Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complete Mapping of Substrate Translocation Highlights the Role of LeuT N-terminal Segment in Regulating Transport Cycle

Neurotransmitter: sodium symporters (NSSs) regulate neuronal signal transmission by clearing excess neurotransmitters from the synapse, assisted by the co-transport of sodium ions. Extensive structural data have been collected in recent years for several members of the NSS family, which opened the way to structure-based studies for a mechanistic understanding of substrate transport. Leucine transporter (LeuT), a bacterial orthologue, has been broadly adopted as a prototype in these studies. This goal has been elusive, however, due to the complex interplay of global and local events as well as missing structural data on LeuT N-terminal segment. We provide here for the first time a comprehensive description of the molecular events leading to substrate/Na+ release to the postsynaptic cell, including the structure and dynamics of the N-terminal segment using a combination of molecular simulations. Substrate and Na+-release follows an influx of water molecules into the substrate/Na+-binding pocket accompanied by concerted rearrangements of transmembrane helices. A redistribution of salt bridges and cation-π interactions at the N-terminal segment prompts substrate release. Significantly, substrate release is followed by the closure of the intracellular gate and a global reconfiguration back to outward-facing state to resume the transport cycle. Two minimally hydrated intermediates, not structurally resolved to date, are identified: one, substrate-bound, stabilized during the passage from outward- to inward-facing state (holo-occluded), and another, substrate-free, along the reverse transition (apo-occluded).
Predicting user dissatisfaction with Internet application performance at end-hosts

We design predictors of user dissatisfaction with the performance of applications that use networking. Our approach combines user-level feedback with low level machine and networking metrics. The main challenges of predicting user dissatisfaction, that arises when networking conditions adversely affect applications, comes from the scarcity of user feedback and the fact that poor performance episodes are rare. We develop a methodology to handle these challenges. Our method processes low level data via quantization and feature selection steps. We combine this with user labels and employ supervised learning techniques to build predictors. Using data from 19 personal machines, we show how to build training sets and demonstrate that non-linear SVMs achieve higher true positive rates (around 0.9) than predictors based on linear models. Finally we quantify the benefits of building per-application predictors as compared to general predictors that use data from multiple applications simultaneously to anticipate user dissatisfaction.
Autism in search of a home in the brain

Investigators have attempted to define the neural pathophysiology of autism ever since the hypothesis of “refrigerator parents” as its cause was replaced by the view that it is a developmental disorder of the immature brain. As the article by Minshew et al.1 and the Views & Reviews by DeLong2 in this issue of Neurology show, consensus has yet to be reached. Minshew et al. examine whether abnormal control of eye movements is best explained by impaired vermal or frontal lobe dysfunction; DeLong’s focus is on the temporal lobes and on abnormal maturation of serotonergic pathways. These are by no means the only brain regions implicated; earlier studies have invoked maldevelopment or, rarely, damage of the cerebellum and some brainstem and diencephalic nuclei, involvement of the basal ganglia and thalamus, frontal neuronal migration deficits, thinness of parietal gyri and posterior corpus callosum, and dysfunction of dopamine and opiate neurotransmitter pathways. Similar to dementia in the elderly, autism (pervasive developmental disorder [PDD] in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. [DSM-IV] and International Classification of Diseases [ICD]-10 parlance) is not a medical diagnosis but a behaviorally defined syndrome of early childhood with a variety of biologic causes. Its severity varies so widely that DSM-IV divides it into five behavioral subtypes. All have in common impaired sociability, language, nonverbal communicative skills, and imagination, together with stereotypic behaviors and preoccupations. Other features are lack of cognitive flexibility, poor organizational skills and insight into what others may be thinking, rigidity, perseveration, and often heightened anxiety. Intelligence is affected in many but not all individuals, although intelligence quotient (IQ) is not a defining feature of autism. DSM-IV specifies that the behavioral deficits must be out of proportion to the individual’s cognitive level, without defining this discrepancy in quantitative terms. The five DSM-IV …
Spar(k)ql: SPARQL Evaluation Method on Spark GraphX

RDF is a flexible data representation model. Due to its flexibility and simplicity it has become a popular framework, hence the amount of RDF data is increasing fast. Querying massive amount of data is a serious challenge in general and it is true for RDF data as well. In this paper we investigating how to evaluate SPARQL queries on a distributed system. We propose a novel method for evaluating SPARQL queries using the GraphX graph analytical tool. GraphX is built on the top of Spark that is an in-memory data processing system for distributive computation. With this tool we managed to utilize the graph-like structure of the RDF statements which are in form of subject-predicate-object.
Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment: a dedicated CubeSat mission to study exoplanetary mass loss and magnetic fields

Abstract. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a near-UV (2550 to 3300 Å) 6U CubeSat mission designed to monitor transiting hot Jupiters to quantify their atmospheric mass loss and magnetic fields. CUTE will probe both atomic (Mg and Fe) and molecular (OH) lines for evidence of enhanced transit absorption, and to search for evidence of early ingress due to bow shocks ahead of the planet’s orbital motion. As a dedicated mission, CUTE will observe ≳100 spectroscopic transits of hot Jupiters over a nominal 7-month mission. This represents the equivalent of >700 orbits of the only other instrument capable of these measurements, the Hubble Space Telescope. CUTE efficiently utilizes the available CubeSat volume by means of an innovative optical design to achieve a projected effective area of ∼28 cm2, low instrumental background, and a spectral resolving power of R∼3000 over the primary science bandpass. These performance characteristics enable CUTE to discern transit depths between 0.1% and 1% in individual spectral absorption lines. We present the CUTE optical and mechanical design, a summary of the science motivation and expected results, and an overview of the projected fabrication, calibration, and launch timeline.
Performance evaluation of overlap mitigation through spatial adaptive play for dense wlans

Interference management is indispensable for dense wireless networks to improve system performance. Reduction in spatial channel overlap is one of the most effective approaches, which leads to an increase in the transmission opportunity of each access point (AP) and mitigation of channel interference at a reception point. In this paper, coverage overlap is modeled as a subset of two-dimensional Euclidean plane, and a joint decentralized scheme of transmission power control (TPC) and dynamic channel assignment (DCA) is described for reduction in the coverage overlap. In particular, the DCA scheme can be formulated as a potential game in which unilateral improvement dynamics are guaranteed to converge to a Nash equilibrium. The novel feature of this paper is that spatial adaptive play (SAP) is employed for channel update algorithm to achieve more improvement of the reduction in the total channel overlap area. Simulation results show that the scheme based on SAP is more effective to reduce the total channel overlap area than best response based learning algorithm.
Select Regulatory T Cells in Thymus Cutting Edge: Hematopoietic-Derived APCs

Recognition of self-peptide–MHC complexes by high-afﬁnity TCRs and CD28 signaling are critical for the development of forkhead-winged helix box transcription factor 3 + regulatory T cells (Tregs) in thymus. However, the type of APCs that are responsible for selecting Tregs has remained unclear. To dissect the role of hematopoietic-derived APCs (HCs) and thymic epithelial cells (TECs) in Treg selection, we constructed bone marrow chimeras with disrupted CD28/B7 signaling in the HC or TEC compartment and analyzed the generation of Tregs in the thymus. We found that both HCs and TECs were independently able to fully reconstitute the Treg population in the thymus of bone marrow chimeras. In addition, Treg selection requires the TCR signal and CD28 costimulation presented in cis on the same APC type in vivo. This study demonstrates a new role, to our knowledge, for HCs in the development of Tregs in thymus. The Journal of Immunology , 2010, 185: T cells in the thymus and are required for the maintenance of self-tolerance (1). Tregs develop from thymocytes with high afﬁnity for self-peptide– MHC complexes (2) and require CD28/B7 signaling for their generation, peripheral homeostasis, and functional activation (3–5). Two types of thymic APCs, thymic epithelial cells (TECs), and dendritic cells (DCs), express B7 molecules and have the capacity to present self-Ag–MHC class II complexes to developing thymocytes. A recent study showed that medullary TECs presenting promiscuously expressed tissue-restricted Ags under the control of the autoimmune regulator Aire,
Persistence, Spatial Distribution and Implications for Progression Detection of Blind Parts of the Visual Field in Glaucoma: A Clinical Cohort Study

Background Visual field testing is an essential part of glaucoma care. It is hampered by variability related to the disease itself, response errors and fatigue. In glaucoma, blind parts of the visual field contribute to the diagnosis but - once established – not to progression detection; they only increase testing time. The aims of this study were to describe the persistence and spatial distribution of blind test locations in standard automated perimetry in glaucoma and to explore how the omission of presumed blind test locations would affect progression detection. Methodology/Principal Findings Data from 221 eyes of 221 patients from a cohort study with the Humphrey Field Analyzer with 30–2 grid were used. Patients were stratified according to baseline mean deviation (MD) in six strata of 5 dB width each. For one, two, three and four consecutive <0 dB sensitivities in the same test location in a series of baseline tests, the median probabilities to observe <0 dB again in the concerning test location in a follow-up test were 76, 86, 88 and 90%, respectively. For <10 dB, the probabilities were 88, 95, 97 and 98%, respectively. Median (interquartile range) percentages of test locations with three consecutive <0 dB sensitivities were 0(0–0), 0(0–2), 4(0–9), 17(8–27), 27(20–40) and 60(50–70)% for the six MD strata. Similar percentages were found for a subset of test locations within 10 degree eccentricity (P>0.1 for all strata). Omitting test locations with three consecutive <0 dB sensitivities at baseline did not affect the performance of the MD-based Nonparametric Progression Analysis progression detection algorithm. Conclusions/Significance Test locations that have been shown to be reproducibly blind tend to display a reasonable blindness persistence and do no longer contribute to progression detection. There is no clinically useful universal MD cut-off value beyond which testing can be limited to 10 degree eccentricity.
Experimental evolution of an RNA virus in cells with innate immunity defects

Experimental evolution studies have shown that RNA viruses respond rapidly to directional selection and thus can adapt efficiently to changes in host cell tropism, antiviral drugs, or other imposed selective pressures. However, the evolution of RNA viruses under relaxed selection has been less extensively explored. Here, we evolved vesicular stomatitis virus in mouse embryonic fibroblasts knocked-out for PKR, a protein with a central role in antiviral innate immunity. Vesicular stomatitis virus adapted to PKR-negative mouse embryonic fibroblasts in a gene-specific manner, since the evolved viruses exhibited little or no fitness improvement in PKR-positive cells. Full-length sequencing revealed the presence of multiple parallel nucleotide substitutions arising in independent evolution lines. However, site-directed mutagenesis showed that the effects of these substitutions were not PKR dependent. In contrast, we found evidence for sign epistasis, such that a given substitution which was positively selected was strongly deleterious when tested as a single mutation. Our results suggest that virus evolution in cells with specific innate immunity defects may drive viral specialization. However, this process is not deterministic at the molecular level, probably because the fixation of mutations which are tolerated under a relaxed selection regime is governed mainly by random genetic drift.
Integrating Three-Dimensional Benthic Habitat Characterization Techniques into Ecological Monitoring of Coral Reefs

Long-term ecological monitoring of reef fish populations often requires the simultaneous collection of data on benthic habitats in order to account for the effects of these variables on fish assemblage structure. Here, we described an approach to benthic surveys that uses photogrammetric techniques to facilitate the extraction of quantitative metrics for characterization of benthic habitats from the resulting three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of coral reefs. Out of 92 sites surveyed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, photographs from 85 sites achieved complete alignment and successfully produced 3D reconstructions and digital elevation models (DEMs). Habitat metrics extracted from the DEMs were generally correlated with one another, with the exception of curvature measures, indicating that complexity and curvature measures should be treated separately when quantifying the habitat structure. Fractal dimension D64, calculated by changing resolutions of the DEMs from 1 cm to 64 cm, had the best correlations with other habitat metrics. Fractal dimension was also less affected by changes in orientations of the models compared to surface complexity or slope. These results showed that fractal dimension can be used as a single measure of complexity for the characterization of coral reef habitats. Further investigations into metrics for 3D characterization of habitats should consider relevant spatial scales and focus on obtaining variables that can complement fractal dimension in the characterization of reef habitats.
TOWARDS RELIABLE COMPUTER VISION-BASED TANGIBLE USER INTERFACES

A major obstacle in the development of computer visionbased interfaces is the uncertainty in the image data. Guaranteeing reliable program behavior while the inputs cannot be relied upon to take any specific values is desirable but extremely challenging. We have experimented with various strategies for addressing this problem in a controlled environment and have identified some that we find promising. Using visual tags, we encode object attributes, capture them with a camera, and read them. The test applications are implemented as Macromedia Director movies with Lingo scripting, while the image analysis module is implemented in C++ as a Lingo Xtra. We conclude that evaluation through rigorous experimentation and testing is a suitable approach for discovering techniques that work well and the conditions that maximize the chances for optimal performance.
Development of a Photovoltaic Driven Thermodynamic Chiller – Application to Solar Air Conditioning And Cooling Storage

This paper presents a smart design named PV COOLING to produce solar cooling using low GWP heat pump system coupled with a standard photovoltaic plant. A maximum of self-consumption is promoted by means of a light bank of batteries and chilled water tank. For this, a test bench has been installed on the building roof in the south of France with the originality to be entirely controllable in terms of building load injected. Thereafter, this new system aims to be used for air-conditioning and/or dehumidification in the tertiary sector and positive cold storage in the industrial sector in countries where climatic, regulatory and technical conditions are suitable. PV COOLING potential is developed within a market study. The aim of this study is to assess the thermal / electrical performances of our test bench with the purpose to airconditioning a building by means of several sensors and meters.
A novel adaptive manufacturing system based on artificial intelligence approach

To solve the dynamic changes in the running surrounding of manufacturing system, the factories have to adjust their production methods to adapt diversity of market needs and increase of new product developments. This paper proposed a original concept of bionic manufacturing system. The biological organisms have many advantages in the fields of adapting to environmental changes and stimulus. Inspired by the bionic concepts, a novel adaptive manufacturing control structure is built. It shows good characters in the specify production control schemes and the agility to the random matters at the shop floor level. Finally, a prototype system has been built to verify the bionic manufacturing control system simulation.
Analytic Study of TCP Performance over a Soft Rate Switching WCDMA Bearer

In this paper a soft rate switching principle for CDMA is suggested combining the selection of processing gain and BLER-target. An analytical model for TCP performance is developed and an evaluation is done for a best-effort TCP service over a downlink WCDMA bearer. Results show that the combined selection can smoothly control the trade-off between high TCP service quality and high capacity. Also the quality and coverage trade-off can be managed with the same principle
The Integration of Behaviour into Comparative Physiology*

Comparative physiology has traditionally focused on the physiological responses of animals to their physicochemical environment. In recent years, awareness has increased among physiologists of the potential for behavioural factors, such as the social environment of the animal, to affect physiological condition and responses. This recognition has led to an emerging trend within the field toward using multidisciplinary approaches that incorporate both behavioural and physiological techniques. Research areas in which the integrated study of behaviour and physiology has been particularly fruitful include the physiology of the social environment, sensory physiology and behaviour, and physiological constraints on behavioural ecology. The manner in which incorporating behavioural considerations has informed the physiological data collected is discussed for each of these areas using specific examples.
Management of Mycotoxigenic Fungi and Associated Mycotoxins in Maize by Use of Hermetic Storage

xviii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Background of the study . 1 1.2 Problem statement . 3 1.3 Justification . 4 1.4 Objectives . 5 1.5 Hypotheses . 6 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 7 2.1 Maize production and importance in Kenya . 7 2.2 Constraints of maize production in Eastern Kenya. 8 2.3 Major mycotoxin producing fungi of maize . 9
The Octonions

The octonions are the largest of the four normed division algebras. While somewhat neglected due to their nonassociativity, they stand at the crossroads of many interesting fields of mathematics. Here we describe them and their relation to Clifford algebras and spinors, Bott periodicity, projective and Lorentzian geometry, Jordan algebras, and the exceptional Lie groups. We also touch upon their applications in quantum logic, special relativity and supersymmetry.
Non-reliability of Beta-2 Microglobulin and Neopterin as Short-term Immunological Markers of HIV Progression

The conventional markers for HIV monitoring in Nigeria are viral load and CD4 count. However, studies have reported the reliability of Beta 2 microglobulin (B2M) and Neopterin as effective prognostic markers that are less expensive and very convenient to use. This study was designed to investigate possible role of B2M and Neopterin in HIV patients’ management in Nigeria. A case series descriptive study was carried out in a group of Forty (40) HIV seropositive subjects who were yet to commence therapy in order to assess the pattern of changes in the levels of B2M, Neopterin and CD4+ T cell count when compared with levels after subjects were followed up for a period of 3months into therapy. B2M and neopterin were measured by ELISA method and CD4 count by flow cytometry. Concentrations of both Neopterin and B2M correlated significantly with each other (p < 0.05), but did not correlate with CD4 count (p > 0.05). Moreover, no significant difference was observed in the mean CD4 count and B2M concentration of subjects at baseline and follow-up, but there was a significant difference in the concentrations of Neopterin (p < 0.05). With the classification of subjects into the therapy and the non-therapy group, significant differences were observed in the concentration of CD4 count, whereas there were no significant differences in the concentrations of B2M and Neopterin at baseline and follow-up between the group on therapy and the therapy naïve group. This study shows that B2M and Neopterin may not be adequate or reliable in monitoring short term (≤3 months) improvement with therapy in HIV/AIDS.
Dirac actions for D-branes on backgrounds with fluxes

The understanding of the fermionic sector of the world-volume D-brane dynamics on a general background with fluxes is crucial in several branches of string theory like, for example, the study of nonperturbative effects or the construction of realistic models living on D-branes. In this paper, we derive a new simple Dirac-like form for the bilinear fermionic action for any Dp-brane in any supergravity background, which generalizes the usual Dirac action valid in the absence of fluxes. A non-zero world-volume field strength deforms the usual Dirac operator in the action to a generalized non-canonical one. We show how the canonical form can be re-established by a redefinition of the world-volume geometry.
Anesthetic Gases : Guidelines for Workplace Exposures

It is estimated that more than 200,000 health care professionals ‐‐including anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, surgical and obstetric nurses, operating room (OR) technicians, nurses aides, surgeons, anesthesia technicians, postanesthesia care nurses, dentists, dental assistants, dental hygienists, veterinarians and their assistants, emergency room staff, and radiology department personnel ‐‐are potentially exposed to waste anesthetic gases and are at risk of occupational illness. Over the years there have been significant improvements in the control of anesthetic gas pollution in health‐care facilities. These have been accomplished through the use and improved design of scavenging systems, installation of more effective general ventilation systems, and increased attention to equipment maintenance and leak detection as well as to careful anesthetic practice. However, occupational exposure to waste gases still occurs.