Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fabrication and assembly of multi-layered microstructures embedding cells inside microfluidic devices

Recently the research about constructing 3 dimensional cell structures is very important for its great potential applications in tissue engineering. In this paper, we report a novel method of constructing multi-layered microstructures embedding cells via microfluidic devices. The on-chip fabrication of movable microstructures embedding fibroblasts (NIH/3T3) based on Poly (ethylene glycol) Diacrylate (PEGDA) was reported. Two approaches for assembling these movable microstructures were presented. One was a manual assembly method based on micromanipulation system and the other one was a self-assembly method based on microfluidic channel. Several manual assembly ways were demonstrated and a tube-shaped microstructure with 17 layers was assembled by an efficient assembly method. A novel microfluidic channel was presented for conducting self-assembly method and a 2-layered experimental microfluidic device was fabricated by Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The self-assembly process of fabricated microstructures via this device was preliminarily demonstrated.
Minimizing Sparse High-Order Energies by Submodular Vertex-Cover

Inference in high-order graphical models has become important in recent years. Several approaches are based, for example, on generalized message-passing, or on transformation to a pairwise model with extra 'auxiliary' variables. We focus on a special case where a much more efficient transformation is possible. Instead of adding variables, we transform the original problem into a comparatively small instance of submodular vertex-cover. These vertex-cover instances can then be attacked by existing algorithms (e.g. belief propagation, QPBO), where they often run 4-15 times faster and find better solutions than when applied to the original problem. We evaluate our approach on synthetic data, then we show applications within a fast hierarchical clustering and model-fitting framework.
Assembly and transfer of tripartite integrative and conjugative genetic elements

Significance Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) are one of the most prevalent but least-characterized families of mobile genetic elements in bacteria. We identified a family of ICEs that exists as three separate parts integrated within the single chromosomes of symbiotic mesorhizobia. These “tripartite ICEs,” through a series of chromosomal recombinations mediated by integrase proteins, assemble into a single circular ICE. Following transfer to nonsymbiotic mesorhizobia, tripartite ICEs integrate and disassemble into three parts in the recipient genome and exconjugant mesorhizobia gain the ability to form a symbiosis with legumes. These discoveries expand our appreciation of the potential for gene transfer in bacteria and demonstrate how mobile genetic elements can dramatically manipulate the bacterial genome. Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) are ubiquitous mobile genetic elements present as “genomic islands” within bacterial chromosomes. Symbiosis islands are ICEs that convert nonsymbiotic mesorhizobia into symbionts of legumes. Here we report the discovery of symbiosis ICEs that exist as three separate chromosomal regions when integrated in their hosts, but through recombination assemble as a single circular ICE for conjugative transfer. Whole-genome comparisons revealed exconjugants derived from nonsymbiotic mesorhizobia received three separate chromosomal regions from the donor Mesorhizobium ciceri WSM1271. The three regions were each bordered by two nonhomologous integrase attachment (att) sites, which together comprised three homologous pairs of attL and attR sites. Sequential recombination between each attL and attR pair produced corresponding attP and attB sites and joined the three fragments to produce a single circular ICE, ICEMcSym1271. A plasmid carrying the three attP sites was used to recreate the process of tripartite ICE integration and to confirm the role of integrase genes intS, intM, and intG in this process. Nine additional tripartite ICEs were identified in diverse mesorhizobia and transfer was demonstrated for three of them. The transfer of tripartite ICEs to nonsymbiotic mesorhizobia explains the evolution of competitive but suboptimal N2-fixing strains found in Western Australian soils. The unheralded existence of tripartite ICEs raises the possibility that multipartite elements reside in other organisms, but have been overlooked because of their unusual biology. These discoveries reveal mechanisms by which integrases dramatically manipulate bacterial genomes to allow cotransfer of disparate chromosomal regions.
Continuous Retention and Viral Suppression Provide Further Insights Into the HIV Care Continuum Compared to the Cross-sectional HIV Care Cascade.

BACKGROUND The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care continuum has become an important tool for evaluating HIV care. Current depictions of the care continuum are often cross-sectional and evaluate retention and viral suppression (VS) in a single year, yet the National HIV/AIDS Strategy calls for programs with long-lasting outcomes. METHODS Retrospective chart review of HIV-infected patients enrolled in a large, urban clinic in 2010 followed longitudinally for 36 months. McNemar comparisons and logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate covariate association with continuous retention and VS. Generalized estimating equation log-linear models were used to integrate time into the model. RESULTS Among 655 patients (77% male, 83% black, 54% men who have sex with men (MSM), 78% uninsured) continuous retention/VS at 12 months (84%/64%), 24 months (60%/48%), and 36 months (49%/39%) showed significant attrition (P < .0001) over time. Continuous retention was associated with prevalent VS at the end of 36 months (adjusted prevalence ratio 3.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.40, 4.07). 12-month retention for black (84%) and nonblack (85%) patients was equivalent, yet fewer blacks (46%) than nonblacks (63%) achieved 36-month continuous retention due to a significant interaction between race and time (aOR 0.75, 95% CI, .59, .95). CONCLUSIONS Continuous retention is a critically important measure of long-term success in HIV treatment and the crucial component of successful treatment-as-prevention but is infrequently evaluated. Single cross-sections may overestimate successful retention and virologic outcomes. A longitudinal HIV care continuum provides greater insight into long-term outcomes and exposes disparities not evident with traditional cross-sectional care continua.
Efficient data management in wireless sensor networks using peer-to-peer techniques

The data-centric nature of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and the severe resource constraints of the sensor nodes distinguish sensor data management from other communication networks. Both the client-server approach as well as the end-to-end communication principle that have been proposed in the for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) do not suit the characteristics of WSNs. Efficient lookup and routing of sensor data are of great significance for WSNs, especially as the size of these networks continues to grow. On an abstract level, structured peer-to-peer protocols, which rely on Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) provide O(1) complexity for storing and retrieving data in the network, seem overcome these restrictions. However, the fact that they rely on underlayer routing techniques leads to inefficient resource usage in the context of sensor networks. The combination of DHTs and underlayer routing led to the establishment of so called virtual coordinate routing techniques. Most of these algorithms are quite complicated and do not guarantee packet delivery on the shortest path. Additionally, only few of them are implemented in real sensor nodes. In this dissertation, we present the Virtual Cord Protocol (VCP), a virtual position based routing protocol that also provides means for data management such as identifying, storing, and retrieving data items. The key contributions of this protocol are independence of real location information by relying on virtual relative positions of neighboring nodes, the simplicity of obtaining the virtual positions, near optimal routing paths, and high scalability because only information about direct neighbors is needed for routing. Furthermore, VCP provides a unique position for each node and inherently prevents dead-ends. We extensively evaluated VCP in a number of simulation experiments. The simulation results show that VCP consistently provides high throughput and low overhead for a wide range of application scenarios. We compared VCP with Dynamic MANET on Demand (DYMO), a typical MANET protocol, and with Virtual Ring Routing (VRR), another virtual coordinate vii
O comportamento financeiro dos estudantes de graduação à luz da teoria dos prospectos (The financial behaviour of students graduation in the light of the theory of prospects)

This study aims to replicate the research of Kahneman and Tversky (1979) identifying in the undergraduate program students in Accounting rational evolution in the decision-making process over the different periods, to which educational institution owned and the influence of gender on issues related to losses and aversions to risk. The survey findings reveal that students of accountancy course of two private educational institutions analyzed using a number of factors such as cognitive and emotional biases in decision making that develop in the context of Prospect Theory. Keywords: Traditional Finance. Behavioral Finance. Prospect Theory.
Vocal mechanics in Darwin's finches: correlation of beak gape and song frequency

SUMMARY Recent studies of vocal mechanics in songbirds have identified a functional role for the beak in sound production. The vocal tract (trachea and beak) filters harmonic overtones from sounds produced by the syrinx, and birds can fine-tune vocal tract resonance properties through changes in beak gape. In this study, we examine patterns of beak gape during song production in seven species of Darwin's finches of the Galápagos Islands. Our principal goals were to characterize the relationship between beak gape and vocal frequency during song production and to explore the possible influence therein of diversity in beak morphology and body size. Birds were audio and video recorded (at 30 frames s–1) as they sang in the field, and 164 song sequences were analyzed. We found that song frequency regressed significantly and positively on beak gape for 38 of 56 individuals and for all seven species examined. This finding provides broad support for a resonance model of vocal tract function in Darwin's finches. Comparison among species revealed significant variation in regression y-intercept values. Body size correlated negatively with y-intercept values, although not at a statistically significant level. We failed to detect variation in regression slopes among finch species, although the regression slopes of Darwin's finch and two North American sparrow species were found to differ. Analysis within one species (Geospiza fortis) revealed significant inter-individual variation in regression parameters; these parameters did not correlate with song frequency features or plumage scores. Our results suggest that patterns of beak use during song production were conserved during the Darwin's finch adaptive radiation, despite the evolution of substantial variation in beak morphology and body size.
Clinical Utility of a Dimensional Model of Personality Disorder

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the clinical utility of a dimensional classification of personality disorder. The paper begins with a brief description of the five-factor model of personality disorder, followed by a discussion of three fundamental components of clinical utility: ease of usage, communication, and treatment decisions. It is suggested that the five-factor model compares well to personality disorder diagnostic categories with respect to all three components of clinical utility.
Galerkin Methods for Complementarity Problems and Variational Inequalities

Complementarity problems and variational inequalities arise in a wide variety of areas, including machine learning, planning, game theory, and physical simulation. In all of these areas, to handle large-scale problem instances, we need fast approximate solution methods. One promising idea is Galerkin approximation, in which we search for the best answer within the span of a given set of basis functions. Bertsekas proposed one possible Galerkin method for variational inequalities. However, this method can exhibit two problems in practice: its approximation error is worse than might be expected based on the ability of the basis to represent the desired solution, and each iteration requires a projection step that is not always easy to implement efficiently. So, in this paper, we present a new Galerkin method with improved behavior: our new error bounds depend directly on the distance from the true solution to the subspace spanned by our basis, and the only projections we require are onto the feasible region or onto the span of our basis.
Robust Detection of MAC Layer Denial-of-Service Attacks in CSMA/CA Wireless Networks

Carrier-sensing multiple-access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)-based networks, such as those using the IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function protocol, have experienced widespread deployment due to their ease of implementation. The terminals accessing these networks are not owned or controlled by the network operators (such as in the case of cellular networks) and, thus, terminals may not abide by the protocol rules in order to gain unfair access to the network (selfish misbehavior), or simply to disturb the network operations (denial-of-service attack). This paper presents a robust nonparametric detection mechanism for the CSMA/CA media-access control layer denial-of-service attacks that does not require any modification to the existing protocols. This technique, based on the -truncated sequential Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics, monitors the successful transmissions and the collisions of the terminals in the network, and determines how ldquoexplainablerdquo the collisions are given for such observations. We show that the distribution of the explainability of the collisions is very sensitive to changes in the network, even with a changing number of competing terminals, making it an excellent candidate to serve as a jamming attack indicator. Ns-2 simulation results show that the proposed method has a very short detection latency and high detection accuracy.
Improving short-term and working memory: methods of memory training

Short-term and working memory are temporary memory systems that play important roles in children’s cognitive development. Marked impairments in these memory systems characterise both children with learning difficulties and children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present chapter discusses two methods of improving short-term and working memory in typically developing children and children with ADHD. The first method involves working memory strategy training. Research has revealed that computerised training of strategies including rehearsal and visual imagery improves children’s working memory. Training has also been found to improve performance on a task of remembering and following instructions, suggesting that memory strategy training has the potential to improve children’s classroom performance. The second method involves providing direct training and practice on working memory tasks. Such training leads to gains in both short-term and working memory and reductions in teacher and child ratings of problem behaviours associated with ADHD. The effects of both memory training methods are discussed in terms of implications for educational practice and clinical policies relating to the management of children with memory problems.
Deficiency in the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway reveals the toxic potential of autophagy under ER stress conditions

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced cell death is normally associated with activation of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, which is characterized by CYCS (cytochrome c, somatic) release, apoptosome formation, and caspase activation, resulting in cell death. In this study, we demonstrate that under conditions of ER stress cells devoid of CASP9/caspase-9 or BAX and BAK1, and therefore defective in the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, still undergo a delayed form of cell death associated with the activation of caspases, therefore revealing the existence of an alternative stress-induced caspase activation pathway. We identified CASP8/caspase-8 as the apical protease in this caspase cascade, and found that knockdown of either of the key autophagic genes, ATG5 or ATG7, impacted on CASP8 activation and cell death induction, highlighting the crucial role of autophagy in the activation of this novel ER stress-induced death pathway. In line with this, we identified a protein complex composed of ATG5, FADD, and pro-CASP8 whose assembly coincides with caspase activation and cell death induction. Together, our results reveal the toxic potential of autophagy in cells undergoing ER stress that are defective in the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway, and suggest a model in which the autophagosome functions as a platform facilitating pro-CASP8 activation. Chemoresistance, a common problem in the treatment of cancer, is frequently caused by the downregulation of key mitochondrial death effector proteins. Alternate stress-induced apoptotic pathways, such as the one described here, may become of particular relevance for tackling the problem of chemoresistance in cancer cells.
Processor energy estimation method using cycle-approximate simulator

In existing methods for processor energy estimation, the information on the internal state of processor architecture, i.e., (de)activation of specific modules such as pipeline stages and the cache, is available via a cycle-accurate simulator. Despite good accuracy, above methods are too slow due to the complexity of cycle-accurate simulation. This paper describes a new technique for estimating the energy consumption of processors by predicting the internal information of processor architecture through a cycle-approximate simulator. We have evaluated our approach in comparison with an existing energy estimation method using a cycle-accurate ARM v5 architecture simulator. Experimental results shows that the proposed method achieves 97% accuracy and 28 times speed-up on average.
Evaluation and Controlled Release Characteristics of Modified Xanthan Films for Transdermal Delivery of Atenolol

ABSTRACT The present study was performed to evaluate the possibility of using modified xanthan films as a matrix system for transdermal delivery of atenolol (ATL), which is an antihypertensive drug. Acrylamide was grafted onto xanthan gum (XG) by free radical polymerization using ceric ion as an initiator. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry indicated the formation of the graft copolymer. The obtained graft copolymer was loaded with ATL and films were fabricated by solution casting method for transdermal application. Various formulations were prepared by varying the grafting ratio, drug loading, and different penetration enhancers. The formulations prepared were characterized for weight, thickness uniformity, water vapor transmission rate, and uniformity in drug content of the matrix. All the thin films were slightly opaque, smooth, flexible, and permeable to water vapor, indicating their permeability characteristics suitable for transdermal studies. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry studies indicated no significant interactions between drug and polymer. Drug is distributed uniformly in the matrix but showed a slight amorphous nature. Drug-loaded films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction to understand the drug polymorphism inside the films. Scanning electron microscopic studies of the placebo and drug-loaded films demonstrated a remarkable change in their surface morphology. The skin irritation tests were performed in mice and these results suggested that both placebo and drug-loaded films produced negligible erythema and edema compared to formalin (0.8% v/v) as the standard irritant. The in vitro drug release studies were performed in phosphate buffer saline using a Keshary-Chien diffusion cell. Different formulations were prepared and variations in drug release profiles were observed. Release data were analyzed by using the Ritger and Peppas equation to understand the mechanism of drug release as well as the estimation of n values, which ranged between 0.41 and 0.53, suggesting a Fickian diffusion trend.
Impact of process variability on a frequency-addressed NEMS array sensor used for gravimetric detection

Based on experimental results and a dedicated model, the impact of various technological parameters on the performance of a frequency addressed NEMS arrays sensor is investigated for mass sensing application. It is shown that the number of NEMS resonators that can be addressed in parallel is limited by critical dimensions fluctuations, the quality factor of the NEMS and their resonance frequencies.
Adventures with clustered filesystems

Current trends in High Performance Computing (HPC) platforms suggest the adoption of the distributed memory paradigm by employing multiple machines for peak floating point performances. This trend must cope with the issue of reading and writing back data on clustered file systems providing shared storage. Clustered file system are usually implemented on a Storage Area Network (SAN) equipped with an optical fiber interconnect with the Computing nodes. Available clustered files systems provide performance benchmarks not always suited to cover all the needs of the users community. Besides providing a basic description of the most widespread clustered filesystems, our main goal is to establish a portable and easy to use benchmark to gauge the clustered file system performances under a typical I/O load for data arranged into a tree composed by thousands of directory i-nodes. A typical example is provided by a graph based statistical database. Results are quite interesting because it is shown that even a 16 nodes symmetric clustered file systems like GFS2 and OCFS2 show operation times much higher than those provided by the most resource consuming Lustre file system. Tables like the ones we show are very useful for providing quantitative insights aimed at driving adoption choices. In our infrastructure, the adoption of an asymmetric file system like Lustre entails a price of 4 computing nodes that are now devoted as centralized file system Metadata servers and other Lustre related services.
Automatic street lighting system for energy efficiency based on low cost microcontroller

This paper proposes energy efficient of automatic street lighting system based on low cost microcontroller. The main objective is to design energy efficient based controller for controlling the Light Emitting Diode (LED) based street lamp via appropriate lighting levels control. This system is consists of a microcontroller, light sensor, rain sensor, laser sensor and a set of the light emitting diode (LED) module. While, the controlling and managing of the system is based on the number of traffic and five different level of street light brightness has been used for lighting up the street and proportional to the number of traffic. The system was programmed to automatically turn off during the hours of daylight and only operate during the night and heavy raining or bad weather. Several numbers of tests have been conducted to test and validate the proposed prototype in the different environment. As conclusion, around 77%-81% reduction in power consumption can be achieved through this proposed automatic street lighting system for energy efficiency system design.