Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Natural Killer Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy: Pluripotent Stem Cells-Derived NK Cells as an Immunotherapeutic Perspective

Natural killer (NK) cells play an essential role in the fight against tumor development. Over the last years, the progress made in the NK-cell biology field and in deciphering how NK-cell function is regulated, is driving efforts to utilize NK-cell-based immunotherapy as a promising approach for the treatment of malignant diseases. Therapies involving NK cells may be accomplished by activating and expanding endogenous NK cells by means of cytokine treatment or by transferring exogenous cells by adoptive cell therapy and/or by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. NK cells that are suitable for adoptive cell therapy can be derived from different sources, including ex vivo expansion of autologous NK cells, unstimulated or expanded allogeneic NK cells from peripheral blood, derived from CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors from peripheral blood and umbilical cord blood, and NK-cell lines. Besides, genetically modified NK cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors or cytokines genes may also have a relevant future as therapeutic tools. Recently, it has been described the derivation of large numbers of functional and mature NK cells from pluripotent stem cells, both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, which adds another tool to the expanding NK-cell-based cancer immunotherapy arsenal.
The infrared glow of the first stars

Kashlinsky et al. find a significant cosmic infrared background fluctuation excess on angular scales ≳50 arcsec that cannot be explained by instrumental noise or local foregrounds. The excess has been tentatively attributed to emission from primordial, very massive (Population III, hereafter PopIII) stars formed ≤ 200 Myr after the Big Bang. Using an evolutionary model motivated by independent observations and including various feedback processes, we find that PopIII stars can contribute <40 per cent of the total background intensity (νJν∼ 1–2 nW m−2 sr−1 in the 0.8–8 μm range) produced by all galaxies (hosting both PopIII and PopII stars) at z≥ 5. The infrared fluctuation excess is instead very precisely accounted for by the clustering signal of galaxies at z≥ 5, predominantly hosting PopII stars with masses and properties similar to the present ones.
Integrating various features in hidden Markov model using constraint relaxation algorithm for recognition of named entities without gazetteers

We propose a constraint relaxation algorithm to integrate various features in hidden Markov model (HMM). As an example, a HMM-based named entity recognition system is built without gazetteers. Evaluation on MUC-7 English named entity task shows that our system achieves F-measure of 92.0. It shows that various features can be effectively and efficiently integrated using the constraint relaxation algorithm. It also suggests that gazetteers need not be a bottleneck for named entity recognition in newswire domain.
A survey on incentive mechanism of delay tolerant networks

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) are new solutions that can cope with hash conditions and span across multiple networks. In these networks, end-to-end connectivity is intermittent. DTNs enable user devices to self-organize to connect to functional base station or other users through multiple hops. In traditional DTNs, they are assumed to be willing to help other nodes for packet forwarding. But in the real scenario of DTNs deployment, the nodes are often battery operated. As a result, the energy of the nodes is limited. Due to the nodes are energy constraint, the selfish behaviors may occur among the nodes, say, the nodes may not be willing to forward data for others. So the assumption that all the nodes are cooperative is unrealistic. The way to stimulate the nodes taking part in the relaying of data is often called incentive mechanism. In this paper, we analyze the selfish issue of DTNs and show the importance of settling the selfish problem. Then we display four types of typical examples of the incentive mechanisms. They are virtual currency based incentive mechanism, credit-based incentive mechanism, game-theory-based incentive mechanism and combined incentive mechanism. We analyze them respectively and comparative studies are also stated. Finally we make a conclusion and discuss the open research issues in the future.
Structure of the Sec23p/24p and Sec13p/31p complexes of COPII

COPII-coated vesicles carry proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi complex. This vesicular transport can be reconstituted by using three cytosolic components containing five proteins: the small GTPase Sar1p, the Sec23p/24p complex, and the Sec13p/Sec31p complex. We have used a combination of biochemistry and electron microscopy to investigate the molecular organization and structure of Sec23p/24p and Sec13p/31p complexes. The three-dimensional reconstruction of Sec23p/24p reveals that it has a bone-shaped structure, (17 nm in length), composed of two similar globular domains, one corresponding to Sec23p and the other to Sec24p. Sec13p/31p is a heterotetramer composed of two copies of Sec13p and two copies of Sec31p. It has an elongated shape, is 28–30 nm in length, and contains five consecutive globular domains linked by relatively flexible joints. Putting together the architecture of these Sec complexes with the interactions between their subunits and the appearance of the coat in COPII-coated vesicles, we present a model for COPII coat organization.
Design of a Second-Derivative Gaussian pulse generator

Based on step recovery characteristics of stepped recovery diode (SRD) at reverse biased, a Second-order Derivative Ultra-wideband (UWB) Gaussian pulse generator is designed in this paper. Compared with previous generators based on SRD, a novel structure is adopted in the proposed one. The generator is composed of a shunt SRD, a series SRD, 3 RC networks and a short-circuited microstrip stub. In the proposed generator, the RC networks substitute for DC bias, the shunt SRD works as edge sharpener while series SRD generates short gaussian pulse, and the short-circuited micro-strip stub is utilized for shaping the second-order derivative pulse. The circuit is simulated by Advanced Design System (ADS) and fabricated. Measured results indicate that the pulse duration is about 800ps, and the peak-to-peak magnitude is 1.2 volt. Good symmetry has been shown in the measured pulse, and the ringing level is approximately -16dB.
Time-dependent genre recognition by means of instantaneous frequency spectrum based on Hilbert-Huang transform

This paper describes a new method of music genre recognition. Even for people it is difficult to define musical genres, because a genre is something more than a set of rules. Automation of this task could improve the work of multiple audio-related WEB portals, such as audio-libraries, and could simplify human activity in other music-related areas. For music genre recognition, we introduce the instantaneous frequency spectrum (IFS) whose calculation is based on the Hilbert-Huang transform. In our method, IFSs of audio signals are generated from their instantaneous frequencies and used to calculate music genre templates. The experimental results for three test music pieces show that the method can accurately detect and differentiate genres of tunes. Slicing test music into frames and recognizing genres for short fragments of a whole music piece gives a precise description of a piece's internal structure, which could help to enhance people's understanding of the music. Presentation of this information also is an advance in music visualization.
Shrinking point bifurcations of resonance tongues for piecewise-smooth, continuous maps

Resonance tongues are mode-locking regions of parameter space in which stable periodic solutions occur; they commonly occur, for example, near Neimark–Sacker bifurcations. For piecewise-smooth, continuous maps these tongues typically have a distinctive lens-chain (or sausage) shape in two-parameter bifurcation diagrams. We give a symbolic description of a class of ‘rotational’ periodic solutions that display lens-chain structures for a general N-dimensional map. We then unfold the codimension-two, shrinking point bifurcation, where the tongues have zero width. A number of codimension-one bifurcation curves emanate from shrinking points and we determine those that form tongue boundaries.
A human-like approach to learning from examples

In this paper, we describe the system components, present the implemented architecture, and show the effect of an interactive learning system in action. We evaluate the system's ability to learning with two datasets, one synthetic and the other from writing samples gathered from human subjects. With both datasets, the respective test and training sets are the same so as to permit the process of interactive learning to be observed as it occurs. At it's core, this learning approach transforms sensory input and actuator output into rank P = 1 spaces, and uses learn a probabilistic mapping between these two “states” to perform the target task. In the future P >1 will be used internally, and we conclude this work with a brief treatment on why we believe this to be a useful trajectory.
Projecting RMRS from TIGER dependencies

We present a method for automatic RMRS semantics construction from dependency structures, following the semantic algebra of Copestake et al. (2001). We have applied this method to a subset of the TIGER Dependency Bank for German (Forst et al., 2004) to obtain a semantic treebank for (HPSG) parser evaluation. We describe the semantics construction mechanism and give evaluation figures from manual validation of the treebank. These indicate high precision of the automatic RMRS construction process.
Singularities and the wave equation on conic spaces

Let $X$ be a manifold with boundary, endowed with a metric with conic singularities at the boundary components of $X$. Let $u$ be a solution to the wave equation on $\mathbb{R} \times X$. When a singularity of $u$ strikes a cone point of $X$, it undergoes a mixture of diffractive spreading and geometric propagation.
Dynamic links between theta executive functions and alpha storage buffers in auditory and visual working memory

Working memory (WM) tasks require not only distinct functions such as a storage buffer and central executive functions, but also coordination among these functions. Neuroimaging studies have revealed the contributions of different brain regions to different functional roles in WM tasks; however, little is known about the neural mechanism governing their coordination. Electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms, especially theta and alpha, are known to appear over distributed brain regions during WM tasks, but the rhythms associated with task‐relevant regional coupling have not been obtained thus far. In this study, we conducted time–frequency analyses for EEG data in WM tasks that include manipulation periods and memory storage buffer periods. We used both auditory WM tasks and visual WM tasks. The results successfully demonstrated function‐specific EEG activities. The frontal theta amplitudes increased during the manipulation periods of both tasks. The alpha amplitudes increased during not only the manipulation but also the maintenance periods in the temporal area for the auditory WM and the parietal area for the visual WM. The phase synchronization analyses indicated that, under the relevant task conditions, the temporal and parietal regions show enhanced phase synchronization in the theta bands with the frontal region, whereas phase synchronization between theta and alpha is significantly enhanced only within the individual areas. Our results suggest that WM task‐relevant brain regions are coordinated by distant theta synchronization for central executive functions, by local alpha synchronization for the memory storage buffer, and by theta–alpha coupling for inter‐functional integration.
A Model of CAD Transactions

A CAD environment requires a significantly different model of transaction from that developed for typical data-processing applications. A viable model of CAD transaction must allow a group of cooperating designers to arrive at a design without being forced to wait over a long duration. It must also allow a group of designers to collaborate on a design with another group by assigning subtasks. In this paper, we provide both an intuitive description and a formal development of a new model of CAD transactions.
Development and Characterization of 18 Novel EST-SSRs from the Western Flower Thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande)

The western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), is an invasive species and the most economically important pest within the insect order Thysanoptera. For a better understanding of the genetic makeup and migration patterns of F. occidentalis throughout the world, we characterized 18 novel polymorphic EST-derived microsatellites. The mutational mechanism of these EST-SSRs was also investigated to facilitate the selection of appropriate combinations of markers for population genetic studies. Genetic diversity of these novel markers was assessed in 96 individuals from three populations in China (Harbin, Dali, and Guiyang). The results showed that all these 18 loci were highly polymorphic; the number of alleles ranged from 2 to 15, with an average of 5.50 alleles per locus. The observed (HO) and expected (HE) heterozygosities ranged from 0.072 to 0.707 and 0.089 to 0.851, respectively. Furthermore, only two locus/population combinations (WFT144 in Dali and WFT50 in Guiyang) significantly deviated from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). Pairwise FST analysis showed a low but significant differentiation (0.026 < FST < 0.032) among all three pairwise population comparisons. Sequence analysis of alleles per locus revealed a complex mutational pattern of these EST-SSRs. Thus, these EST-SSRs are useful markers but greater attention should be paid to the mutational characteristics of these microsatellites when they are used in population genetic studies.
Challenges for Effective Millirobots

Centimeter-scale robots will create the opportunity to manipulate, sense and explore a wide range of environments with greatly reduced cost and expanded capabilities. In many applications, the capability of millirobots depends on mobility, multiplicity, and intelligence. For intelligence, sensing and computation capabilities are now almost available off the shelf. However, there are significant challenges for millirobots in creating all-terrain capable mobility, and low production costs for multiplicity. The mesoscopic range between MEMS and conventional robots provides a new domain with rich challenges. There are advantages to this size scale for novel low-cost fabrication methods, including rapid prototyping of millirobots from kits of parts. This paper provides an overview of some approaches to key challenges in millirobots for design, fabrication, actuation, and power, illustrated by examples in legged and winged millirobots made using carbon fiber.
Parallelization of BLAST with MapReduce for Long Sequence Alignment

Sequence alignment is of great importance in biology research. BLAST is a sequence alignment tool used extensively by researchers. However the continuously increasing amount of sequence data to be processed presents many challenges to it. This paper gives a simple and effective approach to parallelizing BLAST using the MapReduce technique. The MapReduce-BLAST shows very good performance and scales nearly linearly to the database size and query length. This results from both the power of MapReduce and the inherent parallel characteristics of the BLAST algorithm. Sequence alignment algorithms based on techniques similar with BLAST's seed-and-extend approach are very suitable for being parallelized with MapReduce.
Biological Variation of Myeloperoxidase

Hansen KE, et al. Assay variation confounds the diagnosis of hypovitaminosis D: a call for standardization. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2004;89: 3152–7. 4. Souberbielle JC, Fayol V, Sault C, Lawson-Body E, Kahan A, Cormier C. Assay-specific decision limits for two new automated parathyroid hormone and 25-hydroxyvitamin D assays. Clin Chem 2005;51:395–400. 5. Singh RJ, Taylor RL, Reddy GS, Hollis BW, Grebe SK. C-3 epimers can account for a significant proportion of total circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D in infants, complicating accurate measurement and interpretation of vitamin D status. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006;91:3055–61.
Towards Establishment of a Rice Stress Response Interactome

Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple food for more than half the world and a model for studies of monocotyledonous species, which include cereal crops and candidate bioenergy grasses. A major limitation of crop production is imposed by a suite of abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in 30%–60% yield losses globally each year. To elucidate stress response signaling networks, we constructed an interactome of 100 proteins by yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays around key regulators of the rice biotic and abiotic stress responses. We validated the interactome using protein–protein interaction (PPI) assays, co-expression of transcripts, and phenotypic analyses. Using this interactome-guided prediction and phenotype validation, we identified ten novel regulators of stress tolerance, including two from protein classes not previously known to function in stress responses. Several lines of evidence support cross-talk between biotic and abiotic stress responses. The combination of focused interactome and systems analyses described here represents significant progress toward elucidating the molecular basis of traits of agronomic importance.
A forced opportunity: Climate change and journalism

One way to identify journalism’s problems is to focus on journalism itself. This is what we are good at. How will journalism react to the constantly evolving hybrid media environment (Chadwick, 2013) and the eroding boundaries of public communication – without losing its professional autonomy (Waisbord, 2013)? How will it sustain a cultural and social authority (Carlson, 2017) that differentiates it from other information, particularly when there seems to be a ‘gap’ between the thematic priorities of journalists and their audiences (Boczkowski and Mitchelstein, 2013) – and journalists are often seen as part of the establishment? How will new and old journalistic outlets develop plausible revenue models that can sustain quality reporting? What will be the position of journalism in the current attention economy or in the middle of the collective emerging ‘attention disorder’ (Bennett, 2016: 71–72) where battles of public opinion are won by well-targeted, simplistic, emotional messages that circulate effectively in the ‘distortion chambers’ (Sunstein, 2017) of the web? Another way of taking stock is to look at what is happening around journalism. John Nerone (2015) offers a useful template for this with his idea of ‘tests of capacity’ (pp. 221–230). He looks for social and political issues that come to test journalism. With this de-centred strategy, his narrative picks up historical threads: the question about social classes, the legacy of slavery, global warming, and war and empire. Other recent candidates could emerge effortlessly: datafication and its issues of power and justice (e.g. Dencik et al., 2016), the global rise of populism or authoritarianism (e.g. Moffit, 2016), with its toxic post-modern uses of power and political discourse which aggressively attacks journalism – among other ‘internal enemies’ of the people. And so on. While we live in times where many risks are high and intertwined, the latter strategy offers, I think, one challenge that rises above others. Hence, the ‘single’ biggest challenge for journalism in this sense is, of course, climate change. It is the systemic problem of our era and the coming future. It is not a ‘crisis’ (Latour, 2017) – a temporary condition of disease that can be cured or weathered out – but a material, unpredictable
A pupil location method based on improved OTSU algorithm

To improve the accuracy and rapidity of pupil location in human-computer interaction, a method based on the improved OTSU algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the image is pre-processed using light compensating and median filtering to calculate the maximum between-class variance of the pixels which exist in the image, and obtain the optimum threshold of the binary image. Finally, the pupil center and radius is got by using ellipse fitting. Experiment results show that the method is quite accurate and fast, which laid a great foundation for the eye tracking.
Dual-Mode Tunable Q-Enhanced Filter for Narrowband and UWB Systems

A dual-mode tunable Q-enhanced active filter is proposed and designed. The filter is capable of processing both 5 GHz narrowband (NB) and ultra wideband (UWB) services by switching mode dynamically. The design uses the mainstream 0.18 mum CMOS technology. In the UWB mode, the filter behaves as an LNA, however, when the NB interference is detected, the filter notches the NB frequency and provides gain for the UWB signals. Under this operation, the filter has an input matching of 10 dB, again of at least 5.6 dB, a narrowband rejection of 9.8 dB for a BW of 100 MHz and a 1 dB compression point of -15.1 dB. The filter performs better if it operates as a sole UWB LNA. In the NB mode, the filter is used for bandpass channel selection. It exhibits an input matching of 20.5 dB, a gain of 23 dB at 100 MHz BW, a noise figure of 7.1 dB and a 1 dB compression point of -26.8 dB. The circuit consumes less than 27 mW of power at 1.8 V supply. The design allows the same receiver front-end to provide both services while reducing system complexity and cost
Spectrum of Inflammatory Changes in the SIJs on Radiographs and MR Images in Patients with Suspected Axial Spondyloarthritis

Summary Background The aim of the paper was to compare radiographs and MRI in assessment of active and chronic inflammatory changes in the sacroiliac joints in patients with chronic back pain and suspected axial spondyloarthritis. Moreover, the aim was to determine which of the two methods is more accurate in diagnosing individual inflammatory changes in the sacroiliac joints and whether there is a correlation between radiographs and MRI in their identification. Material/Methods The analysis was conducted in a group of 101 patients, including 61 women and 40 men, referred to radiographs and MR examinations by rheumatologists due to chronic back pain. AP images of the lumbar region of the spine were performed in each patient in the supine position. The images included the sacroiliac joints. Changes in the SIJs were assessed based on the New York criteria of 1966. In MR examination, the SIJs were assessed in terms of the presence of active and chronic inflammatory changes described by the ASAS. The statistical analysis of the variables tested was conducted in the Excel and Statistica systems. Results In relation to the final clinical diagnosis of axSpA, MRI had higher sensitivity and specificity than radiography in diagnosing sacroiliitis (sensitivity: 71% vs. 22%, specificity: 90% vs. 94% on radiographs according to New York criteria. In relation to MRI, radiographs resulted in 40% of incorrect sacroiliitis diagnoses (both false positive and false negative results). In as many as 50% of cases (7/14), MRI failed to confirm the presence of inflammatory changes in the sacroiliac joints observed in radiography according to the modNY criteria (false positive results on radiographs). Both examinations are characterised by very low agreement, which is near to random, in assessing individual features of sacroiliitis, such as sclerosis, change in the joint space width, erosions and ankylosis. Conclusions 1. Radiographs do not allow early inflammatory lesions indicating sacroiliitis to be diagnosed, which leads to diagnostic delay. MRI is the method of choice in diagnosing early sacroiliitis and detecting structural lesions, in particular sclerosis and erosions. 2. Radiographs and MRI are characterised by low, near to random, agreement in the detectability of the individual inflammatory changes in the sacroiliac joints.