Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Muscle Stretching after Immobilization Applied at Alternate Days Preserves Components of Articular Cartilage

We compared the response of articular cartilage subjected to muscle stretching at different frequencies after joint immobilization. Wistar rats with immobilized left hind limbs were classified into the following groups: immobilization, immobilization followed by muscle stretching applied daily (group IS7) or three times a week (IS3), muscle stretching applied daily (S7) or three times a week (S3), and a control group (C) that underwent no intervention. We then evaluated the cartilage for cellularity, loss of proteoglycans, collagen density, and immunostaining of fibronectin and chondroitin 4-sulfate. Group IS7 showed a significant increase in cellularity and significant loss of proteoglycan compared with the control. In addition, IS7 group had less proteoglycan than IS3. Thin collagen fibrils were significantly reduced in IS7 rats, compared with IS3 and C. There was a significant decrease in the amount of thick fibrils in all groups compared with the control. Groups IS7 and IS3 showed significantly more intense fibronectin immunostaining than the other groups. Our results show that if applied daily after immobilization, muscle stretching is harmful to articular cartilage. However, when applied on alternate days, muscle stretching preserves the components of articular cartilage. We suggest that the latter frequency is more suitable for treatment.
Multiphysics modelling of MarsTEM shield

MarsTEM, the temperature sensor of the DREAMS (Dust characterization, Risk assessment and Environment Analyzer on the Martian Surface) package, which will fly on ExoMars 2016 EDM (Entry, Descent and landing demonstrator Module), will provide atmosphere temperature measurements near Mars' surface. As an effect of direct solar radiation, environment albedo and thermal infrared radiation, these temperature measurements will be modified. Therefore, the possibility to design a radiation shield in the sensor structure has been evaluated. Multiphysic simulations have been done in order to quantify the effect of direct solar radiation and thermal infrared radiation on sensor measurements for three different configurations: five-plates shield, three-plates shield and no-shield. Two different materials have been considered: aluminium alloy and titanium alloy. The results of our analysis show that at the Martian noon the best configuration is the no-shield one. In the second part of the paper it is shown the thermal model of the final MarsTEM version.
Contrast functions for blind source separation based on time frequency distributions

This paper introduces new source separation techniques exploiting the time frequency signatures of the source signals. The proposed approach relies on time frequency distributions (TFD). Two TFD-based contrast functions are presented for non stationary sources. Iterative algorithms using the relative gradient technique are used to optimize the proposed contrast functions and perform the source separation.
Antioxidant capacities of fractionated barley hordein hydrolysates in relation to peptide structures.

SCOPE This study has revealed strong antioxidant activities of barley hordein hydrolysate fractions and investigated the relationships between antioxidant properties and structural features of hordein peptides. METHODS AND RESULTS Barley hordein fractions separated based on molecular weight and surface hydrophobicity demonstrated strong antioxidant bioactivities, especially ferrous ion chelating capacity. Structural studies revealed the poly-l-proline helix, β-turn, and β-sheet as the dominant structural elements in the large molecular weight fraction, while most of the small-sized peptides assumed unordered random coil conformation accompanied by a large amount of ionized carboxyl groups produced as a result of partial deamidation of glutamine residues during hydrolysis. A study of antioxidant capacity in relation to peptide structure indicated the contribution of hydrophobic residues in radical scavenging and the positive effect of ionized carboxyl groups together with Lys and Met in metal chelation activity. QPYPQ was identified as the most repeated sequence in potent RP-HPLC fractions, which might be a particular structural motif that plays a key role in scavenging free radicals. CONCLUSION Barley hordein with its unique sequence partitioning has potential to produce peptides with strong antioxidant bioactivities.
Robust Rescaled Hinge Loss Twin Support Vector Machine for Imbalanced Noisy Classification

Support vector machine (SVM) and twin SVM (TWSVM) are sensitive to the noisy classification, due to the unlimited measures in their losses, especially for imbalanced classification problem. In this paper, by combining the advantages of the correntropy induced loss function (C-Loss) and the hinge loss function (hinge loss), we introduce the rescaled hinge loss function (Rhinge loss), which is a monotonic, bounded, and nonconvex loss, into TWSVM for imbalanced noisy classification, called RTBSVM. We show that the Rhinge loss could approximate the hard margin loss and the hinge loss by adjusting the rescaled parameter, and further, our RTBSVM could improve the stability and performance of TWSVM and it is effective for imbalanced noisy classification. The experimental results show that our method performs better than the compared TWSVMs and robust SVMs on the imbalanced noisy classification.
Investigation of the effects of myocardial anisotropy for shear wave elastography using impulsive force and harmonic vibration

The myocardium is known to be an anisotropic medium where the muscle fiber orientation changes through the thickness of the wall. Shear wave elastography methods use propagating waves which are measured by ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to characterize the mechanical properties of various tissues. Ultrasound- or MR-based methods have been used and the excitation frequency ranges for these various methods cover a large range from 24–500 Hz. Some of the ultrasound-based methods have been shown to be able to estimate the fiber direction. We constructed a model with layers of elastic, transversely isotropic materials that were oriented at different angles to simulate the heart wall in systole and diastole. We investigated the effect of frequency on the wave propagation and the estimation of fiber direction and wave speeds in the different layers of the assembled models. We found that waves propagating at low frequencies such as 30 or 50 Hz showed low sensitivity to the fiber direction but also had substantial bias in estimating the wave speeds in the layers. Using waves with higher frequency content (>200 Hz) allowed for more accurate fiber direction and wave speed estimation. These results have particular relevance for MR- and ultrasound-based elastography applications in the heart.
Distinguishable Groups of Musculoskeletal Low Back Pain Patients and Asymptomatic Control Subjects Based on Physical Measures of the NIOSH Low Back Atlas

Study Design The authors performed an empirical prospective study of 115 patients referred to physical therapy for low back pain and 112 control subjects of similar age and gender. Objectives The authors defined and compared subgroups based on physical tests and described demographic and psychosocial characteristics by group. Summary of Background Data Prospective studies of intervention for persons with low back pain are limited by inability to randomize subjects into distinguishable groups. Previous attempts have not been empirical and have not focused on musculoskeletal LBP. Methods Ten physical therapists administered 52 tests and 6 questionnaires to subjects in seven different clinics. Data were subjected to reliability and cluster and comparative analyses. Results Tests were reliable. Groups were distinguished by measures of symmetry, flexibility, strength, and dynamic mobility. Conclusion Distinguishable groups can be determined; decreased trunk mobility characterized all groups of patients and imbalances in muscle length, strength, and symmetry described specific groups of subjects with and without low back pain.
Comparison of Eleven Single-Round and Multiple PCR Assays Targeting IS6110, IS1081, RecA Intein and Pps1 Intein Gene for Detection of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

For molecular biological detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, PCR methods with primers targeting different regions speci&#64257;c for mycobacterium tuberculosis complex are used worldwide. However, some uncertainties exist concerning the speci&#64257;city of certain target regions and the sensitivity. To identify the methods which are best suited for diagnostics, 9 single-round and 2 multiple PCR systems based on IS6110 , IS1081, recA intein, and pps1 intein gene sequences were compared regarding their analytical sensitivity and speci&#64257;city under similar PCR conditions.
Investing at Full Tilt

Background One of the most influential theories of capital markets to come out of academic finance is the Capital Asset Pricing Model, or CAPM. Developed in the 1960s, the CAPM is the intellectual origin of the practice of using indexes for measuring systematic risk (“beta”), for separating manager skill from exposure to the market (“alpha”), and for forming the basis for passive investment products. While the construction of broad market indexes predates the development of the CAPM, it is the CAPM that made indexes such an important investment tool. So it is little wonder that one of the CAPM’s originators, William F. Sharpe, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1990 for his pioneering work.
A GaAs nanowire array solar cell with 15.3% efficiency at 1 sun

A GaAs nanowire array solar cell with an independently verified solar energy conversion efficiency of 15.3% and open circuit voltage of 0.906 V under AM1.5g solar illumination at 1 sun intensity has been fabricated by Sol Voltaics AB, which is the highest published efficiency for nanowire array solar cells, and twice the prior record for GaAs nanowire array solar cells. The solar cell has been fabricated by substrate-based epitaxy but is structurally compatible with substrate-less aerotaxy fabrication, providing a path to high volume manufacturing. The short circuit current of 21.3 mA/cm2 was generated in axial pn-junction GaAs cores covering 13% of the surface area, a volume of GaAs equivalent to a 370 nm thick planar layer.
Nanosecond pulse generation near 1.55 micron in the all-fiber figure-eight mode-lock laser with passive nonlinear loop mirror

Figure-eight mode-lock all-fiber laser based on a passive nonlinear loop mirror emitting nanosecond pulses at wavelength near 1.55 μm has been realized for the first time. Influence of the total laser dispersion on output characteristics of the laser has been studied. It is revealed that the main problem of utilization fibers with anomalous dispersion inside the passive nonlinear loop mirror is generation of low-energy optical solitons accompanied with nanosecond pulse break up. Solutions of this problem are discussed and stable laser schemes (i.e. all-polarization maintaining) are realized.
Subnuclear Proteomics in Colorectal Cancer

Abnormalities in nuclear phenotype and chromosome structure are key features of cancer cells. Investigation of the protein determinants of nuclear subfractions in cancer may yield molecular insights into aberrant chromosome function and chromatin organization and in addition may yield biomarkers for early cancer detection. Here we evaluate a proteomics work flow for profiling protein constituents in subnuclear domains in colorectal cancer tissues and apply this work flow to a comparative analysis of the nuclear matrix fraction in colorectal adenoma and carcinoma tissue samples. First, we established the reproducibility of the entire work flow. In a reproducibility analysis of three nuclear matrix fractions independently isolated from the same colon tumor homogenate, 889 of 1,047 proteins (85%) were reproducibly identified at high confidence (minimally two peptides per protein at 99% confidence interval at the protein level) with an average coefficient of variance for the number of normalized spectral counts per protein of 30%. This indicates a good reproducibility of the entire work flow from biochemical isolation to nano-LC-MS/MS analysis. Second, using spectral counting combined with statistics, we identified proteins that are significantly enriched in the nuclear matrix fraction relative to two earlier fractions (the chromatin-binding and intermediate filament fractions) isolated from six colorectal tissue samples. The total data set contained 2,059 non-redundant proteins. Gene ontology mining and protein network analysis of nuclear matrix-enriched proteins revealed enrichment for proteins implicated in “RNA processing” and “mRNA metabolic process. ” Finally, an explorative comparison of the nuclear matrix proteome in colorectal adenoma and carcinoma tissues revealed many proteins previously implicated in oncogenesis as well as new candidates. A subset of these differentially expressed proteins also exhibited a corresponding change at the mRNA level. Together, the results show that subnuclear proteomics of tumor tissue is feasible and a promising avenue for exploring oncogenesis.
GeoRayos a new aplication for severe weather warning

This work presents a lightning jump algorithm (LJA): “GeoRayos” to detect severe weather; it is based on the algorithm presented by Schultz et al. (2011) [1]. The lightning data used in this study came from the World Wide Lightning Location Network which is a real-time, world-wide and ground network. In this study, the lightning activity occurred during spring and summer of 2013 on the region [20-50]S of latitude and [50“70]W of longitude was examined. The LJA was validated by using information of severe weather occurrence in the report “Estudio de los Tornados en la Rep. Argentina” this unpublished report (M. L. Altinger de Schwarzkopf, personal communication) provides severe phenomena occurred since 1930 to the present, also we used information from the National Weather Service in Argentina, local argentinean media, and radar data. The spatial and time distributions of lightning jumps were analyzed by using different spatial and temporal scales.
Neutron-Star Implosions as Heavy-Element Sources A dramatic scenario in which a compact black hole eats a spinning neutron star from inside might explain a nearby galaxy ’ s unexpectedly high abundance of heavy elements . by

T he lightest of the chemical elements—hydrogen, helium, and lithium—were created in the hot, early phase of the Universe, about a minute after the big bang. Heavier elements were forged later—in the nuclear fires of many generations of stars and during supernova explosions [1]. But the origin of many rare chemical species, particularly the heaviest elements, remains uncertain. In particular, recent observations [2] of a nearby galaxy enriched with heavy elements challenge traditional nucleosynthesis models. George Fuller of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues [3] now propose a novel scenario for the origin of the heaviest elements, including gold, platinum, and uranium. Their hypothesis involves tiny black holes inducing neutron-star implosions and, if viable, would in one fell swoop offer solutions to other astrophysical riddles beyond heavy element synthesis.
Improved oligosaccharide synthesis by protein engineering of beta-glucosidase CelB from hyperthermophilic Pyrococcus furiosus.

Enzymatic transglycosylation of lactose into oligosaccharides was studied using wild-type beta-glucosidase (CelB) and active site mutants thereof (M424K, F426Y, M424K/F426Y) and wild-type beta-mannosidase (BmnA) of the hyperthermophilic Pyrococcus furiosus. The effects of the mutations on kinetics, enzyme activity, and substrate specificity were determined. The oligosaccharide synthesis was carried out in aqueous solution at 95 degrees C at different lactose concentrations and pH values. The results showed enhanced synthetic properties of the CelB mutant enzymes. An exchange of one phenylalanine to tyrosine (F426Y) increased the oligosaccharide yield (45%) compared with the wild-type CelB (40%). Incorporation of a positively charged group in the active site (M424K) increased the pH optimum of transglycosylation reaction of CelB. The double mutant, M424K/F426Y, showed much better transglycosylation properties at low (10-20%) lactose concentrations compared to the wild-type. At a lactose concentration of 10%, the oligosaccharide yield for the mutant was 40% compared to 18% for the wild-type. At optimal reaction conditions, a higher ratio of tetrasaccharides to trisaccharides was obtained with the double mutant (0.42, 10% lactose) compared to the wild-type (0.19, 70% lactose). At a lactose concentration as low as 10%, only trisaccharides were synthesized by CelB wild-type. The beta-mannosidase BmnA from P. furiosus showed both beta-glucosidase and beta-galactosidase activity and in the transglycosylation of lactose the maximal oligosaccharide yield of BmnA was 44%. The oligosaccharide yields obtained in this study are high compared to those reported with other transglycosylating beta-glycosidases in oligosaccharide synthesis from lactose.
Low-Loss Passive Si$_{3}$N $_{4}$ Serial-to-WDM Interface for Energy-Efficient Optical Interconnects

The increasing number of computational servers in data centers is imposing tighter constraints on the networking infrastructure. Scalable power efficient optical interconnect network becomes necessary to leverage the bandwidth capacity of current electronic switches or opto-electronic components. Hence, novel optical interconnect technology can enhance the network capacity by harnessing the feasibility of simultaneous processing of optical signal in the wavelength and time domains. In this paper, we present a four channel optical passive wavelength-striped mapping (PWSM) device, which passively time compresses/expands serial packets through optical wavelength multiplexing/demultiplexing. The PWSM device, which has a 1 × 4 channel optical wavelength demultiplexer with integrated optical delay lines, is designed in a low-loss Si3N4 (propagation loss ~3.1 dB/m) waveguide platform. The PWSM device multiplexes/demultiplexes four WDM channels and offsets in time the adjacent channels to optically serialize/deserialize data packets. In this demonstration, a 64 ns long data packet is formed at the output of the device by combining four 16 ns data segments of the packet in time domain. Incremental optical insertion loss between adjacent channels is ~9.7 dB due to the integrated passive optical delay waveguides. The data rate of the four segmented packets and the combined packet is 25 Gb/sec. We have measured a bit error rate performance below 1 ×10-9 for the 64 ns serial data packet regenerated by the PWSM device for a received optical power of -6.7 dBm.
Pre‐B cells in bone marrow: peanut agglutinin binding and separation of cytoplasmic μ chain‐bearing cell populations in normal, post‐irradiation and polycythemic mice using fluorescence‐activated cell sorting

Mouse bone marrow cells exposed to fluorescein‐conjugated peanut agglutinin (PNA) showed subsets of highly labeled cells when analyzed in a fluorescence‐activated cell sorter. After separating three cell fractions of large and small PNA‐binding cells and PNA‐nonbinding cells, respectively, the B lymphocyte precursor (pre‐B) cells, having cytoplasmic μ chains (cμ) without surface μ chains (sμ), were recovered solely in the PNA‐binding fractions. Only a minority of sμ+ small lymphocytes having the lowest densities of sμ bound PNA. Small and large cμ+sμ− pre‐B cell populations were separated in high degrees of purity in the PNA‐binding fractions, especially when obtained from bone marrow undergoing lymphoid regeneration after sublethal X‐irradiation and during stimulation of lymphocyte production in post‐polycythemic erythroid suppression. Characteristic shifts in the size distribution profile of PNA‐binding cells reflected changes in the maturation stage of the pre‐B cells. The results demonstrate that surface membrane components with strong PNA‐binding capacities characterize cμ+sμ− pre‐B cells in the bone marrow during both normal and perturbed primary B lymphocyte genesis. The PNA‐binding sites become undetectable soon after the first expression of sμ. This property permits the isolation from the bone marrow of high concentrations of subsets of large and small cμ+sμ− cells in a viable state suitable for use in further functional studies.
Preferential Expression of Truncated Isoforms of FOXP1 in Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma

Forkhead box P1 (FOXP1) protein is a transcription factor involved in cell signaling and regulation of gene expression. The overexpression of FOXP1 in a subgroup of systemic diffuse large B-cell lymphomas has been associated with an exceptionally poor clinical outcome. Data on FOXP1 expression in primary central nervous system lymphomas (PCNSL), that is, diffuse large B-cell lymphomas confined to the central nervous system, are not yet available. We analyzed 43 PCNSL from immunocompetent patients. Immunohistochemistry showed expression of FOXP1 protein in 21 (88%) of 24 cases. All 19 PCNSL analyzed by quantitative gene expression analysis showed overexpression of truncated FOXP1 Isoforms 3 and 9 and downregulation of normal-size FOXP1 compared with nonmalignant germinal center B cells, the normal counterpart of PCNSL tumor cells. Thus, truncated FOXP1 isoforms are preferentially overexpressed in PCNSL as they are in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. Although the mechanisms are presently unclear, this overexpression may contribute to a poor prognosis in PCNSL.
Capital Misallocation during the Great Recession

In this paper I evaluate the contribution of financial frictions in explaining the drop in aggregate TFP through misallocation during the Great Recession. I build a quantitative model with heterogeneous establishments; with the help of the model I compute the counterfactual drop in misallocation: by how much would aggregate TFP have decreased if the credit crunch had been absent. I find that a "real recession" would have caused a drop of only 0.16 percent, as opposed to 1.04 percent found in the data; therefore financial frictions account for a significant part of the drop in aggregate TFP. The key mechanism is the following: the increase in the cost of external finance affects negatively the reallocation of productive inputs from low to high productivity firms, by dampening the growth of small-highly productive firms.
Procedural phasor noise

Procedural pattern synthesis is a fundamental tool of Computer Graphics, ubiquitous in games and special effects. By calling a single procedure in every pixel - or voxel - large quantities of details are generated at low cost, enhancing textures, producing complex structures within and along surfaces. Such procedures are typically implemented as pixel shaders. We propose a novel procedural pattern synthesis technique that exhibits desirable properties for modeling highly contrasted patterns, that are especially well suited to produce surface and microstructure details. In particular, our synthesizer affords for a precise control over the profile, orientation and distribution of the produced stochastic patterns, while allowing to grade all these parameters spatially. Our technique defines a stochastic smooth phase field - a phasor noise - that is then fed into a periodic function (e.g. a sine wave), producing an oscillating field with prescribed main frequencies and preserved contrast oscillations. In addition, the profile of each oscillation is directly controllable (e.g. sine wave, sawtooth, rectangular or any 1D profile). Our technique builds upon a reformulation of Gabor noise in terms of a phasor field that affords for a clear separation between local intensity and phase. Applications range from texturing to modeling surface displacements, as well as multi-material microstructures in the context of additive manufacturing.