Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TimeCrypt: A Scalable Private Time Series Data Store

We present TimeCrypt, an efficient and scalable system that augments time series data stores with encrypted data processing capabilities and features a new encryption-based access control scheme that is additively homomorphic. TimeCrypt is tailored for time series workloads, supports fast statistical queries over large volumes of encrypted time series data, and enables users to cryptographically restrict the scope of queries and data access based on pre-defined access policies. Our evaluation of TimeCrypt shows that its memory overhead and performance are competitive and close to operating on data in the clear (insecure). E.g., with data ingest at 2.4 million data points per second, we experience a slowdown of around 1.8% for both encrypted data ingest and statistical queries.
MaizeGDB 2018: the maize multi-genome genetics and genomics database

Abstract Since its 2015 update, MaizeGDB, the Maize Genetics and Genomics database, has expanded to support the sequenced genomes of many maize inbred lines in addition to the B73 reference genome assembly. Curation and development efforts have targeted high quality datasets and tools to support maize trait analysis, germplasm analysis, genetic studies, and breeding. MaizeGDB hosts a wide range of data including recent support of new data types including genome metadata, RNA-seq, proteomics, synteny, and large-scale diversity. To improve access and visualization of data types several new tools have been implemented to: access large-scale maize diversity data (SNPversity), download and compare gene expression data (qTeller), visualize pedigree data (Pedigree Viewer), link genes with phenotype images (MaizeDIG), and enable flexible user-specified queries to the MaizeGDB database (MaizeMine). MaizeGDB also continues to be the community hub for maize research, coordinating activities and providing technical support to the maize research community. Here we report the changes MaizeGDB has made within the last three years to keep pace with recent software and research advances, as well as the pan-genomic landscape that cheaper and better sequencing technologies have made possible. MaizeGDB is accessible online at https://www.maizegdb. org.
A 0.4-to-4-GHz All-Digital RF Transmitter Package With a Band-Selecting Interposer Combining Three Wideband CMOS Transmitters

A single-output, band selecting interposer is designed to combine three identical all-digital CMOS transmitter (Tx) chips. The open-drain CMOS Txs are flip-chip connected to the primary windings of three frequency selecting transformers realized on a single PCB interposer. The secondary windings of the three transformers are connected in series and they share a single output. Across 0.4 to 4 GHz, a peak power higher than 22.9 dBm is achieved collectively by the three sub-Txs with a drain efficiency (DE) better than 25%. The peak powers/DE of the three sub-Txs are 28.6 dBm/50%, 27.4 dBm/49%, and 24.7 dBm/34%, at 0.85, 2.1, and 3 GHz, respectively. This paper further demonstrates that the band selection can be achieved via reconfiguring the CMOS inverse Class-D switching power amplifiers. As demonstrated via continuous wave and 64-quadratic-amplitude modulation, WLAN, and LTE modulation tests, the reconfigurable Tx package exhibits high power and efficiency across all supported bands.
hPSD: A Hybrid PU-Learning-Based Spammer Detection Model for Product Reviews

Spammers, who manipulate online reviews to promote or suppress products, are flooding in online commerce. To combat this trend, there has been a great deal of research focused on detecting review spammers, most of which design diversified features and thus develop various classifiers. The widespread growth of crowdsourcing platforms has created large-scale deceptive review writers who behave more like normal users, that the way they can more easily evade detection by the classifiers that are purely based on fixed characteristics. In this paper, we propose a hybrid semisupervised learning model titled hybrid PU-learning-based spammer detection (hPSD) for spammer detection to leverage both the users’ characteristics and the user–product relations. Specifically, the hPSD model can iteratively detect multitype spammers by injecting different positive samples, and allows the construction of classifiers in a semisupervised hybrid learning framework. Comprehensive experiments on movie dataset with shilling injection confirm the superior performance of hPSD over existing baseline methods. The hPSD is then utilized to detect the hidden spammers from real-life Amazon data. A set of spammers and their underlying employers (e.g., book publishers) are successfully discovered and validated. These demonstrate that hPSD meets the real-world application scenarios and can thus effectively detect the potentially deceptive review writers.
miR-145-5p inhibits the proliferation and migration of bladder cancer cells by targeting TAGLN2

MicroRNA-145-5p (miR-145-5p) is found to be involved in tumor development and progression. However, there are few studies on the effects of miR-145-5p on bladder cancer (BC). The role of miR-145-5p in BC was predicted by analysis of cell proliferation and migration in this study. The miR-145-5p and transgelin-2 (TAGLN2) expressions were evaluated via reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) or western blot analysis. The MTT and Transwell assay assessed cell proliferation and migration. TAGLN2 targeted to miR-145-5p was determined using luciferase assays. The results showed that the miR-145-5p downregulation was found in BC. miR-145-5p overexpression inhibited cell proliferation and migration in BC. Moreover, miR-145-5p directly targeted TAGLN2, and TAGLN2 expression was increased in BC. In addition, the high expression of TAGLN2 promoted cell proliferation and migration in BC. miR-145-5p appeared to regulate TAGLN2 in BC, and it also inhibited the cell proliferation and migration. The novel miR-145-5p/TAGLN2 axis may provide new therapeutic implications for BC.
Maternal Immune Activation Alters Adult Behavior, Gut Microbiome and Juvenile Brain Oscillations in Ferrets

Abstract Maternal immune activation (MIA) has been identified as a causal factor in psychiatric disorders by epidemiological studies in humans and mechanistic studies in rodent models. Addressing this gap in species between mice and human will accelerate the understanding of the role of MIA in the etiology of psychiatric disorders. Here, we provide the first study of MIA in the ferret (Mustela putorius furo), an animal model with a rich history of developmental investigations due to the similarities in developmental programs and cortical organization with primates. We found that after MIA by injection of PolyIC in the pregnant mother animal, the adult offspring exhibited reduced social behavior, less eye contact with humans, decreased recognition memory, a sex-specific increase in amphetamine-induced hyperlocomotion, and altered gut microbiome. We also studied the neurophysiological properties of the MIA ferrets in development by in-vivo recordings of the local field potential (LFP) from visual cortex in five- to six-week-old animals, and found that the spontaneous and sensory-evoked LFP had decreased power, especially in the gamma frequency band. Overall, our results provide the first evidence for the detrimental effect of MIA in ferrets and support the use of the ferret as an intermediate model species for the study of disorders with neurodevelopmental origin.
SLIC-CAGE: high-resolution transcription start site mapping using nanogram-levels of total RNA

Cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) is a methodology for genome-wide quantitative mapping of mRNA 5’ends to precisely capture transcription start sites at a single nucleotide resolution. In combination with high-throughput sequencing, CAGE has revolutionized our understanding of rules of transcription initiation, led to discovery of new core promoter sequence features and discovered transcription initiation at enhancers genome-wide. The biggest limitation of CAGE is that even the most recently improved version (nAnT-iCAGE) still requires large amounts of total cellular RNA (5 micrograms), preventing its application to scarce biological samples such as those from early embryonic development or rare cell types. Here, we present SLIC-CAGE, a Super-Low Input Carrier-CAGE approach to capture 5’ends of RNA polymerase II transcripts from as little as 5-10 ng of total RNA. The dramatic increase in sensitivity is achieved by specially designed, selectively degradable carrier RNA. We demonstrate the ability of SLIC-CAGE to generate data for genome-wide promoterome with 1000-fold less material than required by existing CAGE methods by generating a complex, high quality library from mouse embryonic day (E) 11.5 primordial germ cells.
Analysis of transcriptome sequencing of sciatic nerves in Sprague-Dawley rats of different ages

An aging-induced decrease in Schwann cell viability can affect regeneration following peripheral nerve injury in mammals. It is therefore necessary to investigate possible age-related changes in gene expression that may affect the biological function of peripheral nerves. Ten 1-week-old and ten 12-month-old healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into young (1 week old) and adult (12 months old) groups according to their ages. mRNA expression in the sciatic nerve was compared between young and adult rats using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics (n = 4/group). The 18 groups of differentially expressed mRNA (DEmRNAs) were also tested by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (n = 6/group). Results revealed that (1) compared with young rats, adult rats had 3608 groups of DEmRNAs. Of these, 2684 were groups of upregulated genes, and 924 were groups of downregulated genes. Their functions mainly involved cell viability, proliferation, differentiation, regeneration, and myelination. (2) The gene with the most obvious increase of all DEmRNAs in adult rats was Thrsp (log2FC = 9.01, P < 0.05), and the gene with the most obvious reduction was Col2a1 (log2FC = –8.89, P < 0.05). (3) Gene Ontology analysis showed that DEmRNAs were mainly concentrated in oligosaccharide binding, nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain containing one signaling pathway, and peptide-transporting ATPase activity. (4) Analysis using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes showed that, with increased age, DEmRNAs were mainly enriched in steroid biosynthesis, Staphylococcus aureus infection, and graft-versus-host disease. (5) Spearman's correlation coefficient method for evaluating NGS accuracy showed that the NGS results and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction results were positively correlated (rs = 0.74, P < 0.05). These findings confirm a difference in sciatic nerve gene expression between adult and young rats, suggesting that, in peripheral nerves, cells and the microenvironment change with age, thus influencing the function and repair of peripheral nerves.
A two-phase model for the non-processive biosynthesis of homogalacturonan polysaccharides by the GAUT1:GAUT7 complex

Homogalacturonan (HG) is a pectic glycan in the plant cell wall that contributes to plant growth and development and cell wall structure and function, and interacts with other glycans and proteoglycans in the wall. HG is synthesized by the galacturonosyltransferase (GAUT) gene family. Two members of this family, GAUT1 and GAUT7, form a heteromeric enzyme complex in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we established a heterologous GAUT expression system in HEK293 cells and show that co-expression of recombinant GAUT1 with GAUT7 results in the production of a soluble GAUT1:GAUT7 complex that catalyzes elongation of HG products in vitro. The reaction rates, progress curves, and product distributions exhibited major differences dependent upon small changes in the degree of polymerization (DP) of the oligosaccharide acceptor. GAUT1:GAUT7 displayed >45-fold increased catalytic efficiency with DP11 acceptors relative to DP7 acceptors. Although GAUT1:GAUT7 synthesized high-molecular-weight polymeric HG (>100 kDa) in a substrate concentration–dependent manner typical of distributive (nonprocessive) glycosyltransferases with DP11 acceptors, reactions primed with short-chain acceptors resulted in a bimodal product distribution of glycan products that has previously been reported as evidence for a processive model of GT elongation. As an alternative to the processive glycosyltransfer model, a two-phase distributive elongation model is proposed in which a slow phase, which includes the de novo initiation of HG and elongation of short-chain acceptors, is distinguished from a phase of rapid elongation of intermediate- and long-chain acceptors. Upon reaching a critical chain length of DP11, GAUT1:GAUT7 elongates HG to high-molecular-weight products.
Early microglial activation and peripheral inflammation in dementia with Lewy bodies

The role of inflammation in dementia with Lewy bodies is unclear. Surendranathan et al. report that microglial activation is elevated in mild disease, before decreasing as cognition declines. Inflammatory markers in the blood are also altered compared to control subjects, suggesting that inflammation could be targeted early in the disease.
Implementation and monitoring of decisions by pharmacy and therapeutics committees in South African public sector hospitals

ABSTRACT Introduction: The National Drug Policy in South Africa has achieved its objective in establishing and strengthening Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committees (PTCs) in public sector hospitals. However, little is known about the implementation of decisions by PTCs and the monitoring thereof. Consequently, there is a need to investigate this. Areas covered: We sought to address this via an online survey distributed to pharmacists working in public sector hospitals across South Africa with perceived functioning PTCs, with a 32.3% response rate to the survey. Expert commentary: Membership of all PTCs included a pharmacist, who in most cases (51.2%) held the secretariat position. Principal PTC activities were encouraging rational medicine use (RMU) (86.0%), pharmacovigilance (82.6%) and implementing standard treatment guidelines (STGs) (77.9%). Only a third (37.5%) stated that they were using indicators to monitor PTC performance. Where collected, indicator data were mostly used for providing feedback to PTCs (83.3%). Most hospitals (95.1%) implemented PTC decisions; however, 62.0% mentioned guidelines on implementing PTC decisions did not exist in their hospital. The majority of respondents (65.4% and 83.8%, respectively) indicated PTC decisions were evaluated and reviewed in their hospitals. Overall, a high percentage of respondents stated the main activities of PTCs were to enhance RMU as well as implement STGs. However, guidelines on implementation of decisions by PTCs are currently lacking and most PTCs were not monitoring their performance. This needs to be addressed.
Waveguide-Based Refractometers Using Bulk, Long-and Short-Range Surface Plasmon Modes: Comparative Study

We present a numerical study comparing three configurations of the waveguide-based surface plasmon resonance refractometer: without a buffer layer based on the excitation of the bulk surface plasmon mode, and with a buffer layer using the symmetric (long-range) and antisymmetric (short-range) plasmon modes. Optimal conditions ensuring the sharpest resonant dip in the refractometer's transmission spectrum are identified. Relative merits of various configurations in terms of the figure-of-merit parameter, local sensitivity to refractive index variations near the metal film, and the size of the sensing element are quantified and discussed.
An Overview of Data Storage in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a functional paradigm that is evolving and making IT utilization easier by the day for consumers. Cloud computing offers standardized applications to users online and in a manner that can be accessed regularly. Such applications can be accessed by as many persons as permitted within an organisation without bothering about the maintenance of such application. The Cloud also provides a channel to design and deploy user applications including its storage space and database without bothering about the underlying operating system. The application can run without consideration for on-premise infrastructure. Also, the Cloud makes massive storage available both for data and databases. Storage of data on the Cloud is one of the core activities in Cloud computing. Storage utilizes infrastructure spread across several geographical locations. Storage on the Cloud makes use of the internet, virtualization, encryption and others technologies to ensure security of data. This paper presents the state of the art from some literature available on Cloud storage. The study was executed by means of review of literature available on Cloud storage. It examines present trends in the area of Cloud storage and provides a guide for future research. The objective of this paper is to answer the question of what the current trend and development in Cloud storage is? The expected result at the end of this review is the identification of trends in Cloud storage, which can beneficial to prospective Cloud researches, users and even providers.
Discovering Power Laws in Entity Length

This paper presents a discovery that the length of the entities in various datasets follows a family of scale-free power law distributions. The concept of entity here broadly includes the named entity, entity mention, time expression, aspect term, and domain-specific entity that are well investigated in natural language processing and related areas. The entity length denotes the number of words in an entity. The power law distributions in entity length possess the scale-free property and have well-defined means and finite variances. We explain the phenomenon of power laws in entity length by the principle of least effort in communication and the preferential mechanism.
Research progress of the clinicopathologic features of lung adenosquamous carcinoma

Adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) of the lung, a biphasic malignant tumor arising from lung tissue, is a special subtype of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with low incidence but high tendency of invasion and poor prognosis. ASC contains components of lung adenocarcinoma (AC) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). However, there is a remarkable difference between ASC and other NSCLCs in clinical features, suggesting that ASC is not a simple mixture of AC and SCC, but is rather a more complex carcinoma with a unique molecular phenotype. At present, the research on ASC is still rare, mostly because of its complicated molecular mechanism and unclear pathological origin. The lack of cognition of ASC limits its early diagnosis and treatment, and a set of mature and effective treatment programs has not been proposed yet. In-depth study of the molecular characteristics and clinical features of ASC will not only help to better understand the scientific issues, including phenotype switching of lung cancer, the origin of tumor development, and tumor heterogeneity, but also contribute to the development of its individualized treatment. This review summarizes the recent studies concerning the clinicopathologic features and the molecular mechanisms of ASC to further facilitate the development of its individualized treatment.
Offline Behaviors of Online Friends

In this work we analyze traces of mobility and co-location among a group of nearly 1000 closely interacting individuals. We attempt to reconstruct the Facebook friendship graph, Facebook interaction network, as well as call and SMS networks from longitudinal records of person-to-person offline proximity. We find subtle, yet observable behavioral differences between pairs of people who communicate using each of the different channels and we show that the signal of friendship is strong enough to stand out from the noise of random and schedule-driven offline interactions between familiar strangers. Our study also provides an overview of methods for link inference based on offline behavior and proposes new features to improve the performance of the prediction task.
Localization of Multiple Sources in the Spherical Harmonic Domain with Hierarchical Grid Refinement and Eb-Music

Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation is an important step in acoustic scene analysis. Multiple signal classification in the eigenbeam domain (EB-MUSIC) is an accurate direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation method for rigid spherical microphone arrays. Two important issues with this method are 1) the requirement of prior information about the number of coherent source components, and 2) its computational cost. In this paper, a computationally efficient two-stage method, which can alleviate these problems, is proposed. The proposed method is robust to reverberation, and can be used to efficiently localize multiple coherent sources. An evaluation of the method using simulated recordings under highly reverberant conditions is also presented.
AMP-Activated Protein Kinase (AMPK)-Dependent Regulation of Renal Transport

AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) is a serine/threonine kinase that is expressed in most cells and activated by a high cellular AMP/ATP ratio (indicating energy deficiency) or by Ca2+. In general, AMPK turns on energy-generating pathways (e.g., glucose uptake, glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation) and stops energy-consuming processes (e.g., lipogenesis, glycogenesis), thereby helping cells survive low energy states. The functional element of the kidney, the nephron, consists of the glomerulus, where the primary urine is filtered, and the proximal tubule, Henle’s loop, the distal tubule, and the collecting duct. In the tubular system of the kidney, the composition of primary urine is modified by the reabsorption and secretion of ions and molecules to yield final excreted urine. The underlying membrane transport processes are mainly energy-consuming (active transport) and in some cases passive. Since active transport accounts for a large part of the cell’s ATP demands, it is an important target for AMPK. Here, we review the AMPK-dependent regulation of membrane transport along nephron segments and discuss physiological and pathophysiological implications.
Physical Exercise Improves Glycemic and Inflammatory Profile and Attenuates Progression of Periodontitis in Diabetic Rats (HFD/STZ)

The authors aimed to evaluate the effects of physical exercise on the metabolism and progression of periodontal disease (PD), induced by ligature in diabetic rats induced by high fat diet and streptozotocin (HFD/STZ). Diabetes Mellitus (DM) was induced by four weeks of a hyperlipidic diet associated with a single low-dose of streptozotocin (35 mg/kg/animal). The exercise groups swam for 60 min/day for eight weeks (five times/week). In the last two weeks of exercise, a ligature was placed around the right and left mandibular first molars. The authors determined alveolar bone loss by morphometry. Blood biochemical profile and serum levels of IL-10 and TNF-α were evaluated by colorimetric and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), respectively. The diabetic animals subjected to exercise showed decreased alveolar bone loss, lower glycemia, triacylglycerols and glycosylated hemoglobin levels than the controls. Total cholesterol and its fractions (High density lipoprotein—HDL-c, Low density lipoprotein—LDL-c and Very low density lipoprotein—VLDL-c) remained similar among the groups. Animals with PD showed higher levels of TNF-α and lower levels of IL-10, when compared to animals without PD. In diabetic animals with PD, physical exercise decreased TNF-α levels and increased IL-10 levels as well as the IL10/TNF-α ratio. In conclusion, eight weeks of physical exercise improved glycemic control and systemic inflammatory profile, and attenuated alveolar bone loss in rats with DM and PD.