Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HT-KZ detector system: R&D considerations and prototype performance

Following the experience with the Horizon-10T detector systems, a completely new detector of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) has been designed to be built at Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan. The motivation of building HorizonT-Kazakhstan is to study in detail the phenomenon of the multi-modal EAS events that were initially explored by Horizon-8T and 10T detector systems. This detector will have a ns-level resolution of charged particle arrival times and pulse shape resolution. Each detection point is designed to have a total scintillation area approximately equal to 7.7 m2 and consists of three 1.6×1.6 m detectors located in a triangular arrangement for the local determination of the EAS disk arrival direction, and to have ns precision in timing between points. Local arrival direction is important following evidence of large angle differences in the multimodal events seen previously.
Amicus Curiae Brief for the United States Supreme Court on Mental Health, Terminal Illness, and Assisted Death

Abstract The Supreme Court will hear the case of Gonzales v. Oregon in the fall of2005 to determine if prescriptions written under Oregon's Death with Dignity law violate the Controlled Substances Act. The Attorney General of the United States also believes that hastening death is a public health danger because of the vulnerability of people with terminal illness, primarily because of the possibility of depression or other psychological problems. This friend of the court brief will help to inform the court about the research related to mental capacity, depression, and end-of-life decision making. The National Association of Social Workers, Clinical Social Work Federation, Oregon Chapter of NASW, two state psychological associations, and many mental health professionals signed this brief in support of its findings.
Cell lines in inner ear research.

Cell lines have provided important experimental tools that have enhanced our understanding of neural and sensory function. They are particularly valuable in inner ear research because the auditory and vestibular systems are small, complex, and encased in several layers of bone. Organotypic cultures provide an invaluable experimental resource but require repeated microdissection and culture, and remain complex in terms of cell types and states of differentiation. A number of laboratories have established cell lines that offer a range of potential applications to hearing research. This review describes the advances that have already been made with these lines and the potential applications that they offer in the future. The majority of the cell lines are immortalized with a conditionally expressed, temperature sensitive variant of the SV40 tumor antigen. We discuss the value of these cells in developmental studies.
The 5Ws and 1H of Digital Journalism

Abstract Digital journalism is the networked production, distribution, and consumption of news and information. It is characterized by networked settings and practices that expand the opportunities and spaces for news. Digital journalism is the outgrowth of new ecological conditions for the circulation of news content in contemporary society and the crumbling of the pyramidal model of news that prevailed since the beginnings of industrial journalism. These unprecedented developments have broadened the essential elements of journalism—the who, what, where, when, why, and how news are reported. Concept definition: digital journalism
ROSS User's Guide and Reference Manual (Version 1.0)

The ROSS method is a new approach in the area of knowledge representation that is useful for many artificial intelligence and natural language understanding representation and reasoning tasks. (ROSS stands for "Representation", "Ontology", "Structure", "Star" language). ROSS is a physical symbol-based representational scheme. ROSS provides a complex model for the declarative representation of physical structure and for the representation of processes and causality. From the metaphysical perspective, the ROSS view of external reality involves a 4D model, wherein discrete single-time-point unit-sized locations with states are the basis for all objects, processes and aspects that can be modeled. ROSS includes a language called "Star" for the specification of ontology classes. The ROSS method also includes a formal scheme called the "instance model". Instance models are used in the area of natural language meaning representation to represent situations. This document is an in-depth specification of the ROSS method.
A Framework for the Certification and Evaluation of Real-Time Safety-Critical Intelligent Systems

Abstract : The concept of software architecture has recently emerged as a new way to improve our ability to effectively construct large scale software systems. However, there is no formal architecture specification language available to model and analyze temporal properties of complex real-time systems. In this paper, an object-oriented logic-based architecture specification language for real-time systems is discussed. Representation of the temporal properties and timing constraints, and their integration with the language to model real-time concurrent systems is given. Architecture based specification languages enable the construction of large system architectures and provide a means of testing and validation. In general, checking the timing constraints of real-time system is done by applying model checking to the constraint expressed as a formula in temporal logic. The complexity of such a formal method depends on the size of the representation of the system. It is possible that this size could increase exponentially when the system consists of several concurrently executing real-time processes. This means that the complexity of the algorithm will be exponential in the number of processes of the system and thus the size of the system becomes a limiting factor. Such a problem has been defined in the literature as the "state explosion problem". This paper proposes a method of incremental verification of architectural specifications for real-time systems. The method has a lower complexity in a sense that it does not work on the whole state space, but only on a subset of it that is relevant to the property to be verified.
Immunization with whole inactivated vaccine protects from infection by SIV grown in human but not macaque cells

Homologous SIVsm stocks were generated by passage of a macaque isolate of SIVsm (SIVsm/E660) in human CEM × 174 cells or macaque peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Macaques were immunized with whole inactivated SIV vaccine consisting of virus generated by transfection of CEM × 174 cells with the SIVsmH4 clone and were challenged with either cell‐free stock. Only vaccinees challenged with virus generated in human cells were protected from infection. This confirms the species‐specificity of whole inactivated vaccine‐mediated protection.
The ecological significance of extremely large flocks of birds

Abstract Population size is generally limited by resource availability during and outside the breeding season. Therefore, maximum size of flocks may provide important information on population regulation and the influence of diet and trophic level on maximal degree of sociality. We hypothesized that (a) flock size should increase with nutrient availability; (b) flock size should decrease with latitude because productivity is higher at lower latitude; (c) aquatic habitats should have larger flocks than terrestrial habitats because the former are less accessible; (d) smaller species should have larger flocks because they require overall less food; (e) human‐impacted species that live in perturbed habitats should have smaller flocks than other species; (f) flock size should decrease with increasing trophic level because there is a reduction in biomass due to conversion at each trophic level; and (g) flocks of species depending on ancestral landscapes should have decreased in size in recent years due to human impact (e.g., land‐use). We obtained 1564 observations of flocks that exceeded 100,000 individuals in order to test the predictions listed above. Most effect sizes were small to medium accounting for 1%–9% of the variance, while large effects accounting for 25% or more were only found for total nitrogen used per km2 and area used for agriculture. Changes in large bird flocks were caused by habitat degradation and persecution, and temporal decline in size of large flocks revealed changes in nutrient use, reductions in nutrient cycling, and changes in flock size linked to trophic level.
Skin exposure to micro- and nano-particles can cause haemostasis in zebrafish larvae

Summary Low mass ambient exposure to airborne particles is associated with atherothrombotic events that may be a consequence of the combustion-derived nanoparticle content. There is concern also over the potential cardiovascular impact of manufactured nanoparticles. To better understand the mechanism by which toxic airborne particles can affect cardiovascular function we utilised zebrafish as a genetically tractable model. Using light and confocal fluorescence video-microscopy, we measured heart-rate and blood flow in the dorsal aorta and caudal artery of zebrafish larvae that had been exposed to a number of toxic and non-toxic microparticles and nanoparticles. Diesel exhaust particles (DEP), carboxy-charged LatexTM beads (carboxy-beads) and toxic alumina (Taimicron TM300), but not non-toxic alumina (Baikalox A125), were found to promote both skin and gut cell damage, increased leukocyte invasion into the epidermis, tail muscle ischaemia and hae-mostasis within the caudal artery of free swimming zebrafish larvae. The presence of sodium sulfite, a reducing agent, or warfarin, an anticoagulant, within the system water abrogated the effects of both toxic alumina and carboxy-beads but not DEP. Genetic manipulation of skin barrier function augmented skin damage and haemostasis, even for the non-toxic alumina. The toxic effects of carboxy-beads were still apparent after leukocyte numbers were depleted with anti-Pu.1 morpholino. We conclude that particle uptake across skin epithelium and gut mucosal barriers, or the presence of leukocytes, is not required for particle-induced haemostasis while a compromised skin barrier function accentuated tissue injury and haemostasis.
Tunable and Broadband Microwave Frequency Comb Generation Using Optically Injected Semiconductor Laser Nonlinear Dynamics

Based on an optically injected semiconductor laser (OISL) operating at period-one (P1) nonlinear dynamical state, tunable and ultrabroadband microwave frequency combs (MFCs) are generated experimentally through further current-modulating the OISL. First, by introducing an injection light with an injection power of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\rm{i}}\,= \,12.42$</tex-math></inline-formula> mW, whose wavelength is identical to the central wavelength of a free-running distributed feedback semiconductor laser, the OISL can be driven into P1 state with a fundamental frequency of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{{0}}\,= \,26.44$</tex-math> </inline-formula> GHz. Next, further modulating the OISL with a modulation frequency of<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$f_{\rm{m}}\,= \,3.3$</tex-math></inline-formula> GHz and a modulation power of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P_{\rm{m}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> = 22.0 dBm, an MFC with a bandwidth of 59.4 GHz within a 10 dB amplitude variation is experimentally obtained, and the single sideband phase noise at offset frequency 10 kHz for all comb lines contained within the bandwidth is below −95.0 dBc/Hz. Finally, through varying the modulation frequency, the MFCs with different comb spacing can be obtained, and the influences of relevant operation parameters on the performances of the generated MFCs have been analyzed.
The physiological effects of relaxin during pregnancy: studies in rats and pigs.

For 50 years after its discovery in 1926, there was a general lack of interest in relaxin among both reproductive biologists and clinicians. A key reason for this lack of interest was the lack of information concerning relaxin's physiological importance during pregnancy in any species. Research conducted since the early 1980s has established that the hormone relaxin is essential during pregnancy in at least two species--rats and pigs. Two vital roles for relaxin during pregnancy have been identified. Relaxin promotes growth and softening of the uterine cervix and thereby enables rapid and safe delivery in both rats and pigs. Relaxin also promotes growth and development of the mammary apparatus in both species. Interestingly, the major effects of relaxin on mammary growth and development are targeted on the nipple in the rat, whereas they are targeted on the glandular parenchyma in the pig. Relaxin-dependent growth of the nipple in rats is required for normal lactational performance. Although likely, it remains to be established that relaxin's profound effects upon mammary gland development in pigs are required for normal lactational performance. The fact that relaxin has effects upon cervical and mammary gland development during pregnancy in both rats and pigs encourages the view that relaxin may have similar effects during pregnancy in other species. Nevertheless, one must keep in mind that there is great diversity in the physiology of relaxin among species (reviewed by Sherwood 1988). This diversity includes not only relaxin's source, regulation of synthesis and secretion, and secretory profiles during pregnancy, but also its biological effects. It seems essentially certain that relaxin's effects during pregnancy differ among species. For example, transformation of the pubic joint cartilage to a flexible and elastic interpubic ligament occurs during pregnancy in several species, including guinea pigs, mice, and bats. This pelvic adaptation, which is nearly certainly relaxin dependent, does not occur in species such as rats and sheep. It is possible that relaxin may have little or no physiological significance during pregnancy in some species. Although considerable progress has been made toward an understanding of the physiological role(s) of relaxin in pregnant rats and pigs, many fundamental questions remain unanswered. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Descriptive analysis and text analysis in Systematic Literature Review: A review of Master Data Management

Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is a structured way of conducting a review of existing research works produced by the earlier researchers. The application of right data analysis technique during the SLR evaluation stage would give an insight to the researcher in achieving the SLR objective. This paper presents how descriptive analysis and text analysis can be applied to achieve one of the common SLR objectives which is to study the progress of specific research domain. These techniques have been demonstrated to synthesis the progress of Master Data Management research domain. Using descriptive analysis technique, this study has identified a trend of related literary works distribution by years, sources, and publication types. Meanwhile, text analysis shows the common terms and interest topics in the Master Data Management research which are 1) master data, 2) data quality, 3) business intelligence, 4) business process, 5) data integration, 6) big data, 7) data governance, 8) information governance, 9) data management and 10) product data. It is hoped that other researchers would be able to replicate these analysis techniques in performing SLR for other research domains.
Synthetic Approach to Controlled Assembly of Metal Nanoparticles

Abstract : The aim of this one-year project is to develop synthetic methods to form well-defined colloidal assemblies of metal nanoparticles and tounderstand their unique optical properties focusing on magnetic resonance scattering and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Oursynthetic approach is based on the templated surfactant-assisted seed growth method, where polymer particles decorated with small metalnanoparticles are used as seed-decorated templates to grow metal nanoparticles of varying sizes and shapes. Of particular interest in thisstudy is closely packed gold nanobeads assembled on a polymer core, which is termed raspberry-like metamolecules (raspberry-MM) due totheir strong magnetic resonances. Here, we first report surprisingly weak distance dependence in Raman enhancement from the raspberry-likegold nanoparticles. Due to the abundant built-in hot spots between adjacent gold nanobeads, bright and uniform Raman signals wereobserved from isolated single raspberry-MMs. Interestingly, dimers of raspberry-MMs also showed highly reproducible Raman signals, indicatingthat the dimer SERS signal is not strongly dependent on the nanoparticle separation. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) modeling shows thata strong hot spot is created at the dimer gap, as expected. However, since there are many more built-in hot spots in each raspberry-MM, thecontribution of the dimer gap hot spot to the total Raman enhancement remains low even for 2 nm separation, which explains the observedweak distance dependence. This result is in stark contrast with many previous SERS studies on nanoparticle dimers and clusters, and providesan important guideline on how to design bright and highly reproducible Raman substrates. Secondly, we have developed a synthetic methodto prepare silver raspberry-type nanoparticles. Silver particles possess higher extinction cross section than go
Preconditioning by incomplete block cyclic reduction

Iterative methods for solving linear systems arising from the discretization of elliptic/parabolic partial differential equations require the use of preconditioners to gain increased rates of convergence. Preconditioners arising from incomplete factorizations have been shown to be very effective. However, the recursiveness of these methods can offset these gains somewhat on a vector processor. In this paper, an incomplete factorization based on block cyclic reduction is developed. It is shown that under block diagonal dominance conditions the off-diagonal terms decay quadratically, yielding more effective algorithms.
A-kinase anchoring protein 79/150 coordinates metabotropic glutamate receptor sensitization of peripheral sensory neurons

Abstract Glutamate serves as the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the nervous system. Previous studies have identified a role for glutamate and group I metabotropic receptors as targets for study in peripheral inflammatory pain. However, the coordination of signaling events that transpire from receptor activation to afferent neuronal sensitization has not been explored. Herein, we identify that scaffolding protein A-kinase anchoring protein 79/150 (AKAP150) coordinates increased peripheral thermal sensitivity after group I metabotropic receptor (mGluR5) activation. In both acute and persistent models of thermal somatosensory behavior, we report that mGluR5 sensitization requires AKAP150 expression. Furthermore, electrophysiological approaches designed to record afferent neuronal activity reveal that mGluR5 sensitization also requires functional AKAP150 expression. In dissociated primary afferent neurons, mGluR5 activation increases TRPV1 responses in an AKAP-dependent manner through a mechanism that induces AKAP association with TRPV1. Experimental results presented herein identify a mechanism of receptor-driven scaffolding association with ion channel targets. Importantly, this mechanism could prove significant in the search for therapeutic targets that repress episodes of acute pain from becoming chronic in nature.
Natural-language Interactive Narratives in Imaginal Exposure Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety-based disorder that affects around 2.5% of the population. A common treatment for OCD is exposure therapy, where the patient repeatedly confronts a feared experience, which has the long-term effect of decreasing their anxiety. Some exposures consist of reading and writing stories about an imagined anxiety-provoking scenario. In this paper, we present a technology that enables patients to interactively contribute to exposure stories by supplying natural language input (typed or spoken) that advances a scenario. This interactivity could potentially increase the patient’s sense of immersion in an exposure and contribute to its success. We introduce the NLP task behind processing inputs to predict new events in the scenario, and describe our initial approach. We then illustrate the future possibility of this work with an example of an exposure scenario authored with our application.
Native and Recombinant Fatty Acid Binding Protein 3 from Fasciola Hepatica as a Potential Antigen

ABSTRACT Lipid-binding proteins are members of widely distributed protein family. They take part in metabolism of different lipophilic ligands and also have a role in physiological activity, metabolism and disposition of essential hydrophobic compounds (fatty acids, phospholipids, eicosanoids, retinoids, etc.) which are important molecules involved in several cellular processes including gene transcription, immune responses etc. Fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) are mostly cytosolic but several members are excretory-secretory (E-S) proteins. There is a lot of data that helminthic FABPs from E/S products cause antigenic and allergenic reactions. The aim of the present study is to make a detailed investigation of native and produced recombinant FABP3 as a potential antigen for vaccine creation. The native FABP3 from Fasciola hepatica was purified and recombinant one was expressed in E. coli. Polyclonal antibody was produced against recombinant FABP3 and it was tested on the native one. Obtained results give the opportunity to investigate the effectiveness of the native and recombinant FABP3 as an immunotherapeutic agent and if it could be used for immunoprophilactic.
Desert Dust as a Source of Iron to the Globally Important Diazotroph Trichodesmium

The marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium sp. accounts for approximately half of the annual ‘new’ nitrogen introduced to the global ocean but its biogeography and activity is often limited by the availability of iron (Fe). A major source of Fe to the open ocean is Aeolian dust deposition in which Fe is largely comprised of particles with reduced bioavailability over soluble forms of Fe. We report that Trichodesmium erythraeum IMS101 has improved growth rate and photosynthetic physiology and down-regulates Fe-stress biomarker genes when cells are grown in the direct vicinity of, rather than physically separated from, Saharan dust particles as the sole source of Fe. These findings suggest that availability of non-soluble forms of dust-associated Fe may depend on cell contact. Transcriptomic analysis further reveals unique profiles of gene expression in all tested conditions, implying that Trichodesmium has distinct molecular signatures related to acquisition of Fe from different sources. Trichodesmium thus appears to be capable of employing specific mechanisms to access Fe from complex sources in oceanic systems, helping to explain its role as a key microbe in global biogeochemical cycles.