Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Guiding Driver Visual Attention with LEDs

Previous research has shown that drivers benefit from directional warnings in early warning situations. To be effective, early warnings must support the driver to easily identify potential hazards. We investigated LEDs at the bottom of the windshield to guide the driver's visual attention to target stimuli to support an artificial visual discrimination task. We varied the patterns of LED illumination. The patterns included either the illumination of single LEDs or sequentially illuminated LEDs generating the illusion of movement towards the target LED. Additionally, we compared flashing against constant illumination of the target LEDs. The results showed that participants reacted 200-450 ms faster and produced up to 4 times fewer errors to sequential patterns. Flashing the target LED segment led to slower reactions with more errors than constant illumination. We showed that drivers' attention can be directed efficiently and effectively with simple hardware and well-designed illumination patterns.
Risk-Constrained Bidding and Offering Strategy for a Merchant Compressed Air Energy Storage Plant

Electricity price forecasts are imperfect. Therefore, a merchant energy storage facility requires a bidding and offering strategy for purchasing and selling the electricity to manage the risk associated with price forecast errors. This paper proposes an information gap decision theory (IGDT)-based risk-constrained bidding/offering strategy for a merchant compressed air energy storage (CAES) plant that participates in the day-ahead energy markets considering price forecasting errors. Price uncertainty is modeled using IGDT. The IGDT-based self-scheduling formulation is then used to construct separate hourly bidding and offering curves. The theoretical approach to develop the proposed strategy is presented and validated using numerical simulations.
Representation of Uncertainty in Computer Vision Using Fuzzy Sets

Uncertainty in computer vision can arise at various levels. It can occur in the low level in the raw sensor input, and extends all the way through intermediate and higher levels. Ideally, at any level where decisions are being made on the basis of previous processing steps, a computer vision system must have sufficient flexibility for representation of uncertainty in any of these levels.
EphA4 promotes cell proliferation and migration through a novel EphA4-FGFR1 signaling pathway in the human glioma U251 cell line

The Eph receptor tyrosine kinases and their ephrin ligands form a unique cell-cell contact-mediated bidirectional signaling mechanism for regulating cell localization and organization. High expression of Eph receptors in a wide variety of human tumors indicates some roles in tumor progression, which makes these proteins potential targets for anticancer therapy. For this purpose, we did gene expression profiling for 47 surgical specimens of brain tumors including 32 high-grade glioma using a microarray technique. The analysis, focused on the receptor tyrosine kinases, showed that EphA4 mRNA in the tumors was 4-fold higher than in normal brain tissue. To investigate the biological significance of EphA4 overexpression in these tumors, we analyzed EphA4-induced phenotypic changes and the signaling mechanisms using human glioma U251 cells. EphA4 promoted fibroblast growth factor 2-mediated cell proliferation and migration accompanied with enhancement of fibroblast growth factor 2-triggered mitogen-activated protein kinase and Akt phosphorylation. In addition, active forms of Rac1 and Cdc42 increased in the EphA4-overexpressing cells. Furthermore, we found that EphA4 formed a heteroreceptor complex with fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) in the cells and that the EphA4-FGFR1 complex potentiated FGFR-mediated downstream signaling. Thus, our results indicate that EphA4 plays an important role in malignant phenotypes of glioblastoma by enhancing cell proliferation and migration through accelerating a canonical FGFR signaling pathway. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(9):2768–78]
Phase I and pharmacokinetic study of menogaril administered as a 72-hour continuous i.v. infusion.

Menogaril is a new anthracycline analog of nogalamycin. When administered as a 72-hour continuous iv infusion the dose-limiting toxic effect of menogaril was venous irritation at dose levels that cause only mild leukopenia and minimal gastrointestinal toxicity. Pharmacokinetic studies showed that the rise in plasma concentration during infusion was first-order, with a half-life of 11.9 hours. Total-body clearance of menogaril was 204 ml/minute/m2. There were no detectable metabolites of menogaril in plasma. Urinary excretion of unchanged menogaril was 17.3% of the dose and N-demethylmenogaril was 0.5% over 72 hours. Since menogaril does not appear to be metabolized, a high degree of tissue binding is likely.
Research on the reduction of the static error of single-phase alternating systems

The circuit design and structure of siggle-phase bridge voltage source inverter were presented in detail. The main experimental waveforms were given. The reasons that static error is universally bigger in siggle-phase alternating control systems and the output voltage fluctuation resulted from the load changes were analyzed. The regulator was designed with internal model principe to reduce the static error. The changes of farthest points of control object were restrained when load changes the combinng the positive feedback with negative feedback.
Evidence of three-level trophic transfer of quantum dots in an aquatic food chain by using bioimaging

Abstract In this study, we demonstrated the three-level trophic transfer of quantum dots (QDs) within the aquatic food chain. Using bioimaging, we observed QD transfer from protozoa (Astasia longa) to zooplankton (Moina macrocopa) to fish (Danio rerio). Bioimaging is an effective tool that can improve our understanding of the delivery of nanomaterials in vivo. Measurement with an intravital multiphoton laser scanning microscope visually proved the transfer of QDs from the first to the second and the second to the third levels. As QDs may be passed from lower organisms to humans via the food chain, our findings have implications for the safety of their use.
Holographic weapons sight as a crew optical alignment sight

Crew Optical Alignment Sights (COAS) are used by spacecraft pilots to provide a visual reference to a target spacecraft for lateral relative position during rendezvous and docking operations. NASA's Orion vehicle, which is currently under development, has not included a COAS in favor of automated sensors, but the crew office has requested such a device be added for situational awareness and contingency support. The current Space Shuttle COAS was adopted from Apollo heritage, weighs several pounds, and is no longer available for procurement which would make re-use difficult. In response, a study was conducted to examine the possibility of converting a commercially available weapons sight to a COAS for the Orion spacecraft. The device used in this study was the XPS series Holographic Weapon Sight (HWS) procured from L-3 EOTech. This device was selected because the targeting reticule can subtend several degrees, and display a graphic pattern tailored to rendezvous and docking operations. Evaluations of the COAS were performed in both the Orion low-fidelity mockup and rendezvous simulations in the Reconfigurable Operational Cockpit (ROC) by crewmembers, rendezvous engineering experts, and flight controllers at Johnson Space Center. These evaluations determined that this unit's size and mounting options can support proper operation and that the reticule visual qualities are as good as or better than the current Space Shuttle COAS. The results positively indicate that the device could be used as a functional COAS and supports a low-cost technology conversion solution.
The Causal Effect of Parents' Schooling on Children's Schooling - A Comparison of Estimation Methods

We review the empirical literature that estimates the causal effect of parent’s schooling on child’s schooling, and conclude that estimates differ across studies. We then consider three explanations for why this is: (a) idiosyncratic differences in data sets; (b) differences in remaining biases between different identification strategies; and (c) differences across identification strategies in their ability to make out-of-sample predictions. We conclude that discrepancies in past studies can be explained by violations of identifying assumptions. Our reading of past evidence, together with an application to Swedish register data, suggests that intergenerational schooling associations are largely driven by selection. Parental schooling constitutes a large part of the parental nurture effect, but as a whole does not play a large role.
The Genetics of Depression and Manic-Depressive Disorder

Depressive disorders are more common in the relatives of depressed probands than in the population at large, and there is compelling evidence that the familial aggregation of bipolar disorder and severe unipolar depression is at least partly due to genetic factors. However, the evidence concerning ‘non-endogenous' depression is less clear, and family environment probably plays a stronger role. Much current research is focused on two areas: firstly, the mode of inheritance of manic-depressive illness, with the use of molecular biological techniques to detect and localise major genes; and secondly, the ways in which familial predisposition and environmental insults combine to produce depressive disorder.
Fragile X-related Protein FXR1P Regulates Proinflammatory Cytokine Tumor Necrosis Factor Expression at the Post-transcriptional Level*

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is regulated post-transcriptionally by the AU-rich element (ARE) within the 3′-untranslated region of its mRNA. This regulation modulates translational efficacy and mRNA stability. By using a cRNA probe containing the TNF ARE sequence, we screened a macrophage protein expression library and identified FXR1P. Macrophages that we generated from FXR1 knock-out mice had enhanced TNF protein production compared with wild type macrophages following activation. Expression of several other proteins that are regulated by ARE sequences was also affected by FXR1P deficiency. A GFP-ARE reporter that has green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression under control of the 3′-untranslated region of TNF mRNA had enhanced expression in transfected macrophages deficient in FXR1P. Finally, we found that the ablation of FXR1P led to a dramatically enhanced association of the TNF mRNA with polyribosomes demonstrating the important role of FXR1P in the post-transcriptional regulation of TNF expression. Our data suggest that release of this repression by FXR1P occurs during lipopolysaccharide-induced macrophage activation. Finally, complementation of the knock-out macrophages with recombinant FXR1P resulted in decreased TNF protein production, supporting our findings that FXR1P operates as a repressor of TNF translation.
High resolution daily gridded rainfall data for the Indian region: Analysis of break and active monsoon spells

Here, we report the development of a high resolution (1° x 1° lat./long.) gridded daily rainfall dataset for the Indian region. There are only 1803 stations with mini¬mum 90% data availability during the analysis period (1951-2003). For the analysis, we have followed the in¬terpolation method proposed by Shepard. Standard quality-controls were performed before carrying out the interpolation analysis. Comparison with similar global gridded rainfall datasets revealed that the pre¬sent rainfall analysis is better in accurate representation of spatial rainfall variation. Using this gridded rainfall dataset, an analysis was made to identify the break and active periods during the southwest monsoon season (June–September). Break (active) periods during the monsoon season were iden¬tified as those in which the standardized daily rainfall anomaly averaged over Central India (21-27°N, 72¬85°E) is less than –1.0 (more than 1.0). The break peri¬ods thus identified for the period 1951-2003 were comparable with those identified by earlier studies. Contrary to a recent study, no evidence was found for any statistically significant trends in the number of break or active days during the period 1951-2003. This gridded rainfall dataset is available for non¬commercial applications.
Scheduling in a hard real-time system with shared resources

Hard real-time systems are those systems in which correctness depends on logical results of the computations as well as the times at which these results are produced. In a real-time context, concurrency control protocols for shared resources (as databases) must not only maintain the consistency constraints but also satisfy timing requirements of transactions. So, several protocols have been proposed to prevent priority inversion. All these protocols, including the Priority Ceiling Protocol and the Stack-Based Resource Allocation Policy were initially designed to be used with the Rate Monotonic algorithm. We have implemented these protocols with their original scheduler, Rate Monotonic, and their dynamic version with the Earliest Deadline based scheduler, in order to compare their behaviour. <<ETX>>
Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae Testing Susceptible to Cefepime by Reference Methods

ABSTRACT β-Lactam susceptibility of 499 Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing Enterobacteriaceae, determined by reference broth microdilution, demonstrated that 14.4% of isolates were categorized as cefepime susceptible according to current CLSI breakpoints. Ceftazidime- and meropenem-susceptible isolates were also observed (2.6 and 3.0%, respectively). Cefepime-susceptible KPC-producing isolates may confuse laboratory staff and clinicians in their therapeutic choices.
Deduplication and Exploitability Determination of UAF Vulnerability Samples by Fast Clustering

Use-After-Free (UAF) is a common lethal form of software vulnerability. By using tools such as Web Browser Fuzzing, a large amount of samples containing UAF vulnerabilities can be generated. To evaluate the threat level of vulnerability or to patch the vulnerabilities, automatic deduplication and exploitability determination should be carried out for these samples. There are some problems existing in current methods, including inadequate pertinence, lack of depth and precision of analysis, high time cost, and low accuracy. In this paper, in terms of key dangling pointer and crash context, we analyze four properties of similar samples of UAF vulnerability, explore the method of extracting and calculate clustering eigenvalues from these samples, perform clustering by fast search and find of density peaks on a large number of vulnerability samples. Samples were divided into different UAF vulnerability categories according to the clustering results, and the exploitability of these UAF vulnerabilities was determined by observing the shape of class cluster. Experimental results showed that the approach was applicable to the deduplication and exploitability determination of a large amount of UAF vulnerability samples, with high accuracy and low performance cost.
Backscattered light confocal imaging of intracellular MTT‐formazan crystals

Metabolically active animal and plant cells reduce MTT tetrazolium salt to a corresponding nonfluorescent formazan. Reduction of MTT by viable cells is exploited in a number of tests widely used in biological research. The aim of this study was to optimize a microscopy method of detecting small crystals of MTT‐formazan formed in intact cells maintained in in vitro cultures. We examined scattering properties of small intracellular crystals of MTT formazan and found that the efficiency of light scattering was dependent on wavelength. Small (<3 μm) crystals of MTT‐formazan, formed in viable cells, scattered red, but not blue, light. Large crystals, which are formed later at a stage when cells begin to lose viability, scattered both red and blue light. We conclude that optimal detection of early stages of crystallization of MTT‐formazan in living cells is possible using confocal microscopy of red, but not blue, scattered light. High contrast and resolution of images can be achieved by filtering out interference effects in the frequency domain. Microsc. Res. Tech. 64:126–134, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Parameter space approach for large scale systems

The computational costs of the parameter space approach, which is used to calculate the stability boundaries for linear time-invariant systems (LTI), increase fast with the dimension of the investigated system. In this paper, the authors present a successive approximation of the stability boundaries for large scale systems. The approximation provides a fast and accurate estimation of the stability boundaries. Furthermore, the approximation converges to the stability boundaries of the large scale system and points, that are not stable, are never classified as stable during approximation. Thus, the new method enables the applicability of the parameter space approach to large scale systems by greatly reducing the computational costs.
WNT signaling in activated microglia is proinflammatory

Microglia activation is central to the neuroinflammation associated with neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, particularly because activated microglia are often a source of proinflammatory cytokines. Despite decade‐long research, the molecular cascade of proinflammatory transformation of microglia in vivo remains largely elusive. Here, we report increased β‐catenin expression, a central intracellular component of WNT signaling, in microglia undergoing a proinflammatory morphogenic transformation under pathogenic conditions associated with neuroinflammation such as Alzheimer's disease. We substantiate disease‐associated β‐catenin signaling in microglia in vivo by showing age‐dependent β‐catenin accumulation in mice with Alzheimer's‐like pathology (APdE9). In cultured mouse microglia expressing the WNT receptors Frizzled FZD4,5,7,8 and LDL receptor‐related protein 5/6 (LRP5/6), we find that WNT‐3A can stabilize β‐catenin. WNT‐3A dose dependently induces LRP6 phosphorylation with downstream activation of disheveled, β‐catenin stabilization, and nuclear import. Gene‐expression profiling reveals that WNT‐3A stimulation specifically increases the expression of proinflammatory immune response genes in microglia and exacerbates the release of de novo IL‐6, IL‐12, and tumor necrosis factor α. In summary, our data suggest that the WNT family of lipoglycoproteins can instruct proinflammatory microglia transformation and emphasize the pathogenic significance of β‐catenin‐signaling networks in this cell type. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
TUNING AND CONTROL OF AN ON-CHIP PIEZOELECTRIC RESONATOR

From clock signals for digital circuits to frequency references and voltage controlled oscillators for communication systems, oscillators are a fundamental element in many electronic circuits. With the current trend toward smaller and more tightly integrated systems, many applications would benefit greatly from the ability to integrate an oscillator onto a chip.In this thesis, we describe the design and development of a new oscillator technology which makes use of a piezoelectric resonator for frequency control. By using a specially constructed piezoelectric structure, the proposed design exhibits several significant advantages over other currently available technologies including the ability to be manufactured on a silicon substrate. This document presents the design of the tuning and control circuitry for such a resonator as well as experimental results with a macro-scale prototype. Details of a truly single-chip oscillator solution, including the design of on-chip capacitors, switches and an amplifier, are also presented. Tuning of the prototype resonator structure is accomplished electrically and the design has shown frequency tuning of up to 1.5% of the nominal value with a theoretical limit of 40% given the appropriate resonator design.
Postoperative pain—from mechanisms to treatment

Introduction: Pain management after surgery continues to be suboptimal; there are several reasons including lack of translation of results from basic science studies and scientific clinical evidence into clinical praxis. Objectives: This review presents and discusses basic science findings and scientific evidence generated within the last 2 decades in the field of acute postoperative pain. Methods: In the first part of the review, we give an overview about studies that have investigated the pathophysiology of postoperative pain by using rodent models of incisional pain up to July 2016. The second focus of the review lies on treatment recommendations based on guidelines and clinical evidence, eg, by using the fourth edition of the “Acute Pain Management: Scientific Evidence” of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and Faculty of Pain Medicine. Results: Preclinical studies in rodent models characterized responses of primary afferent nociceptors and dorsal horn neurons as one neural basis for pain behavior including resting pain, hyperalgesia, movement-evoked pain or anxiety- and depression-like behaviors after surgery. Furthermore, the role of certain receptors, mediators, and neurotransmitters involved in peripheral and central sensitization after incision were identified; many of these are very specific, relate to some modalities only, and are unique for incisional pain. Future treatment should focus on these targets to develop therapeutic agents that are effective for the treatment of postoperative pain as well as have few side effects. Furthermore, basic science findings translate well into results from clinical studies. Scientific evidence is able to point towards useful (and less useful) elements of multimodal analgesia able to reduce opioid consumption, improve pain management, and enhance recovery. Conclusion: Understanding basic mechanisms of postoperative pain to identify effective treatment strategies may improve patients' outcome after surgery.
STDP-based unsupervised learning of memristive spiking neural network by Morris-Lecar model

These days, there is an increasing interest in implementation of spiking neural systems that can be used to perform complex computations or solve pattern recognition tasks like mammalian neocortex. In this paper, Morris-Lecar neuron neuron is utilized to implement bio-inspired memristive spiking neural network for unsupervised learning applications. The spike timing dependent plasticity learning mechanism has been applied as the learning scheme in the system. The memristive implementation of the Morris-Lecar neuron has been analyzed. Also the memristors are utilized as the synapses for the proposed system to reproduce long term potentiation and long term depression. The proposed platform is tested for pattern classification applications and the results are successfully confirmed its functionality.
Chalmers Publication Library Throughput Multiplexing Efficiency for MIMO Antenna Characterization

The antenna-channel effects on multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) throughput are characterized in terms of spatial multiplexing (SM) efficiency. In order to show the antenna effects explicitly, the SM efficiency of an MIMO system (with imperfect transmit antennas) is derived analytically at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. It is shown that correlation and power imbalance affect the throughput adversely (as expected) and independently. Although derived for imperfect transmit antennas, the close-form SM efficiency formula turns out to be accurate for 2 2MIMO systems with imperfect receive antennas as well. It is also shown that the derived SM efficiency formula even reasonably predicts the measured SM efficiency of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system.