Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 phosphorylation requirement for cardiomyocyte differentiation in murine embryonic stem cells

Fibroblast growth factor receptor‐1 (Fgfr1) gene knockout impairs cardiac and haematopoietic development in murine embryonic stem cells (mESC). In FGFR1, tyrosine residues Y653 and Y654 are responsible for its tyrosine kinase (TK) activity whereas phosphorylated Y463 and Y766 represent docking sites for intracellular substrates. Aim of this study was the characterization of FGFR1 signalling requirements necessary for cardiomyocyte differentiation in mESC. To this purpose, fgfr1−/− mESC were infected with lentiviral vectors harbouring human wild‐type hFGFR1 or the Y653/654F, Y463F and Y766F hFGFR1 mutants. The resulting embryonic stem (ES) cell lines were differentiated as embryoid bodies (EBs) and beating foci formation was evaluated. In order to appraise the presence of cells belonging to cardiovascular and haematopoietic lineages, specific markers were analysed by quantitative PCR, whole mount in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence. Transduction with TK+ hFGFR1 or the TK+ Y766F‐hFGFR1 mutant rescued cardiomyocyte beating foci formation in fgfr1−/− EBs whereas the TK− Y653/654F‐hFGFR1 mutant and the TK+ Y463F‐hFGFR1 mutant were both ineffective. Analysis of the expression of early and late cardiac markers in differentiating EBs confirmed these observations. At variance with cardiomyocyte differentiation, all the transduced TK+ FGFR1 forms were able to rescue haematopoietic differentiation in EBs originated by infected fgfr1−/− mESC, only the TK− Y653/654F‐hFGFR1 mutant being ineffective. In keeping with these observations, treatment with different signalling pathway inhibitors indicates that protein kinase C and ERK activation are essential for cardiomyocyte but not for haematopoietic differentiation in EBs generated by fgfr1+/−∼ mESC. In conclusion, our results suggest that, although FGFR1 kinase activity is necessary for both cardiac and haematopoietic lineage maturation in mESC, phosphorylation of Y463 in the intracellular domain of the receptor is a specific requirement for cardiomyocyte differentiation.
Environmental effects in galaxies. Molecular gas, star formation, and activity

In order to study whether there is any correlation between nuclear activities, gas content, and the environment where galaxies reside, we have obtained optical and millimetric spectra for a well-defined sample of intermediate Hubble type spirals in dense environments and in the field. We found that these spirals in dense environments have on average: less molecular gas per blue luminosity, a higher atomic gas fraction, lower current star formation rate, and the same star formation efficiency as field galaxies. Although none of these results stands out as a single strong diagnostic given their statistical significance, taken together they indicate a trend for diminished gas content and star-formation activity in galaxies in high-density environments. Our results suggest that galaxies in dense environments have either (i) consumed their molecular gas via star formation in the past or (ii) that dense environments leads to an inhibition of molecular gas from atomic phase. The similarities in star-formation efficiency of the dense environments and field galaxies suggest that the physical processes controling the formation of stars from the molecular gas are local rather than global. We also found that star formation rate per blue luminosity increases linearly as the total amount of gas increases in LINERs. This result, based on a small sample, suggests that LINERs are powered by star formation rather than an AGN.
Therapeutic Uses and Pharmacological Properties of Garlic, Shallot, and Their Biologically Active Compounds

Objective(s): Garlic (Allium sativum L. family Liliaceae) is well known in Iran and its leaves, flowers, and cloves have been used in traditional medicine for a long time. Research in recent decades has shown widespread pharmacological effects of A. sativum and its organosulfur compounds especially Allicin. Studies carried out on the chemical composition of the plant show that the most important constituents of this plant are organosulfur compounds such as allicin, diallyl disulphide, S-allylcysteine, and diallyl trisulfide. Allicin represents one of the most studied among these naturally occurring compounds. In addition to A. sativum, these compounds are also present in A. hirtifolium (shallot) and have been used to treat various diseases. This article reviews the pharmacological effects and traditional uses of A. sativum, A. hirtifolium, and their active constituents to show whether or not they can be further used as potential natural sources for the development of novel drugs. Materials and Methods: For this purpose, the authors went through a vast number of sources and articles and all needed data was gathered. The findings were reviewed and classified on the basis of relevance to the topic and a summary of all effects were reported as tables. Conclusion: Garlic and shallots are safe and rich sources of biologically active compounds with low toxicity. Further studies are needed to confirm the safety and quality of the plants to be used by clinicians as therapeutic agents.
Occlusion Robust and Environment Insensitive Algorithm for Vehicle Detection and Tracking Using Surveillance Video Cameras

With the decreasing price of video cameras and their increased deployment on roadway networks, traffic data collection through video imaging has grown in popularity. Numerous vehicle detection and tracking algorithms have been developed for video sensors. However, most existing algorithms function only within a narrow band of environmental conditions and occlusion-free scenarios. In this study, a novel video-based vehicle detection and tracking algorithm is developed for traffic data collection under a broader range of environmental factors and traffic flow conditions. This algorithm employs a scan-line approach to generate spatio-temporal maps representing vehicle trajectories. Vehicle trajectories are then extracted by determining the Hough lines of the obtained ST-maps and grouping the Hough lines using the connected component analysis method. The algorithm is implemented in C++ using OpenCV and BOOST C++ libraries and is capable of operating in real-time. Over five hours of surveillance video footage was used to test the algorithm. Detection count errors ranged from under 1% in the relatively simple situations to under 15% in highly challenging scenarios. This result is very encouraging because the test video sets were taken under demanding conditions that ordinary video image processing algorithms cannot deal with. This implies that the algorithm is robust and able to produce reasonably accurate vehicle detection results under scenarios with adverse weather conditions and various vehicle occlusions. However, this algorithm requires approximately constant vehicle speed to perform well. Further research is necessary to extend the capabilities of the current algorithm to stop-and-go traffic conditions.
Optimization of technical rules by genetic algorithms: evidence from the Madrid stock market

This paper investigates the profitability of a simple and very common technical trading rule applied to the General Index of the Madrid Stock Market. The optimal trading rule parameter values are found using a genetic algorithm. The results suggest that, for reasonable trading costs, the technical trading rule is always superior to a risk-adjusted buy-and-hold strategy.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) 2004 Group Decision Support for Resource Allocation Decisions in Three Person Groups

This research studied the effects of a Group Decision Support System (GDSS) for face-to-face negotiations in three-person groups. The GDSS equipped the groups with full information about each other’s individual preferences regarding a resource allocation problem. In a partial replication of a GDSS experiment, we examined the effect of this full information treatment on post-meeting consensus level, the level of integrative behaviour, and the level of distributive behaviour in the groups. 96 threeperson groups participated. Groups using the GDSS reached a higher level of post-meeting consensus compared to groups not using a GDSS. This finding supports the theory that negotiators lower their demands and increase their involvement if full information is available. No support could be found for the hypothesis that the treatment had an impact on integrative or distributive behaviour.
A general adaptive normalised nonlinear-gradient descent algorithm for nonlinear adaptive filters

An algorithm for training nonlinear adaptive finite impulse response (FIR) filters employed for nonlinear prediction and system identification is introduced. This general adaptive normalised nonlinear gradient descent (ANNGD) algorithm is fully gradient adaptive, unlike previously proposed algorithms of this kind. It is derived based upon the Taylor series expansion of the instantaneous output error of the filter. For rigour, the remainder of the Taylor series expansion in the derivation of the algorithm is made adaptive thus providing an adaptive learning rate. Experiments on coloured and nonlinear signals confirm that the ANNGD outperforms the other algorithms of this kind.
Deformable object simulation in virtual environment

We implement deformable virtual object simulations on modern graphics hardware. The deformable objects are modeled using mass spring method. With a large set of mass nodes and springs, the real-time simulations are able to be accomplished using the computational power of GPU. Traditionally, this kind of virtual simulation is difficult to achieve interactive frame rates if simply using CPU processing. Nevertheless, the programmable graphics hardware is unable to communicate between vertices or pixels; neither can it write to constant memory. Therefore, the information required for simulation is encapsulated into several textures. Simulated results are sent to frame buffer after the fragment program terminated. With aid of the Frame Buffer Object, we are able to access content in frame buffer directly as texture. Comparing the simulation throughput of the one using CPU with the other one using GPU, we are pleased with the performance increase through simulating deformable virtual object with mass spring model on modern graphics hardware.
Comparison of similarity coefficients used for cluster analysis with dominant markers in maize (Zea mays L)

The objective of this study was to evaluate whether different similarity coefficients used with dominant markers can influence the results of cluster analysis, using eighteen inbred lines of maize from two different populations, BR-105 and BR-106. These were analyzed by AFLP and RAPD markers and eight similarity coefficients were calculated: Jaccard, Sorensen-Dice, Anderberg, Ochiai, Simple-matching, Rogers and Tanimoto, Ochiai II and Russel and Rao. The similarity matrices obtained were compared by the Spearman correlation, cluster analysis with dendrograms (UPGMA, WPGMA, Single Linkage, Complete Linkage and Neighbour-Joining methods), the consensus fork index between all pairs of dendrograms, groups obtained through the Tocher optimization procedure and projection efficiency in a two-dimensional space. The results showed that for almost all methodologies and marker systems, the Jaccard, Sorensen-Dice, Anderberg and Ochiai coefficient showed close results, due to the fact that all of them exclude negative co-occurrences. Significant alterations in the results for the Simple Matching, Rogers and Tanimoto, and Ochiai II coefficients were not observed either, probably due to the fact that they all include negative co-occurrences. The Russel and Rao coefficient presented very different results from the others in almost all the cases studied and should not be used, because it excludes the negative co-occurrences in the numerator and includes them in the denominator of their expression. Due to the fact that the negative co-occurrences do not necessarily mean that the regions of the DNA are identical, the use of coefficients that do not include negative co-occurrences was suggested.
Comparison of Endodontic Treatment Results Yielded from Using Normal Saline with IKI Final Rinse or NaOCl Irrigation: A 30-Month Follow-up Study

Introduction The aim of this clinical trial was to evaluate and compare the endodontic treatment results of teeth with apical periodontitis after thirty-month recall with two different irrigation regimen: normal saline followed by Iodine Potassium Iodide (IKI) or sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) irrigation alone. Materials and Methods Twenty seven patients (30 teeth) who had been included in the first part of our antimicrobial survey were recalled. In previous stage, root canal treatments were performed using either normal saline with IKI final rinse (n = 15) or NaOCl (n = 15) as irrigating solutions. Bacterial samples were taken before and after instrumentation. In this stage, three patients (6 teeth) were excluded from the follow-up schedule since they did not respond to the recall requests. The remaining 24 subjects (12 teeth in each NaOCl and IKI group) were examined clinically and radiologically. Post-operative and follow-up images were coded, blindly evaluated and given a periapical score according to PAI scoring system. The outcome was assessed in two ways; first, the changes in PAI score from base line to the follow-up evaluation in each group were assessed by wilcoxon signed rank test. In addition, Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the differences between the post-operative and follow-up images of treatment groups. Second, the dichotomous variables as “healed” or “not healed” were compared. Results The Median (Min, Max) PAI scores for NaOCl group and IKI group were both 5 (3, 5) for immediate post-operative radiographs and declined to 1 (1, 2) and 2 (1, 2), respectively. A statistically significant decrease in PAI score from the base line to the follow-up evaluation was seen in both groups (P = 0.002). The decrease in NaOCl group was higher significantly in comparison to IKI group (P = 0.036). One hundred percent of the teeth were healed in both groups (PAI ≤ 2) and no teeth showed any abnormal clinical findings. Conclusion Root canal irrigation with NaOCl resulted in a significant higher decrease in PAI scores in comparison to irrigation with normal saline followed by IKI final rinse. Although, according to results of 30-months recall, complete bone formation was observed in all samples in both groups and no teeth showed any abnormal clinical findings. These findings depict the weight of all important clinical and biological factors which together impact the results of a successful endodontic treatment.
Macaque Monkeys Perceive the Flash Lag Illusion

Transmission of neural signals in the brain takes time due to the slow biological mechanisms that mediate it. During such delays, the position of moving objects can change substantially. The brain could use statistical regularities in the natural world to compensate neural delays and represent moving stimuli closer to real time. This possibility has been explored in the context of the flash lag illusion, where a briefly flashed stimulus in alignment with a moving one appears to lag behind the moving stimulus. Despite numerous psychophysical studies, the neural mechanisms underlying the flash lag illusion remain poorly understood, partly because it has never been studied electrophysiologically in behaving animals. Macaques are a prime model for such studies, but it is unknown if they perceive the illusion. By training monkeys to report their percepts unbiased by reward, we show that they indeed perceive the illusion qualitatively similar to humans. Importantly, the magnitude of the illusion is smaller in monkeys than in humans, but it increases linearly with the speed of the moving stimulus in both species. These results provide further evidence for the similarity of sensory information processing in macaques and humans and pave the way for detailed neurophysiological investigations of the flash lag illusion in behaving macaques.
Capturing the Effect of Technology Improvements on Product Positioning and Introduction Sequence Decision-making

Achieving competitive advantage and price premiums in many technology-based markets requires the incorporation of current technology in new products. To do so, firms in hyper-competitive environments increasingly plan and design their products concurrently with the independent development and validation of underlying technologies. The simultaneous evolution of a core technology has important implications for the product positioning and launch sequence decisions a firm must make. Prior research has shown that to minimize cannibalization in the absence of such improvements in technology, a firm should not launch low-end products before high-end products. However, concurrent evolution of technology can make it desirable and even necessary to introduce low-end products before high-end products. This is because in technology-based industries, improvements in technology delay the introduction of a high-end product, and a firm must trade-off the benefit of launching the low-end product earlier (greater discounted profits) against the cost of cannibalization of high-end product sales. Cannibalization can be further reduced by offering the customer an option to upgrade from the low-end to high-end product, with important implications for product positioning and introduction sequence. Based on our study in the high technology industry, we model the product positioning and introduction sequence decisions under the simultaneous evolution of technology. Our analysis indicates that it may be optimal in a variety of circumstances for a firm to launch products in an increasing order of performance, even in the absence of network externalities. Besides presenting analytical results for product positioning and profit from different introduction sequences, the paper also makes a contribution to managerial practice by providing insights in the form of a conceptual framework. 1 Contact author. The address is: V. Krishnan, The University of Texas at Austin, CBA 4.202, Austin TX 78712.
Computer models offer new insights into the mechanics of rock climbing

Three computer models of varying complexity were developed in order to investigate the kinematics, kinetics, muscle operating ranges, and energetics of rock climbing. First, inverse dynamic models were used to investigate the joint angles and torques used in climbing and to quantify the total mechanical work required for typical rock climbing. Climbing experience was found to have a significant effect on the kinematics used in climbing; however, there were no significant differences in mechanical work. Second, a musculoskeletal model of the whole body was developed, this model combined with the kinematic data was used to analyze the operating ranges of the upper and lower limb muscles during climbing. In general, the experienced climbers employed kinematic motions that corresponded to muscle fibers used for climbing operating much closer to their optimum length than the kinematics of inexperienced climbers. Third, a forward dynamic model was developed to predict the metabolic goal of climbing. The results of this model suggest that an experienced climbing style minimizes the fatigue of muscles while an inexperienced climbing style minimizes the total joint torques generated.
The Cluster Elastic Net for High-Dimensional Regression With Unknown Variable Grouping

In the high-dimensional regression setting, the elastic net produces a parsimonious model by shrinking all coefficients toward the origin. However, in certain settings, this behavior might not be desirable: if some features are highly correlated with each other and associated with the response, then we might wish to perform less shrinkage on the coefficients corresponding to that subset of features. We propose the cluster elastic net, which selectively shrinks the coefficients for such variables toward each other, rather than toward the origin. Instead of assuming that the clusters are known a priori, the cluster elastic net infers clusters of features from the data, on the basis of correlation among the variables as well as association with the response. These clusters are then used to more accurately perform regression. We demonstrate the theoretical advantages of our proposed approach, and explore its performance in a simulation study, and in an application to HIV drug resistance data. Supplementary materials are available online.
Phastlane: a rapid transit optical routing network

Tens and eventually hundreds of processing cores are projected to be integrated onto future microprocessors, making the global interconnect a key component to achieving scalable chip performance within a given power envelope. While CMOS-compatible nanophotonics has emerged as a leading candidate for replacing global wires beyond the 22nm timeframe, on-chip optical interconnect architectures proposed thus far are either limited in scalability or are dependent on comparatively slow electrical control networks. In this paper, we present Phastlane, a hybrid electrical/optical routing network for future large scale, cache coherent multicore microprocessors. The heart of the Phastlane network is a low-latency optical crossbar that uses simple predecoded source routing to transmit cache-line-sized packets several hops in a single clock cycle under contentionless conditions. When contention exists, the router makes use of electrical buffers and, if necessary, a high speed drop signaling network. Overall, Phastlane achieve 2X better network performance than a state-of-the-art electrical baseline while consuming 80% less network power.
AUDIO ANALYSIS IN PWGLSYNTH

In this paper, we present an incremental improvement of a known fundamental frequency estimation algorithm for monophonic signals. This is viewed as a case study of using our signal graph based synthesis language, PWGLSynth, for audio analysis. The roles of audio and control signals are discussed in both analysis and synthesis contexts. The suitability of the PWGLSynth system for this field of applications is examined and some problems and futur e work is identified.
Topic based pose relevance learning in dance archives

This paper improves spatial pyramid kernel (SPK) and proposes a relevance learning approach to compare performer's poses in a large dance archive, the NRCD collection1. Domain knowledge of Choreutics is exploited to define pose topics and a selection operator is developed for pose topic matching. The visual structure descriptor of self similarity (SSF) is extended to hierarchical self similarity (HSSF) to keep shape context. The framework of Bag-of-Visual Words (BOVW) is applied to encode as well as to speed up the matching on pose topics/topic combinations. This alleviates the complexity in limb allocation which is infeasible in our data. Extensive experiments show that the new approach outperforms the original SPK in both precision and robustness.