Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rhesus Monkey Embryos Produced by Nuclear Transfer from Embryonic Blastomeres or Somatic Cells1

Abstract Production of genetically identical nonhuman primates would reduce the number of animals required for biomedical research and dramatically impact studies pertaining to immune system function, such as development of the human-immunodeficiency-virus vaccine. Our long-term goal is to develop robust somatic cell cloning and/or twinning protocols in the rhesus macaque. The objective of this study was to determine the developmental competence of nuclear transfer (NT) embryos derived from embryonic blastomeres (embryonic cell NT) or fetal fibroblasts (somatic cell NT) as a first step in the production of rhesus monkeys by somatic cell cloning. Development of cleaved embryos up to the 8-cell stage was similar among embryonic and somatic cell NT embryos and comparable to controls created by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI; mean ± SEM, 81 ± 5%, 88 ± 7%, and 87 ± 4%, respectively). However, significantly lower rates of development to the blastocyst stage were observed with somatic cell NT embryos (1%) in contrast to embryonic cell NT (34 ± 15%) or ICSI control embryos (46 ± 6%). Development of somatic cell NT embryos was not markedly affected by donor cell treatment, timing of activation, or chemical activation protocol. Transfer of embryonic, but not of somatic cell NT embryos, into recipients resulted in term pregnancy. Future efforts will focus on optimizing the production of somatic cell NT embryos that develop in high efficiency to the blastocyst stage in vitro.
Simultaneous Quantification of Novel Antiretroviral Drug Combination by Stability-indicating High-performance Liquid Chromatography method

Research in the many areas of human immunodeficiency virus treatment, eradication and prevention has necessitated measurement of antiretroviral concentrations in nontraditional specimen types. For HIV infection, drug combinations are typically used as highly active antiretroviral therapy, intended to maximize viral suppression. A novel four drugs combination was used, which contains two nucleoside analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors (lamivudine and tenofovir) and two protease inhibitors (darunavir and ritonavir). A new simple, efficient, and sensitive reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for simultaneously extraction and determination of the concentrations of lamivudine, tenofovir, darunavir and ritonavir in bulk and their tablets. Four compounds were separated on a reversed-phase C18 column at 30±2.0° using a gradient mobile phase combination containing potassium dihydrogen phosphate, acetonitrile and methanol. The pH was adjusted to 3.5±0.05 by the addition of ortho phosphoric acid. The samples were detected using a UV detector, 260 nm for lamivudine, tenofovir and darunavir and 240 nm for ritonavir. The procedure separated analytes and its potential degradation products, in an overall analysis time of about 15 min with lamivudine, tenofovir, darunavir and ritonavir eluting at about 2.385, 4.055, 11.353 and 14.010 min, respectively. The linear range of lamivudine, tenofovir, darunavir and ritonavir was 58.32-174.96 μg/ml, 58.32-174.96 μg/ml, 72.00-216.00 μg/ml and 112.50-337.5 μg/ml, respectively. The relative standard deviation for precision was less than 2.0%. The drug was subjected to acid, alkaline peroxide and photolytic stress conditions and the performance of the method was validated according to the present as per the International Conference on Harmonization guidelines for speci? city, linearity, accuracy, precision and robustness.
White blood cell count nadir following remission induction chemotherapy is predictive of outcome in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia

Kinetics of white blood cell (WBC) elimination following induction chemotherapy for older adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may serve as a surrogate for its effectiveness and safety by enabling real-time prognostication. We reviewed 122 older adults with AML treated at the Cleveland Clinic. Recursive partitioning analysis was used to identify optimal cut points in nadir WBC count and time to WBC nadir that correlate with survival. Multivariable analysis identified time to WBC nadir less than or equal to 10 days (HR 2.15, 95%CI 1.12 – 4.12, p = 0.02), low WBC nadir (less than 0.04×109/l, HR 2.68, 95%CI 1.15 – 6.23, p = 0.02) and high WBC nadir (greater than 0.12×109/l HR 1.5, 95%CI 0.96 – 2.37, p = 0.08), as predictors of worse outcomes. Time to WBC nadir predicts survival. The absolute WBC nadir value follows a J-curve, with lower value indicating a worse outcome.
Distinct Phosphatase Requirements and GATA Factor Responses to Nitrogen Catabolite Repression and Rapamycin Treatment in Saccharomyces cerevisiae*

In yeast, rapamycin (Rap)-inhibited TorC1, and the phosphatases it regulates (Sit4 and PP2A) are components of a conserved pathway regulating the response of eukaryotic cells to nutrient availability. TorC1 and intracellular nitrogen levels regulate the localization of Gln3 and Gat1, the activators of nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR)-sensitive genes whose products are required to utilize poor nitrogen sources. In nitrogen excess, Gln3 and Gat1 are cytoplasmic, and NCR-sensitive transcription is repressed. During nitrogen limitation or Rap treatment, Gln3 and Gat1 are nuclear, and transcription is derepressed. We previously demonstrated that the Sit4 and Pph21/22-Tpd3-Cdc55/Rts1 requirements for nuclear Gln3 localization differ. We now show that Sit4 and Pph21/22-Tpd3-Cdc55/Rts1 requirements for NCR-sensitive and Rap-induced nuclear Gat1 localization markedly differ from those of Gln3. Our data suggest that Gln3 and Gat1 localizations are controlled by two different regulatory pathways. Gln3 localization predominantly responds to intracellular nitrogen levels, as reflected by its stronger NCR-sensitivity, weaker response to Rap treatment, and strong response to methionine sulfoximine (Msx, a glutamine synthetase inhibitor). In contrast, Gat1 localization predominantly responds to TorC1 regulation as reflected by its weaker NCR sensitivity, stronger response to Rap, and immunity to the effects of Msx. Nuclear Gln3 localization in proline-grown (nitrogen limited) cells exhibits no requirement for Pph21/22-Tpd3/Cdc55, whereas nuclear Gat1 localization under these conditions is absolutely dependent on Pph21/22-Tpd3/Cdc55. Furthermore, the extent to which Pph21/22-Tpd3-Cdc55 is required for the TorC1 pathway (Rap) to induce nuclear Gat1 localization is regulated in parallel with Pph21/22-Tpd3-Cdc55-dependent Gln3 dephosphorylation and NCR-sensitive transcription, being highest in limiting nitrogen and lowest when nitrogen is in excess.
HAPPY Team Entry to NIST OpenSAD Challenge: A Fusion of Short-Term Unsupervised and Segment i-Vector Based Speech Activity Detectors

Speech activity detection (SAD), the task of locating speech segments from a given recording, remains challenging under acoustically degraded conditions. In 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) coordinated OpenSAD bench-mark. We summarize “HAPPY” team effort to Open-SAD. SADs come in both unsupervised and supervised ﬂavors, the latter requiring a labeled training set. Our solution fuses six base SADs (2 supervised and 4 unsupervised). The individually best SAD, in terms of detection cost function (DCF), is supervised and uses adaptive segmentation with i-vectors to represent the segments. Fusion of the six base SADs yields a relative decrease of 9.3 % in DCF over this SAD. Further, relative decrease of 17.4 % is obtained by incorporating channel detection side information.
Down-regulates SAMHD 1 Enzyme Catalysis Prior to Proteasome-dependent Degradation

Background: SAMHD1 is counteracted by the HIV-2/SIV virulence factor Vpx, which directs it for degradation. Results:Vpx in complex with DDB1-DCAF1 binds to the C terminus of SAMHD1, inhibits its catalytic activity, and dissociates SAMHD1 tetramers. Conclusion: The viral countermeasures by Vpx are manifested at multiple levels. Significance: Identifying molecular mechanisms of viral countermeasures against HIV restriction factors is important for designing antiviral therapeutics.
Sign coding and estimation of zero-quantized coefficients in the reformed EZW algorithm

Wavelet transforms have proven to be very powerful tools for image compression. Wavelet transform coefficients are comprised by both a magnitude and a sign. While efficient algorithms exist for coding the transform coefficient magnitudes, most current wavelet image coding algorithms are not as efficient at coding the sign of the transform coefficients. In this paper, sign coding and estimation of zero-quantized coefficients are applied in a reformed embedded zerotree wavelet image encoder. In addition to using intraband wavelet coefficients in a sign coding context model, a projection technique capitalizes on the non-orthogonality of biorthogonal wavelet transform basis vectors to improve the prediction of high-frequency coefficients, that allows nonintraband wavelet coefficients to be incorporated into the context model. At the decoder improved reconstruction estimation of zero-quantized coefficients are derived. It is shown that these techniques yield higher PSNR improvements.
Gradient Local Binary Patterns for human detection

In recent years, local pattern based features have attracted increasing interest in object detection and recognition systems. Local Binary Pattern (LBP) feature is widely used in texture classification and face detection. But the original definition of LBP is not suitable for human detection. In this paper, we propose a novel feature set named gradient local binary patterns (GLBP), Original GLBP and Improved GLBP, for human detection. Experiments are performed on INRIA dataset, which shows the proposal GLBP feature is more discriminative than histogram of orientated gradient (HOG), histogram of template (HOT) and Semantic Local Binary Patterns (S-LBP), under the same training method. In our experiments, the window size is fixed. That means the performance can be improved by boosting and cascade methods. And the computation of GLBP feature is parallel, which make it easy for hardware acceleration. These factors make GLBP feature possible for real-time human detection.
Parelaphostrongylus tenuis (Nematoda) and Fascioloides magna (Trematoda) in moose of southeastern Manitoba.

Neurologic disease caused by the meningeal worm, Parelaphostrongylus tenuis (Dougherty 1945), is reported in moose of southeastern Manitoba, where the ranges of moose (Alces alces) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) overlap. Moose of this area are also infected commonly with the large American fiver fluke, Fascioloides magna (Bassi 1875). The moose cannot be considered a suitable host of F. magna since extensive liver damage results from infection, thick-walled cysts are formed, and mature flukes with eggs were not found in moose examined. Trematode eggs were found in liver sections of one animal but were not present in the faeces. It is suggested F. magna may be unable to persist in moose populations in the absence of a more suitable cervid host such as white-tailed deer.
An intuitive and comprehensive two-load model for Series Elastic Actuators

Actuation systems featuring inherent series compliance have over time entered more and more the focus of robotic research. The advantages are good force/torque controllability, an increased robustness against unforeseen shocks and other disturbances, and the possibility to store elastic energy. In order to fully enable Series Elastic Actuators (SEAs), a thorough understanding of the actuators internal dynamics is indispensable. Till today the vast majority of existing models for SEAs merge the moving masses within the actuator into a single mass. The two sides of the actuator are either both fixed or at most one is connected to a free moving mass. Hence this paper proposes a model in which all internal masses are kept separated and moving loads are connected to each end of the actuator. It is generalised to cover SEA implementations with the most common drive trains and arbitrary spring placement.
Impact of managerial ownership on operational performance of IPO firms: French context

Abstract The study investigates the change in performance of French public firms post to their Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and its relationship with the changes in the managerial ownership around the time firms to their IPOs. We develop three hypotheses: (1) Agency theory, (2) Entrenchment, (3) Curve-linear link between managerial ownership and firm performance. Tests are conducted on a sample of 65 companies going public during 2000 to 2006 on the Paris stock exchange. Overall, we observe an average decrease in managerial ownership and accounting performance two years after going public. The majority of our results show there is a significant negative relation between post-IPO change in performance and equity detention by the managerial ownership. Therefore, the most of the results are opposed to the predictions resulting from the assumption of agency (alignment of interests) but contribute to retain the entrenchment hypothesis and specially the assumption of the timing in the sense that it is beneficial for manager to plan the introduction at a time when performance is particularly high to ensure its success. This facilitates later, his entrenchment. Accordingly, a steeper decline in performance after IPO for the group of companies, where owner-managers hold a large share of ownership. Some of our results support the alignment of interest hypothesis.
DWT based encryption technique for medical images

The security of medical images has attracted much attention recently, especially when these images are hosted by third party cloud service providers and therefore must be sent through the communication networks. A key challenge in the cloud computing paradigm is the design of efficient security schemes that help address the issues of confidentiality, integrity and authentication. Consequently, we propose a fast and robust encryption technique for gray scale medical images for real time applications. Our technique first compresses the medical image in the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) domain before encrypting with an algorithm based on basic pixel permutation and randomness. In the DWT domain, correlation and redundancy are reduced while random pixel permutation with encryption key provides confusion and diffusion. Our simulation results demonstrate the potentials of our technique.
Compact Lumped-Element LTCC Bandpass Filter for Low-Loss VHF-Band Applications

A compact multilayer lumped-element bandpass filter which employs a novel third-order schematic for the low-loss wide passband along with high selectivity is proposed in this letter. The filter characteristics are analyzed mathematically and graphically when the practical implementations of the filter get discussed in detail afterward. A prototype filter of extremely small size $0.004 \lambda _g {\times} 0.004\lambda _g {\times} 0.0003\lambda _g$ is realized in a ten-layer low-temperature co-fired ceramic substrate. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed filter achieves a wide fractional bandwidth of 62% with remarkably low insertion loss, which shows great potentials for miniaturized high-resolution very-high-frequency communications applications.
Unequal segregation of parental chromosomes in embryonic stem cell hybrids

Chromosome segregation was studied in 14 intra‐ and 20 inter‐specific hybrid clones generated by fusion of Mus musculus embryonic stem (ES) cells with fibroblasts or splenocytes of DD/c mice or Mus caroli. As a control for in vitro evolution of tetraploid karyotype we used a set of hybrid clones obtained by fusion of ES cells (D3) with ES cells (TgTP6.3). Identification of the parental chromosomes in the clones was performed by microsatellite analysis and in situ hybridization with labeled species‐specific probes. Both analyses have revealed three types of clones: (i) stable tetraploid, observed only for ES × ES cell hybrids; (ii) bilateral loss of chromosomes of both ES and somatic partners; (iii) unilateral segregation of chromosomes of the somatic partner. Observed unilateral segregation was extensive in ES–splenocyte cell hybrids, but lower in ES–fibroblast hybrid clones. Developmental state of the somatic partner is presumably responsible for directional chromosome loss. Nonrandom segregation implies that initial differences in the parental homologous chromosomes were not immediately equalized implying at least transient persistence of the differentiated epigenotype. Mol. Reprod. Dev. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ablation of Internalization Signals in the Carboxyl-terminal Tail of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator Enhances Cell Surface Expression*

The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a chloride channel that undergoes endocytosis through clathrin-coated pits. Previously, we demonstrated that Y1424A is important for CFTR endocytosis (Prince, L. S., Peter, K., Hatton, S. R., Zaliauskiene, L., Cotlin, L. F., Clancy, J. P., Marchase, R. B., and Collawn, J. F. (1999)J. Biol. Chem. 274, 3602–3609). Here we show that a second substitution in the carboxyl-terminal tail of CFTR, I1427A, on Y1424A background more than doubles CFTR surface expression as monitored by surface biotinylation. Internalization assays indicate that enhanced surface expression of Y1424A,I1427A CFTR is caused by a 76% inhibition of endocytosis. Patch clamp recording of chloride channel activity revealed that there was a corresponding increase in chloride channel activity of Y1424A,I1427A CFTR, consistent with the elevated surface expression, and no change in CFTR channel properties. Y14124A showed an intermediate phenotype compared with the double mutation, both in terms of surface expression and chloride channel activity. Metabolic pulse-chase experiments demonstrated that the two mutations did not affect maturation efficiency or protein half-life. Taken together, our data show that there is an internalization signal in the COOH terminus of CFTR that consists of Tyr1424-X-X-Ile1427where both the tyrosine and the isoleucine are essential residues. This signal regulates CFTR surface expression but not CFTR biogenesis, degradation, or chloride channel function.
Headline Underpricing and Entrepreneurial Wealth Losses in IPOs: Theory and Evidence

We develop the implications of the observation that entrepreneurs can affect, to some extent at least, the level of underpricing in their firms’ Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) by, for example, choosing highly reputable investment bankers as underwriters. We argue that entrepreneurs can, and will, minimize underpricing, but that they will do so only to an extent that is commensurate with the minimization of their wealth losses. Our empirical results suggest this is indeed the case in the United States: entrepreneurs will minimize underpricing until their marginal wealth losses equal the marginal cost of reducing headline underpricing. This suggests that private benefits may not be of primary importance when going public.
Explorer MCMix : Anonymous Messaging via Secure Multiparty Computation

We present MCMix, an anonymous messaging system that completely hides communication metadata and can scale in the order of hundreds of thousands of users. Our approach is to isolate two suitable functionalities, called dialing and conversation, that when used in succession, realize anonymous messaging. With this as a starting point, we apply secure multiparty computation (“MC” or MPC) and proceed to realize them. We then present an implementation using Sharemind, a prevalent MPC system. Our implementation is competitive in terms of latency with previous messaging systems that only offer weaker privacy guarantees. Our solution can be instantiated in a variety of different ways with different MPC implementations, overall illustrating how MPC is a viable and competitive alternative to mix-nets and DC-nets for anonymous communication.
Effects of L1 Phonotactic Constraints on L2 Word Segmentation Strategies

In the present study, it was examined whether phonotactic constraints of the first language affect speech processing by Japanese learners of English and whether L2 proficiency influences it. Seventeen native English speakers (ES), 18 Japanese speakers with high proficiency of English (JH), and 20 Japanese speakers with relatively low English proficiency (JL) took part in a monitoring task. Two types of target words (CVC/CV, e.g., team/tea) were embedded in bisyllabic nonwords (e.g., teamfesh) and given to the participants with other non-words in the lists. The three groups were instructed to respond as soon as they spot targets, and response times and error rates were analyzed. The results showed that all of the groups segmented the CVC target words significantly faster and more accurately than the CV targets. L1 phonontactic constraints did not hinder L2 speech processing, and a word segmentation strategy was not language-specific in the case of Japanese English learners.
Repeatability of popliteal blood flow and lower limb vascular conductance at rest and exercise during body tilt using Doppler ultrasound

We tested the data repeatability for popliteal blood flow velocity (PBV), popliteal arterial diameter (ADpop), popliteal blood flow (PBF) and lower limb vascular conductance (VC) at rest and exercise in three body positions, two work rates and two inspired oxygen fractions. Fifteen, eleven and ten healthy volunteers participated in the three phases of the studies. Resting protocols were performed in horizontal (HOR), 35° head-down tilt (HDT) and 45° head-up tilt (HUT) for 5 min in each body position. Participants also exercised at lower and higher power outputs (repeated plantar flexion contractions at 20% and 30% maximal voluntary contraction, respectively) in HOR, HDT and HUT and in normoxia (21%O2) and hypoxia (14%O2) with the same work rates and body positions. PBV and ADpop were measured by ultrasound to determine PBF, and VC was estimated by dividing PBF by muscle perfusion pressure (MPP). PBV, ADpop, PBF and VC were not different, demonstrated good agreement and consistency between the two days of testing during both rest and exercise conditions regardless of body position. Therefore, these data support the utilization of Doppler and echo Doppler ultrasound as a reproducible method to measure PBV and ADpop and consequently estimate PBF and VC responses in such conditions.
Technology mapping for low power

Power consumption has become a great concern for IC and system designs. As a consequence, power-driven technology mapping has attracted several research attentions. However, the power model they used cannot properly capture the power dissipation when the output of a gate does not switch. In this paper, we propose a pattern oriented power modeling for improved technology mapping. We first perform a profitability study using the complete pattern to pattern transition data organized in tabular form. Then, we propose a probability-based, pattern oriented technology mapping method. Empirical results on benchmark circuits demonstrate the proposed method delivered an average of 13% power reduction compared to the traditional mapping method.