Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cauli: A Mouse Strain with an Ift140 Mutation That Results in a Skeletal Ciliopathy Modelling Jeune Syndrome

Cilia are architecturally complex organelles that protrude from the cell membrane and have signalling, sensory and motility functions that are central to normal tissue development and homeostasis. There are two broad categories of cilia; motile and non-motile, or primary, cilia. The central role of primary cilia in health and disease has become prominent in the past decade with the recognition of a number of human syndromes that result from defects in the formation or function of primary cilia. This rapidly growing class of conditions, now known as ciliopathies, impact the development of a diverse range of tissues including the neural axis, craniofacial structures, skeleton, kidneys, eyes and lungs. The broad impact of cilia dysfunction on development reflects the pivotal position of the primary cilia within a signalling nexus involving a growing number of growth factor systems including Hedgehog, Pdgf, Fgf, Hippo, Notch and both canonical Wnt and planar cell polarity. We have identified a novel ENU mutant allele of Ift140, which causes a mid-gestation embryonic lethal phenotype in homozygous mutant mice. Mutant embryos exhibit a range of phenotypes including exencephaly and spina bifida, craniofacial dysmorphism, digit anomalies, cardiac anomalies and somite patterning defects. A number of these phenotypes can be attributed to alterations in Hedgehog signalling, although additional signalling systems are also likely to be involved. We also report the identification of a homozygous recessive mutation in IFT140 in a Jeune syndrome patient. This ENU-induced Jeune syndrome model will be useful in delineating the origins of dysmorphology in human ciliopathies.
Exploring Asynchronous Brainstorming in Large Groups: A Field Comparison of Serial and Parallel Subgroups

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the results of two different modes of using multiple groups (instead of one large group) to identify problems and develop solutions. Background: Many of the complex problems facing organizations today require the use of very large groups or collaborations of groups from multiple organizations. There are many logistical problems associated with the use of such large groups, including the ability to bring everyone together at the same time and location. Methods: A field study involved two different organizations and compared productivity and satisfaction of group. The approaches included (a) multiple small groups, each completing the entire process from start to end and combining the results at the end (parallel mode); and (b) multiple subgroups, each building on the work provided by previous subgroups (serial mode). Results: Groups using the serial mode produced more elaborations compared with parallel groups, whereas parallel groups produced more unique ideas compared with serial groups. No significant differences were found related to satisfaction with process and outcomes between the two modes. Conclusion: Preferred mode depends on the type of task facing the group. Parallel groups are more suited for tasks for which a variety of new ideas are needed, whereas serial groups are best suited when elaboration and in-depth thinking on the solution are required. Application: Results of this research can guide the development of facilitated sessions of large groups or “teams of teams. ”
The 1998 AI Planning Systems Competition

The 1998 Planning Competition at the AI Planning Systems Conference was the first of its kind. Its goal was to create planning domains that a wide variety of planning researchers could agree on to make comparison among planners more meaningful, measure overall progress in the field, and set up a framework for long-term creation of a repository of problems in a standard notation. A rules committee for the competition was created in 1997 and had long discussions on how the contest should go. One result of these discussions was the pddl notation for planning domains. This notation was used to set up a set of planning problems and get a modest problem repository started. As a result, five planning systems were able to compete when the contest took place in June 1998. All these systems solved problems in the strips framework, with some slight extensions. The attempt to find domains for other forms of planning foundered because of technical and organizational problems. In spite of this problem, the competition achieved its goals partially in that it con-firmed that substantial progress had occurred in some subfields of planning, and it allowed qualitative comparison among different planning algorithms. It is urged that the competition continue to take place and to evolve.
Microscale energy transport

Preface Contributors Part I Fundamentals 1.Microscale Energy Transport in Solids 2.Heat Transport in Dielectric Thin Films and at Solid-Solid Interfaces 3.Microscale Radiation Phenomena 4.Melting and Freezing Phenomena 5.Molecular Clusters 6.Interfacial Forces and Phase Change in Thin Liquid Films Part II.Applications 7.Thermal Phenomena in Semiconductor Devices and Interconnects 8.Micro Heat Pipes 9.Microscale Heat Transfer in Biological Systems at Low Temperatures 10.Silicon Micromachined Thermal Sensors and Actuators Index
A Model of the Manufacturing Process of Thermoplastic Matrix Composites

A model is presented of the steps involved in the manufacturing process of semicrystal line thermoplastic matrix composites. The model relates the temperature and pressure ap plied during processing to a) the flow of the matrix into the fiber tow, b) the formation of contact and bond between adjacent plies, and c) the crystallinity. The results of the model were verified by tests performed with PEEK 150P polymer and APC-2 graphite/PEEK composite.
Development of in-vitro-derived bovine embryos in protein-free media: effects of amino acids, glucose, pyruvate, lactate, phosphate and osmotic pressure.

In experiment 1, the effects of a group of either 20 (i.e. glutamine + essential + non-essential) or 11 (i.e. hamster embryo culture medium (HECM)-6) amino acids were evaluated in modified potassium simplex optimised medium (mKSOM) or basic medium (BM)-3. In experiment 2, the effects of glucose, pyruvate, lactate, phosphate or all four substrates were evaluated in low- or high-osmotic pressure BM-3 (255 and 275 mOsmol respectively) containing 20 amino acids (BM-3-20aa). In experiment 1, mKSOM containing 20 amino acids (mKSOM-20aa) supported the highest frequency of total, expanded (Days 7, 8 and 9) and hatched blastocysts. In experiment 2, supplement type affected the frequency of development to at least the morula stage (Day 7), expanded (Day 8), hatched (Day 9) or total blastocysts and cell number per blastocyst. Osmotic pressure affected the frequency of expanded blastocysts (Day 7) and blastocyst cell number. Regardless of the osmotic pressure, BM-3-20aa containing glucose (0.2 mM) supported the highest frequency of blastocyst development. The interaction between supplement type and osmotic pressure was not significant; however, treatment mean differences were more marked in high- than in low-osmotic pressure medium. In conclusion, the beneficial effects of amino acids on in vitro embryo development are influenced by the base medium. Moreover, glucose-containing media supported a higher frequency of embryonic development than pyruvate- and/or phosphate-supplemented media, indicating that glucose plays more important roles in non-energy generating pathways.
Determination of didanosine in human serum by on-line solid-phase extraction coupled to high-performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric detection: application to a bioequivalence study.

A method based on solid-phase extraction coupled to liquid chromatography with positive ion electrospray ionization and tandem mass spectrometric detection was developed for the determination of didanosine in human serum, using lamivudine as internal standard. The acquisition was performed in the multiple reaction monitoring mode, monitoring the transitions m/z 237 --> 136.7 for didanosine and m/z 230 --> 111.7 for lamivudine. The method was linear over the range studied (10-1500 ng ml(-1)), with r(2) > 0.98, and the run time was 5 min. The intra- and inter-assay precisions were < or =10% and the intra- and inter-assay accuracies were >95%. The absolute recoveries were 99.8% (10 ng ml(-1)), 98.4% (30 ng ml(-1)), 91.5% (700 ng ml(-1)) and 94.7% (1200 ng ml(-1)). The limits of detection and quantitation were 5 and 10 ng ml(-1), respectively. The method was applied to a bioequivalence study, in which 24 healthy adult volunteers (12 men) received single oral doses (200 mg) of reference and test didanosine formulations (buffered powder for oral solutions), in an open, two-way, randomized, crossover protocol. The 90% confidence interval of the individual ratios (test formulation/reference formulation) for C(max) (peak serum concentration) and AUC(0-inf) (area under the serum concentration versus time curve from time zero to infinity) were within the range 80-125%, which supports the conclusion that the two formulations are bioequivalent regarding the rate and extent of didanosine absorption.
taveRNA: a web suite for RNA algorithms and applications

We present taveRNA, a web server package that hosts three RNA web services: alteRNA, inteRNA and pRuNA. alteRNA is a new alternative for RNA secondary structure prediction. It is based on a dynamic programming solution that minimizes the sum of energy density and free energy of an RNA structure. inteRNA is the first RNA–RNA interaction structure prediction web service. It also employs a dynamic programming algorithm to minimize the free energy of the resulting joint structure of the two interacting RNAs. Lastly, pRuNA is an efficient database pruning service; which given a query RNA, eliminates a significant portion of an ncRNA database and returns only a few ncRNAs as potential regulators. taveRNA is available at http://compbio.cs. sfu.ca/taverna.
Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulation of Segregation in Powder Injection Molding

Abstract The ability to predict segregation of the solid phase in processes such as powder injection molding and injection molding of semi-solid materials is of special interest since such phenomenon affects the final properties and characteristics of the molded parts. In powder injection molding, for example, defects appear very often in the debinding and sintering stages but are caused by filling problems and determined by a non-uniform distribution of the solid particles within the molded part. In this paper we propose a 3D numerical solution algorithm for the simulation of particle migration in dense suspensions. The particle migration is modeled using the diffusion flux model and integrated into the NRC's 3D injection molding software. The solution algorithm is validated by solving flow problems for which experimental and numerical data are available: circular Couette flow, piston driven flow and sudden contraction-expansion flow. Since it is observed that the piston movement in the sleeve can induce particle migration even before the material enters the cavity, an ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) formulation is also developed to include the piston movement in molding simulations. The ALE formulation is first compared with an Eulerian solution for the case of the piston driven flow problem. Then, the approach is applied to injection molding problems and the segregation inside the molded parts is studied.
The Proangiogenic Phenotype of Tumor-Derived Endothelial Cells is Reverted by the Overexpression of Platelet-Activating Factor Acetylhydrolase

Purpose: We previously reported that human tumor-derived endothelial cells (TEC) have an angiogenic phenotype related to the autocrine production of several angiogenic factors. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether an enhanced synthesis of platelet-activating factor (PAF) might contribute to the proangiogenic characteristics of TEC and whether its inactivation might inhibit angiogenesis. Experimental Design: To address the potential role of PAF in the proangiogenic characteristics of TEC, we engineered TEC to stably overexpress human plasma PAF-acetylhydrolase (PAF-AH), the major PAF-inactivating enzyme, and we evaluated in vitro and in vivo angiogenesis. Results: TECs were able to synthesize a significantly enhanced amount of PAF compared with normal human microvascular endothelial cells when stimulated with thrombin, vascular endothelial growth factor, or soluble CD154. Transfection of TEC with PAF-AH (TEC-PAF-AH) significantly inhibited apoptosis resistance and spontaneous motility of TEC. In addition, PAF and vascular endothelial growth factor stimulation enhanced the motility and adhesion of TEC but not of TEC-PAF-AH. In vitro, TEC-PAF-AH lost the characteristic ability of TEC to form vessel-like structures when plated on Matrigel. Finally, when cells were injected s.c. within Matrigel in severe combined immunodeficiency mice or coimplanted with a renal carcinoma cell line, the overexpression of PAF-AH induced a significant reduction of functional vessel formation. Conclusions: These results suggest that inactivation of PAF, produced by TEC, by the overexpression of plasma PAF-AH affects survival, migration, and the angiogenic response of TEC both in vitro and in vivo.
Investigating the effects of scale in MRF texture classification

This work sheds the light on an important problem that faces real-world texture classification. That of incorporating textural information present at several scales and the robustness of classifiers to viewing distance and zooming. A Markov random field framework is considered and the Varma-Zisserman classifier (Varma and Zisserman, 2003) (VZ classifier) is used as a starting point due to its high rates of classification on some difficult datasets (the CUReT dataset for example). A region selector (the scale-saliency algorithm by Kadir and Brady (Kadir, 2002)) is incorporated in the VZ classifier to select 'salient' or significant areas in an image and use them for texture classification. The performance of this method on several datasets is discussed and analysed (namely the CUReT and the Brodatz datasets). The VZ classifier is then updated to include multiscale information and use that for classification, which improves the performance of the VZ classifier for the CUReT dataset but shows lower classification rates for the Brodatz dataset. The reasons relating to the type of textures present in each dataset are discussed. Finally, a discussion of real-world data classification is given with summary and future directions.
Simultaneous Detection of Influenza A, Influenza B, and Respiratory Syncytial Viruses and Subtyping of Influenza A H3N2 Virus and H1N1 (2009) Virus by Multiplex Real-Time PCR

ABSTRACT A multiplex real-time PCR assay was developed to simultaneously detect and discriminate influenza A virus subtypes, including novel H1N1 (2009) and seasonal H3N2 virus, influenza B virus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in a single test tube, with detection sensitivity and specificity of 99% and 100%, respectively, for the four pathogens.
Transformation functions for FLOC time delay estimation in alpha-stable noises

A class of transformation functions and the conditions they should satisfy are proposed. This paper also gives a detailed analysis for the performance improvement of FLOC time delay estimation method by using transformation functions in advance. Two new transformation functions are presented and the simulation results show that the proposed method using the transformation functions is available in both alpha-stable and Gaussian noises.
Response of Alnus tenuifolia to inoculation with Valsa melanodiscus

Abstract Valsa melanodiscus (anamorph Cytospora umbrina) has been associated with cankers, dieback, and death of alder (Alnus) stems in western North America. To determine the ability of this fungus to induce these symptoms, the responses of thinleaf alder (Alnus tenuifolia) stems to inoculation with V. melanodiscus were studied in field locations in Alaska and on plants in a greenhouse. In the field, woody stems were wounded to expose both inner bark and sapwood and inoculated in early May 2007 or September 2007 by placing a colonized agar plug over the wound. Sunken, elongated cankers that developed on inoculated stems in the field closely resembled those attributed to natural infection of thinleaf alders by V. melanodiscus. In contrast, wounded control stems exhibited strong callus production and wound closure. In the greenhouse, actively growing lateral shoots were inoculated by placing a colonized agar plug over a fresh leaf scar. Inoculation in the greenhouse resulted in development of cankers, and severity of symptoms was affected by the maturity of the shoot at the point of inoculation. These results support the conclusion that V. melanodiscus is a cause of alder dieback in western North America.
A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of Computer-Assisted Cognitive Remediation (CACR) in Adolescents with Psychosis or at High Risk of Psychosis

Background: Computer assisted cognitive remediation (CACR) was demonstrated to be efficient in improving cognitive deficits in adults with psychosis. However, scarce studies explored the outcome of CACR in adolescents with psychosis or at high risk. Aims: To investigate the effectiveness of a computer-assisted cognitive remediation (CACR) program in adolescents with psychosis or at high risk. Method: Intention to treat analyses included 32 adolescents who participated in a blinded 8-week randomized controlled trial of CACR treatment compared to computer games (CG). Cognitive abilities, symptoms and psychosocial functioning were assessed at baseline and posttreatment. Results: Improvement in visuospatial abilities was significantly greater in the CACR group than in CG. Other cognitive functions, psychotic symptoms and psychosocial functioning improved significantly, but at similar rates, in the two groups. Conclusion: CACR can be successfully administered in this population; it proved to be effective over and above CG for the most intensively trained cognitive ability.
On saliency, affect and focused attention

We study how the visual catchiness (saliency) of relevant information impacts user engagement metrics such as focused attention and emotion (affect). Participants completed tasks in one of two conditions, where the task-relevant information either appeared salient or non-salient. Our analysis provides insights into relationships between saliency, focused attention, and affect. Participants reported more distraction in the non-salient condition, and non-salient information was slower to find than salient. Lack-of-saliency led to a negative impact on affect, while saliency maintained positive affect, suggesting its helpfulness. Participants reported that it was easier to focus in the salient condition, although there was no significant improvement in the focused attention scale rating. Finally, this study suggests user interest in the topic is a good predictor of focused attention, which in turn is a good predictor of positive affect. These results suggest that enhancing saliency of user-interested topics seems a good strategy for boosting user engagement.
N-Isopropyl-6-methyl-2-phenylquinoline-3-carboxamide

In the title compound, C20H20N2O, the dihedral angle between the quinoline ring system and the phenyl ring is 49.40 (5)°. In the crystal structure, zigzag layers of molecules, in which the quinoline units are parallel to the (10) plane, are arranged perpendicular to the b axis. Intermolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds connect the molecules into chains along [010], reinforcing the cohesion between the layers of the structure.
Responsiveness of Generic and Specific Measures of Health Outcome in Low Back Pain

Study Design. A longitudinal study using patient questionnaires was performed. Objective. To compare the discriminatory power and responsiveness of the Aberdeen Back Pain Scale (ABPS), the Roland Disability Questionnaire (RDQ), and the EuroQol in patients with low back pain. Summary of Background Data. A number instruments specific to low back pain have not been compared for measurement properties. The EuroQol is a widely used generic instrument that has not been compared with specific instruments in patients with back pain. Methods. A questionnaire incorporating the Aberdeen Back Pain Scale, the Roland Disability Questionnaire, and the EuroQol was completed by patients taking part in a clinical trial of exercise treatments for back pain. Patients completed follow-up questionnaires at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year. The discriminatory power of these instruments was assessed against variables relating to activity limitations, medication, and comorbidity. Responsiveness was assessed using standardized response means. Results. The questionnaire was completed by 187 patients taking part in the clinical trial. The Aberdeen instrument was found to be the most powerful at discriminating between different groups of patients on variables relating to activity limitations, medication, and comorbidity. The specific instruments demonstrated good levels of responsiveness, with the Aberdeen instrument producing the largest standardized response means. The Aberdeen instrument was more responsive to the smaller changes experienced by the control group, but was less powerful than the Roland at measuring differences in the levels of change between the two groups of patients at two of the three follow-up assessments in the trial. The EuroQol demonstrated a moderate level of responsiveness. Conclusions. The two specific instruments are capable of greater levels of discrimination between groups of patients, and are more responsive over time than the generic EuroQol. The Aberdeen instrument performed most satisfactorily in relation to these criteria, but the Roland instrument was more sensitive to differences between the two groups in the clinical trial. The measurement properties of these two instruments reflect their origin: The Aberdeen instrument is based on clinical questions, whereas the Roland instrument is based on the generic Sickness Impact Profile. Instrument content should be carefullyconsidered when selecting instruments for applications, including clinical trials.
Lentiviral‐mediated gene transfer into haematopoietic stem cells

Abstract. Woods N‐B, Mikkola H, Nilsson E, Karin O, Trono D, Karlsson S (Lund University Hospital, Sweden; and University of Geneva Medical School, Switzerland). Lentiviral‐mediated gene transfer into haematopoietic stem cells (Minisymposium). J Intern Med 2001; 249: 339–343.