Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identiﬁcation and characterization of a novel ABCA3 mutation

Identiﬁcation and characterization of a novel ABCA3 mutation. Physiol Genomics 40: 94–99, 2010. in the gene coding for ATP-binding cassette protein A3 (ABCA3) are recognized as a genetic cause of lung disease of varying severity. Characterization of a number of mutant ABCA3 proteins has demonstrated that the mutations generally affect intracellular localization or the ability of the protein to hydrolyze ATP. A novel heterozygous mutation that results in the substitution of cysteine for arginine at amino acid 295 in ABCA3 was identiﬁed in a premature infant with chronic respiratory insufﬁciency and abnormal lamellar bodies. Sequencing of DNA performed in study participants demonstrated that this was a mutation and not a common variant. Plasmid vectors containing ABCA3 with the identiﬁed novel mutation tagged with green ﬂuorescent protein on the carboxy terminus were generated. The effect of the mutation on protein function was characterized by examining the glycosylation state of the mutant protein in transiently transfected HEK293 cells and by examining ATP hydrolysis activity of the mutant protein with a vanadate-induced nucleotide trapping assay in stably transfected HEK293 cells. The ABCA3 protein containing the R295C mutation undergoes normal glycosylation and intracellular localization but has dramatically reduced ATP hydrolysis activity (12% of wild type). The identiﬁcation of one copy of this novel mutation in a premature infant with chronic respiratory insufﬁciency suggests that ABCA3 haploinsufﬁciency together with lung prematurity may result in more severe, or more prolonged, respiratory failure.
Rapid identification of mycobacteria to the species level by polymerase chain reaction and restriction enzyme analysis

A method for the rapid identification of mycobacteria to the species level was developed on the basis of evaluation by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the gene encoding for the 65-kDa protein. The method involves restriction enzyme analysis of PCR products obtained with primers common to all mycobacteria. Using two restriction enzymes, BstEII and HaeIII, medically relevant and other frequent laboratory isolates were differentiated to the species or subspecies level by PCR-restriction enzyme pattern analysis. PCR-restriction enzyme pattern analysis was performed on isolates (n = 330) from solid and fluid culture media, including BACTEC, or from frozen and lyophilized stocks. The procedure does not involve hybridization steps or the use of radioactivity and can be completed within 1 working day.
Simulation Study and Experimental Verification of a Universal Contactless Battery Charging Platform With Localized Charging Features

This paper presents a finite-element (FE) simulation study of a planar contactless battery charging platform for portable consumer electronic equipment. Magnetic field plots of the charging platform are generated under no-load and loaded conditions so that the field distribution of the planar charging platform can be visualized. Three working modes of the platform have been investigated and compared, including full excitation and two forms of selective excitation. With new results arising from this FE simulation study and practical experiments, the theory of the magnetomotive force (mmf) generation of the multilayer planar printed-circuit-board winding array structure can be further understood. The results obtained in this paper provide a foundation of understanding for future design and optimization of planar contactless charging platforms. In addition, it has been confirmed that an electromagnetic shield structure that has been applied to coreless planar transformer applications, can work equally well for the planar charging platform.
The Pathogenesis of Multiple Sclerosis: Relating Human Pathology to Experimental Studies

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex disease of unknown etiology. A careful study of the pathology of its component elements in relation to relevant experimental models has helped to understand some of the mechanisms that might be present in the disease. However, the autoimmune nature of the disease has recently come under question and there is a growing recognition of the importance of axonal, cortical, and white matter changes in the genesis and evolution of the lesions, their clinical diagnostic characteristics, and their response to treatment. This review highlights the emerging issues in MS from experimental, imaging and clinical perspectives.
A data mining approach to fistula surgery failure analysis in hemodialysis patients

Patients with End-stage renal disease (ESRD) require hemodialysis (HD). An important aspect of HD treatment is vascular access, which that arterio-venous fistula (AVF) is the most desirable form of it. In this study we analyze the attributes of early Failure AVFs. The main idea is using descriptive techniques of data mining — such as Clustering — to discover important factors of them.
Stability analysis of networked control systems with periodic protocols and uniform quantizers

Abstract The presence of a communication network in a control loop induces imperfections, such as quantization effects, packet dropouts, time-varying transmission intervals, time-varying transmission delays and communication constraints. The objectives of this paper are to provide a unifying modeling framework that incorporates all these imperfections, and to present novel techniques for the stability analysis for these networked control systems (NCSs). We focus on linear plants, linear controllers and periodic protocols, which leads to a modeling framework for NCSs based on discrete-time switched linear uncertain systems. Using an overapproximated system in the form of a polytopic model with additive norm-bounded uncertainty, we use LMI-based techniques to analyze the input-to-state stability (ISS) of the obtained NCS models with respect to the norm-bounded additive disturbances on plant and controller signals induced by quantization. These ISS conditions will be used to assess closed-loop stability and performance for periodic communication protocols and uniform quantizers, although the framework allows for extensions towards other types of protocols and other types of quantizers as well. We illustrate the effectiveness of the developed theory on a benchmark example of a batch reactor.
Source Characterization and Apportionment of PM10 in Panzhihua, China

ABSTRACTA total of 258 particulate matter (PM10) filter samples and 69 source samples applicable to receptor model source apportionment were collected and chemically analyzed from February to August 2007 in Panzhihua, China. Contributive sources were identified and the chemical profiles were reported for resuspended dust, paved and unpaved road dust, coal-fired power plant exhaust, emissions from coking plants and other industrial sources in Panzhihua. All samples were analyzed for 19 elements (Na-Pb), two ions (NO3– and SO42–) and organic and total carbon. Elevated abundances of geological components (Al, Si, Ca and Fe) from fugitive dust materials and elements (Ti, Cr, Mn, Cu and Zn) from special industry plants were found in the profiles. The contributions to the ambient PM10 levels at six sites in three seasons (spring, summer and winter) were estimated using a chemical mass balance receptor model. The concentration of PM10 was high (150 μg/m3) on winter days and low in summer and spring (133 and 129 μg/m3, respectively). Apportionment results indicate that coal combustion ash, iron and steel industry dust, vehicle exhaust and secondary SO42– were major contributors, accounting for about 70% of PM10. More attention should be paid to particulate matter emitted by iron and steel manufacturing facilities in view of high contribution and potentially toxic metals.
DPAODV – A Dynamic Probabilistic-based Energy Efficient Routing Protocol for MANETs

In AODV protocol every node broadcasts control packets with unit rebroadcast probability causing too many redundant transmissions leading to unnecessary energy consumption and hence reduced network lifetime. Limited power of the mobile devices is always a concern for research community forcing to develop more and more energy efficient techniques and protocols to increase the service lifetime. A probabilistic approach based energy efficient routing protocol Dynamic Probabilistic Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (DPAODV) is proposed. The proposed approach determines the threshold rebroadcast probability dynamically as a function of both additional coverage area and associated neighbouring node of a sender node. It is demonstrated that the proposed protocol reduces the number of rebroadcast packets per node during path discovery phase and out performs the existing routing protocols from their class in terms of average rebroadcast control packets, average received control packets and the energy consumption per node.
A K‐nearest neighbors survival probability prediction method

We introduce a nonparametric survival prediction method for right‐censored data. The method generates a survival curve prediction by constructing a (weighted) Kaplan–Meier estimator using the outcomes of the K most similar training observations. Each observation has an associated set of covariates, and a metric on the covariate space is used to measure similarity between observations. We apply our method to a kidney transplantation data set to generate patient‐specific distributions of graft survival and to a simulated data set in which the proportional hazards assumption is explicitly violated. We compare the performance of our method with the standard Cox model and the random survival forests method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Separability of light verb constructions in Persian

Persian Light Verb Constructions (LVCs), consisting of a light verb and a preverb, fall into two groups: separable and inseparable. The nominal preverbs in the former, unlike those in the latter, can function as direct object DP argument, can be modified by an adjective, and can be relativized, scrambled and focused on by Wh-interrogatives. In this paper, it is argued that the (in)separability of LVCs cannot necessarily be an indication of the fact that LVCs are formed at two levels of representation. It is shown that (in)separability of LVCs follows from the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of preverbs and light verbs in the language.
Murine mammary tumor virus pol-related sequences in human DNA: characterization and sequence comparison with the complete murine mammary tumor virus pol gene

Sequences in the human genome with homology to the murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV) pol gene were isolated from a human phage library. Ten clones with extensive pol homology were shown to define five separate loci. These loci share common sequences immediately adjacent to the pol-like segments and, in addition, contain a related repeat element which bounds this region. This organization is suggestive of a proviral structure. We estimate that the human genome contains 30 to 40 copies of these pol-related sequences. The pol region of one of the cloned segments (HM16) and the complete MMTV pol gene were sequenced and compared. The nucleotide homology between these pol sequences is 52% and is concentrated in the terminal regions. The MMTV pol gene contains a single long open reading frame encoding 899 amino acids and is demarcated from the partially overlapping putative gag gene by termination codons and a shift in translational reading frame. The pol sequence of HM16 is multiply terminated but does contain open reading frames which encode 370, 105, and 112 amino acid residues in separate reading frames. We deduced a composite pol protein sequence for HM16 by aligning it to the MMTV pol gene and then compared these sequences with other retroviral pol protein sequences. Conserved sequences occur in both the amino and carboxyl regions which lie within the polymerase and endonuclease domains of pol, respectively.
Role of General Competence in Risk and Ambiguity Preferences

Previous research has demonstrated that risk and ambiguity preferences are both influenced by a decision-maker’s perceived sense of competence. However, related research has been limited to the effects of task-specific competence rather than those of general competence. In this paper, we argue that a perception of competence need not be related to the domain of the evaluated decision in order to impact an individual’s risk and ambiguity preferences. We manipulated participants’ perceived sense of competence in a domain unrelated to the economic gambles they were later asked to evaluate. Although our research did not demonstrate significant differences in uncertainty preferences between our assigned competence groups and our control group, future research that refines and expands upon our methodology may reveal significant evidence supporting our argument.
PLZF Induces the Spontaneous Acquisition of Memory/Effector Functions in T Cells Independently of NKT Cell-Related Signals

The broad complex, tramtrack, bric-a-brac–zinc finger (BTB-ZF) transcription factor promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF) is required for development of the characteristic innate/effector functions of NKT cells. In this study, we report the characterization and functional analysis of transgenic mouse T cells with forced expression of PLZF. PLZF expression was sufficient to provide some memory/effector functions to T cells without the need for Ag stimulation or proliferation. The acquisition of this phenotype did not require the proliferation typically associated with T cell activation. Furthermore, PLZF transgenic cells maintained a diverse TCR repertoire, indicating that there was no preferential expansion of specific clones. Functionally, PLZF transgenic CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes were similar to wild type memory cells, in that they had similar requirements for costimulation and exhibited a similar pattern of cytokine secretion, with the notable exception that transgenic T cells produced significantly increased levels of IL-17. Whereas transgene-mediated PLZF expression was not sufficient to rescue NKT cell development in Fyn- or signaling lymphocytic activation-associated protein (SAP)-deficient mice, the acquisition of memory/effector functions induced by PLZF in conventional T cells was independent of Fyn and SAP. These data show that PLZF is sufficient to promote T cell effector functions and that PLZF acts independently of SAP- and Fyn-mediated signaling pathways.
Ulcers Caused by Bullous Morphea: Successful Therapy with N-Acetylcysteine and Topical Wound Care

Bullous morphea is an uncommon form of localized scleroderma. The pathogenesis is unknown and treatment of coexistent ulcers is difficult. The pathogenesis of bullae formation in morphea is multifactorial, but reactive oxygen species production appears to play a key role. We report a patient with bullous morphea with long-standing ulcers whom we successfully treated with N-acetylcysteine and topical wound care. N-acetylcysteine, an antioxidant sulfhydryl substance, promotes the healing of ulcers in patients with bullous morphea.
360° vision applications for medical training

In recent years, 360° videos combined with virtual reality (VR) techniques have been developed so that users can experience the content and interact with the environment, rather than just watch them. These technological resources offer an immersive vision in which each person can choose where to look at. Therefore, we began to move away from the classic forms of traditional recording and reproduction to focus on the most innovative production and video viewing in 360 degrees as a more real-world technology experience that allows the visualization of panoramic images in 360°, which facilitates a complete perspective of an object or environment with a surprising luxury of details, through images captured from different angles. We present a teaching experience of 360 degree immersive visualization of an operating room and an anatomical dissection room, with the aim of generating a virtual environment for learning, training and valuing the equipment that exists in these medical rooms.
On Role Assignment for Participatory Sensing System

Mobile crowd sensing is one of the most active areas of research. Participatory sensing is part of it in which participants sense their surroundings and collaborate to accomplish a given task. The participants in reference are smartphones. We focus on location dependent tasks and a problem of role assignment. An existing work on the same defines three types of roles for the participants: broadcasters, normal participants and location information receiver. The broadcasters and normal participants turn on their GPS while location information receivers rely on broadcasters to compute their position. The existing work provides a centralized approach which uses greedy algorithm for role assignment. We propose a sorting based algorithm which minimizes 12-25% of the time for medium and large datasets. We also modify the energy model to minimize power consumption of devices. For this we provide a scheme so that only few devices turn on cellular network to contact server as cellular network consumes considerable energy of smartphones. In the existing approach if new devices join the region then they cannot participate in the ongoing sensing task until server assigns them role during the next localization phase. In addition to this, if device leaves the region then its neighbouring devices may minimize energy needs by changing their role. However, in the current work the algorithm is required to run over entire set of participants for each insertion and deletion of participant. We provide an alternative method to allocate roles adaptively to new participants and change roles for the existing devices when some devices leave the region on fly. This helps to minimize over 95-99.9% time for role assignment compared to existing state of work. In addition to this, we have also proposed a distributed approach so that devices are self-capable of assigning role to themselves based on local information. This is first work so far to relieve server from the task of role assignment. Besides proposing a method, we have also taken into account the residual energy of smartphones for assigning the role of broadcaster which has not been considered before. Our algorithm takes 70-85% less time compared to centralized approach but consumes 12-15% more energy as it does not provide optimal set of broadcasters which requires global information. All the work has been validated through extensive experiments using both real and synthetic datasets.
High-quality JPEG compression history detection for fake uncompressed images

Abstract. Authenticity is one of the most important evaluation factors of images for photography competitions or journalism. Unusual compression history of an image often implies the illicit intent of its author. Our work aims at distinguishing real uncompressed images from fake uncompressed images that are saved in uncompressed formats but have been previously compressed. To detect the potential image JPEG compression, we analyze the JPEG compression artifacts based on the tetrolet covering, which corresponds to the local image geometrical structure. Since the compression can alter the structure information, the tetrolet covering indexes may be changed if a compression is performed on the test image. Such changes can provide valuable clues about the image compression history. To be specific, the test image is first compressed with different quality factors to generate a set of temporary images. Then, the test image is compared with each temporary image block-by-block to investigate whether the tetrolet covering index of each 4×4 block is different between them. The percentages of the changed tetrolet covering indexes corresponding to the quality factors (from low to high) are computed and used to form the p-curve, the local minimum of which may indicate the potential compression. Our experimental results demonstrate the advantage of our method to detect JPEG compressions of high quality, even the highest quality factors such as 98, 99, or 100 of the standard JPEG compression, from uncompressed-format images. At the same time, our detection algorithm can accurately identify the corresponding compression quality factor.
Algorithm 448: number of multiply-restricted partitions

Given a positiver integer <italic>m</italic> and an ordered <italic>k</italic>-tuple <italic>c</italic> = (<italic>c</italic><subscrpt>1</subscrpt>, ··· , <italic>c<subscrpt>k</subscrpt></italic>) of not necessarily distinct positive integers, then any ordered <italic>k</italic>-tuple <italic>s</italic> = (<italic>s</italic><subscrpt>1</subscrpt>, ··· , <italic>s<subscrpt>k</subscrpt></italic>) of nonnegative integers such that <italic>m</italic> = ∑<supscrpt><italic>k</italic></supscrpt><subscrpt><italic>i</italic>-1</subscrpt> <italic>s<subscrpt>i</subscrpt>c<subscrpt>i</subscrpt></italic> is said to be a partition of <italic>m</italic> restricted to <italic>c</italic>. Let <italic>P<subscrpt>c</subscrpt></italic>(<italic>m</italic>) denote the number of distinct partitions of <italic>m</italic> restricted to <italic>c</italic>. The subroutine <italic>COUNT</italic>, when given a <italic>k</italic>-tuple <italic>c</italic> and an integer <italic>n</italic>, computes an array of the values of <italic>P<subscrpt>c</subscrpt></italic>(<italic>m</italic>) for <italic>m</italic> = 1 to <italic>n</italic>. Many combinatorial enumeration problems may be expressed in terms of the numbers <italic>P<subscrpt>c</subscrpt></italic>(<italic>m</italic>). We mention two below.
Evaluation of the post-partum mare in relation to foal heat breeding. II. Uterine swabbing and biopsies.

Summary Fifty-three post-partum (p.p.) periods were studied in 38 mares. Uterine samples were taken on the 2nd and 5th days p.p. and thereafter every other day until ovulation. Uterine swabs were examined for bacteria and neutrophils and uterine biopsy specimens for neutrophils and lymphocytes. The occurrence of bacteria and leukocytes was most common on day 5 p.p. The dominant organism on day 2 was E. coli and on day 5 β-haemolytic streptococci. Thirty-four mares were inseminated during the first p.p. oestrus. Only the occurrence of neutrophils in day 5 biopsy specimens correlated with foal heat fertility. The pregnancy rate of mares with neutrophils or bacteria in uterine swabs was not significantly lower as compared to mares with no bacteria and no neutrophils. Routine swabbing of post-partum mares does not seem worthwhile. Zusammenfassung Untersuchungen zur Fohlenrosse der Stute post partum II. Uterus-Abstriche und Biopsien Bei 38 Stuten wurden 53 post partum (p.p.)-Perioden untersucht. Uterusproben wurden dabei am 2. und 5. Tag p.p. und danach in zweitagigen Abstanden bis zur Ovulation entnommen. Uterus-Abstriche wurden auf Bakterien und neutrophile Granulozyten und Uterus-Biopsieproben auf neutrophile Granulozyten und Lymphozyten untersucht. Bakterien und Leukozyten wurden am haufigsten am 5. Tag p.p. nachgewiesen. Die dominierenden Mikroorganismen am Tag 2 waren E. coli und am Tag 5 p.p. β-hamolytische Streptokokken. Wahrend des ersten Ostrus p.p. wurden 34 Stuten inseminiert. Nur das Vorkommen von neutrophilen Granulozyten in den am Tag 5 p.p. gewonnenen Biopsien war mit der Fertilitat im Anschlus an die Fohlenrosse korreliert. Die Trachtigkeitshaufigkeit von Stuten mit Neutrophilen oder Bakterien im Uterus-Abstrich war gegenuber Stuten ohne Bakterien und Neutrophile nicht erhoht. Die routinemasige Vornahme von Abstrichen bei post partum-Stuten scheint daher nichts zu bringen.