Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Explorer The dynamics of spleen morphogenesis

The dynamics of spleen morphogenesis General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact openaccess@ed.ac. uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. The mammalian spleen has important functions in immunity and haematopoiesis but little is known about the events that occur during its early embryonic development. Here we analyse the origin of the cells that gives rise to the splenic mesenchyme and the process by which the precursors assume their position along the left lateral side of the stomach. We report a highly conserved regulatory element that regulates the Nkx2-5 gene throughout early spleen development. A transgenic mouse line carrying this element driving a reporter gene was used to show that morphogenesis of the spleen initiates bilaterally and posterior to the stomach, before the splenic precursors grow preferentially leftward. In addition the transgenic line was used in an organ culture system to track spleen precursor cells during development. Spleen cells were shown to move from the posterior mesenchyme and track along the left side of the stomach. Removal of tissue from the anterior stomach resulted in splenic cells randomly scattering suggesting a guidance role for the anterior stomach. Using a mouse line carrying a conditional Cre recombinase to mark early precursor cell populations, the spleen was found to derive from posterior mesenchyme distinct from the closely adjacent stomach mesenchyme. Introduction The mammalian spleen is located on the left side of the body, between the diaphragm and the fundus of the stomach, and has important functions in immunity and haematopoiesis (Mebius and Kraal, 2005). Asplenia, the absence of the spleen, is regarded as bilateral right-handedness and can be found in isolation or, more commonly, in association with other laterality defects. In heterotaxy syndrome the visceral situs along the left–right axis is abnormal, resulting in cardiovascular abnormalities and a range of spleen defects; these include asplenia, polysplenia (spleen tissue on both sides of the body–bilateral left-handedness–or multiple splenuli on one …
New Insight into the History of Domesticated Apple: Secondary Contribution of the European Wild Apple to the Genome of Cultivated Varieties

The apple is the most common and culturally important fruit crop of temperate areas. The elucidation of its origin and domestication history is therefore of great interest. The wild Central Asian species Malus sieversii has previously been identified as the main contributor to the genome of the cultivated apple (Malus domestica), on the basis of morphological, molecular, and historical evidence. The possible contribution of other wild species present along the Silk Route running from Asia to Western Europe remains a matter of debate, particularly with respect to the contribution of the European wild apple. We used microsatellite markers and an unprecedented large sampling of five Malus species throughout Eurasia (839 accessions from China to Spain) to show that multiple species have contributed to the genetic makeup of domesticated apples. The wild European crabapple M. sylvestris, in particular, was a major secondary contributor. Bidirectional gene flow between the domesticated apple and the European crabapple resulted in the current M. domestica being genetically more closely related to this species than to its Central Asian progenitor, M. sieversii. We found no evidence of a domestication bottleneck or clonal population structure in apples, despite the use of vegetative propagation by grafting. We show that the evolution of domesticated apples occurred over a long time period and involved more than one wild species. Our results support the view that self-incompatibility, a long lifespan, and cultural practices such as selection from open-pollinated seeds have facilitated introgression from wild relatives and the maintenance of genetic variation during domestication. This combination of processes may account for the diversification of several long-lived perennial crops, yielding domestication patterns different from those observed for annual species.
An improved droop control strategy in the islanding operation

For maintaining the stability of voltage and frequency, the droop control is often adopted when micro-grid is in islanding operational mode. Although this method can control the fluctuation of voltage and frequency, when the loads change, its implementation effect is weak In order to solve the mentioned problem, an improved dynamic self-adjusting droop control strategy is proposed: on the basis of the traditional one, PI control of voltage and frequency is introduced to control flow. The principle and implementation steps of this method are analyzed. Finally, the operating characteristics of overloading connection, overloading cutting-off and loads disturbance are simulated and discussed based on an islanding mode built in Matlab/Simulink. The results show the proposed method can control the voltage and frequency more effectively and faster than traditional droop control, and can enhance the stability of micro-grid in islanding operational mode.
The role of HIFs in ischemia-reperfusion injury

The reduction or cessation of the blood supply to an organ results in tissue ischemia. Ischemia can cause significant tissue damage, and is observed as a result of a thrombosis, as part of a disease process, and during surgery. However, the restoration of the blood supply often causes more damage to the tissue than the ischemic episode itself. Research is therefore focused on identifying the cellular pathways involved in the protection of organs from the damage incurred by this process of ischemia reperfusion (I/R). The hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) are a family of heterodimeric transcription factors that are stabilized during ischemia. The genes that are expressed downstream of HIF activity enhance oxygen-independent ATP generation, cell survival, and angiogenesis, amongst other phenotypes. They are, therefore, important factors in the protection of tissues from I/R injury. Interestingly, a number of the mechanisms already known to induce organ protection against I/R injury, including preconditioning, postconditioning, and activation of signaling pathways such as adenosine receptor signaling, converge on the HIF system. This review describes the evidence for HIFs playing a role in I/R protection mediated by these factors, highlights areas that require further study, and discuss whether HIFs themselves are good therapeutic targets for protecting tissues from I/R injury.
Computing Electricity Consumption Profiles from Household Smart Meter Data

In this paper, we investigate a critical problem in smart meter data mining: computing electricity consumption proles. We present a simple, interpretable and practical proling framework for residential consumers, which accounts for variations in electricity consumption at dierent times of day and at dierent external temperatures. Our approach is to isolate the eect of external temperature on electricity consumption and apply a time-series autoregressive model to the remaining signal. The proposed proles may be used for making personalized energy-saving recommendations, detecting outliers, and generating very large realistic data sets for testing the scalability of smart meter data management systems. Using predictive power as a metric for the accuracy of consumption proles, we show, using a real data set of 1000 homes, that our approach results in improved root-mean-squared prediction error compared to existing approaches.
Discovery of 5.16 s pulsations from the isolated neutron star RBS 1223

The isolated neutron star candidate RBS 1223 was observed with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer aboard the Chandra observatory on 2000 June 24. A timing analysis of the data yielded a periodic modulation with a period $P=5.1571696^{+1.57\times 10^{-4}}_{-1.36\times 10^{-4}}$ s. Using ROSAT HRI archived observations we detected a period $P=5.1561274\pm 4.4\times 10^{-4}$ s and determined period derivative $\dot{P}=(0.7 {-} 2.0)\times 10^{-11}$ s ${\rm s^{-1}}$. The detection of this period and $\dot{P}$ indicates that RBS 1223 has a “characteristic” age of 6000-12 000 years and huge magnetic field at the surface ($B_{\rm dipole} \approx (1.7{-} 3.2) \times 10^{+14} {\rm G}$) typical for anomalous pulsars (AXPs).
Coordinated Resource management in a Replicated Object Server

We propose several new techniques for resource management in a replicated object server. By coordinating cache and disk usage among the replicas, these techniques increase throughput and reduce fetch latency. Cache splitting speeds up fetches by avoiding redundant cache entries, effectively increasing the cache size. Coordinated writing coordinates disk writes to ensure that one replica is always available to service fetches. We investigate the performance of a replicated server using these techniques, and we present simulation results showing that these techniques provide substantial performance improvements across a variety of workloads.
Revisiting the Use of Lexically – Based Features for Sentiment Detection

This paper addresses the problem of supervised sentiment detection using classifiers which are derived from word features. We argue that, while the literature has suggested the use of lexical features is inappropriate for sentiment detection, a careful and thorough evaluation reveals a less clear–cut state of affairs. We present results from five classifiers using word based–features on three tasks, and show that the variation between classifiers can often be as great as has been reported between different feature sets with a fixed classifier. We are thus led to conclude that classifier choice plays at least as important a role as feature choice, and that in many cases word–based classifiers perform well on the sentiment detection task.
High-Dose Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor-Producing Vaccines Impair the Immune Response through the Recruitment of Myeloid Suppressor Cells

Tumor vaccines have shown promise in early clinical trials. Among them, tumor cells genetically engineered to secrete biologically active granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) can generate a systemic antitumor immune response. Although the minimal required GM-CSF dose produced by modified tumor cells to achieve a measurable antitumor effect is well known, no data examined whether an upper therapeutic limit may exist for this vaccination strategy. Because recent data demonstrate an immunosuppressive effect of GM-CSF produced by growing tumors, we thus sought to determine whether high GM-CSF doses administered in a vaccine formulation could impair antitumor immunity. Using a vaccine strategy involving a GM-CSF-producing bystander cell line (B78H1-GM) admixed with autologous tumor, we assessed the impact of varying doses of GM-CSF while maintaining a constant antigen dose. Our results defined a threshold above which a GM-CSF-based vaccine not only lost its efficacy, but more importantly for its clinical implications resulted in substantial immunosuppression in vivo. Above this threshold, GM-CSF induced Gr1+/CD11b+ myeloid suppressor cells that substantially impaired antigen-specific T-cell responses and adversely affected antitumor immune responses in vivo. The dual effects of GM-CSF are mediated by the systemic and not local concentration of this cytokine. Myeloid suppressor cell-induced immunosuppression is mediated by nitric oxide production via inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) because the specific iNOS inhibitor, l-NMMA, restored antigen-specific T-cell responsiveness in vitro. Taken together, our data demonstrated the negative impact of supra-therapeutic vaccine doses of GM-CSF and underscored the importance of identifying these critical variables in an effort to increase the therapeutic efficacy of tumor vaccines.
Diffusion‐Weighted Imaging Studies of Cerebral Ischemia in Gerbils: Potential Relevance to Energy Failure

Background and Purpose: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging has been shown to be particularly suited to the study of the acute phase of cerebral ischemia in animal models. The studies reported in this paper were undertaken to determine whether this technique is sensitive to the known ischemic thresholds for cerebral tissue energy failure and disturbance of membrane ion gradients. Methods: Diffusion-weighted images of the gerbil brain were acquired under two sets of experimental conditions: as a function of cerebral blood flow after controlled graded occlusion of the common carotid arteries (partial ischemia), as a function of time following complete bilateral carotid artery occlusion (severe global ischemia), and on deocclusion after 60 minutes of ischemia. Results: During partial cerebral ischemia, the diffusion-weighted images remained unchanged until the cerebral blood flow was reduced to 15–20 ml · 100 g−1 · min−1 and below, when image intensity increased as the cerebral blood flow was lowered further. This is similar to the critical flow threshold for maintenance of tissue high-energy metabolites and ion homeostasis. After the onset of severe global cerebral ischemia, diffusion-weighted image intensity increased gradually after a delay of approximately 2.5 minutes, consistent with complete loss of tissue adenosine triphosphate and with the time course of increase in extracellular potassium. This hyperintensity decreased on deocclusion following 60 minutes of ischemia. Conclusions: The data suggest that diffusion-weighted imaging is sensitive to the disruption of tissue energy metabolism or a consequence of this disruption. This raises the possibility of imaging energy failure noninvasively. In humans, this could have potential in visualizing brain regions where energy metabolism is impaired, particularly during the acute phase following stroke.
Monopole clusters, center vortices, and confinement in a Z 2 gauge-Higgs system

We propose to use the different kinds of vacua of the gauge theories coupled to matter as a laboratory to test confinement ideas of pure YangMills theories. In particular, the very poor overlap of the Wilson loop with the broken string states supports the ’t Hooft and Mandelstam confinement criteria. However in the Z2 gauge-Higgs model we use as a guide we find that the condensation of monopoles and center vortices is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for confinement.
Alternative Formulation of The Quantum Electroweak Theory

The quantization of the electroweak theory is performed starting from the Lagrangian given in the so-called unitary gauge in which the unphysical Goldstone fields disappear. In such a Lagrangian, the unphysical longitudinal components of the gauge fields and the residual gauge degrees of freedom are naturally eliminated by introducing the Lorentz gauge condition and the ghost equation. In this way, the quantum theory given in $\alpha $-gauge is perfectly established in the Lagangian formalism by the Faddeev-Popov approach or the Lagrange multiplier method in the framework of SU(2)$\times $U(1) gauge symmetry. The theory established is not only simpler than the ordinary R$_\alpha -$gauge theory, but also explicitly renormalizable. The unitarity of the S-matrix is ensured by the $\alpha -$limiting procedure proposed previously. Especially, it is shown that the electroweak theory without involving the Higgs boson can equally be formulated whitin the $SU(2)\times U(1)$ symmetry and exhibits good renormalizability. The unitarity of such a theory may also be guaranteed by the $\alpha $-limiting procedure.
Vision-based localization in urban environments

As part of DARPA's MARS2020 program, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has developed a vision-based system for localization in urban environments that requires neither GPS nor active sensors. System hardware consists of a pair of small FireWire cameras and a standard Pentium-based computer. The inputs to the software system consist of: 1) a crude grid-based map describing the positions of buildings, 2) an initial estimate of robot location and 3) the video streams produced by the stereo pair. At each step during the traverse the system: captures new image data, finds image features hypothesized to lie on the outside of a building, computes the range to those features, determines an estimate of the robot's motion since the previous step and combines that data with the map to update a probabilistic representation of the robot's location. This probabilistic representation allows the system to simultaneously represent multiple possible locations. For our testing, we have derived the a priori map manually using non-orthorectified overhead imagery, although this process could be automated. The software system consists of three primary components. The first is a stereo-based visual odometry system that calculates the 6-degree of freedom camera motion between sequential frames. The second component uses a set of heuristics to identify straight-line segments that are likely to be part of a building exterior. Ranging to these straight-line features is computed using binocular or wide-baseline stereo. The resulting features and the associated range measurements are fed to the third software component, a particle-filter based localization system. This system uses the map and the most recent results from the first two to update the estimate of the robot's location. This report summarizes the design of both the hardware and software and describes the results of applying the system to the global localization of a camera system over an approximately half-kilometer traverse across JPL's Pasadena campus.
Association Rules Network: Definition and Applications

The role of data mining is to search “the space of candidate hypotheses” to offer solutions, whereas the role of statistics is to validate the hypotheses offered by the data‐mining process. In this paper we propose Association Rules Networks (ARNs) as a structure for synthesizing, pruning, and analyzing a collection of association rules to construct candidate hypotheses. From a knowledge discovery perspective, ARNs allow for a goal‐centric, context‐driven analysis of the output of association rules algorithms. From a mathematical perspective, ARNs are instances of backward‐directed hypergraphs. Using two extensive case studies, we show how ARNs and statistical theory can be combined to generate and test hypotheses. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining 1: 260‐279, 2009
Physiological and Psychological Stress Markers in Concussed Athletes from Injury to Post-return to Play

Introduction: Concussions are a physiologically & psychologically stressful event. Stress markers may provide insight into concussion recovery, but have not been examined. Purpose & Method: To investigate the stress response of concussed athletes compared to controls from injury to post-RTP. Concussed athletes’ Mood states, Perceived Stress, HRV, and Morning & Afternoon Cortisol were assessed at 3 phases of recovery following concussion. Results: Repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant interactions for TMD, Depression, Anger, Confusion, Fatigue, HF norm (rest), LF norm (rest), HF norm (difference between sitting & standing), LF norm (difference between sitting & standing), and LF/HF ratio (difference between sitting & standing). Vigor & Tension demonstrated significant changes over time in the concussed group. Significant difference between the two groups for morning Cortisol levels at phase 3 was revealed. Conclusion: Concussed athletes display elevated levels of stress post-injury. Findings warrant further investigation of stress markers in concussed athletes during recovery.
An improved DBSCAN, a density based clustering algorithm with parameter selection for high dimensional data sets

Emergence of modern techniques for scientific data collection has resulted in large scale accumulation of data pertaining to diverse fields. Cluster analysis is one of the major data analysis methods. It is the art of detecting group of similar objects in large data sets without having specified groups by means of explicit features. The problem of detecting clusters is challenging when the clusters are of different size, density and shape. This paper gives a new approach towards density based clustering approach. DBSCAN which is considered a pioneer of density based clustering technique, this paper gives a new move towards detecting clusters that exists within a cluster. Based on various parameters needed for a good clustering the algorithm is evaluated such as number of clusters formed, noise ratio on distance change, time elapsed to form cluster, unclustered instances as well as incorrectly clustered instances.
SEASONAL AND PERMANENT MIGRATION IN BURKINA FASO

This study examines the determinants of households’ decision to migrate from Burkina Faso to Cote d’Ivoire, a leading country in the Regional West African Union. The paper, unlike most of the previous works, uses a dataset constituted from a two-sided survey conducted in 2002 at the origin and the host country. Therefore, it enables to study two groups of migrants: the seasonal and the permanent migrant households. As the migrants are not randomly selected from the population, Heckman procedures are used to estimate consistent migration incomes. Then the structural model of migration decision is analyzed after correction for complex sampling schemes. The empirical results found significant effects of income differential on migration decision only for the case of permanent migration whereas other motivations explain the likelihood of being seasonal migrant. Among these factors are the need to diversify income sources, education, ethnic network, population density, social capital, use of modern agricultural inputs, natural resources endowments and their management. In the Sahel region of origin subject to unstable climate, households who stay home diversify their incomes sources through offfarm activities while others receive remittances, the later being a better risk pooling strategy. JEL Classifications: C25, F15, F22, R23, J31
Relativistic constituent quark model for baryons

The electroweak properties of nucleons and hyperons are calculated in a relativistic constituent quark model. The baryons are treated as three quark bound states, and the diagrams of perturbation theory are considered on the light front. The electroweak properties of the baryons are of nonperturbative nature and can be represented by one-loop diagrams. We consider different extensions of the simplest model: quark form factors, configuration mixing of the wave function, asymmetric wave function, wave function different from the one of a harmonic oscillator valid up to energies of more than 30 GeV$^2$. A comprehensive study of various baryonic properties is given: elastic form factors of the nucleon, magnetic moments of the baryon octet, semileptonic weak form factors. This analysis also gives the Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $V_{us}$ and a sound symmetry breaking scheme for the Cabibbo theory. A consistent physical picture appears in this work. The nucleon consists of an unmixed, symmetric three quark state, the wave function of the hyperons is however asymmetric with a spin-isospin-0 diquark. Only for the strangeness-changing weak decay do we need nontrivial form factors.