Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A diet high in resistant starch modulates microbiota composition, SCFA concentrations, and gene expression in pig intestine.

Resistant starch (RS) is highly fermentable by microbiota in the colon, resulting in the production of SCFAs. RS is thought to mediate a large proportion of its health benefits, including increased satiety, through the actions of SCFAs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a diet high in RS on luminal microbiota composition, luminal SCFA concentrations, and the expression of host genes involved in SCFA uptake, SCFA signaling, and satiety regulation in mucosal tissue obtained from small intestine, cecum, and colon. Twenty adult female pigs were either assigned to a digestible starch (DS) diet or a diet high in RS (34%) for a period of 2 wk. After the intervention, luminal content and mucosal scrapings were obtained for detailed molecular analysis. RS was completely degraded in the cecum. In both the cecum and colon, differences in microbiota composition were observed between DS- and RS-fed pigs. In the colon these included the stimulation of the healthy gut-associated butyrate-producing Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, whereas potentially pathogenic members of the Gammaproteobacteria, including Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas spp. , were reduced in relative abundance. Cecal and colonic SCFA concentrations were significantly greater in RS-fed pigs, and cecal gene expression of monocarboxylate transporter 1 (SLC16A1) and glucagon (GCG) was induced by RS. In conclusion, our data show that RS modulates microbiota composition, SCFA concentrations, and host gene expression in pig intestine. Combined, our data provide an enhanced understanding of the interaction between diet, microbiota, and host.
Nutritional status of elderly Chinese vegetarians.

AIM To study the nutritional status of elderly Chinese vegetarians. SUBJECTS AND METHOD Dietary intake (using the 24-h recall method), anthropometric indices and some nutritional laboratory parameters were studied in 131 elderly Chinese vegetarian women with a mean age of 81 years. Data from age- and sex-matched omnivore subjects from previous elderly surveys were used for comparison. RESULTS Total energy, fat and protein calorie, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin intakes were lower in vegetarians than in non-vegetarians, while carbohydrate calorie, calcium, potassium, retinol equivalent and ascorbic acid intakes were higher. The 25th, 50th and 75th percentile for total body fat were lower and those for corrected arm muscle area were higher in vegetarians. Both urinary Na/Cr and K/Cr ratios were higher but the Na/K ratio was similar to that in non-vegetarians, as were mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Serum total cholesterol was lower, while serum triglyceride concentration was similar. The mean haemoglobin level was lower in vegetarians, the prevalence of anaemia being 30%, with deficiencies in B12 and/or iron accounting for 64% of the anaemia, compared with only 30% in non-vegetarians. Serum B12 concentration below the reference range occurred in 54% of the vegetarian subjects. Vegetarians also had a lower prevalence of a history of ischaemic heart disease; however, the prevalence of smoking was also lower. CONCLUSION While the Chinese vegetarian diet may result in a favourable risk-factor profile for ischaemic heart disease, it is deficient in many B vitamins and gives rise to a high frequency of nutritional anaemias.
New scheme of digital watermarking using an adaptive embedding strength applied on multiresolution filed by 9/7 wavelet

Digital image watermarking is still a new field for research. In fact, digital watermarking is the best tool for the copyright protection and the authentication of the digital data. Researches are interested in the tradeoff that exists between the insertion capacity, the imperceptibility, and the robustness. The embedding function has a great influence on these characteristics. Channel coding techniques are used to reduce the error probability of the hidden watermark. On the other hand, the watermark strength is adapted according to human visual perception. In this article, we present a new scheme to achieve the embedding function in the framework of a robust and nonblind watermarking in multiresolution field by 9/7 wavelet of Daubechies. Indeed, we replace the constant embedding strength by a variable coefficient based on the logarithmic function. This coefficient is adaptive according to the magnitude of the wavelet transform magnitude that will be watermarked. This adaptive scheme reduces the computational error and enhances the robustness and the imperceptibility. Experimental results are presented to show that our scheme gives a better correlation and an improved PSNR. They demonstrate that the detection is enhanced. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 16, 249–257, 2006
An Immune Genetic Algorithm to Buildings Displacement in Cartographic Generalization

Spatial conflicts may occur when map data are displayed at a scale smaller than that of the source map. This study applies the displacement operator in cartographic generalization to resolve such spatial conflicts and to improve the clarity and legibility of map. The immune genetic algorithm (IGA) is used in this study for buildings displacement to solve conflicts. IGA is based on the genetic algorithm (GA) and employs the self‐adjusting mechanism of antibody concentration to enhance population diversity. Meanwhile, the elitism retention strategy is adopted in IGA to guarantee that the best individual (antibody) is not lost and destroyed in the next generation to strengthen convergence efficiency. The compared experiment between IGA and GA shows that the displacement result produced by IGA performs better than GA. Finally, in order to make the displaced map more attractive to cartographers, two constraints – the building alignment constraint and building tangent relation constraint – are applied in IGA to restrict the buildings’ displacement. The same experimental data are adopted to prove that the improved IGA is useful for maintaining the two constraints.
Contents Selected initiatives of the Decision Deck project 5

The objective of the Decision Deck project is to collaboratively develop open-source software tools implementing Multiple Criteria Decision Aid (mcda) techniques. This chapter presents three selected initiatives from this project, namely the XMCDA data standard, the XMCDA web-services and the diviz software, which altogether enable to test and combine various mcda algorithms via a unified data model, homogeneous software pieces and a user-friendly experimentation platform.
Asymptomatic hyperuricemia and coronary artery disease in elderly patients without comorbidities

Because many subjects with hyperuricemia have comorbidities, it can be difficult to differentiate the role of hyperuricemia from that of other comorbidities of coronary artery disease (CAD). Subjects aged ≥ 65 years were enrolled in the study and were available at enrollment and at 5-year follow-up. Subjects were excluded if they were overweight or obese, hypertensive, diabetic, hyperlipidemic, had a pre-existing cardiovascular disease, a history of gout or hyperuricemia on medications, or chronic kidney disease as estimated by a glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2. We used Poisson regression to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) for incident CAD events between hyperuricemic (> 7 mg/dL in men and ≥ 6 mg/dL in women) and normouricemic subjects. A total of 2,142 subjects without comorbidities (mean age of 70.7 ± 5.9 years, 1,194 men) were followed for 57.4 ± 8.9 months. Hyperuricemia was associated with an increased cumulative incidence of incident CAD events (15.0% versus 8.8%, P < 0.001). After adjusting for confounding factors, hyperuricemia independently predicted the risk of incident CAD events (HR=1.71, 95% CI 1.26–2.34). In conclusion, asymptomatic hyperuricemia is a valuable biomarker for predicting the development of incident CAD events.
Characterization of sulfate assimilation in marine algae focusing on the enzyme 5'-adenylylsulfate reductase.

5'-Adenylylsulfate (APS) reductase was characterized in diverse marine algae. A cDNA encoding APS reductase from Enteromorpha intestinalis (EAPR) was cloned by functional complementation of an Escherichia coli cysH mutant. The deduced amino acid sequence shows high homology with APS reductase (APR) from flowering plants. Based on the probable transit peptide cleavage site the mature protein is 45.7 kD. EAPR expressed as a His-tagged recombinant protein catalyzes reduced glutathione-dependent reduction of APS to sulfite, exhibiting a specific activity of approximately 40 micromol min(-1) mg protein(-1) and Michealis-Menten kinetic constants of approximately 1.4 mM for reduced glutathione and approximately 6.5 microM for APS. APR activity and expression were studied in relation to the production of 3-dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), a sulfonium compound produced by many marine algae. A diverse group of DMSP-producing species showed extremely high enzyme activity (up to 400 times that found in flowering plants). Antibodies raised against a conserved peptide of APR strongly cross-reacted with a protein of 45 kD in several chlorophytes but insignificantly with chromophytes. In the chlorophyte Tetraselmis sp. , APR activity varies significantly during the culture cycle and does not follow the changes in cellular DMSP content. However, a positive correlation was found between cell-based APR activity and specific growth rate.
Are Homophones Acoustically Distinguished in Child-Directed Speech?

ABSTRACT Many approaches to early word learning posit that children assume a one-to-one mapping of form and meaning. However, children’s early vocabularies contain homophones, words that violate that assumption. Children might learn such words by exploiting prosodic differences between homophone meanings that are associated with lemma frequency (Gahl, 2008). Such differences have not yet been documented in children’s natural language experience and the exaggerated prosody of child-directed speech could either mask the subtle distinctions reported in adult-directed speech or enhance them. This study measured the duration, vowel characteristics, and pitch information of homophone tokens taken from a corpus of child-directed speech. The results show that homophone meanings are acoustically distinct in child-directed speech as a function of lemma frequency, particularly in utterance-final positions. Such distinctions may allow children to maintain separate phonetic representations of homophones until their cognitive and linguistic abilities are robust to violations of the one-to-one bias.
High urea and NaCl carbonylate proteins in renal cells in culture and in vivo, and high urea causes 8-oxoguanine lesions in their DNA.

UNLABELLED Urea and NaCl are elevated in the renal inner medulla. We now find that a high concentration of urea or NaCl increases reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mouse renal inner medullary (mIMCD3) cells in culture. Previously, high NaCl, but not high urea, was found to cause DNA double-strand breaks. We now tested whether high urea or NaCl causes oxidative damage to DNA or cellular proteins. We find that high urea increases mIMCD3 cell DNA single-strand breaks and 8-oxoguanine lesions. High NaCl does not cause detectable 8-oxoguanine lesions. High urea or NaCl also greatly increases carbonylation of proteins in mIMCD3 cells. Carbonylation occurs within 5 min and with as little as 5 mM urea, a normal plasma level. It increases as urea is raised over the range in uremia. A high raffinose level increases ROS and carbonylation. High sorbitol and glycerol levels do not increase ROS or carbonylation. Carbonyl content is high in mouse renal inner medullas where interstitial NaCl and urea concentrations are normally high. There, numerous proteins are carbonylated, and carbonylation occurs in both collecting ducts and thin limbs. CONCLUSIONS (i) Oxidative stress, associated with high urea, causes 8-oxoguanine DNA lesions in mIMCD3 cell DNA. (ii) High urea or NaCl carbonylates proteins in mIMCD3 cells and in renal inner medullary cells in vivo. (iii) In mIMCD3 cells a normal plasma concentration of urea causes carbonylation, and carbonylation increases over the uremic range of urea concentration, indicating that urea can contribute directly to the carbonylation found in uremia.
Wavelet packet based de-noising algorithm for UWB GPR data

For subsurface detection by UWB GPR, one of the big challenge is to eliminate background clutters. In this paper, a wavelet packet based de-noising algorithm driven by best-tree for UWB GPR data is developed. We introduce the procedure of the de-noising algorithm, and present the experiment result of iron pipe B-scan de-noising. Later, provide the suggestion for future work.
EFFECT OF REPLACING RICE BRAN OR FISH MEAL BY FRESH OR DRIED MULBERRY LEAVES ON DIGESTIBILITY AND NITROGEN RETENTION OF PIGS

Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of replacing rice bran or fish meal by fresh or dried mulberry leaves on digestibility and nitrogen retention of pigs. In experiment 1, a double 4x4 Latin square design in a 2x4 factorial arrangement was used to study the effect of graded levels of mulberry leaf meal (0, 15, 30 and 50% on a dry basis, respectively) in diets based on rice brans and broken rice on the N balance of eight young castrate male Mong Cai pigs with a mean weight of 15 kg. Mulberry leaf meal (MLM) contained DM 30.4% and in the dry matter: ash 16.9, crude fibre 20.1 and crude protein (Nx6.25) 25.4%, respectively. Feed intake was calculated to be 50 g DM/kg body weight. Although not significant, DM and organic matter digestibility appeared to increase with increasing levels of dietary MLM. Organic matter digestibility was significantly better (P<0.05); N balance indices improved with the inclusion of MLM in the diet, and this effect was significant for N retention (P<0.05) when expressed as proportion of the digested N. In experiment 2, six Large White castrate male pigs, weighing on average 15 kg, were allocated according to a balanced change-over design, to two diets where mulberry leaves, either in milled of sun-dried or chopped off fresh, contributed about 45% of the total daily N intake in iso-nitrogenous diets (Nx6.25, 13.7% on a dry basis). There were no significant effects of treatment on DM, organic matter and N digestibility but dry leaves were associated with slightly lower digestibility values. N balance tended to be better in pigs fed with fresh mulberry leaves compared to mulberry leaf meal. It can be concluded that in rice-based diets, it is possible to use mulberry leaves as the main protein source.
Multiscale preconditioning for the coupling of FEM–BEM

We apply multiscale methods to the coupling of finite and boundary element methods to solve an exterior two‐dimensional Laplacian. The matrices belonging to the boundary terms of the coupled FEM–BEM system are compressed by using biorthogonal wavelet bases developed from A. Cohen, I. Daubechies and J.‐C. Feauveau (Comm. Proc. Appl. Math. 1992; 45:485). The coupling yields a linear equation system which corresponds to a saddle point problem. As favourable solver, the Bramble–Pasciak–CG (Math. Comp. 1988; 50:1) is utilized. A suitable preconditioner is developed by combining the BPX (Math. Comp. 1990; 55:1) with the wavelet preconditioning (Numer. Math. 1992; 63:315). Through numerical experiments we provide results which corroborate the theory of the present paper. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
New simple active damping of resonance in three-phase PWM converter with LCL filter

Three-phase PWM (active) rectifiers are connected to the line power through inductance or LCL filter. LCL filter is more effective (better attenuates switching harmonics), however such solution causes stability problems. In order to assure stable operation either a damping resistor or active damping algorithm has to be used. However, extra resistor causes additional losses and active damping algorithm usually needs extra sensors. Therefore, this paper shows simulation and experimental results of a simple AC voltage sensorless active damping solution applied to direct power control space vector modulated (DPC-SVM)
Fuzzy 2DLDA for Face Recognition

This paper proposes a new method of face image feature extraction, namely, the fuzzy 2DLDA (F2DLDA) based on the 2D fisher discriminant criterion and fuzzy set theory. In the proposed method, we calculate membership degree matrix by FKNN, then we incorporate the membership degree into the definition of the between-class scatter matrix and within-class scatter matrix and get the fuzzy between-class scatter matrix and fuzzy within-class scatter matrix. Experiments on the ORL and FERET face databases show that the new method can work well.
Cutaneous side effects of combined therapy with sorafenib and pegylated interferon alpha‐2b in metastatic melanoma (phase II DeCOG trial)

During a clinical study with combined therapy of sorafenib and pegylated interferon alpha‐2b (SoraPeg study) of the German Dermatologic Oncology Group (ADO/DeCOG), multiple and severe cutaneous side effects were observed. This study sought to analyze these cutaneous side effects, particularly because future studies with combinations of interferon alpha and targeted therapies are planned.
Practical Stability Analysis for Swarm Systems

This paper considers practical stability of swarm systems in the framework of both biological and engineering problems. Taking a simple function of mutual attraction and repulsion between the individuals, a swarm model with and without perturbations is defined, and its practical stability is proved. Then, swarm models with some kinds of perturbations and their corresponding practical stability are discussed. Finally, the practical stability of swarm systems is illustrated through simulations within a three-dimensional space
Determining Entailment of Questions in the Quora Dataset

Automating the process of finding duplicate questions is one of the most challenging tasks in Natural Language Processing for knowledge-sharing platforms like Quora. An accurate predictor would better organize the forums and make searching and answering questions more efficient. In this paper, we explore the effectiveness of several models from Stanford Natural Language Inference publications on a Quora dataset. We experiment with two main ideas: word ordering and word alignment. The first is tested through a long-short-term-memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network, and the second is implemented with a decomposable attention model. We eventually achieve the highest accuracies when we combine the two designs into one, producing the LSTM attention models.
Communication Networks , ICT and Productivity Growth in Europe

This paper looks at the channels through which communication networks affect productivity growth. We construct an EUKLEMS dataset (8 countries) modified to include wireless spectrum purchases and quality-adjusted prices for all components of ICT (i.e., including communication equipment and computer software). We examine the dataset’s implications for detecting network effects via (a) metrics introduced in this paper, (b) sources-of-growth analysis using capital measures more up-to-the-task than heretofore available, and (c) econometric estimation of ICT externalities. We zero in on whether communication capital (defined as the core infrastructure of the Internet and wireless networks) played a special role in the post-2002 economic growth of Europe and find evidence suggesting that it did. ∗The Conference Board and Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy. †The Conference Board. ‡This study received financial support from Telefónica. We thank Cecilia Jona-Lasinio, Jonathan Haskel, and Bart van Ark for comments on an earlier draft.
Robust low power design in nano-CMOS technologies

Increasing variability in nano-CMOS technologies poses a major challenge for low power design. Conventional design methods add large safety margins to mitigate variability that incur high power/ performance loss. We present a sensor based design methodology that minimizes pessimistic margin, while still providing reliable circuit operation. Variation resilient sensors are embedded in our design to detect minimum supply voltage that allows low power error free operation. HSPICE simulations indicate a 42% reduction in the average power consumption under temperature variations.
Cell Cycle Withdrawal Promotes Myogenic Induction of Akt, a Positive Modulator of Myocyte Survival

ABSTRACT During myogenesis, proliferating myoblasts withdraw from the cell cycle, acquire an apoptosis-resistant phenotype, and differentiate into myotubes. Previous studies indicate that myogenic induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 results in an inhibition of apoptotic cell death in addition to its role as a negative cell cycle regulator. Here we demonstrate that the protein encoded by theAkt proto-oncogene is induced in C2C12 cells during myogenic differentiation with a corresponding increase in kinase activity. In differentiating cultures, expression of dominant-negative forms of Akt increase the frequency of cell death whereas expression of wild-type Akt protects against death, indicating that Akt is a positive modulator of myocyte survival. Antisense oligonucleotides against p21 block cell cycle withdrawal, inhibit Akt induction, and enhance cell death in differentiating myocyte cultures. Adenovirus-mediated transfer of wild-type or constitutively active Akt constructs confer partial resistance to cell death under conditions where cell cycle exit is blocked by the antisense oligonucleotides. Collectively, these data indicate that cell cycle withdrawal facilitates the induction of Akt during myogenesis, promoting myocyte survival.
DNAs of two molecularly cloned endogenous ecotropic proviruses are poorly infectious in DNA transfection assays

Endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia virus expression varies with inbred mouse strain and age. The mechanism(s) regulating virus expression is unknown, but expression is thought to be controlled at the transcriptional level by linkage to cis-acting cellular DNA sequences or DNA methylation or both. To begin to differentiate between these different control mechanisms, we molecularly cloned two endogenous ecotropic proviruses, Emv-3 and Emv-13, complete with flanking cellular DNA sequences. Both proviruses are poorly expressed in vivo and in vitro, although they appear to be structurally nondefective by restriction enzyme analysis. Cloned DNAs of both proviruses were poorly infectious in DNA transfection experiments, suggesting that methylation may not regulate the expression of these genes in vivo. Removal of their flanking cellular sequences did not increase their infectivity. However, these DNAs were highly infectious when mixed together, indicating that both proviruses carry mutations, that inhibit their expression and belong to different complementation groups. Marker rescue experiments suggested that Emv-3 is defective in the gag region and Emv-13 is defective in p15E-U3. The infectivity of Emv-3, but not of Emv-13, DNA was increased by the addition of AKR xenotropic murine leukemia virus DNA, consistent with known regions of homology between ecotropic and xenotropic proviruses. Recombination between defective endogenous viruses also appears to occur in vivo, suggesting that this may be a common mechanism controlling endogenous murine leukemia virus expression.