Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic diversity and population structure analysis of spinach by single-nucleotide polymorphisms identified through genotyping-by-sequencing

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L., 2n = 2x = 12) is an economically important vegetable crop worldwide and one of the healthiest vegetables due to its high concentrations of nutrients and minerals. The objective of this research was to conduct genetic diversity and population structure analysis of a collection of world-wide spinach genotypes using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) markers. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) was used to discover SNPs in spinach genotypes. Three sets of spinach genotypes were used: 1) 268 USDA GRIN spinach germplasm accessions originally collected from 30 countries; 2) 45 commercial spinach F1 hybrids from three countries; and 3) 30 US Arkansas spinach cultivars/breeding lines. The results from this study indicated that there was genetic diversity among the 343 spinach genotypes tested. Furthermore, the genetic background in improved commercial F1 hybrids and in Arkansas cultivars/lines had a different structured populations from the USDA germplasm. In addition, the genetic diversity and population structures were associated with geographic origin and germplasm from the US Arkansas breeding program had a unique genetic background. These data could provide genetic diversity information and the molecular markers for selecting parents in spinach breeding programs.
Frailty and cardiac rehabilitation: A long-neglected connection

Frailty is a comparatively new concept to describe a ‘‘biologic syndrome of decreased reserve and resistance to stressors, resulting from cumulative declines across multiple physiologic systems and causing vulnerability to adverse outcomes. ’’ The Baltimore conference on the physiologic basis of frailty in 1992 is widely regarded as the starting point for systematic clinical research into frailty. At this conference frailty was defined as a clinical syndrome in which three or more of the following criteria were present: unintentional weight loss (5 kg in past year); self-reported exhaustion; weakness (grip strength); slow walking speed; and low physical activity. However, many definitions of frailty are now in circulation, and there is no real accepted and easily measurable gold standard for the characterisation of patients. Therefore, most rehabilitation institutions probably do not even know the percentage of frail patients among their customers. Entry criteria for rehabilitation intervention studies mostly excluded frail patients because they have lower than required baseline exercise capacities or sarcopenia with impaired coordination or were above the age limit. Therefore, evidence-based rehabilitation programmes in frail patients are scarce. In the past, frail patients were frequently regarded as too unfit for rehabilitation and sent to a nursing home rather than to exercise programmes. Additionally, geriatric rehabilitation units are not available in all healthcare systems. Just recently, over the last 5–10 years, an increased frequency of frail patients was seen in rehabilitation institutions due to innovations in cardiac interventions. The introduction of trans-femoral aortic valve implantation in clinical practice offered a causal therapy for patients who were not candidates for open heart surgery. The expansion of catheter-based structural heart disease interventions will continue to send more frail patients to post-intervention cardiac rehabilitation.
On Adaptive Lattice Reduction over Correlated Fading Channels

In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, lattice reduction significantly improves the performance of approximate detection techniques. Taking advantage of the temporal correlation of a Rayleigh fading channel, low complexity lattice reduction is investigated in this work by adaptively updating the reduced lattice basis. We show that a careful use of previous channel realizations yields a significant saving in complexity with a minimal degradation in performance.
Economic Foundations of Strategy

Editor's Introduction - Anne Huff Foreword - Oliver E. Williamson Preface Overview Chapter 1 Behavioral Theory of the Firm Chapter 2 Transaction Costs Theory Chapter 3 Property Rights Theory Chapter 4 Agency Theory Chapter 5 Resource-based/Dynamic Capabilities Chapter 6 The Theoretic Building Blocks of Organizational Economics
DNA Methylation-dependent Epigenetic Regulation of Dimethylarginine Dimethylaminohydrolase 2 Gene in Trophoblast Cell Lineage*

Trophoblast cell lineage is established through the first cellular differentiation in mammalian embryogenesis, and its developmental potential is restricted to the extraembryonic tissues contributing solely to the placenta. Several lines of evidence suggest a relative lack of importance of DNA methylation in gene regulation in the extraembryonic tissues when compared with embryonic ones. Here we analyzed the dynamics of epigenetic status in the upstream region of mouse Ddah2 gene, which was found to be specifically repressed in a stem cell population of trophoblast cell lineage. We found a tissue-dependent differentially methylated region in the regulatory region of the Ddah2 gene. This region was hypermethylated in trophoblast stem cells and was hypomethylated in differentiated cells both in vivo and in vitro. This change was well correlated with Ddah2 expression. In addition, in vitro methylation confined to the differentially methylated region was sufficient to repress promoter activity in the reporter assay. Furthermore, a repressive pattern of histone modifications was formed around the differentially methylated region in undifferentiated trophoblast stem cells with repressed Ddah2. Our data suggest that DNA methylation-mediated chromatin remodeling is involved in the regulation of the Ddah2 gene expression and thus is important even in trophoblast cell lineage.
Characteristics of HIV antiretroviral treatments, access and adherence in an ethnically diverse sample of men who have sex with men

Data regarding HIV antiretroviral treatment regimens, access to treatment and medical care, and adherence to medications were collected as part of the Seropositive Urban Men's Study, a formative study of HIV-positive men who have sex with men. Participants (N=456) were recruited from AIDS service organizations, mainstream gay venues and public/commercial sex environments. The sample was 94% gay or bisexually-identified; 29% were African American, 24% Latino and 30% white. The majority (71%) indicated being on antiretroviral treatment, and most were taking a protease inhibitor/nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor combination. African American men in New York City were less likely to be on treatment. Among those on treatment (n=322), 51% reported at least one day in which they had missed a dose of their medication and the mean number of days in which a dose was missed (in the past 30 days) was 1.72. Multivariate analyses indicated that avoidant coping, frequency of drinking alcohol and difficulty in communicating with sex partners about HIV were related to days of missed doses, suggesting the need or desire to escape from the reality of life with HIV as a potential explanation for poor adherence.
THERMAL AND MECHANICAL ANALYSES OF HIGH-SPEED PERMANENT-MAGNET ELECTRICAL MACHINES Doctoral Dissertation

OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION AALTO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY P.O. BOX 11000, FI-00076 AALTO http://www.aalto. fi Author Zlatko Kolondzovski Name of the dissertation Thermal and mechanical analyses of high-speed permanent-magnet electrical machines Manuscript submitted 19.11. 2009 Manuscript revised 11.02. 2010 Date of the defence 06.08. 2010 Monograph Article dissertation (summary + original articles) Faculty Faculty of Electronics, Communications and Automation Department Department of Electrical Engineering Field of research Modelling of electrical machines Opponent(s) Prof. Aldo Boglietti Supervisor Prof. Antero Arkkio Instructor Doc. Anouar Belahcen
Clinical Reviews CRUSH SYNDROME : A CASE REPORT AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

*Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, †Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and §Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts Reprint Address:Susan R.Wilcox, MD, Departments of EmergencyMedicine and Anesthesia, Critical Care, and PainMedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02115
Explicit-current-output sinusoidal oscillators employing only a single current-feedback op-amp

Although a number of sinusoidal oscillators have been described in earlier literature which employ only a single current feedback op-amp (CFOA) to generate voltage-mode sinusoidal oscillations, any sinusoidal oscillator circuit, which can provide a current-mode output signal explicitly (i.e. from a high output impedance node) while using only a single CFOA, has not been reported till date. This letter describes two such circuits and demonstrates their practicability through experimental results based upon AD844 type IC CFOAs.
In situ characterization of nitrifiers in an activated sludge plant: detection of Nitrobacter Spp.

Aims: The purpose of this work was to investigate microbial ecology of nitrifiers at the genus level in a typical full‐scale activated sludge plant. Methods and Results: Grab samples of mixed liquor were collected from a plug‐flow reactor receiving domestic wastewater. Fluorescent in situ hybridization technique (FISH) was used to characterize both ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in combination with Confocal Scanning Laser Microscope (CSLM). Fluorescently labelled, 16S rRNA‐targeted oligonucleotide probes were used in this study. Both Nitrosomonas and Nitrosospira genera as AOB and Nitrobacter and Nitrospira genera as NOB were sought with genus specific probes Nsm156, Nsv443 and NIT3 and NSR1156, respectively. Conclusions: It was shown that Nitrosospira genus was dominant in the activated sludge system studied, although Nitrosomonas is usually assumed to be the dominant genus. At the same time, Nitrobacter genus was detected in activated sludge samples. Significance and Impact of the Study: Previous studies based on laboratory scale pilot plants employing synthetic wastewater suggested that only Nitrospira are found in wastewater treatment plants. We have shown that Nitrobacter genus might also be present. We think that these kinds of studies may not give a valid indication of the microbial diversity of the real full‐scale plants fed with domestic wastewater.
An Approach to Constructing Three‐Dimensional Tissue

Abstract: The authors propose an approach to constructing three‐dimensional tissue with capillaries using cellulose hollow fibers. Fibronectin (FN) was immobilized on hollow fibers to assure cell attachment. Bovine coronary artery smooth muscle cells (BCASMC) and L cells were seeded on FN‐immobilized fibers and cultured for an extended period of time. The cells proliferated and formed multicellular layers on the fibers. The hollow fibers were removed by enzymatic digestion using cellulase. The cellulase treatment did not damage L cells, although some cells fell off from the fibers. On the other hand, no deterioration was observed in the BCASMC aggregate structure. The BCASMC aggregates maintained several lumens after removal of the hollow fibers by cellulase digestion. The authors believe that their approach offers a useful method to tissue engineering in preparation of three‐dimensional tissue structure.
In‐Transit Merkel Cell Carcinoma Treated with Isolated Limb Perfusion or Isolated Limb Infusion: A Case Series of 12 Patients

BACKGROUND In‐transit metastases of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) are an unusual and therapeutically challenging manifestation of the disease. Given the similarity to melanoma, in‐transit MCC may be amenable to isolated regional therapy. OBJECTIVE To present a case series of 12 patients who underwent isolated limb perfusion (ILP) or isolated limb infusion (ILI) for in‐transit MCC. METHODS A literature search was conducted using Medline and Pubmed databases for MCC, ILP, and ILI as key words. Ten cases were identified and reviewed; two cases from our hospital were also included in the series. RESULTS Nine patients underwent ILP, and three were treated with ILI. Eleven patients had a complete clinical response, and one had a partial response. All patients avoided limb amputation. Mean follow‐up was 25.3 months. Mean duration of response was 21.8 months. Four patients relapsed regionally. Two patients developed distant metastases and died of their disease. CONCLUSION This is the largest case series of in‐transit MCC treated with ILP or ILI. Both techniques appear to be a low‐morbidity alternative to amputation for the treatment of isolated extremity in‐transit MCC. ILI is less invasive than ILP and may be a more practical first‐line treatment option. The authors have indicated no significant interest with commercial supporters.
Reply to Lococo et al.

e120–5. [2] Travis WD, Brambilla E, Noguchi M, Nicholson AG, Geisinger KR, Yatabe Y et al. International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society International Multidisciplinary Classification of Lung Adenocarcinoma. J Thorac Oncol 2011;6:244–85. [3] Van Schil PE, Asamura H, Rusch VW, Mitsudomi T, Tsuboi M, Brambilla E et al. Surgical implications of the new IASLC/ATS/ERS adenocarcinoma classification. Eur Respir J 2012;39:478–86. [4] Leuzzi G, Cesario A, Vita ML, Parisi AM, Petrone G, Martini M et al. Difference in clonality as a tool for differential diagnosis of primary versus secondary lung neoplasms. J Thorac Oncol 2012;7:934–6.
Effect of Mechanical Stimulation on the Biomechanics of Stem Cell: Collagen Sponge Constructs for Patellar Tendon Repair

Tendons (rotator cuff, Achilles and patellar tendons) are among the most commonly injured soft tissues [1]. Many techniques for repair/reconstruction have been attempted (e.g. sutures, resorbable biomaterials, autografts, and allografts) with varying success. A tissue engineered repair using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is and attractive option [2–4] but the stiffness and strength of currently available constructs are insufficient for clinical use [6]. Copyright © 2007 by ASME
Mathematical Modeling of Thin‐Layer Drying Kinetics of Cape Gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.)

Drying kinetics of Cape gooseberry was studied and modeled during processing at four temperatures (60, 70, 80 and 90C). Desorption isotherm was obtained at 40C giving a monolayer moisture content of 0.086 g water/g d.m. Experimental drying curves showed that drying process took place only in the falling rate period. Several thin-layer drying models available in the literature were evaluated based on statistical tests as sum squared error (SSE), chi-square (c 2 ) and determination coefficient (R 2 ). Effective moisture diffusivity of Cape gooseberry was in the range of 4.67‐14.9 ¥ 10 -10 m 2 /s. A value of 38.78 kJ/mol was determined as activation energy. When comparing the experimental with predicted moisture values, the Midilli‐Kucuk model was found to give the best fit quality (SSE 0.99), showing this equation to predict very accurately the drying time of Cape gooseberry under the operating conditions studied.
Professional drivers and lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to provide summarised evidence on the association between professional drivers and lung cancer in the last decade after taking into consideration the potential confounding effect of cigarette smoking. We systematically searched all published cohort and case–control studies in English from Medline and Embase, from January 1996 to January 2011. We extracted the risk estimate (ie, RR, OR, and standardised mortality ratio) from each individual study, and meta-analysis was used to combine the RR of individual studies. The methodological quality of each study was assessed using a standard approach proposed by Downs and Black. Nineteen studies were included in the meta-analysis. A significantly increased risk of lung cancer (pooled smoking-adjusted RR 1.18, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.33) among professional drivers was observed after combining four cohort studies and nine case–control studies. A higher pooled RR was observed among smoking-adjusted studies reporting 10 years or more of employment (RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.34) as compared with the study having a shorter duration of employment (6 years) (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.09). This systematic review revealed that a 18% excess risk of lung cancer was linked to professional drivers who are potentially exposed to diesel exhaust, after adjustment for the confounding effect of smoking. There is a tendency for a positive lung cancer gradient with increasing years of employment as a professional driver.
An Optimistic Prognosis for the Clinical Utility of Laboratory Test Data

It is hoped that anesthesiologists and other clinicians will be able to increasingly rely upon laboratory test data to improve the perioperative care of patients. However, it has been suggested that in order for a laboratory test to have clinically useful diagnostic performance characteristics (sensitivity and specificity), its performance must be considerably better than those that have been evaluated in most etiologic or epidemiologic studies. This pessimism about the clinical utility of laboratory tests is based upon the untested assumption that laboratory data are normally distributed within case and control populations.We evaluated the data distribution for 700 commonly ordered laboratory tests, and found that the vast majority (99%) do not have a normal distribution. The deviation from normal was most pronounced at extreme values, which had a large quantitative effect on laboratory test performance. At the sensitivity and specificity values required for diagnostic utility, the minimum required odds ratios for laboratory tests with a nonnormal data distribution were significantly smaller (by orders of magnitude) than for tests with a normal distribution.By evaluating the effect that the data distribution has on laboratory test performance, we have arrived at the more optimistic outlook that it is feasible to produce laboratory tests with diagnostically useful performance characteristics. We also show that moderate errors in the classification of outcome variables (e.g., death vs. survival at a specified end point) have a small impact on test performance, which is of importance for outcomes research that uses anesthesia information management systems. Because these analyses typically seek to identify factors associated with an undesirable outcome, the data distributions of the independent variables need to be considered when interpreting the odds ratios obtained from such investigations.
Transfer of escitalopram and its metabolite demethylescitalopram into breastmilk.

AIMS To investigate the transfer of escitalopram and its demethyl metabolite into milk, the absolute and relative infant doses via milk and to assess any unwanted effects in the breastfed infant. METHODS Multiple samples of blood and milk were obtained over a dose interval at steady state from eight women who were taking escitalopram for postnatal depression. Drug concentrations in plasma and milk were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography and milk/plasma ratio (M/P(AUC)), absolute infant dose and relative infant dose were estimated by standard methods. Their breastfed infants were also examined clinically and in five infants a blood sample was taken for drug analysis. RESULTS The median dose taken by the women was 10 mg day(-1). The mean (95% confidence interval) M/P(AUC) was 2.2 (2.0, 2.4) for escitalopram and 2.2 (1.9, 2.5) for demethylescitalopram. Absolute infant doses were 7.6 microg kg(-1) day(-1) (5.2, 10.0) for escitalopram and 3.0 microg kg(-1) day(-1) (2.4, 3.6) for demethylescitalopram. The total relative infant dose for escitalopram plus its demethyl metabolite was 5.3% (4.2, 6.4) as escitalopram equivalents. All of the infants had met normal developmental milestones and no adverse effects were seen. Compared with average maternal plasma concentrations (24 microg l(-1)), the concentrations of the parent drug and its metabolite in plasma from five infants were most commonly below the limit of detection (</=3 microg l(-1)). CONCLUSION The study shows that escitalopram is safe for use during breastfeeding. Because its absolute infant dose is lower than that for an equivalent antidepressant dose of rac-citalopram, it may be preferred over rac-citalopram in treating depression in lactating women. Nevertheless, each decision to breastfeed should always be made on the basis of an individual risk:benefit analysis.
The Wisconsin Division of Narcotics Enforcement Uses Multi-Agent Information Systems to Investigate Drug Crimes

We built a multiagent information system (MAIS) called Sherpa using distributed artificial intelligence architecture. The system integrates distributed knowledge sources and information to help the Wisconsin Division of Narcotics Enforcement (WDNE) make decisions about the level of charges against a drug crime suspect. Sherpa outperforms the existing system in the identification of criminals.
Disturbance-observer-based nonlinear stabilization control of flexible spacecraft attitude system

This paper addresses the stabilization problem of flexible spacecraft attitude system. It's well known that the undesirable vibration caused by flexible appendages, together with other disturbances such as model uncertainty and space environmental disturbance torque, may greatly degenerate the performance of the spacecraft attitude system. In this paper, the elastic vibration, the model uncertainties and other external disturbances are modeled as the lumped disturbance to the rigid body of the spacecraft, and a composite control scheme is applied to this issue. The approach is composed of two independent procedures. On one hand, a disturbance-observer-based control (DOBC) is adopted for quasi-feedforward compensation of the elastic vibration and other disturbances. On the other hand, the Sum of Squares (SOS) technique is used to construct a controller to stabilize the rigid body.
Robust airborne wireless backbone using low-cost UAVs and commodity WiFi technology

This paper proposes the use of low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enable communication between mutually unreachable ground stations in regions without communication infrastructure. The proposed method involves flying UAVs at communicable altitude in a pre-specified pattern over the ground stations. A fully autonomous control system based on the proportional integral derivative controller and the non-linear dynamic inversion controller has been built for this purpose. A modified Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) protocol is used to route data packets between the ground stations over the network formed by the UAVs using a delay tolerant approach. Using simulations, we show the effectiveness of the proposed solution, which consistently achieves a packet delivery ratio of above 90% regardless of number of UAVs. The average end-to-end delay drops steeply with an increase in number of UAVs. For a separation distance of 2 km between ground stations, four low-cost UAVs with commodity WiFi communications equipment can achieve an average end-to-end delay of 15 s and packet delivery ratio of 95%, thus giving a good balance between number of UAVs and average end-to-end delay.