Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Matrix metalloproteinases and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases in synovial fluids from patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis

OBJECTIVE Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are expressed in joint tissues of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). The objective of this study was to define the steady state levels of seven different MMPs and two tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) as well as the potential metalloproteinase activity in the synovial fluid (SF) to provide more insight into the role of MMPs in cartilage destruction in RA and OA. METHODS Levels of MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, MMP-7, MMP-8, MMP-9, MMP-13, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2 in SF aspirated from knee joints of 97 patients with RA and 103 patients with OA were measured by the corresponding one step sandwich enzyme immunoassays. Proteolytic activity of MMPs in these SFs was examined in an assay using [3H]carboxymethylated transferrin substrate in the presence of inhibitors of serine and cysteine proteinases after activation withp-aminophenylmercuric acetate (APMA). Destruction of RA knee joints was radiographically evaluated. RESULTS Levels of MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, MMP-8, and MMP-9 were significantly higher in RA SF than in OA SF. MMP-7 and MMP-13 were detectable in more than 45% of RA SFs and in less than 20% of OA SFs, respectively. Among the MMPs examined, MMP-3 levels were extremely high compared with those of other MMPs. Direct correlations were seen between the levels of MMP-1 and MMP-3 and between those of MMP-8 and MMP-9 in RA SF. Although the levels of MMP-1 and MMP-3 increased even in the early stage of RA, those of MMP-8 and MMP-9 were low in the early stage and increased with the progression of RA. Molar ratios of the total amounts of the MMPs to those of the TIMPs were 5.2-fold higher in patients with RA than in OA, which was significant. APMA-activated metalloproteinase activity in SF showed a similar result, and a direct correlation was seen between the molar ratios and the activity in RA SF. CONCLUSIONS Our results show that high levels of MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, MMP-8, MMP-9, and TIMP-1 are present in RA SF and suggest that once these MMPs are fully activated, they have an imbalance against TIMPs, which may contribute to the cartilage destruction in RA.
Robust Online Motion Planning with Reachable Sets by Anirudha

In this thesis we consider the problem of generating motion plans for a nonlinear dynamical system that are guaranteed to succeed despite uncertainty in the environment, parametric model uncertainty, disturbances, and/or errors in state estimation. Furthermore, we consider the case where these plans must be generated online, because constraints such as obstacles in the environment may not be known until they are perceived (with a noisy sensor) at runtime. Previous work on feedback motion planning for nonlinear systems was limited to offline planning due to the computational cost of safety verification. Here we augment the traditional trajectory library approach by designing locally stabilizing controllers for each nominal trajectory in the library and providing guarantees on the resulting closed loop systems. We leverage sums-of-squares programming to design these locally stabilizing controllers by explicitly attempting to minimize the size of the worst case reachable set of the closed-loop system subjected to bounded disturbances and uncertainty. The reachable sets associated with each trajectory in the library can be thought of as “funnels” that the system is guaranteed to remain within. The resulting funnel library is then used to sequentially compose motion plans at runtime while ensuring the safety of the robot. A major advantage of the work presented here is that by explicitly taking into account the effect of uncertainty, the robot can evaluate motion plans based on how vulnerable they are to disturbances. We demonstrate our method on a simulation of a plane flying through a two dimensional forest of polygonal trees with parametric uncertainty and disturbances in the form of a bounded “cross-wind”. We further validate our approach by carefully evaluating the guarantees on invariance provided by funnels on two challenging underactuated systems (the “Acrobot” and a small-sized airplane). Thesis Supervisor: Russ Tedrake Title: Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Approximating the Colorful Caratheodory Theorem (システム数理と応用)

Let P1, . , Pd+1 ⊂ R be d-dimensional point sets such that the convex hull of each Pi contains the origin. We call the sets Pi color classes, and we think of the points in Pi as having color i. A colorful choice is a set with at most one point from each color class. The colorful Carathéodory theorem guarantees the existence of a colorful choice whose convex hull contains the origin. So far, the computational complexity of finding such a colorful choice is unknown. An m-colorful choice is a set that contains at most m points from each color class. We present an approximation algorithm that computes for any constant ε > 0, an dε(d + 1)e-colorful choice containing the origin in its convex hull in polynomial time. This notion of approximation has not been studied before, and it is motivated through the applications of the colorful Carathéodory theorem in the literature. Second, we show that the exact problem can be solved in d d) time if Θ(d log d) color classes are available, improving over the trivial d time algorithm.
Refinements in the use of equivalent latitude for assimilating sporadic inhomogeneous stratospheric tracer observations, 2: Precise altitude-resolved information about transport of Pinatubo aerosol to very high latitude

Abstract. From high latitude lidar observations, quite precise information is extracted about the temporal evolution and vertical distribution of volcanic aerosol in the high latitude lower stratosphere following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Irreversible mixing of lower stratospheric aerosol, to the arctic pole during early 1992, is demonstrated, as a function of potential temperature and time. This work complements previous studies, which either identify vortex intrusions - without demonstrating irreversible transport, or use lower resolution satellite observations. The observed transport is associated tentatively with the vortex disturbance during late January, 1992. A very large number of high resolution lidar observations of Mount Pinatubo aerosol are analysed, without any data averaging. Averaging in measurement or analysis can cause tracer mixing to be overestimated. Averaging in the analysis can also require assumptions about which quantity has the dominant error (in this case, the equivalent latitude coordinate or the measurement), and which part of the data contains real structure. The method below attempts to avoid such assumptions.
A Simplified Model for Normal Mode Helical Antennas

Normal mode helical antennas are widely used for RFID and mobile communications applications due to their relatively small size and omni-directional radiation pattern. However, their highly curved geometry can make the design and analysis of helical antennas that are part of larger complex structures quite difficult. A simplified model is proposed that replaces the curved helix with straight wires and lumped elements. The simplified model can be used to reduce the complexity of full-wave models that include a helical antenna. It also can be used to estimate the performance of a helical antenna without full- wave modeling of the helical structure.
Multiphase galaxy formation: high-velocity clouds and the missing baryon problem

The standard treatment of cooling in Cold Dark Matter halos assumes that all of the gas within a “cooling radius” cools and contracts monolithically to fuel galaxy formation. Here we take into account the expectation that the hot gas in galactic halos is thermally unstable and prone to fragmentation during cooling and show that the implications are more far-reaching than previously expected: allowing multi-phase cooling fundamentally alters expectations about gas infall in galactic halos and naturally gives rise to a characteristic upper-limit on the masses of galaxies, as observed. Specifically, we argue that cooling should proceed via the formation of high-density, � 10 4 K clouds, pressure-confined within a hot gas background. The background medium that emerges has a low density, and can survive as a hydrostatically stable corona with a long cooling time. The fraction of halo baryons contained in the residual hot core component grows with halo mass because the cooling density increases with gas temperature, and this leads to an upper-mass limit in quiescent, non-merged galaxies of � 10 11 M⊙. In this scenario, galaxy formation is fueled by the infall of pressure-supported clouds. For Milky-Way-size systems, clouds of mass � 5 × 10 6 M⊙ that formed or merged within the last several Gyrs should still exist as a residual population in the halo, with a total mass in clouds of � 2 × 10 10 M⊙. The baryonic mass of the Milky Way galaxy is explained naturally in this model, and is a factor of two smaller than would result in the standard treatment without feedback. We expect clouds in galactic halos to be � 1kpc in size and to extend � 150kpc from galactic centers. The predicted properties of Milky Way clouds match well the observed radial velocity distribution, angular sizes, column densities, and velocity widths of High Velocity Clouds around our Galaxy. The clouds we predict are also of the type needed to explain high-ion absorption systems at z < 1, and the predicted covering factor around external galaxies is consistent with observations.
Modeling and analysis of high-availability routing software

With the explosion in the use of Internet, there is an obvious trend that critical applications based on IP network (E-transaction, etc.) are increasing dramatically. Therefore, it is required to build high performance routers (HPRs) with high availability (HA). Though researches on HA router hardware are fairly mature, investigations on HA routing software are still on-going. This paper systematically presents possible implementation approaches on HA routing software and classifies them into three catalogs: protocol extension, state synchronization and packet duplication. This paper innovatively models and analyzes these HA routing software schemes in continuous-time Markov chains (CTMC). Based on the modeling, this paper also introduces numerical results and evaluates these different HA approaches.
Selfish-LRU: Preemption-aware caching for predictability and performance

We introduce Selfish-LRU, a variant of the LRU (least recently used) cache replacement policy that improves performance and predictability in preemptive scheduling scenarios. In multitasking systems with conventional caches, a single memory access by a preempting task can trigger a chain reaction leading to a large number of additional cache misses in the preempted task. Selfish-LRU prevents such chain reactions by first evicting cache blocks that do not belong to the currently active task. Simulations confirm that Selfish-LRU reduces the CRPD (cache-related preemption delay) as well as the overall number of cache misses. At the same time, it simplifies CRPD analysis and results in smaller CRPD bounds.
Implementation of DSTATCOM using Neural Network Based Radial Basis Function

This paper deals with an implementation of three-phase Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM) using a NNRBF (Neural Network Based Radial Basis Function) control algorithm for power quality improvement. It is used for harmonics elimination, load balancing and reactive power compensation for PFC (Power Factor Correction) and ZVR (Zero Voltage Regulation) under linear/ nonlinear loads. The RBF based control algorithm is used for extraction of fundamental weighted value of active and reactive power components of load currents for estimation of reference supply currents. A prototype of DSTATCOM is developed using a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). Test results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of DSTATCOM with proposed control algorithm for compensation of nonlinear loads.
Evaluation of an Immersive Learning Programme to Support Triage Training

This paper describes the evaluation of a computer game to support triage training. Triage is a process for decision-making that prioritises mass casualties in terms of treatment. The main aim of the research was to test the hypothesis that participants using the game for practice would perform better in terms of the accuracy in applying the triage protocol than a group that practised triage with a table-top exercise. The method of giving in-game formative feedback to the learner was modified within the trial programme and that provided the opportunity to investigate whether changing the complexity and timing of feedback affected learning transfer through performance measured in a realistic assessment activity. The results showed that the participants who practised using the game were significantly more accurate for certain measures of performance in applying the triage protocol. The participants that received a modified in-game feedback that reduced complexity and the delay in giving feedback were also significantly more accurate for certain measures of performance in triaging the casualties. These findings will require further experimentation to determine which attributes of the in-game feedback have the greatest impact on the learning of the triage protocol for the given learner group.
Detecting and breaking symmetries on specications

In this paper we address symmetry on combinatorial problems by following the approach of imposing additional symmetry-breaking constraints. Differently from other works in the literature, we attack the problem at the specification level. In fact, sometimes symmetries on specifications can be very easily detected, and symmetry-breaking formulae generated. We give formal definitions of symmetries and symmetrybreaking formulae on specifications written in existential second-order logic, clarifying the new definitions on two specifications: the graph 3coloring and the social golfer problems. Finally, we show the results of a preliminary experimentation of our techiques on examples using stateof-the-art linear and constraint programming solvers.
Modeling the Antioxidant Capacity of Red Wine from Different Production Years and Sources under Censoring

The health benefit of drinking wine, expressed as capacity to defend the human organism from the free radicals action and thus reducing the oxidative stress, has already been demonstrated, and the results had been published in scientific literature. The aim of our study was to develop and assess a model able to estimate the antioxidant capacity (AC) of several samples of Romanian wines and to evaluate the AC dependency on the vintage (defined as the year in which wine was produced) and grape variety under presence of censored data. A contingency of two grape varieties from two different vineyards in Romania and five production years, with some missing experimental data, was used to conduct the analysis. The analysis showed that the antioxidant capacity of the investigated wines is linearly dependent on the vintage. Furthermore, an iterative algorithm was developed and applied to obtain the coefficients of the model and to estimate the missing experimental value. The contribution of wine source to the antioxidant capacity proved equal to 11%.
Traffic-related air pollution and respiratory health during the first 2 yrs of life

As part of an international collaborative study on the impact of Traffic-Related Air Pollution on Childhood Asthma (TRAPCA), the health effects associated with long-term exposure to particles with a 50% cut-off aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 µm (PM2.5), PM2.5 absorbance, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were analysed. The German part of the TRAPCA study used data from subpopulations of two ongoing birth cohort studies (German Infant Nutrition Intervention Programme (GINI) and Influences of Lifestyle Related Factors on the Human Immune System and Development of Allergies in Children (LISA)) based in the city of Munich. Geographic information systems (GIS)-based exposure modelling was used to estimate traffic-related air pollutants at the birth addresses of 1,756 infants. Logistic regression was used to analyse possible health effects and potential confounding factors were adjusted for. The ranges in estimated exposures to PM2.5, PM2.5 absorbance, and NO2 were 11.9–21.9 µg·m−3, 1.38–4.39×10−5 m−1, and 19.5–66.9 µg·m3, respectively. Significant associations between these pollutants and cough without infection (odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI)): 1.34 (1.11–1.61), 1.32 (1.10–1.59), and 1.40 (1.12–1.75), respectively) and dry cough at night (OR (95% CI): 1.31 (1.07–1.60), 1.27 (1.04–1.55), and 1.36 (1.07–1.74), respectively) in the first year of life were found. In the second year of life, these effects were attenuated. There was some indication of an association between traffic-related air pollution and symptoms of cough. Due to the very young age of the infants, it was too early to draw definitive conclusions from this for the development of asthma.
Tests for Poly-Random Function Collections

Poly-random function collections (a.k.a. pseudorandom function collections) are an important cryptographic primitive, rst introduced by Goldreich, Goldwasser and Micali in 1986. Pseudorandom functions provide simple solutions to problems in private key cryptography, including encryption and message authentication. In this paper we are interested in the resources required by a test to distinguish between a function collection and a collection of truly random functions. We deene the level of interactiveness of a test for function collections as the number of rounds of queries it asks about the values of a function from the collection. We introduce a hierarchy of function collections, parameterized by the number of rounds required by some test to break them. We show that if there exists a one-way function, the hierarchy is proper.
Effect of dietary zinc supplementation on Escherichia coli septicemia in weaned pigs

Methods: Eighteen piglets were fed a commercial starter diet with (ZnO treatment) or without (controls) supplementation of 3000 ppm zinc oxide. After a 6-day adaptation to the diets, the pigs were intramuscularly injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (derived from E. coli 026:B6) at 150 lg per kg bodyweight. The pigs were monitored throughout the experimental period. Twenty-four hours after LPS injection, pigs were euthanized and samples were collected.
CML current mode full adders for 2.5-V power supply

We present the basic structure and performance of CML current mode full adders, that are used as carry save adders (CSA) in combinatorial multipliers. A 1.2 /spl mu/m BiCMOS technology is used for simulations but the schematic assumes a 2.5-V power supply. Compared with binary voltage mode CSAs, the multivalued current mode CSAs have chip area and power dissipation advantage, but speed disadvantage. The current mode version is far more sensitive to power supply and temperature shifts. <<ETX>>
A marginalised particle filter for bearings-only tracking

A marginalised particle filter (PF) for bearings-only tracking in modified polar coordinates (MPC) is developed. Using an Euler approximation to the dynamical equation it is shown that the range can be marginalised out so that only the three remaining elements of the state vector need to be sampled in the PF. The marginalised PF in MPC is shown to significantly outperform existing PFs for BOT in a numerical example.
: A DOMAIN-SPECIFIC STRING MATCHING ALGORITHM FOR INTRUSION DETECTION

We consider the problem of string matching in Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDSes). String matching computations dominate in the overall cost of running a NIDS, despite the use of efﬁcient general-purpose string matching algorithms. Aiming at increasing the efﬁciency and capacity of NIDSes, we have designed (cid:9)(cid:11)(cid:10)(cid:13)(cid:12)(cid:15)(cid:14) , a string matching algorithm that is tailored to the speciﬁc characteristics of NIDS string matching. We have implemented (cid:9) (cid:10) (cid:12)(cid:15)(cid:14) in (cid:16)(cid:18)(cid:17)(cid:20)(cid:19)(cid:22)(cid:21)(cid:24)(cid:23) and present experiments comparing (cid:9) (cid:10) (cid:12)(cid:15)(cid:14) with the current best alternative solution. Our results suggest that for typical trafﬁc patterns (cid:9) (cid:10) (cid:12)(cid:25)(cid:14) improves NIDS performance by 10%-36%, while for certain ruleset and trafﬁc patterns string matching performance can be improved by as much as a factor of three.
What is the Difference between Mobile and Online Social Network ?

In recent years, online social network(OSN), emerged as a new medium, has flourished as never before. Meanwhile, constant developments in mobile technology have changed the way people engage in social media. Another kind of social network called mobile social network (MSN) emerges as required and is becoming more and more popular. The goal of this paper is to compare communication behavior in mobile and online social network. We use the Reality Mining data set as a mobile social network sample and Twitter data as an online social network case. We compare communication in three aspects: time, location and topology. Communication in mobile social network presents a more significant periodicity than online social network. Besides, both the reply time and conversation duration in mobile social network are shorter. But the reply rate of most users in mobile social network is between 0.2 to 0.4, while in online social network a larger portion of users have a high reply rate. We also discover that in both social network, the elapsed time during a conversation decrease. Geographic distance influence mobile social network and online social network differently. Communication in online social network is less location-sensitive than mobile social network. User communication in mobile social network is in better accordance with social theories, whereas in online social network it performs inconsistently. To the best of our knowledge this work is the first quantitative communication comparison between mobile and online social network.
Identification of New Aquaporin Genes and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in Bread Wheat

Major facilitators of water movement through plant cell membranes include aquaporin proteins. Wheat is among the largest and most important cereal crops worldwide; however, unlike other model plants such as rice, maize and Arabidopsis, little has been reported on wheat major intrinsic proteins (MIPs). This study presents a comprehensive computational identification of 349 new wheat expressed sequence tags (ESTs), encoding 13 wheat aquaporin genes. Identified aquaporins consist of 6 plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIP) and 1 TIP showing high sequence similarity with rice aquaporins. We also identified 4 NOD26-like intrinsic proteins (NIP) and 2 SIP members that showed more divergence. Further, expression analysis of the aquaporin genes using the available EST information in UniGene revealed their transcripts were differentially regulated in various stress- and tissue-specific libraries. Allele specific Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) were designed using PIP as the target gene and validated on a core set of Indian wheat genotypes. A 3D theoretical model of the wheat aquaporin protein was built by homology modeling and could prove to be useful in the further functional characterization of this protein. Collectively with expression and bioinformatics analysis, our results support the idea that the genes identified in this study signify an important genetic resource providing potential targets to modify the water use properties of wheat.