Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dimerization of the extracellular domain of the erythropoietin (EPO) receptor by EPO: one high-affinity and one low-affinity interaction.

Although there is considerable evidence that signaling by the erythropoietin (EPO) receptor is initiated when it is dimerized by binding EPO, it has been previously reported that the soluble extracellular domains of the EPO receptor (sEPOR) are not dimerized in the presence of EPO and are able to form only 1:1 complexes with EPO. We have now shown unambiguously by light scattering, sedimentation equilibrium, and titration calorimetry that two molecules of sEPOR can bind to a single EPO monomer but that the binding of the second sEPOR is approximately 1000-fold weaker than that of the first. Because this second binding interaction is quite weak (Kd of approximately 1 microM), the 2:1 sEPOR.EPO complexes are easily dissociated during chromatography (forming the 1:1 complexes reported previously) and cannot be isolated in pure form. Global analysis of the sedimentation equilibrium data has enabled us to determine the binding constants and is consistent with a model in which EPO has two independent binding sites for sEPOR but cannot exclude anticooperative or sequential binding models. The influence of glycosylation of EPO and/or sEPOR on the binding affinities has also been investigated. Titration calorimetry is consistent with the sedimentation data and shows that the weaker binding site has a more negative delta H. The relation of these results to the binding of EPO to membrane-bound receptors and to the phenomenon of apparent high-affinity and low-affinity classes of receptors is discussed.
Single-Handed Cursor Control Technique Optimized for Rear Touch Operation and Its Usability

To improve single-handed operation of mobile de-vices, the use of rear touch panel has potential for user interac-tions. In this paper, a basic study of operational control simply achieved through drag and tap of the index finger on a rear touch panel is conducted. Since a user has to hold the handheld device firmly with the thumb and fingers, a movable range of the tip of an index finger is limited. This restriction requires a user to perform several times of dragging actions to reach a cursor to the long distance target. Considering such kinematic restriction, a technique optimized for rear operation is proposed, wherein not only the position but also the velocity of fingertip movement is regarded. Movement time, the number of dragging operation, and the throughputs of the proposed technique have been evaluated in comparison with the generic technique using Fitts’s law. Experiments have been conducted to perform the target selection in the form of reciprocal 1D pointing tasks with ten participants. The combinations of two ways of holding the device (landscape and portrait) and two directions of dragging (horizontal and vertical) are considered. As a result, the proposed technique achieved the improvements of from 5 to 13% shorter movement time, from 20 to 40% higher throughputs and no deterioration of the number of dragging even for the longer distance targets. In addition, the further analysis addressed that there exists the advantageous combinations of the way of holding and the direction of dragging, which would be beneficial for better design of single-handed user interactions using rear touch.
Hepatocellular Carcinoma : retrospective cohort study of clinical characteristics , treatment and outcome

Aim: The aims of this cohort study are, first, to describe the clinical and etiological profile and, second, to report treatment outcomes of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma presenting to a tertiary care hospital in the North of Portugal. Methods: Retrospective analysis of the electronic charts of 139 patients admitted in our institution between July 2008 and September 2012. Results: The final cohort sample included 116 cases. Alcoholic liver disease was identified in 77%, hepatits C infection was seen in 38% and hepatitis B infection in 18% of patients. Cirrhosis was present in 94% of patients. According to Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer classification, cancer stage at diagnosis was found as follows: 2% very early, 34% early, 40% intermediate, 7.4% advanced and 15.6% at terminal stage. Treatment allocation was decided in a multidisciplinary team and intention-to-cure treatments included 4 hepatic resections, 22 liver transplantations and 18 ablations. Chemoembolization was primarily allocated as palliative treatment in 46 patients and 6 patients were treated exclusively with sorafenib. Fourteen patients received supportive care only. The Kaplan-Meier estimate for median survival for the entire cohort was 36 months. Treatment was associated with prolonged survival and the best outcomes were seen in transplant patients (median not reached, 1 and 3-year survival rate of 85%). Median survival estimates and survival rates at 1and 3-year for radiofrequency ablation patients and chemoembolized patients were 13 months, 62% and 15% and 26 months, 75%, and 43%, respectively. Conclusion: Chronic harmful alcohol consumption was found to be uncommonly high in this cohort. The majority of patients were diagnosed at late stages of disease which carries a poor prognosis. Comparing with currently available literature, patients undergoing chemoembolization presented with higher long-term survival rates whereas, surprisingly, ablation patients had poorer outcomes. Further studies are recommended to identify additional prognostic factors. Key-words: hepatocellular, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging, alcoholic liver disease, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, liver transplantation, radiofrequency ablation, chemoembolization, northern Portugal.
Prevention and treatment of postphlebitic syndrome: results of a 3-part study.

BACKGROUND The true incidence of postphlebitic syndrome (PPS) following proximal deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and the efficacy of graduated compression stockings in preventing and treating PPS are unknown. METHODS A 3-part study of 202 patients evaluated 1 year after proximal DVT: 2 randomized placebo-controlled trials of stockings and 1 prospective cohort of untreated patients. Patients were evaluated for PPS, using a standardized questionnaire, and for venous valvular incompetence, using photoplethysmography and venous Doppler. They were enrolled in study 1 or study 2 if they did not have symptomatic PPS and did not have or had venous valvular incompetence, respectively, and into study 3 if they had symptomatic PPS. Study 1 patients were left untreated and followed up for development of PPS every 6 months for a mean of 55 months. Study 2 patients were randomized to a below-knee stocking (20-30 mm Hg) or a matched placebo stocking, and followed up for development of PPS every 6 months for a mean of 57 months. Study 3 patients were randomized to an active stocking (30-40 mm Hg) or a matched placebo stocking and followed up every 3 months for treatment failure, defined a priori. RESULTS In study 1, 6 (5.0%) of 120 patients were categorized as treatment failures, a rate similar to placebo-treated study 2 patients (P =.10). In study 2, 0 (0%) of 24 active and 1 (4.3%) of 23 placebo-treated patients were categorized as treatment failures (P =.49). In study 3, 11 (61.1%) of 18 active and 10 (58.8%) of 17 placebo-treated patients were categorized as treatment failures (P>.99). CONCLUSIONS Most patients do not have PPS 1 year after proximal DVT, and do not require stockings. We failed to show a benefit of stockings in patients with PPS, but the small numbers preclude definitive conclusions.
Reklamlarda Toplumsal Cinsiyet Kavramı ve Kadın İmgesinin Kullanımı; Bir İçerik Analizi

Toplumsal cinsiyet kavrami, toplum tarafindan empoze edilen, erkeklik ve kadinlikla iliskilendirilmis sosyal ve kulturel normlari icermektedir ve kavramin toplumdaki yansimasi kadina ve erkege atfedilen rollerden olusmaktadir. Toplumsal cinsiyet rollerinin sunumunda kitle iletisim araclari icerisinde televizyonun yadsinamaz bir yeri vardir. Bu nedenle, kadin ve erkege toplumsal cinsiyet rolleri acisindan bakma egilimi televizyon reklamlarinda da somut bir sekilde yer almaktadir. Bu calismada, reklamlarda kadina yonelik toplumsal cinsiyet rollerinin nasil sunuldugunu aciklamak amaciyla bir reklam icerik analizi irdelenmistir.
Job Satisfaction and Employment Equity in South Africa

This paper is the first to estimate job satisfaction equations in post-Apartheid South Africa. Earnings and relative earnings are both found to contribute to greater job satisfaction. Racial group is also an important predictor of job satisfaction but when interacted with a proxy for affirmative action legislation it is found that black job satisfaction is positively correlated with this legislation whereas coloured and to a lesser extent white job satisfaction is diminished.
EVOLIS: A Framework for Evaluating Evolution of Information Systems

While there has been extensive research in the field of software evolution, to date little research has been carried out as to the management of these evolutions in a business context. This research in progress proposes a framework that helps information systems managers to interpret present state of the system, to understand its past and to predict its future. The framework addresses both the users' perspective of the system and how well it supports the business activities. The benefits of the framework are twofold. First, it gives managers a tool for assessing the impact of a change from either the users and the business/IS perspective. Managers can use this framework to design a strategy for information system evolution. Second, the framework allows the study of information systems evolution by revealing, through the repeated use of the framework, specific evolution patterns. This research is conducted using a design science approach in information systems.
Production of Uninfectious Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Containing Viral Protein R Fused to a Single-Chain Antibody against Viral Integrase

ABSTRACT A single-chain antibody (scAb) against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase was expressed as a fusion protein of scAb and HIV-1 viral protein R (Vpr), together with the HIV-1 genome, in human 293T cells. The expression did not affect virion production much but markedly reduced the infectivity of progeny virions. The fusion protein was found to be incorporated into the virions. The incorporation appears to account for the reduced infectivity.
Invasive and Non-Invasive Stimulation in Parkinson’s Disease

The ability of the brain to process information relies on its control of the conduction of electric currents. Brain diseases invariably affect this capability. One of the therapeutic approaches to a variety of neurological disorders therefore includes the application of electric currents and fields to the brain. A successful example of this strategy is the introduction of deep brain stimulation which has become a cornerstone of the therapy of advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD), dystonia and essential tremor. Several studies have proven its effectiveness and often patients respond immediately to this therapy. Invasiveness and complexity of this treatment restrict its indication. On the other hand, there are techniques for the non-invasive modulation of cortical excitability namely transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as well as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). These techniques have been investigated in several studies including patients with PD. However results so far are heterogeneous and limit their therapeutic value. In the following chapter the basic principles of as well as therapeutic experiences with invasive and non-invasive electrical stimulation techniques and their applications in patients with PD will be discussed.
Two-Way MANOVA With Unequal Cell Sizes and Unequal Cell Covariance Matrices

In this article, we propose and study an approximate Hotelling T2 (AHT) test for heteroscedastic two-way MANOVA. The AHT test is shown to be invariant under affine-transformations, different choices of the contrast matrix used to define the same hypothesis, and different labeling schemes of the cell mean vectors. We demonstrate via intensive simulations that the AHT test generally performs well and outperforms two existing approaches in terms of size and power. An extension of the AHT test for heteroscedastic multi-way MANOVA is briefly described. A dataset from a smoking cessation trial is analyzed to illustrate the methodologies. This article has supplementary material online in a single archive.
Progesterone enhances glucocorticoid dissociation from the AtT-20 cell glucocorticoid receptor.

The dissociation rates of triamcinolone acetonide (9α-fluoro-11β, 16α, 17,21-tetrahydroxypregna-1,4-diene-3,20-dione-16,17-acetal with acetone), dexamethasone, and corticosterone from the AtT-20 cytosol receptor were measured after the addition of a 1000-fold excess of unlabeled homologous glucocorticoid. The simultaneous addition of unlabeled progesterone increased the rate of dissociation in a dose-dependent manner. The effect of progesterone was reversible. 17β-Estradiol, aldosterone, or additional amounts of glucocorticoids did not increase the dissociation rate. Steroids which were found to increase the dissociation rate were: R-5020 (dimethyl-19-norpregna- 4,9-diene-3,20-dione,17α,21-[17α-methyl]) > progesterone > desoxycorticosterone > medroxyprogesterone (17α-hydroxy-6α-methyl-Δ4-pregnen-3,20-dione) > cortexolone > testosterone > methyltestosterone (4-androsten-17α-methyl-17β-01-3- trione). Experiments were also performed using intact AtT-20 cells. Cells which had been incubated to equilibrium wit.
The Impact of Working Capital Management on Profitability: The Case of Small and Medium-Sized Export Companies in Tunisia

Le fond de roulement est un composant important dans la decision financiere. Une gestion optimale du fond de roulement est atteinte a travers une conciliation entre la profitabilite et la liquidite. Cette etude fournit une verification empirique des effets de la gestion du fond du roulement sur la profitabilite de 386 PME exportatrices en Tunisie observees de 2001 a 2008. Les resultats des modeles a effets fixes et aleatoires montrent une relation negative entre la profitabilite de l’entreprise et les differentes composantes du fond de roulement. Ainsi, les PME exportatrices tunisiennes augmentent leur profitabilite en reduisant leur cycle de conversion du cash a travers la restriction du nombre de jours de recouvrement des creances clients et la limitation de la periode de stockage.
Characterization of Transponder Antennas Using Intermodulation Response

The intermodulation measurement technique enables measuring transponder antennas without any cable connections. This contactless technique exploits the inherent nonlinearity of the transponder to generate intermodulation products that can be measured. In this paper, we relate the transponder antenna properties to the intermodulation response, and use this relation to calculate the gain and impedance matching of the transponder antenna. Additionally, we consider the limitations of the measurement method and present three different measurement geometries for measuring the radiation pattern. The presented equations and methods are experimentally verified by measuring an example harmonic transponder.
Comparative analysis of equalization techniques for STBC with application to EDGE

We describe and compare three practical equalization schemes for space-time block coded transmissions with and without outer channel coding. The three schemes extend the original symbol-level schemes developed for flat-fading channels to a block-level implementation either in the time or frequency domain. The considered schemes are applied to the EDGE-TDMA system and their performances are compared under both perfect and estimated channel conditions. Various practical aspects of implementation are also addressed.
Unsupervised Optimal Fuzzy Clustering

This study reports on a method for carrying out fuzzy classification without a priori assumptions on the number of clusters in the data set. Assessment of cluster validity is based on performance measures using hypervolume and density criteria. An algorithm is derived from a combination of the fuzzy K-means algorithm and fuzzy maximum-likelihood estimation. The unsupervised fuzzy partition-optimal number of classes algorithm performs well in situations of large variability of cluster shapes, densities, and number of data points in each cluster. The algorithm was tested on different classes of simulated data, and on a real data set derived from sleep EEG signal. >
A Comparative Performance Analysis of Interweave and Underlay Multi-Antenna Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, an analytical performance study for multi-antenna Cognitive Radio (CR) systems is presented. The two most popular CR approaches, namely, the interweave and underlay system designs, are considered and based on the derived analytical framework, a throughput-based comparison of these two system designs is presented. The system parameters are selected such that a quality of service (QoS) constraint on primary communication, is satisfied. Closed form expressions for the outage probability at the Primary User (PU), as well as expressions for the ergodic rate of the Secondary User (SU) are derived, for both system designs. The derived expressions are functions of key design parameters, such as the sensing time and the detection threshold in the case of interweave CR, and the maximum allowable interference power received by the PU, in the case of underlay CR. Based on the derived expressions, for interweave CR, the sensing parameters, i.e., sensing time and energy detection threshold, are optimized such as to maximize the secondary system rate. By comparing the throughput performance for both system designs, the existence of specific regimes (in terms of primary activity, number of transmit and receive antennas as well as the outage probability of the PU), where one CR approach outperforms the other, is highlighted.
Retrospective forecasting of the 2010–2014 Melbourne influenza seasons using multiple surveillance systems

SUMMARY Accurate forecasting of seasonal influenza epidemics is of great concern to healthcare providers in temperate climates, since these epidemics vary substantially in their size, timing and duration from year to year, making it a challenge to deliver timely and proportionate responses. Previous studies have shown that Bayesian estimation techniques can accurately predict when an influenza epidemic will peak many weeks in advance, and we have previously tailored these methods for metropolitan Melbourne (Australia) and Google Flu Trends data. Here we extend these methods to clinical observation and laboratory-confirmation data for Melbourne, on the grounds that these data sources provide more accurate characterizations of influenza activity. We show that from each of these data sources we can accurately predict the timing of the epidemic peak 4–6 weeks in advance. We also show that making simultaneous use of multiple surveillance systems to improve forecast skill remains a fundamental challenge. Disparate systems provide complementary characterizations of disease activity, which may or may not be comparable, and it is unclear how a ‘ground truth’ for evaluating forecasts against these multiple characterizations might be defined. These findings are a significant step towards making optimal use of routine surveillance data for outbreak forecasting.
Video see-through design for merging of real and virtual environments

A head mounted display (HMD) that is optically opaque with respect to the outer world can be provided with see-through capability by mounting video cameras to the outside of the helmet. Stereoscopic views of the physical space surrounding the wearer are captured by the video cameras, and are projected to the display screens inside the HMD. The conditions necessary for mounting the cameras to a pre-existing, non-see-through HMD are described, and the advantages and disadvantages of different mounting schemes are discussed, together with the design of the video cameras lenses to be used with this specific application. <<ETX>>
An energy-based multi-loops control strategy for modular multilevel converter

This paper presents an energy-based multi-loops control strategy for the modular multilevel converter, which can provide excellent dynamic performance. A method to remove the ripple components from the DC-link voltage and the arm differential voltage is introduced to achieve the DC components without using the low-pass filters. The energy-balance relationship in the MMC is analyzed and an energy-based total energy controller is proposed. In addition, the arm voltage feedforward loop is introduced to the modulator in order to improve the dynamic performance of the inner current control with the repetitive circulating current controller. Since low-pass filters and PI controllers with low bandwidth are eliminated, the proposed control scheme can achieve excellent dynamic performance. The advantages of the proposed control scheme are verified by both simulations and experiments.
Watersheds of functions and picture segmentation

The watersheds of a function are geometric features which are very useful in picture segmentation. We briefly and intuitively define the notion of watersheds, and we state that this transformation can be performed starting from the skeleton of the function. This skeleton is a particular case of a general morphological transformation called Thinning. Two examples of use of the watersheds are then given : the first one drawn from contour detection of defects in weld radiographs and the other one from the segmentation of bubbles on an electrophoresis gel.
FREQUENCY OF HUMAN ALLOANTIGEN‐REACTTVE T LYMPHOCYTES: H. METHOD FOR LIMITING DILUTION ANALYSIS OF ALLOANTIGEN‐REACTIVE HELPER T CELLS IN HUMAN PERIPHERAL BLOOD

Quantitative immunologic techniques for analysis of human alloreactivity are currently lacking in transplantation immunology. We report a rapid, sensitive, and quantitative limiting dilution analysis technique that provides a minimal estimate of the number of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) capable of secreting interleukin-2 (operationally defined as helper T lymphocytes) when cultured in vitro with allogeneic PBMC bearing serlogically identified MHC disparities. Using this LDA technique, we have estimated that approximately 1/500 to 1/2000 (0.2% to 0.05%) of the PBMC from various individuals can secrete IL-2 after in vitro contact with completely major-histocompatibility-complex-disparate PBMC. Under normal conditions the HTL frequency in human peripheral blood appears quite stable, based on serial analysis of HTL frequency in a healthy human donor. This LDA technique is more rapid and informative than the MLR, and may be useful for pretransplant evaluation and posttransplant monitoring of donor reactivity in transplant recipients.
Simplified Model and Control Strategy of Three-Phase PWM Current Source Rectifiers for DC Voltage Power Supply Applications

Three-phase pulsewidth modulation (PWM) current source rectifiers (CSRs) that applied as dc voltage power supply include capacitors in the dc bus to obtain dc output voltage, which increase the system complexity and complicate the control strategy. In this paper, a dynamic model of the three-phase PWM CSR is first established in the dq-rotating frame for capacitive load applications. By aligning the vector of the ac capacitor voltage to the d-axis, the model of the CSR can be simplified and decoupled into dc and ac side circuits, which can be controlled separately. Based on this model, a control strategy composed of a state-variable feedback control method for the dc side and an active-damping control method for the ac side is proposed. Moreover, a unity power factor of the CSR is achieved by regulating the q component of the bridge currents. Simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the dynamic and static performance of the proposed control strategy.