Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age-Related Reduced Somatosensory Gating Is Associated with Altered Alpha Frequency Desynchronization

Sensory gating (SG), referring to an attenuated neural response to the second identical stimulus, is considered as preattentive processing in the central nervous system to filter redundant sensory inputs. Insufficient somatosensory SG has been found in the aged adults, particularly in the secondary somatosensory cortex (SII). However, it remains unclear which variables leading to the age-related somatosensory SG decline. There has been evidence showing a relationship between brain oscillations and cortical evoked excitability. Thus, this study used whole-head magnetoencephalography to record responses to paired-pulse electrical stimulation to the left median nerve in healthy young and elderly participants to test whether insufficient stimulus 1- (S1-) induced event-related desynchronization (ERD) contributes to a less-suppressed stimulus 2- (S2-) evoked response. Our analysis revealed that the minimum norm estimates showed age-related reduction of SG in the bilateral SII regions. Spectral power analysis showed that the elderly demonstrated significantly reduced alpha ERD in the contralateral SII (SIIc). Moreover, it was striking to note that lower S1-induced alpha ERD was associated with higher S2-evoked amplitudes in the SIIc among the aged adults. Conclusively, our findings suggest that age-related decline of somatosensory SG is partially attributed to the altered S1-induced oscillatory activity.
Neighbor selection techniques for multi-hop wireless mesh networks

Multi-hop wireless mesh networks, including Multi-Hop Cellular Networks, base their operation on the establishment of multi-hop paths to route the information from source to destination. To this aim, it is crucial to define adequate neighbor selection techniques that choose the most appropriate nodes over which to route the information. In this context, this paper proposes a set of neighbor selection techniques that exploit spatial diversity to improve the performance and operation of multi-hop wireless mesh networks.
Comparison of M and N gene sequences distinguishes variation amongst equine arteritis virus isolates.

cDNA copies of the M and N genes of equine arteritis virus (EAV) isolates were synthesized by reverse transcription followed by polymerase chain reaction amplification. The cDNA was subjected to a cycle sequencing strategy using Taq polymerase, and the nucleotide and derived amino acid sequences of 10 virus isolates were compared. The M and N genes of all isolates had the same initiation and termination sites as the prototype Bucyrus strain and the encoded proteins were conserved between viruses. Comparison of nucleotide sequence homologies and phylogenetic tree analysis implied the existence of three EAV variants originating from the U.S.A. (Bucyrus), Austria (Vienna) and Switzerland (Bibuna), and suggested that RNA recombination between EAV isolates may have occurred.
Combined multi-layer perceptron neural network and sliding mode technique for parallel robots control : An adaptive approach

In this paper, an adaptive control of a parallel robot is proposed for trajectory tracking problems. This approach is based on adaptive multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network and sliding mode technique. The aim of this study is to design a robust controller with respect to external disturbances in order to improve the trajectory tracking. In fact, an adaptive MLP neural network is developed to estimate the gravitational force, frictions and other dynamics. To overcome the non-linearity problem presented in the neural network, we used the Taylor series expansion. The control law combining a neural network and sliding mode is synthesized in order to attract states model to the sliding surface. All adaptation laws of neural parameters and sliding mode term are based on the stability of the closed loop system in the Lyapunov sense. This approach has been implemented on a C5 parallel robot, and the experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in presence of external disturbances.
The PP2A-B56 Phosphatase Opposes Cyclin E Autocatalytic Degradation via Site-Specific Dephosphorylation

ABSTRACT Cyclin E, in conjunction with its catalytic partner cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), regulates cell cycle progression as cells exit quiescence and enter S-phase. Multiple mechanisms control cyclin E periodicity during the cell cycle, including phosphorylation-dependent cyclin E ubiquitylation by the SCFFbw7 ubiquitin ligase. Serine 384 (S384) is the critical cyclin E phosphorylation site that stimulates Fbw7 binding and cyclin E ubiquitylation and degradation. Because S384 is autophosphorylated by bound CDK2, this presents a paradox as to how cyclin E can evade autocatalytically induced degradation in order to phosphorylate its other substrates. We found that S384 phosphorylation is dynamically regulated in cells and that cyclin E is specifically dephosphorylated at S384 by the PP2A-B56 phosphatase, thereby uncoupling cyclin E degradation from cyclin E-CDK2 activity. Furthermore, the rate of S384 dephosphorylation is high in interphase but low in mitosis. This provides a mechanism whereby interphase cells can oppose autocatalytic cyclin E degradation and maintain cyclin E-CDK2 activity while also enabling cyclin E destruction in mitosis, when inappropriate cyclin E expression is genotoxic.
Autophagy and Reactive Oxygen Species Are Involved in Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Release Induced by C. albicans Morphotypes

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are a combination of DNA fibers and granular enzymes, such as elastase and myeloperoxidase. In this study, we demonstrate that Candida albicans hyphal (CAH) cells and yeast (CAY) cells induce differential amounts, kinetics and mechanisms of NET release. CAH cells induced larger quantities of NET compared to CAY cells and can stimulate rapid NET formation up to 4 h of incubation. CAY cells are, also, able to induce rapid NET formation, but this ability was lost at 4 h. Both reactive oxygen species (ROS) and autophagy are implicated in NET induced by CAH and CAY cells, but with a time-different participation of these two mechanisms. In particular, in the early phase (15 min) CAH cells stimulate NET via autophagy, but not via ROS, while CAY cells induce NET via both autophagy and ROS. At 4 h, only CAH cells stimulate NET formation using autophagy as well as ROS. Finally, we demonstrate that NET release, in response to CAH cells, involves NF-κB activation and is strongly implicated in hyphal destruction.
Modeling Rates and Distortions Based on a Mixture of Laplacian Distributions for Inter-Predicted Residues in Quadtree Coding of HEVC

Inprobability model based rate control of video coding, modeling of residual distribution is important in predicting precise distortions so as to determine appropriate quantization parameter values. For this, single probability model approaches have been popularly taken which may fail to model the underlying statistical characteristics of different residues from variable block-sized coding. In this letter, new rate and distortion models based on a mixture of multiple Laplacian distributions are presented for the transform coefficients of inter-predicted residues in quadtree coding. The proposed mixture model of multiple Laplacian distributions is tested for the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Test Model (HM) with quadtree-structured Coding Unit and Transform Unit. The experimental results show that the proposed model achieves more accurate results of rate and distortion estimation than the single probability models.
Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications Crystallization and Preliminary X-ray Diffraction Analysis of Bipd, a Virulence Factor from Burkholderia Pseudomallei

Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, possesses a protein-secretion apparatus that is similar to those found in Salmonella and Shigella. A major function of these secretion systems is to secrete virulence-associated proteins into target cells of the host organism. The BipD gene of B. pseudomallei encodes a secreted virulence factor that is similar in sequence and most likely functionally analogous to IpaD from Shigella and SipD from Salmonella. Thus, the BipD protein is likely to be a component of a type III protein-secretion system (TTSS) in B. pseudomallei. Proteins in the same class as BipD, such as IpaD and SipD, are thought to act as extracellular chaperones to help the hydrophobic translocator proteins enter the target cell membrane, where they form a pore and might even link the translocon pore with the secretion needle. There is evidence that the translocator proteins also bind an integrin which stimulates actin-mediated insertion of the bacterium into the host-cell membrane. Native BipD has been crystallized in a monoclinic crystal form that diffracts X-rays to 2.5 A ˚ resolution. BipD protein which incorporates selenomethionine (SeMet-BipD) has also been expressed and forms crystals which diffract to a higher resolution of 2.1 A ˚ .
An Approch to Predict the Confidence Interval of Web Services QoS Based on Bootstrap

QoS prediction is the most important step in web service selection and service recommendation. In the field of service computing, the most frequently method that adopted to predict the web service QoS is collaborative filtering. The existing studies usually focus on the prediction of the exact QoS values, and never prediction about its fluctuation range which is caused by the random dynamic nature of the internet and web server payload. In fact, the web service QoS(such as response time, throughput, etc.)invoked by clients are dynamic range, they are not a exactly value. In this paper with the help of non-parametric statistical bootstrap technique, we proposed a approach to predict the confidence interval of web services QoS and then compared the performance of web services according to the method. In the first phase, we take use of the the method of Shapiro-Wilk normal test to analysis the distribution of web services QoS(response time) and use the method of non parametric hypothesis test kruskal-Wallis to analysis the dynamic nature of interval respectively. In the second phase we adopted the bootstrap techniques in Nonparametric statistical and collaborative filtering algorithm to propose a method which could predict the confidence interval of web service response time when the client invoking the web service, and then compared the performance of web services accordingly.
Nabs: a system for detecting resource abuses via characterization of flow content type

One of the growing problems faced by network administrators is the abuse of computing resources by authorized and unauthorized personnel. The nature of abuse may vary from using unauthorized applications to serving unauthorized content. Proliferation of peer-to-peer networks and wide use of tunnels makes it difficult to detect such abuses and easy to circumvent security policies. This paper presents the design and implementation of a system, called Nabs, that characterizes content types of network flows based solely on the payload which can then be used to identify abuses of computing resources. The proposed method does not depend on packet headers or other simple packet characteristics hence is more robust to circumvention.
An association study of asthma and total serum immunoglobin E levels for Toll‐like receptor polymorphisms in a Japanese population

Background The prevalence of atopic diseases has been increasing in developed countries. This could be explained by the hygiene hypothesis, which states that exposure to specific infections or endotoxins during infancy drives the maturing immune system towards a Th1 phenotype and away from the Th2 phenotype, which is associated with allergic diseases. Toll‐like receptors (TLRs) play important roles in the signalling of many pathogen‐related molecules and endogenous proteins associated with immune activation.
Preclinical Development The Novel Oral Hsp 90 Inhibitor NVP-HSP 990 Exhibits Potent and Broad-spectrum Antitumor Activities In Vitro and In Vivo

A novel oral Hsp90 inhibitor, NVP-HSP990, has been developed and characterized in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, NVP-HSP990 exhibits single digit nanomolar IC50 values on three of the Hsp90 isoforms (Hsp90a, Hsp90b, and GRP94) and 320 nanomolar IC50 value on the fourth (TRAP-1), with selectivity against unrelated enzymes, receptors, and kinases. In c-Met amplified GTL-16 gastric tumor cells, NVP-HSP990 dissociated the Hsp90-p23 complex, depleted client protein c-Met, and induced Hsp70. NVP-HSP990 potently inhibited the growth of human cell lines and primary patient samples from a variety of tumor types. In vivo, NVP-HSP990 exhibits drug-like pharmaceutical and pharmacologic properties with high oral bioavailability. In the GTL-16 xenograftmodel, a single oral administration of 15mg/kg ofNVP-HSP990 induced sustained downregulation of c-Met and upregulation of Hsp70. In repeat dosing studies, NVP-HSP990 treatment resulted in tumor growth inhibition of GTL-16 and other human tumor xenograft models driven by well-defined oncogenic Hsp90 client proteins. On the basis of its pharmacologic profile and broad-spectrum antitumor activities, clinical trials have been initiated to evaluate NVP-HSP990 in advanced solid tumors. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(3);
HALOPERIDOL VERSUS THIORIDAZINE FOR HOSPITALIZED PSYCHOGERIATRIC PATIENTS: DOUBLE‐BLIND STUDY *

A 12‐week double‐blind study was started with 60 actively psychotic geriatric patients residing in Boston State Hospital, to compare the psychopharmacological efficacy of haloperidol with that of thioridazine. The dosage was flexible—an initial low dosage followed by gradual increments until a satisfactory therapeutic response was obtained. Average maintenance dosages were about 2 mg a day for haloperidol and 100–125 mg a day for thioridazine. The rating instruments used were the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Stotsky Mental Status, Clinical Global Impression, NOSIE‐30 (Nurse's Observation Scale), and Activities of Daily Living. At the end of the study, 50 patients were available for analysis. Our results indicated significant decreases in many areas of psychotic psychopathology for both drug groups, without significant differences between the actions of the two drugs. For both haloperidol and thioridazine, significant (P .05) improvement occurred in the following variables on the BPRS and the NOSIE‐30: anxiety, excitement, irritability, hostility, suspiciousness, hallucinatory behavior, mannerisms, tension, unusual thoughts, blunted affect, neatness, and manifest psychosis.
Rendering with coherent layers

For decades, animated cartoons and movie special effects have factored the rendering of a scene into layers that are updated independently and composed in the final display. We apply layer factorization to real-time computer graphics. The layers allow targeting of resources, whether the ink and paint artists of cartoons or the graphics pipeline as described here, to those parts of the scene that are most important. To take advantage of frame-to-frame coherence, we generalize layer factorization to apply to both dynamic geometric objects and terms of the shading model, introduce new ways to trade off fidelity for resource use in individual layers, and show how to compute warps that reuse renderings for multiple frames. We describe quantities, called fiducials, that measure the fidelity of approximations to the original image. Layer update rates, spatial resolution, and other quality parameters are determined by geometric, photometric, visibility, and sampling fiducials weighted by the content author’s preferences. We also compare the fidelity of various types of reuse warps and demonstrate the suitability of the affine warp. Using Talisman, a hardware architecture with an efficient layer primitive, the work presented here dramatically improves the geometric complexity and shading quality of scenes rendered in real-time .
What-If Analysis: A Visual Analytics Approach to Information Retrieval Evaluation

This paper focuses on the innovative visual analytics approach realized by the Visual Analytics Tool for Experimental Evaluation (VATE2) system, which eases and makes more effective the experimental evaluation process by introducing the what-if analysis. The what-if analysis is aimed at estimating the possible effects of a modification to an Information Retrieval (IR) system, in order to select the most promising fixes before implementing them, thus saving a considerable amount of effort. VATE2 builds on an analytical framework which models the behavior of the systems in order to make estimations, and integrates this analytical framework into a visual part which, via proper interaction and animations, receives input and provides feedback to the user. We conducted an experimental evaluation to assess the numerical performances of the analytical model and a validation of the visual analytics prototype with domain experts. Both the numerical evaluation and the user validation have shown that VATE2 is effective, innovative, and useful.
Systemic capabilities: the source of IT business value

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value. Design/methodology/approach – Embracing a systems perspective, this paper examines the interrelationship between IT and other organisational factors at the organisational level and its impact on the business value of IT. As a result, a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value is developed. An example of enhancing IT business value through developing systemic capabilities is then used to test and demonstrate the value of this framework. Findings – The findings suggest that IT business value would be significantly enhanced when systemic capabilities are generated from the synergistic interrelations among IT and other organisational factors at the systems level, while the system’s human agents play a critical role in developing systemic capabilities by purposely configuring and reconfiguring organisational factors. Prac.
Inflammation induces multinucleation of Microglia via PKC inhibition of cytokinesis, generating highly phagocytic multinucleated giant cells

Microglia are brain macrophages, which can undergo multinucleation to give rise to multinucleated giant cells that accumulate with ageing and some brain pathologies. However, the origin, regulation and function of multinucleate microglia remain unclear. We found that inflammatory stimuli, including lipopolysaccharide, amyloid β, α‐synuclein, tumour necrosis factor‐α and interferon γ, but not interleukin‐4, induced multinucleation of cultured microglia: primary rat cortical microglia and the murine microglial cell line BV‐2. Inflammation‐induced multinucleation was prevented by a protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor Gö6976 (100 nM) and replicated by a PKC activator phorbol myristate acetate (160 nM). Multinucleation was reversible and not because of cell fusion or phagocytosis, but rather failure of cytokinesis. Time‐lapse imaging revealed that some dividing cells failed to abscise, even after formation of long cytoplasmic bridges, followed by retraction of bridge and reversal of cleavage furrow to form multinucleate cells. Multinucleate microglia were larger and 2–4 fold more likely to phagocytose large beads and both dead and live PC12 cells. We conclude that multinucleate microglia are reversibly generated by inflammation via PKC inhibition of cytokinesis, and may have specialized functions/dysfunctions including the phagocytosis of other cells.
Topic : Programming Languages and Software Engineering Dimensionality Reduction of Multi-spectral Images for Color Reproduction

A new nonlinear dimensionality reduction method for multi-spectral images was presented to solve the problem brought by high dimensionality of multi-spectral images during color reproduction. Firstly, according to the characteristics of human visual system, the CIE standard observer color matching functions were weighted to the source spectral reflectance and then a principal component analysis (PCA) method was used to the weighted spectrum. This effectively improved the colorimetric precision and color difference stability of dimensionality reduction. Then for the spectral reflectance loss caused by weighting color matching functions, a PCA method was imposed on the lost spectrum to compensate the lost spectral accuracy caused by the improvement of colorimetric precision. This effectively improved the spectral precision of dimensionality reduction. Finally the principal components obtained from the first two steps were combined to form the low-dimensional spectral data. Experiments show that the new method outperforms the existing methods in the colorimetric accuracy, spectral accuracy and color difference stability under different illuminant.
Utilizing sequence intrinsic composition to classify protein-coding and long non-coding transcripts

It is a challenge to classify protein-coding or non-coding transcripts, especially those re-constructed from high-throughput sequencing data of poorly annotated species. This study developed and evaluated a powerful signature tool, Coding-Non-Coding Index (CNCI), by profiling adjoining nucleotide triplets to effectively distinguish protein-coding and non-coding sequences independent of known annotations. CNCI is effective for classifying incomplete transcripts and sense–antisense pairs. The implementation of CNCI offered highly accurate classification of transcripts assembled from whole-transcriptome sequencing data in a cross-species manner, that demonstrated gene evolutionary divergence between vertebrates, and invertebrates, or between plants, and provided a long non-coding RNA catalog of orangutan. CNCI software is available at http://www.bioinfo. org/software/cnci.
Congruence, Unconditional Positive Regard, and Empathic Understanding in Child-centered Play Therapy

The purpose of this study was to explore how the therapist-provided conditions of congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding were experienced and conveyed in child-centered play therapy (CCPT). Although the therapist-provided conditions are considered essential to the therapeutic process in CCPT, a gap exists between child-centered theory and empirical exploration of the process and dynamics of these relational variables in CCPT. Due to the limited research in this area, a grounded theory approach was utilized to explore how the three variables emerge in CCPT. Participants included four advanced doctoral students, all Caucasian females with extensive training in CCPT, and 12 children ranging from 4 to 8 years of age receiving weekly, individual CCPT. One individual CCPT session was observed and video-recorded for each therapist-child dyad (n = 12). Following each observation, play therapists were interviewed regarding the observed play session (n = 12). During each interview, the researcher and therapist watched the recorded play session in its entirety and discussed noteworthy interactions between the child and therapist. The video-recorded play therapy sessions and therapist interviews were analyzed using a multiphasic, constant comparative method. Results of the analysis included a process-model of the therapist-provided conditions in CCPT, examples of play therapists’ internal experiences and external behaviors associated with the presence and absence of the therapist-provided conditions, and a model of the process play therapists utilize to respond to breaks and barriers to congruence, unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding, and unconditional positive self-regard in CCPT. Implications for clinical practice, training, supervision, and research are discussed.