Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trypsin Inhibitor Activity and Condensed Tannin Content in Bambara Groundnut ( Vigna Subterranea (L.) Verdc) Grown in Southern Africa

Legumes are an important source of protein in many developing countries. However this protein is not readily available because of antinutrients. Farmers are being encouraged to grow bambara groundnut to meet food sufficiency, hence information on the content of antinutrients is required. The objective of the study was to compare antinutrients trypsin inhibitor activity and condensed tannin content in nine landraces of bambara groundnut grown in three Southern African countries, Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia respectively. Trypsin inhibitor activity was determined in raw seeds using the method developed by Kakade et al. (1974). Six landraces from Namibia (AHM 968, NC2, NC1, DIP C and GAB C and AHM753), three from Swaziland (OM1, NC2 and UR/SR) and two from Botswana (DIPC and UR/SR) had high trypsin inhibitor activity. DIPC had the highest overall trypsin inhibitor activity (units/mg protein) of 60.4 while AHM 753 had low trypsin inhibitor activity of 49.1 (p reported is higher than in soybean and pigeon pea. The condensed tannin content was determined using butanol-HCl method by Porter et al. (1986). It ranged from 0.02% in NC1 and OM1 grown in Swaziland and Namibia respectively to 0.49% in AHM 753 cultivated in Namibia. Thirteen out of the 27 samples analysed had tannin content below the allowed limit of 0.10%; three were cultivated in Botswana and five each from Namibia and Swaziland. Seeds that had the highest condensed tannin content were brown, tan and red while those with the lowest condensed tannin content were cream coloured are they are recommended to be used in weaning formula.
Invasive aspergillosis in neutropenic patients: rapid neutrophil recovery is a risk factor for severe pulmonary complications

In invasive aspergillosis, the duration of neutropenia is an accepted risk factor, and recovery from neutropenia is generally associated with a favourable outcome. However, the rapidity of granulocyte recovery may rarely be associated with adverse sequelae. The purpose of this study was to define the relationship between neutrophil (polymorphonuclear, PMN) recovery after chemotherapy‐induced bone marrow aplasia and the occurrence of severe pulmonary complications (haemoptysis, pneumothorax and death) in patients with haematological malignancies who developed invasive fungal pneumonias.
Comparison of PCR, Electrochemical Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays, and the Standard Culture Method for Detecting Salmonella in Meat Products

ABSTRACT An electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) coupled with flow injection analysis (ELISA-FIA) and a PCR-based method using ST11 and ST15 primers for detecting salmonellae in meat were evaluated in comparison with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) culture method. The methods were applied to experimentally contaminated and naturally contaminated meat samples. The results showed that both ELISA-FIA and PCR allowed detection of salmonella in a product contaminated with a low number of the microorganisms (1 to 10 salmonellae/25 g) after only 5 h of incubation of preenrichment broth, and they were just as effective as the ISO method.
Effectiveness of Once/Day Dolutegravir Plus Boosted Darunavir as a Switch Strategy in Heavily Treated Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Dual therapy with once/day dolutegravir (DTG) plus boosted darunavir (DRV/b) may be a suitable and effective strategy with a high genetic barrier to resistance in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of DTG plus DRV/b (DTG+DRV/b) as a switch strategy in HIV‐infected patients, irrespective of their history of virologic failure (VF).
Effect of a Waist Diameter of a Microtapered Polarization-Maintaining Fiber on Temperature and Ambient Index Sensitivities

The effect of a waist diameter of a microtapered polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) on the temperature and the ambient index sensitivities is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Stress-induced and geometrical birefringences strongly depend on the waist diameter of the microtapered PMF, which plays a key role in temperature and ambient index sensitivities of the Sagnac interferometer. By reducing the waist diameter to ~5 μm, we successfully control the ambient index and the temperature sensitivities of the Sagnac interferometer to be -98.7 nm/RIU and -0.16 nm/°C, respectively, which are ~23 times higher and 1.7 times lower than those with a waist diameter of 25 μm.
Heuristic mining: Adaptive process simplification in education

Process mining techniques allow for extracting information from event logs. For example, the audit trails of a workflow management system or the transaction logs of an enterprise resource planning system can be used to discover models describing processes, organizations, and products. ProM is a generic tool for implementing process mining tools in a standard environment. Prom aims at improving this by providing techniques and tools for discovering process, organizational, social, and performance information from event logs. In this paper we introduce the challenging process mining domain and discuss a heuristics driven process mining algorithm; the so-called “Heuristics Miner" in detail. Heuristics Miner is an applied applicable mining algorithm that can deal with noise, and can be used to express the main behavior registered in an event log. In the “case study” section of this paper, we used an students' registration event log consisted of 299 cases and 569 events. The data was received from one of the universities in Thailand. Finally, the HM algorithm focused on the control flow perspective and generated a process model in the form of a Heuristics Net for the given event log.
Cost-Effective Discovery of Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Populations of an Allopolyploid Species Using Pool-Seq

Population genetics studies of allopolyploid species lag behind those of diploid species because of practical difficulties in analysis of homeologs-duplicated gene copies originating from hybridized parental species. Pool-Seq, i.e. massive parallel sequencing of pooled individuals, has high potential for detecting nucleotide polymorphisms within and among multiple populations; however, its use has been limited to diploid species. We applied Pool-Seq to an allopolyploid species by developing a bioinformatic pipeline that assigns reads to each homeolog as well as to each polymorphic allele within each homeolog. We simultaneously sequenced eight genes from twenty individuals from each of 24 populations, and found over 100 polymorphic sites in each homeolog. For two sites, we estimated allele frequencies using the number of reads and then validated these estimations by making individual-based estimations. Pool-Seq using our bioinformatic pipeline allows efficient evaluation of nucleotide polymorphisms in a large number of individuals, even in allopolyploid species.
Activity of Weekly Paclitaxel in Advanced Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer

Objective:We evaluated efficacy and toxicity of weekly paclitaxel in metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). Materials and Methods:Patients received weekly paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 by 1-hour intravenous infusion. A course of therapy consisted of 6 weekly treatments and 2 weeks rest. PSA response was defined as a PSA decrease not less than 50%, maintained for 4 weeks with stable or improved performance status. Results:The study enrolled 43 patients with metastatic HRPC diagnosed a median of 10.5 months before. Median age was 69 years (range, 58–86 years). Five had previous radioisotopes treatment for bone pain, 15 had previous treatment of metastatic hormone-refractory disease, mainly estramustine. The median number of weeks of therapy delivered each patient was 8 (range, 1–24 weeks; cumulative, 369 weeks). PSA response was registered in 13 patients of 36 evaluable for PSA response (36.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 20.8–53.8), with a median duration of 4.2 months. Among 16 patients evaluable for objective response, 5 partial responses (31.2%; 95% CI, 11.0–58.7) and 9 stable diseases were registered. Eleven (42.3%) of 26 patients presenting with cancer-related symptoms had improvement. Median survival time was 12.8 months (95% CI, 10.1–15.5) Therapy was associated with acceptable hematological toxicity (anemia grade 3, 16%; neutropenia grade 3–4, 12%) and moderate nonhematologic toxicities (thrombosis/embolism 10%; fatigue all grades, 60%). Conclusion:Docetaxel every 3 weeks is the standard of care for metastatic HRPC, but our results suggest some activity and an acceptable toxicity of weekly paclitaxel.
Pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and clinical evaluation of aliskiren for hypertension treatment

Importance of the field: Aliskiren, a drug which inhibits the initial and rate-limiting step of the renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS), recently approved for the treatment of hypertension, may become a reasonable therapeutic choice in a broad number of clinical conditions sharing an increased cardiovascular risk, where the inhibition of the RAAS has been shown to be beneficial. Areas covered in this review: The present review summarizes the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of aliskiren along with the clinical trials that took into account the effects of aliskiren on blood pressure control and on a number of renal and cardiovascular end points. The specific effects of aliskiren on different populations (e.g., elderly hypertensives, patients with diabetes and hypertension, patients with hypertension and renal impairment) are discussed. What the reader will gain: The review discusses the most recent discoveries of the cardiovascular and renal effects of aliskiren, including a comprehensive discussion of the ongoing trials and of the areas of remaining uncertainty. Take home message: Aliskiren is a promising drug that may become a convenient choice in several clinical conditions. The full spectrum of the beneficial effects of aliskiren will be fully elucidated when the results of the large ongoing trials become available.
Bayesian Learning of Other Agents' Finite Controllers for Interactive POMDPs

We consider an autonomous agent operating in a stochastic, partially-observable, multiagent environment, that explicitly models the other agents as probabilistic deterministic finite-state controllers (PDFCs) in order to predict their actions. We assume that such models are not given to the agent, but instead must be learned from (possibly imperfect) observations of the other agents' behavior. The agent maintains a belief over the other agents' models, that is updated via Bayesian inference. To represent this belief we place a flexible stick-breaking distribution over PDFCs, that allows the posterior to concentrate around controllers whose size is not bounded and scales with the complexity of the observed data. Since this Bayesian inference task is not analytically tractable, we devise a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to approximate the posterior distribution. The agent then embeds the result of this inference into its own decision making process using the interactive POMDP framework. We show that our learning algorithm can learn agent models that are behaviorally accurate for problems of varying complexity, and that the agent's performance increases as a result.
INTERPHASE FLUORESCENCE IN SITU HYBRIDIZATION DETECTION OF t(2;13)(q35;q14) IN ALVEOLAR RHABDOMYOSARCOMA—A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL IN MINIMALLY INVASIVE BIOPSIES

The identification of t(2;13)(q35;q14) is a useful aid in the accurate diagnosis of rhabdomyosarcoma, distinguishing it from other small round cell tumours and supporting the distinction between alveolar and embryonal forms. Cytogenetic analysis is difficult and with the increased use of minimally invasive biopsy methods and primary chemotherapy, adequate tumour material is not always available. To overcome these difficulties, two‐colour interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to detect t(2;13)(q35;q14) was developed and its utility in assessing minimally invasive biopsies was investigated. Two cosmid clones which mapped proximal or distal to the breakpoint region 13q14 and one yeast artificial chromosome clone that mapped distal to the 2q35 breakpoint were identified. In interphase cells containing t(2;13)(q35;q14), the configuration of cosmid and yeast artificial chromosome signals demonstrated the presence of the translocation. Five cases of rhabdomyosarcoma were analysed by interphase FISH. The t(2;13)(q35;q14) was detected in all four alveolar tumours and was confirmed by cytogenetics in two cases, but was absent in one embryonal tumour. This sensitive detection method is applicable to minimal amounts of fresh or frozen tumour.
Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - T-SQL Querying

Delve into the internal architecture of T-SQL and unveil the power of set-based querying with comprehensive reference and advice from a highly regarded T-SQL expert and members of Microsoft's SQL Server development team. Database developers and administrators will examine the best practices, advanced techniques, sample databases, and code needed to master the programming language built into SQL Server solving complex problems with real-world solutions. Understand logical and physical query processing Learn about set theory, predicate logic, and the relational model Apply a methodology to optimize query tuning Analyze the algorithmic complexity of your queries Solve relational division problems Use CTEs and ranking functions to simplify and optimize solutions Aggregate data with various techniques, including tiebreakers, pivoting, histograms, grouping factors, and grouping sets Use the TOP option to query and modify data Use the MERGE statement to modify data based on conditional logic Maintain and query graph structures with the HIERARCHYID datatype, recursive queries, and other solutions PLUS Improve your logic and get to the heart of querying problems with logic puzzles All the book s code samples will be available for download from the companion Web site.
A novel MOSFET-only current reference with multiple temperature compensations

A novel MOSFET-only current reference is introduced in this paper. In order to achieve temperature invariant, both a PTAT current and an inverse PTAT current are generated for zeroing the temperature effect. Three-level temperature compensations are realized to improve the performance. The circuit, designed for standard 0.35-um CMOS process and constructed only by MOSFETs, can operate in IV or even lower without requiring any special threshold voltage device. The temperature coefficient of this circuit can achieve as low as 16ppm/degC over the range from -10degC~100degC.
Investigation of the improved SDRE control strategy of an AUV based on the optimum of the energy

Energy is always the most limited resource when the AUVs carry on activities in the sea. When the AUV sails near the water surface, it will be disturbed by the sea waves and the AUV will undertake some motions that are not wanted. At last the resistance of the AUV will be increased, because of these not wanted motions. So it is urgent to minimize the resistance caused by the AUV motion so as to decrease the energy consumption on sail. Aim to this problem, in this paper we proposed a dynamic resistance model of AUV, when the AUVs sails in the sea. This model will be used as an evaluation index in the design of the motion control method. To obtain the stabilized position and decrease the energy consumption, the longitudinal model of AUV is built and an improved control method is proposed, which could solve the problem of nonlinear characteristic and parameter uncertainty of the model of AUV. As a result not only the pitch angle of the AUV is decreased by the improved control method efficiently, but also the resistance caused by the pitch motion. Simulation analysis verifies the correctness of the dynamic resistance model and control method.
Perspectives in Cancer Research Growth Factors and Cancer 1

Overview GFs3 may be defined as polypeptides that stimulate cell prolif eration through binding to specific high-affinity cell membrane receptors. These GFs differ from the well-known polypeptide hormones such as insulin and adrenocorticotropic hormone not only in the response elicited but also in the mode of delivery from the secreting to the responding cell. GFs do not usually act in an endocrine manner; they presumably diffuse short-range through intercellular spaces and act locally. Plasma contains few growth factors; several of those present in serum are presumed to be derived from platelets and are released during the clotting process (1-4). The presence of growth factors in platelets is thought to facilitate delivery of growth factors to sites of injury where they may play a major role in wound healing. Besides being found in platelets, GFs are present in a variety of tissues, both adult and embryonic, and are thought to be released by many, if not all, cells in culture (5). Membrane receptors for growth factors are also highly ubiquitous with most cells having receptors for more than one growth factor (6-8). Growth factors have differing cell type specificities; some factors such as those of the hematopoietic system (e.g., interleukin 2 or CSF-1 ) stimulate only one or a few cell types while others such as somatomedin C and EGF stimulate a wide variety of cell types, both epithelial and mesenchymal (see below). It has been demonstrated that multiple growth factors are required for max imum stimulation of specific cell types (9, 10). The requirement of nontransformed cells for more than one growth factor for proliferation is also supported by studies on the growth of cells in defined serum-free media. Unless the cells are neoplastically transformed, more than one growth factor supplement is nec essary for growth (11-13). Exposure of a cell to one growth factor can lower the threshold for mitogenicity of a second growth factor (14). Moreover, growth factors operate at different points of the cell cycle (9, 10). For instance, transient treatment of fibroblasts with PDGF will induce a stable state ("competence")
Non-fatal injuries to the cervical spine facet joints after a fatal motor vehicle crash

Injuries to the lower cervical spine facet joints may be identified in people killed in road traffic crashes. However, many of these injuries are not identified on diagnostic imaging procedures despite histological evidence of injury. This case report illustrates possible non-lethal pathological conditions in the facet joints following fatal road traffic trauma. The cervical spine segments C4 to C7 were removed en bloc and examined with magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and conventional radiology. The specimen was fixated in alcohol, embedded in methylmethacrylate, and divided into 3 mm thick parasaggital slices from where 10μm thick sections were produced and evaluated with light microscopy. Injuries identified on microscopy included haemarthrosis, capsular avulsion, synovial fold contusions and subchondral fractures. None of the injuries were detected on diagnostic imaging or at routine autopsy. Discrete injuries to the cervical spine facet joints were identified using supplemental histological procedures in this case report. Post-mortem diagnostic imaging did not reveal these injuries and future studies should investigate the nature, prevalence and clinical relevance of such lesions.
A new block adaptive filtering algorithm for decision-feedback equalization of multipath fading channels

This paper presents a modified general optimum block adaptive (GOBA) algorithm for block adaptive decision-feedback equalization (DFE) of multipath fading channels. As compared to the sequential fast Kalman algorithm and another previously proposed optimum block adaptive algorithm, the modified GOBA algorithm can achieve better error-rate performance for block adaptive DFE of rapid fading HF radio channels.
The Hausdorff Dimension and Scale-Space Normalization of Natural Images

Fractal Brownian motions have been introduced as a statistical descriptor of natural images. We analyze the Gaussian scale-space scaling of derivatives of fractal images. On the basis of this analysis we propose a method for estimation of the fractal dimension of images and scale-space normalization used in conjunction with automatic scale selection assuming either constant energy over scale or self-similar energy scaling.
Transforming Growth Factor β Receptor Type II Inactivation Promotes the Establishment and Progression of Colon Cancer

Deregulation of members of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β signaling pathway occurs often in colon cancers and is believed to affect the formation of primary colon cancer. Mutational inactivation of TGFBR2 is the most common genetic event affecting the TGF-β signaling pathway and occurs in ∼20–30% of all colon cancers. By mating Fabpl4xat-132 Cre mice with Tgfbr2flx/flx mice, we have generated a mouse model that is null for Tgfbr2 in the colonic epithelium, and in this model system, we have assessed the effect of loss of TGF-β signaling in vivo on colon cancer formation induced by azoxymethane (AOM). We have observed a significant increase in the number of AOM-induced adenomas and adenocarcinomas in the Fabpl4xat-132 Cre Tgfbr2flx/flx mice compared with Tgfbr2flx/flx mice, which have intact TGF-β receptor type II (TGFBR2) in the colon epithelium, and we have found increased proliferation in the neoplasms occurring in the Fabpl4xat-132 Cre Tgfbr2flx/flx mice. These results implicate the loss of TGF-β-mediated growth inhibition as one of the in vivo mechanisms through which TGFBR2 inactivation contributes to colon cancer formation. Thus, we have demonstrated that loss of TGFBR2 in colon epithelial cells promotes the establishment and progression of AOM-induced colon neoplasms, providing evidence from an in vivo model system that TGFBR2 is a tumor suppressor gene in the colon.
A new face database and evaluation of face recognition techniques

This paper introduces ELA5, a new image database that is suitable for experimentation within the face recognition domain. Its design attempts to cover a variety of scenarios encompassing pose and illumination variations, different facial expressions and occlusion. In addition, established computational techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multilinear PCA, combined with Fisher/Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) are evaluated and comparative results display their strengths and weaknesses in settings that simulate real-world conditions.
Effects of Ionic Strength on Ionized Calcium Measured Using Reference Electrode Liquid Junctions of Varying Design and Composition

Five commercial analysers were used to measure ionized calcium in aqueous and protein solutions which contained the same amount of calcium but had sodium chloride concentrations ranging from 100 to 150 mmol/L. In aqueous solutions measured activity fell significantly with increasing ionic strength while in protein solutions it increased. When isotonic sodium chloride was substituted for the hypertonic potassium chloride reference electrode liquid junction of an analyser with an open junction, there was a marked positive change in the effect of ionic strength in both aqueous and protein solutions. In contrast, when either isotonic sodium chloride or potassium chloride was substituted for the hypertonic potassium chloride of an instrument with a membrane-restricted junction, there was no effect on the change of measured values with ionic strength. Increasing the protein concentration by ultrafiltration did not change ionized calcium values when isotonic reference solutions were used with either open or membrane-restricted junctions. Because membrane-restricted isotonic junctions respond like hypertonic junctions to changes in sample ionic strength but do not exhibit protein interference, they may prove to have advantages over both open isotonic junctions and all configurations of hypertonic junction for measurements in patients.