Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimation de densités non paramétriques et multimodales par permutation de sous-particules. Application au suivi d'un ou de plusieurs objets synthétiques articulés

In this paper, we propose an original approach for sequential non-parametric density estimation defined in high-dimensional state spaces using the particle filtering framework. By exploiting conditional independences in the state space, we propose to swap independent subparticle sets to generate new sets that better sample this space. We integrate this approach into two versions of particle filter, i.e., partition sampling and annealed particle filter, to prove its efficiency. We compare it to classical approaches on synthetic articulated object density estimation problems, and show our approach reduces both estimation errors and computation times. MOTS-CLÉS : approximation de densité, filtrage particulaire, réseaux bayésiens.
Casein Kinase 1 Regulates Sterol Regulatory Element-binding Protein (SREBP) to Control Sterol Homeostasis*

Background: SREBP transcription factor controls sterol homeostasis. Results: Fission yeast casein kinase 1 (CK1) binds and accelerates degradation of active SREBP, inhibiting expression of target genes and decreasing ergosterol. Conclusion: CK1 controls nuclear SREBP stability to regulate sterol homeostasis in fission yeast. Significance: CK1 is the first kinase shown to regulate fungal SREBP and functions in the control of SREBP and sterol homeostasis. Sterol homeostasis is tightly controlled by the sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) transcription factor that is highly conserved from fungi to mammals. In fission yeast, SREBP functions in an oxygen-sensing pathway to promote adaptation to decreased oxygen supply that limits oxygen-dependent sterol synthesis. Low oxygen stimulates proteolytic cleavage of the SREBP homolog Sre1, generating the active transcription factor Sre1N that drives expression of sterol biosynthetic enzymes. In addition, low oxygen increases the stability and DNA binding activity of Sre1N. To identify additional signals controlling Sre1 activity, we conducted a genetic overexpression screen. Here, we describe our isolation and characterization of the casein kinase 1 family member Hhp2 as a novel regulator of Sre1N. Deletion of Hhp2 increases Sre1N protein stability and ergosterol levels in the presence of oxygen. Hhp2-dependent Sre1N degradation by the proteasome requires Hhp2 kinase activity, and Hhp2 binds and phosphorylates Sre1N at specific residues. Our results describe a role for casein kinase 1 as a direct regulator of sterol homeostasis. Given the role of mammalian Hhp2 homologs, casein kinase 1δ and 1ϵ, in regulation of the circadian clock, these findings may provide a mechanism for coordinating circadian rhythm and lipid metabolism.
Advanced generation anti‐prostate specific membrane antigen designer T Cells for prostate cancer immunotherapy

Adoptive immunotherapy by infusion of designer T cells (dTc) engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for tumoricidal activity represents a potentially highly specific modality for the treatment of cancer. In this study, 2nd generation (gen) anti‐prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) dTc were developed for improving the efficacy of previously developed 1st gen dTc for prostate cancer immunotherapy. The 1st gen dTc are modified with chimeric immunoglobulin‐T cell receptor (IgTCR) while the 2nd gen dTc are engineered with an immunoglobulin‐CD28‐T cell receptor (IgCD28TCR), which incorporates a CD28 costimulatory signal for optimal T cell activation.
Memory interference characterization between CPU cores and integrated GPUs in mixed-criticality platforms

Most of today's mixed criticality platforms feature Systems on Chip (SoC) where a multi-core CPU complex (the host) competes with an integrated Graphic Processor Unit (iGPU, the device) for accessing central memory. The multi-core host and the iGPU share the same memory controller, which has to arbitrate data access to both clients through often undisclosed or non-priority driven mechanisms. Such aspect becomes critical when the iGPU is a high performance massively parallel computing complex potentially able to saturate the available DRAM bandwidth of the considered SoC. The contribution of this paper is to qualitatively analyze and characterize the conflicts due to parallel accesses to main memory by both CPU cores and iGPU, so to motivate the need of novel paradigms for memory centric scheduling mechanisms. We analyzed different well known and commercially available platforms in order to estimate variations in throughput and latencies within various memory access patterns, both at host and device side.
Mitonuclear discordance in genetic structure across the Atlantic/Indian Ocean biogeographical transition zone

Based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data, many organisms with ranges spanning multiple biogeographical regions exhibit genetic structure across the transition zones between these regions, while others appear to be genetically homogenous. No clear link has been found between the presence or absence of such spatial genetic discontinuities and species' dispersal potential, confounding the formulation of general predictions concerning genetic structure. The fact that discrepancies between mtDNA and nuclear markers are common across semi‐permeable barriers suggests that a lack of structure could be attributable to mtDNA‐specific properties of inheritance. We re‐examined genetic structure in the coastal crab Hymenosoma orbiculare, a species that is represented by a single mtDNA lineage across the Atlantic/Indian Ocean biogeographical transition zone, by comparing mtDNA data with nuclear DNA data.
Anti-V 3 Humanized Antibody KD-247 Effectively Suppresses Ex Vivo Generation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and Affords Sterile Protection of Monkeys against a Heterologous Simian / Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

Anti-V3 Humanized Antibody KD-247 Effectively Suppresses Ex Vivo Generation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 and Affords Sterile Protection of Monkeys against a Heterologous Simian/Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Yasuyuki Eda, Toshio Murakami, Yasushi Ami, Tadashi Nakasone, Mari Takizawa, Kenji Someya, Masahiko Kaizu, Yasuyuki Izumi, Naoto Yoshino, Shuzo Matsushita, Hirofumi Higuchi, Hajime Matsui, Katsuaki Shinohara, Hiroaki Takeuchi, Yoshio Koyanagi, Naoki Yamamoto, and Mitsuo Honda* The Chemo-Sero-Therapeutic Research Institute, Kyokushi, Kikuchi, Kumamoto 869-1298, Japan; Division of Experimental Animal Research, AIDS Research Center, and Division of Biosafety Control, Department of Safety Research on Biologics, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan; Center for AIDS Research, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-0811, Japan; and Institute of Viral Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan
Acoustic head orientation estimation applied to powered wheelchair control

In this paper, we propose an acoustic-based head orientation estimation method using a microphone array mounted on a wheelchair, and apply it to a novel interface for controlling a powered wheelchair. The proposed interface does not require disabled people to wear any microphones or utter recognizable voice commands. By mounting the microphone array system on the wheelchair, our system can easily distinguish user utterances from other voices without using a speaker identification technique. The proposed interface is also robust to interference from surrounding noise. From the experimental results, we confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.
Trehalose improves traumatic brain injury-induced cognitive impairment

Traumatic brain Injury (TBI) is a significant cause of death and long-term disability for which there are currently no effective pharmacological treatment options. In this study then, we utilized a mouse model of TBI to assess the therapeutic potential of the stable disaccharide trehalose, which is known to protect against oxidative stress, increase levels of chaperone molecules and enhance autophagy. Furthermore, trehalose has demonstrated neuroprotective properties in numerous animal models and has been proposed as a potential treatment for neurodegeneration. As TBI (and associated neurodegenerative disorders) is complicated by a sudden and dramatic change in brain metal concentrations, including iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), the collective accumulation and translocation of which has been hypothesized to contribute to the pathogenesis of TBI, then we also sought to determine whether trehalose modulated the metal dyshomeostasis associated with TBI. In this study three-month-old C57Bl/6 wildtype mice received a controlled cortical impact TBI, and were subsequently treated for one month with trehalose. During this time animals were assessed on multiple behavioral tasks prior to tissue collection. Results showed an overall significant improvement in the Morris water maze, Y-maze and open field behavioral tests in trehalose-treated mice when compared to controls. These functional benefits occurred in the absence of any change in lesion volume or any significant modulation of biometals, as assessed by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Western blot analysis, however, revealed an upregulation of synaptophysin, doublecortin and brain derived neurotrophic factor protein in trehalose treated mice in the contralateral cortex. These results indicate that trehalose may be efficacious in improving functional outcomes following TBI by a previously undescribed mechanism of action that has relevance to multiple disorders of the central nervous system.
Effects of Dietary Onion (Allium cepa L.) in a High-Fat Diet Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes Rodent Model

Background/Aims: The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of two dietary doses of freeze-dried onion powder on diabetes-related symptoms in a high-fat (HF) diet streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes rat model. Methods: Five-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a HF diet for 2 weeks and then randomly divided into 4 groups as follows: HF control (HFC), diabetic control (DBC), onion low (ONL; 0.5%) and onion high (ONH; 2.0%). Diabetes was induced by an intraperitoneal injection of STZ (40 mg/kg body weight) in all groups except the HFC group. Results: After 4 weeks on the experimental diets, fasting blood glucose levels for both onion-fed groups were higher than in the DBC and HFC groups, albeit only significantly so (p < 0.05) in the ONL group. Serum insulin concentrations and insulin resistance were dose-dependently increased (however, not significantly so) in the onion-fed groups compared to the DBC group. Pancreatic β-cell function and liver glycogen concentrations were nonsignificantly higher in the DBC and ONH groups compared to the ONL group. Additionally, the ONH group had significantly higher lipid concentrations (except for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) compared to all other groups. The ONL group showed a similar hyperlipidemic trend, however to a lesser extent, with only triglycerides significantly differing from those of the DBC and HFC groups. Conclusion: The results suggest that the HF onion diet may increase insulin secretion and consequently insulin resistance in a dose-dependent manner, resulting in a worsened hyperglycemic and hyperlipidemic diabetic state. We conclude that higher dietary fat may impair the antidiabetic effects of dietary onion intake as has been previously reported.
Ultra-wideband Circularly Polarized Wide-slot Antenna Fed by Three-stub Hybrid Coupler

In this paper, a three-stub hybrid coupler fed circularly polarized wide-slot antenna is presented and studied for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. The proposed antenna is composed of a pair of orthogonally positioned radiating slots and a three-stub hybrid coupler which is used as the feeding network to excite the orthogonal slots in quadrature phase. The antenna is investigated experimentally in frequency domain in terms of impedance matching, gain, axial ratio, radiation patterns, and group delay, as well as in time domain in terms of pulse waveform and fidelity. The results show that the proposed antenna features desirable performance over 2.8-5.2 GHz, which is in particular suitable for lower UWB band (3.1-5.0 GHz) applications.
Research on reliability enhancement testing for single-phase smart meter

Single-phase smart meter as a key part of State Grid, the reliability of it has already become a problem not allow of being neglected. In this paper, a reliability enhancement testing method on single-phase smart meters is developed. The main sensitive stress and the weak parts which influence the reliability of single-phase smart meter have been discussed based on the result of historical date analysis and FMEA. Then according to the theory of reliability enhancement testing and the technique characteristics of a certain single-phase smart meter, a testing scheme of high temperature reliability enhancement testing for single-phase smart meter was designed and carried out. The test results show that this reliability enhancement testing for single-phase smart meter has a better effect on exposing the failure modes under sensitive and making sure the operating limit and destruct limit, which can provide a basis for determining the safe range of the later accelerated life testing and also can established the foundation for further research on reliability testing of smart meters.
Uncover the Underlying Mechanism of Drug-Induced Myopathy by Using Systems Biology Approaches

Drug-induced myopathy (DIM) is a rare side effect; however, the consequence could be fatal. There are few reports to systematically assess the underlying mechanism of DIM. In this study, we curated the comprehensive DIM drug list based on structured labeling products (SPLs) and carried out the analysis based on chemical structure space, drug protein interaction, side effect space, and transcriptomic profiling space. Some key features are enriched from each of analysis. Specifically, the similarity of DIM drugs is more significant than random chance, which shows that the chemical structure could distinguish the DIM-positive drugs from negatives. The cytochrome P450 (CYP) was identified to be shared by DIM drugs, which indicated the important role of metabolism in DIM. Three pathways including pathways in cancer, MAPK signaling pathway, and GnRH signaling pathway enriched based on transcriptomic analysis may explain the underlying mechanism of DIM. Although the DIM is the current focus of the study, the proposed approaches could be applied to other toxicity assessments and facilitate the safety evaluation.
These are a few of my favorite things

> Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens > > Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens > > Brown paper packages tied up in strings > > These are a few of my favorite things. – Rogers and Hammerstein, 1959 The musical, “The Sound of Music”, opened on Broadway in 1959. The music for the show was written by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein. I know my fellows will find it hard to believe, but I didn't actually attend the Broadway premier in 1959. However, the musical was adapted to film media in 1965 which I do vividly remember. The film starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. One of the most memorable songs in …
Growth of Immigrant Chinese Infants in the First Year of Life

Purpose To understand the growth patterns of Chinese-American infants from birth to 1 year old. Methods Retrospective cohort design comparing the growth patterns of 163 Chinese infants living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and 158 Chinese infants living in Taipei, Taiwan. All infants were born at full-term, without major medical illnesses. Results Chinese-American infants were significantly heavier and longer than Taiwanese infants for all age groups and for both genders. Chinese-American infants were born at average weights, rose to the 70th to 80th percentile between 2 and 6 months, and declined to the 50th percentile or less at 9 to 12 months (when measured by American growth charts). When these infants’ lengths and weights are plotted on Taiwan’s growth curves, no such fluctuations were seen. Clinical Implications Our findings suggest that rapid weight gain in Chinese-American infants in the first 6 months after birth can be expected, and may then lessen. By the first year, on average, these infants’ weights will be <50th percentile using the American National Center for Health Statistics growth standard. These findings can reassure health providers and help them to provide sound nutritional recommendations and counseling to parents.
Eosen yaşlı Seydiler formasyonunun (Kastamonu, KB Türkiye) planktonik foraminifer, kalkerli nannoplankton biyostratigrafisi, ostrakod topluluğu ve eskiortam yorumu

Bu calismada; Kastamonu ili kuzeyinde, Seydiler ve Agli ilceleri ile Imranlar koyu arasinda yuzeylenen Seydiler formasyonundan derlenen orneklerden Bartoniyen-Priaboniyen zaman araligini temsil eden Truncorotaloides rohri, Globigerinatheka semiinvoluta ve Turborotalia cerroazulensis s.l. planktonik foraminifer zonlari ile Reticulofenestra umbilica ve Discoaster barbadiensis kalkerli nannoplankton zonlari tanimlanmistir.Orneklerdeki planktonik/bentonik foraminifer oranlarinin dagilimlari ve ostrakod topluluklari birlikte degerlendirildiginde, inceleme alaninda Bartoniyen-Priaboniyen zaman araliginda yoredeki denizin genel olarak once transgresif, Priaboniyen sonunda ise regresif karakterde oldugu belirlenmistir. Isiya karsi duyarli kalkerlinannoplankton turlerinin bolluk dagilimlari (%) degerlendirildiginde, Bartoniyen-Priaboniyen zaman araliginda yorede deniz yuzey suyunun genel olarak iliman-sicak karakterde oldugu, bazi seviyelerde zaman zaman iliman-serin ve iliman-sicak fazlarin birbirlerini izledikleri, dolayisiyla bu donemde yorede zaman zamansoguk su akintilarinin etkin oldugu belirlenmistir
Irradiation Effects on Phase-Separation Performance Using a Centrifugal Contactor in a Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction Process

A test program has been conducted to determine the extent to which irradiation of a calixarene-based cesium extractant affects-separation of the organic (solvent) phase from aqueous solutions with which it is contacted in a prototype extraction flowsheet. A caustic-side solvent extraction process, known as CSSX, has been developed for the selective removal of cesium from wastes generated by the processing of irradiated nuclear reactor fuels. This process consists of a cascade of mass transfer stages in which cesium is transferred from an aqueous feed into the CSSX extractant (BOBCalixC6), the extract is scrubbed with 0.05 M nitric acid to remove coextracted elements, and the solvated cesium is stripped (or back-extracted) into 0.001 M HNO{sub 3}. Removal of cesium from stored waste supernatants is desirable as a means of segregating high-activity cesium-137 ({sup 137}Cs) from the solution, thereby reducing the volume of material that must be processed and disposed of as high-level waste. The CSSX process is one of three cesium removal technologies currently being considered for deployment for treatment of wastes that are stored at the U. S. Department of Energy's (USDOE's) Savannah River Site (SRS). The irradiation tests described in this report were designed to simulate the effect of 2 years of continuous solvent irradiation under conditions present in the stripping and extraction sections of the CSSX cascade. Stated simply, the irradiation tests consisted of continuously mixing an aqueous process solution (either simulated SRS waste supernatant or dilute nitric acid) with the CSSX solvent. The aqueous solutions used in testing were spiked with {sup 137}Cs at known activity levels. Test durations were determined based on the activity levels in the experiment and the estimated solvent exposures to radionuclides in a full-scale CSSX facility.
Prognostic Modeling with Logistic Regression Analysis

Clinical decision making often requires estimates of the likelihood of a dichotomous outcome in individual patients. When empirical data are available, these estimates may well be obtained from a logistic regression model. Several strategies may be followed in the development of such a model. In this study, the authors compare alternative strategies in 23 small subsamples from a large data set of patients with an acute myocardial infarction, where they developed predictive models for 30-day mortality. Evaluations were performed in an independent part of the data set. Specifically, the authors studied the effect of coding of covariables and stepwise selection on discriminative ability of the resulting model, and the effect of statistical “shrinkage” techniques on calibration. As expected, dichotomization of continuous covariables implied a loss of information. Remarkably, stepwise selection resulted in less discriminating models compared to full models including all available covariables, even when more than half of these were randomly associated with the outcome. Using qualitative information on the sign of the effect of predictors slightly improved the predictive ability. Calibration improved when shrinkage was applied on the standard maximum likelihood estimates of the regression coefficients. In conclusion, a sensible strategy in small data sets is to apply shrinkage methods in full models that include well-coded predictors that are selected based on external information.
Simple reversible watermarking schemes: further results

This paper continues the researches on a recently proposed reversible watermarking approach based on an integer transform defined for pairs of pixels. The transform is invertible and, besides, for some pairs of pixels, the original values are recovered even if the LSBs of the transformed pixels are overwritten. Two watermarking schemes, a simple one and a modified version, have been developed to embed watermarks into image LSB plane without any other data compression. At detection, original image is exactly recovered by using a simple map which keeps track of the transformed pairs and the LSBs of the unchanged pairs of pixels. The main contribution of this paper is the generalization of the transform for groups of n pixels, where n ⩾ 2. Transforming groups larger than 2 pixels, the size of the map decreases and thus, the hiding capacity of the scheme can increase. In this general context, it appears that the behavior of the transform depends on the parity of n i.e., n even is more appropriate for reversible watermarking. It is also shown that, for n ⩾ 4 the simple scheme and the modified one give very similar data hiding capacity, i.e., the same performance is obtained at a lower computational cost.