Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Influence of High-Energy Lithium Ion Irradiation on Electrical Characteristics of Silicon and GaAs Solar Cells

Space-grade Si and GaAs solar cells were irradiated with 15 & 40 MeV Li ions. Illuminated (AM0 condition) and unilluminated I-V curves reveal that the effect of high-energy Li ion irradiation has produced similar effects to that of proton irradiation. However, an additional, and different, defect mechanism is suggested to dominate in the heavier-ion results. Comparison is made with proton-irradiated solar-cell work and with non-ionizing energy-loss (NIEL) radiation-damage models
Long-term use of thiazolidinediones and fractures in type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis

Background: Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone may increase the incidence of fractures. We aimed to determine systematically the risk of fractures associated with thiazolidinedione therapy and to evaluate the effect of the therapy on bone density. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), other trial registries and product information sheets through June 2008. We selected long-term (≥ 1 year) randomized controlled trials involving patients with type 2 diabetes and controlled observational studies that described the risk of fractures or changes in bone density with thiazolidinediones. We calculated pooled odds ratios (ORs) for fractures and the weighted mean difference in bone density. Results: We analyzed data from 10 randomized controlled trials involving 13 715 participants and from 2 observational studies involving 31 679 participants. Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone were associated with a significantly increased risk of fractures overall in the 10 randomized controlled trials (OR 1.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18–1.79; p < 0.001). Five randomized controlled trials showed a significantly increased risk of fractures among women (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.65–3.01; p < 0.001) but not among men (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.73–1.39; p = 0.98). The 2 observational studies demonstrated an increased risk of fractures associated with rosiglitazone and pioglitazone. Bone mineral density in women exposed to thiazolidinediones was significantly reduced at the lumbar spine (weighted mean difference –1.11%, 95% CI –2.08% to –0.14%; p = 0.02) and hip (weighted mean difference –1.24%, 95%CI –2.34% to –0.67%; p < 0.001) in 2 randomized controlled trials. Interpretation: Long-term thiazolidinedione use doubles the risk of fractures among women with type 2 diabetes, without a significant increase in risk of fractures among men with type 2 diabetes.
Augmented reality with high frame rate for low computational power devices

In the conventional Augmented Reality (AR) systems, three main tasks are sequentially performed: image acquisition, camera pose tracking and rendering. Among these tasks, the camera pose tracking occupies the largest proportion of total processing time. Thus, frame rate can be reduced in small mobile devices when the tracking processing time exceeds the image acquisition time interval needed for desired frame rate. Moreover, the temporal jitter can be introduced due to the irregular tracking processing time. In this paper, we present a new framework for AR that can achieve the high frame rate and reduce the temporal jitter. In the proposed method, the three main tasks of AR are performed in parallel. This enables the image acquisition and rendering thread to work independently with the tracking thread so to prevent frame loss and temporal jitter. The tracking thread calculates the camera pose of the coarsely selected frames. For the unselected frames, the parabolic motion model is applied. Experimental results indicate that the proposed system outperforms conventional methods in terms of frame rate and temporal jitter.
Evolving a generalized strategy for an action-platformer video game framework

Computational Intelligence in Games comprises many challenges such as the procedural level generation, evolving adversary difficulty and the learning of autonomous playing agents. This last challenge has the objective of creating an autonomous playing agent capable of winning against an opponent on an specific game. Whereas a human being can learn a general winning strategy (i.e., avoid the obstacles and defeat the enemies), learning algorithms have a tendency to overspecialize for a given training scenario (i.e., perform an exact sequence of actions to win), not being able to face variations of the original scenario. To further study this problem, we have applied three variations of Neuroevolution algorithms to the EvoMan game playing learning framework with the main objective of developing an autonomous agent capable of playing in different scenarios than those observed during the training stages. This framework is based on the bosses fights of the well known game called Mega Man. The experiments show that the evolved agents are not capable of winning every challenge imposed to them but they are still capable of learning a generalized behavior.
Is Part-Time Sick Leave Helping the Unemployed?

Using a discrete choice one-factor model, we estimate mean treatment parameters and distributional treatment parameters to analyze the effects of degree of sick leave on the probability of full recovery of lost work capacity for employed and unemployed individuals, respectively. Our results indicate that one year after the sick leave spell started, the average potential impact of part-time sick listing on an individual randomly chosen from the population on sick leave was positive for both groups, but the average effect on those who actually were on part-time sick leave was positive only for the employed, and negative for the unemployed.
Feeding Patterns of Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) from Eastern Santa Catarina State, Brazil

ABSTRACT Blood-feeding sources of Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) collected in the eastern region of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina were analyzed by precipitin technique. One hundred fifty-four female mosquitoes collected by CDC traps in the Navegantes municipality 13–15 February 2005 reacted to one or more of eight antisera, including chicken, dog, goat, sheep, horse, opossum, human and rodent antisera. One hundred thirty-seven specimens (89%) reacted to only one source, and 17 (11%) specimens reacted to two sources. Among the 137 specimens reacting to only one source, reactions to rodent (50.4%), sheep (5.8%), chicken (5.1%), goat (5.1%), dog (2.2%), horse (3.6%), and human (3.6%) antisera were observed. The analyzed species demonstrated a high degree of opportunistic feeding behavior in relation to host preference. Results are compared with results from similar studies, and the low proportion of reactions to human antisera is discussed.
Estimating sample size in the presence of competing risks – Cause-specific hazard or cumulative incidence approach?

In designing randomised clinical trials involving competing risks endpoints, it is important to consider competing events to ensure appropriate determination of sample size. We conduct a simulation study to compare sample sizes obtained from the cause-specific hazard and cumulative incidence (CMI) approaches, by first assuming exponential event times. As the proportional subdistribution hazard assumption does not hold for the CMI exponential (CMIExponential) model, we further investigate the impact of violation of such an assumption by comparing the results obtained from the CMI exponential model with those of a CMI model assuming a Gompertz distribution (CMIGompertz) where the proportional assumption is tenable. The simulation suggests that the CMIExponential approach requires a considerably larger sample size when treatment reduces the hazards of both the main event, A, and the competing risk, B. When treatment has a beneficial effect on A but no effect on B, the sample sizes required by both methods are largely similar, especially for large reduction in the main risk. If treatment has a protective effect on A but adversely affects B, then the sample size required by CMIExponential is notably smaller than cause-specific hazard for small to moderate reduction in the main risk. Further, a smaller sample size is required for CMIGompertz as compared with CMIExponential. The choice between a cause-specific hazard or CMI model in competing risks outcomes has implications on the study design. This should be made on the basis of the clinical question of interest and the validity of the associated model assumption.
Jobs for the Boys: Teaching as a career choice for secondary school boys in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Teaching is globally becoming an increasingly feminized profession, and the United Arab Emirates is no exception in having extremely low numbers of Emirati male teachers, particularly in primary schools. So much so that most male teachers in government schools have historically had to be recruited from other Arab countries or more recently, from Western countries. There is a body of research to suggest that boys fare better academically and otherwise when they are taught by a male from their own community, indicating that encouraging more males into teaching, and in particular encouraging more Emirati males into teaching is highly desirable. In order to do this, the reasons why they are turning away from the profession need to be examined more closely. In the spring of 2012, 190 male final year secondary school students were surveyed in order to explore their perceptions of teaching as a career. Of those, 17% of Emirati students and 22% of non-Emirati students said they had given serious consideration to the career as an option. However, none of the students surveyed actually chose teaching as their career. This study examines the reasons for this and gives suggestions as to how to increase the recruitment of Emirati males to teacher education courses.
Change in infectivity titre of nervous necrosis virus (NNV) in brain tissue of sevenband grouper, Epinephalus fasciatus Thunberg, with Poly(I:C) administration.

Viral nervous necrosis (VNN) has become a serious disease in over 30 species of cultured marine fish worldwide over the last 20 years (Muroga 2001; Munday, Kwang & Moody 2002). The causative agents of VNN are nervous necrosis viruses (NNVs) belonging to the genus Betanodavirus of the family Nodaviridae (Schneemann et al. 2005), which are classified into five genotypes: striped jacked NNV (SJNNV), tiger puffer NNV (TPNNV), barfin flounder NNV (BFNNV), redspotted grouper NNV (RGNNV) and turbot NNV (Nishizawa et al. 1995, 1997; Johansen et al. 2004). Although VNN in the larval stage occurs by vertical transmission of NNV, it can be prevented by selection of NNV-free spawners as well as disinfection of eggs and rearing water during seed production (Mushiake et al. 1994; Mori, Mushiake & Arimoto 1998; Watanabe, Nishizawa & Yoshimizu 2000). However, there are still problems at the grow-out stages in sea cages because of horizontal transmission of NNV through the rearing sea water sourced from the environment. Under these circumstances, several kinds of NNV vaccines have been developed (Húsgarð et al. 2001; Tanaka et al. 2001; Yuasa et al. 2002; Sommerset et al. 2005; Yamashita et al. 2005; Thiéry et al. 2006; Kai & Chi 2008), although no vaccine has been marketed. It was recently demonstrated that Poly(I:C) immunization of sevenband grouper, Eepinephelus septemfasciatus Thunberg, with live NNV confers protection against VNN (Nishizawa et al. 2009, 2011). The process of ‘Poly(I:C) immunization’ involves immunization of fish with a pathogenic live virus following administration of polyinosinicpolycytidylic acid [Poly(I:C)], a synthetic doublestranded RNA that induces interferon and a transient, non-specific antiviral state. As a result, the fish in an antiviral state survive the initial immunization with live virus. Moreover, the fish that survive the infection with the live virus mount a specific protective immune response against the injected pathogenic virus. The efficacy of Poly(I: C) immunization has also been confirmed experimentally in Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus, with viral haemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) and rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, with infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (Kim et al. 2009; Takami et al. 2010). Thus, it is conceivable that Poly(I:C) immunization will eventually be applicable to a wide range of fish species and virus diseases. We previously demonstrated that the degree of NNV infection must be similar to that of a fatal dose in order for fish to mount a specific protective immune response against the virus, and Poly(I:C) administration to achieve an antiviral state could protect fish from such intense viral infection. Correspondence T Nishizawa, Department of Aqualife Medicine, Chonnam National University, Yeosu 550749, Korea (e-mail: jjnishi@chonnam.ac.kr)
A comparative study of partial primary structures of the catalytic region of mammalian protein C

Summary. Protein C (PROC) is a plasma vitamin K‐dependent zymogen of a serine protease which regulates blood‐clotting cascade through proteolytic inactivation of the non‐enzymatic cofactors of blood coagulation, Va and VIIIa. We characterized the partial nucleotide and amino acid sequences for the catalytic domain of PROC in six mammalian species, rhesus monkey, dog, cat, goat, horse and mouse, and compared these sequences with known ones from humans, the bovine and rat. By using a pair of primers based on the nucleotide sequences from human and bovine PROC cDNA, the PROC gene fragments were enzymatically amplified from their genomic DNAs and were sequenced by the dideoxytermination method. The cloned PROC gDNA encoded a part of the heavy chain of PROC including the lesions of active site residues corresponding to human PROC Asp‐257 and Ser‐360. Comparison of the sequences from these species revealed that there was a high degree of homology at the nucleotide and amino acid levels: from 69% to 96% of the amino acids in the catalytic region were identical among the nine species including humans, the bovine and rat. The locations of five Cys residues as well as the putative carbohydrate attachment sites were evolutionally conserved. All the amino acids recognized in the human abnormal PROC variants were conserved across species, suggesting their functional importance, and a comparison of the conserved residues among PROC from multiple species will provide considerable information in the investigations of PROC functions.
The effects of dynein inhibition on the autophagic pathway in glioma cells

Autophagy has multiple physiological functions, including protein degradation, organelle turnover and the response of cancer cells to chemotherapy. Because autophagy is implicated in a number of diseases, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of autophagy is needed for therapeutic purposes, including rational design of drugs. Autophagy is a process that occurs in several steps as follows: formation of phagophores, formation of mature autophagosomes, targeting and trafficking of autophagosomes to lysosomes, formation of autolysosomes by fusion between autophagosomes and lysosomes, and finally, degradation of the autophagic bodies within the lysosomes. It has been suggested that autophagosome formation is driven by molecular motor machineries, and, once formed, autophagosomes need to reach lysosomes, enriched perinuclearly around the microtubule‐organizing centre. While it is recognized that all these steps require the cytoskeletal network, little is known about the mechanisms involved. Here we assessed the role of cytoplasmic dynein in the autophagic process of human glioma cells to determine the part played by dynein in autophagy. We observed that chemical interference with dynein function led to an accumulation of autophagosomes, suggesting impaired autophagosome‐lysosome fusion. In contrast, we found that overexpression of dynamitin, which disrupts the dynein complex, reduced the number of autophagosomes, suggesting the requirement of the dynein‐dynactin interaction in the early membrane trafficking step in autophagosome formation. These results suggest that dynein plays a variety of crucial roles during the autophagic process in glioma cells.
Molecular model for the binary complex of uropepsin and pepstatin.

The three-dimensional structure of human uropepsin complexed with pepstatin has been modelled using human pepsin as a template. Uropepsin is an aspartic proteinase from the urine, produced in the form of pepsinogen A in the gastric mucosa. The structure is bilobal, consisting of two predominantly beta-sheet lobes which, as observed in other aspartic proteinases, are related by a pseudo twofold axis. A structural comparison between binary complexes of pepsin:pepstatin and uropepsin:pepstatin is discussed.
CORE: A COnfusion REduction Algorithm for Keypoints Filtering

In computer vision, extracting keypoints and computing associated features is the first step for many applications such as object recognition, image indexation, super-resolution or stereo-vision. In many cases, in order to achieve good results, pre or post-processing are almost mandatory steps. In this paper, we propose a generic pre-filtering method for floating point based descriptors which address the confusion problem due to repetitive patterns. We sort keypoints by their unicity without taking into account any visual element but the feature vectors’s statistical properties thanks to a kernel density estimation approach. Even if highly reduced in number, results show that keypoints subsets extracted are still relevant and our algorithm can be combined with classical post-processing methods.
Importance of residues carboxyl terminal relative to the cleavage site in substrates of mitochondrial processing peptidase for their specific recognition and cleavage.

We previously identified distal and proximal arginine residues in the N-terminal portion and an aromatic amino acid at position 1 (P1' site3) relative to the cleavage site as important recognition signals in substrates of mitochondrial processing peptidase [Niidome, T. , Kitada, S. , Shimokata, K. , Ogishima, T. , and Ito, A. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 24714-24722; Ogishima, T. , Niidome, T. , Shimokata, K. , Kitada, S. , and Ito, A. (1995) ibid. 270, 30322-30326]. To further elucidate the elements required for the specific recognition and cleavage by the enzyme, we synthesized synthetic peptides that possessed only the distal and proximal arginine residues and phenylalanine at the P1' site in a poly alanine sequence, and analyzed the processing reaction toward them. They were not cleaved by the peptidase although they inhibited the peptidase activity. However, when serine was introduced into the C-terminal portions of the sequence, processing was observed. The efficiency of the resultant peptides improved as the number of serine residues was increased. A peptide with serine or histidine at P2' and threonine at P3' was processed most efficiently. These results indicate that the processing reaction catalyzed by the peptidase depends not only on the N-terminal portion but also on the C-terminal portion from the cleavage site in the substrates.
Operational amplifier power optimization for a given total (slewing plus linear) settling time

A design procedure that determines the combination of linear settling time (i.e. gain bandwidth) and slew rate that minimizes an amplifier total power consumption, while complying with a given total settling time specification, is presented. The method is presented for a Miller OTA, but can be generalized to other architectures. The proposed approach also provides the optimum combination of the g/sub m//I/sub D/ ratios of the input and output transistors and the transistor design corresponding to this optimum of power consumption. It is shown that the application of fixed "rules of thumb" criteria for the assignment of the allowable linear settling and slewing periods leads to highly increased consumption. The method is based on a simple, design oriented model of the settling behavior that is also described in this paper. This model is checked against experimental results and the design procedure results are verified with SPICE simulations.
Role of homocysteine in metR-mediated activation of the metE and metH genes in Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli

The metR-mediated activation of the Salmonella typhimurium metE and metH genes was shown to be modulated by homocysteine, an intermediate in the methionine biosynthetic pathway. Homocysteine stimulates expression of a metE-lacZ gene fusion four- to fivefold by increasing transcription from the metE promoter. In contrast, homocysteine plays an inhibitory role in the metR-mediated activation of the metH gene, decreasing expression of a metH-lacZ gene fusion threefold.
Development of feline immunodeficiency virus ORF-A (tat) mutants: in vitro and in vivo characterization.

A functional ORF-A is essential for efficient feline immunodeficiency virus replication in lymphocytes. We have characterized a series of mutants of the Petaluma strain, derived from p34TF10 and having different combinations of stop codons and increasingly long deletions in ORF-A. Six clones proved fully replicative in fibroblastoid Crandell feline kidney cells and monocyte-derived macrophage cultures but failed to replicate in T cell lines and primary lymphoblasts. Cats inoculated with three selected mutants had considerably milder infections than controls given intact ORF-A virus. In vivo, the mutants maintained growth properties similar to those in vitro for at least 7 months, except that replication in lymphoid cells was strongly reduced but not ablated. One mutant underwent extensive ORF-A changes without, however, reverting to wild-type. Antiviral immune responses were feeble in all cats, suggesting that viral loads were too low to represent a sufficiently powerful antigenic stimulus.
A GA and Particle Swarm Optimization based hybrid algorithm

In this paper an improved particle swarm algorithm is presented firstly and then a hybrid method combining genetic algorithm(GA) and particle swarm optimization(PSO) is proposed. This hybrid technique incorporates concepts from GA and PSO and creates individuals in a new generation not only by crossover and mutation operations as found in GA but also by mechanisms of PSO. It can solve the problem of local minimum of the particle swarm optimization and has higher efficiency of search. Simulation results show that the proposed method is effective for the optimization problems.
THE SEGUE K GIANT SURVEY. II. A CATALOG OF DISTANCE DETERMINATIONS FOR THE SEGUE K GIANTS IN THE GALACTIC HALO

We present an online catalog of distance determinations for 6036 K giants, most of which are members of the Milky Way's stellar halo. Their medium-resolution spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration are used to derive metallicities and rough gravity estimates, along with radial velocities. Distance moduli are derived from a comparison of each star's apparent magnitude with the absolute magnitude of empirically calibrated color–luminosity fiducials, at the observed (g − r)0 color and spectroscopic [Fe/H]. We employ a probabilistic approach that makes it straightforward to properly propagate the errors in metallicities, magnitudes, and colors into distance uncertainties. We also fold in prior information about the giant-branch luminosity function and the different metallicity distributions of the SEGUE K-giant targeting sub-categories. We show that the metallicity prior plays a small role in the distance estimates, but that neglecting the luminosity prior could lead to a systematic distance modulus bias of up to 0.25 mag, compared to the case of using the luminosity prior. We find a median distance precision of 16%, with distance estimates most precise for the least metal-poor stars near the tip of the red giant branch. The precision and accuracy of our distance estimates are validated with observations of globular and open clusters. The stars in our catalog are up to 125 kpc from the Galactic center, with 283 stars beyond 50 kpc, forming the largest available spectroscopic sample of distant tracers in the Galactic halo.