Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered hippocampal expression of glutamate receptors and transporters in GRM2 and GRM3 knockout mice

Group II metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR2 and mGluR3, also called mGlu2 and mGlu3, encoded by GRM2 and GRM3, respectively) are therapeutic targets for several psychiatric disorders. GRM3 may also be a schizophrenia susceptibility gene. mGluR2−/− and mGluR3−/− mice provide the only unequivocal means to differentiate between these receptors, yet interpretation of in vivo findings may be complicated by secondary effects on expression of other genes. To address this issue, we examined the expression of NMDA receptor subunits (NR1, NR2A, NR2B) and glutamate transporters (EAAT1‐3), as well as the remaining group II mGluR, in the hippocampus of mGluR2−/− and mGluR3−/− mice, compared with wild‐type controls. mGluR2 mRNA was increased in mGluR3−/− mice, and vice versa. NR2A mRNA was increased in both knockout mice. EAAT1 (GLAST) mRNA and protein, and EAAT2 (GLT‐1) protein, were reduced in mGluR3−/− mice, whereas EAAT3 (EAAC1) mRNA was decreased in mGluR2−/− mice. Transcripts for NR1 and NR2B were unchanged. The findings show a compensatory upregulation of the remaining group II metabotropic glutamate receptor in the knockout mice. Upregulation of NR2A expression suggests modified NMDA receptor signaling in mGluR2−/− and mGluR3−/− mice, and downregulation of glutamate transporter expression suggests a response to altered synaptic glutamate levels. The results show a mutual interplay between mGluR2 and mGluR3, and also provide a context in which to interpret behavioral and electrophysiological results in these mice. Synapse 62:842–850, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
DNN-based voice activity detection with local feature shift technique

Recently, the deep neural networks (DNNs) are successfully adopted into the voice activity detection (VAD) area. However, the performance of the DNN-based VAD is still unsatisfactory in noise environments where the feature subspace of the training database and the test environments are not matched with each other. In this paper, we propose a local feature shift technique which normalizes the feature subspaces over various noise environments. The proposed technique considers the local minimum vectors of the log-Mel filterbank features as noise power estimates and produces feature shift vectors from them. The experimental results in stationary and non-stationary noise environments show that the DNN with the proposed technique outperforms the conventional DNN-based VAD algorithms.
Distilling the underlying dimensions of tactile melodies

We created 59 tactile melodies by transforming pieces of music from the auditory domain to the vibrotactile domain. Sixteen observers judged these tactile melodies on a set of 16 characteristics such as 'melodious', 'bombastic', and 'alarming'. By using advanced multivariate statistical methods, we distilled two main underlying dimensions of the tactile melodies. We interpreted these dimensions as intrusiveness and tempo. The results are important to understand the perception of tactile melodies and to support the creation of better distinguishable and recognizable tactile signals for single point tactile displays such as in mobile phones and computer mice.
Immune Dendritic Cells Triggers an Antiviral TLR Activation of Langerhans Cell-Like

Langerhans cells (LC) are a unique subset of dendritic cells (DC), present in the epidermis and serving as the ﬁrst line of defense against pathogens invading the skin. To investigate the role of human LCs in innate immune responses, we examined TLR expression and function of LC-like DCs derived from CD34 (cid:1) progenitor cells and compared them to DCs derived from peripheral blood monocytes (monocyte-derived DC; Mo-DC). LC-like DCs and Mo-DCs expressed TLR1–10 mRNAs at comparable levels. Although many of the TLR-induced cytokine patterns were similar between the two cell types, stimulation with the TLR3 agonist poly(I:C) triggered signiﬁcantly higher amounts of the IFN-inducible chemokines CXCL9 (monokine induced by IFN- (cid:2) ) and CXCL11 (IFN- (cid:2) -inducible T cell (cid:3) chemoattractant) in LC-like DCs as compared with Mo-DCs. Supernatants from TLR3-activated LC-like DCs reduced intracellular replication of vesicular stomatitis virus in a type I IFN-dependent manner. Finally, CXCL9 colocalized with LCs in skin biopsy specimens from viral infections. Together, our data suggest that LCs exhibit a direct antiviral activity that is dependent on type I IFN as part of the innate immune system. The Journal of Immunology, 2006, 177: 298–305.
Drawing and animation using skeletal strokes

The use of skeletal strokes is a new vector graphics realization of the brush and stroke metaphor using arbitrary pictures as “ink”. It is based on an idealized 2D deformation model defined by an arbitrary path. Its expressiveness as a general brush stroke replacement and efficiency for interactive use make it suitable as a basic drawing primitive in drawing programs as well as windowing and page description systems. This paper presents our drawing and animation system, “Skeletal Draw”, based on skeletal strokes. The effectiveness of the system in stylish picture creation is illustrated with various pictures made with it. Decisions made in the handling of sub-strokes in a higher order stroke and recursive strokes are discussed. The general anchoring mechanism in the skeletal stroke framework allows any arbitrary picture deformation to be abstracted into a single stroke. Its extension to piecewise continuous anchoring and the anchoring of shear angle and stroke width are explained. We demonstrated how this mechanism allows us to build up powerful pseudo-3D models which are particularly useful in the production of 2 1/2 D cartoon drawings and animation. Animation sequences have been made to illustrate the ideas, including a vector graphics based motion blurring technique.
Literature Review: ADHD in Adults

Objective: ADHD presents significant challenges to adults. The current review's goals are (a) to critically examine the current state of knowledge regarding ADHD in adults and (b) to provide clinicians with practice-friendly information regarding assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Method: Searches of PsycINFO and Medline were conducted, and reference lists from articles and books were searched for additional relevant references. Results/Conclusion: A valid and reliable assessment should be comprehensive and include the use of symptom rating scales, a clinical interview, neuropsychological testing, and the corroboration of patient reports. Specific diagnostic criteria that are more sensitive and specific to adult functioning are needed. In treatment, pharmacological interventions have the most empirical support, with the stimulants methylphenidate and amphetamine and the antidepressants desipramine and atomoxetine having the highest efficacy rates. Scientific research on psychosocial treatments is lacking, with preliminary evidence supporting the combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and medication. (J. of Att. Dis. 2008; 11(6) 628-641)
A 4-GHz clock system for a high-performance system-on-a-chip design

A digital system's clocks must have not only low jitter, but also well-controlled duty cycles in order to facilitate versatile clocking techniques. Power-supply noise is often the most common and dominant source of jitter on a phase-locked loop's (PLL) output clock. Jitter can be minimized by regulating the supply to the PLL's noise-sensitive analog circuit blocks in order to filter out supply noise. This paper introduces a PLL-based clock generator intended for use in a high-speed highly integrated system-on-a-chip design. The generator produces clocks with accurate duty cycles and phase relationships by means of a high-speed divider design. The PLL also achieves a power-supply rejection ratio (PSRR) greater than 40 dB while operating at frequencies exceeding 4 GHz. The high level of noise rejection exceeds that of earlier designs by using a combination of both passive and active filtering of the PLL's analog supply voltage. The PLL system has been integrated in a 0.15-/spl mu/m single-poly 5-metal digital CMOS technology. The measured performance indicates that at a 4-GHz output frequency the circuit achieves a PSRR greater than 40 dB. The peak cycle-to-cycle jitter is 25 ps at 700 MHz and a 2.8-GHz VCO frequency with a 500-mV step on the regulator's 3.3-V supply. The total power dissipated by the prototype is 130 mW and its active area is 1.48/spl times/1.00 mm/sup 2/.
A Physiologically-Based Adaptive Three-Gaussian Function Model for Image Enhancement

Image enhancement is an important pre-processing step for various image processing applications. In this paper, we proposed a physiologically-based adaptive three-Gaussian model for image enhancement. Comparing to the standard three-Gaussian model inspired by the spatial structure of the receptive field (RF) of the retinal ganglion cells, the proposed model can dynamically adjust its parameters according to the local image luminance and contrast based on the physiological findings. Experimental results on several images show that the proposed adaptive three-Gaussian model achieves better performance than the classical method of histogram equalization and the standard three-Gaussian model.
Two-degree-of-freedom internal model control for parallel cascade scheme

The control system of AFPT (air flow pressure and temperature) pilot plant has been used successfully to demonstrate the design of some controllers such as PID, cascade PID and fuzzy logic controller. It is important to develop a gas density control system in the AFPT pilot plant since gas density is one of the gas properties which need to be set precisely in few processes. The control system is designed based on internal model control (IMC) structure. Internal model control (IMC) yields very good performance for set point tracking, but gives sluggish response for disturbance rejection problem. Feedback/feedforward controller and cascade control configuration have been widely used to overcome the disturbance rejection. However, feedback/feedforward IMC is suffering with the difficulty of measuring disturbance and/or making disturbance model in real plant due to the possibility of more than one disturbances. The present study has developed a controller for disturbance rejection based on feedback/feedforward IMC structure and combined with cascade control. The proposed controller is also implemented to a long time delay process i.e. Semino and Brambilla proces model. The controller structure could give a good performance compared to standard 1DOF IMC.
Antiulcer Activity of Indigenous Plant Operculina turpethum Linn.

In the Indian traditional system of medicine Operculina turpethum is commonly used to treat various ailments including peptic ulcer, inflammation, and pain. Ulcer preventive and ulcer protective activities of HAOP and MOP stem bark extracts of Operculina turpethum (100 mg/kg, b.w., orally) were evaluated employing aspirin + pylorus ligation (APL) model in experimental rats. The results suggested that both extracts (HAOP and MOP) possess enhanced ulcer preventive and protective activities when compared with the standard drug ranitidine. HAOP showed more pronounced effect when compared to MOP. Further the result of the histopathological and biochemical studies also confirms potent ulcer preventive and protective nature of a extracts in a similar manner.
Assembly of a CNT-FET based on nanorobotic manipulation system inside a SEM

A method of assembling a multi-walled carbon-nanotube field effect transistor (CNT-FET) was presented in this paper. A nanorobotic manipulation system with 11 positioning degrees of freedom (DOFs) was used for the real time nanomanipulation. The nanorobotic manipulation system was constructed inside the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) specimen chamber to pick up a single MWCNT from MWCNT bulk without any other bounding except van der Waals force and assemble a CNT-FET with three AFM cantilevers, which were applied as gate, drain, source of CNT-FET respectively. An AFM cantilever (Olympus, OMCL-TR400PB-1) was etched to a gate electrode with a width of 2.00 μm and a length of 8.30 μm by a focused ion beam (FIB) process. A single multi-walled carbon-nanotube field (MWCNT), 51 nm in diameter, was used as conductive channel to accomplish the transport process of charge carriers between Source and Drain. Finally, a novel structure of CNT-FET was constructed in our experiments.
Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Using High Surface-to- Volume Ratio Microchannels

This study reports the use of microfluidics, which intrinsically has a large surface-to-volume ratio, toward rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing at the point of care. By observing the growth of uropathogenic E. coli in gas permeable polymeric microchannels with different dimensions, we demonstrate that the large surface-to-volume ratio of microfluidic systems facilitates rapid growth of bacteria. For microchannels with 250 micrometer or less in depth, the effective oxygenation can sustain the growth of E. coli to over 109 cfu/ml without external agitation or oxygenation, which eliminates the requirement of bulky instrumentation and facilitates rapid bacterial growth for antimicrobial susceptibility testing at the point of care. The applicability of microfluidic rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing is demonstrated in culture media and in urine with clinical bacterial isolates that have different antimicrobial resistance profiles. The antimicrobial resistance pattern can be determined as rapidly as 2 hours compared to days in standard clinical procedures facilitating diagnostics at the point of care.
Split-Belt Treadmill Stepping in Infants Suggests Autonomous Pattern Generators for the Left and Right Leg in Humans

The behavior of the pattern generator for walking in human infants (7-12 months of age) was studied by supporting the infants to step on a split-belt treadmill. The treadmill belts could be run at the same speed (tied-belt), different speeds, or in different directions (split-belt). We determined whether the legs could operate independently under these conditions, as demonstrated by taking different numbers of steps or by stepping in different directions. Video, surface electromyography, electrogoniometry, and force platform data were recorded. The majority of infants who could step under tied-belt conditions also stepped under split-belt conditions. During forward stepping at low speed differentials between the two belts (ratio, <4), infants adopted a step cycle duration that was intermediate between that expected from tied-belt stepping at each of the speeds. At large speed differentials between the two belts (ratio, 7-22), the infants took extra steps on the fast leg during the stance phase on the slow leg. When the two belts ran in opposite directions, one leg stepped forward, and the other stepped backward. During all forms of stepping, the legs maintained a reciprocal relationship, so that swing phase occurred in one leg at a time. Timing of muscle activity suggests a strong inhibition between the flexor-generating centers on each side and a weaker inhibition between the extensor-generating centers. The stepping behavior resembled that reported for other animals under similar conditions, suggesting that the pattern generator for each limb is autonomous but interacts with its counterpart for the contralateral limb.
Monoaminergic Antidepressants in the Relief of Pain: Potential Therapeutic Utility of Triple Reuptake Inhibitors (TRIs)

Over 75% of depressed patients suffer from painful symptoms predicting a greater severity and a less favorable outcome of depression. Imaging, anatomical and functional studies have demonstrated the existence of common brain structures, neuronal pathways and neurotransmitters in depression and pain. In particular, the ascending serotonergic and noradrenergic pathways originating from the raphe nuclei and the locus coeruleus; respectively, send projections to the limbic system. Such pathways control many of the psychological functions that are disturbed in depression and in the perception of pain. On the other hand, the descending pathways, from monoaminergic nuclei to the spinal cord, are specifically implicated in the inhibition of nociception providing rationale for the use of serotonin (5-HT) and/or norepinephrine (NE) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, NRIs, SNRIs), in the relief of pain. Compelling evidence suggests that dopamine (DA) is also involved in the pathophysiology and treatment of depression. Indeed, recent insights have demonstrated a central role for DA in analgesia through an action at both the spinal and suprasinal levels including brain regions such as the periaqueductal grey (PAG), the thalamus, the basal ganglia and the limbic system. In this context, dopaminergic antidepressants (i.e., containing dopaminergic activity), such as bupropion, nomifensine and more recently triple reuptake inhibitors (TRIs), might represent new promising therapeutic tools in the treatment of painful symptoms with depression. Nevertheless, whether the addition of the dopaminergic component produces more robust effects than single- or dual-acting agents, has yet to be demonstrated. This article reviews the main pathways regulating pain transmission in relation with the monoaminergic systems. It then focuses on the current knowledge regarding the in vivo pharmacological properties and mechanism of action of monoaminergic antidepressants including SSRIs, NRIs, SNRIs and TRIs. Finally, a synthesis of the preclinical studies supporting the efficacy of these antidepressants in analgesia is also addressed in order to highlight the relative contribution of 5-HT, NE and DA to nociception.
In-factory calibration of multiocular camera systems

A complete framework for automatic calibration of camera systems with an arbitrary number of image sensors is presented. This new approach is superior to other methods in that it obtains both the internal and external parameters of camera systems with arbitrary resolutions, focal lengths, pixel sizes, positions and orientations from calibration rigs printed on paper. The only requirement on the placement of the cameras is an overlapping field of view. Although the basic algorithms are suitable for a very wide range of camera models (including OmniView and fish eye lenses) we concentrate on the camera model by Bouguet (http://www.vision.caltech.edu/bouguetj/). The most important part of the calibration process is the search for the calibration rig, a checkerboard. Our approach is based on the topological analysis of the corner candidates. It is suitable for a wide range of sensors, including OmniView cameras, which is demonstrated by finding the rig in images of such a camera. The internal calibration of each camera is performed as proposed by Bouguet, although this may be replaced with a different model. The calibration of all cameras into a common coordinate system is an optimization process on the spatial coordinates of the calibration rig. This approach shows significant advantages compared to the method of Bouguet, esp. for cameras with a large field of view. A comparison of our automatic system with the camera calibration toolbox for MATLAB, which contains an implementation of the Bouguet calibration, shows its increased accuracy compared to the manual approach.
Tumor-immunotherapeutic Efficacy of Serratia marcescens Polyribosomes 1

The ability of polyribosomes, obtained from several bacterial species, to suppress the development of cutaneous SaD2 fibrosarcomas in DBA/2 mice was evaluated. Suppression of tumor appearance depended upon the tumor load at the time of treatment, dose of polyribosomes, and species source of polyribosomes, with Serratia marcescens being superior to Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycobacterium bow's (Pasteur), Mycobacterium smegmatis, and Propionibacterium acnes (formerly Corynebacterium parvum). A single injection of 5 or 50 fig of Serratia polyribosomes at the tumor site 72 hr after the intradermal administration of 1.5 x 103 SaD2 cells resulted in 66 to 95% survival. All untreated animals expired within 50 days. Tumor suppression occurred at both flank and footpad sites. Presensitization with polyribosomes and incorporation of polyribosomes into adjuvant were not required for the tumor-suppressive effect. Treatment of Serratia polyribosomes with RNase or pronase reduced the number of survivors. Endotoxin was not detectable with the Limulus amebocyte lysate assay.
A new encryption method for secure embedding in image watermarking

Digital image watermarking is the process of embedding an identifying piece of data in a digital image. In this study, a secure watermarking scheme for images with confident capacity is explored, based on fractal image coding and a chaotic function. In this paper an image encryption scheme is presented, in which shuffling the position of image pixels is performed using the Arnold's Cat Map to ensure a high level of security. In the next step this chaotic image is divided into range blocks and domain blocks for discovering the self-similarity property, producing vectors stations and embedding watermark bits. The main idea of the fractal based image coder in the proposed algorithm is to determine a set of contractive transformations to approximate each block of the image with a larger block. Simulation results show that the CFC algorithm (Chaos-Fractal Coding) has a better capacity and good invisibility. The technique proposed in this paper is quite general, and can be applied to any watermarking scheme without changing the embedding algorithm.
Using a Grammar Checker for Evaluation and Postprocessing of Statistical Machine Translation

One problem in statistical machine translation (SMT) is that the output often is ungrammatical. To address this issue, we have investigated the use of a grammar checker for two purposes in connection with SMT: as an evaluation tool and as a postprocessing tool. To assess the feasibility of the grammar checker on SMT output, we performed an error analysis, which showed that the precision of error identification in general was higher on SMT output than in previous studies on human texts. Using the grammar checker as an evaluation tool gives a complementary picture to standard metrics such as Bleu, which do not account well for grammaticality. We use the grammar checker as a postprocessing tool by automatically applying the error correction suggestions it gives. There are only small overall improvements of the postprocessing on automatic metrics, but the sentences that are affected by the changes are improved, as shown both by automatic metrics and by a human error analysis. These results indicate that grammar checker techniques are a useful complement to SMT.