Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Noninvasive Glucose Monitoring of the Aqueous Humor of the Eye: Part I. Measurement of Very Small Optical Rotations

We have described the concept of using the aqueous humor glucose as a measure of the blood glucose concentration, with a view to developing a noninvasive glucose monitor for diabetic individuals. We have conceived of a scleral lens that houses a light source, polarizers, other electro-optic units, and a light detector, and which measures the optical rotation of the aqueous humor continuously. We have built an optical bench mock-up of the glucose sensor and assessed the limits of its capabilities. We have described a physical method, employing the Faraday effect, that modulates the incident light and uses a compensator to introduce a feedback mechanism giving a null-point technique capable of measuring extremely small rotations with an accuracy of 0.4 s of arc. We have used this and have measured the optical rotations of glucose solutions from 0.02 to 0.1%, and have demonstrated linearity in both cases. Miniaturization of the technique is discussed.
Joint Source/Channel Coding with Low Density Parity Check Matrices

The objectives of this paper are two-fold, (cid:2)rst to present the problem of joint source and channel coding from a graphical model perspective and second to propose a structure that uses a new graphical model for jointly encoding and decoding of a redundant source. In the (cid:2)rst part of the paper, relevant contributions to joint source and channel coding, ranging from the Slepian-Wolf problem to joint decoding of variable length codes with state-of-the-art source codes, are reviewed and summarized. In the second part, a double low-density parity-check (LDPC) code for joint source and channel coding is proposed. The double LDPC code can be decoded as a single bipartite graph using standard belief propagation and its limiting performance is analyzed by using extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart approximations.
A force directed macro cell placement tool

The past few years have seen an exponential rise in the growth rate of the semiconductor industry. The increase in usage and demand of electronic devices among consumers has resulted in the need to provide better and faster design methods. The designers are pushed to their limits in meeting these demands whilst juggling the constraints of power and performance of ever shrinking circuits. To help designers meet their targets, EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools are used to help fully or partially automate the design processes. One of such important backend processes is the placement component. The placement problem simply is the problem of finding the ideal locations for each cell in a circuit achieving as many or all of the placement objectives. The two main objectives that every placement tool has to achieve for today’s fixed die design are, • overlap free layout • fit in the given placement area. Other objectives may include minimization of wirelength, area, congestion, run time etc. The optimal solution will be one that satisfies all of the given criteria. Achieving such a placement solution is far from possible and even the simplest of cell placement problems are defined to be NP- hard. The consequence of falling short of a good placement could result in an unroutable design, a slower and/or larger chip etc. This will cost time and money to either manually correct the placement or start the design from the beginning.
Piecing together the structure–function puzzle: Experiences in structure‐based functional annotation of hypothetical proteins

The combination of genomic sequencing with structural genomics has provided a wealth of new structures for previously uncharacterized ORFs, more commonly referred to as hypothetical proteins. This rapid growth has been the direct result of high‐throughput, automated approaches in both the identification of new ORFs and the determination of high‐resolution 3‐D protein structures. A significant bottleneck is reached, however, at the stage of functional annotation in that the assignment of function is not readily automatable. It is often the case that the initial structural analysis at best indicates a functional family for a given hypothetical protein, but further identification of a relevant ligand or substrate is impeded by the diversity of function in a particular structural classification of proteins family, a highly selective and specific ligand‐binding site, or the identification of a novel protein fold. Our approach to the functional annotation of hypothetical proteins relies on the combination of structural information with additional bioinformatics evidence garnered from operon prediction, loose functional information of additional operon members, conservation of catalytic residues, as well as cocrystallization trials and virtual ligand screening. The synthesis of all available information for each protein has permitted the functional annotation of several hypothetical proteins from Escherichia coli and each assignment has been confirmed through generally accepted biochemical methods.
Patterns of Learning in the Accountancy Profession: the Roles of Continuing Professional Development and Lifelong Learning

This thesis explores the roles of CPD and lifelong learning for accountants today. Accountants are experiencing more career transitions and learning is an increasingly vital element in the ever changing environment. The research findings will be used to help accountants learn more effectively throughout their careers. Since 2005, member bodies of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) have been required to implement mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) schemes and to ‘foster a commitment to lifelong learning’ (IFAC, 2004a, p.1). In this new context this research with members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) explores the roles of CPD and lifelong learning, so contributing to both the CPD and lifelong learning research agendas. The research looks at how accountants perceive and describe their learning activities and experiences using a mixed methods approach involving an initial large-scale survey, exploring learning in one context, followed by in-depth interviews which look at learning across a career. Two conceptual frameworks, developed during the literature review, underpin the research. These are based on a model developed by Illeris (2009) and incorporate the cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal dimensions of learning. Other key concepts referred to throughout the research include identity, agency, engagement, affordance and the metaphors of learning as acquisition, learning as participation and learning as becoming. The patterns of learning varied according to the roles, sectors, career stages and gender of accountants. The need for career adaptability (Bimrose et al., 2011) emerged from the research and was added to professional competence to produce a new learning model, the professional learning iceberg. It is proposed that ‘learning relating to professional competence’ and ‘learning relating to career adaptability’ are more meaningful concepts than ‘CPD’ and ‘lifelong learning’ to describe the learning needed to succeed in the accountancy profession in the twenty-first century.
Anti‐Candida Activity and Toxicology of LY121019, a Novel Semisynthetic Polypeptide Antifungal Antibiotic a

There is an increasing medical need for safe and effective antifungal agents. This need is particularly great in immunocompromised patients that are at risk to infection by the opportunistic pathogen Candida. The treatment of disseminated Candida infections with currently available antifungal agents is not entirely satisfactory because of low efficacy and severe toxicity. A large number of naturally occurring and synthetic compounds of diverse chemical types have been found to inhibit growth and reproduction of pathogenic fungi. An agent with high toxicity for a selective fungal target not shared by mammalian cells offers the potential of treating fungal infections of man with low toxicity. Discovering antifungal agents with selective toxicity for the fungal cell and not other eukaryotic cells, however, has been a major limitation for developing new antifungal agents without serious adverse effects. We will review the in vitro anti-Candida activity of LY121019 (FIG. 1) and the effectiveness of this novel antifungal antibiotic against experimental Candida infections. We will discuss the mode of action of LY121019 based on previous observations that LY121019 caused severe damage to the Candida cell wall and summarize results of toxicological studies on LY 121019.
Gonadal steroids reduce the density of axospinous synapses in the developing rat arcuate nucleus: An electron microscopy analysis

The developing brain is exquisitely sensitive to gonadal steroid hormones, which permanently differentiate the neural substrate during a critical developmental period. One of the more striking sexual dimorphisms in the adult rat brain is synaptic patterning in the arcuate nucleus (ARC); females have twice the number of axospinous synapses as males (Matsumoto and Arai [ 1980 ] Brain Res. 190:238–242). Previously, we have demonstrated that a similar dimorphism in spine densities on ARC dendrites is present as early as early as postnatal day 2 (PN2) in Golgi‐impregnated rat brains (Mong et al. [ 1999 ] J. Neurosci. 19:1464–1472). Males have 37% fewer dendritic spines than females. Moreover, these spine densities are sensitive to changes in the hormonal milieu such that males castrated on the day of birth have a significant increase in spine density, whereas females masculinized at birth by gonadal steroid exposure have a decreased dendritic spine density. One of the limitations of the Golgi technique is the inability to confirm the presence of synapses. The current study used quantitative electron microscopy and demonstrated that testosterone exposure dramatically reduced axospinous synapses in the ARC by PN 2. Males had 54% fewer and masculinized females had 77% fewer axospinous synapses than females (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). We previously reported that gonadal steroids induce coincident changes in neuronal and astrocyte morphology in the neonatal ARC (Mong et al., 1999 ), and here confirm that these changes include an altered synaptic pattern that is strikingly similar to that observed in the adult (Matsumoto and Arai, 1980 ). J. Comp. Neurol. 432:259–267, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A network monitoring system in 6LoWPAN networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are expected to be deployed in various areas in the future for monitoring and interacting with the physical environment. The sensors are constraint devices, so 6LoWPAN is proposed by IETF to adapt IPv6 into the WSNs environment. However, due to the use of short address and compression, IPv6/IPv4 enabled devices cannot support the 6LoWPAN adaptation layer as well as 802.15. 4 address. The previous works proposed a gateway approach as a solution for connectivity between 6LoWPAN and Internet. Moreover, WSNs mostly work on battery-operated devices, constraint resources with mass probability of failures. Therefore, an efficient monitoring system becomes essential to ensure the proper functions such as detecting emergency event, failure, alarm as well as improving performance and lifetime of WSN. For this purpose, we propose an efficient gateway system with our gateway notification scheme designed specifically to support multiple monitoring systems' functions, which have not been addressed in the literature. The detail design, implementation, and test-bed are discussed in this paper.
Efficiency of distributed queueing games and of path discovery algorithms. (Efficacité des jeux en files d'attente distribués et des algorithmes de découvert de chemin)

This thesis deals with the efficiency of distributed resource sharing algorithms and of online path discovery algorithms. In the first part of the thesis, we analyse a game in which users pay for using a shared resource. The allocated resource to a user is directly proportional to its payment. Each user wants to minimize its payment while ensuring a certain quality of service. This problem is modelled as a non-cooperative resource-sharing game. Due to lack of analytical expressions for the underlying queuing discipline, we are able to give the solution of the game only under some assumptions. For the general case, we develop an approximation based on a heavy-traffic result and we validate the accuracy of the approximation numerically. In the second part, we study the efficiency of load balancing games, i.e., we compare the loss in performance of noncooperative decentralized routing with a centralized routing. We show that the PoA is very pessimistic measure since it is achieved in only pathological cases. In most scenarios, distributed implementations of load-balancing perform nearly as well as the optimal centralized implementation. In the last part of the thesis, we analyse the optimal path discovery problem in complete graphs. In this problem, the values of the edges are unknown but can be queried. For a given function that is applied to paths, the goal is to find a best value path from a source to a given destination querying the least number of edges. We propose the query ratio as efficiency measure of algorithms that solve this problem. We prove a lower-bound for any algorithm that solves this problem and we proposed an algorithm with query ratio strictly less than 2.
Distortion Correction in Fetal EPI Using Non-Rigid Registration With a Laplacian Constraint

Geometric distortion induced by the main B0 field disrupts the consistency of fetal echo planar imaging (EPI) data, on which diffusion and functional magnetic resonance imaging is based. In this paper, we present a novel data-driven method for simultaneous motion and distortion correction of fetal EPI. A motion-corrected and reconstructed T2 weighted single shot fast spin echo (ssFSE) volume is used as a model of undistorted fetal brain anatomy. Our algorithm interleaves two registration steps: estimation of fetal motion parameters by aligning EPI slices to the model; and deformable registration of EPI slices to slices simulated from the undistorted model to estimate the distortion field. The deformable registration is regularized by a physically inspired Laplacian constraint, to model distortion induced by a source-free background B0 field. Our experiments show that distortion correction significantly improves consistency of reconstructed EPI volumes with ssFSE volumes. In addition, the estimated distortion fields are consistent with fields calculated from acquired field maps, and the Laplacian constraint is essential for estimation of plausible distortion fields. The EPI volumes reconstructed from different scans of the same subject were more consistent when the proposed method was used in comparison with EPI volumes reconstructed from data distortion corrected using a separately acquired B0 field map.
Role of recent and old riverine barriers in fine-scale population genetic structure of Geoffroy's tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi) in the Panama Canal watershed

The role of physical barriers in promoting population divergence and genetic structuring is well known. While it is well established that animals can show genetic structuring at small spatial scales, less well-resolved is how the timing of the appearance of barriers affects population structure. This study uses the Panama Canal watershed as a test of the effects of old and recent riverine barriers in creating population structure in Saguinus geoffroyi, a small cooperatively breeding Neotropical primate. Mitochondrial sequences and microsatellite genotypes from three sampling localities revealed genetic structure across the Chagres River and the Panama Canal, suggesting that both waterways act as barriers to gene flow. F-statistics and exact tests of population differentiation suggest population structure on either side of both riverine barriers. Genetic differentiation across the Canal, however, was less than observed across the Chagres. Accordingly, Bayesian clustering algorithms detected between two and three populations, with localities across the older Chagres River always assigned as distinct populations. While conclusions represent a preliminary assessment of genetic structure of S. geoffroyi, this study adds to the evidence indicating that riverine barriers create genetic structure across a wide variety of taxa in the Panama Canal watershed and highlights the potential of this study area for discerning modern from historical influences on observed patterns of population genetic structure.
Interference of working memory load with long‐term memory formation

Traditionally, it has been assumed that the medial temporal lobe (MTL) is indispensable for long‐term memory (LTM) encoding, but only plays a minor role for working memory (WM) maintenance. Recently, however, an increasing number of studies questioned this seemingly clear distinction by showing that the MTL does participate in some WM processes, especially if multiple items are being maintained. This would predict that WM maintenance of multiple items interferes with simultaneous LTM encoding. Here, we tested this idea in a functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm that required subjects to encode stimuli into LTM during simultaneous WM maintenance of either single or multiple items. Indeed, we found that maintenance of multiple items deteriorates simultaneous LTM encoding as compared with maintenance of single items. WM‐related activation of the hippocampus was more pronounced in the condition with high WM load; in contrast, hippocampal activation related to LTM encoding was stronger in the low WM load condition. Successful LTM encoding was associated with a high level of activity in the adjacent parahippocampal cortex (PHC), leading to pronounced parahippocampal subsequent memory effects in the high load condition. This suggests that the PHC is a locus of WM–LTM interaction. Functional connectivity analysis with a seed in the PHC confirmed this result by revealing strong connectivity with the medial frontal cortex, which was only active in the high WM load condition. Taken together, these findings suggest that high WM demands interfere with LTM encoding and thus support the idea that WM and LTM processes interact in the MTL.
Akzeptanz von E-Learning: eine Auseinandersetzung mit dem Technologieakzeptanzmodell zur Analyse individueller und sozialer Einflussfaktoren

Der Einsatz von E-Learning als Innovation im Bildungsbereich wird konfrontiert mit Akzeptanzproblemen bei den potentiellen Anwendern. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit besteht darin, die Grunde fur diese fehlende Nutzungsbereitschaft auf Basis eines empirischverhaltenswissenschaftlichen Ansatzes zu untersuchen. Dahinter steht die Uberlegung, Kenntnisse uber mogliche Akzeptanztreiber aus der Perspektive der Lernenden zu erzielen und damit Hinweise fur die erfolgreiche Gestaltung von virtuellen Lernarrangements zu gewinnen. Zur Zielerreichung wird auf das Technologieakzeptanzmodell von Davis (1989) zuruckgegriffen. Zunachst wird analysiert, inwieweit dieses Modell geeignet ist, die Akzeptanz von E-Learning hinreichend vorherzusagen. Da das Modell auf eine Erklarung der Wirkungsweise sozialer Einflussfaktoren bei der Akzeptanzvorhersage verzichtet, wird in einem weiteren Schritt der Einfluss der Subjektiven Norm im Rahmen des Technologieakzeptanzmodells untersucht. Abschliesend wird sich in dieser Arbeit mit dem Einfluss von personlichkeitspsychologischen Determinanten auf die Akzeptanz von E-Learning auseinandergesetzt. Die Analyse zeigt, dass das originare Technologieakzeptanzmodell zur Verhaltensvorhersage von E-Learning-Systemen nur bedingt verwendet werden kann. Die theoretisch begrundete Eigenschaft der Verhaltensintention als alleinige Bestimmungsgrose der tatsachlichen Nutzung konnte nicht bestatigt werden. Das Akzeptanzverhalten wird direkt durch den wahrgenommenen Systemnutzen bestimmt. Die Bedeutung der Intention zur Verhaltensvorhersage ist statistisch nicht bedeutsam. Durch die Modellmodifikation konnte gezeigt werden, dass neben dem wahrgenommenen Nutzen, auch die Subjektive Norm einen direkten Einfluss auf das Akzeptanzverhalten ausubt. Ferner zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass Personlichkeitsmerkmale keinen Einfluss auf die Akzeptanz von E-Learning haben.
The Quality of Meta-Analyses of Genetic Association Studies: A Review With Recommendations

Although there has been a rapid rise in the publication of meta-analyses of genetic association studies, little is known about their methodological quality. The authors reviewed the quality of 120 randomly selected genetic meta-analyses published between 2005 and 2007. Data extracted included issues of general relevance and other issues specific to genetic epidemiology. Quality was markedly poorer in the 26% of the meta-analyses that accompanied a report on a primary study. Such meta-analyses were predominantly published in specialist journals, and their quality was positively associated with the impact factor of the journal. Among the meta-analyses that did not accompany a primary study, Human Genome Epidemiology reviews tended to score better than the others, although the comparison was limited by relatively small numbers. Comparison of the overall quality with that of genetic meta-analyses published before 2000 showed improvement in both conduct and reporting. However, the quality of the handling of specific genetic issues remains disappointingly low. For a few key general quality issues, the authors compared their findings with findings in other fields of medicine and found that general quality was similar. On the basis of this review, the authors provide practical recommendations for the conduct and reporting of genetic meta-analyses.
Evaluating the usefulness of mobile services based on captured usage data from longitudinal field trials

It is widely discussed whether the usefulness of mobile systems and services should be evaluated in the field or in the lab. The aim of this paper is to make a case for conducting longitudinal field trials when evaluating the usefulness of mobile services, and to partly base such evaluations on quantitative usage data automatically captured on the device. A framework for automatic capture and analysis of such data is introduced, and it is shown how it has been used to evaluate a mobile service for diabetes management. Results and experiences based on a three month field trial with a single diabetic user is presented and it is demonstrated how these results can be used to make inferences about the use of the service with regard to functionality and usage patterns.
Insulin Regulates Astrocytic Glucose Handling Through Cooperation With IGF-I

Brain activity requires a flux of glucose to active regions to sustain increased metabolic demands. Insulin, the main regulator of glucose handling in the body, has been traditionally considered not to intervene in this process. However, we now report that insulin modulates brain glucose metabolism by acting on astrocytes in concert with IGF-I. The cooperation of insulin and IGF-I is needed to recover neuronal activity after hypoglycemia. Analysis of underlying mechanisms show that the combined action of IGF-I and insulin synergistically stimulates a mitogen-activated protein kinase/protein kinase D pathway resulting in translocation of GLUT1 to the cell membrane through multiple protein-protein interactions involving the scaffolding protein GAIP-interacting protein C terminus and the GTPase RAC1. Our observations identify insulin-like peptides as physiological modulators of brain glucose handling, providing further support to consider the brain as a target organ in diabetes.