Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low Concentration of Silver Nanoparticles Not Only Enhances the Activity of Horseradish Peroxidase but Alter the Structure Also

Chemical synthesis of Ag-NPs was carried out using reduction method. The reduction mechanistic approach of silver ions was found to be a basic clue for the formation of the Ag-NPs. The nanoparticles were characterized by UV-vis, FT-IR and TEM analysis. We had designed some experiments in support of our hypothesis, “low concentrations of novel nanoparticles (silver and gold) increases the activity of plant peroxidases and alter their structure also”, we had used Ag-NPs and HRP as models. The immobilization/interaction experiment had demonstrated the specific concentration range of the Ag-NPs and within this range, an increase in HRP activity was reported. At 0.08 mM concentration of Ag-NPs, 50% increase in the activity yield was found. The U.V-vis spectra had demonstrated the increase in the absorbance of HRP within the reported concentration range (0.06–0.12 mM). Above and below this concentration range there was a decrease in the activity of HRP. The results that we had found from the fluorescence spectra were also in favor of our hypothesis. There was a maximum increase in ellipticity and α-helix contents in the presence of 0.08 mM concentration of Ag-NPs, demonstrated by circular dichroism (CD) spectra. Finally, incubation of a plant peroxidase, HRP with Ag-NPs, within the reported concentration range not only enhances the activity but also alter the structure.
Radiofrequency ablation for persistent atrial fibrillation in patients with advanced heart failure and severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction: a randomised controlled trial

Objective To determine whether or not radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for persistent atrial fibrillation in patients with advanced heart failure leads to improvements in cardiac function. Setting Patients were recruited from heart failure outpatient clinics in Scotland. Design and intervention Patients with advanced heart failure and severe left ventricular dysfunction were randomised to RFA (rhythm control) or continued medical treatment (rate control). Patients were followed up for a minimum of 6 months. Main outcome measure Change in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) measured by cardiovascular MRI. Results 22 patients were randomised to RFA and 19 to medical treatment. In the RFA group, 50% of patients were in sinus rhythm at the end of the study (compared with none in the medical treatment group). The increase in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) LVEF in the RFA group was 4.5±11.1% compared with 2.8±6.7% in the medical treatment group (p=0.6). The RFA group had a greater increase in radionuclide LVEF (a prespecified secondary end point) than patients in the medical treatment group (+8.2±12.0% vs +1.4±5.9%; p=0.032). RFA did not improve N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, 6 min walk distance or quality of life. The rate of serious complications related to RFA was 15%. Conclusions RFA resulted in long-term restoration of sinus rhythm in only 50% of patients. RFA did not improve CMR LVEF compared with a strategy of rate control. RFA did improve radionuclide LVEF but did not improve other secondary outcomes and was associated with a significant rate of serious complications. Clinical trials registration number NCT00292162.
Effective connectivity of brain regions related to visual word recognition: An fMRI study of Chinese reading

Past neuroimaging studies have focused on identifying specialized functional brain systems for processing different components of reading, such as orthography, phonology, and semantics. More recently, a few experiments have been performed to look into the integration and interaction of distributed neural systems for visual word recognition, suggesting that lexical processing in alphabetic languages involves both ventral and dorsal neural pathways originating from the visual cortex. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we tested the multiple pathways model with Chinese character stimuli and examined how the neural systems interacted in reading Chinese. Using dynamic causal modeling, we demonstrated that visual word recognition in Chinese engages the ventral pathway from the visual cortex to the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex, but not the dorsal pathway from the visual cortex to the left parietal region. The ventral pathway, however, is linked to the superior parietal lobule and the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) so that a dynamic neural network is formed, with information flowing from the visual cortex to the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex to the parietal lobule and then to the left MFG. The findings suggest that cortical dynamics is constrained by the differences in how visual orthographic symbols in writing systems are linked to spoken language. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2580–2591, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The impact of supervised weight loss and intentional weight regain on sex hormone binding globulin and testosterone in premenopausal women

ABSTRACT What is the impact of intentional weight loss and regain on serum androgens in women? We conducted an ancillary analysis of prospectively collected samples from a randomized controlled trial. The trial involved supervised 10% weight loss (8.5 kg on average) with diet and exercise over 4-6 months followed by supervised intentional regain of 50% of the lost weight (4.6 kg on average) over 4-6 months. Participants were randomized prior to the partial weight regain component to either continuation or cessation of endurance exercise. Analytic sample included 30 obese premenopausal women (mean age of 40 ± 5.9 years, mean baseline body mass index (BMI) of 32.9 ± 4.2 kg/m2) with metabolic syndrome. We evaluated sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), total testosterone (T), free androgen index (FAI), and high molecular weight adiponectin (HMWAdp). Insulin, homeostasis model assessment (HOMA), and quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) measured in the original trial were reanalyzed for the current analytic sample. Insulin, HOMA, and QUICKI improved with weight loss and were maintained despite weight regain. Log-transformed SHBG significantly increased from baseline to weight loss, and then significantly decreased with weight regain. LogFAI and logVAT decreased similarly and increased with weight loss followed by weight regain. No changes were found in logT and LogHMWAdp. There was no significant difference in any tested parameters by exercise between the groups. SHBG showed prominent sensitivity to body mass fluctuations, as reduction with controlled intentional weight regain showed an inverse relationship to VAT and occurred despite stable HMWAdp and sustained improvements with insulin resistance. FAI showed opposite changes to SHBG, while T did not change significantly with weight. Continued exercise during weight regain did not appear to impact these findings.
Linking properties of knowledge with innovation performance: the moderate role of absorptive capacity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to unravel the complex linkages between properties of knowledge, firm's absorptive capacities, and innovation performance in China small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach – The authors utilize moderated multiple regression (MMR) to explore the complex relationships by using the empirical data of Chinese information technology and electro‐communication firms during 2005‐2008.Findings – The results show that only a few knowledge properties have negative effects on innovation performance. Most knowledge properties have a positive effect on innovation. The results also claim that the relationship between properties of knowledge and innovation performance is more pronounced when the firm has higher absorptive capacity.Originality/value – The study indicates that properties of knowledge and absorptive capacity are two inseparable determinants for innovation performance, and absorptive capacity moderates the relationship between properties of k.
Software architecture styles as graph grammars

We present a formalism for the definition of software architectures in terms of graphs. Nodes represent the individual agents and edges define their interconnection. Individual agents can communicate only along the links specified by the architecture. The dynamic evolution of the overall architecture is defined independently by a 'coordinator'. An architecture style is a class of architectures characterised by a graph grammar. The rules of the coordinator are statically checked to ensure that they preserve the constraints imposed by the architecture style.
The ATPase Activity of the P-glycoprotein Drug Pump Is Highly Activated When the N-terminal and Central Regions of the Nucleotide-binding Domains Are Linked Closely Together*

Background: P-glycoprotein is an ABC transporter that confers multidrug resistance. Results: Linkage of the nucleotide-binding domains with short but not long cross-linkers highly activated ATPase activity. Conclusion: Drug substrates activate P-gp ATPase activity by promoting close association of the nucleotide-binding domains. Significance: Understanding the mechanism of P-glycoprotein will aid in the development of inhibitors to overcome multidrug resistance. The P-glycoprotein (P-gp, ABCB1) drug pump protects us from toxic compounds and confers multidrug resistance. Each of the homologous halves of P-gp is composed of a transmembrane domain (TMD) with 6 TM segments followed by a nucleotide-binding domain (NBD). The predicted drug- and ATP-binding sites reside at the interface between the TMDs and NBDs, respectively. Crystal structures and EM projection images suggest that the two halves of P-gp are separated by a central cavity that closes upon binding of nucleotide. Binding of drug substrates may induce further structural rearrangements because they stimulate ATPase activity. Here, we used disulfide cross-linking with short (8 Å) or long (22 Å) cross-linkers to identify domain-domain interactions that activate ATPase activity. It was found that cross-linking of cysteines that lie close to the LSGGQ (P517C) and Walker A (I1050C) sites of NBD1 and NBD2, respectively, as well as the cytoplasmic extensions of TM segments 3 (D177C or L175C) and 9 (N820C) with a short cross-linker activated ATPase activity over 10-fold. A pyrylium compound that inhibits ATPase activity blocked cross-linking at these sites. Cross-linking between the NBDs was not inhibited by tariquidar, a drug transport inhibitor that stimulates P-gp ATPase activity but is not transported. Cross-linking between extracellular cysteines (T333C/L975C) predicted to lock P-gp into a conformation that prevents close NBD association inhibited ATPase activity. The results suggest that trapping P-gp in a conformation in which the NBDs are closely associated likely mimics the structural rearrangements caused by binding of drug substrates that stimulate ATPase activity.
Priority-Based Coverage-Aware Congestion Control for Multihop Wireless Sensor Networks

Congestion in a wireless sensor network (WSN) can lead to buffer overflow, resource waste and delay or loss of critical information from the sensors. In this paper, we propose the priority-based coverage-aware congestion control (PCC), which is a distributed, priority-distinct, and fair mechanism. PCC provides higher priority to packets with event information, which the sink is more interested in. PCC employs a queue scheduler which can selectively drop any packet in the queue. PCC gives fair chance to all sensors to transmit packets to the sink, irrespective of their specific locations, and therefore enhances the coverage fidelity of WSNs. Based on a detailed simulation analysis, we show that PCC can efficiently relieve congestion and significantly improve the system performance based on multiple metrics such as event throughput and coverage fidelity.
Pipeline-based interlayer bus structure for 3D networks-on-chip

The structure of direct vertical interconnections, called Through Silicon Vias (TSVs), is an important issue in the realm of 3D ICs. The bus-based and network-based structures are the two dominant architectures for implementing TSVs as interlayer connection in 3D ICs. Both implementations have some disadvantages. The former suffers from poor scalability and deteriorates the performance at high injection rates, and the latter consumes more area and power dissipation. In this paper, we propose a novel pipeline bus structure for TSVs to improve the performance of the prior bus-based architecture. The presented structure can utilize bi-synchronous FIFO for synchronization between stacked layers if each layer is fabricated by different technologies. Experimental results with synthetic test cases demonstrate that the proposed architecture gives significant improvements in average network latency. Also, the hardware area and power consumption of the presented bus structure are 9% and 11% less than the typical bus structure of TSVs, respectively.
Ontology-focused crawling of Web documents

The Web, the largest unstructured database of the world, has greatly improved access to documents. However, documents on the Web are largely disorganized. Due to the distributed nature of the World Wide Web it is difficult to use it as a tool for information and knowledge management. Therefore, users doing the difficult task of exploring the Web have to be supported by intelligent means.This paper proposes an approach for document discovery building on a comprehensive framework for ontology-focused crawling of Web documents. Our framework includes means for using a complex ontology and associated instance elements. It defines several relevance computation strategies and provides an empirical evaluation which has shown promising results.
Incremental Model-based Learners With Formal Learning-Time Guarantees

Model-based learning algorithms have been shown to use experience efficiently when learning to solve Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) with finite state and action spaces. However, their high computational cost due to repeatedly solving an internal model inhibits their use in large-scale problems. We propose a method based on real-time dynamic programming (RTDP) to speed up two model-based algorithms, RMAX and MBIE (model-based interval estimation), resulting in computationally much faster algorithms with little loss compared to existing bounds. Specifically, our two new learning algorithms, RTDP-RMAX and RTDP-IE, have considerably smaller computational demands than RMAX and MBIE. We develop a general theoretical framework that allows us to prove that both are efficient learners in a PAC (probably approximately correct) sense. We also present an experimental evaluation of these new algorithms that helps quantify the tradeoff between computational and experience demands.
Continuous visual speech recognition for audio speech enhancement

We introduce in this paper a novel non-blind speech enhancement procedure based on visual speech recognition (VSR). The latter is based on a generative process that analyzes sequences of talking faces and classifies them into visual speech units known as visemes. We use an effective graphical model able to segment and label a given sequence of talking faces into a sequence of visemes. Our model captures unary potential as well as pairwise interaction; the former models visual appearance of speech units while the latter models their interactions using boundary and visual language model activations. Experiments conducted on a standard challenging dataset, show that when feeding the results of VSR to the speech enhancement procedure, it clearly outperforms baseline blind methods as well as related work.
AKULA: A toolset for experimenting and developing thread placement algorithms on multicore systems

Multicore processors have become commonplace in both desktop and servers. A serious challenge with multicore processors is that cores share on and off chip resources such as caches, memory buses, and memory controllers. Competition for these shared resources between threads running on different cores can result in severe and unpredictable performance degradations. It has been shown in previous work that the OS scheduler can be made shared-resource-aware and can greatly reduce the negative effects of resource contention. The search space of potential scheduling algorithms is huge considering the diversity of available multicore architectures, an almost infinite set of potential workloads, and a variety of conflicting performance goals. We believe the two biggest obstacles to developing new scheduling algorithms are the difficulty of implementation and the duration of testing. We address both of these challenges with our toolset AKULA which we introduce in this paper. AKULA provides an API that allows developers to implement and debug scheduling algorithms easily and quickly without the need to modify the kernel or use system calls. AKULA also provides a rapid evaluation module, based on a novel evaluation technique also introduced in this paper, which allows the created scheduling algorithm to be tested on a wide variety of workloads in just a fraction of the time testing on real hardware would take. AKULA also facilitates running scheduling algorithms created with its API on real machines without the need for additional modifications. We use AKULA to develop and evaluate a variety of different contention-aware scheduling algorithms. We use the rapid evaluation module to test our algorithms on thousands of workloads and assess their scalability to futuristic massively multicore machines.
An improved graph-based image segmentation algorithm

This paper proposes an efficient representation framework for image segmentation based on perceptual organization. Specifically, a new hierarchy of image representation with three levels is presented. In a bottom-up way, the framework transforms representation between the three levels, and takes the advantages of different organization techniques. A region-based organization approach is developed in the framework for image segmentation. The approach improves previous organization techniques, and makes image segmentation results globally optimum and greedily efficient. The experimental results have proved the effectiveness and efficiency of the image representation framework.
Integrating perspective distortions in stereo image matching

The paper introduces a correlation-based method for the three-dimensional reconstruction of scenes from a multi-camera imaging system. Our technique is to cast the matching and reconstruction problems into a single 3D process that uses perspective distortions to retrieve directly, in a dense fashion, the 3D planes locally tangent to the scene. Avoiding image assumptions like fronto-parallelism, block shapes, perspective distortion models or camera models, our method only needs a local planarity hypothesis of the scene.
Peer Review: Rectangularity Defect Detection for Ceramic Tile Using Morphological Techniques

In ceramic tile factory, the production process has now performed automatically by industrial automation system, except the examination process for ceramic quality classification which is still conducted manually. Classification process is performed using the human visual assessment to find and to classify defect, where human judgment is dependent entirely on experience and knowledge. Therefore, this process requires an automatic mechanism which can provide an assessment of the ceramic quality accurately and consistently. This mechanism is based on a dimensional defect detection process, in particular rectangularity defect with shape feature extraction, using morphological techniques.
Parallels between Gambling and Amphetamine Reinforcement in Pathological Gamblers and Healthy Controls and the Role of Sensitization

Pathological gambling is a serious disorder with lifetime prevalence between 1.1-3.5%. Evidence suggests commonalities in the neurochemical basis of pathological gambling and psychostimulant addiction. However, parallel effects of gambling and a stimulant drug have not been assessed in the same subjects. This study employed a cross-priming strategy in which 12 male pathological gamblers and 11 male controls were exposed to a 15-minute slot machine game and d-amphetamine (0.4 mg/kg). Subjective, cognitive, electrophysiological, and physiological responses were assessed. Gamblers reported greater desire to gamble after both reinforcers, when baseline motivation was controlled. Conversely, gamblers exhibited diminished cardiovascular response to amphetamine. Gamblers also exhibited decreased pre-pulse inhibition (impaired sensorimotor gating), and deficits on this index predicted greater post-amphetamine desire to gamble and decreased heart rate response to the dose. Results are consistent with possible dopaminergic sensitization in pathological gamblers, but also suggest that central noradrenergic receptor deficits contribute importantly to these effects.
A case study to determine best practice treatment for a child diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Amy Schumacher A CASE STUDY TO DETERMINE BEST PRACTICE TREATMENT FOR A CHILD DIAGNOSED WITH ASPERGER'S SYNDROME AND ATTENTION DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER 2003/04 Dr. Janet Cahill Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling The purpose of this case study was to determine the best practice model of therapy to treat a child diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The participant was an eight-year-old Caucasian male who had significant developmental delays. The Behavior Assessment System for Children was used in order to assess the progress John made in the therapeutic setting of which he had been attending. Intervention components included a psychosocial assessment, differential diagnosis, a behavior treatment plan, psychotropic medication and social skills training. A client satisfaction survey was also administered. The normative practice of the agency was compared with empirically supported treatment approaches to these diagnostic categories. Results from the outcome measures and recommendations for future treatment were discussed.
A Survey of Identifiers and Labels in OWL Ontologies

We present a survey of the usage and style of identifiers and labels of named entities in a corpus of OWL ontologies. We investigated the frequency of use of both labels and meaningful or meaningless iden- tifiers in those ontologies. We also surveyed common practices of lexical encoding styles for identifiers. We found that most ontologies do not use labels for named entities. When they do use labels, those labels are mostly meaningful and most ontologies also used meaningful identifiers. CamelCase style appears to be the most widely used style of lexical encoding for identifiers. We observed, however, that the majority of the ontologies use a mixture of two or more lexical encoding styles. The result of this survey is useful when considering strategies, for example, natu- ral language generation from ontologies or converting artefacts, such as OWL ontologies, into languages like the Simple Knowledge Representa- tion System (SKOS), where the notion of label is important. Given that labels are optional in OWL ontologies, what is the best way to handle the label selection when converting them into SKOS? Merging multiple entities may require selection from labels or identifiers assigned to these entities for skos:prefLabel and skos:altLabel.