Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Erythrocyte and Porcine Intestinal Glycosphingolipids Recognized by F4 Fimbriae of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Enterotoxigenic F4-fimbriated Escherichia coli is associated with diarrheal disease in neonatal and postweaning pigs. The F4 fimbriae mediate attachment of the bacteria to the pig intestinal epithelium, enabling an efficient delivery of diarrhea-inducing enterotoxins to the target epithelial cells. There are three variants of F4 fimbriae designated F4ab, F4ac and F4ad, respectively, having different antigenic and adhesive properties. In the present study, the binding of isolated F4ab, F4ac and F4ad fimbriae, and F4ab/ac/ad-fimbriated E. coli, to glycosphingolipids from erythrocytes and from porcine small intestinal epithelium was examined, in order to get a comprehensive view of the F4-binding glycosphingolipids involved in F4-mediated hemagglutination and adhesion to the epithelial cells of porcine intestine. Specific interactions between the F4ab, F4ac and F4ad fimbriae and both acid and non-acid glycosphingolipids were obtained, and after isolation of binding-active glycosphingolipids and characterization by mass spectrometry and proton NMR, distinct carbohydrate binding patterns were defined for each fimbrial subtype. Two novel glycosphingolipids were isolated from chicken erythrocytes, and characterized as GalNAcα3GalNAcß3Galß4Glcß1Cer and GalNAcα3GalNAcß3Galß4GlcNAcß3Galß4Glcß1Cer. These two compounds, and lactosylceramide (Galß4Glcß1Cer) with phytosphingosine and hydroxy fatty acid, were recognized by all three variants of F4 fimbriae. No binding of the F4ad fimbriae or F4ad-fimbriated E. coli to the porcine intestinal glycosphingolipids occurred. However, for F4ab and F4ac two distinct binding patterns were observed. The F4ac fimbriae and the F4ac-expressing E. coli selectively bound to galactosylceramide (Galß1Cer) with sphingosine and hydroxy 24:0 fatty acid, while the porcine intestinal glycosphingolipids recognized by F4ab fimbriae and the F4ab-fimbriated bacteria were characterized as galactosylceramide, sulfatide (SO3-3Galß1Cer), sulf-lactosylceramide (SO3-3Galß4Glcß1Cer), and globotriaosylceramide (Galα4Galß4Glcß1Cer) with phytosphingosine and hydroxy 24:0 fatty acid. Finally, the F4ad fimbriae and the F4ad-fimbriated E. coli, but not the F4ab or F4ac subtypes, bound to reference gangliotriaosylceramide (GalNAcß4Galß4Glcß1Cer), gangliotetraosylceramide (Galß3GalNAcß4Galß4Glcß1Cer), isoglobotriaosylceramide (Galα3Galß4Glcß1Cer), and neolactotetraosylceramide (Galß4GlcNAcß3Galß4Glcß1Cer).
Gata3 Hypomorphic Mutant Mice Rescued with a Yeast Artificial Chromosome Transgene Suffer a Glomerular Mesangial Cell Defect

ABSTRACT GATA3 is a zinc finger transcription factor that plays a crucial role in embryonic kidney development, while its precise functions in the adult kidney remain largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that GATA3 is specifically expressed in glomerular mesangial cells and plays a critical role in the maintenance of renal glomerular function. Newly generated Gata3 hypomorphic mutant mice exhibited neonatal lethality associated with severe renal hypoplasia. Normal kidney size was restored by breeding the hypomorphic mutant with a rescuing transgenic mouse line bearing a 662-kb Gata3 yeast artificial chromosome (YAC), and these animals (termed G3YR mice) survived to adulthood. However, most of the G3YR mice showed degenerative changes in glomerular mesangial cells, which deteriorated progressively during postnatal development. Consequently, the G3YR adult mice suffered severe renal failure. We found that the 662-kb Gata3 YAC transgene recapitulated Gata3 expression in the renal tubules but failed to direct sufficient GATA3 activity to mesangial cells. Renal glomeruli of the G3YR mice had significantly reduced amounts of platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), which is known to participate in the development and maintenance of glomerular mesangial cells. These results demonstrate a critical role for GATA3 in the maintenance of mesangial cells and its absolute requirement for prevention of glomerular disease.
Emergence of a Novel Avian Pox Disease in British Tit Species

Avian pox is a viral disease with a wide host range. In Great Britain, avian pox in birds of the Paridae family was first diagnosed in a great tit (Parus major) from south-east England in 2006. An increasing number of avian pox incidents in Paridae have been reported each year since, indicative of an emergent infection. Here, we utilise a database of opportunistic reports of garden bird mortality and morbidity to analyse spatial and temporal patterns of suspected avian pox throughout Great Britain, 2006–2010. Reports of affected Paridae (211 incidents) outnumbered reports in non-Paridae (91 incidents). The majority (90%) of Paridae incidents involved great tits. Paridae pox incidents were more likely to involve multiple individuals (77.3%) than were incidents in non-Paridae hosts (31.9%). Unlike the small wart-like lesions usually seen in non-Paridae with avian pox in Great Britain, lesions in Paridae were frequently large, often with an ulcerated surface and caseous core. Spatial analyses revealed strong clustering of suspected avian pox incidents involving Paridae hosts, but only weak, inconsistent clustering of incidents involving non-Paridae hosts. There was no spatial association between Paridae and non-Paridae incidents. We documented significant spatial spread of Paridae pox from an origin in south-east England; no spatial spread was evident for non-Paridae pox. For both host clades, there was an annual peak of reports in August/September. Sequencing of the avian poxvirus 4b core protein produced an identical viral sequence from each of 20 great tits tested from Great Britain. This sequence was identical to that from great tits from central Europe and Scandinavia. In contrast, sequence variation was evident amongst virus tested from 17 non-Paridae hosts of 5 species. Our findings show Paridae pox to be an emerging infectious disease in wild birds in Great Britain, apparently originating from viral incursion from central Europe or Scandinavia.
Current Mirror Array: A Novel Circuit Topology for Combining Physical Unclonable Function and Machine Learning

Edge analytics support industrial Internet of Things by pushing some data processing capacity to the edge of the network instead of sending the streaming data captured by the sensor nodes directly to the cloud. It is advantageous to endow machine learners for data reduction with suitable security primitives for privacy protection in edge computing devices to conserve area and power consumption. In this paper, we propose a novel physical unclonable function (PUF) based on current mirror array (CMA) circuits that reuses the circuit implementation of a machine learner–the extreme learning machine (ELM), which is a randomized neural network. Seven different challenge activation and response readout schemes are proposed to realize different weak and strong PUF functions from within the same CMA array. ELM endowed with such reconfigurable challenge-response mechanism is more robust and adaptable to different authentication protocols and security functions. Measurement results on <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.35\mu m$ </tex-math></inline-formula> test chips demonstrate that the proposed strong PUF outperforms other state-of-the-art designs with smaller area/bit of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$9\times 10^{-36} \mu m^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and lower native bit error rate (BER) of 0.16% with an added overhead of less than 2.5% power and 2.9% area over the native ELM implementation.
On-line monitoring and process control in selective laser melting and laser cutting

Real-time or on-line process monitoring and control is almost a ‘conditio sine qua non’ for many physical or chemical machining processes or so-called non-traditional or nonconventional machining. The augmented need for real-time monitoring and control in those processes, as compared to conventional (i.e. mechanical) machining, is due to the large number of process variables and disturbance factors characterizing physical and chemical processes, and to the physical or chemical nature of the process itself that is less deterministic or more variable than mechanical processes. This is why on-line monitoring and control has been developed in the past for several laser processes like laser welding and cladding. The present paper focuses on two other laser machining processes: i.e. the laser cutting and Selective Laser Melting. The paper discusses typical hardware (mainly optics) used for monitoring laser processes and gives some monitoring application examples. It also shows how such monitoring systems can be applied for adaptive feed-back control and demonstrates the performance of such control systems in improving the laser process robustness and productivity, as well as the resulting part quality.
A Time-Based Recommender System Using Implicit Feedback

Recommender systems provide personalized recommendations on products or services to customers. Collaborative filtering is a widely used method of providing recommendations based on explicit ratings on items from other users. However, in some ecommerce environments such as a mobile environment, it is difficult to collect explicit feedback data; only implicit feedback is available. In this paper, we present a method of building an effective collaborative filtering-based recommender system for an e-commerce environment without explicit feedback data. Our method constructs pseudo rating data from the implicit feedback data. When building the pseudo rating matrix, we incorporate temporal information such as the user’s purchase time and the item’s launch time in order to increase recommendation accuracy. Based on this method, we built a recommender system for a mobile e-commerce environment and conducted several experiments. Empirical results show our collaborative filtering-based recommender system to be significantly more accurate than a pure collaborative filtering system. Our approach can be applied to building collaborative filtering-based recommender systems for any ecommerce environment without explicit feedback.
Letter Position Coding Across Modalities: The Case of Braille Readers

Background The question of how the brain encodes letter position in written words has attracted increasing attention in recent years. A number of models have recently been proposed to accommodate the fact that transposed-letter stimuli like jugde or caniso are perceptually very close to their base words. Methodology Here we examined how letter position coding is attained in the tactile modality via Braille reading. The idea is that Braille word recognition may provide more serial processing than the visual modality, and this may produce differences in the input coding schemes employed to encode letters in written words. To that end, we conducted a lexical decision experiment with adult Braille readers in which the pseudowords were created by transposing/replacing two letters. Principal Findings We found a word-frequency effect for words. In addition, unlike parallel experiments in the visual modality, we failed to find any clear signs of transposed-letter confusability effects. This dissociation highlights the differences between modalities. Conclusions The present data argue against models of letter position coding that assume that transposed-letter effects (in the visual modality) occur at a relatively late, abstract locus.
Morphologies and Orientations of Aluminum Nitride Whiskers

Morphologies of ALN whiskers grown by vapor-liquid-solid mechanism (VLS) were investigated. Several types of whisker structures such as growth hill, stack structure were found. Orientations of AlN whiskers were studied, besides preferential crystallographic planes, {101n}(n=1,2,3)were found to be growth layers. Axial screw dislocation growth mechanism was confirmed, alsooblique growth mechanism was proposed.
Determination of the SNPP VIIRS SDSM screen transmittance from both yaw maneuver and regular on-orbit data

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite carries out radiometric calibration of its reflective solar bands primarily through observing a sunlit onboard solar diffuser (SD). The SD bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) degrades over time. The degradation factor is determined by an onboard solar diffuser stability monitor (SDSM) which observes the Sun through a pinhole screen and the sunlit SD. The transmittance of the SDSM pinhole screen over a range of solar angles was determined prelaunch and used initially to determine the BRDF degradation factor. The degradation factor versus time curves were found to have a number of very large unphysical undulations likely due to the inaccuracies in the prelaunch determined SDSM screen transmittance. To validate and if necessary to refine both the SD and the SDSM screen transmittances, satellite yaw maneuvers were carried out. With the yaw maneuver data determined SDSM screen transmittance, the computed BRDF degradation factor curves still have large unphysical ripples, indicating that the projected solar horizontal angular step size in the yaw maneuver data is too large to resolve the transmittance at a fine angular scale. We develop a methodology to use both the yaw maneuver and regular on-orbit data to determine the SDSM screen transmittance at a fine angular scale with a relative error standard deviation from 0.00029 (672 nm; detector 5) to 0.00074 (926 nm; detector 8). With the newly determined SDSM screen transmittance, the computed BRDF degradation factor behaves much more smoothly over time.
Bone Tissue Engineering Using Colloidal Gels and Native Extracellular Matrix Biomaterials

Self-assembling and shear-responsive biomaterials possess favorable rheological and viscoelastic properties to be injectable and facilitate minimally invasive surgery. The current thesis work describes the evaluation of malleable colloidal gel scaffolding technology for the regeneration of bone tissue in non-load bearing critical-sized defects. This represents the first attempt to form colloids exclusively from biomaterials found in the microenvironment of healing bone fractures including hyaluronic acid (HA), hydroxyapatite (HAP), bone and cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM). Work in the current thesis evaluated preliminary in vitro and in vivo efficacy of several injectable colloids. Specifically, HA-HAP colloids exhibiting desirable rheological, viscoelastic, and swelling properties for surgical placement and defect site retention were identified from an array of formulations. Subsequent formulation refinement incorporated micronized decellularized cartilage (DCC) and demineralized bone matrix (DBM) particles into HA-HAP colloids, which did not result in any significant decreases in measured fluid properties. Coupling ECM microparticles within a colloidal fluid carrier was hypothesized to enhance the regenerative capacity of HA-HAP colloidal formulations. In vitro studies demonstrated evidence of temporal chondrogenic, hypertrophic, and osteogenic gene expression in response to changes in colloidal composition. More specifically, the inclusion of DCC led to hypertrophic chondrogenesis while both HAP and demineralized bone matrix DBM colloidal formulations appeared to direct cell lineage down an osteogenic pathway in a temporal manner similar to expression profiles observed in native bone fracture healing. In vivo studies demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of colloidal scaffolds in critical-sized rat calvarial defects. Although no significant differences in regenerated bone were observed in defects treated with colloidal formulations compared to negative control, the presence of endochondral (EC) derived ossification foci were only observed in HA-HAP and
Optical and Structural Properties of Multi-wall-carbon- nanotube-modified ZnO Synthesized at Varying Substrate Temperatures for Highly Efficient Light Sensing Devices

Structural, optical and light detection properties on carbon-nanotube-modified ZnO thin films grown at various temperatures from room to 1173 K are investigated. The optical band gap values calculated from reflectivity data show a hump at a critical temperature range of 873-1073 K. Similar trends in surface roughness as well as crystallite size of the films are observed. These changes have been attributed to structural change from wurzite hexagonal to cubic carbon modified ZnO as also validated by x-ray diffraction, RBS and PIXE of these layers. UV and visible light detection properties show similar trends. It is demonstrated that the present films can sense both UV and visible light to a maximum response efficiency of 66 % which is much higher than the last reported efficiency 10 %. This high response is given predominantly by cubic crystallite rather than the wurzite hexagonal composites. Copyright © 2015 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Analysis for optimal distribution of PV panels and batteries in multilevel inverters

Multi-level inverters are preferred choice for PV application due to better harmonic profile and low dv/dt. Generally multilevel inverters for PV applications are fed with multiple sources and the load power distribution among these sources may not be equal for all operating conditions. This paper proposes an optimal distribution of PV panels and Batteries in multi level inverter for off grid PV applications. In this paper, generalized equations are proposed for calculating the energy supplied during each voltage level for any multilevel inverter. In addition, generalized panel distribution scheme in NPC inverter for optimal utilization of sources is also presented. This generalized panel distribution is according to pre calculated load shared by individual sources. This scheme is validated for five-level conventional NPC inverter. The advantages of the scheme are presented by State of Charge (SOC) of batteries using Mat lab/Simulink.
Enterovirus 3A Facilitates Viral Replication by Promoting Phosphatidylinositol 4-Kinase IIIβ–ACBD3 Interaction

ABSTRACT Like other enteroviruses, enterovirus 71 (EV71) relies on phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase IIIβ (PI4KB) for genome RNA replication. However, how PI4KB is recruited to the genome replication sites of EV71 remains elusive. Recently, we reported that a host factor, ACBD3, is needed for EV71 replication by interacting with viral 3A protein. Here, we show that ACBD3 is required for the recruitment of PI4KB to RNA replication sites. Overexpression of viral 3A or EV71 infection stimulates the interaction of PI4KB and ACBD3. Consistently, EV71 infection induces the production of phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI4P). Furthermore, PI4KB, ACBD3, and 3A are all localized to the viral-RNA replication sites. Accordingly, PI4KB or ACBD3 depletion by small interfering RNA (siRNA) leads to a reduction in PI4P production after EV71 infection. I44A or H54Y substitution in 3A interrupts the stimulation of PI4KB and ACBD3. Further analysis suggests that stimulation of ACBD3-PI4KB interaction is also important for the replication of enterovirus 68 but disadvantageous to human rhinovirus 16. These results reveal a mechanism of enterovirus replication that involves a selective strategy for recruitment of PI4KB to the RNA replication sites. IMPORTANCE Enterovirus 71, like other human enteroviruses, replicates its genome within host cells, where viral proteins efficiently utilize cellular machineries. While multiple factors are involved, it is largely unclear how viral replication is controlled. We show that the 3A protein of enterovirus 71 recruits an enzyme, phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase IIIβ, by interacting with ACBD3, which alters cellular membranes through the production of a lipid, PI4P. Consequently, the viral and host proteins form a large complex that is necessary for RNA synthesis at replication sites. Notably, PI4KB-ACBD3 interaction also differentially mediates the replication of enterovirus 68 and rhinovirus 16. These results provide new insight into the molecular network of enterovirus replication.
The complete mitochondrial genome of Epinephelus awoara (Perciformes: Epinephelus) with phylogenetic consideration

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome of the Epinephelus awoara was presented in this study. The mitochondrial genome is 16 798-bp long and consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region. The gene order and composition of Epinephelus awoara mitochondrial genome was similar to that of most other vertebrates. The nucleotide compositions of the light strand in descending order is 27.35% of A, 16.53% of C, 28.44% of T, and 27.69% of G. With the exception of the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 6 (ND6) and eight tRNA genes, all other mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand. The phylogenetic analysis by maximum-likelihood (ML) method shows that the Epinephelus awoara was closer to Epinephelus fasciatomaculosus in the phylogenetic relationship.
On the delay statistics of SR ARQ over Markov channels with finite round-trip delay

In this paper, the packet delay statistics of a fully reliable selective repeat automatic repeat request (SRARQ) scheme is investigated. The study is carried out assuming that the packet error process can be characterized by means of a discrete time Markov channel. The packets transmitted by the sender are checked for errors at the receiver's side, and acknowledgment messages (ACK or NACK), assumed error free, are sent back accordingly. It is assumed that the feedback message is known at the transmitter m channel slots after the packet transmission started. First, an analytical exact approach is described, in which an appropriate Markov model is developed in order to find the exact delay statistics. This allows to write close formulas related to the delivery delay experienced by ARQ packets. Moreover, in order to reduce the computational complexity of this analysis, an approximate model is presented. The results obtained from the approximate approach are in good agreement with the ones derived from the exact analysis.
A real time algorithm for the machine to machine communication-smart warrior system

M2M Communication is characterized by involving a myriad number of smart devices sharing information, monitoring and making efficient and intelligent decision without human intervention. Machine to Machine Communication (M2M-SWS) is a new concept of M2M Communication where entire battle field is not only controlled but also monitored by smart sensors. M2M is going to be a market-changing force for a wide variety of real-time monitoring applications, such as E-healthcare, Homes Automation system, Environmental monitoring and industrial automation as it is supporting to a large number of characteristics and achieving better cost efficiency. In this article we reviewed the different prospect of M2M Communication and introduce a new application scenario-M2M smart warrior system (M2M-SWS) [1]. In this paper an efficient sleep algorithms to control over power consumption in proactive way have been proposed. It is basically a probability based prediction algorithm same as our previous algorithm. In the previous TYM algorithm we used soft hand off method to predict the next location and save power instead we used the target prediction algorithm to predict next location of the Target. The proposed algorithm TYM-2 used for target prediction scheme by using Kinematics rule and theory of Probability so that both major issues i.e. Reliability and Energy efficiency should be covered.