Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formation of fibrin clots in the microcirculation during severe sepsis contributes to organ failure

Formation of fibrin clots in the microcirculation during severe sepsis contributes to organ failure, frequently involving the lungs and the splanchnic organs. Tissue plasminogen activator, tPA, is the key activator of intravascular fibrinolysis with plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1, PAI-1, as its main inhibitor. This thesis focuses on mesenteric, hepatic, renal and pulmonary fluxes of tPA and PAI-1 in response to infusion of endotoxin in anaesthetized, ventilated pigs as a model of experimental gram-negative sepsis. Plasma levels of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor(TNF) were analyzed to assess the host response to endotoxemia. Endotoxemia resulted in a hypodynamic circulation that in response to resuscitation with volume and vasopressor administration developed into a hyperdynamic circulatory state. Acute lung injury, ALI, was investigated following bronchoalveolar lavage (primary ALI) and in endotoxemia (secondary ALI). Endotoxemia acutely increased plasma tPA concentrations in all investigated vascular beds and increased mesenteric release and hepatic uptake of tPA. The hepatic uptake effectively prevented a systemic spillover of tPA from the mesenteric circulation. Hemodynamic resuscitation restored mesenteric and hepatic tPA fluxes to baseline. Sustained increases in systemic levels of tPA, notably following administration of noradrenaline, indicated contributions from other vascular regions not studied. Acute changes in mesenteric and hepatic tPA fluxes related to the dose of endotoxin but with a similar temporal pattern up to 18 hours regardless of dose. A pulmonary release of tPA was only observed in secondary ALI. No changes in renal tPA fluxes were observed throughout the studies. Levels of TNFcorrelated to concentrations and fluxes of tPA, whereas data suggested a non-concomitant relation to hepatic PAI-1 release. The molar ratio of active tPA to PAI-1 favoured anti-fibrinolysis at baseline but was reversed into a pro-fibrinolytic balance in hypodynamic endotoxemia, particularly in the mesenteric circulation. Finally, the hyperdynamic state was characterized by a marked anti-fibrinolytic balance of active tPA to PAI-1. In conclusion, this thesis demonstrated regionally differentiated responses in plasma fluxes of both tPA and PAI-1 in response to endotoxemia. The results support TNFas a candidate mediator of tPA and PAI-1 release. Therapeutic strategies to enhance regional tPA fluxes and fibrinolysis in acutely septic patients warrant further investigation.
Wavelet transform based automatic speaker recognition

An effective feature extraction technique for speaker recognition is presented in this paper. It uses multi resolution property of wavelet transform and Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) for analyzing the speech signal. For individual speaker, first the speech signal is decomposed using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) into approximations and details coefficients. Approximation coefficients are then used to compute MFCCs. Experimental results were computed on PIEAS Speech Database for text independent speaker identification. The proposed method gives very good recognition rate i.e. 96.25% for non telephonic and 86.77% for telephonic speech data. In addition to this, analysis for choosing the appropriate number of MFCCs, the appropriate number of decomposition levels and wavelet type has also been performed.
Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers in the queen scallop Aequipecten opercularis and their application to a population genetic study

Microsatellites are one of the most popular markers in genetic studies but typically they need to be isolated and characterized de novo for each species. In this work, a genomic library enriched for a trinucleotide motif was con- structed to identify polymorphic microsatellite loci in Aequipecten opercularis, a scallop species commercially fished in Europe, and to examine the level of genetic variation and genetic differentiation in samples from Spain and Northern Ireland. Sequencing of 83 clones led to the identification of 30 microsatellite-containing sequences which showed often other repeated sequences. Five microsatellite loci were successfully amplified and found polymorphic. The number of alleles and the expected heterozygosity per locus ranged from 9 to 86 and 0.341 to 0.927, respectively, all localities showing similar levels of genetic variation (allelic richness, 13.164-15.487; expected heterozygosity, 0.527-0.638). Discrepancies in genotype proportions from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed in 11 out of 25 locality-locus combinations, a heterozygote deficiency occurring in all cases probably due to null alleles. Significant genetic dif- ferentiation was detected among A. opercularis from Northern Ireland, Fuengirola (southern Spain) and the homoge- neous samples from northwest Spain. Isolation by distance was the most likely hypothesis to explain the differentiation detected.
Brain signatures: A modality for biometric authentication

In this paper we investigate the use of brain signatures as a possible biometric authentication technique. Research on brain EEG signals has shown that individuals exhibit unique brain patterns for similar tasks. In this paper we use brain EEG signals recorded during the performance of three mental tasks to identify six individuals. PSD features using Welch algorithm is extracted from the EEG Beta waves. A feed forward neural classifier is used to identify the six individuals. The performance of the neural network is appreciable with an average accuracy of 94.4 to 97.5%. Results validate the usage of brain signatures as a possible modality for biometric verification.
Peace through Insecurity

The literature on diversionary war has long argued that a leader's tenure considerations play an important role in international conflict behavior. However, for the diversionary use of force to be rational, international conflict must in turn affect the leader's tenure. A two-stage probit model on a new data set of all leaders between 1919 and 1992 is used to examine this reciprocal relationship between the probability of losing office and the probability of crisis initiation. Contrary to theories of the diversionary use of force, results show that an increase in the risk of losing office makes leaders less likely to initiate a crisis, and an increase in the risk of an international crisis makes leaders more likely to lose office. Results also suggest that democracies are overall less likely to initiate a crisis because of the domestic political insecurity of democratic leaders.
Organisational capital and competence building.

The value of an organisation’s capital, widely considered to comprise its knowledge and intangible assets, is increasingly recognised in relation to its realised and potential contribution to competitive advantage. At the same time, our understanding of how to develop and manage these assets over time remains limited to-date. The aim of this chapter is to assess this challenge from both an intellectual capital and a capabilities perspective respectively. Both perspectives highlight the imperative for an integrative approach to competence development given that competence building is itself reliant upon the complex interaction of supporting resources and capabilities as well as the integration of individual and organisation level knowledge that underpins them.
CS 224 N : Assignment 4 Reading Comprehension

The Dynamic Coattention Network [1] is an end-to-end neural network model for question answering. The model consists of a coattentive encoder that captures the interactions between the question and the context paragraph, as well as a dynamic pointing decoder that alternates between estimating the start and end of the answer span. Due to the extensive training time needed by the complex decoder in this model, this project explores the possibility of achieving comparable QA performance using the same neural network model, albeit with a simpler decoder structure. We discover that a complex decoder structure is necessary for excellent QA performance. Our model achieves an F1 score of 55.1 and an EM score of 42.4.
$C^*$-algebras of directed graphs and group actions

Given a free action of a group $G$ on a directed graph $E$ we show that the crossed product of $C^* (E)$, the universal $C^*$-algebra of $E$, by the induced action is strongly Morita equivalent to $C^* (E/G)$. Since every connected graph $E$ may be expressed as the quotient of a tree $T$ by an action of a free group $G$ we may use our results to show that $C^* (E)$ is strongly Morita equivalent to the crossed product $C_0 ( \partial T ) \times G$, where $\partial T$ is a certain zero-dimensional space canonically associated to the tree.
TM  $_{0}$  Mode Surface Wave Excited Dielectric Slab Rotman Lens

A TMo mode surface wave excited Rotman lens is explored for micro/millimeter-wave applications. The TMo mode lens can be designed to have a significant portion of the electric field distributed in the lossless air-cladding region to avoid both conductor loss and dielectric loss. A prototype lens has been implemented with seven beam ports and seven array ports. Measurements show that the efficiency of the lens is about 15%-30% in the range from 18 to 23 GHz. The synthesized beam patterns show that the lens can generate clear beam patterns over a range of approximately plusmn20deg but its scanning capability can be limited by relatively large longitudinal electric field. Several types of dielectric Rotman lenses are compared and discussed in terms of their excitation methods, losses, and beam patterns.
Effects of Organic Nutrient Amendments on Weed and Crop Growth

Abstract Sufficient fertility is important for crop growth and yield but supplying a balanced amount of N, P, and K with compost and manure is a challenge and nutrient imbalances can benefit weeds more than crops. The goal of this study was to compare the aboveground growth responses of common northeastern U.S. crops and weeds to addition of composted poultry manure (CPM). A secondary goal was to test whether the observed growth responses to CPM could be attributed to the three macronutrients—N, P, and K—supplied in the CPM. Two field experiments were conducted over 2 yr. Species grown were corn, lettuce, kale, Powell amaranth, common lambsquarters, giant foxtail, and velvetleaf. Plants were grown in soil amended with CPM or single-nutrient organic N, P, and K fertility amendments. Single-nutrient P treatments with bone char did not adequately mimic P supply from CPM. In both years, biomass of all weeds studied increased with CPM amendment rate. Powell amaranth was the most responsive to CPM addition, increasing 1,775 and 159% from the control to the highest CPM rate in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Corn biomass increased by 22% with CPM rate in 2010 but did not increase with CPM rate in 2011. Lettuce biomass increased with CPM amendment rate (175% in 2010 and 109% in 2011), but due to the increased weed biomass at high CPM amendment rates, good weed control will be necessary to maintain this yield benefit. The increase in growth of Powell amaranth, common lambsquarters, and giant foxtail with CPM amendment was not due to N or K, and may have been influenced by P or another factor in the CPM. Velvetleaf was the only species that exhibited increased biomass with N addition (as blood meal), similarly to the increase with added CPM, suggesting the velvetleaf growth response to CPM was due to N in the CPM. The results show that nutrient ratios should be considered when applying organic amendments, because application rates of organic amendments that meet the crop’s needs for one nutrient may oversupply other nutrients. Overfertilization will not benefit crop yield, but the results of this study show that high organic fertility application rates are likely to increase weed growth. Nomenclature: Common lambsquarters, Chenopodium album L. CHEAL, giant foxtail, Setaria faberi Herrm. SETFA, Powell amaranth, Amaranthus powellii S. Wats AMAPO, velvetleaf, Abutilon theophrasti Medik. ABUTH, corn, Zea mays L. ‘VK7610’, lettuce, Lactuca sativa L. ‘New Red Fire’, kale, Brassica oleracea L. ‘Lacinato’.
A hardware efficient lithium-ion cell balancing technique utilizing low-volume hybrid DC-DC converter

This paper introduces a novel battery cell balancing technique for portable applications, where multiple series connected lithium-ion battery cells are utilized. The equal discharge of the battery cells are achieved through a simple modification of a hybrid step-down dc-dc converter, where only an additional resonant inductor is required. Hybrid converters, combining switched-capacitor and inductor based topologies, are gaining popularity in battery powered portable applications due to their attractive features, such as improvement in efficiency and reduction in passive output filter components, compared to a conventional step-down buck converter. By inserting a resonant inductance between the stacked battery cells, equal discharge of multiple cells are provided. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the introduced cell balancing technique in a 98.1 % Efficiency 5W (@5V, 1A Output) hybrid step-down dc-dc converter.
Generalized output feedback active disturbance rejection control for uncertain lower-triangular nonlinear systems

This paper investigates an output feedback active disturbance attenuation methodology for a class of mismatched perturbed nonlinear systems whose nominal system is a chain of integrators. Inspired by the wide applicability of the generalized extended state observers, an output feedback domination approach is first integrated with the design of recursive composite virtual control laws. Adopting the genuine nonlinear control design, rather than via feedback linearization handling procedure, an explicit composite disturbance attenuation methodology via both state-feedback and output feedback is obtained. A delicate stability analysis assures the effectiveness and a numerical simulation demonstration is provided as well.
Dense gas without star formation: the kpc-sized turbulent molecular disk in 3C 326 N

We report the discovery of a 3 kpc disk of few 10^9 M_⊙ of dense, warm H_2 in the nearby radio galaxy 3C 326 N, which shows no signs of ongoing or recent star formation and falls a factor of 60 below the Schmidt-Kennicutt law. Our VLT/SINFONI imaging spectroscopy shows broad (FWHM ~ 500 km s^(-1)) ro-vibrational H_2 lines across the entire disk, with irregular profiles and line ratios consistent with shocks. The ratio of turbulent to gravitational energy suggests that the gas is highly turbulent and not gravitationally bound. In the absence of the driving by the jet, the short turbulent dissipation times indicate that the gas should collapse rapidly and form stars, at odds with the recent star-formation history. Motivated by hydrodynamic models of rapid H_2 formation boosted by turbulent compression, we propose that the molecules formed from diffuse atomic gas in the turbulent jet cocoon. Since the gas is not self-gravitating, it cannot form molecular clouds or stars while the jet is active, and is likely to disperse and become atomic again after the nuclear activity ceases. We speculate that very low star-formation rates are to be expected under such conditions, provided that the large-scale turbulence controls the gas dynamics in molecular clouds. Our results illustrate that jets may create large molecular reservoirs as expected in “positive feedback” scenarios of AGN-triggered star formation, but that this alone is insufficient to trigger star formation.
Hybrid Conducting Nanocomposites Coatings for Corrosion Protection

Recently, several studies in the fields of new materials have introduced the possibility to use CPs as suitable matrices to disperse nanostructured elements, such as nanoparticles or nanotubes. It has been shown that the introduction of nanostructures into a polymer matrix can improve the electrical conductivity and the mechanical properties of the original polymer matrix. The combination of conductive polymers with conductive particles (better if carbon nanostructures), producing a new class of materials known as hybrid conducting nanocompo‐ sites, has already shown some synergistic properties, with a variety of applications in the energy field.
A brief review on the positioning technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles

The research of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is outburst in several areas, which has shown a great potential as a low-cost, flexible and reliable platform, and the positioning is one of the most important techniques in UAV filed include tracking and monitoring, sense and avoid, formation and so on. In this paper, these methods are reviewed, and the characteristics and differences of the methods are discussed according to the environment of the UAV flight, and ranging or not in processing, with image and satellite information or not in more details. Furthermore, the prospect of positioning technology is described, and the possible develop direction based on the application requirements is analyzed, which provides reference for the study of location technology for UAV.
Telemetry recovery and uplink commanding of a spacecraft prior to three-axis attitude stabilization

After separation from the launch vehicle, a spacecraft's guidance and control system typically orients the spacecraft autonomously into a three-axis stabilized attitude for non-spinners. If an anomaly occurs, or if the spacecraft fails to orient itself appropriately, the Mission Operations team will want to observe spacecraft telemetry or may even be required to command the spacecraft before attitude stabilization. Antenna coverage in these cases is critical, since the command and control antenna may be rotating away from the ground station line-of-sight as the spacecraft tumbles. However, activating opposite-pointing hemispherical low-gain antennas on the spacecraft to obtain more complete angular coverage comes at the cost of presenting an interferometric signal to the ground station (or spacecraft receiver, depending on the radio-frequency subsystem configuration) which fluctuates as a function of the relative antenna positions and tumble rate of the spacecraft. Recent programs developed by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, specifically MESSENGER and STEREO, have investigated the capability of the deep space network and universal space network receivers to recover telemetry from a tumbling spacecraft at a low orbital altitude. Also investigated was the ability of a tumbling spacecraft utilizing a small deep-space transponder to register valid uplink commands, even in the presence of a second, closely-spaced uplink frequency, as expected for the two STEREO spacecraft
Characterization of the T 4 Mre 11 / Rad 50 complex and investigation of the Mre 11 dimeric interface

The Mre11/Rad50 complex (MR) from bacteriophage T4 (gp46/47) is involved in the processing of DNA double-strand breaks. Here, we describe the activities of the T4 MR complex and its modulation by proteins involved in homologous recombination. T4 Mre11 is a Rad50and Mn 2+ -dependent dsDNA exonuclease and ssDNA endonuclease. ATP hydrolysis is required for the removal of multiple nucleotides via dsDNA exonuclease activity but not for the removal of the first nucleotide or for ssDNA endonuclease activity, indicating ATP hydrolysis is only required for repetitive nucleotide removal. By itself, Rad50 is a relatively inefficient ATPase, but the presence of Mre11 and dsDNA increases ATP hydrolysis by 20-fold. The ATP hydrolysis reaction exhibits positive cooperativity with Hill coefficients ranging from 1.4 for Rad50 alone to 2.4 for the Rad50/Mre11/DNA complex. Kinetic assays suggest that approximately four nucleotides are removed per ATP hydrolyzed. Directionality assays indicate that the prevailing activity is a 3’to 5’ dsDNA exonuclease, which is incompatible with the proposed role of MR in the production of 3’ 1 This research was originally published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. Herdendorf T.J., Albrecht D.A. , Benkovic S.J., and Nelson S.W. Biochemical characterization of the bacteriophage T4 Mre11:Rad50 complex. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2011; 286:2382-92. © The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 2 Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 3 Department of Chemistry, 414 Wartik Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, 16802 4 Author of correspondence
Modes of correlated angular motion in live cells across three distinct time scales

Particle tracking experiments with high speed digital microscopy yield the positions and trajectories of lipid droplets inside living cells. Angular correlation analysis shows that the lipid droplets have uncorrelated motion at short time scales (τ < 1 ms) followed by anti-persistent motion for lag times in the range of 1 ⩽ τ ⩽ 10 ms. The angular correlation at longer time scales, τ > 10 ms, becomes persistent, indicating directed movement. The motion at all time scales is associated with the lipid droplets being tethered to and driven along the microtubule network. The point at which the angular correlation changes from anti-persistent to persistent motion corresponds to the cross over between sub-diffusive and super diffusive motion, as observed by mean square displacement analysis. Correct analysis of the angular correlations of the detector noise is found to be crucial in modelling the observed phenomena.
Biogenesis and Function of Late Endosomes and Lysosomes

Endocytosis is a process of internalization of extracellular fluid or cell surface receptors via diverse cell surface invaginations, generating an endosomal membrane system (Conner and Schmid 2003, Gruenberg, 2001, Gruenberg and Maxfield 1995, Guha et al. 2003, Mellman et al. 1986, Mukherjee et al. 1997, Sharma et al. 2002). It plays an important role in uptake of nutrients, scavenging of extracellular material, internalization of receptor bound ligands such as growth factors, hormones, lipoproteins and antibodies (Mellman et al. 1986, Mukherjee et al. 1997). Following internalization macromolecules are located in membrane bound vesicles referred to as endosomes.
A design of miniaturized SIW-based band-pass cavity filter

Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) based cavity band-pass filters are designed and simulated using Ansoft HFSS for the purpose of high density integration and cost reduction. Simulation results obtained for the four cavity filter shows a minimum insertion loss of less than 2 dB over the pass band with center frequency near 12 GHz (X-band) with approximately 1 GHz of bandwidth. As the order of the filter increases, steeper pass-band with high stop-band rejection ratio is observed. By the implementation of slow wave structure the effective length of the cavity filter has been reduced by 22.79 % and area by 40.39 %.
Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L . ) using the expansin 10 ( CsEXP 10 ) gene

The cucumber expansin 10 (CsEXP10) gene was previously cloned from young cucumber fruits but its role has not been defined. To determine the role of this gene in plant growth and development, a CsEXP10 gene transformation system was established. The open reading frame of the gene was inserted behind the CaMV35S promoter of vector pCAMBIA1301, and the construct was introduced into tomato plants by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. In total, 19 kanamycin-positive lines were produced and nine independent transgenic lines were identified by β-glucuronidase and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that levels of the CsEXP10 transcript were higher in transgenic lines than in a non-transgenic line.