Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of nitric oxide synthesis by dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase

1 Dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), an enzyme that metabolizes the endogenous nitric oxide synthase inhibitors NG‐monomethyl‐L‐arginine and NG, NG‐dimethy‐L‐arginine to citrulline, was identified by Western blotting in rat and human tissue homogenates. 2 S‐2‐amino‐4(3‐methylguanidino)butanoic acid (4124W) inhibited the metabolism of [14C]‐NG‐monomethyl‐L‐arginine to [14C]‐citrulline by rat liver homogenates (IC50 416 ± 66μm; n = 9), human cultured endothelial cells (IC50 250 ± 34 μm; n = 9)and isolated purified dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase. 3 Addition of 4124W to culture medium increased the accumulation of endogenously‐generated NG, NG‐dimethy‐L‐arginine in the supernatant of human cultured endothelial cells from 3.1 ± 0.3 to 5 ± 0.7 μm (n=15; P < 0.005). 4 4124W (1 μm‐1 mM) had no direct effect on endothelial nitric oxide synthase activity but caused endothelium‐dependent contraction of rat aortic rings (1 mM 4124W increased tone by 81.5 ± 9.6% of that caused by phenylephrine 100 nM). This effect was reversed by L‐arginine (100 μm). 4124W reversed endothelium‐dependent relaxation of human saphenous vein (19.2 ± 6.7% reversal of bradykinin‐induced relaxation at 1 mM 4124W). 5 These data suggest that inhibition of dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase increases the intracellular concentration of NG, NG‐dimethyl‐L‐arginine sufficiently to inhibit nitric oxide synthesis. Inhibiting the activity of DDAH may provide an alternative mechanism for inhibition of nitric oxide synthases and changes in the activity of DDAH could contribute to pathophysiological alterations in NO generation.
Seven years of clinical experience with the programmable Codman Hakim valve: a retrospective study of 583 patients.

OBJECT The goal of this study was to assess the value of the Codman Hakim programmable valve to settings in the range of 30 to 200 mm H2O. This valve can be adjusted noninvasively for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage. METHODS The authors conducted a single-center retrospective study of 583 patients (421 adults and 162 children) suffering from hydrocephalus of various causes (379 patients), normal-pressure hydrocephalus (174 patients), arachnoid cyst (14 patients), and pseudotumor cerebri (16 patients). In all cases a Codman Hakim programmable valve was implanted; in 82.8% of cases it was included during the patient's first shunt implantation. In 42.4% of the cases valve pressure adjustment was required at least once (mean number of adjustments 1.2, maximum 23). The patients' clinical status improved after 64.6% of pressure adjustments. Accidental resetting of opening pressure, other than that caused by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, was uncommon. Because MR imaging caused resetting in 26.8% of cases in which it was used, it was deemed mandatory to obtain an x-ray film after MR imaging. Valve malfunction, blockage, or adjustment difficulties occurred in 2% of valves implanted, and nontraumatic subdural fluid collections were demonstrated in 5.1% of patients (13 of whom were treated by valve pressure adjustment alone). Five-year shunt survival was 53.1% for first-time shunt implantations. The shunt infection rate was 8.5% of valve implantations. Catheter-related complications and shunt-related infections were the main reasons for surgical revision and the major cause of shunt failure. At follow-up review, 97% of children and 90% of adults had improved. CONCLUSIONS Because one cannot know in advance which case will turn out to be complicated, the authors' preference is to use the Codman Hakim programmable valve for all conditions in which CSF should be drained.
Proteome reference maps of Medicago truncatula embryogenic cell cultures generated from single protoplasts

Using a combination of two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis (2‐DE) protein mapping and mass spectrometry (MS) analysis, we have established proteome reference maps of Medicago truncatula embryogenic tissue culture cells. The cultures were generated from single protoplasts, which provided a relatively homogenous cell population. We used these to analyze protein expression at the globular stages of somatic embryogenesis, which is the earliest morphogenetic embryonic stage. Over 3000 proteins could reproducibly be resolved over a pI range of 4–11. Three hundred and twelve protein spots were extracted from colloidal Coomassie Blue‐stained 2‐DE gels and analyzed by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization‐time of flight MS analysis and tandem MS sequencing. This enabled the identification of 169 protein spots representing 128 unique gene products using a publicly available expressed sequence tag database and the MASCOT search engine. These reference maps will be valuable for the investigation of the molecular events which occur during somatic embryogenesis in M. truncatula. The proteome reference maps and supplementary materials will be available and updated for public access at http://semele.anu. edu.au/.
Unequal error protection schemes for image transmission over fading channels

In this paper, an unequal error protection (UEP) scheme is investigated for highly error sensitive joint photographic experts group (JPEG) images transmitted over uncorrelated flat Rayleigh fading channels. The powerful source compression involved with JPEG often leads to increased error susceptibility. In particular, corruption of the file headers may result in a transmitted file unreadable to the target application. To alleviate this problem, additional error protection may be provided for critical data segments, such as headers and control markers, whilst less error protection may be allocated to payload data. This may be accomplished by the proposed UEP scheme, which uses a powerful extended Golay code for the critical bits, and an extended Hamming code, having reduced decoding complexity and storage space requirements, for the less important payload bits. Simulation results obtained using symbol-by-symbol maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) decoding demonstrate that the proposed UEP scheme displays significant performance improvement compared to the traditional equal error protection (EEP) scheme, in terms of the percentage of readable files.
Estimating Health Demand for an Aging Population: A Flexible and Robust Bayesian Joint Model: ESTIMATING HEALTH DEMAND FOR AN AGING POPULATION: A FLEXIBLE AND ROBUST BAYESIAN JOINT MODEL

SUMMARY We analyse two frequently used measures of the demand for health—hospital visits and out-of-pocket health care expenditure—which have been analysed separately in the existing literature. Given that these two measures of health demand are highly likely to be closely correlated, we propose a framework to jointly model hospital visits and out-of-pocket medical expenditure, which allows for the presence of nonlinear effects of covariates using splines to capture the effects of aging on health demand. The ﬁndings from our empirical analysis of the US Health and Retirement Survey indicate that the demand for health varies with age. ©2015 The Authors. Journal of Applied Econometrics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Supporting information may be found in the online version of this article.
Competitive Search with Moving Costs

We developed a competitive search model involving multiple regions, geographically mobile workers, and moving costs. Equilibrium mobility patterns were analyzed and characterized, and the results indicate that shocks to a particular region, such as a productivity shock, can propagate to other regions through workers' mobility. Moreover, equilibrium mobility patterns are not efficient because of the existence of moving costs, implying that they affect social welfare because not only are they costs but also they distort equilibrium allocation. By calibrating our framework to Japanese regional data, we demonstrate the extent to which changes in moving costs affect unemployment and social welfare.
On-Chip Interconnect Analysis of Performance and Energy Metrics Under Different Design Goals

As semiconductor process technology scales down, interconnect planning presents ever-greater challenges to designers. In this paper, we analyze, evaluate, and compare various metrics with optimized wire configurations in the contexts of different design criteria: delay minimization, delay-power minimization, and delay2 -power minimization. We show how various design criteria influence the configuration, performance, and power consumption of repeated wires.
Analytical modeling of field-induced interband tunneling-effect transistors and its application

In the room-temperature I-V characteristics of field-induced interband tunneling-effect transistors (FITETs), negative-differential conductance (NDC) characteristics as well as negative-differential transconductance (NDT) characteristics have been observed. The key operation principle of this quantum-tunneling device is the field-induced interband tunneling. To include the effect of interband tunneling, we have developed an analytical equation of interband tunneling current. Due to the inherent SOI-MOSFET structure of the FITET, the current equation of MOSFET has also been included in the analytical equation of the FITET. By comparing the calculated data from these two current components with the measured data, an additional excess tunneling current component has been introduced in the final analytical equation of the FITET. SPICE simulation results with this analytical model have shown good agreements with the experimental results. Also, this analytical model has been applied to verify the functionality of a simple digital logic gate such as XOR and four-level parity checker made by one FITET.
Diagnostic value of tear films tests in type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE To compare the diagnostic value of Schirmer's tests, Rose Bengal test, and Tear Film Breakup Time test in patients with type 2 Diabetes. METHODS Two hundred eyes of 100 patients were seen at the department of ophthalmology, Baqai Medical University Hospital who presented with complaints of redness and burning sensation and were aged between 45 to 75 years. Any history of systemic illness was recorded such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension. All subjects underwent routine ophthalmic examination and tear film tests such as Schirmer's test, Rose Bengal test and tear film break up time test. RESULT Total numbers of eyes subjected to Tear Film Tests were 200, of which 92 (46.0%) belonged to patients with type 2 Diabetes. Schirmer's test was positive in 56 (60.86%) eyes of Rose Bengal test was positive in 80 (86.95%) eyes and Tear film break up time test was positive in 50 (54.34%) eyes. Among non diabetics Schirmer's test was positive in 30 (68.18%) eyes, Rose Bengal test was positive in 10 (22.72%) eyes and tear film break up time test was positive in 24 (54.54%) eyes. CONCLUSION Keratoconjunctivitis sicca is another manifestation of Diabetes Mellitus. The ocular surface disease could be confirmed by performing multiple tear film tests. Among these tests Schirmer's test and Rose Bengal test have more diagnostic value in patients with type 2 diabetes as compared to Tear Film Break-up time test.
Pseudouridylation of helix 69 of 23S rRNA is necessary for an effective translation termination

Escherichia coli strains with inactivated rluD genes were previously found to lack the conserved pseudouridines in helix 69 of 23S ribosomal RNA and to grow slowly. A suppressor mutant was isolated with a near normal growth rate that had changed the conserved Glu-172 codon to a Lys codon in prfB, encoding translation termination factor RF2. When nonsense suppression in strains with all combinations of prfB+/prfBE172K and rluD+/rluD::cat was analyzed, misreading of all three stop codons as sense codons was found to be increased by rluD inactivation: Nonsense suppression was increased 2-fold at UAG codons, 9-fold at UAA, and 14-fold at UGA. The increased read-through at UGA corresponds to reading UGA as a sense codon in 30% of the cases. In contrast, the accuracy of reading sense codons appeared unaffected by loss of rluD. When the inactivated rluD gene was combined with the altered prfB, wild-type levels of termination were restored at UAA codons and termination was more efficient than wild type at UGA. These results strongly suggest that at least one of the helix 69 pseudouridines has a function in translation termination. To our knowledge, this is the first described function for a ribosomal RNA pseudouridine modification.
Demand for maternal health inputs in West Bengal-Inference from NFHS 3 in India

Using data from National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) for India this paper attempts to look at various socioeconomic factors that account for the demand for maternal health inputs in an Indian state-West Bengal. Conditional Mixed Process estimation is used to estimate the demand functions for prenatal care and hospital delivery. We jointly estimate both these equations to control for selection bias in the use of health inputs. However, exogenous estimation results are also provided. It has been observed that the place of residence, standard of living, and educational level of women are those covariates that remarkably increase the demand for both the maternal health inputs. An impression we derive from the analysis is that the infrastructural facilities, supply of health professionals, workers, educational attainment of women have to be emphasized on to contain the undesired problems during pregnancy and child-birth. At the same time access to information and whether the women can keep some money for own use also raise the demand for quality care associated with pregnancy. This also indicates a linkage between mother's autonomy and healthcare utilization behavior.
Characterization of interior cleavage of retinoblastoma protein in apoptosis

Previously we reported that at the onset of apoptotic execution, retinoblastoma protein (RB) was cleaved in its interior region, resulting in production of two major fragments, p48 and p68, and that the RB interior cleavage was mediated by a caspase‐like activity. Here, we further characterized the RB interior cleavage process in human leukemia cells treated with the anticancer agent etoposide. We found that the RB interior cleavage activity was much more sensitive to two specific tetrapeptide caspase inhibitors, YVAD‐CMK and DEVD‐FMK, than the poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase cleavage activity, suggesting that two distinct caspases are involved in these processes. Several Asp residues are located in amino acids 341–421 of RB protein, and cleavage of any one of these sites by a caspase would generate a p48, which contains the amino terminus, and a p68 fragment, which contains the A/B pocket and the carboxyl terminus. This hypothesis was supported by the fact that the p48 and p68 fragments had selective binding affinity to different RB antibodies and that the p48 was found only in the low‐salt‐extracted cytoplasmic fraction, while the p68 was only in the nuclear fraction, of the apoptotic cells. However, the nuclear binding partner of the p68 RB fragment is not the transcription factor E2F‐1 since a specific E2F‐1 antibody coimmunoprecipitated only the unphosphorylated form of RB, but not the p68 fragment. Lastly, we confirmed that RB also underwent dephosphorylation and carboxyl terminal cleavage during apoptosis, as we and others reported previously. J. Cell. Biochem. 67:399–408, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Age of ovary determines remaining life expectancy in old ovariectomized mice

We investigated the capacity of young ovaries, transplanted into old ovariectomized CBA mice, to improve remaining life expectancy of the hosts. Donor females were sexually mature 2‐month‐olds; recipients were prepubertally ovariectomized at 3 weeks and received transplants at 5, 8 or 11 months of age. Relative to ovariectomized control females, life expectancy at 11 months was increased by 60% in 11‐month recipient females and by 40% relative to intact control females. Only 20% of the 11‐month transplant females died in the 300‐day period following ovarian transplantation, whereas nearly 65% of the ovariectomized control females died during this same period. The 11‐month‐old recipient females resumed oestrus and continued to cycle up to several months beyond the age of control female reproductive senescence. Across the three recipient age groups, transplantation of young ovaries increased life expectancy in proportion to the relative youth of the ovary. Our results relate to recent findings on the gonadal input upon aging in Caenorhabditis elegans and may suggest how the mammalian gonad, including that of humans, could regulate aging and determine longevity.
On using parameterized multi-channel non-causal Wiener filter-adapted convolutional neural networks for distant speech recognition

Recently, the convolutional neural network (CNN) with multiple microphones was proposed to use the delay-sum (DS) beamformer for distant speech recognition (DSR) and compared to the direct use of multiple acoustic channels as a parallel input to the CNN [1]. We explore the parameterized multi-channel non-causal Wiener filter (PMWF) as the front-end to train the CNN, which is applied to acoustic modeling for DSR. For this, we first present a concise description of the basic PMWF as well as its advantages and then explain how to organize the PMWF into the CNN with a novel architecture. Experimental results on the TIMIT dataset show that the proposed PMWF-based CNN approach outperforms the cross-channel CNN and the DS beamformer when evaluating the word error rate (WER) in various DSR environments.
EU MEMBER STATES AND FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION– EMPIRICAL COMPARISON

The purpose of an article is to compare systems of fiscal decentralization in EU member states according to selected quantitative criteria and European Charter of Local Self-Government principles. The results show that a higher number of lower levels of government usually indicate a greater share of local finance within the total public finance, however, this finding does not confirm the inverse link. Even though the structure of expenditures in EU countries is similar, the shares of funds for the implementation of individual tasks differ significantly. On average, the countries allocate most funds to education, social security, healthcare, administration and political systems, with only a quarter of the countries recording the same or higher amounts of revenues than expenditures. Most of the countries still cover the existing deficit either through transfers from the central to lower levels of government or through equalization schemes or borrowing, which otherwise represents a departure from one of the basic principles of the Charter, which stipulates that financial resources must be commensurate with the responsibilities of local self-government.
Experiments in Computational Aesthetics An Iterative Approach to Stylistic Change in Evolutionary Art

A novel approach to the production of evolutionary art is presented. This approach is based on the promotion of an arms race between an adaptive classifier and an evolutionary computation system. An artificial neural network is trained to discriminate among images previously created by the evolutionary engine and famous paintings. Once training is over, evolutionary computation is used to generate images that the neural network classifies as paintings. The images created throughout the evolutionary run are added to the training set and the process is repeated. This iterative process leads to the refinement of the classifier and forces the evolutionary algorithm to explore new paths. The experimental results attained across iterations are presented and analyzed. Validation tests were conducted in order to assess the changes induced by the refinement of the classifier and to identify the types of images that are difficult to classify. Taken as a whole, the experimental results show the soundness and potential of the proposed approach.
Goldmann applanation tonometry in the conscious rat.

PURPOSE To determine whether the Goldmann applanation tonometer can be modified to measure intraocular pressure (IOP) in the conscious rat. METHODS In anesthetized rats Goldmann tonometers were tested that had reduced biprism angles in the applanating tips and reduced weights in the tonometer body from those used in humans and species with similar size eyes. Tonometers with tips with biprism angles of 48 degrees and an applied weight of 25 mg per Goldmann scale division (2 g full scale) were calibrated for the rat against manometrically measured IOP. Tonometers, thus modified, were then used in conscious, unsedated rats. RESULTS In conscious rats the measured mean Goldmann value was 15.5 +/- 0.6 mm Hg (confidence interval = 14.1, 16.6 mm Hg). This was the plateau level reached after the repeated applanations (approximately 10) required to eliminate an artifactual decline in initial Goldmann readings, which was larger than that in humans. CONCLUSIONS The Goldmann applanation tonometer was modified to measure IOP in the conscious, unsedated rat. This instrument, the standard for measuring this key physiological parameter in the human eye, can now be applied to the laboratory rat. This may advance the use of this important animal as a model in IOP and glaucoma research.
Expression of DNA methylation-related proteins in invasive lobular carcinoma of breast: comparison to invasive ductal carcinoma.

PURPOSE We aimed to compare the expression of DNA methylation-related proteins in invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of breast with those of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of breast and to assess its potential clinical application. METHODS Immunohistochemical staining of DNS methylation-related proteins (5-meC, DNMT1, DNMT3B and ISL-1) was applied to tissue microarrays generated from 108 ILCs and 203 IDCs. Protein expression and its correlation with clinicopatholgic variables were statistically analyzed. RESULTS ISL-1 and DNMT3B were highly expressed in ILC (p<0.001) and tumoral 5-meC was highly expressed in IDC (p=0.006). DNMT1 (p<0.001) showed higher expression rate in luminal A type ILC. ISL-1 and DNMT3B showed higher expression rate in both luminal A type and luminal B type of ILC (p<0.05). In IDC, tumoral 5-meC commonly showed high positive (p=0.039). On univariate analysis, shorter disease free survival of ILC was associated with DNMT1 high positivity (p=0.001) and ISL-1 positivity (p=0.018). CONCLUSION DNA methylation-related proteins are differentially expressed in ILC and IDC, and DNMT1, DNMT3B and ISL-1 show high expression rate in ILC.
Exploring Hybrid STT-MTJ/CMOS Energy Solution in Near-/Sub-Threshold Regime for IoT Applications

Emerging memories have been developed to achieve energy efficiency target in the Internet of Things era. Spin transfer torque magnetic tunnel junction (STT-MTJ)-based nonvolatile (NV) memory has demonstrated attractive performance because of zero standby power, reduced switching power, infinite endurance, and high density. Meanwhile, hybrid STT-MTJ/CMOS integration is a promising solution to overcome the bottleneck of dynamic and leakage power dissipation. In this paper, ultralow power methodologies are developed at device and circuit level in 28 nm fully depleted silicon on insulator CMOS technology. Supply voltage scaling, near-/sub-threshold (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{t}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) operation, and back-bias adjustment are demonstrated, showing 81% dynamic power reduction under 0.6 V near-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$V_{t}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> sensing operation, with the tradeoff of 6.2% increased sensing error rate. Through the case study on STT-MTJ-based NV flip-flops (NV-FFs), up to 76% dynamic and 79% leakage power saving can be realized in ultra-low power NV-FF implementation.