Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved quantification of in vivo1H NMR spectra by optimization of signal acquisition and processing and by incorporation of prior knowledge into the spectral fitting

Quantification of localized in vivo brain 1H spectra is in general very difficult due to excessive spectral overlap. In addition, intensity distortions may result from the effects of the NMR pulse sequence on the spins. This paper describes an approach to solving these problems. It comprises optimization of the pulse sequence; correction of the experimental lineshape; determination of intensity distortions, of relative line positions, and of linewidths using model solutions; and incorporation of the thus obtained prior knowledge into a nonlinear least‐squares spectral fitting procedure. This approach resulted in greatly improved accuracy, precision, and reliability of the quantitation of our in vivo spectra of rat brain, and enabled us to estimate absolute metabolite concentrations. © 1990 Academic Press, Inc.
The complete mitochondrial genome of the Youxian duck

Abstract Youxian duck is one of the famous native breed in China. In this work we reported the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Youxian duck in Human Province for the first time. The total length of the mitogenome is 16,606 bp, with the base composition of 29.21% for A, 22.18% for T, 32.83% for C, 15.78% for G, in the order C > A > T > G feature occurring in the Youxian duck. It is made up of two ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and one non-coding control region (D-loop region). The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Youxian duck will be useful for the phylogenetics of poultry, and be available as basic data for the genetics and breeding.
Role of the direct and indirect pathways for glycogen synthesis in rat liver in the postprandial state.

The pathway for hepatic glycogen synthesis in the postprandial state was studied in meal-fed rats chronically cannulated in the portal vein. Plasma glucose concentration in the portal vein was found to be 4.50 +/- 1.01 mM (mean +/- SE; n = 3) before a meal and 11.54 +/- 0.70 mM (mean +/- SE; n = 4) after a meal in rats meal-fed a diet consisting of 100% commercial rat chow for 7 d. The hepatic-portal difference of plasma glucose concentration showed that liver released glucose in the fasted state and either extracted or released glucose after feeding depending on plasma glucose concentration in the portal vein. The concentration of portal vein glucose at which liver changes from glucose releasing to glucose uptake was 8 mM, the Km of glucokinase [E.C. 2.7. 1.12]. The rate of glycogen synthesis in liver during meal-feeding was found to be approximately 1 mumol glucosyl U/g wet wt/min in rats meal-fed a 50% glucose supplemented chow diet. The relative importance of the direct vs. indirect pathway for the replenishment of hepatic glycogen was determined by the incorporation of [3-3H,U-14C]glucose into liver glycogen. Labeled glucose was injected into the portal vein at the end of meal-feeding. The ratio of 3H/14C in the glucosyl units of glycogen was found to be 83-92% of the ratio in liver free glucose six minutes after the injection, indicating that the majority of exogenous glucose incorporated into glycogen did not go through glycolysis. The percent contribution of the direct versus indirect pathway was quantitated from the difference in the relative specific activity (RSA) of [3H] and [14C]-glycogen in rats infused with [3-3H,U-14C]glucose. No significant difference was found between the RSA of [3H]glycogen and [14C]glycogen, indicating further that the pathway for glycogen synthesis in liver from exogenous glucose is from the direct pathway. Our results do not support the thesis that the majority of liver glycogen is synthesized from glucose-6-phosphate derived from gluconeogenesis. Reasons for the discrepancy between current findings and other reports supporting the indirect pathway for glycogen synthesis in the liver are discussed.
Kleptoparasitism by Bald Eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) as a factor in reducing Peregrine Falcon ( Falco peregrinus ) predation on Dunlin ( Calidris alpina ) wintering in British Columbia

Kleptoparasitism, or food piracy, is common in a wide range of taxa, particularly among predators, with the larger species forcing smaller species to surrender their catch. The Bald Eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) is known to rob Peregrine Falcons ( Falco peregrinus ) of just-caught prey. We present time series of kleptoparasitic interactions between eagles and peregrines hunting Dunlin ( Calidris alpina ) that were wintering at Boundary Bay in the Fraser River valley, British Columbia. In 1108 hours of observation during January, intermittently between 1994 and 2014, we recorded 667 sightings of Peregrine Falcons, including 817 attacks on Dunlin resulting in 120 captures. The population of wintering Bald Eagles in the study area increased from about 200 in 1994 to 1800 in 2014, while the rate of kleptoparasitism at the expense of peregrines increased from 0.05 to 0.20. The increase in the number of Bald Eagles coincided with a decline in January sightings of Peregrine Falcons, which suggests that some falcons may have left the study area because of interference from eagles. The decrease in Peregrine Falcon numbers can be expected to have led to reduced predation risk for Dunlins. Christmas Bird Counts conducted in the Fraser River Valley have underscored the fluctuation in eagle and peregrine numbers reported here.
No Difference in Antler Asymmetries Between Two Captive Maral Deer Populations

El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar la asimetria en las astas del Ciervo Rojo del Mar Caspio o Maral (Cervus elaphus sibiricus) en dos rebanos de origen genetico diferente y mantenidos bajo condiciones similares. Se estudiaron 18 ciervos rojos del mar Caspio (machos) de 24 meses de edad. Nueve de los 18 animales pertenecian a la poblacion nativa de Kazajistan y nueve fueron importados directamente desde Rusia. Se obtuvieron los siguientes datos para las astas derecha e izquierda: peso humedo, longitud del tallo, circunferencia y primera, segunda y tercera longitud de los cuernos. Para obtener los valores de asimetrias de las astas se registraron las diferencias absolutas entre el valor de cada rasgo, izquierdo y derecho. De acuerdo a los valores obtenidos de las asimetrias, no se registraron diferencias entre ambas poblaciones, tampoco se observaron tendencias direccionales consistentes en el promedio de medidas. El ciervo rojo ruso se ha adaptado bien a las condiciones ambientales y no presento niveles de estres ambiental diferentes en relacion con los animales nativos de Kazajistan.
2E-2 Assessing Angiogenesis in Murine Glioma and Breast Tumor Models with Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging

The purpose of this study was to compare 4 contrast-enhanced ultrasound (US) techniques for measuring tumor neovascularity to 4 markers of angiogenesis in 2 xenograft rat models. Glioma (C6; 75 rats) or breast cancer (NMU; 72 rats) cells were implanted in 147 rats. The US contrast agent Optison (GE Healthcare, Princeton, NJ) was injected in a tail vein (dose: 0.4 ml/kg). Power Doppler imaging (PDI), pulse-subtraction harmonic imaging (PSHI), flash-echo imaging (FEI) and Microflow imaging (MFI) was performed with an Aplio scanner (Toshiba America Medical Systems, Tustin, CA) and a 7.5 MHz linear array. Digital US clips of the tumors were used with image-processing software to calculate fractional tumor neovascularity as contrast enhanced pixels over tumor area (for US) and staining over tumor area (for specimens). Results were compared using linear regression analysis and Z-tests. The tortuous morphology of tumor neovessels (i.e., irregular vessel sizes and distribution) was visualized better with MFI than with the other US modes. The strongest correlation found by linear regression in the C6 model was between PSHI and percent area stained with CD31 (r = 0.37, p < 0.0001). Significant correlation was also shown between the US techniques and bFGF, VEGF and CD31. In the NMU model the strongest correlation was between FEI and COX-2 (r = 0.46, p < 0.0001), but all the US methods and stains did correlate; albeit to a lesser degree (r > 0.22, p < 0.04). There were no statistically significant differences between correlations obtained with the various US methods (p > 0.15). In conclusion, quantitative contrast-enhanced US measures of tumor neovascularity in the glioma and breast cancer xenograft models C6 and NMU appear to provide a noninvasive marker for angiogenesis
Health Promotion: What's in it for Business and Industry?

Health promotion has been linked to improved morale, increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and turnover, more appropriate utilization of medical services and decreased disability and premature death claims due to unhealthy lifestyles. Preliminary data in favor of HPPs are being accumulated. Final proof is not available to "sell" myopic bottom line managers on the concept, however, as Immanuel Kant stated, "It is often necessary to make a decision on the basis of knowledge sufficient for action but insufficient to satisfy the intellect. " If techniques can be developed to quantify in economic terms the impact of health promotion in these areas, business and industry will have a profound, hard line reason beyond their genuine interest in the health of their employees, for providing health promotion to employee populations--MONEY.
Role of polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes and their integrin CD11a (LFA-1) in the pathogenesis of severe murine malaria

Infection of CBA mice with Plasmodium berghei ANKA results in severe malaria, which is characterized by mortality 6 to 10 days after infection and is associated with alterations of the brain microcirculation. These alterations consist of (i) intravascular sequestration of monocytes, (ii) an increase in vascular permeability as documented by Evans blue diffusion, and (iii) microhemorrhages. This syndrome may be due to an increase of production of tumor necrosis factor alpha which upregulates the endothelial expression of ICAM-1 and thus leads to adhesion of CD11a/CD18 (LFA-1)-bearing cells. During severe malaria, we found an important sequestration of the CD11a-bearing polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes (PMN) in the lung but not in the brain. Treatment with a monoclonal antibody (MAb) against PMN, which induces profound neutropenia, prevented mortality and Evans blue diffusion in the brain and the lung, while it unexpectedly increased the occurrence of microhemorrhages. The anti-PMN MAb abolished PMN sequestration in the lung and also partially decreased monocyte sequestration in the brain and the lung. Treatment with an anti-CD11a MAb also prevented mortality, Evans blue diffusion, and PMN and monocyte sequestration. This study shows that PMN contribute to the mortality and the microvascular lesions resulting from severe malaria. This may be due to their CD11a-dependent sequestration in the lung and also to their indirect influence on vascular permeability and the sequestration of monocytes.
CMOS multi-standard wireless direct-conversion receiver for SDR

In this letter CMOS multi-standard wireless direct-conversion receiver is presented. That is composed of wideband LNA, passive double-balanced sub-harmonic mixer, and back-gate coupled quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (QVCO). The frequency operating band of the LNA covers three standards, and it has a differential structure to drive double balanced mixer. The mixer achieved low flicker noise corner and high LO-RF port isolation by using passive sub-harmonic structure. The back-gate coupled QVCO is the structure that uses body connection as another gate. Therefore no coupling transistor is needed, so better phase noise performance is offered.
Short-term frequency support utilizing inertial response of DFIG wind turbines

The increasing penetration of modern wind plants may cause primary frequency regulation to fall below acceptable levels, especially in isolated grids. This paper investigates the contribution of variable speed wind generators to short-term frequency support. First, the extractable inertial power from a DFIG wind turbine is quantified. Based on that, a controller is designed to transiently release part of the stored kinetic energy in the rotating masses. This can be very helpful in the critical few seconds following a load-generation mismatch. Through time-domain simulations, performance of the proposed controller is examined against earlier implementations of inertial response. Results show that the proposed controller is effective in arresting the initial frequency dip and capable of bringing together the advantages of earlier implementations for better integration of wind generators.
The anti-lymphoma activity of APO866, an inhibitor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide biosynthesis, is potentialized when used in combination with anti-CD20 antibody

Abstract APO866 is an inhibitor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) biosynthesis that exhibits potent anti-lymphoma activity. Rituximab (RTX), an anti-CD20 antibody, kills lymphoma cells by direct apoptosis and antibody- and complement-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicities, and has clinical efficacy in non-Hodgkin cell lymphomas. In the present study, we evaluated whether RTX could potentiate APO866-induced human B-lymphoma cell death and shed light on death-mediated mechanisms associated with this drug combination. We found that RTX significantly increases APO866-induced death in lymphoma cells from patients and lines. Mechanisms include enhancement of autophagy-mediated cell death, activation of caspase 3 and exacerbation of mitochondrial depolarization, but not increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, when compared with those induced by each drug alone. In vivo, combined administration of APO866 with RTX in a laboratory model of human aggressive lymphoma significantly decreased tumor burden and prolonged survival over single-agent treatment. Our study demonstrates that the combination of RTX and APO866 optimizes B-cell lymphoma apoptosis and therapeutic efficacy over both compounds administered separately.
Rat Cholesterol Side-chain Cleavage Cytochrome P-450 ( P-450 , , , ) Gene

The entire rat P-450,, gene has been cloned, positions/sequences of the exon-intron boundaries (I-IX) are described and 940 base pairs (bp) of 5’-flanking DNA have been sequenced, compared to mouse, bovine and human genes, and analyzed by functional assays. Primer extension analysis mapped the transcription start site 32 bp upstream of the initiator methionine codon. The rat P-450,, promoter was ligated to the human growth hormone (GH) gene yielding p940RsccGH. This rat P-450. ,, fusion gene and a mouse gene (p-15OOMsccGH) were transiently transfected into primary cultures of rat granulosa cells and Yl adrenal cells. In the Y 1 cells primer extension analysis showed that the rat P-450,,GH gene was expressed at lower basal levels than that of the mouse gene but showed greater stimulation (4-S-fold) in response to S-bromo-cyclic AMP than the mouse (3-4-fold). Similar results were obtained when the fusion genes were transfected into primary cultures of rat granulosa cells and production of GH was measured in the media of the cells stimulated with forskolin. Furthermore, we document that gonadotropins (follicle-stimulating hormone/luteinizing hormone) can induce luteinization of granulosa cells in vitro, that this process is associated with constitutive maintenance of P-450,,, mRNA in the absence of hormones/CAMP, that these events associated with luteinization are differentiation-stage specific and occur only in granulosa cells of preovulatory follicles but not in small antral follicles, that the process can be inhibited by cycloheximide if the protein synthesis inhibitor is present during the first 6 h of exposure to luteinizing hormone but not if added for short durations (3-5 h) later, and that once luteinization is induced P-450. ,, mRNA expression and progesterone biosynthesis are not strictly dependent on CAMP. Thus, the P-450,, gene is regulated by both CAMP-dependent and CAMP-independent mechanisms, each of which are associated with a specific stage of granulosa cell differentiation. The DNA domains involved in regulating these two diverse processes re-
Progress in large-eddy simulation of premixed and partially-premixed turbulent combustion

In many practical devices such as gas turbines and internal combustion engines, liquid fuel is injected as a spray and mixed with oxidizer as it vaporizes, so that combustion takes place in a partially-premixed regime. While partially-premixed flame propagation has been the subject of extensive experimental investigations (Su 2000; Muniz & Mungal 1997), its numerical simulation remains a challenging task. The mechanisms by which turbulence, chemical reactions, and heat release interact are still under investigation. Results by Veynante (1994) suggest the importance of premixed flame propagation in the process of flame stabilization. While DNS of turbulent premixed flames using realistic chemistry is still restricted to very simple geometries, classical RANS modeling of reacting flows is often considered to lack precision, especially when highly-unsteady problems are considered. Different methods have been suggested to model turbulent premixed combustion in LES (Colin 2000; Kim & Menon 2000; Duchamp de Lageneste & Pitsch 2000). An approach based on a mixed level-set/diffusion-flamelet library applicable to premixed and partially-premixed combustion has been derived by Peters (1999) for RANS and validated by Herrmann (2000) showing good agreement with experimental data. Beside the fact that this method does not require solving any additional species transport equations or explicit modeling of chemical reaction rates, it also allows the use of arbitrarily complex chemistry without leading to prohibitive computational requirements. The work presented here focuses on the implementation and validation of a similar approach in the LES context. First, the governing equations to be solved are presented together with the sub-grid models used, including an improved model for the turbulent burning velocity. Then we discuss the application of this approach to two different test cases; a turbulent Bunsen flame (Aachen flame F3, (Chen 1996) and a lean, partially-premixed dump combustor, the so-called ORACLES geometry described in Besson (1999a) and Besson (1999b).
Cooperative video summary transmission in wireless networks

This paper addresses cooperative video summary delivery over wireless networks which inherits both advantages from cooperative communication and from video summarization. In this work, a novel decode-process-and-forward (DPF) scheme is proposed for video summary transmission, where a relay node with video processing capability is involved to generate a concise version of the summary frame, called summary of summary (SoS). The SoS information is effectively consumed by the destination side to enhance its error concealment capability, leading to an improved video reconstruction quality. This paper proposes a generic cross-layer optimization framework for cooperative video summary transmission, which jointly considers the source coding, relay processing parameters, power allocation, and error concealment strategy to achieve the best video quality. The problem is solved by using Lagrangian relaxation and dynamic programming (DP). Experimental results show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms the direct transmission scheme, the multipath scheme, and the decode-and-forward transmission scheme by up to 25%.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR Reply: The Humeral Head Circle-Fit Method Greatly Increases Reliability and Accuracy When Measuring Anterior-Posterior Radiographs

Dear Editor: We are happy to respond to Dr. Sabour’s criticism that is aimed at a portion of the statistical methods that we used in our recent study (Mears et al., 2017 JOR). We agree with Dr. Sabour that Pearson correlation coefficients are not actually a measure of intra-observer and inter-observer reliability, and that we should have used intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), which are specifically reliability measures. We have since computed these and display them in tables below. The results of this analysis lead to the same conclusions stated in our study. We disagree with Dr. Sabour’s advice for assessing accuracy. He suggested comparing our method (CFM, circle fit method) with a gold standard or reference method using a Pearson r or Spearman correlation coefficient. If a reference method was even available to do that, which is not, a correlation coefficient would actually assess validity, not accuracy. For example, one method could consistently give a score that was higher by five points, and so inaccurate, and the correlation would still be perfect (r1⁄41.0). Accuracy is correctly assessed with a Bland–Altman analysis. A Bland– Altman analysis determines if two measurement methods provide measurements that are similar on average, and with small variability in the differences between them, since if so, they could be used interchangeably. However, if a method fails to have reliability, it cannot possibly have accuracy. Since the other two methods (Tingart and Mather) failed to have reliability, we cannot compare our CFM to either of them to assess accuracy using a Bland–Altman analysis. The CFM we presented, where we quantified how different on average each method was between observers and how variable these differences were, was sufficient to rule out accuracy of the other two methods (Tingart and Mather). To assess intra-observer reliability, or test–retest reliability, three of our observers measured the same image (n1⁄4 10) on two occasions in a random order, one week apart. These results, now expressed in terms of ICCs, are shown in Table 1. It is clear to see that even the same observer cannot get consistent results with the other two methods. To assess inter-observer reliability, all five of our observers measured the same images (n1⁄4 33 images). For inter-observer reliability, all five raters were included in the computation, so the reliability is among fiver raters. These are shown in Table 2. Applying the Cicchetti and Sparrow guideline, which is frequently quoted in the reliability literature for interpreting the ICC coefficient, CFM achieved “excellent agreement” (0.75 ICC 1.00), while the other two methods only achieved “poor agreement” (ICC<0.40).
A parallel C4.5 decision tree algorithm based on MapReduce

In the supervised classification, large training data are very common, and decision trees are widely used. However, as some bottlenecks such as memory restrictions, time complexity, or data complexity, many supervised classifiers including classical C4.5 tree cannot directly handle big data. One solution for this problem is to design a highly parallelized learning algorithm. Motivated by this, we propose a parallelized C4.5 decision tree algorithm based on MapReduce (MR‐C4.5‐Tree) with 2 parallelized methods to build the tree nodes. First, an information entropy‐based parallelized attribute selection method (MR‐A‐S) on several subsets for MR‐C4.5‐Tree is proposed to confirm the best splitting attribute and the cut points. Then, a data splitting method (MR‐D‐S) in parallel is presented to partition the training data into subsets. At last, we introduce the MR‐C4.5‐Tree learning algorithm that grows in a top‐down recursive way. Besides, the depth of the constructed decision tree, the number of samples and the maximal class probability in each tree node are used as the termination conditions to avoid the over‐partitioning problem. Experimental studies show the feasibility and the good performance of the proposed parallelized MR‐C4.5‐Tree algorithm.