Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conserved Charged Amino Acids within Sendai Virus C Protein Play Multiple Roles in the Evasion of Innate Immune Responses

One of the accessory proteins of Sendai virus (SeV), C, translated from an alternate reading frame of P/V mRNA has been shown to function at multiple stages of infection in cell cultures as well as in mice. C protein has been reported to counteract signal transduction by interferon (IFN), inhibit apoptosis induced by the infection, enhance the efficiency of budding of viral particles, and regulate the polarity of viral genome-length RNA synthesis to maximize production of infectious particles. In this study, we have generated a series of SeV recombinants containing substitutions of highly conserved, charged residues within the C protein, and characterized them together with previously-reported C′/C(−), 4C(−), and F170S recombinant viruses in infected cell cultures in terms of viral replication, cytopathogenicity, and antagonizing effects on host innate immunity. Unexpectedly, the amino acid substitutions had no or minimal effect on viral growth and viral RNA synthesis. However, all the substitutions of charged amino acids resulted in the loss of a counteracting effect against the establishment of an IFN-α-mediated anti-viral state. Infection by the virus (Cm2′) containing mutations at K77 and D80 induced significant IFN-β production, severe cytopathic effects, and detectable amounts of viral dsRNA production. In addition to the Cm2′ virus, the virus containing mutations at E114 and E115 did not inhibit the poly(I:C)-triggered translocation of cellular IRF-3 to the nucleus. These results suggest that the C protein play important roles in viral escape from induction of IFN-β and cell death triggered by infection by means of counteracting the pathway leading to activation of IRF-3 as well as of minimizing viral dsRNA production.
Performance of optimal registration estimators

This paper derives a theoretical limit for image registration and presents an iterative estimator that achieves the limit. The variance of any parametric registration is bounded by the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB). This bound is signal-dependent and is proportional to the variance of input noise. Since most available registration techniques are biased, they are not optimal. The bias, however, can be reduced to practically zero by an iterative gradient-based estimator. In the proximity of a solution, this estimator converges to the CRB with a quadratic rate. Images can be brought close to each other, thus speedup the registration process, by a coarse-to-tne multi-scale registration. The performance of iterative registration is finally shown to significantly increase image resolution from multiple low resolution images under translational motions.
DA 495: An Aging Pulsar Wind Nebula

We present a radio continuum study of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) DA 495 (G65.7+1.2), including images of total intensity and linear polarization from 408 to 10550 MHz based on the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey and observations with the Effelsberg 100 m Radio Telescope. Removal of flux density contributions from a superimposed H II region and from compact extragalactic sources reveals a break in the spectrum of DA 495 at 1.3 GHz, with a spectral index α = − 0.45 ± 0.20 below the break and α = − 0.87 ± 0.10 above it (Sν ∝ να). The spectral break is more than 3 times lower in frequency than the lowest break detected in any other PWN. The break in the spectrum is likely the result of synchrotron cooling, and DA 495, at an age of ~20,000 yr, may have evolved from an object similar to the Vela X nebula, with a similarly energetic pulsar. We find a magnetic field of ~1.3 mG inside the nebula. After correcting for the resulting high internal rotation measure, the magnetic field structure is quite simple, resembling the inner part of a dipole field projected onto the plane of the sky, although a toroidal component is likely also present. The dipole field axis, which should be parallel to the spin axis of the putative pulsar, lies at an angle of ~50° east of the north celestial pole and is pointing away from us toward the southwest. The upper limit for the radio surface brightness of any shell-type supernova remnant emission around DA 495 is Σ1GHz ∼ 5.4 × 10−23 W m−2 Hz−1 sr−1 (assuming a radio spectral index of α = − 0.5), lower than the faintest shell-type remnant known to date.
Positioning Receiver Using Full-Duplex Amplify-and-Forward Relay

In wireless positioning, estimating the location of a receiver is very challenging since the receiver does not transmit signals. The difficulty is to obtain the distance between the anchors and the silent receiver. To deal with the issue, this paper proposes to use the full-duplex relay technique to estimate the anchor-receiver distance. Then, we can obtain the location of the silent receiver. With the proposed method, the location-aware applications are not limited to the conventional transmitter positioning. Instead, they can be extended to the receiver positioning. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.
SUBCELLULAR STORAGE ORGANELLES FOR 5-HYDROXYTRYPTAMINE IN PARAFOLLICULAR CELLS OF THE THYROID GLAND

A study was made of the effect of the administration of reserpine and parachlorophenylalanine, an inhibitor of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin; 5-HT), on the capacity of thyroid parafollicular cells to synthesize and store 5-HT. The two drugs were given to nonhibernating bats in doses which produced an equivalent degree of depletion of 5-HT from the thyroid. Tritiated 5-hydroxytryptophan, the precursor of 5-HT, was then given intravenously to assess the ability of parafollicular cell granules to take up and retain newly synthesized 5-HT. Reserpine, but not parachlorophenylalanine, decreased the amount of labeled 5-HT found in the thyroid and prevented autoradiographic labeling of parafollicular cell granules. Quantitative ultrastructural and stereological analysis demonstrated that the granules in untreated animals appeared to be nearly spherical prolate ellipsoids, with a uniformly electron-opaque inner matrix. In animals given reserpine, the axial ratio of the ellipsoidal granules increased greatly and a faint internal striation parallel to the long axis of the granules became apparent. Similar changes were not induced by parachlorophenylalanine. No other morphological changes in the thyroid epithelium were detected after administration of reserpine. This study confirms the association of 5-HT with the mature small secretory granules of thyroid parafollicular cells.
Intensity-based 2-D - 3-D registration of cerebral angiograms

We propose a new method for aligning three-dimensional (3-D) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with 2-D X-ray digital subtraction angiograms (DSA). Our method is developed from our algorithm to register computed tomography volumes to X-ray images based on intensity matching of digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs). To make the DSA and DRR more similar, we transform the MRA images to images of the vasculature and set to zero the contralateral side of the MRA to that imaged with DSA. We initialize the search for a match on a user defined circular region of interest. We have tested six similarity measures using both unsegmented MRA and three segmentation variants of the MRA. Registrations were carried out on images of a physical neuro-vascular phantom and images obtained during four neuro-vascular interventions. The most accurate and robust registrations were obtained using the pattern intensity, gradient difference, and gradient correlation similarity measures, when used in conjunction with the most sophisticated MRA segmentations. Using these measures, 95% of the phantom start positions and 82% of the clinical start positions were successfully registered. The lowest root mean square reprojection errors were 1.3 mm (standard deviation 0.6) for the phantom and 1.5 mm (standard deviation 0.9) for the clinical data sets. Finally, we present a novel method for the comparison of similarity measure performance using a technique borrowed from receiver operator characteristic analysis.
Islam and the political discourse of modernity

Introduction: A genealogical approach to 'political Islam' and political modernity Part I: Order and Discourse Communicative systems and the specialized quest for order The power of discourse and the discourse of power Public communication and frameworks of communal reference Part II: The Emergence of Transcultural Dynamics The 'West' and 'Islam': opposing essentialisms in an imbalanced game The genesis and development of 'Arab-Islamic' discourse The sociologization of the Western construction of Islam Part III: The Western Making of 'Political Islam' The linear hermeneutics of Islam 'as such' The crisis of Orientalism and the return of Islam From Islam to politics, or the reverse? Part IV: Towards an Islamic Political Discourse of Modernity? The new politics of al-sahwa al-islamiyya Is Islam the solution? Social justice and cultural heritage (turath) Thinking Islam
Modulation of transient receptor potential melastatin related 7 channel by presenilins

Presenilins (PS1 and PS2) are multifunctional proteins involved in a diverse array of molecular and cellular functions, including proteolysis, development, neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, ion channel regulation and phospholipid metabolism. Mutations in presenilin genes are responsible for the majority of Familial Alzheimer disease (FAD). Consequently, FAD‐associated mutations in genes encoding PS1 or PS2 lead to several key cellular phenotypes, including alterations in proteolysis of β‐amyloid precursor protein (APP) and Ca2+ entry. The mechanism underlying presenilin (PS)‐mediated modulation of Ca2+ entry remains to be determined. Our previous studies showed that the PS‐dependent down‐regulation of phosphatidylinositol‐4,5‐bisphosphate (PIP2) is attributable to the observed Ca2+ deficits. In this study, we attempted to identify the ion channel that is subject to the PIP2 and PS‐dependent modulation. We found that Ca2+ or Zn2+ entry via the transient receptor potential melastatin 7 (TRPM7) channel was attenuated by the presence of FAD‐associated PS1 mutants, such as ΔE9 and L286V. TRPM7 has been implicated in Mg2+ homeostasis and embryonic development. The intracellular delivery of PIP2 restored TRPM7‐mediated Ca2+ influx, indicating that the observed deficits in Ca2+ entry are due to downregulation of PIP2. Conversely, PS1 and PS2 deficiency, previously shown to upregulate PIP2 levels, potentiated TRPM7‐mediated Ca2+ influx. PS‐dependent changes in Ca2+ influx could be neutralized by a TRPM7 channel blocker. Collectively, these results indicate that TRPM7 may underlie the Ca2+ entry deficits observed in FAD‐associated PS mutants and suggest that the normal function of PS involves regulation of TRPM7 through a PIP2‐dependent mechanism. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 72: 865–877, 2012
Acceptabilité de l'E-GRH : Étude auprès de cadres et d'employés d'une entreprise internationale

Resume: Selon les dimensions habituelles des modeles d’acceptation des technologies (utilite percue, facilite d’utilisation percue, frequence d’usage), l’etude s’interesse aux facteurs d’acceptabilite d’un systeme integre d’e-RH aupres de managers et d’employes travaillant dans une entreprise internationale. L’etude par questionnaire aupres de 999 travailleurs situes en Europe et aux USA a montre que les perceptions d’utilisabilite et d’utilite sont relativement bonnes, avec des differences importantes selon l’entite geographique, selon la maitrise linguistique et suivant les modules concernes. Abstract: From traditional dimensions of Technology Acceptance models (perception of usefulness, perception of ease of use, frequency of use), the study concerns the acceptance criteria for an integrated system of e-HRM. The study is conducted by questionnaire to 999 managers and employees working in an international company, located in Europe and the USA. The results show that perceptions of usability and usefulness are relatively good, with significant differences according to geographical entities, according to English linguistic levels and dependent to the e-HRM modules.
A 10 Watt Broadband FET Combiner/Amplifier

The development of a 10W MIC combiner/amplifier which combines the powers of 12 FET elemental amplifiers over a 24%, 1 dB band is described. The combining efficiency is greater than 90 percent. The design of both the radial combiner and the elemental amplifiers is described. Extension of the combiner design to operation over an octave will be discussed.
Finite Metric Spaces

The plane, R2, with the regular Euclidean distance is a metric space. Of special interest is the finite case, where X is an n-point set. Then, the function d can be specified by (n 2 ) real numbers. Alternatively, one can think about (X, d) as a weighted complete graph, where positive weights are specified on the edges, and these weights comply with the triangle inequality. Finite metric spaces rise naturally from (sparse) graphs. Indeed, let G = (X, E) be an undirected weighted graph defined over X, and let dG(x, y) be the length of the shortest path between x and y in G. It is easy to verify that (X, dG) is a finite metric space. As such if the graph G is sparse, it provides a compact representation to the finite space (X, dG).
Geochemistry and Paleoceanographic Setting of Central Nevada Bedded Barites

The bedded barite deposits of central Nevada are hosted by rocks of the Roberts Mountains allochthon and constitute the largest barite reserves in North America. Detailed geochemical studies of three barite deposits in the Devonian Slaven Chert indicate that rocks surrounding the barite have elevated concentrations of carbon and phosphorous relative to nonbarite-bearing rocks. Rare earth element data suggest that the barites were deposited in oxygenated seawater far from a spreading center. Ratios of Al, Ti, Fe, and Mn indicate that hydrothermal input to the sediment was minor relative to detrital input. The assembled data suggest a biogenic rather than a hydrothermal origin for the barite deposits. A model is proposed in which the barites were deposited at the $$O_{2}-H_{2}S$$ transition of a coastal upwelling system in the Late Devonian ocean. This model is consistent with recent paleoceanographic analyses of rocks in the Roberts Mountains allochthon, and studies indicating that the Late Devonian marked the transition from an anoxic to an oxic deep ocean.
Helical Growth of the Arabidopsis Mutant tortifolia2 Does Not Depend on Cell Division Patterns but Involves Handed Twisting of Isolated Cells[W][OA]

Several factors regulate plant organ growth polarity. tortifolia2 (tor2), a right-handed helical growth mutant, has a conservative replacement of Arg-2 with Lys in the α-tubulin 4 protein. Based on a published high-resolution (2.89 Å) tubulin structure, we predict that Arg-2 of α-tubulin forms hydrogen bonds with the GTPase domain of β-tubulin, and structural modeling suggests that these contacts are interrupted in tor2. Consistent with this, we found that microtubule dynamicity is reduced in the tor2 background. We investigated the developmental origin of the helical growth phenotype using tor2. One hypothesis predicts that cell division patterns cause helical organ growth in Arabidopsis thaliana mutants. However, cell division patterns of tor2 root tips appear normal. Experimental uncoupling of cell division and expansion suggests that helical organ growth is based on cell elongation defects only. Another hypothesis is that twisting is due to inequalities in expansion of epidermal and cortical tissues. However, freely growing leaf trichomes of tor2 mutants show right-handed twisting and cortical microtubules form left-handed helices as early as the unbranched stage of trichome development. Trichome twisting is inverted in double mutants with tor3, a left-handed mutant. Single tor2 suspension cells also exhibit handed twisting. Thus, twisting of tor2 mutant organs appears to be a higher-order expression of the helical expansion of individual cells.
Design of Multiplier-Less MDFT Filter Banks with Perfect Reconstruction using ABC Algorithm

In this paper the design of a totally multiplier-less M-Channel Modified Discrete Fourier Transform (MDFT) Filter bank with Perfect reconstruction has been proposed. Canonic Sign Digit (CSD) based Finite Impulse Response (FIR) prototype filter with low implementation complexity is designed. The performance of the MDFT filter bank designed with this filter is optimized using Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm. This design leads to very low implementation complexity and hence low power dissipation and low chip area, which are desirable in upcoming applications such as software defined radio, wireless communication and portable computing systems.
A Modified Vaccinia Ankara Virus (MVA) Vaccine Expressing African Horse Sickness Virus (AHSV) VP2 Protects Against AHSV Challenge in an IFNAR −/− Mouse Model

African horse sickness (AHS) is a lethal viral disease of equids, which is transmitted by Culicoides midges that become infected after biting a viraemic host. The use of live attenuated vaccines has been vital for the control of this disease in endemic regions. However, there are safety concerns over their use in non-endemic countries. Research efforts over the last two decades have therefore focused on developing alternative vaccines based on recombinant baculovirus or live viral vectors expressing structural components of the AHS virion. However, ethical and financial considerations, relating to the use of infected horses in high biosecurity installations, have made progress very slow. We have therefore assessed the potential of an experimental mouse-model for AHSV infection for vaccine and immunology research. We initially characterised AHSV infection in this model, then tested the protective efficacy of a recombinant vaccine based on modified vaccinia Ankara expressing AHS-4 VP2 (MVA-VP2).
Understanding and measuring functional impairment in diverse children with ADHD: Development and validation of the ADHD-FX scale

UNDERSTANDING AND MEASURING FUNCTIONAL IMPAIRMENT IN DIVERSE CHILDREN WITH ADHD: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE ADHD-FX SCALE Lauren M. Haack, M.S. Marquette University, 2013 The current study sought to develop and validate a measure to assess functional impairment related to ADHD (i.e., difficulties with academic achievement, social competence, and familial relationships) for Latino families, as research suggests that functional impairment may be a more culturally-universal construct than symptomatology. Researchers integrated quantitative and qualitative information obtained from a community sample of 74 Latino parents in order to develop the ADHD-FX scale. The overall ADHD-FX scale, as well as each subscale (i.e., school, peer, and home) demonstrated adequate psychometric properties, diagnostic utility, and cultural properties with 62 Latino parents of school-aged children. Thus, results suggest that the ADHD-FX scale can be used as a culturallyappropriate diagnostic tool, as well as a method to conceptualize cases, guide culturally-appropriate intervention, and measure clinically meaningful treatment gains in the domains of academic, social, and familial impairment often experienced by children with ADHD and their families. Utilization of culturally appropriate methodologies (such as the ADHD-FX scale) by researchers and clinicians alike may contribute to a thorough understanding of how diverse families conceptualize, recognize, and respond to intervention for functional impairment related to childhood psychopathology and subsequently may be instrumental in appeasing mental health disparities for diverse children in our country.
Multi-scale complexity analysis of muscle coactivation during gait in children with cerebral palsy

The objective of this study is to characterize complexity of lower-extremity muscle coactivation and coordination during gait in children with cerebral palsy (CP), children with typical development (TD) and healthy adults, by applying recently developed multivariate multi-scale entropy (MMSE) analysis to surface electromyographic (EMG) signals. Eleven CP children (CP group), eight TD children and seven healthy adults (considered as an entire control group) were asked to walk while surface EMG signals were collected from five thigh muscles and three lower leg muscles on each leg (16 EMG channels in total). The 16-channel surface EMG data, recorded during a series of consecutive gait cycles, were simultaneously processed by multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD), to generate fully aligned data scales for subsequent MMSE analysis. In order to conduct extensive examination of muscle coactivation complexity using the MEMD-enhanced MMSE, 14 data analysis schemes were designed by varying partial muscle combinations and time durations of data segments. Both TD children and healthy adults showed almost consistent MMSE curves over multiple scales for all the 14 schemes, without any significant difference (p > 0.09). However, distinct diversity in MMSE curve was observed in the CP group when compared with the control group. There appears to be diverse neuropathological processes in CP that may affect dynamical complexity of muscle coactivation and coordination during gait. The abnormal complexity patterns emerging in the CP group can be attributed to different factors such as motor control impairments, loss of muscle couplings, and spasticity or paralysis in individual muscles. This study expands our knowledge of neuropathology of CP from a novel point of view of muscle co-activation complexity, which might be useful to derive a quantitative index for assessing muscle activation characteristics as well as motor function in CP.
VSS SPU-EBP: Variable step size sequential partial update error back propagation algorithm

In MLP networks with hundreds of thousands of weights which must be trained on millions of samples, the time and space complexity may become greatly large and sometimes the training of network by EBP algorithm may be impractical. Sequential Partial Updating is an effective method to reduce computational load and power consumption in implementation. This new approach is very useful for the MLP networks with large number of weights in each layer that updating of each weight in each round of execution of EBP algorithm will be costly. Although this idea reduces computational cost and elapsed CPU time in each round but sometimes maybe increases number of epochs required to convergence and this leads to increase time of convergence. That is, to speed up more the convergence rate of the SPU−EBP algorithm, we propose a Variable Step Size (VSS) approach. In VSS SPU−EBP algorithm, we use a gradient based learning rate in SPU-EBP algorithm to speed up the convergence of training algorithm. In this method we derive an upper bound for the step size of SPU_EBP algorithm.