Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Yield and physicochemical properties of EPS from Halomonas sp. strain TG39 identifies a role for protein and anionic residues (sulfate and phosphate) in emulsification of n‐hexadecane

In this study, we investigated the yield and physicochemical properties of the high molecular weight extracellular polymeric substance (HMW–EPS) produced by Halomonas sp. strain TG39 when grown on different types and ratios of substrates. Glucose (1% w/v) and a peptone/yeast extract ratio of 5.1 (0.6% w/v final concentration) yielded an EPS fraction (HMW‐glucose) exhibiting the highest anionic activity (20.5) and specific emulsifying activity (EI24 = 100%) compared to EPS produced by cells grown on mannitol, sucrose, malt extract or no carbon source. The HMW–EPS fractions were capable of binding ≈255–464 mg of methylene blue (MB) per gram of EPS, which represents the highest reported binding of MB by a bacterial EPS. A comparative evaluation of these properties to those of commercial hydrocolloids indicated that the combined effect of protein and anionic residues of the HMW–EPS contributed to its ability to emulsify n‐hexadecane. Liquid chromatography revealed the HMW‐glucose EPS to be a heterogeneous polymer with a polydispersity index of 1.8. This work presents evidence of a correlation between the anionic nature and protein content of bacterial EPS with its emulsifying qualities, and identifies EPS produced by strain TG39 as a high MB‐binding bacterial sorbant with potential biotechnological application. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;103: 207–216. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Nanostructured Ion Beam-Modified Ge Films for High Capacity Li-Ion Battery Anodes

Nanostructured ion beam-modified Ge electrodes fabricated directly on Ni current collector substrates were found to exhibit excellent specific capacities during electrochemical cycling in half-cell configuration with Li metal for a wide range of cycling rates. Structural characterization revealed that the nanostructured electrodes lose porosity during cycling but maintain excellent electrical contact with the metallic current collector substrate. These results suggest that nanostructured Ge electrodes have great promise for use as high performance Li ion battery anodes.
Automatic detection of the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome from electrocardiograms

In this paper, a new method of automatic detection of the Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome is proposed based on electrocardiograms (ECGs) signals. Firstly, with the continuous wavelet transform (CWT), the P wave, the T wave and the QRS complex are identified. Then, their durations are also computed after determination of the boundaries (onsets and offsets of the P, T waves and the QRS complex). Secondly, the PR interval, the QRS complex interval and the area of the QRS complex are determined in order to detect the presence or not of the delta wave. This method has been tested on ECGs signals from patients affected by the WPW syndrome in order to evaluate its robustness. It can provide assistance to cardiologists during the interpretation of the ECG.
A Reusable Dynamic Framework for Cognitive Vision Systems

To comply with all these requirements two measures are proposed. The underlaying software concept is founded on a component based approach [2], which is faster than classical agent systems to guarantee reactivity and enables easier distribution than conventional object oriented approaches whose scalability ends at the one computer border. To fulfil all of the above requirements the ”Service Principle” is introduced, which is derived from the CORBAservices ([8]). It is based on a ”Yellow Pages” dynamic look-up directory that makes it possible to select on-line the best available service according to a formalised performance characterisation. The resulting architecture is therefore dynamically adapted to suit optimally the current required tasks and the changing environment. Section 2 presents details and the framework test environment and a first experimental evaluation are presented in Section 3
Atomic mechanism for the growth of wafer-scale single-crystal graphene: theoretical perspective and scanning tunneling microscopy investigations

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is the most promising approach for producing low-cost, high-quality, and large area graphene. Revealing the graphene growth mechanism at the atomic-scale is of great importance for realizing single crystal graphene (SCG) over wafer scale. Density functional theoretical (DFT) calculations are playing an increasingly important role in revealing the structure of the most stable carbon species, understanding the evolution processes, and disclosing the active sites. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is a powerful surface characterization tool to illustrate the real space distribution and atomic structures of growth intermediates during the CVD process. Combining them together can provide valuable information to improve the atomically controlled growth of SCG. Starting from a basic concept of the substrate effect on realizing SCG, this review covers the progress made in theoretical investigations on various carbon species during graphene growth on different transition metal substrates, in the STM study of the structural intermediates on transition metal surfaces, and in synthesizing graphene nanoribbons with atomic-precise width and edge structure, ending with a perspective on the future development of 2D materials beyond graphene.
Abnormal lateral geniculate nucleus and optic chiasm in human albinism

Our objective was to measure how the misrouting of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) fibers affects the organization of the optic chiasm and lateral geniculate nuclei (LGN) in human albinism. We compared the chiasmal structures and the LGN in both pigmented controls and patients with albinism by using high‐resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We studied 12 patients with oculocutaneous albinism and 12 age‐matched pigmented controls. Using a 3T MRI scanner, we acquired a T1‐weighted three‐dimensional magnetization‐prepared rapid gradient‐echo (MPRAGE) image of the whole brain, oriented so that the optic nerves, chiasm, and tracts were in the same plane. We acquired multiple proton density‐weighted images centered on the thalamus and midbrain, and averaged them to increase the signal, enabling precise manual tracing of the anatomical boundaries of the LGN. Albinism patients exhibited significantly smaller diameters of the optic nerves, chiasm and tracts, and optic chiasm and LGN volume compared with controls (P < 0.001 for all). The reductions in chiasmal diameters in the albinism compared with the control group can be attributed to the abnormal crossing of optic fibers and the reduction of RGCs in the central retina. The volume of the LGN devoted to the center of the visual field may be reduced in albinism due to fewer RGCs representing the area where the fovea would normally lie. Our data may be clinically useful in addressing how genetic deficits compromise proper structural and functional development in the brain. J. Comp. Neurol. 522:2680–2687, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Embedding Image Through Generated Intermediate Medium Using Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network

Deep neural network has proven to be very effective in computer vision fields. Deep convolutional network can learn the most suitable features of certain images without specific measure functions and outperform lots of traditional image processing methods. Generative adversarial network (GAN) is becoming one of the highlights among these deep neural networks. GAN is capable of generating realistic images which are imperceptible to the human vision system so that the generated images can be directly used as intermediate medium for many tasks. One promising application of using GAN generated images would be image concealing which requires the embedded image looks like not being tampered to human vision system and also undetectable to most analyzers. Texture synthesizing has drawn lots of attention in computer vision field and is used for image concealing in steganography and watermark. The traditional methods which use synthesized textures for information hiding mainly select features and mathematic functions by human metrics and usually have a low embedding rate. This paper takes advantage of the generative network and proposes an approach for synthesizing complex texture-like image of arbitrary size using a modified deep convolutional generative adversarial network (DCGAN), and then demonstrates the feasibility of embedding another image inside the generated texture while the difference between the two images is nearly invisible to the human eyes.
Modified Power Balance Theory for control of DSTATCOM

In this paper, a control algorithm based on Power Balance Theory (PBT) is modified to control the DSTATCOM. A 3-leg VSC (voltage source converter) with a zigzag transformer is used as a DSTATCOM (Distribution Static Compensator) for compensation of the reactive power, harmonic currents, unbalance loads and the neutral current in three-phase four-wire distribution system. The modified PBT based control algorithm is used for the extracting the reference source currents for the voltage regulation at PCC (point of common coupling). With the proposed algorithm, simulations are performed for various load conditions such as a reactive linear load, an unbalanced load and a non-linear load in Power Factor Correction (PFC) mode as well as in Zero Voltage Regulation (ZVR) mode in MATLAB environment using SIMULINK and Sim Power System (SPS) toolboxes. Test results on a developed hardware prototype of DSTATCOM are also presented to validate the control algorithm and topology for load compensation.
Elevated late‐night salivary cortisol levels in elderly male type 2 diabetic veterans

Objective Late‐night salivary cortisol (LNSC) is reportedly highly accurate for the diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome (CS). However, diagnostic thresholds for abnormal results are based on healthy, young populations and limited data are available on its use in elderly populations with chronic medical conditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate LNSC levels in elderly male veterans with and without diabetes.
N-(2,6-Dimethoxypyridine-3-yl)-9-Methylcarbazole-3-Sulfonamide as a Novel Tubulin Ligand against Human Cancer

Purpose: We have synthesized a new tubulin ligand N-(2,6-dimethoxypyridine-3-yl)-9-methylcarbazole-3-sulfonamide (IG-105). This work investigates its anticancer effect and mechanism. Experimental Design: Anticancer efficacy was evaluated at the molecular target, cancer cells and nude mice. The mechanism was explored at submolecular, molecular, and cellular levels. Results: IG-105 showed a potent activity against human leukemia and solid tumors in breast, liver, prostate, lung, skin, colon, and pancreas with IC50 values between 0.012 and 0.298 μmol/L. It was also active in drug-resistant tumor cells and not a P-glycoprotein substrate. It inhibited microtubule assembly followed by M-phase arrest, Bcl-2 inactivation, and then apoptosis through caspase pathways. The colchicine pocket on tubulin is the binding site of IG-105. Nude mice experiments showed that IG-105 monotherapy at 100 mg/kg i.p. (q2d) yielded 81% inhibition of Bel-7402 hepatoma growth and at 275 mg/kg i.p. (q2d) completely inhibited the tumor growth. MCF-7 breast cancer in nude mice showed a similar therapeutic response to IG-105. Acute toxicity of IG-105 was not found even at 1,000 mg/kg i.p. In combination with oxaliplatin or doxorubicin, IG-105 converted each of these subcurative compounds into a curative treatment with complete inhibition for tumor growth in the hepatoma-bearing nude mice. The combination was more active than either drug. In no experiment was toxicity increased by combination chemotherapy. Conclusions: IG-105 inhibits microtubule assembly by binding at colchicine pocket. It shows a potent anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo and has good safety in mice. We consider IG-105 merits further investigation.
Regulation of fibroblast-mediated collagen gel contraction by platelet- derived growth factor, interleukin-1 a and transforming growth factor-/^

We have examined the effects of three macrophagederived cytokines, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), transforming growth factor-01 (TGF-01) and interleukin-1 a (IL-la) on the contraction of collagen type I gels populated by human foreskin fibroblasts. Contraction was quantified as loss in gel weight. Both PDGF-AA and PDGF-BB were found to induce a rapid collagen-gel contraction. TGF-/J1 also stimulated gel contraction but with a delayed onset and at a slower rate than the PDGF-stimulated contraction. Rabbit polyclonal IgGs recognizing PDGF-AA and PDGF-BB, respectively, specifically inhibited the effects of the corresponding PDGF Lsoforms. However, the stimulatory effect of TGF-/S1 was not affected by any of the antiPDGF antibodies. The ability of PDGF to stimulate contraction became less pronounced in collagen gel cultures grown in the absence of growth factors over periods of several days. Under the same conditions, the stimulatory effect of TGF-/J1 was not reduced. The reduced response to PDGF may be due to reduced tension on fibroblasts growing in collagen gels, since fibroblasts on free-floating gels showed a marked reduction in PDGF-BB-induced PDGF ^-receptor aggregates when compared to fibroblasts on attached collagen gels. LL-1 a inhibited initial collagen gel contraction, and at later stages induced a visible degradation of the collagen gels, presumably due to the generation of collagenase activity. The combination of IL-la and PDGF-BB stimulated initial collagen gel contraction, although less effectively than PDGF-BB alone. At later stages, collagen gel degradation was stimulated by this combination of cytokines. In contrast, the combination of IL-la and TGF-/51 did not stimulate collagen gel contraction, or any visible collagen gel degradation. Our data suggest that fibroblast-mediated collagen gel contraction can be modulated by cytokines via different mechanisms. Our data are of importance in the understanding of the modulatory roles of cytokines in connective tissue cell activities in inflammatory processes, such as wound healing.
Generating Graphical User Interfaces for Software Product Lines: A Constraint-based Approach

Due to a high competitive pressure on the global software market, in many areas the software industry is moving from hand crafting to semi-automatic or automatic software construction based on Software Product Lines (SPL). Techniques to automate the construction of software products from SPLs are widely available. These can handle variability in source code artifacts but they are inappropriate to handle variability in Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). The main reason is that they are not designed to handle such fine grained configurations as they are required to configure GUI frameworks or toolkits. To nevertheless employ them in GUI generation tasks is complex and time consuming. However, in the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community approaches to develop GUIs in a model-based manner and with constraint-based techniques are worked on that help automate the construction of GUIs. Therefore, the main hypothesis of the proposed research is that constraint-based GUIs techniques are a well suited basis for reducing the customization effort of generated GUIs of SPLs. The paper proposes a research plan to employ these new HCI techniques in generating GUIs for SPLs.
Reverse Engineering Non-Linear Gene Regulatory Networks Based on the Bacteriophage &#955; cI Circuit

The ability to measure the transcriptional response of cells has drawn much attention to the underlying transcriptional networks. To untangle the network, numerous models with corresponding reverse engineering methods have been applied. In this work, we propose a non-linear model with adjustable degrees of complexity. The corresponding reverse engineering method uses a probabilistic scheme to reduce the reconstruction problem to subnetworks. Adequate models for gene regulatory networks must be anchored on sufficient biological knowledge. Here, the cI auto-inhibition circuit (cI circuit) is used to validate our reverse engineering method. Simulations of the cI circuit are used for the reconstruction, whereas a simplified cI circuit model assists the modeling phase. Several levels of complexity are evaluated, subsequently the reconstructed models show different properties. As a result, we reconstruct an abstract model, capturing the dynamic behavior of the cI circuit to a high degree.
Synergistic Clustering of Image and Segment Descriptors for Unsupervised Scene Understanding

With the advent of cheap, high fidelity, digital imaging systems, the quantity and rate of generation of visual data can dramatically outpace a humans ability to label or annotate it. In these situations there is scope for the use of unsupervised approaches that can model these datasets and automatically summarise their content. To this end, we present a totally unsupervised, and annotation-less, model for scene understanding. This model can simultaneously cluster whole-image and segment descriptors, thereby forming an unsupervised model of scenes and objects. We show that this model outperforms other unsupervised models that can only cluster one source of information (image or segment) at once. We are able to compare unsupervised and supervised techniques using standard measures derived from confusion matrices and contingency tables. This shows that our unsupervised model is competitive with current supervised and weakly-supervised models for scene understanding on standard datasets. We also demonstrate our model operating on a dataset with more than 100,000 images collected by an autonomous underwater vehicle.
submitted to the VII world conference of the Spatial Econometrics Association Province-level Convergence of China CO 2 Emission Intensity : A Spatial Dynamic Panel Data Analysis

This study offers a unique contribution to the literature by investigating the convergence of province-level carbon dioxide emission intensity among a panel of 30 provinces in China over the period 1990-2010. We use a novel, spatial dynamic panel data model to test the hypotheses of absolute beta convergence and conditional beta convergence. Our results suggest: (1) CO2 emission intensities are converging across provinces in China; (2) the rate of conditional beta convergence is higher than the rate of absolute beta convergence; (3) province-level CO2 emission intensities are spatially correlated, and the rate of convergence, when controlling for spatial autocorrelation, is higher than with the non-spatial models; and, (4) the rate of convergence is affected by the ratio of coal consumption to total energy consumption, secondary industry output value to the total industry output value, and province-level energy intensity.
Regression of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy After Nonsurgical Septal Reduction Therapy for Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy

BackgroundHypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) is characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in the absence of increased external load. Recently, nonsurgical septal reduction therapy (NSRT) with intracoronary ethanol has been introduced to treat severely symptomatic patients with outflow tract obstruction. Its long-term effects on LV mass, however, are unknown. Methods and ResultsThe LV size, function, and outflow tract gradient of 26 HOCM patients (53±15 years old) who underwent NSRT were assessed by echocardiography at baseline and 1 and 2 years after the procedure. LVH was evaluated by wall thickness of individual myocardial segments, planimetered myocardial area, and mass. The outflow gradient decreased from 36±6 mm Hg before NSRT to 0±3 mm Hg at 2 years (P <0.001), with patients experiencing symptomatic improvement (P <0.05). LV end-diastolic and end-systolic dimensions increased significantly at both 1 and 2 years (P <0.001). All parameters of LVH showed evidence of regression. LV mass decreased (301±78 g at baseline, 223±5 g at 1 year, and 190±58 g at 2 years;P <0.01), with the 2-year reduction in mass related to infarct size and the acute reduction in outflow tract gradient (r =0.48, P <0.05 and r =0.63, P <0.01, respectively). ConclusionsNSRT results in LV remodeling that is characterized by an increase in LV size and a decrease in the extent of LVH.
Properties and distribution of a lectin-like hemagglutinin differentially expressed by murine stromal tissue macrophages

We describe a novel hemagglutinin which is differentially expressed on murine stromal tissue macrophages. Resident bone marrow macrophages (RBMM), which are physically associated with immature, proliferating hematopoietic cells in vivo, formed striking rosettes with unopsonized sheep erythrocytes (E) in vitro, unlike resident peritoneal macrophages (RPM). Binding of E was macrophage (M phi) specific, not accompanied by ingestion and independent of temperature (0-37 degrees C), divalent cations, and the metabolic inhibitors azide and iodoacetate. Pretreatment of RBMM with trypsin prevented rosette formation, but neuraminidase enhanced it. Conversely, binding was virtually abrogated if E were pretreated with neuraminidase, whereas trypsin pretreatment of the ligand resulted in a slight enhancement. The lectin-like nature of the E receptor (SER), with specificity for sialylated glycoconjugates, was consistent with the inhibition of binding we saw with neuraminyllactose or the ganglioside GD1a (50% inhibition at 5-10 mM and 11 microM, respectively). Expression of SER on freshly isolated RBMM was heterogeneous and exhibited a striking inverse correlation with expression of Ia antigens. During cultivation in 10% FCS, levels of SER on RBMM declined with a half-life of approximately 24 h. Other cell surface changes induced by cultivation included a transient increase in expression of Ia antigen and acquisition of Mac-1. To determine whether SER was expressed on other stromal M phi populations, adherent cells were isolated from various tissues by collagenase digestion or lavage. Binding of E was highest on RBMM and lymph node stromal M phi, at intermediate levels on Kupffer cells and splenic stromal M phi, but was low or undetectable on blood monocytes and thymic, peritoneal, pleural, and bronchoalveolar M phi. SER therefore appeared to be expressed on certain M phi populations embedded in solid tissues but was largely absent from M phi recoverable by lavage. Its absence from monocytes implies that SER is acquired by M phi after entering tissues where it may perform adhesive functions. In bone marrow, SER on RBMM could interact with an appropriate sialylated ligand on murine hematopoietic cells, and could influence their rate of growth and differentiation.