Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Viroids: From Genotype to Phenotype Just Relying on RNA Sequence and Structural Motifs

As a consequence of two unique physical properties, small size and circularity, viroid RNAs do not code for proteins and thus depend on RNA sequence/structural motifs for interacting with host proteins that mediate their invasion, replication, spread, and circumvention of defensive barriers. Viroid genomes fold up on themselves adopting collapsed secondary structures wherein stretches of nucleotides stabilized by Watson–Crick pairs are flanked by apparently unstructured loops. However, compelling data show that they are instead stabilized by alternative non-canonical pairs and that specific loops in the rod-like secondary structure, characteristic of Potato spindle tuber viroid and most other members of the family Pospiviroidae, are critical for replication and systemic trafficking. In contrast, rather than folding into a rod-like secondary structure, most members of the family Avsunviroidae adopt multibranched conformations occasionally stabilized by kissing-loop interactions critical for viroid viability in vivo. Besides these most stable secondary structures, viroid RNAs alternatively adopt during replication transient metastable conformations containing elements of local higher-order structure, prominent among which are the hammerhead ribozymes catalyzing a key replicative step in the family Avsunviroidae, and certain conserved hairpins that also mediate replication steps in the family Pospiviroidae. Therefore, different RNA structures – either global or local – determine different functions, thus highlighting the need for in-depth structural studies on viroid RNAs.
The Core of Voting Games: A Partition Approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a class of voting games in a partition approach. We consider a society in which coalitions can be formed and where a finite number of voters have to choose among a set of alternatives. A coalition is winning if it can veto any proposed alternative. In our model, the veto power of a coalition is dependent on the coalition formation of the outsiders. We show that whether or not the core is non-empty depends crucially on the expectations of each coalition regarding outsiders' behavior when it wishes to veto an alternative. On the one hand, if each coalition has pessimistic expectations, then the core is non-empty if and only if the dimension of the set of alternatives is equal to one. On the other hand, if each coalition has optimistic expectations, the non-emptiness of the core is not ensured.
A Critical Review of Surveys Emphasizing on Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks—An Anatomization under General Survey Design Framework

A large number of routing-related surveys are published so far for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) that exhibit either complete or partial emphasis on routing in WSNs. These surveys classify and discuss the relevant routing protocols published mainly in the fields of classical, energy efficient, secure, hierarchical, geographic, intelligent, Quality of Service (QoS)-based and multipath WSNs. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study is presented so far which may clearly categorize the routing-related survey literature for WSNs.To fill this gap, an effort is made in this paper for presenting an in-depth review of already published routing-related survey literature in WSNs. Our review initially proposes a generalized survey design model and afterwards analyzes the routing-related survey literature in the light of the devised General Survey Design Framework (GSDF). Such an analysis describes the design soundness of the published routing-related surveys. Therefore, our review puts forth an original classification based on the frequency-of-survey-publication and taxonomizes the corresponding routing-related fields into high, medium and low focused areas of survey publication in WSNs. Furthermore, the surveys belonging to each main category are sub-categorized into various sub-classes and briefly discussed according to their design characteristics. On the one hand, this review is useful for beginners who may easily explore the already published routing-related survey literature in WSNs in a single document and investigate it by spending less effort. On the other hand, it is useful for expert researchers who may explore the trends and frequency of writing surveys in different areas of routing in WSNs. The experts may explore those areas of routing which are either neglected or least focused or lack in design soundness as per general survey design framework. In the end, insights and future research directions are outlined and a reasonable conclusion is put forth which may outline guiding principles for routing-related survey research in future.
Ellipse-specific direct least-square fitting

Ellipse fitting is one of the classic problems of pattern recognition and has been subject to considerable attention because of its many applications. This article presents the first direct method for specifically fitting ellipses in the least squares sense. Previous approaches used either generic conic fitting or relied on iterative methods to recover elliptic solutions. The proposed method is (i) ellipse-specific, (ii) directly solved by a generalised eigen-system, (iii) has a desirable low-eccentricity bias, and (iv) is robust to noise. We provide a theoretical demonstration, several examples and the Matlab coding of the algorithm.
Inhibitors of MAO-A and MAO-B in Psychiatry and Neurology

Inhibitors of MAO-A and MAO-B are in clinical use for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders respectively. Elucidation of the molecular structure of the active sites of the enzymes has enabled a precise determination of the way in which substrates and inhibitor molecules are metabolized, or inhibit metabolism of substrates, respectively. Despite the knowledge of the strong antidepressant efficacy of irreversible MAO inhibitors, their clinical use has been limited by their side effect of potentiation of the cardiovascular effects of dietary amines (“cheese effect”). A number of reversible MAO-A inhibitors which are devoid of cheese effect have been described in the literature, but only one, moclobemide, is currently in clinical use. The irreversible inhibitors of MAO-B, selegiline and rasagiline, are used clinically in treatment of Parkinson's disease, and a recently introduced reversible MAO-B inhibitor, safinamide, has also been found efficacious. Modification of the pharmacokinetic characteristics of selegiline by transdermal administration has led to the development of a new drug form for treatment of depression. The clinical potential of MAO inhibitors together with detailed knowledge of the enzyme's binding site structure should lead to future developments with these drugs.
Authentication, Access Controls, and Intrusion Detection

An important requirement of any information management system is to protect information against improper disclosure or modi cation (known as con dentiality and integrity respectively). Three mutually supportive technologies are used to achieve this goal. Authentication, access control and audit together provide the foundation for information and system security as follows. Authentication establishes the identity of one party to another. Most commonly authentication establishes the identity of a user to some part of the system typically by means of a password. More generally, authentication can be computer-to-computer or process-to-process and mutual in both directions. Access control determines what one party will allow another to do with respect to resources and objects mediated by the former. Access control usually requires authentication as a prerequisite. The audit process gathers data about activity in the system and analyzes it to discover security violations or diagnose their cause. Analysis can occur o -line after the fact or it can occur on-line more or less in real time. In the latter case the process is usually called intrusion detection. This chapter discusses the scope and characteristics of these security controls. Figure 1 is a logical picture of these security services and their interactions. Access control constrains what a user can do directly, as well what programs executing on behalf of the user are allowed to do. Access control is concerned with limiting the activity of legitimate users who have been successfully authenticated. It is enforced by a reference monitor which mediates every attempted access by a user (or program executing on behalf of that user) to objects in the system. The reference monitor consults an authorization database in order to determine if the user attempting to do an operation is actually authorized to perform that operation. Authorizations in this database are administered and maintained by a security administrator. The administrator sets these authorizations on the basis of the security policy of the organization. Users may also be able to modify some portion of the authorization database, for instance, to set permissions for their personal les. Auditing monitors and keeps a record of relevant activity in the system. Figure 1 is a logical picture and should not be interpreted literally. For instance, as we will see later, the authorization database is often stored with the objects being protected by the reference monitor rather than in a physically separate area. The picture is also somewhat idealized in that the separation between authentication, access control, auditing and administration services may not always be so clear cut. This separation is considered highly desirable but is not always faithfully implemented in every system.
A Computational Study of the Pseudoflow and Push-Relabel Algorithms for the Maximum Flow Problem

We present the results of a computational investigation of the pseudoflow and push-relabel algorithms for the maximum flow and minimum s-t cut problems. The two algorithms were tested on several problem instances from the literature. Our results show that our implementation of the pseudoflow algorithm is faster than the best-known implementation of push-relabel on most of the problem instances within our computational study.
PATIENT SATISFACTION

Patient satisfaction is a pre-requisite to successful clinical practice. While an efficacious treatment is an important consideration, other variables are recognized to contribute to clinical satisfaction. This case study of a South African teaching clinic identifies and compares variables perceived as essential, important and unnecessary by chiropractic students and their patients. Method: A case study of the chiropractic student clinic at Technikon Natal was undertaken. A non-random sample of chiropractic patients and student clinicians were requested to respond to a questionnaire. Participants were requested to select 12 from a total of 27 closed questions and allocate 4 items to each of the three listed categories. Results: Forty-three(43) patients and 17 student clinicians completed the questionnaire. Behavoiurs considered essential to chiropractic practice largely focused on listening carefully to the patient’s description of their problem and explaining how the problem could be avoided in the future. Patients and student clinicians were also agreed about the relative importance of the duration of the clinical consultation, the necessity for patients to choose how they wish to be treated and the desirability of a narrow/broad focus on the patient’s problem. Conclusions: The importance of providing an understandable and comprehensive clinical discussion about the patient’s problem emerged in both this and a similar Australian Study. It is suggested that competence in communication skills be considered as an integral component of the undergraduate chiropractic curriculum.
&bgr;-Blockers Restore Calcium Release Channel Function and Improve Cardiac Muscle Performance in Human Heart Failure

Background—Chronic &bgr;-adrenergic receptor (&bgr;-AR) blockade improves cardiac contractility and prolongs survival in patients with heart failure; however, the mechanisms underlying these favorable responses are poorly understood. Stress-induced activation of the sympathetic nervous system results in protein kinase A (PKA)-mediated phosphorylation of the calcium (Ca2+) release channel/cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2), required for cardiac excitation-contraction (EC) coupling, activating the RyR2 channel, and increasing cardiac contractility. The hyperadrenergic state of heart failure results in leaky RyR2 channels attributable to PKA hyperphosphorylation and depletion of the stabilizing FK506 binding protein, FKBP12.6. We tested the hypothesis that improved cardiac muscle function attributable to &bgr;-AR blockade is associated with restoration of normal RyR2 channel function in patients with heart failure. Methods and Results—We assessed the effects of &bgr;-AR blockade on left ventricular volume using isolated perfused hearts and &bgr;-agonist responsiveness using muscle strips from patients undergoing transplantation. Twenty-four human hearts were examined, 10 from patients with heart failure treated with &bgr;-AR blockers (carvedilol, metoprolol, or atenolol), 9 from patients with heart failure without &bgr;-AR blocker treatment, and 5 normal hearts. RyR2 PKA phosphorylation was determined by back-phosphorylation, FKBP12.6 in the RyR2 macromolecular complex was determined by coimmunoprecipitation, and channel function was assayed using planar lipid bilayers. &bgr;-AR blockers reduced left ventricular volume (reverse remodeling) and restored &bgr;-agonist response in cardiac muscle from patients with heart failure. Improved cardiac muscle function was associated with restoration of normal FKBP12.6 levels in the RyR2 macromolecular complex and RyR2 channel function. Conclusions—Improved cardiac muscle function during &bgr;-AR blockade is associated with improved cardiac Ca2+ release channel function in patients with heart failure.
Potential applications of nanofiber textile covered by carbon coatings

AbstrAct Purpose: Nanospider technology is modified electrospinning method for production nanofiber textile from polymer solutions. This material can be used as wound dressing and filter materials for example. Carbon coatings deposited onto surface of polymer nanofiber textiles are predicted to improve filtration effectivity of filters and bioactivity of wound dressings. Carbon coatings have been produced by Microwave Radio Frequency Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (MW/RF PACVD) method. Design/methodology/approach: Carbon coatings were deposited on polymer nanofiber textile by MW/RF PACVD method. Nanocomposite obtained in this way was characterized by the contact angle studies and by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Findings: Carbon coatings can be deposited on the polymer nanofibers by MW/RF PACVD method. Content of diamond phase in produced carbon coatings has been confirmed by wetability test. A SEM microscopic images have shown that the spaces between the nanofibers have not been closed by the material of the film.
Raltegravir as antiretroviral therapy in HIV/AIDS

Introduction: HIV, a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide has been transformed by antiretroviral (ARV) therapy into a manageable condition. Drug resistance, tolerability and drug interactions remain major concerns when choosing ARV therapy. Raltegravir, the first integrase inhibitor in the armamentarium against HIV, has been shown to be efficacious in both treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients when used in combination as part of nucleoside-reverse transcriptase inhibitor-containing regimens. Its key advantages include safety, tolerability and fewer drug interactions but it has some important limitations such as a lower barrier to resistance and a twice-daily dosing schedule. Its role in nucleoside-sparing regimens is under investigation. Areas covered: PubMed was searched for publications in English from 2004 to September 2013 using the terms ‘raltegravir', ‘integrase inhibitor' and ‘MK-0518'. Relevant publications were reviewed and reference lists were examined for further publications. Conference abstracts from the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, and International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment, and Prevention for 2013 were also reviewed. Expert opinion: Raltegravir is an important agent for both naïve and experienced HIV patients. Its key features include its tolerability, efficacy and lack of significant drug interactions.
Understanding the Functioning of Social Interaction with Autistic Children

Autistic children have severe difficulties in social interactions and communication. The majority of studies conducted so far with these children are designed to identify what is missing in their behaviour or in their cognitive abilities that could explain their social impairment. However, relatively little research has been made analysing the actual interpersonal functioning existing with familiar partners in everyday life using methods adjusted to catch the idiosyncratic repertoires and temporal structures of specific dyads in specific contexts. Autistic children are not only very different from one another, but often fail to display, in the appropriate circumstances, social skills they may have already developed. Taking into account the high inter-individual and intraindividual heterogeneity of autistic children’s social functioning and social understanding is a key in testing theoretical models linking their communication problems with circumscribed cognitive deficits. In this chapter we first consider some limits of the existing methods used to study social functioning and understanding in autistic children, and we offer work we are conducting in our research team at Paris 5 University. We will illustrate the contribution of THEME analysis to our comparative studies on the development of communication and theory of mind in normal and autistic children. We conclude by showing the interest of the data obtained with this method for the interpretation of cognitive and social processes involved in the particular modes of interaction occurring between autistic children and their social partners.
Performance Analysis of 802 . 11 and 802 . 11 p in Cluster Based Simple Highway Model

Vehicular Adhoc Network (VANET) is a special type of Intelligent Transport System (ITS), where the mobile nodes are cars, two wheelers, trucks, buses etc., that move on well organized and predefined roads in both direction at very high speed. Following traffic rules, the vehicles provide communication with each other directly (Inter Vehicle Communication IVC) or indirectly through the Road Side Unit (RSU). Usually vehicles, which move outside the city area, do not get the response from the Road Side Unit, as its availability is limited in that area. For this purpose an attempt has been made to create a new clustering concept, which can be applied to the newly created Simple High Way Mobility Model, to increase the speed of the vehicle communication. Thus this paper focuses the performance of Packet Delivery Time, Packet Delay Time, Throughput, Normalized routing load, Broad casting time using IEEE 802.11p. This is compared with the values obtained for IEEE802.11 in VANET Environment.
Precise visuotopic organization of the blind spot representation in primate V1

The optic disk is a region of the retina consisting mainly of ganglion cell axons and blood vessels, which generates a visual scotoma known as the blind spot (BS). Information present in the surroundings of the BS can be used to complete the missing information. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying these perceptual phenomena are poorly understood. We investigate the topography of the BS representation (BSR) in cortical area V1 of the capuchin monkey, using single and multiple electrodes. Receptive fields (RFs) of neurons inside the BSR were investigated using two distinct automatic bias-free mapping methods. The first method (local mapping) consisted of randomly flashing small white squares. For the second mapping method (global mapping), we used a single long bar that moved in one of eight directions. The latter stimulus was capable of eliciting neuronal activity inside the BSR, possibly attributable to long-range surround activity taking place outside the borders of the BSR. Importantly, we found that the neuronal activity inside the BSR is organized topographically in a manner similar to that found in other portions of V1. On average, the RFs inside the BS were larger than those outside. However, no differences in orientation or direction tuning were found between the two regions. We propose that area V1 exhibits a continuous functional topographic map, which is not interrupted in the BSR, as expected by the distribution of photoreceptors in the retina. Thus V1 topography is better described as “visuotopic” rather than as a discontinuous “retinotopic” map.
Using multiple time scales in the framework of multi-stream speech recognition

In this paper, we present a new approach to incorporating multiple time scale information as independent streams in multi-stream processing. To illustrate the procedure, we take two different sets of multiple time scale features. In the first system, these are features extracted over variable sized windows of three and five times the original window size. In the second system, we take as separate input streams the commonly used difference features, i.e. the first and second order derivatives of the instantaneous features. In the same way, any other kinds of multiple time scale features could be employed. The approach is embedded in the recently introduced ``full combination'' approach to multi-stream processing in which, the phoneme probabilities from all possible combinations of streams are combined in a weighted sum. As an extension of this approach we have found that replacing the sum of probabilities by their product, in the same ``all wise'' context, can result in higher robustness. Capturing different information in each stream, and with the longer time scale features being more robust to noise, the multiple time scale multi-stream system gained a significant performance improvement in both clean speech and in real-environmental noise.
The Effect Of Sodium Alginate Concentration On The Rheological Parameters Of Spinning Solutions

Abstract The aim of the study was to determine the rheological properties of solutions of two types of sodium alginate in water. Rheological studies were carried out to determine the rheological properties of the spinning solutions. Polymer solutions of different concentrations were obtained. Based on the preliminary research of the concentrations of solutions, the proper n and k parameters were selected in order to obtain fibre by wet spinning from solution method. For selected concentrations of polymer solutions, the calcium alginate fibres were obtained.