Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Skp1p Regulates Soi3p/Rav1p Association with Endosomal Membranes but Is Not Required for Vacuolar ATPase Assembly

ABSTRACT Skp1p is an essential component of SCF-type E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes and associates with these through binding to F-box proteins. Skp1p also binds F-box proteins in a number of non-SCF complexes. The Skp1p-associated yeast protein Soi3p/Rav1p (hereafter referred to as Rav1p) is a component of the RAVE complex required for regulated assembly of vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase). Rav1p is also involved in transport of TGN proteins and endocytic cargo between early and late endosomes. To evaluate the role of Skp1p in the RAVE complex, we made use of the fact that overexpression of Rav1p is toxic because it sequesters Skp1p from essential interactions. We isolated a separation of function allele of SKP1, skp1(Asn108Tyr), that completely abrogated the Rav1p interaction but allowed Skp1p to perform other essential cellular functions. Cells containing the skp1(Asn108Tyr) allele as the sole source of Skp1p exhibited normal V-ATPase assembly and activity. However, in the skp1(Asn108Tyr) mutant strain, the membrane-associated pool of Rav1-green fluorescent protein was increased, suggesting that Skp1p is important for the release of Rav1p from endosomal membranes where it functions in V-ATPase assembly. Thus, although part of the RAVE complex, Skp1p does not appear to be involved in V-ATPase assembly but instead in the cycling of the complex off membranes. This work also provides a generalizable approach to defining the roles of interactions of Skp1p with individual F-box proteins through the isolation of special alleles of SKP1.
Catalysis of Transesterification Reactions by a Self-Assembled Nanosystem

Histidine-containing peptides self-assemble on the surface of monolayer protected gold nanoparticles to form a catalytic system for transesterification reactions. Self-assembly is a prerequisite for catalysis, since the isolated peptides do not display catalytic activity by themselves. A series of catalytic peptides and substrates are studied in order to understand the structural parameters that are of relevance to the catalytic efficiency of the system. It is shown that the distance between the His-residue and the anionic tail does not affect the catalytic activity. On the other hand, the catalytic His-residue is sensitive to the chemical nature of the flanking amino acid residues. In particular, the presence of polar Ser-residues causes a significant increase in activity. Finally, kinetic studies of a series of substrates reveal that substrates with a hydrophobic component are very suitable for this catalytic system.
Multithreading approach for focusing module performance optimization of Small BAseline Subset processing chain

Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) technique, developed by CNR -IREA, is a DInSAR approach allowing to detect Earth's surface deformation and to analyse their temporal evolution. To process SAR acquisitions using this technique large number of data is required and a sophisticate elaboration is necessary. A sequential code implementation leads to processing times that don't meet market constraints, very demanding in terms of processing time delivery. This work, in collaboration with CNR-IREA, demonstrates multi-threads potentiality to reduce processing time of SBAS chain, using multicore capabilities of new platforms in cluster environment. Development of a robust, efficient and flexible concurrent application for focusing module is described.
Chinese syllable-to-character conversion with recurrent neural network based supervised sequence labelling

Chinese Syllable-to-Character (S2C) conversion is the important component for Input Methods, and the key problem in Chinese S2C conversion is the serious phenomenon in Chinese language. In order to disambiguate homophones to improve Chinese S2C conversion, in this paper, Chinese S2C conversion is treated as a sequence labelling task, and the recurrent neural network (RNN) based on supervise sequence labelling is introduced to achieve the direct conversion from syllable sequences to word sequences. Through the direct conversion with the proposed RNN, the cascade error in multi-pass approaches can be eliminated effectively. Experimental results indicate that, in second pass decoding, the re-ranking with RNN language model has better performance than N-gram language model in both perplexity and S2C conversion accuracy. Moreover, the direct S2C conversion with RNN can improve the accuracy from 93.77% (RNN language model) to 94.17%.
Relationship between tactical behavior and affective decision-making in U-17 youth soccer players

Purpose. The aim of this article was to analyze the relationship between tactical behavior and affective decision making of U-17 youth soccer players. Methods. The sample was comprised of 154 participants meeting the study inclusion criteria. Players played 4-min games on four-person teams (including goalkeeper) on a small-sided soccer field. The System of Tactical Assessment in Soccer (FUT-SAT) was used to determine the defensive tactical actions performed by players according to five different tactical principles. A total of 6140 defensive tactical actions were recorded. Their affective decision-making was measured by a computerized card task, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Results. Significant negative correlation was found between players’ learning curve and the incidence of actions based on the principle of concentration. Less impulsive players presented a lower incidence of actions tied with the principle of concentration in comparison with more impulsive players. Conclusions. The findings suggest that, in the defensive phase, players who are less impulsive decision makers may benefit from more secure and stable defensive styles.
Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research [Book Review]

Review(s) of: Russell K Schutt, Investigating the social world: the process and practice of research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 2006, fifth edition, ISBN 141292734X, 515 pages, 133 pages of appendices, bibliography and glossary/index, CD-ROM attached, paperback.
A New $H_{{\bm \infty}}$ Stabilization Criterion for Networked Control Systems

This note is concerned with robust Hinfin control of linear networked control systems with time-varying network-induced delay and data packet dropout. A new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, which makes use of the information of both the lower and upper bounds of the time-varying network-induced delay, is proposed to drive a new delay-dependent Hinfin stabilization criterion. The criterion is formulated in the form of a non-convex matrix inequality, of which a feasible solution can be obtained by solving a minimization problem in terms of linear matrix inequalities. In order to obtain much less conservative results, a tighter bounding for some term is estimated. Moreover, no slack variable is introduced. Finally, two numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed design method.
Pre-image Resistant Cancelable Biometrics Scheme Using Bidirectional Memory Model

Cancelable biometrics is a promising template protection scheme which relies on encoding the raw biometric data using non-invertible transformation function. Existing cancelable biometrics schemes ensure recoverability of compromised templates as well as users’ privacy. However, these schemes cannot resist pre-image attacks. In this article, a pre-image resistant cancelable biometrics scheme is proposed, where associative memory is utilized to encode the cancelable transformation parameters with the privilege of high recognition performance. Bidirectional memory model has been suggested to memorize each user’s associated key using his biometric data based on association connectors. These connector values can be safely saved in the storage along with the cancelable bio-metric template. The cancelable template is generated using XOR operation between the biometric data and the associated key. The simulated experiments conducted on CASIA-IrisV3-Interval dataset show that the presented resistant scheme does not aﬀect the classiﬁcation power of the raw biometric data signiﬁcantly. Moreover, the resistance of the presented scheme against complete or approximate disclosure of the raw biometric template is achieved.
Sequential Ordinal Modeling with Applications to Survival Data

Summary. This paper considers the class of sequential ordinal models in relation to other models for ordinal response data. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, based on the approach of Albert and Chib (1993, Journal of the American Statistical Association88, 669–679), are developed for the fitting of these models. The ideas and methods are illustrated in detail with a real data example on the length of hospital stay for patients undergoing heart surgery. A notable aspect of this analysis is the comparison, based on marginal likelihoods and training sample priors, of several nonnested models, such as the sequential model, the cumulative ordinal model, and Weibull and log‐logistic models.
disability activism and the struggle for change

This article provides a critical evaluation of recent developments in government policy for disabled people in Britain. A brief outline of the re-definition of disability as social oppression by disabled activists and their organizations is provided. This is followed by a brief outline of its impact on recent government policy which aims to improve the life chances of people with designated `impairments and long term health conditions'. It is argued that although much has been achieved over recent years there is still a long way to go if the language of inclusion is to become more than empty rhetoric. Further, that while disability activism has had an important influence on disability policy in the UK, this very success threatens to undermine its continuity and future.
Should soluble CD40 ligand be measured from serum or plasma samples?

To the Editor: We were surprised to read the article by Blake et al1 on the relationship of soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) and lipid accumulation in carotid atheroma. We recently reported an association between inflammatory markers and early onset carotid atherosclerosis.2 Of the patients noted in that report, we had plasma samples from EDTA-anticoagulated blood, stored frozen for 1 to 3 years. Although the product information and manual of the Bender MedSystem’s ELISA kit clearly states that plasma preparations are not suitable for the essay,3 we decided to run a test on some of these plasma samples for sCD40L. We also used duplicate plasma samples, together with fresh serum and plasma of 5 healthy subjects obtained less than 4 hours before the ELISA test, in the same ELISA plate. We were not surprised but were disappointed, as no activity could be detected either in the frozen plasma samples of patients or in the fresh or recalcified plasma samples of the healthy subjects. The method and the plate worked properly, as sCD40L activity was measured with small variation between duplicates in all of the serum samples (7.0±1.5 ng/mL, mean±SD). We had to conclude and admit that, as stated in the product information, EDTA-anticoagulated plasma samples—either frozen or freshly collected—are not appropriate for the test. After this failure, we came …
An efficient finger vein indexing scheme based on unsupervised clustering

Finger vein recognition has emerged as the robust biometric modality because of their unique vein pattern that can be captured using near infrared spectrum. The large scale finger vein based biometric solutions demand the need of searching the probe finger vein sample against the large collection of gallery samples. In order to improve the reliability in searching for the suitable identity in the large-scale finger vein database, it is essential to introduce the finger vein indexing and retrieval scheme. In this work, we present a novel finger vein indexing and retrieval scheme based on unsupervised clustering. To this extent we investigated three different clustering schemes namely K-means, K-medoids and Self Organizing Maps (SOM) neural networks. In addition, we also present a new feature extraction scheme to extract both compact and discriminant features from the finger vein images that are more suitable to build the indexing space. Extensive experiments are carried out on a large-scale heterogeneous finger vein database comprised of 2850 unique identities constructed using seven different publicly available finger vein databases. The obtained results demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed scheme with a pre-selection rate of 7.58% (hit rate of 92.42%) with a penetration rate of 42.48%. Further, the multi-cluster search demonstrated the performance with pre-selection error rate of 0.98% (hit rate of 99.02%) with a penetration rate of 52.88%.
Neurexin gene family variants as risk factors for autism spectrum disorder

Increasing evidence suggests that abnormal synaptic function leads to neuronal developmental disorders and is an important component of the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Neurexins are presynaptic cell‐adhesion molecules that affect the function of synapses and mediate the conduction of nerve signals. Thus, neurexins are attractive candidate genes for autism. Since gene families have greater power to reveal genetic association than single genes, we designed this case‐control study to investigate six genetic variants in three neurexin genes (NRXN1, NRXN2, and NRXN3) in a Chinese population including 529 ASD patients and 1,923 healthy controls. We found that two SNPs were significantly associated with ASD after false discovery rate (FDR) adjustment for multiple comparisons. The NRXN2 rs12273892 polymorphism T allele and AT genotype were significantly associated with increased risk of ASD (respectively: OR = 1.328, 95% CI = 1.133–1.557, P < 0.001; OR = 1.528; 95% CI = 1.249–1.868, P < 0.001). The dominant model showed the same association (OR = 1.495, 95% CI = 1.231–1.816, P < 0.001). The NRXN3 rs12879016 polymorphism played a significant role in ASD susceptibility under the dominant model (OR = 0.747, 95% CI= 0.615–0.908, P = 0.023), with the same trend detected for the G allele and GT genotype (respectively: OR = 0.811, 95% CI = 0.699–0.941, P = 0.036; OR = 0.755, 95% CI = 0.615–0.928, P = 0.035). In conclusion, this study supports the importance of two genetic variants in the neurexin gene family in ASD susceptibility in China. Autism Res 2018, 11: 37–43. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Plasma Dimethylglycine and Risk of Incident Acute Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Stable Angina Pectoris

Objective—Dimethylglycine is linked to lipid metabolism, and increased plasma levels may be associated with adverse prognosis in patients with coronary artery disease. We evaluated the relationship between plasma dimethylglycine and risk of incident acute myocardial infarction in a large prospective cohort of patients with stable angina pectoris, of whom approximately two thirds were participants in a B-vitamin intervention trial. Model discrimination and reclassification when adding plasma dimethylglycine to established risk factors were obtained. We also explored temporal changes and the test–retest reliability of plasma dimethylglycine. Approach and Results—Four thousand one hundred fifty patients (72% men; median age 62 years) were included. Plasma dimethylglycine was associated with several traditional coronary artery disease risk factors. During a median follow-up of 4.6 years, 343 (8.3%) patients experienced an acute myocardial infarction. The hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for acute myocardial infarction was 1.95 (1.42–2.68; P<0.001) when comparing plasma dimethylglycine quartile 4 to 1 in a Cox regression model adjusted for age, sex, and fasting status. Adjusting for traditional coronary artery disease risk factors only slightly modified the estimates, which were particularly strong among nonsmokers and among patients with serum triglyceride or apolipoprotein B100 levels ⩽median (P for interaction=0.004, 0.004, and 0.03, respectively). Plasma dimethylglycine improved discrimination and reclassification and had high test–retest reliability. Conclusions—Plasma dimethylglycine is independently related to incident acute myocardial infarction and enhances risk prediction in patients with stable angina pectoris. Our results motivate further studies on the relationship between 1-carbon metabolism and atherothrombosis. A potential interplay with lipid and energy metabolism merits particular attention.
Motion and emotion: depression reduces psychomotor performance and alters affective movements in caregiving interactions

Background: Impaired social functioning is a well-established feature of depression. Evidence to date suggests that disrupted processing of emotional cues may constitute part of this impairment. Beyond processing of emotional cues, fluent social interactions require that people physically move in synchronized, contingent ways. Disruptions to physical movements are a diagnostic feature of depression (psychomotor disturbance) but have not previously been assessed in the context of social functioning. Here we investigated the impact of psychomotor disturbance in depression on physical responsive behavior in both an experimental and observational setting. Methods: In Experiment 1, we examined motor disturbance in depression in response to salient emotional sounds, using a laboratory-based effortful motor task. In Experiment 2, we explored whether psychomotor disturbance was apparent in real-life social interactions. Using mother-infant interactions as a model affective social situation, we compared physical behaviors of mothers with and without postnatal depression (PND). Results: We found impairments in precise, controlled psychomotor performance in adults with depression relative to healthy adults (Experiment 1). Despite this disruption, all adults showed enhanced performance following exposure to highly salient emotional cues (infant cries). Examining real-life interactions, we found differences in physical movements, namely reduced affective touching, in mothers with PND responding to their infants, compared to healthy mothers (Experiment 2). Conclusions: Together, these findings suggest that psychomotor disturbance may be an important feature of depression that can impair social functioning. Future work investigating whether improvements in physical movement in depression could have a positive impact on social interactions would be of much interest.
THE WIRELESS MONITORING OF VITAL PARAMETERS: A DESIGN STUDY

This project shows the way vital parameters can be transmitted and visualized with no connecting cables necessary to the PDA. This was realized using a sensor developed with an integrated Bluetooth interface and a PDA, also equipped with Bluetooth. This radio connection can span up to 10 m, and parameters, such as pulse frequency, oxygen saturation in blood, ECG measurements and plethysmograms, can be transmitted. Using the software introduced in this work, the transmitted measurements can be displayed numerically or graphically on the PDA. The software simultaneously checks for any limits and sends a warning message if these limits are exceeded. All received data are additionally documented.
Epidemiology of Psychotropic Drug Use in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Gaps in Mental Illness Treatments

Objective Estimate the prevalence of psychotropic drugs use in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and establish its relationship with the presence of mental disorders. Methods A probabilistic sample of non-institutionalized individuals, from the general population of Rio de Janeiro (n = 1208;turn out:81%), 15 years or older, who were interviewed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 2.1 (depression, anxiety-phobia, OCD\PTSD, alcoholism sections), and asked about their psychotropic use during a 12 and one-month period before the interview. Data were collected between June/2007-February/2008.The prevalence was estimated with a confidence interval of 95%. The associations between psychotropics use and mental disorders were analyzed through a logistic regression model (Odds Ration – OR). Results The one-month prevalence of psychotropic drug use was 6.55%, 3.19% for men and 9.13% for women. Antidepressants were the most frequently used drug (2.78%), followed by anorectics (1.65%), tranquilizers (1.61%) and mood stabilizers (1.23%). General practitioners issued the highest number of prescriptions (46.3%), followed by psychiatrists (29.3%); 86.6% of the psychotropic drugs used were paid for by the patient himself. Individuals with increased likelihood of using psychotropic drugs were those that had received a psychiatric diagnosis during a one-month period before the study (OR:3.93), females (OR:1.82), separated/divorced (OR:2.23), of increased age (OR:1.03), with higher income (OR:2.96), and family history of mental disorder (OR:2.59); only 16% of the individuals with a current DSM IV diagnosis were using a psychotropic drug; 17% among individuals with a depression-related diagnosis and 8% with Phobic Anxiety Disorders-related diagnosis used psychotropics. Conclusion Approximately 84% of individuals displaying some mental disorder did not use psychotropic drugs, which indicates an important gap between demand and access to treatment. A significant failure is evident in the health system for patients with mental disorders; this could be due to health workers' inability to recognize mental disorders among individuals.
Analysis of the Urine Proteome of Human Contrast-Induced Kidney Injury Using Two-Dimensional Fluorescence Differential Gel Electrophoresis/Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry/Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry

Background: The pathogenesis of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) remains unclear and is defined by changes in serum creatinine which is not a sensitive biomarker for acute kidney injury. Search for differentially expressed urinary protein or peptide could contribute to further understanding of the disease and may provide new biomarkers. Methods: This is a small sample research. Urine samples were obtained from patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention and were labeled with 3 different fluorescent dyes. After 2-dimensional electrophoresis was run, the differentially regulated spots were picked out and identified by mass spectrometry. Another 31 patients were used as validation group. Results: Among 56 significantly changed spots, mannose-binding lectin (MBL) and MBL-associated serine protease 2 were both significantly upregulated. Compared to the baseline value, urinary MBL was significantly increased in the CIN group (2.08, 1.42–5.72, vs. 1.09, 0.516–1.411; p < 0.01). Postprocedure urinary MBL in the CIN group was also significantly higher than that in the non-CIN group (2.08, 1.42–5.72, vs. 1.057, 0.738–1.885; p < 0.05). Conclusion: The studies suggested that MBL may be associated with contrast-induced acute kidney injury. It leads to an attempt to define a new pathogenesis and a novel biomarker for CIN.
Test use in Spain, Portugal and Latin American countries.

Summary: The two main sources of errors in educational and psychological evaluation are the lack of adequate technical and psychometric characteristics of the tests, and especially the failure to properly implement the testing process. The main goal of the present research is to study the situation of test construction and test use in the Spanish-speaking (Spain and Latin American countries) and Portuguese-speaking (Portugal and Brazil) countries. The data were collected using a questionnaire constructed by the European Federation of Professional Psychologists Association (EFPPA) Task Force on Tests and Testing, under the direction of D. Bartram. In addition to the questionnaire, other ad hoc data were also gathered. Four main areas of psychological testing were investigated: Educational, Clinical, Forensic and Work. Key persons were identified in each country in order to provide reliable information. The main results are presented, and some measures that could be taken in order to improve the current tes.