Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microfluidic in vitro culture system mimicking peristaltic stimulation in bovine embryos

This work demonstrates a novel microfluidic in vitro cultivation system for embryos that improves their development using a partially constricted channel that mimics peristaltic muscle contraction (the gravity-driven stimulation system). To investigate the compressive effects of constriction geometry on embryonic development, different constriction widths of the channel were designed. Bovine embryos were loaded on the channel and the whole system was incubated on a tilting machine to provide embryo movement via gravity. The fertilized embryos were cultivated on the gravity-driven stimulation system until the blastocyst, hatching, or hatched blastocyst stages. The proportion of eight-cell development among total embryos in the constricted channel (56.77±13.7%; mean±SD) was superior to that in the straight channel (23.97±11.0%). Moreover, the membrane based mechanical stimulation was also designed because of needs for independent control of flow and compressive force (the pressure-driven stimulation system). Therefore, the possibility to improve developmental ratio for bovine embryos was suggested as supporting more precise in vivo like environment.
Upper limit of normal serum alanine aminotransferase levels in Japanese subjects

Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is important for screening, diagnosis and management of chronic liver diseases. The incidence of non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is considered a hepatic manifestation of lifestyle‐related diseases, is increasing worldwide. However, the upper limit of the normal ALT level has not yet been established because of not excluding many lifestyle‐related diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the upper limit of normal serum ALT levels in Japanese subjects.
The Development of Emergent Properties In Massive Multi-Agent Systems

Emergent behavior results in complex systems. Emergent behavior can be observed in various systems a colony of ants, an economy, a brain or a large network of computers these are all systems with complex emergent behavior. The behavior of a complex system as a whole emerges in a highly non-linear manner from the behaviors of the low level constituent elementary units. This makes traditional linear analysis difficult, if not impossible. In this paper I will focus on emergent properties of massive multi-agent systems. I will present how these properties can be utilized to model global behavior of the system. Key-Words: Emergence, Multi-Agent Systems, Decentralization, Evolutionary Computation
Transients of a Micro-Grid System with Multiple Distributed Energy Resources

This paper investigates dynamic behavior and transients of a distribution subsystem with multiple distributed energy resources to pre-planned and/or accidental switching events. The switching events may lead to islanding of the subsystem and formation of an autonomous micro-grid. The micro-grid includes three distributed generation (DG) units. One unit is a conventional rotating machine interfaced through a synchronous generator. The second unit is an electronically-interfaced unit equipped with independent control on real and reactive power outputs. The third unit is a fixed-speed wind-turbine based power generation unit connected through an induction generator. The micro-grid operation and power management of the system are studied during the grid-connected mode, the autonomous operation and ride-through between the grid-connected and the autonomous modes. The studies are performed based on a digital computer simulation approach using the PSCAD/EMTDC software package. The studies show that (i) an appropriate control strategy for the electronically-interfaced DG unit can ensure stability of the micro-grid and improve voltage quality at designated buses, even during islanding transients, and (ii) the dynamic power management strategy can assist with minimizing the negative impact of power variations of the wind turbine and control corresponding frequency fluctuations of the micro-grid in the islanding operation.
Identification of four new translocations involving FGFR1 in myeloid disorders

The 8p11 myeloproliferative syndrome (EMS) is associated with three translocations, t(8;13)(p11;q12), t(8;9)(p11;q33), and t(6;8)(q27;p11), that fuse unrelated genes (ZNF198, CEP110, and FOP, respectively) to the entire tyrosine kinase domain of FGFR1. In all cases thus far examined (n = 10), the t(8;13) results in an identical mRNA fusion between ZNF198 exon 17 and FGFR1 exon 9. To determine if consistent fusions are also seen in the variant translocations, we performed RT‐PCR on four cases and sequenced the products. For two patients with a t(8;9), we found that CEP110 exon 15 was fused to FGFR1 exon 9. For two patients with a t(6;8), we found that FOP exon 5 (n = 1) or exon 7 (n = 1) was fused to FGFR1 exon 9. To determine if FGFR1 might be involved in other myeloid disorders with translocations of 8p, we developed a two‐color FISH assay using two differentially labeled PAC clones that flank FGFR1. Disruption of this gene was indicated in a patient with a t(8;17)(p11;q25) and Ph‐negative chronic myeloid leukemia in association with systemic malignant mast cell disease, a patient with acute myeloid leukemia with a t(8;11)(p11;p15), and two cases with T‐cell lymphoma, myeloproliferative disorder, and marrow eosinophilia with a t(8;12)(p11;q15) and ins(12;8)(p11;p11p21), respectively. For the patient with the t(8;11), the chromosome 11 breakpoint was determined to be in the vicinity of NUP98. We conclude that 1) all mRNA fusions in EMS result in splicing to FGFR1 exon 9 but breakpoints in FOP are variable, 2) two‐color FISH can identify patients with EMS, and 3) the t(8;17)(p11;q25), t(8;11)(p11;p15), t(8;12)(p11;q15), and ins(12;8)(p11;p11p21) are novel karyotypic changes that most likely involve FGFR1. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
3 Common Neural Input : Methodological Considerations 3 . 1 Time and Frequency Domain Measures of Correlated Inputs

Skilled grasping and manipulation rely on spatial and temporal coordination of multiple hand muscles. This chapter describes the phenomenon of common neural input to hand muscles as one of the mechanisms through which the Central Nervous system might coordinate the neural activation of groups of hand muscles acting on a single or multiple digits. The heterogeneous distribution of common input to intrinsic and extrinsic hand muscles is discussed in relation to its functional role for the coordination of hand muscles.
Impact of high body mass index with or without polycystic ovarian syndrome on the outcome of in vitro fertilization.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of high body mass index and polycystic ovarian syndrome alone or both on the outcome of in vitro fertilisation-embryo transfer. METHODS The retrospective study was conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Zhejiang, China, and comprised data from August 2015 to November 2016 of infertility patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome or tubal factors who underwent agonist long-protocol in vitro fertilisation-embryo transfer. Group A comprised polycystic ovarian syndrome patients who were further divided into normal weight A1 and overweight A2. Group B had tubal patients who were further divided into normal weight B1 and overweight B2. SPSS 16 was used for data analysis. RESULTS Of the 428 patients, 153 were in Group A and 275 in Group B. Further, Group A1 had 94(61.44%) patients and Group A2 had 59(38.56%) (p<0.01), while Group B1 had 219(81.64%) and Group B 56(18.36%) patients. The dose of gonadotropins and the duration of stimulation were significantly greater in Group A2 than Group A1(p<0.01), but there was no statistically significant difference in the tubal groups (p>0.05). Significantly more retrieved oocytes and high-quality embryos were observed in the Group A1 (p<0.01). The difference of the maturating rate, fertilisation rate, implantation rate, pregnancy rate and early abortion rate were not significant among the groups (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS Polycystic ovarian syndrome with high body mass index had a negative effect on the ovarian response to gonadotropins. Pregnancy outcomes were not influenced by body mass index in tubal patients.
To appear in the Annals of Applied Statistics TIME SERIES ANALYSIS VIA MECHANISTIC MODELS By

The purpose of time series analysis via mechanistic models is to reconcile the known or hypothesized structure of a dynamical system with observations collected over time. We develop a framework for constructing nonlinear mechanistic models and carrying out inference. Our framework permits the consideration of implicit dynamic models, meaning statistical models for stochastic dynamical systems which are specified by a simulation algorithm to generate sample paths. Inference procedures that operate on implicit models are said to have the plug-and-play property. Our work builds on recently developed plug-and-play inference methodology for partially observed Markov models. We introduce a class of implicitly specified Markov chains with stochastic transition rates, and we demonstrate its applicability to open problems in statistical inference for biological systems. As one example, these models are shown to give a fresh perspective on measles transmission dynamics. As a second example, we present a mechanistic analysis of cholera incidence data, involving interaction between two competing strains of the pathogen Vibrio cholerae.
Evolving Type-2 Fuzzy Classifier

Evolving fuzzy classifiers (EFCs) have achieved immense success in dealing with nonstationary data streams because of their flexible characteristics. Nonetheless, most real-world data streams feature highly uncertain characteristics, which cannot be handled by the type-1 EFC. A novel interval type-2 fuzzy classifier, namely evolving type-2 classifier (eT2Class), is proposed in this paper, which constructs an evolving working principle in the framework of interval type-2 fuzzy system. The eT2Class commences its learning process from scratch with an empty or initially trained rule base, and its fuzzy rules can be automatically grown, pruned, recalled, and merged on the fly referring to summarization power and generalization power of data streams. In addition, the eT2Class is driven by a generalized interval type-2 fuzzy rule, where the premise part is composed of the multivariate Gaussian function with an uncertain nondiagonal covariance matrix, while employing a subset of the nonlinear Chebyshev polynomial as the rule consequents. The efficacy of the eT2Class has been rigorously assessed by numerous real-world and artificial study cases, benchmarked against state-of-the-art classifiers, and validated through various statistical tests. Our numerical results demonstrate that the eT2Class produces more reliable classification rates, while retaining more compact and parsimonious rule base than state-of-the-art EFCs recently published in the literature.
How do the di ff erences in accounting institutions a ff ect on the development of trust and reciprocity ? : An experimental study of a modified trust game

This study examines how the differences among perspectives to the formation of disclosure and auditing institutions affect the development of trust and reciprocity between managers and investors, and how these influence the performance of society. We use the trust game with disclosure option and compare the US-oriented disclosure system with the UK-oriented disclosure system via experiments. Our results demonstrate that the US-oriented disclosure system poses certain risks because managers can use the disclosure option to initially win investor trust and later betray it. ∗Doshisha University, JAPAN. E-mail: staguchi@mail.doshisha. ac.jp †Kochi University of Technology, JAPAN
Existence of Solutions of Stochastic Differential Equations related to the Bessel process

For applications in finance, we study the stochastic differential equation dXs = (2βXs + δs)ds + g(Xs)dBs with β negative, g a continuous function vanishing at zero which satisfies a Hölder condition and δ a measurable and adapted stochastic process such that ∫ t 0 δudu < ∞ for all t ∈ IR. In this paper, we recall that there exists a unique strong solution. We give a construction of this solution and we prove that it is non-negative. The method we use is based on Yamada’s (1978).
Grammaticalization , host-class expansion and category change

ion, with the level of the schematic category closely related to that of the constructional meaning. A similar layered semantic structure may be expected in other semi-schematic constructions with a grammaticalized substantive item, given the fact that semantic persistence is typical of grammaticalization. There is, however, no intrinsic need to restrict the above prototype account to open slots associated with a grammaticalized item. Think only of the collocates of the way-construction, also argued to show prototype effects and host-class expansion by Israel (1996), without the presence of a grammaticalized element. It is left to future research to present
Methodological Pluralism : An Emerging Paradigmatic Approach to Information Systems Research

The alienation of information systems (IS) research from practice is blamed on the dominance of the positivist paradigm which may not always produce practically relevant knowledge that is practicably adopted. To date most IS research is hinged on a positivist approach mainly because IS has evolved by adopting concepts from other disciplines that use the same paradigm for research. Research in IS however, is a multi-activity process that may require different research approaches. Use of mono-methods poses potential inadequacies in solving IS problems since strengths and weaknesses of various methods for the different stages of research differ. The purpose of using multi-method research is meant to address these potential drawbacks of the individual methods by exploiting the strengths of each method at the various stages of research. Analysis of the epistemological assumptions for each of the methods is therefore essential not only to establish the appropriateness of use of a method in a phase of research but also the compatibility of methods to be used together. The strength of methodological pluralism therefore depends on how well the epistemological characteristics of the research methods are matched. This paper reviews leading works in IS research paradigms and proposes an approach that uses a matrix to guide methodological pluralism analysis which is the major contribution of the paper to literature. The matrix has a six phase logical flow criteria of analysis that can iteratively guide a user to decide whether or not to use methodological pluralism through sequencing or triangulation that is augmented by a similar logical flow chart.
Diurnal variation in synaptic ribbon length and visual threshold

Previous work suggests that photoreceptor synaptic ribbon length and absolute dark-adapted threshold may vary during a 24-h diurnal cycle. To test this hypothesis, we examined the length of photoreceptor synaptic ribbons and the dark-adapted threshold in black (+/+) and albino (c2J/c2J) C57BL/6J mice at six times over a 24-h period. Testing began 2 h after light onset (ZT 2:00) and continued at successive 4-h intervals (12 h:12 h light:dark). We determined the length of the synaptic ribbons in frozen sections by labeling them with an antibody specific for synaptic ribbons. Synaptic ribbons vary in length at different points in the diurnal cycle in both types of mice, but the synaptic ribbons in black mice are longer than those in albino mice by an average of 0.33 μm. The synaptic ribbons of black mice also have a larger response to changes in the light cycle. Ribbon length in black mice ranges from 1.66 μm to 1.4 μm, whereas ribbon length in albino mice ranges from 1.32 μm to 1.25 μm. The shortest ribbons are evident 6 h after light onset in both types of mice, whereas the longest ribbons appear within 2 h after light onset. These changes in synaptic ribbon length support the idea that photoreceptor synaptic ribbons are dynamic structures whose length changes over a 24-h diurnal cycle. Examining black and albino mice with a water-maze behavioral assay showed that visual thresholds in black and albino mice vary over the 24-h diurnal cycle. The visual thresholds of albino mice are elevated compared with black mice at all times tested. This is consistent with previous findings of visual thresholds in hypopigmented mice. The lowest threshold (greatest sensitivity) is present 2 h after light onset (ZT 2:00) and corresponds to the time when synaptic ribbons are the longest. The highest threshold is observed 6 h after light onset, the time when synaptic ribbons are shortest. These results show that synaptic ribbon length and visual sensitivity vary together in relation to the time.
Characterizing the functional MRI response using Tikhonov regularization

The problem of evaluating an averaged functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) response for repeated block design experiments was considered within a semiparametric regression model with autocorrelated residuals. We applied functional data analysis (FDA) techniques that use a least‐squares fitting of B‐spline expansions with Tikhonov regularization. To deal with the noise autocorrelation, we proposed a regularization parameter selection method based on the idea of combining temporal smoothing with residual whitening. A criterion based on a generalized χ2‐test of the residuals for white noise was compared with a generalized cross‐validation scheme. We evaluated and compared the performance of the two criteria, based on their effect on the quality of the fMRI response. We found that the regularization parameter can be tuned to improve the noise autocorrelation structure, but the whitening criterion provides too much smoothing when compared with the cross‐validation criterion. The ultimate goal of the proposed smoothing techniques is to facilitate the extraction of temporal features in the hemodynamic response for further analysis. In particular, these FDA methods allow us to compute derivatives and integrals of the fMRI signal so that fMRI data may be correlated with behavioral and physiological models. For example, positive and negative hemodynamic responses may be easily and robustly identified on the basis of the first derivative at an early time point in the response. Ultimately, these methods allow us to verify previously reported correlations between the hemodynamic response and the behavioral measures of accuracy and reaction time, showing the potential to recover new information from fMRI data. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Contribution of Gene Loss to the Pathogenic Evolution of Burkholderia pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei

ABSTRACT Burkholderia pseudomallei is the causative agent of melioidosis. Burkholderia thailandensis is a closely related species that can readily utilize l-arabinose as a sole carbon source, whereas B. pseudomallei cannot. We used Tn5-OT182 mutagenesis to isolate an arabinose-negative mutant of B. thailandensis. Sequence analysis of regions flanking the transposon insertion revealed the presence of an arabinose assimilation operon consisting of nine genes. Analysis of the B. pseudomallei chromosome showed a deletion of the operon from this organism. This deletion was detected in all B. pseudomallei and Burkholderia mallei strains investigated. We cloned the B. thailandensis E264 arabinose assimilation operon and introduced the entire operon into the chromosome of B. pseudomallei 406e via homologous recombination. The resultant strain, B. pseudomallei SZ5028, was able to utilize l-arabinose as a sole carbon source. Strain SZ5028 had a significantly higher 50% lethal dose for Syrian hamsters compared to the parent strain 406e. Microarray analysis revealed that a number of genes in a type III secretion system were down-regulated in strain SZ5028 when cells were grown in l-arabinose, suggesting a regulatory role for l-arabinose or a metabolite of l-arabinose. These results suggest that the ability to metabolize l-arabinose reduces the virulence of B. pseudomallei and that the genes encoding arabinose assimilation may be considered antivirulence genes. The increase in virulence associated with the loss of these genes may have provided a selective advantage for B. pseudomallei as these organisms adapted to survival in animal hosts.
A Resistance Deviation-to-Pulsewidth Converter for Resistive Sensors

A resistance deviation-to-pulsewidth converter is presented for interfacing resistive sensors. It consists of a ramp integrator, two resistance-tunable Schmitt triggers, and two logic gates. A prototype circuit built using discrete components exhibits a resolution as high as 14 bits and a linearity error less than plusmn0.06% when the output pulse is counted by a 10-MHz clock signal. The proposed circuit is applied to measure the temperature difference with the platinum resistance temperature detectors. The measured conversion sensitivity of the temperature difference-to-pulsewidth converter is 5.74 mus/degC, and its linearity error is less than plusmn1% in the temperature difference range of 0degC to 100degC.
POLYHARMONIC EQUATIONS WITH CRITICAL EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IN THE WHOLE SPACE R n

Abstract. In this paper, we apply the sharp Adams-type inequalities for the Sobolev space W n m (Rn) for any positive real number m less than n, established by Ruf and Sani [46] and Lam and Lu [30, 31], to study polyharmonic equations in R2m. We will consider the polyharmonic equations in R2m of the form (I ) u = f(x, u) in R. We study the existence of the nontrivial solutions when the nonlinear terms have the critical exponential growth in the sense of Adams’ inequalities on the entire Euclidean space. Our approach is variational methods such as the Mountain Pass Theorem ([5]) without Palais-Smale condition combining with a version of a result due to Lions ([39, 40]) for the critical growth case. Moreover, using the regularity lifting by contracting operators and regularity lifting by combinations of contracting and shrinking operators developed in [14] and [11], we will prove that our solutions are uniformly bounded and Lipschitz continuous. Finally, using the moving plane method of Gidas, Ni and Nirenberg [22, 23] in integral form developed by Chen, Li and Ou [12] together with the Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev type inequality instead of the maximum principle, we prove our positive solutions are radially symmetric and monotone decreasing about some point. This appears to be the first work concerning existence of nontrivial nonnegative solutions of the Bessel type polyharmonic equation with exponential growth of the nonlinearity in the whole Euclidean space.