Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of Immunity-Related Genes in the Larvae of Protaetia brevitarsis seulensis (Coleoptera: Cetoniidae) by a Next-Generation Sequencing-Based Transcriptome Analysis

To identify immune-related genes in the larvae of white-spotted flower chafers, next-generation sequencing was conducted with an Illumina HiSeq2000, resulting in 100 million cDNA reads with sequence information from over 10 billion base pairs (bp) and >50× transcriptome coverage. A subset of 77,336 contigs was created, and ∼35,532 sequences matched entries against the NCBI nonredundant database (cutoff, e < 10−5). Statistical analysis was performed on the 35,532 contigs. For profiling of the immune response, samples were analyzed by aligning 42 base sequence tags to the de novo reference assembly, comparing levels in immunized larvae to control levels of expression. Of the differentially expressed genes, 3,440 transcripts were upregulated and 3,590 transcripts were downregulated. Many of these genes were confirmed as immune-related genes such as pattern recognition proteins, immune-related signal transduction proteins, antimicrobial peptides, and cellular response proteins, by comparison to published data.
Leakage current reduction in sequential circuits by modifying the scan chains

Input vector control is an effective technique for reducing the leakage current of combinational VLSI circuits when these circuits are in the sleep mode. In this paper a design technique for applying the minimum leakage input to a sequential circuit is proposed. Our method uses the built-in scan-chain in a VLSI circuit to drive it with the minimum leakage vector when it enters the sleep mode. Using these scan registers eliminates the area and delay overhead of the additional circuitry that would otherwise be needed to apply the minimum leakage vector to the circuit. We show how the proposed technique can be used for several different scan-chain architectures and present the experimental results on the MCNC91 benchmark circuits.
The Criminalization of the State in Africa

This book examines the growth of fraud and smuggling in African states, the plundering of natural resources, the privatization of state institutions, the development of an economy of plunder and the growth of private armies. It suggests that the state itself is becoming a vehicle for organized criminal activity. The authors propose criteria for gauging the criminalization of African states and present a novel prognosis: they distinguish between the corruption of previous decades and the criminalization of some African states now taking place. Major operators are now able to connect with global criminal networks. Also, the notion of social capital has led to current attitudes towards the use of public office for personal enrichment, or even systematic illegality. Looking at South Africa, the authors examine the decades-long tradition of association between crime and politics in this area. South Africa is now the centre of important international patterns of crime, notably in the drug trade. It has Africa's largest formal economy and the continent's largest criminal economy. Considering the economic origins of official implication in crime, the authors conclude that new forms of corruption have been unintentionally helped by liberal economic reforms.
Recurrent Processing during Object Recognition

How does the brain learn to recognize objects visually, and perform this difficult feat robustly in the face of many sources of ambiguity and variability? We present a computational model based on the biology of the relevant visual pathways that learns to reliably recognize 100 different object categories in the face of naturally occurring variability in location, rotation, size, and lighting. The model exhibits robustness to highly ambiguous, partially occluded inputs. Both the unified, biologically plausible learning mechanism and the robustness to occlusion derive from the role that recurrent connectivity and recurrent processing mechanisms play in the model. Furthermore, this interaction of recurrent connectivity and learning predicts that high-level visual representations should be shaped by error signals from nearby, associated brain areas over the course of visual learning. Consistent with this prediction, we show how semantic knowledge about object categories changes the nature of their learned visual representations, as well as how this representational shift supports the mapping between perceptual and conceptual knowledge. Altogether, these findings support the potential importance of ongoing recurrent processing throughout the brain’s visual system and suggest ways in which object recognition can be understood in terms of interactions within and between processes over time.
Characterizing Young Brown Dwarfs Using Low-Resolution Near-Infrared Spectra

We present near-infrared (1.0-2.4 μm) spectra confirming the youth and cool temperatures of six brown dwarfs and low-mass stars with circumstellar disks toward the Chamaeleon II and Ophiuchus star-forming regions. The spectrum of one of our objects indicates a spectral type of ~L1, making it one of the latest spectral type young brown dwarfs identified to date. Comparing spectra of young brown dwarfs, field dwarfs, and giant stars, we define a 1.49-1.56 μm H2O index capable of determining spectral type to ±1 subtype, independent of gravity. We have also defined an index based on the 1.14 μm sodium feature that is sensitive to gravity, but only weakly dependent on spectral type. Our 1.14 μm Na index can be used to distinguish young cluster members (τ ≲ 5 Myr) from young field dwarfs, both of which may have the triangular H-band continuum shape that persists for at least tens of Myr. Using Teff values determined from the spectral types of our objects along with luminosities derived from near and mid-infrared photometry, we place our objects on the H-R diagram and overlay evolutionary models to estimate the masses and ages of our young sources. Three of our sources have inferred ages (τ ≃ 10-30 Myr) that are significantly older than the median stellar age of their parent clouds (1-3 Myr). For these three objects, we derive masses ~3 times greater than expected for 1-3 Myr old brown dwarfs with the bolometric luminosities of our sources. The large discrepancies in the inferred masses and ages determined using two separate, yet reasonable, methods emphasize the need for caution when deriving or exploiting brown dwarf mass and age estimates.
Hands tracking for augmented reality applications

Augmented Reality (AR) combines real world and virtual objects which can be 3D images previously saved or real time computer generated. It enhances a user's view of the real environment by adding virtual objects in a realistic manner. Virtual objects display information that the user cannot directly detect with his senses. So, to look realistic, the virtual objects must be properly aligned with real-world objects. The work completed in this paper consists on the realization of an augmented reality system without markers that is based on the user's hand.
Development of a Panel Cutting Method Coupled With an Unsteady Potential Flow Model Based on the Weak-Scatterer Approximation

This paper presents a new mesh strategy for unsteady potential flow based solvers. It is based on the coupling between a panel cutting method used for the body mesh and an advance front method to generate the free surface mesh. The goal is to deal with complex geometries for time-domain simulations for marine operations. Firstly, the new mesh generation process is presented in details. Then, two validation tests are presented, using an academic geometry (vertical surface-piercing cylinder) and a complex geometry (FPSO).
The Source and Credibility of Colorectal Cancer Information on Twitter

AbstractDespite the rapid penetration of social media in modern life, there has been limited research conducted on whether social media serves as a credible source of health information. In this study, we propose to identify colorectal cancer information on Twitter and assess its informational credibility.We collected Twitter messages containing colorectal cancer-related keywords, over a 3-month period. A review of sample tweets yielded content and user categorization schemes. The results of the sample analysis were applied to classify all collected tweets and users, using a machine learning technique. The credibility of the information in the sampled tweets was evaluated.A total of 76,119 tweets were analyzed. Individual users authored the majority of tweets (n = 68,982, 90.6%). They mostly tweeted about news articles/research (n = 16,761, 22.0%) and risk/prevention (n = 14,767, 19.4%). Medical professional users generated only 2.0% of total tweets (n = 1509), and medical institutions rarely tweeted (n = 417, 0.6%). Organizations tended to tweet more about information than did individuals (85.2% vs 63.1%; P < 0.001). Credibility analysis of medically relevant sample tweets revealed that most were medically correct (n = 1763, 84.5%). Among those, more frequently retweeted tweets contained more medically correct information than randomly selected tweets (90.7% vs 83.2%; P < 0.01). Our results demonstrate an interest in and an engagement with colorectal cancer information from a large number and variety of users. Coupled with the Internet's potential to increase social support, Twitter may contribute to enhancing public health and empowering users, when used with proper caution.
Loss of secretion in mouse-human hybrids need not be due to the loss of a structural gene

Three cloned mouse-human lines (B1-29, E2-42, and A2-31) secreting human immunoglobulin (Ig) were obtained from a fusion between the mouse myeloma line NS-1 and human tonsillar lymphocytes stimulated in vitro with pokeweed mitogen. One line, B1-29, has continued to secrete human IgG for a period of 2 yr in culture. This line was recloned three times to give a panel of secreting and nonsecreting subclones. Most of the nonsecreting subclones had also lost surface Ig. The structural genes for human Ig heavy chains have been provisionally assigned to chromosome 14, which also encodes the enzyme nucleoside phosphorylase. Human nucleoside phosphorylase was detected in all secreting and nonsecreting B1-29 subclones, indicating the presence of human chromosome 14. The retention of chromosome 14 in nonsecreting clones implied that the structural genes for human Ig were A2-31 and E2-42, which had stopped secreting, an attempt was made to restimulate the secreting of human Ig with mitogens A2-31 was unique among the cell lines examined, in that chromosome 14 could not be detected by an isoenzyme marker. Lipopolysaccharide, at an optimum dose of 10 micrograms/ml, restimulated these nonsecreting hybrid lines to secrete human IgG in levels up to 0.7 micrograms/ml. Loss of Ig secretion may not therefore be caused by loss of Ig structural genes.
Optimization of a dried residue specimen preparation method for quantifying analytes in plutonium metal using WDXRF

A novel method for preparing thin films was investigated for quantifying gallium and iron in plutonium solutions using WDXRF. This technique was developed to eliminate the potential for radioactive liquid to leak into the spectrometer, decrease specimen preparation time, and minimize waste. Samples were cast in μL quantities onto Kapton, and a surfactant was added to disperse the solution uniformly across the Kapton. After drying the specimens, they were sealed in a cell for analysis. Results to date indicate the method can provide a relative precision of ∼0.5% for gallium and ∼2% for iron, which is more than sufficient for routine sample analyses.
Bmc Medical Research Methodology Open Access Does Sampling Using Random Digit Dialling Really Cost More than Sampling from Telephone Directories: Debunking the Myths

Background: Computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) is widely used for health surveys. The advantages of CATI over face-to-face interviewing are timeliness and cost reduction to achieve the same sample size and geographical coverage. Two major CATI sampling procedures are used: sampling directly from the electronic white pages (EWP) telephone directory and list assisted random digit dialling (LA-RDD) sampling. EWP sampling covers telephone numbers of households listed in the printed white pages. LA-RDD sampling has a better coverage of households than EWP sampling but is considered to be more expensive due to interviewers dialling more out-of-scope numbers.
Highly integrated and tunable RF front-ends for reconfigurable multi-band transceivers

Architectural and circuit techniques to integrate the RF front-end passive components, namely the SAW filters and duplexers that are traditionally implemented off chip, are presented. Intended for software defined radios, tunable high-Q filters allow the integration of highly reconfigurable transceiver front-ends that are robust to in-band and out-of-band blockers. Furthermore, duplexer techniques based on electrical balance concept are introduced to enable highly integrated and programmable radios for full duplex applications such as 3/4G transceivers.
Safety Assessment of Design Patterns for Safety-Critical Embedded Systems

System safety is considered as one of the most important non-functional requirements for safety-critical embedded systems. Several safety assessment methods have been proposed to evaluate safety-critical systems. However, most of them cannot be used to assess safety-critical design patterns due to the fact that these patterns do not address real systems but present abstract solutions to commonly recurring design problems. This paper introduces a proposal for a safety assessment method for safety-critical systems design patterns. This method includes a safety metric based on the computation of the relative safety improvement achieved when using the design patterns under consideration. A Monte Carlo based simulation method is used to illustrate the new proposed assessment method which allows to compare them with respect to their impact on safety.
The associations between fatigue, apathy, and depression in Parkinson's disease

Fatigue and apathy are two of the most common and most disabling non‐motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). They have a high coincidence and can often be confused; moreover, their relationship is not fully understood. The aim of our study was to describe the coincidence of apathy with different fatigue domains in the presence/absence of depression and to separately describe the associations of different aspects of primary and secondary fatigue with apathy and other clinical and disease‐related factors.
Fair access to scarce resources in ad-hoc grids using an economic-based approach

In ad-hoc Grids where the availability of resources and tasks changes over the time, distributing the tasks among the scarce resources in a balanced way is a challenging task. In this paper, we present how using an economic-based approach, the tasks can be distributed evenly among the scarce resources. Such that all nodes which have tasks to be executed, receive more or less equal utilization from the Grid resources. We consider a continuous double auction protocol as the economic approach to share idle cpu cycles among the nodes in a local ad-hoc Grid. Each node is given a limited budget when joining the Grid. The node can use it to buy required resources or increases its budget by selling idle resources. Consumers and producers of resources determine their bid and ask prices using a dynamic pricing strategy and the auctioneer adopts a discriminatory pricing policy which sets the transaction price individually for each matched buyer-seller pair. We experiment in a network where the resources are scarce and the tasks outnumber the resources. The spread of task utilization at individual nodes and the level of load balancing are measured and compared with a non-economic approach. The results show that economic-based approach provides a fair and balanced basis for access to Grid resources for everyone while in the same time gives a satisfactory level of system performance.
De novo Transcriptome Generation and Annotation for Two Korean Endemic Land Snails, Aegista chejuensis and Aegista quelpartensis, Using Illumina Paired-End Sequencing Technology

Aegista chejuensis and Aegista quelpartensis (Family-Bradybaenidae) are endemic to Korea, and are considered vulnerable due to declines in their population. The limited genetic resources for these species restricts the ability to prioritize conservation efforts. We sequenced the transcriptomes of these species using Illumina paired-end technology. Approximately 257 and 240 million reads were obtained and assembled into 198,531 and 230,497 unigenes for A. chejuensis and A. quelpartensis, respectively. The average and N50 unigene lengths were 735.4 and 1073 bp, respectively, for A. chejuensis, and 705.6 and 1001 bp, respectively, for A. quelpartensis. In total, 68,484 (34.5%) and 77,745 (33.73%) unigenes for A. chejuensis and A. quelpartensis, respectively, were annotated to databases. Gene Ontology terms were assigned to 23,778 (11.98%) and 26,396 (11.45) unigenes, for A. chejuensis and A. quelpartensis, respectively, while 5050 and 5838 unigenes were mapped to 117 and 124 pathways in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database. In addition, we identified and annotated 9542 and 10,395 putative simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in unigenes from A. chejuensis and A. quelpartensis, respectively. We designed a list of PCR primers flanking the putative SSR regions. These microsatellites may be utilized for future phylogenetics and conservation initiatives.
Dual-Interface Multiple Channels DSDV Protocol

Communications in single channel single interface ad hoc network suffer from channel access contention, which results in bandwidth scarcity. One way to overcome this problem is through the use of multiple channels multiple interfaces (MCMI). In this paper, we present a dual-interface multiple channels Destination-Sequenced Distance-Vector (DSDV-M) routing protocol, which is the extension of the DSDV routing protocol to MCMI version. The objective of the proposed algorithm is to reduce the channel interference so that multiple transmissions can occur concurrently, thus increasing network capacity. The proposed algorithm is evaluated against channel scheduling algorithms; the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is able to exploit the availability of multiple channels multiple interfaces to improve network capacity. In addition, we are also able to gain greater than twice the throughput of DSDV with single channel single interface.
Application of the AUTOS Model in NPP Control Rooms

The next generation of nuclear power is imminent; plants are being design and built, managed and studied. We have learned immeasurable lessons from the previous 40 years of operation, and the industry is still in the process of discovering emergent behaviors, as evidenced by the Fukushima accident of 2011. The system is certainly complex. However, the key to managing a complex system is not only in managing the interactions, but also in operators maintaining the dynamic plant knowledge and situational awareness (SA) to respond to unknown situations. In addition to the natural unknowns within the system, additional technological advances and digital systems have added an additional layer of complexity to manage [1]. The key to managing complexity is for the operator to maintain SA. During design, or when looking to add improvements or efficiency, one way to look at the problems is to utilize the AUTOS model to assist in identifying interactions, which can lead to emergent behaviors. Emergent behaviors are behaviors of a complex system that are difficult or impossible to predict without simulation or a functional system due to the variability of interactions. Once identified, technological or organizational process solutions can help improve safety. Additionally, this exercise can assist newcomers to a particular domain in developing the knowledge required for system understanding. It provides a framework and methodology to study, document and understand subtle interactions between subcomponents of an otherwise complex system.
Properties of Relativistic Jets in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

We extend our calculation of physical parameters of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets by modeling the broadband emission of the afterglows 970508, 980519, 991208, 000926, 000418, and 010222. Together with 990123, 990510, 991216, and 000301c, there are 10 well-observed afterglows for which the initial opening angle of the GRB jet can be constrained. The jet energies (after the GRB phase) obtained for this set of afterglows are within one decade around 5 × 1050 ergs. With the exception of 000418, which requires a jet wider than rad, the jet initial half-angle in the other cases ranges from 2° to 20°. We find that in half of the cases, a homogeneous ambient medium accommodates the afterglow emission better than the windlike r-2 profile medium expected around massive stars. The two types of media give fits of comparable quality in four cases, with a wind medium providing a better description only for 970508. The circumburst densities we obtain are in the 0.1-100 cm-3 range, with the exception of 990123, for which it is below 10-2 cm-3. If in all 10 cases the observed GRB durations are a good measure of the ejecta deceleration timescale, then the parameters obtained here lead to jet Lorentz factors at the deceleration radius between 70 and 300, anticorrelated with the jet initial aperture, and jet masses around 10-6 M☉ . Our results on the jet energy, opening Lorentz factor, and evacuation of material until breakout provide constraints on theoretical models of GRB jets.
Crystal structure of tobacco PR-5d protein at 1.8 A resolution reveals a conserved acidic cleft structure in antifungal thaumatin-like proteins.

The crystal structure of tobacco PR-5d, an antifungal thaumatin-like protein isolated from cultured tobacco cells, was determined at the resolution of 1.8 A. The structure consists of 208 amino acid residues and 89 water molecules with a crystallographic R-factor of 0.169. The model has good stereochemistry, with respective root-mean-square deviations from the ideal values for bond and angle distances of 0.007 A and 1.542 degrees. Of the homologous PR-5 proteins, only those with antifungal activity had a common motif, a negatively charged surface cleft. This cleft is at the boundary between domains I and II, with a bottom part consisting of a three-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet in domain I. The acidic residues located in the hollow of the cleft form the beta-sheet region. Sequence and secondary structure analyses showed that the amino acid residues comprising the acidic cleft of PR-5d are conserved among other antifungal PR-5 proteins. This is the first report on the high-resolution crystal structure of an antifungal PR-5 protein. This structure provides insight into the function of pathogenesis-related proteins.
Image Tagging via Cross-Modal Semantic Mapping

Images without annotations are ubiquitous on the Internet, and recommending tags for them has become a challenging open task in image understanding. A common bottleneck of related work is the semantic gap between the image and text representations. In this paper, we bridge the gap by introducing a semantic layer, the space of word embeddings that represents the image tags as the word vectors. Our model first learns the optimal mapping from the visual space to the semantic space using training sources. Then we annotate test images by decoding the semantic representations of the visual features. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches in predicting the image tags.