Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vehicular Multi-Access Edge Computing With Licensed Sub-6 GHz, IEEE 802.11p and mmWave

With the rapid increase of vehicular Internet of things applications, it is urgent to design a mobile edge computing architecture, which is possible to distribute and process a large amount of contents with vehicles on the road. From a communication perspective, the current cellular technology faces challenges due to the limited bandwidth in a dense vehicle environment. In this paper, we propose a multi-access edge computing framework and the corresponding communication protocol which integrates licensed Sub-6 GHz band, IEEE 802.11p, and millimeter wave (mmWave) communications for the content distribution and processing in vehicular networks. The proposed protocol uses a cluster-based approach, where a fuzzy logic-based algorithm is employed to select efficient gateway nodes which bridge the licensed Sub-6 GHz communication and the mmWave communication in order to maximize the overall network throughput. IEEE 802.11p vehicle-to-vehicle communication is used to share information among vehicles in order to achieve efficient clustering. We conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol under various network conditions. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol can achieve significant improvements in various scenarios compared with the existing approaches.
Bacterial attachment to micro- and nano- structured surfaces

Abstract The ongoing interest in bacterial interactions with various surfaces, followed by attachment and subsequent biofilm formation, has been driven by the importance of bacterial activities in number of medical, industrial and technological applications. However, bacterial adhesion to surfaces has not been completely understood due to the complexity of parameters involved. The study presented herein investigates the attachment pattern of nine medically and environmentally significant bacteria belonging to different taxonomic lineages: Firmicutes Bacillus, Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Bacteriodetes. Physicochemical assessment techniques such as contact angle and surface charge measurements, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), confocal microscopy (CLSM), as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) analysis were all employed in order to attain better insight into the factors that influence bacterial interactions with surfaces. Bacterial surface characteristics such as surface wettability and charge in addition to substratum surface wettability, tension, charge and chemistry were also considered. However due to the recent interest in designing micro-textured surfaces with antibacterial and/or antifouling effects the prime was given to the influence of microand nano-meter scale surface textures on bacterial adhesion. The interactions between selected bacteria and glass, polymer and optical fibre surfaces were studied. Carefully designed methods for surface modification allowed alteration of the topography of glass, polymer and optical fibre surfaces while maintaining other surface parameters near constant. This allowed isolated assessment of only the effects of surface roughness on bacterial adhesion. Obtained results indicated consistent cellular inclination towards the smoother surfaces for all of the tested species. Enhanced bacterial presence on the smoother surfaces was also accompanied by changes in the bacterial metabolic activity as
Can e-Learner's emotion be recognized from interactive Chinese texts?

Aiming at Emotional Illiteracy in current e-Learning environment, this paper discussed the reason why this situation happens. A research and application framework of recognizing emotion based text interaction is presented. An emotion category model for e-Learners is defined. Many Chinese metaphors are abstracted from corpus according to the sentence semantic and syntax. A method is applied to identify e-learner emotion. Good results are achieved in our initial experiment. A case based reasoning sentiment adjustment strategy recommendation is proposed to enhance emotion communication between two interacted sides.
Optical imaging of Cerenkov light generation from positron-emitting radiotracers

Radiotracers labeled with high-energy positron emitters, such as those commonly used for positron emission tomography studies, emit visible light immediately following decay in a medium. This phenomenon, not previously described for these imaging tracers, is consistent with Cerenkov radiation and has several potential applications, especially for in vivo molecular imaging studies. Herein we detail a new molecular imaging tool, Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging, the experiments conducted that support our interpretation of the source of the signal, and proof-of-concept in vivo studies that set the foundation for future application of this new method.
On the Analytical Calculation of the Probability Distribution of End-to-End Delay in a Two-Way Highway VANET

In several papers, analytical calculations of the mean value of the end-to-end delay in highway vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) have been presented. Unfortunately, none of these papers presented calculations of the probability distribution of this delay, which is necessary to give probabilistically guaranteed upper bounds on the end-to-end delay in such VANETs. In a previous paper, we introduced the first analytical framework for the calculation of the probability distribution, and not only the mean, of the end-to-end delay in multi-lane one-way highway VANETs. This made it possible to provide guarantees of transmission in a given time frame with known confidence. In this paper, that previous work is extended to two-way multi-lane highways by taking into consideration vehicles travelling in both directions. The probability distribution of the end-to-end delay is calculated herein and its dependence on system parameters, such as speed distributions in the two directions, communication range, and vehicle densities, are analyzed. Computer simulations are used to verify the analytical model. The good agreement between simulation results and the analytical calculations demonstrates the correctness and accuracy of the proposed analytical model.
Randomized Phase II Trial of Gemcitabine Plus TH-302 Versus Gemcitabine in Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer.

PURPOSE TH-302 is an investigational hypoxia-activated prodrug that releases the DNA alkylator bromo-isophosphoramide mustard in hypoxic settings. This phase II study (NCT01144455) evaluated gemcitabine plus TH-302 in patients with previously untreated, locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were randomly assigned 1:1:1 to gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m(2)), gemcitabine plus TH-302 240 mg/m(2) (G+T240), or gemcitabine plus TH-302 340 mg/m(2) (G+T340). Randomized crossover after progression on gemcitabine was allowed. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included overall survival (OS), tumor response, CA 19-9 response, and safety. RESULTS Two hundred fourteen patients (77% with metastatic disease) were enrolled between June 2010 and July 2011. PFS was significantly longer with gemcitabine plus TH-302 (pooled combination arms) compared with gemcitabine alone (median PFS, 5.6 v 3.6 months, respectively; hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.87; P = .005; median PFS for metastatic disease, 5.1 v 3.4 months, respectively). Median PFS times for G+T240 and G+T340 were 5.6 and 6.0 months, respectively. Tumor response was 12%, 17%, and 26% in the gemcitabine, G+T240, and G+T340 arms, respectively (G+T340 v gemcitabine, P = .04). CA 19-9 decrease was greater with G+T340 versus gemcitabine (-5,398 v -549 U/mL, respectively; P = .008). Median OS times for gemcitabine, G+T240, and G+T340 were 6.9, 8.7, and 9.2 months, respectively (P = not significant). The most common adverse events (AEs) were fatigue, nausea, and peripheral edema (frequencies similar across arms). Skin and mucosal toxicities (2% grade 3) and myelosuppression (55% grade 3 or 4) were the most common TH-302-related AEs but were not associated with treatment discontinuation. CONCLUSION PFS, tumor response, and CA 19-9 response were significantly improved with G+TH-302. G+T340 is being investigated further in the phase III MAESTRO study (NCT01746979).
Illustrative Flow Visualization: State of the Art, Trends and Challenges

Flow visualization is a well established branch of scientific visualization and it currently represents an invaluable resource to many fields, like automotive design, meteorology and medical imaging. Thanks to the capabilities of modern hardware, flow datasets are increasing in size and complexity, and traditional flow visualization techniques need to be updated and improved in order to deal with the upcoming challenges. A fairly recent trend to enhance the expressiveness of scientific visualization is to produce depictions of physical phenomena taking inspiration from traditional handcrafted illustrations: this approach is known as illustrative visualization, and it is getting a foothold in flow visualization as well. In this state of the art report we give an overview of the existing illustrative techniques for flow visualization, we highlight which problems have been solved and which issues still need further investigation, and, finally, we provide remarks and insights on the current trends in illustrative flow visualization.
FITNESS CONSEQUENCES OF VARIATION IN EGG SIZE AND FOOD ABUNDANCE IN BROOK TROUT SALVELINUS FONTINALIS

Relationships between egg size and juvenile survival in brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, were determined experimentally at two levels of food abundance and then incorporated into a model that related maternal fitness to egg size and food supply. Egg volume was positively correlated with juvenile size at hatching and size at yolk sac resorption but had no significant effect on embryonic survival or development time. Juvenile survival was linearly related to egg size throughout the first 50 days of exogenous feeding at high and low food levels. The effects of egg size and food abundance on juvenile survival were not additive. Decreased food abundance significantly increased mortality among the smallest eggs but had a negligible effect on the largest eggs. Model simulations indicate that maternal fitness is a curvilinear function of egg size and that food supply influences both the height and the shape of the function. The fitness functions provide empirical support for the hypothesis that selection favors an increase in offspring size with reductions in resource abundance.
ScreenerNet: Learning Self-Paced Curriculum for Deep Neural Networks

We propose to learn a curriculum or a syllabus for supervised learning and deep reinforcement learning with deep neural networks by an attachable deep neural network, called ScreenerNet. Specifically, we learn a weight for each sample by jointly training the ScreenerNet and the main network in an end-to-end self-paced fashion. The ScreenerNet neither has sampling bias nor requires to remember the past learning history. We show the networks augmented with the ScreenerNet achieve early convergence with better accuracy than the state-of-the-art curricular learning methods in extensive experiments using three popular vision datasets such as MNIST, CIFAR10 and Pascal VOC2012, and a Cart-pole task using Deep Q-learning. Moreover, the ScreenerNet can extend other curriculum learning methods such as Prioritized Experience Replay (PER) for further accuracy improvement.
Review Series: Aspects of Interstitial lung disease: Connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease: How does it differ from IPF? How should the clinical approach differ?

The lung is frequently involved in connective tissue diseases (CTDs), although the frequency of lung manifestations varies according to the type of CTD. Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are frequently seen in CTDs, particularly systemic sclerosis (SSc), polymyositis/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), accounting for a significant proportion of deaths. A large percentage of patients with CTD-associated ILD has limited and stable disease, not requiring treatment. However, a significant minority has severe and/or progressive disease, necessitating prompt initiation of treatment. CTD-ILD histological patterns include non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), organizing pneumonia (OP), diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) and lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (LIP). NSIP is the most common pattern in all CTDs, except for RA, characterized by a higher frequency of UIP. ILD can present acutely or chronically, with acute presentations being more common in systemic lupus erythematosus and PM/DM. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressively worsening ILD characterized by inflammation and fibrosis. The characteristic histological pattern of IPF is UIP. Interestingly, a UIP pattern is associated with a significantly better survival in CTD-related disease compared to the idiopathic variety. Prognosis in IPF is dismal, with a median survival since diagnosis of 2-3 years. No treatment regimen has been shown to improve survival in IPF. By contrast, although there have been only two randomized placebo-controlled trials investigating the effect of immunosuppressive treatment in SSc-associated ILD, clinical experience suggests that immunosuppressive drugs in CTD-related ILDs are capable of benefiting a significant proportion of patients, particularly those with certain histological patterns of disease. This review will essentially focus on CTD-associated ILD and will compare aspects of clinical presentation and management to those of IPF.
Putative HIV and SIV G-Quadruplex Sequences in Coding and Noncoding Regions Can Form G-Quadruplexes

The HIV virus is one of the most studied viruses in the world. This is especially true in terms of gene sequencing, and to date more than 9 thousand genomic sequences of HIV isolates have been sequenced and analyzed. In this study, a series of DNA sequences, which have the potential to form G-quadruplex structures, is analyzed. Several such sequences were found in various coding and noncoding virus domains, including the U3 LTR, tat, rev, env, and vpx regions. Interestingly, a homological sequence to the already well-known HIV integrase aptamer was identified in the minus-strand. The sequences derived from original isolates were analyzed using standard spectral and electrophoretic methods. In addition, a recently developed methodology is applied which uses induced circular dichroism spectral profiles of G-quadruplex-ligand (Thiazole Orange) complexes to determine if G-rich sequences can adopt G-quadruplex structure. Targeting the G-quadruplexes or peptide domains corresponding to the G-rich coding sequence in HIV offers researchers attractive therapeutic targets which would be of particular use in the development of novel antiviral therapies. The analysis of G-rich regions can provide researchers with a path to find specific targets which could be of interest for specific types of virus.
Parallel Multi Channel convolution using General Matrix Multiplication

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have emerged as one of the most successful machine learning technologies for image and video processing. The most computationally-intensive parts of CNNs are the convolutional layers, which convolve multi-channel images with multiple kernels. A common approach to implementing convolutional layers is to expand the image into a column matrix (im2col) and perform Multiple Channel Multiple Kernel (MCMK) convolution using an existing parallel General Matrix Multiplication (GEMM) library. This im2col conversion greatly increases the memory footprint of the input matrix and reduces data locality. In this paper we propose a new approach to MCMK convolution that is based on General Matrix Multiplication (GEMM), but not on im2col. Our algorithm eliminates the need for data replication on the input thereby enabling us to apply the convolution kernels on the input images directly. We have implemented several variants of our algorithm on a CPU processor and an embedded ARM processor. On the CPU, our algorithm is faster than im2col in most cases.
A 20-Year Follow-up After First-Generation Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation

Background: Treating articular cartilage defects is a demanding problem. Although several studies have reported durable and improved clinical outcomes after autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) over a long-term period, there is no report with over 20 years’ follow-up. Purpose: To evaluate clinical outcomes after first-generation ACI for the treatment of knees with disabling, large single and multiple cartilage defects for which patients wished to avoid prosthetic arthroplasty, with a minimum of 20 years’ follow-up. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: The authors reviewed prospectively collected data from 23 patients (24 knees; mean age, 35.4 years [range, 13-52 years]) undergoing ACI for the treatment of symptomatic, full-thickness articular cartilage lesions. A mean of 2.1 lesions per knee were treated over a mean total surface area of 11.8 cm2 (range, 2.4-30.5 cm2) per knee. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and functional outcome scores, including the modified Cincinnati Knee Rating System, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), and Short Form–36 (SF-36), were used. Patients also self-reported an improvement in pain with a visual analog scale and a satisfaction survey. Results: The 20-year survival rate was 63% (95% CI, 40%-78%). The evaluation of the 15 knees with retained grafts demonstrated that all clinical scores except the WOMAC subscore for stiffness and SF-36 mental component summary score improved significantly and were sustained to 20 years postoperatively. Ninety-three percent of these patients rated knee-specific outcomes as good or excellent. The outcomes for 9 of 24 knees were considered failures, including 5 undergoing revision ACI and 4 being converted to arthroplasty at a mean of 1.7 and 5.9 years, respectively. Only 1 of 5 knees that underwent revision ACI was converted to arthroplasty at 1.9 years after the index surgery, and the other 4 patients were able to maintain their biological knee. Overall, 20 years later, 79% of patients maintained their native knee, for which they initially sought treatment, and were satisfied when evaluated. Conclusion: First-generation ACI provided satisfactory survival rates and significant clinical improvements over a 20-year follow-up, which offers an important standard for comparison with newer-generation ACI technologies of the future.
Gain improvement for conventional rectangular horn antenna with additional two-layer wire medium structure

This paper presents the technique of the metamaterial on a two-layer wire medium structure for gain improvement of a conventional rectangular horn antenna without its construction enlargement. From our study, we find that the proper metamaterial structure is capable to enhance the gain of the antenna as the additional resonant circuit, exhibit bandgap characteristics at the operating frequency, installed in front of the antenna. This is due to the proper metamaterial exhibits frequency bandpass and bandstop that can block the surface wave excitation in the operating frequency range of antennas. The gain enhancement synthesis method for the proper metamaterial, which is to transfer the electromagnetic fields from aperture of a horn radiated simultaneously through this metamaterial, so that the phases of electromagnetic wave transmission are equal resulting in ultimate resonance The proper metamaterial that is presented by using a two-layer wire medium structure, the 3D volumetric structure. The proposed technique has the advantages of low profile, low cost, and light weight. The antenna characteristics such as reflected power (S11), radiation patterns, and gain are simulated by using the simulation software. From our simulation results, we note that the S11 of this proposed antenna (at −10dB) covered 8–12 GHz, which was wide enough and could be well suitable for application for X-band and I-band following the IEEE and the ITU standards, respectively. The gain at the operating frequency of 10 GHz is 24 dBi, which higher than the gain of a basic rectangular horn antenna around 6dBi with adding only one appropriated metamaterials on a two-layer wire medium structure.
Risk Factors for Eating Disorder Psychopathology within the Treatment Seeking Transgender Population: The Role of Cross‐Sex Hormone Treatment

Many transgender people experience high levels of body dissatisfaction, which is one of the numerous factors known to increase vulnerability to eating disorder symptoms in the cisgender (non-trans) population. Cross-sex hormones can alleviate body dissatisfaction so might also alleviate eating disorder symptoms. This study aimed to explore risk factors for eating disorder symptoms in transgender people and the role of cross-sex hormones. Individuals assessed at a national transgender health service were invited to participate (N = 563). Transgender people not on cross-sex hormones reported higher levels of eating disorder psychopathology than people who were. High body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, anxiety symptoms, and low self-esteem were risk factors for eating psychopathology, but, after controlling for these, significant differences in eating psychopathology between people who were and were not on cross-sex hormones disappeared. Cross-sex hormones may alleviate eating disorder psychopathology. Given the high prevalence of transgender identities, clinicians at eating disorder services should assess for gender identity issues. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
Smad6 Methylation Represses NFκB Activation and Periodontal Inflammation

The balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory signals maintains tissue homeostasis and defines the outcome of chronic inflammatory diseases such as periodontitis, a condition that afflicts the tooth-supporting tissues and exerts an impact on systemic health. The induction of tissue inflammation relies heavily on Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling, which drives a proinflammatory pathway through recruiting myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88) and activating nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NFκB). TLR-induced production of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines is reined in by anti-inflammatory cytokines, including the transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) family of cytokines. Although Smad6 is a key mediator of TGFβ-induced anti-inflammatory signaling, the exact mechanism by which TGFβ regulates TLR proinflammatory signaling in the periodontal tissue has not been addressed to date. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time that the ability of TGFβ to inhibit TLR-NFκB signaling is mediated by protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1)–induced Smad6 methylation. Upon methylation, Smad6 recruited MyD88 and promoted MyD88 degradation, thereby inhibiting NFκB activation. Most important, Smad6 is expressed and methylated in the gingival epithelium, and PRMT1-Smad6 signaling promotes tissue homeostasis by limiting inflammation. Consistent with this, disturbance of Smad6 methylation exacerbates inflammation and bone loss in experimental periodontitis. The dissected mechanism is therapeutically important, as it highlights the manipulation of PRMT1-Smad6 signaling as a novel promising strategy to modulate the host immune response in periodontitis.