Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Copy Number Variation and Expression Analysis Reveals a Nonorthologous Pinta Gene Family Member Involved in Butterfly Vision

Abstract Vertebrate (cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein) and Drosophila (prolonged depolarization afterpotential is not apparent [PINTA]) proteins with a CRAL-TRIO domain transport retinal-based chromophores that bind to opsin proteins and are necessary for phototransduction. The CRAL-TRIO domain gene family is composed of genes that encode proteins with a common N-terminal structural domain. Although there is an expansion of this gene family in Lepidoptera, there is no lepidopteran ortholog of pinta. Further, the function of these genes in lepidopterans has not yet been established. Here, we explored the molecular evolution and expression of CRAL-TRIO domain genes in the butterfly Heliconius melpomene in order to identify a member of this gene family as a candidate chromophore transporter. We generated and searched a four tissue transcriptome and searched a reference genome for CRAL-TRIO domain genes. We expanded an insect CRAL-TRIO domain gene phylogeny to include H. melpomene and used 18 genomes from 4 subspecies to assess copy number variation. A transcriptome-wide differential expression analysis comparing four tissue types identified a CRAL-TRIO domain gene, Hme CTD31, upregulated in heads suggesting a potential role in vision for this CRAL-TRIO domain gene. RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry confirmed that Hme CTD31 and its protein product are expressed in the retina, specifically in primary and secondary pigment cells and in tracheal cells. Sequencing of eye protein extracts that fluoresce in the ultraviolet identified Hme CTD31 as a possible chromophore binding protein. Although we found several recent duplications and numerous copy number variants in CRAL-TRIO domain genes, we identified a single copy pinta paralog that likely binds the chromophore in butterflies.
Submarine Behaviour Model for Monte Carlo Simulations

The aim of this work is to develop a risk-aware planning method for submarines functioning in dynamic environments with time-variant conditions. To achieve this goal, a gridding method is introduced that divides a state space (in this case an ocean) into a set of cells with locally homogeneous conditions. To capture the changes in the environment, the Gradually Extending RRT* algorithm is introduced as a modification of RRT*. This new sampling-based planning method was chosen as the best from multiple considered alternatives. The GERRT* provided fair results in the tested scenarios with discrete time paradigm. A behaviour model of a submarine driven by the algorithm was also created to be employed in the BANDIT simulation interface. The implementation of the proposed methods in the Java programming language is enclosed.
Prefer Nested Segmentation to Compound Segmentation

Introduction: Intra-organ radiation dose sensitivity is becoming increasingly relevant in clinical radiotherapy. One method for assessment involves partitioning delineated regions of interest and comparing the relative contributions or importance to clinical outcomes. We show that an intuitive method for dividing organ contours, compound (sub-)segmentation, can unintentionally lead to sub-segments with inconsistent volumes, which will bias relative importance assessment. An improved technique, nested segmentation, is introduced and compared. Methods: Clinical radiotherapy planning parotid contours from 510 patients were segmented. Counts of radiotherapy dose matrix voxels interior to sub-segments were used to determine the equivalency of sub-segment volumes. The distribution of voxel counts within sub-segments were compared using Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and characterized by their dispersion. Analytical solutions for 2D/3D analogues were derived and sub-segment area/volume were compared directly. Results: Both parotid and 2D/3D region of interest analogue segmentation confirmed compound segmentation intrinsically produces sub-segments with volumes that depend on the region of interest shape and selection location. Significant volume differences were observed when sub-segmenting parotid contours into 18ths, and vanishingly small sub-segments were observed when sub-segmenting into 96ths. Central sub-segments were considerably smaller than sub-segments on the periphery. Nested segmentation did not exhibit these shortcomings and produced sub-segments with equivalent volumes when dose grid and contour collinearity was addressed, even when dividing the parotid into 96ths. Nested segmentation was always faster or equivalent in runtime to compound segmentation. Conclusions: Nested segmentation is more suited than compound segmentation for analyses requiring equal weighting of sub-segments.
Battery discharge regulator for space applications based on the boost converter

When a DC/DC converter is used to control the power on the main bus of a spacecraft it needs to comply with highly demanding requirements from the dynamic point of view. Hence, converters with very good dynamic performance, i.e. with no zero on the right-half plane are typically used. The conventional boost converter has not been used in European space applications mainly because of its poor dynamics. This paper addresses the way of using a boost converter in this application and demonstrates that this converter can cope with the very demanding requirements needed. A prototype has been built and tested to proof it.
Sectoral Disaggregation of German M3

Das Papier teilt die Geldmenge M3 (ohne Bargeld) nach den wichtigsten Haltern (inlandische Unternehmen und private Haushalte) auf und untersucht die Bestimmungsgrunde dieser Unteraggregate. Eine solche disaggregierte Betrachtung erscheint insbesondere auch fur ein besseres Verstandnis der gesamten Geldmenge M3 interessant. Im ersten Teil werden die beiden Grosen zunachst beschrieben. Dabei zeigen sich einige bemerkenswerte Unterschiede. Die Zusammensetzung der in M3 erfasen Geldbestande differiert deutlich zwischen den Sektoren. Auch hat das Gewicht, das die Geldbestande am gesamten Geldvermogen haben, bei den Unternehmen im Untersuchungszeitraum merklich abgenommen, wahrend es bei den privaten Haushalten weitgehend konstant geblieben ist .
Multicarrier Symbol Design for HF Transmissions from the Antarctica Based on Real Channel Measurements

Last fifteen years improvements in HF digital systems have made ionospheric communications a true alternative to low bit rate, long distance links, especially in the polar caps where alignment with geostationary satellites is not always possible. Our previous research efforts were focused on using pseudo-noise (PN) sequences and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) pilot symbols to evaluate the 7900 miles link from the Spanish Antarctic Base Juan Carlos I to Spain, crossing the equatorial belt. In this paper we face the problem of designing the OFDM physical layer. Two multicarrier transmission schemes are proposed and compared based on channel measured transfer functions and noise plus interference records. Special attention is paid to pilot pattern design in order to maximize the system performance while assuring high power and bandwidth efficiency. The quality and throughput in real transmissions from the Antarctica, as well as the evolution of BER in front of interferences, are studied
Transferrin-conjugated nanodiamond as an intracellular transporter of chemotherapeutic drug and targeting therapy for cancer cells.

AIM PEGylated fluorescent nanodiamond (FND) conjugated with Tf (FND-PEG-Tf) was investigated for targeted drug delivery. MATERIALS & METHODS Human hepatoma (HepG2) and normal (L-02) cell lines were used to investigate the difference in cellular uptake of FND-PEG-Tf and its loading drug system. Nanoparticle uptake was evaluated by flow cytometry and laser scanning confocal microscopy. RESULTS FND-PEG-Tf showed highly specific TfR-mediated uptake by HepG2 cells, relative to negative controls (L-02 cell), which was a strong correlation among TfR density on the cell surface. The mechanism of TfR-mediated uptake was attested by free Tf with Fe³⁺ as a competitive agent. The difference in cell viability between L-02 and HepG2 cells treated with doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) nanoparticles (FND-PEG-Tf-DOX) can be explained by FND-PEG-Tf, which can target drug delivery to cancer cells. CONCLUSION FND-PEG-Tf can potentially be utilized in targeted cancer cell imaging and effective drug delivery for cancer therapy.
Real-Time Data Acquisition for Single Photon Imaging Detector

We will describe a real-time data acquisition (DAQ) system for an MCP-based photon imaging detector, which is read out with the induced charge scheme by a wedge-and-strip anode (WSA) employing position-dependent charge partitioning. The traditional filter and shaping technique is employed in the position decoding electronics. Data processing and algorithms are completely implemented via field programmable gate array (FPGA). To achieve the high-precision charge measurement and high count rate, the whole module requires good dynamic range and short dead time. The latest results show the RMS resolution of the micro channel plate (MCP) detector with an effective diameter of 30 mm can reach 60 μm in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. Due to the real-time imaging, the module can support count rates up to 500 kHz. However, the pulse pile-up limits the ultimate count rate.
An advanced patient bedside monitoring system design based on WBAN and telemedicine technologies

An advanced patient-centric bedside monitoring system design based on wireless body area sensor networks and telemedicine technologies is proposed in this paper where each patient uses sensors with wireless transmission capabilities and transmit the physiological signals within a larger advanced network, which is connected to a secured section of the public network. This work intends to reduce the number of connections to the patient and proposes a wireless intelligent Intensive Care Unit (ICU) data security system to provide a wireless remote access to a patient's information anytime, and increase the information security to protect the patient's privacy.
Negative Group-Delay Phenomenon Analysis With Distributed Parallel Interconnect Line

This paper describes an original theory on negative group-delay (NGD) topology of parallel interconnect line (PIL). The proposed topology consists of a fully distributed circuit without lossy lumped components. The PIL voltage transfer function (VTF) is derived from the equivalent transfer matrix. Then, the frequency-dependent expressions of the PIL VTF gain and group delay are extracted. It is shown that the NGD phenomenon can be generated when the PIL is lossy and presenting different electrical lengths. The fundamental NGD properties versus the PIL parameters are established. This NGD concept was validated with implemented two microstrip PIL circuits. The theoretical and measured group-delay behaviors are well correlated. As expected theoretically, the demonstrator with identical 50-Ω characteristic impedance enables to generate NGD of about -4 ns at 1.75 GHz under -5-dB attenuation. Similarly, an -2.1-ns NGD level at 1.99 GHz was occurred with the other 50 Ω/117 Ω characteristic impedances NGD circuit under only -2.5-dB attenuation loss. The NGD function can be potentially used for the microwave signal integrity improvement.
Atomic transaction processing in mobile ad hoc networks

Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) are self-organized wireless networks where mobility and limited energy resources cause frequent communication and node failures. Guaranteeing consistency and integrity of distributed data in such a volatile environment is challenging. A key concept to assure these guarantees are distributed atomic transactions. Transferring this concept to a MANET environment raises several new research questions due to high failure probabilities. This work analyzes blocking risks of distributed transactions in MANETs and provides solutions to control these risks. It is well known that a non-blocking atomic commit protocol cannot exist in presence of communication and node failures. This impossibility has little impact on transaction processing in xed networks, since communication and node failures are so rare that transaction processing is not signi cantly a ected or delayed; however, the situation in MANETs is not clear. Research has not answered yet which transactions show high blocking risks and how blocking risks are in uenced by di erent transaction models. Therefore, a controlled risk management in MANET transaction processing is not possible yet. This thesis contributes towards a better understanding of atomic transaction processing in MANETs by presenting: • A probabilistic model to predict the abort and blocking risks for arbitrary transaction and MANET scenarios caused by communication or node failures. The model is used to analyze strict and semantic transaction models. • A solution to control blocking risks caused by participant failures called Shared Log Space (SLS). The SLS system allows to preserve decision logs of a transaction at a de ned availability within a MANET for recovering participants. It is shown how the SLS is embedded in commit processing of strict and semantic transactions and how blocking risks can be decreased to a desired level. Two implementation approaches of the SLS are described and evaluated. • A probabilistic model to analyze the use of a backup coordinator (BC) to reduce blocking risks caused by a node failure of the transaction coordinator. It is shown that an integration of a BC is not necessarily bene cial but may increase the blocking risk in some situations. The presented probabilistic model allows to identify such situations. Additionally, I propose a scheme to integrate the BC with the SLS to assure a required availability of decision logs if the transaction coordinator fails. These contributions are fundamental, as they provide a comprehensive model to predict and control blocking risks in MANETs. Such a model is useful as it allows for adaptive risks management during transaction processing, i.e. it can be decided whether the use of a more reliable protocol, e.g. the SLS or BC, is indicated and to what level blocking risks can be reduced.
Performability Comparison of Schedulability Conditions in Real-Time Embedded Systems

In modern safety-critical real-time embedded systems, performance and reliability are two most important parameters. The joint consideration of these two parameters is called performability. This paper evaluates and compares different schedulability conditions, which are used for scheduling tasks with fault-tolerant Rate-Monotonic (RM) algorithm, with respect to their performability. The task re-execution scheme is used to implement fault tolerance in the RM scheduling algorithm. To evaluate the schedulability conditions, a software tool is developed to simulate an embedded processor with m schedulable periodic tasks. The results show that among five different schedulability conditions used in this evaluation, the best schedulability condition has on average 3.5% higher performability than the time the other conditions are used. Also, the simulation results show that the next best schedulability condition can on average increase the performability of the embedded processor 2.5% more than the other conditions.
ESTIMATION OF THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF GRASS

The main objective of feed evaluation including chemical laboratory analysis, in vitro digestibility with rumen bacteria or enzymes as well as adjunct methods such as in situ incubation in nylon bags and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) is to predict the availability of nutrients and feeding value for animal production systems. Accurate estimation of the nutritive value of forages is more important than that of concentrate feedstuffs due to the large variation in the nutritive value of forages and also because in most cases the contribution of forage to total diet DM is markedly greater than that of any of the individual concentrate ingredients. In addition to direct influence of forage quality on nutrient availability in ruminant diets, indirect effects to the total nutrient supply can be great because of the large impact of both digestibility and fermentation characteristics on silage DM intake (Rinne 2000; Huhtanen et al. 2007a).
Analysis of the structure and subcellular location of filamentous phage pIV

The gene IV protein of filamentous bacteriophages is an integral membrane protein required for phage assembly and export. A series of gene IV::phoA fusion, gene IV deletion, and gene IV missense mutations have been isolated and characterized. The alkaline phosphatase activity of the fusion proteins suggests that pIV lacks a cytoplasmic domain. Cell fractionation studies indicate that the carboxy-terminal half of pIV mediates its assembly into the membrane, although there is no single, discrete membrane localization domain. The properties of gene IV missense and deletion mutants, combined with an analysis of the similarities between pIVs from various filamentous phage and related bacterial export-mediating proteins, suggest that the amino-terminal half of pIV consists of a periplasmic substrate-binding domain that confers specificity to the assembly-export system.
Evaluation of the free-radical scavenging and antioxidant activities of Chilauni, Schima wallichii Korth in vitro

Aim: Free radicals are an outcome of various metabolic activities and their excess production leads to many diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to neutralize excess free radicals. Materials & methods: Free-radical scavenging activity of various extracts of Schima wallichii was evaluated using standard protocols. Results: Chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extracts of S. wallichii scavenged DPPH, hydroxyl, superoxide, nitric oxide and ABTS free radicals and increased ferric-reducing antioxidant potential in a concentration-dependent manner. A total of 1000 μg/ml of all the extracts and ethanol extract showed highest total flavonoids and phenol contents, respectively. Conclusion: The different extracts of S. wallichii scavenged different free radicals efficiently due to the presence of flavonoids and polyphenols and may be helpful in free radical-induced diseases.
Interactive tools for global sustainability and Earth systems: Sea level change and temperature

Understanding global change is important for creating a sustainable environment, and is a key interest of the Earth systems science community. Here we present an educational tutorial that explores the relationship between sea level and global temperature using modern-day records and time-series analysis and the Java-DSP Earth Systems Edition (J-DSP/ESE) application. The objectives of the tutorial are to apply pre-processing steps based on signal type, perform spectral analysis and identify significant frequencies, perform coherency and cross-phase analysis between two records, and arrive at an informed understanding about the relationship between sea level and global temperature change. Preliminary student assessment indicates that students were comfortable using J-DSP/ESE, and quickly understood the signal processing concepts. The analysis reveals correlation between sea level variations and global temperature at inter-annual timescales related to the El Niño climatological phenomenon. In sum, the tutorial improved students' understanding of basic factors that influence global sustainability and habitability.
Dynamic Fault Tolerance and Task Scheduling in Distributed Systems

Ensuring a predefined level of reliability for applications running in distributed environments is a complex task. Having multiple identical copies of a task increases redundancy and thereby the reliability. Due to varying properties of the often heterogeneous and vast number of components used in distributed environments, using static analysis of the environment to determine how many copies are needed to reach a certain level of reliability is insufficient. Instead, the system should dynamically adapt the number of copies as the properties of the system changes. In this thesis, we present a dynamic fault tolerant model and task scheduling, which ensures a predefined reliability by replicating tasks. Reliability is ensured over time by detecting failures, and dynamically creating new copies. Furthermore, the resources used are kept to a minimum by using the optimal number of task copies. Finally, the model was implemented using Ericsson's IoT-environment Calvin, thus providing a platform which can be used for further research and experiments.
Examination of 2-Oxoglutarate Dependant Dioxygenases Leading to the Production of Flavonols in Arabidopsis thaliana

The flavonols are a varied and abundant sub-class of flavonoids that are associated with a number of essential physiological functions in plants and pharmacological activities in animals. The 2-oxoglutarate-dependant dioxygenases (2-ODDs), flavonol synthase (FLS) and flavanone 3hydroxylase (F3H), are essential for flavonol synthesis. The primary goal of this study has been to gain a deeper understanding of the biochemistry of these enzymes in Arabidopsis. To accomplish this goal, an activity assay employing recombinant protein expression and HPLC as a detection system was developed for F3H and adapted for use with FLS. The assay was employed to establish the biochemical parameters of F3H from Arabidopsis, and to further characterize the F3H mutant allele, tt6(87). Enzymatic activity was demonstrated for F3H enzymes from Ipomoea alba (moonflower), Ipomoea purpurea (common morning glory), Citrus sinensis (sweet orange), and Malus X domestica (newton apple), each of which had previously been identified solely based on sequence homology. Arabidopsis contains six genes with high similarity to FLS from other plant species; however, all other central flavonoid pathway enzymes in Arabidopsis are encoded by single genes. The hypothesis that differential expression of FLS isozymes with varying substrate specificities is responsible for observed tissue-specific differences in flavonol accumulation was tested. Sequence analysis revealed that AtFLS2, 4 and 6 contain premature stop codons that eliminate residues essential for enzyme activity. AtFLS1 was found to have a strong preference for dihydrokaempferol as a substrate. However, no enzyme activity was observed for AtFLS3 or
Non-Invasive Identification of Inertia Distribution Change in High Renewable Systems Using Distribution Level PMU

This letter proposed an approach to identify the change of inertia distribution in high renewable power systems. Using the footprints of electromechanical wave propagation at the distribution level, this approach provides a new and non-invasive way to aware the system inertia distribution for primary frequency response. Actual measurements and high renewable dynamic models validated effectiveness of the approach.