Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ca2+ release‐induced inactivation of Ca2+ current in rat ventricular myocytes: evidence for local Ca2+ signalling.

1. Inactivation of Ca2+ current (ICa) induced by Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) was studied in single rat ventricular myocytes using whole‐cell patch‐clamp and indo‐1 fluorescence measurement techniques. 2. Depolarizing pulses to 0 mV elicited large Ca2+ transients and ICa with biexponential inactivation kinetics. Varying SR Ca2+ loading by a 20 s pulse of caffeine showed that the fast component of ICa inactivation was dependent on the magnitude of Ca2+ release. 3. Inactivation of ICa induced by Ca2+ release was quantified, independently of voltage and Ca2+ entry, using a function termed fractional inhibition of ICa (FICa). The voltage relation of FICa had a negative slope, resembling that of single‐channel Ca2+ current (iCa) rather than the bell‐shaped current‐voltage (I‐V) relation of macroscopic ICa and Ca2+ transients. 4. Intracellular dialysis of myocytes with 10 mM EGTA (150 nM free [Ca2+]) had no effect on ICa inactivation induced by Ca2+ release, despite abolition of Ca2+ transients and cell contraction. Dialysis with 3 or 10 mM BAPTA (180 nM free [Ca2+]) attenuated FICa in a concentration‐dependent manner, with greater inhibition at positive than at negative potentials, consistent with more effective buffering of Ca2+ microdomains of smaller iCa. 5. Spatial profiles of [Ca2+] near an opened Ca2+ channel were simulated. [Ca2+] reached submillimolar levels at the mouth of the channel, and dropped steeply as radial distance increased. At any given distance from the channel, [Ca2+] was higher at negative than at positive potentials. The radii of Ca2+ microdomains were significantly reduced by 3 or 10 mM BAPTA, but not by 10 mM EGTA. 6. In conclusion, the distinctive voltage dependence and susceptibility of Ca2+ release‐induced ICa inactivation to fast and slow Ca2+ buffers suggests that the process is mediated through local changes of [Ca2+] in the vicinity of closely associated Ca2+ channels and ryanodine receptors.
In vitro evaluation of GR69153, a novel catechol-substituted cephalosporin

GR69153 is a C-7 catechol cephalosporin with a broad spectrum of activity against members of the family Enterobacteriaceae (MICs for 50% of strains tested [MIC50s], 0.008 to 0.5 micrograms/ml), Staphylococcus aureus (MIC50, 4 micrograms/ml), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MIC50, 0.25 micrograms/ml), Haemophilus influenzae (MIC50, 0.03 micrograms/ml), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (MIC50, 0.03 micrograms/ml), and Acinetobacter spp. (MIC50, 2 micrograms/ml). Potent GR69153 activity was also demonstrated against Moraxella catarrhalis, pneumococci, beta-hemolytic streptococci, gram-positive anaerobes, and most species of coagulase-negative staphylococci. The activity of GR69153 was generally two- to fourfold greater than that of ceftazidime. Resistance level GR69153 MICs for 90% of strains tested (greater than or equal to 32 micrograms/ml) were found most often among Citrobacter freundii, Enterobacter spp. and Morganella morganii strains. GR69153 did not significantly inhibit enterococci, Xanthomonas maltophilia, the Bacteroides fragilis group, Corynebacterium jeikeium, or Listeria monocytogenes. GR69153 was bactericidal and was generally beta-lactamase stable, and MICs were only slightly increased by high inoculum concentrations. Activity was enhanced in an iron-deficient medium, and a modest MIC difference attributed to iron availability was noted between standard agar and broth test results. GR69153 was confirmed to be a potent, catechol-substituted cephalosporin with a spectrum slightly wider than that of ceftazidime, but it was less active than cefpirome or imipenem against some gram-positive pathogens and anaerobes.
A study on traversability of quadruped robot in rough terrain

In this work, a study on improving traversability of a quadruped robot in a 3D rough terrain is presented. The interaction between the robot and the terrain is analyzed. The analysis shows that the traversability of the robot can be significantly improved by carefully considering the position and orientation of the robot's body in each step. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified in both simulation and experiment.
Self-Optimization of Spectrum Assignment and Transmission Power in OFDMA Femtocells

This paper presents a framework based on self-organization to jointly self-optimize the spectrum assignment and the transmission power in the context of downlink OFDMA femtocell deployments. It is a distributed framework where each femtocell acts as an autonomous entity. Femtocells perform spectrum and transmission power assignment based on users’ reported measurements, which are employed to sense intercell interference, including that from other femtocells or from macrocells in two-layer deployments. Results have been obtained for a realistic indoor femtocell deployment with and without macrocell interference. The paper shows that, thanks to self-organization, sensible performance improvements can be achieved in terms of spectral efficiency and power consumption reductions.
Arterial tortuosity syndrome.

We describe a patient with arterial tortuosity syndrome (ATS), a rare disorder comprising generalized tortuosity and elongation of all major arteries, soft skin, joint laxity, severe keratoconus, and diffuse tortuosity of the carotids and of intracranial arteries. The patient's probably affected brother and sister died at an early age. Cytochemical studies excluded Ehlers-Danlos type IV and type VII syndromes. We review 11 previously described patients.
The Impact of Hardware Calibration Errors on the Performance of Massive MIMO Systems

Hardware calibration is a necessary procedure to establish the reciprocity of the uplink (UL) and downlink channels (DL) in a time division duplex (TDD) mode of operation. In practice, any calibration scheme is prone to errors. Such errors result in a residual mismatch between UL and DL channels, which, in turn, can significantly affect the quality of DL transmission. In this paper, we study the effects of the hardware calibration errors on the per-user achievable ergodic rate in the DL of a single cell multi-user massive MIMO system. We consider zero-forcing (ZF) precoding under two different scenarios: first we assume that the UL channel state information (CSI) is known perfectly at the BS; we then consider the case where CSI is acquired with minimum mean squared error (MMSE) estimation. We verify the accuracy of our analytical results through numerical simulations.
Bandpass filter with N+1 transmission zeroes using frequency-variant couplings

A bandpass filter topology which can generate N+1 transmission zeroes is presented. These zeroes are created using frequency-variant couplings. A design procedure, derived from the transmission line equivalent circuit, is described and used to evaluate a first approximation of the filter dimensions. The final dimensions are obtained with an optimization routine in order to take into account the frequency variation of the couplings. The e xperimental validation presented shows that the proposed to pology can provide an improved out-of-band rejection compared to conventional filters. The order 3 bandpass filter centered at 10 GHz, with 4 transmission zeroes at 8, 9, 11, and 12 GHz, presents an insertion loss of 1.9 dB for a 500 MHz bandwidth.
Two new targeted alleles for the comprehensive analysis of Meis1 functions in the mouse

Meis1 is a highly conserved transcription factor that is activated in a regionally restricted manner from early stages of development. Meis1 belongs to the three amino acid loop extension (TALE) homeodomain family. Together with Pbx1, Meis1 plays a major role as a Hox cofactor, and therefore, plays an essential role in the development of several embryonic organs and systems, including limbs, heart, blood, and vasculature. In addition, Meis1 is required for the development of Hox‐free embryonic regions and interacts with non‐Hox homeodomain and non‐homeodomain transcription factors. During post‐natal life Meis1 is involved in adult cardiomyocyte homeostasis and has been associated with pre‐disposition to human neural and cardiac pathologies. Given the relevance of this transcription factor, we have developed two new Meis1 gene knockin models; a direct ECFP knockin insertion that allows the direct identification of Meis1‐expressing cells in living tissues, and a CreERT2 insertion that allows the inducible genetic tracing of Meis1‐expressing cells in a time‐controlled manner. Importantly, these two alleles represent the first Meis1 mutations in which Meis1 protein production is completely eliminated. These newly targeted Meis1 alleles will be valuable tools to further our understanding of the role of this critical transcription factor during development and disease. genesis 52:967–975, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Evaluating the Factor Structure of the Psychological Performance Inventory

This study assesses the construct validity of a measure of mental toughness, Loehr's Psychological Performance Inventory. Performers (N = 408, 303 men, 105 women, M age = 24.0 yr., SD = 6.7) drawn from eight sports (artistic roller-skating, basketball, canoeing, golf, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, swimming), and competing at either international, national, county and provincial, or club and regional standards. They completed the 42-item Psychological Performance Inventory during training camps. Principal components analysis provided minimal support for the factor structure. Instead, the exploratory analysis yielded a 4-factor 14-item model (PPIA). A single factor underlying mental toughness (GMT) was identified with higher-order exploratory factor analysis using the Schmid-Leiman procedure. Psychometric analysis of the model, using confirmatory analysis techniques, fitted the data well. Collectively satisfying absolute and incremental fit index benchmarks, the inventory possesses satisfactory psychometric properties, with adequate reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. The results lend preliminary support to the factorial validity and reliability of the model; however, further investigation of its stability is required before recommending practitioners use changes in scores as an index for evaluating effects of training in psychological skills.
8 . 2 CONTROLLED SOURCE ELECTROMAGNETIC SOUNDING OFF THE COAST OF EUREKA CALIFORNIA Will Avera

Controlled electromagnetic (EM) measurements were conducted with a ship-towed electric bipole source and fixed electric and magnetic field sensor units that were deployed on the seafloor in 62 meters of water near Eureka, California. The objective was to determine the electrical properties of the marine sediments to depths greater than 20 meters. The survey site was positioned in a region that had been investigated by numerous shallow geologic/geophysical studies. Data was interpreted for a one-dimensional conductivity structure with an iterative least-square scheme. The electrical properties interpreted from the EM measurements have been compared with the available bottom-towed EM soundings in the area.
Treatment of Temporomandibular joint Ankylosis using modified Myrhaug ` s incision

Ankylosis of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is an intracapsular union of the disk-condyle complex to the temporal articular surface that restricts mandibular movements, including the fibrous adhesions or bony fusion between condyle, disk, glenoid fossa and eminence. The treatment oftemporomandibular joint ankylosis poses a significant challenge because of the high incidence of recurrence.A variety of techniques for its treatment have been described in the literature. However, no single method has produced uniformly successful results. This report presents 5 cases with 3 unilateral posttraumatic and 2 post infection temporomandibular joint ankylosis that showed almost nil mouth opening (1-2mm) along with dental occlusion abnormalities. Gap arthroplasty and contralateral coronoidectomy was performed and passive interincisal mouth opening of at least 36 mm was achieved post surgically. The outcome of treatment was satisfactory in all cases, stating that wide gap arthroplasty if followed by vigorous physiotherapy is sufficient in treating temporomandibular joint ankylosis.
Determination of a selection of anti-epileptic drugs and two active metabolites in whole blood by reversed phase UPLC-MS/MS and some examples of application of the method in forensic toxicology cases.

Quantitative determination of anti-epileptic drug concentrations is of great importance in forensic toxicology cases. Although the drugs are not usually abused, they are important post-mortem cases where the question of both lack of compliance and accidental or deliberate poisoning might be raised. In addition these drugs can be relevant for driving under the influence cases. A reversed phase ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method has been developed for the quantitative analysis of the anti-epileptic compounds carbamazepine, carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide, gabapentin, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, oxcarbazepine, 10-OH-carbazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, pregabalin, and topiramate in whole blood, using 0.1 mL sample volume with methaqualone as internal standard. Sample preparation was a simple protein precipitation with acetonitrile and methanol. The diluted supernatant was directly injected into the chromatographic system. Separation was performed on an Acquity UPLC® BEH Phenyl column with gradient elution and a mildly alkaline mobile phase. The mass spectrometric detection was performed in positive ion mode, except for phenobarbital, and multiple reaction monitoring was used for drug quantification. The limits of quantification for the different anti-epileptic drugs varied from 0.064 to 1.26 mg/L in blood, within-day and day-to-day relative standard deviations from 2.2 to 14.7% except for phenobarbital. Between-day variation for phenobarbital was 20.4% at the concentration level of 3.5 mg/L. The biases for all compounds were within ±17.5%. The recoveries ranged between 85 and 120%. The corrected matrix effects were 88-106% and 84-110% in ante-mortem and post-mortem whole blood samples, respectively.
Discovering discrete subword units with binarized autoencoders and hidden-Markov-model encoders

In this paper we address the problem of unsupervised learning of discrete subword units. Our approach is based on Deep Autoencoders (AEs), whose encoding node values are thresh-olded to subsequently generate a symbolic, i.e., 1-of-K (with K = No. of subwords), representation of each speech frame. We experiment with two variants of the standard AE which we have named Binarized Autoencoder and Hidden-Markov-Model En-coder. The ﬁrst forces the binary encoding nodes to have a U-shaped distribution (with peaks at 0 and 1) while minimizing the reconstruction error. The latter jointly learns the symbolic encoding representation (i.e., subwords) and the prior and transition distribution probabilities of the learned subwords. The ABX evaluation of the Zero Resource Challenge - Track 1 shows that a deep AE with only 6 encoding nodes, which assigns to each frame a 1-of-K binary vector with K = 2 6 , can outperform real-valued MFCC representations in the across-speaker setting. Binarized AEs can outperform standard AEs when using a larger number of encoding nodes, while HMM Encoders may allow more compact subword transcriptions without worsening the ABX performance.
Automatic Magnetic Resonance Tissue Characterization for Three‐Dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain

Computer‐assisted diagnostic systems enhance the mformation available from magnetic resonance imaging. Segmentations are the basis on which three‐dimensional volume renderings are made. The application of a raw data‐based, operator‐Independent (automatic), magnetic resonance segmentation technique for tissue differentiation is demonstrated. Segmentation images of vasogenic edema with gross and histopathological correlation are presented for demonstration of the technique. A pixel was classified mto a tissue class based on a feature vector using unsupervised fuzzy clustering techniques as the pattern recognition method. Correlation of fuzzy segmentations and gross and histopathology were successfully performed. Based on the results of neuropathological correlation, the application of fuzzy magnetic resonance image segmentation to a patient with a brain tumor and extensive edema represents a viable technique for automatically displaying clinically Important tissue differentiation. With this pattern recognition technique, it is possible to generate automatic segmentation images that display diagnostically relevant neuroanatomical and neuropathological tissue contrast information from raw magnetic resonance data for use in three‐dimensional volume reconstructions.
KAI 2-and MAX 2-Mediated Responses to Karrikins and Strigolactones Are Largely Independent of HY 5 in Arabidopsis Seedlings

Karrikins are butenolide compounds released from burning vegetation that stimulate seed germination and enhance seedling photomorphogenesis. Strigolactones are structurally similar plant hormones that regulate shoot and root development, and promote the germination of parasitic weed seeds. In Arabidopsis, the F-box protein MAX2 is required for responses to karrikins and strigolactones, and the α/β hydrolase KAI2 is necessary for responses to karrikins. Both MAX2 and KAI2 are essential for normal light-dependent seedling development. The bZIP transcription factor HY5 acts downstream of multiple photoreceptors and promotes photomorphogenesis, but its relationship with MAX2 and KAI2 in terms of seedling development and responses to karrikins and strigolactones is poorly defined. Here, we demonstrate that HY5 action is genetically separable from that of MAX2 and KAI2. While hy5 mutants have weak hypocotyl elongation responses to karrikins and the artificial strigolactone GR24, they have normal transcriptional responses, suggesting that HY5 is not involved in perception or action of karrikins or strigolactones. Furthermore, we show that overexpression of KAI2 is sufficient to enhance responses to both karrikins and GR24 in wild-type seedlings, and that KAI2 overexpression partially suppresses the hy5 long hypocotyl phenotype. These results suggest that KAI2 and MAX2 define a regulatory pathway that largely operates independently of HY5 to mediate seedling responses to abiotic signals such as smoke and light.
A centralized gene-based HIV-1 vaccine elicits broad cross-clade cellular immune responses in rhesus monkeys

One of the major challenges that must be met in developing an HIV-1 vaccine is devising a strategy to generate cellular immunity with sufficient breadth to deal with the extraordinary genetic diversity of the virus. Amino acids in the envelopes of viruses from the same clade can differ by >15%, and those from different clades can differ by >30%. It has been proposed that creating immunogens using centralized HIV-1 gene sequences might provide a practical solution to this problem. Such centralized genes can be generated by employing a number of different strategies: consensus, ancestral, or center of tree sequences. These computer-generated sequences are a shorter genetic distance from any two contemporary virus sequences than those contemporary sequences are from each other. The present study was initiated to evaluate the breadth of cellular immunity generated through immunization of rhesus monkeys with vaccine constructs expressing either an HIV-1 global consensus envelope sequence (CON-S) or a single patient isolate clade B envelope sequence (clade B). We show that vaccine immunogens expressing the single centralized gene CON-S generated cellular immune responses with significantly increased breadth compared with immunogens expressing a wild-type virus gene. In fact, CON-S immunogens elicited cellular immune responses to 3- to 4-fold more discrete epitopes of the envelope proteins from clades A, C, and G than did clade B immunogens. These findings suggest that immunization with centralized genes is a promising vaccine strategy for developing a global vaccine for HIV-1 as well as vaccines for other genetically diverse viruses.
Learning a Visual State Representation for Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning

Imitation learning is a branch of reinforcement learning that aims to train an agent to imitate an expert’s behaviour, with no explicit reward signal or knowledge of the world. Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning (GAIL) is a recent model that performs this very well, in a data-efficient manner. However, it has only been used with low-level, low-dimensional state information, with few results on visual input. This work aims to expand the applicability of GAIL by enabling it to use visual input. To do this, we add a convolutional neural network to GAIL that learns a vector representation of images. We train the entire model on randomly-generated 2D “Grid World” environments with optimal experts. Further, we uncover that GAIL succumbs to the “DAgger problem” and analyze ways to overcome it.
The Impact of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome on Gestational Diabetes

When Stein and Leventhal, in 1935, observed a group of women who suffered from sterility, oligomenorrhoea, or amenorhhoea, hirsutism, and enlarged polycystic ovaries, the disorder that became known as the polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) or the Stein-Leventhal syndrome, was diagnosed for the first time (Stein, 1958). The variability of individual presentation, as well as a varying collection of signs and characteristic features, with no single diagnostic test justify the categorization of the PCOS as a syndrome that affects not only reproductive health, but also the metabolic and cardiovascular systems. Although PCOS is one of the most common endocrinopathies in women, with an incidence of about 510% throughout the reproductive age span (Metalliotakis, 2006), there are divergent opinions about how to define and diagnose PCOS, as well as different types of treatment options throughout Europe and the US (Badawy & Elnashar, 2011). The high prevalence of women with this endocrine disorder highlights the importance of understanding the clinical presentation, pathophysiology, associated disorders, and treatment options. Up to 40% of women of reproductive age with PCOS have Type 2 diabetes or an impaired glucose tolerance (Legro et al., 2005), a form of insulin resistance that occurs equally in obese, normal weight, and thin women with PCOS (Matalliotakis et al., 2006). PCOS has been associated with an increased risk for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but solid evidence confirming PCOS as a risk factor for GDM is still missing (Toulis et al., 2009). GDM, a wellknown state of carbohydrate intolerance with a high, and rising, prevalence, causes not only maternal but also fetal pregnancy complications. GDM has a presentation similar to PCOS, and both are considered risk factors for Type 2 diabetes mellitus (Retnakaran et al., 2008). The aim of this review is to summarize the available evidence about the risk of impaired glucose tolerance and GDM in PCOS women, as well as to review the pathophysiological aspects. In addition, the potential beneficial influence of several PCOS-specific treatment options on PCOS and GDM will be discussed.