Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved Mass Spectrometry Assay For Plasma Hepcidin: Detection and Characterization of a Novel Hepcidin Isoform

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based assays for the quantification of the iron regulatory hormone hepcidin are pivotal to discriminate between the bioactive 25-amino acid form that can effectively block the sole iron transporter ferroportin and other naturally occurring smaller isoforms without a known role in iron metabolism. Here we describe the design, validation and use of a novel stable hepcidin-25+40 isotope as internal standard for quantification. Importantly, the relative large mass shift of 40 Da makes this isotope also suitable for easy-to-use medium resolution linear time-of-flight (TOF) platforms. As expected, implementation of hepcidin-25+40 as internal standard in our weak cation exchange (WCX) TOF MS method yielded very low inter/intra run coefficients of variation. Surprisingly, however, in samples from kidney disease patients, we detected a novel peak (m/z 2673.9) with low intensity that could be identified as hepcidin-24 and had previously remained unnoticed due to peak interference with the formerly used internal standard. Using a cell-based bioassay it was shown that synthetic hepcidin-24 was, like the -22 and -20 isoforms, a significantly less potent inducer of ferroportin degradation than hepcidin-25. During prolonged storage of plasma at room temperature, we observed that a decrease in plasma hepcidin-25 was paralleled by an increase in the levels of the hepcidin-24, -22 and -20 isoforms. This provides first evidence that all determinants for the conversion of hepcidin-25 to smaller inactive isoforms are present in the circulation, which may contribute to the functional suppression of hepcidin-25, that is significantly elevated in patients with renal impairment. The present update of our hepcidin TOF MS assay together with improved insights in the source and preparation of the internal standard, and sample stability will further improve our understanding of circulating hepcidin and pave the way towards further optimization and standardization of plasma hepcidin assays.
High resolution micro ultrasonic machining for trimming 3D microstructures

This paper reports on the evaluation of a high resolution micro ultrasonic machining (HR-µUSM) process suitable for post fabrication trimming of complex 3D microstructures made from fused silica. Unlike conventional USM, the HR-µUSM process aims for low machining rates, providing high resolution and high surface quality. The machining rate is reduced by keeping the micro-tool tip at a fixed distance from the workpiece and vibrating it at a small amplitude. The surface roughness is improved by an appropriate selection of abrasive particles. Fluidic modeling is performed to study interaction among the vibrating micro-tool tip, workpiece, and the slurry. Using 304 stainless steel (SS304) tool tips of 50 µm diameter, the machining performance of the HR-µUSM process is characterized on flat fused silica substrates. The depths and surface finish of machined features are evaluated as functions of slurry concentrations, separation between the micro-tool and workpiece, and machining time. Under the selected conditions, the HR-µUSM process achieves machining rates as low as 10 nm s−1 averaged over the first minute of machining of a flat virgin sample. This corresponds to a mass removal rate of ≈20 ng min−1. The average surface roughness, Sa, achieved is as low as 30 nm. Analytical and numerical modeling are used to explain the typical profile of the machined features as well as machining rates. The process is used to demonstrate trimming of hemispherical 3D shells made of fused silica.
Artists and the Mind in the 21st Century

In 2008, Lesley University Professors Geoffrey Koetsch and Ellen Schön conducted an informal survey of New England artists to ascertain the degree to which recent work in neuroscience had impacted the visual arts. The two curators mounted an exhibition (MINDmatters May-June, 2008) at the Laconia Gallery in Boston in which they showcased the work of artists who had chosen mental processes as their primary subject. These artists were reacting to the new vision of the mind revealed by science; their inquiry was subjective, sensory, and existential, not empirical. They approached consciousness from several vantage points. Some of the artists had had personal experience with pathologies of the brain such as dementia or cancer and were puzzling out the phenomenon consuming the mind of a loved one. They looked to neuroscience for clarity and understanding. Some artists were personally involved with new techniques of cognitive psychotherapy. Others were inspired by the sheer physical beauty of the brain as revealed by new imaging technologies. Two of the artists explored the links between meditation, mindfulness practice and neuroscience. Issues such as the “boundary” and “binding” problems were approached, as well as the challenge of creating visual metaphors for neural processes. One artist visualized the increasing transparency of the body as researchers introduce more and more invasive technologies.
The Impact of DoS Attacks on the AR.Drone 2.0

A key challenge for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is the security of their information during navigation to accomplish its task. Information security is a known issue, but it seems to be overlooked from a research perspective, that tends to focus on more classical and well-formulated problems. This paper addresses an experimental evaluation of three Denial of Service (DoS) attack tools to analyze the UAV's behavior. These tools are executed in real-time on the robot while it navigates an indoor environment (inside the University building). We present experiments to demonstrate the impact of such attacks on a particular UAV model (AR.Drone 2.0) and also show a description of existing vulnerabilities. Our results indicate that DoS attacks might cause network availability issues influencing critical UAVs applications, such as the video streaming functionality.
Nuclear Hormone Receptor Activity of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Their Hydroxylated and Methoxylated Metabolites in Transactivation Assays Using Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells

Background An increasing number of studies are reporting the existence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and their hydroxylated (HO) and methoxylated (MeO) metabolites in the environment and in tissues from wildlife and humans. Objective Our aim was to characterize and compare the agonistic and antagonistic activities of principle PBDE congeners and their HO and MeO metabolites against human nuclear hormone receptors. Methods We tested the hormone receptor activities of estrogen receptor α (ERα), ERβ, androgen receptor (AR), glucocorticoid receptor (GR), thyroid hormone receptor α1 (TRα1), and TRβ1 against PBDE congeners BDEs 15, 28, 47, 85, 99, 100, 153, and 209, four para-HO-PBDEs, and four para-MeO-PBDEs by highly sensitive reporter gene assays using Chinese hamster ovary cells. Results Of the 16 compounds tested, 6 and 2 showed agonistic activities in the ERα and ERβ assays, respectively, and 6 and 6 showed antagonistic activities in these assays. 4′-HO-BDE-17 showed the most potent estrogenic activity via ERα/β, and 4′-HO-BDE-49 showed the most potent anti estrogenic activity via ERα/β. In the AR assay, 13 compounds showed antagonistic activity, with 4′-HO-BDE-17 in particular inhibiting AR-mediated transcriptional activity at low concentrations in the order of 10−8 M. In the GR assay, seven compounds, including two HO-PBDEs and two MeO-PBDEs, showed weak antagonistic activity. In the TRα1 and TRβ1 assays, only 4-HO-BDE-90 showed weak antagonistic activity. Conclusions Taken together, these results suggest that PBDEs and their metabolites might have multiple endocrine-disrupting effects via nuclear hormone receptors, and para-HO-PBDEs, in particular, possess more potent receptor activities compared with those of the parent PBDEs and corresponding para-MeO-PBDEs.
The dynamic network configuration method that reflects user requests using openflow

Business network is designed to match their organizational structure. Therefore, network reconfiguration is required to meet change of organizational structure and requirements from users. However, quick and detailed reconfiguration is difficult because configuration in conventional network equipment need to be modified manually for each network apparatuses. The purpose of this study is to improve quick response of network reconfiguration to meet users' requests. We realize the access control method based on organizational structure by cooperating OpenFlow and database that saved user information. We propose the network control scheme that users are able to edit structure information. To confirm the proposed methods, we made test bed and performed operation verification. As a result, we confirmed that the change of structure information by users was reflected in network control within 5 seconds.
Reusable real-time executive in Ada design issues

During the last year, our group has been involved in the design and development of two reusabl e executive components to develop hard real-time systems [4] [1] [17] . This paper deals with one of them, the tasking executive . It is based on the rate monotonic and deadline monotoni c scheduling methods and takes full advantage of Ada features . It is not an executive built fro m scratch but rather a set of building blocks that allow users to develop hard real-time systems . This executive is designed in such a way that hard real-time deadlines can be guaranteed fo r real-time processes . The executive also supports sporadic processes, mode changes and failur e recovery . The purpose of this article is to describe the main features of the tasking executive, analyz e the most important design issues and comment a first analysis of the impact of the new Ada9 X features in its design . This paper only deals with the real-time issues of the tasking executive . Other issues related with the executive, as for example how to increase the reusability of tha t subsystem in Ada9X, are not considered here .
Comparative evaluation of the Nitrate Reductase Assay and the Resazurin Microtitre Assay for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis against first line anti-tuberculosis drugs

Tuberculosis remains as a serious infection disease of worldwide distribution, with high morbidity and mortality, mainly in low socio-economic condition countries. The state of emergency of tuberculosis caused by the resistant and multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, became the main threat to the tuberculosis treatment and control programs. A fast detection method for the resistant strains will allow the implementation of an adequate treatment and contribute for controlling the dissemination of these resistant strains. This study evaluated the performance of the nitrate reductase assay in solid (NRA-LJ) and liquid (NRA-7H9) media, to determine the susceptibility to first line anti-tuberculosis drugs: isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RMP), ethambutol (EMB) and streptomycin (SMR). Both methods NRA-LJ and NRA-7H9 were evaluated among 18 strains with a known susceptibility profile. The resazurin microtiter assay (REMA) was performed as a reference method. One hundred percent of accordance was observed between NRA-7H9 and REMA for the four tested drugs. When the NRA-LJ method was compared to REMA, the sensitivity and the specificity to INH, RMP, EMB and SMR were 100%, 100 %, 85.7%, 76.9% and 80%, 100%, 75% and 80%, respectively. From the 57 clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis evaluated by NRA-7H9 and REMA, 56 (98.2%) were sensitive to all antibiotics tested (INH, RMP, EMB and SMR) by the NRA-7H9 method, while three of these strains were resistant to INH by REMA. One strain showed resistance to INH and RMP for both methods, and MIC of 1.0 μg/ml to INH for both methods, while MIC of 1.0 and 2.0 μg/ml to RMP for REMA and NRA-7H9, respectively. The three assays showed a high level of agreement for rapid detection of rifampicin and isoniazid resistance. Regarding rapidness, the detection of color change in the NRA method is within instants as compared to the overnight incubation required for the REMA test. NRA might represent an inexpensive and alternative assay for rapid detection of resistance in low-income countries.
Participation in Adult Education for Work-Related Reasons, 2002-03. Statistical Analysis Report. NCES 2006-040.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. It fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report full and complete statistics on the condition of education in the United States; conduct and publish reports and specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of such statistics; assist state and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems; and review and report on education activities in foreign countries. is in the public domain. We strive to make our products available in a variety of formats and in language that is appropriate to a variety of audiences. You, as our customer, are the best judge of our success in communicating information effectively. If you have any comments or suggestions about this or any other NCES product or report, we would like to hear from you. Please direct your comments to conducted by random-digit-dial telephone interviewing of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population ages 16 and older who were not enrolled in elementary or secondary school at the time of the survey. NHES is a system of surveys developed to address important educational issues, and surveys on a variety of educational topics have been administered from 1991 through 2003. Adults were asked about their work-related educational activities and experiences over the previous 12-month period. The survey defined work-related activities in terms of formal and informal learning activities that are done for reasons related to work. Formal types of work-related adult education are defined by the presence of an instructor, whereas informal adult learning activities are defined by the absence of an instructor. The tests of significance used in this report are based on Student's t statistic for the comparison of individual estimates and for bivariate relationships, as well as multivariate analysis using logistic regression. An alpha level of . 05 was employed for all tests of significance. 1 Findings from the survey reveal that 40 percent of adults in the nation participated in some type of formal adult education for work-related reasons during a 12-month period in 2002–03 (table 1). Thirty-three percent participated in work-related courses, 9 percent were in a college degree program, 2 percent were in a vocational degree/diploma program, and 1 percent had an apprenticeship. 2 Fifty-eight percent of adults participated in informal work-related learning activities (table 6). Among adults who were …
Impact of environmental enrichment in mice. 1: Effect of housing conditions on body weight, organ weights and haematology in different strains

Currently, environmental enrichment is a very common means of improving animal well-being, especially for laboratory animals. Although environmental enrichment seems to be a possible way for improving the well-being of animals, the consideration of housing laboratory animals should not only focus solely on animal well-being, manpower and economics but also on the precision and accuracy of the experimental results. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of enriched cages (nest box, nesting material, climbing bar) on body weight, haematological data and final organ weights. BALB/c, C57BL/6 and A/J mice, originated from Harlan Winkelmann, were used for the experiments - 16 animals of each strain. Animals at 3 weeks of age were marked and separated randomly to enriched or non-enriched cages, in groups of four, half for each housing condition. Both cages were type III Makrolon cages, only the enriched cages contained a nest box, a wood bar for climbing and nesting material. Animals were kept in a clean animal room under specific pathogen free (SPF) conditions. Body weights were recorded every week. Blood samples were collected at 14 weeks of age (white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), haemoglobin (HGB), and haematocrit (HCT) were analysed). At 15 weeks of age, the animals were euthanized by CO2 in their home cages, and final body weight and organ weights (heart, liver, kidney, adrenal, spleen and uterus) were recorded immediately. Although nearly all the test variables were not affected by environmental enrichment in their mean values, the enriched group showed higher coefficients of variation in many variables, and strain differences of both housing conditions were not consistent. The influences of enrichment were shown to be strain- and test-dependent. Such effects may lead to an increase in the number of animals which is necessary or may change the experimental results, especially when a study, using enriched housing conditions, focuses on strain differences. Since the same enrichment design can result in different influences, a positive or a negative or no adverse effect, due to the strain and the variables studied, researchers need to collect more information before enrichment designs are introduced into experimental plans.
Social Investment According to the OECD/DELSA: A Discourse in the Making

It is important to draw critical attention to the broad policy perspectives that travel across the globe and operate at multiple scales. Social Investment is clearly one such set of ideas that has assumed increasing prominence over the last two decades. Like most such rapidly diffusing ideas, however, it admits of quite different interpretations. In this article I examine the most recent iterations of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs’ (DELSA) interpretation of Social Investment against the backdrop of its earlier work. I argue that its initial formulations could be seen as an example of inclusive liberalism. Since then, however, DELSA has begun to embrace important elements of a social democratic version, including a concern with gender equality. Policy Implications • While the idea of Social Investment may have opened anew a positive role for social policy, it is insufficient for such policies to focus narrowly on improving the human capital of the poor. Rather it is important to develop the human capital of all. • While Social Investment policies can include measures to facilitate work and family life it is also important to actively promote equality of the sexes in paid and unpaid work. • Social Investment policies, with their emphasis on the supply side, need to be complemented by policies to promote good jobs for all. • To be effective, Social Investment policies need to be accompanied by appropriate macroeconomic policies.
Pattern discovery algorithm for weather prediction problem

This paper proposes two pattern discovery algorithms for weather prediction problem. The episodes mining algorithm is introduced to find frequent episodes in rainfall sequences and sequential pattern mining algorithm to find relationship of patterns between weather stations. Real data are collected from ten rainfall stations of Selangor State, Malaysia. The sequential pattern algorithm is applied to extract the relationship between ten rainfall stations in 33 years periods of time. The proposed study produces valuable patterns of weather and preserves important knowledge for weather prediction.
For the Common Good ? The Effects of Private Entrepreneurs ’ Political Participation in China

We study the benefits of private entrepreneurs entering into politics in China. Using original hand-collected data on political participation of entrepreneurs that control listed firms, we document evidence of rent seeking through their political networks and several potential channels through which rent seeking is realized. It is shown that political participation results in increased stock performance and operating performance, consistent with the rent-seeking argument. As rent-seeking channels, firms controlled by politically active private entrepreneurs are able to access debt financing better, lessen their tax burden, and engage in favorable M&A activities, at least partly explained by better access to regulated industries. This study thus sheds light on the benefits of political participation for private entrepreneurs in China and, more importantly, document several channels used to exploit political networks built up through active participation in politics. JEL Classification: G30; G32; G34; H20; P26
Exploring a paradigm shift: The New York Times' framing of sub-Saharan Africa in stories of conflict, war and development during the Cold War and post-Cold War eras, 1945-2009

v PREFACE vi LIST OF TABLES xi CHAPTER 1: CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND OF PROBLEM 1 Importance of American news media coverage to Africa 6 Purpose and study rationale 11 Theoretical framework 14 Methodological approach 15 Structure of the dissertation 16 CHAPTER 2: PARADIGM SHIFT THEORY AND HISTORY OF COLONIALISM, COLD WAR, AND POST-COLD WAR ERAS 18 Relevance of Paradigm Shift 18 Justification for Theory 20 Thomas Kuhn’s Paradigms 20 Kuhn’s Critics 25 Anomalies as Harbingers of Change 28 Related Studies in Paradigm Shifts 29 Historical Paradigm Shifts in Mass Communication Research 32
Test Structures and Techniques for On-Wafer CMOS TRL Calibration

In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time a TRL calibration kit fabricated in CMOS technology. To fulfill a basic requirement of high probe-isolation of the TRL method, we have based all fabricated calibration standards on a shield-based measuring fixture that heavily reduces the effects of the semiconducting substrate. We analyze the electrical performance of the standards, including their accuracy, and the performance of CMOS-based TRL calibration is compared to a reference calibration based on the LRRM technique and a high-precision impedance standard substrate. We find that CMOS TRL calibration is indeed feasible for measurements in the low-gigahertz frequency range but not without implementation problems.