Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Communication Protocol Stack for Constrained IoT Systems

Internet of Things (IoT) has gained huge popularity through its rapid advancements and wide applicability in real world applications that have transformed our lives. Communication plays an integral role in connecting IoT devices. For effective communication in IoT, the protocols that offer lightweight, secure and reliable communication without compromising the computational and energy limitations, of the employed constrained IoT devices are the need of hour. Literature reveals certain protocols such as CoAP, MQTT, XMPP, RESTFUL Services, 6LoWPAN, RPL etc, that can be deployed for carrying communication at different layers. This paper insight the various IoT protocols applied at different layers of IoT protocol suite and analyze the efficacy and reliability of these protocols on the basis of energy efficiency, security and lightweight nature of protocols.
Nucleolar Division in the Promastigote Stage of Leishmania major Parasite: A Nop56 Point of View

Nucleogenesis is the cellular event responsible for the formation of the new nucleoli at the end of mitosis. This process depends on the synthesis and processing of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and, in some eukaryotes, the transfer of nucleolar material contained in prenucleolar bodies (PNBs) to active transcription sites. The lack of a comprehensive description of the nucleolus throughout the cell cycle of the human pathogen Leishmania major prompted us to analyze the distribution of nucleolar protein 56 (Nop56) during interphase and mitosis in the promastigote stage of the parasite. By in silico analysis we show that the orthologue of Nop56 in L. major (LmNop56) contains the three characteristic Nop56 domains and that its predicted three-dimensional structure is also conserved. Fluorescence microscopy observations indicate that the nucleolar localization of LmNop56 is similar, but not identical, to that of the nucleolar protein Elp3b. Notably, unlike other nucleolar proteins, LmNop56 remains associated with the nucleolus in nonproliferative cells. Moreover, epifluorescent images indicate the preservation of the nucleolar structure throughout the closed nuclear division. Experiments performed with the related parasite Trypanosoma brucei show that nucleolar division is carried out by an analogous mechanism.
Single‐Dose Zoliflodacin (ETX0914) for Treatment of Urogenital Gonorrhea

BACKGROUND Antibiotic‐resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae has prompted the development of new therapies. Zoliflodacin is a new antibiotic that inhibits DNA biosynthesis. In this multicenter, phase 2 trial, zoliflodacin was evaluated for the treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhea. METHODS We randomly assigned eligible men and women who had signs or symptoms of uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea or untreated urogenital gonorrhea or who had had sexual contact in the preceding 14 days with a person who had gonorrhea to receive a single oral dose of zoliflodacin (2 g or 3 g) or a single 500‐mg intramuscular dose of ceftriaxone in a ratio of approximately 70:70:40. A test of cure occurred within 6±2 days after treatment, followed by a safety visit 31±2 days after treatment. The primary efficacy outcome measure was the proportion of urogenital microbiologic cure in the microbiologic intention‐to‐treat (micro‐ITT) population. RESULTS From November 2014 through December 2015, a total of 179 participants (167 men and 12 women) were enrolled. Among the 141 participants in the micro‐ITT population who could be evaluated, microbiologic cure at urogenital sites was documented in 55 of 57 (96%) who received 2 g of zoliflodacin, 54 of 56 (96%) who received 3 g of zoliflodacin, and 28 of 28 (100%) who received ceftriaxone. All rectal infections were cured in all 5 participants who received 2 g of zoliflodacin and all 7 who received 3 g, and in all 3 participants in the group that received ceftriaxone. Pharyngeal infections were cured in 4 of 8 participants (50%), 9 of 11 participants (82%), and 4 of 4 participants (100%) in the groups that received 2 g of zoliflodacin, 3 g of zoliflodacin, and ceftriaxone, respectively. A total of 84 adverse events were reported: 24 in the group that received 2 g of zoliflodacin, 37 in the group that received 3 g of zoliflodacin, and 23 in the group that received ceftriaxone. According to investigators, a total of 21 adverse events were thought to be related to zoliflodacin, and most such events were gastrointestinal. CONCLUSIONS The majority of uncomplicated urogenital and rectal gonococcal infections were successfully treated with oral zoliflodacin, but this agent was less efficacious in the treatment of pharyngeal infections. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and Entasis Therapeutics; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02257918.)
Service Provisioning in Mobile Environments through Opportunistic Computing

Opportunistic computing is a paradigm for completely self-organised pervasive networks. Instead of relying only on fixed infrastructures as the cloud, users’ devices act as service providers for each other. They use pairwise contacts to collect information about services provided and amount of time to provide them by the encountered nodes. At each node, upon generation of a service request, this information is used to choose the most efficient service, or composition of services, that satisfy that request, based on local knowledge. Opportunistic computing can be exploited in several scenarios, including mobile social networks, IoT, and Internet 4.0. In this paper, we propose an opportunistic computing algorithm based on an analytical model, which ranks the available (composition of) services, based on their expected completion time. Through the model, a service requester picks the one that is expected to be the best. Experiments show that the algorithm is accurate in ranking services, thus providing an effective service-selection policy. Such a policy achieves significantly lower service provisioning times compared to other reference policies. Its performance is tested in a wide range of scenarios varying the nodes mobility, the size of input/output parameters, the level of resource congestion, and the computational complexity of service executions.
The role of inhaled methoxyflurane in acute pain management

Methoxyflurane is an inhaled analgesic administered via a disposable inhaler which has been used in Australia for over 40 years for the management of pain associated with trauma and for medical procedures in children and adults. Now available in 16 countries worldwide, it is licensed in Europe for moderate to severe pain associated with trauma in conscious adults, although additional applications are being made to widen the range of approved indications. Considering these ongoing developments, we reviewed the available evidence on clinical usage and safety of inhaled analgesic methoxyflurane in trauma pain and in medical procedures in both adults and children. Published data on methoxyflurane in trauma and procedural pain show it to be effective, well tolerated, and highly rated by patients, providing rapid onset of analgesia. Methoxyflurane has a well-established safety profile; adverse events are usually brief and self-limiting, and no clinically significant effects on vital signs or consciousness levels have been reported. Nephrotoxicity previously associated with methoxyflurane at high anesthetic doses is not reported with low analgesic doses. Although two large retrospective comparative studies in the prehospital setting showed inhaled analgesic methoxyflurane to be less effective than intravenous morphine and intranasal fentanyl, this should be balanced against the administration, supervision times, and safety profile of these agents. Given the limitations of currently available analgesic agents in the prehospital and emergency department settings, the ease of use and portability of methoxyflurane combined with its rapid onset of effective pain relief and favorable safety profile make it a useful nonopioid option for pain management. Except for the STOP! study, which formed the basis for approval in trauma pain in Europe, and a few smaller randomized controlled trials (RCTs), much of the available data are observational or retrospective, and further RCTs are currently underway to provide more robust data.
Gaussian-constrained Training for Speaker Verification

Neural models, in particular the d-vector and x-vector architectures, have produced state-of-the-art performance on many speaker verification tasks. However, two potential problems of these neural models deserve more investigation. Firstly, both models suffer from ‘information leak’, which means that some parameters participating in model training will be discarded during inference, i.e, the layers that are used as the classifier. Secondly, these models do not regulate the distribution of the derived speaker vectors. This ‘unconstrained distribution’ may degrade the performance of the subsequent scoring component, e.g., PLDA. This paper proposes a Gaussian-constrained training approach that (1) discards the parametric classifier, and (2) enforces the distribution of the derived speaker vectors to be Gaussian. Our experiments on the VoxCeleb and SITW databases demonstrated that this new training approach produced more representative and regular speaker embeddings, leading to consistent performance improvement.
A Decade of Microaggression Research and LGBTQ Communities: An Introduction to the Special Issue

ABSTRACT Though the Supreme Court of the U.S. legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, heterosexism and transphobia has continued to manifest through many systems in the US — from lack of federal protection in employment non-discrimination laws to polices that prohibit transgender people from using bathroom and public facilities that match their gender identities. Heterosexist and transphobic discrimination have also persisted through interpersonal interactions — ranging from more overt forms (e.g., hate crimes, bullying) to more subtle forms of discrimination, otherwise known as microaggressions. Since 2008, there have been hundreds of articles written on microaggressions, with dozens focusing specifically on experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Qualitative and quantitative studies have revealed that LGBTQ people who experience microaggressions have reported negative outcomes like depression, low self-esteem, and trauma. This special issue aims to further Microaggression Theory by providing theoretical and empirical papers that focus on the manifestation and impact of microaggressions on LGBTQ people. Using an interdisciplinary approach, articles range in topic from intersectional identities, to health and psychological outcomes, to advancing research methods. Future studies regarding microaggressions and LGBTQ people are discussed- highlighting the influence of the changing landscape of heterosexism and transphobia within general society, as well as new dynamics that have formed and developed within LGBTQ communities.
Dynamic Binaural Cue Adaptation

Binaural recording using artificial heads is a common method to record acoustic scenes spatially. A drawback of this method has been its inability to incorporate head movements by listeners during playback, with detrimental effects such as in-head localization. Adapting recorded acoustic scenes to head movements has so far required different recording techniques involving microphone arrays and more than two channels. This contribution presents a new approach to adapt conventional two-channel binaural recordings to head movements by analyzing and modifying the cues contained in the binaural signal. According to a listening test, the proposed algorithm works with signals recorded in reverberant single-source as well as multi-source scenes. Therefore, it opens up the possibility to improve localization, externalization and realism of traditional binaural recordings.
RA Code: A Robust and Aesthetic Code for Resolution-Constrained Applications

Recently, some picture-embedding schemes have been proposed to improve the aesthetic appearance of 2D barcodes. However, these aesthetic 2D barcodes are not robust to the distortions incurred by the print/display-and-capture channel under limited rendering space and resolution. In this paper, a picture-embedding 2D barcode named the Robust and Aesthetic (RA) Code is proposed to counter the channel impairments, such as downsampling error and inter-symbol interference. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RA Code is more robust than the existing picture-embedding 2D barcodes, especially under limited printing/displaying space. The RA Code of a size as small as $1.5 \times 1.5 {\,\,\mbox {cm}}^{2}$ can be successfully decoded with a demodulated bit error probability of less than 0.1, which corresponds to more than 50% improvement over those of the state-of-the-art picture-embedding 2D barcodes. In addition, the correct decoding probability is improved significantly from as low as 0 to more than 0.8650. The decoding algorithm has been implemented on the Android platform, and the practicality of the RA Code has been successfully demonstrated.
Visual Features in Alzheimer's Disease: From Basic Mechanisms to Clinical Overview

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide. It compromises patients' daily activities owing to progressive cognitive deterioration, which has elevated direct and indirect costs. Although AD has several risk factors, aging is considered the most important. Unfortunately, clinical diagnosis is usually performed at an advanced disease stage when dementia is established, making implementation of successful therapeutic interventions difficult. Current biomarkers tend to be expensive, insufficient, or invasive, raising the need for novel, improved tools aimed at early disease detection. AD is characterized by brain atrophy due to neuronal and synaptic loss, extracellular amyloid plaques composed of amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ), and neurofibrillary tangles of hyperphosphorylated tau protein. The visual system and central nervous system share many functional components. Thus, it is plausible that damage induced by Aβ, tau, and neuroinflammation may be observed in visual components such as the retina, even at an early disease stage. This underscores the importance of implementing ophthalmological examinations, less invasive and expensive than other biomarkers, as useful measures to assess disease progression and severity in individuals with or at risk of AD. Here, we review functional and morphological changes of the retina and visual pathway in AD from pathophysiological and clinical perspectives.
Exploring Interactions between the Gut Microbiota and Social Behavior through Nutrition

Microbes influence a wide range of host social behaviors and vice versa. So far, however, the mechanisms underpinning these complex interactions remain poorly understood. In social animals, where individuals share microbes and interact around foods, the gut microbiota may have considerable consequences on host social interactions by acting upon the nutritional behavior of individual animals. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology can help the study of these processes and allow the formulation of new empirically testable predictions. First, we review key evidence showing that gut microbes influence the nutrition of individual animals, through modifications of their nutritional state and feeding decisions. Next, we describe how these microbial influences and their social consequences can be studied by modelling populations of hosts and their gut microbiota into a single conceptual framework derived from nutritional geometry. Our approach raises new perspectives for the study of holobiont nutrition and will facilitate theoretical and experimental research on the role of the gut microbiota in the mechanisms and evolution of social behavior.
Dolutegravir-rilpivirine: first 2-drug regimen for HIV-positive adults

ABSTRACT Introduction: New strategies for HIV treatment are being investigated to reduce drug-exposure, toxicities, and costs. Dolutegravir (DTG) 50 mg/rilpivirine (RPV) 25 mg was approved in November 2017 by FDA and in May 2018 by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). It is indicated as a complete regimen for HIV-1 infected adults with undetectable plasmatic HIV-RNA for at least 6 months on their current HIV treatment combination. Its approval was based on the data of two randomized, multicenter, non-inferiority trials (SWORD-1 and SWORD-2). Areas covered: We reviewed data from literature about DTG and RPV. We mainly focused on the efficacy and on the safety of this new dual therapy. Its impact on renal function, its bone and cardiovascular profile, its reservoir penetration and its role on inflammation were also evaluated. Expert commentary: Dual therapies may be an attractive alternative to standard triple regimens in terms of tolerability and simplicity. Long-term efficacy of DTG and RPV dual regimen need to be confirmed, where only the extensive use of this new treatment and a longer follow-up will give us the answers.
In vitro neurosphere formation correlates with poor survival in glioma

Sphere formation is an indicator of tumor aggressiveness independent of the tumor grade; however, its relation to progression‐free survival (PFS) is less known. This study was designed to assess the neurosphere forming ability among low grade glioma (LGG) and high‐grade glioma (HGG), its stem cell marker expression, and correlation to PFS. Tumor samples of 140 patients, including (LGG; n = 67) and (HGG; n = 73) were analyzed. We used sphere forming assay, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemistry to characterize the tumors. Our study shows that, irrespective of the pathological sub type, both LGG and HGG formed neurospheres in vitro under conventional sphere forming conditions. However, the number of neurospheres formed from tumor tissues were significantly higher in HGG compared to LGG (P < 0.0001). Different grades of glioma were further characterized for the expression of stem cell marker proteins and lineage markers. When neurospheres were analyzed, CD133 positive cells were identified in addition to CD15 and nestin positive cells in both LGG and HGG. When these neurospheres were subjected to differentiation, cells positive for GFAP and β‐tubulin III were observed. Expression of stem cell markers and β‐tubulin III were prominent in HGG compared to LGG, whereas GFAP expression was higher in LGG than in HGG. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated that neurosphere forming ability was significantly associated with shorter PFS (P < 0.05) in both LGG and HGG. Our results supports earlier studies that neurosphere formation may serve as a definitive indicator of stem cell population within the tumor and thus a better predictor of PFS than the tumor grades alone. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 71(1):244–253, 2019
EmoVoice: Finding My Mood from My Voice Signal

Mental-health monitoring, biometric security analysis have lots of impact in the smart world. Speech recognition, voice identification are key technologies in these fields. However these are very challenging research areas because voice features can vary based on gender, physical or mental condition and environmental noise. In our paper, we identify emotional status based on Cepstral and Jitter coefficients. Cepestral co efficient has some important role since it carries the maximum information of voice signals. Rather than using the entire voice signal, we use short time significant frames, which would b e enough to identify the emotional condition of the speaker. Our hybrid framework is very realistic and inexpensive because it computes with a part of voice signal considering jitter. We support our method by providing better accuracy and true acceptance rate.
The story of PKC: A discovery marked by unexpected twists and turns

Protein kinase C (PKC) is activated by 1,2‐diacylglycerol as a second messenger in the signaling mechanism coupled with the hydrolysis of membrane inositol phospholipids, although it was not found by screening for a 1,2‐diacylglycerol‐dependent enzyme. PKC is also a receptor for the tumor‐promoting phorbol esters, but it was not identified by its property of binding phorbol esters, either. Instead, the discovery and characterization of PKC, now known to comprise a family with multiple isoforms, was through a circuitous voyage filled with unexpected twists and turns. This review summarizes the discovery and the initial experiments of PKC as a historical perspective of the enzyme family in the context of the progress in the studies on protein phosphorylation. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 71(6):697–705, 2019
Elongation of the CA1 field of the septal hippocampus in ungulates

It is widely assumed that the hippocampal formation seen in laboratory rodents and in primates is typical of that seen in other mammals. We have tested this assumption by examining sections of brains of 56 mammals from 20 mammalian orders from images on the brainmuseum.org website. We found wide variation in the form of the hippocampal formation, the most extreme examples of which are seen in ungulates, which possess an unusual elongation of the distal CA1 of the septal hippocampus. This phenomenon has not previously been reported. In individual coronal sections of the brains of seven artiodactyl ungulates, the pyramidal layer of CA1 is four times as long as CA2 + CA3. In a perissodactyl ungulate (Burchell's zebra) the distal end of CA1 is so large that it forms a number of folds. A similar but less pronounced CA1 elongation was seen in the brains of 14 carnivores. A modest elongation of CA1 is also present in some other placental mammals, notably the elephant shrew, hyrax, capybara, beaver, and rabbit. The elongation was not present in brains of primates, marsupials, or monotremes. The distal part of CA1 has been shown to play a role in object integration into the spatial map. We hypothesize that the distal CA1 enlargement could serve to enhance the ability to integrate objects into spatial navigation, which would be an advantage for migrating herds of ungulates. We suggest that the remarkable elongation of Q5 CA1 represents a major evolutionary specialization in the ungulates.
Association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with cardiovascular disease and subclinical atherosclerosis

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) refers to fatty infiltration of liver in the absence of significant alcohol intake, use of steatogenic medication, or hereditary disorders. It is a common cause of chronic liver disease with a worldwide estimated prevalence ranging from 6.3% to 33%. The NAFLD is considered a hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome. Insulin resistance and increased oxidative stress are central to pathogenesis of NAFLD, and risk factors include metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, obesity, lack of physical activity, smoking, and high fat diet. NAFLD is associated with higher mortality as compared to the general population with cardiovascular disease being the most common cause of death. The NAFLD is associated with a higher prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis as evidenced by odds of higher coronary artery calcification, higher average and maximum carotid intima-media thickness. It is also associated with stiff arteries as evidenced by higher cardio-ankle vascular index and higher brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity. Increasing evidence has linked NAFLD with atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. The NAFLD is associated with a higher prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD), more severe CAD, poor coronary collateral development, and higher incidence of coronary events. The NAFLD is also associated with ischemic stroke. Studies have shown that the association between NAFLD and atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases is independent of shared risk factors.