Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TWIST Actu: a RESTful testbed platform for remote experimentation with building automation sensors and actuators

The TWIST Actu platform is aimed at extending the capabilities of the TWIST testbed at TU Berlin with support for remote experiments involving building automation sensors and actuators, as part of a wider effort to migrate the testbed from a pure sensor network testbed to one that can also effectively host more challenging cyber-physical system experimental scenarios. In this demo paper we summarize the main features of the hardware and software architecture of TWIST Actu, focusing on the design of the RESTful remote experimentation API that supports a "Testbed as a Service" model of use of the testbed resources. We also present a prototype implementation of the platform and scenario for demonstrating its capabilities.
The Protozoan Parasite Cryptosporidium parvum Possesses Two Functionally and Evolutionarily Divergent Replication Protein A Large Subunits*

Very little is known about protozoan replication protein A (RPA), a heterotrimeric complex critical for DNA replication and repair. We have discovered that in medically and economically important apicomplexan parasites, two unique RPA complexes may exist based on two different types of large subunit RPA1. In this study, we characterized the single-stranded DNA binding features of two distinct types (i.e. short and long) of RPA1 subunits from Cryptosporidium parvum (CpRPA1A and CpRPA1B). These two proteins differ from human RPA1 in their intrinsic single-stranded DNA binding affinity (K) and have significantly lower cooperativity (ω). We also identified the RPA2 and RPA3 subunits from C. parvum, the latter of which had yet to be reported to exist in any protozoan. Using fluorescence resonance energy transfer technology and pull-down assays, we confirmed that these two subunits interact with each other and with CpRPA1A and CpRPA1B. This suggests that the heterotrimeric structure of RPA complexes may be universally conserved from lower to higher eukaryotes. Bioinformatic analyses indicate that multiple types of RPA1 are present in the other apicomplexans Plasmodium and Toxoplasma. Apicomplexan RPA1 proteins are phylogenetically more related to plant homologues and probably arose from a single gene duplication event prior to the expansion of the apicomplexan lineage. Differential expression during the life cycle stages in three apicomplexan parasites suggests that the two RPA1 types exercise specialized biological functions.
A critical review of NanoSIMS in analysis of microbial metabolic activities at single-cell level

Abstract Over 3.8 billion years of evolution has enabled many microbial species a versatile metabolism. However, limited by experimental methods, some unique metabolism remains unknown or unclear. A major obstacle is to attribute the incorporation of certain nutrients into a noncultivable species out of a complex microbial community. Such difficulty could be solved if we are able to directly observe substrate uptake at the single-cell level. Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) is a powerful tool for revealing element distribution in nanometer-scale resolution in the fields such as material sciences, geosciences and astronomy. In this review, we focus on another applicability of NanoSIMS in microbiology. In such fields, physiological properties and metabolic activities of microorganisms can be revealed with a single-cell scale resolution by NanoSIMS solely or in combination with other techniques. This review will highlight the features of NanoSIMS in analyzing the metabolic activities of carbon, nitrogen, metal irons by mixed-culture assemblies. Some values of NanoSIMS in environmental microbiology are expected to be discussed via this review.
How urban African American adolescent girls survive in sport: The influence of perceived intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental, and sociocultural factors

HOW URBAN AFRICAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENT GIRLS SURVIVE IN SPORT: THE INFLUENCE OF PERCEIVED INTRAPERSONAL, INTERPERSONAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS By Ramona Denice Cox The goal of this study was to address the barriers experienced by African American adolescent girls who were engaged in sport in urban areas and how these girls who continued participation overcome the barriers. This study also sought to better understand the components of quality sports and physical activity programming that will engage and encourage continued participation among this population. Qualitative methodology in the form of focus group interviews were used for this descriptive study. Participants consisted of 13 African American adolescent girls between the ages of 13 and 17 in grades 9 through 12 who were participants in an organized Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) volleyball program in an urban environment. A social ecological framework was utilized and findings revealed that intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental, and sociocultural factors were significant in influencing sport and physical activity participation. Results revealed a number of challenges and barriers to sport participation including concerns regarding image, identity related issues (race/gender), criticism from significant others, resources and access limitations, lack of skills and ability, and the negative influence of coaches. Strategies and support systems utilized by girls in this study included the positive influence and support from others, exhibiting persistence and determination, navigating image concerns, and possessing a positive attitude and high levels of confidence. Professionals that work with adolescents need to have an understanding of the relationships among the personal, social, cultural, and environmental factors girls experience and use this knowledge in designing and implementing interventions that will best serve this population. Implications for program development included providing opportunities that are fun and offer a variety of activities, are gender specific and culturally relevant, and have African American females in coaching and administrative positions to serve as role models.
A STUDY ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE MEASURES: ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON

In the past few years, there is a growing concern for researching emotional intelligence (EI). Studies have uncovered that EI tends to be a promising attribute in predicting individual and professional accomplishment. The present paper analyzes and compares the EI measures, which stand out against in content and their evaluation. In this editorial, the four major EI measures i.e. Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI), Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQI), Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale (MEIS), Mayer–Salovey– Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test V.2 (MSCEIT) are assessed and compared and a conclusion is establish based on the study. The existing EI measurements serve a four- or five-factor model, but work and non-work results are being unnoticed. After examining various EI dimensions, it is anticipated that further controlled research should be acted upon separately for incremental validity of EI measures in projecting job and other work performances instead of applying traditional cognitive skill and Big Five personality dimensions.
Effects of Regional Mitochondrial Depolarization on Electrical Propagation: Implications for Arrhythmogenesis

Background—Sudden cardiac death often involves arrhythmias triggered by metabolic stress. Loss of mitochondrial function is thought to contribute to the arrhythmogenic substrate, but how mitochondria contribute to uncoordinated electrical activity is poorly understood. It has been proposed that the formation of metabolic current sinks, caused by the nonuniform collapse of mitochondrial inner membrane potential (&Dgr;&PSgr;m), contributes to re-entrant arrhythmias because &Dgr;&PSgr;m depolarization is tightly coupled to the activation of sarcolemmal ATP-sensitive K+ channels, hastening action potential repolarization and shortening the refractory period. Methods and Results—Here, we use computational and experimental methods to investigate how &Dgr;&PSgr;m instability can induce re-entrant arrhythmias. We develop the first tissue-level model of cardiac electrical propagation incorporating cellular electrophysiology, excitation–contraction coupling, mitochondrial energetics, and reactive oxygen species balance. Simulations show that re-entry and fibrillation can be initiated by regional &Dgr;&PSgr;m loss because of the disparity of refractory periods inside and outside the metabolic sink. Computational results are compared with the effects of a metabolic sink generated experimentally by local perfusion of a mitochondrial uncoupler in a monolayer of cardiac myocytes. Conclusions—The results demonstrate that regional mitochondrial depolarization triggered by oxidative stress activates sarcolemmal ATP-sensitive K+ currents to form a metabolic sink. Consequent shortening of the action potential inside, but not outside, the sink increases the propensity for re-entry. &Dgr;&PSgr;m recovery during pacing can lead to novel mechanisms of ectopic activation. The findings highlight the importance of mitochondria as potential therapeutic targets for sudden death associated with cardiovascular disease.
A REFINED SENSOR MODEL FOR PANORAMIC CAMERAS

Digital terrestrial panoramic cameras are providing a new device for taking high-resolution images. The produced images have been used widely for purely imaging purposes such as an indoor and landscape imaging, cultural heritage recording, tourism advertising and image-based rendering. Due to the high information content of those images they may also be used as an efficient means for 3Dobject reconstruction. Therefore the need arises to establish a sensor model and investigate the potential of the system in terms of accuracy. With a well-defined sensor model we have additional powerful sensors for image recording and efficient 3D object modeling. In this paper we present the result of physical measurements of tumbling for the SpheroCam. A method for tumbling error modeling of panoramic cameras is introduced and we will show how it can be used in bundle adjustment with additional parameters. Then we report the result of modeling and accuracy testing using a 3D testfield and compare it with the case when tumbling is not being modeled for EYESCAN and SpheroCam. The results indicate subpixel accuracy for both systems.
An integrated single inductor-single sensor based photovoltaic optimizer with an optimal current point tracking strategy

In this paper, a single inductor-single sensor based photovoltaic optimizer with an optimal current point tracking strategy is proposed. With only one inductor, one sensor and one MPPT unit, this optimizer can not only make all submodules output their individual maximum powers, but also utilize the least components compared with current solutions, greatly reducing the size and cost of photovoltaic optimizer and increasing the integration level. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is verified by both simulation and experiments.
CCR4 blockade does not inhibit allergic airways inflammation

The CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4) shows selectivity for the recruitment of memory T cell subsets, including those of the T helper cell type 2 (Th2) phenotype. In humans, CCR4+ T cells are recruited to the asthmatic lung in response to allergen challenge; however, the contribution of this pathway to allergic disease remains uncertain. We therefore investigated the role of CCR4 in allergic airways inflammation in the guinea pig. Blockade of CCR4 with a specific antibody resulted in only minor changes in numbers of CCR4+ Th cells in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of allergen‐challenged guinea pigs and failed to inhibit the generation of eotaxin/CC chemokine ligand (CCL)11 or macrophage‐derived chemokine/CCL22 or the recruitment of inflammatory leukocytes to the lung. These data suggest that although CCR4 was originally proposed as a marker of Th2 status, antigen‐specific Th2 cells are recruited to the lung predominantly by other pathways. This study casts doubts on the validity of CCR4 as a therapeutic target in the treatment of asthma.
Using Jaza to Animate RoZ Specifications of UML Class Diagrams

One of the goals of the integration of formal and graphical methods is to reuse tool support associated with formal methods. This paper reports on a combination of the Jaza Z animator with the RoZ tool. RoZ produces a Z specification from an annotated UML class diagram. It also generates the specification of basic operations associated to the diagram. The paper recalls the principles of the RoZ tool, gives a typical animation session, and discusses how RoZ and class diagrams must be adapted to support animation
Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Seed Plants Based on a Uniform π Criterion

Despite substantial advances in genotyping techniques and massively accumulated data over the past half century, a uniform measurement of neutral genetic diversity derived by different molecular markers across a wide taxonomical range has not yet been formulated. We collected genetic diversity data on seed plants derived by AFLP, allozyme, ISSR, RAPD, SSR and nucleotide sequences, converted expected heterozygosity (He) to nucleotide diversity (π), and reassessed the relationship between plant genetic diversity and life history traits or extinction risk. We successfully established a uniform π criterion and developed a comprehensive plant genetic diversity database. The mean population-level and species-level π values across seed plants were 0.00374 (966 taxa, 155 families, 47 orders) and 0.00569 (728 taxa, 130 families, 46 orders), respectively. Significant differences were recovered for breeding system (p < 0.001) at the population level and geographic range (p = 0.023) at the species level. Selfing taxa had significantly lower π values than outcrossing and mixed-mating taxa, whereas narrowly distributed taxa had significantly lower π values than widely distributed taxa. Despite significant differences between the two extreme threat categories (critically endangered and least concern), the genetic diversity reduction on the way to extinction was difficult to detect in early stages.
Facts versus Theories: An Everlasting Struggle

Rather than a complete overview of the contribution of Utrecht to stroke research, I have selected a few subjects and attempt to put these in historical context. Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620–1695) was unique in that he approached ‘apoplexy’ through post-mortem observations, in the tradition of Padua. However, the interpretation of his findings in haemorrhagic and especially non-haemorrhagic stroke was still heavily influenced by the authority of Galen’s writings. Wepfer’s category of ‘serous apoplexy’ assumed that extravasation of blood serum might lead to compression of brain substance and blockage of ‘nerve pores’ through which mental ‘spirit’ was supposed to flow. This notion of ‘cerebral congestion’ or ‘cerebral hyperaemia’ lived on, at least to the middle of the 20th century! The pitfalls of theorizing are also evident from recent history (the facile assumption that cerebral ischaemia occurs in the same way as leg ischaemia). By implication, similar errors may well be hidden in present ideas about stroke. Probable or possible examples are the idées reçues that 30 mg of aspirin is less efficacious in the secondary prevention of stroke than 100 mg, that vasospasm is the cause of delayed ischaemia after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage and that perimesencephalic haemorrhage is not caused by rupture of an artery. Physicians still speculate more often than they care to admit.
Origins of human communication

Winner, 2009 Eleanor Maccoby Book Award in Developmental Psychology, presented by the American Psychological Association. and Honorable Mention, Literature, Language & Linguistics category, 2008 PROSE Awards presented by the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers. Human communication is grounded in fundamentally cooperative, even shared, intentions. In this original and provocative account of the evolutionary origins of human communication, Michael Tomasello connects the fundamentally cooperative structure of human communication (initially discovered by Paul Grice) to the especially cooperative structure of human (as opposed to other primate) social interaction. Tomasello argues that human cooperative communication rests on a psychological infrastructure of shared intentionality (joint attention, common ground), evolved originally for collaboration and culture more generally. The basic motives of the infrastructure are helping and sharing: humans communicate to request help, inform others of things helpfully, and share attitudes as a way of bonding within the cultural group. These cooperative motives each created different functional pressures for conventionalizing grammatical constructions. Requesting help in the immediate you-and-me and here-and-now, for example, required very little grammar, but informing and sharing required increasingly complex grammatical devices. Drawing on empirical research into gestural and vocal communication by great apes and human infants (much of it conducted by his own research team), Tomasello argues further that humans' cooperative communication emerged first in the natural gestures of pointing and pantomiming. Conventional communication, first gestural and then vocal, evolved only after humans already possessed these natural gestures and their shared intentionality infrastructure along with skills of cultural learning for creating and passing along jointly understood communicative conventions. Challenging the Chomskian view that linguistic knowledge is innate, Tomasello proposes instead that the most fundamental aspects of uniquely human communication are biological adaptations for cooperative social interaction in general and that the purely linguistic dimensions of human communication are cultural conventions and constructions created by and passed along within particular cultural groups. Jean Nicod Lectures A Bradford Book
Effects on Chinese Restaurant Workers of Exposure to Cooking Oil Fumes: A Cautionary Note on Urinary 8-Hydroxy-2′-Deoxyguanosine

This study evaluates oxidative DNA damage in workers who are exposed to cooking oil fumes (COFs) in Chinese restaurants. The study participants were 387 nonsmoking Chinese restaurant workers, 202 kitchen staff, and 185 service staff at 23 Chinese restaurants in Taiwan. Airborne particulate matter and particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon levels were monitored in kitchens and dining areas. Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) was used as an internal dose of exposure to COFs, and urinary 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) was used as an oxidative DNA damage marker. The relationship between workers' 8-OHdG and 1-OHP levels was estimated using linear mixed-effects models. Airborne particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons levels in kitchens significantly exceeded those in dining areas. The kitchen staff's geometric mean levels of urinary 8-OHdG (7.9 μg/g creatinine) and 1-OHP (4.5 μg/g creatinine) were significantly higher than those of the service staff, which were 5.4 and 2.7 μg/g creatinine, respectively. Urinary 1-OHP level, work in kitchens, gender, and work hours per day were four significant predictors of urinary 8-OHdG levels after adjustments are made for covariates. Oxidative DNA damage was associated with exposure of Chinese restaurant workers to COFs. Female restaurant workers had a greater oxidative stress response to COFs than male restaurant workers, providing additional evidence of the link between lung cancer in Chinese women and exposure to COFs. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(12):3351–7)
Online Visual Multi-Object Tracking via Labeled Random Finite Set Filtering

This paper proposes an online visual multi-object tracking algorithm using a top-down Bayesian formulation that seamlessly integrates state estimation, track management, clutter rejection, occlusion and mis-detection handling into a single recursion. This is achieved by modeling the multi-object state as labeled random finite set and using the Bayes recursion to propagate the multi-object filtering density forward in time. The proposed filter updates tracks with detections but switches to image data when mis-detection occurs, thereby exploiting the efficiency of detection data and the accuracy of image data. Furthermore the labeled random finite set framework enables the incorporation of prior knowledge that mis-detections of long tracks which occur in the middle of the scene are likely to be due to occlusions. Such prior knowledge can be exploited to improve occlusion handling, especially long occlusions that can lead to premature track termination in on-line multi-object tracking. Tracking performance are compared to state-of-the-art algorithms on well-known benchmark video datasets.
Depression in hemodialysis patients: the role of dialysis shift

OBJECTIVE: Depression is the most important neuropsychiatric complication in chronic kidney disease because it reduces quality of life and increases mortality. Evidence demonstrating the association between dialysis shift and depression is lacking; thus, obtaining such evidence was the main objective of this study. METHOD: This cross-sectional study included patients attending a hemodialysis program. Depression was diagnosed using Beck's Depression Inventory. Excessive daytime sleepiness was evaluated using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. RESULTS: A total of 96 patients were enrolled (55 males, age 48±14 years). Depression and excessive daytime sleepiness were observed in 42.7% and 49% of the patients, respectively. When comparing variables among the three dialysis shifts, there were no differences in age, dialysis vintage, employment status, excessive daytime sleepiness, hemoglobin, phosphorus levels, or albumin levels. Patients in the morning shift were more likely to live in rural areas (p<0.0001), although patients in rural areas did not have a higher prevalence of depression (p = 0.30). Patients with depression were more likely to be dialyzed during the morning shift (p = 0.008). Independent risk factors for depression were age (p<0.03), lower levels of hemoglobin (p<0.01) and phosphorus (p<0.01), and dialysis during the morning shift (p = 0.0009). The hospitalization risk of depressive patients was 4.5 times higher than that of nondepressive patients (p<0.008). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that depression is associated with dialysis shift, higher levels of phosphorus, and lower levels of hemoglobin. The results highlight the need for randomized trials to determine whether this association occurs by chance or whether circadian rhythm disorders may play a role.
A Secure Server-Aided RSA Signature Computation Protocol for Smart Cards

Smart cards have opened up possibilities for many exciting applications. However, one problem with conventional smart cards is that they only have very limited computational power. As a result, it takes too long for a smart card to perform a single RSA signature operation in real time applications. Server-aided RSA signature computation protocols offer feasible solutions for this problem. The basic idea is to distribute most of the computation to an auxiliary processor which is capable of performing fast multi-precision modular exponentiation. However, the smart card has to guard against the auxiliary processor since it may attempt to obtain information about the secret exponent or to obtain the smart card’s signature on a message of its own choosing by supplying the smart card with incorrect values. The only way to defeat these attacks is for the smart card to have some means of verifying the data provided by the auxiliary processor. In this paper, we propose such a secure protocol.