Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
iSeeYou: Disabling the MacBook Webcam Indicator LED

The ubiquitous webcam indicator LED is an important privacy feature which provides a visual cue that the camera is turned on. We describe how to disable the LED on a class of Apple internal iSight webcams used in some versions of MacBook laptops and iMac desktops. This enables video to be captured without any visual indication to the user and can be accomplished entirely in user space by an unprivileged (non-root) application. The same technique that allows us to disable the LED, namely reprogramming the firmware that runs on the iSight, enables a virtual machine escape whereby malware running inside a virtual machine reprograms the camera to act as a USB Human Interface Device (HID) keyboard which executes code in the host operating system. We build two proofs-of-concept: (1) an OS X application, iSeeYou, which demonstrates capturing video with the LED disabled; and (2) a virtual machine escape that launches Terminal.app and runs shell commands. To defend against these and related threats, we build an OS X kernel extension, iSightDefender, which prohibits the modification of the iSight's firmware from user space.
An integrated genomic-based approach to individualized treatment of patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated genomic-based approach to personalized treatment of patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer. We have used gene expression profiles to identify patients likely to be resistant to primary platinum-based chemotherapy and also to identify alternate targeted therapeutic options for patients with de novo platinum-resistant disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS A gene expression model that predicts response to platinum-based therapy was developed using a training set of 83 advanced-stage serous ovarian cancers and tested on a 36-sample external validation set. In parallel, expression signatures that define the status of oncogenic signaling pathways were evaluated in 119 primary ovarian cancers and 12 ovarian cancer cell lines. In an effort to increase chemotherapy sensitivity, pathways shown to be activated in platinum-resistant cancers were subject to targeted therapy in ovarian cancer cell lines. RESULTS Gene expression profiles identified patients with ovarian cancer likely to be resistant to primary platinum-based chemotherapy with greater than 80% accuracy. In patients with platinum-resistant disease, we identified expression signatures consistent with activation of Src and Rb/E2F pathways, components of which were successfully targeted to increase response in ovarian cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION We have defined a strategy for treatment of patients with advanced-stage ovarian cancer that uses therapeutic stratification based on predictions of response to chemotherapy, coupled with prediction of oncogenic pathway deregulation, as a method to direct the use of targeted agents.
Exercise for Osteoarthritis of the Knee

textabstract〈LEAP〉 highlights the findings and application of Cochrane reviews and other evidence pertinent to the practice of physical therapy. The Cochrane Library is a respected source of reliable evidence related to health care. Cochrane systematic reviews explore the evidence for and against the effectiveness and appropriateness of interventions - medications, surgery, education, nutrition, exercise - and the evidence for and against the use of diagnostic tests for specific conditions. Cochrane reviews are designed to facilitate the decisions of clinicians, patients, and others in health care by providing a careful review and interpretation of research studies published in the scientific literature.1Each article in this new PTJ series will summarize a Cochrane review or other scientific evidence resource on a single topic and will present clinical scenarios based on real patients to illustrate how the results of the review can be used to directly inform clinical decisions. This article focuses on a patient with moderate osteoarthritis in both knees. Can exercise help this patient?
Protein Equilibration Through Somatic Ring Canals in Drosophila

Lord of the Ring Canal In Drosophila, some cells maintain direct cytoplasmic connections with their siblings by intercellular bridges known as ring canals that arise from mitotic cleavage furrows. In ovarian follicle cells and imaginal discs, McLean and Cooley (p. 1445, published online 23 May) found that ring canals allowed diffusion of cytoplasmic proteins between cells and across mitotic clone boundaries, which may suggest a role in compensating for transcriptional variation between cells. Ring canals ensure that the haves share with their have-not neighbors. Although intercellular bridges resulting from incomplete cytokinesis were discovered in somatic Drosophila tissues decades ago, the impact of these structures on intercellular communication and tissue biology is largely unknown. In this work, we demonstrate that the ~250-nanometer-diameter somatic ring canals permit diffusion of cytoplasmic contents between connected cells and across mitotic clone boundaries and enable the equilibration of protein between transcriptionally mosaic follicle cells in the Drosophila ovary. We obtained similar, although more restricted, results in the larval imaginal discs. Our work illustrates the lack of cytoplasmic autonomy in these tissues and suggests a role for somatic ring canals in promoting homogeneous protein expression within the tissue.
Secrecy Outage Analysis on Underlay Cognitive Radio System With Full-Duplex Secondary User

In this paper, an underlay cognitive radio system, which consists of a primary-user (PU) transmitter (TX), a PU receiver (RX), a secondary-user (SU) TX, and a SU_RX, is considered. Benefitting from the underlay mode, SU_TX can deliver its information to SU_RX by sharing the spectrum resource authorized to PU. It is assumed that SUs are equipped with a single transmitting antenna and a single receiving antenna, which are isolated, and work in full-duplex (FD) mode. By considering that the information signal transmitted from PU_TX to PU_RX may be eavesdropped by SU_TX if SU_TX is malicious, we investigate the secrecy outage performance of the PU system. The approximated closed-form expression for secrecy outage probability (SOP) and the lower boundary of the asymptotic SOP have been derived and verified by simulation results. Our results reveal the impact of the eavesdropping of the SU and the FD mode adopted at the SU transmitter on the secrecy performance of the PU system in underlay spectrum sharing mode.
Full-text based context-rich heterogeneous network mining approach for citation recommendation

Citation relationship between scientific publications has been successfully used for scholarly bibliometrics, information retrieval and data mining tasks, and citation-based recommendation algorithms are well documented. While previous studies investigated citation relations from various viewpoints, most of them share the same assumption that, if paper1 cites paper2 (or author1 cites author2), they are connected, regardless of citation importance, sentiment, reason, topic, or motivation. However, this assumption is oversimplified. In this study, we employ an innovative “context-rich heterogeneous network” approach, which paves a new way for citation recommendation task. In the network, we characterize (1) the importance of citation relationships between citing and cited papers, and (2) the topical citation motivation. Unlike earlier studies, the citation information, in this paper, is characterized by citation textual contexts extracted from the full-text citing paper. We also propose algorithm to cope with the situation when large portion of full-text missing information exists in the bibliographic repository. Evaluation results show that, context-rich heterogeneous network can significantly enhance the citation recommendation performance.
Selectivity of Ca2+ channel blockers in inhibiting muscular and nerve activities in isolated colon

1 Potency and efficacy of nifedipine, verapamil and diltiazem and of Bay K 8644 in modifying propulsion and nerve or smooth muscle activities have been compared in the guinea‐pig isolated distal colon. Both the neuronal and muscular effects of Ca2+ channel blockers seem to develop at concentrations that are devoid of any significant effect apart from that on Ca2+ channels. 2 Nifedipine, verapamil and diltiazem were all able to impair propulsion, resting and stimulated acetylcholine (ACh) release and smooth muscle contractility in a concentration‐dependent way. However, some degree of selectivity for neuronal and muscular effects could be observed. Nifedipine was more than 500 fold more potent than verapamil in relaxing musculature but less than twice as potent in reducing ACh release. On the other hand, verapamil was the most efficacious Ca2+ channel blocker tested in inhibiting ACh release, its effects being inversely correlated to the external Ca2+ concentration, and completely abolished by Bay K 8644. 3 By comparing the potencies exhibited by each drug against peristaltic reflex, smooth muscle contractility and ACh release, verapamil proved to be almost as potent in slowing the peristaltic reflex as in reducing ACh release, while nifedipine was about 100 fold more potent against the peristaltic reflex than against ACh release, but nearly equal against the peristaltic reflex and smooth muscle tone. Therefore, interference with cholinergic neurotransmission is likely to play a major role in the antipropulsive effect of verapamil, while peristaltic reflex impairment by nifedipine is likely to be dependent on inhibition of smooth muscle. 4 A facilitatory effect of Bay K 8644 on both the efficiency of the peristaltic reflex and the non‐adrenergic, non‐cholinergic (NANC) nerve‐mediated relaxation could be observed at concentrations at least 10 fold lower than those required to affect ACh release or smooth muscle. 5 It is concluded that the effects of Ca2+ channel blockers on neurotransmitter release may be relevant to their effects on the gastrointestinal motor function.
Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information

It has long been thought that the eyes index the inner workings of the mind. Consistent with this intuition, empirical research has demonstrated that pupils dilate as a consequence of attentional effort. Recently, Smallwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that pupil dilations not only provide an index of overall attentional effort, but are time-locked to stimulus changes during attention (but not during mind-wandering). This finding suggests that pupil dilations afford a dynamic readout of conscious information processing. However, because stimulus onsets in their study involved shifts in luminance as well as information, they could not determine whether this coupling of stimulus and pupillary dynamics reflected attention to low-level (luminance) or high-level (information) changes. Here, we replicated the methodology and findings of Smallwood et al. (2011) while controlling for luminance changes. When presented with isoluminant digit sequences, participants' pupillary dilations were synchronized with stimulus onsets when attending, but not when mind-wandering. This replicates Smallwood et al. (2011) and clarifies their finding by demonstrating that stimulus-pupil coupling reflects online cognitive processing beyond sensory gain.
The Role of Hyperthyroidism as the Predisposing Factor for Superior Sagittal Sinus Thrombosis

Superior sagittal sinus thrombosis (SSST) is an uncommon cause of stroke, whose symptoms and clinical course are highly variable. It is frequently associated with a variety of hypercoagulable states. Coagulation abnormalities are commonly seen in patients with hyperthyroidism. To the best of our knowledge, there are few reports on the association between hyperthyroidism and cerebral venous thrombosis. We report on a 31-year-old male patient with a six-year history of hyperthyroidism who developed seizure and mental deterioration. Findings on brain computed tomography (CT) showed multiple hemorrhages in the subcortical area of both middle frontal gyrus and cerebral digital subtraction angiography (DSA) showed irregular intra-luminal filling defects of the superior sagittal sinus. These findings were consistent with hemorrhagic transformation of SSST. Findings on clinical laboratory tests were consistent with hyperthyroidism. In addition, our patient also showed high activity of factors IX and XI. The patient received treatment with oral anticoagulant and prophylthiouracil. His symptoms showed complete improvement. A follow-up cerebral angiography four weeks after treatment showed a recanalization of the SSS. In conclusion, findings of our case indicate that hypercoagulability may contribute to development of SSST in a patient with hyperthyroidism.
Late presenting atypical severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) associated with a novel missense mutation in DCLRE1C

Immunodeficiency associated with mutations in the DNA cross-link repair 1C gene (DCLRE1C) can have variable clinical presentations including severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), Omenn syndrome, atypical SCID or common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) (1-3). DCLRE1C encodes the protein Artemis, a nuclease with intrinsic 5′-3′ exonuclease activity on single-stranded DNA that is involved in non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Artemis is essential for V(D)J recombination of the immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes that occur during B- and T-cell development.
3.8 mW terahertz radiation generation through plasmonic nano-antenna arrays

We present a high-performance photoconductive terahertz emitter based on a two dimensional array of plasmonic nano-antennas. The array of plasmonic nano-antennas is specifically designed to offer high power terahertz radiation by introducing a strong time-varying dipole moment in response to an incident optical pump. We experimentally demonstrate terahertz radiation power levels as high as 3.8 mW over 0.1-5 THz bandwidth in response to a 240 mW optical pump beam, exhibiting the highest reported terahertz power levels with one order of magnitude higher optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiencies compared to conventional designs.
Nile Blue Inducible Fluorescence of Tumour Cells

An oxazine dye, Nile Blue sulfate, induces a fluorescent reaction in cytoplasmic granules (NBIFG) of living or fixed tumour cells in the same manner as reported before for Thiazine dyes. The NBIFG correspond to phase contrast positive granules when cells are viewed by phase contrast microscopy. Fluorescence disappears from NBIFG in a matter of 2—4 days and the bodies turn deep blue. These granules have a succinate dehydrogenase (SDG) activity and are negative for acid phosphatase, peroxidasic activity and porphyrin. The cytological findings support the assumption that Nile Blue sulfate forms a salt linkage with unsaturated fatty acids of NBIFG which also show an oxi-reductive activity. The molecular nature of the fluorophore (s) is (are) unknown.
Genetic Composition of Communal Roosts of the Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) Inferred from Non-Invasive Samples

Many animal species form communal roosts in which they aggregate and sleep together. Several benefits of communal roost have been suggested, but due to lack of data on relatedness among group members, it is unknown whether these benefits can be amplified by the formation of kin-based communal roosts. We investigate the genetic composition of two winter roosts of Eurasian Magpies (Pica pica), using microsatellite markers on non-invasive samples. Using permutation tests by reshuffling the alleles presented in the roosts, we determined that individuals in the communal roosts of magpies were not more related than expected by chance, suggesting that kinship may not be a driving force for the formation of communal roosts in magpies. However, the pairwise relatedness and estimated relationship based on a maximum likelihood approach revealed that the roosts involve both kin and non-kin. Relatedness coefficients varied widely within a roost, indicating that family subgroups form a small proportion of the total number of birds in a roost. Our results suggest that ecological benefits of communal roost in animals are sufficient for the evolution of communal roosts without any involvement of kinship.
Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension: A Case Report

Spontaneous intracranial hypotension is a rare syndrome of low cerebrospinal fluid pressure due to spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid leaks. The main feature is orthostatic headache. We describe a case of spontaneous intracranial hypotension in a 5-year-old girl with a 1-month history of headache, sudden onset hearing loss, and ataxia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed an enlargement of cervical venous plexus and lumbar puncture revealed a low opening pressure. Magnetic resonance myelography showed leakage of the contrast material at the level of the third and fourth lumbar vertebra. Bed rest and caffeine treatment yielded no resolution of symptoms. Following a lumbar epidural blood patch, her headache and ataxia resolved completely without any improvement in hearing. A second blood patch also yielded no effect on hearing. Spontaneous intracranial hypotension should be considered in the differential diagnosis of headache, also in the pediatric age group.
Remote Store Programming: Mechanisms and Performance

This paper presents remote store programming (RSP). This paradigm combines usability and efficiency through the exploitation of a simple hardware mechanism, the remote store, which can easily be added to existing multicores. Remote store programs are marked by fine-grained and one-sided communication which results in a stream of data flowing from the registers of a sending process to the cache of a destination process. The RSP model and its hardware implementation trade a relatively high store latency for a low load latency because loads are more common than stores, and it is easier to tolerate store latency than load latency. This paper demonstrates the performance advantages of remote store programming by comparing it to both cache-coherent shared memory and direct memory access (DMA) based approaches using the TILEPro64 processor. The paper studies two applications: a two-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform (2D FFT) and an H.264 encoder for high-definition video. For a 2D FFT using 56 cores, RSP is 1.64× faster than DMA and 4.4× faster than shared memory. For an H.264 encoder using 40 cores, RSP achieves the same performance as DMA and 4.8× the performance of shared memory. Along with these performance advantages, RSP requires the least hardware support of the three. RSP’s features, performance, and hardware simplicity make it well suited to the embedded processing domain.
Is there a generalized magnitude system in the brain? Behavioral, neuroimaging, and computational evidence

Some 10 years ago, it was proposed that different quantities, including time, space or number, are processed by a common mechanism (Walsh, 2003; Pinel et al., 2004; Cohen Kadosh et al., 2005), henceforth called generalized magnitude system (GMS). This presented an important attempt at theoretically integrating data across various literatures, and became very influential (e.g., Burr et al., 2010; Lourenco and Longo, 2011; Bonato et al., 2012). However, in this paper we will evaluate the concept in a critical way. We first argue that such a mechanism faces conceptual difficulties. Second, we look at empirical findings that were proposed to support a GMS and will offer a different explanation of these findings based on computational modeling and recent empirical observations. Third, we review positive evidence in favor of distinct magnitude mechanisms. We discuss alternatives for a GMS in a final paragraph.
The University of the Third Age as an institution counteracting marginalization of older people

The article presents the role of the University of the Third Age in counteracting the effects of marginalization of the elderly. The history of the University of the Third Age is presented and also different models of this institution are characterized. The paper presents new trends in research conducted by participants of the U3A and shown their relation to marginalization.
Joint waveform adaptation and power control in multi-cell wireless data networks: A game-theoretic approach

The problem of non-cooperative spreading code allocation, linear receiver design, and transmit power control for multicell wireless networks is considered in this paper. Several utility functions to be maximized are considered, and, among them, we cite the received SINR, and the transmitter energy efficiency, which is measured in bit/Joule, and represents the number of successfully delivered bits for each energy unit used for transmission. Resorting to the theory of potential games, non-cooperative games admitting Nash equilibria in multi-cell networks regardless of the channel coefficient realizations are designed. Computer simulations confirm that the considered games are convergent, and show the huge benefits that resource allocation schemes can bring to the performance of wireless data networks.
Human TLR9 confers responsiveness to bacterial DNA via species-specific CpG motif recognition

The Toll-like receptor (TLR) family consists of phylogenetically conserved transmembrane proteins, which function as mediators of innate immunity for recognition of pathogen-derived ligands and subsequent cell activation via the Toll/IL-1R signal pathway. Here, we show that human TLR9 (hTLR9) expression in human immune cells correlates with responsiveness to bacterial deoxycytidylate-phosphate-deoxyguanylate (CpG)-DNA. Notably “gain of function” to immunostimulatory CpG-DNA is achieved by expressing TLR9 in human nonresponder cells. Transfection of either human or murine TLR9 conferred responsiveness in a CD14- and MD2-independent manner, yet required species-specific CpG-DNA motifs for initiation of the Toll/IL-1R signal pathway via MyD88. The optimal CpG motif for hTLR9 was GTCGTT, whereas the optimal murine sequence was GACGTT. Overall, these data suggest that hTLR9 conveys CpG-DNA responsiveness to human cells by directly engaging immunostimulating CpG-DNA.
Peripheral neuropathy in the Twitcher mouse involves the activation of axonal caspase 3

Infantile Krabbe disease results in the accumulation of lipid-raft-associated galactosylsphingosine (psychosine), demyelination, neurodegeneration and premature death. Recently, axonopathy has been depicted as a contributing factor in the progression of neurodegeneration in the Twitcher mouse, a bona fide mouse model of Krabbe disease. Analysis of the temporal-expression profile of MBP (myelin basic protein) isoforms showed unexpected increases of the 14, 17 and 18.5 kDa isoforms in the sciatic nerve of 1-week-old Twitcher mice, suggesting an abnormal regulation of the myelination process during early postnatal life in this mutant. Our studies showed an elevated activation of the pro-apoptotic protease caspase 3 in sciatic nerves of 15- and 30-day-old Twitcher mice, in parallel with increasing demyelination. Interestingly, while active caspase 3 was clearly contained in peripheral axons at all ages, we found no evidence of caspase accumulation in the soma of corresponding mutant spinal cord motor neurons. Furthermore, active caspase 3 was found not only in unmyelinated axons, but also in myelinated axons of the mutant sciatic nerve. These results suggest that axonal caspase activation occurs before demyelination and following a dying-back pattern. Finally, we showed that psychosine was sufficient to activate caspase 3 in motor neuronal cells in vitro in the absence of myelinating glia. Taken together, these findings indicate that degenerating mechanisms actively and specifically mediate axonal dysfunction in Krabbe disease and support the idea that psychosine is a pathogenic sphingolipid sufficient to cause axonal defects independently of demyelination.