Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship of physical activity and dietary habits with body mass index in the transition from childhood to adolescence: a 4-year longitudinal study

Abstract Objective To explore the relationship between several physical activity (PA) and dietary behaviours and BMI Z-score and to investigate the relationship between changes in these variables and in the BMI Z-score over a 4-year period from childhood to adolescence. Design Longitudinal study in which children were included in the fifth grade and measured for four consecutive years. Dietary and PA behaviours as well as height and weight were measured by means of self-reported validated questionnaires. Setting Fifty-nine Flemish elementary schools. Subjects The baseline sample consisted of 51·9 % boys and the mean age was 10 (sd 0·4) years. During the first measurement year (2002), data on 1670 fifth graders were gathered. These measurements were repeated after 1 (n 1557), 2 (n 1151) and 3 (n 807) years. Results Significant inverse relationships with BMI Z-score were observed for frequency of breakfast consumption (β = −0·033, se = 0·012) and frequency of sports participation (β = −0·011, se = 0·004) across four time points. Significant inverse relationships between changes in BMI Z-score and changes in frequency of sports participation (β = −0·011, se = 0·006) and hours of physical education (PE; β = −0·052, se = 0·023) were observed, meaning that decreases in sports participation and hours spent in PE were associated with increases in BMI Z-score. Conclusions The present study provides an important insight into different dietary and PA behaviours related to (changes in) BMI Z-score during the transition from childhood to adolescence.
The protein structure initiative structural genomics knowledgebase

The Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) has produced more than 3300 protein structures in a high throughput manner. In order to achieve this, new technologies for all aspects of the structure determination and analysis pipeline have been developed. The strategies used for target selection by PSI centers have resulted in the structural determination of many novel sequences, and an increase in the structural coverage of protein families.
Efficient evolution of neural networks through complexification

Artificial neural networks can potentially control autonomous robots, vehicles, factories, or game players more robustly than traditional approaches. Neuroevolution, i.e. the artificial evolution of neural networks, is a method for finding the right topology and connection weights to specify the desired control behavior. The challenge for neuroevolution is that difficult tasks may require complex networks with many connections, all of which must be set to the right values. Even if a network exists that can solve the task, evolution may not be able to find it in such a high-dimensional search space. This dissertation presents the NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT) method, which makes search for complex solutions feasible. In a process called complexification, NEAT begins by searching in a space of simple networks, and gradually makes them more complex as the search progresses. By starting minimally, NEAT is more likely to find efficient and robust solutions than neuroevolution methods that begin with large fixed or randomized topologies; by elaborating on existing solutions, it can gradually construct even highly complex solutions. In this dissertation, NEAT is first shown faster than traditional approaches on a challenging reinforcement learning benchmark task. Second, by building on existing structure, it is shown to maintain an “arms race” even in open-ended coevolution. Third, NEAT is used to successfully discover complex behavior in three challenging domains: the game of Go, an automobile warning system, and a real-time interactive video game. Experimental results in these domains demonstrate that NEAT makes entirely new applications of machine learning possible.
Comparative study of reference current generation for shunt active power filter

Presently, nonlinearity of Electrical utility leads to poor power quality due to increasing use of PE converters which results in financial loss, environmental impacts or safety concerns. It has many significant causes of poor power quality i.e., Harmonic pollution, Load imbalances resulting in voltage imbalance, Reactive power. As a consequence, Betterment of power Quality is on demand with the help of different kind of filters. Historically, passive filters have been proposed to mitigate harmonic pollution but nowadays the best filtering performance is obtained with an active filter using a closed loop control system. In this paper, shunt active power filter is used with two prominent theories for harmonic conditioning. 1) Instantaneous Active and reactive power theory [PQ] and 2) synchronous reference frame theory [DQ]. Comparative analysis is done for different parameters like reactive power, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), and power factor. Dynamic response is also observed. All the simulations are done in MATLAB/Simulink.
Mining the Biodiversity of Plants: A Revolution in the Making

Only a small fraction of the immense diversity of plant metabolism has been explored for the production of new medicines and other products important to human well-being. The availability of inexpensive high-throughput sequencing is rapidly expanding the number of species that can be investigated for the speedy discovery of previously unknown enzymes and pathways. Exploitation of these resources is being carried out through interdisciplinary synthetic and chemical biology to engineer pathways in plant and microbial systems for improving the production of existing medicines and to create libraries of biologically active products that can be screened for new drug applications.
Descriptive Question Answering with Answer Type Independent Features

SUMMARY In this paper, we present a supervised learning method to seek out answers to the most frequently asked descriptive questions: reason, method, and deﬁnition questions. Most of the previous systems for question answering focus on factoids, lists or deﬁnitional questions. However, descriptive questions such as reason questions and method questions are also frequently asked by users. We propose a system for these types of questions. The system conducts an answer search as follows. First, we analyze the user’s question and extract search keywords and the expected answer type. Second, information retrieval results are obtained from an existing search engine such as Yahoo or Google. Finally, we rank the results to ﬁnd snippets containing answers to the questions based on a ranking SVM algorithm. We also propose features to identify snippets containing answers for descriptive questions. The features are adaptable and thus are not dependent on answer type. Experimental results show that the proposed method and features are clearly e ﬀ ective for the task.
Imaging Stem Cell Implant for Cellular-Based Therapies

Stem cell–based cellular therapy represents a promising outlook for regenerative medicine. Imaging techniques provide a means for noninvasive, repeated, and quantitative tracking of stem cell implant or transplant. From initial deposition to the survival, migration and differentiation of the transplant/implanted stem cells, imaging allows monitoring of the infused cells in the same live object over time. The current review briefly summarizes and compares existing imaging methods for cell labeling and imaging in animal models. Several studies performed by our group using different imaging techniques are described, with further discussion on the issues with these current imaging approaches and potential directions for future development in stem cell imaging.
A Unified Power-Allocation Framework for Bidirectional Cognitive Radio Communication

In this paper, we consider the power-allocation problem in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based bidirectional cognitive radio (CR) relay networks. A joint optimization under the amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying protocol is formulated to maximize the throughput of secondary users (SUs) via power loading over different subcarriers at the three (two transceivers and a relay) nodes. For compatibility with practical systems, separate power constraints are considered at each transmitting node. Furthermore, to provide high-level protection to primary users (PUs) in underlay CR transmission, per-subcarrier-based interference constraints are assumed. For tractability of the solution, we adopt a decomposition framework where the joint power optimization (JPO) is split into two subproblems. Later, each subproblem is solved by exploiting the convex optimization techniques. Moreover, a low-complexity suboptimal solution of the joint power allocation at all nodes is also proposed. Simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.
Comparison of Multivariate Tests for Genetic Linkage

Objectives: Multivariate tests for linkage can provide improved power over univariate tests but the type I error rates and comparative power of commonly used methods have not previously been compared. Here we studied the behavior of bivariate formulations of the variance component (VC) and Haseman-Elston (H-E) approaches. Methods: We compared through simulation studies the bivariate H-E test with the unconstrained bivariate VC approach and with a VC approach in which the major-gene correlation is constrained to ±1. We also compared these methods to univariate methods. Results: Bivariate approaches are more powerful than univariate analyses unless the traits are very highly positively correlated. The power of the bivariate H-E test was less than the VC procedures. The constrained test was often less powerful than the unconstrained test. The empirical distributions of the bivariate H-E test and the unconstrained bivariate VC test conformed with asymptotic distributions for samples of 100 or more sibships of size 4. Conclusions: The unconstrained VC test is valuable for testing for preliminary linkages using multivariate phenotypes. The bivariate H-E test was less powerful than the bivariate VC tests.
Direct association of ligand‐binding and pore domains in homo‐ and heterotetrameric inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate receptors

Inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs) are a family of intracellular Ca2+ channels that exist as homo‐ or heterotetramers. In order to determine whether the N‐terminal ligand‐binding domain is in close physical proximity to the C‐terminal pore domain, we prepared microsomal membranes from COS‐7 cells expressing recombinant type I and type III IP3R isoforms. Trypsin digestion followed by cross‐linking and co‐immunoprecipitation of peptide fragments suggested an inter‐subunit N‐ and C‐terminal interaction in both homo‐ and heterotetramers. This observation was further supported by the ability of in vitro translated C‐terminal peptides to interact specifically with an N‐terminal fusion protein. Using a 45Ca2+ flux assay, we provide functional evidence that the ligand‐binding domain of one subunit can gate the pore domain of an adjacent subunit. We conclude that common structural motifs are shared between the type I and type III IP3Rs and propose that the gating mechanism of IP3R Ca2+ channels involves the association of the N‐terminus of one subunit with the C‐terminus of an adjacent subunit in both homo‐ and heterotetrameric complexes.
Catalase-Peroxidase from the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803: Cloning, Overexpression in Escherichia coli, and Kinetic Characterization

Abstract The Synechocystis PCC 6803 katG gene encodes a dual-functional catalase-peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7). We have established a system for the high level expression of a fully active recombinant form of this enzyme. Its entire coding DNA was extended using a synthetic oligonucleotide encoding a hexa-histidine tag at the C-terminus and expressed in Escherichia coli [BL21-(DE3)pLysS] using the pET-3a vector. Hemin was added to the culture medium to ensure its proper association with KatG upon induction. The expressed protein was purified to homogeneity by two chromatography steps including a metal chelate affinity and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. The homodimeric acidic protein (pI = 5.4) had a molecular mass of 170 kDa and a Reinheitszahl (A406/A280) of 0.64. The recombinant protein contained high catalase activity (apparent K m = 4.9 ± 0.25 mM and apparent k cat = 3 500 s−1) and an appreciable peroxidase activity with o-dianisidine, guaiacol and pyrogallol, but not with NAD(P)H, ferrocytochrome c, ascorbate or glutathione as electron donors. By using both conventional and sequential stopped-flow spectroscopy, formation of compound I with peroxoacetic acid was calculated to be (8.74 ± 0.26) × 103 M−1 s−1, whereas compound I reduction by o-dianisidine, pyrogallol and ascorbate was determined to be (2.71 ± 0.03) × 106 M−1 s−1, (8.62 ± 0.21) × 104 M−1 s−1, and (5.43 ± 0.19) × 103 M−1 s−1, respectively. Cyanide binding studies on native and recombinant enzyme indicated that both have the same heme environment. An apparent second-order rate constant for cyanide binding of (4.8 ± 0.1) × 105 M−1 s−1 was obtained.
Who Seeks Job Resources, and Who Avoids Job Demands? The Link Between Dark Personality Traits and Job Crafting

ABSTRACT Although job crafting has been linked repeatedly to positive employee and organizational outcomes, its detrimental side has not been well explored. To understand the way dark personality traits affect the type of crafting in which employees engage, this research focuses on two frameworks: the PEN (psychopathy, extraversion, and neuroticism) framework and the Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism). In Study 1, we collected data on the PEN traits and job crafting from 155 individuals in various occupations. We found that neuroticism was negatively related to seeking structural job resources, whereas psychoticism was negatively related to seeking social job resources. We also found that extraversion was positively related to seeking structural and social job resources and to seeking challenging job demands. In Study 2, we examined how the Dark Triad traits predicted job crafting among police officers (N = 135). The results showed that narcissism was positively related to seeking social job resources and challenges, whereas psychopathy was negatively related to seeking social resources. Age and narcissism were positive predictors of reducing job demands. We conclude that personality plays an important role when choosing how to craft one's job. We discuss the practical implications of these findings.
Human Fibroblast-Derived Dermal Substitute: Results from a Treatment Investigational Device Exemption (TIDE) Study in Diabetic Foot Ulcers

OBJECTIVE: To gain experience in the use of Dermagraft (Advanced Biohealing Inc, La Jolla, California), a human fibroblast-derived dermal substitute (HFDS), for the treatment of nonhealing diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). STUDY DESIGN: An open label, noncontrolled, multicenter clinical trial of HFDS in the treatment of DFU was conducted. Subjects with DFUs underwent sharp debridement of the study ulcer and were prescribed an off-loading device. All of the subjects enrolled received applications of HFDS, beginning at day 0 and applied weekly thereafter, along with saline gauze or polyurethane foam dressings from day 0 to week 20. A maximum of 8 HFDS applications was allowed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary and secondary end points of the study were complete wound closure by weeks 12 and 20, respectively. MAIN RESULTS: A total of 23 centers screened 91 subjects, and 18 centers enrolled an intent-to-treat (ITT) population of 62 subjects. For the ITT population, 27 (44%) subjects healed by week 12, and 32 (52%) healed by week 20. Fifty-one subjects (82%) completed the study to week 12, and 46 subjects (74%) completed the entire 20-week study; wound closure rates in these groups were 59% and 70%, respectively. Median time to healing was 13 weeks. The overall incidence of at least 1 adverse event (44%, 27/62) was typical for this subject population. No adverse events were attributable to HFDS. CONCLUSION: Data from this study support the safety and efficacy of HFDS in the treatment of nonhealing DFUs.
An Investigation on ILCMS for Coupling of Fields Into a Generic Missile Body through Apertures

The conventional way of analysing electromagnetic coupling into cavities is by means of full-wave solvers based on techniques such as the finite difference time domain method, the method of moments and the transmission line matrix (TLM) method. However, these methods require considerable computing resources and time to reach a solution. Intermediate level circuit models (ILCMs) have been shown to be far more efficient than these conventional methods. They are simpler and quicker to formulate and require significantly less time to reach a solution than conventional methods. This paper is on investigations in the bid to realize intermediate level circuit models for coupling into the generic missile body through apertures. A model for coupling via small apertures that yields credible results is realized which is validated against TLM results for the same problem.
EULAR recommendations for the management of early arthritis: report of a task force of the European Standing Committee for International Clinical Studies Including Therapeutics (ESCISIT)

Objective: To formulate EULAR recommendations for the management of early arthritis. Methods: In accordance with EULAR’s “standardised operating procedures”, the task force pursued an evidence based approach and an approach based on expert opinion. A steering group comprised of 14 rheumatologists representing 10 European countries. The group defined the focus of the process, the target population, and formulated an operational definition of “management”. Each participant was invited to propose issues of interest regarding the management of early arthritis or early rheumatoid arthritis. Fifteen issues for further research were selected by use of a modified Delphi technique. A systematic literature search was carried out. Evidence was categorised according to usual guidelines. A set of draft recommendations was proposed on the basis of the research questions and the results of the literature search. The strength of the recommendations was based on the category of evidence and expert opinion. Results: 15 research questions, covering the entire spectrum of “management of early arthritis”, were formulated for further research; and 284 studies were identified and evaluated. Twelve recommendations for the management of early arthritis were selected and presented with short sentences. The selected statements included recognition of arthritis, referral, diagnosis, prognosis, classification, and treatment of early arthritis (information, education, non-pharmacological interventions, pharmacological treatments, and monitoring of the disease process). On the basis of expert opinion, 11 items were identified as being important for future research. Conclusions: 12 key recommendations for the management of early arthritis or early rheumatoid arthritis were developed, based on evidence in the literature and expert consensus.
catena-Poly[zinc(II)-bis[μ-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetato]]

The title polymeric compound, [Zn(C8H5Cl2O3)2]n, was prepared by reaction of zinc(II) chloride with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and sodium hydroxide under hydrothermal conditions. The ZnII atom is coordinated in a distorted tetrahedral environment by four O atoms from four 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate ligands. Each ligand bridges two ZnII atoms, forming a polymeric chain along the a axis. Adjacent chains are connected via C—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds.
Rapid and preferential activation of Fos protein in hypocretin/orexin neurons following the reversal of dehydration‐anorexia

Dehydration (DE)‐anorexia is stimulated by chronic consumption of hypertonic saline. Spontaneous nocturnal food intake is markedly reduced with this treatment but is rapidly reversed upon the return of drinking water. Here we examined the neurons in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) of chronically dehydrated rats for their peptidergic phenotype, colocalization, and activation profiles following the rapid reversal of anorexia. To do this, we used double‐labeling combinations of Fos immunocytochemistry and radioisotopic‐ and digoxigenin‐labeled in situ hybridization. We found that lateral hypothalamic corticotropin‐releasing hormone (CRH) neurons show extensive coexpression with neurotensin mRNA, but they are distinct from hypocretin/orexin and melanin‐concentrating hormone (MCH) neurons. Chronic dehydration increases Fos‐ir in large numbers of neurons in dorsal regions of the LHA. Some of these LHA neurons also show increased CRH, but not hypocretin/orexin or MCH gene expression, as dehydration‐anorexia develops. Furthermore, the behavioral sequence of eating and increased activity exhibited by DE animals in the minutes following water drinking is accompanied by a further increase in the number of Fos‐ir nuclei in the LHA. Increased Fos activation occurs in a significant number of LHA hypocretin/orexin neurons, but not CRH or MCH neurons, in the LHA. Together these data implicate CRH but not hypocretin/orexin or MCH neurons in the LHA in the motor events associated with dehydration. However, when water is returned, contributions to the network controlling responses evidently come from hypocretin/orexin, but not CRH or MCH, neurons in the LHA. J. Comp. Neurol. 502:768–782, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Water is an active matrix of life for cell and molecular biology

Szent-Győrgi called water the “matrix of life” and claimed that there was no life without it. This statement is true, as far as we know, on our planet, but it is not clear whether it must hold throughout the cosmos. To evaluate that question requires a close consideration of the many varied and subtle roles that water plays in living cells—a consideration that must be free of both an assumed essentialism that gives water an almost mystical life-giving agency and a traditional tendency to see it as a merely passive solvent. Water is a participant in the “life of the cell,” and here I describe some of the features of that active agency. Water's value for molecular biology comes from both the structural and dynamic characteristics of its status as a complex, structured liquid as well as its nature as a polar, protic, and amphoteric reagent. Any discussion of water as life’s matrix must, however, begin with an acknowledgment that our understanding of it as both a liquid and a solvent is still incomplete.
gld/gld mice are unable to express a functional ligand for Fas

Mice homozygous for either the lpr or gld genes develop phenotypically identical autoimmune disorders. The gene responsible for the pathology in lpr/lpr mice encodes the Fas antigen, a protein associated with the induction of programmed cell death. To determine if the defect associated with gld represents a mutation in the ligand for Fas, we have assessed the ability of lymphoid cells from homozygous gld/gld mice to lyse target cells in a Fas‐dependent manner. Using an antagonistic antibody to Fas, we demonstrate that activated T cells from normal and lpr mice are capable of inducing Fas‐mediated lysis of tumor target cells. In contrast, activated T cells from gld/gld mice fail to induce lysis of tumor targets, although cells from gld mice are able to lyse specific allogeneic targets following mixed lymphocyte culture. In addition, activated T cells from gld/gld homozygous animals are not capable of binding to a Fas.Fc fusion protein at high levels, whereas activated T cells from normal and lpr/lpr animals bind Fas.Fc efficiently. These data indicate that mice homozygous for gld are unable to express a functional ligand for Fas.