Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Symptoms limiting activity in cancer patients with breathlessness on exertion: ask about muscle fatigue

Rehabilitation is an integral part of cancer care and aims to maximise the functional ability and independence of patients, whatever the stage of their disease.1 To help achieve this, there is a need to identify which (if any) symptoms limit the patient’s ability to undertake activities of daily living. Patients with cancer commonly report breathlessness on exertion, and practitioners may assume that the breathlessness is the limiting symptom and may not enquire about peripheral muscle fatigue, even though this is known to contribute to exercise limitation in patients with cardiopulmonary disease and …
Conservation Genetics: Techniques and Fundamentals.

Conservation genetics utilizes the tools and concepts of genetics and applies them to problems in conservation biology. For example, molecular genetic techniques, such as protein electrophoresis, and analysis of mitochondrial DNA and highly variable nuclear genes (including DNA fingerprinting), have been important in documenting the extent and pattern of genetic variation in endangered species. We review these techniques and their advantages and disadvantages, and give examples of their application to endangered species. For captive animal populations, pedigree analysis has become the basic approach to evaluate breeding priority of particular individuals. Several pedigree analysis techniques are commonly used, but peeling and gene dropping give the most information. We compared these techniques and illustrate their value with applications to the Guam Rail, Przewalski's horse, and other endangered captive animals. The rationale for much conservation genetic interpretation is base in evolutionary genetics. We discuss the avoidance of inbreeding depression and the maintenance of genetic variation-both primary conservation genetic goals-from this perspective. In addition, we suggest aspects of these factors that deserve greater attention in their overall application to conservation planning. Finally, we briefly mention three evolutionary topics-the relationship of heterozygosity and fitness, population bottlenecks, and outbreeding depression-that have implications for conservation genetics. Although simple interpretation in these areas is appealing, we feel that because they are only generally understood and often quite controversial, their application to endangered-species management should be carefully evaluated and monitored.
Effect of the ionic liquid [bmim]Cl and high pressure on the activity of cellulase

The effect of the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([bmim]Cl) and of high pressure on the activity of cellulase from Aspergillus niger were studied separately and in combination. The enzyme activity decreased with increasing concentrations of [bmim]Cl, reaching 50% the value in aqueous buffer with 20% [bmim]Cl. However, when the enzyme is held in 10% [bmim]Cl and is then assayed in 1% [bmim]Cl, it showed only 8% reduction of activity. These results can be explained by the fact that the activity of the enzyme in [bmim]Cl is linearly correlated with the decrease of the thermodynamic water activity (aw). Under pressure the enzyme activity varied from less 60% (at 200MPa) to equal (at 400 MPa), compared to atmospheric pressure. In 10% [bmim]Cl under pressure, cellulase activity is improved compared to atmospheric pressure, varying from equal (at 600 MPa) to 1.7-fold higher (at 100 MPa). This opens the possibility to improve cellulase activity in ionic liquids, and possibly of other enzymes, by carrying out the reaction under pressure.
Generation of OAM radio waves using slot antenna array

This paper discusses a novel and a practical method to generate radio beams carrying Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) by using slot antenna array. Different modes of OAM waves can be produced by keeping a constant phase delay between adjacent feed elements. This slot antenna array is designed and simulated at 7.8 GHz by using full wave simulator. Moreover, the mutual coupling between elements will be discussed in this paper.
Increasing underwater manipulation autonomy using segmentation and visual tracking

The present research in underwater robotics aims to increase the autonomy of manipulation operations in fields such as archaeology or biology, that cannot afford costly underwater interventions using traditional Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV). This paper describes a work towards the long term goal of autonomous underwater manipulation. Autonomous grasping, with limited sensors and water conditions which affect the robot systems, is a growing skill in underwater scenarios. Here we present a framework that uses vision, segmentation, user interfaces and grasp planning to perform visually guided manipulation to improve the specification of grasping operations. With it, a user commands and supervises the robot to recover cylinder shaped objects, a very common restriction in archaeological scenarios. This framework, though, can be expanded to detect other kind of objects. Information of the environment is gathered with stereo cameras and laser reconstruction methods to obtain a model of the object's graspable area. A RANSAC segmentation algorithm is used to estimate the model parameters and the best grasp is presented to the user in an intuitive user interface. The grasp is then executed by the robot. This approach has been tested in simulation and in water tank conditions.
Effets des suppléments protéiques avec ou sans zinc chez le sujet âgé fragile

La malnutrition est frequente chez la personne âgee, avec pour une des nombreuses consequences, une augmentation du risque d'osteoporose, notamment via la diminution des taux IGF-I. Le zinc influence par ailleurs la production d'IGF-I. Nous avons etudie dans un essai therapeutique randomise, a double insu, la cinetique de la reponse precoce de l'IGF-I, le remodelage osseux et le degre de dependance fonctionnelle apres administration de supplements proteiques avec ou sans zinc pendant 1 mois chez des patients a risque de malnutrition, d'une moyenne d'âge de 85 ans. Dans les 2 groupes avec supplements proteiques, les taux d'IGF-I augmentent, plus rapidement cependant apres une semaine dans celui avec adjonction de zinc. On note egalement, dans le groupe avec supplement de zinc, une diminution significative d'un marqueur de resorption osseuse. En conclusion, meme pour une duree limitee, il y a un benefice a associer supplements proteiques et zinc chez la personne âgee au vu des effets sur l'IGF-I, l'os et les performances fonctionnelles.
Generating Multi-million Data Set using GPGPU Accelerated Models

Generating synthetic data set which is realistic as well as sufficiently large has been a cumbersome task for researchers in the past. Several models have been proposed previously, all adopting heterogeneous approaches, in this work the emphasis is on speeding up the compute time of the data set distribution. Here, Uniform, Poisson and Zipf distributions have been studied and approaches with parallel computation model have been proposed. The models have been verified for speedup using CUDA based implementation on NVIDIA Quadro 2000 GPU. A speed up in the range of 2x to 6x was observed for various range of data sets.
SEU-Hardened Dual Data Rate Flip-Flop Using C-Elements

Aggressive device scaling has reduced the gate capacitance, which resulted in increasing sensitivity to radiation induced soft errors. In addition, technology scaling has reached to the point of maximum clock frequency to maintain acceptable energy consumption. On the other hand, technology advancements are demanding higher throughput and data rates. To mitigate these problems, we propose a unique single event upset (SEU) hardened dual data rate (DDR) flip-flop using c-elements, “Firebird”. Unlike the existing rad-hard flip-flops, the proposed Firebird design not only is truly protected to SEUs, but it also latches in both rising and falling edges of the clock for DDR operation. With the use of DDR, the clock frequency (activity) can be reduced by 2x with no impact on performance. In comparison with the simplified Built-in Soft Error Resilient Flip-Flop (B-SER-FF) with DDR at 45nm CMOS process, the proposed Firebird design consumes 19.6% less power, with 9.5% high C2Q delay. The power-delay product of the proposed Firebird design is 11.2% better than its counterpart, B-SER-FF with DDR.
Preventive effect of pirenzepine on atrophic erosive gastritis in rats.

The preventive effect of pirenzepine on atrophic erosive gastritis induced experimentally after long exposure of the gastric mucosa in rats to sodium taurocholate (TCA) described. Gastritis was produced in male Wistar rats by giving drinking water ad libitum containing 5 mM TCA for 11 months (Group T). Preventive effect of pirenzepine was designed by giving powder meal containing 100 mg/kg of pirenzepine with TCA-containing drinking water for 11 months (Group P). Rats were also raised with the standard powder meal which is the same as in other two groups but without the agent for 11 months (Group N). The parameters employed in the present study for atrophic erosive gastritis are mucosal surface injury (erosion), reduction of parietal cells per unit area, inflammatory cell infiltration, decreased mucosal thickness and proliferation of collagenous fiber. Significant decrease in the length of total erosions and in the number of ulcers were present in rats with Group P when compared to those in Group T. The mucosal thickness and the number of parietal cells in Group P were not different from those in Group N. Fibrotic proliferation and cyst formation were significantly decreased in Group P when compared to those in Group T. These data indicate that pirenzepine has a preventive effect on the development of atrophic erosive gastritis by TCA in rats.
Enzymological studies on arteries in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Alkaline phosphatase activity of mesenteric arteries was markedly increased in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) compared to normotensive rats (NR). The aorta showed almost the same tendency, but was not so remarkable as mesenteric arteries. Furthermore, a positive correlation between alkaline phosphatase activity of mesenteric arteries and the blood pressure level was observed in the F2 segregate generation. Slight but significantly high enzymatic activities were also detected in acid phosphatase of the aorta, in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase of the aorta and in lactic dehydrogenase of the heart in SHR. In addition to these findings, differences in the electrophoretic pattern of esterase isozymes of mesenteric arteries and the aorta between SHR and NR were detected. These enzymological abnormalities in the cardiovascular system, especially mesenteric arteries, might have some relationship to the development and/or the maintenance of genetic hypertension in SHR.
Mycolyltransferase-mediated Glycolipid Exchange in Mycobacteria*

Trehalose dimycolate (TDM), also known as cord factor, is a major surface glycolipid of the cell wall of mycobacteria. Because of its potent biological functions in models of infection, adjuvancy, and immunotherapy, it is important to determine how its biosynthesis is regulated. Here we show that glucose, a host-derived product that is not readily available in the environment, causes Mycobacterium avium to down-regulate TDM expression while up-regulating production of another major glycolipid with immunological roles in T cell activation, glucose monomycolate (GMM). In vitro, the mechanism of reciprocal regulation of TDM and GMM involves competitive substrate selection by antigen 85A. The switch from TDM to GMM biosynthesis occurs near the physiological concentration of glucose present in mammalian hosts. We further demonstrate that GMM is produced in vivo by mycobacteria growing in mouse lung. These results establish an enzymatic pathway for GMM production. More generally, these observations provide a specific enzymatic mechanism for dynamic alterations of cell wall glycolipid remodeling in response to the transition from noncellular to cellular growth environments, including factors that are monitored by the host immune system.
CONCURRENT ENGINEERING: Research and Applications A CAD-augmented Reality Integrated Environment for Assembly Sequence Check and Interactive Validation

: An integrated environment based on CAD assembly software and on an Augmented Reality wearable system is used to improve the overall integration between engineering design and real prototypes manufacturing. The environment following called – Personal Active Assistant (PAA) – exploits a CAD tool connection to remarkably improve object recognition, best assembly sequence optimization, and operator instructions generation. PAA is real-time and wirelessly linked to a remote server or designer workstation where project geometric database is stored. The PAA head-mounted camera is also able to acquire the human-driven assembly sequence and check the efficiency and correctness via object recognition: an incremental sub-assembly detection algorithm has been developed in order to achieve complex dataset monitoring. On the other hand, the Augmented Reality-based assembly evaluation tool allows engineers to interact directly with the assembly operator while manipulating the real and virtual prototype components. Information from the assembly planner can be displayed, directly superimposed, on the real scene by using a see-through head-mounted display. Thus the new combined software and hardware equipment may be considered a step ahead in the support of true concurrent engineering and remote collaboration, strongly improving this latter through a better heterogeneous task integration. Several tests have been performed also to achieve personnel training and warehouse part seeking.
Packet reordering is not pathological network behavior

It is a widely held belief that packet reordering in the Internet is a pathological behavior, or more precisely, that it is an uncommon behavior caused by incorrect or malfunctioning network components. Some studies of Internet traffic have reported seeing occasional packet reordering events and ascribed these events to "route fluttering", router "pauses" or simply to broken equipment. We have found, however, that parallelism in Internet components and links is causing packet reordering under normal operation and that the incidence of packet reordering appears to be substantially higher than previously reported. More importantly, we observe that in the presence of massive packet reordering transmission control protocol (TCP) performance can be profoundly effected. Perhaps the most disturbing observation about TCP's behavior is that large scale and largely random reordering on the part of the network can lead to self-reinforcingly poor performance from TCP.
Two Motifs within a Transmembrane Domain, One for Homodimerization and the Other for Heterodimerization*

Protein assembly is a critical process involved in a wide range of cellular events and occurs through extracellular and/or transmembrane domains (TMs). Previous studies demonstrated that a GXXXG motif is crucial for homodimer formation. Here we selected the TMs of ErbB1 and ErbB2 as a model since these receptors function both as homodimers and as heterodimers. Both TMs contain two GXXXG-like motifs located at the C and N termini. The C-terminal motifs were implicated previously in homodimer formation, but the role of the N-terminal motifs was not clear. We used the ToxR system and expressed the TMs of both ErbB1 and ErbB2 containing only the N-terminal GXXXG motifs. The data revealed that the ErbB2 but not the ErbB1 construct formed homodimers. Importantly, a synthetic ErbB1 TM peptide was able to form a heterodimer with ErbB2, by displacing the ErbB2 TM homodimer. The specificity of the interaction was demonstrated by using three controls: (i) Two single mutations within the GXXXG-like motif of the ErbB1 peptide reduced or preserved its activity, in agreement with similar mutations in glycophorin A. (ii) A TM peptide of the bacterial Tar receptor did not assemble with the ErbB2 construct. (iii) The ErbB1 peptide had no effect on the dimerization of a construct containing the TM-1 domain of the Tar receptor. Fluorescence microscopy demonstrated that all the peptides localized on the membrane. Furthermore, incubation with the peptides had no effect on bacterial growth and protein expression levels. Our results suggest that the N-terminal GXXXG-like motif of the ErbB1 TM plays a role in heterodimerization with the ErbB2 transmembrane domain. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a transmembrane domain with two distinct recognition motifs, one for homodimerization and the other for heterodimerization.
Fast volume rendering of compressed data

Volume rendering has been proposed as a useful tool for extracting information from large datasets, where non-visual analysis alone may not be feasible. The scale of these applications implies that data management is an important issue that needs to be addressed. Most volume rendering algorithms, however, process data in raw, uncompressed form. In previous work, we introduced a compressed volume format that may be volume rendered directly with minimal impact on rendering time. In this paper, we extend these ideas to a new volume format that not only reduces storage space and transmission time, but is designed for fast volume rendering as well. The volume dataset is represented as indices into a small codebook of representative blocks. With the data structure, volume shading calculations need only be performed on the codebook and image generation is accelerated by reusing precomputed block projections. <<ETX>>
Pharmacological Enhancement of Neuronal Survival

This article is a comprehensive assessment of the quantitative features of the dose response for neuroprotective agents and their underlying mechanistic foundations. The data were derived from published studies using numerous primary neuronal cell cultures and neuronal cell lines. These biological models assessed normal developmental and aging processes, preconditioning adaptive responses, and various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease. The nature of the dose response was generally U-shaped with quantitative features similar to the hormetic dose-response model and independent of biological model, endpoint measured, and chemical class. The agents displaying the U-shaped dose response for neuronal survival include numerous endogenous agonists, plant-derived agents, synthetic drugs, and widely used chemicals including potent neurotoxins. That neuroprotective agents display similar dose-response relationships regardless of experimental system, potency, and endpoint is an important observation with widespread biomedical and clinical implications.
SR-TPG: A low transition test pattern generator for test-per-clock and test-per-scan BIST

This paper presents the use of switch-tail ring counter as low transition test pattern generator (TPG) to reduce power consumption in test-per-clock and test-per-scan built-in self-test (BIST) applications. The proposed TPG is implemented by dividing the register in the test mode into many switch-tail ring counters. These counters are fed with a seed in such a way to produce a single transition between consecutive test patterns. Also each of these ring counters are triggered with a clock and control signal such that not all the counters are triggered with each clock in order to reduce the switching activity in the inputs of the circuit-under-test (CUT). The proposed technique can be used for test-per-clock and test-per-scan BIST. Various properties of the proposed technique and the methodology of the design are presented in this paper. Experimental results for ISCAS'85 (test-per-clock) and for the ISCAS'89 (test-per-scan) benchmark circuits show that the proposed design can reduce the switching activity with an average of 84% and 72%, respectively.
Glucose metabolism in obese and lean adolescents with polycystic ovary syndrome

Abstract Data on glucose metabolism in Asian adolescents with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are limited. Glucose metabolism assessment using an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in obese and lean Thai adolescents with PCOS, and a comparison between the two groups were done. Thirty-one patients (19 obese, 12 lean) were enrolled. Their median (range) age was 14.9 (11.0–21.0) years. Eighteen patients had abnormal glucose metabolism (13 hyperinsulinemia, 4 impaired glucose tolerance, and 1 diabetes). Compared between obese [median (range) BMI Z-score, 1.6 (1.2–2.6)] and lean [median (range) BMI Z-score, 0.1 (–1.4 to 0.6)] patients, the frequencies of each abnormal OGTT category, areas under the curves of glucose and insulin levels, and insulinogenic index were not different; however, insulin resistance was greater in the obese group. In conclusion, a high proportion of our adolescents with PCOS had abnormal glucose metabolism. Therefore, OGTT should be performed in adolescents with PCOS for the early detection of abnormal glucose metabolism.
Rapid induction of apoptosis in gastrulating mouse embryos by ethanol and its prevention by HB-EGF.

BACKGROUND Ethanol exposure during gastrulation and early neurulation induces apoptosis within certain embryonic cell populations, leading to craniofacial and neurological defects. There is currently little information about the initial kinetics of ethanol-induced apoptosis, and interest in the ability of endogenous survival factors to moderate apoptosis is growing. Ethanol alters intracellular signaling, leading to cell death in chick embryos, suggesting that apoptosis could occur rapidly and that signaling pathways activated by survival factors might reduce apoptosis. METHODS Pregnant mice were intubated with 1, 2, or 4 g/kg ethanol on day 7.5 of embryogenesis (E7.5) 1, 3, or 6, hours before harvesting gastrulation-stage embryos. Control animals received maltose/dextran. Blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) were determined by gas chromatography. E7.5 embryos isolated from untreated dams were cultured in vitro for 1 or 3 hr with 0 or 400 mg% ethanol and 0 or 5 nM heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like growth factor (HB-EGF). Apoptosis was quantified using fluorescence microscopy to detect annexin V binding and DNA fragmentation [terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-X nick end labeling (TUNEL)] in whole-mount or sectioned embryos. RESULTS Both annexin V binding and TUNEL were elevated (p < 0.05) in embryos exposed in utero to 1 g/kg ethanol for 3 hours, increasing linearly with time and ethanol concentration. Apoptosis increased (p < 0.05) in all germ cell layers. Mice treated with 4 g/kg sustained BAC of 400 mg% for nearly 3 hours, significantly increasing apoptosis within the first hour. Cultured embryos exposed to 400 mg% ethanol displayed 2- to 3-fold more TUNEL than vehicle-treated embryos (p < 0.05); however, exogenous HB-EGF prevented apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS Ethanol rapidly produced apoptosis in gastrulation-stage embryos, consistent with induction by intracellular signaling. The ethanol-induced apoptotic pathway was blocked by the endogenous survival factor, HB-EGF. Differences in the expression of survival factors within individual embryos could be partly responsible for variations in the teratogenic effects of ethanol among offspring exposed prenatally.