Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Meiotic Chromosome Synapsis-Promoting Proteins Antagonize the Anti-Crossover Activity of Sgs1

Sgs1, the budding yeast homolog of the mammalian BLM helicase, has been implicated in preventing excess recombination during both vegetative growth and meiosis. Most meiotic crossover (CO) recombination requires full function of a set of yeast proteins (Zip1, Zip2, Zip3, Zip4/Spo22, Mer3, Msh4, and Msh5, termed the SIC or ZMM proteins) that are also required for homologous chromosome synapsis. We report here genetic and molecular assays showing that sgs1 single mutants display relatively modest increases in CO recombination (less than 1.6-fold relative to wild-type). In contrast, a much greater CO increase is seen when an sgs1 mutation is introduced into the CO- and synapsis-deficient zip1, zip2, zip3, mer3, or msh4 mutants (2- to 8-fold increase). Furthermore, close juxtaposition of the axes of homologous chromosomes is restored. CO restoration in the mutants is not accompanied by significant changes in noncrossover (NCO) recombinant frequencies. These findings show that Sgs1 has potent meiotic anti-CO activity, which is normally antagonized by SIC/ZMM proteins. Our data reinforce previous proposals for an early separation of meiotic processes that form CO and NCO recombinants.
Location patterns and predictability of large scale urban vehicular mobility

Traffic congestions become an increasingly important issue influencing people's daily life, and the development of vehicular networks seen to be a significant technology to solve the problem of traffic congestion. In order to solve this problem by vehicular networks and intelligent transportation system, vehicular mobility is an important role in the network and system design. However, it is a still unsolved problem that is there any regularity existed in the daily random vehicular mobility. In this paper, we study the regularity that characterizes the vehicular mobility in large-scale urban environment. Despite the mess the vehicular traces appear to look like, we find certain location patterns across the whole datasets, which imply high potential predictability in vehicle location.
Translation of Behavioral Models to Java Code and Enhance With State Charts

It is a wonderful idea to directly execute the system designs. In this paper we are introducing a method to convert the behavioral models to the implementation code. UML is used for modeling and Java is used as the target language. This paper describes how a system design depicted using activity, sequence and statemachine diagrams can be converted to its implementation code. Activity diagram helps to make the outline of the source program, and the sequence and statemachine diagrams contribute to the expansion of the source code. We are using an MDA approach where the system design is done in Platform Independent Model (PIM), then converted to Platform Specific Model (PSM) and finally to implementation code. One tool is implemented based on our method and it is evaluated against some other existing tools.
A dose-response analysis of the subjective, psychomotor and physiological effects of intravenous morphine in healthy volunteers.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the subjective, psychomotor and physiological effects of morphine in healthy volunteers. Subjects (10 males and 2 females) without histories of opiate dependence were injected in an antecubetal vein with 0, 2.5, 5.0 or 10 mg/70 kg of morphine, by using a randomized, double-blind, cross-over design. Subjective effects, psychomotor performance and physiological measures were assessed immediately before the injection and for up to 5 hr afterward. Morphine increased the Pentobarbital-Chlorpromazine-Alcohol Group, Amphetamine, the Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and the Morphine-Benzedrine Group scores and decreased Benzedrine Group scores on the Addiction Research Center Inventory. Increased visual analog scale ratings of "stimulated," "high," "sedated," "coasting or spaced out" and "drunken" were also obtained. On an opiate adjective checklist, subjects reported increased ratings of "flushing," "dry mouth" and "tingling. " Drug liking was not significantly altered by morphine, but there was substantial intersubject variability with this measure. Some aspects of psychomotor performance (reaction time, Digit Symbol Substitution Test and Maddox Wing) were impaired by morphine; however, eye-hand coordination was not. Miosis was induced by morphine. Most effects of morphine were dose-related, some effects peaked soon after morphine injection (e.g., increased stimulated and high ratings) and dissipated gradually, whereas other effects did not peak until later into the session (sedation or exophoria). Our results are fairly consistent with other studies examining morphine effects in healthy volunteers, and also indicate that the profile of morphine effects differ between healthy volunteers and those with a history of opiate dependence.
Reversible Epithelial Adhesion Closes the Mouth of Beroe, a Carnivorous Marine Jelly.

We investigated how the ctenophore Beroe, a carnivore of the marine zooplankton, keeps its mouth shut to maintain a streamlined body shape during forward swimming in search of prey. In big-mouthed, thin-walled beroids we found that mouth closure requires neither muscular nor nervous activity. Instead, mouth adhesion is due to paired strips of adhesive epithelial cells on opposing stomodaeal walls. The two joined epithelial layers make numerous close appositions interrupted by vacuolar intercellular spaces. At regions of apposition, the plasma membranes are highly folded and interdigitated with each other, and are separated by a uniform distance of about 15 nm. A dense cytoplasmic coat underlies the membranes at such appositions. Synapses of neurites are found on the basal ends of the adhesive cells. We found two orthogonally different orientations of the stomodaeal adhesive strips in B. sp. vs. B. forskali, correlated with different distributions of feeding macrocilia inside the stomodaeum. Mouth opening in response to food requires muscular contractions of the lips. However, the stomodaeal adhesive strips are not pulled apart all at once, but are peeled apart starting from a site of vigorous muscular tension. The mouth re-seals after feeding, or after being experimentally pulled open, showing that tissue adhesion is functionally reversible. Epithelial adhesion in Beroe appears to be a useful method for closing the mouth and streamlining the body of a gelatinous predator that spends most of its time swimming mouth-forward in search of prey. Opening of the mouth appears to be an efficient process as well, because peeling apart of the adhesive strips requires a smaller applied force than does separating them all at once. Tissue adhesion in Beroe shares many structural and functional properties with transient adhesions formed between moving cells in embryos and in culture, and may be a useful experimental system for studying the mechanisms and regulation of dynamic cell adhesions. "Loose lips Sink ships. " --U. S. Navy slogan, WW II.
ZnO Nanostructure-Based Intracellular Sensor

Recently ZnO has attracted much interest because of its usefulness for intracellular measurements of biochemical species by using its semiconducting, electrochemical, catalytic properties and for being biosafe and biocompatible. ZnO thus has a wide range of applications in optoelectronics, intracellular nanosensors, transducers, energy conversion and medical sciences. This review relates specifically to intracellular electrochemical (glucose and free metal ion) biosensors based on functionalized zinc oxide nanowires/nanorods. For intracellular measurements, the ZnO nanowires/nanorods were grown on the tip of a borosilicate glass capillary (0.7 µm in diameter) and functionalized with membranes or enzymes to produce intracellular selective metal ion or glucose sensors. Successful intracellular measurements were carried out using ZnO nanowires/nanorods grown on small tips for glucose and free metal ions using two types of cells, human fat cells and frog oocytes. The sensors in this study were used to detect real-time changes of metal ions and glucose across human fat cells and frog cells using changes in the electrochemical potential at the interface of the intracellular micro-environment. Such devices are helpful in explaining various intracellular processes involving ions and glucose.
Ashtekar's Formulation for N = 1, 2 Supergravities as “Constrained” BF Theories

It is known that Ashtekar's formulation for pure Einstein gravity can be cast into the form of a topological field theory, namely, the SU(2) BF theory, with the two-form fields subject to an algebraic constraint. We extend this relation between Ashtekar's formalism and BF theories to N = 1 and N =2 supergravities. The relevant gauge groups in these cases become graded Lie groups of SU(2), which are generated by left-handed local Lorentz transformations and left-supersymmetry transfor­ mations. As a corollary of these relations, we provide topological solutions for N=2 supergravity with a vanishing cosmological constant. It is also shown that, due to the algebraic constraints, the Kalb-Ramond symmetry which is characteristic of BF theories breaks down to the symmetry under diffeomorphisms and right-supersymmetry transformations.
Comparative Study of Vasodilators in an Animal Model of Chronic Volume Overload Caused by Severe Aortic Regurgitation

Background—Aortic regurgitation (AR) is a disease of chronic left ventricular (LV) volume overload. Over time, AR will lead to LV dilatation, hypertrophy, and loss of function. There is currently no medical treatment proven effective to slow the evolution of this cardiomyopathy. Vasodilators were once thought to have protective effects, but recent publications have cast some doubts about their effectiveness. We hypothesized that drugs targeting the renin-angiotensin system should be more effective than those having no direct effect on the renin-angiotensin system. Methods and Results—We designed a protocol comparing the effects of 3 vasodilators in a rat AR model (n=9 to 11 animals per group). The effects of a 6-month treatment of (1) nifedipine, (2) captopril, or (3) losartan were compared in male AR rats. Sham-operated and untreated AR animals were used as controls. Nifedipine-treated animals displayed hemodynamics, LV dilatation, hypertrophy, and loss of function similar to those of the untreated group. Both captopril and losartan were effective in improving hemodynamics, slow LV dilatation, hypertrophy, and dysfunction. Gene expression analysis confirmed the lack of effects of the nifedipine treatment at the molecular level. Conclusions—Using an animal model of severe AR, we found that vasodilators targeting the renin-angiotensin system were effective to slow the development of LV remodeling and to preserve LV function. As recently shown in the most recent human clinical trial, nifedipine was totally ineffective. Targeting the renin-angiotensin system seems a promising avenue in the treatment of this disease, and clinical trials should be carefully designed to re-evaluate the effectiveness of angiotensin I–converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers in AR.
Verification of Hybrid Automata Diagnosability by Abstraction

A notion of diagnosability for hybrid systems is defined, which generalizes the common notion of observability. We propose an abstraction procedure to translate a hybrid automaton into a timed automaton, in order to verify observability and diagnosability properties. We introduce a procedure to check diagnosability, and show that for the system class of our abstraction (namely for a subclass of timed automata: the durational graphs) the verification problem belongs to the complexity class P. We apply our procedure to an electromagnetic valve system for camless engines.
ModelSET: Soporte a Edición y Transformaciones de Modelos

Actualmente esta cobrando gran importancia el Desarrollo de Software Dirigido por Modelos (DSDM) en el ambito de la Ingenieria del Software. Object Management Group (OMG) ha propuesto Model Driven Architecture (MDA) [1], su estrategia DSDM basada en la indepencia de plataforma y el uso de estandares como UML (Unied Modeling Language) y MOF (MetaObject Facility) [2] entre otros. Un aspecto fundamental de MDA es el concepto de transformacion de modelos. Estas transformaciones permiten re nar los modelos que describen el sistema de negocio para el cual necesitamos una solucion software, hasta la obtencion de la aplicacion nal. MDA tambien recoge MOF QVT (Query/Views/Transformations) [3], un lenguaje estandar para la de nicion de transformaciones de modelos. QVT esta compuesto por tres lenguajes: Relations y Core de naturelaza declarativa, y Operational Mappings, de naturaleza imperativa. Desgraciadamente, a pesar de que MOF QVT fue adoptado como estandar a nales de 2005, aun en la actualidad no disponemos de forma publica de herramientas que nos permitan de nir transformaciones para ser ejecutadas y que se ajusten enteramente a dicha especi cacion. Por otro lado, en cuanto a la edicion de modelos, en la actualidad existe una falta de consenso respecto a la utilizacion de MOF frente a los Per les UML para especi car y usar lenguajes de modelado especi cos de dominio (DSML). Por un lado, MOF permite de nir lenguajes independientes de UML y ajustados a un dominio especi co de aplicacion; por el otro, los Per les UML permiten extender/restringir los elementos del lenguaje generico de modelado UML para que ofrezcan una semantica mas precisa y poder ser usados asi en dominios especi cos. Desgraciadamente, no existe un cuerpo de conocimiento sobre las ventajas e inconvenientes de usar una u otra aproximacion.
Chemotaxis of Arbacia punctulata spermatozoa to resact, a peptide from the egg jelly layer

Resact, a peptide of known sequence isolated from the jelly layer of Arbacia punctulata eggs, is a potent chemoattractant for A. punctulata spermatozoa. The chemotactic response is concentration dependent, is abolished by pretreatment of the spermatozoa with resact, and shows an absolute requirement for millimolar external calcium. A. punctulata spermatozoa do not respond to speract, a peptide isolated from the jelly layer of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus eggs. This is the first report of animal sperm chemotaxis in response to a defined egg-derived molecule.
Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Is low melatonin a cause?

BACKGROUND Although the cause of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis remains unclear, pinealectomy is followed by the development of scoliosis in chickens. Melatonin is the only hormone secreted by pineal gland. OBJECTIVE To assess serum melatonin levels in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis. METHODS Serum melatonin was assayed once, at 12:00 hours, in each of 20 adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis and 10 age-matched siblings. In the patient group, mean age was 14.3 years and the mean Cobb angle was 54.5 degrees (range, 20 degrees-110 degrees). Mean age in the control group was 14 years. RESULTS Serum melatonin was significantly lower in the patients (mean, 7.7 pg/mL; range, 4 to 13 pg/mL) than in the controls (mean, 29.9 pg/mL; range, 19.3 to 46 pg/mL) (P < 0.00001). The 12 surgically treated patients had a mean melatonin level of 8.1 pg/mL, versus 7.2 pg/mL in the eight other patients (nonsignificant P and regression coefficient values). Serum melatonin was not significantly correlated with the Cobb's angle (regression coefficient, 0.18; P < 0.44). CONCLUSION Our data suggest that serum melatonin levels may contribute to the pathogenesis of idiopathic scoliosis.
Characterization and Catalytic Activity of Mn-Co / TiO 2 Catalysts for NO Oxidation to NO 2 at Low Temperature

A series of Mn-Co/TiO2 catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation method and evaluated for the oxidation of NO to NO2. The effects of Co amounts and calcination temperature on NO oxidation were investigated in detail. The catalytic oxidation ability in the temperature range of 403–473 K was obviously improved by doping cobalt into Mn/TiO2. These samples were characterized by nitrogen adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and hydrogen temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR). The results indicated that the formation of dispersed Co3O4 ̈CoMnO3 mixed oxides through synergistic interaction between Mn-O and Co-O was directly responsible for the enhanced activities towards NO oxidation at low temperatures. Doping of Co enhanced Mn4+ formation and increased chemical adsorbed oxygen amounts, which also accelerated NO oxidation.
Towards a Real-Time Classification Mechanism for the Causes of Data Loss

Given the critical nature of communications in computational Grids it is important to develop efficient, intelligent, and adaptive communication mechanisms. An important milestone on that path is the development of classification mechanisms that can distinguish between the many factors that can cause data loss in cluster and Grid environments. In this paper, we describe our work in developing such a mechanism and its integration into a highperformance communication system for computational Grids. The classification algorithms are based on the analysis of what may be termed packet-loss-signatures that describe the patters of packet loss in the current transmission window. We present experimental data showing that the classification system can execute as part of the communication system with reasonable overhead, and that it can accurately distinguish between causes of packet loss at loss rates as low as 0.03%.
Similarity-Based Estimation of Word Cooccurrence Probabilities

In many applications of natural language processing it is necessary to determine the likelihood of a given word combination. For example, a speech recognizer may need to determine which of the two word combinations "eat a peach" and "eat a beach" is more likely. Statistical NLP methods determine the likelihood of a word combination according to its frequency in a training corpus. However, the nature of language is such that many word combinations are infrequent and do not occur in a given corpus. In this work we propose a method for estimating the probability of such previously unseen word combinations using available information on "most similar" words.We describe a probabilistic word association model based on distributional word similarity, and apply it to improving probability estimates for unseen word bigrams in a variant of Katz's back-off model. The similarity-based method yields a 20% perplexity improvement in the prediction of unseen bigrams and statistically significant reductions in speech-recognition error.
Face image restoration based on statistical prior and image blur measure

In practice, we meet numerous image restoration problems, particularly those on face images. An approach to image restoration based on statistical prior of faces and image blur measure is presented in this paper. The novelty of the approach is twofold: 1) the prior on the shape and appearance of a face represented as statistical models is incorporated into the regularized image restoration formulation. Moreover, an iterative algorithm is given to provide a numerical solution. 2) an image blur measure is defined to describe the blur nature of an image. The measure is evaluated at each step of the iteration process to determine the weight of the constraint introduced by the statistical prior. Both subjective and objective comparisons of the restoration results indicate great improvements on image preservation and noise suppression.
Maya-Pyramid: A Scalable and Self-Organizing Unstructured P2P Overlay

Locating content in an efficient and scalable way without centralized control is one of the challenges within P2P computing. The paper presents an unstructured P2P overlay called Maya pyramid overlay (MPO) where update and backup only take place in two neighboring levels or layers, differing from the recursive method in traditional hierarchical P2P tree-like structure overlay. Unlike normal redundant mechanisms for solving the single fault problem: tri-Information Center (Tri-IC) mechanism is presented in order to improve robustness by alleviating the load of cluster heads in a hierarchical P2P overlay. A source ranking mechanism is proposed in order to discourage free riding and whitewashing and to encourage frequent information exchanges between peers. Evaluation proved that MPO is robust, highly efficient and of a low-cost.
Genetic properties of egg quality traits and their correlations with performance traits in Japanese quail

1. Performance traits were measured on 1908 Japanese quail and egg quality traits assessed on 1800 eggs at 10 wk of age. 2. Genetic and phenotypic correlations were estimated using a bivariate animal model with restricted maximum likelihood using ASREML software. 3. Body weight at different ages showed positive genetic correlations with egg weight and most of the internal egg quality traits, whereas their genetic correlations with eggshell thickness, eggshell strength and eggshell percentage were negative. 4. Genetic correlations of age at sexual maturity and egg number with most of external and internal traits were negative. 5. It was concluded that selection for higher body weight will result in heavier and better quality eggs. Because of the negative genetic correlation between BW and egg shell quality, a selection index including BW and eggshell strength would be the best breeding strategy for genetic improvement of egg quality in Japanese quail.
Turbulent shear-layer mixing at high Reynolds numbers : effects of inflow conditions

We report on the results from a set of incompressible, shear-layer flow experiments, at high Reynolds number (Reδ ≡ ρ∆U δT (x)/μ ' 2 × 10), in which the inflow conditions of shear-layer formation were varied (δT is the temperature-rise thickness for chemically-reacting shear layers). Both inert and chemically-reacting flows were investigated, the latter employing the (H2 +NO)/F2 chemical system in the kineticallyfast regime to measure molecular mixing. Inflow conditions were varied by perturbing each, or both, boundary layers on the splitter plate separating the two freestream flows, upstream of shear-layer formation. The results of the chemically-reacting ‘flip experiments’ reveal that seemingly small changes in inflow conditions can have a significant influence not only on the large-scale structure and shear-layer growth rate, as had been documented previously, but also on molecular mixing and chemicalproduct formation, far downstream of the inflow region.
Discrimination of hepatocyte‐stimulating activity from human recombinant tumor necrosis factor α

The involvement of tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) in the regulation of acute‐phase protein synthesis is currently under discussion. In this study the effect of human recombinant TNFα on the regulation of the 4 acute‐phase proteins α2‐macroglobulin, albumin, α1‐proteinase inhibitor and α‐acute‐phase globulin was investigated in rat hepatocyte primary cultures. No changes in synthesis of any of the 4 proteins were observed. However, an acute‐phase response similar to that in vivo could be generated by conditioned media from human monocytes containing natural TNFα. This response remained unchanged after neutralizing TNFα activity by the addition of a specific antibody to TNFα. It is concluded that the hepatocyte‐stimulating activity synthesized by human monocytes is different from TNFα.