Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex Steroids and the Control of the Kiss1 System: Developmental Roles and Major Regulatory Actions

Kisspeptins, encoded by the Kiss1 gene, and their canonical receptor, GPR54 (also termed Kiss1R), are unanimously recognised as essential regulators of puberty onset and gonadotrophin secretion. These key reproductive functions stem from the capacity of kisspeptins to stimulate gonadotrophin‐releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion in the hypothalamus, where discrete populations of Kiss1 neurones have been identified. In rodents, two major groups of hypothalamic Kiss1 neurones exist: one present in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) and the other located in the anteroventral periventricular area (AVPV/RP3V). In recent years, numerous signals have been identified as putative modulators of the hypothalamic Kiss1 system. Among them, the prominent role of sex steroids as being important regulators of Kiss1 neurones has been documented in different species and developmental stages, such as early brain sex differentiation, puberty, adulthood and senescence. These regulatory actions are (mainly) conducted via oestrogen receptor (ER)α, which is expressed in almost all Kiss1 neurones, and likely involve both classical and nonclassical pathways. The regulatory effects of sex steroids are nucleus‐specific. Thus, sex steroids inhibit the expression of Kiss1/kisspeptin at the ARC, as a mechanism to conduct their negative‐feedback actions on gonadotrophin secretion. By contrast, oestrogens enhance Kiss1 expression at the AVPV/RP3V in rodents, suggesting the involvement of this population in the positive‐feedback actions of oestradiol to generate the preovulatory surge of gonadotrophins. In addition, sex steroids have been shown to act post‐transcriptionally, modulating GnRH/gonadotrophin responsiveness to kisspeptin. Finally, sex steroids also regulate the expression of co‐transmitters of Kiss1 neurones, such as neurokinin B, whose mRNA content in the ARC fluctuates in parallel to that of Kiss1 in response to changes in the circulating levels of sex steroids, therefore suggesting the contribution of this neuropeptide in the feedback control of gonadotrophin secretion. In sum, compelling experimental evidence obtained in different mammalian (and non‐mammalian) species, including primates, demonstrates that sex steroids are essential regulators of hypothalamic Kiss1 neurones, which in turn operate as conduits for their effects on GnRH neurones. The physiological relevance of such regulatory phenomena is thoroughly discussed.
View-Based 3-D Model Retrieval: A Benchmark

View-based 3-D model retrieval is one of the most important techniques in numerous applications of computer vision. While many methods have been proposed in recent years, to the best of our knowledge, there is no benchmark to evaluate the state-of-the-art methods. To tackle this problem, we systematically investigate and evaluate the related methods by: 1) proposing a clique graph-based method and 2) reimplementing six representative methods. Moreover, we concurrently evaluate both hand-crafted visual features and deep features on four popular datasets (NTU60, NTU216, PSB, and ETH) and one challenging real-world multiview model dataset (MV-RED) prepared by our group with various evaluation criteria to understand how these algorithms perform. By quantitatively analyzing the performances, we discover the graph matching-based method with deep features, especially the clique graph matching algorithm with convolutional neural networks features, can usually outperform the others. We further discuss the future research directions in this field.
ZONE-MELTING OF OXIDES IN A CARBON-ARC IMAGE FURNACE

The formation of single and mixed crystals by zonemelting of Ni, Ti carbides, Zr, Ti, and oxides of Ti, Zr, and Ni, glass, Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/, and MnFe/sub 2/O/sub 4/ at 2320 to 3800 deg K in air with accompanying decomposition, solidification, and cracking is discussed. (Rev. Metal Lit. , 19: No. 8, Aug.
Tetrachloroethene recovery and hazard reduction of spent powders from dry cleaning process

Dry cleaning facilities using perchloroethylene produce a solid waste consisting of spent filtering powders with a high content of residual perchloroethylene, together with dyes and non-volatile residues. Untreated spent powders, classified as hazardous waste, cannot be disposed in landfill and incineration represents the only viable alternative. In this study, together with a full characterisation of the waste, the removal and recovery of the residual perchloroethylene by means of different heat treatments was investigated. In particular, tests of distillation and stripping with air and steam were carried out, evaluating the effectiveness of the treatments by quantifying the residual perchloroethylene in the samples treated. The results obtained show that the spent filtering powders contained about 25% wt. of perchloroethylene and that the maximum perchloroethylene recovery was obtained by steam stripping; approximately 98% after only 50 minutes. However, this treatment accounted for the production of a liquid mixture containing perchloroethylene and of a solid waste that required a further washing with boiling water to decrease the residual organic content below the eligibility criteria for landfill disposal.
Power Spectrum Estimation for Narrowband and Broadband Applications using Subspace Method

This paper reveals the comparison of various estimation methods to evaluate the most suitable among parametric, nonparametric and subspace method for narrowband and broadband applications using MATLAB. Comparison is done on the basis of same SNR, Overlay and complex sinusoid. Subspace method proved to be the best as the Estimated PSD is in close proximity with True PSD. Also, reduced spectral leakage of 7.5% and side lobe attenuation of -11.3dB has been achieved by using Music and Eigen vector in subspace method whereas in non parametric method spectral leakage is 9.12% and side lobe attenuation is -13.2dB with noise in the signal.
Gene expression changes in male accessory glands during ageing are accompanied by reproductive decline in Drosophila melanogaster

Senescence is accompanied by loss of reproductive functions. Here, we studied reproductive ageing in Drosophila melanogaster males and asked whether the expected decline in male reproductive success is due to diminished functionality of the male accessory gland (AG). The male AG produces the majority of seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) transferred to the female at mating. SFPs induce female postmating changes and are key to male reproductive success. We measured age‐dependent gene expression changes for five representative SFP genes in males from four different age groups ranging from 1 to 6 weeks after eclosion. Simultaneously, we also measured male reproductive success in postmating traits mediated by transfer of these five SFPs. We found a decreased in male SFP gene expression with advancing age and an accompanying decline in male postmating success. Hence, male reproductive senescence is associated with a decline in functionality of the male AG. While overall individual SFP genes decreased in expression, our results point towards the idea that the composition of an ejaculate might change with male age as the rate of change was variable for those five genes.
User interface considerations to prevent self-driving carsickness

Self-driving cars have the potential to bring significant benefits to drivers and society at large. However, all envisaged scenarios are predicted to increase the risk of motion sickness. This will negatively affect user acceptance and uptake and hence negate the benefits of this technology. Here we discuss the impact of the user interface design in particular, focusing on display size, position, and content and the relationship with the degree of sensory conflict and ability to anticipate the future motion trajectory of the vehicle, two key determinants of motion sickness in general. Following initial design recommendations, we provide a research agenda to accelerate our understanding of self-driving cars in the context of the scenarios currently proposed. We conclude that basic perceptual mechanisms need to be considered in the design process whereby self-driving cars cannot simply be thought of as living rooms, offices, or entertainment venues on wheels.
Interactive Modelling of Shapes Using the Level-Set Method

In this paper, we propose a technique for intuitive, interactive modelling of 3D shapes. The technique is based on the Level–Set Method which has the virtue of easily handling changes to the topology of the represented solid. Furthermore, this method also leads to sculpting operations that are very simple and intuitive from a user perspective. A final virtue is that the LSM makes it easy to maintain a distance field representation of the represented solid. This has a number of benefits such as simplification of the rendering scheme and the curvature computation. A number of LSM speed functions which are suitable for shape modelling are proposed. However, normally these would result in tools that would affect the entire model. To facilitate local changes to the model, we introduce a windowing scheme which constrains the LSM to affect only a small part of the model. The LSM based sculpting tools have been incorporated in our sculpting system which also includes facilities for volumetric CSG and several techniques for visualization.
Captive Bottlenose Dolphins Do Discriminate Human-Made Sounds Both Underwater and in the Air

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) spontaneously emit individual acoustic signals that identify them to group members. We tested whether these cetaceans could learn artificial individual sound cues played underwater and whether they would generalize this learning to airborne sounds. Dolphins are thought to perceive only underwater sounds and their training depends largely on visual signals. We investigated the behavioral responses of seven dolphins in a group to learned human-made individual sound cues, played underwater and in the air. Dolphins recognized their own sound cue after hearing it underwater as they immediately moved toward the source, whereas when it was airborne they gazed more at the source of their own sound cue but did not approach it. We hypothesize that they perhaps detected modifications of the sound induced by air or were confused by the novelty of the situation, but nevertheless recognized they were being “targeted. ” They did not respond when hearing another group member’s cue in either situation. This study provides further evidence that dolphins respond to individual-specific sounds and that these marine mammals possess some capacity for processing airborne acoustic signals.
Costs of on‐demand and prophylactic treatment for severe haemophilia in Norway and Sweden

Summary. The expected annual cost (in the year 2000 prices) for a 30‐year‐old patient with average individual and treatment characteristics for on‐demand EUR 51 832 (95% CI: 44 324–59 341) and for prophylaxis EUR 146 118 (95% CI: 129 965–162 271), was obtained from panel‐data analysis of an 11‐year retrospective panel of 156 patients with severe haemophilia in Norway and Sweden. Costs included haemophilia‐related treatment costs within the health‐care sector (factor concentrate, doctors’ visits, diagnostic procedures, hospitalisation, invasive procedures, etc.) and cost for haemophilia‐related resource use in other sectors (lost production, use of special equipment, adaptation of workplace and domicile, etc). Although costs of lost production, reconstructive surgery and hospitalisation were higher for on‐demand, they did not balance out the higher costs of factor‐concentrate consumption in prophylaxis. The cut‐off risk of premature death, where on‐demand and prophylaxis would have been equally costly, was 3.7 percentage units higher for on‐demand than for prophylaxis. Such a great risk difference has not been reported elsewhere to our knowledge. Estimated cost‐elasticities indicated that annual costs of prophylaxis would increase by approximately the same proportion as a potential increase in the price of factor concentrate and decrease less than proportionately with a reduction in prescribed dose kg−1. For on‐demand, the annual costs would increase by approximately the same proportion as an increase in the prescribed dose kg−1.
Meteorology during the DOMINO campaign and its connection with trace gases and aerosols

Abstract. The DOMINO (Diel Oxidant Mechanisms in relation to Nitrogen Oxides) campaign was carried out from 21 November to 8 December 2008 at the El Arenosillo station (SW of Spain) in a coastal-rural environment. The main weather conditions are analysed using local meteorological variables, meteorological soundings and synoptic maps, as well as back trajectories of the air masses using the HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model) model and a high spatial resolution of meteorological fields. Measurements of the main meteorological parameters were collected both from the surface and from a tall tower. A detailed land use analysis was performed on a 80 km scale showing the main types of vegetation and land use. Also the main anthropogenic atmospheric emission sources – both industrial-urban from Huelva and from the urban Seville area – are shown. A study to identify air mass origins and their variation with height was carried out. In this intensive campaign, air masses coming from different areas with different emission sources were observed: from the NW, with a highly industrial-urban character; continental flows from northerly directions; from the NE, with a pathway starting over the Seville metropolitan area and then continuing over the Donana National Park; and maritime air masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean. To study the chemistry in the four atmospheric scenarios identified, gas -phase measurements of primary and secondary species such as ozone, NO, NO2 and SO2, biogenic and anthropogenic VOCs (volatile organic compounds) like benzene and isoprene, as well as total particle concentration and chemical composition of the aerosols are compared and discussed. The highest levels for total particle concentration, NO, NO2, SO2, benzene, PM10, PM2.5 and chemical elements such as As or Cu were found under flows associated with industrial-urban emissions from the Huelva–Portugal sector which are transported to the site before significant removal by chemical or deposition mechanism can occur. The air masses from the north were affected mainly by crustal elements and biogenic sources, the latter being exemplified by the biogenic species such as isoprene, particularly in the first part of the campaign. The urban air from the Seville area, before arriving at El Arenosillo, traversed the Donana National Park and therefore was affected by industrial-urban and biogenic emissions. This aged air parcel can transport low levels of NOx, total particle concentration and SO2 as well as ozone and isoprene. Marine air masses from the Atlantic Ocean influence El Arenosillo frequently. Under these conditions, the lowest levels of almost all the species – with the exception of ozone levels associated to long-range transport – were measured.
Carbon Nanotube-Based Photonic Devices: Applications in Nonlinear Optics

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) were first discovered by Sumio Ijima in the early 90s (Ijima et al., 1991). CNTs have since become a prominent material for an amazing breath of scientific and technological disciplines ranging from structural and material science to chemistry, biology and electronics (Dresselhaus et al., 2001). Compared to other areas of science, the study and exploitation of the optical properties of CNTs is still in its early years. In the late 1990s, various theoretical and experimental studies reported the remarkable optical properties of Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (Kataura et al., 1999; Margulis & Sizikova, 1998). Since then, the potential applications of CNTs have been attracting increasing attention from the photonics research community. CNTs exhibit an exceptionally high third-order optical nonlinearity and nonlinear saturable absorption with ultrafast recovery time and broad bandwidth operation. Thus, CNTs are becoming a key component towards the development of fibre lasers and nonlinear photonic devices. Despite the relative late start, photonics is now one of the research fields where CNTs are making a more significant contribution towards the development of next generation devices both from an academic and an a commercial point of view. CNTs are structures from the fullerene family consisting of a honeycomb sheet of sp2 bonded carbon atoms rolled seamlessly into itself to form a cylinder. Single-walled CNT are nearly one-dimensional (1D) materials with a diameter ranging from 1nm to 3 nm, and a length that can go from 100s of nanometers to centimetres. The electronic properties of single-wall CNTs are governed by a single parameter named the chiral vector, which indicates the orientation of the tube axes with respect to the orientation of the honeycomb. Depending on this parameter, single-wall CNTs may behave as semiconductors or as metals. Those CNTs that behave as semiconductors exhibit a direct electronic bandgap which is directly proportional to the diameter of the nanotube. The optical absorption of CNT is determined by their electronic bandgap and broadband operation is a result of a large distribution of diameters formed during the CNT fabrication (Kataura et al. 1999). This discovery led to the now widespread use of CNTs in saturable absorption applications. Previous to that work, Margulis and Sizikoba had estimated theoretically that CNT presents a very high third order susceptibility χ(3) in the order of 10-8m2/W. Third order susceptibility is responsible for processes such as third harmonic generation (THG), optical Kerr effect, self-focusing and phase conjugation (Margulis and Sizikoba, 1998). Materials with a high nonlinearity combined with a fast response time are desired for roles areas such as optical
Millimeter Wave Hybrid Beamforming with DFT-MUB Aided Precoder Codebook Design

The millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band offers substantial hitherto unused spectral resources for future wireless communication systems in order to meet the increasing capacity demand. However, mmWave frequencies suffer from high propagation losses, which may be mitigated by directional beamforming in addition to baseband precoding. This is usually referred to as hybrid beamforming. In this paper, we investigate the so-called discrete Fourier transform- mutually unbiased bases (DFT-MUB) aided codebook design conceived for limited-feedback mmWave systems, where the MUB aided codebook is applied in the baseband, while the DFT codebook is invoked for RF analog phase shifters. We demonstrate that our DFT- MUB codebook design performs similarly to the optimal digital precoding matrix, where the precoder is selected as the right singular matrix of the channel. However, our solution significantly reduces the search complexity in the baseband, while performing within 2.5 dB from the optimal digital precoder.
Prognostic Value of Three Different Methods of MGMT Promoter Methylation Analysis in a Prospective Trial on Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma

Hypermethylation in the promoter region of the MGMT gene encoding the DNA repair protein O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase is among the most important prognostic factors for patients with glioblastoma and predicts response to treatment with alkylating agents like temozolomide. Hence, the MGMT status is widely determined in most clinical trials and frequently requested in routine diagnostics of glioblastoma. Since various different techniques are available for MGMT promoter methylation analysis, a generally accepted consensus as to the most suitable diagnostic method remains an unmet need. Here, we assessed methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) as a qualitative and semi-quantitative method, pyrosequencing (PSQ) as a quantitative method, and methylation-specific multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MS-MLPA) as a semi-quantitative method in a series of 35 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded glioblastoma tissues derived from patients treated in a prospective clinical phase II trial that tested up-front chemoradiotherapy with dose-intensified temozolomide (UKT-05). Our goal was to determine which of these three diagnostic methods provides the most accurate prediction of progression-free survival (PFS). The MGMT promoter methylation status was assessable by each method in almost all cases (n = 33/35 for MSP; n = 35/35 for PSQ; n = 34/35 for MS-MLPA). We were able to calculate significant cut-points for the continuous methylation signals at each CpG site analysed by PSQ (range, 11.5 to 44.9%) and at one CpG site assessed by MS-MLPA (3.6%) indicating that a dichotomisation of continuous methylation data as a prerequisite for comparative survival analyses is feasible. Our results show that, unlike MS-MLPA, MSP and PSQ provide a significant improvement of predicting PFS compared with established clinical prognostic factors alone (likelihood ratio tests: p<0.001). Conclusively, taking into consideration prognostic value, cost effectiveness and ease of use, we recommend pyrosequencing for analyses of MGMT promoter methylation in high-throughput settings and MSP for clinical routine diagnostics with low sample numbers.
Identifying Abnormalities in the Retinal Images using SVM Classifiers

early detection of exudates in retinal images is a challenging task. With the global diabetic population increasing at an alarming rate, there is need for development of automated systems for detection of exudates. The main obstacle in exudates detection is extreme variability of color and contrast in retinal images that depends on the degree of pigmentation, size of the pupil and illumination. The aim of this paper is to develop and validate systems for detection of hard exudates and classify the input image as normal or diseased one. The authors have proposed and implemented novel method based on color and texture features. Performance analysis of SVM and KNN classifiers is presented. Images classified by these classifiers are validated by expert opthamalagists. KeywordsRetinopathy, SVM classifier, KNN classifier Exudates.
The generation of vertebral segmental patterning in the chick embryo

We have carried out a series of experimental manipulations in the chick embryo to assess whether the notochord, neural tube and spinal nerves influence segmental patterning of the vertebral column. Using Pax1 expression in the somite‐derived sclerotomes as a marker for segmentation of the developing intervertebral disc, our results exclude such an influence. In contrast to certain teleost species, where the notochord has been shown to generate segmentation of the vertebral bodies (chordacentra), these experiments indicate that segmental patterning of the avian vertebral column arises autonomously in the somite mesoderm. We suggest that in amniotes, the subdivision of each sclerotome into non‐miscible anterior and posterior halves plays a critical role in establishing vertebral segmentation, and in maintaining left/right alignment of the developing vertebral elements at the body midline.