Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Target concentration dependence of DNA melting temperature on oligonucleotide microarrays

The design of microarrays is currently based on studies focusing on DNA hybridization reaction in bulk solution. However, the presence of a surface to which the probe strand is attached can make the solution‐based approximations invalid, resulting in sub‐optimum hybridization conditions. To determine the effect of surfaces on DNA duplex formation, the authors studied the dependence of DNA melting temperature (Tm) on target concentration. An automated system was developed to capture the melting profiles of a 25‐mer perfect‐match probe–target pair initially hybridized at 23°C. Target concentrations ranged from 0.0165 to 15 nM with different probe amounts (0.03–0.82 pmol on a surface area of 1018 Å2), a constant probe density (5 × 1012 molecules/cm2) and spacer length (15 dT). The authors found that Tm for duplexes anchored to a surface is lower than in‐solution, and this difference increases with increasing target concentration. In a representative set, a target concentration increase from 0.5 to 15 nM with 0.82 pmol of probe on the surface resulted in a Tm decrease of 6°C when compared with a 4°C increase in solution. At very low target concentrations, a multi‐melting process was observed in low temperature domains of the curves. This was attributed to the presence of truncated or mismatch probes. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2012
ACGME Accreditation of Orthopaedic Surgery Subspecialty Fellowship Training Programs.

BACKGROUND Orthopaedic surgery training in the United States consists of a five-year-minimum orthopaedic surgery residency program, followed by optional subspecialty fellowship training. There is an increasing trend for trainees to complete at least one fellowship program following residency training, with approximately 90% of current trainees planning to complete a fellowship. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the overall variability of orthopaedic subspecialty fellowships in terms of characteristics, match process, and the tendency to be accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. METHODS Nine orthopaedic surgery subspecialties were assessed for their fellowship match program, their number of fellowship programs and positions in the match, and the number of programs and positions accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Programs with a Subspecialty Certificate offered by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery were compared with programs without a Subspecialty Certificate. Comparative statistics utilizing an unpaired t test with a statistical cutoff of p < 0.05 were performed. RESULTS Three separate matching programs are used by the nine subspecialties. Hand surgery utilizes the National Residents Matching Program, shoulder and elbow surgery utilizes the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Fellowship Match, and the other seven subspecialties utilize the San Francisco Matching Program. In total, 478 fellowship programs were identified, representing 897 fellowship positions. The highest percentage of fellowship programs that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education was in orthopaedic sports medicine (93.1%), compared with the lowest percentage in foot and ankle orthopaedics (16.3%). A significantly higher percentage (p < 0.05) of fellowship programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education were found for subspecialties with American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Subspecialty Certificates (hand and sports) (87.9%) compared with subspecialties without Subspecialty Certificates (34.3%). CONCLUSIONS There are more orthopaedic subspecialty fellowship positions available annually than there are graduating orthopaedic surgery residents. Three independent matching programs are currently being used by the nine orthopaedic subspecialties. Subspecialties vary in the proportion of programs with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education accreditation. Subspecialties with American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Subspecialty Certificates have a significantly greater proportion of fellowship programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education compared with those without Subspecialty Certificates. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Orthopaedic subspecialty fellowship programs are rapidly becoming a perceived necessity as part of orthopaedic surgery training. Fellowships continue to vary in matching system and their accreditation characteristics.
Characterizing extreme values of body mass index-for-age by using the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts.

BACKGROUND The 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts included lambda-mu-sigma (LMS) parameters intended to calculate smoothed percentiles from only the 3rd to the 97th percentile. OBJECTIVE The objective was to evaluate different approaches to describing more extreme values of body mass index (BMI)-for-age by using simple functions of the CDC growth charts. DESIGN Empirical data for the 99th and the 1st percentiles of BMI-for-age were calculated from the data set used to construct the growth charts and were compared with estimates extrapolated from the CDC-supplied LMS parameters and to various functions of other smoothed percentiles. A set of reestimated LMS parameters that incorporated a smoothed 99th percentile were also evaluated. RESULTS Extreme percentiles extrapolated from the CDC-supplied LMS parameters did not match well to the empirical data for the 99th percentile. A better fit to the empirical data was obtained by using 120% of the smoothed 95th percentile. The empirical first percentile was reasonably well approximated by extrapolations from the LMS values. The reestimated LMS parameters had several drawbacks and no clear advantages. CONCLUSIONS Several approximations can be used to describe extreme high values of BMI-for-age with the use of the CDC growth charts. Extrapolation from the CDC-supplied LMS parameters does not provide a good fit to the empirical 99th percentile values. Simple approximations to high values as percentages of the existing smoothed percentiles have some practical advantages over imputation of very high percentiles. The expression of high BMI values as a percentage of the 95th percentile can provide a flexible approach to describing and tracking heavier children.
Characterization of Distinct Conventional and Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell-Committed Precursors in Murine Bone Marrow1

The developmental pathways and differentiation relationship of dendritic cell (DC) subsets remain unclear. We report that murine CD11c+MHC II− bone marrow cells, which are immediate DC precursors of CD8α+, CD8α−, and B220+ DC in vivo, can be separated into B220+ and B220− DC precursor subpopulations. Purified B220− DC precursors expand, and generate exclusively mature CD11c+CD11b+B220− DC in vitro and after adoptive transfer. B220+ DC precursors, which resemble plasmacytoid pre-DC, have a lower proliferative potential than B220− DC precursors and generate both CD11b− B220+ and CD11b+B220− DC populations. Both DC precursor populations can give rise to CD8α+ and CD8α− DC subtypes. Our findings indicate that CD11c+MHC II−B220+ and CD11c+MHC II−B220− bone marrow cells are distinct DC lineage-restricted precursors.
JTRS Infrastructure Architecture and Standards

In March 2005, the USD (AT&L) appointed a Joint Program Executive Officer (JPEO) for JTRS to provide an overarching management structure across all Department of Defense (DoD) JTRS programs. The JPEO JTRS was given full directive authority for all waveform, radio, and common ancillary equipment development, performance and design specifications, standards for operation of the system, and JTRS systems engineering. The JTRS program objective is to develop and integrate a family of software defined radios which maximize software and hardware commonality and reusability. To achieve this goal, the JPEO is facilitating the establishment of a standardized infrastructure for joint tactical radio (JTR) sets
Prediction of Position and Course of a Vessel Using Artificial Neural Networks by Utilizing GPS/Radar Data

In this study, a guidance and an early warning method has been developed for navigation by using GPS data. Two dimensional navigation has been considered and the Istanbul Strait has been specifically studied as an experimental model. Despite modern navigation devices, there are still some problems for navigating of vessels in narrow waterways because of geographical structures and various disturbances. Even though all vessels have modern navigation devices, use of autopilot is not allowed in the Strait. Vessels have to be manually controlled according to rules. A human operator (helmsman) controls a vessel as a continuous system manually according to captain's command against random disturbances through strait of Istanbul and their behaviour affects the course and coordinates of the vessel. An algorithm has been developed to predict a vessel's position using artificial neural network utilizing GPS/radar data.
The Role of Stem Cells in Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle Repair

In postnatal muscle, skeletal muscle precursors (myoblasts) can be derived from satellite cells (reserve cells located on the surface of mature myofibers) or from cells lying beyond the myofiber, e.g., interstitial connective tissue or bone marrow. Both of these classes of cells may have stem cell properties. In addition, the heretical idea that post-mitotic myonuclei lying within mature myofibers might be able to re-form myoblasts or stem cells is examined and related to recent observations for similar post-mitotic cardiomyocytes. In adult hearts (which previously were not considered capable of repair), the role of replicating endogenous cardiomyocytes and the recruitment of other (stem) cells into cardiomyocytes for new cardiac muscle formation has recently attracted much attention. The relative contribution of these various sources of precursor cells in postnatal muscles and the factors that may enhance stem cell participation in the formation of new skeletal and cardiac muscle in vivo are the focus of this review. We concluded that, although many endogenous cell types can be converted to skeletal muscle, the contribution of non-myogenic cells to the formation of new postnatal skeletal muscle in vivo appears to be negligible. Whether the recruitment of such cells to the myogenic lineage can be significantly enhanced by specific inducers and the appropriate microenvironment is a current topic of intense interest. However, dermal fibroblasts appear promising as a realistic alternative source of exogenous myoblasts for transplantation purposes. For heart muscle, experiments showing the participation of bone marrow-derived stem cells and endothelial cells in the repair of damaged cardiac muscle are encouraging.
A Zinc Ion Controls Assembly and Stability of the Major Capsid Protein of Rotavirus

ABSTRACT The recent determination of the crystal structure of VP6, the major capsid protein of rotavirus, revealed a trimer containing a central zinc ion coordinated by histidine 153 from each of the three subunits. The role of the zinc ion in the functions of VP6 was investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. The mutation of histidine 153 into a serine (H153S and H153S/S339H) did not prevent the formation of VP6 trimers. At pH <7.0, about the pK of histidine, wild-type and mutated VP6 proteins display similar properties, giving rise to identical tubular and spherical assemblies. However, at pH >7.0, histidine 153 mutant proteins did not assemble into the characteristic 45-nm-diameter tubes, in contrast to wild-type VP6. These observations showed that under conditions in which histidine residues are not charged, the properties of VP6 depended on the presence of the centrally coordinated zinc atom in the trimer. Indeed, wild-type VP6 depleted of the zinc ion by a high concentration (100 mM) of a metal-chelating agent behaved like the H153 mutant proteins. The susceptibility of wild-type VP6 to proteases is greatly increased in the absence of zinc. NH2-terminal sequencing of the proteolytic fragments showed that they all contained the β-sheet-rich VP6 head domain, which appeared to be less sensitive to protease activity than the α-helical basal domain. Finally, the mutant proteins assembled well on cores, as demonstrated by both electron microscopy and rescue of transcriptase activity. Zinc is thus not necessary for the transcription activity. All of these observations suggest that, in solution, VP6 trimers present a structural flexibility that is controlled by the presence of a zinc ion.
A longitudinal study of personality disorders in individuals with and without a history of developmental language disorder

Traditionally developmental language disorders (DLDs) have been studied with focus on psycholinguistic and cognitive implications, and little is known of the long-term psychosocial outcomes of individuals diagnosed with a DLD as children. The objective of this study was to compare the prevalence rates and types of personality disorders (PDs) in a clinical sample of 469 individuals diagnosed as children with DLD, with PDs in 2,345 matched controls from the general population without a known history of DLD, using data from the nation-wide Danish Psychiatric Central Register (DPCR). The average observation time was 34.7 years, and mean age at follow-up was 35.8 years. Of the 469 individuals with DLD, 23 (4.9%) were known in DPCR with a PD diagnosis, compared with 51/2,345 (2.2%) in the control group (P =0.0007). Variables at assessment in childhood (gender, IQ, presence of a receptive language disorder, and degree of receptive and expressive language disorder) were not associated with a PD diagnosis in the DPCR at follow-up. Our results provide additional support to the notion that DLD is a marker of increased vulnerability to the development of a PD in adulthood and emphasizes that more research is needed to understand the links between a diagnosis of DLD in childhood and a PD in adult years.
Evaluation of cryoinjury of sperm chromatin according to liquid nitrogen vapour method (I).

OBJECTIVE To evaluate cryodamage on human sperm motility, cryosurvival rate, and sperm chromatin assessed by acridine orange staining method (AO test) after a six-month freeze-thawing process using liquid nitrogen vapor. STUDY DESIGN Experimental study. MATERIAL AND METHOD Twenty normal semen samples were obtained from the male partner of infertile couples attending the infertility unit, Siriraj Hospital. After semen analysis, each semen sample was frozen with liquid nitrogen vapor. The acridine orange test was used for assessment of chromatin structures. After 6 months of cryostorage, semen samples were thawed and the effects of cryopreservation on sperm chromatin integrity, motility, morphology, vitality, and cryosurvival rate were evaluated. RESULTS The mean percentage of normally condensed sperm chromatin in the native semen sample decreased significantly (87.3 +/- 9.1 vs 47.9 +/- 26.2; p < 0.001) after the freeze-thawing process using liquid nitrogen vapor. Furthermore, the mean percentage of sperm motility and vitality also decreased significantly after the freeze-thawing process (52.6 +/- 1.9 vs 23.2 +/- 10.6 and 78.7 +/- 5.6 vs 30.3 +/- 8.8 respectively; p < 0.001). In contrast, the numbers of sperm with normal morphology after cryopreservation were not different from those before the procedure (21.4 +/- 4.3 vs 24.2 +/- 23.9; p = 0.606). CONCLUSION The freeze-thawing procedure using liquid nitrogen vapor had effects on chromatin, motility, and vitality of human spermatozoa. The six-month cryopreservation of semen is a good method for avoiding the window period of HIV; however, this can cause a lot of damage to spermatozoa, thus, limits their further use in the treatment of infertility.
Peierls distortion mediated reversible phase transition in GeTe under pressure

With the advent of big synchrotron facilities around the world, pressure is now routinely placed to design a new material or manipulate the properties of materials. In GeTe, an important phase-change material that utilizes the property contrast between the crystalline and amorphous states for data storage, we observed a reversible phase transition of rhombohedral↔rocksalt↔orthorhombic↔monoclinic coupled with a semiconductor↔metal interconversion under pressure on the basis of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. This interesting reversible phase transition under pressure is believed to be mediated by Peierls distortion in GeTe. Our results suggest a unique way to understand the reversible phase transition and hence the resistance switching that is crucial to the applications of phase-change materials in nonvolatile memory. The present finding can also be expanded to other IV-VI semiconductors.
Treatment options and barriers to case management of neonatal pneumonia in India: a protocol for a scoping review

Introduction India contributes to the highest neonatal deaths globally. Case management is said to be the cornerstone of pneumonia control. Much of the published evidence focuses on children aged 1 to 59 months. This scoping review, thus, aims to identify the treatment options for and barriers to case management of neonatal pneumonia in India. Methods and analysis This protocol is part of a series of three reviews on neonatal pneumonia in India. Studies addressing treatment of or barriers to case management of neonatal pneumonia in Indian context, published in English in peer-reviewed and indexed journals will be eligible for inclusion. Electronic search will be conducted on nine databases. Hand searching and snowballing will be done for published and grey literature. Selection of studies will be done in title, abstract and full-text stages. A narrative summary will be performed to summarise the details of evidence. Ethics and dissemination As this is a review involving analysis of secondary data which is available in the public domain and does not involve human participants, ethical approval was not required. The findings of the study will be shared with all stakeholders of this research. Knowledge dissemination workshops will be conducted with relevant stakeholders to ultimately transfer the evidence tailored to the stakeholder (eg, policy briefs, publications, information booklets and so on). PROSPERO 2016 CRD42016045449
Easy calibration method for omni-stereo camera system

Cameras are widely used in the autonomous navigation of mobile robot. Typically, one or two cameras are used for this task. Recently, omni-directional vision system that can deal with the whole surrounding environments of mobile robot is adopted. Camera calibration is the first necessary step to obtain 3D information. In this paper, we deal with omni-stereo system consisted of eight cameras and each two vertical cameras constitute stereo system. Through this, omni-stereo is possible. Calibration using planar pattern requires large images for each camera so that it is a tedious step to calibrate the eight cameras of omni-stereo system. In this paper, we present a simple calibration procedure using cubic type calibration structure that surrounds the omni-stereo system. We can calibrate the whole cameras of omni-stereo system in a just one shot.
A Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind Study Comparing the Efficacy and Safety of Type A Botulinum Toxins Botox and Prosigne in the Treatment of Cervical Dystonia

Botulinum toxin A (BTA) is considered an effective treatment of cervical dystonia. The aim of this prospective, randomized, double-blind study was to compare Botox and Prosigne, a BTA of Chinese origin, with a view to establish the safety, the efficacy, and the equivalence of doses of the 2 formulations in the treatment of cervical dystonia. Twenty-four patients were randomized to receive 300 U of Botox or Prosigne (12 patients in each group). The patients were assessed before the injection and after 4 and 16 weeks by the Toronto Western Spasmodic Torticollis Rating Scale and the Short-Form 36 for quality of life before and 16 weeks after the injection. All patients were comparable in age, time since onset, number of previous injections, and time since last BTA application. According to the Toronto Western Spasmodic Torticollis Rating Scale scores, the patients improved after injection and the scores increased after 16 weeks, without returning to baseline values. Both pain and burning during the injection and the treatment outcomes were similar in both groups. No systemic adverse events occurred, and the severity and frequency of local events were comparable in both groups. Average duration of effect was similar in both groups (11 weeks). The quality-of-life evaluations before and after the injections were comparable in both groups. Social aspects, pain, and vitality improved after 16 weeks in both groups. In conclusion, Botox and Prosigne were determined to have equivalent efficacy, safety, and tolerability profiles and dose equivalence for cervical dystonia treatment is 1:1.
Optimal Investment Policies for a Firm with a Random Risk Process

This paper treats optimal investment policies for a firm with a random risk process. The flrm's choice on investment can be savings, loan and stock trading. As a fundamental incompleteness in the market, there is always a positive probability of ruin in the firm. The principal achievements are as follows: According to the fact that the interest rate on loan is higher than the one on savings, we acquire the optimal policies which maximize the survival probability, and this maximal survival probability. Furthermore, we have strictly proved these conclusions are right.
Cloud-aided collaborative estimation by ADMM-RLS algorithms for connected vehicle prognostics

As the connectivity of consumer devices is rapidly growing and cloud computing technologies are becoming more widespread, cloud-aided techniques for parameter estimation can be designed to exploit the theoretically unlimited storage memory and computational power of the cloud, while relying on information provided by multiple sources. With the ultimate goal of developing monitoring and diagnostic strategies, this report focuses on the design of a Recursive Least-Squares (RLS) based estimator for identification over a group of devices connected to the cloud. The proposed approach, that relies on Node-to-Cloud-to-Node (N2C2N) transmissions, is designed so that: (i) estimates of the unknown parameters are computed locally and (ii) the local estimates are refined on the cloud. The proposed approach requires minimal changes to local (pre-existing) RLS estimators.
Cooperative Slotted ALOHA for massive M2M random access using directional antennas

Slotted ALOHA (SA) algorithms with Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) decoding have received significant attention lately due to their ability to dramatically increase the throughput of traditional SA. Motivated by increased density of cellular radio access networks due to the introduction of small cells, and dramatic increase of user density in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, SA algorithms with SIC operating cooperatively in multi base station (BS) scenario are recently considered. In this paper, we generalize our previous work on Slotted ALOHA with multiple-BS (SA-MBS) by considering users that use directional antennas. In particular, we focus on a simple randomized beamforming strategy where, for every packet transmission, a user orients its main beam in a randomly selected direction. We are interested in the total achievable system throughput for two decoding scenarios: i) non-cooperative scenario in which traditional SA operates at each BS independently, and ii) cooperative SA-MBS in which centralized SIC-based decoding is applied over all received user signals. For both scenarios, we provide upper system throughput limits and compare them against the simulation results. Finally, we discuss the system performance as a function of simple directional antenna model parameters applied in this paper.