Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for a novel glycinamide ribonucleotide transformylase in Escherichia coli

We demonstrate here that Escherichia coli synthesizes two different glycinamide ribonucleotide (GAR) transformylases, both catalyzing the third step in the purine biosynthetic pathway. One is coded for by the previously described purN gene (GAR transformylase N), and a second, hitherto unknown, enzyme is encoded by the purT gene (GAR transformylase T). Mutants defective in the synthesis of the purN- and the purT-encoded enzymes were isolated. Only strains defective in both genes require an exogenous purine source for growth. Our results suggest that both enzymes may function to ensure normal purine biosynthesis. Determination of GAR transformylase T activity in vitro required formate as the C1 donor. Growth of purN mutants was inhibited by glycine. Under these conditions GAR accumulated. Addition of purine compounds or formate prevented growth inhibition. The regulation of the level of GAR transformylase T is controlled by the PurR protein and hypoxanthine.
Differences in Health Status Between Older and Younger Homeless Adults

The Institute of Medicine has placed a priority on determining the special health‐care needs of elderly homeless persons. As part of a community‐based study of 521 homeless adults in two beach communities of Los Angeles, we compared the demographic characteristics and health of older (age range, 50–78, n = 61) and younger (age range, 18–49, n = 460) homeless individuals. Compared with younger adults, older adults were more likely to be white (85% versus 61%), veterans (59% versus 27%), retired (36% versus 3%), and living in a vehicle (21% versus 8%). Older adults were more likely to report having a chronic disease (69% versus 49%), functional disabilities, no informal social contacts during the previous month (49% versus 27%), observed high blood pressure (42% versus 22%), elevated creatinine (11% versus 2%), and elevated cholesterol (57% versus 36%). Older adults were less likely to have a toothache (3% versus 30%), report psychotic symptoms (25% versus 42%), and to be illegal drug users (15% versus 55%). Although they are chronologically younger, the constellation of health and functional problems of older homeless adults resemble those of geriatric persons in the general population. We suggest that geriatricians could play a significant role in training other primary‐care providers to evaluate and treat socially isolated older homeless adults in a more comprehensive way than is currently standard in practice (e.g., interdisciplinary team care and emphasis on functional status, rehabilitative medicine, and assessment for sensory impairment).
Various resource allocation and optimization strategies for high bit rate communications on power lines

In recent years, the thriving growth of indoor and outdoor communication networks and the increase in number of data heavy applications are driving an ever increasing need for high speed data transmission. Among many competing technologies, power line communication (PLC) has its unique place due to already available power supply grids in both indoor and outdoor environments. The primary motivation of this thesis is to increase the bit rate and the robustness of multicarrier PLC systems so that it can be efficiently used in home networking and automation. The theme of this research work is to explore different modulation and coding approaches in conjunction with various resource allocation and optimization schemes to bring PLC capabilities at par with other high bit rate alternatives and to cope efficiently with inherent disadvantages of power supply grid. A number of resource allocation and optimization strategies are investigated to improve the overall performance of PLC systems. The performance of a communication system is generally measured in terms of bit rate, noise margin and bit error rate (BER) of the system. The bit rate maximization scheme is studied for both orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems and linear precoded OFDM (LP-OFDM) systems under power spectral density constraint. Two different error rate constraints have been applied to the bit rate maximization problem. The first constraint is the peak BER constraint where all subcarrier or precoding sequences must respect the target BER. With the second constraint, known as mean BER constraint, different subcarriers or precoding sequences are allowed to be affected by different values of BER and a mean BER constraint is imposed on an entire OFDM or LP-OFDM symbol. Discrete bit and power loading algorithms are also proposed taking into account the channel coding gains in the resource allocation process. Furthermore, a new robustness maximization scheme, known as mean BER minimization, is introduced that minimizes the mean BER of multicarrier systems for a given bit rate and an imposed power spectral density mask. For optimal allocation of bit and power to different subcarriers or precoding sequences in a multicarrier system, it is generally supposed that perfect channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitting side (i.e. estimation noise is absent). In reality, the CSI available at the transmitter is imperfect. We also suggested resource allocation schemes for OFDM and LP-OFDM systems taking into account the effects of noisy estimations in an efficient manner. A number of communication chains are also developed for OFDM and LP-OFDM.
Ganglioside as an endogenous growth suppressor for glomerular mesangial cells.

BACKGROUND Glomerular mesangial cells potentially secrete many growth-modulating substances that could regulate mesangial cell proliferation. To date, however, the properties of such factors have not been fully evaluated. METHODS For that purpose, conditioned medium (CM) from mesangial cells was used for cross-feeding experiments. Cell proliferation was evaluated by 3H-thymidine incorporation assay and direct cell counting. The growth-regulatory molecule was further characterized using biochemical techniques. RESULTS Cross-feeding this CM to mesangial cells in vitro, despite stimulation with platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), effectively suppressed the cells' synthesis of DNA in a dose-dependent manner. The inhibitory substance derived from mesangial cells was less than 3 kD in molecular mass, was heat stable, and was insensitive to proteinase K. After neuraminidase digestion, this inhibitory activity was lost. These data indicated that the inhibiting substance bore the typical features of gangliosides, which are multifunctional glycolipids that reside in cell membrane. Gangliosides were abundant in the CM from mesangial cells, as detected by metabolic radiolabeling and thin-layer chromatography (TLC). This result suggested that mesangial cells constitutively shed gangliosides. The growth suppressive activity in the CM was blunted when mesangial cells were pretreated with the ganglioside synthesis inhibitor d-threo-1-phenyl-2-decanoylamino-3-morpholino-1-propanol-HCl (d-threo-PDMP; 20 micromol/L) in accordance with the decreased ganglioside content in cells. Finally, gangliosides isolated from CM of mesangial cells suppressed PDGF-induced DNA synthesis of mesangial cells. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that mesangial cells constitutively shed gangliosides that then suppress the division of these cells in an autocrine-like manner.
Post-transplantation primary central nervous system lymphoma: A case report and review of the literature

Background: Post-transplantation primary central nervous system lymphoma (PT-PCNSL) is a rare neoplasm that can develop within months to years after transplantation, and imaging often reveals multiple lesions with homogeneous or ring enhancement. The clinical and imaging presentation of PT-PCNSL can often be nonspecific and present a diagnostic challenge. Case Description: A 56-year-old woman presented to a tertiary university emergency room with altered mental status 15 months after undergoing renal transplantation. On brain MRI, she was found to have three rim-enhancing mass lesions, and biopsy revealed PT-PCNSL. Conclusion: There has been a steady increase in the number of patients living following organ transplantation in the United States and an increasing likelihood that PT-PCNSL will increasingly be encountered in neurosurgical practice. We present here a case of PT-PCNSL and a brief review of the relevant clinical characteristics, treatment options, and prognosis of PT-PCNSL.
Road Damage Detection and Classification Using Deep Neural Networks with Smartphone Images

Research on damage detection of road surfaces using image processing techniques has been actively conducted. This study makes three contributions to address road damage detection issues. First, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time, a large‐scale road damage data set is prepared, comprising 9,053 road damage images captured using a smartphone installed on a car, with 15,435 instances of road surface damage included in these road images. Next, we used state‐of‐the‐art object detection methods using convolutional neural networks to train the damage detection model with our data set, and compared the accuracy and runtime speed on both, using a GPU server and a smartphone. Finally, we demonstrate that the type of damage can be classified into eight types with high accuracy by applying the proposed object detection method. The road damage data set, our experimental results, and the developed smartphone application used in this study are publicly available (https://github.com/sekilab/RoadDamageDetector/).
Multi-Decadal Surface Water Dynamics in North American Tundra

Over the last several decades, warming in the Arctic has outpaced the already impressive increases in global mean temperatures. The impact of these increases in temperature has been observed in a multitude of ecological changes in North American tundra including changes in vegetative cover, depth of active layer, and surface water extent. The low topographic relief and continuous permafrost create an ideal environment for the formation of small water bodies—a definitive feature of tundra surface. In this study, water bodies in Nunavut territory in northern Canada were mapped using a long-term record of remotely sensed observations at 30 m spatial resolution from the Landsat suite of instruments. The temporal trajectories of water extent between 1985 and 2015 were assessed. Over 675,000 water bodies have been identified over the 31-year study period with over 168,000 showing a significant (p < 0.05) trend in surface area. Approximately 55% of water bodies with a significant trend were increasing in size while the remaining 45% were decreasing in size. The overall net trend for water bodies with a significant trend is 0.009 ha year−1 per water body.
A novel low-cost approach for navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation.

BACKGROUND Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is commonly used for assessing or modulating brain excitability. However, the credibility of TMS outcomes depends on accurate and reliable coil placement during stimulation. Navigated TMS systems can address this issue, but these systems are expensive for routine use in clinical and research environments. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to provide a high-quality open source framework for navigated TMS and test its reliability and accuracy using standard TMS procedures. METHODS A navigated TMS system was created using a low-cost 3D camera system (OptiTrack Trio), which communicates with our free and open source software environment programmed using the Unity 3D gaming engine. The environment is user friendly and has functions to allow for a variety of stimulation procedures (e.g., head and coil co-registration, multiple hotspot/grid tracking, intuitive matching, and data logging). The system was then validated using a static mockup of a TMS session. The clinical utility was also evaluated by assessing the repeatability and operator accuracy when collecting motor evoked potential (MEP) data from human subjects. RESULTS The system was highly reliable and improved coil placement accuracy (position error = 1.2 mm and orientation error = 0.3°) as well as the quality and consistency (ICC >0.95) of MEPs recorded during TMS. CONCLUSION These results indicate that the proposed system is a viable tool for reliable coil placement during TMS procedures, and can improve accuracy in locating the coil over a desired hotspot both within and between sessions.
Assessment of health impacts of decreased smoking prevalence in Copenhagen: Application of the DYNAMO-HIA model

Aims: Tobacco smoking is among the leading risk factors for chronic disease and early death in developed countries, including Denmark, where smoking causes 14% of the disease burden. In Denmark, many public health interventions, including smoking prevention, are undertaken by the municipalities, but models to estimate potential health effects of local interventions are lacking. The aim of the current study was to model the effects of decreased smoking prevalence in Copenhagen, Denmark. Methods: The DYNAMO-HIA model was applied to the population of Copenhagen, by using health survey data and data from Danish population registers. We modelled the effects of four intervention scenarios aimed at different target groups, compared to a reference scenario. The potential effects of each scenario were modelled until 2040. Results: A combined scenario affecting both initiation rates among youth, and cessation and re-initiation rates among adults, which reduced the smoking prevalence to 4% by 2025, would have large beneficial effects on incidence and prevalence of smoking-related diseases and mortality. Health benefits could also be obtained through interventions targeting only cessation or re-initiation rates, whereas an intervention targeting only initiation among youth had marginal effects on morbidity and mortality within the modelled time frame. Conclusions: By modifying the DYNAMO-HIA model, we were able to estimate the potential health effects of four interventions to reduce smoking prevalence in the population of Copenhagen. The effect of the interventions on future public health depended on population subgroup(s) targeted, duration of implementation and intervention reach.
Statement of Research Interests

My research investigates how people learn to use language to convey information about perceived events. This research investigates language learning in both children and adults, with the goal of understanding how children and adults differ in their language learning competencies and language learning strategies. A better understanding of these differences could allow for the creation of better techniques for training adults to use a second language. As part of this general goal of understanding how people learn to represent events in language, my research also examines the nature of event representations in nonlinguistic cognition. A better understanding of the mapping between event representations in language and in nonlinguistic cognition could allow for a better understanding of why some aspects of language learning are relatively easy (because they can be directly mapped onto nonlinguistic cognitive representations) and why some aspects of language learning are very difficult (because no such direct mappings are possible).
A kinetic study of the disposition of circulating norepinephrine in normal male subjects.

Seven physically healthy, young men were infused, continuously, with dl -β-H3-norepinephrine (NE) (specific activity, 8.521 ± 0.319 c/mM) at the rate of 1.92 µc/hr for a 48-hour period, and urine specimens were collected throughout the period of infusion as well as afterward. Data is presented which suggests that the infusion did not perturb the system under study and that by the latter part of the infusion homogeneous mixing with those pools with which the circulating free NE is normally in equilibrium had occurred. The rates of appearance and disappearance of free H3-NE in urine are noted and used to obtain solutions for a kinetic model which represents the disposition of NE released from sympathetic nerve endings into the circulation. From these solutions it is estimated that in the normal subject approximately 911 µg of metabolites due to breakdown of NE released at nerve endings are formed per 24 hours which constitutes ≃ 25% of the catecholamine breakdown products excreted in urine per 24 hours. It is concluded that in the human subject the bulk of the total pool of metabolites excreted into urine has its origin in intracellular metabolism without prior release at nerve endings. For every microgram of circulating free NE excreted into urine during a 24-hour period 35 µg are excreted as metabolic products which indicates that urinary levels of free NE in the healthy male represent approximately 2.5% to 3% of the NE released into the circulation from nerve endings. It is noted that the biphasic plot of the appearance of H3-NE in urine is consistent with the behavior of an isotopically traced system in which extracellular NE is concentrated in intracellular pools against a gradient and as such cannot be taken as evidence for the existence of two pools of NE which are turning over at different rates. It is estimated that the free NE present in the extracellular pools and those intracellular pools with which the extracellular NE is in equilibrium has a single turnover time of 10.10 hours, i.e. , a biologic half-life of approximately 5.0 hours.
Inhibitory control of local excitatory circuits in the guinea‐pig hippocampus.

1. Exposure to the gamma‐aminobutyric acid antagonist, picrotoxin, causes the discharge of hippocampal pyramidal cells to become synchronized. Synaptic mechanisms underlying the development of synchrony were investigated by recording from pairs of cells in the CA3 region of guinea‐pig hippocampal slices. 2. Picrotoxin suppressed unitary inhibitory synaptic events. It appeared not to affect monosynaptic excitatory connections. Picrotoxin revealed latent excitatory connections in seven out of twenty‐one dual recordings from burst‐firing cells. 3. Post‐synaptic events revealed by picrotoxin were elicited rarely by single action potentials. They were evoked with mean latencies of at least 8 ms and with more than 30% failures of transmission by bursts of three or more action potentials. They were suppressed by increasing extracellular Ca2+. They were considered to be mediated by polysynaptic excitatory pathways. 4. Polysynaptic excitatory post‐synaptic potentials (e.p.s.p.s) had a smooth rising phase with time‐to‐peak of 15‐40 ms and a falling phase of similar duration. Their amplitude was 2‐3 mV at membrane potentials close to ‐70 mV. This shape was similar to that of summed e.p.s.p.s evoked by a burst of three to six action potentials at monosynaptic connections between CA3 cells. 5. One cell could evoke excitatory synaptic events in more than one follower cell, suggesting that axon collaterals mediating recurrent excitation were divergent. More than one polysynaptic excitatory pathway could exist between two cells. 6. We examined the role of recurrent excitatory synapses in the development of synchrony. As inhibition was suppressed by picrotoxin, simultaneous excitatory synaptic events appeared in recordings from pairs of cells. They occurred rhythmically at intervals of 0.5‐3 s and grew in amplitude with time. Synchronous neuronal discharges were observed when the threshold for action potential generation was exceeded. 7. Firing induced in one cell could sometimes evoke a sequence of post‐synaptic events in another cell as inhibition was suppressed. Initially, no connection was detected. On adding picrotoxin, a polysynaptic e.p.s.p. was revealed and with time longer‐latency components were recruited to the synaptic event. The amplitude of later components grew until firing threshold was reached. 8. We suggest that synchronous firing develops due to the loss of inhibitory control over the spread of firing between CA3 pyramidal cells via divergent, polysynaptic, recurrent excitatory pathways.
Cloning and characterization of osteoactivin, a novel cDNA expressed in osteoblasts

Osteoblast development is a complex process involving the expression of specific growth factors and regulatory proteins that control cell proliferation, differentiation, and maturation. In this study, we used the rat mutation, osteopetrosis (op), to examine differences in skeletal gene expression between mutant op and normal littermates. Total RNA isolated from long bone and calvaria was used as a template for mRNA differential display. One of many cDNAs that were selectively expressed in either normal or mutant bone was cloned and sequenced and found to share some homology to the human nmb and Pmel 17 genes. This novel cDNA was named osteoactivin. Osteoactivin has an open reading frame of 1716 bp that encodes a protein of 572 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 63.8 kD. Protein sequence analysis revealed the presence of a signal peptide and a cleavage site at position 23. The protein also has thirteen predicted N‐linked glycosylation sites and a potential RGD integrin recognition site at position 556. Northern blot analysis confirmed that osteoactivin was 3‐ to 4‐fold overexpressed in op versus normal bone. RT‐PCR analysis showed that osteoactivin is most highly expressed in bone compared with any of the other non‐osseous tissues examined. In situ hybridization analysis of osteoactivin in normal bone revealed that it is primarily expressed in osteoblasts actively engaged in bone matrix production and mineralization. In primary rat osteoblast cultures, osteoactivin showed a temporal pattern of expression being expressed at highest levels during the later stages of matrix maturation and mineralization and correlated with the expression of alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin. Our findings show that osteoactivin expression in bone is osteoblast‐specific and suggest that it may play an important role in osteoblast differentiation and matrix mineralization. Furthermore, osteoactivin overexpression in op mutant bone may be secondary to the uncoupling of bone resorption and formation resulting in abnormalities in osteoblast gene expression and function. J. Cell. Biochem. 84: 12–26, 2002. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Framework of Temporal-Spatial Descriptors-Based Feature Extraction for Improved Myoelectric Pattern Recognition

The extraction of the accurate and efficient descriptors of muscular activity plays an important role in tackling the challenging problem of myoelectric control of powered prostheses. In this paper, we present a new feature extraction framework that aims to give an enhanced representation of muscular activities through increasing the amount of information that can be extracted from individual and combined electromyogram (EMG) channels. We propose to use time-domain descriptors (TDDs) in estimating the EMG signal power spectrum characteristics; a step that preserves the computational power required for the construction of spectral features. Subsequently, TDD is used in a process that involves: 1) representing the temporal evolution of the EMG signals by progressively tracking the correlation between the TDD extracted from each analysis time window and a nonlinearly mapped version of it across the same EMG channel and 2) representing the spatial coherence between the different EMG channels, which is achieved by calculating the correlation between the TDD extracted from the differences of all possible combinations of pairs of channels and their nonlinearly mapped versions. The proposed temporal-spatial descriptors (TSDs) are validated on multiple sparse and high-density (HD) EMG data sets collected from a number of intact-limbed and amputees performing a large number of hand and finger movements. Classification results showed significant reductions in the achieved error rates in comparison to other methods, with the improvement of at least 8% on average across all subjects. Additionally, the proposed TSDs achieved significantly well in problems with HD-EMG with average classification errors of <5% across all subjects using windows lengths of 50 ms only.