Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Myopathy caused by a deficiency of Ca2+‐adenosine triphosphatase in sarcoplasmic reticulum (Brody's disease)

Four male patients from two families were first seen with impaired skeletal muscle relaxation that rapidly worsened during exercise. Muscle biopsies from 2 patients were examined by appropriate biochemical and microscopic immunocytochemical techniques. The adenosine triphosphate (ATP)–dependent Ca2+ transport rate was extremely low in a particulate membrane fraction of skeletal muscle, and there was also a marked reduction of the concentration of 100‐kD phosphoprotein, corresponding to Ca2+‐ATPase of sarcoplasmic reticulum, in muscle microsomes. The concentration of immunoreactive Ca2+‐ATPase of sarcoplasmic reticulum was markedly reduced on immunoblots. Evaluation by microscopic immunocytochemical techniques, using one polyclonal and two monoclonal antibodies against sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ transport protein, revealed that the severe reduction of immunoreactive Ca2+‐ATPase was limited to the histochemical type 2 fibers. The deficiency of the Ca2+ transport protein in the sarcoplasmic reticulum of type 2 fibers, which may be the primary expression of a presumed gene defect, can explain the impaired muscle relaxation of the patients. This disease appears to be a clinically, electromyographically, and biochemically distinct metabolic myopathy.
İşletmelerin Kurumsal Sosyal Sorumluluk Faaliyetleri: Kayseri İli’nde Bir Uygulama

Kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk, bir isletmenin paydaslarina karsi olan ekonomik, yasal, ahlaki ve gonullu sorumluluklarini yerine getirmesidir. Finansal performansi olumlu yonde etkilemesi ve paydas tatminini artirmasi, konuyu isletmeler acisindan onemli kilmistir. Bu kapsamda, yapilan calismanin temel amaci, isletmeler acisindan oldukca kritik olan bu konuyu teorik acidan inceleyerek, konunun Kayseri Ili Organize Sanayi Bolgesi’nde faaliyet gosteren isletmeler tarafindan nasil algilandigini tespit etmektir. Calismada, ornek kapsaminda yer alan isletmelerin oncelikle hangi amacla (ekonomik, etik, yasal, gonullu) sosyal sorumluluk faaliyetlerini gerceklestirdikleri belirlenmeye calisilmistir. Yapilan analiz sonuclarina gore, yoneticiler kendi isletmelerinde kurumsal sosyal sorumlulugun dort boyutu itibariyle gerceklestigini dusunmektedirler. Bu boyutlardan en yuksek ortalamaya sahip olan, yasal sorumluluktur. Calismanin, Turkiye’nin onemli sanayi sehirlerinden biri olan Kayseri’deki firmalarin konuya iliskin farkindaliklarini ve konunun hangi boyutunu onemsediklerini ortaya koyarak ilerde yapilacak calismalar icin temel olusturacagi dusunulmektedir.
Human ortholog of Drosophila Melted impedes SMAD2 release from TGF-β receptor I to inhibit TGF-β signaling

Significance Ventricular zone expressed pleckstrin homology domain-containing 1 (VEPH1) is among genes on chromosome 3q24-26, a region amplified in several cancers. Although little is known of mammalian VEPH1, its Drosophila ortholog, Melted, is involved in neural and eye development, metabolism, and size determination through effects on Forkhead box O, target of rapamycin, and Hippo signaling. We show that VEPH1 expression affects similar gene categories as Melted and potently inhibits transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling. VEPH1 interacts with TGF-β type I receptor (TβRI) and inhibits dissociation of activated Sma- and Mad-related protein 2 from TβRI, resulting in impaired TGF-β signaling. TGF-β acts initially as a tumor suppressor through its cytostatic activity, but subsequently promotes tumor progression. These findings suggest that VEPH1 could affect TGF-β activity during cancer development/progression. Drosophila melted encodes a pleckstrin homology (PH) domain-containing protein that enables normal tissue growth, metabolism, and photoreceptor differentiation by modulating Forkhead box O (FOXO), target of rapamycin, and Hippo signaling pathways. Ventricular zone expressed PH domain-containing 1 (VEPH1) is the mammalian ortholog of melted, and although it exhibits tissue-restricted expression during mouse development and is potentially amplified in several human cancers, little is known of its function. Here we explore the impact of VEPH1 expression in ovarian cancer cells by gene-expression profiling. In cells with elevated VEPH1 expression, transcriptional programs associated with metabolism and FOXO and Hippo signaling were affected, analogous to what has been reported for Melted. We also observed altered regulation of multiple transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) target genes. Global profiling revealed that elevated VEPH1 expression suppressed TGF-β–induced transcriptional responses. This inhibitory effect was verified on selected TGF-β target genes and by reporter gene assays in multiple cell lines. We further demonstrated that VEPH1 interacts with TGF-β receptor I (TβRI) and inhibits nuclear accumulation of activated Sma- and Mad-related protein 2 (SMAD2). We identified two TβRI-interacting regions (TIRs) with opposing effects on TGF-β signaling. TIR1, located at the N terminus, inhibits canonical TGF-β signaling and promotes SMAD2 retention at TβRI, similar to full-length VEPH1. In contrast, TIR2, located at the C-terminal region encompassing the PH domain, decreases SMAD2 retention at TβRI and enhances TGF-β signaling. Our studies indicate that VEPH1 inhibits TGF-β signaling by impeding the release of activated SMAD2 from TβRI and may modulate TGF-β signaling during development and cancer initiation or progression.
Identification and Characterization of the Human Orthologue of Yeast Pex14p

ABSTRACT Pex14p is a central component of the peroxisomal protein import machinery, which has been suggested to provide the point of convergence for PTS1- and PTS2-dependent protein import in yeast cells. Here we describe the identification of a human peroxisome-associated protein (HsPex14p) which shows significant similarity to the yeast Pex14p. HsPex14p is a carbonate-resistant peroxisomal membrane protein with its C terminus exposed to the cytosol. The N terminus of the protein is not accessible to exogenously added antibodies or protease and thus might protrude into the peroxisomal lumen. HsPex14p overexpression leads to the decoration of tubular structures and mislocalization of peroxisomal catalase to the cytosol. HsPex14p binds the cytosolic receptor for the peroxisomal targeting signal 1 (PTS1), a result consistent with a function as a membrane receptor in peroxisomal protein import. Homo-oligomerization of HsPex14p or interaction of the protein with the PTS2-receptor or HsPex13p was not observed. This distinguishes the human Pex14p from its counterpart in yeast cells and thus supports recent data suggesting that not all aspects of peroxisomal protein import are conserved between yeasts and humans. The role of HsPex14p in mammalian peroxisome biogenesis makesHsPEX14 a candidate PBD gene for being responsible for an unrecognized complementation group of human peroxisome biogenesis disorders.
Language ideologies, border effects, and dialectal variation: Evidence from /æ/, /aυ/, and /ai/ in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC

Previous studies of border regions have characterized linguistic divergence as a natural consequence of the social psychological and cognitive processes speakers apply in constructing their conceptualizations of the border and those on the other side (Auer 2005). For the border shared by Canada and the United States, in particular, Boberg (2000) highlights a resistance to the diffusion of sound change across the national border. While providing some valid descriptions, these assessments neglect the multi-faceted social function of language to both unite and distinguish speakers and social groups. They also ignore the potentially important role of cultural affinity and regional solidarity spanning a national border. As Irvine & Gal (2000) explain, ideological processes that serve to project contrasts occur recursively and simultaneously with processes that ideologically erase other contrasts at different levels of the system. These ideological processes have consequences for linguistic structure and for sound change. With its strong regional solidarity spanning the U.S.-Canadian border and lack of previous trans-border comparisons in the region, the Pacific Northwest is an ideal site to examine the effects of these ideological processes.
The improved elliptic curve digital signature algorithm

ECDSA is the first successful algorithm that based on ECC. It was accepted by ANSI, IEEE, NIST and ISO as the standard signature algorithm. In this paper, ECDSA was analyzed and improved. The improved algorithms reduce the computational cost while keeping the same security as original ECDSA. They are suitable for the users who have limited compute capacity in different cases. The performance data of each algorithm was presented also.
Future Fab

This paper presents the software suite dubbed automated manufacturing technology (AMT) that monitors and controls the hundreds of steps wafers must pass through on their way to becoming Pentium, Itanium, and Core 2 Duo processors, as well as other high-end Intel microprocessors. The AMT suite has four major components: the manufacturing execution system, the process control automation framework, the engineering analysis framework, and the material handling and tool control. Each is composed of several programs, and each of those programs controls a different part of the chip-making process. The paper also presents how the grid improves the manufacturing flow and the R&D process by looking at a 25-piece lot of experimental wafers called Lot X500
Repeated exposure of adult rats to Aroclor 1254 causes brain region-specific changes in intracellular Ca2+ buffering and protein kinase C activity in the absence of changes in tyrosine hydroxylase.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants, some of which may be neurotoxic. In vitro studies from this laboratory indicated that noncoplanar PCBs perturbed intracellular signal transduction mechanisms including Ca2+ homeostasis, receptor-mediated inositol phosphate production, and translocation of protein kinase C (PKC). In the present study, we examined the effects of PCBs in vivo by dosing adult male Long-Evans rats orally with Aroclor 1254 (0, 10, or 30 mg/kg/day; 5 days/week for 4 weeks) in corn oil. At 24 h after the last dose, rats were tested for motor activity in a photocell device for 30 min. Immediately, the rats were euthanized, blood was collected for thyroid hormone analysis, and brains were removed, dissected into regions (cerebellum, frontal cortex, and striatum), and subcellular fractions were obtained for neurochemical analysis. Following Aroclor 1254 treatment, body weight gain in the high-dose group was significantly lower than the control and low-dose groups. Horizontal motor activity was significantly lower in rats dosed with 30 mg/kg Aroclor 1254. Ca2+ buffering by microsomes was significantly lower in all three brain regions from the 30 mg/kg group. In the same dose group, mitochondrial Ca2+ buffering was affected in cerebellum but not in cortex or striatum. Similarly, total cerebellar PKC activity was decreased significantly while membrane-bound PKC activity was significantly elevated at 10 and 30 mg/kg. PKC activity was not altered either in cortex or the striatum. Neurotransmitter levels in striatum or cortex were slightly altered in PCB-exposed rats compared to controls. Furthermore, repeated oral administration of Aroclor 1254 to rats did not significantly alter forebrain tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity or enzymatic activity. Circulating T4 (total and free) concentrations were severely depressed at both doses in Aroclor 1254-exposed rats compared to control rats, suggesting a severe hypothyroid state. These results indicate that (1) in vivo exposure to a PCB mixture can produce changes in second messenger systems that are similar to those observed after in vitro exposure of neuronal cell cultures; (2) second messenger systems seem to be more sensitive than alterations in neurotransmitter levels or tyrosine hydroxylase involved in dopamine synthesis during repeated exposure to PCBs; and (3) the observed motor activity changes were independent of changes in striatal dopamine levels.
Measuring the Burden of Disease, the Structure of Income, and Returns to Education in Rural West Africa

Die vorliegende Dissertation will einen Beitrag zur Messung von Krankheitsbelastung, Einkommensstruktur und Ausbildungsrenditen im landlichen Westafrika leisten. Ihr Forschungsgegenstand ist die Erhebung und Analyse von Mortalitats-, Morbiditats- und sozio-okonomischen Daten im Gesundheitsdistrikt von Nouna im Nordwesten Burkina Fasos. Die Dissertation besteht aus funf Forschungspapieren. Zwei Artikel wurden bereits in internationalen, referierten Journals (Journal of International Epidemiology und Health Economics) veroffentlicht, nachdem sie zuvor in der Diskussionsschriftenreihe des SONDERFORSCHUNGSBEREICHS 544 "KONTROLLE TROPISCHER INFEKTIONSKRANKHEITEN" veroffentlicht wurden. Ein weiterer Artikel wurde ebenfalls in der genannten Diskussionsschriftenreihe veroffentlicht. Ein Teil der Papiere entstand in den zwei Jahren, wahrend denen ich uber den Sonderforschungsbereich 544 finanziert wurde. Besonders profitiert habe ich von der Zusammenarbeit mit dem Gesundheitsforschungszentrum von Nouna (Centre de Recherche en Sante de Nouna, CRSN), das die Haushaltserhebung Nouna Health District Household Survey (NHDHS) vor Ort durchgefuhrt hat. Innerhalb des Sonderforschungsbereichs war ich verantwortlich fur das Umfragedesign der NHDHS. In Zusammenarbeit mit Mitgliedern des CRSN und Mitarbeitern der Abteilung fur Tropenhygiene und Offentliches Gesundheitswesen der Universitat Heidelberg entwickelte ich den Fragebogen und war verantwortlich fur die Piloterhebung und den zeitlichen Rahmen und verschiedene praktische Aspekte der Erhebung. Daruber hinaus war ich verantwortlich fur die Aufbereitung und Sauberung der Daten in Heidelberg, sowie fur das Erstellen einer endgultigen STATA-Version des Datensatzes. Die empirischen Ergebnisse von Kapitel 6 der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden mit diesem aufbereiteten Datensatz erstellt. Im ersten Papier – Kapitel 2 der Dissertation – wird das Design und die Implementierung der Haushaltserhebung NHDHS beschrieben. Kapitel 3 beschreibt das Saubern und Aufbereiten der Rohdaten sowie die Konstruktion von Einkommensvariablen. Kapitel 4 gibt die Ergebnisse einer Studie zur Messung der Krankheitsbelastung wieder. Die Studie verwendet Mortalitatsdaten, die das CRSN zwischen 1997 und 1999 erhoben hat. Kapitel 5 beschaftigt sich mit methodologischen Fragestellungen der Messung der Krankheitsbelastung. Kapitel 6 befast sich mit der Schatzung von Ausbildungsrenditen.
Probing models of minimal swimming vehicules in vivo with microalgae phototaxis

Designing distributed algorithms for mobile ad-hoc sensor systems is difficult, not at least because of their asynchronous communication, mobility, absence of shared memory and high risk of failures. To deal with these challenges, some techniques like replication and consensus are proposed in the literature. However, techniques like consensus depend on a leader election, and this leader can fail. In this paper, we present some advances inspired from nature for the design of a decentralized, scalable way for getting and synchronizing information among components in a point-to-point way. To achieve this, we address the problem of getting and synchronizing information by defining a Distributed System as a swarm of agents (termites), which look for information. Termites are designed with the task of exploring a simulated environment, sensing some desired data distributed throughout the space, and sharing their local knowledge regarding the environment with other nestmates only if they are neighbors. However, when failure rates increase it is less probable than a termite completes the entire task by itself before all termites fail. In order to allow at least one termite to gather the complete information from the environment, several solution approaches are proposed, like sequential exploration with one agent as reference, random movements with local information exchanges, Levy walks and a pheromone-based exploration algorithm inspired by Ant Colony System. This algorithm allows a termite to explore data in a world and enables a termite to search other nestmates with more information by using a trace and by defining a search status given the amount of local information than a termite has. Results show, how swarms manage to collect and replicate information from the entire space even when failures occur. By local interactions, almost all the termites get complete information from a defined world before failing, without a central control and with simple local rules.
3d segmentation and volumetric of growth plate of radius bone for legal age determination in mri data set

The most prominent difference between an immature skeleton and a mature adult skeletal system is the presence of a Physis which is also known as the growth plate. In this paper a methodological approach based on 3D level set is proposed for fully automated segmentation of Growth plate in Radius bone. The implemented algorithm consists of several stages for a successful segmentation. In the first step, Radius bone is extracted using 3D active contour method. After extracting the Radius bone, to obtain the growth plates the ROI should be extracted according to anatomical information and bone shape. The main challenge in segmenting the growth plates occurs when these plates get closed and narrowed due to aging. For enhancing the contrast in this step, a Gabor filter is used, and finally using sphere spaces as the primary mask of level-set algorithm, a 3D segmentation of Radius Growth plate can be performed. We utilize the proposed approach as part of a computer-aided diagnosis system for robust legal age determination.
Diagnostic disclosure in Alzheimer’s Disease: A review

Although growing, the literature on research into attitudes of general and specialized physicians towards disclosing the diagnosis of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), or the current practice on AD disclosure, remains limited. Moreover, information is also scarce on what caregivers, or indeed patients themselves, wish to know with regard to their diagnosis. The goal of the present article was to present a review of the current available literature on the topic of truth telling in dementia, especially in AD. The studies discussed in this review were mainly conducted in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, as well as the United States. Disclosure of AD diagnosis is not a common practice among physicians. In the clinical context, the discussion on diagnosis disclosure can be valuable for improving the care of AD patients and their families.
Recommendation systems for online advertising

This thesis is dedicated to the study of Recommendation Systems for implicit feedback (clicks) mostly using Learning-to-rank and neural network based approaches. In this line, we derive a novel Neural-Network model that jointly learns a new representation of users and items in an embedded space as well as the preference relation of users over the pairs of items and give theoretical analysis. In addition we contribute to the creation of two novel, publicly available, collections for recommendations that record the behavior of customers of European Leaders in eCommerce advertising, Kelkoofootnote{url{https://www.kelkoo. com/}} and Purchfootnote{label{purch}url{http://www.purch. com/}}. Both datasets gather implicit feedback, in form of clicks, of users, along with a rich set of contextual features regarding both customers and offers. Purch's dataset, is affected by popularity bias. Therefore, we propose a simple yet effective strategy on how to overcome the popularity bias introduced while designing an efficient and scalable recommendation algorithm by introducing diversity based on an appropriate representation of items. Further, this collection contains contextual information about offers in form of text. We make use of this textual information in novel time-aware topic models and show the use of topics as contextual information in Factorization Machines that improves performance. In this vein and in conjunction with a detailed description of the datasets, we show the performance of six state-of-the-art recommender models.Keywords. Recommendation Systems, Data Sets, Learning-to-Rank, Neural Network, Popularity Bias, Diverse Recommendations, Contextual information, Topic Model.
SERIOUS GAMING AND BUSINESS APPLICATIONS : A WEB FRAMEWORK BASED ON SYSTEM DYNAMICS

In this work we present the construction, empirical validation and experimental application of a web based system for teaching topics of Business Administration. The same concepts can be easily extended to other formative areas. The system realizes a cooperative behavior of human agents (learners) who interactively take decisions for a simulated profit oriented enterprise. The technical design is based on System Dynamics and can be extended with the use of intelligent agents, acting as competitors. The main purpose of the game is to transfer knowledge about the strategic management of a profit oriented enterprise. At the beginning of each simulated time period, certain core decisions must be made, and the effects of these strategies will be shown at the end of this period, in the form of typical accounting schemes and indexes. By playing with the system, but above all by sharing decisions and motivations within their group, the students will be able to learn the principles of strategic management and accounting in a “maieutical” way, i.e.: not just by studying on books, but also interacting with the systems and other colleagues.
Percent body fat prediction equations for 8‐ to 17‐year‐old American children

It is often not feasible to measure percent body fat using precise methods such as dual‐emission X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA). Equations developed to estimate percent body fat in youth using measures that are feasible to collect in a variety of settings usually have been developed in focused samples and therefore have low generalizability.
Typing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae by PCR-mediated DNA fingerprinting

PCR fingerprinting was used to characterize clinical isolates of Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Among 24 strains tested, two types were distinguished. Nineteen strains belonged to type 1, whereas only 5 strains belonged to type 2. The majority of strains isolated since 1991 in Belgium belong to type 1. No variations in fingerprinting patterns were observed within each group, confirming the highly conserved nature of the M. pneumoniae genome.