Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cited2 Regulates Neocortical Layer II/III Generation and Somatosensory Callosal Projection Neuron Development and Connectivity

The neocortex contains hundreds to thousands of distinct subtypes of precisely connected neurons, allowing it to perform remarkably complex tasks of high-level cognition. Callosal projection neurons (CPN) connect the cerebral hemispheres via the corpus callosum, integrating cortical information and playing key roles in associative cognition. CPN are a strikingly diverse set of neuronal subpopulations, and development of this diversity requires precise control by a complex, interactive set of molecular effectors. We have found that the transcriptional coregulator Cited2 regulates and refines two stages of CPN development. Cited2 is expressed broadly by progenitors in the embryonic day 15.5 subventricular zone, during the peak of superficial layer CPN birth, with a progressive postmitotic refinement in expression, becoming restricted to CPN of the somatosensory cortex postnatally. We generated progenitor-stage and postmitotic forebrain-specific Cited2 conditional knock-out mice, using the Emx1-Cre and NEX-Cre mouse lines, respectively. We demonstrate that Cited2 functions in progenitors, but is not necessary postmitotically, to regulate both (1) broad generation of layer II/III CPN and (2) acquisition of precise area-specific molecular identity and axonal/dendritic connectivity of somatosensory CPN. This novel CPN subtype-specific and area-specific control from progenitor action of Cited2 adds yet another layer of complexity to the multistage developmental regulation of neocortical development. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study identifies Cited2 as a novel subtype-specific and area-specific control over development of distinct subpopulations within the broad population of callosal projection neurons (CPN), whose axons connect the two cerebral hemispheres via the corpus callosum (CC). Currently, how the remarkable diversity of CPN subtypes is specified, and how they differentiate to form highly precise and specific circuits, are largely unknown. We found that Cited2 functions within subventricular zone progenitors to both broadly regulate generation of superficial layer CPN throughout the neocortex, and to refine precise area-specific development and connectivity of somatosensory CPN. Gaining insight into molecular development and heterogeneity of CPN will advance understanding of both diverse functions of CPN and of the remarkable range of neurodevelopmental deficits correlated with CPN/CC development.
Vitamin D and executive functioning: Are higher levels better?

ABSTRACT Objectives: Insufficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D has been associated with cognitive impairment, particularly worse executive functioning. However, it remains unclear whether supratherapeutic levels (≥100 nmol L–1) are associated with even better performance than sufficient levels (defined as ≥50 nmol L–1 or even ≥75 nmol L–1). The current investigation sought to examine this question. Method: Healthy adults (n = 142) were tested on four measures of executive functioning, including verbal fluency, digit span backward, CANTAB® Spatial Working Memory, and One Touch Stockings of Cambridge. A measure of attention (digit span forward) and memory (CANTAB® Verbal Recognition) were also assessed. Based on blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels, participants were divided into four groups: insufficient (<50 nmol L–1), low sufficient (50 to <75 nmol L–1), high sufficient (75 to <100 nmol L–1), and supratherapeutic (≥100 nmol L–1). Relationships between vitamin D status and cognition were assessed by analyses of covariance and hierarchical multiple regression, adjusted for age, education, sex, body mass index, mood, and physical activity level. Multivariate regression spline analyses were utilized to investigate nonlinearity. Results: Performance on verbal fluency, but not other measures, differed by vitamin D status, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), F(3, 127) = 2.70, p = . 048; d = 0.50. Specifically, participants with supratherapeutic levels provided a greater number of words (M = 16.1, SE = 1.0) than those with insufficient (M = 12.0, SE = 1.0; p = .007, d = 0.78), low (M = 13.4, SE = 0.7; p = .026, d = 0.51), and high sufficient levels (M = 13.9, SE = 0.9; p = .080, d = 0.42). Similarly, vitamin D status was a significant independent predictor of verbal fluency (p = .025, d = 0.40). Spline analyses revealed that there is a positive, near-linear association between verbal fluency and 25(OH)D levels up to and exceeding 100 nmol L–1. Discussion: Supratherapeutic levels of vitamin D were associated with significantly better performance on verbal fluency. Importantly, commonly used cutoff levels and sufficiency categories have been based on bone health and optimal levels for cognition are unknown. These findings suggest that levels exceeding 100 nmol L–1 may be optimal for at least some aspects of executive functioning.
Longitudinal Elastic Modulus Prediction of a 2-D Braided Fiber Composite

An analytical model based on classical laminate plate theory (CLPT) was developed to predict the longitudinal elastic modulus of a 2-D braided fiber composite. A sinusoidal function was used to model the path of undulating strands. This work represents a generalization of the plain weave case as the angle between the strands is not restricted to 90°. The results predicted by the model are in good agreement with other models and are in excellent agreement with experimental results for braided Kevlar 49/epoxy resin tubes. The predicted and experimental results confirmed that the longitudinal elastic modulus of a braided tube is less than that of one composed of laminated layers.
Omni-directional Reconstruction of Human Figures from Depth Data using Mirrors

In this paper we present a method for omni-directional 3D reconstruction of a human figure using a single Kinect while two mirrors provide the 360o view. We get three views from a single depth (and its corresponding RGB) frame – one is the real view of the human and other two are the virtual views generated through the mirrors. Using these three views our proposed system reconstruct 360o view of a human. The reconstruction system is robust as it can reconstruct the 360o view of any object (though it is particularly designed for human figures) from single depth and RGB images. These system overcomes the difficulties of synchronization and removes the problem of interference noise of multi-Kinect system. The methodology can be used for a nonKinect RGB-D camera and can be improved in several ways in future.
Service Computing by Optimization for Integrated E-Supply Chain Configuration

Extended Abstract The discipline of service computing covers the science and technology of bridging the gap between business services and information technology services (The Instutute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer, 2004). Among others, it encompasses a new innovative area: business process integration and management, also known as enterprise service computing. Enterprise service computing focuses on issues, modelling, methodologies, and enabling computing technologies in support of integrated and collaborative enterprise applications. The main task of enterprise service computing is to reengineer operations and integrate international logistics and information technologies in the production process to improve efficiency and minimize risk and costs. This has given rise to the formation of Integrated E-Supply Chain (IESC) networks, defined as a collection of independent companies, possessing complementary skills and integrated with streamlined material, information and financial flow (Luo et al. 2001, Viswanadham and Gaonkar 2003). Hence, an IESC is an integrated process wherein a number of business entities (i.e. suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers) work together to acquire raw materials, convert raw materials into final products and deliver final products to the retailers (Beamon 1998). Moreover, Internet
RowHammer: Reliability Analysis and Security Implications

As process technology scales down to smaller dimensions, DRAM chips become more vulnerable to disturbance, a phenomenon in which different DRAM cells interfere with each other's operation. For the first time in academic literature, our ISCA paper exposes the existence of disturbance errors in commodity DRAM chips that are sold and used today. We show that repeatedly reading from the same address could corrupt data in nearby addresses. More specifically: When a DRAM row is opened (i.e., activated) and closed (i.e., precharged) repeatedly (i.e., hammered), it can induce disturbance errors in adjacent DRAM rows. This failure mode is popularly called RowHammer. We tested 129 DRAM modules manufactured within the past six years (2008-2014) and found 110 of them to exhibit RowHammer disturbance errors, the earliest of which dates back to 2010. In particular, all modules from the past two years (2012-2013) were vulnerable, which implies that the errors are a recent phenomenon affecting more advanced generations of process technology. Importantly, disturbance errors pose an easily-exploitable security threat since they are a breach of memory protection, wherein accesses to one page (mapped to one row) modifies the data stored in another page (mapped to an adjacent row).
Regulation of the Cell Surface Expression and Function of Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor by Rab1-mediated Endoplasmic Reticulum-to-Golgi Transport in Cardiac Myocytes*

Rab1 GTPase coordinates vesicle-mediated protein transport specifically from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi apparatus. We recently demonstrated that Rab1 is involved in the export of angiotensin II (Ang II) type 1 receptor (AT1R) to the cell surface in HEK293 cells and that transgenic mice overexpressing Rab1 in the myocardium develop cardiac hypertrophy. To expand these studies, we determined in this report whether the modification of Rab1-mediated ER-to-Golgi transport can alter the cell surface expression and function of endogenous AT1R and AT1R-mediated hypertrophic growth in primary cultures of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of wild-type Rab1 (Rab1WT) significantly increased cell surface expression of endogenous AT1R in neonatal cardiomyocytes, whereas the dominant-negative mutant Rab1N124I had the opposite effect. Brefeldin A treatment blocked the Rab1WT-induced increase in AT1R cell surface expression. Fluorescence analysis of the subcellular localization of AT1R revealed that Rab1 regulated AT1R transport specifically from the ER to the Golgi in HL-1 cardiomyocytes. Consistent with their effects on AT1R export, Rab1WT and Rab1N124I differentially modified the AT1R-mediated activation of ERK1/2 and its upstream kinase MEK1. More importantly, adenovirus-mediated expression of Rab1N124I markedly attenuated the Ang II-stimulated hypertrophic growth as measured by protein synthesis, cell size, and sarcomeric organization in neonatal cardiomyocytes. In contrast, Rab1WT expression augmented the Ang II-mediated hypertrophic response. These data strongly indicate that AT1R function in cardiomyocytes can be modulated through manipulating AT1R traffic from the ER to the Golgi and provide the first evidence implicating the ER-to-Golgi transport as a regulatory site for control of cardiomyocyte growth.
A feasible strategy for focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury: remote ischemic postconditioning

It is difficult to control the degree of ischemic postconditioning in the brain and other ischemia-sensitive organs. Remote ischemic postconditioning could protect some ischemia-sensitive organs through measures on terminal organs. In this study, a focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury model was established using three cycles of remote ischemic postconditioning, each cycle consisted of 10-minute occlusion of the femoral artery and 10-minute opening. The results showed that, remote ischemic postconditioning significantly decreased the percentage of the infarct area and attenuated brain edema. In addition, inflammatory nuclear factor-κB expression was significantly lower, while anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 expression was significantly elevated in the cerebral cortex on the ischemic side. Our findings indicate that remote ischemic postconditioning attenuates focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, and that the neuroprotective mechanism is mediated by an anti-apoptotic effect and reduction of the inflammatory response.
Manufacturing Engineering

Manufacturing Engineering is concerned with designing, building, planning, operating, and managing economical production systems for discrete manufacturing. Manufacturing engineers need to have a thorough knowledge of materials and manufacturing processes. They should also be able to design, operate and manage integrated systems that include people, materials, machine tools, material handling equipment, robots, quality measuring equipment, controls and computers.
2016 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Container-based Virtualization for Byte-addressable Nvm Data Storage

—Container based virtualization is rapidly growing in popularity for cloud deployments and applications as a virtualization alternative due to the ease of deployment coupled with high-performance. Emerging byte-addressable, non-volatile memories, commonly called Storage Class Memory or SCM, technologies are promising both byte-addressability and persistence near DRAM speeds operating on the main memory bus. These new memory alternatives open up a new realm of applications that no longer have to rely on slow, block-based persistence, but can rather operate directly on persistent data using ordinary loads and stores through the cache hierarchy coupled with transaction techniques. However, SCM presents a new challenge for container-based applications, which typically access persistent data through layers of block based file isolation. Traditional persistent data accesses in containers are performed through layered file access, which slows byte-addressable persistence and transac-tional guarantees, or through direct access to drivers, which do not provide for isolation guarantees or security. This paper presents a high-performance containerized version of byte-addressable, non-volatile memory (SCM) for applications running inside a container that solves performance challenges while providing isolation guarantees. We created an open-source container-aware Linux loadable Kernel Module (LKM) called Containerized Storage Class Memory, or CSCM, that presents SCM for application isolation and ease of portability. We performed evaluation using micro-benchmarks, STREAMS, and Redis, a popular in-memory data structure store, and found our CSCM driver has near the same memory throughput for SCM applications as a non-containerized application running on a host and much higher throughput than persistent in-memory applications accessing SCM through Docker Storage or Volumes.
EEG entropy measures in anesthesia

Highlights: ► Twelve entropy indices were systematically compared in monitoring depth of anesthesia and detecting burst suppression. ► Renyi permutation entropy performed best in tracking EEG changes associated with different anesthesia states. ► Approximate Entropy and Sample Entropy performed best in detecting burst suppression. Objective: Entropy algorithms have been widely used in analyzing EEG signals during anesthesia. However, a systematic comparison of these entropy algorithms in assessing anesthesia drugs' effect is lacking. In this study, we compare the capability of 12 entropy indices for monitoring depth of anesthesia (DoA) and detecting the burst suppression pattern (BSP), in anesthesia induced by GABAergic agents. Methods: Twelve indices were investigated, namely Response Entropy (RE) and State entropy (SE), three wavelet entropy (WE) measures [Shannon WE (SWE), Tsallis WE (TWE), and Renyi WE (RWE)], Hilbert-Huang spectral entropy (HHSE), approximate entropy (ApEn), sample entropy (SampEn), Fuzzy entropy, and three permutation entropy (PE) measures [Shannon PE (SPE), Tsallis PE (TPE) and Renyi PE (RPE)]. Two EEG data sets from sevoflurane-induced and isoflurane-induced anesthesia respectively were selected to assess the capability of each entropy index in DoA monitoring and BSP detection. To validate the effectiveness of these entropy algorithms, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modeling and prediction probability (Pk) analysis were applied. The multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MDFA) as a non-entropy measure was compared. Results: All the entropy and MDFA indices could track the changes in EEG pattern during different anesthesia states. Three PE measures outperformed the other entropy indices, with less baseline variability, higher coefficient of determination (R2) and prediction probability, and RPE performed best; ApEn and SampEn discriminated BSP best. Additionally, these entropy measures showed an advantage in computation efficiency compared with MDFA. Conclusion: Each entropy index has its advantages and disadvantages in estimating DoA. Overall, it is suggested that the RPE index was a superior measure. Investigating the advantages and disadvantages of these entropy indices could help improve current clinical indices for monitoring DoA.
Robust Disturbance Observer for Two-Inertia System

This paper proposes a method for designing disturbance observer (DOB) in vibration suppression control of two-inertia system. The key to a vibration suppression control of two-inertia system is eliminating the effect of vibration modes of the plant. For this purpose, feedback controller is designed to cancel the stable vibration modes of plant. However, this cancellation fails due to model error from parameter variations. In this paper, the DOB is employed to compensate for the effect of parameter variations. The Q-filter of DOB is designed with the following specifications: optimal disturbance suppression performance with restricted cutoff frequency; robust stability of closed-loop system against modeling error between the plant and its nominal model; structural restriction of Q-filter itself such as relative order and internal model order. This paper proposes a systematic and straightforward method to attain the above design specifications using standard H∞ control framework. Experimental results verify that the proposed DOB can improve the transient response and effectively suppress the vibration and improve external disturbance removing performance as well.
Measuring the compression and shear energies on green plant material

The biomechanical characters of plant material are thought to influence the intake of forages by ruminants and hence their feeding value (Mackinnon et al. 1988). Whereas most studies have focussed on the biomechanical characters of dried feed samples and their effect on animal performance, there have been few attempts to study the biomechanical characters of fresh (hydrated) plant material, and its effect on voluntary intake. The objective of this work was to develop and evaluate a method to measure the biomechanical characters of hydrated plant material. Subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum), cvv Trikkala and Dalkeith, were grown in a glasshouse, harvested in the vegetative stage of development, placed in a plastic bag with 4-5 drops of water, and the bag sealed. The material was chopped to 5-8 mm in length and its compression energy measured as described by Baker et al. (1993). Compression and shear tests were conducted in a constant temperature of 20°C and relative humidity of 65%. The original compression chamber described by Baker et al. (1993) was modified to allow removal of liquid extruded from the material. Drainage holes were drilled in the base of the chamber and a porous, sintered metal disc 1.5 mm thick was placed on top of the base. A vacuum was applied to the underside of the base to assist with the removal of excess liquid. Application of the vacuum did not significantly (fiO.05) affect the measure of compression energy, nor did it affect the subsequent measurement of shear energy (Table 1).
Differential lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network analysis revealing the potential regulatory roles of lncRNAs in myocardial infarction

Previous studies have reported that long, non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important in cardiovascular disease. However, the lncRNAs involved in myocardial infarction and their detailed mechanism have not been well characterized. In the present study, an affymetrix microarray associated with myocardial infarction was re-annotated, following which a myocardial infarction-related differential lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network (MILMN) was constructed. Subsequently, pathway enrichment analysis was used for all the mRNAs in the MILMN, and an lncRNA-pathway network was constructed. It was found that the mRNAs were predominantly involved in certain cardiovascular disease-associated pathway, for example the dilated cardiomyopathy and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway. Finally, a total of 39 key lncRNAs were identified, which regulate crucial pathways in myocardial infarction. Through pathway analysis of these 39 key lncRNAs, the novel function of an annotated lncRNAs-H19 was predicted, which may regulate apoptosis signal-regulating kinase, which is a protein that promotes pathological cardiac remodeling following myocardial infarction. The results of the present study not only provide potential non-coding RNA biomarkers, but also provide further insights into understanding the molecular mechanism of lncRNAs.
Batch and online learning algorithms for nonconvex neyman-pearson classification

We describe and evaluate two algorithms for Neyman-Pearson (NP) classification problem which has been recently shown to be of a particular importance for bipartite ranking problems. NP classification is a nonconvex problem involving a constraint on false negatives rate. We investigated batch algorithm based on DC programming and stochastic gradient method well suited for large-scale datasets. Empirical evidences illustrate the potential of the proposed methods.
Integrin-Targeted Imaging of Inflammation in Vascular Remodeling

Objective—Inflammation plays a key role in the development of vascular diseases. Monocytes and macrophages express &agr;v&bgr;3 integrin. We used an &agr;v integrin-specific tracer, 99mTc-NC100692, to investigate integrin-targeted imaging for detection vessel wall inflammation. Methods and Results—The binding of a fluorescent homologue of NC100692 to &agr;v&bgr;3 on human monocytes and macrophages was shown by flow cytometry. Vessel wall inflammation and remodeling was induced in murine carotid arteries through adventitial exposure to CaCl2. NC100692 micro single photon computed tomography/CT imaging was performed after 2 and 4 weeks and showed significantly higher uptake of the tracer in CaCl2-exposed left carotids compared with sham-operated contralateral arteries. Histological analysis at 4 weeks demonstrated significant remodeling of left carotid arteries and considerable macrophage infiltration, which was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. There was no significant difference in normalized &agr;v, &bgr;3, or &bgr;5 mRNA expression between right and left carotid arteries. Finally, NC100692 uptake strongly correlated with macrophage marker expression in carotid arteries. Conclusion—NC100692 imaging can detect vessel wall inflammation in vivo. If further validated, &agr;v-targeted imaging may provide a noninvasive approach for identifying patients who are at high risk for vascular events and tracking the effect of antiinflammatory treatments.