Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sequence and in vitro expression of the M2 gene of turkey rhinotracheitis pneumovirus.

Negative-stranded virion RNA and oligonucleotide primers complementary to fusion (F) protein gene sequences were used to generate cDNA clones, revealing that the gene 5'-proximal to the F protein corresponded to the M2 (22K) gene, as in respiratory syncytial (RS) virus. The transcription start signal, GGGACAAGU, was identical to that of the F and matrix (M) proteins of turkey rhinotracheitis virus (TRTV). There were two sequences with the potential to function as transcription termination/poly(A) signals, located at nucleotides 751 to 762 and 777 to 787; 15 clones derived from mRNA indicated that the first of these sequences formed the major signal. Part of the next downstream (5') gene was sequenced; unlike mammalian pneumoviruses the TRTV M2 gene did not overlap the beginning of the 5'-proximal gene. Northern blotting indicated that infected Vero cells contained less M2 mRNA than F mRNA and that about half of the M2 mRNA was present as a F-M2 dicistronic mRNA. The M2 gene contained two overlapping open reading frames (ORFs 1 and 2), as with RS virus. ORF 1 comprised 558 nucleotides with the coding potential for a 186 amino acid polypeptide, M(r) 20959, eight or nine residues shorter than for human RS virus strains. The overall amino acid identity was 40%, the N-terminal one-third of the proteins sharing 62% of residues, the remainder 29%. A hydropathy plot of the TRTV M2 protein had close similarity to that of the M2 or RS virus. The protein was predicted to have a basic character with no N-terminal signal sequence or other major highly hydrophobic sequences. In vitro translation of a transcript comprising both ORFs 1 and 2 produced a single product of apparent M(r) 23000, corresponding to the M2 product of ORF 1. Site-directed mutagenesis confirmed that this product was derived from ORF 1 and that frameshifting was not involved. The second ORF was expressed only from a transcript which lacked the AUG codons of ORF 1 and, although occupying a similar position to that in the RS virus M2 gene, had virtually no amino acid identity in its 73 residue length and was approximately 25% shorter than the corresponding RS virus ORF 2. The hydropathy plot of the potential products of the second ORFs of TRTV and RS virus showed little resemblance. Taken together these results suggest that ORF 2 is unlikely to be expressed in vivo. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Hematopoietic cells and radioresistant host elements influence natural killer cell differentiation

Radioresistant host elements mediate positive selection of developing thymocytes, whereas bone marrow-derived cells induce clonal deletion of T cells with receptors that are strongly autoreactive. In contrast to T cell development, little is known about the elements governing the natural killer (NK) cell repertoire, which, similar to the T cell repertoire, differs between individuals bearing different major histocompatibility complex (MHC) phenotypes. We have used murine bone marrow transplantation models to analyze the influence of donor and host MHC on an NK cell subset. We examined the expression of Ly-49, which is strongly expressed on a subpopulation of NK cells of H-2b mice, but not by NK cells of H-2a mice, probably because of a negative effect induced by the interaction of Ly-49 with Dd. To evaluate the effect of hematopoietic cell H-2a expression on Ly-49 expression of H- 2b NK cells, we prepared mixed allogeneic chimeras by administering T cell-depleted allogeneic (B10.A, H-2a) and host-type (B10, H-2b) marrow to lethally irradiated B10 mice, or by administering B10. A marrow to B10 recipients conditioned by a nonmyeloablative regimen. Expression of H-2a on bone marrow-derived cells was sufficient to downregulate Ly-49 expression on both H-2a and H-2b NK cells. This downregulation was thymus independent. To examine the effect of H-2a expressed only on radioresistant host elements, we prepared fully allogeneic chimeras by administering B10 bone marrow to lethally irradiated B10.A recipients. B10 NK cells of these fully allogeneic chimeras also showed downregulation of Ly-49 expression. The lower level of H-2a expressed on H-2b x H-2a F1 cells induced more marked downregulation of Ly-49 expression on B10 NK cells when presented on donor marrow in mixed chimeras than when expressed only on radioresistant host cells. Our studies show that differentiation of NK cells is determined by interactions with MHC molecules expressed on bone marrow-derived cells and, to a lesser extent, by MHC antigens expressed on radioresistant host elements.
Noncanonical role of Hox14 revealed by its expression patterns in lamprey and shark

Hox genes are arranged in uninterrupted clusters in vertebrate genomes, and the nested patterns of their expression define spatial identities in multiple embryonic tissues. The ancestral Hox cluster of vertebrates has long been thought to consist of, maximally, 13 Hox genes. However, recently, Hox14 genes were discovered in three chordate lineages, the coelacanth, cartilaginous fishes, and amphioxus, but their expression patterns have not yet been analyzed. We isolated Hox14 cDNAs from the Japanese lamprey and cloudy catshark. These genes were not expressed in the central nervous systems, somites, or fin buds/folds but were expressed in a restricted cell population surrounding the hindgut. The lack of Hox14 expression in most of the embryonic axial elements, where nested Hox expressions define spatial identities, suggests a decoupling of Hox14 genes' regulation from the ancestral regulatory mechanism. The relaxation of preexisting constraint for collinear expression may have permitted the secondary losses of this Hox member in the tetrapod and teleost lineages.
New Media and Democracy

This article describes and evaluates civic networks in Europe and the USA. These are seen as attempts to use new media technology, particularly the internet, to improve participation in local democratic processes. Various aspects of democratic communication are examined, including information access, preference measurement, deliberation and group mobilization. A wide variety of city-based experiments are described, which have all faced problems of low take-up and problems of inequality of access. It is argued that new media will have a significant and positive impact upon the processes of democratic communication within the appropriate regulatory and economic context, particularly regarding access to communications technologies.
Neighborhood Deprivation Negatively Impacts Children’s Prosocial Behavior

Children show stronger cooperative behavior in experimental settings as they get older, but little is known about how the environment of a child shapes this development. In adults, prosocial behavior toward strangers is markedly decreased in low socio-economic status (SES) neighborhoods, suggesting that environmental harshness has a negative impact on some prosocial behaviors. Similar results have been obtained with 9-year-olds recruited from low vs. high SES schools. In the current study, we investigate whether these findings generalize to a younger age group and a developing country. Specifically, we worked with a sample of thirty-nine 6- to 7-year-olds in two neighborhoods in a single city in Romania. Using a “Quality Dictator Game” that offers greater resolution than previous measures, we find that children living in the harsher neighborhood behave less prosocially toward a stranger than children living in the less harsh neighborhood.
The (Super)String Theories' Problems

From: Yasushi Watanabe Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 08:34:09 EDT Subject: withdrawal of R.Naboulsi's papers ------------ Dear sirs: I am a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology. I wished to help a person like R.Naboulsi who was trying very hard to get a fellowship to come to Japan. I thought he was a really genius person to produce so many papers. He says most of them are his original, but apparently not. Very regretful! I should have noticed it much earlier. He has not come to Japan yet. I am the one who let him use the affiliation of Tokyo Institute of Technology, as he asked me saying that it is the only way to get the fellowship. I also asked my associate to upload because he says he cannot from his computer. I sincerely apologize you for this unfortunate happening. I have asked my associate to cancel all his papers uploaded already. Please understand that this is done under a good will. He did not understand the basis of scientific world. I just believed him too much. I hope you understand the situation. Sincerely Yours, Y.Watanabe, Prof. of Physics
AUTOMATED VALIDATION OF SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR EMBEDDED SYSTEMS DESIGN

Advancements in technology have increased the diversity and complexity of embedded systems. At the same time there is an increasing need for reducing the cost of embedded systems development and testing. The system requirements state what the customer wants the system to do. These requirements are the basis for planning a project. In the computer-based systems world, the requirements are analyzed and allocated to software and hardware. In many cases, either hardware, software, or various combinations can be used to meet the required performance and functionality. This is where other factors such as cost and flexibility influence the decision as to whether a requirement will be allocated to one or the other. The final design must meet the given requirements. If a tool is available to support the validation of the design against the systems requirements, then the time associated with the design process can be shortened. Our approach is to use model-based codesign to develop test scenarios based on the system requirements and use modeling and simulation to validate the design against the requirements. The approach will be demonstrated using an elevator controller model.
Design of irregular LDPC Codes for flexible Encoder and Decoder Hardware Realization

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are among the best channel codes known today and are in discussion for current and future communications standards. LDPC codes can be efficiently modeled by Tanner-graphs. In this paper, we present a novel hardware-efficient 2-vector design method of such graphs. We show communications performance results for an exemplary code created by this approach and corresponding implementation results for a flexible, multi-rate 2V-LDPC decoder and encoder applicable for hybrid-ARQ
A study of interleaving coverage criteria

Concurrency bugs are becoming increasingly important due to the prevalence of concurrent programs. A fundamental problem of concurrent program bug detection and testing is that the interleaving space is too large to be thoroughly explored. Practical yet effective interleaving coverage criteria are desired to systematically explore the interleaving space and effectively expose concurrency bugs. This paper proposes a concurrent program interleaving coverage criteria hierarchy, including seven (including five new) coverage criteria. These criteria are all designed based on different concurrency fault models. Their cost ranges from exponential to linear.
Comparison of Sepsis-Induced Transcriptomic Changes in a Murine Model to Clinical Blood Samples Identifies Common Response Patterns

Experimental models, mimicking physiology, and molecular dynamics of diseases in human, harbor the possibility to study the effect of interventions and transfer results from bench to bedside. Recent advances in high-throughput technologies, standardized protocols, and integration of knowledge from databases yielded rising consistency and usability of results for inter-species comparisons. Here, we explored similarities and dissimilarities in gene expression from blood samples of a murine sepsis model (peritoneal contamination and infection, PCI) and patients from the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) measured by microarrays. Applying a consistent pre-processing and analysis workflow, differentially expressed genes (DEG) from PCI and PICU data significantly overlapped. A major fraction of DEG was commonly expressed and mapped to adaptive and innate immune response related pathways, whereas the minor fraction, including the chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 4, exhibited constant inter-species disparities. Reproducibility of transcriptomic observations was validated experimentally in PCI. These data underline, that inter-species comparison can obtain commonly expressed transcriptomic features despite missing homologs and different protocols. Our findings point toward a high suitability of an animal sepsis model and further experimental efforts in order to transfer results from animal experiments to the bedside.
Software project risk assessment based on cost drivers and Neuro-Fuzzy technique

Risk assessment plays crucial role in the software project management. The critical examination of different risk assessment methods help researchers and practitioners to evaluate the impact of various project related risks. The existing Fuzzy Ex-COM (Fuzzy Expert COCOMO) model is a combination of fuzzy technique and Expert COCOMO. It takes help of expertise and information from earlier activities carried. Moreover it has limitations that it cannot make room for support from other significant risk rules. The proposed work analyzes the impact of the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique for software risk assessment process that integrates the non-linear learning features of neural networks with fuzzy logic having capability to deal with sensitive and linguistic data. It also helps to generate risk rules using ANN techniques to improve the accuracy of risk assessment process. The results shows that this technique with available project data and Neuro-Fuzzy Risk model gives improved results in comparison with existing Fuzzy Ex-com model.
Glucose Tightly Controls Morphological and Functional Properties of Astrocytes

The main energy source powering the brain is glucose. Strong energy needs of our nervous system are fulfilled by conveying this essential metabolite through blood via an extensive vascular network. Glucose then reaches brain tissues by cell uptake, diffusion and metabolization, processes primarily undertaken by astrocytes. Deprivation of glucose can however occur in various circumstances. In particular, ageing is associated with cognitive disturbances that are partly attributable to metabolic deficiency leading to brain glycopenia. Despite the crucial role of glucose and its metabolites in sustaining neuronal activity, little is known about its moment-to-moment contribution to astroglial physiology. We thus here investigated the early structural and functional alterations induced in astrocytes by a transient metabolic challenge consisting in glucose deprivation. Electrophysiological recordings of hippocampal astroglial cells of the stratum radiatum in situ revealed that shortage of glucose specifically increases astrocyte membrane capacitance, whilst it has no impact on other passive membrane properties. Consistent with this change, morphometric analysis unraveled a prompt increase in astrocyte volume upon glucose deprivation. Furthermore, characteristic functional properties of astrocytes are also affected by transient glucose deficiency. We indeed found that glucoprivation decreases their gap junction-mediated coupling, while it progressively and reversibly increases their intracellular calcium levels during the slow depression of synaptic transmission occurring simultaneously, as assessed by dual electrophysiological and calcium imaging recordings. Together, these data indicate that astrocytes rapidly respond to metabolic dysfunctions, and are therefore central to the neuroglial dialog at play in brain adaptation to glycopenia.
Modeling of Agent Behavior Using Behavioral Specifications

The behavioral dynamics of a cognitive agent can be considered both from an external and an internal perspective. From the external perspective, behavior is described by specifying (temporal) correlations between input and output states of the agent. From the internal perspective the agent’s dynamics can be characterized by direct (causal) temporal relations between internal, mental states of the agent. The latter type of specifications can be represented in executable format, which allows performing simulations of the agent’s behavior under different (environmental) circumstances. For enabling simulations when only given an external behavioral specification, this has to be transformed first into executable format, and subsequently into a transition system description. An automated procedure for such a transformation is proposed in this paper. The application of the transformation procedure is demonstrated by two simulation examples addressing delayed response behavior and adaptive behavior.
Second-Order Cyclostationarity of Cyclically Prefixed Single Carrier Linear Digital Modulations with Applications to Signal Recognition

The second-order cyclostationarity of cyclically prefixed single carrier linear digital (CP-tSCLD) modulated signals is investigated with emphasis on its applicability to signal recognition. Analytical closed-form expressions for the second-order (one-conjugate) cyclic cumulants (CCs) and the set of cycle frequencies (CFs) for CP-SCLD modulated signals are derived. Based on these results, an algorithm is proposed for the recognition of CP-tSCLD against SCLD and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals. This algorithm obviates the need for signal pre-processing tasks, such as symbol timing, carrier and waveform recovery and estimation of signal and noise powers.
Enhancing quality of power to sensitive loads with MicroGrid

The paper discusses the effectiveness of the MicroGrid (MG) in a distribution system. Combined heat and power (CHP) system has been used to enhance the overall efficiency of the power system. Microturbines have been used for CHP operation in this paper. The various methods of controls of the MG are also discussed. A simple and low cost model for MG based on frequency droop control for active power generation, has been proposed. The proposed model can be used in plug and play mode of operation of the MG. The model has been simulated on the MATLAB platform. Performance of the model has been studied under grid connected and under islanded condition.
THE DIRECT AND INDIRECT IMPACT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT ON PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN INDIAN MANUFACTURING

Studies have found the impact of foreign direct investments (FDI) on productivity growth to be firm-industry-host economy specific. However, the impact of FDI may differ with the existing market conditions in the economy and also with respect to the source of the FDI. The paper examines the impact of FDI on productivity growth of the Indian industry in the period of low market demand conditions, i.e., 1995-96 to 1999-2000. It also compares empirically the spillover effects of Japanese and U.S. FDI on the total factor productivity growth both at the industry and at the firm level. Panel data estimation techniques are employed. JEL CODES: F23, L22, L60, O33
The Adaptive Computation of Far-Field Patterns by A Posteriori Error Estimation of Linear Functionals

This paper is concerned with the derivation of a priori and a posteriori error bounds for a class of linear functionals arising in electromagnetics which represent the far-field pattern of the scattered electromagnetic field. The a posteriori error bound is implemented into an adaptive finite element algorithm, and a series of numerical experiments is presented.
MPI collective I/O based on advanced reservations to obtain performance guarantees from shared storage systems

As more data-intensive computing applications are executed on high performance computing clusters, resource contention on the shared storage system attached to the clusters becomes significant. The contention might cause I/O performance degradation and spoil performance improvement of coordinated parallel I/O by the MPI-IO implementation. In order to solve this problem, an advanced reservation approach where storage resources are managed based on the reservations to satisfy the I/O performance requirements, has been proposed. In this paper, we apply the concept of reserved data access to MPI-IO, in particular to Two-Phase collective I/O which is primarily used for I/O aggregation in non-contiguous access by MPI applications. We developed a prototype by using Dynamic-CoMPI which supports further improvement of Two-Phase I/O by using a locality aware strategy, and Papio which is a parallel storage system providing performance reservation functionality. After describing our prototype design and implementation, we show leverage of the concept by comparing our implementation with other existing MPI-IO implementations backed by OrangeFS and Lustre. The evaluation experiment confirms that the optimization benefit of Two-Phase I/O can be preserved by our approach, under the resource contention situation.
Region-based image retrieval using edgeflow segmentation and region adjacency graph

Traditional region-based image retrieval systems use only the dominant features within each region and ignore the useful relationship of neighboring regions. In this study, an integrated color/texture RBIR system using the region relationship is purposed. An image is first processed with the edgeflow technique to divide the image into several regions and to extract the important texture information. Then, the region adjacency graph is used to represent the regions and their spatial relationships in the segmented image. Furthermore, the image retrieval problem is reduced to a subgraph isomorphism algorithm, which is performed to verify the similarity between two graphs by a subgraph isomorphism heuristic algorithm. In experiments, several query results from the test database are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed system.
Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter MCU Supports Cytoplasmic Ca2+ Oscillations, Store-Operated Ca2+ Entry and Ca2+-Dependent Gene Expression in Response to Receptor Stimulation

Ca2+ flux into mitochondria is an important regulator of cytoplasmic Ca2+ signals, energy production and cell death pathways. Ca2+ uptake can occur through the recently discovered mitochondrial uniporter channel (MCU) but whether the MCU is involved in shaping Ca2+ signals and downstream responses to physiological levels of receptor stimulation is unknown. Here, we show that modest stimulation of leukotriene receptors with the pro-inflammatory signal LTC4 evokes a series of cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations that are rapidly and faithfully propagated into mitochondrial matrix. Knockdown of MCU or mitochondrial depolarisation, to reduce the driving force for Ca2+ entry into the matrix, prevents the mitochondrial Ca2+ rise and accelerates run down of the oscillations. The loss of cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations appeared to be a consequence of enhanced Ca2+-dependent inactivation of InsP3 receptors, which arose from the loss of mitochondrial Ca2+ buffering. Ca2+ dependent gene expression in response to leukotriene receptor activation was suppressed following knockdown of the MCU. In addition to buffering Ca2+ release, mitochondria also sequestrated Ca2+ entry through store-operated Ca2+ channels and this too was prevented following loss of MCU. MCU is therefore an important regulator of physiological pulses of cytoplasmic Ca2+.