Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mesencephalic dopamine neurons interfacing the shell of nucleus accumbens and the dorsolateral striatum in the rat

Parallel corticostriatonigral circuits have been proposed that separately process motor, cognitive, and emotional‐motivational information. Functional integration requires that interactions exist between neurons participating in these circuits. This makes it imperative to study the complex anatomical substrate underlying corticostriatonigral circuits. It has previously been proposed that dopaminergic neurons in the ventral mesencephalon may play a role in this circuit interaction. Therefore, we studied in rats convergence of basal ganglia circuits by depositing an anterograde neuroanatomical tracer into the ventral striatum together with a retrograde fluorescent tracer ipsilaterally in the dorsolateral striatum. In the mesencephalon, using confocal microscopy, we looked for possible appositions of anterogradely labeled fibers and retrogradely labeled neurons, “enhancing” the latter via intracellular injection of Lucifer Yellow. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunofluorescence served to identify dopaminergic neurons. In neurophysiological experiments, we combined orthodromic stimulation in the medial ventral striatum with recording from ventral mesencephalic neurons characterized by antidromic stimulation from the dorsal striatum. We observed terminal fields of anterogradely labeled fibers that overlap populations of retrogradely labeled nigrostriatal cell bodies in the substantia nigra pars compacta and lateral ventral tegmental area (VTA), with numerous close appositions between boutons of anterogradely labeled fibers and nigrostriatal, TH‐immunopositive neurons. Neurophysiological stimulation in the medial ventral striatum caused inhibition of dopaminergic nigrostriatal neurons projecting to the ventrolateral striatal territory. Responding nigrostriatal neurons were located in the medial substantia nigra and adjacent VTA. Our results strongly suggest a functional link between ventromedial, emotional‐motivational striatum, and the sensorimotor dorsal striatum via dopaminergic nigrostriatal neurons.
Modelling, Identification, and Compensation of Complex Hysteretic and log(t)-Type Creep Nonlinearities

Undesired complex hysteretic nonlinearities and complex log(t)-type creep dynamics are present to varying degrees in virtually all smart-material based sensors and actuators provided that they are driven with sufficiently high amplitudes. In motion and active vibration control applications, for example, these nonlinearities can excite unwanted dynamics which leads in the best case to reduced closed-loop system performance and in the worst case to unstable closed-loop system operation. This necessitates the development of purely phenomenological models which characterize these types of nonlinearities and dynamics in a way which is sufficiently accurate, robust, amenable to control design for compensation and efficient enough for use in real-time applications. To fulfil these demanding requirements the present paper describes a new compensator design method for combined complex hysteretic nonlinearities and complex log(t)-type creep dynamics based on the so-called PrandtlIshlinskii approach. The underlying parameter identification problem which has to be solved to obtain a suitable compensator can be represented by a quadratic optimization problem which produces the best least-square approximation for the measured input-output data of the
Optimising Cell Aggregate Expansion in a Perfused Hollow Fibre Bioreactor via Mathematical Modelling

The need for efficient and controlled expansion of cell populations is paramount in tissue engineering. Hollow fibre bioreactors (HFBs) have the potential to meet this need, but only with improved understanding of how operating conditions and cell seeding strategy affect cell proliferation in the bioreactor. This study is designed to assess the effects of two key operating parameters (the flow rate of culture medium into the fibre lumen and the fluid pressure imposed at the lumen outlet), together with the cell seeding distribution, on cell population growth in a single-fibre HFB. This is achieved using mathematical modelling and numerical methods to simulate the growth of cell aggregates along the outer surface of the fibre in response to the local oxygen concentration and fluid shear stress. The oxygen delivery to the cell aggregates and the fluid shear stress increase as the flow rate and pressure imposed at the lumen outlet are increased. Although the increased oxygen delivery promotes growth, the higher fluid shear stress can lead to cell death. For a given cell type and initial aggregate distribution, the operating parameters that give the most rapid overall growth can be identified from simulations. For example, when aggregates of rat cardiomyocytes that can tolerate shear stresses of up to are evenly distributed along the fibre, the inlet flow rate and outlet pressure that maximise the overall growth rate are predicted to be in the ranges to (equivalent to to ) and to (or 15.6 psi to 15.7 psi) respectively. The combined effects of the seeding distribution and flow on the growth are also investigated and the optimal conditions for growth found to depend on the shear tolerance and oxygen demands of the cells.
High-Tech Tissue Culture Techniques for Mass Production of Nucellar Plants Of Citrus Jambhiri

Despite extensive research done on nuclear embryogenesis in citrus, a major snag remains unsolved that the nuclear embryo proliferation does not lead to production of even a fraction of the number of globular embryos formed initially. During further proliferation, mostly normal differentiation of embryos gets drowned in the mass of proliferating cotyledonary structures. The present experimentation is mainly aimed to resolve this problem and produce sufficient number of nucellar plantlets per culture. The significance of nucellar embryogenesis, particularly in case of rootstocks can hardly be over emphasized. However, it is also significant in case of C. jambhiri, where commercial use of its nucellars for raising orchards is in practice. Nucellus is a somatic tissue having a genetic makeup similarly to the vegetative plant body. The culture of nucellar tissue and augmentation and induction of nucellar polyembryony have initially been the main focus of research. However, the associated extended juvenile characteristics of nucellar plantlets, if not slightly poor quality of fruit, restrict the application of in vitro nucellar embryogenesis to rootstocks only, since both such characteristics will not be of any consequence while virus-free rootstocks will be produced at a rapid rate throughout the year, which in turn is imperative for all the year round production of micrografts. When critically examined, the nucellar embryonal proliferation, i.e., embryo-to-embryo multiplication is an uncommon phenomenon. Instead, there is cotyledonary proliferation forming resette-like structures having a single radicle with pluricotyly, which is a big snag in production of nucellar plantlets.
TexTraCC : Text extraction using color-based connected component labeling

This paper describes a novel method for extraction of colored text from natural scene images. The core segment of the method involves a two-fold smoothing of the color pixels performed along the row and columns sequentially. The 0-1 and 1-0 transitions in the edge image are analyzed to obtain the runlengths of 0s and 1s in each row and column of the image. The smoothed image is obtained by replacing each edge segment by the median of the color values of pixels in that particular segment. A color-based connected component labeling is then performed on the smoothed image and the stroke width and color information of the resulting components are used to identify the foreground text components. The method is tested on word images from the ICDAR 2003 robust reading competition dataset and is found to enhance the recognition accuracy significantly.
Strengthening Enforcement in Unemployment Insurance: A Natural Experiment

Enforcing the compliance with job search obligations is a core task of conditional benefit systems like unemployment insurance (UI) or welfare. For targeted policy design, it is key to understand how the enforcement regime affects job search outcomes. This paper provides first estimates that separately identify the effects of increasing enforcement strictness in UI. As a natural experiment, we exploit a reform which induced a sharp and unanticipated increase in the probability of being sanctioned after the failure to document job search effort. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that the probability of job finding within six months increases by 6 percentage points in response to the policy change. This effect comes at the cost of lower job stability. As a consequence, early job finders experience losses in total earnings driven by fewer months in employment within the considered post-unemployment period. We use these estimates to quantify the elasticities to changes in enforcement strictness, trading off the short-run gains (job finding) against the mid-run costs (job quality).
CeleLabel: an interactive system for annotating celebrities in web videos

Manual annotation of celebrities in Web videos is an essential task in many people-related Web services. The task, however, poses a significant challenge even to skillful annotators, mainly due to the large quantity of unfamiliar and greatly varied celebrities, and the lack of a customized system for it. This work develops CeleLabel, an interactive system for manually annotating celebrities in the Web video domain. The peculiarity of CeleLabel is to exploit and display multiple types of information that could assist the annotation, including video content, context surrounding and within a video, celebrity images on the Web, and human factors. Using the system, annotators can interactively switch between two views, i.e., merging similar faces and labeling faces with names, to approach the annotation. User studies show that the CeleLabel leads to a much better labeling efficiency and satisfaction.
Finding multiple optimal solutions to optimal load distribution problem in hydropower plant

Optimal load distribution (OLD) among generator units of a hydropower plant is a vital task for hydropower generation scheduling and management. Traditional optimization methods for solving this problem focus on finding a single optimal solution. However, many practical constraints on hydropower plant operation are very difficult, if not impossible, to be modeled, and the optimal solution found by those models might be of limited practical uses. This motivates us to find multiple optimal solutions to the OLD problem, which can provide more flexible choices for decision-making. Based on a special dynamic programming model, we use a modified shortest path algorithm to produce multiple solutions to the problem. It is shown that multiple optimal solutions exist for the case study of China’s Geheyan hydropower plant, and they are valuable for assessing the stability of generator units, showing the potential of reducing occurrence times of units across vibration areas.
Boat anchoring contributes to coral reef degradation in the British Virgin Islands

Habitat degradation is occurring the world over, threatening species, population dynamics, ecosystem function and valuable ecosystem services. This degradation is in many cases linked to anthropogenic activities, which often reduce a habitat’s resilience to other stressors. Coral reef decline, for example, has been linked to climate change, pollution, and overfishing. Few studies have focused on the localscale physical drivers of coral decline, such as anchoring. As global human population and the popularity of water-based recreation continue to rise, the potential for anchoring to contribute to coastal habitat degradation increases. We sought to determine the potential impact of anchoring to coral reefs by conducting a spatial survey of sites that represent a gradient of anchoring activity in the British Virgin Islands. We collected data on benthic community composition, coral colony size and density, species richness and abundance. We also evaluated reef rugosity and fish population densities. Cover of hard corals and sea fans were both reduced by ~7% at highly anchored sites. Hard corals were ~40% smaller in size and ~60% less dense at sites experiencing high anchoring frequency. In addition, highly anchored sites supported only ~60% of the species richness of little anchored sites. Finally, frequently anchored sites were ~60% as structurally complex and supported only 45% of the fish density as those rarely anchored, with some fish functional groups more affected than others. Anchoring is a major driver of reef community decline, but it is also a relatively tractable management issue. Knowing how local, physical anthropogenic stressors contribute to reef decline can inform management that will promote reef resilience, ecological function, and ecosystem services.
Comparison Between Robust PID and Predictive PI Controllers with Constrained Control Signal Noise Sensitivity

A performance comparison between PID and predictive PI (PPI) controllers, i.e., two different prediction methods, is presented. Optimization of controller and measurement filter parameters, considering load disturbance rejection, robustness and noise sensitivity, is performed for a batch of industrially representative processes. For a majority of the processes and the constraints chosen, results show that the performances of the controllers are similar. However, the PID controller yields better performance for processes where increased phase and gain may be achieved over a wider frequency interval than what is possible by the PPI controller.
Fingerprint attack against touch-enabled devices

Oily residues left by tapping fingers on a touch screen may breach user privacy. In this paper, we introduce the fingerprint attack against touch-enabled devices. We dust the touch screen surface to reveal fingerprints, and use an iPhone camera to carefully photograph fingerprints while striving to remove the virtual image of the phone from the fingerprint image. We then sharpen the fingerprints in an image via various image processing techniques and design effective algorithms to automatically map fingerprints to a keypad in order to infer tapped passwords. Extensive experiments were conducted on iPad, iPhone and Android phone and the results show that the fingerprint attack is effective and efficient in inferring passwords from fingerprint images. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first using fingerprint powder on touch screen and inferring passwords from fingerprints. Video at http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=vRUbJIcV9vg shows the dusting process on iPhone and video at http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=6jS6KroER3Y shows the dusting process on iPad. After dusting, password characters for login are clearly disclosed.
Platinum-Based Nanovectors Engineered with Immuno-Modulating Adjuvant for Inhibiting Tumor growth and Promoting Immunity

Although there is ample evidence that the chemotherapeutic drugs trigger an immune response, the efficient tumor rejection or regression is not guaranteed probably due to the massive immunosuppression within the tumor microenvironment. Thus, a rational delivery platform that overcomes immunosuppression is needed to maximally achieve both cytotoxic and immune-modulatory functions of chemotherapeutics. Accumulating evidence suggests that platinum-based drugs might be suitable for this application. Methods: The dendrigraft polylysine (DGL) with its uniform size and multifunctional groups was employed as the polymeric core and conjugated with platinum-based compounds as therapeutics and WKYMVm peptide (Wpep) as a targeting ligand to construct the novel delivery platform Wpep-DGL/Pt. A series of in vitro and in vivo analyses, including physical and chemical characterizations, targeting property, biosafety, and antitumor efficacy of Wpep-DGL/Pt were systematically carried out. Results: Wpep-DGL/Pt showed potent antitumor efficacy in MDA-MB-231 cells tumor-bearing nude mice with a deficient immune system, demonstrating targeted delivery of chemotherapeutics and the resultant cytotoxicity. Furthermore, in immunocompetent mice bearing 4T1 cells tumors, Wpep-DGL/Pt activated immune cells and induced cell death proving their dual function of chemotherapeutic and immunomodulatory efficacy. Conclusion: This work represents a novel approach for cancer immunotherapy by integrating nanotechnology and platinum-based therapeutics which not only efficiently exerts the chemotherapeutic cytotoxic effect on tumor cell but also restores immune response of immunological cells within the tumor microenvironment.
Performance and Evaluation of Companding Transform for PAPR Reduction in OFDM under Nonlinear Distortions

In this paper we mainly focused on BER and peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in OFDM by using Nonlinear Companding transform (NCT). Among various companding techniques NCT is an attractive solution to reduce the PAPR of OFDM signal . The proposed algorithm offers an improved BER and minimize out-ofband distortions while reducing PAPR effectively under the AWGN, Rician multipath fading and ETU channels. Theoretical analysis and computer simulations are presented.
NaHS Protects Cochlear Hair Cells from Gentamicin-Induced Ototoxicity by Inhibiting the Mitochondrial Apoptosis Pathway

Aminoglycoside antibiotics such as gentamicin could cause ototoxicity in mammalians, by inducing oxidative stress and apoptosis in sensory hair cells of the cochlea. Sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) is reported to alleviate oxidative stress and apoptosis, but its role in protecting aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss is unclear. In this study, we investigated the anti-oxidant and anti-apoptosis effect of NaHS in in vitro cultured House Ear Institute-Organ of Corti 1 (HEI-OC1) cells and isolated mouse cochlea. Results from cultured HEI-OC1 cells and cochlea consistently indicated that NaHS exhibited protective effects from gentamicin-induced ototoxicity, evident by maintained cell viability, hair cell number and cochlear morphology, reduced reactive oxygen species production and mitochondrial depolarization, as well as apoptosis activation of the intrinsic pathway. Moreover, in the isolated cochlear culture, NaHS was also demonstrated to protect the explant from gentamicin-induced mechanotransduction loss. Our study using multiple in vitro models revealed for the first time, the potential of NaHS as a therapeutic agent in protecting against aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss.
Cycling assay for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotides: NaCl precipitation and ethanol solubilization of the reduced tetrazolium.

The spectrophotometric cycling assay for the determination of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotides involving 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide as the final electron acceptor has been improved. The enzyme reaction is stopped by the addition of high concentrated NaCl, which accelerates the precipitation of the formazan. After isolation from the assay medium, the formazan is easily solubilized in ethanol. This allows more flexibility and sensitivity, offering additionally the possibility to reduce the amount of reagents required. This method was applied for extracts of green tissues of higher plants, and the results did not differ from those obtained with the original procedure.
Commitment The Things You Do for Me : Perceptions of a Romantic Partner ' s Investments Promote Gratitude and

Although a great deal of attention has been paid to the role of people’s own investment in promoting relationship commitment, less research has considered the possible role of the partner’s investments. An experiment (Study 1) and two combined daily experience and longitudinal studies (Studies 2 and 3) documented that perceived investments from one partner motivate the other partner to further commit to the relationship. All three studies provided support for gratitude as a mechanism of this effect. These effects held even for individuals who were relatively less satisfied with their relationships. Together, these results suggest that people feel particularly grateful for partners who they perceive to have invested into the relationship, which, in turn, motivates them to further commit to the relationship. Implications for research and theory on gratitude and relationship commitment are discussed.
Automatic quantification of neo-vasculature from micro-CT

Angiogenesis is the process of formation of new blood vessels as outgrowths of pre-existing ones. It occurs naturally during development, tissue repair, and abnormally in pathologic diseases such as cancer. It is associated with proliferation of blood vessels/tubular sprouts that penetrate deep into tissues to supply nutrients and remove waste products. The process starts with migration of endothelial cells. As the cells move towards the target area they form small tubular sprouts recruited from the parent vessel. The sprouts grow in length due to migration, proliferation, and recruitment of new endothelial cells and the process continues until the target area becomes fully vascular. Accurate quantification of sprout formation is very important for evaluation of treatments for ischemia as well as angiogenesis inhibitors and plays a key role in the battle against cancer. This paper presents a technique for automatic quantification of newly formed blood vessels from Micro-CT volumes of tumor samples. A semiautomatic technique based on interpolation of Bezier curves was used to segment out the cancerous growths. Small vessels as determined by their diameter within the segmented tumors were enhanced and quantified with a multi-scale 3-D line detection filter. The same technique can be easily extended for quantification of tubular structures in other 3-D medical imaging modalities. Experimental results are presented and discussed.
Switchable liquid shutter for security and design of mobile electronic devices

This paper presents a new type of switchable liquid shutter for the security and design of mobile devices. The switching operation with sequential EWOD actuation and its response time are investigated using high-speed images. The operation of the liquid shutter mounted on a smartphone is successfully demonstrated for a proof of concept. The proposed liquid shutter not only allows a simple design to be easily miniaturized and integrated with electronic devices but also provides fast and robust switching operation.
Barycenters of measures transported by stochastic flows

We investigate the evolution of barycenters of masses transported by stochastic flows. The state spaces under consideration are smooth affine manifolds with certain convexity structure. Under suitable conditions on the flow and on the initial measure, the barycenter {Zt} is shown to be a semimartingale and is described by a stochastic differential equation. For the hyperbolic space the barycenter of two independent Brownian particles is a martingale and its conditional law converges to that of a Brownian motion on the limiting geodesic. On the other hand for a large family of discrete measures on suitable Cartan–Hadamard manifolds, the barycenter of the measure carried by an unstable Brownian flow converges to the Busemann barycenter of the limiting measure.