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Synthetic data generation is generally used in performance evaluation and function tests in data-intensive applications, as well as in various areas of data analytics, such as privacy-preserving data publishing (PPDP) and statistical disclosure limit/control. A significant amount of research has been conducted on tools and languages for data generation. However, existing tools and languages have been developed for specific purposes and are unsuitable for other domains. In this article, we propose a regular expression-based data generation language (DGL) for flexible big data generation. To achieve a general-purpose and powerful DGL, we enhanced the standard regular expressions to support the data domain, type/format inference, sequence and random generation, probability distributions, and resource reference. To efficiently implement the proposed language, we propose caching techniques for both the intermediate and database queries. We evaluated the proposed improvement experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 11-month-old male infant with ascending paralysis had an unremarkable initial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis and imaging. Progressive neurological symptoms resulted in repeated CSF sampling, microscopy, and plasma microbial cell-free DNA next-generation sequencing analysis, that in combination with epidemiology, confirmed the diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vacuum circuit breakers are widely used in medium-voltage class. In vacuum circuit breakers, restrikes and non-sustained disruptive discharges sometimes occur after current interruptions. It is said that these late breakdowns are triggered by the microparticles. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the motion of microparticles and subsequent late breakdown phenomena. It does by artificially injecting microparticles into the vacuum gap and observing their motion using a highspeed video camera. We focused on the sputtering of the electrode material during the current interruption and the mechanical stress of the switching operation as being the origin of these microparticles. We found that the motion of microparticles can be grouped into two distinct patterns: bouncing and attaching. Bouncing microparticles seem to be made of metal, while most of the attaching microparticles attached themselves to the cathode, and their charge was about five times greater than that of the bouncing microparticles. The attaching microparticles seem to be positively charged by secondary electron emissions from the surface under electron bombardment due to the field emission current from the cathode. From these results, we believe that the surfaces of the attaching particles are covered with an insulating layer. From our observations of the production of microparticles by mechanical stress, we have found that the breakdown voltage of the gap drastically drops after a mechanical switching operation where microparticles are produced. The breakdown voltage is restored with repetitive mechanical switching operations and subsequent voltage application. However, the breakdown voltage drops again when the operating speed of the electrode is increased. We also found that microparticles are scattered from the cathode spots on electrodes that have not been current-conditioned, and they are hardly produced from electrodes that are current-conditioned. From these results, we believe that controlling the speed of the mechanical switching operation and the current conditioning are effective ways to prevent the microparticles from being produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Fe2VAl was synthesized by single thermite-type combustion synthesis (STCS). [•] The Fe2VAl synthesized by STCS had low thermal conductivity. [•] The maximum value of the power factor was 99.6μWm−1 K−2. [•] The maximum value of the dimensionless figure of merit was 2.19×10−3 at 309K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Heat-resistant nanocomposite films with high refractive indices. [•] In situ polymerization to disperse refractive nanoparticles into polyimide films. [•] A combination of thermal and chemical imidizations to enhance refractive index. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the issues related to the scenario of politics in Japan. As mentioned, observers of Japanese law and politics have been concerned about the nationalistic attitude of Japanese politicians. It mentions of the Supreme Court case Kikuya v. Taniuchi regarding the issue concerning Japanese constitutional scheme its relation to separation of church and state.

Short-term cultured suspension cells of rice (Oryza sativa L.) are capable of regeneration, but not in long-term culture. For clarification of the mechanism of regeneration, protein phosphorylation in short-term and long-term cultured suspension cells was compared by two dimensional- polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A 56 kDa protein having an isoelectric point of 4.5 was phosphorylated in vitro in short-term cultured suspension cells, but was not phosphorylated after regeneration. This protein in longterm cultured suspension cells remained phosphorylated after transfer to the regeneration medium. However, using an antibody raised against this protein from short-term cultured suspension cells, it was always detected in long-term and short-term cultured suspension cells after transfer to the regeneration medium. The partial amino acid sequence of the HPLC-purified protein showed homology to a calcium-binding protein from maize. The phosphorylation of the 56 kDa protein (pp56) appears to be associated with the regeneration of cultured rice cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the biological response of cultured HeLa S3 cells to non-thermal, intense burst sinusoidal electric fields (IBSEF). The proliferation activity of the cells subjected to 300 kV/m, 200 μs-long IBSEF with a frequency between 0.3 MHz and 100 MHz was evaluated by using an automatic cell event monitor, xCELLigence, for 48 hours. The experiment showed that the cell proliferation depended on the pulse number and the frequency band of the IBSEF. The application of the smaller number of the pulses enhances the proliferation, whereas the large number of pulses tends to kill the cells. The dependence on the pulse number indicates the effect of the pulse is accumulated. The cells seem to be more sensitive to the pulses at the lower frequencies less than 1 MHz. The frequency of 100 MHz, which is sufficiently large for the field to penetrate into the cell, did not appear to influence the proliferation and the immediate death process. When the cells were subjected to 30 pulses of 3 MHz IBSEF, the proliferation was promoted 1.6 times as fast as that of the sham exposure. The frequency dependence of the proliferation might be associated with the electrical stress at the plasma membrane where several proteins related to the cell cycling are located. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study elucidates the influence of the pulsing sequence of repetitive nanosecond pulsed electric fields on the viability of human cancer (HeLa S3) cells. A magnetic pulse compressor was used to repetitively deliver 70 ns-long high voltage pulses to cultured HeLa cells in a 4 mm-gap cuvette electrode. The repetition frequency was varied between 0.01 and 250 pulses per second (pps), corresponding to interval from 100 to 0.004 s, respectively. The electric field and the number of pulses were fixed at 25 kV/cm and 25, respectively, which is a sub-lethal condition for the cells. Propidium iodide was used to identify dead cells in the population. Statistical analysis of a cell death ratio in approximately 5000 cells was performed using a flow cytometer. This experiment shows repetition frequency affects cell viability even with identical intra-medium electrical energy expenditure. The dead cell ratio was increased with decreasing pulse repetition frequency down to 0.33 pps, whereas the ratio is decreased with decreasing frequency below 0.1 pps. Since the resealing mechanism of nano-pores caused by the application of ns pulse lasts for a minute, the dependence of the cell viability on the pulsing sequence might be associated with time constants of biological processes related to recovery from field-induced damage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. A common characteristic of ALS pathology is cytoplasmic inclusions primarily composed of transactive response DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43). Production of TDP-43 in the central nervous system is strictly regulated, but it is not known whether this is also true in the skin of ALS patients. We found a gradual but significant reduction in epidermal TDP-43 mRNA expression with illness progression in ALS patients with upper-limb onset. However, the immunoblotting analysis revealed more TDP-43 protein in the skin of patients with upper-limb onset than of those with other onsets. There was no correlation between the TDP-43 mRNA expression and protein levels, indicating that the mechanism of TDP-43 autoregulation in the patients' skin gradually failed. ALS diagnosis depends on clinical signs and electrophysiological findings, making early diagnosis difficult. TDP-43, as quantified by immunoblot analysis of biopsied skin, is a potential new biomarker of ALS.

Aim: To identify the hepatic vascular architecture of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) using superb microvascular imaging (SMI) and investigate the use of SMI in the evaluation of liver fibrosis., Methods: SMI was performed in 100 HCV patients. SMI images were classified into five types according to the vascular pattern, and these patterns were compared with the fibrosis stage. Moreover, the images were analyzed to examine vascularity by integrating the number of SMI signals in the region of interest ROI [number of vascular trees (VT)]. The number of VT, fibrosis stage, serum parameters of liver function, and CD34 expression were investigated., Results: There was a significant difference between SMI distribution pattern and fibrosis stage (P < 0.001). The mean VT values in each of the fibrosis stages were as follows: 26.69 ± 7.08 in F0, 27.72 ± 9.32 in F1, 36.74 ± 9.23 in F2, 37.36 ± 5.32 in F3, and 58.14 ± 14.08 in F4. The VT showed excellent diagnostic ability for F4 [area under the receiver operator characteristic (AUROC): 0.911]. The VT was significantly correlated with the CD34 labeling index (r = 0.617, P < 0.0001)., Conclusion: SMI permitted the detailed delineation of the vascular architecture in chronic liver disease. SMI appears to be a reliable tool for noninvasively detecting significant fibrosis or cirrhosis in HCV patients.