Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structure of a Thyrotropin Receptor Monoclonal Antibody Variable Region Provides Insight into Potential Mechanisms for its Inverse Agonist Activity.

BACKGROUND The high constitutive, or ligand-independent, activity of the thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) is of clinical importance in some thyroid conditions, particularly well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma remnants following incomplete ablative therapy (surgery and radioiodine). Under these conditions, even total suppression of TSH by thyroid hormone administration does not fully reduce TSHR activity, a driver of thyrocyte growth. METHODS CS-17 is a murine monoclonal antibody that has inverse agonist activity in that it suppresses TSHR constitutive activity. This study crystallized the CS-17 Fab and determined its atomic structure at a resolution of 3.4 Å. RESULTS In silico docking of this structure to that of the TSHR extracellular domain was accomplished by targeting to TSHR residue tyrosine 195 (Y195) known to contribute to the CS-17 epitope. High affinity interaction between these two molecules, primarily by the CS-17 immunoglobulin heavy chain, was validated by energetic analysis (KD of 8.7 × 10-11 M), as well as by previously obtained data on a number of individual TSHR amino acids in three regions whose mutagenesis reduced CS-17 binding as detected by flow cytometry. CONCLUSIONS Structural insight at atomic resolution of a TSHR antibody with inverse agonist activity opens the way for the development of a molecule with therapeutic potential, particularly in thyroid carcinoma. For this purpose, CS-17 will require "humanization" by substitution of its constant region (Fc component). In addition, with its epitope defined, the CS-17 affinity can be increased further by mutagenesis of selected amino acids in its heavy- and light-chain complementarity determining regions.
Tweezing the cofactor preference of gymnosperm pinene synthase

Abstract The cellular activities of gymnosperms monoterpene synthases are largely compromised due to their requirement for manganese, which is deficient in microbial cells. Through site-saturation mutagenesis of the residue adjacent to metal-binding glutamate, we found that pinene synthase is highly mutable at this position yet drastically alter their metal binding preference, thereby quickly improving the cellular performance in heterologous hosts.
The lightest hybrid meson supermultiplet in QCD

We interpret the spectrum of meson states recently obtained in non-perturbative lattice QCD calculations in terms of constituent quark-antiquark bound states and states, called 'hybrids', in which the q{bar q} pair is supplemented by an excitation of the gluonic field. We identify a lightest supermultiplet of hybrid mesons with J{sup PC} = (0,1,2){sup {-+}}, 1{sup -} built from a gluonic excitation of chromomagnetic character coupled to q{bar q} in an S-wave. The next lightest hybrids are suggested to be quark orbital excitations with the same gluonic excitation, while the next distinct gluonic excitation is significantly heavier. Existing models of gluonic excitations are compared to these findings and possible phenomenological consequences explored.
Children and Nature: Linking Accessibility of Natural Environments and Children’s Health-Related Quality of Life

A growing body of research suggests that increasing children’s nature interactions can have positive benefits for their health-related quality of life (HRQOL); however, researchers have yet to examine how geographical context influences this relationship. The purpose of this study was to examine individual-level and environmental factors that are associated with HRQOL of children from different geographical contexts. Data were collected for 851 children from 34 elementary schools in Ontario, Canada. The natural environments around each child’s home were computed using geospatial analyses in a geographic information system. Natural environment measures were combined with HRQOL and the demographics from child surveys to be used in a series of step-wise linear regression models. These models explored the relationship between children’s HRQOL and the natural environment in urban/suburban and rural populations. In addition to important individual-level determinants, the findings revealed that characteristics of the natural environment, including the amount of greenness, park, and water, show significant relationships in the urban/suburban population. Interpersonal variables were the key predictors of HRQOL in the rural population. Where children live influences relationships between nature and HRQOL. These findings have implications for policymakers, health practitioners, educators, and parents in the design and the promotion of nature for children’s HRQOL.
TeamDL at SemEval-2018 Task 8: Cybersecurity Text Analysis using Convolutional Neural Network and Conditional Random Fields

In this work we present our participation to SemEval-2018 Task 8 subtasks 1 & 2 respectively. We developed Convolution Neural Network system for malware sentence classification (subtask 1) and Conditional Random Fields system for malware token label prediction (subtask 2). We experimented with couple of word embedding strategies, feature sets and achieved competitive performance across the two subtasks. For subtask 1 We experimented with two category of word embeddings namely native embeddings and task specific embedding using Word2vec and Glove algorithms. 1. Native Embeddings: All words including the unknown ones that are randomly initialized use embeddings from original Word2vec/Glove models. 2. Task specific : The embeddings are generated by training Word2vec/Glove algorithms on sentences from MalwareTextDB We found that glove outperforms rest of embeddings for subtask 1. For subtask 2, we used N-grams of size 6, previous, next tokens and labels, features giving disjunctions of words anywhere in the left or right, word shape features, word lemma of current, previous and next words, word-tag pair features, POS tags, prefix and suffixes.
Whither the Push and Pull for Integration: Taking Stock of Latin America's Declaratory Regionalism

Repeated setbacks to a regional project in Latin America have given rise to a narrative portraying the region’s integration endeavor as a succession of failed attempts. Analysts concordantly highlight that Latin America’s institutional development and actual policy output do not live up to the integrationist discourse sustained in the region, and point to a series of obstacles standing in the way of deep integration. Such a perspective misses out, however, on an intriguing persistence of Latin American regionalism both in discourse as well as in repeated attempts to induce new impetus into the regional project.In an attempt to map out the basis for a more rigorous, theoretically guided approach to the subject, this paper brings the debates on the different push and pull factors of Latin America’s regionalist project together. Based on the premise that forces pushing towards integration are present within the region, it is argued that the dominant hypotheses in the study of regional integration do not address Latin America’s declaratory regionalism in a conclusive manner. The key to the broader picture of the region’s integration gap lies with a lack of determination to let the word follow the deed, and needs to apprehend of the political function declaratory regionalism has come to fulfill in the Latin American international system.
Investigations on performance analysis of various soft decision based LDPC decoding algorithms

In a transmission system the data transmitted from a source to destination gets corrupted due to noise and other non-linearities of the channel. Error Control Coding is a promising technique to minimize such error probabilities. LDPC codes are widely used for many practical applications. They exhibit excellent decoding performance with reduced computational complexity. This paper focuses on research issues related to decoding of various Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes.
Investigation of Electromechanical Coupling and Quality Factor of X-Cut Lithium Niobate Laterally Vibrating Resonators Operating Around 400 MHz

In this paper we present laterally vibrating resonators (LVRs) based on X-cut lithium niobate (LN) exhibiting a maximum quality factor <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$({Q})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> around 1200 and an electromechanical coupling (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k_{t}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of 30%. This paper shows how the highest <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k_{t}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ever attained in X-cut LN resonators can be combined with very high <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to achieve a resonator figure of merit (FoM <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$= k_{t}^{2}\cdot {Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) of 360. In this paper, we validate the theoretical prediction of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k_{t}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> versus the resonator orientation in the YZ plane and investigate what geometrical parameters mostly impact the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of these devices. [2017–0181]
Development of the Adolescent Attitudes towards Dementia Scale (A‐ADS)

There has been an increasing interest in establishing dementia friendly communities leading to the development and delivery of various dementia awareness initiatives. These initiatives have generally been aimed at adults; however, to sustain dementia friendly communities, the involvement of young people is imperative. Very few dementia awareness initiatives exist for young people, and none have been independently evaluated to establish their impact. This research aimed to design and develop a scale to measure adolescents' attitudes towards dementia to allow such initiatives to be evaluated.
Modern Food Foraging Patterns: Geography and Cuisine Choices of Restaurant Patrons on Yelp

Animals search for food based on certain optimal principles and over time form foraging patterns effective for survival in changing environments. Due to the many choices available in modern society, we also face a decision on where to get their food. We call this “modern human food foraging,” since the Internet makes foraging much more convenient than before. People search online for food venues, or restaurants, through websites such as Yelp, and write reviews for the food they tasted, which in turn, facilitate others’ searches in the future. These activities make the whole community of restaurant patrons wiser over time. Moreover, the archives of all these choices and evaluations are publicly available, and can help researchers better understand human foraging patterns in modern society. In this paper, we use a Yelp data set to study modern human food foraging patterns, with respect to both geography and cuisine. To understand spatial patterns, we cluster reviewed restaurants geographically and construct a taste similarity network, representing the topology of restaurant cuisine space. We find that people steadily expand their foraging domains from the nearest to them to the distant in geography and from the most familiar to the novel in cuisine. Using longitudinal data of restaurant reviews, we build a geographical foraging network and a taste foraging network for each patron based on which, we propose three kinds of entropies to characterize foraging patterns. We show that the modern foraging patterns of restaurant patrons in both geography and cuisine are of high regularity, indicating that their behaviors are rather predictable. The foraging patterns are also associated with individual social status in the community. Namely, people having a higher variety in the restaurant cuisines they have visited, but fewer actual locations they visited, tend to attract more followers.
Transition from post‐capillary pulmonary hypertension to combined pre‐ and post‐capillary pulmonary hypertension in swine: a key role for endothelin

Passive, isolated post‐capillary pulmonary hypertension (PH) secondary to left heart disease may progress to combined pre‐ and post‐capillary or ‘active’ PH This ‘activation’ of post‐capillary PH significantly increases morbidity and mortality, and is still incompletely understood. In this study, pulmonary vein banding gradually produced post‐capillary PH with structural and functional microvascular remodelling in swine. Ten weeks after banding, the pulmonary endothelin pathway was upregulated, likely contributing to pre‐capillary aspects in the initially isolated post‐capillary PH. Inhibition of the endothelin pathway could potentially stop the progression of early stage post‐capillary PH.
Field study of air conditioning and thermal comfort in residential buildings

The aim of this study is to better understand the external and internal drivers that affect residential airconditioning (A/C) use decisions and occupant comfort. Field observations were carried out using instrumental measurements and smartphone questionnaires, recording householder’s A/C usage patterns, indoor/outdoor climatic factors, perception of thermal comfort and adaptive behaviours. Throughout the 2-year monitoring period, a total of 4,867 A/C use events and 2,105 online comfort questionnaires were collected from 42 homes in Australia. The householders’ neutral temperature was estimated to be 2 degrees lower than that predicted by the ASHRAE 55’s adaptive model. Despite the lower-than-expected neutrality, comfort zone widths for 80% acceptability were found to be 9K in residential settings, which is 2K wider than that expected by the adaptive model. Our findings indicated that people in their homes are more adaptive to, and tolerant of significantly wider temperature variations than expected (in particular cooler temperature conditions). Based on the analysis of the results, an adaptive model that can be used for the assessment of residential thermal comfort is proposed in this paper. This study also revealed the householders’ thermal adaptation behaviours as a function of temperature variations, which can be utilised in building energy modelling softwares.
Developing an Instrument of Scientific Literacy Assessment on the Cycle Theme.

The purpose of this study is to develop scientific literacy evaluation instrument that tested its validity, reliability, and characteristics to measure the skill of student’s scientific literacy used four scientific literacy, categories as follow:science as a body of knowledge (category A), science as a way of thinking (category B), science as a way of investigating (category C), and the interaction between science, technology, and society (category D). The subjects of this developing study were 9 grade student of junior high schoolin Kudus. Validity test is done by the content, construct, and concurrent validation. Reliability testing is done by calculating a reliability coefficient “r”. Characteristics tested by determining the level of difficulty, distinguishing features, and the proportion or ratio of scientific literacy category in the instrument. Profile of scientific literacy ability is determined by measuring students' mastery of scientific literacy. The result of reliability test is the price of“r” at first trial is 0.59 and the last trial is 0.74. Validity test results indicate that the instrument meets the content, construct, and concurrent validity with valid, very valid, and valid category. Characteristics of evaluation instruments developed shows that the instrument has a level of difficulty that the proportion of about 13% easy, 67% about the medium, and 20% about the difficult. The results of the analysis of discrimination power combined with a level of difficulty and obtained 5 items with poor quality and should be discarded. Comparison category A: B: C: D is 7: 2: 3: 3. Profile of literacy skills mastery of science shows that scientific literacy is still low at below 50% for all categories. Evaluation instruments developed meet the content validity, construct, and alignment with valid, very valid, and valid criteria.
Do CIFAR-10 Classifiers Generalize to CIFAR-10?

Machine learning is currently dominated by largely experimental work focused on improvements in a few key tasks. However, the impressive accuracy numbers of the best performing models are questionable because the same test sets have been used to select these models for multiple years now. To understand the danger of overfitting, we measure the accuracy of CIFAR-10 classifiers by creating a new test set of truly unseen images. Although we ensure that the new test set is as close to the original data distribution as possible, we find a large drop in accuracy (4% to 10%) for a broad range of deep learning models. Yet more recent models with higher original accuracy show a smaller drop and better overall performance, indicating that this drop is likely not due to overfitting based on adaptivity. Instead, we view our results as evidence that current accuracy numbers are brittle and susceptible to even minute natural variations in the data distribution.
Korean Journal for Food Science of Animal Resources

The aim of the present work was to provide information about Enterococcus strains isolated from pre-packaged chicken samples in Ankara (Turkey), focusing on their prevalence, phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, and antibiotic resistance. We report the first study on the occurrence of antibiotic resistant enterococci in pre-packaged chicken samples in Ankara. A total of 97 suspicious enterococcal isolates were identified from 122 chicken samples. All isolates were identified to species level by phenotypic and molecular methods. In the 16S rDNA sequence analysis, Enterococcus faecium (61.85%) and Enterococcus faecalis (38.15%) were found to be the most frequently detected Enterococcus spp. Of the 97 isolates tested for hemolytic activity, 12.37% enterococcal strains were β-hemolytic. β-Hemolysin was most prevalent among E. faecium (58.33%) compared to E. faecalis (41.66%). Disk diffusion method was used for determining of antibiotic resistance. The analysis of the antimicrobial resistance of the 97 Enterococcus isolates revealed that the resistance to kanamycin (98.96%), rifampicin (80.41%) and ampicillin (60.82%) was most frequent. Furthermore, resistance to erythromycin (38.14%) and ciprofloxacin (34.02%) was also observed. The frequencies of resistance to tetracycline (9.27%), penicillin G (8.24%), and chloramphenicol (3.09%), gentamicin (2.06%) and streptomycin (1.03%) were low. None of the isolates was resistant to vancomycin. Multi-drug resistance was found in 97.93% of Enterococcus strains. E. faecium strains showed a more resistant phenotype than E. faecalis strains according to the antibiotic resistance levels. The results of this study indicated that chicken meat is a potential reservoir for the transmission of antibiotic resistance from animals to humans.
Synthesis of Colloidal 2D/3D MoS2 Nanostructures by Pulsed Laser Ablation in an Organic Liquid Environment

Two-dimensional MoS2 nanosheets (2D MoS2 NS) and fullerene-like MoS2 nanostructures (3D MoS2 NS) with varying sizes are synthesized by nanosecond laser ablation of hexagonal crystalline 2H-MoS2 powder in organic solution (methanol). Structural, chemical, and optical properties of MoS2 NS are characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman and UV–vis–near infrared absorption spectroscopy techniques. Results of the structural analysis show that the obtained MoS2 NS mainly present a layered morphology from micrometer to nanometer sized surface area. Detailed analysis of the product also proves the existence of inorganic polyhedral fullerene-like 3D MoS2 NS generated by pulsed laser ablation in methanol. The possible factors which may lead to formation of both 2D and 3D MoS2 NS in methanol are examined by ab initio calculations and shown to correlate with vacancy formation. The hexagonal crystalline structure of MoS2 NS was dete.
Measuring stroke patients’ exercise preferences using a discrete choice experiment

Physical activity post stroke improves health, yet physical inactivity is highly prevalent. Tailored exercise programs considering physical activity preferences are a promising approach to promote physical activity. Therefore, this study seeks to measure exercise preferences of stroke survivors. Stroke survivors conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE). DCE was presented in a face-to-face interview where patients had to choose eight times between two different exercise programs. Exercise programs differed by characteristics, with the six attributes under consideration being social situation, location, type of exercise, intensity, frequency, and duration. Utilities of the exercise attributes were estimated with a logit choice model. Stroke survivors (n=103, mean age: 67, SD=13.0; 60% male) show significant differences in the rated utilities of the exercise attributes (P<0.001). Participants had strong preferences for light and moderate intense physical activity and favored shorter exercise sessions. Stroke survivors have remarkable exercise preferences especially for intensity and duration of exercise. Results contribute to the tailoring of physical activity programs after stroke thereby facilitating maintenance of physical activity.
Distinct Substrate Specificities and Electron-Donating Systems of Fungal Lytic Polysaccharide Monooxygenases

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are powerful enzymes that oxidatively cleave glycosidic bonds in polysaccharides. The ability of these copper enzymes to boost the degradation of lignocellulose has greatly stimulated research efforts and biocatalytic applications within the biorefinery field. Initially found as oxidizing recalcitrant substrates, such as chitin and cellulose, it is now clear that LPMOs cleave a broad range of oligo- and poly-saccharides and make use of various electron-donating systems. Herein, substrate specificities and electron-donating systems of fungal LPMOs are summarized. A closer look at LPMOs as part of the fungal enzyme machinery might provide insights into their role in fungal growth and plant-pathogen interactions to further stimulate the search for novel LPMO applications.
Identification of stem rust resistance genes in wheat cultivars in China using molecular markers

Wheat stem rust caused by Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici Eriks. & E. Henn. (Pgt), is a major disease that has been effectively controlled using resistance genes. The appearance and spread of Pgt races such as Ug99, TKTTF, and TTTTF, which are virulent to most stem rust-resistant genes currently deployed in wheat breeding programs, renewed the interest in breeding cultivars resistant to wheat stem rust. It is therefore important to investigate the levels of resistance or vulnerability of wheat cultivars to Pgt races. Resistance to Pgt races 21C3CTHQM, 34MKGQM, and 34C3RTGQM was evaluated in 136 Chinese wheat cultivars at the seedling stage. A total of 124 cultivars (91.2%) were resistant to the three races. Resistance genes Sr2, Sr24, Sr25, Sr26, Sr31, and Sr38 were analyzed using molecular markers closely linked to them, and 63 of the 136 wheat cultivars carried at least one of these genes: 21, 25, and 28 wheat cultivars likely carried Sr2, Sr31, and Sr38, respectively. Cultivars “Kehan 3” and “Jimai 22” likely carried Sr25. None of the cultivars carried Sr24 or Sr26. These cultivars with known stem rust resistance genes provide valuable genetic material for breeding resistant wheat cultivars.