Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multiple Variants in Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGFA) Are Risk Factors for Time to Severe Retinopathy in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—We sought to determine if any common variants in the gene for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFA) are associated with long-term renal and retinal complications in type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—A total of 1,369 Caucasian subjects with type 1 diabetes from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT)/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC) Study had an average of 17 retinal photographs and 10 renal measures over 15 years. In the DCCT/EDIC, we studied 18 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in VEGFA that represent all linkage disequilibrium bins (pairwise r2 ≥ 0.64) and tested them for association with time to development of severe retinopathy, three or more step progression of retinopathy, clinically significant macular edema, persistent microalbuminuria, and severe nephropathy. RESULTS—In a global multi-SNP test, there was a highly significant association of VEGFA SNPs with severe retinopathy (P = 6.8 × 10−5)—the four other outcomes were all nonsignificant. In survival analyses controlling for covariate risk factors, eight SNPs showed significant association with severe retinopathy (P < 0.05). The most significant single SNP association was rs3025021 (hazard ratio 1.37 [95% CI 1.13–1.66], P = 0.0017). Family-based analyses of severe retinopathy provide evidence of excess transmission of C at rs699947 (P = 0.029), T at rs3025021 (P = 0.013), and the C-T haplotype from both SNPs (P = 0.035). Multi-SNP regression analysis including 15 SNPs, and allowing for pairwise interactions, independently selected 6 significant SNPs (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS—These data demonstrate that multiple VEGFA variants are associated with the development of severe retinopathy in type 1 diabetes.
A study of liveness detection in fingerprint and iris recognition systems using image quality assessment

Biometric recognition systems are vulnerable to diverse attacks that emerged as a challenge in adopting these systems in real life scenarios. Development of efficient security measures is a necessity to ensure the actual presence of a genuine or real trait in various biometric recognition systems. This study aims at Liveness Detection in Fingerprint and Iris Recognition systems using Image Quality Assessment. The potential of general image quality assessment as a protection method against different biometric attacks is explored here. The key idea of this approach is to present a software based multi-biometric and multi attack protection method that characterize the real traits. The proposed method extracts 25 image quality assessment features from a single input image to build an appropriate classifier, which classifies the test image as real or fake given the extracted set of features.
A Lightweight Component-Based Development Approach for Enterprise Applications

Component-based development (CBD) is considered as a promising way to improve software productivity and quality by reusing some pre-existing components. However, in real practice, such a paradigm is not fully exploited by many enterprise application (EA) software companies because of the much needed effort and cost. For addressing these problems, we propose a lightweight approach that divides an EA into hierarchical component elements and maps them to a CBD environment based on Eclipse. Such an approach takes most characteristics of EAs into account and the modularity and reusability of the components are assured by OSGi. A real case study focusing on refactoring legacy software to a component-based one with our approach is illustrated its validity.
Challenges and Opportunities for State Systems of Community Colleges: A Document Analysis

ABSTRACT From their very beginnings, the community colleges have demonstrated a commitment to their founding principles of access, affordability, and quality. However, following February 2009, when President Obama set forth the agenda for U.S. postsecondary education to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, priority shifted to college completion. This national agenda has posed increased challenges and opportunities for community colleges, the states, and the nation. Through a document analysis we identify the most frequently cited challenges and opportunities of the 50 state systems of community colleges.
Production , Manufacturing and Logistics Enhanced lateral transshipments in a multi-location inventory system

In managing an inventory network, two approaches to the pooling of stock have been proposed. Reactive transshipments respond to shortages at a location by moving inventory from elsewhere within the network, while proactive stock redistribution seeks to minimize the chance of future stockouts. This paper is the first to propose an enhanced reactive approach in which individual transshipments are viewed as an opportunity for proactive stock redistribution. We adopt a quasi-myopic approach to the development of a strongly performing enhanced reactive transshipment policy. In comparison to a purely reactive approach to transshipment, service levels are improved while a reduction in safety stock levels is achieved. The aggregate costs incurred in managing the system are significantly reduced, especially so for large networks. Moreover, an optimal policy is determined for small networks and it is shown that the enhanced reactive policy substantially closes the gap to optimality. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Confidentiality Policies and Their Extraction from Programs

Abstract : We examine a well known confidentiality requirement called noninterference and argue that many systems do not meet this requirement despite maintaining the privacy of its users. We discuss a weaker requirement called incident-insensitive noninterference that captures why these systems maintain the privacy of its users while possibly not satisfying noninterference. We extend this requirement to depend on dynamic information in a novel way. Lastly, we present a method based on model checking to extract from program source code the dynamic incident-insensitive noninterference policy that the given program obeys.
1 Is a “ Science ” of Security really necessary ?

High assurance systems have been defined as systems “you would bet your life on. ” This article discusses the application of a form of functional programming— what we call “monadic programming”—to the generation of high assurance and secure systems. Monadic programming languages leverage algebraic structures from denotational semantics and functional programming—monads—as a flexible, modular organizing principle for secure system design and implementation. Monadic programming languages are domain-specific functional languages that are both sufficiently expressive to express essential system behaviors and semantically straightforward to support formal verification.
An Unsupervised Approach to Key Equivalence

In a previous paper we have suggested a graph-theoretic approach to the key equivalence problem. This approach is limited because, to work, it must be supervised. Here we alleviate this requirement by constraining potential solutions to the overall problem while they are generated by the graph-theoretic model already mentioned. This is equivalent to solving an implicit constrained optimisation model.
Low phase noise 10 bit 5 GHz DCO using on-chip CPW resonator in 0.18 µm CMOS technology

A digital-controlled oscillator (DCO) employing on-chip coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonator is proposed for 5 GHz-band wireless communication applications. A 10 bit DCO using on-chip designed, fabricated and tested. By comparing the measured results on the fabricated chip in 0.18 µm CMOS technology, it has noted that the proposed DCO employing on-chip CPW resonator is smaller in size and frequency-tuning range is higher than LC-DCO. Phase noise and power consumption are comparable.
HEIST : HTTP Encrypted Information can be Stolen through TCP-windows

Over the last few years, a worryingly number of attacks against SSL/TLS and other secure channels have been discovered. Fortunately, at least from a defenders perspective, these attacks require an adversary capable of observing or manipulating network traffic. This prevented a wide and easy exploitation of these vulnerabilities. In contrast, we introduce HEIST, a set of techniques that allows us to carry out attacks against SSL/TLS purely in the browser. More generally, and surprisingly, with HEIST it becomes possible to exploit certain flaws in network protocols without having to sniff actual traffic.
Fast and Exact Monitoring of Co-Evolving Data Streams

Given a huge stream of multiple co-evolving sequences, such as motion capture and web-click logs, how can we find meaningful patterns and spot anomalies? Our aim is to monitor data streams statistically, and find sub sequences that have the characteristics of a given hidden Markov model (HMM). For example, consider an online web-click stream, where massive amounts of access logs of millions of users are continuously generated every second. So how can we find meaningful building blocks and typical access patterns such as weekday/weekend patterns, and also, detect anomalies and intrusions? In this paper, we propose Stream Scan, a fast and exact algorithm for monitoring multiple co-evolving data streams. Our method has the following advantages: (a) it is effective, leading to novel discoveries and surprising outliers, (b) it is exact, and we theoretically prove that Stream Scan guarantees the exactness of the output, (c) it is fast, and requires O (1) time and space per time-tick. Our experiments on 67GB of real data illustrate that Stream Scan does indeed detect the qualifying subsequence patterns correctly and that it can offer great improvements in speed (up to 479,000 times) over its competitors.
The MACHO Project Large Magellanic Cloud Microlensing Results from the First Two Years and the Nature of the Galactic Dark Halo

The MACHO Project is a search for dark matter in the form of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs). Photometric monitoring of millions of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and Galactic bulge is used to search for gravitational microlensing events caused by these otherwise invisible objects. Analysis of the first 2.1 yr of photometry of 8.5 million stars in the LMC reveals eight candidate microlensing events. This is substantially more than the number expected (~1.1) from lensing by known stellar populations. The timescales (t) of the events range from 34 to 145 days. We estimate the total microlensing optical depth toward the LMC from events with 2 < t̂ < 200 days to be τ2002=2.9+ 1.4−0.9×10−7 based upon our eight event sample. This exceeds the optical depth, τbackgnd = 0.5 × 10-7, expected from known stars, and the difference is to be compared with the optical depth predicted for a “standard” halo composed entirely of MACHOs: τhalo = 4.7 × 10-7. To compare with Galactic halo models, we perform likelihood analyses on the full eight-event sample and a six-event subsample (which allows for two events to be caused by a nonhalo “background”). This gives a fairly model-independent estimate of the halo mass in MACHOs within 50 kpc of 2.0+ 1.2−0.7×1011 M☉, which is about half of the “standard halo” value. We also find a most probable MACHO mass of 0.5+ 0.3−0.2 M☉, although this value is strongly model dependent. In addition, the absence of short duration events places stringent upper limits on the contribution of low-mass MACHOs: objects from 10-4 M☉ to 0.03 M☉ contribute ≲20% of the “standard” dark halo.
Terahertz Magnetic Response from Artificial Materials

We show that magnetic response at terahertz frequencies can be achieved in a planar structure composed of nonmagnetic conductive resonant elements. The effect is realized over a large bandwidth and can be tuned throughout the terahertz frequency regime by scaling the dimensions of the structure. We suggest that artificial magnetic structures, or hybrid structures that combine natural and artificial magnetic materials, can play a key role in terahertz devices.
Species diversification and phylogeographical patterns of birds in response to the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Quaternary glaciations

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is well known for being of great importance in the evolution of montane species due to its unique geological history and landform configuration, climate complexity, and diversified habitats. The effect of envi- ronmental changes since the Quaternary on species diversification, population genetic structure, and demography under environ- mental change can be studied using phylogenetic and phylogeographical approaches. Birds are the most well-studied group of all terrestrial vertebrates with regard to their response to climatic changes over time. Herein, we briefly review the species diversifi- cation of birds in response to the uplift of the QTP, focusing on summarizing the different phylogeographical patterns of birds on the Plateau, its southeastern margin, and the Eastern Himalayas and the reasons underlying these patterns. Speciation was found to be closely related to the uplift of the QTP, with different patterns of intraspecific processes: (1) no divergence within a single refuge was identified in a restricted semi-continuous area of the eastern margin of the Plateau; (2) two divergent lineages with separated refugia were located at the south-eastern and north-eastern margins of the plateau; and (3) multiple divergent lineages within subregions were found in the Eastern Himalayas. Glacial movements and induced climate change are considered to be key factors in shaping these different patterns. The species distributed mainly in the heavily ice-covered platform regions of the Pla- teau experienced population expansion following the retreat of the extensive glaciations, whereas the species distributed on the ice-free edges of the plateau maintained their population size at a stable level. Demographic stresses on the edge species might have been mitigated by the milder climate in comparison to their platform-distributed counterparts. Various behavioral and eco- logical characteristics, including dispersal capacity, habitat preference, and elevation specificity, along with evolutionary history might have helped to shape these different phylogeographical patterns (Current Zoology 60 (2): 149-161, 2014).
Iterative Source-Channel Decoding for Error-Resilient Image Transmission Using a Markov Random Field Source Model

In this paper, we propose a joint source-channel decoding approach for the robust image transmission over wireless channels. In addition to the explicit redundancy coming from channel codes, we also use implicit residual source redundancy for error protection. The source redundancy is modeled by a Markov random field (MRF) source model, which considers the residual spatial correlation after source encoding. Due to the link between MRFs and the Gibbs distribution, the source decoder can be implemented with low complexity. At the decoder we use an iterative source-channel decoder which can be obtained in the same manner as for serially concatenated channel codes. As a novel result we show that this iterative decoding scheme in combination with a simplified joint allocation of source and channel coding rates can be successfully employed for recovering the image data, especially when the channel is highly corrupted.
The rise and fall of a central contributor: Dynamics of social organization and performance in the GENTOO community

Social organization and division of labor crucially influence the performance of collaborative software engineering efforts. In this paper, we provide a quantitative analysis of the relation between social organization and performance in Gentoo, an Open Source community developing a Linux distribution. We study the structure and dynamics of collaborations as recorded in the project's bug tracking system over a period of ten years. We identify a period of increasing centralization after which most interactions in the community were mediated by a single central contributor. In this period of maximum centralization, the central contributor unexpectedly left the project, thus posing a significant challenge for the community. We quantify how the rise, the activity as well as the subsequent sudden dropout of this central contributor affected both the social organization and the bug handling performance of the Gentoo community. We analyze social organization from the perspective of network theory and augment our quantitative findings by interviews with prominent members of the Gentoo community which shared their personal insights.
Treating Combat-Related PTSD With Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic condition that occurs in a significant minority of persons who experience life-threatening traumatic events. It is characterized by reexperiencing, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). PTSD has been estimated to affect up to 18% of returning Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Veterans (Hoge et al., 2004). In addition to the specific conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unprecedented number are now surviving serious wounds (Blimes, 2007). The stigma of treatment often prevents service members (SMs) and veterans from seeking help (Hoge et al., 2004), so finding an acceptable form of treatment for military personnel is a priority. The current generation of military personnel may be more comfortable participating in a virtual reality treatment approach than in traditional talk therapy, as they are likely familiar with gaming and training simulation technology. This chapter provides information on the development of and research on virtual reality (VR) as well as the application of VR to mental health treatments, including a protocol of virtual reality exposure (VRE) utilizing a virtual Iraq/Afghanistan system for combat-related PTSD.
Remote Password Authentication Using Linear Equations and Smart Card

The smart-card based remote user authentication is one of the important practical solutions for creating a secure computer environment. In this paper, I propose a new remote password authentication technique using linear equations. Our scheme does not require a system to maintain a password table for verifying the legitimacy of login users. In addition our scheme can withstand message-replaying attack by embedding a time stamp that helps to produce a time-dependent login request.
Efficient up-sampling method of low-resolution depth map captured by time-of-flight depth sensor

In this paper, we propose an efficient up-sampling method of the low-resolution depth map that is obtained by a time-of-flight (TOF) depth sensor. After we capture the color images and TOF depth maps simultaneously using a fusion camera system, each pixel of the low-resolution depth map is relocated to the corresponding color image positions by 3D warping, and the warping error is eliminated in each color segment. Then, we employ a Markov random field (MRF) model to produce a high-resolution disparity map using the warped values and color segment information. Experimental results show that the proposed method efficiently up-sample the low-resolution depth maps compared to the other up-sampling approaches.
The effect of vitamin C deficiency and chronic ultraviolet-B exposure on corneal ultrastructure: a preliminary investigation

Purpose In the visually debilitating condition of climatic droplet keratopathy, corneal transparency is progressively lost. Although the precise cause of the disease and the mechanism by which it progresses are not known, a lifetime exposure to high solar radiation and a vitamin C–deficient diet may be involved in its development. This study examines the effect of dietary ascorbate levels and ultraviolet (UV)-B exposure on corneal stromal structure. Methods Eight guinea pigs were divided into four treatment groups (A, B, C, and D). For 15 weeks, Groups A and C were fed an ascorbate-rich diet (2 mg/100 g bodyweight/day), while Groups B and D received an ascorbate-deficient diet (0.07 mg/100 g bodyweight/day). For the last 12 weeks of the study, Groups C and D also experienced chronic UVB exposure (0.12 J/cm2 for 40 min/day). Following euthanasia, the corneas were enucleated and their stromal ultrastructure examined using X-ray scattering and electron microscopy. Results UVB exposure resulted in an increased corneal thickness (p<0.001), but this was not accompanied by a widespread expansion of the collagen fibrillar array, and in the case of ascorbate-deficient animals, stromal thickening was associated with the compaction of collagen fibrils (p<0.01). Neither UVB exposure nor ascorbic acid deficiency caused any change in the average diameter or D-periodicity of the stromal collagen fibrils. Conclusions UVB-induced changes in the corneal ultrastructure were most pronounced in animals fed an ascorbic acid–deficient diet. This suggests that ascorbic acid may play a vital role in protecting the corneal stroma from the harmful effects of UVB.
Introduction to the Fusion of Quantitative and Qualitative Beliefs

The efficient management and combination of uncertain and conflict- ing sources of information remain of primal importance for the development of re- liable information fusion systems. Advanced fusion systems must deal both with quantitative and qualitative aspects of beliefs expressed by the differen t sources of information (sensors, expert systems, human reports, etc). This paper intro- duces the theory of plausible and paradoxical reasoning, known as DSmT (Dezert- Smarandache Theory) in literature, developed originally for dealing with impre- cise, uncertain and potentially highly conflicting sources of information pro viding quantitative beliefs on a given set of possible solutions of a given proble m. We also propose in this paper new ideas on a possible extension of DSmT for the combination of uncertain and conflicting qualitative information in order to de al directly with beliefs expressed with linguistic labels instead of numerical value s to be closer to the nature of information expressed in natural languages and available directly from human experts.
Identity Distress Surrounding Retirement

The purpose of this study was to examine identity distress surrounding retirement. From past literature I hypothesized that individuals would experience more psychological distress after retirement compared to before and those who earned a professional degree would experience more distress than others. I also hypothesized the longer time retired the less distress, and those who were forced to retire would experience more distress after retirement than those who retired voluntarily. Results of the study conducted with 40 retired people in the United States revealed only one significant result. Those who were forced to retire showed increased levels of identity distress after retirement compared to individuals who voluntarily retired.
Unlinked Embedded Graphs

This paper is a self-contained development of an invariant of graphs embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space using the Jones polynomial and skein theory. Some examples of the invariant are computed. An unlinked embedded graph is one that contains only trivial knots or links. Examples show that the invariant is sufficiently powerful to distinguish some different unlinked embeddings of the same graph.