Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survival of the steepest: hypersensitivity to mutations as an adaptation to soft selection

Darwinian evolution favours genotypes with high fitness (‘survival of the fittest’). Models of quasi‐species evolution, however, suggest that in some cases selection may favour genotypes that are more robust against the impact of mutations (‘survival of the flattest’) even if these genotypes have lower fitness. I show that the opposite effect will be observed if competition occurs during development (e.g. among embryos or ovules) or before the adult phase (e.g. among the progeny of an individual). If viability is not affected by selection at these initial stages (soft selection), the genotypes that are more sensitive to the effects of mutations may increase in frequency because they get rid more easily of deleterious mutations. In a simple theoretical model of mutation and selection, genotypes located in steeper regions of the fitness surface are favoured (‘survival of the steepest’) even if they do not have higher viability, and even if they have slightly deleterious effects. Hypersensitive genes are potentially harmful for the individual, but with soft selection during the juvenile phase they persist in the genome because they reduce competition with their mutants. Soft selection occurs in practically all vascular plants and in many animals, therefore antirobustness may be a very common feature of the genome of multicellular organisms.
Frequency selective fading channel estimation in OFDM systems using KL expansion

This paper proposes a computationally efficient, linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimation algorithm based on KL series expansion for OFDM systems. Based on such expansion, no matrix inversion is required in the proposed MMSE estimator. Moreover, truncation in the linear expansion of channel is achieved by exploiting the optimal truncation property of the KL expansion resulting in a smaller computational load on the estimation algorithm. The performance of the proposed approach is studied through analytical and experimental results. We provide performance analysis results studying the influence of the effect of SNR and correlation mismatch on the estimator performance. Simulation results confirm our theoretical results and illustrate that the proposed algorithm is capable of tracking fast fading and improving performance.
Genetic Complexity and Quantitative Trait Loci Mapping of Yeast Morphological Traits

Functional genomics relies on two essential parameters: the sensitivity of phenotypic measures and the power to detect genomic perturbations that cause phenotypic variations. In model organisms, two types of perturbations are widely used. Artificial mutations can be introduced in virtually any gene and allow the systematic analysis of gene function via mutants fitness. Alternatively, natural genetic variations can be associated to particular phenotypes via genetic mapping. However, the access to genome manipulation and breeding provided by model organisms is sometimes counterbalanced by phenotyping limitations. Here we investigated the natural genetic diversity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cellular morphology using a very sensitive high-throughput imaging platform. We quantified 501 morphological parameters in over 50,000 yeast cells from a cross between two wild-type divergent backgrounds. Extensive morphological differences were found between these backgrounds. The genetic architecture of the traits was complex, with evidence of both epistasis and transgressive segregation. We mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) for 67 traits and discovered 364 correlations between traits segregation and inheritance of gene expression levels. We validated one QTL by the replacement of a single base in the genome. This study illustrates the natural diversity and complexity of cellular traits among natural yeast strains and provides an ideal framework for a genetical genomics dissection of multiple traits. Our results did not overlap with results previously obtained from systematic deletion strains, showing that both approaches are necessary for the functional exploration of genomes.
Eulerian finite element method for parabolic PDEs on implicit surfaces

We define an Eulerian level set method for parabolic partial differential equations on a stationary hypersurface contained in a domain Omega subset of Rn+1. The method is based on formulating the partial differential equations on all level surfaces of a prescribed function Phi whose zero level set is Gamma. Eulerian surface gradients are formulated by using a projection of the gradient in Rn+1 onto the level surfaces of Phi. These Eulerian surface gradients are used to define weak forms of surface elliptic operators and so generate weak formulations of surface elliptic and parabolic equations. The resulting equation is then solved in one dimension higher but can be solved on a mesh which is unaligned to the level sets of Phi. We consider both second order and fourth order elliptic operators with natural second order splittings. The finite element method is applied to the weak form of the split system of second order equations using piecewise linear elements on a fixed grid. The computation of the mass and element stiffness matrices is simple and straightforward. Numerical experiments are described which indicate the power of the method. We describe how this framework may be employed in applications.
External Cueing Improves Motor Imagery Quality in Patients With Parkinson Disease

Background. Patients with Parkinson disease (PD) are often profoundly slow in their performance of physical tasks, as well as in motor imagery (MI). This may limit the implementation and potential benefits of MI practice during rehabilitation. Objective. The authors investigated whether the quality of MI could be improved by external cueing. Methods. Fourteen patients with PD and 14 healthy controls physically executed and visually imagined a goal-directed aiming task and a box-and-block task, both in the presence and absence of visual and auditory cues. Mental chronometry and eye movement recording allowed objective evaluation of the temporal and spatial characteristics of MI when compared with physical execution. Visual analogue scales were used to assess imagery vividness. Results. The presence of visual cues significantly reduced the patients’ bradykinesia during MI and increased their imagery vividness. Conclusions. Visual cueing optimizes MI quality for PD patients and is a potential tool to increase the efficacy of MI practice in PD rehabilitation.
Partial evaluation and automatic program generation

Functions, types and expressions programming languages and their operational semantics compilation partial evaluation of a flow chart languages partial evaluation of a first-order functional languages the view from Olympus partial evaluation of the Lambda calculus partial evaluation of prolog aspects of Similix - a partial evaluator for a subset of scheme partial evaluation of C applications of partial evaluation termination of partial evaluation program analysis more general program transformation guide to the literature the self-applicable scheme specializer.
Reflex cardiovascular responses to chemoreceptor stimulation in conscious dogs with cardiac hypertrophy.

Carotid chemoreceptor reflex activation (CCRA) has been previously shown to result in intense alpha-adrenergic peripheral vasoconstriction, a biphasic coronary vascular response characterized by an early vasodilation and a late alpha-adrenergic vasoconstriction, and a cholinergic increase in cardiac cycle length in normal conscious dogs. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which these reflex cardiovascular responses to CCRA are modified after the development of pressure-overload right ventricular (RV) hypertrophy induced by chronic (9-12 mo) pulmonary arterial stenosis. With heart rate constant and respiration allowed to vary spontaneously, the magnitude of the late CCRA-induced (intracarotid nicotine) increase (P less than 0.01) in right coronary resistance was markedly attenuated (P less than 0.01) in conscious dogs with RV hypertrophy [0.29 +/- 0.07 (SE) mmHg X ml-1 X min] compared with normal dogs (1.87 +/- 0.36). When respiration was controlled to eliminate pulmonary inflation reflex activation, the late CCRA-induced increase (P less than 0.01) in right coronary resistance was still found to be depressed (P less than 0.01) in the RV hypertrophy group (1.11 +/- 0.20 mmHg X ml-1 X min) compared with normal dogs (3.65 +/- 0.75). This late CCRA-induced right coronary vasoconstriction was not potentiated by beta-adrenergic receptor blockade but was abolished (P less than 0.01) by alpha-adrenergic receptor blockade. In contrast to the depressed right coronary vasoconstriction, the CCRA-induced alpha-adrenergic constriction (P less than 0.01) of the iliac arterial vascular bed was similar in both groups, and the cholinergic increase (P less than 0.01) in cardiac cycle length was enhanced (P less than 0.01) in the RV hypertrophy group compared with normal dogs. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Genome-Wide Association Study for Wool Production Traits in a Chinese Merino Sheep Population

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) provide a powerful approach for identifying quantitative trait loci without prior knowledge of location or function. To identify loci associated with wool production traits, we performed a genome-wide association study on a total of 765 Chinese Merino sheep (JunKen type) genotyped with 50 K single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In the present study, five wool production traits were examined: fiber diameter, fiber diameter coefficient of variation, fineness dispersion, staple length and crimp. We detected 28 genome-wide significant SNPs for fiber diameter, fiber diameter coefficient of variation, fineness dispersion, and crimp trait in the Chinese Merino sheep. About 43% of the significant SNP markers were located within known or predicted genes, including YWHAZ, KRTCAP3, TSPEAR, PIK3R4, KIF16B, PTPN3, GPRC5A, DDX47, TCF9, TPTE2, EPHA5 and NBEA genes. Our results not only confirm the results of previous reports, but also provide a suite of novel SNP markers and candidate genes associated with wool traits. Our findings will be useful for exploring the genetic control of wool traits in sheep.
Vers une gestion durable des sols-support des espaces verts : Maintien et développement des fonctions et services Exemple de l'Agglomération Tourangelle

This work is an attempt to capture the changing role of green spaces and structure of cities they lead through the soil, taken here in both its horizontal, land component, and in its verticality, living entity. The soil is the support for parks, a major land tenure issue, but also a social and environmental investment. The study focuses on an average size town, Tours, characterized as a green city and more precisely on Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, a leafy and wealthy suburb, filled with green spaces, most of them privately owned. Based on interviews with associations, residents and city officials, this research shows that individual gardens are the mediators between soil, users and municipality. The spatial practices of residents in the gardens are at the heart of their relationship to the soil as a living entity. Representations of nature that motivate them are mostly that of a recreational area where the soil is seen as a constraint leading to a variety of adapted strategies.
P2X7R‐mediated Ca2+‐independent d‐serine release via pannexin‐1 of the P2X7R‐pannexin‐1 complex in astrocytes

d‐serine is a coagonist of N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) subtype of glutamate receptor and plays a role in regulating activity‐dependent synaptic plasticity. In this study, we examined the mechanism by which extracellular ATP triggers the release of d‐serine from astrocytes and discovered a novel Ca2+‐independent release mechanism mediated by P2X7 receptors (P2X7R). Using [3H] d‐serine, which was loaded into astrocytes via the neutral amino acid transporter 2 (ASCT2), we observed that ATP and a potent P2X7R agonist, 2′(3′)‐O‐(4‐benzoylbenzoyl)adenosine‐5′‐triphosphate (BzATP), stimulated [3H]D‐serine release and that were abolished by P2X7R selective antagonists and by shRNAs, whereas enhanced by removal of intracellular or extracellular Ca2+. The P2X7R‐mediated d‐serine release was inhibited by pannexin‐1 antagonists, such as carbenoxolone (CBX), probenecid (PBN), and 10Panx‐1 peptide, and shRNAs, and stimulation of P2X7R induced P2X7R‐pannexin‐1 complex formation. Simply incubating astrocytes in Ca2+/Mg2+‐free buffer also induced the complex formation, and that enhanced basal d‐serine release through pannexin‐1. The P2X7R‐mediated d‐serine release assayed in Ca2+/Mg2+‐free buffer was enhanced as well, and that was inhibited by CBX. Treating astrocytes with general protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors, such as chelerythrine, GF109203X, and staurosporine, but not Ca2+‐dependent PKC inhibitor, Gö6976, inhibited the P2X7R‐mediated d‐serine release. Thus, we conclude that in astrocytes, P2X7R‐pannexin‐1 complex formation is crucial for P2X7R‐mediated d‐serine release through pannexin‐1 hemichannel. The release is Ca2+‐independent and regulates by a Ca2+‐independent PKC. The activated P2X7R per se is also functioned as a permeation channel to release d‐serine in part. This P2X7R‐mediated d‐serine release represents an important mechanism for activity‐dependent neuron‐glia interaction. GLIA 2015;63:877–893
NADPH Oxidase 1 Plays a Key Role in Diabetes Mellitus–Accelerated Atherosclerosis

Background— In diabetes mellitus, vascular complications such as atherosclerosis are a major cause of death. The key underlying pathomechanisms are unclear. However, hyperglycemic oxidative stress derived from NADPH oxidase (Nox), the only known dedicated enzyme to generate reactive oxygen species appears to play a role. Here we identify the Nox1 isoform as playing a key and pharmacologically targetable role in the accelerated development of diabetic atherosclerosis. Methods and Results— Human aortic endothelial cells exposed to hyperglycemic conditions showed increased expression of Nox1, oxidative stress, and proinflammatory markers in a Nox1-siRNA reversible manner. Similarly, the specific Nox inhibitor, GKT137831, prevented oxidative stress in response to hyperglycemia in human aortic endothelial cells. To examine these observations in vivo, we investigated the role of Nox1 on plaque development in apolipoprotein E–deficient mice 10 weeks after induction of diabetes mellitus. Deletion of Nox1, but not Nox4, had a profound antiatherosclerotic effect correlating with reduced reactive oxygen species formation, attenuation of chemokine expression, vascular adhesion of leukocytes, macrophage infiltration, and reduced expression of proinflammatory and profibrotic markers. Similarly, treatment of diabetic apolipoprotein E–deficient mice with GKT137831 attenuated atherosclerosis development. Conclusions— These studies identify a major pathological role for Nox1 and suggest that Nox1-dependent oxidative stress is a promising target for diabetic vasculopathies, including atherosclerosis.
Viargo - A generic virtual reality interaction library

Traditionally, interaction techniques for virtual reality applications are implemented in a proprietary way on specific target platforms, e. g. , requiring specific hardware, physics or rendering libraries, which withholds reusability and portability. Though hardware abstraction layers for numerous devices are provided by multiple virtual reality libraries, they are usually tightly bound to a particular rendering environment. In this paper we introduce Viargo - a generic virtual reality interaction library, which serves as additional software layer that is independent from the application and its linked libraries, i. e. , a once developed interaction technique, such as walking with a head-mounted display or multi-touch interaction, can be ported to different hard- or software environments with minimal code adaptation. We describe the underlying concepts and present examples on how to integrate Viargo in different graphics engines, thus extending proprietary graphics libraries with a few lines of code to easy-to-use virtual reality engines.
Morphology and Filterability of Red Blood Cells in Neonatal and Adult Rats

ABSTRACT: Red blood cell (RBC) deformability in rats of various ages was assessed by filtration (3 μm Nuclepore membranes). Neonatal rat RBC (1 d old) had lower filter-ability, both in terms of RBC incremental volume (9.97 ± 1.85 versus 0.33 ± 0.28 nL at 180 d of age, mean ± SD, p < 0.001) and the number of filter clogging particles (25.7 ± 3.1 versus 18.9 ± 3.4 RBC × 103/s, p < 0.001). The lower filterability correlated with a larger RBC volume (169 ± 12.6 versus 69 ± 3.2 μm3, p < 0.001) and with a wider minimum cylindrical diameter (3.87 ± 0.15 versus 2.84 ± 0.05 μm, p < 0.001). Almost all of the neonatal RBC had a minimum cylindrical diameter exceeding the 3 μm nominal pore size of the filters. The calculated resistance to initial folding was also significantly greater, as indicated by a static bending analysis of initial deformation. However, when the larger size of neonatal RBC was taken into consideration, and thus their greater projected area on which forces are applied, they appear to be at least as deformable as the adult type RBC. This finding may explain the contradiction between RBC filtration experiments and other approaches based on RBC deformations in shear flow, which have been unable to detect a hampered flexibility of neonatal RBC. In view of the more pronounced differences between neonatal and adult RBC in rats than in human subjects, the rat is an interesting model for studying this physiologic phenomenon in newborns.
Creative clusters in berlin: entrepreneurship and the quality of place in prenzlauer berg and kreuzberg

Abstract. Urban creative clusters are currently a major focus of attention, as their prominent position in both local political and academic circles makes evident. Many authors stress the importance of spatial concentration for creative industries. However, only a few studies have focused on the individual entrepreneur. As a result, empirical evidence of the meaning of urban place as a site for social networks and a space for inspiration is still scarce. This is of some consequence as entrepreneurs provide a crucial link between creative activities and economic change and development. This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating how different creative entrepreneurs choose and evaluate their location. Using qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs in two creative clusters in the Berlin neighbourhoods Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg, this article shows the significance of the look and feel of specific places and explains how and for whom local networks are important.
Towards dual robust nonlinear model predictive control: A multi-stage approach

This paper presents an approach to dual robust nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). Dual control is traditionally formulated as a technique that seeks to solve the trade-off between probing actions, which result in a better estimation of the unknown parameters, and the optimal operation of the uncertain dynamic system. We propose a dual robust NMPC method based on the multi-stage approach that represents the uncertainty as a scenario tree of its possible realizations. We achieve a dual control formulation by taking explicitly into account the reduction of the uncertainty that future probing actions would provide over the prediction horizon. Using such formulation, our approach does not require any a priori decision on the relative importance of the probing actions with respect to the optimal operation of the system, as proposed in some recent approaches. The results obtained for a chemical engineering example show the advantages of using a dual NMPC approach based on multi-stage NMPC over the sequential use of parameter estimation with a posteriori approximation of the covariance of the parameter estimates.
Human bone marrow stromal cell cultures conditioned by traumatic brain tissue extracts: Growth factor production

Treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) with bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) improves functional outcome in the rat. However, the specific mechanisms by which introduced MSCs provide benefit remain to be elucidated. Currently, the ability of therapeutically transplanted MSCs to replace injured parenchymal CNS tissue appears limited at best. Tissue replacement, however, is not the only possible compensatory avenue in cell transplantation therapy. Various growth factors have been shown to mediate the repair and replacement of damaged tissue, so trophic support provided by transplanted MSCs may play a role in the treatment of damaged tissue. We therefore investigated the temporal profile of various growth factors, brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), within cultures of human MSCs (hMSCs) conditioned with cerebral tissue extract from TBI. hMSCs were cultured with TBI extracts of rat brain in vitro and quantitative sandwich enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were performed. TBI‐conditioned hMSCs cultures demonstrated a time‐dependent increase of BDNF, NGF, VEGF, and HGF, indicating a responsive production of these growth factors by the hMSCs. The ELISA data suggest that transplanted hMSCs may provide therapeutic benefit via a responsive secretion of an array of growth factors that can foster neuroprotection and angiogenesis. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Performance Analysis of 5G Cooperative-NOMA for IoT-Intermittent Communication

Non-orthogonal multiple Access (NOMA) is a potential 5G era multiple-access scheme that is proposed for the future mobile Internet and IoT applications which will require enormous increase in data traffic, massive-number of devices connectivity, high spectral efficiency, low-overhead and low-latency. It utilizes the same time-slots, frequency and spreading-codes for all the users. It uses the power-domain and assign different power levels to users for multiple access. The uplink (UL) communication in the present 4G-Networks is performed by the base station (BS) that uses a request-grant mechanism in which a large-overhead and latency is produced. This issue will get more severe in upcoming 5G-Networks. For this purpose, a grant-free NOMA for UL communication, in which dynamic compressed-sensing (DCS) algorithm will perform multi-user detection (MUD) as well as data-detection is proposed. It deploys the temporal-correlation of active-user sets (AUS) in adjacent time-slots from which the estimated AUS is used as the prior-knowledge to estimate AUS in the next time-slot. For the downlink (DL) communication, the proposed system performance evaluation is performed using Rician fading-channels for Cooperative Relaying System (CRS) NOMA. The simulations results show that the proposed DCS-MUD and CRS NOMA over Rician fading-channels perform much better than the conventional CS-MUD and traditional-CRS.
Sensor Network Localization via Nondifferentiable Optimization

Knowing the positions of nodes is essential to many wireless sensor network applications. In contrast to range-based localization methods, range-free methods are more appealing since they do not need additional expensive hardware for ranging. A range-free localization problem is a generalization of unit disk graph coordinates realization problem and in essence a feasibility problem with quadratic inequalities, which is NP- hard. In this paper, we formulate the range-free localization problem as a nondifferentiable optimization problem solved by a polynomial-time algorithm, normalized incremental subgradient (NIS) algorithm. Extensive simulations have been conducted. The simulation results show that the NIS-based localization algorithm significantly outperforms the MDS-MAP method and the SDP method, whether the network is regular or not.