bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
F‐Box and WD repeat domain containing 7 induces infectious osteomyelitis by regulating MYB stability and ubiquitination
Authors: Wan Yongbo , Jiang Gehan , Shan Haojie , Lin Yiwei , Xia Wenyang , Yin Fuli , Jiang Chaolai , Shi Zhongmin
Published: November 2024

Osteomyelitis is a bone inflammation initiated by invading pathogens. Macrophages and inflammation play essential roles in osteomyelitis. F‐Box and WD repeat domain containing 7 (Fbxw7) is a tumour suppressor and E3 ubiquitin ligase. In the present study, the potential roles of Fbxw7 in osteomyelitis were explored. The mRNA level of Fbxw7 was measured in bone marrow cells from patients with osteomyelitis and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)‐infected macrophages. The conditional knockout mice with Fbxw7 deficiency in myeloid cells were generated. The expression of interleukin (IL)‐6, IL‐23a and nitric oxide synthase 2 (Nos2) was measured in S. aureus‐infected Fbxw7‐deficient bone marrow‐derived macrophages (BMDMs). The body weight loss, bacterial burden, bone loss and formation and serum level of IL‐6, IL‐23 and TNF‐α were measured in S. aureus‐infected Fbxw7 conditional KO mice. The interacting partners of Fbxw7 were predicted using STRING and the interaction were tested. Elevated expression of Fbxw7 was observed in bone marrow cells from patients with osteomyelitis and in S. aureus‐infected macrophages. The expression of IL‐6, IL‐23a and Nos2 was remarkably suppressed in S. aureus‐infected Fbxw7‐deficient BMDMs. Fbxw7 conditional knockout mice had less body weight loss, higher bacterial burden, less bone loss and formation and decreased serum level of cytokines. Fbxw7 interacted with MYB. S. aureus‐infected Fbxw7‐deficient BMDMs had higher level of MYB and less ubiquitination of MYB. Fbxw7 promotes osteomyelitis symptoms by regulating ubiquitination and stability of MYB.
Adropin regulates macrophage phenotype via PPARγ signalling: A preliminary study of adropin and Crohn's disease
Authors: Zeng Lingli , Chen Jintong , Xie Hongchai , Liu Wenming , Wang Chengdang
Published: November 2024

Macrophage polarization is increasingly recognized as a vital pathogenetic factor in Crohn's disease (CD). Adropin is a secreted protein implicated in energy homeostasis, chiefly linked to glucose and lipid metabolism. However, the significance of adropin in CD is not clear. The objective of this study was to detect the expression of adropin in CD patients and investigate the effect of adropin on macrophage polarization induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and its potential mechanism. Our study showed that serum adropin levels were markedly lower in patients with CD in active (CDA) than patients with CD in remission (CDR) and control groups (p < 0.01), however, there was no significant difference between in remission CD and healthy controls (p > 0.05). The colon mucous adropin levels in CDA were distinctly higher than CDR and controls (p < 0.01), while a significant difference between in remission CD and in healthy controls was not observed (p > 0.05). Exploration of the specific mechanism of action indicated that adropin promoted LPS‐induced RAW264.7 macrophage polarization to M2 phenotype by modulating the expression and nuclear translocation of peroxisome proliferator receptor gamma (PPARγ), which may help weaken the intestinal inflammatory response. PPARγ inhibitor GW9662 reversed adropin‐induced M2 macrophage polarization. Knockdown of GPR19, an adropin receptor, abrogated the M2 macrophage polarization caused by PPARγ. These findings suggest that adropin in colonic mucosa is a protective response in patients with active Crohn's disease.
Lithospheric Deformation of Far‐Field Terranes in Response to the India–Asia Collision
Authors: Luo Yun , Yang Jianfeng , Zhao Liang , Zhao Pan
Published: November 2024

The influence of the India–Asia collision is far‐reaching on the Cenozoic continental deformation in East Asia. Several cratonic lithospheres surrounding Tibet exhibit distinct lithospheric morphologies. However, the mechanisms driving these diverse responses of strong terranes remain incompletely understood. Here, we conduct thermo‐mechanical models to explore the effects of the width of the mobile belts, lithospheric properties and convergence rate on the deformation of the strong terranes. The model results reveal three different deformation modes. Far‐field strong terranes are vulnerable to delamination or underthrusting when the mobile belt is narrow and detached, whereas they remain largely undeformed when it is wide and strong. These deformation patterns align with the observed lithospheric structures around the Tibetan Plateau and are primarily influenced by the convergence rate and proximity to the collision front. Our findings provide new insights into the lithospheric deformation mechanisms of cratonic terranes in response to continental collision.
Diurnal control of H3K27me1 deposition shapes expression of a subset of cell cycle and DNA damage response genes
Authors: Fung‐Uceda Jorge , Gómez María Sol , Rodríguez‐Casillas Laura , González‐Gil Anna , Gutierrez Crisanto
Published: November 2024

Rhythmic oscillation of biological processes helps organisms adapt their physiological responses to the most appropriate time of the day. Chromatin remodeling has been described as one of the molecular mechanisms controlling these oscillations. The importance of these changes in transcriptional activation as well as in the maintenance of heterochromatic regions has been widely demonstrated. However, little is still known on how diurnal changes can impact the global status of chromatin modifications and, hence, control gene expression. In plants, the repressive mark H3K27me1, deposited by ARABIDOPSIS TRITHORAX‐RELATED PROTEIN 5 and 6 (ATXR5 and 6) methyltransferases, is largely associated with transposable elements but also covers lowly expressed genes. Here we show that this histone modification is preferentially deposited during the night. In euchromatic regions, it is found along the bodies of DNA damage response genes (DDR), where it is needed for their proper expression. The absence of H3K27me1 translates into an enhanced expression of DDR genes that follows a rhythmic oscillation pattern. This evidences a link between chromatin modifications and their synchronization with the diurnal cycle in order to accurately modulate the activation of biological processes to the most appropriate time of the day.
Continuity of the j$j$‐function on the Markov tree
Authors: Bengoechea Paloma
Published: November 2024

One way of defining the values of the modular ‐function at real quadratic irrationalities is by its cycle integrals along geodesics in the upper half plane whose endpoints are the roots of an indefinite binary quadratic form. We show that the restriction of the modular ‐function to Markov irrationalities (an important subset of real quadratic irrationalities in diophantine approximation) is continuous with respect to the topology induced by the euclidean norm.
On the topology of determinantal links
Authors: Zach Matthias
Published: November 2024

We study sections  of the generic determinantal varieties by generic hyperplanes of various codimensions , the polar multiplicities of these sections, and the cohomology of their real and complex links. Such complex links were shown to provide the basic building blocks in a bouquet decomposition for the (determinantal) smoothings of smoothable isolated determinantal singularities. The detailed vanishing topology of such singularities was still not fully understood beyond isolated complete intersections and a few further special cases. Our results now allow to compute all the cohomology with integer coefficients below the middle degree and the middle Betti number for any determinantal smoothing.
Continuity of extensions of Lipschitz maps and of monotone maps
Authors: Ciosmak Krzysztof J.
Published: November 2024

Let be a subset of a Hilbert space. We prove that if is such that
for all and all non‐negative that add up to one, then for any 1‐Lipschitz , with , there exists a 1‐Lipschitz extension of such that the uniform distance on between and is the same as the uniform distance on between and .

Moreover, if either or is convex, we prove the converse: We show that a map that allows for a 1‐Lipschitz, uniform distance preserving extension of any 1‐Lipschitz map on a subset of also satisfies the above set of inequalities. We also prove a similar continuity result concerning extensions of monotone maps. Our results hold true also for maps taking values in infinite‐dimensional spaces.
Computability in infinite Galois theory and algorithmically random algebraic fields
Authors: Calvert Wesley , Harizanov Valentina , Shlapentokh Alexandra
Published: November 2024

We introduce a notion of algorithmic randomness for algebraic fields. We prove the existence of a continuum of algebraic extensions of that are random according to our definition. We show that there are noncomputable algebraic fields which are not random. We also partially characterize the index set, relative to an oracle, of the set of random algebraic fields computable relative to that oracle.

In order to carry out this investigation of randomness for fields, we develop computability in the context of the infinite Galois theory (where the relevant Galois groups are uncountable), including definitions of computable and computably enumerable Galois groups and computability of Haar measure on the Galois groups.
On the equivalence of Lurie's ∞$\infty$‐operads and dendroidal ∞$\infty$‐operads
Authors: Hinich Vladimir , Moerdijk Ieke
Published: November 2024

In this paper, we prove the equivalence of two symmetric monoidal ‐categories of ‐operads, the one defined in Lurie [Higher algebra, available at the author's homepage, http://math.ias.edu/~lurie/, September 2017 version] and the one based on dendroidal spaces.
Design and Testing of a Compact, Reverse Brayton Cycle, Air (R729) Cooling Machine
Authors: Teichel Sönke , Karaefe Renan Emre , Çokşen Ahmet
Published: November 2024

Efforts to reduce the contribution of refrigeration to global warming have resulted in a phase-down of the use of fluorinated refrigerants. The alternative, natural refrigerants, such as propane (R290), have significantly lower global warming potential (GWP) and are less harmful to the environment. R290 is however flammable, which is problematic for applications like electronics cooling. Reverse Brayton Cycle (RBC) refrigeration can work with air as refrigerant (R729). Air is completely harmless; it can be used for direct cooling, allowing more effective cooling, faster cooldown, and a less complex cooling cycle. Despite its significant efficiency disadvantage at cooling temperatures above −50 °C, this can make R729 an attractive refrigerant for in applications where efficiency is not the most critical parameter. In this paper, the design considerations of compact, electrically driven RBC cooling machines (about 2 kWe) are discussed. Preliminary system design is presented for two different potential applications, high cooling temperatures (25 °C) and low cooling temperatures (−90 °C). The design process of the turbine stage of an RBC cooling machine including a method for matching compressor and turbine is presented. A demonstrator was built and tested.
Modeling Microwave-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Infiltration Process for Preventing Premature Pore Closure
Authors: Ge Wenjun , Ramanuj Vimal , Li Mengnan , Sankaran Ramanan , She Ying , Dardas Zissis
Published: November 2024

The chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) process involves infiltrating a porous preform with reacting gases that undergo chemical transformation at high temperatures to deposit the ceramic phase within the pores, ultimately leading to a dense composite. The conventional CVI process in composite manufacturing needs to follow an isothermal approach to minimize temperature differences between the external and internal surfaces of the preform, ensuring that reactive gases infiltrate internal pores before external surfaces seal. This study addresses the challenge of premature pore closure in CVI processes through microwave heating. A frequency-domain microwave solver is developed in OpenFOAM to investigate volumetric heating mechanisms within the preform. Through numerical studies, we demonstrate the capability of microwave heating of creating an inside-out temperature inversion. This inversion accelerates reactions proximal to the preform center, effectively mitigating the risk of premature external pore closure and ensuring uniform densification. The results reveal a significant enhancement in temperature inversion when high-permittivity reflectors are incorporated to generate resonant waves. This microwave heating strategy is then coupled with high-fidelity direct numerical simulation (DNS) of reacting flow, enabling the analysis of resulting densification processes. The DNS includes detailed chemistry and realistic diffusion coefficients. The numerical results can be used to estimate the impact of microwave-induced temperature inversion on densification in productions.
Design and Realization of an Isomorphic Master-Slave Robotic System for Precise Sub-Micrometer Manipulations in Ophthalmic Surgery
Authors: Wang Zhaodong , Yang Yang
Published: November 2024

Intra-ocular surgery requires precise submicrometer manipulations within the confined ocular space. Implementing a master-slave robotic system is a potential solution. The development of master manipulators impacts the overall performance of the robotic system. A master–slave isomorphic mapping method is used to design a master manipulator prototype. Kinematic and dynamic models of the master manipulator are established, and dynamic parameters and friction forces at each joint identified. Gravity compensation is applied to the master manipulator based on motor torque, and its efficacy is validated through experiments. The isomorphic master manipulator adapts to the required degrees-of-freedom (DOF) for intra-ocular surgery. The gravity compensates algorithm, based on torque, enables stable hovering of the master manipulator within the workspace and reduces the operating force by 71.4%. The proposed master manipulator can feasibly be applied in master–slave surgical robot systems.
Modeling and Experimental Studies on Vibration-Induced Force Reduction During Needle Insertion of Thin Tissues
Authors: Zhao Xiaolu , Wang Fujun , Tao Changping , Liu Haitao , Liang Cunman , Shi Beichao
Published: November 2024

Needle insertion of thin tissues is a crucial procedure in invasive biomedical operations. Reducing the interaction force during needle insertion could yield benefits such as avoiding tissue damage caused by overstretch and improving the insertion accuracy by decreasing the target point deformation. Vibration-assisted needle insertion possesses the advantages of low injury risk, unrestricted by incision and balanced insertion controllability and efficiency. However, the mechanism of vibration assistance for thin tissue insertion is unclear, and how to select appropriate insertion parameters to reduce the interaction force effectively requires further investigation. This paper focuses on the vibration-assisted needle insertion method of thin tissues to reduce the interaction force. A comprehensive force model is established based on the overall consideration of the coupled, time-varying and phased needle-tissue mechanical interaction behaviors and the geometrical characteristic of tissue. The influence of vibration is analyzed and modeled based on the vibration-enhanced stress concentration and the time-averaged effect of friction. A vibration-assisted needle insertion experimental setup is established, and thin tissue insertion tests are carried out to investigate the influences of insertion parameters on different kinds of interaction forces and validate the theoretical model. The results show that the fracture force and friction force increase when the insertion velocity is raised. The fracture force monotonically decreases with both the vibration frequency and amplitude, while the friction force reduces with a smaller velocity ratio. The study provides valuable insights for reducing the interaction force of thin tissue insertion.
Neuroanatomy of the vertebrobasilar perforators: implications for aneurysm treatment
Authors: Raz Eytan , Shapiro Maksim , Nossek Erez , Sahlein Daniel H , Potts Matthew B , Sharashidze Vera , Chung Charlotte , Rutledge Caleb , Khawaja Ayaz Mahmood , Riina Howard A , De Leacy Reade Andrew , Kvint Svetlana , Nelson Peter Kim
Published: November 2024

The anatomy of vertebrobasilar perforators has been widely studied in human cadavers, with most reports found in the neurosurgical literature. These arterial perforators are extremely hard to visualize consistently with traditional two-dimensional digital subtraction angiography, but are reliably visible with cross sectional cone beam CT techniques. A clear understanding of this specific neurovascular anatomy and pathology is essential for informed treatment decisions. This review analyzes the anatomy of vertebrobasilar perforators with a focus on practical implications for aneurysm treatment, particularly flow diversion.
Iatrogenic emboli during mechanical thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke: comparison between stent retriever technique and contact aspiration—a retrospective case-control study
Authors: Mouyal Samuel J , Granger Benjamin , Janot Kevin , Ifergan Héloïse , Hoche Clémence , Herbreteau Denis , Bibi Richard Edwige , Boulouis Grégoire , Bala Fouzi , Donnard Baptiste , Barrot Valère , Giubbolini Francesca , Bourcier Romain , Constant-dit-Beaufils Pacôme , Alexandre Pierre-Louis , Eugène Francois , Alias Quentin , Boucherit Julien , Beaufreton Edouard , Gauvrit Jean-Yves , Ferré Jean-Christophe , Guillen Maud , Ronziere Thomas , Lassalle Maria-Veronica , Malrain Cécile , Tracol Clément , Vannier Stéphane , Shotar Eimad , Premat Kévin , Lenck Stéphanie , Sourour Nader-Antoine , Alamowitch Sonia , Rosso Charlotte , Clarençon Frédéric
Published: November 2024

Background

Mechanical thrombectomy (MT) is an effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke from large vessel occlusion (LVO). While embolization to a new territory (ENT) after MT is well-documented, data on embolization in the same distal territory (EDT) are limited. Achieving modified Treatment In Cerebral Infarction (mTICI) 3 reperfusion presents significant clinical benefits over mTICI 2b/2c, necessitating strategies to reduce both ENT and EDT. Previous studies suggest higher rates of EDTs with contact aspiration compared with stentrievers. However, comprehensive comparison studies in clinical practice are scarce. This study compares the rates of overall clot emboli (OCE) between these MT strategies.

Methods

A retrospective, multicenter observational study was conducted at four university hospitals in France from January 2015 to November 2019. Adult patients (≥18 years) with acute ischemic stroke due to LVO, treated with either contact aspiration (ADAPT, A Direct Aspiration First Pass Technique) or stentrievers, specifically using the Embotrap device to maintain sample homogeneity, were included. Digital subtraction angiography was used for imaging, with two independent, blinded reviewers assessing OCE post-first MT pass. Propensity score full matching and independent sample testing were employed to evaluate OCE after the first MT pass.

Results

A significant difference in OCE rates was observed between contact aspiration and stentriever techniques, with the stentriever technique resulting in fewer embolic events compared with ADAPT, based on a propensity score analysis that accounts for key confounding factors.

Conclusion

A statistically significant reduction in embolic events was observed with the stentriever technique compared with contact aspiration. These results suggest that the stentriever method may offer a safer profile in terms of embolic risk for LVO interventions, and should be considered over contact aspiration when embolic risk is a primary concern, while also considering individual patient factors.
Search for Pauli Exclusion Principle violations with Gator at LNGS
Authors: Baudis L. , Biondi R. , Bismark A. , Clozza A. , Curceanu C. , Galloway M. , Napolitano F. , Piastra F. , Piscicchia K. , Porcelli A. , Ramírez García D.
Published: November 2024

The Pauli Exclusion Principle (PEP) appears from fundamental symmetries in quantum field theories, but its physical origin is still to be understood. High-precision experimental searches for small PEP violations permit testing key assumptions of the Standard Model with high sensitivity. We report on a dedicated measurement with Gator, a low-background, high-purity germanium detector operated at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, aimed at testing PEP-violating atomic transitions in lead. The experimental technique, relying on forming a new symmetry state by introducing electrons into the pre-existing electron system through a direct current, satisfies the conditions of the Messiah-Greenberg superselection rule. No PEP violation has been observed, and an upper limit on the PEP violation probability of $$\beta ^2/2 < 4.8 \cdot 10^{-29}$$

β
2

/
2
<
4.8
·

10

-
29

(90% CL) is set. This improves the previous constraint from a comparable measurement by more than one order of magnitude.
An Efficient ReRAM-based Accelerator for Asynchronous Iterative Graph Processing
Authors: Zhao Jin , Zhang Yu , He Donghao , Li Qikun , Yin Weihang , Yu Hui , Qi Hao , Liao Xiaofei , Jin Hai , Liu Haikun , Yu Linchen , Zhan Zhang
Published: November 2024

Graph processing has become a central concern for many real-world applications and is well-known for its low compute-to-communication ratios and poor data locality. By integrating computing logic into memory, resistive random access memory (ReRAM) tackles the demand for high memory bandwidth in graph processing. Despite the years’ research efforts, existing ReRAM-based graph processing approaches still face the challenges ofredundant computation overhead. It is because the vertices of many subgraphs are ineffectively and repeatedly processed over the ReRAM crossbars for lots of iterations so as to update their states according to the vertices of other subgraphs regardless of the dependencies among the subgraphs. In this paper, we proposeASGraph, a dependency-aware ReRAM-based graph processing accelerator that overcomes the aforementioned performance bottlenecks. Specifically, ASGraph dynamically constructs the subgraph based on the dependencies between vertices’ states and then detects constructed subgraph that owns high value (it is likely that it has accumulated many state propagations from its neighbors and is able to affect more other neighbors) to be preferentially processed. In this way, it makes the vertex states propagate along the dependencies between vertices as much as possible to reduce the redundant computation. Besides, ASGraph employs a hybrid processing scheme to accelerate the state propagations of the tightly connected subgraph, thereby minimizing the redundant computations. Experimental results show that ASGraph achieves 25.5 × and 4.8 × speedup and 70.8 × and 2.2 × energy saving on average compared with the state-of-the-art ReRAM-based graph processing accelerators, i.e., GraphR and GaaS-X, respectively.
The Journey or the Destination: The Impact of Transparency and Goal Attainment on Trust in Human-Robot Teams
Authors: Kox Esther S. , van den Boogaard Juul , Turjaka Vesa , Kerstholt José H.
Published: November 2024

As robots gain autonomy, human-robot task delegation can become more goal-oriented; specifying what to do rather than how. This can lead to unexpected robot behaviour. We investigated the effect of transparency and outcome on the perceived trustworthiness of a robot that deviates from the expected manner to reach a delegated goal. Participants (
N

\(=\)

82) engaged in a virtual military mission as a Human-Robot Team using a 2

\(\times\)

2 between-subjects design (low vs. high transparency, positive vs. negative outcome). Participants received training on the expected manner to reach the mission’s goal. In the actual mission, the robot deviated from the planned path. We manipulated whether the robot explained its deviation and whether the outcome was better or worse than the original plan. Results showed that transparency contributed to higher and more stable levels of trust, without increasing subjective workload. While the robot’s deviation led to a violation of trust in the low transparency condition, trust remained stable in the high transparency condition, indicating a buffering effect of transparency on trust in case of unexpected behaviour. The impact of outcome on trust was consistent across transparency conditions. Our findings underscore the role of transparency as a tool for fostering human-robot trust.
Making It Tractable to Detect and Correct Errors in Graphs
Authors: Fan Wenfei , Pang Kehan , Lu Ping , Tian Chao
Published: November 2024

This article develops Hercules, a system for entity resolution (ER), conflict resolution (CR), timeliness deduction (TD), and missing value/link imputation (MI) in graphs. It proposes GCR
+
s, a class of graph cleaning rules (GCR) that support not only predicates for ER and CR but also temporal orders to deduce timeliness and data extraction to impute missing data. As opposed to previous graph rules, GCR
+
s are defined with a dual graph pattern to accommodate irregular structures of schemaless graphs and adopt patterns of a star form to reduce the complexity. We show that while the implication and satisfiability problems are intractable for GCR
+
s, it is in polynomial time to detect and correct errors with GCR
+
s. Underlying Hercules, we train a ranking model to predict the temporal orders on attributes and embed it as a predicate of GCR
+
s. We provide an algorithm for discovering GCR
+
s by combining the generations of patterns and predicates. We also develop a method for conducting ER, CR, TD, and MI in the same process to improve the overall quality of graphs by leveraging their interactions and chasing with GCR
+
s; we show that the method has the Church–Rosser property under certain conditions. Using real-life and synthetic graphs, we empirically verify that Hercules is 53% more accurate than the state-of-the-art graph cleaning systems and performs comparably in efficiency and scalability.
Interactive Garment Recommendation with User in the Loop
Authors: Becattini Federico , Chen Xiaolin , Puccia Andrea , Wen Haokun , Song Xuemeng , Nie Liqiang , Del Bimbo Alberto
Published: November 2024

Recommending fashion items often leverages rich user profiles and makes targeted suggestions based on past history and previous purchases. In this paper, we work under the assumption that no prior knowledge is given about a user. We propose to build a user profile on the fly by integrating user reactions as we recommend complementary items to compose an outfit. We present a reinforcement learning agent capable of suggesting appropriate garments and ingesting user feedback so to improve its recommendations and maximize user satisfaction. To train such a model, we resort to a proxy model to be able to simulate having user feedback in the training loop. We experiment on the IQON3000 fashion dataset and we find that a reinforcement learning-based agent becomes capable of improving its recommendations by taking into account personal preferences. Furthermore, such task demonstrated to be hard for non-reinforcement models, that cannot exploit exploration during training.
Toward Oriented Fisheye Object Detection: Dataset and Baseline
Authors: Yang Jialin , Lin Chunyu , Nie Lang , Kong Zisen , Wang Jiapeng , Zhao Yao
Published: November 2024

Fisheye object detection is challenging due to the fisheye distortion, which inclines objects to different extents and pushes extensive irrelevant pixels into the predicted horizontal bounding box (HBB). To address the problems above, we establish a new fisheye object detection dataset (named FishOBB) with compact oriented bounding box (OBB) annotations, as well as an OBB-customized mosaic augmentation technology. To our knowledge, there are very few fisheye datasets labeled by OBB, especially the open source forword view dataset like ours. Besides, we provide a fisheye object detection baseline (named FDA-YOLO) with two fisheye adaption units. Concretely, we first design a distortion orientation aggregation (DOA) unit guided by polar sampling to capture distortion-aware fisheye features. On the other hand, to transfer HBB-based detection models to OBB-based counterparts, we propose an oriented anchor attention unit. It automatically weights the unbalanced positive/negative samples and facilitates convergence for multi-anchor models. Finally, we demonstrate that the two adaption units can be easily integrated into various anchor-based YOLO methods, e.g., ScaledYOLOv4 and YOLOv7, contributing to superior performance to existing state-of-the-art (SoTA) solutions in the proposed dataset. Meanwhile, our method has also achieved SoTA performance on other popular datasets like WEPDTOF. The dataset and code are released at
https://github.com/lukanightfever/FishOBB
.
Adaptive Modelling Languages: Abstract Syntax and Model Migration
Authors: de Lara Juan , Guerra Esther
Published: November 2024

Modelling languages are heavily used in many disciplines, including software engineering. However, current languages are
rigid
, since they do not get adapted to fit the users’ expertise, the modelling task or the usage platform. This may turn some languages unsuitable for a range of users (from unexperienced to experts), goals (from informal discussion to precise specification) and platforms (from desktops to mobile phones). We claim that making languages
adaptive
to the modelling scenario would alleviate these issues and help simplifying recurring tasks such as language evolution or inter-operability between the languages of a family.

In this article, we propose the new notion of
adaptive modelling language
. This concept combines meta-modelling and product lines to support variants of a given language, and encompasses contextual conditions triggering language reconfigurations, and mechanisms for model migration across the language variants. The article presents a theory and its realisation atop the Eclipse Modelling Framework. Our tool includes an Eclipse workbench to specify adaptive languages and produce Eclipse modelling editors with adaptation support. We report on an evaluation demonstrating the advantages of using our framework to express migrations across the variants of adaptive languages, which moreover have generally fast execution times.
Tra

ined

Wi

thout My

C

onsent: Detecting Code Inclusion In Language Models Trained on Code
Authors: Majdinasab Vahid , Nikanjam Amin , Khomh Foutse
Published: November 2024

Code auditing ensures that the developed code adheres to standards, regulations, and copyright protection by verifying that it does not contain code from protected sources. The recent advent of Large Language Models (LLMs) as coding assistants in the software development process poses new challenges for code auditing. The dataset for training these models is mainly collected from publicly available sources. This raises the issue of intellectual property infringement as developers’ codes are already included in the dataset. Therefore, auditing code developed using LLMs is challenging, as it is difficult to reliably assert if an LLM used during development has been trained on specific copyrighted codes, given that we do not have access to the training datasets of these models. Given the non-disclosure of the training datasets, traditional approaches such as code clone detection are insufficient for asserting copyright infringement. To address this challenge, we propose a new approach, TraWiC; a model-agnostic and interpretable method based on membership inference for detecting code inclusion in an LLM’s training dataset. We extract syntactic and semantic identifiers unique to each program to train a classifier for detecting code inclusion. In our experiments, we observe that TraWiC is capable of detecting 83.87% of codes that were used to train an LLM. In comparison, the prevalent clone detection tool NiCad is only capable of detecting 47.64%. In addition to its remarkable performance, TraWiC has low resource overhead in contrast to pair-wise clone detection that is conducted during the auditing process of tools like CodeWhisperer reference tracker, across thousands of code snippets.
Twenty years later: Evaluating the Adoption of Control Flow Integrity
Authors: Houy Sabine , Bartel Alexandre
Published: November 2024

Memory corruption vulnerabilities still allow compromising computers through software written in a memory-unsafe language such as C/C++. This highlights that mitigation techniques to prevent such exploitations are not all widely deployed. In this paper, we introduce
SeeCFI
, a tool to detect the presence of a memory corruption mitigation technique called control flow integrity (CFI). We leverage
SeeCFI
to investigate to what extent the mitigation has been deployed in complex software systems such as Android and specific Linux distributions (Ubuntu and Debian). Our results indicate that the overall adoption of CFI (forward- and backward-edge) is increasing across Android versions (

\(\sim\)

30% in Android 13) but remains the same low (

\(\lt\)

1%) throughout different Linux versions. Our tool,
SeeCFI
, offers the possibility to identify which binaries in a system were compiled using the CFI option. This can be deployed by external security researchers to efficiently decide which binaries to prioritize when fixing vulnerabilities and how to fix them. Therefore,
SeeCFI
can help to make software systems more secure.
Bias Behind the Wheel: Fairness Testing of Autonomous Driving Systems
Authors: Li Xinyue , Chen Zhenpeng , Zhang Jie M. , Sarro Federica , Zhang Ying , Liu Xuanzhe
Published: November 2024

This paper conducts fairness testing of automated pedestrian detection, a crucial but under-explored issue in autonomous driving systems. We evaluate eight state-of-the-art deep learning-based pedestrian detectors across demographic groups on large-scale real-world datasets. To enable thorough fairness testing, we provide extensive annotations for the datasets, resulting in 8,311 images with 16,070 gender labels, 20,115 age labels, and 3,513 skin tone labels. Our findings reveal significant fairness issues, particularly related to age. The proportion of undetected children is 20.14% higher compared to adults. Furthermore, we explore how various driving scenarios affect the fairness of pedestrian detectors. We find that pedestrian detectors demonstrate significant gender biases during night time, potentially exacerbating the prevalent societal issue of female safety concerns during nighttime out. Moreover, we observe that pedestrian detectors can demonstrate both enhanced fairness and superior performance under specific driving conditions, which challenges the fairness-performance trade-off theory widely acknowledged in the fairness literature. We publicly release the code, data, and results to support future research on fairness in autonomous driving.
Federated Learning-Based Anomaly Detection with Isolation Forest in the IoT-Edge Continuum
Authors: Xiang Haolong , Zhang Xuyun , Xu Xiaolong , Beheshti Amin , Qi Lianyong , Hong Yujie , Dou Wanchun
Published: November 2024

Traditional methods for ensuring security and privacy face challenges in safeguarding multimedia data within the IoT-edge continuum, as their significant computational demands render them unsuitable for IoT devices with limited resources. Next, we find that the federated learning techniques can naturally adapt to edge frameworks and provide effective data security and privacy protection. In this paper, we propose FLiForest, an innovative anomaly detection approach that integrates federated learning with the isolation forest algorithm, tailored for the IoT-edge continuum. Specifically, our method designs a three-stage process, including data collection and sampling, model training, and data testing, to train an isolation forest among clients and edge servers jointly. In the training of each layer, all clients upload parameters to the central server for aggregation. FLiForest facilitates decentralized model training across IoT devices, enhancing data privacy and reducing computational burden, without necessitating the exchange of multimedia data. Through extensive experiments on a variety of multimedia datasets, the efficacy of our method is benchmarked against the state-of-the-art anomaly detection methods, showcasing its superior detection accuracy and robustness in ensuring data privacy and security.
Dynamic Weighted Gating for Enhanced Cross-Modal Interaction in Multimodal Sentiment Analysis
Authors: Wang Nan , Wang Qi
Published: November 2024

Advancements in Multimodal Sentiment Analysis (MSA) have predominantly focused on leveraging the interdependence of text, acoustic, and visual modalities to enhance sentiment prediction. However, efficiently integrating these modalities remains a challenge. In response, we investigate the design of a practical approach to control the information flow more accurately and propose DWGCI. This multimodal model employs systematic cross-modal interactions and gating mechanisms to analyze sentiment. It ensures comprehensive feature extraction across modalities by utilizing BERT for text features, COVAREP for acoustic features, and CNNs for visual features. To improve the common feature expression of each modality and increase the dynamic interaction between modalities, we introduced a Text-Guided Multimodal Fusion Module (TGMFM). Another integral part of our model is a unique Dynamic Gating Module (DGM) strategically positioned to follow cross-modal interactions. This mechanism represents a significant innovation that can adapt to modality-specific sentiment cues with unprecedented precision dynamically. The model can make nuanced distinctions between modalities, which significantly enhances the accuracy of sentiment prediction. Our DWGCI has been subjected to rigorous testing on two widely used datasets. It demonstrated its superior performance, established a benchmark in MSA for gate fusion innovation, and highlighted its transformative potential.
Reputational Discrimination and Fairness in China’s Social Credit System
Authors: Loefflad Carmen , Chen Mo , Grossklags Jens
Published: November 2024

As the first nationwide reputation system, the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) employs a plethora of information technologies to rate citizens according to a state-defined notion of trustworthiness. Complementing extant research about the SCS that highlights important concerns regarding privacy and surveillance, our work explores the economic facets of the system on the basis of microeconomic and informational theories. We identify reputational discrimination as the basic working principle of the SCS, and propose that in addition to carrots and sticks, which are often highlighted as the main tools of the SCS to incentivize individuals to trustworthy behavior, status is another important variable the planner disposes of. Using a contest model approach, we find that when status is used as a complementary instrument to rewards and punishments, a planner who cares about efficiency, morality, and strictness treats most unfair those that are already bad off. Our work adds another dimension to the policy analysis of the SCS, and advances the understanding of the informational design of the SCS by investigating the fairness-related concerns that the system raises for individuals. Our findings underscore the importance of incorporating fairness principles into the SCS, to not further widen existing economic and societal gaps.
Inhibition of Hedgehog Signaling Ameliorates Severity of Chronic Pancreatitis in Experimental Mouse Models
Authors: Iyer Srikanth , Tarique Mohammad , Sahay Preeti , Giri Sagnik , Bava Ejas P , Guan JiaShiung , Jain Tejeshwar , Vaish Utpreksha , Jin Xiuwen , Moon Sabrina , Crossman David K. , Dudeja Vikas
Published: November 2024

Background and Aims: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a fibro-inflammatory disease of the pancreas with no specific cure. Research highlighting the pathogenesis and especially the therapeutic aspect remains limited. Aberrant activation of developmental pathways in adults have been implicated in several diseases. Hedgehog pathway is a notable embryonic signaling pathway, known to promote fibrosis of various organs when over-activated. The aim of this study is to explore the role of hedgehog pathway in the progression of CP and evaluate its inhibition as a novel therapeutic strategy against CP. Methods: CP was induced in mice by repeated injections of L-arginine or Caerulein in two separate models. Mice were administered with the FDA approved pharmacological hedgehog pathway inhibitor, Vismodegib during or after establishing the disease condition to inhibit hedgehog signaling. Various parameters of CP were analyzed to determine the effect of hedgehog pathway inhibition on the severity and progression of the disease. Results: Our study shows that hedgehog signaling was over-activated during CP and its inhibition was effective in improving the histopathological parameters associated with CP. Vismodegib administration not only halted the progression of CP but was also able to resolve already established fibrosis. Additionally, inhibition of hedgehog signaling resulted in reversal of pancreatic stellate cell activation ex vivo. Conclusions: Findings from our study justify conducting clinical trials using Vismodegib against CP and thus, could lead to development of novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of CP.
Enhancing Soil Nutritional Status in Smart Farming: The Role of IoT‐Based Management for Meeting Plant Requirements
Authors: Fauziah Nicky Oktav , Fitriatin Betty Natalie , Fakhrurroja Hanif , Simarmata Tualar
Published: November 2024

Soil nutrition assessment is a critical factor in improving both the quantity and quality of agricultural yields. The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technology represents a groundbreaking advancement, allowing for real‐time measurements in smart farming. This article focuses on investigating and evaluating the current challenges in nutrient management within smart farming and explores the future potential of utilizing IoT for nutrient management. To gather data, bibliometric analysis and utilization of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart were conducted, searching on the Publish or Perish and Science direct search engines using the keywords “soil nutrient monitoring smart farming internet of things” without quotation marks. A total of 395 articles were initially identified, 20 of which were included in the analysis after verification with Covidence assessment tools. Our review of existing studies revealed that many nutritional management approaches are still in prototype and experimental design, without the use of experimental design agriculture standards, without validation through plant testing, and mainly focus on monitoring systems. This highlights the need for additional research into large‐scale studies, considering data security and the application of this technology in agricultural experimental design across a wide range of agricultural practices. Furthermore, future research on NPK IoT‐based sensors is expected to provide numerous benefits and accessibility to all farmers, ensuring agricultural profitability.
Urinary Nephrin: A Potential Biomarker of Early Glomerular Injury in a Cohort of Pregnant Women Attending Routine Antenatal Care Services
Authors: Mesfine Belete Biadgo , Vojisavljevic Danica , Kapoor Ranjna , Watson David , Kandasamy Yogavijayan , Rudd Donna
Published: November 2024

Introduction: Glomerular injury may occur during pregnancy as a consequence of systemic disease and pregnancy‐related medical complications. While urinary nephrin has been shown to provide early identification of preeclampsia (PE) in high‐risk pregnancies, the role of urinary nephrin in determining glomerular injury in pregnant women is yet to be explored. This study aimed to investigate the use of urinary nephrin as a predictor for early glomerular injury in a study conducted at the Townville University Hospital.

Methods and Materials: A cross‐sectional study was conducted. All pregnant women with a full dataset (n = 273) were classified into three categories according to their urinary albumin‐to‐creatinine ratio (ACR): normoalbuminuria, microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria. Continuous variables were compared between groups, and the cut‐off value for the urinary nephrin‐to‐creatinine ratio (NCR) was determined to predict albuminuria as an indirect indicator of early glomerular injury. The percentages of pregnant women who had elevated nephrinuria were calculated for each of the ACR categories.

Results: Urinary NCR positively correlated with urinary ACR (r = 0.29, p < 0.0001). Urinary NCR increased comparably in women with normoalbuminuria, microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria. Using a cut‐off value of 14 ng/mg, nephrinuria was detected in 65% of women with normoalbuminuria, 95% with microalbuminuria and 100% with macroalbuminuria. Of the normoalbuminuric women who had an elevated urinary NCR (> 14 ng/mg), 78% were diagnosed with a hypertensive disorder and 63% were diagnosed with diabetes in pregnancy. In women with PE, urinary NCR and ACR were significantly higher when compared to women who did not develop PE. The AUC of the ROC for urinary NCR was 0.74 (95% CI: 0.650–0.824), with a sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 36% to predict glomerular injury and a sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 42% to predict glomerular injury of PE.

Conclusion: The study found that urinary NCR were elevated not only in women with micro‐ and macroalbuminuria but also in pregnant women with normoalbuminuria. Increased urinary NCR without increased urinary albumin may be associated with early glomerular injury. Urinary NCR may be a more sensitive marker than microalbuminuria to detect early glomerular injury in women with systemic disease and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Rivaroxaban as a Protector of Oxidative Stress-Induced Vascular Endothelial Glycocalyx Damage via the IQGAP1/PAR1-2/PI3K/Akt Pathway
Authors: Kitasato Lisa , Yamaoka-Tojo Minako , Iwaya Toshiyuki , Murayama Yusuke , Ikeda Yuki , Hashikata Takehiro , Oikawa Jun , Suzuki Machika , Misawa Nonoka , Kawashima Rei , Ogawa Fumihiro , Ako Junya
Published: November 2024

Introduction: The vascular endothelial glycocalyx, crucial for blood vessel integrity and homeostasis, is vulnerable to oxidative stress, leading to endothelial dysfunction, which strongly correlates with cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study investigates the protective effects of rivaroxaban, a factor X inhibitor, on the glycocalyx under oxidative stress condition. Methods: We examined the impact of rivaroxaban on human umbilical vein endothelial cells exposed to acute and chronic H2O2-induced oxidative stress. Results: Rivaroxaban dose-dependently suppressed syndecan-1, a key component of the glycocalyx, shedding from cell surface, and enhanced protease-activated receptor (PAR)1-PAR2/phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)-dependent cell viability after acute induction of H2O2. This protective effect was linked to the translocation of IQGAP1, a scaffold protein that modulates the actin cytoskeleton, to the perinucleus from the cell membrane. Under chronic H2O2 treatments, rivaroxaban improves cell viability accompanied by an increase in hyaluronidase activities, aiding the turnover and remodeling of hyaluronic acid within the glycocalyx. Conclusion: We identify that rivaroxaban protects against oxidative stress-induced endothelial glycocalyx damage and cell viability through IQGAP1/PAR1-2/PI3K/Akt pathway, offering a potential to be a therapeutic target for CVD prevention.