Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Anti‐IL‐2Rα Antibody on IL‐2‐induced Jak/STAT Signaling

Acute allograft rejection is driven by production of cytokines such as interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) that activate and expand alloreactive T cells by ligating high‐affinity IL‐2 receptors composed of three subunit chains: α, β, γ. The α chain, expressed only on activated T cells, has become an important therapeutic target. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that bind IL‐2Rα chains significantly decrease transplant rejection. We examined the ability of the humanized anti‐IL‐2Rα antibody daclizumab to block high‐affinity IL‐2Rs and interrupt T‐lymphocyte signaling. Our evaluation focused on a pathway critical for T‐cell proliferation, the Jak/STAT pathway. Daclizumab markedly inhibited phosphorylation of the Jak1, Jak3 and STAT5a/b components of the IL‐2R‐dependent pathway. Suppression by daclizumab was associated with internalization of IL‐2Rα but not IL‐2Rβγ chains. High IL‐2 doses overcame daclizumab‐induced blockade of Jak/STAT phosphorylation despite absent cell surface high‐affinity IL‐2Rs. Under these circumstances, IL‐2‐mediated Jak/STAT pathway activation might be generated through residual intermediate affinity IL‐2Rβγ receptors, and this was demonstrated by complete blockade of signaling when anti‐IL‐2Rβ monoclonal antibody was added. Humanized antibodies are an important part of strategies to induce alloantigen tolerance. Understanding the molecular events associated with their beneficial clinical effect is critical to design of future immunosuppressive strategies.
An Adaptive Takagi–Sugeno Fuzzy Model-Based Predictive Controller for Piezoelectric Actuators

Piezoelectric actuators (PEAs) are widely used in the nanopositioning applications due to their high stiffness, fast response, and ultrahigh precision. However, PEAs inherently have the hysteresis nonlinearity which can dramatically degrade the tracking performance. This paper proposes an adaptive Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model-based predictive controller with a parallel distributed control structure. Compared to the previous results, the proposed controller does not require the inverse hysteresis model of PEAs, and is easy to be calculated because the predictive subcontroller for each T–S fuzzy rule has an explicit form. Meanwhile, the parameters in the T–S fuzzy model can be online adjusted according to the real-time tracking error feedback, and the offline training accuracy of the T–S fuzzy model is no longer a serious concern. In addition, some physical constraints of the proposed controller can be well handled. To verify the proposed method, experiments are conducted on a commercial PEA product, and experiment results show that the proposed method has a satisfactory tracking performance. Furthermore, comparisons with some existing controllers are made and the proposed adaptive fuzzy model-based predictive controller outperforms these controllers.
Some Environmental Contaminants Influence Motor and Feeding Behaviors in the Ornate Wrasse (Thalassoma pavo) via Distinct Cerebral Histamine Receptor Subtypes

Common environmental contaminants such as heavy metals and pesticides pose serious risks to behavioral and neuroendocrine functions of many aquatic organisms. In the present study, we show that the heavy metal cadmium and the pesticide endosulfan produce such effects through an interaction of specific cerebral histamine receptor subtypes in the teleost ornate wrasse (Thalassoma pavo). Treatment of this teleost with toxic cadmium levels for 1 week was sufficient to induce abnormal swimming movements, whereas reduced feeding behaviors were provoked predominantly by elevated endosulfan concentrations. In the brain, these environmental contaminants caused neuronal degeneration in cerebral targets such as the mesencephalon and hypothalamus, damage that appeared to correlate with altered binding levels of the three major histamine receptors (subtypes 1, 2, and 3). Although cadmium accounted for reduced binding activity of all three subtypes in most brain regions, it was subtype 2 that seemed to be its main target, as shown by a very great (p < 0.001) down-regulation in mesencephalic areas such as the stratum griseum central layer. Conversely, endosulfan provided very great and great (p < 0.01) up-regulating effects of subtype 3 and 1 levels, respectively, in preoptic-hypothalamic areas such as the medial part of the lateral tuberal nucleus, and in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. These results suggest that the neurotoxicant-dependent abnormal motor and feeding behaviors may well be tightly linked to binding activities of distinct histamine subtypes in localized brain regions of the Thalassoma pavo.
Validation of the Ability of SYNTAX and Clinical SYNTAX Scores to Predict Adverse Cardiovascular Events After Stent Implantation

To compare the predicative ability of SYNTAX (Synergy between PCI with Taxus and Cardiac Surgery) and clinical SYNTAX scores for major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) after stent implantation in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Studies were identified by electronic and manual searches. Twenty-six studies were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled C-statistics of SYNTAX score for 1- and 5-year all-cause mortality (ACM) were 0.65 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.61-0.68) and 0.62 (95% CI: 0.59-0.65), respectively, with weak heterogeneity. The 1- and 5-year ACM pooled C-statistics for clinical SYNTAX scores were significantly higher at 0.77 and 0.71, respectively (Ps < .05). Both scoring systems predicted 1- and 5-year MACE equally well. The pooled risk ratio of the SYNTAX score for predicting 1-year ACM per unit was 1.04 (95% CI: 1.03-1.05). Calibration analysis indicated SYNTAX scores overestimated the risk of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events in each risk stratum. The SYNTAX score demonstrated minimal discrimination in predicting 1- or 5-year adverse cardiovascular events after percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with CAD. The clinical SYNTAX score could further improve the predictive capability for ACM but not MACE.
Enzymatic synthesis of β‐glucosylglycerol using a continuous‐flow microreactor containing thermostable β‐glycoside hydrolase CelB immobilized on coated microchannel walls

β‐Glucosylglycerol (βGG) has potential applications as a moisturizing agent in cosmetic products. A stereochemically selective method of its synthesis is kinetically controlled enzymatic transglucosylation from a suitable donor substrate to glycerol as acceptor. Here, the thermostable β‐glycosidase CelB from Pyrococcus furiosus was used to develop a microstructured immobilized enzyme reactor for production of βGG under conditions of continuous flow at 70°C. Using CelB covalently attached onto coated microchannel walls to give an effective enzyme activity of 30 U per total reactor working volume of 25 µL, substrate conversion and formation of transglucosylation product was monitored in dependence of glucosyl donor (2‐nitrophenyl‐β‐D‐glucoside (oNPGlc), 3.0 or 15 mM; cellobiose, 250 mM), the concentration of glycerol (0.25–1.0 M), and the average residence time (0.2–90 s). Glycerol caused a concentration‐dependent decrease in the conversion of the glucosyl donor via hydrolysis and strongly suppressed participation of the substrate in the reaction as glucosyl acceptor. The yields of βGG were ≥80% and ≈60% based on oNPGlc and cellobiose converted, respectively, and maintained up to near exhaustion of substrate (≥80%), giving about 120 mM (30 g/L) of βGG from the reaction of cellobiose and 1 M glycerol. The structure of the transglucosylation products, 1‐O‐β‐D‐glucopyranosyl‐rac‐glycerol (79%) and 2‐O‐β‐D‐glucopyranosyl‐sn‐glycerol (21%), was derived from NMR analysis of the product mixture of cellobiose conversion. The microstructured reactor showed conversion characteristics similar to those for a batchwise operated stirred reactor employing soluble CelB. The advantage of miniaturization to the microfluidic format lies in the fast characterization of full reaction time courses for a range of process conditions using only a minimum amount of enzyme. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;103: 865–872. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Optimal placement of UPFC for maximizing system loadability and minimizing active power losses in system stability margins by NSGA-II

This paper presents application of a new variant of Genetic Algorithm specialized in multi-objective optimizations problem known as Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) to obtain optimal allocation of one type of FACTS controllers namely: Unified Power Flow Controllers (UPFC) for improving the performance of the power system. Two objective functions are simultaneously considered as the indexes of the system performance; maximization of system loadability in system stability margins (voltage stability index and line stability factor) and minimization of active power losses in transmission line by considering installation cost of UPFC controller. The UPFC controller are modelled and incorporated in the Newton Raphson Power flow problem. Simulation studies are undertaken on a standard IEEE 30-bus test system and a practical Java-Bali 24-bus of Indonesian system. Results demonstrate that the static performances of the power system can be effectively enhanced due to the optimal allocation of single UPFC controller.
Generating images with recurrent adversarial networks

Gatys et al. (2015) showed that optimizing pixels to match features in a convolutional network with respect reference image features is a way to render images of high visual quality. We show that unrolling this gradient-based optimization yields a recurrent computation that creates images by incrementally adding onto a visual "canvas". We propose a recurrent generative model inspired by this view, and show that it can be trained using adversarial training to generate very good image samples. We also propose a way to quantitatively compare adversarial networks by having the generators and discriminators of these networks compete against each other.
Towards Gender-Dependent Babble Maskers for Speech Privacy Protection

In this paper, we investigated on an efficient masker for speech privacy protection. Previously, we proposed and evaluated a speaker-dependent masker which is created from speech of the speaker being masked. This masker was proven to lower the intelligibility of speech at a much lower level than conventional babble maskers. However, this masker needs to be prepared for each potential speaker, and may be expensive to create and maintain. Accordingly, we investigated on an alternative masker, where the speech is masked by a masker created from a different speaker of the same gender. We measured the effectiveness of this gender-dependent masker, and found that male gender-dependent masker is feasible, with efficiency almost equal to the previously proposed speaker-dependent masker. However, female speech was not as effectively masked, and needs further investigation.
Driver trust in five driver assistance technologies following real-world use in four production vehicles

ABSTRACT Objectives: Information about drivers' experiences with driver assistance technologies in real driving conditions is sparse. This study characterized driver interactions with forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, active lane keeping, side-view assist, and lane departure warning systems following real-world use. Methods: Fifty-four Insurance Institute for Highway Safety employees participated and drove a 2016 Toyota Prius, 2016 Honda Civic, 2017 Audi Q7, or 2016 Infiniti QX60 for up to several weeks. Participants reported mileage and warnings from the technologies in an online daily-use survey. Participants reported their level of agreement with five statements regarding trust in an online post-use survey. Responses were averaged to create a composite measure of trust ranging from −2 (strongly disagree) to +2 (strongly agree) for each technology. Mixed-effect regression models were constructed to compare trust among technologies and separately among the study vehicles. Participants' free-response answers about what they liked least about each system were coded and examined. Results: Participants reported driving 33,584 miles during 4 months of data collection. At least one forward collision warning was reported in 26% of the 354 daily reports. The proportion of daily reports indicating a forward collision warning was much larger for the Honda (70%) than for the Audi (18%), Infiniti (15%), and Toyota (10%). Trust was highest for side-view assist (0.98) and lowest for active lane keeping (0.20). Trust in side-view assist was significantly higher than trust in active lane keeping and lane departure warning (0.53). Trust in active lane keeping was significantly lower than trust in adaptive cruise control (0.67) and forward collision warning (0.71). Trust in adaptive cruise control was higher for the Audi (0.72) and Toyota (0.75) compared with the Honda (0.30), and significantly higher for the Infiniti (0.93). Trust in Infiniti's side-view assist (0.58) was significantly lower than trust in Audi (1.17) and Honda (1.23) systems. Coding of answers to free-response questions showed that more than 80% of complaints about Honda's adaptive cruise control were about the way it functioned and/or performed. Infiniti's side-view assist was the only one with complaints mentioning circumstances where it was used. Trust in forward collision warning, lane departure warning, and active lane keeping was not significantly different among vehicles. Conclusions: Driver trust varied among driver assistance technologies, and trust in adaptive cruise control and side-view assist differed among vehicles. Trust may affect real-world use of driver assistance technologies and limit the opportunity for the systems to provide their intended benefits.
Accelerating Africa's Structural Transformation Lessons from East Asia

In most countries in sub-Saharan Africa at present, the majority of the population is engaged in agriculture, with economies in the very early stages of structural transformation— the process whereby a predominantly agrarian economy is transformed into a diversified and productive economy dominated by manufacturing and services. These countries are characterized by low levels of farm productivity, limited growth of non-farm employment, and high rates of population growth, usually close to 3% or more, because sharp declines in mortality have not been followed by significant declines in birth rates. This chapter focuses on the factors involved in fostering a country’s structural transformation. The process of structural transformation has many dimensions. Among these, we emphasize the interactions between four factors: increased agricultural productivity, rural industrialization, the expansion of agricultural markets, and the demographic transition, which are critical to
Wing patterning gene redefines the mimetic history of Heliconius butterflies

The mimetic butterflies Heliconius erato and Heliconius melpomene have undergone parallel radiations to form a near-identical patchwork of over 20 different wing-pattern races across the Neotropics. Previous molecular phylogenetic work on these radiations has suggested that similar but geographically disjunct color patterns arose multiple times independently in each species. The neutral markers used in these studies, however, can move freely across color pattern boundaries, and therefore might not represent the history of the adaptive traits as accurately as markers linked to color pattern genes. To assess the evolutionary histories across different loci, we compared relationships among races within H. erato and within H. melpomene using a series of unlinked genes, genes linked to color pattern loci, and optix, a gene recently shown to control red color-pattern variation. We found that although unlinked genes partition populations by geographic region, optix had a different history, structuring lineages by red color patterns and supporting a single origin of red-rayed patterns within each species. Genes closely linked (80–250 kb) to optix exhibited only weak associations with color pattern. This study empirically demonstrates the necessity of examining phenotype-determining genomic regions to understand the history of adaptive change in rapidly radiating lineages. With these refined relationships, we resolve a long-standing debate about the origins of the races within each species, supporting the hypothesis that the red-rayed Amazonian pattern evolved recently and expanded, causing disjunctions of more ancestral patterns.
Exposure of Human Platelets to Plasmin Results in the Expression of Irreversibly Active Fibrinogen Receptors

Summary Although plasmin can trigger strong platelet responses such as shape change and exocytosis of internal granules, limited platelet aggregation is induced by this proteinase, owing to its capacity to rapidly proteolyse secreted adhesive proteins. In this context, we have investigated the state of activation of the fibrinogen receptor, the integrin αIIbβ3, on platelets exposed to plasmin. Following incubation with plasmin at 37 °C, washing, and resuspension, platelets exhibit a moderate, low-velocity aggregation when stirred in the presence of fibrinogen. Optimum aggregability is observed when platelets have been exposed to plasmin activity of ≈0.5 CU/ml for 20 min, and aggregation is insensitive to the presence of antagonists such as prostaglandin (PG) E1 and apyrase. Plasmin-induced platelet aggregability is associated with the expression of active fibrinogen receptors on the cell surface, which, using a l25I-fibrinogen binding assay, can be quantified to ≈2,300 molecules per platelet. Exposure of active αIIbβ3 receptors appears to depend partially, but not totally on a metabolic activation and granule exocytosis at the time of incubation with plasmin. In contrast with a-thrombin, plasmin-induced activation of αIIbβ3 is sustained and cannot be reversed by exposure of platelets to PGE1. Immunoblotting analysis of the receptor subunits shows no extensive proteolytic modification of αIIbβ3 by plasmin, and only reveals a limited proteolysis of the aminoterminal domain of the αIIb subunit. In addition to their capacity to aggregate in the presence of fibrinogen alone, plasmin-treated platelets also show a potentiated aggregability in response to low doses of ADP. Thus, plasmin has the potential to activate the platelet fibrinogen receptor in such a way that it remains irreversibly available to fibrinogen on the surface of nonaggregated cells, a feature that may participate to pathological states of in vivo platelet hyperaggregability.
Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation Open Access Socially Assistive Robotics for Post-stroke Rehabilitation

Background: Although there is a great deal of success in rehabilitative robotics applied to patient recovery post stroke, most of the research to date has dealt with providing physical assistance. However, new rehabilitation studies support the theory that not all therapy need be hands-on. We describe a new area, called socially assistive robotics, that focuses on non-contact patient/user assistance. We demonstrate the approach with an implemented and tested post-stroke recovery robot and discuss its potential for effectiveness.
Keyframe labeling technique for surveillance event classification

The huge amount of video data generated by surveillance systems necessitates the use of automatic tools for their efficient analysis, indexing, and retrieval. Automated access to the semantic content of surveillance videos to detect anomalous events is among the basic tasks; however, due to the high variability of the audio-visual features and large size of the video input, it still remains a challenging task, though a considerable amount of research dealing with automated access to video surveillance has appeared in the literature. We propose a keyframe labeling technique, especially for indoor environments, which assigns labels to keyframes extracted by a keyframe detection algorithm, and hence transforms the input video to an event-sequence representation. This representation is used to detect unusual behaviors, such as crossover, deposit, and pickup, with the help of three separate mechanisms based on finite state automata. The keyframes are detected based on a grid-based motion representation of the moving regions, called the motion appearance mask. It has been shown through performance experiments that the keyframe labeling algorithm significantly reduces the storage requirements and yields reasonable event detection and classification performance.
Submitted to Ieee Transactions on Medical Imaging 1 Learning Context Cues for Synapse Segmentation

—We present a new approach for the automated segmentation of synapses in image stacks acquired by electron microscopy. We rely on a large set of image features specifically designed to take spatial context into account and train a classifier that can effectively utilize cues such as the presence of a nearby post-synaptic region. As a result, our algorithm successfully distinguishes synapses from the numerous other organelles that appear within an EM volume, including those whose local tex-tural properties are relatively similar. We evaluate our approach on three different datasets and compare it against the state-of-the-art in synapse segmentation.
Identification of regions affecting virulence, RNA processing and infectivity in the virulent satellite of turnip crinkle virus.

Turnip crinkle virus (TCV) supports a small family of satellite RNAs (RNAs C, D and F). RNA C is a virulent satellite, producing severe symptoms in host plants, while RNAs D and F are avirulent satellites. The virulent satellite (RNA C) has two major domains–a 5′‐domain similar to the avirulent satellites and a 3′‐domain similar to the 3′‐end of the TCV genome. To demonstrate that the 3′‐domain of RNA C determines virulence, a chimeric satellite was constructed composed mostly of the 5′‐domain of the avirulent satellite (RNA F) and the 3′‐domain of the virulent satellite (RNA C). To locate other functional regions, small DNA fragments were inserted or deleted at various sites in the cDNA of virulent satellite (RNA C). Most small internal deletions and insertions in the midsection of the molecule had no detectable effects while those near the 3′‐end of RNA C destroyed infectivity. Modifications in a small region centering on an AGCAGC repeat in the domain of satellite homology blocked the accumulation of monomers and presumably the processing of RNA C. Other modifications in this region produced more intense symptoms. Hence, these experiments reveal regions of the satellite which determine virulence, are essential for infectivity, affect monomer accumulation (RNA processing) and modulate symptom expression.
Derivative of the relative entropy over the poisson and Binomial channel

In this paper it is found that, regardless of the statistics of the input, the derivative of the relative entropy over the Binomial channel can be seen as the expectation of a function that has as argument the mean of the conditional distribution that models the channel. Based on this relationship we formulate a similar expression for the mutual information concept. In addition to this, using the connection between the Binomial and Poisson distribution we develop similar results for the Poisson channel. Novelty of the results presented here lies on the fact that, expressions obtained can be applied to a wide range of scenarios.