Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical characterization methods for iron oxide contrast agents encapsulated within a targeted liposome-based delivery system

Intact liposome-based targeted nanoparticle delivery systems (NDS) are immobilized by non-selective binding and characterized by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) in a fluid imaging environment. The size, size distribution, functionality, and stability of an NDS with a payload consisting of a super-paramagnetic iron oxide contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging are determined. SPM results are combined with information obtained by more familiar techniques such as superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry, dynamic light scattering, and electron microscopy. By integrating the methods presented in this work into the NDS formulation and manufacturing process, size-dependent statistical properties of the complex can be obtained and the structure–function relationship of individual, multi-component nanoscale entities can be assessed in a reliable and reproducible manner.
Rethinking Support for Region Conflict Exceptions

Current shared-memory systems provide well-defined execution semantics only for data-race-free executions. A state-of-the-art technique called Conflict Exceptions (CE) extends M(O) ESI-based coherence to provide defined semantics to all program executions. However, CE incurs significant performance costs because of its need to frequently access metadata in memory. In this work, we explore designs for practical architecture support for region conflict exceptions. First, we propose an on-chip metadata cache called access information memory (AIM) to reduce memory accesses in CE. The extended design is called CE+. In spite of the AIM, CE+ stresses or saturates the on-chip interconnect and the off-chip memory network bandwidth because of its reliance on eager write-invalidation-based coherence. We explore whether detecting conflicts is potentially better suited to cache coherence based on release consistency and self-invalidation, rather than M(O) ESI-based coherence. We realize this insight in a novel architecture design called ARC. Our evaluation shows that CE+ improves the run-time performance and energy usage over CE for several applications across different core counts, but can suffer performance penalties from network saturation. ARC generally outperforms CE, and is competitive with CE+ on average while stressing the on-chip interconnect and off-chip memory network much less, showing that coherence based on release consistency and self-invalidation is well suited to detecting region conflicts.
In vivo DNA electrotransfer into muscle

Naked plasmid DNA injected into skeletal muscle is taken up by muscle cells and the genes in the plasmid are expressed. Among the non‐viral techniques for gene transfer in vivo, this method is especially simple, inexpensive, and safe. However, the relatively low expression levels attained by this method have limited its applications for uses other than as a DNA vaccine. We and other groups investigated the applicability of in vivo electroporation for gene transfer into muscle, using plasmid DNA vector. The results demonstrated that gene transfer into muscle by in vivo electroporation is far more efficient than simple intramuscular DNA injection and provides a potential approach to systemically delivering cytokines, growth factors, and other serum proteins for basic research and human gene therapy.
A broadband 4/spl times/4 Butler matrix for modern-day antennas

A broadband Butler matrix was designed manufactured and measured, excellent amplitude and phase characteristics were obtained over 1 GHz frequency band centered at 2.5 GHz which makes it very attractive for multi-band multibeam antenna applications. Many aspects of adequate designs of such a network are presented as well as analysis of the influence of components' performance to overall network characteristics. Also detailed analysis of a transmission line crossover, which is a necessary element when a fully integrated antenna array is to be designed, is comprehensively investigated and a compensation technique of the deteriorative mutual coupling is proposed. Measurements of a 4 /spl times/ 1 planar antenna array with the use of our Butler matrix are presented.
Gamification of physical activity: A systematic literature review of comparison studies

Gamification is commonly implemented with the goal of transforming activities, systems and services to afford similar experiences and motivational support as games do. In health and exercise contexts, the motivational support drawn from games is considered to encourage performing these activities that commonly lack motivation. However, an empirically rigorous body of literature examining the effects of gamification has been lacking. This is especially problematic in health contexts where unfounded claims can have detrimental effects. This systematic literature review of 16 comparison studies on gamification of physical activity examines what kinds of gamification have been studied in the pursuit of which outcomes, and what results the studies have attained. The results show that gamification of physical activity has provided positively oriented results; however, with more rigorous study designs the results are less optimistic. Research is focused on measuring performed physical activity, but mostly relies on self-reported data instead of objective measurement.
A Formal Approach to the Problem of Logical Non-Omniscience

We present the logical induction criterion for computable algorithms that assign probabilities to every logical statement in a given formal language, and refine those probabilities over time. The criterion is motivated by a series of stock trading analogies. Roughly speaking, each logical sentence phi is associated with a stock that is worth $1 per share if phi is true and nothing otherwise, and we interpret the belief-state of a logically uncertain reasoner as a set of market prices, where pt_N(phi)=50% means that on day N, shares of phi may be bought or sold from the reasoner for 50%. A market is then called a logical inductor if (very roughly) there is no polynomial-time computable trading strategy with finite risk tolerance that earns unbounded profits in that market over time. We then describe how this single criterion implies a number of desirable properties of bounded reasoners; for example, logical inductors outpace their underlying deductive process, perform universal empirical induction given enough time to think, and place strong trust in their own reasoning process.
Mutational analysis of Erythropoietin gene and its enhancer in anemic cancer patients

Erythropoietin (Epo) is a crucial hormone which binds to a cell surface receptor, triggers a set of downstream genes and plays a role in the feedback mechanism involved in correcting cellular hypoxic situation in anemic cancer patients. Mutational status of Epo gene and its enhancer were scrutinized to understand the association between genetic aspects and susceptibility of cancer patients to anemia. PCR followed by SSCP and sequencing was carried out to analyze the mutational status of 225 anemic cancer patients and 130 healthy controls. Odds ratio (OR), Chi square test (χ 2 ), 95% confidence intervals (CI) and relative risk (RR) were analyzed by Medcalc statistical software. Out of 225 cancer patients with anemia, 16 cases showed positive for acceptor splice site deletion mutation at intron2/exon3 junction and deletion of ‘Adenine’ at nucleotide 14 of exon 3 (at position 100,319,598) of Epo gene. Statistically, anemic patients carrying the mutation had 9.8 folds increased risk (OR-9.87; CI: 1.2975.35; p=0.02; RR-9.24). In Epo enhancer region, homozygous transition mutation (C/G to T/A) was observed 23bp upstream of hypoxia responsive element (HRE) in 31 patients, 2 controls and prevalence was highest in cervical cancers (70.96%). Anemic cancer patients carrying homozygous C/T mutation had 10.2 times increased risk of predisposition to higher anemic grades. (OR-10.22; CI: 2.4043.47; p=0.001; χ2 =13.22; RR8.95). Though these mutations exert negative effect, their direct effect on hemoglobin and Epo levels seems to be minimal. We hypothesize from our findings that genetic predisposition can hasten individuals from developing anemia and that variations in the genetic status can predispose cancer patients to develop different grades of anemia.
Leveraging the sport participation legacy of the London 2012 Olympics: senior managers’ perceptions

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to understand how a sports mega event (SME) was leveraged to try and increase participation, through the investigation of national governing bodies (NGBs) opinions and attitudes. Critical Realism (CR) was used as a tool to aid understanding of leveraging and legacy conceptualisation, through an empirical investigation. An extensive, mixed method online survey was conducted post London 2012 with senior staff members of NGBs, the main delivery agent chosen to support the participation initiatives associated with the London 2012 Olympics. This research provides valuable findings surrounding the use of CR as a tool to investigate legacy creation, whilst at the same time offering insights to enhance the policy implementation process within the sports development sector. The importance of communication, competitive nature of sports system, media, club engagement, organisational capacity and monitoring and evaluation were highlighted, which provided useful insights into the multidimensional constructs that can aid future leveraging strategies prior to hosting SMEs.
Performance Evaluation of Completed Local Ternary Pattern (CLTP) for Face Image Recognition

Feature extraction is the most important step that affects the recognition accuracy of face recognition. One of these features are the texture descriptors that are playing an important role as local features descriptor in many of the face recognition systems. Recently, many types of texture descriptors had been proposed and used for face recognition task. The Completed Local Ternary Pattern (CLTP) is one of the texture descriptors that has been proposed for texture image classification and had been tested for different image classification tasks. It proposed to overcome the Local Binary Pattern (LBP) drawbacks where the CLTP is more robust to noise as well as shown a good discriminative property than others. In this paper, a comprehensive study on the performance of the CLTP for face recognition task has been done. The aim of this study is to investigate and evaluate the CLTP performance using eight different face datasets and compared with the previous texture descriptors. In the experimental results, the CLTP had been shown good recognition rates and outperformed the other texture descriptors for this task. Several face datasets are used in this paper, such as Georgia Tech Face, Collection Facial Images, Caltech Pedestrian Faces, JAFFE, FEI, YALE, ORL, UMIST datasets.
[Prevalence of mental disorders, and trends from 1996 to 2009. Results from NEMESIS-2].

BACKGROUND Little is known about the prevalence and trends of mental disorders in the Dutch population. AIM To present the prevalences of lifetime and 12-month DSM-IV mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders and impulse-control disorders reported in NEMESIS-2 (Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study), and to compare the 12-month prevalence of mood disorders, anxiety disorders and substance use disorders with estimates from the first study (NEMESIS-1). METHOD Between November 2007 and July 2009, face-to-face interviews were conducted among 6646 subjects aged 18-64 by means of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.0. Trends in mental disorders were examined with these data and NEMESIS-1 data from 1996 (n = 7076). RESULTS The lifetime prevalence in NEMESIS-2 was 20.2% for mood disorder, 19.6% for anxiety disorder, 19.1% for substance use disorder and 9.2% for impulse-control or behaviour disorder. For the 12-month disorders, the prevalences were 6.1%, 10.1%, 5.6% and 2.1%, respectively. Between 1996 and 2007-2009, there was no change in the 12-month prevalence of anxiety disorder and substance use disorder. The 12-month prevalence of mood disorder decreased slightly but was no longer significant after differences in the sociodemographic variables between the two studies had been taken into account. CONCLUSION This study shows that in the Netherlands mental disorders occur fairly frequently. Over about a decade, no clear change was found in the mental health status of the population.
attentional selection processes operate independently and in arallel for multiple targets

The question whether multiple objects are selected serially or in parallel remains contentious. Previous studies employed the N2pc component as a marker of attentional selection to show that multiple selection processes can be activated concurrently. The present study demonstrates that the concurrent selection of multiple targets reflects genuinely parallel processing that is unaffected by whether or when an additional selection process is elicited simultaneously for another target. Experiment 1 showed that N2pc components triggered during the selection of a colour-defined target were not modulated by the
Regulation of muscular contractions in the human Fallopian tube through prostaglandins and progestagens.

BACKGROUND Transport of gametes and embryos is an important function of the Fallopian tube. Both muscular contractions and cilia activity are involved in the transportation. Prostaglandins (PGs) are known mediators of muscular contractility. PG receptors have previously been demonstrated in the human Fallopian tube. The aim was to study the effect of PGs and progestagens, antiprogestin, hCG and oxytocin on muscular contractions in the human Fallopian tube, and the hormonal regulation of PG receptors. METHODS Twenty-two healthy women operated for benign causes were included in the study. The ampullary-isthmic junction of the Fallopian tubes was excised and used for in vitro contractility studies. The effect of PGE(1), PGE(2), PGF(2alpha), progesterone, mifepristone, levonorgestrel, oxytocin and hCG on contractility was studied. Explants of Fallopian tubes were cultured for 24 h to study the effect of progestagens and hCG on the expression of PG receptors using immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR. RESULTS Muscular contractions increased after treatment with PGF(2alpha) and PGE(2) (P < 0.05). The contractions decreased after PGE(1), progesterone, levonorgestrel, mifepristone, oxytocin and hCG (P < 0.05). In tubal explant studies, relative mRNA expression of EP1, EP2, EP3 and FP increased after levonorgestrel treatment (P < 0.05). Mifepristone and levonorgestrel treatment increased immunostaining intensity of EP1 and EP2 protein, in lumen, muscle and vessels. Progesterone and mifepristone increased immunostaining of FP in vessels. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that the transport of gametes and embryos involves the action of PGs, progesterone, oxytocin and hCG on muscular contractility.
Mice deficient for the secreted glycoprotein SPARC/osteonectin/BM40 develop normally but show severe age‐onset cataract formation and disruption of the lens

SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine, also known as osteonectin/BM40) is a secreted Ca2+‐binding glycoprotein that interacts with a range of extracellular matrix molecules, including collagen IV. It is widely expressed during embryogenesis, and in vitro studies have suggested roles in the regulation of cell adhesion and proliferation, and in the modulation of cytokine activity. In order to analyse the function of this protein in vivo, the endogenous Sparc locus was disrupted by homologous recombination in murine embryonic stem cells. SPARC‐deficient mice (Sparctm1Cam) appear normal and fertile until around 6 months of age, when they develop severe eye pathology characterized by cataract formation and rupture of the lens capsule. The first sign of lens pathology occurs in the equatorial bow region where vacuoles gradually form within differentiating epithelial cells and fibre cells. The lens capsule, however, shows no qualitative changes in the major basal lamina proteins laminin, collagen IV, perlecan or entactin. These mice are an excellent resource for further studies on how SPARC affects cell behaviour in vivo.
Successful modulation of high‐dose cytosine arabinoside metabolism in acute myeloid leukaemia by haematopoietic growth factors: no effect of ribonucleotide reductase inhibitors fludarabine and gemcitabine

High‐dose cytosine arabinoside (AraC)‐containing regimens have shown the highest antileukaemic efficacy of all currently used regimens in the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). This study aimed at increasing the antileukaemic potential of high‐dose AraC by raising intracellular levels of AraC triphosphate (AraCTP), which is the mediator of cytotoxicity, via biochemical modulation by inhibitors of ribonucleotide reductase (RR) or haematopoietic growth factors (HGFs). Blasts from patients with de novo AML were analysed for their formation of AraCTP under high‐dose AraC conditions (20 µm over 3 h) without prior modulation (n = 47) after a 2‐h pre‐exposure with fludarabine (50 µg/ml) (n = 40) or gemcitabine (30 ng/ml) (n = 40) and after a 48‐h pre‐exposure to granulocyte colony‐stimulating‐factor (G‐CSF; 100 ng/ml) (n = 27) or granulocyte–macrophage colony‐stimulating‐factor (GM‐CSF; 100 U/ml) (n = 28). Unmodulated formation of AraCTP (median 239·8 ng/107 cells) could not be increased via modulation by gemcitabine (232·4 ng/107 cells) or fludarabine (247·8 ng/107 cells). The lack of effect of RR inhibitors was also observed for all other known metabolites of AraC [Ara‐cytosine monophosphate (CMP), Ara‐cytosine diphosphate (CDP), AraCDP‐choline, Ara‐uridine monophosphate (UMP), Ara‐uridine diphosphate (UDP) and Ara‐uridine triphosphate (UTP)]. In contrast, pre‐exposure to HGFs led to significant increases in AraCTP formation (G‐CSF 556·0 ng/107 cells, 2·31‐fold increase, P < 0·001; GM‐CSF 447·9 ng/107 cells, 1·87‐fold increase, P < 0·0001). To establish the mechanism responsible for these effects, the activity of the rate‐limiting enzyme of AraC metabolism, deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), was investigated (n = 33). In vivo exposure to GM‐CSF led to increases in dCK activity from unmodulated values at 0 h (29·8 pmol/min/mg protein) to 34·3 pmol/min/mg protein at 24 h (1·15‐fold increase) and 54·5 pmol/min/mg protein at 48 h (1·83‐fold increase). The raise in dCK activity over 48 h was significant (P < 0·013).
Adversarial Examples Generation and Defense Based on Generative Adversarial Network

We propose a novel generative adversarial network to generate and defend adversarial examples for deep neural networks (DNN). The adversarial stability of a network D is improved by training alternatively with an additional network G. Our experiment is carried out on MNIST, and the adversarial examples are generated in an efficient way compared with wildly-used gradient based methods. After training network D and G alternatively, complicated adversarial patterns are extracted. The target network D is demonstrated to become robust against the adversarial attack from G. Our approach provides a broadly new viewpoint for the adversarial instability researches, and have various critical applications in practice.
French adaptation of the Orientation To Happiness Scale and the impact of Quality of Life in French Students

Happiness is the current hot topic whether in television, press or research. For some, it is immeasurable; for others it is quantifiable and thus has numerous measurement tools. After having defined happiness, the aim of the four studies presented below is to propose a valid French adaptation of the three-dimensional Orientation To Happiness questionnaire (OTH; Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005). In Study 1, successive PCA and CFA revealed that there exists a three factor structure conforming to its theoretical framework. Study 2 was used to test different models to confirm this factor structure. We found two models that proved to be adequate. The results of Study 3 demonstrate satisfactory test-retest stability for each of the three subscales. Study 4 was undertaken to test the convergent validity of the scale. Moreover, this study showed the relationship between variables linked to quality of life and their impact on happiness. To summarize, the four studies together demonstrate satisfactory psychometric qualities of the scale that is now called "Echelle Francophone d'Inclinaison au Bonheur" (EFIB), and show how happiness is impacted by different variables linked to quality of life.
Bartonella quintana in Body Lice Collected from Homeless Persons in Russia

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Normalized Quantification by Real-Time PCR of Epstein-Barr Virus Load in Patients at Risk for Posttransplant Lymphoproliferative Disorders

ABSTRACT The load of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of transplant recipients represents a predictive parameter for posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD). The aim of our work was to develop a rapid and reliable PCR protocol for the quantification of cell-associated EBV DNA in transplant recipients. In contrast to previous studies, a protocol that facilitated quantification independent of photometric nucleic acid analysis was established. We took advantage of the real-time PCR technology which allows for single-tube coamplification of EBV and genomic C-reactive protein (CRP) DNA. EBV copy numbers were normalized by division by the amount of CRP DNA, with the quotient representing the actual amount of amplifiable genomic DNA per reaction. Coamplification of CRP DNA did not result in a diminished detection limit for EBV. By using the protocol without normalization, EBV copy numbers in 4 out of 10 PTLD patients were within the normal range determined with data for 114 transplant recipients that served as controls. After normalization, however, all of the PTLD patients had a higher viral load than the control population, indicating an increased sensitivity of the assay. Moreover, EBV copy numbers obtained for one patient by conventional quantification and suggestive of relapsing PTLD were within normal range after normalization. We conclude that normalization of PCR signals to coamplified genomic DNA allows a more accurate quantification of cell-bound EBV.