Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biochemical markers of bone turnover and their relation to forearm bone mineral density in persons of Pakistani and Norwegian background living in Oslo, Norway: The Oslo Health Study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether Pakistanis have increased bone turnover compared with ethnic Norwegians due to their high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and secondary hyperparathyroidism, and whether the relation between bone turnover and bone mineral density (BMD) differs between Pakistanis and ethnic Norwegians. DESIGN A cross-sectional, population-based study conducted in the city of Oslo in 2000-2001. Random samples of 132 community-dwelling Pakistani men and women of ages 40, 45, and 59-60 years, and 580 community-dwelling Norwegian men and women of ages 45 and 59-60 years are included in this substudy. METHODS Venous serum samples were drawn for measurements of markers of the vitamin D endocrine system and the bone turnover markers osteocalcin (s-OC), bone alkaline phosphatase (s-bone ALP), and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (s-TRACP). BMD was measured at the forearm by single-energy X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS Pakistanis had higher s-bone ALP compared with Norwegians. Mean (95% CI) age-adjusted levels were 22.5 (21.0, 24.1) U/l in Pakistani men versus 19.3 (18.6, 20.1) U/l in Norwegian men, P < 0.0005, and 20.3 (18.4, 22.1) U/l in Pakistani women versus 16.7 (16.0, 17.4) U/l in Norwegian women, P = 0.001. There tended to be an inverse association between bone turnover and BMD in men and women of both ethnic groups, and it was strongest for s-bone ALP. Overall mean (95% CI) distal BMD decrease was -16 (-20, -11) mg/cm(2) per 1 s.d. increase in s-bone ALP (P < 0.0005) when adjusting for age, sex, and ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS Except for somewhat higher s-bone ALP levels in Pakistanis, there were only minor ethnic differences in bone turnover, despite a strikingly different prevalence of secondary hyperparathyroidism. Bone turnover was inversely associated with forearm BMD in both ethnic groups.
A small dual-band EBG structure for microwave

A novel dual-band compact electromagnetic-bandgap (EBG) structure is presented. This structure introduces a interdigital-spiral shape stripline to enlarge the inductance effect, which can extremely reduce the period of the lattice. Further more, it utilizes concave patches and convex patches to arrange alternately for dual band purpose. It also can be applied to design a reconfigurable multiband EBG structure. In this paper, its design is detailed, and several simulation are presented. The result proves that the design is effectively.
Importance of the Gate-Dependent Polarization Charge on the Operation of GaN HEMTs

We investigate the influence of the gate-voltage dependence of the polarization charge on the electron sheet charge density in the channel and how it reflects on the device transfer and output characteristics in GaN HEMTs. We find that a 10% increase in the polarization charge is needed to match the experimental data when the gate-voltage dependence of the polarization charge is included in the theoretical model. This information is important for calibration in commercial device simulators and for better understanding of the quality of the GaN/AlGaN interface.
Effects of back-side He irradiation on MOS-GTO performances

A new version of a 1200V-20A MOS-GTO with 0.4 cm2 die area is presented. The improvements of the switching performances have been achieved thanks to a new He irradiation technique performed from the back side of the device in order to avoid the degradation of the surface gate oxide. The high energy He irradiation allowed us to kill the lifetime in proximity of the N−/N+ interface in such a way to significantly improve the device switching performances as suggested by the simulations. The irradiation did not affect the on-state characteristics. Instead, a reduction by a factor ∼4 in the storage time and more than 30% decrease in the turn-off energy losses have been measured on irradiated samples with respect to not irradiated ones.
Waveform Evidence of Gate Harmonic Short Circuit Benefits for High Efficiency X-Band Power Amplifiers

An active load pull waveform measurement system has been utilized to investigate, by drain current waveform analysis, the effect of short circuits at the second and higher harmonics on the gate of a 750 μm Gallium Arsenide transistor. It is confirmed that the half wave rectified sinusoidal current waveform necessary for modes of operation such as class B, J and F is not optimally generated at X-Band frequencies for transistors controlled purely by bias. The disrupting effect of the nonlinear device gate capacitance must be accounted for to take full advantage of these high efficiency modes. The addition of a simple wide band filter circuit at the input of a MMIC test cell to “short” the gate higher harmonics is shown to force the drain current waveform towards the ideal case and hence yield a significant increase in drain efficiency of up to 10 percent.
Improved segmentation of cardiac image using active shape model

Cardiac is a center of body's function cause its role as blood pumping. Cardiac analysis done by observation the echocardiography result. Analyze do manually by doctor based on his viewpoint, accuracy and his experience, thus allowing each doctor have different analysis. Therefore, needed a system that can help the doctor to measure cardiac cavity area. This research will be develop a system that can measure cardiac cavity area. This system input used echocardiography video on the short axis view, next do the preprocessing to improving image quality and reduce the noise. Cardiac segmentation is done by using active shape model to tracking the cardiac cavity. After segmentation the cardiac cavity, then measure the cardiac cavity area with Partial Monte Carlo method. This research is expected to help the doctor to measure the cardiac cavity. Based on experimental result show that the errors of system is 4.309%.
Decentralized Sampled-Data Fuzzy Observer Design for Nonlinear Interconnected Systems

This paper presents the decentralized sampled-data fuzzy observer design techniques for nonlinear interconnected systems, which are assumed to be composed of fuzzy subsystems and unknown interconnections. To design the decentralized fuzzy observer, the estimation error dynamics is obtained, and the performance function is defined. Based on the estimation error dynamics and the performance function, the continuous-time decentralized fuzzy observer is first proposed to minimize the interconnection bound to attenuation degree ratio. In addition, the decentralized sampled-data fuzzy observers are designed by using the approximate discretization and the exact discrete-time design approaches, respectively. Each proposed observer design technique is formulated into the optimal problems with the linear matrix inequalities. Finally, several simulation examples show the validity and superiority of the proposed observer design techniques by comparing with the conventional techniques.
Is insulin resistance the cause of the metabolic syndrome?

Following up on original descriptions of clustering of cardiovascular risk factors (chiefly, glucose intolerance, dyslipidaemia and hypertension) around the presence of insulin resistance, the metabolic syndrome has recently been upgraded to the status of a disease entity with an inherent predictive value for cardiovascular disease. In pathophysiological terms, insulin resistance (of glucose metabolism) and the attendant compensatory hyperinsulinaemia are causally related to each of glucose intolerance, dyslipidaemia, high blood pressure and vascular dysfunction. The physiological mechanisms are concisely reviewed here. However, insulin resistance/hyperinsulinaemia alone is insufficient to cause these abnormalities, for which other pathogenic factors (e.g. ß‐cell dysfunction for glucose intolerance) are required. The metabolic syndrome, on the other hand, has evolved from a set of statistical associations believed to carry an excess of cardiovascular risk. In the various existing definitions, a mixture of physical, metabolic and clinical variables have been used on grounds of predictive value or practical ease. These variables belong to different phenotypes, which are upstream, intermediate and proximal, respectively, in their relation to clinical disease. The resulting ‘syndromes’ usually lack a cogent conceptual structure, may reflect the particular data set from which they are extracted and may be of limited applicability. While overt diabetes, clinical hypertension and frank dyslipidaemia are often present together in the same patient, a subclinical syndrome with a distinct, probable aetiology and a proven power as a risk indicator remains to be identified.
Isolation and characterization of 19 microsatellite markers in a tropical and warm subtropical birch, Betula alnoides Buch.–Ham. ex D. Don

Betula alnoides is an ecologically and economically important species in the tropics and warm subtropics. Nineteen polymorphic microsatellite markers were isolated from this species, which displayed three to 12 alleles per locus. The observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.100 to 0.905, and the expected heterozygosities from 0.510 to 0.893. These markers would be useful tools in genetic resource assessment, molecular marker‐assistant breeding, parentage analysis and genetic diversity studies for this species.
The effect of rehabilitation on depression among visually disabled older adults

There has been a great deal of interest in identifying the impact of rehabilitation on psychological well-being, as well as functional ability, among elders with disabilities, but empirical data remain limited. This descriptive study of participants in vision rehabilitation service examines the effect of specific vision rehabilitation services (low vision clinical services, skills training, counseling, optical device use, and adaptive device use) on change in depression among a sample of older adults with age-related vision impairments. Participants (N = 95) were interviewed at application for services and then approximately two years later. Findings from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that low vision clinical services, counseling, and use of optical devices, in separate models, each significantly contributed to a decline in depression, after controlling for age, health status, vision status, functional disability, as well as baseline depression. When all service variables were entered into the same equation, they explained an additional 10% of the variance in change in depression. Given the well documented robust relationship between disability and depression, findings point to the influence of vision rehabilitation interventions on both physical and psychological functioning, and underscore the need for future, controlled research on rehabilitation service models that address mental health issues.
Tourist adaptation behavior in response to climate disasters in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT To assess the impacts of climate disasters on the behavior of tourists in Bangladesh, this study makes an initial attempt to investigate tourists’ adaptation behavior in response to climate disasters. A questionnaire survey was developed and administered to address both tourists’ previous adaptation behavior and their stated adaptation behavior in response to different future climate disasters. The choice modeling analysis of tourists’ previous behavior revealed that a cyclone is more likely to result in the cancellation of a trip, and a flood is more likely to result in a change in trip timing. As for the stated behavior analysis, it was confirmed that most variables related to disaster severity show significant influence on adaptation behavior. The results also indicate that construction of disaster-resilient transportation networks is essential to avoid trip cancellations. In addition, improving market-oriented tourism service quality in Bangladesh could play a significant role in reducing the probability of both trip cancellations and changes of destination. The findings of this study can provide the tourism industry in Bangladesh with critical insights for future disaster management and sustainable development of the tourism industry.
New design antenna for RFID UHF tags

A novel printed antenna is proposed for radio frequency identification. The antenna has a much wider bandwidth than known printed antenna, mostly planar antennas. The antenna geometry is much smaller than a printed dipole antenna at the same frequency band. The method of design and realization with experimental results is shown. The introduction includes basic concepts of RFID systems. The second part addresses the main characteristics of the proposed RFID tag antenna. The third part introduces a comparison between measurements and simulations. Few advantages of the proposed RFID tag that meets the objectives of low-cost and size reduction are presented in part four
CsrA and TnaB Coregulate Tryptophanase Activity To Promote Exotoxin-Induced Killing of Caenorhabditis elegansby Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli(EPEC) requires the tnaA-encoded enzyme tryptophanase and its substrate tryptophan to synthesize diffusible exotoxins that kill the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Here, we demonstrate that the RNA-binding protein CsrA and the tryptophan permease TnaB coregulate tryptophanase activity, through mutually exclusive pathways, to stimulate toxin-mediated paralysis and killing of C. elegans.
Communication architectures for system-on-chip

The analysis of the communication architecture and its associated synthesis process has grown in importance in the era of System-On-Chip (SoC) devices, since one is moving towards more complex systems, made by several processing elements (cores), with heterogeneous behavior. In many cases, the choice for a communication architecture can be the most crucial factor to meet design constraints. This goal of this work is to define and implement algorithms devoted to analyzing and selecting those communication architectures that better match the user defined system constraints, in an integrated design environment.
Perspectives in PDK1 evolution

Protein kinases belonging to the AGC group modulate many diverse cellular processes in all eukaryotes. One important way to regulate AGC kinases is through phosphorylation by the upstream kinase PDK1. PDK1 localization and activity usually depend on interactions with phospholipids, which are mediated by a conserved lipid-binding pleckstrin homology (PH) domain. We recently analyzed putative PDK1 sequences from 17 photosynthetic organisms, finding that PDK1s from vascular and nonvascular species seem to be distinguished by the presence or absence of a PH domain, respectively. The only other reported PDK1 lacking a PH domain is from yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). These observations raise questions about how plant PDK1s and their lipid-binding capabilities have evolved in relation to other eukaryotes, and what this means for PDK1 function. Here we use 100 PDK1 sequences from diverse organisms to discuss possible evolutionary aspects of plant PDK1 structure and lipid binding.
Comparison of amplicon-sequencing, pyrosequencing and real-time PCR for detection of YMDD mutants in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

AIM To compare the sequencing of PCR products, pyrosequencing, and real-time PCR for detection of Tyrosine-methionine-aspartate-aspartate (YMDD) mutants in patients with chronic hepatitis B. METHODS Mixtures of plasmids and serum samples from 69 chronic hepatitis B patients treated with lamivudine were tested for YMDD mutations by sequencing of PCR products, pyrosequencing, and real-time PCR, respectively. Time required and reagent costs of the three assays were evaluated. RESULTS Real-time PCR detected 100%, 50%, 10%, 1% and 0.1% of YVDD plasmid in mixtures with 10(6) copies/mL of YMDD plasmid, whereas sequencing and pyrosequencing only detected 100% and 50% of YVDD plasmid in aliquots of the corresponding mixtures. Completely concordant results were obtained from 60 (87%) out of the 69 clinical serum samples by the three assays. Mutants were detected by real-time PCR in less than 20% of the total virus population, but no mutant was detected by sequencing and pyrosequencing. In addition, real-time PCR required less time and was more cost-effective than the other two assays. However, throughput of pyrosequencing was the highest. CONCLUSION Among the three assays compared, real-time PCR is the most sensitive, cost-effective, and time saving for monitoring YMDD mutants in patients with chronic hepatitis B on lamivudine therapy.
Nevirapine in the treatment of HIV

Nevirapine (Viramune®, Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd) is the first marketed non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. As with any antiretroviral drug, nevirapine should always be used as part of a fully suppressive regimen. Clinical studies have shown that nevirapine-containing regimens may accomplish durable virological and immunological responses in approximately half of all antiretroviral-naive patients. It can also be successfully used as a component of salvage therapies and as a part of a strategy to simplify protease inhibitor-containing regimens. Nevirapine has a beneficial effect on the lipid profile in both treatment-naive and -experienced patients. Nevirapine also has an important role in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. It is usually well-tolerated with rash and liver toxicity being the most frequently reported adverse events. Nevirapine interacts with cytochrome P450 enzymes both as a substrate and as an inducer. For this reason, therapeutic drug monitoring should be recommended whenever nevirapine is used with protease inhibitors, methadone (Methadose®, Rosemont Pharmaceuticals Ltd), oral contraceptives, rifampicin (Rifadin®, Aventis Pharma) and other potentially interacting drugs. Nevirapine-resistant mutations are common to the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor family and they include K103N, V106A, Y181C, Y188C and G190A. A better understanding of the nevirapine profile will certainly contribute to ensuring that its clinical application becomes more effective and beneficial.
Introducing a rat model of prenatal androgen‐induced polycystic ovary syndrome in adulthood

What is the central question of this study? Would it be possible to produce a rat model of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), in which the fetuses are exposed to testosterone for a short time and exhibit both endocrine and ovarian disturbances similar to PCOS, while maintaining normal reproductive system morphology in adulthood? What is the main finding and its importance? Prenatal exposure to a single dose of testosterone during the critical period of fetal development facilitates the production of a functional rat model of PCOS with minimal morphological disorders in adulthood. Production of a functional rat model that resembles many features of PCOS may contribute to a better understanding of this syndrome.
Predicting treatment repetitions in the implant denture therapy process

Healthcare can be considerably expensive for both patients and insurance companies. In some cases, high costs in healthcare are an indirect outcome of a low quality of care, for example, when treatments have to be repeated. Unfortunately, identifying the factors that lead to such repetitions is a complex and challenging task. In this paper, we focus on the domain of dental healthcare and develop an approach that can predict treatment repetitions in the context of the implant denture therapy process. The challenges associated with predicting treatment repetitions in this setting are considerable. First, hardly any patient undergoes the exact same series of treatments like another. This results in a high degree of variation in the data. Second, only a few patients experience treatment repetitions. This lead to a highly imbalance in the data. To address these challenges, we develop a prediction technique that particularly exploits the process perspective. What is more, we apply so-called resampling methods to deal with the imbalance in the data. Our resulting model is able to predict treatment repetitions with an AUC value of 0.69.
Port infrastructure and regional economic growth in China: a Granger causality analysis

ABSTRACT Ports in China play an important role in the transportation and economic system, especially for the cities where ports are located and the hinterland they serve. The question is what is the causality between port investment and economic growth in China? The answer to this question could provide a basis and better rationale for the port authorities or central and local governments in their investment decision-making process. This article investigates the Granger causality between port investment and economic growth in China both at the full regional level and the sub-regional level. By applying the panel data for the period of 19992009, the error correction model (ECM) is employed to test the Granger causality between port investment and economic growth. The results show that short-term bidirectional causality exists between port investment and economic growth, and the port investment is the long-term Granger reason for economic growth; however, economic growth is not the long-term Granger reason for port investment, namely that the long-term unidirectional causality exists running from port investment to economic growth.
Modulation of Rho-Dependent Transcription Termination in Escherichia coli by the H-NS Family of Proteins

ABSTRACT Nascent transcripts in Escherichia coli that fail to be simultaneously translated are subject to a factor-dependent mechanism of termination (also termed a polarity) that involves the proteins Rho and NusG. In this study, we found that overexpression of YdgT suppressed the polarity relief phenotypes and restored the efficiency of termination in rho or nusG mutants. YdgT and Hha belong to the H-NS and StpA family of proteins that repress a large number of genes in Gram-negative bacteria. Variants of H-NS defective in one or the other of its two dimerization domains, but not those defective in DNA binding alone, also conferred a similar suppression phenotype in rho and nusG mutants. YdgT overexpression was associated with derepression of proU, a prototypical H-NS-silenced locus. Polarity relief conferred by rho or nusG was unaffected in a derivative completely deficient for both H-NS and StpA, although the suppression effects of YdgT or the oligomerization-defective H-NS variants were abolished in this background. Transcription elongation rates in vivo were unaffected in any of the suppressor-bearing strains. Finally, the polarity defects of rho and nusG mutants were exacerbated by Hha and YdgT deficiency. A model is proposed that invokes a novel role for the polymeric architectural scaffold formed on DNA by H-NS and StpA independent of the gene-silencing functions of these nucleoid proteins, in modulating Rho-dependent transcription termination such that interruption of the scaffold (as obtained by expression either of the H-NS oligomerization variants or of YdgT) is associated with improved termination efficiency in the rho and nusG mutants.
Perceptual errors in the Farwell and Donchin matrix speller

Perceptual errors such as repetition blindness (RB) and attentional blink (AB) can affect the morphology of the target-P300. These perceptual errors may occur with the use of the Farwell & Donchin P300 speller protocol and in turn interfere with the desired symbol identification. In this paper a state of the art classification algorithm is employed to classify brain-computer interface (BCI) competition II and III P300 data and its performance used to assess the presence and effect of such phenomena. The general trend of the results indicated that perceptual errors were present and their effect on classification performance was detrimental. Although the degree to which these perceptual errors affected classification performance varied across subjects.