Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thalamic Involvement in Fluctuating Cognition in Dementia with Lewy Bodies: Magnetic Resonance Evidences

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is characterized by fluctuation in cognition and attention. Thalamocortical connectivity and integrity of thalami are central to attentional function. We hypothesize that DLB patients with marked and frequent fluctuating cognition (flCog) have a loss of thalamocortical connectivity, an intrinsic disruption to thalamic structure and imbalances in thalamic neurotransmitter levels. To test this, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and proton MR spectroscopy on thalami were performed on 16 DLB, 16 Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 13 healthy subjects. MRI and DTI were combined to subdivide thalami according to their cortical connectivity and to investigate microstructural changes in connectivity-defined thalamic regions. Compared with controls, lower N-acetyl-aspartate/total creatine (NAA/tCr) and higher total choline/total creatine (tCho/tCr) values were observed within thalami of DLB patients. tCho/tCr increase was found within right thalamus of DLB patients as compared with AD. This increase correlated with severity and frequency of flCog. As compared with controls, DLB patients showed bilateral damage within thalamic regions projecting to prefrontal and parieto-occipital cortices, whereas AD patients showed bilateral alteration within thalamic region projecting to temporal cortex. We posit that microstructural thalamic damage and cholinergic imbalance may be central to the etiology of flCog in DLB.
Asian Intercultural Marriage Couples in the United States

Asian-involved intercultural couples are increasing as society becomes more open and accepting of intercultural relationships. Although issues and conflicts exist due to cultural differences, acculturation and personality characteristics may strengthen intercultural relationships. Ninety-two Asian and non-Asian individuals in Asian couples and Asian intercultural couples in the United States were compared based on the level of marital satisfaction, the level of acculturation, and personality characteristics. Findings indicated no differences in the level of marital satisfaction. However, significantly higher levels of acculturation in Asians in Asian intercultural couples and significantly higher levels of openness, conscientiousness, and extroversion in individuals in Asian intercultural couples were evident.
Link prediction on evolving social network using spectral analysis

This paper revisits the spectral based link prediction problem of evolutionary social networks reported in [9] and focuses on addressing two empirically observed issues which affect the prediction performance. First, the assumption that eigenvectors are constant over time is not valid for lower order eigenvectors and eigenvectors evolve over time as network evolves. A regression based method is proposed to predict evolving eigenvectors. Second, the spectral condition that higher order eigenvalues are greater than or equal to lower order eigenvalues may not be guaranteed by traditional curve fitting. Two smoothing methods are proposed to address this issue. From various experiments using two large datasets namely DBLP and Facebook, it is observed that proposed methods enhance prediction performance as compared to that of their counterparts.
The Serine Protease Plasmin Triggers Expression of the CC-Chemokine Ligand 20 in Dendritic Cells via Akt/NF-κB-Dependent Pathways

The number of dendritic cells is increased in advanced atherosclerotic lesions. In addition, plasmin, which might stimulate dendritic cells, is generated in atherosclerotic lesions. Here, we investigated cytokine and chemokine induction by plasmin in human dendritic cells. In human atherosclerotic vessel sections, plasmin colocalized with dendritic cells and the CC-chemokine ligand 20 (CCL20, MIP-3α), which is important for homing of lymphocytes and dendritic cells to sites of inflammation. Stimulation of human dendritic cells with plasmin, but not with catalytically inactivated plasmin, induced transcriptional regulation of CCL20. By contrast, proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL-1β were not induced. The plasmin-mediated CCL20 expression was preceded by activation of Akt and MAP kinases followed by activation of the transcription factor NF-κB as shown by phosphorylation of its inhibitor IκBα, by nuclear localization of p65, its phosphorylation, and binding to NF-κB consensus sequences. The plasmin-induced CCL20 expression was dependent on Akt- and ERK1/2-mediated phosphorylation of IκBα on Ser32/36 and of p65 on Ser276, whereas p38 MAPK appeared to be dispensable. Thus, plasmin triggers release of the chemokine CCL20 from dendritic cells, which might facilitate accumulation of CCR6+ immune cells in areas of plasmin generation such as inflamed tissues including atherosclerotic lesions.
Life history and biology of Fascioloides magna (Trematoda) and its native and exotic hosts

Host–parasite interactions are model systems in a wide range of ecological and evolutionary fields and may be utilized for testing numerous theories and hypotheses in terms of both applied and fundamental research. For instance, they are important in terms of studying coevolutionary arms races, species invasions, and in economic terms the health of livestock and humans. Here, I present a comprehensive description of the life history, biogeography, and biology of the giant liver fluke, Fascioloides magna, and both its intermediate and definitive hosts. F. magna is native to North America where it uses several species of freshwater snails (Lymnaeidae) as intermediate hosts and four main species of ungulates as definitive hosts. The fluke has also been introduced into parts of Europe where it is now established in two lymnaeid snail species and three ungulate species. This study gives a comprehensive description of different developmental stages of the fluke in its two host classes, as well as detailed notes on historical and present distributions of F. magna in North America and Europe as well as in its snail and deer hosts (with range maps provided). Aberrant and dead-end hosts are also discussed in detail, and descriptive phylogenies are provided for all of the organisms. I briefly discuss how F. magna represents a model example of multiple-level ecological fitting, a phenomenon not yet described in the empirical literature. Lastly, I explore possible future scenarios for fluke invasion in Europe, where it is currently expanding its range.
γ-rays from the IC e± pair cascade in the radiation field of an accretion disc: application to Cen A

The very short time-scale variability of TeV γ -ray emission from active galaxies suggests that the acceleration process of particles and the production of primary γ -rays likely occur relatively close to the accretion disc. We calculate the γ -ray spectra produced in an inverse Compton e ± pair cascade initiated by primary γ -rays which are injected close to the surface of the accretion disc. Possible synchrotron energy losses of secondary cascade e ± pairs are also taken into account. Since the soft radiation field is anisotropic, the resulting γ -ray spectra strongly depend on the observation angle. We investigate their basic properties for different parameters describing such a model. The model is applied to the misaligned blazar Cen A recently detected in the TeV γ -rays. We conclude on the site of the γ -ray emission region in Cen A based on the comparison of the model with the observations of this source in the GeV–TeV energy range.
Event reliability in Wireless Sensor Networks

Ensuring reliable transport of data in resource constrained Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is one of the primary concerns. The two reliability mechanisms typically used in WSNs are packet reliability and event reliability. Packet reliability requires all packets from all the sensor nodes to reach the sink that can result in wastage of sensors' limited energy resources. The sensing regions of densely deployed sensor nodes often overlap with one another and data from nodes that are in close proximity tend to exhibit high level of spatial locality. This introduces the concept of event reliability where a reliable transfer of event data from each sensing region in a sensor network is sufficient. This paper proposes the Event Reliability Protocol (ERP) that enables reliable transfer of packets containing information about an event to the sink while minimizing similar redundant packets from nodes in the vicinity of one another. ERP builds on the spatial locality condition and employs an implicit acknowledgement (iACK) mechanism with region-based selective retransmissions. The performance of ERP is evaluated and compared against a commonly used iACK scheme to show that ERP significantly improves event information delivery and network scalability, thus maintaining good coverage of events in the sensor network.
Reliable communication over channels with insertions, deletions, and substitutions

A new block code is introduced which is capable of correcting multiple insertion, deletion, and substitution errors. The code consists of nonlinear inner codes, which we call "watermark"" codes, concatenated with low-density parity-check codes over nonbinary fields. The inner code allows probabilistic resynchronization and provides soft outputs for the outer decoder, which then completes decoding. We present codes of rate 0.7 and transmitted length 5000 bits that can correct 30 insertion/deletion errors per block. We also present codes of rate 3/14 and length 4600 bits that can correct 450 insertion/deletion errors per block.
Nicotinamide-rich diet improves physical endurance by up-regulating SUR2A in the heart

SUR2A is an ATP‐binding protein that serves as a regulatory subunit of cardioprotective ATP‐sensitive K+ (KATP) channels. Based on signalling pathway regulating SUR2A expression and SUR2A role in regulating numbers of fully assembled KATP channels, we have suggested that nicotinamide‐rich diet could improve physical endurance by stimulating SUR2A expression. We have found that mice on nicotinamide‐rich diet significantly improved physical endurance, which was associated with significant increase in expression of SUR2A. Transgenic mice with solely overexpressed SUR2A on control diet had increased physical endurance in a similar manner as the wild‐type mice on nicotinamide‐rich diet. The experiments focused on action membrane potential and intracellular Ca2+ concentration have demonstrated that increased SUR2A expression was associated with the activation of sarcolemmal KATP channels and steady Ca2+ levels in cardiomyocytes in response to β‐adrenergic stimulation. In contrast, the same challenge in the wild‐type was characterized by a lack of the channel activation and rise in intracellular Ca2+. Nicotinamide‐rich diet was ineffective to increase physical endurance in mice lacking KATP channels. This study has shown that nicotinamide‐rich diet improves physical endurance by increasing expression of SUR2A and that this is a sole mechanism of the nicotinamide‐rich diet effect. The obtained results suggest that oral nicotinamide is a regulator of SUR2A expression and has a potential as a drug that can improve physical endurance in conditions where this effect would be desirable.
Speckle Reduction in SAR images using Wavelet Transform and Bivariate Shrinkage Function

Speckle noise is an important aspect of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery because it greatly affects the quality of the image captured SAR. Speckle noise may consider as inherent disadvantage involve with SAR systems because of its working principle (coherent imagery). This paper presents a wavelet based technique to filter the speckle noise in the SAR images. The proposed technique involves the wavelet transform with inter-scale dependencies and adaptive thresholding. The simulation result shows that the presented algorithm performs well.
Joint virtual machine assignment and traffic engineering for green data center networks

The popularization of cloud computing brings emergency concern to the energy consumption in big data centers. Besides the servers, the energy consumed by the network in a data center is also considerable. Existing works for improving the network energy efficiency are mainly focused on traffic engineering, i.e., consolidating flows and switching off unnecessary devices, which fails to comprehensively consider the unique features in data centers. In this paper, we advocate a joint optimization for achieving energy efficiency of data center networks by proposing a unified optimization framework. In this framework, we consider to take advantage of the application characteristics and topology features, and to integrate virtual machine assignment and traffic engineering. Under this framework, we then devise two efficient algorithms, TE VMA and TER, for assigning virtual machines and routing traffic flows respectively. Knowing the ncommunication patterns of the applications, the TE VMA algorithm is purposeful and can generate desirable traffic conditions for the next-step routing optimization. The TER algorithm makes full use of the hierarchical feature of the topology and is conducted on the multipath routing protocol. The performance of the overall framework is confirmed by both theoretical analysis and simulation results, where up to 50% total energy savings can be achieved, 20% more compared with traffic engineering only approaches.
MICROFILAMENTS IN SPERMATOCYTES OF NEPHROTOMA SUTURALIS

Accumulated evidence from a variety of types of animal cells points to the involvement of a "contractile ring" in constricting cells to form cleavage furrows during cytokinesis (7, 12) . Ultrastructural studies of dividing cells showing microfilaments in close proximity to the plasma membrane in regions where furrows are present suggest that microfilaments may be the structural manifestation of the contractile ring (1, 14, 17, 18, 19) . This hypothesis has been supported by experiments which show that the disruption of the normal course of cytokinesis by the drug cytochalasin B, is associated with the loss of microfilaments (15, 16) .
A Cluster-Based Classifier Ensemble as an Alternative to the Nearest Neighbor Ensemble

The combination of multiple classifiers, commonly referred to as an ensemble, has previously demonstrated the ability to improve overall classification accuracy in many application domains. Some ensemble techniques, however, cannot easily improve the performance of stable classification methods. One such example of a stable classification method is the k Nearest Neighbor (kNN) Classifier. In this paper we propose an alternative to the kNN ensemble method through the use of a clustering technique applied for the purpose of selecting the neighborhood of a new instance. In addition, a novel combination function based on exponential support (ExSupp) has been introduced. The proposed approach exhibited improved classification results in 16 out 20 data sets which were considered in comparison with a single kNN and a kNN ensemble based approach. Besides higher classification accuracy the proposed method exhibited higher levels of efficiency in terms of classification time.
Expanded target and cofactor repertoire for the transcriptional activator LysM from Sulfolobus

Previously, Lrp-like transcriptional regulator LysM from the hyperthermoacidophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus was proposed to have a single target, the lysWXJK operon of lysine biosynthesis, and a single effector molecule, l-lysine. Here we identify ∼70 novel binding sites for LysM in the S. solfataricus genome with a LysM-specific nanobody-based chromatin immunoprecipitation assay coupled to microarray hybridization (ChIP-chip) and in silico target site prediction using an energy-based position weight matrix, and validate these findings with in vitro binding. LysM binds to intergenic and coding regions, including promoters of various amino acid biosynthesis and transport genes. We confirm that l-lysine is the most potent effector molecule that reduces, but does not completely abolish, LysM binding, and show that several other amino acids and derivatives, including d-lysine, l-arginine, l-homoarginine, l-glutamine and l-methionine and branched-chain amino acids l-leucine, l-isoleucine and l-valine, significantly affect DNA-binding properties of LysM. Therefore, it appears from this study that LysM is a much more versatile regulator than previously thought, and that it uses a variety of amino acids to sense nutritional quality of the environment and to modulate expression of the metabolic machinery of Sulfolobus accordingly.
EISI : An extensible security enterprise search system

In enterprise information search environment, sensitivity of data security, diversity of data source and data formats, search for database are especial problems. In view of security and extensibility, the architecture of an enterprise search system named EISI is proposed using metadata technology. The unified description model of heterogeneous information resources in enterprise is proposed for the management of search objects that is unstructured or structured, and the multi-level multi-granular security control is implemented based on the model. EISI is implemented by integrating existed index technology. EISI can adjust itself to the change of data source and data formats. The results of practical application indicate that both structured data and unstructured data can be searched in security, moreover the requirements of data search can be met effectively.
ARCHANGEL Galaxy Photometry System

Photometry of galaxies has typically focused on small, faint systems due to their interest for cosmological studies. Large angular size galaxies, on the other hand, offer a more detailed view into the properties of galaxies, but bring a series of computational and technical difficulties that inhibit the general astronomer from extracting all the information found in a detailed galaxy image. To this end, a new galaxy photometry system has been developed (mostly building on tools and techniques that have existed in the community for decades) that combines ease of usage with a mixture of pre-built scripts. The audience for this system is a new user (graduate student or non-optical astronomer) with a fast, built-in learning curve to offer any astronomer, with imaging data, a suite of tools to quickly extract meaningful parameters from decent data. The tools are available either by a client/server web site or by tarball for personal installation. The tools also provide simple scripts to interface with various on-line datasets (e.g. 2MASS, Sloan, DSS) for data mining capability of imaged data. As a proof of concept, we preform a re-analysis of the 2MASS Large Galaxy Atlas to demonstrate the differences in an automated pipeline, with its emphasis on speed, versus this package with an emphasis on accuracy. This comparison finds the structural parameters extracted from the 2MASS pipeline is seriously flawed with scale lengths that are too small by 50% and central surface brightness that are, on average, 1 to 0.5 mags too bright. A cautionary tale on how to reduce information-rich data such as surface brightness profiles. This document and software can be found at this http URL
Convex variational Bayesian inference for large scale generalized linear models

We show how variational Bayesian inference can be implemented for very large generalized linear models. Our relaxation is proven to be a convex problem for any log-concave model. We provide a generic double loop algorithm for solving this relaxation on models with arbitrary super-Gaussian potentials. By iteratively decoupling the criterion, most of the work can be done by solving large linear systems, rendering our algorithm orders of magnitude faster than previously proposed solvers for the same problem. We evaluate our method on problems of Bayesian active learning for large binary classification models, and show how to address settings with many candidates and sequential inclusion steps.
Clicking on trans-translation drug targets

trans-Translation is an attractive target for new antibiotic development because the reaction is required for virulence or viability in many pathogens, and several small molecules that inhibit the pathway have been identified (Ramadoss et al., 2013). A cell-based assay for high-throughput screening has been engineered, enabling screening of diverse libraries for inhibitors that are active in vivo (Ramadoss et al., 2013). The click-based molecular target identification strategy described here should enable rapid advancement through the hit validation process. With these tools available, trans-translation should be pursued as a drug target on many fronts. Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Powdery Mildew Induces Defense-Oriented Reprogramming of the Transcriptome in a Susceptible But Not in a Resistant Grapevine1[W][OA]

Grapevines exhibit a wide spectrum of resistance to the powdery mildew fungus (PM), Erysiphe necator (Schw.) Burr. , but little is known about the transcriptional basis of the defense to PM. Our microscopic observations showed that PM produced less hyphal growth and induced more brown-colored epidermal cells on leaves of PM-resistant Vitis aestivalis ‘Norton’ than on leaves of PM-susceptible Vitis vinifera ‘Cabernet sauvignon’. We found that endogenous salicylic acid levels were higher in V. aestivalis than in V. vinifera in the absence of the fungus and that salicylic acid levels increased in V. vinifera at 120 h postinoculation with PM. To test the hypothesis that gene expression differences would be apparent when V. aestivalis and V. vinifera were mounting a response to PM, we conducted a comprehensive Vitis GeneChip analysis. We examined the transcriptome at 0, 4, 8, 12, 24, and 48 h postinoculation with PM. We found only three PM-responsive transcripts in V. aestivalis and 625 in V. vinifera. There was a significant increase in the abundance of transcripts encoding ENHANCED DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY1, mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase, WRKY, PATHOGENESIS-RELATED1, PATHOGENESIS-RELATED10, and stilbene synthase in PM-infected V. vinifera, suggesting an induction of the basal defense response. The overall changes in the PM-responsive V. vinifera transcriptome also indicated a possible reprogramming of metabolism toward the increased synthesis of the secondary metabolites. These results suggested that resistance to PM in V. aestivalis was not associated with overall reprogramming of the transcriptome. However, PM induced defense-oriented transcriptional changes in V. vinifera.