Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Injection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Exo Toxins into Host Cells Can Be Modulated by Host Factors at the Level of Translocon Assembly and/or Activity

Pseudomonas aeruginosa type III secretion apparatus exports and translocates four exotoxins into the cytoplasm of the host cell. The translocation requires two hydrophobic bacterial proteins, PopB and PopD, that are found associated with host cell membranes following infection. In this work we examined the influence of host cell elements on exotoxin translocation efficiency. We developed a quantitative flow cytometry based assay of translocation that used protein fusions between either ExoS or ExoY and the ß-lactamase reporter enzyme. In parallel, association of translocon proteins with host plasma membranes was evaluated by immunodetection of PopB/D following sucrose gradient fractionation of membranes. A pro-myelocytic cell line (HL-60) and a pro-monocytic cell line (U937) were found resistant to toxin injection even though PopB/D associated with host cell plasma membranes. Differentiation of these cells to either macrophage- or neutrophil-like cell lines resulted in injection-sensitive phenotype without significantly changing the level of membrane-inserted translocon proteins. As previous in vitro studies have indicated that the lysis of liposomes by PopB and PopD requires both cholesterol and phosphatidyl-serine, we first examined the role of cholesterol in translocation efficiency. Treatment of sensitive HL-60 cells with methyl-ß-cyclodextrine, a cholesterol-depleting agent, resulted in a diminished injection of ExoS-Bla. Moreover, the PopB translocator was found in the membrane fraction, obtained from sucrose-gradient purifications, containing the lipid-raft marker flotillin. Examination of components of signalling pathways influencing the toxin injection was further assayed through a pharmacological approach. A systematic detection of translocon proteins within host membranes showed that, in addition to membrane composition, some general signalling pathways involved in actin polymerization may be critical for the formation of a functional pore. In conclusion, we provide new insights in regulation of translocation process and suggest possible cross-talks between eukaryotic cell and the pathogen at the level of exotoxin translocation.
Financial Markets, Industrial Specialization and Comparative Advantage - Evidence from OECD Countries

Due to underlying technological and organizational differences, industries differ in their need for external finance. Since services provided by the financial sector are largely immobile across countries, the pattern of industrial specialization should be influenced by the degree of financial development. We find this effect to be strong. In fact, the financial sector has greater impact on industrial specialization among OECD countries than differences in human and physical capital. We also show that the causality indeed run from the financial sector to specialization. Further, financial sectors are a source of comparative advantage in a way consistent with the Hecksher-Ohlin-Vanek model. Results on which aspects of financial systems that are of importance for specialization and comparative advantage are also presented.
As Light as You Aspire to Be: Changing Body Perception with Sound to Support Physical Activity

Supporting exercise adherence through technology remains an important HCI challenge. Recent works showed that altering walking sounds leads people perceiving themselves as thinner/lighter, happier and walking more dynamically. While this novel approach shows potential for physical activity, it raises critical questions impacting technology design. We ran two studies in the context of exertion (gym-step, stairs-climbing) to investigate how individual factors impact the effect of sound and the duration of the after-effects. The results confirm that the effects of sound in body-perception occur even in physically demanding situations and through ubiquitous wearable devices. We also show that the effect of sound interacted with participants' body weight and masculinity/femininity aspirations, but not with gender. Additionally, changes in body-perceptions did not hold once the feedback stopped; however, body-feelings or behavioural changes appeared to persist for longer. We discuss the results in terms of malleability of body-perception and highlight opportunities for supporting exercise adherence.
The Role of Dietary Sugars and De novo Lipogenesis in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Dietary sugar consumption, in particular sugar-sweetened beverages and the monosaccharide fructose, has been linked to the incidence and severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Intervention studies in both animals and humans have shown large doses of fructose to be particularly lipogenic. While fructose does stimulate de novo lipogenesis (DNL), stable isotope tracer studies in humans demonstrate quantitatively that the lipogenic effect of fructose is not mediated exclusively by its provision of excess substrates for DNL. The deleterious metabolic effects of high fructose loads appear to be a consequence of altered transcriptional regulatory networks impacting intracellular macronutrient metabolism and altering signaling and inflammatory processes. Uric acid generated by fructose metabolism may also contribute to or exacerbate these effects. Here we review data from human and animal intervention and stable isotope tracer studies relevant to the role of dietary sugars on NAFLD development and progression, in the context of typical sugar consumption patterns and dietary recommendations worldwide. We conclude that the use of hypercaloric, supra-physiological doses in intervention trials has been a major confounding factor and whether or not dietary sugars, including fructose, at typically consumed population levels, effect hepatic lipogenesis and NAFLD pathogenesis in humans independently of excess energy remains unresolved.
On the Role of Context-Specific Independence in Probabilistic Inference

Context-specific independence (CSI) refers to conditional independencies that are true only in specific contexts. It has been found useful in various inference algorithms for Bayesian networks. This paper studies the role of CSI in general. We provide a characterization of the computational leverages offered by CSI without referring to particular inference algorithms. We identify the issues that need to be addressed in order to exploit the leverages and show how those issues can be addressed. We also provide empirical evidence that demonstrates the usefulness of CSI.
Insider Signaling and Insider Trading with Repurchase Tender Offers

Cash distributed to public shareholders is distributed through three mechanisms: dividends, open market repurchases (OMRs), and repurchase tender offers (RTOs). The leading explanation for why a corporation would distribute cash through an RTO rather than an OMR or a dividend is the "signaling theory"-that managers use RTOs to signal that the stock is underpriced. The Article has three main purposes: (1) to challenge the signaling theory, by exposing a flaw in one of its key assumptions and presenting empirical data suggesting that the theory cannot account for most RTOs; (2) to show that the same empirical data are consistent with insiders using RTOs to engage in insider trading with public shareholders; and (3) to propose that insiders be (a) required to disclose their tendering decision before the close of the RTO and (b) forbidden from selling stock outside of the RTO until six months after the announcement date. The Article explains how this "disclose/delay" rule would substantially reduce insiders' ability to use RTOs for insider trading, without interfering with the use of RTOs for any other purpose (including signaling).
Recent trends in stock-recruitment of Blackwater herring ( Clupea harengus L . ) in relation to larval production

Recruitment at age 2 plotted against spawning stock biomass (SSB) for the Blackwater herring stock shows a dome-shaped pattern. This has been apparent in recent years (1991–1995) when, despite high spawning stock biomass, resulting year classes have been poor. In 1994, 1996 and 1997 plankton surveys were undertaken in the Blackwater Estuary to estimate the production of yolk-sac larvae. The results of production, average cohort growth and mortality were compared with the results from surveys carried out in 1979 when spawning stock biomass (SSB) was close to the minimum historically recorded. In each year of the present study, estimated levels of larval production were higher than in 1979. Following hatching, average cohort growth rates appeared to be similar to those in 1979 but mortality rates appeared to be greater. Levels of larval production increased linearly with spawning stock biomass but there was an inverse relationship between estimated survival from hatching to recruitment at age 2 and the level of larval production. The results suggest that, in the years studied, year-class strength was determined by density dependent and/or environmental processes operating after hatching as opposed to processes operating at the egg stage.
Modeling Local Field Potentials with Recurrent Neural Networks 1

18 We present a Recurrent Neural Network using LSTM (Long Short Term 19 Memory) units that is capable of modeling Local Field Potentials. We train 20 and test the network on real data recorded from patients. We construct 21 networks that are capable of modeling LFPs in single and multiple channels, 22 and can also model LFP dynamics after stimulation. 23 24
Constraint Negotiation in Serious Leisure

Abstract This paper explores strategies employed by amateur triathletes engaged in serious leisure to negotiate leisure constraints. In-depth interviews were conducted with 21 Australian triathletes, revealing a range of negotiation strategies used to adapt to or alleviate constraints. In particular, triathletes accepted the likelihood of opportunity costs, were pragmatic about their performance and used a self-determined hierarchy of importance to make leisure/non-leisure decisions. They engaged in planning and time management, endeavored to communicate and cooperate with significant others, were opportunistic and flexible with training, and employed discipline props to maintain participation. Their participation was cyclical in nature, with periods of intense involvement before events. Cognitive and behavioral negotiation strategies were interconnected, suggesting implications for physical activity programs and interventions.
ELASTOPLASTIC CONSTRICTION RESISTANCE OF SPHERE / FLAT CONTACTS : THEORY AND EXPERIMENT

This paper investigates elastoplastic sphereat contacts from both analytical and experimental points of view. Recently, a simple elastoplastic deformation model has been proposed which is able to predict the contact radius for the three regimes of loading: elastic, elastoplastic and fully plastic. This explicit elastoplastic deformation model for circular contacts incorporated into the existing thermal constriction resistance model is used to predict the thermal constriction resistance measurements made at di erent load levels for sphereat contacts in a vacuum environment. The accuracy of prediction depends upon the value of ow stress used in the elastoplastic deformation model. Hence a technique has been proposed to calculate the appropriate value of the ow stress associated with a particular experimental set. The present model is able to predict thermal constriction resistance experimental results for a variety of metals (Keewatin Tool Steel, Nickel 200 and Carbon Steel) with an overall RMS di erence of 4.5 %.
Title A two-stage detector for hand detection in egocentric videos

We propose a two-stage detector that can not only detect and localize hands, but also provide fine-detailed information in the bounding box of hand in an efficient fashion. In the first stage, hand bounding box proposals are generated from a pixel-level hand probability map. Next, each hand proposal is evaluated by a Multi-task Convolutional Neural Network to filter out false positives and obtain fine shape and landmark information. Through experiments, we demonstrate that our method is efficient and robust to detect hands with their shape and landmark information, and our system can also be flexibly combined with other detection methods to handle a new scene. Further experiment shows that our Multi-task CNN can also be extended to hand gesture classification with a large performance increase.
Terms of Use Detailed Terms

Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. ABSTRACT The zonally integrated meridional and vertical velocities as well as the enthalpy transports and fluxes in a least squares adjusted general circulation model are used to estimate the top-to-bottom oceanic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) and its variability from 1992 to 2006. A variety of simple theories all produce time scales suggesting that the mid-and high-latitude oceans should respond to atmospheric driving only over several decades. In practice, little change is seen in the MOC and associated heat transport except very close to the sea surface, at depth near the equator, and in parts of the Southern Ocean. Variability in meridional transports in both volume and enthalpy is dominated by the annual cycle and secondarily by the semiannual cycle, particularly in the Southern Ocean. On time scales longer than a year, the solution exhibits small trends with complicated global spatial patterns. Apart from a net uptake of heat from the atmosphere (forced by the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis, which produces net ocean heating), the origins of the meridional transport trends are not distinguishable and are likely a combination of model disequilibrium, shifts in the observing system, other trends (real or artificial) in the meteorological fields, and/or true oceanic secularities. None of the results, however, supports an inference of oceanic circulation shifts taking the system out of the range in which changes are more than small perturbations. That the oceanic observations do not conflict with an apparent excess heat uptake from the atmosphere implies a continued undersampling of the global ocean, even in the upper layers.
A Hierarchical Text Clustering Algorithm with Cognitive Situation Dimensions

Text clustering is an important task of text mining. The purpose of text clustering is grouping similar text documents together efficiently to meet human interests in information searching and understanding. The procedure of clustering should involve a cognitive process of text understanding or comprehension.This paper introduces an innovative research effort, CogHTC, a hierarchical text clustering algorithm, inspired by cognitive situation models. CogHTC extracts representative features from four elaborately selected cognitive situation dimensions with consideration of the clustering efficiency.The experimental results testified good performance of CogHTC, and revealed that the clustering results of CogHTC are class or domain sensitive, and CogHTC performed better on Cross-Class Clustering than Inner- Class Clustering.
Mach Zehnder interferometer optical switch using phase-change material

We report a small, self-holding 2×2 Mach Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) type optical switch by depositing a thin film of low-loss GeTe phase-change material (PCM) on both arms of the MZI. The loss and crosstalk in cross state were 0.5 dB and -34 dB and in the bar state 3.45 dB and -10.3 dB respectively. Extinction ratio of more than 13 dB and 31 dB is obtained in the cross and bar states respectively. The proposed switch has operating wavelength range of 80 nm.
Supplementary material : Harmonizable mixture kernels with variational Fourier features

We can see from the reasoning that sparse spectrum kernel and spectral mixture kernel both weakly span stationary covariances, and thus sharing the same level of expressiveness. But the sparse spectrum kernel only encodes a finite dimensional feature mapping, which reduces a GP regression with a sparse spectrum kernel to a Bayesian linear regression with trigonometric basis expansions. The spectral mixture kernel alleviates overfitting by using Gaussian mixture on the spectral distribution, which implicitly assumes certain level of smoothness of the unknown spectral distribution being modeled – the Gaussian mixture also leads to an infinite-dimensional feature mapping which does not render a GP regression degenerate.
Convex Optimization Approaches for Blind Sensor Calibration Using Sparsity

We investigate a compressive sensing framework in which the sensors introduce a distortion to the measurements in the form of unknown gains. We focus on blind calibration, using measures performed on multiple unknown (but sparse) signals and formulate the joint recovery of the gains and the sparse signals as a convex optimization problem. We divide this problem in 3 subproblems with different conditions on the gains, specifically i) gains with different amplitude and the same phase, ii) gains with the same amplitude and different phase and iii) gains with different amplitude and phase. In order to solve the first case, we propose an extension to the basis pursuit optimization which can estimate the unknown gains along with the unknown sparse signals. For the second case, we formulate a quadratic approach that eliminates the unknown phase shifts and retrieves the unknown sparse signals. An alternative form of this approach is also formulated to reduce complexity and memory requirements and provide scalability with respect to the number of input signals. Finally for the third case, we propose a formulation that combines the earlier two approaches to solve the problem. The performance of the proposed algorithms is investigated extensively through numerical simulations, which demonstrates that simultaneous signal recovery and calibration is possible with convex methods when sufficiently many (unknown, but sparse) calibrating signals are provided.
Mille-Feuille: Putting ISP traffic under the scalpel

For Internet Service Provider (ISP) operators, getting an accurate picture of how their network behaves is challenging. Given the traffic volumes that their networks carry and the impossibility to control end-hosts, ISP operators are typically forced to randomly sample traffic, and rely on aggregated statistics. This provides coarse-grained visibility, at a time resolution that is far from ideal (seconds or minutes). In this paper, we present Mille-Feuille, a novel monitoring architecture that provides fine-grained visibility over ISP traffic. Mille-Feuille schedules activation and deactivation of traffic-mirroring rules, that are then provisioned network-wide from a central location, within milliseconds. By doing so, Mille-Feuille combines the scalability of sampling with the visibility and controllability of traffic mirroring. As a result, it supports a set of monitoring primitives, ranging from checking key performance indicators (e.g., one-way delay) for single destinations to estimating traffic matrices in sub-seconds. Our preliminary measurements on existing routers confirm that Mille-Feuille is viable in practice.
A compact miniature fractal planar antenna for RFID readers

This article presents a new miniature microstrip antenna in the ISM "Industrial Scientific and Medical" band, at 2.45 GHz. This microstrip antenna is designed for RFID reader system, by exploiting the fractal technique and the CPW fed; this antenna is printed on FR4 substrate with dielectric constant of 4.4. The validated antenna has a good matching input impedance range from 2.27 GHz to 2.68 GHz with a stable radiation pattern, a gain of 2.2 dBi, and a directivity of 1.91 dB. The total area of the final circuit is 21.22 x 32.05 mm2. A prototype of the proposed antenna has been fabricated and measured.
Real-time rendering of large 3D scenes using hierarchical mesh simplification

Captured and generated 3D data can be so large that it creates a problem for today’s computers since they do not fit into the main or graphics card memory. Therefore methods for handling and rendering the data must be developed. This thesis presents a way to pre-process and render out-of-core height map data for real time use. The preprocessing uses a mesh decimation API called Simplygon developed by Donya Labs to optimize the geometry. From the height map a normal map can also be created and used at render time to increase the visual quality. In addition to the 3D data textures are also supported. To decrease the time to load an object the normal and texture maps can be compressed on the graphics card prior to rendering. Three different methods for covering gaps are explored of which one turns out to be insufficient for rendering cylindrical equidistant projected data. At render time two threads work in parallel. One thread is used to page the data from the hard drive to the main and graphics card memory. The other thread is responsible for rendering all data. To handle precision errors caused by spatial difference in the data each object receives a local origin and is then rendered relative to the camera. An atmosphere which handles views from both space and ground is computed on the graphics card. The result is an application adapted to current graphics card technology which can page out-of-core data and render a dataset covering the entire earth at 500 meters spatial resolution with a realistic atmosphere.
Laser-Based Propagation of Human iPS and ES Cells Generates Reproducible Cultures with Enhanced Differentiation Potential

Proper maintenance of stem cells is essential for successful utilization of ESCs/iPSCs as tools in developmental and drug discovery studies and in regenerative medicine. Standardization is critical for all future applications of stem cells and necessary to fully understand their potential. This study reports a novel approach for the efficient, consistent expansion of human ESCs and iPSCs using laser sectioning, instead of mechanical devices or enzymes, to divide cultures into defined size clumps for propagation. Laser-mediated propagation maintained the pluripotency, quality, and genetic stability of ESCs/iPSCs and led to enhanced differentiation potential. This approach removes the variability associated with ESC/iPSC propagation, significantly reduces the expertise, labor, and time associated with manual passaging techniques and provides the basis for scalable delivery of standardized ESC/iPSC lines. Adoption of standardized protocols would allow researchers to understand the role of genetics, environment, and/or procedural effects on stem cells and would ensure reproducible production of stem cell cultures for use in clinical/therapeutic applications.
Training-based MIMO channel estimation: a study of estimator tradeoffs and optimal training signals

In this paper, we study the performance of multiple-input multiple-output channel estimation methods using training sequences. We consider the popular linear least squares (LS) and minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) approaches and propose new scaled LS (SLS) and relaxed MMSE techniques which require less knowledge of the channel second-order statistics and/or have better performance than the conventional LS and MMSE channel estimators. The optimal choice of training signals is investigated for the aforementioned techniques. In the case of multiple LS channel estimates, the best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) scheme for their linear combining is developed and studied.