Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypometabolism exceeds atrophy in presymptomatic early-onset familial Alzheimer's disease.

UNLABELLED The aim of the present study is to compare brain atrophy with hypometabolism as preclinical markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by studying presymptomatic individuals from families with known early-onset autosomal dominant AD (FAD) carrying mutations in the Presenilin 1 gene. METHODS Seven asymptomatic at-risk FAD individuals (age, 35-49 y; 4 women; education >/= 12 y) and 7 matched healthy control subjects received complete clinical, neuropsychologic, MRI, and (18)F-FDG PET examinations. Regions of interest (ROIs: whole brain [WB], hippocampus [Hip], entorhinal cortex [EC], posterior cingulate cortex [PCC], inferior parietal lobule [IPL], and superior temporal gyrus (STG]) were drawn on the MRI scans of all subjects and used to measure volumes on MRI and glucose metabolism (MRglc) from the MRI-coregistered, atrophy-corrected PET scans. RESULTS Compared with controls and after correcting for head size, MRI volume reductions in FAD subjects were restricted to the IPL (18%, P < 0.02). After atrophy correction and adjusting for pons MRglc, PET MRglc reductions were found in all FAD subjects compared with controls in the WB (13%), bilaterally in the IPL (17%) and in the STG (12%), and in the left EC (21%), PCC (20%), and Hip (12%) (P values < 0.05). PET MRglc measurements were consistently less variable than MRI measures, yielding significantly larger effect sizes in separating FAD from controls. CONCLUSION Presymptomatic FAD individuals show widespread MRglc reductions consistent with the typical AD PET pattern in the relative absence of structural brain atrophy. These data further suggest that PET MRglc measures may serve as biomarkers for the preclinical diagnosis of AD.
Binding of quercetin with human serum albumin: a critical spectroscopic study.

Flavonols are plant pigments that are ubiquitous in nature. Quercetin (3,3',4',5,7-pentahydroxyflavone) and other related plant flavonols have come into recent prominence because of their usefulness as anticancer, antitumor, anti-AIDS, and other important therapeutic activities of significant potency and low systemic toxicity. Quercetin is intrinsically weakly fluorescent in aqueous solution, showing an emission maximum at approximately 538 nm. Upon binding to human serum albumin (HSA), quercetin undergoes dramatic enhancement in its fluorescence emission intensity, along with the appearance of dual emission behavior, consisting of normal and excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) fluorescence. In addition, the occurrence of a third emitting species has been noted for the first time. This is attributed to a electronic ground-state complex formed in the protein environment. High values of the fluorescence anisotropy (r) are obtained in the presence of HSA for the ESPT tautomer (r = 0.18), as well as the complex species (r = 0.37) of quercetin, indicating that the precursor ground-state molecules for both these emitting species of quercetin molecules are located in the motionally constrained sites of HSA. The steady-state emission data suggest that quercetin binds to two distinct sites in HSA from which the emissions from the normal tautomer and complex species take place. The preliminary results of studies on emission decay kinetics are also reported herein. Studies by far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopy reveal that binding of quercetin induces no significant perturbation in the secondary structure of HSA.
Ion Channel Conductance Measurements on a Silicon-Based Platform

Conductance measurements of the transmembrane porin protein OmpF as a function of pH and bath concentration have been made with both a microfabricated silicon substrate device and a commercially available polystyrene aperture. Ion transport through the channel was simulated in atomic detail: the measured current was compared with theoretically calculated current, using a Brownian Dynamics kernel coupled to the Poisson equation by a P3M force field. The explicit protein structure and fixed charge distribution in the protein are calculated using the molecular dynamics code, GROMACS. Reasonable agreement is obtained in the simulated versus measured conductance over the range of experimental concentrations studied.
A Two Level Algorithm for Text Detection in Natural Scene Images

In this paper we present a two-level method to detect text in natural scene images. In the first level, connected components (referred as CCs) are got from the images. Then candidate text lines are extracted and groups of connected components that align in horizontal or vertical direction are got. We think CCs in these groups have high probability are texts. To validate which CC is text, a SVM is trained to make an initial decision. The output of SVM is calibrated to posterior probability. Then we use the information of posterior probability of SVM and information of whether the connected component is in a group to divide the connected components into four classes: texts, non-texts, probable texts and undetermined CCs. In the second level, a conditional random field model is used to make final decision. Relationship between CCs is modeled by a network G(V, E), Vertices of the graph correspond to CCs. The determination in the first level will influence the second levels determination by giving different parameters of data term for the four classes of CCs. By this way, we not only use information of a single CCs feature, but also use the information of whether a CC is in a group to make final decision of whether the CC is text or non-text. Experiments show that the method is effective.
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MEBEVERINE COMPRESSION COATED TABLETS FOR COLONIC DELIVERY

The main objective of this study was to develop mebeverine hydrochloride colon targeted drug delivery system using compression coating technique for effective treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. This work was mainly focused on the formulation & in-vitro evaluation of compression coated tablets of mebeverine hydrochloride with different pH dependent polymers like Eudragit L100-55, hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose phthalate (HPMC P55) & cellulose acetate phthalate. The fast disintegrating mebeverine core tablets were compression coated with different percentages of polymers in the outer coat. The prepared compression coated tablets were evaluated for invitro drug release studies using a change in pH method. A drug release was observed in the initial phases of dissolution in higher pH media like 7.4 upon erosion of pH dependent polymers. In order to avoid the drug release in the upper part of small intestine the formulations were further optimized with the help of different hydrophobic materials so that the lag time was prolonged and the drug release was started at lower part of intestine which can deliver maximum amount of drug to colon. Hydrophobic material ethyl cellulose was added to Eudragit L100-55, HPMC P55 and Magnesium stearate was added to cellulose acetate phthalate in the outer coat material. The addition of hydrophobic materials significantly increases the lag time and rapid drug release was observed after lag time.
Multiple Protein Analysis of Formalin-fixed and Paraffin-embedded Tissue Samples with Reverse phase Protein Arrays

Reverse-phase protein arrays (RPPAs) have become an important tool for the sensitive and high-throughput detection of proteins from minute amounts of lysates from cell lines and cryopreserved tissue. The current standard method for tissue preservation in almost all hospitals worldwide is formalin fixation and paraffin embedding, and it would be highly desirable if RPPA could also be applied to formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue. We investigated whether the analysis of FFPE tissue lysates with RPPA would result in biologically meaningful data in two independent studies. In the first study on breast cancer samples, we assessed whether a human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) 2 score based on immunohistochemistry (IHC) could be reproduced with RPPA. The results showed very good concordance between the IHC and RPPA classifications of HER2 expression. In the second study, we profiled FFPE tumor specimens from patients with adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in order to find new markers for differentiating these two subtypes of non-small cell lung cancer. p21-activated kinase 2 could be identified as a new differentiation marker for squamous cell carcinoma. Overall, the results demonstrate the technical feasibility and the merits of RPPA for protein expression profiling in FFPE tissue lysates.
Implementation of baseband transmitter design based on QPSK modulation on Zynq-7000 all-programmable System-on-Chip

QPSK modulation is the process of digital modulation which based on the phase changes to represent data bits of information. Addressing to the need of enhancement implementation of transmitter design, implementing design to System-on-Chip (SoC) will be one of the solution. This paper provides an implementation of the algorithm of QPSK transmitter baseband signal onto Zynq-7000 All-Programmable System-on-Chip (AP SoC) detailed with the requirements of the design of software and hardware. By perform QPSK modulation process on the software and using CORDIC IP core on the hardware for creating sine wave, transmitter design based on QPSK modulation is successfully implemented and tested on the platform Zynq-7000 AP SoC.
Étude de deux problèmes de propagation d'ondes transitoires : 1) Focalisation spatio-temporelle en acoustique; 2) Transmission entre un diélectrique et un métamatériau.

Cette these comporte deux parties independantes. Dans la premiere, a l'aide d'un reseau de transducteurs, nous cherchons a emettre dans un milieu contenant des obstacles diffractants dont nous ignorons les positions une onde venant focaliser en espace et en temps au voisinage d'un de ces obstacles. La solution proposee ici est basee sur la methode DORT (Decomposition de l'Operateur de Retournement Temporel) qui conduit a des proprietes de focalisation spatiale en regime harmonique. Cette derniere consiste a effectuer une decomposition en valeurs singulieres (SVD) de l'operateur de diffraction qui a une distribution de signaux envoyes aux transducteurs associe la mesure de l'onde diffractee. Dans le cadre du modele asymptotique petits obstacles de Foldy-Lax (justifie ici dans le cas bidimensionnel), nous montrons comment synchroniser les signaux fournis par la methode DORT en introduisant une SVD particuliere liee au caractere symetrique de l'operateur de diffraction. Notre methode est justifiee par des arguments theoriques et une etude numerique. La seconde partie est dediee a un probleme de transmission entre un dielectrique et un metamateriau. La question qui est posee ici consiste a etudier la validite du principe d'amplitude limite (PAL) dans un tel milieu. Ce principe definit le regime periodique etabli comme le comportement asymptotique en temps long d'un systeme soumis a une excitation periodique. Nous proposons ici une reponse dans le cas d'un dioptre plan entre un dielectrique et un metamateriau particulier (modele de Drude). Dans un tel cadre, les equations de Maxwell sont reformulees en une equation de Schrodinger dont nous realisons l'analyse spectrale complete. Notre etude permet de voir que le PAL est verifie sauf a une frequence particuliere, appelee frequence plasmon, pour laquelle les rapports des valeurs prises par la permittivite et par la permeabilite de part et d'autre l'interface sont egaux a -1. Cette frequence correspond a une resonance du systeme et la reponse a une telle excitation croit lineairement en temps.
Traffic-Aware Dynamic Frequency Band Allocation Scheme for OFDMA System

The traffic load in a cellular network is typically unbalanced, changing both in the time domain and the spatial domain due to user mobility and activities. In this letter, a traffic-aware dynamic frequency band allocation scheme for OFDMA system is proposed. It is shown that the proposed scheme improves the network throughput and the spectral efficiency without increasing the cost of signaling interaction by dynamically allocating sub-bands in multi-cell network according to the traffic load fluctuations.
Association of the miR‐146aC>G, 149C>T, 196a2C>T, and 499A>G polymorphisms with colorectal cancer in the Korean population

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, 18‐ to 22‐nucleotide non‐coding RNAs that regulate target gene expression. Although recent studies focused on various diseases that harbor the miR‐146aC>G (rs2910164), 149C>T (rs2292832), 196a2C>T (rs11614913), and 499A>G (rs3746444) polymorphisms, the role of miRNA genetic variants in colorectal cancer is still unknown. The present study aimed to evaluate the role of four miRNA polymorphisms in patients with colorectal cancer. We enrolled 446 colorectal cancer patients and 502 control subjects from the Korean population. We found a significantly increased colorectal cancer risk with the miR‐196a2CC genotype compared with the TT/CT genotype (AOR = 1.50; 95% CI = 1.11–2.04; P = 0.01; FDR‐P = 0.04). In the stratified analyses, we observed both weak and strong association data. We found stronger associations of the miR‐196a2 variants in the non‐diabetic and rectal cancer groups than other stratified groups. Our data suggest that the miRNA variants could affect the development of colorectal cancer in the Korean population. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Heart rate and blood pressure variability in cardiac diseases: pharmacological implications

Summary— Even at rest, blood pressure and heart rate fluctuate continuously around their mean values. Considerable interest has recently focused on the assessment of spontaneous fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure, ie, heart rate and blood pressure variability, using time or frequency domain indexes. Heart rate variability has been extensively studied in cardiovascular disease and has emerged as a valuable parameter for detecting abnormalities in autonomic cardiovascular control, evaluating the prognosis and assessing the impact of drug therapy on the autonomic nervous system in patients with myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure or a heart transplant. In contrast, until the recent development of noninvasive methods for continuous blood pressure recording, blood pressure variability received little attention, and this parameter remains to be evaluated in cardiovascular disease.
Multiclass mycotoxin analysis in edible oils using a simple solvent extraction method and liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry

ABSTRACT A simple and rapid method for the simultaneous determination of 11 mycotoxins – aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2; fumonisins B1, B2 and B3; ochratoxin A; zearalenone; deoxynivalenol; and T-2 toxin – in edible oils was established using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In this study, QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe), QuEChERS with dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction, and solvent extraction were examined for sample preparation. Among these methods, solvent extraction with a mixture of formic acid/acetonitrile (5/95, v/v) successfully extracted all target mycotoxins. Subsequently, a defatting process using n-hexane was employed to remove the fats present in the edible oil samples. Mass spectrometry was carried out using electrospray ionisation in polarity switching mode with multiple reaction monitoring. The developed LC-MS/MS method was validated by assessing the specificity, linearity, recovery, limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy and precision with reference to Commission Regulation (EC) 401/2006. Mycotoxin recoveries of 51.6–82.8% were achieved in addition to LOQs ranging from 0.025 ng/g to 1 ng/g. The edible oils proved to be relatively uncomplicated matrices and the developed method was applied to 9 edible oil samples, including soybean oil, corn oil and rice bran oil, to evaluate potential mycotoxin contamination. The levels of detection were significantly lower than the international regulatory standards. Therefore, we expect that our developed method, based on simple, two-step sample preparation process, will be suitable for the large-scale screening of mycotoxin contamination in edible oils.
Near-field spectroscopy of silicon dioxide thin films

We analyze the results of scanning near-field infrared spectroscopy performed on thin films of a-SiO2 on Si substrate. The measured near-field signal exhibits surface-phonon resonances whose strength has a strong thickness dependence in the range from 2 to 300 {nm}. These observations are compared with calculations in which the tip of the near-field infrared spectrometer is modeled either as a point dipole or an elongated spheroid. The latter model accounts for the antenna effect of the tip and gives a better agreement with the experiment. Possible applications of the near-field technique for depth profiling of layered nanostructures are discussed.
Effects of Wink Glass on Blink Rate, Nibut and Ocular Surface Symptoms during Visual Display Unit Use

Abstract Purpose/Aim: Wink glass (WG), an invention to stimulate blinking at interval of 5 s was designed to reduce dry eye symptoms during visual display unit (VDU) use. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of WG on visual functions that include blink rate, ocular surface symptoms (OSS) and tear stability during VDU use. Materials and methods: A total of 26 young and asymptomatic subjects were instructed to read articles in Malay language with a computer for 20 min with WG whereby their blink rate, pre- and post-task tear break-up time, and OSS were recorded. The results were compared to another reading session of the subjects wearing a transparent plastic sheet as a control. Results: Non-invasive tear break-up time was reduced after reading session with transparent plastic sheet (pre-task = 5.97 s, post-task = 5.14 s, z = −2.426, p = 0.015, Wilcoxon), but remained stable (pre-task = 5.62 s, post-task = 5.35 s, z = −0.67, p = 0.501) during the reading session with WG. The blink rate recorded during reading session with plastic sheet was 9 blinks/min (median) and this increased to 15 blinks/min (z = −3.315, p = 0.001) with WG. The reading task caused OSS (maximum scores = 20) with median score of 1 (0–8) reduced to median score of 0 (0–3) after wearing WG (z = −2.417, p = 0.016). Conclusion: WG was found to increase post-task tear stability, increased blinking rate and reduced OSS during video display unit use among young and healthy adults. Although it may be considered as an option to improve dry eye symptoms among VDU users, further studies are warranted to establish its stability and its effect on subjects with dry eyes.
The isoprostane 8‐iso‐PGF2α stimulates endothelial cells to bind monocytes: difference to thromboxane‐mediated endothelial activation

Increased isoprostane levels were found in patients with vascular disease and in atherosclerotic lesions. Isoprostanes interact with vascular cells via thromboxane receptors (TPs) and block TP‐ reduced atherosclerosis in apoE‐deficient mice. This effect was, however, independent of thromboxane formation, suggesting involvement of isoprostanes. We investigated the stimulation of human endothelial cells (ECs) by the isoprostane 8‐iso‐PGF2α with respect to induced monocyte adhesion, a key initiating event in atherogenesis. The isoprostane 8‐iso‐PGF2α stimulated ECs to specifically bind monocytes. The TP agonist U46619 induced monocyte and neutrophil binding and expression of E‐selectin and vascular cell adhesion molecule‐1 (VCAM‐ 1). The monocyte adhesion induced by 8‐iso‐PGF2α was independent of VCAM‐1 and could be blocked by a PKA (H89) and a MEK‐1 inhibitor (PD98059), whereas U46619‐induced monocyte adhesion was mediated by VCAM‐1 and could be blocked by a PKC inhibitor (bisindolylmaleimide I). The effects of 8‐iso‐PGF2α and U46619 could be blocked by a TP antagonist and did not involve NF‐MB translocation but required activation of p38MAPK. Our data demonstrate that 8‐iso‐PGF2α induces monocyte adhesion in ECs by activating TPs or a TP‐ related receptor but via signaling mechanisms that are critically different from those activated by U46619. Therefore, generation of 8‐iso‐PGF2α may induce atherosclerotic lesion formation by activation of ECs to bind monocytes.
A management architecture for client‐defined cloud storage services

Cloud service providers offer virtual resources to users, who then pay for as much as they use. High‐speed networks help to overcome the limitation of geographical distances between clients and cloud servers, which encourage users to adopt cloud storage services for data backup and sharing. However, users use only a few cloud storage services because of the complexity of managing multiple accounts and distributing data to store. In this paper, we propose the client‐defined management architecture (CLIMA) that redefines a storage service by coordinating multiple cloud storage services from clients. We address practical issues of coordinating multiple cloud service providers using a client‐based approach. We implement a prototype as a realization of CLIMA, which achieves both reliability and privacy protection using erasure code and higher performance by optimally scheduling data transmission. We use our prototype to evaluate the benefits of CLIMA on commercial cloud storage service providers. Finally, CLIMA empowers clients to increase the manageability and flexibility of cloud storage services. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recruitment of septin cytoskeletal proteins by botulinum toxin A protease determines its remarkable stability

ABSTRACT Proteolytic cleavage of synaptosomal-associated protein 25 by the light chain of botulinum neurotoxin type A (LCA) results in a blockade of neurotransmitter release that persists for several months in motor neurons. The L428A/L429A mutation in LCA is known to significantly shorten both the proteolytic and neuroparalytic effects of the neurotoxin in mice. To elucidate the cellular mechanism for LCA longevity, we studied the effects of L428A/L429A mutation on the interactome, localization and stability of LCA expressed in cultured neuronal cells. Mass spectrometry analysis of the LCA interactome showed that the mutation prevented the interaction of LCA with septins. The wild-type LCA was concentrated in plasma-membrane-associated clusters, colocalizing with septins-2 and septin-7, which accumulated in these clusters only in the presence of LCA. The L428A/L429A mutation decreased co-clustering of LCA and septins and accelerated proteasomal and non-proteasomal degradation of LCA. Similarly, the impairment of septin oligomerization by forchlorfenuron or silencing of septin-2 prevented LCA interaction and clustering with septins and increased LCA degradation. Therefore, the dileucine-mediated LCA–septin co-clustering is crucial for the long-lasting stabilization of LCA-related proteolytic and presumably neuroparalytic activity.
Title running head : Trichoderma helps tomatoes attacked by aphids

Many fungal root symbionts of the genus Trichoderma are well-known for their beneficial effects on agronomic performance and protection against plant pathogens; moreover, they may enhance protection from insect pests, by triggering plant resistance mechanisms. Defense barriers against insects are induced by the activation of metabolic pathways involved in the production of defense-related plant compounds, either directly
A CMOS track-and-hold circuit with beyond 30 GHz input bandwidth

To realize future ultra high-speed data converters, sampling circuits with very large bandwidth are required. This paper studies the design of ultra high-speed Track-and-Hold (T/H) circuits. A bootstrapping circuit for T/H is presented. The proposed T/H is simulated in 32 nm SOI-CMOS technology. It achieves an input bandwidth higher than 30 GHz and provides an SNDR higher than 43.8 dB (ENOB > 7.0 b) when sampling a 34 GHz input signal at 10 GS/s.