Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Introduction to the physics of Brownian motors

A detailed introduction to directed transport in Brownian motors occurring in spatially periodic systems far from equilibrium is presented. We elucidate the prominent physical concepts and novel phenomena with a representative dissipative Brownian motor dynamics. Its main ingredient is a thermal noise with time-dependent temperature modulations that drive the system out of thermal equilibrium in a spatially asymmetric (ratchet-) potential. Yet, this asymmetric setup does not exhibit a concomitant obvious bias into one or the other direction of motion. Symmetry conditions for the appearance (or not) of directed current, its reversal upon variation of certain parameters, and various other generic features and applications are discussed. In addition, we provide a systematic classification scheme for Brownian motor models and review historical landmark contributions to the field. PACS 5.40. -a; 5.60. -k
Classification of environmental audio signals using statistical time and frequency features

In this paper, we present an approach for location classification that does not need to have an explicit information about the place, in contrast with systems such as a Quick Response Code (QR) or Radio Frequency Identificator tag. Our approach consists of using an “audio fingerprint” of the environmental background sounds of the place. We propose a fingerprint that consists of a set of 62 audio features, which are from temporal, frequency and statistical features. To conform an audio fingerprint, a feature extraction process was performed. We apply the feature extraction process over 70 environmental sounds of 14 different places to conform each audio fingerprint. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the set of features, we evaluate the set of features with two different classifiers: Random Forest and Support Vector Machine. Our results indicate that using this set of features allow us to classify a place with an accuracy of 84.28% for Random Forest and 91.42% for Support Vector Machine.
Atrial Fibrillation and Risk of ESRD in Adults with CKD.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Atrial fibrillation frequently complicates CKD and is associated with adverse outcomes. Progression to ESRD is a major complication of CKD, but the link with atrial fibrillation has not been fully delineated. In this study, we examined the association of incident atrial fibrillation with the risk of ESRD in patients with CKD. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS We studied participants in the prospective Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study without atrial fibrillation at entry. Incident atrial fibrillation was identified by study visit ECGs, self-report, and hospital discharge diagnostic codes, with confirmation by physician adjudication. ESRD through 2012 was ascertained by participant self-report, medical records, and linkage to the US Renal Data System. Data on potential confounders were obtained from self-report, study visits, and laboratory tests. Marginal structural models were used to study the potential association of incident atrial fibrillation with risk of ESRD after adjustment for time-dependent confounding. RESULTS Among 3091 participants, 172 (5.6%) developed incident atrial fibrillation during follow-up. During mean follow-up of 5.9 years, 43 patients had ESRD that occurred after development of incident atrial fibrillation (11.8/100 person-years) compared with 581 patients without incident atrial fibrillation (3.4/100 person-years). In marginal structural models with inverse probability weighting, incident atrial fibrillation was associated with a substantially higher rate of ESRD (hazard ratio, 3.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.9 to 5.2). This association was consistent across important subgroups by age, sex, race, diabetes status, and baseline eGFR. CONCLUSIONS Incident atrial fibrillation was associated with higher risk of developing ESRD in CKD. Additional study is needed to identify potentially modifiable pathways through which atrial fibrillation was associated with a higher risk of progression to ESRD. More aggressive monitoring and treatment of patients with CKD and atrial fibrillation may improve outcomes in this high-risk population.
Relation of Polysaccharide Content to Some Biological Properties of Endotoxins from Mutants of Salmonella typhimurium

Kessel, R. W. I. (Rutgers, The State University, New Brunswick, N.J.), Henry H. Freedman, and Werner Braun. Relation of polysaccharide content to some biological properties of endotoxins from mutants of Salmonella typhimurium. J. Bacteriol. 92:592–596. 1966. —Endotoxins were extracted by the phenol-water procedure from a variety of Salmonella typhimurium mutants with known differences in the composition of their cell wall polysaccharides. The lethality of these preparations for mice proved to be correlated with the complexity of the polysaccharide: endotoxin from the smooth parent strain and from rough strains with several sugars attached to the heptose-phosphate backbone were of high toxicity, whereas endotoxin from a mutant possessing only glucose attached to the heptose-phosphate backbone was less toxic, and endotoxin from a mutant possessing the backbone only was least toxic. All of these mutants yielded endotoxins that were equally capable of protecting mice against subsequent challenge with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Material obtained from a heptoseless mutant by the phenol-water method proved to be neither toxic nor protective. The apparent dissociation of biological properties that can be achieved with the aid of endotoxin preparations from certain mutants is discussed in terms of possible mechanisms.
Refixation of osteochondral fractures by ultrasound-activated, resorbable pins

Objectives Osteochondral injuries, if not treated adequately, often lead to severe osteoarthritis. Possible treatment options include refixation of the fragment or replacement therapies such as Pridie drilling, microfracture or osteochondral grafts, all of which have certain disadvantages. Only refixation of the fragment can produce a smooth and resilient joint surface. The aim of this study was the evaluation of an ultrasound-activated bioresorbable pin for the refixation of osteochondral fragments under physiological conditions. Methods In 16 Merino sheep, specific osteochondral fragments of the medial femoral condyle were produced and refixed with one of conventional bioresorbable pins, titanium screws or ultrasound-activated pins. Macro- and microscopic scoring was undertaken after three months. Results The healing ratio with ultrasound-activated pins was higher than with conventional pins. No negative heat effect on cartilage has been shown. Conclusion As the material is bioresorbable, no further surgery is required to remove the implant. MRI imaging is not compromised, as it is with implanted screws. The use of bioresorbable pins using ultrasound is a promising technology for the refixation of osteochondral fractures.
Sea star tenacity mediated by a protein that fragments, then aggregates

Significance Sea stars are emblematic of the seashore. Despite this, their ability to pry open mussels and attach strongly but temporarily to rocks in their environments are poorly understood. Here we report, to our knowledge, the first sequence of a protein, Sea star footprint protein 1 (Sfp1), a primary constituent of the adhesive footprints secreted by sea star tube feet. Sfp1 is unusually large and complex compared with other marine adhesive proteins such as those of mussels. It is translated from a single mRNA and then fragmented into four subunits, which display specific domains that mediate interactions with other proteins present in the adhesive material and on the tube foot surface. After secretion, Sfp1 forms a structural scaffold and appears to provide footprints with cohesion. Sea stars adhere firmly but temporarily to various substrata as a result of underwater efficient adhesive secretions released by their tube feet. Previous studies showed that this material is mainly made up of proteins, which play a key role in its adhesiveness and cohesiveness. Recently, we solubilized the majority of these proteins and obtained 43 de novo-generated peptide sequences by tandem MS. Here, one of these sequences served to recover the full-length sequence of Sea star footprint protein 1 (Sfp1), by RT-PCR and tube foot transcriptome analysis. Sfp1, a large protein of 3,853 aa, is the second most abundant constituent of the secreted adhesive. By using MS and Western blot analyses, we showed that Sfp1 is translated from a single mRNA and then cleaved into four subunits linked together by disulphide bridges in tube foot adhesive cells. The four subunits display specific protein-, carbohydrate-, and metal-binding domains. Immunohistochemistry and immunocytochemistry located Sfp1 in granules stockpiled by one of the two types of adhesive cells responsible for the secretion of the adhesive material. We also demonstrated that Sfp1 makes up the structural scaffold of the adhesive footprint that remains on the substratum after tube foot detachment. Taken together, the results suggest that Sfp1 is a major structural protein involved in footprint cohesion and possibly in adhesive interactions with the tube foot surface. In recombinant form, it could be used for the design of novel sea star-inspired biomaterials.
[We are all of African << race >>!].

La definition de l’intelligence, et la question de savoir si les tests de Quotient Intellectuel concus par des Europeens peuvent avoir une validite universelle ont ete largement debattues. C’est la notion d’une « race » africaine que je souhaite discuter ici. Il est important de revenir sur les propos de James Watson car, sous leur aspect abrupt, ils sont representatifs d’un point de vue tres repandu chez les AngloSaxons, qui ont souvent une vision du monde en Noir et Blanc. Ces propos posent la question de l’existence de « races ». Il y a tout d’abord un probleme de definition. Le mot race a ete employe pour designer des ensembles tres differents. On a parle de « Race humaine », pour l’ensemble des populations humaines (dans ce cas, il faudrait parler d’espece humaine), on parle de races de chiens, de chevaux, etc. Ce sont des subdivisions d’une espece en groupes qui ont de nombreux caracteres communs, qui les differencient des autres groupes, c’est cette definition que l’on utilise couramment quand on parle de differentes races parmi l’espece humaine. Mais, en depit de decennies de recherche en genetique, il est tres difficile de donner une definition biologique des races parmi les populations humaines, une majorite de biologistes considere donc que ce mot ne doit plus etre employe. Pourtant, chacun a l’experience des differences de couleur de peau, de forme du visage, de morphologie entre differents groupes ethniques, caracteres sur lesquels se fondent implicitement ceux qui parlent de races. Quelle pourrait etre la definition biologique d’une race ? Une population humaine qui presente moins de variations entre les individus qui la composent qu’avec n’importe quelle autre population ? Dans ce cas, il parait tres difficile de parler de races, car les differences entre individus d’une meme population sont toujours plus nombreuses que les differences qui pourraient permettre de distinguer deux populations l’une de l’autre. On estime couramment que sur 100 differences pour des marqueurs genetiques pris au hasard, plus de 90 sont des differences entre individus, et moins de 10 correspondent a des differences entre populations [1]. Si l’on s’en tient a cette definition, il n’existe pas de races dans l’espece humaine [1-3]. Pourtant, entre un Japonais, un Norvegien et un Senegalais, chacun reconnaitra immediatement l’origine. Il est essentiel de realiser que ces differences de morphologie du visage, ou de couleur de peau, sont dues a la fois a des derives genetiques, a l’adaptation a des climats differents, et a la selection fondee sur l’attirance sexuelle (preferences differentes pour certains traits). Leur relative homogeneite dans une population n’est pas representative, la variabilite est beaucoup plus forte quand on s’interesse a d’autres marqueurs, au hasard. De plus, il faut souligner que nous avons choisi trois extremes et que l’on observe des variations progressives en passant d’une region a l’autre [4].
Trio’s Rho-specific GEF domain is the missing Gαq effector in C. elegans

The Gq pathway is essential for animal life and is a central pathway for driving locomotion, egg laying, and growth in Caenorhabditis elegans, where it exerts its effects through EGL-8 (phospholipase C [PLC]) and at least one other effector. To find the missing effector, we performed forward genetic screens to suppress the slow growth and hyperactive behaviors of mutants with an overactive Gq pathway. Four suppressor mutations disrupted the Rho-specific guanine-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) domain of UNC-73 (Trio). The mutations produce defects in neuronal function, but not neuronal development, that cause sluggish locomotion similar to animals lacking EGL-8 (PLC). Strains containing null mutations in both EGL-8 (PLC) and UNC-73 (Trio RhoGEF) have strong synthetic phenotypes that phenocopy the arrested growth and near-complete paralysis of Gq-null mutants. Using cell-based and biochemical assays, we show that activated C. elegans Gq synergizes with Trio RhoGEF to activate RhoA. Activated Gq and Trio RhoGEF appear to be part of a signaling complex, because they coimmunoprecipitate when expressed together in cells. Our results show that Trio’s Rho-specific GEF domain is a major Gq effector that, together with PLC, mediates the Gq signaling that drives the locomotion, egg laying, and growth of the animal.
Multipath opportunistic RPL routing over IEEE 802.15.4

We consider the problem of running RPL on top of the IEEE 802.15. 4 MAC layer-the two layers operate over two different structures, a directed acyclic graph in the case of RPL and a cluster-tree for IEEE 802.15. 4. We propose to adapt the cluster-tree of IEEE 802.15. 4 so that it can efficiently work coupled with RPL. Nodes in our modified cluster-tree can associate with several parent nodes by taking advantage of an adequate organization of superframes at the MAC layer. Building on this modified MAC layer, we define an opportunistic forwarding scheme that extends RPL with the possibility of forwarding packets over multiple paths. Instead of always using a preferred parent, a node opportunistically forwards packets through other parents as long as their routes towards the sink are better. We take advantage of the opportunistic forwarding to support higher-priority delay-sensitive alarms that need to arrive in sink before a given deadline along with low-intensity monitoring data considered as best-effort. We compare our opportunistic version of RPL to its basic version through detailed simulations in terms of packet delivery ratio, incurred delay, and overhead.
Econometric Calibration of the Joint Time Assignment-Mode Choice Model

This paper describes the derivation and the econometric calibration of a joint time assignment--mode choice model with a microeconomic foundation, to be applied to the TASTI (time assignment travel and income) database. The econometric procedure is a full information maximum likelihood with three nonlinear continuous equations and one discrete choice. We use Lee's transformation [Lee, L. F. 1983. Generalized econometric models with selectivity. Econometrica51 507--512] to include correlations between the continuous and discrete equations. This allows us to estimate (a) the value of time as a resource or value of assigning time to a pleasurable activity, (b) the value of assigning time to work, and (c) the value of assigning time to travel. We apply the method and obtain reasonable results. Finally, we identify some econometric challenges for further research.
Design and analysis of 3D posts based antenna

Three dimensional (3D) antenna refers to an assembly of radiating element on one layer and feed line on another layer and was introduced to minimize the antenna design space. This configuration allows room to integrate more devices and thereby enhances the chip functionalities for an system on chip (SoC) radio frequency (RF) applications. The designed 3D antenna element is composed of vertical metal supports or posts and combination of copper pads connecting multiple supporters. The 3D posts based antenna was designed for 24 GHz ISM band applications and its performance was computed by changing the number of posts. The antenna performance was improved by the inclusion of novel 3D posts and the footprint of overall antenna design was reduced to 2.75 mm × 2.75 mm. To verify the architecture, a similar posts based antenna was fabricated for 2.5 GHz frequency and antenna performance was measured. Experimentally measured antenna parameters and simulated results were found to be in agreement.
The M Segment of the 2009 Pandemic Influenza Virus Confers Increased Neuraminidase Activity, Filamentous Morphology, and Efficient Contact Transmissibility to A/Puerto Rico/8/1934-Based Reassortant Viruses

ABSTRACT The 2009 H1N1 lineage represented the first detection of a novel, highly transmissible influenza A virus genotype: six gene segments originated from the North American triple-reassortant swine lineage, and two segments, NA and M, derived from the Eurasian avian-like swine lineage. As neither parental lineage transmits efficiently between humans, the adaptations and mechanisms underlying the pandemic spread of the swine-origin 2009 strain are not clear. To help identify determinants of transmission, we used reverse genetics to introduce gene segments of an early pandemic isolate, A/Netherlands/602/2009 [H1N1] (NL602), into the background of A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 [H1N1] (PR8) and evaluated the resultant viruses in a guinea pig transmission model. Whereas the NL602 virus spread efficiently, the PR8 virus did not transmit. Swapping of the HA, NA, and M segments of NL602 into the PR8 background yielded a virus with indistinguishable contact transmissibility to the wild-type pandemic strain. Consistent with earlier reports, the pandemic M segment alone accounted for much of the improvement in transmission. To aid in understanding how the M segment might affect transmission, we evaluated neuraminidase activity and virion morphology of reassortant viruses. Transmission was found to correlate with higher neuraminidase activity and a more filamentous morphology. Importantly, we found that introduction of the pandemic M segment alone resulted in an increase in the neuraminidase activity of two pairs of otherwise isogenic PR8-based viruses. Thus, our data demonstrate the surprising result that functions encoded by the influenza A virus M segment impact neuraminidase activity and, perhaps through this mechanism, have a potent effect on transmissibility. IMPORTANCE Our work uncovers a previously unappreciated mechanism through which the influenza A virus M segment can alter the receptor-destroying activity of an influenza virus. Concomitant with changes to neuraminidase activity, the M segment impacts the morphology of the influenza A virion and transmissibility of the virus in the guinea pig model. We suggest that changes in NA activity underlie the ability of the influenza M segment to influence virus transmissibility. Furthermore, we show that coadapted M, NA, and HA segments are required to provide optimal transmissibility to an influenza virus. The M-NA functional interaction we describe appears to underlie the prominent role of the 2009 pandemic M segment in supporting efficient transmission and may be a highly important means by which influenza A viruses restore HA/NA balance following reassortment or transfer to new host environments.
Between the Genetic Defect and the Cardiac Phenotype of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Aldosterone , Through Novel Signaling Proteins , Is a Fundamental Molecular Bridge

Nemoto, Gilberto DeFreitas, Mark Entman, Blase A. Carabello, Robert Roberts and A.J. Natalia Tsybouleva, Lianfeng Zhang, Suetnee Chen, Rajnikant Patel, Silvia Lutucuta, Shintaro Between the Genetic Defect and the Cardiac Phenotype of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Aldosterone, Through Novel Signaling Proteins, Is a Fundamental Molecular Bridge Print ISSN: 0009-7322. Online ISSN: 1524-4539 Copyright © 2004 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231 Circulation doi: 10.1161/01.CIR. 0000121426.43044. 2B 2004;109:1284-1291; originally published online March 1, 2004; Circulation. http://circ.ahajournals. org/content/109/10/1284 World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on the
Service architecture for multi-environment mobile cloud services

The growth of connected devices, mostly due to the large number of internet of things IoT deployments and the emergence of mobile cloud services, introduces new challenges for the design of service architectures in mobile cloud computing MCC. An MCC framework should provide elasticity and scalability in a distributed and dynamic way while dealing with limited environment resources and variable mobile contexts web applications, real-time, enterprise services, mobile to mobile, hostile environment, etc. that may include additional constraints impacting the design foundation of cloud services. We show in this work how service-oriented architecture SOA can be a key solution to provide distributed mobile cloud services and how OSGi platform can be an adaptive and efficient framework to provide such implementation. We adapt the proposed MCC framework to different architecture contexts. The first one is a traditional centric model, where mobile devices are reduced to consuming services. The second one is a distributed model where the power of mobile-to-mobile interaction offers unlimited value-services opportunities, and finally, three-tier architecture is considered with the introduction of the cloudlet notion. For each context, we explore the performance of our service-oriented framework, and contrast it with alternative existing solutions.
Circulant based extremal additive self-dual codes over GF(4)

It is well known that the problem of finding stabilizer quantum-error-correcting codes (QECC) is transformed into the problem of finding additive self-orthogonal codes over the Galois field GF(4) under a trace inner product. Our purpose is to classify the extremal additive circulant self-dual codes of lengths up to 15, and construct good codes for lengths 16/spl les/n/spl les/27. We also classify the extremal additive 4-circulant self-dual codes of lengths 4,6,8,12,14, and 16 and most codes of length 10, and construct good codes of even lengths up to 22. Furthermore, we classify the extremal additive bordered 4-circulant self-dual codes of lengths 3,5,7,9,11,13,15, and 17, and construct good codes for lengths 19,21,23, and 25. We give the current status of known extremal (or optimal) additive self-dual codes of lengths 12 to 27.
Learning Restricted Regular Expressions with Interleaving

The advantages for the presence of an XML schema for XML documents are numerous. However, many XML documents in practice are not accompanied by a schema or by a valid schema. Relax NG is a popular and powerful schema language, which supports the unconstrained interleaving operator. Focusing on the inference of Relax NG, we propose a new subclass of regular expressions with interleaving and design a polynomial inference algorithm. Then we conducted a series of experiments based on large-scale real data and on three XML data corpora, and experimental results show that our subclass has a better practicality than previous ones, and the regular expressions inferred by our algorithm are more precise.