Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxidative Stress and Insulin Resistance

OBJECTIVE Although cumulative evidence suggests that increased oxidative stress may lead to insulin resistance in vivo or in vitro, community-based studies are scarce. This study examined the longitudinal relationships of oxidative stress biomarkers with the development of insulin resistance and whether these relationships were independent of obesity in nondiabetic young adults. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Biomarkers of oxidative stress (F2-isoprostanes [F2Isop] and oxidized LDL [oxLDL]), insulin resistance (the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA-IR]), and various fatness measures (BMI, waist circumference, and estimated percent fat) were obtained in a population-based observational study (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) and its ancillary study (Young Adult Longitudinal Trends in Antioxidants) during 2000–2006. RESULTS There were substantial increases in estimated mean HOMA-IR over time. OxLDL and F2Isop showed little association with each other. Mean evolving HOMA-IR increased with increasing levels of oxidative stress markers (P < 0.001 for oxLDL and P = 0.06 for F2Isop), measured in 2000–2001. After additional adjustment for adiposity, a positive association between oxLDL and HOMA-IR was strongly evident, whereas the association between F2Isop and HOMA-IR was not. CONCLUSIONS We observed positive associations between each of two oxidative stress markers and insulin resistance. The association with oxidized LDL was independent of obesity, but that with F2Isop was not.
Social Web Meets Sensor Web: From User-Generated Content to Linked Crowdsourced Observation Data

The reach of dominating social media like Facebook and Twitter in the current population is enormous, and these media have long been leveraged for diverse applications. In particular, for some citizen science projects, existing social media increasingly become platforms on which participants interact and contribute. These user contributions, often termed User-Generated Content (UGC), can be a mix bag of posts, comments, images, and other media. We report in this paper a work-in-progress in formalizing user contributions from a large Facebook group (more than 4,000 users) established for biodiversity observation. A major part of our work is to extract structured datasets with welldefined semantics from unstructured UGC collections. We use common vocabularies from Darwin Core (DwC), Friendof-a-friend (FOAF), Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities (SIOC), Semantic Sensor Network (SSN), among
A survey of sensor selection schemes in wireless sensor networks

One of the main goals of sensor networks is to provide accurate information about a sensing field for an extended period of time. This requires collecting measurements from as many sensors as possible to have a better view of the sensor surroundings. However, due to energy limitations and to prolong the network lifetime, the number of active sensors should be kept to a minimum. To resolve this conflict of interest, sensor selection schemes are used. In this paper, we survey different schemes that are used to select sensors. Based on the purpose of selection, we classify the schemes into (1) coverage schemes, (2) target tracking and localization schemes, (3) single mission assignment schemes and (4) multiple missions assignment schemes. We also look at solutions to relevant problems from other areas and consider their applicability to sensor networks. Finally, we take a look at the open research problems in this field.
How penal common sense comes to europeans

AbstractThis article analyzes the processes whereby a new ‘penal common sense’ aiming to criminalize poverty and thereby normalize precarious wage labor has incubated in America and is being internationalized, alongside the neoliberal economic ideology which it translates and complements in the realm of ‘justice’. Three operations are distinguished in the transatlantic diffusion of this new doxa on ‘security’: (1) the gestation and dissemination of terms, theses, and measures that converge to penalize social insecurity and its consequences; (2) their borrowing, through a work of adaptation to the national cultural idiom and state tradition, by the officials of the different receiving countries; (3) the ‘academicization’ of the categories of neoliberal understanding by pseudo-social research that serves to legitimize the bolstering of the penal state.Denunciations of ‘urban violence’ and increased surveillance of ‘problem neighborhoods’, curfews and the targeting of petty drug offenders, deregulation and p.
Optimal selection of channel sensing order in cognitive radio

This paper investigates the optimal sensing order problem in multi-channel cognitive medium access control with opportunistic transmissions. The scenario in which the availability probability of each channel is known is considered first. In this case, when the potential channels are identical (except for the availability probabilities) and independent, it is shown that, although the intuitive sensing order (i.e., descending order of the channel availability probabilities) is optimal when adaptive modulation is not used, it does not lead to optimality in general with adaptive modulation. Thus, a dynamic programming approach to the search for an optimal sensing order with adaptive modulation is presented. For some special cases, it is proved that a simple optimal sensing order does exist. More complex scenarios are then considered, e.g., in which the availability probability of each channel is unknown. Optimal strategies are developed to address the challenges created by this additional uncertainty. Finally, a scheme is developed to address the issue of sensing errors.
Distributional Vowel Training Is Less Effective for Adults than for Infants. A Study Using the Mismatch Response

Distributional learning of speech sounds (i.e., learning from simple exposure to frequency distributions of speech sounds in the environment) has been observed in the lab repeatedly in both infants and adults. The current study is the first attempt to examine whether the capacity for using the mechanism is different in adults than in infants. To this end, a previous event-related potential study that had shown distributional learning of the English vowel contrast /æ/∼/ε/ in 2-to-3-month old Dutch infants was repeated with Dutch adults. Specifically, the adults were exposed to either a bimodal distribution that suggested the existence of the two vowels (as appropriate in English), or to a unimodal distribution that did not (as appropriate in Dutch). After exposure the participants were tested on their discrimination of a representative [æ] and a representative [ε], in an oddball paradigm for measuring mismatch responses (MMRs). Bimodally trained adults did not have a significantly larger MMR amplitude, and hence did not show significantly better neural discrimination of the test vowels, than unimodally trained adults. A direct comparison between the normalized MMR amplitudes of the adults with those of the previously tested infants showed that within a reasonable range of normalization parameters, the bimodal advantage is reliably smaller in adults than in infants, indicating that distributional learning is a weaker mechanism for learning speech sounds in adults (if it exists in that group at all) than in infants.
The effect of walking surface on upper limb dynamics measured using inertial sensors

This study uses the Xsense MTx sensors for monitoring head and trunk motion during free walking activity over different ground surfaces i.e., tiled, cemented and cobbled surfaces. The MTx sensors are small in size and unobtrusive and do not cause any discomfort to the subjects. These sensors are easy to use for the outdoor walking experiment and require only a laptop to receive data. Using two MTx sensors, 3D acceleration signals (vertical, medio-lateral, & anterior-posterior) were recorded for the head and trunk segments and compared for the free walk on a defined route. This is a continuation of earlier research carried out at Kings College London [13]. The aim of this paper is to compare and investigate the relationship between the power spectral density of the head and trunk vertical, anterior-posterior and particularly medio-lateral acceleration over regular and irregular surfaces. It was found that the magnitude of the power spectra of the vertical acceleration at the trunk was higher when walking over irregular (cobbled) surface as compared to the level (tiled) surface. The power spectra of the head acceleration also varied over the surfaces but the difference was not significant. The medio-lateral acceleration at the head oscillated at a much lower frequency as compared to the vertical acceleration signal.
Infrasound and low frequency noise from wind turbines: exposure and health effects

Wind turbines emit low frequency noise (LFN) and large turbines generally generate more LFN than small turbines. The dominant source of LFN is the interaction between incoming turbulence and the blades. Measurements suggest that indoor levels of LFN in dwellings typically are within recommended guideline values, provided that the outdoor level does not exceed corresponding guidelines for facade exposure. Three cross-sectional questionnaire studies show that annoyance from wind turbine noise is related to the immission level, but several explanations other than low frequency noise are probable. A statistically significant association between noise levels and self-reported sleep disturbance was found in two of the three studies. It has been suggested that LFN from wind turbines causes other, and more serious, health problems, but empirical support for these claims is lacking.
The Transient Receptor Potential Protein Homologue TRP6 Is the Essential Component of Vascular &agr;1-Adrenoceptor–Activated Ca2+-Permeable Cation Channel

Abstract— The Drosophila transient receptor potential protein (TRP) and its mammalian homologues are thought to be Ca2+-permeable cation channels activated by G protein (Gq/11)–coupled receptors and are regarded as an interesting molecular model for the Ca2+ entry mechanisms associated with stimulated phosphoinositide turnover and store depletion. However, there is little unequivocal evidence linking mammalian TRPs with particular native functions. In this study, we have found that heterologous expression of murine TRP6 in HEK293 cells reproduces almost exactly the essential biophysical and pharmacological properties of &agr;1-adrenoceptor–activated nonselective cation channels (&agr;1-AR–NSCC) previously identified in rabbit portal vein smooth muscle. Such properties include activation by diacylglycerol; S-shaped current-voltage relationship; high divalent cation permeability; unitary conductance of 25 to 30 pS and augmentation by flufenamate and Ca2+; and blockade by Cd2+, La3+, Gd3+, SK&F96365, and amiloride. Reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction and confocal laser scanning microscopy using TRP6-specific primers and antisera revealed that the level of TRP6 mRNA expression was remarkably high in both murine and rabbit portal vein smooth muscles as compared with other TRP subtypes, and the immunoreactivity to TRP6 protein was localized near the sarcolemmal region of single rabbit portal vein myocytes. Furthermore, treatment of primary cultured portal vein myocytes with TRP6 antisense oligonucleotides resulted in marked inhibition of TRP6 protein immunoreactivity as well as selective suppression of &agr;1-adrenoceptor–activated, store depletion–independent cation current and Ba2+ influx. These results strongly indicate that TRP6 is the essential component of the &agr;1-AR–NSCC, which may serve as a store depletion–independent Ca2+ entry pathway during increased sympathetic activity.
Parametric polymorphism in Java: an approach to translation based on reflective features

The introduction of parametric polymorphism in Java with translation approaches has been shown to be of considerable interest, allowing the definition of extensions of Java on top of the existing Virtual Machines. Homogeneous translations furthermore, seem to be more useful than heterogeneous, avoiding the continuous increase of library code with redundant information. At this time however, homogeneous approaches aren't as flexible as heterogeneous, with extensions failing to integrate well with base language typing. In this paper, using some of the features of the Core Reflection of Java, we introduce a homogeneous translation in which run-time information about instantiation of type-parameters is carried, allowing full integration of parame-terized types with Java typing. Performance overhead is greatly decreased using a brand new translation technique based on the deferring of the management of type information at load-time. The same power and flexibility of previous heterogeneous approaches is obtained while maintaining homogeneous translation advantages.
pH homeostasis during coral calcification in a free ocean CO2 enrichment (FOCE) experiment, Heron Island reef flat, Great Barrier Reef

Significance In situ free ocean CO2 enrichment (FOCE) experiments and geochemical analyses (δ11B, Sr/Ca) conducted on corals (Porites cylindrica) from the highly dynamic Heron Island reef flat of the Great Barrier Reef show that this species exerts strong physiological controls on the pH of their calcifying fluid (pHcf). Over an ∼6-mo period, from mid-winter to early summer, we show that these corals maintained their pHcf at near constant elevated levels independent of the highly variable temperatures and FOCE-controlled carbonate chemistries to which they were exposed, implying they have a high degree of tolerance to ocean acidification. Geochemical analyses (δ11B and Sr/Ca) are reported for the coral Porites cylindrica grown within a free ocean carbon enrichment (FOCE) experiment, conducted on the Heron Island reef flat (Great Barrier Reef) for a 6-mo period from June to early December 2010. The FOCE experiment was designed to simulate the effects of CO2-driven acidification predicted to occur by the end of this century (scenario RCP4.5) while simultaneously maintaining the exposure of corals to natural variations in their environment under in situ conditions. Analyses of skeletal growth (measured from extension rates and skeletal density) showed no systematic differences between low-pH FOCE treatments (ΔpH = ∼−0.05 to −0.25 units below ambient) and present day controls (ΔpH = 0) for calcification rates or the pH of the calcifying fluid (pHcf); the latter was derived from boron isotopic compositions (δ11B) of the coral skeleton. Furthermore, individual nubbins exhibited near constant δ11B compositions along their primary apical growth axes (±0.02 pHcf units) regardless of the season or treatment. Thus, under the highly dynamic conditions of the Heron Island reef flat, P. cylindrica up-regulated the pH of its calcifying fluid (pHcf ∼8.4–8.6), with each nubbin having near-constant pHcf values independent of the large natural seasonal fluctuations of the reef flat waters (pH ∼7.7 to ∼8.3) or the superimposed FOCE treatments. This newly discovered phenomenon of pH homeostasis during calcification indicates that coral living in highly dynamic environments exert strong physiological controls on the carbonate chemistry of their calcifying fluid, implying a high degree of resilience to ocean acidification within the investigated ranges.
Treatment of dental implant-related maxillary sinusitis with functional endoscopic sinus surgery in combination with an intra-oral approach

The present report describes the case of a patient who underwent maxillary sinusitis right after dental implant installation with sinus lifting. Computed tomography scan revealed a dental implant (#16) was protruded inside the right maxillary sinus and confirmed the obstruction of ostium. A symptom remission was gained with the dual approaches combined by functional endoscopic sinus surgery and an intra-oral approach. Fully recovered function and healing of sinus were identified after 10 months follow-up. We report the case of sinusitis caused by protrusion of implants with sinus floor lift procedures and propose that practitioners should be aware of the possible its complications and management.
Automatic Detection of Intestinal Juices in Wireless Capsule Video Endoscopy

Wireless capsule video endoscopy is a novel and challenging clinical technique, whose major reported drawback relates to the high amount of time needed for video visualization. In this paper, we propose a method for the rejection of the parts of the video resulting not valid for analysis by means of automatic detection of intestinal juices. We applied Gabor filters for the characterization of the bubble-like shape of intestinal juices in fasting patients. Our method achieves a significant reduction in visualization time, with no relevant loss of valid frames. The proposed approach is easily extensible to other image analysis scenarios where the described pattern of bubbles can be found
T1DBase, a community web-based resource for type 1 diabetes research

T1DBase (http://T1DBase.org) is a public website and database that supports the type 1 diabetes (T1D) research community. The site is currently focused on the molecular genetics and biology of T1D susceptibility and pathogenesis. It includes the following datasets: annotated genome sequence for human, rat and mouse; information on genetically identified T1D susceptibility regions in human, rat and mouse, and genetic linkage and association studies pertaining to T1D; descriptions of NOD mouse congenic strains; the Beta Cell Gene Expression Bank, which reports expression levels of genes in beta cells under various conditions, and annotations of gene function in beta cells; data on gene expression in a variety of tissues and organs; and biological pathways from KEGG and BioCarta. Tools on the site include the GBrowse genome browser, site-wide context dependent search, Connect-the-Dots for connecting gene and other identifiers from multiple data sources, Cytoscape for visualizing and analyzing biological networks, and the GESTALT workbench for genome annotation. All data are open access and all software is open source.
Big de Rham-Witt cohomology: basic results

Let X be a smooth projective R-scheme, where R is a smooth Z-algebra. As constructed by Hesselholt, we have the absolute big de Rham-Witt complex W ∗ of X at our disposal. There is also a relative version W ∗ with W(R)-linear differential. In this paper we study the hypercohomology of the relative (big) de Rham- Witt complex after truncation with finite truncation sets S. We show that it is a projective WS(R)-module, provided that the de Rham cohomology is a flat R-module. In addition, we establish a Poincare duality theorem. explicit description of the relative de Rham-Witt complex of a smooth λ-ring, which may be of independent interest.
Resource Allocation for Power Minimization in the Downlink of THP-Based Spatial Multiplexing MIMO-OFDMA Systems

In this paper, we deal with resource allocation in the downlink of spatial multiplexing multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)-orthogonal frequency-division multiple-access (OFDMA) systems. In particular, we concentrate on the problem of jointly optimizing the transmit and receive processing matrices, the channel assignment, and the power allocation with the objective of minimizing the total power consumption while satisfying different quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. A layered architecture is used in which users are first partitioned in different groups on the basis of their channel quality, and then channel assignment and transceiver design are sequentially addressed starting from the group of users with most adverse channel conditions. The multiuser interference among users belonging to different groups is removed at the base station (BS) using a Tomlinson-Harashima precoder operating at user level. Numerical results are used to highlight the effectiveness of the proposed solution and to make comparisons with existing alternatives.
MCBS: Matrix Computation Based Simulator of NDN

This paper presents a lightweight matrix computation-based simulator of Named Data Networking (NDN). This simulator treats the experiment network as a whole. Matrix is used to describe network states, and matrix operation is used to simulate different network events. The simulator, just like Newtonian mechanics to some extend, once given the system initial state, including routing table, content distribution, and initial data requesting information of NDN network, can ﬁgure out all of the subsequent network state based on matrix computation. This simulator splits packet process into different events, such as interest generating, interest forwarding, cache or content hitting and transmitting, and turns them into matrix computation on the network scale. One of advantages of the simulator is convenient and user-friendly compared to CCNx Project and NS-3 based simulator. And they can provide similar simulation result. This simulatorcan works on different platform, including Linux, mac OSX and Windows. Computational complexity of the simulator depends on number of involved contents and nodes, which makes analysis between small group of nodes and contents very simple and fast.
An in vitro dynamic microcosm biofilm model for caries lesion development and antimicrobial dose-response studies

Abstract Some dynamic biofilm models for dental caries development are limited as they require multiple experiments and do not allow independent biofilm growth units, making them expensive and time-consuming. This study aimed to develop and test an in vitro dynamic microcosm biofilm model for caries lesion development and for dose-response to chlorhexidine. Microcosm biofilms were grown under two different protocols from saliva on bovine enamel discs for up to 21 days. The study outcomes were as follows: the percentage of enamel surface hardness change, integrated hardness loss, and the CFU counts from the biofilms formed. The measured outcomes, mineral loss and CFU counts showed dose-response effects as a result of the treatment with chlorhexidine. Overall, the findings suggest that biofilm growth for seven days with 0.06 ml min−1 salivary flow under exposure to 5% sucrose (3 × daily, 0.25 ml min−1, 6 min) was suitable as a pre-clinical model for enamel demineralization and antimicrobial studies.
An Approach for Text Categorization in Digital Library

Text categorization is a very effective way to organize enormous number of documents in Digital Libraries. Accurate classification of documents is able to not only enhance document search precision, but also facilitate browsing-by- topic functionality. It is, nonetheless, difficult to obtain a satisfactory categorization accuracy compared to the corresponding results given by professional catalogers. This is due largely to the complexity of the pre-defined large-scaled category hierarchies that makes it difficult for learning algorithms to distinguish among categories. This paper describes a top-down document classification approach which takes advantage of the hierarchical structure, more specifically, in two ways: identifying the number of independent local classifiers and guiding top-down classification procedure. We finally evaluate it within the CINDI Digital Library applying ACM Classification System as targeted hierarchy. Experimental results show the promise of this approach.