Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Miniaturization platform for wireless sensor nodes based on 3D-packaging technologies

Miniaturized wireless sensors are mostly easier to integrate into everyday objects and show very high mechanical robustness. The development of these embedded micro systems has to consider the interdependence of design decisions regarding network communication, wireless sensor hardware and fabrication technology. An event driven simulator in combination with a 3D placement tool was used to predict the total system volume. The potential miniaturization degree is derived according to different 3D packaging technologies. The results are verified by prototype implementations
Automated Bird Detection using using Snapshot Ensemble of Deep Learning Models

A diverse variety of bird species are found in the earth. There are about 10,000 unique species of birds discovered so far. Identification and documentation of these birds, their migrating seasons, breeding seasons, food style, etc. requires effective monitoring. Identification of these birds is literally an impossible task for human without technological intervention. Hence deep learning models have been used which helps us in identification of the individual species of birds. In this scenario, it would be important to use an automated method to identify the species of birds. Several deep learning-based models for classifying and identifying bird species are evaluated in this study. These models are trained and tested on publicly available dataset. Snapshot images captured by the cameras are used as the major source of input data. The capability of deep learning models have been used to effectively identify the bird species individually. This study aims in developing a deep learning model using ensemble learning techniques that is capable of identification of individual bird species from a massive collection of input data images.
Demonstration of in vivo metabolic effects of 3,5-di-iodothyronine.

The objective of the present study was to test in vivo the metabolic effects of 3,5-di-iodothyronine (3,5-T2) in unanesthetized and unrestrained male Sprague-Dawley rats. Amino acid and lipid metabolisms were investigated by breath tests using as tracers the 13C-carboxyl-labeled molecules of leucine, alpha-ketoisocaproic acid (KIC) and octanoic acid, in four different groups of rats: hypothyroid animals (receiving propylthiouracil (PTU) and iopanoic acid), hypothyroid animals treated with either a daily i.p. injection of 3,5-T2 (25 micrograms/100 g body weight), or tri-iodothyronine (T3) (1 microgram/100 g body weight), and control euthyroid animals receiving equivalent volumes of the vehicle solutions. Energy expenditure was measured by continuous monitoring of O2 consumption and CO2 production in these different groups. Daily energy expenditure was decreased by 30% in PTU-treated rats. The chronic treatments with 3,5-T2 and T3 restored daily energy expenditure to the control level. 13CO2 recovered in breath following the i.v. injection of octanoic acid-[1-13C] was decreased in hypothyroid animals compared with control animals (P < 0.05) and restored to control values by T3 and 3,5-T2 treatments. The 13CO2 recovered in breath after i.v. injection of leucine-[1-13C] was increased in PTU-treated compared with control animals (P < 0.05). Chronic treatment with either 3,5-T2 or T3 restored 13CO2 to control values. Excretion of 13CO2 recovered in breath following the i.v. injection of KIC-[1-13C] was increased in PTU-treated compared with control animals. Chronic treatments with either 3,5-T2 or T3 did not restore KIC decarboxylation. These results suggest that 3,5-T2 exerts metabolic effects on energy expenditure, on both lipid beta-oxidation and leucine metabolism in hypothyroid rats. We conclude that 3,5-T2 is a metabolically active iodothyronine.
Achtsamkeit und Akzeptanz in der Psychotherapie

Es wird ein Uberblick zum Forschungsstand und zu Forschungsentwicklungen im Bereich achtsamkeits- und akzeptanzbasierter Ansatze gegeben. Dabei werden drei Forschungsstrange beschrieben: (1) Wirksamkeitsuntersuchungen zur “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction” (MBSR), zur “Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy” (MBCT), zur “Dialektisch-Behavioralen Therapie bei Borderlinestorungen” (DBT) und zur “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy” (ACT); (2) Psychometrische Verfahren zur empirischen Erfassung von Achtsamkeit; (3) Untersuchungen aus dem Bereich der psychologischen Grundlagenforschung und neurobiologische Arbeiten. Der Artikel schliest mit einer Diskussion der Besonderheiten einer wissenschaftlichen Analyse von Achtsamkeit und Akzeptanz und einem Forschungsausblick.
A cross-national analysis of election news coverage of female candidates' bids for presidential nomination in the United States and South Korea

This study has explored the US and Korean newspapers' election coverage in regard to their respective nations' female candidates relative to male rivals during the 2007–2008 presidential nomination campaigns. The findings reveal that both US and Korean newspapers displayed no bias in adopting personal, issue, and viability frames to cover the female candidates versus the male candidates. Additionally, the US dailies gave Clinton as much attention as Obama, as can be seen in the similar amount of articles, headlines, and primary coverage; however, Park, the female candidate in Korea, garnered a lower amount of articles and headlines, and was featured much less as the primary focus when compared to Lee, her male rival, in the Korean dailies. Evidence of biased coverage in the USA is found in the slant of coverage Clinton received. The overall tone of campaign coverage was less positive toward Clinton. While there was no tonal difference between Park and Lee in overall stories and headlines, the tone of Park's viability coverage was less positive than that of Lee, indicating that she was less likely to be the elected nominee for the party.
Programmed cell death and Bcl‐2 protection in the absence of a nucleus.

The molecular basis of programmed cell death (PCD) is unknown. An important clue is provided by the Bcl‐2 protein, which can protect many cell types from PCD, although it is not known where or how it acts. Nuclear condensation, DNA fragmentation and a requirement for new RNA and protein synthesis are often considered hallmarks of PCD. We show here, however, that anucleate cytoplasts can undergo PCD and that Bcl‐2 and extracellular survival signals can protect them, indicating that, in some cases at least, the nucleus is not required for PCD or for Bcl‐2 or survival factor protection. We propose that PCD, like the cell cycle, is orchestrated by a cytoplasmic regulator that has multiple intracellular targets.
Cross Layer Denial of Service Attacks in Wireless Sensor Network Using Swarm Intelligence

Need for secure communication in wireless sensor network applications such as health monitoring system, building or infrastructure access systems, tsunami warning systems, etc. inspired this research. This paper is an extension to the smart building access system proposed. In this paper, a cross-layer security mechanism is proposed to detect denial of service (DoS) attacks and the countermeasures taken to avoid the same without comprising any network resources.
Joint Bit Allocation and Precoding for MIMO Systems With Decision Feedback Detection

This paper considers the joint design of bit loading, precoding and receive filters for a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) digital communication system employing decision feedback (DF) detection at the receiver. Both the transmitter as well as the receiver are assumed to know the channel matrix perfectly. It is well known that, for linear MIMO transceivers, a diagonal transmission (i.e., orthogonalization of the channel matrix) is optimal for some criteria. Surprisingly, it was shown five years ago that for the family of Schur-convex functions an additional rotation of the symbols is necessary. However, if the bit loading is optimized jointly with the linear transceiver, then this rotation is unnecessary. Similarly, for DF MIMO optimized transceivers a rotation of the symbols is sometimes needed. The main result of this paper shows that for a DF MIMO transceiver where the bit loading is jointly optimized with the transceiver filters, the rotation of the symbols becomes unnecessary, and because of this, also the DF part of the receiver is not required. The proof is based on a relaxation of the available bit rates on the individual substreams to the set of positive real numbers. In practice, the signal constellations are discrete and the optimal relaxed bit loading has to be rounded. It is shown that the loss due to rounding is small, and an upper bound on the maximum loss is derived. Numerical results are presented that confirm the theoretical results and demonstrate that orthogonal transmission and the truly optimal DF design perform almost equally well.
On the maximization of the sustained switching activity in a processor

Recently, several application areas in the test domain (e.g., burn-in and aging monitoring) started to require suitable input stimuli, able to maximize the switching activity of a certain module for a certain period of time. If the module is part of a processor, this turns into identifying a suitable sequence of instructions, able to maximize the switching activity. This paper proposes a method to attack this problem, and reports some experimental results gathered on a MIPS-like pipelined processor.
Gelatinase B is present in the cerebrospinal fluid during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and cleaves myelin basic protein

Gelatinases in inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) were studied using actively induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice as a model system. Clinical disease scores correlated in time and in intensity with pathology parameters such as cytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), inflammatory infiltrates, and demyelination in the CNS. Zymographic analysis was employed to measure gelatinases A and B in the CSF from individual animals. According to their apparent molecular weight (MW), gelatinases A and B appeared with a MW of 65 and 95 kDa, respectively. The 65 kDa form was present in all samples, even in those derived from non‐induced animals, whereas the 95 kDa form was present only in samples from animals developing EAE. The levels of 95 and 65 kDa gelatinase correlated with the CSF cytosis. In vitro digestion of myelin basic protein (MBP) with gelatinase B and analysis of the cleavage products by protein sequence analysis pinpointed two cleavage sites in conserved regions of MBP. Gelatinase production within the CNS may constitute an important pathogenic mechanism for both the disruption of the blood‐brain barrier and the destruction of myelin, as observed in several neuroinflammatory disorders. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
On a new multivariate sampling paradigm and a polyspline Shannon function

In [9] and [12] we have introduced and studied a new paradigm for cardinal interpolation which is related to the theory of multivariate polysplines. In the present paper we show that this is related to a new sampling paradigm in the multivariate case, whereas we obtain a Shannon type function S (x) and the following Shannon type formula:
Patterns of Status Epilepticus-Induced Neuronal Injury during Development and Long-Term Consequences

The lithium–pilocarpine model of status epilepticus (SE) was used to study the type and distribution of seizure-induced neuronal injury in the rat and its consequences during development. Cell death was evaluated in hematoxylin- and eosin-stained sections and by electron microscopy. Damage to the CA1 neurons was maximal in the 2- and 3-week-old pups and decreased as a function of age. On the other hand, damage to the hilar and CA3 neurons was minimal in the 2-week-old rat pups but reached an adult-like pattern in the 3-week-old animals, and damage to amygdalar neurons increased progressively with age. The 3-week-old animals also demonstrated vulnerability of the dentate granule cells. To evaluate neuronal apoptosis, we used terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated biotinylated UTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) stain, confocal fluorescence microscopy of ethidium bromide-stained sections, electron microscopy, and DNA electrophoresis. Neurons displaying all of those features of apoptotic death in response to SE were seen in the CA1 region of the 2-week-old pups and in the hilar border of the dentate granule cells of the 3-week-old animals. Some (3/11) of the animals that underwent SE at 2 weeks of age and most of the animals that underwent SE at 3 or 4 weeks of age (8/11 and 6/8, respectively) developed spontaneous seizures later in life; the latter showed SE-induced synaptic reorganization as demonstrated by Timm methodology. These results provide strong evidence for the vulnerability of the immature brain to seizure-induced damage, which bears features of both necrotic and apoptotic death and contributes to synaptic reorganization and the development of chronic epilepsy.
Desafíos a la versión clásica del desarrollo en las investigaciones sobre el juicio moral

Resumen El objetivo de este trabajo es esclarecer los alcances y significados del concepto desarrollo en la psicología moral, atendiendo a la especificad de los supuestos teóricos que se manifiestan en los debates e investigaciones de las últimas décadas. Se examinan las respuestas que las distintas perspectivas en debate han dado a las siguientes preguntas: ¿El desarrollo del juicio moral responde a una racionalidad inmanente al desarrollo cognitivo o se encuentra determinado por el contexto? ¿ Cuál es la intervención de las disposiciones biológicas en dicho proceso? ¿Es posible atribuir un lugar central a la actividad reconstructiva de los individuos en el proceso de apropiación de valores y creencias colectivas? Se recurre a las explicaciones del desarrollo moral propuestas por la psicología genética, la psicología cultural, la psicología socio-histórica, el intuicionismo social y las aportaciones de la psicología social. Finalmente se establece un balance provisional de la situación actual de esta problemática atendiendo a la multiplicidad de sentidos del término desarrollo, así como también a los supuestos éticos y epistemológicos subyacentes a las investigaciones psicológicas.
Analysis of Computational Intelligence Techniques for COVID-19 Prediction

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the RT-PCR test, being the gold standard for diagnosing COVID-19 presented a significant challenge in implementing widespread testing. However, the facility for RT-PCR tests is limited, and overwhelmed healthcare systems with limited testing facilities make early diagnosis of the disease difficult. Therefore, this paper investigates the use of popular machine learning and deep learning techniques for predicting COVID-19 based on the X-ray images of the lungs of the patients. The study compares the machine learning techniques, SVM and KNN, with the deep learning technique, CNN (VGG-19 in particular). SVM has demonstrated a percentage increase of 5.97% compared to VGG-19 in terms of precision, accuracy and F1-score. Thus, the study’s results (based on the performance metrics, precision, accuracy, F1-score and MCC) promote the use of SVM for predicting COVID-19.
High-Level Production of Plasmid DNA by Escherichia coli DH5α ΩsacB by Introducing inc Mutations

ABSTRACT For small-copy-number pUC-type plasmids, the inc1 and inc2 mutations, which deregulate replication, were previously found to increase the plasmid copy number 6- to 7-fold. Because plasmids can exert a growth burden, it was not clear if further amplification of copy number would occur due to inc mutations when the starting point for plasmid copy number was orders of magnitude higher. To investigate further the effects of the inc mutations and the possible limits of plasmid synthesis, the parent plasmid pNTC8485 was used as a starting point. It lacks an antibiotic resistance gene and has a copy number of ∼1,200 per chromosome. During early stationary-phase growth in LB broth at 37°C, inc2 mutants of pNTC8485 exhibited a copy number of ∼7,000 per chromosome. In minimal medium at late log growth, the copy number was found to be significantly increased, to approximately 15,000. In an attempt to further increase the plasmid titer (plasmid mass/culture volume), enzymatic hydrolysis of the selection agent, sucrose, at late log growth extended growth and tripled the total plasmid amount such that an approximately 80-fold gain in total plasmid was obtained compared to the value for typical pUC-type vectors. Finally, when grown in minimal medium, no detectable impact on the exponential growth rate or the fidelity of genomic or plasmid DNA replication was found in cells with deregulated plasmid replication. The use of inc mutations and the sucrose degradation method presents a simplified way for attaining high titers of plasmid DNA for various applications.
D2DTracker: A Framework for Enabling Real-Time Trajectory Prediction for Agile Drone-to-Drone Tracking via Adaptive Model Selection

Tracking a target drone using another drone is crucial in various scenarios, such as protecting critical infrastructure, securing public events, enforcing no-fly zones, and countering illegal activities. However, real-time drone-to-drone tracking poses significant challenges, mainly if the target drone exhibits agile maneuvers in 3D due to the complex dynamics of unmanned aerial vehicles and the need for accurate trajectory prediction. The quality of drone-to-drone tracking depends on the accuracy of the target's predicted trajectory(e.g., position and velocity). This paper proposes the D2DTracker framework, which can generate accurate predictions of a target drone's trajectory in real-time using onboard sensing and computations. The D2DTracker's primary concept is to fit a library of predefined simple models using the target's past behavior and recent observations. The models are then used to generate multiple trajectory predictions in real time. The best model is the one that has the least root-mean-squared error (RMSE) compared with the corresponding real-time observations. The model fitting, prediction, and selection process is repeated using real-time observations to adapt to the target's changing behavior. This enables it to maintain high tracking accuracy even in challenging scenarios. The framework is demonstrated in realistic simulations of a quadcopter using the Robot Operating System (ROS), the Gazebo simulator, and the PX4 autopilot. Simulations show that the proposed method can select the best models that can generate predictions with 0.2 RMSE compared to actual observations for circular and infinity trajectory shapes. We also provide open-source software packages of the proposed framework.
Statistical Named Entity Recognizer Adaptation

Named entity recognition (NER) is a subtask of widely-recognized utility of information extraction (IE). NER has been explored in depth to provide rapid characterization of newswire data (Sundheim, 1995; Palmer and Day, 1997). The NER task involves both identification of spans of text referring to named entities, and categorization of these entities into classes based on the role they fill in context. The sentence "Washington announced that Washington ate seven hotdogs in Washington" provides an example in which a single name can arguably refer to three different entities: an organization, a person, and a location.
Local dystrophin restoration with antisense oligonucleotide PRO051.

BACKGROUND Duchenne's muscular dystrophy is associated with severe, progressive muscle weakness and typically leads to death between the ages of 20 and 35 years. By inducing specific exon skipping during messenger RNA (mRNA) splicing, antisense compounds were recently shown to correct the open reading frame of the DMD gene and thus to restore dystrophin expression in vitro and in animal models in vivo. We explored the safety, adverse-event profile, and local dystrophin-restoring effect of a single, intramuscular dose of an antisense oligonucleotide, PRO051, in patients with this disease. METHODS Four patients, who were selected on the basis of their mutational status, muscle condition, and positive exon-skipping response to PRO051 in vitro, received a dose of 0.8 mg of PRO051 injected into the tibialis anterior muscle. A biopsy was performed 28 days later. Safety measures, composition of mRNA, and dystrophin expression were assessed. RESULTS PRO051 injection was not associated with clinically apparent adverse events. Each patient showed specific skipping of exon 51 and sarcolemmal dystrophin in 64 to 97% of myofibers. The amount of dystrophin in total protein extracts ranged from 3 to 12% of that found in the control specimen and from 17 to 35% of that of the control specimen in the quantitative ratio of dystrophin to laminin alpha2. CONCLUSIONS Intramuscular injection of antisense oligonucleotide PRO051 induced dystrophin synthesis in four patients with Duchenne's muscular dystrophy who had suitable mutations, suggesting that further studies might be feasible.
Escape Mutations in NS4B Render Dengue Virus Insensitive to the Antiviral Activity of the Paracetamol Metabolite AM404

ABSTRACT Despite the enormous disease burden associated with dengue virus infections, a licensed antiviral drug is lacking. Here, we show that the paracetamol (acetaminophen) metabolite AM404 inhibits dengue virus replication. Moreover, we find that mutations in NS4B that were previously found to confer resistance to the antiviral compounds NITD-618 and SDM25N also render dengue virus insensitive to AM404. Our work provides further support for NS4B as a direct or indirect target for antiviral drug development.
Neural correlates of moral and non-moral emotion in female psychopathy

This study presents the first neuroimaging investigation of female psychopathy in an incarcerated population. Prior studies have found that male psychopathy is associated with reduced limbic and paralimbic activation when processing emotional stimuli and making moral judgments. The goal of this study was to investigate whether these findings extend to female psychopathy. During fMRI scanning, 157 incarcerated and 46 non-incarcerated female participants viewed unpleasant pictures, half which depicted moral transgressions, and neutral pictures. Participants rated each picture on moral transgression severity. Psychopathy was assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in all incarcerated participants. Non-incarcerated participants were included as a control group to derive brain regions of interest associated with viewing unpleasant vs. neutral pictures (emotion contrast), and unpleasant pictures depicting moral transgressions vs. unpleasant pictures without moral transgressions (moral contrast). Regression analyses in the incarcerated group examined the association between PCL-R scores and brain activation in the emotion and moral contrasts. Results of the emotion contrast revealed a negative correlation between PCL-R scores and activation in the right amygdala and rostral anterior cingulate. Results of the moral contrast revealed a negative correlation between PCL-R scores and activation in the right temporo-parietal junction. These results indicate that female psychopathy, like male psychopathy, is characterized by reduced limbic activation during emotion processing. In contrast, reduced temporo-parietal activation to moral transgressions has been less observed in male psychopathy. These results extend prior findings in male psychopathy to female psychopathy, and reveal aberrant neural responses to morally-salient stimuli that may be unique to female psychopathy.