Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interactions of a neuronal cell line (PC12) with laminin, collagen IV, and fibronectin: identification of integrin-related glycoproteins involved in attachment and process outgrowth

Neuronal responses to extracellular matrix (ECM) constituents are likely to play an important role in nervous system development and regeneration. We have studied the interactions of a neuron-like rat pheochromocytoma cell line, PC12, with ECM protein-coated substrates. Using a quantitative cell attachment assay, PC12 cells were shown to adhere readily to laminin (LN) or collagen IV (Col IV) but poorly to fibronectin (FN). The specificity of attachment to these ECM proteins was demonstrated using ligand-specific antibodies and synthetic peptides. To identify PC12 cell surface proteins that mediate interactions with LN, Col IV, and FN, two different antisera to putative ECM receptors purified from mammalian cells were tested for their effects on PC12 cell adhesion and neuritic process outgrowth. Antibodies to a 140-kD FN receptor heterodimer purified from Chinese hamster ovarian cells (anti-FNR; Brown, P. J., and R. L. Juliano, 1986, J. Cell Biol., 103:1595-1603) inhibited attachment to LN and FN but not to Col IV. Antibodies to an ECM receptor preparation purified from baby hamster kidney fibroblastic cells (anti-ECMR; Knudsen, K. A., P. E. Rao, C. H. Damsky, and C. A. Buck, 1981, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., 78:6071-6075) inhibited attachment to LN, FN, and Col IV, but did not prevent attachment to other adhesive substrates. In addition to its effects on adhesion, the anti-ECMR serum inhibited both PC12 cell and sympathetic neuronal process outgrowth on LN substrates. Immunoprecipitation of surface-iodinated or [3H]glucosamine-labeled PC12 cells with either the anti-FNR or anti-ECMR serum identified three prominent cell surface glycoproteins of 120, 140, and 180 kD under nonreducing conditions. The 120-kD glycoprotein, which could be labeled with 32P-orthophosphate and appeared to be noncovalently associated with the 140- and 180-kD proteins, cross reacted with antibodies to the beta-subunit (band 3) of the avian integrin complex, itself a receptor or receptors for the ECM constituents LN, FN, and some collagens.
More than ‘continuing professional development’: a proposed new learning framework for professional accountants

ABSTRACT This paper explores literature relating to continuing professional development (CPD) and lifelong learning to develop an understanding of how the learning landscape has evolved in recent years, both in the accountancy profession and more widely. Three different perspectives on learning are drawn together and this synthesis is used to develop a framework for professional learning. In this, the concepts of CPD and lifelong learning are replaced with ‘learning relating to professional competence’ and ‘learning relating to career adaptability’. The framework also contrasts the learning of an ‘informed professional’, a ‘competent professional’ and a ‘complete professional’. This holistic model, derived from existing literature, will be of interest to professional accountancy bodies and educators of accountants and will inform their ongoing interactions with current and future professional accountants.
The production diversity of subsistence farms in the Bolivian Andes is associated with the quality of child feeding practices as measured by a validated summary feeding index

Abstract Objective To determine the validity of a summary infant and child feeding index (ICFI) and the association with the index of factors related to agricultural production. Design A cross-sectional survey in eight health-post jurisdictions identified as priority nutrition regions. All households with children aged 6–23 months in eligible communities were administered an integrated survey on agricultural production and nutrition-related practices. Quantitative 24 h dietary recall, food frequency data and anthropometric measurements were collected for each child. Ninety-one per cent of eligible families participated. Setting The northern region of the Potosí department in the Bolivian highlands. Subjects Two hundred and fifty-one households with children aged 6–23 months. Results In multiple regression models controlling for potential confounding variables, infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices as measured by an ICFI showed positive associations with child length-for-age Z-score (mean difference of 0·47 in length-for-age Z-score between children in the high ICFI tertile compared with the low tertile), child energy intake (mean difference of 1500 kJ between tertiles) and the micronutrient adequacy of child diets (mean difference of 7·2 % in mean micronutrient density adequacy between tertiles; P < 0·05). Examining determinants of IYCF practices, mother's education, livestock ownership and the crop diversity of farms were positively associated with the ICFI, while amount of agricultural land cultivated was negatively associated with the ICFI. Crop diversity and IYCF practices were more strongly positively correlated among households at high elevations. Conclusions Nutrition-sensitive investments in agriculture that aim to diversify subsistence agricultural production could plausibly benefit the adequacy of child diets.
Data-Driven Techniques in Computing System Management

Modern forms of computing systems are becoming progressively more complex, with an increasing number of heterogeneous hardware and software components. As a result, it is quite challenging to manage these complex systems and meet the requirements in manageability, dependability, and performance that are demanded by enterprise customers. This survey presents a variety of data-driven techniques and applications with a focus on computing system management. In particular, the survey introduces intelligent methods for event generation that can transform diverse log data sources into structured events, reviews different types of event patterns and the corresponding event-mining techniques, and summarizes various event summarization methods and data-driven approaches for problem diagnosis in system management. We hope this survey will provide a good overview for data-driven techniques in computing system management.
Parkinson Disease Classification based on binary coded genetic algorithm and Extreme learning machine

In this paper, we propose a Binary Coded Genetic Algorithm combined with Extreme learning machine (BCGA-ELM) for Parkinson Disease classification problem. Proposed method analyses ParkDB data base of 22283 genes' expression information extracted from 22 normal patients and 50 Parkinson Disease patients. Proposed method can sufficiently recognize PD patients among normal persons using gene expression information. Besides, the proposed method can also find subset of genes which may be responsible for Parkinson Disease. Chosen subset of genes causes the maximum generalization performance for PD classification problem. Proposed BCGA-ELM also produces a robust solution. In our experiments we executed BCGA-ELM twice started from randomly generated initial data and found same solution at the end. Detected set of 19 genes was also verified by SVM and PBL-McRBFN. Both methods caused maximum generalization performance.
Conceptualizing and Characterizing Accuracy in Assessments of Competence to Stand Trial

This article describes a mathematical framework for conceptualizing the accuracy of forensic experts' opinions on competence to stand trial (CST) and explains how an expert's expressed opinion about CST can be decomposed into four elements: (1) contextual requirements of the defendant (determined partly by the defendant's past actions) that lie outside the defendant's future control; (2) personal attributes of the defendant that are relevant to competence; (3) the expert's intrinsic ability to distinguish competent from incompetent defendants; and (4) the expert's wish to favor or avoid certain types of outcomes (e.g., a preference to avoid seeing an incompetent defendant stand trial for a serious charge). Because experts are imperfect and have varying levels of confidence in their opinions, one can describe the accuracy of CST assessments by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The article describes some types of insights one might derive from ROC analyses of CST assessments if experts, at least for research purposes, expressed opinions as graded levels of confidence. Although no satisfactory gold standard exists for establishing the truth about a defendant's competence, statistical methods developed over the past two decades may allow investigators to make inferences about the diagnostic accuracy of experts' CST assessments.
Do Differences in Waist Circumference Modify the Relationships Among Body Mass Index, Insulin Resistance, and Related Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Apparently Healthy Women?

Objective: The aims of the study were to (1) compare the cardiometabolic risk profile between insulin-resistant and non-insulin-resistant women within similar body mass indexes (BMIs) and waist circumference (WC) groupings and (2) test the hypothesis that measurements of BMI are not inferior to WC in identifying insulin resistance. Methods: The sample consisted of 899 women without known cardiovascular disease or diabetes. BMI was used to divide participants in normal (<25.0 kg/m2), overweight (≥25–29.9 kg/m2), and obese (≥30.0 kg/m2) subgroups, and waist circumference ≥88 cm was used to identify women with or without abdominal obesity. The 25% of the population with highest fasting insulin concentrations was classified as insulin resistant. BMI, WC, blood pressure, and fasting plasma glucose, insulin, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations were compared using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The relationships between obesity and insulin resistance were analyzed using univariate, multivariate, and logistic regression. Results: Triglyceride and glucose concentrations were higher and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations lower in the insulin-resistant group in each BMI category, as was the case when comparing by abdominal obesity. In the univariate analysis, correlations between obesity and the individual cardiometabolic risk factor were significant but weak. In multivariate analysis including both indices, only body mass independently predicted insulin resistance. Conclusion: Insulin-resistant women were at greater cardiometabolic risk, irrespective of adiposity category. Obesity contributed to a modest variability in insulin resistance, and abdominal obesity does not add to the ability of BMI to predict insulin resistance.
Effects of dyskinesias in Parkinson's disease on quality of life and health‐related costs: a prospective European study

The treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) with l‐DOPA leads to involuntary movements (dyskinesias). This 6‐month observational study in three European countries in PD patients with various degrees of motor complications examined the effects of dyskinesias on the quality of life (QoL) of patients and health care costs. Retrospective and prospective health economic data were collected, and QoL of patients was measured using the Short Form‐36 (SF‐36) and the PD Quality of Life (PDQL) Scale. Regression analysis was used to estimate the adjusted effects of dyskinesias on QoL and costs, whilst accounting for the potentially confounding effects of disease progression, motor fluctuations and country. Increasing dyskinesia scores on either the Unified PD Rating Scale or the Goetz Dyskinesia Rating Scale were associated with significant reductions in QoL scores on the SF‐36 and PDQL Scale. Increasing dyskinesia severity was also associated with increased depression scores on the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale along with significant increases in health care costs. The effects of dyskinesia on QoL, depression and costs decreased but remained significant after adjustment for the confounding effects of disease progression and motor fluctuations. In conclusion, dyskinesias may adversely affect QoL and increase health care costs in patients with PD. Future studies should evaluate the potentially beneficial effects in terms of QoL and health care costs of strategies to delay the onset of, or the treatment of, dyskinesias.
Complete Pattern of Ocular Dominance Columns in Human Primary Visual Cortex

The occipital lobes were obtained after death from six adult subjects with monocular visual loss. Flat-mounts were processed for cytochrome oxidase (CO) to reveal metabolic activity in the primary (V1) and secondary (V2) visual cortices. Mean V1 surface area was 2643 mm2 (range, 1986–3477 mm2). Ocular dominance columns were present in all cases, having a mean width of 863 μm. There were 78–126 column pairs along the V1 perimeter. Human column patterns were highly variable, but in at least one person they resembled a scaled-up version of macaque columns. CO patches in the upper layers were centered on ocular dominance columns in layer 4C, with one exception. In this individual, the columns in a local area resembled those present in the squirrel monkey, and no evidence was found for column/patch alignment. In every subject, the blind spot of the contralateral eye was conspicuous as an oval region without ocular dominance columns. It provided a precise landmark for delineating the central 15° of the visual field. A mean of 53.1% of striate cortex was devoted to the representation of the central 15°. This fraction was less than the proportion of striate cortex allocated to the representation of the central 15° in the macaque. Within the central 15°, each eye occupied an equal territory. Beyond this eccentricity, the contralateral eye predominated, occupying 63% of the cortex. In one subject, monocular visual loss began at age 4 months, causing shrinkage of ocular dominance columns. In V2, which had a larger surface area than V1, CO stripes were present but could not be classified as thick or thin.
Energy dependence of defect energy levels in electron irradiated silicon

2014 We have studied through capacitance techniques (TSCAP and DLTS) the variation of the introduction rate of defects with the energy of the electrons in n-type silicon irradiated at room temperature. The results obtained provide a direct confirmation of the identification of the observed defects which was proposed in the literature : the Ec 0.39 and Ec 0.23 eV levels, attributed to the divacancy are found to have a threshold whose value is two times the threshold energy (25 eV) for vacancy-type defects (the Ec 0.43 eV level). The Ec 0.33 eV which is not yet identified should correspond to a vacancy-type defect since its threshold energy is 25 eV. REVUE DE PHYSIQUE APPLIQUÉE TOME 14, MARS 1979, PAGE Classification Physics Abstracts 61. 80Fe 71.55Fr
Task allocation under communication constraints using motivated particle swarm optimization

This paper considers task allocation problems where a group of agents must discover and allocate themselves to tasks. Task allocation is particularly difficult when agents can only exchange information over a limited communication range and when the agents are initialized from a single departure point. To address these constraints, we present a novel approach that incorporates computational models of motivation into a guaranteed convergence particle swarm optimization algorithm. We introduce an incentive function and three motive profiles to guaranteed convergence particle swarm optimization. Our new algorithm is compared to existing approaches with and without motivation under conditions of limited communication. It is tested in the case where the agents are initialized from a single point and random points. Results show that our approach increases the number of tasks discovered by a group of agents under these conditions. Furthermore, it significantly outperforms benchmark PSO algorithms in the number of tasks discovered and allocated when the agents are initialized from a single point.
Advantages of Composite Materials in Aircraft Structures

In the competitive environment of aircraft industries it becomes absolutely necessary to improve the efficiency, performance of the aircrafts to reduce the development and operating costs considerably, in order to capitalize the market. An important contribution to improve the efficiency and performance can be achieved by decreasing the aircraft weight through considerable usage of composite materials in primary aircraft structures. In this study, a type of composite material called Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) is explored for the usage is aircraft skin panels. Even though there were plenty of studies and research has been already carried out, here a practical example of an aircraft skin panel is taken and substantiated the benefits of composites material usage over the metallic skin panel. A crown skin panel of a commercial aircraft is designed using both metal and composite materials. Stress analysis has been carried out for both and margin of safety is estimated for the critical load cases. The skin panels are compared for manufacturing, tooling, assembly and cost parameters. Detail step by step comparison between metal and composite constructions are studied and results are tabulated for better understanding. Keywords—Composites, CFRP, Aircraft Structure, Skin panel.
Magnetic susceptibility mapping of brain tissue in vivo using MRI phase data

Phase images in susceptibility‐weighted MRI of brain provide excellent contrast. However, the phase is affected by tissue geometry and orientation relative to the main magnetic field (B0), and phase changes extend beyond areas of altered susceptibility. Magnetic susceptibility, on the other hand, is an intrinsic tissue property, closely reflecting tissue composition. Therefore, recently developed inverse Fourier‐based methods were applied to calculate susceptibility maps from high‐resolution phase images acquired at a single orientation at 7 T in the human brain (in vivo and fixed) and at 11.7 T in fixed marmoset brain. In susceptibility images, the contrast of cortical layers was more consistent than in phase images and was independent of the structures' orientation relative to B0. The contrast of iron‐rich deep‐brain structures (red nucleus and substantia nigra) in susceptibility images agreed more closely with iron‐dominated R 2* images than the phase image contrast, which extended outside the structures. The mean susceptibility in these regions was significantly correlated with their estimated iron content. Susceptibility maps calculated using this method overcome the orientation‐dependence and non‐locality of phase image contrast and seem to reflect underlying tissue composition. Susceptibility images should be easier to interpret than phase images and could improve our understanding of the sources of susceptibility contrast. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Statistical evaluation of the effect of gender on prosodic parameters and their influence on gender-dependent speech recognition

An important issue to be taken into account in automatic speech recognition (ASR) is the influence of gender on the recognition process. Obvious differences in the speech uttered by females versus that of males are the main reasons for the differences in their speech features. Therefore, the behavior of the speech recognition systems is, to some extent, related to the speaker's gender. In this paper, the effect of speaker's gender on the prosodic parameters of Persian (Farsi) speech is evaluated. Then, taking into account the speaker's gender, the effect of prosodic parameters, such as pitch and formant frequencies, on recognition results is inspected. For this, prosodic parameters are added to the end of the feature vectors in the recognizer and its effect on the recognition of the speech of both genders, using gender-dependent and gender-independent systems, is evaluated.
An Improved Gap-Dependency Analysis of the Noisy Power Method

We consider the noisy power method algorithm, which has wide applications in machine learning and statistics, especially those related to principal component analysis (PCA) under resource (communication, memory or privacy) constraints. Existing analysis of the noisy power method shows an unsatisfactory dependency over the "consecutive" spectral gap $(\sigma_k-\sigma_{k+1})$ of an input data matrix, which could be very small and hence limits the algorithm's applicability. In this paper, we present a new analysis of the noisy power method that achieves improved gap dependency for both sample complexity and noise tolerance bounds. More specifically, we improve the dependency over $(\sigma_k-\sigma_{k+1})$ to dependency over $(\sigma_k-\sigma_{q+1})$, where $q$ is an intermediate algorithm parameter and could be much larger than the target rank $k$. Our proofs are built upon a novel characterization of proximity between two subspaces that differ from canonical angle characterizations analyzed in previous works. Finally, we apply our improved bounds to distributed private PCA and memory-efficient streaming PCA and obtain bounds that are superior to existing results in the literature.
Influence of Short-Chain Fructo-Oligosaccharides (sc-FOS) on Absorption of Cu, Zn, and Se in Healthy Postmenopausal Women

Objective: This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of short-chain fructooligosaccharides (sc-FOS) on the absorption of Cu, Zn, and Se among postmenopausal women who are potential candidates to subclinical trace element deficiencies. Design: A randomized double blind cross-over study. Setting: This study was carried out at the Human Nutrition Research Center, Clermont-Ferrand, France. Subjects: 11 postmenopausal women aged 53–70 y, not taking hormone replacement therapy were enrolled and completed the study. Interventions: Diets with 10 g/day sc-FOS or placebo were given for 5 weeks each in random order followed by a wash-out period of at least 3 weeks. At the end of each period, stable isotopes (3.19 mg 67Zn as ZnCl2, 2.06 mg 65Cu as CuCl2 and 52.3 μg 74Se as sodium selenite) and radiopaque pellets (as fecal excretion index) were administered during lunch. Stools were collected for the next 5–7 days. Isotopes were determined by ICP-MS (Cu and Zn) or GC-MS (Se). Results: Copper absorption was significantly enhanced (p = 0.042) by sc-FOS. No effect of sc-FOS was observed on Zn, and Se absorption. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study on the influence of sc-FOS on trace element metabolism. The observed increase in copper absorption may be of interest regarding daily copper requirements in menopausal women. However, the relevance of this observation remains to be established.