Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The purification of pepsin

Since 1836, when Theodor Schwann signalized the presence in gastric juice of the proteolytic ferment which he was the first to designate as pepsin, a large number of attempts have been made to isolate it in a pure form to determine its chemical nature and its ultimate physiological properties. In a large majority of these, and, especially, all those made before 1895, except that of Brticke (I), who was the first to use adsorption, the methods used would not now be regarded as adequate for the purpose, and the results they gave are, accordingly, now only of historic interest in relation to the subject. In consequence a detailed reference to them will be omitted here and only such citations of the later publications to which we owe what at present we know about pepsin will be made in this contribution on the subject. * Pekelharing (2), by dialyzing, at low temperature, against distilled water, gastric juice from a dog with a Pavlov fistula, till the concentration of hydrochloric acid in the juice was decreased to about 0.02 per cent, precipitated the pepsin therein as a finely divided suspension. This suspension he separated by centrifuging and, after washing the sediment with distilled water, dried it in a desiccator. From the clear fluid left after centrifuging he precipitated, by half saturation with ammonium sulfate, more pepsin which was then freed from this salt by dialysis and, after the addition of hydrochloric acid to the extent of 0.2 per cent, was subjected to dialysis against distilled water, thus furnishing an additional quantity of pure pepsin. The average composition of the pepsin so prepared was C 51.99, H 7.07, N 14.44, S 1.63, Cl 0.49, P 0.01 per cent. The phosphorus found in pepsin Pekelharing regarded as due to traces of an impurity resulting from the digestion of a phosphorus-containing protein. The chlorine, on the other hand, he found to be constant, even in preparations obtained by dialysis with oxalic acid. He obtained a coagulated product of an acid character on heating either gastric juice or purified pepsin in acid solution, to which he gave the name
Optimal Two‐Sided Invariant Similar Tests for Instrumental Variables Regression

This paper considers tests of the parameter on an endogenous variable in an instrumental variables regression model. The focus is on determining tests that have some optimal power properties. We start by considering a model with normally distributed errors and known error covariance matrix. We consider tests that are similar and satisfy a natural rotational invariance condition. We determine a two-sided power envelope for invariant similar tests. This allows us to assess and compare the power properties of tests such as the conditional likelihood ratio (CLR), the Lagrange multiplier, and the Anderson-Rubin tests. We find that the CLR test is quite close to being uniformly most powerful invariant among a class of two-sided tests. Copyright The Econometric Society 2006.
Characterization of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens DA12 Showing Potent Antifungal Activity against Mycotoxigenic Fusarium Species

In an attempt to develop a biological control agent against mycotoxigenic Fusarium species, we isolated Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain DA12 from soil and explored its antimicrobial activities. DA12 was active against the growth of mycotoxigenic F. asiaticum, F. graminearum, F. proliferatum, and F. verticillioides both in vitro and in planta (maize). Further screening using dual culture extended the activity range of strain DA12 against other fungal pathogens including Botrytis cinerea, Colletotrichum coccodes, Endothia parasitica, Fusarium oxysporum, Raffaelea quercus-mongolicae, and Rhizoctonia solani. The butanol extract of the culture filtrate of B. amyloliquefaciens DA12 highly inhibited the germination of F. graminearum macroconidia with inhibition rate 83% at a concentration of 31.3 μg/ml and 100% at a concentration of 250 μg/ml. The antifungal metabolite from the butanol extract was identified as iturin A by thin layer chromatography-bioautography. In addition, volatile organic compounds produced by DA12 were able to inhibit mycelial growth of various phytopathogenic fungi. The volatile compounds were identified as 2-heptanone, 5-methyl heptanone and 6-methyl heptanone by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. These results indicate that the antagonistic activity of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens DA12 was attributable to iturin A and volatile heptanones, and the strain could be used as a biocontrol agent to reduce the development of Fusarium diseases and mycotoxin contamination of crops.
Mechanisms That Control Bacterial Populations in Continuous-Flow Culture Models of Mouse Large Intestinal Flora

A previous study had established that anaerobic continuous-flow (CF) cultures of conventional mouse cecal flora were able to maintain the in vivo ecological balance among the indigenous bacterial species tested. This paper describes experiments designed to determine the mechanisms which control the population sizes of these species in such CF cultures. One strain each of Escherichia coli, Fusobacterium sp. , and Eubacterium sp. were studied. Growth of these strains in filtrates of CF cultures was considerably more rapid than in the CF cultures themselves, indicating that the inhibitory activity had been lost in the process of filtration. Growth rates to match those in CF cultures could be obtained, however, by restoring the original levels of H2S in the culture filtrates. The inhibitory effect of H2S in filtrates and in dialysates of CF cultures could be abolished by adding glucose or pyruvate, but not formate or lactate. The fatty acids present in CF cultures matched those in the cecum of conventional mice in both quality and concentration. These acids could not account for the slow rates of growth of the tested strains in CF cultures, but they did cause a marked increase in the initial lag phase of E. coli growth. The results obtained are compatible with the hypothesis that the populations of most indigenous intestinal bacteria are controlled by one or a few nutritional substrates which a given strain can utilize most efficiently in the presence of H2S and at the prevailing conditions of pH and anaerobiosis. This hypothesis consequently implies that the populations of enterobacteria, such as the E. coli strain tested, and those of the predominant anaerobes are controlled by analogous mechanisms.
Clinical record keeping in patients receiving antibiotics in hospital.

BACKGROUND Antibiotic prescribing is associated with the growth of antibiotic resistance in micro-organisms. Prescribing therefore needs to be restricted by well-designed antibiotic protocols. Audit of such protocols is only possible if clinical information about infection is properly recorded. OBJECTIVE To assess the quality of clinical data recording in case notes of patients receiving antibiotics in hospital and to assess the effect of feedback of this information on clinical practice. DESIGN Four point prevalence surveys. SETTING Directorate of General Medicine, Dundee Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. SUBJECTS Inpatients receiving antibiotics. INTERVENTION Feedback of results from the first two surveys to clinicians. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Proportion of patients in the Medical Directorate with the recording of an antibiotic indication and the temperature in the case notes before, immediately after, and three months after, feedback of survey results. RESULTS In each survey one third of patients were receiving antibiotics. The antibiotic indication was recorded in 64% of patients prior to feedback and in 86.5% after feedback (p = 0.004). Three months later this had fallen to 74%. Temperature recording improved between 2nd and 3rd surveys (57% to 86.1%, p < 0.001) and declined to 61% in the 4th survey (p < 0.001). Respiratory infection was the commonest recorded indication for an antibiotic; recording of this indication improved between the 2nd and 3rd surveys but declined by the 4th survey. CONCLUSIONS Audit and feedback of information about clinical record keeping improves standards but improvements are not sustained. Clinical record keeping must be improved so compliance with antibiotic protocols can be properly audited. An "antibiotic sticker" in addition to immediate concurrent feedback may improve such deficiencies.
Maximum power point tracking quadratic boost converter for photovoltaic systems

Providing maximum utilization of the photovoltaic system is one of the significant challenges. Therefore, converter technologies and maximum power point tracking algorithms are important research topics. In this study, a quadratic boost converter with high conversion ratio is proposed. The proposed quadratic converter not only steps up the PV voltage which is commonly low, it also tracks the maximum power point of the PV system under varying operation conditions. The incremental conductance method is used as maximum power point tracking algorithm. Thus, productivity of the PV system is increased. It is seen from simulation results that, proposed system has fast tracking capability even under fast irradiation changes and less oscillation besides the features of high voltage conversion gain.
Context-sensitive analysis of obfuscated x86 executables

A method for context-sensitive analysis of binaries that may have obfuscated procedure call and return operations is presented. Such binaries may use operators to directly manipulate stack instead of using native call and ret instructions to achieve equivalent behavior. Since definition of context-sensitivity and algorithms for context-sensitive analysis have thus far been based on the specific semantics associated to procedure call and return operations, classic interprocedural analyses cannot be used reliably for analyzing programs in which these operations cannot be discerned. A new notion of context-sensitivity is introduced that is based on the state of the stack at any instruction. While changes in `calling'-context are associated with transfer of control, and hence can be reasoned in terms of paths in an interprocedural control flow graph (ICFG), the same is not true of changes in 'stack'-context. An abstract interpretation based framework is developed to reason about stack-contexts and to derive analogues of call-strings based methods for the context-sensitive analysis using stack-context. The method presented is used to create a context-sensitive version of Venable et al.'s algorithm for detecting obfuscated calls. Experimental results show that the context-sensitive version of the algorithm generates more precise results and is also computationally more efficient than its context-insensitive counterpart.
Effets Persuasifs De L'E-Publicité Perçue « Sans Conscience » En Vision Périphérique. Implications Pour Les Recherches Sur La Réception Des Médias

title : Persuasive effects of the e-advertising perceived without conscience in peripheral vision. Implications for research on the reception of medias Using an experimentation carried out on 247 individuals, we show that advertisements on Internet appearing in the peripheral visual field cause favorable effects on judgements and on intention of purchase of the publicized brands whereas the receivers are not aware of having seen them. We also study the evolution of the cognitive and attitudinal effects eight days after exposure. To investigate these effects in a rigorous way , we used a method of presentation coupling a camera filming the ocular movements and a computer automatically hiding the advertising banners when the gaze of the Net surfer was directed in their direction. After having proposed an explanation for the cognitive processes underlying the influence, we open new prospects for research on the reception of the media communication.
Acidosis Differentially Modulates Inactivation in NaV1.2, NaV1.4, and NaV1.5 Channels

NaV channels play a crucial role in neuronal and muscle excitability. Using whole-cell recordings we studied effects of low extracellular pH on the biophysical properties of NaV1.2, NaV1.4, and NaV1.5, expressed in cultured mammalian cells. Low pH produced different effects on different channel subtypes. Whereas NaV1.4 exhibited very low sensitivity to acidosis, primarily limited to partial block of macroscopic currents, the effects of low pH on gating in NaV1.2 and NaV1.5 were profound. In NaV1.2 low pH reduced apparent valence of steady-state fast inactivation, shifted the τ(V) to depolarizing potentials and decreased channels availability during onset to slow and use-dependent inactivation (UDI). In contrast, low pH delayed open-state inactivation in NaV1.5, right-shifted the voltage-dependence of window current, and increased channel availability during onset to slow and UDI. These results suggest that protons affect channel availability in an isoform-specific manner. A computer model incorporating these results demonstrates their effects on membrane excitability.
Adipose-Derived Stem Cells for Nerve Repair: Hype or Reality?

Peripheral nerve injury is a relatively commonly occurring trauma which seriously compromises the quality of life for many individuals. There is a major need to devise new treatment strategies, and one possible approach is to develop cellular therapies to bioengineer new nerve tissue and/or modulate the endogenous regenerative mechanisms within the peripheral nervous system. In this short review we describe how stem cells isolated from adipose tissue could be a suitable element of this approach. We describe the possible mechanisms through which the stem cells might exert a positive influence on peripheral nerve regeneration. These include their ability to differentiate into cells resembling Schwann cells and their secretion of a plethora of neurotrophic growth factors. We also review the literature describing the effects of these cells when tested using in vivo peripheral nerve injury models.
Dependent Type Theory for Verification of Information Flow and Access Control Policies

Dedicated to the memory of John C. Reynolds (1935--2013). We present Relational Hoare Type Theory (RHTT), a novel language and verification system capable of expressing and verifying rich information flow and access control policies via dependent types. We show that a number of security policies which have been formalized separately in the literature can all be expressed in RHTT using only standard type-theoretic constructions such as monads, higher-order functions, abstract types, abstract predicates, and modules. Example security policies include conditional declassification, information erasure, and state-dependent information flow and access control. RHTT can reason about such policies in the presence of dynamic memory allocation, deallocation, pointer aliasing and arithmetic.
High voltage dual active bridge with series connected high voltage silicon carbide (SiC) devices

Using 6.5 kV Silicon (Si) IGBTs, high voltage high power DC to DC converters are realized either by multi-level converters or series connected devices based two level converters or modular multi-level converter using series connected devices two level converter as building blocks. The introduction of high voltage SiC devices (10 kV to 20 kV) reduces the component count significantly while improving the efficiency and power density of the converter. To explore further, this paper investigates the state of the art high voltage (>10 kV) SiC devices for high voltage dual active bridge (DAB) with series connected devices for high power applications. Experimental results for static and dynamic voltage balancing of 15 kV, 20 A SiC IGBT devices are given to validate the feasibility of series connection and also the experimental characterization of 10kV SiC MOSFET and 15 kV SiC IGBT with RC snubber are reported. By using energy loss data from the experimental characterization, HV side switching loss of a 1 MVA 16 kV/2 kV DAB topology has been evaluated for two independent cases with 10 kV, 10 A SiC MOSFET and 15 kV, 20 A SiC IGBT on the HV side of the converter, while using 1.7 kV Si IGBTs on LV side of the converter.
Design of Phase II Cancer Trials for Evaluation of Cytostatic/Cytotoxic Agents

For experimental anticancer agents that may have both cytostatic and cytotoxic effects, assessment of response rates alone may not capture the full impact of the treatment. Oncologists are therefore interested in assessing both response and stable disease rates in early phase clinical trials of such therapies. We describe the design of a single-arm, Phase II clinical trial for the simultaneous evaluation of objective response and stable disease (lack of early tumor progression) rates using standard RECIST criteria. Demonstration of a sufficiently high rate for either of these endpoints will lead to rejection of the null hypothesis and a conclusion that the treatment warrants further study. A design is chosen that satisfies the desired type I error constraint and has sufficient statistical power at several selected points within the alternative hypothesis space using a restricted search algorithm. An early stopping rule for lack of efficacy is incorporated. The method is illustrated by the design of a Phase II clinical trial in head and neck cancer.
PYTHIA: Generating test cases with oracles for JavaScript applications

Web developers often write test cases manually using testing frameworks such as Selenium. Testing JavaScript-based applications is challenging as manually exploring various execution paths of the application is difficult. Also JavaScript's highly dynamic nature as well as its complex interaction with the DOM make it difficult for the tester to achieve high coverage. We present a framework to automatically generate unit test cases for individual JavaScript functions. These test cases are strengthened by automatically generated test oracles capable of detecting faults in JavaScript code. Our approach is implemented in a tool called Pythia. Our preliminary evaluation results point to the efficacy of the approach in achieving high coverage and detecting faults.
Both antigen optimization and lysosomal targeting are required for enhanced anti‐tumour protective immunity in a human papillomavirus E7‐expressing animal tumour model

DNA immunization is a new approach for cancer immune therapy. In this study, we constructed human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 E7 expression vector cassettes and then compared the abilities of these constructs to induce antitumour protection. Lysosome‐targeted E7 antigens, and to a lesser degree signal sequence‐conjugated and transmembrane region sequence‐conjugated E7 antigens in a DNA form, displayed tumour protection significantly higher than wild‐type E7 antigens. This enhanced tumour protection was mediated by CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), as determined by in vivo T‐cell depletion and in vitro interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) production. Subsequent co‐injection with interleukin‐12‐expressing cDNA showed insignificantly enhanced antitumour protection. However, E7 codon optimization plus lysosomal targeting resulted in a dramatic enhancement in antitumour protection both prophylactically and therapeutically through augmentation of the E7‐specific CTL population, compared to either one of them alone. However, wild‐type or codonoptimized E7 antigens without intracellular targeting displayed no protection against tumour challenge. Thus, these data suggest that antigen codon optimization plus lysosomal targeting strategy could be important in crafting more efficacious E7 DNA vaccines for tumour protection.
A two-path bandpass /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator for digital IF extraction at 20 MHz

There is expanding interest in the possibility of moving the intermediate frequency (IF) signal processing in radio receivers and radio test equipment from the analog domain into the digital domain. Digitization of IF processing confers several important advantages, including greater reliability, potentially lower power consumption, and improved performance as technology scales. Unfortunately, as analog signal processing is eliminated and the A/D conversion is moved away from baseband, the signal that must be digitized has a larger dynamic range, and the converter must operate at a higher sampling rate. This work introduces a two-path, switched-capacitor architecture for a bandpass /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator that is suited to digitizing narrowband radio signals with large dynamic range. A fourth-order bandpass modulator is implemented in a standard 0.6 /spl mu/m, single-poly, triple-metal CMOS process. Operating from a single 3.3 V supply, the modulator digitizes a 200 kHz signal centered at an IF of 20 MHz with an extrapolated dynamic range of 75 dB.
The Role of Social Reasoning in the Development of Self and Social Regulation

In this dissertation I consider young children’s developing understanding of their own and other people’s social conduct, an understanding that involves a refined attunement to the social activity of the people with whom they interact. Following a relational approach to development, and integrating the philosophy of G.H. Mead with the philosophy of action inspired by Wittgenstein and Anscombe, I will argue that young children’s reasoning about self and others is social reasoning; viz., reasoning about the circumstances in which people are acting, the typical conduct of people acting in such circumstances, and the antecedent circumstances of individuals involved in a particular situation. I argue against the theory that young children develop a “theory of mind” through which they learn to reason about the minds of self and other. Infants do not possess innate cognitive or neural mechanisms that facilitate access to the inner, unobservable minds of others. Infants and toddlers possess neither innate nor theoretically developed access to the mental causes of human action. Simply put, mental causes do not exist in the understanding of infants and toddlers. I argue for a relational theory of development. A child’s understanding of, and explanation for, the acts of others are socially constituted. Talking or thinking about mind, along with the intentions, desires, likes, and beliefs that occupy our minds, is not a distinct form of talking or thinking that merits a distinct form of psychological analysis and a special role in explaining development. Rather, children learn to anticipate, talk about, and explain a broad, and at times, subtle array of social activities. Children acquire an understanding of what people typically do in particular circumstances and what a particular person typically does in a particular circumstance. Social Reasoning and the Development of Self and Social Regulation v
A Fast, Adaptive, and Energy-Efficient Data Collection Protocol in Multi-Channel-Multi-Path Wireless Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of sensor nodes which can self-organize to relay information such as measurements to a base station. To reduce latency and increase data transmission throughput, multi-channel data collection protocols have been proposed to enable simultaneous parallel transmissions between pairs of nodes within the network. However, the existing protocols require long scheduling phase, are less dynamic to network traffic changes, and/or compromise on efficiency by relying on the back-off mechanism such as carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). This paper proposes a fast, adaptive, and energyefficient data collection protocol in multi-channel-multi-path WSN. The protocol consists of two major phases. The first phase is the node-channel assignment that uses the graph coloring technique to resolve the issue of node overhearing and interference. The second phase is the scheduling and packet forwarding, in which a novel three-dimensional parallel iterative matching (3DPIM) algorithm is proposed to pair up sensor nodes in different time slots so as to enable collision-free multiple simultaneous data transmissions in every time slot. Simulation results show that our proposed protocol can achieve fast and energy-efficient data collection while being adaptive to the change of network traffic in WSN.