Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generation of Functional Murine Cardiac Myocytes From Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Background— The recent breakthrough in the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are almost indistinguishable from embryonic stem (ES) cells, facilitates the generation of murine disease– and human patient–specific stem cell lines. The aim of this study was to characterize the cardiac differentiation potential of a murine iPS cell clone in comparison to a well-established murine ES cell line. Methods and Results— With the use of a standard embryoid body–based differentiation protocol for ES cells, iPS cells as well as ES cells were differentiated for 24 days. Although the analyzed iPS cell clone showed a delayed and less efficient formation of beating embryoid bodies compared with the ES cell line, the differentiation resulted in an average of 55% of spontaneously contracting iPS cell embryoid bodies. Analyses on molecular, structural, and functional levels demonstrated that iPS cell–derived cardiomyocytes show typical features of ES cell–derived cardiomyocytes. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analyses demonstrated expression of marker genes typical for mesoderm, cardiac mesoderm, and cardiomyocytes including Brachyury, mesoderm posterior factor 1 (Mesp1), friend of GATA2 (FOG-2), GATA-binding protein 4 (GATA4), NK2 transcription factor related, locus 5 (Nkx2.5), T-box 5 (Tbx5), T-box 20 (Tbx20), atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), myosin light chain 2 atrial transcripts (MLC2a), myosin light chain 2 ventricular transcripts (MLC2v), &agr;-myosin heavy chain (&agr;-MHC), and cardiac troponin T in differentiation cultures of iPS cells. Immunocytology confirmed expression of cardiomyocyte-typical proteins including sarcomeric &agr;-actinin, titin, cardiac troponin T, MLC2v, and connexin 43. iPS cell cardiomyocytes displayed spontaneous rhythmic intracellular Ca2+ fluctuations with amplitudes of Ca2+ transients comparable to ES cell cardiomyocytes. Simultaneous Ca2+ release within clusters of iPS cell–derived cardiomyocytes indicated functional coupling of the cells. Electrophysiological studies with multielectrode arrays demonstrated functionality and presence of the &bgr;-adrenergic and muscarinic signaling cascade in these cells. Conclusions— iPS cells differentiate into functional cardiomyocytes. In contrast to ES cells, iPS cells allow derivation of autologous functional cardiomyocytes for cellular cardiomyoplasty and myocardial tissue engineering.
Crisis as Reconfiguration of the Economic Complex Adaptive System

“Top-bottom” (MSP) technique of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Modelling (Pushnoi 2003, 2004a, 2004b; Pushnoi and Bonser 2008) is applied for the exploration of macroscopic properties of the economic systems. MSP-Model of Economic CAS is considered according to which two global feedbacks determine dynamics of Economic CAS at utmost abstract level. Positive feedback determines the change of the temporary equilibrium state of the system whereas the negative feedback stabilizes one. The interplay of these feedbacks engenders very complex macroscopic dynamics with catastrophic jumps and discontinuous cycles.
An Integrated Amplifier With Passive Neutralization of Myoelectric Interference From Neural Recording Tripoles

This paper describes an integrated amplifier for neural recording from tripolar electrode books connected in the quasi-tripole arrangement. The same tripole is used in the implant for neural stimulation. To remove myoelectric interference from neural recordings, a resistor-capacitor network is used to balance the electrode impedances in the tripole. The amplifier is programmable (recording mode, passband, gain, and trimming impedance) via a serial peripheral interface. Its front-end instrumentation amplifier employs current feedback to achieve high common-mode rejection ratio. The circuit was implemented in 0.35- μm CMOS technology and occupies an area of ~1.2 mm2. In the very-low noise mode, the analog front-end features a maximum of 0.68 μVrms input-referred noise in the passband and consumes ~310 μA from a 3 V supply. The measured common-mode rejection ratio of the instrumentation amplifier (CMRRIA) approaches 100 dB. The effect of component mismatch on the CMRRIA and the noise performance of the instrumentation amplifier are examined. In addition, the recording tripole is analyzed to derive the overall common-mode rejection ratio that is shown to exceed 80 dB. The ability of the neural amplifier to reduce myoelectric interference is demonstrated. The amplifier is also tested with a tripole immersed in saline in the stimulate-record mode.
Functional Characterization of a Novel Promoter Element Required for an Innate Immune Response in Drosophila

ABSTRACT Innate immune reactions are crucial processes of metazoans to protect the organism against overgrowth of faster replicating microorganisms. Drosophila melanogaster is a precious model for genetic and molecular studies of the innate immune system. In response to infection, the concerted action of a battery of antimicrobial peptides ensures efficient killing of the microbes. The induced gene expression relies on translocation of the Drosophila Rel transcription factors Relish, Dif, and Dorsal to the nucleus where they bind to κB-like motifs in the promoters of the inducible genes. We have identified another putative promoter element, called region 1 (R1), in a number of antimicrobial peptide genes. Site-directed mutagenesis of the R1 site diminished Cecropin A1 (CecA1) expression in transgenic Drosophila larvae and flies. Infection of flies induced a nuclear R1-binding activity that was unrelated to the κB-binding activity in the same extracts. Although the R1 motif was required for Rel protein-mediated CecA1 expression in cotransfection experiments, our data argue against it being a direct target for the Drosophila Rel proteins. We propose that the R1 and κB motifs are targets for distinct regulatory complexes that act in concert to promote high levels of antimicrobial peptide gene expression in response to infection.
A Mutimedia Platform Constructed for Technical English Teaching

A multimedia platform is developed to help improve students' oral communication skills in technical English. It is a useful tool for in-class activity or after-class practice in listening and speaking. First, requirements for this platform are determined according to the course's three-level educational objectives. Second, the construction process is introduced in detail, including resource bank building, website design and CD utility development. In this platform, interactive learning is realized by a JavaScript-based programming approach with functions embedded in static HTML pages. Lastly, one of finished CDs is illustrated.
The impact of clinical and genetic factors on ticagrelor and clopidogrel antiplatelet therapy.

AIM To determine clinically significant factors which may alter the effect of dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and ticagrelor or clopidogrel in patients who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention and stent implantation. MATERIALS & METHODS The study included 378 patients. All the patients had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention and stent implantation. Platelet aggregation and genotyping for CYP2C19 *2 (rs4244285) and CYP4F2 (rs2108622, rs1558139, rs3093135 and rs2074902) was performed. RESULTS Significantly lower platelet aggregation values (%agr) were detected in ticagrelor users who carried CYP4F2 rs3093135 TT variant (14.67 ± 5.07%agr) versus AA (22.88 ± 6.30%agr), p = 0.0004, or AT (20.56 ± 6.51%agr), p = 0.0126. CONCLUSION Results of the current study showed that CYP4F2 rs3093135 TT variant carriers had a higher antiplatelet effect of ticagrelor, and more frequently had nonprocedural bleeding during ticagrelor therapy, as compared with AA and AT variant carriers.
Does obesity run in families because of genes?

A number of studies, including the Danish adoption study, have shown that, in adults, the familial resemblance of obesity, as measured by the body mass index (weight in kg/(height in m)2), is mainly due to genes. The body mass index may reflect both fat and fat‐free body mass. In this further analysis of the Danish adoption study, the degree of obesity was assessed by a silhouette score. There was a significant relationship in scores between the adult adoptees and their biological mothers and between the adoptees and their biological full siblings reared by the biological parents. Weaker, nonsignificant associations were found for the biological fathers and for the maternal and paternal half‐siblings. There were no relationships in silhouette scoring between adoptees and adoptive parents. The results confirm the results of our previous analysis of body mass index. We conclude that human obesity is under genetic control, whereas the childhood family environment has little, if any, influence on obesity in adults. It is an important task for future research to identify the genes involved.
Efficient decoding algorithm for space-time turbo codes with full antenna diversity

An efficient decoding algorithm for space-time turbo codes with full antenna diversity is proposed. In order to calculate the joint log-likelihood ratio efficiently, we propose a fast algorithm for reducing the computational complexity of the conventional sub-optimum algorithms. The efficient implementation of the joint log-likelihood ratio update in the proposed algorithm improves its computational efficiency. Complexity analysis and extensive computer simulations over the Rayleigh fading channel show the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
DNA barcoding on subsets of three families in Aves

Background and aims. Previous studies carried out with DNA barcoding, based on regional groups, have shown that a standard mitochondrial gene could be used to identify birds. In the present study, we present an additional DNA barcoding survey of birds, using taxonomic groups instead of regional groups to verify the effectiveness of DNA barcoding on distinguishing species and to test whether the intraspecific clusters of species are associated with geographical discontinuities. Materials and methods. Taxonomic groups of three avian families—Phasianidae, Accipitridae, and Strigidae—were included in the study. The cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) sequences of 49 individuals were determined. Together with 122 sequences from previous studies, a total of 171 sequences from 66 bird species were analyzed. Results and conclusion. Results showed that all 66 species investigated had unique COI sequences and no sequences were shared between the species. Our results were congruent with previous studies suggesting that the COI barcode permits distinguishing most of the closely related species. Furthermore, by using geographically distinct clusters, diagnostic characters, and threshold levels, deep genetic splits (>1.5%) were observed in three species, and we therefore suggest treating them as evolutionary significant units.
Electronic structure of ZnO nanorods studied by angle-dependent x-ray absorption spectroscopy and scanning photoelectron microscopy

Angle-dependent x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and scanning photoelectron microscopy measurements were performed to differentiate local electronic structures at the tips and sidewalls of highly aligned ZnO nanorods. The overall intensity of the O K-edge XANES spectra is greatly enhanced for small photon incident angles. In contrast, the overall intensity of the Zn K-edge XANES is much less sensitive to the photon incident angle. Both valence-band photoemission and O K-edge XANES spectra show substantial enhancement of O 2p derived states near the valence band maximum and conduction band minimum, respectively. The spatially resolved Zn 3d core level spectra from tip and sidewall regions show the lack of chemical shift. All the results consistently suggest that the tip surfaces of the highly aligned ZnO nanorods are terminated by O ions and the nanorods are oriented in the [0001] direction.
Cloud based secure banking application

Individual Banks store vast amounts of user sensitive data on their private server. Sharing this data with other banks will provide an efficient way of offering their customers with personalized services and will deliver value-added data services to the entire banking sector. This data is highly sensitive and requires a secure sharing medium. However, secure data sharing is a taxing and troublesome job. This paper proposes a framework for sharing Secure Sensitive Data between banks which includes Secure Data Transfer, Secure Data Storage, Secure Data Delivery and Usage & Destruction of Data which uses Variable AES in place of Normal AES for securely storing the data as Variable AES is an enhancement to Normal AES since it uses new sub key for each block of data. This framework provides security of the user's sensitive data and shares this data safely. To allow banks to share their data we have implemented this framework using the cloud application where we provide user authentication, data integrity and access control using the Proxy Re-Encryption mechanism. At the same time, data owners (Bank) retain complete control of their own data in a safe and sound environment.
60 GHz broadband free-space communication using dual-wavelength photonic signal generation

A 60 GHz free-space communication system is demonstrated with broadband data encoding and a novel photonic millimeter-wave carrier generator. A 60.8 GHz carrier signal is generated by photomixing two optical subcarriers sourced from a dual-wavelength laser based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fiber. Data is baseband encoded onto a single optical subcarrier using an optical phase modulator and photonically upconverted to the 60.8 GHz RF carrier. Data rates of 1.65 Gbps are demonstrated, with the goal of facilitating wireless personal area networking based on a fiber-distributed network architecture. The implemented encoding scheme is intrinsically dispersion tolerant, enabling remoting of signals over long distances between a base station and wireless access nodes. The prototype link was tested in an indoor setting at ranges up to 30 m using a low-gain transmitter antenna and high-gain receiver antenna. Good bit-error ratios are demonstrated as a function of range. A building-to-building communication link, with long-distance fiber distribution to the wireless transmitter, is demonstrated at a range of 78 m.
The Power Load Prediction Based on Improved Genetic Neural Network

There exist nonlinear and high redundancy between the power load factors, and the traditional methods in neural network can not eliminate the redundancy in the prediction data and capture the nonlinear characteristics, resulting in lower prediction precision of the power load. In order to improve the prediction precision of the power load, a power load prediction method based on improved genetic algorithm optimization neural network (IGA-BP) is put forward. First, the power load is reconstructed using the correlation function, and then performed the normalization processing. Secondly, the power load training sample is input into the BP neural network for learning, and then the initial connection weights and thresholds of the BP neural network are selected using the improved genetic algorithm. Finally, the power load prediction model is established. Simulation results show that the improved neural network can reflect the trend of complex non-linear power load, achieve higher power load fitting and prediction precision, and is an effective load prediction method for power system. DOI : http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/telkomnika.v12i4. 4302
Modulation Format Recognition for Optical Signals Using Connected Component Analysis

We investigate and characterize the blind modulation format recognition method based on connected component analysis for general-purpose optical receivers. A converted binary graph is generated by projecting a part of the received data in Stokes space onto a 2-D plane. We further characterize three key parameters, namely, the threshold of density filter, the size of averaging filter, and the required number of data points for successful format recognition. In addition, we compare the computation complexity of the proposed method with other format recognition methods in Stokes space. Our results show that there exists a common set of parameters such that the proposed method can recognize a number of common optical modulation formats, proving its good robustness and practicality.
Crystal structure of a single‐stranded DNA‐binding protein (TM0604) from Thermotoga maritima at 2.60 Å resolution

Michael DiDonato, S. Sri Krishna, Robert Schwarzenbacher, Daniel McMullan, Lukasz Jaroszewski, Mitchell D. Miller, Polat Abdubek, Sanjay Agarwalla, Eileen Ambing, Herbert Axelrod, Tanya Biorac, Hsiu-Ju Chiu, Ashley M. Deacon, Marc-André Elsliger, Julie Feuerhelm, Adam Godzik, Carina Grittini, Slawomir K. Grzechnik, Joanna Hale, Eric Hampton, Justin Haugen, Michael Hornsby, Heath E. Klock, Mark W. Knuth, Eric Koesema, Andreas Kreusch, Peter Kuhn, Scott A. Lesley, Kin Moy, Edward Nigoghossian, Linda Okach, Jessica Paulsen, Kevin Quijano, Ron Reyes, Chris Rife, Glen Spraggon, Raymond C. Stevens, Henry van den Bedem, Jeff Velasquez, Aprilfawn White, Guenter Wolf, Qingping Xu, Keith O. Hodgson, John Wooley, and Ian A. Wilson Joint Center for Structural Genomics Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford University, Menlo Park, California San Diego Supercomputer Center, La Jolla, California Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, San Diego, California University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
Three‐point dixon method enables whole‐body water and fat imaging of obese subjects

Dixon imaging techniques derive chemical shift‐separated water and fat images, enabling the quantification of fat content and forming an alternative to fat suppression. Whole‐body Dixon imaging is of interest in studies of obesity and the metabolic syndrome, and possibly in oncology. A three‐point Dixon method is proposed where two solutions are found analytically in each voxel. The true solution is identified by a multiseed three‐dimensional region‐growing scheme with a dynamic path, allowing confident regions to be solved before unconfident regions, such as background noise. 2π‐Phase unwrapping is not required. Whole‐body datasets (256 × 184 × 252 voxels) were collected from 39 subjects (body mass index 19.8‐45.4 kg/m2), in a mean scan time of 5 min 15 sec. Water and fat images were reconstructed offline, using the proposed method and two reference methods. The resulting images were subjectively graded on a four‐grade scale by two radiologists, blinded to the method used. The proposed method was found superior to the reference methods. It exclusively received the two highest grades, implying that only mild reconstruction failures were found. The computation time for a whole‐body dataset was 1 min 51.5 sec ± 3.0 sec. It was concluded that whole‐body water and fat imaging is feasible even for obese subjects, using the proposed method. Magn Reson Med 63:1659–1668, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fast-transient asynchronous digital LDO with load regulation enhancement by soft multi-step switching and adaptive timing techniques in 65-nm CMOS

A digital low drop-out regulator (DLDO) load regulation enhancement technique which includes soft multi-step switching and adaptive timing is presented in this paper. As multi-step switching is widely used to balance the speed and resolution, a power-efficient method to improve the poor resolution during the switching between coarse- and finegrained regulations is in demand. The proposed technique, especially targeting at eliminating the undesired ripple voltage during multi-step switching, is implemented in a 65-nm asynchronous DLDO. This DLDO operates at an input voltage of 0.6V to 1V, and delivers a maximum of 500mA current with a 50mV drop-out voltage. In addition to responding to a nanoseconds' 500mA load current step and a 50mV per 10ns reference voltage change, an enhanced load regulation of 0.15mV/mA is achieved by adopting the proposed techniques.
Rijswijk (Z.H.), 'De Bult' Eine Siedlung der Cananefaten

Following upon observations by amateur archeologists and preliminary to the construction of a national highway and a park, the State Service for Archaeological Investigations in the Netherlands, Amersfoort, was able to investigate an entire native settlement from the Roman era (Ch. I) at Rijswijk. In the first part of this publication, the results of these investigations are interpreted and placed in a wider context (Ch. I-XI). Part two, which describes the soil traces and finds, is more documentary in character (Ch. XII-LII). Zie: Summary
Survival Analysis of Victims of Sulfur Oxide Air Pollution Suffering from COPD or Asthma in Yokkaichi, Japan, in Relation to Predisposing Exposure

To investigate the relationships between clinical findings and symptoms and the survival of patients with Yokkaichi Asthma, in relation to predisposing sulfur dioxide (SO2) exposure, we examined records of 1836 patients registered in the city of Yokkaichi during 1973-1988 by “Pollution-Related Health Damage Compensation Law. ” Complete records were obtained from 735 patients (352 males and 383 females) until December 31, 2007, and were used for the analysis. Ambient SO2 concentrations in the Yokkaichi area were obtained from the Environmental Numeric Database of the National Institute for Environmental Science, Japan. It was found that severity of clinical symptoms and decreased pulmonary function were significantly correlated with predisposing SO2 exposure. A Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that among all patients (COPD and asthma), age, forced expiratory volume 1.0 (sec) % and smoking affected mortality for both males and females. Significant associations between mortality, vital capacity (percent predicted) and cough and sputum were observed in males. Thus, the survival of patients with Yokkaichi Asthma was affected by severity of clinical symptoms and decreased pulmonary function, which were related to predisposing SO2 exposure. It appeared that the effects of clinical changes were greater in males than in females.
Temporal memory streaming

While device scaling has led to continued processor performance improvement, scaling trends in DRAM technology have favored improving density over access latency. As a result, processors in modern servers spend much of execution time stalled on long-latency memory accesses. The conventional approach to latency tolerance—enlarging the on-chip cache hierarchy as transistor budgets scale—is providing diminishing returns because today's multi-megabyte caches already capture available locality. Commercial server applications present a particular challenge for memory system design because current prefetching/streaming approaches are often ineffective on the irregular data structures and dependent miss chains characteristic of these applications. To further improve server performance, architects must design mechanisms that issue memory requests earlier and with greater parallelism in the face of complex access patterns. Despite their complexity, commercial applications nonetheless execute repetitive code sequences, which give rise to recurring data structure traversals. As a result, memory addresses are temporally-correlated—addresses accessed near one another in time often recur together. By recording temporally-correlated cache miss addresses and using the recorded information to predict future misses, irregular yet repetitive miss patterns can be predicted. To exploit temporal address correlation, we propose Temporal Memory Streaming, a memory system design paradigm where hardware mechanisms observe repetitive miss sequences at runtime and use recorded sequences to stream data from memory in advance of individual requests.