Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drei kommerzielle Testkits zur Tierartenidentifikation in Fleischerzeugnissen im Vergleich

Drei kommerzielle Testkits wurden in Hinblick auf ihre Routinetauglichkeit zum Tierartennachweis untersucht. Den Bereich der protein-basierenden Verfahren vertrat der ELISA Testkit von Transia. Als molekularbiologische Methoden wurden einerseits ein DNS-Chip (CarnoCheck®) und andererseits eine PCR auf Basis von Spezies-spezifischen Primern (CIB-A-Kit) eingesetzt. Mit Hilfe von Modellwursten bekannter tierartlicher Zusammensetzung wurde die spezielle Untersuchung der Testkits in Hinblick auf Sensitivitat, Spezifitat, Zeit- und Kostenaufwand durchgefuhrt. Hierfur wurden 240 Proben in 20 Versuchslaufen a 12 Bruhwursten mit Konzentrationen der nachzuweisenden Tierarten Rind, Schwein, Huhn und Pute von 0,1% sowie 0,5% und 1,0% untersucht. Die Vorteile einer Sensitivitat von 0,1% und die Moglichkeit der Differenzierung der Tierarten Huhn und Pute lagen auf Seiten des CIB-A-Kit und des CarnoCheck®. Der ELISA erreichte dagegen nur eine Sensitivitat von 0,5%, ohne zwischen den Spezies Huhn und Pute differenzieren zu konnen, obwohl der Geflugel-ELISA signifikant (p=0,006) sensitiver fur Pute war. Allen Testkits gemeinsam war eine hohe Spezifitat gegenuber den getesteten Spezies. Die Kosten fur den ELISA lagen im Bereich der Reagenzien, der Verbrauchsmaterialien und der Gerate deutlich unterhalb des finanziellen Aufwandes, der fur die beiden molekularbiologischen Methoden notwendig war. Bezuglich der laufenden Analysekosten war der CarnoCheck® dagegen auserst preiswert im Vergleich zu den anderen beiden Verfahren. In Hinblick des zeitlichen Aufwandes lag der ELISA mit knapp 5 ¾ Stunden vor dem CarnoCheck® mit ca. 8 ½ Stunden fur die Analyse von 12 Proben. Beide hatten einen deutlichen Abstand zum CIB-A-Kit, der fur die Untersuchung von 12 Proben auf 4 Tierarten ca. 13 Stunden in Anspruch nahm. Im Routineeinsatz hat sich der ELISA seit Jahren bewahrt, konnte jedoch vom CarnoCheck® als Screening Verfahren abgelost werden, wahrend der CIB-A-Kit eher zur Kontrolle unschlussiger ELISA-Ergebnisse einsetzbar ist.
Effect of Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Anchor-dependent and -independent Prion Protein Association with Model Raft Membranes on Conversion to the Protease-resistant Isoform*

Prion protein (PrP) is usually bound to membranes by a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor that associates with detergent-resistant membranes, or rafts. To examine the effect of membrane association on the interaction between the normal protease-sensitive PrP isoform (PrP-sen) and the protease-resistant isoform (PrP-res), a model system was employed using PrP-sen reconstituted into sphingolipid-cholesterol-rich raft-like liposomes (SCRLs). Both full-length (GPI+) and GPI anchor-deficient (GPI−) PrP-sen produced in fibroblasts stably associated with SCRLs. The latter, alternative mode of membrane association was not detectably altered by glycosylation and was markedly reduced by deletion of residues 34–94. The SCRL-associated PrP molecules were not removed by treatments with either high salt or carbonate buffer. However, only GPI+ PrP-sen resisted extraction with cold Triton X-100. PrP-sen association with SCRLs was pH-independent. PrP-sen was also one of a small subset of phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC)-released proteins from fibroblast cells found to bind SCRLs. A cell-free conversion assay was used to measure the interaction of SCRL-bound PrP-sen with exogenous PrP-res as contained in microsomes. SCRL-bound GPI+ PrP-sen was not converted to PrP-res until PI-PLC was added to the reaction or the combined membrane fractions were treated with the membrane-fusing agent polyethylene glycol (PEG). In contrast, SCRL-bound GPI− PrP-sen was converted to PrP-res without PI-PLC or PEG treatment. Thus, of the two forms of raft membrane association by PrP-sen, only the GPI anchor-directed form resists conversion induced by exogenous PrP-res.
A prospective study on the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis among people with persistent increase of rheumatoid factor

OBJECTIVES To study the stability of rheumatoid factor (RF) increases and to compare the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in people with transient or persistent increase of one or more RF isotypes. METHODS From an original cohort of nearly 14 000 participants in a population study, 135 previously RF positive persons were recruited in 1996 and evaluated according to the 1987 ACR criteria. The observation time ranged from 9–22 years (mean 16.5). Blood samples were obtained from all participants at entry and again in 1996. RESULTS About 40% of the participants who had only one raised RF isotype in the original sample had become RF negative in 1996 compared with only 15% of those with increase of two or three RF isotypes (p=0.002). The seven participants who developed RA during the study period all had persistently raised RF. Six of the 54 participants with more than one RF isotype raised in 1996 developed RA, corresponding to an annual incidence of 0.67%, which was 7.5 times higher than observed in the other participants (p=0.045). CONCLUSION Symptom free persons with persistently raised RF have greatly increased risk of developing RA. This suggests that dysregulation of RF production is a predisposing factor in RA.
Relationships between Upper-Level Circulation over South America and Rainfall over Southeastern South America: A Physical Base for Seasonal Predictions

Abstract The existence of a significant simultaneous correlation between bimonthly mean precipitation anomalies over southeastern South America (SESA) and either the first or the second (depending on season) leading mode of interannual variability of upper-level wind over South America (SA) is demonstrated during all seasons except winter. The pattern associated with these modes of variability is similar during all seasons and consists of a continental-scale vortex centered over the eastern coast of subtropical SA. The vortex has a quasi-barotropic structure during all seasons, and its variability modifies moisture transport from the South American low-level jet and the western tropical Atlantic to SESA thus creating precipitation anomalies in this region. During spring (October–November) and summer (January–February) the circulation creates a second center of precipitation anomalies over the South Atlantic convergence zone that are of opposite sign to those over SESA, while during fall (April–May) precip.
Unwrapped phase estimation via maximum likelihood principle for multi-baseline SAR interferometry

The cycle-property of probability density function (pdf) of the interferometric phase is demonstrated in brief. The normalized baseline pdf is presented in terms of reference baseline to conquer the constant 2π-cycle. Accordingly, a novel unwrapped phase estimation method, based on a maximum likelihood (ML) principle technique, is imported for multi-baseline SAR interferometry. Simulations corroborate the validity of maximum likelihood unwrapped phase estimation method proposed in this work.
An Authenticated Encryption Based Security Framework for NoC Architectures

Network on Chip (NoC) is an emerging solution to the existing scalability problems with SoC. However it is exposed to security threats like extraction of secret information from IP cores. In this paper we present an Authenticated Encryption (AE) based security framework for NoC based systems. The security framework resides in Network Interface (NI) of every secure IP core allowing secure communication among such IP cores. We simulated and implemented our framework using Verilog/VHDL modules on top of NoCem emulator. The results showed tolerable area overhead and did not affect the network performance apart from some initial latency.
Creating opportunities to learn social skills at school using digital games

Acquiring skills for social and emotional well-being is important for inclusive societies and academic achievement. Studies have demonstrated the beneficial link between prosocial behaviours and improved results in curriculum topics. This paper describes a Prosocial Learning (PSL) process for creation and delivery of digital games for children (7-10 yrs) within educational systems that support learning of prosocial skills. The approach combines prosocial pedagogies with advanced ICT technologies and cloud delivery models to create attractive and exciting learning opportunities for children; produce novel digital game-based pedagogies and simplify deployment. Prosociality is a concept that refers to an individual’s propensity towards positive social behaviours. Individuals with prosocial skills are, for example, able to join in conversations, talk nicely, identifying feelings and emotions in themselves and others, identify someone needs help and ask for help. PSL classifies these skills in terms of Friendship, Feelings and Cooperation. By using interactive digital games supported by additional instructive and reflective activities, PSL allows children to learn social skills that can be generalised to real life situations in the classroom, playground and at home. PSL is implemented through a technology platform offering systematic pedagogical support for prosocial games developed by an ecosystem of teachers and games companies. Capabilities include multi-modal sensors to observe emotional affect, game interaction and decision-making. Information is acquired through standard protocols (e.g. xAPI) and evaluated by learning analytics algorithms to provide real-time feedback on player behaviours that are be used for in-game feedback and adaptation, and by teachers to shape follow-up activities. PSL is validated through short and longitudinal studies at European schools to gather evidence for effectiveness. This paper provides early evidence from short studies that will steer larger pan-European trials to test hypotheses, promote to policy makers and to increase adoption of game-based learning in schools
Rate-distortion approach to bit allocation in lossy image set compression

In this paper we examine the problem of bit in lossy image set compression. Instead of treating each image independently, image set compression algorithms examine the relationships among similar images and remove inter-image redundancies to improve compression performance. These algorithms map the original image set into a number of prediction residual images to be coded. Typically the same bit rate is used to encode each residual. We show that a rate-distortion approach based on Lagrangian optimization can lead to further improvement in image set compression algorithms.
3D map-building from RGB-D data considering noise characteristics of Kinect

For a mobile robot to explore in an unknown environment, the robot needs to do Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). Recently, RGB-D sensor such as the Microsoft Kinect has been extensively used as a low cost 3D sensor measurement and mapping the environment. The advantage of RGB-D sensor is that it can capture RGB image with per-pixel depth information. One disadvantage for this sensor is that its depth information is very noisy. Moreover, if the robot equipped with the Kinect moves long distances, the localization error gets accumulated over time. The main aim of this study is to reduce the error of the SLAM using RGB-D sensor, by taking into account the noise characteristics of the Kinect sensor. The noise characteristics are investigated by experiments taking into account the RGB and depth information. A noise model is derived as a function of both distance and angle to the observed surface. The noise model is applied to Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm for SLAM. Finally, the results of the proposed SLAM are shown and the improvement in accuracy is verified.
CYCLIN D1 OVEREXPRESSION IN NON‐SMALL CELL LUNG CARCINOMA: CORRELATION WITH Ki67 LABELLING INDEX AND POOR CYTOPLASMIC DIFFERENTIATION

Cyclin D1 is part of the molecular system regulating the cell cycle G1 to S transition point. Its overexpression, a common finding in carcinomas of the breast, oesophagus, and head and neck, has also been demonstrated in a high percentage of non‐small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs). The role of cyclin D1 in NSCLC has been studied by correlating its immunoreactivity with the Ki67 labelling index in paraffin‐embedded, autoclaved surgical samples of 56 NSCLC cases. In addition, flow cytometric determination of ploidy and cell cycle status was carried out on 172 fresh tumour samples from the same cases. Twenty‐four (42·8 per cent) NSCLCs showed positive cyclin D1 immunostaining, a finding which showed no relationship to ploidy pattern, cell cycle phase, histological subtype, or lymph node metastasis, but was significantly associated with the Ki67 labelling index (P=0·03) and with poor cytoplasmic differentiation (P=0·01). Cyclin D1‐positive nuclei were abundant in poorly differentiated zones and absent in the best differentiated areas, particularly in heavily keratinized fields. These data indicate that in NSCLC, cyclin D1 overexpression is not only associated with a high cell proliferation rate, but also seems to play a role in the process of tumour differentiation.
Molecular simulation of three-body interactions for vapor-liquid and solid-liquid phase equilibria

The phase behavior of both pure systems and binary mixtures has been widely studied by molecular simulation [1], using techniques such as the Gibbs ensemble [2], Gibbs-Duhem [3] or histogram reweighing [4] algorithms. The common aim of many of these investigations is to accurately predict the phase diagram using effective intermolecular potentials, most notable the Lennard-Jones potential. In contrast, other studies [5-11] have used molecular simulation techniques, in conjunction with genuine twoand three-body intermolecular potentials [12-14], to determine the influence of various intermolecular interactions on phase behavior. These studies have concluded that three-body interactions have a significant influence on phase behavior. Threebody interactions decrease the density of the liquid phase of pure fluids [5,6,7,9] and they contribute significantly [6] to the vapor-liquid critical point. In binary mixtures [10,11], three-body interactions are required to obtain good agreement between theory and experiment for the pressurecomposition behavior. There is also some evidence [15] that three-body interactions have a pivotal role in the transition between the different global phase behavior types of binary mixtures. Previous investigations of three-body interactions on phase equilibria have been confined largely to pure fluids. Theoretical studies have been reported [16-22] which indicate three-body interactions are important in solid phases. However, the direct molecular simulation of solid-liquid equilibria [23-25] for both pure fluids and mixtures has mainly focused on predicting phase coexistence using an effective intermolecular potential. The solid-liquid phase transition is difficult to determine accurately using traditional molecular simulation techniques. The high densities mean that it is not practical to use the Gibbs ensemble [2] because of the difficulty of exchanging particles between the phases. Although this limitation is avoided by the Gibbs-Duhem [3] technique, it is not self-starting which means it requires prior knowledge of one pair of coexistence data. Therefore, its ability to predict the phase boundary largely depends on the accuracy of the starting point data. In this work, we employed a novel approach [26] for locating the solid-liquid phase boundary which combines elements of both equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics techniques. The approach yields reliable calculations and it avoids the problems encountered in both Gibbs ensemble and Gibbs-Duhem methods.
Blood lipid peroxides in TIA: relation to platelet function and metabolic profile

ABSTRACT— Patients with transient ischemic attacks (TIA) were previously shown to have high plasma values of thiobarbituric acid‐reactive substances (TBA‐RS). To study whether these changes could be related to platelet activability. TBA‐RS was investigated in 24 TIA patients before and 24 h after 1 g aspirin, an inhibitor of platelet cyclooxygenase pathway. Baseline TBA‐RS values were significantly higher in TIA than in controls. Conversely, TIA patients had TBA‐RS values after aspirin similar to controls, suggesting that the increase of plasma TBA‐RS was not attributable to platelet hyperfunction. The evaluation of metabolic profile showed that patients with highest TBA‐RS had hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and/or diabetes mellitus. This study suggests that the increase of plasma TBA‐RS in TIA could be an epiphenomenon of altered metabolic pathway.
Benefits of increasing the dose of influenza vaccine in residents of long‐term care facilities: A randomized placebo‐controlled trial

Increased vaccine doses and mid‐season boosting may increase the proportion of residents with protective immunity from influenza in long‐term care facilities. In a multi‐center study (1997–1998), 815 residents from 14 long‐term care facilities were assigned at random to receive 15 or 30 µg of inactivated influenza vaccine, followed by a 15 µg booster vaccine or a placebo vaccine at Day 84. Seroresponses were re‐analyzed by hemagglutination‐inhibition (≥4‐fold titer increases, protective titer ≥40, geometric mean titers. Forty percent of the participants had pre‐vaccination titers ≥40. At Day 25 after vaccination, this increased to 66.3% after a 15 µg dose versus 73.3% after a dose of 30 µg (P = 0.049). Participants receiving a 30 µg dose followed by a 15 µg booster showed more ≥4‐fold titer increases at Day 109 (43.6% vs. 35.4%, P = 0.003) and protective titers ≥40 (74.2% vs. 64.6%, P = 0.041), compared to those receiving only a 15 µg dose. Differences were most apparent in participants with low pre‐vaccination titers. Booster vaccination after an initial 15 µg dose of the vaccine did not increase the protective rate (61.9% vs. 63.9% after placebo). The number of participants needed to vaccinate to protect one additional resident by a dose of 15 µg was 4, by a dose of 30 µg 3, and 15 when using a 30 µg dose instead of 15 µg. Doubling the dose of influenza vaccine increased protection‐related responses among residents of long‐term care facilities, especially in those with low pre‐vaccination titers. J. Med. Virol. 81:908–914, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Applying Medicine 2.0 to the I-CAN - Managing the Needs and Rights of End Users

This paper considers how Medicine 2.0 features can be added to an existing e-health application known as the I-CAN (Instrument for the Classification and Assessment of Support Needs). One of the biggest problems with a social networking feature based around health concerns is the issue of privacy. Even though participation is on a completely unsolicited, opt-in basis, there are access and privacy issues involved in such a tool. A preliminary design proposal is presented which takes into account the needs, responsibilities, rights and abilities of the (direct and indirect) users.
Predicting binaural gain in intelligibility and release from masking for speech.

A simple, approximate procedure for predicting binaural gain in intelligibility and release from masking for detection of speech in broadband Gaussian noise is presented. The procedure assumes that the effect of binaural processing in the auditory system can be adequately represented by a frequency‐dependent reduction in the level of the masking noise. The magnitude of this reduction is derived from data on release from masking for tones. Predictions of intelligibility are based on the Articulation Index as computed for the equivalent masking noise. It is predicted that the binaural gain in intelligibility for speech in white noise is greatest at low intelligibility levels, decreasing to about 3 dB at high intelligibility levels. The relative importance of low‐ and high‐frequency interaural phase opposition in producing a binaural gain in intelligibility depends on the signal‐to‐noise (S/N) ratio. Low‐frequency interaural phase opposition is of greater importance at low S/N ratios. Release from masking fo.
Representation of texts in structured form

Although the existing knowledge representation techniques, ranging from the relational databases to the most recent Semantic web languages, are successfully applied in numerous practical applications, they are still unable to represent the information contained in text documents and web pages in structured form, suitable for productive text processing. Text files can represent text documents with no loss of information, however, this information is represented in an unstructured form. Various knowledge formalisms used in different phases of Natural Language Understanding, such as lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and discourse analysis, are still unable to represent texts in structured form with no loss of information. In this paper, we define the crucial requirements for structured text representation and then, we give a brief introduction to a representation technique that fulfills all these requirements, including the basic data types and learning techniques used to create, maintain and interpret the resulting representation formalism.
Genetic analysis using the polymerase chain reaction.

The ability of PCR to amplify a specific DNA segment from a complex template in an automated reaction has made molecular analysis more accessible both to basic research and diagnostic laboratories. Modifications of the basic PCR method using generic primers now allow DNA amplification even in the absence of specific nucleotide sequence information. Although PCR has proved extremely valuable for detecting the presence or absence of a given sequence (e.g. diagnosis of infectious disease pathogens like HIV), it is uniquely suited to analyze genetic variation in the amplified DNA. The capacity to analyze DNA variation from limited samples like hair or cheek scrapings has made genetic diagnosis and population genetics studies much simpler and the amplification of specific sequences from individual cells (e.g. sperm) has opened new approaches to genetic mapping.
Querying a complex web-based KB for cultural heritage preservation

Monitoring the status of cultural heritage for its preservation is a complex activity that can be performed by human experts with the support of technology. This complexity is due to the need of considering several related aspects: parts of buildings, materials, damages, environmental conditions, risk factors, etc. Querying this complex knowledge base could benefit from a very expressive ontology and an efficient technology support for reducing response times especially when implicit knowledge needs to be inferred in Web applications. We adopt the Cidoc4HeriwarD ontology as a benchmark to analyse two different technologies for storing and querying semantic data: an open source one based on relational data bases and a commercial solution with a native triple store.
The urea transporter (UT) family: bioinformatic analyses leading to structural, functional, and evolutionary predictions.

We have identified all currently sequenced members of the urea transporter (UT) family (TC #1.A.28). Homologues occur exclusively in vertebrate animals and bacteria but not in other eukaryotic kingdoms or archaea. Sequence, structural, and phylogenetic analyses reveal conserved regions and residues and suggest that a primordial 5 transmembrane helical segment (TMS)-encoding genetic element duplicated to give a 10 TMS-encoding element early during evolutionary history, at about the time when eukaryotes diverged from prokaryotes. Two well-conserved, strongly amphipathic, putative alpha-helices that precede both 5 TMS repeat elements are predicted to be of structural, functional, or biogenic significance. A second duplication event (or a gene fusion event) occurred during development of the vertebrate lineage, giving rise to 20 TMS mammalian homologues. The results suggest that vertebrates acquired UT genetic information from bacteria only once and that all current orthologues and paralogues in the animal kingdom arose from this one primordial system.