Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thermoelectric Freeze-Casting of Biopolymer Blends: Fabrication and Characterization of Large-Size Scaffolds for Nerve Tissue Engineering Applications

Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) are detrimental to the quality of life of affected individuals. Patients are often left with life-long ailments that affect them physically and psychologically. Autologous nerve transplant is still the gold standard treatment for PNIs despite limited donor site and partial recovery of nerve functions. Nerve guidance conduits are used as a nerve graft substitute and are efficient for the repair of small nerve gaps but require further improvement for repairs exceeding 30 mm. Freeze-casting is an interesting fabrication method for the conception of scaffolds meant for nerve tissue engineering since the microstructure obtained comprises highly aligned micro-channels. The present work focuses on the fabrication and characterization of large scaffolds (35 mm length, 5 mm diameter) made of collagen/chitosan blends by freeze-casting via thermoelectric effect instead of traditional freezing solvents. As a freeze-casting microstructure reference, scaffolds made from pure collagen were used for comparison. Scaffolds were covalently crosslinked for better performance under load and laminins were further added to enhance cell interactions. Microstructural features of lamellar pores display an average aspect ratio of 0.67 ± 0.2 for all compositions. Longitudinally aligned micro-channels are reported as well as enhanced mechanical properties in traction under physiological-like conditions (37 °C, pH = 7.4) resulting from crosslinking treatment. Cell viability assays using a rat Schwann cell line derived from sciatic nerve (S16) indicate that scaffold cytocompatibility is similar between scaffolds made from collagen only and scaffolds made from collagen/chitosan blend with high collagen content. These results confirm that freeze-casting via thermoelectric effect is a reliable manufacturing strategy for the fabrication of biopolymer scaffolds for future peripheral nerve repair applications.
Cosmopolitan democracy : an agenda for a new world order

Notes on Contributors. Editorsa Introduction. 1. Democracy and the International System: Norberto Bobbio. 2. Peace or Democracy? Luigi Bonanate. 3. European Institutions, Nation--States and Nationalism: Mary Kaldor. 4. Democracy and the New International Order: David Held. 5. From the United Nations to Cosmopolitan Democracy: Daniele Archibugi. 6. The World Order between Inter--State law and the Law of Humanity: the Role of Civil Society Institutions: Richard Falk. Index.
Geomorphological Assessment of the Sedimentary Dynamics of the Sunday River, Quebec

Many streams and rivers in agricultural areas have been straightened in order to enhance the drainage of cultivated land and facilitate crop management. This practice is now viewed as unsustainable as periodic re-straightening is often necessary to address the problems associated with bank erosion, compromising the ecological integrity of lotic and riparian ecosystems. This research aims to assess the current sediment dynamics, as well as directions of current and future channel morphology change, of a straightened upland gravel-bed river in order to provide guidelines for sustainable management schemes. The case study is the Sunday River (Quebec), located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and regarded to contain prime trout habitat. The lowest reach has proved the most problematic as a mid-channel bar repeatedly establishes itself, resulting in considerable erosion of adjacent agricultural land. In response, stakeholders have sought to regularly intervene by extracting gravel and re-straightening the channel. The study methodology combines a GIS analysis of historical aerial photos, field data collection and hydraulic and sediment transport modeling. Topographic channel geometry, sediment grain size and discharge data were acquired over the span of 2 field seasons. Additionally, repeated terrestrial lidar scans of eroding banks were acquired to aid in sediment budget evaluation. The 1D model HEC-RAS was employed to simulate current hydraulics and sediment transport, and to recreate pre-disturbance hydraulics by increasing cross-section spacing to mimic a longer, more sinuous channel.
A NOTE ON THE INTERSECTIONS OF THE BESICOVITCH SETS AND ERDŐS–RÉNYI SETS

For $x\in (0,1]$ and a positive integer $n,$ let $S_{\! n}(x)$ denote the summation of the first $n$ digits in the dyadic expansion of $x$ and let $r_{n}(x)$ denote the run-length function. In this paper, we obtain the Hausdorff dimensions of the following sets: $$\begin{eqnarray}\bigg\{x\in (0,1]:\liminf _{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{S_{\! n}(x)}{n}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC},\limsup _{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{S_{\! n}(x)}{n}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD},\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\frac{r_{n}(x)}{\log _{2}n}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}\bigg\},\end{eqnarray}$$ where $0\leq \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\leq \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\leq 1$ , $0\leq \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}\leq +\infty$ .
Public Policy: An Evolutionary Approach

Preface. PART I: THE CONTEXT OF PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES. 1. The Nature of Public Policy. 2. The Evolution of Public Policy and Politics in America. 3. Approaches to Public Analysis. 4. Models and Public Policy Studies. PART II: ANALYSIS IN THE POLICY PROCESS. 5. Agenda Setting. 6. Policy Formulation. 7. Policy Implementation. 8. Policy Evaluation. 9. Policy Change and Termination. PART III: ANALYZING PUBLIC POLICY CHOICES. 10. Educational Policy. 11. Welfare Policy. 12. Environmental Policy. PART IV: CONCLUSIONS. 13. Utilizing Policy Analysis. 14. Taking Stock: The Evolution of Public Policy in America. INDEX.
Seasonal synchronization between trophic levels under climate change

Het klimaat verandert. De grote vraag is nu wat de consequenties hiervan zullen zijn. Margriet van Asch deed onderzoek naar de gevolgen van klimaatverandering binnen een ecosysteem. In haar onderzoek nam zij als voorbeeld een insect met een eenjarige levenscyclus, de wintervlinder (Operophtera brumata), samen met de boom waarop hij leeft, de eik (Quercus robur). De wintervlinderrupsen zijn in het voorjaar afhankelijk van jong eikenblad. Dit blad is maar gedurende een zeer korte periode geschikt als voedsel. Daarom is het van groot belang dat de rupsen precies uit het ei komen op het moment dat ook de eikenbomen gaan uitlopen. Zowel de bomen als de eieren ontwikkelen sneller bij een hogere temperatuur. Het effect van temperatuur lijkt echter sterker te zijn voor de rupsen dan voor de bomen, wat ertoe leidt dat in een warm voorjaar de rupsen al uit het ei komen voordat er voedsel (eikenblad) beschikbaar is. Wanneer de temperatuur stijgt zal dit in toenemende mate tot 'mistiming' tussen insect en plant leiden. De gevolgen van zo’n mistiming zijn aanzienlijk: zonder voedsel sterven de rupsen al binnen enkele dagen. Maar omdat de gevoeligheid van de eieren voor temperatuur genetisch bepaald blijkt, kunnen de rupsen zich door natuurlijke selectie aanpassen aan het veranderende klimaat. Van Asch toont aan dat de reactie van de wintervlindereieren op de temperatuur de afgelopen tien jaar inderdaad veranderd is: bij dezelfde temperaturen komen de eieren nu vijf tot tien dagen later uit dan tien jaar geleden.
On the Privacy of Selection Mechanisms with Gaussian Noise

Report Noisy Max and Above Threshold are two classical differentially private (DP) selection mechanisms. Their output is obtained by adding noise to a sequence of low-sensitivity queries and reporting the identity of the query whose (noisy) answer satisfies a certain condition. Pure DP guarantees for these mechanisms are easy to obtain when Laplace noise is added to the queries. On the other hand, when instantiated using Gaussian noise, standard analyses only yield approximate DP guarantees despite the fact that the outputs of these mechanisms lie in a discrete space. In this work, we revisit the analysis of Report Noisy Max and Above Threshold with Gaussian noise and show that, under the additional assumption that the underlying queries are bounded, it is possible to provide pure ex-ante DP bounds for Report Noisy Max and pure ex-post DP bounds for Above Threshold. The resulting bounds are tight and depend on closed-form expressions that can be numerically evaluated using standard methods. Empirically we find these lead to tighter privacy accounting in the high privacy, low data regime. Further, we propose a simple privacy filter for composing pure ex-post DP guarantees, and use it to derive a fully adaptive Gaussian Sparse Vector Technique mechanism. Finally, we provide experiments on mobility and energy consumption datasets demonstrating that our Sparse Vector Technique is practically competitive with previous approaches and requires less hyper-parameter tuning.
The microbiota in respiratory disease.

173–182. 7. Schuliga M, Ong SC, Soon L, Zal F, Harris T, Stewart AG. Airway smooth muscle remodels pericellular collagen fibrils: implications for proliferation. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 2010;298:L584–L592. 8. Regamey N, Ochs M, Hilliard TN, Muhlfeld C, Cornish N, Fleming L, Saglani S, Alton EW, Bush A, Jeffery PK, et al. Increased airway smooth muscle mass in children with asthma, cystic fibrosis, and noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2008;177: 837–843. 9. Fedorov IA, Wilson SJ, Davies DE, Holgate ST. Epithelial stress and structural remodelling in childhood asthma. Thorax 2005;60:389–394. 10. Bossley CJ, Fleming L, Gupta A, Regamey N, Frith J, Oates T, Tsartsali L, Lloyd CM, Bush A, Saglani S. Pediatric severe asthma is characterized by eosinophilia and remodeling without t(h)2 cytokines. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2012;129:974–982. 11. Meurs H, Gosens R, Zaagsma J. Airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma: lessons from in vitro model systems and animal models. Eur Respir J 2008;32:487–502. 12. James A, Carroll M, Dromey J, Down K, Elliot J, Mutavdzic S, Carroll N. In-situ proliferation of inflammatory cells and smooth muscle cells in patients with and without asthma. Respirology 2002;7:A11. 13. Benayoun L, Druilhe A, Dombret MC, Aubier M, Pretolani M. Airway structural alterations selectively associated with severe asthma. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2003;167:1360–1368. 14. Hassan M, Jo T, Risse PA, Tolloczko B, Lemiere C, Olivenstein R, Hamid Q, Martin JG. Airway smooth muscle remodeling is a dynamic process in severe long-standing asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2010; 125:1037–1045.e3. 15. Hirst SJ, Martin JG, Bonacci JV, Chan V, Fixman ED, Hamid QA, Herszberg B, Lavoie JP, McVicker CG, Moir LM, et al. Proliferative aspects of airway smooth muscle. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2004;114: S2–S17. 16. Brook BS, Peel SE, Hall IP, Politi AZ, Sneyd J, Bai Y, Sanderson MJ, Jensen OE. A biomechanical model of agonist-initiated contraction in the asthmatic airway. Respir Physiol Neurobiol 2010;170:44–58. 17. Damera G, Druey KM, Cooper PR, Krymskaya VP, Soberman RJ, Amrani Y, Hoshi T, Brightling CE, Panettieri RA Jr. An rgs4mediated phenotypic switch of bronchial smooth muscle cells promotes fixed airway obstruction in asthma. PLoS ONE 2012;7:e28504. 18. Zhang W, Gunst SJ. Interactions of airway smooth muscle cells with their tissue matrix: implications for contraction. Proc Am Thorac Soc 2008; 5:32–39. 19. Saunders R, Siddiqui S, Kaur D, Doe C, Sutcliffe A, Hollins F, Bradding P, Wardlaw A, Brightling CE. Fibrocyte localization to the airway smooth muscle is a feature of asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2009;123:376–384. 20. Hackett TL, Warner SM, Stefanowicz D, Shaheen F, Pechkovsky DV, Murray LA, Argentieri R, Kicic A, Stick SM, Bai TR, et al. Induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in primary airway epithelial cells from patients with asthma by transforming growth factor-beta1. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2009;180:122–133.
Online Buy-at-Bulk Network Design

We present the first non-trivial online algorithms for the non-uniform, multicommodity buy-at-bulk (MC-BB) network design problem. Our competitive ratios qualitatively match the best known approximation factors for the corresponding offline problems. In particular, we show:1. A polynomial time online algorithm with a poly-logarithmic competitive ratio for the MC-BB problem in undirected edge-weighted graphs.2. A quasi-polynomial time online algorithm with a poly-logarithmic competitive ratio for the MC-BB problem in undirected node-weighted graphs.3. For any fixed ε > 0, a polynomial time online algorithm with a competitive ratio of O̅(k{1/2+ε} polylog(n)) (where k is the number of demands) for MC-BB in directed graphs.4. Algorithms with matching competitive ratios for the prize-collecting variants of all the above problems. Prior to our work, a logarithmic competitive ratio was known for undirected, edge-weighted graphs only for the special case of uniform costs (Awerbuch and Azar, FOCS 1997), and a polylogarithmic competitive ratio was known for the edge-weighted single-sink problem (Meyerson, SPAA 2004). To the best of our knowledge, no previous online algorithm was known, even for uniform costs, in the node-weighted and directed settings. Our main engine for the results above is an online reduction theorem of MC-BB problems to their single-sink (SS-BB) counterparts. We use the concept of junction-tree solutions (Chekuri et al., FOCS 2006) that play an important role in solving the offline versions of the problem via a greedy subroutine -- an inherently offline procedure. Our main technical contribution is in designing an online algorithm using only the existence of good junction-trees to reduce an MC-BB instance to multiple SS-BB sub-instances. Along the way, we also give the first non-trivial online node-weighted/directed single-sink buy-at-bulk algorithms. In addition to the new results, our generic reduction also yields new proofs of recent results for the online node-weighted Steiner forest and online group Steiner forest problems.
ROPDetect : Detection of Code Reuse Attacks

Software exploitation, as used by malware and other kinds of attacks, require the attacker to take control of code execution. Historically, this involves injecting code into memory and using a software vulnerability to execute it. This works because both ARM and x86 uses a modified Harvard architecture which allows code and data memory to be shared. ARMv6 introduced the “execute never”[1] feature and Intel introduced the “execute disable” feature with their “Prescott” processors[3]. Both of these implementations ensure that memory pages are never mapped as both writable and executable (unless specified explicitly by the OS). This mitigates code injection attacks that relies on redirecting execution to attacker-controlled code stored in data memory. In response to this, attackers rely on “code reuse” or “return orientated programming” (ROP). The idea behind ROP is that the attacker cannot map her own code into the target’s executable memory, but she can “reuse” the code already in executable memory as well as control the target’s program stack (through some vulnerability). The program stack is typically used to store (along with other data), return pointers when a function call is made. The return pointer allows the program to resume execution at the caller after a function call returns. When the attacker overwrites the return pointer, she can redirect control flow to anywhere in executable memory. If the attacker finds useful “gadgets”, or instructions that perform a single useful operation (such as a memory load or store) and then jumps to the next return pointer in the stack, she can inject a large number of return pointers into the stack and control execution that way. Even though ROP attacks are very powerful, most attackers only use it as the first stage of a multi-stage attack where ROP is used to bypass operating system restrictions in order to escalate control of the compromised process to control of the entire system. If we can differentiate ROP execution with normal code execution, then we can terminate a process before the control is escalated and stop the attack. Heuristically, we can see that ROP execution is different because it uses a large number of “return” instructions while normal (optimized) code does not perform as many returns in the same sort period of time. Additionally, in normal code, “return” instructions are often matched with “call” instructions. Finally, processors optimized to run normal code will likely perform better with normal execution than ROP execution (which for example, makes branch prediction hard). However, even in normal execution, there are situations such as tail recursion in a tight function that may make classification using just heuristics difficult. We choose to implement unsupervised machine learning to solve the classification problem.
Age-Associated B Cells Express a Diverse Repertoire of VH and Vκ Genes with Somatic Hypermutation

The origin and nature of age-associated B cells (ABCs) in mice are poorly understood. In this article, we show that their emergence required MHC class II and CD40/CD40L interactions. Young donor B cells were adoptively transferred into congenic recipients and allowed to remain for 1 mo in the absence of external Ag. B cells expressing the T-bet transcription factor, a marker for ABCs, were generated after multiple cell divisions from C57BL/6 donors but not from MHC class II– or CD40-deficient donors. Furthermore, old CD154 (CD40L)-deficient mice did not accrue ABCs, confirming that they arise primarily through T-dependent interactions. To determine what Igs ABCs express, we sequenced VH and Vκ rearranged genes from unimmunized 22-mo-old C57BL/6 mice and showed that they had a heterogeneous repertoire, which was comparable to that seen in old follicular and marginal zone B cell subsets. However, in contrast to the follicular and marginal zone cells, ABCs displayed significant somatic hypermutation. The mutation frequency was lower than found in germinal center cells after deliberate immunization, suggesting that ABCs have undergone mild stimulation from endogenous Ags over time. These observations show that quiescent ABCs are Ag-experienced cells that accumulate during T cell–dependent responses to diverse Ags during the life of an individual.
Disorders of Androgen Synthesis – from Cholesterol to Dehydroepiandrosterone

Androgens and estrogens are primarily made from dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which is made from cholesterol via four steps. First, cholesterol enters the mitochondria with the assistance of the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR). Mutations in the StAR gene cause congenital lipoid adrenal hyperplasia (lipoid CAH), a potentially lethal disease in which virtually no steroids are made. Lipoid CAH is common among Palestinian Arabs and people from eastern Arabia, and among Korean and Japanese people. Second, within the mitochondria, cholesterol is converted to pregnenolone by the cholesterol side chain cleavage enzyme, P450scc; disorder of this enzyme is very rare, probably due to embryonic lethality. Third, pregnenolone undergoes 17α-hydroxylation by microsomal P450c17. 17α-Hydroxylase deficiency, manifesting as female sexual infantilism and hypertension, is rare except in Brazil. Finally, 17-OH pregnenolone is converted to DHEA by the 17,20 lyase activity of P450c17. The ratio of the 17,20 lyase to 17α-hydroxylase activity of P450c17 determines the ratio of C21 to C19 steroids produced. This ratio is regulated posttranslationally by at least three factors: the abundance of the electron-donating protein P450 oxidoreductase (POR), the presence of cytochrome b5 and the serine phosphorylation of P450c17. Mutations of POR are a new, recently described disorder manifesting as the Antley-Bixler skeletal dysplasia syndrome, and a form of polycystic ovary syndrome.
Loss of the Assumptive World : A Theory of Traumatic Loss

Note from the Editor Series Editor's Foreword Foreword, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman Acknowledgment Introduction, Jeffrey Kauffman Constructing Meaning in a World Broken by the Traumatic Loss of the Assumptive World: Meaning, Self, and Transcendence 1. Crisis of Meaning in Trauma and Loss, Irene Smith Landsman 2. The Meaning of Your Absence: Traumatic Loss and Narrative Reconstruction Robert A. Neimeyer, Luis Botella, Olga Herrero, Meritxell Pacheco, Sara Figueras and Luis Alberto Werner-Wildner 3. How Could God? Loss and the Spiritual Assumptive World, Kenneth Doka 4. Questionable Assumptions About Assumptive Worlds, Tom Attig Relationships With Self and Others 5. The Harm of Trauma: Pathological Fear, Shattered Assumptions, or Betrayal? Anne P. DePrince and Jennifer J. Freyd 6. The Assumptive World in the Context of Transference Relationships: A Contribution to Grief Theory, Daniel Liechty 7. A Self-Psychological Study of Experiences of Near Loss of Life One's Own Life or the Dying or Death of a Close Relative: The Shattered-Fantasy Model of Traumatic Loss, Richard B. Ulman and Maria T. Miliora Psychological Processes 8. Treatment of Violated Assumptive Worlds with EMDR, Roger M. Solomon 9. Coping with Challenges to Assumpitive Worlds, Charles A. Corr10. Beyond the Beveled Mirror: Mourning and Recovery from Childhood Maltreatment, Sandra L. Bloom 11. The "Curse" of Too Good a Childhood, Therese A. Rando 12. The Assumptive World of Children, Linda Goldman Traumatic Loss and What Cannot Be Said 13. Safety and the Assumptive World: A Theory of Traumatic Loss, Jeffrey Kauffman 14. What Cannot Be Remembered or Forgotten, Henry Krystal 15. Parting Words: Trauma, Silence and Survival, Cathy Caruth Postscript by Colin Murray Parkes Index
Highly Toxic Ribbon Worm Cephalothrix simula Containing Tetrodotoxin in Hiroshima Bay, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan

In 1998, during a toxicological surveillance of various marine fouling organisms in Hiroshima Bay, Japan, specimens of the ribbon worm, Cephalothrix simula (Nemertea: Palaeonemertea) were found. These ribbon worms contained toxins with extremely strong paralytic activity. The maximum toxicity in terms of tetrodotoxin (TTX) was 25,590 mouse units (MU) per gram for the whole worm throughout the monitoring period. The main toxic component was isolated and recrystallized from an acidified methanolic solution. The crystalline with a specific toxicity of 3520 MU/mg was obtained and identified as TTX by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-fluorescent detection (FLD) (HPLC-FLD), electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), infrared (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The highest toxicity of C. simula exceeded the human lethal dose per a single worm. A toxicological surveillance of C. simula from 1998 to 2005 indicated approximately 80% of the individuals were ranked as “strongly toxic” (≥1000 MU/g). Forty-eight percent of the specimens possessed toxicity scores of more than 2000 MU/g. Seasonal variations were observed in the lethal potency of C. simula. Specimens collected on January 13, 2000 to December 26, 2000 showed mean toxicities of 665–5300 MU/g (n = 10). These data prompted a toxicological surveillance of ribbon worms from other localities with different habitats in Japan, including Akkeshi Bay (Hokkaido) under stones on rocky intertidal beaches, as well as Otsuchi (Iwate) among calcareous tubes of serpulid polychaetes on rocky shores. Within twelve species of ribbon worms examined, only C. simula possessed extremely high toxicity. Therefore, C. simula appears to show generally high toxicity irrespective of their locality and habitat.