Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lessons from Keratin 18 Knockout Mice: Formation of Novel Keratin Filaments, Secondary Loss of Keratin 7 and Accumulation of Liver-specific Keratin 8-Positive Aggregates

Here, we report on the analysis of keratin 18 null mice. Unlike the ablation of K8, which together with K18 is expressed in embryonic and simple adult epithelia, K18 null mice are viable, fertile, and show a normal lifespan. In young K18 null mice, hepatocytes were completely devoid of keratin filaments. Nevertheless, typical desmosomes were formed and maintained. Old K18 null mice, however, developed a distinctive liver pathology with abnormal hepatocytes containing K8-positive aggregates. These stained positively for ubiquitin and MM120-1 and were identified as Mallory bodies, one hallmark of human alcoholic hepatitis. This is the first demonstration that the ablation of one keratin leads to the accumulation of its single partner. Another striking finding was the absence or drastic down regulation of K7 in several tissues despite its ongoing transcription. Moreover, K18 null mice revealed new insights in the filament-forming capacity of the tail-less K19 in vivo. Due to the unexpected secondary loss of K7, only K8/19 are expressed in the uterine epithelium of K18 null mice. Immunoelectron microscopy of this tissue demonstrated the presence of typical K8/19 IF, thus highlighting in vivo that K19 is a fully competent partner for K8.
Disruption of SorCS2 reveals differences in the regulation of stereociliary bundle formation between hair cell types in the inner ear

Behavioural anomalies suggesting an inner ear disorder were observed in a colony of transgenic mice. Affected animals were profoundly deaf. Severe hair bundle defects were identified in all outer and inner hair cells (OHC, IHC) in the cochlea and in hair cells of vestibular macular organs, but hair cells in cristae were essentially unaffected. Evidence suggested the disorder was likely due to gene disruption by a randomly inserted transgene construct. Whole-genome sequencing identified interruption of the SorCS2 (Sortilin-related VPS-10 domain containing protein) locus. Real-time-qPCR demonstrated disrupted expression of SorCS2 RNA in cochlear tissue from affected mice and this was confirmed by SorCS2 immuno-labelling. In all affected hair cells, stereocilia were shorter than normal, but abnormalities of bundle morphology and organisation differed between hair cell types. Bundles on OHC were grossly misshapen with significantly fewer stereocilia than normal. However, stereocilia were organised in rows of increasing height. Bundles on IHC contained significantly more stereocilia than normal with some longer stereocilia towards the centre, or with minimal height differentials. In early postnatal mice, kinocilia (primary cilia) of IHC and of OHC were initially located towards the lateral edge of the hair cell surface but often became surrounded by stereocilia as bundle shape and apical surface contour changed. In macular organs the kinocilium was positioned in the centre of the cell surface throughout maturation. There was disruption of the signalling pathway controlling intrinsic hair cell apical asymmetry. LGN and Gαi3 were largely absent, and atypical Protein Kinase C (aPKC) lost its asymmetric distribution. The results suggest that SorCS2 plays a role upstream of the intrinsic polarity pathway and that there are differences between hair cell types in the deployment of the machinery that generates a precisely organised hair bundle.
Scheduling Techniques for Effective System Reconfiguration in Distributed Storage Systems

In this paper, we present a new algorithm for disk reconfiguration in the context of Vespa, a scalable platform developed by Yahoo! Technologies Norway for storing, retrieving, processing and searching large amounts large amounts of data. The corresponding scheduling problem is closely related to independent tasks scheduling on heterogeneous platforms, when communication costs are taken into account, and when each task can only be processed on a prescribed set of processors. We prove how to derive from a linear programming formulation in rational numbers an approximation algorithm whose approximation ratio is close to 1 in the condition of use o/Vespa. By performing an extensive set of simulations using SIMGRID, we also show the proposed algorithm is in fact optimal under Vespa conditions of use.
Design of a Costas loop down converter

This paper presents the the design of a digital down converter (DDC) using a digital Costas loop in a field programmable gate array (FPGA). To reduce the power dissipation we use the CIC filter to perform an efficient decimation, and then follow it with a finite impulse response (FIR) compensation filter that runs at a reduced sampling rate. The final results and performance measures are quantified and discussed. The BER performance of the Costas loop on both floating and fixed point implementations are identical.
Categorical Grading Based Personalized Privacy Preservation Against Attacks

It is often necessary to publish personal information for research purposes. Re-identification is a major privacy threat to data sets which contain personal sensitive information such as income, a numerical data type and disease, a categorical type. Algorithms such as K-anonymity, L-diversity leave all the sensitive attributes and apply generalization and suppression to the quasi identifiers. So the available truthful data provide good utility for data mining tasks but, here perfect privacy can not be claimed. Privacy can be achieved only by separating Quasi Identifier attributes from sensitive attributes. Then utility of the table gets reduced. Our aim is to design an algorithm that improves both privacy and utility. The numerical sensitive attribute values are protected from proximity attack and the categorical sensitive attribute values are protected from divergence attack by our algorithm. Our experiments which are conducted on Adult data set, proved the improved utility and privacy than the previous methods.
Skin, fascias, and scars: symptoms and systemic connections

Every element or cell in the human body produces substances that communicate and respond in an autocrine or paracrine mode, consequently affecting organs and structures that are seemingly far from each other. The same also applies to the skin. In fact, when the integrity of the skin has been altered, or when its healing process is disturbed, it becomes a source of symptoms that are not merely cutaneous. The skin is an organ, and similar to any other structure, it has different functions in addition to connections with the central and peripheral nervous system. This article examines pathological responses produced by scars, analyzing definitions and differences. At the same time, it considers the subcutaneous fascias, as this connective structure is altered when there is a discontinuous cutaneous surface. The consequence is an ample symptomatology, which is not limited to the body area where the scar is located, such as a postural or trigeminal disorder.
Comme il Faut: A System for Authoring Playable Social Models

Authoring interactive stories where the player is afforded a wide range of social interactions results in a very large space of possible social and story situations. The amount of effort required to individually author for each of these circumstances can quickly become intractable. The social AI system Comme il Faut (CiF) aims to reduce the burden on the author by providing a playable model of social interaction where the author provides reusable and recombinable representations of social norms and social interactions. Motivated through examples from an in-development video game, Prom Week, this paper provides a detailed description of the structures with which CiF represents social knowledge and how this knowledge is employed to simulate social interactions between characters.
Detection of anticipatory brain potentials during car driving

Recognition of driver's intention from electroencephalogram (EEG) can be helpful in developing an in-car brain computer interface (BCI) systems for intelligent cars. This could be beneficial in enhancing the quality of interaction between the driver and the car to provide the response of the intelligent cars in line with driver's intention. We proposed investigating anticipation as the cognitive state leading to specific actions during car driving. An experimental protocol is designed for recording EEG from 6 subjects while driving the virtual reality driving simulator. The experimental protocol is a variant of the contingent negative variation (CNV) paradigm with Go and No-go conditions in driving framework. The results presented in this study support the presence of the slow cortical anticipatory potentials in EEG grand averages and also confirm the discriminability of these potentials in offline single trial classification with the average of 0.76 ± 0.12 in area under the curve (AUC).
Layer-by-Layer Assembled Semipermeable Membrane for Amperometric Glucose Sensors

Background: The performance of implantable glucose sensors is closely related to the behavior of the outer membrane. Such membranes govern the diffusion characteristics of glucose and, correspondingly, the sensitivity of the sensors. This manuscript discusses the selection of various membrane materials and their effect on the device response. Methods: Sensors were fabricated utilizing a 50-μm platinum wire followed by immobilization of the glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme. Sequential adsorption of various ionic species via a layer-by-layer process created devices coated with bilayers of humic acids/ferric cations (HAs/Fe3+), humic acids/poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (HAs/PDDA), and poly(styrene sulfonate)/poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PSS/PDDA). The in vitro amperometric response of the sensors was determined at 0.7 V vs an Ag/AgCl reference electrode in phosphate-buffered saline (37°C) for various glucose concentrations. The diffusion coefficients of glucose and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through these membranes were calculated and analyzed. Results: Outer membranes based on the sequential deposition of bilayers of HAs/Fe3+, HAs/PDDA, and PSS/PDDA were grown successfully on immobilized layers of GOx. The amperometric response and reversibility upon changing the in vitro concentration of glucose were investigated. Conclusions: Through alteration of the number of bilayers of the outer membrane, it was possible to modulate the diffusion of glucose toward the sensor as a result of its flux-limiting characteristics. Semipermeable membranes based on five HAs/Fe3+ bilayers exhibited a superior behavior with a minimum hysterisis response to glucose cycling and a lesser current saturation at hyperglycemic glucose concentrations because of a more balanced inward diffusion of glucose and outward diffusion of H2O2.
YAMR: yet another multipath routing protocol

Multipath routing is a promising technique to increase the Internet's reliability and to give users greater control over the service they receive. However, past proposals choose paths which are not guaranteed to have high diversity. In this paper, we propose yet another multipath routing scheme (YAMR) for the interdomain case. YAMR provably constructs a set of paths that is resilient to any one inter-domain link failure, thus achieving high reliability in a systematic way. Further, even though YAMR maintains more paths than BGP, it actually requires significantly less control traffic, thus alleviating instead of worsening one of the Internet's scalability problems. This reduction in churn is achieved by a novel hiding technique that automatically localizes failures leaving the greater part of the Internet completely oblivious.
Dynamic friction in the control of robots

Frictional memory is a delay between a change in sliding velocity or normal force and the consequent change in friction. Several sensitive studies of frictional dynamics have shown the presence of frictional memory in tribology experiments and in robots. In the present work, frictional memory is shown to be necessary to account for the extinction of stick slip at high stiffness. By showing that frictional memory is required to account for the gross behavior of common mechanical systems, the range of mechanisms known to exhibit frictional memory is greatly extended. Stiff (high gain) control has long been used to eliminate stick slip in robots and other precision, position-controlled mechanisms. Consideration of frictional memory will permit the systematic design of these controllers so that stick-slip free motion is achieved. <<ETX>>
Performance Analysis of Distributed Server

It is generally accepted that performance characteristics, such as response time and throughput, are an integral part of the factors deening the quality of software products. The relationship between quality and system responsiveness is especially strong in the case of distributed application using various kind of software servers (name servers, application servers, database servers, etc.) In order to meet the performance requirements of such systems, the developers should be able to assess and understand the eeect of various design decisions on system performance at an early stage, when changes can be made easily and eeectively. Performance analysis should then continue throughout the whole life cycle, becoming one of the means of assuring the quality of software products. For this to become a practical reality, we need appropriate modeling techniques. This paper presents a new performance model named Layered Queueing Networks (LQN) for systems with distributed software servers. In such systems the servers are are frequently layered, so that lower level delays are included in the higher layer service time, which limits the system capacity. LQN represents these eeects in a compact and understandable way, and provide analytical and simulation tools. The paper explains the model, and more importantly, shows how can be applied to identify performance trouble spots in a system and devise eeective corrective measures.
10-Gb/s SCM fiber system using optical SSB modulation

A 10-Gb/s subcarrier multiplexing long-haul optical system is reported. 4/spl times/2.5 Gb/s data streams are combined into one wavelength, which occupies a 20-GHz optical bandwidth. Optical single sideband is used to increase bandwidth efficiency and reduce dispersion penalty. The receiver sensitivity is calculated using a simplified receiver model with an optical preamplifier. The measured results agree well with the analytical prediction.
Modality of Input and Vocabulary Acquisition

The results indicate that groups with captions (VAC and VC) scored higher on written than on aural recognition of word forms, while the reverse applied to the VA group. The VAC group learned more word meanings than the VA group. Results from the questionnaire suggest that learners paid most attention to captions, followed by video and audio, and acquired most words by associating them with visual images. Pedagogical implications of this study are that captioned video tends to aid recognition of written word forms and the learning of word meaning, while non-captioned video tends to improve listening comprehension as it facilitates recognition of aural word forms.
A Fractal Model for Fluid Leak Rates through Contact Rough Surfaces under a Changing Fluid Pressure

ABSTRACT Liu, M. ; Wang, L. ; Liu, H. ; Ji, X. , and Liu, J., 2018. A fractal model for fluid leak rates through contact rough surfaces under a changing fluid pressure. In: Liu, Z.L. and Mi, C. (eds.), Advances in Sustainable Port and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 83, pp. 343–349. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The leakage of fluid always emerges from the contact seal area. This phenomenon could be described by fractal porous media theory, in which the region of contact surfaces could be regarded as a porous medium. And Darcy percolation theory has been introduced to analyze the traditional leakage of the area. This paper constructs a fractal model for fluid leak rates of contact rough surfaces under changing fluid pressures. The variation on the pore number, the porosity, the fractal dimensions and the fluid permeability with the change of the liquid pressure is presented in the form of function relationship. The new model is in better agreement with the experiment results compared with the traditional one.
Rigi: A Visualization Environment for Reverse Engineering

The Rigi reverse engineering system provides tNo contrasting approaches for presenting software structures in its graph editor. The first displays the structures through multiple, individual NindoNs. The second (neNer) approach, Simple Hierarchical MultiPerspective (SHriMP) views, employs fisheye views of nested graphs. We compare and contrast these tNo interfaces for visualizing software graphs, and provide results from user experiments.
Bibliometric Network Densification Patterns for Three Renewable Energy Technologies

The aim of this paper is to explore and illustrate possible use of densification, a metric derived fro m network theory, to shed light into the evolution of three renewable energy technologies. The combination of t he statistical analysis of publications (bibliometrics ) [1] and network analysis allows monitoring technological developments [2] and can be used for the identifica on of emerging topics [3][4][5]. Renewable energy has bee n addressed by the European Commission [6] and in bibliometric studies e.g. [7][8][9]. On offshore wind energy, Tsai et al. (2016) identif ied technology development priorities [10], and Gao et al. (2016) reviewed worldwide progress of wind power pr ices [11]. On solar photovoltaics, thermodynamics fundamentally limit efficiency, and there is much r esearch on alternative approaches to improving efficiency a nd/or production costs. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS, providing energy from deep fractured rocks) is an emerging technology requiring significant developme nt to reach commercial readiness, with innovation so far limited by costs, exploration risks and technological impro vement needs. Kacham et al. (2012) provide insights into technological developments and emerging trends [12] .
OPTIMIZING CONSTRUCTION QUALITY MANAGEMENT OF PAVEMENTS USING MECHANISTIC PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

The implementation of an effective performance-based construction quality management requires a tool for determining impacts of construction quality on the life-cycle performance of pavements. This report present a statistical-based algorithm that was developed to reconcile the results from several pavement performance models used in the state of practice with systematic process control techniques. These algorithms identify project-specific parameters that should be the focus of the construction quality management by quantifying the variability of the construction parameters. The identification of these parameters allows for transportation agencies to focus their limited funds and resources in a more efficient manner. A software tool is developed in Excel that identifies the impact of construction parameters on several pavement performance indicators for both flexible and rigid pavements. A combination of probabilistic techniques was used to assess the impact of construction and design parameters on pavement performance. This algorithm allows users to optimize construction quality for a specific pavement. A sensitivity analysis, conducted to primarily identify the relative importance of construction parameters on performance indicators, is also included in this report.
A New Multimodal Biometric System Based on Finger Vein and Hand Vein Recognition

— As a reliable and robust biological characteristic, the vein pattern increases more and more the progress in biometric researches. Generally, it was shown that single biometric modality recognition is not able to meet high performances. In this paper, we propose a new multimodal biometric system based on fusion of both hand vein and finger vein modalities. For finger vein recognition, we employ the Monogenic Local Binary Pattern (MLBP), and for hand vein recognition an Improved Gaussian Matched Filter (IGMF). Experimental results confirm that the proposed multimodal biometric process achieves excellent recognition performance compared to unimodal biometric system. The Area Under Curve (AUC) of the proposed approach is very close to unity (0.98).
Traffic Modeling and Proportional Partial Caching for Peer-to-Peer Systems

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems generate a major portion of the Internet traffic, and this portion is expected to increase in the future. We explore the potential of deploying proxy caches in different autonomous systems (ASes) with the goal of reducing the cost incurred by Internet service providers and alleviating the load on the Internet backbone. We conduct an eight-month measurement study to analyze the P2P traffic characteristics that are relevant to caching, such as object popularity, popularity dynamics, and object size. Our study shows that the popularity of P2P objects can be modeled by a Mandelbrot-Zipf distribution, and that several workloads exist in P2P traffic. Guided by our findings, we develop a novel caching algorithm for P2P traffic that is based on object segmentation, and proportional partial admission and eviction of objects. Our trace-based simulations show that with a relatively small cache size, a byte hit rate of up to 35% can be achieved by our algorithm, which is close to the byte hit rate achieved by an off-line optimal algorithm with complete knowledge of future requests. Our results also show that our algorithm achieves a byte hit rate that is at least 40% more, and at most triple, the byte hit rate of the common Web caching algorithms. Furthermore, our algorithm is robust in face of aborted downloads, which is a common case in P2P systems.
How to sanitize data?

Balancing the needs of a data analyst with the privacy needs of a data provider is a key issue when data is sanitized. We treat both the requirements of the analyst and the privacy expectations as policies, and compose the two policies to detect conflicts. The result can be applied to an intermediate data representation to sanitize the relevant pans of the data. We conclude that this method has promise, but more work is needed to determine its effectiveness and limits.
Impact of oral conditions on quality of life in schoolchildren in urban area of Cuenca-Ecuador

Objetivos: Determinar Impacto de las Condiciones Orales sobre la Calidad de Vida Relacionada a Salud Bucal (CVRSB) en escolares de dos escuelas urbanas, Cuenca – Ecuador el año 2015. Material y métodos: Estudio transversal, que valoró a 208 escolares de 11 y 12 años, de las escuelas Ezequiel Crespo y Ulises Chacón, de Cuenca, Ecuador. Se determinó un promedio de edad de 11,48 ± 0,501, donde 159 (76,44%) fueron varones y 49 (23,56%) fueron mujeres, se aplicó el instrumento Child Oral Impacts on Daily Performance Index (Child OIDP Index) en español, versión validada en Perú que permite evaluar los impactos de 17 condiciones orales sobre 8 desempeños diarios. Resultados: Las prevalencias de las condiciones orales autopercibidas como problema fueron: posición de dientes (54%) y diente cariado (52%), los impactos en desempeños diarios más afectados fueron: sonreír (38%) y comer (36%). Conclusiones: El Índice Child-OIDP Index promedio global fue de 9,79 ± 7,02, considerado alto.
High-speed atomic force microscopy coming of age

High-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) is now materialized. It allows direct visualization of dynamic structural changes and dynamic processes of functioning biological molecules in physiological solutions, at high spatiotemporal resolution. Dynamic molecular events unselectively appear in detail in an AFM movie, facilitating our understanding of how biological molecules operate to function. This review describes a historical overview of technical development towards HS-AFM, summarizes elementary devices and techniques used in the current HS-AFM, and then highlights recent imaging studies. Finally, future challenges of HS-AFM studies are briefly discussed.