Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liver Natural Killer Cells Play a Role in the Destruction of Islets After Intraportal Transplantation

Background. A significant loss of islet function observed in type 1 diabetic recipients after intraportal islet transplantation raises a question about the suitability of the liver as a transplant site. We hypothesize that natural killer (NK) cells in the liver play a role in the islet graft destruction. Methods. Phenotypical and functional differences between liver and splenic NK cells isolated from mice were examined by flow cytometry and in vitro cytotoxicity assays. In vivo, the role of liver NK cells was determined by examining the function of intraportally administered islet iso- and allografts by treating recipients with anti-asialo GM1 to deplete NK cells. Results. NK cell-depleted diabetic C57BL/6 mice receiving 400 syngeneic islets into the liver rapidly ameliorated hyperglycemia, whereas control recipients did not. The same number of BALB/c islets grafted in the liver of diabetic nonimmunosuppressed C57BL/6 mice failed to function, whereas NK cell-depleted recipients reversed hyperglycemia for up to 10 days. NK cells from the liver of naive C57BL/6 mice showed significantly higher cytotoxicity than splenic NK cells as tested with a &bgr;-cell line and allogeneic islets. The cell proportion and the expression level of activation markers on liver NK cells significantly increased after intraportal islet transplantation as compared with the control. Liver NK cells also increased anti-islet cytotoxicity, but not splenic NK cells, after islet transplantation. Conclusions. Our results clearly show the destructive activity of liver NK cells toward islets, suggesting that NK cells play a role in early islet graft loss after intraportal islet transplantation.
Bimanual Force Variability and Chronic Stroke: Asymmetrical Hand Control

The purpose of this study was to investigate force variability generated by both the paretic and non-paretic hands during bimanual force control. Nine chronic stroke individuals and nine age-matched individuals with no stroke history performed a force control task with both hands simultaneously. The task involved extending the wrist and fingers at 5%, 25%, and 50% of maximum voluntary contraction. Bimanual and unimanual force variability during bimanual force control was determined by calculating the coefficient of variation. Analyses revealed two main findings: (a) greater bimanual force variability in the stroke group than the control group and (b) increased force variability by the paretic hands during bimanual force control in comparison to the non-paretic hands at the 5% and 25% force production conditions. A primary conclusion is that post stroke bimanual force variability is asymmetrical between hands.
Effects of temperature, seawater and impact on the strength, stiffness, and life of sandwich composites

A study was conducted to determine the effects of subzero temperatures, seawater saturation, and low velocity impact on the flexural strength, stiffness, and life of sandwich composites. Specimens were tested statically and in fatigue using a four-point bending arrangement that included a combined metal and rubber load pad that spanned the inner loading heads and which prevented any local crushing damage. Both undamaged and impact damaged specimens were tested in room temperature (RT) dry, RT seawater saturated, -20°C dry, and -20°C seawater saturated environments. The impact energy level was chosen to produce damage that was observable, yet did not produce excessive permanent deformation. The primary results were that reducing the temperature tended to increase stiffness, strength, and fatigue life. Seawater saturation had minimal effects on strength, stiffness, or life, but influenced the static failure mode. Impact damage had little effect on the static results, but caused a significant loss in fatigue life. These results demonstrate that static test results cannot be used to infer fatigue behaviors, and indicate the need for the accurate determination of material and structural responses across the full range of expected usage environments.
Neural crest origin of olfactory ensheathing glia

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are a unique class of glial cells with exceptional translational potential because of their ability to support axon regeneration in the central nervous system. Although OECs are similar in many ways to immature and nonmyelinating Schwann cells, and can myelinate large-diameter axons indistinguishably from myelination by Schwann cells, current dogma holds that OECs arise from the olfactory epithelium. Here, using fate-mapping techniques in chicken embryos and genetic lineage tracing in mice, we show that OECs in fact originate from the neural crest and hence share a common developmental heritage with Schwann cells. This explains the similarities between OECs and Schwann cells and overturns the existing dogma on the developmental origin of OECs. Because neural crest stem cells persist in adult tissue, including skin and hair follicles, our results also raise the possibility that patient-derived neural crest stem cells could in the future provide an abundant and accessible source of autologous OECs for cell transplantation therapy for the injured central nervous system.
Hemodynamic mechanisms of the attenuated blood pressure response to mental stress after a single bout of maximal dynamic exercise in healthy subjects

To determine the hemodynamic mechanisms responsible for the attenuated blood pressure response to mental stress after exercise, 26 healthy sedentary individuals (age 29 ± 8 years) underwent the Stroop color-word test before and 60 min after a bout of maximal dynamic exercise on a treadmill. A subgroup (N = 11) underwent a time-control experiment without exercise. Blood pressure was continuously and noninvasively recorded by infrared finger photoplethysmography. Stroke volume was derived from pressure signals, and cardiac output and peripheral vascular resistance were calculated. Perceived mental stress scores were comparable between mental stress tests both in the exercise (P = 0.96) and control (P = 0.24) experiments. After exercise, the systolic blood pressure response to mental stress was attenuated (pre: 10 ± 13 vs post: 6 ± 7 mmHg; P < 0.01) along with lower values of systolic blood pressure (pre: 129 ± 3 vs post: 125 ± 3 mmHg; P < 0.05), stroke volume (pre: 89.4 ± 3.5 vs post: 76.8 ± 3.8 mL; P < 0.05), and cardiac output (pre: 7.00 ± 0.30 vs post: 6.51 ± 0.36 L/min; P < 0.05). Except for heart rate, the hemodynamic responses and the mean values during the two mental stress tests in the control experiment were similar (P > 0.05). In conclusion, a single bout of maximal dynamic exercise attenuates the blood pressure response to mental stress in healthy subjects, along with lower stroke volume and cardiac output, denoting an acute modulatory action of exercise on the central hemodynamic response to mental stress.
Automatic generation of video summaries for historical films

A video summary is a sequence of video clips extracted from a longer video. Much shorter than the original, the summary preserves its essential messages. In the ECHO (European Chronicles On-line) project, a system was developed to store and manage large collections of historical films for the preservation of cultural heritage. At the University of Mannheim, we have developed the video summarization component of the ECHO system. We discuss the particular challenges the historical film material poses, and how we have designed new video processing algorithms and modified existing ones to cope with noisy black-and-white films.
Characterisation and modelling of nitrogen plasmas for the deposition of nanostructured GaN using different plasma sources

Keywords: nitrogen plasma ; low pressure ; collisional-radiative model ; GaN ; nanocolumn ; silicon wafer ; Langmuir probe measurement ; optical emission spectroscopy These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 6202 (2014)Programme doctoral PhysiqueFaculte des sciences de baseCRPP - Procedes PlasmasJury: Prof. F. Mila (president) ; Dr C. Hollenstein, Prof. M.Q. Tran (directeurs) ; Dr M. Gindrat, Prof. N. Grandjean, Prof. H. Kersten (rapporteurs) Public defense: 2014-7-11 Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-6202Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2014-07-09, modified on 2016-08-09
Text Alignment in the Real World: Improving Alignments of Noisy Translations Using Common Lexical Features, String Matching Strategies and N-Gram Comparisons

Alignment methods based on byte-length comparisons of alignment blocks have been remarkably successful for aligning good translations from legislative transcriptions. For noisy translations in which the parallel text of a document has significant structural differences, byte-alignment methods often do not perform well. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) corpus is a series of articles that were first translated by machine methods and then improved by professional translators. Many of the Spanish PAHO texts do not share formatting conventions with the corresponding English documents, refer to tables in stylistically different ways and contain extraneous information. A method based on a dynamic programming framework, but using a decision criterion derived from a combination of byte-length ratio measures, hard matching of numbers, string comparisons and n-gram co-occurrence matching substantially improves the performance of the alignment process.
The safety of pregabalin in the treatment of fibromyalgia

ABSTRACT Introduction: Pregabalin is indicated for the treatment of fibromyalgia and pregabalin-treated subjects have shown improved pain, sleep and functional measures in placebo-controlled and open-label studies. This article reviews pregabalin’s safety profile. Areas covered: The safety findings in pregabalin clinical trials were accessed by a PubMed search using the key words ‘pregabalin’ or ‘anti-epilectics drug’ or ‘gabapentinoids’ or ‘anticonvulsants’ and ‘fibromyalgia’. Although frequent, the side effects of pregabalin therapy are usually mild to moderate, well tolerated in the long term, and can be monitored in a primary care setting. Expert opinion: Pregabalin therapy may be associated with somnolence, dizziness, weight gain and periphereal edema. Potential drug interactions are not common, and pregabalin seems to be well tolerated in combination with antidepressants. The demonstrated efficacy of pregabalin suggests that the risk/benefit ratio favours its use.
Hypspectral image denoising via multidimensional nonlocal model

Hyperspectral images (HSIs) often suffer from various noise. Noise reduction is a crucial task for improving HSIs quality. Recently, the nonlocal means (NLM) shows the good performance for preserving detail information and removing noise. In this paper, we propose a hyperspectral image denoising algorithm taking advantage of the redundancy from both spectral and spatial domain. We extend 2D nonlocal denoising model to multidimensional nonlocal model. The model takes account of the two important forms, including multidimensional filter model and variational model. In filter model, the similar image patches are searched in HSI cube because of the high correlation between bands. In the variational model, this paper establishes a maximum a posterior (MAP) framework for HSl denoising by introducing a multidimensional nonlocal total variation (MNLTV) prior. The proposed prior takes full advantage of the redundancy and continuity of HSI. Experiments with synthetic hy perspectral datas illustrate that the proposed method can obtain better denoising results for hyperspectral datas than traditional nonlocal approach.
Using Support Vector Machines for Lane-Change Detection

Driving is a complex task that requires constant attention, and intelligent transportation systems that support drivers in this task must continually infer driver intentions to produce reasonable, safe responses. In this paper we describe a technique for inferring driver intentions, specifically the intention to change lanes, using support vector machines (SVMs). The technique was applied to experimental data from an instrumented vehicle that included both behavioral data and environmental data. Comparing these results to recent results using a novel “mind-tracking” technique, we found that SVMs outperformed earlier algorithms and proved especially effective in early detection of driver lane changes.
Wetland determination of a southeast Oregon vernal pool and management implications

Numerous landscape depressions on the High Lava Plain of southeast Oregon, USA are ponded in most years, but their wetland status has not been examined closely. We applied the standard wetland criteria (hydrology, soils, and vegetation) to one such pool to evaluate whether the pool meets federal criteria as a jurisdictional wetland. Wetland hydrology was determined to be present based on data from piezometer and ponding observations. Soils were determined to be hydric based on hydrology, soil temperature, and redox potentials. Vegetation met wetland criteria according to the 50/20 rule. Vegetation was similar to that of California Northern Basalt Flow vernal pools. Oregon pools are locally called “upland playas,” but they fit the definition of vernal pools. Many southeast Oregon vernal pools are dug out as waterholes for livestock, increasing ponding depth and duration. Increased water availability can alter biological communities within pools and on surrounding semi-arid uplands. Effects due to grazing and excrement inputs have not yet been investigated. Vernal pools constitute distinct habitat sites within semi-arid landscapes and, therefore, probably play an important, and so far poorly understood, ecological role on the southeast Oregon steppe.
Patterned Neuropathologic Events Occurring in hyh Congenital Hydrocephalic Mutant Mice

Hyh mutant mice develop long-lasting hydrocephalus and represent a good model for investigating neuropathologic events associated with hydrocephalus. The study of their brains by use of lectin binding, bromodeoxyuridine labeling, immunochemistry, and scanning electron microscopy revealed that certain events related to hydrocephalus followed a well-defined pattern. A program of neuroepithelium/ependyma denudation was initiated at embryonic day 12 and terminated at the end of the second postnatal week. After the third postnatal week the denuded areas remained permanently devoid of ependyma. In contrast, a selective group of ependymal areas resisted denudation throughout the lifespan. Ependymal denudation triggered neighboring astrocytes to proliferate. These astrocytes expressed particular glial markers and formed a superficial cell layer replacing the lost ependyma. The loss of the neuroepithelium/ependyma layer at specific regions of the ventricular walls and at specific stages of brain development would explain the fact that only certain brain structures had abnormal development. Therefore, commissural axons forming the corpus callosum and the hippocampal commissure displayed abnormalities, whereas those forming the anterior and posterior commissures did not; and the brain cortex was not homogenously affected, with the cingular and frontal cortices being the most altered regions. All of these telencephalic alterations developed at stages when hydrocephalus was not yet patent at the lateral ventricles, indicating that abnormal neural development and hydrocephalus are linked at the etiologic level, rather than the former being a consequence of the latter. All evidence collected on hydrocephalic hyh mutant mice indicates that a primary alteration in the neuroepithelium/ependyma cell lineage triggers both hydrocephalus and abnormalities in telencephalic development.
An NP decision procedure for protocol insecurity with XOR

We provide a method for deciding the insecurity of cryptographic protocols in presence of the standard Dolev-Yao intruder (with a finite number of sessions) extended with so-called oracle rules, i.e., deduction rules that satisfy certain conditions. As an instance of this general framework, we ascertain that protocol insecurity is in NP for an intruder that can exploit the properties of the XOR operator. This operator is frequently used in cryptographic protocols but cannot be handled in most protocol models. An immediate consequence of our proof is that checking whether a message can be derived by an intruder (using XOR) is in P. We also apply our framework to an intruder that exploits properties of certain encryption modes such as cipher block chaining (CBC).
A Source Tree Reliable Multicast Protocol for Ad-Hoc Networks

Multicasting is an essential service for ad-hoc wireless networks. Many reliable multicast schemes were studied in order to reduce packet losses in the network. This paper describes our effort to build a source tree reliable multicast protocol for ad-hoc networks. Source tree reliable multicast protocol provides the delivery of an ordered contiguous sequence of data packets from one sender to many receivers in an ad-hoc network. It is designed to support applications based on bulk data transfer, like files, images and software packages. The core to its support of node mobility, and also what makes the protocol unique, is the dynamic selection of a sub set of 1-hop neighbors from the sender as its forward servers. The key idea behind the selection of this sub set 1-hop neighbors is to forward the retransmitted lost data packets that are needed by some receivers to achieve a higher throughput and to receive the acknowledgment packet from receivers to avoid the acknowledgment-implosion problem inherent in any reliable multicast scheme. Finally, simulation results show that the protocol has a high delivery ratio and low end-to-end delay compared to ReMHoc protocol.
A Cross-Layer-Based Routing Protocol for Ad Hoc Cognitive Radio Networks

This paper proposes a cross-layer-based routing protocol for mobile ad hoc cognitive radio networks. The routing layer receives the spectrum-availability-related information from the medium access control layer and selects the next hop node on the route according to the spectrum information. This paper examines the expectation of channel switching in a range of scenarios and proposes a novel route selection method to mitigate the frequent channel switching. The proposed protocol distributes the routing overheads among secondary users in the network and prolongs the network lifetime. An extensive simulation was performed to evaluate the proposed approach, and the results showed that the proposed protocol extends the network lifetime and maintains a higher data delivery ratio.
Nonlinearity properties of a phthalocyanine film researching by top-hat Z-scan techniques

The third-order nonlinear refractive response in a kind of thin phthalocyanine film has been investigated using two types of top-hat Z-scan techniques with a picoseconds pulses laser at wavelength of 532nm. The nonlinear phase shift of this sample is so week because of the very small thickness of the films, and the normal top-hat Z-scan technique is often difficult to measure the results. To research the nonlinear response of this thin film, we also has been measured it using the modified top-hat Z-scan technique under the experimental conditions of the same. The curve of the modified top-hat Z-scan for the nonlinear refraction is only a single peak and the result shows this kind of film has obvious response of nonlinear refraction with 19 picoseconds pulses. Furthermore, we have been carried on the theoretical analysis and the numerical simulation with the result of the experiment, and the theoretical simulation fit well with experimental results, the value of the nonlinear refraction index is obtained to be n2 = 6.25×10−15 m2 /W . By comparing the measured curve of the two, the results indicate that the sensitivity of the modified top-hat Z-scan measurement is greatly enhanced.
Enhancing the Quality of Service for Real Time Traffic over Optical Burst Switching (OBS) Networks with Ensuring the Fairness for Other Traffics

Optical burst switching (OBS) networks have been attracting much consideration as a promising approach to build the next generation optical Internet. A solution for enhancing the Quality of Service (QoS) for high priority real time traffic over OBS with the fairness among the traffic types is absent in current OBS’ QoS schemes. In this paper we present a novel Real Time Quality of Service with Fairness Ratio (RT-QoSFR) scheme that can adapt the burst assembly parameters according to the traffic QoS needs in order to enhance the real time traffic QoS requirements and to ensure the fairness for other traffic. The results show that RT-QoSFR scheme is able to fulfill the real time traffic requirements (end to end delay, and loss rate) ensuring the fairness for other traffics under various conditions such as the type of real time traffic and traffic load. RT-QoSFR can guarantee that the delay of the real time traffic packets does not exceed the maximum packets transfer delay value. Furthermore, it can reduce the real time traffic packets loss, at the same time guarantee the fairness for non real time traffic packets by determining the ratio of real time traffic inside the burst to be 50–60%, 30–40%, and 10–20% for high, normal, and low traffic loads respectively.
“My Phone is a Part of My Soul” – How People Bond with Their Mobile Phones

In this paper, we present the results of research that examined how young and active mobile phone users describe their relationship and attachment with their phone, and what features and processes have played an active role in building the attachment. The results are based on street interviews of 40 mobile phone users that were conducted in India and Europe. Our analysis revealed that the following factors contribute towards building the relationship between the mobile phone and its user: 1) habit, 2) memories, 3) personalization, 4) adaptation, 5) process from use to presence, 6) buying the phone, and 7) phone content.
Reading the Underlying Information From Massive Metagenomic Sequencing Data

Microorganisms are everywhere. Recent studies showed that the mixture of microbes or the microbiome on the human body plays important roles in human physiology and diseases. Metagenomic sequencing is a key technology for studying microbiomes. It produces massive amounts of data in the form of short sequencing reads. A single metagenomic sample can contain 10 7 to 10 8 reads of about 100-nucleotide (nt) length each in a typical shotgun metagenomic sequencing study. They contain rich information about microbiomes and their functions, but reading out those information from the huge highly fragmented data has multiple challenges for mathematical models, bioinformatics methods, and computer algorithms. In this paper, we review the basic bioinformatics tasks and existing methods in processing and analyzing metagenomic data, and discuss remaining open challenges and practical observations. The aim of the paper is to provide readers a whole picture of metagenomic data processing and analysis, and a reference and perspective to start with for computational scientists who are interested in this exciting field.