Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apoptosis and Ovarian Follicular Atresia in Mammals

The reproductive performance of any mammalian species can be enhanced by enriching nutrition, regulating environmental factors like photoperiod, temperature, humidity etc., through selective breeding, endocrine manipulations and better management practices (Sharma, 2000; Maillet et al., 2002; Bussiere et al., 2002; Iwata et al., 2004, 2005; Rudolf, 2007; Bhardwaj and Sharma, 2011). The endocrine regulation despite being the most complicated is very effective in improving reproductive output of the species. In females, follicular growth and estrous cyclicity are intricately linked (Craig et al., 2007; Sharma and Batra, 2008). Of the thousands of oocytes and primordial follicles present in neonatal ovary only a small fraction i.e. approximately 0.001% are ovulated throughout the active reproductive life span of mammals (Tabarowski et al., 2005; Sharma and Bhardwaj, 2009). Follicular atresia is a wide spread phenomenon that limits the number of ovulations and thus restricting the full reproductive potential of a species. It results in extensive loss of germ cells during development, prenatal, neonatal, prepubertal, pubertal, estrous cycle, pregnancy, lactation and post reproductive life of mammals (Guraya, 1997, 1998; Sharma, 2000; Manabe et al., 2003, 2004; Bhardwaj and Sharma, 2011). Follicular atresia is a natural fertility regulatory mechanism that can best be exploited for increasing or decreasing the fertility of the species by decreasing or increasing the frequency of atresia. It is, therefore a lot of research papers have been published on morphology, histochemistry, biochemistry and endocrinology of follicular atresia (Williams and Smith, 1993; Guraya, 1998, 1999; Monniaux, 2002; Sharma, 2003; Sharma and Batra, 2008; Sharma and Bhardwaj, 2009; Bhardwaj and Sharma, 2011). However, the mechanism of atresia still needs to be further explored and analysed for its effective implementation in fertility regulation programme. The molecular mechanism of atresia can be best explained on the basis of apoptosis (Palumbo and Yeh, 1994; Sharma, 2000; Yu et al., 2004; Sharma and Bhardwaj, 2009). Apoptosis, a type of physiological cell death is the antithesis of mitosis involved in the regulation of tissue homeostasis (Collins and Lopez, 1993; Schwartzman and Cidlowski, 1993). It affects the single scattered cells in the midest of living tissues without eliciting an inflammatory response and is influenced by growth factors and hormones. Many studies on the morphological changes that occur in granulosa cells and theca-interstitial cells of follicles progressing through atresia have documented that apoptosis is, in all likelihood, the primary mechanism by which cell loss is mediated during follicle degeneration (Tsafriri and Braw, 1984; Hirshfield, 1991; Tilly, 1996). The earliest descriptions of apoptosis, the physiological cell death, in the ovary was made in
Be careful with don't cares

It is commonly expected that any correct implementation can replace its specification inside a larger design without violating the correctness of the whole design. This property (called replaceability) is automatically satisfied in the absence of don't cares because "correctness" by definition implies that specification and implementation compute the identical function. However don't cares allow an implementation to compute a different function, and thus make it difficult to ensure replaceability. Whether this problem occurs depends on the exact meaning of "don't care" and the associated definition of "correctness". We will consider three meanings of "don't care" and for each give conditions under which correct implementations may replace their specifications.
Differences in Krox20-dependent regulation of Hoxa2 and Hoxb2 during hindbrain development.

During hindbrain development, segmental regulation of the paralogous Hoxa2 and Hoxb2 genes in rhombomeres (r) 3 and 5 involves Krox20-dependent enhancers that have been conserved during the duplication of the vertebrate Hox clusters from a common ancestor. Examining these evolutionarily related control regions could provide important insight into the degree to which the basic Krox20-dependent mechanisms, cis-regulatory components, and their organization have been conserved. Toward this goal we have performed a detailed functional analysis of a mouse Hoxa2 enhancer capable of directing reporter expression in r3 and r5. The combined activities of five separate cis-regions, in addition to the conserved Krox20 binding sites, are involved in mediating enhancer function. A CTTT (BoxA) motif adjacent to the Krox20 binding sites is important for r3/r5 activity. The BoxA motif is similar to one (Box1) found in the Hoxb2 enhancer and indicates that the close proximity of these Box motifs to Krox20 sites is a common feature of Krox20 targets in vivo. Two other rhombomeric elements (RE1 and RE3) are essential for r3/r5 activity and share common TCT motifs, indicating that they interact with a similar cofactor(s). TCT motifs are also found in the Hoxb2 enhancer, suggesting that they may be another common feature of Krox20-dependent control regions. The two remaining Hoxa2 cis-elements, RE2 and RE4, are not conserved in the Hoxb2 enhancer and define differences in some of components that can contribute to the Krox20-dependent activities of these enhancers. Furthermore, analysis of regulatory activities of these enhancers in a Krox20 mutant background has uncovered differences in their degree of dependence upon Krox20 for segmental expression. Together, this work has revealed a surprising degree of complexity in the number of cis-elements and regulatory components that contribute to segmental expression mediated by Krox20 and sheds light on the diversity and evolution of Krox20 target sites and Hox regulatory elements in vertebrates.
Sparse Representation-Based Nearest Neighbor Classifiers for Hyperspectral Imagery

In this letter, a sparse representation-based nearest neighbor (SRNN) classifier is proposed. Unlike the traditional k-nearest neighbor (NN) classifier that employs the Euclidean distance as similarity metric, the proposed SRNN considers sparse coefficients to determine the label of testing samples, since sparse coefficients can reflect the similarity between data and provide more discriminative information. A local SRNN (LSRNN) classifier is also proposed to utilize class-specific sparse coefficients to improve the performance. Furthermore, due to the fact that neighboring pixels tend to belong to the same class with high probability, a spatially joint version of LSRNN, called JSRNN, is developed to further improve LSRNN. The proposed SRNN, LSRNN, and JSRNN have been validated on several hyperspectral remote sensing image data sets. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed classifiers increase the classification accuracy compared with the traditional k-NN, local mean-based NN (LMNN) classifiers, and original sparse representation classifiers using representation residuals.
Curcumin Ameliorates Diabetic Nephropathy by Suppressing NLRP3 Inflammasome Signaling

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease, partly because of the lack of effective treatments for DN. Curcumin has been shown to exert strong antifibrotic effects in DN, but the underlying mechanisms are not well characterized. In this study, we sought to determine the effects of curcumin on diabetic renal disease in db/db mice and characterize the underlying mechanism of action. We administered curcumin to db/db mice for 16 weeks. In comparison to mock-treated db/db mice, curcumin-treated mice showed diminished renal hypertrophy, reduced mesangial matrix expansion, and a lower level of albuminuria. Furthermore, the upregulated protein and mRNA expressions of collagen IV and fibronectin in the renal cortices of the db/db mice were inhibited by curcumin treatment. Additionally, curcumin treatment was associated with significant reductions in mature interleukin-1β, cleaved caspase-1, and NLRP3 protein levels in the renal cortices of db/db mice as well as in HK-2 cells exposed to high glucose concentration. In summary, curcumin, a potent antifibrotic agent, is a promising treatment for DN, and its renoprotective effects appear to be mediated by the inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome activity.
Hybrid Power Line Conditioner Based on Two Parallel Converters Topology

A new hybrid power line conditioner is proposed in this paper. It is formed by an active conditioner in parallel with a hybrid conditioner composed by an active filter in series to one or more passive filters. This topology allows the reduction of the inverters rating, constituting an effective solution in high power levels where classical power filters can not be used. The conditioner operates properly in three-phase four-wire systems reducing the harmonic distortion and/or unbalance and attaining unity displacement power factor. Experimental results are included for testing the topology and its control.
Design of Wave Switched-Current Group Delay Equalizers

This paper describes the design of switched-current group delay equalizers. The design process is based on the pole-zero mirroring technique; with equalizer z-transfer functions generated using an optimization algorithm. To facilitate the systematic implementation of the equalizers, a model describing the design process is developed. A novel feature of the equalizers implementation is that wave structures are employed in realizing the equalizer poles instead of integrators. MATLAB and SI simulation results based on a 6-order equalizer are included. The results demonstrate that the equalizer can reduce the delay of a 5-order, 1MHz lowpass SI elliptic filter from 155ns to <20ns over the entire filter bandwidth.
Different Countries, Same Science Classes: Students’ experiences of school science in their own words

This paper reviews the remarkably similar experiences of school science reported by high school students in Sweden, England, and Australia. It compares student narratives from interpretive studies by Lindahl, by Osborne and Collins, and by Lyons, identifying core themes relating to critical contemporary issues in science education. These themes revolve around the transmissive pedagogy, decontextualized content, and unnecessary difficulty of school science commonly reported by students in the studies. Their collective experiences are used as a framework for examining student conceptions of, and attitudes to, school science more generally, drawing on an extensive range of international literature. The paper argues that the experiences of students in the three studies provide important insights into the widespread declines in interest and enrolments in high school and university science courses.
Parallelizing a machine translation decoder for multicore computer

Machine translation (MT), with its broad potential use, has gained increased attention from both researchers and software vendors. To generate high quality translations, however, MT decoders can be highly computation intensive. With significant raw computing power, multi-core microprocessors have the potential to speed up MT software on desktop machines. However, retrofitting existing MT decoders is a nontrivial issue. Race conditions and atomicity issues are among those complications making parallelization difficult. In this article, we show that, to parallelize a state-of-the-art MT decoder, it is much easier to overcome such difficulties by using a process-based parallelization method, called functional task parallelism, than using conventional thread-based methods. We achieve a 7.60 times speed up on an 8-core desktop machine while making significantly less changes to the original sequential code than required by using multiple threads.
highlighted topics Physiological and Genomic Consequences of Intermittent Hypoxia Selected Contribution: Regulation of sleep-wake states in response to intermittent hypoxic stimuli applied only in sleep

Selected Contribution: Regulation of sleep-wake states in response to intermittent hypoxic stimuli applied only in sleep. J Appl Physiol 90: 2490–2501, 2001. —Recurrent sleep-re-lated hypoxia occurs in common disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The marked changes in sleep after treatment suggest that stimuli associated with OSA (e.g., intermittent hypoxia) may signiﬁcantly modulate sleep regulation. However, no studies have investigated the independent effects of intermittent sleep-related hypoxia on sleep regulation and recovery sleep after removal of intermittent hypoxia. Ten rats were implanted with telemetry units to record the electroencephalogram (EEG), neck electromyogram, and body temperature. After . 7 days recovery, a computer algorithm detected sleep-wake states and triggered hypoxic stimuli (10% O 2 ) or room air stimuli only during sleep for a 3-h period. Sleep-wake states were also recorded for a 3-h recovery period after the stimuli. Each rat received an average of 69.0 6 6.9 hypoxic stimuli during sleep. The non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep episodes averaged 50.1 6 3.2 and 58.9 6 6.6 s, respectively, with the hypoxic stimuli, with 32.3 6 3.2 and 58.6 6 4.8 s of these periods being spent in hypoxia. Compared with results for room air controls, hypoxic stimuli led to increased wakefulness ( P , 0.005), nonsigniﬁcant changes in non-REM sleep, and reduced REM sleep ( P , 0.001). With hypoxic stimuli, wakefulness episodes were longer and more frequent, non-REM periods were shorter and more frequent, and REM episodes were shorter and less frequent ( P , 0.015). Hypoxic stimuli also increased faster frequencies in the EEG ( P , 0.005). These effects of hypoxic stimuli were reversed on return to room air. There was a rebound increase in REM sleep, increased slower non-REM EEG frequencies, and decreased wakefulness ( P , 0.001). The results show that sleep-speciﬁc hypoxia leads to signiﬁcant modulation of sleep-wake regulation both during and after application of the intermittent hypoxic stimuli. This study is the ﬁrst to determine the independent effects of sleep-related hypoxia on sleep regulation that approximates OSA before and after treatment.
Semantics of an Efficient Propositional Reasoner : Preliminary Report

We present two incomplete and tractable reasoners for clausal propositional logic. We prove that the eecient linear-time boolean constraint propagation is complete for one and refutation complete for the other. We also provide model-theoretic semantics for the two reasoners, in which atoms can be mapped to a real value between 0 and 1. We compare our rea-soners with some other previously-known incomplete and tractable reasoners.
Brief Stimulus Exposure Fully Remediates Temporal Processing Deficits Induced by Early Hearing Loss

In childhood, partial hearing loss can produce prolonged deficits in speech perception and temporal processing. However, early therapeutic interventions targeting temporal processing may improve later speech-related outcomes. Gap detection is a measure of auditory temporal resolution that relies on the auditory cortex (ACx), and early auditory deprivation alters intrinsic and synaptic properties in the ACx. Thus, early deprivation should induce deficits in gap detection, which should be reflected in ACx gap sensitivity. We tested whether earplugging-induced, early transient auditory deprivation in male and female Mongolian gerbils caused correlated deficits in behavioral and cortical gap detection, and whether these could be rescued by a novel therapeutic approach: brief exposure to gaps in background noise. Two weeks after earplug removal, animals that had been earplugged from hearing onset throughout auditory critical periods displayed impaired behavioral gap detection thresholds (GDTs), but this deficit was fully reversed by three 1 h sessions of exposure to gaps in noise. In parallel, after earplugging, cortical GDTs increased because fewer cells were sensitive to short gaps, and gap exposure normalized this pattern. Furthermore, in deprived animals, both first-spike latency and first-spike latency jitter increased, while spontaneous and evoked firing rates decreased, suggesting that deprivation causes a wider range of perceptual problems than measured here. These cortical changes all returned to control levels after gap exposure. Thus, brief stimulus exposure, perhaps in a salient context such as the unfamiliar placement into a testing apparatus, rescued impaired gap detection and may have potential as a remediation tool for general auditory processing deficits. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Hearing loss in early childhood leads to impairments in auditory perception and language processing that can last well beyond the restoration of hearing sensitivity. Perceptual deficits can be improved by training, or by acoustic enrichment in animal models, but both approaches involve extended time and effort. Here, we used a novel remediation technique, brief periods of auditory stimulus exposure, to fully remediate cortical and perceptual deficits in gap detection induced by early transient hearing loss. This technique also improved multiple cortical response properties. Rescue by this efficient exposure regime may have potential as a therapeutic tool to remediate general auditory processing deficits in children with perceptual challenges arising from early hearing loss.
The common mutations in the lipoprotein lipase gene in Italy: effects on plasma lipids and angiographically assessed coronary atherosclerosis

The present study evaluated the role of the common lipoprotein lipase (LPL) mutations on the risk of dyslipidemia and coronary atherosclerosis in an Italian population. Cohorts of 632 patients undergoing coronary angiography, as well as 191 healthy controls, were screened by a combination of PCR and restriction enzyme digestion. In the pooled population, the frequencies of LPL D9N and N291S were 4.1%, with no homozygous carriers, whereas that of LPL S447X was 21% with 19.6% heterozygous and 1.4% homozygous carriers. Compared to non‐carriers, LPL N291S carriers showed higher plasma triglycerides (TG) (p<0.03) and increased risk of high TG phenotype (odds ratio [OR] 2.49, 95% CI 1.06–5.81; p<0.03). When this LPL mutation was associated with high body mass index (BMI) (>25 Kg/m2) or fasting, plasma insulin (>10.6 mU ml−1) significantly reduced HDL‐C levels were also observed. Carriers of the S447X mutation presented with higher HDL‐C concentrations (p<0.05) as compared to non‐carriers; they also showed a significantly reduced risk of high TG/low HDL‐C dyslipidemia (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.12–0.99; p<0.05). The favourable effect of the LPL S447X variant was even more pronounced in lean subjects and in those with low insulin levels. No significant influence on plasma lipids by the LPL D9N was observed. None of LPL variants was a significant predictor of angiographically assessed coronary atherosclerosis. At most, the risk was borderline, increased in N291S carriers and possibly decreased in S447X carriers.
A Global Maximum Power Point Tracking Scheme Employing DIRECT Search Algorithm for Photovoltaic Systems

This paper presents a maximum power point tracking approach for a photovoltaic system using the dividing rectangles algorithm. The new approach overcomes some weaknesses of the existing methods such as the perturb and observe method as it is capable of searching for global maximum. This is particularly important for a system that is partially shaded. To validate the performance of the proposed scheme, experimental studies have been conducted. The results have shown that the proposed approach is robust and possesses a fast tracking speed.
De-authentication Attack Detection using Genetic Programming

This paper presents a genetic programming approach to detect deauthentication attacks on wireless networks based on the 802.11 protocol. To do so we focus on developing an appropriate fitness function and feature set. Results show that the intrusion system developed not only performs incredibly well 100 percent detection rate and 0.5 percent false positive rate but also developed a solution that is general enough to detect similar attacks, such as disassociation attacks, that were not present in the training data.
The Effects of Stereotypes on the Achievement Gap: Reexamining the Academic Performance of African American High School Students

This study investigated whether African American high school freshman students experience stereotype threat when taking a test that is seen as a predictor of their success on a high-stakes test. The authors conceptually replicated a previous study by Kellow and Jones (2005) using a true experimental design, as opposed to a quasi-experimental design. White students scored statistically significantly higher than African American students when told that their test performance would be predictive of their performance on a statewide, high-stakes standardized test. The following potential mediators of stereotype threat were included in the study and the effects of each are discussed: (a) perceptions of ability and expectancy for success, (b) achievement goal orientation, (c) anxiety, and (d) perceptions of stereotype threat. The results suggest that African American students are at a disadvantage compared to White students when their knowledge and skills are measured using a high-stakes standardized test. Implications for high-stakes testing of African American students are discussed.
The Near Constant Acceleration Gaussian Process Kernel for Tracking

Time series prediction is traditionally the domain of the state-based Kalman filter and very general Kalman filter process models, such as the near constant acceleration model (NCAM), have been developed to successfully track moving targets. However, the standard Kalman filter uses Markov process models and, consequently, it is difficult to track processes which include a complex periodic component. Gaussian processes are a generalisation of the Kalman filter and are able to model periodic behaviour efficiently and succinctly. However, no equivalent Gaussian process model for near constant acceleration has been formulated. We develop an equivalent Gaussian process kernel for NCAM to be used for time-series prediction.
A General Framework for Fast Image Deconvolution with Incomplete Observations. Applications to Unknown Boundaries, Inpainting, Superresolution, and Demosaicing

In image deconvolution problems, the diagonalization of the underlying operators by means of the FFT usually yields very large speedups. When there are incomplete observations (e.g., in the case of unknown boundaries), standard deconvolution techniques normally involve non-diagonalizable operators---resulting in rather slow methods---or, otherwise, use inexact convolution models, resulting in the occurrence of artifacts in the enhanced images. In this paper, we propose a new deconvolution framework for images with incomplete observations that allows us to work with diagonalized convolution operators, and therefore is very fast. We iteratively alternate the estimation of the unknown pixels and of the deconvolved image, using, e.g., a FFT-based deconvolution method. In principle, any fast deconvolution method can be used. We give an example in which a published method that assumes periodic boundary conditions is extended, through the use of this framework, to unknown boundary conditions. Furthermore, we propose an implementation of this framework, based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). We provide a proof of convergence for the resulting algorithm, which can be seen as a "partial" ADMM, in which not all variables are dualized. We report experimental comparisons with other primal-dual methods, in which the proposed one performed at the level of the state of the art. Four different kinds of applications were tested in the experiments: deconvolution, deconvolution with inpainting, superresolution, and demosaicing, all with unknown boundaries.