Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discovering Novel α‐aminoacyl‐Containing Proline Derivatives with Potent and Selective Inhibitory Activity Against Dipeptidyl Peptidase IV: Design, Synthesis, Biological Evaluation, and Molecular Modeling

On the basis of the enzyme‐binding features of known potent inhibitors of dipeptidyl peptidase IV, novel α‐aminoacyl‐containing proline analogs (8Aa–8Ak, 8Ba–8Bj, 8Ca–8Ck, and 8Da–8Di) with the S configuration were designed, synthesized, and their activity profiled. Their structural features were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, low‐ and high‐resolution mass spectroscopy. Five compounds (8Aa, 8Aj, 8Ch, 8Ck, and 8Dc) were shown to have promising inhibitory activities against dipeptidyl peptidase IV. Two of them, compounds 8Aa and 8Aj inhibited dipeptidyl peptidase IV with IC50 values of 4.56 and 8.4 μm, respectively, and displayed no inhibition at other dipeptidyl peptidase IV. The possible binding modes of compounds 6, 7, 8Aa, and 8Aj with dipeptidyl peptidase IV were also explored by molecular docking simulation. This study provides promising new templates for the further development of antidiabetic agents.
Modular Reconfigurable Fixture Design Based Intelligent Algorithm

Fixture design is a complex and intelligent process, which demands professional knowledge and experience from the exports and designer. For a given work piece, the design solution space is large. With the development of artificial intelligence, there are increasingly methods to solve the problem of selection of optimal fixture design scheme, such as CBE. In the paper, the intelligent algorithms of Rough sets theory (RST) and Genetic algorithm (GA) are presented to deal with knowledge discovery and acquisition of fixture design, with the characteristics of modular fixtures, and the design prototype is also proposed. The RST and GA is utilized to rapidly discover optimal or sub-optimal design schemes of fixtures. The core of the method is to apply GA to reduce the attributes of decision table, then the specialized knowledge of fixture design is obtained and the knowledge base is constructed. At last, a case is presented to verify its efficiency and effectivity.
Distributed Visual Analytics on Large-Scale High-Resolution Displays

Large-scale high-resolution displays are becoming increasingly available and have thus been the target of recent research. Such systems are usually driven by a graphics cluster, making software development a tedious endeavor; this might be the reason why it is uncommon to use them for interactive information visualization and visual analytics. However, this application area can particularly benefit from a large number of pixels. Therefore, we investigate distributed GPU-based rendering for visual analytics on a multi-tile large-scale display offering high resolution. We discuss conceptual differences and commonalities between information and scientific visualization on high-resolution displays. The requirements of high-resolution information visualization result in design choices for a software architecture for distributed GPU rendering. We illustrate our system for the example of a fractal tree visualization technique and report on performance characteristics and other experiences.
Controlling viewpoint from markerless head tracking in an immersive ball game using a commodity depth-based camera

We present the use of commodity depth-based cameras to control viewpoint from passive unencumbered head tracking. This allowed participants to maintain correct perspective while playing an immersive computer ball game, without the need to wear devices, wires or markers. Viewpoint update drives parallax that supports orientation, the judging of distance and scale, moving in response to the simulation and the feeling of presence. Its incorporation increases the validity of using simulations in applications in which any of these are important. Although updating viewpoint from a depth camera has been demonstrated, it has not undergone accurate measures of latency, task performance or user experience. A randomised within subjects trial of n=12 participants was used to determine if head and hand tracking from depth-based cameras helped the playability and experience of a multi-player ball game. Findings suggest that experience is only improved when both ball interaction and viewpoint are controlled through natural movements and that the quality of viewpoint update from a depth-based camera was sufficient to allow a ball game to be played without inducing disorientation or nausea. This work demonstrates both a potential benefit and risk of using depth-based cameras to update viewpoint.
Improvement of cardiac function after haemodialysis. Quantitative evaluation by colour tissue velocity imaging.

BACKGROUND Overhydration and accumulation of uraemic toxins may influence the myocardial function in haemodialysis (HD) patients. To evaluate cardiac function and the effects of fluid and solute removal during a single session of HD, colour tissue velocity imaging (TVI) was used. This new technique, which is less load dependent than conventional echocardiography, allows an objective quantitative assessment of myocardial contractility, contraction and relaxation. METHODS Conventional echocardiographic and TVI images were recorded before and after a single HD session in 13 clinically stable HD patients (62+/-10 years, six males) and in 13 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. Myocardial tissue velocities (v; cm/s) for isovolumetric contraction (IVC), peak systole (PS), early (E') and late (A') diastolic filling and strain rate (SR) were measured. RESULTS Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was present in 12 patients. TVI gave additional information in comparison with conventional echocardiography. Before HD, PS (5.0+/-0.8 vs 6.0+/-1.2 cm/s, P<0.05), E' (5.7+/-1.7 vs 7.3+/-2.0 cm/s, P<0.05) and A' (6.6+/-1.7 vs. 8.3+/-2.9 cm/s, P<0.05) velocities were lower in the patients than in the controls, indicating systolic and diastolic dysfunction. The HD session increased IVCv (4.0+/-1.7 to 5.5+/-1.9 cm/s; P<0.001), PSv (5.0+/-0.8 to 5.7+/-0.8 cm/s; P<0.05) and SR (0.7+/-0.2 to 0.9+/-0.2 1/s; P < 0.05) and decreased E/E' (16.7+/-7.7 to 12.2+/-4.0, P<0.05), indicating improved systolic function and decreased LV filling pressure, respectively. Linear regression analysis demonstrated a dependency of systolic contraction (PSv) and contractility (IVCv) upon plasma levels of phosphate (r(2) = 0.70, P<0.005, r(2) = 0.33, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Using TVI, HD patients demonstrate myocardial dysfunction, which is found less frequently when using conventional echocardiography. The systolic function seems to be impaired by high plasma levels of phosphate and an increased Ca x P product. One single session of HD improved systolic function as indicated by increases in IVCv, PSv and SR. Further studies are needed to clarify if this effect of HD is due to the acute removal of fluid, the removal of solutes or both.
Preliminary results of GOME-2 water vapour retrievals and first applications in polar regions

Global total water vapour columns have been derived from measurements of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) on MetOp. For this purpose, the Air Mass Corrected Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (AMC-DOAS) method has been adapted, having previously been applied successfully to GOME (on ERS-2) and SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY, on ENVISAT) data. Comparisons between the derived GOME-2 and SCIAMACHY water vapour columns show a good overall agreement. This gives confidence that the temporal series of water vapour columns from GOME-type instruments (GOME/ERS-2, SCIAMACHY/ENVISAT), which began in 1995, is successfully continued by the MetOp instrumentation until at least 2020. The enhanced temporal and spatial resolution of GOME-2 enables the analysis of diurnal variations in the polar regions. This is especially important because atmospheric data sources in the polar regions are generally sparse. As an exemplary application, daily water vapour total columns over the polar research station Ny Alesund (78°55'19" N/11°56'33" E) are investigated. At this latitude GOME-2 yields about six data points during daylight hours at varying local times. From these data diurnal variations of water vapour have been successfully retrieved.
Predicting L 2 Misses to Increase Issue-Queue Efficacy

The issue queue keeps the instructions that are waiting for the availability of input operands and issue slots. While some instructions remain for a few cycles in the issue queue, the instructions dependent on L2 misses may remain there for hundreds of cycles due to the L2 miss latency. Some authors have proposed mechanisms to extract these instructions from the issue queue. However, these mechanisms increase the issue-queue activity because the extracted instructions must be replayed, that is, issued twice (at least). Firstly, to be extracted from the issue queue. Secondly, after resolving the L2 miss, to be executed. We propose delaying the insertion of some instructions in the issue queue. After predicting which load instructions are going to miss in L2, the instructions dependent on these load instructions will be stored in an instruction buffer instead of being inserted in the issue queue. After resolving the miss, the instruction buffer will be traversed in order to insert in the issue queue the instructions dependent on the resolved memory access. The advantages of this proposal with respect to proposals that extract from the issue queue the instructions dependent on L2 misses are twofold. First, it avoids filling the issue queue with instructions dependent on L2 misses. Second, it reduces the amount of instruction replays. The evaluations show that delaying the insertion of instructions in the issue queue reduces the amount of instruction replays between 27% and 31% in integer benchmarks and between 33% and 39% in floating-point benchmarks with respect to processors that extract from the issue queue the instructions dependent on L2 misses. The evaluations also show that this replay reduction does not harm processor performance. Index Terms — Instruction issue, L2 hit/miss prediction, Instruction replays.
Habitat amount modulates the effect of patch isolation on host-parasitoid interactions

1. Habitat amount and patch isolation are important determinants of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. We studied the separate and interactive effects of these two components of habitat fragmentation on host-parasitoid interactions in a replicated landscape-scale study. 2. We used trap-nesting solitary bees, wasps and their natural enemies as study system. We exposed trap nests in 30 tree patches in agricultural landscapes in northern Switzerland. Study sites were either (i) adjacent to forest (adjacent), (ii) distant from forest but connected through woody elements (connected) or (iii) distant from forest with no connecting woody elements (isolated). Independent of the three levels of isolation, the amount of woody habitat in the landscapes covered a gradient from 4 to 74%. 3. Host and parasitoid species richness increased with the amount of habitat in the landscape and was strongly reduced at isolated compared to adjacent and connected sites. Loss of host species richness was 21% at isolated compared to non-isolated sites, whereas parasitoid species richness decreased by 68%, indicating that the higher trophic level was more adversely affected by isolation. Most importantly, habitat amount and isolation had a pronounced interactive effect on parasitism: while isolation resulted in a strong decrease in parasitism in landscapes with low habitat amount, this effect was mitigated by high habitat amount. These interactive effects were consistent across the three years of the study. 4. The observed interplay between habitat amount and patch isolation may explain the often conflicting results in the habitat fragmentation literature and should be considered in future research on multitrophic communities and ecosystem functioning in fragmented landscapes.
Fair Is Not Fair Everywhere

Distributing the spoils of a joint enterprise on the basis of work contribution or relative productivity seems natural to the modern Western mind. But such notions of merit-based distributive justice may be culturally constructed norms that vary with the social and economic structure of a group. In the present research, we showed that children from three different cultures have very different ideas about distributive justice. Whereas children from a modern Western society distributed the spoils of a joint enterprise precisely in proportion to productivity, children from a gerontocratic pastoralist society in Africa did not take merit into account at all. Children from a partially hunter-gatherer, egalitarian African culture distributed the spoils more equally than did the other two cultures, with merit playing only a limited role. This pattern of results suggests that some basic notions of distributive justice are not universal intuitions of the human species but rather culturally constructed behavioral norms.
Design and Analysis of a Novel Haptic Device

A novel 6-DOF parallel haptic device is presented, which is characterized by large workspace, high rigidity, compactness, simple kinematics and easy construction. Its mechanism is composed of three sub-chains, each of which is attached to the base plate through a pin joint and the top plate through a spherical joint. The sub-chain is kinematically equivalent to the pantograph linkage and designed to solve the difficult problem of motor-fitting. The spherical joint belongs to the ball-in-socket type but has much larger workspace than regular ones. The forward and inverse kinematic analyses of the mechanism are performed, and Jacobian matrix is derived. The workspace is analyzed with a new scanning search method of the spherical coordinate searching algorithm, by which the intersections of multi-connected domains are readily obtained
Ligand‐Based Virtual Screening and Molecular Docking Studies to Identify the Critical Chemical Features of Potent Cathepsin D Inhibitors

Cathepsin D is a major component of lysosomes and plays a major role in catabolism and degenerative diseases. The quantitative structure–activity relationship study was used to explore the critical chemical features of cathepsin D inhibitors. Top 10 hypotheses were built based on 36 known cathepsin D inhibitors using HypoGen/Discovery Studio v2.5. The best hypothesis Hypo1 consists of three hydrophobic, one hydrogen bond acceptor lipid, and one hydrogen bond acceptor features. The selected Hypo1 model was cross‐validated using Fischer’s randomization method to identify the strong correlation between experimental and predicted activity value as well as the test set and decoy sets used to validate its predictability. Moreover, the best hypothesis was used as a 3D query in virtual screening of Scaffold database. Subsequently, the screened hit molecules were filtered by applying Lipinski’s rule of five, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and toxicity, and molecular docking studies. Finally, 49 compounds were obtained as potent cathepsin D inhibitors based on the consensus scoring values, critical interactions with protein active site residues, and predicted activity values. Thus, we suggest that the application of Hypo1 could assist in the selection of potent cathepsin D leads from various databases. Hence, this model was used as a valuable tool to design new candidate for cathepsin D inhibitors.
Performance analysis of hybrid decode-amplify-forward incremental relaying cooperative diversity protocol using SNR-based relay selection

In this paper, we propose a hybrid decode-amplify-forward incremental cooperative diversity protocol using SNR-based relay selection. In the proposed protocol, whenever destination unsuccessfully receives the source's signal, one of relays that exploit hybrid decode-amplify-forward technique is chosen to retransmit the signal. We derive approximate closed-form expressions of outage probability and average channel capacity. MonteCarlo simulations are presented to verify the theoretical results and compare the performance of the proposed protocol with the direct transmission protocol and conventional incremental relaying protocols.
Estimating exposure response functions using ambient pollution concentrations

This paper presents an approach to estimating the health effects of an environmental hazard. The approach is general in nature, but is applied here to the case of air pollution. It uses a computer model involving ambient pollution and temperature input to simulate the exposures experienced by individuals in an urban area, while incorporating the mechanisms that determine exposures. The output from the model comprises a set of daily exposures for a sample of individuals from the population of interest. These daily exposures are approximated by parametric distributions so that the predictive exposure distribution of a randomly selected individual can be generated. These distributions are then incorporated into a hierarchical Bayesian framework (with inference using Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation) in order to examine the relationship between short-term changes in exposures and health outcomes, while making allowance for long-term trends, seasonality, the effect of potential confounders and the possibility of ecological bias. The paper applies this approach to particulate pollution (PM 10 ) and respiratory mortality counts for seniors in greater London (≥65 years) during 1997. Within this substantive epidemiological study, the effects on health of ambient concentrations and (estimated) personal exposures are compared. The proposed model incorporates within day (or between individual) variability in personal exposures, which is compared to the more traditional approach of assuming a single pollution level applies to the entire population for each day. Effects were estimated using single lags and distributed lag models, with the highest relative risk, RR = 1.02 (1.01-1.04), being associated with a lag of two days ambient concentrations of PM 10 . Individual exposures to PM 10 for this group (seniors) were lower than the measured ambient concentrations with the corresponding risk, RR = 1.05 (1.01-1.09), being higher than would be suggested by the traditional approach using ambient concentrations.
Effect of GdL Addition on Physico-chemical Properties of Fermented Sausages during Ripening

This study investigated the effects of glucono-δ-lactone (GdL) addition on physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of fermented sausages during ripening and drying. Five batches of sausages were produced under ripening conditions: without GdL and with 0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75% of GdL addition. Samples from each treatment were taken for physicochemical and microbiological analyses on the 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20 and 25th day of ripening. Chemical analysis showed a significant decrease in moisture content of sausages with increasing amounts of GdL added (p<0.05). The moisture contents decreased, whereas the fat, protein and ash contents increased throughout ripening (p<0.05). Increasing levels of GdL caused a decrease in the pH values (p<0.05), which can have an inhibitory effect against microflora. Water holding capacity content of samples decreased with increasing GdL concentration (p<0.05). The shear force values of fermented sausages showed the highest in T4 (p<0.05). During ripening, the shear force values of sausages were increased on the 25th day compared to day 0 (p<0.05). The higher GdL level produced lighter and more yellow sausages. The addition of 0.75% GdL was effective in controlling bacteria counts. Addition of GdL in sausages resulted in the physicochemical and microbiological attributes equal to or better than no addition of GdL without any harmful effect.
Biphasic Cholinergic Synaptic Transmission Controls Action Potential Activity in Thalamic Reticular Nucleus Neurons

Cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain and the brainstem form extensive projections to a number of thalamic nuclei. Activation of cholinergic afferents during distinct behavioral states can regulate neuronal firing, transmitter release at glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses, and synchrony in thalamic networks, thereby controlling the flow of sensory information. These effects are thought to be mediated by slow and persistent increases in extracellular ACh levels, resulting in the modulation of populations of thalamic neurons over large temporal and spatial scales. However, the synaptic mechanisms underlying cholinergic signaling in the thalamus are not well understood. Here, we demonstrate highly reliable cholinergic transmission in the mouse thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), a brain structure essential for sensory processing, arousal, and attention. We find that ACh release evoked by low-frequency stimulation leads to biphasic excitatory–inhibitory (E–I) postsynaptic responses, mediated by the activation of postsynaptic α4β2 nicotinic ACh receptors (nAChRs) and M2 muscarinic ACh receptors (mAChRs), respectively. In addition, ACh can bind to mAChRs expressed near cholinergic release sites, resulting in autoinhibition of release. We show that the activation of postsynaptic nAChRs by transmitter release from only a small number of individual axons is sufficient to trigger action potentials in TRN neurons. Furthermore, short trains of cholinergic synaptic inputs can powerfully entrain ongoing TRN neuronal activity. Our study demonstrates fast and precise synaptic E–I signaling mediated by ACh, suggesting novel computational mechanisms for the cholinergic control of neuronal activity in thalamic circuits.
An implementation of compact genetic algorithm on a quantum computer

Programming a quantum computer posts a challenge. It is not straight forward to transfer the current programming skill on a classical computer to a quantum computer. This work presents an example of programming a quantum computer. The compact genetic algorithm is used as a target as it is powerful and popular method in evolutionary computation. A quantum bit (qubit) concept was introduced as a basis for storing information. The representation of quantum register has benefits over classical computing, i.e. the quantum operation allows manipulating qubits in the way that it is impossible in a classical computer. This paper demonstrates the enhancement in terms of solution quality and speed introduced by quantum computation. The simulation of quantum computing is carried out for solving a problem using the compact genetic algorithm.