Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MOCAP signal interpolation using low-rank matrix recovery

We propose a new regularization method for 3D MOCAP (Motion Capture) signal restoration. As a MOCAP signal restoration method, methods considering low-rankness and smoothness or Truncated Nuclear Norm (TrNN) for low-rank approximation have been proposed. However, with these methods, the smoothness in the time direction of the MOCAP signal cannot be sufficiently restored. In this study, from the a priori knowledge that many of human movements involve smooth acceleration/deceleration and the a priori knowledge that the acceleration/deceleration patterns are similar among related joints, we introduce the regularization based on the second-order differentiation in the time direction. In numerical experiments, we apply this method to MOCAP signal restoration with continuous missing in the time direction and show that the performance is superior to the conventional methods.
An Intelligent RFID-Enabled Authentication Protocol in VANET

Privacy is the key challenge in VANET which means that vehicles should be anonymous and untraceable to everyone except trusted entities. There are many solutions to provide security and privacy. One of these methods is RFID authentication protocols by which the tag and servers confirm the validity of the other party before sending data. One of the attacks that violates user privacy is the tracking attack. This attack can be done against authentication protocols. Kumar et al. developed an intelligent RFID-enabled authentication protocol in 2016. In this paper, at first we will show that the designed protocol is vulnerable to tracking attack and cannot meet the security features of untraceability and forward security. After this, the improved version of this protocol will be presented and we will show that the improved protocol has been able to meet the security features - untraceability and forward security- with the same computing.
Asymmetric cross‐regulation between the nitrate‐responsive NarX–NarL and NarQ–NarP two‐component regulatory systems from Escherichia coli K‐12

The NarX–NarL and NarQ–NarP sensor–response regulator pairs control Escherichia coli gene expression in response to nitrate and nitrite. Previous analysis suggests that the Nar two‐component systems form a cross‐regulation network in vivo. Here we report on the kinetics of phosphoryl transfer between different sensor–regulator combinations in vitro. NarX exhibited a noticeable kinetic preference for NarL over NarP, whereas NarQ exhibited a relatively slight kinetic preference for NarL. These findings were substantiated in reactions containing one sensor and both response regulators, or with two sensors and a single response regulator. We isolated 21 NarX mutants with missense substitutions in the cytoplasmic central and transmitter modules. These confer phenotypes that reflect defects in phospho‐NarL dephosphorylation. Five of these mutants, all with substitutions in the transmitter DHp domain, also exhibited NarP‐blind phenotypes. Phosphoryl transfer assays in vitro confirmed that these NarX mutants have defects in catalysing NarP phosphorylation. By contrast, the corresponding NarQ mutants conferred phenotypes indicating comparable interactions with both NarP and NarL. Our overall results reveal asymmetry in the Nar cross‐regulation network, such that NarQ interacts similarly with both response regulators, whereas NarX interacts preferentially with NarL.
Sequential translocation of an Escherchia coli two‐partner secretion pathway exoprotein across the inner and outer membranes

In Gram‐negative bacteria, a variety of high molecular weight ‘exoproteins’ are translocated across the outer membrane (OM) via the two‐partner secretion (TPS) pathway by interacting with a dedicated transporter. It is unclear, however, whether the translocation of exoproteins across the OM is coupled to their translocation across the inner membrane (IM). To address this question, we separated the production of an Escherichia coli O157:H7 exoprotein (OtpA) and its transporter (OtpB) temporally by placing otpA and otpB under the control of distinct regulatable promoters. We found that when both full‐length and truncated forms of OtpA were expressed prior to OtpB, a significant fraction of the exoprotein was secreted. The results indicate that OtpA can be translocated into the periplasm and briefly remain secretion‐competent. Furthermore, by engineering cysteine residues into OtpA and using disulphide bond formation as a reporter of periplasmic localization, we obtained additional evidence that the C‐terminus of OtpA enters the periplasm before the N‐terminus is translocated across the OM even when OtpA and OtpB are expressed simultaneously. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the translocation of a TPS exoprotein across the OM can occur independently from its translocation across the IM.
Digital architectures based on chaotic cellular automata for compressed sensing of electrocardiographic (ECG) signals

This paper presents a couple of digital architectures based on chaotic cellular automata for Compressed Sensing (CS) of electrocardiographic (ECG) signals. The first architecture has been designed taking as starting point the recent CS algorithm proposed in literature, called Cellular Automata Chaos with Original Signal Thresholding (CAC-OST). For its construction, we have split that algorithm into five simple digital modules. The second architecture, which we call Cellular Automata Chaos for Streaming Signals (CAC-SS), has been designed in such a way that can be adequate for streaming processing. These digital architectures are implemented in FPGA Cyclone IV from Altera OR and compared against the state-of-the-art ECG CS system. For each digital architecture we report the number of Logic Elements (LE), registers, memory bits and maximum frequency of operation. The compressed signal is recovered in Matlab OR and compared with the original signal, the error rate and the level of signal to noise between recovered signal and original signal is calculated via Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Our experimental results show that CAC-OST has better compression characteristics but at expenses of a greater hardware utilization, whereas CAC-SS is the simplest one among these architectures.
Transport‐dependent endocytosis and turnover of a uric acid‐xanthine permease

In this work we unmask a novel downregulation mechanism of the uric acid/xanthine transporter UapA, the prototype member of the ubiquitous Nucleobase‐Ascorbate Transporter family, directly related to its function. In the presence of substrates, UapA is endocytosed, sorted into the multivesicular body pathway and degraded in vacuoles. Substrate‐induced endocytosis, unlike ammonium‐induced turnover, is absolutely dependent on UapA activity and several lines of evidence showed that the signal for increased endocytosis is the actual translocation of substrates through the UapA protein. The use of several UapA functional mutants with altered kinetics and specificity has further shown that transport‐dependent UapA endocytosis occurs through a mechanism, which senses subtle conformational changes associated with the transport cycle. We also show that distinct mechanisms of UapA endocytosis necessitate ubiquitination of a single Lys residue (K572) by HulARsp5. Finally, we demonstrate that in the presence of substrates, non‐functional UapA versions can be endocytosed in trans if expressed in the simultaneous presence of active UapA versions, even if the latter cannot be endocytosed themselves.
SEREEL2 – making laser single-event effects testing available to the many

This paper describes the phenomenon of single-event effects caused by the passage of a high energy particle through the silicon die of a semiconductor device. It goes on to outline the significance of these effects and the situations in which single-event effects can occur, followed by a summary of current testing and characterisation practices for determining the sensitivity of components to such events. Finally, the use of a relatively new technique for SEE testing, employing a pulsed laser, is introduced and examples quoted where such a technique has delivered benefits compared to more established methods. Laser testing promises to deliver much faster and lower cost results, opening up access to SEE testing to a wider range of users than is currently the case.
Power Line Detection and Tracking Using Hough Transform and Particle Filter

In this paper, a new method, based on particle filter approach, for detection and tracking of power lines using aerial video streams is presented. In the proposed algorithms, the gradient of image is computed using Sobel operator. Then an adaptive thresholding method is used to convert images to black and white to decrease the computation time. For detection and tracking of power lines, particle filter is used. The particles are defined in the Hough Space (ρ, θ). The particles’ weights are determined using the number of detected points on the corresponding line in the image. The proposed algorithm has been successfully tested offline on 100 frames of images taken from a power line using a UAV.
Distributed predictive control for formation of networked mobile robots

This paper presents a novel distributed model predictive controller (MPC) to reach formation in a team of mobile robots which are connected via data delaying communication network. The parameters of the control laws are determined online by a distributed optimization algorithm in which each robot searches the optimum of a global cost function using its local information and delayed data received from the neighbors. Simulation results are given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed approach.
Cascade Attention Machine for Occluded Landmark Detection in 2D X-Ray Angiography

In cardiac interventions, localization of guiding catheter tip in 2D fluoroscopic images is important to specify ves-sel branches and calibrate vessels with stenosis. While detection of guiding catheter tip is not trivial in contrast-free images due to low dose radiation as well as occlusion by other devices, it is even more challenging in contrast-filled images. As contrast-filled vessels become visible in X-ray imaging, the landmark of guiding catheter tip can often be completely occluded by the contrast medium. It is difficult even for human eyes to precisely localize the catheter tip from a single angiography image. Physicians have to rely on information before the inject of contrast medium to localize the guiding catheter tip occluded by contrast medium. Automatic landmark detection when occlusion happens is important and can significantly simplify the intervention workflow. To address this problem, we propose a novel Cascade Attention Machine (CAM) model. It borrows the idea of how human experts localize the catheter tip by first per-forming landmark detection when occlusion does not hap-pen, then leveraging this information as prior knowledge to assist the occluded detection. Attention maps are computed from non-occluded detection to further refine the heatmaps for occluded detection to guide the inference focusing on related regions. Experiments on X-ray angiography demonstrate the promising performance compared with the state-of-the-art baselines. It shows that the CAM can capture the relation between situations with and without occlusion to achieve precise detection of occluded landmark.
An Exprimental Modelling and Identification of Feed Drive Dynamics with Considering Variable Friction*

Modeling and accurate identification of the robot dynamics have a direct effect on the implementation quality of control rules. The dynamics of the prismatic joints section, as a part of the robot structure, have a great impact on the overall system dynamics. In order to achieve a high precision dynamic model in the robots, it is important to identify the structure and parameters of the joint’s dynamic model. In this paper, the identification of the feed drive dynamical model as a prismatic joint of a 3-DOF linear independent parallel robot are investigated. Having in mind that friction modeling is an important-nonlinear component of the overall system model, a hybrid method is proposed which is able to identify variable friction parameters. The results of this identification are compared to experimental data obtained from the system. In addition, the results of the proposed method, are compared to the estimation of the friction parameters, which are obtained by the unbiase Least Square(LS) method. From the practical tests it can be inferred that the proposed hybrid method leads to a better output estimate error value.
Tensor Completion with Shift-invariant Cosine Bases

In this study, we discuss a technique of tensor completion using multi-way delay-embedding, which is an emerging framework for the tensor completion problem. This consists of simple three steps: (1) multi-way delay-embedding transform (MDT) of the input incomplete tensor, (2) completing the transformed high-order tensor, (3) inverse MDT of the completed high-order tensor. In spite of the simplicity, it can be used as a powerful tool for recovering the missing elements and slices of tensors. In this paper, we propose an improvement method for MDT based tensor completion by exploiting a common phenomenon that the most real signals are commonly having Fourier bases as shift-invariant features in its auto-correlation matrix. By considering the cosine bases in high-order tensor, several factor matrices in the low-rank tensor decomposition problem can be automatically decided. The experimental results show the advantages of the proposed method.
Neuritogenesis: the prion protein controls β1 integrin signaling activity

Cytoskeleton modifications are required for neuronal stem cells to acquire neuronal polarization. Little is known, however, about mechanisms that orchestrate cytoskeleton remodeling along neuritogenesis. Here, we show that the silencing of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) impairs the initial sprouting of neurites upon induction of differentiation of the 1C11 neuroectodermal cell line, indicating that PrPC is necessary to neuritogenesis. Such PrPC function relies on its capacity to negatively regulate the clustering, activation, and signaling activity of β1 integrins at the plasma membrane. β1 Integrin aggregation caused by PrPC depletion triggers overactivation of the RhoA‐Rho kinase‐LIMK‐cofilin pathway, which, in turn, alters the turnover of focal adhesions, increases the stability of actin microfilaments, and in fine impairs neurite formation. Inhibition of Rho kinases is sufficient to compensate for the lack of PrPC and to restore neurite sprouting. We also observe an increased secretion of fibronectin in the surrounding milieu of PrPC‐depleted 1C11 cells, which likely self‐sustains β1 integrin signaling overactivation and contributes to neuritogenesis defect. Our overall data reveal that PrPC contributes to the acquisition of neuronal polarization by modulating β1 integrin activity, cell interaction with fibronectin, and cytoskeleton dynamics. —Loubet, D. , Dakowski, C. , Pietri, M. , Pradines, E. , Bernard, S. , Callebert, J., Ardila‐Osorio, H. , Mouillet‐Richard, S. , Launay, J. M. , Kellermann, O. , Schneider, B. Neuritogenesis: the prion protein controls β1 integrin signaling activity. FASEB J. 26, 678–690 (2012). www.fasebj. org
ATP Activates a Reactive Oxygen Species-dependent Oxidative Stress Response and Secretion of Proinflammatory Cytokines in Macrophages*

Secretion of the proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18, usually requires two signals. The first, due to microbial products such as lipopolysaccharide, initiates transcription of the cytokine genes and accumulation of the precursor proteins. Cleavage and secretion of the cytokines is mediated by caspase-1, in association with an inflammasome containing Nalp3, which can be activated by binding of extracellular ATP to purinergic receptors. We show that treatment of macrophages with ATP results in production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which stimulate the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway and subsequent Akt and ERK1/2 activation. ROS exerts its effect through glutathionylation of PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted from chromosome 10), whose inactivation would shift the equilibrium in favor of PI3K. ATP-dependent ROS production and PI3K activation also stimulate transcription of genes required for an oxidative stress response. In parallel, ATP-mediated ROS-dependent PI3K is required for activation of caspase-1 and secretion of IL-1β and IL-18. Thus, an increase in ROS levels in ATP-treated macrophages results in activation of a single pathway that promotes both adaptation to subsequent exposure to oxidants or inflammation, and processing and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines.
Frequency-Controlled 2-D Focus-Scanning Terahertz Reflectarrays

In this paper, we report the design and realization of 2-D focus scanning of the reflected beam by exploiting the frequency dispersion characteristic of reflectarrays operating at terahertz (THz) frequencies. In the first design, we choose four focal points on a circular path at four different frequencies ranging from 0.225 to 0.3 THz and 2-D beam scanning in the focal plane is achieved as frequency increases. To increase the scanning area, we design a dual-band reflectarray and 1-D scanning is achieved in each of the operating bands with different focal positions along the direction orthogonal to the scanning. The proposed reflectarrays are fabricated and their 2-D focus-scanning abilities are measured and there are good agreements between the simulation results and the measurements. The proposed designs demonstrate and expand further the potential applications of reflectarrays in fast THz imaging and detection.
AglP is a S‐adenosyl‐L‐methionine‐dependent methyltransferase that participates in the N‐glycosylation pathway of Haloferax volcanii

While pathways for N‐glycosylation in Eukarya and Bacteria have been solved, considerably less is known of this post‐translational modification in Archaea. In the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii, proteins encoded by the agl genes are involved in the assembly and attachment of a pentasaccharide to select asparagine residues of the S‐layer glycoprotein. AglP, originally identified based on the proximity of its encoding gene to other agl genes whose products were shown to participate in N‐glycosylation, was proposed, based on sequence homology, to serve as a methyltransferase. In the present report, gene deletion and mass spectrometry were employed to reveal that AglP is responsible for adding a 14 Da moiety to a hexuronic acid found at position four of the pentasaccharide decorating the Hfx. volcanii S‐layer glycoprotein. Subsequent purification of a tagged version of AglP and development of an in vitro assay to test the function of the protein confirmed that AglP is a S‐adenosyl‐L‐methionine‐dependent methyltransferase.
Fast Numerical Method of Obtaining Radar Azimuth Reference Function Directly In Frequency Domain

In the previous paper, we introduced a numerical method which uses an interpolation of the big known reference function to obtain a reference function for any distance and radiation pattern width bypassing the Fourier transform stage. Interpolation has an algorithmic complexity O(N), while the FFT has a complexity O(NlogN). But modern FFT libraries are highly optimized to meet the modern CPUs and GPUs feature. So, it is not only the algorithmic complexity which the final performance depends on but also satisfying the architectural requirements such as data memory arrangement and vector extensions. This paper reveals some approaches and steps to gain the maximal algorithm performance on the modern CPUs.
GCD Based Blind Super-Resolution for Remote Sensing Applications

The importance of remote sensing imageries is growing day by day. Extraction of fine details of desired regions worth for further processing and decision making. Usually the data bases of remote sensing imageries are very huge that overburden the processor. Super-Resolution overcomes this problem and yields a high-quality output in less time consumption. This paper aims to give a brief idea about one of the approaches of super-resolution known as blind super-resolution reconstruction approach. In this approach, Greatest Common Divisor (GCD) algorithm is embedded into the blind reconstruction technique. The HR images obtained from this method is compared with the interpolated images. The results shows the efficacy of the proposed method. The paper tries to overcome the limitations of the super resolution approach and a conclusive discussion of the whole method has been discussed.
A Hybrid Static Tool to Increase the Usability and Scalability of Dynamic Detection of Malware

Malware detection is a paramount priority in today’s world in order to prevent malware attacks. Malware detection comes in three methods: static analysis, dynamic analysis, and hybrids. Static analysis is fast and effective for detecting previously seen malware where as dynamic analysis can be more accurate and robust against zero-day or polymorphic malware, but at the cost of a high computational load, which results in an often-prohibitive dollar cost for the needed server farm to handle all incoming traffic at an organization’s network entry point. Most modern defenses today use a hybrid approach, which uses both static and dynamic analysis to maximize their chances of detecting malware. However, current hybrid approaches are suboptimal. We propose a solution to utilize the strengths of both while minimizing their weaknesses by using a two-phase hybrid detection tool. The first phase is a static tool, which we call a “static-hybrid” tool, that is based on machine learning and static analysis to categorize incoming programs into three buckets: definitely benign, definitely malicious, and needs further analysis. Only the small fraction of programs in the third bucket are run on the dynamic analyzer. Our system approaches the accuracy of the dynamic-only system with only a small fraction of its computational cost, while maintaining a real-time malware detection timeliness similar to a static-only system, thus achieving the best of both approaches.A key feature of our system is that the first (static) phase can run in active mode, i.e. it blocks malware in real time, which is possible because of the low 0.08% rate of mistakenly blocking benign programs as malicious (all results in our salient configuration). The second (dynamic) phase is run in passive mode, i.e. it send alerts for suspected malware without blocking them, and has a higher false positive rate of 0.75%. The first phase blocks 88.98% of malware, whereas the second phase brings up the detection rate to 98.73%. Since only a small fraction of malware missed by the first stage but caught by the second stage generates alerts, our system reduces alerts by 9.5X vs any highly accurate system running by itself in the typical passive mode seen in practice. Since only 3.63% of programs that need further study are sent to the second phase, this reduces the computation load for dynamic analysis by 100/3.63 = 27.5X.