Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A computational framework for a nutrient flow representation of energy utilization by growing monogastric animals

A computational framework to represent nutrient utilization for body protein and lipid accretion by growing monogastric animals is presented. Nutrient and metabolite flows, and the biochemical and biological processes which transform these, are explicitly represented. A minimal set of calibration parameters is determined to provide five degrees of freedom in the adjustment of the marginal input–output response of this nutritional process model for a particular (monogastric) animal species. These parameters reflect the energy requirements to support the main biological processes: nutrient intake, faecal and urinary excretion, and production in terms of protein and lipid accretion. Complete computational details are developed and presented for these five nutritional processes, as well as a representation of the main biochemical transformations in the metabolic processing of nutrient intake. Absolute model response is determined as the residual nutrient requirements for basal processes. This model can be used to improve the accuracy of predicting the energetic efficiency of utilizing nutrient intake, as this is affected by independent diet and metabolic effects. Model outputs may be used to generate mechanistically predicted values for the net energy of a diet at particular defined metabolic states.
Comparing stroke incidence worldwide: what makes studies comparable?

BACKGROUND Comparing stroke rates in different parts of the world and at different points in time may increase our understanding of the disease. Comparisons are only meaningful if they are based on studies that use similar definitions, methods, and data presentation. SUMMARY OF REVIEW We discuss the criteria that make such studies comparable, drawing on the experiences of recent studies performed around the world. If only those studies that fulfill the proposed criteria for comparison are considered, comparable data do not exist for vast areas of the world, including Africa, Asia, and South America. The importance of complete, community-based case ascertainment, including strokes managed outside the hospital, is emphasized. An approach for measuring and comparing the incidence of the pathological types of stroke (cerebral infarction, primary intracerebral hemorrhage, and subarachnoid hemorrhage) and subtypes of cerebral infarction is suggested. CONCLUSIONS The "ideal" stroke incidence study does not exist, but studies closely approaching it will reveal the most reliable and comparable results. There is a need for further studies to fill the gaps in our knowledge of the worldwide incidence of stroke, particularly for developing countries.
Water Taxes and Consumer Behavior in France

Water taxes are employed to correct externalities associated with water pollution or resource scarcity and to raise government revenue. In this paper, using a dataset on more than 4,000 French municipalities, we directly examine how water taxes affect consumer behavior as distinct from tax-exclusive water prices. Our analysis shows that a 10-cent tax increase reduces water consumption by 0.26 percent, similarly to a 10-cent increase in the tax-exclusive water price. The responsiveness of consumers to tax and tax-exclusive price is important because it gives information about consumers’ sensitivity to policy interventions versus market prices.
Aminopeptidase N mediates the utilization of the GSH precursor CysGly by cultured neurons

Neurons in culture rely on the supply of exogenous cysteine for their glutathione synthesis. After application of cysteine to neuron‐rich primary cultures, the glutathione content was doubled after a 4‐hr incubation. The dipeptide cysteinylglycine (CysGly) was able to substitute for cysteine as exogenous glutathione precursor. In kidneys, the ectopeptidase aminopeptidase N (ApN) has been reported to hydrolyze CysGly. Expression of mRNA of ApN in rat brain and cultured rat neurons was demonstrated by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and sequencing of the cDNA fragment obtained. In addition, the presence of ApN protein in cultured neurons was demonstrated by its immunocytochemical localization. In the presence of an activity‐inhibiting antiserum against ApN the utilization of CysGly as neuronal glutathione precursor was completely prevented, whereas that of cysteine plus glycine was not affected. The data presented demonstrates that cultured rat neurons express ApN and that this ectopeptidase participates in the utilization of CysGly as precursor for neuronal glutathione. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Plasmodium-specific basic amino acid residues important for the interaction with ferredoxin on the surface of ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase

The malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) possesses a plastid-derived, essential organelle called the apicoplast, which contains a redox system comprising plant-type ferredoxin (Fd) and Fd-NADP+ reductase (FNR). This system supplies reducing power for the crucial metabolic pathways in this organelle. Electron transfer between P. falciparum Fd (PfFd) and FNR (PfFNR) is performed with higher affinity and specificity than that of plant Fd and FNR. To investigate the mechanism for such superior protein-protein interaction, we searched for the Fd interaction sites on the surface of PfFNR. Basic amino acid residues on the FAD binding side of PfFNR were comprehensively substituted to acidic amino acids by site-directed mutagenesis. Kinetic analysis of electron transfer to PfFd and plant Fds, physical binding to immobilized PfFd and thermodynamics of the PfFd binding using these PfFNR mutants revealed that several basic amino acid residues including those in Plasmodium-specific insertion region are important for the interaction with PfFd. Majority of these basic residues are Plasmodium-specific and not conserved among plant and cyanobacteria FNRs. These results suggest that the interaction mode of Fd and FNR is diverged during evolution so that PfFd: PfFNR interaction meets the physiological requirement in the cells of Plasmodium species.
RL-Bin, Robust Low-overhead Binary Rewriter

Binary rewriters are used to ensure security properties or optimize and reduce runtime of existing binary applications. Existing binary rewriters are either static or dynamic, and both have severe shortcomings. Existing static rewriters have low overhead, but cannot rewrite correctly for all binaries. Existing dynamic rewriters are robust, but have high overhead - for example, for a subset of SPEC'06 benchmarks we measured, their overhead is 1.59X for PIN and 1.32X for DynamoRIO. Because of this high overhead, they are limited to off line testing, and cannot be used in deployment. We have built the first binary rewriter called RL-Bin which can rewrite all binaries correctly, but has low overhead (averaging 1.09X for our programs.) This makes it practical for continuous use in deployed software for the first time. This paper represents an early snapshot of on-going research, and we hope to bring this overhead down even further in the future. We have also shown how RL-Bin can be used to enforce CFI, a security mechanism.
The immunomodulatory effects of human mesenchymal stem cells on peripheral blood mononuclear cells in ALS patients

In a previous study, we reported that intrathecal injection of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) slowed disease progression in G93A mutant superoxide dismutase1 transgenic mice. In this study, we found that intrathecal MSC administration vastly increased the infiltration of peripheral immune cells into the spinal cord of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) mice (G93A mutant superoxide dismutase1 transgenic). Thus, we investigated the immunomodulatory effect of MSCs on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in ALS patients, focusing on regulatory T lymphocytes (Treg; CD4+/CD25high/FoxP3+) and the mRNA expression of several cytokines (IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, IL‐17, IL‐4, IL‐10, IL‐13, and TGF‐β). Peripheral blood samples were obtained from nine healthy controls (HC) and sixteen patients who were diagnosed with definite or probable ALS. Isolated PBMCs from the blood samples of all subjects were co‐cultured with MSCs for 24 or 72 h. Based on a fluorescence‐activated cell sorting analysis, we found that co‐culture with MSCs increased the Treg/total T‐lymphocyte ratio in the PBMCs from both groups according to the co‐culture duration. Co‐culture of PBMCs with MSCs for 24 h led to elevated mRNA levels of IFN‐γ and IL‐10 in the PBMCs from both groups. However, after co‐culturing for 72 h, although the IFN‐γ mRNA level had returned to the basal level in co‐cultured HC PBMCs, the IFN‐γ mRNA level in co‐cultured ALS PBMCs remained elevated. Additionally, the levels of IL‐4 and TGF‐β were markedly elevated, along with Gata3 mRNA, a Th2 transcription factor mRNA, in both HC and ALS PBMCs co‐cultured for 72 h. The elevated expression of these cytokines in the co‐culture supernatant was confirmed via ELISA. Furthermore, we found that the increased mRNA level of indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase (IDO) in the co‐cultured MSCs was correlated with the increase in Treg induction. These findings of Treg induction and increased anti‐inflammatory cytokine expression in co‐cultured ALS PBMCs provide indirect evidence that MSCs may play a role in the immunomodulation of inflammatory responses when MSC therapy is targeted to ALS patients.
Topical treatments for fungal infections of the skin and nails of the foot.

BACKGROUND Fungal infections of the feet normally occur in the outermost layer of the skin (epidermis). The skin between the toes is a frequent site of infection which can cause pain and itchiness. Fungal infections of the nail (onychomycosis) can affect the entire nail plate. OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of topical treatments in successfully treating (rate of treatment failure) fungal infections of the skin of the feet and toenails and in preventing recurrence. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Skin Group Specialised Register (January 2005), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library Issue 1, 2005), MEDLINE and EMBASE (from inception to January 2005). We screened the Science Citation Index, BIOSIS, CAB - Health and Healthstar, CINAHL DARE, NHS Economic Evaluation Database and EconLit (March 2005). Bibliographies were searched. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) using participants who had mycologically diagnosed fungal infections of the skin and nails of the foot. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors independently summarised the included trials and appraised their quality of reporting using a structured data extraction tool. MAIN RESULTS Of the 144 identified papers, 67 trials met the inclusion criteria. Placebo-controlled trials yielded the following pooled risk ratios (RR) of treatment failure for skin infections: allylamines RR 0.33 (95% CI 0.24 to 0.44); azoles RR 0.30 (95% CI 0.20 to 0.45); ciclopiroxolamine RR 0.27 (95% CI 0.11 to 0.66); tolnaftate RR 0.19 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.44); butenafine RR 0.33 (95% CI 0.24 to 0.45); undecanoates RR 0.29 (95% CI 0.12 - 0.70). Meta-analysis of 11 trials comparing allylamines and azoles showed a risk ratio of treatment failure RR 0.63 (95% CI 0.42 to 0.94) in favour of allylamines. Evidence for the management of topical treatments for infections of the toenails is sparser. There is some evidence that ciclopiroxolamine and butenafine are both effective but they both need to be applied daily for prolonged periods (at least 1 year). The 6 trials of nail infections provided evidence that topical ciclopiroxolamine has poor cure rates and that amorolfine might be substantially more effective but more research is required. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Placebo-controlled trials of allylamines and azoles for athlete's foot consistently produce much higher percentages of cure than placebo. Allylamines cure slightly more infections than azoles and are now available OTC. Further research into the effectiveness of antifungal agents for nail infections is required.
Three-port converter with decoupled power control strategies for residential PV-battery system

The traditional method for interconnecting PV and a battery energy storage system (BESS) to a household load uses at least two separate converters. In this paper, a fully-isolated three-port converter (TPC) which is based on a dual active bridge (DAB) configuration is proposed for integrating the PV and BESS with the household loads to avoid multistage power conversion. A converter with more than two ports is normally designed to have multimode operations which requires multiple control loops. Due to these multiple cross-coupled power control loops, designing closed loop power control strategies for the TPC becomes a complex issue. This paper presents the small signal modeling of the isolated TPC with proper decoupled networks to eliminate the interaction between multiple power control loops. The decoupled network allows a closed loop power control system design for the TPC to control the port powers independently. As two degrees of freedom (DOFs) are available, the control system can control the PV port power and the ac load port power. The battery port must then provide the balancing power. The power flows between the ports are managed by phase shift modulation (PSM). The responses of the power control system of the proposed TPC with decoupled networks are verified by simulation studies.
Spacecraft autonomous navigation via inter-spacecraft relaying communication for Mars prober

With the development of deep space exploration, the requirements of accuracy and real time for navigation services become higher, so that the traditional ground based network can hardly meet the user's needs. And the accuracy of existing autonomous navigation method, such as celestial navigation, cannot meet the requirement either. In order to improve the performance of autonomous navigation for deep space prober, a navigation method based on inter-satellite link and starlight angle is proposed in this article. The prober determines its position by communicating with other spacecrafts and observing the star. This navigation method is illustrated by an example of Mars exploration mission. To verify the feasibility of this method, simulation is used to analyze its accuracy in this paper. The results show that the Mars prober can reach the position accuracy of 100m, which is much higher than the traditional celestial navigation which only measure the starlight angle. Meanwhile, the selection strategy of communication object is given after analyzing the variance matrix at steady-state. The accuracy of this method will be improved along with the increasing of onboard spacecrafts. This kind of autonomous navigation will significantly contribute to the deep space exploration mission in the future.
Glass-embedded optofluidic lasers

We report the realization and characterization of optofluidic lasers fully embedded in glass chips. By coupling femtosecond micromachining technology for writing the microfluidic circuit with high resolution inkjet technology to fabricate the cavity mirrors, it was possible to get robust Fabry-Perot resonators suitable for low threshold optofluidic lasers. Using as active medium a solution of Rh-6G in ethanol, linewidth as low as 0.5 nm has been obtained with a threshold for oscillation at a pump fluence of 2 μJ/mm2. Different resonant cavities have been tested obtaining record performances for what concern pumping threshold and emission linewidth for Fabry-Perot based optofluidic lasers, achieving a quality factor Q ∼ 103.
Developing a Scale to Measure Parental Worry and Their Attitudes Toward Childhood Cancer After Successful Completion of Treatment

The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the psychometric characteristics of a scale designed to measure parents’ attitude toward childhood cancer after treatment has ended. In this study, the 2 theoretical frameworks (theory of attitude and theory of worry) were used as they related to the study. An attitude is an idea charged with negative or positive emotion, directed to a psychological object, such as cancer. A sample of 84 White, middle class, American parents (n = 49 mothers, n = 35 fathers) of 51 childhood cancer survivors, whose treatment ended between 1988 and 2005, was surveyed between November 2005 and February 2006. Two factors were extracted using principal component analysis with oblique rotation. Cronbach’s alpha reliability for Factor 1 was . 91 and for Factor 2 was . 76. This study suggests that most parents of cancer survivors tend to perseverate, ruminating on the idea that their child’s cancer will return; as a result, they remain in a heightened state of alertness and develop uncontrollable thoughts, or inconsolable worry, about the recurrence of the disease.
Neuroprotection via inhibition of nitric oxide synthase by bis(7)-tacrine

Here we report that bis(7)-tacrine, a novel acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, exerts neuroprotective effects by inhibition of nitric oxide synthase. In cortical neurons at 12 days in vitro, bis(7)-tacrine concentration-dependently reduced cell death induced by glutamate, &bgr;-amyloid and L-arginine, but not by nitric sodium nitroprusside. NG-monomethyl-L-arginine, a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, also prevented the former three types but not the last type of the cytotoxicity; however, nitric oxide scavengers blocked all of these insults, indicating that nitric oxide mediated these neuronal injuries. Furthermore, with nitric oxide synthase activity assays, it was found that bis(7)-tacrine not only suppressed the activation of nitric oxide synthase caused by glutamate in cortical neurons, but also directly inhibited the activity of nitric oxide synthase in vitro.
Evaluation of a novel continuous glucose monitoring guided system for adjustment of insulin dosing – PumpTune: a randomized controlled trial

Retrospective continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) can guide insulin pump adjustments, however, interpretation of data and recommending new pump settings is complex and subjective. We aimed to compare the safety and glycaemic profiles of children after their diabetologist or a novel algorithm (PumpTune) adjusted their insulin pump settings.
The monocarboxylate transporter family—Structure and functional characterization

Monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) catalyze the proton‐linked transport of monocarboxylates such as L‐lactate, pyruvate, and the ketone bodies across the plasma membrane. There are four isoforms, MCTs 1–4, which are known to perform this function in mammals, each with distinct substrate and inhibitor affinities. They are part of the larger SLC16 family of solute carriers, also known as the MCT family, which has 14 members in total, all sharing conserved sequence motifs. The family includes a high‐affinity thyroid hormone transporter (MCT8), an aromatic amino acid transporter (T‐type amino acid transporter 1/MCT10), and eight orphan members yet to be characterized. MCTs were predicted to have 12 transmembrane helices (TMs) with intracellular C‐ and N‐termini and a large intracellular loop between TMs 6 and 7, and this was confirmed by labeling studies and proteolytic digestion. Site‐directed mutagenesis has identified key residues required for catalysis and inhibitor binding and enabled the development of a molecular model of MCT1 in both inward and outward facing conformations. This suggests a likely mechanism for the translocation cycle. Although MCT family members are not themselves glycosylated, MCTs1–4 require association with a glycosylated ancillary protein, either basigin or embigin, for their correct translocation to the plasma membrane. These ancillary proteins have a single transmembrane domain and two to three extracellular immunoglobulin domains. They must remain closely associated with MCTs1–4 to maintain transporter activity. MCT1, MCT3, and MCT4 bind preferentially to basigin and MCT2 to embigin. The choice of binding partner does not affect substrate specificity or kinetics but can influence inhibitor specificity. © 2011 IUBMB Life, 2011
A recursive estimation of parameters of straight lines and circles: application to the segmentation of the Rey's Complex Figure

We explain a new approach in on-line segmentation of handwritten drawings by estimating circle bows or linear segments. In these two cases, we use an extended Kalman filter. The state and observation equations come from cartesian equations of these geometrical shapes with no-varying parameters to estimate. The parameters are recursively estimated with a very good accuracy during the acquisition of the points. The method is tested on a particular kind of handwritten drawings: the Rey's Complex Figure (Rey, 1942), used in neurological and psychological diagnosis in children. From the proposed segmentation, it should be easier to obtain the features retained by the psychologist in his analysis.
Study of a Software Structure for a 3 D-Audio-Device

The simulation of an auditory environment is audio signal processing depending on an acoustical model method and a given scene model. For signal processing we use a set of signal processing objects which can be glued to a signal processing network. The object structure depends on the requested acoustic model method in consideration of real-time aspects of an interactive virtual reality (VR). The final processing is executed on a common computer system. In this paper I would like to briefly show the inner structure of this signal processing tool for 3D-audio and the communication interface to the visual animation tool. I outline the structures and the generation of the signal processing network depending on two acoustical model methods for the simulation of an auditory environment. Furthermore concepts for some improvements of these basic structures are shown considering the limited processing resources in real-time systems.
Efficient full-wave modeling of patch antenna arrays with new single-layer capacitive feed probes

This paper introduces a new variation on the capacitive feed probe for patch antennas on thick substrates. It consists of a small circular probe-fed capacitor patch that is situated next to the resonant patch. This configuration can bring about significant savings in terms of manufacturing cost, but also lends itself to a very efficient full-wave analysis. As such, the main focus of this paper is a spectral-domain moment-method formulation, which was specifically developed for the analysis of large, but finite, arrays of these antenna elements. Entire-domain and subdomain basis functions are combined in an efficient way to minimize the computational requirements, most notably computer memory. It is shown that, for general antenna array configurations, memory savings of more than 1000 times can be achieved when compared with typical commercial software packages where only subdomain basis functions are used. A number of numerical and experimental results are also included in order to verify the spectral-domain moment-method formulation and to illustrate various applications of the new antenna element.
Indoor localization of unmanned aerial vehicles based on RSSI

Nowadays, finding the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) position in the absence of GPS is attractive and challenging problem in the research community. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm for mini UAV indoor localization based on distance measurements between the UAV and the existing infrastructure consisting of WiFi Access Points. Our algorithm uses two well-known techniques from the literature: Multi-dimensional Scaling (MDS) and Weighted Centroid Localization (WCL). Through extensive simulations we have shown that our algorithm is very suitable for indoor localization of mini UAVs. For small radio-range error, our algorithm exhibits a small localization error of less than 5% of the radio range.