Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of P3a and P3b after Moderate to Severe Brain Injury

The purpose of the study was to examine the P3a and P3b components of the event-related brain potential (ERP) in patients sustaining moderate to severe brain injury. Electrophysiological and behavioral responses were recorded in brain injured (N = 18) and healthy control (N = 21) participants during performance of an auditory 3-stimulus distractor paradigm. Auditory stimuli consisted of a series of repetitive standard tones (75 ms), occasionally interrupted by equiprobable target (25 ms) and distractor sounds (white noise). Tone duration discrimination accuracy was similar in patients and controls, but patients had prolonged reaction times to targets. The reaction time delay was paralleled by a prolongation of P3b latency to targets in the patient group relative to controls. The stimulus and task dependent modulation of ERP responses in the brain injury group was similar to that of controls in terms of the spatial distribution of ERPs over the scalp. However, the brain injury group had attenuated P3a and P3b amplitudes to distractor and target stimuli, respectively. The electrophysiological data suggest a deficit in the allocation of attentional resources to the processing of deviant stimuli in the brain injury group.
miR-15 Family Regulates Postnatal Mitotic Arrest of Cardiomyocytes

Rationale: Mammalian cardiomyocytes withdraw from the cell cycle during early postnatal development, which significantly limits the capacity of the adult mammalian heart to regenerate after injury. The regulatory mechanisms that govern cardiomyocyte cell cycle withdrawal and binucleation are poorly understood. Objective: Given the potential of microRNAs (miRNAs) to influence large gene networks and modify complex developmental and disease phenotypes, we searched for miRNAs that were regulated during the postnatal switch to terminal differentiation. Methods and Results: Microarray analysis revealed subsets of miRNAs that were upregulated or downregulated in cardiac ventricles from mice at 1 and 10 days of age (P1 and P10). Interestingly, miR-195 (a member of the miR-15 family) was the most highly upregulated miRNA during this period, with expression levels almost 6-fold higher in P10 ventricles relative to P1. Precocious overexpression of miR-195 in the embryonic heart was associated with ventricular hypoplasia and ventricular septal defects in &bgr;-myosin heavy chain–miR-195 transgenic mice. Using global gene profiling and argonaute-2 immunoprecipitation approaches, we showed that miR-195 regulates the expression of a number of cell cycle genes, including checkpoint kinase 1 (Chek1), which we identified as a highly conserved direct target of miR-195. Finally, we demonstrated that knockdown of the miR-15 family in neonatal mice with locked nucleic acid–modified anti-miRNAs was associated with an increased number of mitotic cardiomyocytes and derepression of Chek1. Conclusions: These findings suggest that upregulation of the miR-15 family during the neonatal period may be an important regulatory mechanism governing cardiomyocyte cell cycle withdrawal and binucleation.
First description of a patient with Vici syndrome due to a mutation affecting the penultimate exon of EPG5 and review of the literature

Vici syndrome is a rare autosomal recessively inherited multisystem disorder characterized by agenesis of the corpus callosum, cataracts, cardiomyopathy, combined immunodeficiency, psychomotor delay, and hypopigmentation. Cullup et al. recently identified mutations in the gene EPG5 as the cause of Vici syndrome. EPG5 is involved in autophagy, an evolutionarily conserved lysosomal degradation process that is essential for cell homeostasis. Following the first description in 1988 by Vici et al., 24 other cases of Vici syndrome have been published with variable expression of the defining features. Here, we report on a further case of Vici syndrome with a homozygous truncating mutation of EPG5, identified by whole‐exome sequencing. The mutation in our patient is the first reported affecting the penultimate exon of EPG5 and presenting with typical clinical manifestations of Vici syndrome. Additionally, we present a detailed clinical analysis of Vici syndrome comprising all cases previously described in the literature. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Anadolu - Türk Halı Sanatının Kaynakları

E. Esin, “M.V-VII nci Asirlardan Târihi ve Arkeolojik Malzeme Isiginda Tasbar Kagan’in Kultur Cevresi”, Turk Kulturu Arastirmalari, Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Kafesoglu’nun Hatirasina Armagan, Turk Kulturu Arastirmalari Enstitusu Yayini, Y. XXIII / 1-2, Ankara 1985, s. 233, 236
An efficient real-time misbehavior detector using non-parametric cumulative sum (CUSUM) test inWLAN

The CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) based wireless protocol ensures that each node in the network gets a reasonably fair share (FS) of the network channel. In the distributed environment of wireless network, a malicious node may deliberately select a smaller backoff timer to gain an unfair share of the network channel, thus disrupting the network throughput. This nature is called misbehavior in WLAN. There are two challenges in misbehavior detection: (i) unknown misbehavior detection, where a malicious node initially behaves as a normal node and at any time later may change its backoff timer to a random small value. (ii) Realtime misbehavior detection, where the misbehavior needs to be detected in real time. The existing solutions either cannot address either of the issues or require modifications to the 802.11 protocols. The objective of the project is to quickly detect the misbehavior in real time without any prior knowledge of the statistics of the misbehavior and then isolate the malicious node as soon as possible to prevent it from bringing more harm to the network. We design a real-time backoff misbehavior detector, termed as Fair Share detector (FS detector) that makes use of a nonparametric cumulative sum (CUSUM) test to quickly find a malicious node. The system guarantees performance in terms of average false positive rate, average detection delay, and missed detection ratio under a detection delay constraint. The project is widely used in current programmable and reconfigurable wireless network devices which are easily available.
Temporal changes in growth, condition and trophic niche in juvenile Cyprinus carpio infected with a non-native parasite

SUMMARY In host–parasite relationships, parasite prevalence and abundance can vary over time, potentially impacting how hosts are affected by infection. Here, the pathology, growth, condition and diet of a juvenile Cyprinus carpio cohort infected with the non-native cestode Bothriocephalus acheilognathi was measured in October 2012 (end of their first summer of life), April 2013 (end of first winter) and October 2013 (end of second summer). Pathology revealed consistent impacts, including severe compression and architectural modification of the intestine. At the end of the first summer, there was no difference in lengths and condition of the infected and uninfected fish. However, at the end of the winter period, the condition of infected fish was significantly reduced and by the end of their second summer, the infected fish were significantly smaller and remained in significantly reduced condition. Their diets were significantly different over time; infected fish consumed significantly higher proportions of food items <53 µm than uninfected individuals, a likely consequence of impaired functional traits due to infection. Thus, the sub-lethal impacts of this parasite, namely changes in histopathology, growth and trophic niche were dependent on time and/or age of the fish.
Model-Free Optimal Control of Distributed Energy Resources in Electric Power Distribution Systems

Author(s): Arnold, Daniel Brian | Advisor(s): Auslander, David M | Abstract: Distributed Energy Resources (DER) have the potential to both improve the manner in which the electric power distribution system is operated and provide services to the bulk electric grid. A key question that has emerged in academic circles is the manner in which DER is governed to provide such utility. While many of the suggested approaches are mathematically elegant and demonstrate positive performance in simulations, they face enormous barriers to implementation due to their reliance on knowledge of network models and burdensome communications requirements. This dissertation focuses on the application of an Extremum Seeking (ES) control approach to manage individual DER, that does not require utility network models and or communication between agents. Results achieved from the application of this technique are shown to be equivalent to those derived from centrally-based optimization strategies that utilize convex relaxation techniques. Initially, I explore the use of Extremum Seeking to manage reactive power resources to perform voltage constrained optimization in balanced radial distribution systems. Next, also for balanced and radial distribution systems, I extend this work to consider the management of four-quadrant-capable DER to enable voltage-constrained distribution substation real power and voltage reference tracking. My approach essentially allows the distribution feeder to act as a controllable (P,V) bus when viewed from the perspective of the Transmission System Operator. Finally, in an attempt to extend my results to 3-phase distribution systems, I derive a linear approximation to unbalanced power flow and explore a new objective of using reactive power resources to regulate and balance system voltages. While the latter-most piece does not specifically consider ES, it lays the necessary foundation for the application of the approach in unbalanced systems.
CD40 stimulation of B‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia cells enhances the anti‐apoptotic profile, but also Bid expression and cells remain susceptible to autologous cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte attack

To enhance the poor antigen‐presenting capacity of B‐cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (B‐CLL), CD40 triggering has been considered as an active immunotherapy. However, CD40 stimulation also has an anti‐apoptotic effect and may further impair the dysregulated response of B‐CLL to apoptotic stimuli. Therefore, we measured the expression of virtually all regulators of apoptosis before and after CD40 stimulation. These findings were correlated with sensitivity for chemotherapy‐ and death‐receptor‐induced apoptosis and T‐cell‐mediated killing. CD40 stimulation enhanced the constitutive anti‐apoptotic profile of B‐CLL cells by upregulation of Bcl‐xL and Bfl‐1 and downregulation of the BH3‐only protein Harakiri. Unexpectedly, the BH3‐only protein Bid was strongly induced. Functionally, CD40‐stimulated B‐CLL cells became resistant to drug‐induced apoptosis and, despite upregulation of CD95 and Bid, were not sensitive to CD95L. In contrast, autologous T cell killing, triggered by loading CLL cells with viral (CMV) peptides, was very efficient both before and after CD40 stimulation. Upon CTL interaction, CLL targets underwent mitochondrial depolarization and caspase‐3 activation. Thus, despite an increased anti‐apoptotic profile, CD40 triggered B‐CLL cells remain excellent targets for resident cytotoxic T cells. These data support therapeutic exploitation of CD40 stimulation in B‐CLL, provided that a strong CTL component is induced.
Relations Between the Tendency to Invest in Virtual Presence, Actual Virtual Presence, and Learning Outcomes in Educational Computer Games

This study examines whether the effect of virtual presence on learning is influenced by learner characteristics. More specifically, the focus is on how the variation in the actual experience of virtual presence and learning is related to learners' individual tendency to invest in virtual presence for educational computer games. According to these tendencies, 59 eighth graders were divided into 2 groups (high vs. low tendency) and performed a computer-based learning game. Virtual presence and learning outcomes were measured by means of a questionnaire. Correlation and regression analyses were used, and a moderation model was structured to analyze the relationship between the variables. Whereas the tendency to invest in virtual presence does not moderate the positive interaction between virtual presence and learning, correlation and regression results between both groups show that a stronger tendency to invest in virtual presence increases virtual presence and both, trivial- and nontrivial learning outcomes were evinced. In the eyes of learners, interestingly, their tendency to invest in virtual presence for educational computer games was significantly lower than for conventional entertainment games.
A Simulation Study of How Simple Mark-Recapture Methods can be Combined with Destructive Subsampling to Facilitate Surveys of Flying Insects

ABSTRACT Mark-recapture techniques are used for studies of animal populations. With only three sampling occasions, both Bailey's triple-catch (BTC) and Jolly—Seber's (J—S) stochastic method can be applied. As marking and handling of fragile organisms may harm them, and thereby affect their chances of being recaptured, handling should be minimized. This can be achieved by taking a subsample before the main sample at the second sampling occasion. Individuals in the main sample are marked and released, whereas those in the subsample are only used for identifying recaptures. Monte-Carlo simulation was used to compare the subsampling method with the ordinary mark-recapture methods. Model-generated populations were sampled with and without subsampling to provide estimates of population size, loss, and dilution rates. The estimated parameters were compared with their true values to identify biases associated with the sampling methods, using 81 different combinations of population size, dilution rate, loss rate, and sampling effort. Each combination was replicated 1,000 times. In no cases did subsampling perform more poorly than the ordinary methods. J—S was slightly more accurate than BTC to estimate the population size, but only when sampling effort was high. The relative biases associated with estimates of dilution and loss rates were substantial, but declined with increasing population size and sampling effort. Confidence limits for the population parameters generally were reliable and tended to be conservative. We therefore conclude that ordinary mark-recapture methods can be supplemented with subsampling without sacrificing accuracy. Subsampling is especially advantageous in cases where marks are difficult to observe under field conditions.
Order Information in Verbal Working Memory Shifts the Subjective Midpoint in Both the Line Bisection and the Landmark Tasks

A largely substantiated view in the domain of working memory is that the maintenance of serial order is achieved by generating associations of each item with an independent representation of its position, so-called position markers. Recent studies reported that the ordinal position of an item in verbal working memory interacts with spatial processing. This suggests that position markers might be spatial in nature. However, these interactions were so far observed in tasks implying a clear binary categorization of space (i.e., with left and right responses or targets). Such binary categorizations leave room for alternative interpretations, such as congruency between non-spatial categorical codes for ordinal position (e.g., begin and end) and spatial categorical codes for response (e.g., left and right). Here we discard this interpretation by providing evidence that this interaction can also be observed in a task that draws upon a continuous processing of space, the line bisection task. Specifically, bisections are modulated by ordinal position in verbal working memory, with lines bisected more towards the right after retrieving items from the end compared to the beginning of the memorized sequence. This supports the idea that position markers are intrinsically spatial in nature.
Nitridation interfacial-layer technology for enhanced stability in GaN-based power devices

Effective interface engineering technology in GaN-based insulated-gate heteroj unction transistors are of critical significance to enhance device stability and suppress current collapse. In this paper, we present an interface engineering approach featuring in situ low-damage remote plasma treatment prior to the dielectric deposition, to realize high-performance and high-stability GaN-based metal-insulator-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors (MIS-HEMTs). This technology can remove the native oxide while forming a monocrystal-like nitridation interfacial-layer (NIL) on the GaN surface. The Al2O3(NIL)/GaN/AlGaN/GaN MIS heterostructures with high-quality interface exhibit well-behaved electrical characteristics, including suppressed gate leakage current, a steep subthreshold swing of ~64 mV/dec, a small hysteresis of ~0.09 V, tiny frequency/temperature-dispersions in the capacitance-voltage characteristics, and low interface trap density of ~6×1011 - 6×1012 cm-2eV-1.
Multi-face Detection System in Video Sequence

This paper presents an improved system for detecting multiple faces in a video sequence where detection is not limited to frontal view. We propose an adaptive selection of skin models from two different ones in RGB and ratio rgb space to overcome the illumination problem caused by automatic focus of camera. With the proposed solution, we receive more reasonable skin detection for different human races. We modify local binary pattern (LBP) by adding a set of spatial templates. This LBP considers both principal local shapes and spatial textures of facial components. Human face is represented by a histogram of LBP coefficients. Moreover, the grayscale image of human face is changed to discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients used in embedded hidden Markov models (eHMMs). A modified LBP (mLBP) histogram matching and eHMMs are composed to hierarchical classifier to determine whether skin regions are faces or not. The results of our system on different cameras are presented and discussed. We compare the performance capability of our system with other systems using separately eHMMs or LBP histogram matching. The proposed system can work well to detect attitudes of faces like frontal, rotated and profile faces.
Arginase-1 and Ym1 Are Markers for Murine, but Not Human, Alternatively Activated Myeloid Cells

In an interesting paper, Scotton et al. ([1][1]) reported the effects of IL-13 on the transcriptional profile of human monocytes. Comparing their results with studies analyzing the profile induced by IL-4 in murine macrophages ([2][2], [3][3]), the authors notice some differences, giving as examples
A channel representation method for the study of hybrid retransmission-based error control

In this paper, we present a methodology to obtain a channel description tailored on performance evaluation for incremental redundancy hybrid automatic repeat request schemes. Such techniques counteract channel errors by using data coding and transmitting parts of the codeword over different channel realizations. We focus on coding performance models where the error probability is asymptotically zero if the channel parameters of these realizations fall within a given region. To map this region in a compact but still precise manner, we adopt a finite-state channel model. This approach is quite common in the literature; however, differently from existing work, we propose a novel method to derive efficient channel partitioning rules, i.e., a code-matched quantization of the channel state. Such a representation enables the use of accurate Markov models to study the system performance. Compared to existing channel representation methods, our proposed technique leads to a more accurate evaluation of higher layer statistics while at the same time keeping the computational complexity low.
Venous ulcer treatment with autologous stem cell

Chronic venous insufficiency ulcer (CVIU) is a pathology developing due to the venous pathologies, and it is not recovered for long time despite the treatment, consequently decreases the quality of life and leads to economic problems. Proven treatment methods of this disease, which has been known for a long time, are the compression therapy and the treatment of venous pathology, while the efficiency of other methods either have been found to be limited or could not be proven due to the studies on small patient groups. Stem cell therapy, which is widely used nowadays and efficiency-proven, was implemented to a patient having chronic venous insufficiency ulcer.
Analysis of two candidate genes for Basan syndrome

Basan syndrome is an extremely rare ectodermal dysplasia with autosomal dominant inheritance and variable expressivity. The etiology of Basan syndrome remains unknown. To identify the Basan syndrome gene, we sequenced keratin 14 (KRT14) and SMARCAD1 in a previously unreported kindred with the disease. Sequencing of the coding regions and splice junctions of KRT14 and SMARCAD1 was performed using PCR‐amplified genomic DNA isolated from blood or saliva and standard PCR protocols. In vitro functional studies were performed for a variant identified in SMARCAD1. While direct sequencing of KRT14 failed to reveal any likely pathogenic sequence alterations or splice site variants, a heterozygous splicing variant (c.378+3A>T) that segregated with the disease was identified in the skin‐specific isoform of SMARCAD1. In vitro studies failed to demonstrate a splicing defect in SMARCAD1. We screened two candidate genes for Basan syndrome in a 3‐generation pedigree. The skin‐specific isoform of SMARCAD1 remains a good candidate for this disease. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Protective Immune Response Is Generated in Rainbow Trout by an OmpH-Like Surface Antigen (P18) of Flavobacterium psychrophilum

ABSTRACT Investigations of the surface characteristics of Flavobacterium psychrophilum, an important pathogen of fish, assisted us in identifying a surface protein termed P18. In the current study, we developed a simple and efficient procedure for the purification of this protein by a two-step method. First, P18 was selectively released from flavobacteria by a heat-HEPES treatment of the cells and then subjected to anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography. De novo sequencing was used to generate a fragmented peptide spectrum from purified P18. Comparison of two obtained peptide sequences with a partial genome sequence of F. psychrophilum (INRA, Jouy-en-Josas, France) identified one gene encoding a 166-amino-acid OmpH-like protein that mostly likely undergoes N-terminal cleavage of the 23-residue signal peptide. The susceptibility of the OmpH-like protein to proteinase K treatment and the bacteriostatic/bactericidal activities of anti-OmpH-like protein antibodies indicated that this protein is actually exposed on the surface of F. psychrophilum. Vaccination trials showed that the OmpH-like protein can induce a high titer of anti-OmpH-like protein antibodies which are protective. Taken together, these results suggest that this surface protein produced by F. psychrophilum could be used in future vaccine development as a promising candidate antigen.