Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Further studies of the volume-regulatory response of Amphiuma red cells in hypertonic media. Evidence for amiloride-sensitive Na/H exchange

When Amphiuma red cells are shrunken in hypertonic media, they return toward their original volume by gaining Na through an amiloride- sensitive pathway. As cells recover their volume during this volume- regulatory increase (VRI) response, acid is extruded into the medium. Medium acidification is correlated with cell Na uptake. Both medium acidification and cell Na uptake are blocked by 10(-3) M amiloride or by replacing medium Na with K or choline. Perturbations that increase cell Na uptake (such as increasing medium osmolality) also increase medium acidification. As the medium becomes more acidic, the cells become more alkaline. These changes in cell and medium pH are increased if pH equilibration across the cell membrane is prevented by inhibiting the anion exchanger with SITS (4-acetamido-4'-isothiocyano-2,2'- stilbene disulfonic acid). The quantity of acid extruded by SITS- treated cells is the same as the quantity of Na gained, which strongly suggests 1:1 exchange of Na for H. Cell enlargement in SITS-treated cells results from the exchange of osmotically active Na ions for H ions that are not osmotically active when combined with cellular buffers. Previous evidence indicates that the normal VRI response involves an increase in the cellular content of Cl as well as Na. We show that SITS completely blocks net Cl uptake, which suggests that Cl enters via the anion exchanger. SITS also slows Na entry, presumably as a result of the above-mentioned increase in cell pH caused by SITS. We suggest that the initial event in the VRI response is net Na uptake via a Na/H exchanger, and that net Cl uptake results from secondary Cl/HCO3 exchange via the anion exchanger.
On Multi-level Exclusive Caching: Offline Optimality and Why Promotions Are Better Than Demotions

Multi-level cache hierarchies have become very common; however, most cache management policies result in duplicating the same data redundantly on multiple levels. The state-of-the-art exclusive caching techniques used to mitigate this wastage in multi-level cache hierarchies are the DEMOTE technique and its variants. While these achieve good hit ratios, they suffer from significant I/O and computational overheads, making them unsuitable for deployment in real-life systems. We propose a dramatically better performing alternative called PROMOTE, which provides exclusive caching in multi-level cache hierarchies without demotions or any of the overheads inherent in DEMOTE. PROMOTE uses an adaptive probabilistic filtering technique to decide which pages to "promote" to caches closer to the application. While both DEMOTE and PROMOTE provide the same aggregate hit ratios, PROMOTE achieves more hits in the highest cache levels leading to better response times. When inter-cache bandwidth is limited, PROMOTE convincingly outperforms DEMOTE by being 2x more efficient in bandwidth usage. For example, in a trace from a real-life scenario, PROMOTE provided an average response time of 3.42ms as compared to 5.05ms for DEMOTE on a two-level hierarchy of LRU caches, and 5.93ms as compared to 7.57ms on a three-level cache hierarchy. We also discover theoretical bounds for optimal multi-level cache performance. We devise two offline policies, called OPT-UB and OPT-LB, that provably serve as upper and lower bounds on the theoretically optimal performance of multi-level cache hierarchies. For a series of experiments on a wide gamut of traces and cache sizes OPT-UB and OPTLB ran within 2.18% and 2.83% of each other for two-cache and three-cache hierarchies, respectively. These close bounds will help evaluate algorithms and guide future improvements in the field of multi-level caching.
A simultaneous technology mapping, placement, and global routing algorithm for field-programmable gate arrays

Technology mapping algorithms for LUT (Look Up Table) based FPGAs have been proposed to transfer a Boolean network into logic-blocks. However, since those algorithms take no layout information into account, they do not always lead to excellent results. In this paper, a simultaneous technology mapping, placement and global routing algorithm for FPGAs, Maple, is presented. Mapleis an extended version of a simultaneous placement and global routing algorithm for FPGAs, which is based on recursive partition of layout regions and block sets. Maple inherits its basic processes and executes the technology mapping simultaneously in each recursive process. Therefore, the mapping can be done with the placement and global routing information. Experimental results for some benchmark circuits demonstrate its efficiency and effectiveness.
Visualizing Physical Space on Small Screens for a First Responders ’ Safety System

PDA’s have opened up a new world of functionality. Far beyond their original capacity as digital organizers, today’s PDA’s can run advanced software and communicate via satellite. As such, there is a wealth of new applications being developed to take advantage of the mobile capabilities. Along with the portability that small size affords come many visualization issues. The limited number of pixels on the screen demand that we rethink our current methods and develop new strategies for representing data. This paper introduces the ResQ Firs t Responders’ Safety System. as an example application. In this particular application, maintaining context at all times and preserving spatial relations is vital. To satisfy those needs, we describe a collection of techniques that provide a new method for visualizing physical spaces on small screens.
Bayesian Networks as Coalgebras

A coalgebraic description of (discrete) Bayesian networks is presented. The coalgebra map representing a network sends a node to its set of predecessors, together with the associated conditional probability tables. We use this description to describe the semantics of a network in terms of various (discrete) probability distributions associated with a node: local, joint, and conditional distributions. In the background simple Python scripts are used to compute these distributions. The local and joint distributions are defined ‘recursively’, following the coalgebra structure. Underlying this approach are some basic properties of the (discrete probability) distribution monad. In the end we identify some new structure of the distribution monad and isolate it in what we call a ‘relatively monoidal’.
Essays on the Theory and Empirical Evidence Regarding Spatial Tax Competition.

The existing literature on tax competition has focused on the role of state size, public good preferences, and state characteristics as determinants of tax rates. The theoretical and empirical evidence in this dissertation suggest that in addition to these factors, state borders and the spatial composition of jurisdictions within a state are important determinants of tax rates and scal externalities within a federation.
Receptive Field Shift and Shrinkage in Macaque Middle Temporal Area through Attentional Gain Modulation

Selective attention is the top-down mechanism to allocate neuronal processing resources to the most relevant subset of the information provided by an organism's sensors. Attentional selection of a spatial location modulates the spatial-tuning characteristics (i.e., the receptive fields of neurons in macaque visual cortex). These tuning changes include a shift of receptive field centers toward the focus of attention and a narrowing of the receptive field when the attentional focus is directed into the receptive field. Here, we report that when attention is directed into versus of receptive fields of neurons in the middle temporal visual area (area MT), the magnitude of the shift of the spatial-tuning functions is positively correlated with a narrowing of spatial tuning around the attentional focus. By developing and applying a general attentional gain model, we show that these nonmultiplicative attentional modulations of basic neuronal-tuning characteristics could be a direct consequence of a spatially distributed multiplicative interaction of a bell-shaped attentional spotlight with the spatially fined-grained sensory inputs of MT neurons. Additionally, the model lets us estimate the spatial spread of the attentional top-down signal impinging on visual cortex. Consistent with psychophysical reports, the estimated size of the “spotlight of attention” indicates a coarse spatial resolution of attention. These results illustrate how spatially specific nonmultiplicative attentional changes of neuronal-tuning functions can be the result of multiplicative gain modulation affecting sensory neurons in a widely distributed region in cortical space.
Cells Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis in HT 29 Human Colon Cancer Sulforaphane , a Naturally Occurring Isothiocyanate , Induces

Sulforaphane is an isothiocyanate that is present naturally in widely consumed vegetables and has a particularly high concentration in broccoli. This compound has been shown to block the formation of tumors initiated by chemicals in the rat. Although sulforaphane has been proposed to modulate the metabolism of carcinogens, its mechanism of action remains poorly understood. We have previously demonstrated that sulforaphane inhibits the reinitiation of growth and decreases the cellular viability of quiescent human colon carcinoma cells (HT29). Moreover, the weak effect observed on differentiated CaCo2 cells suggests a specific anticancer activity for this compound. Here we investigated the effect of sulforaphane on the growth and viability of HT29 cells during their exponentially growing phase. We observed that sulforaphane induced a cell cycle arrest in a dose-dependent manner, followed by cell death. This sulforaphane-induced cell cycle arrest was correlated with an increased expression of cyclins A and B1. Moreover, we clearly demonstrated that sulforaphane induced cell death via an apoptotic process. Indeed, a large proportion of treated cells display the following: (a) translocation of phosphatidylserine from the inner layer to the outer layer of the plasma membrane; ( b) typical chromatin condensation; and (c) ultrastructural modifications related to apoptotic cell death. We also showed that the expression of p53 was not changed in sulforaphane-treated cells. In contrast, whereas bcl-2 was not detected, we observed increased expression of the proapoptotic protein bax, the release of cytochromec from the mitochondria to the cytosol, and the proteolytic cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase. In conclusion, our results strongly suggest that in addition to the activation of detoxifying enzymes, induction of apoptosis is also involved in the sulforaphane-associated chemoprevention of cancer.
Inverse Visualization In Data Mining

Visualization is used in data mining for visual presentation of already discovered patterns and for discovering new patterns visually. Success in both tasks depends on the ability of presenting abstract patterns as simple visual patterns. Getting simple visualizations for complex abstract patterns is an especially challenging problem. A new approach called inverse visualization (IV) is suggested to address the problem of visualizing complex patterns. The approach is based on specially designed data preprocessing. Preprocessed data permit the discovery of abstract patterns that can be presented by simple visual patterns. Design of data preprocessing transformations is based on a transformation theorem proved in the paper. A mathematical formalism is derived from the Representative Measurement Theory [Suppes at al, 1990] . The possibility of solving inverse visualization tasks is illustrated on functional non-linear additive dependencies φ(ƒ(x,z)). These dependencies are transformed into simple and intuitive visual patterns. The approach is called inverse visualization because it does not use data "as is" and does not follow a traditional sequence: discover pattern → visualize pattern. The new sequence is: convert data to visualizable form → discover patterns with predefined visualization.
Precision in 3-D Points Reconstructed From Stereo

We characterize the precision of a 3-D reconstruction from stereo: we derive confidence intervals for the components (X,Y,Z) of the reconstructed 3-D points. The precision assessment can be used in data rejection, data reduction, and data fusion of the 3-D points. Also, based on the confidence intervals a bad/failing stereo camera pair can be detected, and discarded from a polynocular stereo system. Experimentally, we have evaluated the performance of the confidence intervals for Z in terms of empirical capture frequencies vs. theoretical probability of capture for a test, ground truth, scene. We have tested the interval estimation procedure on more complex scenes (for example, human faces), but since we do not have ground truth models, we have evaluated the performance in such cases only quantitatively. Currently we are developing "ground truth" models for more complex (such as general indoor) scenes, and will evaluate quantitatively the performance of the confidence intervals for the depth of the reconstructed points in the "automatic" rejection of 3-D points which have high degree of uncertainty. Comments University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MSCIS-97-20. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn. edu/cis_reports/201 Precision in 3-D Points Reconstructed from Stereo MS-CIS-97-20 (GRASP LAB 417) Gerda Kamberova, Ruzena Bajcsy University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science Computer and Information Science Department Philadelphia, PA 19104-6389 Precision in 3-D Points Reconstructed from Stereo Gerda Kamberova and Ruzena Bajcsy E-mail: kamberov@cis. upenn. edu, bajcsy@cis. upenn. edu Department of Computer and Information Science University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104
Stability of the Parainfluenza Virus 5 Genome Revealed by Deep Sequencing of Strains Isolated from Different Hosts and following Passage in Cell Culture

ABSTRACT The strain diversity of a rubulavirus, parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5), was investigated by comparing 11 newly determined and 6 previously published genome sequences. These sequences represent 15 PIV5 strains, of which 6 were isolated from humans, 1 was from monkeys, 2 were from pigs, and 6 were from dogs. Strain diversity is remarkably low, regardless of host, year of isolation, or geographical origin; a total of 7.8% of nucleotides are variable, and the average pairwise difference between strains is 2.1%. Variation is distributed unevenly across the PIV5 genome, but no convincing evidence of selection for antibody-mediated evasion in hemagglutinin-neuraminidase was found. The finding that some canine and porcine, but not primate, strains are mutated in the SH gene, and do not produce SH, raised the possibility that dogs (or pigs) may not be the natural host of PIV5. The genetic stability of PIV5 was also demonstrated during serial passage of one strain (W3) in Vero cells at a high multiplicity of infection, under conditions of competition with large proportions of defective interfering genomes. A similar observation was made for a strain W3 mutant (PIV5VΔC) lacking V gene function, in which the dominant changes were related to pseudoreversion in this gene. The mutations detected in PIV5VΔC during pseudoreversion, and also those characterizing the SH gene in canine and porcine strains, predominantly involved U-to-C transitions. This suggests an important role for biased hypermutation via an adenosine deaminase, RNA-specific (ADAR)-like activity. IMPORTANCE Here we report the sequence variation of 16 different isolates of parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5) that were isolated from a number of species, including humans, monkeys, dogs, and pigs, over 4 decades. Surprisingly, strain diversity was remarkably low, regardless of host, year of isolation, or geographical origin. Variation was distributed unevenly across the PIV5 genome, but no convincing evidence of immune or host selection was found. This overall genome stability of PIV5 was also observed when the virus was grown in the laboratory, and the genome stayed remarkably constant even during the selection of virus mutants. Some of the canine isolates had lost their ability to encode one of the viral proteins, termed SH, suggesting that although PIV5 commonly infects dogs, dogs may not be the natural host for PIV5.
Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein Is Associated with Translating Polyribosomes in Neuronal Cells

Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) is an RNA binding protein encoded by the gene FMR1, whose expression is impaired in patients with fragile X mental retardation. The association of FMRP with polyribosomes in non-neural cell lines has previously suggested that FMRP is involved in translational regulation. However, the relevance of these studies to neuronal function has been questioned by the finding that FMRP in brain is not associated with polyribosomes, but is part of small ribonucleo-protein complexes that do not appear to include ribosomes. Here we optimize methods to analyze brain polyribosomes, allowing us to definitively demonstrate that FMRP forms complexes with cortical brain polyribosomes. Moreover, we demonstrate in neuroblastoma cells that the FMRP-polyribosome complexes are sensitive to puromycin, a drug that targets actively translating ribosomes. These data indicate that FMRP associates with functional polyribosomes in neurons.
Driving and dementia of the Alzheimer type: beliefs and cessation strategies among stakeholders.

PURPOSE Although driving by persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an important public health concern, we know little about the attitudes and perceptions of key stakeholders regarding driving safety in these individuals or the factors that precipitate and influence driving assessment and cessation decisions. DESIGN AND METHODS We convened 10 focus groups composed of persons intimately involved in driving decisions for older adults to identify and compare beliefs and perceptions concerning AD and driving and to identify effective strategies to limit or cease unsafe driving. The 68 focus-group participants included health professionals, transportation and law-enforcement professionals, current and former drivers with AD, and family caregivers of current and former drivers with the disease. RESULTS With few exceptions, participants said that a diagnosis of very mild AD alone did not preclude driving. Most regarded family members as pivotal in monitoring and managing unsafe driving and recognized their need for institutional and medical support, especially support from physicians in counseling and evaluation of health-related fitness of older drivers. Members of each group acknowledged their own roles and responsibilities in driving decisions and described difficulties they experienced in making assessments and implementing decisions to limit or stop the driving of given individuals with AD. IMPLICATIONS Education of families, professionals, and transportation specialists is needed to understand the influence of AD severity on driving abilities, identify problem driving behaviors, make appropriate referrals of unsafe drivers, and access available resources for drivers with AD and those most responsible for their safety.
String Analysis of Android Applications

The desire to understand mobile applications has resulted in researchers adapting classical static analysis techniques to the mobile domain. Examination of data and control flows in Android apps is now a common practice to classify them. Important to these analyses is a fine-grained examination and understanding of strings, since in Android they are heavily used in intents, URLs, reflection, and content providers. Rigorous analysis of string creation, usage, and value characteristics offers additional information to increase precision of app classification. This paper shows that inter-procedural static analysis that specifically targets string construction and usage can be used to reveal valuable insights for classifying Android apps. To this end, we first present case studies to illustrate typical uses of strings in Android apps. We then present the results of our analysis on real-world malicious and benign apps. Our analysis examines how strings are created and used for URL objects, Java reflection, and Android intents, and infers the actual string values used as much as possible. Our results demonstrate that string disambiguation based on creation, usage, and value indeed provides additional information that may be used to improve precision of classifying application behaviors.
Research on regional edge features license plate location

License plate recognition has been widely used in the application of intelligent, while license plate location is the most key step in it. This paper mainly forces on the basis of regional analysis in conjunction with vertical projection so as to locate license plate accurately. And then compared with other license plate location, it performs the feasibility and can locate more than one license plate in an image. This method is tested with 400 natural -scene vehicle images with resolution of 480*360, and 362 of them are located successfully. Moreover, the processing time is acceptable in real time (only 96ms). The experiment results obtained verify the efficiency of this method.
Detection of germline BRCA1 mutations by Multiple-Dye Cleavase Fragment Length Polymorphism (MD-CFLP) method

We describe the Multiple-Dye Cleavase Fragment Length Polymorphism (MD-CFLP) method set up for a sensitive and preliminary rapid screening of BRCA1 mutations. We analysed exons 11 and 16, which are known to cover slightly more than 70% of the whole coding region of the gene, subdivided into 4 amplicons and labelled with different fluorescent dUTPs. MD-CFLP was first utilised on a panel of 30 DNA samples in which the presence of single-base substitutions or small deletions/insertions had been previously identified by direct sequencing as gold standard, in order to define the optimal conditions in terms of PCR amplification and temperature of digestion. In a second step, we blindly analysed 21 DNA samples by MD-CFLP to verify its reliability. The sensitivity and specificity of MD-CFLP were both 100% in the first study, and 80% and 94%, respectively, in the blind sample assay. Our results demonstrate the capability of the MD-CFLP method to detect DNA sequence alterations in fragments of more than 1 kb. We conclude that CFLP is a powerful tool in mutational analysis, offering reliable results in a shorter time and at a lower cost than conventional methods, and its potential can be enhanced when internal fluorescent labelling and laser detection are used. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer. com
Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication PrinciplesNeural Network Based Intelligent Process Control System

This paper proposes the speed control of a PM DC motor using ANN. The novelty of this paper lies in the application of Neural Network. The performance of the proposed system; ANN Based speed control of a PM DC motor drive has been compared with the PI based speed control of a PM DC motor drive. The entire system has been modeled using MATLAB 7.1 tool box. It has been found that the comparative results indicate that the ANN-based system is clearly superior, particularly in the case of parameter variations and load disturbances, because of the online weights and biases updating feature of the ANN.