Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between plasma branched-chain amino acids, β-aminoisobutyric acid and body composition

Abstract Plasma branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) are elevated in obesity and associated with increased cardiometabolic risk. β-Aminoisobutyric acid (B-AIBA), a recently identified small molecule metabolite, is associated with decreased cardiometabolic risk. Therefore, we investigated the association of BCAA and B-AIBA with each other and with detailed body composition parameters, including abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). A cross-sectional study was carried out with lean (n 15) and obese (n 33) men and women. Detailed metabolic evaluations, including measures of body composition, insulin sensitivity and plasma metabolomics were completed. Plasma BCAA were higher (1·6 (se 0·08) (×107) v. 1·3 (se 0·06) (×107) arbitrary units; P = 0·005) in obese v. lean subjects. BCAA were positively associated with VAT (R 0·49; P = 0·0006) and trended to an association with SAT (R 0·29; P = 0·052). The association between BCAA and VAT, but not SAT, remained significant after controlling for age, sex and race on multivariate modelling (P < 0·05). BCAA were also associated with parameters of insulin sensitivity (Matsuda index: R −0·50, P = 0·0004; glucose AUC: R 0·53, P < 0·001). BCAA were not associated with B-AIBA (R −0·04; P = 0·79). B-AIBA was negatively associated with SAT (R −0·37; P = 0·01) but only trended to an association with VAT (R 0·27; P = 0·07). However, neither relationship remained significant after multivariate modelling (P > 0·05). Plasma B-AIBA was associated with parameters of insulin sensitivity (Matsuda index R 0·36, P = 0·01; glucose AUC: R −0·30, P = 0·04). Plasma BCAA levels were positively correlated with VAT and markers of insulin resistance. The results suggest a possible complex role of adipose tissue in BCAA homeostasis and insulin resistance.
Mathematical Model for Photovoltaic Cells

The study of photovoltaic systems in an efficient manner requires a precise knowledge of the (I-V) and (P-V) characteristic curves of photovoltaic modules. So, the aim of the present paper is to estimate such characteristics based on different operating conditions. In this concern, a simple one diode mathematical model was implemented using MATLAB script. The output characteristics of PV cell depend on the environmental conditions. For any solar cell, the model parameters are function of the irradiance and the temperature values of the site where the panel is placed. In this paper, the numerical values of the equivalent circuit parameters are generated by the program. As well, the dependence of the cells electrical parameters are analyzed under the influence of different irradiance and temperature levels. The variation of slopes of the (I–V) curves of a cell at short-circuit and open-circuit conditions with intensity of illumination in small span of intensity and different temperature levels have been applied to determine the cell parameters, shunt resistance, series resistance. The results show that the efficiency of solar cells has an inverse relationship with temperature, irradiance levels are affected by the change of the photo-generation current and the series resistance in the single diode model.
The global population of large craters on Mercury and comparison with the Moon

We have compiled a near‐global catalog of impact craters on Mercury for diameters ≥20 km from images obtained during the flybys of the Mariner 10 and MESSENGER spacecraft. The observed variations in crater density suggest that the smooth plains within and around the Caloris basin are the most prominent contiguous, comparatively young regions on Mercury; no other comparably large area appears as young. In more heavily cratered terrain, even the most densely cratered regions on Mercury are deficient in craters between 20 km and ∼100 km in diameter compared with the Moon, a result that extends an observation made from Mariner 10 images of a smaller fraction of Mercury's surface. This deficit is interpreted to reflect crustal resurfacing of Mercury early in its history, most likely by volcanic processes. For craters larger than ∼100 km in diameter, the density of craters on Mercury in a given size range is similar to that of the Moon. Because such larger craters are less easily removed by volcanic resurfacing, we interpret this similarity to be the result of impact saturation effects on both bodies.
Fault Diagnosis in Body Sensor Networks

Intermittent and transient faults are the largest source of failure for body sensor networks. In order to provide a method for detecting permanent, intermittent and transient faults, a distributed online solution is suggested. The diagnosis algorithm uses repeated testing in discrete time, and diagnostic messages are sent as the output of the routine tasks of the network. This work adopts a multi-tier telemedicine system where a star topology with the sensor nodes sending their data to Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) for data fusion is used. The system performs real-time analysis of sensor data and can generate warnings regarding an occurrence of fault, which allows fault isolation and system reconfiguration.
On a digital wireless impact-monitoring network for large-scale composite structures

Impact, which may occur during manufacture, service or maintenance, is one of the major concerns to be monitored throughout the lifetime of aircraft composite structures. Aiming at monitoring impacts online while minimizing the weight added to the aircraft to meet the strict limitations of aerospace engineering, this paper puts forward a new digital wireless network based on miniaturized wireless digital impact-monitoring nodes developed for large-scale composite structures. In addition to investigations on the design methods of the network architecture, time synchronization and implementation method, a conflict resolution method based on the feature parameters of digital sequences is first presented to address impact localization conflicts when several nodes are arranged close together. To verify the feasibility and stability of the wireless network, experiments are performed on a complex aircraft composite wing box and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) composite wing. Experimental results show the successful design of the presented network.
Polymorphism in the ELOVL6 Gene Is Associated with a Major QTL Effect on Fatty Acid Composition in Pigs

Background The ELOVL fatty acid elongase 6 (ELOVL6), the only elongase related to de novo lipogenesis, catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the elongation cycle by controlling the fatty acid balance in mammals. It is located on pig chromosome 8 (SSC8) in a region where a QTL affecting palmitic, and palmitoleic acid composition was previously detected, using an Iberian x Landrace intercross. The main goal of this work was to fine-map the QTL and to evaluate the ELOVL6 gene as a positional candidate gene affecting the percentages of palmitic and palmitoleic fatty acids in pigs. Methodology and Principal Findings The combination of a haplotype-based approach and single-marker analysis allowed us to identify the main, associated interval for the QTL, in which the ELOVL6 gene was identified and selected as a positional candidate gene. A polymorphism in the promoter region of ELOVL6, ELOVL6:c. -533C>T, was highly associated with the percentage of palmitic and palmitoleic acids in muscle and backfat. Significant differences in ELOVL6 gene expression were observed in backfat when animals were classified by the ELOVL6:c. -533C>T genotype. Accordingly, animals carrying the allele associated with a decrease in ELOVL6 gene expression presented an increase in C16:0 and C16:1(n-7) fatty acid content and a decrease of elongation activity ratios in muscle and backfat. Furthermore, a SNP genome-wide association study with ELOVL6 relative expression levels in backfat showed the strongest effect on the SSC8 region in which the ELOVL6 gene is located. Finally, different potential genomic regions associated with ELOVL6 gene expression were also identified by GWAS in liver and muscle, suggesting a differential tissue regulation of the ELOVL6 gene. Conclusions and Significance Our results suggest ELOVL6 as a potential causal gene for the QTL analyzed and, subsequently, for controlling the overall balance of fatty acid composition in pigs.
Toxic Disputes and the Rise of Environmental Justice in Australia

Abstract The paper examines the rise of environmental justice issues in Australia, evident in two toxic disputes; the first, in a Perth outer suburb in Western Australia where residents faced both a hazardous waste dump and the nation's biggest chemical fire; and the second, in the Sydney suburb of Botany where residents were confronted with the destruction of what is thought to be, the world's largest stockpile of hazardous hexachlorobenzene (HCB) waste. The paper reviews the range of factors that impacted the local communities' fight for environmental justice. It explores the limitations of risk assessment and risk-based policies, as well as the problematic role of the expert and the communication of risk. The informational inequity and resource disparities so evident in toxic disputes are highlighted. The case studies confirmed the inequitable distribution of chemical risk as a failure to secure environmental justice for all Australians.
Handling the loss of innocence: first-time exchange of writing and feedback in doctoral supervision

ABSTRACT The first time of many significant encounters is the most intense, raising awkwardness, anxiety and hope. This article presents data from doctoral students (n = 80) who described the first time that they submitted writing to their supervisor and received feedback. The first writing/feedback exchange is an initiation into the cultures of academia. Student accounts captured the intensity of the initiation for students, excitement or dread on submitting writing, with increased emotional reaction when going through the feedback process, that liminal first time. Close focus on the first-time writing feedback exchange makes a contribution to the literature on the social interactions of doctoral writing. Data backs our argument that students and supervisors need to carefully manage the first-time exchange of writing. Our findings are analysed thematically and through an autoethnographic lens of the lead author, who was both a research assistant for the research survey and an international doctoral student experiencing the same processes in his cross-disciplinary joint doctorate. We draw on conceptual threshold-crossing theories established in regard to doctoral learning.
Timing stability of millisecond pulsars and prospects for gravitational-wave detection

Analysis of high-precision timing observations of an array of " 20 millisecond pulsars (a socalled “timing array”) may ultimately result in the detection of a stochastic gravitational-wave background. The feasibility of such a detection and the required duration of this type of experiment are determined by the achievable rms of the timing residuals and the timing stability of the pulsars involved. We present results of the first long-term, high-precision timing campaign on a large sample of millisecond pulsars used in gravitational-wave detection projects. We show that the timing residuals of most pulsars in our sample do not contain significant lowfrequency noise that could limit the use of these pulsars for decade-long gravitational-wave detection efforts. For our most precisely timed pulsars, intrinsic instabilities of the pulsars or the observing system are shown to contribute to timing irregularities on a five-year timescale below the 100 ns level. Based on those results, realistic sensitivity curves for planned and ongoing timing array efforts are determined. We conclude that prospects for detection of a gravitational-wave background through pulsar timing array efforts within five years to a decade are good.
Near field communication chip using PIM for bio MEMS sensors

This paper presents a small-size wireless communication system for bio MEMS sensors, which uses the near field communication of 13.56MHz with Pulse Interval Modulation (PIM). In simulated result, 16mV of output voltage can be obtained at the outside receiver when coupling factor is 0.1.
Identification of Selective Inhibitors of the Plasmodium falciparum Hexose Transporter PfHT by Screening Focused Libraries of Anti-Malarial Compounds

Development of resistance against current antimalarial drugs necessitates the search for novel drugs that interact with different targets and have distinct mechanisms of action. Malaria parasites depend upon high levels of glucose uptake followed by inefficient metabolic utilization via the glycolytic pathway, and the Plasmodium falciparum hexose transporter PfHT, which mediates uptake of glucose, has thus been recognized as a promising drug target. This transporter is highly divergent from mammalian hexose transporters, and it appears to be a permease that is essential for parasite viability in intra-erythrocytic, mosquito, and liver stages of the parasite life cycle. An assay was developed that is appropriate for high throughput screening against PfHT based upon heterologous expression of PfHT in Leishmania mexicana parasites that are null mutants for their endogenous hexose transporters. Screening of two focused libraries of antimalarial compounds identified two such compounds that are high potency selective inhibitors of PfHT compared to human GLUT1. Additionally, 7 other compounds were identified that are lower potency and lower specificity PfHT inhibitors but might nonetheless serve as starting points for identification of analogs with more selective properties. These results further support the potential of PfHT as a novel drug target.
RDF2Vec: RDF graph embeddings and their applications

Linked Open Data has been recognized as a valuable source for background information in many data mining and information retrieval tasks. However, most of the existing tools require features in propositional form, i.e., a vector of nominal or numerical features associated with an instance, while Linked Open Data sources are graphs by nature. In this paper, we present RDF2Vec, an approach that uses language modeling approaches for unsupervised feature extraction from sequences of words, and adapts them to RDF graphs.We generate sequences by leveraging local information from graph sub-structures, harvested by Weisfeiler-Lehman Subtree RDF Graph Kernels and graph walks, and learn latent numerical representations of entities in RDF graphs.We evaluate our approach on three different tasks: (i) standard machine learning tasks, (ii) entity and document modeling, and (iii) content-based recommender systems. The evaluation shows that the proposed entity embeddings outperform existing techniques, and that pre-computed feature vector representations of general knowledge graphs such as DBpedia and Wikidata can be easily reused for different tasks.
CDT, GGT, and AST as markers of alcohol use: the WHO/ISBRA collaborative project.

BACKGROUND Estimates of the performance of carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT) and gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) as markers of alcohol consumption have varied widely. Studies have differed in design and subject characteristics. The WHO/ISBRA Collaborative Study allows assessment and comparison of CDT, GGT, and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) as markers of drinking in a large, well-characterized, multicenter sample. METHODS A total of 1863 subjects were recruited from five countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, and Japan). Recruitment was stratified by alcohol use, age, and sex. Demographic characteristics, alcohol consumption, and presence of ICD-10 dependence were recorded using an interview schedule based on the AUDADIS. CDT was assayed using CDTect and GGT and AST by standard methods. Statistical techniques included receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Multiple regression was used to measure the impact of factors other than alcohol on test performance. RESULTS CDT and GGT had comparable performance on ROC analysis, with AST performing slightly less well. CDT was a slightly but significantly better marker of high-risk consumption in men. All were more effective for detection of high-risk rather than intermediate-risk drinking. CDT and GGT levels were influenced by body mass index, sex, age, and smoking status. CONCLUSIONS CDT was little better than GGT in detecting high- or intermediate-risk alcohol consumption in this large, multicenter, predominantly community-based sample. As the two tests are relatively independent of each other, their combination is likely to provide better performance than either test alone. Test interpretation should take account sex, age, and body mass index.
The Relative Star Formation Histories of Spiral Bulges and Elliptical Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Fields

Hierarchical galaxy formation models make specific predictions concerning the relative assembly rates and star formation histories of spiral bulges and field ellipticals. Independently of the cosmological model and initial power spectrum of fluctuations, at all epochs the stellar populations in spiral bulges should be older and redder than those in typical ellipticals selected at the same redshift. To test this simple prediction, we analyze the internal optical colors of a complete sample of I814 < 24 mag early-type and spiral galaxies from the northern and southern Hubble Deep Fields (HDF). The subset of galaxies in the HDF-North are also investigated in the near-infrared using NICMOS photometry. We compare the central (inner 5% radius) colors of those spirals with clearly visible bulges with the integrated colors of ellipticals in our sample. Comparisons are possible to a redshift z ≃ 1, at which point well-defined bulges become difficult to locate. The reliability of determining bulge colors using central apertures is tested by considering the homogeneity of the pixel-by-pixel colors for typical cases and through comparisons based on the simulated appearance at moderate redshift of the local sample of de Jong. We show via these tests and by selecting HDF subsets chosen according to inclination that disk contamination effects should be minimal. While spiral bulges are systematically redder in their optical colors than their associated disks at all redshifts, we find that the majority are significantly bluer than the red locus occupied by most field ellipticals at similar redshifts. In the near-infrared, similar trends are found at redshifts z < 0.6, but at higher redshifts some bulges as red as the reddest ellipticals are found. We conclude that a significant rejuvenation may have occurred in the inner stellar populations of many spiral galaxies, particularly those at intermediate redshifts. We examine the optical and near-infrared colors of the HDF bulges in the context of models that include the effects of secondary star formation superimposed upon preexisting old populations and conclude the data is best fitted when this secondary activity is burstlike. We discuss the consequences for models of secular evolution in disks should these bursts have been particularly prevalent at z ≃ 0.6 as the limited HDF data seems to imply.
Identification of Potential Over-Supply Zones of Urban Shopping Malls: Integration of Crowdsourced Data and Weighted Voronoi Diagram

ABSTRACT The market saturation issue of urban shopping malls has attracted considerable attention in China in recent years. In order to rapidly identify potential over-supply zones and inform policy-makers, this study developed a new model by integrating a weighted Voronoi diagram and crowdsourced data. The model was then tested in the city of Hangzhou, China. First, crowdsourced data such as user reviews of shopping were collected to measure the weights of malls. Second, by using population and floor space as parameters, an over-supply index was established for over-supply zone delimitation. This study offers a fast and low-cost approach for measuring consumption activities at a fine scale, and shows the merits of integrating classical analysis models and big data. Moreover, long-term user reviews and recommendation datasets with timestamps could be used to monitor the status of market health. From a bottom-up perspective, the market boundary map and over-supply index could constitute an important database for policy formulation through crowdsourced data.
Splitting CO2 with a ceria‐based redox cycle in a solar‐driven thermogravimetric analyzer

Thermochemical splitting of CO2 via a ceria‐based redox cycle was performed in a solar‐driven thermogravimetric analyzer. Overall reaction rates, including heat and mass transport, were determined under concentrated irradiation mimicking realistic operation of solar reactors. Reticulated porous ceramic (RPC) structures and fibers made of undoped and Zr4+‐doped CeO2, were endothermally reduced under radiative fluxes of 1280 suns in the temperature range 1200–1950 K and subsequently re‐oxidized with CO2 at 950–1400 K. Rapid and uniform heating was observed for 8 ppi ceria RPC with mm‐sized porosity due to its low optical thickness and volumetric radiative absorption, while ceria fibers with μm‐sized porosity performed poorly due to its opacity to incident irradiation. The 10 ppi RPC exhibited higher fuel yield because of its higher sample density. Zr4+‐doped ceria showed increasing reduction extents with dopant concentration but decreasing specific CO yield due to unfavorable oxidation thermodynamics and slower kinetics. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1263–1271, 2017
Context-Aware Workflow Management For Intelligent Navigation Applications In Pervasive Environments

Abstract Pervasive computing is auser-centric distributed computing paradigm, allowing users to access their preferred services even while moving around. To make this vision a reality, context-aware workflow management is one of key issues because the context of pervasive applications is changing dynamically. In this paper, we propose a context model for intelligent navigation applications and then present acontext-aware workflow management algorithm (CAWM) which can adaptively adjust workflow execution behaviours based on current context information. The correctness of the CAWM algorithm has been also verified theoretically by formulating it as a Petri-net model. Furthermore, the proposed context model and workflow management algorithm can apply to other applications by simply revising the corresponding context structures only.
Proximal point algorithms involving Cesàro type mean of total asymptotically nonexpansive mappings in CAT(0) spaces

In this paper, we extend the proximal point algorithm proposed by Chang et al.[8] for total asymptotically nonexpansive mapping in CAT(0) spaces. We also demonstrate the ∆-convergence and strong convergence to a common element of the set of minimizers of a convex function and the set of fixed points of the Cesàro type mean of total asymptotically nonexpansive mappings in CAT(0) spaces.