Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Luteal phase progesterone excretion in ovulatory women with polycystic ovaries.

BACKGROUND Various studies have reported a prevalence of polycystic ovaries (PCO) of approximately 20% in the 'normal' population. Our aim was to investigate the frequency of ovulation and pattern of luteal phase progesterone secretion in a group of women with PCO who reported regular cycles and in whom ovulation had been established on the basis of previous investigations. METHODS Subjects collected early morning urine samples for pregnanediol-3-glucuronide measurement from day 10 of the cycle to day 1 of their next menses. Results in three consecutive cycles from women with PCO (group 1, n = 10 and 29 for patients and cycles respectively) were compared with results from two groups with normal ovaries; with either infertility (group 2, n = 10 and 30) or proven fertility (group 3, n = 6 and 19). RESULTS There were considerable variations in cycle length. The median (range) was group 1: 28 (23-47); group 2: 26 (21-36) and group 3: 27 (25-38) days with more short cycles in both infertile groups. There was more variation in pregnanediol:creatinine in the normal-ovary infertile and PCO groups than in the fertile controls. Levels were higher in the early luteal phase in the fertile normal group than in either infertile group, and the mid-luteal phase peak was lower in the infertile women with normal ovaries. In summary, there was greater variability in luteal phase pregnanediol:creatinine ratios in the PCO and infertile normal-ovary groups than in women with normal ovaries and proven fertility. CONCLUSION Women with PCO did not have more variation in cycle length than fertile women with normal ovaries, but there were significantly lower levels of progesterone in the early luteal phase. This may contribute to the delay in conception in these patients.
Optimal traffic splitting in multi-hop cognitive radio networks

In this work, we consider a multi-hop cognitive radio network with multiple flows. The challenges induced by the random behaviors of the primary users are investigated in a stochastic network utility maximization framework. To fully utilize the scarce network resource, we propose an optimal traffic splitting scheme for each source node to explore multiple paths effectively. In addition, the algorithm is fully distributed which provably converges to the global optimum solution with probability one. The analytical results are validated via simulations.
Implementing interorganizational IT systems: lessons from a call centre project

The growing power of computer–telephony integration (CTI) systems is encouraging many companies to create call centres. These deal with a growing range of business processes and, in doing so, can be used to challenge established organizational arrangements. The range of human and management issues that need to be dealt with has yet to become clear. Some insights into these are offered from a study of one call centre over 2 years, from shortly before its physical introduction to the present day. These empirical observations are set within the wider literature on organizational change and information technology (IT), particularly the processual and integrationist perspectives. The paper uses the evidence of the case to elaborate the integrationist model so that it reflects the areas of human action more fully. It concludes by outlining the implications of this perspective for managers seeking to build effective call centres or other forms of interorganizational IT system.
Nonlocal Filtering Applied to 3-D Reconstruction of Tomographic SAR Data

In this paper, we introduce two spatially adaptive filtering methods to improve the estimation of the covariance matrix (CM), which is required for the processing of tomographic SAR data. We evaluate their effect on scatterer separation and height estimation. We propose several criteria to evaluate such methods and introduce a spatial simulation procedure allowing generating a tomographic image stack from a 3-D building model, assuming a multitrack airborne configuration and a distributed target model incorporating multidimensional speckle. Inversion of such a model requires the estimation of a CM from the data. Consequently, we propose two nonlocal methods to improve the estimation of the CM. The first one was previously introduced for polarimetric data and uses pixel similarities based on Riemannian distances between CMs. The second one is a new method extending the previous one to similarities between patches. We show the importance of spatial adaptivity in covariance estimation by comparing the 3-D reconstructions obtained with our filters and other methods. Further experiments on simulated and L-band experimental data show the ability of the nonlocal filters to improve the height estimation and scatterer separation in layover areas thanks to their smoothing and edge-preserving properties.
Sodium Signals in Astrocytes in Mouse Brain

In the vertebrate central nervous system astrocytes are intimately involved in almost all aspects of brain function. Strategically localized between thousands of synapses as well as between neurons and blood vessels, they add their share to tissue architecture, synapse function, information processing and energy supply. Vital astrocytic functions like ion homeostasis and transmitter uptake at synapses are tightly linked to the sodium driving force over the plasma membrane. Changes of the intracellular sodium concentration in astrocytes thus might have important consequences for synaptic transmission as well as for calcium and pH signaling, which modulate synapse fine-tuning and metabolic responses. Additionally, for astrocytes in cell culture sodium elevations were identified as a link between glutamate uptake and metabolic responses. This study was designed to elucidate whether significant sodium transients occur in astrocytes in the intact tissue. Quantitative fluorescence imaging with the sodium sensitive dye SBFI was employed to characterize intracellular sodium concentration changes, which accompany synaptic activity, in astrocytes in acute tissue slices of mouse hippocampus and cerebellum. Indeed, for the first time, this study establishes that glutamatergic synaptic transmission in both the hippocampus and the cerebellum results in long lasting sodium transients in astrocytes, mainly as a result of sodium dependent glutamate uptake. Activity of different synapses induces distinct sodium signal patterns in astrocytes, indicating a capacity for input discrimination. These sodium signals can be locally restricted, spread within one cell or travel within the astrocyte network through gap junctions, their amplitude, time course and spatial profile reflecting the site and strength of synaptic activity. Taken into account the multitude of effects a decrease in the sodium driving force would exert on cellular functions, sodium transients should thus be considered as an element of neuron to glia signaling. Sodium signals add further complexity to signaling processes in the interdigitated networks of neurons and astrocytes. They could convey increased metabolic needs to neighbouring astrocytes and would thus recruit several cells in the active area to meet the energy demand of neurons after synaptic activity.
Incentives to promote availability in peer-to-peer anonymity systems

Peer-to-peer (P2P) anonymous communication systems are vulnerable to free-riders, peers that use the system while providing little or no service to others and whose presence limits the strength of anonymity as well as the efficiency of the system. Free-riding can be addressed by building explicit incentive mechanisms into system protocols to promote two distinct aspects of cooperation among peers-compliance with the protocol specification and the availability of peers to serve others. In this paper we study the use of payments to implement an incentive mechanism that attaches a real monetary cost to low availability. Through a game theoretic analysis, we evaluate the effectiveness of such an incentive, finding that peer availability can be significantly increased through the introduction of payments under many conditions. We also demonstrate how a payment-based incentive that preserves anonymity can be implemented and integrated with a popular class of P2P anonymity systems.
Phosphatidylserine is a critical modulator for Akt activation

Akt activation relies on the binding of Akt to phosphatidylinositol‐3,4,5‐trisphosphate (PIP3) in the membrane. Using molecular, cell biological and biophysical approaches, we demonstrate here that Akt activation requires not only PIP3 but also membrane phosphatidylserine (PS). The extent of IGF‐induced Akt activation and downstream signaling as well as cell survival under serum starvation conditions positively correlates with plasma membrane PS levels in living cells. PS promotes Akt‐PIP3 binding, participates in PIP3‐induced Akt inter‐domain conformational changes for T308 phosphorylation and causes an open conformation that allows for S473 phosphorylation by mTORC2. PS interacts with specific residues in the PH and regulatory (RD) domains of Akt. Disruption of PS‐Akt interaction by mutation impairs Akt signaling and increases susceptibility to cell death. These data identify a critical function of PS for Akt activation and cell survival, particularly in conditions with limited PIP3 availability. The novel molecular interaction mechanism for Akt activation suggests potential new targets for controlling Akt‐dependent cell survival and proliferation.
In vitro Comparison of Light-Emitting Diodes and Carnosic Acid Effects on Keratinocyte Proliferation and Wound Healing

Introduction: Light-emitting diode (LED) therapy uses different wavelengths of light and has been reported to accelerate cutaneous wound healing. Carnosic acid is an antioxidant that is also thought to be photoprotective. We designed an in vitro study to examine the effects of LED and carnosic acid on the proliferation and migration of human keratinocytes. Materials and Methods: Clinically normal human keratinocytes were cultured and exposed to two wavelengths: 620 nm and 660 nm LED at different fluences. In the second part of this study, a different batch of human keratinocytes was grown in culture, and different concentrations of carnosic acid were added. Results: At the two wavelengths that were used, LED did not appear to have any therapeutic effect and was not effective in stimulating keratinocyte proliferation. Exposure to greater energy levels (increased fluence) produced increased cell damage that was directly proportional to the increase in energy. On the other hand, treatment of the cell cultures with the antioxidant carnosic acid resulted in an increase of keratinocyte cell proliferation, and this increase was also proportional to the concentration of carnosic acid. Conclusions: This study did not support the hypothesis that LED treatment results in keratinocyte proliferation; however, carnosic acid, a potent antioxidant, stimulated keratinocyte production and could be implicated in wound healing and rejuvenation.
Two-dimensional gradient-index metamaterial with sawtooth profile

We investigate theoretically and experimentally a binary metal-dielectric metamaterial with a sawtooth profile. The structure consists of a two-dimensional array of pillars with submicrometer diameters. The pillar diameters linearly vary along one axis and are constant along the other. This furnishes a serrated spatial profile of effective refractive index along a single axis. We first present a set of analytical solutions defining the electromagnetic fields in such a structure. Further we give the results of our experimental fabrication of gradient metamaterial with a sawtooth spatial profile. The basic material for pillars was photoresist. Their geometry was defined using direct laser writing. Resist was overexposed in controlled manner in order to obtain pillars with diameters below the nominal resolution of the laser writer. The microfabricated pillars were coated by a sputter-deposited aluminum film. For characterization we utilized optical and atomic force microscopy and angledependent Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy. We envision the applicability of our graded metasurfaces in transformation optics.
Hepatitis C Virus IRES RNA-Induced Changes in the Conformation of the 40S Ribosomal Subunit

Initiation of protein synthesis in eukaryotes requires recruitment of the 40S ribosomal subunit to the messenger RNA (mRNA). In most cases, this depends on recognition of a modified nucleotide cap on the 5′ end of the mRNA. However, an alternate pathway uses a structured RNA element in the 5′ untranslated region of the messenger or viral RNA called an internal ribosomal entry site (IRES). Here, we present a cryo-electron microscopy map of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) IRES bound to the 40S ribosomal subunit at about 20 Å resolution. IRES binding induces a pronounced conformational change in the 40S subunit and closes the mRNA binding cleft, suggesting a mechanism for IRES-mediated positioning of mRNA in the ribosomal decoding center.
Retrieval Term Prediction Using Deep Learning Methods

This paper presents methods to predict retrieval terms from relevant/surrounding words or descriptive texts in Japanese by using deep learning methods, which are implemented with stacked denoising autoencoders (SdA), as well as deep belief networks (DBN). To determine the effectiveness of using DBN and SdA for this task, we compare them with conventional machine learning methods, i.e., multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and support vector machines (SVM). We also compare their performance in case of using three regularization methods, the weight decay (L2 regularization), sparsity (L1 regularization), and dropout regularization. The experimental results show that (1) adding automatically gathered unlabeled data to the labeled data for unsupervised learning is an effective measure for improving the prediction precision, and (2) using DBN or SdA results in higher prediction precision than using SVM or MLP, whether or not regularization methods are used.
Competence Driven Case-Base Mining

We present a novel algorithm for extracting a high-quality case base from raw data while preserving and sometimes improving the competence of case-based reasoning. We extend the framework of Smyth and Keane's case-deletion policy with two additional features. First, we build a case base using a statistical distribution that is mined from the input data so that the case-base competence can be preserved or even increased for future problems. Second, we introduce a nonlinear transformation of the data set so that the case-base sizes can be further reduced while ensuring that the competence be preserved and even increased. We show that Smyth and Keane's deletion-based algorithm is sensitive to noisy cases, and that our solution solves this problem more satisfactorily. We show the theoretical foundation and empirical evaluation on several data sets.
On-Call Duty Effects on Sleep-State Physiological Stability in Male Medical Interns

Background On-call duty among medical interns is characterized by sleep deprivation and stressful working conditions, both of which alter cardiac autonomic modulation. We hypothesized that sleep stability decreased in medical interns during on-call duty. We used cardiopulmonary-coupling (CPC) analysis to test our hypothesis. Methods We used electrocardiogram (ECG)-based CPC analysis to quantify physiological parameters of sleep stability in 13 medical interns during on-call and on-call duty-free periods. There were ten 33.5-h on-call duty shifts per month for interns, each followed by 2 on-call duty-free days, over 3 months. Measurements during sleep were collected before, during, and after an on-call shift. Measurements were repeated 3 months later during an on-call duty-free period. Results The medical interns had significantly reduced stable sleep, and displayed increased latency to the first epoch of stable sleep during the on-call night shift, compared to the pre-call and on-call duty-free nights. Interns also had significantly increased rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep during the on-call night shift, compared to the pre-call and on-call duty-free nights. Conclusion Medical interns suffer disrupted sleep stability and continuity during on-call night shifts. The ECG-based CPC analysis provides a straightforward means to quantify sleep quality and stability in medical staff performing shift work under stressful conditions.
Video face replacement system using a modified Poisson blending technique

In this paper, we present a system for video face replacement that requires only two videos of a source actor and a target actor using only a single digital camera. Existing video face replacement techniques usually need special equipment or 3D models; the proposed system achieves a realistic replacement of faces without using 3D models or special equipment. There are many applications of the proposed system that are presented in this paper using only two footages of actors. We can replace a frontal face with another one; this gives the possibility to change the appearance of actors without makeup or any prior settings. We introduce a new technique for face blending that is based on a gradient domain method called Modified Poisson Blending (MPB) to reduce the bleeding problem of Poisson image editing, and achieve realistic results of face replacement. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system using MPB technique produces more realistic results than the results of other cloning techniques.
Pure Nash equilibria: hard and easy games

In this paper we investigate complexity issues related to pure Nash equilibria of strategic games. We show that, even in very restrictive settings, determining whether a game has a pure Nash Equilibrium is NP-hard, while deciding whether a game has a strong Nash equilibrium is ΣP2-complete. We then study practically relevant restrictions that lower the complexity. In particular, we are interested in quantitative and qualitative restrictions of the way each player's move depends on moves of other players. We say that a game has small neighborhood if the utility function for each player depends only on (the actions of) a logarithmically small number of other players, The dependency structure of a game 𝒢 can he expressed by a graph G(𝒢) or by a hypergraph H(𝒢). Among other results, we show that if 𝒢 has small neighborhood and if H(𝒢) has bounded hypertree width (or if G(𝒢) has bounded treewidth), then finding pure Nash and Pareto equilibria is feasible in polynomial time. If the game is graphical, then these problems are LOGCFL-complete and thus in the class NC2 of highly parallelizable problems.
Reward and reinforcement activity in the nucleus accumbens during learning

The nucleus accumbens core (NAcc) has been implicated in learning associations between sensory cues and profitable motor responses. However, the precise mechanisms that underlie these functions remain unclear. We recorded single-neuron activity from the NAcc of primates trained to perform a visual-motor associative learning task. During learning, we found two distinct classes of NAcc neurons. The first class demonstrated progressive increases in firing rates at the go-cue, feedback/tone and reward epochs of the task, as novel associations were learned. This suggests that these neurons may play a role in the exploitation of rewarding behaviors. In contrast, the second class exhibited attenuated firing rates, but only at the reward epoch of the task. These findings suggest that some NAcc neurons play a role in reward-based reinforcement during learning.
Fuzzy Modeling to Predict the Adhesion Strength of TiN Ceramic Thin Film Coating on Aerospace AL7075-T6 Alloy

In this research work, predicting of titanium nitride (TiN) coating adhesion on AL7075-T6 is presented. First TiN was coated on Al7075-T6 in different conditions and the surfaces adhesion of TiN coated specimens were measured using micro scratch force machine. Second a fuzzy logic model was established to predict the TiN coating adhesion with respect to changes in input process parameters, DC power, DC bias voltage, and nitrogen flow rate. Finally, new five experimental tests were carried out to verify the predicted results achieved via fuzzy model. The result indicated settlement between the fuzzy model and experimental results with 95.534% accuracy.
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte response to a wild type hepatitis B virus epitope in patients chronically infected by variant viruses carrying substitutions within the epitope

Mutations that abrogate recognition of a viral epitope by class I- restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) can lead to viral escape if the CTL response against that epitope is crucial for viral clearance. The likelihood of this type of event is low when the CTL response is simultaneously directed against multiple viral epitopes, as has been recently reported for patients with acute self-limited hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The CTL response to HBV is usually quite weak, however, during chronic HBV infection, and it is generally acknowledged that this is a major determinant of viral persistence in this disease. If such individuals were to produce a mono- or oligospecific CTL response, however, negative selection of the corresponding mutant viruses might occur. We have recently studied two HLA-A2-positive patients with chronic hepatitis B who, atypically, developed a strong HLA-A2-restricted CTL response against an epitope (FLPSDFFPSV) that contains an HLA-A2-binding motif located between residues 18-27 of the viral nucleocapsid protein, hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg). These patients failed, however, to respond to any of other HLA-A2-restricted HBV-derived peptides that are generally immunogenic in acutely infected patients who successfully clear the virus. Interestingly, DNA sequence analysis of HBV isolates from these two patients demonstrated alternative residues at position 27 (V --> A and V --> I) and position 21 (S --> N, S --> A, and S --> V) that reduced the HLA and T cell receptor-binding capacities of the variant sequences, respectively. Synthetic peptides containing these alternative sequences were poorly immunogenic compared to the prototype HBc18-27 sequence, and they could not be recognized by CTL clones specific for the prototype peptide. While we do not know if the two patients were originally infected by these variant viruses or if the variants emerged subsequent to infection because of immune selection, the results are most consistent with the latter hypothesis. If this is correct, the data suggest that negative selection of mutant viral genomes might contribute to viral persistence in a subset of patients with chronic HBV infection who express a narrow repertoire of anti-HBV CTL responses.
A unified 3D device simulation of random dopant, interface trap and work function fluctuations on high-к/metal gate device

In this work, we for the first time estimate total fluctuation resulting from random dopants (RDs), interface trap (ITs) and work functions (WKs) using experimentally calibrated 3D device simulation on 16-nm-gate high-к/metal gate devices. The total 3D simulated threshold voltage fluctuation (σVth), induced by the aforementioned random sources simultaneously, is 55.5 mV for NMOS; however, a statistical total sum of these fluctuations is 12.3% overestimation because independence assumption on random variables is invalid owing to strong interactions among RDs, ITs and WKs. Device's DC/AC and CMOS SRAM circuit fluctuations have similar observation. FinFET-based structure innovation possessing large fluctuation suppression (σVth = 30.2 mV; 45.6% reduction), compared with process efforts on planar one, is further discussed.