Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histone deacetylase HDAC8 associates with smooth muscle α‐actin and is essential for smooth muscle cell contractility

Although originally characterized as nuclear enzymes controlling the stability of nucleosomes, histone deacetylases (HDACs) may also exert their activity within the cytosol. Recently, we have demonstrated that HDAC8, a class I HDAC, is a novel, prominently cytosolic marker of smooth muscle differentiation. As HDAC8 displays a striking stress fiber‐like pattern of distribution and is coexpressed in vivo with smooth muscle α‐actin (α‐SMA) and smooth muscle myosin heavy chain, we have explored the possible participation of this HDAC in smooth muscle cytoskeleton regulation. Cell fractionation assays performed with primary human smooth muscle cells (HSMCs) showed that HDAC8, in contrast to HDAC1 and HDAC3, was enriched in cytoskeleton‐bound protein fractions and insoluble cell pellets, suggesting an association of HDAC8 with the cystoskeleton. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments using HSMCs, NIH‐3T3 cells, and human prostate tissue lysates further demonstrated that HDAC8 associates with α‐SMA but not with β‐actin. HDAC8 silencing through RNA interference strongly reduced the capacity of HSMCs to contract collagen lattices. Mock transfections had no effect on HSMC contractily, and transfections with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) specific for HDAC6, a cytosolic HDAC that functions as an α‐tubulin deacetylase, resulted in a weak contraction inhibition. Although mock‐ and HDAC6 siRNA‐transfected HSMCs showed no noticeable morphological changes, HDAC8 siRNA‐transfected HSMCs displayed a size reduction with diminished cell spreading after replating. Altogether, our findings indicate that HDAC8 associates with the smooth muscle actin cytoskeleton and may regulate the contractile capacity of smooth muscle cells.
Genetic Variants Associated With Glycine Metabolism and Their Role in Insulin Sensitivity and Type 2 Diabetes

Circulating metabolites associated with insulin sensitivity may represent useful biomarkers, but their causal role in insulin sensitivity and diabetes is less certain. We previously identified novel metabolites correlated with insulin sensitivity measured by the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. The top-ranking metabolites were in the glutathione and glycine biosynthesis pathways. We aimed to identify common genetic variants associated with metabolites in these pathways and test their role in insulin sensitivity and type 2 diabetes. With 1,004 nondiabetic individuals from the RISC study, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 14 insulin sensitivity–related metabolites and one metabolite ratio. We replicated our results in the Botnia study (n = 342). We assessed the association of these variants with diabetes-related traits in GWAS meta-analyses (GENESIS [including RISC, EUGENE2, and Stanford], MAGIC, and DIAGRAM). We identified four associations with three metabolites—glycine (rs715 at CPS1), serine (rs478093 at PHGDH), and betaine (rs499368 at SLC6A12; rs17823642 at BHMT)—and one association signal with glycine-to-serine ratio (rs1107366 at ALDH1L1). There was no robust evidence for association between these variants and insulin resistance or diabetes. Genetic variants associated with genes in the glycine biosynthesis pathways do not provide consistent evidence for a role of glycine in diabetes-related traits.
Bayesian Model Selection in Structural Equation Models

A Bayesian approach to model selection for structural equation models is outlined. This enables us to compare individual models, nested or non-nested, and also to search through the (perhaps vast) set of possible models for the best ones. The approach selects several models rather than just one, when appropriate, and so enables us to take account, both informally and formally, of uncertainty about model structure when making inferences about quantities of interest. The approach tends to select simpler models than strategies based on multiple P -value-based tests. It may thus help to overcome the criticism of structural equation models that they are too complicated for the data they are applied to.
Ann Blandford and Thomas Green Methodological Development Overview

One feature of Human–Computer Interaction research is that a broad range of methods have been developed to support the design and evaluation of interactive systems. In this chapter, we focus on evaluation methods – not because they are more important than design methods, but because we have more experience of them. In particular we consider the excitements and challenges of research on developing and testing new methods for evaluating interactive systems.
Iterative Solution of Algebraic Riccati Equations using a Modified Newton-Kleinman Method MTNS 2004

Algebraic Riccati equations of large dimension arise when using approximations to design controllers for systems modelled by partial differential equations. For large model order direct solution methods based on eigenvector calculation fail. In this paper we describe an iterative method that takes advantage of several special features of these problems. The algorithm is straightforward to code. Performance is illustrated with a number of standard examples.
Increased Congenital Heart Defects in Children Born to Women With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Results From the Offspring of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Mothers Registry Study

Background— In a large population-based study, we aimed to determine whether children born to women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have an increased risk of congenital heart defects (CHDs) in comparison with children born to women without SLE. Methods and Results— The Offspring of SLE Mothers Registry (OSLER) includes all women who had ≥1 hospitalization for delivery after SLE diagnosis, identified through Quebec’s healthcare databases (1989–2009), and a randomly selected control group of women, matched ≥4:1 for age and year of delivery. We identified children born live to SLE mothers and their matched controls, and ascertained CHD based on ≥1 hospitalization or physician visit with relevant diagnostic codes, within the first 12 months of life. We performed multivariable logistic regression analyses, using the generalized estimating equation method, to adjust for relevant covariates. Five hundred nine women with SLE had 719 children, whereas 5824 matched controls had 8493 children. In comparison with controls, children born to women with SLE experienced more CHD (5.2% [95% confidence interval (CI), 3.7–7.1] versus 1.9% [95% CI, 1.6–2.2], difference 3.3% [95% CI, 1.9–5.2]). In multivariable analyses, children born to women with SLE had a substantially increased risk of CHD (odds ratio, 2.62; 95% CI, 1.77–3.88) in comparison with controls. In addition, in comparison with controls, offspring of SLE mothers had a substantially increased risk of having a CHD repair procedure (odds ratio, 5.82; 95% CI, 1.77–19.09). Conclusions— In comparison with children from the general population, children born to women with SLE have an increased risk of CHD, and an increased risk of having a CHD repair procedure, as well.
Enhancing change detection in low-quality surveillance footage using markov random fields

Urban surveillance footage can be of poor quality, partly due to the low quality of the camera and partly due to harsh lighting and heavily reflective scenes. For some computer surveillance tasks very simple change detection is adequate, but sometimes a more detailed change detection mask is desirable, eg, for accurately tracking identity when faced with multiple interacting individuals and in pose-based behaviour recognition. We present a novel technique for enhancing a low-quality change detection into a better segmentation using an image combing estimator in an MRF based model.
Phase Compensation Multiresonant Control of CVCF PWM Converters

In this paper, phase compensation is proposed for a multiple resonant control (MRSC) scheme to compensate system delays on the basis of phase compensation repetitive control (RC). The inherent relationship between RC and resonant control (RSC) is comprehensively developed: the partial equivalence between RC and MRSC, the advantages and disadvantages of MRSC over RC-much faster convergence rate at the cost of heavier parallel computation burden. Stability criterion of MRSC systems, zero-phase compensation at each harmonic frequency, and rules of thumb for choosing RSC gains are developed for synthesis of phase compensation MRSC. The proposed phase compensation scheme enables MRSC to independently choose compensation phase angle and control gain at each resonant frequency. Accurate phase compensations and optimal weighted control gains at each selected harmonic frequency enable MRSC systems to significantly improve the control performance: wide stability range, high tracking accuracy, and fast error convergence rate. Experimental results of a three-phase PWM inverter illustrate the validity of the phase compensation MRSC scheme.
A review on influencing factors on the minimum inhibitory concentration of essential oils

ABSTRACT With growing interest in essential oils as natural preservatives in the food industry, the literature is expanding enormously. To understand the antimicrobial activity of essential oils, the antimicrobial mechanism of individual essential oil (EO) compounds, and their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), are interesting starting points for research. Therefore, and to get insight into the factors influencing their antimicrobial activities, the Web of Science was searched for MICs of EO compounds (1995–2016). Many MICs for individual EO compounds have already been reported in the literature, but there is large variability in these data, even for the MIC of the same compound against the same species. No correlation was found between the tested structural parameters of EO compounds (polarity, water solubility, dissociation constant, molecular weight and molecular complexity) and their MICs against all microorganisms, Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. Few clear differences in sensitivity between microorganisms could be found. Based on this review it is clear that different incubation conditions, culture media and the use of emulsifiers/solvents have an influence on the MIC, causing big variance. This review points out the need for a good international standard method to assess the antimicrobial activity of EO compounds for better comparability between studies.
Flexible scheduling for adaptable real-time systems

Complex real time systems, such as those envisaged for autonomous vehicle control, are expected to exhibit: adaptive and dynamic behaviour, resilience to software/hardware failures and graceful degradation, under conditions of overload. Two objectives need to be met before such properties can be realised. First, critical services must be guaranteed to provide results of a minimum acceptable quality and reliability by their deadlines. Second, the utility of the system needs to be maximised. We present an approach to meeting the above objectives. This approach combines the benefits of both fixed priority preemptive and best effort scheduling: offline analysis is used to guarantee that critical timing requirements will be met, whilst at run time, a simple adaptive threshold policy arbitrates between competing optional components, enhancing the system utility obtained.
Establishment of an Analytical System for the Human Fecal Microbiota, Based on Reverse Transcription-Quantitative PCR Targeting of Multicopy rRNA Molecules

ABSTRACT An analytical system based on rRNA-targeted reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was established for the precise evaluation of human intestinal microbiota. Group- and species-specific primer sets for Clostridium perfringens, Lactobacillus spp. (six subgroups and three species), Enterococcus spp. , and Staphylococcus spp. targeting 16S rRNA gene sequences were newly developed for the quantitative analysis of such subdominant populations in human intestines. They were used together with previously reported group-specific primer sets for Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas spp. , and six predominant bacterial groups (the Clostridium coccoides group, the Clostridium leptum subgroup, the Bacteroides fragilis group, Bifidobacterium spp., the Atopobium cluster, and Prevotella spp.) for the examination of fecal samples from 40 healthy adults by RT-qPCR with lower detection limits of 102 to 104 cells per g of feces. The RT-qPCR method gave data equivalent to those yielded by qPCR for predominant populations of more than 108 cells per g of feces and could quantify bacterial populations that were not detectable (Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas) or those only detected at lower incidences (Prevotella, C. perfringens, Lactobacillus, and Enterococcus) by qPCR or the culture method. The RT-qPCR analysis of Lactobacillus spp. at the subgroup level revealed that a subject has a mean of 4.6 subgroups, with an average count of log10(6.3 ± 1.5) cells per g of feces. These results suggest that RT-qPCR is effective for the accurate enumeration of human intestinal microbiota, especially the entire analysis of both predominant and subdominant populations.
Potential, Characteristics and Utilization of Shrimp Pond Solid Waste as Organic Fertilizer

The study aimed at determining the potential, characterization and utilization of super-intensive shrimp pond solid waste as a raw material for organic fertilizer, and its application in fisheries and agriculture. It was conducted at Experimental Pond Installation, Research Institute for Coastal Aquaculture and Fisheries Extension located in Punaga Village in South Sulawesi. The research involved 3 of 1,000 m2 concrete ponds for 105 rearing period days and entailed the stocking density of 750-1,250 shrimp/m2. The observation was carried out in the sediments on a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with 7,000 m2. The variables observed in this study included sedimentation rate, total sediment, and estimation of total nutrient in the contents of solid waste such as C-organic N total. P2O5. K2O. pH, water content and C/N ratio. The results showed total sediment in the following stocking 750, 1000 and 1,250 vaname shrimp/m2 weighed 18.2, 20.3 and 21.9 tons respectively. During the shrimp cultivation, TN, TP and C accumulated in sediments increased, resulting to an upsurge in stocking density. Therefore, the solid waste may potentially be used as organic fertilizer because it has a fairly high nutrient content such as N total of 0.58%. P2O5 by 3.33%. K2O by 0.8%. C-organic by 9.94%. pH 6.73, water content of 16.36% and C / N ratio by 17.14%.
An Improved Version of opt-aiNet Algorithm (I-opt-aiNet) for Function Optimization

This paper presents an improved version of opt-aiNet, which is an algorithm for multimodal function optimization based on the natural immune system metaphor. The proposed algorithm has some major and minor changes on the way the clonal selection principle is applied within the original opt-aiNet algorithm which allows for fast localization of the optima. The output of the proposed algorithm is tested on the same data as the original opt-aiNet and the results show the validity of the new improved one.
Computing depth under ambient illumination using multi-shuttered light

Range imaging has become a critical component of many computer vision applications. The quality of the depth data is of critical importance, but so is the need for speed. Shuttered light-pulse (SLP) imaging uses active illumination hardware to provide high quality depth maps at video frame rates. Unfortunately, current analytical models for deriving depth from SLP imagers are specific to the number of shutters and have a number of deficiencies. As a result, depth estimation often suffers from bias due to object reflectivity, incorrect shutter settings, or strong ambient illumination such as that encountered outdoors. These limitations make SLP imaging unsuitable for many applications requiring stable depth readings. This paper introduces a method that is general to any number of shutters. Using three shutters, the new method produces invariant estimates under changes in ambient illumination, producing high quality depth maps in a wider range of situations.
The Color Purple?: Perspectives of Canadian Parents of Adopted Children from China

During the past two decades, Canadian parents have been regularly adopting infants from China, and have been facing a confusing dilemma on how to introduce their children’s Chinese heritage and language. The aim of this qualitative study is to uncover the beliefs and attitudes of the adopting parents about how to best promote a healthy identify development that includes their Chinese background. Using in-depth interviews, 19 parents of 14 adopted children explored their beliefs about incorporating the Chinese heritage in the development of their girls. The findings reveal that some parents feel that it is best to emphasize Canadian culture - “she is just Canadian. ” Some parents feel that it is best to leave it alone and allow the children to choose their “identity” – “she has both feet in both worlds”, whereas, other parents are proactive by introducing Chinese heritage and culture to their children at an early age. Some parents feel that their children created a new identity with the “color purple” – a hybrid and new culture that combines both their Chinese background with a mainstream Canadian lifestyle.
Dietary patterns as risk factors of differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

UNLABELLED Nutritional factors are known to be important in the development of different metabolic diseases. The history of nodular or diffuse goiter is closely related to risk of thyroid carcinoma. On account of the function of the thyroid gland, many studies focus on iodine intake. The aim of the study was to assess whether dietary patterns could be risk factors of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. MATERIAL/METHODS The case-control study was based on a questionnaire, which included information about dietary patterns and was carried out on 284 patients comprising 30 males (mean age 58.4±13.7 years), and 254 females (mean age 52.1±13.8 years), as well as 345 randomly selected controls: 58 males (mean age 60.2±12 years) and 287 females (mean age 53.4±14.3 years) randomly selected from the Population Register and adjusted by age and gender to the group of TC. The main groups of nutritional products, i.e. starchy foods, meat, dairy products, vegetables, fruits, and beverages, were analyzed. RESULTS Consumption of vegetables, fruits, saltwater fish and cottage cheese was significantly lower in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma than in controls, quite the contrary to starchy foods, especially white bread. CONCLUSIONS Dietary patterns appear to modify the risk of thyroid carcinoma. A diet rich in vegetables and fruit, as well as saltwater fish (a source of iodine) and low-fat meat, could be an important protective factor.
Emerin Caps the Pointed End of Actin Filaments: Evidence for an Actin Cortical Network at the Nuclear Inner Membrane

X-linked Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy is caused by loss of emerin, a LEM-domain protein of the nuclear inner membrane. To better understand emerin function, we used affinity chromatography to purify emerin-binding proteins from nuclear extracts of HeLa cells. Complexes that included actin, αII-spectrin and additional proteins, bound specifically to emerin. Actin polymerization assays in the presence or absence of gelsolin or capping protein showed that emerin binds and stabilizes the pointed end of actin filaments, increasing the actin polymerization rate 4- to 12-fold. We propose that emerin contributes to the formation of an actin-based cortical network at the nuclear inner membrane, conceptually analogous to the actin cortical network at the plasma membrane. Thus, in addition to disrupting transcription factors that bind emerin, loss of emerin may destabilize nuclear envelope architecture by weakening a nuclear actin network.
Rate Assignment in Wireless Networks: Stability Analysis and Controller Design

In this brief, data-rate assignment in IS-856 uplink (reverse link) is studied. The problem is first formulated using an interference model, and then a dynamic control strategy is developed for efficient rate assignment. In the first step, the controller is designed for the special case when the number of users in the network is fixed. Then, the designed controller is further developed for a dynamic network (where the number of users is subject to change) to achieve the desired performance. To this end, the network is formulated in the framework of switched systems, where any new activation or deactivation of users is considered as switching from one system to another. The controllers obtained are then modified properly to retain network stability and performance in the presence of time-delay. Simulation results are presented to elucidate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
On the elastic optimisation of cloud IaaS environments

Elasticity refers to the auto-scaling ability of clouds towards optimally matching their resources to actual demand conditions. An important problem facing the infrastructure and service providers is how to optimise their resource configurations online, to elastically serve time-varying demands. Most scaling methodologies provide resource reconfiguration decisions to maintain quality properties under environment changes. However, issues related to the timeliness of such reconfiguration decisions are often neglected. A trade-off between the optimality of the reconfiguration solutions and the time cost to obtain these solutions is evident in the current literature. Highly accurate algorithms require a lot of data and time to execute, while more simplistic models may be fast to converge but provide poor quality solutions. In this thesis, we present a methodology for online optimisation of cloud configurations. Our motive is to balance the optimality versus timeliness trade-off in dynamic configurations management. We first employ a search-based approach to extract near-optimal configurations considering mutually conflicting performance and business quality attributes. Towards reducing the burden of time-consuming fitness evaluations of the configurations’ quality during search-based optimisation, we develop surrogate models to predict the configurations’ quality based on history observations. We evaluate our technique using CloudSim-based cloud simulation. Our experimental results show that the proposed methodology can produce high quality configurations with lead time of seconds and prediction error within 6%.
The Reliability and Validity of the English and Spanish Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD and Normal Behavior Rating Scales in a Preschool Sample

Objective: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the English and Spanish versions of the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD-symptom and Normal-behavior (SWAN) rating scale. Method: Parents of preschoolers completed both a SWAN and the well-established Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) on two separate occasions over a span of 3 months; instruments were in the primary language of the family (English or Spanish). Results: Psychometric properties for the English and Spanish versions of the SWAN were adequate, with high internal consistency and moderate test–retest reliability. Skewness and kurtosis statistics for the SWAN were within the range expected for a normally distributed population. The SWAN also demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validity in correlations with the various subscales of the SDQ. Conclusion: Psychometric properties of both the English and Spanish versions of the SWAN indicate that it is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring child attention and hyperactivity. The stability of ratings over time in this preschool sample was moderate, which may reflect the relative instability of these characteristics in preschool children.