Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Motion Pattern Generation and Recognition for Mobility Assessments in Domestic Environments

A novel approach to continuous and unobtrusive detection of motion patterns in domestic environments is presented. Motion patterns refer to motion primitives which can be detected via presence events emitted by ambient sensors. The approach enables adaption of the system to heterogeneous environments by building upon two pieces of information: a 2D/3D floor plan of the environment and a definition of available sensors. Using this input the system is capable of generating all information required for the monitoring. This minimizes effort for adaption of the system to other environments. A path-planning algorithm is used to automatically detect possible motion patterns and their length within the environment. A generated sensor-graph and finite state machines enable effective processing of sensor events on a common set-top-box. An experiment with 15 participants was conducted. The system is especially suitable for unobtrusive long-term trend analysis in self-selected gait velocity and does not require direct interaction with people monitored.
The effect of G-CSF in a myocardial ischemia reperfusion model rat.

PURPOSE It has been reported that G-CSF administration improves cardiac function by reducing the area of the infarct in a myocardial infarction model rat. In the present study, myocardial infarction model rats, produced by ligation of the left anterior coronary artery, were prepared. The G-CSF effect for treating cardiac muscle cell disorders by ischemia reperfusion was studied. METHODS Myocardial infarction model rats were produced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery in 12-week-old Wistar rats. G-CSF was administered subcutaneously daily at a dose of 100 microg/kg/day for 5 days to rats with a complete ligation (MI-G group, n=6) and rats in which the ligated coronary artery was reperfused 30 minutes after the ligation (R-G group, n=6). Physiological saline was subcutaneously administered to rats with a complete ligation and reperfusion (MI-C and R-C groups, respectively, n=6 each), as controls. After 4 weeks, the infarct area ratio (%), cardiac function on echocardiography (left ventricular ejection fraction), and a myocardial histopathological diagnosis were carried out and the results compared among the groups. RESULTS No significant differences were found in the proportion of the residual heart muscle in the infarct lesion, myocardial wall thickness, or left ventricular ejection fraction between the MI-G and MI-C groups. In contrast, the infarct area, myocardial wall thickness, and left ventricular ejection fraction were significantly improved in the R-G group compared to the R-C group (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Any inhibitory effect of G-CSF on the infarct lesion was found in the myocardial infarction reperfusion model rat, but only a small effect was found in rats with a complete ligation-induced myocardial infarction. The findings in the present study, therefore, suggest that G-CSF is effective for treating cardiac muscle cell disorders by ischemia reperfusion.
Factors affecting citizen adoption of transactional electronic government

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and model adoption criteria of citizens for electronic-government (eGov) service at the transaction maturity stage. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study was conducted among the citizens of Ontario, Canada who have experience of using Canadian e-Gov system. Findings – From statistical analysis through LISREL, this study revealed that ability to use and assurance to use are the critical factors for adoption of eGov at the transaction phase (GAM-T). Originality/value – The findings of this research can be considered as original as this paper concludes that eGov functional characteristics are not only different at different levels of service maturity, but adoption factors at different levels of service maturity are also potentially different. From static to interaction to transaction, citizens perceive different factors to be important for creating the behavioral attitude and intention to accept the eGov system and to use it.
Prognostic value of plasma prostate specific antigen after megestrol acetate treatment in patients with metastatic breast carcinoma

Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is an established tumor marker of prostate adenocarcinoma that recently also was found in breast tumors. Minute amounts of PSA are found in female plasma. It is known from cell culture studies that PSA expression can be up‐regulated by androgens and progestins but not estrogens. In this study, the authors examined whether plasma PSA in women with breast carcinoma changes after the therapeutic administration of the progestin megestrol acetate (MA) and whether these changes have any prognostic value.
Ectopic Expression of the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) R2R3-MYB Transcription Factor Gene, MaAN2, Induces Anthocyanin Accumulation in Tobacco

Anthocyanins are responsible for the different colors of ornamental plants. Grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum), a monocot plant with bulbous flowers, is popular for its fascinating blue color. In the present study, we functionally characterized an R2R3-MYB transcription factor gene MaAN2 from M. armeniacum. Our results indicated that MaAN2 participates in controlling anthocyanin biosynthesis. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis suggested that MaAN2 belonged to the R2R3-MYB family AN2 subgroup. The anthocyanin accumulation of grape hyacinth flowers was positively correlated with the expression of MaAN2. And the transcriptional expression of MaAN2 was also consistent with that of M. armeniacum dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (MaDFR) and M. armeniacum anthocyanidin synthase (MaANS) in flowers. A dual luciferase transient expression assay indicated that when MaAN2 was co-inflitrated with Arabidopsis thaliana TRANSPARENT TESTA8 (AtTT8), it strongly activated the promoters of MaDFR and MaANS, but not the promoters of M. armeniacum chalcone synthase (MaCHS), M. armeniacum chalcone isomerase (MaCHI), and M. armeniacum flavanone 3-hydroxylase (MaF3H). Bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay confirmed that MaAN2 interacted with AtTT8 in vivo. The ectopic expression of MaAN2 in Nicotiana tabacum resulted in obvious red coloration of the leaves and much redder flowers. Almost all anthocyanin biosynthetic genes were remarkably upregulated in the leaves and flowers of the transgenic tobacco, and NtAn1a and NtAn1b (two basic helix–loop–helix anthocyanin regulatory genes) were highly expressed in the transformed leaves, compared to the empty vector transformants. Collectively, our results suggest that MaAN2 plays a role in anthocyanin biosynthesis.
Organizational Strategy and Employee Outcomes: A Person–Organization Fit Perspective

ABSTRACT This study adopted a person–organization fit framework to examine (a) whether employees’ perceptions of organizational strategy for adaptation predicted their commitment to their organization and their intentions to stay and (b) whether these 2 relationships were moderated by perceived job alternatives. Support was found for both hypotheses. Specifically, when there are numerous perceived job alternatives, employees who perceive a misfit between their company's strategy and their preferred strategy were less committed to their organization and less likely to stay than their fit counterparts.
Combination of product graph and random walk kernel for symbol spotting in graphical documents

This paper explores the utilization of product graph for spotting symbols on graphical documents. Product graph is intended to find the candidate subgraphs or components in the input graph containing the paths similar to the query graph. The acute angle between two edges and their length ratio are considered as the node labels. In a second step, each of the candidate subgraphs in the input graph is assigned with a distance measure computed by a random walk kernel. Actually it is the minimum of the distances of the component to all the components of the model graph. This distance measure is then used to eliminate dissimilar components. The remaining neighboring components are grouped and the grouped zone is considered as a retrieval zone of a symbol similar to the queried one. The entire method works online, i.e., it doesn't need any preprocessing step. The present paper reports the initial results of the method, which are very encouraging.
Arabidopsis DDB1-CUL4 E3 ligase complexes in det1 salt/osmotic stress resistant germination

ABSTRACT A key regulatory mechanism in plant growth, development, and stress signaling utilizes E3 ubiquitin ligases, which target a variety of substrates for degradation. DE-ETIOLATED 1 (DET1) forms a complex with DDB1 (DAMAGED DNA BINDING protein 1) and CUL4 (CULLIN 4), and negatively regulates light signaling. Another DDB1-CUL4 complex containing DWA1 and DWA2 (DWD hypersensitive to ABA 1 and 2) has been shown to negatively regulate abscisic acid (ABA) signaling. Since distinct DDB1-CUL4 complexes have been shown to influence each other, we analyzed genetic interactions between DET1 and components of DDB1-CUL4 complexes during seed germination under salt and osmotic stress conditions. det1 germination was resistant to salt and osmotic stress and dwa1 and dwa2 enhanced this phenotype. In contrast, ddb1a partially suppressed the det1 germination phenotype on both salt and mannitol, while ddb1b had no effect. Mutations in DDB2, a DDB1-CUL4 complex component involved in DNA repair, also partially suppressed the det1 germination phenotype while mutants in COP1, another light signaling component, completely suppressed the det1 resistant germination phenotypes. Taken together these data suggest that components of E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes have variable but significant effects on det1 salt/osmotic stress responses.
Bayesian Networks for Supporting Model Based Predictive Control of Smart Buildings

Optimal behaviour is one the most desired features of contemporary technological systems. Challenges like secure operation, energy efficiency, and reliable performance call for the optimised behaviour of any systems that operate and interact in our living environment. The challenge in achieving optimised performances resides in the uncertainty that qualifies the environment surrounding technical systems. Whatever model drives the systems’ behaviour, it must be able to face unforeseen events, to manage the vagueness of the sensing apparatus and the errors of the control devices. Bayesian statistics is one of the theoretical backgrounds that support the construction of systems which are able to act effectively inside complex environments. Bayesian statistics is grounded on the fundamental premise that all uncertain‐ ties should be represented and measured by probabilities. Then, the laws of probabilities apply to produce probabilistic inferences about any quantity, or collection of quantities, of interest. Bayesian inference can provide predictions about probability values pertaining time series or can model parameters in terms of probability distributions that represent and summarize current uncertain knowledge and beliefs. Bayesian inference uses a kind of direct causal or model-based knowledge to provide the crucial robustness needed to make the optimised behaviour of technical systems feasible in the real world [1]. Once this kind of models have been built, then theoretically sound evidence propagation algorithms are used to update the belief set about the external environment and about the system performance, on the basis of acquired evidence. This is the fundamental mechanism that drives the construction and the operation of intelligent systems based on Bayesian inference. This chapter describes a sample engineering application of this approach on a large scale. It concerns the design and the development of an intelligent building energy management system (smart BEMS) that is able
Effects of tibolone and cyclic hormone replacement therapy on glucose metabolism in non-diabetic obese postmenopausal women: a randomized study.

OBJECTIVE AND METHODS To study the effects of hormone replacement therapy on glucose metabolism, 31 obese (body mass index > or =27 kg/m(2)) postmenopausal women were randomized to treatment with tibolone (2.5 mg once daily; TIB; n=16) or to oestradiol valerate (2 mg daily)-dydrogesterone (20 mg daily for 2 weeks every 3 months; ED; n=15) for 12 months. Oral (OGTTs) and intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTTs) and a euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp were performed before and at 6 and 12 months of treatment. RESULTS TIB decreased the rates of whole body glucose uptake (WBGU) at 6 (P=0.04) and 12 months (P<0.001), but it did not have a significant effect on glucose tolerance. In OGTTs, serum insulin and C-peptide concentrations 2 h after the oral glucose load were increased (P<0.001 and P=0.05 respectively) at 12 months of treatment with TIB, but no changes in the areas under the curve (AUC) of insulin or C-peptide were observed. Furthermore, TIB did not have a significant effect on insulin secretion, the metabolic clearance rate (MCR) of insulin or hepatic insulin extraction. Treatment with ED did not modify the rates of WBGU, but it increased the MCR of insulin (P=0.017) and hepatic insulin extraction (P<0.001) and tended to decrease the insulin AUC (P=0.07). Moreover, glucose tolerance slightly deteriorated during this treatment (P=0.02). Although early phase insulin secretion evaluated by the serum C-peptide response at 30 min in the OGTT increased (P=0.046), the first-phase insulin response during the IVGTT decreased (P=0.05) during ED treatment. CONCLUSIONS Despite the impairment in peripheral insulin sensitivity, TIB treatment had a neutral effect on glucose tolerance, possibly due to a compensatory decrease in endogenous glucose production. The increased demand on insulin induced by ED, due to both a stimulatory effect on pancreatic beta cells and increased insulin metabolism, may explain the slightly detrimental effect on glucose tolerance with this treatment.
Identification and expression of a copy number control gene in the IncFIII hemolytic plasmid pSU316

A DNA fragment carrying both the IncFIII determinant and a copy number control gene of the hemolytic plasmid pSU316 has been cloned in pBR322. Deletion derivatives of the hybrid plasmid generated by Bal 31 digestion, which no longer exhibit the IncFIII phenotype, fall into two complementation groups when tested against a pSU316 miniplasmid derivative. Type 1 mutants exhibit the copy number control (Cop+) phenotype whereas type 2 mutants do not. Restriction analysis of type 1 and type 2 mutants allowed us to locate the cop gene of pSU316 in a 700-base-pair fragment adjacent to the IncFIII determinant. Plasmid expression in a minicell system suggests that the product of the cop gene of pSU316 could be a 13,000-dalton protein.
Presurgical Cleft Lip Anthropometrics and Dental Arch Relationships in Patients with Complete Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate

Objective To investigate associations between anthropometric lip measurements and dental arch relationships in patients with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (CUCLP). Design Retrospective cross-sectional study. Patients Children with CUCLP. Methods Anthropometric lip measurements, made immediately prior to lip repair, were available for each patient. The dental arch relationships were evaluated on dental study casts (8.6 ± 0.9 years) taken prior to any orthodontic treatment and prior to alveolar bone graft, using the modified Huddart and Bodenham (MHB) scoring system. The presence of associations between anthropometric lip measurements and dental arch relationships was determined using linear regression analysis. Results In the 63 patients included in the study, the cleft lateral lip element was deficient in height in 87% and in transverse width in 86% of patients. Patients with more deficient cleft-side lateral lip height were more likely to present with more negative MHB scores (r = .443; P < .001). Conversely, patients with more deficient cleft-side lateral lip transverse width more often presented with more positive MHB scores (r = .281; P = .025). Conclusions In patients with CUCLP, there is a wide variability in the degree of deficiency of the cleft-side lateral lip element, both in the vertical and in the transverse dimension. The extent of this deficiency may, in part, predict the resulting dental arch relationships.
Lighting and Materials for Real-Time Game Engines

The aim of this thesis was to study and implement advanced real-time rendering techniques for complex materials such as human skin. The project included investigation on how to adapt and simplify complex skin rendering models to fit current game engines. Also, the task included looking into recent research on spherical harmonics and wavelets. The goal was to determine whether they can be used to represent both diffuse and specular reflection from an environment lighting in a real time game. Subsurface scattering, Gaussian shadow mapping and representing lighting by the use of spherical harmonics and wavelets, are a few of the used techniques in this project. The results of this thesis show that it is possible to render realistic human skin in real time at a low cost. When wavelets are combined with skin rendering techniques, a high-quality method is established for rendering complex materials from environment light. This thesis was written at Digital Illusions and CSC at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in the spring of 2009. Ljussättning och material för spelmotorer i realtid Sammanfattning Syftet med detta examensarbete var att studera och implementera avancerade renderingstekniker för komplexa material, såsom människohud. Projektet innefattade en utredning av hur man kan förändra och förenkla komplicerade hudrenderingsmodeller för att de ska passa in i dagens spelmotorer. I uppgiften ingick även studier inom den senaste forskningen om klotytfunktioner och wavelets. Målet var att avgöra om dessa tekniker kan användas för att representera både diffus och spekulär reflektion från omgivningsljus i realtid. Subsurface scattering, Gaussian shadow mapping och omgivningsljussättning med hjälp av klotytfunktioner och wavelets, är några av de använda teknikerna i detta projekt. Resultaten av detta examensarbete visar att det är möjligt att rendera realistisk hud i realtid och till en låg kostnad. När wavelets kombineras med hudrenderingstekniker, skapas en högkvalitativ metod för att rendera komplexa material från omgivningsljus. Detta examensarbete utfördes åt Digital Illusions och CSC vid Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan i Stockholm våren 2009. Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who has supported me during the work with this thesis – in the great as well as in the small. I'm grateful to my supervisor and examiner Lars Kjelldahl, for helping me plan and execute the thesis. Special thanks to my supervisors Per Einarsson and Daniel Johansson for their time, their patience and for sharing their knowledge. Finally I would like to thank Digital Illusions for giving me the opportunity to do my thesis at their company.
The “COLD-PCR Approach” for Early and Cost-Effective Detection of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Resistance Mutations in EGFR-Positive Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer

Background:Activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations can be successfully treated by EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs), but nearly 50% of all patients’ exhibit progression of the disease until treatment because of T790M mutations. It is proposed that this is mostly caused by therapy-resistant tumor clones harboring a T790M mutation. Until now no cost-effective routine-diagnostic method for EGFR-resistance mutation status analysis is available leaving long-time response to TKI treatment to chance. Unambiguous identification of T790M EGFR mutations is mandatory to optimize initial treatment strategies. Materials and Methods:Artificial EGFR T790M mutations and human wild-type gDNA were prepared in several dilution series. Preferential amplification using coamplification at lower denaturation temperature-PCR (COLD-PCR) of the mutant sequence and subsequent HybProbe melting curve detection or pyrosequencing were performed in comparison to normal processing. Results:COLD-PCR–based amplification allowed the detection of 0.125% T790M mutant DNA in a background of wild-type DNA in comparison to 5% while normal processing. These results were reproducible. Conclusions:COLD-PCR is a powerful and cost-effective tool for routine diagnostic to detect underrepresented tumor clones in clinical samples. A diagnostic tool for unambiguous identification of T790M-mutated minor tumor clones is now available enabling optimized therapy.
Validating divergent ORF annotation of the Mycobacterium leprae genome through a full translation data set and peptide identification by tandem mass spectrometry

Mycobacterium leprae has undergone extensive degenerative evolution, with a large number of pseudogenes. It is also the organism with the greatest divergence between gene annotations from independent institutes. Therefore, M. leprae is a good model to verify the currently predicted coding sequence regions between different annotations, to identify new ones and to investigate the expression of pseudogenes. We submitted a total extract of the bacteria isolated from Armadillo to Gel‐LC‐MS/MS using a linear quadrupole ion trap‐Orbitrap mass spectrometer. Spectra were analyzed using the Leproma (1614 genes and 1133 pseudogenes) and TIGR (5446 genes) databases and a database containing the full genome translation. We identified a total of 1046 proteins, including five proteins encoded by previously predicted pseudogenes, which upon closer inspection appeared to be proper genes. Only 11 of the additional annotations by TIGR were verified. We also identified six tryptic peptides from five proteins from regions not considered to be coding sequences, in addition to peptides from two unannotated gene candidates that overlap with other genes. Our data show that the Leproma annotation of M. leprae is quite accurate, and there were no peptide observations corresponding to true pseudogenes, except for a new gene candidate, overlapping with an essential enolase on the complementary strand.
Large-Scale Time Characterization and Analysis of PBTI In HFO2/Metal Gate Stacks

Many electrical properties of metal/high-k gate stack are dominated by defects. These defects play an important role in reliability issues in particular positive bias temperature instabilities (PBTI). In this paper, we investigate PBTI with a time resolved measurement technique allowing a large-scale time characterization. This technique allows us to separate different mechanisms, namely fast and slow trapping, newly slow stress-generated traps and finally positive charges. We clearly evidence which of them are or are not activated by temperature. We explain how to take into account these mechanisms for a precise lifetime extrapolation