Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Eph receptor and ephrin signaling in developing and adult brain of the honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Roles for Eph receptor tyrosine kinase and ephrin signaling in vertebrate brain development are well established. Their involvement in the modulation of mammalian synaptic structure and physiology is also emerging. However, less is known of their effects on brain development and their function in adult invertebrate nervous systems. Here, we report on the characterization of Eph receptor and ephrin orthologs in the honeybee, Apis mellifera (Am), and their role in learning and memory. In situ hybridization for mRNA expression showed a uniform distribution of expression of both genes across the developing pupal and adult brain. However, in situ labeling with Fc fusion proteins indicated that the AmEphR and Amephrin proteins were differentially localized to cell body regions in the mushroom bodies and the developing neuropiles of the antennal and optic lobes. In adults, AmEphR protein was localized to regions of synaptic contacts in optic lobes, in the glomeruli of antennal lobes, and in the medial lobe of the mushroom body. The latter two regions are involved in olfactory learning and memory in the honeybee. Injections of EphR‐Fc and ephrin‐Fc proteins into the brains of adult bees, 1 h before olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex, significantly reduced memory 24 h later. Experimental amnesia in the group injected with ephrin‐Fc was apparent 1 h post‐training. Experimental amnesia was also induced by post‐training injections with ephrin‐Fc suggesting a role in recall. This is the first demonstration that Eph molecules function to regulate the formation of memory in insects. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 67: 233–251, 2007.
Visual Tracking Control of Aerial Robotic Systems with Adaptive Depth Estimation

This paper describes a visual tracking control law of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for monitoring of structures and maintenance of bridges. It presents a control law based on computer vision for quasi-stationary flights above a planar target. The first part of the UAV’s mission is the navigation from an initial position to a final position to define a desired trajectory in an unknown 3D environment. The proposed method uses the homography matrix computed from the visual information and derives, using backstepping techniques, an adaptive nonlinear tracking control law allowing the effective tracking and depth estimation. The depth represents the desired distance separating the camera from the target.
Rectal compliance, capacity, and rectoanal sensation in fecal incontinence

OBJECTIVE:Assessments of the pathophysiology of fecal incontinence are skewed toward anal sphincter function; however, rectal compliance, rectoanal sensation and capacity may also be relevant. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usual and some novel diagnostic approaches in fecal incontinence.METHODS:In 22 unselected patients with fecal incontinence (21 F, 33–75 yr), we quantified: 1) symptoms, anorectal manometry, and anal ultrasound; 2) anal perception of temperature and light touch; 3) rectal sensitivity and compliance to distension; and 4) rectal reservoir function. Control values were obtained from two groups of 11 (seven F, 32–53 yr), and 32 (18 F, 19–44 yr) volunteers.RESULTS:Patients had urge (14), passive (four), or combined (four) fecal incontinence; symptoms were mild in three, moderate in nine, and severe in 10 patients. Most had low sphincteric pressures and ultrasonic abnormalities. Temperature perception was impaired (p < 0.05) in incontinent patients, to a greater extent in the proximal anal canal and in patients with passive, as opposed to urge, incontinence. Intraluminal pressures for sensations of rectal distension were lower in incontinent patients (p = 0.02). Artificial stools elicited sensations of rectal filling at lower volumes than did a barostat bag, and in patients with urge, as opposed to passive, incontinence. In patients and controls, the sensation of urgency was associated (r2= 0.2, p < 0.01) with rectal compliance.CONCLUSIONS:We confirm that temperature sensation is impaired, and perception of rectal distension is not always reduced in fecal incontinence. Artificial stool tended to induce sensations at lower volumes than did balloon inflation. Altered sensory mechanisms may contribute to the pathophysiology of fecal incontinence.
Diversity in the processing events at the N-terminus of type-V collagen.

The processing of human collagen type-V chains was studied using anti-peptide polyclonal antibodies raised against peptide sequences at the N-terminal non-triple-helical region of pro-alpha 1(V) and pro-alpha 2(V) chains. The anti-peptide polyclonal antibody raised against positions 48-57 of the N-terminal alpha 2(V) sequence recognized the mature form of the human alpha 2(V) chain extracted without any proteolytic treatment from several tissues in the presence of a mixture of protease inhibitors. It also recognized the pro-alpha 2(V) and pN-alpha 2(V) collagen chains secreted in the cell-culture media of the rhabdomyosarcoma A204 cell line. The pN-alpha 2(V) collagen chain from this cell line migrated during electrophoresis with the alpha 2(V) chain obtained from tissues. This demonstrates that the alpha 2(V) chain in tissues is incompletely processed and is present as the pN-alpha 2(V) collagen chain which lacks the C-propeptide. In comparison, an anti-peptide polyclonal antibody raised against residues at positions 284-299 of the N-terminal alpha 1(V) human sequence failed to recognize the mature form of the alpha 1(V) chain while it reacted with the pN-alpha 1(V) collagen chain form. These results suggest that the alpha 1(V) chain undergoes a processing event in the N-terminal region that involves the removal of at least the first 284 residues. Amino acid sequence analysis was performed on cyanogen-bromide-generated or trypsin-generated peptides of the two electrophoretic bands obtained for the tissue form of collagen V. The slower-migrating band corresponding to the intact alpha 1(V) chain gave, as expected, only sequences corresponding to the alpha 1(V) chain. However, the band previously considered to be the intact alpha 2(V) chain also gave sequences for the alpha 1(V) chain in addition to the alpha 2(V) chain. This result indicates the presence in tissue extracts of a further processed form of alpha 1(V) chain which migrates with the intact alpha 2(V) chain. On further analysis, we observed that the two bands of the tissue form of collagen V occurred in a 1:1 ratio whereas, after the pepsin digestion to remove non-collagenous regions, two bands were observed with an alpha 1(V)/alpha 2(V) chain ratio of 3:1. These results indicate that the alpha 1(V) chain exists in an additional stoichiometry, different from [alpha 1(V)]2 alpha 2(V). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Multi-attention Network for Thoracic Disease Classification and Localization

The chest X-ray is one of the most commonly available radiological examinations for diagnosing lung diseases. This task remains a major challenge due to 1) the shortage of accurate annotations for chest X-ray examinations, 2) the diversity of lesion areas on X-rays from different thoracic disease and 3) the problem of class imbalance in existing chest X-ray databases. In this paper, we propose a new multi-attention convolutional neural network for thoracic disease classification and localization. First, the framework is equipped with squeeze-and-excitation (SE) block as a feature attention module to offer a chance of cross-channel feature recalibration. Second, we propose a novel space attention module to combine global and local information. Third, we present a hard examples attention module to alleviate the class imbalance problem. The comprehensive experiments are performed on the ChestX-ray14 dataset. Quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithm.
Adolescent MDMA Exposure Diminishes the Physiological, Behavioral, and Neurotoxic Consequences of a Subsequent Methamphetamine Binge

Previous research showed that repeated adolescent ±3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) treatments diminished the temperature dysregulation, hypoactivity/“hangover” effect, and serotonin transporter reductions caused by a subsequent MDMA binge. This study evaluated whether MDMA would confer crosstolerance against a methamphetamine (METH) binge. Rats received MDMA (10mg/kg × 2) every fifth day from postnatal day (PD) 35 to PD 60 followed by a low or high METH binge (4 or 8mg/kg×4) on PD 67. Adolescent MDMA preexposure diminished, but did not prevent, the METH-induced increase in core body temperature. Adolescent MDMA exposure conferred resistance to the METHinduced hypoactivity in rearing behavior on PD 68. The high-dose METH binge caused reductions in [3H]citalopram binding to the serotonin transporter in the frontal cortex, parietal cortex, and hippocampus which were attenuated by adolescent MDMA. Similarly, adolescent MDMA blunted the METH binge-induced decrease in striatal [3H]WIN35,428 binding to the dopamine transporter. Together, these findings are supportive of a preconditioning effect between the two different substituted amphetamines.
A Method for Cost-Effective and Rapid Characterization of Engineered T7-based Transcription Factors by Cell-Free Protein Synthesis Reveals Insights into the Regulation of T7 RNA Polymerase-Driven Expression

The T7 bacteriophage RNA polymerase (T7 RNAP) serves as a model for understanding RNA synthesis, as a tool for protein expression, and as an actuator for synthetic gene circuit design in bacterial cells and cell-free extract. T7 RNAP is an attractive tool for orthogonal protein expression in bacteria owing to its compact single subunit structure and orthogonal promoter specificity. Understanding the mechanisms underlying T7 RNAP regulation is important to the design of engineered T7-based transcription factors, which can be used in gene circuit design. To explore regulatory mechanisms for T7 RNAP-driven expression, we developed a rapid and cost-effective method to characterize engineered T7-based transcription factors using cell-free protein synthesis and an acoustic liquid handler. Using this method, we investigated the effects of the tetracycline operator’s proximity to the T7 promoter on the regulation of T7 RNAP-driven expression. Our results reveal a mechanism for regulation that functions by interfering with the transition of T7 RNAP from initiation to elongation and validates the use of the method described here to engineer future T7-based transcription factors. Highlights Development of a rapid and cost-effective method for screening synthetic promoters. Insights into the regulation of engineered T7-based transcription factors and T7 RNAP enzyme kinetics. Validation of this method by comparison with the T7 RNAP kinetic model.
Resonant Control for Synchronous Machine Damping

Synchronous machine is an undamped oscillator and electrical damping is essential to keep the synchronous machine synchronised with the grid. An oscillation damping control architecture known as a classical power system stabiliser is used extensively in the power industry. The classical power system stabiliser is a narrow bandwidth lead compensator that reacts to small-signal oscillations only. The project proposes an alternative two-pronged approach to system stability by introducing a new methodology for Automatic Voltage Regulation design and a new architecture for Power System Stabiliser. The alternative Power System Stabiliser is called a resonant controller. The resonant controller targets the desired resonant frequency with closed loop feedback. This is useful for the Power System Stabiliser application because it can provide feedback at the resonant frequency, controlling electrical torque and hence angular displacement. Unlike the existing classical Power System Stabiliser, the resonant controller can be designed independent of the Automatic Voltage Regulation design. Relieving the consequential requirement to redesign the Power System Stabiliser with changes to Automatic Voltage Regulation design. The proposed methodology for Automatic Voltage Regulation design enables a Proportional Integral Differential style lead-lag controller to be designed to meet specific design criteria. In the project a 2.5 second settling time was achieved, which is required by the Australian Energy Marker Operator. Meeting specific design criteria is difficult with the existing heuristic approach to tuning an Automatic Voltage Regulation. The proposed Automatic Voltage Regulation methodology relieves the need to place the system in undesirable operating conditions for tuning. In a simulated environment, the project successfully designs and implements the resonant controller Power System Stabiliser and the lead-lag controller Automatic Voltage Regulation. Comparison between the proposed resonant controller Power System Stabiliser and the existing classical Power System Stabiliser, demonstrations that the resonant controller is capable of decreasing oscillations around the operating point by 11.06dB in the project, without effecting the whole frequency spectrum which occurs with a classical Power System Stabiliser. This reduces noise feedback that can introduce oscillations into the grid, therefore allowing more Network Service Providers to have Power System Stabiliser incorporated into their system.
Effects of 17-AAG on the cell cycle and apoptosis of H446 cells and the associated mechanisms

As a heat shock protein 90 inhibitor, 17-allyl-amino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) has been studied in numerous types of cancer, however the effects of 17-AAG on apoptosis and the cell cycle of H446 cells remain unclear. In the current study, the MTT method was used to evaluate the inhibitory effects of different durations and doses of 17-AAG treatment on the proliferation of H446 cells. The cells were stained with Annexin-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidium iodide and measured by flow cytometry, and the gene and protein expression levels of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), survivin, cyclin D1, cyt-C, caspase 9 and caspase 3 were determined by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis. The results indicated that with treatment with 1.25–20 mg/l 17-AAG for 24 and 48 h, significant inhibition of H446 cell proliferation was observed in a time- and dose-dependent manner. With treatment of 3.125, 6.25 and 12.5 mg/l 17-AAG for 48 h, significant apoptosis and cell cycle arrest was observed. The results indicated that the gene and protein expression levels of STAT3, survivin and cyclin D1 were downregulated, and cyt-C, caspase 9 and caspase 3 were upregulated by 17-AAG in a dose-dependent manner when the cells were treated with 3.125 and 6.25 mg/l 17-AAG for 48 h. The results indicated that 17-AAG is able to inhibit the cell proliferation, induce apoptosis and G2/M arrest and downregulate the gene and protein expression levels of STAT3, survivin and cyclin D1, and upregulate gene and protein expression of cyt-C, caspase 9, caspase 3.
Repeated bouts of resistance exercise with short recovery periods activates mTOR signaling, but not protein synthesis, in mouse skeletal muscle

The recovery period between bouts of exercise is one of the major factors influencing the effects of resistance exercise, in addition to exercise intensity and volume. However, the effects of shortening the recovery time between bouts of resistance exercise on subsequent protein synthesis remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the consequences of shortening the recovery time between bouts of resistance exercise on protein synthesis and related processes in mouse skeletal muscles. Eighteen male C57BL/6J mice were randomly subjected to three bouts of resistance exercise with 72 (72H), 24 (24H), or 8 h (8H) of recovery periods between bouts. Resistance exercise, consisting of five sets of 3 s × 10 isometric contractions with 3 min rest between sets, was elicited on the right tibialis anterior muscle via percutaneous electrical stimulation on the deep peroneal nerve under isoflurane anesthesia. The left muscle served as an internal control. Six hours after the third bout of exercise, protein synthesis was found to be activated in the 72H and 24H groups, but not in the 8H group. Phosphorylation of p70S6K at Thr 389, a marker of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling, was increased in all groups, with the 8H group showing the highest magnitude. In contrast, protein carbonylation was observed only in mice in the 8H group. These results suggest that repeated bouts of resistance exercise with 8 h of recovery periods do not effectively increase the levels of muscle protein synthesis despite activation of the mTOR signaling pathway, which likely involves oxidative stress.
Deducing trip related information from flickr

Uploading tourist photos is a popular activity on photo sharing platforms. These photographs and their associated metadata (tags, geo-tags, and temporal information) should be useful for mining information about the sites visited. However, user-supplied metadata are often noisy and efficient filtering methods are needed before extracting useful knowledge. We focus here on exploiting temporal information, associated with tourist sites that appear in Flickr. From automatically filtered sets of geo-tagged photos, we deduce answers to questions like "how long does it take to visit a tourist attraction? " or "what can I visit in one day in this city? " Our method is evaluated and validated by comparing the automatically obtained visit duration times to manual estimations.
Land Use Modeling in Recursively-Dynamic GTAP Framework

*Chapter 10 of the forthcoming book "Economic Analysis of Land Use in Global Climate Change Policy," edited by Thomas W. Hertel, Steven Rose, and Richard S.J. Tol The goal of this work is to investigate land-use change at the global scale over the long run – particularly in the context of analyzing the fundamental drivers behind land-use related GHG emissions. For this purpose, we identify the most important drivers of supply and demand for land. On the demand side, we begin with a dynamic general equilibrium (GE) model that predicts economic growth in each region of the world, based on exogenous projections of population, skilled and unskilled labor and technical change. Economy-wide growth is, in turn, translated into consumer demand for specific products using an econometrically estimated, international cross-section, demand system that permits us to predict the pattern of future consumer demands across the development spectrum. This is particularly important in the fast-growing, developing countries, where the composition of consumer demand is changing rapidly. These countries also account for an increasing share of global economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions. Consumer demand is translated into derived demands for land through a set of sectoral production functions that differentiate the demand for land by Agro-Ecological Zone (AEZ).
Rapid video-referenced ratings of reciprocal social behavior in toddlers: a twin study.

BACKGROUND Reciprocal social behavior (RSB) is a developmental prerequisite for social competency, and deficits in RSB constitute a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although clinical screeners categorically ascertain risk of ASD in early childhood, rapid methods for quantitative measurement of RSB in toddlers are not yet established. Such measurements are critical for tracking developmental trajectories and incremental responses to intervention. METHODS We developed and validated a 20-min video-referenced rating scale, the video-referenced rating of reciprocal social behavior (vrRSB), for untrained caregivers to provide standardized ratings of quantitative variation in RSB. Parents of 252 toddler twins [Monozygotic (MZ) = 31 pairs, Dizygotic (DZ) = 95 pairs] ascertained through birth records, rated their twins' RSB at two time points, on average 6 months apart, and completed two developmental measures, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory Short Form (MCDI-s). RESULTS Scores on the vrRSB were fully continuously distributed, with excellent 6-month test-retest reliability ([intraclass correlation coefficient] ICC = 0.704, p < .000). MZ twins displayed markedly greater trait concordance than DZ twins, (MZ ICC = 0.863, p < .000, DZ ICC = 0.231, p < .012). VrRSB score distributions were highly distinct for children passing versus failing the M-CHAT (t = -8.588, df = 31, p < .000), incrementally improved from 18-24 months, and were inversely correlated with receptive and expressive vocabulary on the MCDI-s. CONCLUSIONS Like quantitative autistic trait ratings in school-aged children and adults, toddler scores on the vrRSB are continuously distributed and appear highly heritable. These ratings exhibited minimal measurement error, high inter-individual stability, and developmental progression in RSB as children matured from 18-24 months, supporting their potential utility for serially quantifying the severity of early autistic syndromes over time and in response to intervention. In addition, these findings inform the genetic-environmental structure of RSB in early typical development.
Efficiency of Rural Banks: The Case of India

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether the restructuring of regional rural banks in India –undertaken in 1993-94 - has helped improve their production efficiency. Several committees have emphasized the need to improve the efficiency of these banks which are an important arm of the rural credit system in India. Improved production efficiency in provision of services would mean lower cost and financially sustainable operations. Production efficiency has been measured using a non-parametric technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). To measure efficiency most directly, interest income and non-interest income were used as outputs and interest expenses and non-interest expenses were used as inputs. Efficiency scores were calculated for the years 1990 to 2002. Thereafter these scores were compared for before and after the restructuring year (1993-94). The study finds that efficiency of rural banks has significantly improved after restructuring. It seems the policy of the Government of India to restructure these banks has shown positive results and the study recommends its continuance.
TCP Flow Analysis for Defense against Shrew DDoS Attacks

Abstract - The shrew or RoS attacks are low-rate DDoS attacks that degrade the QoS to end systems slowly but not to deny the services completely. These attacks are more difficult to detect than the flooding type of DDoS attacks. In this paper, we explore the energy distributions of Internet traffic flows in frequency domain. Normal TCP traffic flows present some form of periodicity because of TCP protocol behavior. Our results reveal that normal TCP flows can be segregated from malicious flows using some energy distribution properties. We discover the spectral shifting of attack flows from that of normal flows. Combining flow-level spectral analysis with sequential hypothesis testing, we propose a novel defense scheme against shrew DDoS or RoQ (reduction-of-service) attacks. Our detection and filtering scheme can effectively rescue 99% legitimate TCP flows under the RoS attacks. Keywords: Network security, Internet traffic spectrum, low-rate DDoS attacks, reduction-of-quality attacks, digital signal processing, spectral analysis.