Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DROP: the Durable Reconnaissance and Observation Platform

Purpose – The Durable Reconnaissance and Observation Platform (DROP) is a prototype robotic platform with the ability to climb vertical cinder block surfaces at a rate of 25 cm/s, make rapid horizontal to vertical transitions, carry an audio/visual reconnaissance payload, and survive impacts from 3 meters.Design/methodology/approach – The platform uses a two‐wheel, two‐motor design that delivers high mobility with low complexity. DROP extends microspine climbing technology from a linear to rotary implementation, providing improved transition ability, increased speeds, and simpler body mechanics while maintaining microspine's ability to opportunistically grip rough surfaces.Findings – The DROP prototype was able to climb rough, vertical walls at a speed of 25 cm/s. These wheels were also deployed on a commercial platform, the ReconRobotics Scout, and demonstrated additional mobility capabilities such as curb mounting and stair climbing.Originality/value – This robot is the first wheeled robot to use micros.
Failure to confirm major objective antitumor activity for streptozocin and doxorubicin in the treatment of patients with advanced islet cell carcinoma

We read with interest the article by Cheng et al. addressing the antitumor effect of streptozocin and doxorubicin in the treatment of patients with advanced islet cell carcinoma. They concluded that they were unable to confirm the findings from the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group trial published in 1992. In this trial of the 38 patients who received streptozocin and doxorubicin, 36 were evaluable and 69% showed any regression with 14% complete regression. For this study, criteria for response evaluation were a . 50% decrease in hormone production; a . 30% reduction in hepatomegaly; and measurable tumor reduction, with the product of the perpendicular diameters reduced . 50%. Routine use of computed tomography (CT) scan was not indicated. From this study it is in retrospect difficult to calculate how many patients had a response based only on hormone reduction or reduced liver size. Cheng et al. used CT scan, magnetic resonance imaging, or X-rays of bidimensional measurable lesions as the only criteria for response as defined by Miller et al. With the same streptozocin and doxorubicin regimen given to all of their 16 patients with islet cell tumors, Cheng et al. observed 1 objective response, 9 patients with stable disease, and 6 patients with progressive disease. The median overall survival was not yet reached, with . 60% alive after follow-up ranging from 10 to 671 months. We would like to add six islet cell tumor patients to this series. From 1995–1999, we treated these patients according to exactly the same chemotherapy scheme. The patients were evaluated as described by Cheng et al. None of the patients were hormone producers. One patient experienced a partial response, three had stable disease, and two had progressive disease. Overall survival after initiation of chemotherapy ranged from 4 to 171 months. Apart from cardiotoxicity (n 5 1), which was most likely due to doxorubicin treatment (with cardiac failure responsive to antidiuretic treatment), no severe toxicity of the regimen was observed. Combining the data from Cheng et al. and ours results in 2 objective tumor responses out of 22 (9%; 95% confidence interval, 1–29%). Although we find with these criteria a lower response rate than Moertel et al., it is also true that in these two series a good effect on survival cannot be denied. In islet cell tumor studies, to report precisely on the objective regression of tumor size may be of major relevance. If there is a regimen that results in a realistic option to create a reduction in tumor size, this would potentially allow surgical tumor resection and thus increase the potential for curative tumor resection. If the main goal of this regimen is quality of life rather than remission, the objective response rate of only 9% with the streptozocin/doxorubicin regimen justifies more interest in 2194
Effect of timed bright light treatment for rest‐activity disruption in institutionalized patients with Alzheimer's disease

Disturbances in rest‐activity rhythm are prominent and disabling symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Nighttime sleep is severely fragmented and daytime activity is disrupted by multiple napping episodes. In most institutional environments, light levels are very low and may not be sufficient to entrain the circadian clock to the 24‐hour day.
The epidemiology of childhood cardiomyopathy in Australia.

BACKGROUND The incidence and age distribution of primary cardiomyopathy in children are not well defined. We undertook a population-based, retrospective cohort study in Australia to document the epidemiology of childhood cardiomyopathy. METHODS We analyzed all cases of primary cardiomyopathy in children who presented between 1987 and 1996 and who were younger than 10 years of age. Children were recruited from multiple sources, and cases of cardiomyopathy were classified according to World Health Organization guidelines. RESULTS Over the 10-year period, 314 new cases of primary cardiomyopathy were identified, for an annual incidence of 1.24 per 100,000 children younger than 10 years of age (95 percent confidence interval, 1.11 to 1.38). Dilated cardiomyopathy made up 58.6 percent of cases, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy 25.5 percent, restrictive cardiomyopathy 2.5 percent, and left ventricular noncompaction 9.2 percent of cases. The incidence of all types of cardiomyopathy except restrictive declined rapidly after infancy. In 11 cases (3.5 percent), sudden death was the first symptom. There was a male predominance among children with hypertrophic and unclassified cardiomyopathy. Indigenous children had a higher incidence of dilated cardiomyopathy than nonindigenous children (relative risk, 2.67; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.42 to 4.63) and a higher rate of death as the presenting symptom (16.7 percent vs. 2.6 percent, P=0.02). Lymphocytic myocarditis was present in 25 of 62 children with dilated cardiomyopathy (40.3 percent) who underwent cardiac histologic examination within two months after presentation. CONCLUSIONS Lymphocytic myocarditis and left ventricular noncompaction are important causes of childhood cardiomyopathy in Australia. The timing and severity of presentation in children with cardiomyopathy are related to the type of cardiomyopathy, as well as to genetic and ethnic factors.
Energy efficiency optimisation in full‐duplex relay systems

Energy efficiency of relay communications has attracted much interest recently. Most research efforts have focused on half‐duplex systems. As there has been significant progress in practical implementation of self‐interference cancellation, full‐duplex systems will have a promising potential in the near future. In this letter, energy efficiency of a full‐duplex relay system under the total power constraint and fixed circuitry power consumption is studied. An optimisation problem is formulated towards maximising the system energy efficiency. Unfortunately, this problem is non‐trivial and cannot be solved by conventional fractional programming methods, such as the Dinkelbach's method. To resolve this issue, an algorithm called sequential parametric convex approximation‐Dinkelbach is proposed in this letter. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can converge to the global optimum very quickly. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Capacity performances of Space-Time Beamformers for space-time arrayed VIVO DS-CDMA system

Multi-users system technology, array processing and space-time beamforming are recent methods invented for wireless communication schemes. An arrayed vector-input, vector-output (VIVO)DS-CDMA system is treated in this paper. We treat in particular the capacity of multi-users detectors using beamforming technology. At this stage, a new mathematical formulation in terms of capacity for various space-time beamformers is developed in this work. A performances capacity evaluation according to the various parameters which manage wireless communications over Arrayed VIVO DS-CDMA system environment is carried out for this reason.
Perspective: the ovarian follicle--a perspective in 2001.

FSH and IGF pathways interact to control the expression/activation of specific kinase cascades. Two kinases in these cascades are Sgk and PKB, which activate forkhead transcription factors, FKRH, and other cell survival pathways, such as the expression and movement of the glucose transporter Glut-4 to the plasma membrane (see for further The LH surge terminates the follicular program of gene expression in granulosa cells and turns on genes controlling cumulus expansion (COX-2, HAS, TSG-6), ovulation (PR, ADAMTS-1), and luteinization (C/EBP b and Egr-1). LH acts directly on granulosa cells and theca cells but likely acts indirectly on the cumulus cells. For example, LH may act on granulosa cells ( heavy red arrow ) to stimulate the synthesis of a product(s) that is released and impacts cumulus cell function leading to the induction of COX-2 and TSG-6. One oocyte-derived factor that has been implicated in cumulus cell expression of COX-2 is GDF-9. Because GDF-9 is present in ooctyes at all stages of follicular growth, LH may stimulate the production of a specific protease to activate latent GDF-9. COX-2 in turn appears critical for the expression of TSG-6 (Ochsner, S., and J. S. Richards, unpublished observations). Oocytes of ovulating follicles also express mater , a maternal gene product necessary for embryogenesis (117). In the mural granulosa cells, LH acts to induce other genes involved in the ovulation process (PR, ADAMTS-1, and Cathepsin L). Genes involved in the establishment of luteinization include C/EBP b , Egr-1 and p27kip1. Once terminal differentiation is complete, luteal cells express steroidogenic enzymes (P450scc and StAR),transcription factors (JunD, Fra2, ER a ) as well as Sgk, a kinase in the PI3-K/PDK1 pathway in a constitutive manner.
Development and Assessment of Intrusion Detection System using Machine Learning Algorithm

In today’s world, the internet is an important part of our life. People cannot think of a single moment without the existence of the internet. With the increasing involvement of the internet in our daily life, it is very important to make it secure. Now to make communication system more secure there is a need of Intrusion Detection Systems which can be roughly classified as anomaly-based detection systems and signature-based detection systems. In the paper we presents a simple and robust method for intrusion detection in computer networks based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) where each network connection is transformed into an input data vector. PCA is used to reduce the high dimensional data vector to low dimensional data vector and then detection is done in less dimensional space with high efficiency and low use of system resources. We have used KDD Cup 99 dataset for experiment and result shown that this approach is promising in terms of detection accuracy. It is also effective to identify most known attacks as well as new attacks. However, a frequent update for both user profiles and attacks databases is crucial to improve the identification rates.
Coupled Ferric Oxides and Sulfates on the Martian Surface

The Mars Exploration Rover (MER), Opportunity, showed that layered sulfate deposits in Meridiani Planum formed during a period of rising acidic ground water. Crystalline hematite spherules formed in the deposits as a consequence of aqueous alteration and were concentrated on the surface as a lag deposit as wind eroded the softer sulfate rocks. On the basis of Mars Express Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité (OMEGA) orbital data, we demonstrate that crystalline hematite deposits are associated with layered sulfates in other areas on Mars, implying that Meridiani-like ground water systems were indeed widespread and representative of an extensive acid sulfate aqueous system.
Regulation of SHOOT MERISTEMLESS genes via an upstream-conserved noncoding sequence coordinates leaf development

The indeterminate shoot apical meristem of plants is characterized by the expression of the Class 1 KNOTTED1-LIKE HOMEOBOX (KNOX1) genes. KNOX1 genes have been implicated in the acquisition and/or maintenance of meristematic fate. One of the earliest indicators of a switch in fate from indeterminate meristem to determinate leaf primordium is the down-regulation of KNOX1 genes orthologous to SHOOT MERISTEMLESS (STM) in Arabidopsis (hereafter called STM genes) in the initiating primordia. In simple leafed plants, this down-regulation persists during leaf formation. In compound leafed plants, however, KNOX1 gene expression is reestablished later in the developing primordia, creating an indeterminate environment for leaflet formation. Despite this knowledge, most aspects of how STM gene expression is regulated remain largely unknown. Here, we identify two evolutionarily conserved noncoding sequences within the 5′ upstream region of STM genes in both simple and compound leafed species across monocots and dicots. We show that one of these elements is involved in the regulation of the persistent repression and/or the reestablishment of STM expression in the developing leaves but is not involved in the initial down-regulation in the initiating primordia. We also show evidence that this regulation is developmentally significant for leaf formation in the pathway involving ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1/2 (AS1/2) gene expression; these genes are known to function in leaf development. Together, these findings reveal a regulatory point of leaf development mediated through a conserved, noncoding sequence in STM genes.
The distal enhancer implicated in the developmental regulation of the tyrosine aminotransferase gene is bound by liver-specific and ubiquitous factors

Tyrosine aminotransferase gene expression is confined to parenchymal cells of the liver, is inducible by glucocorticoids and glucagon, and is repressed by insulin. Three enhancers control this tissue-specific and hormone-dependent activity, one of which, located at -11 kb, is implicated in establishing an active expression domain. We have studied in detail this important regulatory element and have identified a 221-bp fragment containing critical enhancer sequences which stimulated the heterologous thymidine kinase promoter more than 100-fold in hepatoma cells. Within this region, we have characterized two essential liver-specific enhancer domains, one of which was bound by proteins of the hepatocyte nuclear factor 3 (HNF3) family. Analyses with the dedifferentiated hepatoma cell line HTC suggested that HNF3 alpha and/or -gamma, but not HNF3 beta, are involved in activating the tyrosine aminotransferase gene via the -11-kb enhancer. Genomic footprinting and in vitro protein-DNA binding studies documented cell-type-specific binding of ubiquitous factors to the second essential enhancer domain, which by itself stimulated the thymidine kinase promoter preferentially in hepatoma cells. These results will allow further characterization of the role of these enhancer sequences in developmental activation of the tyrosine aminotransferase gene.
Power optimization of combinational circuits by input transformations

We present a novel approach for power minimization of CMOS combinational circuits based on transforming power-expensive inputs to functionally equivalent power-optimal inputs. We assume that the environment information is available in the form of either word-level statistics or a long representative input sequence. From the environment information, we derive power-effective input transformations that will save power for any input stream that satisfies the environment properties. We synthesize a transform module that is appended at the primary inputs of the module. The proposed approach can be applied at the system-level by propagating environment information to the primary outputs of the system and then deriving transform circuits for each module. As an example of realworld application, we present results for DCT module in a JPEG compression chip with different input environments (e.g. face recognition dataset, weather forecasting). Experimental results are highly encouraging.
Preconditioning protects against systemic disorders associated with hepatic ischemia‐reperfusion through blockade of tumor necrosis factor–induced P‐selectin up‐regulation in the rat

Previous studies indicate that ischemic preconditioning protects against lung injury resulting from hepatic ischemia‐reperfusion (I/R) through inhibition of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) release from Kupffer cells. The present study investigated whether this effect is limited to the lung or is a generalized systemic response and explores the molecular mechanisms involved. Hepatic I/R led to an increase in neutrophil accumulation in liver, lung, and splanchnic organs. Although preconditioning did not modify neutrophil infiltration in liver during reperfusion, it conferred protection against hepatic injury associated with I/R. In remote organs, preconditioning abrogated the increase in P‐selectin up‐regulation, preventing neutrophil infiltration and thus reducing the oxidative stress and microvascular disorders following hepatic I/R in these organs. Administration of Abs against P‐selectin or TNF previous to ischemia had the same effects as preconditioning. The effects of preconditioning on the blockade of P‐selectin up‐regulation probably results from inhibition of systemic TNF release from Kupffer cells. Supplementation of TNF abolished the benefits of preconditioning, whereas the injurious effects of TNF were prevented by previous blockade of P‐selectin. The results of the present study suggest that ischemic preconditioning protects the liver against I/R injury by a mechanism independent of adhesion molecule expression and neutrophil accumulation. In remote organs, however, hepatic preconditioning prevents inflammatory damage by reducing the systemic TNF release from the liver and thus preventing P‐selectin up‐regulation.
Foxa2 regulates polarity and epithelialization in the endoderm germ layer of the mouse embryo

In the mouse, one of the earliest events in the determination of cell fate is the segregation of cells into germ layers during gastrulation; however, the cellular and molecular details are not well defined due to intrauterine development. We were able to visualize a clear sequence of events occurring in the process of germ-layer formation, using immunohistochemistry and time-lapse confocal imaging. The T-box transcription factor brachyury (T) and the Forkhead transcription factor Foxa2 specify mesoderm and endoderm in the posterior epiblast. Fate-specified epiblast cells lose their polarity and undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition to invade into the primitive streak region, where these cell populations quickly separate and differentiate into morphologically and molecularly distinct Foxa2-positive endoderm and T-positive mesoderm populations. The endoderm cells flatten and acquire apical-basal polarity during intercalation into the outside epithelium in order to establish proper intracellular junctions with pre-existing cells. By contrast, the mesodermal cells become spherical during migration and acquire a mesenchymal fate. Interestingly, axial mesodermal cells are descended from Foxa2-positive epiblast cells that upregulate T protein in the anterior primitive streak region. These cells, as well as Foxa2-positive endoderm cells, are highly polarized and epithelialized, suggesting that Foxa2 promotes an epithelial fate and suppresses a mesenchymal fate. This observation is supported by the fact that Foxa2 mutant endodermal cells fail to maintain polarity and do not establish proper cellular junctions, and are thus unable to functionally integrate into the endoderm epithelium. We propose that Foxa2 regulates a molecular program that induces an epithelial cellular phenotype.
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN RETRACTED Periurethral injection of autologous adipose‐derived stem cells for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy: Report of two initial cases

Objectives: To report a novel cell therapy using autologous adipose tissue‐derived stem cells (ADSC) for stress urinary incontinence caused by urethral sphincteric deficiency and the outcomes in two initial cases undergoing periurethral injection of stem cells for the treatment of urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy.
Multiple cryptic species of sympatric generalists within the avian blood parasite Haemoproteus majoris

The avian haemosporidian parasite Haemoproteus majoris has been reported to infect a wide range of passerine birds throughout the Holarctic ecozone. Five cytochrome b (cyt b) lineages have been described as belonging to the morphological species H. majoris, and these form a tight phylogenetic cluster together with 13 undescribed lineages that differ from each other by < 1.2% in sequence divergence. Records in a database (MalAvi) that contains global findings of haemosporidian lineages generated by universal primers suggest that these lineages vary substantially in host distribution. We confirm this pattern in a data set collected at Lake Kvismaren, Sweden, where three of the generalist lineages have local transmission. However, whether these lineages represent intraspecific mitochondrial diversity or clusters of cryptic species has previously not been examined. In this study, we developed novel molecular markers to amplify the partial segments of four nuclear genes to determine the level of genetic diversity and gene phylogenies among the five morphologically described cyt b lineages of H. majoris. All five cyt b lineages were strongly associated with unique nuclear alleles at all four nuclear loci, indicating that each mitochondrial lineage represents a distinct biological species. Within lineages, there was no apparent association between nuclear alleles and host species, indicating that they form genetically unstructured populations across multiple host species.
[The expression and function of anti-apoptotic Bfl-1 in prostate cancer].

OBJECTIVE To determine the expression of Bcl2 related protein A1(Bfl-1) mRNA in prostate cancer cell lines and tissues, and to explore the functions of Bfl-1 in prostate adenocarcinoma. METHODS RT-PCR, real-time quantitative PCR (Q-PCR)and in situ hybridization (ISH) were used to detect the expression of Bfl-1 mRNA in prostate cancer cell lines, tissues and benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) tissue samples. The relationship between Bfl-1 expression and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASONs) were used to interfere the expression of Bfl-1 and its effects on prostate cancer cells. MTT was used to detect the survival, morphologic changes of prostate cancer cells was observed by inverted microscope. RESULTS Bfl-1 mRNA, detected by RT-PCR, Q-PCR and ISH, was overexpressed in the androgen-independent prostate cancer cell lines PC-3 and DU145, but not detectable in the androgen-dependent prostate cancer cell line LNCaP and BPH tissue samples (P < 0.05). Significantly higher Bfl-1 mRNA levels were observed in higher stage and metastatic prostate cancer cases than those without metastasis or of low stage. ASONs targeting Bfl-1 significantly inhibited androgen-independent prostate cancer cell growth (P < 0.05), cell was rounding off or fragmentation. CONCLUSION Bfl-1 is involved in maintaining the hormone-independent prostate cancer cell growth. Bfl-1 may become a new therapeutic target in advanced prostate cancer.