cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Studies of bisexual (A+ a) strains in Neurospora crassa
Creators: name: DeLange, Aloysius
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: In the first part of this thesis, a system was constructed, which is selective for recessive meiotic mutants in Neurospora crassa. This system employs bisexual (A + a) Pseudo-Wild Type cultures (produced from disomic ascospores), which were selected by means of several closely linked auxotrophic markers on L.G.I (the mating type locus is also located on this linkage group). These Pseudo-Wild Type cultures consist of at least 2 nuclear components of opposite mating type (A and a). Consequently, they are self-fertile. Moreover, since the cultures are homozygous for genes on other linkage groups, recessive mutants affecting meiosis may be detected. The second part of this thesis deals with escape from self-incompatible bisexual heterokaryons. In Neurospora crassa, strains of opposite mating type generally do not form stable heterokaryons because the mating type locus acts as a hetero-karyon incompatibility locus. However, when one A and one a strain, having complementing auxotrophic mutants, are placed together on minimal medium, some slow growth may result. Escape from slow growth to that at a wild type or near-wild type rate was observed. Most escape products are stable heterokaryons, which have lost one or the other of the mating type alleles from one of the component nuclei. These nuclei have therefore become heterokaryon compatible. Alternatively, when one component strain is tol and the other tol⁺ (tol being a recessive mutant suppressing the heterokaryon incompatibility associated with mating type), escape may occur upon the deletion or mutation of tol⁺, similarly causing heterokaryon compatibility. Deletion of more than one locus, including the mating type locus, was demonstrated in 3 cases. One such deletion covered most of the left arm of LG I. An induction-type mechanism of escape is speculated upon.
La miniatura a Bologna sotto i Bentivoglio
Creators: name: Guernelli, Daniele <1974>
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2010
Subjects: L-ART/01 Storia dell'arte medievale

description: Il lavoro tratta della produzione miniata a Bologna sotto la signoria dei Bentivoglio, tra il quinto decennio del Quattrocento ed il secondo decennio del secolo successivo.
description: The work is about the illuminated manuscripts made in Bologna under the domination of the Bentivoglio family, between the fifth decade of the Fifteenth Century to the second decade of the next.
Application and pitfalls of the use of plant ID apps for urban flora and citizen science studies
Creators: name: Jones, Hamlyn G.
name: Jones, Amanda J.
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Science Policy
subject: Plant Biology
subject: Virology

description: Over the past 5 or so years, many smartphone ‘apps’ for the plant identification (ID) have become available for use by amateur and professional botanists. There is, however, a need for good information on their reliability in practice. To provide guidance on the criteria that can be used to evaluate the performance of plant ID apps. To assess the performance of the most popular free ID apps when used on a range of urban wild plants including both flowering and vegetative plants and also to compare the performance of current versions of the apps with those tested several years ago. This study evaluated the performance of some of the more popular plant ID apps when tested on all the plants identifiable by a knowledgeable tester on a 2-day urban flora survey in East Scotland. In addition, the improvement in accuracy of the apps since a study in 2020 was assessed by a reanalysis of the original images. All apps tested have improved over the 3 years between 2020 and 2023 by around 20% points with regards to the percentage of samples identified correctly to species or to family. This improvement probably results from continued crowd-sourcing of images. The best apps tested, which include Flora Incognita and PlantNet, were found to identify correct to species 80%–90% of the plants tested here (which include a wide range of plants with or without flowers, and a range of monocots, herbaceous and woody plants). We conclude that a specification for ideal apps is that they should provide an indication of confidence in the results and should minimise incorrect identifications, even if it is only the wrong species of two similar ones.
FIGO: Enhanced Fingerprint Identification Approach Using GAN and One Shot Learning Techniques
Creators: name: Yilmaz, Ibrahim
name: Abouyoussef, Mahmoud
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Fingerprint evidence plays an important role in a criminal investigation for the identification of individuals. Although various techniques have been proposed for fingerprint classification and feature extraction, automated fingerprint identification of fingerprints is still in its earliest stage. The performance of traditional \textit{Automatic Fingerprint Identification System} (AFIS) depends on the presence of valid minutiae points and still requires human expert assistance in feature extraction and identification stages. Based on this motivation, we propose a Fingerprint Identification approach based on Generative adversarial network and One-shot learning techniques (FIGO). Our solution contains two components: fingerprint enhancement tier and fingerprint identification tier. First, we propose a Pix2Pix model to transform low-quality fingerprint images to a higher level of fingerprint images pixel by pixel directly in the fingerprint enhancement tier. With the proposed enhancement algorithm, the fingerprint identification model's performance is significantly improved. Furthermore, we develop another existing solution based on Gabor filters as a benchmark to compare with the proposed model by observing the fingerprint device's recognition accuracy. Experimental results show that our proposed Pix2pix model has better support than the baseline approach for fingerprint identification. Second, we construct a fully automated fingerprint feature extraction model using a one-shot learning approach to differentiate each fingerprint from the others in the fingerprint identification process. Two twin convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with shared weights and parameters are used to obtain the feature vectors in this process. Using the proposed method, we demonstrate that it is possible to learn necessary information from only one training sample with high accuracy.
Performance of computational tools in evaluating the functional impact of laboratory-induced amino acid mutations
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Amino Acids
Computational Biology
Databases, Protein
Molecular Sequence Annotation
Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
Mutation
Proteins
Software

description: Summary: Site-directed mutagenesis is frequently used by scientists to investigate the functional impact of amino acid mutations in the laboratory. Over 10 000 such laboratory-induced mutations have been reported in the UniProt database along with the outcomes of functional assays. Here, we explore the performance of state-of-the-art computational tools (Condel, PolyPhen-2 and SIFT) in correctly annotating the function-altering potential of 10 913 laboratory-induced mutations from 2372 proteins. We find that computational tools are very successful in diagnosing laboratory-induced mutations that elicit significant functional change in the laboratory (up to 92% accuracy). But, these tools consistently fail in correctly annotating laboratory-induced mutations that show no functional impact in the laboratory assays. Therefore, the overall accuracy of computational tools for laboratory-induced mutations is much lower than that observed for the naturally occurring human variants. We tested and rejected the possibilities that the preponderance of changes to alanine and the presence of multiple base-pair mutations in the laboratory were the reasons for the observed discordance between the performance of computational tools for natural and laboratory mutations. Instead, we discover that the laboratory-induced mutations occur predominately at the highly conserved positions in proteins, where the computational tools have the lowest accuracy of correct prediction for variants that do not impact function (neutral). Therefore, the comparisons of experimental-profiling results with those from computational predictions need to be sensitive to the evolutionary conservation of the positions harboring the amino acid change. © The Author(s) 2012. Published by Oxford University Press.
Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect in galaxy clusters cavities: thermal or non-thermal origin?
Creators: name: Marchegiani, P.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Several galaxy clusters host X-ray cavities, often filled with relativistic electrons emitting in the radio band. In the cluster MS 0735.6+7421 the cavities have been detected through the Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, but it has not been possible to determine if this effect is thermal (produced by a very high temperature gas filling the cavity) or non-thermal (produced by the relativistic electrons that produce the diffuse radio emission detected in the cavity). In this paper we discuss the role of the density of the high temperature gas inside the cavities in determining whether the dominant SZ effect is the thermal or the non-thermal one, and how it can be possible to distinguish between the two possibilities, discussing the role of observations at higher energy bands.
description: To appear in the Proceedings of the International Conference entitled "mm Universe @ NIKA2", Rome (Italy), June 2021, EPJ Web of conferences. This version includes the Acknowledgements section, which is not present in the published version of the Proceedings because of the limit of pages. This paper is largely based on the results published in MNRAS, 503, 4183 (2021) (arXiv:2103.05379)
ANIMA D3.8 - Public Database for Researchers
Creators: name: Aalmoes, Roalt
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021

description: This document describes the collection of research data that has been obtained in the ANIMA project. Purpose of this collection is to save these datasets for future research and future researchers, as Open Access data. Only datasets are provided that are created or gathered by ANIMA partners, or been given to ANIMA and can be made available so they may be used without additional costs by other parties. In some instances, the datasets are made available after a limited time after the project, to allow ANIMA researchers to make (unique) publications based upon this research data.
Smartwatch-based ecological momentary assessments for occupant wellness and privacy in buildings
Creators: name: Miller, Clayton
name: Christensen, Renee
name: Leong, Jin Kai
name: Abdelrahman, Mahmoud
name: Tartarini, Federico
name: Quintana, Matias
name: Müller, Andre Matthias
name: Frei, Mario
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: This paper describes the adaptation of an open-source ecological momentary assessment smart-watch platform with three sets of micro-survey wellness-related questions focused on i) infectious disease (COVID-19) risk perception, ii) privacy and distraction in an office context, and iii) triggers of various movement-related behaviors in buildings. This platform was previously used to collect data for thermal comfort, and this work extends its use to other domains. Several research participants took part in a proof-of-concept experiment by wearing a smartwatch to collect their micro-survey question preferences and perception responses for two of the question sets. Participants were also asked to install an indoor localization app on their phone to detect where precisely in the building they completed the survey. The experiment identified occupant information such as the tendencies for the research participants to prefer privacy in certain spaces and the difference between infectious disease risk perception in naturally versus mechanically ventilated spaces.
Andreev Reflection in Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Unconventional Superconductors
Creators: name: Sukhachov, P. O.
name: von Oppen, Felix
name: Glazman, L. I.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We evaluate the differential conductance measured in a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) setting at arbitrary electron transmission between an STM tip and a two-dimensional (2D) superconductor with arbitrary gap structure. Our analytical scattering theory accounts for Andreev reflections, which become prominent at larger transmissions. We show that this provides complementary information about the superconducting gap structure beyond the tunneling density of states, strongly facilitating the ability to extract the gap symmetry and its relation to the underlying crystalline lattice. We use the developed theory to discuss recent experimental results on superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene.
description: 6+8 pages, 2+1 multi-panel figures; published version
Common functional principal components
Creators: name: Benko, Michal
name: Härdle, Wolfgang
name: Kneip, Alois
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Statistics Theory (math.ST)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 62H25, 62G08 (Primary) 62P05 (Secondary)

description: Functional principal component analysis (FPCA) based on the Karhunen--Loève decomposition has been successfully applied in many applications, mainly for one sample problems. In this paper we consider common functional principal components for two sample problems. Our research is motivated not only by the theoretical challenge of this data situation, but also by the actual question of dynamics of implied volatility (IV) functions. For different maturities the log-returns of IVs are samples of (smooth) random functions and the methods proposed here study the similarities of their stochastic behavior. First we present a new method for estimation of functional principal components from discrete noisy data. Next we present the two sample inference for FPCA and develop the two sample theory. We propose bootstrap tests for testing the equality of eigenvalues, eigenfunctions, and mean functions of two functional samples, illustrate the test-properties by simulation study and apply the method to the IV analysis.
description: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS516 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)
Learning Sparse Representations for Fruit-Fly Gene Expression Pattern Image Annotation and Retrieval
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Animals
Data Mining
Databases, Factual
Drosophila melanogaster
Gene Expression Profiling
Internet
Molecular Sequence Annotation
Pattern Recognition, Automated
Software
Support Vector Machine

description: Background: Fruit fly embryogenesis is one of the best understood animal development systems, and the spatiotemporal gene expression dynamics in this process are captured by digital images. Analysis of these high-throughput images will provide novel insights into the functions, interactions, and networks of animal genes governing development. To facilitate comparative analysis, web-based interfaces have been developed to conduct image retrieval based on body part keywords and images. Currently, the keyword annotation of spatiotemporal gene expression patterns is conducted manually. However, this manual practice does not scale with the continuously expanding collection of images. In addition, existing image retrieval systems based on the expression patterns may be made more accurate using keywords.Results: In this article, we adapt advanced data mining and computer vision techniques to address the key challenges in annotating and retrieving fruit fly gene expression pattern images. To boost the performance of image annotation and retrieval, we propose representations integrating spatial information and sparse features, overcoming the limitations of prior schemes.Conclusions: We perform systematic experimental studies to evaluate the proposed schemes in comparison with current methods. Experimental results indicate that the integration of spatial information and sparse features lead to consistent performance improvement in image annotation, while for the task of retrieval, sparse features alone yields better results. © 2012 Yuan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
TOI-2257 b: A highly eccentric long-period sub-Neptune transiting a nearby M dwarf
Creators: name: Schanche, N.
name: Pozuelos, F. J.
name: Günther, M. N.
name: Wells, R. D.
name: Burgasser, A. J.
name: Chinchilla, P.
name: Delrez, L.
name: Ducrot, E.
name: Garcia, L. J.
name: Chew, Y. Gómez Maqueo
name: Jofré, E.
name: Rackham, B. V.
name: Sebastian, D.
name: Stassun, K. G.
name: Stern, D.
name: Timmermans, M.
name: Barkaoui, K.
name: Belinski, A.
name: Benkhaldoun, Z.
name: Benz, W.
name: Charbonneau, D.
name: Christiansen, Jessie L.
name: Collins, Karen A.
name: Demory, B. -O.
name: Dévora-Pajares, M.
name: de Wit, J.
name: Dragomir, D.
name: Dransfield, G.
name: Furlan, E.
name: Ghachou, M.
name: Gillon, M.
name: Gnilka, C.
name: Gómez-Muñoz, M. A.
name: Guerrero, N.
name: Harris, M.
name: Heng, K.
name: Henze, C. E.
name: Hesse, K.
name: Howell, S. B.
name: Jehin, E.
name: Jenkins, J.
name: Jensen, Eric L. N.
name: Kunimoto, M.
name: Latham, D. W.
name: Lester, K.
name: McLeod, Kim K.
name: Mireles, I.
name: Murray, C. A.
name: Niraula, P.
name: Pedersen, P. P.
name: Queloz, D.
name: Quintana, E. V.
name: Ricker, G.
name: Rudat, A.
name: Sabin, L.
name: Safonov, B.
name: Schroffenegger, U.
name: Scott, N.
name: Seager, S.
name: Strakhov, I.
name: Triaud, A. H. M. J.
name: Vanderspek, R.
name: Vezie, M.
name: Winn, J.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Thanks to the relative ease of finding and characterizing small planets around M dwarf stars, these objects have become cornerstones in the field of exoplanet studies. The current paucity of planets in long-period orbits around M dwarfs make such objects particularly compelling as they provide clues about the formation and evolution of these systems. In this study, we present the discovery of TOI-2257 b (TIC 198485881), a long-period (35 d) sub-Neptune orbiting an M3 star at 57.8pc. Its transit depth is about 0.4%, large enough to be detected with medium-size, ground-based telescopes. The long transit duration suggests the planet is in a highly eccentric orbit ($e \sim 0.5$), which would make it the most eccentric planet that is known to be transiting an M-dwarf star. We combined TESS and ground-based data obtained with the 1.0-m SAINT-EX, 0.60-m TRAPPIST-North and 1.2-m FLWO telescopes to find a planetary size of 2.2 $R_{\oplus}$ and an orbital period of 35.19 days. In addition, we make use of archival data, high-resolution imaging, and vetting packages to support our planetary interpretation. With its long period and high eccentricity, TOI-2257 b falls in a novel slice of parameter space. Despite the planet's low equilibrium temperature ($\sim$ 256 K), its host star's small size ($R_* = 0.311 \pm{0.015}$) and relative infrared brightness (K$_{mag}$ = 10.7) make it a suitable candidate for atmospheric exploration via transmission spectroscopy.
description: 18 pages, 12 figures, 2 appendices, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics
Annual economic impacts of seasonal influenza on US counties: Spatial heterogeneity and patterns
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Influenza
Economic costs
US Counties
Vaccination
Spatial heterogeneity

description: Economic impacts of seasonal influenza vary across US counties, but little estimation has been conducted at the county level. This research computed annual economic costs of seasonal influenza for 3143 US counties based on Census 2010, identified inherent spatial patterns, and investigated cost-benefits of vaccination strategies. The computing model modified existing methods for national level estimation, and further emphasized spatial variations between counties, in terms of population size, age structure, influenza activity, and income level. Upon such a model, four vaccination strategies that prioritize different types of counties were simulated and their net returns were examined. The results indicate that the annual economic costs of influenza varied from $13.9 thousand to $957.5 million across US counties, with a median of $2.47 million. Prioritizing vaccines to counties with high influenza attack rates produces the lowest influenza cases and highest net returns. This research fills the current knowledge gap by downscaling the estimation to a county level, and adds spatial variability into studies of influenza economics and interventions. Compared to the national estimates, the presented statistics and maps will offer detailed guidance for local health agencies to fight against influenza. © 2012 Mao et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Planck LFI flight model feed horns
Creators: name: Villa, F.
name: D'Arcangelo, O.
name: Pecora, M.
name: Figini, L.
name: Nesti, R.
name: Simonetto, A.
name: Sozzi, C.
name: Sandri, M.
name: Battaglia, P.
name: Guzzi, P.
name: Bersanelli, M.
name: Butler, R. C.
name: Mandolesi, N.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: this paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI papers published on JINST: http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/jinst The Low Frequency Instrument is optically interfaced with the ESA Planck telescope through 11 corrugated feed horns each connected to the Radiometer Chain Assembly (RCA). This paper describes the design, the manufacturing and the testing of the flight model feed horns. They have been designed to optimize the LFI optical interfaces taking into account the tight mechanical requirements imposed by the Planck focal plane layout. All the eleven units have been successfully tested and integrated with the Ortho Mode transducers.
description: This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in JINST. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The definitive publisher authenticated version is available online at 10.1088/1748-0221/4/12/T12004
Non-Invertible Symmetries from Holography and Branes
Creators: name: Apruzzi, Fabio
name: Bah, Ibrahima
name: Bonetti, Federico
name: Schafer-Nameki, Sakura
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We propose a systematic approach to deriving symmetry generators of Quantum Field Theories in holography. Central to this are the Gauss law constraints in the Hamiltonian quantization of Symmetry Topological Field Theories (SymTFTs), which are obtained from supergravity. In turn we realize the symmetry generators from world-volume theories of D-branes in holography. Our main focus is on non-invertible symmetries, which have emerged in the past year as a new type of symmetry in $d\geq 4$ QFTs. We exemplify our proposal in the holographic confinement setup, dual to 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ Super-Yang Mills. In the brane-picture, the fusion of non-invertible symmetries naturally arises from the Myers effect on D-branes. In turn, their action on line defects is modeled by the Hanany-Witten effect.
description: 10 pages; published version
Studio di metodi di preparazione e caratterizzazione di nanostrutture per la funzionalizzazione di materiali ceramici
Creators: name: Chiva-Flor, Carla <1978>
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2011
Subjects: ING-IND/22 Scienza e tecnologia dei materiali

description: This thesis was carried out in the context of a co-tutoring program between Centro Ceramico Bologna (Italy) and Instituto di Tecnologia Ceramica, Castellón de la Plana (Spain). The subject of the thesis is the synthesis of silver nanoparticles and at their likely decorative application in the productive process of porcelain ceramic tiles.

Silver nanoparticles were chosen as a case study, because metal nanoparticles are thermally stable, and they have non-linear optical properties when nano-structured, and therefore they develop saturated colours. The nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical reduction in aqueous solution, a method chosen because of its reduced working steps and energy costs. Besides such a synthesis method uses non-expensive and non-toxic raw material. By adopting this synthesis technique, it was also possible to control the dimension and the final shape of the nanoparticles.

Several syntheses were carried out during the research work, modifying the molecular weight of the reducing agent and/or the firing temperature, in order to evaluate the influence such parameters have on the Ag-nanoparticles formation. The syntheses were monitored with the use of UV-Vis spectroscopy and the average dimension as well as the morphology of the nanoparticles was analysed by SEM. From the spectroscopic data obtained from each synthesis, a kinetic study was completed, relating the progress of the reaction to the two variables (ie temperature and molecular weight of the reducing agent). The aim was finding equations that allow the establishing of a relationship between the operating conditions during the synthesis and the characteristics of the final product.

The next step was finding the best method of synthesis for the decorative application. For such a purpose the amount of nanoparticles, their average particle size, the shape and the agglomeration are considered.

An aqueous suspension containing the nanoparticles is then sprayed over the fired ceramic tiles and they are subsequently thermally treated in conditions similar to the industrial one. The colorimetric parameters of the obtained ceramic tiles were studied and the method proved successful, giving the ceramic tiles stable and intense colours.
Modeling HIV-1 drug resistance as episodic directional selection
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Anti-HIV Agents
Biological Evolution
Computer Simulation
Drug Resistance, Viral
Evolution, Molecular
Genetic Variation
HIV-1
Models, Genetic
Selection, Genetic

description: The evolution of substitutions conferring drug resistance to HIV-1 is both episodic, occurring when patients are on antiretroviral therapy, and strongly directional, with site-specific resistant residues increasing in frequency over time. While methods exist to detect episodic diversifying selection and continuous directional selection, no evolutionary model combining these two properties has been proposed. We present two models of episodic directional selection (MEDS and EDEPS) which allow the a priori specification of lineages expected to have undergone directional selection. The models infer the sites and target residues that were likely subject to directional selection, using either codon or protein sequences. Compared to its null model of episodic diversifying selection, MEDS provides a superior fit to most sites known to be involved in drug resistance, and neither one test for episodic diversifying selection nor another for constant directional selection are able to detect as many true positives as MEDS and EDEPS while maintaining acceptable levels of false positives. This suggests that episodic directional selection is a better description of the process driving the evolution of drug resistance. © 2012 Murrell et al.
Use of VEGFR-2 targeted microbubbles (BR55, Bracco imaging) for the early ultrasound evaluation of response to antiangiogenic treatment in a xenograft model of hepatocarcinoma
Creators: name: Baron Toaldo, Marco <1981>
Publisher: name: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
Year: 2011
Subjects: VET/08 Clinica medica veterinaria
MED/09 Medicina interna

description: Aim: To evaluate the early response to treatment to an antiangiogenetic drug (sorafenib) in a heterotopic murine model of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using ultrasonographic molecular imaging.
Material and Methods: the xenographt model was established injecting a suspension of HuH7 cells subcutaneously in 19 nude mice. When tumors reached a mean diameter of 5-10 mm, they were divided in two groups (treatment and vehicle). The treatment group received sorafenib (62 mg/kg) by daily oral gavage for 14 days. Molecular imaging was performed using contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), by injecting into the mouse venous circulation a suspension of VEGFR-2 targeted microbubbles (BR55, kind gift of Bracco Swiss, Geneve, Switzerland). Video clips were acquired for 6 minutes, then microbubbles (MBs) were destroyed by a high mechanical index (MI) impulse, and another minute was recorded to evaluate residual circulating MBs. The US protocol was repeated at day 0,+2,+4,+7, and +14 from the beginning of treatment administration. Video clips were analyzed using a dedicated software (Sonotumor, Bracco Swiss) to quantify the signal of the contrast agent. Time/intensity curves were obtained and the difference of the mean MBs signal before and after high MI impulse (Differential Targeted Enhancement-dTE) was calculated. dTE represents a numeric value in arbitrary units proportional to the amount of bound MBs. At day +14 mice were euthanized and the tumors analyzed for VEGFR-2, pERK, and CD31 tissue levels using western blot analysis.
Results: dTE values decreased from day 0 to day +14 both in treatment and vehicle groups, and they were statistically higher in vehicle group than in treatment group at day +2, at day +7, and at day +14. With respect to the degree of tumor volume increase, measured as growth percentage delta (GPD), treatment group was divided in two sub-groups, non-responders (GPD>350%), and responders (GPD<200%). In the same way vehicle group was divided in slow growth group (GPD<400%), and fast growth group (GPD>900%). dTE values at day 0 (immediately before treatment start) were higher in non-responders than in responders group, with statistical difference at day 2. While dTE values were higher in the fast growth group than in the slow growth group only at day 0. A significant positive correlation was found between VEGFR-2 tissue levels and dTE values, confirming that level of BR55 tissue enhancement reflects the amount of tissue VEGF receptor.  
Conclusions: the present findings show that, at least in murine experimental models, CEUS with BR55 is feasable and appears to be a useful tool in the prediction of tumor growth and response to sorafenib treatment in xenograft HCC.
Remark on complements on surfaces
Creators: name: Liu, Jihao
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Algebraic Geometry (math.AG)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 14E30, 14B05

description: We give an explicit characterization on the singularities of exceptional pairs in any dimension. In particular, we show that any exceptional Fano surface is $\frac{1}{42}$-lc. As corollaries, we show that any $\mathbb R$-complementary surface $X$ has an $n$-complement for some integer $n\leq 192\cdot 84^{128\cdot 42^5}\approx 10^{10^{10.5}}$, and Tian's alpha invariant for any surface is $\leq 3\sqrt{2}\cdot 84^{64\cdot 42^5}\approx 10^{10^{10.2}}$. Although the latter two values are expected to be far from being optimal, they are the first explicit upper bounds of these two algebraic invariants for surfaces.
description: 7 pages. Final version. One estimation number changed. Add postscript
A Note on Colored Tornheim's Double Series
Creators: name: Zhao, Jianqiang
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Number Theory (math.NT)
subject: Combinatorics (math.CO)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 11M41, 11M06

description: In this short note, we provide an explicit formula to compute every colored double Tornheim's series by using double polylogarithm values at roots of unity. When the colors are given by $\pm 1$ our formula is different from that of Tsumura [On alternating analogues of Tornheim's double series II, Ramanujan J. 18 (2009), 81-90] even though numerical data confirm both are correct in almost all the cases. This agreement can also be checked rigorously by using regularized double shuffle relations of the alternating double zeta values in weights less than eight.
description: 2 pages
New solutions to the tetrahedron equation associated with quantized six-vertex models
Creators: name: Kuniba, Atsuo
name: Matsuike, Shuichiro
name: Yoneyama, Akihito
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: Quantum Algebra (math.QA)
subject: Exactly Solvable and Integrable Systems (nlin.SI)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 82B23, 81R50

description: We present a family of new solutions to the tetrahedron equation of the form $RLLL=LLLR$, where $L$ operator may be regarded as a quantized six-vertex model whose Boltzmann weights are specific representations of the $q$-oscillator or $q$-Weyl algebras. When the three $L$'s are associated with the $q$-oscillator algebra, $R$ coincides with the known intertwiner of the quantized coordinate ring $A_q(sl_3)$. On the other hand, $L$'s based on the $q$-Weyl algebra lead to new $R$'s whose elements are either factorized or expressed as a terminating $q$-hypergeometric type series.
description: 22 pages, 4 figures. Minor revision
General anesthetics predicted to block the GLIC pore with micromolar affinity
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Allosteric Site
Anesthetics, General
Bacterial Proteins
Binding Sites
Computer Simulation
Cysteine Loop Ligand-Gated Ion Channel Receptors
Models, Molecular
Protein Conformation
Thermodynamics

description: Although general anesthetics are known to modulate the activity of ligand-gated ion channels in the Cys-loop superfamily, there is at present neither consensus on the underlying mechanisms, nor predictive models of this modulation. Viable models need to offer quantitative assessment of the relative importance of several identified anesthetic binding sites. However, to date, precise affinity data for individual sites has been challenging to obtain by biophysical means. Here, the likely role of pore block inhibition by the general anesthetics isoflurane and propofol of the prokaryotic pentameric channel GLIC is investigated by molecular simulations. Microscopic affinities are calculated for both single and double occupancy binding of isoflurane and propofol to the GLIC pore. Computations are carried out for an open-pore conformation in which the pore is restrained to crystallographic radius, and a closed-pore conformation that results from unrestrained molecular dynamics equilibration of the structure. The GLIC pore is predicted to be blocked at the micromolar concentrations for which inhibition by isofluorane and propofol is observed experimentally. Calculated affinities suggest that pore block by propofol occurs at signifcantly lower concentrations than those for which inhibition is observed: we argue that this discrepancy may result from binding of propofol to an allosteric site recently identified by X-ray crystallography, which may cause a competing gain-of-function effect. Affinities of isoflurane and propofol to the allosteric site are also calculated, and shown to be 3 mM for isoflurane and 10μM for propofol; both anesthetics have a lower affinity for the allosteric site than for the unoccupied pore. © 2012 LeBard et al.
The repulsive core of the NN potential and the operator product expansion
Creators: name: Aoki, Sinya
name: Balog, Janos
name: Weisz, Peter
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We investigate the short distance behavior of the nucleon--nucleon (NN) potential defined through the Bethe-Salpeter wave function, by perturbatively calculating anomalous dimensions of 6--quark operators in QCD. Thanks to the asymptotic freedom of QCD, the 1-loop estimations give exact results for the potential in the zero distance limit. We show that the chiral symmetry of the gauge interaction implies the existence of an operator whose anomalous dimension is zero for a given quantum number. Furthermore we find that non-zero anomalous dimensions of other operators are all negative. These results predict the functional form of the NN potential at short distance, which is a little weaker than $r^{-2}$. On the other hand, the computation of the anomalous dimension spectrum alone can not determine whether the potential is repulsive or attractive at short distance. An additional analytic non-perturbative analysis suggests that the force at short distance is indeed repulsive at low energy as found numerically. Some extensions of the method are briefly discussed.
description: 7 pages, a talk presented at The XXVII International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory - LAT2009, July 26-31 2009, Peking University, Beijing, China
Distributed Objective Function Evaluation for Optimization of Radiation Therapy Treatment Plans
Creators: name: Liu, Felix
name: Andersson, Måns I.
name: Fredriksson, Albin
name: Markidis, Stefano
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Software (cs.MS)
subject: Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing (cs.DC)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: The modern workflow for radiation therapy treatment planning involves mathematical optimization to determine optimal treatment machine parameters for each patient case. The optimization problems can be computationally expensive, requiring iterative optimization algorithms to solve. In this work, we investigate a method for distributing the calculation of objective functions and gradients for radiation therapy optimization problems across computational nodes. We test our approach on the TROTS dataset -- which consists of optimization problems from real clinical patient cases -- using the IPOPT optimization solver in a leader/follower type approach for parallelization. We show that our approach can utilize multiple computational nodes efficiently, with a speedup of approximately 2-3.5 times compared to the serial version.
description: Accepted for publication at the PPAM22 conference
The development of prosodic contrastivity during the first year of life
Creators: name: Fowlow, Patricia J.
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2010

description: The relationship between the infant's early vocal development and subsequent speech and language development has been generally a matter of speculation, largely based upon anecdotal evidence, despite the voluminous literature on the subject. Included in the existing data on infant prosodic development are descriptions of differentiated crying behaviour ostensibly expressive of different internal states such as pain, hunger and pleasure. Instances of differential vocalization to objects and people have likewise been alluded to in the literature, but no systematic studies of the phenomenon have been made. The present study examines certain aspects of vocal differentiation and differential vocalization, primarily with respect to familiar environmental objects. Nineteen normal, healthy, 'first-born' infants served as subjects. All were being raised in an exclusively monolingual English home environment, where all data were collected at biweekly intervals from five weeks to approximately one year of age. The vocalizations of ten of the infants were studied longitudinally over an entire year, the remaining subjects from five weeks to approximately six months. Intonation patterns of non-cry vocalizations occurring in two basic situations (i.e., infant alone and infant in the context of various objects) were analyzed spectrographically for fundamental frequency, within-utterance range, duration and contour. Each variable was examined longitudinally and in different contexts. A number of age trends are evident: Duration and within-utterance range increase with age, whereas fundamental frequency remains relatively stable over the first year. Females exhibit a higher F₀ than males at all age levels examined. Peak values of the variables are commonly observed at 4-6, 9 and (to a lesser degree) 11 months. The RF intonation contour increases in frequency of occurrence during the first year, while the other contours demonstrate little change. Contrasts of utterances occurring in different categories reveal essentially no difference between contexts for the variables studied. Examination of the distributions of the different intonation contours for each context indicates that the infants could be manipulating contour differentially in a given context. In sum, it is felt that the infants exhibit a very real, albeit circumscribed, capacity for vocally differentiating environmental events. It is felt that there exists sufficient evidence to refute the parochial view that linguistic acquisition can only be relevantly discussed when the child's segmental phonetic output begins to resemble that of the adult standard. The evidence presented corroborates the hypothesis of continuity from babbling to speech.
On the Spread of Entanglement at Finite Cutoff
Creators: name: Coleman, Evan
name: Soni, Ronak M
name: Yang, Sungyeon
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study how entanglement spreads in the boundary duals of finite-cutoff three-dimensional theories with positive, negative and zero cosmological constant, the $T \bar{T} + Λ_{2}$ two-dimensional theories. We first study the Hawking-Page transition in all three cases, and find that there is a transition in all three scenarios at the temperature where the lengths of the two cycles of the torus are the same. We then study the entanglement entropy in the thermofield double states above the Hawking-Page transition, of regions symmetrically placed on the two boundaries. We consider the case where the region is one interval on each side, and the case where it is two intervals on each side. We give an entanglement tsunami interpretation of the time-evolution of the entanglement entropies.
description: 27 pages, 8 figures; v2: references added; v3: new calculation and new interpretation
The origin of malarial parasites in orangutans
Creators: name: (:Unkn) Unknown
Publisher: name: My University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Ape Diseases
Bayes Theorem
Genetic Speciation
Genome, Mitochondrial
Haplotypes
Likelihood Functions
Malaria
Merozoite Surface Protein 1
Models, Genetic
Molecular Sequence Data
Multilocus Sequence Typing
Phylogeny
Plasmodium
Polymorphism, Genetic
Pongo
Protozoan Proteins
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Tandem Repeat Sequences

description: Background: Recent findings of Plasmodium in African apes have changed our perspectives on the evolution of malarial parasites in hominids. However, phylogenetic analyses of primate malarias are still missing information from Southeast Asian apes. In this study, we report molecular data for a malaria parasite lineage found in orangutans. Methodology/Principal Findings: We screened twenty-four blood samples from Pongo pygmaeus (Kalimantan, Indonesia) for Plasmodium parasites by PCR. For all the malaria positive orangutan samples, parasite mitochondrial genomes (mtDNA) and two antigens: merozoite surface protein 1 42 kDa (MSP-1 42) and circumsporozoite protein gene (CSP) were amplified, cloned, and sequenced. Fifteen orangutans tested positive and yielded 5 distinct mitochondrial haplotypes not previously found. The haplotypes detected exhibited low genetic divergence among them, indicating that they belong to one species. We report phylogenetic analyses using mitochondrial genomes, MSP-1 42 and CSP. We found that the orangutan malaria parasite lineage was part of a monophyletic group that includes all the known non-human primate malaria parasites found in Southeast Asia; specifically, it shares a recent common ancestor with P. inui (a macaque parasite) and P. hylobati (a gibbon parasite) suggesting that this lineage originated as a result of a host switch. The genetic diversity of MSP-1 42 in orangutans seems to be under negative selection. This result is similar to previous findings in non-human primate malarias closely related to P. vivax. As has been previously observed in the other Plasmodium species found in non-human primates, the CSP shows high polymorphism in the number of repeats. However, it has clearly distinctive motifs from those previously found in other malarial parasites. Conclusion: The evidence available from Asian apes indicates that these parasites originated independently from those found in Africa, likely as the result of host switches from other non-human primates. © 2012 Pacheco et al.
Signature of checkerboard fluctuations in the phonon spectra of a possible polaronic metal La1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7
Creators: name: Weber, F.
name: Aliouane, N.
name: Zheng, H.
name: Mitchell, J. F.
name: Argyriou, D. N.
name: Reznik, D.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2010
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Charge carriers in low-doped semiconductors may distort the atomic lattice and trap themselves forming so-called small polarons. High carrier concentrations can lead to short range ordered polarons (large polarons) and even to long range charge and orbital order. Both systems should be insulating with a large electrical resistivity, which decreases with increasing temperature. However, photoemission measurements recently found a polaronic pseudogap, in a metallic phase of La2-2xSr1+2xMn2O7. This layered manganite is famous for colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) associated with a phase transition from this low-temperature metallic phase to a high temperature insulating phase. Broad charge order peaks due to large polarons observed by neutron and x-ray scattering in the insulating phase disappear when La2-2xSr1+2xMn2O7 becomes metallic. We report results of inelastic neutron scattering measurements showing that polarons remain inside the metallic phase as fluctuations that strongly broaden and soften certain phonons near the wave vectors where the charge order peaks appeared in the insulating phase. Our findings imply that polaronic signatures in metals may generally come from a competing insulating charge-ordered phase. It is highly relevant to cuprate superconductors with both a pseudogap, and a similar phonon effect associated with a competing stripe order.
SCIENTIFIC AND METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR STUDYING COMMUNICATIVE AND CREATIVE COMPETENCE OF FUTURE TECHNOLOGY TEACHERS
Creators: name: Avazov, Goyibnazar
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: The article talks about the role and importance of scientific methods in the formation of the communicative and creative potential of future technology teachers; sincerity, fluency and communication skills are the main link in the organization of the educational process.