Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Galactic Center Shells and a Recurrent Starburst Model

By applying filtering techniques to remove straight filaments in the 20-cm VLA radio image of the Galactic Center Arc region, we have shown that numerous concentric radio shells of radii 5 to 20pc are surrounding the Pistol and Sickle region, which we call Galactic Center Shells (GCS). Each shell has thermal energy of the order of 10 49–50 erg. Several CO-line shells are associated, whose kinetic energies are of the order of 10 49–50 erg. Summing up the energies of recognized GCSs, the total energy amounts to ∼10 51 erg. The GCSs show an excellent correlation with the FIR shells observed at 16–26 µm with the MSX. We propose a model in which GCSs were produced by recurrent and/or intermittent starbursts in the Pistol area during the last million years. The most recent burst occurred some 10 5 years ago, producing an inner round-shaped shell (GCS I); earlier ones a million years ago produced outer shells (GCS II and III), which are more deformed by interactions with the surrounding ISM and Sgr A halo. We argue that recurrent starbursts had also occurred in the past, which produced larger scale hyper-shell structures as well. A burst some million years ago produced the Galactic Center Lobe, and a much stronger one 15 million years ago produced the North Polar Spur.
A Survey of Software Based Energy Saving Methodologies for Handheld Wireless Communication Devices

Advances in computing hardware, communications technologies, and novel multimedia applications are spurring the development of smart phones and personal digital assistants. There is world-wide accessibility to 2G, 3G, and WiFi networks. Some examples of well-known wireless handheld devices are BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Kindle. On the one hand, small size and light weight are their attractive features for high mobility and accessibility. On the other hand, the same features impose significant constraints on their processing, memory, and energy storage capabilities, thereby limiting the device’s general functionalities and availabilty. User expectations in terms of performance from handheld devices are ever increasing. In addition to performance expectations, the requirement of portability imposes severe constraints on sizeand weight of a handheld system. Consequently, batteries too are small and light, and, therefore, the system energy budget is severely limited. The amount of energy in a fully charged battery is one of the important resources of a handheld system, and battery lifetime is an important characteristic. Unfortunately, improvements in energy density of batteries have not kept pace with the advancements in microelectronics technology. Therefore, researchers have proposed novel architectures, strategies, methodologies, and techniques to make handheld devices energy efficient. In this paper, we study the results published in about 200 reserach papers to have a comprehensive understanding of the various approaches to make handheld devices energy efficient. We present our study in the form of 15 cohesive sections that include the following topics: related surveys, smart batteries, energy-efficient graphical user interfa ce design, the concept of a sleep state for an operating system, power efficient communication, proxy assisted energy saving, source-level power control, transport control protocol based energy saving, upper-level power management, virtual memory on the network, programming and compilation techniques, integrated power management, energy estimation models, impacts of dynamic power management (DPM) strategies, and future directions in energy saving.
Controller design for Cuk converter using model order reduction

Cuk converter contain two inductor and two capacitor hence it is fourth order dc-dc converter. It provides output voltage both higher as well as lower than the input voltage. Design of feedback compensator for fourth order system is quite complex. In this paper, model order reduction technique is used for controller design of Cuk converter. First small signal dynamic model for Cuk converter using state space analysis (SSA) is obtained which provides fourth order transfer function. Then this fourth order transfer function is reduced to second order using Pade approximation.
Radioiodine Therapy Does Not Change the Atherosclerotic Burden of the Carotid Arteries

Background and aim: Atherosclerosis evolves or accelerates when arteries are exposed to ionizing radiation, both early and late after exposure. Radioiodine therapy of benign thyroid disease exposes the carotid arteries to 4–50 Gy, and may thereby increase the risk of atherosclerosis. Increased risk of cerebrovascular events has been reported after radioiodine therapy. This study aimed to examine whether atherosclerosis develops early or late after radioiodine therapy of benign thyroid disease. Method: Patients treated for benign thyroid disorders (nontoxic goiter, adenoma, and hyperthyroidism) were examined with ultrasound for the main outcome, carotid intima media thickness (CIMT), and for plaque presence (plaque presence only in late damage). Signs of early damage from radioiodine were studied in 39 radioiodine-treated patients, who were examined before treatment and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment. Late changes were studied in a cross-sectional case-control design, with radioiodine-treated patients as cases (n = 193) and patients treated with surgery as controls (n = 95). Data were analyzed with repeated measurement for longitudinal data, and with multivariate regression for cross-sectional data. Results were adjusted for age, sex, cholesterol, smoking status, known atherosclerotic disease, and body mass index. Results: No changes in CIMT were found in the patients followed prospectively for one year after treatment with radioactive iodine for benign thyroid disease (p = 0.58). In the study on late effects, there was no difference in CIMT (p = 0.25) or presence of plaques (p = 0.70) between those treated with radioactive iodine and those treated with surgery (9.8 and 5.6 years since treatment, respectively). Furthermore, the level of thyrotropin (TSH) did not influence these atherosclerosis markers. Conclusion: No early changes in CIMT were detected in patients treated with radioactive iodine for benign thyroid disease. No signs of late effects of radioactive iodine on CIMT or plaque presence were found after 10 years of follow-up. The radiation to the carotid arteries by radioactive iodine therapy for benign thyroid disease may therefore have no or low effect on atherosclerotic burden of the carotid arteries in general.
Scalable Discrete Supervised Hash Learning with Asymmetric Matrix Factorization

Hashing methods map similar data to binary hashcodes with smaller hamming distance, and it has received a broad attention due to its low storage cost and fast retrieval speed. However, the existing limitations make the present algorithms difficult to deal with large-scale datasets: (1) discrete constraints are involved in the learning of the hash function, (2) pairwise or triplet similarity is adopted to generate efficient hashcodes, resulting both time and space complexity are greater than O(n2). To address these issues, we propose a novel discrete supervised hash learning framework which can be scalable to large-scale datasets. First, the learning procedure is decomposed into a binary classifier learning scheme and hashcodes learning scheme. Second, we adopt the Asymmetric Low-rank Matrix Factorization and propose the Fast Clustering-based Batch Coordinate Descent method, such that the time and space complexity is reduced to O(n). The proposed framework also provides a flexible paradigm to incorporate with arbitrary hash function, including deep neural networks. Experiments on large-scale datasets demonstrate that the proposed method is superior or comparable with state-of-the-art hashing algorithms.
A Dual-Notch +27dBm Tx-Power Electrical-Balance Duplexer

An electrical-balance duplexer uses series connected step-down transformers to enhance linearity and power handling capability by reducing the voltage swing across nonlinear components. Wideband, dual-notch Tx-to-Rx isolation is demonstrated experimentally with a planar inverted-F antenna. The 0. 18μm CMOS prototype achieves >50dB isolation for 220MHz aggregated bandwidth or >40dB dual-notch isolation for 160MHz bandwidth, +49dBm Tx-path IIP3 and -48dBc ACLR1 for +27dBm at the antenna.
Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 Expression and Functionality in MCF-7 Cells: A Preliminary Investigation

Purpose Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a nonselective cation channel belonging to the transient receptor potential family, and it is expressed in different neoplastic tissues. Its activation is associated with regulation of cancer growth and progression. The aim of this research was to study the expression and pharmacological characteristics of TRPV1 in cells derived from human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Methods TRPV1 presence was assessed by binding studies and Western blotting. Receptor binding characteristics were evaluated through competition assays, while 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5,-dipheyltetrazolium bromide reduction assays were performed to confirm an early hypothesis regarding the modulation of cancer cell proliferation. The functionality of TRPV1 was evaluated by measuring Ca2+ uptake in the presence of increasing concentrations of TRPV1 agonists and antagonists. Results Binding studies identified a single class of TRPV1 (Bmax 1,492±192 fmol/mg protein), and Western blot showed a signal at 100 kDa corresponding to the molecular weight of human TRPV1. Among the different tested agonists and antagonists, anandamide (Ki: 2.8×10-11 M) and 5-iodoresiniferatoxin (5-I-RTX) (Ki: 5.6×10-11 M) showed the highest degrees of affinity for TRPV1, respectively. All tested TRPV1 agonists and antagonists caused a significant (p<0.05) decrease in cell growth rate in MCF-7 cells. For agonists and antagonists, the efficacy of tested compounds displayed the following rank order: resiniferatoxin>anandamide>capsaicin and 5-I-RTX=capsazepine, respectively. Conclusion These data indicate that both TRPV1 agonists and antagonists induce significant inhibition of MCF-7 cell growth. Even though the mechanisms involved in the antiproliferative effects of TRPV1 agonists and antagonists should be further investigated, it has been suggested that agonists cause desensitization of the receptor, leading to alteration in Ca2+-influx regulation. By contrast, antagonists cause a functional block of the receptor with consequent fatal dysregulation of cell homeostasis.
Blockade of Interplay between IL-17A and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Attenuates LPS-Induced Lung Injury

IL-17 is a cytokine mainly from IL-17-producing T cells, which are one of subsets of CD4+ T cells and play a role in adaptive immune system. Recent studies have demonstrated that IL-17A can act rapidly as an innate immune responder during infection before the onset of its classic adaptive immune response. This role of IL-17A in innate immune response is implicated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced lung inflammation. Very recently, we have reported that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is involved in LPS-induced lung inflammation in vivo and in vitro. This study aimed to elucidate the role of IL-17A in LPS-induced lung injury, focusing on the link with ER stress. We treated a murine model of LPS-induced lung injury with IL-17A neutralizing antibody and 4-phenylbutyrate (4-PBA), a representative ER stress inhibitor. In addition, we evaluated the effects of IL-17A on ER stress in LPS-stimulated bronchial epithelial cells. Our results showed that inhibition of IL-17A decreased LPS-induced pulmonary neutrophilia, vascular leakage, nuclear translocation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), infiltration of dendritic cells, increased expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), activation of NLRP3 inflammasome, and increased ER stress in the lung. 4-PBA or TAK-242, a TLR4 inhibitor attenuated expression of IL-17A thereby improving LPS-induced lung inflammation. Intriguingly, we observed that stimulation with LPS increased expression of IL-17A in airway epithelial cells and co-stimulation with IL-17A further increased ER stress and NF-κB activation. This study indicates that the interrelationship between IL-17A and ER stress plays an important role in LPS-induced injury showing a positive feedback in airway epithelial cells and suggests that targeting their interaction can be a potential therapeutic approach to overcome one of severe refractory pulmonary disorders.
Skeletal effects of long-duration head-down bed rest.

INTRODUCTION Skeletal unloading during spaceflight causes regional loss of bone mineral density (BMD), primarily in the spine and lower body regions. This loss of skeletal mass could adversely affect crew health during and after spaceflight and jeopardize mission success. Bed rest has long been used as a spaceflight analog to study the effects of disuse on many body systems, including the skeleton. This study was undertaken by the NASA Flight Analogs Project (FAP) to collect control data for upcoming countermeasure studies. METHODS There were 13 subjects who participated in 42, 44, 49, 52, 60, or 90 d of continuous, head-down bed rest. DXA scans (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry) were obtained before and after bed rest to measure changes in BMD of the whole body, lumbar spine, hip, heel, and wrist; the 90-d subjects were also scanned at the 60-d time point. Follow-up DXA scans were performed after 6 mo and 12 mo of reambulation to assess BMD recovery. RESULTS BMD changes were consistent with earlier bed rest and spaceflight studies, with statistically significant losses averaging 1% per month in the hip, pelvis, and heel. Recovery data were also consistent with data obtained after spaceflight. Bone biomarker data are described, and support the findings of previous studies. Specifically, the process of normal bone remodeling is uncoupled: increased bone resorption with no concomitant change in bone formation. CONCLUSION The FAP appears to be a valid test bed for skeletal disuse studies, and should provide a useful research platform for evaluating countermeasures to spaceflight-induced bone loss.
Vascular variations of liver and gallbladder: a case report

Vascular variations in and around the porta hepatis are common. A sound knowledge of possible variations at these sites is vital for surgeons during laparoscopic cholecystectomy and surgical resection of the liver lobes. We report the case of several variations of the hepatic and cystic arteries in which, the common hepatic artery trifurcated into the gastroduodenal, right hepatic, and left hepatic arteries. The right gastric artery arose from the left hepatic artery and divided into a left and a right branch. The left branch entered the liver through the porta hepatis, while the right branch passed behind the common hepatic duct into the Calot's triangle, provided 2 branches to the gallbladder, and continued to supply the right hepatic lobe. Ligation of the right branch of the right hepatic artery in Calot's triangle during cholecystectomy could cause avascular necrosis of the liver segments it supplies.
Herding, Information Cascades and Volatility Spillovers in Futures Markets

Economists and financial analysts have begun to recognise the importance of the actions of other agents in the decision-making process. Herding is the deliberate mimicking of the decisions of other agents. Examples of mimicry range from the choice of restaurant, fashion and financial market participants, to academic research. Herding may conjure negative images of irrational agents sheepishly following the actions of others, but such actions can be rational under asymmetric information and uncertainty. This paper uses futures position data in nine different markets of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to provide a direct test of herding behaviour, namely the extent to which small traders mimic the positions of large speculators. Evidence consistent with herding among small traders is found for the Canadian dollar, British pound, gold, S&P 500 and Nikkei 225 futures. Consistent with survey-based results on technical analysis, the positions are significantly correlated with both current and past market returns. Using various time-varying volatility models to accommodate conditional heteroskedasticity, the empirical results are found to be robust to alternative models and methods of estimation. When a test of causality-in-variance is used to analyse if volatility among small traders spills over into spot markets, it is found that spillovers occur only with Nikkei 225 futures. The policy implications of the findings are also discussed.
Meta-Analysis of Mitochondrial DNA Variation in the Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula has been the focus of attention of numerous studies dealing with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation, most of them targeting the control region segment. In the present study we sequenced the control region of 3,024 Spanish individuals from areas where available data were still limited. We also compiled mtDNA haplotypes from the literature involving 4,588 sequences and 28 population groups or small regions. We meta-analyzed all these data in order to shed further light on patterns of geographic variation, taking advantage of the large sample size and geographic coverage, in contrast with the atomized sampling strategy of previous work. The results indicate that the main mtDNA haplogroups show primarily clinal geographic patterns across the Iberian geography, roughly along a North-South axis. Haplogroup HV0 (where haplogroup U is nested) is more prevalent in the Franco Cantabrian region, in good agreement with previous findings that identified this area as a climate refuge during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), prior to a subsequent demographic re-expansion towards Central Europe and the Mediterranean. Typical sub-Saharan and North African lineages are slightly more prevalent in South Iberia, although at low frequencies; this pattern has been shaped mainly by the transatlantic slave trade and the Arab invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The results also indicate that summary statistics that aim to measure molecular variation, or AMOVA, have limited sensitivity to detect population substructure, in contrast to patterns revealed by phylogeographic analysis. Overall, the results suggest that mtDNA variation in Iberia is substantially stratified. These patterns might be relevant in biomedical studies given that stratification is a common cause of false positives in case-control mtDNA association studies, and should be also considered when weighting the DNA evidence in forensic casework, which is strongly dependent on haplotype frequencies.
School environment and mastery experience as predictors of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards inclusive teaching

ABSTRACT Teacher self-efficacy plays a key role in the successful inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities in mainstream schools. But what influences self-efficacy and how can we support its growth? Drawing on Social Cognitive Theory, the study examined teachers’ mastery experiences, perceptions of the school environment, self-efficacy and reported inclusive teaching. The sample comprised 148 primary school teachers from Scottish mainstream schools. Participants completed questionnaires measuring mastery experiences, the school environment (collective efficacy and school climate perceptions), self-efficacy and reported inclusive teaching practices. Regression analyses demonstrated that school environment (collective efficacy and school climate), and mastery experiences were important in predicting teachers’ self-efficacy. Further, self-efficacy acted as a mediator between teachers’ perceptions of the school climate and reported inclusive behaviour. This brings us closer to understanding how teacher self-efficacy is fostered and the role of the school environment. Engaging with teacher belief systems may cultivate a school climate that promotes inclusion.
Excision of an Unstable Pathogenicity Island in Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis Is Induced during Infection of Phagocytic Cells

The availability of the complete genome sequence of several Salmonella enterica serovars has revealed the presence of unstable genetic elements in these bacteria, such as pathogenicity islands and prophages. This is the case of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis), a bacterium that causes gastroenteritis in humans and systemic infection in mice. The whole genome sequence analysis for S. Enteritidis unveiled the presence of several genetic regions that are absent in other Salmonella serovars. These regions have been denominated “regions of difference” (ROD). In this study we show that ROD21, one of such regions, behaves as an unstable pathogenicity island. We observed that ROD21 undergoes spontaneous excision by two independent recombination events, either under laboratory growth conditions or during infection of murine cells. Importantly, we also found that one type of excision occurred at higher rates when S. Enteritidis was residing inside murine phagocytic cells. These data suggest that ROD21 is an unstable pathogenicity island, whose frequency of excision depends on the environmental conditions found inside phagocytic cells.
Interval-Based Conceptual Models for Time-Dependent Multimedia Data

Multimedia data often have time dependencies that must be satisfied at presentation time. To support a general-purpose multimedia information system, these timing relationships must be managed to provide utility to both the data presentation system and the multimedia author. New conceptual models for capturing these timing relationships, and managing them as part of a database are proposed. Specifically, n-ary and reverse temporal relations are introduced and defined along with their temporal constraints. These new relations are a generalization of earlier temporal models and establish the basis for conceptual database structures and temporal access control algorithms to facilitate forward, reverse, and partial-interval evaluation during multimedia object playout. The proposed relations are defined to ensure a property of monotonically increasing playout deadlines to facilitate both real-time deadline-driven playout scheduling or optimistic interval-based process playout. A translation of the conceptual models to a structure suitable for a relational database is presented. >
Epidermal stem cell diversity and quiescence

Mammalian epidermis is maintained by self‐renewal of stem cells and terminal differentiation of their progeny. New data reveal a diversity amongst stem cells that was previously unrecognized. Different stem cell populations have different locations and differ in whether they are quiescent or actively cycling. During normal epidermal homeostasis, each stem cell population feeds a restricted number of differentiated lineages. However, in response to injury or genetic manipulation the different pools of stem cells demonstrate multi‐lineage differentiation ability. While it is well established that Wnt signalling promotes hair follicle (HF) differentiation, new observations suggest a role for EGF receptor signalling in promoting differentiation of interfollicular epidermis. NFATc1 maintains quiescence in the HF, while Lrig1 exerts the same function in the junctional zone. The stage is now set for exploring the relationship between the different epidermal stem cell populations and between quiescence and lineage selection.