Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Small‐conductance Cl– channels contribute to volume regulation and phagocytosis in microglia

The shape and volume of microglia (brain immune cells) change when they activate during brain inflammation and become migratory and phagocytic. Swollen rat microglia express a large Cl– current (IClswell), whose biophysical properties and functional roles are poorly understood and whose molecular identity is unknown. We constructed a fingerprint of useful biophysical properties for comparison with IClswell in other cell types and with cloned Cl– channels. The microglial IClswell was rapidly activated by cell swelling but not by voltage, and showed no time‐dependence during voltage‐clamp steps. Like IClswell in many cell types, the halide selectivity sequence was I– > Br– > Cl– > F–. However, it differed in lacking inactivation, even at +100 mV with high extracellular Mg2+, and in having a much lower single‐channel conductance: 1–3 pS. Based on these fundamental differences, the microglia channel is apparently a different gene product than the more common intermediate‐conductance IClswell. Microglia express several candidate genes, with relative mRNA expression levels of: CLIC1 > ClC3 > ICln ≥ ClC2 > Best2 > Best1 ≥ Best3 > Best4. Using a pharmacological toolbox, we show that all drugs that reduced the microglia current (NPPB, IAA‐94, flufenamic acid and DIOA) increased the resting cell volume in isotonic solution and inhibited the regulatory volume decrease that followed cell swelling in hypotonic solution. Both channel blockers tested (NPPB and flufenamic acid) dose‐dependently inhibited microglia phagocytosis of E. coli bacteria. Because IClswell is involved in microglia functions that involve shape and volume changes, it is potentially important for controlling their ability to migrate to damage sites and phagocytose dead cells and debris.
Exponential synchronization of complex networks with nonidentical time varying coupling delays and switching topology

In this paper, the exponential synchronization is discussed for the complex dynamical networks with nonidentical time varying coupling delays and switching topology. By adopting the average dwell time and free weight matrix approach of the switched systems, the delay-dependent sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the exponential synchronization of the complex networks where all subnetworks are self-synchronizing. The inferior bound of the ratio between total active time of self-synchronizing and nonsynchronizing is given to guarantee the exponential synchronization of the entire networks where some subnetworks are nonsynchronizing as well as the average dwell time.
Throughput sensitivity to antenna pattern and orientation in 802.11n networks

In this paper the throughput and packet error rate for an in-home 802.11n network is theoretically derived for two different types of 3x3 antenna configurations. Our first configuration assumes the use of three low directivity omni-dectional elements. The second arrangement makes use of three orthogonally orientated directional elements. The spatial and temporal characteristics of the in-home channels are modelled using 3D ray tracing and combined with appropriately orientated complex polarmetric patterns for each antenna element. Physical layer throughput is computed for all modulation and coding schemes using a received bit information rate abstraction technique. The theory shows that directional antennas outperform the omni-directional devices in most cases. Directional elements show increased sensitivity to orientation, however for 83% of locations and orientations they still result in throughput enhancement. Directional antennas provide a 33% improvement in average data rate for random client orientations, improving to 52% with optimum alignment to the multipath.
Single scattering part detection of SAR target based on its part-based scattering model

Part absence, background noise are difficult problems in SAR ATR, they can be overcome to some extent by detecting single scattering part of the target in the measured SAR data. In this article, an approach of single scattering part detection is proposed based on the target part-based scattering model. Thus, according to the properties of the scattering parts in the image domain, the corresponding scattering part in the model image and measured image can be matched to calculate a matching score. Through threshold judging, it can be decided whether a scattering part is existed in the measured data. The detection results can make an important contribution to SAR ATR. The efficiency of the method is confirmed by the experiments based on the simulated data of simple tank and MSTAR data which is employed as interfering data.
Approximating Weak Bisimilarity of Basic Parallel Processes

This paper explores the well known approximation approach to decide weak bisimilarity of Basic Parallel Processes. We look into how different refinement functions can be used t o prove weak bisimilarity decidable for certain subclasses. We also show their limitations for the general case. In particular, we show a lower bound of ω ∗ ω for the approximants which allow weak steps and a lower bound of ω+ ω for the approximants that allow sequences of actions. The former lower bound negatively answers the open question of Janˇ car and Hirshfeld.
Extending SROIQ with Constraint Networks and Grounded Circumscription

Developments in semantic web technologies have promoted ontological encoding of knowledge from diverse domains. However, modelling many practical domains requires more expressiveness than what the standard description logics (most prominently SROIQ) support. In this paper, we extend the expressive DL SROIQ with constraint networks (resulting in the logic SROIQc) and grounded circumscription (resulting in the logic GC-SROIQ). Applications of constraint modelling include embedding ontologies with temporal or spatial information, while those of grounded circumscription include defeasible inference and closed world reasoning. We describe the syntax and semantics of the logic formed by including constraint modelling constructs in SROIQ, and provide a sound, complete and terminating tableau algorithm for it. We further provide an intuitive algorithm for Grounded Circumscription in SROIQc, which adheres to the general framework of grounded circumscription, and which can be applied to a whole range of expressive logics for which no such specific algorithm presently exists.
Independent Component and Source Information Flow Analysis of Default-Mode EEG in Autism

Idling signatures of the resting brain have become a recent topic of interest in the functional MRI literature, wherein baseline activation signals are spatially localized and interpreted as a connected and synchronized neural network, instantiating a so-called default mode network (DMN). Further work is being done to couple MRI and EEG functional and structural connectivity analyses of this network. In contrast, little work has been done to examine the effective EEG connectivity of the DMN using causal information flow techniques, particularly in autism. The goal of this paper is to examine baseline EEG data of individuals with autism compared to non-autistic individuals to identify properties and changes of causal information flow among maximally independent components of the EEG signal in a default state. The qualitative analysis within this paper suggests greater information flow and activity during rest especially among local components in autism, although quantitative analyses are necessary and important. Future comparisons of functional and diffusion MRI data of the same subjects will provide a multimodal approach to extracting distinct features of the DMN across populations, in order to identify robust functional, structural, and effective, connectivity characterizations of neural deficits in autism.
Compiling Devices: A Structure-Based Approach

We present an approach for compiling a device into a propositional sentence and then show how to answer key diagnostic queries based on such a device compilation. We present two key results about our compilation approach, which makes it of interest to the broad community. First, the complexity of answering diagnostic queries is linear in the size of the propositional sentence constituting the device compilation. Second, the time to generate, and space to store, a device compilation are linear in the device size when the device structure has a bounded tree-width, where tree-width is a graph-theoretic parameter that measures the device connectivity. The main practical value of our compilation approach is in the simplicity of the device compilation and its associated algorithms, which allows for eecient and cost eeective implementations on a variety of (primitive) software and hardware platforms.
Two-phase modelling of hot tearing in aluminium alloys using a semi-coupled approach

Hot tearing, one of the most severe defects observed in castings, is due to both tensile stresses and lack of interdendritic liquid feeding in the mushy zone. In order to predict this phenomenon, the two-phase averaged conservation equations for mass and momentum must be solved in the mushy region of the material. In recent contributions, M'Hamdi et al (2002 Metall. Mater. Trans. A 33 2081–93) proposed a strongly coupled resolution scheme for this set of equations. The solution of the mechanical problem is obtained using a rheological model established by Ludwig et al (2005 Metall. Mater. Trans. A 36 1525–35). In the present contribution, the problem is addressed with a slightly different approach. The same rheological model is used for the solid skeleton (i.e. saturated porous medium treatment), but the influence of liquid pressure is neglected at this stage. This assumption allows for a weakly coupled resolution scheme in which the mechanical problem is first solved alone using ABAQUS® and user subroutines. Then, the liquid pressure is calculated separately accounting for the viscoplastic deformation of the porous solid and solidification shrinkage. This is done with a code previously developed for porosity calculations which uses a refined mesh in the mushy zone (Pequet et al 2002 Metall. Mater. Trans. A 33 2095–106). The stability of the numerical tools is presented and the modelling approach is then applied to a virtual experiment. Finally, two approaches are examined to study the hot tearing tendency in this problem.
Clinical Studies Speci fi c Recruitment of gd Regulatory T Cells in Human Breast Cancer

Understanding the role of different subtypes of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) in the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment is essential for improving cancer treatment. Enriched gd1 T-cell populations in TILs suppress T-cell responses and dendritic cell maturation in breast cancer, where their presence is correlated negatively with clinical outcomes. However, mechanism(s) that explain the increase in this class of regulatory T cells (gd Treg) in patients with breast cancer have yet to be elucidated. In this study, we show that IP-10 secreted by breast cancer cells attracted gd Tregs. Using neutralizing antibodies against chemokines secreted by breast cancer cells, we found that IP-10 was the only functional chemokine that causes gd Tregs to migrate toward breast cancer cells. In a humanized NOD-scid IL-2Rg (NSG) mouse model, human breast cancer cells attracted gd Tregs as revealed by a live cell imaging system. IP-10 neutralization in vivo inhibited migration and trafficking of gd Tregs into breast tumor sites, enhancing tumor immunity mediated by tumor-specific T cells. Together, our studies show how gd Tregs accumulate in breast tumors, providing a rationale for their immunologic targeting to relieve immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. Cancer Res; 73(20); 6137–48. 2013 AACR.
Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI for Monitoring Antiangiogenic Treatment: Determination of Accurate and Reliable Perfusion Parameters in a Longitudinal Study of a Mouse Xenograft Model

Objective To determine the reliable perfusion parameters in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) for the monitoring antiangiogenic treatment in mice. Materials and Methods Mice, with U-118 MG tumor, were treated with either saline (n = 3) or antiangiogenic agent (sunitinib, n = 8). Before (day 0) and after (days 2, 8, 15, 25) treatment, DCE examinations using correlations of perfusion parameters (Kep, Kel, and AH from two compartment model; time to peak, initial slope and % enhancement from time-intensity curve analysis) were evaluated. Results Tumor growth rate was found to be 129% ± 28 in control group, -33% ± 11 in four mice with sunitinib-treatment (tumor regression) and 47% ± 15 in four with sunitinib-treatment (growth retardation). Kep (r = 0.80) and initial slope (r = 0.84) showed strong positive correlation to the initial tumor volume (p < 0.05). In control mice, tumor regression group and growth retardation group animals, Kep (r : 0.75, 0.78, 0.81, 0.69) and initial slope (r : 0.79, 0.65, 0.67, 0.84) showed significant correlation with tumor volume (p < 0.01). In four mice with tumor re-growth, Kep and initial slope increased 20% or greater at earlier (n = 2) than or same periods (n = 2) to when the tumor started to re-grow with 20% or greater growth rate. Conclusion Kep and initial slope may a reliable parameters for monitoring the response of antiangiogenic treatment.
Pedestrian Navigation Using Foot-Mounted Inertial Sensor and LIDAR

Foot-mounted inertial sensors can be used for indoor pedestrian navigation. In this paper, to improve the accuracy of pedestrian location, we propose a method using a distance sensor (LIDAR) in addition to an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The distance sensor is a time of flight range finder with 30 m measurement range (at 33.33 Hz). Using a distance sensor, walls on corridors are automatically detected. The detected walls are used to correct the heading of the pedestrian path. Through experiments, it is shown that the accuracy of the heading is significantly improved using the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the system is shown to work robustly in indoor environments with many doors and passing people.
The Research on Multi-Agent Intelligent Information Retrieval System

In the domain of multi-user and agent-oriented information systems, personalized information systems aim to give specific and customized responses to individual user requests. According to the current status of information search, a new personalized information search model is reported and the design and implementation of a system based on intelligent multi-agent is presented. A personalized information model must specialize to current interests of the user and adapt as they change over time. This paper builds a user personalized model to aid the accuracy of information distilling in order to enhance the personalized, and several models of agent interaction has been proposed with the aim of creating a multi-agent system for information
Are automatically-detected code anomalies relevant to architectural modularity?: an exploratory analysis of evolving systems

As software systems are maintained, their architecture modularity often degrades through architectural erosion and drift. More directly, however, the modularity of software implementations degrades through the introduction of code anomalies, informally known as code smells. A number of strategies have been developed for supporting the automatic identification of implementation anomalies when only the source code is available. However, it is still unknown how reliable these strategies are when revealing code anomalies related to erosion and drift processes. In this paper, we present an exploratory analysis that investigates to what extent the automatically-detected code anomalies are related to problems that occur with an evolving system's architecture. We analyzed code anomaly occurrences in 38 versions of 5 applications using existing detection strategies. The outcome of our evaluation suggests that many of the code anomalies detected by the employed strategies were not related to architectural problems. Even worse, over 50% of the anomalies not observed by the employed techniques (false negatives) were found to be correlated with architectural problems.
What Women Like: A Gendered Analysis of Twitter Users' Interests based on a Twixonomy

In this paper we analyze the distribution of interests in a large population of Twitter users (the full set of 40 million users in 2009 and a sample of about 100 thousand New York users in 2014), as a function of gender. To model interests, we associate "topical" friends in users' friendship lists (friends representing an interest rather than a social relation between peers) with Wikipedia categories. A word-sense disambiguation algorithm is used for selecting the appropriate wikipage for each topical friend. Starting from the set of wikipages representing the population's interests, we extract the sub-graph of Wikipedia categories connected to these pages, and we then prune cycles to induce a direct acyclic graph, that we call Twixonomy. We use a novel method for reducing the computational requirements of cycle detection on very large graphs. For any category at any generalization level in the Twixonomy, it is then possible to estimate the gender distribution of Twitter users interested in that category. We analyze both the population of "celebrities", i.e. male and female Twitter users with an associated wikipage, and the population of "peers", i.e. male and female users who follow celebrities.
Ferrite-loaded substrate integrated waveguide frequency-agile bandpass filter

In this paper, a new ferrite-loaded substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) frequency tunable bandpass filter is presented. Two ferrite slabs are loaded in the sidewall of a substrate integrated waveguide. When a DC magnetic bias is applied to the ferrite slabs, the equivalent width of the ferrite-loaded SIW is changed, which contributes to the tuning ability. Then, an inductive post bandpass filter is designed based on this theory. Its operating frequency can be adjusted from 12.5 GHz to 13.4 GHz. Within this frequency range, an insertion loss of less than 1.6 dB and a return loss of better than 15 dB are achieved.
Increased expression of long non-coding RNA XIST predicts favorable prognosis of cervical squamous cell carcinoma subsequent to definitive chemoradiation therapy

The present retrospective study aimed to examine the association between the expression of long non-protein-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and clinical prognosis in the pretreatment formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples of cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients that underwent platinum-based chemoradiation therapy. Between 2001 and 2013, 49 consecutive patients with squamous cell cervical carcinoma were selected for the present study (median follow-up period, 44.1 months). The patients possessed an International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage of IB1/IIA1 (with pelvic lymph node metastasis), IB2 or IIA2-IVA, and had been treated with definitive chemoradiation therapy. The pretreatment FFPE tumor biopsies of the patients obtained diagnosis were used for analysis. Total RNAs were extracted from the FFPE tumor tissues and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed to examine the expression level of lncRNAs. The expression level of X inactive-specific transcript (XIST) demonstrated a significant association with the overall survival rate (P=0.014). The 4-year overall survival rates were 87.1 and 54.4% in the high and low XIST expression groups, respectively. Since the expression of XIST is associated with the overall survival rate, this lncRNA has the potential to become a predictor for the prognosis of cervical squamous cell carcinoma patients that are treated with chemoradiation therapy. Additional studies are required to investigate the underlying mechanisms of XIST that are associated with prognosis.
Unresolved questions in human copper pump mechanisms

Abstract Copper (Cu) is an essential transition metal providing activity to key enzymes in the human body. To regulate the levels and avoid toxicity, cells have developed elaborate systems for loading these enzymes with Cu. Most Cu-dependent enzymes obtain the metal from the membrane-bound Cu pumps ATP7A/B in the Golgi network. ATP7A/B receives Cu from the cytoplasmic Cu chaperone Atox1 that acts as the cytoplasmic shuttle between the cell membrane Cu importer, Ctr1 and ATP7A/B. Biological, genetic and structural efforts have provided a tremendous amount of information for how the proteins in this pathway work. Nonetheless, basic mechanistic-biophysical questions (such as how and where ATP7A/B receives Cu, how ATP7A/B conformational changes and domain–domain interactions facilitate Cu movement through the membrane, and, finally, how target polypeptides are loaded with Cu in the Golgi) remain elusive. In this perspective, unresolved inquiries regarding ATP7A/B mechanism will be highlighted. The answers are important from a fundamental view, since mechanistic aspects may be common to other metal transport systems, and for medical purposes, since many diseases appear related to Cu transport dysregulation.
GrÖbner-shirshov Bases for Free Inverse Semigroups

A new construction of a free inverse semigroup was obtained by Poliakova and Schein in 2005. Based on their result, we find a Groebner-Shirshov basis of a free inverse semigroup relative to the deg-lex order of words. In particular, we give the (unique and shortest) Groebner-Shirshov normal forms in the classes of equivalent words of a free inverse semigroup together with the Groebner-Shirshov algorithm to transform any word to its normal form.
Global Sensitivity Analysis Approach for Input Selection and System Identification Purposes—A New Framework for Feedforward Neural Networks

A new algorithm for the selection of input variables of neural network is proposed. This new method, applied after the training stage, ranks the inputs according to their importance in the variance of the model output. The use of a global sensitivity analysis technique, extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test, gives the total sensitivity index for each variable, which allows for the ranking and the removal of the less relevant inputs. Applied to some benchmarking problems in the field of features selection, the proposed approach shows good agreement in keeping the relevant variables. This new method is a useful tool for removing superfluous inputs and for system identification.
Recent advances in all-optical signal processing for performance enhancement of OCDMA interconnects

In ultra-high speed incoherent optical communication systems chromatic dispersion is considered a key impairment. Tuneable dispersion compensation for the signal data ultra-short carrier pulses propagated through the fibre optic cable is an effective way of overcoming this problem. The transmission system performance could be improved by manipulating the inbound pulses through the chirp control by SOA. To investigate the tuneable dispersion compensation, an experiment was carried out where the data signal was allowed through an SOA and by adding a local clock signal simultaneously at the same SOA input, it was possible to compress or expand the data carrier pulse-width. This way, the propagating signal was chirp controlled by varying the clock power at the input of SOA for different SOA pump currents. A reasonable dispersion management for the optical transmission system such as interconnects could be achieved by this technique.