Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay and reference ranges for bisphosphoglycerate mutase in human erythrocytes

We established an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system for the determination of human bisphosphoglycerate mutase (BPGM) protein content in human erythrocytes using a polyclonal anti‐BPGM antibody, we determined reference ranges for BPGM protein content, synthase activity, and specific activity in human erythrocytes. We produced a recombinant human BPGM (rBPGM) by gene manipulation using E. coli and then obtained the polyclonal antibody by immunizing rabbits with purified rBPGM. The reproducibility of the ELISA was in an acceptable range with a coefficient of variation under 1.5%. The ELISA was reliable in the range of 0.1 to 10 ng/mL. The polyclonal anti‐rBPGM antibody did not show any cross‐reaction with recombinant human B type phosphoglycerate mutase, which is highly homologous to rBPGM. The ELISA was found to be practical for the determination of BPGM protein content in human erythrocytes. The mean BPGM protein content was 56.3 ± 9.7 μg/mL in whole blood (mean ± SD, n = 50). The ELISA can be used to examine various hematologic disorders with abnormal red cell size and cell counts, and to detect BPGM enzymopathy in human erythrocytes. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 12:263–267, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Null Semantics for Subqueries and Atomic Predicates

SQL is one of the major languages to manipulate and retrieve data in the databases. It was standardized by the corporation among researchers and commercial database industries into many versions. SQL provides NULL values for attributes which are unknown to the user. There are three meanings of NULL but they are not classified by database engines. Results of SQL queries show different meaning when they are produced by subqueries or atomic predicates. This paper explains the meaning of them with suggestions proposing to database community.
Coagulation factor Xa activates thrombin in ischemic neural tissue

Thrombin is involved in mediating neuronal death in cerebral ischemia. We investigated its so far unknown mode of activation in ischemic neural tissue. We used an in vitro approach to distinguish the role of circulating coagulation factors from endogenous cerebral mechanisms. We modeled ischemic stroke by subjecting rat organotypic hippocampal slice cultures to 30‐min oxygen (5%) and glucose (1 mmol/L) deprivation (OGD). Perinuclear activated factor X (FXa) immunoreactivity was observed in CA1 neurons after OGD. Selective FXa inhibition by fondaparinux during and after OGD significantly reduced neuronal death in the CA1 after 48 h. Thrombin enzyme activity was increased in the medium 24 h after OGD and this increase was prevented by fondaparinux suggesting that FXa catalyzes the conversion of prothrombin to thrombin in neural tissue after ischemia in vitro. Treatment with SCH79797, a selective antagonist of the thrombin receptor protease‐activated receptor‐1 (PAR‐1), significantly decreased neuronal cell death indicating that thrombin signals ischemic damage via PAR‐1. The c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) pathway plays an important role in excitotoxicity and cerebral ischemia and we observed activation of the JNK substrate, c‐Jun in our model. Both the FXa inhibitor, fondaparinux and the PAR‐1 antagonist SCH79797, decreased the level of phospho‐c‐Jun Ser73. These results indicate that FXa activates thrombin in cerebral ischemia, which leads via PAR‐1 to the activation of the JNK pathway resulting in neuronal death.
On-line identification with regularised Evolving Gaussian process

The on-line identification of nonlinear dynamical system with the regularised nonparametric regression approach is considered. The model structure is a nonlinear finite impulse response (NFIR) based on a Gaussian process (GP). The online estimation of the tuning parameters of the GP model leads to an Evolving Gaussian process whose structure adapts to the current dynamics of the measured system. The GP regression is a kernel method which requires storing the past measurements. The kernel-based on-line system identification is implementable only with a constraint on the amount of data stored. The on-line identification method combines together the forgetting factor for discounting old data and the moving window which neglects the highly discounted data. As a consequence, the online-identification problem may be ill-posed due to the discounted data. A regularisation approach is introduced for the estimation of the tuning parameters in order to avoid the ill-posed identification problem. The performance of the online identification method is demonstrated with an illustrative example.
Hierarchical Structured Dictionary Learning for image categorization

A novel Hierarchical Structured Dictionary Learning (HSDL) algorithm is proposed in this paper. It aims to learn classs-pecific dictionaries for all classes simultaneously in a hierarchical structure. A discriminative term based on Fisher discrimination criterion is jointly considered for both the classs-pecific dictionaries in the lower level and the shared dictionaries in the upper level to enhance the discrimination of dictionaries. The experimental results evaluated on the ImageNet database have shown the superior performance of HSDL over the state-of-the-art dictionary learning methods.
Doing Things Together: Some Basic Forms of Agency and Structure in Collective Action and Some Explanations

Studies of the growth and continuous regeneration of groups suggest answers to recent questions about the relations between agency and structure. Several of these studies are reviewed within a framework built on G.H. Mead's social behaviorism and on research concerning organizational growth and collective behavior. The explanations based on this framework are contrasted with alternative approaches
Asthma control in obesity-associated asthma phenotype in East Croatia.

AIM To determine if obese asthmatics represent a distinct clinical phenotype than non-obese and the level of asthma control in obese asthmatics. METHODS The study was conducted in the pulmonary clinic of the Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Osijek University Hospital Centre during 201, on 201 outpatients with asthma, who came to a regular examination. Each patient underwent a clinical examination with an extensive anamnesis and lung auscultation. During the examinationIanninternally made questionnaire, spirometry, fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), Asthma Control Test and Asthma Control Questionnaire were used to estimate the level of asthma control, wheread the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale was used to estimate the presence of mood disorderd. RESULTS The severity of asthma was increased in obese patients. There was no significant difference in the number and frequency of hospitalizations in obese compared to non-obese asthmatics. Non-obese asthmatics had more frequent visits to their general practitioner/Emergency medical services (GP/EMS) during the last month compared to obese asthmatics, which is a new finding inconsistent to any study conducted before. Obese asthmatics had more symptoms and had them almost every day. Lung function of obese asthmatic was worse compared to non-obese, especially in women. Values of exhaled nitric oxide showed no significant difference for obese asthmatics. No significant difference in intake of corticosteroids or combination therapy was found. Obese patients with asthma had more frequent and multiple comorbidities. CONCLUSION Results confirmed that obese asthmatics represent a different phenotype of asthma, more severe and poorly controlled.
Multidrug resistance protein P-gp interaction with nanoparticles (fullerenes and carbon nanotube) to assess their drug delivery potential: a theoretical molecular docking study

P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-mediated efflux system plays an important role to maintain chemical balance in mammalian cells for endogenous and exogenous chemical compounds. However, despite the extensive characterisation of P-gp potential interaction with drug-like molecules, the interaction of carbon nanoparticles with this type of protein molecule is poorly understood. Thus, carbon nanoparticles were analysed, such as buckminsterfullerenes (C20, C60, C70), capped armchair single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT or C168), and P-gp interactions using different molecular docking techniques, such as gradient optimisation algorithm (ADVina), Lamarckian genetic algorithm (FastDock), and shape-based approach (PatchDock) to estimate the binding affinities between these structures. The theoretical results represented in this work show that fullerenes might be P-gp binders because of low levels of Gibbs free energy of binding (ΔG) and potential of mean force (PMF) values. Furthermore, the SWCNT binding is energetically unfavourable, leading to a total decrease in binding affinity by elevation of the residual area (Ares), which also affects the π-π stacking mechanisms. Further, the obtained data could potentially call experimental studies using carbon nanostructures, such as SWCNT for development of drug delivery vehicles, to administer and assess drug-like chemical compounds to the target cells since organisms probably did not develop molecular sensing elements to detect these types of carbon molecules.
Evaluation of canine gastric motility with ultrasonography.

For the evaluation of canine gastric motility with ultrasonography, contraction number of pyloric antrum and gastric emptying time (GET) by area and volume method developed by Bolondi et al.'s method were studied in 14 dogs. All experimental dogs were administered with saline and soup solution (10 ml/kg, B.W.). The mean values of contraction number of pyloric antrum in saline and soup group were 4.19 +/- 1.30/min and 4.82 +/- 0.65/min before feeding, and overall mean values were 4.66 +/- 1.37/min and 5.13 +/- 1.71/min, respectively. The mean values of the GET by area and volume method were 36.73 +/- 11.27, 40.00 +/- 8.87 min in saline group and 61.35 +/- 17.58, 59.11 +/- 14.46 min in soup group. In the GET in saline and soup groups, there was no significant difference between the area and volume method (p>0.05). Therefore, Bolondi et al.'s method by ultrasound can be used to evaluate the antropyloric motility and gastric emptying time with area and volume methods. The area method is easier to determine the GET than the volume method, but the latter is more accurate.
On the Minimum Energy of Sending Correlated Sources Over the Gaussian MAC

In this paper, we investigate the minimum energy of transmitting correlated sources over the Gaussian multiple-access channel. Compared to other works on joint source-channel coding, we consider the fundamental problem of the minimum transmission energy, where the source and channel bandwidths are not naturally matched. Different models of correlated sources are studied. We first treat lossy transmission of Gaussian sources, including multiterminal sources and CEO sources. We then consider lossless transmission of correlated binary sources. In all cases, we lower bound the minimum energy using a cut-set argument that couples transmission energy and the distortions for the Gaussian cases (or source entropy for the discrete case). For the achievable schemes, separate source and channel coding and uncoded transmission are studied as benchmarks. In addition, we show that hybrid digital/analog transmission achieves the best known energy efficiency.
Ammonia Derived from Glutaminolysis Is a Diffusible Regulator of Autophagy

A volatile metabolic by-product can promote cell survival through the induction of autophagy. From Metabolism to Autophagy Autophagy is a catabolic process in which macromolecules and organelles are degraded to reclaim nutrients during starvation or to eliminate damaged, potentially toxic cellular components. Dysregulation of autophagy has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases, including cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Noting that culture medium conditioned by actively proliferating cells increased autophagy in secondary cell cultures, Eng et al. identified ammonia, a volatile by-product of a metabolic process known as glutaminolysis, as a diffusible stimulator of autophagy. Glutaminolysis can be higher in tumor cells than in normal cells, and in mice implanted with tumor xenografts derived from human cancer cell lines, ammonia concentrations in tumor-associated fluids were higher than those found in the general circulation of the murine host and were similar to those required for autophagy stimulation. Moreover, ammonia-induced autophagy protected cells from cell death triggered by exposure to tumor necrosis factor–α. Together, these results suggest that treatments that alter intracellular glutamine concentrations or target glutamine metabolism may be possible strategies in cancer therapy. Autophagy is a tightly regulated catabolic process that plays key roles in normal cellular homeostasis and survival during periods of extracellular nutrient limitation and stress. The environmental signals that regulate autophagic activity are only partially understood. Here, we report a direct link between glutamine (Gln) metabolism and autophagic activity in both transformed and nontransformed human cells. Cells cultured for more than 2 days in Gln-containing medium showed increases in autophagy that were not attributable to nutrient depletion or to inhibition of mammalian target of rapamycin. Conditioned medium from these cells contained a volatile factor that triggered autophagy in secondary cell cultures. We identified this factor as ammonia derived from the deamination of Gln by glutaminolysis. Gln-dependent ammonia production supported basal autophagy and protected cells from tumor necrosis factor–α (TNF-α)–induced cell death. Thus, Gln metabolism not only fuels cell growth but also generates an autocrine- and paracrine-acting regulator of autophagic flux in proliferating cells.
Virtualizing transactional memory

Writing concurrent programs is difficult because of the complexity of ensuring proper synchronization. Conventional lock-based synchronization suffers from well-known limitations, so researchers have considered nonblocking transactions as an alternative. Recent hardware proposals have demonstrated how transactions can achieve high performance while not suffering limitations of lock-based mechanisms. However, current hardware proposals require programmers to be aware of platform-specific resource limitations such as buffer sizes, scheduling quanta, as well as events such as page faults, and process migrations. If the transactional model is to gain wide acceptance, hardware support for transactions must be virtualized to hide these limitations in much the same way that virtual memory shields the programmer from platform-specific limitations of physical memory. This paper proposes virtual transactional memory (VTM), a user-transparent system that shields the programmer from various platform-specific resource limitations. VTM maintains the performance advantage of hardware transactions, incurs low overhead in time, and has modest costs in hardware support. While many system-level challenges remain, VTM takes a step toward making transactional models more widely acceptable.
Vitamin D and Stage 5 Chronic Kidney Disease: A New Paradigm?

Vitamin D receptor agonists (VDRA) are currently recommended for the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in stage 5 CKD. They are considered to be contraindicated in the presence of low or normal (for a dialysis patient) levels of PTH due to the risk of developing adynamic bone disease, with consequent vascular calcification. However, these recommendations are increasingly at odds with the epidemiological evidence, which consistently shows a large survival advantage for patients treated with low‐dose VDRAs, regardless of plasma calcium, phosphate, or PTH. A large number of pleiotropic effects of vitamin D have been described, including inhibition of renin activity, anti‐inflammation, and suppression of vascular calcification stimulators and stimulation of vascular calcification inhibitors present in the uremic milieu. Laboratory studies suggest that a normal cellular vitamin D level is necessary for normal cardiomyocyte and vascular smooth muscle function. While pharmacological doses of VDRA can be harmful, the present evidence suggests that the level of 1,25‐dihydroxycholecalciferol should also be more physiological in stage 5 CKD, and that widespread use of low‐dose VDRA would be beneficial. A randomized controlled trial to test this hypothesis is warranted.
Implementing the General Education Development (GED) Program in First Nations Communities: Struggles for Power.

This paper describes an ethnographic case study of eleven First Nations adult learners in a Northern Ontario community attempting to earn secondary school equivalency through the General Education Development (GED) program. The paper maintains a focus on the power differentials at work in both the learners' prior educational endeavours and their experiences while working inside of the GED program. Based on the data, we argue that, despite appearances to the contrary, First Nations learners are subjected to a system of education that is failing to empower those learners to take advantage of educational opportunities that are available in mainstream Canadian society. Cet article decrit une etude ethnographique de cas aupres de onze apprenants adultes autochtones qui tentent, dans une communaute du Nord de l’Ontario, d’obtenir une equivalence d’etudes secondaires par des cours de formation generale (GED). Plus precisement, l’article porte sur les ecarts systemiques de pouvoir qui entrent en ligne de compte tant dans les etudes prealables des apprenants que dans leurs experiences avec le programme GED. En s’appuyant sur les donnees, nous affirmons que, meme si les apparences peuvent laisser supposer le contraire, les apprenants autochtones sont soumis a un systeme d’education qui ne reussit pas a les doter des competences necessaires pour saisir les possibilites educatives offertes par la societe canadienne.
Array gain and capacity for known random channels with multiple element arrays at both ends

Two arrays with M and N elements are connected via a scattering medium giving uncorrelated antenna signals. The link array gain relative to the case of one element at each end is treated for the situation where the channels are known at the transmitter and receiver. It is shown that the maximum mean gain achieved through adaptive processing at both the transmitter and the receiver is less than the free space gain, and cannot be expressed as a product of separate gains. First, by finding the singular values of the transmission matrix, fundamental limitations concerning the maximum gain and the diversity orders are given, indicating that the gain is upper bounded by (/spl radic/M+/spl radic/N)/sup 2/ and the diversity order is MN. Next an iterative technique for reciprocal channels which maximizes power at each stage transmitting back and forth is described. The capacity or spectral efficiency of the random channel is described, and it is indicated how the capacity is upper bounded by N parallel channels of gain M(N
CAPI: A Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface

Heterogeneous computing systems combine different types of compute elements that share memory. A specific class of heterogeneous systems discussed in this paper pairs traditional general-purpose processing cores and accelerator units. While this arrangement enables significant gains in application performance, device driver overheads and operating system code path overheads can become prohibitive. The I/O interface of a processor chip is a well-suited attachment point from a system design perspective, in that standard server models can be augmented with application-specific accelerators. However, traditional I/O attachment protocols introduce significant device driver and operating system software latencies. With the Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI), we enable attaching an accelerator as a coherent CPU peer over the I/O physical interface. The CPU peer features consist of a homogeneous virtual address space across the CPU and accelerator, and hardware-managed caching of this shared data on the I/O device. This attachment method greatly increases the opportunities for acceleration due to the much shorter software path length required to enable its use compared to a traditional I/O model.
Force–Velocity Assessment of Caress-Like Stimuli Through the Electrodermal Activity Processing: Advantages of a Convex Optimization Approach

We propose the use of the convex optimization-based EDA (cvxEDA) framework to automatically characterize the force and velocity of caressing stimuli through the analysis of the electrodermal activity (EDA). CvxEDA, in fact, solves a convex optimization problem that always guarantees the globally optimal solution. We show that this approach is especially suitable for the implementation in wearable monitoring systems, being more computationally efficient than a widely used EDA processing algorithm. In addition, it ensures low-memory consumption, due to a sparse representation of the EDA phasic components. EDA recordings were gathered from 32 healthy subjects (16 females) who participated in an experiment where a fabric-based wearable haptic system conveyed them caress-like stimuli by means of two motors. Six types of stimuli (combining three levels of velocity and two of force) were randomly administered over time. Performance was evaluated in terms of execution time of the algorithm, memory usage, and statistical significance in discerning the affective stimuli along force and velocity dimensions. Experimental results revealed good performance of cvxEDA model for all of the considered metrics.
Multimedia Information Retrieval at the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval

Abstract : Building the digital libraries of the future will require a number of different component technologies including the ability to retrieve multimedia information. This paper will describe progress in this area at the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR). This includes: (1) Multi-modal retrieval using appearance based image retrieval and text retrieval. This work has been applied to a large database of trademarks containing image and text data from the US Patent and Trademark Office. 68,000 trademarks may be searched using either image retrieval or image and text retrieval while 615,000 trademarks may be searched using text retrieval. (2) Indexing handwritten manuscripts. Recently we have developed a scale space technique for word segmentation in handwritten manuscripts. (3) Other projects including color based image retrieval and the extraction of text from images.
Gastro-oesophageal reflux monitoring: review and consensus report on detection and definitions of acid, non-acid, and gas reflux

To date, most concepts on the frequency of gastro-oesophageal reflux episodes and the efficiency of the antireflux barrier have been based on inferences derived from measurement of oesophageal pH. The development of intraluminal impedance monitoring has highlighted the fact that pH monitoring does not detect all gastro-oesophageal reflux events when little or no acid is present in the refluxate, even if special pH tracing analysis criteria are used. In November 2002, a workshop took place at which 11 specialists in the field of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease discussed and criticised all currently available techniques for measurement of reflux. Here, a summary of their conclusions and recommendations of how to achieve the best results from the various techniques now available for reflux measurement is presented.