Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Service-Oriented Middleware for the Large-Scale Mobile Internet of Things. (Middleware pour l'Internet des Objets Intelligents)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is characterized by a wide penetration in the regular user's life through an increasing number of Things embedding sensing, actuating, processing, and communication capacities. A considerable portion of those Things will be mobile Things, which come with several advantages yet lead to unprecedented challenges. The most critical challenges, that are directly inherited from, yet amplify, today's Internet issues, lie in handling the large scale of users and mobile Things, providing interoperability across the heterogeneous Things, and overcoming the unknown dynamic nature of the environment, due to the mobility of an ultra-large number of Things. This thesis addresses the aforementioned challenges by revisiting the commonly employed Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) which allows the functionalities of sensors/actuators embedded in Things to be provided as services, while ensuring loose-coupling between those services and their hosts, thus abstracting their heterogeneous nature. In spite of its benefits, SOA has not been designed to address the ultra-large scale of the mobile IoT. Consequently, our main contribution lies in conceiving a Thing-based Service-Oriented Architecture, that revisits SOA interactions and functionalities, service discovery and composition in particular. We concretize the novel architecture within MobIoT, a middleware solution that is specifically designed to manage and control the ultra-large number of mobile Things in partaking in IoT-related tasks. To assess the validity of our proposed architecture, we provide a prototype implementation of MobIoT and evaluate its performance through extensive experiments that demonstrate the correctness, viability, and scalability of our solution.
Depletion of the cellular amounts of the MutS and MutH methyl-directed mismatch repair proteins in stationary-phase Escherichia coli K-12 cells

The MutL, MutS, and MutH proteins mediate methyl-directed mismatch (MDM) repair and help to maintain chromosome stability in Escherichia coli. We determined the amounts of the MDM repair proteins in exponentially growing, stationary-phase, and nutrient-starved bacteria by quantitative Western immunoblotting. Extracts of null mutants containing various amounts of purified MDM repair proteins were used as quantitation standards. In bacteria growing exponentially in enriched minimal salts-glucose medium, about 113 MutL dimers, 186 MutS dimers, and 135 MutH monomers were present per cell. Calculations with the in vitro dissociation constants of MutS binding to different mismatches suggested that MutS is not present in excess, and may be nearly limiting in some cases, for MDM repair in exponentially growing cells. Remarkably, when bacteria entered late stationary phase or were deprived of a utilizable carbon source for several days, the cellular amount of MutS dropped at least 10-fold and became barely detectable by the methods used. In contrast, the amount of MutH dropped only about threefold and the amount of MutL remained essentially constant in late-stationary-phase and carbon-starved cells compared with those in exponentially growing bacteria. RNase T2 protection assays showed that the amounts of mutS, mutH, and mutL, but not miaA, transcripts decreased to undetectable levels in late-stationary-phase cells. These results suggested that depletion of MutS in nutritionally stressed cells was possibly caused by the relative instability of MutS compared with MutL and MutH. Our findings suggest that the MDM repair capacity is repressed in nutritionally stressed bacteria and correlate with conclusions from recent studies of adaptive mutagenesis. On the other hand, we did not detect induction of MutS or MutL in cells containing stable mismatches in multicopy single-stranded DNA encoded by bacterial retrons.
Corneal Graft Surgery Combined with Subconjunctival Bevacizumab (Avastin)

Purpose: To describe the use of subconjunctival bevacizumab (Avastin) as an adjunctive treatment in a vascularized cornea at the time of lamellar keratoplasty to reduce the risk of graft rejection. Materials and Methods: After a significant ocular high-velocity thermal injury, a patient developed extensive corneal scarring and a traumatic cataract. To improve vision, a corneal graft was indicated, but the presence of extensive neovascularization increased the risk of early graft rejection. Results: Bevacizumab was injected subconjunctivally before surgery to reduce the corneal vessel load. There was a dramatic response in terms of vessel regression, but this was short lived and the vessels quickly regrew. The subconjunctival bevacizumab injection was repeated at the time of combined cataract extraction and lamellar corneal graft surgery, and the feeder vessels were cauterized at the limbus. After 6 months, the graft remained clear of vessels. Conclusions: This case is of interest because the eye was treated twice with subconjunctival bevacizumab with good short-term results in both instances but different longer-term outcomes in terms of vessel regrowth. This case suggests that the antiangiogenic effects of bevacizumab may be effectively harnessed at the time of a definitive surgical procedure, which reduces the stimulus for vessel regrowth.
Comparison of tibiofemoral joint forces during open-kinetic-chain and closed-kinetic-chain exercises.

The purpose of this study was to analyze forces at the tibiofemoral joint during open and closed-kinetic-chain exercises. Five healthy subjects performed maximum isometric contractions at 30, 60, and 90 degrees of knee flexion during open-kinetic-chain extension, open-kinetic-chain flexion, and closed-kinetic-chain exercises. Electromyographic activity of the quadriceps and hamstrings, as well as load and torque-cell data, were recorded. Tibiofemoral shear and compression forces were calculated with use of a two-dimensional biomechanical model. The results showed that, during the open-kinetic-chain extension exercise, maximum posterior shear forces (the resisting forces to anterior drawer) of 285 +/- 120 newtons (mean and standard deviation) occurred at 30 degrees of knee flexion and maximum anterior shear forces (the resisting forces to posterior drawer) of 1780 +/- 699 newtons occurred at 90 degrees of knee flexion. The closed-kinetic-chain exercise produced significantly less posterior shear force at all angles when compared with the open-kinetic-chain extension exercise. In addition, the closed-kinetic-chain exercise produced significantly less anterior shear force at all angles except 30 degrees when compared with the open-kinetic-chain flexion exercise (p < 0.05). Analysis of tibiofemoral compression forces and electromyographic recruitment patterns revealed that the closed-kinetic-chain exercise produced significantly greater compression forces and increased muscular co-contraction at the same angles at which the open-kinetic-chain exercises produced maximum shear forces and minimum muscular co-contraction. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Sensor-based planning for planar two-link rigid robot

This paper presents a new roadmap which is called the two-link generalized Voronoi graph (two-link GVG). This roadmap can be used to explore an unknown planar workspace and built a roadmap in an unknown configuration space ℝ2 × T2 for a planar two-link rigid bodies. This method is based on the rod generalized Voronoi graph (rod-GVG). The two-link GVG can be constructed using only sensor-provided information. Furthermore, this approach is worth drawing on the experience of any other highly articulated robots.
Control of Large-Scale Irrigation Networks

Irrigation networks of open-water channels are used throughout the world to support agricultural activity. By and large, these networks are managed in open loop. To achieve closed-loop water distribution management, it is necessary to augment these civil engineering systems with an appropriate information infrastructure-sensors, actuators, information processing, and communication resources. Recent pilot projects in Australia demonstrate the significant potential of closed-loop management, which can yield a significant improvement in the quality of service, while achieving improved water distribution efficiency. This paper focuses on the modelling and closed-loop control of open-water channels from the perspective of large-scale irrigation network management. Several feedback information structures are discussed and the key design tradeoffs identified
Violation of Leggett inequalities in orbital angular momentum subspaces

We report an experimental test of Leggett's non-local hidden variable theory in an orbital angular momentum (OAM) state space of light. We show that the correlations we observe are in conflict with Leggett's model, thus excluding a particular class of non-local hidden variable theories for the first time in a non-polarization state space. It is known that the violation of the Leggett inequality becomes stronger as more detection settings are used. The required measurements become feasible in an OAM subspace, and we demonstrate this by testing the inequality using three and four settings. We observe excellent agreement with quantum predictions and a violation of five and six standard deviations, respectively, compared to Leggett's non-local hidden variable theory.
Visual Control of Hand‐reaching Movement: Activity in Parietal Area 7m

The activity of single neurons was studied in parietal area 7m while monkeys performed an instructed‐delay reaching task to visual targets under normal light conditions and in darkness. The task was aimed at assessing the influence of vision of hand position on the neural activity of 7m related either to static posture and movement of the hand or to eye position in the orbit. The results show the existence of preparatory, movement‐related and postural activity for the control of reaching, all of which are strongly modulated by vision. The activity of many 7m neurons, otherwise insensitive to pure visual stimuli, seems to reflect complex interactions between gaze angle and hand position in the visual field.
Incompatibility of endurance- and strength-training modes of exercise.

Twenty-two male and female subjects trained for 7 wk for endurance (group E), for strength (group IS), or for both strength and endurance (group C) to evaluate the effect of concurrent performance of both modes of training on the in vivo force-velocity relationship of human muscle and on aerobic power. Endurance training consisted of five 5-min sessions three times a week on cycle ergometer with a work load that approached the subject's peak cycle-ergometer O2 uptake (peak CE VO2). Strength training consisted of two 30-s sets of maximal knee extensions per day performed on an isokinetic dynamometer three times a week at a velocity of 4.19 rad X s-1. Group C performed the same training as groups IS and E, alternating days of strength and endurance training. Subjects (groups C and IS) were tested pre- and posttraining for maximal knee-extension torque at a specific joint angle (0.52 rad below horizontal) for seven specific angular velocities (0, 0.84, 1.68, 2.81, 3.35, 4.19, and 5.03 rad X s-1). Groups C and E were tested for peak CE VO2 pretraining, at 14-day intervals, and posttraining. Group IS showed significant increases in angle-specific maximal torque at velocities up to and including the training speed (4.19 rad X s-1). Group C showed increases (P less than 0.05) at velocities of 0, 0.84, and 1.68 rad X s-1 only. Peak CE VO2, when expressed in relative or absolute terms, increased (P less than 0.05) approximately 18% for both groups E and C. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Cross‐linking of antigen receptor via Ig‐β (B29, CD79b) can induce both positive and negative signals in CD40‐activated human B cells

Antigen‐dependent activation of B lymphocytes is mediated through surface immunoglobulins and their associated molecules Ig‐α (CD79a, Mb1) and Ig‐β (CD79b, B29). Here we show that an antibody directed against the extracellular part of human Ig‐β can, when cross‐linked by CD32‐transfected L cells, induce an IL‐2‐dependent proliferation of tonsil B cells. With the use of L cells stably transfected with both CD32 and CD40L, anti‐Ig‐β activation of B cells was combined with CD40 triggering, an important component of the T cell‐dependent B cell activation. This dual cellular activation resulted in two different phases, with initially synergistic proliferative effects, both without and with IL‐2 or IL‐10. Then, after 5–6 days of culture, cells stimulated with both anti‐Ig‐β and CD40L underwent massive cell death, in contrast to B cells activated with CD40L alone. Cell death was not prevented by the addition of IL‐2 or IL‐10, but was prevented by the addition of IL‐4. These results are discussed in the context of positive and negative selection of mature B cells.
Protein phosphatases 1 and 2A are both required for long‐term depression and associated dephosphorylation of cAMP response element binding protein in hippocampal area CA1 in vivo

Evidence shows that the serine/threonine protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) plays a critical role in synaptic plasticity and memory. Little is known about the contribution of the serine/threonine phosphatase 1 (PP2A) to synaptic plasticity. Both protein phosphatases can target the transcription factor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), whose phosphorylation at Ser133, we previously found, was downregulated during long‐term depression (LTD) of glutamatergic transmission in area CA1 of the adult hippocampus in vivo. Other work from our group showed that the activity of PP2A, as well as that of PP1, is increased after LTD induction in area CA1 in vivo. We therefore investigated here whether both protein phosphatases are necessary for LTD in area CA1, and whether they both are involved in the LTD‐associated modification of CREB. We found that inhibition of either PP1 or PP2A interferes with the establishment of LTD. Furthermore, inhibition of either enzyme alone abrogated the LTD‐associated dephosphorylation of CREB. Interestingly, inhibition of PP1 disrupted CREB dephosphosphorylation rapidly after LTD‐inducing stimulation, whereas inhibition of PP2A did not blunt the CREB modification until a later time point. Thus, both PP1 and PP2A regulate CREB during LTD in area CA1, although possibly through different signaling pathways. Our results demonstrate that PP2A, similar to PP1, plays an essential role in the molecular events that underlie LTD at glutamatergic synapses in hippocampal area CA1 in vivo. We propose that one of the mechanisms through which these protein phosphatases may contribute to the prolonged maintenance of LTD is through the regulation of CREB. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Magnetic Triplet Excitations in Graphene

When doping graphene an unique window appears in the electron–hole excitation spectrum. Including the Coulomb interaction through the Hubbard Hamiltonian results in bound state formation in graphene. The bound states we analyze represent triplet excitations, i.e. magnons, with spin 1. When increasing the strength of the Coulomb interaction, electron–hole pairs are dragged down into the window. This is a property of the triplet excitations since the interaction term is negative, indicating attraction, in that context. We analyzed further the dispersion relation for U ' 11 eV and at last we investigated the appearance of magnons in real space. Résumé Når man doper grafen opstår der et unikt vindue i elektron–hul eksitation spektret. Inklusionen af Coulomb vekselvirkningen gennem Hubbard Hamiltonianen resulterer i dannelsen af bundne tilstande i grafen. De bundne tilstande der analyseres representerer triplet eksitationer, i.e. magnoner, med spin 1. Forøges styrken af Coulomb vekselvirkningen, bliver elektron–hul parrerne trukket ned i vinduet. Det er en egenskab af triplet eksistationerne eftersom vekselvirknings ledet er negativt, hvilket indikerer tiltrækning i denne kontekst. Yderligere analyserede vi dispersion relationen for U ' 11 eV og til sidst undersøgte vi hvordan magnoner opstår i det reele rum.
Mitochondrial alterations in embryos exposed to B‐hydroxybutyrate in whole embryo culture

The ketone body B‐hydroxybutyrate (B‐OHB) produces malformations and ultrastructural alterations in mitochondria of mouse embryos exposed for 24 hours to the compound in whole embryo culture. The present study was conducted to establish the time‐course of the mitochondrial changes to determine whether the changes are reversible, and to relate these changes to the malformations produced by the compound. Since mitochondria also play a key role in the metabolism of ketone bodies, the capacity of the early somite embryo to metabolize B‐OHB was investigated in an effort to link the morphological alterations in the mitochondria to a biochemical process. Early somite embryos were cultured 4, 8, or 24 hours in the presence of 32 mM DL‐B‐OHB and then cultured for an additional 24 hours in control serum. Finally, embryonic tissue during the teratogenic period was assessed for its capability to oxidize B‐OHB using D‐(3‐14C)‐B‐OHB. The treated embryos showed progressive alterations in the mitochondria, beginning at 4 hours with a loss of matrix density and culminating at 24 hours with high‐amplitude swelling, complete loss of matrix density, and disappearance of cristae. These alterations were reversible following removal of the embryos after 24 hours of exposure to B‐OHB and culturing for an additional 24 hours in control serum. Metabolism studies demonstrated that the early somite embryo possesses a limited capacity to oxidatively metabolize B‐OHB. The biochemical implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the possible role of ketone bodies in the mechanism of diabetes‐induced congenital malformations.
Structural and Functional Analysis of the Human HDAC4 Catalytic Domain Reveals a Regulatory Structural Zinc-binding Domain*

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) regulate chromatin status and gene expression, and their inhibition is of significant therapeutic interest. To date, no biological substrate for class IIa HDACs has been identified, and only low activity on acetylated lysines has been demonstrated. Here, we describe inhibitor-bound and inhibitor-free structures of the histone deacetylase-4 catalytic domain (HDAC4cd) and of an HDAC4cd active site mutant with enhanced enzymatic activity toward acetylated lysines. The structures presented, coupled with activity data, provide the molecular basis for the intrinsically low enzymatic activity of class IIa HDACs toward acetylated lysines and reveal active site features that may guide the design of class-specific inhibitors. In addition, these structures reveal a conformationally flexible structural zinc-binding domain conserved in all class IIa enzymes. Importantly, either the mutation of residues coordinating the structural zinc ion or the binding of a class IIa selective inhibitor prevented the association of HDAC4 with the N-CoR·HDAC3 repressor complex. Together, these data suggest a key role of the structural zinc-binding domain in the regulation of class IIa HDAC functions.
Lessons from obesity management programmes: greater initial weight loss improves long‐term maintenance

It is a common belief that weight loss achieved at a slow rate is better preserved than if the weight is lost more rapidly. However, the literature shows that initial weight loss is positively, not negatively, related to long‐term weight maintenance. There is evidence from randomised intervention trials to support that a greater initial weight loss induced without changes in lifestyle e.g. liquid formula diets or anorectic drugs) improves long‐term weight maintenance, providing it is followed by a 1–2 years integrated weight maintenance programme consisting of lifestyle interventions involving dietary change, nutritional education, behaviour therapy and increased physical activity. In conclusion, we find evidence to suggest that a greater initial weight loss as the first step of a weight management programme may result in improved sustained weight maintenance.
Optimization of three channels optical demultiplexer based on photonic crystal ring resonator

In this paper, a novel structure for photonic crystal ring resonator is proposed to design a demultiplexer. The structure is built of a square lattice of rods embedded in air with two rings. We used the numerical methods, Plane Wave Expansion (PWE) and 2D Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD), for performing simulations and studying the optical properties of the device. The proposed demultiplexer has good values of quality factor and crosstalk about 1506 and −42 dB respectively. Furthermore, the dimension of this design which is 195.328 μm2 (x=17.92 μm and z=10.9 μm) make it suitable to be used in integrated circuit.
Bulgarian-English and English-Bulgarian Machine Translation: System Design and Evaluation

The paper presents a deep factored machine translation (MT) system between English and Bulgarian languages in both directions. The MT system is hybrid. It consists of three main steps: (1) the source-language text is linguistically annotated, (2) it is translated to the target language with the Moses system, and (3) translation is post-processed with the help of the transferred linguistic annotation from the source text. Besides automatic evaluation we performed manual evaluation over a domain test suite of sentences demonstrating certain phenomena like imperatives, questions, etc.
Detection and tracking of a moving point target in infrared image sequence using auxiliary particle filter

An appropriate measurement likelihood function is proposed from the measurement image model employed by most of the track-before-detect (TBD) approaches. Based on the likelihood function and a target motion model, we design an auxiliary particle filter-based Bayes multiframe method for detection and tracking a moving point target in infrared (IR) image sequences. Experimental results show its effectiveness for the detection and tracking of a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) point target.
The Effect of Motion on Pulse Oximetry and Its Clinical Significance

Pulse oximetry is an important diagnostic and patient monitoring tool. However, motion can induce considerable error into pulse oximetry accuracy, resulting in loss of data, inaccurate readings, and false alarms. We will discuss how motion artifact affects pulse oximetry accuracy, the clinical consequences of motion artifact, and the methods used by various technologies to minimize the impact of the motion noise.
Biochemical Mechanisms Involved in the Priming of Neutrophils by Tumor Necrosis Factor

Preincubation of human neutrophils with recombinant tumor necrosis factor alpha has previously been shown by us to enhance superoxide production of neutrophils in response to the chemotactic peptide formyl‐methionyl‐leucyl‐phenylalanine, and the phorbol ester, phorbol myristate acetate. In this study, we further investigate the biochemical basis for this enhancement. We found that in neutrophils, TNF by itself does not induce: (1) an influx of sodium, (2) an alteration in activity or translocation of the calcium and phospholipid dependent protein kinase (C‐kinase), or (3) a release of arachidonic acid from preloaded cells. TNF did, however, induce a time‐ and concentration‐dependent increase in the phosphorylation of several neutrophil proteins, with the most dramatic concentration dependent increase in a 64,000 Da protein. Finally, the enhancement of O2 production by pretreatment of neutrophils with TNF was found to be independent of a pertussis toxin‐sensitive guanine nucleotide regulatory protein.