Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic and phenotypic (co)variances for growth and carcass traits of purebred and composite populations of beef cattle.

Least squares means, genetic (sigma g), and phenotypic (sigma p) standard deviations, and phenotypic coefficients of variation (CV) were estimated on an age-constant basis for growth, carcass, and meat traits of castrate males from 12 breed groups combined, for 9 purebreds combined, and for the F3 generation of three composite populations combined to which the nine purebreds contributed. Also, heritabilities (h2) and genetic (rg) and phenotypic (rp) correlations were estimated among growth, carcass, and meat traits for all breed groups combined involving 1,594 individuals that were the progeny of 306 sires (214 purebred and 92 composites). Coefficients of variation and sigma g generally were similar for composites and contributing purebreds for growth and size-related traits. For traits relating to carcass composition and meat quality, means, sigma p, or CV for composites and contributing purebreds generally were similar. Generally, estimates of sigma g and h2 were similar among all breed groups combined, contributing purebreds combined, and composites combined. Generally, rg were high among all measures of carcass fat, indicating major difficulty in achieving a high percentage of retail product simultaneously with a high fat content of the longissimus muscle that is required for carcass quality grade. Generally, rp were of smaller magnitude than rg. All rp of marbling score or percentage of ether-extracted fat in the longissimus muscle with all end-use properties relating to palatability including shear force, and sensory evaluation of tenderness, juiciness, and flavor were below . 30.
Species‐specific action of (Pro3)GIP – a full agonist at human GIP receptors, but a partial agonist and competitive antagonist at rat and mouse GIP receptors

Specific, high potency receptor antagonists are valuable tools when evaluating animal and human physiology. Within the glucose‐dependent, insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) system, considerable attention has been given to the presumed GIP receptor antagonist, (Pro3)GIP, and its effect in murine studies. We conducted a pharmacological analysis of this ligand including interspecies differences between the rodent and human GIP system.
Different Voices, Similar Perspectives? "Useful" Reviews at the International Movie Database

Digital networked environments have enabled cross-border interactions, which can facilitate understanding and multiperspectivalism when participants’ opportunities to be heard by others are not limited by social or technical factors. We examine the International Movie Database, where people worldwide contribute movie ratings and reviews. An important feature of IMDb is its social voting mechanism, which serves as a gatekeeping process; participants vote as to whether or not reviews are “useful,” and the most useful reviews are predominately displayed. We question whether or not international voices are represented among these elite reviews, and whether they bring unique views that differ from domestic (U.S.) perspectives. We find that international contributions are among the best-rated reviews at rates we would expect. However, we find little evidence that these reviews differ from those written by locals, and question whether participants are really exposed to alternative views of popular movies, despite IMDb’s international character.
Laparoscopic management of adrenal lesions larger than 5 cm in diameter.

INTRODUCTION Laparoscopic adrenalectomy remains a controversial procedure for large tumors. The incidence of adrenocortical carcinoma increases and technical difficulty of adrenalectomy increases as the size increases. We examined the outcome and complications of laparoscopic adrenalectomy for such lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-nine patients underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy, of whom 19 had tumors larger than 5 cm in diameter, having a median tumor size of 7.0 cm. They were compared with patients whose adrenal tumors were smaller than 5 cm. RESULTS Patients with small tumors (< 5 cm) had a significantly shorter median operative time of 90 minutes as compared to 145 minutes in those with large tumors (> 5 cm). There was no significant difference in the median hemoglobin drop (1.05 g/dL versus 1.30 g/dL), time for starting oral intake (24 hours in both groups) or hospital stay (3.5 days versus 4.0 days) between patients with small and large tumors, respectively. There were no intra-operative complications except for 1 incidence of supraventricular tachycardia in a patient with a large pheochromocytoma. There were no major complications seen in any of the patients and no open conversions. Histopathology of large tumors revealed 16 benign tumors (8 pheochromocytomas, 4 adenomas, 2 ganglioneuromas, 1 pseudocyst, and 1 myelolipoma) and 3 malignancies, of which 1 was primary adrenocortical carcinoma and 2 were metastatic renal cell carcinoma. CONCLUSION In experienced hands, laparoscopic adrenalectomy is safe and feasible for large functioning adrenal tumors. Large adrenal tumors suspicious of harboring malignancy with no peri-adrenal involvement can be tackled laparoscopically.
Siamese Convolutional Networks for Cognate Identification

In this paper, we present phoneme level Siamese convolutional networks for the task of pair-wise cognate identification. We represent a word as a two-dimensional matrix and employ a siamese convolutional network for learning deep representations. We present siamese architectures that jointly learn phoneme level feature representations and language relatedness from raw words for cognate identification. Compared to previous works, we train and test on larger and realistic datasets; and, show that siamese architectures consistently perform better than traditional linear classifier approach.
Ambient backscatter: wireless communication out of thin air

We present the design of a communication system that enables two devices to communicate using ambient RF as the only source of power. Our approach leverages existing TV and cellular transmissions to eliminate the need for wires and batteries, thus enabling ubiquitous communication where devices can communicate among themselves at unprecedented scales and in locations that were previously inaccessible. To achieve this, we introduce ambient backscatter, a new communication primitive where devices communicate by backscattering ambient RF signals. Our design avoids the expensive process of generating radio waves; backscatter communication is orders of magnitude more power-efficient than traditional radio communication. Further, since it leverages the ambient RF signals that are already around us, it does not require a dedicated power infrastructure as in traditional backscatter communication. To show the feasibility of our design, we prototype ambient backscatter devices in hardware and achieve information rates of 1 kbps over distances of 2.5 feet and 1.5 feet, while operating outdoors and indoors respectively. We use our hardware prototype to implement proof-of-concepts for two previously infeasible ubiquitous communication applications.
Performance of Optical Packet Switches Based on Parametric Wavelength Converters

In an optical packet switch (OPS), input fibers carry multiple wavelengths, each of which carries a packet to one output fiber. As several wavelengths from different inputs could be destined to the same output fiber, one wavelength can be connected and the others remain disconnected, losing the carried packets. Because of the multiple wavelengths available at an output fiber, wavelength conversion in the OPS of the unconnected wavelengths into those available can increase the number of connections. A parametric wavelength converter (PWC) provides multichannel wavelength conversion where wavelengths can be converted to another. A PWC uses a pump wavelength that can be flexibly chosen to define which wavelengths can be converted, defining the so-called wavelength conversion pairs. However, it is unknown which set of pump wavelengths, and therefore the set of connection pairs, should be selected to improve the OPS performance while the number of PWCs in the OPS is reduced. This paper proposes a pump wavelength selection policy for an OPS that uses different pump wavelengths, one for each PWC, within an arbitrarily selected interval. This policy is called a variety-rich (VR) policy. This paper also introduces a non-wavelength-blocking OPS (NWB-OPS) to make full use of PWCs. The switch performance is evaluated through computer simulation. The results show that the proposed policy with different pump wavelengths achieves the highest performance when compared with another of similar complexity. Furthermore, the performance study shows that small sizes of the interval to select a pump wavelength are more beneficial than larger ones.
Severe hypoxemia in children with upper airway obstruction during sleep does not lead to significant changes in heart rate

Life‐threatening cardiac arrhythmias, including bradyrhythmias, are well‐known sequelae of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) in adults and are associated with apnea and severe hypoxemia. Since the clinical expression of OSAS in children is different, we questioned whether arrhythmias are a common feature of pediatric OSAS. Therefore, we analyzed R‐R interval patterns from 12 subjects (age 8 months to 14 years) with OSAS in detail. The diagnosis of pediatric OSAS is based on clinical signs of loud snoring and paradoxical respiratory efforts, as well as elevated end‐tidal carbon dioxide tension (PETCO2) and major phasic decreases of oxyhemoglobin saturation (SaO2). Two hundred and nine episodes of severe hypoxemia, defined as SaO2 values ⩽85% lasting ⩾30 seconds, were identified. Only 29 (14%) of these episodes were associated with obstructive apneas. The R‐R intervals were analyzed before and during each desaturation. Compared to baseline, mean and minimum R‐R intervals (RR,mean, RRmin) decreased during the desaturation episodes (P < 0.05), while maximum R‐R interval (RRmax) increased (P < 0.05). Although the absolute changes in all parameters were significantly different from baseline, the magnitude of these changes was small, with a mean of −5.3%, −12.2%, and 10.4% for RRmean, RRmin, and RRmax, respectively. No child had life‐threatening arrhythmias. Although severe hypoxemia existed in these children, the magnitude of the R‐R interval changes was modest, and profound bradycardia as described in adults, was rare. We conclude that in children with suspected OSAS, changes in R‐R interval and presence of life‐threatening arrhythmias cannot be used as a screening tool to assess the severity of disease or blood gas abnormalities. We speculate that the difference in heart rate patterns between children and adults may depend, in part, on the degree of airway closure and associated changes in pleural pressure. Pediatr Pulmonol. 1993; 16:362–369. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Common and well-documented HLA alleles: 2012 update to the CWD catalogue.

We have updated the catalogue of common and well-documented (CWD) human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles to reflect current understanding of the prevalence of specific allele sequences. The original CWD catalogue designated 721 alleles at the HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DRB3/4/5, -DQA1, -DQB1, and -DPB1 loci in IMGT (IMmunoGeneTics)/HLA Database release 2.15. 0 as being CWD. The updated CWD catalogue designates 1122 alleles at the HLA-A, -B, -C, -DRB1, -DRB3/4/5, -DQA1, -DQB1, -DPA1 and -DPB1 loci as being CWD, and represents 14.3% of the HLA alleles in IMGT/HLA Database release 3.9. 0. In particular, we identified 415 of these alleles as being 'common' (having known frequencies) and 707 as being 'well-documented' on the basis of ~140,000 sequence-based typing observations and available HLA haplotype data. Using these allele prevalence data, we have also assigned CWD status to specific G and P designations. We identified 147/151 G groups and 290/415 P groups as being CWD. The CWD catalogue will be updated on a regular basis moving forward, and will incorporate changes to the IMGT/HLA Database as well as empirical data from the histocompatibility and immunogenetics community. This version 2.0. 0 of the CWD catalogue is available online at cwd.immunogenomics. org, and will be integrated into the Allele Frequencies Net Database, the IMGT/HLA Database and National Marrow Donor Program's bioinformatics web pages.
N-myc regulation of type I insulin-like growth factor receptor in a human neuroblastoma cell line.

Insulin-like growth factors I and II (IGF-I and IGF-II) stimulate proliferation and differentiation in many cell types, including cell lines derived from human neuroblastomas. Their effects are mediated via the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) that is essential for growth in these cells. Amplification of the N-myc oncogene is a marker for poor prognosis in neuroblastoma development, and it therefore seemed of interest to analyze the relationships that may exist between IGF-IR and N-myc. N-myc-deficient SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells were used as an experimental model. After stable transfection with N-myc cDNA, Northern blotting revealed a marked increased in IGF-IR, IGF-II, IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-2, and IGFBP-4 mRNA levels, whereas IGFBP-6 mRNA levels were clearly diminished. Western immunoblot analysis also demonstrated increased intact IGFBP-2 but decreased IGFBP-6 in the presence of N-myc oncogene. Parallel binding experiments using IGF-I missing the first 3 amino acids revealed a 47% increase in binding sites for IGF-I and an increase of at least 335% in DNA synthesis, as measured by labeled thymidine incorporation into DNA. s.c. injection of these cells into nude mice provoked xenograft development in 50-100% of cases (depending on the series of experiments). Control cells, in contrast, were not tumorigenic. In cells transfected with bp -420/+60 of the human IGF-IR promoter controlling expression of the luciferase reporter gene, promoter activity was stimulated by a factor of 3.8 +/- 0.6 (n = 6) in the presence of N-myc oncogene. This suggests transcriptional regulation of IGF-IR expression by N-myc. IGF-IR activity and N-myc amplification are two events that to date have been identified as independently instrumental in the etiology of human neuroblastoma. Our results provide the first evidence of a direct link between them and demonstrate the effects of the oncogene on components of the IGF system in neuroblastoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo.
The novel coactivator C1 (HCF) coordinates multiprotein enhancer formation and mediates transcription activation by GABP

Transcription of the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV‐1) immediate early (IE) genes is determined by multiprotein enhancer complexes. The core enhancer assembly requires the interactions of the POU‐homeodomain protein Oct‐1, the viral transactivator αTIF and the cellular factor C1 (HCF). In this context, the C1 factor interacts with each protein to assemble the stable enhancer complex. In addition, the IE enhancer cores contain adjacent binding sites for other cellular transcription factors such as Sp1 and GA‐binding protein (GABP). In this study, a direct interaction of the C1 factor with GABP is demonstrated, defining the C1 factor as the critical coordinator of the enhancer complex assembly. In addition, mutations that reduce the GABP transactivation potential also impair the C1–GABP interaction, indicating that the C1 factor functions as a novel coactivator of GABP‐mediated transcription. The interaction and coordinated assembly of the enhancer proteins by the C1 factor may be critical for the regulation of the HSV lytic–latent cycle.
A toolkit for analysis and prediction of touch targeting behaviour on mobile websites

Touch interaction on mobile devices suffers from several problems, such as the thumb's limited reach or the occlusion of targets by the finger. This leads to offsets between the user's intended touch location and the actual location sensed by the device. Recent research has modelled such offset patterns to analyse and predict touch targeting behaviour. However, these models have only been applied in lab experiments for specific tasks (typing, pointing, targeting games). In contrast, their applications to websites are yet unexplored. To close this gap, this paper explores the potential of touch modelling for the mobile web: We present a toolkit which allows web developers to collect and analyse touch interactions with their websites. Our system can learn about users' targeting patterns to simulate expected touch interactions and help identify potential usability issues for future versions of the website prior to deployment. We train models on data collected in a field experiment with 50 participants in a shopping scenario. Our analyses show that the resulting models capture interesting behavioural patterns, reveal insights into user-specific behaviour, and enable predictions of expected error rates for individual interface elements.
It's all in the past: temporal-context effects modulate subjective evaluations of emotional visual stimuli, regardless of presentation sequence

The aim of this study was to investigate if and how temporal context influences subjective affective responses to emotional images. To do so, we examined whether the subjective evaluation of a target image is influenced by the valence of its preceding image, and/or its overall position in a sequence of images. Furthermore, we assessed if these potentially confounding contextual effects can be moderated by a common procedural control: randomized stimulus presentation. Four groups of participants evaluated the same set of 120 pictures from the International Affective System (IAPS) presented in four different sequences. Our data reveal strong effects of both aspects of temporal context in all presentation sequences, modified only slightly in their nature and magnitude. Furthermore, this was true for both valence and arousal ratings. Subjective ratings of negative target images were influenced by temporal context most strongly across all sequences. We also observed important gender differences: females expressed greater sensitivity to temporal-context effects and design manipulations relative to males, especially for negative images. Our results have important implications for future emotion research that employs normative picture stimuli, and contributes to our understanding of context effects in general.
DUTIR at TREC 2006: Genomics and Enterprise Tracks

This paper describes the techniques we applied for the two TREC 2006 tracks, i.e., Genomics and Enterprise track. For the Genomics Track, we used a Rocchio relevance feedback method to expand the terms and then performed passage retrieval by building dual index and using half overlapped windows passages. Several approaches to merge the results and rerank the passages are presented. For the Enterprise track, we stripped the non-letter character from documents and query, built the index by indri or lemur and established expert document pools.
Optimization of conditions for assessment of genetic diversity in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) using microsatellite markers

Microsatellites are among the most informative and popular class of molecular markers for assessment of genetic diversity both in animals and plants. For reliable inference of results, however, optimization of various conditions involved is a pre-requisite. The present study was carried out to optimize conditions for assessment of genetic diversity in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) using microsatellite markers. Parameters optimized for 14 SSR markers included template DNA concentration, simple and hot-start PCR, primer and MgCl2 concentration and polyacrylamide gel conditions for fine resolution of amplicons. Two PCR profiles, each for a set of 7 markers, differing in primer annealing temperatures were used. An optimal template DNA concentration with consistent results was found to be 50ng for 25µL reaction volume, while no results were observed with 500ng template DNA for 25μL reaction volume. Hot-start PCR gave better results than simple PCR. Optimal concentrations for primers and MgCl2 were 0. 20μM and 2mM, respectively. Out of various combinations of polyacrylamide gel used in optimization, the best resolution of bands for 20cm x 1.5mm vertical gel was obtained for 10% gel from 20% (19:1 ratio of acrylamide: bis-acrylamide) stock solution, ½ X TBE (45mM Tris, 45mM Borate, 1.25mM EDTA) in gel as well as in running buffer at 100V of constant power supply for 3-4 hours depending upon sizes of amplicons.
Oligomerization, Conformational Stability and Thermal Unfolding of Harpin, HrpZPss and Its Hypersensitive Response-Inducing C-Terminal Fragment, C-214-HrpZPss

HrpZ—a harpin from Pseudomonas syringae—is a highly thermostable protein that exhibits multifunctional abilities e.g., it elicits hypersensitive response (HR), enhances plant growth, acts as a virulence factor, and forms pores in plant plasma membranes as well as artificial membranes. However, the molecular mechanism of its biological activity and high thermal stability remained poorly understood. HR inducing abilities of non-overlapping short deletion mutants of harpins put further constraints on the ability to establish structure-activity relationships. We characterized HrpZPss from Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae and its HR inducing C-terminal fragment with 214 amino acids (C-214-HrpZPss) using calorimetric, spectroscopic and microscopic approaches. Both C-214-HrpZPss and HrpZPss were found to form oligomers. We propose that leucine-zipper-like motifs may take part in the formation of oligomeric aggregates, and oligomerization could be related to HR elicitation. CD, DSC and fluorescence studies showed that the thermal unfolding of these proteins is complex and involves multiple steps. The comparable conformational stability at 25°C (∼10.0 kcal/mol) of HrpZPss and C-214-HrpZPss further suggest that their structures are flexible, and the flexibility allows them to adopt proper conformation for multifunctional abilities.
Umbilical cord blood banking: from personal donation to international public registries to global bioeconomy

The procedures for collecting voluntarily and freely donated umbilical cord blood (UCB) units and processing them for use in transplants are extremely costly, and the capital flows thus generated form part of an increasingly pervasive global bioeconomy. To place the issue in perspective, this article first examines the different types of UCB biobank, the organization of international registries of public UCB biobanks, the optimal size of national inventories, and the possibility of obtaining commercial products from donated units. The fees generally applied for the acquisition of UCB units for transplantation are then discussed, and some considerations are proposed regarding the social and ethical implications raised by the international network for the importation and exportation of UCB, with a particular emphasis on the globalized bioeconomy of UCB and its commerciality or lack thereof.