Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correct by Construction Networks Using Stepwise Refinement

Building software-defined network controllers is an exercise in software development and, as such, likely to introduce bugs. We present Cocoon, a framework for SDN development that facilitates both the design and verification of complex networks using stepwise refinement to move from a high-level specification to the final network implementation. A Cocoon user specifies intermediate design levels in a hierarchical design process that delineates the modularity in complicated network forwarding and makes verification extremely efficient. For example, an enterprise network, equipped with VLANs, ACLs, and Level 2 and Level 3 Routing, can be decomposed cleanly into abstractions for each mechanism, and the resulting stepwise verification is over 200x faster than verifying the final implementation. Cocoon further separates static network design from its dynamically changing configuration. The former is verified at design time, while the latter is checked at run time using statically defined invariants. We present six different SDN use cases including B4 and F10. Our performance evaluation demonstrates that Cocoon is not only faster than existing verification tools but can also find many bugs statically before the network design has been fully specified.
Perforin-Mediated Cytotoxicity Is Critical for Surveillance of Spontaneous Lymphoma

Immune surveillance by cytotoxic lymphocytes against cancer has been postulated for decades, but direct evidence for the role of cytotoxic lymphocytes in protecting against spontaneous malignancy has been lacking. As the rejection of many experimental cancers by cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells is dependent on the pore-forming protein perforin (pfp), we examined pfp-deficient mice for increased cancer susceptibility. Here we show that pfp-deficient mice have a high incidence of malignancy in distinct lymphoid cell lineages (T, B, NKT), indicating a specific requirement for pfp in protection against lymphomagenesis. The susceptibility to lymphoma was accentuated by simultaneous lack of expression of the p53 gene, mutations in which also commonly predispose to human malignancies, including lymphoma. In contrast, the incidence and age of onset of sarcoma was unaffected in p53-deficient mice. Pfp-deficient mice were at least 1,000-fold more susceptible to these lymphomas when transplanted, compared with immunocompetent mice in which tumor rejection was controlled by CD8+ T lymphocytes. This study is the first that implicates direct cytotoxicity by lymphocytes in regulating lymphomagenesis.
Eddy Current Tomography for Nondestructive Testing

The paper presents an eddy current tomography setup with high spatial resolution and high accuracy of measurements of signal on detection coil. In proposed solution both amplitude as well as phase shift are measured, which gives the possibility of calculation of spatial distribution of both permeability and resistivity of tested element. As a result, presented setup creates possibility of effective detection of discontinuities in cylindrical elements, which opens new possibilities for industrial applications of eddy current tomography.
A general model for concurrent and distributed object-oriented programming

This summary presents a general model supporting object-oriented programming in concurrent as well as distributed environments.The model combines the advantages of remote procedure calls with those of message passing.It relies on the following concepts:• All objects are not active but the active entities are objects. • Asynchronous Message Passing with Data-driven synchronization. • Service mechanism allowing an explicit thread of control.
Cluster Oriented Optimized Cloud Task Scheduling Strategy using Linear Programming

Today, cloud computing has emerged as revolutionary technology in the IT industry. It has provided boost to the area of parallel and distributed computing. Cloud computing deals with on demand allocation of remotely placed computing and storage devices to the cloud users on charge per utilization basis. Cloud service provider (CSP) is responsible for the allocation of cloud resources to consumers of cloud services so that cloud consumers should get satisfied. Thus to gratify cloud users, CSP must has to schedule cloud resources so that it charges minimum amount to users in return for execution of their tasks on cloud resources. In the proposed task scheduling strategy, Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) is used as a clustering technique which is applied complementary to well known optimization technique Linear Programming. The proposed task scheduling strategy charges minimum amount to user for execution of his tasks within the time specified by him. The results obtained by proposed task scheduling are compared with the results of existing random task scheduling method.
A compact dynamic force model for needle-tissue interaction

In this paper, the interaction force between a surgical needle and soft tissue is studied. The force is modeled using nonlinear dynamics based on a modified LuGre model that captures all stages of needle-tissue interaction including puncture, cutting, and friction forces. An estimation algorithm for identifying the associated parameters is then presented. This approach, which is based on extended Kalman filtering (EKF), enables us to characterize the interaction with a mathematical model in the force domain. It compares the axial force measured at the needle base with its expected value and then adapts the model parameters to represent the actual interaction. To evaluate the performance of our model, experiments were performed on an artificial phantom.
Prediction of Dimensional Changes in Circular Knitted Cotton Fabrics

Cotton fiber continues to be the most important textile fiber in the world; however, in contrast to its excellent attributes of comfort, knit fabrics produced in cotton have a high degree of dimensional instability. In this study, a knowledge database of the relaxation process of cotton knit fabrics, during all phases of their production up to the finished textile, has been developed. To obtain cotton knit fabrics with dimensional stability, apart from controlling the manufacturing process, a development system is required which simulates all of the process variables. This can be used to select the characteristics of the raw material, machines and processes which best attend to the quality needs of the client. This procedure allows the final quality of the product to be determined in advance without the need to generate costs and wastages with experimental lots.
CLAMS: Bringing Quality to Data Lakes

With the increasing incentive of enterprises to ingest as much data as they can in what is commonly referred to as "data lakes", and with the recent development of multiple technologies to support this "load-first" paradigm, the new environment presents serious data management challenges. Among them, the assessment of data quality and cleaning large volumes of heterogeneous data sources become essential tasks in unveiling the value of big data. The coveted use of unstructured and semi-structured data in large volumes makes current data cleaning tools (primarily designed for relational data) not directly adoptable. We present CLAMS, a system to discover and enforce expressive integrity constraints from large amounts of lake data with very limited schema information (e.g., represented as RDF triples). This demonstration shows how CLAMS is able to discover the constraints and the schemas they are defined on simultaneously. CLAMS also introduces a scale-out solution to efficiently detect errors in the raw data. CLAMS interacts with human experts to both validate the discovered constraints and to suggest data repairs. CLAMS has been deployed in a real large-scale enterprise data lake and was experimented with a real data set of 1.2 billion triples. It has been able to spot multiple obscure data inconsistencies and errors early in the data processing stack, providing huge value to the enterprise.
Multi-cell interference coordination for multigroup multicast transmission

Multicasting has become a particularly important technique in the context of cache-enabled cloud radio access networks proposed for 5G systems, where it can be used to transmit common information to multiple users to improve both spectral and energy efficiency. For the efficient spectrum utilization, the future communications are based on aggressive frequency reuse, where the required data rates can be achieved with multiple-input multiple-output precoding techniques. This approach, however, calls for advanced interference coordination techniques. This paper summarizes some of the core approaches proposed in the literature and discusses the main future challenges.
Molecular Pathways Molecular Pathways : How Can BRCA-Mutated Tumors Become Resistant to PARP Inhibitors ?

PARP inhibition is synthetic lethalwith defectiveDNA repair via homologous recombination. Phase I and II clinical trials show that PARP inhibitors are effective atwell-tolerated doses andhave antitumor activity for BRCA1and BRCA2-associated cancers. However, not all patients respond equally well and tumors may eventually become resistant. Thus far, the only resistancemechanism that has been found in human tumors is genetic reversion that corrects or bypasses the originalBRCA1orBRCA2-inactivatingmutation.However, data from fundamental and preclinical research suggest that resistance to PARP inhibitors may be induced by additional mechanisms involving hypomorphic activity of mutant BRCA1 alleles, upregulation of drug efflux pumps, and rewiring of theDNAdamage response. Preclinicalmodelswill be instrumental to develop methods for adequate patient stratification, as well as treatment strategies that prevent or counteract resistance to PARP inhibitors. Clin Cancer Res; 20(3); 540–7. 2013 AACR.
PADL2Java: A Java code generator for process algebraic architectural descriptions

One of the main objectives of model-driven software engineering is to produce code automatically from high-level design models. This goal can be achieved by providing suitable models and model-to-code transformations that ensure the conformance of the produced code to its high-level specification. In this context we have developed PADL2Java, a software tool that translates PADL models into Java code. PADL is a process algebraic architectural description language equipped with a rigorous semantics and transformation rules into multithreaded object-oriented software, which is employed in the verification tool TwoTowers. This paper discusses the code generation approach underlying PADL2Java, the structure of the synthesized code, and the integration of the translator in TwoTowers. The effectiveness of PADL2Java is illustrated through the generation of a Java implementation of a cruise control system.
A SECURED TEMPLATE BASED FACE RECOGNITION TECHNIQUE

Recently face recognition is attracting much attention in the society of network multimedia information access. The face recognition has been a challenging scientific problem that provides a powerful incentive for processing large volume of data automatically for authenticating people. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) is a method in which the goal is to find a linear representation of non-Gaussian data, so that the components are statistically independent, or as independent as possible. Such a representation captures the essential structure of the data in many applications, including feature extraction and signal separation. A biometric template that stores the extracted biometric features as a database is a rising concern about the security and privacy of the biometric data itself. The protection of face template is also to be considered as an issue in deploying a practical biometric system. In this paper we propose a face template protection scheme based on our cryptosystem approach.
Inverse approximation of linear receivers for massive MIMO

To overcome computation complexity due to inverse calculation that occurs when using linear receivers such as zero forcing (ZF) in massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), we propose a simple approximation method which depends on the maximum element of the diagonal matrix multiplied by a scaling factor that controls its tuning. This method solves other inverse method problems when the system load increases in the presence of the channel correlation.
Trends in Cardiovascular Mortality in Spanish‐surnamed, Other White, and Black Persons in Texas, 1970–1975

Certain categories of cardiovascular disease have significantly declined recently as causes of death. In the present investigation we describe the variation in cardiovascular mortality in Texas by ethnicity, age and sex during 1970–1975 using age‐standardized proportional mortality ratios. Specifically, the question of whether the three major ethnic groups in Texas have shared equally in any changes in cardiovascular mortality is examined. Several subeategories of cardiovascular mortality are considered. Among the sex‐ethnic groups both ischemic heart disease and acute myocardial infarction mortality declined less among Spanish‐surnamed males and females than in their other white and black counterparts. Chronic ischemic heart disease increased in relative importance for all groups except Spanish‐surnamed females, in whom it decreased. There was no significant decrease in cerebrovascular disease mortality among Spanish‐surnamed males or females as there was in the other groups. These results suggest that important differences in cause‐structure of mortality are occurring in the ethnic subpopulations of Texas.
Optimization of 2d virtual node coordinates in anchor-free localization algorithms for geographic routing in ad-hoc networks

Many localization algorithms require that at least some nodes in a network know their correct real position. Anchor-free localization algorithms manage to assign to all nodes virtual coordinates (VC) without knowledge of real location information. This is mostly done by node cooperation. These algorithms provide VCs for the usage of geographic routing in environments where real coordinate localization is impossible due to cost, time, energy, space or line of sight restrictions. This paper proposes improvements in generating VCs for wireless ad-hoc networks without location information. We present algorithms for improving the preparatory phase, which is used to obtain initial VCs as well as for the working phase, which adapts to network changes and node movement. Using simulations for different node densities and network sizes, we compare different approaches and show which algorithms outperform others.
Vertical ground reaction force-based analysis of powered exoskeleton-assisted walking in persons with motor-complete paraplegia

Abstract Objective To use vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) to show the magnitude and pattern of mechanical loading in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) during powered exoskeleton-assisted walking. Research design A cross-sectional study was performed to analyze vGRF during powered exoskeleton-assisted walking (ReWalk™: Argo Medical Technologies, Inc, Marlborough, MA, USA) compared with vGRF of able-bodied gait. Setting Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Participants Six persons with thoracic motor-complete SCI (T1–T11 AIS A/B) and three age-, height-, weight- and gender-matched able-bodied volunteers participated. Interventions SCI participants were trained to ambulate over ground using a ReWalk™. vGRF was recorded using the F-Scan™ system (TekScan, Boston, MA, USA). Outcome measures Peak stance average (PSA) was computed from vGRF and normalized across all participants by percent body weight. Peak vGRF was determined for heel strike, mid-stance, and toe-off. Relative linear impulse and harmonic analysis provided quantitative support for analysis of powered exoskeletal gait. Results Participants with motor-complete SCI, ambulating independently with a ReWalk™, demonstrated mechanical loading magnitudes and patterns similar to able-bodied gait. Harmonic analysis of PSA profile by Fourier transform contrasted frequency of stance phase gait components between able-bodied and powered exoskeleton-assisted walking. Conclusion Powered exoskeleton-assisted walking in persons with motor-complete SCI generated vGRF similar in magnitude and pattern to that of able-bodied walking. This suggests the potential for powered exoskeleton-assisted walking to provide a mechanism for mechanical loading to the lower extremities. vGRF profile can be used to examine both magnitude of loading and gait mechanics of powered exoskeleton-assisted walking among participants of different weight, gait speed, and level of assist.
Loss of Mitochondrial Ndufs4 in Striatal Medium Spiny Neurons Mediates Progressive Motor Impairment in a Mouse Model of Leigh Syndrome

Inability of mitochondria to generate energy leads to severe and often fatal myoencephalopathies. Among these, Leigh syndrome (LS) is one of the most common childhood mitochondrial diseases; it is characterized by hypotonia, failure to thrive, respiratory insufficiency and progressive mental and motor dysfunction, leading to early death. Basal ganglia nuclei, including the striatum, are affected in LS patients. However, neither the identity of the affected cell types in the striatum nor their contribution to the disease has been established. Here, we used a mouse model of LS lacking Ndufs4, a mitochondrial complex I subunit, to confirm that loss of complex I, but not complex II, alters respiration in the striatum. To assess the role of striatal dysfunction in the pathology, we selectively inactivated Ndufs4 in the striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs), which account for over 95% of striatal neurons. Our results show that lack of Ndufs4 in MSNs causes a non-fatal progressive motor impairment without affecting the cognitive function of mice. Furthermore, no inflammatory responses or neuronal loss were observed up to 6 months of age. Hence, complex I deficiency in MSNs contributes to the motor deficits observed in LS, but not to the neural degeneration, suggesting that other neuronal populations drive the plethora of clinical signs in LS.
Expanding the Landscape of Chromatin Modification (CM)-Related Functional Domains and Genes in Human

Chromatin modification (CM) plays a key role in regulating transcription, DNA replication, repair and recombination. However, our knowledge of these processes in humans remains very limited. Here we use computational approaches to study proteins and functional domains involved in CM in humans. We analyze the abundance and the pair-wise domain-domain co-occurrences of 25 well-documented CM domains in 5 model organisms: yeast, worm, fly, mouse and human. Results show that domains involved in histone methylation, DNA methylation, and histone variants are remarkably expanded in metazoan, reflecting the increased demand for cell type-specific gene regulation. We find that CM domains tend to co-occur with a limited number of partner domains and are hence not promiscuous. This property is exploited to identify 47 potentially novel CM domains, including 24 DNA-binding domains, whose role in CM has received little attention so far. Lastly, we use a consensus Machine Learning approach to predict 379 novel CM genes (coding for 329 proteins) in humans based on domain compositions. Several of these predictions are supported by very recent experimental studies and others are slated for experimental verification. Identification of novel CM genes and domains in humans will aid our understanding of fundamental epigenetic processes that are important for stem cell differentiation and cancer biology. Information on all the candidate CM domains and genes reported here is publicly available.
Synthesis of Carboxymethyl Starch with High Degree of Substitution by a Modified Dry Process

Granular carboxymethyl starch (CMS) with high degree of substitution (DS) was synthesized using a modified dry process. The carboxymethylation reaction was carried out with granular potato starch, solid NaOH and sodium monochloroacetate (SMCA). The effects of reaction temperature, reaction time, molar ratio of NaOH and SMCA to starch on the degree of substitution (DS) and the reaction efficiency (RE) of CMS were investigated. High DS up to 0.78 was obtained for reaction at 323 K for 6 h with molar ratio of NaOH and SMCA to starch being 2:2:1. CMS was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer and scanning electron microscopy.
The Effect of the Thickness of the Sensitive Layer on the Performance of the Accumulating NOx Sensor

A novel and promising method to measure low levels of NOx utilizes the accumulating sensor principle. During an integration cycle, incoming NOx molecules are stored in a sensitive layer based on an automotive lean NOx trap (LNT) material that changes its electrical resistivity proportional to the amount of stored NOx, making the sensor suitable for long-term detection of low levels of NOx. In this study, the influence of the thickness of the sensitive layer, prepared by multiple screen-printing, is investigated. All samples show good accumulating sensing properties for both NO and NO2. In accordance to a simplified model, the base resistance of the sensitive layer and the sensitivity to NOx decrease with increasing thickness. Contrarily, the sensor response time increases. The linear measurement range of all samples ends at a sensor response of about 30% resulting in an increase of the linearly detectable amount with the thickness. Hence, the variation of the thickness of the sensitive layer is a powerful tool to adapt the linear measurement range (proportional to the thickness) as well as the sensitivity (proportional to the inverse thickness) to the application requirements. Calculations combining the sensor model with the measurement results indicate that for operation in the linear range, about 3% of the LNT material is converted to nitrate.
Synergistic Coding by Cortical Neural Ensembles

An essential step towards understanding how the brain orchestrates information processing at the cellular and population levels is to simultaneously observe the spiking activity of cortical neurons that mediate perception, learning, and motor processing. In this paper, we formulate an information theoretic approach to determine whether cooperation among neurons may constitute a governing mechanism of information processing when encoding external covariates. Specifically, we show that conditional independence between neuronal outputs may not provide an optimal encoding strategy when the firing probability of a neuron depends on the history of firing of other neurons connected to it. Rather, cooperation among neurons can provide a ¿message-passing¿ mechanism that preserves most of the information in the covariates under specific constraints governing their connectivity structure. Using a biologically plausible statistical learning model, we demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach in synergistically encoding a motor task using a subset of neurons drawn randomly from a large population. We demonstrate its superiority in approximating the joint density of the population from limited data compared to a statistically independent model and a pairwise maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model.
Implementing a graphical multi‐user interface toolkit

Multi‐user applications allows users in different locations to simultaneously interact with a common interface. Creating multi‐user applications is complicated by issues such as process synchronization, replicated window management, and floor control. As a result, several papers describing toolkits that simplify programming of multi‐user applications have appeared in the literature. This paper discusses several low‐level issues that must be addressed when implementing such a toolkit. Issues relating to replicated window management, supporting heterogeneous hardware environments, and multi‐user event handling are discussed.