorized by high‐resolution classification, while about 1300 mtDNA molecules (650 ultranonagenarians and an equal number of controls) were completely sequenced. Sequences, unlike standard haplogroup analysis, made possible to evaluate for the first time the cumulative effects of specific, concomitant mtDNA mutations, including those that per se have a low, or very low, impact. In particular, the analysis of the mutations occurring in different OXPHOS complex showed a complex scenario with a different mutation burden in 90+ subjects with respect to controls. These findings suggested that mutations in subunits of the OXPHOS complex I had a beneficial effect on longevity, while the simultaneous presence of mutations in complex I and III (which also occurs in J subhaplogroups involved in LHON) and in complex I and V seemed to be detrimental, likely explaining previous contradictory results. On the whole, our study, which goes beyond haplogroup analysis, suggests that mitochondrial DNA variation does affect human longevity, but its effect is heavily influenced by the interaction between mutations concomitantly occurring on different mtDNA genes.
Current options for drug delivery to the spinal cord

Introduction: Spinal cord disorders (SCDs) are among the most devastating neurological diseases, due to their acute and long-term health consequences, the reduced quality of life and the high economic impact on society. Here, drug administration is severely limited by the blood–spinal cord barrier (BSCB) that impedes to reach the cord from the bloodstream. So, developing a suitable delivery route is mandatory to increase medical chances. Areas covered: This review provides an overview of drug delivery systems used to overcome the inaccessibility of the cord. On one side, intrathecal administration, either with catheters or with biomaterials, represents the main route to administer drugs to the spinal cord; on the other side, more recent strategies involve chemical or electromagnetic disruption of the barrier and synthesis of novel functionalized compounds as nanoparticles and liposomes able to cross BSCB. Expert opinion: Both the multifactorial pathological progression and the restricted access of therapeutic drugs to the spine are probably the main reasons behind the absence of efficient therapeutic approaches for SCDs. Hence, very recent highlights suggest the use of original strategies to overcome the BSCB, and new multidrug delivery systems capable of local controlled release of therapeutic agents have been developed. These issues can be addressed by using nanoparticles technology and smart hydrogel drug delivery systems, providing an increased therapeutic compound delivery in the spinal cord environment and multiple administrations able to synergize treatment efficacy.
Tight Glycemic Control in the Hospital

Single center randomized controlled trials could demonstrate a benefit of strict glycemic control on the mortality and morbidity outcomes for critically ill patients. Although observational studies also demonstrate a benefit of tight glucose control for patients in general wards, direct evidence is still lacking. Overall, the implementation of glucose control both in the very controlled setting of an intensive care unit and even more so in the clearly less controlled setting of a general ward has proven to be difficult. Standardization of all required working steps to establish glycemic control needs to be considered to be able to achieve safe and good blood glucose control. Recent developments from diabetes technology will have an important impact in facilitating glucose control in the hospital, although the already established workflows in hospitals will require a substantial reconsideration of diabetes-oriented technology to allow an area-wide implementation and acceptance by health care personnel.
Wave digital filter based analog circuit emulation on FPGA

Unlike well accepted FPGA emulation for digital circuits, there is no winning emulation solution for analog and mixed-signal (AMS) circuits. This paper presents an analog circuit emulation based on wave digital filters (WDFs), which covers the entire flow of transforming an AMS circuit from SPICE netlist to hardware implementation in FPGA. More specifically, it presents the theoretical support of how to map linear and nonlinear circuit components to WDF. The detail implementation of each WDF component in FPGA is not elaborated due to the page limit. Experiments show that there is a virtually perfect match between FPGA emulation and HSPICE simulations on two small but representative analog circuits, indicating high accuracy of the proposed emulation, and the FPGA-based WDF emulation can process analog signal sampled at as high as 512KHz, which is adequate for a variety of biomedical sensing applications.
Low-power FinFET circuit synthesis using surface orientation optimization

FinFETs with channel surface along the <110> plane can be easily fabricated by rotating the fins by 45o from the <100> plane. By designing logic gates, which have pFinFETs in the <110> plane and nFinFETs in the <100> plane, the gate delay can be reduced by as much as 14%, compared to the conventional <100> logic gates. The reduction in delay can be traded off for reduced power in FinFET circuits. In this paper, we propose a low-power FinFET-based circuit synthesis methodology based on surface orientation optimization. We study various logic design styles, which depend on different FinFET channel orientations, for synthesizing low-power circuits. We use BSIM, a process/physics based double-gate model in HSPICE, to derive accurate delay and power estimates. We design layouts of standard library cells containing FinFETs in different orientations to obtain an accurate area estimate for the low-power synthesized netlists after place-and-route. We use a linear programming based optimization methodology that gives power-optimized netlists, consisting of oriented gates, at tight delay constraints. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of our scheme.
Superantigens of Staphylococcus aureus from patients with diabetic foot ulcers.

BACKGROUND Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) infections are challenging. Staphylococcus aureus is the most commonly isolated pathogen in DFUs. Superantigens (SAgs) are causative in many S. aureus infections. We hypothesized both that DFU S. aureus will produce large SAg numbers, consistent with skin infections, and that certain SAgs will be overrepresented. We assessed the SAg and α-toxin profile of isolates from patients with DFU, compared with profiles of isolates from other sources. MATERIALS Twenty-five S. aureus isolates from patients with DFU were characterized. Polymerase chain reaction was used to detect genes for methicillin-resistance and SAgs. Some SAgs and the α-toxin were quantified. We compared the SAg profile of DFU isolates with SAg profiles of S. aureus isolates from skin lesions of patients with atopic dermatitis and from vaginal mucosa of healthy individuals. RESULTS Most DFU isolates were methicillin susceptible (64%), with USA100 the most common clonal group. The SAg gene profile of DFU isolates most closely resembled that of isolates from patients with atopic dermatitis, with the highest number of different SAg genes per isolate and a high prevalence of staphylococcal enterotoxin D and the enterotoxin gene cluster. DFU isolates also had a high prevalence of staphylococcal enterotoxin-like X. CONCLUSIONS Comparison of the SAg profile of DFU isolates to SAg profiles of skin lesion isolates and vaginal mucosa isolates revealed that the SAg profile of DFU isolates was more similar to that of skin lesion isolates. SAgs offer selective advantages in facilitating DFU infections and suggest that therapies to neutralize or reduce SAg production by S. aureus may be beneficial in management of patients with DFU.
Identification and Treatment of Multiword Expressions Applied to Information Retrieval

The extensive use of Multiword Expressions (MWE) in natural language texts prompts more detailed studies that aim for a more adequate treatment of these expressions. A MWE typically expresses concepts and ideas that usually cannot be expressed by a single word. Intuitively, with the appropriate treatment of MWEs, the results of an Information Retrieval (IR) system could be improved. The aim of this paper is to apply techniques for the automatic extraction of MWEs from corpora to index them as a single unit. Experimental results show improvements on the retrieval of relevant documents when identifying MWEs and treating them as a single indexing unit.
Study about Formation Mechanism of Red Spark Discharge of Micro-Arc Oxidation

Formation mechanism of the micro-arc oxidation spark discharge is always a research problem; so far there isnt a theoretical model for analyzing the spark discharge formation which is widely recognized. Based on analyzing the reaction phenomena and the coating feature in the different periods of the red spark discharge, the formation model of the red spark discharge was established. The spark discharge formation mechanism is shown that it causes the spark discharge formation that the electron bombards the gas layer wrapping the coating in the infancy of red spark discharge stage; at the later period the area of strong electric field generates the spark discharge where the coating of excessive polarization turns out easily.
Emotion Synthesis: Some Research Directions

Synthesis, needs to be presently understood as close to emotion generation: to give computers some level of understanding about what it might be like to have emotions. Generating states for a computer system with similar properties and/or functions to human emotions, might be one of the first steps in building such an understanding. We propose a computational design for modeling emotion generation both at the physiological and at the subjective experience level.
CX3CR1 Is a Modifying Gene of Survival and Progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

The objective of this study was to investigate the association of functional variants of the human CX3CR1 gene (Fractalkine receptor) with the risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the survival and the progression rate of the disease symptoms in a Spanish ALS cohort. 187 ALS patients (142 sporadic [sALS] and 45 familial) and 378 controls were recruited. We investigated CX3CR1 V249I (rs3732379) and T280M (rs3732378) genotypes and their haplotypes as predictors of survival, the progression rate of the symptoms (as measured by ALSFRS-R and FVC decline) and the risk of suffering ALS disease. The results indicated that sALS patients with CX3CR1 249I/I or 249V/I genotypes presented a shorter survival time (42.27±4.90) than patients with 249V/V genotype (67.65±7.42; diff −25.49 months 95%CI [−42.79,−8.18]; p = 0.004; adj-p = 0.018). The survival time was shorter in sALS patients with spinal topography and CX3CR1 249I alleles (diff = −29.78 months; 95%CI [−49.42,−10.14]; p = 0.003). The same effects were also observed in the spinal sALS patients with 249I–280M haplotype (diff = −27.02 months; 95%CI [−49.57, −4.48]; p = 0.019). In the sALS group, the CX3CR1 249I variant was associated with a faster progression of the disease symptoms (OR = 2.58; 95IC% [1.32, 5.07]; p = 0.006; adj-p = 0.027). There was no evidence for association of these two CX3CR1 variants with ALS disease risk. The association evidenced herein is clinically relevant and indicates that CX3CR1 could be a disease-modifying gene in sALS. The progression rate of the disease's symptoms and the survival time is affected in patients with one or two copies of the CX3CR1 249I allele. The CX3CR1 is the most potent ALS survival genetic factor reported to date. These results reinforce the role of the immune system in ALS pathogenesis.
AOPC: An Adaptive Optimized Proportional Controller for AQM

In this paper, we propose a novel AQM algorithm based on the optimized second-order system model for the first time. The algorithm is called adaptive optimized proportional controller (AOPC). The system design of AOPC is based on classical TCP/AQM interconnection system model, which has a strong relation to the network load level. Through introducing network load estimator in the TCP/AQM interconnection system model, AOPC is capable to detach from the number of TCP sessions N and insensitive to varying network conditions. Meanwhile, AOPC surmounts the parameter configuration difficulties experienced by many AQM algorithms. The parameter tuning rule is compliance with the optimized second-order system model which results fast convergence rate. The performances of AOPC are compared to REM, PI, PID, PIP, and LRED using NS2 simulations. From the experiments and analysis, we conclude that AOPC outperforms other AQM algorithms that it obtains stable queue evolution, achieves the fastest convergence rate to equilibrium point in time-varying network conditions than other algorithms, and fulfills perfect tradeoff between link utilization and queueing delay
Geometrical Relations Between Space–Time Block Code Designs and Complexity Reduction

In this work, the geometric relation between space- time block code design for the coherent channel and its noncoherent counterpart is exploited to get an analog of the information-theoretic inequality I(X;S)lesI((X,H);S) in terms of diversity. It provides a lower bound on the performance of noncoherent codes when used in coherent scenarios. This leads in turn to a code design decomposition result splitting coherent code design into two complexity reduced subtasks. Moreover, a geometrical criterion for high-performance space-time code design is derived
A Text Classification Framework with a Local Feature Ranking for Learning Social Networks

In this paper, a text classifier framework with a feature ranking scheme is proposed to extract social structures from text data. It is assumed that only a small subset of relations between the individuals in a community is known. With this assumption, the social network extraction is translated into a classification problem. The relations between two individuals are represented by merging their document vectors and the given relations are used as labels of training data. By this transformation, a text classifier such as Rocchio is used for learning the unknown relations. We show that there is a link between the intrinsic sparsity of social networks and class imbalance. Furthermore, we show that feature ranking methods usually fail in problem with unbalanced data. In order to deal with this deficiency and re-balance the unbalanced social data, a local feature ranking method, which is called reverse discrimination, is proposed.
Chlorosulfonic Acid-based Room Temperature Chemical Expansion Route for the Bulk Production of Graphite Nanoplatelets

We produced graphite nanoplatelets in high yield using a novel chlorosulfonic acid-induced room temperature expansion/exfoliation process. Characterization of the final products revealed high quality nanolayered graphite structures and their bulk films with volume resistivity as low as 20 Ohm-cm. A chemical mechanism was suggested for room temperature expansion of acid intercalated graphite which to our knowledge was demonstrated firstly in this study.
DDoS vulnerability of BitTorrent Peer Exchange extension: Analysis and defense

BitTorrent (BT) is a well-known Peer-to-Peer (P2P) downloading protocol and has been implemented in several versions. New features and extensions used to improve performance of BitTorrent systems also bring some security issues. In this paper, we analyze potential DDoS vulnerabilities of BT and its Peer Exchange extension. We show the ways of launching connection-exhausted DDoS attacks. Our experiments demonstrate these attacks are persistent and incur few costs for the attacker. By analyzing the main causes we find that both the defect of implement and the lack of trust and authentication mechanism are to blame, while the latter is critical. To defend against the DDoS attacks, we propose a score-based peer Reputation Exchange (REX) mechanism. Using REX, the score of a malicious peer is less than that of a good peer after several iterations, hence has less chance to be connected. REX makes it difficult to launch a DDoS attack and it can effectively mitigate the effect of the attack.