Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SdPI, The First Functionally Characterized Kunitz-Type Trypsin Inhibitor from Scorpion Venom

Background Kunitz-type venom peptides have been isolated from a wide variety of venomous animals. They usually have protease inhibitory activity or potassium channel blocking activity, which by virtue of the effects on predator animals are essential for the survival of venomous animals. However, no Kunitz-type peptides from scorpion venom have been functionally characterized. Principal Findings A new Kunitz-type venom peptide gene precursor, SdPI, was cloned and characterized from a venom gland cDNA library of the scorpion Lychas mucronatus. It codes for a signal peptide of 21 residues and a mature peptide of 59 residues. The mature SdPI peptide possesses a unique cysteine framework reticulated by three disulfide bridges, different from all reported Kunitz-type proteins. The recombinant SdPI peptide was functionally expressed. It showed trypsin inhibitory activity with high potency (Ki = 1.6×10−7 M) and thermostability. Conclusions The results illustrated that SdPI is a potent and stable serine protease inhibitor. Further mutagenesis and molecular dynamics simulation revealed that SdPI possesses a serine protease inhibitory active site similar to other Kunitz-type venom peptides. To our knowledge, SdPI is the first functionally characterized Kunitz-type trypsin inhibitor derived from scorpion venom, and it represents a new class of Kunitz-type venom peptides.
A Conceptual Modeling Approach to XML Schema Evolution

Conceptual design methods are used in many elds of computer science. Most methods support the design of new applications. The evolution of existing applications is similar to the design task. A unique model, method and tool that support both tasks is desirable. In this article, such a method is suggested for the design and the evolution of XML schemas. The article focusses on the evolution and introduces the subtasks that are necessary for enhancing XML schemas. It will show that schema evolution can be realized on a conceptual model. Schema evolution always requires the propagation of changes to XML schema and also to XML documents associated to the schema. The approach is implemented in a tool called CoDEX (ConceptualDesign and Evolution of XML schemas).
interleukin 7 : implications for clinical application

Interleukin-7 (IL-7) was originally discovered to be a pre-B cell growth factor. Soon thereafter, a broader role for IL-7 in leukocyte development and function began to be identified. IL-7 now has been shown to be a critical cytokine for normal T and B lymphopoiesis and a mobilizer of pluripotent stem cells and myeloid progenitors. IL-7 has been demonstrated to enhance T cell function and induce cytokine expression in monocytes. Preclinical studies have already found that IL-7 could accelerate murine lymphocyte regeneration following chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation, induce antitumor effects in mice, and expand anti-HIV-specifIc human T cells. Thus it is essential that further preclinical and clinical research be performed to evaluate IL-7 as a potential therapy for leukopema, bone marrow/stem cell transplantation, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. J. Leukoc. Biol. 58: 623-633; 1995.
Toric Surfaces and Sasakian-Einstein 5-manifolds

We consider toric surfaces X with an orbifold structure such that the anti-canonical line V-bundle K −1 is positive which admit a certain invo-lution. Such a toric variety X with its orbifold structure is called a symmetric toric Fano surface. It is described by a convex polyhedron with integral ver-tices in the plane which is invariant under the antipodal map. Using the theory of multiplier ideal sheaves of A. Nadel [54, 55] we show that the appropriate Monge-Ampère equation is solvable, so X admits an orbifold Kähler Einstein metric of positive scalar curvature. By [14] the total space of a Seifert S 1-bundle on X has a Sasakian-Einstein structure. We obtain examples of smooth toric Sasakian-Einstein 5-manifolds with every odd second Betti number. Certain divisors in the twistor space of toric anti-self-dual Einstein orbifolds M of positive scalar curvature (cf. [22]) are toric surfaces of the above type. The associated Sasakian-Einstein space is smooth if the 3-Sasakian orbifold associated to M(cf. [16, 12, 13, 18]) is smooth. Thus associated to every toric 3-Sasakian manifold is a Sasakian-Einstein 5-manifold. Using the quaternionic/3-Sasakian reduction procedure as in [18] one constructs infinitely many toric 3-Sasakian manifolds providing us with a machine producing infinitely many smooth examples of toric Sasakian-Einstein 5-manifolds. All the examples constructed are diffeomorphic to #k(S 2 ×S 3) and we produce infinitely many examples for every odd k > 1. Furthermore, this produces Einstein metrics with infinitely many Einstein constants on each #k(S 2 ×S 3), for 1 > 0 odd. An interesting aspect of these examples is that they are submanifolds of 3-Sasakian 7-manifolds. Furthermore, these examples are non-homogeneous Einstein manifolds of positive scalar curvature which are spin and admit real Killing spinors. See [8] for a definition of Killing spinors and [1],[53] for their relevance to physics. Toric Sasakian-Einstein manifolds have been of interest in physics very recently as examples which can be used to test the AdS/CFT correspondence [30, 51, 52]. This work expands the list of examples of toric Sasakian-Einstein manifolds to include examples of arbitrarily high second Betti number.
Myelination of cortical-hippocampal relays during late adolescence.

The normal developmental series of brains in the Yakovlev Collection has been examined to explore the possibility that various brain regions implicated in schizophrenia may show changes in myelination during late adolescence, a period coinciding with the appearance of early symptoms of this disorder. The prefrontal, cingulate, and parahippocampal (entorhinal) cortex, as well as the perforant pathway, cingulum bundle, and hippocampus, were closely examined because these regions have recently been found to show various neuropathological differences in schizophrenia. Observation of these specimens has confirmed earlier reports by Yakovlev and Lecours (1967) that primary motor and sensory cortices show robust myelination early in the first decade of life. In contrast, associative cortical areas show increased amounts of myelin staining only by the second decade, although some cortical areas, like the cingulate and basofrontal cortex, remain poorly myelinated throughout life. The most striking finding, however, was the appearance of increased myelination of the subicular and presubicular regions during the late adolescent period. Increased myelination in the subiculum was localized to a discrete region at the surface where fibers of the perforant pathway are known to aggregate as they course toward the area dentata. The comparable region in the adjacent presubicular area that also showed increased myelin staining probably contains distal portions of the cingulum bundle. Support for this latter possibility was obtained from a single case in which a stereotaxically placed lesion causing interruption of the cingulum bundle showed less myelin in the presubicular area of the effectively lesioned side. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Low-Volume Intense Exercise Elicits Post-exercise Hypotension and Subsequent Hypervolemia, Irrespective of Which Limbs Are Exercised

Introduction: Exercise reduces arterial and central venous blood pressures during recovery, which contributes to its valuable anti-hypertensive effects and to facilitating hypervolemia. Repeated sprint exercise potently improves metabolic function, but its cardiovascular effects (esp. hematological) are less well-characterized, as are effects of exercising upper versus lower limbs. The purposes of this study were to identify the acute (<24 h) profiles of arterial blood pressure and blood volume for (i) sprint intervals versus endurance exercise, and (ii) sprint intervals using arms versus legs. Methods: Twelve untrained males completed three cycling exercise trials; 50-min endurance (legs), and 5*30-s intervals using legs or arms, in randomized and counterbalanced sequence, at a standardized time of day with at least 8 days between trials. Arterial pressure, hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit were measured before, during and across 22 h after exercise, the first 3 h of which were seated rest. Results: The post-exercise hypotensive response was larger after leg intervals than endurance (AUC: 7540 ± 3853 vs. 3897 ± 2757 mm Hg·min, p = 0.049, 95% CI: 20 to 6764), whereas exercising different limbs elicited similar hypotension (arms: 6420 ± 3947 mm Hg·min, p = 0.48, CI: −1261 to 3896). In contrast, arterial pressure at 22 h was reduced after endurance but not after leg intervals (−8 ± 8 vs. 0 ± 7 mm Hg, p = 0.04, CI: 7 ± 7) or reliably after arm intervals (−4 ± 8 mm Hg, p = 0.18 vs. leg intervals). Regardless, plasma volume expansion at 22 h was similar between leg intervals and endurance (both +5 ± 5%; CI: −5 to 5%) and between leg and arm intervals (arms: +5 ± 7%, CI: −8 to 5%). Conclusions: These results emphasize the relative importance of central and/or systemic factors in post-exercise hypotension, and indicate that markedly diverse exercise profiles can induce substantive hypotension and subsequent hypervolemia. At least for endurance exercise, this hypervolemia may not depend on the volume of post-exercise hypotension. Finally, endurance exercise led to reduced blood pressure the following day, but sprint interval exercise did not.
Student Perception of the Showcase Assignment: Treating Public Speaking Anxiety through the Use of Self-Disclosure.

This study focuses on a new classroom assignment known as the Showcase Assignment created by the researcher to reduce public speaking anxiety. This paper focuses on a qualitative study. College students enrolled in public speaking courses identified what about the course gave cause for anxiety and asked them to give their opinions on the assignment upon hearing its description. The findings indicated that students are most afraid of peer/instructor judgment. Students agree that the Showcase Assignment is an excellent example of a creative assignment, will aid in creating a supportive classroom environment, and predict it to be an effective and enjoyable assignment. This study was conducted with the intent of learning information to tailor the assignment to student needs before implementing it in a quantitative experiment study. The preliminary results of this quantitative study are also briefly discussed in this presentation.
Divergence-Aware Warp Scheduling

This paper uses hardware thread scheduling to improve the performance and energy efficiency of divergent applications on GPUs. We propose Divergence-Aware Warp Scheduling (DAWS), which introduces a divergence-based cache footprint predictor to estimate how much L1 data cache capacity is needed to capture intra-warp locality in loops. Predictor estimates are created from an online characterization of memory divergence and runtime information about the level of control flow divergence in warps. Unlike prior work on Cache-Conscious Wave front Scheduling, which makes re­active scheduling decisions based on detected cache thrashing, DAWS makes proactive scheduling decisions based on cache us­age predictions. DAWS uses these predictions to schedule warps such that data reused by active scalar threads is unlikely to exceed the capacity of the L1 data cache. DAWS attempts to shift the burden of locality management from software to hardware, in­creasing the performance of simpler and more portable code on the GPU. We compare the execution time of two Sparse Matrix Vector Multiply implementations and show that DAWS is able to run a simple, divergent version within 4% of a performance op­timized version that has been rewritten to make use of the on-chip scratchpad and have less memory divergence. We show that DAWS achieves a harmonic mean 26% performance improvement over Cache-Conscious Wavefront Scheduling on a diverse selection of highly cache-sensitive applications, with minimal additional hardware.
Der Wirtschafts- und Wissenschaftsstandort Berlin-Adlershof: Herausbildung eines politisch induzierten innovativen Milieus?

Suggested Citation: Dannenberg, Peter; Suwala, Lech (2009) : Der Wirtschaftsund Wissenschaftsstandort Berlin-Adlershof: Herausbildung eines politisch induzierten innovativen Milieus? , In: Dannenberg, Peter; Köhler, Hadia; Lang, Thilo; Utz, Judith; Zakirova, Betka; Zimmermann, Thomas (Ed.): Innovationen im Raum Raum für Innovationen: 11. Junges Forum der ARL, 21. bis 23. Mai 2008 in Berlin, Verlag der ARL Akademie für Raumforschung und Landesplanung, Hannover, pp. 128-141
Measurement studies of a spectrum sensing algorithm based on double thresholding

Welch spectrum estimator may be used for spectrum monitoring and sensing. Conventionally, the detection threshold is set assuming that the noise power is estimated from noise-only samples. The forward consecutive mean excision (FCME) algorithm is a method for automatically making decisions based on the decision variables, without estimation of the noise power a priori. In this paper, we propose the utilization of the FCME algorithm with the Welch spectrum estimator. Additionally, theoretical analysis about asymptotic threshold setting for the FCME algorithm with the Welch spectrum estimator is presented. The localization algorithm based on double-thresholding (LAD) with adjacent cluster combining (ACC) utilizes the FCME algorithm and is very suitable for signal detection. Laboratory and field measurement results with the LAD ACC method are included to study the detectability of different signal types, including a real wireless microphone signal.
Definition of Periprosthetic Hip and Knee Joint Infections and the Economic Burden

Periprosthetic Joint infection (PJI) following hip and knee replacements is an important complication causing major concern for patients, operating surgeons and healthcare systems. Therefore, a standardized definition of PJI is required to improve communication and allow for valid comparisons of various diagnostic and treatment strategies. This review summarizes the most commonly used definitions for PJI and the current consensus. It also highlights the economic burden related to PJIs and the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to managing those infections.
An Enhancement of TFRC over Wireless Networks

TFRC is TCP-friendly rate control protocol with TCP Reno's throughput equation based. It is designed to mainly provide optimal service for unicast multimedia flow operating in the best-effort Internet environment. However, due to Reno's significant performance degradation in wireless networks, TFRC has also led to unavoidable performance suffering from wireless links due to the poor performance of Reno throughput. This paper proposes an enhancement of TFRC based on the differentiating method used in TCP Veno. Specifically, it utilizes Veno's state differentiator to distinguish congestion losses and non-congestion losses during transmission. By discounting the impact of those non-congestion losses on the throughput calculation, it can effectively alleviate the throughput degradation caused by wireless links. The simulation results have shown that, our proposal can achieve throughput improvement up to 70% as compared to the original TFRC. Meanwhile, it maintains other merits of the original TFRC, such as sending rate smoothness, fairness, and TCP-friendliness.
An insight into the attributes influencing the acceptance of internet banking: the consumers' perspective

Six factors with 42 elements were identified to examine the influences of demographic variables and attitudes towards the acceptance of internet banking in Malaysia using a Likert scale questionnaire. Results revealed that all elements for each factor are significant, except for design factors; whilst convenience and securities were the most important attributes influencing the inclination to accept internet banking services. It was found that demographics as well as occupation background have a high correlation to the tendency to accept internet banking. Conversely, gender, race and marital status appeared to have insignificant influence. Some recommendations on ways to address the impediments were suggested.
Unbiased noise estimation and denoising in parallel magnetic resonance imaging

In magnetic resonance (MR) clinical practice, noise estimation is usually performed on Rayleigh-distributed background (no signal area) of magnitude images. Although noise variance in quadrature MR images is considered spatially independent, parallel MRI (pMRI) techniques as SENSE or GRAPPA generate spatially varying noise (SVN) distribution. In this scenario noise estimation from background may produce biased results. To address these limitations we introduce a novel noise estimation scheme based on local statistics. Our method turns out to be more accurate than the other pMRI noise estimation schemes previously described in the literature. Denoising performances, measured by visual inspection and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), of Non-Local Means denoising filters (NLM) are considerably improved using SVN-NLM in case of inhomogeneous noise. Furthermore, SVN-NLM behaves as well as standard NLM when homogeneous noise was added, thus proving to be a robust and powerful denoising algorithm for arbitrary MRI datasets.
ABA Inducible Rice Protein Phosphatase 2C Confers ABA Insensitivity and Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis

Arabidopsis PP2C belonging to group A have been extensively worked out and known to negatively regulate ABA signaling. However, rice (Oryza sativa) orthologs of Arabidopsis group A PP2C are scarcely characterized functionally. We have identified a group A PP2C from rice (OsPP108), which is highly inducible under ABA, salt and drought stresses and localized predominantly in the nucleus. Genetic analysis revealed that Arabidopsis plants overexpressing OsPP108 are highly insensitive to ABA and tolerant to high salt and mannitol stresses during seed germination, root growth and overall seedling growth. At adult stage, OsPP108 overexpression leads to high tolerance to salt, mannitol and drought stresses with far better physiological parameters such as water loss, fresh weight, chlorophyll content and photosynthetic potential (Fv/Fm) in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Expression profile of various stress marker genes in OsPP108 overexpressing plants revealed interplay of ABA dependent and independent pathway for abiotic stress tolerance. Overall, this study has identified a potential rice group A PP2C, which regulates ABA signaling negatively and abiotic stress signaling positively. Transgenic rice plants overexpressing this gene might provide an answer to the problem of low crop yield and productivity during adverse environmental conditions.
Kobayashi geodesics in A_g

We consider Kobayashi geodesics in the moduli space of abelian varieties A_g that is, algebraic curves that are totally geodesic submanifolds for the Kobayashi metric. We show that Kobayashi geodesics can be characterized as those curves whose logarithmic tangent bundle splits as a subbundle of the logarithmic tangent bundle of A_g. Both Shimura curves and Teichmueller curves are examples of Kobayashi geodesics, but there are other examples. We show moreover that non-compact Kobayashi geodesics always map to the locus of real multiplication and that the Q-irreducibility of the induced variation of Hodge structures implies that they are defined over a number field.
Genome-Wide Analysis and Expression Profiling of the SUC and SWEET Gene Families of Sucrose Transporters in Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.)

Sucrose is the principal transported product of photosynthesis from source leaves to sink organs. SUTs/SUCs (sucrose transporters or sucrose carriers) and SWEETs (Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporters) play significant central roles in phloem loading and unloading. SUTs/SUCs and SWEETs are key players in sucrose translocation and are associated with crop yields. The SUT/SUC and SWEET genes have been characterized in several plant species, but a comprehensive analysis of these two gene families in oilseed rape has not yet been reported. In our study, 22 and 68 members of the SUT/SUCs and SWEET gene families, respectively, were identified in the oilseed rape (Brassica napus) genome through homology searches. An analysis of the chromosomal distribution, phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, motifs and the cis-acting regulatory elements in the promoters of BnSUC and BnSWEET genes were analyzed. Furthermore, we examined the expression of the 18 BnSUC and 16 BnSWEET genes in different tissues of “ZS11” and the expression of 9 BnSUC and 7 BnSWEET genes in “ZS11” under various conditions, including biotic stress (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum), abiotic stresses (drought, salt and heat), and hormone treatments (abscisic acid, auxin, cytokinin, brassinolide, gibberellin, and salicylic acid). In conclusion, our study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the oilseed rape SUC and SWEET gene families. Information regarding the phylogenetic relationships, gene structure and expression profiles of the SUC and SWEET genes in the different tissues of oilseed rape helps to identify candidates with potential roles in specific developmental processes. Our study advances our understanding of the important roles of sucrose transport in oilseed rape.
Detection and Characterization of Mycoplasma pneumoniae during an Outbreak of Respiratory Illness at a University

ABSTRACT An outbreak at a university in Georgia was identified after 83 cases of probable pneumonia were reported among students. Respiratory specimens were obtained from 21 students for the outbreak investigation. The TaqMan array card (TAC), a quantitative PCR (qPCR)-based multipathogen detection technology, was used to initially identify Mycoplasma pneumoniae as the causative agent in this outbreak. TAC demonstrated 100% diagnostic specificity and sensitivity compared to those of the multiplex qPCR assay for this agent. All M. pneumoniae specimens (n = 12) and isolates (n = 10) were found through genetic analysis to be susceptible to macrolide antibiotics. The strain diversity of M. pneumoniae associated with this outbreak setting was identified using a variety of molecular typing procedures, resulting in two P1 genotypes (types 1 [60%] and 2 [40%]) and seven different multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) profiles. Continued molecular typing of this organism, particularly during outbreaks, may enhance the current understanding of the epidemiology of M. pneumoniae and may ultimately lead to a more effective public health response.
Fusion of Odometry and Visual Datas to Localization a Mobile Robot

This book aims to explore the latest practices and research works in the area of sensor fusion. The book intends to provide a collection of novel ideas, theories, and solutions related to the research areas in the field of sensor fusion. This book is a unique, comprehensive, and up-to-date resource for sensor fusion systems designers. This book is appropriate for use as an upper division undergraduate or graduate level text book. It should also be of interest to researchers, who need to process and interpret the sensor data in most scientific and engineering fields. The initial chapters in this book provide a general overview of sensor fusion. The later chapters focus mostly on the applications of sensor fusion. Much of this work has been published in refereed journals and conference proceedings and these papers have been modified and edited for content and style. With contributions from the world's leading fusion researchers and academicians, this book has 22 chapters covering the fundamental theory and cutting-edge developments that are driving this field