Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lymphocyte Display: A Novel Antibody Selection Platform Based on T Cell Activation

Since their onset, display technologies have proven useful for the selection of antibodies against a variety of targets; however, most of the antibodies selected with the currently available platforms need to be further modified for their use in humans, and are restricted to accessible antigens. Furthermore, these platforms are not well suited for in vivo selections. We present here a novel cell based antibody display platform, which takes advantage of the functional capabilities of T lymphocytes. The display of antibodies on the surface of T lymphocytes, as a part of a chimeric-immune receptor (CIR) mediating signaling, may ideally link the antigen-antibody interaction to a demonstrable change in T cell phenotype, due to subsequent expression of the early T cell activation marker CD69. In this proof-of-concept, an in vitro selection was carried out using a human T cell line lentiviral-transduced to express a tumor-specific CIR on the surface, against a human tumor cell line expressing the carcinoembryonic antigen. Based on an effective interaction between the CIR and the tumor antigen, we demonstrated that combining CIR-mediated activation with FACS sorting of CD69+ T cells, it is possible to isolate binders to tumor specific cell surface antigen, with an enrichment factor of at least 103-fold after two rounds, resulting in a homogeneous population of T cells expressing tumor-specific CIRs.
Kit signaling is involved in melanocyte stem cell fate decisions in zebrafish embryos

Adult stem cells are crucial for growth, homeostasis and repair of adult animals. The melanocyte stem cell (MSC) and melanocyte regeneration is an attractive model for studying regulation of adult stem cells. The process of melanocyte regeneration can be divided into establishment of the MSC, recruitment of the MSC to produce committed daughter cells, and the proliferation, differentiation and survival of these daughter cells. Reduction of Kit signaling results in dose-dependent reduction of melanocytes during larval regeneration. Here, we use clonal analysis techniques to develop assays to distinguish roles for these processes during zebrafish larval melanocyte regeneration. We use these clonal assays to investigate which processes are affected by the reduction in Kit signaling. We show that the regeneration defect in kita mutants is not due to defects in MSC recruitment or in the proliferation, differentiation or survival of the daughter cells, but is instead due to a defect in stem cell establishment. Our analysis suggests that the kit MSC establishment defect results from inappropriate differentiation of the MSC lineage.
Understanding usage states on mobile devices

Nowadays, mobile apps are used for nearly every situation: for planning the day, communicating with colleagues, ordering goods, or entertaining and socializing. To understand users expectations in each situation and to provide context-aware services, researchers and app vendors started to capture users' interaction with the smartphone and to model user's behavior. This paper reports on a behavioral study based on app usage data logged over one year and the corresponding apps descriptions from the app store. Using Topic Modeling and clustering techniques, we segmented the usage data into meaningful clusters that correspond to different "states", in which users normally use their smartphone, e.g. socializing or consuming media. Researchers and app-vendors can use the insights from our work to improve their contextual recommendation techniques and the overall usage experience.
Emergency alerting system for supporting power-efficient set-top boxes

In recent days, previous studies have proposed power-efficient set-top boxes that can receive only magic packets for wake on LAN (WoL) technology in standby state where the set-top boxes do not receive broadcast services. However, current emergency alerting system cannot support the power-efficient set-top boxes in standby state because the set-top boxes cannot receive emergency alert messages from the emergency alerting system. In this paper, we propose emergency alerting system that activates the power-efficient set-top boxes in standby state by using WoL technology and thus enables the set-top boxes in standby state to receive emergency alert messages. The proposed emergency alerting system will contribute wide deployment of the power-efficient set-top boxes and huge reduction of national power consumptions.
Comparison of regulated passive membrane conductance in action potential–firing fast- and slow-twitch muscle

In our companion paper (see Pedersen et al. in this issue), we presented a new technique that allows determination of G m in action potential (AP)-firing muscle fibers with a temporal resolution of seconds. Using this approach, we identified biphasic regulation of G m in AP-firing fast-twitch extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle fibers. In the first phase, Phase 1, the onset of AP firing led to a reduction in G m that was caused by reduced resting membrane conduc-tance for Cl  (G Cl) via underlying inhibition of ClC-1 channels. The second phase, Phase 2, was initiated after prolonged AP firing and was characterized by a dramatic rise in G m that reflected greatly elevated resting membrane conductance for K + (G K) in combination with elevated G Cl. We further showed that the ion channels underlying the elevated G K and G Cl during Phase 2 were K ATP and ClC-1 channels, respectively. Intriguingly, the elevations in G K and G Cl occurred synchronously during Phase 2, indicating that the K ATP and ClC-1 channels responded to similar cellular signaling. In this study, we further explore G m dynamics in AP-firing muscle fibers by comparing G m between fast-and slow-twitch muscle fibers. This comparative approach proved useful for two reasons. First, it allowed us to assess whether regulation of G m is a general phenomenon in sk­eletal muscle or only restricted to fast-twitch muscle. Thus, it was possible to evaluate whether differences in G m dynamics in active muscle fibers could contribute to phenotypic differences between fast-and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Second, because G m dynamics in fast-twitch muscle fibers predominantly reflected underlying regulation of ClC-1 and K ATP channels and these channels are expressed in both fiber types, the comparative approach could reveal how ion channel regulation depends on the cellular environment. In particular, because slow-twitch fibers have much larger oxidative capacity than fast-twitch fibers In several pathological and experimental conditions, the passive membrane conductance of muscle fibers (G m) and their excitability are inversely related. Despite this capacity of G m to determine muscle excitability, its regulation in active muscle fibers is largely unexplored. In this issue, our previous study (Pedersen et al. 2009. J. Gen. Physiol. doi:10.1085/jgp.200910291) established a technique with which biphasic regulation of G m in action potential (AP)-firing fast-twitch fibers of rat extensor digitorum longus muscles was identified and characterized with temporal resolution of …
Why Were the Results of Randomized Trials on the Clinical Utility of Fetal Fibronectin Negative? A Systematic Review of Their Study Designs

Randomized trials on the clinical utility of fetal fibronectin in women with symptoms of preterm labor have thus far failed to demonstrate benefits. We systematically reviewed the methodology of these trials to assess if these negative results may be related to their study designs. We searched the literature for randomized trials that evaluated fibronectin testing in women with symptoms of preterm labor. Study results were evaluated and five methodological criteria were assessed: (1) randomization of discordant test results, (2) use of a fixed management protocol, (3) description of interventions in relation to the test result, (4) evaluation of a learning curve, and (5) sample size calculation in agreement with the prevalence of the test results. We detected four randomized trials that met inclusion criteria. All trials allocated women to a strategy with or without availability of fibronectin results without using a discordancy design or a fixed management protocol. One study reported the given treatment in relation to the test results. Learning curves were evaluated in one study. Two studies used transport sample size calculations. The negative results of randomized trials on fetal fibronectin may be due to particular choices in their study design.
Case-based reasoning for data warehouse schema design

There have been several efforts made in the area of semi-automated techniques and tools for schema design. Most have focused on database schema design, and little work has been done on data warehouse schema design. This paper presents a new approach to data warehouse schema design based on case-based reasoning theory. Case-based reasoning is a problem solving paradigm that involves the development of a solution space to provide a basis for efficient reuse of proven pre-existing solutions. A detailed system design for the application of case-based reasoning to data warehouse schema design is examined in this paper. Two novel contributions of the paper include the matching of cases by data warehouse schema meta-data, and the use of a business context aware ontology to make intelligent suggestions on entities and attributes. These two approaches assist in improving the case matching and adaptation capability in the case-based reasoning system.
The space complexity of cutting planes refutations

We study the space complexity of the cutting planes proof system, in which the lines in a proof are integral linear inequalities. We measure the space used by a refutation as the number of linear inequalities that need to be kept on a blackboard while verifying it. We show that any unsatisfiable set of linear inequalities has a cutting planes refutation in space five. This is in contrast to the weaker resolution proof system, for which the analogous space measure has been well-studied and many optimal linear lower bounds are known. Motivated by this result we consider a natural restriction of cutting planes, in which all coefficients have size bounded by a constant. We show that there is a CNF which requires super-constant space to refute in this system. The system nevertheless already has an exponential speed-up over resolution with respect to size, and we additionally show that it is stronger than resolution with respect to space, by constructing constant-space cutting planes proofs, with coefficients bounded by two, of the pigeonhole principle. We also consider variable instance space for cutting planes, where we count the number of instances of variables on the blackboard, and total space, where we count the total number of symbols.
A Deficit in Movement-Derived Sentences in German-Speaking Hearing-Impaired Children

Children with hearing impairment (HI) show disorders in syntax and morphology. The question is whether and how these disorders are connected to problems in the auditory domain. The aim of this paper is to examine whether moderate to severe hearing loss at a young age affects the ability of German-speaking orally trained children to understand and produce sentences. We focused on sentence structures that are derived by syntactic movement, which have been identified as a sensitive marker for syntactic impairment in other languages and in other populations with syntactic impairment. Therefore, our study tested subject and object relatives, subject and object Wh-questions, passive sentences, and topicalized sentences, as well as sentences with verb movement to second sentential position. We tested 19 HI children aged 9;5–13;6 and compared their performance with hearing children using comprehension tasks of sentence-picture matching and sentence repetition tasks. For the comprehension tasks, we included HI children who passed an auditory discrimination task; for the sentence repetition tasks, we selected children who passed a screening task of simple sentence repetition without lip-reading; this made sure that they could perceive the words in the tests, so that we could test their grammatical abilities. The results clearly showed that most of the participants with HI had considerable difficulties in the comprehension and repetition of sentences with syntactic movement: they had significant difficulties understanding object relatives, Wh-questions, and topicalized sentences, and in the repetition of object who and which questions and subject relatives, as well as in sentences with verb movement to second sentential position. Repetition of passives was only problematic for some children. Object relatives were still difficult at this age for both HI and hearing children. An additional important outcome of the study is that not all sentence structures are impaired—passive structures were not problematic for most of the HI children
Clinical, Angiographic, and Procedural Predictors of Angiographic Restenosis After Sirolimus-Eluting Stent Implantation in Complex Patients: An Evaluation From the Rapamycin-Eluting Stent Evaluated At Rotterdam Cardiology Hospital (RESEARCH) Study

Background—The factors associated with the occurrence of restenosis after sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantation in complex cases are currently unknown. Methods and Results—A cohort of consecutive complex patients treated with SES implantation was selected according to the following criteria: (1) treatment of acute myocardial infarction, (2) treatment of in-stent restenosis, (3) 2.25-mm diameter SES, (4) left main coronary stenting, (5) chronic total occlusion, (6) stented segment >36 mm, and (7) bifurcation stenting. The present study population was composed of 238 patients (441 lesions) for whom 6-month angiographic follow-up data were obtained (70% of eligible patients). Significant clinical, angiographic, and procedural predictors of post-SES restenosis were evaluated. Binary in-segment restenosis was diagnosed in 7.9% of lesions (6.3% in-stent, 0.9% at the proximal edge, 0.7% at the distal edge). The following characteristics were identified as independent multivariate predictors: treatment of in-stent restenosis (OR 4.16, 95% CI 1.63 to 11.01; P <0.01), ostial location (OR 4.84, 95% CI 1.81 to 12.07; P <0.01), diabetes (OR 2.63, 95% CI 1.14 to 6.31; P =0.02), total stented length (per 10-mm increase; OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.68; P <0.01), reference diameter (per 1.0-mm increase; OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.87; P =0.03), and left anterior descending artery (OR 0.30, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.69; P <0.01). Conclusions—Angiographic restenosis after SES implantation in complex patients is an infrequent event, occurring mainly in association with lesion-based characteristics and diabetes mellitus.
Spanners for Directed Transmission Graphs

Let $P \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ be a planar $n$-point set such that each point $p \in P$ has an associated radius $r_p > 0$. The transmission graph $G$ for $P$ is the directed graph with vertex set $P$ such that for any $p, q \in P$, there is an edge from $p$ to $q$ if and only if $d(p, q) \leq r_p$. Let $t > 1$ be a constant. A $t$-spanner for $G$ is a subgraph $H \subseteq G$ with vertex set $P$ so that for any two vertices $p,q \in P$, we have $d_H(p, q) \leq t d_G(p, q)$, where $d_H$ and $d_G$ denote the shortest path distance in $H$ and $G$, respectively (with Euclidean edge lengths). We show how to compute a $t$-spanner for $G$ with $O(n)$ edges in $O(n (\log n + \log \Psi))$ time, where $\Psi$ is the ratio of the largest and smallest radius of a point in $P$. Using more advanced data structures, we obtain a construction that runs in $O(n \log^5 n)$ time, independent of $\Psi$. We give two applications for our spanners. First, we show how to use our spanner to find a BFS tree in $G$ from any given star.
Correlation of 1/ƒ noise and high-voltage-stress-induced degradation in LDMOS

1/f noise observed on differently processed high-power, RESURF LDMOS transistors has been correlated with degradation in the drain current and transconductance induced by DC stressing. The effects of stressing are analyzed on individual resistance and noise components in the channel and in the extended drain regions under the gate and field oxides. It has been found that the LDMOS does not follow conventional CMOS noise models due to asymmetric extended drain. A physical model has been derived for the fluctuations in such devices in the lights of Unified 1/f Noise Model. The increase in 1/f noise was found to emerge earlier and in a more pronounced manner in the noise components compared to degradation observed in DC parameters. Such severe noise degradation directly impacts the dielectric-Si interface quality and reliability and eventually affects the device lifetime.
CONVERGENT EVOLUTION OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN SKULL SHAPE USING DISTINCT DEVELOPMENTAL STRATEGIES

Studies integrating evolutionary and developmental analyses of morphological variation are of growing interest to biologists as they promise to shed fresh light on the mechanisms of morphological diversification. Sexually dimorphic traits tend to be incredibly divergent across taxa. Such diversification must arise through evolutionary modifications to sex differences during development. Nevertheless, few studies of dimorphism have attempted to synthesize evolutionary and developmental perspectives. Using geometric morphometric analysis of head shape for 50 Anolis species, we show that two clades have converged on extreme levels of sexual dimorphism through similar, male‐specific changes in facial morphology. In both clades, males have evolved highly elongate faces whereas females retain faces of more moderate proportion. This convergence is accomplished using distinct developmental mechanisms; one clade evolved extreme dimorphism through the exaggeration of a widely shared, potentially ancestral, developmental strategy whereas the other clade evolved a novel developmental strategy not observed elsewhere in the genus. Together, our analyses indicate that both shared and derived features of development contribute to macroevolutionary patterns of morphological diversity among Anolis lizards.
Time domain passivity control of haptic interfaces

An energy-based method is presented for controlling a haptic interface system to ensure stable contact under a wide variety of operating conditions. System stability is analyzed in terms of the time-domain definition of passivity. We define a "passivity observer" (PO) which measures energy flow in and out of one or more subsystems in real-time software. Active behavior is indicated by a negative value of the PO at any time. We also define the "passivity controller" (PC), an adaptive dissipative element which, at each time sample, absorbs exactly the net energy output (if any) measured by the PO. The method is tested with simulation and implementation in the "Excalibur" haptic interface system. Totally stable operation was achieved under conditions such as stiffness >100 N/mm or time delays of 15 ms. The PO/PC method requires very little additional computation and does not require a dynamical model to be identified.
Some Applications of Metamaterial Resonators Based on Symmetry Properties

Metamaterial resonators are electrically small resonant particles useful for the implementation of effective media metamaterials. In this paper, some applications of metamaterial resonators (such as the split ring resonator -SRR-, the complementary split ring resonator -CSRR-, the folded stepped impedance resonator -SIR-, and the electric LC resonator), that exploit the symmetry properties of transmission lines loaded with such symmetric particles, are reviewed. This covers differential (balanced) lines with common mode suppression, linear and angular displacement sensors (including alignment sensors), angular velocity sensors, and radiofrequency barcodes. Advantages and drawbacks as compared to existing implementations are also discussed.
Supplemental material : Robust descent using smoothed multiplicative noise

No algorithm can achieve arbitrarily good performance across all possible distributions [11]. In order to obtain meaningful theoretical results, we must place conditions on the underlying distribution, as well as the model and objective functions used. We give concrete examples to illustrate that these assumptions are reasonable, and that they include scenarios that allow for both sub-Gaussian and heavy-tailed data.
Analysis of Interrogator-tag Communication Protocols

In this document we discuss and analyze three different Interrogator-Tag communication protocols. The first protocol is used in the AMQM (Automatic Mail Quality Measurement) system. The second protocol is based on the ISO 180007 standard, which specifies the protocol and parameters for active RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) air interface communication at the 433MHz ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) band. The third protocol is the AMQM protocol with some features of the ISO 18000-7 standard. Quantitative properties of the protocols are analyzed. The main goal of modelling is to analyze tag message collision probability and power consumption. The model is verified by PRISM Probabilistic Model Check Software. We showed that by implementing principles of model checking, we could verify probability of reaching a particular state, calculate collision probability as quantitative property, and cost of reaching determined state. We also showed that model of the protocol could be used to estimate possible improvement in a one protocol by implementing features from another protocol.
Roughness feeling telepresence system on the basis of real-time estimation of surface wavelengths

Tactile telepresence has been expected to be technology which encourages operators of robotic systems to remotely maneuver objects or recognize materials being touched through robotic arms. In remote environments, temporal disparity in tactile sensations is caused by temporal latency between a touch motion of the operator and a tactile stimulus applied on him. A framework of tactile telepresence systems, which is suitable in remote environments, has been proposed in the present paper. In the framework, a tactile display locally generates the tactile stimulus in synchronization with the touch motion of the operator in order to cancel communication delay. The tactile stimulus is generated by combining the motion and tactile factors, which are sensed by a tactile sensor. The factors are characteristic parameters of objects and effect on tactile sensations. In the present paper, physical parameters of the objects are selected as the factors because the tactile stimuli can be computed using physical models involving the motions and the parameters. Based on the proposed framework, a roughness feeling telepresence system was implemented and successfully transferred a roughness factor to the operator.
The architecture of digital labour platforms: policy recommendations on platform design for worker well-being

Digital labour platforms connect workers with consumers of this work and provide the infrastructure and the governance conditions for the exchange of work and its compensation. Yet the architecture, or business model design, of digital labour platforms has important consequences for workers, affecting whether they are empowered or exploited on the platform. This paper explores the business model design choices of digital labour platforms and which attributes - particularly the centralization of power, policies to retain consumers and workers and monitoring and reward systems - contribute to worker well-being. It puts forth policy recommendations for improving working conditions on digital labour platforms, addressing concerns such as the asymmetry of information, data access and usage rights, which can improve the fairness and conditions of platform work.