Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TPD52 expression increases neutral lipid storage within cultured cells

ABSTRACT Tumor protein D52 (TPD52) is amplified and/or overexpressed in cancers of diverse cellular origins. Altered cellular metabolism (including lipogenesis) is a hallmark of cancer development, and protein–protein associations between TPD52 and known regulators of lipid storage, and differential TPD52 expression in obese versus non-obese adipose tissue, suggest that TPD52 might regulate cellular lipid metabolism. We found increased lipid droplet numbers in BALB/c 3T3 cell lines stably expressing TPD52, compared with control and TPD52L1-expressing cell lines. TPD52-expressing 3T3 cells showed increased fatty acid storage in triglyceride (from both de novo synthesis and uptake) and formed greater numbers of lipid droplets upon oleic acid supplementation than control cells. TPD52 colocalised with Golgi, but not endoplasmic reticulum (ER), markers and also showed partial colocalisation with lipid droplets coated with ADRP (also known as PLIN2), with a proportion of TPD52 being detected in the lipid droplet fraction. Direct interactions between ADRP and TPD52, but not TPD52L1, were demonstrated using the yeast two-hybrid system, with ADRP–TPD52 interactions confirmed using GST pulldown assays. Our findings uncover a new isoform-specific role for TPD52 in promoting intracellular lipid storage, which might be relevant to TPD52 overexpression in cancer. Summary: Tumor protein D52 (TPD52) increases lipid droplet numbers and fatty acid incorporation into triglyceride, possibly through relevant functions at both the Golgi complex and lipid droplets.
Personal Photo Enhancement Using Internet Photo Collections.

Given the growth of Internet photo collections we now have a visual index of all major cities and tourist sites in the world. However, it is still a difficult task to capture that perfect shot with your own camera when visiting these places, especially when your camera itself has limitations, such as a limited field of view. In this paper, we propose a framework to overcome the imperfections of personal photos of tourist sites using the rich information provided by large scale Internet photo collections. Our method deploys state-of-the-art techniques for constructing initial 3D models from photo collections. The same techniques are then used to register personal photos to these models, allowing us to augment personal 2D images with 3D information. This strong available scene prior allows us to address a number of traditionally challenging image enhancement techniques, and achieve high quality results using simple and robust algorithms. Specifically, we demonstrate automatic foreground segmentation, mono-to-stereo conversion, the field of view expansion, photometric enhancement, and additionally automatic annotation with geo-location and tags. Our method clearly demonstrates some possible benefits of employing the rich information contained in on-line photo databases to efficiently enhance and augment one’s own personal photos.
Heart failure symptom clusters and functional status - a cross-sectional study.

AIM To identify symptom clusters in individuals with heart failure and evaluate the relationship of the identified clusters to functional status. BACKGROUND Heart Failure is a global health problem affecting approximately 1-2% of the adult population in developed countries worldwide. Individuals with heart failure may experience as many as nine symptoms and may limit activities that worsen their symptoms or adjust the way they engage in activities. DESIGN Cross-sectional. METHODS A convenience sample of individuals (n = 117) with a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure was recruited from an academic medical centre during 2011-2012. Prevalent heart failure symptoms and functional status outcomes (functional limitations and mobility) were evaluated. Factor analysis using the principal components method was used to extract symptom clusters. Regression analysis using a backwards stepwise model-building approach was used to examine the effects of the symptom clusters, age and co-morbidity on functional limitations and mobility. RESULTS Three symptom clusters, sickness behaviour, discomforts of illness and gastrointestinal distress were extracted. When sickness behaviours and discomforts of illness were both present, functional limitations were more sensitive to sickness behaviours. Sickness behaviour and co-morbidity were related to limited mobility. CONCLUSIONS Individuals with heart failure may be helped to improve their functional status by managing sickness behaviour and discomforts of illness symptoms. Identification of symptom clusters may lead to the development of interventions focusing on a cluster of heart failure symptoms.
Identifying Educational Methods for Developing Entrepreneurship and Employment at Applied Scientific Centers of Ilam Province

The aim of present study is to identify educational ways for developing entrepreneurship and employment at applied scientific centers of Ilam province. In terms of purpose, it is regarded as an applied study and it’s a combined qualitative- quantitative research in terms of required data collecting way. Population of study in the qualitative part consists from academic experts in the field of entrepreneurship. Population of quantitative part includes 620 employees and lecturers in Ilam applied scientific centers, among which 237 subjects were selected using Cochran's formula and simple random sampling way. Data gathering tools during this research were interviews and questionnaires provided by researcher, whose validity was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis and whose reliability of 90% was obtained through Cronbach alpha coefficient. In order to collect data, library and field ways were applied. For analyzing questionnaire's data for the descriptive part, mean, SD, etc were used and for inferential part, Kolmogorov – Smirnov test, confirmatory exploratory factor analysis, one-sample t, and Friedman's test in software packages of LISREL 8.50 and spss20 were applied. Obtained results indicated that theoretic educational way, valuation method, change of attitude, group educational way, and role playing way were recognized. Findings of research showed that identified ways are effective on developing entrepreneurship and employment in Ilam applied scientific centers.
Impact of White Matter Lesions on Physical Functioning and Fall Risk in Older People: A Systematic Review

Background and Purpose— White matter lesions (WMLs) are common findings on neuroimaging in older people. This review systematically evaluates the published literature on the associations between WMLs and balance, gait, mobility, and falls in older people. Methods— Studies were identified with searches of the MEDLINE databases. Articles reporting associations between WMLs and balance, gait, mobility, and falls in older people in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies were included. Results— Thirty-one articles reporting data from 19 studies met the inclusion criteria. There were consistent findings from both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies indicating greater WML volumes are associated with impaired balance, slower gait, and reduced mobility. Most studies addressing regional WML distributions have reported that WMHs in the frontal lobe and periventricular regions show the strongest relationships with balance, gait, and mobility impairments. In relation to falls, a threshold effect was apparent in that only those with severe WML volumes were found to be at increased risk of falling. Conclusions— The findings of this systematic review indicate that WMLs are common and are significantly associated with impaired balance, gait, mobility, and falls in older people. In many studies, however, impaired mobility and increased fall risk are only evident in people who have the most severe degree of WMLs.
I Spy: An Interactive Game-Based Approach to Multimodal Robot Learning

Teaching robots about objects in their environment requires a multimodal correlation of images and linguistic descriptions to build complete feature and object models. These models can be created manually by collecting images and related keywords and presenting the pairings to robots, but doing so is tedious and unnatural. This work abstracts the problem of training robots to learn about the world around them by intro- ducing I Spy, an interactive dialogue- and vision-based game in which players place objects in front of a humanoid robot and challenge it to guess which object they have in mind. The robot gradually learns about the objects and the features which describe them through repeated games, by updating its knowledge with newly captured training images. This paper details I Spy's learning and gaming processes, describes the approaches taken to extract information from multiple modal- ities both before and during gameplay, and finally discusses the results of a study designed to evaluate the game's model accuracy over time, its overall performance, and its appeal to human players. in front of a robot and describing them (Holzapfel, Neubig, and Waibel 2008), doing so is not particularly interesting for the human participants and thus is also fairly unlikely to be implemented for any prolonged period of time. This work proposes that to better engage users and increase their motivation to further the robot's own learning process, the concept of explaining physical objects to robots can be em- bedded in a vision- and dialogue-based game—specifically, in a robotic variant of the traditional guessing game, I Spy. This paper discusses the initial design and construction of a multimodal I Spy game meant to be played between humans and humanoid robots. It provides a brief overview of prior related work, followed by an in-depth explanation of the approach taken to integrate interactive gameplay with measures to extract visual and linguistic features from object descriptions to build and enhance feature and object models. It then presents a study designed to analyze: (1) the learn- ing and gameplay performance of the robot, and (2) users' perceptions of the game itself. Finally, it concludes with an analysis of the results obtained during the study, as well as an outline of planned future work.
Susceptibility testing and resistance phenotypic detection in Staphylococcus aureus by conventional and molecular methods : Importance of automated ( Vitek 2 ) system

Background: Once identified as Staphylococcus aureus, it is imperative to understand their methicillin resistance status for institution of appropriate therapy. Conventional disc diffusion tests may not accurately identify MRSA strains and may not be in concordance with PCR results. Objectives: Relative abilities of phenotypic and molecular methods to detect MRSA strains was evaluated to understand possible causes of disagreement between these tests, if any, by using automated microbial identification and antibiotic sensitivity test system. Methods: 70 clinical isolates of S. aureus from North Karnataka were collected and phenotypically characterized as methicillin resistant or sensitive by disc diffusion test. PCR was done to detect mec A gene positivity. Isolates having disagreement between PCR results and disc-diffusion test were analyzed using Vitek 2 automated system (bioMerieux, France. Software version: 05.02). Results and Conclusion: There was 98.5 % (69/70) agreement between PCR and cefoxitin disc diffusion while it was 80% (56/70) between oxacillin and PCR. 14 isolates (20%) showed disagreement between either of the two disc diffusion tests and PCR. 10 of these were classified as MSSA by Vitek 2 with acquired penicillinase activity while 4 were categorized under MRSA by modification of mec A. Since automated systems provide additional information on likely penicillinase /modified mec A activity, use of these systems help clinicians treat patients with such MSSA infections like cases of MRSA. Keywords––MRSA, non mecA resistance, acquired penicillinase, PBP modification, Vitek 2 system.
Quantitative Light-Induced Fluorescence to Measure Enamel Remineralization in vitro

The aim of this study was to compare the ability of quantitative light-induced fluorescence (QLF) and surface microhardness (SMH) to measure the remineralization of enamel subsurface lesions, using a pH-cycling model including treatment with 0-ppm, 550-ppm or 1,100-ppm sodium fluoride (NaF) dentifrices. Methods: Subsurface lesions were created in human enamel specimens (n = 36) and exposed to a remineralization pH-cycling model for 14 days. The pH-cycling model was performed in an automated system where specimens were subjected to a demineralizing solution for 20 min and treatment for 1 min and were then remineralized for 7 h 39 min, 3 times daily. The treatments consisted of 3 NaF, silica-containing dentifrices (0 ppm F; 550 ppm F; 1,100 ppm F). The outcome variables were: change from baseline in surface hardness and percentage change from baseline in fluorescence. An ANCOVA explored differences between different treatment groups (at the p < 0.05 level). Associations between QLF and SMH were evaluated using Spearman's correlation coefficient. Results: The percentage SMH changes were 14.9 ± 2.1%, 56.6 ± 9.6% and 103.9 ± 14.6% for the 0-, 550- and 1,100-ppm F dentifrices, respectively. The percentage fluorescence changes were 15.6 ± 7.1%, 59.8 ± 11.9% and 85 ± 13.2%, respectively. The differences between all pairwise comparisons were statistically significant for both methods (p = 0.001). QLF correlated with SMH (r = 0.67). Conclusions: Both the SMH and QLF methods demonstrated a significant F dose response for toothpaste in this in vitro remineralization model, and both methods were able to distinguish treatments with different F levels.
Multi-Objective Control of Balancing Systems for Li-Ion Battery Packs: A Paradigm Shift?

While a great number of battery balancing circuit topologies have been proposed, the unique control objective typically pursued is equalization of single cell charge. However, a balancing circuit could offer potentially more control features, especially with topologies able to provide bidirectional power flow control. This has not been explored yet in literature or at least not with enough thoroughness. Thus, in addition to charge balancing, up to three more objectives could be pursued simultaneously. Firstly, virtual resistance control, in order to provide dynamic compensation for variations in terminal cell voltage. Secondly, thermal management, to achieve a more uniform temperature distribution within a battery pack. Third, on-board diagnosis or fault detection tools, e.g. to perform characterization tests or to identify and even isolate problematic cells. In this paper, this issue is discussed and evaluated for a battery pack made up of 48 large format Li-Ion cells in series in a e-mobility application. Simulation results demonstrate the technical feasibility of this newly defined concept.
Oral Administration of Docosahexaenoic Acid/Eicosapentaeinoic Acids Is Not Anticonvulsant in Rats: Implications for Translational Research

Omega-3 and omega-6 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are dietary fatty acids that are involved in a myriad of physiological processes in the brain. Although experimental data have shown that PUFAs have anticonvulsant properties, the outcomes of clinical trials have been controversial. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a PUFA which has been reported to exert anticonvulsant effects. Here we studied anticonvulsant potential of a mixture of enriched n-3 PUFA upon their oral administration in rats. We did not observe an anticonvulsant effect of n-3 PUFA in the i.v. pentylentetrazol threshold test. n-3 PUFA component was increased in the plasma of rats treated with the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/DHA mix (275 mg/kg/d/400 mg/kg/d) due to the increase of both DHA and EPA. We also found modification of PUFA composition in the brain. Despite PUFA profiles modified both in plasma and in the brain, we did not find any anticonvulsant effect of orally administered DHA. Further studies are needed to define the type and the amount of fatty acids that would possess anticonvulsant properties. As the existing literature suggests that the route of administration of PUFA may be crucial, future studies should involve oral administration to provide relevant clinical information.
Mitochondria detection in electron microscopy images

Objective We present an approach for detecting mitochondria in electron microscopy images of brain tissue and demonstrate it on the rat neuropil. This would enable the study of statistics of mitochondria and their location relative to other structures such as cell boundaries, vesicles and synapses. Neural tissue from the Lateral part of the rat's brain was cut into 50nm slices and photographed with a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) to generate a 3D stack of grayscale images. Figure 1 shows an example of the images obtained. Appearance of mitochondria is characterized by dark ribbed texture. The detection is challenging : 1. The density of the ribbing varies across mitochondria. 2. Mitochondria have approximately tubular shape with variable length and cross-section.
Something Old, Something New : Applying a Pre-trained Parsing Model to Clinical Swedish

Information access from clinical text is a research area which has gained a large amount of interest in recent years. Automatic syntactic analysis for the creation of deeper language models is potentially very useful for such methods. However, syntactic parsers that are tailored to accommodate for the distinctive properties of clinical language are rare and costly to build. We present an initial study on the applicability of an existing parser, pretrained on general Swedish, to clinical text in Swedish. We manually evaluate twelve documents and obtain a 92.4% part-ofspeech tagging accuracy and a 76.6% labeled attachment score for the syntactic dependency parsing.
Formative Research to Develop the IDEFICS Physical Activity Intervention Component: Findings from Focus Groups with Children and Parents.

BACKGROUND The current study aimed at describing influencing factors for physical activity among young children to determine the best approaches for developing the IDEFICS community based intervention. METHODS In 8 European sites a trained moderator conducted a minimum of 4 focus groups using standardized questioning guides. A total of 56 focus groups were conducted including 36 focus groups with parents and 20 focus groups with children, of which 74 were boys and 81 girls. Key findings were identified through independent reviews of focus group summary reports using content analysis methods. FINDINGS Findings were generally consistent across countries. The greatest emphasis was on environmental physical (eg, seasonal influences, availability of facilities and safety), institutional (eg, length of breaks at school), and social factors (eg, role modeling of parents). Most cited personal factors by parents were age, social economical status, and perceived barriers. Both children and parents mentioned the importance of children's preferences. CONCLUSIONS To increase physical activity levels of young children the intervention should aim at creating an environment (physical, institutional, social) supportive of physical activity. On the other hand strategies should take into account personal factors like age and social economical status and should consider personal barriers too.
Real-time web services orchestration and choreography

Real-Time issues are not usually considered when describing and composing web services. However, modern web services are usually involved in the software implementation of time-constrained business processes [1]. The satisfaction of time constraints is crucial in order to ensure the validity of systems where the response to a certain stimulation has to take place in a shortened period of time. Thus, the service composition problem becomes more complex, since time restrictions should be taken into account both in the choreography and orchestration processes in order to establish the temporal consistency of the web services. In this paper, we present a formal approach for real-time service orchestration and choreography. In this regard, we use UML-RT as a visual and user-friendly notation in order to model services and their interactions, Timed CSP as an underlying formal grounding to enable services verification and WS-BPEL as an execution language.
Basal Budding and Replication of the Murine Leukemia Virus Are Independent of the Gag L Domains

ABSTRACT Moloney murine leukemia virus (MMuLV) Gag protein contains three identified late (L) domains, PPPY, YPAL, and PSAP, which are thought to interact with the endosomal sorting machinery to assist budding. We created single and combined L-domain mutants in all permutations and tested the resulting clones for budding and replication. Budding and replication of all viruses with mutated PPPY were greatly reduced; however, the basal replication level was retained, demonstrated by the slow spread of the viruses in culture. Mutations in PSAP or YPAL did not affect budding or spreading, demonstrating that these two motifs are dispensable for efficient MMuLV replication. Furthermore, the basal budding level was maintained following inhibition of endosomal sorting machinery, emphasizing that the basal budding of MMuLV is independent of this machinery.
Structural ties between idea generation process and design decision

Many innovative methods have been introduced to support creativity in the design process, but results from idea generation usually don't include a documentation of the process. They rather concentrate on generating creative design solutions (design outcome). The aim of this explorative study was to follow structural relations of visual documentation and presentation in the design process. The study followed principles from existing idea generation methods (e.g.: brainstorming, sketching, collages). Additionally it introduced a visual documentation procedure (structural ties) to capture relations to pre-given requirements. 25 young interaction designers participated in the study. Initial results of the study have shown that documenting structural ties during the creative process is possible to some extend and it has two major advantages: It has a potential to make stronger claims on the scientific value of creative techniques and such structures can help young designers to refine their creative ideas in alignment with pre-given requirements.
Object manipulation by learning stereo vision-based robots

An approach to realize learning calibration-free stereo vision-based robot for manipulating objects is introduced. It allows a robot gather experiences through interaction with the world and continuously improve its performance based on the collected experiences. It uses a direct transition from image coordinates to motor control commands, but no world coordinates and no inverse perspective or kinematic transformations. The approach has been tested in real-world experiences on an uncalibrated vision-guided manipulator with five degrees of freedom to grasp a variety of differently shaped objects.