Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct and Indirect Effects of Immune and Central Nervous System–Resident Cells on Human Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cell Differentiation

In multiple sclerosis, successful remyelination within the injured CNS is largely dependent on the survival and differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. During inflammatory injury, oligodendrocytes and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells within lesion sites are exposed to secreted products derived from both infiltrating immune cell subsets and CNS-resident cells. Such products may be considered either proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory and have the potential to contribute to both injury and repair processes. Within the CNS, astrocytes also contribute significantly to oligodendrocyte biology during development and following inflammatory injury. The overall objective of the current study was to determine how functionally distinct proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory human immune cell subsets, implicated in multiple sclerosis, can directly and/or indirectly (via astrocytes) impact human oligodendrocyte progenitor cell survival and differentiation. Proinflammatory T cell (Th1/Th17) and M1-polarized myeloid cell supernatants had a direct cytotoxic effect on human A2B5+ neural progenitors, resulting in decreased O4+ and GalC+ oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Astrocyte-conditioned media collected from astrocytes pre-exposed to the same proinflammatory supernatants also resulted in decreased oligodendrocyte progenitor cell differentiation without an apparent increase in cell death and was mediated through astrocyte-derived CXCL10, yet this decrease in differentiation was not observed in the more differentiated oligodendrocytes. Th2 and M2 macrophage or microglia supernatants had neither a direct nor an indirect impact on oligodendrocyte progenitor cell differentiation. We conclude that proinflammatory immune cell responses can directly and indirectly (through astrocytes) impact the fate of immature oligodendrocyte-lineage cells, with oligodendrocyte progenitor cells more vulnerable to injury compared with mature oligodendrocytes.
Characterization of a Spontaneous 9.5-Kilobase-Deletion Mutant of Murine Gammaherpesvirus 68 Reveals Tissue-Specific Genetic Requirements for Latency

ABSTRACT Murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (γHV68 [also known as MHV-68]) establishes a latent infection in mice, providing a small-animal model with which to identify host and viral factors that regulate gammaherpesvirus latency. While γHV68 establishes a latent infection in multiple tissues, including splenocytes and peritoneal cells, the requirements for latent infection within these tissues are poorly defined. Here we report the characterization of a spontaneous 9.5-kb-deletion mutant of γHV68 that lacks the M1, M2, M3, and M4 genes and eight viral tRNA-like genes. Previously, this locus has been shown to contain the latency-associated M2, M3, and viral tRNA-like genes. Through characterization of this mutant, we found that the M1, M2, M3, M4 genes and the viral tRNA-like genes are dispensable for (i) in vitro replication and (ii) the establishment and maintenance of latency in vivo and reactivation from latency following intraperitoneal infection. In contrast, following intranasal infection with this mutant, there was a defect in splenic latency at both early and late times, a phenotype not observed in peritoneal cells. These results indicate (i) that there are different genetic requirements for the establishment of latency in different latent reservoirs and (ii) that the genetic requirements for latency depend on the route of infection. While some of these phenotypes have been observed with specific mutations in the M1 and M2 genes, other phenotypes have never been observed with the available γHV68 mutants. These studies highlight the importance of loss-of-function mutations in defining the genetic requirements for the establishment and maintenance of herpesvirus latency.
Study of enhanced biosensors based on 2-D sandwiched plasmon photonic crystals

A novel sandwich structure of photonic crystal with periodic square array of hexagon holes was fabricated. The infrared optical properties in reflectance of the devices were tested. A sharp peak of surface plasmon resonance was observed at the incident angles of 30°. By the comparison of the results between non-sandwich structure and sandwich structure, the latter has higher sensitivity. This relative sensitivity of the optical biosensor has been enhanced by almost 300%.
Probing the limits of molecular imprinting: strategies with a template of limited size and functionality

A series of polymers molecularly imprinted with the general anaesthetic propofol were synthesized using both semi‐ and non‐covalent approaches. The polymers were evaluated with respect to template rebinding in both aqueous and organic media. In aqueous media, the observed propofol binding in these polymer systems was largely hydrophobic and non‐specific in nature. In non‐polar solvents such as hexane, electrostatic (hydrogen bonding) interactions dominate resulting in some selectivity. The implication of these results, in conjunction with those obtained using structures of similar size in other studies, is that propofol, a template possessing limited functionality and size, appears to define the lower limit for template size and degree of functionalization that can be used for the creation of ligand‐selective recognition sites in molecularly imprinted polymers. Furthermore, studies with alternative ligands indicate that the steric crowding of a ligand's functionality to the polymer contributes to the extent of polymer–ligand recognition. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Modified Sub-Population Based Heat Transfer Search Algorithm for Structural Optimization

In this study, a modified heat transfer search MHTS algorithm is proposed by incorporating sub-population based simultaneous heat transfer modes viz. conduction, convection, and radiation in the basic HTS algorithm. However, the basic HTS algorithm considers only one of the modes of heat transfer for each generation. The multiple natural frequency constraints in truss optimization problems can improve the dynamic behavior of the structure and prevent undesirable vibrations. However, shape and size variables subjected to frequency constraints are difficult to handle due to the complexity of its feasible region, which is non-linear, non-convex, implicit, and often converging to the local optimal solution. The viability and effectiveness of the HTS and MHTS algorithms are investigated by six standard trusses problems. The solutions illustrate that the MHTS algorithm performs better than the HTS algorithm.
Are spectral elevation cues in head-related transfer functions distance-independent ?

Since its title, this paper addresses one of the still open questions in sound localization: is our own perception of the elevation of a sound source affected by the distance of the source itself? The problem is addressed through the analysis of a recently published distance-dependent headrelated transfer function (HRTF) database, which includes the responses of a single subject on a spatial grid spanning 14 elevation angles, 72 azimuth angles, and8 distances comprised between 20 and160 cm. Different HRTFs sharing the same angular coordinates are compared through spectral distortion and notch frequency deviation measurements. Results indicate that, even though the independence of spectral elevation cues from distance of the source can be assumed for the majority of all possible source directions, near-field HRTFs for sources close to the contralateral ear or around the horizontal plane in the ipsilateral side of the head are significantly affected by distancedependent pinna reflections and spectral modifications.
The effects of chronic restraint on the morphology of ventral CA1 neurons in female Long Evans rats

Abstract Women are more likely than men to develop psychopathology as a result of stress, but there is little research regarding the effects of a stressful condition and its treatment in female non-human animals, perhaps because of inherent hormonal activity. Recent studies have demonstrated that there are structural and functional differences between the dorsal and ventral hippocampus, but the effects of stress on the morphology of CA1 and CA3 neurons have been studied primarily in the dorsal hippocampus. This study assessed the effects of stress induced by restricted movement on the morphology of ventral hippocampal CA1 neurons in male and female rats. Male and female Long Evans (LE) rats were subjected to restraint stress for 6 h every day for 25 days. One group of rats was used to study the dendritic morphology of CA1 ventral hippocampal neurons using the Golgi–Cox stain. A second group of rats was used to analyze learning and memory using the Morris water maze. Stressed female rats exhibited a decrease in the density of basilar dendritic spines, an increase in the number of apical dendritic intersections and deficits in spatial memory. There were no apparent effects of stress on male rats. Our data support previous findings of a dimorphic response to chronic stress and indicate that the ventral hippocampus is not particularly susceptible to the effects of stress.
Lesson from WiFi Municipal Wireless Network

Many U.S. metro cities’ municipal wireless projects have been delayed or canceled. Cost forecasting, market penetration rates, and changing technologies are factors that contribute launch failure. Although larger cities have tried, smaller towns are more successful due to the lack of commercial competition. This paper takes the issues of price, cost, and market share of WiFi municipal wireless networks in the city of Philadelphia as an example. This paper finds that ignoring private broadband market providers, cost is underestimated and market penetration is overestimated, which leads to project contractors withdrawing from municipal projects where private competition is fiercest.
User Experience Based Adaptive Transmission Control in Network Surveillance System

UDP is usually used as the mechanism to transmit real-time video data. However, it has no control over the packet it transferred, and unaware of the network condition it is running on, such as packet loss, delay and jitter. As bandwidth is crucial for surveillance system due to its high bit rate and restrict time constraint, we focus on the packet loss problem in this paper which is mainly caused by congestion. We propose a simple and efficient user experience based adaptive transmission control approach according to the network’s current available bandwidth, and implement Fast Downgrade Cautiously Upgrade (FDCU) algorithm. We encode video at several different image quality levels, and each level has different bandwidth requirement. Video will always be encoded at a quality level that matches current network condition. The goal is to provide user the best video image quality under the permissive bandwidth.
Preface to the International Workshop on Personalization in Persuasive Technology: Research Challenges and Opportunities Strategies

Persuasive Technology (PT) is a growing area of research which investigates how interactive systems can encourage and support people to change their behavior. Over the past two decades, several persuasive technologies and behavior change support systems aimed at promoting change in different domains, including health, safety and security, environmental sustainability, energy conservation, marketing, and education have been developed. Most of these technologies use the so-called one-size-fits-all approach in their design and evaluation, which has been shown to be far less effective at motivating behavior change. Personalization is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of PT as the most effective persuasive and motivational strategies are likely to depend on user characteristics such as the user’s personality, gender, age, culture, affective state, existing attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and other inclinations [3,7,15,18–23].
Constraint Checking for Non-blocking Transaction Processing in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

Whenever business transactions involve databases located on different mobile devices in a mobile ad-hoc network, transaction processing should guarantee the following: atomic commitment and isolation of distributed transactions and data consisteny across different mobile devices. However, a major problem of distributed atomic commit protocols in mobile network scenarios is infinite transaction blocking, which occurs when a local sub-transaction that has voted for commit cannot be completed due to the loss of commit messages and due to network partitioning. For such scenarios, Bi-State-Termination has been recently suggested to terminate pending and blocked transactions, which allows to overcome the infinite locking problem. However, if the data distributed on different mobile devices has to be consistent according to some local or global database consistency constraints, Bi-State-Termination has not been able to check for the validity of these consistency constraints on a database state involving the data of different mobile devices. Within this paper, we extend the concept of Bi-State-Termination to arbitrary read operations. We show how to handle several types of database consistency constraints, and experimentally evaluate our constraint checker using the TPC-C benchmark.
Structural adaptations to diverse fighting styles in sexually selected weapons

Significance Animal weapons are among nature’s most diverse structures. Intuitively, species have different types of weapons because they fight in different ways, yet no studies have directly tested whether weapons perform better at the animals’ own style of fighting than they do at others. We constructed biomechanical models of the horns of different rhinoceros beetle species to evaluate the functional performance of horns in response to both species-typical and species-atypical fighting loads. We found that horns are both stronger and stiffer in response to species-typical fighting loads, which suggests selection for improved performance under different fighting styles played an important role in the diversification of weapon form. The shapes of sexually selected weapons differ widely among species, but the drivers of this diversity remain poorly understood. Existing explanations suggest weapon shapes reflect structural adaptations to different fighting styles, yet explicit tests of this hypothesis are lacking. We constructed finite element models of the horns of different rhinoceros beetle species to test whether functional specializations for increased performance under species-specific fighting styles could have contributed to the diversification of weapon form. We find that horns are both stronger and stiffer in response to species-typical fighting loads and that they perform more poorly under atypical fighting loads, which suggests weapons are structurally adapted to meet the functional demands of fighting. Our research establishes a critical link between weapon form and function, revealing one way male–male competition can drive the diversification of animal weapons.
Instability and deformation of a spherical vesicle by pressure.

The infinitesimal stability of a spherical vesicle (closed membrane) is studied as a function of the pressure difference between the outer and inner media. It is found that above some threshold pressure the spherical vesicle can be deformed into a shape associated with $l\mathrm{th}$-order spherical harmonics. The comparison with numerical examples calculated previously by Deuling and Helfrich shows good agreement. Some applications to red blood cells are discussed.
Effects of Air Pollution on Disease Respiratory: Structures Lag

Objective: Little evidence is available on the association between ozone exposure and health in Campo Grande, Brazil. In this study, we aimed to examine the effects of surface ozone concentrations (O3) on respiratory morbidity in Campo Grande, Brazil during the period from January 1st, 2008 to December 31st, 2011. Methods: Daily data on respiratory hospital admissions, O3, mean temperature, and relative humidity were collected at Campo Grande, Brazil. A Poisson time series model was used to examine the effects of O3 on hospital admissions, while controlling for seasonality, long-term trend, temperature and relative humidity. A distributed lag non-linear function was used for O3, temperature, and relative humidity. We examined the effects of O3 on different age groups (0 - 4 years, 5 - 60 years and >60 years). Results: The ozone-respiratory morbidity relationship was non-linear, with a threshold at 13 ppb (less than 25% percentile of ozone distribution). We estimated the relative risk of hospital admission at 75% percentile of O3 distribution compared with associated with 25% of percentile of O3 distribution. The O3 effect on respiratory morbidity was delayed by two days and lasted for 4 days for all age groups except people aged 5 - 60 years. Children and the elderly were much more vulnerable to ozone pollution than people aged 5 - 60 years. Conclusions: This study suggests that ozone pollution has negative impacts on respiratory diseases in Campo Grande, Brazil. Children and the elderly were susceptible to O3 exposure. These findings should be used to develop policies for protecting people from O3 pollution.
Reaching the next level of indoor human presence detection: An RF based solution

The presence of a human in the vicinity of radio transceivers results in radio signal strength variations at the receiver's input. Therefore, human presence in an indoor environment can be recognized by analyzing and quantifying irregularities in the radio signature. In order to quantify the information in terms of human presence, we present a novel human presence detection method based on information entropy extracted from a sequence of received signal strength samples. As opposed to existing smart home solutions that incorporate a complex set of sensors for human detection, the proposed method is solely based on radio irregularity phenomenon, without modifying the original environment. An additional level of sensor intelligence is introduced without sensors and installation costs, or specific training procedures for end-consumers.
Progress in modeling the impact of land cover change on the global climate

The prediction of the impact of anthropogenic land use change on the climate system hinges on the ability to properly model the interaction between the heterogeneous land surface and the atmosphere in global climate models. This paper contains a review of techniques in general use for modeling this interaction in general circulation models (GCMs) that have been used to assess the impact of land use change on climate. The review includes a summary of GCM simulations of land cover change using these techniques, along with a description of the simulated physical mechanisms by which land cover change affects the climate. The vertical extent to which surface heterogeneities retain their individual character is an important consideration for the land-atmosphere coupling, and the description of a recently developed technique that improves this aspect of the coupling is presented. The differences in the simulated climate between this new technique and a technique in general use include the presence of a boundary layer feedback mechanism that is not present in simulations with the standard technique. We postulate that the new technique when implemented in a GCM has the potential to guide an improved understanding of the mechanisms by which anthropogenic land use change affects climate.
Novel V-groove structures on silicon.

A novel etch process on silicon has been developed that consists of a conventional anisotropic etch process followed by stripping the protective oxide layer and etching the substrate once again in the anisotropic etch solution. As a result micron size patterns have been generated from a starting pattern size of 7 μm. These micron size patterns appear to have (111) sidewalls that can be used as templates for the graphoepitaxial process. We are currently exploring the possibility of generating submicron patterns using 2-μm size starting patterns.
Coordinating Base Stations for Greater Uplink Spectral Efficiency: Proportionally Fair User Rates

To overcome the spectral efficiency limits imposed by cochannel interference on the uplink of a cellular network, we propose coordinating each base station with several of its neighbors in the reception of user signals, and decoding each user at one such cluster of base stations. We evaluate the impact on the user rate distribution due to such coordination when there is 1 user per base station antenna in the network, each user has 1 transmitting antenna, all users transmit at maximum power, and the data rates of the users assigned to each cluster are subject to a proportional fairness criterion. We highlight the dependence of the user rate distribution on the number of rings of neighbors with which each base station is coordinated, as well as the underlying signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) distribution in the network. Our results point to the possibility of increasing cell- edge user rates almost tenfold, while simultaneously doubling the overall system throughput, in high-SNR conditions.
Les comorbidités cliniques de l'autisme : une interface entre le syndrome autistique et ses causes

Les comorbidites de l'autisme constituent une composante essentielle de son heterogeneite clinique et etiologique. Nous faisons l'hypothese qu'elles sont un meilleur indice etiologique que la clinique comportementale du syndrome autistique. Notre premiere etude explore ainsi les premiers signes d'inquietude spontanee des parents d'enfants autistes, a partir de 459 questionnaires ouverts. Elle indique que ceux-Ci reperent tres precocement un ensemble de symptomes non specifiques des interactions sociales qui devraient etre inclus dans la description d'un phenotype autistique complexe. La seconde etude liste l'ensemble des facteurs de risque pre, peri, neonatals auxquels on assigne un effet significatif, bien que modere, sur l'autisme. La troisieme etude a permis de realiser un descriptif detaille de l'ensemble des causes majeures, dans un echantillon clinique epidemiologique de 183 enfants presentant un autisme typique. Les 36 diagnostics genetiques retrouves representent 58% de l'ensemble des causes ce qui laisse proportion significative de troubles neurodeveloppementaux d'origine environnementale ou cryptogenique. La plupart des diagnostics sont rares et refletent bien l'heterogeneite etiologique de l'autisme, sans qu'il soit exclu que certaines causes ne convergent vers des mecanismes physiopathologiques communs. Les differences cliniques, genetiques et environnementales que nous identifions entre un autisme syndromique (avec comorbidites) et non syndromique valident l'hypothese que les comorbidites contribuent a distinguer les etiologies et fournissent des informations pratiques sur le pronostique, une therapeutique ciblee ou un diagnostic plus precoce.
Comparison of Video Steganography Methods for Watermark Embedding

Abstract The paper focuses on the comparison of video steganography methods for the purpose of digital watermarking in the context of copyright protection. Four embedding methods that use Discrete Cosine and Discrete Wavelet Transforms have been researched and compared based on their embedding efficiency and fidelity. A video steganography program has been developed in the Java programming language with all of the researched methods implemented for experiments. The experiments used 3 video containers with different amounts of movement. The impact of the movement has been addressed in the paper as well as the ways of potential improvement of embedding efficiency using adaptive embedding based on the movement amount. Results of the research have been verified using a survey with 17 participants.