Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quality Matters: Systematizing Quality Deficiencies in the Documentation of Business Security Requirements

The ever increasing need for businesses to ensure compliance with various laws and regulations as well as internal and external policies increasingly requires businesses to manage a plethora of documentation on different business security requirements. However, business security requirement documentation often suffers from quality deficiencies and faults due to negligence, inconsistencies, conflicts or unclear responsibilities in globally distributed businesses. A key factor to successfully address these deficiencies and to support continuous quality improvement of business security requirements documentation is to know exactly what faults to look for in a structured manner. Based on a think-aloud study, we identify and categorize specific quality deficiencies that can be found in the documentation of business security requirements and classify the faults that might cause them. We conclude by proposing a taxonomy that covers the specification, interaction, and life-cycle faults that are at the root of observable failures in the documentation of business security requirements.
Cohort profile: the Lanxi Cohort study on obesity and obesity-related non-communicable diseases in China

Purpose The Lanxi Cohort was established to systematically investigate the aetiology and interplay of body fat distribution and multiple factors with obesity and obesity-related non-communicable diseases in China. Participants The baseline investigation of the Lanxi Cohort study took place between June 2015 and August 2017 in Lanxi, Zhejiang Province, China. Permanent residents from one urban community and four rural villages were involved in this study. The baseline investigation included questionnaire survey, physical examination, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan, blood samples collection and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) inquiry. Findings to data A total of 5132 participants, aged 18 to 80 years, were recruited at baseline; among them, 38.7% were men and 64.8% were from the urban area. The mean age was 53.04±12.77 years. The completion rates of physical examination, DXA scan, blood collection and TCM inquiry were 99.9%, 98.5%, 99.9% and 96.5%, respectively. The mean body mass index (BMI) was 23.42±3.20 kg/m2 with 8.1% of the study population being obese (BMI ≥28 kg/m2). The crude prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and metabolic syndrome were 34.9%, 10.0% and 30.4%, respectively. Future plans All participants will be monitored annually for cause-specific mortality and morbidity and hospital admission and will be followed up by in-person survey every 4 years. The baseline population is considered to expand in the future depending on the availability of funding support. Ethics approval This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the School of Public Health, Zhejiang University.
Using cross-layer design to detect jamming attacks in the CoNSIS scenario

Due to the shared nature of the wireless channel, a fundamental class of security attacks, the so-called jamming attack, threatens the availability of wireless networks. A jammer can launch an attack by simply disregarding medium access policies and thereby interfering with legitimate transmissions on the wireless channel. This causes packets to be corrupted and hence leads to degradation in the network performance. To address this problem, this paper proposes a flexible application for both detecting and mitigating a constant jammer attack using the help of cross-layer design. We evaluate our application with real-world experiments in a mobile scenario conducted on a military testing ground at the WTD 81 in Greding, Bavaria, Germany and demonstrate that it is able to detect the presence of a constant jammer with sufficient reliability.
Once Resin Composites and Dental Sealants Release Bisphenol-A, How Might This Affect Our Clinical Management?—A Systematic Review

(1) Background: Bisphenol A (BPA) based dental resins are commonly used in preventive and reparative dentistry. Since some monomers may remain unpolymerized in the application of dental resin, they dissolve in the saliva. (2) Methods: The literature search was carried out in Pubmed, Cochrane and Embase databases. Randomized controlled trials, cohort studies and case-control studies that evaluated BPA levels in human urine, saliva and/or blood were included. (3) Results: The initial search had 5111 results. A total of 20 studies were included in the systematic review. Most studies showed an increase of the levels of bisphenol A 1 h after treatments with composite resins and dental sealants. One week after treatments the levels were decreased. (4) Conclusions: Some clinical precautions should be taken to decrease the release of BPA, namely the use of rubber dam, the immediate polishing of all resins used, or the use of glycerin gel to avoid non-polymerization of the last resin layer, and mouthwash after treatment. Another preventive measure in addition to the above-mentioned is the use of the smallest possible number of restorations or sealants, a maximum of four per appointment. These measures are even more important in children, adolescents and pregnant women.
Inhibition of Protein Aggregation: Supramolecular Assemblies of Arginine Hold the Key

Background Aggregation of unfolded proteins occurs mainly through the exposed hydrophobic surfaces. Any mechanism of inhibition of this aggregation should explain the prevention of these hydrophobic interactions. Though arginine is prevalently used as an aggregation suppressor, its mechanism of action is not clearly understood. We propose a mechanism based on the hydrophobic interactions of arginine. Methodology We have analyzed arginine solution for its hydrotropic effect by pyrene solubility and the presence of hydrophobic environment by 1-anilino-8-naphthalene sulfonic acid fluorescence. Mass spectroscopic analyses show that arginine forms molecular clusters in the gas phase and the cluster composition is dependent on the solution conditions. Light scattering studies indicate that arginine exists as clusters in solution. In the presence of arginine, the reverse phase chromatographic elution profile of Alzheimer's amyloid beta 1-42 (Aβ1-42) peptide is modified. Changes in the hydrodynamic volume of Aβ1-42 in the presence of arginine measured by size exclusion chromatography show that arginine binds to Aβ1-42. Arginine increases the solubility of Aβ1-42 peptide in aqueous medium. It decreases the aggregation of Aβ1-42 as observed by atomic force microscopy. Conclusions Based on our experimental results we propose that molecular clusters of arginine in aqueous solutions display a hydrophobic surface by the alignment of its three methylene groups. The hydrophobic surfaces present on the proteins interact with the hydrophobic surface presented by the arginine clusters. The masking of hydrophobic surface inhibits protein-protein aggregation. This mechanism is also responsible for the hydrotropic effect of arginine on various compounds. It is also explained why other amino acids fail to inhibit the protein aggregation.
Don't count the number of friends when you are spreading information in social networks

The problem of spreading information in social networks is a topic of considerable recent interest, but the conventional influence maximisation problem which selects a set of any arbitrary k nodes in a network as the initially activated nodes might be inadequate in a real-world social network -- cyber-stalkers try to initially spread a rumour through their neighbours only rather than arbitrary users selected from the entire network. To consider this more practical scenario, Kim and Eiko [16] introduced the optimisation problem to find influential neighbours to maximise information diffusion. We extend this model by introducing several important parameters such as user propagation rate on his (or her) neighbours to provide a more general and practical information diffusion model. We performed intensive simulations on several real-world network topologies (emails, blogs, Twitter and Facebook) to develop more effective information spreading schemes under this model. Unlike the results of previous research, our experimental results shows that information can be efficiently propagated in social networks using the propagation rate alone, even without consideration of the "number of friends" information. Moreover, we found that the naive random spreading would be used to efficiently spread information if k increases sufficiently (e.g. k = 4).
Tumor necrosis factor alpha has a crucial role in increased reactive oxygen species production in platelets of mice injected with lipopolysaccharide

Abstract Increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production leads to tissue damage observed in sepsis and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-exposed animals. LPS stimulates cytokines releasing, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), that is important to ROS production. Platelets, considered inflammatory cells, generate ROS when exposed to LPS in vivo, but not when they are incubated in vitro with this compound. Therefore, we investigated the role of TNF-α on the increased intraplatelet ROS levels after LPS treatment. Mice were injected with LPS (1 mg/kg) or TNF-α (10 ng/kg), and blood was collected to prepare the washed platelets. Animals were treated with infliximab (anti-TNF-α antibody), R-7050 (non-selective TNF-α receptor antagonist) or apocynin (NADPH oxidase inhibitor). At 48 h after LPS or TNF-α injection, the ROS levels in ADP (25 µM)-activated platelets were evaluated by flow cytometry. Our data showed that injection of mice with LPS increased by 4-fold the ROS production (p < 0.05), which was significantly reduced by the treatments with infliximab, R-7050 or apocynin. Injection of mice with TNF-α markedly elevated the ROS formation in platelets (p < 0.05) that was reduced by infliximab, R-7050 or apocynin treatments. In separate experiments, platelets from saline-injected mice were incubated with TNF-α (30 to 3000 pg/mL) in absence or presence of infliximab, R-7050, apocynin or GKT137831 (NOX1/NOX4 inhibitor) before ROS measurements. TNF-α in vitro markedly increased the ROS levels, an effect significantly reduced by all treatments. Therefore, platelets are involved in the oxidative stress induced by LPS through TNF-α action, and NADPH oxidase takes part in this effect.
Acute Tumor Transition Angle on Computed Tomography Predicts Chromosomal Instability Status of Primary Gastric Cancer: Radiogenomics Analysis from TCGA and Independent Validation

Chromosomal instability (CIN) of gastric cancer is correlated with distinct outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the role of computed tomography (CT) imaging traits in predicting the CIN status of gastric cancer. We screened 443 patients in the Cancer Genome Atlas gastric cancer cohort to filter 40 patients with complete CT imaging and genomic data as the training cohort. CT imaging traits were subjected to logistic regression to select independent predictors for the CIN status. For the validation cohort, we prospectively enrolled 18 gastric cancer patients for CT and tumor genomic analysis. The imaging predictors were tested in the validation cohort using receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Thirty patients (75%) in the training cohort and 9 patients (50%) in the validation cohort had CIN subtype gastric cancers. Smaller tumor diameter (p = 0.017) and acute tumor transition angle (p = 0.045) independently predict CIN status in the training cohort. In the validation cohort, acute tumor transition angle demonstrated the highest accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 88.9%, 88.9%, and 88.9%, respectively, and areas under ROC curve of 0.89. In conclusion, this pilot study showed acute tumor transition angle on CT images may predict the CIN status of gastric cancer.
Predominant Complications of Type 2 Diabetes in Kumasi: A 4-Year Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study at a Teaching Hospital in Ghana

Background and objectives: Diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) has been associated with several microvascular and macrovascular complications. However, studies regarding the predominant complications of T2DM in Ghana have not been conducted. This study evaluated the prevalence and predominant complications of T2DM and assessed the sociodemographic factors associated with the development of diabetes-related complications in Kumasi, Ghana. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi, Ghana. A total of 1600 Ghanaian T2DM adults were included in this study. Patients’ clinical data from 2012 to 2016 were retrieved from the hospital’s archive. Results: The prevalence of macrovascular and microvascular complications of T2DM was 31.8% and 35.3% respectively. The prevalence of neuropathy, nephropathy, retinopathy, sexual dysfunction, diabetic keto-acidosis (DKA), and hypoglycemia were 20.8%, 12.5%, 6.5%, 3.8%, 2.0%, and 0.8% respectively. Sexual dysfunction was significantly associated with the male gender compared to females. Being employed: Informal (aOR = 0.479, p < 0.0001), and Formal (aOR = 0.475, p = 0.0008) was associated with lower age- and sex-adjusted odds of developing T2DM-related complications while having T2DM for 5–10 years (aOR = 1.550, p = 0.0009) and more than 10 years (aOR = 2.755, p < 0.0001) was associated with increased odds of developing complications. Conclusions: Microvascular complication is the most predominant among T2DM in Kumasi, Ghana. The most prevalent T2DM-related microvascular complication in Kumasi, Ghana is neuropathy. Sexual dysfunction is associated with male compared to female T2DM patients. Being employed reduces the chance of developing T2DM-related complications while increasing DM duration increases the risk of complications.
Extended MAD for Real Option Valuation A Case Study of Abandonment Option

This paper extends the marketed asset disclaimer approach for real option valuation. In sharp contrast to the dominant real option valuation that assumes a stochastic process for an investment’s capital value, this paper demonstrates the valuation of a real option assuming that cash flow follows a stochastic process. We show that this method is at least equally effective and sometimes more intuitive. We note that, in a discounted cash flow (DCF) framework, certain constraints must be met, and assuming capital value as a geometric Brownian motion (GBM) is compatible with simultaneously assuming cash flow as a GBM, We clarify the above argument with a simple textbook-standard case study.
Effect of the Milling Time of the Precursors on the Physical Properties of Sprayed Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO:Al) Thin Films

Aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films were deposited on soda-lime glass substrates by the chemical spray technique. The atomization of the solution was carried out by ultrasonic excitation. Six different starting solutions from both unmilled and milled Zn and Al precursors, dissolved in a mix of methanol and acetic acid, were prepared. The milling process was carried out using a planetary ball mill at a speed of 300 rpm, and different milling times, namely, 15, 25, 35, 45, and 60 min. Molar concentration, [Al]/[Zn] atomic ratio, deposition temperature and time, were kept at constant values; 0.2 M, 3 at. %, 475 °C, and 10 min, respectively. Results show that, under the same deposition conditions, electrical resistivities of ZnO:Al thin films deposited from milled precursors are lower than those obtained for films deposited from unmilled precursors. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that all films display a polycrystalline structure, fitting well with the hexagonal wurtzite structure. Changes in surface morphology were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well, since films deposited from unmilled precursors show triangular shaped grains, in contrast to films deposited from 15 and 35 min milled precursors that display thin slices with hexagonal shapes. The use of milled precursors to prepare starting solutions for depositing ZnO:Al thin films by ultrasonic pyrolysis influences their physical properties.
A Razumikhin-type stability criterion for time-delay systems

In this paper, to concern the delay-dependent stability criterion, we adopt the integral inequality lemma on the LR method. Some variables are introduced to relax the integral term that is generated by the integral inequality lemma. Actually, the form of the criterion shows that, without any model transformations, we can obtain a stability criterion that can be extended to the stabilization problem directly.
(Epi)genetic Modifications in Myogenic Stem Cells: From Novel Insights to Therapeutic Perspectives

The skeletal muscle is considered to be an ideal target for stem cell therapy as it has an inherent regenerative capacity. Upon injury, the satellite cells, muscle stem cells that reside under the basal lamina of the myofibres, start to differentiate in order to reconstitute the myofibres while maintaining the initial stem cell pool. In recent years, it has become more and more evident that epigenetic mechanisms such as histon modifications, DNA methylations and microRNA modulations play a pivatol role in this differentiation process. By understanding the mechanisms behind myogenesis, researchers are able to use this knowledge to enhance the differentiation and engraftment potential of different muscle stem cells. Besides manipulation on an epigenetic level, recent advances in the field of genome-engineering allow site-specific modifications in the genome of these stem cells. Combining epigenetic control of the stem cell fate with the ability to site-specifically correct mutations or add genes for further cell control, can increase the use of stem cells as treatment of muscular dystrophies drastically. In this review, we will discuss the advances that have been made in genome-engineering and the epigenetic regulation of muscle stem cells and how this knowledge can help to get stem cell therapy to its full potential.
Articulated models from video

Past research on model-based tracking of articulated targets has neglected to address the problems of model-acquisition and initialization. However, for model-based approaches to ever become practical and autonomous, these important issues need to be addressed Towards this goal, this paper-presents a model-acquisition framework for acquiring articulated models directly from monocular video. Both structure, shape, and appearance of articulated models are estimated In addition, the initialization problem is solved by estimating pose information for at least one frame of a sequence, allowing subsequent model-based tracking. The presented work is based on basic assumptions and hence not restricted towards specific types of targets. It has in particular the ability to process human as well as non-human targets and makes no assumptions with respect to the structure of the kinematic tree or complexity. This work hence presents a set of systematic solutions to the problems of model-acquisition and initialization that bridge the gap between state of the art model-based tracking approaches and practical applications.
Energy and Fructose From Beverages Sweetened With Sugar or High-Fructose Corn Syrup Pose a Health Risk for Some People12

Sugar intake in the United States has increased by >40 fold since the American Revolution. The health concerns that have been raised about the amounts of sugar that are in the current diet, primarily as beverages, are the subject of this review. Just less than 50% of the added sugars (sugar and high-fructose corn syrup) are found in soft drinks and fruit drinks. The intake of soft drinks has increased 5-fold between 1950 and 2000. Most meta-analyses have shown that the risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome are related to consumption of beverages sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Calorically sweetened beverage intake has also been related to the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and, in men, gout. Calorically sweetened beverages contribute to obesity through their caloric load, and the intake of beverages does not produce a corresponding reduction in the intake of other food, suggesting that beverage calories are “add-on” calories. The increase in plasma triglyceride concentrations by sugar-sweetened beverages can be attributed to fructose rather than glucose in sugar. Several randomized trials of sugar-containing soft drinks versus low-calorie or calorie-free beverages show that either sugar, 50% of which is fructose, or fructose alone increases triglycerides, body weight, visceral adipose tissue, muscle fat, and liver fat. Fructose is metabolized primarily in the liver. When it is taken up by the liver, ATP decreases rapidly as the phosphate is transferred to fructose in a form that makes it easy to convert to lipid precursors. Fructose intake enhances lipogenesis and the production of uric acid. By worsening blood lipids, contributing to obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and gout, fructose in the amounts currently consumed is hazardous to the health of some people.
An Adaptive Cooperation Diversity Scheme With Best-Relay Selection in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this correspondence, an adaptive cooperation diversity scheme with best-relay selection is proposed for multiple-relay cognitive radio networks to improve the performance of secondary transmissions while ensuring the quality of service (QoS) of primary transmissions. Exact closed-form expressions of the outage probability of secondary transmissions, referred to as secondary outage probability, are derived under the constraint of satisfying a required outage probability of primary transmissions (primary outage probability) for both the traditional non-cooperation and the proposed adaptive cooperation schemes over Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical and simulation results show that, with a guaranteed primary outage probability, a floor of the secondary outage probability occurs in high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regions. Moreover, the outage probability floor of the adaptive cooperation scheme is lower than that of the non-cooperation scenario, which illustrates the advantage of the proposed scheme. In addition, we generalize the traditional definition of the diversity gain, which can not be applied directly in cognitive radio networks since mutual interference between the primary and secondary users should be considered. We derive the generalized diversity gain and show that, with a guaranteed primary outage probability, the full diversity order is achieved using the proposed adaptive cooperation scheme.
Parenthetical main clauses – or not?

Syntactic and semantic characteristics canonically associated with main clauses do not always go together. This paper discusses two puzzling construction types from this perspective: appositive relative clauses (ARCs) and quasi-relatives. I argue that ARCs and appositions are related, and that relativization as such and parenthesis are independent effects. Specifically, an analysis of attributive construal as restrictive relativization of an abstract specific indefinite head explains the syntactically subordinated status of ARCs; on the other hand, the semantic main clause effects attested in ARCs are due to their construal as parenthetical specifications of the anchor, comparable to identificational appositions. Like ARCs, quasi-relatives seem to involve an E-type link with the anchor, but they lack a relative operator, and qualify as main clauses that are either coordinated to the host at the sentence level or inserted as regular parentheticals.