Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Buoyancy sources for a large unrooted mountain range

Xenoliths hosted by Cenozoic volcanic flows and plugs from the Central Sierra Nevada and Eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, and Inyo Mountains were studied for petrography and thermobarometry. The Central Sierra Nevada suite consists of abundant lower crustal feldspathic granulites, garnet clinopyroxenites, and mantle-derived peridotites and garnet websterites. Mafic crustal assemblages occur down to ∼65–70 km, although below 35–40 km, they are mainly in the eclogite facies. In contrast, the Eastern Sierra Region suites show peridotitic, pyroxenitic, and harzburgitic assemblages at depths of ≥35–40 km. They define an adiabat in PT space (T ∼ 1180–1250°C), suggesting the presence of the asthenospheric upper mantle close to the base of the crust. The ultramafic mantle rocks from the Central Sierra Nevada also define an adiabatic slope in PT space, possibly an artifact of side heating from the east. There is xenolith evidence that the Sierra Nevada lost about half of its original crust on the eastern side of the range. Regardless of the actual mechanism of crustal thinning, the loss of the eclogitic lowermost crust and replacement by peridotite in the eastern Sierra Nevada is a process accompanied by a substantial density decrease (>100 kg/m^3). Overall, if the mechanism of eclogitic lowermost crust removal is viable, there are enough buoyancy sources to explain topographic differences between the Sierra Nevada and the adjacent Basin and Range, assuming isostatic equilibrium.
Invited. On the feasibility of MRI‐guided focused ultrasound for local induction of gene expression

Gene therapy is a promising approach to the treatment of many forms of disease, including cancer. Of critical concern in its implementation is the ability to control the location, duration, and level of expression of the therapeutic gene. Here, we propose the use of local heat in combination with a heat‐sensitive promoter to help accomplish this. Certain members of the family of heat shock protein (hsp) promoters display a regulation that depends strongly on temperature. We present a study of natural hsp70 induction in rat leg by MRI‐guided focused ultrasound to investigate the hsp70 promoter as a possible candidate for use in control of gene expression with local heat. A temperature increase of 5–8°C in the focal region for 45 minutes led to a differential expression of the hsp70 mRNA between the focal region and the surrounding tissue ranging from a factor of 3 to 67.
Types of diabetic macular edema assessed by optical coherence tomography.

AIM To assess the types of diabetic macular edema (DME) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by analyzing retinal thickness, morphology and presence of macular traction using optical coherence tomography (OCT). PATIENTS AND METHODS This prospective study included 74 diabetics with diabetic retinopathy (DR) (141 eyes), 29 diabetics without DR (57 eyes) and 25 healthy volunteers (39 eyes). The ophthalmic examination included best corrected visual acuity, stereo-ophthalmoscopy, fluorescein angiography and OCT. DME assessment was based on the analysis of several OCT features: macular thickness, retinal morphology and presence of macular traction--vitreomacular and/or from epiretinal membranes. Four OCT types of DME were suggested: type 1--early, type 2--simple, type 3--cystoid (3a--mild, 3b--intermediate, 3c--severe) and type 4--serous macular detachment. The distribution of the DME types and their correlation with retinal thickness and visual acuity were analyzed. RESULTS The distribution of eyes with DME was: type 1--14.1%, type 2--30.4%, type 3--45.7% (3a--14.1%, 3b--12%, 3c--19.6%) and type 4--9.8%. Macular traction with retinal distortion was detected in 31.5% of the eyes with DME. Retinal thickness at the fixation point was 176 +/- 16.8 microm (116 microm / 210 microm) in healthy eyes and 182.2 +/- 19.6 microm (138 microm / 212 microm) in eyes without DR. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (Independent samples test, P > 0.05). The retina was significantly thicker in eyes with early DME (232.9 +/- 7.9 microm) than in healthy eyes and eyes without DR (Independent samples test, F = 16.274 and F = 13.100, P < 0.0001). Increasing retinal thickness was significantly correlated with worse visual acuity (ANOVA, F = 16.692, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION OCT precisely differentiated 4 types of DME: early, simple, cystoid and serous macular detachment, as well as determined the presence of macular traction. The early diagnosis, high precision in retinal thickness measurement, assessment of the morphologic types and macular traction are of uppermost importance in determining the therapeutic approach, prognosis and the effect of treatment.
Human cytomegalovirus maturational proteinase: expression in Escherichia coli, purification, and enzymatic characterization by using peptide substrate mimics of natural cleavage sites

The proteolytic processing of the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) assembly protein, resulting in truncation of its C terminus, is an essential step in virion maturation. The proteinase responsible for this cleavage is the amino-terminal half of the protein encoded by the UL80a open reading fame. We have obtained high expression levels of this 256-amino-acid HCMV proteinase, assemblin, in Escherichia coli. In addition to the 28-kDa proteinase, a 15-kDa protein comprising the first 143 amino acids and a 13-kDa protein comprising the last 113 amino acids of the 28-kDa HCMV proteinase were present. Both the 28-kDa proteinase and the 15-kDa protein were purified by a two-step chromatographic procedure utilizing anion exchange in urea and dithiothreitol and size exclusion in NaSCN and dithiothreitol. Activation of the purified 28-kDa proteinase required denaturation in urea as well as complete reduction of all five cysteine residues in the molecule. Removal of the urea by dialysis with retention of the reducing agent yielded an active proteinase. Addition of glycerol to 50% enhanced the activity. The HCMV proteinase cleaved the peptides RGVVNASSRLAK and SYVKASVSPE, which are mimics of the maturational (M)- and release (R)-site sequences, respectively, in the UL80a-encoded protein. The cleavage site in the peptides was at the same Ala-Ser scissile bond as observed in the UL80a protein. The Km value for the cleavage of RGVVNASSRLAK (M-site mimic) by the proteinase was similar to that for SYVKASVSPE (R-site mimic), but the turnover (kcat) of the M-site peptide mimic substrate by the proteinase was six to eight times faster. The peptide homologs of the herpes simplex virus type 1 M- and R-site sequences in the UL26-encoded protein were also cleaved by the HCMV proteinase, although at rates slower than those for the HCMV substrates. The HCMV proteinase was inhibited by Zn2+ and by alkylating agents, but only at very high inhibitor concentrations. The purified 15-kDa protein, subjected to the same activation conditions as the 28-kDa proteinase, had no enzymatic activity against the HCMV M- and R-site peptide substrates.
Improved Algorithms For Keyword Extraction and Headline Generation From Unstructured Text

The problem of generating headlines for documents using purely statistical approach has been long standing. We describe here an improved extractive approach based on keywords. The insight here is that if one tries to summarize a document, one will invariably use keywords from the document itself. There are two aspects to the problem namely, finding the relevant set of keywords and finding the proper way to combine these words to reflect a coherent and grammatical headline. Keyword selection can be tackled using various statistics about keywords in the document, while the problem of generating the headline sentence from the selected keywords cannot be best solved without resorting to the knowledge about the semantics of the keywords. To enhance the accuracy of the headline in reflecting the content, the gist or topic is first identified. The results show that our extractive approach is feasible for generating informative headlines.
Caractérisation électrique et modélisation du transport dans matériaux et dispositifs SOI avancés

Cette these est consacree a la caracterisation et la modelisation du transport electronique dans des materiaux et dispositifs SOI avances pour la microelectronique. Tous les materiaux innovants etudies(ex: SOI fortement dope, plaques obtenues par collage etc.) et les dispositifs SOI sont des solutions possibles aux defis technologiques lies a la reduction de taille et a l'integration. Dans ce contexte,l'extraction des parametres electriques cles, comme la mobilite, la tension de seuil et les courants de fuite est importante. Tout d'abord, la caracterisation classique pseudo-MOSFET a ete etendue aux plaques SOI fortement dopees et un modele adapte pour l'extraction de parametres a ete propose. Nous avons egalement developpe une methode electrique pour estimer la qualite de l'interface de collage pour des plaquettes metalliques. Nous avons montre l'effet bipolaire parasite dans des MOSFET SOI totalement desertes. Il est induit par l’effet tunnel bande-a-bande et peut etre entierement supprime par une polarisation arriere. Sur cette base, une nouvelle methode a ete developpee pour extraire le gain bipolaire. Enfin, nous avons etudie l'effet de couplage dans le FinFET SOI double grille, en mode d’inversion. Un modele analytique a ete propose et a ete ensuite adapte aux FinFETs sans jonction(junctionless). Nous avons mis au point un modele compact pour le profil des porteurs et des techniques d’extraction de parametres.
Dynamic output feedback H ∞ control of discrete-time fuzzy systems: a fuzzy-basis-dependent Lyapunov function approach

This article deals with an output feedback H ∞ control problem for a class of discrete-time fuzzy dynamic systems. A full-order dynamic output feedback H ∞ control design approach is developed by combining a fuzzy-basis-dependent Lyapunov function and a transformation on the controller parameters, which leads to sufficient conditions in the form of strict linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The fuzzy-basis-dependent results are less conservative due to the generality of the fuzzy-basis-dependent Lyapunov function used which includes the fuzzy-basis-independent one as a special case. It has been shown that the underling full-order dynamic output feedback H ∞ control problem can be solved as LMI optimization problems that can be computed numerically very efficiently. Finally, two numerical examples, concerning the control of a discrete-time chaotic Lorenz system and an inverted pendulum, are given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.
Segmentation of road scenes using color and fractal-based texture classification

Presents a knowledge-based method for segmenting color images of road scenes. The knowledge base contains color and texture representations of objects typically found in such scenes. The segmentation algorithm uses the knowledge base to classify each image region according to its chromaticity and fractal dimension. A key feature of the texture classifier is its robustness with respect to image scale and contrast. We also discuss extensions of our method to other applications. <<ETX>>
C/EBPβ couples dopamine signalling to substance P precursor gene expression in striatal neurones

Dopamine‐induced changes in striatal gene expression are thought to play an important role in drug addiction and compulsive behaviour. In this study we report that dopamine induces the expression of the transcription factor CCAAT/Enhancer Binding Protein β (C/EBP)‐β in primary cultures of striatal neurones. We identifed the preprotachykinin‐A (PPT‐A) gene coding for substance P and neurokinin‐A as a potential target gene of C/EBPβ. We demonstrated that C/EBPβ physically interacts with an element of the PPT‐A promoter, thereby facilitating substance P precursor gene transcription. The regulation of PPT‐A gene by C/EBPβ could subserve many important physiological processes involving substance P, such as nociception, neurogenic inflammation and addiction. Given that substance P is known to increase dopamine signalling in the striatum and, in turn, dopamine increases substance P expression in medium spiny neurones, our results implicate C/EBPβ in a positive feedback loop, changes of which might contribute to the development of drug addiction.
RNA polymerase II elongation factors Spt4p and Spt5p play roles in transcription elongation by RNA polymerase I and rRNA processing

Previous investigations into the mechanisms that control RNA Polymerase (Pol) I transcription have primarily focused on the process of transcription initiation, thus little is known regarding postinitiation steps in the transcription cycle. Spt4p and Spt5p are conserved throughout eukaryotes, and they affect elongation by Pol II. We have found that these two proteins copurify with Pol I and associate with the rDNA in vivo. Disruption of the gene for Spt4p resulted in a modest decrease in growth and rRNA synthesis rates at the permissive temperature, 30°C. Furthermore, biochemical and EM analyses showed clear defects in rRNA processing. These data suggest that Spt4p, Spt5p, and, potentially, other regulators of Pol I transcription elongation play important roles in coupling rRNA transcription to its processing and ribosome assembly.
Spatial and acoustic pressure dependence of microbubble‐mediated gene delivery targeted using focused ultrasound

Ultrasound/microbubble‐mediated gene delivery has the potential to be targeted to tissue deep in the body by directing the ultrasound beam following vector administration. Application of this technology would be minimally invasive and benefit from the widespread clinical experience of using ultrasound and microbubble contrast agents. In this study we evaluate the targeting ability and spatial distribution of gene delivery using focused ultrasound.
Heart disease and stroke statistics--2008 update: a report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee.

1. About These Statistics…e70 2. Cardiovascular Diseases…e72 3. Coronary Heart Disease, Acute Coronary Syndrome, and Angina Pectoris…e89 4. Stroke…e99 5. High Blood Pressure…e111 6. Congenital Cardiovascular Defects…e116 7. Heart Failure…e119 8. Other Cardiovascular Diseases…e122 9. Risk Factor: Smoking/Tobacco Use…e128 10. Risk Factor: High Blood Cholesterol and Other Lipids…e132 11. Risk Factor: Physical Inactivity…e136 12. Risk Factor: Overweight and Obesity…e139 13. Risk Factor: Diabetes Mellitus…e143 14. End-Stage Renal Disease and Chronic Kidney Disease…e149 15. Metabolic Syndrome…e151 16. Nutrition…e153 17. Quality of Care…e155 18. Medical Procedures…e159 19. Economic Cost of Cardiovascular Diseases…e162 20. At-a-Glance Summary Tables…e164 21. Glossary and Abbreviation Guide…e168 Writing Group Disclosures…e171 Appendix I: List of Statistical Fact Sheets: http://www.americanheart. org/presenter.jhtml? identifier=2007 We thank Drs Robert Adams, Philip Gorelick, Matt Wilson, and Philip Wolf (members of the Statistics Committee or Stroke Statistics Subcommittee); Brian Eigel; Gregg Fonarow; Kathy Jenkins; Gail Pearson; and Michael Wolz for their valuable comments and contributions. We would like to acknowledge Tim Anderson and Tom Schneider for their editorial contributions and Karen Modesitt for her administrative assistance. # 1. About These Statistics {#article-title-2} The American Heart Association (AHA) works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (CDC/NCHS); the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); and other government agencies to derive the annual statistics in this Update. This chapter describes the most important sources and the types of data we use from them. For more details and an alphabetical list of abbreviations, see Chapter 21 of this document, the Glossary and Abbreviation Guide. The surveys used are:
Hepatocellular carcinoma in pregnancy

Case report A 37-year-old woman in her fi rst pregnancy, with an unremarkable medical history, presented at 38 weeks ’ gestation with a 4-day history of headache, nausea, epigastric discomfort and syncopal episodes. On admission, examination revealed a well patient with distended superfi cial veins on her chest, an unremarkable cardiovascular examination and no focal neurology; there was no evidence of fetal compromise. Further investigations showed an alanine transaminase of 235 (normal range 0 – 55) IU/l and a lactate dehydrogenase of 1,910 (normal range of 313 – 618) IU/l. A liver ultrasound scan, serological tests and an autoantibody screen were unremarkable. Following a review by the gastroenterologists and neurologists, the diagnosis was not clear and a decision for delivery was made. She had a prostaglandin induction of pregnancy and delivered a healthy live female. Th e patient presented to the physicians 3 days aft er discharge, with shortness of breath and dysphagia. Examination revealed clear lung fi elds, however a chest X-ray showed widening of the mediastinum, consistent with large volume bilateral hilar and mediastinal lymphadenopathy (Figure 1). Computerised tomography (CT) of the chest confi rmed a large abnormal area of soft tissue in the superior mediastinum measuring 12  11 7 cm, compressing the right atrium of the heart. Ultrasound guided biopsy of a right cervical lymph node was performed and histology showed diff use large B-cell lymphoma (a high grade B-cell non-Hodgkin ’ s lymphoma). Investigations were performed to stage the tumour and a CT showed no evidence of any signifi cant additional disease within the abdomen or pelvis. Bone marrow aspirate showed megakaryocytic hyperplasia with left shift , consistent with reactive changes and no evidence of lymphoma. It was staged as IIA by the Ann Arbor staging criteria, there were no ‘ B symptoms ’ (Carbone et al. 1971). Th e patient was started on an R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, hydroxydaunorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone) regimen of chemotherapy and remains under the follow-up of the oncology team.
Study of natural hybridization between Alnus incana (L.) Moench. and Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn

Variation of metric and qualitative characteristics of A. incana (L.) Moench. and A. glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. has been studied in 10 natural populations in West Siberia, Russia and the Czech Republic in connection with the problem of natural hybridization. Morphological peculiarities of the species and their spontaneous hybrids are shown. Twelve leaf characteristics were used, in addition, qualitative characteristics were assessed, such as: type of bark, degree of pubescence of leaves and stems, and presence of a “tuft” in the angles of leaf veins. The reasons for hybridization of these species are discussed.
Aplicação de calibração multivariada em dados de espectroscopia UV-visível para previsão da acidez total em vinhos

Este trabalho teve como objetivo o estudo de uma metodologia alternativa a titulacao acido base para medir a acidez total de amostras de vinhos brancos e tintos. Mais especificamente, a pesquisa teve como foco oferecer como alternativa a tecnica de espectrofotometria nas regioes Ultravioleta e Visivel (UV-Vis) por se tratar de uma metodologia que pode ser introduzida na industria para o monitoramento deste parâmetro ja que possibilita a realizacao de analises rapidas sem perder a eficiencia e sem geracao de residuos. Para possibilitar a utilizacao de espectrofotometria UV-Vis foi necessario realizar calibracao multivariada utilizando-se o metodo quimiometrico de regressao por minimos quadrados parciais (do ingles Partial Least Squares -PLS) entre os espectros UV-Vis dos vinhos e os valores de acidez total, determinados pelo metodo de referencia, que no caso foi titulacao acido base. A fim de se obter um modelo satisfatorio para prever acidez total de novas amostras foram utilizadas estrategias quimiometricas, como por exemplo, a analise de componentes principais (do ingles Principal Component Analysis - PCA) para observar se a amostra apresentava comportamento linear, e o algoritmo Kennard Stone, para selecionar amostras utilizadas no conjunto de dados utilizados na calibracao e previsao. Os valores da Raiz Quadrada do Erro Medio Quadratico da Calibracao (do ingles Root Mean Square Error of Calibration - RMSEC), Raiz Quadrada do Erro Medio Quadratico da Previsao (do ingles Root Mean Square Error of Prediction - RMSEP) e o Coeficiente de correlacao (R2), relacionando calibracao e previsao, foram avaliados. Para o vinho branco os modelos obtidos apresentaram valores de RMSEC, RMSEP e R2 5,87; 6,58 e 0,71, enquanto que para o vinho tinto os valores foram de 6,93; 8,58 e 0,71, respectivamente. Os resultados sugerem que a metodologia pode ser utilizada ja que a titulacao tem como detector para o ponto final o olho humano, e pode trazer divergencias com relacao aos erros obtidos. Alem disso, foi utilizado o teste t-pareado para avaliar a compatibilidade entre os metodos de titulacao e espectrofotometria UV-Vis empregados, e o resultado mostra que nao existe diferenca significativa entre estes em um nivel de confianca de 95%. Assim, as vantagens oferecidas pelo metodo UV-Vis sao inegavelmente atraentes para exigencias industriais, sugerindo que estudos com enfoque em metodos opticos e calibracao multivariada podem ser de interesse para a area e merecem ser observados em estudos futuros.
Geometry Batching using Texture-arrays

High-quality rendering of 3D virtual environments typically depends on high-quality 3D models with significant geometric complexity and texture data. One major bottleneck for real-time image-synthesis represents the number of state changes, which a specific rendering API has to perform. To improve performance, batching can be used to group and sort geometric primitives into batches to reduce the number of required state changes, whereas the size of the batches determines the number of required draw-calls, and therefore, is critical for rendering performance. For example, in the case of texture atlases, which provide an approach for efficient texture management, the batch size is limited by the efficiency of the texture-packing algorithm and the texture resolution itself. This paper presents a pre-processing approach and rendering technique that overcomes these limitations by further grouping textures or texture atlases and thus enables the creation of larger geometry batches. It is based on texture arrays in combination with an additional indexing schema that is evaluated at run-time using shader programs. This type of texture management is especially suitable for real-time rendering of large-scale texture-rich 3D virtual environments, such as virtual city and landscape models.
Investigation of the Effect of Freezing on Protease-Catalyzed Peptide Synthesis Using Cryoprotectants and Frozen Organic Solvent

Abstract In order to investigate the effect of freezing on aqueous protease-catalyzed peptide synthesis systems, the influence of polyethylene glycols as cryoprotecting substances on α-chymotrypsin-catalyzed coupling of a N-protected acyl donor ester and various nucleophilic amino components was studied. Changes in S'-specificity of α-chymotrypsin in frozen aqueous systems were suppressed by polyethylene glycols even at concentrations below 1% (w/v). Furthermore, the influence of freeze-concentration in organic solvents on protease-catalyzed peptide synthesis was investigated for the first time. In frozen tert-butanol, α-chymotrypsin-catalyzed peptide synthesis took advantage from freeze-concentration, but in contrast to frozen aqueous systems, no changes in S'-specificity of the biocatalyst were observed. The results suggest that freeze-concentration is not the only cause of freezing-induced yield improvement in aqueous peptide synthesis systems, but interactions between enzyme and ice structures strongly contribute to the observed effects.