Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An International Comparison of the Citation Impact of Chinese Journals with Priority Funding

We have investigated the citation impact of four pairs of journals in four subject categories including the category of multidisciplinary journals, journals in environmental sciences, applied mathematics, as well as metallurgy and metallurgical engineering. Each pair is composed of one Chinese journal and one leading international journal in the same subject category. Comparison is done between the selected Chinese and international journals in each pair. The four Chinese journals are selected because of priority funding by the Chinese CIU Plan in categories A and B. Compared with leading international journals in the same subject category, citation impacts of the four Chinese journals in their relevant environments are low, although they have been improving from 2004 to 2013. Leading international journals are more intensively and systematically cited than Chinese ones in the same subject category of the JCR. Regarding the CIU Plan, the level of funding seems not to follow exactly the citation impacts: Journals receiving larger amounts of funding do not necessarily perform better in citation impact, and journals receiving the same amount of subsidy may have different citation performances.
From Patches to Natural Images via Hierarchical Dirichlet Processes

We propose a hierarchical generative model that captures the self-similar structure of image regions as well as how this structure is shared across image collections. Our model is based on a novel, variational interpretation of the popular expected patch log-likelihood (EPLL) method as a model for randomly positioned grids of image patches. While previous EPLL methods modeled the density of image patches with ﬁnite Gaussian mixtures, we use nonparametric Dirichlet process (DP) mixtures to create models whose complexity grows as additional images are observed. An extension based on the hierarchical DP then captures the repetitive and self-similar structure of image regions via image-speciﬁc variations in cluster frequencies. We derive a structured variational inference algorithm that uses birth and delete moves to create new patch clusters and thus more accurately model novel image textures. Our denoising performance on standard benchmarks is superior to EPLL and comparable to the state-of-the-art, while providing a novel statistical interpretation for many common image processing heuristics.
HETEROGENEOUS PROTOCOLS FOR INCREASING LIFETIME OF WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

In this paper, the heterogeneous energy-efficient data gathering protocols for lifetime of wireless sensor networks have been reported. The main requirements of wireless sensor network are to prolong the network lifetime and energy efficiency. Here, Heterogeneous - SEP: A Stable Election Protocol for clustered heterogeneous (H-SEP) for Wireless Sensor Network has been proposed to prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, the impacts of heterogeneity in terms of node energy in wireless sensor networks have been mentioned. Finally the simulation result demonstrates that H-SEP achieves longer lifetime and more effective data packets in comparison with the SEP and LEACH protocol.
Chromosome partitioning in Escherichia coli

Once bacterial chromosomes are replicated, they are passed to daughter cells with a high degree of precision: fewer than 0.03% of wild-type cells lack DNA (24). This process is often called partitioning, and this minireview will consider events in the Escherichia coli cell cycle that ensure that each daughter cell receives a chromosome. For simplicity, partitioning will be considered to consist of three distinct but interrelated processes: (i) separation of daughter chromosomes that are physically linked by catenation (interlinking) or by covalent bonding (circular oligomers); (ii) formation of nucleoids that contain the chromosome structures found in cells; and (iii) segregation of nucleoids, or the movement and positioning of nucleoids so that each daughter cell receives a nucleoid at cell division. (Note that other meanings have sometimes been assigned to partitioning and segregation.) We will not consider the coupling of cell division with chromosome replication.
Design and Simulation of Continuous Dielectrophoretic Flow Sorters

This paper was an attempt to investigate, through numerical simulation, the designs of DEP flow sorters when applied with different ratios of the electrodes to generate different electrical fields, and to explore the sorting capability of the flow sorters, defined as the degree of particle deflection, under different op- eration of parameters. In order to obtain the maximal DEP negative particle deflection, which was believed as an indicator of greater sorting capability, we have investigated different non-uniform electrical fields produced by com- binations of electrodes with different length of two poles, ranging from 1:2 up to 1:9. The finding of numerical simulation indicated that the length ratio 1:3 of the electrode poles produced the electrical fields that maximized the particle deflection. Moreover, different parameters of applied voltage, flow rate, particle diameters, and distance between two electrical poles were designed to investigate their effects on particle deflection of flow sorters. The numerical simulation of the study showed that the DEP flow sorter was demonstrated as a linear system with respect to the applied voltage and particle diameter. In this study, we tried to operationally define flow rate as the time duration while the flow passed the electrical fields, and thus investigated how particle deflect with the different time given. We found that the particle deflected more when the flow was al- lowed with longer time to pass the electrical fields. The study also showed that the distance the particles deflect from the centerline is in inverse proportion to the square distance between the two electrical poles.
Mice Deficient in Nervous System-specific Carbohydrate Epitope HNK-1 Exhibit Impaired Synaptic Plasticity and Spatial Learning*

The HNK-1 carbohydrate epitope, a sulfated glucuronic acid at the non-reducing terminus of glycans, is expressed characteristically on a series of cell adhesion molecules and is synthesized through a key enzyme, glucuronyltransferase (GlcAT-P). We generated mice with a targeted deletion of the GlcAT-P gene. The GlcAT-P −/− mice exhibited normal development of gross anatomical features, but the adult mutant mice exhibited reduced long term potentiation at the Schaffer collateral-CA1 synapses and a defect in spatial memory formation. This is the first evidence that the loss of a single non-reducing terminal carbohydrate residue attenuates brain higher functions.
Analysis of High-Order Slotted Surface Gratings by the 2-D Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method

High-order slotted surface gratings are analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain method. The power reflection, transmission and loss are calculated for these gratings. Results show good agreement with those calculated by the 2-D scattering matrix method. Simulations predict that such slotted surface gratings will yield the lowest loss with slot width equal to a quarter-wavelength (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda / 4$</tex-math> </inline-formula>) in the slot area. The calculated field distribution shows that a wider slot width results in a larger scattering loss from the gratings. It is also found that for the gratings with slot width of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$5\lambda / 4$</tex-math></inline-formula>, the power reflection will increase by more than 45% while the loss will drop to just half of the value for the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $9\lambda / 4$</tex-math></inline-formula> slot width grating that was used in previous designs. Moreover, it can still be fabricated by standard photolithography since the slot width is around 610 nm, which means that lasers based on such gratings can be easily fabricated and will have a lower threshold current with higher slope efficiency than previous designs.
Sensorless Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor drive using an optimized and normalized Extended Kalman filter

In this paper, normalised state vectors are used to demonstrate the state equations of Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based sensorless Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) drive. Based on the normalised EKF equations, Simple Genetic Algorithm (SGA) is employed to optimize the noise covariance and weight matrices of EKF parameters, which thereby reduces the parameter adjusting time and ensures stability of filters in estimations of position and speed. The simulations for SGA training are carried out by MATLAB/Simulink. The experimental sensorless drive system employing Field Oriented Control (FOC) method and SGA is implemented on STM32F103. The simulating and experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
IMEGE: Image-based Mathematical Expression Global Error

Mathematical expression recognition is an active research field that is related to document image analysis and typesetting. Several approaches have been proposed to tackle this problem, and automatic methods for performance evaluation are required. Mathematical expressions are usually represented as a coded string like LTEX or MathML for evaluation purpose. This representation has ambiguity problems given that the same expression can be coded in several ways. For that reason, the proposed approaches in the past either manually analyzed recognition results or they reported partial errors as symbol error rate. In this study, we present a novel global performance evaluation measure for mathematical expression based on image matching. In this way, using an image representation solves the representation ambiguity as well as human beings do. The proposed evaluation method is a global error measure that also provides local information about the recognition result.
Calmodulin and lipid binding to synaptobrevin regulates calcium‐dependent exocytosis

Neurotransmitter release involves the assembly of a heterotrimeric SNARE complex composed of the vesicle protein synaptobrevin (VAMP 2) and two plasma membrane partners, syntaxin 1 and SNAP‐25. Calcium influx is thought to control this process via Ca2+‐binding proteins that associate with components of the SNARE complex. Ca2+/calmodulin or phospholipids bind in a mutually exclusive fashion to a C‐terminal domain of VAMP (VAMP77–90), and residues involved were identified by plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Microinjection of wild‐type VAMP77–90, but not mutant peptides, inhibited catecholamine release from chromaffin cells monitored by carbon fibre amperometry. Pre‐incubation of PC12 pheochromocytoma cells with the irreversible calmodulin antagonist ophiobolin A inhibited Ca2+‐dependent human growth hormone release in a permeabilized cell assay. Treatment of permeabilized cells with tetanus toxin light chain (TeNT) also suppressed secretion. In the presence of TeNT, exocytosis was restored by transfection of TeNT‐resistant (Q76V, F77W) VAMP, but additional targeted mutations in VAMP77–90 abolished its ability to rescue release. The calmodulin‐ and phospholipid‐binding domain of VAMP 2 is thus required for Ca2+‐dependent exocytosis, possibly to regulate SNARE complex assembly.
Expression and Function of Endothelial Ca2+-Activated K+ Channels in Human Mesenteric Artery: A Single-Cell Reverse Transcriptase–Polymerase Chain Reaction and Electrophysiological Study In Situ

Ca2+-activated K+ (KCa) channels have been suggested to play a role in the control of endothelial functions such as regulation of vascular tone and cell proliferation. We established a method for single-cell reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction analysis in combination with the patch-clamp technique to characterize KCa channel expression and function in single endothelial cells (ECs) within the endothelial monolayer of intact human mesenteric arteries (MAs) and in disease states. We tested whether endothelial KCa channel expression and function are altered in MAs obtained from patients with colonic adenocarcinoma (CA) compared with those in MAs from non–cancer patients with inactive diverticulitis. Expression of the intermediate-conductance KCa channel (hIK1) was detected in non–cancer and CA patients. In whole-cell patch-clamp measurements, only ECs expressing hIK1 exhibited corresponding KCa currents, whereas respective KCa currents were missing in hIK1-negative ECs. This heterogeneity of hIK1 expression patterns is indicative of a specialized subset of ECs within the endothelial monolayer. In CA patients, compared with non–cancer patients, a 2.5-fold increase in hIK1-expressing ECs per MA was observed (P <0.05). However, KCa current densities in hIK1-expressing ECs of both groups were similar. In addition to hIK1, expression of the large-conductance KCa channel (hSlo) was detected in single ECs from CA patients. The increased KCa channel expression in CA patients resulted in a 2.7-fold increase of bradykinin-induced endothelial hyperpolarization compared with controls (P <0.05). This increased expression and function of KCa channels might indicate an altered functional state of the endothelium in cancer patients and could play a role in tumor angiogenesis.
The performance of phase locked transparent tone-in-band with symmetric phase detection

Transparent tone-in-band (TTIB) creates a spectral gap by splitting a signal into frequency bands, which are then separated by modulation. Phase locked transparent-tone-in-band (PLTTIB), in its original form, contained an unacceptably high level of self-noise in the coherent band recombination process. A performance analysis of PLTTIB with symmetric phase detection is given. Several new results are highlighted including the effect of recombination phase error on bit-error rate, the mean-square phase error, the probability density function of phase error, and the pull-in time of the phase tracker. Although the detailed results are obtained only for static channels, a qualitative assessment of the effect of fading is given. >
Code Optimization for a Code-Modulated RF Front End

Recently, a novel class of on-site coding receivers was proposed. The architecture is suitable for digital beamforming in addition to offering multiple-input multiple-output capabilities. Essential to its realization is a code division multiplexing technique aggregating multiple signal paths at the analog front end into a single analog-to-digital converter. As a result, a significant hardware reduction and a higher power efficiency are achieved when compared with the conventional digital beamforming techniques. In this paper, we examine the system's performance with different types of spreading codes, both orthogonal and nonorthogonal, namely Walsh-Hadamard and Gold codes. Bit error rate calculations show that Walsh-Hadamard codes outperform Gold codes in achieving higher dynamic range with less signal-to-noise ratio degradation, assuming a perfectly synchronous system.
Development and validation of a procedure to isolate viable bone marrow cells from the vertebrae of cadaveric organ donors for composite organ grafting.

BACKGROUND AIMS Donor-derived vertebral bone marrow (BM) has been proposed to promote chimerism in solid organ transplantation with cadaveric organs. Reports of successful weaning from immunosuppression in patients receiving directed donor transplants in combination with donor BM or blood cells and novel peri-transplant immunosuppression has renewed interest in implementing similar protocols with cadaveric organs. METHODS We performed six pre-clinical full-scale separations to adapt vertebral BM preparations to a good manufacturing practice (GMP) environment. Vertebral bodies L4-T8 were transported to a class 10 000 clean room, cleaned of soft tissue, divided and crushed in a prototype bone grinder. Bone fragments were irrigated with medium containing saline, albumin, DNAse and gentamicin, and strained through stainless steel sieves. Additional cells were eluted after two rounds of agitation using a prototype BM tumbler. RESULTS The majority of recovered cells (70.9 ± 14.1%, mean ± SD) were eluted directly from the crushed bone, whereas 22.3% and 5.9% were eluted after the first and second rounds of tumbling, respectively. Cells were pooled and filtered (500, 200 μm) using a BM collection kit. Larger lumbar vertebrae yielded about 1.6 times the cells of thoracic vertebrae. The average product yielded 5.2 ± 1.2 × 10(10) total cells, 6.2 ± 2.2 × 10(8) of which were CD45(+) CD34(+). Viability was 96.6 ± 1.9% and 99.1 ± 0.8%, respectively. Multicolor flow cytometry revealed distinct populations of CD34(+) CD90(+) CD117(dim) hematopoietic stem cells (15.5 ± 7.5% of the CD34 (+) cells) and CD45(-) CD73(+) CD105(+) mesenchymal stromal cells (0.04 ± 0.04% of the total cells). CONCLUSIONS This procedure can be used to prepare clinical-grade cells suitable for use in human allotransplantation in a GMP environment.
Fluorescence Intensity Calibration Using the Raman Scatter Peak of Water

Fluorescence data of replicate samples obtained from different fluorescence spectrometers or by the same spectrometer but with different instrument settings can have great intensity differences. In order to compare such data an intensity calibration must be applied. Here we explain a simple calibration method for fluorescence intensity using only the integrated area of a water Raman peak. By applying this method to data from three different instruments, we show that it is possible to remove instrument-dependent intensity factors, and we present results on a unified scale of Raman units. The method presented is a rapid and simple approach suitable for routine measurements with no need for hazardous chemicals.
Inhibition of telomerase activity by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors: a potential factor contributing to HIV-associated accelerated aging.

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients on combination active antiretroviral therapy (cART) are at increased risk of age-related complications. We hypothesized that nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) may contribute to accelerated aging in HIV-infected individuals on cART via inhibition of telomerase activity. METHODS Telomerase activity and telomere length (TL) were measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction in vitro in activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) cultured with NRTI and ex vivo in PBMCs from uninfected patients exposed to NRTI and from HIV-infected patients on NRTI-containing cART. RESULTS Lamivudine, abacavir, zidovudine, emtricitabine, and tenofovir significantly inhibited telomerase activity in activated PBMCs in vitro. Tenofovir was the most potent inhibitor of telomerase activity and caused greatest shortening of TL in vitro at the therapeutic concentration of 0.3 μM. PBMCs from HIV-infected patients receiving NRTI-containing cART (n = 39) had significantly lower telomerase activity than HIV-uninfected patients (n = 47; P = .011) and HIV-infected patients receiving non-NRTI-containing cART (n = 11; P < .001). TL was significantly inversely associated with age (P = .009) and the total duration on any NRTI (P = .01). CONCLUSIONS NRTIs and, specifically tenofovir at therapeutic concentrations, inhibit telomerase activity leading to accelerated shortening of TL in activated PBMCs. The relationship between NRTI, reduced telomerase activity, and accelerated aging requires further investigation in HIV-infected individuals on cART.
MicroRNA-20a is essential for normal embryogenesis by targeting vsx1 mRNA in fish

MicroRNAs are major post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression and have essential roles in diverse developmental processes. In vertebrates, some regulatory genes play different roles at different developmental stages. These genes are initially transcribed in a wide embryonic region but restricted within distinct cell types at subsequent stages during development. Therefore, post-transcriptional regulation is required for the transition from one developmental stage to the next and the establishment of different cell identities. However, the regulation of many multiple functional genes at post-transcription level during development remains unknown. Here we show that miR-20a can target the mRNA of vsx1, a multiple functional gene, at the 3′-UTR and inhibit protein expression in both goldfish and zebrafish. The expression of miR-20a is initiated ubiquitously at late gastrula stage and exhibits a tissue-specific pattern in the developing retina. Inhibition of vsx1 3′-UTR mediated protein expression occurs when and where miR-20a is expressed. Decoying miR-20a resulted in severely impaired head, eye and trunk formation in association with excessive generation of vsx1 marked neurons in the spinal cord and defects of somites in the mesoderm region. These results demonstrate that miR-20a is essential for normal embryogenesis by restricting Vsx1 expression in goldfish and zebrafish, and that post-transcriptional regulation is an essential mechanism for Vsx1 playing different roles in diverse developmental processes.
How to Reconcile Physicalism and Antireductionism about Biology*

Physicalism and antireductionism are the ruling orthodoxy in the philosophy of biology. But these two theses are difficult to reconcile. Merely embracing an epistemic antireductionism will not suffice, as both reductionists and antireductionists accept that given our cognitive interests and limitations, non‐molecular explanations may not be improved, corrected or grounded in molecular ones. Moreover, antireductionists themselves view their claim as a metaphysical or ontological one about the existence of facts molecular biology cannot identify, express or explain. However, this is tantamount to a rejection of physicalism and so causes the antireductionist discomfort. In this paper we argue that vindicating physicalism requires a physicalistic account of the principle of natural selection, and we provide such an account. The most important payoff to the account is that it provides for the very sort of autonomy from the physical that antireductionists need without threatening their commitment to physicalism.