Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wavelet-based solution to anisotropic diffusion equation for edge detection

We consider the problem of detection of edges in an the initial condition u(x , y , 0) and the variance of the smoothing image by solving an anisotropic diffusion equation, which has the Gaussian plays the role of the time variable t . The difficulties intrinsic property that low-contrast regions are smoothed and highassociated with discerning true edges from large local oscillations contrast ones are enhanced. Since wavelets are known to provide in intensity of the image arising from, for example, texture or better representation of singularities ( i.e., edges), a more efficient statistically white noise were approached in the seminal paper scheme than those suggested earlier for solving the diffusion equation by Perona and Malik [1] in which essentially the conduction is formulated in terms of wavelet expansions of the image. These coefficient c is made space varying as in Equation (1). The expansions also provide a natural way of estimating the local contrast, strategy is to choose strong forward diffusion in regions of low and hence of implementing a space-varying parameterization of the contrast measured by low values of values of intensity gradient, diffusion equation for improved performance. Our method can be viewed as a wavelet counterpart of standard spectral methods for and to choose weak or even backward diffusion in regions of solving partial differential equations. q 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int high contrast, again measured by local gradient estimate. While J Imaging Syst Technol, 9, 356–368, 1998 we have adopted this model for most of our work reported here, we have also gleaned some ideas from subsequent improvements of the Perona–Malik model that followed since their publication.
Cancer Therapy : Preclinical The mTOR Kinase Inhibitors , CC 2141 and CC 2142 , Preferentially Block the Growth of EGFRvIII-Activated Glioblastomas

Purpose: mTOR pathway hyperactivation occurs in approximately 90% of glioblastomas, but the allosteric mTOR inhibitor rapamycin has failed in the clinic. Here, we examine the efficacy of the newly discovered ATP-competitive mTOR kinase inhibitors CC214-1 and CC214-2 in glioblastoma, identifying molecular determinants of response andmechanisms of resistance, and develop a pharmacologic strategy to
Cytochrome c2 is essential for electron transfer to nitrous oxide reductase from physiological substrates in Rhodobacter capsulatus and can act as an electron donor to the reductase in vitro. Correlation with photoinhibition studies.

1. Addition of nitrous oxide to a periplasmic fraction released from Rhodobacter capsulatus strains MT1131, N22DNAR+ or AD2 caused oxidation of c-type cytochrome, as judged by the decrease in absorbance at 550 nm. The periplasmic fraction catalysed reduction of nitrous oxide in the presence of either isoascorbate plus phenazine ethosulphate or reduced methyl viologen. The rates with these two electron donors were similar and were comparable to the activity observed with a quantity of cells equivalent to those from which the periplasm sample had been derived. Activity in the periplasm could not be observed with ascorbate plus 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine although this reductant was effective with intact cells treated with myxothiazol to block the activity of the cytochrome-bc1 complex. 2. Cells of R. capsulatus MTG4/S4, a mutant from which the gene for cytochrome c2 has been specifically deleted, did not catalyse detectable rates of nitrous-oxide reduction. A nitrous-oxide reductase activity was present, as shown by activity of both cells and a periplasmic fraction with isoascorbate plus phenazine ethosulphate as reductant. The rates in cells and the periplasmic fraction were similar to those observed in the corresponding wild-type strain (MT1131). In contrast to wild-type cells, 2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine and N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine [Ph(NMe2)2] were ineffective as mediators of electrons from isoascorbate. Visible absorption spectra showed that no detectable cytochromes in either the periplasm or intact cells of the MTG4/S4 mutant were oxidised by nitrous oxide. 3. Purified ferroycytochrome c2 from R. capsulatus was oxidised by nitrous oxide in the presence of periplasm from R. capsulatus MTG4/S4. The rate of oxidation was proportional to the amount of periplasm added, but was considerably lower than the rate of nitrous-oxide reduction observed with the same periplasmic fraction when either ascorbate plus phenazine ethosulphate or reduced methyl viologen were used as substrates. The oxidation of cytochrome c2 was inhibited by acetylene and by low concentrations of NaCl. 4. Oxidation of ferrocytochrome c2 by nitrous oxide was observed when the purified cytochrome was mixed with a preparation of nitrous-oxide reductase. However, oxidation of ferrocytochrome c' by nitrous oxide was not observed in the presence of the reductase. The observations with the mutant MTG4/S4 suggest that cytochrome c2 is the only periplasmic cytochrome involved in nitrous-oxide reduction. 5. Nitrous-oxide-dependent oxidation of a c-type cytochrome was observed in a periplasmic fraction from Paracoccus denitrificans, provided the fraction was first reduced. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Prions: Beyond a Single Protein

SUMMARY Since the term protein was first coined in 1838 and protein was discovered to be the essential component of fibrin and albumin, all cellular proteins were presumed to play beneficial roles in plants and mammals. However, in 1967, Griffith proposed that proteins could be infectious pathogens and postulated their involvement in scrapie, a universally fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in goats and sheep. Nevertheless, this novel hypothesis had not been evidenced until 1982, when Prusiner and coworkers purified infectious particles from scrapie-infected hamster brains and demonstrated that they consisted of a specific protein that he called a “prion. ” Unprecedentedly, the infectious prion pathogen is actually derived from its endogenous cellular form in the central nervous system. Unlike other infectious agents, such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi, prions do not contain genetic materials such as DNA or RNA. The unique traits and genetic information of prions are believed to be encoded within the conformational structure and posttranslational modifications of the proteins. Remarkably, prion-like behavior has been recently observed in other cellular proteins—not only in pathogenic roles but also serving physiological functions. The significance of these fascinating developments in prion biology is far beyond the scope of a single cellular protein and its related disease.
Dendritic Cell Immunogenicity L. Is a Novel Stimulus of Lycium barbarum Polysaccharide-Protein Complex from

Dendritic cell (DC) immunogenicity correlates with its maturation, which can be induced by toxic microbial products such as LPS. In this study, we report that a nontoxic polysaccharide-protein complex isolated from a Chinese medicinal herb, Lycium barbarum (LBP), induces phenotypic and functional maturation of DCs with strong immunogenicity. LBP up-regulated DC expression of CD40, CD80, CD86, and MHC class II molecules; down-regulated DC uptake of Ag; enhanced DC allostimulatory activity; and induced IL-12p40 and p70 production. All of its ﬁve fractions were active. LBP developed enhanced Th1 response, and LBP-treated DCs enhanced Th1 and Th2 responses in vitro and in vivo. Our study provides evidence and rationale on using LBP in various clinical conditions to enhance host immunity and suggests LBP as a potent adjuvant for the design of DC-based vaccines. The Journal of Immunology, 2009, 182: 3503–3509.
Identification of an amber nonsense mutation in the rosy516 gene by germline transformation of an amber suppressor tRNA gene.

Seven xanthine dehydrogenase and cross‐reacting material negative Drosophila melanogaster rosy stocks were screened for amber and ochre nonsense mutations. Amber and ochre nonsense suppressors were created by site‐directed mutagenesis starting from a wild‐type tRNA(Tyr) gene. The suppressor tRNA genes were subcloned into a pUChsneo transformation vector providing heat‐shock controlled neomycin resistance. The seven rosy stocks were germline transformed with amber and ochre tDNA(Tyr), and the G1 generation was screened for Geneticin resistance. Surviving rosy516 flies transformed with the amber suppressor showed an eye colour intermediate between the original ry516 stock and the wild‐type, suggesting that ry516 is an amber nonsense mutant. This was confirmed by sequencing the relevant part of the ry516 gene; the analysis revealed a C‐to‐T transition in a CAG glutamine codon at nucleotide 1522 of the wild‐type rosy gene.
USE OF NOISE TO ELIMINATE ONE EAR FROM MASKING EXPERIMENTS.

To evaluate the possibility that one ear can be eliminated from a masking experiment by use of noise, certain relevant facts were determined. These are: (1) if a tonal signal mixed with noise is received at one ear, the addition of a noise to the other ear slightly reduces the threshold for the tone if the noises are statistically independent; (2) in contrast, the noise added to the nonsignal ear distinctly reduces the threshold for the tone if the noises are perfectly correlated (+1.0); (3) these effects, (1) and (2) above, are observed whether the level of the masking noise at the ear that receives the tonal signal is less than, equal to, or greater than the level of the added noise at the ear that does not receive the tone; (4) if identical tones are presented to the two ears and if the signal‐to‐noise ratio is about 25 dB lower in one ear than in the other, the effect of the signal at the ear with the lower signal to noise ratio is eliminated from the masking experiment.
M Phase Phosphorylation of Cytoplasmic Dynein Intermediate Chain and p150Glued *

To understand how the dramatic cell biological changes of oocyte maturation are brought about, we have begun to identify proteins whose phosphorylation state changes duringXenopus oocyte maturation. Here we have focused on one such protein, p83. We partially purified p83, obtained peptide sequence, and identified it as the intermediate chain of cytoplasmic dynein. During oocyte maturation, dynein intermediate chain became hyperphosphorylated at the time of germinal vesicle breakdown and remained hyperphosphorylated throughout the rest of meiosis and early embryogenesis. p150Glued, a subunit of dynactin that has been shown to bind to dynein intermediate chain, underwent similar changes in its phosphorylation. Both dynein intermediate chain and p150Glued also became hyperphosphorylated during M phase in XTC-2 cells and HeLa cells. Thus, two components of the dynein-dynactin complex undergo coordinated phosphorylation changes at two G2/M transitions (maturation in oocytes and mitosis in cells in culture) but remain constitutively in their M phase forms during early embryogenesis. Dynein intermediate chain and p150Glued phosphorylation may positively regulate mitotic processes, such as spindle assembly or orientation, or negatively regulate interphase processes such as minus-end-directed organelle trafficking.
Stacked Multilevel-Denoising Autoencoders: A New Representation Learning Approach for Wind Turbine Gearbox Fault Diagnosis

Currently, vibration analysis has been widely considered as an effective way to fulfill the fault diagnosis task of gearboxes in wind turbines (WTs). However, vibration signals are usually with abundant noise and characterized as nonlinearity and nonstationarity. Therefore, it is quite challenging to extract robust and useful fault features from complex vibration signals to achieve an accurate and reliable diagnosis. This paper proposes a novel feature representation learning approach, named stacked multilevel-denoising autoencoders (SMLDAEs), with the aim to learn robust and discriminative fault feature representations through a deep network architecture for diagnosis accuracy improvement. In our proposed approach, we design an MLD training scheme, which uses multiple noise levels to train AEs. It enables to learn more general and detailed fault feature patterns simultaneously at different scales from the complex frequency spectra of the raw vibration data, and therefore helps enhance the feature learning and fault diagnosis capability. Furthermore, SMLDAE-based fault diagnosis is performed with an unsupervised representation learning procedure followed by a supervised fine-tuning process with label information for classification. Our approach is evaluated by using the field vibration data collected from a self-designed WT gearbox test rig. The results show that our proposed approach learned more robust and discriminative fault feature representations and achieved the best diagnosis accuracy compared with the traditional approaches.
Association of CTLA‐4 gene microsatellite polymorphism with ulcerative colitis in chinese patients

&NA; Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by chronic intestinal inflammation as a result of an exaggerated T cell response. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte associated antigen‐4 (CTLA‐4), expressed mainly in activated T cells, inhibits T cell activation and proliferation by combining B7 through competing CD28 and maintains immune homeostasis. Polymorphisms of the CTLA‐4 gene are known to be associated with several autoimmune diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the CTLA‐4 gene microsatellite polymorphism and UC in Chinese patients. Unrelated 100 Chinese patients with UC and 140 healthy controls were studied. The (AT) repeats in the 3′ untranslated region of exon 4 of the CTLA‐4 gene were amplified by allele‐specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The amplified products were electrophoresed on a 12% polyacrylamide gel, followed by silver staining. Twenty alleles were found in Chinese patients and healthy controls. The 122‐bp allele was increased in UC compared with healthy controls (9.5% vs 0.7%, P = 0.0001/Pc = 0.002, OR = 14.591, 95%CI 3.357–63.420). The frequency of the longer alleles (≥118 bp) of UC was higher than that in healthy controls (26% vs 4%, P = 0.0001/Pc = 0.0002, OR = 7.644, 95%CI 3.950–14.792), but was not associated with location and severity of the disease. Furthermore, the longer alleles were not associated with haplotypes of C‐318T/A+49G of the CTLA‐4 gene in Chinese patients with UC. The longer alleles of the CTLA‐4 gene microsatellite polymorphism were strongly associated with UC in Chinese patients.
Toxic Effects of Modified Fenton Reactions on Xanthobacter flavus FB71

ABSTRACT The toxic effects of modified Fenton reactions onXanthobacter flavus FB71, measured as microbial survival rates, were determined as part of an investigation of simultaneous abiotic and biotic oxidations of xenobiotic chemicals. A central composite, rotatable experimental design was developed to study the survival rates of X. flavus under various concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and iron(II) and at different initial cell populations. A model based on the experimental results, relating microorganism survival to the variables of peroxide, iron, and cellular concentrations was formulated and fit the data reasonably well, with a coefficient of determination of 0.76. The results of this study indicate that the use of simultaneous abiotic and biotic processes for the treatment of xenobiotic compounds may be possible.
Interleukin-8 Response in an Intestinal HCT-8 Cell Line Infected with Enteroaggregative and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT This study examined the interleukin-8 (IL-8) response of the intestinal adenocarcinoma HCT-8 cell line to infection with enteroaggregative and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli pathotypes isolated from patients with travelers' diarrhea. Individual diarrheagenic E. coli strains (enteroaggregative E. coli [EAEC]; n = 30), heat-stable enterotoxin (ST)-producing enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC ST; n = 11), heat-labile enterotoxin (LT)-producing enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC LT; n = 10), and ST- and LT-producing enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC ST:LT; n = 8) were coincubated with HCT-8 cells for 3 h. Tissue culture supernatants were assayed for IL-8 content by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Fifty percent of EAEC (72% of those EAEC carrying the virulence factors aggR, aggA, and aspU and 40% of those EAEC not carrying virulence factors) and 64% of ETEC ST elicited IL-8 production. In contrast, 10% of ETEC LT elicited the production of IL-8 above baseline. These results suggest that (i) the HCT-8 cell line infection model can be used as a tool to differentiate proinflammatory E. coli from noninflammatory isolates; (ii) EAEC has a heterogeneous ability to induce the production of IL-8, and this may be associated with the presence of virulence factors; and (iii) ETEC ST can elicit an inflammatory response and helps explain our earlier findings of increased fecal IL-8 in patients with ETEC diarrhea.
Effects of (un)employment on young couples’ health and life satisfaction

This study investigated effects of employed and unemployed job status on health outcomes with questionnaires in 50 young couples. Analysis of variance revealed higher pessimism, higher stress levels, and lower life satisfaction in couples in which one partner was unemployed. These couples also exhibited more health risk behaviours compared to couples in which both partners were working. The dyadic analysis of data, using an actor–partner interdependence model, demonstrated strong actor and partner effects for male partner's job status. Being unemployed was significantly associated not only with male partner's life satisfaction but also with the life satisfaction of his female partner. In addition, male partner's pessimism was identified as a significant variable which mediates between male partner's job status and female partner's life satisfaction. The study highlights the relevance of the accomplishment of tasks in the domains of work and partnership during young adulthood and it emphasises the gender specific importance.
OsPHR2 Is Involved in Phosphate-Starvation Signaling and Excessive Phosphate Accumulation in Shoots of Plants1[C][W][OA]

Previous research has demonstrated that AtPHR1 plays a central role in phosphate (Pi)-starvation signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. In this work, two OsPHR genes from rice (Oryza sativa) were isolated and designated as OsPHR1 and OsPHR2 based on amino acid sequence homology to AtPHR1. Their functions in Pi signaling in rice were investigated using transgenic plants. Our results showed that both OsPHR1 and OsPHR2 are involved in Pi-starvation signaling pathway by regulation of the expression of Pi-starvation-induced genes, whereas only OsPHR2 overexpression results in the excessive accumulation of Pi in shoots under Pi-sufficient conditions. Under Pi-sufficient conditions, overexpression of OsPHR2 mimics Pi-starvation stress in rice with enhanced root elongation and proliferated root hair growth, suggesting the involvement of OsPHR2 in Pi-dependent root architecture alteration by both systematic and local pathways. In OsPHR2-overexpression plants, some Pi transporters were up-regulated under Pi-sufficient conditions, which correlates with the strongly increased content of Pi. The mechanism behind the OsPHR2 regulated Pi accumulation will provide useful approaches to develop smart plants with high Pi efficiency.
Preservation of gelatin-based phantom material using vinegar and its life-span study for application in microwave imaging

Gelatin-based material can be used in phantom modeling for microwave imaging applications, but unfortunately, this type of phantom has a short life span. Formaldehyde has been used previously to preserve gelatin-based material, but it might be hazardous. This paper presents a life-span study for gelatin-based material that has been preserved by vinegar in different amounts, observed through the conducted dielectric measurement from 1 GHz to 6 GHz. The Debye parameters are derived to define a Debye relaxation model of the acid contents in a solution of water and vinegar. The study is then focused on dielectric trends prior to and after the addition of different amounts of vinegar into a gelatin-based material. The life-span study concentrates on changes in the sample's dielectric properties over a storage period of six weeks. The obtained findings in this study are useful to validate the suitability of vinegar to be used as preservative in gelatin-based material for microwave imaging purposes.
Robust Spatial Consistency Graph Model for Partial Duplicate Image Retrieval

Partial duplicate images often have large non-duplicate regions and small duplicate regions with random rotation, which lead to the following problems: 1) large number of noisy features from the non-duplicate regions; 2) small number of representative features from the duplicate regions; 3) randomly rotated or deformed duplicate regions. These problems challenge many content based image retrieval (CBIR) approaches, since most of them cannot distinguish the representative features from a large proportion of noisy features in a rotation invariant way. In this paper, we propose a rotation invariant partial duplicate image retrieval (PDIR) approach, which effectively and efficiently retrieves the partial duplicate images by accurately matching the representative SIFT features. Our method is based on the Combined-Orientation-Position (COP) consistency graph model, which consists of the following two parts: 1) The COP consistency, which is a rotation invariant measurement of the relative spatial consistency among the candidate matches of SIFT features; it uses a coarse-to-fine family of evenly sectored polar coordinate systems to softly quantize and combine the orientations and positions of the SIFT features. 2) The consistency graph model, which robustly rejects the spatially inconsistent noisy features by effectively detecting the group of candidate feature matches with the largest average COP consistency. Extensive experiments on five large scale image data sets show promising retrieval performances.
A Twisted Bundled Tube Locomotive Device Proposed for In-Pipe Mobile Robot

This paper presents a novel device that propagates through small pipes, named the twisted bundled tube locomotive device. The device consists of three elastic silicone rubber tubes that are twisted and bonded. When any tube is pressurized, it inflates, and the device deforms into a helix. If these tubes are sequentially pressurized, the device exhibits helical rotation, that is, it rotates about its body axis while retaining its helical shape. Thus, the device moves along the pipe axis. Since helical rotation is generated by bending motion alone, the device is highly airtight, and thus strongly resistant to the environment. Helical rotating motion does not scratch the inner wall of the pipe or block the flow in the pipe. The device can be made sufficiently small to travel through thin pipes, because of its simple structure. The device is very flexible and can pass through an elbow-pipe without requiring complicated control. Therefore, the device could be adopted in endoscopes used for pipe inspection. The propulsion principle and the theoretical velocity of the device are discussed and confirmed in prototypes. The manufacturing method for the prototype is also presented. The small prototype (approximate diameter 6 mm) travels at 45 mm/s in a 20-mm diameter pipe, and it passes through the elbow. Moreover, a prototype equipped with a camera can send images of the camera view as it moves the pipe.