Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Swarm robotics - Scholarpedia

Swarm robotics is the study of how to design groups of robots that operate without relying on any external infrastructure or on any form of centralized control. In a robot swarm, the collective behavior of the robots results from local interactions between the robots and between the robots and the environment in which they act. The design of robot swarms is guided by swarm intelligence principles. These principles promote the realization of systems that are fault tolerant, scalable and flexible. Swarm robotics appears to be a promising approach when different activities must be performed concurrently, when high redundancy and the lack of a single point of failure are desired, and when it is technically infeasible to set up the infrastructure required to control the robots in a centralized way. Examples of tasks that could be profitably tackled using swarm robotics are demining, search and rescue, planetary or underwater exploration, and surveillance.
The "misty mesentery": mesenteric panniculitis and its mimics.

KEY POINTS 1. The term “misty mesentery” was coined by Mindelzun et al. in 1996 to describe a regional increase in mesenteric fat density that is seen frequently at abdominopelvic CT. 2. Mesenteric panniculitis (MP) is one of the broad range of disorders that may result in the imaging finding of a misty mesentery on CT. 3. MP cannot be diagnosed on CT without the exclusion of many other possible causes of a misty mesentery including disorders that result in mesenteric edema, lymphedema, hemorrhage, and infiltration with inflammatory or neoplastic cells. 4. Retractile mesenteritis results in irregular fibrotic mesenteric masses that simulate a number of neoplastic conditions of the mesentery and peritoneum such as carcinoid tumors, desmoid tumors, and perito-neal carcinomatosis.
Postimplementation Knowledge Transfers to Users and Information Technology Professionals

Although there is substantial research on learning that occurs before adoption of a new information system, there is a dearth of research on postimplementation learning when a new system is assimilated as a routine element of users' work. Hence, during the postimplementation period of a bank's new work flow system, we conducted a longitudinal participant observation study to observe knowledge transfers of users and information technology (IT) professionals assigned to a help desk. We found that although users turned to IT professionals to obtain knowledge related to conceptual understanding and procedures to use the system, they most often turned to other users to obtain knowledge that allowed them to adapt the system to their work. IT professionals, on the other hand, often turned to their colleagues to obtain knowledge that helped them modify the system to emerging innovative uses. These patterns of knowledge transfers can be explained based upon source expertise. Our findings indicate that organizations must sustain designated sources of knowledge such as help desks, but must also establish conduits for users to acquire knowledge from other users and develop innovative uses of the system. A substantial amount of critical knowledge transfers relevant to system adaptation occurred during face-to-face discussions between users and IT professionals, and therefore future research should examine how this would be affected by the outsourcing of technical support functions.
Challenges for protein chemical synthesis in the 21st century: bridging genomics and proteomics.

The Human Genome Project and other major sequencing projects have rapidly provided a vast array of new protein sequences. In the postgenomic era, the physical form of many of these gene-encoded sequences will be vital for biomedical research and drug development. In this epoch, the advantages of protein chemical synthesis will complement recombinant-DNA methods, and will be used to provide rapid access to small proteins or functional receptor domains. In this review the key methodological advances that have made the synthesis of long peptides and small proteins more effective will be presented. Focus is given to the issues and goals of contemporary chemical protein synthesis, including (1) the rapid chain assembly of tailored peptide segments for use in ligation strategies, and (2) development of highly efficient and universal chemoselective ligation strategies. Biopolymers (Pept Sci) 55: 217-226, 2000
Interaction of Phenobarbital and Phenytoin in an Experimental Model of Seizures in Rats

Summary: The combination of phenobarbital (PB) and phenytoin (PHT) was recommended for many years for treatment of epilepsy in humans. We tested the effectiveness of the combination in a model of hippocampal seizures termed maximal dentate activation (MDA). Two parameters of MDA were measured: duration and time to onset. Neither the vehicle controls nor PHT 80 mg/kg had an effect on duration or time to onset of MDA. PB 20 mg/kg delayed the normal increase in MDA duration and had no effect on time to onset. Addition of increasing doses of PHT to the 20–mg/kg dose of PB caused a dose–dependent decrease in MDA duration and a dosedependent increase in time to onset. These effects do not appear to be due to an increase in serum level of either drug when administered together. We showed that the combination of PB and PHT has actions in an experimental model of limbic seizures that are not produced by either drug alone. Therefore, clinical use of the combination does have some experimental justification.
Limited role for transforming growth factor-β pathway activation-mediated escape from VEGF inhibition in murine glioma models.

BACKGROUND The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β pathways regulate key biological features of glioblastoma. Here we explore whether the TGF-β pathway, which promotes angiogenesis, invasiveness, and immunosuppression, acts as an escape pathway from VEGF inhibition. METHODS The role of the TGF-β pathway in escape from VEGF inhibition was assessed in vitro and in vivo and by gene expression profiling in syngeneic mouse glioma models. RESULTS We found that TGF-β is an upstream regulator of VEGF, whereas VEGF pathway activity does not alter the TGF-β pathway in vitro. In vivo, single-agent activity was observed for the VEGF antibody B20-4.1. 1 in 3 and for the TGF-β receptor 1 antagonist LY2157299 in 2 of 4 models. Reduction of tumor volume and blood vessel density, but not induction of hypoxia, correlated with benefit from B20-4.1. 1. Reduction of phosphorylated (p)SMAD2 by LY2157299 was seen in all models but did not predict survival. Resistance to B20 was associated with anti-angiogenesis escape pathway gene expression, whereas resistance to LY2157299 was associated with different immune response gene signatures in SMA-497 and GL-261 on transcriptomic profiling. The combination of B20 with LY2157299 was ineffective in SMA-497 but provided prolongation of survival in GL-261, associated with early suppression of pSMAD2 in tumor and host immune cells, prolonged suppression of angiogenesis, and delayed accumulation of tumor infiltrating microglia/macrophages. CONCLUSIONS Our study highlights the biological heterogeneity of murine glioma models and illustrates that cotargeting of the VEGF and TGF-β pathways might lead to improved tumor control only in subsets of glioblastoma.
Animal Model Functional Expression of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Fused to Green Fluorescent Protein in Transgenic Mice

The activity of endothelial nitric oxide synthase(eNOS) is subject to complex transcriptional and post-translational regulation including the associationwith several proteins and variations in subcellulardistribution. In the present study we describe a trans-genic mouse model expressing eNOS fused to greenfluorescent protein (GFP), which allows the study oflocalization and regulation of eNOS expression. Wetested the functionality of eNOS in the eNOS-GFPmice. Expression of eNOS was restricted to the endo-thelial lining of blood vessels in various tissues tested,without appreciable expression in non-endothelialcells. Activity of the enzyme was confirmed by assay-ing the conversion of L-arginine to L-citrulline. NOproduction in isolated vessels was increased in trans-genic mice when compared to non-transgenic controlanimals (4.88 0.59 and 2.48 0.47 mol/L NO,respectively,
Expression and Syntenic Analyses of Four nanos Genes in Medaka

The gene nanos is essential for germ cell development. Although its functions and expression have been investigated in the mouse, nanos genes have yet to be well characterized in other vertebrates. Based on similarity and a syntenic analysis of nanos, we have identified four different nanos in the genome of medaka (Oryzias latipes). nanos1 is duplicated in teleost fish genomes and named nanos1a and nanos1b. Of all medaka nanos, nanos3 is well conserved in terms of expression and synteny. In contrast to a previous study on mice, nanos2 expression was not detected in the gonads at early stages of sex differentiation; however, both oogonia and spermatogonia in adult gonads exhibit nanos2 expression. nanos1a and 1b are both expressed in the developing brain, consistent with the expression of nanos1 in mice. In the gonads, nanos1a is expressed in the somatic cells surrounding oocytes and spermatocytes, whereas expression of nanos1b is not detectable in the gonads by in-situ hybridization. These results suggest common and distinct functions of nanos genes among vertebrates.
Perianal fistulous tract Perianal sinus tracts Internal anal sphincter External anal sphincter Anal sac Opening of anal sac duct Rectum Anorectal line Columnar zone Intermediate zone Cutaneous zone Perianal sinus tracts

CE Canine anal furunculosis (perianal fistula) is a chronic disease of the perianal, anal, and/or rectal tissue characterized by the presence of ulcerative tracts.The specific cause of this debilitating disease is unknown and continues to be controversial. Nevertheless, a multifactorial immune-mediated mechanism is suspected. Diagnosis is usually straightforward in German shepherds presenting with perianal lesions and associated clinical signs. Although canine anal furunculosis was once considered a primary surgical disease, medical management is now the initial treatment of choice. Management includes immunosuppressive, hygiene, and dietary therapy. It is critical to inform clients of the relapsing and remitting course of this inflammatory disease. clude Irish setters, collies, Border collies, Old English sheepdogs, Labrador retrievers, English bulldogs, beagles, Bouvier des Flandres, spaniels, and mixed breeds. The disease usually affects middle-aged dogs; the mean age is reportedly 4 to 7 years. A sex predilection has not been definitively described. Clinical signs prompting veterinary care are listed in the box on page 342. The anatomy of the anal region is described in the other box on page 342. Considering the lack of success with previous therapies, many owners have low expectations in treating canine anal furunculosis. PATHOGENESIS A definitive cause of anal furunculosis has not been described; however, many theories have been proposed. The more common hypotheses have included poor conformation of the perianal region and tail (i.e., broad-based low tail carriage), anal crypt fecalith impaction resulting in abscessation, spread of infection from the anal glands or anal sacs, trauma, and foreign body reaction. Unfortunately, little evidence supports May 2005 339 COMPENDIUM Managing Anal Furunculosis in Dogs Adam P. Patterson, DVM Karen L. Campbell, DVM,MS, DACVIM, DACVD University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Presence of Transforming Growth Factor-α in the Suckling Rat Small Intestine and Pancreas and the Absence in Rat Milk

ABSTRACT: Immunorcactive rat transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α) was measured in rat milk, in the mucosa and lumen of the small intestine, and in the pancreas of suckling and adult rats with a homologous RIA. In contrast to epidermal growth factor, where the main source of epidermal growth factor for sucklings is rat milk, the presence of TGF-a was not detectable in rat milk. The concentrations of TGF-α in the small intestine exhibited similar values in suckling and adult rats, whereas epidermal growth factor levels in the small intestine were several times higher in suckling rats than adults. Overnight fasting in suckling rats resulted in minimal changes in the luminal and mucosal TGF-a content. A positive correlation was established in suckling rats between the TGF-α content in the intestinal lumen (but not mucosa) and the TGF-α content in pancreas. Despite many structural and functional similarities between TGF-α and epidermal growth factor, our present data indicate significant differences in the origin and distribution of these two growth factors in the tract of the small intestine of developing rats.
Perceptual Validation Experiments for Evaluating the Quality of Wavelet-Synthesized Sounds

This paper describes three psychoacoustic experiments that evaluated the perceptual quality of sounds generated from a new wavelet-based synthesis technique. The synthesis technique provides a method for modeling and synthesizing perceptually compelling sound. The experiments define a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of any synthesized sound. An identification task and a context-based rating task evaluated the perceptual quality of individual sounds. These experiments confirmed that the wavelet technique synthesizes a wide variety of compelling sounds from a small model set. The third experiment obtained sound similarity ratings. Psychological scaling methods were applied to the similarity ratings to generate both spatial and network models of the perceptual relations among the synthesized sounds. These analysis techniques helped to refine and extend the sound models. Overall, the studies provided a framework to validate synthesized sounds for a variety of applications including virtual reality and data sonification systems.
Context-sensitive keyword selection using text data mining

Most information retrieval systems rely on the user to provide a set of keywords that the retrieved documents should contain. However, when the objective is to search for documents that is similar to a given document, the system has to choose the keywords from that document first. Automatic selection of keywords is not a trivial task as one word may be a keyword in one context but a very common word in others, and require significant domain specific knowledge. In this paper we describe a method for choosing keywords from a document within a given corpus automatically using text data-mining technique. The key idea is to score the words within the document based on the clustering result of the entire corpus. We applied the scheme to a Software Trouble Report (STR) corpus and obtained highly relevant keywords and search result.
Deregulation of the hedgehog signalling pathway: a possible role for the PTCH and SUFU genes in human rhabdomyoma and rhabdomyosarcoma development

The naevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBCCS) is caused by mutations in the hedgehog receptor PTCH gene. It is characterized by developmental defects and a predisposition to the development of certain tumours, such as basal cell carcinoma, medulloblastoma and meningioma, and potentially fetal rhabdomyomas and embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas. This study aimed to analyse PTCH status in an NBCCS patient with fetal rhabdomyoma and to investigate whether deregulation of hedgehog signalling, as shown by altered expression of hedgehog pathway components and/or genetic imbalances, is a general finding in sporadic rhabdomyomas and rhabdomyosarcomas. The NBCCS patient had a novel PTCH germ‐line mutation, 1370insT, and developed a fetal rhabdomyoma that harboured a 30 bp in‐frame deletion in the second allele resulting in homozygous inactivation of PTCH. Sporadic rhabdomyomas and rhabdomyosarcomas showed overexpression of PTCH (43/43) and GLI1 (41/43) mRNA, as determined by in situ hybridization, indicating ongoing active hedgehog signalling. Immunohistochemical staining revealed a subgroup of fetal rhabdomyomas and embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas (12/34) lacking PTCH immunoreactivity. Four of nine informative fetal rhabdomyomas and embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas showed loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in the PTCH region with two of these (one fetal rhabdomyoma and one embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma) also showing LOH in the SUFU region. These findings suggest that haploinsufficiency for the two tumour suppressor genes PTCH and SUFU, which are both active in the same signalling pathway, may be important for tumour development. Based on our results we propose that the pathogenesis of rhabdomyoblastic tumours, particularly fetal rhabdomyomas and embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas, involves deregulation of the hedgehog signalling pathway. Copyright © 2005 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Highly Specific Recognition of Primer RNA Structures for 2′-OH Priming Reaction by Bacterial Reverse Transcriptases*

A minor population of Escherichia coli contains retro-elements called retrons, which encode reverse transcriptases (RT) to synthesize peculiar satellite DNAs called multicopy single-stranded DNA (msDNA). These RTs recognize specific RNA structures in their individual primer-template RNAs to initiate cDNA synthesis from the 2′-OH group of a specific internal G residue (branching G residue). The resulting products (msDNA) consist of RNA and single-stranded DNA, sharing hardly any sequence homology. Here, we investigated how RT-Ec86 recognizes the specific RNA structure in its primer-template RNA. On the basis of structural comparison with HIV-1 RT, domain exchanges were carried out between two E. coli RTs, RT-Ec86 and RT-Ec73. RT-Ec86 (320 residues) and RT-Ec73 (316 residues) share only 71 identical residues (22%). From the analysis of 10 such constructs, the C-terminal 91-residue sequence of RT-Ec86 was found to be essential for the recognition of the unique stem-loop structure and the branching G residue in the primer-template RNA for retron-Ec86. Using the SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) method with RT-Ec86 and primer RNAs containing random sequences, the identical stem-loop structure (including the 3-U loop) to that found in the retron-Ec86 primer-template RNA was enriched. In addition, the highly conserved 4-base sequence (UAGC), including the branching G residue, was also enriched. These results indicate that the highly diverse C-terminal region recognizes specific stem-loop structures and the branching G residue located upstream of the stem-loop structure. The present results with seemingly primitive RNA-dependent DNA polymerases provide insight into the mechanisms for specific protein RNA recognition.
Antenna performance characterization of multi-antenna terminals used in multiple-input-multiple-output communication systems

With new third and fourth generation mobile communication systems emerging, there has been an increased focus on the antenna performance of mobile terminals. Common for most new communication systems currently deployed and under development is the demand for multi-antenna technology, such as multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO). In order to reach increased data rates it is essential to be able to make use of the potential spatial multiplexing gain of a multipath propagation environment. For design optimization of these multi-element antennas, a reliable and relevant measurement method for characterizing the antenna performance is important. In this paper, a method using the reverberation chamber is presented together with a discussion on how to analyze the results in order to distinguish good and bad antenna designs from each other.
LACore: A Supercomputing-Like Linear Algebra Accelerator for SoC-Based Designs

Linear algebra operations are at the heart of scientific computing solvers, machine learning and artificial intelligence. In this paper, LACore, a novel, programmable accelerator architecture for general-purpose linear algebra applications, is presented. LACore enables many of the architectural features typically available in custom supercomputing machines in an accelerator form factor that can be deployed in System-On-a-Chip (SoC) based designs. LACore has several architectural features including heterogeneous data-streaming LAMemUnits, a configurable systolic datapath that supports scalar, vector and multi-stream output modes, and a decoupled architecture that overlap memory transfer and execution. To evaluate LACore, we implemented its architecture as an extension to the RISC-V ISA in the gem5 cycle-accurate simulator. The LACore ISA was implemented in gcc, and a C-programming software framework, the LACoreAPI, has been developed for high-level programming of the LACore. Using the HPCC benchmark suite, we compare our LACore architecture against three other platforms: an in-order RISC-V CPU, a superscalar x86 CPU with SSE2, and a scaled NVIDIA Fermi GPU. The LACore outperforms the superscalar x86 processor in the benchmark suite by an average of 3.43x, and outperforms the scaled Fermi GPU by an average of 12.04x, within the same or less design area.
Serum IL-33 levels and skin mRNA expression in Behçet's disease.

OBJECTIVES Behçet's disease (BD) is an autoimmune/inflammatory disease characterised by abnormal production of proinflammatory cytokines. Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is a novel cytokine of the IL-1 cytokine family that has been recently implicated in several inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and the association of IL-33 with BD has remained unknown. Here we document for the first time, IL-33 level and its association with BD. METHODS Serum IL-33 levels were measured in 46 BD patients (20 patients in active stage) and compared to multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to healthy controls. In parallel, the transcription factor NF-κB that mediates IL-33 transcription was also measured. IL-33 mRNA was also quantified in freshly isolated PBMCs and in skin biopsies by real-time RT-PCR analysis. IL-6 and IL-17 were measured by ELISA. RESULTS Serum IL-33 level was significantly higher in active BD patients [159.65 ± 61.7 pg/mL] compared to inactive BD patients [85.57 ± 21.07 pg/mL] (p<0.0001) and healthy controls [70.03±25.95 pg/mL] (p<0.0001). Active BD patients expressed lower IL-33 levels than the control disease group, RA and MS patients [p=0.00021]. The serum IL-33 level in active BD patients was corroborated by IL-33 mRNA expression in fresh PBMC. Patients with active BD with retinal vasculitis showed the highest serum IL-33 level. We further stimulated cultured PBMCs with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) and ionomycin and macrophages with LPS for 24 h. Following stimulation the levels of IL-33 were increased similarly in PBMC [92.35±24.81 pg/ml] and macrophages [93.10±21.58 pg/ml] in active BD patients compared to healthy controls. NF-κB DNA binding activity was significantly increased in PBMCs of active BD patients particularly in LPS-stimulated macrophages compared to healthy controls. IL-33 mRNA expression in the skin lesions of patients with active BD was significantly increased compared to that in healthy skin biopsies [p=0.00016]. A significant relationship was found between the levels of IL-33 and IL-17 [r=0.533; p=0.0024] and IL-33 and IL-6 [r=0.661, p=0.0015] in 20 active BD patients. CONCLUSIONS Elevated IL-33 level in active BD patients was found to correlate with disease activity. Targeting IL-33 should be approached with caution.