Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
XET activity is found near sites of growth and cell elongation in bryophytes and some green algae: new insights into the evolution of primary cell wall elongation.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In angiosperms xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (XET)/hydrolase (XTH) is involved in reorganization of the cell wall during growth and development. The location of oligo-xyloglucan transglucosylation activity and the presence of XTH expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in the earliest diverging extant plants, i.e. in bryophytes and algae, down to the Phaeophyta was examined. The results provide information on the presence of an XET growth mechanism in bryophytes and algae and contribute to the understanding of the evolution of cell wall elongation in general. METHODS Representatives of the different plant lineages were pressed onto an XET test paper and assayed. XET or XET-related activity was visualized as the incorporation of fluorescent signal. The Physcomitrella genome database was screened for the presence of XTHs. In addition, using the 3' RACE technique searches were made for the presence of possible XTH ESTs in the Charophyta. KEY RESULTS XET activity was found in the three major divisions of bryophytes at sites corresponding to growing regions. In the Physcomitrella genome two putative XTH-encoding cDNA sequences were identified that contain all domains crucial for XET activity. Furthermore, XET activity was located at the sites of growth in Chara (Charophyta) and Ulva (Chlorophyta) and a putative XTH ancestral enzyme in Chara was identified. No XET activity was identified in the Rhodophyta or Phaeophyta. CONCLUSIONS XET activity was shown to be present in all major groups of green plants. These data suggest that an XET-related growth mechanism originated before the evolutionary divergence of the Chlorobionta and open new insights in the evolution of the mechanisms of primary cell wall expansion.
Constructive analysis of cyclic circuits

Traditionally, circuits with combinational loops are found only in asynchronous designs. However, combinational loops can also be useful for synchronous circuit design. Combinational loops can arise from high-level language behavioral compiling, and can be used to reduce circuit size. We provide a symbolic algorithm that detects if a sequential circuit with combinational loops exhibits standard synchronous behavior, and if so, produces an equivalent circuit without combinational loops. We present applications to hardware and software synthesis from the Esterel synchronous programming language.
Ictal cerebral perfusion related to EEG in drug resistant focal epilepsy of childhood.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the EEG changes during seizures in children with drug resistant focal epilepsy who demonstrate hypoperfusion at the "seizure focus" interictally, but no perfusion change during the seizure. METHODS: Ictal EEG findings of six children with focal epilepsy who demonstrated hypoperfusion on rCBF SPECT after an interictal injection of (99)Tc(m) HMPAO concordant with the seizure focus, but who did not demonstrate rCBF change after an ictal injection (group 1) were reviewed. These were contrasted with the EEG data of six children matched as closely as possible for age, type of epilepsy, and pathology who did show hyperperfusion at the seizure focus on ictal scan when compared with the interictal study (group 2). RESULTS: The children in group 1 showed slowing of the EEG at the time of the (99)Tc(m) HMPAO injection relative to that seen at the onset of the seizure. Those in group 2 showed rhythmic activity, or sharp waves, or both on EEG at the time of injection. This last change was also seen consistently when the EEG data of a further 13 children who also showed ictal hyperperfusion at the seizure focus were reviewed. CONCLUSION: Ictal rCBF does not invariably increase at the seizure focus in patients with drug resistant focal epilepsy.
Evaluation of differentially expressed genes by shear stress in human osteoarthritic chondrocytes in vitro.

BACKGROUND The pathogenesis of osteoarthritis is related to abnormal mechanical stresses that alter cartilage metabolism and chondrocyte survival. Among the mechanical stresses, shear stress is held responsible for the development of arthritis. METHODS Monolayer cultures of human osteoarthritic chondrocytes were subjected to fluid-induced shear stress in vitro. A cDNA microarray technology was used to screen the differentially regulated genes and quantitative real-time poly-merase chain reaction (Q-RT-PCR) was used to confirm the results. The significance of the expression ratio for each gene was determined on the lowest associated false discovery rate calculated from the changes of gene expression in relation to the standard deviation of repeated measurements for that gene. RESULTS Exposure of human osteoarthritic chondrocytes to shear stress (0.82 Pa) for 2 hours differentially regulated 373 and 227 clones in two independent microarray analyses with at least a 1.7-fold change. By comparing the differentially regulated clones, 14 upregulated and 6 downregulated genes were identified. Many of the differentially expressed genes were related to cell proliferation/differentiation (TGF-beta, acidic FGF), cell survival/apoptosis (CYP1B1, BCL2L3, TNFRSF11B, chemokine ligands, ADM), and matrix homeostasis (DCN, SDC2, MGP, WISP2). CONCLUSION The gene expression patterns following shear stress show a high similarity to the gene expression in the reparative process of osteoarthritis chondrocytes. Using microarray analysis, this study suggests a close interaction between shear stress and the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis.
A Hybrid Spur Compensation Technique for Finite-Modulo Fractional-N Phase-Locked Loops

A finite-modulo fractional-N PLL utilizing a low-bit high-order DeltaSigma modulator is presented. A 4-bit fourth-order DeltaSigma modulator not only performs non-dithered 16-modulo fractional-N operation but also offers less spur generation with negligible quantization noise. Further spur reduction is achieved by charge compensation in the voltage domain and phase interpolation in the time domain, which significantly relaxes the dynamic range requirement of the charge pump compensation current. A 1.8-2.6 GHz fractional-N PLL is implemented in 0.18 mum CMOS. By employing high-order deterministic DeltaSigma modulation and hybrid spur compensation, the spur level of less than -55 dBc is achieved when the ratio of the bandwidth to minimum frequency resolution is set to 1/4. The prototype PLL consumes 35.3 mW in which only 2.7 mW is consumed by the digital modulator and compensation circuits.
Vegetarianism and dental fluorosis among children in a high fluoride area of northern Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis among vegetarian and nonvegetarian children and adolescents living in an area where dental fluorosis is endemic. DESIGN An analytical cross-sectional retrospective study. SAMPLE AND METHODS Children (n = 165) aged 6-18 years, from five schools in Arusha town were examined. The children had a life-long exposure to drinking water with 3.6 mg F/litre. The severity of dental fluorosis was assessed using the Thylstrup & Fejerskov Index (TFI). RESULTS In the vegetarian group (n = 24), the prevalence of dental fluorosis (TFI score > or = 1) was 67%, while 21% had severe fluorosis (TFI score > or = 5). In the nonvegetarian group (n = 141) the prevalence of fluorosis and severe fluorosis was 95% and 35%, respectively. In bi-variate correlation analyses age, vegetarianism and a series of other factors related to childhood nutrition (meals per day, the use of home-made porridge, the use of fish, etc.) were significantly associated with the tooth prevalence of dental fluorosis (TPF, P < 0.05). Stepwise multiple linear regression analyses explained 30% of the variance in TPF; age 15% points and vegetarianism 13% points. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of developing dental fluorosis was seven times higher among nonvegetarians than among vegetarians. CONCLUSION The significantly lower prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis among the vegetarian group compared to the nonvegetarians would seem to be related to diet.
Housing and abstinence self-efficacy in formerly incarcerated individuals

ABSTRACT To avoid recidivism, formerly incarcerated individuals must successfully navigate barriers to reentry, including finding adequate housing and avoiding substance use. This study examined how time in diverse housing situations affects abstinence self-efficacy in formerly incarcerated individuals. Formerly incarcerated individuals were surveyed about previous housing situations and abstinence self-efficacy after release from prison or inpatient substance use treatment. Models were estimated with both days spent in different housing situations in the past 180 and past 30 days. More time spent in recovery situations was associated with increased abstinence self-efficacy, while more time spent in precarious situations was associated with decreased abstinence self-efficacy.
Nodopathies of the peripheral nerve: an emerging concept

Peripheral nerve diseases are traditionally classified as demyelinating or axonal. It has been recently proposed that microstructural changes restricted to the nodal/paranodal region may be the key to understanding the pathophysiology of antiganglioside antibody mediated neuropathies. We reviewed neuropathies with different aetiologies (dysimmune, inflammatory, ischaemic, nutritional, toxic) in which evidence from nerve conductions, excitability studies, pathology and animal models, indicate the involvement of the nodal region in the pathogenesis. For these neuropathies, the classification in demyelinating and axonal is inadequate or even misleading, we therefore propose a new category of nodopathy that has the following features: (1) it is characterised by a pathophysiological continuum from transitory nerve conduction block to axonal degeneration; (2) the conduction block may be due to paranodal myelin detachment, node lengthening, dysfunction or disruption of Na+ channels, altered homeostasis of water and ions, or abnormal polarisation of the axolemma; (3) the conduction block may be promptly reversible without development of excessive temporal dispersion; (4) axonal degeneration, depending on the specific disorder and its severity, eventually follows the conduction block. The term nodopathy focuses to the site of primary nerve injury, avoids confusion with segmental demyelinating neuropathies and circumvents the apparent paradox that something axonal may be reversible and have a good prognosis.
Survivability function - a measure of disaster-based routing performance

The explosive growth of data traffic imposes critical requirements on core network survivability. Developments in wavelength-division multiplexing have strengthened this need. Survivability becomes increasingly crucial, since large traffic volumes are multiplexed onto a single fiber. A single cable cut can affect incredibly large groups of users, leading to catastrophic socioeconomic effects. This paper defines the network survivability function - the probability function of the percentage of total data flow delivered after failure and survivability attributes - the expected percentage of total data flow delivered after failure, the respective p-percentile values, the worst case survivability. Models for finding these survivability measures are described. The main goal in this paper is to investigate the survivability function for typical routing protocols used in the IP networks. Examples of survivability assessment of a typical wide area network employed in Poland illustrate the proposed approach.
Visualization of Actin Polymerization in Invasive Structures of Macrophages and Carcinoma Cells Using Photoconvertible β-Actin – Dendra2 Fusion Proteins

Actin polymerization controls a range of cellular processes, from intracellular trafficking to cell motility and invasion. Generation and elongation of free barbed ends defines the regions of actively polymerizing actin in cells and, consequently, is of importance in the understanding of the mechanisms through which actin dynamics are regulated. Herein we present a method that does not involve cell permeabilization and provides direct visualization of growing barbed ends using photoswitchable β-actin - Dendra2 constructs expressed in murine macrophage and rat mammary adenocarcinoma cell lines. The method exploits the ability of photoconverted (red) G-actin species to become incorporated into pre-existing (green) actin filaments, visualized in two distinct wavelengths using TIRF microscopy. In growing actin filaments, photoconverted (red) monomers are added to the barbed end while only green monomers are recycled from the pointed end. We demonstrate that incorporation of actin into intact podosomes of macrophages occurs constitutively and is amenable to inhibition by cytochalasin D indicating barbed end incorporation. Additionally, actin polymerization does not occur in quiescent invadopodial precursors of carcinoma cells suggesting that the filaments are capped and following epidermal growth factor stimulation actin incorporation occurs in a single but extended peak. Finally, we show that Dendra2 fused to either the N- or the C-terminus of β-actin profoundly affects its localization and incorporation in distinct F-actin structures in carcinoma cells, thus influencing the ability of monomers to be photoconverted. These data support the use of photoswitchable actin-Dendra2 constructs as powerful tools in the visualization of free barbed ends in living cells.
Integrated LCC Compensation Topology for Wireless Charger in Electric and Plug-in Electric Vehicles

 Abstract — This paper presents an integrated LCC compensation topology for EV/PHEV wireless chargers. The effect of the coupling between the additional coil and the main coil on the LCC compensation topology is studied. The proposed topology will reduce the size of the additional coil and make the system more compact with extremely high efficiency. The basic characteristics of the proposed topology are analyzed based on fundamental harmonic approximation (FHA). Furthermore, based on steady-state model, three categories of operation modes are presented and analyzed. In order to realize zero voltage switching (ZVS), the series capacitor C 2 on the secondary side is tuned. Numerical method is used to analyze the impact of different values of Δ C 2 on the turn-off current and the best value of C 2 is chosen to build a prototype to verify the analysis.
Portal protein diversity and phage ecology

Oceanic phages are critical components of the global ecosystem, where they play a role in microbial mortality and evolution. Our understanding of phage diversity is greatly limited by the lack of useful genetic diversity measures. Previous studies, focusing on myophages that infect the marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus, have used the coliphage T4 portal-protein-encoding homologue, gene 20 (g20), as a diversity marker. These studies revealed 10 sequence clusters, 9 oceanic and 1 freshwater, where only 3 contained cultured representatives. We sequenced g20 from 38 marine myophages isolated using a diversity of Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus hosts to see if any would fall into the clusters that lacked cultured representatives. On the contrary, all fell into the three clusters that already contained sequences from cultured phages. Further, there was no obvious relationship between host of isolation, or host range, and g20 sequence similarity. We next expanded our analyses to all available g20 sequences (769 sequences), which include PCR amplicons from wild uncultured phages, non-PCR amplified sequences identified in the Global Ocean Survey (GOS) metagenomic database, as well as sequences from cultured phages, to evaluate the relationship between g20 sequence clusters and habitat features from which the phage sequences were isolated. Even in this meta-data set, very few sequences fell into the sequence clusters without cultured representatives, suggesting that the latter are very rare, or sequencing artefacts. In contrast, sequences most similar to the culture-containing clusters, the freshwater cluster and two novel clusters, were more highly represented, with one particular culture-containing cluster representing the dominant g20 genotype in the unamplified GOS sequence data. Finally, while some g20 sequences were non-randomly distributed with respect to habitat, there were always numerous exceptions to general patterns, indicating that phage portal proteins are not good predictors of a phage's host or the habitat in which a particular phage may thrive.
Effects and safety of magnesium sulfate on propofol-induced injection pain, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND Propofol is the most widely used drug in the induction of general anesthesia, however its disadvantages of injection pain has always been a problem for clinical anesthetists. Many strategies have been proposed and magnesium sulfate is one of them. This is the first meta-analysis studies evaluating effects of magnesium sulfate pretreatment for preventing propofol-induced injection pain. METHODS We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Google scholar and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Review databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the prophylactic effect of magnesium sulfate on propofol injection pain. Meta-analyses were performed using RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS Five RCTs involving 545 participants were included. Magnesium sulfate allows more patients experiencing no pain or mild pain during propofol injection ([RR] 2.70, 95% [CI] 1.10-6.64, P=0.03, 2.12,95% CI 1.46-3.08, P < 0.0001, respectively). And the number of patients with severe pain (RR 0.12, 95% CI 0.06-0.25, P < 0.00001) on injecting propofol were significantly decreased. However, no statistical significance was found between magnesium sulfate group and placebo group in moderate pain (RR 0.22, 95% CI 0.05-0.97, P=0.05). CONCLUSION Our meta-analysis suggested that pretreatment with magnesium sulfate intravenously before injecting propofol allow more patients to experiencing no pain during propofol injection and can reduce the intensity of injection pain effectively without causing any adverse effect.
The Mobile Facility Routing Problem

In many applications, ranging from cellular communications to humanitarian relief logistics, mobile facilities are used to provide a service to a region with temporal and spatially distributed demand. This paper introduces the mobile facility routing problem (MFRP), which seeks to create routes for a fleet of mobile facilities that maximizes the demand serviced by these mobile facilities during a continuous-time planning horizon. In this setting, demand is produced by discrete events at rates that vary over time. Mobile facilities can be positioned at discrete locations to provide service to nearby events. In addition, mobile facilities can be relocated at any time, although the relocation times are significant in relation to the length of the planning horizon. The demand serviced by a mobile facility depends on the arrival and departure times at each location it visits. Although the MFRP is NP-hard, the optimal route for a single mobile facility can be computed in polynomial time. We describe three heuristics for creating routes for the fleet of mobile facilities and evaluate their performance. Our results demonstrate that these heuristics produce high-quality routes for mobile facilities, especially in scenarios where the demand for service changes significantly over time.
Nutrition transition in India

Abstract Objective: The primary objective of this review is to examine the demographic and nutrition transition in India in relation to its contribution to the emerging epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases in this country. Setting: India, the country as a whole and its different states with a population exceeding 1 billion in 2001. Subjects: The review examines demographic changes in the population with consequent effects on the population pyramid, the rapidity and rates of urbanisation with striking variations in chronic disease patterns and the trends in obesity between rural and urban communities, attempting to relate their prevalence with the diet and lifestyle changes accompanying them. Design: The review is based largely on representative large-scale surveys in the country and other reliable documented data on population characteristics. It also includes a review of the published literature. Results: The results indicate that the demographic changes, rates of urbanisation and changes in dietary patterns are contributing to the changing trends in chronic disease in India. Conclusions: There is clear evidence of a demographic, epidemiological and nutrition transition in India that is fuelling the epidemic of chronic diseases and obesity, particularly in the urban areas.
Simulation of Cookoff Results in a Small Scale Test

Abstract : The fast and slow cookoff behaviour of two series of candidate insensitive booster compositions based on RDX/Elvax 210, and incorporating various amounts of PETN and TATB, has been numerically simulated using a one-dimensional finite difference code. The model solves a cylindrically symmetric heat flow equation for a mixture of two energetic materials with a time dependent boundary temperature. The temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity and specific heat of each of the explosives is included, as well as the effect of melting, and the effect of different kinetic schemes for the decomposition of the RDX. The simulations accurately reproduce the time to explosion and surface temperature at explosion for varying PETN concentration at both fast and slow heating rates, and also provide good agreement with experiment for varying TATB levels at the slow heating rate. However at the fast heating rate there is a divergence between the simulated results and experiment. The calculations clearly illustrate the need to include the temperature dependence of the thermal properties of the material, and a kinetic decomposition scheme appropriate to the degree of confinement, before good agreement between simulated and experimental results can be obtained. (AN)
The Effectiveness of Bigrams in Automated Text Categorization

In this paper, we present an efficient text categorization algorithm that generates bigrams selectively by looking for ones that have an especially good chance of being useful. The algorithm uses the information gain metric, combined with various frequency thresholds. The bigrams, along with unigrams, are then given as features to a Naïve Bayes classifier. The experimental results suggest that the bigrams can substantially raise the quality of feature sets, showing increases in the break-even points and F1 measures. The McNemar test shows that in most categories the increases are very significant. Upon close examination of the algorithm, we conclude that the algorithm is most successful in correctly classifying more positive documents, but may cause more negative documents to be classified incorrectly.
Resilient Routing under Hierarchical Automatic Addressing

BGP table size and update rate have increased dramatically in the last decade. The rate of the growth poses great demand on memory size and CPU speed of the router control processor. Hierarchical Automatic Addressing (HAA) reduces BGP table size and update rate by enabling prefix aggregation for multihomed ASes. However, the aggregation blocks routing information of individual ASes, and causes the routing system fails to react to failures. In this paper, we propose a resilient routing protocol referred to as Routing with Detour (RD) to address the problem. RD provides resilient routing under HAA, and it reacts to failures in a timely manner without modifying BGP. Our experiments with realistic AS topology show that RD has slight impact on HAA's performance. More precisely, HAA with RD can reduce BGP table size and update rate by more than 90%.