Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Production and Characteristics of Raw Starch-Digesting Glucoamylase O from a Protease-Negative, Glycosidase-Negative Aspergillus awamori var. kawachi Mutant

Production of a raw starch-digesting glucoamylase O (GA O) by protease-negative, glycosidase-negative mutant strain HF-15 of Aspergillus awamori var. kawachi was undertaken under submerged culture conditions. The purified GA O was electrophoretically homogeneous and similar to the parent glucoamylase I (GA I) in the hydrolysis curves toward gelatinized potato starch, raw starch, and glycogen and in its thermostability and pH stability, but it was different in molecular weight and carbohydrate content (250,000 and 24.3% for GA O, 90,000 and ca. 7% for GA I, respectively). The chitin-bound GA O hydrolyzed raw starch but the chitin-bound GA I failed to digest raw starch because chitin was adsorbed at the raw starch affinity site of the GA I molecule. The removal of the raw starch affinity site of GA O with subtilisin led to the formation of a modified GA O (molecular weight, 170,000), which hydrolyzed glycogen 100%, similar to GA O and GA I, and was adsorbed onto chitin and fungal cell wall but not onto raw starch, Avicel, or chitosan. The modified GA I (molecular weight, 83,000) derived by treatment with substilisin hydrolyzed glycogen up to only 80% and failed to be adsorbed onto any of the above polysaccharides. The N-bromosuccinimide-oxidized GA O lost its activity toward gelatinized and raw starches, but the abilities to be adsorbed onto raw starch and chitin were preserved. It was thus suggested that both the raw starch affinity site essential for raw starch digestion and the chitin-binding site specific for the binding with chitin in the cell wall could be different from the active site, located in the three respective positions in the GA O molecule.
A geometric approach for structured radar covariance estimation

A new class of disturbance covariance matrix estimators for radar signal processing applications is introduced following a geometric paradigm. Each estimator is associated with a given unitary invariant norm and performs the sample covariance matrix projection into a specific set of structured covariance matrices. Regardless of the considered norm, it is shown that the new class of distribution-free estimators shares a shrinkage-type form; besides, the eigenvalues estimate just requires the solution of a one-dimensional convex problem whose objective function depends on the considered unitary norm. At the analysis stage, the effectiveness of the new estimators is assessed in terms of achievable Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) also in comparison with some existing counterparts.
Optimal sampling interpolation over a plane from transient bi-polar near-field data

The nonredundant sampling representations of electromagnetic fields are here properly applied to develop an optimal sampling interpolation formula over a plane in the time domain (TD) from a minimum number of bi-polar near-field data. It uses a very flexible source modelling, able to fit very well the ultra wide band (UWB) antennas typically employed for communication applications and modern radars. Such a modelling is obtained by considering the antenna as enclosed in a surface formed by two circular bowls with the same aperture diameter, but with eventually different lateral bends. Numerical examples assessing the effectiveness of the interpolation scheme are shown.
Aromatase Inhibitors in the Adjuvant Treatment of Postmenopausal Women with Early Stage Breast Cancer

This article summarizes the current data regarding the use of the aromatase inhibitors as adjuvant hormonal therapy for postmenopausal women with early stage breast cancer. The article focuses on the five major trials examining the use of these drugs and their toxicity in the adjuvant setting. The data currently available suggest that the aromatase inhibitors are efficacious, either as upfront therapy or after a course of tamoxifen. Ongoing trials will compare these approaches and guide the use of these agents in the years to come.
Interpretation of Somers’ D under four simple models

(where E[·] denotes expectation), or, equivalently, as the difference between the probability that the two X,Y –pairs are concordant and the probability that the two X,Y –pairs are discordant. A pair of X,Y –pairs is said to be concordant if the larger X–value is paired with the larger Y –value, and is said to be discordant if the larger X–value is paired with the smaller Y –value. Somers’ D of Y with respect to X is defined as
Practical statistical models for region-of-interest tomographic reconstruction and long object problem

This paper deals with reconstructing a small region- of-interest (ROI) of an object from non-truncated or truncated projection data by using statistical (iterative) methods. The imaging situations which we consider here can be classified into the following two scenarios. The first scenario is the case where non-truncated projection data is measured but only a small ROI needs to be reconstructed. The second scenario is the case where only truncated projection data passing through a ROI is measured and only the ROI needs to be reconstructed. When we blindly apply statistical methods to such cases, as described in the literature, the image matrix during the iteration must be large enough to contain the whole object (not only the ROI) even if the ROI to be reconstructed is small. This significantly increases the computational cost (approximately by a factor of the area of the whole object divided by the area of the ROI). Solutions to this problem have been investigated only very recently. We develop practical statistical models for the ROI reconstruction problem under the assumption that an initial estimate of the ROI image by an analytical method such as FBP or DBP is available. Thanks to a more rigorous treatment compared to the previous work, the proposed models are more accurate leading to significantly better noise properties as we demonstrate in the simulation study. Also, extending the proposed models to the 3D long object problem is discussed.
X-ray microscopy

The principles and limitations of the chief methods of x-ray microscopy are briefly reviewed in turn: reflection microscopy, contact microradiography, projection microscopy and scanning microscopy. None of the methods as yet surpasses the resolution limit of the light microscope, although all of them approach it more or less closely. Their primary advantage over other microscopical methods is the ability to provide evidence of element distribution, by differential absorption or by characteristic emission. The projection method is proving useful for analysis by microfluorescence as well as by absorption. The scanning x-ray microscope, a developed form of the electron probe microanalyser, has found a wide variety of applications in metallurgy and mineralogy, and to a lesser extent in biology. The present limitations on its performance and the prospects for further development are discussed.
Policy Mining : a Bottom-Up Approach Toward Network Security Management. (Techniques de rôle mining pour la gestion de politiques de sécurité : application à l'administration de la sécurité réseau)

This thesis is devoted to a bottom-Up approachfor the management of network security policies fromhigh abstraction level with low cost and high confidence.We show that the Network Role Based Access Control(Net-RBAC) model is adapted to the specification ofnetwork access control policies. We propose policymining, a bottom-Up approach that extracts from thedeployed rules on a firewall the corresponding policymodeled with Net-RBAC. We devise a generic algorithmbased on matrix factorization, that could adapt most ofthe existing role mining techniques to extract instancesof Net-RBAC. Furthermore, knowing that the large andmedium networks are usually protected by multiplefirewalls, we handle the problem of integration of Net-RBAC policies resulting from policy mining over severalfirewalls. We demonstrate how to verify securityproperties related to the deployment consistency overthe firewalls. Besides, we provide assistance tools foradministrators to analyze role mining and policy miningresults as well. We formally define the problem ofcomparing sets of roles and evidence that it is NPcomplete.We devise an algorithm that projects rolesfrom one set into the other set based on Booleanexpressions. This approach is useful to measure howcomparable the two configurations of roles are, and tointerpret each role. Emphasis on the presence ofshadowed roles in the role configuration will be put as itincreases the time complexity of sets of rolescomparison. We provide a solution to detect differentcases of role shadowing. Each of the abovecontributions is rooted on a sound theoreticalframework, illustrated by real data examples, andsupported by experiments.
Association between Metabolic Syndrome and Risk of Stroke: A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies

Background: Our purpose was to investigate the association between metabolic syndrome and risk of stroke by meta-analysis. Methods: Electronic databases through July 2007 were searched to identify prospective cohort studies that examined the association between metabolic syndrome and risk of stroke. Two reviewers independently assessed eligibility and used a standardized form to collect data from published studies. The study quality was assessed by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results: We found 13 eligible studies that included 92,732 participants.Compared to individuals without metabolic syndrome, subjects with metabolic syndrome had a 1.6-fold increased risk of stroke (95% CI, 1.48–1.75). The relative risk of stroke associated with metabolic syndrome was 2.2 in the studies using the World Health Organization definition and 1.6 in those using the Adult Treatment Panel III definition, but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions: This analysis shows that metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for incident stroke. A diagnosis of metabolic syndrome may prove useful in clinical management, and its elements should ultimately become important therapeutic targets for the reduction of the stroke burden in the general population.
[Fracture reliability of zirconia all-ceramic crown according to zirconia coping design].

OBJECTIVE To study the fracture resistance and characteristics of the bi-layer zirconia all ceramic crowns according to the zirconia coping design using various experimental methods and to compare the results of the in vitro test with the clinical evaluation. METHODS The bi-layer zirconia all ceramic crowns were fabricated by the same method as used in clinical practice. Two different coping designs with/without zirconia marginal collar were used. All the samples were cemented onto corresponding resin dies. All the specimens were tested in the 2 groups with/without zirconia collar. The fracture load test was performed on 10 crowns from each group. Fracture strength was tested with a universal testing machine. The fracture modes and features of the failed crowns were observed with an integrated microscope and a field emission scanning electron microscope. RESULTS The zirconia collar group showed higher fracture load than the group without zirconia collar. All the zirconia crowns failed with porcelain failure and without zirconia coping broken. The porcelain fracture modes were crack, chipping and delamination. The distribution of the different fracture modes in the groups was the same. CONCLUSION The bi-layer zirconia crown with 2 mm zirconia marginal collar showed more fracture strength under once load. The fracture modes of the test specimens were the same as the clinical fracture bi-layer zirconia crowns, showing porcelain chipping and delamination.
Distributed Spatial Modulation: A Cooperative Diversity Protocol for Half-Duplex Relay-Aided Wireless Networks

In this paper, distributed spatial modulation (DSM) is introduced. DSM is a cooperative diversity protocol for multirelay wireless networks, which is based on the concept of spatial modulation (SM). The distinguishable feature of DSM lies in improving the reliability of the source via distributed diversity and by increasing the aggregate throughput of the network since new data is transmitted during each transmission phase. This is achieved by encoding the data transmitted from the source into the spatial positions of the available relays and by exploiting the signal domain to transmit the data of the relays. At the destination, a diversity combiner that is robust to demodulation errors at the relays is proposed, and its end-to-end error probability and achievable diversity are studied. It is mathematically proved that DSM allows the source to achieve second-order diversity. With the aid of Monte Carlo simulations, DSM is compared against state-of-the-art cooperative protocols, and it is shown to provide a better error probability.
Attention to Affective Pictures in Closed Head Injury: Event-Related Brain Potentials and Cardiac Responses

We examined whether closed head injury patients show altered patterns of selective attention to stimulus categories that naturally evoke differential responses in healthy people. Self-reported rating and electrophysiological (event-related potentials [ERPs], heart rate [HR]) responses to affective pictures were studied in patients with mild head injury (n = 20; CT/MRI negative), in patients with predominantly frontal brain lesions (n = 12; CT/MRI confirmed), and in healthy controls (n = 20). Affective valence similarly modulated HR and ERP responses in all groups, but group differences occurred that were independent of picture valence. The attenuation of P3-slow wave amplitudes in the mild head injury group indicates a reduction in the engagement of attentional resources to the task. In contrast, the general enhancement of ERP amplitudes at occipital sites in the group with primarily frontal brain injury may reflect disinhibition of input at sensory receptive areas, possibly due to a deficit in top-down modulation performed by anterior control systems. Support for this research was provided to A. -K. Solbakk by the Research Council of Norway, grant no. 109500/320. The authors are grateful to Søren Jakob Bakke for evaluating the CT and MRI scans of the brain injured participants. We thank Magnus Lindgren for valuable help and advice in the preparation of this article. We also thank Kaisa Hartikainen, Robert T. Knight, and Semir Zeki for helpful comments on this manuscript. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestion on a previous draft of this article.
Combining informal care and paid work: The use of work arrangements by working adult‐child caregivers in the Netherlands

An increasing number of people combine paid work with the provision of informal care for a loved one. This combination of work and care may cause difficulties, necessitating adaptations at work, i.e. work arrangements. The present study explores what types of work arrangements are used by working caregivers, and which caregiver, care and work characteristics are associated with the use of these work arrangements. Within the Lifelines Informal Care Add-on Study (Lifelines ICAS), data on 965 Dutch informal caregivers in the North of the Netherlands were collected between May 2013 and July 2014 (response rate 48%), and data on 333 working adult-child caregivers (aged 26-68 years, 82% female) were used in this study. A small majority (56%) of the working caregivers used one or more work arrangement(s): taking time off (41%), individual agreements with supervisor (30%), formal care leave arrangement (13%), and reduction in paid work hours (6%). Logistic regression analyses showed that long working hours (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01-1.08), and the experience of more health problems (OR 2.54, 95% CI 1.56-4.05) or a disrupted schedule due to caregiving (OR 2.50, 95% CI 1.66-3.78) increased the chance to have used one or more work arrangements. Lower educated working caregivers were less likely to have used a formal care leave arrangement (tertiary vs. primary education OR 2.75, 95% CI 1.13-6.67; tertiary vs. secondary education OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.27-5.09). Policy makers should inform working caregivers about the availability of the different work arrangements, with specific attention for low educated working caregivers. Employers need to consider a more caregiver-friendly policy, as almost half of the working adult-child caregivers did not use any work arrangement.
Models for force control in telesurgical robot systems

Surgical robotics is one of the most rapidly developing fields within robotics. Besides general motion control issues, control engineers often find it challenging to design robotic telesurgery systems, as these have to deal with complex environmental constrains. The unique behavior of soft tissues requires special approaches in both robot control and system modeling in the case of robotic tissue manipulation. Precise control depends on the appropriate modeling of the interaction between the manipulated tissues and the instruments held by the robotic arm, frequently referred to as the tool–tissue interaction. Due to the nature of the physiological environment, the mechatronics of the systems and the time delays, it is difficult to introduce a universal model or a general modeling approach. This paper gives an overview of the emerging problems in the design and modeling of telesurgical systems, analyzing each component, and introducing the most widely employed models. The arising control problems are reviewed in the frames of master–slave type teleoperation, proposing a novel oft tissue model and providing an overview of the possible control approaches.
Network Flow and Testing Graph Connectivity

An algorithm of Dinic for finding the maximum flow in a network is described. It is then shown that if the vertex capacities are all equal to one, the algorithm requires at most $O(|V|^{1/2} \cdot |E|)$ time, and if the edge capacities are all equal to one, the algorithm requires at most $O(|V|^{2/3} \cdot |E|)$ time. Also, these bounds are tight for Dinic’s algorithm.These results are used to test the vertex connectivity of a graph in $O(|V|^{1/2} \cdot |E|^2 )$ time and the edge connectivity in $O(|V|^{5/3} \cdot |E|)$ time.
Divergence between C. melo and African Cucumis Species Identified by Chromosome Painting and rDNA Distribution Pattern

The 5S and 45S rDNA sites are useful chromosome landmarks and can provide valuable information about karyotype evolution and species interrelationships. In this study, we employed fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to determine the number and chromosomal location of 5S and 45S rDNA loci in 8 diploid Cucumis species. Two oligonucleotide painting probes specific for the rDNA-bearing chromosomes in C. melo were hybridized to other Cucumis species in order to investigate the homeologies among the rDNA-carrying chromosomes in Cucumis species. The analyzed diploid species showed 3 types of rDNA distribution patterns, which provided clear cytogenetic evidence on the divergence between C. melo and wild diploid African Cucumis species. The present results not only show species interrelationships in the genus Cucumis, but the rDNA FISH patterns can also be used as cytological markers for the discrimination of closely related species. The data will be helpful for breeders to choose the most suitable species from various wild species for improvement of cultivated melon.
Optimisation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Search and Rescue Missions Formalising a Method for Maximising Probability of Target Acquisition

This paper is an academic experience report describing analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona of optimal control techniques for simulated quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) performing search and rescue missions. Analysis of the controller and guidance laws governing the UAV are described in detail culminating in a closed form expression describing the probability of detection over a certain field.
On the Dynamic Properties of the Labor-Surplus Economy

The dynamic properties of the optimal growth model are examined, based on a one good and two factor-labor and capitalmodel with a labor-surplus economy due to a fixed wage rate. If the average capital productivity is higher than the time discount rate which is assumed to be larger than the population growth rate, then the economy reaches the full employment stationary state in a finite amount of time. If both are equal, then the economy stays in the initial state forever. If the average capital productivity is less than the population growth rate due to a high and fixed wage rate, then the economy is in the poverty trap where both per capita capital and per capita consumption shrink to zero as seen in many developing countries. If the average productivity is higher than population growth rate but lower than time discount rate, there can exist two different paths – one to stationary state and the other on the poverty trap – depending on the initial values of per capita capital if the elasticity of marginal felicity is less than one. Therefore the only strategy to get out of the poverty trap for the developing countries is to increase average capital productivity above the time discount rate indirectly by increasing labor productivity by means of a big push or imports of technology and/or by increasing per capita capital through imports of capital as a policy recommendation.
Correlates of HIV-Related Stigma Among HIV-Positive Mothers and Their Uninfected Adolescent Children

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the degree and impact of HIV-related stigma among HIV positive mothers and their uninfected children. One hundred eighteen HIV-infected mothers and their uninfected early- and middle-adolescent children (mean age = 13 years) participated in a study of maternal mental and physical health and child school performance and psychological distress. Mothers and a subset of children (to whom the mother's HIV status had previously been disclosed) were administered a series of questions to measure stigma related to the mother's HIV status. Mothers reporting high levels of HIV-related stigma scored significantly lower on measures of physical, psychological, and social functioning. Mothers' levels of depression were also significantly higher when their levels of stigma were higher. No significant differences were found in children's depression by perceived level of stigma; however, adolescents who perceived high levels of stigma because of their mothers' HIV status were more likely to participate in delinquent behavior, compared with those reporting low HIV-related stigma. The experience of stigma had consequences for many aspects of well-being among the HIV-infected mothers. While their children were aware of and perceived stigma, they appeared to be affected primarily in the realm of delinquent behavior.