Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Speed, adaptation, and stability of the response to light in cone photoreceptors: The functional role of Ca-dependent modulation of ligand sensitivity in cGMP-gated ion channels

The response of cone photoreceptors to light is stable and reproducible because of the exceptional regulation of the cascade of enzymatic reactions that link visual pigment (VP) excitation to the gating of cyclic GMP (cGMP)-gated ion channels (cyclic nucleotide–gated [CNG]) in the outer segment plasma membrane. Regulation is achieved in part through negative feedback control of some of these reactions by cytoplasmic free Ca2+. As part of the control process, Ca2+ regulates the phosphorylation of excited VP, the activity of guanylate cyclase, and the ligand sensitivity of the CNG ion channels. We measured photocurrents elicited by stimuli in the form of flashes, steps, and flashes superimposed on steps in voltage-clamped single bass cones isolated from striped bass retina. We also developed a computational model that comprises all the known molecular events of cone phototransduction, including all Ca-dependent controls. Constrained by available experimental data in bass cones and cone transduction biochemistry, we achieved an excellent match between experimental photocurrents and those simulated by the model. We used the model to explore the physiological role of CNG ion channel modulation. Control of CNG channel activity by both cGMP and Ca2+ causes the time course of the light-dependent currents to be faster than if only cGMP controlled their activity. Channel modulation also plays a critical role in the regulation of the light sensitivity and light adaptation of the cone photoresponse. In the absence of ion channel modulation, cone photocurrents would be unstable, oscillating during and at the offset of light stimuli.
2 7 N ov 2 00 3 On the Classification of Rational Knots

In this paper we give combinatorial proofs of the classification of unoriented and oriented rational knots based on the now known classification of alternating knots and the calculus of continued fractions. We also characterize the class of strongly invertible rational links. Rational links are of fundamental importance in the study of DNA recombination. AMS Subject Classification: 57M27
Design, modeling, and fabrication of piezoelectric polymer actuators

Piezoelectric polymers are a class of materials with great potential and promise for many applications. Because of their ideally suitable characteristics, they make good candidates for actuators. However, the difficulty of forming structures and shapes has limited the range of mechanical design. In this work, the design and fabrication of a unimorph piezoelectric cantilever actuator using piezoelectric polymer PVDF with an electroplated layer of nickel alloy has been described. The modeling and simulation of the composite cantilever with planar and microstructured surfaces has been performed by CoventorWare to optimize the design parameters in order to achieve large tip deflections. These simulation results indicated that a microstructured cantilever could produce 25 percent higher deflection compared to a simple planar cantilever surface. The tip deflection of the composite cantilever with a length of 6mm and a width of 1mm can reach up to 100μm. A PVDF polymer with a specifically designed shape was punched out along the elongation direction on the embossing machine at room temperature. The nickel alloy layer was electroplated on one side of the PVDF to form a composite cantilever. The tip deflection of the cantilever was observed and measured under an optical microscope. The experimental result is in agreement with the theoretical analysis.
Numerical identification of D and Q axis parameters for multi-layer buried PM synchronous motor considering cross-magnetization

Numerical methodology identifying the d-q axis parameters for interior buried PM synchronous motor (IPMSM) with multi-layered PM has been proposed. In addition, cross-magnetization between d-q axis in IPMSM with the magnetic saturation is investigated via the newly adopted synthetic flux linkage, which can be identified numerically and experimentally. Numerically identified synthetic flux linkages by finite element analysis(FEA) are validated with the experimental ones for the purposely-built prototype, and their further effectiveness on the application is proposed.
Comparative accuracy of renal duplex sonographic parameters in the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis: paired and unpaired analysis.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the test performance of duplex sonographic parameters in screening for hemodynamically significant renal artery stenosis, which occurs in approximately 5% of persons with hypertension. MATERIALS AND METHODS A comprehensive literature search was conducted to find studies on the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis in which duplex sonography and intraarterial angiography were compared and in which sensitivity and specificity were calculated. MEDLINE (1966-2005), EMBASE (1988-2005), and reference lists were searched and the authors contacted. Data were subjected to meta-analysis according to the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curve model. Heterogeneity in test performance relating to population and design features was investigated. RESULTS From 1,357 titles, 88 studies involving 9,974 arteries in 8,147 patients were included. The following four parameters were evaluated: peak systolic velocity (21 studies), acceleration time (13 studies), acceleration index (13 studies), and renal-aortic ratio (13 studies). The corresponding diagnostic odds ratios (ORs) were 60.9 (95% CI, 28.3-131.2), 28.9 (95% CI, 7.1-117.2), 16.0 (95% CI, 5.1-50.6), and 29.3 (95% CI, 12.7-67.7). Results based on studies in which parameters were directly compared showed that peak systolic velocity had greater accuracy than renal-aortic ratio (relative diagnostic OR, 1.8; p = 0.03; nine studies) and acceleration index (relative diagnostic OR, 5.3; p < 0.001; five studies). Acceleration time versus acceleration index showed no evidence of a difference in accuracy (relative diagnostic OR, 1.1; p = 0.65; nine studies). Analysis of peak systolic velocity used in combination with other parameters compared with peak systolic velocity alone (seven studies) showed evidence of a shift in test positivity (p < 0.001) but only weak evidence of improvement in accuracy (relative diagnostic OR, 1.6; p = 0.09). CONCLUSION Sonography is a moderately accurate screening test for renal artery stenosis. The single measurement, peak systolic velocity, has the highest performance characteristics, an expected sensitivity of 85% and specificity of 92%. Additional measurements do not increase accuracy.
The Use of U-books to Inform Delegates to a Conference

Delegates to a conference usually have enough information to allow them to choose the papers they wish to attend. However, some of them might profit from several presentations or orderings of schedules and data about the authors or presenters of the papers, for example including the presentation itself. Thus, U-books – unstructured books, where items are offered as sequences presented one after another to a reader, may provide an alternative. The items of the book include files containing descriptions of the event, the delegates and the papers, and information stored in databases about the same topics and others, such as schedules. Several sequences will present the information in different orderings and levels of detail. The restricted privileges component of the software can serve a delegate to select his areas of interest, thus limiting displays to papers which he might attend. Information about previous instances of the same event, as in previous years, may be integrated. Delegates, who might be given a copy of the software, can update their own copy of the book to include comments on papers they attended, or create a sequence of the Ubook with their planned schedule, which might subsequently serve as a memoir of their attendance to the conference. Two new features of the software, along with the previous ones, are described as elements of a system proposed to organize the materials or even as a planning tool, though usually conferences have their own systems for these tasks.
Intermedia: the concept and the construction of a seamless information environment

A description is given of Intermedia, a tool designed to support both teaching and research in a university environment. This multiapplication hypermedia system provides linking capabilities integrated into a desktop user environment. Hypermedia is simply an extension of hypertext that incorporates other media in addition to text. To promote consistency, the applications were built with an object-oriented framework. A sample Intermedia session is presented. <<ETX>>
Multilocal Creaseness Based on the Level-Set Extrinsic Curvature

Abstract Creases are a type of ridge/valley structures of an image characterized by local conditions. As creases tend to be at the center of anisotropic grey-level shapes, creaseness can be considered a measure of medialness, and therefore as useful in many image analysis problems. Among the several possibilities, a priori the creaseness based on the level-set extrinsic curvature (LSEC) is especially interesting due to its invariance properties. However, in practice, it produces a discontinuous response with a badly dynamic range. The same problems arise with other related creaseness measures proposed in the literature. In this paper, we argue that these problems are due to the very local definition of the LSEC. Therefore, rather than designing an ad hoc solution, we propose two new multilocal creaseness measures that we will show to be free of discontinuities and to have a meaningful dynamic range of response. Still, these measures are based on the LSEC idea, to preserve its invariance properties. We demonstrate the usefulness of the new creaseness measures in the context of two applications that we are currently developing in the field of 3D medical image analysis, the rigid registration of CT and MR head volumes and the orientation analysis of trabecular bone patterns.
Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Tirilazad in Experimental Stroke

Background and Purpose— Tirilazad is a candidate neuroprotective drug with reported efficacy in animal models of stroke that was, however, without benefit in clinical trials. This apparent contradiction might be explained if the animal studies were falsely positive, if the clinical trials were falsely negative, or if tirilazad was not tested under the same conditions in animal and clinical studies. Here we use systematic review and meta-analysis to describe the characteristics and limits to the neuroprotective action of tirilazad in animal models of stroke. Methods— Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies describing the efficacy of tirilazad in animal models of focal ischemia, in which outcome was measured as infarct volume and/or neurological score. Weighted mean difference random effects meta-analysis was used to measure overall efficacy in prespecified subgroups. Results— Eighteen studies describing outcome in 544 animals were identified. Study quality (median score, 5/10; interquartile range, 4 to 6) was similar to that seen in systematic reviews of other candidate neuroprotective drugs. Tirilazad reduced infarct volume by 29.2% (95% confidence interval 21.1% to 37.2%) and improved neurobehavioral score by 48.1% (95% confidence interval 29.3% to 66.9%). Conclusion— Tirilazad may have substantial efficacy in animal models of stroke, but this conclusion must be qualified because of the presence of potential sources of bias.
Database techniques for linked data management

Linked Data refers to data published in accordance with a number of principles rooted in web standards. In the past few years we have witnessed a tremendous growth in Linked Data publishing on the web, leading to tens of billions of data items published online. Querying the data is a key functionality required to make use of the wealth of rich interlinked data. The goal of the tutorial is to introduce, motivate, and detail techniques for querying heterogeneous structured data from across the web. Our tutorial aims to introduce database researchers and practitioners to the new publishing paradigm on the web, and show how the abundance of data published as Linked Data can serve as fertile ground for database research and experimentation. As such, the tutorial focuses on applying database techniques to processing Linked Data, such as optimized indexing and query processing methods in the centralized setting as well as distributed approaches for querying. At the same time, we make the connection from Linked Data best practices to established technologies in distributed databases and the concept of Dataspaces and show differences as well as commonalities between the fields.
Secure and Reliable MultiPath Transmission Scheme on Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASN) based on the advances in underwater data collection and observing systems may play an important role in oceanographic research. But many unique features of UASN pose challenge on development of reliable and secure data transport to overcome harsh aquatic communication conditions. In this paper, we use multi-path routing to address secure and reliable transmission issue named as SRMR. There are two contributions in the area of secure and reliable transmission control protocols for UASN: (1) Forward Error Correction (FEC) erasure coding employed in multi-path routing is used to guarantee reliable transmission resistant to frequent acoustic error; (2) Weighted Threshold Secret Sharing (WTSS) is used to guarantee secure transmission resistant to malicious attack, and one message is split into multiple shares and then delivers the message shares to the sink node via multiple independent paths instead of using single one path. Recent researches have addressed secure transmission or reliable transmission scheme but these two aspects are independent, therefore, to our knowledge, design a secure and reliable compatible routing scheme for UASN is the first research in publish. Therefore, our proposed SRMR scheme provides a novel approach to guarantee reliable and secure transmission in harsh acoustic communication channel. The results verified the performance of this proposed SRMR scheme through simulation, and the simulation confirms the result from analytical study.
Differences in cellular contractile protein contents among porcine smooth muscles: evidence for variation in the contractile system

Cellular myosin, actin, and tropomyosin contents and ratios were determined for arterial (carotid, aorta, and coronary), intestinal (circular and longitudinal), esophageal, uterine, and tracheal smooth muscles inthe pig. Tissue protein contents were estimated by densitometry of polyacrylamide gels after electrophoresis of sodium dodecyl sulfate-treated tissue homogenates. Cellular contractile protein contents were estimated by correction for extracellular spaces. Cellular myosin contents were similar in each tissue (average +/- 1 SEM = 19.6 +/- 0.8 mg/g cell wet wt). However, the cellular contents of the thin filament proteins, actin and tropomyosin, were significantly higher in the arteries than in the nonarterial tissues. The calculated weight ratios of actin: myosin averaged 2.6 +/- 0.2 in the three arterial tissues and 1.5 +/- 0.1 in the nonarterial tissues, which may be compared with 0.36 in vertebrate striated muscles. The actin:tropomyosin weight ratios for all tissues were 3.7 +/- 0.1, a value comparable to the skeletal muscle ratio. The physiological implications of variations in the cellular thin filament protein contents are unknown, but these variations probably contribute to the observed differences in contractile function among various smooth muscles.
Complex Coefficient Interpolation Based Channel Estimation for OFDM in Single-Frequency Networks

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system operating in single-frequency broadcasting networks (SFN), classical real-coefficient-based channel interpolation schemes are challenged by long-delay echoes. Based on the equivalence between frequency interpolating and time-domain windowing, conventional filter design methods are employed to develop a complex low pass interpolator enhancing the robustness of channel estimator against SFN long-delay echoes. The high-performance interpolator is verified in a simulated digital video broadcasting for terrestrial/handheld (DVB-T/H) receiver. The simulation results indicate that the designed channel estimator can handle the SFN echoes with more than 200 μs delay, which significantly outperforms conventional CE methods.
Coherence-based recovery guarantees for generalized basis-pursuit de-quantizing

This paper deals with the recovery of signals that admit an approximately sparse representation in some known dictionary (possibly over-complete) and are corrupted by additive noise. In particular, we consider additive measurement noise with bounded ℓ<sub>p</sub>-norm for p ≥ 2, and we minimize the ℓ<sub>q</sub> quasi-norm (with q ∈ (0, 1]) of the signal vector. We develop coherence-based recovery guarantees for which stable recovery via generalized basis-pursuit de-quantizing (BPDQ<sub>p,q</sub>) is possible. We finally show that depending on the measurement-noise model and the choice of the ℓ<sub>p</sub>-norm used in the constraint, (BPDQ<sub>p,q</sub>) significantly outperforms classical basis pursuit de-noising (BPDN).
A survey of security issues in hardware virtualization

Virtualization is a powerful technology for increasing the efficiency of computing services; however, besides its advantages, it also raises a number of security issues. In this article, we provide a thorough survey of those security issues in hardware virtualization. We focus on potential vulnerabilities and existing attacks on various virtualization platforms, but we also briefly sketch some possible countermeasures. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first survey of security issues in hardware virtualization with this level of details. Moreover, the adversary model and the structuring of the attack vectors are original contributions, never published before.
Exploratory assessment of performance of innovations in the evolving personal computer industry

This paper studies the evolution of the PC (personal computer) technological system by focusing on the divide between the progressive system member, at the systempsilas performance frontier, and one which is trailing behind this advancing line and hindering potential growth, referred to as the reverse salient. We develop a performance-gap measure of reverse salience and apply it in an empirical study considering the delivery of overall computational performance of the PC system with respect to game play. Furthermore, we explore the relationship between the performance of innovated products and the magnitude of reverse salience. Our results show that the technological performance of the PC game sub-system trails that of the CPU (central processing unit) sub-system at any point in time, between 1996 and 2006, inclusively. The temporal behavior of reverse salience demonstrates a gradually decreasing trend in recent years, suggesting a diminishing technological disparity between the sub-systems. Our paper additionally shows that the magnitudes of technological disparity between co-evolving components do not correspond to product performances.
Dependability Differentiation in Cloud Services

As cloud computing is becoming more mature and pervasive, almost all types of services are being deployed in clouds. This has also widened the spectrum of cloud users which encompasses from domestic users to large companies. One of the main concerns of large companies outsourcing their IT functions to clouds is the availability of their functions. On the other hand, availability requirements for domestic users are not very strict. This requires the cloud service providers to guarantee different dependability levels for different users and services. This thesis is based upon this requirement of dependability differentiation of cloud services depending upon the nature of services and target users. In this thesis, different types of services are identified and grouped together both according to their deployment nature and their target users. Also a range of techniques for guaranteeing dependability in the cloud environment are identified and classified. In order to quantify dependability provided by different techniques, a cloud system is modeled. Two different levels of dependability differentiation are considered, namely; differentiation depending upon the state of standby replica and differentiation depending upon the spatial separation of active and standby replicas. These two levels are separately modeled by using Markov state diagrams and reliability block diagrams respectively. Due to the limitations imposed by Markov models, the former differentiation level is also studied by using a simulation. Finally, numerical analysis is conducted and different techniques are compared. Also the best technique for each user and service class is identified depending upon the results obtained. The most crucial components for guaranteeing dependability in cloud environment are also identified. This will direct the future prospects of study and also provide an idea to cloud service providers about the cloud components that are worth investing in, for enhancing service availability.
Adaptive cancellation technique in processing myoelectric activity of respiratory muscles

The adaptive noise cancellation technique was used to reduce the interfering cardiac activity from the recorded myoelectric activity. The adaptive noise canceler implemented in a transversal structure was found to successfully reduce the corrupting cardiac activity. A description is presented of the cancellation of the corrupting cardiac activity from the recorded myoelectric activity using an adaptive noise cancellation technique and the characteristic features of spectra of EMG (electromyographic) signals. <<ETX>>
Learn more, sample less: control of volume and variance in network measurement

This paper deals with sampling objects from a large stream. Each object possesses a size, and the aim is to be able to estimate the total size of an arbitrary subset of objects whose composition is not known at the time of sampling. This problem is motivated from network measurements in which the objects are flow records exported by routers and the sizes are the number of packet or bytes reported in the record. Subsets of interest could be flows from a certain customer or flows from a worm attack. This paper introduces threshold sampling as a sampling scheme that optimally controls the expected volume of samples and the variance of estimators over any classification of flows. It provides algorithms for dynamic control of sample volumes and evaluates them on flow data gathered from a commercial Internet Protocol (IP) network. The algorithms are simple to implement and robust to variation in network conditions. The work reported here has been applied in the measurement infrastructure of the commercial IP network. To not have employed sampling would have entailed an order of magnitude greater capital expenditure to accommodate the measurement traffic and its processing.