Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative Interactions of Dihydroquinazolin Derivatives with Human Serum Albumin Observed via Multiple Spectroscopy

The interactions of dihydroquinazolines with human serum albumin (HSA) were studied in pH 7.4 aqueous solution via fluorescence, circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic techniques. In this work, 6-chloro-1-(3,3-dimethyl-butanoyl)-2(un)substitutedphenyl-2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one (PDQL) derivatives were designed and synthesized to study the impact of five similar substituents (methyl, methoxy, cyano, trifluoromethyl and isopropyl) on the interactions between PDQL and HSA using a comparative methodology. The results revealed that PDQL quenched the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA through a static quenching process. Displacement experiments with site-specific markers revealed that PDQL binds to HSA at site II (subdomain IIIA) and that there may be only one binding site for PDQL on HSA. The thermodynamic parameters indicated that hydrophobic interactions mainly drove the interactions between PDQL and HSA. The substitution using five similar groups in the benzene ring could increase the interactions between PDQL and HSA to some extent through the van der Waals force or hydrogen bond effects in the proper temperature range. Isopropyl substitution could particularly enhance the binding affinity, as observed via comparative studies
Improved Bayesian Saliency Detection Based on BING and Graph Model

Saliency detection plays an important role in many computer vision applications. The traditional Bayesian based saliency model using convex hull to circle a coarse salient region, which is inaccurate and unstable. To address this problem, we propose an improved Bayesian framework based saliency method. Firstly, we utilize the BING (Binarized Normed Gradients) method to generate the coarse conspicuity map. Then, we construct a graph model after SLIC super- pixel image abstraction, to refine the initial conspicuity map. This is followed by the spatial information based weighting, to produce the final prior map. Secondly, after adaptive threshold, the observation likelihood map is computed by color histogram. Finally, these two maps are combined through Bayesian formula. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets MSRA-1000 and SOD show that our improved method is superior to 13 state-of-the-art alternatives, especially the previous Bayesian saliency models.
Protection against lethal cytomegalovirus infection by a recombinant vaccine containing a single nonameric T-cell epitope

The regulatory immediate-early (IE) protein pp89 of murine cytomegalovirus induces CD8+ T lymphocytes that protect against lethal murine cytomegalovirus infection. The IE1 epitope is the only epitope of pp89 that is recognized by BALB/c cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL). Using synthetic peptides, the optimal and minimal antigenic sequences of the IE1 epitope have been defined. To evaluate the predictive value of data obtained with synthetic peptides, recombinant vaccines encoding this single T-cell epitope were constructed using as a vector the hepatitis B virus core antigen encoded in recombinant vaccinia virus. In infected cells expressing the chimeric proteins, only IE1 epitope sequences that were recognized as synthetic peptides at concentrations lower than 10(-6) M were presented to CTL. Vaccination of mice with the recombinant vaccinia virus that encoded a chimeric protein carrying the optimal 9-amino-acid IE1 epitope sequence elicited CD8+ T lymphocytes with antiviral activity and, furthermore, protected against lethal disease. The results thus show for the first time that recombinant vaccines containing a single foreign nonameric CTL epitope can induce T-lymphocyte-mediated protective immunity.
Optimization of Urban Vehicle Traffic Using Genetic Fuzzy Logic Control

The urban vehicle traffic is one of the most hazardous systems. A solution to the vehicle traffic control problem using coordinated fuzzy logic controllers is presented. Genetic algorithms are used to tune the main parameters of the distributed fuzzy logic controllers such that the congestions are avoided. The temporal differences between intersection cycles lead to variable and different times of data used to take the decisions. The controllers have to take into account the temporal differences of the information provided by neighbors, those collected from detectors and the operator’s priorities assigned to the lanes, to optimize global system behavior. A new hierarchical structure of the fuzzy logic rule set is used to implement the path global priorities on the local controllers and to diminish the rule set dimension. Key-Words: urban vehicle traffic, hierarchical fuzzy logic control, coordinated control, genetic algorithms, global and local priorities
Modeling Time's Arrow

Quantum gravity, the initial low entropy state of the Universe, and the problem of time are interlocking puzzles. In this article, we address the origin of the arrow of time from a cosmological perspective motivated by a novel approach to quantum gravitation. Our proposal is based on a quantum counterpart of the equivalence principle, a general covariance of the dynamical phase space. We discuss how the nonlinear dynamics of such a system provides a natural description for cosmological evolution in the early Universe. We also underscore connections between the proposed non-perturbative quantum gravity model and fundamental questions in non-equilibrium statistical physics.
Clustering based acyclic multi-way partitioning

In this paper, we present a clustering based algorithm for acyclic multi-way partitioning. Many existing partitioning algorithms have shown that clustering can effectively improve the solution quality. However, most of them do not consider the signal direction and thus cannot maintain the acyclic property. Our algorithm is based on clustering by computing the modified fan-out free cones. Fan-out free cone clustering can reduce a graph to a smaller and sparser one, and maintain the acyclic property at the same time. Experimental results showed that our algorithm compares favorably with the previous best acyclic multi-way partitioning algorithm in cut-size.
A Bayesian Solution to Track Multiple and Dynamic Objects Robustly from Visual Data

Different solutions have been proposed for multiple objects tracking based on probabilistic algorithms. In this paper, the authors propose the use of an only particle filter to track a variable number of objects. The estimator robustness and adaptability are increased by the use of a clustering algorithm. Measurements used in the tracking process are extracted from a stereovision system, and thus, the 3D position of the tracked objects is obtained at each time step. Tracking results are presented at the end of the paper
Overview of current practice and future trends in the evaluation of dressings for malodorous wounds.

Wound malodour can affect patients both socially and psychologically. The putrid odour is often misinterpreted as poor hygiene. It can induce constant nausea, resulting in lack of appetite, weight loss and lethargy, which all affect healing. In addition, practitioners have to manage the wound without reacting to the malodour to avoid offending or alarming the patient.
Transition of Care in Rheumatology: Managing the Rheumatic Patient from Childhood to Adulthood

In most countries infants and children with rheumatic diseases are treated by specialist pediatric rheumatologists, nurses and physiotherapists. When such children with chronic diseases reach adulthood (usually between the age of 16 -24), transition to adult health care is needed. This transitional face coincides with the period in which adolescence, or puberty, takes place. Blum and colleagues coined a very useful definition for transition (5). They described transition as ‘the purposeful, planned movement of adolescents and young adults with chronic physical and medical conditions from child-centered to adult-oriented health care systems’
EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT COHERENCE RELATIONS : A CORPUS STUDY

there are two components: (i) John could not go to the party and (ii) He was busy with his work. These components are connected to each other by a causal relation: John’s inability to go to the party is caused by the fact that he was doing his work. Coherence relations are often signalled by discourse markers (DMs). DMs are lexical expressions (such as although, because, since and thus) which belong to different syntactic classes, such as conjunctions, adverbials and prepositional phrases. DMs are used to connect discourse components, and they signal the coherence relations holding between those components. For example, in the following text,
Systematic Reviews and Meta- and Pooled Analyses Ischemic Heart Disease Mortality and Morbidity Rates in Former Drinkers: A Meta-Analysis

Current abstainers from alcohol have been identified as an inadequate reference group in epidemiologic studies of the effects of alcohol, because inclusion of former drinkers might lead to overestimation of the protective effects and underestimation of the detrimental effects of drinking alcohol. The authors’ objective in the current study was to quantify this association for ischemic heart disease (IHD). Electronic databases were systematically searched for relevant case-control or cohort studies published from 1980 to 2010. Thirty-eight articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria, contributing a total of 5,613 IHD events and 12,097 controls among case-control studies and 1,387 events with combined endpoints and 7,183 events stratified by endpoint among 232,621 persons at risk among cohort studies. Pooled estimates for the subset stratified by sex and endpoint showed a significantly increased risk among former drinkers compared with long-term abstainers for IHD mortality ( among men; relative risk 1⁄4 1.25, 95% confidence interval: 1.15, 1.36; among women relative risk 1⁄4 1.54, 95% confidence interval: 1.17, 2.03). For IHD morbidity, the estimates for both sexes were close to unity and not statistically significant. Results were robust in several sensitivity analyses. In future studies, researchers should separate former drinkers from the reference category to obtain unbiased effect estimates. Implications for the overall beneficial and detrimental effects of alcohol consumption on IHD are discussed below.
Heterogeneous Sparse Matrix Computations on Hybrid GPU/CPU Platforms

Hybrid GPU/CPU clusters are becoming very popular in the scientific computing community, as attested by the number of such systems present in the Top 500 list. In this paper, we address one of the key algorithms for scientific applications: the computation of sparse matrix-vector products that lies at the heart of iterative solvers for sparse linear systems. We detail how design patterns for sparse matrix computations enable us to easily adapt to such a heterogeneous GPU/CPU platform using several sparse matrix formats in order to achieve best performance; then, we analyze static load balancing strategies for devising a suitable data decomposition and propose our approach. We discuss our experience in using different sparse matrix formats and data partitioning algorithms with a number of computational experiments executed on three different hybrid GPU/CPU platforms.
Determining the best animal model for human cytochrome P450 activities: a comparison of mouse, rat, rabbit, dog, micropig, monkey and man

1. In the present study, nine cytochrome P450 enzyme activities in seven species were characterized to allow a practical means of comparing this important metabolic step between various test animals and man. 2. Enzyme activities and kinetic parameters were first determined towards marker substrates for human cytochrome P450 enzymes. Inhibition profiles were then determined with both antibodies directed against various cytochrome P450 enzymes and with chemical inhibitors. 3. Both the enzyme kinetic parameters/enzyme activities, and the inhibition profiles obtained for the animal species were compared with those obtained for human liver microsomes in order to postulate the animal species most similar to man with regard to each individual cytochrome P450 enzyme activity. 4. It was found that, as expected, none of the tested species was similar to man for all the measured P450 enzyme activities, but that in each species only some of the P450 enzyme activities could be considered as similar to man. 5. When it is known which human cytochrome P450 enzymes are involved in the metabolism of a compound, the comparative data presented here can be used for selecting the most suitable species for in vitro and in vivo experiments.
MicroRNA-199a acts as a potential suppressor of cardiomyocyte autophagy through targeting Hspa5

Autophagy is an adaptive response to cardiomyocytes survival under stress conditions. MicroRNAs (miRNAs, miR) have been described to act as potent modulators of autophagy. To investigate whether and how miR-199a modulated autophagy in vitro, primary cardiomyocytes were treated under starvation to induce autophagy. Results showed that down-regulation of miR-199a was sufficient to activate cardiomyocytes autophagy. MiR-199a suppressed cardiomyocytes autophagy through direct inhibiting heat shock protein family A member 5 (Hspa5). Forced overexpression of Hspa5 recovered the inhibitory effect of miR-199a in autophagy activation. Our results suggested miR-199a as an effective suppressor of starvation-induced cardiomyocytes autophagy and that Hspa5 was a direct target during this process. These results extend the understanding of the role and pathway of miR-199a in cardiomyocytes autophagy, and may introduce a potential therapeutic strategy for the protection of cardiomyocytes in myocardial infarction or ischemic heart disease.
Phonotactics, parsing and productivity

This paper argues that parsing and productivity are causally related, the more an affix is prone to parsing in speech perception, the more productive it is likely to be. We support this claim by demonstrating a strona relationship between junctural phonotactics and affix productivity. Affixes which tend to create phonotactic junctures which facilite parsing also tend to be more productive. We show that there is a strong statisticol relationship between factors relating to phonotactics, and those relating to productivity. We further show that factors relating to productivity are themselves highly inter-correlated. A Principal Components Analysis reveals that affixes can be assessed on two dimensions, which we label parsability nnd usefuiness. Both of these dimensions substantially contribute to overall productivity. 1
Estimating the Reliability of Selected Items in Czech EU-SILC Data Using the Quasi Simplex Model Method

The article presents estimates of the reliability of measurement in the Czech surveys carried out in the EU-SILC international longitudinal research project. The reliability estimates were obtained using the Quasi Simplex Model (QSM), which has never before been used in Czech research. An analysis was carried out on all the items in the EU-SILC questionnaire that fulfi lled the criteria for the QSM analysis: PH010, the item that asks respondents about their subjective health, HS120, the item that asks about the household’s fi nancial situation, and HS130, which asks what the minimum suffi cient income of a household is. The analysis drew on all available data from Czech EU-SILC surveys, that is, data from fi ve rotating panel surveys carried out between 2005 and 2012. The QSM analysis showed that for the selected items EU-SILC data are highly reliable; the estimated reliability of each item was around 0.8, for HS130 it was even above 0.9. The steadiness of the results was confi rmed by the high consistency of the reliability estimates across all the panels. A small difference was observed between the reliability of data collected using the PAPI mode and data collected using CAPI. Given the attributes of the QSM model, however, it was impossible to test statistically whether the reliability of PAPI and CAPI data differ signifi cantly.
Prognostic value of ventricular arrhythmias in systemic hypertension

Objective Hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy is associated with an increased risk of arrhythmias and mortality. However, no clinical study has demonstrated a significant relationship between ventricular arrhythmias and mortality in systemic hypertension. Design and methods To evaluate the prognostic value of arrhythmogenic markers, we included, prospectively, 214 hypertensive patients aged (mean ± SD) 59.1 ± 12.8 years, without symptomatic coronary disease, myocardial infarction, systolic dysfunction or electrolyte disturbances. At inclusion, a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) with QT dispersion calculation, a 24 h Holter ECG (204 patients) with Lown classification of ventricular arrhythmias, echocardiography (reliable in 187 patients) and a signal-averaged ECG (125 patients) with ventricular late potentials were recorded. Results At baseline, echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy was found in 63 patients (33.7%). Non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (Lown class IVb) was recorded in 33 patients (16.2%) and late potentials in 27 patients (21.6%). After a mean follow-up of 42.4 ± 26.8 months, all-cause mortality was 11.2% (24 patients); 17 patients died of cardiac causes (7.9%); of these, nine (4.2%) died suddenly. In univariate analysis, age, Lown class IVb and a QT dispersion > 80 ms were significantly related to global, cardiac and sudden death (P< 0.01). The left ventricular mass index was related to cardiac mortality (P = 0.002). In multivariate analysis, only Lown class IVb was an independent predictor of global and cardiac mortality, increasing the risk of global death 2.6-fold (95% confidence interval 1.2–6.0) and cardiac death 3.5-fold (95% confidence interval 1.2–9.7). Conclusion In hypertensive patients the presence of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia has prognostic value.
Implantation of a fully subcutaneous ICD in a patient with single ventricle morphology and Eisenmenger physiology

Implantable cardioverter-defi brillator (ICD) therapy has been adopted increasingly in congenital heart disease. However, in patients with intracardiac right-to-left shunting the use of standard transvenous ICD lead systems is relatively contraindicated due to the increased risk of systemic thromboembolism. In this constellation, a recently introduced totally subcutaneous ICD system (S-ICD) seems to be a good and minimal invasive alternative to conventional epicardial ICD therapy. Here we describe the fi rst use of this S-ICD in a patient with single ventricle and Eisenmenger physiology. In this unusual cardiac anatomy modifi cation of the standard implantation technique by use of short sequences of fl uoroscopy helped to ensure exact electrode and can placement and thus regular function of the S-ICD system.
Children’s critical evaluation of parental mediation

Although the new sociology of childhood draws attention to societal influences on children’s experiences, it also sees them as active agents. This article investigates children’s perspectives on parental interventions in regards their use of the internet, an aspect not covered in the parental mediation literature. Although children are generally positive about this mediation, here we explore cases where children consider it to be problematic through analysing the EU Kids Online qualitative research conducted in nine countries. The material shows how parental advice can sometimes be less articulated, justified, and expressed in a sensitive manner, and why it sometimes lacks credibility in children’s eyes. The article illustrates how maturing children can develop a sense of social expectations about independence, trust and personal social space. This can have a bearing on how they evaluate parental monitoring. Lastly, the article examines factors inhibiting children’s willingness to confide in parents about sensitive issues, because of potential parental responses, parenting styles, and a fear of losing parental trust that children have gained as they have grown older.
Model of SNARE-Mediated Membrane Adhesion Kinetics

SNARE proteins are conserved components of the core fusion machinery driving diverse membrane adhesion and fusion processes in the cell. In many cases micron-sized membranes adhere over large areas before fusion. Reconstituted in vitro assays have helped isolate SNARE mechanisms in small membrane adhesion-fusion and are emerging as powerful tools to study large membrane systems by use of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). Here we model SNARE-mediated adhesion kinetics in SNARE-reconstituted GUV-GUV or GUV-supported bilayer experiments. Adhesion involves many SNAREs whose complexation pulls apposing membranes into contact. The contact region is a tightly bound rapidly expanding patch whose growth velocity increases with SNARE density . We find three patch expansion regimes: slow, intermediate, fast. Typical experiments belong to the fast regime where depends on SNARE diffusivities and complexation binding constant. The model predicts growth velocities s. The patch may provide a close contact region where SNAREs can trigger fusion. Extending the model to a simple description of fusion, a broad distribution of fusion times is predicted. Increasing SNARE density accelerates fusion by boosting the patch growth velocity, thereby providing more complexes to participate in fusion. This quantifies the notion of SNAREs as dual adhesion-fusion agents.
Structural Basis of Fosmidomycin Action Revealed by the Complex with 2-C-Methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate Synthase (IspC)

2-C-Methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate synthase (IspC) is the first enzyme committed to isoprenoid biosynthesis in the methylerythritol phosphate pathway, which represents an alternative route to the classical mevalonate pathway. As it is present in many pathogens and plants, but not in man, this pathway has attracted considerable interest as a target for novel antibiotics and herbicides. Fosmidomycin represents a specific high-affinity inhibitor of IspC. Very recently, its anti-malaria activity in man has been demonstrated in clinical trials. Here, we present the crystal structure of Escherichia coli IspC in complex with manganese and fosmidomycin at 2.5 Å resolution. The (N-formyl-N-hydroxy)amino group provides two oxygen ligands to manganese that is present in a distorted octahedral coordination, whereas the phosphonate group is anchored in a specific pocket by numerous hydrogen bonds. Both sites are connected by a spacer of three methylene groups. The substrate molecule, 1-d-deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate, can be superimposed onto fosmidomycin, explaining the stereochemical course of the reaction.