Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Competence of Vitrified-Warmed Bovine Oocytes at the Germinal-Vesicle Stage is Improved by Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate Modulators during In Vitro Maturation

Cryopreservation of mature oocytes and embryos has provided numerous benefits in reproductive medicine. Although successful cryopreservation of germinal-vesicle stage (GV) oocytes holds promise for further advances in reproductive biology and clinical embryology fields, reports regarding cryopreservation of immature oocytes are limited. Oocyte survival and maturation rates have improved since vitrification is being performed at the GV stage, but the subsequent developmental competence of GV oocytes is still low. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of supplementation of the maturation medium with cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) modulators on the developmental competence of vitrified-warmed GV bovine oocytes. GV oocytes were vitrified-warmed and cultured to allow for oocyte maturation, and then parthenogenetically activated or fertilized in vitro. Our results indicate that addition of a cAMP modulator forskolin (FSK) or 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) to the maturation medium significantly improved the developmental competence of vitrified-warmed GV oocytes. We also demonstrated that vitrification of GV oocytes led to a decline in cAMP levels and maturation-promoting factor (MPF) activity in the oocytes during the initial and final phases of maturation, respectively. Nevertheless, the addition of FSK or IBMX to the maturation medium significantly elevated cAMP levels and MPF activity during IVM. Taken together, our results suggest that the cryopreservation-associated meiotic and developmental abnormalities observed in GV oocytes may be ameliorated by an artificial increase in cAMP levels during maturation culture after warming.
Lookup Table-Based Adaptive Body Biasing of Multiple Macros

A reduced supply voltage must be accompanied by a reduced threshold voltage, which makes this approach to power saving susceptible to process variation in transistor parameters, as well as resulting in increased subthreshold leakage. The paper propose a new adaptive body biasing scheme, based on a lookup table for independent control of multiple functional blocks on a chip, which controls leakage and also compensates for process variation at the block level. An adaptive body bias is applied to blocks in active mode and a large reverse body bias is applied to blocks in standby mode. This is achieved by a central body bias controller, which has a low overhead in terms of area, delay, and power consumption. The problem of optimizing the required set of bias voltages is formulated and solved. A design methodology for semicustom design using standard-cell elements is developed and verified with benchmark circuits
Multistream Faster than Nyquist Signaling

We extend Mazo's concept of faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling to pulse trains that modulate a bank of subcarriers, a method called two dimensional FTN signaling. The signal processing is similar to orthogonal frequency division multiplex(OFDM) transmission but the subchannels are not orthogonal. Despite nonorthogonal pulses and subcarriers, the method achieves the isolated-pulse error performance; it does so in as little as half the bandwidth of ordinary OFDM. Euclidean distance properties are investigated for schemes based on several basic pulses. The best have Gaussian shape. An efficient distance calculation is given. Concatenations of ordinary codes and FTN are introduced. The combination achieves the outer code gain in as little as half the bandwidth. Receivers must work in two dimensions, and several iterative designs are proposed for FTN with outer convolutional coding.
Asynchronous Branch & Bound and A * for DisWCSPs , with heuristic function based on Consistency-Maintenance

Distributed weighted constraint satisfaction problems occur, for example, when privacy requirements exclude the centralization of the problem description. New definitions of arc consistency (AC) and node consistency (NC*) for centralized weighted constraint satisfaction problems (WCSP) have been recently proposed and prove increased simplicity and effectiveness [4]. We show how they can be exploited in asynchronous search: (a) Weighted Consistency Labels (WCL) are introduced to represent costs inherent to each value of a variable in an explored subproblem. (b) A maximal propagation of the weights with NC* can be guaranteed by either (b’) designating a single agent for performing the summation of the costs synthesized by different agents for the same value and subproblem, or (b”) having all agents learn and separately sum up all such costs. (c) The obtained weights combined with asynchronous Branch & Bound (B & B) leads to a distributed equivalent of powerful centralized versions of B & B. (d) The heuristic function needed by asynchronous A* can also be extracted from such costs computed concurrently with the search.
Maternal perceptions of their child’s weight status: the GENESIS study

Abstract Objective The objective of the present work was to quantify mothers’ misclassification of pre-school children’s weight status and to determine factors associated with the maternal misperception. Design A representative sample of 2287 children aged 2–5 years was examined (GENESIS study). Mothers’ perceptions of their child’s weight status and the children’s and mothers’ anthropometric and other characteristics (sociodemographic and lifestyle) were recorded. Results Almost 38 % of mothers underestimated their child’s weight status. The frequency of underestimation was much higher among ‘at risk of being overweight’ and ‘overweight’ children (88·3 % and 54·5 %, respectively) compared with ‘underweight/normal-weight’ children (18·0 %, P < 0·001). Multiple logistic regression modelling revealed that the likelihood of mothers’ underestimation of their child’s weight status was significantly higher in boys, in children engaging in physical activity for less than 3 h/week and in children whose mothers had low education status, compared with their counterparts. Moreover, the higher the BMI-for-age Z-score, the greater the odds that the mother would underestimate her child’s weight status. Conclusions The current study demonstrated that more than one-third of mothers misclassify their children’s weight status as being lower than the actual. Given that mother’s weight perception might be an important determinant of child’s body weight development, clinicians and health professionals should help mothers correctly classify their children’s weight status, which could potentially help in the early prevention of overweight and obesity.
Murine monoclonal antibody specific for lipopolysaccharide of Salmonella serogroup A

To facilitate the routine identification of salmonellae and detailed studies of their lipopolysaccharides, we raised murine monoclonal antibodies against these organisms. We raised an immunoglobulin G1 antibody, MO2, which is specific for factor O2. By immunoblotting following sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, MO2 was shown to bind only the lipopolysaccharide of Salmonella paratyphi A, giving a ladderlike reaction pattern with regularly spaced reactive bands. MO2 did not react against lipopolysaccharides of other Salmonella serogroups, including those of serogroups B, C, D, E, and L. Since the lipopolysaccharides of Salmonella serogroups A, B, D, and E are similar except for the presence of paratose in serogroup A organisms, this dideoxyhexose is therefore believed to be the immunodominant epitope for MO2. Consistent with the latter contention was the finding that periodate oxidation of the S. paratyphi A lipopolysaccharide did not destroy its antigenicity for MO2. In a slide agglutination test, MO2 was found to react specifically against all 12 clinical isolates of S. paratyphi A but not against 98 isolates of other salmonellae or 74 isolates of other bacteria and Candida albicans.
O2 Enhancement of Human Trophoblast Differentiation and hCYP19 (Aromatase) Gene Expression Are Mediated by Proteasomal Degradation of USF1 and USF2

ABSTRACT When cultured in 20% O2, human cytotrophoblasts fuse to form the syncytiotrophoblast with marked induction of hCYP19 (aromatase) gene expression. When cultured in 2% O2, cytotrophoblast fusion and induced hCYP19 expression are prevented. These effects of hypoxia are mediated by increased expression of mammalian achaete/scute homologue-2 (Mash-2), which increases levels of upstream stimulatory factors 1 and 2 (USF1/2) and their binding as heterodimers to E-boxes surrounding the hCYP19 promoter. In studies to define mechanisms for O2 regulation of syncytiotrophoblast differentiation, we found that hypoxia and overexpression of Mash-2 markedly increased cyclin B1 levels in cultured trophoblasts and the proportion of cells at the G2/M transition. Unlike USF proteins, USF1/2 mRNA levels are unaffected by O2 tension. To determine whether increased O2 might enhance proteasomal degradation of USF1/2, human trophoblasts were cultured in 2% or 20% O2 with or without proteasome inhibitors. In cells cultured in 20% O2, proteasome inhibitors increased USF1/2 protein levels and blocked spontaneous induction of hCYP19 expression, cell fusion, and differentiation. Like hypoxia, inhibitory effects of proteasome inhibitors on hCYP19 expression were mediated by increased binding of USF1/2 to the E-boxes. In human trophoblast cells cultured in 20% O2, increased polyubiquitylation of USF1/2 proteins was observed. Thus, early in gestation when the placenta is relatively hypoxic, increased USF1/2 may block trophoblast differentiation and hCYP19 gene expression. In the second trimester, increased O2 tension promotes proteasomal degradation of USF1/2, resulting in syncytiotrophoblast differentiation and induction of hCYP19 expression.
Predicting focus through prominence structure

Focus is central to our control of information flow in dialogue. Spoken language understanding systems therefore need to be able to detect focus automatically. It is well known that prominence is a key marker of focus in English, however, the relationship is not straight-forward. We present focus prediction models built using the NXT Switchboard corpus. We claim that a focus is more likely if a word is more prominent than expected given its syntactic, semantic and discourse properties. Crucially, the perception of prominence arises not only from acoustic cues, but also the position in prosodic structure. Our focus prediction results, along with a study showing the acoustic properties of focal accents vary by structural position, support our claims. As a largely novel task, these results are an important first step in detecting focus for spoken language applications.
Collecting sensor data using compressed IPFIX

During the last years the application areas and corresponding requirements for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) raised due to limited resources of devices and requirements of the application. The scenarios (e.g. home networks) call for an integration of a WSN into an existing IP-based infrastructure which is realized by 6LoW-PAN. To save resources and to ensure a long life time of the WSN resource consuming tasks such as transmissions must be reduced. Therefore, we present a Compressed IPFIX protocol. It optimizes the transmission by reducing the packet size and the transmission amount by separation between meta information and data. Additional tasks can be performed on top of IPFIX to optimize the efficient usage of the limited resources.
Improving Team's Consistency of Understanding in Meetings

Upon concluding a meeting, participants can occasionally leave with different understandings of what had been discussed. Detecting inconsistencies in understanding is a desired capability for an intelligent system designed to monitor meetings and provide feedback to spur stronger shared understanding. In this paper, we present a computational model for the automatic prediction of consistency among team members' understanding of their group's decisions. The model utilizes dialogue features focused on the dynamics of group decision-making. We trained a hidden Markov model using the AMI meeting corpus and achieved a prediction accuracy of 64.2%, as well as robustness across different meeting phases. We, then, implemented our model in an intelligent system that participated in human team planning about a hypothetical emergency response mission. The system suggested topics that the team would derive the most benefit from reviewing with one another. Through an experiment with 30 participants, we evaluated the utility of such a feedback system and observed a statistically significant increase of 17.5% in objective measures of the teams' understanding compared with that obtained using a baseline interactive system.
Parallel String Matching Algorithm Using Grid

Grid computing provides solutions for various complex problems. Implementing computing intensive applications such as string matching problem on grid is inevitable. In this paper we present a new method for exact string matching based on grid computing. The function of the grid is to parallelize the string matching problem using grid MPI parallel programming method or loosely coupled parallel services on Grid. There can be dedicated grid, other way it can be resource sharing among the existing network of computing resources, we propose dedicated grid. Parallel applications fall under three categories namely Perfect parallelism, Data parallelism and Functional parallelism, we use data parallelism, and it is also called Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) method, where given data is divided into several parts and working on the part simultaneously. This improves the executing time of the string matching algorithms on grid. The simulation results show significant improvement in executing time and speed up.
Electroconductive paper prepared by coating with blends of poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(4‐styrenesulfonate) and organic solvents

The thesis investigates the modification of paper into an ion- and electron-conductive material, and as a renewable material for electronic device. The study stretches from investigating the interaction between the cellulosic materials and the conducting polymer to demonstrating the performance of the conductive paper by printing the electronic structure on the surface of the conductive paper. Conducting materials such as conducting polymer, ionic liquids, and multi-wall carbon nanotubes were deposited into the fiber networks. In order to investigate the interaction between the conducting polymer and cellulosic material, the adsorption of the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(4-styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) onto microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was performed. Electroconductive papers were produced via dip coating and rod coating, and characterized. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) / Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) images showed that the conducting polymer was deposited in the fiber and in fiber-fiber contact areas. The X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of dip-coated paper samples showed PEDOT enrichment on the surface. The effects of fiber beating and paper formation, addition of organic solvents and pigments (TiO2, MWCNT), and calendering were investigated. Ionic paper was produced by depositing an ionic liquid into the commercial base paper. The dependence to temperature and relative humidity of the ionic conductivity was also investigated. In order to reduce the roughness and improve its printability, the ionic paper was surface-sized using different coating rods. The bulk resistance increased with increasing surface sizing. The electrochemical performance of the ionic paper was confirmed by printing PEDOT:PSS on the surface. There was change in color of the polymer when a voltage was applied. It was demonstrated that the ionic paper is a good ionic conductor that can be used as component for a more compact electronic device construction. Conductive paper has a great potential to be a flexible substrate on which an electronic structure can be constructed. The conduction process in the modified paper is due to the density of charge carriers (ions and electrons), and their short range mobility in the material. The charge carrying is believed to be heterogeneous, involving many charged species as the paper material is chemically heterogeneous.
KLEE: Unassisted and Automatic Generation of High-Coverage Tests for Complex Systems Programs

We present a new symbolic execution tool, KLEE, capable of automatically generating tests that achieve high coverage on a diverse set of complex and environmentally-intensive programs. We used KLEE to thoroughly check all 89 stand-alone programs in the GNU COREUTILS utility suite, which form the core user-level environment installed on millions of Unix systems, and arguably are the single most heavily tested set of open-source programs in existence. KLEE-generated tests achieve high line coverage -- on average over 90% per tool (median: over 94%) -- and significantly beat the coverage of the developers' own hand-written test suite. When we did the same for 75 equivalent tools in the BUSYBOX embedded system suite, results were even better, including 100% coverage on 31 of them. We also used KLEE as a bug finding tool, applying it to 452 applications (over 430K total lines of code), where it found 56 serious bugs, including three in COREUTILS that had been missed for over 15 years. Finally, we used KLEE to crosscheck purportedly identical BUSYBOX and COREUTILS utilities, finding functional correctness errors and a myriad of inconsistencies.
Hypertree decompositions and tractable queries

1 A preliminary version of this paper appeared in the ‘‘Proceedings of the Eighteenth ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS’99),’’ pp. 21–32, Philadelphia, May 1999. Research supported by FWF (Austrian Science Funds) under the Project Z29-INF. Part of the work of Francesco Scarcello has been carried out while visiting the Technische Universitat Wien. Part of the work of Nicola Leone has been carried out while he was with the Technische Universitat Wien. Georg Gottlob
Low-cost trimmable manufacturing methods for printable electronics

While printable electronics (PE) has the potential to provide a low cost means to manufacture electronic solutions, it suffers serious levels of component variations. While many of the problems facing PE are early technological development yield-related problems, some are more fundamental to its manufacturing nature. In this work, methods to construct PE circuits that compensate for these variations will be described. These methods include a combination of printing, severing, and ink deposition techniques that are performed both during and after manufacturing. Data obtained from working prototypes made using the PE technology at the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada will be described.
Tracking Multiple Air Tragets with Distributed Acoustic Sensors

The tracking of multiple air targets by a network of distributed acoustic sensor/processor nodes is considered. Since each sensor measures only the acoustic azimuths of the targets, cooperation among nodes in the distributed sensor network (DSV) is needed. A multiple-hypothesis approach to distributed tracking is used. Each sensor/processor forms hypotheses consisting of local azimuth and azimuth rate tracks for the targets. When the nodes communicate, hypotheses consisting of global position and velocity tracks are then formed. Simulation results for a network of several nodes are presented to illustrate the algorithms.
Quantification of Cardiomyocyte Hypertrophy by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance: Implications for Early Cardiac Remodeling

Background— Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy is a critical precursor to the development of heart failure. Methods to phenotype cellular hypertrophy noninvasively are limited. The goal was to validate a cardiac magnetic resonance–based approach for the combined assessment of extracellular matrix expansion and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Methods and Results— Two murine models of hypertension (n=18, with n=15 controls) induced by L-NG-nitroarginine methyl ester (L-NAME) and pressure overload (n=11) from transaortic constriction (TAC) were imaged by cardiac magnetic resonance at baseline and 7 weeks after L-NAME treatment or up to 7 weeks after TAC. T1 relaxation times were measured before and after gadolinium contrast. The intracellular lifetime of water (&tgr;ic), a cell size–dependent parameter, and extracellular volume fraction, a marker of interstitial fibrosis, were determined with a model for transcytolemmal water exchange. Cardiomyocyte diameter and length were measured on FITC–wheat germ agglutinin–stained sections. The &tgr;ic correlated strongly with histological cardiomyocyte volume-to-surface ratio (r=0.78, P<0.001) and cell volume (r=0.75, P<0.001). Histological cardiomyocyte diameters and cell volumes were higher in mice treated with L-NAME compared with controls (P<0.001). In the TAC model, cardiac magnetic resonance and histology showed cell hypertrophy at 2 weeks after TAC without significant fibrosis at this early time point. Mice exposed to TAC demonstrated a significant, longitudinal, and parallel increase in histological cell volume, volume-to-surface ratio, and &tgr;ic between 2 and 7 weeks after TAC. Conclusion— The &tgr;ic measured by contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance provides a noninvasive measure of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Extracellular volume fraction and &tgr;ic can track myocardial tissue remodeling from pressure overload.
EFFECTS OF SIMULTANEOUS TITANIUM AND TANTALUM ADDITIONS ON THE PROPERTIES OF INTERNAL TIN TYPE Nb3Sn STRANDS

A series of internal‐tin type Nb3Sn sublements which had Nb‐7.5 wt%Ta filaments and various level of Ti doping were investigated. Titanium was introduced into the Sn core of the subelements such that the core contained 0 at% to 2.8 at% Ti before reaction. A series of pre‐reaction and reaction heat treatment were then given to these strands. The Ti and Sn distributions were mapped throughout the strand cross‐sections for samples removed at various stages of the heat treatment. The formation rates of Nb3Sn phases containing different levels of Ti were determined. Transport current, upper critical field, and the compositions of the A15 regions were measured for strands doped with various levels of Ti. The influence of simultaneous Ti and Ta doping on the upper critical field as well as high field Jc optimization was investigated.
Alternating direction method of multipliers for non-negative matrix factorization with the beta-divergence

Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a popular method for learning interpretable features from non-negative data, such as counts or magnitudes. Different cost functions are used with NMF in different applications. We develop an algorithm, based on the alternating direction method of multipliers, that tackles NMF problems whose cost function is a beta-divergence, a broad class of divergence functions. We derive simple, closed-form updates for the most commonly used beta-divergences. We demonstrate experimentally that this algorithm has faster convergence and yields superior results to state-of-the-art algorithms for this problem.