Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anonymous Aggregator Election and Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks

In mission critical cyber-physical systems, dependability is an important requirement at all layers of the system architecture. In this paper, we propose protocols that increase the dependability of wireless sensor networks, which are potentially useful building blocks in cyber-physical systems. More specifically, we propose two private aggregator node election protocols, a private data aggregation protocol, and a corresponding private query protocol for sensor networks that allow for secure in-network data aggregation by making it difficult for an adversary to identify and then physically disable the designated aggregator nodes. Our advanced protocols resist strong adversaries that can physically compromise some nodes.
Assessment of Hydro-Meteorological Condition of Kathmandu (Nagdhunga)-Naubise-Mugling Road and Bridges

The Kathmandu (Naghdhunga)-Naubise-Mugling (KNM) road has passed hilly area from Nagdhunga to Naubise (about 13%) after passing Naubise the road alignment passes river valley of the Mahesh Khola and Trishuli River, initially the road alignment follows on left bank of the Mahesh Khola valley upto Galchhi before meeting with Trishuli River. After Galchhi, road alignment follows the left bank of the Trishuli River valley upto Mugling (about 87%). The present study deals with the hydrological condition of the KNM road by analysing the existing hydro-meteorological data, reviewing the reports/documents of the previous studies and visiting the study area. The annual rainfall of the study area is found to be of increasing pattern. It is necessary to construct new crossing structures along with replacing some of the existing culverts in the existing road. Existing side drains are more or less adequate but the capacity might to be increased during he improvement works. In the proposed new alignment 113 cross drains are necessary to construct and proposed side drains will be adequate for passing the design flood. Some of the stretches of the existing road are very close to the river and are vulnerable of being toe cutting and flooding from the river.
The Contribution of Salvador Moncada to Our Understanding of the Biology of Nitric Oxide

The observation, by Furchgott and Zawadzki, that a factor of short average life, released by endothelial cells accounted for vasodilation was the beginning of one of the most fascinating adventures in the recent history of science. The discovery that this released factor was nitric oxide had tremendous implications for our understanding not only of the homeostasis of the vascular tissue, but also of a variety of other biological processes ranging from synaptic plasticity to regulation of immune responses. This review article will lead the reader through the landmark events in this adventure, highlighting the fundamental role played by Salvador Moncada and his team. IUBMB Life, 55: 563‐565, 2003
Regulation of a formin complex by the microtubule plus end protein tea1p

The plus ends of microtubules have been speculated to regulate the actin cytoskeleton for the proper positioning of sites of cell polarization and cytokinesis. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, interphase microtubules and the kelch repeat protein tea1p regulate polarized cell growth. Here, we show that tea1p is directly deposited at cell tips by microtubule plus ends. Tea1p associates in large “polarisome” complexes with bud6p and for3p, a formin that assembles actin cables. Tea1p also interacts in a separate complex with the CLIP-170 protein tip1p, a microtubule plus end–binding protein that anchors tea1p to the microtubule plus end. Localization experiments suggest that tea1p and bud6p regulate formin distribution and actin cable assembly. Although single mutants still polarize, for3Δbud6Δtea1Δ triple-mutant cells lack polarity, indicating that these proteins contribute overlapping functions in cell polarization. Thus, these experiments begin to elucidate how microtubules contribute to the proper spatial regulation of actin assembly and polarized cell growth.
Biomarkers of Pediatric Brain Tumors

Background and Need for Novel Biomarkers: Brain tumors are the leading cause of death by solid tumors in children. Although improvements have been made in their radiological detection and treatment, our capacity to promptly diagnose pediatric brain tumors in their early stages remains limited. This contrasts several other cancers where serum biomarkers such as cancer antigen (CA) 19-9 and CA 125 facilitate early diagnosis and treatment. Aim: The aim of this article is to review the latest literature and highlight biomarkers which may be of clinical use in the common types of primary pediatric brain tumor. Methods: A PubMed search was performed to identify studies reporting biomarkers in the bodily fluids of pediatric patients with brain tumors. Details regarding the sample type [serum, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), or urine], biomarkers analyzed, methodology, tumor type, and statistical significance were recorded. Results: A total of 12 manuscripts reporting 19 biomarkers in 367 patients vs. 397 controls were identified in the literature. Of the 19 biomarkers identified, 12 were isolated from CSF, 2 from serum, 3 from urine, and 2 from multiple bodily fluids. All but one study reported statistically significant differences in biomarker expression between patient and control groups. Conclusion: This review identifies a panel of novel biomarkers for pediatric brain tumors. It provides a platform for the further studies necessary to validate these biomarkers and, in addition, highlights several techniques through which new biomarkers can be discovered.
Human on-line response to target expansion

McGuffin and Balakrishnan (M&B) have recently reported evidence that target expansion during a reaching movement reduces pointing time even if the expansion occurs as late as in the last 10% of the distance to be covered by the cursor. While M&B massed their static and expanding targets in separate blocks of trials, thus making expansion predictable for participants, we replicated their experiment with one new condition in which the target could unpredictably expand, shrink, or stay unchanged. Our results show that target expansion occurring as late as in M&B's experiment enhances pointing performance in the absence of expectation. We discuss these findings in terms of the basic human processes that underlie target-acquisition movements, and we address the implications for user interface design by introducing a revised design for the Mac OS X Dock.
Cooperative Monitoring to Diagnose Multiagent Plans

Diagnosing the execution of a Multiagent Plan (MAP) means identifying and explaining action failures (i.e., actions that did not reach their expected effects). Current approaches to MAP diagnosis are substantially centralized, and assume that action failures are independent of each other. In this paper, the diagnosis of MAPs, executed in a dynamic and partially observable environment, is addressed in a fully distributed and asynchronous way; in addition, action failures are no longer assumed as independent of each other. The paper presents a novel methodology, named Cooperative Weak-Committed Monitoring (CWCM), enabling agents to cooperate while monitoring their own actions. Cooperation helps the agents to cope with very scarcely observable environments: what an agent cannot observe directly can be acquired from other agents. CWCM exploits nondeterministic action models to carry out two main tasks: detecting action failures and building trajectory-sets (i.e., structures representing the knowledge an agent has about the environment in the recent past). Relying on trajectory-sets, each agent is able to explain its own action failures in terms of exogenous events that have occurred during the execution of the actions themselves. To cope with dependent failures, CWCM is coupled with a diagnostic engine that distinguishes between primary and secondary action failures. An experimental analysis demonstrates that the CWCM methodology, together with the proposed diagnostic inferences, are effective in identifying and explaining action failures even in scenarios where the system observability is significantly reduced.
Improving Hepatitis B Vaccine Efficacy in End-Stage Renal Diseases Patients and Role of Adjuvants

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious global health problem.The prevalence of viral hepatitis is higher in dialysis patients than in the general population because of the opportunity for exposure during the dialysis procedure. Immunization is the most effective way to prevent transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hence the development of acute or chronic hepatitis B. It is well established that patients with end-stage renal disease including dialysis-dependent patients, have an impaired immune response to hepatitis B vaccine. End stage renal diseases (ESRD) patients have lower seroconversion rates compared with the subjects with intact renal function. Moreover, even after the completion of vaccination schedule anti-hepatitis B (anti-HBs) titers of responder dialysis, patients are low and decline logarithmically with time. The impaired efficacy of HBV vaccine in patients with ESRD has been attributed to numerous factors such as immune compromise because of uremia and some other factors. One approach to improve the immunogenicity of existing HBV vaccines is adjuvantation, and it's very important to find more effective adjutants for improving HBV vaccine efficacy. In this paper we have a brief review on recently known new ways for improving HBV vaccine efficacy.
A novel scale-free network model with accelerating growth

Complex networks are everywhere. The object-oriented software system is a typical example. Based on analyzing evolving structure of the Object-Oriented software systems, we consider accelerating growth of network as power-law growth, which can be easily generalized to real systems as better than linearly growing ones. For scale-free network with preferential linking and increasing links via a power law, we focus on exploring the generic mechanisms of scale-free behavior. We propose a scale-free model that can predict the emergence of scale-free behavior in good agreement with power-law growth and scale-free property, which excel the existing scale-free network models. Moreover, we use the obtained predictions to fit the degree distribution of software network describing scale-free structure with the accelerating growth. The combined analytical and numerical results indicate the emergence of a new set of model that considerably enhance our ability to characterize and model complex evolving networks, which can not only represent software system but also simulate other complex interactive systems, such as the World Wide Web, Internet, social networks and so on.
A 120/230 Vrms-to-3.3V micro power supply with a fully integrated 17V SC DCDC converter

The power supply is one of the major challenges for applications like internet of things IoTs and smart home. The maintenance issue of batteries and the limited power level of energy harvesting is addressed by the integrated micro power supply presented in this paper. Connected to the 120/230 Vrms mains, which is one of the most reliable energy sources and anywhere indoor available, it provides a 3.3V DC output voltage. The micro power supply consists of a fully integrated ACDC and DCDC converter with one external low voltage SMD buffer capacitor. The micro power supply is fabricated in a low cost 0.35 μm 700 V CMOS technology and covers a die size of 7.7 mm2. The use of only one external low voltage SMD capacitor, results in an extremely compact form factor. The ACDC is a direct coupled, full wave rectifier with a subsequent bipolar shunt regulator, which provides an output voltage around 17 V. The DCDC stage is a fully integrated 4:1 SC DCDC converter with an input voltage as high as 17 V and a peak efficiency of 45 %. The power supply achieves an overall output power of 3 mW, resulting in a power density of 390 μW/mm2. This exceeds prior art by a factor of 11.
P1A-7 Automatic Segmentation of the Anterior Chamber in In Vivo High-Frequency Ultrasound Images of the Eye

When monitoring glaucoma, or planning intraocular lens surgery, ophthalmologists need to visualize and measure the anatomical structures of the eye like the anterior chamber, a fluid filled space between the posterior surface of the cornea and the iris, or the iridocorneal angle. Our long term goal consists in setting up an accurate and automatic measurement method of the anterior chamber. Even if the segmentation process we discuss and illustrate by examples is not complete, it is efficient to localize the cornea, the lens and the iridocorneal angle in high frequency in vivo ultrasound acquisitions.
Benzo[a]pyrene-induced toxicity: paradoxical protection in Cyp1a1(-/-) knockout mice having increased hepatic BaP-DNA adduct levels.

Previous studies have shown that cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1), CYP1B1, and prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase (PTGS2) are inducible by benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD, dioxin), and all three metabolize BaP to reactive DNA-binding intermediates and excreted products. Because these three enzymes show differing patterns of basal levels, inducibility, and tissue-specific expression, animal studies are necessary to delineate the role of CYP1A1 in BaP-mediated toxicity. In mice receiving large daily doses of BaP (500 mg/kg i.p.), Cyp1a1(-/-) knockout mice are protected by surviving longer than Cyp1a1(+/-) heterozygotes. We found that a single 500 mg/kg dose of BaP induces hepatic CYP1A1 mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity in Cyp1a1(+/-) but not in Cyp1a1(-/-) mice; TCDD pretreatment increases further the CYP1A1 in Cyp1a1(+/-) but not Cyp1a1(-/-) mice. Although a single 500 mg/kg dose of BaP was toxic to Cyp1a1(+/-) mice (serum liver enzyme elevated about 2-fold above control levels at 48 h), Cyp1a1(-/-) mice displayed no hepatotoxicity. Unexpectedly, we found 4-fold higher BaP-DNA adduct levels in Cyp1a1(-/-) than in Cyp1a1(+/-) mice; TCDD pretreatment lowered the levels of BaP-DNA adducts in both genotypes, suggesting the involvement of other TCDD-inducible detoxification enzymes. BaP was cleared from the blood much faster in Cyp1a1(+/-) than Cyp1a1(-/-) mice. Our results suggest that absence of the CYP1A1 enzyme protects the intact animal from BaP-mediated liver toxicity and death, by decreasing the formation of large amounts of toxic metabolites, whereas much slower metabolic clearance of BaP in Cyp1a1(-/-) mice leads to greater formation of BaP-DNA adducts.
Regulation of human hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal by the microenvironment’s control of retinoic acid signaling

Significance Mechanisms that control physiologic hematopoietic stem-cell (HSC) self-renewal remain largely unknown. Inhibition of retinoic acid (RA) signaling in HSCs maintained their primitive phenotype and function, and promoted their self-renewal. Moreover, bone marrow stroma’s expression of the cytochrome P450 retinoid-inactivating enzyme, CYP26, allowed HSC self-renewal by maintaining an environment low in retinoids. Thus, HSCs appear to be intrinsically programmed to undergo RA-mediated differentiation unless prevented from doing so by bone marrow niche CYP26. Modulation of RA signaling also holds promise for clinical HSC expansion. The high expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1, also known as retinaldehyde dehydrogenase, by hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) suggests an important role for retinoic acid (RA) signaling in determining the fate of these cells. We found that primitive human bone marrow-derived CD34+CD38− cells not only highly express aldehyde dehydrogenase 1, but also the RA receptor α. Despite the up-regulation of early components of RA signaling, the downstream pathway remained inactive in the primitive CD34+CD38− cells. Primitive hematopoietic cells rapidly undergo terminal differentiation when cultured away from their microenvironment; however, we found that inhibition of RA signaling maintained their primitive phenotype and function, and promoted their self-renewal. HSCs reside in a complex microenvironment that enforces the balance between self-renewal and differentiation. The exact physiologic mechanisms by which the niche controls HSC fate remain elusive. The embryonic gonadal microenvironment has recently been shown to determine germ-cell fate by degrading RA through expression of the P450 retinoid-inactivating enzyme CYP26B1. We found that the bone marrow microenvironment similarly can control primitive hematopoietic cell fate via modulation of retinoid bioavailability. Accordingly, we found that bone marrow stromal cell CYP26 was also able to inactivate retinoids in serum, preventing RA signaling. Thus, primitive hematopoietic cells appear to be intrinsically programmed to undergo RA-mediated differentiation unless prevented from doing so by bone marrow niche CYP26. Modulation of RA signaling also holds promise for clinical HSC expansion, a prerequisite for the wide-scale use of these cells in regenerative medicine and gene therapy.
Heteromeric NMDA Receptors: Molecular and Functional Distinction of Subtypes

The N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor subtype of glutamate-gated ion channels possesses high calcium permeability and unique voltage-dependent sensitivity to magnesium and is modulated by glycine. Molecular cloning identified three complementary DNA species of rat brain, encoding NMDA receptor subunits NMDAR2A (NR2A), NR2B, and NR2C, which are 55 to 70% ientical in sequence. These are structurally related, with less than 20% sequence identity, to other excitatory amino acid receptor subunits, including the NMDA receptor subunit NMDAR1 (NR1). Upon expression in cultured cells, the new subunits yielded prominent, typical glutamate-and NMDA-activated currents only when they were in heteromeric configurations with NR1. NR1-NR2A and NR1-NR2C channels differed in gating behavior and magnesium sensitivity. Such heteromeric NMDA receptor subtypes may exist in neurons, since NR1 messenger RNA is synthesized throughout the mature rat brain, while NR2 messenger RNA show a differential distribution.
Enhancing Eigenspace-Based MLLR Speaker Adaptation Using a Fuzzy Logic Learning Control Scheme

SUMMARY This study develops a fuzzy logic control mechanism in eigenspace-based MLLR speaker adaptation. Speciﬁcally, this mechanism can determine hidden Markov model parameters to enhance overall recognition performance despite ordinary or adverse conditions in both training and operating stages. The proposed mechanism regulates the inﬂuence of eigenspace-based MLLR adaptation given insu ﬃ cient training data from a new speaker. This mechanism accounts for the amount of adaptation data available in transformation matrix parameter smoothing, and thus ensures the robustness of eigenspace-based MLLR adaptation against data scarcity. The proposed adaptive learning mechanism is computationally inexpensive. Experimental results show that eigenspace-based MLLR adaptation with fuzzy control outperforms conventional eigenspace-based MLLR, and especially when the adaptation data acquired from a new speaker is insu ﬃ - cient.
The taraXÜ corpus of human-annotated machine translations

Human translators are the key to evaluating machine translation (MT) quality and also to addressing the so far unanswered question when and how to use MT in professional translation workflows. This paper describes the corpus developed as a result of a detailed large scale human evaluation consisting of three tightly connected tasks: ranking, error classification and post-editing.
The Effect of PIN Reduction in Populus: The Search for the Missing Phenotype

The plant hormone auxin is involved in virtually every aspect of plant growth and development. Because of its vital role in plant physiology, it is transported through controlled mechanisms. The PIN family of efflux carrier proteins are highly involved in this transport, shuttling molecules of auxin from cell to cell. This PIN-driven transport of auxin guides the differentiation of plant vasculature. In this study, I used a clonally-propagated line of the woody plant species Populus tremula x alba that had been genetically altered to induce an RNAi response against genes coding for the PIN proteins. These plants were shown to have reduced auxin transport rates, however, there was no difference when compared to wild-type in the external phenotype. First, reduction of PIN gene expression was confirmed in this Populus line through qRT-PCR, having been reduced by nearly 80% in shoot apices and over 90% in developing xylem. But despite this reduction of auxin transport, there was still no observable phenotype. It was then considered that this phenotype may be revealed if auxin transport rates were altered in localized areas of a single plant. Thus, this line of Populus was then used in reciprocal grafting experiments, in which RNAi line plants and wild-type plants were used alternatively as either scions or rootstocks. This resulted in whole plants with localized areas of reduced auxin transport. qRT-PCR was conducted on the scion and rootstocks of these plants to confirm that the RNAi signal is not graft transmissible, PIN expression in the RNAi plant segments having been reduced by over 65%, regardless of position (scion or rootstock). The vascular anatomy was then analyzed above and below the graft site. Again, regardless of the position of the RNAi line plant segment, digital image analysis revealed negligible difference in vessel size and distribution within developing xylem. These results may speak to the efficiency of homeostatic auxin mechanisms, which may have regulated the alterations in auxin transport such that the phenotype remained consistent with wild-type.
Psychiatric comorbidity with problematic alcohol use in high school students.

OBJECTIVE To delineate the degree to which various levels of problematic alcohol use are associated with psychiatric disorders in adolescents. METHOD The lifetime occurrence of psychiatric disorders was examined in a community sample of 1,507 older adolescents (aged 14 through 18 years) who were categorized according to their alcohol use (i.e., abstainers, experimenters, social drinkers, problem drinkers, and abuse/dependence group). RESULTS Increased alcohol use was associated with the increased lifetime occurrence of depressive disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, drug use disorders, and daily tobacco use. There was a trend for increased alcohol use in girls to be associated with anxiety disorders. More than 80% of adolescents with alcohol abuse/dependence had some other form of psychopathology. Alcohol disorders, in general, followed rather than preceded the onset of other psychiatric disorders. Comorbidity was associated with an earlier age of alcohol disorder onset and with greater likelihood of mental health treatment utilization. CONCLUSIONS Rates of psychiatric comorbidity with problematic alcohol use in adolescents are striking and represent an important therapeutic challenge.