Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhancing Catecholase Activity of a Recombinant Human Tyrosinase Through Multiple Strategies

Background: Tyrosinases are copper-containing enzymes that initiate the melanin synthesis. They catalyze the direct oxidation of L-tyrosine or L-DOPA into L-DOPAquinone. Objectives: In present study, we aimed to obtain a recombinant tyrosinase with enhanced catecholase activity through site-directed mutagenesis. Materials and Methods: The coding sequence of human tyrosinase along with native signal sequence was cloned into pET-28a (+). BL-21 was used as expression host and recombinant protein was purified by Ni-NTA resins. Site-directed mutagenesis was performed on M374 residue to achieve four mutants: M374D, M374T, M374K and M374R. Chloride ions (Cl-) were removed from all solutions, and an extra amount of Cu2+ ions was added to recombinant tyrosinases by a novel technique during the purification process. Removal of Cl- ions and addition of extra Cu2+ ions tripled catecholase activity of the recombinant protein. Therefore, all mutants were obtained under similar conditions. Results: Although all the mutants presented higher catecholase activity in comparison to the wild-type enzyme, a significant increase in catecholase activity of the M374D mutant was observed ‒ 13.2-fold. In silico modeling suggested that a de novo hydrogen bond occurs between side chain carboxyl oxygens of D374 and H367 in M374D. In the wild-type tyrosinase, the peptide oxygen atom of M374 is responsible for hydrogen bonding with H367. Conclusions: Our data suggests that M374D mutational variant has applications in different areas such as agriculture, industry, and medicine.
A multi-mode LDO-based Li-ion battery charger in 0.35/spl mu/m CMOS technology

The paper designs a CMOS Li-ion battery charger that uses multi-mode low dropout (LDO) voltage regulator associated with current sense circuit to supply trickle current, large constant current and constant voltage. The whole circuits have been approved by HSPICE with TSMC 0.35/spl mu/m 2P4M CMOS process. The simulation results provide the trickle current of 150mA, the maximum charging current of 312mA and charging voltage of 4.2V at input voltage of 4.5V. The power efficiency of 72.3% is acceptable under the power of 1.28 W.
Deeper than Blueberries: A Reciprocal Teaching Method Approach to Narrative Text in an Electronically Supported Learning Environment

This paper describes a five-phase, 20-week, computer supported reading comprehension instruction process, which begins with access to powerful supports and direct teacher-mediated instruction. The process involves five phases: (1) fully supported reading and strategy instruction; (2) strategy practice in a fully supported reading environment with teacher review of generated comprehension strategy questions; (3) independent strategy practice in a partially supported environment with teacher review of generated comprehension strategy questions; (4) strategy practice in a partially supported environment with peer review of generated comprehension strategy questions; and (5) generalization to a paper-based text in a partially supported environment with teacher and group review of generated comprehension strategy questions. Several elements are common to all phases: all instruction occurs within the context of a resource room or separate classroom for students with learning disabilities; each phase is approximately 4 weeks duration, with at least 10 hours of instructional time; during each phase, new text is used; and students working in pairs take turns using the speech-to-text capability to dictate their responses during alternating instructional sessions. Project development, implementation, and evaluation are described. (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Deeper than Blueberries: A Reciprocal Teaching Method Approach to Narrative Text in an Electronically Supported Learning Environment
Numerical modeling of deformation and vibrations in the construction of large-size fiberglass cooling tower fan

This paper presents the results of numerical modeling of deformation processes and the analysis of the fundamental frequencies of the construction of large-size fiberglass cooling tower fan. Obtain the components of the stress-strain state structure based on imported gas dynamic and thermal loads and the form of fundamental vibrations. The analysis of fundamental frequencies, the results of which have been proposed constructive solutions to reduce the probability of failure of the action of aeroelastic forces.
Fault Modeling and Functional Test Methods for Digital Microfluidic Biochips

Dependability is an important attribute for microfluidic biochips that are used for safety-critical applications, such as point-of-care health assessment, air-quality monitoring, and food-safety testing. Therefore, these devices must be adequately tested after manufacture and during bioassay operations. Known techniques for biochip testing are all function oblivious (i.e., while they can detect and locate defect sites on a microfluidic array, they cannot be used to ensure correct operation of functional units). In this paper, we introduce the concept of functional testing of microfluidic biochips. We address fundamental biochip operations, such as droplet dispensing, droplet transportation, mixing, splitting, and capacitive sensing. Long electrode actuation times are avoided to ensure that there is no electrode degradation during testing. The functional testing of pin-constrained biochips is also studied. We evaluate the proposed test methods using simulations as well as experiments for a fabricated biochip.
The Practitioner's Cycles, Part 2: Solving Envisioned World Problems

Previous Human-Centered Computing department articles have reflected on the mismatch that can occur between the promise of intelligent technology and the results of technological interventions. Part 1 on the Practitioner's Cycles illustrated ways in which actual world problems-the forces and constraints of procurement-are at odds with the goals of human centering. This article culminated in a practitioner's tale, in which individuals acted on their own initiative and at their own risk, short-circuiting the rules and constraints that limit success at procurement. This paper presents a model based on the tale and focuses on how the model applies to envisioned world problems-the creation of intelligent technologies for new work systems.
Bankruptcy and the Resolution of Financial Distress

This paper reviews empirical research on the use of private and court-supervised mechanisms for resolving default and reorganizing companies in financial distress. Starting with a simple framework for financial distress and a quick overview of the theoretical research in this area, we proceed to summarize and synthesize the empirical research in the areas of financial distress, asset and debt restructuring, and features of the formal bankruptcy procedures in the US and around the world. Studies of out-of-court restructurings (workouts and exchange offers), corporate governance issues relating to distressed restructurings, and the magnitude of the costs and the efficiency of bankruptcy reorganizations are among the topics covered.
Study of differential expression of miRNAs in lung tissue of mice submitted to experimental infection by Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small single stranded RNA sequences involved in post‐transcriptional regulation of different biological and physiological processes. Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is an infection caused by Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, and it is a major cause of mortality due to systemic mycoses in Brazil. To date, there have been few reports on the role of miRNAs in the immune response against fungi, especially PCM. The objective of this study was to evaluate the differential expression of miRNAs related to the inflammatory response associated with pulmonary infection by P. brasiliensis. For this purpose, lungs from BALB/c mice, intravenously infected with P. brasiliensis (2.7×107 yeast cells/ml, n = 12) and noninfected BALB/c mice (n = 8), were collected at the 28 and 56 day after infection. The lung parenchyma presented a great number of yeast cells, granulomas, and edema at 28 days and a framework of resolution of the inflammatory process after 56 days. The mRNAs gata‐3, ror‐&ggr;t, foxp3, and IL‐6 were positively regulated at the moment at the 56 day, while the TGF‐&bgr;1 mRNA was positively regulated at both moments. The miRNAs 126a‐5p, 340‐5p, 30b‐5p, 19b‐3p, 221‐3p, 20a‐5p, 130a‐3p, and 301a‐3p, 466k presented the greatest increase in expression levels 28 days after infection, and the miRNAs let‐7f‐5p, let‐7a‐5p, 5p‐26b, let‐7e‐5p and 369‐3p, 466k presented a greater increase in levels of expression 56 days after infection. This study shows a set of differentially expressed miRNAs possibly involved in the immune response in mice during pulmonary infection by P. brasiliensis.
A novel DnaA protein‐binding site at 94.7 min on the Escherichia coli chromosome

There is a DNA sequence which has unusually high affinity for the DnaA protein of Escherichia coli between the glyV and amiB–mutL operons at 94.7 min on the genetic map. Affinity of DnaA protein for DNA was measured in vivo as the activity of β‐galactosidase produced from the lacZ gene on a plasmid fused to the 5′‐terminal portion of the mioC gene, which is under the control of the DnaA protein. The chromosomal DNA segment between the two operons, carried on a compatible plasmid, derepressed the β‐galactosidase activity by titrating DnaA protein. Derepression occurred on the chromosomal dnaA gene as well, since it is autoregulated. Hence, as measured by immunoassays, one plasmid molecule carrying the DnaA‐binding region titrated 370 DnaA molecules, which is a value eightfold higher than that for a plasmid containing the oriC region. We estimate that about 60% of the total cellular DnaA molecules are bound to this site. Four DnaA‐binding sequences (DnaA boxes) and a DnaA‐regulated promoter directing transcription of two small genes were present within a 250 bp stretch in this region but additional long DNA regions, including the fifth DnaA box located about 650 bp downstream, were required for maximum binding. A role for the DnaA‐binding site in controlling DnaA‐protein concentration in the cell cycle is discussed.
Evaluation of fibrosis in precision-cut tissue slices

1. In this review, the use of precision-cut tissue slices (PCTS) of the liver, kidney, lung and intestine in fibrosis research are evaluated and future possibilities are discussed. 2. In vivo models or techniques that are applicabless to be investigated in PCTS are discussed. 3. It is concluded that the early onset of fibrosis can be induced successfully in PCTS prepared from human and experimental animals. 4. Moreover, precision-cut slices of fibrotic tissue are effective in gaining new knowledge of the mechanisms of fibrosis and of the mode of action of potential antifibrotic drugs. 5. Both healthy and fibrotic human tissue slices will pave the way for the testing of novel therapeutic drugs to treat patients with fibrosis avoiding interspecies extrapolation.
Phone-based speech synthesis with neural network and articulatory control

The paper presents a novel method for synthesizing a speech signal using a phone-based concatenation approach. A neural network is employed for the generalization of the phone templates during synthesis. Simplified articulatory space input parameters based on a modified vowel diagram are used to provide flexible and effective articulatory control. It also enables the design of an articulatory control model for allophonic variations in the speech signal. The network approach is chosen for its non-linear mapping of the relationship between the articulatory space parameters and the spectral information of speech signal. In addition, non-linear approximation for phone template transitions is facilitated. The phone templates of the synthesizer are implicitly stored as network parameters of a medium size network. The performance of this new speech synthesis technique is demonstrated with a prototype system specifically designed for Cantonese (a common Chinese dialect) and the synthetic speech quality is assessed by informal listening tests.
A Compact and Discriminative Face Track Descriptor

Our goal is to learn a compact, discriminative vector representation of a face track, suitable for the face recognition tasks of verification and classification. To this end, we propose a novel face track descriptor, based on the Fisher Vector representation, and demonstrate that it has a number of favourable properties. First, the descriptor is suitable for tracks of both frontal and profile faces, and is insensitive to their pose. Second, the descriptor is compact due to discriminative dimensionality reduction, and it can be further compressed using binarization. Third, the descriptor can be computed quickly (using hard quantization) and its compact size and fast computation render it very suitable for large scale visual repositories. Finally, the descriptor demonstrates good generalization when trained on one dataset and tested on another, reflecting its tolerance to the dataset bias. In the experiments we show that the descriptor exceeds the state of the art on both face verification task (YouTube Faces without outside training data, and INRIA-Buffy benchmarks), and face classification task (using the Oxford-Buffy dataset).
c-IAP1 Binds and Processes PCSK9 Protein: Linking the c-IAP1 in a TNF-α Pathway to PCSK9-Mediated LDLR Degradation Pathway

Recent genetic studies have shown that PCSK9, one of the key genes in cholesterol metabolism, plays a critical role by controlling the level of low-density lipoprotein receptor. However, how PCSK9 mediates LDLR degradation is still unknown. By combining a shotgun proteomic method and differential analysis of natural occurring mutations of the PCSK9 gene, we found that an E3 ubiquitin ligase c-IAP1 binds and processes PCSK9 protein. One of the ‘gain-of-function’ mutations, S127R, is defective with respect to binding to c-IAP1, and thus has defective autocatalytic activity. Knockdown of c-IAP1 impairs PCSK9 processing and autocatalytic cleavage. In c-IAP1 null mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), there is a dramatic decrease in secreted mature PCSK9 protein accompanied by a significant increase in LDLR protein levels compared with matched wild-type MEF cells. c-IAP1 also acts as an E3 ligase for ubiquitination of PCSK9. Ubiquitin containing only lysine-27 mediated PCSK9 ubiquitination by c-IAP1. Given K27-linked polyubiquitination promotes lysosomal localization, the finding indicates the c-IAP1 acts on both secretion of PCSK9 and its lysosomal localization. The novel pathway described here will open new avenues for exploring novel disease treatments.
Stereovision-Based Object Segmentation for Automotive Applications

Obstacle detection and classification in a complex urban area are highly demanding, but desirable for pedestrian protection, stop & go, and enhanced parking aids. The most difficult task for the system is to segment objects from varied and complicated background. In this paper, a novel position-based object segmentation method has been proposed to solve this problem. According to the method proposed, object segmentation is performed in two steps: in depth map (- plane) and in layered images (- planes). The stereovision technique is used to reconstruct image points and generate the depth map. Objects are detected in the depth map. Afterwards, the original edge image is separated into different layers based on the distance of detected objects. Segmentation performed in these layered images can be easier and more reliable. It has been proved that the proposed method offers robust detection of potential obstacles and accurate measurement of their location and size.
Study of using MQTT cloud platform for remotely control robot and GPS tracking

This paper proposed the study of using MQTT cloud platform for remotely control and tracking robot by using GPS module. The system consists of 3 main components: cloud platform, internet connection enabled robot, and control and tracking application, work in conjunction by employed MQTT protocol for 2-ways communication between application and robot. The experiment has been conducted by operator sending command control to the robot and receive GPS data for robot position tracking. The experiment result shows the feasibility of the implementation of MQTT cloud platform into remotely control robot and tracking performs, which results in lower data transmission time due to lower packet size. Also, as the cloud-based system, control can be perform anywhere as long as the system connect to the internet.
Secretory Outposts for the Local Processing of Membrane Cargo in Neuronal Dendrites

The large size and geometric complexity of neuronal dendrites necessitate specialized mechanisms to both deliver postsynaptic cargo over extended distances and regulate dendritic composition on a submicron scale. Despite the fundamental importance of membrane trafficking in dendrite growth, synapse formation and plasticity, the organelles and cellular rules governing postsynaptic trafficking are only now emerging. Here we review what is currently known about dendritic secretory organelles and their role in the development, maintenance and plasticity of postsynaptic compartments.
Case series investigations in cognitive neuropsychology

Case series methodology involves the systematic assessment of a sample of related patients, with the goal of understanding how and why they differ from one another. This method has become increasingly important in cognitive neuropsychology, which has long been identified with single-subject research. We review case series studies dealing with impaired semantic memory, reading, and language production and draw attention to the affinity of this methodology for testing theories that are expressed as computational models and for addressing questions about neuroanatomy. It is concluded that case series methods usefully complement single-subject techniques.
Automatically Identifying Good Conversations Online (Yes, They Do Exist!)

Online news platforms curate high-quality content for their readers and, in many cases, users can post comments in response. While comment threads routinely contain unproductive banter, insults, or users “shouting” over each other, there are often good discussions buried among the noise. In this paper, we define a new task of identifying “good” conversations, which we call ERICs — Engaging, Respectful, and/or Informative Conversations. Our model successfully identifies ERICs posted in response to online news articles with F1 = 0.73 and F1 = 0.91 in debate forums.
CONTROL FOR FAST AND STABLE LAMINAR-TO-HIGH-REYNOLDS-NUMBERS TRANSFER IN A 2D NAVIER-STOKES CHANNEL FLOW

We consider the problem of generating and tracking a trajectory between two arbitrary parabolic profiles of a periodic 2D channel flow, which is linearly unstable for high Reynolds numbers. Also known as the Poiseuille flow, this problem is frequently cited as a paradigm for transition to turbulence. Our procedure consists in generating an exact trajectory of the nonlinear system that approaches exponentially the objective profile. Using a backstepping method, we then design boundary control laws guaranteeing that the error between the state and the trajectory decays exponentially in $L^2$, $H^1$, and $H^2$ norms. The result is first proved for the linearized Stokes equations, then shown to hold locally for the nonlinear Navier-Stokes system.
Modelling and control design for a magnetic levitation system

We study the problem of controlling the position of a platen levitated using linear motors in three-dimensional space. We develop a non-linear six-state model of the system and provide two non-linear controllers solving the set point stabilization problem. The first controller is derived by decomposing the model in two subsystems, applying feedback linearization to one of them, and using the invariance principle to prove attractiveness of the origin of the second subsystem. The second controller is found by dynamic feedback linearizing the entire system dynamics. In both cases we provide a rigorous procedure to determine the operating range of the device.
Impacts of Repeated Glyphosate Use on Wheat-Associated Bacteria Are Small and Depend on Glyphosate Use History

ABSTRACT Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide worldwide and a critical tool for weed control in no-till cropping systems. However, there are concerns about the nontarget impacts of long-term glyphosate use on soil microbial communities. We investigated the impacts of repeated glyphosate treatments on bacterial communities in the soil and rhizosphere of wheat in soils with and without long-term history of glyphosate use. We cycled wheat in the greenhouse using soils from 4 paired fields under no-till (20+-year history of glyphosate) or no history of use. At each cycle, we terminated plants with glyphosate (2× the field rate) or by removing the crowns, and soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities were characterized. Location, cropping history, year, and proximity to the roots had much stronger effects on bacterial communities than did glyphosate, which only explained 2 to 5% of the variation. Less than 1% of all taxa were impacted by glyphosate, more in soils with a long history of use, and more increased than decreased in relative abundance. Glyphosate had minimal impacts on soil and rhizosphere bacteria of wheat, although dying roots after glyphosate application may provide a “greenbridge” favoring some copiotrophic taxa. IMPORTANCE Glyphosate (Roundup) is the most widely used herbicide in the world and the foundation of Roundup Ready soybeans, corn, and the no-till cropping system. However, there have been recent concerns about nontarget impacts of glyphosate on soil microbes. Using next-generation sequencing methods and glyphosate treatments of wheat plants, we described the bacterial communities in the soil and rhizosphere of wheat grown in Pacific Northwest soils across multiple years, different locations, and soils with different histories of glyphosate use. The effects of glyphosate were subtle and much less than those of drivers such as location and cropping systems. Only a small percentage of the bacterial groups were influenced by glyphosate, and most of those were stimulated, probably because of the dying roots. This study provides important information for the future of this important tool for no-till systems and the environmental benefits of reducing soil erosion and fossil fuel inputs.
Effect of Heat Exposure on Gene Expression of Feed Intake Regulatory Peptides in Laying Hens

The aim of this paper was to investigate the effect of heat stress on the regulation of appetite-associated genes in laying hens. Forty eight laying hens were randomly divided into two circumstances: high (31 ± 1.5°C; relative humidity, 82.0 ± 2.2%) or normal (20 ± 2°C, control; relative humidity, 60.1 ± 4.5%) ambient environment. Heat stress decreased body weight gain (P < 0.01), feed intake (P < 0.01), laying rate (P < 0.05), average egg mass (P < 0.01), egg production (P < 0.01), shell thickness (P < 0.01), and feed efficiency (P < 0.05). High ambient temperature decreased plasma uric acid (P < 0.05). Heat stress significantly increased mRNA levels of ghrelin and cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (P < 0.05) and decreased mRNA levels of cholecystokinin (P < 0.05) in the hypothalamus. Heat stress significantly increased (P < 0.05) mRNA levels of ghrelin in the glandular stomach and jejunum but significantly decreased (P < 0.05) mRNA levels of cholecystokinin in the duodenum and jejunum. In conclusion, heat stress plays a unique role in some special neuropeptides (e.g., ghrelin, cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript, and cholecystokinin), which might participate in the regulation of feed intake in laying hens under high ambient temperature.