Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Healthcare professionals gain control of children’s diabetes self-management

– Children aged 8 to 12 with diabetes type I are motivated to get involved in their diabetes management to reduce the impact of their illness on their short- and long-term health. Self-management of diabetes is an active and proactive process and it involves shifting and sharing responsibility for diabetes care tasks and decision-making in frequent collaboration with healthcare professionals. The research question this study sought to answer is: ‘How can a healthcare management tool support healthcare professionals in guiding children with diabetes self-management involving a social actor (robot/avatar)? ’. To answer this question, a prototype of a healthcare management tool was developed and evaluated with end users (diabetes nurses) and an important stakeholder (diabetes doctor), following the situated Cognitive Engineering approach. Overall, this prototype of a redesigned PAL Control was perceived positively by the healthcare professionals and the findings suggested that a combination of an assessment with a robot or its avatar, setting goals, selecting actions and the progression page, is a suitable and effective approach to healthcare professionals in guiding children with diabetes self-management. Healthcare professionals mentioned that this system has provided them support in making the consult with children and parents more meaningful due to the fact that they can understand their needs better on forehand. However, evaluations for a longer period of time is needed in order to validate if the needs are completely fulfilled. Nonetheless, useful suggestions were found during the evaluation of the prototype and provided important pointers for further development.
Learning of construction of finite automata from examples using hill-climbing : RR: Regular set Recognizer

Abstract : The problem addressed in this paper is heuristically-guided learning of finite automata from examples. Given positive sample strings and negative sample strings, a finite automaton is generated and incrementally refined to accept all positive samples but do no negative samples. This paper describes some experiments in applying hill-climbing to modify finite automata to accept a desired regular language. We show that many problems can be solved by this simple method. We then describe the method how to 're-construct' a finite automaton if the positive and/or negative samples are slightly altered, without starting from the beginning. Finally, we have an actual system. RR: Regular set Recognizer, that learns to recognize a regular set from the samples that are given by a human teacher one by one.
Emotion differentiation in autism spectrum disorder Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders

disorder (ASD)iscommonly associatedwith reduced abilityto recognize emotions in others. It is less clear however, whether ASD is also associated with impaired knowledge of one’s own emotions. In the current study we present a ﬁrst examination of how much knowledge individuals with ASD have about their emotions by investigating their ability to differentiate between emotions. Across two lab tasks that measured to what extent and how people differentiate between their own feeling states and semantic emotion terms, results showed that ASD individuals differentiated less than typically developing individuals. Yet, both groups of participants similarly categorized emotions according to previously established theoretical categories. These ﬁndings indicate that while both give similar meaning to emotions, individuals with ASD make less subtle distinctions between emotions. With low levels of emotion differentiation being linked to reduced well-being, these ﬁndings may help to better understand the high prevalence of internalizing problems associated with ASD.
Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of a Root-Form Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase from Zea mays: Comparison with the C 4 Form Enzyme

A full-length cDNA for maize root-form phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) was isolated. In the coding region, the root-form PEPC showed 76 and 77% identity with the C 4 - and C 3 -form PEPCs of maize, respectively, at the nucleotide level. At the amino acid level, the root-form was 81 and 85% identical to the C 4 - and C 3 -form PEPCs, respectively. The entire coding region was inserted into a pET32a expression vector so that it was expressed under the control of T7 promoter. The purified recombinant root-form PEPC had a V max value of about 28 //mol min" 1 (mg protein)" 1 at pH 8.0. The K m values of root-form PEPC for PEP and Mg 2+ were one-tenth or less of those of C-form PEPC when assayed at either pH 7.3 or 8.0, while the value for HCOf was about one-half of that of C 4 form PEPC at pH 8.0. Glucose 6-phosphate and glycine had little effect on the root-form PEPC at pH 7.3; they caused two-fold activation of the C 4 -form PEPC. The K, (L-malate) values at pH 7.3 were 0.12 and 0.43 raM for the root- and C 4 -form PEPCs, respectively. Comparison of hydropathy profiles among the maize PEPC isoforms suggested that several stretches of amino acid sequences may contribute in some way to their characteristic kinetic properties. The root-form PEPC was phosphorylated by both mammalian cAMP-dependent protein kinase and maize leaf protein kinase, and the phosphorylated enzyme was less sensitive to L-malate. tion mixture (15 //I in total volume) consisting of 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 5 mM MgCl 2 , 1 mM EGTA, 0.1 mM (37 kBq) [y- 32 P]-ATP (Amersham Pharmacia), 2 fig purified PEPC, and 5 //g pro- tein of partially purified maize leaf protein kinase or 1 unit of PK-A incubated at 30°C for 30 min. The reaction was terminated by addition of an equal volume of 2 x SDS sample loading buffer and then subjected to SDS-PAGE, dye-staining, and autoradiography.
THROMBOSIS AND HEMOSTASIS FXIa and platelet polyphosphate as therapeutic targets during human blood clotting on collagen/tissue factor surfaces under ﬂ ow

[TF] wall (0.1 molecules per m m 2 ) but not at zero or high [TF] wall , suggesting a role for polyP distinct from FXIIa activation and requiringlowextrinsicpathwayparticipation.Regardlessof[TF] wall ,PPXbdenhancedfibrin sensitivity to tissue plasminogen activator and promoted clot retraction during fibrinolysis concomitant with an observed PPXbd-mediated reduction of fibrin fiber diameter. This is the first detection of endogenous polyP function in human blood under thrombotic flow conditions. When triggered by low [TF] wall , thrombosis may be druggable by contact pathway inhibition, although thrombolytic susceptibility may benefit from polyP antagonism regardless of [TF] wall . ( Blood . 2015;126(12):1494-1502)
Supporting using continuous optimization: in

We obtained range maps for 865 mammal, amphibian and reptile species from IUCN (2016) and for 649 bird species from Birdlife International and Handbook of the Birds of the World (2016). US. Because our analyses run at the county grain, we calculated the number of hectares of range for each species overlapping each county. We also recorded the IUCN threat status for each species, a 7-point ordered classification ranging from Extinct to Least Concern along with an additional Data Dependent classification. By restricting attention only to birds and terrestrial vertebrates, we will not reflect spatial patterns in the full biota. However, we feel that the variation in the 1514 range maps provides meaningful spatial variation to explore in our optimization formulation, particularly because these vertebrate groups are among the best documented and occupy a prominent place in conservation and natural resource management. The usefulness of range map data for fine grain protected area planning has been actively debated (Peterson et al., 2016; Pimm et al., 2017). Our analyses sidestep these issues to some degree, because we use the range maps to help identify counties where species stand to gain from increase investment in conservation. We then compare the recommendations obtained when making different assumptions about how effectively habitats used by those species can be targeted by fine-grain protection e fforts. The range map data will be subject to commission error, in that some counties that overlap the range
Parallel ICI Cancellation of MC-CDMA Systems under Typical Urban Channel

: Multi carrier systems are robust to channel noise, however due to Doppler shift and carrier frequency offset there arises inter carrier interference which degrades the performance of the system. In this paper a parallel cancellation algorithm in spatial frequency domain is proposed to mitigate the effect of ICI, the performance of the approach is evaluated under typical urban channel environment. A clear analysis is performed to adapt the modulating frequency with a finite set of sub carriers
Regulation of K (cid:1) Transport in Tomato Roots by the TSS1 Locus. Implications in Salt Tolerance 1

The tss1 tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum ) mutant exhibited reduced growth in low K (cid:1) and hypersensitivity to Na (cid:1) and Li (cid:1) . Increased Ca 2 (cid:1) in the culture medium suppressed the Na (cid:1) hypersensitivity and the growth defect on low K (cid:1) medium of tss1 seedlings. Interestingly, removing NH 4 (cid:1) from the growth medium suppressed all growth defects of tss1 , suggesting a defective NH 4 (cid:1) -insensitive component of K (cid:1) transport. We performed electrophysiological studies to understand the contribution of the NH 4 (cid:1) -sensitive and -insensitive components of K (cid:1) transport in wild-type and tss1 roots. Although at 1 m m Ca 2 (cid:1) we found no differences in affinity for K (cid:1) uptake between wild type and tss1 in the absence of NH 4 (cid:1) , the maximum depolarization value was about one-half in tss1 , suggesting that a set of K (cid:1) transporters is inactive in the mutant. However, these transporters became active by raising the external Ca 2 (cid:1) concentration. In the presence of NH 4 (cid:1) , a reduced affinity for K (cid:1) was observed in both types of seedlings, but tss1 at 1 m m Ca 2 (cid:1) exhibited a 2-fold higher K m than wild type did. This defect was again corrected by raising the external concentration of Ca 2 (cid:1) . Therefore, membrane potential measurements in root cells indicated that tss1 is affected in both NH 4 (cid:1) -sensitive and -insensitive components of K (cid:1) transport at low Ca 2 (cid:1) concentrations and that this defective transport is rescued by increasing the concentration of Ca 2 (cid:1) . Our results suggest that the TSS1 gene product is part of a crucial pathway mediating the beneficial effects of Ca 2 (cid:1) involved in K (cid:1) nutrition and salt tolerance.
Estimating Lifetime Beneits Associated with Immuno‐Oncology Therapies: Challenges and Approaches for Overall Survival Extrapolations Mario J. N. M. Ouwens · Pralay Mukhopadhyay · Yiduo Zhang · Min Huang · Nicholas Latimer · Andrew Briggs

Background Standard parametric survival models are commonly used to estimate long-term survival in oncology health technology assessments; however, they can inadequately represent the complex pattern of hazard functions or underlying mechanism of action (MoA) of immuno-oncology (IO) treatments. Objective The aim of this study was to explore methods for extrapolating overall survival (OS) and provide insights on model selection in the context of the underlying MoA of IO treatments. Methods Standard parametric, lexible parametric, cure, parametric mixture and landmark models were applied to data from ATLANTIC (NCT02087423; data cut-of [DCO] 3 June 2016). The goodness of it of each model was compared using the observed survival and hazard functions, together with the plausibility of corresponding model extrapolation beyond the trial period. Extrapolations were compared with updated data from ATLANTIC (DCO 7 November 2017) for validation. Results A close it to the observed OS was seen with all models; however, projections beyond the trial period difered. Estimated mean OS difered substantially across models. The cure models provided the best it for the new DCO. Conclusions Standard parametric models itted to the initial ATLANTIC DCO generally underestimated longer-term OS, compared with the later DCO. Cure, parametric mixture and response-based landmark models predicted that larger proportions of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer receiving IO treatments may experience long-term survival, which was more in keeping with the observed data. Further research using more mature OS data for IO treatments is needed. Key Points for Decision Makers Despite similar and reasonable its to the observed Kaplan– Meier curve from the evaluated immuno-oncology (IO) trial, the long-term overall survival extrapolation difered substantially across the various survival models examined. Cure, parametric mixture and landmark models may better account for the potential mechanism of action of IO treatments, whereby a plateau in long-term survival is observed. A consistent and scientiically grounded approach to survival extrapolations is required to demonstrate the potential value of IO treatments. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s4027 3-019-00806 -4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Mario J. N. M. Ouwens mario.ouwens@astrazeneca.com 1 AstraZeneca, KC4, Gothenburg, Sweden 2 AstraZeneca, Gaithersburg, MD, USA 3 University of Sheield, Sheield, UK 4 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA 5 University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK 6 Pepparedsleden 1, 431 83 M衆lndal, Sweden M. J. N. M. Ouwens et al.
The Requirement for Nucleoporin NUP153 during Human Immunodeﬁciency Virus Type 1 Infection Is Determined by the Viral Capsid (cid:1)

Lentiviruses likely infect nondividing cells by commandeering host nuclear transport factors to facilitate the passage of their preintegration complexes (PICs) through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) within nuclear envelopes. Genome-wide small interfering RNA screens previously identiﬁed karyopherin (cid:1) transportin-3 (TNPO3) and NPC component nucleoporin 153 (NUP153) as being important for infection by human immu- nodeﬁciency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The knockdown of either protein signiﬁcantly inhibited HIV-1 infectivity, while infection by the gammaretrovirus Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV) was unaffected. Here, we establish that primate lentiviruses are particularly sensitive to NUP153 knockdown and investigate HIV-1-encoded elements that contribute to this dependency. Mutants lacking functional Vpr or the central DNA ﬂap remained sensitive to NUP153 depletion, while MLV/HIV-1 chimera viruses carrying MLV matrix, capsid, or integrase became less sensitive when the latter two elements were substituted. Two capsid missense mutant viruses, N74D and P90A, were largely insensitive to NUP153 depletion, as was wild-type HIV-1 when cyclophilin A was depleted simultaneously or when infection was conducted in the presence of cyclosporine A. The codepletion of NUP153 and TNPO3 yielded synergistic effects that outweighed those calculated based on individual knockdowns, indicating potential interdependent roles for these factors during HIV-1 infection. Quantitative PCR revealed normal levels of late reverse transcripts, a moderate reduction of 2-long terminal repeat (2-LTR) circles, and a relatively large reduction in integrated proviruses upon NUP153 knockdown. These results suggest that capsid, likely by the qualities of its uncoating, determines whether HIV-1 requires cellular NUP153 for PIC nuclear import.
Tools for Creating Constructivist Learning Environment and Assessing Knowledge Development using Concept Maps

: Concept maps have been considered as effective tools for meaningful learning and knowledge development as well as for evaluation of knowledge gained and skills acquired during the process. These are also helpful in studying the changes taking place in cognitive structures of the learner, specially in the subject domains where content is in structured form. Many researchers have used concept maps as tools for creating constructivist learning environments for teaching different subjects and as tools to assess conceptual knowledge development among the learners. In addition to this, concept maps can also be used for analyzing the effectiveness of a learning system. This paper focuses on all these aspects and is divided into three parts. First part discusses the use of concept maps in designing teaching learning component in a Constructivist Learning Environment(CLE) along with different concept mapping tools to create a concept mapping network. Second part aims at studying and comparing different assessment methods available to measure both conceptual knowledge as well as skills acquired in applying the conceptual knowledge in practical scenarios. Third and the last part identifies and compares different tools available to analyse the results obtained from assessing concept maps. These tools can be used to draw conclusions while assessing the effectiveness of the learning system.
Inﬂuence of Antimicrobial Feed Additives on Broiler Commensal Posthatch Gut Microbiota Development and Performance (cid:1)

The effects of avilamycin, zinc bacitracin, and ﬂavophospholipol on broiler gut microbial community colonization and bird performance in the ﬁrst 17 days posthatch were investigated. Signiﬁcant differences in gut microbiota associated with gut section, dietary treatment, and age were identiﬁed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), although no performance-related differences between dietary treatments were detected. Similar age-related shifts in the gut microbiota were identiﬁed regardless of diet but varied between the ilea and ceca. Interbird variabilities in ileal bacterial communities were reduced (3 to 7 days posthatch) in chicks fed with feed containing antimicrobial agents. Avilamycin and ﬂavophospholipol had the most consistent effect on gut microbial communities. Operational taxonomic units (OTU) linked to changes in gut microbiota in birds on antimicrobial-supplemented diets were characterized and identiﬁed. Some OTUs could be identiﬁed to the species level; however, the majority microbial were signiﬁcantly different between groups for each dietary and among dietary treatments each The statistic extent similarity between with close indicating that the are entirely and a value indicating that there is no difference between Analysis of similarity percentages (SIMPER) (9) was done to determine the overall average similarity in ileal or microbial community compositions among birds fed the same diet for each age group. SIMPER was also done to determine OTUs driving signiﬁcant differences in bacterial community compositions between dietary treatments (9, Hierarchical cluster analysis (CLUSTER) (9) using the group average cluster mode on Bray-Curtis similarity data was done to show changes in gut microbial communities associated with structure characterization of site end site into OTUs of interest. double-stranded MspI- adapter structure was and ligated into restriction fragments as described by Widmer et al. The size selection of T-RFs of interest was done by gel electrophoresis with an SEA 2000 electrophoresis apparatus algorithm (National Center for Bio-technology Information [NCBI]) were used to identify similarities of T-RFs to sequences available in public genome sequence databases (1). Unrooted neigh-bor-joining trees of 16S rRNA T-RF sequences from OTUs of interest and related sequences identiﬁed in the NCBI database (95 to 100% identity) were constructed. T-RFs were assigned to OTUs based on the closest nucleotide- length match or within (cid:6) 6 bp. Sequences were aligned with ClustalW (55), and a bootstrapped ( n (cid:1) 500) consensus tree was created with MEGA 4 (53). The evolutionary distances were computed by using the maximum composite likeli-hood method (54). Nucleotide sequence accession numbers. Representative 16S rRNA gene sequences were deposited in the GenBank database under accession numbers HQ704902 to HQ705169.
in Computer

— In the previous years, thousands of deaths due to dengue have been reported by the health departments of the four provinces of Pakistan. Among many reasons of this loss; one major cause was the lack of prior knowledge about the spreading scale of dengue in an area ahead of time, due to which the required necessary arrangements could have not been done to cope with the problem. Same issue had been faced in other parts of the globe irrespective of how developed are those countries. In this paper, we have studied the spatiotemporal aspects of dengue fever that includes its history, statistics, causes and solution to overcome the disease aftermath through a simulation framework. We have mathematically modeled the spread of dengue using SEIR model. The epidemic model SEIR has been solved using the numerical method RK-4. The model being iterative requires extensive computation power for which an indigenous cloud has been developed. We believe that this study would help in visualizing the spread of dengue in Pakistan in the coming years.
Prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation: Current strategies and future directions

The morbidity and mortality associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) are related mainly to ischaemic stroke, and the prevention of thrombo-embolism is an important component of the patient management. The choice of optimum antithrombotic therapy for a given patient depends on the risk of thrombo-embolism, and the assessment of thrombo-embolic risk using validated stratification schemes, such as the CHADS2 score, is a critical step. Improved stratification schemes are needed that take into account the risk of intracerebral haemorrhage, which is the most worrisome complication of anticoagulant therapy. The pattern of AF (paroxysmal, persistent, or permanent) should not influence the selection of antithrombotic treatment. Similarly, successful rhythm control is not a sound basis for withdrawing antithrombotic treatment, and whether this situation differs after successful catheter ablation of AF has not been established. At present, oral vitamin K antagonists alone are recommended for patients with AF at moderate-to-high risk of stroke. A combination of anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs is necessary in patients with AF undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention and stent implantation, but the optimal therapeutic management of these patients has not been defined. The development of new antithrombotic agents that are easier to use and have a superior benefit-to-risk ratio will extend treatment to a greater proportion of the AF population at risk. The large number of phase III trials currently investigating specific inhibitors of thrombin or factor Xa that do not require laboratory monitoring suggests that this goal is within reach.
Dynamic ion pair behavior stabilizes single alpha helices in proteins.

Ion pairs are key stabilizing interactions between oppositely charged amino acid side chains in proteins. They are often depicted as single conformer salt bridges (hydrogen-bonded ion pairs) in crystal structures, but it is unclear how dynamic they are in solution. Ion pairs are thought to be particularly important in stabilizing single α -helix (SAH) domains in solution. These highly stable domains are rich in charged residues (such as Arg, Lys, and Glu) with potential ion pairs across adjacent turns of the helix. They provide a good model system to investigate how ion pairs can contribute to protein stability. Using NMR spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray light scattering (SAXS), and molecular dynamics simulations, we provide here experimental evidence that ion pairs exist in a SAH in murine myosin 7a (residues 858– 935), but that they are not fixed or long lasting. In silico modeling revealed that the ion pairs within this α -helix exhibit dynamic behavior, rapidly forming and breaking and alternating between different partner residues. The low-energy helical state was compatible with a great variety of ion pair combinations. Flexible ion pair formation utilizing a subset of dichroism. MRE: ellipticity. SAXS: X-ray optimized spectroscopy.