Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AFRL-RH-WP-TP-2014-0023 Assessing Binocular Advantage in Aided Vision

Advances in microsensors, microprocessors and microdisplays are creating new opportunities for improving vision in degraded environments through the use of head-mounted displays. Initially, the cutting-edge technology used in these new displays will be expensive. Inevitably the cost of providing the additional sensor and processing required to support binocularity brings the value of binocularity into question. Several assessments comparing binocular, biocular and monocular head-mounted displays for aided vision have concluded that the additional performance, if any, provided by binocular head-mounted displays does not justify the cost. The selection of a biocular display for use in the F-35 is a current example of this recurring decision process. It is possible that the human binocularity advantage doesn’t carry over to the aided vision application, but more likely the experimental approaches used in the past have been too coarse to measure its subtle but important benefits. Evaluating the value of binocularity in aided vision applications requires an understanding of the characteristics of both human vision and head-mounted displays. With this understanding, the value of binocularity in aided vision can be estimated and experimental evidence can be collected to confirm or reject the presumed binocular advantage, enabling improved decisions in aided vision system design. This paper describes four computational approaches; geometry of stereopsis, modulation transfer function area for stereopsis, probability summation and binocular summation, that may be useful in quantifying the advantage of binocularity in aided vision.
C‐Telopeptide Pyridinoline Cross‐Links: Sensitive Indicators of Periodontal Tissue Destruction

ABSTRACT: C‐telopeptides and related pyridinoline cross‐links of bone Type I collagen are sensitive markers of bone resorption in osteolytic diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. We have studied the release of C‐telopeptide pyridinoline crosslinks of Type I collagen as measures of bone destruction in periodontal disease. Studies in preclinical animal models and humans have demonstrated the relationship between radiographic bone loss and crevicular fluid C‐telopeptide levels. We have recently found that C‐telopeptide levels correlate strongly with microbial pathogens associated with periodontitis and around endosseous dental implants. Host‐modulation of bone‐related collagen breakdown has been shown by studies in humans demonstrating that MMP inhibition blocks tissue destruction and release of C‐telopeptides in patients with active periodontal disease.
Regulation of Renal Fatty Acid and Cholesterol Metabolism, Inflammation, and Fibrosis in Akita and OVE26 Mice With Type 1 Diabetes

In Akita and OVE26 mice, two genetic models of type 1 diabetes, diabetic nephropathy is characterized by mesangial expansion and loss of podocytes, resulting in glomerulosclerosis and proteinuria, and is associated with increased expression of profibrotic growth factors, proinflammatory cytokines, and increased oxidative stress. We have also found significant increases in renal triglyceride and cholesterol content. The increase in renal triglyceride content is associated with 1) increased expression of sterol regulatory element–binding protein (SREBP)-1c and carbohydrate response element–binding protein (ChREBP), which collectively results in increased fatty acid synthesis, 2) decreased expression of peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor (PPAR)-α and -δ, which results in decreased fatty acid oxidation, and 3) decreased expression of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and small heterodimer partner (SHP). The increase in cholesterol content is associated with 1) increased expression of SREBP-2 and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-CoA reductase, which results in increased cholesterol synthesis, and 2) decreased expression of liver X receptor (LXR)-α, LXR-β, and ATP-binding cassette transporter-1, which results in decreased cholesterol efflux. Our results indicate that in type 1 diabetes, there is altered renal lipid metabolism favoring net accumulation of triglycerides and cholesterol, which are driven by increases in SREBP-1, ChREBP, and SREBP-2 and decreases in FXR, LXR-α, and LXR-β, which may also play a role in the increased expression of profibrotic growth hormones, proinflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress.
Regenerative capacity of adult cortical thymic epithelial cells

Involution of the thymus is accompanied by a decline in the number of thymic epithelial cells (TECs) and a severely restricted peripheral repertoire of T-cell specificities. TECs are essential for T-cell differentiation; they originate from a bipotent progenitor that gives rise to cells of cortical (cTEC) and medullary (mTEC) phenotypes, via compartment-specific progenitors. Upon acute selective near-total ablation during embryogenesis, regeneration of TECs fails, suggesting that losses from the pool of TEC progenitors are not compensated. However, it is unclear whether this is also true for the compartment-specific progenitors. The decline of cTECs is a prominent feature of thymic involution. Because cTECs support early stages of T-cell development and hence determine the overall lymphopoietic capacity of the thymus, it is possible that the lack of sustained regenerative capacity of cTEC progenitor cells underlies the process of thymic involution. Here, we examine this hypothesis by cell-type–specific conditional ablation of cTECs. Expression of the human diphtheria toxin receptor (hDTR) gene under the regulatory influence of the chemokine receptor Ccx-ckr1 gene renders cTECs sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of diphtheria toxin (DT). As expected, DT treatment of preadolescent and adult mice led to a dramatic loss of cTECs, accompanied by a rapid demise of immature thymocytes. Unexpectedly, however, the cTEC compartment regenerated after cessation of treatment, accompanied by the restoration of T-cell development. These findings provide the basis for the development of targeted interventions unlocking the latent regenerative potential of cTECs to counter thymic involution.
RETHINKING MULTICULTURALISM

In the aftermath of August 2012 carnage at the Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a plethora of critical urgencies and imperatives have emerged that demand a need for transformational rhetoric especially with regards to the issues linked with multiculturalism in North America. Why did Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist, attack the peaceful community of Sikh worshippers in the Oak Creek Gurdwara killing six Sikhs, critically injuring several and then taking his own life? The moral obligations, activist imperatives, religious advocacies, cultural education, clarification strategies to dissuade misrecognition and/or ignorance of Sikhs and Sikhism are some of the key responses that have sprouted up. A sudden surge of articles about Sikhs and Sikhism in public discourse now demand an address and revaluation of the debate on North American multiculturalism. Are Sikhs the latest persecuted, ethnic minority in the American multicultural setting? Can Sikh Americans be truly a part of American nation? Which model of US multiculturalism should Sikh Americans aspire to? Can Sikhs be or should be a part of the American melting pot of assimilation of cultures? Or can they maintain a nonassimilationist yet intrinsic flavor in the American salad bowl? Are turbans, patkaa, dastaar as markers of Sikh identity, merely ethnic garbs or can they be adopted in American vocabulary as cultural symbols of an ethnic American community? How is it that it takes the ruthless killing of six innocent Sikhs in a gurdwara by a white supremacist for mainstream Americans to think about who the Sikhs are? Such questions cannot be waived off by the seemingly liberalist, passive notions of multiculturalism implied in both the assimilationist, melting-pot rhetoric that demands adherence to the dominant thought as well as the accommodation implied in the mosaiclike, salad bowl rhetoric where cultures meet but still remain within their own designated places. Is multiculturalism a hegemonic way to maintain difference amidst commonality? Although many ethnic communities live in ‘multicultural’ nations, yet the imperative to understand their identities lie with the minorities rather than the predominant, mainstream groups. Even the communitarian ethics of liberal multiculturalism that celebrates food, clothes and culture without any efforts to tolerate religious and ideological differences limits the paraphernalia of cross-cultural understanding. As a philosophical space depicting the co-existence of multiple cultures, ethnicities and religions, multiculturalism fails in the Sikh context, if such a space argues for assimilatory paradigms for Sikhs in North America. The systemic, cultural violence implied in the
A Novel Radial Visualization of Intrusion Detection Alerts

Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) generally produce an overwhelming amount of alerts, which are commonly plagued by issues of false positives. It is cumbersome for network administrators to manually traverse text-based alert logs in order to detect threats. In this work, we present a novel radial visualization of IDSs alerts, IDSPlanet, which helps administrators identify false positives, analyze attack patterns, and understand evolving network situations. Using a planet's geology as a metaphor for the design, IDSPlanet is composed of chrono rings, alert continents, and an interactive core. Accordingly, these components encode the temporal features of alert types, patterns of behavior in affected hosts, and correlations amongst alert types, attackers, and targets, respectively. The visualization provides an informative picture of networks' status. IDSPlanet offers different interactions and monitoring modes, which allow users to investigate in detail as well as to explore overall pattern. Two case studies and two interviews were conducted to demonstrate the usability and effectiveness of our visualization design.
Decreased expression of glutamate transporters in genetic absence epilepsy rats before seizure occurrence

In absence epilepsy, epileptogenic processes are suspected of involving an imbalance between GABAergic inhibition and glutamatergic excitation. Here, we describe alteration of the expression of glutamate transporters in rats with genetic absence (the Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg: GAERS). In these rats, epileptic discharges, recorded in the thalamo‐cortical network, appear around 40 days after birth. In adult rats no alteration of the protein expression of the glutamate transporters was observed. In 30‐day‐old GAERS protein levels (quantified by western blot) were lower in the cortex by 21% and 35% for the glial transporters GLT1 and GLAST, respectively, and by 32% for the neuronal transporter EAAC1 in the thalamus compared to control rats. In addition, the expression and activity of GLAST were decreased by 50% in newborn GAERS cortical astrocytes grown in primary culture. The lack of modification of the protein levels of glutamatergic transporters in adult epileptic GAERS, in spite of mRNA variations (quantified by RT‐PCR), suggests that they are not involved in the pathogeny of spike‐and‐wave discharges. In contrast, the alteration of glutamate transporter expression, observed before the establishment of epileptic discharges, could reflect an abnormal maturation of the glutamatergic neurone–glia circuitry.
The Potential of the Hybrid Course Vis‐à‐Vis Online and Traditional Courses

Face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses are part of the panoply of course options available to stu- dents and teachers in the twenty-first century. This essay tackles the promise of hybrid courses for enhancing student learning in seminary contexts. The author con- tends that the introduction of hybrid instruction prompts faculty to revisit questions about pedagogy and improves student learning.
Thermal power plane enabling dual-side electrical interconnects for high-performance chip stacks: Implementation

We report on the design, implementation and performance of a laminate named Thermal Power Plane and solder joints that enable dual-side electrical interconnects (EIC) to a chip stack. This novel packaging topology with a laminate on both sides of the chip stack doubles the number of EIC thus supporting increased communication bandwidth and power density. In addition, in a two-die stack, all power TSVs can be eliminated with the advantage of gained silicon active area. The use of two laminates also enables individual test & burn-in of the dies before stack formation. The TPP needs to provide efficient heat removal and current feed in the out-of-plane and in-plane direction, respectively. An 8+1 coreless build-up laminate with aligned and stacked thermal laminate vias (TLVs) was designed and implemented. Bar-, chevron- and mesh-like copper planes with varying TLV densities were characterized. The mesh design resulted in minimal warpage and voltage drop. The bar and chevron designs result in the lowest thermal resistance. In combination with rail-shaped solder interconnects interfacing between TPP and top chip, the overall thermal resistance of the junction to cold plate of the dual-side EIC approach can outperform that of the standard single-side EIC package. The electrical DC characteristics of the TPP was also evaluated experimentally. The sheet resistance of 0.21 MΩ allows the supply of the required currents within the voltage uniformity requirements. In general, the experimental evaluation supports the feasibility of the proposed dual-side EIC concept supporting further performance and efficiency scaling of high-performance chip stacks.
Accurate Differentiation for Improving the Flicker Measurement in Wind Turbines

This paper analyzes the effect of digital differentiation on the measurement of flicker emission from grid-connected wind turbines (WTs). The flicker measurement procedure is defined in the IEC 61400-21 standard, which includes the estimation of a fictitious grid for the measurement of voltage fluctuations exclusively generated by a WT. The study focuses on two aspects of the implementation of the derivative of the line current that affect the estimation of the fictitious grid, namely the bandwidth and the phase response of the digital differentiator. The experiments were performed under two different frameworks, by using simulated simple waveforms and voltage and current recordings from an actual WT. The work cautions about the adverse effect of the phase response of the even-length finite impulse-response differentiators. It also recommends implementing digital differentiators with an accurate bandwidth to derive potential spectral components in the current in the whole bandwidth required by the procedure. This aim can be achieved by increasing either the length of the filter or the sampling rate of the processing. The conclusions should help in accurately implementing the procedure and reducing the deviations found in the flicker emission measurements for grid-connected WTs.
Stochastic Integrative Modeling of Transcription Regulation

Modeling the complex mechanisms of transcription regulation is a major challenge in computational biology. Different approaches have been used to address this challenge, one of which is the probabilistic approach, often represented by Bayesian Networks that explicitly describe the uncertainty which is inherent to biological data (Friedman et al. [2000] ,Hartemink et al. [2001]). Later extensions of Bayesian Networks, such as Module Networks (Segal et al. [2003a, 2005]), use the modular organization of transcriptional responses to reconstruct modules of co-expressed genes and their “regulation programs” — a set of regulators that control the modules’ activity.
Changes in functional status and physical and psychological symptoms in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer.

AIMS This study was planned to determine whether there were changes in breast cancer women's functional status and presence of physical and psychological symptoms before and after chemotherapy. METHODS The research sample comprised 101 women with breast cancer receiving oncology services at university hospitals (Pamukkale and Ege Universities) in two cities in western Turkey (Izmir and Denizli) who volunteered to participate in the study. The Patient and Medical Information Questionnaire, Symptoms List, and the Inventory of Functional Status-Cancer (IFS-CA) were used for data collection to determine the functional status. RESULTS According to the IFS-CA in the examination of the women's functional status the after chemotherapy scores were lower and significantly different for household and family activities (p<0.0001), social and community activities (p<0.0001), personal care activities (p<0.0001) and occupational activities (p<0.003). Similarly there was also a statistically significant increase in presence of physical and psychological symptoms after chemotherapy, particularly affected the personal care activities subscale of the functional status inventory. CONCLUSIONS It was determined that worsening of the functional status of women with breast cancer was associated with chemotherapy and more physical and psychological discomforts were experienced.
Headache as a Sole Manifestation in Nonconvulsive Status Epilepticus

Nonconvulsive status epilepticus may present with several manifestations, and many of them may not be obvious. The most important for the diagnosis of nonconvulsive status epilepticus is the electroencephalogram pattern. This is a case report of a 9-year-old boy with severe and continuous headache. He received chemotherapy for histiocytosis that was diagnosed when he was 3 years, 6 months years old. He had no evidence of central nervous system histiocytosis involvement or drug toxicity. He was diagnosed with nonconvulsive status epilepticus. The headache and electroencephalogram anomaly disappeared completely when anticonvulsant therapy began. Headache and seizure disorder may coexist, but this may be the first report of nonconvulsive status epilepticus with headache as a sole manifestation.
A Central Role for Ras1 in Morphogenesis of the Basidiomycete Schizophyllum commune

ABSTRACT Fungi have been used as model systems to define general processes in eukaryotes, for example, the one gene-one enzyme hypothesis, as well as to study polar growth or pathogenesis. Here, we show a central role for the regulator protein Ras in a mushroom-forming, filamentous basidiomycete linking growth, pheromone signaling, sexual development, and meiosis to different signal transduction pathways. ras1 and Ras-specific gap1 mutants were generated and used to modify the intracellular activation state of the Ras module. Transformants containing constitutive ras1 alleles (ras1G12V and ras1Q61L), as well as their compatible mating interactions, did show strong phenotypes for growth (associated with Cdc42 signaling) and mating (associated with mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling). Normal fruiting bodies with abnormal spores exhibiting a reduced germination rate were produced by outcrossing of these mutant strains. Homozygous Δgap1 primordia, expected to experience increased Ras signaling, showed overlapping phenotypes with a block in basidium development and meiosis. Investigation of cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase A indicated that constitutively active ras1, as well as Δgap1 mutant strains, exhibit a strong increase in Tpk activity. Ras1-dependent, cAMP-mediated signal transduction is, in addition to the known signaling pathways, involved in fruiting body formation in Schizophyllum commune. To integrate these analyses of Ras signaling, microarray studies were performed. Mutant strains containing constitutively active Ras1, deletion of RasGap1, or constitutively active Cdc42 were characterized and compared. At the transcriptome level, specific regulation highlighting the phenotypic differences of the mutants is clearly visible.
CoAP-based healthcare sensor networks: A survey

The Internet of Things (IoT) vision is a hot research topic which enables all kinds of devices to connect together and share information seamlessly. IEEE 802.15. 4 Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (LoWPAN) and IPv6 over LoWPAN (IETF 6LoWPAN) defines standards and protocols for resource constrained Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is an emerging application layer protocol supporting resource constrained devices and easy integration with the existing TCP/IP standards. It is particularly useful for advanced applications in the healthcare field. This paper surveys technologies and techniques for using CoAP-based WSN for connecting and monitoring medical sensors. Application requirements for creating healthcare WSNs utilizing IPv6 and CoAP and real-time monitoring issues are also discussed.
Effective audit trails-a taxonomy for determination of information requirements

Current methods of detecting confidentiality breaches in electronic medical record systems are inadequate, partially due to the lack of necessary information at the point of audit trail analysis. In order to determine the information requirements for effective audit trail analysis, we have formulated a taxonomy of confidentiality breaches. By considering scenarios in which an inappropriate access might occur, we have identified "indicators" of confidentiality breaches, which may be thought of as evidence suggesting the possibility that a confidentiality breach has occurred. The collection of facts needed to describe the indicators provides insight into the types of information needed to improve confidentiality breach detection. Much of the information needed is unlikely to be available in the patient record. Research is needed exploring means of collecting and utilizing information from sources other than the patient record for use in improving patient information security.
The inherent mutational tolerance and antigenic evolvability of influenza hemagglutinin

Influenza is notable for its evolutionary capacity to escape immunity targeting the viral hemagglutinin. We used deep mutational scanning to examine the extent to which a high inherent mutational tolerance contributes to this antigenic evolvability. We created mutant viruses that incorporate most of the ≈ 104 amino-acid mutations to hemagglutinin from A/WSN/1933 (H1N1) influenza. After passaging these viruses in tissue culture to select for functional variants, we used deep sequencing to quantify mutation frequencies before and after selection. These data enable us to infer the preference for each amino acid at each site in hemagglutinin. These inferences are consistent with existing knowledge about the protein’s structure and function, and can be used to create a model that describes hemagglutinin’s evolution far better than existing phylogenetic models. We show that hemagglutinin has a high inherent tolerance for mutations at antigenic sites, suggesting that this is one factor contributing to influenza’s antigenic evolution.