Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PCR-based analysis of microbial communities during the EuroGeoMars campaign at Mars Desert Research Station, Utah

Abstract The search for evidence of past or present life on Mars will require the detection of markers that indicate the presence of life. Because deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is found in all known living organisms, it is considered to be a ‘biosignature’ of life. The main function of DNA is the long-term storage of genetic information, which is passed on from generation to generation as hereditary material. The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a revolutionary technique which allows a single fragment or a small number of fragments of a DNA molecule to be amplified millions of times, making it possible to detect minimal traces of DNA. The compactness of the contemporary PCR instruments makes routine sample analysis possible with a minimum amount of laboratory space. Furthermore the technique is effective, robust and straightforward. Our goal was to establish a routine for the detection of DNA from micro-organisms using the PCR technique during the EuroGeoMars simulation campaign. This took place at the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah in February 2009 (organized with the support of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG), NASA Ames and the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC)). During the MDRS simulation, we showed that it is possible to establish a minimal molecular biology lab in the habitat for the immediate on-site analysis of samples by PCR after sample collection. Soil and water samples were taken at different locations and soil depths. The sample analysis was started immediately after the crew returned to the habitat laboratory. DNA was isolated from micro-organisms and used as a template for PCR analysis of the highly conserved ribosomal DNA to identify representatives of the different groups of micro-organisms (bacteria, archaea and eukarya). The PCR products were visualized by agarose gel electrophoresis and documented by transillumination and digital imaging. The microbial diversity in the collected samples was analysed with respect to sampling depth and the presence or absence of vegetation. For the first time, we have demonstrated that it is possible to perform direct on-site DNA analysis by PCR at MDRS, a simulated planetary habitat in an extreme environment that serves as a model for preparation and optimization of techniques to be used for future Mars exploration.
Glycosylated Hemoglobin: A Sensitive Indicator of Gestational Diabetes

&NA; Previous studies suggested that the assessment of hemoglobin A1 (HbA1) concentration was a poor indicator of diabetes in pregnancy. However, HbA1 was measured by ion exchange chromatography, which is subject to spurious alterations. To reevaluate the use of glycosylated hemoglobin concentration (GlyHb) as an indicator of gestational diabetes, 64 women at 10 to 15 weeks' gestation were studied by measuring GlyHb by a specific affinity chromatography assay, and blood glucose concentration was determined one hour post a 50‐g oral glucose load. Gestational diabetes developed in 15 women in whom GlyHb (7.4 ± 0.2%) was greater than in normal pregnant women (5.7 ± 0.1%, P < .001). If a GlyHb of 6.3% were chosen as the threshold for diagnostic evaluation for diabetes, only 6.7% of the gestational diabetics would have missed diagnosis. Of normal women, 14.2% would have been subjected to glucose tolerance tests. GlyHb elevation was associated with the birth of infants large for gestational age. The assessment of GlyHb by affinity chromatography between 10 and 15 weeks′ gestation may be a sensitive predictor of patients who will develop gestational diabetes. (Obstet Gynecol 68:357, 1986)
Information Extraction and Opinion Organization for an e-Legislation Framework for the Philippine Senate

This paper outlines the Language Technologies (LT) used for an e-Legislation Framework prototyped for the Philippine Senate’s Committee on Accountability of Public Officials and Investigations (or Blue Ribbon Committee). The e-Legislation system uses an e-Participation framework of having both top-down (or government providing information to citizenry) and ground-up empowerment (or citizens participation). The Language Technologies employed manage the information obfuscated in unstructured text coming from both directions mainly for the purpose of policy-making. The top-down component utilizes a conventional Document Management System augmented with Information Extraction that allows for better and almost instantaneous management of information from uploaded documents. The ground-up component uses an online forum scheme and augmented with Automatic Opinion Classification and Clustering. Both e-Participation framework components (top-down and ground-up) are integrated in a single portal. This paper focuses on the technical issues of the language technologies used: information extraction and opinion classification with data clustering. Preliminary testing and results are discussed to which the information extraction performed 95.42% accuracy while the opinion organization consisting of the detection, classification and clustering modules have accuracy rates of 50%, 50.5% and 53.85%, respectively.
FUSION: A unified application model for virtual mobile infrastructure

We proposed a unified application model for virtual mobile infrastructure called FUSION. FUSION bridges the gap between the remote VMI server and the client-side mobile device via supporting bi-directional IPC(inter-process communication) and loosely synchronized file system. FUSION classifies IPC events into two types: IPC events without accessing local resources and IPC events accessing local resource. For IPC events without accessing local resources, FUSION simply hooks the IPC events, forwards them to the remote peer and replays them in the remote environment. For complex IPC events involving with accessing files located in the local device, FUSION will analyze each individual IPC event and transmit the corresponding files to the remote peer with respect to each IPC event. Once the remote application completes its job and the user tries to disconnect with the remote peer, FUSION will synchronize those files back to the local side. The synchronization makes the file changes updated by the remote application visible to the local side. Base on our experimental results, FUSION incurs less than 1% overhead on the system. For simple IPC events without local resource access, FUSION can transmit those IPC events to the remote peer under various network conditions in less than 1200ms. For complex IPC events involving local resource access, FUSION can also serialize and transmit the files efficiently.
Phase III study of cisplatin (P) plus etoposide (E) with concurrent chest radiation (XRT) followed by docetaxel (D) vs. observation in patients (pts) with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): An interim toxicity analysis of consolidation therapy.

7043 Background: Concurrent chemo radiotherapy is the standard treatment for pts with unresectable stage III NSCLC. A previously reported phase II study (Gandara et al J Clin Oncol 2003) suggests that consolidation D after concurrent PE/XRT may further improve survival. HOG LUN01-24, is an ongoing phase III clinical trial comparing chemo radiation. A preliminary analysis of the differences in toxicities between PE/XRT with or without consolidation D was performed. METHODS Eligible pts had previously untreated, unresectable stage III NSCLC, ECOG PS 0-1 at time of study entry (and PS 0-2 at the time of randomization), ≤ 5% weight loss in preceding 3 months, FEV-1 > 1 L. Treatment consisted of P 50 mg/m2 days 1, 8, 29, 36 with E 50 mg/m2 days 1-5 and 29-33, given concurrently with chest XRT to 5,940 cGy (180 cGy/day) beginning on day 1. Non-progressive pts were randomized (4-8 weeks after completing PE/XRT) to receive D 75 mg/m2 iv every 21 days for 3 cycles vs. OBSERVATION We report an interim toxicity analysis associated to consolidation D. RESULTS From 3/02 to 12/05 220 have been registered and 149 pts have been randomized to consolidation D (n=73) or observation (n=76). Median age was 63.6 years (range 33-86); male/female 34.1%/65.9%; PS 0/1 at study entry 59.1%/40.9%; stage III A/B 40.6%/59.4%; 50.2% had FEV-1 > 2 (range 1-4.2); 44.3% were current smokers. Randomized pts have PS 0/1/2 44.3%/53%/2.7. Selected grade 3/4 toxicities associated to D include: neutropenia 23.3%, febrile neutropenia 8.2%, and pulmonary toxicity 9.6%. In addition, 26.7% of pts had dose modifications or delays on D arm, 45.2% had at least one grade 3/4 toxicity and 20.5% were hospitalized due to D-related toxicity, including 4 pts (5.5%) whose death was considered therapy related. CONCLUSIONS Concurrent PE/XRT followed by consolidation D is associated with a high rate of grade 3/4 toxicities and hospitalizations, including treatment-related deaths. Updated toxicity data will be presented at the ASCO meeting. Whether consolidation D confers a survival advantage is not yet known. [Table: see text].
The Analog Ensemble Kalman Filter and Smoother

The amount of observational and model-simulated data in geosciences has grown rapidly since the early 1980s. These data, still widely underexploited, has a unique potential for the modeling and prediction of geophysical space-time dynamics. Here, we show how a statistical emulator, based on a catalog of historical datasets, and a sequential Monte Carlo filter and smoother, provide a relevant data-driven analog assimilation of complex dynamics. As an illustration, we consider the chaotic Lorenz-63 model.
Value Creation and Value Capture in Governing Shareholder Relationships: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in an Emerging Market

Research Summary Protecting minority shareholders is a central issue in corporate governance. A common tool of empowering minority shareholders is to curb controlling shareholders’ power of expropriating firm value, but this approach was rarely successful because of the resistance from powerful controlling shareholders. We examine an alternative way of empowering minority shareholders without directly fighting with controlling shareholders. A major corporate governance reform in China gave minority shareholders a decision right over certain actions that affected the creation of firm value. We demonstrate that the greater the extent to which minority shareholders’ actions can influence the firm's value ex post, the more value controlling shareholders concede to minority shareholders ex ante. This effect becomes even stronger when controlling shareholders are able to expropriate a larger portion of firm value. Managerial Summary Minority shareholders often have to contend with excessive extraction of firm value by powerful controlling shareholders, particularly in emerging markets. When this tension is considered as a zero‐sum game in which every gain to controlling shareholders has to come from a loss to minority shareholders, controlling shareholders strongly resist any effort to empower minority shareholders. We propose an alternative approach to empower minority shareholders. A major reform of Chinese listed firms bestowed on minority shareholders decision rights to take certain actions that could ex post create a larger “pie” (firm value) for all shareholders. We find that controlling shareholders give away greater value ex ante to minority shareholders to induce more of these actions. Consequentially, minority shareholders are more effectively empowered when they can affect firm value.
Ectodermal dysplasia with tetramelic deficiencies and no mutation in p63: Odontotrichomelic syndrome or a new entity?

The ectodermal dysplasias (ED) are a large and complex group of diseases characterized by anomalies of the ectoderm and its derivates, often associated with malformations in other organs. We report a patient with an ectodermal dysplasia affecting hair, teeth, and nails and malformations of all four extremities including absence of several rays in the hands and feet. This patient shares many similarities with odontotrichomelic syndrome, a rare ectodermal dysplasia syndrome that has so far only been described in three individuals. However, some differences exist and this patient might also represent a separate ectodermal dysplasia syndrome. p63, a gene that is mutated in a number of syndromes associated with ectodermal dysplasia and limb malformations, was considered a possible candidate gene. However, no mutation in p63 was identified. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Defining Incident Vertebral Deformity: A Prospective Comparison of Several Approaches

Vertebral deformities are common and important outcomes in clinical trials and epidemiologic studies of osteoporosis. While several different methods for defining new deformities have been proposed, it is not clear which is best. We used data from serial spine radiographs obtained an average of 3.7 years apart in 7238 women age ≥65 years from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures to compare several approaches to defining new deformities by morphometry including a fixed percentage reduction in any vertebral height (FIXED%), a change in a summary spinal deformity index, a change in a vertebra from no prevalent deformity at baseline to a deformity at follow‐up, as well as several variations of these methods. We compared results of each definition with several clinical correlates, including height loss, back pain, age, baseline bone mineral density, and the presence of a baseline deformity. We also estimated the sample size required for a clinical trial using various cut points. At a given level of incidence, all methods had similar relationships with each of the correlates. Given that similarity, the FIXED% method was simplest and needed no reference data. Using the FIXED% method, a 20–25% vertebral height reduction criterion for deformity maximized the power for a clinical trial. We conclude that all of the morphometric approaches to defining incident deformities have similar relationships to clinical correlates of vertebral deformity, but that use of a fixed percentage reduction in vertebral height is the simplest and most practical. For the FIXED% method, a 20–25% reduction in vertebral height minimizes the sample size required for clinical trials and epidemiologic studies.
Kobe University Repository : Kernel タイトル Tit le A novel colorimetric method to quant ify tannase act ivity of viable bacteria 著者

A novel colorimetric method to quantify tannase activity of viable tannase-producing bacterial strains was developed through application of a visual reading method that was to detect the activity qualitatively. The novel method was sensitive enough to quantify the marginal tannase activity of strains that could not be otherwise measured by conventional spectrophotometric or colorimetric methods.
Understanding the demand growth for digital connectivity

While connectivity supply is growing exponentially, likely as a result of developments in the semiconductor industry, research on connectivity has mostly focused on the demand side. Such approach is however unable to account for the introduction of unforeseen ser-vices, which is also supply-driven. In this study we seek to validate the existence of a 'residual' of unexplained growth and quantify it as the difference between supply of con-nectivity and demand from existing service category. The hypothesis is confirmed: an increasing fraction of internet traffic volume expected at high levels of aggregation (i.e. an internet exchange) is unexplained by existing service category growth.
Strategi Pengembangan Sumber Daya Manusia dengan Pendekatan Pola Komunikasi Efektif dalam Mewujudkan Konsep Malang Smart City

The concept of a smart city has an agenda to strengthen urban management through the use of information and communication technology. Related to that, the Malang City Government continues to be innovative and creative to support smart city program. One of the breakthroughs of the Office of Communication and Informatics of Malang City to support Malang Smart City program is by forming Forum of Public Information Group (KIM). The forum consists of people who are active in information sectors ranging from urban village to city levels. This study looks at the development of community human resources in the forum of KIM Kota Malang by using SWOT analysis, namely internal analysis (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats). The result of the research shows that KIM Forum of Malang City is an asset of Malang City Government that must be developed because it has a strategic role in bridging information from the city government to the urban community through effective communication skills. Human resource development strategy is needed to support Malang Smart City program.
Involvement of Plasma Membrane Redox Activity and Calcium Homeostasis in the UV-B and UV-A/Blue Light Induction of Gene Expression in Arabidopsis

UV and blue light are important regulators of plant gene expression and development. We investigated the signal transduction processes involved in the induction of chalcone synthase (CHS) and phenylalanine ammonia–lyase (PAL) gene expression by UV-B and UV-A/blue light in an Arabidopsis cell suspension culture. Experiments with electron transport inhibitors indicated that plasma membrane redox activity is involved in both signal transduction pathways. Calcium ionophore treatment stimulated expression of the TOUCH3 gene, and this induction was strongly antagonized by UV-A / blue and UV-B light, suggesting that both light qualities may promote calcium efflux from the cytosol. Consistent with this hypothesis, experiments with specific inhibitors indicated that UV-B and UV-A/blue light regulate calcium levels in a cytosolic pool in part via the action of specific Ca2+–ATPases. On the basis of these and previous findings, we propose that plasma membrane redox activity, initiated by photoreception, is coupled to the regulation of calcium release from an intracellular store, generating a calcium signal that is required to induce CHS expression.
Is idiom identification possible from prosodic information? an experimental approach for the Greek language

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the identification of one’s idiom is feasible through only prosodic information. As an experimental approach of this theory, we attempt to study whether native Greek adults can identify their mother idiom from synthesized stimuli which contain only prosodic - melodic and rhythmic - information. In the first section we present the main idea behind our work, in the second section we present the procedure we followed in order to complete this pilot study, while at the two final sections one can find the results and the conclusions of our experiments.
Efficient Mining of Closed Tree Patterns from Large Tree Databases with Subtree Constraint

Mining frequent tree patterns from tree databases has practical importance in domains like Web mining, Bioinformatics, and so on. Although there have been algorithms on efficient tree mining, these algorithms are often lack of the interpretability in that they often produce a huge number of patterns, most of which are meaningless to users. This paper aims at both demands, one with respect to computational cost, which is efficient generation of tree patterns, and another one with respect to the interpretability. This task requires an efficient method to incorporate the users' needs into mining process. We propose a new top-down method for mining unordered closed tree patterns from a database of trees such that every mined pattern must contain a common piece of information in the form of a tree specified by the user. This type of mining is called mining with subtree constraint which would be useful, for example, inWeb mining and Bioinformatics, where users want to extract common patterns around some given information from original data. The proposed algorithm is tested and compared with a state-of-the-art tree mining algorithm on real and artificial datasets with very good results.
Prevalence of enteropathogenic bacteria in common quail (Coturnix coturnix)

The study was aimed at evaluating the prevalence of enteropathogenic bacteria (i.e. Campylobacter spp., shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp.) in common quail (Coturnix coturnix). To achieve this goal, 70 common quails were collected during the hunting season in the Campania region (southern Italy). From each bird, cloacal swab samples were collected and subjected to culture methods, polymerase chain reaction and serotyping. The results of the present study showed a prevalence of 21.4% and 5.7% for Campylobacter spp. and shigatoxin-producing E. coli, respectively. In contrast, no Salmonella spp. was isolated. These findings show that common quail, as migratory birds, may constitute an environmental carrier of these pathogens representing a source of infection for other birds, livestock and humans.
Stability of phase locking in a ring of unidirectionally coupled oscillators

In this paper we discuss the behavior of a finite group of phase oscillators unidirectionally coupled in a ring. The dynamics is described by the Kuramoto model. In the case of identical oscillators, all phase locking solutions are obtained explicitly, together with their stability properties. For nonidentical oscillators it is proven that there exist phase locking solutions for sufficiently strong coupling. An algorithm for obtaining all phase locking solutions is given. These solutions can be subdivided into classes, the stability properties of each of which are established separately. The stability results are extended to interconnections belonging to a class of odd functions. Finally, a connection with the field of active antenna arrays is made, generalizing some results earlier obtained in this field.
Tissue Distribution and Antitumor Activity of Topotecan Delivered by Intracerebral Clysis in a Rat Glioma Model

OBJECTIVEIntracerebral clysis is a drug delivery technique that depends on convection-enhanced microinfusion to achieve therapeutic drug levels within the brain. In this study, brain tumor-bearing rats were treated with topotecan delivered systemically and by the intracerebral clysis method. Our objective was to determine the efficacy and tissue distribution of topotecan delivered by intracerebral clysis. METHODSThe C6/Wistar rat glioma model was used after a thymidine incorporation assay determined topotecan sensitivity of C6 cells in vitro. Long-term survival of animals provided objective measurements of efficacy; records of animal weight during treatment and neurological status served to approximate toxicity. Topotecan tissue penetration was measured in samples of ex vivo tumor and surrounding brain tissue with high-pressure liquid chromatography. RESULTSDose escalation demonstrated significant sensitivity of C6 glioma cells to topotecan (median lethal dose, 0.19 &mgr;mol/L). Eleven of 12 rats bearing established intracerebral C6 glioma and receiving topotecan by intracerebral clysis survived beyond the end point of 120 days; no untreated control or systemically treated animal survived beyond 26 days (n = 18;P < 0.005). Histopathological assessment of animals demonstrated significant tumor masses in the brains of intraperitoneally treated animals and untreated control animals. In contrast, no residual tumor was found in the brains of intracerebral clysis groups. Animal weights during treatment were markedly reduced by intraperitoneal dosing (n = 6) but not by low-dose intracerebral clysis (32 &mgr;g/kg/d for 5 d; n = 6). None of the low-dose intracerebral clysis-treated animals demonstrated neurological toxicity, and one high-dose intracerebral clysis-treated animal (160 &mgr;g/kg/d for 2 d; n = 6) died during follow-up. Topotecan was detected well beyond the boundaries of the tumor and even in the contralateral hemisphere in animals treated with intracerebral clysis. CONCLUSIONTopotecan delivered by the intracerebral clysis method is effective for treatment of brain tumors in the rat glioma model. These studies provide compelling justification for further preclinical testing to formally evaluate toxicity and efficacy with variable dosing schedules.