Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional and Molecular Aspects of Biotin Uptake via SMVT in Human Corneal Epithelial (HCEC) and Retinal Pigment Epithelial (D407) Cells

Sodium-dependent multivitamin transporter (SMVT) is a vital transmembrane protein responsible for translocating biotin and other essential cofactors such as pantothenate and lipoate. Unlike primary cultures of corneal and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, immortalized cells can be subcultured many times, yet maintain their physiological properties. Hence, the purpose of this study was to delineate the functional and molecular aspects of biotin uptake via SMVT on immortalized human corneal epithelial (HCEC) and RPE (D407) cells. Functional aspects of [3H] biotin uptake were studied in the presence of different concentrations of unlabeled biotin, pH, temperature, metabolic inhibitors, ions, substrates, structural analogs and biotinylated prodrug (Biotin-Acyclovir (B-ACV)). Molecular identity of SMVT was examined with reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. Biotin uptake was found to be saturable in HCEC and D407 cells with Km of 296.2 ± 25.9 and 863.8 ± 66.9 μM and Vmax of 77.2 ± 2.2 and 308.3 ± 10.7 pmol/mg protein/min, respectively. Uptake was found to be pH, temperature, energy, and sodium-dependent. Inhibition of biotin uptake was observed in the presence of structural analogs and specific substrates. Further, uptake was lowered in the presence of B-ACV indicating the translocation of biotinylated prodrug by SMVT. A distinct band at 774 bp confirmed the molecular existence of SMVT in both the cells. This study shows for the first time the functional and molecular presence of SMVT in HCEC and D407 cells. Therefore, these cell lines may be utilized as in vitro models to study the cellular translocation of biotin-conjugated prodrugs.
Differentiating malignant from benign gastric mucosal lesions with quantitative analysis in dual energy spectral computed tomography

Abstract To investigate the value of quantitative analysis in dual energy spectral computed tomography (DESCT) for differentiating malignant gastric mucosal lesions from benign gastric mucosal lesions (including gastric inflammation [GI] and normal gastric mucosa [NGM]). This study was approved by the ethics committee, and all patients provided written informed consent. A total of 161 consecutive patients (63 with gastric cancer [GC], 48 with GI, and 50 with NGM) who underwent dual-phase contrast enhanced DESCT scans in the arterial phase (AP) and portal venous phase (PVP) were included in this study. Iodine concentration (IC) in lesions was derived from the iodine-based material-decomposition images and normalized to that in the aorta to obtain normalized IC (nIC). The ratios of IC and nIC between the AP and PVP were calculated. Diagnostic confidence for GC and GI was evaluated with reviewing the features including gastric wall thickness, focal, and eccentric on the conventional polychromatic images. All statistical analyses were performed by using statistical software SPSS 17.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL). IC and nIC in GC differed significantly from those in GI and NGM, except for nICAP in comparing GC with GI. Mean nIC values of GC (0.18 ± 0.06 in AP and 0.62 ± 0.16 in PVP) were significantly higher than that of NGM (0.12 ± 0.03 in AP and 0.37 ± 0.08 in PVP) (all P < 0.05). There was also significant difference for IC values in GC, GI, and NGM (24.19 ± 8.27, 19.07 ± 5.82, and 13.61 ± 2.52 mg/mL, respectively, in AP and 28.00 ± 7.01, 24.66 ± 6.55, and 16.94 ± 3.06 mg/mL, respectively, in PVP). Based on Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve analysis, nIC and IC in PVP had high sensitivities of 88.89% and 90.48%, respectively, in differentiating GC from NGM, while the sensitivities were 71.43% and 88.89% during AP. Ratios IC and nIC ratios did not provide adequate diagnostic accuracy with their area under curves less than 0.65. With the conventional features, the diagnostic accuracies for GC and GI were 75.0% and 98.0%, respectively. Quantitative analysis of DESCT imaging parameters for gastric mucosa, such as nIC and IC, is useful for differentiating malignant from benign gastric mucosal lesions.
Effect of the channel thickness on the performance of implant-free quantum-well MOSFETs

2D Non-Equilibrium Green Function simulations of a quantum-well MOSFET have been carried out. We have investigated the impact of the channel thickness on the device performance. Devices with 5 nm, 4 nm, 3 nm and 2 nm channel thicknesses have been simulated. Due to the fact that the channel thickness is very small, the T, L valleys are included in the simulations. The decrease of channel thickness reduces electrostatic control and increases the threshold voltage. The change in threshold voltage when the channel thickness changes from 5 nm to 2 nm is equal to 0.4 V. The L valley contribution to the current increases with the decrease of the channel thickness, becoming as large as 25 % for a device with 2 nm channel thickness
Discriminative channel addition and reduction for filter bank common spatial pattern in motor imagery BCI

An electroencephalography (EEG)-based Motor Imagery Brain-Computer Interface (MI-BCI) requires a long setup time if a large number of channels is used, and EEG from noisy or irrelevant channels may adversely affect the classification performance. To address this issue, this paper proposed 2 approaches to systematically select discriminative channels for EEG-based MI-BCI. The proposed Discriminative Channel Addition (DCA) approach and the Discriminative Channel Reduction (DCR) approach selects subject-specific discriminative channels by iteratively adding or removing channels based on the cross-validation classification accuracies obtained using the Filter Bank Common Spatial Pattern algorithm. The performances of the proposed approaches were evaluated on the BCI Competition IV Dataset 2a. The results on 2-class and 4-class MI data showed that DCA, which iteratively adds channels, selected 13~14 channels that consistently yielded better cross-validation accuracies on the training data and session-to-session transfer accuracies on the evaluation data compared to the use of a full 22-channel setup. Hence, this results in a reduced channel setup that could improve the classification accuracy of the MI-BCI after removing less discriminative channels.
ber to the generation and to the measurement of low-phase-noise microwave signals

The optical fiber used as a microwave delay line exhibits high stability and low noise and makes accessible a long delay (& 100 μs) in a wide bandwidth (≈ 40 GHz, limited by the optronic components). Hence, it finds applications as the frequency reference in microwave oscillators and as the reference discriminator for the measurement of phase noise. The fiber is suitable to measure the oscillator stability with a sensitivity of parts in 10−12. Enhanced sensitivity is obtained with two independent delay lines, after correlating and averaging. Short-term stability of parts in 10−12 is achieved inserting the delay line in an oscillator. The frequency can be set in steps multiple of the inverse delay, which is in the 10–100 kHz region. This article adds to the available references a considerable amount of engineering and practical knowledge, the understanding of 1/f noise, calibration, the analysis of the cross-spectrum technique to reduce the instrument background, the phase-noise model of the oscillator, and the experimental test of the oscillator model. ∗K. V. is also with the St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Russia. †Now with Smart Quantum, Lannion & Besançon, France. ‡Aeroflex, Elancourt (Paris), France. Web site http://www.aeroflex. com §corresponding author, e-mail rubiola@femto-st.fr, home page http://rubiola.org 1 ar X iv :0 80 7. 34 94 v1 [ ph ys ic s. op tic s] 2 2 Ju l 2 00 8 E. Rubiola & al., Optical fiber & microwave phase noise July 22, 2008 2
Deconstructing heterosexual privilege with new science metaphors

The purpose of the paper is to deconstruct heterosexual privilege in adult education through exploring metaphors in quantum physics and ecology. Binary heterosexist boundaries are re-envisioned and alternative adult learning and education processes are suggested. The purpose of this paper is to discuss heterosexual privilege and its effects on learners, teachers, and classrooms, and alternative perspectives and practices. We will present a discussion of heterosexual privilege and how binary thinking maintains heterosexual privilege. Second, we will explore the use of metaphors from the field of quantum physics and ecology as they relate to sexuality and the implications for adult education. Heterosexual Privilege, Binary Boundary Maintenance, and Discrimination Heterosexual privilege requires strict boundary maintenance to determine who is normal and who is deviant. Deviants can then be discriminated against in a socially sanctioned manner. Heterosexism Goffman (1963) defines social deviants as “the folk who are considered to be engaged in some kind of collective denial of the social order.perceived as failing to use available opportunity for advancement in the various approved runways of society; they show open disrespect for their betters; they lack piety; they represent failures in the motivational schemes of society” (p. 144). The social order is prescribed and defined by heterosexuals who maintain the strict binary to support the notion of heteronormativity as synonymous with humanity and morality (Gamson, 2000). The consequences of being a social deviant include discrimination, oppression, domination, myth-making, “marginalization and silencing at best, violence and death at worst” (Hill, 2004, p. 86). Heterosexism or heterosexual privilege is a system of oppression that reduces the experience of sexual minorities to medical or criminal causes while victimizing through violence or diminished opportunity people that are seen as sexual minorities. Heterosexism sustains a legal system that denies equal protection and property rights (such as marriage) and holds in contempt the personal relationships of sexual minorities. Hegemonic Binaries Binary categorization, reductionism, and blaming the victim or minority group member for their plight underlie the American economic, legal, and political system (Delgado & Stefanic, 2001). The characteristics that each of us possess such as sex, gender, race, sexual orientation, class, and culture are seen as binaries a person is one thing or the other. This binary system supports the “fixed and clear meanings” (Arriola, 2000, p. 322) of each characteristic. Sex is defined as either male or female. Gender is a learned response of what it is to be masculine or feminine including behavior, appearance, and affective orientation. Sexuality is defined as heterosexual or homosexual. These definitions reduce the issue to who one’s sexual partner is which then bolsters male dominance (Pharr, 1988).
An Effective Triclustering Algorithm for Mining Real Datasets : Review Paper

A large number of clustering approaches have been proposed for the analysis of synthetic datasets obtained. However, the results of the application of standard clustering methods are limited. A similar limitation exists when clustering of conditions is performed. For this reason, a number of algorithms that perform simultaneous clustering on the row and column dimensions has been proposed to date. This simultaneous clustering, usually designated by biclustering, seeks to find sub-matrices, that is subgroups of rows and subgroups of columns. Most recently for the clustering of large real dataset the triclustering technique is implemented. Triclusters are constructed or discovered from two datasets by selecting a subset of features from each dataset and one shared subset of rows from amongst all the rows. This type of algorithms has also been proposed and used in other fields, such as information retrieval and data mining.
An Efficient Syntactic Web Service Composition Algorithm Based on the Planning Graph Model

In this paper, we have studied a common Web service composition problem, the syntactic matching problem, where the output parameters of a Web service can be used as the input parameters of another Web service. Many automatic Web service composition algorithms based on AI planning techniques have been proposed. However, most of them do not scale well when the number of Web services increases, or may miss finding a solution even if one exists. The planning graph, another AI planning technique, provides a unique search space. We have found that when we model the Web service composition problem as a planning graph, it actually provides a trivial solution to the problem. Instead of following the usual way to find a solution by a backward search, we put our efforts into removing the redundant Web services contained in the planning graph. Our approach can find a solution in polynomial time, but with possible redundant Web services. We have tested our algorithms on the data set used in ICEBEpsila05 and compared our results with existing methods.
Changes in Athlete's Redox State Induced by Habitual and Unaccustomed Exercise

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of sport-specific and nonspecific bouts of exercise on athletes' redox state. Blood samples were collected from 14 handball players immediately before and after graded exercise test on the cycle ergometer and handball training. Levels of superoxide anion radical (O2 −), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), nitrites (NO2 −) as markers of nitric oxide, index of lipid peroxidation (TBARs), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activity were determined. Exercise intensity was assessed by a system for heart rate (HR) monitoring. Average athletes' HR was not significantly different between protocols, but protocols differed in total time and time and percentage of time that athletes spent in every HR zone. The laboratory exercise test induced a significant increase of H2O2 and TBARs as well as the decrease of the SOD and CAT activity, while after specific handball training, levels of NO2 − were increased and SOD activity decreased. It seems that unaccustomed short intensive physical activity may induce oxidative stress in trained athletes, while sport-specific activity of longer duration and proper warm-up period may not. Further research should show whether the change of protocol testing and the implementation of various supplementations and manual methods can affect the redox equilibrium.
Automatic Central Object Extraction from Color Image

With the development of content-based multimedia systems, there is a need for automatic extraction of central object from natural color images. A new method for automatic extraction of central object is presented in this paper. First, a criterion of homogeneity based on both the global and the local information for HSV color images is proposed, and is used to get the "E-image". The high and low values of the E-image correspond to possible region boundaries and region interiors respectively. Then, a method to determine the candidate object seed points set and the candidate background seed points set in the image is given. Finally, the candidate object seed region growing and merging are used to extract the central object from the image. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method for the natural color images.
Placing forced checkpoints in distributed real-time embedded systems

An efficient scheme for placing forced checkpoints in a distributed real-time embedded system so as to eliminate useless checkpoints is presented. The notion of primary non-causal intervals is introduced; these intervals are shown to be the only candidates that need to be considered for inserting a minimum number of forced checkpoints. An efficient algorithm is then used to identify the primary non-causal intervals where forced checkpoints should be inserted. The algorithm first converts the original problem to another problem on a directed graph, which may reflect the existence of useless checkpoints. The new problem can be efficiently solved using existing methods.
Fast curve estimation using preconditioned generalized Radon transform

A new algorithm for fast curve parameter estimation based on the generalized Radon transform is proposed. The algorithm works on binary images, obtained, e.g., by edge filtering or deconvolution. The fundamental idea of the suggested algorithm is the use of a precondition map to reduce the computational cost of the generalized Radon transform. The precondition map is composed of irregular regions in the parameter domain, which contain peaks that represent curves in the image. To generate the precondition map, a fast mapping procedure named image point mapping is developed. As the image point mapping scheme maps image points into the corresponding parameter values in the parameter domain, it is possible to improve computational efficiency by recognizing image points with value zero. Initially, the suggested algorithm estimates the precondition map and subsequently applies the generalized Radon transform within the regions specified by the precondition map. The required parameter domain sampling and the resulting blurring are also investigated. The suggested algorithm is successfully applied to the identification of hyperbolas in seismic images, and two numerical examples are given.
Human emotion detection through speech and facial expressions

Estimation of human emotions using a computer has been difficult since when human engaged in a conversational secession. In this research work, a proposed hybrid system through facial expressions and speech is used to estimate basic emotions (angry, sad, happy, boredom, disgust and surprise) of a person when he is engaged in a conversational secession. Relative Bin Frequency Coefficients and Relative Sub-Image Based features are used for acoustic and visual data respectively. Support Vector Machine with radial basis kernel is used for classification. This research work revealed that the proposed feature extraction through speech and facial expression is the most prominent aspect affecting the emotion detection system accompanied by proposed fusion technique. Although, some aspects considered affecting the emotion detection system, this affect is relatively minor. It was observed that the performance of the bimodal emotion detection system is low than the unimodal emotion detection system through deliberate facial expressions. In order to deal with the issue, a suitable database is used. The results indicated that the proposed emotion detection system showed better performance with respect to basic emotional classes than the rest.
Multi-Task Multi-Dimensional Hawkes Processes for Modeling Event Sequences

We propose a Multi-task Multi-dimensional Hawkes Process (MMHP) for modeling event sequences where there exist multiple triggering patterns within sequences and structures across sequences. MMHP is able to model the dynamics of multiple sequences jointly by imposing structural constraints and thus systematically uncover clustering structure among sequences. We propose an effective and robust optimization algorithm to learn MMHP models, which takes advantage of alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), majorization minimization and Euler-Lagrange equations. Our experimental results demonstrate that MMHP performs well on both synthetic and real data.
A FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL SEARCH HEURISTICS FOR COMBINATORIAL OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS

In the study of heuristics for combinatorial problems, it is often important to develop and compare, in a systematic way, different algorithms, strategies, and parameters for the same problem. The central issue in this paper is that, by modeling (using the object-oriented programming paradigm) in separate classes the different aspects involved in local search based methods, we increase our abilit y to construct and compare heuristics, independently of their implementations. Our main goal is to provide an architectural basis for the implementation and comparison of different local search heuristics. The proposed framework, described using design patterns, encapsulates, in abstract classes, different aspects involved in local search heuristics, such as algorithms for the construction of initial solutions, methods for neighborhood generation, and movement selection criteria. The classification of these aspects simpli fies their implementations, and invites new extensions, in the form of subclasses. Code reuse, resulting from by the implementation of common aspects of a family of heuristics, allows a better platform for comparison, since a large part of the code is common to all members of the family.
Distributed Resource Allocation for Downlink Multicell OFDMA Systems

This paper addresses resource allocation for sum throughput maximization in a sectorized two-cell downlink OFDMA systems impaired by multicell interference. It is well known that the optimization problem for this scenario is NPhard and combinational, which is here converted to a novel sum throughput maximization problem based on the intercell interference limitation. Then, two subclasses of this new problem are solved. By the first subclass, on the assumption that subcarrier allocation parameters are fixed, an algorithm for optimal power allocation is obtained. By the second subclass, the problem is reduced to a single cell case where the intercell interference in each subcarrier is limited to a certain threshold. The solution shows that the subcarrier allocation can be performed prior to power distribution. Based on the solution of the single cell problem, a distributed resource allocation scheme with the aim of small information exchange between the coordinated base stations is proposed. KeywordsDual method, multicell resource allocation, OFDMA, interference limitation, convex optimization,
Transaction Handling in COM, EJB and .NET

The technology evolution has shown a very impressive performance in the last years by introducing several technologies that are based on the concept of component. As time passes, new versions of Component- Based technologies are released in order to improve services provided by previous ones. One important issue that regards these technologies is transactional activity. Transactions are important because they consist in sending different small amounts of information collected properly in a single combined unit which makes the process simpler, less expensive and also improves the reliability of the whole system, reducing its chances to go through possible failures. Different Component-Based technologies offer different ways of handling transactions. In this paper, we will review and discuss how transactions are handled in three of them: COM, EJB and . NET. It can be expected that . NET offers more efficient mechanisms due to the fact of being released later than the other two technologies. Nevertheless, COM and EJB are still present in the market and their services are still widely used. Comparing transaction handling in these technologies will be helpful to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. This comparison and evaluation will be seen in two main perspectives: performance and security.
A Multiple Attribute Utility Theory Approach to Ranking and Selection

Managers of large industrial projects often measure performance by multiple attributes. For example, our paper is motivated by the simulation of a large industrial project called a land seismic survey, in which project performance is based on duration, cost, and resource utilization. To address these types of problems, we develop a ranking and selection procedure for making comparisons of systems e.g., project configurations that have multiple performance measures. The procedure combines multiple attribute utility theory with statistical ranking and selection to select the best configuration from a set of possible configurations using the indifference-zone approach. We apply our procedure to results generated by the simulator for a land seismic survey that has six performance measures, and describe a particular type of sensitivity analysis that can be used as a robustness check.