Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urolithin A, C, and D, but not iso-urolithin A and urolithin B, attenuate triglyceride accumulation in human cultures of adipocytes and hepatocytes.

SCOPE Urolithins (Uro) are ellagic acid (EA)-derived metabolites produced by gut microbes. There is a growing interest in the biological activities of Uro. Our aim was to evaluate the impacts of Uro on regulating triglyceride (TG) accumulation using cultures of primary human adipocytes and hepatoma Huh7 cells. METHODS AND RESULTS UroA, UroB, UroC, UroD, and iso-UroA were used to determine the effect of Uro on adipogenesis and lipogenesis. Individual Uro (30 μM) were added to human adipogenic stem cells during differentiation. UroA, UroC, and UroD, but not iso-UroA and UroB, significantly inhibited new fat cell formation by decreasing TG accumulation and adipogenic protein and gene expressions. The regulation of TG synthesis by Uro was investigated via metabolic chasing with radiolabeled precursors. UroA, UroC, and UroD attenuated TG accumulation, while increasing the fatty acid (FA) oxidation in adipocytes and h/epatoma Huh7 cells. Furthermore, UroC, UroD, and UroA promoted the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase, suggesting that Uro may alter energy-sensing metabolic pathways in primary human adipocytes. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, our results demonstrated that UroA, UroC, and UroD, but not isoUroA and UroB, reduce TG accumulation and increase FA oxidation in adipocytes as well as hepatocytes.
Nonlinear Enhancement in Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides Fabricated Using Cmos- Compatible Process References and Links

We have studied low-dispersion slow light and its nonlinear enhancement in photonic crystal waveguides. In this work, we fabricated the waveguides using Si CMOS-compatible process. It enables us to integrate spotsize converters, which greatly simplifies the optical coupling from fibers as well as demonstration of the nonlinear enhancement. Two-photon absorption, self-phase modulation and four-wave mixing were observed clearly for picosecond pulses in a 200-μm-long device. In comparison with Si wire waveguides, a 60  120 fold higher nonlinearity was evaluated for a group index of 51. Unique intensity response also occurred due to the specific transmission spectrum and enhanced nonlinearities. Such slow light may add various functionalities in Si photonics, while loss reduction is desired for ensuring the advantage of slow light. Self-phase-modulation in submicron silicon-on-insulator photonic wires, " Opt. " Four-wave mixing in silicon wire waveguides, " Opt. Signal regeneration using low-power four-wave mixing on silicon chip, " Nat. Low-group-velocity and low-dispersion slow light in photonic crystal waveguides, " Opt. Slow light with low dispersion and nonlinear enhancement in a lattice-shifted photonic crystal waveguide, " Opt. Systematic design of flat band slow light in photonic crystal waveguides, " Opt. Wavelength division multiplexing based photonic integrated circuits on silicon-on-insulator platform, " IEEE J. Silicon-on-insulator spectral filters fabricated with CMOS technology, " IEEE J. Low-loss Si wire waveguides and their application to thermooptic switches, " Jpn. Light propagation characteristics of straight single-line-defect waveguides in photonic crystal slabs fabricated into a silicon-on-insulator substrate, " IEEE J. Wide range tuning of slow light pulse in SOI photonic crystal coupled waveguide via folded chirping, " IEEE J. Experimental observation of evanescent modes at the interface to slow-light photonic crystal waveguides, " Opt. Disorder-induced scattering loss of line-defect waveguides in photonic crystal slabs, " Phys. Four-wave mixing in slow light engineered silicon photonic crystal waveguides, " Opt. " 10 Gb/s operation of photonic crystal silicon optical modulators, " Opt.
Versatility of the complement system in neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration and brain homeostasis

The immune response after brain injury is highly complex and involves both local and systemic events at the cellular and molecular level. It is associated to a dramatic over-activation of enzyme systems, the expression of proinflammatory genes and the activation/recruitment of immune cells. The complement system represents a powerful component of the innate immunity and is highly involved in the inflammatory response. Complement components are synthesized predominantly by the liver and circulate in the bloodstream primed for activation. Moreover, brain cells can produce complement proteins and receptors. After acute brain injury, the rapid and uncontrolled activation of the complement leads to massive release of inflammatory anaphylatoxins, recruitment of cells to the injury site, phagocytosis and induction of blood brain barrier (BBB) damage. Brain endothelial cells are particularly susceptible to complement-mediated effects, since they are exposed to both circulating and locally synthesized complement proteins. Conversely, during neurodegenerative disorders, complement factors play distinct roles depending on the stage and degree of neuropathology. In addition to the deleterious role of the complement, increasing evidence suggest that it may also play a role in normal nervous system development (wiring the brain) and adulthood (either maintaining brain homeostasis or supporting regeneration after brain injury). This article represents a compendium of the current knowledge on the complement role in the brain, prompting a novel view that complement activation can result in either protective or detrimental effects in brain conditions that depend exquisitely on the nature, the timing and the degree of the stimuli that induce its activation. A deeper understanding of the acute, subacute and chronic consequences of complement activation is needed and may lead to new therapeutic strategies, including the ability of targeting selective step in the complement cascade.
Spiral antenna radiating a conical beam of circular polarization

A two-arm spiral antenna excited in phase radiates a circularly polarized (CP) bidirectional beam. This bidirectional beam is transformed into a CP unidirectional beam using a conducting cavity as a reflector. The height of this cavity is chosen to be extremely small to realize a low-profile antenna: 0.077 wavelength at the lowest design frequency. The antenna characteristics, including the radiation pattern, VSWR, axial ratio, gain, and radiation efficiency when a ring-shaped absorbing strip is placed behind the outer spiral arms, are analyzed and discussed. It is found that a conical radiation pattern is obtained over a wide frequency range of 1: 2.9.
The cGMP-Dependent Protein Kinase II Is an Inhibitory Modulator of the Hyperpolarization-Activated HCN2 Channel

Opening of hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channels is facilitated by direct binding of cyclic nucleotides to a cyclic nucleotide-binding domain (CNBD) in the C-terminus. Here, we show for the first time that in the HCN2 channel cGMP can also exert an inhibitory effect on gating via cGMP-dependent protein kinase II (cGKII)-mediated phosphorylation. Using coimmunoprecipitation and immunohistochemistry we demonstrate that cGKII and HCN2 interact and colocalize with each other upon heterologous expression as well as in native mouse brain. We identify the proximal C-terminus of HCN2 as binding region of cGKII and show that cGKII phosphorylates HCN2 at a specific serine residue (S641) in the C-terminal end of the CNBD. The cGKII shifts the voltage-dependence of HCN2 activation to 2–5 mV more negative voltages and, hence, counteracts the stimulatory effect of cGMP on gating. The inhibitory cGMP effect can be either abolished by mutation of the phosphorylation site in HCN2 or by impairing the catalytic domain of cGKII. By contrast, the inhibitory effect is preserved in a HCN2 mutant carrying a CNBD deficient for cGMP binding. Our data suggest that bidirectional regulation of HCN2 gating by cGMP contributes to cellular fine-tuning of HCN channel activity.
Catalogue of Digital Image Forgery Detection Techniques , an Overview

Consistent decrease in cost of digital imaging hardware & increase in high quality user friendly image editing software for novice user has served variety of problems to society. Internet & social networking sites made it possible to host enormous no of images without provenance information or authenticity & made possible to share it with single click. Digital image forensics is a research area trying to resolve the imposed problem of authenticity assuming that different imaging devices or processing would introduce uniform inherent patterns which are consistent in the original clean images and would become inconsistent after image manipulations. These inconsistencies can be used as evidence for image source identification and forgery detection. In this paper we have discussed some state of art forgery detection techniques & an overview of the prior literature.
A Study of the Influences of Application Interfaces on End User Training Outcomes

Effective and efficient training is a key factor in determining the success of end user computing (EUC) activities in organisations. This study examines the influences of two application interfaces, namely icons and menus, on training outcomes. Training outcomes were measured in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and perceived ease of use. Effectiveness included the keystrokes used to accomplish tasks, the accuracy of correct keystrokes, backtracks and errors committed. Efficiency included the time taken to accomplish the given tasks. Perceived ease of use rates the ease of the training environment including training materials, operating system, application software and associated resources provided to users. To measure training outcomes, an experiment was conducted with 159 users. The study found that icon interfaces were more efficient and effective for end user training and menu interfaces were more easy to use in the given training environment. The findings appear to indicate that when the tasks become complicated, icons are limited in representing this complexity and menus appear to be providing better solutions for tasks accomplishments. There is a need for training designers to consider application interfaces when designing EUC training programmes.
Economic repercussions of fisheries-induced evolution

Fish stocks experiencing high fishing mortality show a tendency to mature earlier and at a smaller size, which may have a genetic component and therefore long-lasting economic and biological effects. To date, the economic effects of such ecoevolutionary dynamics have not been empirically investigated. Using 70 y of data, we develop a bioeconomic model for Northeast Arctic cod to compare the economic yield in a model in which life-history traits can vary only through phenotypic plasticity with a model in which, in addition, genetic changes can occur. We find that evolutionary changes toward faster growth and earlier maturation occur consistently even if a stock is optimally managed. However, if a stock is managed optimally, the evolutionary changes actually increase economic yield because faster growth and earlier maturation raise the stock’s productivity. The optimal fishing mortality is almost identical for the evolutionary and nonevolutionary model and substantially lower than what it has been historically. Therefore, the costs of ignoring evolution under optimal management regimes are negligible. However, if fishing mortality is as high as it has been historically, evolutionary changes may result in economic losses, but only if the fishery is selecting for medium-sized individuals. Because evolution facilitates growth, the fish are younger and still immature when they are susceptible to getting caught, which outweighs the increase in productivity due to fish spawning at an earlier age.
Adaptive Codes: A New Class of Non-standard Variable-length Codes

We introduce a new class of non-standard variable-length codes, called adaptive codes. This class of codes associates a variable-length codeword to the symbol being encoded depending on the previous symbols in the input data string. An efficient algorithm for constructing adaptive codes of order one is presented. Then, we introduce a natural generalization of adaptive codes, called GA codes.
CBFD: Coherence Based Forgery Detection technique in image forensics analysis

In the recent times various malicious attacks can be performed over images for duplicating the images which introduces huge amount of challenges in the area of forgery detection and feature based image authentication. Researchers have focused on the development of efficient image forgery detection techniques which can be applicable to optimize image retouching attacks. The current research trends also focus on the authenticity of an image. In this paper a Coherence Based Forgery Detection (CBFD) technique has been proposed. The proposed method divides the input image into segmented blocks and extracts feature vectors from the statistically sorted matrix. The proposed methods also uses feature vectors and the distance between feature vectors for ensuring the suspicious blocks present in the image. The experimental analysis shows that the proposed system achieves better accuracy in detection of forged regions even if it is blurred with the use of Gaussian blurring which hides the forged and suspicious blocks of an image.
Online learning for classification and object tracking with superpixel

Visual tracking is an important task in computer vision. Treating object tracking as a binary classification problem has been already discussed in recent years. State of the art classification based trackers perform better robustness than many of the other existing trackers. In this paper, we consider object tracking as a binary classification problem. A Random Forest classifier is trained on-line based on superpixels to distinguish between the object and the background. The classifier is then used to label superpixels in the next frame as either belonging to the object or the background. A confidence map is formed from the classification scores. The tracking task is then formulated by finding the peak of the map, where is the position of the object. In order to locate the position, an improved mean shift is proposed to work on the map. We show a realization of this method and demonstrate it on several video sequences. Experimental results show that our method is capable to handle heavy occlusion and recover from drifts.
ARTIFICIAL VISION INSPECTION APPLIED TO LEATHER QUALITY CONTROL

The paper deals with the problem of pointing out and mark the various kind of defects (mainly scars, wrinkles and fire brandings) of tanned calf leathers used in many industrial areas (e.g. household couches and car seats lining ones). In the first experiments here presented the authors try to use the same inspection method previously successfully applied to quality control of hands-made satin glasses, that is a two-dimensional wavelet-based de-noising technique of high resolution images of the leather under inspection; according to multiresolution analysis, this method produces a suitable number of decomposition levels of the image, then it carries out a thresholding operation on details and finally, using the threshold levels estimated considering the actual noise level, it assesses and mark the various kind of defects. The final aim of the work is the realization of an automatic and in-line computer vision system for leather analysis capable to accurately inspect and mark the defective areas of the analyzed leather specimens before they enter the production chain.
Some Observations on Handwriting from a Motor Learning Perspective

We discuss the dynamics of signatures in the light of recent findings in motor learning, according to which a signature is a highly automated motor task and, as such, it is stored in the brain as both a trajectory plan and a motor plan. We then conjecture that such a stored representation does not necessarily include the entire signature, but can be limited to only parts of it, those that have been learned better and therefore are executed more automatically than others. Because these regions are executed more automatically than others, they are less prone to significant variations depending on the actual writing conditions, and therefore should represent better than other regions the distinctive features of signatures. To support our conjecture, we report and discuss the results of experiments conducted by using an algorithm for finding those regions in the signature ink and eventually using them for automatic signature verification.
GRAF: graph-based runtime adaptation framework

One approach for achieving runtime adaptability in software is to use application frameworks that are tailored for the development of self-adaptive systems. In this paper, we present the Graph-based Runtime Adaptation Framework (GRAF), which enables adaptivity by creating, managing, and interpreting graph-based models of software at runtime. Having a generic graph representation in our approach allows for flexible adaptation via query and transformation operations. The framework is especially suited for the migration of legacy applications towards adaptive software and attempts to reduce necessary changes to the original software. As a proof of concept, we conduct a comprehensive case study of migrating the legacy game Jake2 to achieve runtime adaptivity using GRAF.
In vivo evaluation of a novel scaffold for artificial corneas prepared by using ultrahigh hydrostatic pressure to decellularize porcine corneas

Purpose To evaluate the stability and biocompatibility of artificial corneal stroma that was prepared by using ultrahigh hydrostatic pressurization treatment to decellularize corneas. Methods The porcine cornea was decellularized by two methods, a detergent method and an ultrahigh hydrostatic pressure (UHP) method. Either 1% w/v Triton® X-100 or sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used for the detergent method, and 10,000 atmospheres (atm; 7.6×106 mmHg) was applied to the cornea for 10 min at 10 °C by a high-pressure machine for the UHP method. Hematoxylin-eosin staining was performed to confirm the removal of the corneal cells, and then decellularized porcine corneal stroma was implanted into rabbit corneal pockets. After eight weeks, the rabbit eyes were enucleated to examine the tissue compatibility of the implanted stroma. Results Complete decellularization was confirmed only in corneas treated by the UHP method, and little inflammation was seen when they were implanted into the rabbit corneal pockets. Conclusions Porcine corneal stroma completely decellularized by the UHP method has extremely high biocompatibility and is a possible corneal scaffold for an artificial cornea.
An anthropomorphic polyvinyl alcohol brain phantom based on Colin27 for use in multimodal imaging.

PURPOSE In this paper, the method for the creation of an anatomically and mechanically realistic brain phantom from polyvinyl alcohol cryogel (PVA-C) is proposed for validation of image processing methods such as segmentation, reconstruction, registration, and denoising. PVA-C is material widely used in medical imaging phantoms because of its mechanical similarities to soft tissues. METHODS The phantom was cast in a mold designed using the left hemisphere of the Colin27 brain dataset [C. Holmes et al., "Enhancement of MR images using registration for signal averaging," J. Comput. Assist. Tomogr. 22(2), 324 (1998)]. Marker spheres and inflatable catheters were also implanted to enable good registration comparisons and to simulate tissue deformation, respectively. RESULTS The phantom contained deep sulci, a complete insular region, and an anatomically accurate left ventricle. It was found to provide good contrast in triple modality imaging, consisting of computed tomography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging. Multiple sets of multimodal data were acquired from this phantom. CONCLUSIONS The methods for building the anatomically accurate, multimodality phantom were described in this work. All multimodal data are made available freely to the image processing community (http://pvabrain.inria.fr). We believe the phantom images could allow for the validation and further aid in the development of novel medical image processing techniques.
A Car-Steering Model Based on an Adaptive Cloud Neural Controller

To simulate the human decision-making in steering to follow a planned path, we modeled the driver’s learning process by using an idea of target position. The proposed model dealt with the driver’s decision-making mechanisms in tracking a target position by means of Cloud Neural Network. Results from the simulation of lane changing showed the capability of the proposed model to simulate a driver’s steering behavior with emphasis on learned skill.
Sample Review by Macro Editor

This paper focuses on entrepreneurship of multinational companies' (MNCs) subsidiaries and examines the impact of corporate and local environmental contexts. This topic is timely and important considering the increasing importance of overseas subsidiaries in MNCs' strategy and growth. The paper is well written and easy to follow. The existing literature is well cited. I also applaud that the author/s measured the dependent variable and the independent variables in different time periods, which helps address the causality issue. Below I will discuss my main comments and suggestions, which hopefully can help the author/s improve the study. 1. The role of entrepreneurship in MNC subsidiaries. This paper is based upon the assumption that subsidiary entrepreneurship is good for MNCs and addresses the question of what factors can affect subsidiary entrepreneurship. While I concur that subsidiary entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly important for MNCs, not all subsidiaries need to be entrepreneurial. It depends upon the MNC's strategic objectives in a particular subsidiary. For some subsidiaries, being innovative, risk-taking and proactive are key to success while in others implementing headquarter strategy as directed may be the most important. In other words, while examining subsidiary entrepreneurship, one needs to consider the subsidiary's role (or mandate) in the MNC system. This is probably the key difference between entrepreneurship of a subsidiary and entrepreneurship of a standalone firm. Of course, the paper examines the impact of subsidiary mandate (global subsidiary mandate) on subsidiary entrepreneurship—which will be addressed later. But my point is that being entrepreneurial or not (or the degree of entrepreneurship) may be an important part of a subsidiary's mandate instead of an outcome of its mandate. 2. The impact of local environmental contexts. The paper examines the effects of three local environmental dimensions: dynamism, hostility, and complexity (H5-H7). The logic leading to these hypotheses is clear. However, how are the effects of environment on subsidiary entrepreneurship different from the effects of environment on entrepreneurship as examined in previous studies (e. In other words, how does the context of MNC subsidiaries contribute to our understanding of the relationship between environment and entrepreneurship? To make stronger contributions rather than replicating previous studies in the context of MNC subsidiaries, the author/s needs to more closely integrate the context of MNC subsidiaries into the arguments. Do local environmental contexts shape the subsidiary's mandate or do they directly affect the subsidiary's entrepreneurship, regardless its mandate? 3. The impact of corporate contexts. …