Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bacteriophage Mediates Efficient Gene Transfer in Combination with Conventional Transfection Reagents

The development of commercially available transfection reagents for gene transfer applications has revolutionized the field of molecular biology and scientific research. However, the challenge remains in ensuring that they are efficient, safe, reproducible and cost effective. Bacteriophage (phage)-based viral vectors have the potential to be utilized for general gene transfer applications within research and industry. Yet, they require adaptations in order to enable them to efficiently enter cells and overcome mammalian cellular barriers, as they infect bacteria only; furthermore, limited progress has been made at increasing their efficiency. The production of a novel hybrid nanocomplex system consisting of two different nanomaterial systems, phage vectors and conventional transfection reagents, could overcome these limitations. Here we demonstrate that the combination of cationic lipids, cationic polymers or calcium phosphate with M13 bacteriophage-derived vectors, engineered to carry a mammalian transgene cassette, resulted in increased cellular attachment, entry and improved transgene expression in human cells. Moreover, addition of a targeting ligand into the nanocomplex system, through genetic engineering of the phage capsid further increased gene expression and was effective in a stable cell line generation application. Overall, this new hybrid nanocomplex system (i) provides enhanced phage-mediated gene transfer; (ii) is applicable for laboratory transfection processes and (iii) shows promise within industry for large-scale gene transfer applications.
A Guide to the Neuropsychological Assessment of the Aging Individual

Most clinical neuropsychologists find themselves, at one time or another, foraging through their collection of folders, boxes, and texts to locate reliability, validity, and normative data for some of the more commonly used neuropsychological tests in an elderly population. In their forward, Tuokko and Hadjistavropoulos indicate that this book is designed to compile the range of normative data on the more commonly used neuropsychological tests into one source that can be easily accessed and integrated by the clinician. In addition to presentation of normative data relating to the geriatric population, a critique of each instrument's standardization and normative data is presented as well. While not all-inclusive of measures used by the typical neuropsychologist, it does cover the majority of tasks for which good normative data on the elderly exist.
Integration and Expression of Mcf-13 Provirus in Mcf-13-Induced Lymphomas

Polytropic viruses were isolated from 11 MCF-13-induced lymphomas using multiple infectious cycles on the mink lung and SC1 cell lines. The viruses were characterized by host range infectious properties and by biochemical properties using Cleveland's polypeptide mapping of the p30 and gp 70 viral proteins demonstrating identity in their biological properties with the MCF-13 lymphoma-inducing virus. Restriction enzyme analysis of the high molecular weight tumoral DNAs confirmed the presence of proviral sequences homologous to the inducing provirus in the lymphoma genomes indicating that MCF-13 MuLV has integrated in the cellular genome of the induced lymphomas.
Measurement of human sensation for developing sensible textiles

Human perceptive faculties consist of 5 senses: visual, auditory, olfactory, taste, and tactile sense. Visual is the most powerful sense for human perception followed by the auditory sense. This article attempts to find the connection between the visual and the auditory senses. In particular, the aim is to convert sound to color based on human perception. Natural sounds were selected as stimuli and analyzed by sound color and psychoacoustic factors. In addition, subjective perception was evaluated, and electroencephalogram (EEG) was measured using psychophysiological methods in 20 participants. From the factor analysis results of subjective responses, 4 factors were determined: Emotion, Action, Atmosphere, and Strength. To convert sounds to colors, a multidimensional scale analysis was performed using the results of the EEG responses. Bird sound was converted to green, wave sound to red, and rain sound to red‐purple. The results were presented by textile designs. From these results, the ability of natural sounds to convert to colors was proven, so that the transformed colors can be used to help design textiles. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Clinical Implications of Primary and Nonprimary Pathway Contributions to the Middle Latency Response Generating System

ABSTRACT Clinical use of the middle latency response (MLR) has been limited by the variability of the response during sleep in young children. Theoretically, this variability can be explained by the differential maturation of the primary and nonprimary components of the MLR generating system. The model is supported by animal neurophysiological data. Applied to the human system, the model predicts that, in children, MLR generators are active only' during certain stages of sleep. From a clinical standpoint, this has led to a procedure for signaling the clinician when a child is in a sleep state favorable for recording the MLR.
Possibilistic Evaluation of Extended Fuzzy Rules in the Presence of Uncertainty

Characterization fuzzy in term "fuzzy rule base" is currently referred to the ability to define rule antecedents using fuzzy numbers. On the other hand, when it comes to the knowledge described by the rules and to the information contained in rule antecedents, absolute accuracy is assumed. With the emergence of a vast variety of applications of rule based systems, where antecedents are not provided by sensors but rather by complicated processing modules, more efficient rules and rule evaluation structures are needed, that are able to describe knowledge in more intuitive manner and cope with uncertainty in the assumed input. In this paper we propose extended fuzzy rules that allow for optional antecedents and provide a methodology for the possibilistic evaluation of both conventional and extended fuzzy rules in the presence of uncertainty. The work has been successfully applied in a real life problem, for which conventional fuzzy rules and fuzzy rule evaluation were inadequate
Registering multiple cartographic models with the hierarchical mixture of experts algorithm

This paper describes an application of the hierarchical mixture of experts algorithm (HME) to the registration of multiple cartographic models to noisy radar data. According to the HME algorithm each model is represented by a set of maximum likelihood registration parameters together with a set of matching probabilities. This architecture can be viewed as providing simultaneous registration and hypothesis verification. The maps in the cartographic data-base compete to account for radar data through the imposed probability normalisation. The resulting matching algorithm can be regarded as a generic tool for model retrieval from a database. Our evaluation on radar images illustrates some of the characteristics of the algorithm. Our main conclusions are that the method is both robust to added image noise and poor initialisation.
Non-linear Dimensionality Regularizer for Solving Inverse Problems

Consider an ill-posed inverse problem of estimating causal factors from observations, one of which is known to lie near some (un- known) low-dimensional, non-linear manifold expressed by a predefined Mercer-kernel. Solving this problem requires simultaneous estimation of these factors and learning the low-dimensional representation for them. In this work, we introduce a novel non-linear dimensionality regulariza- tion technique for solving such problems without pre-training. We re-formulate Kernel-PCA as an energy minimization problem in which low dimensionality constraints are introduced as regularization terms in the energy. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first at- tempt to create a dimensionality regularizer in the KPCA framework. Our approach relies on robustly penalizing the rank of the recovered fac- tors directly in the implicit feature space to create their low-dimensional approximations in closed form. Our approach performs robust KPCA in the presence of missing data and noise. We demonstrate state-of-the-art results on predicting missing entries in the standard oil flow dataset. Additionally, we evaluate our method on the challenging problem of Non-Rigid Structure from Motion and our approach delivers promising results on CMU mocap dataset despite the presence of significant occlusions and noise.
NILMTK v0.2: a non-intrusive load monitoring toolkit for large scale data sets: demo abstract

In this demonstration, we present an open source toolkit for evaluating non-intrusive load monitoring research; a field which aims to disaggregate a household's total electricity consumption into individual appliances. The toolkit contains: a number of importers for existing public data sets, a set of preprocessing and statistics functions, a benchmark disaggregation algorithm and a set of metrics to evaluate the performance of such algorithms. Specifically, this release of the toolkit has been designed to enable the use of large data sets by only loading individual chunks of the whole data set into memory at once for processing, before combining the results of each chunk.
Moving as a family affair: Applying the SOC model to older adults and their kinship networks

ABSTRACT In cases where moves are voluntary, older adults may decide to move as a strategy to optimize their living experiences. Older adults may voluntarily move as a strategy to optimize their living experiences. We use the Baltes and Baltes (1990) model of selection, optimization with compensation (SOC) to understand the impact of moving on a family network. Extending the SOC model beyond individual analysis offers an innovative addition to the literature. Moving may serve to optimize one’s life by enriching one’s emotional and physical reserves, but relocation may also challenge the older adult and their kin with other demands and frustrations. While moving can be optimal in some ways, it is also important to consider how the act of moving may be exchanged for future emotional and instrumental support from spouses and kin. To complete this ethnographic project, the researcher conducted interviews, participant observation of the moving process (packing, garage sales, moving day, adjustment) and document review with older adults (n = 81), members of their kin network (n = 49) and supportive professionals (n = 46). This approach allowed for the possibility of tracking a network through the moving process, using formal interviews, participant observation and document review to find out if and how moving optimizes lives.
Equivalence of cell survival data for radiation dose and thermal dose in ablative treatments: analysis applied to essential tremor thalamotomy by focused ultrasound and gamma knife

Abstract Thermal dose and absorbed radiation dose have historically been difficult to compare because different biological mechanisms are at work. Thermal dose denatures proteins and the radiation dose causes DNA damage in order to achieve ablation. The purpose of this paper is to use the proportion of cell survival as a potential common unit by which to measure the biological effect of each procedure. Survival curves for both thermal and radiation doses have been extracted from previously published data for three different cell types. Fits of these curves were used to convert both thermal and radiation dose into the same quantified biological effect: fraction of surviving cells. They have also been used to generate and compare survival profiles from the only indication for which clinical data are available for both focused ultrasound (FUS) thermal ablation and radiation ablation: essential tremor thalamotomy. All cell types could be fitted with coefficients of determination greater than 0.992. As an illustration, survival profiles of clinical thalamotomies performed by radiosurgery and FUS are plotted on a same graph for the same metric: fraction of surviving cells. FUS and Gamma Knife have the potential to be used in combination to deliver a more effective treatment (for example, FUS may be used to debulk the main tumour mass, and radiation to treat the surrounding tumour bed). In this case, a model which compares thermal and radiation treatments is valuable in order to adjust the dose between the two.
Design and simulation of a Maximum Likelihood Estimator based Ka-band beacon receiver

Tropospheric effect of Ka-band signals are significant and to study that a beacon receiver is designed and its digital signal processing section is implemented in Simulink. The design is based on Maximum Likelihood Estimator to determine both the amplitude and phase of the signal. The implemented receiver is different from commonly used fast Fourier transform based ones and appears simpler. The implemented receiver is tested with the simulated signal, taken from a RF generator and shown to give desired performance.
‘Their finest hour’: older people, oral histories, and the historical geography of social life

When investigating older people, human geographers have been almost exclusively concerned with distributive features or experiences of ageing, the latter often in relation to residential and caring environments. From both healthcare and welfare perspectives, these fields of research are extremely important. Notwithstanding, in an attempt to broaden geography's current engagement with older people, we argue for attention to be paid to older people's pasts through their oral histories; hence focusing on when they were younger as a means to explore and understand past social life. As a case study, we interviewed twelve older persons on their experiences of life in the English coastal town of Teignmouth during World War II. The data indicate how older people are not only located in local histories and the making of places, but also how the histories of places—from bricks and mortar to social and cultural dimensions—are equally located in their narratives. Indeed, rich, remarkable and often neglected modern oral histories of everyday social life are ‘there for the telling’, histories not captured by other methods and approaches. We argue that although a wide range of positional, theoretical and methodological issues require discussion, geographers might move beyond our case study to consider older people more frequently in their historical representations of social life, place and landscape. Such a project might unite historical and social geography in a new direction and provide unique viewing platforms onto existing debates.
Older Australian's Motivation for University Enrollment and Their Perception of the Role of Tertiary Education in Promoting Healthy Aging: A National Cross-Sectional Study

The aims of this study were to describe the characteristics of older Australian university students (aged 60+ years); to identify the factors that motivate late-life, tertiary-level learning; and to capture older students’ views about the role of tertiary-level learning in promoting healthy aging. In 2012, an invitation to participate in the study was sent to all 39 Australian universities, seeking their support and cooperation to recruit students aged 60+ years into the study. Eligible participants were asked to complete an online survey that comprised a range of closed and open-ended questions related to their university study. Narrative data were coded into themes using an inductive approach in QSR NVivo. A total of 626 older students completed the online survey. Just over half (55%) of the sample were women, 86% were aged between 60–70 years of age, 49% held a graduate qualification, and the majority (69%) were born in Australia. Participants cited a range of personal and vocational motivations for enrolling in a university course. They believed that university-level learning kept the mind and brain active; enabled access to an interesting, challenging, and purposeful activity; promoted social engagement and intergenerational communication; and improved confidence, knowledge, and skills. Future prospective experimental studies of older learners are required to objectively assess the impact of university-level learning on their health and wellbeing, including cognitive function. These data will quantify the benefits of tertiary-level learning to older people and society.
The Large Mitochondrial Genome of Symbiodinium minutum Reveals Conserved Noncoding Sequences between Dinoflagellates and Apicomplexans

Even though mitochondrial genomes, which characterize eukaryotic cells, were first discovered more than 50 years ago, mitochondrial genomics remains an important topic in molecular biology and genome sciences. The Phylum Alveolata comprises three major groups (ciliates, apicomplexans, and dinoflagellates), the mitochondrial genomes of which have diverged widely. Even though the gene content of dinoflagellate mitochondrial genomes is reportedly comparable to that of apicomplexans, the highly fragmented and rearranged genome structures of dinoflagellates have frustrated whole genomic analysis. Consequently, noncoding sequences and gene arrangements of dinoflagellate mitochondrial genomes have not been well characterized. Here we report that the continuous assembled genome (∼326 kb) of the dinoflagellate, Symbiodinium minutum, is AT-rich (∼64.3%) and that it contains three protein-coding genes. Based upon in silico analysis, the remaining 99% of the genome comprises transcriptomic noncoding sequences. RNA edited sites and unique, possible start and stop codons clarify conserved regions among dinoflagellates. Our massive transcriptome analysis shows that almost all regions of the genome are transcribed, including 27 possible fragmented ribosomal RNA genes and 12 uncharacterized small RNAs that are similar to mitochondrial RNA genes of the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Gene map comparisons show that gene order is only slightly conserved between S. minutum and P. falciparum. However, small RNAs and intergenic sequences share sequence similarities with P. falciparum, suggesting that the function of noncoding sequences has been preserved despite development of very different genome structures.
Gastric emptying: a comparison of three methods

Objective. A better understanding of the clinical relevance of delayed gastric emptying (e.g. in diabetes) requires a simple, easily accessible and inexpensive method for measuring it. Two “new” methods for measuring gastric emptying of liquids (the paracetamol absorption test and the 13C-acetate breath test) are compared with the gold standard (gastric emptying scintigraphy (GES)). Material and methods. The three techniques were used simultaneously in 10 healthy subjects. A gastric emptying time-retention curve was drawn for each technique and the results were compared at the 75%, 50% and 25% retention quartiles. Results. Agreement was found between the paracetamol absorption test and GES (p=0.95; Hotelling's T2 test). Using the Wagner-Nelson one compartment correction produced a retention curve for the 13C-acetate breath test statistically significantly below GES (p<0.01). Conclusion. In healthy subjects, the paracetamol absorption test produced results comparable to those of liquid GES, but not to the results of the 13C-acetate breath test.
A maximal figure-of-merit (MFoM)-learning approach to robust classifier design for text categorization

We propose a maximal figure-of-merit (MFoM)-learning approach for robust classifier design, which directly optimizes performance metrics of interest for different target classifiers. The proposed approach, embedding the decision functions of classifiers and performance metrics into an overall training objective, learns the parameters of classifiers in a decision-feedback manner to effectively take into account both positive and negative training samples, thereby reducing the required size of positive training data. It has three desirable properties: (a) it is a performance metric, oriented learning; (b) the optimized metric is consistent in both training and evaluation sets; and (c) it is more robust and less sensitive to data variation, and can handle insufficient training data scenarios. We evaluate it on a text categorization task using the Reuters-21578 dataset. Training an F1-based binary tree classifier using MFoM, we observed significantly improved performance and enhanced robustness compared to the baseline and SVM, especially for categories with insufficient training samples. The generality for designing other metrics-based classifiers is also demonstrated by comparing precision, recall, and F1-based classifiers. The results clearly show consistency of performance between the training and evaluation stages for each classifier, and MFoM optimizes the chosen metric.
Sense of community as construct and theory: authors' response to McMillan

In this article, we respond to criticisms posed by McMillan (2011) of our recent paper, “Viewing Community as Responsibility as well as a Resource: Deconstructing the Theoretical Roots of Psychological Sense of Community. ” We clarify that the focus of our article was to explore the macro theoretical frameworks and second-order assumptions that have guided the measurement and study of the psychological sense of community (PSOC) construct to date. We then correct McMillan's mischaracterization of our work as a normative theory by clarifying that our thesis was not that PSOC is a value – but rather that (a) people have values and belief systems, and (b) these belief systems may interact with aspects of a community context to evoke a sense of responsibility for a community to which one belongs. We conclude by reviewing key areas of shared agreement concerning responsibility aspects of PSOC that may serve as a foundation for guiding future research. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism, lateralisation, and handedness: A review of the literature and meta-analysis

A number of recent investigators have hypothesised a link between autism, left-handedness, and brain laterality. Their findings have varied widely, in part because these studies have relied on different methodologies and definitions. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the literature, with the hypothesis that there would be an association between autism and laterality that would be moderated by handedness, sex, age, brain region studied, and level of autism. From a broad search resulting in 259 papers, 54 were identified for inclusion in the literature review. This list was narrowed further to include only studies reporting results in the inferior frontal gyrus for meta-analysis, resulting in four papers. The meta-analysis found a moderate but non-significant effect size of group on lateralisation, suggesting a decrease in strength of lateralisation in the autistic group, a trend supported by the literature review. A subgroup analysis of sex and a meta-regression of handedness showed that these moderating variables did not have a significant effect on this relationship. Although the results are not conclusive, there appears to be a trend towards a relationship between autism and lateralisation. However, more rigorous studies with better controls and clearer reporting of definitions and results are needed.
HCV Intergenotype 2k/1b Recombinant Detected in a DAA-Treated Patient in Italy

Direct-acting antiviral (DAA) combinations are potent and effective drugs currently recommended for treatment of chronic HCV infection. Difficult to treat genotypes are the most important predictors of treatment failure. We report a case of DAA treatment failure in an HCV-infected patient carrying a recombinant genotype 2k/1b. This strain, first isolated from a Russian patient in 2002, has now been observed for the first time in Italy.