Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Extreme C Terminus of Shigella flexneri IpaB Is Required for Regulation of Type III Secretion, Needle Tip Composition, and Binding

ABSTRACT Type III secretion systems (T3SSs) are widely distributed virulence determinants of Gram-negative bacteria. They translocate bacterial proteins into host cells to manipulate them during infection. The Shigella T3SS consists of a cytoplasmic bulb, a transmembrane region, and a hollow needle protruding from the bacterial surface. The distal tip of mature, quiescent needles is composed of IpaD, which is topped by IpaB. Physical contact with host cells initiates secretion and leads to assembly of a pore, formed by IpaB and IpaC, in the host cell membrane, through which other virulence effector proteins may be translocated. IpaB is required for regulation of secretion and may be the host cell sensor. However, its mode of needle association is unknown. Here, we show that deletion of 3 or 9 residues at the C terminus of IpaB leads to fast constitutive secretion of late effectors, as observed in a ΔipaB strain. Like the ΔipaB mutant, mutants with C-terminal mutations also display hyperadhesion. However, unlike the ΔipaB mutant, they are still invasive and able to lyse the internalization vacuole with nearly wild-type efficiency. Finally, the mutant proteins show decreased association with needles and increased recruitment of IpaC. Taken together, these data support the notion that the state of the tip complex regulates secretion. We propose a model where the quiescent needle tip has an “off” conformation that turns “on” upon host cell contact. Our mutants may adopt a partially “on” conformation that activates secretion and is capable of recruiting some IpaC to insert pores into host cell membranes and allow invasion.
A Novel CAPTCHA Design Approach using Boolean Algebra

CAPTCHAs are employed on web systems for strengthen web security to protect from internet bots, fraudulent registration, spammers. So CAPTCHA is designed in such a way the patterns display on CAPTCHA feature that human can easily pass but hardship for automated approaches. Usability and security are two rudimental issues for CAPTCHA design and implementation. In Math calculus CAPTCHA test that be inherent with trigonometric and differential functions. Due to complexity of equations, user cannot easily solve expressions that possess poor usability of CAPTCHA. In this paper, a novel CAPTCHA design approach using Boolean algebra is present, to improve usability and security as contrast to Math calculus CAPTCHA. In this approach, logic gates will be design that depict shapes like OR, AND, NOR, NAND, NOR, etc. by use online digital library tool. Each gate executes a Boolean expression as represent by shape indicating operation. The shapes relate to the logic gates like conjunction, disjunction and complement. To prove human, user will identify shape of given logic gates and choose correct option that display in form of Boolean algebra for pass CAPTCHA test. From security issue, Boolean algebra CAPTCHA is non OCR based that provide no development in advance technologies like AI and automated software.
Measuring Political Preferences of the U.S. Voting Population

Political polarization is a common topic in the news and media, but not much has been done to understand the distribution of the preferences of the U.S. voting population. Political scientists have drawn different conclusions on the current state of political polarization within the U.S. voting population based on survey data and basic spatial voting models. In this work, I present a spatial voting model that analyzes voting data at a more fine-grained level in order to use Bayesian techniques to infer the underlying distribution of political preferences of the population. Further, I verify these results by comparing it to alternative public opinion measurements and measuring the accuracy in completing prediction tasks. This work adds a new perspective to the current discussion within the political science community of the recent trends of political polarization.
Eriodictyol Attenuates Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury through the Activation of JAK2

Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury remains the leading risk factor of disability and mortality worldwide. In this study, the myocardial protective effect of eriodictyol (EDT) and the underlying mechanism in an ex vivo model of global myocardial I/R was investigated. After treatment with different concentrations of EDT, the decreased hemodynamic parameters induced by myocardial I/R injury were significantly attenuated by EDT. The elevated levels of IL-6, CRP, IL-8, and TNF-α were effectively reduced by EDT treatment. EDT also remarkably suppressed the levels of Bax and cleaved Caspase-3, and up-regulated the level of Bcl-2 in cardiac tissues from EDT-treated groups. Further studies showed that EDT could increase the levels of p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 in cardiac tissues. Meanwhile, treatment of AG490, a specific inhibitor of JAK2, abolished the protective effect of EDT on hemodynamic parameters, myocardial inflammation and myocardial cell apoptosis induced by I/R injury. These results demonstrated that EDT could protect against myocardial I/R injury through the activation of JAK2, providing a potential treatment with EDT during myocardial I/R injury.
Recursive cost function adaptation for echo cancellation

The goal of this paper is to introduce the RCFA (recursive cost function adaptation) algorithm. The derivation of the new algorithm does not use an estimator of the instantaneous error as the previous CFA (cost function adaptation) algorithms did. In the RCFA case, the new error power is computing from the previous error power using an usual LMS recursive equation. The proposed method improves the sensitivity of the error power with respect to the noisy error, while the other benefits of the CFA algorithms in terms of the convergence speed and residual error remain. The properties of the new algorithm will be compared, using computer simulations, to standard LMS and least mean fourth (LMF). The effect of the parameters involved in the design of the error power adaptive subsystem is also discussed.
Outcomes and Trends of Ventricular Assist Device Selection in Children with End-Stage Heart Failure

We aimed to examine trends in ventricular assist device (VAD) selection, continuous flow devices (CFD) versus pulsatile flow devices (PFD), and their associated outcomes in children eligible for both device types. To accomplish this, the United Network for Organ Sharing database was reviewed for pediatric patients listed for heart transplant (HT) from January 2007 to June 2014. Patients were included if a durable VAD was present at wait listing or when removed from the waiting list and who met size eligibility for a CFD (BSA > 1.0 m2). In total, 253 patients met inclusion criteria, 144 (57%) CFD and 109 (43%) PFD. Device type varied significantly based on year with CFD increasing from 11% in 2007 to 88% in 2014 (p < 0.01). PFD patients were younger, had a lower BSA, and an increased rate of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and biventricular assist device support at listing. Survival to transplant or recovery was similar for CFDs and PFDs (96 vs. 94%; p = 0.57), as was the post-HT survival, 95% for both device types. Despite PFD patients having more risk factors for a poor outcome, survival was similar between device types. Even so, there is a dramatic trend toward CFD utilization in patients who are large enough to support one.
Crowd Counting Using Group Tracking and Local Features

In public venues, crowd size is a key indicator of crowdsafety and stability. In this paper we propose a crowd count-ing algorithm that uses tracking and local features to countthe number of people in each group as represented by a fore-ground blob segment, so that the total crowd estimate is thesum of the group sizes. Tracking is employed to improve therobustness of the estimate, by analysing the history of eachgroup, including splitting and merging events. A simpli-fied ground truth annotation strategy results in an approachwith minimal setup requirements that is highly accurate.
Deep Learning-Based Food Calorie Estimation Method in Dietary Assessment

Obesity treatment requires obese patients to record all food intakes per day. Computer vision has been introduced to estimate calories from food images. In order to increase accuracy of detection and reduce the error of volume estimation in food calorie estimation, we present our calorie estimation method in this paper. To estimate calorie of food, a top view and side view is needed. Faster R-CNN is used to detect the food and calibration object. GrabCut algorithm is used to get each food's contour. Then the volume is estimated with the food and corresponding object. Finally we estimate each food's calorie. And the experiment results show our estimation method is effective.
FEMD Algorithm for Effective Segmentation of CT Lung Images

Image segmentation is the most important step in extracting information from medical images. Segmentation of pulmonary Chest Computed Tomography (CT) images is a precursor to most of the pulmonary image analysis schemes. The purpose of lung image segmentation is to separate the voxels corresponding to lung tissue from the anatomy of the surrounding. In this paper, an automated image segmentation method has been proposed inorder to segment the region of interest present in the CT Lung slices. The proposed approach utilizes Fuzzy logic with Earth Mover's Distance (FEMD) based refinement methods. The final segmented output is further refined by morphological based operators. The performance of the proposed method is compared with various segmentation methods such as Canny Sobel and Prewitt and we have obtained an average segmentation accuracy of 79.4091% for segmenting CT lung images.
Green tea consumption and mortality due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all causes in Japan: the Ohsaki study.

CONTEXT Green tea polyphenols have been extensively studied as cardiovascular disease and cancer chemopreventive agents in vitro and in animal studies. However, the effects of green tea consumption in humans remain unclear. OBJECTIVE To investigate the associations between green tea consumption and all-cause and cause-specific mortality. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The Ohsaki National Health Insurance Cohort Study, a population-based, prospective cohort study initiated in 1994 among 40,530 Japanese adults aged 40 to 79 years without history of stroke, coronary heart disease, or cancer at baseline. Participants were followed up for up to 11 years (1995-2005) for all-cause mortality and for up to 7 years (1995-2001) for cause-specific mortality. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Mortality due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all causes. RESULTS Over 11 years of follow-up (follow-up rate, 86.1%), 4209 participants died, and over 7 years of follow-up (follow-up rate, 89.6%), 892 participants died of cardiovascular disease and 1134 participants died of cancer. Green tea consumption was inversely associated with mortality due to all causes and due to cardiovascular disease. The inverse association with all-cause mortality was stronger in women (P = .03 for interaction with sex). In men, the multivariate hazard ratios of mortality due to all causes associated with different green tea consumption frequencies were 1.00 (reference) for less than 1 cup/d, 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83-1.05) for 1 to 2 cups/d, 0.95 (95% CI, 0.85-1.06) for 3 to 4 cups/d, and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.79-0.98) for 5 or more cups/d, respectively (P = .03 for trend). The corresponding data for women were 1.00, 0.98 (95% CI, 0.84-1.15), 0.82 (95% CI, 0.70-0.95), and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.67-0.89), respectively (P<.001 for trend). The inverse association with cardiovascular disease mortality was stronger than that with all-cause mortality. This inverse association was also stronger in women (P = .08 for interaction with sex). In women, the multivariate hazard ratios of cardiovascular disease mortality across increasing green tea consumption categories were 1.00, 0.84 (95% CI, 0.63-1.12), 0.69 (95% CI, 0.52-0.93), and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.53-0.90), respectively (P = .004 for trend). Among the types of cardiovascular disease mortality, the strongest inverse association was observed for stroke mortality. In contrast, the hazard ratios of cancer mortality were not significantly different from 1.00 in all green tea categories compared with the lowest-consumption category. CONCLUSION Green tea consumption is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes and due to cardiovascular disease but not with reduced mortality due to cancer.
Rehabilitation Planning of Water Distribution Network through a Reliability – Based Risk Assessment

The efficient and effective management of existing water distribution systems (WDSs) faces challenges related to aging of infrastructure, population growth, extended urbanization, climate change impacts and environmental pollution. Therefore, there is a need for integrated solutions that support decision makers to plan today potential interventions, considering the possible consequences and variations in mid- and long-term perspectives. This study is a part of a more comprehensive project, where advanced hydraulic analysis of WDS is coupled with a dynamic resources input-output analysis model. The proposed modeling solution provides a robust tool to support planning of intervention actions and can be applied to optimize the performance of a water supply system considering energy consumption and environmental impacts. This paper presents an application of the proposed method in pipe rehabilitation/replacement planning, maximizing the network mechanical reliability and minimizing the risk of unsupplied water demand and pressure deficit evaluated at nodal level, under given economic constraints.
Dose to red bone marrow of infants, children and adults from radiation of natural origin

Natural radiation sources contribute much the largest part of the radiation exposure of the average person. This paper examines doses from natural radiation to the red bone marrow, the tissue in which leukaemia is considered to originate, with particular emphasis on doses to children. The most significant contributions are from x-rays and gamma rays, radionuclides in food and inhalation of isotopes of radon and their decay products. External radiation sources and radionuclides other than radon dominate marrow doses at all ages. The variation with age of the various components of marrow dose is considered, including doses received in utero and in each year up to the age of 15. Doses in utero include contributions resulting from the ingestion of radionuclides by the mother and placental transfer to the foetus. Postnatal doses include those from radionuclides in breast-milk and from radionuclides ingested in other foods. Doses are somewhat higher in the first year of life and there is a general slow decline from the second year of life onwards. The low linear energy transfer (LET) component of absorbed dose to the red bone marrow is much larger than the high LET component. However, because of the higher radiation weighting factor for the latter it contributes about 40% of the equivalent dose incurred up to the age of 15.
On the decidability of reachability in linear time-invariant systems

We consider the decidability of state-to-state reachability in linear time-invariant control systems over discrete time. We analyse this problem with respect to the allowable control sets, which in general are assumed to be defined by boolean combinations of linear inequalities. Decidability of the version of the reachability problem in which control sets are affine subspaces of Rn is a fundamental result in control theory. Our first result is that reachability is undecidable if the set of controls is a finite union of affine subspaces. We also consider versions of the reachability problem in which (i) the set of controls consists of a single affine subspace together with the origin and (ii) the set of controls is a convex polytope. In these two cases we respectively show that the reachability problem is as hard as Skolem's Problem and the Positivity Problem for linear recurrence sequences (whose decidability has been open for several decades). Our main contribution is to show decidability of a version of the reachability problem in which control sets are convex polytopes, under certain spectral assumptions on the transition matrix.
Obtenção e caracterização de cinza de ossos bovinos visando à fabricação de porcelana de ossos - bone china

Bone china is a special kind of porcelain, very hard and translucent, nowadays manufactured almost exclusively in England and in few other parts of the world, but not in Brazil. Its raw-materials comprise about fifty percent of bone ash, together with kaolin and a feldspar mineral. This paper presents the preparation and the characterization of bone ash obtained from bovine bones, with the objective of obtaining bone china. The preparation of the bone ash involves the use of an autoclave, manual removal of the meat, firing, and milling the bones. The preparation conditions were studied as a function of the firing conditions, milling, and washing the powder bones. The firing step was studied by thermal analyses TG-DTA and X-ray diffraction, whereas the obtained powder was characterized in terms of its chemical composition (X-ray fluorescence), particle size distribution (laser diffraction), and scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate that the obtained raw-material exhibits similar properties to the ones of the bone ash used by the English industry, with low iron content and colloidal particles when calcined at temperatures lower than 1000 °C.
Evaluation overview for the Massachusetts Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (MA-CORD) project.

BACKGROUND The Massachusetts Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (MA-CORD) project is a 2-year, multilevel, multisector community intervention to prevent and control obesity among children 2-12 years of age from two predominantly low-income communities in Massachusetts. MA-CORD includes evidence-based interventions in multiple sectors, including community health centers, early care and education centers, schools, afterschool programs, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, and the broader community. Currently, implementation of MA-CORD is complete and the final year of data collection is in progress. Here, the MA-CORD evaluation plan is described and baseline data are presented. METHODS/DESIGN The impact of MA-CORD on children's BMI, lifestyle behaviors, obesity-related care, and quality of life will be assessed using sector-specific, pre/post, time-series, and quasi-experimental designs. Change in the primary outcomes will be compared for intervention and comparison communities. Additionally, change in mean BMI and obesity prevalence in intervention school districts will be compared to similar districts throughout the state. RESULTS At baseline in 2012, approximately 16% of preschool-aged and 25% of school-aged children were obese. Moreover, 15-40% of children consumed no vegetables on the previous day, 25-75% drank a sugar-sweetened beverage on the previous day, up to 87% had insufficient physical activity, 50-75% had a television in the room where they slept, and 50-80% obtained insufficient sleep. CONCLUSIONS There is ample room for improvement in BMI and health behaviors in children in MA-CORD communities. If successful, MA-CORD may serve as a model for multilevel, multisector approaches to childhood obesity prevention and control.
List decoding reed-solomon, algebraic-geometric, and gabidulin subcodes up to the singleton bound

We consider Reed-Solomon (RS) codes whose evaluation points belong to a subfield, and give a linear-algebraic list decoding algorithm that can correct a fraction of errors approaching the code distance, while pinning down the candidate messages to a well-structured affine space of dimension a constant factor smaller than the code dimension. By pre-coding the message polynomials into a subspace-evasive set, we get a Monte Carlo construction of a subcode of Reed-Solomon codes that can be list decoded from a fraction (1-R-ε) of errors in polynomial time (for any fixed ε > 0) with a list size of O(1/ε). Our methods extend to algebraic-geometric (AG) codes, leading to a similar claim over constant-sized alphabets. This matches parameters of recent results based on folded variants of RS and AG codes. but our construction here gives subcodes of Reed-Solomon and AG codes themselves (albeit with restrictions on the evaluation points). Further, the underlying algebraic idea also extends nicely to Gabidulin's construction of rank-metric codes based on linearized polynomials. This gives the first construction of positive rate rank-metric codes list decodable beyond half the distance, and in fact gives codes of rate R list decodable up to the optimal (1-R-ε) fraction of rank errors. A similar claim holds for the closely related subspace codes studied by Koetter and Kschischang. We introduce a new notion called subspace designs as another way to pre-code messages and prune the subspace of candidate solutions. Using these, we also get a deterministic construction of a polynomial time list decodable subcode of RS codes. By using a cascade of several subspace designs, we extend our approach to AG codes, which gives the first deterministic construction of an algebraic code family of rate R with efficient list decoding from 1-R-ε fraction of errors over an alphabet of constant size (that depends only on ε). The list size bound is almost a constant (governed by log* (block length)), and the code can be constructed in quasi-polynomial time.
Physical-Layer Identification of Wireless Devices

Wireless technologies are becoming increasingly present and important in our daily lives. They are being incorporated in more and more applications such as identity documents, payment systems, intelligent homes, environmental monitoring, supply chains, medical devices. Certain critical issues in the security and privacy of these applications relate to the identiﬁcation of devices. There are two major ways to identify devices in the network. The ﬁrst one, mostly used in today’s networks, relies on what devices hold (e.g., unique identiﬁcation numbers, cryptographic keys). The second one, which is the focus of this thesis, consists of extracting unique characteristics which are inherent to the device and can be observed. In this thesis, we study the feasibility of uniquely identifying wireless devices using physical characteristics of their analog radio circuitry. These characteristics are the result of hardware impairments introduced during the manufacturing process. We focus on those features that appear in the transmitted radio signals and are therefore measurable during the physical-layer device communication. We propose techniques that enable the accurate identiﬁcation of several types of wireless devices, analyze the underlying assumptions and clarify the implications on the security and privacy of wireless applications. In the introductory part of this thesis, we provide a real-world example that illustrates one problem with authenticating devices by what they hold. We realize a practical attack on car access control systems and discuss the potential of device identiﬁcation to complement traditional authentication and prevent this and other device identity attacks. Secondly, we study the problem of identifying same-model-same-manufacturer active and passive wireless devices using physical-layer characteristics. We consider low-power wireless transceivers and passive RFID transponders. We explore timing, modulation and spectral properties of the radio signals and show that wireless devices can be accurately identiﬁed under certain assumptions. Finally, we evaluate the resilience of physical-layer device identiﬁ-cation methods to impersonation. We show that physical-layer identiﬁ-cation is vulnerable to certain types of impersonation attacks. We also provide a classiﬁcation of attacks and discuss the implications of the use of physical-layer