Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular cloning and characterization of the Xenopus hypoxia‐inducible factor 1α (xHIF1α)

We report the molecular cloning and the characterization of the Xenopus homolog of mammalian hypoxia‐inducible factor 1α (HIF1α), a member of the bHLH/PAS transcription factor family. Searches in Xenopus genome sequences and phylogenetic analysis reveal the existence of HIF1α and HIF2α paralogs in the Xenopus laevis species. Sequence data analyses indicate that the organization of protein domains in Xenopus HIF1α (xHIF1α) is strongly conserved. We also show that xHIF1α heterodimerizes with the Xenopus Arnt1 protein (xArnt1) with the proteic complex being mediated by the HLH and PAS domains. Subcellular analysis in a Xenopus XTC cell line using chimeric GFP constructs show that over‐expression of xHIF1α and xArnt1 allows us to detect the xHIF1α/xArnt1 complex in the nucleus, but only in the presence of both partners. Further analyses in XTC cell line show that over‐producing xHIF1α and xArnt1 mediates trans‐activation of the hypoxia response element (HRE) reporter. The trans‐activation level can be increased in hypoxia conditions. Interestingly such trans‐activation properties can be also observed when human Arnt1 is used together with the xHIF1α. J. Cell. Biochem. 102: 1542–1552, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Vitamin A induced homeotic hindlimb formation on dorsal and ventral sides of regenerating tissue of amputated tails of Japanese brown frog tadpoles

When anuran tadpoles are treated with vitamin A after tail amputation, hindlimb‐like structures can be generated instead of the lost tail part at the amputation site. This homeotic transformation was initially expected to be a key to understanding the body plan of vertebrates. Unfortunately, homeotic limb formation has been reproduced in only some Indian frog species and a European species, but not in experimental anurans such as Xenopus laevis or Rana catesbeiana. Consequently, this fascinating phenomenon has not been well analyzed, especially at the molecular level. In addition, the initial processes of ectopic limb development are also unclear because morphological changes in the early phases have not been analyzed in detail. In this study, we report the induction of homeotic transformation using Japanese brown frogs and present a detailed morphological analysis. Unexpectedly, the ectopic limbs developed not only at the ventral sites, but also at the dorsal sites of the tail regenerates of vitamin A‐treated tadpoles. The relationship between position and axial orientation of ectopic limbs suggested the double duplication of positional value order along the rostral‐caudal axis and the dorsal‐ventral axis of the tail regenerates.
CARBIDE BONDED GRAPHENE COATING ON SILICON MOLD FOR PRECISION GLASS MOLDING

The severe adhesion between silicon and glass has limited its application as mold material in precision glass molding. In this paper, a novel coating approach to create non-stick silicon mold for glass molding was introduced by using carbide-bonded graphene, a two dimensional material with a patterned atomic structure. A graphene coated silicon mold was fabricated using a coating process developed in house. Characterizations of coating reveal extraordinary mechanical properties. A glass sample with micro wells was successfully fabricated using a graphene coated silicon mold. This research demonstrated the functionality of the graphene coating. This newly developed process enables the use of silicon as mold material to fabricated sophisticated structures and high precision dimensions on glass which were not previously available. The result from this study will greatly improve precision glass molding.
Post-translational Modifications of Arabinogalactan-peptides of Arabidopsis thaliana

We have developed a method for separating the deglycosylated protein/peptide backbones of the small arabinogalactan (AG)-peptides from the larger classical arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs). AGPs are an important class of plant proteoglycans implicated in plant growth and development. Separation of AG-peptides enabled us to identify eight of 12 AG-peptides from Arabidopsis thaliana predicted from genomic sequences. Of the remaining four, two have low abundance based on expressed sequence tag databases and the other two are only present in pollen (At3g20865) or flowers (At3g57690) and therefore would not be detected in our analysis. Characterization of AG-peptides was performed using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry and tandem mass spectrometry protein sequencing. These data provide (i) experimental evidence that AG-peptides are processed in vivo for the addition of a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor, (ii) cleavage site information for both the endoplasmic reticulum secretion signal and the GPI-anchor signal for eight of the 12 AG-peptides, and (iii) experimental evidence that the Gly-Pro motif is hydroxylated in vivo. Furthermore, we show that AtAGP16 is GPI-anchored despite its unusually long hydrophobic C-terminal GPI-signal sequence. Prior to this work, the GPI-anchor cleavage site for only two plant proteins, NaAGP1 from Nicotiana alata and PcAGP1 from Pyrus communis, had been determined experimentally. Characterization of the post-translational modifications of AG-peptides contributes toward obtaining the complete primary structure of this class of biologically important plant proteoglycans and provides a greater understanding of post-translational modifications of plant proteins.
A New Upper Bound on the Achievable Rate of Relay Channel With MIP-QF Strategy

Recently, a new mutual information preserving quantize-and-forward (MIP-QF) is proposed for the half-duplex relay channel, where the relay node does not need to decode the source signal correctly. In this paper, a new MIP-QF upper bound on the achievable rate of the half-duplex relay channel is proposed, which is shown to be lying between the compress-and-forward (CF) bound and the cut-set bound. For the half-duplex additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) relay channel, the specific MIP-QF bound and the optimal duplex ratios of the MIP-QF upper bound and the MMSE-CF bound are also derived. In addition, we also show that the decode-and-forward (DF) bound can exceed the MIP-QF bound in some special cases that the relay is close to the source and far away from the destination. The validity and accuracy of the proposed theoretical results are verified by numerical results under the half-duplex AWGN relay channel.
The effects of a novel histamine-3 receptor inverse agonist on essential tremor in comparison to stable levels of alcohol

Essential tremor (ET) is a common movement disorder. Animal studies show that histaminergic modulation may affect the pathological processes involved in the generation of ET. Histamine-3 receptor inverse agonists (H3RIA) have demonstrated attenuating effects on ET in the harmaline rat model. In this double-blind, three-way cross-over, single-dose, double-dummy study the effects of 25 mg of a novel H3RIA (MK-0249) and a stable alcohol level (0.6 g L−1) were compared with placebo, in 18 patients with ET. Tremor was evaluated using laboratory tremorography, portable tremorography and a clinical rating scale. The Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire (LSEQ) and a choice reaction time (CRT) test were performed to evaluate potential effects on sleep and attention, respectively. A steady state of alcohol significantly diminished tremor as assessed by laboratory tremorography, portable tremorography and clinical ratings compared with placebo. A high single MK-0249 dose was not effective in reducing tremor, but caused significant effects on the LSEQ and the CRT test. These results suggest that treatment with a single dose of MK-0249 does not improve tremor in alcohol-responsive patients with ET, whereas stable levels of alcohol as a positive control reproduced the commonly reported tremor-diminishing effects of alcohol.
Contents distribution system based on MPEG-4 ISMACryp in IP set-top box environments

DRM is a technique for preventing an illegal use of digital contents such as streaming media. ISMA 1.0 is a standard for implementing MPEG-4 streaming media in the Internet, while ISMACryp 1.0 adds cryptographic mechanisms for enabling DRM to the ISMA standard. Since ISMACryp 1.0 satisfies requirements for Internet streaming and copyright protection, it is appropriate for playing DRM-enabled digital contents on the Internet. The digital contents to which ISMACryp 1.0 is applied can be replayed both in the IP set-top box and personal computer. The IP set-top box is a device that is subsidiary to television for various broadcasting services, and is expected as an essential element in a home networking environments. Nowadays, it is a trend to make the IP set-top box as a multi purpose device that is vary similar to personal computer. We could also prospect that the IP set-top box replaces the personal computer as a major client system for streaming services. We design and implement the secure DRM client system for playing ISMACryp-enabled digital contents. Especially, we develop the lightweight SecureDB and SecureDB Daemon for protecting sensitive information such as cryptographic keys. We also apply them to the commercialized embedded Linux IP set-top box for enabling the secure contents distribution system.
A general fuzzy TOPSIS based on new fuzzy positive and negative ideal solution

This paper presents a fuzzy multiple criteria group decision-making (FMCGDM) problem with the Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) based on the new concept of positive and negative ideal solution. Triangular fuzzy numbers (TFN) among decision-making process are used to evaluate the weighted different alternatives versus various. Additionally, in this paper we compared this algorithm with three algorithms, obtained interesting result and showed this result in two tables. This result indicates that our method is better than other algorithms.
Nonlinear dimensionality reduction for motion synthesis and control

Synthesising motion of human character animations or humanoid robots is vastly complicated by the large number of degrees of freedom in their kinematics. Control spaces become so large, that automated methods designed to adaptively generate movements become computationally infeasible or fail to find acceptable solutions. In this thesis we investigate how demonstrations of previously successful movements can be used to inform the production of new movements that are adapted to new situations. In particular, we evaluate the use of nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques to find compact representations of demonstrations, and investigate how these can simplify the synthesis of new movements. Our focus lies on the Gaussian Process Latent Variable Model (GPLVM), because it has proven to capture the nonlinearities present in the kinematics of robots and humans. We present an in-depth analysis of the underlying theory which results in an alternative approach to initialise the GPLVM based on Multidimensional Scaling. We show that the new initialisation is better suited than PCA for nonlinear, synthetic data, but have to note that its advantage shrinks on motion data. Subsequently we show that the incorporation of additional structure constraints leads to low-dimensional representations which are sufficiently regular so that once learned dynamic movement primitives can be adapted to new situations without need for relearning. Finally, we demonstrate in a number of experiments where movements are generated for bimanual reaching, that, through the use of nonlinear dimensionality reduction, reinforcement learning can be scaled up to optimise humanoid movements.
Simulations of Local Scour Around a Cylindrical Bridge Pier And a Semicircular Abutment Using Unsteady Model Combined with -Grid

Received: February 02, 2017 Revised: March 13, 2017 Accepted: May 19, 2017 Abstract: Introduction: Bridge scour is one of the major causes of bridge failure. Prediction of the maximum depth and shape of local scour plays an important role in bridge design and maintenance. In this paper, k-ε turbulent model combined with wall function was employed and complex flow fields are exhibited. The bed load transport model summarized by Qian and Wan [1] was applied to evaluate the development of local scour. Besides, σ-grid module was developed and embedded into the commercial solver FLUENT to fit the change of channel-bed.
Performance of array signal processing algorithms for wideband digital wireless communication

We consider several array signal processing architectures equipped with different training approaches and evaluate their performance in high-speed digital wireless transmission by way of computer simulation. The array architectures considered are: space-only, delay-combine, and multi-stage space-time. The training approaches considered include max-SINR, LS (least-squares) with channel estimation, and LS without channel estimation. These arrays are simpler than the full space-time architecture at the cost of a lower error-rate performance.
PI3K signaling effects in hypothalamic neurons mediated by estrogen

Multiple mechanisms mediate the effects of estrogen in the central nervous system, including signal transduction pathways such as protein kinase A, protein kinase C, and phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K) pathways. Previously we demonstrated that estrogen regulates a number of PI3K‐related genes in the hypothalamus, including the PI3K p55γ regulatory subunit. We hypothesized that PI3K activation is critical for the effects of estrogen and that the p55γ subunit may be more prevalent than the p85α regulatory subunit in the hypothalamus. Therefore, in the present study, we compared the mRNA distribution of the p55γ and p85α regulatory subunits by using in situ hybridization in guinea pig. Expression level of p55γ mRNA was greater than p85α in most hypothalamic nuclei. Twenty‐four hours of estrogen treatment increased p55γ mRNA expression in the paraventricular, suprachiasmatic, arcuate, and ventromedial nuclei, and little or no change was observed for p85α mRNA. Quantitative real‐time PCR confirmed the in situ hybridization results. Next, we investigated the general role of PI3K signaling in the estrogen‐mediated changes of arcuate proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neuronal excitability by using whole‐cell recording. One cellular mechanism by which estrogen increases neuronal excitability is to desensitize (uncouple) γ‐aminobutyric acid type B (GABAB) receptors from their G‐protein‐gated inwardly rectifying K+ channels in hypothalamic neurons. We found that the PI3K inhibitors wortmannin and LY294002 significantly reduced the estrogen‐mediated GABAB receptor desensitization in POMC arcuate neurons, suggesting that PI3K signaling is a critical downstream mediator of the estrogen‐mediated rapid effects. Collectively, these data suggest that the interplay between estrogen and PI3K occurs at multiple levels, including transcriptional and membrane‐initiated signaling events that ultimately lead to changes in homeostatic function. J. Comp. Neurol. 506:895–911, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Morphological and fecundity traits of Culex mosquitoes caught in gravid traps in urban and rural Berkshire, UK

Abstract Culex pipiens s.l. is one of the primary vectors of West Nile Virus in the USA and Continental Europe. The seasonal abundance and eco-behavioural characteristics of the typical form, Cx. pipiens pipiens, make it a key putative vector in Britain. Surveillance of Culex larvae and adults is essential to detect any changes to spatial and seasonal activity or morphological traits that may increase the risk of disease transmission. Here we report the use of the modified Reiter gravid box trap, which is commonly used in the USA but scarcely used in the UK, to assess its suitability as a tool for British female Culex mosquito surveillance. Trapping was carried out at 110 sites in urban and rural gardens in Berkshire in May, July and September 2013. We tested if reproductively active adult female Culex are more abundant in urban than rural gardens and if wing characteristic traits and egg raft size are influenced by location and seasonal variations. Gravid traps were highly selective for Culex mosquitoes, on average catching significantly more per trap in urban gardens (32.4 ± 6.2) than rural gardens (19.3 ± 4.0) and more in July than in May or September. The majority of females were caught alive in a good condition. Wing lengths were measured as an indicator of size. Females flying in September were significantly smaller than females in May or July. Further non-significant differences in morphology and fecundity between urban and rural populations were found that should be explored further across the seasons.
DaTo : um sistema de notação entoacional do portugues brasileiro baseado em principios dinamicos : enfase no foco e na fala espontanea

O sistema de notacao entoacional proposto para o portugues brasileiro (PB) inserido inicialmente no programa de investigacao cientifica da fonologia entoacional, utilizava para a descricao da entoacao do PB uma adaptacao da notacao que propoe este modelo, que consiste em uma notacao linear, baseada em aspectos formais da curva entoacional. Este programa adota como pressuposto fundamental a representacao fonologica de parâmetros acusticos continuos, preservada pela acao de primitivos melodicos como o alvo/tom a ser atingido, o registro funcional dos tons e o alinhamento abstrato entre curva entoacional e material linguistico. O emprego de tal sistema para a notacao de um corpus de fala espontânea do PB, em substituicao a um corpus de fala semi-espontânea, se mostrou pouco produtivo e apontou para a necessidade de um sistema que combinasse aspectos formais e funcionais em sua descricao. Esse fato justificou a insercao do sistema de notacao entoacional do PB em um programa de investigacao cientifica dinâmico-entoacional, que propoe uma notacao dinâmica e funcional, tendo como pressuposto fundamental a ausencia de representacoes fonologicas, apresentando como primitivos melodicos os contornos entoacionais, a gama de variacao tonal e o alinhamento especifico entre curva e material linguistico. A notacao entoacional definida para o PB nesse novo paradigma por meio do sistema DaTo – Dynamical Tones of Brazilian Portuguese - propoe a descricao do foco na entoacao segundo a nocao de contornos/tons dinâmicos, ao inves de utilizar o conceito de tons isolados para tanto, assumindo que a entoacao e o foco no PB sao produzidos por um sistema dinâmico integrado, que alia producao e articulacao. Abstract
Interferon-alpha and 13-cis-retinoic acid as maintenance therapy after high-dose combination chemotherapy with growth factor support for small cell lung cancer--a feasibility study.

This randomized phase II multi-center study was designed to determine the time to progression, duration of response and the feasibility of an intensified maintenance regime consisting of a combination of interferon (IFN)-alpha and retinoic acid after high-dose combination chemotherapy and radiotherapy in patients with small cell lung cancer. The patients received four courses of combination chemotherapy consisting of ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide, with higher doses of ifosfamide and carboplatin given in the first course, with routine growth factor support. Responding patients were then randomly assigned to one of three maintenance therapy arms. All patients with limited disease (LD) were given thoracic radiotherapy before maintenance therapy and those who had also achieved a complete response (CR) or minimal residual disease (MRD) received prophylactic cranial irradiation. In Arm 1 patients received IFN-alpha-2a, 6 MIU s.c. TIW for 4 weeks, followed by 3 MIU s.c. TIW, and 13-cis-retinoic acid 1 mg/kg/day p.o. BID daily. In Arm 2 patients received trophosphamide 100-150 mg/day p.o. BID. No maintenance treatment was given in Arm 3, the control group. Maintenance therapy was continued for 1 year. Eighty-five patients were treated according to the protocol. Twenty-one patients achieved CR, four achieved MRD and forty-two achieved partial responses to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Sixty patients (71%) were randomly assigned for maintenance treatment. Median survival was 17.1 months in the IFN-alpha-retinoic acid arm, 12.4 months in the trophosphamide arm and 13.5 months in the control arm. One-year survival rates were 82, 56 and 55%, respectively. Duration of response was 6.5, 5.5 and 4.7 months, respectively. Time to progression was 8.6, 8.0 and 6.8 months, respectively The differences were not statistically significant. The IFN-alpha-retinoic acid maintenance treatment was well tolerated. Patients who received IFN-alpha-retinoid maintenance therapy lived longer after the onset of progressive disease. The treatment regime was effective, feasible and well tolerated.
Absolute Timing of the Crab Pulsar with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer

We have monitored the phase of the main X-ray pulse of the Crab pulsar with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) for almost 8 years, since the start of the mission in 1996 January. The absolute time of RXTE's clock is sufficiently accurate to allow this phase to be compared directly with the radio profile. Our monitoring observations of the pulsar took place bi-weekly (during the periods when it was at least 30° from the Sun), and we correlated the data with radio timing ephemerides derived from observations made at Jodrell Bank. We have determined the phase of the X-ray main pulse for each observation with a typical error in the individual data points of 50 μs. The total ensemble is consistent with a phase that is constant over the monitoring period, with the X-ray pulse leading the radio pulse by 0.0102 ± 0.0012 periods in phase, or 344 ± 40 μs in time. The error estimate is dominated by a systematic error of 40 μs in the radio data, arising from uncertainties in the variable amount of pulse delay due to interstellar scattering and instrumental calibration. The statistical error is 0.00015 periods, or 5 μs. The separation of the main pulse and interpulse appears to be unchanging at timescales of a year or less, with an average value of 0.4001 ± 0.0002 periods. There is no apparent variation in these values with energy over the 2-30 keV range. The lag between the radio and X-ray pulses may be constant in phase (i.e., rotational in nature) or constant in time (i.e., due to a path-length difference). We are not (yet) able to distinguish between these two interpretations.
Fusion of Iris and Palmprint Traits for Human Identification

Biometrics deals with identification of individuals based on their biological or behavioral characteristics. Iris recognition is one of the newer biometric technologies used for personal identification. [1] This paper presents biometrics based Iris and palm print recognition system. Human iris is one of the most reliable biometric because of its uniqueness, stability and noninvasive nature. In this paper, an iris recognition system is presented with several steps. First, image pre-processing is performed. Then features are extracted from the iris image using Ridge Energy Detection Algorithm (RED) by filtering the normalized iris region. Finally two Iris Codes are compared and human identification is done. Palm print images are enhanced using preprocessing techniques such as morphological operations. The feature extraction technique of Harris feature extraction algorithm is used to extract features. These techniques are more reliable and faster than traditional techniques used. Experimental results shown recognition rate of 100% for iris and 100% for palm print. This implies that the proposed methodology has better performance and is more reliable over the techniques proposed and used earlier.