Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studies on the mechanisms of autophagy: maturation of the autophagic vacuole

Data presented in the accompanying paper suggests nascent autophagic vacuoles are formed from RER (Dunn, W. A. 1990. J. Cell Biol. 110:1923- 1933). In the present report, the maturation of newly formed or nascent autophagic vacuoles into degradative vacuoles was examined using morphological and biochemical methods combined with immunological probes. Within 15 min of formation, autophagic vacuoles acquired acid hydrolases and lysosomal membrane proteins, thus becoming degradative vacuoles. A previously undescribed type of autophagic vacuole was also identified having characteristics of both nascent and degradative vacuoles, but was different from lysosomes. This intermediate compartment contained only small amounts of cathepsin L in comparison to lysosomes and was bound by a double membrane, typical of nascent vacuoles. However, unlike nascent vacuoles vet comparable to degradative vacuoles, these vacuoles were acidic and contained the lysosomal membrane protein, lgp120, at the outer limiting membrane. The results were consistent with the stepwise acquisition of lysosomal membrane proteins and hydrolases. The presence of mannose-6-phosphate receptor in autophagic vacuoles suggested a possible role of this receptor in the delivery of newly synthesized hydrolases from the Golgi apparatus. However, tunicamycin had no significant effect on the amount of mature acid hydrolases present in a preparation of autophagic vacuoles isolated from a metrizamide gradient. Combined, the results suggested nascent autophagic vacuoles mature into degradative vacuoles in a stepwise fashion: (a) acquisition of lysosomal membrane proteins by fusing with a vesicle deficient in hydrolytic enzymes (e.g., prelysosome); (b) vacuole acidification; and (c) acquisition of hydrolases by fusing with preexisting lysosomes or Golgi apparatus- derived vesicles.
Behaviour of concrete-filled steel tubular column to restrained steel beam joints after exposed to full-range fire

Numerical analysis is performed to investigate the behaviour of concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) column to restrained steel beam joints after exposed to full-range fire with initial load. Based on a validated finite element analysis (FEA) model, failure mode, deformations, internal force and moment of the CFST column to axially and rotationally restrained steel beam joint in the ambient loading, heating, cooling and post-fire phases are analysed. Finally, the joint moment versus relative rotation angle curve of this type of composite joint in the full-range phase is analysed, which can be used to evaluate the post-fire behaviour of the joint in the further research.
Unified sensitivity analysis of unstable or low voltages caused by load increases or contingencies

This work deals with the analysis of situations where load increases and/or contingencies cause transmission voltages to become unstable or unacceptably low. Simple sensitivities are proposed to determine the relative efficiency of candidate remedial actions, which are parameter changes likely to strengthen the system. To this purpose, the sensitivities of the bus voltage magnitude experiencing the largest drop are considered. In the neighborhood of a loadability limit or a critical point, it is shown that these sensitivities and those based on eigenvalue and eigenvector computation are essentially the same. However, the proposed analysis can also deal with low but stable situations. The accuracy of the proposed sensitivities is demonstrated on the models of two real systems, in which the parameters of concern are bus power injections.
Effects of delay on the type and velocity of travelling pulses in neuronal networks with spatially decaying connectivity

We study a one-dimensional model of integrate-and-fire neurons that are allowed to fire only one spike, and are coupled by excitatory synapses with delay. At small delay values, this model describes a disinhibited cortical slice. At large delay values, the model is a reduction of a model of thalamic networks composed of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, in which the excitatory neurons show the post-inhibitory rebound mechanism. The velocity and stability of propagating continuous pulses are calculated analytically. Two pulses with different velocities exist if the synaptic coupling is larger than a minimal value; the pulse with the lower velocity is always unstable. Above a certain critical value of the constant delay, continuous pulses lose stability via a Hopf bifurcation, and lurching pulses emerge. The parameter regime for which lurching occurs is strongly affected by the synaptic footprint (connectivity) shape. A bistable regime, in which both continuous and lurching pulses can propagate, may occur with square or Gaussian footprint shapes but not with an exponential footprint shape. A perturbation calculation is used in order to calculate the spatial lurching period and the velocity of lurching pulses at large delay values. For strong synaptic coupling, the velocity of the lurching pulse is governed by the tail of the synaptic footprint shape. Moreover, the velocities of continuous and lurching pulses have the same functional dependencies on the strength of the synaptic coupling strength gsyn: they increase logarithmically with gsyn for an exponential footprint shape, they scale like (ln gsyn)1/2 for a Gaussian footprint shape, and they are bounded for a square footprint shape or any shape with a finite support. We find analytically how the axonal propagation velocity reduces the velocity of continuous pulses; it does not affect the critical delay. We conclude that the differences in velocity and shape between the front of thalamic spindle waves in vitro and cortical paroxysmal discharges stem from their different effective delays.
Effects of High Salinity on the Removal of Pollutants in Wastewater by Aerobic Granular Sludge

The aerobic granular sludge (AGS) was used to remove pollutants (COD, NH3-N, TN and TP) in wastewater under different salinity in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). The results show that: the salinity has a significant impact on the removal of COD and TN, and the removal rate declines to 60% and 56% respectively when the water salinity rises from 5g/L to15g/L. The NH3-N removal is not much affected by the salinity, and the average removal rate is 75%. TP removal rate changes little at low-salted environment (the salinity less than 10g/L), however, the rate declines heavily when the salinity gets more than 10g/L, 70% in 10g/L and 57% in 15g/L.
Molecular detection of virulence factors among food and clinical Enterococcus faecalis strains in South Brazil

The present report aimed to perform a molecular epidemiological survey by investigating the presence of virulence factors in E. faecalis isolated from different human clinical (n = 57) and food samples (n = 55) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, collected from 2006 to 2009. In addition, the ability to form biofilm in vitro on polystyrene and the β-haemolytic and gelatinase activities were determined. Clinical strains presented a higher prevalence of aggregation substance (agg), enterococcal surface protein (esp) and cytolysin (cylA) genes when compared with food isolates. The esp gene was found only in clinical strains. On the other hand, the gelatinase (gelE) and adherence factor (ace) genes had similar prevalence among the strains, showing the widespread occurrence of these virulence factors among food and clinical E. faecalis strains in South Brazil. More than three virulence factor genes were detected in 77.2% and 18.2% of clinical and food strains, respectively. Gelatinase and β-haemolysin activities were not associated with the presence of gelE and cylA genes. The ability to produce biofilm was detected in 100% of clinical and 94.6% of food isolates, and clinical strains were more able to form biofilm than the food isolates (Student’s t-test, p < 0.01). Results from the statistical analysis showed significant associations between strong biofilm formation and ace (p = 0.015) and gelE (p = 0.007) genes in clinical strains. In conclusion, our data indicate that E. faecalis strains isolated from clinical and food samples possess distinctive patterns of virulence factors, with a larger number of genes that encode virulence factors detected in clinical strains.
Proportional-Integral Controllers for Minimum-Phase Nonaffine-in-Control Systems

We show that stabilizing tracking proportional-integral (PI) controllers can be constructed for minimum-phase nonaffine-in-control systems. The constructed PI controller is an equivalent realization of an approximate dynamic inversion controller. This equivalence holds only for the time response when applied to the unperturbed system. Even when restricted to unperturbed minimum-phase linear time invariant systems, their closed loop robustness properties differ. This shows that in general, properties that do not define the equivalence relation for systems/controllers are not preserved under such equivalence transformations.
A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association Resistance Exercise in Individuals With and Without Cardiovascular Disease

Prescribed and supervised resistance training (RT) enhances muscular strength and endurance, functional capacity and independence, and quality of life while reducing disability in persons with and without cardiovascular disease. These benefits have made RT an accepted component of programs for health and fitness. The American Heart Association recommendations describing the rationale for participation in and considerations for prescribing RT were published in 2000. This update provides current information regarding the (1) health benefits of RT, (2) impact of RT on the cardiovascular system structure and function, (3) role of RT in modifying cardiovascular disease risk factors, (4) benefits in selected populations, (5) process of medical evaluation for participation in RT, and (6) prescriptive methods. The purpose of this update is to provide clinicians with recommendations to facilitate the use of this valuable modality. (Circulation. 2007;116:572-584.)
A general unified approach to modelling switching-converter power stages

A method for modelling switching-converter power stages is developed, whose starting point is the unified state-space representation of the switched networks and whose end result is either a complete state-space description or its equivalent small-signal low<-f requency linear circuit model. A new canonical circuit model is proposed, whose fixed topology contains all the essential inputr-output and control properties of any dc-todc switching converter, regardless of its detailed configuration, and by which different converters can be characterized in the form of a table conveniently stored in a computer data bank to provide a useful tool for computer aided design and optimization. The new canonical circuit model predicts that, in general;switching action introduces both zeros and poles into the duty ratio to output transfer function in addition to those from the effective filter network.
Charge transfer and in‐cloud structure of large‐charge‐moment positive lightning strokes in a mesoscale convective system

Lightning observations in the very high frequency band and measurements of ultra low frequency magnetic fields are analyzed to investigate the charge transfer and in‐cloud structure of eight positive cloud‐to‐ground (+CG) strokes in a mesoscale convective system. Although no high altitude images were recorded, these strokes contained large charge moment changes (1500–3200 C·km) capable of producing nighttime sprites. Even though the convective region of the storm was where the flashes originated and where the CG strokes could occur, the charge transferred to ground was mainly from the stratiform region. The post‐stroke long continuing currents were connected to highly branched negative leader extension into the stratiform region. While the storm dissipated, the altitude of negative leader propagation in the stratiform area dropped gradually from 8 to 5 km, indicating that in some and perhaps all of these strokes, it was the upper positive charge in the stratiform region that was transferred.
Different roles of Hras for regulation of myosin heavy chain promoters in satellite cell-derived muscle cell culture during proliferation and differentiation

Michael E. Scholz, Joachim D. Meissner, Renate J. Scheibe, Patrick K. Umeda, Kin-Chow Chang, Gerolf Gros, and Hans-Peter Kubis Department of Physiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department of Biochemistry, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Department of Medicine, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama; and School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, United Kingdom
Differential Impact of Statin on New-Onset Diabetes in Different Age Groups: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Women from an Asian Country

Background Statins reduce cardiovascular risks but increase the risk of new-onset diabetes (NOD). The aim of this study is to determine what effect, if any, statins have on the risk of NOD events in a population-based case-control study. An evaluation of the relationship between age and statin-exposure on NOD risks was further examined in a female Asian population. Method In a nationwide case-controlled study, the authors assessed 1065 female NOD patients and 10650 controls with matching ages, genders and physician visit dates. The impact of statin-exposure on NOD was examined through multiple logistic regression models. Subgroup analysis for exploring the risk of NOD and statin-exposure in different age groups was performed. Results Statin-exposure was statistically significantly associated with increased new-onset diabetes risks using multivariate analysis. Interaction effect between age and statin-exposure on NOD risk was noted. For atorvastatin, the risk of cDDDs>60 was highest among the 55–64 year-olds (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 8.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.57–24.90). For rosuvastatin, the risk of cDDDs>60 was highest among the 40–54 year-olds (adjusted OR, 14.8; 95% CI, 2.27–96.15). For simvastatin, the risk of cDDDs>60 was highest among the 55–64 year-olds (adjusted OR, 15.8; 95% CI, 5.77–43.26). For pravastatin, the risk of cDDDs>60 was highest among the 55–64 year-olds (adjusted OR, 14.0; 95% CI, 1.56–125.18). Conclusions This population-based study found that statin use is associated with an increased risk of NOD in women. The risk of statin-related NOD was more evident for women aged 40–64 years compared to women aged 65 or more, and was cumulative-dose dependent. The use of statins should always be determined by weighing the clinical benefits and potential risks for NOD, and the patients should be continuously monitored for adverse effects.
Power-Like Delay in Time Inhomogeneous Fisher-KPP Equations

We consider solutions of the KPP equation with a time-dependent diffusivity of the form σ(t/T). For an initial condition that has sufficiently fast decay in x, we show that when σ(s) is increasing in time the front position at time T is . That is, X(T) lags behind the linear front by an amount that is algebraic in T, not by the Bramson correction (3/2)log T as in the uniform medium. This refines a result by Fang and Zeitouni.
Fundamentals of Cluster-Centric Content Placement in Cache-Enabled Device-to-Device Networks

This paper develops a comprehensive analytical framework with foundations in stochastic geometry to characterize the performance of cluster-centric content placement in a cache-enabled device-to-device (D2D) network. Different from device-centric content placement, cluster-centric placement focuses on placing content in each cluster, such that the collective performance of all the devices in each cluster is optimized. Modeling the locations of the devices by a Poisson cluster process, we define and analyze the performance for three general cases: 1) k-Tx case: the receiver of interest is chosen uniformly at random in a cluster and its content of interest is available at the kth closest device to the cluster center; 2) 1-Rx case: the receiver of interest is the Ith closest device to the cluster center and its content of interest is available at a device chosen uniformly at random from the same cluster; and 3) baseline case: the receiver of interest is chosen uniformly at random in a cluster and its content of interest is available at a device chosen independently and uniformly at random from the same cluster. Easy-to-use expressions for the key performance metrics, such as coverage probability and area spectral efficiency of the whole network, are derived for all three cases. Our analysis concretely demonstrates significant improvement in the network performance when the device on which content is cached or device requesting content from cache is biased to lie closer to the cluster center compared with the baseline case. Based on this insight, we develop and analyze a new generative model for cluster-centric D2D networks that allows to study the effect of intra-cluster interfering devices that are more likely to lie closer to the cluster center.
How does knowing what you are looking for change visual search behavior?

When searching a display, users sometimes know what the target is but sometimes do not. It has generally been assumed that for this latter case people must engage in a deeper semantic evaluation of items during the search process. This idea is central to Information Foraging theory. But do people actually spend longer assessing items when engaged in a semantically demanding search task' We investigate this by having participants locate target items in 16-item menus. Participants were either told exactly what to look for (known-item search) or they were told the category that the target belonged to (semantic search). Participants were faster and more accurate at known-item searches. Eye-movement data show that this was because participants were more likely to skip over items when performing known-item searches. Contrary to expectation, we found limited empirical evidence to support the idea that deeper semantic evaluations of items lead to longer gaze durations (this occurred only when items were arranged very close together). This finding is important because it reveals how people adopt different eye gaze strategies depending on the kind of search activity they are engaged in.
Prediction of time to flashover in the ISO 9705 room corner test based on cone calorimeter test results

The ISO room corner test is used for classification of surface materials in a number of countries, and as the reference scenario test for the new European single burning item test, its importance increases even more. Time to flashover may be regarded the most important result from the room corner test. In this paper we describe three different calculation models for predicting in which period of testing time flashover in the room corner test will occur. The predictions are all based on test results from the cone calorimeter. The models are a modified version of the Wickström/Göransson model, the model by Östman/Tsantaridis and a model based on multivariate statistical analysis. The three models were applied to a data set containing test results from 57 different products. We found that the modified Wickström/Göransson model and the statistical model generally calculated time to flashover with high precision. The Östman/Tsantaridis model was excellent in prediction of time to flashover within 10 min of testing time, but performed poorer for time to flashover above 10 min. Based on these analyses, a simple, but efficient method for predicting the interval of time when flashover occurs is suggested. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory

Past analysis of social movements and social movement organizations has normally assumed a close link between the frustrations or grievances of a collectivity of actors and the growth and decline of movement activity. Questioning the theoretical centrality of this assumption directs social movement analysis away from its heavy emphasis upon the social psychology of social movement participants; it can then be more easily integrated with structural theories of social process. This essay presents a set of concepts and related propositions drawn from a resource mobilization perspective. It emphasizes the variety and sources of resources; the relationship of social movements to the media, authorities, and other parties; and the interaction among movement organizations. Propositions are developed to explain social movement activity at several levels of inclusiveness-the social movement sector, the social movement industry, and social movement organization.
Maternal and child outcome after in vitro fertilization – a review of 25 years of population‐based data from Sweden

Objective. To summarize data on deliveries after in vitro fertilization (IVF) performed in Sweden up to 2006. Design. Cohort study of women and children, conceived after IVF, with comparisons of deliveries after IVF before and after 1 April 2001. Setting. Study based on Swedish health registers. Population. Births registered in the Swedish Medical Birth Register with information on IVF from all IVF clinics in Sweden. Methods. Results from the second study period are summarized, and outcomes between the two periods are compared. Long‐term follow‐up is based on data from both periods. Main outcome measures. Maternal and perinatal outcomes, long‐term sequels. Results. Some maternal pregnancy complications decreased in rate, notably pre‐eclampsia and premature rupture of membranes. The rate of multiple births and preterm births decreased dramatically, with a better neonatal outcome, including reduced neonatal mortality. No difference in outcome existed between IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection or between the use of fresh and cryopreserved embryos, but children born after blastocyst transfer had a slightly higher risk for preterm birth and congenital malformations than children born after cleavage stage transfer. An increased risk for cerebral palsy, possibly for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, for impaired visual acuity and for childhood cancer was noted, but these outcomes were rare also after IVF. An increased risk for asthma was demonstrated. No effect on maternal cancer risk was seen. Conclusion. A marked decrease in multiple births was the main reason for better pregnancy and neonatal outcome and may also have a beneficial effect on long‐term results, notably cerebral palsy.