Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Characterization of Melanocortin-3 Receptor in a Hibernating Cavefish Onychostoma macrolepis

Simple Summary In this study we isolated and characterized a gene called omMc3r from a hibernating cavefish Onychostoma macrolepis. This gene was confirmed by our study to be involved in the regulation of signal pathways related to energy balance and food efficiency. These results can provide clues for exploring the adaptive mechanisms of fish, especially cavefish, with respect to nutrient-poor conditions. Abstract Melanocortin-3 receptor (MC3R) plays an important role in the energy homeostasis of animals under different nutritional conditions. Onychostoma macrolepis is a hibernating cavefish found in the northern part of the Yangtze River, and its adaptation to a nutrient-poor environment has attracted growing interest. In this study, we characterized the protein structure of Onychostoma macrolepis Mc3r (omMc3r), examined its tissue distribution, and investigated its function in mediating cellular signaling. We showed that the CDS of omMc3r is 978 bp, encoding a putative protein of 325 amino acids. Homology and phylogenetic analyses indicated that omMc3r is evolutionary close to cyprinids. Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) revealed that omMc3r was highly expressed in the liver and brain. The functions of omMc3r to mediate ligands activating downstream signaling have also been confirmed by using signal pathway-specific reporters. The four agonists α-MSH, β-MSH, NDP-MSH, and ACTH (1–24) can all activate the cAMP and MAPK/ERK signaling pathway, albeit with different potency orders. The “primitive” ligand ACTH (1–24) had the highest potency on the cAMP signaling pathway, while the synthetic ligand NDP-MSH had the highest activation effect on the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway. This research will lay the foundation for studying the energy regulation mechanism of cavefish in an oligotrophic environment.
Developing connections for engagement in stroke rehabilitation

Abstract Background and Aims: Engagement is increasingly recognised as important for maximising rehabilitation outcome following stroke. However, engagement can be challenging when neurological impairment impacts a persons’ ability to activate the regulatory processes necessary for engagement and in the context of a changed self. We explored engagement in stroke rehabilitation from the perspective of people with stroke with a primary focus on identifying key processes that appeared important to engagement in stroke rehabilitation. Design and Methods: This study drew on Interpretive Description methodology. Maximum variation and theoretical sampling were used to capture diversity in the sample and access a depth and breadth of perspectives. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with people with stroke (n = 19). Data were analysed through a collaborative and iterative process drawing on range of analytical tools including coding, memoing, diagramming and group discussions. Findings: Our findings highlight that engagement is a complex, nuanced, responsive, flexible and inherently two-way process. Developing connections appeared central to engagement with connections taking various forms. The most fundamental was the therapeutic connection between the person with stroke and their practitioner as it provided the foundation on which to build other connections. Connection was made possible through five collaborative processes: Knowing, Entrusting, Adapting, Investing and Reciprocating. Conclusions: Engagement is a social and relational process enabled through an inherently person-centred approach and active and ongoing reflexivity – highlighting the importance of a humanising approach to care where aspects of self, care and emotion are evident, for both the person with stroke and their practitioner.
A finger shaped tactile sensor using an optical waveguide

A finger-shaped tactile sensor consisting of a charge-coupled device (CCD) and a semispherical optical waveguide covered with an elastic sheet and connected to a light source is proposed. The principle of the sensor is based on producing the scattering light at the sensor-object contact. The contact location is recognized using a CCD to detect light. By a simple calculation of the equation derived from the sensor surface geometry, the sensor can also provide the surface normal of the touched object. Through experiments using a prototype sensor, the fundamental characteristics of the sensor are evaluated and the principle of the sensor is confirmed. <<ETX>>
Design and Synthesis of New Thiophene/Thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidines along with Their Cytotoxic Biological Evaluation as Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Addition to Their Apoptotic and Autophagic Induction

This work describes the synthesis and anticancer activity against kinase enzymes of newly designed thiophene and thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives, along with their potential to activate autophagic and apoptotic cell death in cancer cells. The designed compounds were scanned for their affinity for kinases. The results were promising with affinity ranges from 46.7% to 13.3%. Molecular docking studies were performed, and the compounds were then screened for their antiproliferative effects. Interestingly, compounds 8 and 5 resulted in higher cytotoxic effects than the reference standard against MCF-7 and HepG-2. The compounds were evaluated for their induction of apoptosis and/or necrosis on HT-29 and HepG-2. Three compounds induced significant early apoptosis compared to untreated control HT-29 cells, and four derivatives were more significant compared to untreated HepG-2 cells. We further investigated the effect of four compounds on the autophagy process within HT-29, HepG-2, and MCF-7 cells with flow cytometry. Similar to the apoptosis results, compound 5 showed the highest autophagic induction among all compounds. The potential inhibitory activity of the synthesized compounds on kinases was assessed. Screened compounds showed inhibition activity ranging from 41.4% to 83.5%. Compounds recorded significant inhibition were further investigated for their specific FLT3 kinase inhibitory activity. Noticeably, Compound 5 exhibited the highest inhibitory activity against FLT3.
Instantaneous power-based current control scheme for VAR compensation in hybrid AC/DC networks for smart grid applications

An important feature of grid-connected DC microgrids is the ability to inject or suck power from the grid based on the generation and loading conditions. Power flow from the AC to DC grid is important to cover any deficiency in the demand in DC grid. Power flow from the DC to AC grid is needed when there is an excess power from renewable energy sources on the DC bus. To allow this bidirectional power flow, a pulse-width modulation controlled voltage source converter is used as an interface between the DC microgrid and the AC main grid. The bidirectional converter controls the active power transferred in both directions while operating at unity power factor. In this study, a current control approach based on the instantaneous synchronous detection theory has been used to control the power flow in both directions. The proposed current control scheme is verified through MATLAB simulation and the simulated results are also validated experimentally using a prototype controlled by dSPACE digital signal processor. The simulated and the experimental results show that the proposed scheme offers regulated DC grid voltage and nearly unity power factor for wide load variations. Results have proven excellent performance in steady and transient states.
Non-random single event upset trends

A macroscopic investigation of single-even-upset (SEU) trends for a class of CMOS/NMOS static RAMs exposed to heavy ions and protons has been performed. Analysis of the logical and spatial distribution of upsets as well as individual bit-upset polarity shows the need to consider the effects of peripheral circuitry interactions in understanding and modeling SEU phenomena, with important implications for spacecraft systems designs. Experimental studies and analysis of upset distributions along with SPICE modeling of the potential for word line upsets give a clear indication that upsets resulting from particle strikes on peripheral circuitry are occurring, and that the propagation of upsets along peripheral circuitry can have a serious impact on the numbers of logic word multiple upsets observed, depending on the layout of the device. >
The Necessity and Functionality of Information Management Safety: A Case Analysis in Turkey Perspective

Today, the use of information is gradually increasing in private sector and public sector. Besides that the importance of information increases, keeping and storing it in a safe way also appeared as an important need. Also, transferring it from one place to another place became inevitable need. This dependency to information made a current issue the need of keeping information. The attacks to information, its destroying, its cleaning, and being damaging of its confidentiality causes informational infrastructure to fall into decay and this, together with it, also leads the things to go wrong. Thus, the safety of information system gradually becomes more important. However, in information age, taking information under control gradually becomes difficult. Making the information flow more safe, from now on, has become a policy of governments. On this purpose, Information Safety Management System was developed. Informational Safety Management System is a systematic approach adopted for being able to manage the sensitive information of institute. The main purpose of this system is to keep the sensitive information. The works on this system includes work systems and information technology (IT) processes. Lack of information flow actualizing thanks to various environments in internet threatens the future safety of information. Information is easily obtained without permission. Performing the information circulation through open networks increases the risk. Information Safety Management System includes what kind of actions should be taken toward keeping the easily obtained information and how a policy should be followed. In this study, in related to information management safety, SWOT Analysis toward what kind of strategy public institutes in Turkey follow will be carried out. Thus, emphasizing strengths and weaknesses on information safety, what the institutes will be able to do will be suggested so that they eliminate their weaknesses. In addition, how the institutes prevented the possible threats and evaluated the opportunities will be included in the study.
Deep Learning Aided Physical-Layer Security: The Security Versus Reliability Trade-Off

This paper considers a communication system whose source can learn from channel-related data, thereby making a suitable choice of system parameters for security improvement. The security of the communication system is optimized using deep neural networks (DNNs). More explicitly, the associated security vs reliability trade-off problem is characterized in terms of the symbol error probabilities and the discrete-input continuous-output memoryless channel (DCMC) capacities. A pair of loss functions were defined by relying on the Lagrangian and on the monotonic-function based techniques. These were then used for managing the learning/training process of the DNNs for finding near-optimal solutions to the associated non-convex problem. The Lagrangian technique was shown to approach the performance of the exhaustive search. We concluded by characterizing the security vs reliability trade-off in terms of the intercept probability vs the outage probability.
Earthquake-Induced In-Building Motion Criteria

Two 10-member ensembles of digitally generated waveforms that simulate real earthquake accelerograms are used to excite mathematical models of two-story to 20-story buildings of widths ranging from 100 ft to 300 ft and founded on soils characterized by shear-wave velocities of up to 4,000 fps. Realistic equivalent structural damping is determined and used in this analysis based on the actual building response data recorded during the San Fernando earthquake of 1971. Calculated upper bound motion responses on floors throughout the buildings are presented in terms of peak values of accelaration, velocity, and displacement. Envelopes of damped response spectra derived from the in-building accelerograms are also presented, and the use of these spectra is demonstrated with an illustrative example.
Mercury intrusion porosimetry and centrifuge methods for extended‐range retention curves of soil and porous rock samples

The water retention function is essential for modeling flow and transport in porous media. Its experimental determination is still challenging because each of the standard methods is limited to partial moisture ranges. The pore‐size distribution (PSD) obtained by the mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) may be used as a unifying property that spans across the individual ranges of retention properties obtained with standard methods. This study compares the MIP and quasi‐steady centrifuge (QSC) methods with standard ones (suction table, evaporation, and dewpoint potentiameter) to determine the retention curves of subsoil clods and calcareous rocks over most of the moisture range. The selected soils, having a relatively rigid structure compared with other soils, are more similar to the rocks even if there is a non‐negligible difference in terms of mechanical strength. The QSC, developed for rock samples, was tested for soil to see if the method is also applicable for mechanically less stable media. The porosity characteristics of soil and rock samples showed bi‐ and trimodal PSDs. The single MIP test allowed describing the mercury retention curve (MRC) for most of the volumetric mercury content range. The MRCs could be used to fill the gaps in the retention curves that occur with the standard retention procedure when switching from one measurement range to the other. The MIP and QSC methods proved to be relatively fast and reliable for measuring a wider range of the retention curve. However, the application of QSC method to soil samples is limited by effects of compaction due to centrifugal force.
Design of the Convergence Study Program based Educational-Robot

The purpose of this study is to develop the convergence study program through the educational robot to improve elementary students' problem solving ability and have more confidence about mathematics, science, engineering and computer programming. Nowadays, convergence is a global trend, also the world has been trying to educate the person who adapted well to the fusion circumstances. However, the great majority of curriculum does not reflect this turn that carried new pedagogical trend. Thus, in order to overcome this situation, by making use of convergence study program, students will be easily adapted to the converging circumstances. It is expected to include coverage of resources for teaching of convergence study program through robot - education for instructors who may wish to adapt this new trend of instruction.
Crosslinking Multilayer Graphene by Gas Cluster Ion Bombardment

In this paper, we demonstrate a new, highly efficient method of crosslinking multilayer graphene, and create nanopores in it by its irradiation with low-energy argon cluster ions. Irradiation was performed by argon cluster ions with an acceleration energy E ≈ 30 keV, and total fluence of argon cluster ions ranging from 1 × 109 to 1 × 1014 ions/cm2. The results of the bombardment were observed by the direct examination of traces of argon-cluster penetration in multilayer graphene, using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Further image processing revealed an average pore diameter of approximately 3 nm, with the predominant size corresponding to 2 nm. We anticipate that a controlled cross-linking process in multilayer graphene can be achieved by appropriately varying irradiation energy, dose, and type of clusters. We believe that this method is very promising for modulating the properties of multilayer graphene, and opens new possibilities for creating three-dimensional nanomaterials.
Architecture-Level Optimization on Digital Silicon Photomultipliers for Medical Imaging

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are arrays of single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) connected in parallel. Analog silicon photomultipliers are built in custom technologies optimized for detection efficiency. Digital silicon photomultipliers are built in CMOS technology. Although CMOS SPADs are less sensitive, they can incorporate additional functionality at the sensor plane, which is required in some applications for an accurate detection in terms of energy, timestamp, and spatial location. This additional circuitry comprises active quenching and recharge circuits, pulse combining and counting logic, and a time-to-digital converter. This, together with the disconnection of defective SPADs, results in a reduction of the light-sensitive area. In addition, the pile-up of pulses, in space and in time, translates into additional efficiency losses that are inherent to digital SiPMs. The design of digital SiPMs must include some sort of optimization of the pixel architecture in order to maximize sensitivity. In this paper, we identify the most relevant variables that determine the influence of SPAD yield, fill factor loss, and spatial and temporal pile-up in the photon detection efficiency. An optimum of 8% is found for different pixel sizes. The potential benefits of molecular imaging of these optimized and small-sized pixels with independent timestamping capabilities are also analyzed.
An artificial neural cell implemented with superconducting circuits

The authors describe a new type of artificial neural cell using superconducting circuits. Circulating current flowing in a superconducting closed loop is used for implementing a weighted sum of inputs. The weight value and sign are digitally variable. The weight values are stored in superconducting memory loops, and can be controlled by an up-down counter. The performance of the cell, such as cell size, power dissipation, and input/output capability, were evaluated and the estimations show a promise for implementation of large scale neural networks.
Study on the Characteristics of the Maglev Electromagnet Considering the Magnetic Field Induced by Eddy Current

The rails of the medium-low speed maglev system are entirely manufactured by roller milling, and eddy current in the rail can be induced when relative movement between the electromagnet and the rail manifests. The eddy current reduces the magnetic field in the air gap between the electromagnet and the rail, which, as a result, decreases the levitation force; and higher speed will cause more levitation force lost. Moreover, the eddy current produces a drag force which is opposite to the propulsion force generated by the linear inductive motor. In this paper, based on the electromagnetism, the formulae for the levitation force and the drag force of the electromagnet are deduced when the eddy current in the rail is taken account. Simulations based on the model of the maglev vehicle on the Tangshan maglev test line are also performed. The results indicates that the levitation force is significantly affected by the eddy current in the rail, and when v = 200 km/h, the levitation force of a single electromagnet is reduced by 35.6%; meanwhile, the drag force increases dramatically as the speed increases, but when the speed exceeds 100 km/h, the drag force stops increasing, and it equals 2.28% of the stationary levitation force.
The study of 80 MHz Self starting passively mode-locked Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser via nonlinear polarization rotation with SESAM

Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser, EDFL, passively mode-locked via only Nonlinear Polarization Rotation, NPR, and via NPR with Semiconductor Saturable Absorber Mirror, SESAM, is studied. Self start single pulse train with pulse width of 114 fs and repetition rate (PRR) of 80 MHz has been obtained when 55 cm EDFL, passively mode-locked via NPR only. Inserting SESAM in EDFL cavity leads to shorten the pulse width up to 88 fs, increases the amplitude stability up to 96% and lower the phase noise jittering to around 26 fsec. Stable second harmonic self starting passively mode-locked EDFL with pulse width of 284 fs has also been observed only when SESAM was used in the cavity. Multi-pulsed system passively mode-locked via NPR for EDFL length of 80 cm with time difference between the successive multi-pulses ranged from few picoseconds to nanoseconds, has been observed. The time difference can be controlled by the polarizer controller and the half wave plate. Further controlling of the cavity polarization leads to developing the multiple modelocking pulses train to second harmonic mode-locking pulse train with PRR of 160 MHz and pulse width of 156 fs. Three harmonic superposed trains of modelocked pulse have been achieved only when SESAM added to the cavity.
Efficient Design of Automatic Train Operation Speed Profiles with On Board Energy Storage Devices

Energy usage in electrical railway systems is being studied in order to find technologies and developments for increasing energy efficiency. It is not only an environmental problem, but also concerns railway infrastructures as an economical aspect. The problem is finding which system to invest in for decreasing energy consumption and costs. In this paper, two possibilities are studied. The first one is the redesign of the ATO (Automatic Train Operation) speed profiles of metro lines. The speed commands in service nowadays were selected based on time and comfort criteria. In addition, in this paper the consideration of energetic criteria is taken into account. Complementing the previous possibility, the implementation of an on board energy storage device is evaluated. The regenerated energy of electrical brakes in metropolitan railways is not used if there is no other train starting up at the same time, and it is wasted with heating resistors. With the aim of taking advantage of regenerative energy, the economical and energetic advantages of investing in an on board storage device, despite its additional mass, are studied. Both approaches are finally jointed, obtaining speed profiles that are even more efficient with the implementation of the device. Optimal Pareto curves, where the best solutions are placed, are modified taking into account on board storage devices. A simulator is needed for the proper simulation of all the possible speed commands. It has been developed and validated with measurements in line 10 of the Madrid Underground. Solutions show that about 25% of energy savings are expected with only the speed profiles redesign. In addition, it is shown how these
Design and Simulation of a Capacitive Biaxial Microaccelerometer

This paper presents a capacitive biaxial microaccelerometer with a single proof mass. The theoretical analysis results are conﬁrmed by ﬁnite element analysis. The experimental results indicate the biaxial accelerometer with uniform axial sensitivities, good linearity and high cross-axis sensitivity immunity to the z-axis input.