Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Simulator for Flexible Sensor Nodes in Wireless Networks

Most current sensor nodes are composed of a microcontroller and a radio. Their real-time and peak performance would be a bottleneck when executing compute-intensive tasks. Several works demonstrate that adding a hardware co-processor could accelerate the execution speed of the sensor nodes. So far, no simulators can simulate these new sensor nodes in wireless networks. An extension to SUNSHINE [1], a hardware-software emulator is developed to fill the void.
Dual Oxygen Therapy in Patient on Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure Prevented Invasive Mechanical Ventilation

During noninvasive bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) ventilation it is found that several times patients are unable to maintain oxygen saturation and develop breathing difficulty despite its high setting and high oxygen flow, further management requires invasive positive pressure mechanical ventilation. Increasing oxygen concentration inside the BiPAP mask using nasal cannula with addition of another flow meter not only increase oxygen saturation but also make the patient more comfortable and prevent intubation and its complications. This dual oxygen therapy is particularly useful in patients where non invasive ventilation is required and avoiding the need invasive mechanical ventilation. High-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy has many advantages over traditional oxygen delivery systems. Here, we are going to report two cases of patients on BiPAP in which invasive positive pressure ventilation was prevented using dual oxygen therapy using nasal cannula with flow meter and BiPAP mask with addition another flow meter in a single sitting.
A CWA-Based Detection Procedure of a Perfectly-Conducting Cylinder Buried in a Dielectric Half-Space

The electromagnetic scattering problem of a short-pulse plane wave by a perfectly-conducting circular cylinder, buried in a dielectric half-space, is solved by means of a cylindrical-wave approach (CWA). The incident plane wave may have a rather general shape in the time domain. The technique is applicable for arbitrary polarization, for any cylinder size and burial depth, and it gives results both in the nearand in the far-field regions. In this work, an application of the technique to a basic but practical detection problem is presented, showing good results.
Isolation of the Exoelectrogenic Bacterium Ochrobactrum anthropi YZ-1 by Using a U-Tube Microbial Fuel Cell

ABSTRACT Exoelectrogenic bacteria have potential for many different biotechnology applications due to their ability to transfer electrons outside the cell to insoluble electron acceptors, such as metal oxides or the anodes of microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Very few exoelectrogens have been directly isolated from MFCs, and all of these organisms have been obtained by techniques that potentially restrict the diversity of exoelectrogenic bacteria. A special U-tube-shaped MFC was therefore developed to enrich exoelectrogenic bacteria with isolation based on dilution-to-extinction methods. Using this device, we obtained a pure culture identified as Ochrobactrum anthropi YZ-1 based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and physiological and biochemical characterization. Strain YZ-1 was unable to respire using hydrous Fe(III) oxide but produced 89 mW/m2 using acetate as the electron donor in the U-tube MFC. Strain YZ-1 produced current using a wide range of substrates, including acetate, lactate, propionate, butyrate, glucose, sucrose, cellobiose, glycerol, and ethanol. Like another exoelectrogenic bacterium (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), O. anthropi is an opportunistic pathogen, suggesting that electrogenesis should be explored as a characteristic that confers advantages to these types of pathogenic bacteria. Further applications of this new U-tube MFC system should provide a method for obtaining additional exoelectrogenic microorganisms that do not necessarily require metal oxides for cell respiration.
Integrin-Dependent Activation of the JNK Signaling Pathway by Mechanical Stress

Mechanical force is known to modulate the activity of the Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling cascade. However, the effect of mechanical stresses on JNK signaling activation has previously only been analyzed by in vitro detection methods. It still remains unknown how living cells activate the JNK signaling cascade in response to mechanical stress and what its functions are in stretched cells. We assessed in real-time the activity of the JNK pathway in Drosophila cells by Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM), using an intramolecular phosphorylation-dependent dJun-FRET (Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer) biosensor. We found that quantitative FRET-FLIM analysis and confocal microscopy revealed sustained dJun-FRET biosensor activation and stable morphology changes in response to mechanical stretch for Drosophila S2R+ cells. Further, these cells plated on different substrates showed distinct levels of JNK activity that associate with differences in cell morphology, integrin expression and focal adhesion organization. These data imply that alterations in the cytoskeleton and matrix attachments may act as regulators of JNK signaling, and that JNK activity might feed back to modulate the cytoskeleton and cell adhesion. We found that this dynamic system is highly plastic; at rest, integrins at focal adhesions and talin are key factors suppressing JNK activity, while multidirectional static stretch leads to integrin-dependent, and probably talin-independent, Jun sensor activation. Further, our data suggest that JNK activity has to coordinate with other signaling elements for the regulation of the cytoskeleton and cell shape remodeling associated with stretch.
Clearance and disposition of indometacin in chronically instrumented fetal lambs following a 3‐day continuous intravenous infusion

Indometacin is used in pregnancy for the treatment of premature labour, but there are limited data on the disposition of the drug in the fetus. In order to elucidate fetal indometacin pharmacokinetics at plasma levels and duration comparable with those occurring with use of the drug for tocolysis in humans, indometacin was administered at doses of 1.9 (low dose, LD; n = 5) or 7.5 (high dose, HD; n = 9) μg min−1 to steady state over a 3‐day period in chronically instrumented fetal lambs. Indometacin concentrations in biological fluid samples were analysed by a sensitive capillary gas chromatography‐electron capture detection method. The mean steady‐state fetal arterial plasma indometacin concentrations were 68.6 ± 16.5 ng mL−1 in the LD infusion and 230.3 ± 28.8 ng mL−1 in the HD infusion. Indometacin concentrations in amniotic fluid were ∼10% of those in fetal plasma, and below assay detection limits in tracheal fluid. Total body clearance (TBC) in the LD and HD infusions were not different and the overall mean was 11.3 ± 1.2 mL min−1 kg−1. In the 11 experiments where paired fetal arterial and umbilical venous samples were collected, the extraction of indometacin across the placenta averaged only 5.2 ± 1.1%, indicating low placental permeability to the drug in sheep. However, fetal placental clearance (CLpl) of indometacin (10.0 ± 2.5 mL min−1 kg−1, n = 10) averaged 115.1± 41.2% of TBC in these animals and the calculated value for fetal non‐placental clearance (0.6 ± 2.8 mL min−1 kg−1) was not significantly different from zero. Fetal renal clearance of intact indometacin (3.8 ± 1.1 μL min−1 kg−1; n = 12) was also very low. However, treatment of fetal urine with glucuronidase indicated the presence of glucuronide conjugates and these comprised 69.9 ± 8.2% of the total drug concentration (i.e. intact + conjugated) in urine. Thus, the fetal lamb appears to be able to glucuronidate indometacin, but the contribution of this and other non‐placental routes to overall fetal elimination of the drug appear minimal. CLpl of the drug is also low owing to the physicochemical properties of indometacin (high polarity) and the permeability characteristics of the sheep placenta.
Soar : A Functional Approach to General Intelligence

Soar is a theory, implemented as a software architecture, that seeks to describe and realize the fundamental, functional components of intelligence [1]. It grew out of research in problem solving and learning spanning computer science and cognitive psychology [2]. Building on this foundation, in the last 10 years, much Soar research has focused on building intelligent systems that interact autonomously with complex environments that are inhabited by other entities, including other intelligent agents and human agents. This paper describes the elements that comprise Soar, focusing on its role in the creation of intelligent systems. We illustrate with examples of a military aircraft pilot’s tactical control and decision making. Researchers and developers in the Soar community have developed TacAir-Soar, a real-time Soar system that approximates such pilot behavior in simulation for all U.S. Navy fixed-wing air missions [3].
The 2.1 Å Resolution Structure of Cyanopindolol-Bound β1-Adrenoceptor Identifies an Intramembrane Na+ Ion that Stabilises the Ligand-Free Receptor

The β1-adrenoceptor (β1AR) is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is activated by the endogenous agonists adrenaline and noradrenaline. We have determined the structure of an ultra-thermostable β1AR mutant bound to the weak partial agonist cyanopindolol to 2.1 Å resolution. High-quality crystals (100 μm plates) were grown in lipidic cubic phase without the assistance of a T4 lysozyme or BRIL fusion in cytoplasmic loop 3, which is commonly employed for GPCR crystallisation. An intramembrane Na+ ion was identified co-ordinated to Asp872.50, Ser1283.39 and 3 water molecules, which is part of a more extensive network of water molecules in a cavity formed between transmembrane helices 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7. Remarkably, this water network and Na+ ion is highly conserved between β1AR and the adenosine A2A receptor (rmsd of 0.3 Å), despite an overall rmsd of 2.4 Å for all Cα atoms and only 23% amino acid identity in the transmembrane regions. The affinity of agonist binding and nanobody Nb80 binding to β1AR is unaffected by Na+ ions, but the stability of the receptor is decreased by 7.5°C in the absence of Na+. Mutation of amino acid side chains that are involved in the co-ordination of either Na+ or water molecules in the network decreases the stability of β1AR by 5–10°C. The data suggest that the intramembrane Na+ and associated water network stabilise the ligand-free state of β1AR, but still permits the receptor to form the activated state which involves the collapse of the Na+ binding pocket on agonist binding.
The Oncoprotein Gankyrin Negatively Regulates Both p53 and RB by Enhancing Proteasomal Degradation

Ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis mediates selective destruction of various cell cycle regulators, transcription factors and tumor suppressors. Gankyrin, a seven ankyrin-repeat protein, was originally identified as an oncoprotein commonly overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinomas and independently as a protein associated with the 19S regulatory complex of the 26S proteasome. Gankyrin also binds to CDK4 and the tumor suppressor RB, and accelerates phosphorylation and proteasomal degradation of RB. Recently, we have shown that gankyrin has an anti-apoptotic activity in cells exposed to DNA-damaging agents. Gankyrin binds to MDM2, a major E3 ubiquitin ligase for p53, and increases ubiquitylation and degradation of p53. Gankyrin increases activities of CDK4 and MDM2, and facilitates targeting of polyubiquitylated proteins to the 26S proteasome. Furthermore, inhibition of gankyrin induces apoptosis in cancer cells. Therefore, gankyrin is a promising target for potential anticancer therapeutic agents.
Perceptual display calibration

A good display design should make the inaccuracies and limitations of a display technology invisible to the human eye. However, this requires a good understanding of what is and what is not visible to the human eye. For that reason, display engineering is tightly linked to the understanding and modeling of visual perception. Chapter 4 of this book introduced the basic limitations of visual perception that are commonly considered in display design. In this chapter we will take a closer look at selected perceptual models and present a few examples where they are used in practice. As visual models operate on physical units of light, we first need to know how to convert the digital signals driving a display into photometric and colorimetric units. The display models used for such conversion are discussed in Sec. 1. The parameters for such display models can be found either by measuring display characteristics with a colorimeter, or with the help of visual calibration procedures if no measurmenet instruments are available, with the help of visual calibration procedures, discussed in Sec. 2. Once a displayed image is represented in photometric units, it is possible to predict visibility of small contrast patterns using a contrast sensitivity function (CSF). Sec. 3 explains when the CSF is the right visual model for the task and what its limitations are. The last section demonstrates how the CSF can be used to test for and reduce banding artefacts due to limited color channel bit-depth.
Conjugate relation between loss functions and uncertainty sets in classification problems

There are two main approaches to binary classification problems: the loss function approach and the uncertainty set approach. The loss function approach is widely used in real-world data analysis. Statistical decision theory has been used to elucidate its properties such as statistical consistency. Conditional probabilities can also be estimated by using the minimum solution of the loss function. In the uncertainty set approach, an uncertainty set is defined for each binary label from training samples. The best separating hyperplane between the two uncertainty sets is used as the decision function. Although the uncertainty set approach provides an intuitive understanding of learning algorithms, its statistical properties have not been sufficiently studied. In this paper, we show that the uncertainty set is deeply connected with the convex conjugate of a loss function. On the basis of the conjugate relation, we propose a way of revising the uncertainty set approach so that it will have good statistical properties such as statistical consistency. We also introduce statistical models corresponding to uncertainty sets in order to estimate conditional probabilities. Finally, we present numerical experiments, verifying that the learning with revised uncertainty sets improves the prediction accuracy.
Cardiovascular Mortality in Transient Ischemic Attacks

Statistical analyses were made of the mortality of persons diagnosed as having definite TIA in an epidemiologic survey of a biracial Southern community. None of the usual risk factors associated with this illness such as heart disease, hypertension or diabetes appears to account for the excess deaths observed in a 10 year period of follow up.
Preparation, Morphology and Properties of Poly(Trimethylene Terephthalate)/Thermoplastic Polyester Elastomer Blends

Poly(trimethylene terephthalate)(PTT)/thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPEE) blends were prepared and their miscibility, crystallization and melting behaviors, phase morphology, dynamic mechanical behavior, rheology behavior, spherulites morphology, and mechanical properties were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), parallel-plate rotational rheometry, polarized optical microscopy (POM), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), universal tensile tester and impact tester, respectively. The results suggested that PTT and TPEE were partially miscible in the amorphous state, the TPEE rich phase was dispersed uniformly in the solid matrix with a size smaller than 2 μm, and the glass transition temperatures of the blends decreased with increasing TPEE content. The TPEE component had a good effect on toughening the PTT without depressing the tensile strength. The blends had improved melt viscosities for processing. When the blends crystallized from the melt state, the onset crystallization temperature decreased, but they had a faster crystallization rate at low temperatures. All the blends’ melts exhibited a predominantly viscous behavior rather than an elastic behavior, but the melt elasticity increased with increasing TPEE content. When the blends crystallized from the melt, the PTT component could form spherulites but their morphology was imperfect with a small size. The blends had larger storage moduli at low temperatures than that of pure PTT.
Current linearity and operation stability in Al2O3-gate AlGaN/GaN MOS high electron mobility transistors

To investigate current linearity and operation stability of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), we have fabricated and characterized the Al2O3-gate MOS-HEMTs without and with a bias annealing in air at 300 °C. Compared with the as-fabricated (unannealed) MOS HEMTs, the bias-annealed devices showed improved linearity of ID–VG curves even in the forward bias regime, resulting in increased maximum drain current. Lower subthreshold slope was also observed after bias annealing. From the precise capacitance–voltage analysis on a MOS diode fabricated on the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure, it was found that the bias annealing effectively reduced the state density at the Al2O3/AlGaN interface. This led to efficient modulation of the AlGaN surface potential close to the conduction band edge, resulting in good gate control of two-dimensional electron gas density even at forward bias. In addition, the bias-annealed MOS HEMT showed small threshold voltage shift after applying forward bias stress and stable operation even at high temperatures.
Signal Perception and Transduction: The Origin of the Phenotype.

Signal transduction in plant cells has come of age. Twenty years ago the subject did not exist, and the word “transduction” would not have been recognized as having meaning for plant science. Now, however, most plant scientists can be regarded as working on some aspect of signal transduction. Severa1 milestones have marked the route of this change. In particular, the detection of protein kinases in plants (Trewavas, 1976), the isolation of calmodulin from plant cells (Anderson and Cormier, 1978), and the detection of Caz+-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs; Hetherington and Trewavas, 1982) all helped, with the latter finding indicating that transduction pathways are branched (Figure 1). Moreover, the critical role of calcium as a second messenger was reviewed as early as 1985 (Hepler and Wayne, 1985). Cytosolic calcium ([Caz+],) and protein kinases still dominate signal transduction investigations, although we are certain that there are additional second messengers (e.g., cGMP, cAMP, and cADP-R) and many more than the 70 protein kinases so far described. Transduction studies were formerly separated into fast responses, which do not appear to require changes in gene expression (e.g., stomatal closure), and slow responses, which clearly do. We now know that this distinction was misleading and is in fact incorrect-the same transduction network controls both fast and slow responses. When a cell perceives a signal, ion flux and gene expression changes are inextricably linked phenomena that merely occur at different rates. This change in perception was triggered in large part by Neuhaus et al. (1993) and Bowler et al. (1994), who showed that [Caz+Ic and cGMP.could apparently regulate chloroplast and anthocyanin formation.
PROTECTING AGRICULTURAL CROPS FROM THE EFFECTS OF TROPOSPHERIC OZONE EXPOSURE: Reconciling Science and Standard Setting in the United States, Europe, and Asia

▪ Abstract Ozone (O3) is well documented as the air pollutant most damaging to agricultural crops and other plants. Most crops in developed countries are grown in summer when O3 concentrations are elevated and frequently are sufficiently high to reduce yields. This article examines the difficulties in scientifically determining the reduction in yield that results from the exposure of agricultural crops to surface O3 and then transforming that knowledge into efficient and effective regulatory standards. The different approaches taken by the United States and Europe in addressing this issue as well as the few studies that have been conducted to date in developing countries are examined and summarized. Extensive research was conducted in the United States during the 1980s but has not been continued. During the 1990s, the European community forged ahead with scientific research and innovative proposals for air-quality standards. These efforts included the development of a “critical level” (CL) for O3 based on.
Chronic Nicotine Exposure Systemically Alters MicroRNA Expression Profiles During Post‐Embryonic Stages in Caenorhabditis elegans

Tobacco smoking is associated with many diseases. Addiction is of the most notorious tobacco‐related syndrome and is mainly attributed to nicotine. In this study, we employed Caenorhabditis elegans as a biological model to systemically investigate the effect of chronic nicotine exposure on microRNA (miRNA) expression profile and their regulated biochemical pathways. Nicotine treatment (20 µM and 20 mM) was limited to the post‐embryonic stage from L1 to L4 (∼31 h) period after which worms were collected for genome‐wide miRNA profiling. Our results show that nicotine significantly altered the expression patterns of 40 miRNAs. The effect was proportional to the nicotine dose and was expected to have an additive, more robust response. Based on pathway enrichment analyses coupled with nicotine‐induced miRNA patterns, we inferred that miRNAs as a system mediates “regulatory hormesis”, manifested in biphasic behavioral and physiological phenotypes. We proposed a model where nicotine addiction is mediated by miRNAs' regulation of fos‐1 and is maintained by epigenetic factors. Thus, our study offers new insights for a better understanding of the sensitivity of early developmental stages to nicotine. J. Cell. Physiol. 229: 78–89, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
User modelling in adaptive dialogue management

This paper describes an adaptive approach to dialogue management in spoken dialogue systems. The system maintains a user model, in which assumptions about the user’s expectations of the system are recorded. Whenever recognition errors occur, the dialogue manager drops assumptions from the user model, and adapts its behaviour accordingly. The system uses a hierarchical slot structure that allows generation and interpretation of utterances at various levels of generality. This is essential for exploiting mixed-initiative to optimise effectiveness. The hierarchical slot structure is also a source of variation. This is important because it is ineffective to repeat prompts in cases of speech recognition errors, for in such cases users are likely to repeat their responses also, and thus the same speech recognition problems reoccur.
Multi-focus image fusion based on muti-scheme

Multi-focus fusion is an important technique to integrate focal information from a set of input registered images. In this effort, a novel image fusion algorithm based on multi-scheme is presented. Given an over-complete Gabor dictionary, through matching pursuit signal decomposition algorithm, each source image can be described by sparse combinations of these atoms. Then the coefficients of the fused images are constructed according to different fuse rules. The last experiment results show that our algorithm can achieve better fusion effect than traditional wavelet image fusion method or spatial frequency method, whatever from subjective visual effect or objective metric.
Variational principles for circle patterns and Koebe’s theorem

We prove existence and uniqueness results for patterns of circles with prescribed intersection angles on constant curvature surfaces. Our method is based on two new functionals-one for the Euclidean and one for the hyperbolic case. We show how Colin de Verdiere's, Bragger's and Rivin's functionals can be derived from ours.