Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential, regional, and cellular expression of the stathmin family transcripts in the adult rat brain

Stathmin is a ubiquitous cytosolic phosphoprotein, preferentially expressed in the nervous system, and previously described as a relay integrating diverse intracellular signaling pathways. Stathmin is the generic element of a mammalian protein family including SCG10, SCLIP, and RB3 with its splice variants RB3′ and RB3″. In contrast with stathmin, SCG10, SCLIP, and RB3/RB3′/RB3″ are exclusively expressed in the nervous system, stathmin and SCG10 being mostly expressed during cell proliferation and differentiation, and SCLIP and RB3 rather in mature neural cells. To further understand their specific roles in the CNS, we compared the localization of the stathmin, SCG10, SCLIP, and RB3 transcripts in adult rat brain. Northern blot analysis as well as in situ hybridization experiments showed that all stathmin‐related mRNAs are expressed in a wide range of adult rat brain areas. At a regional level, SCG10 and SCLIP appear generally distributed similarly except in a few areas. The pattern of expression of the RB3 transcript is very different from that of the three other members of the stathmin family. Furthermore, unlike SCG10 and SCLIP, which were detected only in neurons, but like stathmin, RB3 was detected in neurons and also in glial cells of the white matter. Altogether, our results suggest distinct roles for each member of the stathmin‐related phosphoprotein family, in regard to their specific regional and cellular localization in the rat brain. J. Neurosci. Res. 56:553–564, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Client-Side Journaling for Durable Shared Storage

Hardware consolidation in the datacenter often leads to scalability bottlenecks from heavy utilization of critical resources, such as the storage and network bandwidth. Client-side caching on durable media is already applied at block level to reduce the storage backend load but has received criticism for added overhead, restricted sharing, and possible data loss at client crash. We introduce a journal to the kernel-level client of an object-based distributed filesystem to improve durability at high I/O performance and reduced shared resource utilization. Storage virtualization at the file interface achieves clear consistency semantics across data and metadata, supports native file sharing among clients, and provides flexible configuration of durable data staging at the host. Over a prototype that we have implemented, we experimentally quantify the performance and efficiency of the proposed Arion system in comparison to a production system. We run microbenchmarks and application-level workloads over a local cluster and a public cloud. We demonstrate reduced latency by 60% and improved performance up to 150% at reduced server network and disk bandwidth by 41% and 77%, respectively. The performance improvement reaches 92% for 16 relational databases as clients and gets as high as 11.3x with two key-value stores as clients.
Perception Differential between Employers and Undergraduates on the Importance of Employability Skills.

This paper attempts to investigate if the undergraduates’ core competencies are able to meet with the requirements set by the employers and to analyse the effectiveness of personal qualities and employability skills development in private university in Malaysia. Questionnaires survey, mean score comparison, and independent sample t-test are used to capture the perception differential between 30 employers and 600 undergraduates from a local private university on the importance of employability skills. Our results show that the undergraduates are all highly competent in possessing the said personal qualities and skills. However, such skills as critical analysis, planning, problem solving, oral communication, decision making, and negotiating report a slightly higher level of mismatch between employers’ and undergraduates’ perception on their importance and development in the University.
Body fat and skeletal muscle mass in relation to physical disability in very old men and women of the Framingham Heart Study.

BACKGROUND Low muscle mass has been assumed to be associated with disability, but no studies confirming this association have been published. High body weight and high body mass index, both rough indicators of body fatness, have been shown to increase the risk for disability; however, the specific role of body fatness has not been studied. METHODS The relations of skeletal muscle mass and percent body fat with self-reported physical disability were studied in 753 men and women aged 72 to 95 years. Cross-sectional data from biennial examination 22 (1992-1993) of the Framingham Heart Study were used. Body composition was assessed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Disability was scored as any versus none on a 9-item questionnaire. RESULTS Total body and lower extremity muscle mass were not associated with disability in either men or women. However, a strong positive association between percent body fat and disability was observed. The odds ratio for disability in those in the highest tertile of body fatness was 2.69 (95% confidence interval 1.45-5.00) for women and 3.08 (1.22-7.81) for men compared to those in the lowest tertile. The increased risk could not be explained by age, education, physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, estrogen use (women only), muscle mass, and health status. Analyses restricting disability to mobility items gave similar results. CONCLUSIONS In contrast to current assumptions, low skeletal muscle mass was not associated with self-reported physical disability. Persons with a high percent body fat had high levels of disability. Because it cannot be ruled out that persons with low skeletal muscle mass dropped out earlier in the study, prospective studies are needed to further assess the relationship between body composition and physical disability.
Sequencing and Transcriptional Analysis of the Biosynthesis Gene Cluster of Putrescine-Producing Lactococcus lactis

ABSTRACT Lactococcus lactis is a prokaryotic microorganism with great importance as a culture starter and has become the model species among the lactic acid bacteria. The long and safe history of use of L. lactis in dairy fermentations has resulted in the classification of this species as GRAS (General Regarded As Safe) or QPS (Qualified Presumption of Safety). However, our group has identified several strains of L. lactis subsp. lactis and L. lactis subsp. cremoris that are able to produce putrescine from agmatine via the agmatine deiminase (AGDI) pathway. Putrescine is a biogenic amine that confers undesirable flavor characteristics and may even have toxic effects. The AGDI cluster of L. lactis is composed of a putative regulatory gene, aguR, followed by the genes (aguB, aguD, aguA, and aguC) encoding the catabolic enzymes. These genes are transcribed as an operon that is induced in the presence of agmatine. In some strains, an insertion (IS) element interrupts the transcription of the cluster, which results in a non-putrescine-producing phenotype. Based on this knowledge, a PCR-based test was developed in order to differentiate nonproducing L. lactis strains from those with a functional AGDI cluster. The analysis of the AGDI cluster and their flanking regions revealed that the capacity to produce putrescine via the AGDI pathway could be a specific characteristic that was lost during the adaptation to the milk environment by a process of reductive genome evolution.
DNN-based residual echo suppression

Due to the limitations of power ampliﬁers or loudspeakers, the echo signals captured in the microphones are not in a linear relationship with the far-end signals even when the echo path is perfectly linear. The nonlinear components of the echo cannot be successfully removed by a linear acoustic echo canceller. Residual echo suppression (RES) is a technique to suppress the remained echo after acoustic echo suppression (AES). Conventional approaches compute RES gain using Wiener ﬁlter or spectral subtraction method based on the estimated statistics on related signals. In this paper, we propose a deep neural network (DNN)-based RES gain estimation based on both the far-end and the AES output signals in all frequency bins. A DNN architecture, which is suitable to model a complicated nonlinear mapping between high-dimensional vectors, is employed as a regression function from these signals to the optimal RES gain. The proposed method can suppress the residual components without any explicit double-talk detectors. The experimental results show that our proposed approach outperforms a conventional method in terms of the echo return loss enhancement (ERLE) for single-talk periods and the perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) score for double-talk periods.
Liver Transplantation for Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Validation of the UCSF‐Expanded Criteria Based on Preoperative Imaging

We previously suggested that in patients with heptocellular carcinoma (HCC), the conventional Milan criteria (T1/T2) for orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) could be modestly expanded based on pathology (UCSF criteria). The present study was undertaken to prospectively validate the UCSF criteria based on pretransplant imaging. Over a 5‐year period, the UCSF criteria were used as selection guidelines for OLT in 168 patients, including 38 patients exceeding Milan but meeting UCSF criteria (T3A). The 1‐ and 5‐year recurrence‐free probabilities were 95.9% and 90.9%, and the respective survivals without recurrence were 92.1% and 80.7%. Patients with preoperative T1/T2 HCC had 1‐ and 5‐year recurrence‐free probabilities of 95.7% and 90.1%, respectively, versus 96.9% and 93.6%, respectively, for preoperative T3A stage (p = 0.58). Under‐staging was observed in 20% of T2 and 29% of T3A HCC (p = 0.26). When explant tumor exceeded UCSF criteria (15%), the 1‐ and 5‐year recurrence‐free probabilities were 80.4% and 59.5%, versus 98.6% and 96.7%, respectively, for those within UCSF criteria (p < 0.0001). In conclusion, our results validated the ability of the UCSF criteria to discriminate prognosis after OLT and to serve as selection criteria for OLT, with a similar risk of tumor recurrence and under‐staging when compared to the Milan criteria.
Static nonlinear output feedback H/sub 2/ control for T-S fuzzy models

In this presentation, we investigate H/sub 2/ suboptimal control problem for fuzzy plants which is represented by Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy models with nonlinear output. A static output feedback controller that is constructed in a form of parallel distributed compensation (PDC) is designed to stabilize the fuzzy plants. A set of discretized linear matrix inequalities is derived to ensure the performance of the corresponding closed-loop systems.
Clovis points on flakes: A technological variation seen in long distance lithic transport

Abstract Both experimental and refitting studies have contributed to our current understanding of Clovis point production. Most Clovis points are manufactured through a series of biface regularization and thinning processes leading to a preform, which in the final stage results in a finished projectile point. However, not all points follow this production process and these atypical examples are identified by preserving evidence of the original flake blank on and of their faces. Such points are relatively rare in the archaeological record. A sample of Clovis points from the central Great Plains is analyzed to determine the frequency and significance of points manufactured on flake blanks. The origin of the raw material for the two subsets of points is also investigated and this shows that as the distance from the lithic source increases, more Clovis projectile points are manufactured on flakes with little additional retouch. This suggests that Clovis points on flakes represent a technological strategy in the central Great Plains focused on lithic conservation where flakes are substituted for bifacial preforms as a way to maximize the utility of raw material from distant sources.
In vitro fracture resistance of three commercially available zirconia crowns for primary molars.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to measure the fracture resistance of primary mandibular first molar zirconia crowns from three different manufacturers-EZ Pedo (EZP), NuSmile (NSZ), and Kinder Krowns (KK)-and compare it with the thickness of the zirconia crowns and the measured fracture resistance of preveneered stainless steel crowns (SSCs). METHODS The thickness of 20 zirconia crowns from three manufacturers were measured. The mean force required to fracture the crowns was determined. Preveneered NuSmile (NSW) SSCs were tested as a control. RESULTS EZP crowns were significantly thicker in three of the six measured locations. The force required to fracture the EZP crown was significantly higher than that required for NSZ and KK. There was a positive correlation between fracture resistance and crown thickness in the mesial, distal, mesioocclusal, and distoocclusal dimensions. None of the zirconia crowns proved to be as resistant to fracture as the preveneered SSCs. CONCLUSIONS Statistically significant differences were found among the forces required to fracture zirconia crowns by three different manufacturers. The increase in force correlated with crown thickness. The forces required to fracture the preveneered stainless steel crowns were greater than the forces required to fracture all manufacturers' zirconia crowns.
Evaluating the Reliability and Validity of the Questionnaire for Lung Transplant Patients

Context The Questionnaire for Lung Transplant Patients was designed for clinical use by the pulmonary transplant team in the routine evaluation of lung transplant recipients. Using the self-administered questionnaire, recipients check symptoms that they have had since their last evaluation and rate their shortness of breath, cough, and activity tolerance. Objective To determine whether the questionnaire meets reliability and validity standards for empirical measurement. Methods Demographics and disease-severity characteristics were examined in a cross-sectional survey of 37 recipients. Test-retest and intraclass correlation methods were used to estimate stability, and the Cronbach α was used to estimate internal consistency. Criterion validity was examined by using The Modified Symptom Frequency/Symptom Distress Scale, Functional Performance Inventory, and visual analog scales for cough and shortness of breath as criterion measures. Construct validity was examined to assess the predicted negative correlation between symptoms and functional performance. Results The questionnaire and its subscales were internally consistent (Cronbach α = 0.82, 0.76, 0.80, and 0.96), and the questionnaire was stable (r = 0.70) and reliable (intraclass correlations = 0.80 and 0.90). Significant correlations were found between the questionnaire and all criterion measures (r = 0.50–0.93). Significant correlations in the predicted negative direction were found between the respiratory subscale and functional performance (r = −0.51) and between cough (r = −0.51) and shortness of breath (r = −0.68) ratings and functional performance. Conclusions The Questionnaire for Lung Transplant Patients is reliable and valid, and it provides scientifically sound information for clinical and empirical evaluation of symptoms and their effects on activity tolerance after lung transplantation.
Intimacy: A Special Issue

"I didn't think it would turn out this way" is the secret epitaph of intimacy. To intimate is to communicate with the sparest of signs and gestures, and at its root intimacy has the quality of eloquence and brevity. But intimacy also involves an aspiration for a narrative about something shared, a story about both oneself and others that will turn out in a particular way. Usually, this story is set within zones of familiarity and comfort: friendship, the couple, and the family form, animated by expressive and emancipating kinds of love. Yet the inwardness of the intimate is met by a corresponding publicness. People consent to trust their desire for "a life" to institutions of intimacy; and it is hoped that the relations formed within those frames will turn out beautifully, lasting over the long duration, perhaps across generations. This view of "a life" that unfolds intact within the intimate sphere represses, of course, another fact about it: the unavoidable troubles, the distractions and disruptions that make things turn out in unpredicted scenarios. Romance and friendship inevitably meet the instabilities of sexuality, money, expectation, and exhaustion, producing, at the extreme, moral dramas of estrangement and betrayal, along with terrible spectacles of neglect and violence even where desire, perhaps, endures. Since the early twentieth century these strong ambivalences within the intimate sphere have been recorded by proliferating forms of therapeutic publicity. At present, in the U.S., therapy saturates the scene of intimacy, from
Renormalized Phonon Microstructures at High Temperatures from First-Principles Calculations: Methodologies and Applications in Studying Strong Anharmonic Vibrations of Solids

While the vibrational thermodynamics of materials with small anharmonicity at low temperatures has been understood well based on the harmonic phonons approximation, at high temperatures, this understanding must accommodate how phonons interact with other phonons or with other excitations. To date the anharmonic lattice dynamics is poorly understood despite its great importance, and most studies still rely on the quasiharmonic approximations. We shall see that the phonon-phonon interactions give rise to interesting coupling problems and essentially modify the equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of materials, for example, thermal expansion, thermodynamic stability, heat capacity, optical properties, thermal transport, and other nonlinear properties of materials. The review aims to introduce some recent developements of computational methodologies that are able to efficiently model the strong phonon anharmonicity based on quantum perturbation theory of many-body interactions and first-principles molecular dynamics simulations. The effective potential energy surface of renormalized phonons and structures of the phonon-phonon interaction channels can be derived from these interdependent methods, which provide both macroscopic and microscopic perspectives in analyzing the strong anharmonic phenomena while the traditional harmonic models fail dramatically. These models have been successfully performed in the studies on the temperature-dependent broadenings of Raman and neutron scattering spectra, high temperature phase stability, and negative thermal expansion of rutile and cuprite structures, for example.
Laboratory Diagnosis of Human Neurocysticercosis: Double-Blind Comparison of Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay and Electroimmunotransfer Blot Assay

ABSTRACT Neurocysticercosis is a common disease in underdeveloped countries. Its diagnosis is based on clinical, imaging (tomography or magnetic resonance), epidemiological, and laboratory data. Several methods based on the detection of antibodies against cysticerci in cerebrospinal fluid or serum have been tested. Among them, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the use of a crude parasite antigen has been used by the laboratory network of cysticercosis in Mexico, which has given support to clinicians for up to 7 years. A Taenia solium-specific glycoprotein-based electroimmunotransfer blot (EITB) assay was reported to be highly sensitive and specific for this purpose. In order to compare both techniques, we studied 100 neurocysticercosis patients and 70 neurological noncysticercosis controls and searched for specific antibodies in paired samples of serum and cerebrospinal fluid using both techniques. We found that the EITB assay is more sensitive than the ELISA, especially when serum is being tested. Both techniques are more sensitive in cases with multiple living cysts than in cases with single cysts or calcified lesions. No global differences among cases with parasites located in different parts of the central nervous system were found. In the patients with cysts within the parenchyma, the sensitivity of the EITB assay was higher with serum than with cerebrospinal fluid. The immunodominant bands were found to be the same as those previously reported, i.e., GP-39 to -42, GP-24, and GP-13. Based on these results, we suggest the use of the EITB assay in routine diagnosis of cysticercosis for clinical cases.
Crime, Justice, And Underdevelopment: The Palestinians Under Israeli Control

Orthodox theories of crime in the Third World and in regions of uneven economic development offer a unilinear explanation of the relationship between economic development and increased crime rates. Simply stated, this Durkheimian position views the transition from traditional to modern society as being associated with the weakening of mechanical forms of solidarity and the emergence of secular and impersonal role structures based on a complex division of labor. Universalistic and achievement criteria replace ascriptive and particularistic values, and deviance-derived social control models based on formalized coercive sanctions substitute for traditional and community-based forms of control. Anomic behavior, frustration of expectations, and norm violation are considered an expected, if transitory, outcome of social change, and are explained on the basis of a clash between modern and traditional value systems.
Why Trade Facilitation is Important for Africa

Trade facilitation can provide important opportunities for Africa by increasing the benefits from open trade, and contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction. Removing trade barriers has contributed to the expansion of global trade in the decade after the conclusion of the trade negotiations of the Uruguay Round in 1994 and the subsequent establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, the quest for more open trade is not an end in of itself but driven by the experience that open trade provides more economic opportunities for people. Producers can offer their goods and services to more customers, and consumers have more choices, lower prices, and access to innovations. Open markets increase prospects of producing and selling new ideas and products locally, regionally and in global markets, which leads to more income opportunities and the improvement of living standards. Trade facilitation measures have become a key instrument to create a better trading environment. The international community has acknowledged that for many lower income countries having better market access to industrial countries is insufficient unless the capabilities to trade are addressed as well. The resulting trade capacity building activities evolved into a broader and comprehensive Aid for Trade agenda, with trade facilitation playing a major role in these efforts. This chapter argues for approaching trade facilitation in a comprehensive way by addressing the new challenges to trade, which no longer arise predominantly from high tariffs but from barriers behind the border. This approach highlights the need for cross-sector analysis, for example along the value-chain of products, to address trade bottlenecks. However, the biggest obstacle to greater trade integration is the lack of accompanying policy and regulatory reforms. Trade facilitation can provide opportunities for African exporters if hard infrastructure and technical advice are backed by equally ambitious policy reforms.