Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nasal Septal Deviation and Facial Skeletal Asymmetries

During ontogeny, the nasal septum exerts a morphogenetic influence on the surrounding facial skeleton. While the influence of the septum is well established in long snouted animal models, its role in human facial growth is less clear. If the septum is a facial growth center in humans, we would predict that deviated septal growth would be associated with facial skeletal asymmetries. Using computed tomographic (CT) scans of n = 55 adult subjects, the purpose of this study was to test whether there is a correlation between septal deviation and facial asymmetries using three‐dimensional (3D) geometric morphometric techniques. We calculated deviation as a percentage of septal volume relative to the volume of a modeled non‐deviated septum. We then recorded skeletal landmarks representing the nasal, palatal, and lateral facial regions. Landmark data were superimposed using Procrustes analysis. First, we examined the correlation between nasal septal deviation and the overall magnitude of asymmetry. Next, we assessed whether there was a relationship between nasal septal deviation and more localized aspects of asymmetry using multivariate regression analysis. Our results indicate that while there was no correlation between septal deviation and the overall magnitude of asymmetry, septal deviation was associated with asymmetry primarily in the nasal floor and the palatal region. Septal deviation was unassociated with asymmetries in the lateral facial skeleton. Though we did not test the causal relationship between nasal septal deviation and facial asymmetry, our results suggest that the nasal septum may have an influence on patterns of adult facial form. Anat Rec, 299:295–306, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Mechanism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Alkylhydroperoxidase AhpD as Defined by Mutagenesis, Crystallography, and Kinetics*

AhpD, a protein with two cysteine residues, is required for physiological reduction of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis alkylhydroperoxidase AhpC. AhpD also has an alkylhydroperoxidase activity of its own. The AhpC/AhpD system provides critical antioxidant protection, particularly in the absence of the catalase-peroxidase KatG, which is suppressed in most isoniazid-resistant strains. Based on the crystal structure, we proposed recently a catalytic mechanism for AhpD involving a proton relay in which the Glu118 carboxylate group, via His137 and a water molecule, deprotonates the catalytic residue Cys133 (Nunn, C. M., Djordjevic, S., Hillas, P. J., Nishida, C., and Ortiz de Montellano, P. R. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 20033–20040). A possible role for His132 in subsequent formation of the Cys133-Cys130 disulfide bond was also noted. To test this proposed mechanism, we have expressed the H137F, H137Q, H132F, H132Q, E118F, E118Q, C133S, and C130S mutants of AhpD, determined the crystal structures of the H137F and H132Q mutants, estimated the pKa values of the cysteine residues, and defined the kinetic properties of the mutant proteins. The collective results strongly support the proposed catalytic mechanism for AhpD.
Object based building footprint detection from high resolution multispectral satellite image using K-means clustering algorithm and shape parameters

Abstract Object-based image analysis (OBIA) has been a new area of research in satellite image processing applications, since it improves the quality of information acquisition about geospatial objects and also enables to add spatial and contextual information to the objects of interest. The extraction of buildings from High Resolution Satellite (HRS) image in an urban scenario has been an intricate problem due to their different size, shape, varying rooftop textures and low contrast between building and surrounding region. In this study, a new object-based automatic building extraction technique has been proposed to extract building footprints from HRS pan sharpened IKONOS multispectral image. The study is mainly emphasizing on obtaining optimal values for segmentation parameters, shape parameters, and defining rule set to extract buildings and eliminate misclassified other urban features. The suitability of the technique has been judged using different indicators, such as, completeness, correctness and quality.
Comparison of Chemotherapeutic Treatment Outcomes of Advanced Extrapulmonary Neuroendocrine Carcinomas and Advanced Small-Cell Lung Carcinoma

Background: The chemotherapy for small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) has been adopted for advanced extrapulmonary neuroendocrine carcinomas (EP-NECs). The aim of this study was to clarify the efficacy of standard SCLC regimens when used to treat EP-NECs and to compare the outcome with that for SCLC. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 136 patients (41 with EP-NEC and 95 with SCLC) who were treated using a platinum-containing regimen for advanced disease between January 2000 and October 2008 at our hospital. Results: The primary site of the EP-NEC was the gastrointestinal tract in 18 patients (GI tract group); the liver, biliary tract or pancreas in 16 patients (HBP group), and other sites in 7 patients (‘others’ group). The response rate in the SCLC patients was 77.8%, and the response rate in the EP-NEC patients was 30.8% (37.5% in the GI tract group, 12.5% in the HBP group, and 57.1% in the ‘others’ group). The median survival time for the SCLC patients was 13.6 months, while that for the EP-NEC patients was 9.2 months (14.9 months in the GI tract group, 7.8 months in the HBP group, and 8.9 months in the ‘others’ group). A multivariate analysis demonstrated that a poor performance status, liver involvement, and the treatment regimen were independent unfavorable prognostic factors. Conclusion: The response rate and prognosis of the patients with advanced EP-NECs were worse than those of the patients with SCLC in this study. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, liver involvement, and treatment regimen had a larger impact on the prognosis than the primary tumor site, as demonstrated by multivariate analysis.
Problems in Protein Biosynthesis

Outline of the steps in protein synthesis. Nature of the genetic code. The use of synthetic oligo- and polynucleotides in deciphering the code. Structure of the code: relatedness of synonym codons. The wobble hypothesis. Chain initiation and N-formyl-methionine. Chain termination and nonsense codons. Mistakes in translation: ambiguity in vitro. Suppressor mutations resulting in ambiguity. Limitations in the universality of the code. Attempts to determine the particular codons used by a species. Mechanisms of suppression, caused by (a) abnormal aminoacyl-tRNA, (b) ribosomal malfunction. Effect of streptomycin. The problem of "reading" a nucleic acid template. Different ribosomal mutants and DNA polymerase mutants might cause different mistakes. The possibility of involvement of allosteric proteins in template reading.
Prevalence and Determinants of Overweight and Obesity Among Adolescent School Children of South Karnataka, India

At present the potential public health issue that is emerging is the increasing incidence of childhood obesity in developing countries, and the resulting socioeconomic and public health burden that will be faced by these countries in the near future. The prevalence is higher in the urban than in the rural areas. Many studies have shown that the prevalence of overweight among adolescents varies between 10 and 30%. (1–11) Prevalence varies within the country because of differences in the lifestyle, mainly in the dietary patterns, and physical activity. In addition to this urbanization and industrialization are the main culprits for the increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity. No published literature can be found in this part of the country to assess the prevalence and determinants of obesity among adolescents. Studies of such a nature will be useful tools in planning and developing appropriate intervention methods. In this context, the present study has been conducted to estimate the prevalence and determinants of overweight and obesity among school children aged between 12 and 15 years, in a city in South Karnataka.
The diagnostic and clinical impact of genetics and epigenetics in acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a complex disease, for which our understanding of the role of genetic and epigenetic changes has undergone significant advancements. Newer diagnostic and prognostic classifications have increasingly incorporated such information, and novel therapies have been developed to target specific genes, processes, and pathways based on this growing understanding. Given the rapid evolution of this field, it is critical for physicians and translational researchers to have a more in‐depth understanding of this evolving landscape. Here, we review both genetics and epigenetics in acute myeloid leukemia from a practical standpoint.
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is a rare inherited disease of the heart muscle that causes ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden death in young people and athletes. It results in fibrofatty replacement of the right ventricle, and the subepicardial region of the left ventricle. It is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young people after hypertrophic heart disease. Diagnosis can be difficult and at present there is no cure for ARVC. Prevention of sudden death is the most important management strategy. Paediatricians need to be aware of the possibility of ARVC in adolescents and young adults presenting with palpitations, fatigue, syncope or cardiac arrest. The authors present two cases of apparently healthy teenage boys who died suddenly and unexpectedly. Postmortem examination of the myocardium was strongly suggestive of ARVC in both cases.
CloudLM: a Cloud-based Language Model for Machine Translation

Abstract Language models (LMs) are an essential element in statistical approaches to natural language processing for tasks such as speech recognition and machine translation (MT). The advent of big data leads to the availability of massive amounts of data to build LMs, and in fact, for the most prominent languages, using current techniques and hardware, it is not feasible to train LMs with all the data available nowadays. At the same time, it has been shown that the more data is used for a LM the better the performance, e.g. for MT, without any indication yet of reaching a plateau. This paper presents CloudLM, an open-source cloud-based LM intended for MT, which allows to query distributed LMs. CloudLM relies on Apache Solr and provides the functionality of state-of-the-art language modelling (it builds upon KenLM), while allowing to query massive LMs (as the use of local memory is drastically reduced), at the expense of slower decoding speed.
From cultural awareness to scientific citizenship: implementing content and language integrated learning projects to connect environmental science and English in a state school in Colombia

ABSTRACT Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an educational approach that integrates language learning with content teaching of subjects such as science. The CLIL approach regards culture a core component, however, science teachers often struggle to integrate a cultural component in their lessons. This study describes a pedagogical intervention using CLIL in a state school in Bogotá, Colombia. The first cycle of an action research project was implemented over the course of 1 year with 50 students (aged 15–19 years) and their teacher. Students used technology-enhanced CLIL-based environmental learning projects to integrate content (science) and a vehicular language (English). Questionnaires, a teacher's journal, artefacts, and interviews were used to collect data. The findings show students’ positive perceptions of CLIL and highlight the value of explicitly considering a cultural component in science lessons, framed through a lens of scientific citizenship. Implications for CLIL and science education are discussed.
Biochemical requirements for the targeting and fusion of ER-derived transport vesicles with purified yeast Golgi membranes

In order for secretion to progress, ER-derived transport vesicles must target to, and fuse with the cis-Golgi compartment. These processes have been reconstituted using highly enriched membrane fractions and partially purified soluble components. The functionally active yeast Golgi membranes that have been purified are highly enriched in the cis- Golgi marker enzymes alpha 1,6 mannosyltransferase and GDPase. Fusion of transport vesicles with these membranes requires both GTP and ATP hydrolysis, and depends on cytosolic and peripheral membrane proteins. At least two protein fractions from yeast cytosol are required for the reconstitution of ER-derived vesicle fusion. Soluble fractions prepared from temperature-sensitive mutants revealed requirements for the Ypt1p, Sec19p, Sly1p, Sec7p, and Uso1 proteins. A model for the sequential involvement of these components in the targeting and fusion reaction is proposed.
The socioecology of the ringtailed lemur: Thirty‐five years of research

Linnaeus' original scientific description of Lemur catta, the ringtailed lemur, was based on a living animal brought to England in 1749. Although there were many brief descriptions of wild ringtailed lemurs, it was not until Jolly wrote her now classic book, Lemur Behavior, that we had our first detailed description of the natural history of these beautiful animals (Fig. 1). Since then, long‐term field studies, mainly from two study sites in Madagascar, Berenty and Beza Mahafaly (Fig. 2), as well as studies on forest‐living groups in captivity at the Duke University Primate Center in Durham, North Carolina, have greatly expanded our knowledge of the ecology and behavior of this species (Table 1, Box 1). Thirty‐five years of research on this species at these various sites indicates that Lemur catta is proving to be every bit as complex in its behavior as are many anthropoid primates. This very complexity has been reflected in the current controversies and questions concerning the ecology and behavior of this species.
New Integer-FFT Multiplication Architectures and Implementations for Accelerating Fully Homomorphic Encryption

This paper proposes a new hardware architecture of Integer-FFT multiplier for super-size integer multiplications. Firstly, a basic hardware architecture, with the feature of low hardware cost, of the Integer-FFT multiplication algorithm using the serial FFT architecture, is proposed. Next, a modified hardware architecture with a shorter multiplication latency than the basic architecture is presented. Thirdly, both architectures are implemented, verified and compared on the Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA platform using 256, 512, 1024, 2048 and 8192 point Integer-FFT algorithm respectively with multiplication operands ranging from bits to bits in size. Experimental results show that the hardware cost of the proposed architecture is no more than 1/10 of the prior FPGA solution, and is perfectly within the implementable range of the Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA platform, and outperforms the software implementations of the same bit-length operand multiplication on the Core-2 Q6600 and Core-i7 870 platforms. Finally, the proposed implementations are employed to evaluate the super-size multiplication in an encryption primitive of fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) over the integers. The analysis shows that the speed improvement factor is up to 26.2 compared to the corresponding integer-based FHE software implementation on the Core-2 Duo E8400 platform.
Joint-action for humans and industrial robots for assembly tasks

This paper presents a concept of a smart working environment designed to allow true joint-actions of humans and industrial robots. The proposed system perceives its environment with multiple sensor modalities and acts in it with an industrial robot manipulator to assemble capital goods together with a human worker. In combination with the reactive behavior of the robot, safe collaboration between the human and the robot is possible. Furthermore, the system anticipates human behavior, based on knowledge databases and decision processes, ensuring an effective collaboration between the human and robot. As a proof of concept, we introduce a use case where an arm is assembled and mounted on a robotpsilas body.
A Microsatellite-Based Genetic Linkage Map of the Cichlid Fish, Astatotilapia burtoni (Teleostei): A Comparison of Genomic Architectures Among Rapidly Speciating Cichlids

Cichlid fishes compose an astonishingly large number of species and formed species flocks in record-breaking time. To facilitate efficient genome scans and comparisons of cichlid genomes, we constructed a medium-density genetic linkage map of microsatellite markers of Astatotilapia burtoni. The mapping cross was derived from two inbred laboratory lines to obtain F2 progeny by intercrossing. The map revealed 25 linkage groups spanning 1249.3 cM of the genome (size ∼950 Mb) with an average marker spacing of 6.12 cM. The seven Hox clusters, ParaHox C1, and two paralogs of Pdgfrβ were mapped to different linkage groups, thus supporting the hypothesis of a teleost-specific genome duplication. The A. burtoni linkage map was compared to the other two available maps for cichlids using shared markers that showed conservation and synteny among East African cichlid genomes. Interesting candidate genes for cichlid speciation were mapped using SNP markers.
Load sampling for scuc based on principal component analysis and kernel density estimation

This paper studies how to sample load more realistically and efficiently for security constraint unit commitment (SCUC) problems in order to achieve a high degree of robustness of the unit commitment (UC) solution. For example, given the UC solution, 95% of load profiles can be supplied. Principal component analysis (PCA) is introduced to find a clear feature of the historical load in two-dimensional space rather than the original high-dimensional load space, whose feature is hard to capture. Kernel density estimation (KDE) with Gaussian kernel is applied to form the probability density function (PDF), from which hourly load profiles are sampled. The load profiles based on sparse sampling are used to find the UC solution with high robustness while the load profiles based on dense sampling are used to verify the robustness of the obtained UC solution.
THE CHARACTERIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF IN-VITRO AND ELEVATED TEMPERATURE REPASSIVATION OF Ti-6Al-4V VIA AFM TECHNIQUES

TITLE: The characterization and analysis of in-vitro and elevated temperature repassivation of Ti-6Al-4V via AFM techniques AUTHOR: ABSTRACT The Characterization and Analysis of In-vitro and Elevated Temperature Repassivation of Research in the corrosion of orthopaedic implants is a growing research field where implants have been known to show adverse effects in patients who have encountered the unfortunate dissolution of their implants due to corrosion. Once corrosion begins within the body, many adverse biological reactions can occur such as late onset infections resulting in severe health complications. The focus of this research is specifically related to the problem of late onset infections caused by localized corrosion of orthopaedic implants. In medical implants today the most common form of corrosion protection is the implant materials' ability to impede corrosion through the formation of an oxide layer. This ability to passivate and quickly repassivate a uniform and stable oxide layer dictates how well an orthopaedic implant will survive in-vivo. To better understand the repassivation of orthopaedic implant materials, research was conducted at the nanoscale via atomic force microscopy (AFM) on anodized Ti-6Al-4V. Using an Asylum Research MFP-3D TM AFM and AFM lithography techniques, nano scratch test methods were created simulating in-vitro surface repassivation conditions. These nano-scratches were created and characterized in Hank's balanced saline solution (HBSS) with the AFM in contact mode at 1 and 3 Hz scan rates. HBSS was used as it best simulates the pH, ionic compounds, and constituents that are commonly found in blood. It was discovered that the AFM was successful in creating in-vitro repassivation conditions. However, the ability of the AFM to successfully observe repassivation was limited by the speed of the AFM scanner. Using the same AFM scratch methods, experiments were performed in air and in-vitro and characterized with AFM conductance measurements at 20, 37, & 45 °C. The conductance measurements were taken using an AFM conductance module and allowed for observations of v decreasing current measurements over time. The current data was then used to calculate current density, resistivity, conductance, and electron mobility and compared to similar experiments This study highlights the ability of the AFM to create and characterize repassivation and shows promise in developing further capability to use the AFM for characterization of repassivation on the nanoscale. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my family, thank you for the unconditional love and support throughout my life and education. I am who I am today because of …
Flexural stiffness of feather shafts: geometry rules over material properties

SUMMARY Flight feathers of birds interact with the flow field during flight. They bend and twist under aerodynamic loads. Two parameters are mainly responsible for flexibility in feathers: the elastic modulus (Young's modulus, E) of the material (keratin) and the geometry of the rachises, more precisely the second moment of area (I). Two independent methods were employed to determine Young's modulus of feather rachis keratin. Moreover, the second moment of area and the bending stiffness of feather shafts from fifth primaries of barn owls (Tyto alba) and pigeons (Columba livia) were calculated. These species of birds are of comparable body mass but differ in wing size and flight style. Whether their feather material (keratin) underwent an adaptation in stiffness was previously unknown. This study shows that no significant variation in Young's modulus between the two species exists. However, differences in Young's modulus between proximal and distal feather regions were found in both species. Cross-sections of pigeon rachises were particularly well developed and rich in structural elements, exemplified by dorsal ridges and a well-pronounced transversal septum. In contrast, cross-sections of barn owl rachises were less profiled but had a higher second moment of area. Consequently, the calculated bending stiffness (EI) was higher in barn owls as well. The results show that flexural stiffness is predominantly influenced by the geometry of the feathers rather than by local material properties.
Evolution of the magnetic field in magnetars

We use numerical MHD to look at the stability of a possible poloidal field in neutron stars (Flowers & Ruderman 1977, ApJ, 215, 302), and follow its unstable evolution, which leads to the complete decay of the field. We then model a neutron star after the formation of a solid crust of high conductivity. As the initial magnetic field we use the stable "twisted torus" field which was the result of our earlier work (Braithwaite & Nordlund 2006, A&A, 450, 1077), since this field is likely to exist in the interior of the star at the time of crust formation. We follow the evolution of the field under the influence of diffusion, and find that large stresses build up in the crust, which will presumably lead to cracking. We put this forward as a model for outbursts in soft gamma repeaters.