Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Aminopropyl Carbazole Derivative Induces Neurogenesis by Increasing Final Cell Division in Neural Stem Cells

P7C3 and its derivatives, 1-(3,6-dibromo-9H-carbazol-9-yl)-3-(p-tolylamino)propan-2-ol (1) and N-(3-(3,6-dibromo-9H-carbazol-9-yl)-2-hydroxypropyl)-N-(3-methoxyphenyl)-4-methylbenzenesulfonamide (2), were previously reported to increase neurogenesis in rat neural stem cells (NSCs). Although P7C3 is known to increase neurogenesis by protecting newborn neurons, it is not known whether its derivatives also have protective effects to increase neurogenesis. In the current study, we examined how 1 induces neurogenesis. The treatment of 1 in NSCs increased numbers of cells in the absence of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), while not affecting those in the presence of growth factors. Compound 1 did not induce astrocytogenesis during NSC differentiation. 5-Bromo-2′-deoxyuridine (BrdU) pulsing experiments showed that 1 significantly enhanced BrdU-positive neurons. Taken together, our data suggest that 1 promotes neurogenesis by the induction of final cell division during NSC differentiation.
A nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation circuit: c‐Jun as an activator and substrate of c‐Abl and JNK

The nuclear function of the c‐Abl tyrosine kinase is not well understood. In order to identify nuclear substrates of Abl, we constructed a constitutively active and nuclear form of the protein. We found that active nuclear Abl efficiently phosphorylate c‐Jun, a transcription factor not previously known to be tyrosine phosphorylated. After phosphorylation of c‐Jun by Abl on Tyr170, both proteins interacted via the SH2 domain of Abl. Surprisingly, elevated levels of c‐Jun activated nuclear Abl, resulting in activation of the JNK serine/threonine kinase. This phosphorylation circuit generates nuclear tyrosine phosphorylation and represents a reversal of previously known signalling models.
Aggregate interference with FCC and ECC white space usage rules: Case study in Finland

In US FCC and in Europe ECC have outlined the rules for TV-band secondary use. In this paper we apply those rules and compute how much white space is available in Finland. The results are expressed in terms of available secondary channels and secondary system capacity. As a secondary system we use cellular networks with different cell sizes. Unfortunately, the current secondary spectrum usage rules do not protect the TV receivers sufficiently well. Even if each individual secondary transmitter obey them, together their aggregate interference can still disrupt the TV reception. We compute how much aggregate interference a secondary network generates if the network is designed either by FCC or ECC rules. We discover that only for a low secondary transmitters' density, the TV reception will not be disturbed. We can conclude that current white space usage rules are not adequate for protecting the TV receivers. There is a need to develop constraints that consider not only secondary transmission powers but also transmitters' density.
Multi-label image annotation via Maximum Consistency

Image annotation is a challenging but important task to understand digital multimedia contents, which by nature is a multi-label classification problem because each image is usually associated with more than one semantic keyword. Exploiting the label correlations borne in multi-label classification, we propose a novel Multi-Label Maximum Consistency (MLMC) approach to seek the optimal configuration of the image similarity graph with maximized label assignment consistency. Promising results in empirical studies on three benchmark multi-label image data sets have demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach.
SD-MOP-MAE Integrated Approach for Eco-Campus Construction

Construction eco-campus is required for building economy society activity in which university should lead the way to play the role beacon of society. Construction eco-campus is a system project which need informatics support for enhance the efficiency in designing plan, monitoring implement, evaluating construction effect, and putting forward improving suggestion. In this paper, SD-MOP-MAE integrated planning approach for eco-campus construction was presented as well as an intelligent information system (IIS) was set up which included all functions mentioned above and applied in Tianjin polytechnic University. In the approach, system dynamics model (SD) was used to analysis the campus matter circulation to differentiate the important parameter and variable (IPV), multi objective program (MOP) was used to get optimal value of IPV to assistant plan design. Then a multi aspect evaluation (MAE) model was applied to manage campus construction information and give evaluation result. Furthermore, the SD-MOP-MAE is not only used in eco-campus construction but also in eco-community building through propriety modification.
T Cell Vaccination Benefits Relapsing Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Randomized, Double-Blind Clinical Trial

Background T-cell vaccination (TCV) for multiple sclerosis (MS) refers to treatment with autologous anti-myelin T-cells, attenuated by irradiation. Previously published clinical trials have been all open-labeled. Aim To evaluate the safety and efficacy of TCV in progressive MS, in a double-blind, controlled clinical trial. Methodology Twenty-six patients with relapsing-progressive MS were enrolled in the study (mean age: 39±9.8 years; mean EDSS: 4.4±1.7). T-cell lines reactive to 9 different peptides of the myelin antigens, MBP, MOG and PLP were raised from the patients' peripheral blood. The patients were randomized into two groups: 19 were treated with TCV (four subcutaneous injections of 10–30×106 T-cells, attenuated by irradiation, on days 1, 30, 90 and 180) and 7 patients were treated with sham injections. Twenty-four patients (17 in the TCV group and 7 in the placebo) were eligible for per-protocol analysis. Results At one year following the inclusion, an increase in the EDSS (+0.50) and an increase in 10-meter walking time (+0.18 sec), were observed in the placebo group; in the TCV group there was a decrease in the EDSS (−0.44; p<0.01) and in the 10-meter walking time (0.84 sec; p<0.005). Sixteen of the 17 patients (94.1%) in the TCV group remained relapse-free during the year of the study, as compared to 42.9% in the placebo group (p = 0.01 and p = 0.03 with adjustment). The proportion of patients with any relapse during the year of the study in the TCV-group, was reduced by 89.6%. , as compared to the placebo-treated group. MRI parameters did not change significantly. Conclusions This is the first controlled, double-blind trial with TCV in progressive MS. The results demonstrate the feasibility and safety of the procedure, and provide significant indications of clinical efficacy. Further studies with larger groups of subjects are warranted. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01448252
A Generic Trajectory Verifier for the Motion Planning of Parallel Robots

In this paper we consider the problem of trajectory verification for a classical Gough-Stewart platform i.e. we want to verify if a given trajectory obeys various criteria which define its validity, for example that the trajectory lies fully inside the workspace of the robot and is singularity-free. We propose an almost real-time method that may deal with almost any trajectory and any validity criterion and can manage uncertainties on the specified trajectory, for example to take into account control errors.
A new video text detection method

Nowadays, digital libraries contain more and more videos in them, and how to organize and retrieve those videos effectively has become very urgent. Text in videos is a very meaningful clue for video semantic understanding, and it can be used for video organization and retrieval. However, existing text recognizing methods can not deal with multilingual texts or texts embedded in a complex background very well. In this paper, we propose a novel video text detection method. Edge detection and candidate region extraction are firstly used to obtain all rough candidate text regions, and then region refinement is used to obtain the accurate location of each region. Based on our observation that a real text region has a uniform distribution with its non-zero pixels in its binary image, an entropy filter is used to remove non-text regions. Experiments on various videos show that our method is effective and robust against different languages, background complexities and font styles.
Interest of RR deceleration for diagnosis of late onset sepsis

Diagnosis of late onset sepsis in premature infants remains difficult because clinical signs are subtle and none of the laboratory tests, including CRP and blood culture, have high predictive accuracy. In this study, we investigate interest of the beat-to-beat Decelerations and Accelerations Runs of n included in [1,20] cycles duration (DRn and ARn) counted over periods of 30 minutes. The two hypotheses (H0: sepsis vs. H1: non-sepsis) were confronted in a case control study including 16 infected premature infants and 16 non-infected infants. Both groups were seen significantly different mainly on deceleration. Lower DR1 and higher DR3, DR4 values were associated with the sepsis group. We also observed the benefit of the data fusion level. Area under the ROC curves grows up with OR fusion compared to the best local detector. This study confirmed the interest of heart rate variability to reveal infection.
Individual Differences in Nucleus Accumbens Activity to Food and Sexual Images Predict Weight Gain and Sexual Behavior

Failures of self-regulation are common, leading to many of the most vexing problems facing contemporary society, from overeating and obesity to impulsive sexual behavior and STDs. One reason that people may be prone to engaging in unwanted behaviors is heightened sensitivity to cues related to those behaviors; people may overeat because of hyperresponsiveness to food cues, addicts may relapse following exposure to their drug of choice, and some people might engage in impulsive sexual activity because they are easily aroused by erotic stimuli. An open question is the extent to which individual differences in neural cue reactivity relate to actual behavioral outcomes. Here we show that individual differences in human reward-related brain activity in the nucleus accumbens to food and sexual images predict subsequent weight gain and sexual activity 6 months later. These findings suggest that heightened reward responsivity in the brain to food and sexual cues is associated with indulgence in overeating and sexual activity, respectively, and provide evidence for a common neural mechanism associated with appetitive behaviors.
The VLT FLAMES Survey of Massive Stars: Rotation and Nitrogen Enrichment as the Key to Understanding Massive Star Evolution

Rotation has become an important element in evolutionary models of massive stars, specifically via the prediction of rotational mixing. Here we study a sample of stars, including rapid rotators, to constrain such models and use nitrogen enrichments as a probe of the mixing process. Chemical compositions (C, N, O, Mg, and Si) have been estimated for 135 early B-type stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud with projected rotational velocities up to ~300 km s-1 using a non-LTE TLUSTY model atmosphere grid. Evolutionary models, including rotational mixing, have been generated attempting to reproduce these observations by adjusting the overshooting and rotational mixing parameters and produce reasonable agreement with 60% of our core hydrogen burning sample. We find (excluding known binaries) a significant population of highly nitrogen-enriched intrinsic slow rotators (vsin i ≲ 50 km s-1) incompatible with our models (~20% of the sample). Furthermore, while we find fast rotators with enrichments in agreement with the models, the observation of evolved (log g < 3.7 dex) fast rotators that are relatively unenriched (a further ~20% of the sample) challenges the concept of rotational mixing. We also find that 70% of our blue supergiant sample cannot have evolved directly from the hydrogen-burning main sequence. We are left with a picture where invoking binarity and perhaps fossil magnetic fields is required to understand the surface properties of a population of massive main-sequence stars.
Aging in Mice Reduces the Ability to Sustain Sleep/Wake States

One of the most significant problems facing older individuals is difficulty staying asleep at night and awake during the day. Understanding the mechanisms by which the regulation of sleep/wake goes awry with age is a critical step in identifying novel therapeutic strategies to improve quality of life for the elderly. We measured wake, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep in young (2–4 months-old) and aged (22–24 months-old) C57BL6/NIA mice. We used both conventional measures (i.e., bout number and bout duration) and an innovative spike-and-slab statistical approach to characterize age-related fragmentation of sleep/wake. The short (spike) and long (slab) components of the spike-and-slab mixture model capture the distribution of bouts for each behavioral state in mice. Using this novel analytical approach, we found that aged animals are less able to sustain long episodes of wakefulness or NREM sleep. Additionally, spectral analysis of EEG recordings revealed that aging slows theta peak frequency, a correlate of arousal. These combined analyses provide a window into the mechanisms underlying the destabilization of long periods of sleep and wake and reduced vigilance that develop with aging.
Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of a Rotary Micromotor Supported on Microball Bearings

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of a rotary micromotor supported on microball bearings. This is the first demonstration of a rotary micromachine with a robust mechanical support provided by microball-bearing technology. A six-phase bottom-drive variable-capacitance micromotor (Phi = 14 mm) is designed and simulated using the finite-element (FE) method. The stator and the rotor are fabricated separately on silicon substrates and assembled with the microballs. Three layers of low-k benzocyclobutene polymer, two layers of gold, and a silicon microball housing are fabricated on the stator. Microball housing and salient structures (poles) are etched in the rotor and are coated with a silicon carbide film that reduces the friction without which the operation was not possible. A top angular velocity of 517 r/min, corresponding to the linear tip velocity of 324 mm/s, is measured at plusmn150-V and 800-Hz excitation. This is 44 times higher than the velocity previously demonstrated for linear micromotors supported on the microball bearings. A noncontact method is developed to extract the torque and the bearing coefficient of friction through dynamic response measurements. The torque is indirectly measured to be -5.62 plusmn 0.5 muN ldr m at plusmn150-V excitation which is comparable with the FE simulation results predicting -6.75 muN ldr m. The maximum output mechanical power at plusmn150 V and 517 r/min was calculated to be 307 muW. The bearing coefficient of friction is measured to be 0.02 plusmn 0.002 which is in good agreement with the previously reported values. The rotary micromotor developed in this paper is a platform technology for centrifugal micropumps used for fuel-delivery and cooling applications.
The urgent need for an enforced awareness programme to create internet security awareness in nigeria

Although the Internet offers an endless list of services and opportunities, it is also accompanied by many risks, of which many Internet users may not be aware of the dangers. As such, various countries have developed and implemented cyber-security awareness measures to counter this. However, there is currently a definite lack in this regard in Nigeria, as there are currently, little government-led and sponsored Internet security awareness initiatives. Also, a security illiterate person will not know of the need to search for these awareness programmes online, particularly in Nigeria's case where personal information security may not be an overly important issue for citizens. This paper therefore, is to establish the need for an enforced Internet security awareness programme for Nigeria that would assist in creating a cyber-secure culture in Nigeria among all of the users of the Internet.
Use of virtual reality (immersive vs. non immersive) for pain management in children and adults: A systematic review of evidence from randomized controlled trials

Pain impacts negatively on physical, psychological, and social function and reduces quality of life. Over the past decade there has been a growing increase in the use of virtual reality (VR) in rehabilitation in general and for pain management specifically. To determine the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of VR therapy (immersive vs. non immersive) for pain management in individuals with acute (less than or equal to 6 weeks clinical pain or thermal procedural pain), or chronic pain (more than 12 weeks). An extensive review of the scientific literature involving all major health care databases was performed by two of the investigators in a systematic way within the framework of the Cochrane Collaboration to identify studies focusing on the effectiveness of VR therapy as an intervention aimed at pain reduction in children and adults with acute (less than or equal to 6 weeks, or thermal procedural pain), or chronic (more than 12 weeks) pain. Randomized controlled trials (RCT), quasi-randomized trials, crossover studies, clinical controlled trials, observational study, pre-post studies, cohort studies, descriptive studies, and case- control studies were included. Retrieved articles were rated for methodological quality using PEDro scoring to assess the internal validity of randomized trials. Levels of evidence were from the Sackett criteria. 42 studies were identified that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Inter-rater agreement for all stages of the studies selection and quality assessment was moderate to perfect (Crude agreement ranged from 85- 100%; kappa's coefficient from 0.8- 1). For adults, there was level 1a evidence exploring the effectiveness of immersive VR therapy in reducing acute pain, level 2a evidence suggesting the potential role of immersive VR for reducing chronic pain and non-immersive VR for reducing acute pain, and level 5 evidence indicating that there is no study to investigate the effectiveness of nonimmersive VR for chronic pain. For children, a level 5 of evidence indicates that there are no experimental studies to investigate the effectiveness of either immersive or non-immersive VR compared to conventional therapy or no therapy for chronic pain; however, level 2a evidence suggesting an advantage of immersive and non-immersive VR in reducing acute pain. Results of the present study recommend VR therapy as a clinical intervention for pain reduction with minimal side effects.
Neurovascular‐anastomosed muscle grafts in rabbits: Functional deficits result from tendon repair

In rabbits, 9 g rectus femoris (RFM) muscles were grafted with tendon repair and with (1) nerves and blood vessels intact, (2) nerves intact and blood vessels anastomosed, or (3) nerves and blood vessels anastomosed. The influences of tendon, nerve, and vascular repair on the functional capabilities of grafts were compared 15–120 days after grafting. Data were collected on the mass, total protein content, oxidative capacity, maximum force development, and fatigability of grafts and control RFM muscles. When stabilized 90–120 days after grafting, mean values for the three types of grafts were not significantly different. Compared with values for control RFM muscles, each type of graft had significantly lower mean values for mass, total protein content, and maximum force, but the grafts were more resistant to fatigue. In RFM grafts, nerve and vascular repair do not contribute significantly to the impairments. Consequently, tendon repair appears to be responsible for the major functional deficits.
A Bayesian Procedure in the Context of Sequential Mastery Testing

The purpose of this paper is to derive optimal rules for sequential mastery tests. In a sequential mastery test, the decision is to classify a subject as a master, a nonmaster, or continuing testing and administering another random item. The framework of Bayesian sequential decision theory is used; that is, optimal rules are obtained by minimizing the posterior expected losses associated with all possible decision rules at each stage of testing. The main advantage of this approach is that costs of testing can be taken explicitly into account. The binomial model is assumed for the probability of a correct response given the true level of functioning, whereas threshold loss is adopted for the loss function involved. The paper concludes with a simulation study, in which the Bayesian sequential strategy is compared with other procedures that exist for similar classification decision problems in the literature.
Speaker-independent lips and tongue visualization of vowels

This paper proposes a scheme of speech-driven lips and tongue animation synthesis in a speaker-independent manner. Directional relative displacement (DRD) features are proposed based on the Electromagnetic Articulograph (EMA) data to describe human's lips and tongue movements, which are more stable across different speakers than the raw EMA data. Multi speakers' acoustic-articulatory data of vowels are used to learn the acoustic-toarticulatory inversion mapping. We build 2D geometric models of lips and tongue for visualization. With the trained mapping and the geometric models, visualization of lips and tongue movements from acoustic signal of vowels uttered by arbitrary speaker is realized. The experimental results demonstrate that the animations we synthesized are effective aids in helping people identifying vowels.
Distributed formation control of fixed wing micro aerial vehicles for area coverage

Teams of fixed wing micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) could provide a wide area coverage and relay data in wireless ad-hoc networks. In such applications fixed wing MAVs have to be able to regulate an inter-robot distance. Fixed wing MAVs have reduced maneuverability, that is, they cannot perform sharp turns or hover on the spot. This kinematic property presents the main challenge to design a formation algorithm that will regulate inter-MAV distance and cover the desired area. In this paper we present a distributed control strategy that is based on attraction and repulsion between MAVs and relies only on local information. We show in simulation and in field experiments with a team of fixed wing MAVs that using our strategy MAVs can cover an area by creating an equilateral triangular lattice and regulate communication link quality between neighboring MAVs.
Decimalisation table attacks for PIN cracking

We present an attack on hardware security modules used by retail banks for the secure storage and verification of customer PINs in ATM (cash machine) infrastructures. By using adaptive decimalisation tables and guesses, the maximum amount of information is learnt about the true PIN upon each guess. It takes an average of 15 guesses to determine a four digit PIN using this technique, instead of the 5000 guesses intended. In a single 30 minute lunch-break, an attacker can thus discover approximately 7000 PINs rather than 24 with the brute force method. With a £300 withdrawal limit per card, the potential bounty is raised from £7200 to £2.1 million and a single motivated attacker could withdraw £30–50 thousand of this each day. This attack thus presents a serious threat to bank security.