Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of Akt Activity and Calcium Channel Function Coordinately Drive Cell-Cell Fusion in the BeWO Choriocarcinoma Placental Cell Line

To establish a simple and quantitative live cell fusion assay for placental syncytialization, we generated stable GFP and dsRed expressing fusogenic BeWo cell lines. Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorting was shown to provide a quantitative determination of forskolin (cAMP-mediated) fusion in a time and concentration dependent manner consistent with the increased secretion of beta human chorionic gonadotrophin (β-HCG) and appearance of multi-nucleated cells. Analyses of the fusion process demonstrated that in addition to increased cAMP levels, simultaneous reduction of intracellular calcium and inhibition of Type 1 phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling also resulted in cell fusion. Although individual blockade of calcium channel function or PI3K/Akt signaling was without effect, the combination with forskolin resulted in a potentiation of cell fusion. These data demonstrate syncytialization is a complex process that depends upon the regulation of distinct signaling inputs that function in concert with each other.
Applicability of Conventional p-y Relations to the Analysis of Piles in Laterally Spreading Soil

This paper presents a kinematic analysis of a single pile embedded in a laterally spreading layered soil profile and discusses the relevancy of conventional analysis models to this load case. The research encompasses the creation of three-dimensional (3D) finite-element (FE) models using the OpenSees FE analysis platform. These models consider a single pile embedded in a layered soil continuum. Three reinforced concrete pile designs are considered. The piles are modeled using beam-column elements and fiber-section models. The soil continuum is modeled using brick elements and a Drucker-Prager constitutive model. The soil-pile interface is modeled using beam-solid contact elements. The FE models are used to evaluate the response of the soil-pile system to lateral spreading and two alternative lateral load cases. Through the computation of force density-displacement (p-y) curves representative of the soil response, the FE analysis (FEA) results are used to evaluate the adequacy of conventional p-y curve rel.
A Textural–Contextual Model for Unsupervised Segmentation of Multipolarization Synthetic Aperture Radar Images

This paper proposes a novel unsupervised, non-Gaussian, and contextual segmentation method that combines an advanced statistical distribution with spatial contextual information for multilook polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) data. This extends on previous studies that have shown the added value of both non-Gaussian modeling and contextual smoothing individually or for intensity channels only. The method is based on a Markov random field (MRF) model that integrates a K-Wishart distribution for the PolSAR data statistics conditioned to each image cluster and a Potts model for the spatial context. Specifically, the proposed algorithm is constructed based upon the stochastic expectation maximization (SEM) algorithm. A new formulation of SEM is developed to jointly perform clustering of the data and parameter estimation of the K-Wishart distribution and the MRF model. Experiments on simulated and real PolSAR data demonstrate the added value of using an appropriate statistical representation, in combination with contextual smoothing.
Using the Interactive Learning Environment Aplusix for Teaching and Learning School Algebra: A Research Experiment in a Middle School.

Most software tools that have been developed with the aim of helping students to learn school algebra have not yet achieved successful results in classroom. Almost all of them are menu-based systems that provide transformation rules in menus and buttons. Aplusix is a new interactive software tool for learning school algebra. In contrast to existing software tools in mathematics education, Aplusix has been developed to allow students to freely build and transform algebraic expressions as they can do on paper. In addition, Aplusix provides appropriate feedback and interactivity, and as such, it becomes a source of learning. This work reports on a research project on the investigation of students’ learning of elementary algebra with Aplusix. The work uses the Theory of Didactical Situations (TDS) to analyze and evaluate the learning potentialities of Aplusix. The paper also reports on implications for the learning of school algebra and the integration of Aplusix into mathematics classroom.
Automatic construction of 3D animatable facial avatars

Rigging for facial animation is an important but time‐consuming task, which generally requires experienced artists with knowledge of facial anatomy. In this paper, we investigate whether it is possible to produce a good animatable avatar automatically, given only a 3D static triangle mesh of the head. An automatic mechanism is devised for constructing multi‐layer animatable facial avatars for unseen faces. We evaluate our technique with a variety of models, and give a quantitative analysis of the constructed results. We also designed and conducted a user study for evaluating the perceived quality of the generated expressive animations. The results demonstrate that our method is an appropriate tool for naïve users to customize their personal 3D avatars. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Neobility at SemEval-2017 Task 1: An Attention-based Sentence Similarity Model

This paper describes a neural-network model which performed competitively (top 6) at the SemEval 2017 cross-lingual Semantic Textual Similarity (STS) task. Our system employs an attention-based recurrent neural network model that optimizes the sentence similarity. In this paper, we describe our participation in the multilingual STS task which measures similarity across English, Spanish, and Arabic.
Strongly consistent replication for a bargain

Strong consistency is an important correctness property for replicated databases. It ensures that each transaction accesses the latest committed database state as provided in centralized databases. Achieving strong consistency in replicated databases is a major performance challenge and is typically not provided, exposing inconsistent data to client applications. We propose two scalable techniques that exploit lazy update propagation and workload information to guarantee strong consistency by delaying transaction start. We implement a prototype replicated database system and incorporate the proposed techniques for providing strong consistency. Extensive experiments using both a micro-benchmark and the TPC-W benchmark demonstrate that our proposals are viable and achieve considerable scalability while maintaining strong consistency.
Health beliefs and stages of changes to improve behaviors among obese and overweight women undergoing preconception care

Background: Beginning and continuing pregnancy with obesity and being overweight has some known side effects for the mother and the fetus. Preventing these complications requires medical interventions before pregnancy. Because designing health improvement interventions requires understanding of the related factors of the behavior, the aim of this study was to determine the relation between health beliefs of women regarding the risks of obesity for pregnancy and stages of behavioral changes in women under preconception care. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study that was conducted on 120 obese and overweight women under preconception care. Health belief structures including perceived sensitivity/intensity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and perceived self-efficacy were measured using a questionnaire, and its relation with stages of nutrition and physical activity behavior changes was evaluated according to a transtheoretical model. Results: Results showed a significant correlation between the stage of nutrition behavioral change and perceived sensitivity/intensity, perceived benefits, and self-efficacy (P < 0.05). In addition, the stage of physical activity behavioral change showed a negative and significant correlation with perceived barriers and a positive and low-to-moderate significant correlation with other health belief structures (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the relation of perceived sensitivity/intensity with perceived benefits and self-efficacy was positive and significant, and that with perceived barriers was negative and significant (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Results showed that a health belief model could be a predictor of weight adjustment behaviors including nutrition and physical activity behaviors. Therefore, educational interventions based on a health belief model could be effective for improvement of these behaviors in obese and overweight women under preconception care.
Microenvironment and Immunology The Vitamin E Analog aTEA Stimulates Tumor Autophagy and Enhances Antigen Cross-Presentation

The semisynthetic vitamin E derivative alpha-tocopheryloxyacetic acid (a-TEA) induces tumor cell apoptosis andmay offer a simple adjuvant supplement for cancer therapy if its mechanisms can be better understood. Here we report that a-TEA also triggers tumor cell autophagy and that it improves cross-presentation of tumor antigens to the immune system. a-TEA stimulated both apoptosis and autophagy in murine mammary and lung cancer cells and inhibition of caspase-dependent apoptosis enhanced a-TEA–induced autophagy. Cell exposure to a-TEA generated double-membrane–bound vesicles indicative of autophagosomes, which efficiently crossprimed antigen-specific CD8þ T cells. Notably, vaccination with dendritic cells pulsed with a-TEA–generated autophagosomes reduced lungmetastases and increased the survival of tumor-bearingmice. Taken together, our findings suggest that both autophagy and apoptosis signaling programs are activated during a-TEA–induced tumor cell killing. We suggest that the ability of a-TEA to stimulate autophagy and enhance cross-priming of CD8þ T cells might be exploited as an adjuvant strategy to improve stimulation of antitumor immune responses. Cancer Res; 72(14); 1–11. 2012 AACR.
A Compact Filtering 180 Hybrid

A novel compact filtering 180 hybrid utilizing coupled resonators is presented. The equivalent-circuit structure is just like a bandpass filter, thus the frequency response is filterlike. The sum and difference port operations respectively correspond to the symmetric and antisymmetric states; therefore, isolation between sum and difference ports is accomplished by geometrical symmetry. The synthesis method of the filtering 180 hybrid is illustrated. The proposed structure is decomposed into one power divider and one balun, which are designed separately. A second-order filtering 180 hybrid prototype centered at 2.4 GHz with 0.2-dB Chebyshev equal-ripple response and 10% fractional bandwidth is demonstrated. The passband insertion loss is about 3.0 0.7 dB, and the isolation between the sum and difference port is greater than 20 dB. Magnitude imbalance is less than 1 dB and phase imbalance is within 2 . Good agreement between simulation and experimental results is achieved.
Nonenzymatic Lipid Peroxidation Reprograms Gene Expression and Activates Defense Markers in Arabidopsis Tocopherol-Deficient Mutants[W]

Tocopherols (vitamin E) are lipophilic antioxidants that are synthesized by all plants and are particularly abundant in seeds. Two tocopherol-deficient mutant loci in Arabidopsis thaliana were used to examine the functions of tocopherols in seedlings: vitamin e1 (vte1), which accumulates the pathway intermediate 2,3-dimethyl-5-phytyl-1,4-benzoquinone (DMPBQ); and vte2, which lacks all tocopherols and pathway intermediates. Only vte2 displayed severe seedling growth defects, which corresponded with massively increased levels of the major classes of nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation products: hydroxy fatty acids, malondialdehyde, and phytoprostanes. In the absence of pathogens, the phytoalexin camalexin accumulated in vte2 seedlings to levels 100-fold higher than in wild-type or vte1 seedlings. Similarly, gene expression profiling in wild-type, vte1, and vte2 seedlings indicated that increased levels of nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation in vte2 corresponded to increased expression of many defense-related genes, which were not induced in vte1. Both biochemical and transcriptional analyses of vte2 seedlings indicate that nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation plays a significant role in modulating plant defense responses. Together, these results establish that tocopherols in wild-type plants or DMPBQ in vte1 plants limit nonenzymatic lipid peroxidation during germination and early seedling development, thereby preventing the inappropriate activation of transcriptional and biochemical defense responses.
SPPS: A Sequence-Based Method for Predicting Probability of Protein-Protein Interaction Partners

Background The molecular network sustained by different types of interactions among proteins is widely manifested as the fundamental driving force of cellular operations. Many biological functions are determined by the crosstalk between proteins rather than by the characteristics of their individual components. Thus, the searches for protein partners in global networks are imperative when attempting to address the principles of biology. Results We have developed a web-based tool “Sequence-based Protein Partners Search” (SPPS) to explore interacting partners of proteins, by searching over a large repertoire of proteins across many species. SPPS provides a database containing more than 60,000 protein sequences with annotations and a protein-partner search engine in two modes (Single Query and Multiple Query). Two interacting proteins of human FBXO6 protein have been found using the service in the study. In addition, users can refine potential protein partner hits by using annotations and possible interactive network in the SPPS web server. Conclusions SPPS provides a new type of tool to facilitate the identification of direct or indirect protein partners which may guide scientists on the investigation of new signaling pathways. The SPPS server is available to the public at http://mdl.shsmu. edu.cn/SPPS/.
Effect of vanadate on cartilage-matrix proteoglycan synthesis in rabbit costal chondrocyte cultures

The effect of vanadate on proteoglycan synthesis by cultured rabbit costal chondrocytes was examined. Rabbit chondrocytes were seeded at low densities and grown to confluency in medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, and then the serum concentration was reduced to 0.3%. At the low serum concentration, chondrocytes adopted a fibroblastic morphology. Addition of 4 microM vanadate to the culture medium induced a morphologic differentiation of the fibroblastic cells to spherical chondrocytes, and increased by two- to threefold incorporation of [35S]sulfate and [3H]glucosamine into large, chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans. The stimulation of incorporation of labeled precursors reflected real increases in proteoglycan synthesis, in that chemical analyses showed increases in the accumulation of macromolecules containing hexuronic acid and hexosamine in vanadate- maintained cultures. However, vanadate had only a marginal effect on [35S]sulfate incorporation into small proteoglycans and [3H]glucosamine incorporation into hyaluronic acid and chondroitinase AC-resistant material. These results provide evidence that vanadate selectively stimulates the synthesis of proteoglycans characteristically found in cartilage by rabbit costal chondrocyte cultures.
Broadband Measurements of-Parameters Utilizing 4 4 Butler Matrices

A novel application of 4 4 Butler matrices in a multiportmeasurement technique has been investigated. The proposed measuring system consists of two standard Butler matrices. By application of numerical procedure in measurement system calibration, an enhanced accuracy has been achieved. An influence of power detectors’ uncertainty and imperfect Butler matrix parameters on calibration procedure and measurement results has been investigated. The proposed measuring system has been verified by measurements of scattering parameters of two attenuators and a narrowband bandpass filter in frequency range of 2–3 GHz. It has been shown that the proposed system allows for achieving results corresponding closely to the measurements obtained with the commercial vector network analyzer.
CYP 2 A 6 genetic variation alters striatal-cingulate circuits , network hubs and executive processing in smokers CYP 2 A 6 and striatal-cingulate circuit in smokers

Background Variation in the CYP2A6 gene alters the rate of nicotine metabolic inactivation and is associated with smoking behaviors and cessation success rates. The underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this genetic influence remain unknown. Methods Intrinsic functional connectivity strength (FCS), a whole brain, data driven, graph theory based method, was applied to resting state fMRI data in 66 smokers and 92 nonsmokers. A subset of subjects (n=23/20; smokers/nonsmokers) performed the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task, probing reward anticipation and a Go/NoGo task, probing response inhibition, on two occasions, in the presence and absence of a nicotine patch. Results A significant CYP2A6 genotype × Smoking effect was found in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and ventral striatum (VS), such that the normal (vs. slow) genotype individuals showed greater FCS in smokers but not nonsmokers. FCS was negatively associated with nicotine dependence severity in slow metabolizers. Both hubs were biased by inputs from the insula identified from seed-based connectivity. Similar Gene × Environment interactions were seen in VS during smoking abstinence when subjects performed the MID task and in dACC when they performed the Go/NoGo task; both reductions were “normalized” in smokers (and increased in nonsmokers) following acute nicotine administration.
Feature Reduction of Nearest Neighbor Classifiers using Genetic Algorithm

— The design of a pattern classifier includes an attempt to select, among a set of possible features, a minimum subset of weakly correlated features that better discriminate the pattern classes. This is usually a difficult task in practice, normally requiring the application of heuristic knowledge about the specific problem domain. The selection and quality of the features representing each pattern have a considerable bearing on the success of subsequent pattern classification. Feature extraction is the process of deriving new features from the original features in order to reduce the cost of feature measurement, increase classifier efficiency, and allow higher classification accuracy. Many current feature extraction techniques involve linear transformations of the original pattern vectors to new vectors of lower dimensionality. While this is useful for data visualization and increasing classification efficiency, it does not necessarily reduce the number of features that must be measured since each new feature may be a linear combination of all of the features in the original pattern vector. In this paper a new approach is presented to feature extraction in which feature selection, feature extraction, and classifier training are performed simultaneously using a genetic algorithm. In this approach each feature value is first normalized by a linear equation, then scaled by the associated weight prior to training, testing, and classification. A knn classifier is used to evaluate each set of feature weights. The genetic algorithm optimizes a vector of feature weights, which are used to scale the individual features in the original pattern vectors in either a linear or a nonlinear fashion. By this approach, the number of features used in classifying can be finely reduced.
Course of value distinguishes the intentionality of programming languages

In this contribution, we propose to study the transformation of first order programs by course of value recursion. Our motivation is to show that this transformation provides a separation criterion for the intentionality of sets of programs. As an illustration, we consider two variants of the multiset path ordering, for the first, terms in recursive calls are compared with respect to the subterm property, for the second with respect to embedding. Under a quasi-interpretation, both characterize Ptime, the latter characterization being a new result. Once applied the transformation, we get respectively Ptime and Pspace thus proving that the latter set of programs contains more algorithms.
A Neural approach to the tracking of human body silhouette

In this paper, a specifically designed markerless computer vision technique for the detection and tracking of human body silhouette is presented. This innovative method has been called Neural Snake because it is based on the active contour model formulation, known as Snakes, integrated with a Neural Network which acts as a predictor to improve the performance in case of high deformable shapes. Results both on synthetic and experimental images obtained when examining the movement of the upper limb are encouraging and allow to define working direction for the extension of the work and for its application in many contexts.
Purification and structure of the major product obtained by reaction of NADPH and NMNH with the myeloperoxidase/hydrogen peroxide/chloride system.

The first spectrophotometric study of the reaction of the myeloperoxidase/H2O2/Cl- system with NADPH and NMNH showed that the reaction products were not the corresponding oxidized nucleotides and that modifications would take place on the nicotinamide part of the molecule [Auchère, F. & Capeillère-Blandin, C. (1999) Biochem. J. 343, 603-613]. In this report, in order to obtain more precise information on the structural modifications and mechanism of the reaction, we focus on the purification and isolation of products derived from NADPH and NMNH by RP-HPLC. Electrospray ionization mass spectra indicated that the relative height of the peaks reflected that of the natural isotopic abundance of 35Cl and 37Cl, providing evidence that the products derived from NADPH and NMNH were monochlorinated. Moreover, calculated masses revealed the 1 : 1 addition of HOCl to the molecule. Various 1D and 2D NMR experiments provided data for the assignments of the chemical shifts of protons and carbons and the coupling constants of the protons of the chlorinated nucleotides. Further NOESY experiments allowed the characterization of the spatial structure of the chlorinated product and showed that trans HOCl addition occurred at the C5=C6 carbon double bond of the nicotinamide ring, leading to a chlorohydrin.
A novel resource reservation scheme for fast and successful handover

In order to reduce handover delay caused by handover failure, radio resource is reserved for handover users not only at target cell, but also at prepared cells. This has been agreed in 3GPP LTE. However, these reserved resources cannot be assigned for other users until the finishing of the handover, which results in inefficiency of radio resource utilization. This paper presents a new resource reservation scheme for handover users to achieve fast handover failure recovery and efficient radio resource utilization. By proposed scheme, a resource pool at prepared cells is shared among multiple users, and the number of prepared cells is dynamically set according to the service type of users. Numerical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed scheme can improve successful handover probability and reduce handover delay.