Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A perspective on the control of mammalian fertilization by egg-activated ion channels in sperm: a tale of two channels.

Mammalian sperm contain a single large secretory vesicle, or acrosome. Exocytosis of this vesicle (the acrosome reaction) occurs as an early step in the gamete interaction process and is an essential prerequisite for late events, including sperm-egg fusion [1]. The control of fertilization is, from this perspective, a question of the regulation of a secretory event. It may be useful to compare sperm to other secretory systems. Typical somatic secretory cells such as mast cells, the neuronal presynaptic terminal, and exocrine cells contain large numbers of secretory vesicles whereas sperm possess a single acrosome. Those familiar somatic secretory models tolerate a low level of basal vesicle release that is augmented upon the arrival of an external stimulus. For example, miniature synaptic potentials are due to the stochastic release of individual vesicles, and stimuli, in the form of membrane depolarization, increase the number of released vesicles [2, 3]. In contrast, it can be argued that spontaneous exocytosis must be strictly controlled in sperm and may require a specialized regulatory mechanism. Key elements in this argument include the observations that 1) sperm that complete the acrosome reaction at a distance from eggs have decreased capacity to penetrate through the cumulus oophorus [4] and to adhere to the egg’s extracellular matrix, or zona pellucida [5, 6], and 2) sperm that fail to initiate acrosome reactions cannot penetrate the zona pellucida and hence are denied access to the egg plasma membrane [1]. Sperm consequently face an ‘‘acrosome reaction problem,’’ in which secretion must be coordinated with egg contact and yet spontaneous secretory rates must be suppressed. It is now understood that the initiation of acrosome reactions during egg contact is accomplished by the presence in the zona pellucida of an acrosome reaction-inducing agonist, the glycoprotein ZP3 [7]. However, individual sperm must still prevent spontaneous secretion until the time of sperm-egg contact. One common theme in the regulation of exocytotic processes is the general role of intracellular Ca21 ([Ca]i) as a mediator of stimulus-secretion coupling. In both sperm and somatic cells, elevations of [Ca]i are necessary and
Morphing spectral envelopes using audio flow

The present invention relates to a method of laying out and fixing a thin electric conductor on an elastic and flexible backing for heating seats and back of chairs, cushions, mattresses and the like. The method includes the steps of advancing the conductor out of a magazine and forming the conductor to a substantially permanent zigzag pattern constituting a strand. The strand is guided at a selected feed speed from a feeding arrangement to a structural body to be attached to a surface of the structural body. The feeding arrangement is moved along the structural body in a pattern desired for the completed product at a speed such that the relative speed between the strand and the structural body is substantially zero. The strand is fixedly attached to the structural body by an adhesive.
[Contrast-enhanced ultrasound with Optison in percutaneous thermoablation of liver tumors].

PURPOSE To detect vascularization of liver tumors by ultrasound enhanced with Optison and to determine whether increasing necrosis during a percutaneous thermal ablation can be visualized by this method. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-two patients with non-resectable malignant liver tumors (9 patients with HCC, 13 patients with metastases) and a total number of 34 lesions underwent percutaneous radiofrequency thermoablation using a needle applicator perfused with a 0.9 % NaCl solution (Electrotome HiTT 106, Berchtold). The tumor size ranged from 2 to 8 cm with an average size of 3.6 cm. While intermittent energy was supplied during thermoablation, multi-slice CT (Volume-Zoom, Siemens) and ultrasound were obtained. Ultrasound was performed with a multi-frequency transducer (3 - 7 MHz, LOGIQ 700, GE) and 0.5 to 1 ml of Optison as contrast agent. If necessary, the injection of the contrast agent was repeated after about 30 min. The mechanical index (MI) was set low (0.2 - 0.3) to prevent bubble destruction. Ultrasound power Doppler (PD), contrast harmonic imaging (CHI) and coded harmonic angiography (CHA) as subtraction mode of harmonic imaging were applied intermittently. RESULTS Only 21 of the 34 lesions showed increased intratumoral perfusion when the conventional B-Mode with PD was used. Similar to spiral CT, the tumor vascularization in the early arterial phase was only reliably visible with CHA after application of contrast agent. CHI with PD was best to detect increasing hypoperfusion of the tumors. When the energy supply was continued, hyperechoic border zones became visible around the central hypoechoic defects. The contrast between remaining tumor and surrounding liver tissue improved in CHI for up to 30 min after the bolus injection of contrast medium, considerably facilitating the evaluation of perfusion. Metal artifacts and the limited amount of contrast agent that can be safely administered interfered with monitoring the thermal ablation with spiral-CT. After an administered energy of maximal 100.000 watts, no more tumor vascularization was seen in 28 of 34 cases. Follow-up spiral-CT showed a complete necrosis in these cases. CONCLUSION Evaluating perfusion with contrast-enhanced ultrasound may be helpful in monitoring the evolving necrosis during thermoablation of liver tumors. The more reliable assessment of the tumor necrosis enables a more targeted therapy.
A Resource-light Approach to Russian Morphology: Tagging Russian using Czech resources

In this paper, we describe a resource-light system for the automatic morphological analysis and tagging of Russian. We eschew the use of extensive resources (particularly, large annotated corpora and lexicons), exploiting instead (i) pre-existing annotated corpora of Czech; (ii) an unannotated corpus of Russian. We show that our approach has benefits, and present what we believe to be one of the first full evaluations of a Russian tagger in the openly available literature.
Toward Novel Noninvasive and Low-Cost Markers for Predicting Strokes in Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis: The Role of Ultrasound Image Analysis

Stroke is a serious and frequent cerebrovascular disease with an enormous socioeconomic burden worldwide. Stroke prevention includes treatment of carotid atherosclerosis, the most common underlying cause of stroke, according to a specific diagnostic algorithm. However, this diagnostic algorithm has proved insufficient for a large number of mostly asymptomatic subjects, which poses a significant research challenge of identifying novel personalized risk markers for the disease. This paper illustrates the potential of carotid ultrasound image analysis toward this direction, with ultrasound imaging being a low-cost and noninvasive imaging modality and ultrasound-image-based features revealing valuable information on plaque composition and stability. A concise report of state-of-the-art studies in the field is provided and a perspective for clinical scenario for optimal management of atherosclerotic patients is described. Challenges and necessary future steps toward the realization of this scenario are discussed in an attempt to urge and orient future research, and mainly include systematic applications to sufficiently large patient samples, appropriately designed longitudinal studies, confirmation with histological results, and clinical trials.
Thrombolytic utilization for ischemic stroke in US hospitals with neurology residency program

Objective: We aimed to compare the rates of thrombolysis utilization for acute ischemic stroke in hospitals with neurology residency (NR) to those of other teaching (OT) and nonteaching (NT) hospitals. Methods: A retrospective serial cross-sectional cohort study of a nationally representative sample of stroke patients was conducted. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education–accredited NR program–affiliated hospitals in the United States were cross-matched to the hospitals in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2000 to 2010. ICD-9-CM codes were used for case ascertainment. Results: A total of 712,433 adult ischemic stroke patients from 6,839 hospital samples were included, of whom 10.1%, 29.1%, and 60.8% were treated in NR, OT, and NT hospitals, respectively. Stroke patients in NR received thrombolysis more frequently (3.74% ± 0.24% [standard error]) than in OT (2.28% ± 0.11%, p < 0.001) and NT hospitals (1.44% ± 0.06%, p < 0.001). The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of thrombolysis rates in NR vs OT and NR vs NT increased with each decade increment in age. In multivariate analysis, NR was independently predictive of higher thrombolysis rate (adjusted OR 1.51; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.44–1.59 [NR vs OT], and adjusted OR 1.82; 95% CI 1.73–1.91 [NR vs NT]). Conclusions: Acute stroke care in NR hospitals is associated with an increased thrombolytic utilization. The disparities between the thrombolysis rate in NR and that in OT and NT hospitals are greater among elderly patients.
Hepatotoxicity Induced by Arsenic Trioxide in Adult Mice and Their Progeny

In this investigation, we have evaluated the effects of arsenic trioxide on hepatic function in pregnant and lactating Swiss albino mice and their suckling pups. Experiments were carried out on female mice given 175 ppm As2O3 in their drinking water from the 14 day of pregnancy until day 14 after delivery. Our results showed a significant decrease in plasma levels of total protein and albumin, cholesterol and triglyceride in As2O3 treated mice and their pups. The hyperbilirubinemia and the increased plasma total alkaline phosphatase activity suggested the presence of cholestasis. Transaminase activities as well as lactate deshydrogenase activity in plasma, known as biomarkers of hepatocellular injury, were elevated indicating hepatic cells’ damage after treatment with As2O3. Exposure to arsenic led to an increase of liver thiobarbituric acid reactive substances level along with a concomitant decrease in the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase and in glutathione. Keywords—Antioxidant status, arsenic trioxide, hepatotoxicity, mice, oxidative stress.
FFT based fault location algorithm for transmission lines

To maintain continuity of electrical energy, fast clearance of a fault is needed, which requires accurate determination of the fault location on transmission lines. This paper proposes a method for fault location, which is based on time to frequency domain transformation of measured data after fault by using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequency of the first harmonic is utilized for determination of the fault location using travelling wave theory. The results show that the accuracy of the method is not affected by the fault resistance and phase angle of fault instant.
A Binary Tree for Probability Learning in Eye Detection

In this paper we proposed to solve the eye detection and localization problem under a general statistical model based object detection framework. A binary tree representation is used to discover the objects’ underlying statistical structure. Tree structures enable us to describe the object local statistical structure in a coarse-to-fine fashion. Each subtree explains the statistics for certain local substructure. The tree is built in a top-down fashion. Subsets with negligible conditional independency are found by k-means clustering using mutual information. The conditionally independent features are separated into different subtrees, while more dependent features are tended to appear close in the tree. The distribution of the object can be learned accordingly. Gaussian mixture in the independent component analysis (ICA) subspace is used to model the distribution of each high dependent feature subset, where each independent component explains the local substructure. The use of tree structure enables us to learn the distribution recursively by applying Bayesian criterion. Substantial experiments were done to evaluate the performance over the eyes detection accuracy as well as the localization ability. Experimental results show a better detection accuracy than the Viisage system with a reasonable localization ability, which validate the algorithm.
CAERUS: an effective arbitration and ejection policy for routing in an unidirectional torus

Network on Chip(NoC) is an efficient communication fabric for multi-core systems. As on-chip core count increases, area and power consumed by NoCs have to be considered seriously. Enhancing performance of NoCs under strict area and power budgets is of practical concern. In this paper, we propose CAERUS, a low-cost router that incorporates a novel arbitration policy that balances the opportunities to inject flits and an optimized ejection policy. Experimental results show that CAERUS reduces traversal latency of the flits in the network and sustain the throughput at higher injection rates as compared to existing low-cost router designs. The area and power expenditures are comparable to existing low cost router architectures.
Viscoelastic properties of individual glial cells and neurons in the CNS

One hundred fifty years ago glial cells were discovered as a second, non-neuronal, cell type in the central nervous system. To ascribe a function to these new, enigmatic cells, it was suggested that they either glue the neurons together (the Greek word “γλια” means “glue”) or provide a robust scaffold for them (“support cells”). Although both speculations are still widely accepted, they would actually require quite different mechanical cell properties, and neither one has ever been confirmed experimentally. We investigated the biomechanics of CNS tissue and acutely isolated individual neurons and glial cells from mammalian brain (hippocampus) and retina. Scanning force microscopy, bulk rheology, and optically induced deformation were used to determine their viscoelastic characteristics. We found that (i) in all CNS cells the elastic behavior dominates over the viscous behavior, (ii) in distinct cell compartments, such as soma and cell processes, the mechanical properties differ, most likely because of the unequal local distribution of cell organelles, (iii) in comparison to most other eukaryotic cells, both neurons and glial cells are very soft (“rubber elastic”), and (iv) intriguingly, glial cells are even softer than their neighboring neurons. Our results indicate that glial cells can neither serve as structural support cells (as they are too soft) nor as glue (because restoring forces are dominant) for neurons. Nevertheless, from a structural perspective they might act as soft, compliant embedding for neurons, protecting them in case of mechanical trauma, and also as a soft substrate required for neurite growth and facilitating neuronal plasticity.
Development of wireless insole foot pressure data acquisition device

The aim of this paper is to develop a wireless insole foot pressure acquisition device to measure and analyze foot planter pressure during various physical activities. Developed system consists of a pressure insole with four capacitive pressure sensors for each foot. Entire system is developed in house indigenously. Sensors are placed at four foot pressure points and interfaced with microcontroller and wireless acquisition board. Sensors are interfaced with dedicated electronics board made of Capacitance to Digital IC which converts change in capacitance due to foot pressure to an equivalent digital readout. Graphical User Interface is provided for different data curve plot, testing of pressure insole, quantifying force and pressure. A mobile and versatile pressure insole for analysis of foot pressure distribution and magnitude provides useful information to diagnose various foot disorders. Planter pressure measurement during standing, walking and other activity can demonstrate biomechanics of abnormal foot, can analyze diabetic offloading, sports medicine, pre and post treatment evaluation and yield measurement to track distance progression.
A Large-Scale Study of Failures in High-Performance Computing Systems

Designing highly dependable systems requires a good understanding of failure characteristics. Unfortunately, little raw data on failures in large IT installations are publicly available. This paper analyzes failure data collected at two large high-performance computing sites. The first data set has been collected over the past nine years at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and has recently been made publicly available. It covers 23,000 failures recorded on more than 20 different systems at LANL, mostly large clusters of SMP and NUMA nodes. The second data set has been collected over the period of one year on one large supercomputing system comprising 20 nodes and more than 10,000 processors. We study the statistics of the data, including the root cause of failures, the mean time between failures, and the mean time to repair. We find, for example, that average failure rates differ wildly across systems, ranging from 20-1000 failures per year, and that time between failures is modeled well by a Weibull distribution with decreasing hazard rate. From one system to another, mean repair time varies from less than an hour to more than a day, and repair times are well modeled by a lognormal distribution.
Development of a Novel Bulk Sample TEM Heater and Its Application

Understanding the microstructure evolution of bulk materials such as metals and alloys under different temperatures is critical for improving the design, processing, performance and safety of these materials. In recent years, it has become a trend to use MEMS based technologies for the development of in-situ TEM heating devices, due to the greatly improved image stability and dramatically reduced drift settle time. However, current MEMS heaters are mainly designed for applications in nano-structured materials instead of bulk samples. Unlike nano-structured materials such as nanoparticles and nanowires which are electron transparent and therefore can be observed directly inside TEM, bulk samples need to experience a series of thinning procedure (e.g. electropolishing, FIB milling and/or ion milling) before they become thin enough for TEM observations. Current MEMS membrane heaters are usually very arduous for bulk sample transfer. In addition, during temperature change, the heating membrane suffers from unavoidable bulging problem, which in turn changes the height of the sample inside the TEM. Consequently, it is very difficult to record successive microstructural evolution clearly, especially at atomic resolution.
Visual Composition of Graphical Elements on Non-Rectangular Displays

Graphical user interfaces are composed of varying elements (text, images, etc.) whose visual arrangement has been relatively well established in the context of rectangular interfaces. The advent of non-rectangular displays questions this knowledge. In this paper we study how traditional content layouts can be adapted to fit different non-rectangular displays. We performed a first qualitative study where graphic designers fitted text and images into different non-rectangular displays. From the analysis of their output we generalize and adapt ten composition principles that have been proposed in the literature for rectangular displays. We evaluate the revised principles through a paired comparison questionnaire where 57 participants compared pairs of layouts. Using the Bradley-Terry-Luce model to analyze our data we show that some results contradict current conventions on visual design for rectangular displays. We then extracted the most interesting cases and conducted a follow up study with additional shapes to investigate how the principles generalize. From these results we propose a set of guidelines for designing visual content for non-rectangular displays.
(3-Chloroacetyl)-indole, a Novel Allosteric AKT Inhibitor, Suppresses Colon Cancer Growth In Vitro and In Vivo

Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) is produced in Brassica vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage and has been shown to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis in various cancer cells, including breast, prostate, colon, and leukemia. However, only high doses of I3C were shown to inhibit cell proliferation (IC50 = 200–300 μmol/L). Our goal here was to develop a more potent antitumor agent by modifying the structure of I3C. We created I3C derivatives and found that (3-chloroacetyl)-indole (3CAI) more strongly inhibited colon cancer cell growth than I3C. In addition, by screening 85 kinases in a competitive kinase assay, we found that 3CAI was a specific AKT inhibitor. AKT is a serine/threonine kinase that plays a pivotal role in promoting transformation and chemoresistance by inducing proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis. Therefore, AKT is regarded as a critical target for cancer therapy. 3ICA, a derivative of I3C, is a potent and specific AKT inhibitor. This compound showed significant inhibition of AKT in an in vitro kinase assay and suppressed expression of AKT direct downstream targets such as mTOR and GSK3β as well as induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in colon cancer cells. In addition, oral administration of this potent AKT inhibitor suppressed cancer cell growth in an in vivo xenograft mouse model. Cancer Prev Res; 4(11); 1842–51. ©2011 AACR.
Sequential Auctions with Budget-Constrained Bidders

In this paper, we examine a setting in which a number of goods are sold in sequential single unit auctions and the agents who bid for these items have a hard budget constraint, i.e. a preset amount of money to use for all their purchases, which cannot not be exceeded. Each auction is run as a second price sealed bid (Vickrey) auction. Analyzing sequential auctions is very important, because they appear often in reality, however very little work has been done on how budget affects the bidding strategies in this setting. This is the contribution of this paper, we present a theoretical analysis of this problem, with the limitation that closing prices and the winners of each auction are not announced, which limits the reasoning that is necessary to analyze this setting. More specifically, initially, we characterize the equilibrium bidding strategies for a general model of valuations where it is assumed that the items sold could be substitutes or complementary. Then, we will concentrate on cases where, first, the valuations for the items are additive, and, second, items are partial substitutes to the point that the bidder needs to buy exactly one of these. In each of these, we examine how the budget constraints (being looser or more tight) affect the bidding strategies of the participating bidders graphing the bidding strategy for some particular cases. While we have fully characterized the equilibria with equations, from the work presented in this paper, we can see that the computation of these in practice is challenging, which explains the lack of previous results.