Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liquid nitrogen cooled Si crystal monochromator: X-ray focusing by controlled heat load

The thermal deformation of a liquid nitrogen cooled silicon crystal under increasing absorbed power undergoes five phases: i) no deformation at zero power, ii) concave shape of the crystal, iii) appearance of a central bump, iv) minimum of the slope error averaged over the beam footprint on the crystal due to the balance between the initial concave shape and the growing central bump, and v) rapid growth of the thermal bump. In general, a liquid nitrogen cooled silicon crystal is designed to operate before the appearance of phase v), and mostly in phase ii) (concave shape). This concave shape of the crystal leads to a focusing effect on the beam, which should be considered in combination with other optical elements in the design and optimization of the beamline optical layout.
Neuroendocrine Humoral and Vascular Components in the Pressor Pathway for Brain Angiotensin II: A New Axis in Long Term Blood Pressure Control

Central nervous system (CNS) administration of angiotensin II (Ang II) raises blood pressure (BP). The rise in BP reflects increased sympathetic outflow and a slower neuromodulatory pressor mechanism mediated by CNS mineralocorticoid receptors (MR). We investigated the hypothesis that the sustained phase of hypertension is associated also with elevated circulating levels of endogenous ouabain (EO), and chronic stimulation of arterial calcium transport proteins including the sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX1), the type 6 canonical transient receptor potential protein (TRPC6), and the sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase (SERCA2). Wistar rats received a chronic intra-cerebroventricular infusion of vehicle (C) or Ang II (A, 2.5 ng/min, for 14 days) alone or combined with the MR blocker, eplerenone (A+E, 5 µg/day), or the aldosterone synthase inhibitor, FAD286 (A+F, 25 µg/day). Conscious mean BP increased (P<0.05) in A (123±4 mm Hg) vs all other groups. Blood, pituitary and adrenal samples were taken for EO radioimmunoassay (RIA), and aortas for NCX1, TRPC6 and SERCA2 immunoblotting. Central infusion of Ang II raised plasma EO (0.58±0.08 vs C 0.34±0.07 nM (P<0.05), but not in A + E and A + F groups as confirmed by off-line liquid chromatography (LC)-RIA and LC-multistage mass spectrometry. Two novel isomers of EO were elevated by Ang II; the second less polar isomer increased >50-fold in the A+F group. Central Ang II increased arterial expression of NCX1, TRPC6 and SERCA2 (2.6, 1.75 and 3.7-fold, respectively; P<0.01)) but not when co-infused with E or F. Adrenal and pituitary EO were unchanged. We conclude that brain Ang II activates a CNS-humoral axis involving plasma EO. The elevated EO reprograms peripheral ion transport pathways known to control arterial Na+ and Ca2+ homeostasis; this increases contractility and augments sympathetic effects. The new axis likely contributes to the chronic pressor effect of brain Ang II.
Design principles in test suite architecture

Software test has recently been a large-scale and complicated artifact, as is the software itself. There can be a test project with over one million test cases, over twenty test types, over ten test levels and many test cycles. Technologies of large-scale and complicated software testing have just begun to advance and must be boosted. Test architecture technology has just arising according to software architecture technology. There are several research just on notations or concepts for test architecture such as UML Test Profile and NGT. Based on the notations, research on modeling are necessary next. They include design principles, patterns, frameworks, tools, methodologies etc. In this research we show ten design principles in test architecture: coupling, cohesion, maintainability, automatability, circumstance consistency, development consistency, describability, design direction, design positiveness and execution velocity consistency.
EXPERIMENTAL ESTIMATION OF COMPOSITE MATERIAL CONTAINING THE PROTEIN-MINERAL COMPONENTS AND RECOMBINANT BONE MORPHOGENETIC PROTEIN-2 AS A COVERING OF TITANIUM IMPLANTS

human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rhBMP-2) and the method of the titanium implant’s surface treatment, on the reparative osteogenesis and adhesion strength of the bone tissue – implant’s surface contact was evaluated. Covering of implants with the composite coating promotes significant acceleration of the bone tissue regeneration processes in the site of implants loading. The composition coating with prolonged form of the rhBMP-2 promoted increasing of the neogenic bone tissue’s adhesion with the implants, as compared with the coating without recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein. The implants treated with microarc oxidation demonstrated higher values of the breakout force during the separation of the implants from the bone than the implants treated with sandblasting method.
Spectra of Random trees

We analyze the spectral distribution of the adjacency matrix and the graph Laplacian for a wide variety of random trees. Using soft arguments which seem to be applicable in a wide variety of settings, we show that the empirical spectral distribution for a number of random tree models, converges to a constant (model dependent) distribution. We also analyze the kernel of the spectrum and prove asymptotic convergence to limit constants for the kernel of the spectrum. We then go on to analyze the joint distribution of the maximal eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix in the linear preferential attachment model (with parameter a) and show that the k largest eigenvalues rescaled by na converge in distribution, where γa is the Malthusian rate of growth parameter for the associated continuous time branching process. In the process we also derive asymptotic distributional convergence for the maximal degrees of these trees. We finally extend the above results to preferential attachment networks. These results seem to be the strongest known in this context till date.
Laparoscopic Repair of Internal Transmesocolic Hernia of Transverse Colon

Introduction. Internal hernias are often misdiagnosed because of their rarity, with subsequent significant morbidity. Case Presentation. A 61-year-old Japanese man with no history of surgery was referred for intermittent abdominal pain. CT suggested the presence of a transmesocolic internal hernia. The patient underwent a surgical procedure and was diagnosed with transmesocolic internal hernia. We found internal herniation of the small intestine loop through a defect in the transverse mesocolon, without any strangulation of the small intestine. We were able to complete the operation laparoscopically. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged on postoperative day 6. Discussion. Transmesocolic hernia of the transverse colon is very rare. Transmesocolic hernia of the sigmoid colon accounts for 60% of all other mesocolic hernias. Paraduodenal hernias are difficult to distinguish from internal mesocolic transverse hernias. We can rule out paraduodenal hernias with CT. Conclusion. The patient underwent a surgical procedure and was diagnosed with transmesocolic internal hernia. We report a case of a transmesocolic hernia of the transverse colon with intestinal obstruction that was diagnosed preoperatively and for which laparoscopic surgery was performed.
Evidence for the Involvement of Galectin‐3 in Mesenchymal Stem Cell Suppression of Allogeneic T‐Cell Proliferation

Human bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are multipotent non‐hematopoietic progenitors that have regulatory activity on immune cells. NOD‐ and Toll‐like receptors (NLR, TLR) have several roles in immunity, including those relevant to pathogen recognition and shaping the course of immune responses by controlling gene expression. We have shown that these innate immune receptors are expressed by hematopoietic CD34+ progenitors and MSC. To uncover genes critical in MSC function, first we have used microarray to screen for potential transcripts whose levels are altered in response to NOD‐1 and TLR‐2 activation, and second we validated some candidate genes using real‐time RT‐PCR, Western blots and cellular assays. Amongst the altered genes, galectin‐3 was upregulated at both mRNA and protein levels in response to TLR‐2 activation. Interestingly, MSC secreted galectin‐3, a protein known to modulate T‐cell proliferation, gene expression, cell adhesion and migration. Knockdown of galectin‐3 in MSC using small interfering RNA (siRNA) reduced the immunosuppressive effect of MSC on mixed lymphocyte cultures when compared to cells treated with an irrelevant siRNA (P < 0.05). Collectively, the data emphasize a new role of galectin‐3 in the immunomodulatory function of MSC and indicate that NOD signalling pathway is also functional in these cells.
An inductor with taper stacked metals on silicon chip

A taper stacked metal structure has been investigated on the silicon substrate. Compared with the conventional stacked metal structure, it can have the comparable conductor loss and lower unwanted couplings. Parasitic capacitances and induced eddy currents on silicon substrate can then be efficiently reduced. The inductor with the proposed structure has been proved to have an improved Q with a moderate roll-off and a smaller influence on the inductance. Electromagnetic simulation, equivalent circuit modeling, and measurement have been taken for the validation.
Frequency-Specific Interaural Level Difference Tuning Predicts Spatial Response Patterns of Space-Specific Neurons in the Barn Owl Inferior Colliculus

Space-specific neurons in the barn owl's inferior colliculus have spatial receptive fields (RFs) because of sensitivity to interaural time difference and frequency-specific interaural level difference (ILD). These neurons are assumed to be tuned to the frequency-specific ILDs occurring at their spatial RFs, but attempts to assess this tuning with traditional narrowband stimuli have had limited success. Indeed, tuning assessed in this manner, when processed via a linear model of spectral integration, typically explains only approximately half the variance in spatial response patterns. Here we report our findings that frequency-specific ILD tuning of space-specific neurons, when assessed from responses to broadband stimuli, predicted nearly 75% of the variance in spatial responses, using a linear model of spectral integration (p < 0.0001; n = 97 neurons). Furthermore, when we tested neurons using only those frequencies we found to be spatially relevant, we saw that their responses were similar to those elicited by broadband stimuli. When we used frequencies not identified as spatially relevant, such similarity was lacking. Furthermore, spectral components that elicited high firing rates when presented as narrowband stimuli were found in several cases to be irrelevant for or detrimental to the definition of spatial RFs. Thus, neurons achieved sharp spatial tuning by selecting for ILDs of a subset of spectral components in noise, some of which were not identified using narrowband stimuli.
Characterization and In Silico Analysis of Pregnancy-Associated Glycoprotein-1 Gene of Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Pregnancy-Associated Glycoproteins (PAGs) are trophoblastic proteins belonging to the Aspartic proteinase family secreted by different placental cells of many mammalian species. They play a pivotal role in placentogenesis, foetomaternal unit remodeling, and implantation. The identification of the genes encoding those proteins will be helpful to unravel the intricate embryogenomic functions during pregnancy establishment. Considering importance of these proteins, the present study was undertaken to characterize the pregnancy associated glycoprotein-1 gene of buffalo. An 1181 base pairs buffalo Pregnancy-Associated Glycoprotein PAG-1 gene was PCR amplified from the RNA obtained from the fetal cotyledons. BLAST analysis of the buffalo PAG-1 sequence retrieved a total of 20 cattle, 5 goat, and 4 sheep PAG sequences, exhibiting more than 80% similarity. Buffalo PAG-1 gene contained an uninterrupted open reading frame of 1140 base pairs encoding 380 amino acids that possess a 15 amino acid signal peptide and mature peptide of 365 amino acids. The phylogenetic study of the buffalo PAG-1 gene revealed buffalo PAG-1 is more related to cattle, goat, and sheep PAG-1 sequences. By this study characterization of buffalo PAG-1 gene and its evolutionary relationship was deduced for the first time.
Real-time speech-generated subtitles: problems and solutions

This paper refers to work carried out in the Subspeak project [1] in which we are investigating the use of speech recognition in live television subtitling. Research to date has shown that with current speech recognition technology it is not possible to achieve a satisfactory level of accuracy in the direct transcription of broadcast material. To circumvent this problem in our system the broadcast speech data is respoken by a native English speaker in a quiet environment. Recognition rates of up to 98% can be achieved by a trained speaker where there are no out of vocabulary words. However, using conventional keyboard input, subtitlers can currently achieve near to 100%, with typically only minor errors of spelling or punctuation. The challenge is therefore to provide a speech-based subtitling system which mirrors the conventional systems in accuracy and speed, but which requires far less time to train subtitlers to use. Subtitles must typically be output at between 150 and 180 words per minute and the delay between the broadcast speech and the appearance of the subtitle must be at most 8 seconds. In the prototype system, output from the speech recognition system is passed in to a custom-built editor from where it can be corrected and passed on to an existing subtitling system.
Multimodal Adaptive Interfaces

Speech is the primary mode of communication between people and should also be used in computer human communication. Gesture usually accompanie s speech and provides information which is at times complementary and at times redundant to the information in the speech stream. Depending on the task at hand and the user’s preferences, she will use a combination of speech and gesture in different ways to communicate her intent.
Matching with Dynamic Ordinal Preferences

We consider the problem of repeatedly matching a set of alternatives to a set of agents with dynamic ordinal preferences. Despite a recent focus on designing one-shot matching mechanisms in the absence of monetary transfers, little study has been done on strategic behavior of agents in sequential assignment problems. We formulate a generic dynamic matching problem via a sequential stochastic matching process. We design a mechanism based on random serial dictatorship (RSD) that, given any history of preferences and matching decisions, guarantees global stochastic strategyproofness while satisfying desirable local properties. We further investigate the notion of envyfreeness in such sequential settings.
Gene-finding as an Attribute Selection Task

For data miners, bioinformatics pose a most demanding challenge than only creating efficient algorithms. They should work with databases that are more "horizontal" than "vertical", as the data consist of a few samples of a large (sometimes huge) number of attributes in the case of micro-arrays. More important is the fact that there is a priori biological knowledge saying that only a few genes are normally linked to each characteristic exhibited by the individual. It allows one to use Attribute Selection to determine which attributes are more likely to induce the observable characteristic. In this paper a study on many configurations of attribute selection schemes is made on two typical bioinformatics datasets. The results show that sequential subset generation guarantees better results and reiterates the use of the wrapper approach to achieve better classification, despite its running time being larger than the filter approach.
User-level sentiment evolution analysis in microblog

People's attitudes towards public events or products may change overtime, rather than staying on the same state. Understanding how sentiments change overtime is an interesting and important problem with many applications. Given a certain public event or product, a user's sentiments expressed in microblog stream can be regarded as a vector. In this paper, we define a novel problem of sentiment evolution analysis, and develop a simple yet effective method to detect sentiment evolution in user-level for public events. We firstly propose a multidimensional sentiment model with hierarchical structure to model user's complicate sentiments. Based on this model, we use FP-growth tree algorithm to mine frequent sentiment patterns and perform sentiment evolution analysis by Kullback-Leibler divergence. Moreover, we develop an improve Affinity Propagation algorithm to detect why people change their sentiments. Experimental evaluations on real data sets show that sentiment evolution could be implemented effectively using our method proposed in this article.
Hybrid output regulation for minimum phase linear systems

We consider the hybrid output regulation problem for minimum phase linear systems with relative degree greater than one. In the hybrid output regulation problem, the disturbances, which are assumed to be matched with the control input, evolve through a hybrid dynamical system that experiences jumps periodically. In constructing an output regulator for this problem, we combine recent work on necessary conditions for hybrid output regulation with classical ideas related to high-gain output feedback and high-gain observers. The output regulator we design achieves global exponential stability of a compact set in which the output of the system is zero.
Improvement in sexual function after reduction of chronic high-dose opioid medication in a cancer survivor.

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate improvement in sexual function after reduction of opioids. METHODS This was a retrospective examination of a single patient at the cancer pain management clinic at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The patient was a 58-year-old male, free of cancer for 12 years, with chronic low back pain from a prior retroperitoneal mass. Changes in scores from the Brief Male Sexual Inventory and visual analog scale pain questionnaires were used to evaluate the patient. RESULTS In this patient, a decrease in morphine-equivalent daily dose from 690 mg to 20 mg resulted in a significant increase in sexual function. Sexual inventory scores increased from 4 to 43. CONCLUSIONS Reduction in opioid consumption can dramatically increase libido and sexual function. A possible mechanism involves opioid-related effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis.
Involvement of Reactive Oxygen Species in Sonodynamically Induced Apoptosis Using a Novel Porphyrin Derivative

In this study, we investigated the induction of apoptosis by ultrasound in the presence of the novel porphyrin derivative DCPH-P-Na(I). HL-60 cells were exposed to ultrasound for up to 3 min in the presence and absence of DCPH-P-Na(I), and the induction of apoptosis was examined by analyzing cell morphology, DNA fragmentation, and caspase-3 activity. Reactive oxygen species were measured by means of ESR and spin trapping technique. Cells treated with 8 μM DCPH-P-Na(I) and ultrasound clearly showed membrane blebbing and cell shrinkage, whereas significant morphologic changes were not observed in cells exposed to either ultrasound or DCPH-P-Na(I) alone. Also, DNA ladder formation and caspase-3 activation were observed in cells treated with both ultrasound and DCPH-P-Na(I) but not in cells treated with ultrasound or DCPH-P-Na(I) alone. In addition, the combination of DCPH-P-Na(I) and the same acoustical arrangement of ultrasound substantially enhanced nitroxide generation by the cells. Sonodynamically induced apoptosis, caspase-3 activation, and nitroxide generation were significantly suppressed by histidine. These results indicate that the combination of ultrasound and DCPH-P-Na(I) induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells. The significant reduction in sonodynamically induced apoptosis, nitroxide generation, and caspase-3 activation by histidine suggests active species such as singlet oxygen are important in the sonodynamic induction of apoptosis. These experimental results support the possibility of sonodynamic treatment for cancer using the induction of apoptosis.
Regional Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) at 7 Tesla correlates with amyloid beta in hippocampus and brainstem of cognitively normal elderly subjects

Background: Accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ) may occur during healthy aging and is a risk factor for Alzheimer Disease (AD). While individual Aβ-accumulation can be measured non-invasively using Pittsburgh Compund-B positron emission tomography (PiB-PET), Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) is a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) sequence, capable of indicating heterogeneous age-related brain pathologies associated with tissue-edema. In the current study cognitively normal elderly subjects were investigated for regional correlation of PiB- and FLAIR intensity. Methods: Fourteen healthy elderly subjects without known history of cognitive impairment received 11C-PiB-PET for estimation of regional Aβ-load. In addition, whole brain T1-MPRAGE and FLAIR-MRI sequences were acquired at high field strength of 7 Tesla (7T). Volume-normalized intensities of brain regions were assessed by applying an automated subcortical segmentation algorithm for spatial definition of brain structures. Statistical dependence between FLAIR- and PiB-PET intensities was tested using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (rho), followed by Holm–Bonferroni correction for multiple testing. Results: Neuropsychological testing revealed normal cognitive performance levels in all participants. Mean regional PiB-PET and FLAIR intensities were normally distributed and independent. Significant correlation between volume-normalized PiB-PET signals and FLAIR intensities resulted for Hippocampus (right: rho = 0.86; left: rho = 0.84), Brainstem (rho = 0.85) and left Basal Ganglia vessel region (rho = 0.82). Conclusions: Our finding of a significant relationship between PiB- and FLAIR intensity mainly observable in the Hippocampus and Brainstem, indicates regional Aβ associated tissue-edema in cognitively normal elderly subjects. Further studies including clinical populations are necessary to clarify the relevance of our findings for estimating individual risk for age-related neurodegenerative processes such as AD.
Single-cell force spectroscopy

The controlled adhesion of cells to each other and to the extracellular matrix is crucial for tissue development and maintenance. Numerous assays have been developed to quantify cell adhesion. Among these, the use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) for single-cell force spectroscopy (SCFS) has recently been established. This assay permits the adhesion of living cells to be studied in near-physiological conditions. This implementation of AFM allows unrivaled spatial and temporal control of cells, as well as highly quantitative force actuation and force measurement that is sufficiently sensitive to characterize the interaction of single molecules. Therefore, not only overall cell adhesion but also the properties of single adhesion-receptor–ligand interactions can be studied. Here we describe current implementations and applications of SCFS, as well as potential pitfalls, and outline how developments will provide insight into the forces, energetics and kinetics of cell-adhesion processes.