Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic media streaming over wireless and mobile IP networks

Due to the increasing number of portable and mobile consumer electronic devices, today's Internet paths include generally at least one wireless segment. Predominant architectures are IEEE 802.11 wireless as well as 3G/4G mobile networks. While the actual bandwidth provisioning on those networks is no longer the limiting factor for high definition media streaming, the quality of such services is severely affected by TCP's shortcomings on wireless paths. The transport protocol suffers from significant underutilization of the available bandwidth in presence of physical packet loss and large propagation delay. For dynamic HTTP streaming this underutilization translates directly into unnecessary quality reduction. In order to improve the quality of dynamic streaming on wireless networks, we implement a novel transport protocol - Predictably Reliable Real-time Transport (PRRT), a protocol layer that efficiently supports the reliability required by multimedia services under their specific time constraint. PRRT is based on hybrid error coding that allows for both proactive and reactive reliability mechanisms. Specifically, it is designed to achieve the optimal trade-off between those mechanisms under strict delay constraints in order to minimize coding overhead. Based on this transport protocol we present a dynamic media streaming architecture with near-optimal bandwidth utilization under equation-based congestion control. We evaluate PRRT's bandwidth allocation and compare our dynamic streaming approach to HTTP-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) on a mobile broadband network as well as a wireless home network.
Application of nanotechnology in biosensors for enhancing pathogen detection.

Rapid detection and identification of pathogenic microorganisms is fundamental to minimizing the spread of infectious disease, and informing clinicians on patient treatment strategies. This need has led to the development of enhanced biosensors that utilize state of the art nanomaterials and nanotechnology, and represent the next generation of diagnostics. A primer on nanoscale biorecognition elements such as, nucleic acids, antibodies, and their synthetic analogs (molecular imprinted polymers), will be presented first. Next the application of various nanotechnologies for biosensor transduction will be discussed, along with the inherent nanoscale phenomenon that leads to their improved performance and capabilities in biosensor systems. A future outlook on characterization and quality assurance, nanotoxicity, and nanomaterial integration into lab-on-a-chip systems will provide the closing thoughts. This article is categorized under: Diagnostic Tools > Diagnostic Nanodevices Diagnostic Tools > Biosensing.
Silencing of Aphid Genes by dsRNA Feeding from Plants

Background RNA interference (RNAi) is a valuable reverse genetics tool to study gene function in various organisms, including hemipteran insects such as aphids. Previous work has shown that RNAi-mediated knockdown of pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) genes can be achieved through direct injection of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) or small-interfering RNAs (siRNA) into the pea aphid hemolymph or by feeding these insects on artificial diets containing the small RNAs. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we have developed the plant-mediated RNAi technology for aphids to allow for gene silencing in the aphid natural environment and minimize handling of these insects during experiments. The green peach aphid M. persicae was selected because it has a broad plant host range that includes the model plants Nicotiana benthamiana and Arabidopsis thaliana for which transgenic materials can relatively quickly be generated. We targeted M. persicae Rack1, which is predominantly expressed in the gut, and M. persicae C002 (MpC002), which is predominantly expressed in the salivary glands. The aphids were fed on N. benthamiana leaf disks transiently producing dsRNA corresponding to these genes and on A. thaliana plants stably producing the dsRNAs. MpC002 and Rack-1 expression were knocked down by up to 60% on transgenic N. benthamiana and A. thaliana. Moreover, silenced M. persicae produced less progeny consistent with these genes having essential functions. Conclusions/Significance Similar levels of gene silencing were achieved in our plant-mediated RNAi approach and published silencing methods for aphids. Furthermore, the N. benthamiana leaf disk assay can be developed into a screen to assess which genes are essential for aphid survival on plants. Our results also demonstrate the feasibility of the plant-mediated RNAi approach for aphid control.
Efficient Real-Time Content Distribution for Multiple Multicast Groups in SDN-Based WLANs

Wireless network research and development efforts are largely driven by the increasing interest in multimedia applications. Video streaming services, which often involve strict quality of service requirements and are very sensitive to delays, represent a significant proportion of these applications. In IEEE 802.11-based WLANs, these services raise several challenges in terms of robustness, reliability, and scalability, especially when supporting multiple multicast streams at the same time. Nevertheless, traditional network architectures make it difficult to address these problems. In this context, the software defined networking (SDN) paradigm opens new research possibilities by decoupling the control decisions from the data-plane and by improving network management and programmability. In this paper, we present SM-SDN@Play, an SDN-based solution for joint multicast rate selection and group formation in 802.11-based networks. Experimental results show the high performance and reliability capabilities of the scheme, regardless of the application bitrate, the number of clients, and the number of concurrent multicast streams. Furthermore, the channel utilization is greatly reduced with regard to the standard multicast schemes, which allows other applications to be supported without experiencing a performance degradation. We release the entire software implementation under a permissive APACHE 2.0 license for academic use.
Cross-correlation between HbO and HbR as an effective feature of motion artifact in fNIRS signal

The general linear model (GLM) as a standard model for fMRI analysis has been applied to fNIRS imaging analysis as well. The GLM is very likely to make false predictions for motion artifact in fNIRS signals. The temporal characteristics of normal cerebral hemodynamics are basically the opposite tendency of oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR). When motion artifact occurs, HbO and HbR are completely different from normal cases as the baseline changes. This paper presents a cross-correlation between HbO and HbR as a feature that can determine the dynamic noise of fNIRS. Since cross-correlation is a deterministic tool that is easy to calculate, it will be very useful for noise elimination if it is noted as a criterion of dynamic noise in fNIRS signals.
Explicit design formulas for current‐mode leap‐frog OTA‐C filters and 300 MHz CMOS seventh‐order linear phase filter

The leap‐frog (LF) configuration is an important structure in analogue filter design. Voltage‐mode LF OTA‐C filters have recently been studied in the literature; however, general explicit formulas do not exist for current‐mode LF OTA‐C filters and there is also need for current‐mode LF‐based OTA‐C structures for realization of arbitrary transmission zeros. Three current‐mode OTA‐C structures are presented, including the basic LF structure and LF filters with an input distributor or an output summer. They can realize all‐pole characteristics and functions with arbitrary transmission zeros. Explicit design formulas are derived directly from these structures for the synthesis of, respectively, all‐pole and arbitrary zero filter characteristics of up to the sixth order. The filter structures are regular and the design formulas are straightforward to use. As an illustrative example, a 300 MHz seventh‐order linear phase low‐pass filter with zeros is presented. The filter is implemented using a fully differential linear operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) based on a source degeneration topology. Simulations in a standard TSMC 0. 18µm CMOS process with 2.5 V power supply have shown that the cutoff frequency of the filter ranges from 260 to 320 MHz, group delay ripple is about 4.5% over the whole tuning range, noise of the filter is 420nA/√Hz, dynamic range is 66 dB and power consumption is 200 mW. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Practical strategies for improving outcomes in T2DM: The potential role of pioglitazone and DPP4 inhibitors

T2DM is a complex disease underlined by multiple pathogenic defects responsible for the development and progression of hyperglycaemia. Each of these factors can now be tackled in a more targeted manner thanks to glucose‐lowering drugs that have been made available in the past 2 to 3 decades. Recognition of the multiplicity of the mechanisms underlying hyperglycaemia calls for treatments that address more than 1 of these mechanisms, with more emphasis placed on the earlier use of combination therapies. Although chronic hyperglycaemia contributes to and amplifies cardiovascular risk, several trials have failed to show a marked effect from intensive glycaemic control. During the past 10 years, the effect of specific glucose‐lowering agents on cardiovascular risk has been explored with dedicated trials. Overall, the cardiovascular safety of the new glucose‐lowering agents has been proven with some of the trials summarized in this review, showing significant reduction of cardiovascular risk. Against this background, pioglitazone, in addition to exerting a sustained glucose‐lowering effect, also has ancillary metabolic actions of potential interest in addressing the cardiovascular risk of T2DM, such as preservation of beta‐cell mass and function. As such, it seems a logical agent to combine with other oral anti‐hyperglycaemic agents, including dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 inhibitors (DPP4i). DPP4i, which may also have a potential to preserve beta‐cell function, is available as a fixed‐dose combination with pioglitazone, and could, potentially, attenuate some of the side effects of pioglitazone, particularly if a lower dose of the thiazolidinedione is used. This review critically discusses the potential for early combination of pioglitazone and DPP4i.
Tissue Plasminogen Activator Coating on Implant Surfaces Reduces Staphylococcus aureus Biofilm Formation

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus biofilm infections of indwelling medical devices are a major medical challenge because of their high prevalence and antibiotic resistance. As fibrin plays an important role in S. aureus biofilm formation, we hypothesize that coating of the implant surface with fibrinolytic agents can be used as a new method of antibiofilm prophylaxis. The effect of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) coating on S. aureus biofilm formation was tested with in vitro microplate biofilm assays and an in vivo mouse model of biofilm infection. tPA coating efficiently inhibited biofilm formation by various S. aureus strains. The effect was dependent on plasminogen activation by tPA, leading to subsequent local fibrin cleavage. A tPA coating on implant surfaces prevented both early adhesion and later biomass accumulation. Furthermore, tPA coating increased the susceptibility of biofilm infections to antibiotics. In vivo, significantly fewer bacteria were detected on the surfaces of implants coated with tPA than on control implants from mice treated with cloxacillin. Fibrinolytic coatings (e.g., with tPA) reduce S. aureus biofilm formation both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting a novel way to prevent bacterial biofilm infections of indwelling medical devices.
Mechatronic design and implementation of a novel gliding robotic dolphin

This paper provides an innovative design for a gliding robotic dolphin. In order to realize high maneuverability and long endurance, the robotic dolphin combines the advantages of both robotic dolphins and underwater gliders. It can not only realize fast and flexible dolphin-like swimming depending on the powerful propulsive posterior body and fluke, but also implement gently and durable gliding motion due to the buoyancy-driven system. More importantly, the controllable pectoral fins and horizontal fluke can effectively complete the attitude adjustment, so traditional internal movable masses could be removed for saving a considerable space. Besides, the hydrodynamic analysis in the steady gliding motion is executed and hydrodynamic coefficients including lift, drag, and pitching moment are also obtained through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. Finally, extensive experiments including dolphin-like swimming, spiraling motion and gently gliding motion illustrate the great locomotion ability of the developed gliding robotic dolphin.
Assessment of impact test experiments on irradiated EUROFER97 and other RAFM steels

This report summarizes assessment of Charpy impact experiments carried out by different worldwide institutions on irradiated European RAFM steel EUROFER97 and other RAFM steels (F82H, OPTIFER). The assessment was carried out under the contract of the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA), subtask TW5-TTMS-001-D11. Irradiation resistance of EUROFER97 is not satisfactory at low irradiation temperatures T in ≤ 330 °C, i.e. large, non-saturating low temperature embrittlement is seen up to 32 dpa. Heat treatment of EUROFER97 at higher austenization temperature (1040°C) leads to the reduction of the embrittlement at low irradiation temperatures T irr < 330 °C. Irradiation performance of EUROFER97 is comparable to that of international RAFM (F82H, OPTIFER) steels. A close correlation between irradiation induced embrittlement and hardening found at T irr ≤ 350 °C for RAFM steels indicates displacement damage nature of low temperature embrittlement. Irradiation performance of EUROFER97 and international reference RAFM steels is satisfactory at T irr ≥ 350 °C up to 16.3 dpa. The influence of boron-to-helium transformation on embrittlement cannot be resolved for 16.3 dpa irradiated RAFM steels with boron contents between 4 and 62 wppm. Boron doped steels (boron content between 82-1120 wppm) show progressive embrittlement and reduction of toughness with increasing helium amount. He induced embrittlement is of hardening nature for helium content of 84 appm. Larger helium concentrations lead to non-hardening embrittlement mechanisms beyond that of hardening embrittlement.
Individual and Cumulative Effects of GWAS Susceptibility Loci in Lung Cancer: Associations after Sub-Phenotyping for COPD

Epidemiological studies show that approximately 20–30% of chronic smokers develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) while 10–15% develop lung cancer. COPD pre-exists lung cancer in 50–90% of cases and has a heritability of 40–77%, much greater than for lung cancer with heritability of 15–25%. These data suggest that smokers susceptible to COPD may also be susceptible to lung cancer. This study examines the association of several overlapping chromosomal loci, recently implicated by GWA studies in COPD, lung function and lung cancer, in (n = 1400) subjects sub-phenotyped for the presence of COPD and matched for smoking exposure. Using this approach we show; the 15q25 locus confers susceptibility to lung cancer and COPD, the 4q31 and 4q22 loci both confer a reduced risk to both COPD and lung cancer, the 6p21 locus confers susceptibility to lung cancer in smokers with pre-existing COPD, the 5p15 and 1q23 loci both confer susceptibility to lung cancer in those with no pre-existing COPD. We also show the 5q33 locus, previously associated with reduced FEV1, appears to confer susceptibility to both COPD and lung cancer. The 6p21 locus previously linked to reduced FEV1 is associated with COPD only. Larger studies will be needed to distinguish whether these COPD-related effects may reflect, in part, associations specific to different lung cancer histology. We demonstrate that when the “risk genotypes” derived from the univariate analysis are incorporated into an algorithm with clinical variables, independently associated with lung cancer in multivariate analysis, modest discrimination is possible on receiver operator curve analysis (AUC = 0.70). We suggest that genetic susceptibility to lung cancer includes genes conferring susceptibility to COPD and that sub-phenotyping with spirometry is critical to identifying genes underlying the development of lung cancer.
Pentanol and Benzyl Alcohol Attack Bacterial Surface Structures Differently

ABSTRACT The genus Methylobacterium tolerates hygiene agents like benzalkonium chloride (BAC), and infection with this organism is an important public health issue. Here, we found that the combination of BAC with particular alcohols at nonlethal concentrations in terms of their solitary uses significantly reduced bacterial viability after only 5 min of exposure. Among the alcohols, Raman spectroscopic analyses showed that pentanol (pentyl alcohol [PeA]) and benzyl alcohol (BzA) accelerated the cellular accumulation of BAC. Fluorescence spectroscopic assays and morphological assays with giant vesicles indicated that PeA rarely attacked membrane structures, while BzA increased the membrane fluidity and destabilized the structures. Other fluorescent spectroscopic assays indicated that PeA and BzA inactivate bacterial membrane proteins, including an efflux pump for BAC transportation. These findings suggested that the inactivation of membrane proteins by PeA and BzA led to the cellular accumulation but that only BzA also enhanced BAC penetration by membrane fluidization at nonlethal concentrations.
Fuzzy Rule-Based Situational Music Retrieval and Recommendation

Recommender Systems (RS) have been used in many domains to assist users' decision making by providing item recommendations and by reducing information overload. Context-Aware Recommender System (CARS) is one RS trying to generate more convincing recommendations by taking user's context into regard. Thus, in order to adapt the recommendations to the user's context, it is useful to identify the current situation of the involved user which may influence the acceptance of a recommendation. Improving user's acceptance on recommendations is a challenging task. In recommender systems, determining the right contextual situation and finding relevant items for the user are considered as two vital issues for achieving better user acceptance. Therefore, our ultimate aim is to infer user's actual situation by fusing interacted contextual circumstances surrounding music listeners through Fuzzy Logic. Then, the inferred situation is used to recommend music from an online webradio service. We conducted a case study to assess user satisfaction in music recommendation. Experimental results reveal that the inclusion of the inferred situation increases significantly the accuracy of the recommendation, while compared to the traditional contextual recommender systems.
Empathy and well-being correlate with centrality in different social networks

Significance Which traits make individuals popular or lead others to turn to them in times of stress? We examine these questions by observing newly formed social networks in first-year college dormitories. We measured dorm members’ traits (for example, their empathy) as well as their position in their dorm’s social networks. Via network analysis, we corroborate insights from psychological research: people who exude positive emotions are sought out by others for fun and excitement, whereas empathic individuals are sought out for trust and support. These findings show that individuals’ traits are related to their network positions and to the different roles that they play in supporting their communities. Individuals benefit from occupying central roles in social networks, but little is known about the psychological traits that predict centrality. Across four college freshman dorms (n = 193), we characterized individuals with a battery of personality questionnaires and also asked them to nominate dorm members with whom they had different types of relationships. This revealed several social networks within dorm communities with differing characteristics. In particular, additional data showed that networks varied in the degree to which nominations depend on (i) trust and (ii) shared fun and excitement. Networks more dependent upon trust were further defined by fewer connections than those more dependent on fun. Crucially, network and personality features interacted to predict individuals’ centrality: people high in well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and positive emotion) were central to networks characterized by fun, whereas people high in empathy were central to networks characterized by trust. Together, these findings provide network-based corroboration of psychological evidence that well-being is socially attractive, whereas empathy supports close relationships. More broadly, these data highlight how an individual’s personality relates to the roles that they play in sustaining their community.
Delivering High-Frame-Rate Video to Mobile Devices in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

High-frame rate (HFR) video streaming is emerging as a new paradigm in popular multimedia applications (e.g., mobile cloud gaming) to achieve smooth viewing experience perceived by end users. However, it is severely challenging to guarantee the delivery quality of HFR video over wireless platforms with regard to the high transmission rate and limited network resources. Multihoming capability enables mobile devices to concurrently receive video data with different radio interfaces (e.g., cellular and Wi-Fi). To effectively deliver mobile HFR video over multiple wireless access networks, this paper develops an application-layer transmission scheme dubbed joint FRAme Scheduling and Error Resilience (FRASER). First, we propose an unequal frame scheduling approach by taking advantage of interlaced forward error correction coding and reliability-aware data allocation to minimize the total distortion. Second, we introduce an error resilience scheme at the receiver side to proactively leverage the out-of-order and overdue video packets to mitigate the error propagations. The proposed FRASER is able to substantially reduce the probability of I (Intra) frame loss and consecutive P (Predicted) frame drops. We conduct the performance evaluation through extensive emulations in Exata involving HFR video streaming encoded with H.264 codec. Evaluation results show that FRASER outperforms the reference transmission schemes in terms of video peak signal-to-noise ratio, end-to-end delay, and received frame rate. Thus, FRASER is recommended for delivering HFR video streaming to multihomed mobile devices in heterogeneous wireless networks.
A Standard for Map Data Representation: IEEE 1873-2015 Facilitates Interoperability Between Robots

The availability of environment maps for autonomous robots enables them to complete several tasks. A new IEEE standard, IEEE 1873-2015, Robot Map Data Representation for Navigation (MDR) [15], sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and approved by the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board in September 2015, defines a common representation for two-dimensional (2-D) robot maps and is intended to facilitate interoperability among navigating robots. The standard defines an extensible markup language (XML) data format for exchanging maps between different systems. This article illustrates how metric maps, topological maps, and their combinations can be represented according to the standard.