Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tbx18 Regulates the Differentiation of Periductal Smooth Muscle Stroma and the Maintenance of Epithelial Integrity in the Prostate

The T-box transcription factor TBX18 is essential to mesenchymal cell differentiation in several tissues and Tbx18 loss-of-function results in dramatic organ malformations and perinatal lethality. Here we demonstrate for the first time that Tbx18 is required for the normal development of periductal smooth muscle stromal cells in prostate, particularly in the anterior lobe, with a clear impact on prostate health in adult mice. Prostate abnormalities are only subtly apparent in Tbx18 mutants at birth; to examine postnatal prostate development we utilized a relatively long-lived hypomorphic mutant and a novel conditional Tbx18 allele. Similar to the ureter, cells that fail to express Tbx18 do not condense normally into smooth muscle cells of the periductal prostatic stroma. However, in contrast to ureter, the periductal stromal cells in mutant prostate assume a hypertrophic, myofibroblastic state and the adjacent epithelium becomes grossly disorganized. To identify molecular events preceding the onset of this pathology, we compared gene expression in the urogenital sinus (UGS), from which the prostate develops, in Tbx18-null and wild type littermates at two embryonic stages. Genes that regulate cell proliferation, smooth muscle differentiation, prostate epithelium development, and inflammatory response were significantly dysregulated in the mutant urogenital sinus around the time that Tbx18 is first expressed in the wild type UGS, suggesting a direct role in regulating those genes. Together, these results argue that Tbx18 is essential to the differentiation and maintenance of the prostate periurethral mesenchyme and that it indirectly regulates epithelial differentiation through control of stromal-epithelial signaling.
Focal ischemic reperfusion stroke model in rats and the role of galanin

Injury to neurons results in upregulation of galanin in some central and peripheral systems, and it has been suggested that this neuropeptide may play a protective and trophic role, primarily mediated by galanin receptor 2 (GalR2). The objective of the present study was to investigate galanin, GalR1, GalR2 and GalR3 gene expression in the female rat brain seven days after a 60-min unilateral occlusion of the middle cerebral artery followed by reperfusion. Quantitative real-time PCR was employed in punch-biopsies from the locus coeruleus, somatosensory cortex and dorsal hippocampal formation including sham-operated rats as controls. Galanin gene expression showed a ~2.5-fold increase and GalR1 a ~1.5-fold increase in the locus coeruleus of the ischemic hemisphere compared to the control side. Furthermore, the GalR1 mRNA levels decreased by 35% in the cortex of the ischemic hemisphere. The present results indicate that a stroke-induced forebrain lesion upregulates synthesis of galanin and GalR1 in the locus coeruleus, a noradrenergic cell group projecting to many forebrain areas, including cortex and the hippocampal formation. These results support the notion that galanin may play a role in the response of the central nervous system to injury and have trophic eff ects.
SGPlan: Subgoal Partitioning and Resolution in Planning

We have developed SGPlan, a planner that competes in the Fourth International Planning Competition. SGPlan partitions a large planning problem into subproblems, each with its own subgoal, and resolves inconsistent solutions of subgoals using our extended saddle-point condition. Subgoal partitioning is effective because each partitioned subproblem involves a substantially smaller search space than that of the original problem. We have developed methods for the detection of reasonable orders among subgoals, an intermediate goalagenda analysis to hierarchically decompose each subproblem, a search-space-reduction algorithm to eliminate irrelevant actions in subproblems, and a strategy to call the best planner to solve each bottom-level subproblem. Currently, SGPlan supports PDDL2.1 and derived predicates, and algorithms for supporting time initiated facts and ADL are under development. OVERALL ARCHITECTURE By formulating a subproblem in such a way that each has one goal state, SGPlan partitions a planning problem into subproblems, orders the subproblems according to a sequential resolution of its subgoals, and finds a feasible plan for each goal fact. Using the extended saddle-point condition and constrained search, new constraints are enforced to ensure that facts and assignments in a later subgoal are consistent with those of earlier subgoals. Figure 1 shows the architecture of our planner. In the global level, we select a suitable order for the planner to solve the partitioned subgoals, introduce artificial global constraints to enforce that the solution of one subgoal solved later does not invalidate that of an earlier subgoal, and resolve violated global constraints using the theory of extended saddle points. In the local level, we perform a hierarchical decomposition of first-level ∗Research supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NCC 2-1230 the National Science Foundation Grant ITR 03-12084. Copyright c © 2004, American Association for Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved. Metric-FF Techniques Studied G lo ba lL ev el Pl an ni ng Su bg oa lL ev el Pl an ni ng Lagrange Multiplier Evaluation Plan Global Constraints on Subgoals Update Strategy LPG PN,1 PN,CN P1,C1 P1,1 GN G2 G1
Methacholine challenge in preschool children: methacholine-induced wheeze versus transcutaneous oximetry.

Tracheal/chest auscultation for wheeze and transcutaneous oximetry have both been suggested as measures of outcome in bronchial provocation tests in young children. This study aimed to compare the sensitivity and safety of these two techniques as end-points for methacholine challenge in children aged <4 yrs. Seventy-two methacholine challenges were performed in 39 children aged <4 yrs with recurrent wheeze. Arterial oxygen saturation (Sa,O2) and transcutaneous oxygen pressure tcPO2 continuously, and the test was terminated when wheeze was heard or at Sa,O2 <91%. tcPO2 was not used as an end-point. Wheeze or desaturation occurred at < or =8 mg x mL(-1) methacholine in every test. One child had transient clinical cyanosis, but no other ill-effects were seen. Fifty-six tests (78%) were terminated for wheeze, seven (10%) for fall in Sa,O2 and nine (12%) showed simultaneous responses in both parameters. Twenty-eight tests (39%) contained a fall in tcPO2 >3 kPa but six of these also showed a significant rise. Fifty-three tests (75%) contained a fall in tcPO2 >15%, but 20 of these also showed a significant rise. Tracheal/chest auscultation with Sa,O2 monitoring is a sensitive and relatively safe end-point for bronchial challenges in preschool children. The erratic pattern of transcutaneous oxygen pressure response in some children casts doubt on its reliability as a proxy measure of bronchial obstruction.
Group Key Management Using Device ID in Ad-hoc Network

An arbitrary mobile device configures Ad-hoc network to provide the transmission of a data and services using wireless communications. A mobile device requires authentication and encryption key management to securely communicate in the Adhoc network. This paper examines the trend of the authentication in the Ad-hoc network and the group key management and suggests the method for ID-based mutual authentication and group key establishment. ID-based mutual authentication in proposed scheme uses zero knowledge in the absence of shared information and is applied to establish a session key and group key. In addition, the proposed scheme is applied to Ad-hoc network to increase the efficiency and security. KeywordsGroup key management; authentication; zero knowledge; Ad-hoc network
The AGC Kinase Inhibitor H89 Attenuates Airway Inflammation in Mouse Models of Asthma

Background H89 is a potent inhibitor of Protein Kinase A (PKA) and Mitogen- and Stress-Activated protein Kinase 1 (MSK1) with some inhibitory activity on other members of the AGC kinase family. H89 has been extensively used in vitro but its anti-inflammatory potential in vivo has not been reported to date. To assess the anti-inflammatory properties of H89 in mouse models of asthma. Methodology/Principal Findings Mice were sensitized intraperitoneally (i.p.) to ovalbumin (OVA) with or without alum, and challenged intranasally with OVA. H89 (10 mg/kg) or vehicle was given i.p. two hours before each OVA challenge. Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) was assessed by whole-body barometric plethysmography. Inflammation was assessed by the total and differential cell counts and IL-4 and IL-5 levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. Lung inflammation, mucus production and mast cell numbers were analyzed after histochemistry. We show that treatment with H89 reduces AHR, lung inflammation, mast cell numbers and mucus production. H89 also inhibits IL-4 and IL-5 production and infiltration of eosinophils, neutrophils and lymphocytes in BAL fluid. Conclusions/Significance Taken together, our findings implicate that blockade of AGC kinases may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of allergic airway inflammation.
A new understanding and improvements of finite set model predictive control in inverter applications

This paper proposes a new interpretation of Finite Set Model Predictive Control (FS-MPC) for inverters. This interpretation gives insights into the existing limitations of FS-MPC and suggests mitigation strategies. Consequently, significant improvements of FS-MPC performance are achieved, including elimination of steady state error, improved harmonic spectrum, reduced control delays, etc. The proposed new MPC interpretation also establishes relationships between various control schemes, including FS-MPC and PWM-MPC, FS-MPC and MPC with integral action, etc. Additionally, the paper proposes further embellishments to FS-MPC based on its more efficient and accurate implementation. The findings of the paper are supported by simulations and experimental results.
Profiling bell's palsy based on House-Brackmann score

In this study, we propose to examine facial nerve palsy using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Emergent Self-Organizing Map (ESOM). This research seeks to analyze facial palsy domain using facial features and grade the degree of nerve damage according to House-Brackmann score. Traditional evaluation methods involve a medical doctor taking a thorough history of a patient and determines the onset of the paralysis, the rate of progression and etc. The most important step is to assess the degree of voluntary movement present and document the grade of facial paralysis using House-Brackmann score. The significance of this work is that we attempt to apprehend this grading using semi-supervised learning with the aim of automating this grading process. The value of this research stems from the fact that there is a lack of literature seen in this area. The use of automated grading system greatly reduces assessment time and increases consistency because references of all palsy images are stored to provide references and comparison. The proposed automated diagnostics methods are computationally efficient making them ideal for remote assessment of facial palsy, profiling of a large number of facial images captured using mobile phones and digital cameras.
Number 1918 The Variable Value Environment : Auctions and Actions By Michael Schwarz and

This paper introduces and formally models the variable value environment and proposes an auction mechanism appropriate for it. In the variable value environment, bidders’ private values may change over time as a result of both private actions and exogenous shocks. Examples of private actions and exogenous shocks are complementary investments and exogenous changes in bidder's business, respectively. We consider a three-period model of the variable value environment where agents receive signals about their values in the first and the third periods and in the second period they take actions. This setting captures essential features of auctions of objects available for use at a future date (e.g., a sale of a military base scheduled to close in a few years). We study mechanisms that lead to efficient allocations, i.e. those in which the final value of the object to the winning bidder net of the total cost of private actions undertaken by all agents is maximized. We characterize the first best allocation, and propose a mechanism that yields the first best allocation in equilibrium. This mechanism has an inefficient pooling equilibrium along with an efficient separating equilibrium. To rule out the pooling equilibrium, we introduce a class of ε-efficient mechanisms that force players to coordinate on the separating equilibrium. We prove that one can always choose an εefficient mechanism that yields an efficient allocation with probability arbitrarily close to one. ∗ Comments are welcome. We are grateful to Drew Fudenberg, Paul Milgrom, Eric Rasmusen, Eric Stout, Robert Townsend, and seminar participants at Harvard/MIT and Columbia for helpful comments. Department of Economics, Harvard University, e-mail; mschwarz@fas.harvard. edu. " Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University, e-mail: ksonin@fas.harvard. edu.
An object tracking algorithm combining spatial structure and motion continuity

To deal with the tracking drift problems caused by drastic object appearance change in complex scene, the paper proposes a robust tracking algorithm based on the sparse representation. It designs an optimized objective function with the spatial structure constraint. And then, with the Lagrange multiplier theory and accelerate proximal gradient approach, the coefficient of object template and candidate with the spatial information is obtained. In addition, the histogram intersection theory is exploited to computer the similarity between candidate and template. Finally, the template update scheme about when to manage updating and how to realize the strategy is presented, which combines the spatial structure information together with motion continuity and enables to tackle appearance change effectively. Experimental results on challenging benchmark datasets demonstrate that the novel algorithm performs favorable against several state-of-the-art methods.
Continuous curvature planning with obstacle avoidance capabilities in urban scenarios

This paper presents a continuous curvature planning algorithm with obstacle avoidance capabilities. The automated system generates a collision free path that considers vehicle's constraints, the road and different obstacles inside the horizon of view. The developed planning module was integrated in the RITS (former IMARA) autonomous vehicle architecture. The goal of this module is to obtain an accurate, continuous and safe path generation, by implementing parametric curves. To this end, a continuous curvature profile when calculating vehicle trajectory is introduced. It also permits to generate different speed profiles, improving the comfort by reducing lateral accelerations in the driving process. These algorithms have been implemented in simulated -ProSiVIC- and real platforms -Cybercars- showing good results in both cases. This approach is currently being implemented in the framework of the EU CityMobil2 project.
A New Approach to the Specification of General Computer Security Policies

The notion of Computer Policy is fundamental to the study of computer security models, the analysis of computer vulnerabilities, the development of intrusion detection tools, and the development of misuse detection tools. Security only makes sense in relation to security policies that specify what is being protected, how it must be protected, who has access to what is being protected, etc. Policies are, however, difficult to write, normally ambiguous, and difficult to understand. Existing policy specification models are not suitable for most commercial off the shelf (COTS) systems. The source code for the system may not be available, they operate under constantly changing environments, and the policy requirements may change frequently. Also existing policy models do not capture the temporal characteristics of many real-world computer security policies. In this paper we present a functional approach to the specification of policies that allows their stepwise refinement, such that at higher levels we deal with abstractions and at lower levels with details. This approach takes advantage of the natural hierarchical organization of computer systems. We show that the this approach can represent the most common policy models and practical real-world policies that are difficult to represent with existing models.
Scalable GPU graph traversal

Breadth-first search (BFS) is a core primitive for graph traversal and a basis for many higher-level graph analysis algorithms. It is also representative of a class of parallel computations whose memory accesses and work distribution are both irregular and data-dependent. Recent work has demonstrated the plausibility of GPU sparse graph traversal, but has tended to focus on asymptotically inefficient algorithms that perform poorly on graphs with non-trivial diameter. We present a BFS parallelization focused on fine-grained task management constructed from efficient prefix sum that achieves an asymptotically optimal O(|V|+|E|) work complexity. Our implementation delivers excellent performance on diverse graphs, achieving traversal rates in excess of 3.3 billion and 8.3 billion traversed edges per second using single and quad-GPU configurations, respectively. This level of performance is several times faster than state-of-the-art implementations both CPU and GPU platforms.
The pattern-pulse multifocal visual evoked potential.

PURPOSE To define the pattern-pulse multifocal visual evoked potential (PPMVEP) and determine its characteristics in a sample of normal subjects in terms of amplitude of response attainable, the variation in waveform across visual field, and distribution of potential over the scalp and to compare pattern-pulse with contrast-reversal multifocal stimuli. METHODS VEPs were obtained by concurrently stimulating 60 regions of a cortically scaled dartboard with pulses of pattern contrast. Responses were recorded from normal subjects, by using a 32-channel electroencephalogram recording system, and elementary responses to each region were estimated by multiple regression of each of the response channel signals on stimulus signals. Left-eye, right-eye, and binocular viewing conditions were concurrently tested by dichoptic stimulation. A direct comparison was then made with contrast-reversal stimulation. RESULTS Response waveform sets for 12 subjects varied in maximum amplitude from 1.8 to 6.8 micro V. A stereotypical distribution of waveforms held in most subjects, depending primarily on the polar angle location of the stimulus within the visual field. In a direct comparison with a contrast-reversal multifocal analysis, the pattern-pulse responses had similar waveforms and scalp topography, but were 15 times larger in amplitude. Root mean square (RMS) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was 1.9 times higher with pattern-pulse stimulation, corresponding to a reduction of 73% in recording time to achieve the same SNR. CONCLUSIONS The PPMVEP can simultaneously characterize 60 regions of the visual field for both eyes in less than 7 minutes. A general methodology is illustrated that allows multifocal analysis with flexible choice of stimulus conditions.
Regulation of Methylbenzoate Emission after Pollination in Snapdragon and Petunia Flowers Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.016766.

The molecular mechanisms responsible for postpollination changes in floral scent emission were investigated in snapdragon cv Maryland True Pink and petunia cv Mitchell flowers using a volatile ester, methylbenzoate, one of the major scent compounds emitted by these flowers, as an example. In both species, a 70 to 75% pollination-induced decrease in methylbenzoate emission begins only after pollen tubes reach the ovary, a process that takes between 35 and 40 h in snapdragon and ∼32 h in petunia. This postpollination decrease in emission is not triggered by pollen deposition on the stigma. Petunia and snapdragon both synthesize methylbenzoate from benzoic acid and S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM); however, they use different mechanisms to downregulate its production after pollination. In petunia, expression of the gene responsible for methylbenzoate synthesis is suppressed by ethylene. In snapdragon, the decrease in methylbenzoate emission is the result of a decrease in both S-adenosyl-l-methionine:benzoic acid carboxyl methyltransferase (BAMT) activity and the ratio of SAM to S-adenosyl-l-homocysteine (“methylation index”) after pollination, although the BAMT gene also is sensitive to ethylene.
Development of the Mandarin pediatric speech intelligibility (MPSI) test

The objective of this research was to create a Mandarin closed-set sentence recognition test based on the English pediatric speech intelligibility (PSI) test (Jerger & Jerger, ) for evaluation of speech perception in children as young as three years of age. Developmentally normal children (N = 93), 3–6 years of age, were administered the Mandarin PSI (MPSI) via a computer-controlled protocol. Perfect performance was observed for all children in quiet and at +10 and +5 dB signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Significant age and developmental trends were seen for the more difficult SNRs, 0 dB, −5 dB, and −10 dB, with 75% of 5–6 year olds reaching the most difficult SNR. Children who reached each of the more difficult SNRs, regardless of age, exhibited the same pattern of performance on all easier conditions, indicating that the final SNR achieved, rather than percent correct scores, may be a better descriptor of performance. The MPSI comprises part of a hierarchical assessment battery for pediatric speech perception for evaluation of intervention alternatives for Mandarin-speaking children with hearing impairment.
Motif-based communities in complex networks

Community definitions usually focus on edges, inside and between the communities. However, the high density of edges within a community determines correlations between nodes going beyond nearest neighbors, and which are indicated by the presence of motifs. We show how motifs can be used to define general classes of nodes, including communities, by extending the mathematical expression of Newman–Girvan modularity. We construct then a general framework and apply it to some synthetic and real networks.
Cooperative On-Line Planning For Adaptive Map Building In Environmental Applications

Two adaptive online planning algorithms for the exploration of an unknown environment by cooperating autonomous underwater vehicles are introduced and compared. The algorithms are suited for a team of autonomous vehicles taking point-wise environmental measurements over an ocean region, with the final objective of producing an estimated map of the measured environmental quantity over the whole region. Simulative test cases in which the algorithm performances are compared with that theoretically achievable by rapidly-exploring random tree search are presented