Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vacuum destabilization from Kaluza–Klein modes in an inflating brane

We discuss the effects from the Kaluza–Klein modes in the brane world scenario when an interaction between bulk and brane fields is included. We focus on the bulk inflaton model, where a bulk field Ψ drives inflation in an almost AdS5 bulk bounded by an inflating brane. We couple Ψ to a brane scalar field φ representing matter on the brane. The bulk field Ψ is assumed to have a light mode, whose mass depends on the expectation value of φ. The KK modes form a continuum with masses m>3H/2, where H is the Hubble constant. To estimate their effects, we integrate them out and obtain the 1-loop effective potential Veff(φ). With no tuning of the parameters of the model, the vacuum becomes (meta)stable—Veff(φ) develops a true vacuum at . In the true vacuum, the light mode of Ψ becomes heavy, degenerates with the KK modes and decays. We comment on some implications for the bulk inflaton model. Also, we clarify some aspects of the renormalization procedure in the thin wall approximation, and show that the fluctuations in the bulk and on the brane are closely related.
Alternative trans‐splicing of the Trypanosoma cruzi LYT1 gene transcript results in compartmental and functional switch for the encoded protein

Trypanosma cruzi has a complex life cycle that includes infective and non‐infective stages in distinct hosts. Control of gene expression by the parasite must adjust to rather diverse circumstances. Through stage‐regulated, alternative trans‐splicing of the primary transcript, the T. cruzi LYT1 gene generates two protein products differing in the presence or absence of 28 amino acids at their amino end. We find that the shorter protein, kLYT1, is located at two spots in the mitochondrial kinetoflagellar zone and its expression reverts the ‘accelerated stage development’ phenotype of the LYT1‐null mutant. The larger product, mLYT1, localizes on the plasma membrane. The signal for membrane localization presents characteristics of a type II anchor including the possibility of cleavage. Expression of mLYT1 reverts the ‘loss of virulence’ phenotype associated to diminished haemolytic activity at acid pH, but stage development still progresses at an accelerated rate. This compartmentalization switch of LYT1 results in two surprisingly different functions: haemolytic activity at acid pH for mLYT1, and a putative involvement in mitochondrial metabolism for kLYT1. We conclude that alternative trans‐splicing plays an important role in stage‐regulated control of gene expression in trypanosomatids.
Characterization of DNA Methylation in Circulating Tumor Cells

Epigenetics contributes to molecular mechanisms leading to tumor cell transformation and systemic progression of cancer. However, the dynamics of epigenetic remodeling during metastasis remains unexplored. In this context, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) might enable a direct insight into epigenetic mechanisms relevant for metastasis by providing direct access to systemic cancer. CTCs can be used as prognostic markers in cancer patients and are regarded as potential metastatic precursor cells. However, despite substantial technical progress, the detection and molecular characterization of CTCs remain challenging, in particular the analysis of DNA methylation. As recent studies have started to address the epigenetic state of CTCs, we discuss here the potential of such investigations to elucidate mechanisms of metastasis and to develop tumor biomarkers.
Disk Formation in Hierarchical Hydrodynamical Simulations:A Way Out of the Angular Momentum Catastrophe

We report results on the formation of disklike structures in two cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, which share the same initial conditions, in a hierarchical clustering scenario. In the first simulation, a simple and generic implementation of star formation has allowed galaxy-like objects with stellar bulges and extended, populated disks to form. Gas in the disk comes both from particles that survive mergers, keeping in part their angular momentum content, and from new gas supplied by infall once the merger process is over, with global specific angular momentum conservation. The stellar bulge forms from gas that has lost most of its angular momentum. In the second simulation, no star formation has been included. In this case, objects consist of an overpopulated central gas concentration and an extended, underpopulated disk. The central concentration forms from particles that suffer an important angular momentum loss in violent events, and it often contains more than 70% of the object's baryonic mass. The external disk forms by late infall of gas that roughly conserves its specific angular momentum. The difference between these two simulations is likely to be due to the stabilizing character of the stellar bulge-like cores that form in the first simulation, which diminishes the inflow of gas triggered by mergers and interactions.
Biological studies on fresh water snails target to Schistosoma mansoni infection

Inthisstudy,uponexposureoflaboratoryEgyptianB.alexandrinaandB. glabratasnailsto itshomologusstrainofS.mansoni,twodifferentphenotypestrains"susceptibleandresistant" weredistinguished.Theaimofthisstudyistoinvestigatethebiologicaldifferencesbetween thetwotypesofBiomphalariasnailseithersusceptibleorresistantatdifferentages.The investigatedparametersincludedmortality,survival,percentageofsusceptibility/resistanceto parasiticinfectionandfecundity.Theresultsofthepreliminaryexposureexperimentrevealed thatparentalsnailstockwasnotcompletelysusceptibleandtendtobepartiallyrefractoryto infection.Theresultsalsoshowedastrongassociationbetweenthelevelsofeggproduction andsusceptibilitytoparasiteinfection.Wherebreedingexperimentrevealedthat,totalegg number,E/MandEMvaluesproducedbyresistantphenotypeofbothsnailspeciesweremore thanthoseproducedbysusceptibleprogenysnails.Also,itwasnoticedthat,eggproductionis associatedinverselyproportionwithsnailage.
Optimization of Resolving Power, Fragmentation, and Mass Calibration in an Orbitrap Spectrometer for Analysis of 24 Pesticide Metabolites in Urine

Mass spectrometer parameters such as Resolving Power, type of fragmentation, and mass calibration mode were optimized in the analysis of 24 pesticide metabolites in human urine using Ultra-High Pressure Liquid Chromatography coupled to Orbitrap High-Resolution Mass Spectrometer (UHPLC-HRMS). The best results were achieved with a Resolving Power of 25,000 FWHM and by applying Collision Induced Dissociation fragmentation mode (40 eV).
Divergent transcriptomic signatures in response to salinity exposure in two populations of an estuarine fish

In estuary and coastal systems, human demand for freshwater, climate change‐driven precipitation variability, and extreme weather impact salinity levels, reducing connectivity between mesohaline coastal fish populations and potentially contributing to genomic divergence. We examined gill transcriptome responses to salinity in wild‐caught juveniles from two populations of Sacramento splittail (Pogonichthys macrolepidotus), a species of conservation concern that is endemic to the San Francisco Estuary, USA, and the lower reaches of its tributaries. Recent extreme droughts have led to salinities above the tolerance limits for this species, creating a migration barrier between these populations, which potentially contributed to population divergence. We identified transcripts involved in a conserved response to salinity; however, the more salinity‐tolerant San Pablo population had greater transcriptome plasticity (3.6‐fold more transcripts responded than the Central Valley population) and a response consistent with gill remodeling after 168 hr of exposure to elevated salinity. The reorganization of the gill in response to changing osmotic gradients is a process critical for acclimation and would facilitate enhanced salinity tolerance. We detected an upregulation of receptors that control the Wnt (wingless‐type) cell signaling pathway that may be required for an adaptive response to increases in salinity, patterns not observed in the relatively salinity‐sensitive Central Valley population. We detected 62 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in coding regions of 26 transcripts that differed between the populations. Eight transcripts that contained SNPs were associated with immune responses, highlighting the importance of diversity in immune gene sequences as a defining characteristic of genomic divergence between these populations. Our data demonstrate that these populations have divergent transcriptomic responses to salinity, which is consistent with observed physiological differences in salinity tolerance.
High Throughput Disk Scheduling with Fair Bandwidth Distribution

Mainstream applications-such as file copy/transfer, Web, DBMS, or video streaming-typically issue synchronous disk requests. As shown in this paper, this fact may cause work-conserving schedulers to fail both to enforce guarantees and provide a high disk throughput. A high throughput can be, however, recovered by just idling the disk for a short time interval after the completion of each request. In contrast, guarantees may still be violated by existing time-stamp-based schedulers because of the rules they use to tag requests. Budget Fair Queuing (BFQ), the new disk scheduler presented in this paper, is an example of how disk idling, combined with proper back-shifting of request time stamps, may allow a time-stamp-based disk scheduler to preserve both guarantees and a high throughput. Under BFQ, each application is always guaranteed-over any time interval and independently of whether it issues synchronous requests-a bounded lag with respect to its reserved fraction of the total number of bytes transferred by the disk device. We show the single-disk performance of our implementation of BFQ in the Linux kernel through experiments with real and emulated mainstream applications.
Dynamic stabilization of rapid hexapedal locomotion.

To stabilize locomotion, animals must generate forces appropriate to overcome the effects of perturbations and to maintain a desired speed or direction of movement. We studied the stabilizing mechanism employed by rapidly running insects by using a novel apparatus to perturb running cockroaches (Blaberus discoidalis). The apparatus used chemical propellants to accelerate a small projectile, generating reaction force impulses of less than 10 ms duration. The apparatus was mounted onto the thorax of the insect, oriented to propel the projectile laterally and loaded with propellant sufficient to cause a nearly tenfold increase in lateral velocity relative to maxima observed during unperturbed locomotion. Cockroaches were able to recover from these perturbations in 27+/-12 ms (mean +/- S.D., N=9) when running on a high-friction substratum. Lateral velocity began to decrease 13+/-5 ms (mean +/- S.D., N=11) following the start of a perturbation, a time comparable with the fastest reflexes measured in cockroaches. Cockroaches did not require step transitions to recover from lateral perturbations. Instead, they exhibited viscoelastic behavior in the lateral direction, with spring constants similar to those observed during unperturbed locomotion. The rapid onset of recovery from lateral perturbations supports the possibility that, during fast locomotion, intrinsic properties of the musculoskeletal system augment neural stabilization by reflexes.
A physically based calving model applied to marine outlet glaciers and implications for the glacier dynamics

Abstract We present results from numerical ice-flow models that include calving criteria based on penetration of surface and basal crevasses, which in turn is a function of longitudinal strain rates near the glacier front. The position of the calving front is defined as the point where either (1) surface crevasses reach the waterline (model CDw), or (2) surface and basal crevasses penetrate the full thickness of the glacier (model CD). For comparison with previous studies, results are also presented for a height-above-buoyancy calving model. Qualitatively, both models CDw and CD produce similar behaviour. Unlike previous models for calving, the new calving criteria are applicable to both grounded termini and floating ice shelves and tongues. The numerical ice-flow model is applied to an idealized geometry characteristic of marine outlet glaciers. Results indicate that grounding-line dynamics are less sensitive to basal topography than previously suggested. Stable grounding-line positions can be obtained even on a reverse bed slope with or without floating termini. The proposed calving criteria also allow calving losses to be linked to surface melt and therefore climate. In contrast to previous studies in which calving rate or position of the terminus is linked to local water depth, the new calving criterion is able to produce seasonal cycles of retreat and advance as observed for Greenland marine outlet glaciers. The contrasting dynamical behaviour and stability found for different calving models suggests that a realistic parameterization for the process of calving is crucial for any predictions of marine outlet glacier change.
A sliding-mode control strategy for objects with a stable finite zero

This paper describes a new method, proposed for the control of objects with a stable finite zero, using sliding mode control strategies. The method is a combination of the conventional linear control and the sliding mode approach with an observer structure. The proposed structure looks like a reference model control system. The object control signal has two components: the first one is integral of the sliding mode controller output signal, and the second is a linear combination of observer error signal and its derivative. Such a control signal has not switching nature, i.e. the process control is chattering-free. The stability of the proposed control structure is analyzed and some recommendations for controller synthesis are given. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is demonstrated by simulation on an example.
Computer modelling of RF ablation in cortical osteoid osteoma: Assessment of the insulating effect of the reactive zone

Abstract Purpose: The aim was to study by computer simulations the insulating role of the reactive zone surrounding a cortical osteoid osteoma (OO) in terms of electrical and thermal performance during radiofrequency ablation (RFA). Material and methods: We modelled a cortical OO consisting of a nidus (10 mm diameter) enclosed by a reactive zone. The OO was near a layer of cortical bone 1.5 mm thick. Trabecular bone partially surrounds the OO and there was muscle around the cortical bone layer. We modelled RF ablations with a non-cooled-tip 17-gauge needle electrode (300 s duration and 90 °C target temperature). Sensitivity analyses were conducted assuming a reactive zone electrical conductivity value (σrz) within the limits of the cortical and trabecular bone, i.e. 0.02 S/m and 0.087 S/m, respectively. In this way we were really modelling the different degrees of osteosclerosis associated with the reactive zone. Results: The presence of the reactive zone drastically reduced the maximum temperature reached outside it. The temperature drop was proportional to the thickness of the reactive zone: from 68 °C when it was absent to 44 °C when it is 7.5 mm thick. Higher nidus conductivity values (σn) implied higher temperatures, while lower temperatures meant higher σrz values. Changing σrz from 0.02 S/m to 0.087 S/m reduced lesion diameters from 2.4 cm to 1.8 cm. Conclusions: The computer results suggest that the reactive zone plays the role of insulator in terms of reducing the temperature in the surrounding area.
Micromachined silicon attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy: An emerging detection method in micro/nanofluidics

Microfluidics is an emerging field with various applications. In situ analysis of liquids inside microfluidic channels is an important research subject for any of these applications. On the other hand, attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR‐IR) is a strong surface detection method. Recently, there have been various attempts to use ATR‐IR for detection of liquids inside microfluidic channels. Micromachined silicon ATR‐IR (μSi‐ATR‐IR) is an emerging analytical tool for micro/nanofluidics. This paper reviews μSi‐ATR‐IR micro/nanofluidics detection devices and discusses the application fields, capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages of the method.
Improved Authentication for IMS Registration in 3G/WLAN Interworking

The present paper on WLAN-3G interworking focuses on how to guarantee secure access while minimising the authentication message overhead among user equipment (UE), access network (AN) and home network. 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), the main organization investigating B3G (Beyond-3G) research issues and producing the relative standardization proposals, has defined two different scenarios for WLAN-3G interworking. The first, called "WLAN Direct IP Access", considers a direct access from the access network to an IP network, i.e. without any intermediate step of data passing through a PLMN (public land mobile network). The second scenario, called "WLAN 3GPP IP access", is based on accessing an IP Network via a PLMN through a tunnelling mechanism. 3GPP has not completely defined yet the security requirements, and has separately defined the security scenarios for a generic UE that accesses an IP Network and for a UE that is willing to be registered to the 3G IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). In this paper we propose a security mechanism for a scenario where the user wishes to use IP Network connectivity directly provided from the AN (e.g. a WiFi hot spot) and at the same time also register to the IMS. The proposed mechanism reduces the number of authentication procedures to carry out with the AAA server and consequently the number of messages exchanged with it.
A Review on Vision-Based Hand Gesture Recognition and Applications

In the present scenario, vision based hand gesture recognition has become a highly emerging research area for the purpose of human computer interaction. Such recognition systems are deployed to serve as a replacement for the commonly used human-machine interactive devices such as keyboard, mouse, joystick etc. in real world situations. The major challenges faced by a vision based hand gesture recognition system include recognition in complex background, in dynamic background, in presence of multiple gestures in the background, under variable lighting condition, under different viewpoints etc. In the context of sign language recognition, which is a highly demanding application of hand gesture recognition system, coarticulation detection is a challenging task. The main objective of this chapter is to provide a general overview of vision based hand gesture recognition system as well as to bring into light some of the research works that have been done in this field.
Faster floating-point square root for integer processors

This paper presents some work in progress on fast and accurate floating-point arithmetic software for ST200-based embedded systems. We show how to use some key architectural features to design codes that achieve correct rounding-to-nearest without sacrificing for efficiency. This is illustrated with the square root function, whose implementation given here is faster by over 35% than the previously best one for such systems.
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Performance

This book includes a synthesis of some of our previsions research works. It presents firstly a study of interactions between two routing protocols (AODV, DSR) and two transport protocol versions (TCP New Reno, Vegas). After this study, we conduct some simulations to analyze the behavior of these protocols with different node mobility and network load values. The performance results of each protocol are examined to identify our own scenarios in order to evaluate our proposed solution for better interactions between these protocols. This solution is called CL-TCP (Cross Layer TCP). It is an adaptation of the TCP congestion control mechanism with some parameters provided by the routing layer (mobility nodes and the size of routing length). After the evaluation of CL-TCP, the results showed that it significantly improves the interactions between TCP Vegas and AODV protocols.
Autophosphorylation Activity of the Arabidopsis Ethylene Receptor Multigene Family*

Receptors for the gaseous phytohormone ethylene show sequence similarity to bacterial two-component histidine kinases. These receptors are encoded by a multigene family that can be divided into subfamilies 1 and 2. It has been previously shown that a subfamily 1 Arabidopsis thaliana ethylene receptor, ETR1, autophosphorylates in vitro on a conserved histidine residue (1). However, sequence comparisons between the five ethylene receptor family members suggest that subfamily 2 members do not have all the motifs necessary for histidine kinase activity. Further, a tobacco subfamily 2 receptor, NTHK1, autophosphorylates on serines and threonines in vitro (2). Here we show that all five Arabidopsis ethylene receptor proteins autophosphorylate in vitro. We analyzed the nature of the phosphorylated amino acids by acid/base stability and bi-dimensional thin layer electrophoresis and demonstrated that unlike ETR1 all other ethylene receptors autophosphorylate predominantly on serine residues. ERS1, the only other subfamily 1 receptor, is able to phosphorylate on both histidine and serine residues in the presence of Mn2+. However, histidine autophosphorylation is lost when ERS1 is assayed in the presence of both Mg2+ and Mn2+, suggesting that this activity may not occur in vivo. Furthermore, mutation of the histidine residue conserved in two-component systems does not abolish serine autophosphorylation, eliminating the possibility of a histidine to serine phosphotransfer. Our biochemical observations complement the recently published genetic data that histidine kinase activity is not necessary for ethylene receptor function in plants and suggest that ethylene signal transduction does not occur through a phosphorelay mechanism.
A Gridless CS Approach for Channel Estimation in Hybrid Massive MIMO Systems

Channel state information (CSI) estimation in hybrid analog-digital (HAD) millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive MIMO systems is a challenging problem due to the high channel dimension and reduced number of radio-frequency chains. However, exploiting the channel sparsity, several methods have been proposed leveraging the compressed sensing (CS) tools. Most of the prior works consider an approximate CS formulation by assuming that the channel parameters lie perfectly on a finite grid neglecting the grid mismatch effect. To resolve this issue, we propose a gridless CS approach that exploits the antenna array geometry. The proposed algorithm is based on an alternating optimization technique and is guaranteed to converge to a local minimum. Simulation results are provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.