Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acylation State of the Phosphatidylinositol Hexamannosides from Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette Guérin and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and Its Implication in Toll-like Receptor Response*

The dimannoside (PIM2) and hexamannoside (PIM6) phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosides are the two most abundant classes of PIM found in Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette Guérin, Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, and Mycobacterium smegmatis 607. Recently, these long known molecules received a renewed interest due to the fact that PIM2 constitute the anchor motif of an important constituent of the mycobacterial cell wall, the lipoarabinomannans (LAM), and that both LAM (phosphoinositol-capped LAM) and PIM are agonists of Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), a pattern recognition receptor involved in innate immunity. Due to the biological importance of these molecules, the chemical structure of PIM was revisited. The structure of PIM2 was recently published (Gilleron, M., Ronet, C., Mempel, M., Monsarrat, B., Gachelin, G., and Puzo, G. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 34896–34904). Here we report the purification and molecular characterization of PIM6 in their native form. For the first time, four acyl forms of this molecule have been purified, using hydrophobic interaction chromatography. Mono- to tetra-acylated molecules were identified in M. bovis bacillus Calmette Guérin, M. tuberculosis H37Rv, and M. smegmatis 607 using a sophisticated combination of analytical tools, including matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight-mass spectrometry and two-dimensional homo- and heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy. These experiments revealed that the major acyl forms are similar to the ones described for PIM2. Finally, we show that PIM6, like PIM2, activate primary macrophages to secrete TNF-α through TLR2, irrespective of their acylation pattern, and that they signal through the adaptor MyD88.
The OGTT as test for beta cell function?

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FPGA HW/SW Codesign Approach for Real-time Image Processing Using HLS

Real-time constraint is one of the most common challenges found in many critical embedded applications, namely image and video processing. However, software tools such as Matlab and general purpose microprocessor are not suitable for deals with such a problem. Recently, FPGA reconfigurable circuit with its HLS software tools is become a very promising technology to be widely used in many applications encompassing all aspects and requirements of embedded system. This paper presents the implementation of morphological image operation including dilation, erosion and linear filtering. The implementation method is based on Hardware/Software (HW/SW) codesign approach using High Level Synthesis (HLS) tools, Xilinx Vivado 15.2 and SDK 15.2. Zedboard FPGA platform with Zynq device is used for this work in which is connected to a PC through an Ethernet link. Captured image by Webcam is transmitted to the FPGA for processing and will be then returned to the PC to be displayed on the IHM interface, in real-time. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach and it can be extended for other applications.
Enrollment of a population-based cohort of newborns at higher risk of developing a chronic condition: the EDEN study. Etude du Developpement des Nouveau-nés Study.

OBJECTIVE To describe the methods used at birth to recruit a population-based cohort of newborns of all birthweights at higher risk of having a chronic condition, and to present baseline results. METHODS Screening of all newborns at hospital discharge for five non-exclusive criteria: (1) low birthweight (LBW), (2) congenital anomalies or genetic disease, (3) specified conditions associated with a high probability of chronicity, (4) referral to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), (5) or defined social problems. Calculation of Hobel risk scores for children satisfying > or = 1 criterion. SUBJECTS All 6477 live births delivered in the 19 maternity hospitals of a geographically defined region (Vaud, Switzerland) to resident mothers in 1993-1994. RESULTS Twelve per cent (n = 760) of newborns met > or = 1 criterion: 6.3% of all newborns had an LBW (criterion 1), 2.4% had a birth defect, 0.9% met criterion (3), 4.4% stayed in an NICU and 1.6% had serious social problems. Hobel prenatal score was high (> or = 10 points) for 41% of children with > or = 1 criterion, the intrapartum score for 87% and the neonatal score for 68%. CONCLUSIONS Most newborns identified by the above simple criteria also had elevated perinatal risks. The validity of the criteria will later be tested against the results of the examinations of children with > or = 1 criterion at 18 months and 4 years of age, but the assessment at birth already shows that normal birthweight (NBW) children, in agreement with previous studies, contribute half the children at high risk perinatally.
Global Proteomics of the Extremophile Black Fungus Cryomyces antarcticus Using 2D-Electrophoresis

The microcolonial black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus is an extremophile organism growing on and in rock in the Antarctic desert. Ecological plasticity and stress tolerance make it a perfect model organism for astrobiology. 2D-gel electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry were performed to explore the protein repertoire, which allows the fungus to survive in the harsh environment. Only a limited number of proteins could be identified by using sequence homologies in public databases. Due to the rather low identification rate by sequence homology, this study reveals that a major part of the proteome of C. antarcticus varies significantly from other fungal species.
Comparison of Water- and Land-Based Exercise in the Reduction of State Anxiety among Older Adults

This study examined the effect of an acute exercise program of different exercise conditions on state anxiety among older adults. 73 healthy subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to either water exercise group (n = 36) or land exercise group (n = 37). State anxiety was assessed before exercise and following exercise. Subjects in the water exercise performed a 70-min. exercise program consisting of a 10-min. warm-up, a 20-min. brisk walking, a 20-min. rhythmic dancing, a 10-min. resistance training, and a 10-min. cool down exercise. The land exercise program contained a 10-min. warm-up and a 30-min. combined endurance and resistance exercise, followed by a 10-min. cool down exercise. Analysis showed that both exercise groups scored significantly (p<.001) lower on anxiety after exercise, but there was no significant interaction for group by trial for scores on state anxiety. The data indicate that elderly persons who participate in these types of exercise report lower state anxiety.
Energy Dependence of Proton-Induced Displacement Damage in Gallium Arsenide

Nonionizing energy deposition in gallium arsenide has been calculated for protons with energies ranging from 1 to 1000 MeV. The calculations are compared with new experimental results for ion implanted gallium arsenide resistors and Hall samples irradiated with protons in the energy range 1 to 60 MeV. Results are also compared with recent studies of proton induced displacement damage in silicon.
Direction-of-arrival estimation using MODE with interpolated arrays

Presents a generalization of the MODE direction finding algorithm, using the interpolated array approach. The proposed algorithm is statistically efficient for uncorrelated, correlated, and even coherent sources, and requires only a modest amount of computations. The use of array interpolation makes it possible to easily incorporate calibration data into the estimation procedure. The performance of the algorithm was evaluated by computer simulation, verifying its statistical efficiency. >
Índice de expectativas do consumidor no Brasil : uma análise do poder preditivo no período entre 2001 e 2014

Com base na Teoria Popular das Expectativas dos Consumidores, este artigo analisa o poder preditivo do Indice Nacional de Expectativas do Consumidor utilizando os gastos de consumo no Brasil para o periodo de 2001 a 2014. A metodologia econometrica utilizada envolve tecnicas de Cointegracao, tal como descrito por Johansen (1988) e Modelo de Vetores Auto-Regressivos e Correcao de Erros (Johansen; Juselius, 1990) . Os resultados comprovaram a hipotese central de que, existe uma forte correlacao positiva ao longo do tempo entre as evolucoes do INEC e os gastos de consumo. Ao mesmo tempo evidenciaram a existencia de Cointegracao assegurando a presenca de um elo linear entre as tendencias estocasticas das variaveis em se moverem na direcao de um equilibrio de longo prazo. Atraves do teste de causalidade de Granger verificou-se que, o consumo final das familias causa o indice nacional de expectativas do consumidor, refutando assim o primeiro pressuposto da teoria popular de Fuhrer (1993) . Alem disso, atraves da decomposicao da variância comprovou-se a hipotese subjacente de que, a confianca dos consumidores, mensurada pelo INEC, e capaz de prever parte do consumo que nao e explicado pelas variaveis macroeconomicas tradicionais, uma vez que atua sobre o consumo e, portanto, sobre a demanda agregada.
Geometrical compensation for protein expression profiling in fluorescence microscopy

Immunofluorescence (IF), is a current technique for the qualitative analysis of expression and distribution of biomolecules within cells and tissues. However, IF analysis still shows various limitations since no quantitative parameters can be extracted from the visual inspection of stained slides. In this paper, a new approach is proposed for the quantification of the level of expression and the pattern of cellular distribution of proteins using a quantitative bioimaging analysis. This new strategy uses IF slides and characterizes the average internuclear and radial expression profile of E-cadherin, as model protein. To validate, in biological terms, our novel IF quantification tool we used a set of E-cadherin germline mutations associated to gastric cancer. In some of these mutants the normal trafficking is impaired leading to aberrant protein expression profiling. Since dysfunctional E-cadherin is likely to interfere with cell cytoskeleton it was of crucial importance to control the variability of cell shape within our system. A Bayesian algorithm is proposed to compensate for deviations in relation to spherical ideal reference shape, needed to compute average internuclear and nucleus-to-membrane radial distribution profiles of the molecule. The profiles are anchored in the geometrical centers of the cell nuclei, obtained from DAPI plane, and no information about membrane location is used. This is an important point because membrane segmentation may be difficult, inaccurate and time consuming, and not essential for intensity distribution characterization purposes. The proposed method is tested with synthetic data and illustrated with real IF images of in vitro cell cultures analysed for E-cadherin with a tagged antibody.
Combined indicator of vitamin B12 status: modification for missing biomarkers and folate status and recommendations for revised cut-points

Abstract Background: A novel approach to determine vitamin B12 status is to combine four blood markers: total B12 (B12), holotranscobalamin (holoTC), methylmalonic acid (MMA) and total homocysteine (tHcy). This combined indicator of B12 status is expressed as cB12=log10[(holoTC·B12)/(MMA·Hcy)]–(age factor). Here we calculate cB12 in datasets with missing biomarkers, examine the influence of folate status, and revise diagnostic cut-points. Methods: We used a database with all four markers (n=5211) plus folate measurements (n=972). A biomarker Z (assumed missing) was plotted versus X (a combination of other markers) and Y (age). Each chart was approximated by a function Ztheor, which predicted the potentially absent value(s). Statistical distributions of cB12 were aligned with physiological indicators of deficiency and used to determine cut-offs. Results: The predictive functions Ztheor allowed assessment of the “incomplete” indicators, 3cB12 (three markers known) and 2cB12 (two markers known). Predictions contained a systematic deviation associated with dispersion along two axes Z and X (and unaccounted by the least squares fit). Increase in tHcy at low serum folate was corrected (cB12+Δfolate) based on the function of Δfolate=log10(Hcyreal/Hcytheor) versus folate. Statistical distributions of cB12 revealed the boundaries of groups with B12 deficiency, i.e., cB12<–0.5. Conclusions: We provide equations that combine two, three or four biomarkers into one diagnostic indicator, thereby rescaling unmatched data into the same coordinate system. Adjustment of this indicator is required if serum folate is <10 nmol/L and tHcy is measured. Revised cut-points and guidelines for using this approach are provided.
SimEvents based high level early design space exploration and modeling of a 3D Network on Chip

The transition from 2D to 3D Network on Chips is have recently gained momentum with research effort targeted to solving the different implementation issues. The planification and design space exploration for 3D NoCs, intuitively harder than for 2D NoCs, calls for more flexible and powerful simulation tools. The Matlab ecosystem is appropriate for the implementation of such simulation systems. In this paper, we present the simulation of a model of a mesh 4 × 4 × 3 3D NoC using SimEvents, a Discrete Event Simulation accessible through Mathworks Simulink. The performance of the whole NoC is measured for the whole network, and for the side, corner, and middle nodes.
Simple screening method for molds producing intracellular mycotoxins in pure cultures

A simple screening method for molds producing the intracellular mycotoxins brevianamide A, citreoviridin, cyclopiazonic acid, luteoskyrin, penitrem A, roquefortine C, sterigmatocystin, verruculogen, viomellein, and xanthomegnin was developed. After removing an agar plug from the mold culture, the mycelium on the plug is wetted with a drop of methanol-chloroform (1:2). By this treatment the intracellular mycotoxins are extracted within seconds and transferred directly to a thin-layer chromatography plate by immediately placing the plug on the plate while the mycelium is still wet. After removal of the plug, known thin-layer chromatographic procedures are carried out. The substrate (Czapek yeast autolysate agar) and growth conditions (25 degrees C for 7 days) used by Penicillium taxonomists proved suitable for the production of the mycotoxins investigated when 60 known toxigenic isolates and 865 cultures isolated from foods and feedstuffs were tested with this screening method.
Needs of carers of severely disabled people: are they identified and met adequately?

OBJECTIVE To examine the unmet needs of informal carers of community dwelling disabled people and to compare their perspectives to those of disabled people and nominated professionals. It was hypothesised that a poor recognition of carers' needs could have implications for carers' well- being and thus their ability to maintain their caring role. Need was defined as a service or a resource that would confer a health or rehabilitation gain. DESIGN Face to face interviews with carers and disabled participants, telephone interviews with professionals (Southern England). Disabled participants had been selected randomly from two disability registers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The Southampton Needs Assessment Questionnaire (carers version), SF-36 (carers' health status). RESULTS Carers experienced similar health status to people in the general population. The most frequently carer-reported unmet needs were for short breaks, domestic help and respite care. Carers who had reported unmet need for short breaks had significantly poorer levels of mental health and vitality (SF-36) than carers who had not reported this. Similar numbers of unmet carers' needs were reported by disabled participants, professionals and carers themselves. In terms of type of unmet needs, poor concordance between carers and disabled participants occurred in 52% of cases: carers reported more unmet needs than disabled participants for short breaks and domestic help. Poor concordance scores between carers and professionals occurred in 59% of cases: carers reported more unmet needs for short breaks than professionals and professionals reported more unmet needs for formal respite care. CONCLUSION In line with recent legislation, carers' needs must be independently addressed and services, especially for flexible community support such as short break services, must be developed specifically to meet the needs of carers. Further research is warranted to evaluate whether recent legislation for carers has any effect on carers' well-being and ability to cope with their caring role.
Autonomous off‐road navigation with end‐to‐end learning for the LAGR program

We describe a fully integrated real‐time system for autonomous off‐road navigation that uses end‐to‐end learning from onboard proprioceptive sensors, operator input, and stereo cameras to adapt to local terrain and extend terrain classification into the far field to avoid myopic behavior. The system consists of two learning algorithms: a short‐range, geometry‐based local terrain classifier that learns from very few proprioceptive examples and is robust in many off‐road environments; and a long‐range, image‐based classifier that learns from geometry‐based classification and continuously generalizes geometry to appearance, making it effective even in complex terrain and varying lighting conditions. In addition to presenting the learning algorithms, we describe the system architecture and results from the Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) program's field tests. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Social-IFD: Personalized Influential Friends Discovery Based on Semantics in LBSN

Social influence is a hot topic in social network research, and this paper focuses on how to search for the most influential friends for a target user. The key point is to measure the influence between different users, such as adjacent users and the non-adjacent users. However, the traditional method, called the IS model, can only calculate the influence strength between neighboring users based on the inner-product of the Influence vector and the Susceptibility vector. In this paper, the social-IFD algorithm is proposed to compute the influence between different users (not only neighboring users but also non-adjacent users) based on network structure and the semantic information of users in LBSN, which has promoted the development of the IS model. Furthermore, we propose social-IFD ++ algorithm based on dynamic program to reduce the complexity of the social-IFD algorithm. Experiment results on two real large-scale network show that the average precision of the proposed social-IFD algorithm is 30.5% higher than the average precision of the IS model. In addition, the CPU running time of the proposed social-IFD ++ algorithm is nearly ten times lower than that of the IS model. It indicates that the proposed two algorithms have superior performance.
Expression, self-assembly, and antigenicity of the Norwalk virus capsid protein

Norwalk virus capsid protein was produced by expression of the second and third open reading frames of the Norwalk virus genome, using a cell-free translation system and baculovirus recombinants. Analysis of the expressed products showed that the second open reading frame encodes a protein with an apparent molecular weight of 58,000 (58K protein) and that this protein self-assembles to form empty viruslike particles similar to native capsids in size and appearance. The antigenicity of these particles was demonstrated by immunoprecipitation and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays of paired serum samples from volunteers who developed illness following Norwalk virus challenge. These particles also induced high levels of Norwalk virus-specific serum antibody in laboratory animals following parenteral inoculation. A minor 34K protein was also found in infected insect cells. Amino acid sequence analysis of the N terminus of the 34K protein indicated that the 34K protein was a cleavage product of the 58K protein. The availability of large amounts of recombinant Norwalk virus particles will allow the development of rapid, sensitive, and reliable tests for the diagnosis of Norwalk virus infection as well as the implementation of structural studies.
Verifiable and Forward-secure Encrypted Search Using Blockchain Techniques

Dynamic Symmetric Searchable Encryption (SSE) is a practical cryptographic primitive that enables data owners to search and update encrypted data hosted on untrusted servers. Recently, there is a growing interest to design dynamic SSE schemes with forward security. That is, the server cannot learn the association between the updated data and any query made in the past. However, due to the complexity of update operations, this security property introduces a great challenge of designing verifiable SSE schemes. It is difficult to verify the correctness of updated search results while preserving forward privacy.In this work, we explore how blockchain techniques can help us achieve a verifiable and dynamic SSE construction with forward security. First, we propose a new dynamic SSE scheme based on blockchain techniques, and apply it as the underlying building blocks to preserve forward-secure updates. Second, we resort to the emerging smart contract technique to customize a verification scheme, making updated results easily verifiable. Based on this new primitive, the robustness of the encrypted search service is ensured and forward security is preserved for update operations. Finally, we implement the prototype in Python and Solidity, and conduct performance evaluations on Ethereum. The extensive security analysis and performance evaluations on the real-world dataset demonstrate that our blockchain-assisted SSE scheme is secure and feasible.
Kolaviron protects against ethylene glycol monoethyl ether‐induced toxicity in boar spermatozoa

This study investigated the ameliorative effects of kolaviron (a biflavonoid from the seed of Garcinia kola) and vitamin C on ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EGEE)‐induced oxidative damage in boar spermatozoa in vitro. EGEE (1.0 mm) was incubated with boar spermatozoa for 3 h with or without either kolaviron (50 and 100 μm) or vitamin C (1.0 mm). Spermatozoa parameters were determined hourly during the incubation period, whereas aminotransferases and alkaline phosphatase activities and oxidative stress indices were assessed after the incubation period. Results showed a time‐dependent decline in spermatozoa motility and viability with significant elevation in total abnormalities in EGEE‐treated spermatozoa. Exposure to EGEE resulted in significant increase in aminotransferases, alkaline phosphatase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, whereas it markedly decreased glutathione (GSH) level, catalase (CAT) and glutathione S‐transferase (GST) activities with concomitant increase in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Pre‐treatment of spermatozoa with kolaviron or vitamin C significantly decreased H2O2 and MDA levels, improved spermatozoa characteristics and ameliorated oxidative damage in EGEE‐treated spermatozoa. Taken together, EGEE exhibited its spermatotoxicity via induction of oxidative stress. The protective effects by kolaviron and vitamin C against EGEE‐induced oxidative damage may be due to their intrinsic antioxidative potentials.