Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of mZnf8, a Mouse Krüppel-Like Transcriptional Repressor, as a Novel Nuclear Interaction Partner of Smad1

ABSTRACT To identify novel genes that play critical roles in mediating bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signal pathways, we performed a yeast two-hybrid screen using Smad1 as bait. A novel mouse Krüppel-type zinc finger protein, mZnf8, was isolated. Interactions between mZnf8 and Smad proteins were further analyzed with various in vitro and in vivo approaches, including mammalian two-hybrid, in vitro glutathione S-transferase pulldown, and copurification assays. Results from functional analysis indicate that mZnf8 is a nuclear transcriptional repressor. Overexpression of mZnf8 represses activity of BMP and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) reporters. Silencing the expression of endogenous mZnf8 with an RNA interference approach caused a significant increase in the expression of one BMP reporter. These results suggest that mZnf8 negatively regulates the TGF-β/BMP signaling pathway in vivo. Transcription of mZnf8 is ubiquitous in mouse embryos, but high levels are specifically observed in adult mouse testes, with the same cell- and stage-specific transcription pattern as Smad1. Our data support the hypothesis that mZnf8 plays critical roles in mediating BMP signaling during spermatogenesis.
Contribution of CD8+ T cells to inflammatory cytokine production in systemic sclerosis (SSc)

Abstract Only limited attention has been paid to the role of CD8 + T cells in the etiopathogenesis and progression of systemic sclerosis (SSc). CD8 + T cells may have autoantigen-specific and pro-inflammatory but also immunomodulatory properties. To investigate the differentiation of CD8 + T cells, staining of cell surface factors and of chemokine receptors were performed. In addition, the cytokine-producing ability of circulating CD8 + T cells and their sensitivity to suppression by regulatory T cells (Tregs) were compared between patients with diffuse (dcSSc) or limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc) and healthy individuals. We identified CD8 + T cells as producers of pro-inflammatory type-2 cytokines with a significant contribution of memory CD8 + T cells. Memory CD8 + T cells of SSc patients stayed unaltered after suppression with autologous Tregs. Expression of chemokine receptors was significantly correlated with intracellular cytokine production in CD8 + T cells with a clear dichotomy of type 1 and type 2 cytokines. High levels of intracellular cytokines, such as interleukin-(IL)-4, IL-13 and tumor-necrosis-factor-alpha (TNFalpha) were positively associated with the presence of Scl-70 or anti-centromere antibodies and negatively with the administration of glucocorticoids. Administration of glucocorticoids was positively associated with higher IFNgamma production. Lack of anti-centromere antibodies and therapy with methotrexate were positively associated with higher intracellular IL-10 production. CD8 + T cells may significantly contribute to inflammation in SSc. Our findings suggest to not only focus on T helper cells in the development of therapeutic strategies but also to consider the role of CD8 + T cells in the etiopathogenesis and perpetuation of SSc.
Performance analysis of adaptive filter structures based on subband decomposition

The properties of adaptive finite impulse response (FIR) filters in subbands are investigated, where the input signal is first decomposed in subband signals which are then modified at a lower rate by shorter adaptive filters. Two structures, with different coefficient adaptations, are studied. Expressions for the errors introduced by the nonideal characteristics of the filter banks are found, and a method for the optimal design of the analysis and synthesis banks for the adaptive filtering context is presented. The effect of the non-ideal filter bank characteristics in the adaptation speed of the multirate structures is investigated. The results of computer simulations considering an acoustic echo canceller application are presented. <<ETX>>
Defense Mechanisms against DDoS Attacks in SDN Environment

SDN is a pivotal technology that relies on the fundamental idea of decoupling control and data planes in the network. This property provides several advantages such as flexibility, simplification, and lower costs. However, it also brings several drawbacks that are largely induced by the centralized control paradigm. Security is one of the most significant challenges related to centralization. In that regard, DDoS attacks are particularly pertinent to the SDN environment. This article presents a concise survey on solutions against DDoS attacks in software-defined networks. Moreover, several mechanisms are analyzed, and a comparative classification is provided for rendering the current state of the art in the literature. This analysis will help researchers to address weaknesses of these solutions and thus mitigate such attacks using more effective defense mechanisms.
Chemistry and Leishmanicidal Activity of the Essential Oil from Artemisia absinthium from Cuba

Historically, natural products have been a rich source of lead molecules in drug discovery. In particular, products to treat infectious diseases have been developed and several reports about potentialities of essential oils (EO) against Leishmania could be found. In this study, we report the chemical characterization, anti-leishmanial effects and cytotoxicity of the EO from Artemisia absinthium L. Chemical analysis revealed the EO to be composed of 18 compounds, 11 of which were identified, accounting for 64.1% of the composition. The main component of the EO was trans-sabinyl acetate, which made up 36.7%. In vitro anti-leishmanial screening showed that the A. absinthium EO inhibited the growth of promastigotes (14.4 ± 3.6 μg/mL) and amastigotes (13.4 ± 2.4 μg/mL) of L. amazonensis; while cytotoxicity evaluation caused 6 fold higher values than those for the parasites. In a model of experimental cutaneous leishmaniasis in BALB/c mice, five doses of EO at 30 mg/kg by intralesional route demonstrated control of lesion size and parasite burden (p< 0.05) compared with animals treated with glucantime and untreated mice. In conclusion, in vitro and in vivo results showed the potential of EO from A. absinthium as a promising source for lead or active compounds against Leishmania, which could be explored.
Trends in partial discharge pattern classification: a survey

Partial discharge (PD) detection, measurement and classification constitute an important tool for quality assessment of insulation systems utilized in HV power apparatus and cables. The patterns obtained with PD detectors contain characteristic features of the source/class of the respective partial discharge process involved. The recognition of the source from the data represents the classification stage. Usually, this stage consists of a two-step procedure, i.e., extraction of feature vector from the data followed by classification/recognition of the corresponding source. The various techniques available for achieving the foregoing task are examined and analyzed; while limited success has been achieved in the identification of simple PD sources, recognition and classification of complex PD patterns associated with practical insulating systems continue to pose appreciable difficulty.
Growth Performance of Apple Nursery Trees in Relation to Reserve Nitrogen and Carbohydrates

A s apple growers move to high density planting systems, the investment for orchard establishment is considerably increased. The key to achieving early economic return and profitability is to bring the orchard into early production and have sustained high yield of best quality fruit. Tree quality and performance during establishment play a very important role in determining the early productivity of the orchard. If tree establishment is poor, it is very difficult to achieve early productivity. Currently, nursery stock is graded on the basis of caliper size and the number of feathers. From a physiological standpoint, it is the nutrient reserves that support the initial growth of apple nursery trees during establishment in the orchard. Therefore, a high quality tree needs to reach good size with appropriate root-to-shoot ratio, but, more importantly, to have high levels of nutrient reserves. Among the reserves, carbohydrates and nitrogen are the most important as they provide energy and building blocks for the new growth before any photosynthesis and significant root uptake of nitrogen can take place. Carbohydrates, including both starch and soluble sugars, make up the bulk part of the total reserves in apple trees. In contrast, total nitrogen, including proteins and amino acids, only accounts for less than 2 percent of the dry matter of an apple tree in the winter. Although both nitrogen and carbohydrate reserves are essential, the Nursery tree growth the first few weeks after budburst is almost completely dependent on nitrogen stored in the tree. Combining nitrogen (N) applications in the nursery during the growing season and a foliar urea application after bud set improves reserve N status and 1st leaf tree growth.
Measurement of von Willebrand factor cleaving protease (ADAMTS‐13): results of an international collaborative study involving 11 methods testing the same set of coded plasmas

Summary. Background: ADAMTS‐13 is a von Willebrand factor (VFW)‐cleaving protease. Its congenital or acquired deficiency is associated with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and more rarely with the hemolytic uremic syndrome. We report on a survey evaluating 11 methods for ADAMTS‐13 measurement performed in different labs. Design: Two plasmas, one normal and one from a patient with familial TTP, were mixed at the co‐ordinating center to prepare 6 plasmas with 0%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 80% and 100% ADAMTS‐13 levels. Each plasma was aliquoted and assembled into sets of 60 (coded from 1 to 60), each containing 10 copies of the original 6 plasmas. Plasmas were frozen and shipped in dry ice to 10 labs with a common frozen reference plasma. Laboratories were asked to measure ADAMTS‐13 with their methods. Results were sent to the coordinating center for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 10 methods performed under static conditions 9 were quantitative and one was semiquantitative. One method performed under flow conditions evaluated the extent of cleavage of endothelial cell‐derived ultralarge VWF string‐like structures and expressed results as deficient, normal, or borderline. Linearity (expected‐vs‐observed levels), assessed as the squared correlation coefficient, ranged from 0.98 to 0.39. Reproducibility, expressed as the coefficient of variation for repeated measurements, ranged from < 10% to 83%. The majority of methods were able to discriminate between different ADAMTS‐13 levels. The majority were able to detect the plasma with 0% level and some of them to discriminate between 0% and 10%. Overall the best performance was observed for three methods measuring cleaved VWF by ristocetin cofactor, collagen binding, and immunoblotting of degraded multimers of VWF substrate, respectively. The poor interlaboratory agreement of results was hardly affected by the use of the common standard. The method performed under flow conditions identified the plasmas with 0%, 10%, 20% and 40% activity as deficient in 7, 5, 1 and 3 of the 10 replicate measurements. The plasmas with 80% and 100% were identified as normal in all of the 10 replicate measurements. Conclusions: The survey shows varied performance, but supports an optimistic view about the reliability of current methods for ADAMTS‐13.
Intelligent methods for pattern recognition and optimisation

This dissertation presents and discusses the processes of investigation, implementation, testing, validation and evaluation of several computational intelligence-based systems for solving four large-scale real-world problems. In particular, two industrial problems from the pattern recognition and two from the process optimisation areas are studied and intelligent methods to address them are proposed, developed and tested using real-world data. The first problem investigated is the application of an intelligent visual inspection system for classification of texture images. Two major approaches, incorporating supervised and unsupervised (without a priori knowledge) learning techniques, are considered and neural network based classifiers are trained. The focus is kept on the application of unsupervised non-linear dimensionality reduction techniques in combination with unsupervised classification methods. A number of experiments and simulations are performed to evaluate the proposed approaches and the results are critically compared. Next, a classification problem for timely and reliable identification of emitters of radar signals is investigated. A large data set, containing a considerable amount of missing data is used. Several techniques for dealing with the incomplete data values are employed, including listwise deletion and multiple imputation. Methods incorporating neural network classifiers are studied and the proposed approaches are tested and validated over a number of simulations in the MATLAB environment. The third large-scale problem, presented in this work, addresses the need for optimisation of a thermodynamics first principle-based prediction model for simulation of a major purifying process, used in British Petroleum (BP) refineries. A technique incorporating genetic algorithms is applied for optimising a number of the model parameters and for closing up the gaps between the predicted and measured data. Several functions and a graphical user interface (GUI) tool are implemented in MATLAB to assist the analysis, optimisation, testing and validation of the investigated model. Significant overall improvement in its prediction capabilities is achieved. The final problem, covered in this research work, is the need to improve the convergence rate of a computationally very expensive aerodynamic optimisation process. It is addressed by exploring some physics-grounded heuristics and presenting a novel intelligent approach for automated shape optimisation. A set of basis functions (for spanning the design space) is derived in such a way that they facilitate the work of a time-consuming and expensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) optimisation process. Two MATLAB-based GUI tools are developed to support the calculation, exploration, testing and validation of the studied approach. Experiments for optimising real aircraft geometry are run on supercomputers through an industrial partner (AIRBUS Operations Ltd). The initial results show very promising opportunities for improving the convergence rate of the slow optimisation process.
世界黄金协会（The World Gold Council）

世界黄金协会（the World Gold Council：WGC）成立于1987年，总部位于英国伦敦，是一家由世界最主要的黄金矿业公司资助的国际性组织，其宗旨是促进和扩大全球黄金的消费，增加消费用户、投资者、工业和各国政府部门对黄金的资产消费、收藏与储备。
Performance Evaluation of Queue Management using Adaptive Duty Cycle Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

: Wireless Sensor Networks has extensive variety of utilizations that helps to sense and screen the natural conditions, for example power, traffic and network attributes it inturn increases the end to end delay. Due to this an efficient and effective scheduling algorithm need to be proposed that reduces the delay time and inturn power consumptions. A new technique called Buffer Queue management is introduced that gives the sufficient buffer space allocation to its neighboring nodes and takes the intervals of sleep periods to find the shortest path in the network and controlling of the duty cycle through the same. The synchronization technique is achieved by using active patterns for controlling the delay. These results are used to achieve stability and fairness of the implement network with 30 nodes and coverage area around 10Ǿ. The proposed algorithm is compared with earlier method with multihop network and proved with network parameters such as Average Power Consumption, Average Queue Length and Average Delay and with improved efficiency.
An electrode for recording single motor unit activity during strong muscle contractions.

The construction of a lightweight quadrifillar needle electrode offering four monopolar and six bipolar microelectrode combinations is described. The electrode has three useful features: 1) it can record distinct individual motor unit action potentials during strong muscle contractions, 2) the frequency response curve of the electrode can be altered to a simple functional relationship within the frequency range of myoelectric signals, and 3) the electrode minimizes the subject's discomfort.
Retrospective analysis of deep sedation in pediatric population for endoscopic procedures: adverse events and outcomes

Background : Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (E) and colonoscopy (C) procedures are not well tolerated in pediatric population. General anesthesia or sedation applied during gastroendoscopic procedures. This study is done to review our sedation practice and to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and side effects of an anaesthesiologist administered deep sedation for gastroendoscopic procedures outside the operating room. Methods: After Institutional Review Board Approval, the charts of all children who underwent endoscopic procedure at the outpatient endoscopy suite under sedation, (Jan 2011- December 2011) were reviewed retrospectively. Results: Deep sedation was used in 301 procedures, which 255 were endoscopic and 23 were colonoscopic procedures. Twenty-three children had both procedures performed in one session. Demographic details: Age [year, mean]: 10,1±5,1, Gender (M/F): 152/149, Body weight [kg, (mean±SD )]: 35.7±18.7. Severe bradycardia with oxygen desaturation was recorded in two patients. All procedures were carried out successfully. Emergence delirium was seen in only one patient who was the substance user. No significant side effect derived from intervention was observed during the procedures, except one case (perforation of the colon). Conclusion: Deep sedation applied by anesthesiologist found to be adequately safe and appropriate for children during gastroendoscopic procedures.
Manage Interdisciplinarity Based on Requirements Traceability: A Graph-Based Tool Support for Requirements Traceability

Mechatronic products become increasingly complex. A core aspect is that the involved disciplines are highly interdependent. Hence, the interdisciplinary coordination of discipline-spanning interfaces is a core issue for successful development. This contribution addresses the need for a better coordination in interdisciplinary development projects. Therefore, this contribution seizes a structured method to coordinate interdisciplinary issues, based on requirements traceability. The core aspect of the method is the connection of development artifacts in a graph based model: Products, functions, components, requirements, the organizational structure and their links are visualized. A set of rules is implemented to analyze the system in order derive coordination needs and affected objects and stakeholders. This method is successfully implemented into a software tool. The interdisciplinary coordination should be supported by analyses that quickly identify and visualize connections among these elements. For a further proof of feasibility, the tool was successfully applied in a semi-academic context. This evaluation case reveals further potential in the field of automated model generation.
Updating after Rotational and Translational Body Movements: Coordinate Structure of Perspective Space

As people move through an environment, they typically change both their heading and their location relative to the surrounds. During such changes, people update their changing orientations with respect to surrounding objects. People can also update after only imagining such typical movements, but not as quickly or accurately as after actual movement. In the present study, blindfolded subjects pointed to objects after real and imagined walks. The role of rotational and translational components of movement were contrasted. The difficulty of imagined updating was found to be due to imagined rotation and not to imagined translation; updating after the latter was just as quick and accurate as updating after actual rotations and translations. Implications for understanding primary spatial orientation, the organization of spatial knowledge, and spatial-imagination processes are discussed.
The Junction Catalogue for Labelling Line Drawings of Polyhedra with Tetrahedral vertices

The Clowes-Huffman catalogue for labelling line drawings of trihedral polyhedra is a well-established tool in computer vision. We currently use it in processing sketch input of solid models of engineering components. However, many such components also contain tetrahedral vertices. Thus, this paper presents a similar catalogue for tetrahedral polyhedra.
A BRIEF SURVEY ON CLASSIFICATION METHODS FOR UNBALANCED DATASETS

In real world, we deal with the data sets which are unbalanced in nature. Information sets are lopsided when no less than one class is spoken to by extensive number of preparing illustration (called greater part class) while different classes make up the minority. Due to this uneven nature of information sets we have great precision on dominant part class yet on the other side exceptionally poor exactness on the minority class, while we attempt to foresee the class enrollment. Accordingly, the lopsided way of information sets can have a negative impact on arrangement execution of machine learning calculations. Specialists have been made numerous endeavors to manage such issues of order of information at information level and additionally calculation level. In this paper we speak to a brief study of existing answers for the class-unevenness issue proposed both at the information and algorithmic levels.
Microglial interactions with the neurovascular system in physiology and pathology

Microglia as immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS) play significant roles not only in pathology but also in physiology, such as shaping of the CNS during development and its proper maintenance in maturity. Emerging research is showing a close association between microglia and the neurovasculature that is critical for brain energy supply. In this review, we summarize the current literature on microglial interaction with the vascular system in the normal and diseased brain. First, we highlight data that indicate interesting potential involvement of microglia in developmental angiogenesis. Then we discuss the evidence for microglial participation with the vasculature in neuropathologies from brain tumors to acute injuries such as ischemic stroke to chronic neurodegenerative conditions. We conclude by suggesting future areas of research to advance the field in light of current technical progress and outstanding questions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 78: 604–617, 2018
Assessment of the DNA Damage in Human Sperm and Lymphocytes Exposed to the Carcinogen Food Contaminant Furan with Comet Assay

The aim of this work was to assess the damage of DNA in human blood cell and spermin vitro under the influence of furan. These cells were administered 0-600 μM of furan at 37 and 32oC for 30 and 60 min, respectively. A significant increase in tail DNA%, tail length and moment indicating DNA damage was observed at increasing doses when compared to the controls. The treatment with 300 and 600 μM of furan showed a maximum increase of 86.74 ± 2.43 and 93.29 ± 8.68 compared to the control tail DNA% in lymphocytes. However, only 600 μM of furan showed a maximum increase of 94.71 ± 6.24 compared to the control tail DNA% in sperm. The results suggested that furan caused DNA damage in lymphocytes at increasing doses, but appeared to have not the same effect on human sperm at the low doses. Genotoxic activity had an impact on the risk assessment of furan formed on the food for human cells. Therefore, it would be important to further investigate these properties of furan as the food mutagen.