Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Curve Correction Effect of Rigid Spinal Orthosis in Different Recumbent Positions in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS): A Pilot MRI Study

In this pilot cross-sectional study, the effectiveness of rigid spinal orthoses in the correction of spinal curvature of 14 patients with moderate adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) at different recumbent positions (supine, prone, right and left decubitus) was investigated. Using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and multi-planar reconstruction technique, evaluation of the scoliotic spine in the coronal, sagittal and axial planes and the effect of spinal orthosis on AIS at different recumbent positions was studied. There was significant reduction of coronal Cobb's angle (p < 0.05) with bracing at all four recumbent positions and the maximal reduction was found in the prone position (18% reduction). The sagittal Cobb's angle was only significantly reduced at the supine position while the axial rotation did not change significantly in all positions.
Parkinson's disease: Evidence for environmental risk factors

Parkinson's disease (PD) has no known cause. Although recent research has focused particularly on genetic causes of PD, environmental causes also play a role in developing the disease. This article reviews environmental factors that may increase the risk of PD, as well as the evidence behind those factors. Enough evidence exists to suggest that age has a causal relationship to PD. Significant evidence exists that gender, tobacco use, and caffeine consumption are also associated with the development of PD. Other environmental factors (pesticide exposure, occupation, blood urate levels, NSAID use, brain injury, and exercise) have limited or conflicting evidence of a relationship to PD. Future research must not neglect the impact of these environmental factors on the development of PD, especially with respect to potential gene‐environment interactions. © 2013 Movement Disorder Society
Stacked probabilistic regularized LDA on partitioning non-stationary EEG data for left/right hand imagery classification

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a user interface for communicating with patients, especially for tasks such as classifying Left/Right hand to represent YES/NO. Although there were many proposed classification techniques, none of them considered the non-stationary characteristic of brainwaves; thus, they cannot really be employed in real-world situations. In this paper, we aim to tackle the non-stationary issue by capturing all change points in EEG signal and partitioning it into a set of signals. Then Regularized LDA is applied to each of the partitioning signals, resulting in stacked of classifiers. The experiment was conducted on the BCI Competition IV (2b) data set. Our proposed method was compared to nine baseline techniques in four groups: (i) static algorithms, (ii) variants of adaptive Pool Mean algorithms, (iii) Adaptive CSP, and (iv) Corrected Sequential EM. The results showed that our method yields higher accuracy and significantly outperformed all baselines.
AD-venture program: Therapeutic biking for the treatment of depression in long-term care residents with dementia

This project tested an innovative intervention in a controlled clinical investigation of a nonpharmacological treatment of depression in long-term care residents with dementia. This treatment utilized a wheelchair bicycle in a recreation therapy protocol, which combined small group activity therapy and one-to-one bike rides with a staff member. Depression levels were significantly reduced in the two-week portion of the study with levels maintained in the 10-week maintenance period. Improvements were also found in sleep and levels of activity engagement.
Genome Sequence of Bacillus mycoides B38V, a Growth-Promoting Bacterium of Sunflower

ABSTRACT Bacillus mycoides B38V is a bacterium isolated from the sunflower rhizosphere that is able to promote plant growth and N uptake. The genome of the isolate has approximately 5.80 Mb and presents sequence codifiers for plant growth-promoting characteristics, such as nitrate reduction and ammonification and iron-siderophore uptake.
Hyper‐CVAD plus ponatinib versus hyper‐CVAD plus dasatinib as frontline therapy for patients with Philadelphia chromosome‐positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A propensity score analysis

The clinical efficacy of hyperfractionated cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, and dexamethasone (HCVAD) plus ponatinib has not been compared with that of HCVAD plus dasatinib in patients with Philadelphia chromosome‐positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL) in a randomized clinical trial.
Effects of deletion of different PP2C protein phosphatase genes on stress responses in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A key mechanism of signal transduction in eukaryotes is reversible protein phosphorylation, mediated through protein kinases and protein phosphatases (PPases). Modulation of signal transduction by this means regulates many biological processes. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has 40 PPases, including seven protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C PPase) genes (PTC1–PTC7). However, their precise functions remain poorly understood. To elucidate their cellular functions and to identify those that are redundant, we constructed 127 strains with deletions of all possible combinations of the seven PP2C PPase genes. All 127 disruptants were viable under nutrient‐rich conditions, demonstrating that none of the combinations induced synthetic lethality under these conditions. However, several combinations exhibited novel phenotypes, e.g. the Δptc5Δptc7 double disruptant and the Δptc2Δptc3Δptc5Δptc7 quadruple disruptant exhibited low (13°C) and high (37°C) temperature‐sensitive growth, respectively. Interestingly, the septuple disruptant Δptc1Δptc2Δptc3Δptc4Δptc5Δptc6Δptc7 showed an essentially normal growth phenotype at 37°C. The Δptc2Δptc3Δptc5Δptc7 quadruple disruptant was sensitive to LiCl (0.4 m). Two double disruptants, Δptc1Δptc2 and Δptc1Δptc4, displayed slow growth and Δptc1Δptc2Δptc4 could not grow on medium containing 1.5 m NaCl. The Δptc1Δptc6 double disruptant showed increased sensitivity to caffeine, congo red and calcofluor white compared to each single deletion. Our observations indicate that S. cerevisiae PP2C PPases have a shared and important role in responses to environmental stresses. These disruptants also provide a means for exploring the molecular mechanisms of redundant PTC gene functions under defined conditions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Aflagellated mutants of Helicobacter pylori generated by genetic transformation of naturally competent strains using transposon shuttle mutagenesis

Three out of 10 Helicobacter pylori clinical isolates were found to be naturally competent for genetic transformation to streptomycin resistance by chromosomal DNA extracted from a spontaneous streptomycin‐resistant H. pylori mutant. The frequency of transformation varied between 5 × 10−4 and 4 × 10−6, depending on the H. pylori isolate used. Transposon shuttle mutagenesis based on this natural competence was established using the flagellin gene flaA as the target. The cloned flaA gene was interrupted by insertion of TnMax1, a mini‐Tn1721 transposon carrying a modified chloramphenicol‐acetyltransferase gene, the catGC cassette. Natural transformation of competent H. pylori strains with plasmid constructs harbouring a catGC‐inactivated flaA gene resulted in chloramphenicol‐resistant transformants at an average frequency of 4 × 10−5. Southern hybridization experiments confirmed the replacement of the chromosomal H. pylori flaA gene by the cat‐inactivated cloned gene copy via homologous recombination resulting in allelic exchange. Phenotypic characterization of the mutants demonstrated the absence of flagella under the electron microscope and the loss of bacterial motility. Immunoblots of cell lysates of the H. pylori mutants with an antiserum raised against the C‐terminal portion of recombinant H. pylori major flagellin (FlaA) confirmed the absence of the 54kDa FlaA protein. This efficient transposon shuttle mutagenesis procedure for H. pylori based on natural competence opens up new possibilities for the genetic assessment of putative H. pylori virulence determinants.
Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects.

On the basis of terror management theory, research has shown that subtle mortality salience inductions engender increased prejudice, nationalism, and intergroup bias. Study 1 replicated this effect (increased preference for a pro-U.S. author over an anti-U.S. author) and found weaker effects when Ss are led to think more deeply about mortality or about the death of a loved one. Study 2 showed that this effect is not produced by thoughts of non-death-related aversive events. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that this effect occurs only if Ss are distracted from mortality salience before assessment of its effects. Study 4 revealed that although the accessibility of death-related thoughts does not increase immediately after mortality salience, it does increase after Ss are distracted from mortality salience. These findings suggest that mortality salience effects are unique to thoughts of death and occur primarily when such thoughts are highly accessible but outside of consciousness.
Handwritten Bangla Character Recognition Using the State-of-the-Art Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

In spite of advances in object recognition technology, handwritten Bangla character recognition (HBCR) remains largely unsolved due to the presence of many ambiguous handwritten characters and excessively cursive Bangla handwritings. Even many advanced existing methods do not lead to satisfactory performance in practice that related to HBCR. In this paper, a set of the state-of-the-art deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) is discussed and their performance on the application of HBCR is systematically evaluated. The main advantage of DCNN approaches is that they can extract discriminative features from raw data and represent them with a high degree of invariance to object distortions. The experimental results show the superior performance of DCNN models compared with the other popular object recognition approaches, which implies DCNN can be a good candidate for building an automatic HBCR system for practical applications.
Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy study: preparation of vesicular dispersions by quenching microemulsions

We previously showed that long‐lived nanoemulsions, seeming initially vesicular, might be prepared simply by diluting and cooling (quenching) warm microemulsions with n‐hexadecane with precooled water. In this paper, we confirm that these systems are vesicular dispersions when fresh, and they can be made with similar structures and compositional dependence using alkanes with chain lengths ranging from octane to hexadecane. The nanostructures of fresh nanoemulsions are imaged with cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo‐TEM). We confirm that water‐continuous microemulsions give simple dispersions of vesicles (sometimes unilamellar), typically less than 100 nm in diameter; these systems can avoid separation for over 2 months. Selected samples were also prepared using halogenated alkanes to create additional contrast in the cryo‐TEM, allowing us to confirm that the oil is located in the observed vesicular structures.
Automated classification of product review sentiments in Polish

Automated sentiment polarity prediction from text is a challenging problem addressed in this paper. We present results of a comparison of pure “Bag of Words” approach against a mixed method, extended by detecting opinion patterns using shallow-parsing techniques. We utilize two resources for the analysis: Spejd shallow parsing engine and Zetema dictionary of sentiment in Polish. The performance of both approaches has been evaluated on online product review database.
Physique mésoscopique d'un gaz de Bose unidimensionnel : courants permanents et excitations dipolaires collectives

Ces dernieres annees d'importantes avancees techniques dans la manipulation des gaz atomiques ultrafroids ont ouvert la voie a la realisation de fluides quantiques mesoscopiques de basse dimension. L'objet de cette these est l'etude theorique de certains systemes mesoscopiques realisables avec un gaz de Bose unidimensionel. Ces systemes presentent des phenomenes quantiques interessants, et sont potentiellement utiles en vue d'applications technologiques. Nous etudions le phenomene des courants permanents induits dans un gaz confine sur un anneau par la rotation d'une barriere de potentiel, nous examinons la faisabilite d'un qubit fonde sur la superposition d'etats de courant dans un reseau en forme d'anneau traverse par un champ de jauge et contenant un 'weak-link', ainsi que l'excitation dipolaire du gaz dans un 'split-trap' induit par le deplacement hors equilibre du potentiel externe. Dans tous ces cas, nous combinons diverses approches analytiques et numeriques, qui permettent de couvrir l'ensemble des regimes d'interactions. Nous mettons en lumiere un regime jusque-la inconnu, d'ecrantage maximal des barrieres de potentiel par le fluide, du a une competition entre les effets des interactions et des fluctuations quantiques. Ces resultats ont des consequences significatives sur le comportement de tels systemes et, de ce fait, sont importants pour les realisations en cours et a venir de dispositifs a gaz d'atomes ultrafroids.
Characterization of Ha-Ras, N-Ras, Ki-Ras4A, and Ki-Ras4B as in Vitro Substrates for Farnesyl Protein Transferase and Geranylgeranyl Protein Transferase Type I*

Ras proteins are small GTP-binding proteins which are critical for cell signaling and proliferation. Four Ras isoforms exist: Ha-Ras, N-Ras, Ki-Ras4A, and Ki-Ras4B. The carboxyl termini of all four isoforms are post-translationally modified by farnesyl protein transferase (FPT). Prenylation is required for oncogenic Ras to transform cells. Recently, it was reported that Ki-Ras4B is also an in vitro substrate for the related enzyme geranylgeranyl protein transferase-1 (GGPT-1) (James, G. L., Goldstein, J. L., and Brown, M. S. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 6221-6226). In the current studies, we compared the four isoforms of Ras as substrates for FPT and GGPT-1. The affinity of FPT for Ki-Ras4B (Km = 30 nM) is 10-20-fold higher than that for the other Ras isoforms. Consistent with this, when the different Ras isoforms are tested at equimolar concentrations, it requires 10-20-fold higher levels of CAAX-competitive compounds to inhibit Ki-Ras4B farnesylation. Additionally, we found that, as reported for Ki-Ras4B, N-Ras and Ki-Ras4A are also in vitro substrates for GGPT-1. Of the Ras isoforms, N-Ras is the highest affinity substrate for GGPT-1 and is similar in affinity to a standard GGPT-1 substrate terminating in leucine. However, the catalytic efficiencies of these geranylgeranylation reactions are between 15- and 140-fold lower than the corresponding farnesylation reactions, largely reflecting differences in affinity. Carboxyl-terminal peptides account for many of the properties of the Ras proteins. One interesting exception is that, unlike the full-length N-Ras protein, a carboxyl-terminal N-Ras peptide is not a GGPT-1 substrate, raising the possibility that upstream sequences in this protein may play a role in its recognition by GGPT-1. Studies with various carboxyl-terminal peptides from Ki-Ras4B suggest that both the carboxyl-terminal methionine and the upstream polylysine region are important determinants for geranylgeranylation. Furthermore, it was found that full-length Ki-Ras4B, but not other Ras isoforms, can be geranylgeranylated in vitro by FPT. These findings suggest that the different distribution of Ras isoforms and the ability of cells to alternatively process these proteins may explain in part the resistance of some cell lines to FPT inhibitors.
WALI SONGO: EKSISTENSI DAN PERANNYA DALAM ISLAMISASI DAN IMPLIKASINYA TERHADAP MUNCULNYA TRADISI-TRADISI DI TANAH JAWA

Abstrak - Islam sebagai agama yang rahmatan lil alamin sangat dipahami oleh para wali sebagai penyebar Islam di tanah Jawa, sehingga dalam menyebarkan ajaran agama Islam mereka melakukannya dengan cara yang bijaksana dan tanpa kekerasan. Kebijakan para wali dalam menyebarkan ajaran Islam di Jawa antaranya dapat dilihat dari bagaimana mereka tidak menghancurkan tradisi yang telah ada bahkan justru tradisi yang telah ada tersebut disesuaikan dengan ajaran atau syareat Islam. Realitas tersebut di atas menjadikan tanah Jawa sebagai daerah yang sangat banyak menyimpan tradisi dengan seluruh warna-warninya dan menjaga (melestarikan)-nya secara dinamis dalam rentang waktu cukup panjang bahkan hingga sekarang. Tradisi-tradisi yang –sampai sekarang masih berkembvang di tanah Jawa tersebut seringkali menjadi kontroversial dan mendapat respons yang berbeda dari penganut ajaran Islam sesuai dengan pemahaman dan persepsinya masing-masing. Setidaknya ada tiga respons yang muncul yakni dari kalangan pemeluk ajaran Islam tradisional, pemeluk ajaran Islam modernis dan pemeluk ajaran Islam pragmatis. KATA KUNCI: Wali Songo, Islamisasi dan Tradisi
A cross-multilayer mechanism design for improving video quality of SVC coded video streams over mobile WiMAX networks

Toward the next generation network (NGN), various mobile devices provide users with abilities of ubiquitous computing and communications, however, with different quality of service (QoS) requirements at the same time. With limited wireless network resource, efficient data transmission is critical to meet different QoS requirements. Scalable video coding (SVC) is expected as an appropriate technology to achieve diverse QoS requirements of multimedia video services in the NGN network. In this paper, we expose a challenge when transmitting SVC video streams over existing open-system-interconnection-based networks. We propose a solution to the challenge and degrade video quality corruption when network resource is stringent. While transmitting SVC streams over QoS enabled mobile worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) networks, our proposed cross-multilayer mechanism enables classification and prioritisation of SVC video data according to the significance for decoding dependency. In addition, by completely compatible with mobile WiMAX, our mechanism is easily deployable. Simulations validate performance improvement of our mechanism.
Mammary gland growth as influenced by litter size in lactating sows: impact on lysine requirement.

Twenty-eight primiparous sows were used to determine the effect of litter size on the growth of mammary glands and nursing pigs during lactation. Litter size was set to 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 pigs by cross-fostering immediately after birth. Four sows were allotted to each litter-size group. Sows were allowed to consume a daily maximum of 13.6 Mcal ME and 46.3 g of lysine during lactation. Sows were slaughtered on d 21 (20.6+/-1.1) of lactation. Mammary glands were collected at slaughter and trimmed of skin and the extraneous fat pad. Each gland was separated, weighed, and ground for chemical analysis. Dry matter, dry fat-free tissue (DFFT), crude protein, ash, and DNA contents were measured. Only glands known to have been nursed were included in the data set. Wet and dry weights and the amounts of DFFT, protein, DNA, ash, and fat in individual nursed mammary glands linearly decreased (P<.05) as litter size increased. Percentages of DFFT, protein, and DNA were quadratically affected (P<.05) by litter size on d 21 of lactation. Total mammary wet and dry weights and total DFFT, protein, DNA, fat, and ash amount of all nursed mammary glands of each sow were increased as litter size increased (P<.05). Changing litter size from 6 to 12 pigs resulted in 2,098, 432, 253, 227, 4.4, 178, and 20 g increases in the amounts of total mammary wet weight, dry weight, DFFT, protein, DNA, fat, and ash, respectively, on d 21 of lactation. Litter weight gain was 18.1 kg greater in sows with 12 pigs than in sows with 6 pigs. Sows with a larger litter size had a greater increase in total mass of mammary gland tissue and litter weight but had lower growth of individual nursed mammary glands and individual pigs than sows with the smaller litter size. The need for nutrients to support additional mammary gland and litter growth as litter size increases should be considered when estimating nutrient requirements for lactating sows. Sows need an additional . 96 g lysine per day to account for mammary gland growth for each pig added to a litter.
Dual control of seminiferous tubule contractility mediated by ETA and ETB endothelin receptor subtypes

Testicular myoid cells surrounding the seminiferous tubule are contractile cells responsible for peritubular contractility and for the propulsion of tubular fluid and spermatozoa. We have investigated the contractile response of rat myoid cells to endothelins (ETs) in cell and organ culture and analyzed the cell signaling involved. ET‐2, ET‐3, and IRL 1620, a highly selective agonist of ETB receptor, elicit [Ca2+]i increases, though with dissimilar potencies and kinetics. Competition binding assays using [125I]ET‐1, [125I]ET‐3 and [125I]IRL 1620 show that myoid cells express both ETA and ETB receptors with high affinity for ET‐1 and ET‐1/ ET‐3, respectively. All endothelin isoforms activate phosphoinositide (PI) turnover, but only stimulation of the ETA receptor mediates both PI turnover and mobilization of [Ca2+]i. Although stimulation of the ETB receptor with IRL 1620 fails to produce a significant effect on inositol phosphate (IP) production, it induces mobilization of a thapsigargin‐sensitive intracellular Ca2+ pool in the absence of any measurable IP production. We also studied the effect of U‐73122 [l‐(6‐[17‐β‐3‐methoxyestra‐1,3,5 (10)‐trien‐17‐yl] amino/hexyl)‐1H‐pirrole‐2,5‐dione] and its inactive analog, U‐73343, on Ca2+ mobilization and IP production after selective stimulation of ET receptors. U‐73122 (1 μM) completely inhibited the effect of ETA‐mediated ET‐1 stimulation of IP production, whereas U‐73343 was inactive. However, in the presence of U‐73122, the selective stimulation of ETB receptors induced the mobilization of a thapsigargin‐sensitive and inositol phosphate‐independent intracellular Ca2+ pool. The ETB receptor‐dependent mobilization of [Ca2+]i resulted mainly from Ca2+ release from intracellular Ca2+ stores. This paper illustrates contraction of myoid cells in the seminiferous tubule in response to selective activation of either ET receptor. Scanning electron microscopy of the peritubular tissue demonstrates that the contractile response to ET was inhibited by a combination of BQ‐123 and BQ‐788, but not by either antagonist alone. Moreover, the observation that selective stimulation of ETB receptor with IRL 1620 abo resulted in cell contraction strongly suggests that stimulation of either ETA or ETB receptors alone may be sufficient to elicit seminiferous tubule contractility. Two types of receptors account for the actions of endothelin on contractile activity of seminiferous tubule: 1) an ETA receptor that is positively coupled to phospho‐lipase C (PLC) and Ca2+ mobilization; and 2) an ETB receptor that induces the mobilization of a thapsi‐gargin‐sensitive intracellular Ca2+ pool in a manner independent of the formation of inositol phosphates. ET may play a complex role in regulating the flux of spermatozoa along the seminiferous tubule through its contractile effect on peritubular myoid cells. —Tripiciano, A. , Palombi, F. , Ziparo, E. , Filippini, A. Dual control of seminiferous tubule contractility mediated by ETA and ETB endothelin receptor subtypes. FASEB J. 11, 276‐286 (1997)