Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The maternal Xenopusβ‐catenin signaling pathway, activated by frizzled homologs, induces goosecoid in a cell non‐autonomous manner

In spite of abundant evidence that Wnts play essential roles in embryonic induction and patterning, little is known about the expression or activities of Wnt receptors during embryogenesis. The isolation and expression of two maternal Xenopus frizzled genes, Xfrizzled‐1 and Xfrizzled‐7, is described. It is also demonstrated that both can activate the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway as monitored by the induction of specific target genes. Activation of the β‐Catenin pathway has previously been shown to be necessary and sufficient for specifying the dorsal axis of Xenopus. β‐Catenin is thought to work through the cell‐autonomous induction of the homeobox genes siamois and twin, that in turn bind to and activate the promoter of another homeobox gene, goosecoid. However, it was found that the β‐catenin pathway regulated the expression of both endogenous goosecoid, and a goosecoid promoter construct, in a cell non‐autonomous manner. These data demonstrate that maternal Frizzleds can activate the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway in Xenopus embryos, and that induction of a known downstream gene can occur in a cell non‐autonomous manner.
Plasmid Interleukin-23 (IL-23), but Not Plasmid IL-27, Enhances the Protective Efficacy of a DNA Vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection

ABSTRACT Protection against intracellular pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires the development of Th1-like T-cell responses. This in turn is dependent on the pattern of cytokine produced from dendritic cells (DCs) after infection. Three heterodimeric cytokines, interleukin-12 (IL-12), IL-23, and IL-27, as well as IL-18, contribute to the differentiation and expansion of naive CD4+ T cells. In this study we compared the effects of plasmids expressing both chains of IL-12, IL-23, or IL-27 as adjuvants for DNA immunization against M. tuberculosis infection. The genes encoding p19 and p40 chains of IL-23 or EBI3 and p28 chains of IL-27 were cloned on either side of a self-cleaving peptide from the FMDV2A protein. The secretion of functional cytokines from transfected cells was detected with bioassays. Supernatant from p2AIL-23-transfected cells induced the release of IL-17 from activated lymphocytes, confirming the presence of bioactive IL-23. Further, supernatant from p2AIL-27-transfected cells stimulated a significant increase in the proliferation of peptide-stimulated transgenic CD4+ T cells. In initial experiments, M. tuberculosis infection of DCs was more potent at inducing IL-12 and IL-23 secretion than infection with the vaccine strain Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), and no significant upregulation of IL-27 was observed. Coimmunization of C57BL/6 mice with DNA expressing M. tuberculosis antigen 85B (Ag85B; DNA85B) and plasmids expressing IL-23 or IL-12 stimulated stronger Ag85B-specific T-cell proliferative and IFN-γ responses than DNA85B alone, whereas the addition of p2AIL-27 had no effect. Interestingly, DNA85B codelivered with p2AIL-12, but not p2AIL-23, reduced the immunoglobulin G antibody response. Both p2AIL-23 and p2AIL-12, but not p2AIL-27, enhanced the protective efficacy of DNA85B against aerosol M. tuberculosis challenge. Therefore, both p2AIL-23 and p2AIL-12 are valuable as cytokine adjuvants for increasing the protective antituberculosis immunity induced by DNA vaccines.
Collaborative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

The radio frequency (RF) spectrum is a scarce natural resource, currently regulated by government agencies. With the explosive emergence of wireless applications, the demands for the RF spectrum are constantly increasing. On the other hand, it has been reported that localised temporal and geographic spectrum utilisation efficiency is extremely low. Cognitive radio is an innovative technology designed to improve spectrum utilisation by exploiting those spectrum opportunities. This ability is dependent upon spectrum sensing, which is one of most critical components in a cognitive radio system. A significant challenge is to sense the whole RF spectrum at a particular physical location in a short observation time. Otherwise, performance degrades with longer observation times since the lagging response to spectrum holes implies low spectrum utilisation efficiency. Hence, developing an efficient wideband spectrum sensing technique is prime important. In this thesis, a multirate asynchronous sub-Nyquist sampling (MASS) system that employs multiple low-rate analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) is developed that implements wideband spectrum sensing. The key features of the MASS system are, 1) low implementation complexity, 2) energy-efficiency for sharing spectrum sensing data, and 3) robustness against the lack of time synchronisation. The conditions under which recovery of the full spectrum is unique are presented using compressive sensing (CS) analysis. The MASS system is applied to both centralised and distributed cognitive radio networks. When the spectra of the cognitive radio nodes have a common spectral support, using one low-rate ADC in each cognitive radio node can successfully recover the full spectrum. This is obtained by applying a hybrid matching pursuit (HMP) algorithm a synthesis of distributed compressive sensing simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit (DCS-SOMP) and compressive sampling matching pursuit (CoSaMP). Moreover, a multirate spectrum detection (MSD) system is introduced to detect the primary users from a small number of measurements without ever reconstructing the full spectrum. To achieve a better detection performance, a data fusion strategy is developed for combining sensing data from all cognitive radio nodes. Theoretical bounds on detection performance are derived for distributed cognitive radio nodes suffering from additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), Rayleigh fading, and log-normal fading channels. In conclusion, MASS and MSD both have a low implementation complexity, high energy efficiency, good data compression capability, and are applicable to distributed cognitive radio networks. Declaration of originality I hereby declare that the work recorded in this thesis and the thesis itself was composed and originated entirely by myself in the School of Engineering at The University of Edinburgh as a candidate for the Doctorate of Philosophy. Hongjian Sun January, 2011
Studies of differential gene expression in clinically derived eosinophil populations

Influx of eosinophils into the post‐capillary bronchial epithelium and the subsequent release of inflammatory mediators is characteristic of the late phase of asthmatic attacks. The genes that serve to predispose the peripheral blood eosinophils of asthmatics to undergo this process are poorly defined. The aim of this report is to describe the differential gene expression of both the known pro‐inflammatory genes 5‐lipoxygenase and 5‐lipoxygenase‐activating protein (FLAP) and novel cDNA sequences in eosinophils derived from clinical samples.
Coupled Spin Torque Nano Oscillators for Low Power Neural Computation

We present coupled spin torque nano oscillators (STNOs) as electronic neurons for efficient brain-inspired computation. The coupled STNOs show two distinct outputs, depending on whether the frequencies are locked or not. The locking mechanisms are based on magnetic coupling or injection locking. The neuron firing threshold can be set by tuning the locking range of the coupled STNOs. We employ a crossbar array of programmable memory devices like memristors to implement electronic synapses that work seamlessly with the coupled STNOs for hardware implementation of neural networks. Results show that injection locking-based neuron model can be attractive from scaling point of view and computation like character recognition can be performed with energy consumption per neuron of ~1.8× and ~ 3× lower than the digital and the analog CMOS counterpart, respectively.
Supervised Machine Learning Methods for Item Recommendation

class, 107 accuracy, 40 AdaBoost, 77 adaptivity, 41 age, 81 ALS, see alternating least squares alternating least squares, 36, 86 Apache Mahout, 86 area under the ROC curve, 41, 61, 82 aspect model, 58 association rules, 87 attribute-based kNN, 81 attribute-to-factor mapping, 45 59 AUC, see area under the ROC curve bagging, 77, 87 Bayesian Context-Aware Ranking, 38 Bayesian Personalized Ranking, 38 39, 61 66, 82 binary classi cation, 62 BPR, see Bayesian Personalized Ranking BPR-MF, 39, 81 C, 92 C++, 80, 92 C#, 88, 92, 122 case-based reasoning, 87 categories, 81 chronological splits, 82 classi cation, 24, 27, 61 clustering, 24, 87 co-clustering, 80 COFI, 87 Co Rank, 38, 88 cold-start problem, 45 59 collaborative ltering, 61 command-line tools, 81 competitive collaborative ltering, 29 computer vision, 79 con dence, 40 conjugate gradient, 36 content-based ltering, 88 context, 26 context-aware recommendation, 29, 89 contextual modeling, 40 contextual postltering, 40 contextual preltering, 40 cosine similarity, 34 cost-sensitive learning, 63 coverage, 40 Crab, 87 cross-validation, 83 decision trees, 35 demographic data, 81 dense matrix, 108 diagonal, 84 distributed matrix factorization, 83 diversity, 41 documentation, 84 dot product, 45 Duine, 88, 92 e-commerce, 27 e-LICO, 96 EasyRec, 87 Eigentaste, 87 EM, see expectation-maximization ensemble, 70, 87, 122 epoch, 35 evaluation, 40, 51, 82, 93 expectation-maximization, 36 explicit context, 29 explicit feedback, 25 F#, 80, 123 Facebook, 28
A study on the correlation between the stray capacitance of a signal transformer and the magnetic field emitted from communication lines

In order to reduce the radiated emissions from communication cables, we investigated a relation between the stray capacitance of a signal transformer and the common mode currents. From analysis and experimental results, it is confirmed that the stray capacitances of the signal transformer have strong correlation to the common mode currents and magnetic field strength. This indicates that the implementation design of transformer is an important factor to reduce the radiated emissions.
The research on features of large deformation offline handwritten Chinese character recognition

The offline handwriting recognition is one of the difficulties of pattern recognition, feature extraction results directly affects the recognition rate. Firstly, various existing structural features and statistical features will be analyzed, and feature fusion and feature extraction methods will introduction briefly. Finally, a method for feature extraction is presented, which is developed based on the multi-resolution theory and feature fusion theory. It will use these theories generate different feature and use fusion methods to generate new character feature, thereby improving the recognition rate.
C‐KIT expression in primary cutaneous T‐cell lymphomas

Background: Mutations of the stem cell factor receptor C‐KIT play a major pathogenetic role in the development of different malignant diseases like human mastocytosis, myeloproliferative disorders, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, acute myelogenous leukemia, and sinonasal lymphomas. Furthermore, the expression of C‐KIT has been described in Hodgkin's disease and nodal CD30+ anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCLs). As it is possible to inhibit C‐KIT by innovative kinase inhibitors like STI571, it may be an attractive target for new therapeutical approaches. Therefore, we screened more than 50 different types of cutaneous T‐cell lymphomas (TCLs) for the presence of C‐KIT. Immunohistochemical stainings were performed on paraffin‐embedded tissue sections using a polyclonal rabbit anti‐human C‐KIT antibody. Naphtol‐ASD‐chloroacetate esterase (NASDCE)‐control stainings were performed on every positive sample to distinguish C‐KIT‐positive lymphoma cells from C‐KIT‐positive mast cells.
Domain activities of PapC usher reveal the mechanism of action of an Escherichia coli molecular machine

P pili are prototypical chaperone–usher pathway-assembled pili used by Gram-negative bacteria to adhere to host tissues. The PapC usher contains five functional domains: a transmembrane β-barrel, a β-sandwich Plug, an N-terminal (periplasmic) domain (NTD), and two C-terminal (periplasmic) domains, CTD1 and CTD2. Here, we delineated usher domain interactions between themselves and with chaperone–subunit complexes and showed that overexpression of individual usher domains inhibits pilus assembly. Prior work revealed that the Plug domain occludes the pore of the transmembrane domain of a solitary usher, but the chaperone–adhesin-bound usher has its Plug displaced from the pore, adjacent to the NTD. We demonstrate an interaction between the NTD and Plug domains that suggests a biophysical basis for usher gating. Furthermore, we found that the NTD exhibits high-affinity binding to the chaperone–adhesin (PapDG) complex and low-affinity binding to the major tip subunit PapE (PapDE). We also demonstrate that CTD2 binds with lower affinity to all tested chaperone–subunit complexes except for the chaperone–terminator subunit (PapDH) and has a catalytic role in dissociating the NTD–PapDG complex, suggesting an interplay between recruitment to the NTD and transfer to CTD2 during pilus initiation. The Plug domain and the NTD–Plug complex bound all of the chaperone–subunit complexes tested including PapDH, suggesting that the Plug actively recruits chaperone–subunit complexes to the usher and is the sole recruiter of PapDH. Overall, our studies reveal the cooperative, active roles played by periplasmic domains of the usher to initiate, grow, and terminate a prototypical chaperone–usher pathway pilus.
Numerical Simulation of a Scroll Expander for Use in a Rankine Cycle

This paper presents two simulation models of scroll expanders for use in heat recovery Rankine cycle applications: a detailed reference model and a simplified model. The reference model associates a detailed geometrical description of the expander with a thermodynamic modeling of the expansion process. Due to large computational effort, the reference model is not appropriate for simulation of the entire Rankine cycle system. T he paper shows how a simplified model can be built from the reference model. This model involves a limited number of parameters, which describe the main features of tJ1e machine. An experimental study is carried out on a prototype of Rankine cycle working with HCFC-123. Based on measurements, the validation of both models is conducted. It is found that both models are able to predict the mass flow rate, the delive red shaft power and the discharge temperature with a good accuracy.
Bi(2) WO(6) inverse opals: facile fabrication and efficient visible-light-driven photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water-splitting activity.

Photonic crystals have attracted extensive interest for their potential applications in manipulating light in nontraditional ways based on photonic band-structure concepts. [ 1 ] In a photonic crystal, light with certain frequencies is forbidden to propagate due to a photonic stop band arising from the periodic modulation of the refractive index. [ 2 ] Slow light propagation near this stop band is a unique property of photonic crystals, and is of particular interest for enhancing the light energy-conversion effi ciency in solar cells, the hydrogen production through photocatalytic water splitting, and photocatalytic processes for environmental remediation. [ 3 ] It has been reported that TiO 2 inverse-opal fi lms exhibit signifi cantly increased photocatalytic effi ciencies as compared with conventional TiO 2 fi lms. This enhancement of the effi ciency is generally attributed to the improved interaction of light with TiO 2 due to the low group velocities of light near the stop-band edge, improved light harvesting due to the multiple scattering effect in the inverse-opal structure, and continuous pore channels that facilitate the transfer of reactant molecules. [ 3 a,c,d]
Ritually faking belief

An explosion of recent research suggests that religious beliefs and behaviors are universal, arise from deep-seated cognitive mechanisms, and were favored by natural selection over human evolutionary history. However, if a propensity towards religious beliefs is a fundamental characteristic of human brains (as both by-product theorists and adaptationists agree), and/or an important ingredient of Darwinian fitness (as adaptationists argue), then how do we explain the existence and prevalence of atheists even among ancient and traditional societies? The null hypothesis is that like other psychological traits due to natural variation among individuals in genetics, physiology, and cognition, there will always be a range of strengths of religious beliefs. Atheists may therefore simply represent one end of a natural distribution of belief. However, an evolutionary approach to religion raises some more interesting adaptive hypotheses for atheism, which I explore here. Key among them are: (1) frequency dependence may mean that atheism as a ‘‘strategy’’ is selected for (along with selection for the ‘‘strategy’’ of belief), as long as atheists do not become too numerous; (2) ecological variation may mean that atheism outperforms belief in certain settings or at certain times, maintaining a mix in the overall population; (3) the presence of atheists may reinforce or temper religious beliefs and behaviors in the face of skepticism, boosting religious commitment, credibility, or practicality in the group as a whole; and (4) the presence of atheists may catalyze the functional advantages of religion, analogous to the way that loners or non-participants can enhance the evolution of cooperation. Just as evolutionary theorists ask what religious beliefs are ‘‘for’’ in terms of functional benefits for Darwinian fitness, an evolutionary approach suggests we should also at least consider what atheists might be for.
Ancestry and BMI Influences on Facial Soft Tissue Depths for A Cohort of Chinese and Caucasoid Women in Dunedin, New Zealand

This study measured and assessed facial soft tissue depths (FSTDs) in adult female Chinese and New Zealand (NZ) Europeans (Caucasoids). Ultrasound was used to obtain depths at nine landmarks on 108 healthy subjects (51 Chinese, 57 NZ European), erect positioned, of same age group (18–29 years). Height and weight were also recorded. Statistical analysis focused on comparison of tissue depth between the two ancestry groups and the influence of Body Mass Index (BMI) (kg/m2). Results showed mean depth differences at Supra M2 and Infra M2 landmarks significantly greater for Chinese than Caucasoid women for all three BMI Classes (BMI <20, 20 ≤ BMI < 25, 25 ≤ BMI < 30), even BMI <20. For both groups BMI positively correlated with FSTD values at all landmarks except Labrale superius. This study enabled ancestry and BMI influence on FSTDs to be observed and compared for two distinct groups. Results add to knowledge about facial tissue depth variation.
A low-phase-noise monolithically integrated 60 GHz push-push VCO for 122 GHz applications in a SiGe bipolar technology

This paper presents a 60 GHz push-push VCO fabricated in an automotive qualified SiGe:C bipolar production technology with an ft of 170 GHz and fmax of 250 GHz. The VCO uses an AC coupled varactor and features a transmission line based biasing scheme for the varactor to improve the phase noise. The VCO can be tuned from 58.2 GHz to 63 GHz and achieves a minimum phase noise of -108 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The phase noise remains below -105 dBc/Hz over the entire tuning range. The VCO consumes 145 mW from a 3.3 V power supply.
Novel Optochemical Sensors Based on Hollow Fibers and Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes

In this letter, the feasibility of using hollow-core optical fibers (HOFs) integrated with carbon nanotubes for volatile organic compound (VOC) detection applications has been investigated. The Langmuir-Blodgett technique has been used in order to transfer single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) onto HOFs. Reflectance characterization of the obtained sensing probes has been carried out in the range 1520-1620 nm. Finally, the sensing capability of the HOF sensors has been investigated by exposure in a test chamber to traces of tetrahydrofuran. The preliminary results obtained demonstrate the capability of the novel HOF sensor to perform chemical detection of VOCs showing a good sensitivity and fast response times
Validating the boundary element method for forward and inverse EEG computations in the presence of a hole in the skull

Holes in the skull may have a large influence on the EEG and ERP. Inverse source modeling techniques such as dipole fitting require an accurate volume conductor model. This model should incorporate holes if present, especially when either a neuronal generator or the electrodes are close to the hole, e.g., in case of a trephine hole in the upper part of the skull. The boundary element method (BEM) is at present the preferred method for inverse computations using a realistic head model, because of its efficiency and availability. Using a simulation approach, we have studied the accuracy of the BEM by comparing it to the analytical solution for a volume conductor without a hole, and to the finite difference method (FDM) for one with a hole. Furthermore, we have evaluated the influence of holes on the results of forward and inverse computations using the BEM. Without a hole and compared to the analytical model, a three‐sphere BEM model was accurate up to 5–10%, while the corresponding FDM model had an error <0.5%. In the presence of a hole, the difference between the BEM and the FDM was, on average, 4% (1.3–11.4%). The FDM turned out to be very accurate if no hole is present. We believe that the difference between the BEM and the FDM represents the inaccuracy of the BEM. This inaccuracy in the BEM is very small compared to the effect that holes can have on the scalp potential (up to 450%). In regard to the large influence of holes on forward and inverse computations, we conclude that holes in the skull can be treated reliably by means of the BEM and should be incorporated in forward and inverse modeling. Hum. Brain Mapping 17:179–192, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Teachers' Perception of Parental Engagement in their Children's School-Based Writing Development

The three “Rs”, reading, ‘riting and rithmetic have always been regarded as the core of any school curriculum. Over recent years reading and ‘rithmetic have taken center stage despite ‘riting’s critical role in school, college and the workplace (National Commission on Writing, 2003). The teaching of writing in schools has only been a focus of significant research since the 1980s (Prior, 2008). Standardized writing assessment nationwide is conducted only at certain grades, which vary state by state – The Florida Writing Assessment is conducted at 4th, 8th and 10th grades as mandated by the 1990 legislature (Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), n.d. ). The writing assessment carries less weight than either the reading or mathematics assessments. Both reading and mathematics are subject to annual assessment. As mandated by the legislature, since 2002 third grade students who fail to achieve above a level 1 in the reading assessment, and do not qualify under one of the six exemptions, are retained and not promoted to fourth grade (Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability, 2006). Writing is not assessed annually nor does failure carry a penalty such as the potential for retention at any grade.