Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formation and growth of clusters in conventional and new kinds of simulated body fluids.

Simulated body fluid (SBF) with ion concentrations approximately equal to those of human blood plasma has been widely used for the in vitro assessment of the bioactivity of artificial materials and for the formation of bonelike apatite on various substrates. Ion concentrations of conventional SBF (c-SBF) are, however, not exactly equal to those of blood plasma, and hence the apatite formed in c-SBF is not the same as bone apatite in its composition and structure. Recently, the present authors prepared new kinds of SBFs (r-SBF, i-SBF, and m-SBF) with ion concentrations nearer to those of blood plasma. The r-SBF and i-SBF have ion concentrations equal to those of blood plasma in total and dissociated amounts, respectively. The m-SBF has ion concentrations equal to those of blood plasma in total amount except for the HCO(-) (3) concentration, which was set to the saturated level with respect to calcite. In the present study, the stabilities of c-SBF, r-SBF, i-SBF and m-SBF were examined in terms of cluster formation in the fluids by means of dynamic light scattering photometry. The c-SBF and m-SBF were found to form only calcium phosphate clusters, whose initial hydrodynamic diameter was approximately 1 nm, and this did not change with storage time at 36.5 degrees C. Besides the calcium phosphate clusters, r-SBF and i-SBF formed calcium carbonate clusters, whose initial hydrodynamic diameters were 10-30 nm, and these increased significantly with storage time. The formation and growth of calcium carbonate clusters in r-SBF and i-SBF can be attributed to their supersaturation with respect to calcite. These indicate that r-SBF and i-SBF lack long-term stability. The m-SBF is recommended for the assessment of bioactivity of artificial materials as well as the formation of bonelike apatite on various substrates from the viewpoint of stability as well as similarity to blood plasma.
The complete mitogenome sequence of Pseudohynobius jinfo (Urodela: Hynobiidae)

Abstract The complete mitogenome sequence of Pseudohynobius jinfo, which is endemic to China, is sequenced in the present study. The genome was 16,393 bp in length, including 13 typical vertebrate protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 1 non-coding control region. Except for ND6 and eight tRNA genes, all other mitochondrial genes were encoded on the heavy strand. The gene order and composition of P. jinfo was similar to that of the most Hynobiidae. Seven genes (ND1, ND2, COII, COIII, ND3, ND4 and Cytb) had an incomplete stop codon. Base composition of the genome was A (33.6%), T (31.8%), C (20.6%) and G (14.1%) with an A + T-rich feature (65.4%) as that of other vertebrate mitochondrial genomes. There was a long non-coding region (126 bp) between tRNA-Thr and tRNA-Pro genes.
Catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy in a patient with pheochromocytoma and polycystic kidney and liver disease: a case report

Abstract Background Clinical manifestations of pheochromocytoma (PCC) frequently are not specific and can be attributed to other pathologies. The most dreaded manifestation is catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy. A prompt diagnosis, sometimes extremely problematic due to associated conditions of the patient, is essential for clinical outcomes, because early resection of PCC may prevent progression to irreversible cardiac remodelling. Case summary We present a case of 47-year-old woman with suspected acute coronary syndrome but intact coronary vessels. Electrocardiogram examination showed ST depression suggestive for coronary ischaemia. Echocardiography revealed reduced ejection fraction of left ventricle and global hypokinesis. Abdominal ultrasound examination determined multiple cysts in liver and both kidneys. The patient had unclear transient states of sudden sweating, pale skin, nausea, and vomiting accompanied by hypertensive crisis. Fractioned urinary metanephrines were considerably increased. Contrasted computed tomography of abdominal cavity and pelvis revealed in both liver lobes many cysts; both kidneys showed multiple cysts too; in the right adrenal gland was detected a filling defect. Computed tomography findings have established diagnosis of adrenal PCC of right gland associated with liver and kidney polycystic disease. Discussion Phechromocytoma, with primary manifestation as catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy, in patient with polycystic kidney and liver disease could represent a really challenging diagnosis. Clinical manifestations of PCC frequently are not specific and can be explained by associated pathologies. This is the second case of adrenalectomy due to PCC associated with polycystic kidney and liver disease reported in the medical literature.
Genome-wide analysis reveals methyl-CpG–binding protein 2–dependent regulation of microRNAs in a mouse model of Rett syndrome

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, noncoding RNAs that function as posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression. Many miRNAs are expressed in the developing brain and regulate multiple aspects of neural development, including neurogenesis, dendritogenesis, and synapse formation. Rett syndrome (RTT) is a progressive neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the gene encoding methyl-CpG–binding protein 2 (MECP2). Although Mecp2 is known to act as a global transcriptional regulator, miRNAs that are directly regulated by Mecp2 in the brain are not known. Using massively parallel sequencing methods, we have identified miRNAs whose expression is altered in cerebella of Mecp2-null mice before and after the onset of severe neurological symptoms. In vivo genome-wide analyses indicate that promoter regions of a significant fraction of dysregulated miRNA transcripts, including a large polycistronic cluster of brain-specific miRNAs, are DNA-methylated and are bound directly by Mecp2. Functional analysis demonstrates that the 3′ UTR of messenger RNA encoding Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) can be targeted by multiple miRNAs aberrantly up-regulated in the absence of Mecp2. Taken together, these results suggest that dysregulation of miRNAs may contribute to RTT pathoetiology and also may provide a valuable resource for further investigations of the role of miRNAs in RTT.
REGENERATION OF PERIPHERAL MOTOR NERVE GAPS WITH A POLYGLYCOLIC ACID‐COLLAGEN TUBE: TECHNICAL CASE REPORT

OBJECTIVEAfter previous success in regenerating canine peripheral nerves over 80 mm gaps using a bioabsorbable nerve guide tube, we have extended this method to the treatment of patients experiencing various types of nerve injury. This report describes the treatment of two cases of motor nerve disorder. METHODSThe bioabsorbable nerve tube was a cylindrically woven polyglycolic acid (PGA) tube filled with collagen. A peripheral motor nerve defect (the frontalis branch of the facial nerve) was reconstructed using this PGA-collagen tube in two patients who experienced posttraumatic unilateral eyebrow ptosis for 3 months. RESULTSFive months after surgery, both patients regained their ability to voluntarily lift their eyebrows symmetrically. Electrophysiological examination at 5 months revealed recovery of compound muscle action potential and disappearance of distal latency on the affected side. CONCLUSIONThis is the first clinical report of motor nerve recovery achieved using the PGA-collagen nerve guide tube. The results suggest that use of a PGA-collagen tube is a promising option for the repair of motor nerve defects.
Dynamic mean-variance portfolio selection with exogenous liability and borrowing constraint

In this paper, we consider a dynamic mean-variance model for asset and liability management with borrowing constraint. The purpose of this paper is to derive an optimal portfolio strategy and an efficient frontier. Since the problem can be formulated as a stochastic piecewise linear-quadratic (PLQ) control problem, we employ the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation and the Lagrangian duality theory to solve this problem. A numerical example is given to demonstrate our results and show the impact of borrowing constraint on the efficient frontier.
Two decades of experience with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast in the Cancer Institute of Tehran, Iran.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer screening and higher quality mammography have resulted in an increase in the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ worldwide. We compared the incidence and other factors in our cases of ductal carcinoma in situ between two recent decades. MATERIALS AND METHODS Medical records of cases of ductal carcinoma in situ who had been admitted to the surgery wards of the Cancer Institute of Tehran, Iran were evaluated from March 1993 to March 2003 as phase 1, and from April 2003 to April 2013 as phase 2. RESULTS Ratio of ductal carcinoma in situ to overall breast cancer was 1.27 and 3.93 in phases 1 and 2, respectively. Rates of excisional or incisional biopsies versus core needle biopsies and clinically versus mammographically detected cases as well as median size of tumors dropped between the 2 phases while a substantial rise in the number of patients attending for screening was seen in this time period. Surgical treatments followed a trend from modified radical mastectomy and axillary lymphatic dissection toward breast conserving surgery and sentinel node dissection or no axillary intervention. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows a considerable trend toward earlier detection of breast cancer and evolution of treatment strategies toward standard less invasive surgery of DCIS in Iran.
Cluster formation for multi-strain infections with cross-immunity

Many infectious diseases exist in several pathogenic variants, or strains, which interact via cross-immunity. It is observed that strains tend to self-organise into groups, or clusters. The aim of this paper is to investigate cluster formation. Computations demonstrate that clustering is independent of the model used, and is an intrinsic feature of the strain system itself. We observe that an ordered strain system, if it is sufficiently complex, admits several cluster structures of different types. Appearance of a particular cluster structure depends on levels of cross-immunity and, in some cases, on initial conditions. Clusters, once formed, are stable, and behave remarkably regularly (in contrast to the generally chaotic behaviour of the strains themselves). In general, clustering is a type of self-organisation having many features in common with pattern formation. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. MSC: primary 92D30; 34D20
A Utility-Aware Visual Approach for Anonymizing Multi-Attribute Tabular Data

Sharing data for public usage requires sanitization to prevent sensitive information from leaking. Previous studies have presented methods for creating privacy preserving visualizations. However, few of them provide sufficient feedback to users on how much utility is reduced (or preserved) during such a process. To address this, we design a visual interface along with a data manipulation pipeline that allows users to gauge utility loss while interactively and iteratively handling privacy issues in their data. Widely known and discussed types of privacy models, i.e., syntactic anonymity and differential privacy, are integrated and compared under different use case scenarios. Case study results on a variety of examples demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Computing the domain of attraction for hybrid nonlinear system

In this paper we discuss the enlargement of the Domain of Attraction (DA) of nonlinear hybrid system. Combination of LMI with Genetic Algorithms (GA) results in a sufficient enlargement of DA. A common Lyapunov function is estimated by the GA and a lower bound is computed by LMI optimization. The proposed approach is validated by a switched van der Pool system.
Molecular characterization and mapping of ALMT 1 , the aluminium-tolerance gene of bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum L . )

The major aluminum (Al) tolerance gene in wheat ALMT1 confers an Al-activated efflux of malate from root apices. We determined the genomic structure of the ALMT1 gene and found it consists of 6 exons interrupted by 5 introns. Sequencing a range of wheat genotypes identified 3 alleles for ALMT1, 1 of which was identical to the ALMT1 gene from an Aegilops tauschii accession. The ALMT1 gene was mapped to chromosome 4DL using ‘Chinese Spring’ deletion lines, and loss of ALMT1 coincided with the loss of both Al tolerance and Al-activated malate efflux. Aluminium tolerance in each of 5 different doubled-haploid populations was found to be conditioned by a single major gene. When ALMT1 was polymorphic between the parental lines, QTL and linkage analyses indicated that ALMT1 mapped to chromosome 4DL and cosegregated with Al tolerance. In 2 populations examined, Al tolerance also segregated with a greater capacity for Al-activated malate efflux. Aluminium tolerance was not associated with a particular coding allele for ALMT1, but was significantly correlated with the relative level of ALMT1 expression. These findings suggest that the Al tolerance in a diverse range of wheat genotypes is primarily conditioned by ALMT1.
The Nok Terracotta Sculptures of Pangwari

Since their discovery in the mid-20 th century, the terracottas of the Nok Culture in Central Nigeria, which represent the earliest large-scale sculptural tradition in Sub-Saharan Africa, have attracted attention well beyond specialist circles. Their cultural context, however, remained virtually unknown due to the lack of scientifically recorded, meaningful find conditions. Here we will describe an archaeological feature uncovered at the almost completely excavated Nok site of Pangwari, a settlement site located in the South of Kaduna State, which provided sufficient information to conclude that the terracotta sculptures had been deliberately destroyed and then deposited, emphasising the ritual aspect of early African figurative art.Similar observations were made at various other sites we had examined previously. But the terracottas found at Pangwari not only augmented our insights into the advanced stylistic development of the Nok sculptures, they also exhibited scenes of daily life like a relief of a dugout boat with two paddlers, or remarkable details like a marine shell on the head of a human figure – details indicating trans-regional trade and long-distance contacts. Other finds from Pangwari deepen our knowledge of therianthropic creatures among the terracottas of the Nok Culture.
The 120 kilodalton outer membrane protein (rOmp B) of Rickettsia rickettsii is encoded by an unusually long open reading frame: evidence for protein processing from a large precursor

A Rickettsia rickettsii outer surface membrane protein (rOmp B), of an apparent molecular mass of 120 kilodaltons, is a major surface antigen of the Rickettsiae that displays genus, species, and sub‐species specific antigenic determinants. The 5′ portion of this gene was found to be unstable in plasmids, but was stably cloned in a lambda vector. The nucleotide sequence of the 5′ terminus has been determined, thus completing the DNA sequence of the entire gene. Genetic analysis revealed an unusually large open reading frame with the capacity to encode a product much larger than the mature protein. A 32 kilodalton peptide from purified rickettsiae was isolated and the amino terminus was sequenced, which revealed that the peptide is encoded by the 3′ portion of this large open reading frame. This suggests a role for post‐translational processing of rOmp B from a large precursor molecule.
Evaluation of bit error rate for packet combining with constellation rearrangement

In this paper, we propose a method for evaluation of the bit error rate (BER) for packet combining based on constellation rearrangement (CoRe). Such mapping diversity scheme, adopted in the high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA), uses Gray-mapped constellations and is based on suboptimal accumulation of the reliability metrics generated in each of the transmissions. We present an exact model for the logarithmic likelihood ratios (LLR) obtained by means of the so-called max-log approximation, and we show that their conditional probability density functions (pdf) are piecewise Gaussian. We then present the derivation of the uncoded BER and illustrate it with simulation results that confirm our formulation. Finally, we propose simplifications which significantly reduce the complexity of the evaluation method and provide results with a very good accuracy; an extension to transmissions over faded channel is also presented. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This work was presented in part at the IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (GLOBECOM) 2006, San Francisco, U.S.A. , and at the 23rd Biennial Symposium on Communications (QBSC), Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, May 2005.
Robotics Ontology on the Cloud

We introduce a novel method to answer natural language queries about rehabilitation robotics, over the formal ontology REHABROBO-ONTO. For that, (i) we design and develop a novel controlled natural language for rehabilitation robotics, called REHABROBO-CNL; (ii) we introduce translations of queries in REHABROBO-CNL into SPARQL queries, utilizing a novel concept of query description trees; (iii) we use an automated reasoner to find answers to SPARQL queries. To facilitate the use of our method by experts, we develop an intelligent, interactive query answering system, called REHABROBO-QUERY, using Semantic Web technologies, and make it available on the cloud via Amazon web services. REHABROBO-QUERY guides the users to express their queries in natural language and displays the answers to queries in a readable format, possibly with links to detailed information. Easy access to information on REHABROBO-ONTO through complex queries in natural language may help engineers inspire new rehabilitation robot designs, while also guiding practitioners to make more informed decisions on technology based rehabilitation.
Cognitive inhibition in phobia.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cognitive bias for threat in anxious individuals may be attributed to a defective inhibition. DESIGN It was investigated whether phobics and not non-phobics would show a defective inhibition of threat words as compared to neutral words. METHOD Inhibition was measured by a negative priming task, which was administered to spider phobic participants (N = 29) and non-phobic controls (N = 31). RESULTS The phobics did not show less negative priming of threatening information. Instead, they showed a general delay on all probe displays that were presented after threatening primes. CONCLUSION Anxiety is related to defective inhibition of threat, in the sense that this inhibition consumes extra cognitive resources.
Adapting MoM With RWG Basis Functions to GPU Technology Using CUDA

In this letter, a CUDA-enabled graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated implementation of the method of moments (MoM) for solving three-dimensional conducting body-wire problems is presented. The solution is based on the mixed potential integral equation (MPIE) discretized using Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) basis functions. The CUDA environment is employed to port a single-CPU sequential code to the parallel GPU platform, and some relevant issues are discussed. Numerical results are given for a helical antenna with a cylindrical cup reflector. The measured speedup of about eight times over the CPU implementation is demonstrated.
Ultrasonically guided fine‐needle aspiration biopsy of portal vein thrombosis: A cytomorphological study of 14 patients

Portal vein tumor thrombosis is an important and consistent prognostic indicator in hepatocellular carcinoma. We reviewed 14 cases of ultrasonically guided fine‐needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) of the portal vein. All the patients had clinical evidence of portal vein thrombosis (PVT). Twelve of these patients had a preliminary diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma while the remaining two, initially, had a clinical diagnosis of end‐stage liver disease. The mean age of the patients was 60 years. An average of 1.7 passes per case was made. No clinical complications were encountered. The cytomorphologic features of the aspirated materials were reviewed. Twelve of the 14 cases (85.7%) were judged neoplastic or thought to have probable neoplastic involvement of the portal vein while two were clearly benign. The cell block was found to be the most useful in diagnosis. We conclude that FNAB of the portal vein is a feasible method in evaluating PVT, especially in patients already known to have hepatocellular carcinoma. Diagn Cytopathol 1994; 11:281–285. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fuel Cells prognostics using echo state network

One remaining technological bottleneck to develop industrial Fuel Cell (FC) applications resides in the system limited useful lifetime. Consequently, it is important to develop failure diagnostic and prognostic tools enabling the optimization of the FC. Among all the existing prognostics approaches, datamining methods such as artificial neural networks aim at estimating the process' behavior without huge knowledge about the underlying physical phenomena. Nevertheless, this kind of approach needs huge learning dataset. Also, the deployment of such an approach can be long (trial and error method), which represents a real problem for industrial applications where real-time complying algorithms must be developed. According to this, the aim of this paper is to study the application of a reservoir computing tool (the Echo State Network) as a prognostics system enabling the estimation of the Remaining Useful Life of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell. Developments emphasize on the prediction of the mean voltage cells of a degrading FC. Accuracy and time consumption of the approach are studied, as well as sensitivity of several parameters of the ESN. Results appear to be very promising.
Introduction of Tn916 and pAM beta 1 into Streptococcus bovis JB1 by conjugation

The transposon Tn916 and self-mobilizing plasmid pAM beta 1 were conjugated from Enterococcus faecalis to the ruminal bacterium Streptococcus bovis JB1. Transconjugants were identified by resistance to tetracycline (Tn916) or erythromycin (pAM beta 1) and by Southern hybridization analyses. Transfer frequencies were 7.0 x 10(-6) and 1.0 x 10(-6) per recipient cell for Tn916 and pAM beta 1, respectively. The transconjugants JB1/Tn916 and JB1/pAM beta 1 were used as donors for matings with E. faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, and the ruminal bacterium Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens. While pAM beta 1 was successfully transferred to all three organisms, Tn916 was transferred only into B. subtilis and B. fibrisolvens at very low frequencies. This is the first report of conjugal DNA transfers between two ruminal organisms.
Leukoencephalopathy‐causing CLCN2 mutations are associated with impaired Cl− channel function and trafficking

Characterisation of most mutations found in CLCN2 in patients with CC2L leukodystrophy show that they cause a reduction in function of the chloride channel ClC‐2. GlialCAM, a regulatory subunit of ClC‐2 in glial cells and involved in the leukodystrophy megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts (MLC), increases the activity of a ClC‐2 mutant by affecting ClC‐2 gating and by stabilising the mutant at the plasma membrane. The stabilisation of ClC‐2 at the plasma membrane by GlialCAM depends on its localisation at cell–cell junctions. The membrane protein MLC1, which is defective in MLC, also contributes to the stabilisation of ClC‐2 at the plasma membrane, providing further support for the view that GlialCAM, MLC1 and ClC‐2 form a protein complex in glial cells.