Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tissue Factor Structure and Function

Tissue factor (TF) is an integral membrane protein that is essential to life. It is a component of the factor VIIa-TF complex enzyme and plays a primary role in both normal hemostasis and thrombosis. With a vascular injury, TF becomes exposed to blood and binds plasma factor VIIa, and the resulting complex initiates a series of enzymatic reactions leading to clot formation and vascular sealing. Many cells, both healthy, and tumor cells, produce detectable amounts of TF, especially when they are stimulated by various agents. Despite the relative simplicity and small size of TF, there are numerous contradictory reports about the synthesis and presentation of TF on blood cells and circulation in normal blood either on microparticles or as a soluble protein. Another subject of controversy is related to the structure/function of TF. It has been almost commonly accepted that cell-surface-associated TF has low (if any) activity, that is, is “encrypted” and requires specific conditions/reagents to become active, that is, “decrypted. ” However there is a lack of agreement related to the mechanism and processes leading to alterations in TF function. In this paper TF structure, presentation, and function, and controversies concerning these features are discussed.
Down syndrome: Cognitive and behavioral functioning across the lifespan

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) commonly possess unique neurocognitive and neurobehavioral profiles that emerge within specific developmental periods. These profiles are distinct relative to others with similar intellectual disability (ID) and reflect underlying neuroanatomic findings, providing support for a distinctive phenotypic profile. This review updates what is known about the cognitive and behavioral phenotypes associated with DS across the lifespan. In early childhood, mild deviations from neurotypically developing trajectories emerge. By school‐age, delays become pronounced. Nonverbal skills remain on trajectory for mental age, whereas verbal deficits emerge and persist. Nonverbal learning and memory are strengths relative to verbal skills. Expressive language is delayed relative to comprehension. Aspects of language skills continue to develop throughout adolescence, although language skills remain compromised in adulthood. Deficits in attention/executive functions are present in childhood and become more pronounced with age. Characteristic features associated with DS (cheerful, social nature) are personality assets. Children are at a lower risk for psychopathology compared to other children with ID; families report lower levels of stress and a more positive outlook. In youth, externalizing behaviors may be problematic, whereas a shift toward internalizing behaviors emerges with maturity. Changes in emotional/behavioral functioning in adulthood are typically associated with neurodegeneration and individuals with DS are higher risk for dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Individuals with DS possess many unique strengths and weaknesses that should be appreciated as they develop across the lifespan. Awareness of this profile by professionals and caregivers can promote early detection and support cognitive and behavioral development. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Killing of Targets by CD8+ T Cells in the Mouse Spleen Follows the Law of Mass Action

It has been difficult to correlate the quality of CD8 T cell responses with protection against viral infections. To investigate the relationship between efficacy and magnitude of T cell responses, we quantify the rate at which individual CD8 effector and memory T cells kill target cells in the mouse spleen. Using mathematical modeling, we analyze recent data on the loss of target cells pulsed with three different peptides from the mouse lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) in mouse spleens with varying numbers of epitope-specific CD8 T cells. We find that the killing of targets follows the law of mass-action, i.e., the death rate of individual target cells remains proportional to the frequency (or the total number) of specific CD8 T cells in the spleen despite the fact that effector cell densities and effector to target ratios vary about a 1000-fold. The killing rate of LCMV-specific CD8 T cells is largely independent of T cell specificity and differentiation stage. Our results thus allow one to calculate the critical T cell concentration at which growth of a virus with a given replication rate can be prevented from the start of infection by memory CD8 T cell response.
CHALLENGES TO THE TRANSITION OF IPMC ARTIFICIAL MUSCLE ACTUATORS TO PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Ion-exchange membrane metallic composites (IPMC), which were first reported in 1992, are one of the electroactive materials (EAP) with potential applications as artificial muscle actuators. The recent introduction of perfluorocarboxylate-gold composite with tetra-n-butylammonium and Lithium cations instead of sodium made the most significant improvement of the material electroactivity. Under less than 3 volts, IPMC with the new constituents is capable of bending beyond a complete loop. Taking into account the fact that IMPC materials do not induce a significant force, the authors are extensively seeking applications for these bending EAP. Some of the applications that were demonstrated include dust-wiper, catheter guide, miniature motor, robotic-gripper, micro-manipulator, etc. Generally, space applications are the most demanding in terms of operating conditions, robustness and durability, and the co-authors of this paper are jointly addressing the associated challenges. Specifically, a dust-wiper is being developed for the Nanorover's infrared camera window of the MUSES-CN mission. This joint NASA and the Japanese space agency mission, is scheduled to be launch from Kagoshima, Japan, in January 2002, to explore the surface of a small near-Earth asteroid. Several issues that are critical to the operation of IPMC are addressed including the operation in vacuum, low temperatures, and the effect of the electromechanical characteristic of the IPMC on its actuation capability. Highly efficient IPMC materials, mechanical modeling, unique elements and protective coating were introduced by the authors and are making a high probability the success of the IPMC actuated dust-wiper.
PRIMARY-AMBIENT EXTRACTION IN AUDIO SIGNALS USING ADAPTIVE WEIGHTING AND PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS

Most audio recordings are in the form of a 2-channel stereo recording while new playback sound systems make use of more loudspeakers that are designed to give a more spatial and surrounding atmosphere that is beyond the content of the stereo recording. Hence, it is essential to extract more spatial information from stereo recording in order to reach an enhanced upmixing techniques. One way is by extracting the primary/ambient sources. The problem of primary-ambient extraction (PAE) is a challenging problem where we want to decompose a signal into a primary (direct) and ambient (surrounding) source based on their spatial features. Several approaches have been used to solve the problem based mainly on the correlation between the two channels in the stereo recording. In this paper, we propose a new approach to decompose the signal into primary and ambient sources using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with an adaptive weighting based on the level of correlation between the two channels to overcome the problem of low ambient energy in PCA-based approaches.
Wnt/β‐Catenin Signaling Regulates Sequential Fate Decisions of Murine Cortical Precursor Cells

The fate of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) is determined by a complex interplay of intrinsic programs and extrinsic signals, very few of which are known. β‐Catenin transduces extracellular Wnt signals, but also maintains adherens junctions integrity. Here, we identify for the first time the contribution of β‐catenin transcriptional activity as opposed to its adhesion role in the development of the cerebral cortex by combining a novel β‐catenin mutant allele with conditional inactivation approaches. Wnt/β‐catenin signaling ablation leads to premature NPC differentiation, but, in addition, to a change in progenitor cell cycle kinetics and an increase in basally dividing progenitors. Interestingly, Wnt/β‐catenin signaling affects the sequential fate switch of progenitors, leading to a shortened neurogenic period with decreased number of both deep and upper‐layer neurons and later, to precocious astrogenesis. Indeed, a genome‐wide analysis highlighted the premature activation of a corticogenesis differentiation program in the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling‐ablated cortex. Thus, β‐catenin signaling controls the expression of a set of genes that appear to act downstream of canonical Wnt signaling to regulate the stage‐specific production of appropriate progenitor numbers, neuronal subpopulations, and astroglia in the forebrain. Stem Cells 2015;33:170–182
Probabilistic data association techniques for target tracking with applications to sonar, radar and EO sensors

We present an overview of the probabilistic data association (PDA) technique and its application for different target tracking scenarios, in particular for low observable (LO) (low SNR) targets. A summary of the PDA technique is presented. The use of the PDA technique for tracking low observable targets with passive sonar measurements is presented. This "target motion analysis" is an application of the PDA technique, in conjunction with the maximum likelihood (ML) approach, for target motion parameter estimation via a batch procedure. The use of the PDA technique for tracking highly maneuvering targets combined radar resource management is described. This illustrates the application of the PDA technique for recursive state estimation using the interacting multiple model (IMM) estimator with probabilistic data association filter (PDAF) (IMMPDAF). Then we present a flexible (expanding and contracting) sliding-window parameter estimator using the PDA approach for tracking the state of a maneuvering target using measurements from an electro-optical (EO) sensor. This, while still a batch procedure, has the flexibility of varying the batches depending on the estimation results in order to make the estimation robust to target maneuvers as well as target appearance or disappearance.
A Robust Supervised Variable Selection for Noisy High-Dimensional Data

The Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (MRMR) approach to supervised variable selection represents a successful methodology for dimensionality reduction, which is suitable for high-dimensional data observed in two or more different groups. Various available versions of the MRMR approach have been designed to search for variables with the largest relevance for a classification task while controlling for redundancy of the selected set of variables. However, usual relevance and redundancy criteria have the disadvantages of being too sensitive to the presence of outlying measurements and/or being inefficient. We propose a novel approach called Minimum Regularized Redundancy Maximum Robust Relevance (MRRMRR), suitable for noisy high-dimensional data observed in two groups. It combines principles of regularization and robust statistics. Particularly, redundancy is measured by a new regularized version of the coefficient of multiple correlation and relevance is measured by a highly robust correlation coefficient based on the least weighted squares regression with data-adaptive weights. We compare various dimensionality reduction methods on three real data sets. To investigate the influence of noise or outliers on the data, we perform the computations also for data artificially contaminated by severe noise of various forms. The experimental results confirm the robustness of the method with respect to outliers.
On modal mu-calculus in S5 and applications

We show that the vectorial μ-calculus model checking problem over arbitrary graphs reduces to the vectorial, existential μ-calculus model checking problem over S5 graphs. We also draw some consequences of this fact. Moreover, we give a proof that satisfiability of μ-calculus in S5 is NP -complete, and by using S5 graphs we give a new proof that the satisfiability problem of the existential μ-calculus is also NP -complete.
Effects of the stratospheric quasi‐biennial oscillation on long‐lived greenhouse gases in the troposphere

An analysis is presented of results of an extended integration with a global general circulation model that includes treatment of a long-lived tropospheric trace constituent as well as a momentum source that forces a realistic stratospheric quasi- biennial oscillation (QBO). It is shown that the dynamical QBO may modulate stratosphere-troposphere exchange in such a manner as to produce a QBO in global-mean tropospheric tracer mixing ratio. For the growth rate of tropospheric methane this transport-induced QBO is expected to have a peak-to-peak amplitude of 1-2 ppbv yr 21 , which, while modest compared with the full range of observed variability in growth rate, is still significant. The observed methane growth rate time series during 1983-1999 is shown to be consistent with the predicted QBO effect, although the record is definitely dominated by other interannual variations.
Congenital Heart Defects Are Rarely Caused by Mutations in Cardiac and Smooth Muscle Actin Genes

Background. Congenital heart defects (CHDs) often have genetic background due to missense mutations in cardiomyocyte-specific genes. For example, cardiac actin was shown to be involved in pathogenesis of cardiac septum defects and smooth muscle actin in pathogenesis of aortic aneurysm in combination with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). In the present study, we further searched for mutations in human α-cardiac actin (ACTC1) and smooth muscle α-actin (ACTA2) genes as a possible cause of atrial septum defect type II (ASDII) and PDA. Findings. Total genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood of 86 individuals with ASDs and 100 individuals with PDA. Coding exons and flanking intron regions of ACTC1 (NM_005159.4) and ACTA2 (NM_001613) were amplified by PCR with specific primers designed according to the corresponding gene reference sequences. PCR fragments were directly sequenced and analyzed. Sequence analysis of ACTC1 and ACTA2 did not identify any nucleotide changes that altered the coding sense of the genes. In ACTC1 gene, we were able to detect one previously described nucleotide polymorphism (rs2307493) resulting in a synonymous substitution. The frequency of this SNP was similar in the study and control group, thus excluding it from the possible disease-associated variants. Conclusions. Our results confirmed that the mutations in ACTC1 gene are rare (at least <1%) cause of ASDII. Mutations in ACTA2 gene were not detected in patients with PDA, thus being excluded from the list of frequent PDA-associated genetic defects.
A survey and comparison of multichannel protocols for performance anomaly mitigation in IEEE 802.11wireless networks

Providing multichannel functionality can improve the performance of wireless networks. Although off‐the‐shelf IEEE 802.11 physical layer and medium access control specifications support multiple channels and multiple data rates, one of the major challenges is how to efficiently utilize available channels and data rates to improve network performance. In multirate networks, low‐rate links severely degrade the capacity of high‐rate links, which is known as performance anomaly. To overcome the performance anomaly problem, different data rate links can get equal air‐time by exploiting time diversity and frequency diversity, or they can be separated over nonoverlapping channels. In this paper, we study existing multichannel protocols proposed to mitigate the performance anomaly problem by classifying them into single‐radio protocols, multiradio single‐hop protocols, and multiradio multihop protocols. To investigate the effectiveness of multichannel solutions for performance anomaly, we compare these protocols with well‐known multichannel protocols that do not consider performance anomaly. In addition, this paper gives insightful research issues to design multichannel protocols that mitigate performance anomaly in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Commentary on "Hwang et al".

THE essay by Hwang et al. does a fine and much-needed job of teasing apart the modern impulse to increase patients’ and families’ engagement with their health care. They also provide a service by highlighting a few challenging questions: whether the new Administration will stay the course on valuebased payment, whether the skin-in-the-game version of consumerism might undermine the health engagement version, and whether coverage losses associated with “repeal and replace” proposals will lessen providers’ capacity and commitment to fully addressing patients’ needs and wants. Both of the paradigms they describe are of great interest to the employers and governments that purchase health care. Employers were among the first advocates of having their employees face some financial costs when they used health care—especially care of less evident value. The interest in “consumerdirected health care” started at the beginning of this century in response to a widespread belief that many Americans were overutilizing care because it was “covered. ” The employers who started down this road had workforces who were, after all, employed, had rich health insurance benefits, were generally literate, and had less complex health needs.
Cree Silicon Carbide Power White Paper : Dynamic and Static Behavior of Packaged Silicon Carbide MOSFETs in Paralleled Applications

Rev. Abstract Little research has been done concerning the nuances related to paralleling the higher speed SiC MOSFET devices compared to Si devices. This paper deals with the parallel operation of packaged silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs. The parameters that affect the static and dynamic current sharing behavior of the devices have been studied. We also investigate the sensitivity of those parameters to the junction temperature of the devices. The case temperature difference for paralleled MOSFETs has been experimentally measured on a SEPIC converter for different gate driver resistance and different switching frequency, the results show the current and temperature can be well balanced for the latest generation of SiC MOSFETs with low gate driver resistance.
Networking layer for unifying distributed smart home entities

Home automation systems are confronted with a demand to forward information to, or to receive information from a remote system. To accomplish this, while routing through the network, information has several protocol conversions. This paper proposes unifying of intermediaries (hubs, gateways, etc.) in home automation systems, to avoid these conversions. Starting from a network endpoint and his communication at local network level (LNL), suitable machine-to-machine protocols are surveyed. During the survey, options for creating a global network level (GNL) are considered. This unification results with the system coherence and an easy information distribution in the aimed system.
On the Influence of Word Representations for Handwritten Word Spotting in Historical Documents

Word spotting is the process of retrieving all instances of a queried keyword from a digital library of document images. In this paper we evaluate the performance of different word descriptors to assess the advantages and disadvantages of statistical and structural models in a framework of query-by-example word spotting in historical documents. We compare four word representation models, namely sequence alignment using DTW as a baseline reference, a bag of visual words approach as statistical model, a pseudo-structural model based on a Loci features representation, and a structural approach where words are represented by graphs. The four approaches have been tested with two collections of historical data: the George Washington database and the marriage records from the Barcelona Cathedral. We experimentally demonstrate that statistical representations generally give a better performance, however it cannot be neglected that large descriptors are difficult to be implemented in a retrieval scenario where word spotting requires the indexation of data with million word images.
Density Matching Reward Learning

In this paper, we focus on the problem of inferring the underlying reward function of an expert given demonstrations, which is often referred to as inverse reinforcement learning (IRL). In particular, we propose a model-free density-based IRL algorithm, named density matching reward learning (DMRL), which does not require model dynamics. The performance of DMRL is analyzed theoretically and the sample complexity is derived. Furthermore, the proposed DMRL is extended to handle nonlinear IRL problems by assuming that the reward function is in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) and kernel DMRL (KDMRL) is proposed. The parameters for KDMRL can be computed analytically, which greatly reduces the computation time. The performance of KDMRL is extensively evaluated in two sets of experiments: grid world and track driving experiments. In grid world experiments, the proposed KDMRL method is compared with both model-based and model-free IRL methods and shows superior performance on a nonlinear reward setting and competitive performance on a linear reward setting in terms of expected value differences. Then we move on to more realistic experiments of learning different driving styles for autonomous navigation in complex and dynamic tracks using KDMRL and receding horizon control.
Process assessment with a project focus

The author compares three process assessment techniques that measure improvement against the Software Engineering Institute's capability maturity model (CMM), particularly the Computer Science Corporation's software process audit method. The Software Engineering Institute has developed two approaches to determine an organization's process maturity: software process assessments (SPA) and software capability evaluations (SCA), both of which use the SEI's CMM as a yardstick. Computer Science Corporation's software process audit method addresses the major limitations of the SPA, ie. SPAs occur too infrequently to track progress; SPA results are reported at the organization, not project level; and SPAs direct process improvement at the organizational level. The process-audit approach at CSC focuses on projects, specifically their conformance to the organization's defined process. As such, a process audit fits between a SPA and an SCE. <<ETX>>