Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supramolecular organization of the sperm plasma membrane during maturation and capacitation.

AIM In the present study, a variety of high resolution microscopy techniques were used to visualize the organization and motion of lipids and proteins in the sperm's plasma membrane. We have addressed questions such as the presence of diffusion barriers, confinement of molecules to specific surface domains, polarized diffusion and the role of cholesterol in regulating lipid rafts and signal transduction during capacitation. METHODS Atomic force microscopy identified a novel region (EqSS) within the equatorial segment of bovine, porcine and ovine spermatozoa that was enriched in constitutively phosphorylated proteins. The EqSS was assembled during epididymal maturation. Fluorescence imaging techniques were then used to follow molecular diffusion on the sperm head. RESULTS Single lipid molecules were freely exchangeable throughout the plasma membrane and showed no evidence for confinement within domains. Large lipid aggregates, however, did not cross over the boundary between the post-acrosome and equatorial segment suggesting the presence of a molecular filter between these two domains. CONCLUSION A small reduction in membrane cholesterol enlarges or increases lipid rafts concomitant with phosphorylation of intracellular proteins. Excessive removal of cholesterol, however, disorganizes rafts with a cessation of phosphorylation. These techniques are forcing a revision of long-held views on how lipids and proteins in sperm membranes are assembled into larger complexes that mediate recognition and fusion with the egg.
Five Questions about Mycoviruses

Mycoviruses are viruses that infect fungi. The first mycovirus was reported in 1962 from the cultivated mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; the infected mushrooms developed malformed fruiting bodies, grew slowly, and matured early, resulting in serious yield losses [1]. Like viruses that infect animals and plants, mycoviruses require the living cells of other organisms to replicate. While sharing some characteristics with animal and plant viruses, mycoviruses also have the following unique characteristics: (1) most mycoviruses lack an extracellular route for infection; (2) mycoviruses are transmitted intercellularly only through cell division, sporulation, and cell fusion; and (3) mycoviruses apparently lack a movement protein, which is essential for the life cycle of animal and plant viruses. According to the most recent report concerning virus taxonomy, the genome of most mycoviruses consists of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), while the genome of about 30% of mycoviruses is composed of a positive, single-stranded RNA (+ssRNA) [2]. A geminivirusrelated DNAmycovirus was recently reported for the first time [3]. Mycoviruses have been detected in all of the major phyla of fungi, including the Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota, Deuteromycota, and Basidiomycota [1]. Although many mycoviruses and their host fungi have been identified, many mycoviruses undoubtedly remain unknown. Recently developed metagenomic approaches will be useful for detecting and identifying new mycoviruses.
International Journal of C 2009 Institute for Scientific Numerical Analysis and Modeling Computing and Information Analysis of a Stabilized Finite Volume Method for the Transient Stokes Equations

This paper is concerned with the development and study of a stabilized finite volume method for the transient Stokes problem in two and three dimensions. The stabilization is based on two local Gauss integrals and is parameter-free. The analysis is based on a relationship between this new finite volume method and a stabilized finite element method using the lowest equal-order pair (i.e., the P 1 − P 1 pair). An error estimate of optimal order in the H 1-norm for velocity and an estimate in the L 2-norm for pressure are obtained. An optimal error estimate in the L 2-norm for the velocity is derived under an additional assumption on the body force.
Limitations and benefits of cooperative proxy caching

Cooperating proxy caches are groups of HTTP proxy servers that organize to share cached objects. This paper develops analytical models for proxy cooperation which use speedup in user response time as the performance metric. Speedup expressions are derived for the cooperation upper bound, a proxy mesh, and a three-level proxy hierarchy. The equations compare fundamental design approaches by separating the proxy organization for object delivery from the mechanism for object discovery. Discovery mechanisms analyzed for the mesh and hierarchy models include ideal discovery, Internet cache protocol (ICP) query, and distributed metadata directories. Equations are evaluated using parameter estimates from experiments and from analysis of cache trace logs. Results indicate that proxy cooperation is marginally viable from the standpoint of average user response time, and that the miss penalty for the hierarchy renders it less viable than the mesh. Proxy cooperation can, however, reduce the variability in user response time and the number of long delays. A trace-driven simulation shows that caching constraints have little effect on cooperation performance due to request filtering by lower level caches.
The Ornithine Decarboxylase Gene Is Essential for Cell Survival during Early Murine Development

ABSTRACT Overexpression and inhibitor studies have suggested that the c-Myc target gene for ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the enzyme which converts ornithine to putrescine, plays an important role in diverse biological processes, including cell growth, differentiation, transformation, and apoptosis. To explore the physiological function of ODC in mammalian development, we generated mice harboring a disrupted ODC gene.ODC-heterozygous mice were viable, normal, and fertile. Although zygotic ODC is expressed throughout the embryo prior to implantation, loss of ODC did not block normal development to the blastocyst stage. Embryonic day E3.5 ODC-deficient embryos were capable of uterine implantation and induced maternal decidualization yet failed to develop substantially thereafter. Surprisingly, analysis of ODC-deficient blastocysts suggests that loss of ODC does not affect cell growth per se but rather is required for survival of the pluripotent cells of the inner cell mass. Therefore, ODC plays an essential role in murine development, and proper homeostasis of polyamine pools appears to be required for cell survival prior to gastrulation.
Approaches to Overcoming Problems in Interactive Musical Performance Systems

Interactive musical performance systems have a great deal of potential in terms of the performance and compositional possibilities that they make available. Unfortunately, they also suffer from a number of difficulties, primarily with regard to problems with dissemination, longevity and software and hardware reliability. This paper discusses issues that must be considered if one wishes to overcome these problems, and also proposes a number of solutions. Topics dealt with include concerns of human performers, software and hardware design priorities, the value of standardizing performance parameter extraction systems, the utility of a clientserver architecture and the potential advantages of systems that extract performance parameters from performers’ audio signals rather than from specialized sensors. These solutions are discussed in terms of both their strengths and weaknesses.
Analysis of a novel audio hash function based upon stationary wavelet transform

Robust hashing for multimedia authentication is an emerging research area. Audio hash functions provide a tool for fast and reliable identification of content. A different key-dependent robust audio hashing based upon speech construction model is proposed in this article. The proposed audio hash function is based on the essential frequency series. Robust hash is calculated based on linear spectrum frequencies (LSFs) which model the verbal territory. The correlation between LSFs is decoupled by Stationary wavelet transform (SWT). A randomization structure controlled by a secret key is used in hash generation for random feature selection. The audio hash function is key-dependent and collision resistant. Temporarily, it is extremely robust to content protective operations besides having high accuracy of tampering localization. They are found, the first, to perform very adequately in identification and verification tests, and the second, to be very robust to a large range of attacks. Furthermore, it can be addressed the issue of security of hashes and proposed a keying technique, and thereby a key-dependent audio hash function.
A Total Variation Discontinuous Galerkin Approach for Image Restoration

The focal point of this paper is to propose and analyze a P 0 discontinuous Galerkin (DG) formulation for image denoising. The scheme is based on a total variation approach which has been applied successfully in previous papers on image processing. The main idea of the new scheme is to model the restoration process in terms of a discrete energy minimization problem and to derive a corresponding DG variational formulation. Furthermore, we will prove that the method exhibits a unique solution and that a natural maximum principle holds. In addition, a number of examples illustrate the effectiveness of the method.
Global Competitive Advantages and Overall Bilateral Complementarity in Agriculture

This report provides a time-series statistical overview of agricultural trade by the United States, 113 foreign countries, and principal regions. It also provides statistics for 15 agricultural industries. The authors present various economic statistics, including export and import shares, indexes of competitive advantage and disadvantage, correlation coefficients that summarize foreign traders' overall bilateral complementarity with the United States, and growth rates of these various statistics.
Energy-efficient routing protocol based on dynamicclustering mechanism for WSN applications

The aim of this work is to develop a routing protocol for wireless sensor networks (WSN) applications taking into account constraints such as network lifetime and energy consumption. We propose a robust hierarchical routing protocol using a dynamic clustering mechanism (HRP-DCM) which consists to build clusters wherein coordinators nodes with extra privileges called Cluster-Head (CH) are able to create and manipulate messages using TDMA schedule and aggregate data according to CDMA method. The network reconfiguration is carried out dynamically based on some threshold value which is associated to the number of nodes belonging to a biggest cluster. To test the effectiveness of the proposed approach, some comparative studies with other well known clustering algorithms have been conducted.
Variational phasor mean field model for object recognition

The variational phasor mean field model (VPMF) for Markov random fields can well represent marginal distribution as well as correlation among the sites. The network is represented by complex equations, which consist of phase equations and variational mean-field equations; thus the VPMF enables not only to improve the accuracy of the mean field approximation but also to give additional correlational relation between units with the cosine of the phase differences. In this report we discuss VPMF as an object recognition tool, and show that it provides efficient learning methods through computer experiments.
Radical Right: Voters and Parties in the Electoral Market

China he argues that the communist party has become a rapacious and self-serving elite accountable only to itself, profiteering at the expense of hundreds of millions of helpless Chinese citizens. Because each of the four syndromes of corruption has its own systemic logic and implications and differs in crucial ways from the others, the remedies for each must differ as well. Johnston criticizes simplistic anticorruption measures that may have little impact and can be strategically manipulated by politicians. It makes little sense to call for leaders to show political will to limit corruption when they themselves are the source of state capture and other corrupt acts. Similarly, naive moralizing about a system of laws backfires when the law itself is used as a veil to obscure corrupt shemes. Contemporary corruption is sophisticated and involves a host of “illicit connections between wealth and power” (195). One important proposition that needs more careful exploration involves Johnston’s suggestion that over time societies transition from one type of corruption to another, and that this development may have positive political consequences. Maybe so—but these transitions may may also have consequences harmful to the consolidation of democracies and systems of justice, such as increasing popular cynicism about the workings of government. In addition to its conceptual and empirical contributions this work excels as a sourcebook and overview of the existing literature on political corruption, reflecting Johnston’s lifework in this field. Yet, as he also notes, much more comparative research on corruption is urgently needed. Indeed, corruption studies can well serve as a key to a new perspective on comparative politics analysis.
The Influence of Hypothermia on Transfusion Requirement in Patients Who Received Clopidogrel in Proximity to Off-Pump Coronary Bypass Surgery

Purpose Hypothermia adversely affects the coagulation that could be of clinical significance in patients receiving clopidogrel. We evaluated the influence of hypothermia on transfusion requirements in patients undergoing isolated off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery (OPCAB) who continued clopidogrel use within 5 days of surgery. Materials and Methods Protocol-based, prospectively entered data of 369 patients were retrospectively reviewed. The time-weighted average of intraoperative temperatures and the temperature upon ICU admission (TWA-temp) was assessed. Patients were divided into normothermia (≥36℃, n=224) and hypothermia (<36℃, n=145) group. The transfusion requirement for perioperative blood loss was assessed and compared. Results Patients with hypothermia were older and had lower body surface area (BSA) than patients with normothermia. Age and BSA adjusted transfusion requirement was significantly larger in the hypothermia group [patients requiring transfusion: 64% versus 48%, p=0.003; number of units: 0 (0-2) units versus 2 (0-3) units, p=0.002]. In multivariate analysis of predictors of perioperative multiple transfusion requirements, hypothermia was identified as an independent risk factor along with age, female gender, BSA, chronic kidney disease, and congestive heart failure. Conclusion Hypothermia was associated with increased transfusion requirement in patients undergoing OPCAB who received clopidogrel in proximity to surgery. Considering the high prevalence and the possibility of hypothermia being a modifiable risk factor, aggressive measures should be undertaken to maintain normothermia in those patients.
Amniotic Fluid and Amniotic Membrane Stem Cells: Marker Discovery

Amniotic fluid (AF) and amniotic membrane (AM) have been recently characterized as promising sources of stem or progenitor cells. Both not only contain subpopulations with stem cell characteristics resembling to adult stem cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells, but also exhibit some embryonic stem cell properties like (i) expression of pluripotency markers, (ii) high expansion in vitro, or (iii) multilineage differentiation capacity. Recent efforts have been focused on the isolation and the detailed characterization of these stem cell types. However, variations in their phenotype, their heterogeneity described by different groups, and the absence of a single marker expressed only in these cells may prevent the isolation of a pure homogeneous stem cell population from these sources and their potential use of these cells in therapeutic applications. In this paper, we aim to summarize the recent progress in marker discovery for stem cells derived from fetal sources such as AF and AM, using novel methodologies based on transcriptomics, proteomics, or secretome analyses.
Social Conformity in Networks

Centrality in a social network is found to have a significant effect on Asch-type conformity. Friendship affinity and respect social network data was collected on two different groups of actors. The effects of Asch-type conformity were empirically tested on central actors and peripheral actors in each group using a culturally appropriate version of Asch’s test. Findings show that central actors are less willing to conform and peripheral actors are more willing to conform than expected in Asch-type social conformity experiments. Authors Ian McCulloh, Ph.D. is a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Organisational Analysis in the School of Information Systems at the Curtin University Business School in Perth, Western Australia. Please email all correspondence to Ian McCulloh at cusum6@gmail.com. Notes Thanks to Dominick Lombardi for his assistance in designing, executing and recording data for the empirical experiments. B R I E F R E P O R T S 331036_B. indd 42 7/26/13 10:27 AM Social Conformity Connections July | Issue 1 | Volume 33 | 36
Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes Using Azerbaijan’s Oil

Distillate fractions of Azerbaijan’s oil-gasoline, jet fuel and diesel were tested as a raw material for producing carbon nanotubes. Aerosol CVD technique was employed at atmospheric and low pressures and ferrocene was used as a catalyst. It is shown that at atmospheric pressures carbon nanotubes were formed only from a gasoline fraction. Lower pressure in the reactor during the synthesis process leads to formation of carbon tubular structure from both petroleum fractions-gasoline and jet fuel. Other modifications of carbon were grown at atmospheric pressure in a case used fraction jet fuel and diesel fraction. MWCNTs with diameters of 35 - 65 nm have been grown at lower pressure in the reactor using gasoline fraction. The diameter of the MWNTs grown at atmospheric pressure in the reactor was in the range of 80 - 215 nm and the length reached 6 microns after the purification process.
The Role of Choice in Longitudinal Recall of Meaningful Tactile Signals

Haptic icons (brief tactile stimuli with associated meanings) have the potential to convey abstract information through touch; however, there has been little systematic investigation of how sets of perceptually distinct tactile signals can be best utilized to convey meanings, nor of how enduring these associations can be. We hypothesized that when users can choose the signals which will represent specific concepts, their learning and recall will be eased and enhanced. Taking future embedded interfaces as context, we used two sets of 10 distinct tactile signals to compare recall of concept-meaning associations in two conditions: (1) arbitrarily assigned and (2) participant-chosen associations. Participants learned associations in under 20 minutes at 80% accuracy; at 2 weeks, recall of the associations previously learned was 86% with no significant effect of assignment condition. Subjective confidence levels sharply lagged actual performance, with zero expectation of ability to recall at 2 weeks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of either longitudinal recall or the role of user choice on synthesized stimulus-meaning leamability. Its results underscore the eminent practicality of using haptic icons in everyday interface design, suggesting high learnability and a surprising user ability to find their own mnemonics for carefully composed stimuli, regardless of how associations are assigned.
EGFR expression levels affect the mode of action of EGFR-targeting monoclonal antibodies

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression levels appear to modulate the efficacy of EGFR-targeting monoclonal antibodies. More specifically, we observed that high EGFR densities negatively affect the effects of EGFR-specific antibodies on EGFR phosphorylation yet exacerbate Fc-mediated tumor-cell killing. These results suggest that the predominant mode of action of EGFR-targeting antibodies depend on EGFR expression levels.
P3b Reflects Periodicity in Linguistic Sequences

Temporal predictability is thought to affect stimulus processing by facilitating the allocation of attentional resources. Recent studies have shown that periodicity of a tonal sequence results in a decreased peak latency and a larger amplitude of the P3b compared with temporally random, i.e., aperiodic sequences. We investigated whether this applies also to sequences of linguistic stimuli (syllables), although speech is usually aperiodic. We compared aperiodic syllable sequences with two temporally regular conditions. In one condition, the interval between syllable onset was fixed, whereas in a second condition the interval between the syllables’ perceptual center (p-center) was kept constant. Event-related potentials were assessed in 30 adults who were instructed to detect irregularities in the stimulus sequences. We found larger P3b amplitudes for both temporally predictable conditions as compared to the aperiodic condition and a shorter P3b latency in the p-center condition than in both other conditions. These findings demonstrate that even in acoustically more complex sequences such as syllable streams, temporal predictability facilitates the processing of deviant stimuli. Furthermore, we provide first electrophysiological evidence for the relevance of the p-center concept in linguistic stimulus processing.
Viral RNA Mutations Are Region Specific and Increased by Ribavirin in a Full-Length Hepatitis C Virus Replication System

ABSTRACT High rates of genetic variation ensure the survival of RNA viruses. Although this variation is thought to result from error-prone replication, RNA viruses must also maintain highly conserved genomic segments. A balance between conserved and variable viral elements is especially important in order for viruses to avoid “error catastrophe. ” Ribavirin has been shown to induce error catastrophe in other RNA viruses. We therefore used a novel hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication system to determine relative mutation frequencies in variable and conserved regions of the HCV genome, and we further evaluated these frequencies in response to ribavirin. We sequenced the 5′ untranslated region (5′ UTR) and the core, E2 HVR-1, NS5A, and NS5B regions of replicating HCV RNA isolated from cells transfected with a T7 polymerase-driven full-length HCV cDNA plasmid containing a cis-acting hepatitis delta virus ribozyme to control 3′ cleavage. We found quasispecies in the E2 HVR-1 and NS5B regions of untreated replicating viral RNAs but not in conserved 5′ UTR, core, or NS5A regions, demonstrating that important cis elements regulate mutation rates within specific viral segments. Neither T7-driven replication nor sequencing artifacts produced these nucleotide substitutions in control experiments. Ribavirin broadly increased error generation, especially in otherwise invariant regions, indicating that it acts as an HCV RNA mutagen in vivo. Similar results were obtained in hepatocyte-derived cell lines. These results demonstrate the potential utility of our system for the study of intrinsic factors regulating genetic variation in HCV. Our results further suggest that ribavirin acts clinically by promoting nonviable HCV RNA mutation rates. Finally, the latter result suggests that our replication model may be useful for identifying agents capable of driving replicating virus into error catastrophe.