Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endothelium-Derived Hyperpolarizing Factor Synthase (Cytochrome P450 2C9) Is a Functionally Significant Source of Reactive Oxygen Species in Coronary Arteries

Abstract— In the porcine coronary artery, a cytochrome P450 (CYP) isozyme homologous to CYP 2C8/9 has been identified as an endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF) synthase. As some CYP enzymes are reported to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), we hypothesized that the coronary EDHF synthase may modulate vascular homeostasis by the simultaneous production of ROS and epoxyeicosatrienoic acids. In bradykinin-stimulated coronary arteries, antisense oligonucleotides against CYP 2C almost abolished EDHF-mediated responses but potentiated nitric oxide (NO)-mediated relaxation. The selective CYP 2C9 inhibitor sulfaphenazole and the superoxide anion (O2−) scavengers Tiron and nordihydroguaretic acid also induced a leftward shift in the NO-mediated concentration-relaxation curve to bradykinin. CYP activity and O2− production, determined in microsomes prepared from cells overexpressing CYP 2C9, were almost completely inhibited by sulfaphenazole. Sulfaphenazole did not alter the activity of either CYP 2C8, the leukocyte NADPH oxidase, or xanthine oxidase. ROS generation in coronary artery rings, visualized using either ethidium or dichlorofluorescein fluorescence, was detected under basal conditions. The endothelial signal was attenuated by CYP 2C antisense treatment as well as by sulfaphenazole. In isolated coronary endothelial cells, bradykinin elicited a sulfaphenazole-sensitive increase in ROS production. Although 11,12 epoxyeicosatrienoic acid attenuated the activity of nuclear factor-&kgr;B in cultured human endothelial cells, nuclear factor-&kgr;B activity was enhanced after the induction or overexpression of CYP 2C9, as was the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule-1. These results suggest that a CYP isozyme homologous to CYP 2C9 is a physiologically relevant generator of ROS in coronary endothelial cells and modulates both vascular tone and homeostasis.
Preliminary Examination Research Proposal Genomics and Computational Biology University of Pennsylvania Post-transcriptional Control in Mammalian Dendrites

Mammalian dendrites exhibit a remarkably flexible repertoire including adaptive growth and conditioned memory due to modular synaptic communication. Two mechanisms of post-transcriptional control are implicated in organizing these processes: regulated localization of specific mRNAs by RNA-binding proteins [1], and selective mRNA translation at polyribosome hotspots [2, 3]. Characterization of these mechanisms is incomplete, due not simply to their somewhat recent discoveries in dendrites, but also to the difficulty in obtaining accurate and ample in vivo data from single cells and to detect and characterize the significant noncoding cis-elements in mRNA. Localization appears to be coupled with translation in neurons, as synaptic stimulation can trigger the dendritic localization of specific mRNAs, as well as their local translation into proteins which alter the form and function of the dendritic arbor itself. Accepting these roles are RNA-binding proteins, notably FMRP and Staufen, which localize transcripts to dendritic polyribosomes and prevent their translation until proper synaptic stimulation. These observations have led to a hypothesis proposing that modularity results from translational specificity at individual synapses. This proposal attempts to address this possibility. In culture dendritic transfection using fluorescent mRNA constructs is proposed to investigate issues of hotspot translational specificity and to identify morphological correlates of hotspot translation rate. To predict interactions between candidate RNA-binding proteins and target mRNAs, a sequence alignment algorithm is described which operates on protein domain and RNA element variables. To understand the role of the 5' UTR in trans-lational regulation at hotspots, sequence homology and structure based prediction of cis-elements and their subsequent experimental verification are suggested.
Generation of Nakagami-m Statistics by Monte Carlo Method for Fading Communication Channels

Nakagami-m distributions for varying fading pa- rameter m are widely accepted as best fit to model multipath propagation from severe to light fading. Although simulation results based on approximation of inverse cumulative distribution function are reported recently, very few results are there based on Monte Carlo generation of such random variates. In this paper, statistics for Nakagami-m distribution are generated from Monte Carlo simulation, and results are corroborated with theoretical values of expectations and autocorrelation function. Index Terms—Fading, Nakagami-m, Monte Carlo, histogram, autocorrelation.
Effect of Photoactivation Timing on the Mechanical Properties of Resin Cements and Bond Strength of Fiberglass Post to Root Dentin.

OBJECTIVES This study tested the hypothesis that photoactivation timing and resin cement affect mechanical properties and bond strength of fiberglass posts to root dentin at different depths. METHODS Fiberglass posts (Exacto, Angelus) were luted with RelyX Unicem (3M ESPE), Panavia F 2.0 (Kuraray), or RelyX ARC (3M ESPE) using three photoactivation timings: light curing immediately, after three minutes, or after five minutes. Push-out bonding strength, PBS (n=10) was measured on each root region (coronal, middle, apical). The elastic modulus (E) and Vickers hardness (VHN) of the cement layer along the root canal were determined using dynamic indentation (n=5). A strain-gauge test was used to measure post-gel shrinkage of each cement (n=10). Residual shrinkage stress was assessed with finite element analysis. Data were analyzed with two-way analysis of variance in a split-plot arrangement and a Tukey test (α=0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the influence of study factors. RESULTS The five-minute delay photoactivation timing significantly increased the PBS for all resin cements evaluated. The PBS decreased significantly from coronal to apical root canal regions. The mean values for E and VHN increased significantly with the delayed photoactivation for RelyX Unicem and decreased from coronal to apical root regions for all resin cements with the immediate-curing timing. CONCLUSIONS The PBS of fiber posts to root dentin, E, and VHN values were affected by the root canal region, photoactivation timing, and resin cement type. Shrinkage stress values decreased gradually with delayed photoactivation for all the cements.
Rescue of myeloid lineage-committed preprogenitor cells from cytomegalovirus-infected bone marrow stroma

The effect of murine cytomegalovirus on myelopoiesis was studied in long-term bone marrow culture to find an in vitro correlate for the lethal virus interference with bone marrow reconstitution (W. Mutter, M. J. Reddehase, F. W. Busch, H.-J. Bühring, and U. H. Koszinowski, J. Exp. Med. 167:1645-1658, 1988). The in vitro generation of granulocyte-monocyte progenitors (CFU-GM) discontinued after infection of the stromal cell layer, whereas the proliferation and differentiation of CFU-GM to granulocyte-monocyte colonies remained unaffected. A protocol was established to probe the functional integrity of earlier hematopoietic cells. Pre-CFU-GM (the progenitors of the CFU-GM) could be recovered from an infected bone marrow donor culture by transfer onto an inductive recipient stromal cell layer. Thus, at least in vitro, infection of bone marrow stroma appears to be the only cause of the defect in myelopoiesis.
Research on the Performance of Noisy Chaotic Neural Network Based on Travelling Salesman Problem

Since Hopfield and Tank applied their neural networks to Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP), this classical NP-hard (non-deterministic polynomial) problem has been intensively studied in the field of artificial neurocomputing. Lipo Wang et al. proposed an efficient approach named noisy chaotic neural network (NCNN), which has been proved to be a powerful tool to solve combinatorial optimization problems in their literatures. However, its exact parameters choice is exquisitely sensitive and complicated under different scenarios. In order to improve the convergence performance, the characteristics of its parameters are investigated in detail again in this paper. We focus on further researching the effects parameters have on the performance of NCNN. Through a large quantity of analyses and numerical simulations, we present the modified scheme with a new parameter set which gives 1) less steep sigmoid function, 2) stronger synaptic weights, and 3) higher initial temperature for annealing. Simulation results show that the modified scheme has much faster convergence speed with a small amount of accuracy loss, compared with the original NCNN which used a traditional parameter set.
Enhanced synaptic connectivity and epilepsy in C1q knockout mice

Excessive CNS synapses are eliminated during development to establish mature patterns of neuronal connectivity. A complement cascade protein, C1q, is involved in this process. Mice deficient in C1q fail to refine retinogeniculate connections resulting in excessive retinal innervation of lateral geniculate neurons. We hypothesized that C1q knockout (KO) mice would exhibit defects in neocortical synapse elimination resulting in enhanced excitatory synaptic connectivity and epileptiform activity. We recorded spontaneous and evoked field potential activity in neocortical slices and obtained video-EEG recordings from implanted C1q KO and wild-type (WT) mice. We also used laser scanning photostimulation of caged glutamate and whole cell recordings to map excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connectivity. Spontaneous and evoked epileptiform field potentials occurred at multiple sites in neocortical slices from C1q KO, but not WT mice. Laser mapping experiments in C1q KO slices showed that the proportion of glutamate uncaging sites from which excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) could be evoked (“hotspot ratio”) increased significantly in layer IV and layer V, although EPSC amplitudes were unaltered. Density of axonal boutons was significantly increased in layer V pyramidal neurons of C1q KO mice. Implanted KO mice had frequent behavioral seizures consisting of behavioral arrest associated with bihemispheric spikes and slow wave activity lasting from 5 to 30 s. Results indicate that epileptogenesis in C1q KO mice is related to a genetically determined failure to prune excessive excitatory synapses during development.
Keeping features in the field of view in eye-in-hand visual servoing: a switching approach

A visual servoing strategy for keeping features in the field of view is proposed which consists of a switching among position-based control strategies and backward motion. In the absence of uncertainty on the extrinsic parameters, all features are kept in the field of view. Moreover, if the intrinsic parameters are also known, the trajectory length is minimized in the rotational space and, for some cases, also minimized in the translational space. Simulation results also show a certain degree of robustness against uncertainty on the intrinsic parameters.
Dynamic Stack-Controlled CMOS RF Power Amplifier for Wideband Envelope Tracking

In this paper, a dynamic stack-controlled CMOS FET RF power amplifier (PA) is developed to enhance the efficiency of the envelope tracking power amplifier (ET PA) system for low-voltage operation. The power cell used in the two-stage PA is a quadruple-stacked FET structure with dynamic stacking controller to reconfigure the power cell into the quasi-triple or quasi-double stacks according to the magnitude of the input envelope signal. The proposed power cell boosts the peak efficiency in the low VDD region by bypassing the stack entering the triode region and reoptimizing the load impedance so that all the FETs operate under the saturation and the optimum load conditions. A detailed analysis is presented to understand the gain and phase step discontinuities at the stack switching points, and the circuit techniques to equalize the gain and phase between the adjacent stack configurations are developed. The proposed two-stage stack-controlled PA is fabricated with a 0.32-μm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS process together with the envelope amplifier (EA). Full long-term evolution (LTE) characterization is performed using LTE signals with a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of 6.7 dB and signal bandwidths (BW) of 10 and 20 MHz. With 10-MHz signals, dynamic stacking provides 3.5% power added efficiency (PAE) improvement over the static stack at 25.7 dBm, resulting in 47.5% PAE with 26.6-dB gain. A 20-MHz LTE test shows an overall PAE of 45.9% with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) of -33 dBc with memoryless digital predistortion. Even with the lower efficiency of the EA compared with the state-of-the-art results, the measured overall system efficiency with 3.4 V maximum voltage is comparable with those reported using GaAs HBT's with 5 V supplies, which clearly demonstrates the advantages of the proposed dynamic stack control.
Automatic Mission-Critical Data Discovery Based On Content : Experimental Results

In this work, we present results from a system that was designed to automatically identify critical data based upon content. This identification data can then be used for computer security purposes: known critical data can have extra safeguards extended to it and users that are attempting to access critical data illicitly can also be better identified. The process works by using a SVM-based filtering system that has been trained with expert knowledge. The system itself was described in a previous work; the contribution of this work is in the many experimental results which are presented. The results show that the proposed system will be a valuable tool in the computer security engineer’s toolkit.
Root-Soil System Domain Knowledge Constructing Method Based on Relational Analysis of Single Impact Factor

Through analyzing the problems existing in simulating root growth under external effect, regarding the feature that external effect can be decomposed into single impact factor (SIF), the root-soil system domain knowledge constructing method has been raised based on relational analysis of SIF. This method is based on external effects model database, mines the SIF data and builds Links among them, adopts multidimensional association rule of Apriori algorithm and threshold selection to select effective SIF, uses MATLAB to quantize data, and then constructs a domain knowledge database of SIF's effects to root growth, ultimately, uses OpenAlea and combines a root growth model to achieve the visuaLized simulation of root growth. Take soil compaction as an external effect to carry on a comparison experiment, the result shows that this method can prompt to complete a visuaLized simulation of root growth efficiently.
Reconfigurable RRAM-based computing: A Case study for reliability enhancement

Emerging hybrid-CMOS nanoscale devices and architectures offer greater degree of integration and performance capabilities. However, the high power densities, hard error frequency, process variations, and device wearout affect the overall system reliability. Reactive design techniques, such as redundancy, account for component failures by mitigating them to prevent system failures. These techniques incur high area and power overhead. This research focuses on exploring hybrid CMOS/Resistive RAM (RRAM) architectures that enhance the system reliability by performing computation in RRAM cache whenever CMOS logic units fail, essentially masking the area overhead of redundant logic when not in use. The proposed designs are validated using the Gem5 performance simulator and McPAT power simulator running single-core SPEC2006 benchmarks and multi-core PARSEC benchmarks. The simulation results are used to evaluate the efficacy of reliability enhancement techniques using RRAM. The average runtime when using RRAM for functional unit replacement was between ∼1.5 and ∼2.5 times longer than the baseline for a single-core architecture, ∼1.25 and ∼2 times
Locally Constrained Shortest Paths and an Application in Mission Planning

We consider a generalization of the constrained shortest path problem, in which we forbid certain pairs of edges to appear consecutively on a feasible path. This problem has applications in robotics and optimal mission planning. We propose a dynamical programming heuristic for this problem and show computational results of an application in routing an aircraft through hostile space.
Volume MRI and MRSI techniques for the quantitation of treatment response in brain tumors: Presentation of a detailed case study

Patients with primary brain tumors may be considered for several different treatments during the course of their disease. Assessments of disease progression and response to therapy are typically performed by visual interpretation of serial MRI examinations. Although such examinations provide useful morphologic information, they are unable to reliably distinguish active tumor from radiation necrosis. This poses a particular problem in the assessment of response to localized radiation therapies such as gamma knife radiosurgery. In this paper, we present methodology for evaluating changes in tissue morphology and metabolism based on serial volumetric MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) examinations. Registration and quantitative analysis of these data provide measurements of the temporal and spatial distributions of gadolinium enhancement and of N‐acetylasparate, choline, creatine, and lactate/lipid. The key features of this approach and the potential clinical benefits are illustrated by a detailed analysis of six serial MRI/MRSI examinations and three serial 1‐[F‐18] fluoro‐2‐deoxy‐D‐glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) studies on a patient with a recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma.
Elimination Voltammetry with Linear Scan as a New Detection Method for DNA Sensors

The paper describes successful coupling of adsorptive transfer stripping (AdTS) and elimination voltammetry with linear scan (EVLS) for the resolution of reduction signals of cytosine (C) and adenine (A) residues in hetero-oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs). Short ODNs (9-mers and 20-mers) were adsorbed from a small volume on a hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE). After washing of the ODN-modified electrode by water and its transferring to an electrochemical cell, voltammetric curves were measured. The AdTS EVLS was able to determine of C/A ratio of ODNs through the elimination function conserving the diffusion current component and eliminating kinetic and charging current components. This function, which provides the elimination signal in a peak-counterpeak form, increased the current sensitivity for A and C resolution, and for the recognition of bases sequences in ODN chains. Optimal conditions of elimination experiments such as pH, time of adsorption, and scan rate were found. The combination of EVLS with AdTS procedure can be considered as a new detection method in a DNA sensor.
Haddad Syndrome with PHOX2B Gene Mutation in a Korean Infant

Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome with Hirschsprung's disease, also known as Haddad syndrome, is an extremely rare disorder with variable symptoms. Recent studies described that congenital central hypoventilation syndrome had deep relation to the mutation of the PHOX2B gene in its diagnosis and phenotype. We report a newborn male infant with clinical manifestations of recurrent hypoventilation with hypercapnea and bowel obstruction. These clinical manifestations were compatible with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome and Hirschsprung's disease, and polyalanine 26 repeats in the PHOX2B gene supported the diagnosis of congenital central hypoventilation. We described a first case of Haddad syndrome in Korean and its clinical and genetic characteristics were discussed.
Live updating operating systems using virtualization

Many critical IT infrastructures require non-disruptive operations. However, the operating systems thereon are far from perfect that patches and upgrades are frequently applied, in order to close vulnerabilities, add new features and enhance performance. To mitigate the loss of availability, such operating systems need to provide features such as live update through which patches and upgrades can be applied without having to stop and reboot the operating system. Unfortunately, most current live updating approaches cannot be easily applied to existing operating systems: some are tightly bound to specific design approaches (e.g. object-oriented); others can only be used under particular circumstances (e.g. quiescence states). In this paper, we propose using virtualization to provide the live update capability. The proposed approach allows a broad range of patches and upgrades to be applied at any time without the requirement of a quiescence state. Moreover, such approach shares good portability for its OS-transparency and is suitable for inclusion in general virtualization systems. We present a working prototype, LUCOS, which supports live update capability on Linux running on Xen virtual machine monitor. To demonstrate the applicability of our approach, we use real-life kernel patches from Linux kernel 2.6. 10 to Linux kernel 2.6. 11, and apply some of those kernel patches on the fly. Performance measurements show that our implementation incurs negligible performance overhead: a less than 1% performance degradation compared to a Xen-Linux. The time to apply a patch is also very minimal.
Adaptive Learning Rate via Covariance Matrix Based Preconditioning for Deep Neural Networks

Adaptive learning rate algorithms such as RMSProp are widely used for training deep neural networks. RMSProp offers efficient training since it uses first order gradients to approximate Hessian-based preconditioning. However, since the first order gradients include noise caused by stochastic optimization, the approximation may be inaccurate. In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive learning rate algorithm called SDProp. Its key idea is effective handling of the noise by preconditioning based on covariance matrix. For various neural networks, our approach is more efficient and effective than RMSProp and its variant.
View on development of information competencies and computer literacy of Slovak secondary school graduates

The degree of including information, knowledge and technologies into all human activities is very high. New skills for new society are not only classical literacy (reading, writing, counting), but also information competencies and digital/computer literacy. According to ACM Europe Working Group in our “digital world”, information is available anywhere at any time, computer power is ubiquitous, communication of vast amounts of information is almost instantaneous, and storage capacities seem infinite. But these powerful possibilities only benefit those who have learned to use them effectively. That is why all students need to be educated in both: fluency with computer tools and the Internet and the science behind information technology, to use ICT and its devices intelligently. Educational system should be able to react appropriately to the development and trends, however, the required state and the reality do not meet. This article summarizes the results of the research of information and digital competence/literacy of secondary school graduates who entered the first grade at the Faculty of Economics, Technical University in Košice. Our research problems are as follows: What are the information competencies and students' knowledge gained during their school informatics education? How can they use this knowledge and their competencies?