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As an emerging discipline, machine learning has been widely used in artificial intelligence, education, meteorology and other fields. In the training of machine learning models, trainers need to use a large amount of practical data, which inevitably involves user privacy. Besides, by polluting the training data, a malicious adversary can poison the model, thus compromising model security. The data provider hopes that the model trainer can prove to them the confidentiality of the model. Trainer will be required to withdraw data when the trust collapses. In the meantime, trainers hope to forget the injected data to regain security when finding crafted poisoned data after the model training. Therefore, we focus on forgetting systems, the process of which we call machine unlearning, capable of forgetting specific data entirely and efficiently. In this paper, we present the first comprehensive survey of this realm. We summarize and categorize existing machine unlearning methods based on their characteristics and analyze the relation between machine unlearning and relevant fields (e.g., inference attacks and data poisoning attacks). Finally, we briefly conclude the existing research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computed tomography has made significant advances since its introduction in the early 1970s, where researchers have mainly focused on the quality of image reconstruction in the early stage. However, radiation exposure poses a health risk, prompting the demand of the lowest possible dose when carrying out CT examinations. To acquire high-quality reconstruction images with low dose radiation, CT reconstruction techniques have evolved from conventional reconstruction such as analytical and iterative reconstruction, to reconstruction methods based on artificial intelligence (AI). All these efforts are devoted to constructing high-quality images using only low doses with fast reconstruction speed. In particular, conventional reconstruction methods usually optimize one aspect, while AI-based reconstruction has finally managed to attain all goals in one shot. However, there are limitations such as the requirements on large datasets, unstable performance, and weak generalizability in AI-based reconstruction methods. This work presents the review and discussion on the classification, the commercial use, the advantages, and the limitations of AI-based image reconstruction methods in CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High quality photovoltaic (PV) power prediction intervals (PIs) are essential to power system operation and planning. To improve the reliability and sharpness of PIs, in this paper, a new method is proposed, which involves the model uncertainties and noise uncertainties, and PIs are constructed with a two-step formulation. In the first step, the variance of model uncertainties is obtained by using extreme learning machine to make deterministic forecasts of PV power. In the second stage, innovative PI-based cost function is developed to optimize the parameters of ELM and noise uncertainties are quantization in terms of variance. The performance of the proposed approach is examined by using the PV power and meteorological data measured from 1kW rooftop DC micro-grid system. The validity of the proposed method is verified by comparing the experimental analysis with other benchmarking methods, and the results exhibit a superior performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A geometry-based three-dimensional (3D) novel stochastic channel model for air-to-ground (A2G) and ground-to-air (G2A) radio propagation environments is proposed. The vicinity of a ground station (GS) is modelled as surrounded by effective scattering points; whereas the elevated air station's (AS) vicinity is modelled as a scattering-free region. Characterization of the Doppler spectrum, dispersion in the angular domain and second order fading statistics of the A2G/G2A radio communication channels is presented. Closed-form analytical expressions for joint and marginal probability density functions (PDFs) of Doppler shift, power and angle of arrival (AoA) are derived. Next, the paper presents a comprehensive analysis on the characteristics of angular spread on the basis of shape factors (SFs) for A2G/G2A radio propagation environments independently in both the azimuth and elevation planes. The analysis is further extended to second order statistics of the fading channel; where the behaviour of the level crossing rate (LCR), average fade duration (AFD), auto-covariance and coherence distance for the A2G/G2A radio propagation environment is studied. Finally, the impact of physical channel parameters, such as the mobility of AS, the height of AS, the height of GS and the delay of the longest propagation path, on the distribution characteristics of Doppler shift, angular spread and second order statistics is thoroughly studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the use of 18F-fallypride micro-positron emission tomography (micro-PET) imaging in the evaluation of the early therapeutic efficacy of L-dopa in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) and the underlying mechanism. 18F-fallypride was synthesized and its specific binding with dopamine (DA) receptors in normal mouse brain was studied. Following the establishment of a mouse model of PD, the animals were divided into normal control, PD model and L-dopa treatment groups. General behavior, swimming test, locomotor activity counts, transmission electron microscopy, immunohistochemical analysis, high performance liquid chromatography-electrochemical detection and 18F-fallypride micro-PET imaging were used to study intergroup differences and the correlation between the changes of striatal uptake of 18F-fallypride and the therapeutic efficacy. The general behavioral features of PD model mice were similar to the clinical symptoms of PD patients and were alleviated after treatment. The swimming time, locomotor activity and frequency of standing posture of PD model mice were lower than those of the control mice, but had no difference from those of the control mice after L-dopa treatment. The number of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons and the striatal contents of glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, DA and its metabolites 3,5-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid and homovanillic acid in the PD group were lower than those in the control group, but were significantly improved following the treatment; the significant reduction in DOPAC/DA and HVA/DA ratios post treatment suggested that the rate of DA metabolism decreased significantly. The striatal malondialdehyde content in the PD group increased compared with that in the control group, but was reduced after L-dopa treatment. Micro-PET imaging indicated that the uptake of 18F-fallypride in the mouse striatum of the PD group was lower than that of the control group and was significantly increased after the treatment. The mechanism of treatment of PD with L-dopa in mice may involve increasing the number of TH-positive cells and DA receptor levels, as well as reducing the rate of DA metabolism; such changes can be noninvasively observed in vitro by 18F-fallypride imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Ether á go-go Related Gene potassium channels form the rapid component of the delayed-rectifier (IKr) current in the heart. The N-terminal ‘eag’ domain, which is composed of a Per-Arnt-Sim (PAS) domain and a short PAS-cap region, is a critical regulator of hERG channel function. In previous studies, we showed that isolated eag (i-eag) domains rescued the dysfunction of long QT type-2 associated mutant hERG R56Q channels, by substituting for defective eag domains, when the channels were expressed in Xenopus oocytes or HEK 293 cells.Here, our goal was to determine whether the rescue of hERG R56Q channels by i-eag domains could be translated into the environment of cardiac myocytes. We expressed hERG R56Q channels in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) and measured electrical properties of the cells with whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. We found that, like in non-myocyte cells, hERG R56Q had defective, fast closing (deactivation) kinetics when expressed in hiPSC-CMs. We report here that i-eag domains slowed the deactivation kinetics of hERG R56Q channels in hiPSC-CMs. hERG R56Q channels prolonged the AP of hiPSCs, and the AP was shortened by co-expression of i-eag domains and hERG R56Q channels. We measured robust Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) between i-eag domains tagged with Cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and hERG R56Q channels tagged with Citrine fluorescent proteins (Citrine), indicating their close proximity at the cell membrane in live iPSC-CMs. Together, functional regulation and FRET spectroscopy measurements indicated that i-eag domains interacted directly with hERG R56Q channels in hiPSC-CMs. These results mean that the regulatory role of i-eag domains is conserved in the cellular environment of human cardiomyocytes, indicating that i-eag domains may be useful as a biological therapeutic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bending vibration band structure of phononic crystal (PC) beam is solved by a unified formulation of the modified transfer matrix (MTM) method in this paper. The improvement of MTM method is the introduction of constitutive matrix U and matrix of derivative functions V, which standardizes and simplifies the deduction by the matrix operation. The band structure of an epoxy-aluminum PC Timoshenko beam is calculated by both MTM method and plane wave expansion (PWE) method. The results show that the present MTM method has a great advantage in the precision of the result. In addition, the formulation of transfer matrix derived from Timoshenko beam condition is a general form which is also suitable for other general beam structures just by replacing corresponding matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newton's rings fringe pattern is often encountered in optical measurement. The digital processing of the fringe pattern is widely used to enable automatic analysis and improve the accuracy and flexibility. Before digital processing, sampling and quantization are necessary, which introduce quantization errors in the fringe pattern. Quantization errors are always analyzed and suppressed in the Fourier transform (FT) domain. But Newton's rings fringe pattern is demonstrated to be a two-dimensional chirp signal, and the traditional methods based on the FT domain are not efficient when suppressing quantization errors in such signals with large bandwidth as chirp signals. This paper proposes a method for suppressing quantization errors in the fractional Fourier transform (FRFT) domain, for chirp signals occupies little bandwidth in the FRFT domain. This method has better effect on reduction of quantization errors in the fringe pattern than traditional methods. As an example, a standard Newton's rings fringe pattern is analyzed in the FRFT domain and then 8.5 dB of improvement in signal-to-quantization-noise ratio and about 1.4 bits of increase in accuracy are obtained compared to the case of the FT domain. Consequently, the image quality of Newton's rings fringe pattern is improved, which is beneficial to optical metrology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrical properties of the structure of GaN grown on an Si (111) substrate with low-temperature (LT) AlN interlayers by metal—organic chemical-vapour deposition are investigated. An abnormal P-type conduction is observed in our GaN-on-Si structure by Hall effect measurement, which is mainly due to the Al atom diffusing into the Si substrate and acting as an acceptor dopant. Meanwhile, a constant n-type conduction channel is observed in LT-AlN, which causes a conduction-type conversion at low temperature (50 K) and may further influence the electrical behavior of this structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many protein kinases are key nodal signaling molecules that regulate a wide range of cellular functions. These functions may require complex spatiotemporal regulation of kinase activities. Here, we show that protein kinase A (PKA), Ca2+ and cyclic AMP (cAMP) oscillate in sync in insulin-secreting MIN6 beta cells, forming a highly integrated oscillatory circuit. We found that PKA activity was essential for this oscillatory circuit and was capable of not only initiating the signaling oscillations but also modulating their frequency, thereby diversifying the spatiotemporal control of downstream signaling. Our findings suggest that exquisite temporal control of kinase activity, mediated via signaling circuits resulting from cross-regulation of signaling pathways, can encode diverse inputs into temporal parameters such as oscillation frequency, which in turn contribute to proper regulation of complex cellular functions in a context-dependent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important function of wireless networks is to support mobile computing. Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) consist of a collection of mobile stations communicating with each other without the use of any pre-existent infrastructure. The self-organization characteristic of MANETs makes them suitable for many real-world applications where network topology changes frequently. As a result, the development of efficient MAC (Medium Access Control) protocols in MANETs is extremely challenging. Self-similar traffic with scale-invariant burstiness can generate bursty network loads and thus seriously degrade the system performance. This paper presents an adaptive MAC scheme which dynamically adjusts the increasing function and resetting mechanism of contention window based on the status of network loads. The performance of this scheme is investigated in comparison with the legacy DCF (Distributed Coordination Function) under self-similar traffic and different mobility models. The performance results reveal that the proposed scheme is able to achieve the higher throughput and energy efficiency as well as lower end-to-end delay and packet drop probability than the legacy DCF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that the bisbenzyl isoquinoline alkaloid dauricine can protect the brain against ischemic damage. We investigated here whether dauricine could inhibit neuronal apoptosis and modulate Bcl-2 family protein levels in a rat model of transient focal cerebral ischemia. Male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent a 60 min temporary occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO). Two doses of dauricine (5 and 10 mg/kg as low and high dose respectively) were administered intraperitoneally at 1 hour after MCAO. After neurological deficits were assessed at 3 hours and 24 hours of reperfusion, rats were killed and brain samples were collected. Apoptotic changes were evaluated by TUNEL method. The immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to assess the protein expressions of Bcl-2 and Bax. RT-PCR was used to determine Bcl-2 and Bax mRNA expressions. Dauricine (5 and 10 mg/kg) treatment improved neurological deficits, diminished DNA fragmentation, increased Bcl-2 expression and reduced Bax expression in the penumbra. The infarct-reducing effects of dauricine may be due, in part, to the inhibition of apoptotic cell death via modulation Bcl-2 family protein in the penumbra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous studies have shown that daurisoline (DS) exerted antiarrhythmic effects on various experimental arrhythmias. In this study, the effects of DS on early afterdepolarizations (EADs) and its possible mechanisms have been investigated. Cardiac hypertrophy was induced in rabbits by coarctating the abdominal aorta. The effects of DS on action potential duration (APD) and the incidences of EADs were studied in hypertrophied papillary muscles of rabbits in the conditions of low external K+ concentration ([K+]o) and dofetilide (dof) by using standard microelectrode technique. The whole-cell patch clamp was used to record the L-type calcium current (ICa-L) in isolated left ventricular cells of rabbits. The results showed that in hypertrophied papillary muscles of rabbits with low [K+]o ([K+]o = 2.7 mM), 1 µM dof prolonged APD50 and APD90 markedly and the incidence of EADs was 66.7% (4/6, p < 0.01); when 15 µM DS was applied, the incidence of EADs was 0% (0/4, p < 0.01) and the prolonged APD was shortened (p < 0.01). In a single myocyte, DS could also inhibit EADs induced by dof, low [K+]o and low external Mg2+ concentration ([Mg2+]o) ([Mg2+]o = 0.5 mM). DS could decrease the triangulation. In a single myocyte, DS could make the I-V curve upward, shift the steady-state activation curves to the right and the steady-state inactivation curves to the left and prolong the τ value of recovery curve obviously. These results suggested that DS could inhibit EADs which may be associated with its blockade effects on ICa-L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The study of signal transduction, or the highly regulated series of biochemical events which allow a cell to convert a given stimulus into a functional response, has seen a paradigm shift with a recent explosion in the number of genetically encoded FRET-based biosensors capable of detecting spatial and temporal regulation of various signaling events in living cells. The two classes of biosensors discussed, namely kinase activity and second messenger biosensors, utilize two fluorescent proteins (FP) suitable for FRET and convert a signaling event of interest into a conformational change in the biosensor that can be measured as a change in FRET between the two FPs. Individually, these biosensors have been used to elucidate many complex signal transduction mechanisms in various biological systems. However, it has become increasingly clear that it is often more desirable to study multiple signaling events simultaneously, allowing for precise correlation of the temporal profiles of multiple signaling molecules without the complication of cell to cell variability. With the design of spectrally distinct biosensors and new coimaging strategies, simultaneous imaging of multiple signaling events is not only possible, but has aided in mapping the intricate network of cellular signal transduction cascades. Furthermore, as aberrant signal transduction involving second messengers and kinases is implicated in numerous disease states, it is hopeful that these FRET-based biosensors and coimaging strategies can help to unravel the molecular links between altered signal transduction and certain disease states. © 2009 IUBMB IUBMB Life 61(9): 902–908, 2009 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In upcoming very high-speed wireless LANs (WLANs), the physical (PHY) layer rate may reach 600 Mbps. To achieve high efficiency at the medium access control (MAC) layer, we identify fundamental properties that must be satisfied by any CSMA-/CA-based MAC layers and develop a novel scheme called aggregation with fragment retransmission (AFR) that exhibits these properties. In the AFR scheme, multiple packets are aggregated into and transmitted in a single large frame. If errors happen during the transmission, only the corrupted fragments of the large frame are retransmitted. An analytic model is developed to evaluate the throughput and delay performance of AFR over noisy channels and to compare AFR with similar schemes in the literature. Optimal frame and fragment sizes are calculated using this model. Transmission delays are minimized by using a zero-waiting mechanism where frames are transmitted immediately once the MAC wins a transmission opportunity. We prove that zero-waiting can achieve maximum throughput. As a complement to the theoretical analysis, we investigate the impact of AFR on the performance of realistic application traffic with diverse requirements by simulations. We have implemented the AFR scheme in the NS-2 simulator and present detailed results for TCP, VoIP, and HDTV traffic. The AFR scheme described was developed as part of the IEEE 802.11n working group work. The analysis presented here is general enough to be extended to proposed schemes in the upcoming 802.11n standard. Trends indicated in this paper should extend to any well-designed aggregation schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]