Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Megalin in the Transport of Gentamicin Across BeWo Cells, an In Vitro Model of the Human Placenta

Aminoglycosides (AG) are known to readily cross the placenta, although the mechanisms responsible for placental transport have not been characterized. Megalin is expressed in human placenta, and it is reasonable to speculate, given its role in renal AG uptake, that it is similarly involved in placental transport. However, the role of megalin in placental AG uptake has not been established. An in vitro model to study megalin-mediated placental transport has also not been previously described. The objectives of this study, therefore, were to evaluate the human choriocarcinoma (BeWo) cell line as a model to study megalin-mediated placental transport and to assess the uptake kinetics of gentamicin, an AG antibiotic, using this in vitro model. BeWo cells were grown on Transwell® plates, and megalin expression and functional activity were assessed. Uptake of 3H-gentamicin was also evaluated in the presence and absence of megalin inhibitors. Expression of megalin protein and mRNA in BeWo cells were confirmed via immunoblot and qPCR analysis. Uptake of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled bovine serum albumin (BSA) (a megalin substrate) was time-, concentration-, and temperature-dependent consistent with a transporter-mediated process. FITC-BSA uptake was also significantly reduced in the presence of unlabeled gentamicin (a megalin substrate) and sodium maleate (to induce megalin shedding) suggesting that megalin is functionally active in BeWo cells. Gentamicin uptake exhibited time and temperature dependence, saturability and Michaelis-Menten kinetics, all of which suggest a transporter-mediated process. Gentamicin uptake was also significantly reduced in the presence of the megalin inhibitors RAP and EDTA suggesting that megalin is likely involved in gentamicin uptake.
Analysis of Visible/SWIR surface reflectance ratios for aerosol retrievals from satellite in Mexico City urban area

The surface reflectance ratio between the vis- ible (VIS) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) radiation is an important quantity for the retrieval of the aerosol optical depth ( a) from the MODIS sensor data. Based on em- pirically determined VIS/SWIR ratios, MODIS a retrieval uses the surface reflectance in the SWIR band (2.1 µm), where the interaction between solar radiation and the aerosol layer is small, to predict the visible reflectances in the blue (0.47µm) and red (0.66µm) bands. Therefore, accurate knowledge of the VIS/SWIR ratio is essential for achiev- ing accurate retrieval of aerosol optical depth from MODIS. We analyzed the surface reflectance over some distinct sur- face covers in and around the Mexico City metropolitan area (MCMA) using MODIS radiances at 0. 66µm and 2.1µm. The analysis was performed at 1.5 km◊1.5 km spatial reso- lution. Also, ground-based AERONET sun-photometer data acquired in Mexico City from 2002 to 2005 were analyzed for aerosol depth and other aerosol optical properties. In addition, a network of hand-held sun-photometers deployed in Mexico City, as part of the MCMA-2006 Study dur- ing the MILAGRO Campaign, provided an unprecedented measurement of a in 5 different sites well distributed in the city. We found that the average RED/SWIR ratio rep- resentative of the urbanized sites analyzed is 0.73±0.06 for scattering angles <140 and goes up to 0.77±0.06 for higher ones. The average ratio for non-urban sites was significantly lower (approximately 0.55). In fact, this ra- tio strongly depends on differences in urbanization levels (i.e. relative urban to vegetation proportions and types of surface materials). The aerosol optical depth retrieved from MODIS radiances at a spatial resolution of 1.5 km◊1.5 km Correspondence to:A. D. de Almeida Castanho
Improving Schools Through Teacher Leadership

CONTENTS Series Editors' Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part One: Teacher Leadership: Theoretical Background Chapter 1 Teacher Leadership Chapter 2 Distributed Leadership Part Two: Enhancing Teacher Leadership Chapter 4 Building Professional Learning Communities Chapter 5 Meaningful Professional Development Chapter 6 Generating and supporting Teacher Leadership Part Three: Recent Studies and Evidence Chapter 7 Teacher Leadership and Teacher Effectiveness Chapter 8 Teacher Leadership and Differential Effectiveness Chapter 9 Teacher-led School Improvement: A Research Study Chapter 10 Successful Teacher Leadership Chapter 11 Emergent Teacher leadership Chapter 12 Restricted Teacher Leadership Part Four: Future Directions for Teacher Leadership Chapter 13 Nurturing Teacher Leadership Chapter 14 Improving Schools through Teacher Leadership References Index
Spoofing detection under noisy conditions: a preliminary investigation and an initial database

Spoofing detection for automatic speaker verification (ASV), which is to discriminate between live speech and attacks, has received increasing attentions recently. However, all the previous studies have been done on the clean data without significant additive noise. To simulate the real-life scenarios, we perform a preliminary investigation of spoofing detection under additive noisy conditions, and also describe an initial database for this task. The noisy database is based on the ASVspoof challenge 2015 database and generated by artificially adding background noises at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Five different additive noises are included. Our preliminary results show that using the model trained from clean data, the system performance degrades significantly in noisy conditions. Phase-based feature is more noise robust than magnitude-based features. And the systems perform significantly differ under different noise scenarios.
Analytic solution for Brownian motion in three dimensional hyperbolic space

Brownian motion in the three dimensional Lobachevsky space or hyperbolic space is considered in the paper written by F.I. Karpelevich, V.N. Tutubalin and M.G. Shur. A solution for radial symmetric diffusion equation in the three dimensional hyperbolic space is given in that paper. However, derivation of it is not explicitly shown. Therefore, the diffusion equation is solved analytically with an initial condition corresponding to non-zero space variable at the initial stage.
Can Nonhomothetic Preferences Explain the Post World War II Growth in Trade ? 1 October 1997

Since 1950, trade has increased faster than product and has concentrated among developed countries and in manufactures. To explain these trade patterns, Markusen (1986) and Bergstrand (1990) have developed general equilibrium models where income per capita levels play a key role in the determination of trade. These models provide a theoretical formalization of Linder (1961). Little work, however, has tested this theory quantitatively. This paper introduces a model that builds from the previous literature. The main goal is to measure how much of the increase in the volume and concentration of trade seen during the post World War II period can be accounted for by considering preferences as a \non-trivial" determinant of trade. This research represents the ̄rst attempt to quantify this feature using a calibrated general equilibrium model. We ̄nd that the introduction of nonhomothetic preferences, although consistent with the directional changes in the data, cannot account for a signi ̄cant part of the change in the level of trade. How surprising is this? Not particularly, when we consider that the ratio of trade to product and the concentration among developed countries were greater 100 years ago than today. If nonhomothetic preferences were signi ̄cantly driving the patterns of trade, trade should have been much lower and less concentrated in the past. So, why was trade so high and concentrated during the last century? And why has trade increased so fast since the 1950s? Many elements seem to be important for explaining these patterns. Among them, trade policy appears as especially signi ̄cant. Low restrictions during the nineteenth century { and in particular by the 1860s { may have played an important role in the determination of the level of trade. Since the 1950s, the world has experienced a reduction in manufacturing restrictions, mainly among developed nations, and an increase in regional trade, emphasized by the creation of the European Community. Our concern should then be, how important has policy been for the evolution of trade levels? This question seems crucial and should receive more attention. (JEL classi ̄cation:F12,F14,D58) I am very grateful to Tim Kehoe, Ed Prescott and the members of the Applied Theory Workshop at the University of Minnesota for helpful comments. All errors are my own.
BDI Agents and Constraint Logic

Using Constraint Logic Programming and a data model approach, we provide an agent with a flexible way to plan and direct its actions and to manipulate and represent its knowledge. We use constraint solving techniques developed in the KRAFT project to provide the agent with a sophisticated reasoning and deliberation process. We explore the declarative use of constraints within a BDI Agent framework to represent knowledge as complex quantified constraints and apply these techniques to a courier scenario where cooperating agents communicate, delegate and exchange desires and information using Generalised Partial Global Planning mechanisms to solve a given set of tasks.
Metrology for Surface Characterization and Inspection of High-Precision Manufactured Components

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been successfully used as an analysis tool for nano-scale materials in nuclear and special materials applications for many years. Recently, the large chamber (LC) SEM at Y12 has demonstrated its power in surface analysis and inspections of large specimens at the nano-scale without destruction of the specimen. This paper summarizes the research efforts conducted by UTK in applying state of art computer vision techniques to the LC-SEM imaging, particularly 3D characterization and inspection. Two or more LC-SEM images taken under appropriate condition (i.e., the specimen is tilted eucentrically in front of the sensor), combined with certain knowledge of the imaging process, have been used to infer the 3D surface of the specimen, which is extremely useful when detailed surface analysis of the specimen is needed.
A software framework for non-repudiation service in electronic commerce based on the Internet

We propose a software framework for non-repudiation service in e-commerce (electronic commerce) on the Internet. The proposed software framework is an explicit security framework for notary service. In the framework we propose a systematic design methodology that provides a security class concept. Our framework can be differentiated from others. First, unlike other frameworks, it is interested in a successful completion of e-commerce transactions by supporting non-repudiation of service. Second, the proposed framework is based on dynamic adaptive mechanism that improves the performance of e-commerce transactions.
Transmitter Preprocessing Aided Spatial Modulation for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Systems

This paper proposes and studies a transmitter preprocessing aided spatial modulation (PSM) scheme, which conveys information jointly by a conventional amplitude-phase modulation (APM) and a preprocessing aided space shift keying (pre-SSK) modulation. In contrast to the existing SSK modulation, which carries information using the indexes of transmitter antennas and assumes channel state information at receiver (CSIR), the pre-SSK modulation extracts the transmitted information using the indexes of receive antennas and assumes channel state information at transmitter (CSIT). This paper addresses the issues of preprocessing optimization and detection of PSM signals. Furthermore, the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the PSM is investigated, when assuming that the channel from any transmit antenna to any receive antenna experiences independent Rayleigh fading. Our studies show that, when appropriately designed, the pre-SSK and APM invoked can enhance each other, resulting in that the PSM is capable of attaining a better BER performance than the corresponding pure pre-SSK and pure APM.
Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Lensed Galaxies at 1 < z < 3: The Nature of Sources Near the MIPS Confusion Limit

We present Spitzer IRS mid-infrared spectra for 15 gravitationally lensed, 24 μm-selected galaxies, and combine the results with four additional very faint galaxies with IRS spectra in the literature. The median intrinsic 24 μm flux density of the sample is 130 μJy, enabling a systematic survey of the spectral properties of the very faint 24 μm sources that dominate the number counts of Spitzer cosmological surveys. Six of the 19 galaxy spectra (32%) show the strong mid-IR continuua expected of AGNs; X-ray detections confirm the presence of AGNs in three of these cases, and reveal AGNs in two other galaxies. These results suggest that nuclear accretion may contribute more flux to faint 24 μm-selected samples than previously assumed. Almost all the spectra show some aromatic (PAH) emission features; the measured aromatic flux ratios do not show evolution from z = 0. In particular, the high signal-to-noise mid-IR spectrum of SMM J163554.2+661225 agrees remarkably well with low-redshift, lower luminosity templates. We compare the rest-frame 8 μm and total infrared luminosities of star-forming galaxies, and find that the behavior of this ratio with total IR luminosity has evolved modestly from z = 2 to z = 0. Since the high aromatic-to-continuum flux ratios in these galaxies rule out a dominant contribution by AGNs, this finding implies systematic evolution in the structure and/or metallicity of infrared sources with redshift. It also has implications for the estimates of star-forming rates inferred from 24 μm measurements, in the sense that at z ∼ 2, a given observed frame 24 μm luminosity corresponds to a lower bolometric luminosity than would be inferred from low-redshift templates of similar luminosity at the corresponding rest wavelength.
Nicotine-Induced Upregulation of Native Neuronal Nicotinic Receptors Is Caused by Multiple Mechanisms

Nicotine causes changes in brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) during smoking that initiate addiction. Nicotine-induced upregulation is the long-lasting increase in nAChR radioligand binding sites in brain resulting from exposure. The mechanisms causing upregulation are not established. Many different mechanisms have been reported with the assumption that there is a single underlying cause. Using live rat cortical neurons, we examined for the first time how exposure and withdrawal of nicotine shape the kinetics of native α4β2-containing nAChR upregulation in real time. Upregulation kinetics demonstrates that at least two different mechanisms underlie this phenomenon. First, a transient upregulation occurs that rapidly reverses, faster than nAChR degradation, and corresponds to nAChR conformational changes as assayed by conformational-dependent, subunit-specific antibodies. Second, a long-lasting process occurs correlating with increases in nAChR numbers caused by decreased proteasomal subunit degradation. Previous radioligand binding measurements to brain tissue have measured the second process and largely missed the first. We conclude that nicotine-induced upregulation is composed of multiple processes occurring at different rates with different underlying causes.
Full floor identification in images with minimal close range 3D information

In this paper we propose a method for identifying full floor free space within single images from 3D consumer devices that does not make any assumptions with regard to room geometry and is relatively robust to texture and clutter. Importantly, we show that the method performs well even with very limited depth information showing potential for use with even the lower range consumer devices for which depth information is only available to around 2 metres.
Automated Classification of Centroblast Cells using Morphological and Texture Features

The early detection of lymphoma in patients can greatly increase the probability of recovery. Centroblasts of lymphoma are conventionally identified under microscopes by expert doctor’s manually. cytogenetics and immunopheno typing are currently used. A novel method has been proposed to recognize centroblast (CB) cells from non centroblast (nonCB) cells for computer assisted evaluation of lymphocyte centroblasts. The novel aspects is to identify the centroblast cells with prior information. Geometric and texture features are extracted from the input image for identification and classification. Important geometric features like area, boundingbox, convex area, perimeter, major-axis, minor-axis, solidity are extracted. Texture features are extracted using Log-Gabor filter. Combined features of texture and morphology improve the performance of the system significantly. Supervised support vector machine (SVM) classifier is used to classify centroblast (CB) and non-CB cell.
Confluence and Contours: Reflexive Management of Environmental Risk

Government institutions have responsibilities to distribute risk management funds meaningfully and to be accountable for their choices. We took a macro‐level sociological approach to understanding the role of government in managing environmental risks, and insights from micro‐level psychology to examine individual‐level risk‐related perceptions and beliefs. Survey data from 2,068 U.K. citizens showed that lay people's funding preferences were associated positively with beliefs about responsibility and trust, yet associations with perception varied depending on risk type. Moreover, there were risk‐specific differences in the funding preferences of the lay sample and 29 policymakers. A laboratory‐based study of 109 participants examined funding allocation in more detail through iterative presentation of expert information. Quantitative and qualitative data revealed a meso‐level framework comprising three types of decisionmakers who varied in their willingness to change funding allocation preferences following expert information: adaptors, responders, and resistors. This research highlights the relevance of integrated theoretical approaches to understanding the policy process, and the benefits of reflexive dialogue to managing environmental risks.
18F-Labeled Peptides: The Future Is Bright

Radiolabeled peptides have been the subject of intense research efforts for targeted diagnostic imaging and radiotherapy over the last 20 years. Peptides offer several advantages for receptor imaging and targeted radiotherapy. The low molecular weight of peptides allows for rapid clearance from the blood and non-target tissue, which results in favorable target-to-non-target ratios. Moreover, peptides usually display good tissue penetration and they are generally non-immunogenic. A major drawback is their potential low metabolic stability. The majority of currently used radiolabeled peptides for targeted molecular imaging and therapy of cancer is labeled with various radiometals like 99mTc, 68Ga, and 177Lu. However, over the last decade an increasing number of 18F-labeled peptides have been reported. Despite of obvious advantages of 18F like its ease of production in large quantities at high specific activity, the low β+ energy (0.64 MeV) and the favorable half-life (109.8 min), 18F-labeling of peptides remains a special challenge. The first part of this review will provide a brief overview on chemical strategies for peptide labeling with 18F. A second part will discuss recent technological advances for 18F-labeling of peptides with special focus on microfluidic technology, automation, and kit-like preparation of 18F-labeled peptides.
Some Statistical Issues in Microarray Gene Expression Data

Abstract Mayo, M. S. , Gajewski, B. J. and Morris, J. S. Some Statistical Issues in Microarray Gene Expression Data. Radiat. Res. 165, 745–748 (2006). In this paper we discuss some of the statistical issues that should be considered when conducting experiments involving microarray gene expression data. We discuss statistical issues related to preprocessing the data as well as the analysis of the data. Analysis of the data is discussed in three contexts: class comparison, class prediction and class discovery. We also review the methods used in two studies that are using microarray gene expression to assess the effect of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) fields on gene expression. Our intent is to provide a guide for radiation researchers when conducting studies involving microarray gene expression data.
Discriminative weighting of HMM state-likelihoods using the GPD method

We propose a new method of finding discriminative state-weights recursively using the generalized probabilistic descent method. This method is implemented with minor modification of the conventional parameter estimation and recognition algorithms by constraining the sum of the state-weights to the number of states in a recognition unit, and can be applied to continuous speech recognition as well as isolated word recognition. We confirm the validity of the method with phoneme-based and word-based state-weighting schemes for three kinds of recognition tasks.
New Advances in Structure-Based Diagnosis: A Method for Compiling Devices

This paper rests on a number of contributions. First, we propose a new characterization of consistency-based diagnoses using negation normal forms and show how key diagnostic queries, such as enumerating minimal-cardinality diagnoses, can be computed using simple manipulations of negation normal forms. Second, we present two fundamental theorems, Decomposition and Case-Analysis, that can be used to generate the negation normal form corresponding to any system description and observation. Third, we present a simple, yet powerful, theorem which can be used to compile a system description into a negation normal form that characterizes the diagnoses of all system observations. Finally, we show how the topology of a system structure can be utilized in providing guarantees on the complexity of characterizing diagnoses using negation normal forms.
How to Store some Secrets

This paper introduces a special type of symmetric cryptosystem called multi-encryption scheme. It allows users to encrypt multiple plaintexts into a single ciphertext. Each plaintext is protected with its own secret key, meaning that they can be decrypted individually by applying the decryption function with the corresponding key to the ciphertext. Compared to encrypting the ciphertexts one-by-one using a standard symmetric cryptosystem, the main advantage of using a multi-encryption scheme is the no-search property, which guarantees that knowing the key is sufficient for decrypting a single plaintext. We show how to construct a multiencryption scheme based on polynomials over finite fields. A possible application area is coercion-resistant electronic voting. To ensure a strong form of privacy, voters are equipped with multiple fake credentials, which are indistinguishable from the proper one. While theoretically sound, this requires a voter to perfectly recall multiple lengthy random numbers, and to know which of them is the proper one. To ensure 100% recall, users need to manage these numbers and keep them secret. A multi-encryption scheme is an elegant solution for
A SWAR Approach to Counting Ones

We investigate the complexity of algorithms counting ones in different sets of operations. With addition and logical operations (but no shift) $O(\log^2(n))$ steps suffice to count ones. Parity can be computed with complexity $O(\log(n))$, which is the same bound as for methods using shift-operations. If multiplication is available, a solution of time complexity $O(\log^*(n))$ is possible improving the known bound $O(\log\log(n))$.