Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cloning and characterization of the beta subunit of human proximal sequence element-binding transcription factor and its involvement in transcription of small nuclear RNA genes by RNA polymerases II and III

The proximal sequence element (PSE)-binding transcription factor (PTF), which binds the PSE of both RNA polymerase II- and RNA polymerase III-transcribed mammalian small nuclear RNA (snRNA) genes, is essential for their transcription. We previously reported the purification of human PTF, a complex of four subunits, and the molecular cloning and characterization of PTF gamma and delta subunits. Here we describe the isolation and expression of a cDNA encoding PTF beta, as well as functional studies using anti-PTF beta antibodies. Native PTF beta, in either protein fractions or a PTF-Oct-1-DNA complex, can be recognized by polyclonal antibodies raised against recombinant PTF beta. Immunodepletion studies show that PTF beta is required for transcription of both classes of snRNA genes in vitro. In addition, immunoprecipitation analyses demonstrate that substantial and similar molar amounts of TATA-binding protein (TBP) and TFIIIB90 can weakly associate with PTF at low salt conditions, but this association is dramatically reduced at high salt concentrations. Along with our previous demonstration of both physical interactions between PTF gamma/PTF delta and TBP and the involvement of TFIIIB90 in the transcription of class III snRNA genes, these results are consistent with the notion that a TBP-containing complex related to TFIIIB is required for the transcription of class III snRNA genes, and acts through weak interaction with the four-subunit PTF.
Reproducibility evaluation of gross and net walking efficiency in children with cerebral palsy

In evaluating energy cost (EC) of walking, referred to as walking efficiency, the use of net measurement protocols (i.e. net=gross‐resting) has recently been recommended. However, nothing is known about the comparative reproducibility of net protocols and the commonly used gross protocols. Ten minutes of resting and 5 minutes of walking at a self‐selected speed were used to determine gross and net EC in 13 children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP; seven males, six females; mean age 8y 7mo [SD 3y 4mo], range 4y 1mo–13y) and in 10 children (three males, seven females) with typical development. In the former, their Gross Motor Function Classification System levels ranged from Level I to Level III; and seven had hemiplegia and six diplegia. There were four repeated sessions on different days, with periods of 1 week between sessions. Reproducibility was assessed for speed, and gross and net EC, by using the standard error of measurement. The results of this preliminary study showed that EC measurements were more variable for children with CP than for children with typical development. Furthermore, in both groups there was considerably more variability in the net measurements than in the gross measurements. We conclude that, on the basis of the methodology used, the use of gross EC, rather than net EC, seems a more sensitive measure of walking efficiency to detect clinically relevant changes in an individual child with CP.
Protocollagen Proline Hydroxylase Activity in Rat Heart During Experimental Cardiac Hypertrophy

Cardiac hypertrophy was produced in rats by constricting the abdominal aorta subdiaphragmatically. The weight of the left ventricle was significantly elevated 2 days after aortic constriction and was 19% higher than in shamoperated animals at 11 days. The activity of protocollagen proline hydroxylase (PPH), an enzyme participating in collagen biosynthesis, and the hydroxyproline content of the heart muscle were determined. PPH activity was increased at 2 days after aortic constriction and declined thereafter, being still above the control level at 11 days. The hydroxyproline content of the left ventricle was significantly increased at 11 days in hypertrophied heart muscle compared to controls. The present results suggest that in cardiac hypertrophy an early connective tissue activation occurs. Later, this leads to connective tissue accumulation. The increased collagen content may give support to the cardiac muscle contracting against systolic overload.
Mice lacking microRNA 133a develop dynamin 2–dependent centronuclear myopathy.

MicroRNAs modulate cellular phenotypes by inhibiting expression of mRNA targets. In this study, we have shown that the muscle-specific microRNAs miR-133a-1 and miR-133a-2 are essential for multiple facets of skeletal muscle function and homeostasis in mice. Mice with genetic deletions of miR-133a-1 and miR-133a-2 developed adult-onset centronuclear myopathy in type II (fast-twitch) myofibers, accompanied by impaired mitochondrial function, fast-to-slow myofiber conversion, and disarray of muscle triads (sites of excitation- contraction coupling). These abnormalities mimicked human centronuclear myopathies and could be ascribed, at least in part, to dysregulation of the miR-133a target mRNA that encodes dynamin 2, a GTPase implicated in human centronuclear myopathy. Our findings reveal an essential role for miR-133a in the maintenance of adult skeletal muscle structure, function, bioenergetics, and myofiber identity; they also identify a potential modulator of centronuclear myopathies.
Pegaptanib sodium for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration

This article reviews pegaptanib sodium, a compound developed by Eyetech Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pfizer Inc., for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Traditional treatment approaches to neovascular AMD have included destructive therapies such as thermal laser photocoagulation and photodynamic therapy; the use of pegaptanib sodium heralds a new treatment approach that is a non-destructive therapy based on the inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor activity in the eye. This diminishes the neovascular drive in the pathologically hyperpermeable state of the diseased eye. Pegaptanib sodium is one of the first therapeutics belonging to the class of compounds known as aptamers. The chemistry, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics and rationale for the clinical use of the drug are reviewed. The article highlights and summarises the results of the multi-centre, randomised, sham-controlled clinical trials with pegaptanib sodium to treat subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation in AMD. In addition, the safety profile is reviewed.
Structural characterization of water/ice formation in SBA-15 silicas: III. The triplet profile for 86 Å pore diameter

The diffraction results for the formation of ice in 86 Å diameter pores of a SBA-15 silica sample are analysed to provide information on the characteristics of the ice created in the pores. The asymmetric triplet at ∼1.7 Å−1, which involves several overlapping peaks, is particularly relevant to the different ice phases and contains a number of components that can be individually identified. The use of a set of three peaks with an asymmetric profile to represent the possibility of facetted growth in the pores was found to give an unsatisfactory fit to the data. The alternative method involving the introduction of additional peaks with a normal symmetric profile was found to give excellent fits with five components and was the preferred analytic procedure. Three peaks could be directly linked to the positions for the triplet of hexagonal ice, Ih, and one of the other two broad peaks could be associated with a form of amorphous ice. The variation of the peak intensity (and position) was systematic with temperature for both cooling and heating runs. The results indicate that a disordered state of ice is formed as a component with the defective crystalline ices. The position of a broad diffraction peak is intermediate between that of high-density and low-density amorphous ice. The remaining component peak is less broad but does not relate directly to any of the known ice phases and cannot be assigned to any specific structural feature at the present time.
Design of isotropic orthogonal transform algorithm-based multicarrier systems with blind channel estimation

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique has gained increasing popularity in both wired and wireless communication systems. However, in the conventional OFDM systems the insertion of a cyclic prefix (CP) and the transmission of periodic training sequences for purpose of channel estimation decrease the system's spectral efficiency. As an alternative to OFDM, isotropic orthogonal transform algorithm (IOTA)-based multicarrier system adopts a proper pulse shaping with good time and frequency localisation properties to avoid interference and maintain orthogonality in real field among sub-carriers without the use of CP. In this study, the authors propose linearly precoded IOTA-based multicarrier systems to achieve blind channel estimation by utilising the structure of auto-correlation and cross-correlation matrices introduced by precoding. The results show that the proposed IOTA-based multicarrier systems achieve better power and spectral efficiency compared with the conventional OFDM systems.
Optoelectronic oscillator based on fiber ring resonator: Overall system optimization and phase noise reduction

Theoretical and experimental optimization studies are presented in this paper, where the aim is to improve the phase noise of an optoelectronic oscillator based on a passive fiber ring resonator. Our experimental results demonstrate a significant reduction in the phase noise of the final optimized system, which is also compared to the best existing oscillator of the same type, an active cavity based coupled optoelectronic oscillator.
The Effects of Firm-Specific Factors on the Profitability of Non-Life Insurance Companies in Turkey

This study investigates the firm-specific factors affecting the profitability of non-life insurance companies operating in Turkey. For this purpose, data of 24 non-life insurance companies operating in Turkey from the period 2006–2013 were brought together to obtain 192 observed panel data sets. In this study, profitability is measured by two different variables: technical profitability ratio and sales profitability ratio. According to the empirical results, the firm-specific factors affecting the profitability of Turkish non-life insurance companies are the size of the company, age of the company, loss ratio, current ratio, and premium growth rate.
DynaMat: a dynamic view management system for data warehouses

Pre-computation and materialization of views with aggregate functions is a common technique in Data Warehouses. Due to the complex structure of the warehouse and the different profiles of the users who submit queries, there is need for tools that will automate the selection and management of the materialized data. In this paper we present DynaMat, a system that dynamically materializes information at multiple levels of granularity in order to match the demand (workload) but also takes into account the maintenance restrictions for the warehouse, such as down time to update the views and space availability. DynaMat unifies the view selection and the view maintenance problems under a single framework using a novel “goodness” measure for the materialized views. DynaMat constantly monitors incoming queries and materializes the best set of views subject to the space constraints. During updates, DynaMat reconciles the current materialized view selection and refreshes the most beneficial subset of it within a given maintenance window. We compare DynaMat against a system that is given all queries in advance and the pre-computed optimal static view selection. The comparison is made based on a new metric, the Detailed Cost Savings Ratio introduced for quantifying the benefits of view materialization against incoming queries. These experiments show that DynaMat's dynamic view selection outperforms the optimal static view selection and thus, any sub-optimal static algorithm that has appeared in the literature.
Proteomic Analysis Reveals Differences in Tolerance to Acid Rain in Two Broad-Leaf Tree Species, Liquidambar formosana and Schima superba

Acid rain (AR) is a serious environmental issue inducing harmful impacts on plant growth and development. It has been reported that Liquidambar formosana, considered as an AR-sensitive tree species, was largely injured by AR, compared with Schima superba, an AR-tolerant tree species. To clarify the different responses of these two species to AR, a comparative proteomic analysis was conducted in this study. More than 1000 protein spots were reproducibly detected on two-dimensional electrophoresis gels. Among them, 74 protein spots from L. formosana gels and 34 protein spots from S. superba gels showed significant changes in their abundances under AR stress. In both L. formosana and S. superba, the majority proteins with more than 2 fold changes were involved in photosynthesis and energy production, followed by material metabolism, stress and defense, transcription, post-translational and modification, and signal transduction. In contrast with L. formosana, no hormone response-related protein was found in S. superba. Moreover, the changes of proteins involved in photosynthesis, starch synthesis, and translation were distinctly different between L. formosana and S. superba. Protein expression analysis of three proteins (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione-S-transferase) by Western blot was well correlated with the results of proteomics. In conclusion, our study provides new insights into AR stress responses in woody plants and clarifies the differences in strategies to cope with AR between L. formosana and S. superba.
A Deep Convolutional Neural Network with Selection Units for Super-Resolution

Rectified linear units (ReLU) are known to be effective in many deep learning methods. Inspired by linear-mapping technique used in other super-resolution (SR) methods, we reinterpret ReLU into point-wise multiplication of an identity mapping and a switch, and finally present a novel nonlinear unit, called a selection unit (SU). While conventional ReLU has no direct control through which data is passed, the proposed SU optimizes this on-off switching control, and is therefore capable of better handling nonlinearity functionality than ReLU in a more flexible way. Our proposed deep network with SUs, called SelNet, was top-5th ranked in NTIRE2017 Challenge, which has a much lower computation complexity compared to the top-4 entries. Further experiment results show that our proposed SelNet outperforms our baseline only with ReLU (without SUs), and other state-of-the-art deep-learning-based SR methods.
Modalités sociales d'acquisition d'habiletés motrices complexes : rôles de la démonstration explicitée et d'autres procédures de guidage selon la nature des habiletés

The purpose of this research is to investigate psychological processes involved in motor skills acquisition. First, observational learning is situated within the framework of social interactions. Then different taxonomies of motor skills and different ways of teaching are examinated. Last the research analyses the interactions and the complementarity between motor learning theories and social learning theories. Two experiments test the effectivness of observational learning as a function of the nature of cues and the nature of motor skills. A verbal model is more effective than a silent one and than visual cues in the environment for the acquisition of a choreographic sequence. For a dual-goal task (form and outcome), if we take into account the nature of the skill, learner caracteristics are important as well. Last, an investigation ins conducted with two samples of student in physical education. Ten guidance procedures are to be juged for six different tasks. The purpose is to examine representations changes in relation with grade, sport pratice and other variables.
An in Vitro Approach to the Evaluation of the Cross Talk between Intestinal Epithelium and Macrophages

The intestinal epithelium acts as a mucosal barrier by varying their signals to immune cells within the intestine. To observe the cross talk between intestinal epithelium and macrophages, we establish a Caco-2—THP-1 co-culture system. Using this co-culture system, we suggested that paracrine factors of intestinal epithelium increased the phagocytic capacity of intestinal monocytes/macrophages to be ready for immune and inflammatory responses.
Discovering high-level BPMN process models from event data

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that process mining techniques can help to discover process models from event logs, using conventional high-level process modeling languages, such as Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), leveraging their representational bias. Design/methodology/approach The integrated discovery approach presented in this work is aimed to mine: control, data and resource perspectives within one process diagram, and, if possible, construct a hierarchy of subprocesses improving the model readability. The proposed approach is defined as a sequence of steps, performed to discover a model, containing various perspectives and presenting a holistic view of a process. This approach was implemented within an open-source process mining framework called ProM and proved its applicability for the analysis of real-life event logs. Findings This paper shows that the proposed integrated approach can be applied to real-life event logs of information systems from different domains. The multi-perspective process diagrams obtained within the approach are of good quality and better than models discovered using a technique that does not consider hierarchy. Moreover, due to the decomposition methods applied, the proposed approach can deal with large event logs, which cannot be handled by methods that do not use decomposition. Originality/value The paper consolidates various process mining techniques, which were never integrated before and presents a novel approach for the discovery of multi-perspective hierarchical BPMN models. This approach bridges the gap between well-known process mining techniques and a wide range of BPMN-complaint tools.
The LASSO Risk for Gaussian Matrices

We consider the problem of learning a coefficient vector xο ∈ RN from noisy linear observation y = Axo + ∈ Rn. In many contexts (ranging from model selection to image processing), it is desirable to construct a sparse estimator x̂. In this case, a popular approach consists in solving an ℓ1-penalized least-squares problem known as the LASSO or basis pursuit denoising. For sequences of matrices A of increasing dimensions, with independent Gaussian entries, we prove that the normalized risk of the LASSO converges to a limit, and we obtain an explicit expression for this limit. Our result is the first rigorous derivation of an explicit formula for the asymptotic mean square error of the LASSO for random instances. The proof technique is based on the analysis of AMP, a recently developed efficient algorithm, that is inspired from graphical model ideas. Simulations on real data matrices suggest that our results can be relevant in a broad array of practical applications.
Mindful Use as a Link Between Social Capital and Organizational Learning: An Empirical Test of the Antecedents and Consequences of Two New Constructs

Title of Dissertation: MINDFUL USE AS A LINK BETWEEN SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING: AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF TWO NEW CONSTRUCTS Heather Lynn Adams, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation Directed by: Hank C. Lucas Department of Decision and Information Technologies The motivation for this research is that information systems are not often used to their full potential – individuals often fail to use valuable features of systems not allowing firms to maximize their return from investments in these technologies. Additionally, there have been recent calls for new conceptualizations of system use and for research that examines post-adoption use. Therefore, the current research develops two new conceptualizations of system use: full appropriation and heedful use. These new concepts can help address under-utilization issues and fill gaps in the current literature. Full appropriation is fully exploiting applicable features of a system and heedful use is interacting with a system in a way that considers the needs of others within an organization. These conceptualizations are developed from psychological theories on mindfulness which have not been used to study system use. It is expected that a mindful approach to technology can lead to many positive benefits in the workplace. The first step in the current research was to develop and validate measures for these two new forms of use. Then the predictors of full appropriation and heedful use were examined with a social capital lens. The final step of this research was to examine the influence that these broader forms of use have on organizational learning since it has been suggested that organizational learning is the missing link between IT and firm performance. Data from 591 subjects from two separate organizations provided evidence of construct validity of the two newly developed scales and provided support for the overall model indicating a relationship between social capital and mindful use and a relationship between mindful use and organizational learning.
Enhancement of photodynamic therapy in gastric cancer cells by removal of iron.

BACKGROUND: Aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) is an endogenous substrate in the haem biosynthetic pathway. Protoporphyrin IX (PPIX), the immediate haem precursor in the pathway, has photoexcitable properties. Exogenous ALA has been used previously as a precursor agent in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Its main advantage is a short half-life and hence reduced incidence of skin photosensitivity. ALA can be toxic, however, causing, for example, transient increases in liver enzyme concentrations when given systemically and this may be dose related. AIM: To assess whether accumulation of PPLX and ultimately the efficacy of PDT could be improved by modulating both ends of the haem biosynthetic pathway. METHODS: Gastric cancer cells (MKN 28) were incubated with ALA (0-1000 mumolar) and desferrioxamine (0-800 mumolar) for 24 hours before exposure to argon-pumped dye laser (630 nm) at different energy levels (0-40 J/cm2). Cell viability was assessed by use of the methyl-tetrazolium (MTT) assay four hours after exposure to light. RESULTS: Total PPIX accumulation increased linearly with increasing extracellular concentrations of ALA up to 1 mmolar (r = 0.973, p < 0.005). Adding 200 molar of desferrioxamine trebled PPIX accumulation over the same period of incubation. Cell viability after exposure to light decreased with low doses (0-30 mumolar) of desferrioxamine (r = 0.976, p = 0.024). However, higher doses of desferrioxamine (more than 40 molar) seemed to confer a protective effect against PDT. CONCLUSION: PDT using ALA can be improved by removal of available iron with desferrioxamine. The reason for the protective effect of desferrioxamine seen at higher doses is not clear.