Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DNA polymorphisms in and around the Apo-A1-CIII genes and genetic hyperlipidemias.

We have studied the frequency of DNA polymorphisms in and around the apolipoprotein A-1 (Apo-A1) and apolipoprotein CIII (Apo-CIII) gene loci in 53 persons of Caucasian descent with genetic hyperlipidemias. Three restriction-fragment-length polymorphisms (RFLPs) have previously been located 5' and 3' to the Apo-A1 gene and in the Apo-CIII gene and were detected after digestion with XmnI, PstI, and SstI, respectively, and hybridization with a 2.2-kb fragment of the Apo-A1 gene. These RFLPs are in linkage equilibrium. The rare variant sites for XmnI (X2) and SstI (S2) were more frequent in familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCH) than in controls and persons with other genetic hyperlipidemias. When considered as a haplotype, this difference was significant (P less than .03). The findings in this study suggest that the previously reported association between S2 and hypertriglyceridemia may be accounted for, in part, by inclusion of numerous patients with FCH. Our data provide further evidence that these RFLPs around and within the Apo-A1/Apo-CIII genes do not participate in unmasking clinical expression in persons with familial dysbetalipoproteinemia.
Modeling Compositionality with Multiplicative Recurrent Neural Networks

We present the multiplicative recurrent neural network as a general model for compositional meaning in language, and evaluate it on the task of fine-grained sentiment analysis. We establish a connection to the previously investigated matrix-space models for compositionality, and show they are special cases of the multiplicative recurrent net. Our experiments show that these models perform comparably or better than Elman-type additive recurrent neural networks and outperform matrix-space models on a standard fine-grained sentiment analysis corpus. Furthermore, they yield comparable results to structural deep models on the recently published Stanford Sentiment Treebank without the need for generating parse trees.
The Genetic Architecture of Grain Yield and Related Traits in Zea maize L. Revealed by Comparing Intermated and Conventional Populations

Using advanced intermated populations has been proposed as a way to increase the accuracy of mapping experiments. An F3 population of 300 lines and an advanced intermated F3 population of 322 lines, both derived from the same parental maize inbred lines, were jointly evaluated for dry grain yield (DGY), grain moisture (GM), and silking date (SD). Genetic variance for dry grain yield was significantly lower in the intermated population compared to the F3 population. The confidence interval around a QTL was on average 2.31 times smaller in the intermated population compared to the F3 population. One controversy surrounding QTL mapping is whether QTL identified in fact represent single loci. This study identifies two distinct loci for dry grain yield in the intermated population in coupling phase, while the F3 identifies only a single locus. Surprisingly, fewer QTL were detected in the intermated population than the F3 (21 vs. 30) and <50% of the detected QTL were shared among the two populations. Cross-validation showed that selection bias was more important in the intermated population than in the F3 and that each detected QTL explained a lower percentage of the variance. This finding supports the hypothesis that QTL detected in conventional populations correspond mainly to clusters of linked QTL. The actual number of QTL involved in the genetic architecture of complex traits may be substantially larger, with effect sizes substantially smaller than in conventional populations.
Association of anti phosphatidyl ethanolamine antibodies and low complement levels in systemic sclerosis patients – results of a cross-sectional study

Abstract Some systemic sclerosis (Ssc) patients express antiphospholipid antibodies and their percentage varies within studies in the literature. The particular role of these antibodies in clinical manifestations of Ssc is still unknown. The aim of the study was to examine an extended panel of antiphospholipid antibodies in Ssc patients who did not have any clinical features of antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. A cross-sectional study was designed and 36 consecutive patients with Ssc were recruited. A relatively high proportion of patients (14 patients – 38.9%) had antiphospholipid antibody presence. Most Ssc patients (11 patients – 30.6%) had IgM anti phosphatidyl ethanolamine antibodies. Serum IgM anti phosphatidyl ethanolamine antibodies, IgM anti prothrombin and IgG anti β2 glycoprotein 1 antibodies were associated with low complement levels in Ssc patients. In multivariate analysis, only serum IgM anti phosphatidyl ethanolamine antibodies concentration and serum IgG anti β2 glycoprotein 1 antibodies concentration were independently associated with hypocomplementemia after adjusting for age and gender. No other correlations with Ssc clinical characteristics were found. In conclusion, antiphospholipid antibodies are present in a large proportion of Ssc patients who do not have clinical features or a history of antiphospholipid antibodies. IgM anti phosphatidyl ethanolamine antibodies seem to be more frequent and the dominant antiphospholipid antibody type in the group recruited from the Romanian Ssc population.
Paraquat poisoning in dogs and cats--differences between accidental and malicious poisoning.

The epidemiological, clinical, pathological and analytical findings in cases of accidental and malicious paraquat poisoning have been compared. These appear to indicate that in outbreaks which are probably malicious in origin, animals generally do not survive for long enough to develop specific pathological changes, but show appreciable tissue levels of paraquat on chemical analysis. In the sporadically occurring cases of accidental poisoning, tissue paraquat levels are low or undetectable and a presumptive diagnosis is more likely to be achieved on histopathological grounds.
On the Shannon theory of information transmission in the case of continuous signals

In addition to the scheduled program, the following two papers, by A. N. Kolmogorov and V. I. Siforov, were presented at the 1956 Symposium on Information Theory. However, the manuscripts were received too late for inclusion in the September (Symposium) issue of these TRANSACTIONS. The papers were submitted in response to our invitation to these distinguished Russian scientists, and the following translations were distributed to those attending the Symposium. --The Editor.
Mu and Delta Opioid Receptors Oppositely Regulate Motor Impulsivity in the Signaled Nose Poke Task

Impulsivity is a primary feature of many psychiatric disorders, most notably attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and drug addiction. Impulsivity includes a number of processes such as the inability to delay gratification, the inability to withhold a motor response, or acting before all of the relevant information is available. These processes are mediated by neural systems that include dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, glutamate and cannabinoids. We examine, for the first time, the role of opioid systems in impulsivity by testing whether inactivation of the mu- (Oprm1) or delta- (Oprd1) opioid receptor gene alters motor impulsivity in mice. Wild-type and knockout mice were examined on either a pure C57BL6/J (BL6) or a hybrid 50% C57Bl/6J–50% 129Sv/pas (HYB) background. Mice were trained to respond for sucrose in a signaled nose poke task that provides independent measures of associative learning (responses to the reward-paired cue) and motor impulsivity (premature responses). Oprm1 knockout mice displayed a remarkable decrease in motor impulsivity. This was observed on the two genetic backgrounds and did not result from impaired associative learning, as responses to the cue signaling reward did not differ across genotypes. Furthermore, mutant mice were insensitive to the effects of ethanol, which increased disinhibition and decreased conditioned responding in wild-type mice. In sharp contrast, mice lacking the Oprd1 gene were more impulsive than controls. Again, mutant animals showed no deficit in associative learning. Ethanol completely disrupted performance in these animals. Together, our results suggest that mu-opioid receptors enhance, whereas delta-opioid receptors inhibit, motor impulsivity. This reveals an unanticipated contribution of endogenous opioid receptor activity to disinhibition. In a broader context, these data suggest that alterations in mu- or delta-opioid receptor function may contribute to impulse control disorders.
Innervation is required for sense organ development in the lateral line system of adult zebrafish

Superficial mechanosensory organs (neuromasts) distributed over the head and body of fishes and amphibians form the “lateral line” system. During zebrafish adulthood, each neuromast of the body (posterior lateral line system, or PLL) produces “accessory” neuromasts that remain tightly clustered, thereby increasing the total number of PLL neuromasts by a factor of more than 10. This expansion is achieved by a budding process and is accompanied by branches of the afferent nerve that innervates the founder neuromast. Here we show that innervation is essential for the budding process, in complete contrast with the development of the embryonic PLL, where innervation is entirely dispensable. To obtain insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the budding process, we focused on the terminal system that develops at the posterior tip of the body and on the caudal fin. In this subset of PLL neuromasts, bud neuromasts form in a reproducible sequence over a few days, much faster than for other PLL neuromasts. We show that wingless/int (Wnt) signaling takes place during, and is required for, the budding process. We also show that the Wnt activator R-spondin is expressed by the axons that innervate budding neuromasts. We propose that the axon triggers Wnt signaling, which itself is involved in the proliferative phase that leads to bud formation. Finally, we show that innervation is required not only for budding, but also for long-term maintenance of all PLL neuromasts.
BinderCracker: Assessing the Robustness of Android System Services

In Android, communications between apps and system services are supported by a transaction-based Inter-Process Communication (IPC) mechanism. Binder, as the cornerstone of this IPC mechanism, separates two communicating parties as client and server. As with any client-server model, the server should not make any assumption on the validity (sanity) of client-side transaction. To our surprise, we find this principle has frequently been overlooked in the implementation of Android system services. In this paper, we demonstrate the prevalence and severity of this vulnerability surface and try to answer why developers keep making this seemingly simple mistake. Specifically, we design and implement BinderCracker, an automatic testing framework that supports parameter-aware fuzzing and has identified more than 100 vulnerabilities in six major versions of Android, including the latest version Android 6.0, Marshmallow. Some of the vulnerabilities have severe security implications, causing privileged code execution or permanent Denial-of-Service (DoS). We analyzed the root causes of these vulnerabilities to find that most of them exist because system service developers only considered exploitations via public APIs. We thus highlight the deficiency of testing only on client-side public APIs and argue for the necessity of testing and protection on the Binder interface - the actual security boundary. Specifically, we discuss the effectiveness and practicality of potential countermeasures, such as precautionary testing and runtime diagnostic.
Matrix approach for processing of iterative reconstruction on cone beam CT

Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is an important technique providing new insights into the inner structure of products in industry and medicine physics. Iterative reconstruction methods have been shown to be more robust than analytical algorithm against the noise and limited angles conditions present in CT. Nevertheless, these methods are not extensively used due to their computational demands. In the iteration algorithm, the matrix of projection is massive and it is very time-consuming to calculate the forward projections and back-projections. In this work, we design a matrix approach that the coefficients of the projection matrix are pre-calculated and simultaneously stored with two compressing formats due to the different sparse structures of the matrix and its transposed matrix. And we implement the corresponding SpMV (sparse matrix-vector multiplication) based on the compressing matrices with GPU platform to realize the acceleration. Experimental results indicate that this method allows efficient implementations of reconstruction in CBCT and it can have a better performance than those with serial computing on CPU.
Singularity analysis of a class of composite serial in-parallel robots

This paper presents the singularity analysis of a family of 14 composite serial in-parallel six degree-of-freedom robots, having a common parallel sub-mechanism. The singular configurations of this class of robots are obtained by applying line geometry methods to a single, augmented Jacobian matrix whose rows are Plucker coordinates of the lines governing the sub-mechanism motion. It is shown that this family of robots possesses three general parallel singularities that are attributed to the general complex singularity. The results were verified experimentally on a prototype of a composite serial in-parallel robot that was synthesized and constructed for use in medical applications.
Angle of Arrival based Indoor Localization with Cooperative MIMO Beamforming Scheme

—We present a novel angle of arrival (AOA) based indoor localization approach in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) smart antenna system. We exploit the directivity property of the smart antenna array at both transmitter and receiver sides. In contrast to conventional AOA based localization approaches, our proposed localization method combines beam steering (beamforming) transmission and receiving approach, and uses Rician fading channel model in order to simulate a more realistic environment. By setting the beamforming weights, the access point (AP) only listens to a speciﬁc direction which allows suppressing the strong signals coming from scattered paths. The angle estimation is done by analysis of the obtained angle vs. power proﬁle. For accuracy performance analysis, we derive the expression for the location error with respect to the estimated angle of the desired user, in the presence of Rician fading. Based on the simulation results, our proposed approach provides a meter or sub-meter level accuracy and a nearly 40% decrement of location error compared to the benchmark with 4 × 4 array conﬁguration.
Reproductive traits, flowering phenology and seed bank dynamics in Retama raetam (Fabaceae) in a hyper-arid environment

Abstract This study explores the effects of year and location on reproductive traits and flowering phenology in Retama raetam populations growing in a hyper-arid environment. Besides year, season, and location, variations in the soil seed bank were also evaluated. Germination percentage of seeds buried in soil at two different depths for one year was determined. I hypothesized that changes in water availability between years and locations would lead to variations in reproductive traits, flowering phenology, and the seed bank of R. raetam. The study was conducted at a midstream and an upstream location during 2013 and 2014 in Wadi Rishrash in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Flower, fruit, and seed production were significantly higher in the midstream location than the upstream location and in 2014 than in 2013. Flowering onset and duration did not differ significantly between locations. Flowering occurred earlier in 2014 than in 2013 at both locations, and the flowering period was longer in 2014 than in 2013. The size of the seed bank was greater at the midstream than at the upstream location, and in summer than in spring season. Germination of seeds decreased with burial depth, but increased with burial duration. Larger individuals produced more seeds and flowered earlier than smaller plants. The size of plant was also positively correlated with flowering duration. The location and temporal variations in all these traits may be related to environmental differences between locations and differences in annual precipitation.
Hot-Moments of Soil CO2 Efflux in a Water-Limited Grassland

The metabolic activity of water-limited ecosystems is strongly linked to the timing and magnitude of precipitation pulses that can trigger disproportionately high (i.e., hot-moments) ecosystem CO2 fluxes. We analyzed over 2-years of continuous measurements of soil CO2 efflux (Fs) under vegetation (Fsveg) and at bare soil (Fsbare) in a water-limited grassland. The continuous wavelet transform was used to: (a) describe the temporal variability of Fs; (b) test the performance of empirical models ranging in complexity; and (c) identify hot-moments of Fs. We used partial wavelet coherence (PWC) analysis to test the temporal correlation between Fs with temperature and soil moisture. The PWC analysis provided evidence that soil moisture overshadows the influence of soil temperature for Fs in this water limited ecosystem. Precipitation pulses triggered hot-moments that increased Fsveg (up to 9000%) and Fsbare (up to 17,000%) with respect to pre-pulse rates. Highly parameterized empirical models (using support vector machine (SVM) or an 8-day moving window) are good approaches for representing the daily temporal variability of Fs, but SVM is a promising approach to represent high temporal variability of Fs (i.e., hourly estimates). Our results have implications for the representation of hot-moments of ecosystem CO2 fluxes in these globally distributed ecosystems.
The formin homology protein mDia 1 regulates dynamics of microtubules and their effect on focal adhesion growth

The formin homology protein, mDia1, is a major effector of Rho controlling, together with the Rho-kinase (ROCK), the formation of focal adhesions and stress fibers. Here we show that a constitutively active form of mDia1 (mDia1∆N3) affects the dynamics of microtubules at three stages of their life. We found that in cells expressing mDia1∆N3, (1) the growth rate at the microtubule plus-end decreased by half, (2) the rates of microtubule plus-end growth and shortening at the cell periphery decreased while the frequency of catastrophes and rescue events remained unchanged, and (3) mDia1∆N3 expression in cytoplasts without centrosome stabilized free microtubule minus-ends. This stabilization required the activity of another Rho target, ROCK. Interestingly, mDia1∆N3 as well as endogenous mDia1, localized at the centrosome. The changes in microtubule behavior in the mDia1∆N3-expressing cells increased both microtubule targeting toward focal adhesions, and their inhibitory effect on focal adhesion growth. Thus, mDia1induced alterations in microtubule dynamics augment the microtubule-mediated negative regulation of focal adhesions.
Distributed and Optimal Resource Allocation for Power Beacon-Assisted Wireless-Powered Communications

In this paper, we investigate optimal resource allocation in a power beacon-assisted wireless-powered communication network (PB-WPCN), which consists of a set of hybrid access point (AP)-source pairs and a power beacon (PB). Each source, which has no embedded power supply, first harvests energy from its associated AP and/or the PB in the downlink (DL) and then uses the harvested energy to transmit information to its AP in the uplink (UL). We consider both cooperative and non-cooperative scenarios based on whether the PB is cooperative with the APs or not. For the cooperative scenario, we formulate a social welfare maximization problem to maximize the weighted sum-throughput of all AP-source pairs, which is subsequently solved by a water-filling based distributed algorithm. In the non-cooperative scenario, all the APs and the PB are assumed to be rational and self-interested such that incentives from each AP are needed for the PB to provide wireless charging service. We then formulate an auction game and propose an auction based distributed algorithm by considering the PB as the auctioneer and the APs as the bidders. Finally, numerical results are performed to validate the convergence of both the proposed algorithms and demonstrate the impacts of various system parameters.
A nonlinear filter switch method based on normalized innovation square

In the nonlinear system, a simple filter is usually adopted to estimate the state. However, the traditional kind based on the framework of Kalman filter has a large estimation error, even leads to divergence, when handling with a stronger nonlinear system in spite of owning a better real-time. The other kind about particle filter and its derived algorithms has a large computational complexity, although it can deal with the nonlinearity with a better performance. Therefore, a novel switching approach based on normalized innovation square (NIS) is proposed to estimate the state of nonlinear systems in this paper. By constructing a statistic of the NIS and testing their validities in the time window, whether the algorithm at current time is valid or not is decided while the nonlinearity of this system is varying. Then, the filter is switched between two kinds of above methods. Compared with the kind of particle filter, the simulation result shows that the computing load of this approach is obviously less without affecting the performance.
Estimation of Tree Distribution and Canopy Heights in Ifakara, Tanzania Using Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Stereo Imagery

Tree height estimation is fundamental in forestry inventory especially in the computation of biomass. Traditional methods for tree height estimation are not cost effective because of time, manpower and resources involved. Multiple return LiDAR capabilities offer convenient solutions for height estimations though at equally increased costs. This study seeks to provide an assessment of the accuracy of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) stereo imagery in establishing tree distribution and canopy heights in open forests as an inexpensive alternative. To achieve this, we: generate accurate 3 dimensional surface and bare earth models from UAS data and using these products; establish tree distribution and estimate canopy heights using data filters; and validate the results using ground methods. A Mavinci Sirius fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) fitted with a 16 Megapixel camera and flying at an average height of 371 m Above Ground Level (AGL) was used to image approximately 2 km2 capturing 380 images per flight. An image overlap of up to 85% was sufficient for stereo generation at a Ground Sample Distance (GSD) of 10 cm for a flight period of 40 minutes. The stereo imagery captured were processed into orthomosaics and photogrammetric point clouds with an average point density of 23 points per square meters using Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques. Point cloud segmentation revealed tree distribution patterns in the Ifakara area, with the Near Infrared band proving useful in filtering out trees from non-vegetated areas. From the tree height estimations and with validation information from 46 sample trees yielded a correlation coefficient, R2=75%. The study highlights a simplified and cost-effective approach for generation of accurate three dimension (3D) models from stereo UAS data. With a survey grade GPS/IMU/INS for direct-on-board geo-referencing, limited controls were required which reduces the cost of the project. With the ease of varying the size of imagery overlap and flying height, imagery with improved radiometry can be obtained hence improving the determination of tree distribution, and with multi-view image matching algorithms processing of UAS imagery is made accurate and inexpensive.