Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Efficient Index Method for Moving Objects Databases in Fixed Networks

Efficiency is an important subject in moving objects databases research area in recent decade. Particularly for fixed network, where many index structures have been proposed, such as the ones containing 2 D R-tree and 1D R-tree. For range query, these index structures are shown to be relatively efficient than that of 3D R-tree. But for the problem of searching the trajectory of individual moving object, it is not. In this paper, a simple but efficient index structure composed of 2D R-tree and lists of pointers is proposed, with set operations, intersection and union, on these pointers. This index structure is slightly less efficient for range query, but is significantly efficient for querying the trajectory of individual moving object. Besides, the insertion cost is kept in a small fixed range and is scalable with tree height. The problem of information overload caused by long time data accumulation can also be easily alleviated with this structure. As the empirical data shows, this scheme is one order of magnitude better than FNR-tree for trajectory query, but its insertion of each data is restricted to only 5 to 8 disk accesses.
New Concepts in Immunity to Neisseria Gonorrhoeae: Innate Responses and Suppression of Adaptive Immunity Favor the Pathogen, Not the Host

It is well-known that gonorrhea can be acquired repeatedly with no apparent development of protective immunity arising from previous episodes of infection. Symptomatic infection is characterized by a purulent exudate, but the host response mechanisms are poorly understood. While the remarkable antigenic variability displayed by Neisseria gonorrhoeae and its capacity to inhibit complement activation allow it to evade destruction by the host's immune defenses, we propose that it also has the capacity to avoid inducing specific immune responses. In a mouse model of vaginal gonococcal infection, N. gonorrhoeae elicits Th17-driven inflammatory–immune responses, which recruit innate defense mechanisms including an influx of neutrophils. Concomitantly, N. gonorrhoeae suppresses Th1- and Th2-dependent adaptive immunity, including specific antibody responses, through a mechanism involving TGF-β and regulatory T cells. Blockade of TGF-β alleviates the suppression of specific anti-gonococcal responses and allows Th1 and Th2 responses to emerge with the generation of immune memory and protective immunity. Genital tract tissues are naturally rich in TGF-β, which fosters an immunosuppressive environment that is important in reproduction. In exploiting this niche, N. gonorrhoeae exemplifies a well-adapted pathogen that proactively elicits from its host innate responses that it can survive and concomitantly suppresses adaptive immunity. Comprehension of these mechanisms of gonococcal pathogenesis should allow the development of novel approaches to therapy and facilitate the development of an effective vaccine.
Impedance Control of the Hydraulic Shoulder A 3-DOF Parallel Manipulator

In this paper, a model-based impedance control strategy is developed for a 3 DOF parallel manipulator to manage the interaction of the robot with the environment. Kinematic and dynamic modeling of the manipulator has been analyzed in order to be used for both simulation and control purposes. The impedance controller objective and the structure of the proposed controller are introduced and controller gain selection is discussed. A simulation study evaluates the effectiveness of the proposed impedance control structure. It is observed that although the proposed controller is designed for impedance adjustment of the robot, in case of free motion, it results into desirable position tracking. Moreover, when the robot comes into contact with the environment, the interaction dynamics can be regulated regardless of the nonlinear dynamics of the robot.
Distribution of synaptic specializations along isolated motor units formed in Xenopus nerve-muscle cultures

The capacity of individual muscle cells and neurons to establish synaptic specializations along the entire extent of their neurite- muscle contacts was assessed in culture. Spinal cord neurons derived from embryos of Xenopus laevis were plated at low density in cultures of Xenopus myotomal muscle cells in order to obtain isolated motor units whose neuron and muscle cells were not contacted by any other neuron. These isolated motor units were examined for localization of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) after staining with fluorescent alpha- bungarotoxin and, in some cases, for localization of a synaptic vesicle antigen by immunofluorescence. The neurite-muscle contacts formed by competent neurons exhibited discontinuous sites of AChR localization occupying about 25% of the contact length as compared with 2% for incompetent neurons. Competent neurons, unlike incompetent ones, established these neurite-associated receptor patches (NARPs) on virtually all the muscle cells they contacted and functionally innervated them. These and other observations on the distribution of NARPs throughout the isolated motor units indicate that the capacity of competent neurons to establish NARPs extends to the limits of growth of most if not all of their neurites, that this capacity is least in the most proximal portions of initial neuritic segments, and that the overall capacity of muscle cells to generate NARPs can be saturated by long lengths of neurite-muscle contact. The results also suggest that even in the absence of competitive interactions between neurons there are spatial discontinuities in neuritic action and/or muscle response during the establishment of NARPs. Synaptic vesicle antigen patches (SVAPs) occurred along the neuritic arbor of all neurons, but their distribution in competent neurons (those which established NARPs) and in incompetent ones differed. For competent neurons the percentage of neurite length occupied by SVAPs was 4.8-fold greater on muscle cells than off, whereas the corresponding value for incompetent neurons was only 1.5-fold. This large preferential localization of SVAPs along neurite-muscle contacts of competent neurons was further associated with a colocalization of SVAPs and NARPs that was greater than predicted by chance. These results suggest that muscle cells are much more effective in influencing the distribution of synaptic vesicles along the neuritic arbor of competent neurons than along the arbor of incompetent neurons and that this influence is greatest at sites of postsynaptic differentiation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Cerebroprotective Effects of Dimeric Copper(II) Bis(o-acetoxybenzoate) on Ischemia-reperfusion Injury in Gerbils

The cerebroprotective effects of copper aspirinate [dimeric copper(II) bis(o-acetoxybenzoate)] were investigated in gerbils subjected to 10-min global cerebral ischemia followed b 60-min reperfusion. The results showed that intragastric copper aspirinate (7.5, 15.0 and 30.0 mg Kg−1) markedly promoted the recovery of the electroencephalogram amplitude, attenuated the increase of lipid peroxide content and the decrease of superoxide dismutase activity in the cortex during ischemia-reperfusion injury. It suggested that copper aspirinate possesses potential neuroprotective properties, the mechanism of which might be related to an increase of the activity of endogenous superoxide dismutase.
Multilingual and monolingual children in the primary-level language classroom: individual differences and perceptions of foreign language learning

ABSTRACT Existing research suggests that being multilingual may convey advantages for additional language learning. However, little research to date has examined the role of multiple languages in primary-school classroom settings and in foreign language learning in particular. We investigated the learning of French by children with English as an additional language (EAL) aged 8–9 in England. The EAL children and their monolingual peers were tested on their achievement in French, their metalinguistic awareness and associative memory. Their attitudes to languages and language learning were assessed. Two French classes were observed and teachers interviewed in order to document their approach to teaching French to a mixed-language class and their perceptions of the multilingual nature of the classroom. Our findings suggest that the EAL children’s multilingualism is not drawn upon as a potentially facilitative tool. English appears to be the only medium and the primary aim of instruction, with other languages assigned a subordinate role. The EAL children performed similarly to their monolingual peers on all measures, with level of English correlated with most measures. We argue that while an egalitarian treatment of all children is clearly desirable, it would be equally desirable to utilise the presence of other languages as a resource.
THE G -STABLE PIECES OF THE WONDERFUL COMPACTIFICATION

Let G be a connected, simple algebraic group over an algebraically closed ﬁeld. There is a partition of the wonderful compactiﬁcation ¯ G of G into ﬁnite many G -stable pieces, which was introduced by Lusztig. In this paper, we will investigate the closure of any G -stable piece in ¯ G . We will show that the closure is a disjoint union of some G -stable pieces, which was ﬁrst conjectured by Lusztig. We will also prove the existence of cellular decomposition if the closure contains ﬁnitely many G -orbits.
Reflective journaling to decrease anxiety among undergraduate nursing students in the clinical setting

Objective: Many nursing students experience anxiety in the clinical setting. Increased anxiety impairs students’ ability to learn and can negatively affect patient safety. To promote student learning and patient safety, it is imperative that nurse educators identify and implement strategies to decrease nursing students’ anxiety. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine how undergraduate nursing students perceive the impact of writing reflective journals on their anxiety level associated with their first clinical rotation experience early in their program of study.Methods: Participants were randomly assigned by their clinical group to either write guided reflective journals, non-guided reflective journals, or no reflective journals during their first clinical rotation where they provided patient care. Five individuals from each intervention group were randomly selected to participate in an interview. Themes related to the participants’ perceptions of the impact of writing reflective journals on their anxiety were determined through qualitative analysis.Results and implications: Participants who wrote guided or non-guided reflective journals experienced decreased anxiety associated with their first clinical rotation. Participants in the non-journaling group expressed that they would have benefitted from having a journal assignment. Four themes were identified related to experiences with writing journals: allowed time, identified feelings, assisted with processing, and increased confidence. The findings of this study support the use of reflective journals as a pedagogical intervention to decrease nursing students’ anxiety associated with the first clinical experience. Additional benefits of the reflective journaling included taking time to identify and process feelings and increased confidence in future clinical experiences.
An Analysis Of The Role Of Offspring Population Size In EAs

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are general stochastic search heuristics often used to solve complex optimization problems. Unfortunately, EA theory is still somewhat weak with respect to providing a deeper understanding of EAs and guidance for the practitioner. In this paper we improve this situation by extending existing theory on the well-known (1+1) EA to cover the (1 + λ) EA, an EA that maintains an offspring population of size λ. Our goal is to understand how the value of λ affects expected optimization time. We compare the (1 + λ) EA with the (1+1) EA and prove that on simple unimodal functions no improvements are obtained for λ > 1. By contrast there are more complex functions for which sensible values of A can decrease the optimization time from exponential to a polynomial of small degree with overwhelming probability. These results shed light on the role of λ and provide some guidelines for the practitioner.
iUBC at SemEval-2016 Task 2: RNNs and LSTMs for interpretable STS

This paper describes iUBC , a neural network based approach that achieves competitive re-sults on the interpretable STS task (iSTS 2016). Actually, it achieves top performance in one of the three datasets. iUBC makes use of a jointly trained classiﬁer and regressor, and both models work on top of a recurrent neural network. Through the paper we provide detailed description of the approach, as well as the results obtained in iSTS 2015 test, iSTS 2016 training and iSTS 2016 test.
Genetic Variant of AMD1 Is Associated with Obesity in Urban Indian Children

Background Hyperhomocysteinemia is regarded as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity. Manifestation of these chronic metabolic disorders starts in early life marked by increase in body mass index (BMI). We hypothesized that perturbations in homocysteine metabolism in early life could be a link between childhood obesity and adult metabolic disorders. Thus here we investigated association of common variants from homocysteine metabolism pathway genes with obesity in 3,168 urban Indian children. Methodology/Principal Findings We genotyped 90 common variants from 18 genes in 1,325 children comprising of 862 normal-weight (NW) and 463 over-weight/obese (OW/OB) children in stage 1. The top signal obtained was replicated in an independent sample set of 1843 children (1,399 NW and 444 OW/OB) in stage 2. Stage 1 association analysis revealed association between seven variants and childhood obesity at P<0.05, but association of only rs2796749 in AMD1 [OR = 1.41, P = 1.5×10-4] remained significant after multiple testing correction. Association of rs2796749 with childhood obesity was validated in stage 2 [OR = 1.28, P = 4.2×10-3] and meta-analysis [OR = 1.35, P = 1.9×10-6]. AMD1 variant rs2796749 was also associated with quantitative measures of adiposity and plasma leptin levels that was also replicated and corroborated in combined analysis. Conclusions/Significance Our study provides first evidence for the association of AMD1 variant with obesity and plasma leptin levels in children. Further studies to confirm this association, its functional significance and mechanism of action need to be undertaken.
The Mathematical Foundations of 3D Compton Scatter Emission Imaging

The mathematical principles of tomographic imaging using detected (unscattered) X- or gamma-rays are based on the two-dimensional Radon transform and many of its variants. In this paper, we show that two new generalizations, called conical Radon transforms, are related to three-dimensional imaging processes based on detected Compton scattered radiation. The first class of conical Radon transform has been introduced recently to support imaging principles of collimated detector systems. The second class is new and is closely related to the Compton camera imaging principles and invertible under special conditions. As they are poised to play a major role in future designs of biomedical imaging systems, we present an account of their most important properties which may be relevant for active researchers in the field.
GenomeTrafac: a whole genome resource for the detection of transcription factor binding site clusters associated with conventional and microRNA encoding genes conserved between mouse and human gene orthologs

Transcriptional cis-regulatory control regions frequently are found within non-coding DNA segments conserved across multi-species gene orthologs. Adopting a systematic gene-centric pipeline approach, we report here the development of a web-accessible database resource—GenomeTraFac ()—that allows genome-wide detection and characterization of compositionally similar cis-clusters that occur in gene orthologs between any two genomes for both microRNA genes as well as conventional RNA-encoding genes. Each ortholog gene pair can be scanned to visualize overall conserved sequence regions, and within these, the relative density of conserved cis-element motif clusters form graph peak structures. The results of these analyses can be mined en masse to identify most frequently represented cis-motifs in a list of genes. The system also provides a method for rapid evaluation and visualization of gene model-consistency between orthologs, and facilitates consideration of the potential impact of sequence variation in conserved non-coding regions to impact complex cis-element structures. Using the mouse and human genomes via the NCBI Reference Sequence database and the Sanger Institute miRBase, the system demonstrated the ability to identify validated transcription factor targets within promoter and distal genomic regulatory regions of both conventional and microRNA genes.
Non-stationary Bayesian direction of arrival estimation with drifting sensor locations

We describe a new tracking algorithm for the direction of arrival estimation problem where both the locations of the sensors in the array and the directions of arrival are nonstationary. The approach taken is Bayesian. The algorithm assumes that the filtering distribution is approximately Gaussian and maintains the mean and covariance of this approximation by fitting a quadratic surface to the log posterior around the location where the log posterior is maximized. In the case where the sensor locations are stationary, the algorithm is shown to have similar performance to particle filter based algorithms but at a reduced computational cost. In the case where the sensor locations are non-stationary particle filtering is unsuccessful and the new algorithm performs significantly better than currently existing algorithms.
Proactive Inhibitory Control and Attractor Dynamics in Countermanding Action: A Spiking Neural Circuit Model

Flexible behavior depends on the brain's ability to suppress a habitual response or to cancel a planned movement whenever needed. Such inhibitory control has been studied using the countermanding paradigm in which subjects are required to withhold an imminent movement when a stop signal appears infrequently in a fraction of trials. To elucidate the circuit mechanism of inhibitory control of action, we developed a recurrent network model consisting of spiking movement (GO) neurons and fixation (STOP) neurons, based on neurophysiological observations in the frontal eye field and superior colliculus of behaving monkeys. The model places a premium on the network dynamics before the onset of a stop signal, especially the experimentally observed high baseline activity of fixation neurons, which is assumed to be modulated by a persistent top-down control signal, and their synaptic interaction with movement neurons. The model simulated observed neural activity and fit behavioral performance quantitatively. In contrast to a race model in which the STOP process is initiated at the onset of a stop signal, in our model whether a movement will eventually be canceled is determined largely by the proactive top-down control and the stochastic network dynamics, even before the appearance of the stop signal. A prediction about the correlation between the fixation neural activity and the behavioral outcome was verified in the neurophysiological data recorded from behaving monkeys. The proposed mechanism for adjusting control through tonically active neurons that inhibit movement-producing neurons has significant implications for exploring the basis of impulsivity associated with psychiatric disorders.
Downregulation of Meg 3 enhances cisplatin resistance of lung cancer cells through activation of the WNT / β-catenin signaling pathway

Maternally expressed gene 3 (Meg3) has been shown to promote tumor progression. However, the role of Meg3 in the development of a chemoresistant phenotype of human lung cancer has remains. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis was used to determine the expression of Meg3. Flow cytometric analysis and MTT assay were also used to investigate the cell cycle and apoptosis. The present study detected that the expression levels of Meg3 were significantly lower in cisplatin‑resistant A549/DDP lung cancer cells, compared with those in parental A549 cells. Furthermore, upregulation of Meg3 was able to re-sensitize the A549/DDP cells to cisplatin in vitro. Whereas downregulation of Meg3, by RNA interference, decreased the sensitivity of A549 cells to cisplatin. The results of the present study also demonstrated that the Meg3-mediated chemosen-sitivity enhancement was associated with the induction of cell-cycle arrest and increased apoptosis, through regulation of p53, β-catenin and survivin, which is a target gene of the WNT/β-catenin signaling pathway. In conclusion, these results suggested that Meg3 may have a crucial role in the development of cisplatin resistance in non-small cell lung cancer.
GACE: Gesture and Appearance Cutout Embedding for Gaming Applications

This paper presents a lightweight game framework that provides real-time integration of human appearance and gesture-guided control within the game. It augments a new immersive experience since it allows game users to see their personal appearance interacting in real-time with other computer graphical characters in the game. With the goal to make the system easily realizable, we address the challenges in the whole pipeline of video processing, gesture recognition, and communication. To this end, we introduce the game framework, Gesture and Appearance Cutout Embedding (GACE), which runs the human appearance cutout algorithm and connects with game components by using memory mapped files. We also introduce the gesture-based support to enhance the immersion. Extensive experiments have shown that the proposed system runs reliably and comfortably in real-time with a commodity setting.
THE PECULIARITIES OF THE VEGETATIVE REGULATION OF THE HEART RHYTHM IN PROCESSING DIFFERENT MODALITY AND SPEED INFORMATION OF PRESENTING IRRITATORS

Introduction. The mental activity brain mechanisms are the object of many studies in psychophysiology. The mental activity vegetative providing participation regulation and evaluation problem by the indications of the heart rhythm while processing various information is considered one of the most important tasks. Purpose. The aim of our study was to find out the heart rhythm vegetative regulation peculiarities while processing different modality information and presentation speed. Methods. In the experimental study participated 30 men aged 19 to20. The study was held using computer-aided devices «Dіаgnоst1М» and «Cardiolab». In the background and while doing tasks with different presenting information speed on the heart rhythm variability indications different modality registration irritators was held (the average meaning of the HRF, mode (Mo), mode amplitude (AMo), standard deviation of the cardio-intervals massive (SDNN), stress index (SI)). Result. It has been proved, that while the processing verbal and image information speed growing the heart rhythm regulatory mechanisms activation level gradually increases and decreases on condition of the irritators tempo presentation decrease. When processing information on verbal stimuli at all speeds, the heart rate indicators were somewhat higher than the presentation of figures Conclusion. It has been found, that the heart rhythm vegetative regulation peculiarities depend on the speed of presenting irritators and do not depend on the signal modality.