Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does Vibration Influence the Initiation of Intervertebral Disc Herniation?: An Examination of Herniation Occurrence Using a Porcine Cervical Disc Model

Study Design. In vitro biomechanics, randomized control trial. Objective. The objectives of this study were 2-fold: ﬁrst, to determine the effect of exposure to axial vibration on the initiation and progression of disc herniation; second, to determine the effect of vibration exposure and the presence of disc damage on the mechanical properties of individual lamella from the annulus. Summary of Background Data. Vibration exposure has been linked to a higher reporting of low back pain and disc herniation via epidemiological studies. However, these studies are unable to determine causal relationships. In vitro tissue experimentation assists in determining if certain exposures, for example vibration, actually lead to herniation. Methods. A total of 20 porcine (aged, 6–8 months; similar skeletal development as an adolescent human) functional spine units (FSU) were subjected to repetitive ﬂexion-extension (6000 cycles), which has been shown to produce intervertebral disc herniation. While being exposed to the repeated ﬂexion/extension, 10 FSUs were statically compressed under 1400 N (control group) and the other 10 were cyclically compressed (1260–1540 N) at a frequency of 5 Hz (vibration group). Post collection, intervertebral discs were dissected and individual lamella of the annulus was tested under uniaxial tension to failure (tension applied perpendicular to the orientation of the collagen ﬁbers) to isolate the mechanical properties of the intralamellar matrix. Results. Of the 10 control FSUs, 4 had evidence of herniation initiation while 8 of the 10 vibrated FSUs showed herniation initiation (P ∇ 0.01). No signiﬁcant differences in disc height loss or FSU stiffness were observed between the control and vibrated groups. Further, no signiﬁcant differences were observed between the 2 groups for any of the single lamella mechanical properties. Conclusion. This study conﬁrmed that vibration is a causal mechanical risk factor that signiﬁcantly increases the occurrence of herniation.
Comparative study of heart disease classification

The aim of this paper is to compare two important machine learning platform results for the same dataset. With this aim, we conducted an experiment to classify heart disease both in Matlab© environment and WEKA©, by using six different algorithms. Linear SVM, Quadratic SVM, Cubic SVM, Medium Gaussian SVM, Decision Tree and Ensemble Subspace Discriminant machine learning approaches are used for classifying the heart disease.
Investigation of Optical Flatness of Stretched Membrane Drum-Type Micromirror

Realizing an optically flat and lightweight high-speed scanning micromirror still remains as a challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a drum-type lightweight micromirror that is capable of providing high scanning speed and retaining optical flatness, simultaneously. The fabrication technique and surface deformation analysis of the proposed micromirror are described. The drum-type design is realized using a stretched polycrystalline (poly-) Si membrane across a rigid crystalline (c-) Si ring. The tensile stress in the poly-Si membrane is 300-400 MPa that keeps the membrane flat. At the static condition, the total peak-to-valley surface heights in the center poly-Si membrane of the designed five distinct shapes of micromirrors are varied from 16 to 29 nm. The stress concentration at mirror edge is investigated by the amount of surface distortion which is less than 40 nm (i.e., one-tenth wavelength of the blue light). The maximum total peak-to-valley surface height is about 50 nm and the dominant profile is at the connecting part between the c-Si ring and the poly-Si membrane. The amount of dynamic deformation in the poly-Si membrane is less than 40 nm. This satisfies the optical flatness compared to the wavelength of blue light.
Membrane-Anchored Aβ Accelerates Amyloid Formation and Exacerbates Amyloid-Associated Toxicity in Mice

Pathological, genetic, and biochemical hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are linked to amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide aggregation. Especially misfolded Aβ42 peptide is sufficient to promote amyloid plaque formation. However, the cellular compartment facilitating the conversion of monomeric Aβ to aggregated toxic Aβ species remains unknown. In vitro models suggest lipid membranes to be the driving force of Aβ conversion. To this end, we generated two novel mouse models, expressing either membrane-anchored or nonanchored versions of the human Aβ42 peptide. Strikingly, membrane-anchored Aβ42 robustly accelerated Aβ deposition and exacerbated amyloid-associated toxicity upon crossing with Aβ precursor protein transgenic mice. These in vivo findings support the hypothesis that Aβ–membrane interactions play a pivotal role in early-onset AD as well as neuronal damage and provide evidence to study Aβ–membrane interactions as therapeutic targets.
CHEMICAL MODIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ALPHA CYSTEINE 106 AT THE Vibrio harveyi LUCIFERASE ACTIVE CENTER

Abstract— Vibrio harveyi luciferase, an αβ dimer, was effectively inactivated by treatment with the methylation agent methyl p‐nitrobenzene sulfonate. However, inactivation of luciferase in the presence of excess amounts of this reagent did not follow pseudo‐first‐order kinetics. After taking the autodecay of this reagent into consideration in kinetic analysis, the pseudo‐first‐order constants and subsequently the second‐order rate constant (83 min‐1M‐1 at pH 7 and 23°C) were determined. The inactivation rate can be retarded by the addition of the decanal or the reduced FMN substrate but not by the reaction product FMN. The binding of decanal specifically protected one target residue against modification with a concomitant protection of luciferase against inactivation. A pentapeptide containing this specific target residue was isolated and identified to be Phe‐Gly‐Ile‐X‐Arg with X corresponding to the S‐methylated form of the cysteinyl residue at position 106 of the luciferase α subunit. It is concluded that this reactive αCys‐106 is at the aldelhyde site and is also near the reduced flavin site of luciferase. The modified enzyme exhibited no gross conformational changes detectable by protein fluorescence measurements, which may be due to the small size change of the target cysteinyl residue after methylation. The methylated enzyme still retained the ability to bind one decanal and one reduced FMN without any substantial changes in binding affinities. The cause of luciferase inactivation by the methylation of αCys‐106 has been shown to be the impaired ability to form the 4a‐hydroperoxy‐flavin intermediate from the bound flavin substrate or to stabilize this intermediate.
Cointegration Analysis of the Relationship between the Speed of Regional Economic Growth and That of the Development of Higher Education

This paper analyzes the influence of regional economic (except for Qinghai, Tibet) development on the scale and speed of higher education by the use of co-integration theory, and it makes the whole empirical analysis all the region's economic growth rate and speed of the development of higher education, the promotion of coordination of higher education and economic development. Keywords-cointegration relationship the development of high education;economic growth; Granger causality test
Optimal control based in a mathematical model applied to robotic arms

The major contributions of this paper are as follows: 1) The mathematical model of the cylindrical robotic arm is presented. This model is obtained by using the Euler Lagrange method. 2) The method to obtain the mathematical model of this paper is different to others because they use the Jacobians, the inertia tensors, or the Christoffel symbols, while in this paper, none of these methods is used. 3) It is proposed that the torque or the force used to move each link needs to compensate the initial value of the gravity to obtain the home position. 4) It is proposed that an optimal control is online applied to robotic arms for the regulation case. The proposed optimal control can be online applied to rigid robotic arms. The Riccati equation used in the proposed optimal control is online solved at the same time than the optimal control works. 5) The proposed optimal control is compared with a proportional control for the regulation case where the �rst is better than the second. 6) It is proposed that an optimal control is online applied to robotic arms for a reference point different of zero. The proposed optimal control can be online applied to any kind of rigid robotic arm. The Riccati equation of the proposed optimal control is online solved at the same time than the optimal control works.
Peptide Inhibition of Constitutively Activated Epithelial Na+ Channels Expressed in Xenopus Oocytes*

The hypothesis that 30-amino acid peptides corresponding to the C-terminal portion of the β- and/or γ-rat epithelial sodium channel (rENaC) subunits block constitutively activated ENaC was tested by examining the effects of these peptides on wild-type (wt) rENaC (αβγ-rENaC), truncated Liddle's mutants (αβTγ-, αβγT-, and αβTγT-rENaC), and point mutants (αβYγ-, αβγY-rENaC) expressed inXenopus oocytes. The chord conductances of αβTγ-, αβγT-, and αβTγT-rENaC were 2- or 3-fold greater than for wt αβγ-rENaC. Introduction of peptides into oocytes expressing αβTγ-, αβγT-, and αβTγT-rENaC produced a concentration-dependent inhibition of the amiloride-sensitive Na+ conductances, with apparent dissociation constants (K d ) ranging from 1700 to 160 μm, depending upon whether individual peptides or their combination was used. Injection of peptides alone or in combination into oocytes expressing wt αβγ-rENaC or single-point mutants did not affect the amiloride-sensitive whole-cell currents. The single channel conductances of all the mutant ENaCs were the same as that of wild type (αβγ-). The single channel activities (N·P o) of the mutants were ∼2.2–2.6-fold greater than wt αβγ-rENaC (1.08 ± 0.24,n = 7) and were reduced to 1.09 ± 0.17 by 100 μm peptide mixture (n = 9). The peptides were without effect on the single channel properties of either wt or single-point mutants of rENaC. Our data demonstrate that the C-terminal peptides blocked the Liddle's truncation mutant (αβTγT) expressed in Xenopusoocytes but not the single-point mutants (αβYγ or αβγY). Moreover, the blocking effect of both peptides in combination on αβTγT-rENaC was synergistic.
Planck's Dusty GEMS: Gravitationally lensed high-redshift galaxies discovered with the Planck survey

We present an analysis of CO spectroscopy and infrared-to-millimetre dust photometry of 11 bright far-infrared/submillimetre sources discovered through a combination of the Planck all-sky survey and follow-up Herschel-SPIRE imaging – “Planck’s Dusty Gravitationally Enhanced subMillimetre Sources. ” Each source has a spectroscopic redshift z = 2.2–3.6 from a blind redshift search with EMIR at the IRAM 30-m telescope. Interferometry obtained at IRAM and the SMA, and optical/near-infrared imaging obtained at the CFHT and the VLT reveal morphologies consistent with strongly gravitationally lensed sources. Additional photometry was obtained with JCMT/SCUBA-2 and IRAM/GISMO at 850 μm and 2 mm, respectively. The spectral energy distributions of our sources peak near either the 350 μm or 500 μm bands of SPIRE. All objects are bright, isolated point sources in the 18′′ beam of SPIRE at 250 μm, with apparent far-infrared luminosities of up to 3× 1014 L (not correcting for the lensing effect). Their morphologies and sizes, CO line widths and luminosities, dust temperatures, and far-infrared luminosities provide additional empirical evidence that these are strongly gravitationally lensed high-redshift galaxies on the submm sky. We discuss their dust masses and temperatures, and use additional WISE 22-μm photometry and template fitting to rule out a significant contribution of AGN heating to the total infrared luminosity. Six sources are detected in FIRST at 1.4 GHz. Four have flux densities brighter than expected from the local far-infrared-radio correlation, but in the range previously found for high-z submm galaxies, one has a deficit of FIR emission, and 6 are consistent with the local correlation, although this includes 3 galaxies with upper limits. The global dust-to-gas ratios and star-formation efficiencies of our sources are predominantly in the range expected from massive, metal-rich, intense, high-redshift starbursts. An extensive multi-wavelength follow-up programme is being carried out to further characterize these sources and the intense star-formation within them.
Robust Facial Expression Recognition Against Illumination Variation Appeared in Mobile Environment

Smart phones such as the iPhone and Android phones have become increasingly popular in the recent market. Diverse applications can be implemented on smart phones since their performance has been improved. One of the promising application areas would be reading the emotional state of a human being and using it for communicating with the computer. In this paper, we present a robust facial expression system implemented on a smart phone, which has employed the Active Appearance Model (AAM). To fix degradation of the AAM's performance against illumination variation, a Difference Of Gaussian (DOG) kernel was used before the AAM stage. A neural network, which had been trained with the Cohn-Kanade Database, was used for classification of facial expression states. Results and future work are described.
A Third Moment Adjusted Test Statistic for Small Sample Factor Analysis

Goodness-of-fit testing in factor analysis is based on the assumption that the test statistic is asymptotically chi-square, but this property may not hold in small samples even when the factors and errors are normally distributed in the population. Robust methods such as Browne's (1984) asymptotically distribution-free method and Satorra Bentler's (1988, 1994) mean scaling statistic were developed under the presumption of nonnormality in the factors and errors. This article finds new application to the case where factors and errors are normally distributed in the population but the skewness of the obtained test statistic is still high due to sampling error in the observed indicators. An extension of Satorra Bentler's statistic is proposed that not only scales the mean but also adjusts the degrees of freedom based on the skewness of the obtained test statistic in order to improve its robustness under small samples. A simple simulation study shows that this third moment adjusted statistic asymptotically performs on par with previously proposed methods and at a very small sample size offers superior Type I error rates under a properly specified model. Data from Mardia, Kent, and Bibby's (1980) study of students tested for their ability in 5 content areas that were either open or closed book were used to illustrate the real-world performance of this statistic.
NG2 Proteoglycan‐Dependent Contributions of Pericytes and Macrophages to Brain Tumor Vascularization and Progression

The NG2 proteoglycan promotes tumor growth as a component of both tumor and stromal cells. Using intracranial, NG2‐negative B16F10 melanomas, we have investigated the importance of PC and Mac NG2 in brain tumor progression. Reduced melanoma growth in Mac‐NG2ko and PC‐NG2ko mice demonstrates the importance of NG2 in both stromal compartments. In each genotype, the loss of PC–endothelial cell interaction diminishes the formation of endothelial junctions and assembly of the basal lamina. Tumor vessels in Mac‐NG2ko mice have smaller diameters, reduced patency, and increased leakiness compared to PC‐NG2ko mice, thus decreasing tumor blood supply and increasing hypoxia. While the reduced PC interaction with endothelial cells in PC‐NG2ko mice results from the loss of PC activation of β1 integrin signaling in endothelial cells, reduced PC–endothelial cell interaction in Mac‐NG2ko mice results from 90% reduced Mac recruitment. The absence of Mac‐derived signals in Mac‐NG2ko mice causes the loss of PC association with endothelial cells. Reduced Mac recruitment may be due to diminished activation of integrins in the absence of NG2, causing decreased Mac interaction with endothelial adhesion molecules that are needed for extravasation. These results reflect the complex interplay that occurs between Mac, PC, and endothelial cells during tumor vascularization.
Underdetermined blind source separation algorithm of 220kV substation noise based on SCA

With the increasing construction of high-voltage substation, the distance between resident area and substation is getting closer. Noise of substations has been an unavoidable problem which can be controlled better by analyzing it. Otherwise, the operational conditions of equipment in substation can be predicted by comparing the measured noise signals with the signals during normal operation. Corona noise emitted by high voltage transmission line, environmental quasi-stationary noise and noumenon noise generated by electric appliances are three main types of the noise signals in the substation which can't be measured independently by traditional methods. An Underdetermined Blind Source Separation (UBSS) algorithm based on the Sparse Component Analysis (SCA) was proposed to separate the mixed 220kV substation noise in this paper which can be applied to overcome the shortage of Independent Component Analysis (ICA). The feasibility of the algorithm was verified in the simulation and the experiment before using it to separate the substation noise. An approach to feature extraction based on the wavelet modulus maxima was employed to analyze the separated noise. All the results show that SCA can separat mixed substation noise efficiently.
Angiographic and physiologic assessment of coronary flow and myocardial perfusion in the cardiac catheterization laboratory

Introduction: For many years, coronary angiography has been used to define coronary artery lesions. Angiographic assessment of coronary flow using the TIMI flow grade system (TFG) and the TIMI frame count (TFC) methods have played a significant role in our understanding of coronary artery disease and they have proved useful in prediction of long-term clinical outcomes after myocardial infarction. The availability of invasive techniques to assess the physiological significance of coronary artery lesions allows a more rationale approach to the management of patients, particularly those with intermediate lesions. The TIMI scores and other angiographic parameters such as the TIMI myocardial perfusion grade (TMPG) are now integrated into clinical practice, as are the use of flow wires and pressure recording wires. Other angiographic techniques, (e.g. digital subtraction angiography), which at this time are predominantly research tools, will require software integration into the imaging chain to facilitate real-time analysis. Conclusion: In this article, we provide a comprehensive descriptive review of the different means of assessment of coronary flow in the cardiac catheterization laboratory, focusing on scores deducted from angiography as well as invasive haemodynamic measurements of blood flow and pressure.
Acetylation of the Yeast Histone H4 N Terminus Regulates Its Binding to Heterochromatin Protein SIR3*

Heterochromatin at yeast telomeres and silent mating (HM) loci represses adjacent genes and is formed by the binding and spreading of silencinginformation regulators (SIR proteins) along histones. This involves the interaction between the C terminus of SIR3 and the N terminus of histone H4. Since H4 is hypoacetylated in heterochromatin we wished to determine whether acetylation is involved in regulating the contacts between SIR3 and H4. Binding of H4 peptide (residues 1–34) acetylated at lysines Lys-5, Lys-8, Lys-12, and Lys-16 to an immobilized SIR3 protein fragment (residues 510–970) was investigated using surface plasmon resonance. We find that acetylation of H4 lysines reduces binding (K a ) of H4 to SIR3 in a cumulative manner so that the fully acetylated peptide binding is decreased ∼50-fold relative to unacetylated peptide. Thus, by affecting SIR3-H4 binding, acetylation may regulate the formation of heterochromatin. These data help explain the hypoacetylated state of histone H4 in heterochromatin of eukaryotes.
Hantavirus infections for the clinician: From case presentation to diagnosis and treatment

Hantaviruses cause Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS; also called Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome) in the Americas and Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) in Asia and Europe. In Scandinavia and northern Europe, a milder form of HFRS is prevalent, termed nephropathica epidemica (NE). HPS presents with acute respiratory failure, mild-moderate renal failure, thrombocytopenia, and reactive lymphocytosis. HFRS has pronounced renal dysfunction and less prominent respiratory involvement, with thrombocytopenia and hemorrhagic findings. Both syndromes have long-term sequelae. Common symptomatology is due to underlying pathophysiology, mainly increased vascular permeability and immune activation. Laboratory and imaging markers predicting disease severity are under research, allowing for more efficient patient management. Diagnosis is presumptive, based on typical clinical findings and patient history of likely rodent exposure. Confirmation of diagnosis is by serological testing and/or RT-PCR. Treatment is mainly comprised of cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal function support, with fluid and electrolyte homeostasis being crucial components of care. In HPS, the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in decompensated patients has also shown to be beneficial.
Frequent Long-Range Epigenetic Silencing of Protocadherin Gene Clusters on Chromosome 5q31 in Wilms' Tumor

Wilms' tumour (WT) is a pediatric tumor of the kidney that arises via failure of the fetal developmental program. The absence of identifiable mutations in the majority of WTs suggests the frequent involvement of epigenetic aberrations in WT. We therefore conducted a genome-wide analysis of promoter hypermethylation in WTs and identified hypermethylation at chromosome 5q31 spanning 800 kilobases (kb) and more than 50 genes. The methylated genes all belong to α-, β-, and γ-protocadherin (PCDH) gene clusters (Human Genome Organization nomenclature PCDHA@, PCDHB@, and PCDHG@, respectively). This demonstrates that long-range epigenetic silencing (LRES) occurs in developmental tumors as well as in adult tumors. Bisulfite polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that PCDH hypermethylation is a frequent event found in all Wilms' tumor subtypes. Hypermethylation is concordant with reduced PCDH expression in tumors. WT precursor lesions showed no PCDH hypermethylation, suggesting that de novo PCDH hypermethylation occurs during malignant progression. Discrete boundaries of the PCDH domain are delimited by abrupt changes in histone modifications; unmethylated genes flanking the LRES are associated with permissive marks which are absent from methylated genes within the domain. Silenced genes are marked with non-permissive histone 3 lysine 9 dimethylation. Expression analysis of embryonic murine kidney and differentiating rat metanephric mesenchymal cells demonstrates that Pcdh expression is developmentally regulated and that Pcdhg@ genes are expressed in blastemal cells. Importantly, we show that PCDHs negatively regulate canonical Wnt signalling, as short-interfering RNA–induced reduction of PCDHG@ encoded proteins leads to elevated β-catenin protein, increased β-catenin/T-cell factor (TCF) reporter activity, and induction of Wnt target genes. Conversely, over-expression of PCDHs suppresses β-catenin/TCF-reporter activity and also inhibits colony formation and growth of cancer cells in soft agar. Thus PCDHs are candidate tumor suppressors that modulate regulatory pathways critical in development and disease, such as canonical Wnt signaling.