Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VU0477573: Partial Negative Allosteric Modulator of the Subtype 5 Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor with In Vivo Efficacy

Negative allosteric modulators (NAMs) of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGlu5) have potential applications in the treatment of fragile X syndrome, levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, addiction, and anxiety; however, clinical and preclinical studies raise concerns that complete blockade of mGlu5 and inverse agonist activity of current mGlu5 NAMs contribute to adverse effects that limit the therapeutic use of these compounds. We report the discovery and characterization of a novel mGlu5 NAM, N,N-diethyl-5-((3-fluorophenyl)ethynyl)picolinamide (VU0477573) that binds to the same allosteric site as the prototypical mGlu5 NAM MPEP but displays weak negative cooperativity. Because of this weak cooperativity, VU0477573 acts as a “partial NAM” so that full occupancy of the MPEP site does not completely inhibit maximal effects of mGlu5 agonists on intracellular calcium mobilization, inositol phosphate (IP) accumulation, or inhibition of synaptic transmission at the hippocampal Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapse. Unlike previous mGlu5 NAMs, VU0477573 displays no inverse agonist activity assessed using measures of effects on basal [3H]inositol phosphate (IP) accumulation. VU0477573 acts as a full NAM when measuring effects on mGlu5-mediated extracellular signal-related kinases 1/2 phosphorylation, which may indicate functional bias. VU0477573 exhibits an excellent pharmacokinetic profile and good brain penetration in rodents and provides dose-dependent full mGlu5 occupancy in the central nervous system (CNS) with systemic administration. Interestingly, VU0477573 shows robust efficacy, comparable to the mGlu5 NAM MTEP, in models of anxiolytic activity at doses that provide full CNS occupancy of mGlu5 and demonstrate an excellent CNS occupancy-efficacy relationship. VU0477573 provides an exciting new tool to investigate the efficacy of partial NAMs in animal models.
Cooperative sensing in dynamic environments

This work presents methods for tracking objects from noisy and unreliable data taken by a team of robots. We develop a multi-object tracking algorithm based on Kalman filtering and a single-object tracking method involving a combination of Kalman filtering and Markov localization for outlier detection. We apply these methods in the context of robot soccer for robots participating in the RoboCup middle-size league and compare them to a simple averaging method. Results including situations from real competition games are presented.
On the use of residual cepstrum in speech recognition

In speech recognition based on LPC analysis the prediction residues are usually ignored, only the LPC-derived cepstral coefficients (LPCC) are used to compose feature vectors. In this study, a number of parameters (called the residual cepstrum or RCEP) were calculated from these residues and their effectiveness for speech recognition was evaluated. It was shown that the RCEP do contain useful information, in particular, they are complementary to the LPCC. In an evaluation experiment, if the LPCC were used jointly with a few RCEP coefficients, the recognition rate of the English E-set letters was improved from 54% to 67% and from 69% to 71% by the use of HMMs based recognizer and the DTW based recognizer, respectively. In addition, Mel-scaled FFT based cepstrum (MFCC) was found to be superior to LPCC.
Aalborg Universitet An Islanding Detection Method by Using Frequency Positive Feedback Based on FLL for Single-Phase

--An active islanding detection method based on Frequency-Locked Loop (FLL) for constant power controlled inverter in single-phase microgrid is proposed. This method generates a phase shift comparing the instantaneous frequency obtained  from FLL unit with the nominal frequency to modify the reference phase angle. An initial low frequency variable triangular disturbance is added to the phase shift in order to reduce NDZ and accelerate the detection process especially in the case of power matching. With the modified phase angle, the frequency at PCC will be drifted away from the nominal frequency until exceeding the threshold because of the frequency positive feedback after islanding. Besides, FLL is introduced to this method in order to lock frequency quickly considering that the frequency is time-varying during the islanding detection process. Simulation and experiment have been done to evaluate this method.
Routing Protocols for VANETs: An Approach based on Genetic Algorithms

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are self-configuring networks where the nodes are vehicles equipped with wireless communication technologies. In such networks, limitation of signal coverage and fast topology changes impose difficulties to the proper functioning of the routing protocols. Traditional Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) routing protocols lose their performance, when communicating between vehicles, compromising information exchange. Obviously, most applications critically rely on routing protocols. Thus, in this work, we propose a methodology for investigating the performance of well-established protocols for MANETs in the VANET arena and, at the same time, we introduce a routing protocol, called Genetic Network Protocol (G-NET). It is based in part on Dynamic Source Routing Protocol (DSR) and on the use of Genetic Algorithms (GAs) for maintenance and route optimization. As G-NET update routes periodically, this work investigates its performance compared to DSR and Ad Hoc on demand Distance Vector (AODV). For more realistic simulation of vehicle movement in urban environments, an analysis was performed by using the VanetMobiSim mobility generator and the Network Simulator (NS-3). Experiments were conducted with different number of vehicles and the results show that, despite the increased routing overhead with respect to DSR, G-NET is better than AODV and provides comparable data delivery rate to the other protocols in the analyzed scenarios.
Partial Visual Loss Affects Self-reports of Hearing Abilities Measured Using a Modified Version of the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Questionnaire

We assessed how visually impaired (VI) people perceived their own auditory abilities using an established hearing questionnaire, the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ), that was adapted to make it relevant and applicable to VI individuals by removing references to visual aspects while retaining the meaning of the original questions. The resulting questionnaire, the SSQvi, assessed perceived hearing ability in diverse situations including the ability to follow conversations with multiple speakers, assessing how far away a vehicle is, and the ability to perceptually segregate simultaneous sounds. The SSQvi was administered to 33 VI and 33 normally sighted participants. All participants had normal hearing or mild hearing loss, and all VI participants had some residual visual ability. VI participants gave significantly higher (better) scores than sighted participants for: (i) one speech question, indicating less difficulty in following a conversation that switches from one person to another, (ii) one spatial question, indicating less difficulty in localizing several talkers, (iii) three qualities questions, indicating less difficulty with segregating speech from music, hearing music more clearly, and better speech intelligibility in a car. These findings are consistent with the perceptual enhancement hypothesis, that certain auditory abilities are improved to help compensate for loss of vision, and show that full visual loss is not necessary for perceived changes in auditory ability to occur for a range of auditory situations. For all other questions, scores were not significantly different between the two groups. Questions related to effort, concentration, and ignoring distracting sounds were rated as most difficult for VI participants, as were situations involving divided-attention contexts with multiple streams of speech, following conversations in noise and in echoic environments, judging elevation or distance, and externalizing sounds. The questionnaire has potential clinical applications in assessing the success of clinical interventions and setting more realistic goals for intervention for those with auditory and/or visual losses. The results contribute toward providing benchmark scores for VI individuals.
Monoclonal antibody-mediated enhancement of dengue virus infection in vitro and in vivo and strategies for prevention

Infection with dengue virus (DENV) or any other flavivirus induces cross-reactive, but weakly neutralizing or nonneutralizing, antibodies that recognize epitopes involving the fusion peptide in the envelope glycoprotein. Humanized mAb IgG 1A5, derived from a chimpanzee, shares properties of cross-reactive antibodies. mAb IgG 1A5 up-regulated DENV infection by a mechanism of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) in a variety of Fc receptor-bearing cells in vitro. A 10- to 1,000-fold increase of viral yield in K562 cells, dependent on the DENV serotype, was observed over a range of subneutralizing concentrations of IgG 1A5. A significant increase of DENV-4 viremia titers (up to 100-fold) was also demonstrated in juvenile rhesus monkeys immunized with passively transferred dilutions of IgG 1A5. These results, together with earlier findings of ADE of DENV-2 infection by a polyclonal serum, establish the primate model for analysis of ADE. Considering the abundance of these cross-reactive antibodies, our observations confirm that significant viral amplification could occur during DENV infections in humans with prior infection or with maternally transferred immunity, possibly leading to severe dengue. Strategies to eliminate ADE were explored by altering the antibody Fc structures responsible for binding to Fc receptors. IgG 1A5 variants, containing amino acid substitutions from the Fc region of IgG2 or IgG4 antibodies, reduced but did not eliminate DENV-4-enhancing activity in K562 cells. Importantly, a 9-aa deletion at the N terminus of the CH2 domain in the Fc region abrogated the enhancing activity.
Filter Optimization for Grid Interactive Voltage Source Inverters

Higher order LCL filters are essential in meeting the interconnection standard requirement for grid-connected voltage source converters. LCL filters offer better harmonic attenuation and better efficiency at a smaller size when compared to the traditional L filters. The focus of this paper is to analyze the LCL filter design procedure from the point of view of power loss and efficiency. The IEEE 1547-2008 specifications for high-frequency current ripple are used as a major constraint early in the design to ensure that all subsequent optimizations are still compliant with the standards. Power loss in each individual filter component is calculated on a per-phase basis. The total inductance per unit of the LCL filter is varied, and LCL parameter values which give the highest efficiency while simultaneously meeting the stringent standard requirements are identified. The power loss and harmonic output spectrum of the grid-connected LCL filter is experimentally verified, and measurements confirm the predicted trends.
Establishment of a Bacterial Infection Model Using the European Honeybee, Apis mellifera L

Injection of human pathogenic bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes) into the hemocoel of honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) workers kills the infected bees. The bee-killing effects of the pathogens were affected by temperature, and the LD50 values at 37°C were more than 100-fold lower than those at 15°C. Gene-disrupted S. aureus mutants of virulence genes such as agrA, saeS, arlR, srtA, hla, and hlb had attenuated bee-killing ability. Nurse bees were less susceptible than foragers and drones to S. aureus infection. Injection of antibiotics clinically used for humans had therapeutic effects against S. aureus infections of bees, and the ED50 values of these antibiotics were comparable with those determined in mammalian models. Moreover, the effectiveness of orally administered antibiotics was consistent between honeybees and mammals. These findings suggest that the honeybee could be a useful model for assessing the pathogenesis of human-infecting bacteria and the effectiveness of antibiotics.
Impacts of atmospheric processes on ENSO Asymmetry: A comparison between CESM1 and CCSM4

AbstractAn evaluation of El Nino–La Nina asymmetry is conducted in the two recent NCAR coupled models (CCSM4 and CESM1) sharing the same ocean component. Results show that two coupled models generally underestimate observed ENSO asymmetry, mainly owing to an overestimate of the cold SST anomaly during the La Nina phase. The weaker ENSO asymmetry corresponds to a cold bias in mean SST climatology that is more severe in CESM1 than in CCSM4, despite a better performance in simulating ENSO asymmetry in the former. Corresponding AMIP (CAM4 and CAM5) runs are examined to probe the origin of the weaker ENSO asymmetry in coupled models. The analysis reveals a stronger time mean zonal wind in AMIP models, favoring a cold bias in mean SST. The bias of the stronger mean wind, associated with changes in mean precipitation, is more significant in CAM5 than in CAM4. The simulated skewness of the interannual variability of zonal winds is weaker than observations but somewhat improved in CAM5 compared to CAM4, primarily .
Sensitivity Analysis of Cirrus Cloud Properties from High-Resolution Infrared Spectra. Part I: Methodology and Synthetic Cirrus

Abstract A set of simulated high-resolution infrared (IR) emission spectra of synthetic cirrus clouds is used to perform a sensitivity analysis of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) radiance to cloud parameters. Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to assess the variability of radiance across the spectrum with respect to microphysical and bulk cloud quantities. These quantities include particle shape, effective radius (reff), ice water path (IWP), cloud height Zcld and thickness ΔZcld, and vertical profiles of temperature T(z) and water vapor mixing ratio w(z). It is shown that IWP variations in simulated cloud cover dominate TOA radiance variability. Cloud height and thickness, as well as T(z) variations, also contribute to considerable TOA radiance variability. The empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) of radiance variability show both similarities and differences in spectral shape and magnitude of variability when one physical quantity or another is being modified. In certain cases, it is possible to ide.
EIGENFREQUENCIES AND EXPANSIONS FOR DAMPED WAVE EQUATIONS

We study eigenfrequencies and propagator expansions for damped wave equations on compact manifolds. Under the assumption of geometric control, the propagator is shown to admit an expansion in terms of finitely many eigenmodes near the real axis, with an error term exponentially decaying in time. In the presence of a nondegenerate elliptic closed geodesic not meeting the support of the damping coefficient, we show that there exists a sequence of eigenfrequencies converging rapidly to the real axis. In the case of Zoll manifolds, we show that the propagator can be expanded in terms of clusters of the eigenfrequencies in the entire spectral band.
Effect of the Application of 1-Methylcyclopropene and Wax Emulsions on Proximate Analysis and Some Antioxidants of Soursop (Annona muricata L.)

The effect of the application of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and wax emulsions, alone or combined, on composition analysis, vitamin C, polyphenols, and antioxidant capacity of soursop was evaluated. Fruits were stored as follows: at 25°C (control), and at 16°C: fruits sprayed with candelilla or flava emulsions, fruits treated with 1500 nL/L of 1-MCP (20°C, 12 h), and fruits treated with 1-MCP and then sprayed with emulsions. Fruits were allowed to ripen and the edible part was used for analysis. Only fruits stored at 16°C without 1-MCP showed visible symptoms of chilling injury. Fruits treated with 1-MCP combined with flava emulsion maintained in greater extent their vitamin C content, dietary fiber, total phenolics content, and antioxidant activity. The combination of 1-MCP and emulsions can be utilized in postharvest handling of soursop because this combination can preserve its nutritional composition and antioxidant activity.
Sensemaking and Complexity in Large-Scale Lean-Agile Transformation: A Case Study from Cisco

For organizations undergoing agile and lean transformation, it can be difficult to get meaningful, actionable insights into progress and impediments. Teams and organizations are best understood as complex adaptive human systems. Understanding what is happening in such systems requires approaches grounded in the complexity sciences and social sciences. This paper describes an approach using complexity science and sensemaking that helps an organization understand its culture, how it is progressing with its strategic initiatives, and the types of impediments that are holding it back. It provides a means of qualitative and quantitative analysis that helps teams and organizations improve. This paper also correlates the experiences of the people in the organization to its goals of being a more agile organization.
Road reconstruction in post - disaster recovery; the challenges and obstacles

Increasing numbers of events and victims caused by natural disaster have been unequally distributed throughout the world. Disfavour to the developing countries, evidence shows that developing countries are more vulnerable to disaster risk due to the significantly larger number of fatal injuries and higher threats to reaching development goals. In the event of natural disaster, road infrastructure appears to be one of the development sectors with the greatest losses and damages. On the one hand, even though road infrastructure plays an important role in accelerating the recovery process, post-disaster reconstruction of road infrastructure has not been adequately determined and has been frequently ignored by many aid agencies giving an extra burden to the community as it adds delays to the recovery process. On the other hand, aid agencies working on reconstruction of road infrastructure may have to face issues that are unique, in context and scale, to post-disaster project in developing countries. Accordingly, this paper tries to identify challenges and obstacles identified in the reconstruction of road infrastructure in Aceh post-tsunami recovery. Since this paper reviews the reconstruction of Aceh post-tsunami road infrastructure as a case study, limitations may then exist to large scale natural disasters in developing countries, and in particular, post-disaster of earthquake and tsunami events.
Association of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and SLC11A1 polymorphisms in Sardinian multiple sclerosis patients.

INTRODUCTION Recent findings propose that Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection could act as risk factor in favoring multiple sclerosis (MS) progression. SLC11A1 is a gene associated with mycobacterial survival in the host and it may be involved in the induction and maintenance of autoimmune disease. METHODOLOGY In this preliminary study, 100 MS patients and 100 healthy controls (HCs) from Sardinia were enrolled. Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SLC11A gene were searched by PCR RFLP-genotyping. IS900 specie specific PCR was undertaken to search for MAP presence. Indirect ELISA was performed to asses if MS patients displayed a stronger humoral response against MAP2694 protein compared to the HCs. RESULTS Only rs2276631 SNP was associated with MS. MAP DNA was detected in 23 out of 100 MS patients (23%) and in 7 out of 100 HCs (7%). A strong humoral response against MAP2694 protein was detected in 36% of MS patients and only in 3% of HCs. A correlation between ELISA sero-positivity and the rs2276631 SNP was also found. CONCLUSION Our preliminary results suggest that the Sardinian population might be prone to develop autoimmune disease due to polymorphisms in immunomodulating the SLC11A1 gene, which is important in the immune response against intracellular bacteria such as MAP.
Fast Training of Support Vector Machines using Sequential Minimal Optimization

This chapter describes a new algorithm for training Support Vector Machines: Sequential Minimal Optimization, or SMO. Training a Support Vector Machine (SVM) requires the solution of a very large quadratic programming (QP) optimization problem. SMO breaks this large QP problem into a series of smallest possible QP problems. These small QP problems are solved analytically, which avoids using a time-consuming numerical QP optimization as an inner loop. The amount of memory required for SMO is linear in the training set size, which allows SMO to handle very large training sets. Because large matrix computation is avoided, SMO scales somewhere between linear and quadratic in the training set size for various test problems, while a standard projected conjugate gradient (PCG) chunking algorithm scales somewhere between linear and cubic in the training set size. SMO's computation time is dominated by SVM evaluation, hence SMO is fastest for linear SVMs and sparse data sets. For the MNIST database, SMO is as fast as PCG chunking; while for the UCI Adult database and linear SVMs, SMO can be more than 1000 times faster than the PCG chunking algorithm.
Emission Properties of Fluorescent Nanoparticles Determined by Their Optical Environment

The emission rate of a radiating dipole within a nanoparticle is crucially dependent on its surrounding refractive index environment. In this manuscript, we present numerical results on how the emission rates are affected for nanoparticles in a homogenous and substrate environment. These results are general, applicable to any refractive index distribution and emitter.
Cross-Media Linking and Tagging Support for Learning Groups

Typical tasks of learning groups and knowledge workers include working both with printed and digital documents. We present a pen-based and tangible interaction concept for the linking and tagging of documents in a mixed physical and digital environment. The interaction with printed and electronic documents is unified. We therefore use digital pens, which equally capture physical handwriting on real paper and act as an input device on a specific screen prototype. Links and tags can have variable scopes ranging from small document passages to a collection of several documents. Physical folders along with camera-based marker tracking provide for the tangible definition of document collections. Tags are intuitively defined on a paper tag menu card. We present two visualizations of links and tags (a document-centered viewer and a hyperstructure-centered graph view). These are closely coupled with the physical environment.
Particle stress in suspensions of soft objects

In a suspension of extended objects such as colloidal particles, capsules or vesicles, the contribution of particles to the stress is usually evaluated by first determining the stress originating from a single particle (e.g. via integrating the fluid stress over the surface of a particle) and then adding up the contributions of individual particles. While adequate for a computation of the average stress over the entire system, this approach fails to correctly reproduce the local stress. In this work, we propose and validate a variant of the method of planes which overcomes this problem. The method is particularly suited for many-body interactions arising from, for example, shear and bending rigidity of red blood cells.