Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Defense of Elevated Body Weight Setpoint in Diet-Induced Obese Rats on Low Energy Diet Is Mediated by Loss of Melanocortin Sensitivity in the Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus

Some animals and humans fed a high-energy diet (HED) are diet-resistant (DR), remaining as lean as individuals who were naïve to HED. Other individuals become obese during HED exposure and subsequently defend the obese weight (Diet-Induced Obesity- Defenders, DIO-D) even when subsequently maintained on a low-energy diet. We hypothesized that the body weight setpoint of the DIO-D phenotype resides in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), where anorexigenic melanocortins, including melanotan II (MTII), increase presynaptic GABA release, and the orexigenic neuropeptide Y (NPY) inhibits it. After prolonged return to low-energy diet, GABA inputs to PVN neurons from DIO-D rats exhibited highly attenuated responses to MTII compared with those from DR and HED-naïve rats. In DIO-D rats, melanocortin-4 receptor expression was significantly reduced in dorsomedial hypothalamus, a major source of GABA input to PVN. Unlike melanocortin responses, NPY actions in PVN of DIO-D rats were unchanged, but were reduced in neurons of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus; in PVN of DR rats, NPY responses were paradoxically increased. MTII-sensitivity was restored in DIO-D rats by several weeks’ refeeding with HED. The loss of melanocortin sensitivity restricted to PVN of DIO-D animals, and its restoration upon prolonged refeeding with HED suggest that their melanocortin systems retain the ability to up- and downregulate around their elevated body weight setpoint in response to longer-term changes in dietary energy density. These properties are consistent with a mechanism of body weight setpoint.
Modeling and characterization of through-the-thickness properties of 3D woven composites

The through-the-thickness properties of three-dimensionally (3D) woven carbon/epoxy composites have been studied. The investigation aimed at the evaluation and development of test methodologies for the property characterization in the thickness direction, and the establishment of fiber architectures were studied: layer-to-layer Angle Interlock, through-the-thickness Orthogonal woven preform with surface pile was also designed and manufactured for the fabrication of tensile test coupons with integrated grips. All the preforms were infiltrated by the resin transfer molding technique. The microstructures of the composites were characterized along the warp and fill (weft) directions to determine the degree of yarn undulations, yarn cross-sectional shapes, and microstructural dimensions. These parameters were correlated to the fiber architecture. Specimens were designed and tested for the direct measurement of the through-the-thickness tensile, compressive and shear properties of the composites. Design optimization was conducted through the analysis of the stress fields within the specimen coupled with experimental verification. The experimentally-derived elastic properties in the thickness direction compared well with analytical predictions obtained from a volume averaging model.
A Novel Framework for Extracting Visual Feature-Based Keyword Relationships from an Image Database

SUMMARY In this paper, a novel framework for extracting visual feature-based keyword relationships from an image database is proposed. From the characteristic that a set of relevant keywords tends to have common visual features, the keyword relationships in a target image database are extracted by using the following two steps. First, the relationship be-tween each keyword and its corresponding visual features is modeled by using a classiﬁer. This step enables detection of visual features related to each keyword. In the second step, the keyword relationships are extracted from the obtained results. Speciﬁcally, in order to measure the relevance between two keywords, the proposed method removes visual features re-lated to one keyword from training images and monitors the performance of the classiﬁer obtained for the other keyword. This measurement is the biggest di ﬀ erence from other conventional methods that focus on only key-word co-occurrences or visual similarities. Results of experiments conducted using an image database showed the e ﬀ ectiveness of the proposed method.
Poster: modeling the performance of routing in heterogeneous delay-tolerant networks

This paper investigates the heterogeneity of delay-tolerate networks (DTNs) by considering that among regular nodes some infostations are equipped with large-capacity buffer and connected by high-speed links to form an infostation system. We analytically model epidemic routing behavior of such DTNs using extended Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered model. Specifically, closed expressions for the number of infectious nodes with varying time, Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of packet delivery delay and CDF of infostations infected time are derived. Based on extensive numerical results, the impact of transmission range and inforstation number on the network performance is revealed.
What is the impact of Silicon Carbide nanoparticles to the mineral composition of rat lungs? A PIXE-μPIXE comparative study

The exposure to nanomaterials can yield changes in the mineral composition of tissues which may have long term health repercussions. In this study, the changes in mineral composition of rat lungs, exposed to a nanoaerosol of silicon carbide (SiC), has been studied by means of global and local ion beam probes with the Particle-Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) technique, measuring the whole lung contents and selected areas where SiC was found, respectively. It was found that from a global perspective there is a small decrease in the mineral contents (phosphorous, sulphur, chlorine and potassium) of the lung except for Ca, while locally these mineral contents tend fluctuate.
Nonlinear dynamic buckling of laminated angle-ply composite spherical caps

This paper deals with nonlinear asymmetric dynamic buckling of clamped laminated angle-ply composite spherical shells under suddenly applied pressure loads. The formulation is based on first-order shear deformation theory and Lagrange`s equation of motion. The nonlinearity due to finite deformation of the shell considering von Karman`s assumptions is included in the formulation. The buckling loads are obtained through dynamic response history using Newmark`s numerical integration scheme coupled with a Newton-Raphson iteration technique. An axisymmetric curved shell element is used to investigate the dynamic characteristics of the spherical caps. The pressure value beyond which the maximum average displacement response shows significant growth rate in the time history of the shell structure is considered as critical dynamic load. Detailed numerical results are presented to highlight the influence of ply-angle, shell geometric parameter and asymmetric mode on the critical load of spherical caps.
Approximate modified policy iteration and its application to the game of Tetris

Modified policy iteration (MPI) is a dynamic programming (DP) algorithm that contains the two celebrated policy and value iteration methods. Despite its generality, MPI has not been thoroughly studied, especially its approximation form which is used when the state and/or action spaces are large or infinite. In this paper, we propose three implementations of approximate MPI (AMPI) that are extensions of the well-known approximate DP algorithms: fitted-value iteration, fitted-Q iteration, and classification-based policy iteration. We provide error propagation analysis that unify those for approximate policy and value iteration. We develop the finite-sample analysis of these algorithms, which highlights the influence of their parameters. In the classification-based version of the algorithm (CBMPI), the analysis shows that MPI's main parameter controls the balance between the estimation error of the classifier and the overall value function approximation. We illustrate and evaluate the behavior of these new algorithms in the Mountain Car and Tetris problems. Remarkably, in Tetris, CBMPI outperforms the existing DP approaches by a large margin, and competes with the current state-of-the-art methods while using fewer samples.
COMPARISON STUDY ON NP-HARD PROBLEM BASED DIGITAL SIGNATURE SCHEMES

This paper shows the development in public-key digital signature schemes which are actually based on non deterministic polynomial mathematical hard problems (NP-Hard). In general, most of the currently used digital signature cryptosystems are computationally expensive with relatively lengthy key requirement due to the dependency on the number theory. Therefore, it’s important to study the performance of the most used digital signature schemes which are based on different mathematical hard problems that are, in some sense, difficult to solve. In the surveyed schemes, we present the powerful and practical of some public-key schemes depending on its security level and execution time. Keywords—Cryptography, Digital Signature, Hard Problem, and Public-key.
Non Iterative Hopfield Model

The Hopfield model has problems in the recall phase, one of them it's the time convergence or non convergence in certain cases. We propose a model that eliminates iteration in Hopfield model. This modification in the recall phase, eliminates the iterations and for consequence takes fewer steps, after them, the recuperation of N patterns learned it's the same or little better than Hopfield model. Finally because iteration is eliminated the recuperation time is reduced too
Perifosine, a novel alkylphospholipid, inhibits protein kinase B activation.

Perifosine is a novel p.o. bioavailable alkylphospholipid. Perifosine has displayed significant antiproliferative activity in vitro and in vivo in several human tumor model systems and has recently entered phase I clinical trials. Recent studies have identified that perifosine could cause cell cycle arrest with induction of p21(WAF1/CIP1) in a p53-independent fashion; however, the basis for that effect is not known. Structurally, perifosine resembles naturally occurring phospholipids. Therefore, we hypothesized that perifosine might perturb pathways related to phospholipids modulated by growth factor action. We demonstrate here that perifosine causes dose-dependent inhibition of protein kinase B/Akt phosphorylation and thus activation at concentrations causing growth inhibition of PC-3 prostate carcinoma cells. Only the myristoylated form of Akt (MYR-Akt), which bypasses the requirement for pleckstrin homology (PH) domain-mediated membrane recruitment, abrogated perifosine-mediated decrease of Akt phosphorylation and cell growth inhibition by perifosine. We demonstrate further that perifosine decreases the plasma membrane localization of Akt, and this is substantially relieved by MYR-Akt along with relief of downstream drug effect on induction of p21(WAF1/CIP1). Perifosine does not directly affect phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1, or Akt activity at concentrations inhibiting Akt phosphorylation and membrane localization. Our results demonstrate that Akt is an important cellular target of perifosine action. In addition, these studies show that the membrane translocation of certain PH domain-containing molecules can be greatly perturbed by the alkylphospholipid class of drugs and imply further that the PI3K/Akt pathway contributes to regulation of p21(WAF1/CIP1) expression.
DISTRIBUTION OF TIRE CONTACT PRESSURE OF VEHICLES AND ITS INFLUENCE ON PAVEMENT DISTRESS

This study places an emphasis on precise measurement of distribution of tire contact pressures. Komatsu Corporation has developed a new device using piezoelectric ceramic sensors, which measure weight distribution within a contact area of a tire in motion. From the measured data at all the pixels, distribution of contact pressure and its average value can be obtained. The measurement was performed in summer in Tsukuba, Japan, varying tire type, traveling speed, air pressure, and wheel load. Based on the measured data, effect of the difference between the modeled uniform and the actual distributed pressures on the pavement distress, especially fatigue cracking, is discussed, employing the multilayered elasticity theory and energy dissipation theory for prediction of the initiation of cracking.
Statistical Comparison of Modelling Methods for Software Maintainability Prediction

The objective of this paper is statistical comparison of modelling methods for software maintainability prediction. The statistical comparison is performed by building software maintainability prediction models using 27 different regression and machine learning based algorithms. For this purpose, software metrics datasets of two different commercial object-oriented systems are used. These systems were developed using an object oriented programming language Ada. These systems are User Interface Management System (UIMS) and Quality Evaluation System (QUES). It is shown that different measures like MMRE, RMSE, Pred(0.25) and Pred(0.30) calculated on predicted values obtained from leave one out (LOO) cross validation produce very divergent results regarding accuracy of modelling methods. Therefore the 27 modelling methods are evaluated on the basis of statistical significance tests. The Friedman test is used to rank various modelling methods in terms of absolute residual error. Six out of the ten top ranked modelling methods are common to both UIMS and QUES. This indicates that modelling methods for software maintainability predicton are solid and scalable. After obtaining ranks, pair wise Wilcoxon Signed rank test is performed. Wilcoxon Sign rank test indicates that the top ranking method in UIMS data set is significantly superior to only four other modelling methods whereas the top tanking method in QUES data set is significantly superior to 11 other modelling methods. The performance of instance based learning algorithms — IBk and Kstar is comparable to modelling methods used in earlier studies.
Melanin Externalization in Candida albicans Depends on Cell Wall Chitin Structures

ABSTRACT The fungal pathogen Candida albicans produces dark-pigmented melanin after 3 to 4 days of incubation in medium containing l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-DOPA) as a substrate. Expression profiling of C. albicans revealed very few genes significantly up- or downregulated by growth in l-DOPA. We were unable to determine a possible role for melanin in the virulence of C. albicans. However, we showed that melanin was externalized from the fungal cells in the form of electron-dense melanosomes that were free or often loosely bound to the cell wall exterior. Melanin production was boosted by the addition of N-acetylglucosamine to the medium, indicating a possible association between melanin production and chitin synthesis. Melanin externalization was blocked in a mutant specifically disrupted in the chitin synthase-encoding gene CHS2. Melanosomes remained within the outermost cell wall layers in chs3Δ and chs2Δ chs3Δ mutants but were fully externalized in chs8Δ and chs2Δ chs8Δ mutants. All the CHS mutants synthesized dark pigment at equivalent rates from mixed membrane fractions in vitro, suggesting it was the form of chitin structure produced by the enzymes, not the enzymes themselves, that was involved in the melanin externalization process. Mutants with single and double disruptions of the chitinase genes CHT2 and CHT3 and the chitin pathway regulator ECM33 also showed impaired melanin externalization. We hypothesize that the chitin product of Chs3 forms a scaffold essential for normal externalization of melanosomes, while the Chs8 chitin product, probably produced in cell walls in greater quantity in the absence of CHS2, impedes externalization.
Using long-term information to improve robustness in Speaker Identification

In this paper we propose two new methods of improving the robustness of Automatic Speaker Identification systems. These methods rely on using long-term information in the speech signal to improve the robustness of the features. The first method involves averaging filterbank parameters from consecutive short-time frames over a longer window. The second method investigates the use of frame lengths longer than generally assumed stationary. We show that these two methods result in an improvement over standard Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise in speaker identification applications. Furthermore, additional improvements are observed at mid-range SNR when the proposed methods are used in combination.
Identifying Early Changes in Myocardial Microstructure in Hypertensive Heart Disease

The transition from healthy myocardium to hypertensive heart disease is characterized by a series of poorly understood changes in myocardial tissue microstructure. Incremental alterations in the orientation and integrity of myocardial fibers can be assessed using advanced ultrasonic image analysis. We used a modified algorithm to investigate left ventricular myocardial microstructure based on analysis of the reflection intensity at the myocardial-pericardial interface on B-mode echocardiographic images. We evaluated the extent to which the novel algorithm can differentiate between normal myocardium and hypertensive heart disease in humans as well as in a mouse model of afterload resistance. The algorithm significantly differentiated between individuals with uncomplicated essential hypertension (N = 30) and healthy controls (N = 28), even after adjusting for age and sex (P = 0.025). There was a trend in higher relative wall thickness in hypertensive individuals compared to controls (P = 0.08), but no difference between groups in left ventricular mass (P = 0.98) or total wall thickness (P = 0.37). In mice, algorithm measurements (P = 0.026) compared with left ventricular mass (P = 0.053) more clearly differentiated between animal groups that underwent fixed aortic banding, temporary aortic banding, or sham procedure, on echocardiography at 7 weeks after surgery. Based on sonographic signal intensity analysis, a novel imaging algorithm provides an accessible, non-invasive measure that appears to differentiate normal left ventricular microstructure from myocardium exposed to chronic afterload stress. The algorithm may represent a particularly sensitive measure of the myocardial changes that occur early in the course of disease progression.
Detection of image alterations using semifragile watermarks

Digital watermarking research has generally focused upon two classes of watermarks, fragile and robust. Robust watermarks are designed to be detected even after attempts are made to remove them. Fragile watermarks are used for authentication purposes and are capable of detecting even minute changes of the watermarked content. Unfortunately, neither type of watermark is ideal when considering 'information preserving' transformations (such as compression) which preserve the meaning or expression of the content and 'information altering' transformations (such as feature replacement) which change the expression of the content. In this paper we describe a semi-fragile watermark for still images that can detect information altering transformations even after the watermarked content is subjected to information preserving alterations.
Modeling of Deformation Processes in Semicrystalline Polymers with Allowance for the Glass Transition in the Amorphous Phase

The characteristics of the moving striation in a fluorescent lamp are investigated as a function of operating frequency, discharge current, gas species and so on. The moving striation is formed in Ar gas discharge as well as in Ar-Hg mixture gas. The interval between each ball of striation is nearly constant against operating frequency, discharge current and wall temperature of the tube. The moving manner of the striation is mainly governed by operating frequency and the stationary striation is observed at around 2 kHz. When DC bias is added to AC discharge current, the movement of striation is strongly influenced by the DC bias. Comet-like shape is observed and it moves from anode to cathode direction with velocity of 80 m/s in the case of DC operation. In the case of AC operation, a comet-like striation found in DC operation only exists and its moving direction is always from anode to cathode during AC half cycle period. Three types of the moving striation shape observed by eyes are formed by the relationship of the vibration width of the comet to the distance between adjacent striation balls.
Author ' s personal copy A classification of the Chloridoideae ( Poaceae ) based on multigene phylogenetic trees

We conducted a molecular phylogenetic study of the subfamily Chloridoideae using six plastid DNA sequences (ndhA intron, ndhF, rps16-trnK, rps16 intron, rps3, and rpl32-trnL) and a single nuclear ITS DNA sequence. Our large original data set includes 246 species (17.3%) representing 95 genera (66%) of the grasses currently placed in the Chloridoideae. The maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis of DNA sequences provides strong support for the monophyly of the Chloridoideae; followed by, in order of divergence: a Triraphideae clade with Neyraudia sister to Triraphis; an Eragrostideae clade with the Cotteinae (includes Cottea and Enneapogon) sister to the Uniolinae (includes Entoplocamia, Tetrachne, and Uniola), and a terminal Eragrostidinae clade of Ectrosia, Harpachne, and Psammagrostis embedded in a polyphyletic Eragrostis; a Zoysieae clade with Urochondra sister to a Zoysiinae (Zoysia) clade, and a terminal Sporobolinae clade that includes Spartina, Calamovilfa, Pogoneura, and Crypsis embedded in a polyphyletic Sporobolus; and a very large terminal Cynodonteae clade that includes 13 monophyletic subtribes. The Cynodonteae includes, in alphabetical order: Aeluropodinae (Aeluropus); Boutelouinae (Bouteloua); Eleusininae (includes Apochiton, Astrebla with Schoenefeldia embedded, Austrochloris, Brachyachne, Chloris, Cynodon with Brachyachne embedded in part, Eleusine, Enteropogon with Eustachys embedded in part, Eustachys, Chrysochloa, Coelachyrum, Leptochloa with Dinebra embedded, Lepturus, Lintonia, Microchloa, Saugetia, Schoenefeldia, Sclerodactylon, Tetrapogon, and Trichloris); Hilariinae (Hilaria); Monanthochloinae (includes Distichlis, Monanthochloe, and Reederochloa); Muhlenbergiinae (Muhlenbergia with Aegopogon, Bealia, Blepharoneuron, Chaboissaea, Lycurus, Pereilema, Redfieldia, Schaffnerella, and Schedonnardus all embedded); Orcuttiinae (includes Orcuttia and Tuctoria); Pappophorinae (includes Neesiochloa and Pappophorum); Scleropogoninae (includes Blepharidachne, Dasyochloa, Erioneuron, Munroa, Scleropogon, and Swallenia); Traginae (Tragus with Monelytrum, Polevansia, and Willkommia all embedded); Tridentinae (includes Gouinia, Tridens, Triplasis, and Vaseyochloa); Triodiinae (Triodia); and the Tripogoninae (Melanocenchris and Tripogon with Eragrostiella embedded). In our study the Cynodonteae still include 19 genera and the Zoysieae include a single genus that are not yet placed in a subtribe. The tribe Triraphideae and the subtribe Aeluropodinae are newly treated at that rank. We propose a new tribal and subtribal classification for all known genera in the Chloridoideae. The subfamily might have originated in Africa and/or Asia since the basal lineage, the Triraphideae, includes species with African and