Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adipose Tissue Dendritic Cells Enhances Inflammation by Prompting the Generation of Th17 Cells

Background Obesity has become a global challenge for public health. It has been reported that obesity is associated with chronic inflammation. However, the mechanism for the chronic inflammation contributes to obesity remains elusive. Methodology/Principal Findings In our study, we found a novel CD11c+ dendritic cell subset existed in murine adipose tissues which was immature phenotype. Moreover, as compared to the lean controls, the number of CD11c+ DCs and CD4+IL-17+T cells were higher in adipose tissue of high fat diet (HFD) mice. Adipose tissues derived dendritic cells (ATDCs) displayed lower levels of CD40, CD80, CD86, MHCI and MHCII expression than splenic DCs (SPDCs). However, ATDCs showed higher levels of IL-6, TGF-β and IL-23 secretion. Moreover, our in vitro experiments demonstrated that ATDCs were capable of promoting Th17 cell generation. Conclusions/Significance Our results indicate the existence of CD11c+ DCs in adipose tissues, which displays an immature phenotype but possessing pro-inflammatory function.
Edge-preserving interpolation for down/up sampling-based depth compression

Preserving the edges in depth compression is important for improving the synthesized view quality, this paper presents a novel edge-preserving depth up-sampling method for down/up sampling-based depth coding using both the texture and depth information. We take into account the edge similarity between depth maps and their corresponding texture images as well as the structural similarity among depth maps to build a weight model. Based on the weight model, the optimal MMSE up-sampling coefficients are estimated from the local covariance coefficients of the down-sampled depth map. Experimental results show that our proposed interpolation method for down/up sampling-based depth coding improves both the coding efficiency and synthesized view quality.
Auxiliary Algorithms in Green Multi-agent Planning Framework

Energy crisis brings green computing, and green computing needs algorithms and mechanicals to be redesigned for energy efficiency. Green multi-agent planning framework (GMAPF) is a framework redesigned for multi-agent planning. In this paper we proposed several auxiliary algorithms for GMAPF infrastructure and framework, including agent distribution, observation reduction, domain analyses and instantiation.
Multi-Document Person Name Resolution

Multi-document person name resolution focuses on the problem of determining if two instances with the same name and from different documents refer to the same individual. We present a two-step approach in which a Maximum Entropy model is trained to give the probability that two names refer to the same individual. We then apply a modified agglomerative clustering technique to partition the instances according to their referents.
MyMANET : A Customizable Mobile Ad hoc Network

We present MyMANET, a kernel module that provides a framework for ad hoc communication using commodity hardware. It exposes network measurements and provides an interface for inserting a routing protocol. MyMANET is based on a Layer 2.5 approach, which we call the Wireless Decision Layer (WDL). Such a system seems suitable for developing regions with infrastructure constraints, where lab-developed solutions often do not work in practice. It models wireless connectivity without maintaining any explicit representation of topology. These features make it suitable for networks with transient topologies or bursty traffic. Here we describe the challenges, design goals and architecture of the system, with a focus on an extreme case of transient topology, namely Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). We provide an implementation in the Linux network stack including a dynamic, multi-path routing protocol, and evaluate its performance. Unlike proprietary wireless protocols that are hard to reconfigure, our system is easy to use and configure. It addresses the need for rapid prototyping and deployment using commodity hardware.
Service differentiation mechanisms for variable length packets in an optical switch with recirculating FDL buffer

In this paper we focus on providing service differentiation for variable length packets. Apart from the well-known OBS approach using differentiated offsets to introduce multiple service classes, we consider a look - ahead approach allowing for later arriving high priority packets to pre -empt earlier arrived low priority packets, and a slotted control approach. All approaches attain ser- vice differentiation without any resource reservation, and are of limited complexity, to minimize packet processing requirements. Through simulation, we assess the quality of the approaches under varying loads, buffer dimensions and QoS algorithm parameters. The main criterion used is the packet loss rate per service class.
Generalized Impedance-Transforming Dual-Band Branch-Line Couplers for Arbitrary Coupling Levels

High-performance dual-band Doherty power amplifler and non-uniform circularly polarized antenna array require impedance- transforming unequal dual-band 90 - branch-line couplers for power dividing and phase shifting in the feed networks. In this paper, an analytical design methodology of generalized impedance-transforming dual-band branch-line couplers for arbitrary coupling levels is proposed. The coupler features wide range of realizable frequency ratio, multiple ∞exible selections of open- or short-circuited and pi- or T-network topologies. For demonstration, four numerical examples with difierent parameters are presented. Furthermore, two microstrip couplers based on open-circuited pi- and T-network topologies were fabricated and measured. The measured results show good performance at dual 1.8/3.45GHz bands. The fractional bandwidths deflned by the ∞uctuation of the coupling level and the phase difierence less than §0:5dB and §5 - are up to 17% and 18%, 18% and 2% for open-circuited pi- and T-network topologies, respectively.
A Texture Dictionary for Human Organs Tissues’ Classification

The research presented in this paper is expected to aid the process of medical decision making by providing tools for automatic extraction of the most discriminative features of regions of interest in medical images produced by the Computerized Tomography (CT) modality. The regions of interest studied in this paper are the liver, heart, backbone, kidneys, and the spleen. To characterize the regions of interest, we use texture information as well as textual information. We capture the texture information of the regions of interest using the Haralick texture descriptors and the run-length encoding descriptors. The texture information is given by the keywords annotating the organs. We apply Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to find the relationships between the texture features and the header information; the motivation behind using LSI is the cross modality ability of the technique that allows the combination of different kinds of data in discovering the relationships. These relationships are stored in a Texture Dictionary that can be later used to automatically annotate new CT images with the appropriate organ names.
Neuropharmacological Dissection of Placebo Analgesia: Expectation-Activated Opioid Systems versus Conditioning-Activated Specific Subsystems

We investigated the mechanisms underlying the activation of endogenous opioids in placebo analgesia by using the model of human experimental ischemic arm pain. Different types of placebo analgesic responses were evoked by means of cognitive expectation cues, drug conditioning, or a combination of both. Drug conditioning was performed by means of either the opioid agonist morphine hydrochloride or the nonopioid ketorolac tromethamine. Expectation cues produced placebo responses that were completely blocked by the opioid antagonist naloxone. Expectation cues together with morphine conditioning produced placebo responses that were completely antagonized by naloxone. Morphine conditioning alone (without expectation cues) induced a naloxone-reversible placebo effect. By contrast, ketorolac conditioning together with expectation cues elicited a placebo effect that was blocked by naloxone only partially. Ketorolac conditioning alone produced placebo responses that were naloxone-insensitive. Therefore, we evoked different types of placebo responses that were either naloxone-reversible or partially naloxone-reversible or, otherwise, naloxone-insensitive, depending on the procedure used to evoke the placebo response. These findings show that cognitive factors and conditioning are balanced in different ways in placebo analgesia, and this balance is crucial for the activation of opioid or nonopioid systems. Expectation triggers endogenous opioids, whereas conditioning activates specific subsystems. In fact, if conditioning is performed with opioids, placebo analgesia is mediated via opioid receptors, if conditioning is performed with nonopioid drugs, other nonopioid mechanisms result to be involved.
Nanophase Iron Globules in Lunar Soil

Micrometeoritic impacts on lunar soils produce melt and vapor. A patina of condensed vapor is deposited on lunar grains, the melt forms agglutinitic glass. In lunar soils, agglutinitic glass and rinds of grains host submicron-sized globules of pure Fe0 (Fe-rich globules larger than 1 micron usually contain other elements such as Ni, P, and S). Observation and measurement of such small size requires either back scattered electron (BSE) imaging with a high-resolution SEM or transmitted electron imaging with a TEM. The two techniques impose different limitations on the size-range of measurements. Resolution of BSE imaging of polished thin sections or grain mounts of lunar soils is at best around 4-5nm (JEOL 6340F field-emission (FE)-SEM at JSC). Therefore, Fe0 globules below 10nm in cross-sectional diameter are not truly measured. The upper limit of a millimeter or so is not a hindrance. In fact, it is an advantage because whole grains can be observed and mapped at varying magnifications. Angstrom-scale resolution of TEM images is more than sufficient to observe and measure the smallest of Fe0 globules that are about 1nm in cross-section. Microtoming edges of lunar grains; however, puts an upper size limitation of 50nm, at best, on the wafer, which more or less limits measuring Fe0 globules up to 30nm or so. Clearly, SEM and TEM techniques complement each other in obtaining the complete range of size distribution of Fe0 globules in lunar soils. Below we describe, in brief, our method of determining the size distribution of Fe0 globules in agglutinitic glass using BSE-SEM imaging and size measurement. Although our work is incomplete, we also include a table of results obtained so far, which understandably would be refined as we collect more data.
Report of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Working Group on the pathophysiology of obesity-associated cardiovascular disease.

The ongoing obesity epidemic and its impending cardiovascular consequences represent a serious public health problem with worrisome implications for medical treatment. The urgency of providing new research directions recently led the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to convene a Working Group on the Pathophysiology of Obesity-Associated Cardiovascular Disease. Gathered at this meeting were researchers with substantial experience and expertise in either obesity-related sciences, including epidemiology, endocrinology, and metabolism, or cardiovascular sciences, including cardiology, neurobiology, hematology, renal function, and pediatrics. This report is the culmination of the blending of ideas during the 2-day meeting. The resulting research recommendations include the development of new models and synergistic approaches to basic studies of obesity-associated cardiovascular diseases. The adult US population, whose combined prevalence of overweight and obesity now exceeds 60%,1 is experiencing an unprecedented exposure to obesity-related cardiovascular risk factors and is expected to suffer the adverse clinical consequences in years to come. Also alarming are the ever-rising rates of overweight and obese children and adolescents, which have tripled over the last 30 years.2 Increased rates of co-morbidities such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and hepatic damage in overweight adolescents indicate that the young are not protected from the metabolic perturbations that accompany excess adipose tissue stores.3–5⇓⇓ We do not know what the consequences might be for the developing cardiovascular system if obesity is present during late stages of growth and maturation. Overweight or obese individuals experience greatly elevated morbidity and mortality from nearly all of the common cardiovascular diseases (stroke, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and possibly arrhythmia/sudden death). 6,7⇓ Because primary treatment and prevention of obesity often fail or are only partially successful, it is anticipated that the …
On the dispersion relation of ADI-FDTD

In this letter, we analyze the alternating direction implicit finite-difference time-domain (ADI-FDTD) dispersion relation and find the numerical plane-wave relationship between the magnetic and electric fields, showing that the scheme is not divergence-free. We also show that negative-group-velocity modes with positive phase velocities may appear for high Courant numbers. A parallel comparison is made with the behavior of the classical Yee FDTD and the Crank-Nicolson schemes.
Cost effective Hybrid Dynamic Radio Access supported by Radio over Fiber

The Hybrid Dynamic Radio Access supported by Radio over Fiber (Hydra-RoF) project addresses an heterogeneous scenario where small cells are used to increase the coverage and the capacity of a mobile operator through coexistence with a WiFi network. Both, small cells and WiFi networks, are connected to the operator's network through an IP broadband backhaul connection. Such centralized heterogeneous scenario is supported by a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) using Radio over Fiber (RoF) technology. The Hydra-RoF architecture employs low cost components such as VCSELs combined with digital pre-distortion and compensation techniques. In this paper, we will present the architecture concept, focusing on its robustness against environment temperature variations.
Phylogeny of Toll-Like Receptor Signaling: Adapting the Innate Response

The Toll-like receptors represent a largely evolutionarily conserved pathogen recognition machinery responsible for recognition of bacterial, fungal, protozoan, and viral pathogen associated microbial patterns and initiation of inflammatory response. Structurally the Toll-like receptors are comprised of an extracellular leucine rich repeat domain and a cytoplasmic Toll/Interleukin 1 receptor domain. Recognition takes place in the extracellular domain where as the cytoplasmic domain triggers a complex signal network required to sustain appropriate immune response. Signal transduction is regulated by the recruitment of different intracellular adaptors. The Toll-like receptors can be grouped depending on the usage of the adaptor, MyD88, into MyD88-dependent and MyD88 independent subsets. Herein, we present a unique phylogenetic analysis of domain regions of these receptors and their cognate signaling adaptor molecules. Although previously unclear from the phylogeny of full length receptors, these analyses indicate a separate evolutionary origin for the MyD88-dependent and MyD88-independent signaling pathway and provide evidence of a common ancestor for the vertebrate and invertebrate orthologs of the adaptor molecule MyD88. Together these observations suggest a very ancient origin of the MyD88-dependent pathway Additionally we show that early duplications gave rise to several adaptor molecule families. In some cases there is also strong pattern of parallel duplication between adaptor molecules and their corresponding TLR. Our results further support the hypothesis that phylogeny of specific domains involved in signaling pathway can shed light on key processes that link innate to adaptive immune response.
Towards an Automatic Evaluation of UML Class Diagrams by Graph Transformation

Object-oriented modeling plays an important role in computer science, particularly in the context of software development projects. It is for this reason that the UML (Unified Modeling Language), and therefore the design of UML diagrams, is necessarily present in the majority of computer science’s courses in university. As the number of university students enrolled in such courses is growing, the evaluation of UML diagrams produced by students is often experienced by teachers as a difficult and tedious task. In this paper we propose a method for transforming these diagrams to UML graph in the sake of a better representation, and then assist the teacher during the evaluation process of these diagrams.
A lossless compression method of medical images based on the local texture feature

As for a kind of medical images with clear texture feature, a new lossless compressive method is presented in this paper. With two main steps, the method firstly sets up the predictive model of the current pixel with its surrounding texture features, including its four color change gradients; and then measures the similarity of all pixels within the image with their predictive models so that the redundancy brought about by the similarity is removed and a higher compression ratio is obtained. The following simulation results show that the new method is much more efficient than JPEG-LS algorithm in the compression of such kinds of medical images
Dysconnectivity of multiple resting-state networks in patients with schizophrenia who have persistent auditory verbal hallucinations.

BACKGROUND Functional neuroimaging studies on schizophrenia have suggested abnormal task-related functional connectivity in patients with schizophrenia who have auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). However, little is known about intrinsic functional connectivity in these patients. METHODS Between January 2009 and February 2010, we studied patients with schizophrenia who had persistent and treatment-refractory AVHs in comparison with healthy controls. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we studied the functional connectivity of multiple resting state networks (RSNs) and their relation to symptom severity. We analyzed the data using a spatial group independent component analysis, and we used random-effects t tests to compare spatial components between groups. RESULTS There were 10 patients and 14 controls enrolled in this study. In total, 16 RSNs were identified, from which we selected 4 networks of interest for further analyses. Within a speech-related network, patients showed increased connectivity in bilateral temporal regions and decreased connectivity in the cingulate cortex. Within 2 additional RSNs associated with attention and executive control, respectively, patients exhibited abnormal connectivity in the precuneus and right lateral prefrontal areas. We found correlations between measures of AVH severity and functional connectivity of the left anterior cingulate, left superior temporal gyrus and right lateral prefrontal cortex. LIMITATIONS The relatively small sample size, the patients' use of antipsychotic medication and the lack of a clinical control group have to be considered as potential limitations. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that disrupted intrinsic connectivity of a speech-related network could underlie persistent AVHs in patients with schizophrenia. In addition, the occurrence of hallucinatory symptoms seems to modulate RSNs associated with attention and executive control.
Evaluating GIR: geography-oriented or user-oriented?

Geographic terms appear very often in user queries. Many geographic references are present in query log-files. Examples found in different log files [6] include question answering style queries such as "What time is it in West Samoa? ", terms within book titles like "Death in Venice", detailed street addresses and single term city names.
Processor-Directed Cache Coherence Mechanism – A Performance Study

— Cache coherent multiprocessor architecture is widely used in the recent multi-core systems, embedded systems and massively parallel processors. With the ever increasing performance gap between processor and memory, there is a requirement for an optimal cache coherence mechanism in a cache coherent multiprocessor. The conventional directory based cache coherence scheme used in large scale multiprocessors suffers from considerable overhead. To overcome this problem we have developed a compiler assisted, processor directed cache coherence mechanism and evaluated. The approach is auto-invalidation based one that uses a hardware buffer termed Coherence Buffer (CB) and there is no need for directory. The CB method is compared in this paper with a self-invalidation based directory approach that employs a last touch predictor (LTP). Detailed architectural simulations of Distributed Shared Memory configurations with superscalar processors show that 8-entry 4-way associative CB performs better than the LTP based self-invalidation method as well as full-map 3-hop directory for five of the SPLASH-2 benchmarks under release consistency memory model. Given its performance, cost, complexity and scalability advantages, the CB approach is found to be promising approach for emerging applications in large scale multiprocessors, multi-core systems, and transaction processing systems.
Adaptive resource management for a vague environment using cognitive radio

Adapting resource management, for vague environments, in wireless communication proved to be a measure point of research recently. In this paper we present a system that is capable of adapting some important resources (type of modulation, code rate and number of subcarriers) for blurred channel conditions. The system in this work is mainly designed for WiMAX, which proved to be one of the prominent technologies in providing Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) in metropolitan areas with a simpler installation and lower cost than the wired alternatives. The approach depends on using cognitive radio for decision making which uses fuzzy logic for reasoning. The cognitive engine controls the type of modulation, code rate and number of subcarriers in order to maintain a good system throughput without wasting available bandwidth. Fuzzy logic reasoning in the cognitive engine was chosen because it is well suited for situations of uncertainty, incompleteness and heterogeneity information, in the case of fast changing radio environments. The results showed that new combinations of modulation type, code rate and number of subcarriers should be considered in WiMAX since in most cases it outperforms the standard in error probability and spectral efficiency, especially in a fast changing radio environment.
The spin-½ Calogero-Gaudin system and its q-deformation

The spin-½ Calogero-Gaudin system and its q-deformation are exactly solved: a complete set of commuting observables is diagonalized, and the corresponding eigenvectors and eigenvalues are explicitly calculated. The method of solution is purely algebraic and relies on the co-algebra symmetry of the model.