Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
KIR3DS1-Mediated Recognition of HLA-*B51: Modulation of KIR3DS1 Responsiveness by Self HLA-B Allotypes and Effect on NK Cell Licensing

Several studies described an association between killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR)/HLA gene combinations and clinical outcomes in various diseases. In particular, an important combined role for KIR3DS1 and HLA-B Bw4-I80 in controlling viral infections and a higher protection against leukemic relapses in donor equipped with activating KIRs in haplo-HSCT has been described. Here, we show that KIR3DS1 mediates positive signals upon recognition of HLA-B*51 (Bw4-I80) surface molecules on target cells and that this activation occurs only in Bw4-I80neg individuals, including those carrying particular KIR/HLA combination settings. In addition, killing of HLA-B*51 transfected target cells mediated by KIR3DS1+/NKG2A+ natural killer (NK) cell clones from Bw4-I80neg donors could be partially inhibited by antibody-mediated masking of KIR3DS1. Interestingly, KIR3DS1-mediated recognition of HLA-B*51 could be better appreciated under experimental conditions in which the function of NKG2D was reduced by mAb-mediated blocking. This experimental approach may mimic the compromised function of NKG2D occurring in certain viral infections. We also show that, in KIR3DS1+/NKG2A+ NK cell clones derived from an HLA-B Bw4-T80 donor carrying 2 KIR3DS1 gene copy numbers, the positive signal generated by the engagement of KIR3DS1 by HLA-B*51 resulted in a more efficient killing of HLA-B*51-transfected target cells. Moreover, in these clones, a direct correlation between KIR3DS1 and NKG2D surface density was detected, while the expression of NKp46 was inversely correlated with that of KIR3DS1. Finally, we analyzed KIR3DS1+/NKG2A+ NK cell clones from a HLA-B Bw4neg donor carrying cytoplasmic KIR3DL1. Although these clones expressed lower levels of surface KIR3DS1, they displayed responses comparable to those of NK cell clones derived from HLA-B Bw4neg donors that expressed surface KIR3DL1. Altogether these data suggest that, in particular KIR/HLA combinations, KIR3DS1 may play a role in the process of human NK cell education.
S-ARP: a secure address resolution protocol

Tapping into the communication between two hosts on a LAN has become quite simple thanks to tools that can be downloaded from the Internet. Such tools use the address resolution protocol (ARP) poisoning technique, which relies on hosts caching reply messages even though the corresponding requests were never sent. Since no message authentication is provided, any host of the LAN can forge a message containing malicious information. We present a secure version of ARP that provides protection against ARP poisoning. Each host has a public/private key pair certified by a local trusted party on the LAN, which acts as a certification authority. Messages are digitally signed by the sender, thus preventing the injection of spurious and/or spoofed information. As a proof of concept, the proposed solution was implemented on a Linux box. Performance measurements show that PKI based strong authentication is feasible to secure even low level protocols, as long as the overhead for key validity verification is kept small.
Traitor tracing with constant size ciphertext

A traitor tracing system enables a publisher to trace a pirate decryption box to one of the secret keys used to create the box. We present a traitor tracing system where ciphertext size is "constant," namely independent of the number of users in the system and the collusion bound. A ciphertext in our system consists of only two elements where the length of each element depends only on the security parameter. The down side is that private-key size is quadratic in the collusion bound. Our construction is based on recent constructions for fingerprinting codes.
Non-Linear Finite Element Method Simulation and Modeling of the Cold and Hot Rolling Processes

A nonlinear finite element model of the hot and cold rolling processes has been developed for flat rolling stock with rectangular cross section. This model can be used to analyze the flat rolling of cold and hot steel rectangular strips under a series of different parameters, providing the rolling designer with a tool that he can use to understand the behavior of the steel as it flows through the different passes. The models developed, take into account all of the non-linearities present in the rolling problem: material, geometric, boundary, and heat transfer. A coupled thermal-mechanical analysis approach is used to account for the coupling between the mechanical and thermal phenomena resulting from the pressure-dependent thermal contact resistance between the steel slab and the steel rolls. The model predicts the equivalent stress, equivalent plastic strain, maximum strain rate, equivalent total strain, slab temperature increase, increase in roll temperature, strip length increase, slab thickness % reduction (draft), and strip’s velocity increase, for both the cold and hot rolling processes. The FE model results are an improvement over the results obtained through the classical theory of rolling. The model also demonstrates the role that contact, plastic heat generation and friction generated heat plays in the rolling process. The analysis performed shows that the steel in cold rolling can be accurately modeled using the elastic-plastic (solid Prandtl-Reuss) formulation, with a von Mises yield surface, the Praguer kinematic hardening rule, and the Ramberg-Osgood hardening material model. The FE models also demonstrate that the steel in hot rolling can be modeled using the rigid-viscoplastic (flow Levy-Mises) formulation, with a von Mises yield surface, and Shida’s material model for high temperature steel where the flow stress is a function of the strain, strain rate, and the temperature. Other important contributions of this work are the demonstration that in cold rolling, plane sections do not remain plane as the classic theory of rolling assumes. As a consequence, the actual displacements, velocity, and stress distributions in the workpiece are compared to and shown to be an improvement over the distributions derived from the classical theory. Finally, the stress distribution in the rolls during the cold rolling process is found, and shown to be analogous to the stress distribution of the Hertz contact problem.
Diabetes mellitus and inflammatory periodontal diseases

Purpose of reviewPeriodontal diseases are inflammatory conditions that were once thought to have manifestations localized to the oral cavity alone, and were therefore considered the concern of only dentists and other oral health professionals. Emerging evidence has changed this view and now suggests that periodontal diseases may play a role in numerous conditions that impact systemic well being, including diabetes mellitus. This review examines the relationships that exist between periodontal diseases and diabetes mellitus, with a focus on potential common pathophysiologic pathways including those associated with inflammation, altered host responses, and insulin resistance. Recent findingsPeriodontal inflammation is associated with an elevated systemic inflammatory state and an increased risk of major cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke, adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preeclampsia, low birth weight and preterm birth, and altered glycemic control in people with diabetes. Intervention trials suggest that periodontal therapy, which decreases the intraoral bacterial bioburden and reduces periodontal inflammation, can have a significant impact on systemic inflammatory status. Evidence suggests that periodontal therapy is associated with improved glycemic control in many patients with both diabetes and periodontal diseases. SummaryRecognition of the bilateral relationships between oral and systemic health will challenge physicians and dentists to work together closely in the future when managing patients with diabetes and periodontal disease.
Analysis for Mechanical Failure of DISs with Graphite Anode in Lithium ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles

Graphite-based anode materials undergo electrochemical reactions, coupling with mechanical degradation during battery operation, can affect or deteriorate the performance of lithium-ion batteries dramatically, and even lead to the battery failure in electric vehicle. First, a single-particle model based on kinetics of electrochemical reactions was built in this article. Then, the lithium-ion concentration and evolution of diffusion induced stresses within the single-particle model under galvanostatic operating conditions were analyzed by utilizing a mathematical method. Next, evolutions of stresses or strains in the single-particle model, together with mechanical degradation of anode materials, were elaborated in detail. Finally, in order to verify the aforementioned hypothesis, surface and morphology of the graphite-based anode dismantled from fresh and degraded cells after galvanostatic charge/discharge cycling were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that large volume changes of anode materials caused diffusion-induced stresses during lithium-ion insertion and extraction within the active particles. The continuous accumulations of diffusion-induced stresses brought about mechanical failure of the anode eventually.
Improved Background Correction for Spotted DNA Microarrays

Most microarray scanning software for glass spotted arrays provides estimates for the intensity for the "foreground" and "background" of two channels for every spot. The common approach in further analyzing such data is to first subtract the background from the foreground for each channel and to use the ratio of these two results as the estimate of the expression level. The resulting ratios are, after possible averaging over replicates, the usual inputs for further data analysis, such as clustering. If, with this background correction procedure, the foreground intensity was smaller than the background intensity for a channel, that spot (on that array) yields no usable data. In this paper it is argued that this preprocessing leads to estimates of the expression that have a much larger variance than needed when the expression levels are low.
An Endocytosed TGN38 Chimeric Protein Is Delivered to the TGN after Trafficking through the Endocytic Recycling Compartment in CHO Cells

To examine TGN38 trafficking from the cell surface to the TGN, CHO cells were stably transfected with a chimeric transmembrane protein, TacTGN38. We used fluorescent and 125I-labeled anti-Tac IgG and Fab fragments to follow TacTGN38's postendocytic trafficking. At steady-state, anti-Tac was mainly in the TGN, but shortly after endocytosis it was predominantly in early endosomes. 11% of cellular TacTGN38 is on the plasma membrane. Kinetic analysis of trafficking of antibodies bound to TacTGN38 showed that after short endocytic pulses, 80% of internalized anti-Tac returned to the cell surface (t 1/2 = 9 min), and the remainder trafficked to the TGN. When longer filling pulses and chases were used to load anti-Tac into the TGN, it returned to the cell surface with a t 1/2 of 46 min. Quantitative confocal microscopy analysis also showed that fluorescent anti-Tac fills the TGN with a 46-min t 1/2. Using the measured rate constants in a simple kinetic model, we predict that 82% of TacTGN38 is in the TGN, and 7% is in endosomes. TacTGN38 leaves the TGN slowly, which accounts for its steady-state distribution despite the inefficient targeting from the cell surface to the TGN.
Back Analysis of Measured as-laid Pipeline Embedment in Soft Clay

Pipeline designs such as on-bottom stability, lateral buckling and axial walking analyses require reliable predictions of the as-laid pipeline embedment. The as-laid embedment is usually significantly larger than that predicted by its submerged self-weight alone. This is mainly attributed to the effects of the stress concentration in the touchdown zone and soil remolding caused by the pipeline dynamic motions during the laying process. Quantification of these effects is often made difficult by the lack of field observations. This study presents a detailed back-analysis of the observed pipeline as-laid embedment in soft clayey soils in the shallow waters of Bengal Bay. Statistical analysis is performed to characterize the inherent variability of the observed embedment. The observed dynamic embedment factor is found to be between 1.08 and 1.96. The degradation of the soil resistance to the pipeline during the dynamic laying process is back-analyzed by a sophisticated method in which the reduction of the stress concentration with the increased embedment of the pipeline is well considered. The remolded soil resistance to the pipeline is found to be 0.48~0.74 of the intact soil in the dynamic laying process. And the degree of soil resistance degradation is found to be smaller when the pipeline static embedment is larger.
A Systematic Comparison of Purification and Normalization Protocols for Quantitative MicroRNA Expressional Profiling in Insulin-Producing Cells

As microRNAs (miRs) are gaining increasing attention as key regulators of cellular processes, expressional quantification is widely applied. However, in the processing of relatively quantified data, the importance of testing the stability of several reference mRNAs and/or miRs and choosing among these for normalization is often overlooked, potentially leading to biased results. Here, we have optimized the purification of miR-enriched total RNA from pancreatic insulin-producing INS-1 cells. Additionally, we optimized and analyzed miR expression by a qPCR-based microarray and by specific qPCR and tested the stability of candidate reference mRNAs and miRs. Hence, this study gives a widely applicable example on how to easily and systematically test and decide how to normalize miR quantification. We suggest that caution in the interpretation of miR quantification studies that do not comprise stability analysis should be exerted.
Cooperating with Unknown Teammates in Complex Domains: A Robot Soccer Case Study of Ad Hoc Teamwork

Many scenarios require that robots work together as a team in order to effectively accomplish their tasks. However, pre-coordinating these teams may not always be possible given the growing number of companies and research labs creating these robots. Therefore, it is desirable for robots to be able to reason about ad hoc teamwork and adapt to new teammates on the fly. Past research on ad hoc teamwork has focused on relatively simple domains, but this paper demonstrates that agents can reason about ad hoc teamwork in complex scenarios. To handle these complex scenarios, we introduce a new algorithm, PLASTIC–Policy, that builds on an existing ad hoc teamwork approach. Specifically, PLASTIC– Policy learns policies to cooperate with past teammates and reuses these policies to quickly adapt to new teammates. This approach is tested in the 2D simulation soccer league of RoboCup using the half field offense task.
The WarpIV simulation kernel

This paper provides an overview of the WarpIV simulation kernel that was designed to be an initial implementation of the standard simulation architecture (SSA). WarpIV is the next generation replacement for the synchronous parallel environment for emulation and discrete event simulation (SPEEDES) framework that has supported a number of DoD simulation programs including MDWAR, EADTB, JSIMS, and others. This paper first provides a look back at the historical evolution of SPEEDES, the evolution of the SSA, and the development of WarpIV. This historical background is followed by a description of the layered SSA and design of WarpIV. Capabilities and new algorithms or data structures provided by each layer of the architecture are mentioned, but are not described in full detail. Several benchmarks for the underlying communications infrastructure and internal event-processing engine are given. The summary and conclusions section highlights the main technical points of the paper and describes future research and development goals for WarpIV.
An Overview of Knowledge Management Techniques for e-Recruitment

The number of potential job candidates and therefore, costs associated with their hiring, has grown significantly in the recent years. This is mainly due to both the complicated situation of the labour market and the increased geographical flexibility of employees. Some initiatives for making the e-Recruitment processes more efficient have notably improved the situation by developing automatic solutions. But there are still some challenges that remain open since traditional solutions do not consider semantic relations properly. This problem can be appropriately addressed by means of a sub discipline of knowledge management called semantic processing. Therefore, we overview the major techniques from this field that can play a key role in the design of a novel business model that is more attractive for job applicants and job providers.
Sibling competition in a brood-tending leech

Conflict among siblings over parental investment, particularly over parental feeding, is a feature of family life in many kinds of animals. In some bird species, the size of prey items provided to juveniles has been implicated as a cause of aggressive competition among sibling chicks, because prey size determines whether dominance allows monopolization of parental offerings. Our experiment was meant to test the generality of this factor in creating intrafamilial conflict. We investigated sibling competition in relation to prey size using the carnivorous, brood-tending leech Helobdella papillornata. We equalized the total amount of food available to H. papillornata broods, but varied the size of individual prey items. Competition, measured by disparity in body size at independence, was more intense in broods provisioned with small items than in broods receiving large items, but similar between broods receiving large items and broods fed ad libitum. These patterns suggest that the intensity of conflict did not depend only on the total food amount, but was enhanced by small prey size. Our results indicate that conflict over the provision of parental resources to offspring can have a similar basis across very dissimilar organisms.
Comparison of indices of traumatic brain injury severity: Glasgow Coma Scale, length of coma and post-traumatic amnesia

Background: Classification of traumatic brain injury (TBI) severity guides management and contributes to determination of prognosis. Common indicators of TBI severity include Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores, length of coma (LOC) and duration of post-traumatic amnesia (PTA). Objective: To compare GCS, LOC and PTA by examining distributions and intercorrelations and develop multivariable linear regression models for estimating LOC and PTA duration. Methods: Prospective study of 519 of 614 consecutive patients with TBI. Indices of TBI severity studied were GCS, LOC, PTA and PTA–LOC (the interval from return of command-following to return of orientation). Candidate predictor variables for estimation of LOC, PTA and PTA–LOC intervals were age, years of education, year of injury (before 1997 vs 1997 or later), GCS, LOC (for PTA and PTA–LOC), pupillary responsiveness, type of injury, CT pathology and intracranial operations. Results: Although there was a severity/response relationship between GCS and LOC, PTA and PTA–LOC intervals, there was overlap in these intervals between GCS severity categories. Age, year of injury, GCS, pupillary responsiveness and CT pathology were predictive of LOC. Age, years of education, year of injury, GCS, LOC, pupillary responsiveness and intracranial operations were predictive of PTA duration. Age, years of education, year of injury, GCS, LOC and pupillary responsiveness were predictive of PTA–LOC. GCS and LOC effects were influenced by age. Conclusions: Predictors for estimating LOC, PTA and PTA–LOC intervals were determined and simple equations were developed. These equations will be helpful to clinicians, researchers and those counselling family members of patients with TBI.
On non-contiguous multicarrier waveforms for spectrally opportunistic cognitive radio systems

Multicarrier modulation is well suited for future wireless communication systems due to its ability to opportunistically transmit across unoccupied frequency bands. In addition to multicarrier modulation being able to attain high data rates with a sufficient level of error robustness, it also has the potential to achieve transmission flexibility via the non-contiguous access of wireless spectrum. In this paper, we shall investigate two approaches for enabling non-contiguous multicarrier modulation that can be used to facilitate spectrally opportunistic cognitive radio systems. One of the approaches is a variant of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), called non-contiguous OFDM (NC-OFDM), while the other approach is based the noncontiguous version of the filter bank approach non-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (NOFDM), referred to as noncontiguous NOFDM (NC-NOFDM). The performance of these two approaches is assessed in terms of interference mitigation, which involves the use of actual spectrum measurement data, as well as computational complexity.
Nonlinear Extraction of Independent Components of Natural Images Using Radial Gaussianization

We consider the problem of efficiently encoding a signal by transforming it to a new representation whose components are statistically independent. A widely studied linear solution, known as independent component analysis (ICA), exists for the case when the signal is generated as a linear transformation of independent nongaussian sources. Here, we examine a complementary case, in which the source is nongaussian and elliptically symmetric. In this case, no invertible linear transform suffices to decompose the signal into independent components, but we show that a simple nonlinear transformation, which we call radial gaussianization (RG), is able to remove all dependencies. We then examine this methodology in the context of natural image statistics. We first show that distributions of spatially proximal bandpass filter responses are better described as elliptical than as linearly transformed independent sources. Consistent with this, we demonstrate that the reduction in dependency achieved by applying RG to either nearby pairs or blocks of bandpass filter responses is significantly greater than that achieved by ICA. Finally, we show that the RG transformation may be closely approximated by divisive normalization, which has been used to model the nonlinear response properties of visual neurons.
Ion etching of human adenovirus 2: structure of the core

The surface of human adenovirus 2 was etched by irradiating intact virions with low-energy (1-keV) Ar+ ions in a Technics Hummer V sputter coater . Viral structures exposed by the etching process were shadowed and then examined in the electron microscope. Periods of etching that were sufficient to reduce the viral diameter by 20 to 30 nm revealed distinct substructural elements in the virion core. Cores were found to consist of a cluster of 12 large, uniformly size spheres which abutted one another in the intact virion. The spheres, for which we suggest the name " adenosomes ," had a diameter of 23.0 +/- 2.3 nm, and they were related to each other by two-, three-, and fivefold axes of rotational symmetry. The results support the view, originally suggested by Brown et al. (J. Virol. 16:366-387, 1975) that the adenovirus 2 core is composed of 12 large spheres packed tightly together in such a way that each is directed toward the vertex of an icosahedron . Such a structure, constructed of 23.0-nm-diameter spheres, would have an outside diameter (vertex-to-vertex distance) of 67.0 nm and a face-to-face distance of 58.2 nm. It could be accommodated inside the icosahedral adenovirus capsid if each large sphere were located beneath a capsid vertex.