Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Max registers, counters, and monotone circuits

A method is given for constructing a <i>max register</i>, a linearizable, wait-free concurrent data structure that supports a write operation and a read operation that returns the largest value previously written. For fixed <i>m</i>, an <i>m</i>-valued max register can be constructed from one-bit multi-writer multi-reader registers at a cost of at most [lg <i>m</i>] atomic register operations per write or read. The construction takes the form of a binary search tree: applying classic techniques for building unbalanced search trees gives an <i>unbounded</i> max register with cost <i>O</i>(min(log <i>v</i>, <i>n</i>)) to read or write a value <i>v</i>, where <i>n</i> is the number of processes. It is also shown how a max register can be used to transform any monotone circuit into a wait-free concurrent data structure that provides write operations setting the inputs to the circuit and a read operation that returns the value of the circuit on the largest input values previously supplied. The cost of a write is bounded by <i>O</i>(<i>Sd</i> min([lg <i>m</i>], <i>n</i>), where <i>m</i> is the size of the alphabet for the circuit, <i>S</i> is the number of gates whose value changes as the result of the write, and <i>d</i> is the number of inputs to each gate; the cost of a read is min([lg <i>m</i>], <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>)). While the resulting data structure is not linearizable in general, it satisfies a weaker but natural consistency condition. As an application, we obtain a simple, linearizable, wait-free counter implementation with a cost of <i>O</i>(min(log <i>n</i> log <i>v</i>, <i>n</i>)) to perform an increment and <i>O</i>(min(log <i>v</i>, <i>n</i>)) to perform a read, where <i>v</i> is the current value of the counter. For polynomially-many increments, this becomes <i>O</i>(log<sup>2</sup> <i>n</i>), an exponential improvement on the best previously known upper bounds of <i>O</i>(<i>n</i>) for an exact counting and <i>O</i>(<i>n</i><sup>4/5+ε</sup>) for approximate counting. Finally, it is shown that the upper bounds are almost optimal. We prove that min([lg <i>m</i>], <i>n</i> − 1) is a lower bound on the worst-case complexity for any solo-terminating deterministic implementation of an <i>m</i>-valued bounded max register, which is exactly equal to the upper bound for <i>m</i> ≤ 2<sup><i>n</i>−1</sup>. The same bound also holds <i>m</i>-valued counters. Furthermore, even in a solo-terminating randomized implementation of an <i>n</i>-valued max register with an oblivious adversary and global coins, there exist simple schedules containing <i>n</i> − 1 partial write operations and one read operation in which, with high probability, the worst-case step complexity of a read operation is Ω(log <i>n</i> log log <i>n</i>) if the write operations have polylogarithmic step complexity.
Critical appraisal of published research: introductory guidelines.

Reading medical journals can be time consuming, and most doctors have become adept at skimming contents by reading titles and perusing abstracts. Getting to grips with the details of papers and conducting a critical appraisal of the research may be a task many find difficult because there are not research experts and have not had training in the appraisal of papers during medical education. This difficulty may be particularly acute for junior doctors embarking on their first research towards a higher degree.
Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group 1-2017 Decreasing net primary production due to drought and slight decreases in solar radiation in China from 2000 to 2012

Terrestrial ecosystems have continued to provide the critical service of slowing the atmospheric CO2 growth rate. Terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) is thought to be a major contributing factor to this trend. Yet our ability to estimate NPP at the regional scale remains limited due to large uncertainties in the response of NPP to multiple interacting climate factors and uncertainties in the driver data sets needed to estimate NPP. In this study, we introduced an improved NPP algorithm that used local driver data sets and parameters in China. We found that bias decreased by 30% for gross primary production (GPP) and 17% for NPP compared with the widely used global GPP and NPP products, respectively. From 2000 to 2012, a pixel-level analysis of our improved NPP for the region of China showed an overall decreasing NPP trend of 4.65 Tg C a . Reductions in NPP were largest for the southern forests of China ( 5.38 Tg C a ), whereas minor increases in NPP were found for North China (0.65 Tg C a ). Surprisingly, reductions in NPP were largely due to decreases in solar radiation (82%), rather than themore commonly expected effects of drought (18%). This was because for southern China, the interannual variability of NPP was more sensitive to solar radiation (R in 0.29–0.59) relative to precipitation (R< 0.13). These findings update our previous knowledge of carbon uptake responses to climate change in terrestrial ecosystems of China and highlight the importance of shortwave radiation in driving vegetation productivity for the region, especially for tropical forests.
Estimating multivariate similarity between neuroimaging datasets with sparse canonical correlation analysis: an application to perfusion imaging

An increasing number of neuroimaging studies are based on either combining more than one data modality (inter-modal) or combining more than one measurement from the same modality (intra-modal). To date, most intra-modal studies using multivariate statistics have focused on differences between datasets, for instance relying on classifiers to differentiate between effects in the data. However, to fully characterize these effects, multivariate methods able to measure similarities between datasets are needed. One classical technique for estimating the relationship between two datasets is canonical correlation analysis (CCA). However, in the context of high-dimensional data the application of CCA is extremely challenging. A recent extension of CCA, sparse CCA (SCCA), overcomes this limitation, by regularizing the model parameters while yielding a sparse solution. In this work, we modify SCCA with the aim of facilitating its application to high-dimensional neuroimaging data and finding meaningful multivariate image-to-image correspondences in intra-modal studies. In particular, we show how the optimal subset of variables can be estimated independently and we look at the information encoded in more than one set of SCCA transformations. We illustrate our framework using Arterial Spin Labeling data to investigate multivariate similarities between the effects of two antipsychotic drugs on cerebral blood flow.
Epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in prostatic development. II. Biochemical observations of prostatic induction by urogenital sinus mesenchyme in epithelium of the adult rodent urinary bladder

Adult bladder epithelium (BLE) is induced to differentiate into glandular epithelium after association with urogenital sinus mesenchyme (UGM) and subsequent in vivo growth in syngeneic male hosts. Alteration of epithelial cytodifferentiation is associated with the expression of prostate-specific antigens, histochemical and steroid metabolic activities. These observations suggest that the inductive influence of the UGM has reprogrammed both the morphological and functional characteristics of the urothelium. In this report, differences regarding the mechanisms and effects of androgenic stimulation of prostate and bladder are exploited to determine the extent to which UGM plus BLE recombinants express a prostatelike, androgen-dependent phenotype. Results from cytosolic and autoradiographic binding studies suggest that androgen binding is induced in UGM plus BLE recombinants and that this activity is accounted for by the induced urothelial cells. In UGM plus BLE recombinants, androgen-induced [3H]thymidine or [35S]-methionine uptake analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was qualitatively and quantitatively similar to that of prostate as opposed to bladder. These studies indicate that expression within BLE of prostatic phenotype is associated with a loss of urothelial characteristics and that androgen sensitivity is presumably a function of the inductive activities of the stroma.
Spatial Organization of Signal Transduction Molecules in the NK Cell Immune Synapses During MHC Class I-Regulated Noncytolytic and Cytolytic Interactions

The cytolytic activity of NK cells is tightly regulated by inhibitory receptors specific for MHC class I Ags. We have investigated the composition of signal transduction molecules in the supramolecular activation clusters in the MHC class I-regulated cytolytic and noncytolytic NK cell immune synapses. KIR2DL3-positive NK clones that are specifically inhibited in their cytotoxicity by HLA-Cw*0304 and polyclonal human NK cells were used for conjugate formation with target cells that are either protected or are susceptible to NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Polarization of talin, microtubule-organizing center, and lysosomes occurred only during cytolytic interactions. The NK immune synapses were analyzed by three-dimensional immunofluorescence microscopy, which showed two distinctly different synaptic organizations in NK cells during cytolytic and noncytolytic interactions. The center of a cytolytic synapse with MHC class I-deficient target is comprised of a complex of signaling molecules including Src homology (SH)2-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase-1 (SHP-1). Closely related molecules with overlapping functions, such as the Syk kinases, SYK, and ZAP-70, and adaptor molecules, SH2 domain-containing leukocyte protein of 76 kDa and B cell linker protein, are expressed in activated NK cells and are all recruited to the center of the cytolytic synapse. In contrast, the noncytolytic synapse contains SHP-1, but is lacking other components of the central supramolecular activation cluster. These findings indicate a functional role for SHP-1 in both the cytolytic and noncytolytic interactions. We also demonstrate, in three-cell conjugates, that a single NK cell forms a cytolytic synapse with a susceptible target cell in the presence of both susceptible and nonsusceptible target cells.
Online dynamic mode decomposition for time-varying systems

Dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is a popular technique for modal decomposition, flow analysis, and reduced-order modeling. In situations where a system is time varying, one would like to update the system's description online as time evolves. This work provides an efficient method for computing DMD in real time, updating the approximation of a system's dynamics as new data becomes available. The algorithm does not require storage of past data, and computes the exact DMD matrix using rank-1 updates. A weighting factor that places less weight on older data can be incorporated in a straightforward manner, making the method particularly well suited to time-varying systems. A variant of the method may also be applied to online computation of "windowed DMD", in which only the most recent data are used. The efficiency of the method is compared against several existing DMD algorithms: for problems in which the state dimension is less than about~200, the proposed algorithm is the most efficient for real-time computation, and it can be orders of magnitude more efficient than the standard DMD algorithm. The method is demonstrated on several examples, including a time-varying linear system and a more complex example using data from a wind tunnel experiment. In particular, we show that the method is effective at capturing the dynamics of surface pressure measurements in the flow over a flat plate with an unsteady separation bubble.
Mildronate as a regulator of protein expression in a rat model of Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND Mildronate (3-[2,2,2-trimethylhydrazinium] propionate dihydrate) traditionally is a well-known cardioprotective drug. However, our recent studies convincingly demonstrated its neuroprotective properties. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of mildronate on the expression of proteins that are involved in the differentiation and survival of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in the rat model of Parkinson's disease (PD). The following biomarkers were used: heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70, a molecular chaperone), glial cell line-derived nerve growth factor (GDNF, a growth factor promoting neuronal differentiation, regeneration, and survival), and neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM). MATERIAL AND METHODS PD was modeled by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) unilateral intrastriatal injection in rats. Mildronate was administered at doses of 10, 20, and 50 mg/kg for 2 weeks intraperitoneally before 6-OHDA injection. Rat brains were dissected on day 28 after discontinuation of mildronate injections. The expression of biomarkers was assessed immunohistochemically and by western blot assay. RESULTS 6-OHDA decreased the expression of Hsp70 and GDNF in the lesioned striatum and substantia nigra, whereas in mildronate-pretreated (20 and 50 mg/kg) rats, the expression of Hsp70 and GDNF was close to the control group values. NCAM expression also was decreased by 6-OHDA in the striatum and it was totally protected by mildronate at a dose of 50 mg/kg. In contrast, in the substantia nigra, 6-OHDA increased the expression of NCAM, while mildronate pretreatment (20 and 50 mg/kg) reversed the 6-OHDA-induced overexpression of NCAM close to the control values. CONCLUSION The obtained data showed that mildronate was capable to regulate the expression of proteins that play a role in the homeostasis of neuro-glial processes.
Effects of dietary threonine and crude protein on growth performance, carcase and meat composition of broiler chickens

1. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of dietary threonine (Thr) and crude protein (CP) in maize–soybean meal based diets on the growth performance, carcase traits and meat composition of broiler chickens and to determine the dietary Thr requirement for optimum performance (weight gain and feed conversion efficiency (FCE)) at 0 to 3 weeks and 3 to 6 weeks of age. 2. Two basal diets that differed in CP (191·3 or 179·7 and 176·7 or 165·4 g/kg at 0 to 3 and 3 to 6 weeks, respectively) were formulated to have identical contents of Thr (6·0 and 5·4 g/kg), energy (12·97 and 13·39 MJ ME/kg) and other essential amino acids except for Gly + Ser. Basal diets were supplemented with l-Thr from 0·6 to 1·8 g/kg in 0·6 g/kg increments. Broiler chicks (540) were randomly allocated to 9 dietary treatments with 6 replicates of 10 (5 female, 5 male) chicks. 3. A significant interaction between dietary CP and Thr was found for feed intake, body weight (BW) gain and FCE. Increasing Thr supplementation improved feed intake, BW gain and FCE, especially in high CP diets in both feeding periods. 4. Incremental increases in dietary Thr increased breast yield at both CP levels and drumstick yield only on high CP diets. The proportion of thigh decreased with Thr concentration. Liver weight was significantly reduced by Thr supplementation; abdominal fat was not affected. 5. Estimated Thr requirements for FCE increased as dietary CP increased according to an exponential model. This model indicated higher Thr requirements than those of broken-line models for growth performance.
GENE EXPRESSION IN HUMAN HEPATOCYTES IN SUSPENSION AFTER ISOLATION IS SIMILAR TO THE LIVER OF ORIGIN, IS NOT AFFECTED BY HEPATOCYTE COLD STORAGE AND CRYOPRESERVATION, BUT IS STRONGLY CHANGED AFTER HEPATOCYTE PLATING

Isolated primary human hepatocytes are a well accepted system for evaluating pharmacological and toxicological effects in humans. However, questions remain regarding how culturing affects the liver-specific functions of the hepatocytes. In addition, cryopreservation could also potentially affect the differentiation state of the hepatocytes. The first aim of the present study was to compare gene expression in freshly isolated primary hepatocytes to that of the liver of origin and to evaluate the expression changes occurring after cryopreservation/thawing, both when maintained in suspension and after plating. The second aim of the present study was to evaluate gene expression in hepatocytes after cold storage of suspensions up to 24 h compared with freshly isolated hepatocytes in suspension. Our results show that the gene expression in freshly isolated human hepatocytes in suspension after isolation is similar to that of the liver of origin. Furthermore, gene expression in primary human hepatocytes in suspension is not affected by hepatocyte cold storage and cryopreservation. However, the gene expression is profoundly affected in monolayer cultures after plating. Specifically, gene expression changes were observed in cultured relative to suspensions of human hepatocytes that are involved in cellular processes such as phase I/II metabolism, basolateral and canalicular transport systems, fatty acid and lipid metabolism, apoptosis, and proteasomal protein recycling. An oxidative stress response may be partially involved in these changes in gene expression. Taken together, these results may aid in the interpretation of data collected from human hepatocyte experiments and suggest additional utility for cold storage and cryopreservation of hepatocytes.
Neurochemical Characterization of Body Weight-Regulating Leptin Receptor Neurons in the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract

The action of peripherally released leptin at long-form leptin receptors (LepRb) within the brain represents a fundamental axis in the regulation of energy homeostasis and body weight. Efforts to delineate the neuronal mediators of leptin action have recently focused on extrahypothalamic populations and have revealed that leptin action within the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) is critical for normal appetite and body weight regulation. To elucidate the neuronal circuits that mediate leptin action within the NTS, we employed multiple transgenic reporter lines to characterize the neurochemical identity of LepRb-expressing NTS neurons. LepRb expression was not detected in energy balance-associated NTS neurons that express cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neuropeptide Y, nesfatin, catecholamines, γ-aminobutyric acid, prolactin-releasing peptide, or nitric oxide synthase. The population of LepRb-expressing NTS neurons was comprised of subpopulations marked by a proopiomelanocortin-enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) transgene and distinct populations that express proglucagon and/or cholecystokinin. The significance of leptin action on these three populations of NTS neurons was assessed in leptin-deficient Ob/Ob mice, revealing increased NTS proglucagon and cholecystokinin, but not proopiomelanocortin, expression. These data provide new insight into the appetitive brainstem circuits engaged by leptin.
A Highly Sensitive Porous Silicon (P-Si)-Based Human Kallikrein 2 (hK2) Immunoassay Platform toward Accurate Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

Levels of total human kallikrein 2 (hK2), a protein involved the pathology of prostate cancer (PCa), could be used as a biomarker to aid in the diagnosis of this disease. In this study, we report on a porous silicon antibody immunoassay platform for the detection of serum levels of total hK2. The surface of porous silicon has a 3-dimensional macro- and nanoporous structure, which offers a large binding capacity for capturing probe molecules. The tailored pore size of the porous silicon also allows efficient immobilization of antibodies by surface adsorption, and does not require chemical immobilization. Monoclonal hK2 capture antibody (6B7) was dispensed onto P-Si chip using a piezoelectric dispenser. In total 13 × 13 arrays (169 spots) were spotted on the chip with its single spot volume of 300 pL. For an optimization of capture antibody condition, we firstly performed an immunoassay of the P-Si microarray under a titration series of hK2 in pure buffer (PBS) at three different antibody densities (75, 100 and 145 µg/mL). The best performance of the microarray platform was seen at 100 µg/mL of the capture antibody concentration (LOD was 100 fg/mL). The platform then was subsequently evaluated for a titration series of serum-spiked hK2 samples. The developed platform utilizes only 15 µL of serum per test and the total assay time is about 3 h, including immobilization of the capture antibody. The detection limit of the hK2 assay was 100 fg/mL in PBS buffer and 1 pg/mL in serum with a dynamic range of 106 (10−4 to 102 ng/mL).
On Combining Multiple Features for Cartoon Character Retrieval and Clip Synthesis

How do we retrieve cartoon characters accurately? Or how to synthesize new cartoon clips smoothly and efficiently from the cartoon library? Both questions are important for animators and cartoon enthusiasts to design and create new cartoons by utilizing existing cartoon materials. The first key issue to answer those questions is to find a proper representation that describes the cartoon character effectively. In this paper, we consider multiple features from different views, i.e., color histogram, Hausdorff edge feature, and skeleton feature, to represent cartoon characters with different colors, shapes, and gestures. Each visual feature reflects a unique characteristic of a cartoon character, and they are complementary to each other for retrieval and synthesis. However, how to combine the three visual features is the second key issue of our application. By simply concatenating them into a long vector, it will end up with the so-called “curse of dimensionality,” let alone their heterogeneity embedded in different visual feature spaces. Here, we introduce a semisupervised multiview subspace learning (semi-MSL) algorithm, to encode different features in a unified space. Specifically, under the patch alignment framework, semi-MSL uses the discriminative information from labeled cartoon characters in the construction of local patches where the manifold structure revealed by unlabeled cartoon characters is utilized to capture the geometric distribution. The experimental evaluations based on both cartoon character retrieval and clip synthesis demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for cartoon application. Moreover, additional results of content-based image retrieval on benchmark data suggest the generality of semi-MSL for other applications.
Fabrication and electromechanical examination of a spherical dielectric elastomer actuator

In this paper, a procedure for fabricating and testing a seamless spherical dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) is presented. In previously developed spherical prototypes, the DEA material is pre-strained by a rigid frame to improve the actuator’s output force; however, it is possible to pre-strain a spherical DEA by inflating the sample with a liquid or gas as long as the sample contains the pressure. In this work, a very compliant silicone-based material was used to fabricate a nearly spherical balloon-shaped prototype. The DEA sample was inflated by air and various electrical-actuation regimes were considered. The performance of the DEA sample was studied using an analytical and a finite element-based model. An Ogden hyperelastic model was used in formulation of the analytical model to include nonlinear behavior of the silicone material. Full statistical analysis of the experimental and numerical results was carried out using the root-mean-square (RMS) error and the normalized RMS error. The analytical and FEM results were in good agreement with the experimental data. According to modeling results, it was found that the DEA’s actuation force can be mainly improved by increasing the voltage, reducing the thickness, lowering the stiffness, and/or increasing the initial pressure. As an example, a three-fold increase of the actuation force was found when the thickness was reduced to half of its initial value. This improvement of the efficiency suggests that the spherical DEA is suitable for use in several applications if an appropriate design with optimal governing parameters is developed.