Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VEGF164 is proinflammatory in the diabetic retina.

PURPOSE The objectives of this study were to characterize the differential potency of two major VEGF isoforms, VEGF(120) and VEGF(164), for inducing leukocyte stasis (leukostasis) within the retinal vasculature and blood-retinal barrier (BRB) breakdown and to determine whether endogenous VEGF(164) mediates retinal leukostasis and BRB breakdown in early and established diabetes. METHODS Retinal leukostasis and BRB breakdown were simultaneously quantified by combining concanavalin A lectin (ConA) perfusion labeling with a fluorophotometric dextran leakage assay. CD45 immunohistochemistry was performed to confirm that ConA-stained cells within the vasculature were leukocytes. Retinal leukostasis and BRB breakdown were compared in nondiabetic rats receiving intravitreous injections of VEGF(120) or VEGF(164). Retinal intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and VEGF protein levels were studied by Western blot and ELISA, respectively. An anti-VEGF(164(165)) aptamer (EYE001) was administered by intravitreous injection to 2-week and 3-month diabetic rats, and the effect on retinal leukostasis and BRB breakdown was quantified. RESULTS Compared with VEGF(120), VEGF(164) more potently increased retinal ICAM-1 levels (2.2-fold), leukostasis (1.9-fold), and BRB breakdown (2.1-fold, P < 0.01 for all), despite negligible differences in vitreoretinal VEGF levels at the time of evaluation (P > 0.05). Retinal leukostasis and leakage increased with the duration of diabetes (P < 0.01) and correlated closely (P < 0.01, r = 0.889). The isoform-specific blockade of endogenous VEGF(164) with EYE001 resulted in a significant suppression of retinal leukostasis and BRB breakdown in both early (72.4% and 82.6%, respectively) and established (48.5% and 55.0%, respectively) diabetes (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS On an equimolar basis, VEGF(164) is at least twice as potent as VEGF(120) at inducing ICAM-1-mediated retinal leukostasis and BRB breakdown in vivo. The inhibition of diabetic retinal leukostasis and BRB breakdown with EYE001 in early and established diabetes indicates that VEGF(164) is an important isoform in the pathogenesis of early diabetic retinopathy.
Robust procedures for obtaining assembly contact state extremal configurations

Two important components in the selection of an admittance that facilitates force-guided assembly are the identification of: 1) the set of feasible contact states, and 2) the set of configurations that span each contact state, i.e., the extremal configurations. We present a procedure to automatically generate both sets from CAD models of the assembly parts. In the procedure, all possible combinations of principle contacts are considered when generating hypothesized contact states. The feasibility of each is then evaluated in a genetic algorithm based optimization procedure. The maximum and minimum value of each of the 6 configuration variables spanning each contact state are obtained by again using genetic algorithms. Together, the genetic algorithm approach, the hierarchical data structure containing the states, the relationships among the states, and the extremals within each state are used to provide a reliable means of identifying all feasible contact states and their associated extremal configurations.
Implementing Big Data analytics to predict Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Medical data consist of enormous formats such as images, audio, video, medical reports etc. Managing all these data needs advanced technique and technology which must have large storage, centralized distribution and patients record management which will be highly possible with Big Data. Big Data is majorly used in clinical operations, research & development and public health. Systemic Lupus Erythematosus also termed as Lupus is an autoimmune disease. The prediction of the disease will be easier if it is implemented using Big Data. The paper deals with the possibilities about how to implement Big Data to predict Lupus disease.
Cyber engineering co-intelligence digital ecosystem: The GOFASS methodology

Co-intelligence, also known as collective or collaborative intelligence, is the harnessing of human knowledge and intelligence that allows groups of people to act together in ways that seem to be intelligent. Co-intelligence Internet applications such as Wikipedia are the first steps toward developing digital ecosystems that support collective intelligence. Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are well fitted to co-Intelligence digital ecosystems because they allow each service client machine to act also as a service provider without any central hub in the network of co-operative relationships. However, dealing with server farms, clusters and meshes of wireless edge devices will be the norm in the next generation of computing; but most present P2P system had been designed with a fixed, wired infrastructure in mind. This paper proposes a methodology for cyber engineering an intelligent agent mediated co-intelligence digital ecosystems. Our methodology caters for co-intelligence digital ecosystems with wireless edge devices working with service-oriented information servers.
Hierarchical codebook background model using haar-like features

Background subtraction is one of the most popular methods to detect moving objects in videos. In this paper, we propose an efficient hierarchical background subtraction method with block-based and pixel-based codebooks (CBs) using haar-like features for foreground detection. In the block-based stage, four haar-like features and a block average value, which can be calculated rapidly using integral image and are not sensitive to dynamic background, are used to represent a block. Through the block-based stage we can remove most of the background without reducing the true positive rate. To overcome the low precision problem in the block-based stage, the pixel-based stage is adopted to increase the precision. Experiment results show that our approach can provide faster computation speed compared with that of the present related approaches meanwhile, ensure a high correct detection rate.
Optimal feedback velocity profile generation for a vehicle with given acceleration limits: A level set implementation

In this paper, we use level set methods to numerically generate the minimum-time optimal velocity profiles for a vehicle with given acceleration limits driving along a specified path. The proposed approach solves the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation associated with the given optimal control problem by computing the level sets of the value function. Once the optimal cost is found, the optimal feedback control can be computed online thus generating the velocity profile quickly. The results are compared to a semi-analytic approach that was developed recently for the same problem by the last two authors.
Large-Volume Gravid Traps Enhance Collection of Culex Vectors

Abstract Gravid mosquito collections were compared among several large-volume (infusion volume ≥35 liters) gravid trap designs and the small-volume (infusion volume = 6 liters) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gravid trap used routinely by vector control districts for vector and pathogen surveillance. The numbers of gravid Culex quinquefasciatus, Cx. tarsalis, and Cx. stigmatosoma collected by large gravid traps were greater than by the CDC gravid trap during nearly all overnight trials. Large-volume gravid traps collected on average 6.6-fold more adult female Culex mosquitoes compared to small-volume CDC gravid traps across 3 seasons during the 3 years of the studies. The differences in gravid mosquito collections between large-versus small-volume gravid traps were greatest during spring, when 8- to 56-fold more Culex individuals were collected using large-volume gravid traps. The proportion of gravid females in collections did not differ appreciably among the more effective trap designs tested. Important determinants of gravid trap performance were infusion container size and type as well as infusion volume, which determined the distance between the suction trap and the infusion surface. Of lesser importance for gravid trap performance were the number of suction traps, method of suction trap mounting, and infusion concentration. Fermentation of infusions between 1 and 4 wk weakly affected total mosquito collections, with Cx. stigmatosoma collections moderately enhanced by comparatively young and organically enriched infusions. A suction trap mounted above 100 liters of organic infusion housed in a 121-liter black plastic container collected the most gravid mosquitoes over the greatest range of experimental conditions, and a 35-liter infusion with side-mounted suction traps was a promising lesser-volume alternative design.
Seismic data interpolation using a fast generalized Fourier transform

We have found a fast and efficient method for the interpolation of nonstationary seismic data. The method uses the fast generalized Fourier transform (FGFT) to identify the space-wavenumber evolution of nonstationary spatial signals at each temporal frequency. The nonredundant nature of FGFT renders a big computational advantage to this interpolation method. A least-squares fitting scheme is used next to retrieve the optimal FGFT coefficients representative of the ideal interpolated data. For randomly sampled data on a regular grid, we seek a sparse representation of FGFT coefficients to retrieve the missing samples. In addition, to interpolate the regularly sampled seismic data at a given frequency, we use a mask function derived from the FGFT coefficients of the low frequencies. Synthetic and real data examples can be used to examine the performance of the method.
Identifying Correlations between Chromosomal Proximity of Genes and Distance of Their Products in Protein-Protein Interaction Networks of Yeast

In this article we present evidence for a relationship between chromosome gene loci and the topological properties of the protein-protein interaction network corresponding to the set of genes under consideration. Specifically, for each chromosome of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome, the distribution of the intra-chromosome inter-gene distances was analyzed and a positive correlation with the distance among the corresponding proteins of the protein-protein interaction network was found. In order to study this relationship we used concepts based on non-parametric statistics and information theory. We provide statistical evidence that if two genes are closely located, then it is likely that their protein products are closely located in the protein-protein interaction network, or in other words, that they are involved in the same biological process.
Correlation of Complex Evidence in Forensic Accounting Using Data Mining

The classical statistical correlation is an efficient technique for linking simple numerical data sets via a single correlation coefficient. The modern schemes for money laundering and financial fraud are becoming very sophisticated and are changed all the time. To be able to discover such schemes we need to deal simultaneously with a diverse set of numeric and non-numeric data types that include different numeric data types, ordered sets, graph structures, texts, schemes, plans, and other information. Often any individual evidence does not reveal a suspicious pattern and does not guide investigation in forensic accounting. In contrast, correlation of two or more evidences with each other and background knowledge can reveal a suspicious pattern. The area of Link Discovery (LD) has emerged recently as a promising new approach for such tasks. This paper outlines design of such a new technique called Hybrid Evidence Correlation (HEC). It combines first-order logic (FOL), probabilistic semantic inference (PSI) and negative rules for designing HEC to deal with rare suspicious patterns. The approach is illustrated with an example of discovery of suspicious patterns. Computational efficiency of the algorithm is justified by a computational experiment. Conceptual advantages of the algorithm such as completeness have been reported in previous mathematical analysis of the base concepts of the algorithm. The approach was successfully tested for detecting fraudulent transactions in synthetic data. Data contained several attributes of a transaction such as seller, buyer, types of buyer and seller, sold item, amount, price and date.
Producing Kombination XI: Using Modern Hardware and Software Systems for Composition

The author discusses two topics related to the realization of his composition Kombination XI: A Ritual Place for Live and Processed Voices. The first is his development of a notation system and a set of software tools based on weighted trees that span the expressive and structural domains of music. The second is his process of realization, in which several different digital signal-processing software and hardware systems were used in consort as one instrument.
A circular inclusion in a finite domain

This is the first paper in a series concerned with the precise characterization of the elastic fields due to inclusions embedded in a finite elastic medium. A novel solution procedure has been developed to systematically solve a type of Fredholm integral equations based on symmetry, self-similarity, and invariant group arguments. In this paper, we consider a two-dimensional (2D) circular inclusion within a finite, circular representative volume element (RVE). The RVE is considered isotropic, linear elastic and is subjected to a displacement (Dirichlet) boundary condition. Starting from the 2D plane strain Navier equation and by using our new solution technique, we obtain the exact disturbance displacement and strain fields due to a prescribed constant eigenstrain field within the inclusion. The solution is characterized by the so-called Dirichlet-Eshelby tensor, which is provided in closed form for both the exterior and interior region of the inclusion. Some immediate applications of the Dirichlet-Eshelby tensor are discussed briefly.
Proteomics and peptidomics: moving toward precision medicine in urological malignancies

Urological malignancies are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Advances in early detection, diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of treatment response can significantly improve patient care. Proteomic and peptidomic profiling studies are at the centre of kidney, prostate and bladder cancer biomarker discovery and have shown great promise for improved clinical assessment. Mass spectrometry (MS) is the most widely employed method for proteomic and peptidomic analyses. A number of MS platforms have been developed to facilitate accurate identification of clinically relevant markers in various complex biological samples including tissue, urine and blood. Furthermore, protein profiling studies have been instrumental in the successful introduction of several diagnostic multimarker tests into the clinic. In this review, we will provide a brief overview of high-throughput technologies for protein and peptide based biomarker discovery. We will also examine the current state of kidney, prostate and bladder cancer biomarker research as well as review the journey toward successful clinical implementation.
Just enough is more: Achieving sustainable performance in mobile devices under thermal limitations

With the integration of high-performance multicore processors and multiple accelerators into modern mobile system-on-chips (SoCs), power densities have grown substantially. As a result, thermal management policies, which ensure operation at thermally safe conditions, became essential components of state-of-the-art mobile systems. Traditional thermal throttling approaches aim at maximum utilization of the available thermal headroom to minimize the performance loss and maximize user performance. This paper demonstrates that, in a mobile platform, such greedy techniques can lead to significant degradation in the quality-of-service (QoS) levels as the duration of device activity increases, leading to inconsistent user experience over time. We demonstrate that incorporating user/application QoS requirements into mobile power management to provide “just enough” performance (instead of always maximizing performance) allows for more efficient usage of the thermal headroom, which translates to substantially extended durations of sustainable performance. We propose a closed-loop QoS control policy, including an efficient dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) state scheduling technique, to minimize the thermal impact for extending the sustainability of desired QoS levels. Experiments on a modern smartphone show that the proposed technique provides up to 74% longer sustainable performance while meeting the target QoS demands for a variety of real-life applications.
Sleep States Differentiate Single Neuron Activity Recorded from Human Epileptic Hippocampus, Entorhinal Cortex, and Subiculum

Animal models of epilepsy have shown that synchronous burst firing is associated with epileptogenesis, yet the evidence from human studies linking neuronal synchrony and burst firing to epileptogenesis remains equivocal. Sleep–wake states have been shown to differentially modulate the generation of epileptiform EEG spikes between brain regions of greater and lesser seizure-generating potential, providing information that helps to identify the primary epileptogenic region. Using these state-dependent mechanisms to assist us in identifying neuronal correlates of human epilepsy, we recorded interictal neuronal activity from mesial temporal lobe (MTL) areas in epileptic patients implanted with depth electrodes required for medical diagnosis during polysomnographically defined sleep–wake states. Results show that single neurons recorded ipsilateral to seizure-initiating MTL (“epileptic”) areas had significantly higher firing rates (p = 0.01) and burst propensity (p = 0.01) and greater synchrony of discharges (p = 0.003) compared with neurons recorded from contralateral non-seizure-generating MTL (“non-epileptic”) areas. In particular, during episodes of slow wave sleep (SWS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, epileptic hippocampal neurons had significantly higher burst rates compared with non-epileptic hippocampal neurons (both p = 0.01). In contrast, during episodes of wakefulness (Aw), no difference in burst firing between epileptic and non-epileptic hippocampal neurons was observed. Furthermore, synchronous firing was significantly higher between epileptic MTL neurons compared with non-epileptic MTL neurons during SWS (p = 0.04) and REM sleep (p = 0.02), but no difference in neuronal synchrony was found between epileptic and non-epileptic neurons during Aw. These results provide evidence that sleep states differentially modulate abnormal epileptogenic neuronal discharge properties within human MTL and confirm that neuronal burst firing and enhanced neuronal synchrony observed in experimental animal models of epilepsy characterizes human epilepsy as well.
Partially Blind Deblurring of Barcode from Out-of-Focus Blur

This paper addresses the nonstationary out-of-focus (OOF) blur removal in the application of barcode reconstruction. We propose a partially blind deblurring method when partial knowledge of the clean barcode is available. In particular, we consider an image formation model based on geometrical optics, which involves the point-spread function (PSF) for the OOF blur. With the known information, we can estimate a low-dimensional representation of the PSF using the Levenberg--Marquardt algorithm. Once the PSF is obtained, the deblurred image is computed by solving a quadratic program. We find that imposing a [0,1] box constraint is often good enough to enforce binary signal. Experiments on real data demonstrate that the forward model is physically realistic and our partially blind deblurring method can yield good reconstructions.
A Methodology to Detect Kernel Level Rootkits based on Detecting Hidden Processes

Intruders will normally install some tools when he gains access to a computer system, in order to regain the root privilege when he come back onto the system at a later time. Installing a rookit on the compromised system is one of the methods that a intruder may use. The kernel of the operating system which is the lowest level of most modern OS will be modified by a kernel level rootkit. In this paper we present a standardized methodology to detect rootkits. Through this method, it is possible to provide additional protection against this type of malicious modification of the kernel.
Performance Engineering of End-systems for High Bandwidth Multimedia Communications

The paper presents a performance-oriented study of end-systems for high bandwidth multimedia communications. A 2-layer communication architecture is identiied, where the lower layer performs the segmentation/re-assembly of data packets sent/received over the network and the upper layer performs the multiplexing/demultiplexing functions and enforces`quality of service' (QOS) control on various data streams. The paper focuses on the performance engineering issues of such a communication system. We study the eeects of parallelism and pipelining among layer functions, and inter-layer control transfer mechanisms on end-to-end throughput performance. The study involves conducting experiments on a system implemented using the 2-layer architecture. Based on the study, we suggest some techniques such as the usage of global data memory to minimize data movement across layers and block-mode synchronization of layer processes to achieve high performance. Based on the study, we believe that the future multimedia end-systems will reside on dedicated multiprocessor platforms , where our proposed architectural engineering techniques can be adopted easily and can take advantage of the parallel processing capabilities. processing, sensitivity analysis of performance, design of experiments.
Considering Physical Well-Being, Self-perceptions, and Support Variables in Understanding Youth Academic Achievement

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between measures of students’ physical well-being and self-perception and their academic achievement. Specifically, we look at students’ social support for physical activity, physical activity perceptions, self-concept, self-efficacy, health behaviors, and cardiorespiratory fitness (as measured by the progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run [PACER] test). Students (n = 697 fifth graders) were surveyed at the beginning of the school year. A two-group path analysis revealed notable relationships between the predictor variables and proximal and distal outcomes, with some paths moderated by sex. One relationship that was significant for both sexes was cardiorespiratory fitness, as it was the only significant predictor of achievement. This effect was moderate to large for the female students ( R M a t h 2 = 36 % ; R R e a d 2 = 15 % ) and small to large for the male students ( R M a t h 2 = 26 % ; R M a t h 2 = 10 % ). These findings can be used to guide future research and educational prevention and intervention efforts.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PARENTAL STYLES AND DISCIPLINARY STRATEGIES IN CHILD S REARING

The society has to remember that children are gift from God, as matter of fact the richest of all blessings. So, the attempt to mold them in the image of others rather than individual and be permitted to be as such, for decades have been less-fruitful contrary to what has been expected. This review has largely expended the issue of parental styles and disciplinary strategies in the childhood development. Collection of various publications from relevant parenting topics has greatly achieved the effectiveness of this review. The shortage of children's perspective on parenting issues as well as disciplinary strategies is an apparent argument in this review. It is the author's expectation that this issue is provided with accurate attention of researchers from the relevant field in a near future.