Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multilevel Coding : Use of Hard Decisions in Multistage Decoding

| Multilevel coding (MLC) schemes with powerful softly decodable component codes like turbo codes allow very power and bandwidth e cient digital communication [8, 2, 6]. But the use of the non{quantized channel output in each stage of the multistage decoding procedure leads to highly complex receivers. In this paper, the employment of hard decision decoding at several coding levels is proposed as a very e cient way to save complexity. It turns out that, for Ungerb ock's labeling of signal points, the performance loss compared to soft decision decoding (in terms of capacity of the equivalent binary channel as well as in simulations) is only about 0.13 dB for ASK transmission over the AWGN channel, when hard decision decoding is employed at all but the lowest level. If error{correction techniques are exclusively employed, an MLC approach with ` individual binary error{correcting codes is re-
Compensating Small Head Displacements for an accurate fMRI Registration

Many medical image processing algorithms require the comparison of multiple scans acquired from a given subject. In the absence of an absolute coordinate system, these different images have to be aligned in a common space before being able to identify similar anatomical landmarks. Several rigid registration techniques have been proposed that estimate the rigid transformation between two anatomical volumes [1] but none of them introduce geometric constraints on the possible position of the human head inside a scanner. We propose a new method to improve the accuracy of rigid registration in the case of small displacements by restricting the number of degrees of freedom (dof) involved in the registration process. It has been shown in a different context that decreasing the number of dof improves the numerical stability of the displacement recovery algorithm [16, 8] by regularizing the minimized criterion and reducing the number of local minima. We developed a strategy adapted to the case of human head displacement in a MRI scanner. This algorithm has been successfully tested on 6 sets of fMRI volumes acquired at the MNI on different patients. Each set is composed of 30 to 78 volumes.
Mitochondrial Dynamics and the ER: The Plant Perspective

Whereas contact sites between mitochondria and the ER have been in the focus of animal and fungal research for several years, the importance of this organellar interface and the molecular effectors are largely unknown for plants. This work gives an introduction into known evolutionary differences of molecular effectors of mitochondrial dynamics and interactions between animals, fungi, and plants. Using the model plant Physcomitrella patens, we provide microscopic evidence for the existence of mitochondria-ER interactions in plants and their correlation with mitochondrial constriction and fission. We further investigate a previously identified protein of unknown function (MELL1), and show that it modulates the amount of mitochondrial association to the ER, as well as mitochondrial shape and number.
Pivotal regulatory network and genes in osteosarcoma

Introduction Understanding the transcriptional regulatory networks that map out the coordinated responses of transcription factors and target genes would represent a significant advance in the analysis of osteosarcoma, a common primary bone malignancy. The objective of our study was to interpret the mechanisms of osteosarcoma through the regulation network construction. Material and methods Using GSE14359 datasets downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus data, we first screened the differentially expressed genes in osteosarcoma. We explored the regulation relationship between transcription factors and target genes using Cytoscape. The underlying molecular mechanisms of these crucial target genes were investigated by Gene Ontology function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis. Results A total of 1836 differentially expressed were identified and 98 regulatory relationships were constructed between 32 transcription factors and their 60 differentially expressed target genes. Furthermore, BCL2-like 1 (BCL2L1), tumor protein p53 (TP53), v-rel reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog A (avian) (RELA), interleukin 6 (IL6), retinoic acid receptor, alpha (RARA), nuclear factor I/C (CCAAT-binding transcription factor) (NFIC), and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein, beta (CEBPB) formed a small pivotal network, in which IL-6 could be regulated by TP53, NFIC, RARA, and CEBPB, but BCL2L1 may be only regulated by TP53 and RELA. These genes had been demonstrated to be involved in osteosarcoma progression via various biological processes and pathways, including regulation of cell apoptosis, proliferation, antigen processing and presentation pathway, and phosphatidylinositol signaling system. Conclusions In general, we have obtained a regulatory network and several pathways that may play important roles in osteosarcoma, identified several pivotal genes in osteosarcoma, and predicted several potential key genes for osteosarcoma.
The Journal of Cell Biology

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Scholarship in UW­Extension­Cooperative Extension: The Role of Academic Staff

The Cooperative Extension Committee on Academic Staff Issues (CASI) has produced the following white paper as a response to the strategic efforts in Cooperative Extension to make outreach scholarship our niche. The purpose of the paper is to provide a common language for discussing issues of scholarship within academic staff. This paper does not constitute official policy, but it builds on the official policy previously enacted by the faculty. We welcome feedback and suggestions. We view our role in scholarship as an ongoing conversation, and this document as a first step. In 2008, UW‐Extension Cooperative Extension (UWEX‐CE) undertook a strategic planning process that culminated in a set of recommendations that will guide the work of all employees of UWEX‐CE. Scholarship was identified as a strategic issue area that should receive special attention. The committee identified the " Building Awareness about our Community‐Based Research, Education, and Outreach Scholarship Niche " as an " urgent and important concern " (Strategic Planning Steering Committee, 2009). The plan goes on to explain that we don't currently have a common understanding of what this means, and that there's a perception that scholarship is something that is only done to achieve tenure. The plan states the following:
Hyperforests on the complete hypergraph by Grassmann integral representation

We study the generating function of rooted and unrooted hyperforests in a general complete hypergraph with n vertices by using a novel Grassmann representation of their generating functions. We show that this new approach encodes the known results about the exponential generating functions for the different number of vertices. We also consider some applications, such as counting hyperforests in the k-uniform complete hypergraph and the one complete in hyperedges of all dimensions. Some general features of the asymptotic regimes for a large number of connected components are discussed.
On the decomposition of excursions measures of processes whose generators have diffusion coefficients discontinuous at one point

The coefficients in the decomposition of the excursions measure as convex combination of excursions measures of reflected processes are computed in order to characterize the discontinuity at one point of the diffusion coefficient. In some sense, this result extends to general diffusions a similar one for the skew Brownian motion, and we advocate it may be used in Monte Carlo methods for discontinuous media.
Recognition of biological motion in children with autistic spectrum disorders

It is widely accepted that autistic children experience difficulties in processing and recognizing emotions. Most relevant studies have explored the perception of faces. However, context and bodily gestures are also sources from which we derive emotional meanings. We tested 23 autistic children and 23 typically developing control children on their ability to recognize point-light displays of a person's actions, subjective states and emotions. In a control task, children had to recognize point-light displays of everyday objects. The children with autism only differed from the control children in their ability to name the emotional point-light displays. This suggests that children with autism can extract complex meanings from bodily movements but may be less sensitive to higher-order emotional information conveyed by human movement. The results are discussed in the context of a specific deficit in emotion perception in children with autism.
Unesterified Cholesterol Accumulation in Late Endosomes/Lysosomes Causes Neurodegeneration and Is Prevented by Driving Cholesterol Export from This Compartment

While unesterified cholesterol (C) is essential for remodeling neuronal plasma membranes, its role in certain neurodegenerative disorders remains poorly defined. Uptake of sterol from pericellular fluid requires processing that involves two lysosomal proteins, lysosomal acid lipase, which hydrolyzes C esters, and NPC1 (Niemann-Pick type C1). In systemic tissues, inactivation of either protein led to sterol accumulation and cell death, but in the brain, inactivation of only NPC1 caused C sequestration and neurodegeneration. When injected into the CNS of the npc1−/− mouse, 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD), a compound known to prevent this C accumulation, diffused throughout the brain and was excreted with a t½ of 6.5 h. This agent caused suppression of C synthesis, elevation of C esters, suppression of sterol regulatory-binding protein 2 (SREBP2) target genes, and activation of liver X receptor-controlled genes. These findings indicated that HP-β-CD promoted movement of the sequestered C from lysosomes to the metabolically active pool of C in the cytosolic compartment of cells in the CNS. The ED50 for this agent in the brain was ∼0.5 mg/kg, and the therapeutic effect lasted >7 d. Continuous infusion of HP-β-CD into the ventricular system of npc1−/− animals between 3 and 7 weeks of age normalized the biochemical abnormalities and completely prevented the expected neurodegeneration. These studies support the concept that neurons continuously acquire C from interstitial fluid to permit plasma membrane turnover and remodeling. Inactivation of NPC1 leads to lysosomal C sequestration and neurodegeneration, but this is prevented by the continuous, direct administration of HP-β-CD into the CNS.
A New Way to See the Light: Improving Light Quality with Cost-Effective LED Technology

Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting offers important advantages for pulp and paper facilities, delivers improved performance and reliability, and significantly lowers the total cost of ownership compared to conventional lighting. This article examines the many benefits of LED lighting, including improved quality of light and color rendering, reduction in ultraviolet (UV) emissions that eliminates product degradation and insect infestation, dramatic reduction in maintenance demand and cost, and incentive programs that ensure rapid payback/return on investment, all while improving facility safety and enhancing sustainability.
Extraction and implementation of muscle synergies in hand-force control

The need of solving the problem of multi-degrees-of-freedom in motor control is increasing as human-like robots become more popular these days. Muscle synergies hypothesis is a prominent suggestion for this problem. In this paper, we investigated the muscle synergies extracted from human subjects in a producing-force task to explore the mechanism of the human's skillful hand-movement at producing force while manipulating objects. We observed a high correlation estimation of the muscle synergies with the hand force, and derived a role division of muscle synergies in generating the hand force as well. These results give an optimal but simple way to control robots so as to make the robots' movement as skillful as human's. To verify this idea, we proposed “synergy based control” method using the characteristics of human's muscle synergies observed, and tested it on a pneumatic-driven arm-robot whose structure assumes the human arm's. The program is in its first stage to control the robot.
An intruder avoidance vulnerable path adjustment protocol for wireless mobile sensor networks

The paper proposes a protocol to adjust the vulnerable path by using mobile sensor networks. The objective of vulnerable adjustment is to protect some important areas, named TBP (to-be-protected) areas in the paper, from being attacked. In the paper, Voronoi diagram is utilized to find a vulnerable path, which is a path that an intruder may pass through. While the vulnerable path passes over a TBP area, a backward tracing and critical sets selection schemes are used to move the fewest number of sensors such that the vulnerable path can be changed and the new vulnerable path will not pass over the TBP area. Moreover, a moving schemes is proposed to decide where mobile sensors shall move. Since sensor movement is the major resource of energy consumption, thus, in order not to cause much movement, the proposed mechanism can move the fewest number of sensors with the shortest distance. Simulation results also verify the advantages of the proposed mechanism.
Vessel-based registration of fundus and optical coherence tomography projection images of retina using a quadratic registration model

The new techniques of three-dimensional (3D)-optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging is very useful for detecting retinal pathologic changes in various diseases and determining retinal thickness `abnormalities'. Fundus colour images have been used for several years for detecting retinal abnormalities too. If the two image modalities were combined, the resulted image would be more informative. The first step to combine these two modalities is to register colour fundus images with an en face representation of OCT. In this study, curvelet transform is used to extract vessels for both modalities. Then the extracted vessels from two modalities are registered together in two stages. At first, images are registered using scaling and translation transformations. Then a quadratic transformation model is assumed between two pairs of images; because retina is imaged as a second-order surface. Twenty-two eyes (17 macular and 5 prepapillary), from random patients, were imaged in this study with Topcon 3D OCT1000 instrument. A new registration error is defined which averages the distance between all the corresponding points in two sets of vessels. Results show that registration error after stage one is 6.01 ± 1.82 pixels and after stage two is 1.02 ± 0.02 pixels.
Chemical abundances in Virgo spiral galaxies. II. Effects of cluster environment

We present new measurements of chemical abundances in H II regions in spiral galaxies of the Virgo cluster and a comparison of Virgo galaxies and field spirals. With these new data there now exist nine Virgo spirals with abundance measurements for at least four H II regions. Our sample of Virgo galaxies ranges from H I deficient objects near the core of the cluster to galaxies with normal H I properties, far from the cluster core. We investigate the relationship between H I disk characteristics and chemical abundances to determine whether dynamical process that remove gas from the disk, such as ram pressure stripping by the intracluster medium, also affect the chemical abundances.
Entrepreneurship and job satisfaction: the role of age

This paper investigates the relationship between job satisfaction and age for self-employed persons as compared to paid employees. While, on average, there are higher levels of job satisfaction in self-employment as compared to paid employment, we find that an individual's age is an important moderator in this relationship. Specifically, the probability of the self-employed to experience high levels of job satisfaction is quite similar across all age cohorts, but the job satisfaction of paid employees varies significantly with age. The degree to which self-employed people are more satisfied with their work than paid employees, therefore, is affected by the age of the individuals involved. We find that only those paid employees at the final stage of their working life have the same probability of experiencing a high level of job satisfaction as a self-employed person with comparable individual characteristics.
A Flowable Placental Tissue Matrix Allograft in Lower Extremity Injuries: A Pilot Study

Damaged connective tissue commonly leads to lower extremity injuries. These injuries can result in inflammation, reduced mobility, and chronic pain. Conservative treatment may include orthotics, offloading the injury, physical therapy, and/or NSAIDs. If conservative treatment fails, surgical intervention may be required. Even after successful surgery, these procedures often result in reduced joint mobility and tendon or ligament strength. A novel flowable tissue matrix allograft, derived from human placental connective tissue, has recently been made available for minimally invasive treatment of damaged or inadequate tissue (PX50®, Human Regenerative Technologies LLC, Redondo Beach, CA). Based on the universal role of connective tissue in the body, and its reported antimicrobial, anti-adhesive, and anti-inflammatory properties, we assessed the effects of using this placental tissue matrix in the treatment of a series of lower extremity injuries. In this pilot study, 9 of 10 patients reported pain levels of 2 or less by week four using the VAS pain scale. This short-term pilot study effectively shows that injectable, flowable amniotic allografts can be used for orthopedic sports injuries of the lower extremities.
A Catalog and Atlas of Cataclysmic Variables: The Living Edition

The Catalog and Atlas of Cataclysmic Variables (Edition 1: Downes & Shara; Edition 2: Downes, Webbink, & Shara) has been a valuable source of information for the cataclysmic variable community. However, the goal of having a central location for all objects is slowly being lost as each new edition is generated. There can also be a long time delay between new information becoming available on an object and its publication in the catalog. To eliminate these concerns, as well as to make the catalog more accessible, we have created a Web site which will contain a “living” edition of the catalog. We have also added orbital period information, as well as finding charts for novae, to the catalog.
Building and Leveraging Category Hierarchies for Large-scale Image Classification

In image classification, visual separability between different object categories is highly uneven, and some categories are more difficult to distinguish than others. Such difficult categories demand more dedicated classifiers. However, existing deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) are trained as flat N-way classifiers, and few efforts have been made to leverage the hierarchical structure of categories. Naturally, incorporating external knowledge from category hierarchies presents a major opportunity to improve the task. However, traditional methods of manually constructing category hierarchies by experts (e.g. WordNet, ImageNet) and interest communities (e.g. Wikipedia) are either knowledge or time intensive, and the results have limited coverage. In this report, we study the problem of automatically learning and utilizing category hierarchies (taxonomies) for large-scale image classification. First, we present a probabilistic model for taxonomy induction by jointly leveraging text corpus and images from the web. The model is discriminatively trained given a small set of existing ontologies and is capable of building full category hierarchies from scratch for a collection of unseen conceptual labels with associated images. Then, we introduce hierarchical deep convolutional neural networks (HD-CNNs), which embeds deep convolutional neural networks into a category hierarchy. An HD-CNN separates easy classes using a coarse category classifier while distinguishing difficult classes using fine category classifiers. We reported state-of-the-art results on both taxonomy induction and image classification tasks.
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Modulation of Cholesterol Homeostasis in THP-1 Macrophage-Derived Foam Cells

Transformation of macrophages to foam cells is determined by the rates of cholesterol uptake and efflux. This study uses a real time RT-PCR technique to investigate the role of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), α-linolenic acid (ALA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in the regulation of the ATP-binding cassette A1 (ABCA1) and liver X receptor α (LXR) genes, which are involved in cholesterol homeostasis. Accordingly, these fatty acids significantly reduced the total, free and esterified cholesterols within the foam cells. While the expression of the ABCA1 and LXRα genes was increased in the presence of the pharmacological LXRα ligand, T0901317, their mRNA expression was not significantly affected by CLA, ALA and EPA. These results suggest that although polyunsaturated fatty acids have an effect on cholesterol homeostasis, they cannot change the expression of the ABCA1 and LXRα genes. Alternatively, several other genes and proteins may be involved.
Microtubule plus tips: A dynamic route to chromosomal instability

Although chromosomal instability (CIN) is a recognized hallmark of cancer the underlying mechanisms and consequences are largely unknown. However, it is accepted that lagging chromosomes represent a major prerequisite for chromosome missegregation in cancer cells. Here, we discuss how lagging chromosomes are generated and our recent findings establishing increased microtubule assembly rates as a source of CIN.
Adaptive Submodularity: A New Approach to Active Learning and Stochastic Optimization

Solving stochastic optimization problems under partial observability, where one needs to adaptively make decisions with uncertain outcomes, is a fundamental but notoriously difficult challenge. In this paper, we introduce the concept of adaptive submodularity, generalizing submodular set functions to adaptive policies. We prove that if a problem satisfies this property, a simple adaptive greedy algorithm is guaranteed to be competitive with the optimal policy. We illustrate the usefulness of the concept by giving several examples of adaptive submodular objectives arising in diverse applications including sensor placement, viral marketing and pool-based active learning. Proving adaptive submodularity for these problems allows us to recover existing results in these applications as special cases and leads to natural generalizations.