Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relative transmembrane segment rearrangements during BK channel activation resolved by structurally assigned fluorophore–quencher pairing

Voltage-activated proteins can sense, and respond to, changes in the electric field pervading the cell membrane by virtue of a transmembrane helix bundle, the voltage-sensing domain (VSD). Canonical VSDs consist of four transmembrane helices (S1–S4) of which S4 is considered a principal component because it possesses charged residues immersed in the electric field. Membrane depolarization compels the charges, and by extension S4, to rearrange with respect to the field. The VSD of large-conductance voltage- and Ca-activated K+ (BK) channels exhibits two salient inconsistencies from the canonical VSD model: (1) the BK channel VSD possesses an additional nonconserved transmembrane helix (S0); and (2) it exhibits a “decentralized” distribution of voltage-sensing charges, in helices S2 and S3, in addition to S4. Considering these unique features, the voltage-dependent rearrangements of the BK VSD could differ significantly from the standard model of VSD operation. To understand the mode of operation of this unique VSD, we have optically tracked the relative motions of the BK VSD transmembrane helices during activation, by manipulating the quenching environment of site-directed fluorescent labels with native and introduced Trp residues. Having previously reported that S0 and S4 diverge during activation, in this work we demonstrate that S4 also diverges from S1 and S2, whereas S2, compelled by its voltage-sensing charged residues, moves closer to S1. This information contributes spatial constraints for understanding the BK channel voltage-sensing process, revealing the structural rearrangements in a non-canonical VSD.
CGStream: continuous correlated graph query for data streams

In this paper, we propose to query correlated graph in a data stream scenario, where given a query graph q an algorithm is required to retrieve all the subgraphs whose Pearson's correlation coefficients with q are greater than a threshold Θ over some graph data flowing in a stream fashion. Due to the dynamic changing nature of the stream data and the inherent complexity of the graph query process, treating graph streams as static datasets is computationally infeasible or ineffective. In the paper, we propose a novel algorithm, CGStream, to identify correlated graphs from data stream, by using a sliding window which covers a number of consecutive batches of stream data records. Our theme is to regard stream query as the traversing along a data stream and the query is achieved at a number of outlooks over the data stream. For each outlook, we derive a lower frequency bound to mine a set of frequent subgraph candidates, where the lower bound guarantees that no pattern is missing from the current outlook to the next outlook. On top of that, we derive an upper correlation bound and a heuristic rule to prune the candidate size, which helps reduce the computation cost at each outlook. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is several times, or even an order of magnitude, more efficient than the straightforward algorithm. Meanwhile, our algorithm achieves good performance in terms of query precision.
Altitude and Food Plant Dependent Growth Variation in Pupa Of Indian Tasar Silk Insect, Antheraea Mylitta Drury (Saturniidae) Grown During Rainy Season

The nutritional status of food plants and altitudes play pivotal role in successful rearing of Indian tropical tasar silk worm Antheraea mylitta Drury both in commercial and seed crops. The pupa is the most crucial stage of its life cycle for the adult life and race continuation as well as for exploiting its genetic potency and dynamics to our best advantages. In the present investigation an experimental rearing of Antheraea mylitta Drury was carried out during rainy season in Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Mayurbhanj, Odisha, India to evaluate the performance of growth parameters like length, diameter and weight of pupa metamorphosed from mature female larva reared on eight different food plants at lower, medium and higher altitudes. The performance of all the growth parameters of the female pupae at all the three altitudes was observed to be significantly the highest in Sal food plant (Shorea robusta Gaertn.) and the lowest in Jamun host plant (Syzygium cumini (L.) Keels). The investigation also revealed that irrespective of the species of food plants, higher altitude is the most favourable for tasar cocoon crop performance in comparison to medium and lower altitudes during rainy season. In view of comparatively superior performance of growth parameters of female pupa of A. mylitta during rainy season, the eight species of food plants utilized were graded in the order Sal > Asan > Arjun > Ber > Sidha > Dha > Bahada >Jamun and the altitudes were ranked in the order higher altitude > medium altitude > lower
Extension of morphological operations to complete semilattices and its applications to image and video processing

Mathematical Morphology is a nonlinear image processing theory, which is currently based on complete lattices. This work extends its scope to complete semilattices, which are more general. Speci c morphological operators de ned in complete semilattices are shown, by means of simulations, to be potentially useful in some video processing applications, like detection of fast motion, extraction of objects that appear in a sequence frame but not in its predecessor, and segmentation-based compression of sequences. In this report, we rst rede ne the basic morphological operators in complete semilattices. Then, a few properties of morphological operators in complete lattices are proven to apply also to their semilattice counterparts. Next, some examples of semilattices and basic morphological operators de ned on them are provided. Finally, the above applications are brie y described and demonstrated.
Characterization of Mug33 reveals complementary roles for actin cable-dependent transport and exocyst regulators in fission yeast exocytosis

Although endocytosis and exocytosis have been extensively studied in budding yeast, there have been relatively few investigations of these complex processes in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Here we identify and characterize fission yeast Mug33, a novel Tea1-interacting protein, and show that Mug33 is involved in exocytosis. Mug33 is a Sur7/PalI-family transmembrane protein that localizes to the plasma membrane at the cell tips and to cytoplasmic tubulovesicular elements (TVEs). A subset of Mug33 TVEs make long-range movements along actin cables, co-translocating with subunits of the exocyst complex. TVE movement depends on the type V myosin Myo52. Although mug33Δ mutants are viable, with only a mild cell-polarity phenotype, mug33Δ myo52Δ double mutants are synthetically lethal. Combining mug33 Δ with deletion of the formin For3 (for3Δ) leads to synthetic temperature-sensitive growth and strongly reduced levels of exocytosis. Interestingly, mutants in non-essential genes involved in exocyst function behave in a manner similar to mug33Δ when combined with myo52Δ and for3Δ. By contrast, combining mug33Δ with mutants in non-essential exocyst genes has only minor effects on growth. We propose that Mug33 contributes to exocyst function and that actin cable-dependent vesicle transport and exocyst function have complementary roles in promoting efficient exocytosis in fission yeast.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus 3a protein forms an ion channel and modulates virus release

Fourteen ORFs have been identified in the severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) genome. ORF 3a of SARS-CoV codes for a recently identified transmembrane protein, but its function remains unknown. In this study we confirmed the 3a protein expression and investigated its localization at the surface of SARS-CoV-infected or 3a-cDNA-transfected cells. Our experiments showed that recombinant 3a protein can form a homotetramer complex through interprotein disulfide bridges in 3a-cDNA-transfected cells, providing a clue to ion channel function. The putative ion channel activity of this protein was assessed in 3a-complement RNA-injected Xenopus oocytes by two-electrode voltage clamp. The results suggest that 3a protein forms a potassium sensitive channel, which can be efficiently inhibited by barium. After FRhK-4 cells were transfected with an siRNA, which is known to suppress 3a expression, followed by infection with SARS-CoV, the released virus was significantly decreased, whereas the replication of the virus in the infected cells was not changed. Our observation suggests that SARS-CoV ORF 3a functions as an ion channel that may promote virus release. This finding will help to explain the highly pathogenic nature of SARS-CoV and to develop new strategies for treatment of SARS infection.
Correlation between Genotypic Diversity, Lipooligosaccharide Gene Locus Class Variation, and Caco-2 Cell Invasion Potential of Campylobacter jejuni Isolates from Chicken Meat and Humans: Contribution to Virulotyping

ABSTRACT Significant interest in studying the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) of Campylobacter jejuni has stemmed from its potential role in postinfection paralytic disorders. In this study we present the results of PCR screening of five LOS locus classes (A, B, C, D, and E) for a collection of 116 C. jejuni isolates from chicken meat (n = 76) and sporadic human cases of diarrhea (n = 40). We correlated LOS classes with clonal complexes (CC) assigned by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Finally, we evaluated the invasion potential of a panel of 52 of these C. jejuni isolates for Caco-2 cells. PCR screening showed that 87.1% (101/116) of isolates could be assigned to LOS class A, B, C, D, or E. Concordance between LOS classes and certain MLST CC was revealed. The majority (85.7% [24/28]) of C. jejuni isolates grouped in CC-21 were shown to express LOS locus class C. The invasion potential of C. jejuni isolates possessing sialylated LOS (n = 29; classes A, B, and C) for Caco-2 cells was significantly higher (P < 0.0001) than that of C. jejuni isolates with nonsialylated LOS (n = 23; classes D and E). There was no significant difference in invasiveness between chicken meat and human isolates. However, C. jejuni isolates assigned to CC-206 (correlated with LOS class B) or CC-21 (correlated with LOS class C) showed statistically significantly higher levels of invasion than isolates from other CC. Correlation between LOS classes and CC was further confirmed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The present study reveals a correlation between genotypic diversity and LOS locus classes of C. jejuni. We showed that simple PCR screening for C. jejuni LOS classes could reliably predict certain MLST CC and add to the interpretation of molecular-typing results. Our study corroborates that sialylation of LOS is advantageous for C. jejuni fitness and virulence in different hosts. The modulation of cell surface carbohydrate structure could enhance the ability of C. jejuni to adapt to or survive in a host.
A Low-Dimensional Radial Silhouette-Based Feature for Fast Human Action Recognition Fusing Multiple Views

This paper presents a novel silhouette-based feature for vision-based human action recognition, which relies on the contour of the silhouette and a radial scheme. Its low-dimensionality and ease of extraction result in an outstanding proficiency for real-time scenarios. This feature is used in a learning algorithm that by means of model fusion of multiple camera streams builds a bag of key poses, which serves as a dictionary of known poses and allows converting the training sequences into sequences of key poses. These are used in order to perform action recognition by means of a sequence matching algorithm. Experimentation on three different datasets returns high and stable recognition rates. To the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the highest results so far on the MuHAVi-MAS dataset. Real-time suitability is given, since the method easily performs above video frequency. Therefore, the related requirements that applications as ambient-assisted living services impose are successfully fulfilled.
Nature's Electric Potential: A Systematic Review of the Role of Bioelectricity in Wound Healing and Regenerative Processes in Animals, Humans, and Plants

Natural endogenous voltage gradients not only predict and correlate with growth and development but also drive wound healing and regeneration processes. This review summarizes the existing literature for the nature, sources, and transmission of information-bearing bioelectric signals involved in controlling wound healing and regeneration in animals, humans, and plants. It emerges that some bioelectric characteristics occur ubiquitously in a range of animal and plant species. However, the limits of similarities are probed to give a realistic assessment of future areas to be explored. Major gaps remain in our knowledge of the mechanistic basis for these processes, on which regenerative therapies ultimately depend. In relation to this, it is concluded that the mapping of voltage patterns and the processes generating them is a promising future research focus, to probe three aspects: the role of wound/regeneration currents in relation to morphology; the role of endogenous flux changes in driving wound healing and regeneration; and the mapping of patterns in organisms of extreme longevity, in contrast with the aberrant voltage patterns underlying impaired healing, to inform interventions aimed at restoring them.
Review of Functional Data Analysis

With the advance of modern technology, more and more data are being recorded continuously during a time interval or intermittently at several discrete time points. They are both examples of "functional data", which have become a prevailing type of data. Functional Data Analysis (FDA) encompasses the statistical methodology for such data. Broadly interpreted, FDA deals with the analysis and theory of data that are in the form of functions. This paper provides an overview of FDA, starting with simple statistical notions such as mean and covariance functions, then covering some core techniques, the most popular of which is Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA). FPCA is an important dimension reduction tool and in sparse data situations can be used to impute functional data that are sparsely observed. Other dimension reduction approaches are also discussed. In addition, we review another core technique, functional linear regression, as well as clustering and classification of functional data. Beyond linear and single or multiple index methods we touch upon a few nonlinear approaches that are promising for certain applications. They include additive and other nonlinear functional regression models, such as time warping, manifold learning, and dynamic modeling with empirical differential equations. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of future directions.
Converting high probability into nearly-constant time—with applications to parallel hashing

We present a new paradigm for efficient randomized parallel algorithms that needs ~(log’ n) time, where ~(x) means ‘O(Z) expected’. It leads to: (1) constructing a perfect hash function for n elements in ~(log” n log(log” n)) time and ~(n) operations; (2) an algorithm for generating a random per— mutation in O(log* n) time, using n processors or in ~(log” n Iog(log” n)) time and ~(n) operations; and (3) an efficient optimize~ consider a parallel algorithm that runs in t time using p processors; since at each time unit some of the processors may be idle, we let z, the total number of actual operations, be the sum over all non-idle processors at every time unit; assuming the algorithm belongs to a certain kind, it can be adapted to run in ~(t+log” n log(log” n)) time (additive cwerhead! ) using z/(t + log* n log(log* n)) processors. We ak get an optimal integer sorting adgorithm. Givel~ ~ntegers from the domain [1, . n], it runs in O( log log n K ) time.
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON ACOUSTICS MADRID , 2-7 SEPTEMBER 2007 MODELING A TURBULENT ATMOSPHERE AS A DYNAMIC CHANNEL FOR NARROW-BAND ULTRASONIC SIGNALS

This work proposes a semi-empiric model for a turbulent atmosphere as a dynamic channel of transmission of narrow-band ultrasonic signals. It is based on a theoretical expression for the coherence time derived in a previous paper, and on the results obtained from the experimental analysis of propagation of a 50 kHz ultrasonic tone under different turbulence conditions. The model is used to predict the effects of a turbulent atmosphere on the propagation of binary encoded signals and their consequent detection by matched filtering. These predictions are compared with the results obtained with a real pulse compression system operating outdoors. INTRODUCTION High-precision applications of airborne ultrasonic sensory systems are usually restricted to indoor environments. There are only few works that propose the use of ultrasonic sensors outdoors, and these sensors are usually part of a more complex sensory system where they have been assigned low-precision tasks, such as the detection of very close obstacles with which there exists a real risk of collision [1], or the coarse ranging of large navigation landmarks [2]. This situation is mainly due to the large influence that meteorological phenomena have on the propagation of these mechanical waves, being atmospheric turbulence the most problematic of these phenomena due to its intrinsic random nature. When an acoustic wave propagates through a turbulent region, it encounters a variety of eddies with different sizes, velocities and temperatures. Each one of these eddies acts as a strong scatterer of acoustic energy and their combined effect alters the initial coherence of the wavefronts, which will no longer be spherical and with identical amplitude after crossing the turbulent region. A receiver placed at a certain distance from the emitter will record random fluctuations in the amplitude and phase of the acquired signals. Clearly, the measurements provided by a classical system, based on threshold detection of the signal envelope, are extremely sensitive to the conditions of operation. This problem can be overcome by encoding the signal and introducing pulse compression techniques that have been already used with success in the design of high-performance indoor sonars [3][4]. Nevertheless, the use of these signals outdoors entails a new challenge since, depending on how much their shape is modified by turbulence, they could not be properly recovered by matched filtering. In a recent work [5], the authors have derived a theoretical expression for the time during which the characteristics of an acoustic wave propagating through a turbulent region remain essentially invariant. This so-called coherence time tc is given by: ( ) 5 3 2 2 545 . 0 1
Using Different Aspects of the Signings for Appearance-based Sign Language Recognition

Sign language is used by the deaf and hard of hearing people for communication. Automatic sign language recognition is a challenging research area since sign language often is the only way of communication for the deaf people. Sign language includes different components of visual actions made by the signer using the hands, the face, and the torso, to convey his/her meaning. To use different aspects of signs, we combine the different groups of features which have been extracted from the image frames recorded directly by a stationary camera. We combine the features in two levels by employing three techniques. At the feature level, an early feature combination can be performed by concatenating and weighting different feature groups, or by concatenating feature groups over time and using LDA to choose the most discriminant elements. At the model level, a late fusion of differently trained models can be carried out by a log-linear model combination. In this paper, we investigate these three combination techniques in an automatic sign language recognition system and show that the recognition rate can be significantly improved.
Pulmonary hypertension diagnosed by right heart catheterisation in sickle cell disease

Recent studies have recognised the importance of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in sickle cell disease (SCD). The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and prognostic impact of PH and its features in patients with SCD. 80 patients with SCD underwent baseline clinical evaluation, laboratory testing, 6-min walk tests (6MWTs) and echocardiography. Patients with a peak tricuspid regurgitant jet velocity (TRV) of ≥2.5 m·s−1 were further evaluated through right heart catheterisation (RHC) to assure the diagnosis of PH. Our study evidenced a 40% prevalence of patients with elevated TRV at echocardiography. RHC (performed in 25 out of 32 patients) confirmed PH in 10% (95% CI 3.4–16.5%) of all patients, with a prevalence of post-capillary PH of 6.25% (95% CI 0.95–11.55%) and pre-capillary PH of 3.75% (95% CI -0.4–7.9%). Patients with PH were older, had worse performance in 6MWTs, and more pronounced anaemia, haemolysis and renal dysfunction. Survival was shorter in patients with PH. Our study reinforced the use of echocardiography as a screening tool for PH in SCD and the mandatory role of RHC for proper diagnosis. Our findings confirmed the prognostic significance of PH in SCD as its association to pronounced haemolytic profile.
Is it economically viable to employ the nurse practitioner in general practice?

AIMS This article provides insight into the potential economic viability of nurse practitioner employment in Dutch general practices. BACKGROUND General practitioners face the challenging task of finding the most efficient and effective mix of professionals in general practice to accommodate future care demands within scarce health care budgets. To enable informed decision-making about skill mix issues, economic information is needed. DESIGN Discursive paper. METHOD A descriptive and explorative design was chosen to study the economic viability of nurse practitioner employment in general practice. The conditions under which the nurse practitioner is able to earn back his/her own cost of employment were identified. Preferences and expectations of general practitioners and health insurers about nurse practitioner reimbursement were made transparent. RESULTS Although general practitioners and health insurers acknowledge the importance of the nurse practitioner in accommodating primary care demands, they have polarised views about reimbursement. The employment of nurse practitioners is seldom economically viable in current practices. It requires a reallocation of (80% of) the general practitioner's freed up time towards practice growth (12% number of patients). CONCLUSION The economic viability of the nurse practitioner has proven difficult to achieve in every day health care practice. This study provided insight into the complex interaction of the (cost) parameters that result in economic viability and feeds a further discussion about the content of the nurse practitioner role in general practice based on optimal quality of care vs. efficiency. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Effective and efficient health care can only be provided if the actual care needs of a population provide the basis for deciding which mix of professionals is best equipped to deal with the changing and increasing demand of care. A macro-level intervention is needed to help a broad-scale introduction of the nurse practitioner in general practice.