Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification and Expression Analysis of Minichromosome Maintenance Proteins in the Silkworm, Bombyx mori

Abstract The minichromosome maintenance protein (MCM) family is involved in the regulatory role of DNA replication in eukaryotic organisms. A cDNA encoding of an MCM of the silkworm, Bombyx mori L. (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae), was cloned by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequenced. The resultant amino acid sequence and phylogenetic analysis revealed high identity to MCM, and specifically to MCM7, of vertebrates and invertebrates. An RT-PCR showed that the bmMCM7 transcript was present in the ovaries, testes, silk glands, and fat bodies of larval silkworms. Expression plasmids were transformed into competent Escherichia coli and overexpressed. This is the first report on the identification of MCM helicase of the silkworm, B. mori.
Phonographic image recognition using fusion of scale invariant descriptor

The paper presents a pornographic image recognition using fusion of scale invariant descriptor. The pornographic image means the image contains and shows genital elements of human body having large variability due to poses, lighting, and backgrounds variations. The fusion of scale invariant descriptor that is holistic feature is employed to handle those variability problems. This holistic feature that is pose and scale invariant information of pornographic images is extracted by fusing the scale invariant descriptor of skin region of interests (ROIs) of pornographic images. The skin ROI is used to handle the large variability of pornographic images due to background variations. The main aim of this research finds a good solution for pornographic recognition system, which can be developed to limit the accessing pornographic images by teenagers and children. The experimental results show that the proposed method tends to provide high enough accuracy more than 80%, small enough FNR and FPR bout 2.77% and 28.79%, respectively. It means the proposed method is suitable to develop rejection system of pornographic images. Furthermore, these achievements are much better than the achievements of established methods. This results can be achieved because the fusion of scale invariant descriptor consists rich pornographic information representing holistic feature of pornographic images.
Does Bank Concentration Lead to Concentration in Industrial Sectors?

This paper explores the effect of banking market structure on the market structure of industrial sectors. It asks whether concentration in the banking market promotes the formation of industries constituted by a few, large firms, or rather, whether it facilitates the continuous entry of new firms, thus maintaining unconcentrated market structures across industries. Theoretical arguments could be made to support either hypotethical scenario. Empirical evidence is derived from a sample of 35 manufacturing industries in 17 OECD countries, adopting a methodology that allows controlling for other determinants of industry market structure common across industries or across countries. Bank concentration is found to enhance industries' market concentration, especially in sectors highly dependent on external finance. Such effect is however weaker in countries characterized by higher overall financial development.
The Intrinsically Disordered Regions of the Drosophila melanogaster Hox Protein Ultrabithorax Select Interacting Proteins Based on Partner Topology

Interactions between structured proteins require a complementary topology and surface chemistry to form sufficient contacts for stable binding. However, approximately one third of protein interactions are estimated to involve intrinsically disordered regions of proteins. The dynamic nature of disordered regions before and, in some cases, after binding calls into question the role of partner topology in forming protein interactions. To understand how intrinsically disordered proteins identify the correct interacting partner proteins, we evaluated interactions formed by the Drosophila melanogaster Hox transcription factor Ultrabithorax (Ubx), which contains both structured and disordered regions. Ubx binding proteins are enriched in specific folds: 23 of its 39 partners include one of 7 folds, out of the 1195 folds recognized by SCOP. For the proteins harboring the two most populated folds, DNA-RNA binding 3-helical bundles and α-α superhelices, the regions of the partner proteins that exhibit these preferred folds are sufficient for Ubx binding. Three disorder-containing regions in Ubx are required to bind these partners. These regions are either alternatively spliced or multiply phosphorylated, providing a mechanism for cellular processes to regulate Ubx-partner interactions. Indeed, partner topology correlates with the ability of individual partner proteins to bind Ubx spliceoforms. Partners bind different disordered regions within Ubx to varying extents, creating the potential for competition between partners and cooperative binding by partners. The ability of partners to bind regions of Ubx that activate transcription and regulate DNA binding provides a mechanism for partners to modulate transcription regulation by Ubx, and suggests that one role of disorder in Ubx is to coordinate multiple molecular functions in response to tissue-specific cues.
Urinary Kallikrein Excretion in Hypertensive Man: Relationships to Sodium intake and Sodium‐Retaining Steroids

Urinary kallikrein excretion was measured by a radiochemical esterolytic assay in patients with essential hypertension or primary aldosteronism. Patients with essential hypertension excreted significantly less (P < 0.001) kallikrein than did normal subjects when they were allowed an ad libitum sodium intake or given 259 mEq sodium/day. When sodium intake was changed from ad libitum to 9 mEq/day, kallikrein excretion increased in the majority of patients with essential hypertension, but it remained significantly less (P < 0.001) than that in normal subjects; however, aldosterone excretion was similar in both groups. Fludrocortisone, 0.5 mg/day for 10 days, increased kallikrein excretion in three patients with essential hypertension. In patients with primary aldosteronism, mean kallikrein excretion was sevenfold higher (P < 0.001) than that in patients with essential hypertension; kallikrein excretion remained unchanged when dietary sodium was altered, but it was decreased by treatment with spironolactone. Mean kallikrein excretion in patients with primary aldosteronism was also significantly higher (P < 0.001) than that in a normotensive control population. The results show that kallikrein excretion reflects the effective level of circulating sodium-retaining steroid in patients with primary aldosteronism but suggest that it is relatively unresponsive to endogenous sodium-retaining steroid in patients with essential hypertension. The data raise the possibility that the kallikrein-kinin system is of pathogenetic significance in human hypertensive disease.
A Relay Deployment Mechanism for One Scenario of Cost-Effective Coverage Extension in IEEE 802.16j Networks

IEEE 802.16j is a wireless broadband networking standard that integrates infrastructure base stations with multihop relay technology. Relay stations can provide substantial gains of coverage area and capacity of the cell compared to a base station alone. In this paper, we introduce an optimization problem of cost-effective relay station deployment for the IEEE 802.16j networks in the case of extending the coverage on the new residential area. First, the coverage area, which is defined as an area where the user has a signal- to-noise value greater than a given threshold value, is calculated. After that, the number of relay stations and their optimal positions which maximize the provider's profit are found, taking into account one-time costs, such as CAPEX and IMPEX, as well as recurring costs, like OPEX. The proposed relay deployment mechanism allows the providers to maximize their own profit if they want to extend the coverage area to attract new customers.
Microfluidic immunoassays as rapid saliva-based clinical diagnostics

At present, point-of-care (POC) diagnostics typically provide a binary indication of health status (e.g., home pregnancy test strip). Before anticipatory use of diagnostics for assessment of complex diseases becomes widespread, development of sophisticated bioassays capable of quantitatively measuring disease biomarkers is necessary. Successful translation of new bioassays into clinical settings demands the ability to monitor both the onset and progression of disease. Here we report on a clinical POC diagnostic that enables rapid quantitation of an oral disease biomarker in human saliva by using a monolithic disposable cartridge designed to operate in a compact analytical instrument. Our microfluidic method facilitates hands-free saliva analysis by integrating sample pretreatment (filtering, enrichment, mixing) with electrophoretic immunoassays to quickly measure analyte concentrations in minimally pretreated saliva samples. Using 20 μl of saliva, we demonstrate rapid (<10 min) measurement of the collagen-cleaving enzyme matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8) in saliva from healthy and periodontally diseased subjects. In addition to physiologically measurable indicators of periodontal disease, conventional measurements of salivary MMP-8 were used to validate the microfluidic assays described in this proof-of-principle study. The microchip-based POC diagnostic demonstrated is applicable to rapid, reliable measurement of proteinaceous disease biomarkers in biological fluids.
Simultaneous diagonalization: the asymmetric, low-rank, and noisy settings

Simultaneous matrix diagonalization is used as a subroutine in many machine learning problems, including blind source separation and paramater estimation in latent variable models. Here, we extend algorithms for performing joint diagonalization to low-rank and asymmetric matrices, and we also provide extensions to the perturbation analysis of these methods. Our results allow joint diagonalization to be applied in several new settings.
Feasibility study of an adaptive communication system with renewable energy source

Recent years, the microgrid concept built on distributed enegy generation is gaining more interest as a solution for the huge amount of consumed energy by communication network infrastructures. This paper discusses a communication system adaptively operated with renewable power generation, which controls traffic according to the generated power by renewable energy source. We particularly examine a test system we have developed and discuss the feasibility of our system.
The Formalism Transformation Graph as a Guide to Model Driven Engineering

In recent years, many new concepts, methodologies, and tools have emerged, which have made Model Driven Engineering (MDE) more usable, precise and automated. A MDE process is very often dependent on the domain. Thus, means for composing and customizing MDE activities are increasingly necessary. In this paper, we propose the FTG+PM framework that acts as a guide for carrying out model transformations, and as a basis for unifying key MDE practices, namely multi-paradigm modelling, meta-modelling, and model-transformation. The FTG+PM consists of the Formalism Transformation Graph (FTG) and its complement, the Process Model (PM), and charts all kinds of activities in the MDE lifecycle such as requirements development, domain-specific design, verification, simulation, analysis, calibration, deployment, code generation, execution, etc. The FTG describes in an explicit and precise way, formalisms, and their relationships as transformations between formalisms. The PM defines an actual MDE process using these formalisms and transformations. We illustrate the proposed FTG+PM approach through the design of an automated power window, a case study from the automotive domain.
ParTime: Parallel Temporal Aggregation

This paper presents ParTime, a parallel algorithm for temporal aggregation. Temporal aggregation is one of the most important, yet most complex temporal query operators. It has been extensively studied in the past, but so far there has only been one attempt to parallelize this operator. ParTime supports data parallelism and has a number of additional advantages: It supports the full bitemporal data model, it requires no a-priori indexing, it supports shared computation, and it runs well on modern hardware (i.e., NUMA machines with large main memories). We implemented ParTime in a parallel database system and carried out comprehensive performance experiments with a real workload from the airline industry and a synthetic benchmark, the TPC-BiH benchmark. The results show that ParTime significantly outperforms any other available temporal database system. Furthermore, the results show that ParTime is competitive as compared to the Timeline Index, the best known technique to process temporal queries from the research literature and which is based on pre-computation and indexing.
A survey of ring-building network protocols suitable for command and control group communications

Multicasting is the enabling technology for group communication. However, network-layer multicasting (e.g., IP multicast) has not been widely adopted more than 10 years of its invention due to the concerns related to deployment, scalability and network management. Application-layer multicast (ALM) has been proposed as an alternative for IP multicast. In ALM, group communications take place on an overlay network in which each edge corresponds to a direct unicast path between two group members. ALM protocols differ in, among other aspects, the topology of the underlying overlay network (e.g., tree, mesh or ring). Ring-based ALM protocols have the advantages of providing a constant node degree, and enabling the implementation of reliable and totally-ordered message delivery through the use of a ring with a token that contains ordering and flow control information. In addition, a ring overlay network topology is inherently reliable to single node failures. In this paper, we provide a survey and a taxonomy of several ring-building group communication protocols. Investigating the major characteristics of ring-building network protocols is an important step towards understanding which of them are suitable for command and control group communications.
Depth recovery from stereo images

In machine vision applications, distance or depth is an important factor. This paper describes stereoscopic depth calculation method by using images by two identical cameras separated by a small distance. This method requires calibration of cameras and rectification, an important step which is required for the matching of the images captured by two cameras. Using this stereo matching technique disparity is calculated. This is directly related to the depth. The proposed method is very much useful for planetary vision, autopilots, etc.
An Effective Penetration Test Approach Based on Feature Matrix for Exposing SQL Injection Vulnerability

Among all the Web application security issues, SQL Injection Vulnerability (SQLIV) is one of the most serious problems. How to test SQLIV effectively is of great importance. To address this issue, this paper describes a novel approach that is the utilization of Feature Matrix (FM) model for SQLIV black-box penetration test. Firstly, FM is introduced, which integrates the general SQLIV penetration test features for SQLIV. Each row of the matrix is defined as a test pattern, named Global Test Pattern (GTP). Then, GTP Selection (GTPS) process is used to select legal GTPs for general SQLIV penetration test. Secondly, to find out the optimum FM during SQLIV penetration test procedure automatically, Dynamic Matrix Selection (DMS) algorithm is described, which is based on dynamic tree pruning. Finally, a prototype tool SQLEXP is developed, the experiments of which are carried out under the context of two target Web applications and about 30000 real Internet URLs. The results show that the proposed approach can effectively improve the testing effect for SQLIV penetration test compared with two benchmarking testing tools.
Enlarged Thalamic Volumes and Increased Fractional Anisotropy in the Thalamic Radiations in Veterans with Suicide Behaviors

Post-mortem studies have suggested a link between the thalamus, psychiatric disorders, and suicide. We evaluated the thalamus and anterior thalamic radiations (ATR) in a group of Veterans with and without a history of suicidal behavior (SB) to determine if thalamic abnormalities were associated with an increased risk of SB. Forty Veterans with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) and no SB (TBI-SB), 19 Veterans with mild TBI and a history of SB (TB + SB), and 15 healthy controls (HC) underwent magnetic resonance imaging scanning including a structural and diffusion tensor imaging scan. SBs were evaluated utilizing the Columbia Suicide Rating Scale and impulsivity was measured using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). Differences in thalamic volumes and ATR fractional anisotropy (FA) were examined between (1) TBI + SB versus HC and (2) TBI + SB versus combined HC and TBI-SB and (3) between TBI + SB and TBI-SB. Left and right thalamic volumes were significantly increased in those with TBI + SB compared to the HC, TBI-SB, and the combined group. Veterans with TBI + SB had increased FA bilaterally compared to the HC, HC and TBI-SB group, and the TBI-SB only group. Significant positive associations were found for bilateral ATR and BIS in the TBI + SB group. Our findings of thalamic enlargement and increased FA in individuals with TBI + SB suggest that this region may be a biomarker for suicide risk. Our findings are consistent with previous evidence indicating that suicide may be associated with behavioral disinhibition and frontal-thalamic-limbic dysfunction and suggest a neurobiologic mechanism that may increase vulnerability to suicide.
Towards cloud-based speech interfaces for open-domain CogInfoCom systems

A web browser accessing Wikipedia is a classic example of an open-domain CogInfoCom system, providing instant high-quality information about any topic, and thereby extending human cognitive capabilities. The WikiTalk system provides an alternative spoken dialogue interface to Wikipedia. By implementing WikiTalk on humanoid robots, the robots become open-domain CogInfoCom systems, capable of instantly talking about any topic. This capability for “open-domain talking” can be useful for different applications, such as serving as conversational companions. The WikiTalk system does not currently implement a parallel capability for “open-domain listening”. However, in view of recent advances in cloud-based speech processing, the paper proposes steps towards open-domain listening that combine anticipated progress in open vocabulary speech recognition with recent developments in named entity recognition, where Wikipedia is now used as a dynamically updated knowledge source instead of fixed gazetteer lists. The paper proposes that Wikipedia-based open-domain talking and open-domain listening will be combined in a new generation of cloud-based open-domain CogInfoCom systems.
Association between Grape Yeast Communities and the Vineyard Ecosystems

The grape yeast biota from several wine-producing areas, with distinct soil types and grapevine training systems, was assessed on five islands of Azores Archipelago, and differences in yeast communities composition associated with the geographic origin of the grapes were explored. Fifty-seven grape samples belonging to the Vitis vinifera grapevine cultivars Verdelho dos Açores (Verdelho), Arinto da Terceira (Arinto) and Terrantez do Pico (Terrantez) were collected in two consecutive years and 40 spontaneous fermentations were achieved. A total of 1710 yeast isolates were obtained from freshly crushed grapes and 1200 from final stage of fermentations. Twenty-eight species were identified, Hanseniaspura uvarum, Pichia terricola and Metschnikowia pulcherrima being the three most representative species isolated. Candida carpophila was encountered for the first time as an inhabitant of grape or wine-associated environments. In both sampling years, a higher proportion of H. uvarum in fresh grapes from Verdelho cultivar was observed, in comparison with Arinto cultivar. Qualitatively significant differences were found among yeast communities from several locations on five islands of the Archipelago, particularly in locations with distinctive agro-ecological compositions. Our results are in agreement with the statement that grape-associated microbial biogeography is non-randomly associated with interactions of climate, soil, cultivar, and vine training systems in vineyard ecosystems. Our observations strongly support a possible linkage between grape yeast and wine typicality, reinforcing the statement that different viticultural terroirs harbor distinctive yeast biota, in particular in vineyards with very distinctive environmental conditions.
A Study on Optimized Resource Provisioning in Federated Cloud

Cloud computing changed the way of computing as utility services offered through public network. Selecting multiple providers for various computational requirements improves performance and minimizes cost of cloud services than choosing a single cloud provider. Federated cloud improves scalability, cost minimization, performance maximization, collaboration with other providers, multi-site deployment for fault tolerance and recovery, reliability and less energy consumption. Both providers and consumers could benefit from federated cloud where providers serve the consumers by satisfying Service Level Agreement, minimizing overall management and infrastructure cost; consumers get best services with less deployment cost and high availability. Efficient provisioning of resources to consumers in federated cloud is a challenging task. In this paper, the benefits of utilizing services from federated cloud, architecture with various coupling levels, different optimized resource provisioning methods and challenges associated with it are discussed and a comparative study is carried out over these aspects.
The virtual panel architecture: A 3D gesture framework

The Virtual Panel Architecture (VPA) has been designed to help implement an intermediate abstraction with elements of both a physical control panel and a computer-based control panel. This abstraction, handling 3D point-based gesticulative interaction with modeled object hierarchies, is suitable for both virtual reality environments and traditional environments. Based on the VPA, an environment of virtual panels is demonstrated which can be incorporated into keyboard-and-mouse-based computing. Users are able to turn virtual knobs, adjust virtual sliders, and point at virtual screens on these virtual panels in this environment. <<ETX>>
Extreme temperature electronics using a reconfigurable analog array

Temperature and radiation tolerant electronics, as well as long life survivability are key capabilities required for future NASA missions. Current approaches to electronics for extreme environments focus on component level robustness and hardening. Compensation techniques such as bias cancellation circuitry have also been employed. However, current technology can only ensure very limited lifetime in extreme environments. Previous work presented a novel approach, based on evolvable hardware technology, which allows adaptive in-situ circuit redesign/reconfiguration during operation in extreme environments. This technology would complement material/device advancements and increase the mission capability to survive harsh environments. This work describes a new reconfigurable analog chip developed by JPL and SPA WAR that is targeted for extreme temperature and evolutionary hardware experiments. Being based on Gm-C technology, this chip can have its functionality tuned and adapted to extreme temperatures through voltage bias adjustment. This tuning process will be controlled by evolutionary algorithms. This paper presents details of the reconfigurable analog chip as well as a system level overview. Some early experiments are also described