Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of metal mixture (Cu, Zn, Pb, and Ni) on cadmium partitioning in littoral sediments and its accumulation by the freshwater macrophyte Eriocaùlon septangulàre

The effect of a metal mixture (Cu, Zn, Pb, and Ni) on Cd fractionation in sediment and its accumulation by the freshwater macrophyte Eriocaùlon septangulàre was examined in an in situ experiment in the littoral zone at the Experimental Lakes Area, northwestern Ontario, Canada. Fresh sediment was spiked with Cd alone and together with the metal mixture at three concentration levels. Macrophytes were planted in the spiked sediment and placed at a water depth of 0.5 m. The distribution of Cd among sediment fractions (easily reducible [ER], reducible [R‐ER], and organic [ORG]), pore water, and macrophytes was determined every 2 weeks for 10 weeks. Small differences among treatment levels in the recovery of Cd from the geochemical fractions were observed after 2 and 8 weeks but not after 10 weeks. At the highest concentration of the metal mixture, Cd repartitioned from the ER fraction onto the R‐ER fraction after 2 weeks in situ. After 10 weeks, Cd was accumulated by the shoots (<2.6 μg/g dry weight) and roots (<45 μg/g dry weight) of E. septangulàre and had not reached steady state. Significantly higher Cd concentrations were found in the shoots of plants in the treatment with Cd alone and the treatment with the highest concentration of the metal mixture than in treatments with intermediate levels of the mixture. Partitioning of Cd among geochemical fractions in sediment alone did not explain differences in tissue Cd concentrations related to treatment level.
Comprehensive and field study to design a buck converter for photovoltaic systems

More sophisticated applications require electronic converters to process the electricity from the PV device. These converters may be used to regulate the voltage and current at the load, control the power flow in grid-connected systems, and mainly track the maximum power point (MPP) of the device. Therefore, this paper tries to study an electronic converter in PV systems, namely the Buck converter, and propose an easy way to electronic converter designers to calculate component values needed to realize it.
Being mindful of seven‐transmembrane receptor ‘guests’ when assessing agonist selectivity

The time‐honored approach of quantifying agonist selectivity through measurement of agonist affinity with binding and efficacy through potency ratios in model assays for prediction of effect in therapeutic systems can fall short of providing useful answers for functionally selective agonists. Agonists are now known to have pluridimensional efficacies that are associated with selected signalling pathways coupled to the receptor. This necessitates specifically tailored assay formats to measure pre‐determined efficacies of ligands to characterize agonist selectivity fully. If such assays can access signalling that directly emanates from the interaction of the agonist‐bound receptor and a cytosolic signalling protein, then the Black/Leff operational model can be used to specifically quantify ‘transduction ratios’ (τ/KA) that fully characterize selective activation of signalling pathways by a given agonist. As whole‐cell processing of pleiotropic signalling cascades imposes cell‐specific phenotypic agonist profiles, ultimately the assessment of agonist selectivity is most reliably done in the therapeutically relevant primary cell system.
Field Trial in Commercial Broilers with a Multivalent In Ovo Vaccine Comprising a Mixture of Live Viral Vaccines Against Marek's Disease, Infectious Bursal Disease, Newcastle Disease, and Fowl Pox

SUMMARY. A multivalent in ovo vaccine (MIV) was tested for safety and efficacy in a commercial broiler complex. The MIV comprised five replicating live viruses including serotypes 1, 2, and 3 of Marek's disease virus (MDV), an intermediate infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) and a recombinant fowl poxvirus (FPV) vector vaccine containing HN and F genes of Newcastle disease virus (NDV). The performance of MIV-vaccinated broilers was compared with that of hatchmates that received turkey herpesvirus (HVT) alone (routinely used in ovo vaccine in the broiler complex). The chickens that hatched from the MIV-injected and HVT-injected eggs were raised under commercial conditions in six barns. Barn 1 housed 17,853 MIV-vaccinated chickens and each of the barns 2–6 housed 18,472–22,798 HVT-vaccinated chickens. The HVT-vaccinated chickens were given infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and NDV vaccines at hatch and at 2 wk of age. The MIV-vaccinated chickens received IBV vaccine at hatch and IBV + NDV at 2 wk of age. The relative values of hatchability of eggs, livability and weight gain of chickens, and condemnation rates at processing were comparable between the MIV and the HVT groups (P > 0.05). Chickens from the MIV- and the HVT-vaccinated groups were challenged with virulent viruses under laboratory conditions. The resistance of vaccinated chickens against Marek's disease could not be assessed because of high natural resistance of unvaccinated commercial broilers to virulent MDV. The relative resistances of the MIV- and the HVT-vaccinated groups, respectively, against other virulent viruses were as follows: IBDV, 100% for both groups; NDV, 81% vs. 19%; FPV, 86% vs. 0%. The successful use of MIV under field conditions expands the usefulness of the in ovo technology for poultry.
Comments on and correction to 'Axiomatic derivation of the principle of maximum entropy and the principle of minimum cross-entropy' (Jan 80 26-37)

An error in the subject paper is pointed out: when the axioms given there are restricted to the discrete case, they do not imply the discrete case of the principle of minimum cross-entropy. The principle is shown to follow, however, from the adoption of an additional axiom: if new information is consistent with a prior estimate of a probability distribution, then the posterior estimate equals the prior. Minor other improvements and corrections to the arguments in the paper are made.
Increased Protein Stability Causes DNA Methyltransferase 1 Dysregulation in Breast Cancer*

We report that DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) expression is dysregulated in breast cancer. The elevated protein levels are not a result of increased mRNA levels, but rather an increase in protein half-life. We found that DNMT1 protein levels were elevated in breast cancer tissues and in MCF-7 breast cancer cells relative to normal human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) without a concomitant increase in DNMT1 mRNA or proliferative fraction. Although DNMT1 mRNA levels were properly S-phase-regulated in both cell types, DNMT1 protein levels did not follow S-phase fraction in MCF-7 cells. Rather, an increase in DNMT1 protein stability was found for MCF-7 cells relative to HMECs, and a destruction domain was mapped to the N-terminal 120 amino acids of DNMT1, which was required for its proper ubiquitination and degradation in HMECs. Furthermore, overexpression of DNMT1 with this deleted destruction domain in HMECs resulted in significantly increased genomic 5-methylcytosine levels relative to overexpression of the full-length protein. The regulation of DNMT1 destruction via this domain may be dysfunctional in cancer cells leading to subsequent cytosine hypermethylation in the genome.
$H_{\infty}$ Filtering for Neutral Systems With Mixed Delays and Multiplicative Noises

This brief investigates the <i>H</i><sub>∞</sub> filtering problem for a class of neutral systems with mixed delays and multiplicative noises. The mixed delays comprise both discrete time-varying and distributed delays. Moreover, the multiplicative disturbances are in the form of a scalar Gaussian white noise with unit variance. In the presence of mixed delays and multiplicative noises, sufficient conditions for the existence of an <i>H</i><sub>∞</sub> filter are derived, such that the filtering error dynamics is asymptotically mean-square stable and also achieves a guaranteed <i>H</i><sub>∞</sub> performance level. Then, a linear matrix inequality approach for designing such an <i>H</i><sub>∞</sub> filter is presented. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed theoretical results.
Using a Maximum Entropy Classifier to link “good” corpus examples to dictionary senses

A particular problem of maintaining dictionaries consists of replacing outdated example sentences by corpus examples that are up-to-date. Extraction methods such as the good example finder (GDEX; Kilgarriff, 2008) have been developed to tackle this problem. We extend GDEX to polysemous entries by applying machine learning techniques in order to map the example sentences to the appropriate dictionary senses. The idea is to enrich our knowledge base by computing the set of all collocations and to use a maximum entropy classifier (MEC; Nigam, 1999) to learn the correct mapping between corpus sentence and its correct dictionary sense. Our method is based on hand labeled sense annotations. Results reveal an accuracy of 49.16% (MEC) which is significantly better than the Lesk algorithm (31.17%).
HISTOPATOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL CHANGES IN PARACETAMOL , FISH OIL AND THIOACETAMIDE TREATED RAT

The aim of the study is the investigation and comparison the changes in biochemical, histopathological and immunohistochemical pictures in experimentally induced different liver affections including inflammation, fatty change and cirrhosis. Six groups of rats were used; 3 groups experimentally induced hepatic stress by administration of Paracetamol (P) as single dose (1 g /kg b. wt., for 1 day) Fish oil (FO) (35% of total calories) and Thioacetamide (TAA) (200 mg/5 ml saline/Kg. b. wt.,) for 8 weeks and in addition to their controls (3 groups). Serum levels of ALT, AST and total bilirubin were significantly increased in the 3 groups. Furthermore, TAA-treated group showed significant increase in ALP and GGT as well as significant decrease in total proteins and albumin. In addition, there were disturbance in lipid profile and glucose in the three experimental groups. The results of this study demonstrated that P, FO and TAA have hepatotoxic effects, which confirmed by histopathological examinations. Hepatocytes showed hydropic degeneration in diffuse manner Also, Fatty change was observed in diffuse manner all over the hepatocytes in liver of F group. Liver in group T showed distortion of portal areas by fibrous tissue proliferation infiltrated with inflammatory cells.
Computation of ground resistances and assessment of ground grid safety at 161/23.9-kV indoor-type substation

This paper computes ground resistances and assesses ground grid safety at three 161/23.9-kV indoor-type substations in the system of the Taiwan Power Company. For computing the ground resistance, a method based on two kinds of two-layer models (i.e., grid buried in the lower-layer of two-layer soil, two-layer soil simplified with one-layer structure of the Sverak's and empirical equations) is used and compared with the method proposed by the one-layer model of the Schwarz's equation in IEEE Standard 80, 2000 edition. As a result, the ground resistance obtained by the two-layer soil simplified with one-layer structure of the empirical equation is near the measurement. For assessing the ground grid safety, the ground potential rise is computed based on the calculated ground resistance and is compared with the minimum touch voltage. As a result, the design of the ground grid at all three 161/23.9-kV indoor-type substations is unsafe under a one-layer model of the Schwarz's equation for humans with 50-kg body weight.
Reversal of diet‐induced insulin resistance with a single bout of exercise in the rat: the role of PTP1B and IRS‐1 serine phosphorylation

Lifestyle interventions including exercise programmes are cornerstones in the prevention of obesity‐related diabetes. In this study, we demonstrate that a single bout of exercise inhibits high‐fat diet‐induced insulin resistance. Diet‐induced obesity (DIO) increased the expression and activity of the protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) and attenuated insulin signalling in gastrocnemius muscle of rats, a phenomenon which was reversed by a single session of exercise. In addition, DIO was observed to lead to serine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS‐1), which was also reversed by exercise in muscle in parallel with a reduction in c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) activity. Thus, acute exercise increased the insulin sensitivity during high‐fat feeding in obese rats. Overall, these results provide new insights into the mechanism by which exercise restores insulin sensitivity.
Randomized phase II study of concurrent and sequential rituximab and CHOP chemotherapy in untreated indolent B‐cell lymphoma

CHOP combined with rituximab (R‐CHOP) is regarded as one of the most effective treatments for indolent B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (B‐NHL), however, its optimal combination schedule remains unknown. We performed a randomized phase II study to explore a more promising schedule in untreated, advanced indolent B‐NHL. Patients were randomized to receive either six courses of CHOP concurrently with rituximab (Arm C), or six courses of CHOP followed by six courses of weekly rituximab (Arm S). A total of 69 patients received the concurrent (n = 34) or sequential (n = 35) regimen. Overall response rate (ORR) in Arm C was 94% (95% confidence interval [CI], 79 to 99), including a 66% complete response (CR) compared with 97% (95% CI, 85–100), including a 68% CR in Arm S. Patients in Arm C experienced more grade 4 neutropenia (85%versus 70%) and experienced more grade 3 or greater non‐hematological toxicities (21%versus 12%). Both arms were tolerated well. With a median follow‐up of 28.2 months, the median progression‐free survival (PFS) time was 34.2 months in Arm C, and was not reached in Arm S. R‐CHOP is highly effective in untreated indolent B‐NHL, either concurrent or in a sequential combination. Both combination schedules deserve further investigation. (Cancer Sci 2006; 97: 305 – 312)
Scanning Electron Microscopy for Vacuum Quality Factor Measurement of Small-Size Mechanical Resonators

Many micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) are based on the use of resonant mechanical structures. In this paper, we propose scanning electron microscopy techniques that allow a direct characterization of in-plane vibrations of small-size resonators. Implementation and performance of these techniques are illustrated by vacuum quality factor measurements of an electrostatically-driven polysilicon Tang resonator and of a high Q silicon cantilever microbeam excited with an external piezoelectric actuator. These techniques are also expected to be suitable for the dynamical characterization of nanoresonators.
Improved in vivo and in vitro viability of platelet concentrates stored for seven days in a platelet additive solution

An additive solution has been developed for storage of platelet concentrates (PC) which sustains improved in vivo and in vitro viability after 7 d of storage in second generation oxygen permeable containers. This platelet additive solution is a protein‐free physiologic salt solution fortified with citrate, bicarbonate and glucose. The in vivo quality of the PC was evaluated by autologous radiolabelling with Indium‐111‐oxine to measure recovery and survival by multiple hit analysis. The in vitro quality was evaluated by total ATP content, hypotonic shock response and extent of shape change with ADP. Ten paired studies were performed with PC from the same donor being stored for 7 d at 22°C in both CPDA‐1 plasma and the additive solution. Mean recoveries and survivals were found to be substantially higher with PC stored in the additive solution than with PC stored in CPDA‐I plasma (51·0±7·8% and 144·1 ± 15·9 h versus 36·6±10·7% and 110·4±31·6 h). The differences were statistically significant (P< 0·001). The results of the in vitro assays described above parallelled the in vivo results, with statistically significantly superior results (P<0·01) for all parameters of PC stored in the additive solution. This study is the first to show that PC quality may be improved and storage extended using an additive solution.
Contribution of the 8-Methoxy Group to the Activity of Gatifloxacin against Type II Topoisomerases of Streptococcus pneumoniae

ABSTRACT The inhibitory activities (50% inhibitory concentrations [IC50s]) of gatifloxacin and other quinolones against both DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV of the wild-type Streptococcus pneumoniae IID553 were determined. The IC50s of 10 compounds ranged from 4.28 to 582 μg/ml against DNA gyrase and from 1.90 to 35.2 μg/ml against topoisomerase IV. The inhibitory activity against DNA gyrase was more varied than that against topoisomerase IV among fluoroquinolones. The IC50s for DNA gyrase of the 8-methoxy quinolones gatifloxacin and AM-1147 were approximately seven times lower than those of their 8-H counterparts AM-1121 and ciprofloxacin, whereas the IC50s for topoisomerase IV were 1.5 times lower. Moreover, the IC50 ratios (IC50 for DNA gyrase/IC50 for topoisomerase IV) of gatifloxacin, AM-1147, and moxifloxacin, which possess 8-methoxy groups, were almost the same. The 8-methoxy quinolones showed higher antibacterial activity and less mutant selectivity against IID553 than their 8-H counterparts. These results suggest that the 8-methoxy group enhances both target inhibition, especially for DNA gyrase, leading to potent antipneumococcal activity and dual inhibition against both DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV in the bacterial cell.
Fuel cell distributed generation system's control in autonomous mode

This paper presents controller design of PEM fuel cell distributed generation. The configuration of the PEMFC DG system and the dynamic models for the PEMFC power plant and its power electronic interfacing are shown. Controlling the power flow from the fuel cell power plant to the synchronous generator, controller design methods for the power conditioning units are presented. The results confirm the accuracy of the control algorithm in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment.
A Real-Time Scintillation Crystal Identification Method and Its FPGA Implementation

At the expense of increasing the complexity, Zernike Moment (ZM) was used in Crystal Identification (CI) to solve the parallax error with the highest identification performance among recent methods that are based on Digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms. In Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners, the CI method must fulfill the real-time event rate processing that requires low complexity and fast algorithms. The main idea of this paper is the complexity reduction of the ZM-based CI method and using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier to comply with the rate of real-time PET scanners. To achieve this goal, 1-D form of ZM and fast computations of cascaded ZM and SVM stages are proposed to minimize the complexity while preserving the highest performance among compared methods. The proposed fast ZM-SVM CI method is implemented using both MATLAB and FPGA and verified by identification of ~ 100 000 pulses of LSO-LuYAP scintillation crystals. The FPGA realization of the fast ZM-SVM CI method offers an identification rate of 90.6% at a rate of 6.2 Mevents/s using 16 samples per event which is sufficient for real time small animal PET scanners.
A 25 GS/s 6b TI Two-Stage Multi-Bit Search ADC With Soft-Decision Selection Algorithm in 65 nm CMOS

While high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) front-ends in serial link receivers enable flexible and powerful digital signal processing-based (DSP-based) equalization, the robustness and power consumption of these ADCs can limit overall receiver energy efficiency. This paper presents a 25 GS/s 6b 8-way time-interleaved multi-bit search ADC that employs a soft-decision selection algorithm to relax track-and-hold (T/H) settling requirements and improve ADC metastability tolerance. T/H bandwidth is also improved with a new shared-input double-tail three-latch structure. Fabricated in general purpose 65 nm CMOS, the ADC occupies 0.24 mm2 total area. A signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) of 29.6 dB is achieved at Nyquist while consuming 88 mW from a 1 V supply, translating into a figure-of-merit of 143 fJ/conversion step. A measured <10 $^{-10}$ metastability error rate demonstrates the effectiveness of the soft-decision selection algorithm.
Generating a Synthetic Population of Individuals in Households: Sample-Free Vs Sample-Based Methods

We compare a sample-free method proposed by Gargiulo et al. (2010) and a sample-based method proposed by Ye et al. (2009) for generating a synthetic population, organised in households, from various statistics. We generate a reference population for a French region including 1310 municipalities and measure how both methods approximate it from a set of statistics dervied from this reference population. We also perform sensitivity analysis. The sample-free method better fits the reference distributions of both individuals and households. It is also less data demanding but it requires more pre-processing. The quality of the results for the sample-based method is highly dependent on the quality of the initial sample.
Precipitation microphysics characteristics of a Typhoon Matmo (2014) rainband after landfall over eastern China based on polarimetric radar observations

The evolution of microphysical characteristics of a rainband in Typhoon Matmo (2014) over eastern China, through its onset, developing, mature, and dissipating stages, is documented using observations from an S band polarimetric Doppler radar and a two‐dimensional video disdrometer (2DVD). The drop size distributions observed by the 2DVD and retrieved from the polarimetric radar measurements indicate that the convection in the rainband generally contains smaller drops and higher number concentrations than the typical maritime type convection described in Bringi et al. (2003). The average mass‐weighted mean diameter (Dm) of convective precipitation in the rainband is about 1.41 mm, and the average logarithmic normalized intercept (Nw) is 4.67 log10 mm−1 m−3. To further investigate the dominant microphysical processes, the evolution of the vertical structures of polarimetric variables is examined. Results show that complex ice processes are involved above the freezing level, while it is most likely that the accretion and/or coalescence processes dominate below the freezing level throughout the rainband life cycle. A combined examination of the polarimetric measurements and profiles of estimated vertical liquid and ice water contents indicates that the conversion of cloud water into rainwater through cloud water accretion by raindrops plays a dominant role in producing heavy rainfall. The high estimated precipitation efficiency of 50% also suggests that cloud water accretion is the dominant mechanism for producing heavy rainfall. This study represents the first time that radar and 2DVD observations are used together to characterize the microphysical characteristics and precipitation efficiency for typhoon rainbands in China.
Systolic blood pressure and mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure: insights from the AFFIRM and AF‐CHF studies

To investigate the association between baseline systolic blood pressure levels and mortality in patients with AF with or without LV dysfunction. Hypertension leads to cardiovascular disease but, in specific groups, low blood pressure has been associated with a paradoxical increase in mortality. In patients with AF and heart failure, the relationship between blood pressure and death remains largely unknown.