Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nucleic acid-binding specificity of human FUS protein

FUS, a nuclear RNA-binding protein, plays multiple roles in RNA processing. Five specific FUS-binding RNA sequence/structure motifs have been proposed, but their affinities for FUS have not been directly compared. Here we find that human FUS binds all these sequences with Kdapp values spanning a 10-fold range. Furthermore, some RNAs that do not contain any of these motifs bind FUS with similar affinity. FUS binds RNA in a length-dependent manner, consistent with a substantial non-specific component to binding. Finally, investigation of FUS binding to different nucleic acids shows that it binds single-stranded DNA with three-fold lower affinity than ssRNA of the same length and sequence, while binding to double-stranded nucleic acids is weaker. We conclude that FUS has quite general nucleic acid-binding activity, with the various proposed RNA motifs being neither necessary for FUS binding nor sufficient to explain its diverse binding partners.
Principal components analysis filters functionally significant peroxidase motions

Molecular dynamics simulation of explicitly solvated horseradish peroxidase and of its Ca-depleted form have been carried out, and the trajectories have been analyzed by the essential dynamics method. The results indicate that the motion of the native species is defined by a few preferred directions identified by the first four eigenvectors. The eigenvectors are significantly sampled and reveal that collective motions are perturbed in the absence of calcium. The destabilization of HRP and the corresponding decrease in the catalytic activity of the enzyme is due to perturbed collective motions primarily in the region located around the proximal calcium site.
An Efficient Audio Watermark Algorithm with Strong Robustness

An efficient audio watermarking algorithm with strong robustness is proposed in this paper. This algorithm firstly makes non-negative matrix factorization(NMF) transformation to host audio carrier, secondly does singular value decomposition (SVD) decomposition to the coefficient matrix, then the algorithm introduces hybrid computing model, embeds watermark into the singular value of the coefficient matrix. The watermark embedding intensity is adaptively adjusted by the way of mixed matrix coefficients; the algorithm introduces principal component analysis(PCA) method accelerates the convergence speed. The experiment shows that this algorithm has the strong robustness to additive noise, low-pass filter, re-sampling, damaging compression etc. The algorithm¿s convergence speed improves 80.38% comparing with random initialization method. The algorithm¿s embedded capacity is large. The algorithm is a blind watermarking scheme.
TREM2 mRNA Expression in Leukocytes Is Increased in Alzheimer’s Disease and Schizophrenia

TREM2 and TYROBP are causal genes for Nasu–Hakola disease (NHD), a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by bone lesions and early-onset progressive dementia. TREM2 forms a receptor signaling complex with TYROBP, which triggers the activation of immune responses in macrophages and dendritic cells, and the functional polymorphism of TREM2 is reported to be associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The objective of this study was to reveal the involvement of TYROBP and TREM2 in the pathophysiology of AD and schizophrenia. Methods: We investigated the mRNA expression level of the 2 genes in leukocytes of 26 patients with AD and 24 with schizophrenia in comparison with age-matched controls. Moreover, we performed gene association analysis between these 2 genes and schizophrenia. Results: No differences were found in TYROBP mRNA expression in patients with AD and schizophrenia; however, TREM2 mRNA expression was increased in patients with AD and schizophrenia compared with controls (P < 0.001). There were no genetic associations of either gene with schizophrenia in Japanese patients. Conclusion: TREM2 expression in leukocytes is elevated not only in AD but also in schizophrenia. Inflammatory processes involving TREM2 may occur in schizophrenia, as observed in neurocognitive disorders such as AD. TREM2 expression in leukocytes may be a novel biomarker for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Using Social Media for Continuous Monitoring and Mining of Consumer Behaviour

Social communication and microblogging services have known unprecedented popularity in recent years. This new digital landscape, combined with the ubiquitous online access potential of modern devices, provides novel capabilities to online users and allows them to express their opinions and attitudes about everything in almost real time. In this paper, we present an investigation on the use of social media for the continuous monitoring and mining of consumer behaviour. We analyse hundreds of thousands of microblogging messages containing comments, sentiments and opinions about food and brand products. We present initial results, which confirm previous studies about the potential of using social media monitoring for branding purposes. The results provide strong indications that given the use of such services by millions of users, they can play a key role in supporting and enhancing important business processes. Examples of such processes include company-to-customer relationship management, brand image building and Word-of-Mouth (WoM) branding.
DISCRETE-TIME ADAPTIVE MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL BASED ON COMPARISON MODEL

Abstract This paper proposes a discrete-time adaptive model predictive control (MPC) algorithm for a class of constrained linear time-invariant systems, which updates the estimation of system parameters on-line and produces the control input subject to the given input/state constraints. This method is based on a robust MPC algorithm using comparison model which enable us to estimate the prediction error bound of uncertain systems and an adaptive mechanism. First, a new parameter update method based on the moving horizon estimation is proposed, which allows us to predict the worst-case estimation error bound over prediction horizon. Second, we propose an adaptive MPC algorithm developed by combining the on-line parameter estimation with MPC method based on the modified comparison model. This method guarantees the feasibility and stability of closed-loop systems.
Weak-Lensing Mass Distributions for 24 X-Ray Abell Clusters

We use the weak gravitational lensing effect to study the mass distribution and dynamical state of a sample of 24 X-ray-luminous clusters of galaxies (0.05 < z < 0.31) observed with the FORS1 instrument mounted on the VLT-Antu (Unit Telescope 1) under homogeneous sky conditions and subarcsecond image quality. The galaxy shapes were measured in the combined VIR image after deconvolution with a locally determined point-spread function, while the two-dimensional mass distributions of the clusters were computed using an algorithm based on the maximum entropy method. By comparing the mass and light distributions of the clusters in our sample, we find that their centers of mass, for the majority of the clusters, are consistent with the positions of optical centers. We find that some clusters present significant mass substructures that generally have optical counterparts. In at least one cluster (A1451), we detect a mass substructure without an obvious luminous counterpart. The radial profile of the shear of the clusters was fitted using circular and elliptical isothermal distributions, which allowed the finding of a strong correlation between the orientation of the major axis of the matter distribution and the corresponding major axes of the brightest cluster galaxy light profiles. Estimates of how close to dynamical relaxation are these clusters were obtained through comparison of our weak-lensing mass measurements with the X-ray and velocity dispersion determinations available in the literature. We find that clusters with intracluster gas colder than 8 keV show good agreement between the different mass determinations, but clusters with gas hotter than 8 keV present weak-lensing masses smaller than those inferred by the other methods and therefore have been diagnosed to be out of equilibrium. These clusters are A1451, A2163, and A2744, all of which have hints of substructure. A2744 presents the largest discrepancy between its X-ray, velocity dispersion, and weak-lensing mass determinations, which can be interpreted as being due to the interaction between the two kinematic components along the line of sight found by Girardi & Mezzeti.
Torsion formulation of gravity

We explain precisely what it means to have a connection with torsion as a solution of the Einstein equations. While locally the theory remains the same, the new formulation allows for topologies that would have been excluded in the standard formulation of gravity. In this formulation it is possible to couple arbitrary torsion to gauge fields without breaking the gauge invariance.
Can Failure Signal Success ?

In a recent paper Jacobsen (2012) argues that the motive for withdrawing from acquisition deals can be used as an instrument to identify high quality CEOs. We employ a research design that allows us to examine whether CEOs that abandon acquisitions when the purchase price is no longer justifiable are in fact more focused on pursuing corporate investments that create superior value for shareholders. We find that CEOs that withdraw from potentially expensive deals make discernibly better acquisition decisions than the average CEO in their return to the market for corporate control, corroborating that the favourable market reaction around such withdrawals reflects a credible signal about superior CEO quality in the M&A setting. We also show that this superior quality is not reflected in pre-withdrawal acquisition returns which implies that the market’s positive response to price induced deal cancellations can help enhance managerial focus on identifying and pursuing value-increasing corporate investments. Overall, the results of this paper indicate that the acquisition withdrawal motive has important corporate investment and capital market implications for acquiring firms and their shareholders beyond the withdrawal announcement.
Characterization of an Outbreak of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease in Nanchang, China in 2010

Recent outbreaks of human enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection and EV71-associated hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in China have affected millions and potentially lead to life-threatening complications in newborns. Furthermore, these outbreaks represent a significant global public health issue in the world. Understanding the epidemiology of HFMD and EV71 infection and their transmission patterns in China is essential for controlling outbreaks. However, no studies on the outbreaks of HFMD and EV71 infection in China during 2010 have been reported. In this report, we carried out an epidemiological analysis to study an outbreak of HFMD and EV71 infection in 2010 in the city of Nanchang in the Jiangxi province of People's Republic of China. From April 7 to May 11, 2010, a total of 109 HFMD cases were reported, and in this report the HFMD cases were studied by both epidemiological and laboratory analyses. The epidemiological study indicates that children aged younger than 8 years old represented more than 90% of the reported cases, with the age group of 1–3 years containing the highest number of cases. Laboratory studies detected a high prevalence of EV71 amongst the cases in our study, suggesting EV71 as a common enterovirus found in HFMD cases in Nanchang. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequence of the VP1 region of four EV71 isolates indicated that the Nanchang strains belong to the C4 subgenotype commonly found in China during outbreaks in 2008 but contain distinct variations from these strains. Our study for the first time characterizes the epidemiology of HFMD and EV71 infection in China in 2010 and furthermore, provides the first direct evidence of the genotype of EV71 circulating in Nanchang, China. Our study should facilitate the development of public health measures for the control and prevention of HFMD and EV71 infection in at-risk individuals in China.
Maximization of capacity and lp norms for some product channels

It is conjectured that the Holevo capacity of a product channel Ω⊗Φ is achieved when product states are used as input. Amosov, Holevo, and Werner have also conjectured that the maximal lp norm of a product channel is achieved with product input states. In this article we establish both of these conjectures in the case that Ω is arbitrary and Φ is a CQ or QC channel (as defined by Holevo). We also establish the Amosov, Holevo and Werner conjecture when Ω is arbitrary and either Φ is a qubit channel and p=2, or Φ is a unital qubit channel and p is integer. Our proofs involve a new conjecture for the norm of an output state of the half-noisy channel I⊗Φ, when Φ is a qubit channel. We show that this conjecture in some cases also implies additivity of the Holevo capacity.
Image sharpening using DFT based matrix fractional order differentiator

In this paper, the image sharpening methods using discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based matrix fractional order differentiator (MFOD) are presented. The design of fractional order differentiator (FOD) is first reviewed and the design method of DFT-based MFOD is described. Then, two image sharpening methods are studied. One method is based on Mach band effect, the other approach uses Laplacian operator. Finally, several examples are demonstrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed DFT-based MFOD method.
An Entropic Score to Rank Annotators for Crowdsourced Labeling Tasks

With the advent of crowd sourcing services it has become quite cheap and reasonably effective to get a dataset labeled by multiple annotators in a short amount of time. Various methods have been proposed to estimate the consensus labels by correcting for the bias of annotators with different kinds of expertise. Often we have low quality annotators or spammers -- annotators who assign labels randomly (e.g., without actually looking at the instance). Spammers can make the cost of acquiring labels very expensive and can potentially degrade the quality of the consensus labels. In this paper we propose a score (based on the reduction in entropy) which can be used to rank the annotators -- with the spammers having a score close to zero and the good annotators having a high score close to one.
Analysis and Optimization for Efficient Streaming Software Synthesis

An important subset of streaming applications can be synthesized from statically-analyzable synchronous dataflow (SDF) models. The software synthesis process typically implements inter-actor communication in form of buffer arrays that are written to/read from by producers/consumers. Due to practical considerations (e.g., actor IPs) and the nature of SDF models, the generated code could contain a number of redundant buffer array accesses that become evident only in the synthesized software. We identify the optimization opportunity and develop an algorithm called RACE, which optimizes the synthesized code via elimination of such redundant memory operations. Experimental results show up to 80% improvement in the runtime of the synthesized streaming software.
DTV Roll-Out Scenarios : a DVB-T 2 approach

— This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of the DVB-T2 standard to deliver 3DTV contents (3DTV). The work has been based on the current state-of-the-art developments in technologies that enable 3DTV delivery, from production to displays, with special emphasis on formats and coding efficiencies. Based on bitrate and format requirements the capacity of DVB-T2 is investigated, proposing two roll-out scenarios and discussing the associated DVB-T2 configuration parameters. The target receivers are both fixed and portable, and different backwards compatibility problems and solutions are highlighted. The result of this work is an estimation of the number and type of services (both 2D and 3D) that this standard will be able to deliver in the mid term future as 2D HD and 3D services become commercially available.
On the (k, i)-coloring of cacti and complete graphs

In the (k;i)-coloring problem, we aim to assign sets of colors of size k to the vertices of a graph G, so that the sets which belong to adjacent vertices of G intersect in no more than i elements and the total number of colors used is minimum. This minimum number of colors is called the (k;i)-chromatic number. We present in this work a very simple linear time algorithm to compute an optimum (k;i)-coloring of cycles and we generalize the result in order to derive a polynomial time algorithm for this problem on cacti. We also perform a slight modication to the algorithm in order to obtain a simpler algorithm for the close coloring problem addressed in [R.C. Brigham and R.D. Dutton, Generalized k-tuple colorings of cycles and other graphs, J. Combin. Theory B 32:90{94, 1982]. Finally, we present a relation between the (k;i)-coloring problem on complete graphs and weighted binary codes.
High quality depth map estimation by kinect upsampling and hole filling using RGB features and mutual information

High quality depth map estimation is required for better visualization of 3D views as there is great impact of depth map quality on overall 3D image quality. If the depth is estimated from conventional ways using two or more images, some defects come into picture, mostly in regions without texture. We utilised Microsoft Kinect RGBD dataset to obtain input color images and depth maps which also includes some noise factors. We proposed a method to remove this noise and get quality depth images. First the color and depth images are aligned to each other using intensity based image registration. This method of image alignment is mostly used in medical field, but we applied this technique to correct kinect depth maps by which one can avoid cumbersome task of feature based point correspondence between images. There is no requirement of preprocessing or segmentation steps if we use intensity based image alignment method. Second, we proposed an algorithm to fill the unwanted gaps in kinect depth maps and upsampled it using corresponding high resolution color image. Finally we applied 9×9 median filtering on implementation results and get high quality and improved depth maps.
Generation of an expandable intermediate mesoderm restricted progenitor cell line from human pluripotent stem cells

The field of tissue engineering entered a new era with the development of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), which are capable of unlimited expansion whilst retaining the potential to differentiate into all mature cell populations. However, these cells harbor significant risks, including tumor formation upon transplantation. One way to mitigate this risk is to develop expandable progenitor cell populations with restricted differentiation potential. Here, we used a cellular microarray technology to identify a defined and optimized culture condition that supports the derivation and propagation of a cell population with mesodermal properties. This cell population, referred to as intermediate mesodermal progenitor (IMP) cells, is capable of unlimited expansion, lacks tumor formation potential, and, upon appropriate stimulation, readily acquires properties of a sub-population of kidney cells. Interestingly, IMP cells fail to differentiate into other mesodermally-derived tissues, including blood and heart, suggesting that these cells are restricted to an intermediate mesodermal fate. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.08413. 001
Widespread Nanoparticle-Assay Interference: Implications for Nanotoxicity Testing

The evaluation of engineered nanomaterial safety has been hindered by conflicting reports demonstrating differential degrees of toxicity with the same nanoparticles. The unique properties of these materials increase the likelihood that they will interfere with analytical techniques, which may contribute to this phenomenon. We tested the potential for: 1) nanoparticle intrinsic fluorescence/absorbance, 2) interactions between nanoparticles and assay components, and 3) the effects of adding both nanoparticles and analytes to an assay, to interfere with the accurate assessment of toxicity. Silicon, cadmium selenide, titanium dioxide, and helical rosette nanotubes each affected at least one of the six assays tested, resulting in either substantial over- or under-estimations of toxicity. Simulation of realistic assay conditions revealed that interference could not be predicted solely by interactions between nanoparticles and assay components. Moreover, the nature and degree of interference cannot be predicted solely based on our current understanding of nanomaterial behaviour. A literature survey indicated that ca. 95% of papers from 2010 using biochemical techniques to assess nanotoxicity did not account for potential interference of nanoparticles, and this number had not substantially improved in 2012. We provide guidance on avoiding and/or controlling for such interference to improve the accuracy of nanotoxicity assessments.
P--ar3 S of Cortica

Our knowledge of the cerebral cortex is increasing at an accelerating pace as new anatomical and physiological techniques become available. It is now possible, with whole-cell patch recording (Hamill et al., 1991), to obtain intimate knowledge of single cortical neurons in vivo. Yet, cortical neurons are embedded within circuits that entwine the intrinsic properties of single neurons as they interact through synaptic actions. New properties emerge from these network interactions that are difficult to predict from the properties of the individual neurons. Computer models of neurons and their synaptic interactions may help us dissect these emergent properties in conjunction with experimental studies. Our models of cortical neurons are based on the pioneering model of the action potential in the squid giant axon by Hodgkin and Huxley (1952) and the dendritic models of Rall (1967). In these models, each element of the neuron is treated as an electrical element having resistive and capacitative properties, and membrane conductances are modeled by voltage-dependent kinetic schemes. In the past it has been necessary to limit the complexity of the model because of the difficulty of solving the large number of coupled differential equations. With the current generation of workstation computers, we can routinely model single neurons with 400 or more compartments. The computer power and the knowledge necessary to model populations of neurons are now becoming available that would allow the same approach to be used to explore cortical networks. In this chapter we provide an overview of a long-term project that we lave undertaken to study a particular population of cells within the
Convergence rates of posterior distributions

We consider the asymptotic behavior of posterior distributions and Bayes estimators for infinite-dimensional statistical models. We give general results on the rate of convergence of the posterior measure. These are applied to several examples, including priors on finite sieves, log-spline models, Dirichlet processes and interval censoring.
Nonsingular terminal neural network sliding mode control for multi-link robots based on backstepping

A new method of nonsingular terminal neural network sliding control based on backstepping for tracking control of multi-link robot manipulators is introduced in this paper. The proposed scheme combines the advantages of the adaptive control, neural network and sliding mode control strategies without precise system model information. It has on-line learning ability to deal with the parametric uncertainty and disturbances by adjusting the control parameters. A neural network sliding mode controller is designed via the Lyapunov stability theory in order to guarantee the high quality of the controlled system. The simulation results show that this method is feasible and effective.