Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular mechanisms of brain-RAS hyperactivity upon fluid balance, and sufficiency of angiotensin production from the subfornical organ to affect fluid balance

has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Pharmacology at the May 2015 graduation. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge my mentor, Dr. Curt Sigmund, for given the opportunity to develop myself as a scientist, and for supplying me with the appropriate guidance. I would like to acknowledge, Dr. Justin Grobe, for also guiding me on my path of training. I would also like to acknowledge the University of Iowa Medical Scientist Training Program for believing in me to become a physician-scientist. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my parents, Laura and Paul Coble, for their unbound love and support. iii ABSTRACT Fluid balance is critical for cells to maintain at homeostasis as disturbances in it can disrupt cell function and consequently the physiology of an organism. Fluid loss for an organism can be classified as either intra-or extracellular, and it appears that different mechanisms have developed to restore homeostasis after intra-or extracellular dehydration. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been shown to be an important mediator of extracellular dehydration induced fluid intake. Various lines of evidence have demonstrated the importance of the subfornical organ (SFO) to mediate fluid intake, especially due to the RAS, and we have shown that production and action of angiotensin (ANG) at the SFO is necessary for fluid intake due to ANG within the brain. PKC, specifically PKC-α, is demonstrated here to be a necessary and sufficient effector in the SFO to mediate brain ANG polydipsia. Production of ANG from the SFO is also shown to be sufficient to increase fluid intake through the angiotensin-II type 1 (AT 1 R) receptor and PKC. While production of ANG from the SFO is sufficient to increase fluid intake it is not sufficient to increase blood pressure or sodium appetite. Thus, production and action of ANG to activate PKC-α is both necessary and sufficient to increase fluid intake, and the fluid and pressor phenotypes of brain ANG through the SFO can be separated. vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Serum chemistry of littermate control (n=5) and sRA Red (n=6) 32-days after ICV injection of AdCRE…………………………………………………. 62 Table 3.2: Metabolism as measured by indirect calorimetry in littermate control (n=6) and sRA Red mice (n=6) 68-days after ICV injection of Figure 1.1: The core of the SFO is highly vascularized and lacks a BBB. It mainly affects sympathetic nerve activity …
The Impact of Public Basic Research on Industrial Innovation: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry

While most economists believe that public scientific research fuels industry innovation and economic growth, systematic evidence supporting this relationship is surprisingly limited. In a recent study, Acemoglu and Linn (2004) identified market size as a significant driver of drug innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, but they did not find any evidence supporting science-driven innovation from publicly funded research. This paper uses new data on biomedical research investments by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to examine the contribution of public research to pharmaceutical innovation. The empirical analysis finds that both market size and NIH funded basic research have economically and statistically significant effects on the entry of new drugs with the contribution of public basic research coming in the earliest stage of pharmaceutical drug discovery. The analysis also finds a positive return to public investment in basic biomedical research.
Prognosis of Acute Kidney Injury and Hepatorenal Syndrome in Patients with Cirrhosis: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background/Aims. Acute kidney injury is a common problem for patients with cirrhosis and is associated with poor survival. We aimed to examine the association between type of acute kidney injury and 90-day mortality. Methods. Prospective cohort study at a major US liver transplant center. A nephrologist's review of the urinary sediment was used in conjunction with the 2007 Ascites Club Criteria to stratify acute kidney injury into four groups: prerenal azotemia, hepatorenal syndrome, acute tubular necrosis, or other. Results. 120 participants with cirrhosis and acute kidney injury were analyzed. Ninety-day mortality was 14/40 (35%) with prerenal azotemia, 20/35 (57%) with hepatorenal syndrome, 21/36 (58%) with acute tubular necrosis, and 1/9 (11%) with other (p = 0.04 overall). Mortality was the same in hepatorenal syndrome compared to acute tubular necrosis (p = 0.99). Mortality was lower in prerenal azotemia compared to hepatorenal syndrome (p = 0.05) and acute tubular necrosis (p = 0.04). Ten participants (22%) were reclassified from hepatorenal syndrome to acute tubular necrosis because of granular casts on urinary sediment. Conclusions. Hepatorenal syndrome and acute tubular necrosis result in similar 90-day mortality. Review of urinary sediment may add important diagnostic information to this population. Multicenter studies are needed to validate these findings and better guide management.
A Low Switching-Loss W-Band Radiometer Utilizing a Single-Pole-Double-Throw Distributed Amplifier in 0.13-$\mu{\hbox {m}}$  SiGe BiCMOS

This paper presents a low switching-loss Dicke radiometer for W-band passive imaging systems. The equivalent switching loss introduced by the passive single-pole-double-throw (SPDT) switch in the conventional radiometer is significantly reduced by the proposed single-pole-double-throw distributed amplifier (SPDT-DA), which leads to radical improvement on the receiver's noise performance. The Dicke radiometer consisting of a SPDT-DA, a four-stage low noise amplifier (LNA) and a power detector is fully integrated in a 0.13- μm SiGe BiCMOS chip. With the 0.93-dB equivalent switching loss at 91 GHz of the SPDT-DA, the total noise figure (NF) of 8.4 dB at 91 GHz is achieved by the SPDT-DA followed by the LNA. With a power consumption of 28.5 mW, the radiometer obtains an overall RF gain of 42 dB and a noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of 0.21 K with 30-ms integration time. The two-dimensional imaging experiment with object distance of 0.7 m is successfully carried out with the radiometer chip.
Numerical Integration for Radiosity in the Presence of Singularities

The radiosity method for computing global illumination in Lambertian environments requires the computation of form factors. These are given by integrals for which some closed form solutions exist. In general however the integrals need to be approximated numerically. Various schemes have been proposed for this computation. Most of these are based on proximity assumptions which break down when surfaces are close to one another. More recently researchers have introduced higher order Galerkin methods to solve the radiosity equation. These methods generalize the notion of form factors and complicate the evaluation of the involved integrals. In the present paper we examine the behavior of previous form factor approximations as well as the generalized form factors of higher order methods near the singularity of the radiosity kernel. We introduce a new technique of constructing quadrature rules specifically adapted to the singularity. These rules are based on exact constant-constant transport and we report on experiments showing the performance of these new rules.
Perceptually motivated technique to query-by-example using color cardinality

In this paper we present a method for retrieval of color images via query-by-example which takes into consideration human perception regarding the number of colors present in images being compared. First, we perform HSV-space segmentation to extract region of perceptually relevant color, to build a low-level color representation. This segmented result is then sued to build image indices by taking the representative color vector of each of the extracted color regions. For retrieval, we implement a vector-angular based measure and a perceptually-tuned membership function, instead of color histograms, which proves to provide results consistent with experimentally obtained human results. Through human testing, collected perceptual data governs how many colors two images can have in relation to each other so that the images can be considered for similarity calculations. The initial results show that there is a well-defined range for this color cardinality which increases as the number of colors increases.
Ball-path inference based on a combination of audio and video clues in tennis video sequences

Tennis-sports analysis is attracting much attention in content-analysis research and professional applications.This paper presents a scheme for sports analysis employing an automatic tennis ball-path inference driven by a combination of auditory and visual information. The ball-path inference is implemented for tactics analysis.Since ball tracking remains to be a challenging issue in practice, we use a non-tracking approach for ball-path inference. We propose an effective serving-player detection for achieving an accurate match between a sequence of racket-hit moments and the position of the hitting player in the corresponding video frames. Experimental results have shown that the proposed system can reliably detect the serving-player and classify into different categories, such as left-court/right-court service and frontcourt/ back-court service. Therefore, our system can be utilized for an effective and automatic extraction of various tennis events, performance and tactics analysis with high reliability.
Composable, Demand-Driven Incremental Computation

Many researchers have proposed programming languages that support incremental computation (IC), which allows programs to be efficiently re-executed after a small change to the input. However, existing implementations of such languages have two important drawbacks. First, recomputation is oblivious to specific demands on the program output; that is, if a program input changes, all dependencies will be recomputed, even if an observer no longer requires certain outputs. Second, programs are made incremental as a unit, with little or no support for reusing results outside of their original context, e.g., when reordered. To address these problems, we present cdd , a core calculus that applies a demand-driven semantics to incremental computation, tracking changes in a hierarchical fashion in a novel demanded computation graph. cdd also formalizes an explicit separation between inner, incremental computations and outer observers. This combination ensures cdd programs only recompute computations as demanded by observers, and allows inner computations to be composed more freely. We describe an algorithm for implementing cdd efficiently, and we present ADAPTON, a library for writing cdd -style programs in OCaml. We evaluated ADAPTON on a range of benchmarks, and found that it provides reliable speedups, and in many cases dramatically outperforms prior state-of-the-art IC approaches.
Three Patterns of Oscillatory Activity Differentially Synchronize Developing Neocortical Networks In Vivo

Coordinated patterns of electrical activity are important for the early development of sensory systems. The spatiotemporal dynamics of these early activity patterns and the role of the peripheral sensory input for their generation are essentially unknown. We performed extracellular multielectrode recordings in the somatosensory cortex of postnatal day 0 to 7 rats in vivo and observed three distinct patterns of synchronized oscillatory activity. (1) Spontaneous and periphery-driven spindle bursts of 1–2 s in duration and ∼10 Hz in frequency occurred approximately every 10 s. (2) Spontaneous and sensory-driven gamma oscillations of 150–300 ms duration and 30–40 Hz in frequency occurred every 10–30 s. (3) Long oscillations appeared only every ∼20 min and revealed the largest amplitude (250–750 μV) and longest duration (>40 s). These three distinct patterns of early oscillatory activity differently synchronized the neonatal cortical network. Whereas spindle bursts and gamma oscillations did not propagate and synchronized a local neuronal network of 200–400 μm in diameter, long oscillations propagated with 25–30 μm/s and synchronized 600–800 μm large ensembles. All three activity patterns were triggered by sensory activation. Single electrical stimulation of the whisker pad or tactile whisker activation elicited neocortical spindle bursts and gamma activity. Long oscillations could be only evoked by repetitive sensory stimulation. The neonatal oscillatory patterns in vivo depended on NMDA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission and gap junctional coupling. Whereas spindle bursts and gamma oscillations may represent an early functional columnar-like pattern, long oscillations may serve as a propagating activation signal consolidating these immature neuronal networks.
ATPase family AAA domain-containing 3A is a novel anti-apoptotic factor in lung adenocarcinoma cells

AAA domain-containing 3A (ATAD3A) is a member of the AAA-ATPase family. Three forms of ATAD3 have been identified: ATAD3A, ATAD3B and ATAD3C. In this study, we examined the type and expression of ATAD3 in lung adenocarcinoma (LADC). Expression of ATAD3A was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, immunoblotting, immunohistochemistry and confocal immunofluorescent microscopy. Our results show that ATAD3A is the major form expressed in LADC. Silencing of ATAD3A expression increased mitochondrial fragmentation and cisplatin sensitivity. Serum deprivation increased ATAD3A expression and drug resistance. These results suggest that ATAD3A could be an anti-apoptotic marker in LADC.
Study of an Evaluation Model for AIS Receiver Sensitivity Measurements

To guarantee that ships can navigate safely, the International Maritime Organization mandates that all ships navigating internationally must install the automatic identification system (AIS). AIS works in the very high-frequency (VHF) maritime mobile band, and to ensure the signal receiving performance of AIS equipment, it is necessary that the receiver sensitivity can be quickly evaluated and detected. Hence, we propose an evaluation model of AIS receiver sensitivity. The model first measures the packet error rate (PER) of AIS data transmission at a specific power. The distribution of the AIS receiver sensitivity characteristic curve under any transmitted power can be directly obtained, and then whether or not the sensitivity of the AIS receiver satisfies the performance requirements can be quickly evaluated. Regression analysis and the results of actual measurement demonstrate that this model has a goodness of fit (R-squared) value of 0.99 between the power–PER curve of the analog input signal and the measured data, which signifies test efficiency and accuracy beyond conventional test methods.
A Novel Immune Detection Algorithm for Anomaly Detection

Based on research for anomaly detection in the biological immune principles, a change detection algorithm for anomaly detection is provided. Adapted immune mechanism is introduced on the premise of negative selection and clone selection in this algorithm. And a niching strategy is adopted. This paper discussed the problem of anomaly detection in computer immune system roundly and deeply. Shown by simulation experiments, the algorithm improves the problem of hole and keeps variety of antibodies. And its detecting efficiency is increased obviously
A Garment Image Segmentation Method Based on Salient Region and JSEG

Many model pictures will be adopted in the network marketing of garment products because this method is the most intuitive. Human eyes can easily identify the garment styles, while computer programs struggle to automatically do so. This paper proposes a method for garment image segmentation in which the JSEG algorithm is applied to the image salient region segmentation, and the background region and dressing region are identified with the help of face detection. This method was proven effective based on actual image samples tested at an online shopping mall, which lays a foundation for extracting the garment structure and characteristics as well as visualized retrieval.
A Distributed Scheme to Manage The Dynamic Coexistence of IEEE 802.15.4-Based Health-Monitoring WBANs

The overlap of transmission ranges between wireless networks as a result of mobility is referred to as dynamic coexistence. The interference caused by coexistence may significantly affect the performance of wireless body area networks (WBANs) where reliability is particularly critical for health monitoring applications. In this paper, we analytically study the effects of dynamic coexistence on the operation of IEEE 802.15. 4-based health monitoring WBANs. The current IEEE 802.15. 4 standard lacks mechanisms for effectively managing the coexistence of mobile WBANs. Considering the specific characteristics and requirements of health monitoring WBANs, we propose the dynamic coexistence management (DCM) mechanism to make IEEE 802.15. 4-based WBANs able to detect and mitigate the harmful effects of coexistence. We assess the effectiveness of this scheme using extensive OPNET simulations. Our results indicate that DCM improves the successful transmission rates of dynamically coexisting WBANs by 20%-25% for typical medical monitoring applications.
Leverage as a Conditioning Variable for Employment : An Analysis of a Panel of West GermanManufacturing FirmsMichael Funke

This paper reports an attempt to implement nancial factors into a neoclassical model of optimal factor demand. The theoretical shows that factor demand decisions of rms operating under monopolistic competition or with decreasing returns to scale are aaected by nancial restrictions. The theoretical model is estimated using West German rm data from 1987 to 1994. We would like to thank Wolf Maurer for his excellent research assistence and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemein-schaft) for nancial support under grant No. Fu 178/6-1. The usual disclaimer applies.
A Maximum Entropy Language Model with Topic Sensitive Features

We present a maximum entropy approach to topic sensitive language modeling. By classifying the training data into di(cid:11)erent parts according to topic, extracting topic sensitive unigram features, and combining these new features with conventional N-grams in language modeling, we build a topic sensitive bigram model. This model improves both perplexity and word error rate.
Prospect of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Genetic Repair to Cure Genetic Diseases

In genetic diseases, where the cells are already damaged, the damaged cells can be replaced by new normal cells, which can be differentiated from iPSC. To avoid immune rejection, iPSC from the patient's own cell can be developed. However, iPSC from the patients's cell harbors the same genetic aberration. Therefore, before differentiating the iPSCs into required cells, genetic repair should be done. This review discusses the various technologies to repair the genetic aberration in patient-derived iPSC, or to prevent the genetic aberration to cause further damage in the iPSC-derived cells, such as Zn finger and TALE nuclease genetic editing, RNA interference technology, exon skipping, and gene transfer method. In addition, the challenges in using the iPSC and the strategies to manage the hurdles are addressed.
Markedness , Segment Realisation , and Locality in Spreading *

One of the fundamental observations of linguistic theory is that linguistic elements do not interact over arbitrarily great distances. Instead, relations obtain locally. This conviction would seem trivial if all phonological interaction were obviously confined to adjacent segments, or all syntactic relations to adjacent words. In reality, the assumption of locality requires work for those assuming it; in phonology, it has for this reason been one of the important forces driving the elaboration of metrical and autosegmental representations. Consider the case of long-distance feature spreading, or harmony. It is well known that segments within a spreading domain may appear to be non-participants, transparent to the harmony process. A few types of such transparency are listed in (1).
The Effectiveness of Group Hope Therapy on Hope and Depression of Mothers with Children Suffering from Cancer in Tehran

Background Researches mainly focus on patients who suffer from cancer. Families and parents have been neglected in these researches although they experience levels of stress, depression and anxiety. This research aims at studying the effectiveness of Hope Therapy based on group therapy on hope and depression of mothers with children suffering from cancer in Aliasghar Children's Hospital, Tehran (2010). Methods In this applied and semi-experimental research, 20 mothers were selected based on Snyder Hope Scale and Beck Depression Inventory (pre-test). They were randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control. Intervention based on Hope Therapy protocol was executed on the experimental group for eight weeks (eight sessions, each lasted for 2 hours). Afterwards, post-test was performed for both groups. After eight weeks, the experimental group completed questionnaires and the follow up phase. Results Results demonstrated that Hope Therapy increases hope (p<0.05), and decreases depression in mothers of children with cancer (p<0.001). Conclusion Covariance analysis indicated that Hope Therapy significantly decreases depression and increases hope of mothers whose children suffer from cancer. Follow up results showed no significant changes in hope of this group of mothers in the two months after post-test, but depression was decreased significantly during this period. It was concluded that effectiveness of Hope Therapy may be continued during the follow up phase.
Advances in Discrete Element Method Applied to Soil, Rock and Concrete Mechanics

The use of Discrete Element Methods (DEM) to investigate mechanical properties of geomaterials is growing fast and their applications in geotechnics have become almost systematic. Behind the generic name of DEM, different formulations exist and this paper focuses on recent developments in the Molecular Dynamics and Contact Dynamics-based approaches. After reviewing their formulation, a summary of their recent uses as numerical tools to investigate the mechanical behavior of soil, rock and concrete materials is given. Specific issues such as spherical discrete element packings, flow rules, capillarity effects, high-pressure loading response and high strain rate deformation are described in more details. The quantitative capabilities of DEM are also provided by comparing real experimental data to numerical models.
Analysis and optimization for boolean expression indexing

BE-Tree is a novel dynamic data structure designed to efficiently index Boolean expressions over a high-dimensional discrete space. BE Tree-copes with both high-dimensionality and expressiveness of Boolean expressions by introducing an effective two-phase space-cutting technique that specifically utilizes the discrete and finite domain properties of the space. Furthermore, BE-Tree employs self-adjustment policies to dynamically adapt the tree as the workload changes. Moreover, in BE-Tree, we develop two novel cache-conscious predicate evaluation techniques, namely, lazy and bitmap evaluations, that also exploit the underlying discrete and finite space to substantially reduce BE-Tree's matching time by up to 75% BE-Tree is a general index structure for matching Boolean expression which has a wide range of applications including (complex) event processing, publish/subscribe matching, emerging applications in cospaces, profile matching for targeted web advertising, and approximate string matching. Finally, the superiority of BE-Tree is proven through a comprehensive evaluation with state-of-the-art index structures designed for matching Boolean expressions.