Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Btc22 chaperone is required for secretion and stability of the type III secreted protein Bsp22 in Bordetella bronchiseptica.

The type III secretion system (T3SS) is a sophisticated protein secretion machinery that delivers bacterial virulence proteins into host cells. A needle-tip protein, Bsp22 , is one of the secreted substrates of the T3SS and plays an essential role in the full function of the T3SS in Bordetella bronchiseptica. In this study, we found that BB1618 functions as a chaperone for Bsp22 . The deletion of BB1618 resulted in a dramatic impairment of Bsp22 secretion into the culture supernatants and Bsp22 stability in the bacterial cytosol. In contrast, the secretion of other type III secreted proteins was not affected by the BB1618 mutation. Furthermore, the BB1618 mutant strain could not induce cytotoxicity and displayed the same phenotypes as the Bsp22 mutant strain. An immunoprecipitation assay demonstrated that BB1618 interacts with Bsp22 , but not with BopB and BopD . Thus, we identified BB1618 as a specific type III chaperone for Bsp22 . Therefore, we propose that BB1618 be renamed Btc22 for the Bordetella type III chaperone for Bsp22 .
Nonperturbative approach to correlations in two-dimensional vortex liquids.

We calculate the renormalized quartic vertex function of the Ginzburg-Landau model for a superconducting film in a magnetic field by summing an infinite subset of diagrams, the so-called parquet graphs. Using this nonperturbative solution, we obtain the structure factor of the two-dimensional vortex liquid. We find growing crystalline order in the system as the temperature is lowered. Our results suggest that the length scale characterizing the crystalline order diverges only in the zero-temperature limit, which indicates the absence of a finite-temperature phase transition to the vortex lattice phase.
Overhauser-enhanced MR imaging (OMRI)

Purpose: to evaluate a new single-electron contrast agent for Overhauser-enhanced MR imaging. the contrast agents that are currently available give enhancement factors that are too low to make the technique a valid option for routine clinical use Material and Methods: MR images were generated directly following the injection of the substance into rats. the MR scanner was operated at a main magnetic field of 0.01 T and equipped with a separate rf-transmitter tuned to the electron paramagnetic resonance frequency of the contrast agent Results: as expected, the images generated show a high level of enhancement in areas where the contrast agent was present, and a maximum enhancement of 60 times the normal proton signal was obtained in the vascular area. the signal-to-noise ratios in the images were superior to those previously attained Conclusion: the new contrast agent makes it possible to generate MR images with both morphological and functional information at 0.01 T. the signal-to-noise ratios found in the generated images were of the same order as, or better than, those obtained with the standard clinical routine
Insulin Up-regulates Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Production in Macrophages through an Extracellular-regulated Kinase-dependent Pathway*

Hyperinsulinemia has recently been reported as a risk factor for atherosclerotic diseases such as coronary heart disease; however, the effect of insulin on the development of atherosclerosis is not well understood. Here we have investigated the direct effect of insulin on macrophages, which are known to be important in the atherosclerotic process. We treated THP-1 macrophages with insulin (10−7 m) and examined the gene expression using nucleic acid array systems. The results of array analysis showed that insulin stimulated gene expression of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) the most among all genes in the analysis. In addition, insulin administration to macrophages enhanced both mRNA expression and protein secretion of TNF-α in a dose-dependent manner. To determine the signaling pathway involved in this TNF-α response to insulin, we pretreated the cells with three distinct protein kinase inhibitors: wortmannin, PD98059, and SB203580. Only PD98059, which inhibits extracellular signal-regulated kinases, suppressed insulin-induced production of TNF-α mRNA and protein in THP-1 macrophages. These observations indicate that insulin stimulates TNF-α production in macrophages by regulating the expression of TNF-α mRNA and that the extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling pathway may have a critical role in stimulating the production of TNF-α in response to insulin in macrophages.
Dynamic model of phytoplankton growth and acclimation: responses of the balanced growth rate and the chlorophyll a:carbon ratio to light, nutrient-limitation and temperature

Acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus to changes of irradiance, temperature and nutrient availability, involving regulation of the chlorophyll a:carbon ratio (g), is a universal feature of all phytoplankton studied to date. We derive a dynamic regulatory model that predicts the dependencies of 8 and growth rate ( U ) on irradiance, daylength, temperature and nutrient availdbilitv. Thc model requires specification of 4 parameters to describe the light-dependencies of 8 and g under nutr~ent-saturating conditions at constant temperature. These are the maximum value of 8 (B,,), the in~tial slope of the chl a-specific photosynthesis-light response curve (aCh'), the mdximum carbon-spcclfic photosynthes~s rate (P:;) and the cost of biosynthesis (C). The influences of temperature and nutnent availability are accommodated through their effects on P:. The temperature dependence is described by the slope of an Arrhenius plot and the nutrient dependence IS described through the half saturation constant (K,) of the Monod equation. Fidelity of the model results to empirical studies suggests that microalgal cells adjust 0 in response to an imbalance between the rate of light absorption and the energy demands for photosynthesis and biosynthesis.
The ultra-wideband indoor radio channel: Antenna and propagation aspects

After some basic definitions regarding the ultrawideband radio channel, this paper illustrates the characteristic effects of varying the bandwidth on the channel impulse response ranging from narrowband to ultra-wideband. A coherent description of antenna transfer functions that are suited as building blocks for ultra-wideband channel models is reviewed and a coherent equivalent to Friis' formula based thereon is given. Furthermore, the particular shape of the multipath envelope found in some ultra-wideband channels, which is different from a simple exponential decay, is discussed using the example of measured data.
Balancing heuristic for independent task scheduling in cloud computing

Distributed computing environment has become a new technology to execute large-scale applications and Cloud computing is one of these technologies. Resource allocation is one of the most important challenges in the Cloud Computing. The optimally assigning of the available resources to the needed cloud applications is known to be a NP complete problem. In this paper, we propose a new task scheduling strategy based on the total order for resource allocation to improve the Min-Min algorithm. We focus on minimizing the total executing time (makespan) of task scheduling and maximizing the use of resources. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach permits more adaptive resources allocation for independent jobs scheduling in the cloud computing environment.
Boundary integral representation for time-harmonic Maxwell’s equations

Method of weighted residual is used for developing of the boundary integral representation for Maxwell's equations. It is shown that the vectors of the electric and magnetic fields in an arbitrary point of domain can be expressed through its values on the boundary. The boundary integral equations of the second kind for the solving of the boundary-valued problems are received. It is marked that the given integral equation allows the effective numerical solving.
Fast k-Nearest Neighbor Search for Face Identification Using Bounds of Residual Score

A novel fast k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) search method is proposed for the face identification task. It is well suited for this task because (1) it works well with high dimensionality, (2) it can be used with various similarity scores such as inner product, Euclidean distance, and correlation coefficient, (3) it can achieve not only fast exact k-NN search but much faster approximate search, and (4) it does not require any training or special data structure, resulting in low maintenance cost for the target database. Similarity scores between query and target samples are aggregated sequentially along with their dimensions, and target samples with no possibility of being included in k-NNs are rejected. The possibility is evaluated on the basis of the upper and lower bounds of the score for residual dimensions. Experimental results for a face database demonstrated that the proposed method achieves equal or better accuracy than other methods and is ten times faster than an exhaustive search with no degradation in the rank-k identification rate.
Effect of Land-Based Generic Physical Activity Interventions on Pain, Physical Function, and Physical Performance in Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of land-based generic physical activity interventions on pain, physical function, and physical performance in individuals with hip/knee osteoarthritis, when compared with a control group that received no intervention, minimal intervention, or usual care. Methods A systematic search for randomized controlled trials on 11 electronic databases (from their inception up until April 30, 2016) identified 27 relevant articles. According to the compendium of physical activities, interventions were categorized into: recreational activities (tai chi/Baduajin—6 articles), walking (9 articles), and conditioning exercise (12 articles). Results Meta-analysis for recreational activity (n = 3) demonstrated significant mean difference (MD) of −9.56 (95% confidence interval [CI], −13.95 to −5.17) for physical function (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index) at 3 mos from randomization. Pooled estimate for walking intervention was not significant for pain intensity and physical performance but was significant for physical function (n = 2) with a MD of −10.38 (95% CI, −12.27 to −8.48) at 6 mos. Meta-analysis for conditioning exercise was significant for physical function (n = 3) with a MD of −3.74 (95% CI, −5.70 to −1.78) and physical performance (6-minute walk test) with a MD of 42.72 m (95% CI, 27.78, 57.66) at 6 mos. The timed stair-climbing test (n = 2) demonstrated a significant effect at 18 mos with a MD of −0.49 secs (95% CI, −0.75 to −0.23). Conclusion Very limited evidence to support recreational activity and walking intervention was found for knee osteoarthritis, in the short-term on pain and physical function, respectively.
Efficient time-domain residual ISI cancellation for OFDM-based WLAN systems

In orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, the multipath components whose delays exceed cyclic prefix (CP) cause intersymbol interference (ISI) and intercarrier interference (ICI), which may degrade system performance severely. In this paper, we propose two novel iterative cyclicity restoration (CR) schemes to efficiently cancel these interferences for OFDM-based wireless local area network (WLAN) systems. The time-domain parallel CR (PCR) scheme is introduced first. Using time-domain iterative solution, PCR provides much lower computational complexity than conventional CR. Furthermore, in order to improve the performance of PCR, we present successive CR (SCR) method based on Gauss-Seidel iteration. SCR offers faster convergence speed than PCR without increasing the computational cost. It is shown that both PCR and SCR need only a few iterations to approach the system performance with sufficient CP. SCR has approximately the same performance as conventional CR with much lower computational complexity for WLAN applications.
Earnings Quality Attributes and Performance of Malaysian Public Listed Firms

This study attempts to address the question whether earnings quality of Malaysian public listed firms is associated with performance. Five attributes of earnings quality namely predictive value, feedback value, timeliness, faithful representation and neutrality as well as two common financial performance measures namely returns on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q were examined. When ROA is used as firm performance measure, there is a positive but not significant association between the predictive value of earnings and firm performance. In relation to the feedback value of earnings and timeliness, the association between these earnings quality attributes and firm performance is found to be significantly positive. When Tobin’s Q is used as performance measure, predictive value of earnings and timeliness have positive but not significant association with firm performance. In contrast, feedback value of earnings has negative and significant association with firm performance. Hence, after controlling the effects of size, leverage and growth on firm performance, result of the study shows that earnings quality of Malaysian public listed firms has positive association with firm performance.
Thin active layer a-Si:H thin-film transistors

We show that hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (TFT's) with active layer thickness less than 50 nm have improved performance for display applications. Using two-dimensional (2-D) modeling, we find previously observed degradation for thin active layers is due to electric field effects in the contact regions of staggered inverted devices and affects only the saturation characteristics; linear region performance actually improves with decreasing thickness. We have fabricated devices with extremely thin active layer (10 nm), and indeed find excellent linear region characteristics. In addition, direct tunneling across the undoped regions at device contacts reduces electric field effects, resulting in excellent saturation region characteristics, and gate-induced channel accumulation reduces the Schottky barrier width at direct metal contacts so that even devices without doped contact regions (i.e., tunneling contacts) are possible.
Value of Cash Holdings: The Impact of Cash from Operating, Investment and Financing Activities

Although the literature shows the importance of cash sources on corporate cash holdings, no literature ever evaluates the effect of cash sources on the value of cash holdings. This study examines the value of additional cash and its variation with respect to if the cash is generated from corporate operating (CFO), investment (CFI), and financing (CFF) activities. The empirical results show that the marginal value of cash holdings and the marginal rate of change in cash value vary with cash from different corporate activities. Specifically, the marginal value of cash from CFO is higher than the marginal value of cash from CFI or CFF, but the marginal rate of change in cash value decrease more if cash is from CFO. The findings suggest that profitable firms have lower incentive and potentially higher agency problem concern when accumulating cash internally. Extending the literature identifying higher cash value in financially constrained firms and in poorly governed firms, we find that the effect of financial constraints would occur only if cash is not from CFO and the effect of poor governance would occur only if cash is from CFO. Overall, the agency explanation to the value of cash holdings is more pronounced in firms with higher capability of generating cash internally. For firms with better access to external financing for cash holdings, the value of cash holdings is highly determined by the economical rationales of holding large cash.
Home-based support for disadvantaged adult mothers.

BACKGROUND Babies born to socio-economically disadvantaged mothers are at higher risk of a range of problems in infancy. Home visiting programs are thought to improve outcomes, both for mothers and children, largely through advice and support. OBJECTIVES To assess the effectiveness of home visiting programmes for women who have recently given birth and who are socially or economically disadvantaged. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the following electronic databases: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (Issue 3, 2006); MEDLINE (1966 to March 2006); EMBASE (1980 to 2006 week 12); CINAHL (1982 to March week 4 2006); PsycINFO (1872 to March week 4 2006); ASSIA (1987 to March 2006); LILACS (1982 to March 2006); and Sociological Abstracts(1963 to March 2006). We searched grey literature using ZETOC (1993 to March 2006); Dissertation Abstracts International (late 1960s to 2006); and SIGLE (1980 to March 2006). We also undertook communication with published authors about ongoing or unpublished research. SELECTION CRITERIA Included studies were randomised controlled trials investigating the efficacy of home visiting directed at disadvantaged adult mothers. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two reviewers (EC and JP or CB) independently assessed titles and abstracts identified in the search for eligibility. Data were extracted and entered into RevMan (EC, JP and CB), synthesised and presented in both written and graphical form (forest plots). Outcomes included in this review were established at the protocol stage by an international steering group. The review does not report on all outcomes reported in included studies. MAIN RESULTS We included 11 studies with 4751 participants in this review. Data show no statistically significant differences for those receiving home visiting, either for maternal outcomes (maternal depression, anxiety, the stress associated with parenting, parenting skills, child abuse risk or potential or breastfeeding) or child outcomes (preventive health care visits, psychosocial health, language development, behaviour problems or accidental injuries. Evidence about uptake of immunisations is mixed, and the data on child maltreatment difficult to interpret. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS This review suggests that for disadvantaged adult women and their children, there is currently no evidence to support the adoption of home visiting as a means of improving maternal psychosocial health, parenting or outcomes for children. For reasons discussed in the review, this does not amount to a conclusion that home visiting programmes are ineffective, but indicates a need to think carefully about the problems that home visiting might influence, and improvements in the conduct of outcome studies in this area.
Serum nutritional indexes and body composition parameters evaluated by body impedance analysis : differences between patients with acute myocardial infarction and stable coronary artery disease

Objective: We assessed the association between serum nutritional status indexes and body composition evaluated by body impedance analysis (BIA) in Chinese subjects with coronary artery disease (CAD). Furthermore, we determined if there were differences in any of these parameters between patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stable CAD. Methods: The study included 48 CAD patients (15 with AMI and 33 with stable CAD). Body mass index, body weight, percent body fat and percent skeletal muscle were measured during hospitalization by BIA. Main blood lipid levels and serum albumin, prealbumin and total lymphocyte count (TLC) were determined by standard biochemical methods. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were determined to assess the relationships between the body composition parameters and serum albumin, prealbumin and TLC. Results: Compared to patients with stable CAD, those with AMI had higher serum levels of triglycerides and LDL-C and a higher ratio of dyslipidemia (all P<0.05). Furthermore, compared to patients with stable CAD, TLC and main body composition parameters were higher in the AMI group (all P<0.05). TLC was significantly correlated with most body composition parameters (all P<0.05), whereas serum albumin and prealbumin levels were similar between the two groups and not significantly correlated with these body composition parameters (all P>0.05). Conclusion: Our findings show that TLC and the body composition parameters evaluated by BIA were significantly different between small sample patients with AMI and stable CAD. Furthermore, TLC was significantly correlated the body composition parameters, which might be useful for clinical risk assessment.
A Finite Equivalence of Verifiable Multi-secret Sharing

Abstract We give an abstraction of verifiable multi-secret sharing schemes that is accessible to a fully mechanized analysis. This abstraction is formalized within the applied pi-calculus by using an equational theory which characterizes the cryptographic semantics of secret share. We also present an encoding from the equational theory into a convergent rewriting system, which is suitable for the automated protocol verifier ProVerif. Based on that, we verify the threshold certificate protocol in ProVerif.
FPGA Dynamic Power Minimization through Placement and Routing Constraints

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are pervasive in embedded systems requiring low-power utilization. A novel power optimization methodology for reducing the dynamic power consumed by the routing of FPGA circuits by modifying the constraints applied to existing commercial tool sets is presented. The power optimization techniques influence commercial FPGA Place and Route (PAR) tools by translating power goals into standard throughput and placement-based constraints. The Low-Power Intelligent Tool Environment (LITE) is presented, which was developed to support the experimentation of power models and power optimization algorithms. The generated constraints seek to implement one of four power optimization approaches: slack minimization, clock tree paring, N-terminal net colocation, and area minimization. In an experimental study, we optimize dynamic power of circuits mapped into 0.12 μ m Xilinx Virtex-II FPGAs. Results show that several optimization algorithms can be combined on a single design, and power is reduced by up to 19.4%, with an average power savings of 10.2%.
Self-stabilizing wormhole routing on ring networks

Wormhole routing is the most common in parallel architecture in which messages are sent in small fragments called flits. It is a lightweight and efficient method of routing messages between parallel processors. Self-stabilization is a technique that guarantees tolerance to transient faults (e.g. memory corruption or communication hazard) for a given protocol. Self-stabilization guarantees that the network recovers to a correct behavior infinite time, without the need for human intervention. Self-stabilization also guarantees the safety property, meaning that once the network is in a legitimate state, it will remain there until another fault occurs. This paper presents the first self-stabilizing network algorithm in the wormhole routing model, using the unidirectional ring topology. Our solution benefits from wormhole routing by providing high throughput and low latency, and front self-stabilization by ensuring automatic resilience to all possible transient failures.