Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The optimal period of Ca-EDTA treatment for parthenogenetic activation of porcine oocytes during maturation culture

The changes triggered by sperm-induced activation of oocytes, which are required for normal oocyte development, can be mediated by other agents, thereby inducing the parthenogenesis. In this study, we exposed porcine oocytes to 1 mM Ca-EDTA, a metal-ion chelator, at various intervals during 48 hr of in vitro maturation to determine the optimum period of Ca-EDTA treatment for parthenogenetic activation. When the oocytes were cultured with or without Ca-EDTA from 36 hr (post-12), 24 hr (post-24), 12 hr (post-36) and 0 hr (post-48) after the start of maturation culture, the blastocyst formation rates were significantly higher (P<0.05) in the post-24, post-36 and post-48 groups (3.3%, 4.0% and 2.6%, respectively) than those in the control group without treatment (0%). Furthermore, when the oocytes were cultured with Ca-EDTA for 0 hr (control), 12 hr (pre-12), 24 hr (pre-24), 36 hr (pre-36) and 48 hr (pre-48) from the start of maturation culture, the oocytes formed blastocysts only in the pre-36 and pre-48 groups (0.4% or 0.8%, respectively). Pronuclei (<66.7%) were observed only when the periods of Ca-EDTA treatment were more than 12 hr during maturation culture. In the control group, no pronuclei were detected. Our findings demonstrate that porcine immature oocytes can be parthenogenetically activated by Ca-EDTA treatment for at least 24 hr to 36 hr during maturation culture, leading to pronucleus formation followed by the formation of blastocysts.
Relaxin Signals through a RXFP1-pERK-nNOS-NO-cGMP-Dependent Pathway to Up-Regulate Matrix Metalloproteinases: The Additional Involvement of iNOS

The hormone, relaxin, inhibits aberrant myofibroblast differentiation and collagen deposition by disrupting the TGF-β1/Smad2 axis, via its cognate receptor, Relaxin Family Peptide Receptor 1 (RXFP1), extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)1/2 phosphorylation (pERK) and a neuronal nitric oxide (NO) synthase (nNOS)-NO-cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP)-dependent pathway. However, the signalling pathways involved in its additional ability to increase matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression and activity remain unknown. This study investigated the extent to which the NO pathway was involved in human gene-2 (H2) relaxin's ability to positively regulate MMP-1 and its rodent orthologue, MMP-13, MMP-2 and MMP-9 (the main collagen-degrading MMPs) in TGF-β1-stimulated human dermal fibroblasts and primary renal myofibroblasts isolated from injured rats; by gelatin zymography (media) and Western blotting (cell layer). H2 relaxin (10–100 ng/ml) significantly increased MMP-1 (by ∼50%), MMP-2 (by ∼80%) and MMP-9 (by ∼80%) in TGF-β1-stimulated human dermal fibroblasts; and MMP-13 (by ∼90%), MMP-2 (by ∼130%) and MMP-9 (by ∼115%) in rat renal myofibroblasts (all p<0.01 vs untreated cells) over 72 hours. The relaxin-induced up-regulation of these MMPs, however, was significantly blocked by a non-selective NOS inhibitor (L-nitroarginine methyl ester (hydrochloride); L-NAME; 75–100 µM), and specific inhibitors to nNOS (N-propyl-L-arginine; NPLA; 0.2–2 µM), iNOS (1400W; 0.5–1 µM) and guanylyl cyclase (ODQ; 5 µM) (all p<0.05 vs H2 relaxin alone), but not eNOS (L-N-(1-iminoethyl)ornithine dihydrochloride; L-NIO; 0.5–5 µM). However, neither of these inhibitors affected basal MMP expression at the concentrations used. Furthermore, of the NOS isoforms expressed in renal myofibroblasts (nNOS and iNOS), H2 relaxin only stimulated nNOS expression, which in turn, was blocked by the ERK1/2 inhibitor (PD98059; 1 µM). These findings demonstrated that H2 relaxin signals through a RXFP1-pERK-nNOS-NO-cGMP-dependent pathway to mediate its anti-fibrotic actions, and additionally signals through iNOS to up-regulate MMPs; the latter being suppressed by TGF-β1 in myofibroblasts, but released upon H2 relaxin-induced inhibition of the TGF-β1/Smad2 axis.
Facial family similarity recognition using Local Gabor Binary Pattern Histogram Sequence

Facial image analysis is one of the areas that have been received considerable attention in recent decades. In addition to areas such as face recognition, gender classification, emotion recognition, and age estimation, there are new applications that have not been studied yet. Family similarity recognition is a new trend that has been studied in this paper for the first time. Local Gabor Binary Pattern Histogram Sequence (LGBPHS) has led to many important advances in face recognition, including over looking generalizability and training issues. Given the current status of this study, two approaches were considered: (1) holistic approach and (2) component-based approach, which embodies the practical principles of theory. In order to model facial family manifold, LGBP is used both for the holistic view and components of the face. For recognition, histogram intersection is used to measure the similarity of different LGBPHSes and the nearest neighborhood is exploited for final clustering. In order to prove the efficiency of the proposed method three set of experiments are conducted in which both subjective and algorithmic issues are considered. It is observed in the course of experiments that the proposed method outperforms the subjective test up to 15%, and outperforms the observed state of the art face recognition methods up to 25.06%.
Measurement of Size and Distance of Objects Using Mobile Devices

This paper proposes methods for measuring size and distance of target objects by using mobile devices. For close-range measurement of a size of an object, users must hold the device close to the object and drag it along a desired direction. We develop a new approach for estimating a dragging distance of the device using acceleration signals retrieved from a three-axis accelerometer embedded on it. In the cases that target objects locate far from the device, users have to drag it vertically and two images of the objects are captured at starting and ending points of a dragging period. Then, the device displacement is estimated using acceleration signals, and a disparity of the object in two images is also determined via a matching technique based on Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF). The object disparity, dragging distance and device orientation are used as features to determine a distance between the target object and the device and also a size of it using learning-based scheme. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate a performance of the proposed methods.
An energy-efficient 5-MHz to 20-MHz, 12-bit reconfigurable continuous-time ΣΔ modulator for 4G-LTE application

This paper presents an energy-efficient reconfigurable 3rd-order continuous-time ΣΔ modulator, which can satisfy multi-band modes for 4G-LTE application. To expand the reconfigurable bandwidth range and optimize the energy efficiency, this work employs a flexible architecture, which can switch between feed-forward and feed-back topologies. At the circuit level, in order to reduce power consumption, flexibility is also introduced into all the core blocks, including amplifiers, multi-bit quantizer and feedback DAC. In addition, multi-bit quantizer utilizes interpolating technique to relax the wide-band amplifier in terms of the low power design. A power-efficient three-stage amplifier with modified positive feedback compensation is used to process high-speed signal and enhance linearity of the modulator. Implemented in 130nm CMOS technology, this work achieves peak SNR of 72.7/66.7/60.4/59.0 dB over 5/10/15/20 MHz BW with 8/14.7/16/21 mW from 1.2V supply, and the respective FOMs are optimized to 227/443/657/773 fJ/conv.
Consistency regions in non-linear inversion

SUMMARY A disadvantage of fully non-linear methods of inversion, through exploitation of the properties of model space, is the absence of a well-developed framework for error assessment. To rectify this problem an auxiliary weighting function for ensemble properties is introduced that can be used with suitable thresholds to define consistency regions of suitable models. This approach requires neither a detailed knowledge of the misfit distribution nor an underlying probabilistic model. The use of a polyhedral representation of such consistency regions is illustrated with an example from non-linear seismic event location, showing the effect of different choices for the misfit measure. The auxiliary weight function can be used directly with the composite misfit measure used to drive the exploration of model space in the non-linear inversion. Such composite measures usually combine a data misfit and regularization term. However, considerable benefit can be obtained by storing the data misfit and associated model characteristics for each investigated model, as well as the composite measure. The properties of the model ensemble can then be used retrospectively to define preferred models by the intersection of a consistency region in data misfit with zones constrained by desirable model properties.
Edge conductance estimation using MCMC

We propose an iterative and distributed Markov Chain Monte Carlo scheme for estimation of effective edge conductances in a graph. A sample complexity analysis is provided. The theoretical guarantees on the performance of the proposed algorithm are weak compared to those of existing algorithms. But numerical experiments suggest that the algorithm might still be effective while offering the advantages of low per iterate computation and memory requirements.
Trajectory planning for car-like robots in unknown, unstructured environments

We describe a variable-velocity trajectory planning algorithm for navigating car-like robots through unknown, unstructured environments along a series of possibly corrupted GPS waypoints. The trajectories are guaranteed to be kine-matically feasible, i.e., they respect the robot's acceleration and deceleration capabilities as well as its maximum steering angle and steering rate. Their costs are computed using LiDAR and camera data and depend on factors such as proximity to obstacles, curvature, changes of curvature, and slope. In a second step, velocities for the least-cost trajectory are adjusted based on the dynamics of the vehicle. When the robot is faced with an obstacle on its trajectory, the planner is restarted to compute an alternative trajectory. Our algorithm is robust against GPS error and waypoints placed in obstacle-filled areas. It was successfully used at euRathlon 20131, where our autonomous vehicle MuCAR-3 took first place in the “Autonomous Navigation” scenario.
Genome‐wide association study in musician's dystonia: A risk variant at the arylsulfatase G locus?

Musician's dystonia (MD) affects 1% to 2% of professional musicians and frequently terminates performance careers. It is characterized by loss of voluntary motor control when playing the instrument. Little is known about genetic risk factors, although MD or writer's dystonia (WD) occurs in relatives of 20% of MD patients. We conducted a 2‐stage genome‐wide association study in whites. Genotypes at 557,620 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) passed stringent quality control for 127 patients and 984 controls. Ten SNPs revealed P < 10−5 and entered the replication phase including 116 MD patients and 125 healthy musicians. A genome‐wide significant SNP (P < 5 × 10−8) was also genotyped in 208 German or Dutch WD patients, 1,969 Caucasian, Spanish, and Japanese patients with other forms of focal or segmental dystonia as well as in 2,233 ethnically matched controls. Genome‐wide significance with MD was observed for an intronic variant in the arylsulfatase G (ARSG) gene (rs11655081; P = 3.95 × 10−9; odds ratio [OR], 4.33; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.66‐7.05). rs11655081 was also associated with WD (P = 2.78 × 10−2) but not with any other focal or segmental dystonia. The allele frequency of rs11655081 varies substantially between different populations. The population stratification in our sample was modest (λ = 1.07), but the effect size may be overestimated. Using a small but homogenous patient sample, we provide data for a possible association of ARSG with MD. The variant may also contribute to the risk of WD, a form of dystonia that is often found in relatives of MD patients. © 2013 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Notice of RetractionA multi-relay selection algorithm based on the residual energy

For optimizing the performance of cooperative communication system, it presents a multi-relay amplify forwarding (AF) and decoded forwarding (DF) cooperation node selection algorithm based on the residual energy, considering jointly the residual energy information of nodes and channel state information(CSI) to optimize network lifetime, using the weighting function to select the relay set. Simulation results show that, for dynamic relay power distribution, performance has reached the best while selecting 4 relays. Under the same number of relay, comparing with only considering the channel state information relay selection algorithm, our algorithm extends network lifetime up to 82% for AF protocol, and up to 34% for DF protocol, it all effectively improve the system channel capacity.
Rapid Enterovirus Molecular Testing in Cerebrospinal Fluid Reduces Length of Hospitalization and Duration of Antibiotic Therapy in Children With Aseptic Meningitis

We studied the potential benefits of introducing a rapid enterovirus molecular test in children with enterovirus meningitis. The 2 groups of pediatric patients were comparable with respect to clinical and laboratory data, but differed in availability of enterovirus test results. In the control group, the results were available within 3 to 7 days, whereas in the study group, rapid enterovirus molecular test results were available within 3 to 24 hours. The median duration of hospitalization and the duration of antibiotics were significantly reduced to, respectively, 2 days and 1 day in the study group when compared with the control group (P < 0.001). Mean costs per patient calculation showed an average reduction of more than US $1450 (P < 0.001).
Role of Bacillus aryabhattai in plant growth and development

Plants produce a wide range of organic compounds like sugars, organic acids and vitamins, which can be used as nutrients or signals by microbial populations. On the other hand, microorganisms release phytohormones, enzymes, which may act directly or indirectly to activate plant immunity and regulate plant growth. Plant signalling molecules such as auxin and cytokinin can be produced by microorganisms to colonize efficiently with roots and enhance root activity. The isolated microbe Bacillus aryabhattai, has the ability to produce1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase to lower plant ethylene level, often a result of various stresses, and is found to be a key component in the efficacious functioning of this bacterium. The optimal functioning of this bacterium includes the synergistic interaction between ACC deaminase, and plant with bacterial indole-3-acetic acid (IAA).
Safety and tolerability of bosentan in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: an open label study

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal disease for which no effective treatment exists. In the present study, 12 IPF patients underwent analysis of gas exchange properties using the multiple inert gas elimination technique on day 1 before and after the administration of 125 mg bosentan, a dual endothelin antagonist. Following this, patients received chronic administration for 12 weeks (62.5 mg b.i.d. in week 1, 125 mg b.i.d. thereafter). The primary objective was to determine the effect of bosentan on gas exchange (day 1) and on oxygen saturation and minute ventilation (week 2). With one exception, where redistribution of total pulmonary blood flow from normal ventilation/perfusion (V′/Q′) areas (93% before, 72% after bosentan) to low V′/Q′ areas (0% before, 22.2% after) was encountered, no patient showed any change in gas exchange (mean±sd shunt flow (% of cardiac output) 8.5±3.4% before, 6.1±2.3% after bosentan; day 1) or oxygen saturation and minute ventilation (week 2). Similarly, none of the secondary parameters was significantly changed either at week 2 or at the end of the study period (week 12). Five patients developed respiratory infections and two died because of pneumonia; this was judged as being unrelated to bosentan intake. In conclusion, bosentan administration does not seem to induce clinically relevant gas exchange abnormalities in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients.
Chondroitin sulfate in the treatment of osteoarthritis: from in vitro studies to clinical recommendations

Chondroitin sulfate (CS) is recommended as a therapeutic intervention in the multimodal approach of osteoarthritis (OA) management. CS has been studied extensively to describe its pharmacology (pharmacokinetic, in vitro and in vivo effects) and its clinical efficacy Various results have been reported depending on the system of evaluation (model, dosage an duration) and the source of CS (origin and quality). The purpose of this review was to gather most of the available information about CS and to discuss its potency in OA management.
Possible involvement of protein kinase C in the induction of adipose differentiation‐related protein by Sterol ester in RAW 264.7 macrophages

The accumulation of lipid droplets in macrophages contributes to the formation of foam cells, an early event in atherosclerosis. It is, therefore, important to elucidate the mechanisms by which lipid droplets accumulate and are utilized. Sterol ester (SE)‐laden RAW 264.7 macrophages accumulated lipid droplets in a time‐dependent manner up to 16 h, which was enhanced by cotreatment with 0.1 μM phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA). Inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC) activity by cotreatment with 0.3 μM calphostin C CAL for 16 h resulted in coalescence of small lipid droplets into large ones and increased accumulation of lipid droplets, although to a lesser extent than after PMA cotreatment. Immunostaining for adipose differentiation‐related protein (ADRP) revealed a fluorescent rim at the surface of each medium to large lipid droplet. ADRP appearance correlated with lipid droplet accumulation and was regulated by PMA in a time‐dependent manner. Induction of ADRP expression by PMA or CAL required SE, since ADRP levels in PMA‐ or CAL‐treated non‐SE‐laden macrophages were comparable to those in untreated cells. Removal of SE from the incubation medium resulted in the concomitant dissolution of lipid droplets and down‐regulation of ADRP. In conclusion, the above results suggest that ADRP may be an important protein in the regulation of lipid droplet metabolism in lipid‐laden macrophages and that this regulation may be mediated by PKC activity. J. Cell. Biochem. 83: 187–199, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Herpes Simplex Virus Glycoproteins gD and gE/gI Serve Essential but Redundant Functions during Acquisition of the Virion Envelope in the Cytoplasm

ABSTRACT The late stages of assembly of herpes simplex virus (HSV) and other herpesviruses are not well understood. Acquisition of the final virion envelope apparently involves interactions between viral nucleocapsids coated with tegument proteins and the cytoplasmic domains of membrane glycoproteins. This promotes budding of virus particles into cytoplasmic vesicles derived from the trans-Golgi network or endosomes. The identities of viral membrane glycoproteins and tegument proteins involved in these processes are not well known. Here, we report that HSV mutants lacking two viral glycoproteins, gD and gE, accumulated large numbers of unenveloped nucleocapsids in the cytoplasm. These aggregated capsids were immersed in an electron-dense layer that appeared to be tegument. Few or no enveloped virions were observed. More subtle defects were observed with an HSV unable to express gD and gI. A triple mutant lacking gD, gE, and gI exhibited more severe defects in envelopment. We concluded that HSV gD and the gE/gI heterodimeric complex act in a redundant fashion to anchor the virion envelope onto tegument-coated capsids. In the absence of either one of these HSV glycoproteins, envelopment proceeds; however, without both gD and gE, or gE/gI, there is profound inhibition of cytoplasmic envelopment.
Isolation and characterization of the recA gene of Rhizobium meliloti

Interspecific complementation of an Escherichia coli recA mutant with plasmids containing a gene bank of Rhizobium meliloti DNA was used to identify a clone which contains the recA gene of R. meliloti. The R. meliloti recA protein can function in recombination and in response to DNA damage when expressed in an E. coli recA host, and hybridization studies have shown that DNA sequence homology exists between the recA gene of E. coli and that of R. meliloti. The isolated R. meliloti recA DNA was used to construct a recA R. meliloti, and this bacterium was not deficient in its ability to carry out symbiotic nitrogen fixation.
Extended structure and motion analysis from monocular image sequences

The issue of optimal motion and structure estimation from monocular image sequences with a rigidity scene is addressed. The method has the following characteristics: the dimension of the search space in the nonlinear optimization is drastically reduced by exploiting the relationship between structure and motion parameters; the degree of reliability of the observations and estimates is effectively taken into account; the proposed formulation allows arbitrary interframe motion; and the information about the structure of the scene, acquired from previous images, is systematically integrated into the new estimations. It is shown that any scale factor associated with two consecutive images in a monocular sequence is determined by the scale factor of the first two images. The simulations and experiments with long image sequences of real world scenes indicate that the optimization method developed greatly reduces the computational complexity and substantially improves the motion and structure estimation over that produced by linear algorithms. <<ETX>>
Real-Time Multicast and Memory Replication Channels with Delay Bounded Error Detection and Retry Capabilities

In order to accommodate different requirements of reliable multicast applications, the real-time reliable multicasting support framework must possess generic yet rich features for detecting and reporting message losses with tight latency bounds. One highly promising concrete formulation of a multicast framework is the Real-time Multicast & Memory Replication Channel (RMMC) scheme. In this paper, we present the Delay-Bounded Reliable RMMC (DBR-RMMC) scheme, which extends the RMMC scheme in order to yield tight bounds on the latencies in detecting and reporting message losses over RMMCs and to enable application layer to initiate timely recovery actions. The DBR-RMMC scheme offers an API that allows application developers to freely explore the various design dimensions of reliable multicast applications while assuring timeliness. We also discuss a middleware subsystem devised to support DBRRMMC, followed by a summary of several analytical results on the bounds for latencies in reacting to the occurrence of a message loss. Experiments involving a real-time video streaming application have been conducted and encouraging results are presented.
White matter alterations in individuals experiencing attenuated positive psychotic symptoms

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies suggest that reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) occurs among schizophrenia patients and those at risk for psychosis. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of knowledge investigating white matter fibre pathways in non‐help‐seeking individuals who endorse attenuated positive psychotic symptoms (APPS) across a range of mental disorders. The aim of the current study was to determine if alterations in ILF and SLF microstructures were specific to distressing APPS related to risk for psychosis or to APPS symptoms occurring in multiple mental disorders, which would suggest a shared phenotype among disorders.