Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epithelial Sodium and Chloride Channels and Asthma

Objective:To focus on the asthmatic pathogenesis and clinical manifestations related to epithelial sodium channel (ENaC)/chlorine ion channel. Data Sources:The data analyzed in this review were the English articles from 1980 to 2015 from journal databases, primarily PubMed and Google Scholar. The terms used in the literature search were: (1) ENaCs; cystic fibrosis (CF) transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR); asthma/asthmatic, (2) ENaC/sodium salt; CF; asthma/asthmatic, (3) CFTR/chlorine ion channels; asthma/asthmatic, (4) ENaC/sodium channel/scnn1a/scnn1b/scnn1g/scnn1d/amiloride-sensitive/amiloride-inhibtable sodium channels/sodium salt; asthma/asthmatic, lung/pulmonary/respiratory/tracheal/alveolar, and (5) CFTR; CF; asthma/asthmatic (ti). Study Selection:These studies included randomized controlled trials or studies covering asthma pathogenesis and clinical manifestations related to ENaC/chlorine ion channels within the last 25 years (from 1990 to 2015). The data involving chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and CF obtained from individual studies were also reviewed by the authors. Results:Airway surface liquid dehydration can cause airway inflammation and obstruction. ENaC and CFTR are closely related to the airway mucociliary clearance. Ion transporters may play a critical role in pathogenesis of asthmatic exacerbations. Conclusions:Ion channels have been the center of many studies aiming to understand asthmatic pathophysiological mechanisms or to identify therapeutic targets for better control of the disease.
Structure-Function Analysis of Rgs1 in Magnaporthe oryzae: Role of DEP Domains in Subcellular Targeting

Background Rgs1, a prototypical Regulator of G protein Signaling, negatively modulates the cyclic AMP pathway thereby influencing various aspects of asexual development and pathogenesis in the rice-blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. Rgs1 possesses tandem DEP motifs (termed DEP-A and DEP-B; for Dishevelled, Egl-10, Pleckstrin) at the N-terminus, and a Gα-GTP interacting RGS catalytic core domain at the C-terminus. In this study, we focused on gaining further insights into the mechanisms of Rgs1 regulation and subcellular localization by characterizing the role(s) of the individual domains and the full-length protein during asexual development and pathogenesis in Magnaporthe. Methodology/Principal Findings Utilizing western blot analysis and specific antisera against the N- and C-terminal halves of Rgs1, we identify and report the in vivo endoproteolytic processing/cleavage of full-length Rgs1 that yields an N-terminal DEP and a RGS core domain. Independent expression of the resultant DEP-DEP half (N-Rgs1) or RGS core (C-Rgs1) fragments, failed to complement the rgs1Δ defects in colony morphology, aerial hyphal growth, surface hydrophobicity, conidiation, appressorium formation and infection. Interestingly, the full-length Rgs1-mCherry, as well as the tagged N-terminal DEP domains (individually or in conjunction) localized to distinct punctate vesicular structures in the cytosol, while the catalytic RGS core motif was predominantly vacuolar. Conclusions/Significance Based on our data from sequence alignments, immuno-blot and microscopic analysis, we propose that the post-translational proteolytic processing of Rgs1 and the vacuolar sequestration of the catalytic RGS domain represents an important means of down regulating Rgs1 function and thus forming an additional and alternative means of regulating G protein signaling in Magnaporthe. We further hypothesize the prevalence of analogous mechanisms functioning in other filamentous fungi. Furthermore, we conclusively assign a specific vesicular/membrane targeting function for the N-terminal DEP domains of Rgs1 in the rice-blast fungus.
Investigation of the acoustic features of emotional speech using a physiological articulatory model

Processing emotional speech is an important issue for speech information science and there are many studies working on this issue. However, we still have no clear knowledge to answer what are the crucial acoustic features for emotional speech, except the fundamental frequency, and how human manipulate their speech organs to generate emotional speech. In this study, we investigate the acoustic features concerned with emotional speech using a physiological articulatory model. The articulatory model is used to simulate human behaviors on production of emotional speech. The speech sound synthesized by the model is used to detect changes in acoustic features when articulatory factors concerned with emotion generation are introduced into the model. Then, the crucial acoustic parameters are identified using a listening test.
LSCD: A Low-Storage Clone Detection Protocol for Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) have recently become an important research field not only because of their important and varied application scenarios, including transportation systems, smart homes, surveillance systems, and wearable devices but also because the fundamental infrastructure has yet to be well addressed. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), as a type of supporting infrastructure, play an irreplaceable role in CPS design. Specifically, secure communication in WSNs is vital because information transferred in the networks can be easily stolen or replaced. Therefore, this paper presents a novel distributed low-storage clone detection protocol (LSCD) for WSNs. We first design a detection route along the perpendicular direction of a witness path with witness nodes deployed in a ring path. This ensures that the detection route must encounter the witness path because the distance between any two detection routes must be smaller than the witness path length. In the LSCD protocol, clone detection is processed in a nonhotspot region where a large amount of energy remains, which can improve energy efficiency as well as network lifetime. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the lifetime, storage requirements, and detection probability of our protocol are substantially improved over competing solutions from the literature.
Influence of Pollen Nutrition on Honey Bee Health: Do Pollen Quality and Diversity Matter?

Honey bee colonies are highly dependent upon the availability of floral resources from which they get the nutrients (notably pollen) necessary to their development and survival. However, foraging areas are currently affected by the intensification of agriculture and landscape alteration. Bees are therefore confronted to disparities in time and space of floral resource abundance, type and diversity, which might provide inadequate nutrition and endanger colonies. The beneficial influence of pollen availability on bee health is well-established but whether quality and diversity of pollen diets can modify bee health remains largely unknown. We therefore tested the influence of pollen diet quality (different monofloral pollens) and diversity (polyfloral pollen diet) on the physiology of young nurse bees, which have a distinct nutritional physiology (e.g. hypopharyngeal gland development and vitellogenin level), and on the tolerance to the microsporidian parasite Nosema ceranae by measuring bee survival and the activity of different enzymes potentially involved in bee health and defense response (glutathione-S-transferase (detoxification), phenoloxidase (immunity) and alkaline phosphatase (metabolism)). We found that both nurse bee physiology and the tolerance to the parasite were affected by pollen quality. Pollen diet diversity had no effect on the nurse bee physiology and the survival of healthy bees. However, when parasitized, bees fed with the polyfloral blend lived longer than bees fed with monofloral pollens, excepted for the protein-richest monofloral pollen. Furthermore, the survival was positively correlated to alkaline phosphatase activity in healthy bees and to phenoloxydase activities in infected bees. Our results support the idea that both the quality and diversity (in a specific context) of pollen can shape bee physiology and might help to better understand the influence of agriculture and land-use intensification on bee nutrition and health.
CLEAR: Clustering based on locality embedding and reconstruction

Spectral clustering (SC) is a fundamental technique in the field of data mining and information processing. The similarity matrix of the input data set plays a vital role in SC methods. Since the similarity matrix computation is independent of the clustering procedure, the final results may be suboptimal if the learned similarity is not optimal in SC methods. In this paper, we proposed a novel data Clustering based on Locality Embedding And Reconstruction, CLEAR for short. The proposed CLEAR model combines the graph similarity matrix computation and data clustering procedure together by assigning adaptive weights to the local neighbors of each data point based on locally linear embedding and reconstruction. It is worth noting that CLEAR imposes a rank constraint to the graph Laplacian matrix of the similarity matrix, which leads to a favorable number of graph components in the final clustering. We formulate the proposed CLEAR model in a efficient way which can be solved easily, and show the theoretical relationship to K-means and SC methods. Extensive results on both synthetic data and real-world data show the effectiveness of our method.
Complementing for "Permanent Identity-Theft" in Biometrics Using Visual-Based Challenge Response

Biometric authentication has been described to be reliable solution to the problem of identity determination by establishing the identity of a person based on “who he is", but permanent Identity theft has been considered an important issue since biometric samples are not secret and when a biometric feature is compromised, it cannot be changed. This research work describes a middleware called Visual–based challenge response in which the computer presents questions ("challenge") that requires the user to provide a valid answers ("response") using a retrieval process that involves a stimulus or pattern of stimuli to facilitate remembering in order to be authenticated since retrieval of information via Visual recognition is easier it becomes a valuable tool to access stored information, when it cannot otherwise be recalled. This research work conceived and formalized utilizes this visual–based challenge response to compliment this weakness of existing biometric systems (i.e. permanent Identity theft), thus providing security assurance in identity management having brought user- friendliness into place since the ultimate goal of this research work is to come up with a reliable biometrics system complement the Permanent Identity theft management.
Security Authorization for MAC Address under Distributed Environment

Arrangement of autonomous computer systems is one of the major issues in the distributed computing system. Each machine has its own unique Media Control Access (MAC) address. When the machine is connected across the globe on the Wide Area Network (WAN), intruders can be easily caught by the MAC address of the machine. If one transmits the confidential information from one device to another device then it is very important for safe delivery of the information with secure transmission of MAC address, so that intruders could not break the MAC address. In the present work, an approach for secure transmission of information along with the MAC address is depicted with well known Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) algorithm of the security system. The algorithm is tested on different MAC addresses of different machines through the object-oriented programming JAVA language. Before implementation, Unified Modeling Language (UML) approach is used to build a cryptosystem model.
Drug Uptake, Lipid Rafts, and Vesicle Trafficking Modulate Resistance to an Anticancer Lysophosphatidylcholine Analogue in Yeast*

Background: The antitumor lipid edelfosine kills yeast by inducing selective internalization of raft-associated proteins. Results: Impairing vesicular trafficking to the vacuole counteracted edelfosine-induced plasma membrane alterations without affecting internalization of the drug. Conclusion: Recycling of raft-associated proteins to the plasma membrane prevents edelfosine cytotoxicity. Significance: Vesicular trafficking is a critical process mediating edelfosine resistance in yeast that could be extrapolated to tumor cells. The ether-phospholipid edelfosine, a prototype antitumor lipid (ATL), kills yeast cells and selectively kills several cancer cell types. To gain insight into its mechanism of action, we performed chemogenomic screens in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene-deletion strain collection, identifying edelfosine-resistant mutants. LEM3, AGP2, and DOC1 genes were required for drug uptake. Edelfosine displaced the essential proton pump Pma1p from rafts, inducing its internalization into the vacuole. Additional ATLs, including miltefosine and perifosine, also displaced Pma1p from rafts to the vacuole, suggesting that this process is a major hallmark of ATL cytotoxicity in yeast. Radioactive and synthetic fluorescent edelfosine analogues accumulated in yeast plasma membrane rafts and subsequently the endoplasmic reticulum. Although both edelfosine and Pma1p were initially located at membrane rafts, internalization of the drug toward endoplasmic reticulum and Pma1p to the vacuole followed different routes. Drug internalization was not dependent on endocytosis and was not critical for yeast cytotoxicity. However, mutants affecting endocytosis, vesicle sorting, or trafficking to the vacuole, including the retromer and ESCRT complexes, prevented Pma1p internalization and were edelfosine-resistant. Our data suggest that edelfosine-induced cytotoxicity involves raft reorganization and retromer- and ESCRT-mediated vesicular transport and degradation of essential raft proteins leading to cell death. Cytotoxicity of ATLs is mainly dependent on the changes they induce in plasma membrane raft-located proteins that lead to their internalization and subsequent degradation. Edelfosine toxicity can be circumvented by inactivating genes that then result in the recycling of internalized cell-surface proteins back to the plasma membrane.
Different perspectives on organizational learning a literature survey

Although there is wide acceptance of the notion of orgamzational learning, no theory or model is widely accepted. The purpose of this paper is to review the various perspectives on orgamzational learning. To provide an insight into the common propositions concerning orgamzational learning, studies are classified into six different perspectives on the subject: orgamzational learning as adaptation, orgamzational learning as assumption sharing, orgamzational knowledge, top-level learning, the learning of innovative organizations and learning during the organizational life cycle. Subsequently, these different approaches are divided into three dimensions, i.e. the level of learning, the content of learning and the motive of learning. These dimensions may be used to explain the different conceptualizations of organizational learning. 2 organizational learning
Paper on Filtering Of Unwanted Messages from OSN User Wall Using Content-Based Filtering Method Miss

In today On-line Social Networks (OSNs), one fundamental issue is to give users the ability to control the messages posted on their own private space to avoid that unwanted content is displayed. Up to now OSNs provide little support to this requirement. To fill the gap, we built a system which allows OSN users to have a direct control on the messages posted on their walls. This is achieved through a flexible rule-based system, that allows a user to customize the filtering criteria to be applied to their walls, and a Machine Learning based soft classifier automatically labelling messages in support of content-based filtering.
On Sylow Subgraphs of Vertex‐Transitive Self‐Complementary Graphs

One of the basic facts of group theory is that each finite group contains a Sylow p‐subgroup for each prime p which divides the order of the group. In this note we show that each vertex‐transitive self‐ complementary graph has an analogous property. As a consequence of this fact, we obtain that each prime divisor p of the order of a vertex‐transitive self‐complementary graph satisfies the congruence pm ≡ 1(mod 4), where pm is the highest power of p which divides the order of the graph. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification 05C25, 20B25.
Dialogue scene detection in movies using low and mid-level visual features

This paper describes an approach for detecting dialogue scenes in movies. The approach uses automatically extracted low- and mid-level visual features that characterise the visual content of individual shots, and which are then combined using a state transition machine that models the shot-level temporal characteristics of the scene under investigation. The choice of visual features used is motivated by a consideration of formal film syntax. The system is designed so that the analysis may be applied in order to detect different types of scenes, although in this paper we focus on dialogue sequences as these are the most prevalent scenes in the movies considered to date.
On the Sources of Business Cycles in the G-7

This paper examines sources of cyclical movements in output, inflation and the term structure of interest rates. It employs a novel identification approach which uses the sign of the cross correlation function in response to shocks to catalog orthogonal disturbances. We find that demand shocks are the dominant source output, inflation and term structure fluctuations in six of the G-7 countries. Within the class of demand disturbances, nominal shocks are dominant, but their importance declined after 1982. Furthermore, there are no significant differences in the proportion of term structure variability explained by different structural sources at different horizons.
Integrated pest management system using fuzzy expert system

Knowledge and information related to all aspects of crop-pest system are the foundations on which modern pest management decisions are based. The transfer of research and extension information to farmers plays the key role in the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM). FuzzyXPest is proposed to provide information to the farmers and researchers using fuzzy expert system. Since rice is the main staples food of the Malaysian and Kedah is known as 'rice bowl' Malaysia, therefore this study focuses on the pest's activity in the rice field. In FuzzyXPest,the type of pest that canses damage to the rice plant is determined by the expert system. Fuzzy Logic approach is then used to forecast the pest activity level that will determining the pest activity level is imperfect,fuzzy logic is used to cater for the uncertainty of information. The system has been verified by Malaysia Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI) entomologist and the system is confirmed to benefit the researchers at MARDI and Department of Agriculture (DOA) particularly, and the farmers at large.
WSVR-Based Supplier Selection

Supplier selection is a key stage in the formation of a successful virtual enterprise. The process can be considered as a multi-objective problem. In this paper, the weighted Support Vector Regression (WSVR) technique is proposed toper form automated evaluation of the potential suppliers.Experimental results indicate that desirable outcome can be obtained by using the WSVR method in supplier selection. In comparison with SVR, the WSVR-based method not only improves training efficiency, but also possesses higher accuracy.
Guest editorial - the turbo principle: from theory to practice II

I N 1997, Hagenauer coined the phrase “the turbo principle” to describe the fundamental strategy underlying the success of turbo decoding, namely the iterated exchange of soft information between different blocks in a communications receiver in order to improve overall system performance. This principle, embodied in the iterative decoding of parallel concatenated “turbo codes” (Berrou, Glavieux, and Thitimajshima, 1993), as well as in the message-passing decoding of low-density parity-check codes (Gallager, 1963), is now widely recognized as a very general and powerful concept in communication theory, with applications that go beyond the practical decoding of these near capacity achieving codes. 1
ATP Excites Interneurons and Astrocytes to Increase Synaptic Inhibition in Neuronal Networks

We investigated the role of extracellular ATP at astrocytes and inhibitory GABAergic interneurons in the stratum radiatum area of the mouse hippocampus. We show that exogenously applied ATP increased astrocyte intracellular Ca2+ levels and depolarized all calbindinand calretinin-positive interneurons in the stratum radiatum region of mouse hippocampus, leading to action potential firing and enhanced synaptic inhibition onto the postsynaptic targets of interneurons. Electrophysiological, pharmacological, and immunostaining studies suggested that the effect of ATP on interneurons was mediated by P2Y1 receptors, and that the depolarization of interneurons was caused by the concomitant reduction and activation of potassium and nonselective cationic conductances, respectively. Electrical stimulation of the Schaffer collaterals and perforant path, as well as local stimulation within the stratum radiatum, evoked increases in intracellular Ca2+ in astrocytes. Facilitation of GABAergic IPSCs onto interneurons also occurred during electrical stimulation. Both the stimulation-evoked increases in astrocyte Ca2+ levels and facilitation of GABAergic IPSCs were sensitive to antagonists of P2Y1 receptors and mimicked by exogenous P2Y1 receptor agonists, suggesting that endogenously released ATP can activate P2Y receptors on both astrocytes and interneurons. Overall, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that ATP released from neurons and astrocytes acts on P2Y1 receptors to excite interneurons, resulting in increased synaptic inhibition within intact hippocampal circuits.
Factors of Success Analysis and Comparison

New product development needs new engineering approaches. Knowledge is a key resource that impacts traditional, organisational, economic and innovative models. Through NICT (New Information and Communication Technologies), globalisation encourages the emergence of networks that overcome traditional organisation boundaries. International enterprises, European-Community Networks of Excellence or Clusters (competitiveness poles) indicate the need to define a new way of thinking. This new way moves towards an agile, continuous innovative use of knowledge. Based on an epistemic study of knowledge management best practices, four examples show the barriers that can be encountered today. This paper aims defining the key elements that enhance collaborative networks. The analysis of best practices from collaborative environments enables the design of high standard information systems and initiate knowledge ecosystems. A balance between formalism required to share knowledge and fuzziness of social networks triggers new initiatives. This ensures the validity of information exchange through virtual collaboration. It helps to maintain group coherence despite exceeding the natural maximum number of collaborators. Finally the main success or failure factors are highlights and commented to ease the transition from economic-driven to expertise-driven models is then facilitated.
Power Control Scheme for Underlay Approach in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, a conflict-graph based power control scheme for spectrum underlay in cognitive radio networks is proposed, which helps avoiding the interference and saving power when the primary and secondary users share the same channel simultaneously. Simulations results using the OMNet++ simulator are provided, showing the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of number of users in the network, interference imposed by the secondary users on the primary users, Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), and power saving.