Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular characterization of estuarine bacterial communities that use high- and low-molecular weight fractions of dissolved organic carbon

The composition of bacterial communities growing at the expense of high-molecular weight (HMW; >1000 Da) and low-molecular weight (LMW; <1000 Da) fractions of dissolved organic carbon from a southeastern US estuary was determined by sequencing and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of 16S rRNA gene amplicons in 2 enrichment stud- ies. 16S rDNA sequence analysis indicated that the bacterial communities growing on the LMW frac- tion were dominated by γ- and e-Proteobacteria related to Pseudomonas fluorescens and Arcobacter nitrofigilis (accounting for 90% of the clones) while the communities using the HMW fraction were dominated by α -, β-, and γ-Proteobacteria and Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides related to Rhizobium-Agrobacterium, Janthinobacterium lividum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Marinobacterium georgiense, Pseudoalteromonas, and Sphingobacterium comitans (accounting for 98% of the clones). Methylotrophic bacteria were present in the inoculum community but not found in either LMW or HMW enrichments. T-RFLP analysis of the enrichment communities showed measurable changes in community composition during the enrichment period, and companion respiration assays confirmed utilization of sufficient HMW and LMW carbon to support several bacterial generations. Although the composition of the estuarine inoculum used for the 2 enrichment studies (conducted in April 1997 and May 1999) was quite similar, the communities developing on the HMW and LMW fractions differed between experiments, potentially reflecting temporal variations in the chemical composition of the dissolved organic carbon.
Subjective Effect of September 11, 2001 Among Pregnant Women

Prior history of trauma may sensitize individuals to subsequent trauma, including terrorist attacks. Using a convenience sample of secondary, cross-sectional data, pregnant women were grouped based on lifetime interpersonal violence history. Cumulative risk theory was used to evaluate the association of lifetime interpersonal violence history and subjective impact of the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorists attacks. Using hierarchical linear regression, cumulative risk theory was partially supported. Women with a history of only one type of interpfersonal violence reported greater effect of 9/11 than did women without a history, but women with both types of violence did not report a greater effect of 9/11 compared to women endorsing history of one type. These data corroborate the literature in that level of exposure to terrorist-related trauma predicts subjective reaction to the attacks. Future research with a larger sample and standardized instruments is warranted.
Is Allylphosphine a Carbon or a Phosphorus Base in the Gas Phase?

The gas-phase basicity of allylphosphine (2-propenylphosphine) was measured by means of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry techniques. A complete survey of the allylphosphine-H+ potential energy surface, carried out through the use of high-level G2(MP2) and B3LYP/6-311+G(3df,2p) calculations, allows us to conclude that, under low-pressure, low-energy ICR conditions, the interaction between the protonated reference base, BrefH+, and allylphosphine leads to a complex in which BrefH+ attaches to the phosphorus atom of allylphosphine, where the electrostatic potential is strongly attractive. Hence, in the first step only the phosphorus protonated species should be formed. Its isomerization to yield the Cβ-protonated form, which is the global minimum of the potential energy surface, implies a very high activation barrier that cannot be overtaken under normal experimental ICR conditions. Therefore, the main conclusion of our study is that allylphosphine behaves as a phosphorus base in the gas phase, even though the Cβ-protonated structure is the most stable protonated species. We have also shown that both Cβ- and Cγ-protonation triggers a cyclization of the system. An analysis of the bonding of the different protonated species as compared with that of the neutral system is presented.
Comparison of various repetitive DNA elements as genetic markers for strain differentiation and epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Five different genetic elements have been found to be associated with genetic rearrangements in Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains. Of these elements, the insertion sequence IS6110 is presently the most frequently used genetic marker for strain differentiation of M. tuberculosis. In the present study we compared five genetic elements for their potentials to differentiate a given cluster of M. tuberculosis strains. Because of the presence of only a single copy of IS6110 or two IS6110 copies at the same chromosomal locus, a large number of strains could not be differentiated by IS6110 fingerprinting. Most strains, including the low-copy-number IS6110 strains, could be differentiated by fingerprinting with the 36-bp direct repeat or the polymorphic GC-rich repetitive DNA element. Less discriminative power was obtained with the major polymorphic tandem repeat and the insertion element IS1081. One strain which did not contain IS6110 DNA was encountered. Until now, this element has invariantly been found to be present in all M. tuberculosis complex strains. On the basis of classical taxonomic criteria and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, this strain was shown to be a genuine M. tuberculosis strain. Therefore, the use of this element as a target for polymerase chain reaction-facilitated detection of M. tuberculosis should be reconsidered.
Characterization of a Mouse Serotonin 5‐HT3 Receptor Purified from Mammalian Cells

Abstract: A serotonin 5‐HT3 receptor was functionally expressed to high levels and on a large scale in mammalian cells with the Semliki Forest virus system. Conditions were optimized to maximize detergent solubilization of the receptor, while preserving ligand binding activity. An efficient one‐step purification yielding ∼50% of the histidine‐tagged 5‐HT3 receptor was achieved with immobilized metal ion chromatography. The expressed receptor, in both membranes and purified preparations, exhibited wild‐type ligand binding properties, characterized by one class of binding sites. The purity of the receptor was shown by sodium dodecyl sulfate‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, yielding a single band at 65 kDa, and was confirmed by the specific ligand binding activity of ∼5 nmol/mg of protein. Deglycosylation of the receptor reduced the estimated relative molecular mass to 49 kDa. The apparent molecular mass of the functional receptor complex was determined by size exclusion chromatography to be 280 kDa, suggesting that the 5‐HT3 receptor is a pentameric homooligomer. The secondary structure of the 5‐HT3 receptor as determined by circular dichroism appeared to consist of mainly α‐helices (50%) and β‐strands (24%), with minor contributions from nonregular structure (9%). The binding of either agonist or antagonist did not alter the secondary structure of the receptor.
High-Density Recording on Air-Stabilized Flexible Optical Disk

We have developed an optical disk system constructed from a flexible disk and an air stabilizer. The key feature of the system is an extremely small axial runout that has been reduced by 5 microns as a result of the aerodynamic effect of the stabilizer. We experimentally demonstrated that the system can achieve an axial runout of less than 5 microns and enables a recording signal at a density of 0.13 µm/bit.
- 51-Slope Stability Evaluation for the New Railway Embankment using Stochastic Finite Element and Finite Difference Methods

Evaluation of Slope stability is one of the day-to-day practices of geotechnical engineers. Nowadays, different methods are available to evaluate the stability of a particular slope. Despite the advances that have been made in site exploration, evaluating the stability of slopes remains a challenge. Recently, Ethiopia has been trying to construct a newly planned railway routes to connect the country’s development centers and link with ports of neighboring countries. However, this newly planned railway routes will pass in the heart of highly fragile mountainous terrains and earthquake prone regions. Therefore, the prime objective of this paper is to investigate the stability of the railway embankment by using three different stochastic approaches (First Order Reliability Method, Point Estimate Method and Monte Carlo Simulation) with commercially available finite element and finite difference programs. Moreover, the seismic response of the railway Vol. 22 [2017], Bund. 01 52 embankment was studied by using a nonlinear analysis (FLAC2D v 7.0) program. The first order reliability method (FORM), Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) and Point-estimate method (PEM) gave 3.2%, 4.14% and 1.5% of probability of failure respectively. In the mean time, there was no any indication of liquefaction observed due to stiff foundation clay soils and deep groundwater table.
Structure, Specificity, and Mode of Interaction for Bacterial Albumin-binding Modules*

We have determined the solution structure of an albumin binding domain of protein G, a surface protein of group C and G streptococci. We find that it folds into a left handed three-helix bundle similar to the albumin binding domain of protein PAB from Peptostreptococcus magnus. The two domains share 59% sequence identity, are thermally very stable, and bind to the same site on human serum albumin. The albumin binding site, the first determined for this structural motif known as the GA module, comprises residues spanning the first loop to the beginning of the third helix and includes the most conserved region of GA modules. The two GA modules have different affinities for albumin from different species, and their albumin binding patterns correspond directly to the host specificity of C/G streptococci and P. magnus, respectively. These studies of the evolution, structure, and binding properties of the GA module emphasize the power of bacterial adaptation and underline ecological and medical problems connected with the use of antibiotics.
Implementing wavelet transform/mixture of experts network for analysis of electrocardiogram beats

Abstract: Mixture of experts (ME) is a modular neural network architecture for supervised learning. This paper illustrates the use of the ME network structure to guide model selection for classification of electrocardiogram (ECG) beats. The expectation maximization algorithm is used for training the ME so that the learning process is decoupled in a manner that fits well with the modular structure. The ECG signals were decomposed into time–frequency representations using discrete wavelet transforms and statistical features were calculated to depict their distribution. The ME network structure was implemented for ECG beats classification using the statistical features as inputs. To improve classification accuracy, the outputs of expert networks were combined by a gating network simultaneously trained in order to stochastically select the expert that is performing the best at solving the problem. Five types of ECG beats (normal beat, congestive heart failure beat, ventricular tachyarrhythmia beat, atrial fibrillation beat, partial epilepsy beat) obtained from the Physiobank database were classified with an accuracy of 96.89% by the ME network structure. The ME network structure achieved accuracy rates which were higher than those of the stand‐alone neural network models.
Pathogenesis of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus. I. Infection in suckling mice.

The pathogenesis of an attenuated and an unattenuated strain of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus infection in suckling mice as studied by infectivity titrations and direct fluorescent antibody-staining technique was described. Both strains of VEE virus caused a pantropic infection in suckling mice regardless of the concentration of inoculum used or the route of inoculation given. Viral antigen was detected in many tissues, notably in the central nervous system and in the pancreas. However the intensity of antigenic fluorescence was rather weak, making it difficult to discern sequential development of the viral antigen in infected tissues.
Guest Editorial Special Issue on Internet of Things for Smart and Connected Health

The articles in this special section are focused on two major aspects of Internet of things (IoT) technologies for smart and connected health services (SCH): 1) monitoring and assisting individuals by means of smart systems including sensors, devices, and robotics; and 2) creating interoperable digital health information infrastructures to increase medical/health information availability and use. The papers published in this SI provide evidence that SCH tools that rely upon IoT technologiescould significantly improve clinical outcomes and thequality of life of individuals undergoing monitoring.
A Dataset for Exploring User Behaviors in VR Spherical Video Streaming

With Virtual Reality (VR) devices and content getting increasingly popular, understanding user behaviors in virtual environment is important for not only VR product design but also user experience improvement. In VR applications, the head movement is one of the most important user behaviors, which can reflect a user's visual attention, preference, and even unique motion pattern. However, to the best of our knowledge, no dataset containing this information is publicly available. In this paper, we present a head tracking dataset composed of 48 users (24 males and 24 females) watching 18 sphere videos from 5 categories. We carefully record how users watch the videos, how their heads move in each session, what directions they focus, and what content they can remember after each session. Based on this dataset, we show that people share certain common patterns in VR spherical video streaming, which are different from conventional video streaming. We believe the dataset can serve good resource for exploring user behavior patterns in VR applications.
Tri-band GPS antenna with low-multipath ground plane

A single feed circularly polarized antenna is proposed for the GPS application. It is composed of four substrates. The bottom layer of the antenna is a single-fed four-port hybrid ring in order to provide the required equal amplitudes and 90 ° phase shift signals for circular polarization. The other three substrates, each has a square patch to achieve the tri-band performance. The simulated results show that the antenna can cover all GPS bands (L1\L2\L5), which has a 24MHz bandwidth at each operating frequency. It has good impedance matching characteristics in the (1.17–1.6) GHz band. Because of the susceptibility to low-angle multipath, two kinds of ground plane are presented. We compare the performance of the two proposed antennas which have low-multipath ground plane. Our results show that both configurations, when properly optimized, are good candidates for modernized GPS antenna.
Isolation and cross‐amplification of microsatellites in pink abalone (Haliotis corrugata)

Ten novel microsatellite loci were isolated in pink abalone, Haliotis corrugata, using (GT)15 and (CT)15 enriched genomic libraries. Two previously reported Haliotis kamtschatkana microsatellites cross‐amplified in H. corrugata. A set of 12 polymorphic microsatellites were evaluated in a wild population sample (N = 49). The number of alleles ranged from two to 55, and the observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.104 to 0.939 and from 0.213 to 0.982, respectively. Significant deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium at three loci and no linkage disequilibrium were observed. Haliotis corrugata microsatellites cross‐amplified in other abalone species, two in H. fulgens, and seven in H. rufescens.
Deletion by in vivo recombination shows that the 28-kilodalton cytolytic polypeptide from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis is not essential for mosquitocidal activity

The cytA gene encoding the 28-kDa polypeptide of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis crystals was disrupted in the 72-MDa resident plasmid by in vivo recombination, thus indicating that homologous recombination occurs in B. thuringiensis. The absence of the 28-kDa protein in B. thuringiensis did not affect the crystallization of the other toxic components of the parasporal body (68-, 125-, and 135-kDa polypeptides). The absence of the 28-kDa protein abolished the hemolytic activity of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis crystals. However, the mosquitocidal activity of the 28-kDa protein-free crystals did not differ significantly from that of the wild-type crystals when tested on Aedes aegypti and Culex pipiens larvae. The 28-kDa protein contributed slightly to the toxicity to Anopheles stephensi larvae. This indicates that the 28-kDa protein is not essential for mosquitocidal activity, at least against the three species tested.
An ILC-based Minimum Entropy PI Controller for Unknown and Non-Gaussian Stochastic Systems

Abstract In this paper a new adaptive control algorithm is presented for unknown nonlinear and non-Gaussian stochastic systems. The method combines the minimum entropy control with an Iterative Learning Control (ILC) framework, where the control horizon is divided into a number of time-domain intervals called Batches . Within each batch a PI controller is used to control the plant so as to achieve the required tracking performance, where a neural network is used to learn the dynamics of the unknown plant. Between any two adjacent batches, a D-type ILC law is applied to tune the PI control coefficients so that the tracking error entropy for the closed loop system is reduced batch by batch. The analysis on the ILC convergence is made and a set of demonstrable experiment results on a test rig are also provided to show the effectiveness of the obtained adaptive control algorithm.
Tunable impedance matching networks on printed ceramics for output matching of RF-power transistors

This work addresses tunable matching networks fabricated on functional thick film layers of Barium-Strontium-Titanate (BST) for RF-power transistors. The deposition of BST layers is performed in a screen-printing process and the fabricated components are patterned by photolithography. Around 2.0 GHz, the insertion loss varies in a range between 0.7 dB and 1.1 dB depending on the tuning state and frequency, transforming 7.5Ohm to 50 Ohm. For verification, the tunable matching network is implemented as the main part of the output matching of three cells of a bare-die GaN HEMT. The transistor is operated in class AB at 2.0 GHz at 15V and 28V drain voltage with a peak power of 36.9 dBm and 40.1dBm along with 47.1% and 41% drain efficiency respectively, which is an improvement of approximately 10%-points in efficiency and more than 6 dB in power compared to previous work.
Xpipes: a latency insensitive parameterized network-on-chip architecture for multiprocessor SoCs

The growing complexity of customizable embedded multiprocessor architectures for digital media processing will soon require highly scalable network-on-chip based communication infrastructures. Here, we propose xpipes, a scalable and high-performance NoC architecture for multiprocessor SoCs, consisting of soft macros that can be turned into instance-specific network components at instantiation time. The flexibility of its components allows our NoC to support both homogeneous and heterogeneous architectures. The interface with IP cores at the periphery of the network is standardized (OCP-based). Links can be pipelined with a flexible number of stages to decouple data introduction speed from worst-case link delay. Switches are lightweight and support reliable communication for arbitrary link pipeline depths (latency insensitive operation). Xpipes has been described in synthesizable SystemC, at the cycle-accurate and signal-accurate level.
A Programmable Biomolecular Computing Machine with Bacterial Phenotype Output

The main advantage of autonomous biomolecular computing devices over electronic computers is their ability to interact directly with biological systems. No interface is required since all components of molecular computers, including hardware, software, input, and output are molecules that interact in solution along a cascade of programmable chemical events. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that the output of a computation preduced by a molecular finite automaton can be a visible bacterial phenotype. Our 2‐symbol‐2‐state finite automaton utilized linear double‐stranded DNA inputs that were prepared by inserting a string of six base pair symbols into the lacZ gene on the pUC18 plasmid. The computation resulted in a circular plasmid that differed from the original pUC18 by either a 9 base pair (accepting state) or 11 base pair insert (unaccepting state) within the lacZ α region gene. Upon transformation and expression of the resultant plasmids in E. coli, the accepting state was represented by production of functional β‐galactosidase and formation of blue colonies on X‐gal medium. In contrast, the unaccepting state was represented by white colonies due to a shift in the open reading frame of lacZ.
Erythropoietin enhances endogenous haem oxygenase‐1 and represses immune responses to ameliorate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Both erythropoietin (EPO) and haem oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1), an anti‐oxidative stress protein, have proven protective roles in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a reliable animal model of multiple sclerosis. In this study, EPO delivered intraperitoneally could reduce disease severity in myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)–EAE mice. To assess the effect of EPO on endogenous HO‐1 in EAE, we investigated expression of HO‐1 mRNA by real‐time polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR), protein expression centrally and peripherally by Western blot and immunohistochemistry and mean fluorescence intensity of splenic HO‐1 by flow cytometry. A significantly higher expression of HO‐1 in both the central nervous system (CNS) and spleen was shown in EPO‐treated MOG–EAE mice than in controls. We further examined the immunomodulatory effect of EPO in EAE, and via RT–PCR demonstrated significantly lower expression of interferon‐γ, interleukin (IL)‐23, IL‐6 and IL‐17 mRNA, and significantly higher expression of IL‐4 and IL‐10 mRNA in CNS of EPO‐treated MOG–EAE mice than in controls. Using flow cytometry, we also observed a significantly decreased ratio of both T helper type 1 (Th1) and Th17 lymphocyte subsets isolated from CNS and a significantly increased ratio of splenic regulatory CD4 T cells in EPO‐treated MOG–EAE mice. In addition, we demonstrated that MOG‐specific T cell proliferation was lower in the EPO‐treated group than in controls and showed amelioration of EAE by adoptive transfer of splenocytes from EPO‐treated MOG–EAE mice. Together, our data show that in EAE, EPO induction of endogenous HO‐1 and modulation of adaptive immunity both centrally and peripherally may involve the repression of inflammatory responses.