Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular cloning of a human Ca2+-dependent cell-cell adhesion molecule homologous to mouse placental cadherin: its low expression in human placental tissues

P-cadherin is a subclass of Ca2+-dependent cell-cell adhesion molecules present in mouse placenta, where its localization suggests a function of connecting the embryo to the uterus (Nose, A., and M. Takeichi. 1986. J. Cell Biol. 103:2649-2658). We recently identified a human cadherin detected by an mAb capable of disrupting cell-cell adhesion of A-431 cells, and found that it was closely related immunochemically to mouse P-cadherin. Curiously, this cadherin was undetectable in human placenta by immunohistochemical examination (Shimoyama, Y., S. Hirohashi, S. Hirano, M. Noguchi, Y. Shimosato, M. Takeichi, and O. Abe. 1989. Cancer Res. 49:2128-2133). We here report the cloning and sequencing of cDNA clone encoding the human homologue of mouse P- cadherin. The deduced amino acid sequence of the human P-cadherin consists of 829 amino acid and shows striking homology with mouse P- cadherin. On Northern blot analysis, human P-cadherin was scarcely expressed in human placenta in contrast to mouse P-cadherin, which was abundantly expressed in mouse placenta throughout pregnancy, and it was shown that E-cadherin, but not P-cadherin, was the major cadherin molecule in human placenta. Moreover, NIH3T3 cells transfected with human P-cadherin cDNA expressed the functional cadherin molecule, which was identical to the cadherin we had previously identified using the mAb, showing that this molecule really does mediate cell-cell adhesion and that the cadherin we detected immunochemically is undoubtedly human P-cadherin. The results obtained in this study support the idea that P- cadherin plays little role, if any, in Ca2+-dependent cell-cell binding in human placental tissue at least after several weeks of pregnancy.
3′,6′-Bis(diethylamino)-2-[(E)-2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylideneamino)ethyl]spiro[isoindoline-1,9′-xanthen]-3-one ethanol monosolvate

In the title compound, C38H42N4O4·C2H6O, prepared via a spirolactam ring-formation reaction in a rhodamine dye, the xanthene ring system is approximately planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0014Å) and subtends dihedral angles of 88.10 (3) and 86.92 (4)° with the spirolactam (r.m.s. deviations = 0.0012 Å) and benzene rings, respectively. The crystal structure consists of chains parallel to [-101], formed via O—H⋯O interactions.
Role of tropospheric ozone increases in 20th‐century climate change

between preindustrial and present-day ozone. We find that tropospheric ozone contributed to the greater 20th-century warming in the Northern Hemisphere extratropics compared with the tropics and in the tropics compared with the Southern Hemisphere extratropics. Additionally, ozone increased more rapidly during the latter half of the century than the former, causing more rapid warming during that time. This is especially apparent in the tropics and is consistent with observations, which do not show similar behavior in the extratropics. Other climate forcings do not substantially accelerate warming rates in the tropics relative to other regions. This suggests that accelerated tropospheric ozone increases related to industrialization in the developing world have contributed to the accelerated tropical warming. During boreal summer, tropospheric ozone causes enhanced warming (>0.5C) over polluted northern continental regions. Finally, the Arctic climate response to tropospheric ozone increases is large during fall, winter, and spring when ozone’s lifetime is comparatively long and pollution transported from midlatitudes is abundant. The model indicates that tropospheric ozone could have contributed about 0.3C annual average and about 0.4C–0.5C during winter and spring to the 20th-century Arctic warming. Pollution controls could thus substantially reduce the rapid rate of Arctic warming.
Effect of intake swirl on combustion performance in an unthrottled spark ignition engine

A Fully Hydraulic Variable Valve System is described in this article which can achieve continuous variation in valve lift, duration, and timing. The system was installed in a four-cylinder port fuel injection spark ignition engine and achieved unthrottled load control through early intake valve closing. The in-cylinder pressure measured experimentally showed that pumping losses of the unthrottled spark ignition engine at 2000 r/min and 0.189 MPa brake mean effective pressure was reduced by 85.4% compared with the throttled spark ignition engine. However, its slow and unstable combustion reduced the indicated thermal efficiency. Compared with the throttled spark ignition engine, the amount of residual exhaust flowing back into the intake port was greatly reduced at the early stage of the intake process. Consequently, it negatively influenced fuel evaporation and fuel–air mixing processes in the intake port of the port fuel injection spark ignition engine and decreased the flow of in-cylinder gases, which resulted in a low combustion rate. A new centrosymmetric helical valve is proposed in this article to improve the fuel–air mixing and combustion rate of the unthrottled spark ignition engine. The experiments demonstrate that the helical valve can generate a strong intake swirl at small intake valve lift. It helps to increase combustion rate and lower cycle-to-cycle variation, which improves indicated thermal efficiency and fuel economy of the unthrottled spark ignition engine at low load.
A Novel Pricing Method for European Options Based on Fourier-Cosine Series Expansions

Here we develop an option pricing method for European options based on the Fourier-cosine series and call it the COS method. The key insight is in the close relation of the characteristic function with the series coefficients of the Fourier-cosine expansion of the density function. In most cases, the convergence rate of the COS method is exponential and the computational complexity is linear. Its range of application covers underlying asset processes for which the characteristic function is known and various types of option contracts. We will present the method and its applications in two separate parts. The first one is this paper, where we deal with European options in particular. In a follow-up paper we will present its application to options with early-exercise features.
Research Statement

My graduate research has been mostly concentrated on problems in probability and theoretical computer science. More specifically, I have worked on problems in deterministic random walks, diffusions on graphs, stochastic block models. My research explores variations of randomness in complex systems, and more specifically, how drastically the dynamics and structure of a network change when a little bit of information is added to “chaos”. On one hand, I investigate how much determinism in diffusions (the random spread of various objects in media) de-randomizes the process, and on the other hand, I look at how superposing “planted” information on a random network changes its structure in such a way that the “planted” structure can be recovered. For these types of problems, a great deal of inspiration, motivation and intuition comes from statistical physics. Below I detail my current and past research projects and also outline further research directions arising out of these projects which I am planning to pursue. I wish to emphasize that I am also very interested in exploring new areas and working on new problems.
Distributed algorithms for optimal power flow problem

Optimal power flow (OPF) is an important problem for power generation and it is in general non-convex. With the employment of renewable energy, it will be desirable if OPF can be solved very efficiently so that its solution can be used in real time. With some special network structure, e.g. trees, the problem has been shown to have a zero duality gap and the convex dual problem yields the optimal solution. In this paper, we propose a primal and a dual algorithm to coordinate the smaller subproblems decomposed from the convexified OPF. We can arrange the subproblems to be solved sequentially and cumulatively in a central node or solved in parallel in distributed nodes. We test the algorithms on IEEE radial distribution test feeders, some random tree-structured networks, and the IEEE transmission system benchmarks. Simulation results show that the computation time can be improved dramatically with our algorithms over the centralized approach of solving the problem without decomposition, especially in tree-structured problems. The computation time grows linearly with the problem size with the cumulative approach while the distributed one can have size-independent computation time.
There is no one Logic to Model Human Reasoning: the Case from Interpretation

The paper discusses a multiple-logics proposal for cognitive modelling of reasoning processes. It describes a staged view of human reasoning which takes interpretation seriously, and provides a non-technical introduction to a logic fit for modelling interpretative processes – Logic Programming. It summarises some results of the multiple-logics approach obtained with modelling psychological data, and with empirical tests of a combined use of reasoning strategies by human subjects. It draws some interim conclusions, and proposes avenues for future research.
Remembering what we like: Toward an agent-based model of Web traffic

Analysis of aggregate Web traffic has shown that PageRank is a poor model of how people actually navigate the Web. Using the empirical traffic patterns generated by a thousand users over the course of two months, we characterize the properties of Web traffic that cannot be reproduced by Markovian models, in which destinations are independent of past decisions. In particular, we show that the diversity of sites visited by individual users is smaller and more broadly distributed than predicted by the PageRank model; that link traffic is more broadly distributed than predicted; and that the time between consecutive visits to the same site by a user is less broadly distributed than predicted. To account for these discrepancies, we introduce a more realistic navigation model in which agents maintain individual lists of bookmarks that are used as teleportation targets. The model can also account for branching, a traffic property caused by browser features such as tabs and the back button. The model reproduces aggregate traffic patterns such as site popularity, while also generating more accurate predictions of diversity, link traffic, and return time distributions. This model for the first time allows us to capture the extreme heterogeneity of aggregate traffic measurements while explaining the more narrowly focused browsing patterns of individual users.
Extracting and Encoding Mutually Sensed Region in Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks to Remove Redundancy

A wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) an emerging field of sensor networks has wide variety of multimedia applications. Due to its ever increasing range of visual applications data redundancy and correlated information distribution is major issue in WMSNs. In this paper we have introduced a technique to remove redundant information. Extracting mutual sensed region is the core of proposed approach. To extract mutual sensed region first scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) is applied for selecting control points in correspondence with two views. After extracting control points affine image registration is applied to find mutual sensed region, and affine matrix is used to assist node for first frame onward communication. The proposed approach is implemented and tested in MATLAB and it shows decrease in size of frames as compared to H.264 encoding standard.
Using Eye Shape to Improve Affect Recognition on a Humanoid Robot with Limited Expression

Appropriate affect expression on robots is important in using robots to interact with humans. A pilot study was conducted to examine the recognition of emotive eye shape on the Nao as well as whether the addition of eye shape to emotive gestures would improve recognition of emotion. A comparison was made between the recognition and classification of emotive eye shapes, gestures, and the combination of both into a multimodal display. The combined display of both gesture and eye shape to convey emotion was more consistently recognized than either modality alone. The information gathered from the pilot study will be used to inform future interactive work with the Nao.
Adaptive Human Behavior Modeling for Air Combat Simulation

Military simulations, especially those for personnel training and equipment effectiveness analysis, require proper human behavior models (HBMs) to play blue or red. Traditionally, the HBMs are controlled through rule based scripts. However, the doctrine-driven behavior is rigid and predictable, and more often than not unable to adapt to new situations. In most cases, the subject matter experts (SMEs) review, re-design a large amount of HBM scripts for new scenarios or training tasks, which is challenging and time-consuming. Therefore, a study of using Grammatical Evolution (GE) to generate adaptive HBMs for air combat simulation is conducted in this work. Expert knowledge is encoded with modular behavior trees (BTs) for the compatibility with the operators in genetic algorithm (GA). GE maps HBMs represented with BTs to binary strings, and uses GA to evolve HBMs with the performance fed back from simulation. Beyond visual range air combat experiments between adaptive HBMs and none-adaptive baseline HBMs are conducted to study the evolutionary process. The experimental results show that the GE is an efficient framework to generate adaptive HBMs in BTs formalism and evolve them with GA.
Panel of Genetic Variations as a Potential Non-invasive Biomarker for Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia. Biomarkers such as levels of amyloid beta (Aβ) in cerebrospinal fluid and ApoE genotyping were suggested for the diagnosis of AD, however, the result is either non-conclusive or with invasive procedure. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for AD suggested single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in many genes are associated with the risk of AD, but each only contributed with small effect to the disease. By incorporating a panel of established genetic susceptibility factors, the risk of an individual in getting AD could be better estimated. Further research will be required to reveal if adding to the current well-developed clinical diagnosis protocol, the accuracy and specificity of diagnosis of AD would be greatly improved and if this might also be beneficial in identifying pre-symptomatic AD patients for early diagnosis and intervention of the disease.
Phase Synchrony Measurement in Motor Cortex for Classifying Single-trial EEG during Motor Imagery

A motor imagery based brain-computer interface (BCI) translates the subject's motor intention into a control signal. For this BCI system, most algorithms are based on power changes of mu and beta rhythms. In this paper, we employ the measurement of phase synchrony to investigate the activities of the supplementary motor area (SMA) and primary motor area (M1) during left/right hand movement imagery. The single-trial phase locking value (PLV) features were derived from intrinsic large-scale and local-scale phase synchronies between and within SMA and M1. The classification performance suggests that phase synchrony is an additional robust feature for differentiating motor imagery states
In Astrocytes the Accumulation of the Immunity-Related GTPases Irga6 and Irgb6 at the Vacuole of Toxoplasma gondii Is Dependent on the Parasite Virulence

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite responsible for a common infection of the central nervous system. Interferon (IFN)γ is the key cytokine of host defence against T. gondii. However, T. gondii strains differ in virulence and T. gondii factors determining virulence are still poorly understood. In astrocytes IFNγ primarily induces immunity-related GTPases (IRGs), providing a cell-autonomous resistance system. Here, we demonstrate that astrocytes prestimulated with IFNγ inhibit the proliferation of various avirulent, but not virulent, T. gondii strains. The two analyzed immunity-related GTPases Irga6 and Irgb6 accumulate at the PV only of avirulent T. gondii strains, whereas in virulent strains this accumulation is only detectable at very low levels. Both IRG proteins could temporarily be found at the same PV, but did only partially colocalize. Coinfection of avirulent and virulent parasites confirmed that the accumulation of the two analyzed IRGs was a characteristic of the individual PV and not determined by the presence of other strains of T. gondii in the same host cell. Thus, in astrocytes the accumulation of Irga6 and Irgb6 significantly differs between avirulent and virulent T. gondii strains correlating with the toxoplasmacidal properties suggesting a role for this process in parasite virulence.
CORRELATIONS OF FECAL CALPROTECTIN WITH CLINICAL AND ENDOSCOPIC SCORES IN INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES IN CHILDREN

Background: An accurate monitoring of mucosal inflammation is important for an effective management of children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the fecal calprotectin as indicator of inflammatory activity in children with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) by correlating it with biological, clinical and endoscopic indices. Methods: A total of 22 children presenting IBD were evaluated (16CD/6UC). Fecal calprotectin, blood tests, Pediatric CD Activity Index (PCDAI), Pediatric UC Activity Index (PUCAI), CD Endoscopic Index of Severity (CDEIS) and Mayo Disease Activity Index (MDAI) were used for children evaluation at diagnosis and after 6 months of treatment. Results: In CD children, calprotectin showed a high correlation (r = 0.775) with the histologic grade of mucosal inflammation, showed by CDEIS and a medium correlation with CRP(r = 0.623). lt didn’t correlated with PCDAI (r = 0.325). In UC children, calprotectin correlated moderate (r=0.581) with CRP and it was strongly correlated with PUCAI (r = 0.752) and MDAI (r = 0.796). Calprotectin levels decreased significantly after 6 months of treatment in all IBD patients (p = 0.038). Conclusions: In CD children fecal calprotectin was more accurate in detection of active mucosal inflammation when compared to clinical score and serum marker CRP. The relatively poor correlation between calprotectin levels and PCDAI might not be due to a calprotectin low sensitivity in CD children, but to the fact that PCDAI is mostly a clinical score and is not sensitive enough to detect subclinical activity of the disease. Fecal calprotectin correlated well with endoscopic indices both in CD and UC children. So, it can provide a reliable
The toxin/immunity network of Burkholderia pseudomallei contact‐dependent growth inhibition (CDI) systems

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a category B pathogen and the causative agent of melioidosis – a serious infectious disease that is typically acquired directly from environmental reservoirs. Nearly all B. pseudomallei strains sequenced to date (> 85 isolates) contain gene clusters that are related to the contact‐dependent growth inhibition (CDI) systems of γ‐proteobacteria. CDI systems from Escherichia coli and Dickeya dadantii play significant roles in bacterial competition, suggesting these systems may also contribute to the competitive fitness of B. pseudomallei. Here, we identify 10 distinct CDI systems in B. pseudomallei based on polymorphisms within the cdiA‐CT/cdiI coding regions, which are predicted to encode CdiA‐CT/CdiI toxin/immunity protein pairs. Biochemical analysis of three B. pseudomallei CdiA‐CTs revealed that each protein possesses a distinct tRNase activity capable of inhibiting cell growth. These toxin activities are blocked by cognate CdiI immunity proteins, which specifically bind the CdiA‐CT and protect cells from growth inhibition. Using Burkholderia thailandensis E264 as a model, we show that a CDI system from B. pseudomallei 1026b mediates CDI and is capable of delivering CdiA‐CT toxins derived from other B. pseudomallei strains. These results demonstrate that Burkholderia species contain functional CDI systems, which may confer a competitive advantage to these bacteria.
The soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products can prospectively identify patients at greatest risk for preterm birth

Objective: Our primary objective was to determine whether there was an association between levels of antenatal maternal serum soluble RAGE (sRAGE), drawn at the time of presentation with preterm labor (PTL), and subsequent preterm birth (PTB). Secondary objectives were to determine whether levels of sRAGE – analyzed from both antenatal maternal serum (MS) and postpartum umbilical cord serum (CS) – were associated with neonatal sepsis. Methods: Nested case-control analyses were performed within a prospective cohort of patients at risk for PTB. MS was obtained at enrollment and CS at delivery. The sRAGE levels were analyzed. Non-parametric calculations and receiver-operator analyses were performed. Results: Overall, 39.8% of patients delivered < 37 weeks (n = 498) and 15% had neonatal sepsis (n = 193). In comparing cases and controls, sRAGE was significantly lower in those with than those without an adverse event (PTB: median MS-sRAGE 771.79 versus 948.485 pg/mL, p = 0.004; neonatal sepsis: 25-centile CS-sRAGE 1220.49 versus 2244.41 pg/mL, p = 0.0013). Adding MS-sRAGE to models of clinical variables significantly enhanced the ability of the model to predict both PTB (area under the curve [AUC] 0.71 versus 0.79, p = 0.004) and neonatal sepsis (AUC 0.65 versus 0.75, p = 0.04). The negative predictive value of CS-sRAGE for neonatal sepsis was very strong (NPV = 0.91). Conclusions: The sRAGE can be used to help predict adverse perinatal outcomes. Patients with higher levels of sRAGE – who therefore may have an enhanced capability to regulate their immune response – appear less likely to experience PTB and neonatal sepsis.
Manganese and Welding Fume Exposure and Control in Construction

Overexposure to welding fume constituents, particularly manganese, is of concern in the construction industry due to the prevalence of welding and the scarcity of engineering controls. The control effectiveness of a commercially available portable local exhaust ventilation (LEV) unit was assessed. It consisted of a portable vacuum and a small bell-shaped hood connected by a flexible 2 inch (50.8 mm) diameter hose, in both experimental and field settings. The experimental testing was done in a semienclosed booth at a pipefitter training facility. Five paired trials of LEV control vs. no control, each approximately 1 hr in duration and conducted during two successive welds of 6 inch (152.4 mm) diameter carbon steel pipe were run in random order. Breathing zone samples were collected outside the welding hood during each trial. In the field scenario, full-shift breathing zone samples were collected from two pipefitters welding carbon steel pipe for a chiller installation on a commercial construction project. Eight days of full-shift sampling were conducted on both workers (n = 16), and the LEV was used by one of the two workers on an alternating basis for 7 of the days. All samples were collected with personal sample pumps calibrated at 2 L/min. Filter cassettes were analyzed for total particulate and manganese concentration by a certified laboratory. In the experimental setting, use of the portable LEV resulted in a 75% reduction in manganese exposure (mean 13 μg/m 3 vs. 51 μ g/m 3 ; p < 0.05) and a 60% reduction in total particulate (mean 0.74 mg/m 3 vs. 1.83 mg/m 3 ; p < 0.05). In the field setting, LEV use resulted in a 53% reduction in manganese exposure (geometric mean 46 μ g/m 3 vs. 97 μ g/m 3 ; p < 0.05) but only a 10% reduction in total particulate (geometric mean 4.5 mg/m 3 vs. 5.0 mg/m 3 ; p > 0.05). These results demonstrate that LEV use can reduce manganese exposure associated with welding tasks in construction.