Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Approach to License Plate Locating in Intelligent Transportation System

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are widely applied in cities. License plate locating is the first step of license plate recognition (LPR) in ITS. We find an approach to license plate locating for images. First we preprocess images, including gray scale process and edge detection. Then we locate license plate region by line scan method based on vehicle edge characteristics. After that we judge the type of license plate using HSI model, which is transformed from RGB model. And then we correct the edge of license plate by using color characteristics. Experiment results show that this method is effective.
The utilization of protoporphyrin 9 in heme synthesis.

The experiments described in this communication demonstrate that C14-tagged protoporphyrin 9 can be incorporated into the heme during the biosynthesis of hemoglobin. 1. In vitro observations: (a) C14 protoporphyrin 9 was found to be incorporated into heme by hemolysates of chicken and human blood incubated at 37 C. The degree of incorporation by washed chicken erythrocytes was less, presumably because the protoporphyrin was not readily transferred across the cell membrane. Incorporation by hemolysates was inhibited completely at 1 x 10-2 M KCN at 4 C. , markedly by 1 x 10-2 M KCN at 37 C. and partially by 1 x 10-3 M Pb at 37 C. (b) The degree of incorporation was reduced by the addition of an equivalent quantity of delta-aminolevulinic acid. Furthermore, the incorporation of glycine-2-C14 into heme was reduced by the addition of an equivalent quantity of protoporphyrin 9. 2. In vivo observations: Intravenously administered C14 protoporphyrin was incorporated into the circulating hemoglobin of two rabbits with a phenylhydrazine-induced hemolytic anemia. These observations provide support for the view that protoporphyrin 9 itself is a true direct precursor of hemoglobin, in the biosynthetic pathway between porphobilinogen and heme. Comparative studies of rates of incorporation of C14 protoporphyrin 9 and its precursors into heme in vitro may provide a useful tool for the study of heme synthesis in normal and pathologic conditions. For instance, it was shown that hemolysates from the blood of patients with thalassemia major, with poor iron and glycine utilization, rapidly incorporated the tagged protoporphyrin into heme.
Cortical Motor Mapping in Epilepsy Patients: Information from Subdural Electrodes in Presurgical Evaluation

Summary: It is essential to delineate an epileptogenic zone and to define the eloquent cortices at or close to the epileptogenic zone in patients with neocortical epilepsy for epilepsy surgery. Prolonged implantation of the subdural electrode in presurgical evaluation is currently one of the best clinical methods to provide the essential information before epilepsy surgery. Electric cortical stimulation and recording of sensory evoked potentials by means of subdural electrodes are widely used for functional cortical mapping. Bereitschaftspotential (BP) is clinically useful to delineate the primary and nonprimary motor cortices such as supplementary motor area proper (SMA proper) and pre‐SMA, because BP occurs for any type of voluntary movements of the body, and because it is not associated with the risk of seizure induction in contrast with high‐frequency cortical electric stimulation. Single‐pulse electric cortical stimulation to record motor evoked potentials (MEPs) also could complement currently used high‐frequency cortical electric stimulation, especially for mapping of the primary motor and premotor cortices with lower risk of seizure induction.
Genesis of rods in the zebrafish retina occurs in a microenvironment provided by polysialic acid‐expressing Müller glia

Polysialic acid (polySia) is a posttranslational modification of the neural cell adhesion molecule NCAM, which in the vertebrate brain is dynamically regulated during development and crucially involved in developmental and adult neurogenesis. In the fish retina, new neurons are persistently generated, but the possible contribution of polySia has not yet been addressed. Here we used immunohistochemistry with NCAM‐ and polySia‐specific antibodies to study spatiotemporal expression patterns of NCAM and polySia in the developing and mature zebrafish retina. As early as 2.3 days postfertilization (dpf), NCAM but not polySia was detected on cell somata and fibers of the developing retina. At 4.3 dpf polySia immunoreactivity first appeared in the ventral retina and was localized to the nascent outer nuclear layer (ONL). In mature zebrafish, polySia immunoreactivity in the ONL extended to the entire retina. Colocalization with rhodopsin‐EGFP in transgenic zebrafish or the Müller glia‐specific protein cellular retinaldehyde‐binding protein (CRALBP) revealed that polySia immunoreactivity was confined to the compartment of radial Müller glia processes crossing the ONL and to a small band of processes positioned proximal to the horizontal cell layer of the mature retina. As shown by 5‐bromo‐2‐deoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling, both newly generated rod precursors within the mature ONL and precursors of the marginal zone were polySia‐negative. Thus, polySia‐negative rod precursors of the mature zebrafish retina face a polySia‐NCAM‐positive microenvironment presented by radial Müller glia. In view of the prominent role of polySia in other neurogenic systems, this pattern indicates that polySia provides environmental cues that are relevant for the generation of new rods. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:636–646, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Gene Expression in First Trimester Preeclampsia Placenta

Background. The goal of this study was to further validate eight candidate genes identified in a microarray analysis of first trimester placentas in preeclampsia. Material and method. Surplus chorionic villus sampling (CVS) specimens of 4 women subsequently diagnosed with preeclampsia (PE) and 8 control women (C) without preeclampsia analyzed previously by microarray and 24 independent additional control samples (AS) were submitted for confirmatory studies by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results. Downregulation was significant in FSTL3 in PE as compared to C and AS (p = .04). PAEP was downregulated, but the difference was only significant between C and AS (p = .002) rather than between PE and either of the control groups. Expression levels for CFH, EPAS1, IGFBP1, MMP12, and SEMA3C were not statistically different among groups, but trends were consistent with microarray results; there was no anti-correlation. S100A8 was not measurable in all samples, probably because different probes and primers were needed. Conclusions. This study corroborates reduced FSTL3 expression in the first trimester of preeclampsia. Nonsignificant trends in the other genes may require follow-up in studies powered for medium or medium/large effect sizes. qRT-PCR verification of the prior microarray of CVS may support the placental origins of preeclampsia hypothesis. Replication is needed for the candidate genes as potential biomarkers of susceptibility, early detection, and/or individualized care of maternal—infant preeclampsia.
Murine or Human XCR1 Cross-Presenting Dendritic Cells In Vivo via by Specific Targeting of Antigen to Induction of Potent CD8 T Cell Cytotoxicity

Current subunit vaccines are incapable of inducing Ag-speciﬁc CD8 + T cell cytotoxicity needed for the defense of certain infections and for therapy of neoplastic diseases. In experimental vaccines, cytotoxic responses can be elicited by targeting of Ag into cross-presenting dendritic cells (DC), but almost all available systems use target molecules also expressed on other cells and thus lack the desired speciﬁcity. In the present work, we induced CD8 + T cell cytotoxicity by targeting of Ag to XCR1, a chemokine receptor exclusively expressed on murine and human cross-presenting DC. Targeting of Ag with a mAb or the chemokine ligand XCL1 was highly speciﬁc, as determined with XCR1-deﬁcient mice. When applied together with an adjuvant, both vector systems induced a potent cytotoxic response preventing the outgrowth of an inoculated aggressive tumor. By generating a transgenic mouse only expressing the human XCR1 on its cross-presenting DC, we could demonstrate that targeting of Ag using human XCL1 as vector is fully effective in vivo. The speciﬁcity and efﬁciency of XCR1-mediated Ag targeting to cross-presenting DC, combined with its lack of adverse effects, make this system a prime candidate for the development of therapeutic cytotoxic vaccines in humans. The Journal of Immunology , 2015, 194: 000–000. B neutralizing Abs. neutralizing Abs pathogens that ﬁltered through a 70- m m nylon sieve (BD Falcon). Human PBMC and splenocytes were prepared by standard Biocoll (Biochrom) density gradient centrifugation of buffy coats or mashed spleens, respectively. Human splenocytes were from splenectomies in patients suffering from spherocytosis or massive cysts; their use in this study was approved by the local ethics committee.
Effect of Sedentary Work and Exercise on Lipid and Lipoprotein Metabolism in Middle-aged Male and Female African Workers

Lipids and lipoproteins are essential constituents of the body and their activities assist in maintenance of the body homeostasis. Sedentary lif estyle, as predisposed by sedentary w ork has be en sh own to lead to inactivity which could lead to lipid disorders. The present study is therefore designed to ascertain the effect of sedentary work on the lipid status of sedentary workers and to their predisposition to coronary heart disease (CHD). The fasting serum TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C and VLDL levels of 80 apparently healthy Nigerian male and female workers, living sedentary lifestyles, aged between 20 and 60 years old were analyzed. Forty age- matched non-sedentary subjects were used as control. The mean ± SD for all the groups showed a statistically significant increase (p 0.05) was observed in TC, HDL-C and VLDL of females in comparison to their male counterparts. A statistically significant increase (p<0.05) was observed in the lipid profile of sedentary workers not undergoing exercise. This study indicates that for both gender, sedentary lifestyle predisposes one to the risk of CHD and lack of exercise worsens the situation. The female participants were more at risk of CHD than the males, based on their lipid profile assessment.
Quasi-cyclic Minimum Bandwidth Regenerating Codes ⋆

In a distributed storage environment the data file is not plac ed in just one but in more than one devices which are connected through a network. Ther e ar many examples such as RAID systems and Internet storage applications. When data needs to be stored, there is usually one issue it need s to be faced: the availability of such data. Basically, this data needs to be p ersistent over time and resistant against failures in the storage devices. The soluti on to the availability problem consists of adding redundancy, but it is possible to add redu ndancy by using different schemes. The most trivial and common one is the replication s cheme (data backups). It is also possible to use classical erasure coding to minimize the amount of stored data in a distributed environment [9]. However, the use of an erasure coding scheme introduces what it is known as the code repair problem and which is related to the amount of down loaded data (bandwidth) needed to replace a failed node. Regenerating codes were int roduced in [2] to minimize the code repair problem. The main idea is to make the most of bo th erasure coding [4] and network coding [1], to minimize the amount of stored data and the bandwidth used, respectively. Although regenerating codes are an excellent solution for b oth problems, they have a drawback inherited from the use of network coding, since no des must be able to do linear combinations over a finite field. This operation has a c omplexity ofO(n) and forces nodes to be provided with computational resources. I n this paper, we present a new family of Minimum Bandwidth Regenerating codes which do not need any computational resources and which are based on quasi-cyclic co des.
Multi-band PIT and Model Integration for Improved Multi-channel Speech Separation

The recent exploration of deep learning for supervised speech separation has significantly accelerated the progress on the multi-talker speech separation problem. Multi-channel extension has attracted much research attention due to the benefit of spatial information in far-field acoustic environments. In this paper, We review the most recent models of multi-channel permutation invariant training (PIT), investigate spatial features formed by microphone pairs and their underlying impact and issue, present a multi-band architecture for effective feature encoding, and conduct a model integration between single-channel and multi-channel PIT for resolving the spatial overlapping problem in the conventional multi-channel PIT framework. The evaluation confirms the significant improvement achieved with the proposed model and training approach for the multi-channel speech separation.
BRCA1 and Oxidative Stress

The breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 (BRCA1) has been well established as a tumor suppressor and functions primarily by maintaining genome integrity. Genome stability is compromised when cells are exposed to oxidative stress. Increasing evidence suggests that BRCA1 regulates oxidative stress and this may be another mechanism in preventing carcinogenesis in normal cells. Oxidative stress caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is implicated in carcinogenesis and is used strategically to treat human cancer. Thus, it is essential to understand the function of BRCA1 in oxidative stress regulation. In this review, we briefly summarize BRCA1’s many binding partners and mechanisms, and discuss data supporting the function of BRCA1 in oxidative stress regulation. Finally, we consider its significance in prevention and/or treatment of BRCA1-related cancers.
Multi-layer SISO coding for MIMO channels

A coding scheme for a MIMO channel, based on superposition of dithered orthogonal design space-time block codes, is presented, building on and extending recent work of Erez, Wornell and Trott. When used in conjunction with successive decoding, the MIMO channel is converted into a set of AWGN scalar channels, allowing for standard coding and decoding techniques to be employed. By superimposing multiple layers of orthogonal-design codes, the well known drawback of loss of degrees of freedom of the latter is alleviated. When used in a closed-loop mode, the scheme allows to approach the white-input capacity of a MIMO channel with limited feedback, i.e., with feedback of the eigenvalues of the channel matrix. When used in an open-loop mode, the scheme exhibits good performance in terms of the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. Further, the computational complexity is linear in the transmission rate.
Fuel cost minimisation and line loadability enhancement using the PMBCA evolutionary technique

In the present situation of the power system, congestion due to contingency is one of the basic issues, which should be settled for better economic/monetary and network proficiency. Hassled power system, due to extreme line contingencies, regularly prompts circumstance where the system never again stays in the protected working region. Under these circumstances, it is an essential goal of the system operator to watch control activity to bring the electricity system into the invulnerable region. The objective function of this paper is fuel cost minimisation by an optimal power flow technique using honey bee colony–particle swarm optimisation-based hybrid evolutionary optimisation algorithm (Particle Movement Bee Colony Algorithm (PMBCA)) and to enhance the line loadability during network contingencies. The proposed approach to relieve transmission line from congestion and for fuel cost minimisation is tried on the IEEE 30-bus standard test system using MATLAB.
Mammalian designer cells: Engineering principles and biomedical applications

Biotechnology is a widely interdisciplinary field focusing on the use of living cells or organisms to solve established problems in medicine, food production and agriculture. Synthetic biology, the science of engineering complex biological systems that do not exist in nature, continues to provide the biotechnology industry with tools, technologies and intellectual property leading to improved cellular performance. One key aspect of synthetic biology is the engineering of deliberately reprogrammed designer cells whose behavior can be controlled over time and space. This review discusses the most commonly used techniques to engineer mammalian designer cells; while control elements acting on the transcriptional and translational levels of target gene expression determine the kinetic and dynamic profiles, coupling them to a variety of extracellular stimuli permits their remote control with user‐defined trigger signals. Designer mammalian cells with novel or improved biological functions not only directly improve the production efficiency during biopharmaceutical manufacturing but also open the door for cell‐based treatment strategies in molecular and translational medicine. In the future, the rational combination of multiple sets of designer cells could permit the construction and regulation of higher‐order systems with increased complexity, thereby enabling the molecular reprogramming of tissues, organisms or even populations with highest precision.
A comparative study to assess the effect of amikacin sulfate bladder wash on catheter-associated urinary tract infection in neurosurgical patients

Background: The indwelling urinary catheter is an essential part of modern medical care. Unfortunately, when poorly managed, the indwelling catheter may present a hazard to the very patients it is designed to protect. Catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is the most common nosocomial infection in hospitals and nursing homes. Aims and Objectives: The primary objective was to study the effect of amikacin sulfate bladder wash on CAUTI in neurosurgical patients. The other objectives were to study the various organisms causing CAUTI and their antibiotic sensitivity and resistance pattern. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective randomized controlled study performed on 60 patients who met the inclusion criteria at the neurosurgical intensive care of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences between June and December 2006. The patients were randomized into two groups – one was the trial group which received amikacin bladder wash, while the other was the control group that did not receive any bladder wash. Results: Forty percent of the subjects in the control group developed CAUTI, while none of the subjects in study group developed CAUTI. (Fisher's exact test, P value < 0.001) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (51%) was the commonest pathogen. Conclusions: Amikacin sulfate bladder wash was effective in preventing CAUTI. It can thus decrease the antibiotic usage thereby preventing the emergence of antibiotic resistance.
Side Effects of Hybrid Liver Support Therapy: TNF-α Liberation in Pigs, Associated with Extracorporeal Bioreactors

During acute liver failure, hybrid liver support therapy could serve as a bridge to liver transplantation. In this desired temporary use, immune competent cell responses, such as the production of cytokines, might be of limiting relevance. We have investigated the Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF) liberation in two models using pigs, connected with an extracorporeal bioreactor with homologous hepatocytes: TNF liberation was measured in arterial plasma during a 4 day perfusion time in untreated animals, model (i), and during short term perfusion of hepatectomized pigs in model (ii). Animals four days after catheter implantation in model (i) had TNF values of < 5 pg/ml. After connecting the system without hepatocytes, TNF rose to 9.7 ± 2 within 120 min and rose further to 32.6 ± 6 pg/ml within 4 hours after filling the system with the homologous hepatocytes. After 24 hours of continuous perfusion and during four days of perfusion, the TNF levels were lowered to baseline levels. In model (ii), TNF rose to 220 ± 130 pg/ml within 180 min and decreased to 110 ± 10 pg/ml within six hours, whereas controls without hepatocytes showed mean levels with a maximum of 120 ± 20 pg/ml. In both models, there was no correlation between TNF levels and clinical abnormalities such as fever or shock symptoms. There is evidence for an activation of blood cells during experimental extracorporeal hybrid support. No typical side effects were, however, observed. Thus, TNF mediated extracorporeal cell activation does not appear to limit the application of homologous hybrid liver support therapy.
Evolutional shape modeling by extended genetic algorithm: multi-step GA

In a computer aided design (CAD) system, shape design or shape modeling is one often a bottleneck because shape design is a trial and error process often depending on a designer's intuition and experience. Authors have already presented a method, named evolutional shape modeling (ESM), to generate suitable shapes automatically using genetic algorithm (GA) and free-form deformation (FFD). This ESM method, however, has a limitation on its ability of shape generation because of the limitation on FFD's shape deformation ability and the limitation on standard GA's ability. This paper proposes a new evolutional shape modeling method. It includes new genetic algorithm, named multistep GA, which can avoid premature convergence, and new constructing method of FFD by which shape deformation ability is highly improved.
Secure reachability query on private shared graphs

Reachability refers to the ability to get from one vertex to another within a graph. In this paper, we investigate the reachability problem on a distributed graph. We consider the scenario where there are two parties, each in possession of a private set of edges, while the vertices are public. The two parties wish to securely determine whether two particular vertices are connected but do not want to reveal any graph information except the result to the other party. Our proposed solution is secure in semi-honest model where each party correctly follows the protocol specification, yet attempts to learn additional information by analyzing the data flow. We discuss the solution for both undirected and directed graph. The experimental result shows that the protocols are efficient and scalable for small and medium size data.
Antibiotics delay but do not prevent bacteremia and lung injury in murine sepsis

ObjectivesTo investigate the effect of antibiotics on infection, lung injury, and mortality rate in polymicrobial sepsis and to determine whether an association exists between infection and lung injury and mortality rate. To circumvent the effect of antibiotics on cultures, we used polymerase chain reaction to detect bacteria. DesignProspective, randomized, controlled laboratory trial. SettingUniversity research laboratory. SubjectsC57/BL6 mice. InterventionsMice underwent cecal ligation and puncture without antibiotics (CLP) or with imipenem (CLP + Abx). Measurements and Main ResultsCLP resulted in 50% mortality rate at 48 hrs and 100% mortality rate at 84 hrs. Antibiotics delayed these time points to 72 and 120 hrs, respectively. Lung injury occurred before mortality in both groups. Polymerase chain reaction detected bacteria in the blood and lungs of all CLP mice by 24 hrs. Antibiotics delayed but did not prevent infection in CLP + Abx mice. Serum tumor necrosis factor-&agr; and lung endotoxin were elevated to similar concentrations in both CLP and CLP + Abx mice. ConclusionsIn this model of sepsis, antibiotics delay but do not prevent acute lung injury and mortality. Even in the presence of antibiotics, acute lung injury is strongly associated with bacteremia and bacteria within the lungs.