Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retinal pigment epithelium defects in humans and mice with mutations in MYO7A: imaging melanosome-specific autofluorescence.

PURPOSE Usher syndrome (USH) is a genetically heterogeneous disease with autosomal recessive deafness and blindness. Gene therapy is under development for use in the most common genetic variant of USH1, USH1B, which is caused by mutations in the MYO7A gene. This study was undertaken to identify an imaging method for noninvasively monitoring the RPE component of the USH1B disease. METHODS NIR-autofluorescence (NIR-AF) was examined in USH1B patients with scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, and retinal thickness with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. Myo7a-null mouse retinas and purified RPE melanosomes were analyzed by spectral deconvolution confocal microscopy. RESULTS In USH1B patients, NIR-AF was normal in regions of retained photoreceptors and abnormal in regions lacking photoreceptors. Subtle changes in NIR-AF were associated with intermediate photoreceptor loss. In ex vivo mouse retinas, the NIR-AF source was traced to the melanosomes in the RPE and choroid. Purified RPE melanosomes emitted the same signal. Fluorophores, excited by long-wavelength light, were evident throughout the apical RPE of WT mouse eyecups. In Myo7a-null eyecups, these fluorophores had a more restricted distribution. They were absent from the apical processes of the RPE, thus correlating with the melanosome localization defects described previously by conventional microscopy. CONCLUSIONS The data indicate that melanosomes in the RPE and choroid are the dominant source of NIR-AF from the posterior region of the eye. NIR-AF is a novel tool that provides sensitive and label-free imaging of the retina and RPE and is currently the only melanosome-specific, noninvasive technique for monitoring RPE disease in new therapeutic initiatives for retinal degenerations.
Content adaptive video summarization using spatio-temporal features

This paper proposes a video summarization method based on novel spatio-temporal features that combine motion magnitude, object class prediction, and saturation. Motion magnitude measures how much motion there is in a video. Object class prediction provides information about an object in a video. Saturation measures the colorfulness of a video. Con-volutional neural networks (CNNs) are incorporated for object class prediction. The sum of the normalized features per shot are ranked in descending order, and the summary is determined by the highest ranking shots. This ranking can be conditioned on the object class, and the high-ranking shots for different object classes are also proposed as a summary of the input video. The performance of the summarization method is evaluated on the SumMe datasets, and the results reveal that the proposed method achieves better performance than the summary of worst human and most other state-of-the-art video summarization methods.
Topological Similarity-Based Scheme for Large-Scale Group Communication Services

Group communication is essential for multi-user applications. However, due to unpredictable node departures and non-deterministic network partitions, providing reliable and scalable group communication services is challenging when the applications are utilized by the users with heterogeneous capacities on a large scale. To address this challenge, we propose a novel replication scheme to achieve high reliability and low-cost scalability in group communication with following three features. First, it introduces a new concept of replication based on topological similarity, which empowers each node with an ability of measuring similarity between the nodes in topology. By eliminating the topological similarity between the replicas, it intelligently mitigates service interruptions caused by node failures and network partitions. Second, instead of specifying the number of replicas, it provides a technique for nodes to dynamically adapt the replication placement schemes by exploiting functionality importance of the nodes in the group- communication session. It eliminates the bottleneck problem and improves the network resource utilization. Third, the scheme is self-converging and it can stabilize within a few adaptations even facing a high churn rate. Extensive simulations show that it yields significant improvements in reduction of replication overhead and service interruption when comparing to existing approaches.
Exploring competencies: a qualitative study of Chinese nurse managers.

AIM To identify core competencies needed in the transition of nurse managers on the way to excellence. BACKGROUND There is growing recognition of the importance of nurse managers in hospitals. Most managers still learn through their failures and few studies have described the perceptions of nurse managers in China. It is vital to understand what competencies Chinese nurse managers should have in order to establish suitable training programmes and improve their management skills. METHOD A phenomenological approach that included in-depth interviews with 12 nurse managers in six Chinese hospitals was conducted. RESULTS The transition to management included four phases: the adaptive phase, the running-in and stable phase, the stagnation phase and the maturation phase. CONCLUSION In order to fulfil their clinical responsibilities, nurse managers need to develop multifaceted competencies, specifically in communication and stress management. Ideally, nurse managers should progress through the four phases mentioned above to achieve excellence. IMPLICATIONS There is a requirement for utilising various methods for nurse managers in adapting new roles, improving communication and relieving stress.
Antenna selection and power splitting for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer in interference alignment networks

Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) and interference alignment (IA) are two emerging techniques in energy harvesting and interference management for the next generation wireless networks, respectively. Although many studies have focused on SWIPT and IA, the conjunction of these two techniques is largely ignored, which should be noted to reuse the interference as energy for harvesting. In this paper, we jointly study SWIPT and IA in the multiuser MIMO system to realize energy harvesting and interference management simultaneously and effectively. Specifically, antenna selection (AS) based SWIPT scheme is proposed and analyzed for IA networks. Furthermore, power allocation (PA) for multiple data streams is designed to further improve its performance, and the closed-form solution can be obtained by Lagrange duality method. In addition, given the constrained number of antennas, another scheme called power splitting (PS) based SWIPT is utilized, where PA is also considered and formulated as a joint optimization problem. Simulation results are presented to show the superiority of the proposed schemes.
A model of a secure electronic voting system based on blind intermediaries using russian cryptographic algorithms

Information technology is being increasingly introduced into our lives. Most areas of human activity are widely associated with information technology, and electronic voting is no exception. At the moment, there are a number of ready-made solutions, but all of them are not sufficiently safe and open, and most importantly most of them are produced outside the Russian Federation. In such strategically important areas as e-government, in particular electronic elections, it is necessary to be completely confident in the algorithms, principles and systems used. The issue is raised about creating a secure and trustworthy system, and most importantly, an open one and implemented using standardized cryptographic algorithms of the Russian Federation. A model of the system is proposed based on the principle of blind intermediaries developed by the authors and using cryptographic algorithms such as the symmetric cipher GOST R 34.12-2015 (Kuznyechik), hash function GOST R 34.11-2012 (Stribog). The system model proposed by the authors is characterized by a comprehensive approach to electronic voting, namely detailing decisions at all stages of voting. The basic techniques for correct and safe conduct of electronic voting are described, such as the security of transmitted confidential data, the distribution of secret keys, the authentication of the parties, the verification of the transmitted data for integrity, the time control of the transmitted data. It shows how these techniques are implemented. Based on the developed algorithms, a model of the electronic voting system was implemented in C# . Net Framework programming language consisting of a set of window interface applications that interact with each other via network. The efficiency of the developed system is shown. Areas of improvement of the system are noted.
Modeling SRAM dynamic VMIN

Designing and margining SRAMs in new emerging technologies has become increasingly difficult due to an increase in variation and cache size. In the past, the length of the wordline (WL) pulse width was typically set by the read operation, due to its longer delay. However, in newer technologies it has been shown that in many cases the write operation is more limiting due to the high variability of the minimum sized PMOS device. Measuring the critical WL pulse width (TCRIT) of the write operation requires transient simulation which is more computation intensive, resulting in higher simulation times. In this paper we present a method for measuring write TCRIT which uses sensitivity analysis to provide a ~112X speedup over recursive statistical blockade. In addition, we observe that increasing the WL pulse width allows for a reduction in total cycle time. Using this information, we show that negative BL reduction is more effective at reducing TCRIT compared WL boosting as the cycle time is reduced.
Recent progress in luminescent liquid crystal materials: design, properties and application for linearly polarised emission

Luminescent liquid crystal (LC) materials have attracted significant interest for organic optoelectronic applications, especially for linearly polarised emission, because of their combination of ordered alignment and luminescence property. Since the first demonstration of polarised organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in 1995, remarkable progress has been made with polarised electroluminescence because of the continuous advances in the design of suitable LC materials. In this Review, we summarize luminescent LC materials with representative examples based on fluorescent materials, phosphorescent materials, and lanthanide complexes. The structure–property relationships for polarised emission and, when available, electroluminescence of these materials are presented and discussed, with a focus on phosphorescent metallomesogens. We also present the rationale behind the design and development of luminescent LC materials for high efficiency polarised OLEDs, along with the challenges ahead to achieve efficient devices.
Performance impact of topology poisoning attack in SDN and its countermeasure

Topology Discovery is a crucial task for a controller in Software Defined Networks (SDN). In this paper, we present an attack model to disturb topology discovery service of controller, by injecting fake links in the network. Our attack model assumes, some switches present in the network are compromised by attacker. Fake links injected through compromised switches, causes a huge packet loss in the network. We have performed a comparative analysis of packet loss for our proposed attack model and packet loss for previously proposed model. We also provide an efficient countermeasure for proposed attack model based on detection of fake link at controller. Both attack model and countermeasure are tested for a real time network.
Effects of Alloys on Microstructure and Properties of Mo2FeB2-Based Cermets

Mo2FeB2 cermets were prepared by in-situ reaction and vacuum liquid phase sintering technology which used Mo powder, Fe powder and FeB powder as raw materials. Added with the different content of Cr, Ni, the influence on microstructure and properties of the alloy were studied, and the distribution and phase of the alloy was investigated by SEM, EDS, XRD. The results show that Ni only exists in the binder of the cermets, Cr exists in both hard phase and binder and produces the particles of Mo2FeB2 fine grain size, With 10%wt of Cr, 2%wt of Ni added, comprehensive mechanics performance of the material is best and the bending strength was highest with high hardness.
Influence of Shock Pre‐Compression Stress and Tensile Strain Rate on the Spall Behaviour of Mild Steel

Abstract: A series of plate‐impact spall experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of shock pre‐compression stress and tensile strain rates on the dynamic tensile fracture (or spall) behaviour of shocked mild steel. The shock pre‐compression stress amplitude and tensile strain rate were controlled independently to ensure that only one single‐loading parameter varied for each experiment. A push–pull type velocity interferometer system for any reflector (VISAR) was used to measure the free surface velocity profiles of samples. It is observed from experimental results that the influence of shock pre‐compression stress amplitude on the spall strength is less significant in the range attained in these experiments, whereas with increasing tensile strain rate, an evident 65% increase of spall strength is determined in the present tensile strain rate range of 104 to 106 s−1. VISAR data are compared with finite‐difference calculations employing a modified damage function model with a percolation–relaxation function, and a good agreement between the calculation and the experiments was obtained. Preliminary simulation results also revealed that a critical damage exists, which physically corresponds to the critical intervoid ligament distance for triggering the onset of void coalescence, and may be regarded as a material parameter for describing the dynamic tensile fracture and independent of the loading conditions.
Modeling structural dissimilarity based on shape embodiment for cell segmentation

Accurate cell segmentation is one of the critical, yet challenging problems in microscopy images due to ambiguous boundaries as well as a wide variation of shapes and sizes of cells. Even though a number of existing methods have achieved decent results for cell segmentation, boundary vagueness between adjoining cells tended to cause generation of perceptually inaccurate segmentation of stained nuclei. We propose a segmentation method of cells based on structural dissimilarity between embodied and imaged cells. From assumption that the shape of the region of adjoining cells follows a 2D Gaussian mixture model, the cell region is divided by an expectation-maximization method. The lowest structural dissimilarity using embodied cells decides on the number of components of the 2D Gaussian mixture model. The region of interest is extracted by implementation of both global and local thresholdings, which performs binarization of the local image with a seed at the center, where the seed is obtained by the maximally stable extremal regions. Our approach presented considerably higher evaluation scores compared with other five existing methods in terms of both accuracies of region of interest (ROI) detection and boundary discrimination.
Epigenetics in liver disease: from biology to therapeutics

Knowledge of the fundamental epigenetic mechanisms governing gene expression and cellular phenotype are sufficiently advanced that novel insights into the epigenetic control of chronic liver disease are now emerging. Hepatologists are in the process of shedding light on the roles played by DNA methylation, histone/chromatin modifications and non-coding RNAs in specific liver pathologies. Alongside these discoveries are advances in the technologies for the detection and quantification of epigenetic biomarkers, either directly from patient tissue or from body fluids. The premise for this review is to survey the recent advances in the field of liver epigenetics and to explore their potential for translation by industry and clinical hepatologists for the design of novel therapeutics and diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers. In particular, we present findings in the context of hepatocellular carcinoma, fibrosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, where there is urgent unmet need for new clinical interventions and biomarkers.
Complete resolution of mycosis fungoides tumors with imiquimod 5% cream: a case series

Abstract Objective: To demonstrate the clinical efficacy of topical 5% imiquimod for mycosis fungoides (MF) tumors. Background: Treatment of tumor-stage MF represents a therapeutic challenge because of a limited number of effective topical therapies. Single tumors can be treated with localized radiation but may recur. Systemic therapies are also an option but are associated with serious adverse effects. Imiquimod is a topical agent whose efficacy has been documented in treating MF patches and plaques as well as one case of tumor-stage disease. Methods: We present two stage IIB MF patients, including one with large cell transformation, whose tumors were treated with imiquimod 5% cream after failing prior therapies. Results: The MF tumors in both patients demonstrated a complete response to imiquimod 5% cream without recurrence over 8 years and 2 years of follow-up, respectively. One patient experienced application site irritation and flu-like symptoms as adverse effects. Conclusions: Our case series is only the second report in the literature demonstrating complete resolution of MF tumors with topical imiquimod. An additional therapeutic option for tumor-stage MF, imiquimod may represent an effective alternative to localized radiation for isolated MF tumors and warrants further investigation in the treatment of various stages of MF.
Integrating thor tools into the emerging AV1 codec

Over recent years there have been several efforts which aim to standardise a royalty-free video codec, such as Thor developed by Cisco, and AV1 developed by the Alliance for Open Media. In this paper we discuss how some compression tools in Thor were integrated into the emerging AV1 codec aiming to increase compression efficiency as well as to decrease computational complexity.
Effect of water absorption on the behavior of E‐glass fiber/nylon‐6 composites

The effect of water absorption on the stress transferability across E-glass fiber/nylon 6 interface has been studied using the embedded single fiber composite technique. The behavior of silane coated fiber and untreated fiber composites after periods of water immersion were compared. The silane coating provided both higher interfacial shear stress transferability and protection from permanent water damage in the interphase region. It was found that water absorption in the nylon matrix reduced the shear stress transferability through plasticization of the matrix, weakening of the interface, and the development of tensile swelling stresses at the phase boundaries. In untreated materials the shear stress transferability was limited by decoupling of the matrix from the broken fiber ends by either interface slippage or local plane strain fracture in the interphase region near the fiber end. In the silane treated materials the shear stress transferability was limited by constrained yielding of the polysiloxane/nylon interphase at the fiber end, thus indicating plasticization of the matrix was the primary factor. After 20 days of water immersion, there was permanent deterioration of stress transferability in the untreated samples, but very little permanent damage in the treated samples.
New developments in producing more functional and sustainable composites

Abstract: There will always be a new combination of resin and matrix material to extend the range of composites so this chapter can at best illustrate the trends in composite material applications. The major driver in today’s low carbon economy markets is low weight products, in which case, composites have a chance to expand in application. Additionally, there is a keen interest in finding composites that meet environmental credentials. This chapter reviews currently applied composite materials in both thermoset and thermoplastic resins and tries to identify the composite technology that will enable a ‘step change’ in the volume application of these materials whilst keeping environmental targets in mind.
Determination of the spiral pattern speed of the Galaxy.

The carbon monoxide abundance as a function of galactocentric radius, in conjunction with a newly determined galactic rotation curve, gives a spiral pattern speed of 11.5 ± 1.5 km s ~ kpc. This value is based upon the assumption that the inner Lindblad resonance occurs where the CO abundance exhibits a sharp discontinuity, at a radius of 4 kpc. Subject headings: galaxies: internal motions — galaxies: Milky Way — interstellar: molecules
Identifying and Evaluating User Requirements for Smartphone Group Fitness Applications

Social support can improve adherence to physical activity and healthy eating behavior change, and recently, smartphone fitness applications which provide interventions to groups of users are increasingly popular. However, the types of social support provided in the applications, and the features/approaches used to offer the support, vary widely. It is unknown which approach is the best to meet users’ requirements. We conducted a mixed methods study to identify user requirements for social support in group fitness applications. We then developed MyFitnessTeam based on these requirements and evaluated it in a six-week field study. We found that participants desired informational and emotional support, and for group fitness applications to provide daily challenges that they could complete with their support network. MyFitnessTeam significantly improved adherence to fitness behaviors, with men having significantly higher adherence levels than women and participants who were inactive at baseline achieving similar adherence levels to the most baseline-active participants. Groups of friends were more likely to exchange informational support but emotional support was low for both friends and strangers, due to lack of knowledge on when and how to offer such support. We propose five design recommendations to promote supportive interactions in group fitness applications.