Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anomalous rectification in neurons from cat sensorimotor cortex in vitro.

The ionic mechanisms underlying anomalous rectification in large neurons from layer V of cat sensorimotor cortex were studied in an in vitro brain slice. The anomalous rectification was apparent as an increase of slope conductance during membrane hyperpolarization, and the development of anomalous rectification during a hyperpolarizing current pulse was signaled by a depolarizing sag of membrane potential toward resting potential (RP). Voltage-clamp analysis revealed the time- and voltage-dependent inward current (IAR) that produced anomalous rectification. IAR reversal potential (EAR) was estimated to be approximately -50 mV from extrapolation of linear, instantaneous, current-voltage relations. The conductance underlying IAR (GAR) had a sigmoidal steady-state activation characteristic. GAR increased with hyperpolarization from -55 to -105 mV with half-activation at approximately -82 mV. The time course of both GAR and IAR during a voltage step was described by two exponentials. The faster exponential had a time constant (tau F) of approximately 40 ms; the slow time constant (tau S) was approximately 300 ms. Neither tau F nor tau S changed with voltage in the range -60 mV to -110 mV. The fast component constituted approximately 80% of IAR at each potential. Both IAR and GAR increased in raised extracellular potassium [( K+]o) and EAR shifted positive, but the GAR activation curve did not shift along the voltage axis. Solutions containing an impermeable Na+ substitute caused an initial transient decrease in IAR followed by a slower increase of IAR. Brain slices bathed in Na+-substituted solution developed a gradual increase in [K+]o as measured with K+-sensitive microelectrodes. We conclude that GAR is permeable to both Na+ and K+, but the full contribution of Na+ was masked by the slow increase of [K+]o that occurred in Na+ substituted solutions. Chloride did not appear to contribute significantly to IAR since estimates of EAR were similar in neurons impaled with microelectrodes filled with potassium chloride or methylsulfate, whereas, ECl (estimated from reversal of a GABA-induced ionic current) was approximately 30 mV more positive with the KCl-filled microelectrodes. Extracellular Cs+ caused a reversible dose- and voltage-dependent reduction of GAR, whereas intracellular Cs+ was ineffective. The parameters measured during voltage clamp were used to formulate a quantitative empirical model of IAR. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Facility hemodialysis vascular access use and mortality in countries participating in DOPPS: an instrumental variable analysis.

BACKGROUND Previously, the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS) has shown large international variations in vascular access practice. Greater mortality risks have been seen for hemodialysis (HD) patients dialyzing with a catheter or graft versus a native arteriovenous fistula (AVF). To further understand the relationship between vascular access practice and outcomes, we have applied practice-based analyses (using an instrumental variable approach) to decrease the treatment-by-indication bias of prior patient-level analyses. STUDY DESIGN A prospective observational study of HD practices. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS Data collected from 1996 to 2004 from 28,196 HD patients from more than 300 dialysis units participating in the DOPPS in 12 countries. PREDICTOR OR FACTOR Patient-level or case-mix-adjusted facility-level vascular access use. OUTCOMES/MEASUREMENTS: Mortality and hospitalization risks. RESULTS After adjusting for demographics, comorbid conditions, and laboratory values, greater mortality risk was seen for patients using a catheter (relative risk, 1.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.22 to 1.42; P < 0.001) or graft (relative risk, 1.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.06 to 1.25; P < 0.001) versus an AVF. Every 20% greater case-mix-adjusted catheter use within a facility was associated with 20% greater mortality risk (versus facility AVF use, P < 0.001); and every 20% greater facility graft use was associated with 9% greater mortality risk (P < 0.001). Greater facility catheter and graft use were both associated with greater all-cause and infection-related hospitalization. Catheter and graft use were greater in the United States than in Japan and many European countries. More than half the 36% to 43% greater case-mix-adjusted mortality risk for HD patients in the United States versus the 5 European countries from the DOPPS I and II was attributable to differences in vascular access practice, even after adjusting for other HD practices. Vascular access practice differences accounted for nearly 30% of the greater US mortality compared with Japan. LIMITATIONS Possible existence of unmeasured facility- and patient-level confounders that could impact the relationship of vascular access use with outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Facility-based analyses diminish treatment-by-indication bias and suggest that less catheter and graft use improves patient survival.
Allocating adversarial resources in wireless networks

A plethora of security schemes for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been proposed and their resilience to various attacks analyzed; including situations the adversary compromises a subset of the WSN nodes and/or deploys own misbehaving devices. The higher the degree of such intrusion is, the more effective an attack will be. Consider, however, an adversary that is far from omnipotent: How should she attack, how should she deploy her resources to maximally affect the attacked WSN operation? This basic question has received little attention, with one approach considering genetic algorithms for devising an attack strategy [5]. In this work, we recast the problem towards a more systematic treatment and more computationally efficient solutions: a combination of a genetic algorithm with a convex relaxation, and an ℓ1-constraint formulation. The devising of near-optimal attack strategies efficiently strengthens the adversary, allowing her to adapt and mount effective and thus harmful attacks even in complex and dynamically changing settings.
Iterative joint extraction of entities, relationships and coreferences from text sources

Machine understanding of textual documents has been challenging since the early computer era. Since the information extraction research field emerged it has inferred multiple natural language processing tasks, such as named entities recognition, relationships extraction and coreference resolution. Even though for the purpose of the end-to-end information extraction all of the three tasks are crucial, existing work has been focusing merely on one specific task at the time or at best on their connection in a pipeline. In this paper we introduce a novel iterative and joint information extraction system that interconnects all the three tasks together using iterative feature functions which use the advantage of the intermediate extractions. Furthermore, we introduce a special transformation of data into skip-mention sequences to enable the extraction of relations and coreferences using fast first-order graphical models. Additionally, the system uses an ontology as its knowledge source, as a list of inferred extraction rules, and as a data schema of extracted results. Experimental results show that the accuracy of extractions improves after each iteration. In particular, our model obtained a 15% error reduction on named entity recognition over individual models.
Energy Requirements in Early Life Are Similar for Male and Female Goat Kids

Little is known about the gender differences in energetic requirements of goats in early life. In this study, we determined the energy requirements for maintenance and gain in intact male, castrated male and female Saanen goat kids using the comparative slaughter technique and provide new data on their body composition and energy efficiency. To determine the energy requirements for maintenance, we studied 21 intact males, 15 castrated males and 18 females (5.0±0.1 kg initial body weight (BW) and 23±5 d of age) using a split-plot design with the following main factors: three genders (intact males, castrated males, and females) and three dry matter intake levels (ad libitum, 75% and 50% of ad libitum intake). A slaughter group included three kids, one for each nutritional plane, of each gender, and all three animals within a group were slaughtered when the ad libitum kid reached 15 kg in BW. Net energy requirements for gain were obtained for 17 intact males, eight castrated males and 15 females (5.1±0.4 kg BW and 23±13 d of age). Animals were fed ad libitum and slaughtered when they reached 5, 10, and 15 kg in BW. A digestion trial was performed with nine kids of each gender to determine digestible energy, metabolizable energy and energy metabolizability of the diet. Our results show no effect of gender on the energy requirements for maintenance and gain, and overall net energy for maintenance was 205.6 kJ/kg0.75 empty body weight gain (EBW) (170.3 kJ/kg0.75 BW) from 5 to 15 kg BW. Metabolizable energy for maintenance was calculated by iteration, assuming heat production equal to metabolizable energy intake at maintenance, and the result was 294.34 kJ/kg0.75 EBW and km of 0.70. As BW increased from 5 to 15 kg for all genders, the net energy required for gain increased from 9.5 to 12.0 kJ/g EBW gain (EWG), and assuming kg = 0.47, metabolizable energy for gain ranged from 20.2 to 25.5 kJ/g EWG. Our results indicate that it is not necessary to formulate diets with different energetic content for intact male, castrated male and female Saanen goat kids weighing from 5 to 15 kg.
Sound Stimulates Labeling of Polyphosphoinositides in the Auditory Organ of the Noctuid Moth

Abstract: The Noctuid moth possesses a simple auditory structure suitable for the investigation of biochemical correlates of sound stimulation in vivo. Stimulation with pulsed tones increased 32P incorporation into polyphos‐phoinositides but not into ATP or other lipids. The effect was seen in the scoloparium (sensory structure) but hot in the nodular sclerite, an adjacent nonsensory tissue. It was also not seen when the stimulus was a continuous tone, leading to adaptation of the action potential.
Prediction of Debris Flow Prone Areas and Damage

It is very important when drawing hazard maps to estimate damage to houses from debris flow of certain fixed quantities. A debris flow disaster, which occurred in Kake Town, Hiroshima Prefecture in July 1988 was studied in a field survey and aerial photograph ciphering to clarify the relation between the fluid force of debris flow and the degree of damage to houses. The distribution of the fluid force was obtained by numerical simulation. The method can be used to estimate the degree of damage to houses in debris flow flood areas more objectively and precisely.
Protective Effects of Sodium (±)-5-Bromo-2-(α-Hydroxypentyl) Benzoate in a Rodent Model of Global Cerebral Ischemia

The aim of the current study was to explore the protective effects of sodium (±)-5-bromo-2-(α-hydroxypentyl) benzoate (brand name: brozopine, BZP) in a rat model of global cerebral ischemia. The rat model was established using a modified Winocur’s method; close postoperative observation was conducted at all times. Neurological function was detected through prehensile traction and beam-walking test. BZP reduced mortality and prolonged the survival time of rats with global cerebral ischemia, within 24 h. There was a decreased survival rate (60%) in the Model group, while the survival rate of the BZP (3 and 12 mg/kg) remarkably increased the survival rate (to 80 and 90%, respectively), in a dose-dependent manner. Compared with the Model group (survival time: 18.50 h), the administration of BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg) prolonged the survival time (to 20.38, 21.85, and 23.90 h, respectively), particularly in BZP 12 mg/kg group (P < 0.05). Additionally, the BZP (12 mg/kg) group exhibited an improvement in their motor function (P < 0.05). The BZP groups (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg) displayed significantly reduced necrosis and the percentage of apoptotic cells (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). Compared with Model group, BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg) increased the NeuN optical density values (P < 0.01). Rats with global ischemia had a high expression of Cyt-c, caspase-3, and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio compared with sham group (P < 0.01). BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg), however, reduced the expression of Cyt-c, caspase-3, and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.01). There was low expression of p-Akt and PI3K in Model group, compared with the sham group (P < 0.01). Meanwhile, BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg) increased the expression of p-Akt and PI3K in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.01). We also found the expression of Cyt-c, caspase-3, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, PI3K, p-Akt, and comprehensive score were directly related. In conclusion, BZP had therapeutic potential and prevented stroke in rat model of global cerebral ischemia. The underlying mechanisms may be related to the inhibition of apoptosis and activation of the survival-signaling-pathway.
Allocation and scheduling of real-time periodic tasks with relative timing constraints

Allocation problem has always been one of the fundamental issues of building the applications in real-time computing systems. For real-time applications, the allocation problem should directly address the issues of task and communication scheduling. In this context, the allocation of tasks has to fully utilize the available processors and the scheduling of tasks has to meet the specified timing constraints. Clearly, the execution of tasks under the allocation and schedule has to satisfy the precedence, resources, and other synchronization constraints among them. Recently, the timing requirements of the real-time systems emerge that the relative timing constraints are imposed on the consecutive executions of each task and the inter-task temporal relationships are specified across task periods. In this paper we consider the allocation and scheduling problem of the periodic tasks with such timing requirements. Given a set of periodic tasks, we consider the least common multiple (LCM) of the task periods. Each task is extended to several instances within the LCM. The scheduling window for each task instance is derived to satisfy the timing constraints. We develop a simulated annealing algorithm as the overall control algorithm. An example problem of the sanitized version of the Boeing 777 Aircraft Information Management System is solved by the algorithm. Experimental results show that the algorithm solves the problem in a reasonable time complexity.
Catalpol Modulates Lifespan via DAF-16/FOXO and SKN-1/Nrf2 Activation in Caenorhabditis elegans

Catalpol is an effective component of rehmannia root and known to possess various pharmacological properties. The present study was aimed at investigating the potential effects of catalpol on the lifespan and stress tolerance using C. elegans model system. Herein, catalpol showed potent lifespan extension of wild-type nematode under normal culture condition. In addition, survival rate of catalpol-fed nematodes was significantly elevated compared to untreated control under heat and oxidative stress but not under hyperosmolality conditions. We also found that elevated antioxidant enzyme activities and expressions of stress resistance proteins were attributed to catalpol-mediated increased stress tolerance of nematode. We further investigated whether catalpol's longevity effect is related to aging-related factors including reproduction, food intake, and growth. Interestingly, catalpol exposure could attenuate pharyngeal pumping rate, indicating that catalpol may induce dietary restriction of nematode. Moreover, locomotory ability of aged nematode was significantly improved by catalpol treatment, while lipofuscin levels were attenuated, suggesting that catalpol may affect age-associated changes of nematode. Our mechanistic studies revealed that mek-1, daf-2, age-1, daf-16, and skn-1 are involved in catalpol-mediated longevity. These results indicate that catalpol extends lifespan and increases stress tolerance of C. elegans via DAF-16/FOXO and SKN-1/Nrf activation dependent on insulin/IGF signaling and JNK signaling.
Tracking in a cluttered environment with out-of-sequence measurements

Recent literature has introduced several methods for processing an out-of-sequence measurement (OOSM) in tracking for both the 1-step-lag and ¿-step-lag case. However, in a realistic tracking application, a data association algorithm, such Joint Probabilistic Data Association (JPDA) must be used in order to associate measurements with tracks in a cluttered environment. This paper investigates the OOSM problem in tracking for both the 1-step-lag and ¿-step-lag cases using JPDA. The OOSM algorithms presented in the literature are extended to support JPDA and the results are analyzed. The resulting algorithms are then applied to an automotive frontal pre-crash system, where OOSM and JPDA are vital factors in improving the performance of such a system.
Analysis on equivalent current source of AES-128 circuit for HD power model verification

We analyzed equivalent current source of cryptographic circuits implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The equivalent current source represented internal switching current behaviors in the cryptographic circuits during an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) operation. In this work, the internal current was analyzed for extracting leakage functions and correlation coefficients from scatter diagrams of the Hamming Distance (HD) of AES intermediate values and the current magnitudes. The obtained leakage functions were confirmed a well-known assumption on the HD power model that magnitude of switching current due to transition of register states is proportional to HD of the register. The internal current was also investigated in terms of correlation with the HD model. Correlation coefficients increased as transforming the external power trace in the internal current because two types of noise were reduced by the transform; constant noise and overlap effect of successive rounds. The noise reduction inferred that the use of the internal current source would provide more precise verification of countermeasures.
Multithreading Image Processing in Single-core and Multi-core CPU using Java

Multithreading has been shown to be a powerful approach for boosting a system performance. One of the good examples of applications that benefits from multithreading is image processing. Image processing requires many resources and processing run time because the calculations are often done on a matrix of pixels. The programming language Java supports the multithreading programming as part of the language itself instead of treating threads through the operating system. In this paper we explore the performance of Java image processing applications designed with multithreading approach. In order to test how the multithreading influences on the performance of the program, we tested several image processing algorithms implemented with Java language using the sequential one thread and multithreading approach on single and multi-core CPU. The experiments were based not only on different platforms and algorithms that differ from each other from the level of complexity, but also on changing the sizes of the images and the number of threads when multithreading approach is applied. Performance is increased on single core and multiple core CPU in different ways in relation with image size, complexity of the algorithm and the platform.
Grain Yield and Nutrient Uptake of Direct Seeded Rice as Influenced by Application of Micronutrients

An alarming rate of ground water depletion and increasing labour scarcity are major threats to future rice production in India. Management strategies that reduce the irrigation amount and labour requirement while maintaining or increasing yield are urgently needed. Dry seeded rice (DSR) is the alternating method to achieve these objectives (Yadav et al., 2011). The direct seeding offers certain advantages i.e. saves labour, faster and easier planting helps in timely sowing, less drudgery, early crop maturity by 7-10 days, less water requirements, high tolerance to water deficit, often higher yield, low production cost and more profit, better soil physical conditions for following crops and less methane emission (Balasubramanian and Hill, 2002). Rice is the staple food crop for more than half of the world’s population; unfortunately the rice is a poor source of many essential micronutrients (Stalin et al., 2011). Thus, a rice-based diet is the primary causes of micronutrient malnutrition throughout worldwide mainly the developing world. Iron, zinc, deficiencies are common in rice consuming regions. These micronutrients are required in small amounts and they affect directly or indirectly photosynthesis, vital processes in plant such as respiration, protein synthesis, reproduction phase and have effect International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 12 (2017) pp. 935-941 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Ngram Search Engine

In this paper, we will describe an idea and its implementation for an ngram search engine for very large sets of ngrams. The engine supports queries with an arbitrary number of wildcards. It takes a fraction of a second for a search, and can provide the fillers of the wildcards. We implemented the system using two datasets. One is the 1 billion 5-grams provided by Google (Web 1T data), the other a set of 119 million 9grams created from 82 years of newspaper. The system runs on a single Linux PC with reasonable size of memory (less than 4GB) and disk space (less than 400GB). This system can be a very useful tool for knowledge discovery and other NLP tasks.
Geo-Location Using Direction Finding Angles

254 INTRODUCTION The detection, classification, and geo-location of ground-based signal sources is one of the primary missions of modern military surveillance aircraft. Example signals of interest are the search radar of an enemy missile site, the radio communications between enemy combatants, and the distress radio beacon being transmitted by a downed friendly pilot. The ability to locate such signal sources is of obvious importance, especially during times of conflict. The geo-location of ground targets is performed by surveillance aircraft using the output of sensors attached to the aircraft. In order to determine the target’s location on Earth, the sensor measurements are processed by some form of estimation algorithm. This geo-location algorithm provides both a location estimate and an estimation error covariance matrix. The covariance matrix gives a statistical representation of the uncertainty in the location estimate and is used to construct a target location confidence region, such as an “error ellipse,” which can be displayed to the signals intelligence system operator on the aircraft or in a remote ground station. Geo-location performance is driven by the number of measurements, measurement error statistics, and engagement geometry. assive geo-location of ground targets is commonly performed by surveillance aircraft using direction finding angles. These angles define the line of sight from the aircraft to the target and are computed using the response of an antenna array on the aircraft to the target’s RF emissions. Direction finding angles are the inputs required by a geo-location algorithm, which is typically an extended Kalman filter or a batch processor. This modality allows a single aircraft to detect, classify, and localize ground-based signal sources. In this article, the direction finding angles used for geo-location are defined and a mathematical model is developed that relates measurements of these angles to the target’s position on Earth. Special emphasis is given to the angle measurement provided by a linear antenna array. An algorithm is presented that uses iterated least squares to estimate a target’s position from multiple angle measurements. Simulation results are shown for a single aircraft locating a stationary ground target. Geo-Location Using Direction Finding Angles