Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cardiac Fibroblast Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3&bgr; Regulates Ventricular Remodeling and Dysfunction in Ischemic Heart

Background— Myocardial infarction–induced remodeling includes chamber dilatation, contractile dysfunction, and fibrosis. Of these, fibrosis is the least understood. After myocardial infarction, activated cardiac fibroblasts deposit extracellular matrix. Current therapies to prevent fibrosis are inadequate, and new molecular targets are needed. Methods and Results— Herein we report that glycogen synthase kinase-3&bgr; (GSK-3&bgr;) is phosphorylated (inhibited) in fibrotic tissues from ischemic human and mouse heart. Using 2 fibroblast-specific GSK-3&bgr; knockout mouse models, we show that deletion of GSK-3&bgr; in cardiac fibroblasts leads to fibrogenesis, left ventricular dysfunction, and excessive scarring in the ischemic heart. Deletion of GSK-3&bgr; induces a profibrotic myofibroblast phenotype in isolated cardiac fibroblasts, in post–myocardial infarction hearts, and in mouse embryonic fibroblasts deleted for GSK-3&bgr;. Mechanistically, GSK-3&bgr; inhibits profibrotic transforming growth factor-&bgr;1/SMAD-3 signaling via interactions with SMAD-3. Moreover, deletion of GSK-3&bgr; resulted in the significant increase of SMAD-3 transcriptional activity. This pathway is central to the pathology because a small-molecule inhibitor of SMAD-3 largely prevented fibrosis and limited left ventricular remodeling. Conclusions— These studies support targeting GSK-3&bgr; in myocardial fibrotic disorders and establish critical roles of cardiac fibroblasts in remodeling and ventricular dysfunction.
Rapid weak-perspective Structure from Motion with missing data

3D reconstruction with missing data has been a very challenging computer vision task since the late 90s. This paper proposes the GPU-powered version of our weak-perspective Structure from Motion algorithm published in BMVC2008. Although this method is iterative, it is very rapid since all substeps in each iteration minimize the parameters optimally with respect to the reprojection error. We demonstrate here in both synthetic and real tests that the use of the GPU significantly reduces the time demand of the algorithm. Real-time 3D reconstruction is possible if the parameters of the optimization algorithm are set properly.
Degrees of Freedom and Sum Rate Maximization for Two Mutually Interfering Broadcast Channels

In this paper, we derive a precise expression of spatial degrees of freedom (DOF) for two mutually interfering broadcast channels (IFBC) as a function of arbitrary numbers of transmit antennas and users. The lower bound on the DOF is obtained by showing that the zero-forcing solution suffices to achieve all the DOF. Also, the upper bound which coincides with the lower bound is shown using Jafar's earlier work. From the derived result, we observe that disabling receive cooperation of the MIMO interference channel causes the DOF loss. Additionally, we propose a linear precoding scheme for the IFBC by extending one designed for broadcast channels with an aim of maximizing the sum rate performance. We utilize the fact that the precoding matrices in stationary point always satisfy the zero-gradient condition. Our result is confirmed through numerical simulations on the sum rate performance of the proposed precoding technique.
Monte Carlo Tree Search with macro-actions and heuristic route planning for the Physical Travelling Salesman Problem

We present a controller for the Physical Travelling Salesman Problem (PTSP), a path planning and steering problem in a simulated continuous real-time domain. Our approach is hierarchical, using domain-specific algorithms and heuristics to plan a coarse-grained route and Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) to plan and steer along fine-grained paths. The MCTS component uses macro-actions to decrease the number of decisions to be made per unit of time and thus drastically reduce the size of the decision tree. Results from the 2012 WCCI PTSP Competition show that this approach significantly and consistently outperforms all other submitted AI controllers, and is competitive with strong human players. Our approach has potential applications to many other problems in movement planning and control, including video games.
Click the search button and be happy: evaluating direct and immediate information access

We define Direct Information Access as a type of information access where there is no user operation such as clicking or scrolling between the user's click on the search button and the user's information acquisition; we define Immediate Information Access as a type of information access where the user can locate the relevant information within the system output very quickly. Hence, a Direct and Immediate Information Access (DIIA) system is expected to satisfy the user's information need very quickly with its very first response. We propose a nugget-based evaluation framework for DIIA, which takes nugget positions into account in order to evaluate the ability of a system to present important nuggets first and to minimise the amount of text the user has to read. To demonstrate the integrity, usefulness and limitations of our framework, we built a Japanese DIIA test collection with 60 queries and over 2,800 nuggets as well as an offset-based nugget match evaluation interface, and conducted experiments with manual and automatic runs. The results suggest our proposal is a useful complement to traditional ranked retrieval evaluation based on document relevance.
Granulomas of the skin due to Mycobacterium balnei after abrasions from a fish tank.

FOR about twenty years the literature has contained occasional reports of granulomatous skin lesions that have followed abrasions acquired in certain swimming pools.1 2 3 4 Some of these reports were of large outbreaks involving many patients, the largest occurring in Colorado during the summer of 1959.5 , 6 Some 300 patients were investigated in this epidemic. The etiologic agent, an acid-fast organism named Mycobacterium balnei, was identified by Linell and Norden7 and recorded in 1954. The condition has been aptly named "swimming-pool granuloma. " Acid-fast organisms have previously been isolated from diseased fish. In 1942 Baker and Hagan8 found Myco. platypoecilus in tropical fresh-water .
Preliminary study into query translation for patent retrieval

Patent retrieval is a branch of Information Retrieval (IR) aiming to support patent professionals in retrieving patents that satisfy their information needs. Often, patent granting bodies require patents to be partially translated into one or more major foreign languages, so that language boundaries do not hinder their accessibility. This multilinguality of patent collections offers opportunities for improving patent retrieval. In this work we exploit these opportunities by applying query translation to patent retrieval. We expand monolingual patent queries with their translations, using both a domain-specific patent dictionary that we extract from the patent collection, and a general domain-free dictionary. Experimental evaluation on a standard CLEF-IP dataset shows that using either translation dictionary fetches similar results: query translation can help patent retrieval, but not always, and without great improvement compared to standard statistical monolingual query expansion (Rocchio). The improvement is greater when the source language is English, as opposed to French or German, a finding partly due to the effect of the complex French and German morphology upon translation accuracy, but also partly due to the prevalence of English in the collection. A thorough per-query analysis reveals that cases where standard query expansion fails (e.g. zero recall) can benefit from query translation.
Mixed-mode self-calibrated amplitude control scheme for MEMS vibratory gyroscopes

In this paper, a mixed-mode self-calibrated Automatic Gain Control (AGC) loop for MEMS applications is introduced. In MEMS-based vibratory gyroscope systems, an AGC is used to regulate the vibration amplitude of an inertia mass. Traditional analog AGCs suffer from a limited control range or bulky elements. Here, we present a low gain P-controller (Fine tuning) with digitally-controlled dynamic bias (Coarse tuning) for the AGC loop. The dynamic bias compensates for the low loop gain through the AGC and is generated using an error sense ADC. This approach achieves more than 9bits of uncalibrated oscillation amplitude accuracy over PVT without the need for trimming the gyroscope actuation gain. The power consumption of the designed main amplitude control circuitry is less than 200μW. The overall circuit was built using a standard 0. 13μm CMOS technology.
Pneumatic walking assistive device for use over long period

Humans can adapt to and effectively walk on different kinds of surfaces and in various environments, but fatigue is inevitable when walking or even just standing for long periods, especially when carrying heavy objects. Methods for assisting walking or standing work are in demand, but most research thus far has been focused on using electricity to implement both interlocking and assistive power; this approach has the drawback of high-energy consumption. Therefore, we previously developed a lightweight assistive device that stores part of the kinetic energy generated during the leg swing-to-leg contact phases, and uses this energy to effectively assist during the stance phase. The developed device comprises surge tanks, an air cylinder, and other components arranged in a simple configuration and interlocked with walking by using a simple sensing system, therefore, making it suitable for use over long periods. This paper presents experimental measurements of the assistive force generated using the proposed device when it is attached to human subjects. The measurements were conducted under predicted usages to evaluate the assistive performance of the proposed device, and the measurement results demonstrate its effectiveness. Graphical Abstract
Second-site long terminal repeat (LTR) revertants of replication-defective human immunodeficiency virus: effects of revertant TATA box motifs on virus infectivity, LTR-directed expression, in vitro RNA synthesis, and binding of basal transcription factors TFIID and TFIIA

Second-site revertants from replication-incompetent molecular clones of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) contain base substitutions adjacent to the TATA motif. The altered TATA box motifs were analyzed for their effect(s) on virus infectivity, long terminal repeat (LTR)-directed expression in transient transfection assays, in vitro RNA synthesis, and assembly of the TFIID-TFIIA preinitiation complex. The revertant TATA boxes accelerated the kinetics of HIV replication when present in the context of an LTR containing a Sp1 mutation (deletion or site specific); no effect was observed on the infectivity of wild-type HIV. In chloramphenicol acetyltransferase assays and in vitro transcription systems, the altered TATA box motifs led to elevated basal levels of RNA synthesis from NF-kappa B- and Sp1-mutagenized and wild-type templates, respectively, but did not increase responsiveness to Tat transactivation. The revertant TATA boxes accelerated the binding of TFIID and TFIIA to the LTR and stabilized their association with the promoter. The revertants did not assemble a more-processive elongation complex. These results suggest that in the context of an impaired enhancer/promoter (viz., three mutated Sp1 elements), a series of HIV revertants emerge which contain LTR alterations that significantly augment basal RNA synthesis. The TATA motif revertants are capable of rescuing the enhancer/promoter defect and sustain virus infectivity.
Coronary Artery Calcification, Common Carotid Artery Intima-Media Thickness and Aortic Pulse Wave Velocity in Patients on Peritoneal Dialysis

An increasing body of evidence suggests that atherosclerosis in patients with uremia differs from that found in general population in terms of advancement and localization of vascular lesions. It has also been suggested that different non-invasive techniques of vascular system evaluation are designed to show different types of lesions (i.e. vascular calcification, stiffness or “classical” atherosclerosis). The aim of the study was to search for possible associations between results obtained with three different non-invasive methods of vascular system assessment in three different vascular sites in patients treated with peritoneal dialysis (PD). 61 patients (28 F, 33 M), mean age of 50.4 ± 13.6 years, on maintenance PD for a median period of 10 months (range 1–96 months) were included. Coronary artery disease (CAD) was present in 21 subjects. In all subjects coronary artery calcification score (CaSc) using multi-row spiral computed tomography (MSCT), aortic pulse wave velocity (AoPWV) and ultrasound-based common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) were performed as methods for assessing coronary calcium burden, arterial stiffness and atherosclerosis, respectively. Median value of CaSc equaled 11.5 Agatston units (range 0–5502.8 units). Median AoPWV was 10.4 m/s (range 7.56–18.1 m/s), and median CCA-IMT – 0.6 mm (range 0.3–1.0 mm). In 16 patients (26.2%) at least one plaque in at least one common carotid artery was found on ultrasound. CaSc correlated with AoPWV (R = 0.32, p < 0.01) and with CCA-IMT (R = 0.35, p < 0.005), whereas no association was found between AoPWV and CCA-IMT. AoPWV, but not CaSc nor IMT correlated with blood pressure. The values of CCA-IMT and AoPWV increased together with consecutive Agatston categories (with p < 0.001 for differences in AoPWV and p < 0.05 for CCA-IMT). Patients with at least one plaque found in at least one CCA and patients with CAD were characterized with significantly higher values of CaSc, IMT and PWV, when compared to plaque-free and CAD- negative subjects, respectively. Association between CaSc and both IMT and PWV may suggest that the mechanism of three assessed vascular pathologies may be based, to some extent, on the process of pathologic calcium-phosphate deposition. Lack of correlation found between PWV and IMT may suggest that aortic stiffness and carotid atherosclerosis may partially differ in their pathologic background and/or are dissociated in time.
ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE SURVIVABILITY, INHERENT LIMITATIONS, OBSTACLES AND MITIGATION STRATEGIES

The blackout of August 14, 2003 affected 8 states and fifty million people and could cost up to $5 billion. Yet another press release claims it may have cost Ohio manufacturers $1.1 billion, based on a poll of 275 companies. Preliminary reports indicate the outage progressed as a chain of relatively minor events, rather than a single catastrophic failure. This is consistent with previous cascading outages, which were caused by a domino reaction. The increasingly ubiquitous use of embedded systems to manage and control our technologically complex society makes our homeland security even more vulnerable. Therefore, knowing how vulnerable such systems are is essential to improving their intrinsic reliability/survivability (in a deregulated environment knowing these important properties is equally essential to the providers).
Radio resource control

FIELD: methods and devices for controlling radio resources. SUBSTANCE: method of radio resource control is proposed which method can be used in network embracing region having many areas. User of at least one area is assigned, which area has many areas-candidates for which the user can be assigned. Information is received that identifies multiplicity of areas-candidates and parameter for any area-candidate is estimated. Parameter contemplates that user is assigned for mentioned area-candidate. Priorities are assigned to multiplicity of areas-candidates taking mentioned parameter into account. EFFECT: improved efficiency of control. 45 cl, 17 dg, 1 tbl
Semantic Similarity Definition over Gene Ontology by Further Mining of the Information Content

The similarity of two gene products can be used to solve many problems in information biology. Since one gene product corresponds to several GO (Gene Ontology) terms, one way to calculate the gene product similarity is to use the similarity of their GO terms. This GO term similarity can be defined as the semantic similarity on the GO graph. There are many kinds of similarity definitions of two GO terms, but the information of the GO graph is not used efficiently. This paper presents a new way to mine more information of the GO graph by regarding edge as information content and using the information of negation on the semantic graph. A simple experiment is conducted and, as a result, the accuracy increased by 8.3 percent in average, compared with the traditional method which uses node as information source.
Experimental research on stator insulation system of 5 MW offshore Wind turbine generator under simulated marine environments

The stator insulation system of offshore wind turbine generator (WTG) will be subjected to marine environment, such as high humility and heavy salt fog. In order to study its resistance to this hostile environment, the marine environmental conditions in the coast regions along China's coastline have been firstly examined in this paper. The specimens for modeling stator insulation system of 5MW/3kV class offshore wind turbine generator were prepared. The environmental tests, including the change of temperature, steady damp heat and salt mist, have been carried out. At each interval of periodic tests, some nondestructive diagnoses such as dissipation factor and insulation resistance have also been carried out to monitor the change. After the simulated marine environmental test of 4 periods, the residual breakdown voltages of specimens were measured and the micro-structures of insulating material were observed by microscope. The test results show that, even though micro-cracks have been generated on the interface between the coil main insulation and the iron core, and resulted in the brine permeated into the inner surface of the core slot, the dielectric properties of insulation system of the specimens still kept in the range of normal specifications. The insulation system of specimen has performed an excellent resistance to the marine environment due to the electrical shielding effect of the semi-conductive slot coating.
On the Piezoelectric Detection of Guided Ultrasonic Waves

In order to quantify the wave motion of guided ultrasonic waves, the characteristics of piezoelectric detectors, or ultrasonic transducers and acoustic emission sensors, have been evaluated systematically. Such guided waves are widely used in structural health monitoring and nondestructive evaluation, but methods of calibrating piezoelectric detectors have been inadequate. This study relied on laser interferometry for the base displacement measurement of bar waves, from which eight different guided wave test set-ups are developed with known wave motion using piezoelectric transmitters. Both plates and bars of 12.7 and 6.4 mm thickness were used as wave propagation media. The upper frequency limit was 2 MHz. Output of guided wave detectors were obtained on the test set-ups and their receiving sensitivities were characterized and averaged. While each sensitivity spectrum was noisy for a detector, the averaged spectrum showed a good convergence to a unique receiving sensitivity. Twelve detectors were evaluated and their sensitivity spectra determined in absolute units. Generally, these showed rapidly dropping sensitivity with increasing frequency due to waveform cancellation on their sensing areas. This effect contributed to vastly different sensitivities to guided wave and to normally incident wave for each one of the 12 detectors tested. Various other effects are discussed and recommendations on methods of implementing the approach developed are provided.
Vulnerability & Blame: Making Sense of Unauthorized Access to Smartphones

Unauthorized physical access to personal devices by people known to the owner of the device is a common concern, and a common occurrence. But how do people experience incidents of unauthorized access? Using an online survey, we collected 102 accounts of unauthorized access. Participants wrote stories about past situations in which either they accessed the smartphone of someone they know, or someone they know accessed theirs. We describe the context leading up to these incidents, the course of events, and the consequences. We then identify two orthogonal themes in how participants conceptualized these incidents. First, participants understood trust as performative vulnerability: trust was necessary to sustain relationships, but building trust required displaying vulnerability to breaches. Second, participants were self-serving in their sensemaking: they blamed the circumstances, or the other person's shortcomings, but rarely themselves. We discuss the implications of our findings for security design and practice.
Single-Step EUS-Guided Endoscopic Treatment for Sterile Pancreatic Collections: A Single-Center Experience

Background and Aims: Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is useful for the treatment of sterile pancreatic fluid collections (PFC), either by means of transmural drainage or by complete aspiration. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of single-step EUS-guided endoscopic approaches for treatment of sterile PFC. Patients and Methods: During a 3-year period, 77 consecutive patients with symptomatic, persistent sterile PFC were evaluated and treated with the linear EUS. We excluded patients with grossly purulent collections, chronic pseudocyst and those whose cytology diagnostic was neoplastic cyst of pancreas. 44 patients received a single 10-Fr plastic straight stent under EUS or fluoroscopic control (group I) and 33 of these underwent a single-step complete aspiration with a 19-gauge needle (group II). Results: The mean size of the sterile PFC was 48 mm in group I and 28 mm in group II (p < 0.001). Overall, endoscopic treatment was successful in 70 (90.9%) patients. The mean volume aspirated was 25 (18–65) ml. The total number of procedures was 50 in group I and 41 punctures in group II. After a mean follow-up of 64 ± 15.6 weeks there were 6 complications (13.6%): 2 recurrences (referred to surgery), 2 developing abscesses (submitted a new EUS-guided endoscopic drainage with success), 1 perforation that died (2.2%), and 1 case of bleeding (sent to surgery) in group I. In group II there were only 6 (18.1%) recurrences (submitted a new EUS-guided aspiration). None of the patients undergoing single-step aspiration developed infections, perforation or hemorrhage. Conclusion: The recurrence of pancreatic pseudocysts after endoscopic treatment was similar, either by means of plastic stents or by complete single-step aspiration.