bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Automatic migration from synchronous to asynchronous JavaScript APIs
Authors: Gokhale Satyajit , Turcotte Alexi , Tip Frank
Published: October 2021

The JavaScript ecosystem provides equivalent synchronous and asynchronous Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for many commonly used I/O operations. Synchronous APIs involve straightforward sequential control flow that makes them easy to use and understand, but their "blocking" behavior may result in poor responsiveness or performance. Asynchronous APIs impose a higher syntactic burden that relies on callbacks, promises, and higher-order functions. On the other hand, their nonblocking behavior enables applications to scale better and remain responsive while I/O requests are being processed. While it is generally understood that asynchronous APIs have better performance characteristics, many applications still rely on synchronous APIs. In this paper, we present a refactoring technique for assisting programmers with the migration from synchronous to asynchronous APIs. The technique relies on static analysis to determine where calls to synchronous API functions can be replaced with their asynchronous counterparts, relying on JavaScript's async/await feature to minimize disruption to the source code. Since the static analysis is potentially unsound, the proposed refactorings are presented as suggestions that must be reviewed and confirmed by the programmer. The technique was implemented in a tool named Desynchronizer. In an empirical evaluation on 12 subject applications containing 316 synchronous API calls, Desynchronizer identified 256 of these as candidates for refactoring. Of these candidates, 244 were transformed successfully, and only 12 resulted in behavioral changes. Further inspection of these cases revealed that the majority of these issues can be attributed to unsoundness in the call graph.
Symbolic value-flow static analysis: deep, precise, complete modeling of Ethereum smart contracts
Authors: Smaragdakis Yannis , Grech Neville , Lagouvardos Sifis , Triantafyllou Konstantinos , Tsatiris Ilias
Published: October 2021

We present a static analysis approach that combines concrete values and symbolic expressions. This symbolic value-flow (“symvalic”) analysis models program behavior with high precision, e.g., full path sensitivity. To achieve deep modeling of program semantics, the analysis relies on a symbiotic relationship between a traditional static analysis fixpoint computation and a symbolic solver: the solver does not merely receive a complex “path condition” to solve, but is instead invoked repeatedly (often tens or hundreds of thousands of times), in close cooperation with the flow computation of the analysis.

The result of the symvalic analysis architecture is a static modeling of program behavior that is much more complete than symbolic execution, much more precise than conventional static analysis, and domain-agnostic: no special-purpose definition of anti-patterns is necessary in order to compute violations of safety conditions with high precision.

We apply the analysis to the domain of Ethereum smart contracts. This domain represents a fundamental challenge for program analysis approaches: despite numerous publications, research work has not been effective at uncovering vulnerabilities of high real-world value.

In systematic comparison of symvalic analysis with past tools, we find significantly increased completeness (shown as 83-96% statement coverage and more true error reports) combined with much higher precision, as measured by rate of true positive reports. In terms of real-world impact, since the beginning of 2021, the analysis has resulted in the discovery and disclosure of several critical vulnerabilities, over funds in the many millions of dollars. Six separate bug bounties totaling over $350K have been awarded for these disclosures.
Programming and execution models for parallel bounded exhaustive testing
Authors: Awar Nader Al , Jain Kush , Rossbach Christopher J. , Gligoric Milos
Published: October 2021

Bounded-exhaustive testing (BET), which exercises a program under test for all inputs up to some bounds, is an effective method for detecting software bugs. Systematic property-based testing is a BET approach where developers write test generation programs that describe properties of test inputs. Hybrid test generation programs offer the most expressive way to write desired properties by freely combining declarative filters and imperative generators. However, exploring hybrid test generation programs, to obtain test inputs, is both computationally demanding and challenging to parallelize. We present the first programming and execution models, dubbed Tempo, for parallel exploration of hybrid test generation programs. We describe two different strategies for mapping the computation to parallel hardware and implement them both for GPUs and CPUs. We evaluated Tempo by generating instances of various data structures commonly used for benchmarking in the BET domain. Additionally, we generated CUDA programs to stress test CUDA compilers, finding four bugs confirmed by the developers.
MonkeyDB: effectively testing correctness under weak isolation levels
Authors: Biswas Ranadeep , Kakwani Diptanshu , Vedurada Jyothi , Enea Constantin , Lal Akash
Published: October 2021

Modern applications, such as social networking systems and e-commerce platforms are centered around using large-scale storage systems for storing and retrieving data. In the presence of concurrent accesses, these storage systems trade off isolation for performance. The weaker the isolation level, the more behaviors a storage system is allowed to exhibit and it is up to the developer to ensure that their application can tolerate those behaviors. However, these weak behaviors only occur rarely in practice and outside the control of the application, making it difficult for developers to test the robustness of their code against weak isolation levels.

This paper presents MonkeyDB, a mock storage system for testing storage-backed applications. MonkeyDB supports a key-value interface as well as SQL queries under multiple isolation levels. It uses a logical specification of the isolation level to compute, on a read operation, the set of all possible return values. MonkeyDB then returns a value randomly from this set. We show that MonkeyDB provides good coverage of weak behaviors, which is complete in the limit. We test a variety of applications for assertions that fail only under weak isolation. MonkeyDB is able to break each of those assertions in a small number of attempts.
Compacting points-to sets through object clustering
Authors: Barbar Mohamad , Sui Yulei
Published: October 2021

Inclusion-based set constraint solving is the most popular technique for whole-program points-to analysis whereby an analysis is typically formulated as repeatedly resolving constraints between points-to sets of program variables. The set union operation is central to this process. The number of points-to sets can grow as analyses become more precise and input programs become larger, resulting in more time spent performing unions and more space used storing these points-to sets. Most existing approaches focus on improving scalability of precise points-to analyses from an algorithmic perspective and there has been less research into improving the data structures behind the analyses.

Bit-vectors as one of the more popular data structures have been used in several mainstream analysis frameworks to represent points-to sets. To store memory objects in bit-vectors, objects need to mapped to integral identifiers. We observe that this object-to-identifier mapping is critical for a compact points-to set representation and the set union operation. If objects in the same points-to sets (co-pointees) are not given numerically close identifiers, points-to resolution can cost significantly more space and time. Without data on the unpredictable points-to relations which would be discovered by the analysis, an ideal mapping is extremely challenging.

In this paper, we present a new approach to inclusion-based analysis by compacting points-to sets through object clustering. Inspired by recent staged analysis where an auxiliary analysis produces results approximating a more precise main analysis, we formulate points-to set compaction as an optimisation problem solved by integer programming using constraints generated from the auxiliary analysis’s results in order to produce an effective mapping. We then develop a more approximate mapping, yet much more efficiently, using hierarchical clustering to compact bit-vectors. We also develop an improved representation of bit-vectors (called core bit-vectors) to fully take advantage of the newly produced mapping. Our approach requires no algorithmic change to the points-to analysis. We evaluate our object clustering on flow sensitive points-to analysis using 8 open-source programs (>3.1 million lines of LLVM instructions) and our results show that our approach can successfully improve the analysis with an up to 1.83× speed up and an up to 4.05× reduction in memory usage.
GALU: A Genetic Algorithm Framework for Logic Unlocking
Authors: Chen Huili , Fu Cheng , Zhao Jishen , Koushanfar Farinaz
Published: October 2021

Logic locking is a circuit obfuscation technique that inserts additional key gates to the original circuit in order to prevent potential threats such as circuit overproduction, piracy, and counterfeiting. The encrypted circuit generates desired outputs only when the correct keys are applied to the key gates. Previous works have identified the vulnerability of logic locking to satisfiability (SAT)-based attacks. However, SAT attacks are unscalable and have limited effectiveness on circuits with SAT-hard structures. To address the above constraints, we propose GALU, the first
genetic algorithm-based logic unlocking
framework that is
parallelizable
and significantly faster than the conventional SAT-based counterparts. GALU works by formulating circuit deobfuscation (i.e., identifying the correct keys) as a
combinatorial optimization
problem and approaches it using genetic algorithms (GAs). We consider key sequences as individuals in distinct populations and propose an
adaptive, diversity-guided
GA framework consisting of four main steps: circuit fitness evaluation, population selection, crossover, and mutation. In each iteration, the key sequences with high fitness scores are selected and transformed into the offspring key sequences. As a result of evolutionary key searching, GALU is highly scalable, effective, and efficient.

To optimize the runtime overhead of logic unlocking, we integrate the design of GALU’s algorithm, software and hardware in a closed loop. In particular, we identify circuit fitness evaluation as the performance bottleneck and employ
hardware emulation
on programmable hardware for runtime optimization. To this end, GALU framework automatically constructs customized auxiliary circuitry to
pipeline
the computation in constraints checking, sorting, crossover, and mutation. GALU is the first adaptive and scalable attack framework that provides the
flexibility/trade-off
between runtime overhead and key usability. This is achieved by producing a group of
approximate
keys with improving quality over time. We perform a comprehensive evaluation of GALU’s performance on various benchmarks and demonstrate that GALU achieves up to 1089.2× speedup and 4268.6× more energy-efficiency compared to the state-of-the-art SAT attacks for circuit logic unlocking.
Cardiac structures in marine animals provide insight on potential directions for interventions for pediatric congenital heart defects
Authors: Mitova Emilia , Wittnich Carin
Published: October 2021

Despite recent advances in pediatric diagnosis and surgical intervention, mortality and morbidity continue to be a prevalent issue in both tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) and hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Therefore, novel approaches to studying both of these conditions are warranted. Investigating cardiac anatomical features of different species in the animal kingdom that are similar to the defects and complications present in ToF and HLHS (as well as others) could serve as a new avenue for improving the management of congenital heart diseases (CHD). This review reveals that although some structures found in HLHS and ToF are pathological, similar structures can be found in diving mammals and reptiles that are adaptive. Pathological aortic dilation in CHD resembles the aortic bulb present in diving mammals, but the latter is more elastic and distensible compared with the former. The unrepaired HLHS heart resembles the univentricular heart of non-crocodilian reptiles. Right ventricle hypertrophy is pathological in HLHS and ToF, but in contrast, adaptive in crocodilians and diving mammals. Lastly, the increased pulmonary resistance due to pulmonary stenosis in ToF is comparable with increased pulmonary resistance in crocodilians due to the presence of an active valve proximal to the pulmonary valve. Some of these anatomical structures could potentially be adapted for palliative surgery in children with HLHS or ToF. Moreover, further investigating the underlying molecular signals responsible for the adaptive tissue responses seen in other species may also be useful for developing novel strategies for preventing some of the complications that occur after surgical repair in both of these congenital heart diseases.
Chemical Characterization and Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, and Insecticidal Properties of Essential Oil from Mentha pulegium L.
Authors: Aimad Allali , Sanae Rezouki , Anas Fadli , Abdelfattah El Moussaoui , Bourhia Mohammed , Mohammad Salamatullah Ahmad , Alzahrani Abdulhakeem , Alyahya Heba Khalil , Albadr Nawal A. , Abdelkrim Agour , El Barnossi Azeddin , Noureddine Eloutassi
Published: October 2021

The chemical composition and antibacterial, insecticidal, and antioxidant properties of the essential oil from Mentha pulegium L. (M. pulegium) growing in Morocco were investigated in this work. To achieve this goal, the oils were obtained by using hydrodistillation before being characterized by GC-MS. The antibacterial and antifungal activities were conducted against pathogenic strains using the disc diffusion and MICS bioassays. The insecticidal activity was carried out versus C. maculatus using contact and inhalation tests. The antioxidant activity was performed by using DPPH and total antioxidant capacity bioassays. The chemical analysis of the oil showed that 20 compounds were identified, which represented 98.91% of the total oil. In the oil, the main components detected were R-(+)-pulegone (76.35%), carvone (5.84%), dihydrocarvone (5.09%), and octanol-3 (2.25%). The essential oil has moderate-to-strong broad-spectrum antibacterial and antifungal properties; the results showed that B. subtilis was the most sensitive strain to M. pulegium oil, with the largest inhibition diameter (25 ± 0.33). For the antifungal activity, the results obtained indicated that Aspergillus niger was the most sensitive fungal strain to M. pulegium oil with an inhibition percentage up to 100%. Regarding the insecticidal activity, the inhalation test showed a high efficacy (100% mortality), and a lethal concentration of LC50 = 1.41 + 0.48 μL/L air was obtained after 24 hours of exposure. Moreover, the contact test showed that a total reduction in fertility and emergence was obtained with a dose of 20 μL/mL of acetone. Regarding the antioxidant activity, the sample concentration necessary to inhibit 50% of HE radicals (IC50) was 7.659 mg/mL (DPPH) and 583.066 57.05 mg EAA/g EO (TAC).
Clinical Study of Influence of Continuous Nursing Intervention Combined with Comfort Nursing Intervention under Medical-Nursing Combination on Self-Care Ability and Satisfaction of Elderly Patients with Chronic Diseases
Authors: Ma Tian , Wang Ying , Liu Juan , Wang Aifang
Published: October 2021

Objective. With the constant development of medical technology, the medical-nursing combination mode targeted at elderly chronic diseases has been proposed, and based on this, the study on the nursing mode of elderly chronic diseases under the background of medical-nursing combination was conducted. Methods. Total of 100 elderly patients with chronic diseases who were admitted to our hospital from April 2019 to April 2020 were selected and divided into a control group and an experimental group by lot drawing, with 50 patients in each group. Continuous nursing was conducted to patients in the control group, and continuous nursing combined with comfort nursing was performed to patients in the experimental group, so as to compare their nursing effective rate, satisfaction with nursing, self-care ability at 6 months after nursing, quality of life (QLI) scores, and blood glucose, pressure, and lipid levels at various periods. Results. Compared with the control group, the experimental group obtained significantly improved nursing effective rate, satisfaction with nursing, Exercise of Self-Care Agency (ESCA) scale scores, QLI scores, and lower blood glucose, pressure, and lipid levels at various periods 6 months after nursing, with statistical significance (

P

all < 0.05). Conclusion. Under the context of medical-nursing combination, the continuous nursing intervention combined with comfort nursing intervention is conductive to promote the self-care ability and nursing effect of elderly patients with chronic diseases and obviously improve their quality of life and psychological state.
Renal Denervation Mitigated Fecal Microbiota Aberrations in Rats with Chronic Heart Failure
Authors: Guo Zhiqin , Chen Yufeng , Chen Shuoxian , Liu Chao , Li Shaonan , Chen Pingan
Published: October 2021

Background. Changes in the composition and diversity of gut microbiota, which can be altered by autonomic nerve activity, contribute to the development of heart failure (HF). Renal denervation (RDN) can improve cardiac function by reducing sympathetic nerve activity. However, whether the beneficial role of RDN on HF is related to gut microbiota is unknown. Methods. Thirty rats were assigned to a control, HF (with induced transverse aortic constriction (TAC)), RDN (with RDN induced 10 weeks after TAC), Nog (HF rats with Nogo-P4-administered 8 weeks after RDN), and NEP (HF rats with NEP1-40-administered 8 weeks after RDN) group. Then, 16SrRNA amplicon sequencing and analyses of fecal samples were performed. Results. Beta diversity analyses revealed that compared to the HF group, the RDN, Nog, and NEP groups clustered closer to the control group. The Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio was reduced in the HF group (1.59) compared with the control group (3.21) and was significantly decreased compared to the Nog (7.19), RDN (6.20), and NEP (4.42) groups. At the genus level, the HF group showed decreased abundances of Lactobacillus and Alistipes and increased abundances of Bacteroides and Clostridium compared with the control group. The abundances of Lactobacillus and Alistipes were increased, and those of Bacteroides and Clostridium were decreased in the RDN, Nog, and NEP groups compared to the HF group. However, no differences were observed between the three groups that underwent RDN. The microbial function showed the same tendency. Conclusions. RDN reversed the abnormal changes in the gut microbiome in HF rats. Inhibition of reinnervation after RDN did not affect intestinal bacteria.
Disseminated Coccidioidomycosis Presenting as Fever of Unknown Origin and Erythema Nodosum in a 3-Year-Old Child
Authors: Mills Lauren , Randall Melanie M.
Published: October 2021

Disseminated coccidioidomycosis is a disease caused by Coccidioides species, fungi endemic to the southwestern United States. We present here an uncommon case of a young child with erythema nodosum and fever of unknown origin, found to have the infection. While more common in adults, coccidioidomycosis should be considered in all patients with erythema nodosum.
Parallel Differential Evolutionary Particle Filtering Algorithm Based on the CUDA Unfolding Cycle
Authors: Huang Kaijie , Cao Jie
Published: October 2021

Aiming at the problem of low statute efficiency of prefix sum execution during the execution of the parallel differential evolutionary particle filtering algorithm, a filtering algorithm based on the CUDA unfolding cyclic prefix sum is proposed to remove the thread differentiation and thread idleness existing in the parallel prefix sum by unfolding the cyclic method and unfolding the thread bundle method, optimize the cycle, and improve the prefix sum execution efficiency. By introducing the parallel strategy, the differential evolutionary particle filtering algorithm is implemented in parallel and executed on the GPU side using the improved prefix sum computation during the algorithm update. Through big data analysis, the results show that this parallel differential evolutionary particle filtering algorithm with the improved prefix sum statute can effectively improve differential evolutionary particle filtering for nonlinear system states and real‐time performance in heterogeneous parallel processing systems.
The LC‐MS/MS‐Based Measurement of Isopimaric Acid in Rat Plasma and Application of Pharmacokinetics
Authors: Huang Doudou , Cheng Jiaxi , Mao Junqin , Ma Senlin , Du Zenan , Chen Wansheng , Zhang Feng , Sun Lianna
Published: October 2021

Isopimaric acid (IPA) exhibits a diverse array of pharmacological activities, having been shown to function as an antihypertensive, antitumor, antibacterial, and hypocholesterolemic agent. However, few studies of the pharmacokinetics of IPA have been performed to date, and such analyses are essential to explore the in vivo mechanisms governing the biological activity of this compound. As such, we herein designed a selective LC‐MS approach capable of quantifying serum IPA levels in model rats using an Agilent HC‐C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) via isocratic elution with a mobile phase composed of methanol 0.5% formic acid (91 : 9, v/v) at a 1 mL/min flow rate. Ion monitoring at m/z 301.2 [M‐H]- was used to quantify IPA levels in plasma samples from these rats, while internal standard (IS) levels were assessed at m/z 455.3 [M‐H]-. After validation, this approach was employed to conduct a pharmacokinetic analysis of rats administered IPA via the oral (p.o. 50, 100, or 200 mg/kg) and intravenous (i.v. 5 mg/kg) routes. Analyses of noncompartmental pharmacokinetic parameters revealed that IPA underwent secondary absorption following oral administration to these animals, with the two tested oral doses (50 and 100 mg/kg) being associated with respective absolute bioavailability values of 11.9% and 17.5%. In summary, this study may provide a foundation for future efforts to explore the mechanistic basis for the pharmacological activity of IPA, offering insights to guide its subsequent clinical utilization.
Tanshinone IIa Induces Autophagy and Apoptosis via PI3K/Akt/mTOR Axis in Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia NB4 Cells
Authors: Pan Yiming , Chen Lingyan , Li Ruibai , Liu Yu , Nan Mengdie , Hou Li
Published: October 2021

Tanshinone IIa (TanIIa), an ingredient of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae, has an anticancer effect on various solid tumors with high efficiency and low toxicity. Nonetheless, the underlying role of TanIIa in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) remains unclear. Here, we revealed that TanIIa drastically inhibited NB4 cell viability with an IC50 value of 31.25 μmol/L. Using flow cytometry apoptosis assay, we identified that TanIIa dose-dependently exacerbated NB4 cell apoptosis. Mechanistically, TanIIa upregulated apoptotic factor levels, namely, cleaved-caspase 9, cleaved-caspase 3, and cleaved-PARP-1. Moreover, we noticed that TanIIa dose-dependently suppressed the PI3K/Akt/mTOR axis. This axis not only functions as an essential antiapoptotic modulator but also serves as a suppressant regulator of autophagy. Correspondingly, we detected the levels of autophagic marker, namely, LC3B, which were increased after the TanIIa treatment. Furthermore, the autophagy inhibitor Baf-A1 could effectively reverse the TanIIa-induced apoptosis, manifesting that TanIIa eliminated NB4 cells in an autophagy-dependent manner. In conclusion, tanshinone IIa exerts anti-APL effects through triggering autophagy and apoptosis in NB4 cells.
Papillary Thyroid Cancer Affecting Multiple Family Members: A Case Report and Literature Review of Familial Nonmedullary Thyroid Cancer
Authors: Baagar Khaled Ahmed , Alowainati Buthina Ibrahim
Published: October 2021

Familial nonmedullary thyroid cancer (FNMTC) represents 5–10% of NMTC cases. Many controversies are associated with the FNMTC, namely, the minimum required number of affected family members to define the condition, aggressiveness, prognosis, and treatment and screening recommendations. Moreover, the genetic basis of the FNMTC has not yet been identified. We report a family diagnosed with FNMTC and present a comprehensive literature review of the condition. The index case was a 26-year-old male who was diagnosed with locally advanced papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). Then, his family members became worried and asked for a neck ultrasound. Four of his six siblings, in addition to his father, were diagnosed with PTC. In addition, two of his cousins were diagnosed. The patient underwent total thyroidectomy with bilateral neck dissection, and he received 2 doses of radioactive iodine (100 mCi each). Furthermore, one of his siblings required a second surgery with repeated radioactive iodine therapy. The index case genetic screening and whole-exome sequencing did not show any abnormalities. Future genetic and clinical research should focus on kindred with 3 or more affected individuals for better identification of the FNMTC susceptibility genes and to better guide management and screening recommendations.
Intestinal Parasite Infection and Its Association with Undernutrition among Early Adolescents in Hawassa University Technology Village, Southern Ethiopia
Authors: Gujo Amelo Bolka , Kare Assefa Philipos , Shuramo Shambel Gussa
Published: October 2021

Background. Different studies presented negating findings of the association between intestinal parasite infections (IPIs) and undernutrition among early adolescents in Ethiopia. This study was aimed at assessing intestinal parasite infection and its association with undernutrition among early adolescents in four selected districts of the Sidama region. Method. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2020 among 792 early adolescents. The multistage stage sampling was applied to select 16 primary schools. Simple random sampling was applied to select study participants. Trained data collectors administered questionnaires. Stool samples were collected and analyzed. Anthropometric measurements were taken and indices were calculated using AnthroPlus software. Data were entered into and analyzed by SPSS version 25 software. Association between IPI and undernutrition was measured using multivariable analysis. The outputs are presented using an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Result. The prevalence of IPI, thinness, and stunting was 32% (95% CI: 28.7%, 35.3%), 17.5% (95% CI: 14.8%, 20.2%), and 21.5% (95 CI: 18.6%, 24.4%), respectively. The higher odds of IPIs were observed among adolescents stunted (AOR = 3.61; 95% CI: 2.44–5.33), those who are thin (AOR = 3.07; 95% CI: 2.02–4.66), those who did not wash their hands after toilet (AOR = 1.89; 95% CI: 1.35–2.66), those who ate raw meat (AOR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.03–2.14), and those whose family did not own toilet (AOR = 1.71; 95% CI: 1.18–2.46). Conclusion. The prevalence of IPI, thinness, and stunting was high and has public health significance in the study area. IPIs were associated with stunting, thinness, lack of toilets, not washing hands after a toilet visit, and eating raw meat. Strengthening nutrition interventions, deworming programs, and health education on personal and environmental hygiene and sanitation are recommended.
Effect of Lower Limb Muscle Fatigue on Fall Risk for Transfemoral Amputee: A Pilot Study
Authors: Mohd Safee Mohd Khairuddin , Abu Osman Noor Azuan
Published: October 2021

Muscle fatigue is a decline in muscle maximum force during contraction and can influence the fall risk among people. This study is aimed at identifying the effect of fatigue on prospective fall risk in transfemoral amputees (TFA). Fourteen subjects were involved in this study with TFA (

34.7
±
8.1

 yrs,

n
=
7

) and normal subjects (

31.1
±
7.4

 yrs,

n
=
7

). Fatigue of lower limb muscles was induced with the fatigue protocol. Subjects were tested prefatigue and postfatigue using the standardized fall risk assessment. All results were calculated and compared between pre- and postfatigue to identify fatigue’s effect on both groups of subjects. The results showed that the fall risk increased significantly during pre- and postfatigue for TFA (

p
=
0.018

), while there were no significant differences in normal subjects (

p
=
0.149

). Meanwhile, the fall risk between TFA and normal subjects for prefatigue (

p
=
0.082

) and postfatigue (

p
=
0.084

) also showed no significant differences. The percentage (%) of increased fall risk for TFA was 19.2% compared to normal subjects only 16.7%. However, 61.4% increased of % fall risk in TFA after fatigue by using the baseline of the normal subject as the normalized % of fall risk. The increasing fall risks for TFA after fatigue are three times higher than the potential fall risk in normal subjects. The result indicates that they need to perform more precautions while prolonging lower limb activities. These results showed the implications of fatigue that can increase the fall risk due to muscle fatigue from repetitive and prolonged activities. Therefore, rehabilitation programs can be done very safely and precisely so that therapists can pursue fitness without aggravating existing injuries.
Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for Fresh Food Distribution without Quality Loss by Delivery Route Optimization
Authors: Katiyar Sapna , Khan Rijwan , Kumar Santosh
Published: October 2021

This paper enlightens the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for distribution of fresh foods by searching more viable route to keep intact the food attributes. In recent years, very hard-hitting competition is for food industries because of the individuals living standards and their responsiveness for fresh food products demand within stipulated time period. Food industry deals with the extensive kind of activities such as food processing, food packaging and distribution, and instrumentation and control. To meet market demand, customer satisfaction, and maintaining its own brand and ranking on global scale, artificial intelligence can play a vibrant role in decision-making by providing analytical solutions with adjusting available resources. Therefore, by integrating innovative technologies for fresh food distribution, potential benefits have been increased, and simultaneously risk associated with the food quality is reduced. Time is a major factor upon which food quality depends; hence, time required to complete the task must be minimized, and it is achieved by reducing the distance travelled; so, path optimization is the key for the overall task. Swarm intelligence (SI) is a subfield of artificial intelligence and consists of many algorithms. SI is a branch of nature-inspired algorithm, having a capability of global search, and gives optimized solution for real-time problems adaptive in nature. An artificial bee colony (ABC) optimization and cuckoo search (CS) algorithm also come into the category of SI algorithm. Researchers have implemented ABC algorithm and CS algorithm to optimize the distribution route for fresh food delivery in time window along with considering other factors: fixed number of delivery vehicles and fixed cost and fuel by covering all service locations. Results show that this research provides an efficient approach, i.e., artificial bee colony algorithm for fresh food distribution in time window without penalty and food quality loss.
Big Data Energy Consumption Monitoring Technology of Obese Individuals Based on MEMS Sensor
Authors: Zhao Yongjun , Zhao Juan , Ding Liang , Xie Congcong
Published: October 2021

The application of micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) is more and more extensive, involving military, medical, communication and other major fields. The progress of science and technology has brought cross era changes to human beings, but also brought troubles to human beings. Because machines can replace most people, which leads to a significant reduction in human exercise, many people have the symptoms of obesity. Therefore, how to effectively detect human exercise energy consumption is of great significance to improve obesity symptoms. The energy consumption detector takes stm32f103zet6 as the core processor and uses the inertial sensor mpu6050 to build a MEMS sensor system to monitor the daily motion state and gait of human body in real time. In the design of the big data algorithm, the adaptive peak detection and step, decision tree two‐level classification of motion recognition big data algorithm are organically integrated, and then combined with the acceleration vector value of the motion energy detection big data algorithm, to process the collected motion data, including the acceleration signal, gyroscope and other data processing, and finally complete the feature extraction, get the final recognition and detection results. Through the data reference, we can know that the system can recognize different human motion states. Among them, it has 95% accuracy in the motion recognition of sitting, standing, walking, running, going up and down stairs and lying back, which is basically the same as the top detectors on the market. In the energy consumption detection, it also has 95% accuracy, which proves the correctness of the experimental big data algorithm design, and also improves the accuracy It is proved that the system has good performance and high practicability, and can provide a new idea for obese individual motion detection.
Molecular Signatures of Human Chronic Atrial Fibrillation in Primary Mitral Regurgitation
Authors: Çubukçuoğlu Deniz Günseli , Durdu Serkan , Doğan Yeşim , Erdemli Esra , Özdağ Hilal , Akar Ahmet Ruchan
Published: October 2021

Objectives. Transcriptomics of atrial fibrillation (AFib) in the setting of chronic primary mitral regurgitation (MR) remains to be characterized. We aimed to compare the gene expression profiles of patients with degenerative MR in AFib and sinus rhythm (SR) for a clearer picture of AFib pathophysiology. Methods. After transcriptomic analysis and bioinformatics (

n
=
59

), differentially expressed genes were defined using 1.5-fold change as the threshold. Additionally, independent datasets from GEO were included as meta-analyses. Results. QRT-PCR analysis confirmed that AFib persistence was associated with increased expression molecular changes underlying a transition to heart failure (NPPB,

P
=
0.002

; ANGPTL2,

P
=
0.002

; IGFBP2,

P
=
0.010

), structural remodeling including changes in the extracellular matrix and cellular stress response (COLQ,

P
=
0.003

; COMP,

P
=
0.028

; DHRS9,

P
=
0.038

; CHGB,

P
=
0.038

), and cellular stress response (DNAJA4,

P
=
0.038

). Furthermore, AFib persistence was associated with decreased expression of the targets of structural remodeling (BMP7,

P
=
0.021

) and electrical remodeling (CACNB2,

P
=
0.035

; MCOLN3,

P
=
0.035

) in both left and right atrial samples. The transmission electron microscopic analysis confirmed ultrastructural atrial remodeling and autophagy in human AFib atrial samples. Conclusions. Atrial cardiomyocyte remodeling in persistent AFib is closely linked to alterations in gene expression profiles compared to SR in patients with primary MR. Study findings may lead to novel therapeutic targets. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00970034.
Ferritinophagy‐Mediated ROS Production Contributed to Proliferation Inhibition, Apoptosis, and Ferroptosis Induction in Action of Mechanism of 2‐Pyridylhydrazone Dithiocarbamate Acetate
Authors: Li Longlong , Li Hao , Li Yongli , Feng Jiankang , Guan Deng , Zhang Yalei , Fu Yun , Li Shaoshan , Li Changzheng
Published: October 2021

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is involved in the mechanism of action of a number of drugs, but the biological effects of ROS remain to be clarified. Furthermore, ferroptosis involves iron‐dependent ROS production that may be derived from ferritinophagy; however, the association between ferroptosis and ferritinophagy has not been fully established. The present study demonstrated that dithiocarbamate derivatives (iron chelators) exhibited antineoplastic properties involving ferritinophagy induction, but whether the underlying mechanisms involved ferroptosis was unknown. To gain insight into the underlying mechanism, a dithiocarbamate derivative, 2‐pyridylhydrazone dithiocarbamate s‐acetic acid (PdtaA), was prepared. An MTT assay demonstrated that PdtaA inhibited proliferation involving ROS production (IC50 = 23.0 ± 1.5 μM for HepG2 cells). A preliminary mechanistic study revealed that PdtaA induced both apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. Notably, PdtaA also induced ferroptosis via downregulation of GPx4 and xCT, which was first reported for a dithiocarbamate derivative. Moreover, these cellular events were associated with ROS production. To explore the origin of ROS, expression of the ferritinophagy‐related genes, ferritin, and nuclear receptor coactivator (NCOA4) were measured. Immunofluorescence and western blotting analysis indicated that PdtaA‐induced ferritinophagy may contribute to ROS production. To investigate the role of ferritinophagy, autophagy inhibitor 3‐methyladenin or genetic knockdown of NCOA4 was employed to inhibit ferritinophagy, which significantly neutralized the action of PdtaA in both apoptosis and ferroptosis. Taken together, PdtaA‐induced cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and ferroptosis were associated with ferritinophagy.
Radio Station Background Noise Detection Based on Time‐Frequency Domain Electromagnetic Spectrum
Authors: Wang Fuzhai , Chen Zhenjia , Chen Xuanfeng , Chen Ting
Published: October 2021

The electromagnetic spectrum resource is one of the important national resources. It is a physical channel for wireless communication between ships and between ships and radio stations. Good communication quality must be guaranteed, so it is urgent to monitor and analyze the environmental background noise of the electromagnetic spectrum. The estimation of the radio frequency signal coverage in the target area during the monitoring process is of great significance to the study of electromagnetic spectrum resource management and control. This paper estimates the upper envelope and lower envelope of the background noise of the target frequency band based on the electromagnetic spectrum data in the time‐frequency domain and combines the forward difference algorithm to estimate the background noise envelope curve. We set up fixed detection nodes and mobile detection nodes for specific construction areas and collect time‐frequency spectrum data of electromagnetic spectrum in multiple locations. The instantaneous frequency spectrum and the collected data of a specific frequency point are compared, and it is difficult to judge whether there is a valid signal. This paper is based on the time‐frequency domain electromagnetic spectrum data in the construction area of the project and estimates the background noise of the coast station frequency band in the current environment. It is based on the energy gradient estimation of the time‐frequency domain spectrum, and the effective signal of the target frequency band is obtained and combines the noise envelope and the effective signal location to improve the estimation result of the background noise envelope. The experimental results show that the background noise estimation algorithm can reflect the changes in the noise floor of different target frequency bands.
Structural Characteristics, Rheological Properties, and Antioxidant Activity of Novel Polysaccharides from “Deer Tripe Mushroom”
Authors: Hu Hewen , Teng Xu , Zhang Shanshan , Liu Tingting , Li Xiao , Wang Dawei
Published: October 2021

The polysaccharide was extracted by water extraction and alcohol precipitation method from “deer tripe mushroom,” which was domesticated and bred from wild Auricularia delicata in Zambia. The structure of the deer tripe mushroom polysaccharide (DTMP) was characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and other analytical techniques. And the rheological and gel properties and antioxidant capacities of the polysaccharide were studied. The results showed that DTMP was mainly composed of mannose, fructose, glucose, and galacturonic acid, of which the galacturonic acid was the main component. By calculation, the molar ratio of mannose : fructose : glucose : galactoacid in DTMP is 0.8 : 14.8 : 1.0 : 26.32. The polysaccharide was mainly composed by α-1,4-glycosidic bond. DTMP solution showed a shear-thinning (pseudoplastic) behaviour, and its pseudoplasticity was more obvious at a concentration of 2%. The power law model was used to evaluate the viscosity curves of DTMP, and its viscosity and consistency indices both increased as the concentration increased, whereas both indices decreased as the concentration decreased. The viscosity of the polysaccharide solution changed as the pH changed: the polysaccharide solutions had a higher viscosity at pH = 10. DTMP showed gel-like behaviour (G′ ＞ G″), and the gel strength enhanced with the increase of concentration (2%–10%). In addition, the antioxidant experiment of DTMP showed that it had good antioxidant activity, and there was a significant dose-effect relationship between its activity and concentration in the low concentration range.
Design and Implementation of Continuous Authentication Mechanism Based on Multimodal Fusion Mechanism
Authors: Guan Jianfeng , Li Xuetao , Zhang Ying
Published: October 2021

Most of the current authentication mechanisms adopt the “one-time authentication,” which authenticate users for initial access. Once users have been authenticated, they can access network services without further verifications. In this case, after an illegal user completes authentication through identity forgery or a malicious user completes authentication by hijacking a legitimate user, his or her behaviour will become uncontrollable and may result in unknown risks to the network. These kinds of insider attacks have been increasingly threatening lots of organizations, and have boosted the emergence of zero trust architecture. In this paper, we propose a Multimodal Fusion-based Continuous Authentication (MFCA) scheme, which collects multidimensional behaviour characteristics during the online process, verifies their identities continuously, and locks out the users once abnormal behaviours are detected to protect data privacy and prevent the risk of potential attack. More specifically, MFCA integrates the behaviours of keystroke, mouse movement, and application usage and presents a multimodal fusion mechanism and trust model to effectively figure out user behaviours. To evaluate the performance of the MFCA, we designed and implemented the MFCA system and the experimental results show that the MFCA can detect illegal users in quick time with high accuracy.
BA2P : Bidirectional and Anonymous Auction Protocol with Dispute-Freeness
Authors: Huang Ke , Mu Yi , Rezaeibagha Fatemeh , He Zheyuan , Zhang Xiaosong
Published: October 2021

Electronic auction is a popular platform to sell goods, task assignment, and resources’ allocation due to reductions of transaction costs and has attracted a huge number of potential buyers. However, it is challenging to address the disputes between the buyer and the auctioneer. The main reason is, on the one hand, solving such problem leverages to the broad domain of research aspects, such as economic theory, engineering, and cryptography, and, on the other hand, it is difficult to arbitrate in a decentralized and anonymous setting. In this work, we consider a more general framework to solve the potential disputes by enforcing bidirectional confirmation and public verification. Hence, the bidding procedure is clear to inspect and potential disputes can be erased. To achieve this goal, we propose policy-driven chameleon hash and revised linkable-and-redactable ring signature as building blocks. We used these two tools to build a bidirectional and anonymous auction protocol called

BA

2

P. In our

BA

2

P protocol, the bidders can competitively and anonymously place their bids to outbid others. At the end of the auction protocol, everyone can verify the validity of the bidding proof and decide the winner. Thus, dispute-freeness feature is achieved. The analysis suggests that our proposal is provably secure and practically efficient, and it trades some efficiencies with dispute-freeness feature.
‘Within Ring’ Concept Treatment for Displaced H-Shaped Type IVb Fragility Fractures of the Pelvis
Authors: Yanagisawa Yohei , Eda Yusuke , Teruya Shotaro , Gamada Hisanori , Yamazaki Masashi
Published: October 2021

Introduction. Sacroiliac rod fixation (SIRF) preserves the mobility of L5/S1 (lumber in the pelvis), as a surgical procedure for high-energy pelvic ring fractures. The concept of SIRF method without pedicle screws into L4 and L5 is called ‘within ring’ concept. Case Presentation. We report here the clinical results of ‘within ring’ concept treatment with sacroiliac rod fixation for a case of displaced H-shaped Rommens and Hofmann classification type IVb fragility fractures of the pelvis (FFP), which A 79-year-old woman had been difficult to walk due to pain that had been prolonged for more than one month since her injury. The patient was successfully treated with SIRF, no pain waking with a walking stick and returned to most social activities including living independently within 6 months of the operation. Conclusion. SIRF is useful because it can preserve the mobility in the lumbar pelvis; not including the lumbar spine in the fixation range like spino pelvic fixation is a simple, safe, and low-invasive internal fixation method for displaced H-shaped type IVb fragility fractures of the pelvis.
DOA Estimation of an Enhanced Generalized Nested Array with Increased Degrees of Freedom and Reduced Mutual Coupling
Authors: Zhang Yule , Hu Guoping , Shi Junpeng , Zhou Hao , Zhan Chenghong , Zhao Fangzheng
Published: October 2021

Aiming at low degrees of freedom (DOF) and high mutual coupling (MC) of the existing sparse arrays, an enhanced generalized nested array (EGNA) is proposed in this paper. Specifically, the proposed array adds a single antenna on the basis of generalized nested array (GNA), and the difference of coprime factors is employed as the spacing between the second subarray and the additional antenna. Then, the values of the coprime factors are analyzed in detail, which indicates that Yang-NA can be explained as a special case. Compared with the majority of the existing sparse arrays, EGNA not only has the closed-form expressions of the physical antenna locations, consecutive lags, and unique lags, but also significantly increases DOF and reduces MC. In view of the above advantages, EGNA can obtain superior performance in direction of arrival (DOA) estimation. Numerical simulation results verify the rationality and superiority of the proposed nested array.