Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Global collaborative engineering environment for integrated product development

Globalization has created a situation of increased international competition, which has put companies under enormous pressure in order to sustain and improve their value added to customers based on mass customization and time-to-market opportunities. This has lead to more international collaboration within companies and their different facilities worldwide, or among different companies in global supply chains. In this scenario the tasks of design and manufacturing of products are being executed by different facilities of one large company or by a diversity of companies, usually at different geographical locations. To support all the product life cycle activities, modelling tools and computer applications have been created. During this research project a global collaborative engineering environment and web-based applications have been developed to demonstrate how virtual collaborative product development can be achieved and a case study is presented to demonstrate how collaborative design for high-tech products can be undertaken.
Illuminating the Dark Side of Creative Expression: Assimilation Needs and the Consequences of Creative Action Following Mortality Salience

Previous research indicates that mortality salience and creative behavior combine to increase feelings of guilt, presumably over the disruption to social connection elicited by the call for innovative expression. The present studies examined whether satiating assimilation motives by highlighting conformity to others reduces this effect (Study 1) and facilitates positive psychological engagement (Study 2). Study 1 used a 2 (conformity vs. neutral feedback)× 2 (mortality salience vs. control)× 2 (creative task vs. noncreative task) design and had participants complete a self-report measure of guilt. Study 2 used a 2 (mortality salience vs. control)× 2 (other goal task vs. self-goal task) design, and after a creativity exercise, had participants complete measures of positive mood, vitality, and creative problem solving. Results indicated attending to assimilation needs reduced the elevated guilt that follows the juxtaposition of mortality salience and creative behavior and also increased a sense of positive engagement. Implications are briefly discussed.
The Multi-zinc Finger Protein ZNF217 Contacts DNA through a Two-finger Domain*

Background: Classical C2H2 zinc finger proteins generally bind DNA via a three-finger motif. Results: We have identified the DNA site recognized by ZNF217 and defined its mechanism of binding. Conclusion: Two classical C2H2 zinc fingers, rather than the typical three, are sufficient to bind an eight base pair sequence. Significance: This work broadens our understanding of DNA binding by classical zinc fingers. Classical C2H2 zinc finger proteins are among the most abundant transcription factors found in eukaryotes, and the mechanisms through which they recognize their target genes have been extensively investigated. In general, a tandem array of three fingers separated by characteristic TGERP links is required for sequence-specific DNA recognition. Nevertheless, a significant number of zinc finger proteins do not contain a hallmark three-finger array of this type, raising the question of whether and how they contact DNA. We have examined the multi-finger protein ZNF217, which contains eight classical zinc fingers. ZNF217 is implicated as an oncogene and in repressing the E-cadherin gene. We show that two of its zinc fingers, 6 and 7, can mediate contacts with DNA. We examine its putative recognition site in the E-cadherin promoter and demonstrate that this is a suboptimal site. NMR analysis and mutagenesis is used to define the DNA binding surface of ZNF217, and we examine the specificity of the DNA binding activity using fluorescence anisotropy titrations. Finally, sequence analysis reveals that a variety of multi-finger proteins also contain two-finger units, and our data support the idea that these may constitute a distinct subclass of DNA recognition motif.
Biases in the analysis of stable isotope discrimination in food webs

Summary 1. Recently, Caut, Angulo & Courchamp (2009, Journal of Applied Ecology) published a review on diet-tissue isotopic shifts in animals. They concluded that diet-tissue shifts are influenced by the isotopic composition of the diet for both 13C and 15N in a wide range of animal taxa. 2. We suggest that the conclusion of Caut, Angulo & Courchamp is in error, and provide a discussion of sources of error in the assessment of diet-tissue discrimination. 3. Errors in the derivation of diet-tissue shifts include imprecise definitions, mathematical artefacts and invalid statistical analysis. It is likely that the work also suffers from experimental bias. The mathematical artefacts and statistical invalidity result from using the same variable (diet isotopic composition) in the independent and dependent variable for regression analysis and failure to correct for the resulting bias. Experimental bias can result from the incomplete turnover of body pools after diet switches or during natural fluctuations in diet isotope composition. Unfortunately, the main sources of error work in the same direction, strengthening the biased relationship between the diet-tissue shift and diet isotope composition. Therefore, the analysis of Caut et al. (2009) does not provide proof of a relationship between diet-tissue shift and diet isotope composition. 4.Synthesis and application. Future work on diet-tissue discrimination factors should (i) follow the mathematical rules resulting from how isotope data are presented, (ii) be based on appropriate statistics analysis that avoids or corrects for spurious self-correlations, and (iii) consider possible complications associated with the presence of slowly turning-over stores and non-equilibrating ‘dead’ body pools.
A resource management framework for mobile IPTV service with scalable video coding

In this paper, we present a resource management framework for scalable transmission control, which optimizes resource allocation for scalable video coding (SVC)-based mobile IPTV service. In particular, it includes a scenario without any bandwidth constraint, in which total resource consumption for mobile IPTV service must be minimized so as to support more unicast data traffic with the remaining resource when enhanced multicast & broadcast service (E-MBS) specification is employed in Mobile WiMAX network. Our scalable transmission control problem in this scenario is to design a system in which resource consumption and utility gain are properly traded while maintaining a given level of service coverage for each layer of the scalable video-encoded stream.
What causes endothelial cell activation in preeclamptic women?

Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy and a leading cause of fetal and maternal morbidity and mortality. It is associated with proteinuria, pathological edema, coagulation abnormalities, reduced uteroplacental blood flow, and intrauterine growth restriction. The cause of preeclampsia is not known, but there is good evidence that it is associated with endothelial cell activation and dysfunction. Many investigators have demonstrated markers of endothelial cell activation in women with preeclampsia. Indicators of endothelial activation include increased circulating levels of von Willebrand factor, endothelin, soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule, thrombomodulin, and cellular fibronectin as well as increased growth factor activity.1,2 Perhaps the most important indicator of endothelial cell dysfunction is decreased plasma and urinary levels of prostacyclin, because the endothelium is the main source of prostacyclin.3–5 Factors present in the blood of preeclamptic women cause endothelial cell activation. For example, exposure of endothelial cells to plasma or serum from preeclamptic women causes activation of nuclear factor-κB and increased expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 compared with plasma or serum from normal pregnant women.6,7 Treatment with antioxidants prevents these effects, so oxidative stress appears to mediate the effects of plasma factors. The question remains what factor or factors present in the blood of preeclamptic women causes endothelial cell activation. To date, a number of possible candidates have been suggested.
Health-Related Quality of Life in Thoracic Aortic Disease

Abstract Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been reported to be near-to-normal after operations on the proximal aorta. However, a thorough evaluation of variables related to postoperative HRQOL is lacking. We report HRQOL after surgery on the proximal aorta acknowledging current symptoms and conditions. If modifiable factors affect HRQOL, surgical treatment could be tailored to optimize outcomes. Methods: The short form 36 item (SF-36) questionnaire was used to measure HRQOL in eight domains and a physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) score. Median differences (Δ) between the component summary scores and a sex- and age-matched reference group from the general population were the primary outcome measures, along with comparisons of patient subgroups according to pathology (aneurysm versus dissection), aortic valve procedure, and circulatory arrest. Results: In 207 patients operated on the proximal aorta, after a mean of three years, there were no significant differences in median PCS (Δ = −0.3 [95% confidence limits −2.6, 2.0]) and MCS (Δ = 1.7 [−0.4, 2.9]) scores compared to the reference group, but median scores for the physical functioning, general health, and mental health domains were significantly lower. There were no statistically significant differences in PCS, MCS, or domain scores for patients with aneurysm versus dissection, for patients undergoing aortic valve procedures or not, or for patients managed with circulatory arrest or not. In multivariable analysis, exertional dyspnea was independently related to both ΔPCS (−6.5 [−13, −0.44]) and ΔMCS (−7.5 [−13, −1.6]), whereas age, exertional calf pain, and myocardial infarction were related only to ΔPCS. Conclusions: Overall HRQOL after surgery on the proximal aorta is encouraging, which remains important when benchmarking against novel therapeutic procedures. At follow-up, HRQOL appears related to current symptoms and conditions, but not to operative procedures. To better understand their impact on HRQOL, prospective studies comparing pre- and postoperative scores are needed.
A Multi-Finger Touchless Fingerprinting System: Mobile Fingerphoto and Legacy Database Interoperability

We have developed a Multi-Finger Touchless fingerprinting system that can be deployed on most smartphones, capturing prints with only the rear camera and the LED flash. These prints are interoperable with conventional touch-based print databases. This allows fingerprint identification to be rolled out to the general population as a software only solution. This system features an automatic image capture system where we automatically detect each finger and enhance each finger's corresponding image to resemble a touch-based print. From start to finish the capture time is approximately 6 seconds with a favourable deployment footprint of under 10MB. On an initial test database of 1400 touchless fingerprints and 6600 touch-based fingerprints, we achieved a touchless-touch match rate of 98.6% with a 0.0% false accept rate.
Label-driven weakly-supervised learning for multimodal deformarle image registration

Spatially aligning medical images from different modalities remains a challenging task, especially for intraoperative applications that require fast and robust algorithms. We propose a weakly-supervised, label-driven formulation for learning 3D voxel correspondence from higher-level label correspondence, thereby bypassing classical intensity-based image similarity measures. During training, a convolutional neural network is optimised by outputting a dense displacement field (DDF) that warps a set of available anatomical labels from the moving image to match their corresponding counterparts in the fixed image. These label pairs, including solid organs, ducts, vessels, point landmarks and other ad hoc structures, are only required at training time and can be spatially aligned by minimising a cross-entropy function of the warped moving label and the fixed label. During inference, the trained network takes a new image pair to predict an optimal DDF, resulting in a fully-automatic, label-free, real-time and deformable registration. For interventional applications where large global transformation prevails, we also propose a neural network architecture to jointly optimise the global- and local displacements. Experiment results are presented based on cross-validating registrations of 111 pairs of T2-weighted magnetic resonance images and 3D transrectal ultrasound images from prostate cancer patients with a total of over 4000 anatomical labels, yielding a median target registration error of 4.2 mm on landmark centroids and a median Dice of 0.88 on prostate glands.
Editorial: ultrasound surveillance of hepatocellular carcinoma in the 21st century – authors' reply

modalities compared to ultrasound in most societies. Neither modality is without risk. CT involves significant radiation doses and both CT andMRI require the administration of intravenous contrast for optimum examination which can be associated with significant side effects. Despite its limitations, ultrasound will remain the primary imaging modality for HCC for the foreseeable future. It is therefore crucial to maximise the performance of ultrasound as a screening tool by ensuring it is performed and reported by adequately trained operators; they need to be experienced in hepatobiliary imaging in order to obtain high-quality diagnostic examinations and to minimise the referral rate for CT/MRI imaging surveillance, and the ensuing financial and resource implications associated with this.
[Therapeutic effect of qingyi decoction and tetrandrine in treating severe acute pancreatitis in miniature pigs and serum drug level determination].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the therapeutic effect of Qingyi Decoction (QYD) and tetrandrine (Tet), used singly or combind, in treating miniature pigs with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) and its mechanism. METHODS Thirty-two Guizhou miniature pigs were made into SAP model by pancreatic duct retrograde injection of 5% sodium taurocholate. They were randomly divided into 4 groups: the control group, the QYD group, the Tet group and the combined treated group. The serum amylase activity and interleukin-1 and 6 (IL-1, IL-6) contents in serum from vena cava and portal vein were tested by biochemistry and radioimmunoassay (RIA). Serum emodin and plasma Tet levels were measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) 24, 48 and 72 hrs after treatment. And the pathological changes of pancreas, lung and liver were observed under microscope. RESULTS The mortality of SAP pigs was reduced significantly and the inflammatory injury of the organs was ameliorated obviously in all treated groups, and the increased amylase activity and IL-1, IL-6 levels was attenuated. The therapeutic effect was much more obvious, and the plasma Tet level at different time points were much higher in the combined treated group than those in the other two groups treated by single drug (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Both QYD and Tet could treat effectively SAP through multiple pathways, combination of them reveals an elevation of serum drug concentration and shows a synergistic effect.
Activation of β-Catenin Signaling in Androgen Receptor–Negative Prostate Cancer Cells

Purpose: To study Wnt/β-catenin in castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and understand its function independently of the β-catenin–androgen receptor (AR) interaction. Experimental Design: We carried out β-catenin immunocytochemical analysis, evaluated TOP-flash reporter activity (a reporter of β-catenin–mediated transcription), and sequenced the β-catenin gene in MDA prostate cancer 118a, MDA prostate cancer 118b, MDA prostate cancer 2b, and PC-3 prostate cancer cells. We knocked down β-catenin in AR-negative MDA prostate cancer 118b cells and carried out comparative gene-array analysis. We also immunohistochemically analyzed β-catenin and AR in 27 bone metastases of human CRPCs. Results: β-Catenin nuclear accumulation and TOP-flash reporter activity were high in MDA prostate cancer 118b but not in MDA prostate cancer 2b or PC-3 cells. MDA prostate cancer 118a and MDA prostate cancer 118b cells carry a mutated β-catenin at codon 32 (D32G). Ten genes were expressed differently (false discovery rate, 0.05) in MDA prostate cancer 118b cells with downregulated β-catenin. One such gene, hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2), synthesizes hyaluronan, a core component of the extracellular matrix. We confirmed HAS2 upregulation in PC-3 cells transfected with D32G-mutant β-catenin. Finally, we found nuclear localization of β-catenin in 10 of 27 human tissue specimens; this localization was inversely associated with AR expression (P = 0.056, Fisher's exact test), suggesting that reduced AR expression enables Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Conclusion: We identified a previously unknown downstream target of β-catenin, HAS2, in prostate cancer, and found that high β-catenin nuclear localization and low or no AR expression may define a subpopulation of men with bone metastatic prostate cancer. These findings may guide physicians in managing these patients. Clin Cancer Res; 18(3); 726–36. ©2011 AACR.
Hypertension and Its Association with Oral Health Status in Adults: A Pilot Study in Padusunan Adults Community

 Abstract — The association between general and oral health is clearly important, particularly in adults with medical conditions. Many of the medical systemic conditions are either caused or aggravated by poor oral hygiene and vice versa. Hypertension is one of common medical systemic problem which has been a public health concern worldwide due to its known consequences. Those consequences must be related to oral health status as well, whether it may cause or worsen the oral health conditions. The objective of this study was to find out the association between hypertension and oral health status in adults. This study was an analytical observational study by using cross-sectional method. A total of 42 adults both male and female in Padusunan Village, Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia were selected as subjects by using purposive sampling. Manual sphygmomanometer was used to measure blood pressure and dental examination was performed to calculate the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) scores in order to represent oral health status. The data obtained was analyzed statistically using One Way ANOVA to determine the association between hypertensive adults and their oral health status. The result showed that majority age of the subjects was ranging from 51-70 years (40.5%). Based on blood pressure examination, 57.1% of subjects were classified to prehypertension. Overall, the mean of DMFT score calculated in normal, prehypertension and hypertension group was not considered statistically significant. The was no significant association (p>0.05) between hypertension and oral health status in adults.
Environmental Management in Businesses: Does It Make Money? An Accounting Perspective

The growing interest in businesses for conducting environmental management makes us to think about the reasons that justify it. A number of studies (Barth & McNichols, 1994; Power, 1997, Shields & Boer, 1997, Walden & Schwatz, 1997 & Vachon & Klassen, 2008) found that environmental management provided a new challenge for businesses due to the introduction of an environmental perspective in managing them in addition to the economical one. Therefore, the question that arises is whether environmental management makes money in businesses or it is just a new social value with non economic effects. Among the potential benefits attributed to environmental management may be distinguished: energy savings, lower cost of compliance with environmental regulations, waste reductions and more efficient processes. These improvements may be associated to improvements in economic performance through competitiveness (Porter, 1990, 1991; Porter & van der Linde, 1995a, 1995b, McGee, 1998 & Wagner, 2008). Such competitiveness would be translated into positive outcomes for organisations, derived from higher turnover through the "green" customers, lower costs caused by compliance with environmental regulations and better resources management and, finally, total quality management covering the life cycle of products from design to disposal.
Candida famata (Candida flareri)

Candida famata (Candida flareri) belongs to the group of so‐called ‘flavinogenic yeasts’, capable of riboflavin oversynthesis under condition of iron starvation. Some strains of C. famata belong to the most flavinogenic organisms known and were used for industrial production of riboflavin for a long time in the USA. C. famata is characterized by high salt tolerance, growing at NaCl concentrations of up to 2.5 m. Development of basic tools for the metabolic engineering of C. famata, such as a transformation system, selective markers, insertional mutagenesis, a reporter system and others, are described. The developed tools were used for cloning and identification of structural and regulatory genes of riboflavin synthesis. The construction of improved yeast strains producing riboflavin, FMN and FAD, based on the industrial riboflavin‐producing strain dep8 and its non‐reverting analogue AF4, is also described. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A tunable asymmetric notch filter using RFMEMS

In this paper, a single pole single zero asymmetric notch filter using RF micro electromechanical tunable capacitors is presented. The high Q value of the tunable capacitors enables this filter to achieve 25.5dB rejection with less than 1.2dB insertion loss over a 5MHz signal bandwidth. This tunable filter is designed to suppress transmission leakage in the IMT Band I (1.92–1.98GHz) band for handset WCDMA receivers. It also can serve as a component in handset tunable duplexers.
A study on the incidence of ABL gene deletion on derivative chromosome 9 in chronic myelogenous leukemia by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization and its association with disease progression

Fluorescence in situ hybridization for the BCR/ABL rearrangement in 138 bone marrow specimens from 59 Philadelphia+ (Ph+) chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients, 35 Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients, and 57 Ph− ALL patients was used. Sixteen (27.1%) of the 59 CML patients had deletions of the residual ABL gene on the derivative chromosome 9. During the study period, 32 of the 59 CML patients progressed to blast crisis or accelerated phase. Of these, nine patients had residual ABL gene deletions on the derivative chromosomes 9 and 23 patients had no deletions. The mean duration from first diagnosis to blast crisis or accelerated phase for the nine patients with ABL deletions was 32.8 months, and for the 23 patients without ABL deletions, it was 62.4 months (P = 0.017). The overall survival time for the 16 patients with deletions was 32.8 months, and for the 43 patients without deletions, it was 60.1 months (P = 0.164). ABL deletions were not detected among the 35 ALL patients (17 with major BCR/ABL, 18 with minor BCR/ABL), and it appears that this deletion occurs rarely or not at all in Ph+ ALL patients, which is in contrast to the CML patients (27.1%). However, we detected two ALL cases with ABL deletion but without BCR/ABL rearrangement among 49 Ph− ALL and 66 Ph− AML patients. In conclusion, patients with ABL deletions progress to blast crisis or accelerated phase in a significantly shorter time than do those without such deletions. It is therefore suggested that the ABL deletion is an indicator of a poor prognosis in CML. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.