Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time-lapse three-dimensional inversion of complex conductivity data using an active time constrained (ATC) approach

SUMMARY Inducedpolarization(morepreciselythemagnitudeandphaseofimpedanceofthesubsurface) is measured using a network of electrodes located at the ground surface or in boreholes. This method yields important information related to the distribution of permeability and contaminants in the shallow subsurface. We propose a new time-lapse 3-D modelling and inversionalgorithmtoimagetheevolutionofcomplexconductivityovertime.Wediscretizethe subsurface using hexahedron cells. Each cell is assigned a complex resistivity or conductivity value.Usingthefinite-elementapproach,wemodelthein-phaseandout-of-phase(quadrature) electrical potentials on the 3-D grid, which are then transformed into apparent complex resistivity. Inhomogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions are used at the boundary of the domain. The calculation of the Jacobian matrix is based on the principles of reciprocity. The goal of time-lapse inversion is to determine the change in the complex resistivity of each cell of the spatial grid as a function of time. Each model along the time axis is called a ‘reference space model’. This approach can be simplified into an inverse problem looking for the optimum of several reference space models using the approximation that the material properties vary linearly in time between two subsequent reference models. Regularizations in both space domain and time domain reduce inversion artefacts and improve the stability of the inversion problem. In addition, the use of the time-lapse equations allows the simultaneous inversion of data obtained at different times in just one inversion step (4-D inversion). The advantages of this new inversion algorithm are demonstrated on synthetic time-lapse data resulting from the simulation of a salt tracer test in a heterogeneous random material described by an anisotropic semi-variogram.
Character recognition in natural scene images

Applications like content-based image indexing, automatic geocoding of businesses and real-time robotic navigation have generated research interest in the problem of text reading from natural images. This paper tackles the problem of character recognition which constitutes the last phase of the text detection and extraction pipeline. We employ the stroke width transform used for the text detection phase, and address the problem of character recognition by training KNNs, Random Forest and Neural Networks on the Char74 and ICDAR2003 datasets of images in-the-wild, containing English characters from natural images. We also compare the performance of our character classifier from the currently best-performing state-of-the-art OCR and demonstrate that both perform competitively.
Effect of 48 h Fasting on Autonomic Function, Brain Activity, Cognition, and Mood in Amateur Weight Lifters

Objectives. The acute fasting-induced cardiovascular autonomic response and its effect on cognition and mood remain debatable. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of a 48 h, zero-calorie diet on autonomic function, brain activity, cognition, and mood in amateur weight lifters. Methods. Nine participants completed a 48 h, zero-calorie diet program. Cardiovascular autonomic function, resting frontal brain activity, cognitive performance, and mood were evaluated before and after fasting. Results. Fasting decreased (p < 0.05) weight, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure, whereas no changes were evident regarding any of the measured heart rate variability indices. Fasting decreased (p < 0.05) the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin and improved (p < 0.05) mental flexibility and shifting set, whereas no changes were observed in working memory, visuospatial discrimination, and spatial orientation ability. Fasting also increased (p < 0.05) anger, whereas other mood states were not affected by it. Conclusions. 48 h fasting resulted in higher parasympathetic activity and decreased resting frontal brain activity, increased anger, and improved prefrontal-cortex-related cognitive functions, such as mental flexibility and set shifting, in amateur weight lifters. In contrast, hippocampus-related cognitive functions were not affected by it.
Estimation in High-Dimensional Factor Models with Structural Instabilities by Wen ( Wendy )

In this major paper, we use high-dimensional models to analyze macroeconomic data which is influenced by the break point. In particular, we consider to detect the break point and study the changes of the number of factors and the factor loadings with the structural instability. Concretely, we propose two factor models which explain the processes of preand postbreak periods. Then, we consider the break point as known or unknown. In both situations, we derive the shrinkage estimators by minimizing the penalized least square function and calculate the estimators of the numbers of preand postbreak factors and the existence of the break point. After that, we present some results about the asymptotic performance of the penalty least square estimators with both the cross-section dimension and the time dimension tend to infinity. In addition, we establish the Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the performance of the procedure and we analyze the real dataset from 2007-2009 Great Recession. The theoretical results are confirmed by simulation that the break point can be properly detected. More than half proposed post model selection estimators domain the full sample estimators while the procedure performs relatively poor in estimating the number of preand postfactors.
Studies on the Internalization Mechanism of Cationic Cell-penetrating Peptides*

A great deal of data has been amassed suggesting that cationic peptides are able to translocate into eucaryotic cells in a temperature-independent manner. Although such peptides are widely used to promote the intracellular delivery of bioactive molecules, the mechanism by which this cell-penetrating activity occurs still remains unclear. Here, we present an in vitro study of the cellular uptake of peptides, originally deriving from protegrin (the SynB peptide vectors), that have also been shown to enhance the transport of drugs across the blood-brain barrier. In parallel, we have examined the internalization process of two lipid-interacting peptides, SynB5 and pAntp-(43–58), the latter corresponding to the translocating segment of the Antennapedia homeodomain. We report a quantitative study of the time- and dose-dependence of internalization and demonstrate that these peptides accumulate inside vesicular structures. Furthermore, we have examined the role of endocytotic pathways in this process using a variety of metabolic and endocytosis inhibitors. We show that the internalization of these peptides is a temperature- and energy-dependent process and that endosomal transport is a key component of the mechanism. Altogether, our results suggest that SynB and pAntp-(43–58) peptides penetrate into cells by an adsorptive-mediated endocytosis process rather than temperature-independent translocation.
Kidney volume, blood pressure, and albuminuria: findings in an Australian aboriginal community.

BACKGROUND Australian Aborigines are experiencing epidemic proportions of renal disease, marked by albuminuria and, variably, hematuria. They also have high rates of low birth weight, which have been associated with lower kidney volumes and higher blood pressures. The authors evaluated relationships between kidney volume, blood pressure, albuminuria, and hematuria in 1 homogeneous group. METHODS Forty-three percent (672 of 1,560) of the population in a remote coastal Australian Aboriginal community aged 4.4 to 72.1 years participated in the study. RESULTS Kidney size correlated closely with body size. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was correlated inversely with kidney length and kidney volume, after adjusting for age, sex, and body surface area (BSA); a 1-cm increase in mean kidney length was associated with a 2.2-mm Hg decrease in SBP, and a 10-mL increase in mean kidney volume was associated with a 0.6-mm Hg decrease in SBP (P = 0.001). Mean kidney volume explained 10% of the variance in SBP in a multivariate model containing age, sex, and BSA. In addition to higher SBP, adults who had the lowest quartiles of kidney volume also had the highest levels of overt albuminuria (P = 0.044). CONCLUSION Smaller kidneys predispose to higher blood pressures and albuminuria in this population. The lower volumes possibly represent kidneys with reduced nephron numbers, which might be related to an adverse intrauterine environment. Susceptibility to renal disease could be a direct consequence of reduced nephron numbers; the higher blood pressures with which they are associated could also contribute to, as well as derive from, this association.
An accurate circuit model of a microstrip patch antenna for CAD applications

An equivalent circuit model, which takes into account the resonances of higher modes beyond the fundamental one, of a rectangular microstrip patch antenna is developed. The model is based on the broad-band transmission line model, and can be constructed to account for as many higher modes as it is desirable. Its good accuracy is proved after comparison with a full-wave analysis simulation program.
STRONTIUM FRUCTOSE 1,6‐DIPHOSPHATE RESCUES ADENINE‐INDUCED MALE HYPOGONADISM AND UPREGULATES THE TESTICULAR ENDOTHELIN‐1 SYSTEM

1 Male hypogonadism is a major problem that starts to affect middle‐aged men and has adversely effects on human sexual life. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of strontium fructose 1,6‐diphosphate (FDP‐Sr) on male hypogonadism in rats. 2 The pharmacological model of testis dysfunction was created by administration of adenine (200 mg/kg per day, i.g.) for 30 days. Three doses of FDP‐Srs (200, 100 and 50 mg/kg per day, i.g.) were administered in parallel with adenine. Finally, mating behaviour index (the mounting latency and the number of mounting events), the total number of spermatozoa and sperm motility, related enzyme function and gene regulation and the mRNA levels of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), cytochrome P450 side‐chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc), 3β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β‐HSD), prepro‐endothelin (ET)‐1, endothelin‐converting enzyme (ECE) and endothelin receptor A (ETA) were analysed. 3 The results showed that adenine significantly prolonged the mounting latency and decreased the number of mounting events, markedly reduced the total number of spermatozoa, slowed sperm motility and decreased testicular enzyme activity in the testes. At the mRNA level, adenine significantly downregulated serum testosterone, StAR, P450sc and 3β‐HSD. In parallel, adenine also targeted the ET‐1 system, significantly downregulating mRNA levels of prepro‐ET‐1, ECE and ETA. Administration of FDP‐Sr dose‐dependently reversed these effects. 4 In conclusion, adenine‐induced testis dysfunction appears to be manifested as loss of sexual function in association with decreased spermatogenesis and reduced mRNA levels of steroidogenesis and the testicular ET‐1 system. These abnormalities were significantly restored by FDP‐Sr in a dose‐dependent manner. These data indicate the possibility of using FDP‐Sr to treat male hypogonadism.
Conditional neutrality at two adjacent NBS‐LRR disease resistance loci in natural populations of Arabidopsis lyrata

We examined patterns of nucleotide diversity at a genomic region containing two linked candidate disease resistance (NBS‐LRR) genes in seven populations of the outcrossing plant Arabidopsis lyrata. In comparison with two adjacent control genes and neutral reference genes across the genome, the NBS‐LRR genes exhibited elevated nonsynonymous variation and a large number of major‐effect polymorphisms causing early stop codons and/or frameshift mutations. In contrast, analysis of synonymous diversity provided no evidence that the region was subject to long‐term balancing selection or recent selective sweeps in any of the seven populations surveyed. Also in contrast with earlier surveys of one of these R genes, there was no evidence that the resistance genes or the major‐effect mutations were subject to elevated differentiation between populations. We suggest that conditional neutrality in the absence of the corresponding pathogen, rather than long‐term balancing selection or local adaptation, may in some circumstances be a significant cause of elevated functional polymorphism at R genes. In contrast with the R genes, analysis of diversity and differentiation at the flanking FERONIA locus showed high population divergence, suggesting local adaptation on this locus controlling male–female signalling during fertilization.
Small Vocabulary Recognition Using Surface Electromyography in an Acoustically Harsh Environment

Abstract This paper presents results of electromyographic-based (EMG-based) speech recognition on a small vocabulary of 15 English words. The work was motivated in part by a desire to mitigate the effects of high acoustic noise on speech intelligibility in communication systems used by first responders. Both an off-line and a real-time system were constructed. Data were collected from a single male subject wearing a firefighter’s self-contained breathing apparatus. A single channel of EMG data was used, collected via surface sensors at a rate of 10 4 samples/s. The signal processing core consisted of an activity detector, a feature extractor, and a neural network classifier. In the off-line phase, 150 examples of each word were collected from the subject. Generalization testing, conducted using bootstrapping, produced an overall average correct classification rate on the 15 words of 74%, with a 95% confidence interval of [71%, 77%]. Once the classifier was trained, the subject used the real-time system to communicate to a cellular phone and to control a robotic device. The real-time system was tested with the subject exposed to an ambient noise level of approximately 95 decibels.
Chapter 7 Third-Generation Percutaneous Forefoot Surgery

Hallux valgus is one of the most common diseases that affects the foot. The primary symptom of this disease is usually pain. Although non-operative treatment should be attempted, some patients eventually need surgical treatment. There are numerous surgical procedures for correction of HV deformities. Some of these surgeries may be performed through open or percutaneous surgery (MIS). Distal metatarsal chevron osteotomy is an excellent treatment option in mild-to-moderate deformities, providing good results in the correction of deformities and symptoms. This technique can also be done by percutaneous or MIS surgeries; the set of these surgeries are called Third generation procedures. They have been showed to be useful, effective and (maybe) easier than open procedures.
Loom : Extreme Scale Visual Analytics for Large Hybrid IT Infrastructure Management

Extreme scale visual analytics (ESVA) have successfully increased our understanding of a variety of domains that produce huge amounts of complex data. In spite of their complexity, IT infrastructures have not benefited from the application of ESVA techniques. This is the very first time ESVA techniques are applied and extended to tame increasing complexity in IT infrastructure management systems guaranteeing interactive response times and integrating key elements for IT management: Relationships between managed entities coming from different IT management subsystems, alerts and actions (or reconfigurations) of the IT setup. The Loom system builds on two main pillars: 1) a multiplex graph spanning data from different ITIMs; and 2) a novel visualisation arrangement: the Loom “Thread” visualisation model. We have tested this in a number of real-world applications, showing that Loom can handle million of entities without losing information, with minimum context switching, and offering better performance than other relational/graph-based systems. This ensures interactive response times (few seconds as 90th percentile). The value of the “Thread” visualisation model is shown in a qualitative analysis of users’ experiences with Loom.
Exploring the Diversity of Gardnerella vaginalis in the Genitourinary Tract Microbiota of Monogamous Couples Through Subtle Nucleotide Variation

Background Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is an enigmatic disease of unknown origin that affects a large percentage of women. The vaginal microbiota of women with BV is associated with serious sequelae, including abnormal pregnancies. The etiology of BV is not fully understood, however, it has been suggested that it is transmissible, and that G. vaginalis may be an etiological agent. Studies using enzymatic assays to define G. vaginalis biotypes, as well as more recent genomic comparisons of G. vaginalis isolates from symptomatic and asymptomatic women, suggest that particular G. vaginalis strains may play a key role in the pathogenesis of BV. Methodology/Principal Findings To explore G. vaginalis diversity, distribution and sexual transmission, we developed a Shannon entropy-based method to analyze low-level sequence variation in 65,710 G. vaginalis 16S rRNA gene segments that were PCR-amplified from vaginal samples of 53 monogamous women and from urethral and penile skin samples of their male partners. We observed a high degree of low-level diversity among G. vaginalis sequences with a total of 46 unique sequence variants (oligotypes), and also found strong correlations of these oligotypes between sexual partners. Even though Gram stain-defined normal and some Gram stain-defined intermediate oligotype profiles clustered together in UniFrac analysis, no single G. vaginalis oligotype was found to be specific to BV or normal vaginal samples. Conclusions This study describes a novel method for investigating G. vaginalis diversity at a low level of taxonomic discrimination. The findings support cultivation-based studies that indicate sexual partners harbor the same strains of G. vaginalis. This study also highlights the fact that a few, reproducible nucleotide variations within the 16S rRNA gene can reveal clinical or epidemiological associations that would be missed by genus-level or species-level categorization of 16S rRNA data.
Acoustic correlates and gender effects in production and perception of Japanese polite speech

This study examines potential contribution of prosodic features and voice quality to the perception and production of Japanese polite speech as well as possible gender effects in politeness strategy. We first recorded speech from 10 native Japanese speakers (5 male, 5 female) under polite and nonpolite settings with identical texts. Then perceptual experiment was conducted to rate the politeness of speech. Analysis of data showed that: 1) speakers tend to use narrower pitch range, slower speech rate, less F0 variation and breathy voice to show politeness; 2) raters provide higher scores to speech with slower speech rate, more variation of mora duration, less F0 variation, higher pitch register and breathy voice; 3) there is a slight gender difference in politeness strategy in both perception and production. Overall, this study showed that various acoustic cues are associated with expression of politeness, and some are common among different speakers, while others are gender-dependent or even speaker dependent.
Teaser Vitamin E is a lipid-soluble , radical buster existing in two different isoforms : tocotrienols and tocopherols

Tocotrienols: the unsaturated sidekick shifting new paradigms in vitamin E therapeutics Madhu M. Kanchi1,z, Muthu K. Shanmugam2,z, Grishma Rane, Gautam Sethi and Alan P. Kumar Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, 117599, Singapore Department of Pharmacology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 117600, Singapore 3 School of Biomedical Sciences, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia National University Cancer Institute, National University Health System, 119074, Singapore Curtin Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6102, Australia Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-5017, USA
Characterization of a Peroxide-Resistant Mutant of the Anaerobic Bacterium Bacteroides fragilis

ABSTRACT A Bacteroides fragilis mutant resistant to hydrogen peroxide and alkyl peroxide was isolated by enrichment in increasing concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. The mutant strain was constitutively resistant to 100 mM H2O2 and 5 mM cumene hydroperoxide (15-min exposure). In contrast, the parent strain was protected against <10 mM H2O2 when the peroxide response was induced with a sublethal concentration of H2O2, and no protection was observed in untreated cells. In addition, catalase activity in the mutant strain was not repressed in anaerobic cultures as reported previously for the parent strain. Comparison of the protein profile of crude extracts of the B. fragilis strains revealed that at least three oxidative stress-induced proteins in the parent strain were constitutively expressed in the mutant as detected by nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. N-terminal amino acid sequence of these overexpressed proteins confirmed the presence of a deregulated catalase (KatB), an alkyl hydroperoxidase reductase subunit C (AhpC), and a Dps/PexB homologue. Northern blot analysis andkatB::cat transcriptional fusion studies revealed that in the mutant, katB was deregulated compared to the parent and that katB was controlled by atrans-acting regulatory mechanism. Moreover, constitutive expression of KatB and of the AhpC and Dps homologues in the H2O2-resistant mutant suggests that these proteins may share a common oxidative stress transcriptional regulator and may be involved in B. fragilis peroxide resistance.
The G Protein–Coupled Receptor–Transient Receptor Potential Channel Axis: Molecular Insights for Targeting Disorders of Sensation and Inflammation

Sensory nerves are equipped with receptors and ion channels that allow them to detect and respond to diverse chemical, mechanical, and thermal stimuli. These sensory proteins include G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs) and transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels. A subclass of peptidergic sensory nerves express GPCRs and TRP channels that detect noxious, irritant, and inflammatory stimuli. Activation of these nerves triggers protective mechanisms that lead to withdrawal from danger (pain), removal of irritants (itch, cough), and resolution of infection (neurogenic inflammation). The GPCR-TRP axis is central to these mechanisms. Signals that emanate from the GPCR superfamily converge on the small TRP family, leading to channel sensitization and activation, which amplify pain, itch, cough, and neurogenic inflammation. Herein we discuss how GPCRs and TRP channels function independently and synergistically to excite sensory nerves that mediate noxious and irritant responses and inflammation in the skin and the gastrointestinal and respiratory systems. We discuss the signaling mechanisms that underlie the GPCR-TRP axis and evaluate how new information about the structure of GPCRs and TRP channels provides insights into their functional interactions. We propose that a deeper understanding of the GPCR-TRP axis may facilitate the development of more selective and effective therapies to treat dysregulated processes that underlie chronic pain, itch, cough, and inflammation.