Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
No association between the IL28B SNP and response to peginterferon plus ribavirin combination treatment in Korean chronic hepatitis C patients

Background/Aims There are few available data regarding the association between the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the gene encoding interleukin 28B (IL28B) and a sustained virologic response (SVR) to peginterferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) therapy in Korean chronic hepatitis C patients. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study of 156 patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who received combination treatment of PEG-IFN plus RBV. Blood samples from these patients were analyzed to identify the IL28B SNPs at rs12979860, rs12980275, rs8099917, and rs8103142. Association analyses were performed to evaluate the relationships between each IL28B SNP and SVRs. Results Seventy six patients with HCV genotype 1 and 80 with genotype non-1 were enrolled. The frequencies of rs12979860 CC and CT genotypes were 90.4% and 9.6%, respectively; those of rs12980275 AA and AG genotypes were 87.2% and 12.8%, respectively; those of rs8099917 TT and TG genotypes were 92.3% and 7.7%, respectively; and those of rs8103142 TT and CT genotypes were 90.4% and 9.6%, respectively. Among the patients with HCV genotype 1, the SVR rates were 69.7% and 80.0% for rs12979860 CC and CT, respectively (P=0.71). Among the HCV genotype non-1 patients, SVR rates were 88.0% and 100% for rs12979860 CC and CT (P=1.00), respectively. Conclusions Genotypes of the IL28B SNP that are known to be favorable were present in most of the Korean patients with chronic hepatitis C in this study. Moreover, the IL28B SNP did not influence the SVR rate in either the HCV genotype 1 or non-1 patients. Therefore, IL28B SNP analysis might be not useful for the initial assessment, prediction of treatment outcomes, or treatment decision-making of Korean chronic hepatitis C patients.
PC based Heart Sound Monitoring System

Heart diseases caused by the heart and blood vessels disorders are world’s largest killers. Hence early detection and monitoring of heart abnormalities is essential for diagnosis and effective treatment of heart diseases. This project aims to develop a low cost portable digital stethoscope. The primary function of this system is to work exactly like a normal stethoscope, but having an added advantage of not being limited by the length of the tubing with the help of wireless transmission. At the same time many people can listen to the stethoscope output which is normally impossible with an ordinary stethoscope. It also provides data to visually chart results by connecting to an off-instrument display such as a computer monitor so that further processing and diagnosis of abnormal phonocardiogram will be easy. For real time monitoring and for diagnosis LabVIEW application software is being used and finally a classification study is done using MATLAB and naive bayers classifier. This advanced functionality can increase the physician’s diagnostic capability.
A Framework to Guide the Implementation of Proactive Digital Forensics in Organisations

Most organizations underestimate the demand for digital evidence [1]. Often, when evidence is required to prove fraudulent transactions, not enough or trustworthy evidence is available to link the attacker to the incident. It isessential for organizations to prepare themselves for digital Forensic (DF) investigations and ensure that entireorganizational operating environment is prepared for example for an investigation (criminal or internal) or acompliance tests. The accepted literature on DF readinessconcentrates mainly on evidence identification, handling andstorage, first line incident response and training requirements [2]. It does not consider the proactiveapplication of DF tools to enhance the corporate governancestructures (specifically Information Technology (IT) governance). Pro-active DF (ProDF) as defined in this paperwill enable an organization to take the initiative byimplementing adequate measures to become DF ready,demonstrate due diligence for good corporate Governance,specifically IT Governance and provide a mechanism toassess and improve IT Governance frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to define, identify goals, steps, anddeliverables of ProDF, identify dimensions of DF, and propose a theoretical DF management framework to guidethe implementation of ProDF in an organization.
High velocity: a capacity building approach to learning

Many teaching and learning strategies are based on a deficit / gap analysis approach to student needs. Our capacity-building approach is a modest attempt to focus on what students already know and can do, and concentrates on building on that knowledge and skill in order to accelerate learning that becomes, deep, meaningful and enjoyable. Student comments bore out the importance of paying attention not merely to prior knowledge, but particularly context, emotions and strengths. By concentrating on areas where students had some knowledge and skills, not only did students progress very quickly to a higher level, but they found that this also gave them confi dence to tackle other areas of work where there was less initial certainty and knowledge.
Concave Quadratic Cuts for Mixed-Integer Quadratic Problems

The technique of semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation can be used to obtain a nontrivial bound on the optimal value of a nonconvex quadratically constrained quadratic program (QCQP). We explore concave quadratic inequalities that hold for any vector in the integer lattice Z n , and show that adding these inequalities to a mixed-integer nonconvex QCQP can improve the SDP-based bound on the optimal value. This scheme is tested using several numerical problem instances of the max-cut problem and the integer least squares problem.
Fanconi anaemia, BRCA2 mutations and childhood cancer: a developmental perspective from clinical and epidemiological observations with implications for genetic counselling

Fanconi anaemia (FA) is an inherited condition characterised by congenital and developmental abnormalities and a strong cancer predisposition. In around 3–5% of cases FA is caused by biallelic mutations in the BRCA2 gene. Individuals heterozygous for BRCA2 mutations have an increased risk of inherited breast and ovarian cancer. We reviewed the mutation spectrum in BRCA2-associated FA, and the spectrum and frequency of BRCA2 mutations in distinct populations. The rarity of FA due to biallelic BRCA2 mutations supports a fundamental role of BRCA2 for prevention of malignant transformation during development. The spectrum of malignancies seen associated with FA support the concept of a tissue selectivity of BRCA2 mutations for development of FA-associated cancers. This specificity is illustrated by the distinct FA-associated BRCA2 mutations that appear to predispose to specific brain or haematological malignancies. For some populations, the number of FA-patients with biallelic BRCA2 disruption is smaller than that expected from the carrier frequency, and this implies that some pregnancies with biallelic BRCA2 mutations do not go to term. The apparent discrepancy between expected and observed incidence of BRCA2 mutation-associated FA in high-frequency carrier populations has important implications for the genetic counselling of couples with recurrent miscarriages from high-risk populations.
Degree Conditions for Spanning Brooms

A broom is a tree obtained by subdividing one edge of the star an arbitrary number of times. In (E. Flandrin, T. Kaiser, R. Kužel, H. Li and Z. Ryjáček, Neighborhood Unions and Extremal Spanning Trees, Discrete Math 308 (2008), 2343–2350) Flandrin et al. posed the problem of determining degree conditions that ensure a connected graph G contains a spanning tree that is a broom. In this article, we give one solution to this problem by demonstrating that if G is a connected graph of order n≥56 with δ(G)≥n−23 , then G contains a spanning broom. This result is best possible.
Nantawan Noi Kwanjai

This paper is essentially a specification on analytical framework of a PhD thesis. The thesis itself is entitled: “Intellectual capital and economic performance of firms in the knowledge-based economy: a close look at evolution of modern enterprises” and is a study that seeks to understand the nature and function of the business firm as it is evolving with the changing today economy. The first step in this study seeks to synthesise contending views of the firm as theorised by economic and management scholars. Aided by a meta-theory: ‘general system theory’ or GST, an integrated ‘system view of the firm’ is devised as a synthesis of these existing theories and the core analytical framework for the thesis. This paper proposes the devised system view of the firm as a candidate for a synthesised analytical framework for study on the business firm. It reviews existing theories of the firm, traces a brief history of GST, and deliberates on the meaning and power of the proposed ‘system view of the firm’. Institute for New Technologies System view of the firm: toward a synthesis of the theories of the firm kwanjai@intech.unu. edu; presented at DRUID Winter Conference 2001
Accelerating 3D Protein Modeling Using Cloud Computing: Using Rosetta as a Service on the IBM SmartCloud

Biology as a scientific domain needs a growing amount of computational power. However, not every researcher has access to high performance computing resources locally. Today, it is easy to buy computing resources on demand from public cloud providers like Amazon and IBM, paying only for the amount of computing that is really being used. However, the difficulty of setting up the simulation and operating the virtual infrastructure is also often a showstopper for scientists to use cloud resources. This gap is filled by innovative software as a service providers like the ETH Spin-off company Cloud Broker GmbH, enabling a more direct access to commercial clouds for researchers in life science. Here we report on a joint project between the ETH Zurich, IBM and Cloud Broker to perform a large-scale 3D protein model simulation using the application Rosetta on the new IBM Smart Cloud Enterprise.
Effect of high- κ gate dielectrics on charge transport in graphene-based field effect transistors

The effect of various dielectrics on charge mobility in single-layer graphene is investigated. By calculating the remote optical phonon scattering arising from the polar substrates, and combining it with their effect on Coulombic impurity scattering, a comprehensive picture of the effect of dielectrics on charge transport in graphene emerges. It is found that though high-{kappa} dielectrics can strongly reduce Coulombic scattering by dielectric screening, scattering from surface phonon modes arising from them wash out this advantage. Calculation shows that within the available choice of dielectrics, there is not much room for improving carrier mobility in actual devices at room temperatures.
An Optimized Target Tracing Algorithm for Intelligent Robot

In this paper we study on target tracing system for intelligent robot and propose an optimized algorithm to track the objects such as human body, which needs to detect the moving targets from the background in image sequence, and trace them by controlling theory and image processing. In the first stage, we detect the changing regions and background area through GMM(Gaussian Mixture Model)[1]. Based on the results of the first stage, we adopt Kalman filter algorithm united with Mean-Shift to keep track of the moving targets. At last, the experimental results show that our method is robust and efficient, it has theoretical significance and practical value.
Hearing and bat defence in geometrid winter moths

Audiograms and behavioural responses to ultrasound reveal that male geometrid winter moths (Agriopis and (Erannis spp.; Ennominae, and Alsophila aescularia; Oenochrominae), which have large wings and a slow flight, have good, broadly tuned ultrasonic hearing with best frequencies at 25–40 kHz, coinciding with the frequencies used by most sympatric aerial–hawking bats. Ultrasonic pulses (27 kHz 110 dB at 1 m) delivered at distances of 1–12 m evoked consistent reactions of free flying, male A. marginaria in the lab as well as in the field; those at less than 5 m resulted in the moth spiralling or diving towards the ground, those at 5–12 m resulted in one or several changes in the flight path, but did not end on the ground. The differential reaction probably reflects whether the moth is likely to have been detected by the bat or not. The micropterous (and flightless), and hence cryptic, females have strongly reduced tympanic organs and are virtually deaf. Sexual dimorphism in hearing and behavioural reactions to ultrasound reflect differential natural selection on males and females by bats. Natural selection on the hearing of the males thus seems to occur although they fly in late autumn and early spring, when bat activity is much reduced.
Map data representation for indoor navigation a design framework towards a construction of indoor map

A map is a basic component used in a part of navigation in everyday life, which helps people to find information regarding locations, landmarks, and routes. By GPS and online service map e.g. Google maps, navigating outdoors is easier. Inside buildings, however, navigating would not be so easy due to natural characteristics and limitations of GPS, which has led to the creations of indoor navigation system. Even though the indoor navigation systems have been developed for long time, there are still some limitation in accuracy, reliability and indoor spatial information. Navigating inside without indoor spatial information would be a challenge for the users. Regarding the indoor spatial information, a research question has been drawn on finding an appropriate framework towards map data representation of an indoor public spaces and buildings in order to promote indoor navigation for people, robotics, and autonomous systems. This paper has purposed a list of factors and components used towards the design framework for map data representation of indoor public spaces and buildings. The framework, in this paper, has been presented as a form of a multiple-layered model, which each layer designed for a different propose, with object and information classifications.
SpatialPDP: A personalized differentially private mechanism for range counting queries over spatial databases

Spatial databases are rapidly growing due to the large amount of geometric data obtained from geographic information systems, geomarketing, traffic control, and so on. Range counting queries are among the most common queries over spatial databases. They allow us to describe a region in a geometric space and then retrieve some statistics about geometric objects falling within it. Quadtree-based spatial indices are usually used by spatial databases to speed up range counting queries. Privacy protection is a major concern when answering these queries. The reason is that an adversary observing changes in query answers could induce the presence or absence of a particular geometric object in a spatial database. Differential privacy addresses this problem by guaranteeing that the presence or absence of a geometric object has little effect on the query answers. However, the existing differentially private algorithms for spatial databases ignore the fact that different subregions of a geometric space may require different amounts of privacy protection. This causes that the same privacy budget is considered for different subregions, resulting in a significant increase in error measure for subregions with low privacy protection requirements or a major reduction in privacy measure for subregions with high privacy protection requirements. In this paper, we address these shortcomings by presenting SpatialPDP, a personalized differentially private mechanism for range counting queries over spatial databases. It uses a so-called personalized geometric budgeting strategy to allocate different privacy budgets to subregions with different privacy protection requirements. Our experimental results show that SpatialPDP can achieve a reasonable trade-off between error measure and differential privacy, in accordance with the privacy requirements of different subregions.
Thyroid hormone induces sprouting angiogenesis in adult heart of hypothyroid mice through the PDGF-Akt pathway

Study of physiological angiogenesis and associated signalling mechanisms in adult heart has been limited by the lack of a robust animal model. We investigated thyroid hormone‐induced sprouting angiogenesis and the underlying mechanism. Hypothyroidism was induced in C57BL/6J mice by feeding with propylthiouracil (PTU). One year of PTU treatment induced heart failure. Both 12 weeks‐ (young) and 1 year‐PTU (middle age) treatment caused a remarkable capillary rarefaction observed in capillary density. Three‐day Triiodothyronine (T3) treatment significantly induced cardiac capillary growth in hypothyroid mice. In cultured left ventricle (LV) tissues from PTU‐treated mice, T3 also induced robust sprouting angiogenesis where pericyte‐wrapped endothelial cells formed tubes. The in vitro T3 angiogenic response was similar in mice pre‐treated with PTU for periods ranging from 1.5 to 12 months. Besides bFGF and VEGF164, PDGF‐BB was the most robust angiogenic growth factor, which stimulated notable sprouting angiogenesis in cultured hypothyroid LV tissues with increasing potency, but had little effect on tissues from euthyroid mice. T3 treatment significantly increased PDGF receptor beta (PDGFR‐β) protein levels in hypothyroid heart. PDGFR inhibitors blocked the action of T3 both on sprouting angiogenesis in cultured LV tissue and on capillary growth in vivo. In addition, activation of Akt signalling mediated in T3‐induced angiogenesis was blocked by PDGFR inhibitor and neutralizing antibody. Our results suggest that hypothyroidism leads to cardiac microvascular impairment and rarefaction with increased sensitivity to angiogenic growth factors. T3‐induced cardiac sprouting angiogenesis in adult hypothyroid mice was associated with PDGF‐BB, PDGFR‐β and downstream activation of Akt.
Formalization and Reasoning in a Reflective Architecture

This paper is concerned with developing a reflective architecture for formalizing and reasoning about entities that occur in the process of software development, such as specifications, theorems, programs, and proofs. The starting point is a syntactic extension of the type theory ECC . An encoding of this object calculus within itself comprises the meta-level, and reflection principles are provided for switching between different levels. These reflection principles are used to mix objectand meta-level reasoning, to generate “standard” units by executing meta-operators, and to apply formal tactics that allow for abstraction from the base logic.
On the Computational Collapse of Quantum Information

We analyze the situation where computationally binding string commitment schemes are used to force the receiver of a BB84 encoding of a classical bitstring to measure upon reception. Since measuring induces an irreversible collapse to the received quantum state, even given extra information after the measurement does not allow the receiver to evaluate reliably some predicates apply to the classical bits encoded in the state. This fundamental quantum primitive is called quantum measure commitment (QMC) and allows for secure two-party computation of classical functions. An adversary to QMC is one that can both provide valid proof of having measured the received states while still able to evaluate a predicate applied to the classical content of the encoding. We give the first quantum black-box reduction for the security of QMC to the binding property of the string commitment. We characterize a class of quantum adversaries against QMC that can be transformed into adversaries against a weak form for the binding property of the string commitment. Our result provides a construction for 1--2-oblivious transfer that is computationally secure against the receiver and unconditionally secure against the sender from any string commitment scheme satisfying a weak binding property.
p120catenin alteration in cancer and its role in tumour invasion

Since its discovery in 1989 as a substrate of the Src oncogene, p120catenin has been revealed as an important player in cancer initiation and tumour dissemination. p120catenin regulates a wide range of cellular processes such as cell–cell adhesion, cell polarity and cell proliferation and plays a pivotal role in morphogenesis, inflammation and innate immunity. The pleiotropic effects of p120catenin rely on its interactions with numerous partners such as classical cadherins at the plasma membrane, Rho-GTPases and microtubules in the cytosol and transcriptional modulators in the nucleus. Alterations of p120catenin in cancer not only concern its expression level but also its intracellular localization and can lead to both pro-invasive and anti-invasive effects. This review focuses on the p120catenin-mediated pathways involved in cell migration and invasion and discusses the potential consequences of major cancer-related p120catenin alterations with respect to tumour spread.
Eye, lip and crying expression for virtual human

Eye movement, lip and crying expression are facial elements that able to give realistic expression on virtual human, especially on transferring emotion expression from human to virtual human. Eye expression can be described through standard approach such as MPEG4 and FACS, while lip synchronization needs Speech API to be described into appropriate meaning. Crying is another aspect of expression which is considered as extreme expression and it involve interaction between fluids(tears) with skin surface. In this paper, the critical analysis of the study will be discussed in detail based on previous works. The content is expected to give clear picture of research focus on eye, lip and Crying behavior in the future research.
The asymptotic k-SAT threshold

Since the early 2000s physicists have developed an ingenious but non-rigorous formalism called the cavity method to put forward precise conjectures as to the phase transitions in random constraint satisfaction problems ("CSPs"). The cavity method comes in two versions: the simpler replica symmetric variant, and the more intricate 1-step replica symmetry breaking ("1RSB") version. While typically the former only gives upper and lower bounds, the latter is conjectured to yield precise results in many cases. By now, there are a number of examples where the replica symmetric bounds have been verified rigorously. However, verifications of 1RSB predictions are scarce. Perhaps the most prominent challenge in this context is that of pinning down the random k-SAT threshold rk--SAT. Here we prove that rk--SAT = 2k ln 2--1/2 (1 + ln 2) + ok(1), which matches the 1RSB prediction up to the ok(1) error term. The proof directly employs ideas from the 1RSB cavity method, such as the notion of covers (relaxed satisfying assignments) and bits of the Survey Propagation calculations. The best previous lower bound was rk--SAT ≥ 2k ln 2--3/2 ln 2 + ok(1), matching the replica symmetric lower bound asymptotically [Coja-Oghlan, Panagiotou: STOC 2013].