Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modulation of cellular thermoresistance and actin filament stability accompanies phosphorylation-induced changes in the oligomeric structure of heat shock protein 27

Phosphorylation of heat shock protein 27 (HSP27) can modulate actin filament dynamics in response to growth factors. During heat shock, HSP27 is phosphorylated at the same sites and by the same protein kinase as during mitogenic stimulation. This suggests that the same function of the protein may be activated during growth factor stimulation and the stress response. To determine the role of HSP27 phosphorylation in the heat shock response, several stable Chinese hamster cell lines that constitutively express various levels of the wild-type HSP27 (HU27 cells) or a nonphosphorylatable form of human HSP27 (HU27pm3 cells) were developed. In contrast to HU27 cells, which showed increased survival after heat shock, HU27pm3 cells showed only slightly enhanced survival. Evidence is presented that stabilization of microfilaments is a major target of the protective function of HSP27. In the HU27pm3 cells, the microfilaments were thermosensitized compared with those in the control cells, whereas wild-type HSP27 caused an increased stability of these structures in HU27 cells. HU27 but not HU27pm3 cells were highly resistant to cytochalasin D treatment compared with control cells. Moreover, in cells treated with cytochalasin D, wild-type HSP27 but not the phosphorylated form of HSP27 accelerated the reappearance of actin filaments. The mutations in human HSP27 had no effect on heat shock-induced change in solubility and cellular localization of the protein, indicating that phosphorylation was not involved in these processes. However, induction of HSP27 phosphorylation by stressing agents or mitogens caused a reduction in the multimeric size of the wild-type protein, an effect which was not observed with the mutant protein. We propose that early during stress, phosphorylation-induced conformational changes in the HSP27 oligomers regulate the activity of the protein at the level of microfilament dynamics, resulting in both enhanced stability and accelerated recovery of the filaments. The level of protection provided by HSP27 during heat shock may thus represent the contribution of better maintenance of actin filament integrity to overall cell survival.
Identification of Ia glycoproteins in rat thymus and purification from rat spleen

A fraction of la‐like glycoproteins was prepared from rat thymocytes by lentil lectin affinity chromatography and gel filtration in deoxycholate. Spleen cells from mice immunized with this preparation were fused with myeloma cells to produce antibody‐secreting hybrid cell lines. Antibody from four lines called MRC OX, 3, 4, 5, 6 reacted with the la‐like glycoproteins, and MRC OX 3 antibody recognized an antigenie determinant polymorphic in the rat. All four antibodies also bound to mouse spleen cells and all detected polymorphisms. Studies on recombinant mouse strains suggest that the determinants are coded by the I‐A subregion of the H‐2 complex. MRC OX 3 correlates with Ia specificity 9, while MRC OX 4, 5, 6 correlate with specificity 17 or 18. MRC OX 4 monoclonal antibody was used for affinity chromatography to purify Ia glycoproteins from rat spleen. The rat Ia glycoprotein complex was composed of two noncovalently linked polypeptide chains of apparent mol. wt. (unreduced) 30 000 and 24 000 as determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate. The purified Ia glycoprotein partially inhibited the binding to thoracic duct lymphocytes of an alloantiserum which detects Ia antigens linked to the major histocompatibility complex. The monoclonal anti‐la antibodies bound to the majority of peripheral B lymphocytes and 18% of thymocytes, but did not significantly bind to peripheral T lymphocytes. There were on average 150000 molecules of Ia glycoprotein per la‐positive B lymphocyte, and 45 000 molecules per la‐positive thymocyte.
DISTRIBUTION OF ESTERASE IN EPITHELIAL AND LYMPHATIC TISSUES OF THE RABBIT APPENDIX

Esterases are prominent constituents of the intestinal mucosa but the proportionate contributions of the component cells and tissues to the overall enzyme content has not previously been described. The presence of connective tissue requires that account also be taken of those fractions of the enzymic content which are present in the extracellular phases. The configuration of the mucosa of the rabbit appendix is quite regular in its orientation and the region of the submucosa contains densely packed and geometrically arranged lymphatic nodules of a somewhat specialized character. Because of this structural regularity the organ is better suited than most for quantitative analysis of the morphological components which are present at various distances from the lumen. Response of the appendix to experimental procedures is rather precisely predictable (De Bruyn (2, 3), Doyle (4)).
A two-dimensional clinical gait analysis protocol based on markerless recordings from a single RGB-Depth camera

This work presents a two-dimensional markerless clinical gait analysis protocol to estimate the sagittal lower limb joint kinematics from the markerless recordings of a single RGB-Depth camera. The proposed method includes a subject separation from the background, the definition of a multi-segmental model of the lower limb and the estimation of the relevant joint kinematics. The segmentation algorithm performance was assessed by measuring the similarity between the computer-obtained segmentations and manual tracings (ground-truth). The estimated joint angles were compared to those obtained using a reference optoelectronic marker-based clinical protocol. The offset between the mean waveforms and the RMS value of the waveforms difference after removing their offset were computed. The segmentation accuracy resulted to be higher than 0.92 and very repeatable (STD of JI about 0.01). The RMSD values of the ankle kinematics (3.4° on average) are lower than those of other joints (4.9° for the hip joint and 6.2° for the knee joint, on average). Overall, given the good agreement between our results and those of marker-based method, we propose to use it to develop a new generation of low-cost movement analysis systems.
Biochemical Markers of Bone Cell Activity in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

AIMS To evaluate bone turnover in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM1) at onset, after 3 and 12 months of treatment, and in children with longer duration of disease, and its association with glycemic control. PATIENTS AND METHODS 17 children with DM1 at onset, 30 with DM1 of longer duration and 45 controls participated in the study. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRACP5b), crosslinked C-terminal telopeptides of type I collagen (CTX) and osteocalcin (OC) were assessed. RESULTS At onset of DM1 osteocalcin (p < 0.0003) and log CTX (p < 0.003) were lower than in controls but returned to reference levels after 3 months of therapy. TRACP5b in children with DM1 increased gradually and after 12 months was higher than at onset (p < 0.03). OC at onset inversely correlated with HbA1c (r = -0.40, p = 0.03). In children with DM1 of longer duration and HbA1c > 6.5%, sex-dependent differences were found in OC and CTX. Girls with HbA1 > 6.5% had lower OC and CTX than controls (p < 0.005, p < 0.003). Inverse correlations were found between HbA1c and OC and CTX (r = -0.50, p = 0.04; r = -0.49, p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS Proper glycemic control has a beneficial influence on bone turnover, which may prevent low bone mass in adulthood.
Gammatone-domain model combination for consonant recognition in noisy environments

In this paper, a gammatone-domain model combination method is proposed for consonant recognition in noisy environments. For this task, we ﬁrst deﬁne a gammatone cepstral coefﬁcient (GCC) as the cepstral representation of the averaged envelopes of a gammatone ﬁltered signal. Then, we investigate a proper phonetic unit by comparing monophone, diphone, and triphone acoustic models, where it is determined from consonant recognition experiments that the diphone hidden Markov models (HMMs) provide the best performance. Next, a gammatone-domain model combination method is developed to combine the clean and noise models in the linear gammatone-envelope domain. We then evaluate the performance of the GCC-based feature and the proposed model combination on intervocalic English consonants (VCV) with 24 different consonants. It is experimentally shown that the GCC-based feature achieves a relatively higher recognition rate of 47.46% than the mel-frequency cepstral coefﬁcients (MFCCs). Also, the model combination applied to the GCC-based diphone HMM system relatively increases the accuracy rate by 77.67% under the noisy conditions.
Détection de pointes épileptiques à partir de signaux EEG

La caracterisation de l'activite epileptique interictale est une etape primordiale de l'evaluation pre-chirurgicale de l'epilepsie. Au cours de cette etape, les neurologues inspectent les signaux electroencephalographiques afin de repertorier des evenements transitoires caracteristiques appeles pointes epileptiques. Cette lecture est fastidieuse et repose sur des criteres visuels qui ne font pas consensus. A partir d'hypotheses qui definissent une pointe epileptique (frequence, duree, correlations spatiales) cette etude propose un algorithme de detection semi automatique (supervise) de pointes epileptiques. Cet algorithme repose sur deux etapes. La premiere etape est une detection exhaustive d'evenements putatifs en utilisant la decomposition modale empirique (EMD). A partir de quelques echantillons de pointes identifies par le neurologue, la seconde etape filtre ces evenements sur les criteres de correlations spatiales et d'amplitude. La liste d'evenements qui en resulte contient les pointes putatives detectees par l'algorithme. La performance de cet algorithme est evaluee sur des simulations realistes et elle est illustree sur quatre exemples. Finalement, les pointes marquees par le neurologue et les pointes putatives sont comparees au niveau de la localisation de l'activite cerebrale a laquelle elles correspondent. Cette localisation est obtenue en utilisant la methode du maximum d'entropie sur la moyenne (MEM) et montre dans la plupart des cas, une concordance entre les pointes detectees par l'algorithme et les pointes marquees par le neurologue.
Grids in Numerical Weather and Climate Models

Since the early 20th century numerical weather prediction (NWP) has increasingly become one of the most important and complicated problems of modern science. With the advent of computers, increased observations, and progress in theoretical understanding, numerical models were developed. Since then, such models are playing an increasing role in under‐ standing and predicting weather and climate and have been a driving force in the advance‐ ment of the meteorological sciences. Numerical models are a mathematical representation of the earth’s climate system including the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and land, among others. The models divide the area of interest into a set of grids and then make use of obser‐ vations of variables such as surface pressure, winds, temperature and humidity at numer‐ ous locations throughout the globe. The observed values are then assimilated and used by the model to predict future evolution of the earth’s weather and climate. In the mid 20th cen‐ tury, models evolved from a simple model with a single atmospheric layer to a multi-layer primitive equation model capable of predicting cyclone development [1].
A hierarchical compiled code event-driven logic simulator

Logic simulation techniques that reduce both preprocessing time and execution time of unit delay logic simulation are described. Compiled code implementation techniques using a threaded code organization are applied to the event-driven logic simulation algorithm. Simulation speed is increased by a factor of tip to 10 by this technique compared to conventional event-driven simulation. The technique is then extended to hierarchical simulation, in which a fan-out procedure and simulation procedure are generated for each unique module. Hierarchical simulation reduces preprocessing time and allows the recompilation of only those modules that are modified. The simulator uses a portable machine model in which an architecture file describes the target machine. The simulator can be quickly ported to new machines by defining the architecture, while still obtaining high performance. >
Maximal orders in space-time coding: Construction and decoding

Previously, it was shown why the discriminant of a maximal order within a cyclic division algebra must be minimized in order to get the densest possible matrix lattices with a prescribed non-vanishing minimum determinant. In this paper, the actual procedure of constructing maximal orders is described in more detail, aiming to provide a handy tool also for researchers with only a modest mathematical background. For instance, it is explicitly shown, step by step, how to construct a matrix lattice with QAM coefficients that has 2.5 times as many codewords as the famous Golden code of the same minimum determinant. In order to decode maximal order based space-time codes, the usual sphere decoder has to be modified. A pseudo algorithm describing the additional steps is given. For the algorithm to function it is essential that we also speed up the search for the shortest lattice vectors ensuring in this way that the usage of a codebook becomes feasible. Both the search and the decoding can be performed by adding an upper bound on the energy of the single vector in use.
High-efficiency low-cost accelerometer-aided gyroscope calibration

Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are gaining popularity in several application fields, such as navigation, body motion monitoring and indoors positioning. Microelectromechanical (MEMS) accelerometers and gyroscopes are used for this purpose since they offer a reasonable price-performance trade-off. However, they still present several undesired characteristics in their output that should be compensated through proper device calibration. Although accelerometers are quite easy to calibrate, gyroscopes need more complex systems and equipment to achieve an accurate calibration. This paper shows a novel calibration system using simple equipment (a bike wheel as a turntable) designed for an IMU which is used for a knee telerehabilitation system and composed of a triaxial accelerometer and a biaxial gyroscope. MEMS Accelerometers are usually more accurate and offer better performance than MEMS gyroscopes. Thus, accelerometer data is used to help calibrate the gyroscope by applying a novel, simple, yet accurate set of maneuvers.
The Effects of Hormonal Contraceptives on Glycemic Regulation

A number of side effects have been linked to the use of hormonal contraceptives, among others, alterations in glucose levels. Hence, the objective of this mini-review is to show the main effects of hormonal contraceptive intake on glycemic regulation. First, the most relevant studies on this topic are described, then the mechanisms that might be accountable for this glycemic regulation impairment as exerted by hormonal contraceptives are discussed. Finally, we briefly discuss the ethical responsibility of health professionals to inform about the potential risks on glycemic homeostasis regarding hormonal contraceptive intake.
Leadership in species: A bipartite-network-based approach

The use of social network analysis approach in surveying the leadership aspect in the animal kingdom has gained much attention and has produced efficacious results. This graph-theoretic network approach emerges as an effective alternative to the well-established traditional experimental approaches that involve a combination of different techniques in behavioral observation. The social network approach used generally involves one-type node network — focusing on the individuals of the species. The interaction between the species and the characteristics of the location they are found are seldom taken into account despite the fact that leaders are reported to be closely related to the successful identification of preferred habitat of a species. This study employs the bipartite-network-based approach in identifying the potential leaders of a marine mammal species. We incorporate the properties of both of the species and the locations where they are found, and thus bridged the gap mentioned above. The bipartite network formed consists of thirteen individual species nodes and thirteen location nodes with thirty-eight weighted edges formed between them. The results obtained show that the top-ranked individuals are closely related to the top-ranked preferred habitat. The discussion on the verification and validation of the results is also presented. We show that the state-of-the-art approach has great potential to be used in researching the association among individuals of a species and their preferred habitat where the leadership issue is of concerned.
Susceptibility of Cattle to First-passage Intracerebral Inoculation with Chronic Wasting Disease Agent from White-tailed Deer

Fourteen, 3-month-old calves were intracerebrally inoculated with the agent of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from white-tailed deer (CWDwtd) to compare the clinical signs and neuropathologic findings with those of certain other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE, prion diseases) that have been shown to be experimentally transmissible to cattle (sheep scrapie, CWD of mule deer [CWDmd], bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE], and transmissible mink encephalopathy). Two uninoculated calves served as controls. Within 26 months postinoculation (MPI), 12 inoculated calves had lost considerable weight and eventually became recumbent. Of the 12 inoculated calves, 11 (92%) developed clinical signs. Although spongiform encephalopathy (SE) was not observed, abnormal prion protein (PrPd) was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot (WB) in central nervous system tissues. The absence of SE with presence of PrPd has also been observed when other TSE agents (scrapie and CWDmd) were similarly inoculated into cattle. The IHC and WB findings suggest that the diagnostic techniques currently used to confirm BSE would detect CWDwtd in cattle, should it occur naturally. Also, the absence of SE and a distinctive IHC pattern of CWDwtd and CWDmd in cattle suggests that it should be possible to distinguish these conditions from other TSEs that have been experimentally transmitted to cattle.
Redetermined crystal structure of β-dl-methionine at 320 K

The structure of β-dl-methionine, C5H11NO2S, in the space group C2/c, is here confirmed to be fully ordered all the way up to the phase transition at approximately 326 K, where displacive sliding of molecular bilayers gives the disordered P21/c α form [data at 340 K; Görbitz (2014). Acta Cryst. E70, 341–343]. The geometry of hydrogen bonds in LD–LD hydrogen-bonding patterns [Görbitz et al. (2009). Acta Cryst. B65, 393–400] at the hydrophilic core of each molecular bilayer are virtually unperturbed by the phase shift, but the C—C—S—C torsion angle of the side chain changes from trans at 320 K to gauche+ for the major conformation at 340 K.
Notch receptor encodes two structurally separable functions in Drosophila: A genetic analysis

The Notch gene of Drosophila encodes a single transmembrane receptor that plays a central role in the process of lateral inhibition. This process results in the selection of individual mesodermal and neural precurors during the development of the muscular and nervous systems. The activation of Notch during lateral inhibition is mediated by the transmembrane ligand Delta (Dl) and effected by the transcription factor Suppressor of Hairless (Su(H)). The same functional cassette plays a role in other processes, in particular, the development and patterning of the wing. Genetic analysis has suggested that, in addition to the Su(H)‐dependent pathway, Notch can signal in an Su(H)‐independent manner. This process seems to be tightly associated with signalling by Wingless, a member of the Wnt family of signalling molecules. Here, we have analyzed further the possibility that the Notch protein encodes two different functions. To do so, we have studied the activities and genetic properties of different Notch receptors bearing deletions of specific regions of the intracellular and the extracellular domains in different developmental processes, and have sought to correlate the activity of these mutant proteins with those of existing mutants in Notch. Our results support the existence of at least two different activities of Notch each of which can be associated with specific structural domains. Developmental Dynamics 235:998–1013, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Flexible and stretchable tactile sensing skins using microwave transmission lines and piezoresistive rubber

In the related fields of prosthetics and robotics there is a need for an inexpensive, durable, wide-area, flexible stretchable skin-like material that can sense pressure and shear. While there exists a variety of tactile skins with impressive sensitivity, resolution, and integration, they are complex, expensive to fabricate, and delicate. This thesis explores two distinct technologies for creating a sensing skin based on molded PDMS silicone rubber. The first, which serves as a baseline technology for this thesis, consists of arrays of sensors made of insulating PDMS, conducting metal doped PDMS, and piezoresistive carbon black doped PDMS. Flexible and stretchable sensors capable of sensing pressure, shear, and finger angle were demonstrated. The finger angle sensor showed a sensitivity of greater than 2.3 kΩ per degree with a 230 kΩ resting resistance and the pressure sensor showed a sensitivity of 253 Ω per kPa with a resting resistance of 97 kΩ. However, the sensors showed hysteresis, poor repeatability, and had a slow response time due to the CB/PDMS material having a 200 s time constant. They also required a minimum of 2 √ N wires at the edges of a rectangular array of N sensors. The second technology, which is novel for tactile skins, is a distributed sensor based on buried microwave transmission lines. Applied pressure deforms the silicone rubber dielectric, creating an impedance discontinuity that is used to determine the location and degree of deformation. Using an algorithm derived in this thesis, the sensor deformation can be reconstructed from S-parameter measurements across frequency. The advantages of this sensor include that it requires only one electrical connection (and ground), it is rugged, simple, and inexpensive to make, the response time is ultimately limited only by the mechanics of the sensor materials, and the sensor is easy to model. These sensors showed pressure sensitivity of at least 10 kPa, depression sensitivity of less than 20 μm, and 1-D spacial sampling of 7.3 mm. They are 1.6 mm thick, 13 mm wide, and 200 mm long with the thickness and usable length of the sensor limited by the conductivity of stretchable conductors. In addition, a proof-of-concept shear sensor based on two parallel transmission lines was demonstrated. Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey H. Lang, PhD Title: Professor of Electrical Engineering