Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discontinuous control of the Brockett integrator

The problem of asymptotic stabilization of the Brockett integrator (1983) has been addressed and solved in the last years with a variety of methods and approaches. In particular several discontinuous control laws guaranteeing exponential convergence in an open and dense set have been proposed. In this work we show that all such discontinuous controllers can be obtained as special cases of a more general class of controllers. Furthermore, the problem of stabilization with bounded control is also discussed and solved. Finally, we address the problem of controlling the kinematic model of an under-actuated satellite.
Patch clamp techniques for studying ionic channels in excitable membranes.

Availability of techniques largely influences the choice of preparations in electrophysiological research. To study basic mechanisms of electrical excita­ bility, usually the squid axon or giant snail neurons are used for technical reasons, or more simply, because they are large. For other reasons one would very often prefer to use mammalian cells, but they are much smaller and more difficult to handle. Recently, more freedom of choice was introduced by the so-called patch clamp techniques, which resulted from the technical challenge that the measurement of single-channel currents presented. It is evident that the smallness of these quantities required that the measurement be restricted to very small structures-small patches of membrane or very small cells. This led to the development of new techniques well suited for studying membrane currents from cells of any size and particularly suited to study small cells in culture. This review aims to describe the uses of the technique and to emphasize those results that use features specific to the various configurations of the patch clamp. We do not intend to present technical details, which can be found in the original literature (32, 74).
Akt1 governs breast cancer progression in vivo

The serine threonine kinase Akt1 has been implicated in the control of cellular metabolism, survival and growth. Here, disruption of the ubiquitously expressed member of the Akt family of genes, Akt1, in the mouse demonstrates a requirement for Akt1 in ErbB2-induced mammary tumorigenesis. Akt1 deficiency delayed tumor growth and reduced lung metastases, correlating with a reduction in phosphorylation of the Akt1 target, tuberous sclerosis 2 (TSC2) at Ser-939. Akt1-deficient mammary epithelial tumor cells (MEC) were reduced in size and proliferative capacity, with reduced cyclin D1 and p27KIP1 abundance. Akt1 deficiency abrogated the oncogene-induced changes in polarization of MEC in three-dimensional culture and reverted oncogene-induced relocalization of the phosphorylated ezrin–radixin–moesin proteins. Akt1 increased MEC migration across an endothelial cell barrier, enhancing the persistence of migratory directionality. An unbiased proteomic analysis demonstrated Akt1 mediated MEC migration through paracrine signaling via induction of expression and secretion of CXCL16 and MIP1γ. Akt1 governs MEC polarity, migratory directionality and breast cancer onset induced by ErbB2 in vivo.
Microlayer enrichment in natural treatment systems: linking the surface microlayer to urban water quality

Natural treatment systems (NTS), such as constructed wetlands and stormwater ponds, are multibenefit, multidisciplinary approaches to sustaining water resources and reducing contaminant loading to urban streams. Surficial thin films (called surface microlayers) are not well characterized in NTS, but may have important implications for ecosystems, public health, and pollutant fate and transport. We present results from a case study evaluating microlayer contaminant partitioning across 4 NTS in Melbourne, Australia. To our knowledge, this study provides the first direct evidence for microlayer formation and contaminant enrichment (total petroleum hydrocarbons and trihalomethanes) in NTS. Contaminated microlayers were detected in the three most stable NTS, with stability defined relative to wind speed. Fluorescent‐dissolved organic matter profiles differed between microlayer and subsurface water in these systems, suggesting that fluorescence‐based techniques are useful for microlayer detection. Although individual fluorophores were not consistently associated with specific contaminants, fluorescence ratios were useful for identifying likely contaminant source waters, including road‐runoff and irrigation water from nearby green spaces. We evaluate our case study in light of what is known about surface microlayers in analogous systems (e.g., oceans, estuaries, and lakes), in order to identify existing research gaps and future opportunities. WIREs Water 2016, 3:269–281. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1128
PRNP mutations in a series of apparently sporadic neurodegenerative dementias in China

Mutations in prion protein gene (PRNP) may lead to genetic prion disease, which usually has a broad range of phenotypic presentations that overlap with other neurodegenerative dementias. In this study, we screened the PRNP gene to evaluate the frequency of PRNP mutations and their correlations with clinical phenotype in 185 sporadic neurodegenerative dementia cases and 310 control subjects. Samples of DNA from each subject underwent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and direct sequencing of PRNP. The clinical characteristics of patients carrying PRNP mutations were detailed. We identified five different PRNP mutations in five patients, of which three were novel (S97N, F198V, and R208C) and two were known (D178N‐129M and M232R). The rate of PRNP mutation was 2.70% in our sample. Though future studies confirming the correlation between PRNP mutations and clinical phenotype need to be undertaken, PRNP genotyping may be a valuable tool to differentiate between prion disease and other neurodegenerative dementias. Am. J. Med. Genet. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Intrauterine inflammation alters cardiopulmonary and cerebral haemodynamics at birth in preterm lambs

• Intrauterine inflammation is associated with preterm birth and poor long‐term cardiopulmonary and neurological outcomes. The effect of intrauterine inflammation on the cardiopulmonary and cerebral haemodynamic transition after preterm birth is poorly understood. • We demonstrated that intrauterine inflammation increased pulmonary vascular resistance, reduced pulmonary blood flow and left ventricular output and increased cerebral blood flow and cerebral oxygen delivery after preterm birth. • Increasing positive end‐expiratory pressure, which causes a haemodynamic challenge, reduced pulmonary blood flow and left ventricular output in controls but not in lipopolysaccharide‐exposed lambs. A transient reduction in brachiocephalic arterial pressure was observed in lipopolysaccharide‐exposed lambs. • Intrauterine inflammation altered the cardiopulmonary and cerebral haemodynamic transition at birth and reduced the responsiveness of the pulmonary circulation to an increase in positive end‐expiratory pressure.
Bayesian Inference from Composite Likelihoods, with an Application to Spatial Extremes

Composite likelihoods are increasingly used in applications where the full likelihood is analytically unknown or computationally prohibitive. Although the maximum composite likelihood estimator has frequentist properties akin to those of the usual maximum likelihood estimator, Bayesian inference based on composite likelihoods has yet to be explored. In this paper we investigate the use of the Metropolis--Hastings algorithm to compute a pseudo-posterior distribution based on the composite likelihood. Two methodologies for adjusting the algorithm are presented and their performance on approximating the true posterior distribution is investigated using simulated data sets and real data on spatial extremes of rainfall.
An Empirical Examination of Customer Retention in Mobile Telecommunication Services in Australia

The service quality has an impact on customer satisfaction and retention. From Telecommunication annual reports it has been investigated that there are service quality issues due to high complaints in Australia and it can affect end customers and businesses (TIO, 2013, ACMA, 2013). Factors such as behavioural intention which leads to customer intention to repurchase the service are measured through the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), Marketing Mix Theory and Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT). Similarly, researchers have studied the habit, hedonic motivation, customer satisfaction, customer experience, marketing mix factors relationship by empirical testing. There has been very little research in the area of customer retention in mobile telecommunication services. Drawing upon theories of marketing mix, ECT and UTAUT2, this study aims to determine what factors affect customer retention in mobile telecommunication services in Australia. Data gathering will be done through online surveys from Australian consumers. Quantitative data analysis techniques, structural equation modelling (SEM) will be used for data analysis. This study will contribute to the customer retention literature through a theoretical framework that shows how the customer retention can be generated in mobile telecommunication services. Additionally, this study will help businesses to have understanding of how to retain their customers which will result in higher business revenues.
What is materialism? Testing two dominant perspectives on materialism in the marketing literature

Abstract Materialism is defined as the importance an individual attaches to worldly possessions, which has been considered as an important construct in consumer behavior and marketing literature. There are two dominant perspectives on individual materialism in the marketing literature that focus on (1) personality traits or (2) individual personal values. However, several scholars have questioned the aforementioned materialism conceptualizations. Therefore, the present study directly compares the constructs of personality materialism and value materialism. Structural equation modeling was employed to address the following issues: (1) what are the key conceptual dimensions of materialism, (2) how much do they overlap, and (3) what is their discriminant validity in predicting outcomes linked to materialism. We suggest these two dominant perspectives on individual materialism are two distinct constructs, as they shared only 21 percent of common variance. Furthermore, we stress the multi-faceted nature of materialism, with an emphasis on future research directions related to materialism in marketing.
IFN-β Treatment Requires B Cells for Efficacy in Neuroautoimmunity

IFN-β remains the most widely prescribed treatment for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. Despite widespread use of IFN-β, the therapeutic mechanism is still partially understood. Particularly, the clinical relevance of increased B cell activity during IFN-β treatment is unclear. In this article, we show that IFN-β pushes some B cells into a transitional, regulatory population that is a critical mechanism for therapy. IFN-β treatment increases the absolute number of regulatory CD19+CD24++CD38++ transitional B cells in peripheral blood relative to treatment-naive and Copaxone-treated patients. In addition, we found that transitional B cells from both healthy controls and IFN-β–treated MS patients are potent producers of IL-10, and that the capability of IFN-β to induce IL-10 is amplified when B cells are stimulated. Similar changes are seen in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. IFN-β treatment increases transitional and regulatory B cell populations, as well as IL-10 secretion in the spleen. Furthermore, we found that IFN-β increases autoantibody production, implicating humoral immune activation in B cell regulatory responses. Finally, we demonstrate that IFN-β therapy requires immune-regulatory B cells by showing that B cell–deficient mice do not benefit clinically or histopathologically from IFN-β treatment. These results have significant implications for the diagnosis and treatment of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis.
Hepatic miR-301 a as a Liver Transplant Rejection Biomarker ? And Its Role for Interleukin-6 Production in Hepatocytes

Acute rejection (AR) of liver transplantation remains a formidable challenge for diagnostic medicine and biomarker discovery. We characterized AR-related microRNAs (miRNAs) and the underlying AR mechanisms in liver transplantation. Using a rat model of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) as well as microarrays, we compared the miRNA expression profiles between naive and AR livers on day 7 after OLT with short(<14 days, donor Dark Agouti [DA] liver into Lewis [LEW] recipient) and long-term (>60 days, donor DA liver into Piebald Virol Glaxo [PVG] recipient) survival fates. The microarray analysis revealed that the levels of miR-301a in the lethal AR livers were significantly higher than in naive and tolerogenic AR livers. The reduced expression of miR-301a in inflamed livers suggested a difference between AR and inflammation in terms of miR-301a-mediated molecular events. Overexpression of hepatic miR-301a induced IL-6 production in rat primary hepatocytes. Hepatocytes overexpressing miR-301a were capable of transferring miR-301a to cocultured splenocytes through exosomes. These splenocytes then showed overexpression of miR-301a and downregulation of protein inhibitor of activated STAT3 (PIAS3) expression, resulting in the induction of T helper 17 cell differentiation. In conclusion, this report raises the possibility that hepatic miR-301a might potentially prove value as a biomarker of liver transplant rejection. We call for future research on this molecular target and the attendant pathways as liver transplant rejection and its early diagnosis continue to be veritable healthcare challenges.
Neural Network for Dynamic Binding with Graph Representation: Form, Linking, and Depth-from-Occlusion

A neural network is presented that explicitly represents form attributes and relations between them, thus solving the binding problem without temporal coding. Rather, the network creates a graph representation by dynamically allocating nodes to code local form attributes and establishing arcs to link them. With this representation, the network selectively groups and segments in depth objects based on line junction information, producing results consistent with those of several recent visual search experiments. In addition to depth-from-occlusion, the network provides a sufficient framework for local line-labeling processes to recover other three-dimensional (3-D) variables, such as edge/surface contiguity, edge slant, and edge convexity.
Growth responses of Populus tremuloides clones to interacting elevated carbon dioxide and tropospheric ozone

The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and tropospheric ozone (O3) are increasing concomitantly globally. Little is known about the effect of these interacting gases on growth, survival, and productivity of forest ecosystems. In this study we assess the effects of three successive years of exposure to combinations of elevated CO2 and O3 on growth responses in a five trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) clonal mixture in a regenerating stand. The experiment is located in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA (45 N 89 W) and employs free air carbon dioxide and ozone enrichment (FACE) technology. The aspen stand was exposed to a factorial combination of four treatments consisting of elevated CO2 (560 ppm), elevated O3 (episodic exposure-90 m1 1 1 hour ), a combination of elevated CO2 and O3, and ambient control in 30 m treatment rings with three replications. Our overall results showed that our three growth parameters including height, diameter and volume were increased by elevated CO2, decreased by elevated O3, and were not significantly different from the ambient control under elevated CO2+O3. However, there were significant clonal differences in the responses; all five clones exhibited increased growth with elevated CO2, one clone showed an increase with elevated O3, and two clones showed an increase over the control with elevated CO2+O3, two clones showed a decrease, and one was not significantly different from the control. Notably, there was a significant increase in current terminal shoot dieback with elevated CO2 during the 1999–2000 dormant season. Dieback was especially prominent in two of the five clones, and was attributed to those clones growing longer into the autumnal season where they were subject to frost. Our results show that elevated O3 negates expected positive growth effects of elevated CO2 in Populus tremuloides in the field, and suggest that future climate model predictions should take into account the offsetting effects of elevated O3 on CO2 enrichment when estimating future growth of trembling aspen stands. # 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Saccadic eye movements evoked by microstimulation of lobule VII of the cerebellar vermis of macaque monkeys.

1. Oculomotor responses to microstimulation of the cerebellar vermis were studied on macaque monkeys by measuring eye position with a magnetic search‐coil method. 2. Vermal microstimulation resulted in conjugate eye movements. Analyses of amplitude‐velocity and amplitude‐duration relationships revealed that although the peak velocities were slightly faster, the durations of these responses were comparable to those of spontaneous and visually guided saccadic eye movements (saccades). 3. Systematic mapping with microstimulation revealed that the low‐threshold sites were localized in the white matter of a limited number of folia in the posterior vermis. The low‐threshold region from which saccades could be evoked with stimulus intensities less than 10 microA was confined to lobule VII in seven monkeys; in the other five monkeys it included a posterior part of lobule VI (folium VIc). This region coincided with the distribution of saccade‐related neural activity observed in the present study and corresponded to the vermal folia from which we previously recorded the burst mossy fibre units and the oculomotor Purkinje cell activity (Kase, Miller & Noda, 1980). 4. Microstimulation of most sites in the oculomotor vermis evoked saccades in oblique directions and the horizontal component of the saccade was always ipsilateral to the stimulation side. In penetrations through the paramedian vermis, the direction of the saccade changed gradually from upward oblique to downward oblique as the electrode was advanced vertically across lobule VII. The vertical component was dominant in these saccades. When the stimulation track was systematically shifted from the medial to the lateral part of the vermis, the horizontal component of the saccade increased and the vertical component decreased gradually until the saccade became almost horizontal. 5. The direction of saccades changed with the stimulus intensity; thus the topographical change in the direction of a saccade was consistent only when the stimulus intensity was adjusted to the threshold for every stimulus site. When stimulated with near threshold intensities, the evoked saccades were very seldom straight: the trajectories were curved in the responses observed at most vermal sites. The horizontal and vertical components of these saccades showed different onset latencies, durations, and peak‐velocity latencies. Increasing the stimulus current produced differing effects on the two components of the saccades. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Parotid sialography for diagnosing Sjögren syndrome.

OBJECTIVE Despite the availability of many new imaging procedures, sialography has, after decades of use, maintained its status as the imaging procedure of choice for evaluating the oral component of Sjögren syndrome (SS). In this study, the clinical value of sialography as a diagnostic tool in SS was explored by assessing its diagnostic accuracy, observer bias, and staging potential. METHODS One hundred parotid sialograms were interpreted independently in a blinded fashion by 2 trained and 2 expert observers. Sialograms were derived from a group of consecutive patients referred for diagnostics of SS. Patients were categorized as SS and non-SS by the revised European classification criteria. RESULTS Trained observers reached a sensitivity of 95 and a specificity of 33% for SS by sialogram, whereas expert observers reached a sensitivity of 87 and a specificity of 84%. There was only "fair" interobserver agreement between trained and expert observers, whereas both expert observers showed "good" agreement with one another, according to Cohen's kappa. Intraobserver agreement was "good" to "very good" for all observers. The 4 different gradations of sialectasia, ie, punctate, globular, cavitary, and destructive, showed a weak but significant correlation with the duration of oral symptoms. CONCLUSIONS This study markedly shows that the diagnostic value of parotid sialography for diagnosing SS greatly depends on the skills of the observer, implying that sialography lacks general applicability as a diagnostic tool in SS and requires specific expertise. Nevertheless, given its potentially high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing SS as well as its useful staging potential, sialography still has its use in the evaluation of the oral component of SS.
Projections of preBötzinger Complex neurons in adult rats

The preBötzinger Complex (preBötC) contains neural microcircuitry essential for normal respiratory rhythm generation in rodents. A subpopulation of preBötC neurons expresses somatostatin, a neuropeptide with a modulatory action on breathing. Acute silencing of a subpopulation of preBötC neurons transfected by a virus driving protein expression under the somatostatin promoter results in persistent apnea in awake adult rats. Given the profound effect of silencing these neurons, their projections are of interest. We used an adeno‐associated virus to overexpress enhanced green fluorescent protein driven by the somatostatin promoter in preBötC neurons to label their axons and terminal fields. These neurons send brainstem projections to: 1) contralateral preBötC; 2) ipsi‐ and contralateral Bötzinger Complex; 3) ventral respiratory column caudal to preBötC; 4) parafacial respiratory group / retrotrapezoid nucleus; 5) parahypoglossal nucleus/nucleus of the solitary tract; 6) parabrachial/Kölliker‐Fuse nuclei; and 7) periaqueductal gray. We did not find major projections to either cerebellum or spinal cord. We conclude that there are widespread projections from preBötC somatostatin‐expressing neurons specifically targeted to brainstem regions implicated in control of breathing, and provide a network basis for the profound effects and the essential role of the preBötC in breathing. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:1862–1878, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dendritic Keratitis Caused by an Acyclovir-Resistant Herpes Simplex Virus With Frameshift Mutation

Purpose: To report a case of acyclovir-resistant herpes simplex virus (HSV) keratitis after long-term, inconsistent use of topical acyclovir and fluorometholone. Methods: A 70-year-old man with dendritic keratitis caused by an acyclovir-resistant HSV strain was examined. The 50% inhibitory concentration of different antiviral agents against the isolated virus and the DNA sequence of viral thymidine kinase were determined. Results: The 50% inhibitory concentration of acyclovir and trifluorothymidine for the isolated HSV strain was 13.75 and 0.28 μg/mL, respectively, indicating that the virus was resistant to acyclovir. DNA sequencing of the viral thymidine kinase revealed that this virus had a frameshift mutant with a G insertion in the 7Gs homopolymer. Topical trifluorothymidine was effective, and the epithelial lesion was completely resolved within 2 weeks. Conclusion: A typical form of dendritic keratitis was caused by an acyclovir-resistant HSV with frameshift mutation in a 7Gs homopolymer region.