Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research on the routing protocol in wireless sensor networks based on genetic algorithm

Regardless of the traditional network, or wireless sensor networks, routing algorithms is the key support for network transmission technology. This paper focuses on the combination of GA and WSN routing algorithm, and analyzes the problem about hierarchy routing algorithm based on GA. Thus, this paper improves hierarchy routing algorithm using GA. The experiment result show that the performance of two phases GA using really nodes is better than the previous hierarchy routing algorithm based on GA. Meanwhile,the algorithm in this paper can save power, and enhance network life cycle which meets the precedent power requirement of wireless sensor networks routing agreement.
A lysine to arginine substitution at position 146 of rabbit aldolase A changes the rate-determining step to Schiff base formation.

Lys146 of rabbit aldolase A [D-fructose-1,6-bis(phosphate): D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate lyase, EC 4.1. 2.13] was changed to arginine by site-directed mutagenesis. The kcat of the resulting mutant protein, K146R, was 500 times slower than wild-type in steady-state kinetic assays for both cleavage and condensation of fructose-1,6-bis(phosphate), while the K(m) for this substrate was unchanged. Analysis of the rate of formation of catalytic intermediates showed K146R was significantly different from the wild-type enzyme and other enzymes mutated at this site. Single-turnover experiments using acid precipitation to trap the Schiff base intermediate on the wild-type enzyme failed to show a build-up of this intermediate on K146R. However, K146R retained the ability to form the Schiff base intermediate as shown by the significant amounts of Schiff base intermediate trapped with NaBH4. In the single-turnover experiments it appeared that the Schiff base intermediate was converted to products more rapidly than it was produced. This suggested a maximal rate of Schiff base formation of 0.022 s-1, which was close to the value of kcat for this enzyme. This observation is strikingly different from the wild-type enzyme in which Schiff base formation is > 100 times faster than kcat. For K146R it appears that steps up to and including Schiff base formation are rate limiting for the catalytic reaction. The carbanion intermediate derived from either substrate or product, and the equilibrium concentrations of covalent enzyme-substrate intermediates, were much lower on K146R than on the wild-type enzyme. The greater bulk of the guanidino moiety may destabilize the covalent enzyme-substrate intermediates, thereby slowing the rate of Schiff base formation such that it becomes rate limiting. The K146R mutant enzyme is significantly more active than other enzymes mutated at this site, perhaps because it maintains a positively charged group at an essential position in the active site or perhaps the Arg functionally substitutes as a general acid/base catalyst in both Schiff base formation and in subsequent abstraction of the C4-hydroxyl proton.
The Rate of Return on Life Insurance and Annuities

Net single premium life insurance and annuity contracts can be regarded as investments with corresponding internal rates of return. Since the time until death of the policyholder is a random variable, so must be the internal rate generated on the contract. Aspects of the distribution of the internal rate are investigated for standard life insurance and annuity contracts.
Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Measure Financial Constraints? New Evidence from Unpacking the Black Box

The relationship between investment and cash flow has been a subject of considerable empirical debate. In this paper, our aim is to shed a new light on this relationship. It is argued that a firm’s observed investment and financing decisions are endogenous, in an ex-post behavioral sense, and that, therefore, investment-cash flow sensitivity (when estimated in a reduced-form, linear investment equation) is likely to be an ambiguous, and possibly misleading, measure of (current and expected future) financial constraints. Empirical evidence is provided in support of our case, based on a two-stage estimation strategy. In the first stage, allowance is made for unobserved firm heterogeneity as related to cash flow; we generalize the Q-investment equation and estimate individual, firm-specific investment-cash flow sensitivities by applying an entropy-based fixed-effect estimator. In the second stage, we look inside the black box and investigate how and to what extent these sensitivities are “driven” by important underlying factors. A number of striking ceteris-paribus results emerge: a) investment-cash flow sensitivity is monotonically decreasing in the level of cash flow; b) cutting back on investment, hoarding more cash, taking less on debt, building up debt capacity, and paying low or zero dividends (actions that are typically associated with the presence of tighter financial constraints) tend to produce a smaller value of investment-cash flow sensitivity; c) investment-cash flow sensitivity is negatively related to cash-flow volatility and positively related to investment volatility; and d) firm size and asset tangibility do not contribute to explaining the variation in investment-cash flow sensitivities across firms. From these results, it follows that the relation between the investment-cash flow sensitivity’s magnitude and the degree of financial constraints is indeterminate a priori. While such results call into question conventional wisdom, they help to explain the many contradictory findings encountered in the literature.
Design of high‐affinity S100‐target hybrid proteins

S100B and S100A10 are dimeric, EF‐hand proteins. S100B undergoes a calcium‐dependant conformational change allowing it to interact with a short contiguous sequence from the actin‐capping protein CapZ (TRTK12). S100A10 does not bind calcium but is able to recruit the N‐terminus of annexin A2 important for membrane fusion events, and to form larger multiprotein complexes such as that with the cation channel proteins TRPV5/6. In this work, we have designed, expressed, purified, and characterized two S100‐target peptide hybrid proteins comprised of S100A10 and S100B linked in tandem to annexin A2 (residues 1–15) and CapZ (TRTK12), respectively. Different protease cleavage sites (tobacco etch virus, PreScission) were incorporated into the linkers of the hybrid proteins. In situ proteolytic cleavage monitored by 1H‐15N HSQC spectra showed the linker did not perturb the structures of the S100A10‐annexin A2 or S100B‐TRTK12 complexes. Furthermore, the analysis of the chemical shift assignments (1H, 15N, and 13C) showed that residues T102‐S108 of annexin A2 formed a well‐defined α‐helix in the S100A10 hybrid while the TRTK12 region was unstructured at the N‐terminus with a single turn of α‐helix from D108‐K111 in the S100B hybrid protein. The two S100 hybrid proteins provide a simple yet extremely efficient method for obtaining high yields of intact S100 target peptides. Since cleavage of the S100 hybrid protein is not necessary for structural characterization, this approach may be useful as a scaffold for larger S100 complexes.
Relationship between Body Image and Percent Body Fat among Male and Female College Students Enrolled in an Introductory 14-Week Weight-Training Course

Students (39 men and 27 women) from a southern university, who were enrolled in a 14-wk. introductory weight-training course, were administered a 20-item body-image questionnaire and subsequently underwent skinfold measurements to assess percent body fat. Mean scores were correlated with percent body fat. For men, women, and both sexes combined correlations were significant and inverse (rs = −.68, −.41, −.66, respectively). Body image as measured was inversely related to percent body fat among these college students. Researchers should examine how dietary and exercise-induced changes in adiposity (pre-post design) influence scores on body image.
Frequency domain analysis of radial pulse in abnormal health conditions

Radial pulse has been utilized to identify health status in Indian and Chinese complementary medicine approaches. The radial pulse signal in abnormal health conditions show variations in its morphology in comparison to that of the healthy subjects, resulting in changes in the pulse power spectrum. Comparison between the power spectrum of pulse signal for the subjects suffering from gastrointestinal disorders and healthy subjects has been carried out in this work. A frequency domain feature “Band Energy Ratio (BER)” has been defined to identify the band of frequencies carrying significant difference between these two groups. Abnormal bands showing significant elevation of energies has been identified as 4Hz to 10Hz band. Based on Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis, 8 Hz to 10 Hz band has been identified carrying further significance giving 89.7% sensitivity, 90.5% specificity and 90% accuracy as optimum parameters to segregate the two groups.
Automated glaucoma detection using quasi-bivariate variational mode decomposition from fundus images

Glaucoma is a critical and irreversible neurodegenerative eye disorder caused by damaging optical nerve head due to increased intra-ocular pressure within the eye. Detection of glaucoma is a critical job for ophthalmologists. This study presents a novel and more accurate method for automated glaucoma detection using quasi-bivariate variational mode decomposition (QB-VMD) from digital fundus images. In total, 505 fundus images are decomposed using QB-VMD method which gives band limited sub-band images (SBIs) centred around a particular frequency. These SBIs are smooth and free from mode mixing problems. The glaucoma detection accuracy depends on the most useful features as it captured appropriate information. Seventy features are extracted from QB-VMD SBIs. Extracted features are normalised and selected using ReliefF method. Selected features are then fed to singular value decomposition to reduce their dimensionality. Finally, the reduced features are classified using least square support vector machine classifier. The obtained glaucoma detection accuracies are 85.94 and 86.13% using three- and ten-fold cross validation, respectively. Obtained results are better than the existing. It may become a suitable method for ophthalmologists to examine eye disease more accurately using fundus images.
Approaching reliable realtime communications? A novel system design and implementation for roadway safety oriented vehicular communications

Though there exist ready-made DSRC/WiFi/3G/4G cellular systems for roadway communications, there are common defects in these systems for roadway safety oriented applications and the corresponding challenges remain unsolved for years, i.e., WiFi cannot work well in vehicular networks due to the high probability of packet loss caused by burst communications, which is a common phenomenon in roadway networks; 3G/4G cannot well support real-time communications due to the nature of their designs; DSRC lacks the support to roadway safety oriented applications with hard realtime and reliability requirements [1]. To solve the conflict between the capability limitations of existing systems and the ever-growing demands of roadway safety oriented communication applications, we propose a novel system design and implementation for realtime reliable roadway communications, aiming at providing safety messages to users in a realtime and reliable manner. In our extensive experimental study, the latency is well controlled within the hard realtime requirement (100ms) for roadway safety applications given by NHTSA [2], and the reliability is proved to be improved by two orders of magnitude compared with existing experimental results [1]. Our experiments show that the proposed system for roadway safety communications can provide guaranteed highly reliable packet delivery ratio (PDR) of 99% within the hard realtime requirement 100ms under various scenarios, e.g., highways, city areas, rural areas, tunnels, bridges. Our design can be widely applied for roadway communications and facilitate the current research in both hardware and software design and further provide an opportunity to consolidate the existing work on a practical and easy-configurable low-cost roadway communication platform.
Impact of performance appraisal on Teacher performance in public secondary schools in Kisumu west sub-county, Kenya.

Performance appraisal is one of the basic tools that make workers to be very effective and active at work. If the system of teacher performance appraisal is properly designed and implemented, it is believed to have favorable consequences in the professional development of teachers and ultimately the academic performance of learners. But when it is simply allowed to happen, it becomes haphazard, unsystematic, a source of conflict between appraisers and appraises, and a source of inaccurate performance data that lead to subjective personnel decisions. Other studies have cited absence of feedback, lack of participation and ineffective criteria in employee performance appraisal process as the major source of poor performance. A through scrutiny of most schools in Kisumu west sub-county reveal a poor performance for the last four consecutive years from 2012 to 2016 with a mean of 5.60, 5.34, 5.30, 5.56 and 4.88 respectively. It is not clear whether teacher performance appraisal has an impact on teacher performance. Hence the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of performance appraisal on teacher performance in Kisumu west sub-county Kenya guided by the following specific objectives; to establish the impact of performance appraisal process on teacher performance, to establish the impact of performance appraisal methods on teacher performance and to establish the impact of feedback on teacher performance. The study will be guided by goal setting theory and will adopt inferential research design. A total of 273 teachers in public secondary school will be involved of which 55 will be sampled using stratified random sampling method. Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics; mean, percentages, standard deviation and frequency and presented using tables, and charts. Test retest and content validity index methods will be used to ensure reliability and validity respectively. The finding of this study will avail baseline information upon which future plans of ministry of education could be founded.
A COMMENT ON PHYLOGENETIC CORRECTION

Abstract Statistical methods are now commonly used to take into account the expected lack of independence of observations across different species (due to their phylogenetic relatedness) when computing correlations or regressions among traits. The methods are often interpreted as removing that part of the regression or correlation that is an artifact due to phylogeny and there is an expectation that the corrected regression or correlation coefficients will usually be closer to zero. It is shown here that this is not an accurate way to interpret these methods. The effect of taking phylogeny into account is to reduce the variance of the estimated regression or correlation coefficients. Their means are not because since estimates of regression coefficients are unbiased whether or not the correct phylogeny is taken into account. Estimates of correlations are only slightly biased (and in the opposite direction that many expect).
Epidemiology, clinical impacts and current clinical management of Helicobacter pylori infection

Helicobacter pylori infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. More than 50% of the global population is estimated to be infected. Differences in prevalence exist within and between countries, with higher prevalence seen among people with lower socio‐economic status. Most transmission of infection occurs early in life, predominantly from person to person in the family setting. H. pylori is the cause of most peptic ulcer disease, gastric cancer and gastric mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma and causes symptoms in a subset of patients with functional dyspepsia. Choice of diagnostic test depends on the clinical context; urea breath tests and endoscopy with biopsy are the major diagnostic tools. Evidence‐based indications for eradication of H. pylori infection are well documented. The most widely used and recommended eradication therapy in Australia is triple therapy comprising a proton pump inhibitor, amoxycillin and clarithromycin, usually for 1 week. Effective alternative regimens are available for patients with proven allergy to penicillin. Antimicrobial resistance is the major determinant of the outcome of eradication therapy. Trends in antibiotic resistance need to be monitored locally, but individual patient susceptibility testing is not usually necessary as it rarely guides the choice of therapy. The outcome of treatment should be assessed not less than 4 weeks after therapy. This is usually done with a urea breath test if follow‐up endoscopy is not required. When first‐line therapy fails, several proven second‐line therapies may be used. Repeat first‐line therapy and ad hoc regimens should be avoided. Overall cumulative eradication rates should approach 99%.
RAP46 Is a Negative Regulator of Glucocorticoid Receptor Action and Hormone-induced Apoptosis*

RAP46 was first identified by its ability to bind the glucocorticoid receptor. It has since been reported to bind several cellular proteins, including the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, but the biological significance of these interactions is unknown. Here we show that RAP46 binds the hinge region of the glucocorticoid receptor and inhibits DNA binding and transactivation by the receptor. We further show that overexpression of RAP46 in mouse thymoma S49.1 cells inhibits glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis. Conversely, glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis and transactivation were enhanced after treating S49.1 cells with the immunosuppressant rapamycin, which down-regulates cellular levels of BAG-1, the mouse homolog of RAP46. The effect of rapamycin can, however, be overcome by overexpression of RAP46. These results together identify RAP46 as a protein that controls glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis through its negative regulatory action on the transactivation property of the glucocorticoid receptor.
Scanning the macula for detecting glaucoma

Background: With the advent of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SDOCT), there has been a renewed interest in macular region for detection of glaucoma. However, most macular SDOCT parameters currently are thickness parameters which evaluate thinning of the macular layers but do not quantify the extent of area over which the thinning has occurred. We therefore calculated a new macular parameter, ganglion cell complex surface abnormality ratio (GCC SAR) that represented the surface area over which the macular thickness was decreased. Purpose: To evaluate the ability of SAR in detecting perimetric and preperimetric glaucoma. Design: Retrospective image analysis. Materials and Methods: 68 eyes with perimetric glaucoma, 62 eyes with preperimetric glaucoma and 165 control eyes underwent GCC imaging with SDOCT. SAR was calculated as the ratio of the abnormal to total area on the GCC significance map. Statistical Analysis: Diagnostic ability of SAR in glaucoma was compared against that of the standard parameters generated by the SDOCT software using area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) and sensitivities at fixed specificities. Results: AUC of SAR (0.91) was statistically significantly better than that of GCC average thickness (0.86, P= 0.001) and GCC global loss volume (GLV; 0.88, P= 0.01) in differentiating perimetric glaucoma from control eyes. In differentiating preperimetric glaucoma from control eyes, AUC of SAR (0.72) was comparable to that of GCC average thickness (0.70, P> 0.05) and GLV (0.72, P> 0.05). Sensitivities at specificities of 80% and 95% of SAR were comparable (P > 0.05 for all comparisons) to that of GCC average thickness and GLV in diagnosing perimetric and preperimetric glaucoma. Conclusion: GCC SAR had a better ability to diagnose perimetric glaucoma compared to the SDOCT software provided global GCC parameters. However, in diagnosing preperimetric glaucoma, the ability of SAR was similar to that of software provided global GCC parameters.
Disturbance observer based terminal sliding mode control method for PMSM speed regulation system

This paper investigates the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) speed regulation system using terminal sliding mode control method. By introducing a non-singular terminal sliding mode manifold, a novel terminal sliding mode controller is designed for the speed loop. This controller can make the states not only reach the manifold in finite time, but also converge to the equilibrium point in finite time. Thus, the controller could make the motor speed reach the reference value in finite time, obtaining a faster convergence and a better tracking precision. Meanwhile, considering the large chattering phenomenon caused by high switching gains, a composite terminal sliding mode control method based on disturbance observer is proposed to reduce chattering. Through disturbance estimation for feed-forward compensation, the composite terminal sliding mode controller may take a smaller value for the switching gain without sacrificing disturbance rejection performance. Simulation results and comparisons are given to show the superiority of the proposed method.
Hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha down‐regulates type i collagen through Sp3 transcription factor in human chondrocytes

Cartilage engineering is one challenging issue in regenerative medicine. Low oxygen tension or hypoxia inducible factor‐1 (HIF‐1α) gene therapy are promising strategies in the field of cartilage repair. Previously, we showed that hypoxia and its mediator HIF‐1 regulate matrix genes expression (collagens and aggrecan). Here, we investigated the molecular mechanism involved in the regulation of type I collagen (COL1A1) by HIF‐1 in human articular chondrocytes. We show that HIF‐1α reduces COL1A1 transcription, through a distal promoter (−2300 to −1816 bp upstream transcription initiation site), containing two GC boxes that bind Sp transcription factors (Sp1/Sp3). Sp1 acts as a positive regulator but is not induced by HIF‐1. COL1A1 inhibition caused by HIF‐1 implies only Sp3, which accumulates and competes Sp1 binding on COL1A1 promoter. Additionally, Sp3 ectopic expression inhibits COL1A1, while Sp3 knockdown counteracts the downregulation of COL1A1 induced by HIF‐1. In conclusion, we established a new regulatory model of COL1A1 regulation by HIF‐1, and bring out its relationship with Sp3 transcription factor. In a fundamental level, these findings give insights in the mechanisms controlling COL1A1 gene expression. This may be helpful to improve strategies to impair type I collagen expression during chondrocyte differentiation for cartilage engineering. © 2016 IUBMB Life, 68(9):756–763, 2016