Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preservation DataStores: New storage paradigm for preservation environments

As the world becomes digital, we are in ever greater danger of losing business, scientific, artistic, cultural, and personal assets. The threat of such a digital dark age stems from the fact that-- unlike physical records that may survive decades, centuries, or even longer without advanced planning--digital records will not survive without planning and diligence. Everything needed to keep digital records viable will become obsolete, including hardware, software, processes, and formats. Consequently, digital preservation environments are needed to ensure the ability to access valuable digital records decades from now and, more significantly, to ensure the interpretability of the records once accessed. We describe Preservation DataStores, an innovative storage architecture that facilitates robust and optimized preservation environments. It is a layered architecture that builds upon open standards, including Open Archival Information System, XAM (Extensible Access Method), and Object-based Storage Device. We also describe the integration of Preservation DataStores with existing file systems and archives and discuss some design and implementation issues. We are developing Preservation DataStores as an infrastructure component of the European Union CASPAR (Cultural, Artistic and Scientific knowledge for Preservation, Access and Retrieval) project, where it will be used to preserve scientific, cultural, and artistic data.
Highly Biased Linear Condition Method for Separately Extracting Source and Drain Resistance in MOSFETs

A highly biased linear current method (HBLCM) for separately extracting source and drain resistance (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{D}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) in MOSFETs is proposed. The technique can be applied to a single device by using simple modeling. Compared to other methods, it provides accurate values of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{D}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> because it considers carrier mobility degradation. The method basically uses linear current versus gate voltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}_{\text {DS}} - {V}_{\text {GS}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}_{\text {SD}} - {V}_{\text {GD}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) characteristics before and after the source/drain interchange (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}_{\text {DS}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${I}_{\text {SD}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>). Afterward, by using the traditional Y-function and subsequent resistance modeling in a highly biased linear condition, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{S}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${R}_{D}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> can be separately extracted. In order to evaluate and verify the accuracy of HBLCM, an external resistor was intentionally connected to a source electrode of a device, and the resulting change in source resistance was detected using the proposed method. Moreover, to demonstrate an application of the proposed method, internal resistance deliberately created by hot-carrier injection (HCI) was linked to a drain electrode, thereby changing drain resistance. The changed drain resistance was also sensed by the HBLCM. Afterward, the HCI-stressed device was cured by electrothermal annealing driven by Joule heating, and the recovery was again clearly observed using the proposed method.
Brain Size Scaling and Body Composition in Mammals

Brain size scales with body size across large groups of animals, but exactly why this should be the case has not been resolved. It is generally assumed that body size is a general proxy for some more important or specific underlying variable, such as metabolic resources available, surface area of the body, or total muscle mass (which is more extensively innervated than is, e.g., adipose tissue). The present study tests whether brain size in mammals scales more closely with muscle mass (and other components of lean body mass) than with total fat. Felsenstein’s independent comparisons method was used to control for phylogenetic effects on body composition in organ weight data taken from a previously published comparative sample of 39 species in 8 different orders of mammals, all collected and processed by the same researchers. The analysis shows that the size of the central nervous system (CNS) is more closely associated with components of fat-free weight than it is to fat weight. These results suggest a possible explanation for why metabolic resources and brain size both share the same general relationship with body size across mammals. They also suggest that some measure of lean body mass is a more appropriate scaling parameter for comparing brain size across species than is overall body weight.
Bifurcation of Axons from Cranial Sensory Neurons Is Disabled in the Absence of Npr2-Induced cGMP Signaling

Axonal branching is a prerequisite for the establishment of complex neuronal circuits and their capacity for parallel information processing. Previously, we have identified a cGMP signaling pathway composed of the ligand C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), its receptor, the guanylyl cyclase natriuretic peptide receptor 2 (Npr2), and the cGMP-dependent kinase Iα (cGKIα) that regulates axon bifurcation of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in the spinal cord. Now we asked whether this cascade also controls axon bifurcation elsewhere in the nervous system. An Npr2-lacZ reporter mouse line was generated to clarify the pattern of the CNP receptor expression. It was found that during the period of axonal outgrowth, Npr2 and cGKIα were strongly labeled in neurons of all cranial sensory ganglia (gV, gVII, gVIII, gIX, and gX). In addition, strong complementary expression of CNP was detected in the hindbrain at the entry zones of sensory afferents. To analyze axon branching in individual Npr2-positive neurons, we generated a mouse mutant expressing a tamoxifen-inducible variant of Cre recombinase expressed under control of the Npr2-promoter (Npr2-CreERT2). After crossing this strain with conditional reporter mouse lines, we revealed that the complete absence of Npr2 activity indeed prohibited the bifurcation of cranial sensory axons in their entrance region. Consequently, axons only turned in either an ascending or descending direction, while collateral formation and growth of the peripheral arm was not affected. These findings indicate that in neurons of the cranial sensory ganglia, as in DRG neurons, cGMP signals are necessary for the execution of an axonal bifurcation program.
Smart growth in two contrastive metropolitan areas: A comparison between Portland and Los Angeles

This study compares urban landscapes in the Portland and Los Angeles metropolitan areas at the neighbourhood level by operationalising six smart growth indices and mapping their spatial distribution patterns and time trends. Analysis results show that the two metropolitan areas have both strengths and weaknesses in different aspects of smart growth. Most neighbourhoods in both regions do not excel in all six smart growth measures: they are at the high ends of some smart growth indices but at the low ends of others. Some smart growth features such as mixed land use and mixed housing are already pervasive in suburban areas. Density in some mature suburban neighbourhoods is also relatively high. A large number of neighbourhoods in suburban and exurban areas exhibit high levels of socioeconomic diversity. Time trend analyses suggest that in both regions, older neighbourhoods tend to be ‘smarter’ than newer ones, except for racial/ethnic diversity.
Dynamics of Lymphocyte Populations during Trypanosoma cruzi Infection: From Thymocyte Depletion to Differential Cell Expansion/Contraction in Peripheral Lymphoid Organs

The comprehension of the immune responses in infectious diseases is crucial for developing novel therapeutic strategies. Here, we review current findings on the dynamics of lymphocyte subpopulations following experimental acute infection by Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. In the thymus, although the negative selection process of the T-cell repertoire remains operational, there is a massive thymocyte depletion and abnormal release of immature CD4(+)CD8(+) cells to peripheral lymphoid organs, where they acquire an activated phenotype similar to activated effector or memory T cells. These cells apparently bypassed the negative selection process, and some of them are potentially autoimmune. In infected animals, an atrophy of mesenteric lymph nodes is also observed, in contrast with the lymphocyte expansion in spleen and subcutaneous lymph nodes, illustrating a complex and organ specific dynamics of lymphocyte subpopulations. Accordingly, T- and B-cell activation is seen in subcutaneous lymph nodes and spleen, but not in mesenteric lymph nodes. Lastly, although the function of peripheral CD4(+)CD8(+) T-cell population remains to be defined in vivo, their presence may contribute to the immunopathological events found in both murine and human Chagas disease.
“DNA Binding Region” of BRCA1 Affects Genetic Stability through modulating the Intra-S-Phase Checkpoint

The breast cancer associated gene 1 (BRCA1) contains 3 domains: an N-terminal RING domain with ubiquitin E3 ligase activity, C-terminal BRCT protein interaction domain and a central region. RING and BRCT domains are well characterized, yet the function of the central region remains unclear. In this study, we identified an essential DNA binding region (DBR: 421-701 amino acids) within the central region of human BRCA1, and found that BRCA1 brings DNA together and preferably binds to splayed-arm DNA in a sequence-independent manner. To investigate the biological role of the DBR, we generated mouse ES cells, which lack the DBR (ΔDBR) by using the TALEN method. The ΔDBR cells exhibited decreased survival as compared to the wild type (WT) cells treated with a PARP inhibitor, however they have an intact ability to conduct DNA repair mediated by homologous recombination (HR). The ΔDBR cells continued to incorporate more EdU in the presence of hydroxyurea (HU), which causes replication stress and exhibited reduced viability than the WT cells. Moreover, phosphorylation of CHK1, which regulates the intra-S phase checkpoint, was moderately decreased in ΔDBR cells. These data suggest that DNA binding by BRCA1 affects the stability of DNA replication folks, resulting in weakened intra-S-phase checkpoint control in the ΔDBR cells. The ΔDBR cells also exhibited an increased number of abnormal chromosome structures as compared with WT cells, indicating that the ΔDBR cells have increased genetic instability. Thus, we demonstrated that the DBR of BRCA1 modulates genetic stability through the intra-S-phase checkpoint activated by replication stress.
Localizing components of a complex task: sentence processing and working memory

THREE areas of the left hemisphere play different roles in sentence comprehension. An area of posterior middle and superior temporal gyrus shows activation correlated with the structural complexity of a sentence, suggesting that this area supports processing of sentence structure. The lateral anterior temporal gyrus is more activated bilaterally by all sentence conditions than by word lists; thus the function of the area probably does not directly support processing of structure but rather processing of words specific to a sentence context. Left inferior frontal cortex also shows activation related to sentence complexity but is also more activated in word list processing than in simple sentences; this region may thus support a form of verbal working memory which maintains sentence structural information as well as lexical items.
Heavy metals, hematology, plasma chemistry, and parasites in adult hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis)

Ozark (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) and eastern hellbenders (C. a. alleganiensis) from seven rivers in Missouri, USA, were collected to investigate essential information on hematology, parasites, and plasma chemistry and levels of select heavy metals (Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Co) in the animals' blood. The body masses of Ozark hellbenders were much smaller than those of eastern hellbenders. Blood parasites were detected in Ozark hellbenders, but not eastern hellbenders. The higher frequency in occurrence of eosinophils in Ozark hellbenders (8.8–16.8%) than in eastern hellbenders (highest at 6.6%) might result from the infection of parasites. Seven of the 18 hematology and plasma parameters (hematocrit, basophils, eosinophils, K, P, Ca, and chloride) showed significant differences between subspecies. The blood levels of heavy metals Co, Hg, and Pb differed significantly between subspecies. Ozark hellbenders had higher blood levels of Co (p < 0.001), while blood levels of Hg and Pb were higher in eastern hellbenders. The levels of chromium (Cr) and cadmium (Cd) were not different between subspecies and among rivers. The eastern hellbenders at Niangua River and the Ozark hellbenders at the North Fork of the White River had lower Hg levels compared to eastern and Ozark hellbenders at other sites. All together, our findings provide important baseline information for managing this endangered species. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2010;29:1132–1137. © 2010 SETAC
Organizational adoption and diffusion of technological innovation: a comparative case study on telemedicine in Hong Kong

In the study, we investigated the adoption decisions of two clinical units of a Hong Kong based teaching and public hospital in choosing and the subsequent diffusion of telemedicine technology. The findings suggest that when making adoption decisions, an organization needs to consider not only the innovation attributes but also the organizational characteristics including needs, structure, members' attitudes and decision making practices. The study also suggests that an internal champion, convenient access, member involvement and rewards are essential in diffusing adopted innovations in organizations. Furthermore, comprehensive adoption decision making may be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for effective organizational innovation diffusion.
Combining Scalability and Expressivity in the Automatic Composition of Semantic Web Services

Automatic Web service composition (WSC) is a key component of flexible SOAs. We address WSC at the profile/capability level, where preconditions and effects of services are described in an ontology. In its most expressive formulation, WSC has two sources of complexity: (A) a combinatorial explosion of the services composition space, and (B) worst-case exponential reasoning is needed to determine whether the underlying ontology implies that a particular composition is a solution. Any WSC technology must hence choose a trade-off between scalability and expressivity. We devise new methods for finding better trade-offs. We address (A) by techniques for the automatic generation of heuristic functions. We address (B) by approximate reasoning techniques for the fully expressive case, and by identifying a sub-class where the required reasoning is tractable. We show empirically that our approach scales gracefully to large pools of pre-discovered services, in several test cases.
Hyperchloraemic metabolic acidosis following open cardiac surgery

Aims: To describe acid–base derangements in children following open cardiac surgery on cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), using the Fencl–Stewart strong ion approach. Methods: Prospective observational study set in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a university children’s hospital. Arterial blood gas parameters, serum electrolytes, strong ion difference, strong ion gap (SIG), and partitioned base excess (BE) were measured and calculated on admission to PICU. Results: A total of 97 children, median age 57 months (range 0.03–166), median weight 14 kg (range 2.1–50), were studied. Median CPB time was 80 minutes (range 17–232). Predicted mortality was 2% and there was a single non-survivor. These children showed mild metabolic acidosis (median standard bicarbonate 20.1 mmol/l, BE −5.1 mEq/l) characterised by hyperchloraemia (median corrected Cl 113 mmol/l), and hypoalbuminaemia (median albumin 30 g/l), but no significant excess unmeasured anions or cations (median SIG 0.7 mEq/l). The major determinants of the net BE were the chloride and albumin components (chloride effect −4.8 mEq/l, albumin effect +3.4 mEq/l). Metabolic acidosis occurred in 72 children (74%) but was not associated with increased morbidity. Hyperchloraemia was a causative factor in 53 children (74%) with metabolic acidosis. Three (4%) hyperchloraemic children required adrenaline for inotropic support, compared to eight children (28%) without hyperchloraemia. Hypoalbuminaemia was associated with longer duration of inotropic support and PICU stay. Conclusions: In these children with low mortality following open cardiac surgery, hypoalbuminaemia and hyperchloraemia were the predominant acid–base abnormalities. Hyperchloraemia was associated with reduced requirement for adrenaline therapy. It is suggested that hyperchloraemic metabolic acidosis is a benign phenomenon that should not prompt escalation of haemodynamic support. By contrast, hypoalbuminaemia, an alkalinising force, was associated with prolonged requirement for intensive care.
Adherence to nucleos(t)ide analogues for chronic hepatitis B in clinical practice and correlation with virological breakthroughs

Summary. Medication adherence is important for the success of nucleos(t)ide analogue (NUC) treatment for chronic hepatitis B. The aims of this study were to determine adherence to NUCs and factors associated with NUC adherence and to correlate NUC adherence with the occurrence of virological breakthroughs in patients with chronic hepatitis B. Consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis B receiving NUC were asked to complete a survey every 3 months. Adherence was also assessed by healthcare providers in the clinic. Adherence rate was defined as the per cent of days the patients took their hepatitis B virus medications during the last 30 days. A total of 111 patients were studied. The mean age was 47.7 years, 73.9% were men, 57.7% were Asian, 42.3% had postgraduate education and 80% had private insurance. Sixty‐nine (74.1%) patients reported 100% adherence in the survey, while 78 (83.9%) reported 100% adherence to their healthcare providers. Patients with 100% adherence based on the survey were older (P = 0.02), more likely to be men (P = 0.006), and had higher annual household income (P = 0.04) than those with <100% adherence. In the 80 patients who completed three surveys, viral breakthrough was observed in 1/46 (2.2%) with 100% adherence on all three surveys, 1/18 (5.6%) with <100% adherence on one survey and 3/16 (18.8%) with <100% adherence on ≥2 surveys, (P = 0.06). In conclusion, adherence to NUC therapy in our patients with chronic hepatitis B was high but self‐reporting of adherence to healthcare providers may be inflated. Patients with chronic hepatitis B with better adherence to NUC therapy had a trend towards a lower rate of viral breakthroughs.
Vacuum-Packaged Suspended Microchannel Resonant Mass Sensor for Biomolecular Detection

There is a great need in experimental biology for tools to study interactions between biological molecules and to profile expression levels of large numbers of proteins. This paper describes the fabrication, packaging and testing of a resonant mass sensor for the detection of biomolecules in a microfluidic format. The transducer employs a suspended microchannel as the resonating element, thereby avoiding the problems of damping and viscous drag that normally degrade the sensitivity of resonant sensors in liquid. Our device differs from a vibrating tube densitometer in that the channel is very thin, which enables the detection of molecules that bind to the channel walls; this provides a path to specificity via molecular recognition by immobilized receptors. The fabrication is based on a sacrificial polysilicon process with low-stress low-pressure chemical-vapor deposited (LPCVD) silicon nitride as the structural material, and the resonator is vacuum packaged on the wafer scale using glass frit bonding. Packaged resonators exhibit a sensitivity of 0.8 ppm/(ngmiddotcm2) and a mechanical quality factor of up to 700. To the best of our knowledge, this quality factor is among the highest so far reported for resonant sensors with comparable surface mass sensitivity in liquid
Evidence for extrathymic generation of intermediate T cell receptor cells in the liver revealed in thymectomized, irradiated mice subjected to bone marrow transplantation

In addition to the major intrathymic pathway of T cell differentiation, extrathymic pathways of such differentiation have been shown to exist in the liver and intestine. In particular, hepatic T cells of T cell receptors or CD3 of intermediate levels (i.e., intermediate T cell receptor cells) always contain self-reactive clones and sometimes appear at other sites, including the target tissues in autoimmune diseases and the tumor sites in malignancies. To prove their extrathymic origin and self reactivity, in this study we used thymectomized, irradiated (B6 x C3H/He) F1 mice subjected to transplantation of bone marrow cells of B6 mice. It was clearly demonstrated that all T cells generated under athymic conditions in the peripheral immune organs are intermediate CD3 cells. In the case of nonthymectomized irradiated mice, not only intermediate CD3 cells but also high CD3 cells were generated. Phenotypic characterization showed that newly generated intermediate CD3 cells were unique (e.g., interleukin 2 receptor alpha-/beta+ and CD44+ L-selectin-) and were, therefore, distinguishable from thymus-derived T cells. The precursor cells of intermediate CD3 cells in the bone marrow were Thy-1+ CD3-. The extrathymic generation of intermediate CD3 cells was confirmed in other combinations of bone marrow transplantation, C3H --> C3H and B10.Thy1. 1 --> B6.Thy1. 2. The generated intermediate CD3 cells in the liver contained high levels of self-reactive clones estimated by anti-V beta monoclonal antibodies in conjunction with the endogenous superantigen minor lymphocyte-stimulating system, especially the combination of B6 --> (B6 x C3H/He) (graft-versus-host- situation). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)