Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Investigation of Source Depths of the 2006 Pingtung Earthquake Sequence Using a Dense Array at Teleseismic Distances

We determined source depths of 6 major events of the 2006 Pingtung Earthquake sequence by comparing the observed array beams at teleseismic distances with synthetic seismograms for a range of depths. A simple but robust procedure to identify the depth of a seismic event has was developed and successfully demonstrated through its application to the Pingtung Earthquake sequence. This method is theoretically based on the fact that adopting the surface-reflected waveforms at teleseismic distances can eliminate the tradeoff relationship between the source depth and epicenter determination. Accordingly, we utilized high quality seismic records of the Yellowknife Array with our method and found that we did obtain reasonable results; the depths of 6 events previously determined by CWBSN were overestimated except a second large event. This event was a complex source rupture, which occurred on December 26, 12:34 UTC (Mw = 6.9), based upon a detailed examination of near source strong motion seismograms. Combining analyses from near source and teleseismic observations, we suggest that the shallow fault plane rupture progressed deeper during the event. Investigations based on teleseismic and local observations identified different portions of the rupture fault, wherein the CWBSN data constrained the initial onset and the Yellowknife Array resolved the centroid of the rupture.
Lagrange time delay estimation for scanning electron microscope image magnification

Interpolation techniques that are used for image magnification to obtain more useful details of the surface such as morphology and mechanical contrast usually rely on the signal information distributed around edges and areas of sharp changes and these signal information can also be used to predict missing details from the sample image. However, many of these interpolation methods tend to smooth or blur out image details around the edges. In the present study, a Lagrange time delay estimation interpolator method is proposed and this method only requires a small filter order and has no noticeable estimation bias. Comparing results with the original scanning electron microscope magnification and results of various other interpolation methods, the Lagrange time delay estimation interpolator is found to be more efficient, more robust and easier to execute.
c-Myc Blazing a Trail of Death: Coupling of the Mitochondrial and Death Receptor Apoptosis Pathways by c-Myc

TRAIL ligand induces selectively apoptosis in tumor cells by binding to two death receptors (DR4 and DR5) and holds promise as a potential therapeutic agent against cancer. While it has been known for long time that TRAIL receptors are commonly expressed in wide variety of normal tissues, it is not well understood why TRAIL kills tumor cells but leaves normal cells unharmed. The prototypic oncogene c-Myc promotes the cell cycle and simultaneously primes activation of the Bcl-2 family controlled mitochondria apoptosis pathway. A striking reflection of the c-Myc-dependent apoptotic sensitization is the dramatic c-Myc-induced vulnerability of cells to TRAIL and other death receptor ligands. Here we summarize the recent findings regarding the death mechanisms of TRAIL/TRAIL receptor system and the connection of c-Myc to the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, focusing on our work that couples c-Myc via Bak to the TRAIL death receptor pathway. Finally, we present a mitochondria-priming model to explain how c-Myc-Bak interaction amplifies the TRAIL-induced caspase 8-Bid pathway to induce fullblown apoptosis. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the selective cytotoxicity of TRAIL and for the therapeutic exploitation of the death receptor pathway.
Learning word meanings from images of natural scenes

Children early on face the challenge of learning the meaning of words from noisy and ambiguous contexts. Utterances that guide their learning are emitted in complex scenes rendering the mapping between visual and linguistic cues difﬁcult. A key challenge in computational modeling of the acquisition of word meanings is to provide representations of scenes that contain sources of information and statistical properties similar in complexity to natural data. We propose a novel computational model of cross-situational word learning that takes images of natural scenes paired with their descriptions as input and incrementally learns probabilistic associations between words and image features. Through a set of experiments we show that the model learns meaning representations that correlate with human similarity judgments, and that given an image of a scene it produces words conceptually related to the image.
Regression based algorithms for predicting age of an Arabidopsis plant

This paper presents the analysis of various regression based machine learning algorithms for image-based plant phenotyping application and proposes a technique for plant phenotyping. Capability to predict age/development stage of a plant is one of the important factors for plant phenotyping and for analysis of in-situ crops. With the developed technique, these algorithms can predict age of an Arabidopsis plant based on the given images and mutant types. Publicly available dataset containing 165 images at different development stages and with various mutant types was used for this experiment. Results show that with this technique and different regression algorithms, it can achieve 92% prediction accuracy. Comparatively, linear regression algorithms show greater prediction accuracy than nonlinear algorithms. This method of age prediction can help plant scientists and breeders for better analysis of crops.
Brown spider phospholipase‐D containing a conservative mutation (D233E) in the catalytic site: Identification and functional characterization

Brown spider (Loxosceles genus) bites have been reported worldwide. The venom contains a complex composition of several toxins, including phospholipases‐D. Native or recombinant phospholipase‐D toxins induce cutaneous and systemic loxoscelism, particularly necrotic lesions, inflammatory response, renal failure, and hematological disturbances. Herein, we describe the cloning, heterologous expression and purification of a novel phospholipase‐D toxin, LiRecDT7 in reference to six other previously described in phospholipase‐D toxin family. The complete cDNA sequence of this novel brown spider phospholipase‐D isoform was obtained and the calculated molecular mass of the predicted mature protein is 34.4 kDa. Similarity analyses revealed that LiRecDT7 is homologous to the other dermonecrotic toxin family members particularly to LiRecDT6, sharing 71% sequence identity. LiRecDT7 possesses the conserved amino acid residues involved in catalysis except for a conservative mutation (D233E) in the catalytic site. Purified LiRecDT7 was detected as a soluble 36 kDa protein using anti‐whole venom and anti‐LiRecDT1 sera, indicating immunological cross‐reactivity and evidencing sequence‐epitopes identities similar to those of other phospholipase‐D family members. Also, LiRecDT7 exhibits sphingomyelinase activity in a concentration dependent‐manner and induces experimental skin lesions with swelling, erythema and dermonecrosis. In addition, LiRecDT7 induced a massive inflammatory response in rabbit skin dermis, which is a hallmark of brown spider venom phospholipase‐D toxins. Moreover, LiRecDT7 induced in vitro hemolysis in human erythrocytes and increased blood vessel permeability. These features suggest that this novel member of the brown spider venom phospholipase‐D family, which naturally contains a mutation (D233E) in the catalytic site, could be useful for future structural and functional studies concerning loxoscelism and lipid biochemistry. Highlights: 1‐ Novel brown spider phospholipase‐D recombinant toxin contains a conservative mutation (D233E) on the catalytic site. 2‐LiRecDT7 shares high identity level with isoforms of Loxosceles genus. 3‐LiRecDT7 is a recombinant protein immunodetected by specific antibodies to native and recombinant phospholipase‐D toxins. 4‐LiRecDT7 shows sphingomyelinase‐D activity in a concentration‐dependent manner, but less intense than other isoforms. 5‐LiRecDT7 induces dermonecrosis and inflammatory response in rabbit skin. 6‐LiRecDT7 increases vascular permeability in mice. 7‐LiRecDT7 triggers direct complement‐independent hemolysis in erythrocytes. J. Cell. Biochem. 114: 2479–2492, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Intensive Versus Standard Blood Pressure Control in SPRINT-Eligible Participants of ACCORD-BP

OBJECTIVE We sought to determine the effect of intensive blood pressure (BP) control on cardiovascular outcomes in participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and additional risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This study was a post hoc, multivariate, subgroup analysis of ACCORD-BP (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Blood Pressure) participants. Participants were eligible for the analysis if they were in the standard glucose control arm of ACCORD-BP and also had the additional CVD risk factors required for SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial) eligibility. We used a Cox proportional hazards regression model to compare the effect of intensive versus standard BP control on CVD outcomes. The “SPRINT-eligible” ACCORD-BP participants were pooled with SPRINT participants to determine whether the effects of intensive BP control interacted with T2DM. RESULTS The mean baseline Framingham 10-year CVD risk scores were 14.5% and 14.8%, respectively, in the intensive and standard BP control groups. The mean achieved systolic BP values were 120 and 134 mmHg in the intensive and standard BP control groups (P < 0.001). Intensive BP control reduced the composite of CVD death, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), nonfatal stroke, any revascularization, and heart failure (hazard ratio 0.79; 95% CI 0.65–0.96; P = 0.02). Intensive BP control also reduced CVD death, nonfatal MI, and nonfatal stroke (hazard ratio 0.69; 95% CI 0.51–0.93; P = 0.01). Treatment-related adverse events occurred more frequently in participants receiving intensive BP control (4.1% vs. 2.1%; P = 0.003). The effect of intensive BP control on CVD outcomes did not differ between patients with and without T2DM (P > 0.62). CONCLUSIONS Intensive BP control reduced CVD outcomes in a cohort of participants with T2DM and additional CVD risk factors.
Advanced Multi-frequency Inversion Methods for Classifying Acoustic Scatterers

Abstract : The goals of this study are to develop species- and life-stage-specific acoustic scattering models based on morphologically-accurate digitizations of preserved or live-imaged zooplankton from coastal waters. These models will estimate scattering strength as a function of acoustical frequency, animal size, taxon, and orientation relative to the incidence angle. These predictions will improve our ability to estimate animal abundances by taxon/morphological class via inversion.
The electrochemical proton gradient of Saccharomyces. The role of potassium.

The electrochemical gradient of protons (ΔμΔH+) across the plasma membrane of Saccharomyces× 17/17 has been measured as a function of external pH and the external potassium concentration. The proton gradient (ΔpH) has been determined from the distribution of the weak permeable [14C]propionic acid across the plasma membrane. The accumulation of the lipophilic cation [3H]tetraphenylphosphonium has been used to calculate the membrane potential (ΔΨ). It has been observed that yeast cells are able to maintain a ΔμH+ whose values vary from −150 mV at pH 4.5 to −90 mV at pH 7.0. When considered independently ΔpH and ΔΨ have values which vary reciprocally depending on the external pH. At pH 4.5 δpH is the main component of ΔμH+ having a value of −105 mV. Then its value decreases as the external pH increases reaching a value of −10 mV at pH 7.0. At this pH ΔΨ is the main cornponcnt of δμ,H++ having a value of −80 mV, while at pH 4.5 its value is −45 mV. As the external concentration of potassium increases the value of ΔΨ becomes smaller. This decrease in ΔΨ is accompanied by an increase in the value of ΔpH. For any given concentration of potassium, the decrease in ΔΨ is larger than the increase in δpH the net result being, therefore, a decrease in the protonmotive force. In cells treated with the protonophores carbonylcyanide M-chlorophenylhydrazone or dinitrophenol, δpH is drastically reduced at every pH while ΔΨ is not significantly changed. Upon treatment with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide ΔpH is reduced at any pH tested. This decrease is accompanied by an increase in the value of ΔΨ so that the total protonmotive force remains essentially constant. If the treatment with dicyclohexylcarbodiiniide is carried out in the presence of 200 mM potassium carbodiimide effect on ΔpH and ΔΨ is abolished. The results show that the movements of H+ and K+ are closely connected and play a central role in the establishment and maintenance of an energized state of the cell. They further suggest that δμH+ regulates the fluxes of protons while ΔμH+ regulates the establishment of a ΔμK+.
Materials and integration schemes for above-IC integrated optics

A study is presented on silicon oxynitride material for waveguides and germanium-silicon alloys for p-i-n diodes. The materials are manufactured at low, CMOS-backend compatible temperatures, targeting the integration of optical functions on top of CMOS chips. Low-temperature germanium-silicon deposition, crystallization and doping are studied for integrated photo-detection up to ~1500 nm wavelength. An inductively-coupled-plasma chemical vapor deposition process is presented for silicon oxynitride manufacturing at 150 °C wafer temperature, yielding low-loss material in a wide optical spectral range. Integration schemes for an optical plane on top of CMOS are discussed.
Intentional reactivation of latent ocular herpes infection during BVDU therapy.

Sixteen adult New Zealand white rabbits with previously confirmed herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infections were stimulated by iontophoresis of 6-hydroxydopamine into the cornea and were followed-up by topical epinephrine treatment to confirm latency. A total of 224 ocular cultures were obtained, of which 73 were positive for HSV during the seven day cycle. Twenty-seven of the 32 eyes (84%) had at least one positive culture. Animals were randomly divided into two treatment groups. Upon repeat stimulation (Cycle 2), concurrent with oral and topical bromovinyl-deoxyuridine (BVDU) therapy, only 3/104 ocular cultures were HSV positive, while 24/112 ocular cultures from placebo-treated animals were positive. Anti-HSV serum titers were comparable before and after BVDU therapy and the HSV isolates from BVDU treated animals did not develop drug resistance (i.e., ED-50 values were approximately 0.1-0.2 ug/ml both before and after therapy). It was concluded that BVDU had a demonstrable therapeutic effect on the recovery of HSV-1 from ocular cultures during intentional reactivation, but the latent ganglionic infection was not eliminated.
Glycosylphosphatidylinositol biosynthesis validated as a drug target for African sleeping sickness.

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) membrane-anchored proteins have attracted considerable attention as markers of detergent-insoluble cholesterol/sphingolipid-rich “lipid rafts” (1). GPI-anchored proteins are ubiquitous among the eukaryotes and are particularly abundant, in terms of surface density, in a number of protozoan organisms. The term GPI was first introduced in 1985 for the membrane anchor of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) of Trypanosoma brucei and the first complete GPI structure (2) and descriptions of GPI biosynthesis (3, 4) were for T. brucei VSG.
Effect Of Portal Hypertensive Gastropathy On Electrogastrographic changes &Gastric Emptying Time

Background: Dyspepsia is a frequent symptom in cirrhotic patients . Congestive gastropathy or portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) was detected as a possible cause of sustained dyspepsia in 40% of these patients , and prolonged gastric emptying time(GE) with decrease gastric wall compliance were detected in cirrhoric patients . Electrogastrography (EGG) is a non-invasive method to study gastric myoelectrical activity from the body surface by electrodes . whereas, an ultrasonographic method can be used for the estimation of gastric emptying by measuring what so called half emptying and full emptying times with other parameters. Aim of this work is to study patterns of EGG & ultrasnographic GE. In cirrhotic patients with or without PHG . 45 patients were chosen for this study and were divided into 3 groups ; group 1 is cirrhotic patients with PHG negative upper gastrointestinal ( U.G.I.T.) endoscopy & group 2 is cirrhotic patients with PHG positive & group 3 is healthy subjects taken as control . Results :we found significant delay in GE in gp. 2 in relation to group 3 (p < 0.05 ). EGG reveiled power ratio lower in gp. 1, 2 ( 2.01 – 1.93 ) respectively compared to group. 3 (2.63). Also there was highly significint increase in “Dominant frequency” at rest ( DF ) in group.1 campared to group. 2 & 3 ( p>0.01) where mean of group 1 was 2944.9 , in group 2 was 2477 and in group 3 was 1934 & the power meal at DF was higher in group 1 than 2 , 3 but siatistically insignificant where the mean in group 1 was 5922.5 & in group. 2 was 4804.8 and was 5087.8 in group 3 (p>0.05) conclusion :Delayed gastric emptying by U.S, and changes in EGG records of cirrohotic patients especially in presence of portal hypertensive gastropathy may explain dyspepsia frequently occurring with portal hypertensive gastropathy.
A review of herbal medicines in wound healing

Herbs have been integral to both traditional and non‐traditional forms of medicine dating back at least 5000 years. The enduring popularity of herbal medicines may be explained by the perception that herbs cause minimal unwanted side effects. More recently, scientists increasingly rely on modern scientific methods and evidence‐based medicine to prove efficacy of herbal medicines and focus on better understanding of mechanisms of their action. However, information concerning quantitative human health benefits of herbal medicines is still rare or dispersed, limiting their proper valuation. Preparations from traditional medicinal plants are often used for wound healing purposes covering a broad area of different skin‐related diseases. Herbal medicines in wound management involve disinfection, debridement, and provision of a suitable environment for aiding the natural course of healing. Here we report on 22 plants used as wound healing agents in traditional medicine around the world. The aim of this review is therefore to review herbal medicines, which pose great potential for effective treatment of minor wounds.
Advances in iron chelation: an update

Introduction: Oxidative stress (caused by excess iron) can result in tissue damage, organ failure and finally death, unless treated by iron chelators. The causative factor in the etiology of a variety of disease states is the presence of iron-generated reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can result in cell damage or which can affect the signaling pathways involved in cell necrosis–apoptosis or organ fibrosis, cancer, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular, hepatic or renal dysfunctions. Iron chelators can reduce oxidative stress by the removal of iron from target tissues. Equally as important, removal of iron from the active site of enzymes that play key roles in various diseases can be of considerable benefit to the patients. Areas covered: This review focuses on iron chelators used as therapeutic agents. The importance of iron in oxidative damage is discussed, along with the three clinically approved iron chelators. Expert opinion: A number of iron chelators are used as approved therapeutic agents in the treatment of thalassemia major, asthma, fungal infections and cancer. However, as our knowledge about the biochemistry of iron and its role in etiologies of seemingly unrelated diseases increases, new applications of the approved iron chelators, as well as the development of new iron chelators, present challenging opportunities in the areas of drug discovery and development.
Simple and Robust Chromatic Dispersion Estimation for RGI-CO-OFDM Systems

Because of the variations of transmission route and environment, reduced-guard interval coherent optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (RGI-CO-OFDM) has difficulty removing chromatic dispersion (CD) accurately by the use of over-lapped frequency domain equalizer (OFDE) according to the predicted CD value. To make RGI-CO-OFDM systems adaptive to CD change without extra cyclic prefix (CP) overhead, an effective CD estimation (CDE) algorithm is proposed to calibrate the CD compensation value of OFDE. The detailed simulation results prove the excellent abilities of the proposed CDE algorithm to resist inter-symbol interference and suppress amplified spontaneous emission noise. Comparing with the traditional RGI-CO-OFDM systems, its tolerable dynamic CD range can be increased >30 times at the same training symbols and CP overheads at the transmission rate of 480 Gb/s.
Analysis of resource usage profile for MapReduce applications using Hadoop on cloud

In this paper we present a study of resource consumption profiles for MapReduce applications using Hadoop on Amazon EC2. We selected three applications and measured their resource usage in terms of CPU and memory footprint. Specifically, we study Grep, Word Count and Sort applications while altering Hadoop's configuration parameters corresponding to I/O buffer. Our study brings up 3 key points. Firstly, effect of I/O parameters on total running time of the application; secondly, invalid assumptions of Hadoop scheduler that three phases (copy, sort and reduce) of a Reduce task are equal; finally, an insight supported by the results from the experiments on ways to improve the Hadoop scheduler for running multiple jobs by capturing the resource consumption information of different applications. To the best of our knowledge this is the first work that presents resource usage study.
Extraction of essential interactions through multiple observations of human demonstrations

This paper describes a new approach on how to teach a robot everyday manipulation tasks under the "Learning from Observation" framework. In this approach, human demonstrations, which are made up of mutual interactions between a grasped object and an environmental object, are observed and a reusable manipulation task model is automatically generated. Most of the similar approaches so far assume that a demonstration can be well understood from a single demonstration. However, a single demonstration contains ambiguity, in that interactions which are essential to complete a task cannot be discerned without prior task dependent knowledge, which should be obtained from observation. To address these issues, a technique to integrate multiple observations of demonstrations is proposed. The demonstrations differ, but are virtually the same task. The shared interactions among all the demonstrations are considered to be essential and a task model is generated from their symbolic representations. Then, the relative trajectories corresponding to each essential interaction are generalized by calculating their mean and variance, and they are also stored in the task model, which is used to reproduce skilled behavior. This approach is examined by using a human-form robot, which successfully imitates human demonstrations of everyday tasks.