Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cost-effective optical backhaul for broadband wireless

Given the steady growth in both the deployment of broadband wireless access (BWA) networks as well as the increase in their bandwidth requirements, there is a real demand for high bandwidth backhaul connectivity between antenna base-stations (BSs) and the switching center. On the other hand, increasing deployment of optical access networks and associated backbone networks provide greater access to a high bandwidth fiber network. A unified communication backbone network that seamlessly integrates wireless backhaul networks with the optical access network can offer significant benefits to network operators through consolidation of network infrastructure. In addition, such a unified backbone network would provide a future-proof and scalable infrastructure to cope with the future growth in demand for both wireless and wired broadband connectivity. However, it will demand a common physical layer transmission technology that allows easier transport of both wireless and optical signals cost-effectively.
Effect of temperature on microbial composition of starter culture for Chinese light aroma style liquor fermentation

Light aroma style liquor is one of the basic types of Chinese liquor and is produced with a special technique of using a combination of three types of Daqu as starter culture. The succession of incubation temperature, a main operating parameter, and microbial composition in Daqu were investigated during the manufacturing process. The most significant difference in temperature occurred during the middle stage at which the highest and the lowest temperatures were detected in Houhuo (HH) and Qingcha (QC), respectively. It was shown that for the counting data, the population of fungi was identical and that of bacteria was different between three types of Daqu. According to analysis results of microbial community structure using PCR‐denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR‐DGGE), lactic acid bacteria were one of the dominant bacterial groups in all of Daqu and fungal diversity in QC was higher than that in HH and Hongxin (HX). The difference in incubation temperature led to the accumulation of different heat‐tolerant and heat‐sensitive fungi in the completed Daqu. PCA of DGGE profiles revealed that microbial community structure was distinct between three types of Daqu. It was presumed that temperature might play a decisive role in the formation of micro‐organism composition in starter cultures.
Accounting for haplotype uncertainty in matched association studies: A comparison of simple and flexible techniques

Population‐based case‐control studies measuring associations between haplotypes of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are increasingly popular, in part because haplotypes of a few “tagging” SNPs may serve as surrogates for variation in relatively large sections of the genome. Due to current technological limitations, haplotypes in cases and controls must be inferred from unphased genotypic data. Using individual‐specific inferred haplotypes as covariates in standard epidemiologic analyses (e.g., conditional logistic regression) is an attractive analysis strategy, as it allows adjustment for nongenetic covariates, provides omnibus and haplotype‐specific tests of association, and can estimate haplotype and haplotype × environment interaction effects. In principle, some adjustment for the uncertainty in inferred haplotypes should be made. Via simulation, we compare the performance (bias and mean squared error of haplotype and haplotype × environment interaction effect estimates) of several analytic strategies using inferred haplotypes in the context of matched case‐control data. These strategies include using only the most likely haplotype assignment, the expectation substitution approach described by Stram et al. ([2003b] Hum. Hered. 55:179–190) and others, and an improper version of multiple imputation. For relatively uncomplicated haplotype structures and moderate haplotype relative risks (≤2), all methods performed comparably well (small bias with appropriately‐sized confidence intervals). For larger relative risks, the most likely haplotype and multiple imputation strategies showed noticeable bias towards the null; the expectation substitution strategy still performed well. When there was more uncertainty in the inferred haplotypes, the most likely and multiple imputation strategies showed even more bias towards the null, while the expectation substitution method had slightly smaller than nominal confidence intervals for larger relative risks (≥5). An application to progesterone‐receptor haplotypes and endometrial cancer further illustrates that the performance of all these methods depends on how well the observed haplotypes “tag” the unobserved causal variant. Genet. Epidemiol. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Revascularization Determines Volume Retention and Gene Expression by Fat Grafts in Mice

Autologous fat transplantation is a popular and useful technique in plastic and reconstructive surgery. The efficiency and survival of such grafts is predictable in many cases, but there are still issues to be resolved, such as how to improve graft volume retention. To address the issue of volume retention, we studied the effect of revascularization from the recipient on the size and function of adipocytes in fat grafts. Treatment of mice with TNP-470, an angiogenesis inhibitor, reduced blood flow from the recipient into the graft after subcutaneous transplantation of epididymal fat. The weight of transplanted tissues and the size of adipocytes in the grafts were significantly lower in mice treated with TNP-470 (TNP mice) than in control mice. Expression of genes for enzymes related to lipid accumulation was decreased in the grafts of TNP mice compared with control mice. Moreover, the expression of adipocyte-derived angiogenic peptides, VEGF and leptin, was significantly lower in the grafts of TNP mice than in grafts from control animals. The expression of VEGF and leptin by cultured human adipocytes was increased in the presence of conditioned medium from cultured vascular endothelial cells. These results show that the inhibition of the revascularization of fat grafts after transplantation reduces graft volume retention and cellular function. Early and adequate revascularization may be important for both the supply of nutrients and vasoactive interactions between vascular endothelial cells and adipocytes in graft.
Frequency of subclinical lacunar infarcts in ischemic leukoaraiosis and cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Small vessel cerebrovascular disease is an important cause of vascular cognitive impairment. It is usually sporadic but also occurs secondary to the genetic disorder cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). Recurrent lacunar stroke is a characteristic feature, although symptomatic events are relatively rare, making large numbers necessary for evaluation of potential therapies. Diffusion-weighted imaging is sensitive to acute ischemic lesions and differentiates them from chronic infarcts. Detection of asymptomatic lacunar infarcts with diffusion-weighted imaging is a potential surrogate marker for treatment trials. In this study, the frequency of asymptomatic new lesions in ischemic leukoaraiosis and CADASIL was determined as a step toward assessing the potential of this technique as a surrogate marker of disease activity. METHODS Fifty patients with sporadic small vessel disease and 19 patients with CADASIL underwent diffusion-weighted imaging. All had been asymptomatic for 3 months before imaging. Diffusion-weighted images were screened by two raters for new lesions; lesions were confirmed as recent by a visible reduction of diffusivity on the corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient maps. RESULTS Recent ischemic lesions were identified in four patients with sporadic small vessel disease (8.0%) and two patients with CADASIL (10.5%). CONCLUSION Asymptomatic new lesions are found in cases of sporadic small vessel disease and CADASIL. The frequency of new lesions suggests that this approach has a potential role as a surrogate marker in therapeutic trials that warrants further investigation.
Snakebite Doesn't Cause Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation: Coagulopathy and Thrombotic Microangiopathy in Snake Envenoming

The most common coagulopathy associated with snake envenoming worldwide is venom-induced consumption coagulopathy (VICC), which results from activation of the coagulation pathway by snake toxins including thrombin-like enzymes, prothrombin activators, and factor X activators. VICC has often been likened to disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) because of the elevated D-dimer, prolonged prothrombin time, and low fibrinogen. However, VICC is not characterized by other important features of DIC, such as evidence of systemic microthrombi and end-organ failure. In addition, the time course of VICC differs with rapid onset and resolution, and the mechanism of initiation of coagulation activation differs because thrombin generation in DIC is mediated by the tissue factor/factor VIIa pathway. In a proportion of patients with VICC, a clinical syndrome consistent with thrombotic microangiopathy has been reported and is characterized by acute renal failure, thrombocytopenia, and microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. This thrombotic microangiopathy appears to only occur in conjunction with VICC but in several different snakes worldwide including vipers and elapids. Consistent with thrombotic microangiopathy, it progresses despite the resolution of the coagulopathy, suggesting a distinct but related process. The existence of the overlapping clinical syndromes of VICC and thrombotic microangiopathy in snake envenoming is the likely reason for the mistaken idea that snakebite causes DIC.
NMR studies of the pbx1 TALE homeodomain protein free in solution and bound to DNA: proposal for a mechanism of HoxB1-Pbx1-DNA complex assembly.

The Hox homeodomain proteins are transcription factors involved in developmental regulation. Many of the vertebrate Hox proteins bind DNA cooperatively with the Pbx1 homeodomain protein. The crystal structure of a human HoxB1-Pbx1-DNA ternary complex revealed that interactions between the two proteins are mediated by the HoxB1 hexapeptide, which inserts into a hydrophobic pocket in Pbx1. It was also found that the Pbx1 DNA-binding domain is larger than the canonical three-helix homeodomain, containing an additional alpha-helix that is joined to the C terminus of the homeodomain by a turn of 310helix. These extra C-terminal residues had previously been shown to augment the cooperative interaction of Pbx1 with Hox partners, as well as enhancing the DNA binding of monomeric Pbx1. In order to characterize the role of the fourth Pbx1 helix in greater detail, we have examined the backbone structure of the enlarged Pbx1 DNA-binding domain in solution by(1)H,(15)N and(13)C multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. Our results show that the additional alpha-helix of Pbx1 is unfolded when the protein is free in solution and that its folding is triggered by binding of Pbx1 to DNA. In contrast, no change in conformation is observed upon mixing the HoxB1 protein with Pbx1 in the absence of DNA. This study suggests a model for the assembly of a stable HoxB1-Pbx1-DNA ternary complex.
Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Inhibitors Block Differentiation of Skeletal Muscle Cells*

Skeletal muscle differentiation involves myoblast alignment, elongation, and fusion into multinucleate myotubes, together with the induction of regulatory and structural muscle-specific genes. Here we show that two phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors, LY294002 and wortmannin, blocked an essential step in the differentiation of two skeletal muscle cell models. Both inhibitors abolished the capacity of L6E9 myoblasts to form myotubes, without affecting myoblast proliferation, elongation, or alignment. Myogenic events like the induction of myogenin and of glucose carrier GLUT4 were also blocked and myoblasts could not exit the cell cycle, as measured by the lack of mRNA induction of p21 cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. Overexpresssion of MyoD in 10T1/2 cells was not sufficient to bypass the myogenic differentiation blockade by LY294002. Upon serum withdrawal, 10T1/2-MyoD cells formed myotubes and showed increased levels of myogenin and p21. In contrast, LY294002-treated cells exhibited none of these myogenic characteristics and maintained high levels of Id, a negative regulator of myogenesis. These data indicate that whereas phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase is not indispensable for cell proliferation or in the initial events of myoblast differentiation, i.e. elongation and alignment, it appears to be essential for terminal differentiation of muscle cells.
Analysis of 3-D myocardial motion in tagged MR images using nonrigid image registration

Tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is unique in its ability to noninvasively image the motion and deformation of the heart in vivo, but one of the fundamental reasons limiting its use in the clinical environment is the absence of automated tools to derive clinically useful information from tagged MR images. In this paper, we present a novel and fully automated technique based on nonrigid image registration using multilevel free-form deformations (MFFDs) for the analysis of myocardial motion using tagged MRI. The novel aspect of our technique is its integrated nature for tag localization and deformation field reconstruction using image registration and voxel based similarity measures. To extract the motion field within the myocardium during systole we register a sequence of images taken during systole to a set of reference images taken at end-diastole, maximizing the normalized mutual information between the images. We use both short-axis and long-axis images of the heart to estimate the full four-dimensional motion field within the myocardium. We also present validation results from data acquired from twelve volunteers.
Olfaction Warps Visual Time Perception

Our perception of the world builds upon dynamic inputs from multiple senses with different temporal resolutions, and is threaded with the passing of subjective time. How time is extracted from multisensory inputs is scantly known. Utilizing psychophysical testing and electroencephalography, we show in healthy human adults that odors modulate object visibility around critical flicker-fusion frequency (CFF)-the limit at which chromatic flickers become perceived as a stable color-and effectively alter CFF in a congruency-based manner, despite that they afford no clear environmental temporal information. The behavioral gain produced by a congruent relative to an incongruent odor is accompanied by elevated neural oscillatory power around the object's flicker frequency in the right temporal region ~150-300 ms after object onset, and is not mediated by visual awareness. In parallel, odors bias the subjective duration of visual objects without affecting one's temporal sensitivity. These findings point to a neuronal network in the right temporal cortex that executes flexible temporal filtering of upstream visual inputs based on olfactory information. Moreover, they collectively indicate that the very process of sensory integration at the stage of object processing twists time perception, hence casting new insights into the neural timing of multisensory events.
Epidermal Growth Factor Induces Cell Proliferation in Mouse Pancreas and Salivary Glands

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is a mitogenic stimulus in many tissues and occurs in large amounts in the pancreas and salivary glands. Whether EGF is mitogenic in the pancreas is controversial, and the EGF effect has not been studied in the salivary glands. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the possible effects on the pancreas and parotid and submandibular glands at different time intervals after exogenous EGF administration. Human recombinant EGF was infused subcutaneously by osmotic minipumps in three groups of mice (for 1, 3, and 7 days, respectively) at a dosage of 10 μg/kg/h (1.6 μmol/kg/h). Tritiated thymidine was infused intraperitoneally by osmotic minipumps for the same time periods, but only for the last 3 days in the 7-day group. After 1 day the pancreas increased in weight and the increase persisted throughout the study. No effect was seen on the parotid or submandibular gland wet weight. A slight transient increase in pancreas protein content was observed, whereas amylase content was unaffected. The labeling index of serous and ductal cells in the parotid gland increased from the third day. After 7 days, all cell types studied in the pancreas and parotid and submandibular glands were in a hyperproliferative state. The results show that EGF evoked a strong proliferative response on all cell types studied in the pancreas and parotid and submandibular glands.
MELD score as a predictor of pretransplant and posttransplant survival in OPTN/UNOS status 1 patients

The Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score is predictive of survival and is used to prioritize patients with chronic liver disease patients for orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). The aims of this study are (1) to assess the ability of MELD score at listing to predict pretransplant and posttransplant survival for nonchronic liver disease patients listed with the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/ United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) as Status 1; and (2) to compare survival associated with 4 diagnostic groups within the Status 1 designation. The study population consisted of adult patients listed for OLT at Status 1 in the UNOS national database between November 1, 1999 and March 14, 2002 (N = 720). Events within 30 days of listing were analyzed using Kaplan‐Meier and Cox regression methodology. Patients meeting criteria for fulminant hepatic failure without acetaminophen toxicity (FHF‐NA, n = 312) had the poorest survival probability while awaiting OLT; this was negatively correlated with MELD score (P = .0001). These patients experienced the greatest survival benefit associated with OLT, with an estimated improvement of survival from about 58% to 91% (P < .0001). Patients listed for primary nonfunction within 7 days of OLT (n = 268) did not show mortality to be related to MELD score (P = .41) and did not show a significant association between survival and OLT (P = .68). In conclusion, liver allocation within the Status 1 designation may need to be further stratified by diagnosis, and MELD score may be useful for prioritizing FHF‐NA candidates. (HEPATOLOGY 2004;39:764–769.)
‘Black Boxes’ and ‘fracture points’: the regulation of gender equality in the UK and French construction industries

Abstract Gender equality was a founding principle of the European Union (EU) and has remained on its policy agenda ever since, yet delivery of policy goals has been uneven across countries and economic sectors. We draw on theoretical and empirical literatures from human resource management and policy science to explore EU gender equality initiatives and their enactment within one sector which has seen virtually no improvements in gender-based employment equality: construction. To help understand the possible reasons for this, we compare practice and experiences in two countries; the UK and France. In both, the construction industry remains resolutely male-dominated, with women employed primarily in support and administrative roles. We deploy the concept of Europeanisation, to provide an analytical framework to understand the potential gaps between policy goals and on-the-ground implementation, whilst a comparative approach allows us to see if different national approaches to EU policy implementation can help explain these policy failures. We identify three potential ‘fracture points’ where breaks in policy transmission and enactment may occur: between the EU and national levels; between the national and industry levels; and within the industry itself. We identify areas for further research, where unpacking the ‘Black Boxes’ of policy development and industry practices, can help more effective policy-targeting to deliver policy goals on gender equality.
Telecommunications in India

The historical development of the telecommunications industry in India is reviewed. The Indian telecommunications network consists of five million telephones, of which nearly 90% are in urban centers. New policies, organizational structures, technologies, service provisioning, and management methods being implemented to improve the quality of service offered by the Indian telecommunications network are discussed. <<ETX>>
Underwater swimmer segmentation

An unsupervised approach to segment the swimmer in hydrodynamic video sequences is presented in this paper. Detecting and segmenting objects in hydrodynamic scenes is challenging as both the desired foreground and unwanted background are driven by complex nonlinear dynamics. These dynamics typically comprise a chaotic mixofvortices, flows and turbulence. Mediumintroudced reflection and light diffraction creates the camouflage, rendering the swimmer detection even more difficult. On the other hand, spatial regularities and temporal distortions within these sequences often exhibit signature-like patterns. The novelty of our approach is to combine texture modeling and photometric features in order to identify the foreground subject, which lacks the visual characteristics of hydrodynamic content. Segmentation results are then temporally propagated from one frame to another to reduce the effects of camouflage and confine the segmentation to desired region. Simulation results demonstrate ability of the algorithm to separate human body in hy-drodynamic sequences for silhouette based underwater motion capture and analysis.
How do traffic signs look like in radar?

In this paper RCS measurements of traffic signs, a sign pole and a guide post for different viewing angles are presented. The signs show strongly angle dependent reflection characteristics and several sources of reflections. Furthermore, the effects of these characteristics relevant for a vehicle approaching a traffic sign are regarded. These considerations constitute a basis for using such traffic objects as landmarks for radar based vehicle self-localization.
Detection of biotinylated proteins in crossed immunoelectrophoresis gels: Studies on platelet membrane receptors and microparticles

Biotinylation can be used as an alternative for surface labeling of cell membrane proteins. The use of the water soluble N‐hydroxysulfosuccinimide (NHSS)‐biotin or the more lipophilic N‐hydroxysuccinimide (NHS)‐biotin reagent has been investigated in the present study labeling two central receptor complexes on the platelet surface, i.e. the glycoprotein (GP) Ib–IX and the GP IIb–IIIa complexes involved in platelet adhesion and aggregation. Lack of labeling of the intracellularly located albumin was used as a negative control. The labeling has been studied using crossed immunoelectrophoresis in the PhastSystem format after extraction of the labeled cells in Triton X‐100, and it is shown that, using enzyme‐conjugated avidin and chromogenic substrates, the biotinylated proteins can be visualized directly in the dried electrophoresis gel without the need for a transfer to a blotting membrane as is used after sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Suitable conditions for biotinylation and for visualization in the crossed immunoelectrophoresis gels are described. Further, surface‐biotinylation of platelets was used to observe shedding of microparticles as a consequence of formation of the complement membrane attack complex. For this purpose the formation and composition of the biotinylated microparticles were observed by flow cytometry and crossed immunoelectrophoresis.