Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of the Functional Characteristics of the Nucleotide Binding Domains of Multidrug Resistance Protein 1*

Multidrug Resistance Protein 1 (MRP1) transports diverse organic anionic conjugates and confers resistance to cytotoxic xenobiotics. The protein contains two nucleotide binding domains (NBDs) with features characteristic of members of the ATP-binding cassette superfamily and exhibits basal ATPase activity that can be stimulated by certain substrates. It is not known whether the two NBDs of MRP1 are functionally equivalent. To investigate this question, we have used a baculovirus dual expression vector encoding both halves of MRP1 to reconstitute an active transporter and have compared the ability of each NBD to be photoaffinity-labeled with 8-azido-[32P]ATP and to trap 8-azido-[32P]ADP in the presence of orthovanadate. We found that NBD1 was preferentially labeled with 8-azido-[32P]ATP, while trapping of 8-azido-[32P]ADP occurred predominantly at NBD2. Although trapping at NBD2 was dependent on co-expression of both halves of MRP1, binding of 8-azido-ATP by NBD1 remained detectable when the NH2-proximal half of MRP1 was expressed alone and when NBD1 was expressed as a soluble polypeptide. Mutation of the conserved Walker A lysine 684 or creation of an insertion mutation between Walker A and B motifs eliminated binding by NBD1 and all detectable trapping of 8-azido-ADP at NBD2. Both mutations decreased leukotriene C4 (LTC4) transport by approximately 70%. Mutation of the NBD2 Walker A lysine 1333 eliminated trapping of 8-azido-ADP by NBD2 but, in contrast to the mutations in NBD1, essentially eliminated LTC4 transport activity without affecting labeling of NBD1 with 8-azido-[32P]ATP.
Transforming potential of the T‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia‐associated homeobox genes HOXA13, TLX1, and TLX3

The importance of HOXA genes in T‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T‐ALL) has recently been recognized. We report a novel chromosomal translocation in a T‐ALL patient that maps upstream of the HOXA13 gene and downstream of the BCL11B/CTIP2 locus. Analysis of HOXA gene transcription demonstrated massive expression of HOXA13, whereas the other HOXA genes were unaffected. A genomic rearrangement of the HOXA locus associated with exclusive expression of HOXA13 was observed in a second patient. This situation resembles chromosomal translocations activating genes of the TLX/HOX11 family in T‐ALLs. To compare the leukemogenic properties of HOXA13 to that of TLX proteins, cohorts of lethally irradiated mice were transplanted with bone marrow transduced with a retroviral vector expressing TLX3 or HOXA13. Cells transduced with TLX3 or HOXA13 could not be detected in the peripheral blood of mice post‐transplantation and none of the mice developed malignancies. Cotransduction of the HOX cofactor MEIS1 with TLX3 or HOXA13 did not alter this outcome. However, in a myeloid clonogenic assay HOXA13 and TLX3 extended the proliferation of progenitors similarly to what was observed for TLX1. Altogether, our results strongly suggest the absolute requirement for cooperative events in association with homeobox gene up‐regulation to induce T‐cell leukemogenesis. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
SGERC: a self-gated timing error resilient cluster of sequential cells for wide-voltage processor

: This paper presents a self-gated error resilient cluster of sequential cells (SGERC) to sample the critical data in wide-voltage operation for EDAC system. SGERC introduces latch-based clock gating technique to error resilient circuits and proposes a customized clock gate which has the ability of timing error self-correction with only two additional transistors added for the ﬁ rst time. Further, it totally eliminates the timing error detection circuits required by each critical register before and utilizes the data-driven clock gating circuits to generate timing error information. Simulation results show that SGERC design achieves 58.3% energy e ﬃ - ciency improvement compared with the baseline design and 19.4% over the latest EDAC design.
Trust and Distrust as Distinct Concepts: Why Studying Distrust in Institutions is Important

Abstract Scholarship of trust in institutions has tended to see trust and distrust as opposites on one continuum. Theoretical advances have challenged this view and now consider trust and distrust as different constructs, and thus as constructs with different characteristics and partly different determinants. Current empirical research on trust in government has so far done little to incorporate these findings, and has largely continued to rely on traditional survey items assuming a trust–distrust continuum. We rely on the literature in organization studies and political science to argue in favour of measuring citizen trust and distrust as distinct concepts and discuss future research challenges.
Self-Triggered Model Predictive Control for Nonlinear Input-Affine Dynamical Systems via Adaptive Control Samples Selection

In this paper, we propose a self-triggered formulation of model predictive control for continuous-time nonlinear input-affine networked control systems. Our control method specifies not only when to execute control tasks but also provides a way to discretize the optimal control trajectory into several control samples, so that the reduction of communication load will be obtained. Stability analysis under the sample-and-hold implementation is also given, which guarantees that the state converges to a terminal region where the system can be stabilized by a local state feedback controller. Some simulation examples validate our proposed framework.
Delta-fuzzy similarity entropy to discriminate healthy from sick fetus

This paper deals with the discrimination between suffering and healthy fetuses, by means of a delta-fuzzy-similarity entropy. This new descriptor of complexity is based on the derivative of the fuzzy-similarity entropy. It was tested on fetal heart rate time-series and compared to the approximated and similarity entropies. The main outcome was the possibility to improve 10% the specificity and the sensitivity as compared to approximate entropy. This very good performance confirms that the new descriptor can be a valuable alternative as compared to other standard descriptors.
Demo: approximate semantic matching in the collider event processing engine

This demo presents a use case from the energy management domain. It builds upon previous work on approximate semantic matching of heterogeneous events and compares two semantic matching scenarios: exact and approximate. It illustrates how a large number of exact matching event subscriptions are needed to match heterogeneous power consumption events. It then demonstrates how a small number of approximate semantic matching subscriptions are needed but possibly with a lower true positives/negatives performance. The demo is delivered via the COLLIDER approximate event processing engine currently under development in DERI.
Current and emerging assays for Francisella tularensis detection: a review

This paper presents an overview of methods for detection and identification of the pathogenic bacterium Francisella tularensis such as cultivation tests, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, flow cytometry, polymerase chain reaction, immunosensor, microarray, mass spectrometry, and chromatography. Included refer - ences are chosen according to their practical importance or perspectives for the future.
Citrate-Stabilized Gold Nanorods

Stable aqueous dispersions of citrate-stabilized gold nanorods (cit-GNRs) have been prepared in scalable fashion by surfactant exchange from cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-stabilized GNRs, using polystyrenesulfonate (PSS) as a detergent. The surfactant exchange process was monitored by infrared spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The latter established the quantitative displacement of CTAB (by PSS) and of PSS (by citrate). The Cit-GNRs are indefinitely stable at low ionic strength, and are conducive to further ligand exchange without loss of dispersion stability. The reliability of the surface exchange process supports the systematic analysis of ligand structure on the hydrodynamic size of GNRs, as described in a companion paper.
The Value of “Traditional” Reviews in the Era of Systematic Reviewing

Dijkers MPJM, The Task Force on Systematic Reviews and Guidelines: The value of “traditional” reviews in the era of systematic reviewing. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2009;88:423–430. Reviews offer examinations of published material on a topic, and are becoming indispensable in keeping up with an exponentially growing rehabilitation literature. Adherents of the systematic reviews that support evidence-based practice have been quite dismissive of narrative (traditional, qualitative, and nonsystematic) reviews. However, the types of problems that plague the latter may also be found in systematic reviews, which, in addition, have problems of their own. It is argued here that reviews play a number of roles in scientific research and professional practice such as answering specific clinical questions, pooling data, comparing research, synthesizing complementary studies, offering guidance in uncharted fields, and “translating” research between disciplinary traditions. For some of these purposes, systematic reviews are better; for others, a narrative review is more suitable. Both types can be improved to serve the reader better in keeping up with the literature.
Antivirulence C-Mannosides as Antibiotic-Sparing, Oral Therapeutics for Urinary Tract Infections

Gram-negative uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) bacteria are a causative pathogen of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Previously developed antivirulence inhibitors of the type 1 pilus adhesin, FimH, demonstrated oral activity in animal models of UTI but were found to have limited compound exposure due to the metabolic instability of the O-glycosidic bond (O-mannosides). Herein, we disclose that compounds having the O-glycosidic bond replaced with carbon linkages had improved stability and inhibitory activity against FimH. We report on the design, synthesis, and in vivo evaluation of this promising new class of carbon-linked C-mannosides that show improved pharmacokinetic (PK) properties relative to O-mannosides. Interestingly, we found that FimH binding is stereospecifically modulated by hydroxyl substitution on the methylene linker, where the R-hydroxy isomer has a 60-fold increase in potency. This new class of C-mannoside antagonists have significantly increased compound exposure and, as a result, enhanced efficacy in mouse models of acute and chronic UTI.
A Case Report of Mesenteric Panniculitis and Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome

Mesenteric Panniculitis is a benign fibro-inflammatory process involving adipose tissue of the mesentery. It is characterised by fat necrosis, chronic inflammation and fibrosis, causing thickening and shortening of the mesentery. Patients may present with localised abdominal pain, abdominal mass, intestinal obstruction and ischaemic colitis. We report a case of mesenteric panniculitis causing abdominal pain in a patient with active Primary Sjogren’s Syndrome. The rarity of this case makes it of interest. We review the current literature on mesenteric panniculitis and its association with connective tissue disease and inflammatory conditions. A 64-year-old Caucasian male presented in 1994 with dry mouth. A diagnosis of Primary Sjogren’s Syndrome (PSS) was made on salivary gland biopsy. In 2010 he presented with an exacerbation of his eye symptoms, muscle pain and fatigue. He complained of abdominal pain and night sweating, but denied any weight loss or change in bowel habit. There was no significant past medical history other than PSS. On examination he had a small right submandibular node and mild synovitis at the right proximal interphalangeal joint and carpometacarpal joint. Examination of the abdomen showed marked umbilical tenderness but no organomegally. Blood tests at this time showed an active inflammation: CRP of 61 (NR 5 mg/L), ESR 39 (NR 20 mm/s), strongly positive ENA Ro and La. IgG was elevated at 18.6 (NR 5.8-15.4), Complement was low at 0.17 (NR 0.18-0.6). An abdominal ultrasound scan demonstrated a 6 × 3 ×3 cmarea of diffuse homogenous fat encasing some mesenteric vessels in the area of focal tenderness. CT abdomen and pelvis showed oedematous mesenteric fat and lymph nodes in the jejunal small bowel mesentery, consistent with mesenteric panniculitis. Laparoscopic biopsy was discussed with the surgical team, but was felt not indicated as risk outweighed potential benefit. The patient was treated with a 9-week reducing course of oral steroids. His abdominal symptoms resolved although CT abdomen showed little improvement in mesenteric panniculitis. A review of the literature suggests that currently there is no standard treatment and management should be guided by patient symptoms. Mesenteric Panniculitis is rare; as a result evidence for treatment is limited to individual case reports. There is no clear link between symptom improvement and radiological resolution of mesenteric panniculitis. It has, therefore been suggested that follow-up imaging should be limited to those with persistent symptoms. Overall the prognosis for mesenteric panniculitis is good, up to half of patients do not require treatment, and recurrence of symptoms is uncommon.
An epigenetic switch ensures transposon repression upon dynamic loss of DNA methylation in embryonic stem cells

DNA methylation is extensively remodeled during mammalian gametogenesis and embryogenesis. Most transposons become hypomethylated, raising the question of their regulation in the absence of DNA methylation. To reproduce a rapid and extensive demethylation, we subjected mouse ES cells to chemically defined hypomethylating culture conditions. Surprisingly, we observed two phases of transposon regulation. After an initial burst of de-repression, various transposon families were efficiently re-silenced. This was accompanied by a reconfiguration of the repressive chromatin landscape: while H3K9me3 was stable, H3K9me2 globally disappeared and H3K27me3 accumulated at transposons. Interestingly, we observed that H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 occupy different transposon families or different territories within the same family, defining three functional categories of adaptive chromatin responses to DNA methylation loss. Our work highlights that H3K9me3 and, most importantly, polycomb-mediated H3K27me3 chromatin pathways can secure the control of a large spectrum of transposons in periods of intense DNA methylation change, ensuring longstanding genome stability. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.11418. 001
Subclinical Hypothyroidism as the Most Common Thyroid Dysfunction Status in Children With Down’s Syndrome

Introduction Thyroid dysfunctions are one of the most common abnormalities coexisting in children with Down’s syndrome (DS) and have been reported in up to 54% of cases. Aim of the Study The purposes of this retrospective study were to investigate the course of subclinical hypothyroidism in children with DS, to evaluate the thyroid function of these subjects in relation to the risk of developing overt thyroid disease and autoimmunity, and to identify clinical and biochemical characteristics of patients prescribed L-T4 therapy in children and adolescents with DS and SH. Material and Methods The records of DS patients referred to the Endocrinology Outpatient Clinic between 2010 and 2015 for screening of thyroid function were observed till the end of 2019 June and analyzed retrospectively. The children diagnosed with congenital hypothyroidism, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and seizures and treated with drugs that may have interfered with thyroid function like lithium, antiepileptic, or iodinated drugs and glucocorticoids were excluded from the study. Results The data of 77 DS patients were collected, evaluated, and analyzed. The study group consisted of 73 patients (32 girls and 41 boys with the mean age at baseline of 3.0 ± 4.5 years). A total of 63/73 (87%) children were diagnosed with SH. The 16/63 (25.4%) patients were followed-up without the treatment (group SH-T0), and therapy with levothyroxine (L-T4) was introduced in 47/63 (74.6%) SH children with a mean dosage of 1.8 ± 1.0 μg/kg/day (group SH-T1). Thyroxine supplementation did not improve growth expressed as ΔhSDS (0.1 ± 1.3, ranged −2.1 to 3.8 in SH-T0 vs. 0.0 ± 0.7, ranged −1.7 to 1.4 in SH-T1, p = 0.96) and ΔBMI Z-score (0.3 ± 0.9, ranged −0.9 to 2.6 in SH-T0 vs. 0.3 ± 1.1, ranged −2.1 to 2.9 in SH-T1, p = 0.65). Positive anti-TPO and anti-TG antibodies were detected in 7/63 (11.1%) DS cases. Conclusions SH is the most frequent presentation of thyroid gland dysfunction in DS children. A small percentage of patients develop an overt hypothyroidism, particularly in females with mostly positive titer of antithyroid autoantibodies.
Dynamic Multi-keyword Top-k Ranked Search over Encrypted Cloud Data

Nowadays, more and more people are motivated to outsource their local data to public cloud servers for great convenience and reduced costs in data management. But in consideration of privacy issues, sensitive data should be encrypted before outsourcing, which obsoletes traditional data utilization like keyword-based document retrieval. In this paper, we present a secure and efficient multi-keyword ranked search scheme over encrypted data, which additionally supports dynamic update operations like deletion and insertion of documents. Specifically, we construct an index tree based on vector space model to provide multi-keyword search, which meanwhile supports flexible update operations. Besides, cosine similarity measure is utilized to support accurate ranking for search result. To improve search efficiency, we further propose a search algorithm based on “Greedy Depth-first Traverse Strategy”. Moreover, to protect the search privacy, we propose a secure scheme to meet various privacy requirements in the known ciphertext threat model. Experiments on the real-word dataset show the effectiveness and efficiency of proposed scheme.
Body Mass Index and Death Rate of Colorectal Cancer Among a National Cohort of U.S. Adults

Substantial evidence suggests that increasing adiposity is associated with an increased death rate of colorectal cancer, but no studies were conducted among national representative populations in the United States. The current study examined the death rate across BMI levels in 7,016 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 1971–1975. BMI categories were defined as normal (18.5–24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25–29.9), and obese (≥30). A total of 519 cancer deaths were identified during a 17-yr follow-up with 118,998 person-years. No significantly increased death rates of total cancers, lung, breast, and prostate cancer were observed among participants with an increased BMI. However, colorectal cancer death rates were 0.39, 0.68, and 0.96/1,000 person-years, respectively, for normal weight, overweight, and obese (P value for log-rank trend test < 0.001), and the corresponding adjusted hazard ratios [95% confidence intervals (CI)] were 1.00 (reference), 1.25 (95% CI = 0.72–2.19), and 2.04 (1.08–3.83), respectively. No gender difference of the association was identified. The authors conclude that a significantly increased death rate of colorectal cancer was associated with excess body weight. The current study is an addition to the expanding body of literature indicating an increased risk of colorectal cancer development among the obese.
An ICA-based automatic eye blink artifact eliminator for real-time multi-channel EEG applications

This paper presents an ICA-based automatic eye blink artifact eliminator for real-time multi-channel EEG applications. Since EEG signals are very feeble, they are easy to be contaminated by artifacts. Among all artifacts, eye blink artifact dose the most significant harm. ICA has been shown to separate the artifacts from brain activity sources. After the processing of ICA, the results can be used for further applications such as brain computer interface (BCI). Because the behavior of eye blink artifact might mimic the brain activities which might mislead the operation of BCI, the independent component contained eye blink artifact needs to be removed before further applications. For the availability and feasibility of BCI, a real time ICA algorithm, online recursive ICA (ORICA), is developed. With ORICA, a set of ICA result of each EEG sample time can be accomplished after each EEG acquisition. That will reduce the reaction time of ICA and make the applications of BCI more feasible. In order to take advantage of ORICA completely, a real-time eye blink artifact eliminator which can detect the existence of eye blink artifact for every single set of ICA result is needed. The proposed eliminator is designed using TSMC 90nm CMOS technology. The validity of the proposed eliminator is also given in this paper.
Hybrid optimization method for cognitive and MIMO radar code design

Cognitive and MIMO radars need to adapt the transmitted waveforms based on the radar task as well as the propagation and the target environments. Many waveform optimization methods proposed in the literature for optimizing the sidelobe and cross-correlation levels are based on stochastic search algorithms or slow numerical approximation methods. However, for real-time applications, it is necessary to perform the optimization fast since the radar channels and target parameters may vary rapidly. For this purpose, we propose a hybrid optimization approaches based on gradient and randomization for fast optimization of the transmit waveform codes.
Atomistic Simulations of Biofouling and Molecular Transfer of Crosslinked Aromatic Polyamide Membrane for Desalination.

Reverse osmosis through polyamide (PA) membrane is an important technique for water desalination and purification. In this study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to study the biofouling mechanism (i.e., protein adsorption) and nonequilibrium steady-state water transfer of crosslinked PA membrane. Our results demonstrated that the PA membrane surface's roughness is a key factor of surface's bio-fouling, as the lysozyme protein adsorbed on the surface's cavity site displays extremely low surface diffusivity, blocking water passage and decreasing water flux. The adsorbed protein undergoes secondary structural changes, particularly in the pressure-driven flowing condition, leading to strong protein-surface interactions. Our simulations were able to present water permeation close to the experimental condition with a pressure difference as low as 5 MPa, while all the electrolytes, which are tightly surrounded by hydration water, were effectively rejected at the membrane surfaces. The analysis of self-intermediate scattering function (SISF) demonstrates that the dynamics of water molecules coordinated with hydrogen bonds is faster inside the pores than during the translation across the pores. The pressure difference applied shows negligible effect on water structure and content inside the membrane but facilitates the transportation of hydrogen-bonded water molecules through the membrane's sub-nanopores with a reduced coordination number. The linear relationship between the water flux and the pressure difference demonstrates applicability of continuum hydrodynamic principles and thus the stability of the membrane structure.
Efficient representation for formal verification of PLC programs

This paper addresses scalability of model-checking using the NuSMV model-checker. To avoid or at least limit combinatory explosion, an efficient representation of PLC programs is proposed. This representation includes only the states that are meaningful for properties proof. A method to translate PLC programs developed in structured text into NuSMV models based on this representation is described and exemplified on several examples. The results, state space size and verification time, obtained with models constructed using this method are compared to those obtained with previously published methods so as to assess efficiency of the proposed representation