Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Petri net model for an open path multi-AGV system

Automated distribution warehouses in which pallet and roll pallet loads are transported by means of forklift AGVs are considered in this work, with the objective of defining a mathematical model which accurately represents the behaviour of AGVs in the system. AGVs can move freely in the warehouse (an open path AGV system is adopted), and their transportation activities can be modelled as a sequence of elementary or basic actions. In the paper, a coloured Petri net (CPN) model is proposed. It allows representing any sequence of elementary actions of AGVs (including pick-up and drop-off activities), and accurately models the interactions among AGVs, in order to guarantee the safety during the execution of activities. The CPN model can be used to analyse and implement deadlock prevention and deadlock recovery strategies, and it has been adopted in the building of a discrete-event simulator which is employed to analyse the system's performance and to evaluate scheduling policies for transportation tasks.
Packet routing and information distribution in Multiprotocol Label Switching

MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) is one of the possible methods used to create a data circuit switching behavior even if the underlying telecommunication network is a routed/switched packet network. If inside the network there is a path hierarchy, the common approach is to transmit the entire label stack, using one label for each path in the hierarchy. For optimization, a single LSP (Label-Switched Path) label could be transmitted without others labels but together with a list of component identifiers. Using these identifiers inside each network node, the full LSP labels can determined. This paper proposes a mechanism to populate the interconnected nodes of a network with the meaningful information necessary to obtain the path label from a database.
Delta-Sigma Modulation in Direct Digital Frequency Synthesis

This paper presents comparisons of various DeltaSigma modulations in direct digital frequency synthesis. DeltaSigma modulators such as MASH, feedforward, feedback and error feedback have been implemented in both phase and frequency domains in a CMOS DDS. The DDS prototype is fabricated in a 0.35mum CMOS technology with core area of 1.7times2. 1 mm and total 75 mA current. Measured DDS output demonstrates that frequency domain DeltaSigma modulation achieves better SFDR and SINAD than phase domain AE modulation
Classification-Based System For Cross-Layer Optimized Wireless Video Transmission

Joint optimization strategies across various layers of the protocol stack have recently been proposed for improving the performance of real-time video transmission over wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a new, low complexity system for determining the optimal cross-layer strategies for wireless multimedia transmission based on classification and machine learning techniques. We first determine offline the optimal cross-layer strategy for various video sequences and channel conditions (training data). Subsequently, we extract relevant and easy to compute content features, encoder-specific parameters, and channel resources from the training data, and train a statistical classifier based on these optimal results. At run-time, we predict using the classifier the optimal cross-layer compression and transmission strategy using these simple, on-the-fly computed features. Hence, we consider the complex problem of finding the optimal cross-layer strategy during the training phase only, and rely at transmission-time on low-complexity classification techniques. We illustrate the proposed classification-based system by performing MAC-application layer optimizations for video transmission over 802.11a wireless LANs. Specifically, we predict the optimal MAC retry limits for the various video packets and compare our results against both optimal and conventionally used ad-hoc cross-layer solutions. Our results indicate that considerable improvements can be obtained through the proposed cross-layer techniques relying on classification as opposed to optimized ad-hoc solutions. The improvements are especially important at high packet-loss rates (5% and higher), where deploying a judicious mixture of strategies at the various layers becomes essential. Furthermore, our proposed classification-based system can be easily modified to include other layers from the OSI stack during the cross-layer optimization
A Minimal Dose of Electrically Induced Muscle Activity Regulates Distinct Gene Signaling Pathways in Humans with Spinal Cord Injury

Paralysis after a spinal cord injury (SCI) induces physiological adaptations that compromise the musculoskeletal and metabolic systems. Unlike non-SCI individuals, people with spinal cord injury experience minimal muscle activity which compromises optimal glucose utilization and metabolic control. Acute or chronic muscle activity, induced through electrical stimulation, may regulate key genes that enhance oxidative metabolism in paralyzed muscle. We investigated the short and long term effects of electrically induced exercise on mRNA expression of human paralyzed muscle. We developed an exercise dose that activated the muscle for only 0.6% of the day. The short term effects were assessed 3 hours after a single dose of exercise, while the long term effects were assessed after training 5 days per week for at least one year (adherence 81%). We found a single dose of exercise regulated 117 biological pathways as compared to 35 pathways after one year of training. A single dose of electrical stimulation increased the mRNA expression of transcriptional, translational, and enzyme regulators of metabolism important to shift muscle toward an oxidative phenotype (PGC-1α, NR4A3, IFRD1, ABRA, PDK4). However, chronic training increased the mRNA expression of specific metabolic pathway genes (BRP44, BRP44L, SDHB, ACADVL), mitochondrial fission and fusion genes (MFF, MFN1, MFN2), and slow muscle fiber genes (MYH6, MYH7, MYL3, MYL2). These findings support that a dose of electrical stimulation (∼10 minutes/day) regulates metabolic gene signaling pathways in human paralyzed muscle. Regulating these pathways early after SCI may contribute to reducing diabetes in people with longstanding paralysis from SCI.
Complexity Analysis of Sleep EEG Signal

The complexity of the EEG time series during sleeping is investigated. The relationships between these sleep states and the complexities of the EEG are assessed. Lempel-Ziv complexity is used as a novel index for quantifying the complexity of the EEG time series during different sleep states. Experimental results show that the Lempel-Ziv (LZ)complexity of the EEG time series during active (REM, rapid eye movement) sleep tends to be higher than during quiet (NREM, non rapid eye movement) sleep, and the complexity during wake is higher than during sleep. The Lempel-Ziv complexity can effectively distinguish the sleep states of the brain.
TLR9 -1486T/C and 2848C/T SNPs Are Associated with Human Cytomegalovirus Infection in Infants

Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) recognizes non-methylated viral CpG-containing DNA and serves as a pattern recognition receptor that signals the presence of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). Here, we present the genotype distribution of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the TLR9 gene in infants and the relationship between TLR9 polymorphisms and HCMV infection. Four polymorphisms (-1237T/C, rs5743836; -1486T/C, rs187084; 1174G/A, rs352139; and 2848C/T, rs352140) in the TLR9 gene were genotyped in 72 infants with symptomatic HCMV infection and 70 healthy individuals. SNP genotyping was performed by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Digested fragments were separated and identified by capillary electrophoresis. The HCMV DNA copy number was measured by a quantitative real-time PCR assay. We found an increased frequency of heterozygous genotypes TLR9 -1486T/C and 2848C/T in infants with HCMV infection compared with uninfected cases. Heterozygous variants of these two SNPs increased the risk of HCMV disease in children (P = 0.044 and P = 0.029, respectively). In infants with a mutation present in at least one allele of -1486T/C and 2848C/T SNPs, a trend towards increased risk of cytomegaly was confirmed after Bonferroni’s correction for multiple testing (Pc = 0.063). The rs352139 GG genotype showed a significantly reduced relative risk for HCMV infection (Pc = 0.006). In contrast, the -1237T/C SNP was not related to viral infection. We found no evidence for linkage disequilibrium with the four examined TLR9 SNPs. The findings suggest that the TLR9 -1486T/C and 2848C/T polymorphisms could be a genetic risk factor for the development of HCMV disease.
Patterns of Adherence of Helicobacter pylori Clinical Isolates to Epithelial Cells, and its Association with Disease and with Virulence Factors

Adherence to the gastric epithelium is one of the most important steps of Helicobacter pylori to remain and cause disease. The aim of this study was to analyze whether H. pylori isolates from patients with different gastroduodenal diseases present differences in the pattern of adherence to gastric epithelial cells (AGS), in the ability to induce IL‐8, and in the presence of virulence genes.
Introduction Editing the Mouse Genome Using the CRISPR – Cas 9 System

Adam Williams,1,6,7 Jorge Henao-Mejia,2,3,6,7 and Richard A. Flavell4,5,7 The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06032; Institute for Immunology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; Division of Transplant Immunology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104; Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
A hybrid approach for phishing web site detection

Purpose This paper aims to present a hybrid approach based on classification algorithms that was capable of identifying different types of phishing pages. In this approach, after eliminating features that do not play an important role in identifying phishing attacks and also after adding the technique of searching page title in the search engine, the capability of identifying journal phishing and phishing pages embedded in legal sites was added to the presented approach in this paper. Design/methodology/approach The hybrid approach of this paper for identifying phishing web sites is presented. This approach consists of four basic sections. The action of identifying phishing web sites and journal phishing attacks is performed via selecting two classification algorithms separately. To identify phishing attacks embedded in legal web sites also the method of page title searching is used and then the result is returned. To facilitate identifying phishing pages the black list approach is used along with the proposed approach so that the operation of identifying phishing web sites can be performed more accurately, and, finally, by using a decision table, it is judged that the intended web site is phishing or legal. Findings In this paper, a hybrid approach based on classification algorithms to identify phishing web sites is presented that has the ability to identify a new type of phishing attack known as journal phishing. The presented approach considers the most used features and adds new features to identify these attacks and to eliminate unused features in the identifying process of these attacks, does not have the problems of previous techniques and can identify journal phishing too. Originality/value The major advantage of this technique was considering all of the possible and effective features in identifying phishing attacks and eliminating unused features of previous techniques; also, this technique in comparison with other similar techniques has the ability of identifying journal phishing attacks and phishing pages embedded in legal sites.
An iterative frequency-domain layered space-time receiver for SDMA systems with single-carrier transmission

The use of multiple antennas at the BS (base station) allows significant improvements on the spectral efficiency of wireless communication systems by increasing the number of simultaneous users in a given cell. We introduce a new iterative multiuser detection scheme for systems requiring high-rate transmission in severe time-dispersive channels. We consider the use of single-carrier modulation combined with frequency-domain equalization techniques, which are known to be excellent candidates for severe time-dispersive channels. The BS employs multiple antennas and consists of an iterative LST (layered space-time) receiver combined with frequency-domain equalization techniques. Our performance results show that the proposed receiver structure has excellent performance, which can be very close to the matched filter bound, even for severe time-dispersive channels and in the presence of strongly interfering channels.
A secure face recognition scheme using noisy images based on kernel sparse representation

This paper proposes a secure face recognition scheme based on kernel sparse representation where facial images are visually encrypted. In the proposed scheme, a noisy image is added to all facial images, including a query image, to protect facial images. Noise-added facial images are further clipped for preventing unauthorized noise removing. Thanks to these strategies, a leakage of facial images will not disclose users' privacy, even the noisy image is also leaked. That is, the proposed scheme protects users' privacy and does not need to manage the noisy image securely. The proposed scheme directly applies kernel sparse representation based face recognition to noisy facial images, viz., decryption-free. Experimental results demonstrate that the face recognition performance of kernel sparse representation is not degraded, even facial images are visually encrypted.
Reliability Improvement of Hardware Task Graphs via Configuration Early Fetch

This paper presents a technique to improve the reliability and the mean time to failure (MTTF) of hardware task graphs (TGs) running on reconfigurable computers. This technique, which has been named task early fetch, can be applied to a sequence of one or several applications, represented as TGs. It consists in carrying out the reconfiguration of some tasks within the execution of the previous TG, plus increasing the redundancy level of the early fetched tasks. Experimental results on actual TGs show the positive impacts of the proposed technique. Thus, without deteriorating the execution time (makespan), on average, a 114% MTTF improvement is achieved for no-fault-tolerant TGs, and the improvement is more significant when applying to fault-tolerant TGs. Finally, this paper presents a hardware implementation of a manager that applies these techniques at runtime and steers the execution of the running TGs. It demonstrates that, with 0.03% consumption of flip-flops and look-up tables and also 1.22% occupancy of block random access memory available on the Xilinx Virtex Ultra- Scale XCVU095-2FFVA2104E field programmable gate array, the required runtime computations can be carried out in negligible delays.
Loss of Function of the GdpP Protein Leads to Joint β-Lactam/Glycopeptide Tolerance in Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT The genetic basis of tolerance to inhibitors of peptidoglycan biosynthesis in Staphylococcus aureus was investigated by generating tolerant mutants in vitro and characterizing them by comparative genome sequencing. Two independently selected tolerant mutants harbored nonsynonymous mutations in gdpP, a gene encoding a putative membrane-located signaling protein. Insertional inactivation of gdpP also conferred tolerance. Our findings further implicate altered signal transduction as a route to antibiotic tolerance in S. aureus.
SRC-3/AIB1: transcriptional coactivator in oncogenesis

AbstractSteroid receptor coactivator-3 (SRC-3, also known as NCoA3, AIB1, p/CIP, RAC3, ACTR, and TRAM1), localized on a frequently amplified region, 20q12, has been associated with multiple cancers, including breast, gastric and prostate cancers. Although SRC-3 has been implicated as an oncogene, compelling evidence has only recently emerged implicating it as a causal factor in the genesis of human cancers. Here, we summarize recent evidence that indicates aberrant SRC-3 expression is important in hormone-sensitive and -insensitive human cancers.
Factors associated with recurrent depression: a prospective study in family practice.

BACKGROUND Depression has a high rate of recurrence. Finding the variables that predict which patients are at higher risk of experiencing a recurrent episode of depression would benefit an individual patient. OBJECTIVE To determine the factors associated with recurrent depression >12 months. METHODS Consecutive patients (N = 1094), aged 18-75 years, were recruited from 23 family practices across Estonia. The patients were followed up at 6- and 12-month intervals as suggested in the PredictD study. Depression was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Each participant filled in a questionnaire to assess their risk factors for depression. RESULTS Major depression was diagnosed in 13% of the patients. Twenty-eight per cent of the depressed patients had a recurrent episode of depression 12 months later. The odds of having recurrent depression were significantly higher for patients who had a history of drug abuse, odds ratio (OR) 7.48 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.42-39.43), for patients who had experienced discrimination, OR 2.92 (95% CI = 1.05-8.11) and for patients with a history of childhood abuse, OR 1.58 (95% CI = 1.05-2.38). CONCLUSIONS One-third of the patients developed recurrent depression. Drug abuse, discrimination and childhood abuse predicted recurrent depression. These factors should be taken into consideration by family doctors when managing patients with depression.
How Do Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud Computing Impact Nonprofit Organizations? A Pluralistic Study of Information and Communication Technologies in Indian Context

The adoption of Internet, new media and information technology tools has attracted the attention of many academicians and practitioners. The founders and the managers of nonprofits look forward to information and communication technologies (ICTs) not only to aid in organizational effectiveness, but also to aid in societal missions. This paper analyzes the attitude of nonprofit organizations toward the new ICTs such as social media, mobility, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC). We followed a mixed methods sequential explanatory strategy, in which two data collection phases were employed. The quantitative phase following the qualitative phase investigated the SMAC adoption and how the adoption of SMAC helped the organizations meet their missions. Overall, the adoption of SMAC showed immediate positive outcomes such as organizational effectiveness and bridging digital divide.
Hemodynamic characteristics at the rupture site of cerebral aneurysms: a case study.

BACKGROUND AND IMPORTANCE Hemodynamics play an important role in the mechanisms of aneurysm formation, growth, and rupture. However, little is known about the hemodynamics of rupture sites. CLINICAL PRESENTATION We incidentally acquired 3-dimensional images before and at the moment of rebleeding of a cerebral aneurysm in a patient. Comparison of these 2 images enabled precise identification of the rupture site. On the basis of computational fluid dynamics simulation, we propose that there are characteristic hemodynamic parameters of the rupture site in cerebral aneurysms. We evaluated flow velocity, wall shear stress (WSS), pressure, and the oscillatory shear index to determine characteristic parameters at the rupture site. Among the hemodynamic parameters in the cardiac cycle, the rupture site was most markedly distinguished by a combination of low WSS at end diastole and high pressure at peak systole. The flow patterns around the rupture site uniquely changed in the cardiac cycle. The rupture site was an impingement zone at peak systole. Flow separation at the rupture site was observed at end diastole. CONCLUSION In this case, a region with low WSS at end diastole and high pressure at peak systole was at the rupture site. A possible mechanism of rupture in this particular aneurysm is that low WSS at end diastole caused degeneration and thinning of the aneurysm wall and that high pressure at peak systole (impingement zone) resulted in rupture of the thinning wall.
S-parameter extraction of passive sub-circuits using computed tomography scans and measured substrate material parameters

This paper presents a method for S-parameter extraction of passive sub-circuits embedded in complex microwave circuits. We employed computed tomography (CT) scans and measured substrate material parameters. The principle is based on the automatic reconstruction of CAD models from CT image data. Such CAD models represent the geometry of the actual manufactured passive microwave circuits and are suited for 3D electromagnetic field simulation to extract the S-parameters of these devices non-destructively. It is shown that by supplementing the simulation model with measured material parameters the agreement between the simulated S-parameters and the measured S-parameters can be improved. The proposed method has been applied to a passive 90° hybrid coupler, which is embedded in a hybrid power amplifier circuit.
Diversity-Rate Trade-off in Erasure Networks

This paper addresses a fundamental trade-off between rate and the diversity gain of an end-to-end connection in an erasure network. The erasure network is modeled by a directed graph whose links are orthogonal erasure channels. Furthermore, the erasure network is assumed to be non-ergodic, meaning that the erasure status of the links are assumed to be fixed during each block of transmission and change independently from block to block. The erasure status of the links is assumed to be known only by the destination node. First, we study the homogeneous erasure networks in which the links have the same erasure probability and capacity. We derive the optimum trade-off between diversity gain and the end-to-end rate and prove that a variant of the conventional routing strategy combined with an appropriate forward error correction at the end-nodes achieves the optimum diversity-rate trade-off. Next, we consider the general erasure networks in which different links may have different values of erasure probability and capacity. We prove that there exist general erasure networks for which any conventional routing strategy fails to achieve the optimum diversity-rate trade-off. However, for any general erasure graph, we show that there exists a linear network coding strategy which achieves the optimum diversity-rate trade-off. Unlike the previous works which suggest the potential benefit of linear network coding in the error-free multicast scenario (in terms of the achievable rate), our result introduces the benefit of linear network coding in the erasure single-source single-destination scenario (in terms of the diversity gain). Finally, we study the diversity-rate trade-off through simulations. The erasure graphs are constructed according to the Barabasi-Albert random model which is known to capture the scale-free property of the practical packet switched networks like the Internet. The error probability is depicted for different network strategies and different rate values. The depicted results confirm the trade-off between the rate and the diversity gain for each network strategy. Moreover, the diversity gain is plotted versus the rate for different conventional routing and the linear network coding strategies. It is observed that linear network coding outperforms all conventional routing strategies in terms of the diversity gain.