Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence That Myosin Activity Opposes Microtubule-Based Axonal Transport of Mitochondria

Neurons transport and position mitochondria using a combination of saltatory, bidirectional movements and stationary docking. Axonal mitochondria move along microtubules (MTs) using kinesin and dynein motors, but actin and myosin also play a poorly defined role in their traffic. To ascertain this role, we have used RNA interference (RNAi) to deplete specific myosin motors in cultured Drosophila neurons and quantified the effects on mitochondrial motility. We produced a fly strain expressing the Caenorhabditis elegans RNA transporter SID-1 in neurons to increase the efficacy of RNAi in primary cultures. These neurons exhibited significantly increased RNAi-mediated knockdown of gene expression compared with neurons not expressing this transporter. Using this system, we observed a significant increase in mitochondrial transport during myosin V depletion. Mitochondrial mean velocity and duty cycle were augmented in both anterograde and retrograde directions, and the fraction of mitochondrial flux contained in long runs almost doubled for anterograde movement. Myosin VI depletion increased the same movement parameters but was selective for retrograde movement, whereas myosin II depletion produced no phenotype. An additional effect of myosin V depletion was an increase in mitochondrial length. These data indicate that myosin V and VI play related but distinct roles in regulating MT-based mitochondrial movement: they oppose, rather than complement, protracted MT-based movements and perhaps facilitate organelle docking.
Using a challenge to improve face spoofing detection

With biometric face recognition increasing, there comes a natural increase in interesting attack scenarios for people with bad intentions. One way to trick biometric recognition methods is to spoof the system by showing an artificial reproduction of somebody else his face. This can be done by e.g. showing a printed picture, a video or by wearing a mask. Multiple methods are developed to detect this kind of spoofing, but these are still lacking performance in terms of detection rates. Also, many of these methods are not applicable to mobile devices, due to specific constraints that exists on these devices. In this paper we extend an existing spoofing detection method with usability on mobile devices in mind. The existing method uses 3D properties of the face to distinguish between a real face and 2D representations of a face. The extension on this method is a challenge, which requires the user to rotate its head in a specific pattern. By adding this challenge, the necessary rotation for the 3D check is enforced and furthermore, theoretically, more types of spoofing can be detected. Tests shows that users can successfully perform the challenge and that it is capable of reliably detecting spoofing attacks.
Diffeomorphic Atlas Estimation using Karcher Mean and Geodesic Shooting on Volumetric Images

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to estimate diffeomorphic organ atlases out of 3D medical images. More precisely, we explore the feasibility of Karcher means by using large deformations by diffeomorphisms (LDDMM). This framework preserves organs topology and has interesting properties to quantitatively describe their anatomical variability. We also use a new registration algorithm based on an optimal control method to satisfy the geodesicity of the deformations at any step of the optimisation process. Initial tangent vectors to the shapes, which are used to compute the Karcher mean, are therefore estimated accurately. Our methodology is tested on different groups of 3D images representing organs with a large anatomical variability.
Angle Dependence of Solar Cells and Modules: The Role of Cell Texturization

The angle-dependent spectral response is measured for six differently textured silicon solar cells before and after encapsulation. Deviations from Lambert's cosine law and differences due to the textures can be clearly determined by means of an uncertainty analysis. This effort in highly accurate angle-dependent measurement is needed for reliable prediction of annual performance. Energy rating using common simulation models for three different climate zones shows differences of more than 1% in yearly energy yield solely due to the different angle-dependent behavior of the textures. Modules featuring solar cells with random upright pyramids exhibit the largest angular losses of the studied textures.
Translation and Validation of a Chinese Version of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale in Chinese Mothers

Background: Women's sense of competence and satisfaction in the maternal role are essential for positive parenting practices and child development. Measures of maternal role competence and satisfaction are limited in the Chinese population. Objectives: To translate the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale into Chinese (C-PSOC) and to examine the psychometric properties of the C-PSOC. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a convenience sample of 170 mothers recruited from a postnatal unit. Participants completed the C-PSOC, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. A randomly selected subsample of 57 mothers participated in the 4-week retest. Results: The C-PSOC demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .85) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = .87). Factor analysis supported the two-factor structure reflecting the efficacy and satisfaction dimensions of the original instrument. The scale discriminated between primiparas and multiparas (t = 2.2, p < .05). Significant correlations with Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (r = .60, p < .01) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (r = −.48, p < .01) demonstrated good construct validity. Conclusion: The C-PSOC has satisfactory psychometric properties. It has the potential to be used as a clinical and research instrument for measuring maternal role competence and satisfaction in the Chinese population.
Makespan as a design tool for CMS design

Industries have to cope with millions of parts for production on daily basis. Scheduling of those parts for production is a complex process. Parts having properly scheduled processing rarely get delayed and therefore generally delivered on time. Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) is a proficient production system and can be used as an effective replacement of Batch type manufacturing. Cell Formation (CF) is the fundamental part of Cell design and its effectiveness is checked using a performance index called Grouping Efficacy (GE). Part scheduling is very rarely used as a design tool for Cell Formation Problem (CFP). A software based solution is developed in this research to solve CFP by applying Genetic Algorithm (GA), which is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique. The uniqueness of this approach is that it presents an integrated approach for grouping parts into families and machines into cells using Makespan as the performance factor. Results show that minimizing the Make span maximizes the GE.
A Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor-independent Function of Vav1 in Transcriptional Activation*

T cell antigen receptor (TCR) stimulation induces the tyrosine phosphorylation of several intracellular proteins including the protooncogene Vav1. Vav1 expression is necessary for normal T cell development and activation. We previously showed that overexpression of Vav1 in Jurkat T cells potentiates the activity of the transcription factor nuclear factor of activated T cells (NF-AT). The mechanism by which Vav1 participates in TCR signaling events is not clear. Vav1 contains a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) domain that has specificity for Rac and other Rho GTPases that have been recently implicated in T cell activation events. Significantly,in vitro tyrosine phosphoryation of Vav1 by Lck activates its exchange activity. This Lck-mediated phosphorylation of Vav1 has been reported to depend upon Tyr-174 in Vav1, a site implicated in Vav1 function by other studies as well. In this report, we demonstrated that Tyr-174 is not required for the TCR-induced phosphorylation of Vav1in vivo. Moreover, mutation of Tyr-174 augmented the ability of Vav1 to up-regulate NF-AT activation as well as the Vav1 GEF function leading to Rac activation. However, we also showed that the GEF activity of Vav1 was neither sufficient nor necessary for potentiation of NF-AT, and thereby we identify a GEF-independent role of Vav1 in potentiating NF-AT-driven transcription. Oncogenic Vav1 in which the amino-terminal 67 amino acids were deleted had elevated GEF activity but did not potentiate NF-AT when overexpressed in Jurkat cells. We also showed that a GEF mutant form of Vav1 that had impaired GEF function could still potentiate NF-AT. These studies reveal a previously unrecognized negative regulatory function of Tyr-174 in Vav1 and suggest that domains other than the Vav1 GEF domain contribute to TCR signals leading to NF-AT activation.
Novel high-density low-power logic circuit techniques using DG devices

Novel high-density low-power double-gate circuit techniques for basic logic families such as NAND, NOR, and pass-gate are proposed. The technique exploits the independent front- and back-gate bias to reduce the number of transistors for implementing logic functions. The scheme substantially improves the standby and dynamic power consumptions by reducing the number of transistors and the chip area/size while improving the circuit performance. The power/performance advantages are analyzed/validated via mixed-mode two-dimensional MEDICI numerical device simulations, as well as by using physical delay equations.
Endoscopic ultrasound radial arrays fabricated with high-performance piezocrystal and piezocomposite

In this work, we develop the fabrication process of the radial array transducers, which are used to combine the gastroscope for acquiring ultrasound images of the surrounding organs, tissues and vessels. The PMNPT piezocrystal and its 1–3 piezocomposite were used as the active elements, respectively. High acoustic attenuation and flexibility composite material was used as the backing layers. The matching layers were specially designed according to the acoustic impedance of array elements. The pulse-echo responses acquired in water tank show that the PMNPT piezocrystal radial array transducer exhibits ∼80 % bandwidth and PMNPT/Epoxy 1–3 piezocomposite radial array transducer exhibits ∼100 % bandwidth, which has much broader bandwidth than commercial PZT array transducers (∼70 %). Thus, high resolution endoscopic ultrasonic images are expected for many clinical applications.
Subcortical projections of area MT in the macaque

Area MT is a visuotopically organized area in extrastriate cortex of primates that appears to be specialized for the analysis of visual motion. To examine the full extent and topographic organization of the subcortical projections of MT in the macaque, we injected tritiated amino acids in five cynomolgus monkeys and processed the brains for autoradiography. The injection sites, which we identified electrophysiologically, ranged from the representation of central through peripheral vision in both the upper and lower visual fields and included, collectively, most of MT.
The Watershed-based Social Events Detection Method with Support from External Data Sources

In this paper, a watershed-based method with support from external data sources is proposed to detect Social Events defined by MediaEval 2012. This method is based on two main observations: (1) people cannot be involved in more than one event at the same time, and (2) people tend to introduce similar annotations for all images associated to the same event. Based on these observations, the whole metadata is turned to an image so that each row contains all records belonging to one user; and these records are sorted by time. Therefore, the social event detection is turned to watershedbased image segmentation, where Markers are generated by using (keywords, location) features with support of external data sources, and the Flood progress is carried on by taking into account (tags set, time) features. The high precision (> 86%), and the acceptable recall (≈ 50%) show the high effectiveness of the proposed method.
S 100 A 1 is released from ischemic cardiomyocytes and signals myocardial damage via Toll-like receptor 4

As you will see from the reports below, all three referees are concerned about the limited mechanistic insights provided by the data and all three clearly suggest experiments to improve that aspect of the work. In addition, Referees 1 and 2 are also concerned about the significance of the findings; the number of mice to be studied has to be increased and additional controls provided. In our view the suggested revisions would render the manuscript much more compelling and interesting to a broad readership. We therefore hope that you will be prepared to undertake the recommended experimental revision.
Le syntagme nominal en francais et en vietnamien. Essai d'analyse contrastive

Les categories grammaticales du syntagme nominal et les operations de determination constituent des caracteristiques importantes des langues. Mises en comparaison, elles presentent des differences et similitudes manifestes. Comment faut-il traiter celles-ci lors du passage d'une langue a l'autre ? afin de repondre a cette question, dans cette these, nous avons procede a une etude contrastive du syntagme nominal en francais et en vietnamien, a une analyse des problemes de traduction que nous avons souleves a partir d'un corpus constitue des devoirs d'etudiants et des traductions officielles. Ceci nous amene a defendre une theorie fonctionnelle de la traduction, selon laquelle la communication est l'objectif primordial entre interlocuteurs de langues differentes. A la lumiere de cette theorie une pedagogie de "tutelle" a ete mise au point en vue d'obtenir de meilleurs resultats d'apprentissage.
The 4th European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery adult cardiac surgery database report.

The EACTS annual meeting in Geneva this September saw the release of the 4th EACTS adult cardiac surgery database report w1x. It contains an analysis of over 1,000,000 patients from 366 hospitals in 29 countries. Most submitting countries are in Europe, but we also have important contributions from China including Hong Kong. It is a voluntary database and some countries submit data on all cardiac surgery operations undertaken, others only for surgery performed in a smaller numbers of hospitals. It is testament to the professional societies representing cardiac surgery in these countries, along with the hospitals and surgeons involved, that data from so many patients have been collected in registries and further tribute to the trust placed in EACTS and their partners that these data have been returned and permissions granted for analysis. The report gives many interesting findings, including variation in the proportion of cardiac surgery that is isolated coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), with an overall proportion of 56.8% in the database, ranging from 29.7% to 79.6% across countries. Over time there are trends towards a decreasing proportion of CABG along with an increase in valve surgery for the larger contributing countries. The majority of countries have returned mortality data for analysis, and this is close to complete in 18 countries and complete in more than 95% of patients for a further three. Four countries have submitted no mortality data. Overall mortality for isolated CABG is 2.2% (ns219,053), for isolated valve surgery 3.7% (ns75,247) and for combined valve and CABG 6.2% (ns37,721). These data from so many patients should act as useful crude contemporary benchmarks.
A method of group decision-making based on preference distance of binary relation

Deriving the “closest” (minimal distance) collective judgment to all individual opinions is a complex aggregation problem that has been widely studied in group decision-making literature. However, most of the existing literature does not consider individual opinions expressed as partial preorders (i.e., a preference system which includes the incomparability relation), say nothing of lattice orders. In this paper, we propose a new method in which group decision-making problem based on preference distance when the preference information is provided by decision makers with lattice order preference structure. For this purpose, we first extend preference relations with preorder structure to lattice order structure, built a distance measure between pairs of binary relations in order to quantify the divergence between two lattice orders. Using the distance of preference relation, a mathematical model is established, the individual preferences are aggregated by applying the priority rules and intersection rules, and the group's preference structure has partial order characteristic. An algorithm for the aggregation procedure is proposed, followed by a numerical illustration.
Ambient PM 2 . 5 and Stroke Effect Modifiers and Population Attributable Risk in Six Low-and Middle-Income Countries

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been implicated as a cause to several adverse cardiovascular outcomes, including cerebrovascular diseases. With its small particle size, PM 2.5 is capable of entering the central nervous system and can directly or indirectly trigger inflammatory processes. Thus, it is believed that long-term exposure to PM 2.5 may increase the risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, such as stroke. Few studies have explored potential effect modifiers for stroke in terms of demographic, behavioral, and dietary factors. Physical activity is beneficial to general health, but may increase air pollution exposures because breathing rates increase while exercising, resulting in more harmful health effects. Higher intake of antioxidant nutrients has been found to be an important effect modifier between air pollution and health outcomes. Fruits and vegetables are the primary dietary source of antioxidants, so higher consumption of fruit and vegetables may potentially reduce the oxidant stress effects of air pollutants on stroke. This study was conducted using the survey data from 6 lowand middle-income countries to examine whether long-term PM 2.5 exposure was associated with stroke, as well as whether physical activity and consumption of fruit and vegetables could modify this effect, we also estimated the stroke burden attributable to ambient PM 2.5 .
Densely multiplexed refractive index biosensors using lateral Bragg gratings on SOI

The miniaturization of Silicon-on-Insulator optical biosensors requires novel ways to input and output the light from the chip. In this paper we propose the use of lateral Bragg gratings for doubling the sensing area while maintaining a compact design. The design was carried out with FDTD simulations and fabricated with nanotechnology.
Mathematical Model for Determination of Energy Cycles in EVs

This paper presents a mathematical model for determination of energy cycles of electric vehicle. The main objective of this research is to create and verify the mathematical model for studying of the main physical and energy parameters during acceleration and braking operations. In the presented model the aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance and grading resistance of the road are considered. For the testing, a chassis dynamometer tests for the determination of emissions and fuel consumption are used. The simulation results are experimentally verified. The key point is that the model can be useful for evaluation of energy storage during the chassis dynamometer tests.
Wet but not slippery: boundary friction in tree frog adhesive toe pads

Tree frogs are remarkable for their capacity to cling to smooth surfaces using large toe pads. The adhesive skin of tree frog toe pads is characterized by peg-studded hexagonal cells separated by deep channels into which mucus glands open. The pads are completely wetted with watery mucus, which led previous authors to suggest that attachment is solely due to capillary and viscous forces generated by the fluid-filled joint between the pad and the substrate. Here, we present evidence from single-toe force measurements, laser tweezer microrheometry of pad mucus and interference reflection microscopy of the contact zone in Litoria caerulea, that tree frog attachment forces are significantly enhanced by close contacts and boundary friction between the pad epidermis and the substrate, facilitated by the highly regular pad microstructure.
Oleic Acid–Dependent Modulation of NITRIC OXIDE ASSOCIATED1 Protein Levels Regulates Nitric Oxide–Mediated Defense Signaling in Arabidopsis[C][W]

This work shows that NITRIC OXIDE ASSOCIATED1 (NOA1) controlling nitric oxide (NO) biosynthesis is negatively regulated by oleic acid (18:1) via direct binding, leading to protease-dependent NOA1 degradation. Conversely, reductions in 18:1 lead to increased levels of NOA1, inducing NO synthesis and triggering upregulation of NO-responsive nuclear genes, thereby activating disease resistance. The conserved cellular metabolites nitric oxide (NO) and oleic acid (18:1) are well-known regulators of disease physiologies in diverse organism. We show that NO production in plants is regulated via 18:1. Reduction in 18:1 levels, via a genetic mutation in the 18:1-synthesizing gene SUPPRESSOR OF SA INSENSITIVITY OF npr1-5 (SSI2) or exogenous application of glycerol, induced NO accumulation. Furthermore, both NO application and reduction in 18:1 induced the expression of similar sets of nuclear genes. The altered defense signaling in the ssi2 mutant was partially restored by a mutation in NITRIC OXIDE ASSOCIATED1 (NOA1) and completely restored by double mutations in NOA1 and either of the nitrate reductases. Biochemical studies showed that 18:1 physically bound NOA1, in turn leading to its degradation in a protease-dependent manner. In concurrence, overexpression of NOA1 did not promote NO-derived defense signaling in wild-type plants unless 18:1 levels were lowered. Subcellular localization showed that NOA1 and the 18:1 synthesizing SSI2 proteins were present in close proximity within the nucleoids of chloroplasts. Indeed, pathogen-induced or low-18:1-induced accumulation of NO was primarily detected in the chloroplasts and their nucleoids. Together, these data suggest that 18:1 levels regulate NO synthesis, and, thereby, NO-mediated signaling, by regulating NOA1 levels.
Link Travel Time Prediction from Large Scale Endpoint Data

Existing systems for travel time estimation either use data collected from loop detectors and probe vehicle locations, or from GPS traces from cellphones of "online" users. The former methods of data acquisition are expensive, while the latter turns out to be infeasible in connectivity-poor regions. However, many crowdsourced taxi trip datasets (from Boston, Beijing, Rome, etc.) are publicly available which, despite containing limited information, can be made useful for inferring meaningful insights by certain amount of data engineering. The datasets are both cheap to acquire (hence available in large volumes), and impose less heavy connectivity requirements on the end user. One such crowdsourced dataset is the NYC (New York City) Taxi dataset, which contains only the end-point information for each trip. In this paper, a link (road segment) travel time estimation algorithm named Least Square Estimation with Constraint (LSEC) has been developed from such end-point data, which estimates travel time 20% more accurately than existing algorithms. The key idea is to augment a subset of trips with unique paths using logged distance information, as opposed to fitting adhoc "route-choice" models.