Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Helix formation and the unfolded state of a 52‐residue helical protein

A growing class of proteins in biological processes has been found to be unfolded on isolation under normal solution conditions. We have used NMR spectroscopy to characterize the structural and dynamic properties of the unfolded and partially folded states of a 52‐residue alanine‐rich protein (Ala‐14) at temperatures from −5°C to 40°C. At 40°C, alanine residues in Ala‐14 adopt ϕ and ψ angles, consistent with a significant ensemble population of polyproline II conformation. Analysis of relaxation rates in the protein reveals that a series of residues, Gln 35–Ala 36–Ala 37–Lys 38–Asp 39–Asp 40–Ala 41–Ala 42, displays slow motional dynamics at both −5°C and 40°C. Temperature‐dependent chemical shift changes indicate that this region is the site of helix initiation. The remaining N‐terminal residues become increasingly dynamic as they extend from the nucleation site. The C terminus remains dynamic and changes less with temperature, indicating it is relatively unstructured. Ala‐14 provides a high‐resolution portrait of the unfolded state and the process of helix nucleation and propagation in the absence of tertiary contacts, information that bears on early events in protein folding.
Impacts of external magnetic field and high temperature disturbance on MRAM reliability based on FPGA test platform

As the semiconductor manufacturing technology continuously scales down, the working memory, such as SRAM and DRAM, suffers from the issues of dramatic leakage and power consumption. Non-volatile memories are proposed to deal with these problems. Among them, MRAM is one of the most promising candidates for DRAM replacement. However, MRAM is sensitive to external magnetic field and high temperature disturbance theoretically. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of external magnetic field and high temperature disturbance on MRAM and set up a test platform based on FPGA to analyze MRAM reliability under different external environment. Test results show that MRAM has a good thermal reliability but a notable sensitivity to external magnetic field disturbance.
A Carrier-Based PWM Strategy With Zero-Sequence Voltage Injection for a Three-Level Neutral-Point-Clamped Converter

Performance of a carrier-based pulsewidth modulation (CB-PWM) strategy can be improved by the inclusion of a zero-sequence voltage in the modulation-reference signal. This paper proposes a new CB-PWM strategy for a three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converter, which is based on a zero-sequence voltage injection. By inclusion of the zero-sequence voltage, the sinusoidal-modulation reference is modified to 1) carry out the voltage-balancing task of the dc-link capacitors, with no additional control effort, 2) reduce the switching losses, and 3) reduce the low-frequency voltage oscillations of the neutral point. The proposed strategy is an alternative approach to the nearest three-vector (NTV) space-vector modulation (SVM) strategy and is obtained by the analysis of the NTV-SVM strategy and establishing a correlation between the NTV-SVM and the CB-PWM strategies. The salient features of the proposed scheme, as compared with the NTV-SVM strategy, are: 1) its reduced computational processing time which is attractive for digital implementation and 2) its reduced switching losses. Compared with the existing CB-PWM strategies, the proposed strategy offers 1) capability to balance the capacitor voltages and reduce the NP voltage oscillations and 2) reduced switching losses. Performance of the proposed CB-PWM strategy for a three-level NPC converter based on time-domain simulation studies in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment is evaluated and also experimentally verified.
Systèmes formels et systèmes fonctionnels pédagogiques

Cette these introduit la notion de systemes pedagogiques, qui sont des systemes de d education naturelle contraints de la maniere suivante : toutes les hypotheses posees dans une demonstration doivent etre motivees par un exemple. Ces systemes sont par essence sans negation. Nous etudions les systemes propositionnels pedagogiques du premier ordre, du second ordre et plus generalement tous les systemes d'ordre superieur. Nous presentons, quand cela est possible, le lamda-calcul associe a chaque systeme via l'isomorphisme de Curry-Howard ; la contrainte pedagogique y fait apparaitre une nouvelle propriete que nous appelons l'utilite: un lamda-terme type est utile quand son contenu algorithmique peut etre utilise
The Analysis of ASEAN Travel Markets to Thailand: An Approach to Promote Thailand's Economy

ASEAN travel markets have been one of the important international tourist markets to Thailand. However, little effort has segmented this market for marketing purposes through an empirical study. This study, therefore, has an objective to examine the perception of Thailand’s destination attractions of ASEAN travelers to Thailand by using pull factors. The results of pull factors will be employed to segment the possible sub-segments of the ASEAN tourists to Thailand. The results of the study indicate that there are at least two possible subsegments among the ASEAN tourists, and these two are labeled as 1) ‘cultural seekers’ and 2) ‘leisure seekers’. Important implications to promote Thailand’s economy by targeting these two sub-segments are discussed.
Interlaboratory variability in trace element analysis.

The precision characteristics of 18 analytical methods for metals and other elements subjected to interlaboratory collaborative studies over the last 10 years by the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) were examined. Outlier removal and statistical calculations were standardized by the use of a computer program, FDACHEMIST. Most of the studies, representing a variety of analytes, matrices, and measurement techniques over a concentration (C) range of 100 g/kg to 10 . mu.g/kg, were distributed about a curve defined by the equation, among-laboratories relative standard deviation, %RSD/sub x/ = 2/sup 1-0.5 log C/, where C is expressed as a decimal fraction, e.g., 1 ppm = 10/sup -6/, regardless of analyte, matrix, or measurement technique. The within-laboratory relative standard deviation, RSD/sub o/ is usually 1/2-2/3 of RSD/sub x/. Positive deviations from this curve with decreasing concentration are explainable by heterogeneity of the parent material, free choice of method of analysis, or a concentration below the limit of determination. The presence of greater than 20% outlying laboratory results or RSD/sub x/ degenerating at greater than the ''normal'' rate with decreasing concentration is taken to indicate that the method is not applicable at or below the level generating the imprecise data. 19 references, 10 figures,more » 2 tables. « less
Bone Formation Is Coupled to Resorption Via Suppression of Sclerostin Expression by Osteoclasts

Bone formation is coupled to bone resorption throughout life. However, the coupling mechanisms are not fully elucidated. Using Tnfrsf11b‐deficient (OPG–/–) mice, in which bone formation is clearly coupled to bone resorption, we found here that osteoclasts suppress the expression of sclerostin, a Wnt antagonist, thereby promoting bone formation. Wnt/β‐catenin signals were higher in OPG–/– and RANKL‐transgenic mice with a low level of sclerostin. Conditioned medium from osteoclast cultures (Ocl‐CM) suppressed sclerostin expression in UMR106 cells and osteocyte cultures. In vitro experiments revealed that osteoclasts secreted leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and inhibited sclerostin expression. Anti‐RANKL antibodies, antiresorptive agents, suppressed LIF expression and increased sclerostin expression, thereby reducing bone formation in OPG–/– mice. Taken together, osteoclast‐derived LIF regulates bone turnover through sclerostin expression. Thus, LIF represents a target for improving the prolonged suppression of bone turnover by antiresorptive agents. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Published by Wiley Periodicals Inc.
Subspace method for blind CFO estimation for OFDM systems with constant modulus constellations

In this paper, we propose a novel subspace based approach for blind carrier frequency offset estimation in OFDM. Correlation in squared spectrum of the channel is exploited. Low rank signal model is thereby obtained without virtual subcarriers. The proposed estimator accomplishes frequency synchronization with a single OFDM block. No extensive time averaging is needed, which makes the approach very attractive for time and frequency selective channels where the offset may be time varying. Superior performance is achieved over existing algorithms exploiting virtual carriers or constant modulus criterion.
Multichannel InSAR DEM reconstruction through closed-form robust Chinese remainder theorem

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) multichannel system, based on the collection of more interferograms acquired in a multifrequency or in a multibaseline configuration, allows us to reconstruct highly sloped and discontinuous terrain height profiles. In this paper, we present a new method to solve the digital elevation model (DEM) reconstruction problem using the closed-form robust Chinese remainder theorem (CRT). This method uses the remainder differential process, which does not exist in the traditional CRT, to improve the robustness of the DEM reconstruction. The simulation results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed method is better than statistical methods such as maximum likelihood (ML) estimation techniques, when the number of independent interferograms does not large enough.
Estimating Economic Characteristics with Phone Data

Historically, economists have relied heavily on survey-based data collection to measure social and economic well-being. Here, we investigate the extent to which the "digital footprints" of an individual can be used to infer his or her socioeconomic characteristics. Using two different datasets from Afghanistan and Rwanda, we show that phone data can be used to estimate the wealth of individuals in two very different economic environments. However, we find that such models are relatively brittle, and that a model trained in one country cannot be used to estimate characteristics in another. These results suggest several promising applications and directions for future work.
Requirement for balanced Ca/NFAT signaling in hematopoietic and embryonic development

NFAT transcription factors are highly phosphorylated proteins residing in the cytoplasm of resting cells. Upon dephosphorylation by the phosphatase calcineurin, NFAT proteins translocate to the nucleus, where they orchestrate developmental and activation programs in diverse cell types. NFAT is rephosphorylated and inactivated through the concerted action of at least 3 different kinases: CK1, GSK-3, and DYRK. The major docking sites for calcineurin and CK1 are strongly conserved throughout vertebrate evolution, and conversion of either the calcineurin docking site to a high-affinity version or the CK1 docking site to a low-affinity version results in generation of hyperactivable NFAT proteins that are still fully responsive to stimulation. In this study, we generated transgenic mice expressing hyperactivable versions of NFAT1 from the ROSA26 locus. We show that hyperactivable NFAT increases the expression of NFAT-dependent cytokines by differentiated T cells as expected, but exerts unexpected signal-dependent effects during T cell differentiation in the thymus, and is progressively deleterious for the development of B cells from hematopoietic stem cells. Moreover, progressively hyperactivable versions of NFAT1 are increasingly deleterious for embryonic development, particularly when normal embryos are also present in utero. Forced expression of hyperactivable NFAT1 in the developing embryo leads to mosaic expression in many tissues, and the hyperactivable proteins are barely tolerated in organs such as brain, and cardiac and skeletal muscle. Our results highlight the need for balanced Ca/NFAT signaling in hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cells of the developing embryo, and emphasize the evolutionary importance of kinase and phosphatase docking sites in preventing inappropriate activation of NFAT.
Planning for information systems resources?

Increasingly, organizations are looking towards IS planning in an effort to force information technology to live up to its heralded promise. Many of these are finding that their efforts are resulting more in disappointment than in organizational advantage. This article reviews the principles of information systems planning and reports the practices found in organizations. The authors argue that these practices lack the high level direction required to achieve mastery in the area. To rectify this, they propose a four-tier planning framework for information technology, information systems, and information management. This framework provides guidance for an integrated approach to the management of an organization's information and technology resources by promoting the development of a planning platform from which consolidated planning can take place at operational, tactical, and strategic levels.
Learning with Bounded Instance- and Label-dependent Label Noise

Instance- and Label-dependent label Noise (ILN) is widely existed in real-world datasets but has been rarely studied. In this paper, we focus on Bounded Instance- and Label-dependent label Noise (BILN), a particular case of ILN where the label noise rates, the probabilities that the true labels of examples flip into the corrupted ones, have upper bounds. Specifically, we introduce the concept of distilled examples, i.e. examples whose labels are identical with the labels assigned for them by the Bayes optimal classifier, and prove that under certain conditions classifier learnt on distilled examples will converge to the Bayes optimal classifier. Inspired by the idea of learning with distilled examples, we then propose a learning algorithm with theoretical guarantees for its robustness to BILN. At last, empirical evaluations on both synthetic and real-world datasets show effectiveness of our algorithm in learning with BILN.
New Cluster Detection using Semi-supervised Clustering Ensemble Method

In the recent years there has been tremendous development of da a acquisition system resulting in a whole new set of so called big data problems. Since these data struc tures are inherently dynamic and constantly changing the number of clusters is usually unknown. Further more the ”true” number of clusters can depend on the constraints and/or perception (biases) set by expert s, users, customers, etc., which can also change. In this paper we propose a new cluster detection algorithm ba sed on a semi-supervised clustering ensemble method. Information fusion techniques have been widely app lied in many applications including clustering, classification, detection, etc. Although clustering is uns upervised and it does not require any training data, in many applications, expert opinions are usually availabl e to label a portion of data observations. These labels can be viewed as the guidance information to combine t he cluster labels that are generated by different local clusters. It consists of two major steps: the base clus tering generation and the fusion. Since the step of generating base clusterings is unsupervised and the step of combining base clusterings is supervised, in the context of this paper, we name the algorithm as the semi-supe rvised clustering ensemble algorithm. We then propose to detect a new cluster utilizing the average associ ati n vector computed for each data point by the semi-supervised method.
Endothelial Cell-specific Chemotaxis Receptor (ECSCR) Enhances Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) Receptor-2/Kinase Insert Domain Receptor (KDR) Activation and Promotes Proteolysis of Internalized KDR*

Background: ECSCR is required for full KDR activation, but the mechanism is unknown. Results: ECSCR and KDR show both basal and VEGF-stimulated association. Conclusion: ECSCR modulates KDR activation and proteolysis of internalized KDR. Significance: ECSCR expression in vascular anomalies such as infantile hemangioma has implications for VEGF signaling in those tissues. In contrast, ECSCR levels are not increased in lung squamous cell carcinoma. The endothelial cell-specific chemotaxis receptor (ECSCR) is a cell-surface protein selectively expressed by endothelial cells (ECs), with roles in EC migration, apoptosis and proliferation. Our previous study (Verma, A., Bhattacharya, R., Remadevi, I., Li, K., Pramanik, K., Samant, G. V., Horswill, M., Chun, C. Z., Zhao, B., Wang, E., Miao, R. Q., Mukhopadhyay, D., Ramchandran, R., and Wilkinson, G. A. (2010) Blood 115, 4614–4622) showed that loss of ECSCR in primary ECs reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor 2/kinase insert domain receptor (KDR) but not VEGF receptor 1/FLT1. Here, we show that ECSCR biochemically associates with KDR but not FLT1 and that the predicted ECSCR cytoplasmic and transmembrane regions can each confer association with KDR. Stimulation with VEGF165 rapidly and transiently increases ECSCR-KDR complex formation, a process blocked by the KDR tyrosine kinase inhibitor compound SU5416 or inhibitors of endosomal acidification. Triple labeling experiments show VEGF-stimulated KDR+/ECSCR+ intracellular co-localization. Silencing of ECSCR disrupts VEGF-induced KDR activation and AKT and ERK phosphorylation and impairs VEGF-stimulated KDR degradation. In zebrafish, ecscr interacts with kdrl during intersomitic vessel sprouting. Human placenta and infantile hemangioma samples highly express ECSCR protein, suggesting a role for ECSCR-KDR interaction in these tissues.
Lipopolysaccharide-coated CuS nanoparticles promoted anti-cancer and anti-metastatic effect by immuno-photothermal therapy

To meet the ultimate goal of cancer therapy, which is treating not only the primary tumor but also preventing metastatic cancer, the concept of combining immunotherapy with photothermal therapy (PTT) is gaining great interest. Here, we studied the new material, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) coated copper sulfide nanoparticles (LPS-CuS), for the immuno-photothermal therapy. We evaluated the effect of LPS-CuS for induction of apoptosis of CT26 cells and activation of dendritic cells. Moreover, the LPS-CuS and laser irradiation was examined anti-metastasis effect by liver metastasis model mouse in vivo. Through PTT, LPS-CuS induced elimination of CT26 tumor in BALB/c mice, which produced cancer antigens. In addition, released LPS and cancer antigen by PTT promoted dendritic cell activation in tumor draining lymph node (drLN), and consequently, enhanced the tumor antigen-specific immune responses. Finally, the primary tumor cured mice by LPS-CuS-mediated PTT completely resisted secondary tumor injection in the spleen and also prevented liver metastasis. Our results demonstrated the potential usage of LPS-CuS for the immuno-photothermal therapy against various types of cancer by showing the clear elimination of primary colon carcinoma with complete prevention of spleen and liver metastasis.
THE MINUTE VOLUME OUTPUT AND THE WORK OF THE HEART IN HYPOTHYROIDISM.

Close association between aberrations in the function of the thyroid gland and disturbances in the physiology of the cardiovascular system has long been recognized. Because of the frequent occurrence of evidences of heart disease in patients with thyrotoxicosis many investigators have studied the cardiac minute volume output and other aspects of the circulation in this disease. In hypothyroidism, on the other hand, evidences of disturbed cardiovascular function are less prominent, and the cardiac output accordingly has been less thoroughly investigated. In 1925, Means (1) reported marked dinminution in the cardiac minute volume output in two cases of myxedema studied by Field and Bock. Two years later, Mobitz (2) observed a decrease in the cardiac output in one patient with myxedema, and Kininmonth (3) likewise observed a decrease in two additional cases. The results of the two latter observers are difficult to interpret, since the validity of the original ethyl iodide method (4) which they utilized has been questioned. Several years later, Bansi (5) (6) using the methods of Douglas and Haldane (7) and of Grollman (8), also found decreased cardiac output in three patients with myxedema. The recent work of Blumgart and his associates (9) (10) (11) in establishing the value of total ablation of the normal thyroid gland in the treatment of chronic intractable heart disease made it advisable to study the cardiac output and related aspects of the circulation in hypothyroidism induced by this operation.
Modeling and control of an interactive tilt-rotor MAV

The main goal of this paper is to model and control a tilt-rotor aerial robot for interactive operations via a 1DOF robotic manipulator. The modeling is derived by means of the Euler-Lagrange formulation, providing couplings between the robotic manipulator and the rotorcraft. The aerial robot is fully actuated and features thrust vector control, having a more flexible aerial profile. In terms of control, the Immersion and Invariance (I&I) control technique is applied in order to achieve the control objective (trajectory tracking). Likewise, the rotorcraft a mathematical model is extended to include a lumped disturbance encompassing parametric and external disturbances. For this reason, a Nonlinear Disturbance Observer (NDO) is designed to estimate and reject the disturbance adverse effects. Finally, preliminary simulation results were conducted to evaluate and validate the control strategy and the NDO for an interactive tilt-rotor micro aerial vehicle (MAV).
Simulation of specular microscopy images of corneal endothelium, a tool for control of measurement errors

Purpose: We aimed at developing simulation software capable of producing images of corneal endothelium close to identical to images captured by clinical specular microscopy with defined morphometrical characteristics. It was further planned to demonstrate the usefulness of the simulator by analysing measurement errors associated with a trained operator using a commercially available semi‐automatic algorithm for analysis of simulated images.
Does the small fit them all? The utility of Disabkids-10 Index for the assessment of pediatric health-related quality of life across age-groups, genders, and informants

The objective of this study was twofold: First, to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of the Portuguese versions of Disabkids-10; and second, to examine potential differences in factor structures between age-groups, genders, and informants. The sample included 293 school-aged children and adolescents with chronic health conditions and 197 parents. Both family members (whenever possible) completed the self- and proxy-report versions of Disabkids-10. The factorial model of Disabkids-10 had good fit for self-reported data and minimally acceptable fit for proxy-reported data. The multigroup analyses confirmed the model invariance across age-groups (children vs. adolescents), genders (boys vs. girls), and informants (children vs. parents). The generic developmental applicability of these questionnaires makes them recommended for health care routine assessments on pediatric intervention needs and outcomes.