Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SUMOylation Represses Nanog Expression via Modulating Transcription Factors Oct4 and Sox2

Nanog is a pivotal transcription factor in embryonic stem (ES) cells and is essential for maintaining the pluripotency and self-renewal of ES cells. SUMOylation has been proved to regulate several stem cell markers' function, such as Oct4 and Sox2. Nanog is strictly regulated by Oct4/Sox2 heterodimer. However, the direct effects of SUMOylation on Nanog expression remain unclear. In this study, we reported that SUMOylation repressed Nanog expression. Depletion of Sumo1 or its conjugating enzyme Ubc9 increased the expression of Nanog, while high SUMOylation reduced its expression. Interestingly, we found that SUMOylation of Oct4 and Sox2 regulated Nanog in an opposing manner. SUMOylation of Oct4 enhanced Nanog expression, while SUMOylated Sox2 inhibited its expression. Moreover, SUMOylation of Oct4 by Pias2 or Sox2 by Pias3 impaired the interaction between Oct4 and Sox2. Taken together, these results indicate that SUMOylation has a negative effect on Nanog expression and provides new insights into the mechanism of SUMO modification involved in ES cells regulation.
Physician Rating Websites: What Aspects Are Important to Identify a Good Doctor, and Are Patients Capable of Assessing Them? A Mixed-Methods Approach Including Physicians’ and Health Care Consumers’ Perspectives

Background Physician rating websites (PRWs) offer health care consumers the opportunity to evaluate their doctor anonymously. However, physicians’ professional training and experience create a vast knowledge gap in medical matters between physicians and patients. This raises ethical concerns about the relevance and significance of health care consumers’ evaluation of physicians’ performance. Objective To identify the aspects physician rating websites should offer for evaluation, this study investigated the aspects of physicians and their practice relevant for identifying a good doctor, and whether health care consumers are capable of evaluating these aspects. Methods In a first step, a Delphi study with physicians from 4 specializations was conducted, testing various indicators to identify a good physician. These indicators were theoretically derived from Donabedian, who classifies quality in health care into pillars of structure, process, and outcome. In a second step, a cross-sectional survey with health care consumers in Switzerland (N=211) was launched based on the indicators developed in the Delphi study. Participants were asked to rate the importance of these indicators to identify a good physician and whether they would feel capable to evaluate those aspects after the first visit to a physician. All indicators were ordered into a 4×4 grid based on evaluation and importance, as judged by the physicians and health care consumers. Agreement between the physicians and health care consumers was calculated applying Holsti’s method. Results In the majority of aspects, physicians and health care consumers agreed on what facets of care were important and not important to identify a good physician and whether patients were able to evaluate them, yielding a level of agreement of 74.3%. The two parties agreed that the infrastructure, staff, organization, and interpersonal skills are both important for a good physician and can be evaluated by health care consumers. Technical skills of a doctor and outcomes of care were also judged to be very important, but both parties agreed that they would not be evaluable by health care consumers. Conclusions Health care consumers in Switzerland show a high appraisal of the importance of physician-approved criteria for assessing health care performance and a moderate self-perception of how capable they are of assessing the quality and performance of a physician. This study supports that health care consumers are differentiating between aspects they perceive they would be able to evaluate after a visit to a physician (such as attributes of structure and the interpersonal skills of a doctor), and others that lay beyond their ability to make an accurate judgment about (such as technical skills of a physician and outcome of care).
A novel optimal configuration of sensor and actuator using a non-linear integer programming genetic algorithm for active vibration control

Due to widespread applications of a large number of flexible structures, to obtain the best dynamic control performance of a system, optimal locations of the actuators and sensors are necessary to be determined. This article proposes a novel optimal criterion for the actuators or sensors ensuring good controllability or observability of a structure, and also considering the remaining modes to control the spillover effect. Based on the proposed optimization criteria, a non-linear integer programming genetic algorithm is employed to achieve the optimal configurations. Active vibration control is investigated for a cantilever plate with the actuators in optimal positions to suppress the specified modes utilizing linear quadratic regulator controller. Several simulation results validate the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed optimal criteria.
High tuberculosis exposure among neonates in a high tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus burden setting.

BACKGROUND Maternal and neonatal tuberculosis (TB) are under-recognised, particularly in settings with a high burden of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. DESIGN AND SETTING Retrospective audit of neonates routinely screened for TB in a South African hospital during 2009. Surveillance sources reviewed included routine clinical, laboratory and pharmacy records. RESULTS Among 70 neonates (60% HIV-exposed) screened for TB, the median gestational age was 35.5 weeks (IQR 33-38), and the median birth weight was 2000 g (IQR 1530-2484). The neonates were grouped according to a history of documented TB exposure: maternal TB in 41/70 (59%), suspected maternal TB in 9/70 (13%), other documented household TB exposure in 5/70 (7%), and no known TB exposure 15/70 (21%). Of the 50 neonates exposed to confirmed or suspected maternal TB, 36 (72%) were initiated on TB chemoprophylaxis, 5 (10%) received TB treatment and 9 (18%) received no intervention. Eight (8/50, 16%) were diagnosed with TB, all of whom were born to mothers with suspected or proven TB. CONCLUSIONS Maternal TB, primarily among HIV-infected women, was the main indication for TB screening of neonates. Routine TB screening of pregnant women and TB care in mothers and infants should be improved in settings with a high burden of TB and HIV.
Resolving Individual and Abstract Anaphora in Texts and Dialogues

This paper describes an extension of the DAR-algorithm (Navarretta, 2004) for resolving intersentential pronominal anaphors referring to individual and abstract entities in texts and dialogues. In DAR individual entities are resolved combining models which identify high degree of salience with high degree of givenness (topicality) of entities in the hearer's cognitive model, e.g. (Grosz et al., 1995), with Hajicova et al.'s (1990) salience account which assigns the highest degree of salience to entities in the focal part of an utterance in Information Structure terms, which often introduce new information in discourse. Anaphors referring to abstract entities are resolved with an extension of the algorithm presented by Eckert and Strube (2000). The extended DAR-algorithm accounts for differences in the resolution mechanisms of different types of Danish pronouns. Manual tests of the algorithm show that DAR performs better than other resolution algorithms on the same data.
Biosynthesis and Role of N-Linked Glycosylation in Cell Surface Structures of Archaea with a Focus on Flagella and S Layers

The genetics and biochemistry of the N-linked glycosylation system of Archaea have been investigated over the past 5 years using flagellins and S layers as reporter proteins in the model organisms, Methanococcus voltae, Methanococcus maripaludis, and Haloferax volcanii. Structures of archaeal N-linked glycans have indicated a variety of linking sugars as well as unique sugar components. In M. voltae, M. maripaludis, and H. volcanii, a number of archaeal glycosylation genes (agl) have been identified by deletion and complementation studies. These include many of the glycosyltransferases and the oligosaccharyltransferase needed to assemble the glycans as well as some of the genes encoding enzymes required for the biosynthesis of the sugars themselves. The N-linked glycosylation system is not essential for any of M. voltae, M. maripaludis, or H. volcanii, as demonstrated by the successful isolation of mutants carrying deletions in the oligosaccharyltransferase gene aglB (a homologue of the eukaryotic Stt3 subunit of the oligosaccharyltransferase complex). However, mutations that affect the glycan structure have serious effects on both flagellation and S layer function.
Probabilistic model of the human cortical bone with alter- ations of the mechanical properties and adpated for the experimental identification using measurements in ultra- sonic range

biomechanical materials are among the most complex mechanical systems. Most often, their micro- structure are complex and random. This is the case for the human cortical bones which are considered in this paper. For such a system, the micro-structure can be altered near its interface with the marrow (osteoporosis). A gradient of porosity is then observed in the thickness direction but, in this case, none of the usual theories of porous materials can be applied. For this reason, we present a simplified model with gradient for the elasticity tensor. The predictability of this model is improved by taking into account uncertainties. The elasticity tensor is then modelled by a random field. This random model is well adapted for the modelling of the random experimental measurements in ultrasonic range for the human cortical bone.
Multiscale Simulation of Atmospheric Pressure Pulsed Discharges Used in Polymer Surface Functionalization

ion and addition reactions are taken to be similar to those of abstraction from C-H bonds and addition to R• radicals. R-NH2 + OH(g) → R-NH + H2O (88) R-NH2 + H(g) → R-NH + H2 (89) R-NH + H(g) → R-NH2 (90) H abstraction at the carbon centers of primary and secondary R-NH sites could lead to the formation of imines (R=NH). R-NH + H(g), OH(g) → •R-NH + H2(g), H2O(g) → R=NH (91) The contribution of ions to the surface reactions in atmospheric pressure discharges is less clear. The high collisionality of atmospheric pressure discharges results in ions having near thermal energy close to the surface. Ion surface reactions are differentiated since we are interested in ability of different species to penetrate through gaps in surface features. It is feasible for ions arriving at the surface to contribute to surface chemical reactions in a manner similar to the reactive radicals. For instance, O and O2 can react on the surface in a manner similar to O and O2 respectively. RH + M(g) → R• + H-M(g) (or H(g) + M(g)) (92) Non-reactive ions arriving at the polymer surface may still break chemical bonds due to secondary electron emission from the surface. There is no specific data available in the literature for the secondary electron emission coefficient (γ) on dielectric surfaces due to ion bombardment at atmospheric pressure. However, various investigators have concluded that secondary electrons emitted from the dielectric surfaces due to ion bombardment, even at atmospheric pressures, contribute significantly to the discharge, with one study estimating with [17] estimating a γ of 0.01. In the context of surface
Automatic Diagnosis of Performance Problems in Database Management Systems

Database performance is directly linked to database management system (DBMS) resource allocation. Complex relationships between resources make problem diagnosis and performance tuning difficult, time-consuming tasks. Database administrators (DBAs) currently tune and re-tune the DBMS as the database grows and workloads change. Increased performance and reduced cost of ownership can be achieved by automating the tuning process, starting with resource allocation problem diagnosis. In this paper we overview an automatic diagnosis framework designed to diagnose resource problems. Our diagnosis model and results demonstrate an ability to correctly identify system bottlenecks for a generic on-line transaction processing workload
Interleukin‐4 and interleukin‐10 inhibit nitric oxide‐dependent macrophage killing of Candida albicans

Mouse peritoneal and splenic macrophages treated with interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) and infected with the yeast Candida albicans expressed high fungicidal activity in vitro that correlated with increased nitrite concentrations in culture supernatants. Both effects were reduced by an inhibitor of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis which, in vivo, impaired the animals' ability to mount a footpad reaction and clear the fungus from infected organs. Because T helper type‐2 (Th2) cytokines in candidiasis are known to limit the expression of protective Th1 functions, we tested the effect of interleukin (IL)‐4 and IL‐10 on candidacidal activity and NO production of IFN‐γ‐activated macrophages. Fungal killing and NO secretion were inhibited, in a dose‐dependent manner, by the two cytokines either separately or in combination. Impaired candidacidal activity was also demonstrable in the presence of monoiodoacetic acid, an inhibitor of phagocytosis. These data demonstrate that NO is involved in macrophage killing of C. albicans and support the notion that regulation of Th1 effector function by IL‐4 and IL‐10 might involve modulation of NO synthesis.
Prevalence of Congenital Malformations in Grenada.

Objectives To determine the prevalence of congenital malformations in Grenada for the period January 2000-December 2004. Methods The study included neonates diagnosed with congenital malformations as well as those who were part of the Grenada Heart Foundation for the same time period. Patient delivery records from the three government hospitals were reviewed. Parents were contacted and a questionnaire administered to obtain demographic and maternal history related to the birth. Results The prevalence of birth defects was 0.78% (95%CI: 0.61, 0.98) for the five-year period among the 9004 live births. Cardiovascular malformations were the most prevalent (0.32%; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.45%), with abnormalities of the genitourinary system being the least prevalent (0.04%; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.11%). Conclusion The prevalence of congenital malformations in Grenada is low in comparison to other developed and developing countries.
Predictive value of pediatric thrombosis diagnoses in the Danish National Patient Registry

Data on the validity of pediatric thrombosis diagnoses are missing. We aimed to examine the predictive value of a diagnosis of venous and arterial thrombosis using the Danish National Patient Registry (DNPR). We identified all first-time diagnoses among children and adolescents (aged 0–18 years) between 1994 and 2006 in DNPR. In total, 1138 potential cases of thrombosis were identified; the medical records were retrieved for 1112 (97.7%) and the positive predictive value (PPV) computed. Overall, the diagnosis of thrombosis was verified in 598 of the 1112 cases, corresponding to a PPV of 53.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 50.8–56.7). Diagnoses from wards had the PPV of 62.5% (95% CI: 59.4–65.6). The predictive value of a thrombosis diagnosis from wards was age-dependent, with a higher PPV (77.4%, 95% CI: 68.7–84.7) in neonates (<28 days) and adolescents (15–18 years) (68.2%; 95% CI: 63.2–72.5)) than in children (28 days–14 years) (51.2%; (95% CI: 46.0–56.4)). The PPV of a thrombosis diagnosis was improved by restricting the analysis to diagnoses from wards, primary diagnoses, and admissions with a length of stay of three or more days. The results indicate that an interpretation of nonvalidated hospital discharge data for pediatric thrombosis in a registry like DNPR should be made with caution.
An Overview of Technical Challenges and Advances of Inductive Wireless Power Transmission

This paper focuses on the actual technical challenges that must be addressed in the field of inductive magnetic coupling at low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) bands for wireless power transmission (WPT), with special focus on smart objects applications. Inductive coupling is the most common operating principle for WPT, because of the high efficiency and the relatively high amount of energy that can be transferred. This paper will present some important applications that can benefit from this technology. Some of the actual challenges that must be addressed for a proper implementation of WPT in the mentioned applications as well as the actual trends will be discussed. Finally, research projects that have successfully dealt or are currently dealing with these problems will be presented.
Sea Water Aging of Glass Reinforced Composites: Shear Behaviour and Damage Modelling

This paper presents results from a study of the wet aging of four thermoset resins and their [0°/90°] stitched glass fibre reinforced composites. The matrix resins are orthophthalic polyester, isophthalic polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy. Resins and composites were aged for 18 months, under three immersion conditions: 20°C sea water, 50°C sea water and 50°C distilled water. Tensile tests, on resins and at 45° to fibre direction of composites, both before and after aging enable the influence of matrix resin and aging medium on weight changes and matrix dominated property degradation to be evaluated. This has enabled a unique dataset to be obtained. Alarge part of the shear property loss after aging is recovered after drying. An original application of damage mechanics parameters is used to quantify the changes in composite shear behaviour, in order to provide a more complete representation of the inelastic response.
A Compressed-domain Robust Descriptor for Near Duplicate Video Copy Detection

This paper introduces a global descriptor from the compressed video domain (H.264) for near duplicate video copy detection tasks. The proposed descriptor uses a spatial-temporal feature structure in an ordinal pattern distribution format. The proposed descriptor is constructed from Intra-Prediction Modes (IPM) of key frames (IDR & I slices) and extracted from the compressed video files, using the MPEG4/AVC (H.264) codec. Intra-prediction is the compression technique used in the key frames of the H.264 codec. As the proposed feature describes pictures globally, this research compares the feature with the two other well-known global image descriptors, ordinal intensity/colour Histograms and ordinal Auto-correlograms, as baselines. Our experiments show how the proposed feature outperforms the baseline features in non-geometric transformations T3, T4 and T5 in effectiveness as well as efficiency. It is due to better representation of the image content and smaller feature vector size. The core competency of the proposed feature is in non-linear brightness and contrast changes (Gamma expansion and compression) in which the intensity/colour Histograms and Auto-correlograms are deficient.
Low Power and Energy Efficient Asynchronous Design

This paper surveys the most promising low-power and energy-efficient asynchronous design techniques that can lead to substantial advantages over synchronous counterparts. Our discussions cover macro-architectural, micro-architectural, and circuit-level differences between asynchronous and synchronous implementations in a wide range of designs, applications, and domains including microprocessors, application specific designs, and networks on chip.
Focus on “Only” and “Not”

Krifka [1993] has suggested that focus should be seen as a means of providing material for a range of semantic and pragmatic functions to work on, rather than as a specific semantic or pragmatic function itself. The current paper describes an implementation of this general idea, and applies it to the interpretation of {\em only} and {\em not}.
Studying the effect of optimizing image quality in salient regions at the expense of background content

Abstract. Manufacturers of commercial display devices continuously try to improve the perceived image quality of their products. By applying postprocessing techniques on the incoming signal, they aim to enhance the quality level perceived by the viewer. These postprocessing techniques are usually applied globally over the whole image but may cause side effects, the visibility and annoyance of which differ with local content characteristics. To better understand and utilize this, a three-phase experiment was conducted where observers were asked to score images that had different levels of quality in their regions of interest and in the background areas. The results show that the region of interest has a greater effect on the overall quality of the image than the background. This effect increases with the increasing quality difference between the two regions. Based on the subjective data we propose a model to predict the overall quality of images with different quality levels in different regions. This model, which is constructed on empirical bases, can help craft weighted objective metrics that can better approximate subjective quality scores.
Query Transformation for PS J-queries

Consider a database containing not only base relations but also derived relations (also called materialized or concrete views). Relation fragments in a distributed database, view indexes, and intermediate results obtained during query procsssing are all examples of derived relations. The query transformation problem is then the following: Given a query (or a subquery), can it be computed from the available set of derived relations, and, if so, how? We have solved the query transformation problem for the case when both the query and the derived relations are defined by P&I-expressions, that is, relational algebra expressions containing only projects, selects and joins. This paper gives an overview of the underlying theory, shows how to reduce the number of attribute mappings to be considered, and presents a prototype system for query transformation.
Regular Functions, Cost Register Automata, and Generalized Min-Cost Problems

Motivated by the successful application of the theory of regular languages to formal verification of finite-state systems, there is a renewed interest in developing a theory of analyzable functions from strings to numerical values that can provide a foundation for analyzing quantitative properties of finitestate systems. In this paper, we propose a deterministic model for associating costs with strings that is parameterized by operations of interest (such as addition, scaling, and min), a notion of regularity that provides a yardstick to measure expressiveness, and study decision problems and theoretical properties of resulting classes of cost functions. Our definition of regularity relies on the theory of string-to-tree transducers, and allows associating costs with events that are conditional upon regular properties of future events. Our model of cost register automata allows computation of regular functions using multiple “write-only” registers whose values can be combined using the allowed set of operations. We show that classical shortest-path algorithms as well as algorithms designed for computing discounted costs, can be adopted for solving the min-cost problems for the more general classes of functions specified in our model. Cost register automata with min and increment give a deterministic model that is equivalent to weighted automata, an extensively studied nondeterministic model, and this connection results in new insights and new open problems.