Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contribution of a Non-β-Cell Source to β-Cell Mass during Pregnancy

β-cell mass in the pancreas increases significantly during pregnancy as an adaptation to maternal insulin resistance. Lineage tracing studies in rodents have presented conflicting evidence on the role of cell duplication in the formation of new β-cells during gestation, while recent human data suggest that new islets are a major contributor to increased β-cell mass in pregnancy. Here, we aim to: 1) determine whether a non-β-cell source contributes to the appearance of new β-cells during pregnancy and 2) investigate whether recapitulation of the embryonic developmental pathway involving high expression of neurogenin 3 (Ngn3) plays a role in the up-regulation of β-cell mass during pregnancy. Using a mouse β-cell lineage-tracing model, which labels insulin-producing β-cells with red fluorescent protein (RFP), we found that the percentage of labeled β-cells dropped from 97% prior to pregnancy to 87% at mid-pregnancy. This suggests contribution of a non-β-cell source to the increase in total β-cell numbers during pregnancy. In addition, we observed a population of hormone-negative, Ngn3-positive cells in islets of both non-pregnant and pregnant mice, and this population dropped from 12% of all islets cells in the non-pregnant mice to 5% by day 8 of pregnancy. Concomitantly, a decrease in expression of Ngn3 and changes in its upstream regulatory network (Sox9 and Hes-1) as well as downstream targets (NeuroD, Nkx2.2, Rfx6 and IA1) were also observed during pregnancy. Our results show that duplication of pre-existing β-cells is not the sole source of new β-cells during pregnancy and that Ngn3 may be involved in this process.
Retrieving Design Pattern Usage Examples using Domain Matching

Software design patterns provide well-known solutions to recurring problems faced by developers. However, not all developers are proficient with the use of design patterns. To facilitate developers in this regard, we propose a design pattern usage examples retrieval system. The retrieval is based on analyzing the developer's development context to provide design pattern usage examples from projects that have a similar functional domain to that of the developer. In our approach, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model is used to extract domain keywords from individual projects' source code. The domain keywords are stored in a fact repository and are used to construct the respective projects' profiles. We perform content-based retrieval by using a developer's domain keywords to retrieve only matching projects and their associated design patterns-based code (as design pattern usage examples) from the fact repository. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results from internal experiments and a user study indicate that our system provides fairly accurate results.
Sailing from Warped AdS3 to Warped dS3 in Topologically Massive Gravity

Three-dimensional warped anti-de Sitter space in topologically massive gravity with a negative cosmological constant has been proposed to be holographically dual to a two-dimensional conformal field theory. We extend this proposal to both positive and vanishing values of the cosmological constant where stretched warped anti-de Sitter space is found to be a solution. For positive cosmological constant, another class of warped solutions is obtained by a spacelike (timelike) line fibration over Lorentzian (Euclidean) two-dimensional de Sitter space. These solutions exhibit a cosmological horizon and Hawking temperature much like de Sitter space. Global identifications of this warped de Sitter space may contain a horizon in addition to the cosmological one. At a degenerate point, warped de Sitter space becomes a fibration over twodimensional flat space. Finally, we study scalar waves in these backgrounds. Scalars in stretched warped anti-de Sitter space exhibit superradiance which can be interpreted as Schwinger pair production of charged particles in two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. PACS Numbers: 04.50. Kd, 04.60. Kz, 04.70. -s
Fentanyl Enhances Hepatotoxicity of Paclitaxel via Inhibition of CYP3A4 and ABCB1 Transport Activity in Mice

Fentanyl, a potent opioid analgesic that is used to treat cancer pain, is commonly administered with paclitaxel in advanced tumors. However, the effect of fentanyl on the hepatotoxicity of paclitaxel and its potential mechanism of action is not well studied. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of fentanyl on the hepatotoxicity of paclitaxel and its potential mechanisms of action. Pharmacokinetic parameters of paclitaxel were tested using reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and mouse liver histopathology were examined. Moreover, the cytotoxicity of anti-carcinogens was examined using 1-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-3,5-diphenylformazan (MTT), and the intracellular accumulation of doxorubicin and rhodamine 123 was detected by flow cytometry. Furthermore, the expression of ABCB1 and the activity of ABCB1 ATPase and CYP3A4 were also examined. In this study, the co-administration of fentanyl and paclitaxel prolonged the half-life (t1/2) of paclitaxel from 1.455 hours to 2.344 hours and decreased the clearance (CL) from 10.997 ml/h to 7.014 ml/h in mice. Fentanyl significantly increased the levels of ALT in mice to 88.2 U/L, which is more than 2-fold higher than the level detected in the control group, and it increased the histological damage in mouse livers. Furthermore, fentanyl enhanced the cytotoxicity of anti-carcinogens that are ABCB1 substrates and increased the accumulation of doxorubicin and rhodamine 123. Additionally, fentanyl stimulated ABCB1 ATPase activity and inhibited CYP3A4 activity in the liver microsomes of mice. Our study indicates that the obvious hepatotoxicity during this co-administration was due to the inhibition of CYP3A4 activity and ABCB1 transport activity. These findings suggested that the accumulation-induced hepatotoxicity of paclitaxel when it is combined with fentanyl should be avoided.
GPU-BASED VOLUMETRIC RECONSTRUCTION OF TREES FROM MULTIPLE IMAGES

This paper presents a new hardware-accelerated approach on volumetric reconstruction of trees from images, based on the methods introduced by Reche Martinez et. al [Rec04]. The shown system applies an adapted CT procedure that uses a set of intensity images with known interior and exterior camera parameters for creating a 3D model of a tree, while requiring considerably less images then standard CT. At the same time, the paper introduces a GPU-based solution for the system. As tomographic reconstructions are rather complex tasks, the generation of high-resolution volumes can result in very time-consuming processess. While the performance of CPUs grew in compliance with Moore’s law, GPU architectures showed a significant performance improvement in floating-point calculations. Regarding well parallelizeable processes, today’s end-user graphics-cards can easily outperform high-end CPUs. By improving and modifying the existing methods of volumetric reconstruction in a way, that allows a parallelized implementation on graphics-hardware, a considerable acceleration of the computation times is realized. The paper gives an overview over the single steps from the acquisition of the oriented images displaying the tree till the realization of the final system on graphics processing hardware.
An accelerated dual gradient-projection algorithm for linear model predictive control

This paper proposes a dual fast gradient-projection method for solving quadratic programming problems that arise in linear model predictive control with general polyhedral constraints on inputs and states. The proposed algorithm is quite suitable for embedded control applications in that: (1) it is extremely simple and easy to code; (2) the number of iterations to reach a given accuracy in terms of optimality and feasibility of the primal solution can be estimated quite tightly; (3) the computational cost per iteration increases only linearly with the prediction horizon; and (4) the algorithm is also applicable to linear time-varying (LTV) model predictive control problems, with an extra on-line computational effort that is still linear with the prediction horizon.
Fastest approach to exact pattern matching

This research, presents an improved version of Bidirectional (BD) [20] algorithm to solve the problem of exact pattern matching. Fastest-Bidirectional (FBD) exact pattern matching algorithm introduced a new idea of scanning partial text window (PTW) as well with the pattern by taking Berry-Ravindran (BR) consecutive characters to take decision of moving pattern to the right of PTW. FBD algorithm compares the characters of pattern to selected text window from both sides simultaneously as BD. The time complexity of preprocessing phase of FBD algorithm is O(m+ |Σ|) and searching phase takes O(mn/2).
The throughput flow constraint theorem and its applications

The paper states and proves an important result related to the theory of flow networks with disturbed flows:"the throughput flow constraint in any network is always equal to the throughput flow constraint in its dual network". After the failure or congestion of several edges in the network, the throughput flow constraint theorem provides the basis of a very efficient algorithm for determining the edge flows which correspond to the optimal throughput flow from sources to destinations which is the throughput flow achieved with the smallest amount of generation shedding from the sources. In the case where a failure of an edge causes a loss of the entire flow through the edge, the throughput flow constraint theorem permits the calculation of the new maximum throughput flow to be done in
Holistic Top-k Simple Shortest Path Join in Graphs

Motivated by the needs such as group relationship analysis, this paper introduces a new operation on graphs, named top-k path join, which discovers the top-k simple shortest paths between two given node sets. Rather than discovering the top-k simple paths between each node pair, this paper proposes a holistic join method which answers the top-k path join by finding constrained top-k simple shortest paths between two nodes, and then devises an efficient method to handle the latter problem. Specifically, we transform the graph by encoding the precomputed shortest paths to the target node, and use the transformed graph in the candidate path searching. We show that the candidate path searching on the transformed graph not only has the same result as that on the original graph but also can be terminated much earlier with the aid of precomputed results. We also discuss two other optimization strategies, including considering the join constraint in the candidate path generation as early as possible, and pruning search space in each candidate path generation with an adaptively determined threshold. The final extensive experimental results also show that our method offers a significant performance improvement over existing ones.
sup-Supporting compliance with safety standards by trust case templates

: Standard Compliance (SC) Framework presented in this paper encompasses methods and tools which provide support for application of standards. The framework is based on trust case methodology. A trust case is a data structure which represents a justification that an object (a system, an infrastructure, an organization) exhibits certain properties. It contains an argument and related evidence which support claimed properties. A trust case which argues the compliance with a standard is built, according to the framework, on the basis of a trust case template. Such a template is derived from the standard and is represented in a reusable format. The article describes SC Framework in more detail and presents a case study of its application. The case study demonstrates an example trust case template derived from Medical devices - Application of risk management to medical devices (ISO 14971:2000) standard. Some details of the web-based software tool supporting the presented approach are also given.
Fibrosing alveolitis and polymyositis

A case of fibrosing alveolitis and polymyositis is described. We think that this, in association with previously published reports, favours a real and not fortuitous association. The basis for the association may be an abnormality of immunity, but this could not be established in the present case nor from those previously published.
Low complexity time delay estimation using propagator based on matrix partitioning

In this paper, low complexity time delay estimation (TDE) method based on data matrix partitioning is proposed. The dimension of signal subspace was increased by stacking data matrices for performance improvement of TDE. Increment of the size of data matrix causes high computational complexity of TDE. The proposed algorithm, which only requires propagator with smaller data matrix than original data matrix, can avoid high computational cost. Each of the partitioned matrices is used for the derivation of the averaged propagator matrix. The estimation error of the proposed method is approximately identical to that of the conventional propagator with less computational complexity by using the averaged propagator matrix.
Why “Particularly Good” Principals Don't Quit 1

In the face of recent articles describing a mass exodus of principals without suitable replacements, our investigation into the nature of professional development for school leaders has implications for preparation and staff development programs. This article reviews findings from interviews with committed administrators and places them within the context of new research on principals as lifelong learners who publicly model intellectual curiosity.
Symmetries and conservation laws for the wave equations of scalar statistical optics

The Lie method and Noether's theorem are applied to the double wave equations for the correlation functions of statistical optics. Generalizations of the deterministic conservation laws are found and seen to correspond to the usual laws in the deterministic limit. The statistically stationary wave equations are shown to contain fewer symmetries than for the nonstationary case, so the corresponding conservation laws differ from the conservation laws of the nonstationary, two-time, wave equations.
The analysis of Attention Network in ADHD, attention problems and typically developing subjects

The aim of this work is to analyze the three dimensions of attention, namely vigilance, selectivity and orienting, as identified in Attention Network Theory (ANT), in subjects with ADHD, with attention problems and with typical development. Fourteen ADHD, fifteen with attention problems and fifteen typically developing subjects were tested on ANT. Results showed that children with ADHD obtained low scores for accuracy and a high score for RT. It has also emerged that children with ADHD show no deficits for orienting and vigilance network, but they show deficits in the efficiency of the executive network compared to children with attention problems and typically developed.
The MSR Systems for Entity Linking and Temporal Slot Filling at TAC 2013

The paper describes the two systems from MSR that participated in the English Entity Linking and Temporal Slot Filling (TSF) tasks at TAC 2013. The entity linking system is built by using the same framework and architecture as the previous iterations that participated in the TAC 2011 and 2012 evaluations; therefore, its description focuses on the components that are novel with reference to those systems. The MSR system that addresses the newly introduced TSF task, employs a distant-supervision framework, in which language models for each targeted type of relation are built based on a corpus of sentences automatically extracted from Wikipedia text as guided by Wikipedia infobox data. For each of the TAC tracks addressed, we submitted two runs, which obtained the highest scores in their corresponding evaluations.
CQI reporting strategies for nonregenerative two-way relay networks

This paper considers data exchange between two terminals in a nonregenerative two-way relay network. We first propose two efficient channel quality indicator (CQI) reporting schemes based on XOR and superposition coding for single-relay networks. These schemes allow two terminals to simultaneously estimate the CQI of the distant link without incurring additional overhead. In addition, the transmission time for CQI feedback is reduced by half while the loss of performance is negligible. Upper and lower bounds of the mean square error (MSE) of the estimated CQI are derived to analyze various effects on the performance of the proposed schemes. We then extend our MSE analysis to multi-relay networks where a low-complexity relay selection scheme is proposed based on the derived bounds. Simulation results show that, in comparison with conventional methods, this suboptimal bound-based scheme achieves satisfactory performance while reducing the complexity at least three times in case of large number of relays.
A new method for the quantitative study of neurotransmission

We propose here a new method for the automatic quantification of neurotransmission using data fusion. The process uses a magnetic resonance image as anatomical reference and a single photon emission computed tomography image of the same patient for functional information. Once both acquisitions are coregistered, the process is divided in two steps: first, structures of interest are automatically segmented using a data fusion-based algorithm, then the masks obtained are used to compute functional indexes in the SPECT. Both steps of the process are now validated and we plan to apply it as a tool for differential diagnosis in a wide range of pathologies.
Connecting self, body and world: a counselling psychology perspective

Children in England currently take part in a government-funded childhood weight surveillance and feedback initiative - the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). Limited research has been undertaken, predominantly using a positivist framework. This study explored the maternal experience of being told one’s child is overweight or obese as part of the NCMP. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with the eight participants, and the data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three master themes emerged: ‘the Impacted Self’, ‘the Disempowered Self’ and ‘the Mother Self’. ‘The Impacted Self’ suggests that participants’ experiences changed over time: there was initial surprise and shock; subsequent uncertainty and rumination regarding whether or not the weight category ascribed to their child was appropriate and, if so, concern regarding their role in the event; and an evolving experience, where participants either were able to move on and reject the category, or move on and accept the category, or remain stuck within uncertainty. ‘The Disempowered Self’ suggests that participants felt their power, authority, or confidence was undermined or removed; being judged, blamed and shamed; being branded and reduced to a weight label; and being controlled by numerous others, such as professionals, the letter, and societal meanings. ‘The Mother Self’ suggests that being a mother was an integral part of the overall experience, specifically: being a nurturer and protector in relation to their child; experiencing a unique bond to their child both emotionally and biologically; and navigating complexity of varying motherhood ‘pulls’, both logistical and psychological. This research study provides an in-depth exploration of the lived experiences of some of those who are affected by the NCMP, which is absent from current literature. Possible implications for the future development of the NCMP and related programmes, and for future research, are discussed.
Structure- and Extension-Informed Taxonomy Alignment

Ontologies and concept taxonomies help software systems organize data more effectively for particular application domains. Ontologies also enable sharing and integration of data from different domains and data sources. However, ontologies from different domains are rarely identical; thus, there is need for techniques to find alignments between concepts in different ontologies and taxonomies. In this paper, we first note that alignment algorithms can be classified into two, structurally-informed and extensionally-informed. We then present a concept vector based scheme that capture structural information inherent in taxonomies to facilitate structure-based matching of concepts across taxonomies. We further note the structurally-informed concept vectors can further enable us to benefit from an available corpus of documents to implement extensionally-informed matching schemes with improved power of discriminating synonyms and homonyms of concepts.
Monitoring Driver's Sleepiness On-Board for Preventing Road Accidents

Driver sleepiness due to sleep deprivation is a causative factor of many road accidents. Reducing the extent of the sleepy driving problem by developing a countermeasure device that will monitor the sleepiness level of the driver is crucial to improve the safety of the roads. Among numerous physiological measurements, the electroencephalographic (EEG) signal seems to be the most sensitive to detect sleepiness. Previous studies in the field have found consistent alterations of EEG signal during sleepy driving, though they face methodological limitations. We present here preliminary results from a real-driving experiment in which a more complete experimental setup was followed. The subjects were exposed to driving conditions twice: once after they had a normal sleep during the previous night, and once after they remained awake for at least 24 hours prior to the experiment. Significant alterations were observed in the alpha and beta EEG frequencies bands between the two sessions. Electroopthalmographic (EOG) measurements revealed an increased number of eye blinking during the sleep-deprived session in comparison to the control condition. Both measurements can be used for the successful design of a sleepiness detection countermeasure device.
Progress and Research on Interconnects Crosstalk in Deep Submicron Technology

As develops in deep sub-micron designs, the interconnect crosstalk becomes much more serious. Especially, the coupling inductance can not be ignored in gigahertz designs. So shield insertion is an efficient technique in reducing the inductive noise. In this paper, the characteristics of on-chip mutual inductance (as well as self) for coplanar, micro-stripline and stripline structures [3] will be introduced first. Then base on the coplanar interconnect structures, the effective coupling Keff model [4] and the RLC explicit noise model [1] are proposed respectively. The experiments show that these two models all have high fidelity.
Analysis and Design of a New High-Efficiency Bidirectional Integrated ZVT PWM Converter for DC-Bus and Battery-Bank Interface

This paper proposes a high-efficiency bidirectional integrated zero-voltage transition (iZVT) pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) converter for dc-bus and battery-bank interface. The proposed converter can operate as battery charger when the utility is within its acceptable voltage range and can supply energy to critical loads when the utility fails. The converter practically eliminates both low- and high-frequency current ripple on the batteries, thus maximizing battery life without penalizing the volume of the converter. Moreover, soft switching of all switches is achieved using the proposed integrated auxiliary commutation circuit (iACC). Just one iACC is used to provide soft-switching conditions for the three converters that compose the system: the preregulator (boost), the battery charger (bidirectional converter operating as a buck), and the backup converter (bidirectional converter operating as a boost). This auxiliary circuit has few components and low reactive energy, increasing the system's overall efficiency. Experimental results based on a 580-W prototype are presented to validate the analysis and the proposed design procedure and to demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach