Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Traffic Air Pollution and Lung Cancer in Females in Taiwan: Petrol Station Density as an Indicator of Disease Development

To investigate the relationship between traffic air pollution exposure and development of lung cancer in females, studies were conducted using a matched cancer case-control model into deaths that occurred in Taiwan from 1997 through 2006. Data on all eligible lung cancer deaths in females were obtained from the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the Taiwan Provincial Department of Health. The control group consisted of women who died from causes other than neoplasms or diseases that were associated with respiratory problems. The controls were pair matched to the cancer cases by year of birth and year of death. Each matched control was selected randomly from the set of possible controls for each case. Data on the number of petrol stations in study municipalities were collected from the two major petroleum supply companies, Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC). The petrol station density (per square kilometer; PSD) for study municipalities was used as an indicator of a subject's exposure to benzene and other hydrocarbons present in ambient evaporative losses of petrol or to air emissions from motor vehicles. The subjects were divided into tertiles according to PSD in their residential municipality. The results showed that there was a significant exposure-response relationship between PSD and risk of lung cancer in females after controlling for possible confounders. The findings of this study warrant further investigation of the role of traffic air pollution exposure in the etiology of lung cancer.
Deterministic approximate counting of depth-2 circuits

The authors describe deterministic algorithms which for a given depth-2 circuit F approximate the probability that on a random input F outputs a specific value alpha . The approach gives an algorithm which for a given GF(2) multivariate polynomial p and given in >0 approximates the number of zeros (or ones) of p within a multiplicative factor 1+ in . The algorithm runs in time exp(exp(O( square root log(n/ in )))), where n is the size of the circuit. They also obtain an algorithm which given a DNF formula F and in >0 approximates the number of satisfying assignments of F within a factor of 1+ in and runs in time exp(O((log(n/ in ))/sup 4/)). <<ETX>>
Early phagosomes in dendritic cells form a cellular compartment sufficient for cross presentation of exogenous antigens

Conventionally, MHC class I-restricted antigen (Ag) processing requires the action of the multimolecular peptide-loading complex within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here we show that early phagosomes from human dendritic cells (DCs) contain the peptide-loading complex, incorporating MHC class I, β2 microglobulin, transporter associated with Ag processing (TAP), calreticulin, tapasin, and ERp57. Antigenic peptides could be translocated into purified phagosomes by TAP and loaded onto cognate class I molecules, inducing their specific dissociation from the loading complex. Endoglycosidase H-sensitive class I molecules were detected at the DC cell surface, suggesting that these molecules traffic there directly from phagosomes. Macropinocytosis also allowed internalized soluble Ags access to an ER-like compartment containing the class I loading complex. Blockade of TAP by endocytosis of a soluble derivative of human cytomegalovirus protein US6 confirmed that, although retrotranslocation into the cytosol is critical for processing, efficient association of class I molecules with peptides derived from exogenous Ags occurs within a compartment directly accessible to internalized proteins. Together, this evidence suggests that early phagosomes and pinosomes facilitate cross presentation of exogenous Ags by DCs.
Centralized interference coordination in relay-enhanced networks

In this work, we investigate the issue of interference coordination in relay-enhanced networks. We focus on Type 1 in-band relays as proposed for LTE-Advanced, where the base station and the relay nodes share the same frequency for the backhaul and relay access link. While using full-buffer traffic for the downstream, we propose a centralized interference coordination algorithm to mitigate interference between the relay nodes and their serving base station. Furthermore, we study an off-loading strategy which consists of combining our proposed algorithm with an extension of the relay's coverage region.
Bayesian noise‐reduction in Arabia/Somalia and Nubia/Arabia finite rotations since ∼20 Ma: Implications for Nubia/Somalia relative motion

Knowledge of Nubia/Somalia relative motion since the Early Neogene is of particular importance in the Earth Sciences, because it (i) impacts on inferences on African dynamic topography; and (ii) allows us to link plate kinematics within the Indian realm with those within the Atlantic basin. The contemporary Nubia/Somalia motion is well known from geodetic observations. Precise estimates of the past‐3.2‐Myr average motion are also available from paleo‐magnetic observations. However, little is known of the Nubia/Somalia motion prior to ∼3.2 Ma, chiefly because the Southwest Indian Ridge spread slowly, posing a challenge to precisely identify magnetic lineations. This also makes the few observations available particularly prone to noise. Here we reconstruct Nubia/Somalia relative motions since ∼20 Ma from the alternative plate‐circuit Nubia‐Arabia‐Somalia. We resort to trans‐dimensional hierarchical Bayesian Inference, which has proved effective in reducing finite‐rotation noise, to unravel the Arabia/Somalia and Arabia/Nubia motions. We combine the resulting kinematics to reconstruct the Nubia/Somalia relative motion since ∼20 Ma. We verify the validity of the approach by comparing our reconstruction with the available record for the past ∼3.2 Myr, obtained through Antarctica. Results indicate that prior to ∼11 Ma the total motion between Nubia and Somalia was faster than today. Furthermore, it featured a significant strike‐slip component along the Nubia/Somalia boundary. It is only since ∼11 Ma that Nubia diverges away from Somalia at slower rates, comparable to the present‐day one. Kinematic changes of some 20% might have occurred in the period leading to the present‐day, but plate‐motion steadiness is also warranted within the uncertainties.
Malicious Workers Tolerance in an Agent-Based Grid Resource Brokering System -- Preliminary Considerations

The Agent in Grid (AiG) project develops an agent-based infrastructure for resource management in the Grid. The basic assumptions of the project are that (1) agents work in teams, and (2) information is ontologically represented and semantically processed. Thus far, issues involved in trust management were considered only from the point of view of fulfillment of contracts between stakeholders. However, it is also possible that some workers that fulfill their contracts, return incorrect results. In this note, we consider how the trust management in the AiG project can be further conceptualized by using a reputation-based voting.
L/sub 2/-sensitivity minimization of one- and two-dimensional state-space digital filters subject to L/sub 2/-scaling constraints

This paper investigates the problem of minimizing an L/sub 2/-sensitivity measure subject to L/sub 2/-norm dynamic-range scaling constraints for one-dimensional (1-D) as well as a class of two-dimensional (2-D) state-space digital filters, where the 2-D digital filters are described by a transposed structure of the Fornasini-Marchesini second local state-space model. In each case, a novel iterative technique is developed to solve the constraint optimization problem directly. The proposed solution methods are largely based on the use of a Lagrange function and some matrix-theoretic techniques. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.
Energy efficient cooperative spectrum sensing by MIMO sensors in Wireless Sensor Network

In this paper we address sensor selection problem for spectrum sensing in cognitive radio network. The limited sensor's energy is an important issue which has attracted more attention in recent years. We propose an energy efficient cooperative spectrum sensing when Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) sensors are used. Two decision techniques for combination of antennas signals were used in each sensor: hard decision and soft decision. The OR rule is used for hard decision and Selection Combining (SC) and Equal Gain Combining (EGC). In each combination scheme, the problem was the sensor selection so that the energy consumption was minimized while detection performance was satisfied. The problem was solved based on the standard convex optimization method. Simulation results show that significant energy saving is achieved in comparison with the networks using Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) sensors specifically in low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) regime. Among of all methods, EGC combining has the least energy consumption while satisfy desired detection performance.
Progress with Molecular Electronic Junctions: Meeting Experimental Challenges in Design and Fabrication

Molecular electronics seeks to incorporate molecular components as functional elements in electronic devices. There are numerous strategies reported to date for the fabrication, design, and characterization of such devices, but a broadly accepted example showing structure‐dependent conductance behavior has not yet emerged. This progress report focuses on experimental methods for making both single‐molecule and ensemble molecular junctions, and highlights key results from these efforts. Based on some general objectives of the field, particular experiments are presented to show progress in several important areas, and also to define those areas that still need attention. Some of the variable behavior of ostensibly similar junctions reported in the literature is attributable to differences in the way the junctions are fabricated. These differences are due, in part, to the multitude of methods for supporting the molecular layer on the substrate, including methods that utilize physical adsorption and covalent bonds, and to the numerous strategies for making top contacts. After discussing recent experimental progress in molecular electronics, an assessment of the current state of the field is presented, along with a proposed road map that can be used to assess progress in the future.
Exploration of road temperature-adjustment material in asphalt mixture

Road temperature-adjustment material (RTM) was studied in this research to adjust the working temperature for asphalt mixture. The RTM is constituted from the solid–liquid phase change material (PCM) as the main component of unsaturated organic acid and the polypropylene carrier. The effect of RTM on the working temperature of asphalt mixture was analysed by monotonic cooling test, cooling–heating cycle test and field simulation cycle test. Results of monotonic cooling and cooling–heating cycle tests indicated that RTM mixed into asphalt mixture helped to reduce the amplitude of temperature variation in the cooling and heating process, and also postponed the extreme temperature appearance time. Results of field simulation test showed that RTM helped to decrease the highest temperature during the heating process and increase the lowest temperature during the cooling process, which reduced the temperature adverse impact on asphalt mixture. Test results indicated that asphalt mixture with RTM actively adjusted the working temperature with damping effect, and also enhanced the temperature resistance capacity for asphalt mixture as well as improved asphalt mixture's adaptability to the changing environment. Therefore, RTM is an inspiration and new method to solve the worldwide problems of low-temperature cracking and high-temperature deformation of asphalt pavement in the future.
WeatherUSI: Crowdsourcing Weather Experience on Public Displays

Motivated by the opportunity of using public displays to contribute to crowdsourcing, we developed WeatherUSI -- an application that allows passers-by to provide subjective information about the weather, both currently and in the near future. In contrast to the input collected by an already fielded mobile app called Atmos, we envision the public display component to provide not only highly localized information about current and future weather conditions, but also to better incentivize the reporting process, given its public nature. In our upcoming deployment of WeatherUSI, we plan to investigate how participation through the public display component differs from the mobile component, and if the quality of weather related input differs between the two. This work in progress presents our approach, describes the underlying system infrastructure and outlines our planned study design.
Toward a Human Blood Serum Proteome

Blood serum is a complex body fluid that contains various proteins ranging in concentration over at least 9 orders of magnitude. Using a combination of mass spectrometry technologies with improvements in sample preparation, we have performed a proteomic analysis with submilliliter quantities of serum and increased the measurable concentration range for proteins in blood serum beyond previous reports. We have detected 490 proteins in serum by on-line reversed-phase microcapillary liquid chromatography coupled with ion trap mass spectrometry. To perform this analysis, immunoglobulins were removed from serum using protein A/G, and the remaining proteins were digested with trypsin. Resulting peptides were separated by strong cation exchange chromatography into distinct fractions prior to analysis. This separation resulted in a 3–5-fold increase in the number of proteins detected in an individual serum sample. With this increase in the number of proteins identified we have detected some lower abundance serum proteins (ng/ml range) including human growth hormone, interleukin-12, and prostate-specific antigen. We also used SEQUEST to compare different protein databases with and without filtering. This comparison is plotted to allow for a quick visual assessment of different databases as a subjective measure of analytical quality. With this study, we have performed the most extensive analysis of serum proteins to date and laid the foundation for future refinements in the identification of novel protein biomarkers of disease.
Modifications of Serum and Cellular Parameters in Trotters After a Race. Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Activity Reduction and Serum β-Glucan Elevation

Trotters are exposed to a chronic prolonged stress, such as daily training and frequent races during their active lifespans. There is evidence that trotters undergo very often lethal lung infections after a race, and therefore, is likely that modifications of certain physiologic cellular parameters could account for the increased susceptibility to microbial diseases. Here, we demonstrate that in 7 trotters after a race either serum values (e.g., glycaemia, triglycerides, transaminases, gamma-glutamyltransferase, cholinesterase, amylase, alkaline phosphatase, total proteins, serum albumin, sodium, blood urea nitrogen, lactic dehydrogenase, creatine phosphokinase, and creatinine) or hematological parameters (red blood cell count, hemoglobin, lymphocyte and monocyte count) were increased. At the same time, in the same animals after a race, macrophage migration inhibitory factor activity was depressed, thus indicating an impaired T-lymphocyte response. Finally, increased levels of circulating β-glucans in some horses, after a race, may suggest a reduced clearance of fungal cell wall components. Taken together, these findings indicate a condition of multiple organ dysfunction, such as the liver, the kidney, the pancreas, and skeletal muscles, as well as a reduced cell-mediated immune response in trotters, after a race.
Ant colony control for autonomous decentralized shop floor routing

We introduce a new approach to autonomous decentralized shop floor routing. Our system, which we call Ant Colony Control (AC/sup 2/), applies the analogy of a colony of ants foraging for food to the problem of dynamic shop floor routing. In this system, artificial ants use only indirect communication to make all shop routing decisions by altering and reacting to their dynamically changing common environment through the use of simulated pheromone trails. For simple factory layouts, we show that the emergent behavior of the colony is comparable to using the optimal routing strategy. Furthermore, as the complexity of the factory layout is increased, we show that the adaptive behavior of AC/sup 2/ evolves local decision making policies that lead to near-optimal solutions from the standpoint of global performance.
An Analytical Approach to Document Clustering Based on Internal Criterion Function

Fast and high quality document clustering is an important task in organizing information, search engine results obtaining from user query, enhancing web crawling and information retrieval. With the large amount of data available and with a goal of creating good quality clusters, a variety of algorithms have been developed having quality-complexity trade-offs. Among these, some algorithms seek to minimize the computational complexity using certain criterion functions which are defined for the whole set of clustering solution. In this paper, we are proposing a novel document clustering algorithm based on an internal criterion function. Most commonly used partitioning clustering algorithms (e.g. k-means) have some drawbacks as they suffer from local optimum solutions and creation of empty clusters as a clustering solution. The proposed algorithm usually does not suffer from these problems and converge to a global optimum, its performance enhances with the increase in number of clusters. We have checked our algorithm against three different datasets for four different values of k (required number of clusters).
High sustained virological response in chronic hepatitis C by combining induction and prolonged maintenance therapy

Summary. Chronic hepatitis C patients with genotype 1 infection, liver cirrhosis, high viral load, or those who have not responded to anti‐viral treatment in the past have limited chances of clearing the virus, even with pegylated interferon–ribavirin therapy. In this study we treated such patients with a treatment schedule that combines high dose induction Interferon (IFN), prolonged daily IFN and ribavirin treatment. Twenty‐four consecutive patients were included in this study with either genotype 1 infection, cirrhosis, previous non‐response to IFN or a combination of these poor‐response characteristics. Patients were treated with 10 million units (MU) of IFN daily for 4 weeks followed by 5 MU/day until week 24, 3 MU/day until week 52 and 3 MU thrice weekly until week 76 in combination with 1–1.2 g ribavirin daily. HCV RNA levels were assessed weekly until week 4 and at least once every 3 months thereafter, by a validated assay with a detection limit below 500 copies/mL. Both intention to treat (ITT) and per protocol (PP) analysis showed a high sustained virological response (ITT 67%, PP 80%). A virological response occurred rapidly (before 8 weeks of treatment) in all patients with a sustained response. Relapse after stopping therapy was observed in only 5%. Side‐effects were observed frequently, and six patients had to be hospitalized. With this new treatment regimen that combines induction‐ and prolonged daily interferon treatment with ribavirin it seems possible to eliminate hepatitis C virus in the majority of patients that have an a priori limited chance of sustained response. Further clinical evaluation of intensive interferon and ribavirin combination therapy (now also including PEG‐interferon) is recommended in centres that can provide close patient monitoring and experienced hepatological support.
Overweight and obesity trends from 1974 to 2003 in English children: what is the role of socioeconomic factors?

Aims: To examine the childhood overweight and obesity prevalence trends between 1974 and 2003 and to assess whether these trends relate to parental social class and household income. Methods: A school based and a general population health survey: the National Study of Health and Growth in 1974, 1984, and 1994, and the Health Survey for England, yearly from 1996 to 2003. Participants were 14 587 white boys and 14 014 white girls aged 5–10 years. Overweight and obesity prevalence were calculated using UK specific as well as international body mass index (kg/m2) cut-offs. Socioeconomic status was measured using the Registrar General’s social class; household income (1997 onwards only) was adjusted for household size. Results: The prevalence of obesity (UK specific definition) in boys increased from 1.2% in 1984 to 3.4% in 1996–97 and 6.0% in 2002–03. In girls, obesity increased from 1.8% in 1984 to 4.5% in 1996–97 and 6.6% in 2002–03. Obesity prevalence has been increasing at accelerating rates in the more recent years. Children from manual social classes had marginally higher odds (OR 1.14, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.33) and children from higher income households had lower odds (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.89) to be obese than their peers from non-manual class, and lower income households, respectively. Conclusion: Childhood obesity is increasing rapidly into the 2000s in England and these increases are more marked among children from lower socioeconomic strata. There is an urgent need for action to prevent further increase in obesity among children.
An Abnormal Area Scanning for Scalable and Energy-Efficient and Secure SensorNet Management

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a very attractive technique for a variety of applications due to many merits such as compact form, low-power and potential low cost. However, the more the number of sensor node is increased, the more difficult the manager monitors WSNs individually. And faults such as the malfunction of the sensor device itself are common due to the vulnerable security. Therefore, a new approach to manage secure sensorNet considering scalability, energy- efficiency and faulty tendency is needed. Therefore, we propose an abnormal area scanning algorithm using spatial, temporal correlation and in-network aggregation for scalable and energy- efficient secure sensorNet management. Simulations show that our scheme has good scalability and energy-efficiency characteristics, compared to the previous scheme and it can clearly identify the abnormal sensors with high accuracy even in the existence of normal sensors, abnormal sensor and event- detecting sensors.
Carotenoid Distribution in Living Cells of Haematococcus pluvialis (Chlorophyceae)

Haematococcus pluvialis is a freshwater unicellular green microalga belonging to the class Chlorophyceae and is of commercial interest for its ability to accumulate massive amounts of the red ketocarotenoid astaxanthin (3,3′-dihydroxy-β,β-carotene-4,4′-dione). Using confocal Raman microscopy and multivariate analysis, we demonstrate the ability to spectrally resolve resonance–enhanced Raman signatures associated with astaxanthin and β-carotene along with chlorophyll fluorescence. By mathematically isolating these spectral signatures, in turn, it is possible to locate these species independent of each other in living cells of H. pluvialis in various stages of the life cycle. Chlorophyll emission was found only in the chloroplast whereas astaxanthin was identified within globular and punctate regions of the cytoplasmic space. Moreover, we found evidence for β-carotene to be co-located with both the chloroplast and astaxanthin in the cytosol. These observations imply that β-carotene is a precursor for astaxanthin and the synthesis of astaxanthin occurs outside the chloroplast. Our work demonstrates the broad utility of confocal Raman microscopy to resolve spectral signatures of highly similar chromophores in living cells.