Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The High-Technology Connection: Academic/Industrial Cooperation for Economic Growth. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Research Report No. 6.

Cooperative arrangements between academic institutions and industry are examined, with attention to linkages in high technology research and development (R&D), the commercial Application of R&D (technology transfer), and the preparation and continuing development of scientific and engineering personnel. Incentives and barriers to campus/corporate involvements are identified. Also examined are the historical development of R&D ties, stages of technological change and community conditions affecting this process, patterns of innovation in large and small companies, and policy issues concerning nontraditional study and faculty ties with business. Cooperation in R&D includes arrangements such as contracted research projects, cooperative research centers, and personnel exchanges, while modes of technology transfer range from seminars and publications to faculty consulting and small business development services. Ten suggestions are offered to help colleges evaluate current linkages with industry, unmet local or regional needs, and school educational and personnel policies. A conceptual model of academic/industrial cooperation shows the economic goals and development strategies that relate to each type of linkage, as well as the extent of ini.eraction that characterizes specific cooperative arrangements. Fifteen pages of references conclude the document. (SW)
Integration Host Factor Assembly at the Cohesive End Site of the Bacteriophage Lambda Genome: Implications for Viral DNA Packaging and Bacterial Gene Regulation

Integration host factor (IHF) is an Escherichia coli protein involved in (i) condensation of the bacterial nucleoid and (ii) regulation of a variety of cellular functions. In its regulatory role, IHF binds to a specific sequence to introduce a strong bend into the DNA; this provides a duplex architecture conducive to the assembly of site-specific nucleoprotein complexes. Alternatively, the protein can bind in a sequence-independent manner that weakly bends and wraps the duplex to promote nucleoid formation. IHF is also required for the development of several viruses, including bacteriophage lambda, where it promotes site-specific assembly of a genome packaging motor required for lytic development. Multiple IHF consensus sequences have been identified within the packaging initiation site (cos), and we here interrogate IHF–cos binding interactions using complementary electrophoretic mobility shift (EMS) and analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) approaches. IHF recognizes a single consensus sequence within cos (I1) to afford a strongly bent nucleoprotein complex. In contrast, IHF binds weakly but with positive cooperativity to nonspecific DNA to afford an ensemble of complexes with increasing masses and levels of condensation. Global analysis of the EMS and AUC data provides constrained thermodynamic binding constants and nearest neighbor cooperativity factors for binding of IHF to I1 and to nonspecific DNA substrates. At elevated IHF concentrations, the nucleoprotein complexes undergo a transition from a condensed to an extended rodlike conformation; specific binding of IHF to I1 imparts a significant energy barrier to the transition. The results provide insight into how IHF can assemble specific regulatory complexes in the background of extensive nonspecific DNA condensation.
Range only multistatic tracking

Multistatic tracking involves using non-collocated transmitters and receivers to track the targets. In this paper we also assume no angle information. This paper proposes an approach using Gaussian Mixture representation of measurement uncertainty. An arbitrary number of receivers can be used using this approach. Here we limit ourselves to the track estimation issues, i.e. we assume no clutter measurement, and imperfect target detection at the receivers. Simulation results are presented which vindicate this approach.
Regulation of Macrophage, Dendritic Cell, and Microglial Phenotype and Function by the SOCS Proteins

Macrophages are innate immune cells of dynamic phenotype that rapidly respond to external stimuli in the microenvironment by altering their phenotype to respond to and to direct the immune response. The ability to dynamically change phenotype must be carefully regulated to prevent uncontrolled inflammatory responses and subsequently to promote resolution of inflammation. The suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins play a key role in regulating macrophage phenotype. In this review, we summarize research to date from mouse and human studies on the role of the SOCS proteins in determining the phenotype and function of macrophages. We will also touch on the influence of the SOCS on dendritic cell (DC) and microglial phenotype and function. The molecular mechanisms of SOCS function in macrophages and DCs are discussed, along with how dysregulation of SOCS expression or function can lead to alterations in macrophage/DC/microglial phenotype and function and to disease. Regulation of SOCS expression by microRNA is discussed. Novel therapies and unanswered questions with regard to SOCS regulation of monocyte–macrophage phenotype and function are highlighted.
Implementing image processing applications on a real-time architecture

The authors present three examples of real-time image processing applications that were implemented on a data-flow architecture developed at the ETCA. Low-level image processing is performed on a regular three-dimensional network of 1024 custom data-flow processors. Image features previously extracted in the low-level step are handled by a two-dimensional network of 12 general purpose processors. Fast prototyping of real-time image processing applications is achieved through a programming environment including a complete stream from functional programming specification to network configuration. A large class of algorithms can be implemented. Among them the authors describe a nonlinear filter, a connected component labeling and a colored object tracking.
Modeling energy efficient secure wireless networks using network simulation

In this paper, we extend OPNET/spl reg/ network simulator wireless local area network (WLAN) models to incorporate energy and security. We then use these models to study (1) performance and energy characteristics of large-scale secure WLAN networks under varying channel conditions and (2) impact of energy-efficient security protocol adaptations proposed in [(R. Karri and P. Mishra, 2003), (R. Karri and P. Mishra, 2002)] on the energy consumed by Internet security protocol (IPSec).
RFID Readers - A Review

RFID is an exciting new automated contact-less data capturing technique that is finding more and more applications. In this paper we present a comprehensive review of available RFID reader units in the market today. A complete and detailed review of the reader system architecture and a classification of RFID readers based on their operating and communication principles and technologies are presented.
10 Selective Attention

We are endowed with a set of sensory organs that collect an astounding amount of information about our surrounding environment, but we are strikingly limited in how much of the information we can process simultaneously. Selective attention takes on the immensely complex challenge of choosing between which information will be granted access to further processing and to awareness, and which information will be ignored. How does the attentional system work? The present review summarizes more than a century of research on this question, focusing on (a) which levels of processing attention acts on, (b) the degree to which behavioral goals can influence selective attention, (c) how attention interacts with other cognitive processes, such as working memory, and (d) the relationship between attention and consciousness. Classic findings, contentious debates (some resolved and some still ongoing), and future directions are discussed. Keywords: selective attention; early selection; late selection; attentional capture; working memory; conscious awareness
Selective Molecular Alterations in the Autophagy Pathway in Patients with Lewy Body Disease and in Models of α-Synucleinopathy

Background Lewy body disease is a heterogeneous group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by α-synuclein accumulation that includes dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's Disease (PD). Recent evidence suggests that impairment of lysosomal pathways (i.e. autophagy) involved in α-synuclein clearance might play an important role. For this reason, we sought to examine the expression levels of members of the autophagy pathway in brains of patients with DLB and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and in α-synuclein transgenic mice. Methodology/Principal Findings By immunoblot analysis, compared to controls and AD, in DLB cases levels of mTor were elevated and Atg7 were reduced. Levels of other components of the autophagy pathway such as Atg5, Atg10, Atg12 and Beclin-1 were not different in DLB compared to controls. In DLB brains, mTor was more abundant in neurons displaying α-synuclein accumulation. These neurons also showed abnormal expression of lysosomal markers such as LC3, and ultrastructural analysis revealed the presence of abundant and abnormal autophagosomes. Similar alterations were observed in the brains of α-synuclein transgenic mice. Intra-cerebral infusion of rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTor, or injection of a lentiviral vector expressing Atg7 resulted in reduced accumulation of α-synuclein in transgenic mice and amelioration of associated neurodegenerative alterations. Conclusions/Significance This study supports the notion that defects in the autophagy pathway and more specifically in mTor and Atg7 are associated with neurodegeneration in DLB cases and α-synuclein transgenic models and supports the possibility that modulators of the autophagy pathway might have potential therapeutic effects.
Pesticides Drive Stochastic Changes in the Chemoreception and Neurotransmission System of Marine Ectoparasites

Scientific efforts to elucidate the mechanisms of chemical communication between organisms in marine environments are increasing. This study applied novel molecular technology to outline the effects of two xenobiotic drugs, deltamethrin (DM) and azamethiphos (AZA), on the neurotransmission system of the copepod ectoparasite Caligus rogercresseyi. Transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics analyses were conducted to evaluate treatment effects on the glutamatergic synaptic pathway of the parasite, which is closely related to chemoreception and neurotransmission. After drug treatment with DM or AZA, stochastic mRNA expression patterns of glutamatergic synapse pathway components were observed. Both DM and AZA promoted a down-regulation of the glutamate-ammonia ligase, and DM activated a metabotropic glutamate receptor that is a suggested inhibitor of neurotransmission. Furthermore, the delousing drugs drove complex rearrangements in the distribution of mapped reads for specific metabotropic glutamate receptor domains. This study introduces a novel methodological approach that produces high-quality results from transcriptomic data. Using this approach, DM and AZA were found to alter the expression of numerous mRNAs tightly linked to the glutamatergic signaling pathway. These data suggest possible new targets for xenobiotic drugs that play key roles in the delousing effects of antiparasitics in sea lice.
SDMA with a Sum Feedback Rate Constraint

Space division multiple access (SDMA) is capable of achieving sum capacity that grows double logarithmically with the number of users. The sum rate for channel state information (CSI) feedback, however, increases linearly with the number of users, reducing the effective uplink capacity. To address this problem, a novel SDMA design is proposed, where the sum feedback rate is upper-bounded by a constant. This design consists of algorithms for CSI quantization, threshold based CSI feedback, and joint beamforming and scheduling. The key feature of the proposed approach is the use of feedback thresholds to select feedback users with large channel gains and small CSI quantization errors such that the sum feedback rate constraint is satisfied. Despite this constraint, the proposed SDMA design is shown to achieve a sum capacity growth rate close to the optimal one. Numerical results show that the proposed SDMA design is capable of attaining higher sum capacities than existing ones, even though the sum feedback rate is bounded.
On spurious reflections, nonuniform grids and finite difference discretizations of wave equations

textabstractThis paper addresses nonphysical reflections encountered in the discretization of wave equations on nonuniform grids. Such nonphysical solutions are commonly attributed to spurious modes in the numerical dispersion relation. We provide an example of a discretization in which a (nonspurious) physical mode is spuriously energized at a grid nonuniformity. It is found that, in particular, the box scheme and, in general, certain discretizations within the class of Runge-Kutta methods, are free from such spurious reflections.
Using ancient DNA to study the origins and dispersal of ancestral Polynesian chickens across the Pacific

Significance Ancient DNA sequences from chickens provide an opportunity to study their human-mediated dispersal across the Pacific due to the significant genetic diversity and range of archaeological material available. We analyze ancient and modern material and reveal that previous studies have been impacted by contamination with modern chicken DNA and, that as a result, there is no evidence for Polynesian dispersal of chickens to pre-Columbian South America. We identify genetic markers of authentic ancient Polynesian chickens and use them to model early chicken dispersals across the Pacific. We find connections between chickens in the Micronesian and Bismarck Islands, but no evidence these were involved in dispersals further east. We also find clues about the origins of Polynesian chickens in the Philippines. The human colonization of Remote Oceania remains one of the great feats of exploration in history, proceeding east from Asia across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Human commensal and domesticated species were widely transported as part of this diaspora, possibly as far as South America. We sequenced mitochondrial control region DNA from 122 modern and 22 ancient chicken specimens from Polynesia and Island Southeast Asia and used these together with Bayesian modeling methods to examine the human dispersal of chickens across this area. We show that specific techniques are essential to remove contaminating modern DNA from experiments, which appear to have impacted previous studies of Pacific chickens. In contrast to previous reports, we find that all ancient specimens and a high proportion of the modern chickens possess a group of unique, closely related haplotypes found only in the Pacific. This group of haplotypes appears to represent the authentic founding mitochondrial DNA chicken lineages transported across the Pacific, and allows the early dispersal of chickens across Micronesia and Polynesia to be modeled. Importantly, chickens carrying this genetic signature persist on several Pacific islands at high frequencies, suggesting that the original Polynesian chicken lineages may still survive. No early South American chicken samples have been detected with the diagnostic Polynesian mtDNA haplotypes, arguing against reports that chickens provide evidence of Polynesian contact with pre-European South America. Two modern specimens from the Philippines carry haplotypes similar to the ancient Pacific samples, providing clues about a potential homeland for the Polynesian chicken.
A Fourier–Shannon approach to closed contours modelling

This paper describes a modelling method for continuous closed contours. The initial input data set consists of two-dimensional (2-D) points, which may be represented as a discrete function in a polar coordinate system. The method uses the Shannon interpolation between these data points to obtain the global continuous contour model. A minimal description of the contour is obtained using the link between the Shannon interpolation kernel and the Fourier series of polar development (FSPD) for periodic functions. The Shannon interpolation kernel allows the direct interpretation of the contour smoothness in terms of both samples and Fourier frequency domains. In order to deal with deformation point sources, often encountered in active modelling techniques, a method of local deformation is proposed. Each local deformation is performed in an angular sector centred on the deformation point source. All the neighbouring characteristic samples are displaced in order to minimize the oscillations of the newly created model outside the deformation sector. This deformation technique preserves the frequency characteristics of the contour, regardless of the number and the intensity of deformation sources. In this way, the technique induces a frequency modelling constraint, which may be subsequently used in an active detection and modelling environment. Experiments on synthetic and real data prove the efficiency of the proposed technique. The method is currently used to model contours of the left ventricle of the heart obtained from ultrasound apical images. This work is part of a larger project, the aim of which is to analyse the space and time deformations of the left ventricle. The 2-D Fourier–Shannon model is used as a basis for more complex three-dimensional and four-dimensional Fourier models, able to recover automatically the movement and deformation of the left ventricle of the heart during a cardiac cycle.
An Improved Algorithm for Bayes Classifier to Handle Correlated Attributes

Classification can be defined as a target function which maps attribute value of objects to predefined class. One objective is to divide the objects into proper group and other objective is to predict the class of unknown records. Bayesian classifier classifies and predicts the class of objects on the basis of posterior probability based on some prior probability. Earlier work does not handle the effect of correlated attributes on the performance and the accuracy of classifier. In this paper a novel approach using association rules is defined to predict the class of unknown records even if the attributes are correlated. In medical and health care systems it is necessary to generate an outcome which can work well in all conditions and give the beneficial results.
Prospective cross-validation of three methods of predicting failing pregnancies of unknown location.

BACKGROUND We compared the performance of each of three tests for predicting pregnancy failure in the pregnancy of unknown (PUL) population. METHODS In a prospective observational study, we compared the performance of three models for the prediction of pregnancy failure in women with a PUL: (i) logistic-regression model incorporating vaginal bleeding, endometrial thickness (ET), initial serum progesterone and hCG levels; (ii) serum progesterone at 0 h; and (3) the hCG ratio. RESULTS A total of 5942 consecutive pregnant women attending the Early Pregnancy Unit were scanned and 439 (7.4%) were classified as PULs. Of these women, 420 had complete data for serum hCG at 0 and 48 h, the hCG ratio, serum progesterone at 0 h, vaginal bleeding and ET. The final outcomes were 219 (52.1%) failing PULs, 167 (39.8%) intra-uterine pregnancies and 34 (8.1%) ectopic pregnancies. For the prediction of pregnancy failure in the PUL population, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) for the logistic-regression model was 0.907 (Standard error (SE) 0.015), the AUC for serum progesterone was 0.952 (SE 0.010) and the AUC for the hCG ratio was 0.980 (SE 0.004). This improved performance of the hCG ratio was significant when compared with that of initial serum progesterone (P = 0.0076) and the logistic-regression model (P < 0.0001). Using the hCG ratio cut-offs of < 0.87 and <or=0.79, the serum progesterone cut-off of < 20 nmol l(-1) and the logistic-regression cut-off of >70% for the prediction of failing PUL, sensitivities were 86.3 and 82.2% (S), 87.2% (NS) and 78.1% (S), specificities were 97.0 and 98.0% (NS), 89.6% (S) and 88.6% (S), positive-likelihood ratios were 28.91, 41.30, 8.34 and 6.82 and negative-likelihood ratios were 0.14, 0.18, 0.14 and 0.25, respectively. CONCLUSION The hCG ratio seems to be an optimal test for the prediction of pregnancy failure in a PUL population. The hCG ratio cut-off of 0.79 is recommended on the basis of minimizing risk to those PULs discharged at 48 h. Most importantly, when the hCG ratio is below a particular cut-off, these women can be discharged at 48 h without intervention and need for further follow-up.
The statistics of lambda CDM Halo Concentrations

We use the Millennium Simulation (MS) to study the statistics of Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) halo concentrations at z= 0. Our results confirm that the average halo concentration declines monotonically with mass; the concentration–mass relation is well fitted by a power law over three decades in mass, up to the most massive objects that form in a ΛCDM universe (∼ 1015 h−1 M⊙). This is in clear disagreement with the predictions of the model proposed by Bullock et al. for these rare objects, and agrees better with the original predictions of Navarro, Frenk & White. The large volume surveyed, together with the unprecedented numerical resolution of the MS, allows us to estimate with confidence the distribution of concentrations and, consequently, the abundance of systems with unusual properties. About one in a hundred cluster haloes (M200≳ 3 × 1014 h−1 M⊙) have concentrations exceeding c200= 7.5, a result that may be useful in interpreting the likelihood of unusually strong massive gravitational lenses, such as Abell 1689, in the ΛCDM cosmogony. A similar fraction of about 1 per cent of galaxy-sized haloes (M200∼ 1012 h−1 M⊙) have c200 < 4.5 and this could be relevant to models that attempt to reconcile the ΛCDM cosmology with rotation curves of low surface brightness galaxies by appealing to haloes of unexpectedly low concentration. We find that halo concentrations are independent of spin once haloes manifestly out of equilibrium have been removed from the sample. Compared to their relaxed brethren, the concentrations of out-of-equilibrium haloes tend to be lower and have more scatter, while their spins tend to be higher. A number of previously noted trends within the halo population are induced primarily by these properties of unrelaxed systems. Finally, we compare the result of predicting halo concentrations using the mass assembly history of the main progenitor with predictions based on simple arguments regarding the assembly time of all progenitors. The latter are typically as good or better than the former, suggesting that halo concentration depends not only on the evolutionary path of a halo's main progenitor, but on how and when all of its constituents collapsed to form non-linear objects.
Six Homeoproteins and a linc-RNA at the Fast MYH Locus Lock Fast Myofiber Terminal Phenotype

Abstract Thousands of long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are encoded by the mammalian genome. However, the function of most of these lincRNAs has not been identified in vivo. Here, we demonstrate a role for a novel lincRNA, linc-MYH, in adult fast-type myofiber specialization. Fast myosin heavy chain (MYH) genes and linc-MYH share a common enhancer, located in the fast MYH gene locus and regulated by Six1 homeoproteins. linc-MYH in nuclei of fast-type myofibers prevents slow-type and enhances fast-type gene expression. Functional fast-sarcomeric unit formation is achieved by the coordinate expression of fast MYHs and linc-MYH, under the control of a common Six-bound enhancer.