Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expression of a Neuroendocrine Gene Signature in Gastric Tumor Cells from CEA 424-SV40 Large T Antigen-Transgenic Mice Depends on SV40 Large T Antigen

Background A large fraction of murine tumors induced by transgenic expression of SV40 large T antigen (SV40 TAg) exhibits a neuroendocrine phenotype. It is unclear whether SV40 TAg induces the neuroendocrine phenotype by preferential transformation of progenitor cells committed to the neuroendocrine lineage or by transcriptional activation of neuroendocrine genes. Methodology/Principal Findings To address this question we analyzed CEA424-SV40 TAg-transgenic mice that develop spontaneous tumors in the antral stomach region. Immunohistology revealed expression of the neuroendocrine marker chromogranin A in tumor cells. By ELISA an 18-fold higher level of serotonin could be detected in the blood of tumor-bearing mice in comparison to nontransgenic littermates. Transcriptome analyses of antral tumors combined with gene set enrichment analysis showed significant enrichment of genes considered relevant for human neuroendocrine tumor biology. This neuroendocrine gene signature was also expressed in 424GC, a cell line derived from a CEA424-SV40 TAg tumor, indicating that the tumor cells exhibit a similar neuroendocrine phenotype also in vitro. Treatment of 424GC cells with SV40 TAg-specific siRNA downregulated expression of the neuroendocrine gene signature. Conclusions/Significance SV40 TAg thus appears to directly induce a neuroendocrine gene signature in gastric carcinomas of CEA424-SV40 TAg-transgenic mice. This might explain the high incidence of neuroendocrine tumors in other murine SV40 TAg tumor models. Since the oncogenic effect of SV40 TAg is caused by inactivation of the tumor suppressor proteins p53 and RB1 and loss of function of these proteins is commonly observed in human neuroendocrine tumors, a similar mechanism might cause neuroendocrine phenotypes in human tumors.
Hybrid predictive current-mode control for power factor corrector with on-line parameter tuning

The objective of this paper is to present a new hybrid predictive current-mode control for power factor corrector with on-line parameter tuning. The proposed method can effectively solve the problems caused by inductance variation due to manufacturing tolerances, load current, magnetic intensity and temperature etc. for the power factor corrector with hybrid predictive current-mode control. The inductance variation may result in the predicted duty error and conduction mode switching error. Analysis of predicted duty error and conduction mode switching error contributed by the inductance variation for hybrid predictive current-mode control will be presented. The conduction mode switching error and duty error will deteriorate the power rating and reduce the efficiency. An on-line inductance tuning method for the power factor corrector with hybrid predictive current-mode control will be proposed in this paper. And this tuned parameter is used to correct the predicted duty error. The specifications of the converter include: input voltage 100 V/60 Hz, output voltage 380 VDC, output power 760 W, switching frequency 65 kHz. The control software is developed and verified using a microprocessor, TMS320F28335. Details of the controller design, simulation and experimental results are presented to fully support the theoretical analysis and validate the proposed method.
A novel current coordinated q-axis Field-Oriented control on synchronous machines

This paper introduces a novel current coordinated q-axis Field-Oriented Control (q-axis FOC) on EESM. This novel control strategy breaks through the conventional T/V limit, enhances the motor overload capability and enhances the torque variation rate enormously. In this paper, a thorough theoretical analysis on q-axis FOC, from phasor diagram plotting, mathematical modeling to equivalent circuit and system block diagram building, is brought forward to elaborate its control characteristics. Comparative experiments both at steady state and transient process are carried out on a 2.2kW EESM drive platform (with a 4kW IM as load) to testify the performances.
Evidence for Cohesive Dispersal in the Sea

As with many marine species, the vast majority of coral-reef fishes have a bipartite life cycle consisting of a dispersive larval stage and a benthic adult stage. While the potentially far-reaching demographic and ecological consequences of marine dispersal are widely appreciated, little is known of the structure of the larval pool and of the dispersive process itself. Utilizing Palindrome Sequence Analysis of otolith micro-chemistry (PaSA;) we show that larvae of Neopomacentrus miryae (Pomacentridae) appear to remain in cohesive cohorts throughout their entire pelagic larval duration (PLD; ∼28 days). Genetically, we found cohort members to be maternally (mtDNA) unrelated. While physical forcing cannot be negated as contributing to initial cohort formation, the small scale of the observed spatial structure suggests that some behavioral modification may be involved from a very early age. This study contributes to our ongoing re-evaluation of the processes that structure marine populations and communities and the spatial scales at which they operate.
Effect of river water exposition on adhesion and invasion abilities of Salmonella Oranienburg and Saintpaul

Abstract This study was performed to evaluate in vitro the adherence and invasiveness capacity of Salmonella Oranienburg and Saintpaul (isolated from river water) exposed to laboratory and river water growth conditions and inoculated into epithelial HEp-2 cell. Results showed that Salmonella Oranienburg and Salmonella Saintpaul showed lower ability to adhere and invade epithelial HEp-2 cells under both growth conditions as compared to Salmonella Typhimurium reference strain. S. Oranienburg adhesion capacity was not affected by the growth conditions, while S. Saintpaul exposed to river water significantly (p < 0.05) decreased its adhesion capacity by 75.7 %. On the contrary, S. Oranienburg exposed to river water reduced its invasion efficiency by 80 %, whereas S. Saintpaul showed no differences between growth conditions. In conclusion, this study suggests that the exposure to non-host conditions, such as river water, adversely affects the adhesion and invasiveness of Salmonella serotypes differently, impacting on their ability to re-enter a new host.
Distributed control of second-order nonlinear time-delayed multiagent systems with disturbance using neural networks

In this paper, a class of second-order nonlinear time-delayed multiagent systems with disturbance is investigated. In order to improve the adaptivity, neural networks are used to learn the unknown dynamics. Then, by utilizing Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, time delays can be eliminated. Moreover, a robustifying term is introduced to constrain external disturbance. With divide-and-conquer idea, the distributed controller is divided into five different parts to make the multiagent systems reach consensus. To circumvent the singularity induced by the time-delay elimination part, a σ-function is developed. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate the validity of the distributed controller.
Characterisation of significant Gram positive bacilli from soft tissue infections

Introduction: Gram positive bacilli (GPB) isolated from soft tissue infections are often neglected or ignored due to their fastidious nature and the lack of reliable phenotypic identification methods. This study was done to characterise clinically significant aero-tolerant GPB isolated from surgically obtained samples in patients with soft tissue infections. Methods: Forty-six GPB isolates collected during a 2 year study period were identified using partial 16s rRNA sequencing and API Coryne. Antibiotic susceptibility testing to penicillin, amoxycillin/clavulanate, moxifloxacin and erythromycin was performed on these isolates using Etest. Clinical data were gathered from patients’ medical records. Results: The most common isolates identified by 16s rRNA sequencing were Actinomyces species (n = 30, 65%) and Corynebacterium species (n = 9, 20%). The majority of the Actinomyces species infections were located below the waist, in particular the perianal region. There was poor agreement between API Coryne and genotypic identification, with only one-third of the isolates being correctly identified to species level. Actinomyces species were uniformly susceptible to penicillin and amoxicillin/clavulanate. Antibiotic susceptibilities were more varied for the other genera isolated. Conclusion: Actinomyces species comprised two-thirds of aerobically growing GPB isolates and may represent an under-reported cause of bacterial soft tissue infections. Penicillin and amoxycillin/clavulanate may be the empiric antibiotics of choice for Actinomyces species as all isolates were susceptible.
Posttranslational modification impact on the mechanism by which amyloid‐β induces synaptic dysfunction

Oligomeric amyloid‐β (Aβ) 1‐42 disrupts synaptic function at an early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Multiple posttranslational modifications of Aβ have been identified, among which N‐terminally truncated forms are the most abundant. It is not clear, however, whether modified species can induce synaptic dysfunction on their own and how altered biochemical properties can contribute to the synaptotoxic mechanisms. Here, we show that a prominent isoform, pyroglutamated Aβ3(pE)‐42, induces synaptic dysfunction to a similar extent like Aβ1‐42 but by clearly different mechanisms. In contrast to Aβ1‐42, Aβ3(pE)‐42 does not directly associate with synaptic membranes or the prion protein but is instead taken up by astrocytes and potently induces glial release of the proinflammatory cytokine TNFα. Moreover, Aβ3(pE)‐42‐induced synaptic dysfunction is not related to NMDAR signalling and Aβ3(pE)‐42‐induced impairment of synaptic plasticity cannot be rescued by D1‐agonists. Collectively, the data point to a scenario where neuroinflammatory processes together with direct synaptotoxic effects are caused by posttranslational modification of soluble oligomeric Aβ and contribute synergistically to the onset of synaptic dysfunction in AD.
Incorporating Discriminator in Sentence Generation: a Gibbs Sampling Method

Generating plausible and fluent sentence with desired properties has long been a challenge. Most of the recent works use recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and their variants to predict following words given previous sequence and target label. In this paper, we propose a novel framework to generate constrained sentences via Gibbs Sampling. The candidate sentences are revised and updated iteratively, with sampled new words replacing old ones. Our experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed method to generate plausible and diverse sentences.
Clinical pharmacists in primary care: a safe solution to the workforce crisis?

Increasing workload in National Health Service (NHS) primary care in the United Kingdom (UK) is placing a dwindling workforce under unsustainable pressure. Significant expansion of the General Practitioner (GP) workforce is unlikely, making it essential that other options are considered to ensure provision of safe and effective care. One possible answer is the integration of clinical pharmacists in GP practices.
Analysis of 3D Scan Measurement Distribution with Application to a Multi-Beam Lidar on a Rotating Platform

Multi-beam lidar (MBL) rangefinders are becoming increasingly compact, light, and accessible 3D sensors, but they offer limited vertical resolution and field of view. The addition of a degree-of-freedom to build a rotating multi-beam lidar (RMBL) has the potential to become a common solution for affordable rapid full-3D high resolution scans. However, the overlapping of multiple-beams caused by rotation yields scanning patterns that are more complex than in rotating single beam lidar (RSBL). In this paper, we propose a simulation-based methodology to analyze 3D scanning patterns which is applied to investigate the scan measurement distribution produced by the RMBL configuration. With this purpose, novel contributions include: (i) the adaption of a recent spherical reformulation of Ripley’s K function to assess 3D sensor data distribution on a hollow sphere simulation; (ii) a comparison, both qualitative and quantitative, between scan patterns produced by an ideal RMBL based on a Velodyne VLP-16 (Puck) and those of other 3D scan alternatives (i.e., rotating 2D lidar and MBL); and (iii) a new RMBL implementation consisting of a portable tilting platform for VLP-16 scanners, which is presented as a case study for measurement distribution analysis as well as for the discussion of actual scans from representative environments. Results indicate that despite the particular sampling patterns given by a RMBL, its homogeneity even improves that of an equivalent RSBL.
Cell Wall Formation of Conifer Tracheid as Revealed by Rapid-Freeze and Substitution Method

Cell wall formation of conifer tracheid was studied by rapid-freeze and substitution method. Small thin strips cut from differentiating conifer tracheids were plunged into liquid propane, and then substituted in acetone with 2% OsO 4 . Sections prepared by this method gave improved images of ultrastructures of the developing cell wall. The most outstanding feature of the developing cell wall is a non-fibrillar, homogeneous thin layer immediately outside of the plasma membrane which appeared to be composed of newly-deposited polysaccharides containing a great deal of water
Variance Reduction Methods for Sublinear Reinforcement Learning

This work considers the problem of provably optimal reinforcement learning for (episodic) finite horizon MDPs, i.e. how an agent learns to maximize his/her (long term) reward in an uncertain environment. The main contribution is in providing a novel algorithm --- Variance-reduced Upper Confidence Q-learning (vUCQ) --- which enjoys a regret bound of $\widetilde{O}(\sqrt{HSAT} + H^5SA)$, where the $T$ is the number of time steps the agent acts in the MDP, $S$ is the number of states, $A$ is the number of actions, and $H$ is the (episodic) horizon time. This is the first regret bound that is both sub-linear in the model size and asymptotically optimal. The algorithm is sub-linear in that the time to achieve $\epsilon$-average regret (for any constant $\epsilon$) is $O(SA)$, which is a number of samples that is far less than that required to learn any (non-trivial) estimate of the transition model (the transition model is specified by $O(S^2A)$ parameters). The importance of sub-linear algorithms is largely the motivation for algorithms such as $Q$-learning and other "model free" approaches. vUCQ algorithm also enjoys minimax optimal regret in the long run, matching the $\Omega(\sqrt{HSAT})$ lower bound. Variance-reduced Upper Confidence Q-learning (vUCQ) is a successive refinement method in which the algorithm reduces the variance in $Q$-value estimates and couples this estimation scheme with an upper confidence based algorithm. Technically, the coupling of both of these techniques is what leads to the algorithm enjoying both the sub-linear regret property and the (asymptotically) optimal regret.
Tool compensation in walk-through programming for admittance-controlled robots

This paper describes a walk-through programming technique, based on admittance control and tool dynamics compensation, to ease and simplify the process of trajectory learning in common industrial setups. In the walk-through programming, the human operator grabs the tool attached at the robot end-effector and “walks” the robot through the desired positions. During the teaching phase, the robot records the positions and then it will be able to interpolate them to reproduce the trajectory back. In the proposed control architecture, the admittance control allows to provide a compliant behavior during the interaction between the human operator and the robot end-effector, while the algorithm of compensation of the tool dynamics allows to directly use the real tool in the teaching phase. In this way, the setup used for the teaching can directly be the one used for performing the reproduction task. Experiments have been performed to validate the proposed control architecture and a pick and place example has been implemented to show a possible application in the industrial field.
Valence and Core Electron Spectra of Mg in MgO in Evoporated Thin Films

X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) are obtained for Mg in MgO using high quality (purity 99.999%) Mg films prepared and oxidized under pressures of 10-6 ~ 10-8 torr and measured on an ESCA-36 spectrometer at a pressure of 10-8 torr. AlKα line source was used for excitation, and the minimum of Au valence band at 5.0 eV was chosen for calibration. With increased oxidation the valence band shifts about 1.0 eV towards the Fermi level, but with extreme contamination it disappears completely. Accurate measurements of binding energies have been made of Mg in pure Mg, and Mg in MgO. The average shift resulting from oxidation is 1.1 eV for Mg(2s) and 1.5 eV for Mg(2p) core levels. It is also observed that the contamination effect due to oxygen decreases with increasing film thickness. The present results are compared with the previous results, and a new interpretation is offered by postulating the formation of two kinds of oxides, stoichiometric and chemisorbed layers in Mg on oxidation
Gossiping in Message-Passing Systems

We study the gossip problem in a message-passing environment: When a process receives a message, it has to decide whether the sender has more recent information on other processes than itself. This problem is at the heart of many distributed algorithms, and it is tightly related to questions from formal methods concerning the expressive power of distributed automata. We provide a non-deterministic gossip protocol for message-passing systems with unbounded FIFO channels, using only finitely many local states and a finite message alphabet. We show that this is optimal in the sense that there is no deterministic counterpart. As an application, the gossip protocol allows us to show that message-passing systems capture well-known extensions of linear-time temporal logics to a concurrent setting.
Reflections on Phonetic Convergence: Speech Perception does not Mirror Speech Production

Since the beginnings of speech research, the issue of variability has been a central topic in the field. Until recently, solutions to this problem have focused mainly on resolving linguistic forms from variable acoustic realizations, with little systematic consideration of talker variability or social settings. However, acoustic-phonetic variability within and between talkers does not arise by chance – such variation is attributable to a variety of causes including talker physiology, dialect, affect, and social/situational factors. Studies of conversational interaction demonstrate the influence of situational factors on many aspects of spoken communication. In particular, interacting talkers converge and diverge in acoustic-phonetic form over the course of a single conversational setting. Although phonetic convergence likely reflects a close connection between speech perception and production, it is not an automatic consequence of priming mechanisms or a mirror neuron system. In studies of the neural activity associated with speech perception, it is increasingly clear that utterances are processed in separate dorsal and ventral cortical streams, one that is part of the self-regulation of spoken utterances, and another that is part of conceptual understanding. Links between perception and production appear to be part of the self-regulatory system that participates in speech production control monitoring, which makes this system a likely candidate for talker control of acoustic-phonetic variability. Whether talkers converge or diverge depends on multiple aspects of the social setting, which have a much greater influence on the form of phonetic expression than automatic links or mirror mechanisms.
Surface‐Initiated Polymerization on Nanopatterns Fabricated by Electron‐Beam Lithography

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Control of Multidrug-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients by a Novel Bundle Including Remodeling of Sanitary and Water Supply Systems

Background Infections by multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRPa) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Humid environments can serve as a reservoir and source of infection by this pathogen. To minimize the risk of infection from these reservoirs, we performed extensive remodeling of sanitation and water installations as the focus of our hygiene bundle. Methods During the reconstruction of our transplantation unit (April 2011-April 2014) we implemented several technical modifications to reduce environmental contamination by and subsequent spreading of MDRPa, including a newly designed shower drain, disinfecting siphons underneath the sinks, and rimless toilets. During a 3-year study period (2012-2014), we tracked the number of patients affected by MDRPa (colonized and/or infected) and the outcome of infected patients, and monitored the environmental occurrence of this pathogen. We further performed whole-genome sequencing of nosocomial MDRPa strains to evaluate genotypic relationships between isolates. Results Whereas 31 (9.2%; 18 colonized, 13 infected) patients were affected in 2012 and 2013, the number decreased to 3 in 2014 (17%; 3 colonized, 0 infected). Lethality by MDRPa similarly decreased from 3.6% to 0%. Environmental detection of MDRPa decreased in toilets from 18.9% in 2012-2013 to 6.1% in the following year and from 8.1% to 3.0%, respectively, in shower outlets. Whole-genome sequencing showed close relationships between environmental and patient-derived isolates. Conclusions Hospital construction measures aimed at controlling environmental contamination by and spread of MDRPa are effective at minimizing the risk of highly lethal MDRPa infections.
EPCache: In-network video caching for LTE core networks

Video traffic is becoming the dominant form of traffic over mobile networks, challenging the ongoing standardization and deployment of Next generation mobile networks (4G). Currently, as the mainstream design of evolution to 4G, LTE networks provide high data-rate communication tunnels between mobile users and the Internet. However, this generic tunneling communication introduces at least 3 external hops for any request over the network, which results in high latency as well as operating expense, especially for video traffic with high bandwidth requirement. In this work, we propose EPCache, a novel in-network video caching framework for LTE core networks, which addresses the following key questions: (1)what to cache, i.e., how to select in-system video library; (2)how to cache, i.e., how to distribute the selected video library. We prove that the formulated problem is NP-hard. Together with the investigation into characteristics of online video requests, we then propose a fast algorithm for the problem. Extensive simulations are carried out to study the framework. Numerical results show that our algorithm reaches 97 - 99% of optimal. We also discuss critical issues of EPCache implementation in current LTE systems.