Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuronal and Glial Coexpression of Argininosuccinate Synthetase and Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase in Alzheimer Disease

The enzyme argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS) is the rate limiting enzyme in the metabolic pathway leading from L-citrulline to L-arginine, the physiological substrate of all isoforms of nitric oxide synthases (NOS). ASS and inducible NOS (iNOS) expression in neurons and glia was investigated by immunohistochemistry in brains of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and nondemented, age-matched controls. In 3 areas examined (hippocampus, frontal, and entorhinal cortex), a marked increase in neuronal ASS and iNOS expression was observed in AD brains. GFAP-positive astrocytes expressing ASS were not increased in AD brains versus controls, whereas the number of iNOS expressing GFAP-positive astrocytes was significantly higher in AD brains. Density measurements revealed that ASS expression levels were significantly higher in glial cells of AD brains. Colocalization of ASS and iNOS immunoreactivity was detectable in neurons and glia. Occasionally, both ASS-and iNOS expression was detectable in CD 68-positive activated microglia cells in close proximity to senile plaques. These results suggest that neurons and astrocytes express ASS in human brain constitutively, whereas neuronal and glial ASS expression increases parallel to iNOS expression in AD. Because an adequate supply of L-arginine is indispensable for prolonged NO generation, coinduction of ASS enables cells to sustain NO generation during AD by replenishing necessary supply of L-arginine.
The Smithsonian solar constant data revisited: no evidence for a strong effect of solar activity in ground-based insolation data

Abstract. Apparent evidence for a strong signature of solar activity in ground-based insolation data was recently reported. In particular, a strong increase of the irradiance of the direct solar beam with sunspot number as well as a decline of the brightness of the solar aureole and the measured precipitable water content of the atmosphere with solar activity were presented. The latter effect was interpreted as evidence for cosmic-ray-induced aerosol formation. Here I show that these spurious results are due to a failure to correct for seasonal variations and the effects of volcanic eruptions and local pollution in the data. After correcting for these biases, neither the atmospheric water content nor the brightness of the solar aureole show any significant change with solar activity, and the variations of the solar-beam irradiance with sunspot number are in agreement with previous estimates. Hence there is no evidence for the influence of solar activity on the climate being stronger than currently thought.
Anti-CD8 impairs clearance of herpes simplex virus from the nervous system: implications for the fate of virally infected neurons

The role of CD8+ T cells in resistance to herpes simplex virus (HSV) was examined. After cutaneous inoculation, HSV spreads to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) where it replicates in ganglionic neurons. In normal mice, replication of virus in the PNS was rapidly terminated and evidence of neuronal destruction, assessed by a quantitative histological assay, was sparse. Clearance of infectious virus was impaired, and a strikingly high proportion of ganglionic neurons was killed, in mice treated with an antibody that depleted them of CD8+ T cells. These results suggest that CD8+ T cells play an important role in maintaining the integrity of the sensory nervous system during primary infection with HSV. Therefore, viral epitopes recognized by CD8+ T cells and restricting class I major histocompatibility complex genes are, in principle, implicated as interacting genetic determinants of neurovirulence.
Stepanoff flows on the torus

A statement in a recent paper by Saito [61 suggested the following question: Does there exist on the torus an analytic, area preserving, ergodic flow which has a stationary point? The purpose of this note is to describe an elementary example of such a flow, and to discuss some properties of a topological class of flows to which it belongs. Stepanoff [7) (cf. also [4, pp. 395-400, 506-507]) considered the flows defined by equations of the form (1) where Y= aX, a is an irrational number, and X is periodic, non-negative, continuous, satisfies a Lipschitz condition in x and y, and vanishes at one and only one point of the torus. He showed that these flows are metrically transitive with respect to the invariant Borel measure
Locus coeruleus neurons in monkey are selectively activated by attended cues in a vigilance task

Impulse activity was recorded extracellularly from noradrenergic neurons in the nucleus locus coeruleus (LC; 47 single-cell and 126 multicell recordings) of four cynomolgus monkeys performing an oddball visual discrimination task. For juice reward, the subjects were required to release a lever rapidly in response to an infrequent (10– 20% of trials) target cue (CS+) that was randomly intermixed with nontarget (CS-) stimuli presented on a video display. All LC neurons examined were phasically and selectively activated by target cues in this task. Other task events elicited no consistent response from these neurons (juice reward, lever release, fix-spot stimuli, nontarget stimuli). In one animal, nontarget cues phasically inhibited LC neurons. Phasic LC excitatory responses to target cues in this task occurred at a relatively short latency (mean = 90.7 msec), approximately 200 msec prior to the behavioral response (lever release). In addition, LC response magnitudes varied with behavioral performance, being substantially attenuated during epochs of poor performance (high false alarm rate). There was a positive correlation (r = 0.30, p < 0.0001) between the latency of LC responses and the latency of behavioral responses to same target cues, consistent with the possibility that LC responses may have a role in selective attention by facilitating responses to the CS+ stimulus. Analyses of behavioral response latencies to pairs of stimuli indicated that LC responses may facilitate behavioral responses to subsequent sensory cues, consistent with a role of this system in sustained attention/vigilance. Moreover, responses became reduced in magnitude over time during prolonged task performance (> 90 min), in parallel with a behavioral performance decrement. These results show that LC neurons are activated selectively by attended stimuli that demand a rapid response in this task, and that such LC responses may contribute to conditioned behavioral responses.
Use of Digital Signal Characteristics for Solder Joint Failure Precursors

Electronic systems are exposed to stress conditions during their life cycle. Chemical substances such as moisture and acid are the major source of stresses. The chemical stress condition can induce chemical degradation of electronic components and interconnects including solder joints. Chemical degradation often leads to malfunctions of electronic systems, ultimately resulting in system failure. To monitor damages of the electronic system, measurements based on DC resistance are often used as a system health indicator because they can clearly show the electrical discontinuity. However, DC measurement often requires additional sensing devices or circuitry to detect failure with actual electronic system. This paper introduces a new approach to detect degradation of an electronic system. Using the skin effect of digital signals, we demonstrate that the digital signal enables detection of solder joints degradation under chemical stress condition. We designed an accelerated life test (ALT) to apply chemical stress to solder joints by acid. Digital signal integrity was continuously monitored simultaneously with DC resistance during the ALT to identify the failure precursor of the solder joints. The experimental results indicate that digital signal integrity is gradually deteriorated during solder joint degradation prior to complete electrical open state. The proposed approach based on the digital signal used in the electronic system does not require additional devices. Thus, it is more adaptable than the existing DC measurement in managing the health of actual electronic systems.
Coronary Vasomotor and Cardiac Electrophysiologic Effects of Diadenosine Polyphosphates and Nonhydrolyzable Analogs in the Guinea Pig

Platelet activation in heart disease is important owing to the effects of platelet-derived compounds on myocardial perfusion and cardiac electrophysiology. Diadenosine polyphosphates are secreted from platelets and present in the myocardium, but their electrophysiologic and vasomotor effects are incompletely understood. We used isolated guinea-pig hearts to study the effects of diadenosine triphosphate (Ap3A), tetraphosphate (Ap4A), pentaphosphate (Ap5A), and hexaphosphate (Ap6A) (10 p M–0.1 m M), comparing their actions to those of adenosine, adenosine triphosphate, and nonhydrolyzable Ap4A and Ap5A analogs. Diadenosine polyphosphates (0.1 n M–0.1 &mgr;M) transiently reduced coronary perfusion pressure, which recovered during the continued presence of the compounds. At concentrations greater than 0.1 &mgr;M effects were maximal and sustained (perfusion pressure decreased from 36.5 ± 3.4 to 18.6 ± 2.5 mm Hg, p < 0.001, with 1 &mgr;M Ap4A). The changes in action potential duration and refractory period developed slowly but were maintained (0.1 n M–1 &mgr;M). With 1 n M Ap4A, action potential duration increased from 170.6 ± 2.6 to 187.3 ± 3.8 ms, p < 0.05, and refractory period increased from 138.5 ± 1.6 to 147.9 ± 2.0 ms, p < 0.05. Ap4A and its analog reduced QRS duration (from 24.7 ± 1.1 to 13.9 ± 1.6 ms with 1 &mgr;M Ap4A, p < 0.05). P2-purinergic (adenosine triphosphate) receptor antagonism (suramin) reduced perfusion pressure but was without electrophysiologic effect. Other changes in coronary perfusion pressure and electrophysiologic variables associated with Ap4A were not seen in the presence of suramin. P1-(adenosine) antagonism (8-[p-sulfophenyl]theophylline) attenuated the electrophysiologic effects only. Diadenosine polyphosphates have potent cardiac electrophysiologic and coronary vasomotor effects via purinergic receptors, suggesting an important role during platelet activation in acute coronary syndromes.
Minimum redundancy feature selection from microarray gene expression data

Selecting a small subset of genes out of the thousands of genes in microarray data is important for accurate classification of phenotypes. Widely used methods typically rank genes according to their differential expressions among phenotypes and pick the top-ranked genes. We observe that feature sets so obtained have certain redundancy and study methods to minimize it. Feature sets obtained through the minimum redundancy - maximum relevance framework represent broader spectrum of characteristics of phenotypes than those obtained through standard ranking methods; they are more robust, generalize well to unseen data, and lead to significantly improved classifications in extensive experiments on 5 gene expressions data sets.
Psychological Distress, Personality Traits and Functional Disability in Patients With Osteonecrosis of the Femoral Head

Background The aim of the present study was to investigate personality traits, psychological distress and functional disability in patients with non-traumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). Methods Sixty-seven patients participated in the study, 48 males and 19 females. The mean age was 37.6 years (SD: 10.92, range: 15 - 61). Seventy-five healthy individuals, age and sex matched, served as controls. Socio-demographic information and clinical data were collected. The following instruments were used: the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), the Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ) and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHO-DAS II). Results Patients suffering from ONFH presented higher scores at the GHQ-28 compared to healthy controls (P < 0.001). Duration of disease (P < 0.047) and age (P < 0.023) were the main factors associated with psychological distress (P < 0.003). Personality traits such as image distorting (P < 0.025) and self-sacrificing (P < 0.029) were identified in patients with ONFH compared to healthy controls. Functional disability was associated with high scores at GHQ-28 scale (P < 0.001). The “adaptive personality structure”, as measured by DSQ was negatively associated with functional impairment (P < 0.022). Conclusions Patients with ONFH more commonly present symptoms of psychological distress associated with distinct functional clinical parameters. The present study also reveals the role of personality traits. Further investigation could specify the possible influence of psychopathology and personality traits or coping strategies on the course of disease.
Evaluation of orally administered famciclovir in cats experimentally infected with feline herpesvirus type-1.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate orally administered famciclovir for treatment of cats with experimentally induced disease attributable to feline herpesvirus type-1 (FHV-1). ANIMALS 16 nonvaccinated specific-pathogen-free cats. PROCEDURES Cats were treated orally with famciclovir (90 mg/kg; n = 10) or a similar volume of lactose (400 mg; 6) 3 times/d for 21 days. Cats were inoculated with FHV-1 and administered the first treatment dose on day 0. Disease score; weight; results of urinalysis, serum biochemical analysis, and CBC; histologic conjunctivitis score; herpetic DNA shedding; goblet cell density; anti-FHV-1 antibody concentration; and plasma penciclovir concentration were measured. RESULTS On days 4 to 18 following inoculation, disease scores were lower in famciclovir-treated cats than in lactose-treated cats. Lactose-treated cats decreased in weight during the first 7 days after inoculation, but famciclovir-treated cats increased in weight throughout the study. Percentage change in weight was greater in famciclovir-treated cats on days 7 and 14 than in lactose-treated cats. Serum globulin concentration was lower on days 3 through 9, conjunctivitis histologic score was lower on day 14, herpetic DNA was shed less frequently throughout the study, goblet cell density was greater on day 21, and circulating anti-FHV-1 antibody concentration at study end was lower in famciclovir-treated cats, compared with these measurements in lactose-treated cats. Approximate peak plasma penciclovir concentration was 2.0 μg/mL. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Famciclovir administration improved outcomes for systemic, ophthalmic, clinicopathologic, virologic, and histologic variables in cats experimentally infected with FHV-1. Adjunctive topical mucinomimetic and antimicrobial treatments may also be necessary.
Never ending saga of phased array breakthroughs

• 3, 4, 6 face “Aegis” systems developed by China, Japan, Australia, Netherlands, USA • Israel and Australia “Aegis” AESAs have an A/D at every element, a major breakthrough. • GaN advancing rapidly. Will be helped by use for PCs, notebooks, cell phones, servers. • Extreme MMIC: 4 X-band T/Rs on 1 SiGe chip for DARPA ISIS program; goal <$10/TR. • Raytheon funding development of low cost flat panel X-band array using COTS type PCB. • MA-COM/Lincoln-Lab. development of low cost S-band flat panel array using PCB, overlapped subarrays and a T/R switch instead of a circulator. • Purdue Un. developing S-band low cost Digital Array Radar; GaN PA and A/D at every element. • Revolutionary 3-D Micromachining: integrated circuitry for microwave components, like 16 element Ka-band array with Butler beamformer on 13×2 cm<sup>2</sup> chip. • Ultra low cost 77 GHz radar on 72mm<sup>2</sup> chip together with >8 bits 1 GS/s A/D and 16 element array. • Valeo-Raytheon 24 GHz phased array now available for blind spot detection in cars for just $100's. • Lincoln Lab using 2 W chip increases spurious free dynamic range of receiver plus A/D by 20 dB • JPL's SweepSAR provides wide swath SAR from space with 1/6 th power required by ScanSAR. • Metamaterials: 1. Can now focus 6X beyond diffraction limit at 0.38 μm — Moore's Law marches on. 2. Used in cell phones to obtain antennas 5X smaller and have 700 MHz-2.7 GHz bandwidth. 3. Provide isolation between closely spaced antennas and antenna elements.
Fuzzy control of rotary cement kiln using sintering zone image recognition

Article analyses modern machine vision-based approaches of the rotary kiln monitoring and control which reduces energy consumption and improve clinker quality. Article describes fuzzy advising control unit developed by the authors. It based on sintering zone state assessment, the kiln rotation period and the relative change of the exhaust gases temperature. Advising control rule base for rotary cement kiln of wet technological process is developed. Structure of fuzzy control system is proposed on the basis of advising control unit. It is applicable both independently and as a part of the existing rotary kiln control systems.
Video Compression Using Nested Quadtree Structures, Leaf Merging, and Improved Techniques for Motion Representation and Entropy Coding

Abstract-A video coding architecture is described that is based on nested and pre-configurable quadtree structures for flexible and signal-adaptive picture partitioning. The primary goal of this partitioning concept is to provide a high degree of adaptability for both temporal and spatial prediction as well as for the purpose of space-frequency representation of prediction residuals. At the same time, a leaf merging mechanism is included in order to prevent excessive partitioning of a picture into prediction blocks and to reduce the amount of bits for signaling the prediction signal. For fractional-sample motion-compensated prediction, a fixed-point implementation of the maximal-order minimum-support algorithm is presented that uses a combination of infinite impulse response and FIR filtering. Entropy coding utilizes the concept of probability interval partitioning entropy codes that offers new ways for parallelization and enhanced throughput. The presented video coding scheme was submitted to a joint call for proposals of ITU-T Visual Coding Experts Group and ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group and was ranked among the five best performing proposals, both in terms of subjective and objective quality.
TelegraphCQ: An Architectural Status Report

We are building TelegraphCQ, a system to process continuous queries over data streams. Although we had implemented some parts of this technology in earlier Java-based prototypes, our experiences were not positive. As a result, we decided to use PostgreSQL, an open source RDBMS as a starting point for our new implementation. In March 2003, we completed an alpha milestone of TelegraphCQ. In this paper, we report on the development status of our project, with a focus on architectural issues. Specifically, we describe our experiences extending a traditional DBMS towards managing data streams, and an overview of the current early-access release of the system.
Potential Inbreeding in a small population of a mass flowering species, Xanthorrhoea johnsonii (Xanthorrhoeaceae): Is your mother my father?

Xanthorrhoea johnsonii is a long lived slow growing perennial understorey species, that produces a large quantity of passively dispersed seed every 3 - 5 years. Reproductive maturity is not reached until 20 - 30 years of age. The temporal asynchrony of the flowering event in this population was analogous to geographic isolation through fragmentation. A small population of plants flowering in isolation provided the opportunity to examine outcrossing rates, genetic diversity and the paternity of progeny at a small spatial scale (0.2 ha). The geographic location and physical characteristics of the adult plants were recorded, and both adults and their seed were sampled for genetic analysis. Four microsatellite loci were screened for genetic diversity and spatial structure analysis. A population outcrossing rate was estimated, as well as the number of paternal parents required to resolve the progeny multilocus genotypes. High genetic diversity was found in both adults and progeny with an estimated 97% outcrossing rate. All maternal lines required several paternal contributors, with no evidence of dominant paternal genotypes. Pollen transfer occurred between both geographically close and distant plants.
Impact of structural aberrancy of polysialic acid and its synthetic enzyme ST8SIA2 in schizophrenia

Psychiatric disorders are a group of human diseases that impair higher cognitive functions. Whole-genomic analyses have recently identified susceptibility genes for several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. Among the genes reported to be involved in psychiatric disorders, a gene encoding a polysialyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of polysialic acid (polySia or PSA) on cell surfaces has attracted attention for its potential role in emotion, learning, memory, circadian rhythm, and behaviors. PolySia is a unique polymer that spatio-temporally modifies neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and is predominantly found in embryonic brains, although it persists in areas of the adult brain where neural plasticity, remodeling of neural connections, or neural generation is ongoing, such as the hippocampus, subventricular zone (SVZ), thalamus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala. PolySia is thought to be involved in the regulation of cell-cell interactions; however, recent evidence suggests that it is also involved in the functional regulation of ion channels and neurologically active molecules, such as Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), FGF2, and dopamine (DA) that are deeply involved in psychiatric disorders. In this review, the possible involvement of polysialyltransferase (ST8SIA2/ST8SiaII/STX/Siat8B) and its enzymatic product, polySia, in schizophrenia is discussed.
The Object Inside: Assessing 3D Examination with a Spherical Handheld Perspective-Corrected Display

Handheld Perspective Corrected Displays (HPCDs) can create the feeling of holding a virtual 3D object. They offer a direct interaction that is isomorphic to the manipulation of physical objects. This illusion depends on the ability to provide a natural visuomotor coupling. High performances systems are thus required to evaluate the fundamental merits of HPCDs. We built a spherical HPCD using external projection. The system offers a lightweight wireless seamless display with head-coupled stereo, robust tracking, and low latency. We compared users' performances with this HPCD and two other interactions that used a fixed planar display and either a touchpad or the spherical display as an indirect input. The task involved the inspection of complex virtual 3D puzzles. Physical puzzles were also tested as references. Contrary to expectations, all virtual interactions were found to be more efficient than a more "natural" physical puzzle. The HPCD yielded lower performances than the touchpad. This study indicates that the object examination task did not benefit from the accurate and precise rotations offered by the HPCD, but benefited from the high C/D gain of the touchpad.