Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interruption of ghrelin signaling in the PVN increases high-fat diet intake and body weight in stressed and non-stressed C57BL6J male mice

Chronic social stress has been associated with increased caloric intake and adiposity. These effects have been linked to stress induced changes in the secretion of ghrelin, a hormone that targets a number of brain regions to increase food intake and energy expenditure and promote increased body fat content. One of the brain sites targeted by ghrelin is the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN), a region critical for both the regulation of the stress response and the regulation of energy balance. Given these data, we examined the contribution of ghrelin receptors in the PVN to the metabolic and behavioral changes that are seen during chronic social stress in mice. To do this, mice were implanted with cannulae attached to osmotic minipumps and delivering either vehicle or the ghrelin receptor (growth hormone secretagogue receptor) antagonist [D-Lys-3]-GHRP-6 (20 nmol/day/mouse). Following a week of recovery, half of the animals in each group were exposed to chronic social defeat stress for a period of 3 weeks whereas the other half were left undisturbed. During this time, all animals were given ad libitum access to standard laboratory chow and presented a high-fat diet for 4 h during the day. Results showed that the ghrelin receptor antagonism did not decrease stressed induced caloric intake, but paradoxically increased the intake of the high fat diet. This would suggest that ghrelin acts on the PVN to promote the intake of carbohydrate rich diets while decreasing fat intake and blockade of ghrelin receptors in the PVN leads to more consumption of foods that are high in fat.
Error Correction Using Long Context Match for Smartphone Speech Recognition

SUMMARY Most error correction interfaces for speech recognition applications on smartphones require the user to ﬁrst mark an error region and choose the correct word from a candidate list. We propose a simple multimodal interface to make the process more e ﬃ cient. We develop Long Context Match (LCM) to get candidates that complement the conventional word confusion network (WCN). Assuming that not only the preceding words but also the succeeding words of the error region are validated by users, we use such contexts to search higher-order n -grams corpora for matching word sequences. For this purpose, we also utilize the Web text data. Furthermore, we propose a combination of LCM and WCN (“LCM + WCN”) to provide users with candidate lists that are more relevant than those yielded by WCN alone. We compare our interface with the WCN-based interface on the Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (CSJ). Our proposed “LCM + WCN” method improved the 1-best accuracy by 23%, improved the Mean Reciprocal Rank (MRR) by 28%, and our interface reduced the user’s load by 12%.
Dynamic definability

We investigate the logical resources required to maintain knowledge about a property of a finite structure that undergoes an ongoing series of local changes such as insertion or deletion of tuples to basic relations. Our framework is closely related to the Dyn-FO-framework of Patnaik and Immerman and the FOIES-framework of Dong, Libkin, Su and Wong, and also builds on work of Weber and Schwentick. We assume that the dynamic process starts with an arbitrary, nonempty structure, but in contrast to previous work, we assume that, in general, structures are unordered. We show how to modify known dynamic algorithms for symmetric reachability, bipartiteness, k-edge connectivity and more, to work also without an order and with dynamic processes starting at an arbitrary graph. A history independent dynamic system (also called deterministic or memoryless) is one that maintains all auxiliary information independent of the update order. In 1997, Dong and Su posed the problem whether there exist history independent dynamic systems with FO-updates for symmetric reachability or bipartiteness. We give a positive answer to this question. We further show that there is a history independent system for tree isomorphism with FO+C-updates. On the other hand we show that on unordered structures first-order logic is too weak to maintain enough information to answer the equal cardinality query and the tree isomorphism query dynamically.
The importance of model fidelity, update rate and horizon length in model based microgrid control

In order to maximize the effectiveness of microgrids sophisticated control strategies are required. In this paper we investigate the performance of a model based power flow optimization controller for a grid connected microgrid consisting of; solar PV, battery storage, thermal generation, and a local electrical load. The controller is based on a mixed integer linear program (MILP) applied in a model predictive control framework (MPC). In the MPC problem formulation there are two design parameters that need to be considered, the update rate of the controller and the number of steps considered in the on-line optimisation problem. Previous work by the authors has demonstrated that the former is critical in order to respond to the high variability associated with solar generation. In this work we extend the previous study to highlight the effect of update rate on battery utilization and the consequential effect on cumulative system operating cost. We demonstrate that the number of steps in the controller horizon has a largely inconsequential impact due to the battery being primarily utilised to ensure efficient generator operation as opposed to providing long term energy storage. Furthermore, the importance of model fidelity is investigated and a 42% decrease in operating cost over a 1 month period is observed when generator fuel consumption non-linearities are incorporated in the controller design, as opposed to a constant efficiency fuel consumption model.
a Measure for the Cohesion of Weighted Networks

A generalization of both the Botafogo-Rivlin-Shneiderman compactness measure and the Wiener index is presented. These new measures for the cohesion of networks can be used in case a dissimilarity value is given between nodes in a network or a graph. It is illustrated how a set of weights between connected nodes can be transformed into a set of dissimilarity measures for all nodes. The new compactness measure for the cohesion of weighted graphs has several desirable properties related to the disjoint union of two networks. Finally, an example is presented of the calculation of the new compactness measures for a co-citation and a bibliographic coupling network.
The Wheat VRN2 Gene Is a Flowering Repressor Down-Regulated by Vernalization

Plants with a winter growth habit flower earlier when exposed for several weeks to cold temperatures, a process called vernalization. We report here the positional cloning of the wheat vernalization gene VRN2, a dominant repressor of flowering that is down-regulated by vernalization. Loss of function of VRN2, whether by natural mutations or deletions, resulted in spring lines, which do not require vernalization to flower. Reduction of the RNA level of VRN2 by RNA interference accelerated the flowering time of transgenic winter-wheat plants by more than a month.
TVSeg - Interactive Total Variation Based Image Segmentation

Interactive object extraction is an important part in any image editing software. We present a two step segmentation algorithm that first obtains a binary segmentation and then applies matting on the border regions to obtain a smooth alpha channel. The proposed segmentation algorithm is based on the minimization of the Geodesic Active Contour energy. A fast Total Variation minimization algorithm is used to find the globally optimal solution. We show how user interaction can be incorporated and outline an efficient way to exploit color information. A novel matting approach, based on energy minimization, is presented. Experimental evaluations are discussed, and the algorithm is compared to state of the art object extraction algorithms. The GPU based binaries are available online.
Gossypol Promotes Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling through WIF1 in Ovariectomy-Induced Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is one of the most frequent diseases related with age. Previously, we have reported a novel potential drug, gossypol, for the treatment of osteoporosis through its regulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling. This study aims to identify the detailed mechanism of gossypol in human osteoporosis. Mice injected with gossypol were subjected for RNA-seq analysis and the transcription level of WIF1 was shown to be decreased dramatically in gossypol-treated mice, which was further confirmed by qRT-PCR and western blot analysis. Luciferase reporter assay showed gossypol inhibited the activity of WIF1 and the methylation of WIF1 was significantly upregulated, evidenced by ChIP assay. Cell viability assays demonstrated that gossypol promoted cell proliferation while cotreatment with WIF1 expressing plasmid reversed the effect in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Similarly, cell apoptotic assays and TUNEL assays showed gossypol suppressed cell apoptosis, which was revised by WIF1 overexpression. The mouse model suggested gossypol injection ameliorated osteoporosis, while coinjection of AAV5-WIF1 eliminated the protection effects of gossypol, as evidenced by H&E staining, serum osteocalcin level, serum OPG level, serum RANKL level, bone density, ultimate strength, and postyield displacement. This study is a supplement to the former publication, which reinforced the protection effect of gossypol in human osteoporosis.
Investigations on genomic evaluations using high-density genotypes in Fleckvieh with consideration of dominance effects

The aim of this thesis was to investigate effects of high density (HD) SNP genotypes and female genotypes in genomic evaluation of Fleckvieh considering dominance effects. Imputed HD genotypes improved validation reliability compared to 50K and reduced model based reliability and inflation of predicted breeding values. Although dominance amounted to significant proportions of genetic variance, genomic predictions of dominance were inaccurate. But exploitation of dominance SNP effects in mating decisions could be favorable.
Measurements on the influence of the LTE system on DVB-T reception

The WRC-07 (World Radiocommunication Conference 2007) co-allocated the band 790-862 MHz (channels 61 to 69) to mobile services from June 2015. There is a lot of interest to use this part of the spectrum before 2015 for mobile services, especially LTE (Long Term Evolution) services. Before the introduction of these new mobile services, the influence of these mobile services to the reception of existing DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) networks operating on adjacent channels needs to be assessed. This paper describes the measurements conducted on the subject of interference caused by the LTE system to the DVB-T system. The aim of this paper is to present the measurement results of both LTE Base Stations and LTE User Equipment on DVB-T reception operating on adjacent channels.
Radiocontrast media hypersensitivity in the Asia Pacific region

Radiocontrast media (RCM) is a major cause of drug hypersensitivity reactions as the medical application of RCM is increasing recently. RCM induced hypersensitivity reactions are considered as unpredictable type B reactions. Underlying mechanism of RCM induced hypersensitivity was previously regarded as nonimmunological mechanisms but recent studies suggest that immunological mechanisms could also be involved. As a result, the roles of skin tests and premedication are revisiting. As there has been no report that comprehensively summarized and analyzed the results of the studies on RCM hypersensitivity in the Asia Pacific region, we aimed to review the literatures on hypersensitivity reactions to RCM in terms of prevalence clinical manifestations, diagnostic approach, and preventive measures in the Asia Pacific region.
Bluetooth based Home Automation using Arduino

:- Technology is a never ending process. To be able to design a product using the current technology that will be beneficial to the lives of others is a huge contribution to the community. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low cost but yet flexible and secure cell phone based home automation system. The design is based on a standalone Arduino BT board and the home appliances are connected to the input/ output ports of this board via relays. The communication between the cell phone and the Arduino BT board is wireless. This system is designed to be low cost and scalable allowing variety of devices to be controlled with minimum changes to its core. Password protection is being used to only allow authorized users from accessing the appliances at home.
Lessons Learned From Electricity Market Liberalization

This paper discusses the lessons learned from electricity sector liberalization over the last 20 years. The attributes of reform models that have exhibited good performance attributes are identified, drawing on empirical analysis of market structure, behavior and performance in many countries. Wholesale and retail market competition and network regulation performance evidence are discussed. Technical, economic, and political challenges to improving the efficiency of what continue to be partial liberalization programs in many countries are considered.
Lumbar intraspinal extradural ganglion cyst

A case is presented of an intraspinal extradural ganglion cyst at the L4–5 level. The clinical picture suggested a herniated nucleus pulposus at this level. A myelogram revealed a round lesion almost completely obstructing the flow of Pantopaque at the L4–5 level. A ganglion cyst with a haemorrhage into it and the surrounding tissue was removed, and surgery was followed by complete recovery.
Is Advance Selling Desirable with Competition?

It has been shown that a monopolist can use advance selling to increase profits. This paper documents that this may not hold when firms face competition. With advance selling a firm offers its service in an advance period, before consumers know their valuations for the firms' services, or later on in a spot period, when consumers know their valuations. We identify two ways in which competition limits the effectiveness of advance selling. First, while a monopolist can sell to homogeneous consumers at a high price, if consumers are equally uncertain as to which firm they prefer, their choice is based primarily on which firm has the lower price, and the resulting price competition lowers advance prices and profits. Second, competition in the spot period is likely to lower spot period prices, thereby forcing the firms to lower their advance period prices, which again is not favorable to profits. We show that with competition the firms may be better off if they sell only in the spot period. However, the firms may nevertheless find themselves in an equilibrium with advance selling. In this sense, advance selling is better described as a competitive necessity than as an advantageous tool to raise profits.
ForestDB: A Fast Key-Value Storage System for Variable-Length String Keys

Indexing key-value data on persistent storage is an important factor for NoSQL databases. Most key-value storage engines use tree-like structures for data indexing, but their performance and space overhead rapidly get worse as the key length becomes longer. This also affects the merge or compaction cost which is critical to the overall throughput. In this paper, we present ForestDB, a key-value storage engine for a single node of large-scale NoSQL databases. ForestDB uses a new hybrid indexing scheme called HB+-trie, which is a disk-based trie-like structure combined with B+-trees. It allows for efficient indexing and retrieval of arbitrary length string keys with relatively low disk accesses over tree-like structures, even though the keys are very long and randomly distributed in the key space. Our evaluation results show that ForestDB significantly outperforms the current key-value storage engine of Couchbase Server [1], LevelDB [2], and RocksDB [3], in terms of both the number of operations per second and the amount of disk writes per update operation.
Towards a High Assurance Multi-level Secure PC for Intelligence Communities

Intelligence communities have long struggled with the burden of maintaining separate computers and networks to manage information at varying sensitivity levels. Commercial grade operating systems and virtualization solutions such as Windows, Linux, and VMware are unsuitable for security assurance to the high levels required for this kind of information sharing on a single PC platform. Custom solutions have failed to gain acceptance as cost containment pressures favor commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms. In addition, common PC hardware has had serious security limitations that prevent even a high assurance software solution from achieving the required domain separation. The hope for a truly high assurance, multi-level secure PC is coming closer to reality by virtue of recent innovations, both in software and hardware. We propose an operating environment architecture that combines the utility of virtualization with the robustness of a high assurance realtime kernel that can host trusted applications.
Predictors of burden and depression among caregivers of relapsing-remitting MS patients in Spain: MS Feeling study.

AIM To assess potential predictors for burden and depression among caregivers of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients in Spain. Family functioning and social support were also assessed. PATIENTS & METHODS Multicenter and cross-sectional study in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis adult patients and their respective informal caregivers (n = 180). Assessment performed: Zarit Scale (Burden), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression-7 Scale (depression), Family APGAR (Adaptation, Partnership, Growth, Affection, Resolve) Questionnaire (family functioning) and Duke UNC-11 Functional Social Support Questionnaire (social support). Multivariate logistic regression analysis assessed burden and depression predictors among caregivers. RESULTS Caregivers suffered burden (19.4%) and depression (20.6%) and perceived poor social support (9.4%) and family dysfunction (10.6%). Burden predictors were patient's degree of disability, caregiver time and number of medications administered to patient. Depression predictors were patient's age and daily caregiving time. CONCLUSION The factors reported here could help clinicians to identify caregiver groups particularly at risk of burden and depression for timely intervention.
Vertices of degree k in random maps

This work is devoted to the study of the typical structure of a random map. Maps are planar graphs embedded in the plane. We investigate the degree sequences of random maps from families of a certain type, which, among others, includes fundamental map classes like those of biconnected maps, 3-connected maps, and triangulations. In particular, we develop a general framework that allows us to derive relations and exact asymptotic expressions for the expected number of vertices of degree k in random maps from these classes, and also provide accompanying large deviation statements. Extending the work of Gao and Wormald (Combinatorica, 2003) on random general maps, we obtain as results of our framework precise information about the number of vertices of degree k in random biconnected, 3-connected, loopless, and bridgeless maps.
Endogenous Presentation of CD8+ T Cell Epitopes from Epstein-Barr Virus–encoded Nuclear Antigen 1

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)–encoded nuclear antigen (EBNA)1 is thought to escape cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) recognition through either self-inhibition of synthesis or by blockade of proteasomal degradation by the glycine-alanine repeat (GAr) domain. Here we show that EBNA1 has a remarkably varied cell type–dependent stability. However, these different degradation rates do not correspond to the level of major histocompatibility complex class I–restricted presentation of EBNA1 epitopes. In spite of the highly stable expression of EBNA1 in B cells, CTL epitopes derived from this protein are efficiently processed and presented to CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, we show that EBV-infected B cells can readily activate EBNA1-specific memory T cell responses from healthy virus carriers. Functional assays revealed that processing of these EBNA1 epitopes is proteasome and transporter associated with antigen processing dependent. We also show that the endogenous presentation of these epitopes is dependent on the newly synthesized protein rather than the long-lived stable EBNA1. Based on these observations, we propose that defective ribosomal products, not the full-length antigen, are the primary source of endogenously processed CD8+ T cell epitopes from EBNA1.
Genome comparison and context analysis reveals putative mobile forms of restriction–modification systems and related rearrangements

The mobility of restriction–modification (RM) gene complexes and their association with genome rearrangements is a subject of active investigation. Here we conducted systematic genome comparisons and genome context analysis on fully sequenced prokaryotic genomes to detect RM-linked genome rearrangements. RM genes were frequently found to be linked to mobility-related genes such as integrase and transposase homologs. They were flanked by direct and inverted repeats at a significantly high frequency. Insertion by long target duplication was observed for I, II, III and IV restriction types. We found several RM genes flanked by long inverted repeats, some of which had apparently inserted into a genome with a short target duplication. In some cases, only a portion of an apparently complete RM system was flanked by inverted repeats. We also found a unit composed of RM genes and an integrase homolog that integrated into a tRNA gene. An allelic substitution of a Type III system with a linked Type I and IV system pair, and allelic diversity in the putative target recognition domain of Type IIG systems were observed. This study revealed the possible mobility of all types of RM systems, and the diversity in their mobility-related organization.
Preconception antiretroviral therapy and birth defects: what is needed?

Prevention of maternal-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV remains a priority, as globally, approximately 700 infants are newly infected with HIV each day [1]. Remarkable progress has been made in the past decade in reducing MTCT, with one million infants prevented from acquiring HIV between 2003 and 2013 because of maternal and infant antiretroviral prophylaxis [2]. However, limited safety data currently exist on potential adverse outcomes among HIV-infected pregnant women and their infants after exposure to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) before and throughout pregnancy [3].