Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantitation of specific binding of orosomucoid to cultured microvascular endothelium: role in capillary permeability.

Orosomucoid (also known as alpha 1-acid glycoprotein) is a highly sialylated, polyanionic serum glycoprotein. Its presence in vascular perfusates alters microvascular permeability, presumably by binding to the endothelial glycocalyx, but the rest of its functions remains unknown. In this study, we assess the binding of bovine serum orosomucoid (BSO) to the surface of bovine pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (BLMVEC) in culture at 4 degrees C. The binding of radioiodinated BSO (125I-BSO) reached equilibrium after 10 min of incubation, was not calcium dependent, and was reversible by greater than 80% in 30 min. The binding of 125I-BSO was competed with unlabeled BSO but not by transferrin, immunoglobulin, gelatin, ovalbumin, mannan, fucoidan, mucin, or asialomucin. In addition, binding was not affected by the presence of galactose, glucose, fucose, mannose, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine, or N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. This binding behavior is not consistent with carbohydrate recognition by lectin-like molecules such as the asialoglycoprotein receptor. Scatchard analysis of the BSO binding to BLMVEC produced a concave-upward shaped curve, which revealed a higher affinity binding component with an apparent equilibrium affinity constant (Kd) of 8.6 nM and a maximum receptor number of 40,000/cell and revealed a moderate affinity component with a Kd of 9.1 microM with a maximum binding of 10(7) binding sites per cell. Other blood vessel-associated cells clearly bound less BSO with a lower binding affinity than the BLMVEC monolayers. From the binding data, we estimated the total increase in the negative charge of the glycocalyx with orosomucoid binding to be approximately 17 meq/l. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Collagenase digestion and mechanical disaggregation as a method to extract and immunophenotype tumour lymphocytes in cutaneous T‐cell lymphomas

Various enzymatic or mechanical methods have been proposed in the past to dissociate cells from different solid tissues. An automated mechanical disaggregation device (Medimachine™) has recently been proposed. Unfortunately, most of these techniques are associated with a high cellular damage and a low cell recovery and are difficult to apply to skin biopsies. In this paper, we propose a combined enzymatic and mechanical method based on Medimachine™, useful for the isolation of skin infiltrating T‐lymphocytes from small cutaneous biopsies. As this method is easy and allows for a more correct qualitative and quantitative cytofluorimetric analysis of the lymphocyte subsets, it may be useful in the immunophenotyping of cutaneous T‐cell lymphomas.
Impact of customer load characteristics on voltage stability assessment in smart grids using synchrophasor measurements

The major cause of some recent blackouts around the world has been attributed to the heavy loading conditions compounded by the lack of real-time measurements and tools required for effectively monitoring these load conditions and their characteristics. The existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)/Energy Management System (EMS) platforms are usually based on unsynchronized SCADA measurements with a slow reporting rate of 1 measurement every 2-10 seconds. Synchrophasor measurements from Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) are increasingly being used to replace SCADA measurements because they are time-synchronized and can have a reporting rate of up to 240 measurements every second. This paper investigates the impact of customer load modelling, load composition, and load characteristics on power system voltage stability using real-time synchrophasor measurements obtained from PMUs. Voltage stability assessment indices are applied in this investigation in order to accurately determine the power system's transfer limits and reduce the system's operational uncertainties. Results for four case studies carried out using the 10-bus multimachine benchmark test system and a `proof-of-concept' testbed are presented. The testbed is implemented using industrial-grade equipment comprising of the Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS), PMUs, Phasor Data Concentrators (PDCs), Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), communication network switches, and GPS satellite clock.
DR AF T Speech and Language Processing : An introduction to speech recognition , computational linguistics and natural language processing

As we will see, estimators like N-grams that assign a conditional probability to possible next words can be used to assign a joint probability to an entire sentence. Whether estimating probabilities of next words or of whole sequences, the N-gram model is one of the most important tools in speech and language processing. N-grams are essential in any task in which we have to identify words in noisy, ambiguous input. In speech recognition, for example, the input speech sounds are very confusable and many words sound extremely similar. Russell and Norvig (1995) give an intuition from handwriting recognition for how probabilities of word sequences can help. In the movie Take the Money and Run, Woody Allen tries to rob a bank with a sloppily written hold-up note that the teller incorrectly reads as “I have a gub”. Any speech and language processing system could avoid making this mistake by using the knowledge that the sequence “I have a gun” is far more probable than the non-word “I have a gub” or even “I have a gull”. N-gram models are also essential in statistical machine translation. Suppose we are translating a Chinese source sentence and as part of the process we have a set of potential rough English translations:
Performance Overhead of Haxe Programming Language for Cross-Platform Game Development

Video game industry has become the largest entertainment based industry, surpassing both the film and the music industry in terms of revenue. Costs of game development are rising with a number of platforms one has to support. In today’s competitive industry, it is necessary to support as many platforms as possible to remain profitable. One way to cut down on time spent on porting the game to other platforms, is to use cross-platform programming languages and development frameworks. Even though such frameworks allow drastic reduction of development time spent on making sure games work on all intended platforms, they are not without cost. The cost in this case is mainly in reduced performance, compared to games developed in their native development environments. This paper evaluates performance overhead of a relatively new programming language (less than a decade old) called Haxe, which is built especially for cross-platform development. We have implemented the same game in both its native environment and in the Haxe programming language, from which the game is cross-compiled to run in the native environment. The authors tested developed games on three different hardware configurations, with three different complexity settings, and the results show that even though performance overhead of cross-compilation is not insignificant, the overall reduction in development time attained by developing in Haxe presents a viable option for cross-platform game development, with positive aspects outweighing the negatives.
Effects of chlorpyrifos on the catalytic efficiency and expression level of acetylcholinesterases in the bivalve mollusk Scapharca inaequivalvis

Three acetylcholinesterase (AChE) forms were detected and recovered from foot or gill tissues of the benthonic bivalve mollusk Scapharca inaequivalvis. A study was performed to investigate changes in catalytic and hydrodynamic features of these enzymes, as well as in their expression levels, after a 4‐d or a 15‐d exposure to a sublethal concentration (0.1 μl/L) of the pesticide chlorpyrifos (CPF). Both considered organs hold, in either CPF‐exposed or untreated animals, two nonamphiphilic AChE forms, G2 and G4, which copurified on a procainamide‐containing affinity gel and were separated by density gradient centrifugation. A third AChE form, an amphiphilic membrane‐anchored G2, was also purified on the same affinity matrix from both organs. All enzymatic forms are true AChEs and are poorly inhibited by CPF. They show different increases in the maximum velocity (Vmax) and in the Michaelis constant (Km) values after CPF exposure. Consequently, catalytic efficiency of AChEs, as defined by the ratio Vmax:Km, rises in the gills and drops in the foot. This would produce an overexpression of AChE‐specific mRNAs. The effect was longer lasting in the foot. The combined results indicate that overexpression of enzymes in the presence of organophosphate (OP) may be a consequence of OP resistance itself. Again, the resistance of the organism to CPF seem to depend mainly on the resulting increase in AChE content.
An Efficient Soft Shadow Mapping for Area Lights in Various Shapes and Colors

SUMMARY Shadow is an important e ﬀ ect that makes virtual 3D scenes more realistic. In this paper, we propose a fast and correct soft shadow generation method for area lights of various shapes and colors. To conduct e ﬃ cient as well as accurate visibility tests, we exploit the complexity of shadow and area light color. key words
Currency Mismatches, Balance Sheet Effects and Hedging in Chilean Non-Financial Corporations

Using a new database on the currency composition of assets and liabilities, this paper explores the determinants and consequences of currency mismatches in Chilean non-financial firms. As in previous firm level studies for Chile, we find that in periods following a depreciation firms with higher dollar debt do not underperform their peso counterparts. However, once we adequately control for differences in the currency composition of assets, income and net derivative positions, we do find a significant balance sheet effect. In addition, we find that derivatives play a role in insulating firm level investment from exchange rate shocks. In line with previous studies, we also find evidence of currency matching in Chilean corporates. Firms in Chile actively reduce the risks associated with exchange rate exposure by matching the currency composition of their debt with that of their income and assets, and by taking on derivatives if no "real" hedge is available. Finally, we find significant changes in the level of net currency exposure after the exchange rate was floated in 1999. We argue that one possible interpretation of these results is due to the effect of higher exchange rate variance on the relative risk of domestic and foreign debt.
Cloning, Expression of the Human Substance K Receptor, and Analysis of Its Role in Mitogenesis

The primary strudure of the human substance K receptor was established from the sequences of complementary DNA clones isolated from a human jejunal complementary DNA library. It consists of 398 amino acids, including seven putative transmembrane regions. The gene for the human substance K receptor was localized to chromosome region 10p13-10q23, a region with frequent chromosomal abnormalities. The human substance K receptor was expressed in transfeded NIH-3T3 cells lacking endogenous substance K receptors, and Scatchard analysis of 125I labeled substance K binding indicates approximately 100,000 receptors/cell with a single dissociation constant of 12 nM. Covalent cross-linking experiments utilizing 125I-substanceK and three different chemical cross-linking reagents (disuccinimidyl suberate, disuccinimidyl tartrate, or 1-ethyl-3-(3dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide-HCI) demonstrate an apparent molecular weight of 45,000, consistent with little or no N-linked glycosylation. The binding of substance K to its receptor on transfeded cells led to a rapid increase in the produdion of total inositol phosphates and the release of Ca2� from internal stores. Growth of the cells transfeded with the human substance K receptor is stimulated by the addition of substance K to the medium to a level similar to 10% serum. Therefore, the human substance K receptor can function as a growth fador receptor when expressed in mouse 3T3 cells.
Spring-On-Tip Nanolithography Probes

This paper reports a new scanning nanolithography probe with spring-on-tip design. Conventional scanning probes consist of cantilevers with tips at distal ends. The cantilevers provide necessary spring softness for the tips. Unlike traditional pyramidal-shaped scanning tips with solid faces, the sidewalls of the new reported tips are modified to contain folded spring structures to reduce the overall force constants of the scanning probes. We used nano-resolution focused ion beam milling to modify micrometer-sized solid faces of traditional tips. This allows greater tip integration density while achieving low force constants. Designs are optimized using finite element simulation. We also demonstrated sub-100-nm scanning probe lithography using such nanolithography probes.
Symmetrized Method with Optimized Second-Order Conditions for the Helmholtz Equation

A schwarz type domain decomposition method for the Helmholtz equation is considered. The interface conditions involve second order tangential derivatives which are optimized (OO2, Optimized Order 2) for a fast convergence. The substructured form of the algorithm is symmetrized so that the symmetric-QMR algorithm can be used as an accelerator of the convergence. Numerical results are shown. We consider the following type of problem: Find u such that L(u) = f in Ω (1) C(u) = g on ∂Ω (2) where L and C are partial differential operators. We consider Schwarz-type methods for the solving of this problem. The original Schwarz algorithm is based on a decomposition of the domain Ω into overlapping subdomains and the solving of Dirichlet boundary value problems in the subdomains. It has been proposed in [15] to use of more general boundary conditions for the subproblems in order to use a nonoverlapping decomposition of the domain. The convergence speed is also increased dramatically. More precisely, the computational domain Ω is decomposed into N nonoverlapping subdomains:
Lymphotactin enhances the in-vitro immune efficacy of dendritoma formed by dendritic cells and mouse hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Objective: To investigate the in-vitro antitumor immune responses of dendritoma formed by mouse hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and lymphotactin (Lptn) gene modified dendritic cells (DCs). Method: DCs prepared from mouse bone marrow were genetically modified by lymphotactin adenovirus, and fused with H22 cells by polyethylene glycol (PEG). RT-PCR and ELISA were employed to identify lymphotactin expression at mRNA and protein level. Cell phenotypes and fusion efficiency was detected by FACS. The stimulatory effect of DC on T cells was detected by mixed lymphocyte reaction. The cytotoxicity activity against H22 cells was assayed by LDH method. Results: Lymphotactin could be efficiently expressed by DCLptn/H22 hybridoma. DCLptn/H22 cells could induce potent T cell proliferation effect and generate strong cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) reaction against allogenic H22 cells. Conclusion: Lymphotactin genetic modification could enhance the in vitro immune activity of the dendritoma.
Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke Management: Present and Future

Stroke remains the leading cause of disability and the third leading cause of death. Despite advances in treatment, the early and later outcomes remain poor with a high rate of death and or disability. Strategies for prevention have assumed a central role. Given the close relationship between advancing age, atrial fibrillation, and increasing stroke, there is great interest in this large specific population of patients. Although warfarin has been the cornerstone of therapy for stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation, it is often not used because of absolute or relative contraindications, or is ineffective because of poor control of the international normalized ratio (INR). The relative risk-benefit ratio of stroke prevention versus bleeding hazard plays a central role in therapeutic decisions. New pharmacologic approaches have been studied, most recently direct thrombin inhibitors. These drugs may be associated with less bleeding than warfarin, although there continues to be incremental bleeding risk over a patient's lifetime. In patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, device strategies are being tested. These are based upon the information that in such patients, stroke arises from thrombus in the left atrial appendage in 90% of cases. Left atrial appendage occlusion has now been tested in a randomized clinical trial. In this trial, device closure was found to be noninferior to warfarin for prevention of all-cause stroke, cardiac death, and systemic embolization. There was an early safety hazard typically related to periprocedural pericardial effusions; however, subsequent experience has continued to document excellent efficacy and improved safety profiles. New randomized trials and registries continue to explore the potential for device placement as an alternative to anticoagulant therapy for stroke prevention in this group of patients.
Utilization of the auditory consonant trigram test to screen for cognitive impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis: comparison with the paced auditory serial addition test

Several screening methods have been evaluated, but most of them are insensitive to MS-related cognitive impairment. The Auditory Consonant Trigram (ACT) test, which contains core features required for a working memory task, has been used to test neuro-cognitive function in different samples of patients to examine the status of working memory. The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between ACT and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), and the usefulness of ACT for evaluating the cognitive impairment in MS in a brief visit. A total of 109 consecutive patients with definite MS were included. The patients were administered ACT, PASAT and EDSS. Mean PASAT score and mean ACT score were 46.199-8.51 and 45.309-9.07, respectively. Correlations between EDSS and PASAT, and EDSS and ACTwere moderately strong. The correlation between ACT and PASATwas very strong (r=0.831, P<0.01). The mean time required to perform ACT was significantly shorter than PASAT (7.25±4.72 and 14.70±6.97 minutes, respectively). In conclusion, as a relatively brief measure of working memory, ACT was well accepted by MS patients and has a strong correlation with PASAT. Thus, ACT might be used for rapid evaluation of cognitive impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis.
A Review on the Relationship Between Food Structure, Processing, and Bioavailability

This review highlights the effects of processing and food matrix on bioaccessibility and bioavailability of functional components. Human digestive system is reviewed as an element in bioavailability. Methods for bioaccessibility and bioavailability determination are described. Information about the location of functional compounds in the tissue is presented to portray the matrix information. Research data on the effects of food matrix and processing on bioaccessibility and bioavailability are summarized. Finally, trends in the development of functional component delivery systems are included.
Design of biped walking robots having antagonistic driven joints using nonlinear spring mechanism

The authors are engaged in studies of biped walking robots from the following two viewpoints. One is a viewpoint as a human science. The other is a viewpoint towards the development of humanoid robots. In the current research concerning a biped walking robot, there is no developed example of a life-size biped walking robot with the antagonistically driven joints by which the human musculo-skeletal system is imitated in lower limbs. Humans are considered to exhibit walking behavior, both efficient and capable of flexibly coping with contact with the outside environment. However, developed biped walking robots can not realize the human walking. Humans can vary the joint stiffness, using nonlinear spring characteristics possessed by the muscle themselves. The function is an indispensable function for a bipedal humanoid. Therefore, the authors designed and built a biped walking robot and a bipedal humanoid having antagonistic driven joints. In this paper, the authors introduce the design method of the biped walking robot. The authors performed walking experiments with the biped walking robot and the bipedal humanoid As a result, quasi-dynamic biped walking, dynamic walking, dynamic dancing with dance music and carry with dynamic walking using antagonist driven joint were realized.
A combined model based on seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average and modified particle swarm optimization algorithm for electrical load forecasting

Electric load prediction is an important decision tool in area of electricity economy. Recently researchers have presented innovative models to improve the forecasting accuracy of short-term electricity series, which is valuable in allowing both consumers and electric power sector to make effective planning. This study proposed novel combing optimization model to improve the precision of electric load forecasting and called SSPM. First, taken the advantage of linear prediction for the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model and non-linear prediction for the support vector machines (SVM) model to combine a new model. Next, the produce results by SARIMA model is regarded as linear component and used SVM model for correcting the residual from SARIMA as non-linear component of forecasting results. Third, in order to show the dynamic relationship of linear and non-linear components, the weight variable of alpha(1) and alpha(2) are proposed that optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with lower error of fitness function, the combining model is applied in the daily electric load data at New South Wales (NSW) in Australia. The experimental results indicate that the proposed optimization model obtains better performance of precise and stability than models of SARIMA and SVM respectively, outperform than conventional artificial neural network (ANN). Although the novel model is applied to electric load forecasting in this paper, it has more scopes for application in a number of areas to gain improvement of forecast accuracy in complex time series.
Set-related neuronal activity in the premotor cortex of rhesus monkeys: effects of changes in motor set

Previous studies have suggested that the premotor cortex plays a role in motor preparation. We have tested this hypothesis in macaque monkeys by examining neuronal activity during an enforced, 1.5—3.0 s delay period between the presentation of an instruction for movement and the onset of that movement. Two targets for movement were available to the monkey, one on the left and one on the right. Illumination of one of the targets served as the instruction for a forelimb movement. It is known that there are cells in the premotor cortex that have directionally specific, sustained activity increases or decreases following such instructions. If the premotor cortex is involved in the preparation for movement in a particular direction, then changing the target from one to the opposite side during the delay period should lead to a pronounced change in sustained neuronal activity. Further, removing the instruction, while still requiring movement to the target, should have little or no sustained effect. Seventy cells showed the predicted activity patterns, thus supporting the view that the premotor cortex plays a role in motor preparation.
Multiwavelength and power equalized SOA laser sources

Multiwavelength and power-equalized operation is demonstrated in a semiconductor optical amplifier ring laser that uses a fiber Fabry-Perot filter. By using single-pass optical feedback, the power-equalized oscillating spectrum is broadened so that simultaneous oscillation of 52 lines spaced at 50 GHz is achieved. The lines had 500 MHz width were power-equalized to within 0.3 dB and the extinction was better than 32 dB.