Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Calcium Dyshomeostasis in Tubular Aggregate Myopathy

Calcium is a crucial mediator of cell signaling in skeletal muscles for basic cellular functions and specific functions, including contraction, fiber-type differentiation and energy production. The sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) is an organelle that provides a large supply of intracellular Ca2+ in myofibers. Upon excitation, it releases Ca2+ into the cytosol, inducing contraction of myofibrils. During relaxation, it takes up cytosolic Ca2+ to terminate the contraction. During exercise, Ca2+ is cycled between the cytosol and the SR through a system by which the Ca2+ pool in the SR is restored by uptake of extracellular Ca2+ via a specific channel on the plasma membrane. This channel is called the store-operated Ca2+ channel or the Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ channel. It is activated by depletion of the Ca2+ store in the SR by coordination of two main molecules: stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) and calcium release-activated calcium channel protein 1 (ORAI1). Recently, myopathies with a dominant mutation in these genes have been reported and the pathogenic mechanism of such diseases have been proposed. This review overviews the calcium signaling in skeletal muscles and role of store-operated Ca2+ entry in calcium homeostasis. Finally, we discuss the phenotypes and the pathomechanism of myopathies caused by mutations in the STIM1 and ORAI1 genes.
Development of fiber-reinforced polypropylene with NaOH pretreated rice and coffee husks as fillers: Mechanical and thermal properties

Incorporation of agricultural wastes as fillers in fiber-reinforced plastics is gaining momentum in plastics engineering research. In this study, fiber-reinforced polypropylene (PP) with rice and coffee husks as filler material were developed. The effect of alkali (sodium hydroxide) pretreatment of the husks on mechanical and thermal properties of developed PP biocomposites was observed. Filler material loading was varied from 0% to 20% for rice husks and 0% to 10% for coffee husks. A twin-screw extruder was used for compounding the PP matrix with rice and coffee husk filler materials. Tensile strengths and percentage elongation results varied from 27.4 to 37.4 MPa and 2.4% to 70.3% (unmodified coffee husks), 31.1 to 37.4 MPa and 5% to 70.3% (unmodified rice husks), 30.7 to 37.4 MPa and 5.3% to 70.3% (modified coffee husks), and 30.7 to 37.4 MPa and 4.8% to 70.3% (modified rice husks). Young’s modulus ranged between 1656 and 2247.8 MPa for biocomposite PP samples with unmodified filler material. Young’s modulus ranged between 1740 and 2160 MPa after alkali treatment of the filler material. Charpy impact strengths ranged from 1.2 to 4 kJ/m2 and 3.1 to 19.6 kJ/m2 for samples containing unmodified and modified filler material, respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that an increase in filler content resulted into delayed weight loss at high degradation temperatures. The results suggest that these developed fiber-reinforced plastics can be used in applications requiring high thermal stability and good mechanical properties.
A wall-climbing robot using gecko-inspired dry adhesives and underactuated modular connecting mechanism

This paper proposes the design, fabrication, and testing of a wall-climbing robot (WCR) using gecko-inspired dry adhesives. The robot consists of two tank-like modules, which utilize adhesive timing belts for locomotion and adhesion. A single module is firstly optimized in design to maximize the adhesive force. Then, an under-actuated compliant mechanism is designed to connect two modules. The robot mimics not only the gecko's multiscale adhesive structures but also its multiscale bio-adjustment mechanism. Inspired by the gecko's digital behavior, the robot can performs gripping-in and furling out motions to adjust preloading forces for each module on surfaces sloped from 0 to 180 degrees with respect to the level, via the under-actuated compliant mechanism. The robot's prototype is manufactured using 3Dprinting. Dry adhesives with pillar-patterned surface are fabricated. The adhesives then form a layer and cover the exterior surface of the flexible belts. Testing performances show that the robot can achieve stable scaling on the wall and ceiling with adjustable contact force, as well as the terrain-compatibility for surface transitioning.
Anticlastogenicity and Anticarcinogenicity of Purple Rice Extract in Rats

ABSTRACT Oryza sativa L. var. indica cv. Kum Doi Saket is a pigmented rice variety grown in northern Thailand. Our previous study found that the methanol extract of purple rice seed had the highest level of antimutagenicity in a Salmonella mutation assay. The present study was designed to evaluate its in vivo anticlastogenic and anticarcinogenic potentials. The purple rice extract had no acute toxicity on rats. The oral administration of 1,000 mg/kg body weight (bw) of the extract for 28 days did not increase the number of micronucleated hepatocytes. Interestingly, it significantly reduced the amount of micronucleus formation in the liver of diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-treated rats. The inhibitory mechanism involved the induction of hepatic glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity. In addition, oral administration of 500 mg/kg bw extract for 10 weeks significantly decreased the number of hepatic GST placental form positive foci, but did not modulate the number of colonic aberrant crypt foci in DEN- and dimethylhydrazine-initiated rats. In conclusion, the methanol extract of purple rice seed showed no toxicity, clastogenicity, or carcinogenicity in laboratory rats. It did display chemopreventive activity against the early stages of rat hepatocarcinogenesis.
Terrain mapping by ground-based interferometric radar

The authors propose a ground-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technique for terrain mapping. It is based on a coherent continuous-wave step-frequency (CW-SF) radar moved along a linear horizontal rail. It works synthesising microwave holographic images taken from different points of view to obtain elevation maps by phase comparison. The focusing algorithm for imaging synthetic holograms and digital elevation models (DEM) is able to correct topographic distortion and phase wrap through an iterative multi-baseline procedure.
Control of Genome Integrity by RFC Complexes; Conductors of PCNA Loading onto and Unloading from Chromatin during DNA Replication

During cell division, genome integrity is maintained by faithful DNA replication during S phase, followed by accurate segregation in mitosis. Many DNA metabolic events linked with DNA replication are also regulated throughout the cell cycle. In eukaryotes, the DNA sliding clamp, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), acts on chromatin as a processivity factor for DNA polymerases. Since its discovery, many other PCNA binding partners have been identified that function during DNA replication, repair, recombination, chromatin remodeling, cohesion, and proteolysis in cell-cycle progression. PCNA not only recruits the proteins involved in such events, but it also actively controls their function as chromatin assembles. Therefore, control of PCNA-loading onto chromatin is fundamental for various replication-coupled reactions. PCNA is loaded onto chromatin by PCNA-loading replication factor C (RFC) complexes. Both RFC1-RFC and Ctf18-RFC fundamentally function as PCNA loaders. On the other hand, after DNA synthesis, PCNA must be removed from chromatin by Elg1-RFC. Functional defects in RFC complexes lead to chromosomal abnormalities. In this review, we summarize the structural and functional relationships among RFC complexes, and describe how the regulation of PCNA loading/unloading by RFC complexes contributes to maintaining genome integrity.
On Palimpsests in Neural Memory: An Information Theory Viewpoint

The finite capacity of neural memory and the reconsolidation phenomenon suggest it is important to be able to update stored information as in a palimpsest, where new information overwrites old information. Moreover, changing information in memory is metabolically costly. In this paper, we suggest that information-theoretic approaches may inform the fundamental limits in constructing such a memory system. In particular, we define malleable coding, which considers not only representation length but also ease of representation update, thereby encouraging some form of recycling to convert an old codeword into a new one. Malleability cost is the difficulty of synchronizing compressed versions, and malleable codes are of particular interest when representing information and modifying the representation are both expensive. We examine the tradeoff between compression efficiency and malleability cost, under a malleability metric defined with respect to a string edit distance. This introduces a metric topology to the compressed domain. We characterize the exact set of achievable rates and malleability as the solution of a subgraph isomorphism problem. This is all done within the optimization approach to biology framework.
Prenatal cerebral ischemia triggers dysmaturation of caudate projection neurons

Recently, we reported that the neocortex displays impaired growth after transient cerebral hypoxia–ischemia (HI) at preterm gestation that is unrelated to neuronal death but is associated with decreased dendritic arbor complexity of cortical projection neurons. We hypothesized that these morphological changes constituted part of a more widespread neuronal dysmaturation response to HI in the caudate nucleus (CN), which contributes to motor and cognitive disability in preterm survivors.
Dynamic Cache Invalidation Scheme in IR-Based Wireless Environments

Traditional cache invalidation schemes are not suitable to be employed in wireless environments due to the affections of mobility, energy consumption, and limited bandwidth. Cache invalidation report (IR) is proposed to deal with the cache consistency problem. However, the main drawback of IR-based schemes is the long latency of data access because the mobile hosts (MHs) need to wait next IR interval for cache invalidation when the cache hit happens. In this paper, we propose a dynamic invalidation report (DIR) to reduce the latency of data access when the MHs query data. DIR contains an early cache validation mechanism by utilizing the validation messages. Therefore, the MHs can verify their cached data as soon as possible. Next, we design a predictive method to dynamically adjust IR interval to further reduce the latency called DIR-AI (DIR with adjustable interval) scheme. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the DIR and DIR-AI and compare them with the existing invalidation report schemes by using NS2 (network simulator). The experimental results show that DIR reduces averagely 54.3% and 34.3% of latency; DIR-AI reduces averagely 57.35 and 38.6% of latency compared with TS (TimeStamp) and UIR (updated IR) schemes respectively.
Hardware versus software implementation of COMA

Traditionally, cache coherence in multiprocessors has been maintained in hardware. However, the cost-effectiveness of hardwired protocols is questionable. Virtual Shared Memory systems have highlighted the many advantages of software-implemented protocols, albeit at a performance price. The performance gap is narrowed by hybrid systems with the addition of hardware support for fine-grain sharing. We have developed a software protocol for a COMA (Cache-Only Memory Architecture). We call the system SC-COMA for Software-Controlled COMA, to emphasize that the protocol engine is emulated by software executed on the main processor. Contrary to user-level protocols, the software handling coherence events in SC-COMA runs in sub-kernel mode, transparently providing the same services to applications as a hardware counterpart. The software emulation layer has been written and we compare SC-COMA to an idealized hardware COMA through detailed simulations. Our results show that SC-COMA is competitive. On systems with 32 processors, it achieves a slowdown of 11-56% with respect to its hardware counterpart, across a range of applications and memory pressures. SC-COMA scales well, up to 32 nodes. A study on the impact of faster processors on SC-COMA's relative performance indicates a consistent improvement, but with a limitation due to the loosely-integrated design. We conclude that SC-COMA is a viable solution to easily transform networks of workstations into powerful multiprocessors.
Characterization of Thermoplastic Composites Developed with Wheat Straw and Enzymatic-hydrolysis Lignin

Novel thermoplastic composites filled with wheat straw (WS) and enzymatic-hydrolysis lignin (EHL) were developed and characterized. The three-dimensional melt blending system of WS, EHL, and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was optimized via orthogonal experiments. The mechanical properties and melt index of the composites were measured and the optimum ratio of the composites was determined. Based on the optimum ratio of the composites’ blending system, identified through compounding granulation and extrusion molding process links, pilot products of the composites were produced. The thermal behavior, polar groups, and surface structures of the fibers and developed thermoplastic composites were assessed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, respectively. The addition of EHL, an abundant renewable resource, improved the dispersity of the matrix as well as the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites. The results provide a theoretical basis for the application and development of new composites and illustrate a potential industrial application of EHL.
N-(3-Nitrophenyl)maleamic acid

In the title compound, C10H8N2O5, the molecule is slightly distorted from planarity. The molecular structure is stabilized by two intramolecular hydrogen bonds. The first is a short O—H⋯O hydrogen bond (H⋯O distance = 1.57 Å) within the maleamic acid unit and the second is a C—H⋯O hydrogen bond (H⋯O distance = 2.24 Å) which connects the amide group with the benzene ring. The nitro group is twisted by 6.2 (2)° out of the plane of the benzene ring. The crystal structure manifests a variety of hydrogen bonding. The packing is dominated by a strong intermolecular N—H⋯O interaction which links the molecules into chains running along the b axis. The chains within a plane are further assembled by three additional types of intermolecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form a sheet parallel to the (01) plane.
Calcium density of coronary artery plaque and risk of incident cardiovascular events.

IMPORTANCE Coronary artery calcium (CAC), measured by computed tomography (CT), has strong predictive value for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. The standard CAC score is the Agatston, which is weighted upward for greater calcium density. However, some data suggest increased plaque calcium density may be protective for CVD. OBJECTIVE To determine the independent associations of CAC volume and CAC density with incident CVD events. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Multicenter, prospective observational MESA study (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis), conducted at 6 US field centers of 3398 men and women from 4 race/ethnicity groups; non-Hispanic white, African American, Hispanic, and Chinese. Participants were aged 45-84 years, free of known CVD at baseline, had CAC greater than 0 on their baseline CT, and were followed up through October 2010. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Incident coronary heart disease (CHD) and all CVD events RESULTS During a median of 7.6 years of follow-up, there were 175 CHD events and an additional 90 other CVD events for a total of 265 CVD events. With both lnCAC volume and CAC density scores in the same multivariable model, the lnCAC volume score showed an independent association with incident CHD, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.81 (95% CI, 1.47-2.23) per standard deviation (SD = 1.6) increase, absolute risk increase 6.1 per 1000 person-years, and for CVD an HR of 1.68 (95% CI, 1.42-1.98) per SD increase, absolute risk increase 7.9 per 1000 person-years. Conversely, the CAC density score showed an independent inverse association, with an HR of 0.73 (95% CI, 0.58-0.91) per SD (SD = 0.7) increase for CHD, absolute risk decrease 5.5 per 1000 person-years, and an HR of 0.71 (95% CI, 0.60-0.85) per SD increase for CVD, absolute risk decrease 8.2 per 1000 person years. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve analyses showed significantly improved risk prediction with the addition of the density score to a model containing the volume score for both CHD and CVD. In the intermediate CVD risk group, the area under the curve for CVD increased from 0.53 (95% CI, 0.48-0.59) to 0.59 (95% CI, 0.54-0.64), P = . 02. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE CAC volume was positively and independently associated with CHD and CVD risk. At any level of CAC volume, CAC density was inversely and significantly associated with CHD and CVD risk. The role of CAC density should be considered when evaluating current CAC scoring systems.
Gene Therapy to Treat Cardiovascular Disease

Coronary artery disease, heart failure, and cardiac arrhythmias are major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The overall death rate for all cardiovascular diseases was 236.1 per 100 000 persons, accounting for 1 of every 3 deaths in America. [1][1] Cardiac diseases can affect
Integrated disaster risk management strategy to prevent exposure to hazardous substances due to inundation triggered releases: a concept for Japan

The Nobi plain in Aichi Prefecture is exposed to multiple hazards, like inundation, typhoons and earthquakes. One serious threat is given by typhoon-triggered inundation as happened in the year 2000 during the Tookai-flood. This threat increased in the last decades because of land subsidence triggered by exhaustive ground water withdrawal in the mid of the 20 th century (Yamamoto, 1984). Several facilities handling hazardous substances were inundated during this event. It is unknown if hazardous substances were released. Similar cases suggest that this is highly probable. E.g., during the 2002-Elbe-flood in Germany large amounts of contaminants like heavy metals were flushed into the Elbe river. This resulted in chemical loadings, up to three magnitudes higher than the normal river load. The total delivered load of lead was 2500 times higher than the annual average load. The origin of those chemicals were determined to be inundated chemical facilities located in the Czech-Republic (Schiemeier, 2002). This example shows that not only the loss of property and life is of concern to disaster managers, also consequences by inundation-triggered events, like releases of hazardous substances have to be considered (Christou, 2000;
The Art of Prolog: Advanced Programming Techniques

Part 1 Logic programs: basic constructs database programming recursive programming the computation model of logic programs theory of logic programs. Part 2 The Prolog language: pure Prolog programming in pure Prolog arithmetic structure inspection meta-logical predicates cuts and negation extra-logical predicates program development. Part 3 Advanced Prolog programming techniques: nondeterministic programming incomplete data structures second-order programming interpreters program transformation logic grammars search techniques. Part 4 Applications: game-playing programs a credit evaluation expert system an equation solver a compiler. Appendix: operators.
Convergence analysis of an adaptive filtering structure using a new adaptation scheme

The convergence analysis of a maximally decimated (MD) adaptive filtering structure (AFS) employing a new adaptation scheme is presented. The structure was based on uniform perfect reconstruction (PR) filter banks (FB), their dual transmultiplexers (TMUX) and a model for the system under identification of interpolated FIR (IFIR) filters connected in parallel. A new algorithm was used for the adaptation of the subband filter coefficients employing a new power normalisation (PN) scheme introduced in Papoulis et al. (2002). This structure is briefly described here, the adaptive algorithm is presented and an extensive convergence analysis is then given. Reference then is made to the relevant work reported in Petraglia et al. (2000), namely to a structure that can be considered as the dual of the one presented here and employed an adaptive algorithm that is a simplified version of the one we proposed. The convergence analysis is then specialised for the adaptive scheme used in Petraglia. The rest of the paper is an extensive performance comparison of both structures and of the two adaptation schemes, through both theoretical and experimental results. These demonstrate the improvement in the performance our approach offers; highlight aspects of the theoretical analysis and further enlighten on the similarities and differences of the two approaches. A performance comparison with the full-band NLMS algorithm is given.
Dynanfic Classifiers: Genetic Programnfing and Classifier Systems

The Dynamic Classifier System extends the traditional classifier system by replacing its fixed-width ternary representation with Lisp expressions. Genetic programming applied to the classifiers allows the system to discover building blocks in a fle~ble, fitness directed manner. In this paper, I describe the prior art of problem decomposition using genetic programming and classifier systems. I then show how the proposed system builds oil work in these two areas, extending them in a way that provides for flexible representation and fitness directed discovery of useful building blocks.
Bioaccumulation and Toxic Profiling of Nanostructured Particles and Materials

Use of nanotechnological based formulations and nanomaterials are increasing day-by- day in wide range covering a broad typology of applications, from design and development of targeted drug delivery systems, manufacturing of pesticides, domestic appliances, textiles, to bioremediation engineering. There are therefore concerns about the environmental risks or bioaccumulation-related issues that may arise particularly resulting from the application of drug-loaded nanocarriers or effect of pesticides that reach the natural ecosystems. This is a major threat in the present era and needs to be balanced against their undoubted benefits to human society. The assessment of the physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles and nanomaterials influencing their toxic manifestation due to accumulation in human or in animal organs is still poorly investigated. This chapter reviews the possibilities of bioaccumulation of different nanoscale particles and materi - als, their potential acute and subacute toxicological profile and their identification and characterization in different organs and tissues of vertebrates. soil and water, as well as food and consumer products. Advances in engineering particles and materials testing, either qualitative or quantitative determinations, should be pursued to ensure a safety profile, including the development of standard guidelines. In addition to the toxicological studies, various uptake paths have to be investigated, including dermal, oral and intestinal routes, as well as bioaccumulation trials and potential long-term effects con -sideration. Research into new analytical methods is further required to address the special properties for the establishment of ecological and human health risk factors.