Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RM-NTT: An RRAM-Based Compute-in-Memory Number Theoretic Transform Accelerator

As more cloud computing resources are used for machine learning training and inference processes, privacy-preserving techniques that protect data from revealing at the cloud platforms attract increasing interest. Homomorphic encryption (HE) is one of the most promising techniques that enable privacy-preserving machine learning because HE allows data to be evaluated under encrypted forms. However, deep neural network (DNN) implementations using HE are orders of magnitude slower than plaintext implementations. The use of very long polynomials and associated number theoretic transform (NTT) operations for polynomial multiplications is the main bottlenecks of HE implementation for practical uses. This article introduces RRAM number theoretic transform (RM-NTT): a resistive random access memory (RRAM)-based compute-in-memory (CIM) system to accelerate NTT and inverse NTT (INTT) operations. Instead of running fast Fourier transform (FFT)-like algorithms, RM-NTT uses a vector-matrix multiplication (VMM) approach to achieve maximal parallelism during NTT and INTT operations. To improve the efficiency, RM-NTT stores modified forms of the twiddle factors in the RRAM arrays to process NTT/INTT in the same RRAM array and employs a Montgomery reduction algorithm to convert the VMM results. The proposed optimization methods allow RM-NTT to significantly reduce NTT operation latency compared with other NTT accelerators, including both CIM and non-CIM-based designs. The effects of different RM-NTT design parameters and device nonidealities are also discussed.
Investigation of Reciprocal Cross Effects in F2 Nellore–Angus Calves

The objectives of this study were to analyze calf performance traits and sex ratio frequencies in reciprocal Bos indicus–Bos taurus F2 Nellore–Angus calves (n = 539). The F2 calves were produced using reciprocal Angus-sired (AN) and Nellore-sired (NA) F1 sires and F1 dams, resulting in four F2 cross types. Calf weight traits were analyzed using mixed models. Deviations from 50% calf sex ratios were tested against expected binomial thresholds. Dam type influenced Julian birth date (p < 0.05) with calves from AN cows born 5 to 6 days earlier than calves from NA cows. Sire type and dam type affected birth weight (p < 0.05) with calves from NA parents approximately 2.5 kg heavier than those from AN parents; weaning weight did not differ for parent F1 type. However, an interaction between sire and dam types affected weaning weight (p = 0.038) where AN x AN calves were 5 to 8 kg lighter than other crosses. Sire type influenced calf sex distribution at birth (p = 0.036) and at weaning (p = 0.026) with NA sires producing over 66% male calves. These results suggest birth weight reciprocal differences due to parental line of descent typically observed among F1 Bos indicus–Bos taurus crosses can persist in subsequent generations.
Combining STPA With CoFI to Generate Requirements and Test Cases for Safety-Critical System

For the development of safety-critical systems, it is claimed that system-theoretic process analysis (STPA) identifies more software loss scenarios and component interaction loss scenarios when compared to failure modes and effects analysis. A challenge related to the development of these systems is to perform system safety verification. We claim that there is a lack of systematic approaches that allow test cases generation for verification (testing) of the system safety requirements. Conformance and fault injection (CoFI) is a systematic model-based approach to create software system test cases of critical systems, using finite state machines. We investigate how to combine STPA with CoFI so that requirements are identified and test cases are generated concomitantly. We describe the steps of the approach using it for the insulin pump with a smartphone system. The approach has been shown to be systematic and capable of generating test cases for the STPA identified requirements.
Arsenic-Resistant Plant Growth Promoting Pseudoxanthomonas mexicana S254 and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia S255 Isolated from Agriculture Soil Contaminated by Industrial Effluent

In many areas of developing countries, agriculture soil is irrigated with water from drains contaminated with industrial wastewater that contains many toxic substances including arsenic. Such sites could be explored for arsenic-resistant plant growth-promoting microbes. Ten arsenic-resistant bacteria were isolated from such a site and were characterized. Their ability to resist and reduce/oxidize arsenic was determined. The bacteria were also analyzed for plant growth-promoting abilities such as auxin and hydrogen cyanide production, phosphate solubilization, and nitrogen fixation. The effect of these bacteria on plant growth was determined using Vigna radiata both in presence and absence of arsenic. Bacterial isolates S254 and S255 showed maximum resistance against arsenic; up to 225 mM of As(V) and 25 mM of As(III). The phylogenetic analysis revealed that strain S254 belonged to the species Pseudoxanthomonas mexicana and strain S255 belonged to the species Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. Both P. mexicana S254 and S. maltophilia S255 showed positive results for hydrogen cyanide production, auxin production, and nitrogen fixation. P. mexicana S254 produced auxin at a concentration of 14.15 µg mL−1 and S. maltophilia S255 produced auxin as high as 68.75 µg mL−1. Both the bacteria-enhanced the growth of V. radiata and a statistically significant increase in shoot and root lengths was observed both in the presence and absence of arsenic. The application of such bacteria could be helpful for the growth of plants in arsenic-contaminated lands.
An Improved Adaptive model for Information Recommending and Spreading

People in the Internet era have to cope with information overload and expend great effort on finding what they need. Recent experiments indicate that recommendations based on users' past activities are usually less favored than those based on social relationships, and thus many researchers have proposed adaptive algorithms on social recommendation. However, in those methods, quite a number of users have little chance to recommend information, which might prevent valuable information from spreading. We present an improved algorithm that allows more users to have enough followers to spread information. Experimental results demonstrate that both recommendation precision and spreading effectiveness of our method can be improved significantly.
Noble Metals Deposited LaMnO3 Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic H2 Production

Due to the growing demand for hydrogen, the photocatalytic hydrogen production from alcohols present an intriguing prospect as a potential source of low-cost renewable energy. The noble metals (Ag, Au, Pd and Pt) deposited LaMnO3 nanocomposites were synthesized by a non-conventional green bio-reduction method using aqueous lemon peel extract, which acts as both reducing and capping agent. The successful deposition of the noble metals on the surface of LaMnO3 was verified by using powder XRD, FTIR, TEM, N2-physisorption, DR UV-vis spectroscopy, and XPS techniques. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized nanocomposites was tested for photocatalytic H2 production under visible light irradiation. Different photocatalytic reaction parameters such as reaction time, pH, catalyst mass and reaction temperature were investigated to optimize the reaction conditions for synthesized nanocomposites. Among the synthesized noble metal deposited LaMnO3 nanocomposites, the Pt-LaMnO3 nanocomposite offered superior activity for H2 production. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the Pt-LaMnO3 was found as a result from low bandgap energy, high photoelectrons generation and enhanced charge separation due to deposition of Pt nanoparticles. The effective noble metal deposition delivers a new route for the development of plasmonic noble metal-LaMnO3 nanocomposites for photocatalytic reforming of aqueous methanol to hydrogen.
Comparative Evaluation of the Antibacterial Efficacy of Chlorhexidine and 810 nm Diode Laser in the Disinfection of Root Canals Contaminated With Enterococcus faecalis: An In Vitro Study

Introduction: This study compared the antibacterial efficacy of three different root canal irrigants, sodium hypochlorite, chlorhexidine and 810 nm diode laser and diode laser in combination with chlorhexidine in root canals contaminated with Enterococcus faecalis. Methods: Fifty extracted mandibular first premolars were decoronated at the cementoenamel junction and cut at the apical end; biomechanical preparation was done, autoclaved and contaminated with Enterococcus faecalis. The specimens were divided into five groups containing 10 teeth each: group I: saline (negative control), group II: 2.5% sodium hypochlorite, group III: 2% chlorhexidine gluconate solution, group IV: diode laser, and group V: diode laser in combination with 2% chlorhexidine. Disinfection was carried out, after which dentinal shavings were collected from the specimens of each group. Antimicrobial efficacy was tested by counting the colony-forming units of viable Enterococcus faecalis on the agar plates. One-way ANOVA and Scheffe’s post hoc test were done to analyse the results. Results: Diode laser with chlorhexidine group showed minimum colony-forming units followed by the diode laser group. The post hoc test showed a statistically significant difference between saline, 2.5% sodium hypochlorite and 2% chlorhexidine groups (P = 0.001) and a non-significant difference between diode laser and diode laser with chlorhexidine group (P = 0.997). Conclusions: Diode laser can be used as a root canal disinfectant alone or in combination with chlorhexidine.
Porphyrin‐Based Covalent Organic Framework for Imaging‐Guided Cancer Combinatorial Immuno‐Sonodynamic Therapy

The rational design of tumor microenvironment (TME)‐activated nanomedicine is driving a new direction in tumor immunology. Furthermore, the novel therapeutic mode of ultrasound‐triggered sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has been proven to specifically activate the immune response. Herein, a well‐defined covalent organic framework (COF) with sonosensitive properties is synthesized through experimental and theoretical verification, followed by the efficient loading of the toll‐like receptor agonist (Poly(I:C)) and in situ growth of paramagnetic transitional metallic oxide of manganese bioxide (MnO2). The MnO2‐Poly(I:C)@COF shell can reverse the reductive TME by consuming glutathione (GSH) to release Mn2+, simultaneously generating marked magnetic resonance imaging signals for real‐time guidance. Importantly, the MnO2 acts as an enzyme‐like nano‐catalyst to promote TME‐overexpressed hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and produce oxygen, facilitating SDT‐induced reactive oxygen species production, and inducing immunogenic cell death, thereby boosting immune engine and triggering abundant neoantigen exposure. With the powerful assistance of immunological agents Mn2+ and Poly(I:C), the triggered immune engine is amplified by refueling the engine (stepping on the accelerator) to reduce the immunosuppressive state. Overall, this study improves the synthesis of multifunctional COF and expands its application. The developed nano‐sonosensitizer system provides a paradigm to enhance SDT‐based high‐performance multifunctional sonosensitizers, and this SDT‐mediated strong tumor‐suppressive efficiency and activated immune effect represent a promising combinatorial therapeutic strategy for cancer therapy.
Associations between cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 gene polymorphisms and diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis of 76 case–control studies

Background: Several genetic association studies already investigated potential roles of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) gene polymorphisms in diabetes mellitus (DM), with inconsistent results. Therefore, we performed this meta-analysis to better assess the relationship between CTLA-4 gene polymorphisms and DM in a larger pooled population. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and CNKI were systematically searched for eligible studies. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to estimate the strength of associations between CTLA-4 gene polymorphisms and DM in all possible genetic models. Results: A total of 76 studies were finally included in our analyses. Significant associations with susceptibility to type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) were detected for rs231775 (dominant model: P=0.008, OR = 0.83, 95%CI 0.73–0.95; recessive model: P=0.003, OR = 1.27, 95%CI 1.09–1.50; allele model: P=0.004, OR = 0.85, 95%CI 0.77–0.95) and rs5742909 (recessive model: P=0.02, OR = 1.50, 95%CI 1.05–2.13) polymorphisms in overall population. Further subgroup analyses revealed that rs231775 polymorphism was significantly associated with susceptibility to T1DM in Caucasians and South Asians, and rs5742909 polymorphism was significantly associated with susceptibility to T1DM in South Asians. Moreover, rs231775 polymorphism was also found to be significantly associated with susceptibility to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in East Asians and South Asians. Conclusions: Our findings indicated that rs231775 and rs5742909 polymorphisms may serve as genetic biomarkers of T1DM, and rs231775 polymorphism may also serve as a genetic biomarker of T2DM.
Ultrarelativistic outflows associated to progenitors of Gamma-Ray bursts

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are nowadays considered to be collimated ejecta with bulk velocities very close to the speed of light. The mechanism by which after the quasy-isotropic energy release of a few 10 erg yields a collimated ejection of plasma has not been satisfactorily explained by simple analytically developments. The reason being that the collimation of an outflow by its progenitor system depends on a very complex and non-linear dynamics. That has made it necessary to use numerical simulations in order to shed some light on the viability of some likely progenitors of GRBs. Here we review the most relevant features shown by these numerical simulations and how they have been used to validate the most popular progenitor models, namely, the collapsar model (for long GRBs) and the model involving the merger of compact binaries (for short GRBs).
Longitudinal Study of Credit Union Research: From Credit-Provision to Cooperative Principles, the Urban Economy and Gender Issues

Credit unions are one of the most widely established corporate entities in the financial systems of most of the world’s nations. Their historical support to the financing needs of small savers, as well as their assimilation into the framework of contemporary microfinance, gives them an important specific weight in the economic-financial literature of our time. In this sense, our research has carried out a systematic review of the main contributions (articles in scientific journals) focused on the area of credit unions over the period 1936–2020, using Scopus and WoS as bibliographic databases. In summary, the main countries, journals, authors, articles, and the main collaborative research networks at the level of authors or countries have been analyzed. In the same way, the implementation of strategic diagrams based on Callon’s procedure has facilitated the classification of the most important terms linked to financial cooperativism, which has served to detect future lines of research related to the terms (among others): asymmetric-information, capital-provision, cooperative-principles, customer-reduction, gender-issues, neoinstitutionalism, poverty, and urban-economy.
On regular Stein neighborhoods of a union of two totally real planes in $\mathbb {C}^2$

In this paper we find regular Stein neighborhoods for a union of totally real planes $M=(A+iI)\mathbb{R}^2$ and $N=\mathbb{R}^2$ in $\mathbb{C}^2$ provided that the entries of a real $2 \times 2$ matrix $A$ are sufficiently small. A key step in our proof is a local construction of a suitable function $\rho$ near the origin. The sublevel sets of $\rho$ are strongly Levi pseudoconvex and admit strong deformation retraction to $M\cup N$.
One-step estimation of focusing operators for 3D seismic data

The main subject of this thesis is the estimation of focusing operators, which are the kinematical part of the Green's function from reflector points in the subsurface, called focal points, to a grid of points located at the acquisition surface. This estimation process is data-driven and does not explicitly involve the estimation of a subsurface velocity model to arrive at a consistent set of operators between surface locations and locations along a horizon. The method is based on the concept that conventional migration can be decomposed into two separate backward propagation steps, where both the source and receivers are separately backward propagated using the focusing operators. Applying only one backward propagation step to the data using an estimate of the focusing operator, transforms the data to a domain that is very suitable for updating the focusing operators. In this new domain, called the Common Focal Point (CFP)-gather, "The principle of equal travel time" can be formulated. This principle states that in case the correct focusing operators has been used to create a CFP-gather, the focusing operators and the event in the CFP-gather corresponding to the image point should be kinematically the same, because they both describe one-way wave-propagation from the image point to points at the acquisition surface. The residual times observed between the target event in the CFP-gather and the focusing operator can be use to update the focusing operator. Traditionally an iterative method is used to estimate the focusing operators, which may give in complex situations ambiguous results. In this thesis a new focusing operator estimation procedure is presented. By taking into account the physical relationships between all focusing operators, a set of nonlinear equations can be formulated that relate the incorrect focusing operators, the correct focusing operators and the observed residual times. This set of equations is then used in an inversion procedure that yields the correct focusing operarotors in one step. The proposed method has been validated for several 2D datasets and a synthetic 3D dataset.
The Picuris-Pecos fault--Repeatedly reactivated, from Proterozoic (?) to Neogene

-The Picuris-Pecos fault is arguably the largest-displacement, strike-slip fault exposed in the state, yet its kinematic history is poorly constrained. Although it clearly displays 37 km of dextral strike-slip, the slip is determined by offset of Proterozoic-age piercing lines, and therefore only yields a net slip since 1.4 Ga. The original Picuris-Pecos fault mappers concluded that major strike-slip faulting occurred in Proterozoic time and lesser dip-slip movement occurred in Pennsylvanian and Laramide time, but recent investigators have speculated that most or all of the 37 km of strike-slip separation is actually Lararnide in age. We conclude that some compo nent of pre-Pennsylvanian (Grenville age? ) slip on the Picuris-Pecos fault is a reasonable interpretation based on deflection and attenuation of Proterozoic strata along the fault, geometries and kinematics of Paleozoic and Laramide fault structures, the relative fracturing of Proterozoic versus Paleozoic strata, and the presence of other high-angle, reactivated, pre-Pennsylvanian faults. New field data from faults parallel to the Picuris-Pecos fault indicate that Lararnide deformation produced concurrent strike-slip and dip-slip movements, and we speculate that the Picuris Pecos fault and adjacent sub-parallel structures represent a positive flower structure of Laramide age. Although new apatite fission-track data permit Neogene vertical movement along the southernmost Picuris-Pecos fault, cross-cutting field relationships along the northern fault exposure demonstrate little or no post-26 Ma throw. This along-strike variation may have resulted from different amounts of Neogene extension in the southern and north ern parts of the Espanola Basin.
Protegendo Redes Ad Hoc com Certificados Digitais: Uma Proposta de Arquitetura

Este trabalho propõe uma arquitetura de ICP de alta disponibilidade e robusta de forma a minimizar os ataques do tipo buraco negro e falsificação de identidade contra redes ad hoc. A arquitetura se propõe a trocar um número de mensagens de controle reduzido aumentando assim a sua escalabilidade e desempenho. Para atingirmos este objetivo propomos que os diversos nós de uma rede ad hoc utilizem o serviço distribuído de certificação digital para autenticar e cifrar suas mensagens. Particularmente os protocolos de acesso ao meio e os de roteamento devem usar a autenticação e cifragem para se protegerem dos ataques citados acima garantindo assim confidencialidade, autenticidade e integridade na troca de mensagens. Resultados mostram uma redução de até 85% no número de mensagens no protocolo de renovação de certificados comparados com alguns métodos existentes.
Supernovae observations in a 'meatball' universe with a local void

We study the impact of cosmic inhomogeneities on the interpretation of observations. We build an inhomogeneous universe model without dark energy that can confront supernova data and yet is reasonably well compatible with the Copernican principle. Our model combines a relatively small local void, that gives apparent acceleration at low redshifts, with a meatball model that gives sizable lensing (dimming) at high redshifts. Together these two elements, which focus on different effects of voids on the data, allow the model to mimic the concordance model.