Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation and characterization of CaMF 3 , an anther-specific gene in Capsicum annuum L

Previous work on gene expression analysis based on RNA sequencing identified a variety of differentially expressed cDNA fragments in the genic male sterile-fertile line 114AB of Capsicum annuum L. In this work, we examined the accumulation of one of the transcript-derived fragments (TDFs), CaMF3 (male fertile 3), in the flower buds of a fertile line. The full genomic DNA sequence of CaMF3 was 1,951 bp long and contained 6 exons and 5 introns, with the complete sequence encoding a putative 25.89 kDa protein of 234 amino acids. The predicted protein of CaMF3 shared sequence similarity with members of the isoamyl acetate-hydrolyzing esterase (IAH1) protein family. CaMF3 expression was detected only in flower buds at stages 7 and 8 and in open flowers of a male fertile line; no expression was observed in any organs of a male sterile line. Fine expression analysis revealed that CaMF3 was expressed specifically in anthers of the fertile line. These results suggest that CaMF3 is an anther-specific gene that may be essential for anther or pollen development in C. annuum.
TBX22 mutations are a frequent cause of cleft palate

Cleft lip and/or cleft palate is among the most frequent birth defect seen in humans, with a reported prevalence of 1 in 700 births worldwide.1 Development of the secondary palate is a complex coordinated sequence of events, beginning with the appearance of palatal shelves from the first branchial arch derived maxillary prominences during the sixth week of embryogenesis. This involves mesenchymal–epithelial interactions, cell differentiation, migration, and transformation, with the interactive role of soluble growth factors, extracellular matrix molecules and their receptors, and programmed cell death.2,3 A disruption anywhere in the required sequence may result in a failure of the palate to close. A genetic involvement in clefts was first recognised by Fogh-Anderson,4 with the majority of cases thought to display a multifactorial mode of inheritance.5 Analysis of recurrence risk patterns of cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) indicates that there are likely to be few major loci interacting epistatically with an oligogenic background.6,7 As a consequence, there have been numerous studies to identify genetic determinants, either studying individual candidate genes and loci,8,9 or screening at the whole genome level.10–12 These efforts have been encouraged by the many candidates revealed by mouse mutants that exhibit a cleft as at least part of their phenotype.13 Nevertheless, the results of many of these studies have not been informative, with only a few candidate genes or loci being strongly implicated in human CL/P or CP only.12 As a consequence, the mechanisms of interaction, which probably include both genes and the environment, remain poorly understood. Recently, however, significant progress has been made with the identification of gene mutations in several forms of CL/P and CP. These include the cell adhesion molecule PVRL1 14 and the transcription factors MSX1 , IRF6 …
Assessing impacts of very high penetration of distributed Photovoltaic on real MV network feeders

This paper analyses the 11 kV Medium Voltage (MV) networks using real network and load data. High penetration Photovoltaic (PV) connected to a MV feeder is modeled using RETScreen to estimate the output power based on meteorological and geographical data. Simulations are run across 24 hour period to see the voltage fluctuations, active and reactive power behavior, load profile, power loss and energy losses. Case studies shows that high penetration of PV can cause voltage drops and increase in power and energy losses of a distribution feeder. Voltage control, reactive power support and power curtailment will be needed due to high penetration of PV.
Multilevel Complementary Sets of Sequences and their application in UWB

In this paper it is proposed a new method for generating multilevel Complementary Sets of Sequences (CSS) based on the existence of Hadamard matrices of odd order. Then it is generated a family of M2 Multilevel Loosely Synchronized (MLS) codes from a multilevel CSS. These codes have inherent advantages that make interesting their use in UWB-based local positioning systems.
Irbesartan delays progression of nephropathy as measured by estimated glomerular filtration rate: post hoc analysis of the Irbesartan Diabetic Nephropathy Trial.

BACKGROUND The Irbesartan Diabetic Nephropathy Trial (IDNT) demonstrated that irbesartan significantly slowed established Type 2 diabetic nephropathy progression. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), now widely used to monitor chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression, was not previously examined in IDNT. This post hoc analysis aimed to confirm IDNT results using eGFR as principal outcome measure. METHODS Mean change in eGFR from baseline (ΔeGFR) was analysed using linear mixed-effects models over time and analysis of covariance at end of study on an intention-to-treat basis. Potential treatment response moderators and/or mediators assessed were CKD stage, blood pressure (BP) and proteinuria. RESULTS Irbesartan significantly slowed the rate of ΔeGFR decline from 6 to 21 months (P = 0.0048) and 24 to 48 months (P < 0.0001) versus amlodipine and placebo, despite a faster decline in the first month. The longer patients remained on irbesartan the greater the benefit (model-derived estimates for 6-21 and 24-48 month periods were -0.3354 and -0.1947 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/month, respectively). Irbesartan slowed the rate of ΔeGFR decline irrespective of baseline CKD stage, BP or proteinuria level. Irbesartan produced rapid and sustained proteinuria reductions, which only partially mediated treatment response. Irbesartan increased serum potassium, but levels stabilized from 6 to 48 months. CONCLUSIONS In patients with established Type 2 diabetic nephropathy and CKD Stages 1-5, irbesartan safely and significantly slowed the rate of ΔeGFR decline (-2.34 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year) compared to amlodipine (-3.76 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year) and placebo (-3.52 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year). This rate of decline was slower with longer duration of irbesartan treatment and only partly explained by observed reductions in BP and proteinuria.
The stressors of being young and Black: Cardiovascular health and Black young adults

Objective: To examine the impact of stressors relevant to the lives of Black young adults including racial, financial, occupational, and general stress and psychological distress on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Specifically, this study examined the relationship between multiple psychosocial stressors and two CVD risk indicators (i.e. obesity and blood pressure). Design: This study used a quantitative design which included surveys, the collection of anthropometric and blood pressure (BP) measures. Participants were 124 Black college students aged 18 to 27 years old. Main Outcome Measures: Participants completed measures to assess psychological distress, general, occupational, financial and racial stress. Measures of body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and BP were collected to assess CVD risk. Results: Findings indicated a significant effect of internalised racism on BMI and a significant effect of individual racial stress on diastolic BP. Also, depression was significantly associated with systolic BP. There were no significant results for WHR. Conclusion: Findings suggested that the relationship among racial stress, psychological distress and CVD be further explored.
Process development of human multipotent stromal cell microcarrier culture using an automated high‐throughput microbioreactor

Microbioreactors play a critical role in process development as they reduce reagent requirements and can facilitate high‐throughput screening of process parameters and culture conditions. Here, we have demonstrated and explained in detail, for the first time, the amenability of the automated ambr15 cell culture microbioreactor system for the development of scalable adherent human mesenchymal multipotent stromal/stem cell (hMSC) microcarrier culture processes. This was achieved by first improving suspension and mixing of the microcarriers and then improving cell attachment thereby reducing the initial growth lag phase. The latter was achieved by using only 50% of the final working volume of medium for the first 24 h and using an intermittent agitation strategy. These changes resulted in >150% increase in viable cell density after 24 h compared to the original process (no agitation for 24 h and 100% working volume). Using the same methodology as in the ambr15, similar improvements were obtained with larger scale spinner flask studies. Finally, this improved bioprocess methodology based on a serum‐based medium was applied to a serum‐free process in the ambr15, resulting in >250% increase in yield compared to the serum‐based process. At both scales, the agitation used during culture was the minimum required for microcarrier suspension, NJS. The use of the ambr15, with its improved control compared to the spinner flask, reduced the coefficient of variation on viable cell density in the serum containing medium from 7.65% to 4.08%, and the switch to serum free further reduced these to 1.06–0.54%, respectively. The combination of both serum‐free and automated processing improved the reproducibility more than 10‐fold compared to the serum‐based, manual spinner flask process. The findings of this study demonstrate that the ambr15 microbioreactor is an effective tool for bioprocess development of hMSC microcarrier cultures and that a combination of serum‐free medium, control, and automation improves both process yield and consistency. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2253–2266. © 2017 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The rate and pattern of nucleotide substitution in Drosophila mitochondrial DNA.

The nucleotide sequences of a segment of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been determined for nine species or subspecies of the subgenus Drosophila of the genus Drosophila. This segment contains two complete protein-coding genes (i.e., NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 and cytochrome b) and a transfer RNA gene (tRNA(ser)). The G+C content at third-codon positions for the two protein-coding genes was 1.5 times higher than that in the D. melanogaster species group, which belongs to the subgenus Sophophora. However, there was a substantial difference between the nucleotide frequencies of G and C. The number of nucleotide substitutions per silent site was more than three times higher than that for nuclear DNA, although it was only 60% of that for mammalian mtDNA. Both parametric and nonparametric analyses revealed a strong transition-transversion bias in nucleotide substitution, as was observed in mammalian mtDNA. Moreover, the rate of substitution of A and T for G and C is higher than that for the opposite direction. This bias seems to be responsible for the extremely A+T-rich base composition of Drosophila mtDNA. It is also noted that the rate of transitional change between A and G is higher than that between T and C.
Photo-Optical Methods Can Lead to Clinically Relevant Overestimation of Fibrinogen Concentration in Plasma Diluted With Hydroxyethyl Starch

Background: Adequate fibrinogen concentration is a crucial component of sufficient perioperative/posttraumatic hemostasis. In major blood loss, large volumes of fluids are being administered, which have been shown to interfere with valid determination of fibrinogen concentration. This may lead to wrong treatment decisions. We studied the variables that cause the discrepancies between measured and true fibrinogen concentrations in samples diluted with volume replacement fluids. Methods: Citrated plasma samples of healthy volunteers were diluted by 30% and 50% with phosphate buffered saline (PBS), hydroxyethyl starch (HES) 10% (200/0.5), or gelatine (GEL). Fibrinogen concentrations of diluted samples were derived from the prothrombin time (PT) and the Clauss method (CLS) was applied. With the latter, several modifications and combinations of detection principles and thrombin reagents were investigated. Values were compared with ‘‘true,’’ that is, calculated values based on the results of undiluted samples for each method. Results: Photo-optical methods resulted in significant overestimation of the fibrinogen concentration in blood diluted with HES, depending on the thrombin reagent used. This was particularly true for modifications of the CLS aimed at measuring low fibrinogen concentrations. Use of another thrombin reagent gave satisfactory results for this modification. The validity of mechanical end point determination methods was considered sufficient and was not influenced by the use of different thrombin reagents. Conclusions: Fibrinogen determination methods used in situations of major blood loss need to be validated with samples containing significant amounts of volume replacement fluids, particularly colloids. Only some combinations of test principle, detection method, and reagents will give valid results.
Learning Deep Representations for Human Activity in Video

Human activity recognition is a very important problem in computer vision that is still largely unsolved. While recent advances in areas such as deep learning have given us great results on image related tasks, it is still unclear as to what a good feature representation is for recognizing activities from videos. A large part of the problem is that not many clean and big enough data sets are available for this task that fairly represent real-world conditions. Recently a new dataset has been made available to the research community by Allen Institute that has enough content to effectively train a deep network and extract a suitable representation for video-native tasks. This work implements state-of-the-art deep video feature extraction on this dataset and then trains a classifier to perform Activity Recognition. The results are then compared and benchmarked.
Effect of Gonadectomy on Hepatic, Lung and Intestinal Mixed Function Monooxygenase Enzymes in the Rat

Aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) and 7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase (ECD) activities of microsomes from liver, lungs, and intestine of control and gonadectomized male and female rats were examined. Estradiol-treated ovariectomized female rats and testosterone-treated castrated male rats were also employed. Castration decreased hepatic AHH and ECD activities by 50% and 27%, respectively, whereas ovariectomy had no effect on these enzymes. Testosterone treatment of castrated male animals returned AHH and ECD activities to control values. Estradiol treatment of the ovariectomized female rats had no effect on the activities of these two enzymes. Gonadectomy of either sex did not alter AHH or ECD activities in microsomes from lungs and intestinal mucosa. No sex differences in lung AHH activities or lung and intestinal ECD activities were noted. AHH activities of liver and intestinal mucosa were greater by 86% and 42%, respectively, in male rats as compared to the female rats. Castration decreased the hepatic cytochrome P-450 content by 15%, while ovariectomy had no effect. The hepatic cytochrome P-450 content of control male rats was 27% higher than in the females. Organ specific alterations of mixed function monooxygenase enzymes occur with castration of male animals but not following ovariectomy of female rats.
Network interfaces flying over IP networks

We propose a novel method to export both interface control and data planes across different hosts, effectively enabling hardware specific control of network interfaces over the Internet, or from a host to its virtualized guests. Our solution is a major step towards distributed environments of heterogeneous communication systems, particularly relevant in the scope of custom system composition, remote development and testing, and is especially relevant when considering embedded or geographically constrained devices. Results obtained by our prototype implementation validate the effectiveness of the solution. We present a preliminary characterization of its impact, when considering traffic generation applications, when applied over an IEEE 802.11g communication medium.
IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF AN AMIDATING ENZYME IN OVINE HEART

1. Levels of peptidylglycine α‐amidating mono‐oxygenase (PAM) activity were examined in sheep and rat heart. This enzyme is responsible for α‐amidation of a large number of peptide hormones, a modification essential for the bioactivity of these peptides.
A model for technology assessment and commercialization for innovative disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies are scientific discoveries that break through the usual product/technology capabilities and provide a basis for a new competitive paradigm. This paper reviews the literature on disruptive technologies presenting a model of the progression from scientific idea to mass production for disruptive technologies contrasted to the more copious incremental technologies. The paper then describes Sandia National Laboratories' involvement in one of the disruptive technology areas, namely micro-electromechanical systems (sometimes referred to as microsystems or MEMS) and surveys a number of companies that have investigated Sandia's technological discoveries for potential use in an industrial capacity. The survey focuses on the movement of the research findings from the laboratory into the marketplace and all of the problem areas that disruptive technologies face in this arena. The paper then states several hypotheses that are tested. The data is described with results and conclusions reported.
Investigation on the Characteristics of Different Shaped Wave Energy Harvesters based on Semi-Analytical Solution

We mainly describe the influence factors of captured power by huge wave energy harvesters, which the vertical motion of buoy can transform ocean’s potential energy into piezoelectric energy power by waves. By means of semi-analytical solutions and theoretical analysis, related environmental coefficients are analyzed firstly and find the most appropriate wave frequency and geometric structure as reference. Secondly, the numerical results also discuss the impact trend of hydrodynamic parameters and geometric volume on motion, voltage and power with qualitative agreement. The simulation data confirm that structure parameters of the modified model could markedly deliver sufficient power to ocean high electrical equipment with long-time stability.
Short‐Term Herding of Institutional Traders: New Evidence from the German Stock Market

This paper employs a new and comprehensive data set to investigate short-term herding behavior of institutional investors. Using data of all transactions made by financial institutions in the German stock market, we show that herding behavior occurs on a daily basis. However, in contrast to longer-term herding measures obtained from quarterly data, results based on daily data do not indicate that short-term herding tends to be more pronounced in small capitalized stocks or in times of market stress. Moreover, we find that herding measures based on anony- mous transactions can lead to misleading results about the behavior of institutional investors during the recent financial crisis.
Site‐specific labeling of proteins for single‐molecule FRET by combining chemical and enzymatic modification

An often limiting factor for studying protein folding by single‐molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) is the ability to site‐specifically introduce a photostable organic FRET donor (D) and a complementary acceptor (A) into a polypeptide chain. Using alternating‐laser excitation and chymotrypsin inhibitor 2 as a model, we show that chemical labeling of a unique cysteine, followed by enzymatic modification of a reactive glutamine in an N‐terminally appended substrate sequence recognition tag for transglutaminase (TGase) affords stoichiometrically D‐/A‐labeled protein suitable for single‐molecule FRET experiments. Thermodynamic data indicate that neither the presence of the TGase tag nor D/A labeling perturbs protein stability. As the N terminus in proteins is typically solvent accessible, a TGase tag can (in principle) be appended to any protein of interest by genetic engineering. Two‐step chemical/enzymatic labeling may thus represent a simple, low‐cost, and widely available strategy for D/A labeling of proteins for FRET‐based single‐molecule protein folding studies, even for non‐protein‐experts laboratories.
Weak first-order orientational transition in the Lebwohl-Lasher model for liquid crystals.

The nature of the orientational phase transition in the three-dimensional Lebwohl-Lasher model of liquid crystals has been studied by computer simulation using reweighting techniques and finite-size scaling analysis. Unambiguous numerical evidence is found in favor of a weak first-order transition and the presence of pseudospinodal points, T ± * , which are extremely close to the equilibrium transition temperature, |T c -T ± * |T c ≤0.5×10 -3 , in good agreement with experimental data for the nematic-isotropic transition
Adherence properties of an mrkD-negative mutant of Klebsiella pneumoniae

The role of the mrkD gene in attachment by a type 3 fimbriate Klebsiella pneumoniae strain was further characterized. A clinical isolate, K. pneumoniae IA565, was found to contain two copies of the gene encoding the fimbrial subunit, mrkA, and one copy of the gene encoding the adhesin subunit, mrkD. One copy of mrkA was located on the bacterial chromosome, and the other copy was associated with mrkD and located on a plasmid. The plasmid-borne mrk gene cluster was lost when K. pneumoniae IA565 was subcultured serially in broth at 44 degrees C. The resulting mrkD-negative strain, designated K. pneumoniae IApc35, did not exhibit the following adherence characteristics associated with K. pneumoniae possessing MrkD-positive fimbriae: agglutination of tannic acid-treated human erythrocytes and attachment to trypsinized human buccal cells. However, K. pneumoniae IApc35 produced type 3 fimbriae that were composed of the characteristic 21.5-kDa major fimbrial subunit, were reactive with specific serum, and were visualized specifically by immunoelectron microscopy. K. pneumoniae IApc35 retained a copy of the mrkA gene on its chromosome. This mrkA-containing gene cluster could be complemented by a recombinant plasmid carrying only the mrkD gene, resulting in restoration of the K. pneumoniae IA565-like adhesive phenotype and demonstration of type 3 filament-associated MrkD subunits by using colloidal gold labeling and immunoelectron microscopy. These data indicate that K. pneumoniae may contain multiple copies of the mrk genes which may be present simultaneously on both plasmid and chromosomal DNAs and which may encode fimbriae with different binding specificities.
Adaptive Semantic Compositionality for Sentence Modelling

Representing a sentence with a fixed vector has shown its effectiveness in various NLP tasks. Most of the existing methods are based on neural network, which recursively apply different composition functions to a sequence of word vectors thereby obtaining a sentence vector.A hypothesis behind these approaches is that the meaning of any phrase can be composed of the meanings of its constituents.However, many phrases, such as idioms, are apparently non-compositional.To address this problem, we introduce a parameterized compositional switch, which outputs a scalar to adaptively determine whether the meaning of a phrase should be composed of its two constituents.We evaluate our model on five datasets of sentiment classification and demonstrate its efficacy with qualitative and quantitative experimental analysis .