Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuroprotective Effects of Nicotinamide N‐Methyltransferase and its Metabolite 1‐Methylnicotinamide

Nicotinamide N‐methyltransferase (NNMT, E.C. 2.1.1.1) catalyses the N‐methylation of nicotinamide to 1‐methylnicotinamide (MeN). We have previously shown that the ectopic expression of NNMT in SH‐SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells increased adenosine triphosphate synthesis and complex I activity, effects of which were replicated by the addition of MeN. In this study, we investigated whether NNMT expression in SH‐SY5Y conferred protection against mitotoxicity induced by rotenone, potassium cyanide (KCN), 2,4‐dinitrophenol, and 6‐hydroxydopamine, and whether any effects observed were mediated via increased MeN production. NNMT expression abolished the toxic effects of KCN, 2,4‐dinitrophenol, and 6‐hydroxydopamine, and reduced that of rotenone. In contrast, although MeN significantly reduced the toxicity of rotenone, it had no effect upon the toxicity of KCN, 2,4‐dinitrophenol, and 6‐hydroxydopamine. These data show that NNMT is cytoprotective against toxins that inhibit various aspects of mitochondrial function, and that these are not mediated solely via increased MeN production, but in combination with other unidentified mechanisms. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J BiochemMol Toxicol 27:451‐456, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/jbt.21508
Escherichia coli K-12: a cooperatively developed annotation snapshot—2005

The goal of this group project has been to coordinate and bring up-to-date information on all genes of Escherichia coli K-12. Annotation of the genome of an organism entails identification of genes, the boundaries of genes in terms of precise start and end sites, and description of the gene products. Known and predicted functions were assigned to each gene product on the basis of experimental evidence or sequence analysis. Since both kinds of evidence are constantly expanding, no annotation is complete at any moment in time. This is a snapshot analysis based on the most recent genome sequences of two E.coli K-12 bacteria. An accurate and up-to-date description of E.coli K-12 genes is of particular importance to the scientific community because experimentally determined properties of its gene products provide fundamental information for annotation of innumerable genes of other organisms. Availability of the complete genome sequence of two K-12 strains allows comparison of their genotypes and mutant status of alleles.
Elimination of Mycoplasma Contamination in Cell Cultures

These antibiotic treatments had a high efficiency of permanent cure: MRA 64%, ciprofloxacin 77%, BM-Cyclin 84%. Resistance to mycoplasma eradication was observed in some cell cultures: BM-Cyclin 5%, ciprofloxacin 14%, MRA 22%. Nearly all resistant contaminants that could be identified belonged to the species M. arginini and M. orale. Detrimental effects of the antibiotics were seen in form of culture death caused by cytotoxicity (in 9-13% of the cultures). Alterations of the cellular phenotypic features or selective clonal outgrowth might represent further untoward side-effects of exposure to these antibiotics. Overall, antibiotic decontamination of mycoplasmas is an efficient, inexpensive, reliable, and simple method: 269/366 (73%) chronically and heavily contaminated cultures were cured, while 97/366 (27%) cultures could not be cleansed and were either lost or remained infected. It is concluded that eukaryotic cell cultures containing mycoplasmas are amenable to antibiotic treatment and that a cure rate of about three-quarters is a reasonable expectation.
Name anomaly detection for ICN

Information leakages are one of the main security threats in today's Internet. As ICN is expected to become the core architecture for Future Internet, it is therefore mandatory to prevent this threat. This paper proves that some ICN configuration prevents information leakages via Data packets and shows that it is an open problem to prevent interest packets from carrying encoded crucial information in their names. Assuming that names in ICN will follow the current URL format commonly used in the Internet, we get the statistics of web URL based on extensive crawling experiments of main internet organizations. Then we propose a simple filtering technique based on these statistics for firewall to detect anomalous names in ICN. The experiment shows that our filtering technique recognizes 15% of names in our dataset as malicious. As the false positive rate is still high for this filter to be used in a real world operation, this work is an important step for detecting anomalous names and preventing information-leakage in ICN.
Neuromarketing: the future of market research or a passing trend?

Over the past decade, the popularity of neuroimagin g and psychophysiological techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and e ye tracking has grown rapidly within the marketing discipline. Yet, ‘neuromarketing’ has bec ome a buzzword associated with both optimism and uncertainty about its future place in market research. In this paper, we propose to address this question by examining the approach adopted by neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience as well as its applications. After dis cussing the main points of difference compared to traditional methods, we conclude about the role of a multi-disciplinary approach to consumer research and consider future research c hallenges.
A High Speed 32-bit FPGA based CORDIC Architecture for Sine and Cosine Function Evaluation

1. ABSTRACT Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms always have a need for calculating certain linear, trigonometric, hyperbolic, logarithmic and other transcendental functions. CORDIC based algorithms have long been used in evaluating these functions. Traditional approaches have, however, been limited to software domain only. The simplicity of operation of CORDIC algorithm encourages its implementation in hardware. In this paper a novel CORDIC architecture for sine and cosine function evaluation has been proposed. The hardware integration is carried out using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The proposed algorithm is based on modified carry save addition and incorporates bit-truncation. The structure offers extremely low latency and high operating frequencies, when pipelined. The novelty of the proposed architecture is that it offers a flat timing response for varying input word lengths. The structure has an inherent capability of supporting an additional internal pipeline within each stage, enabling the structure to operate at high frequencies, typically four times that of the normal CORDIC. The performance analysis is carried out by comparing the proposed architecture against existing non-redundant (basic) and redundant (modified) architectures.
Affective and cognitive reactions to narrative versus statistical evidence organ donation messages.

Abstract Persuasive health messages have been examined for their effectiveness, but few studies have explored the cognitive and affective reactions to these messages. The goal of the present research was to gain insight into the cognitive and affective reactions to statistical evidence and narrative persuasive messages about organ donation in order to determine why these different types of evidence are persuasive. The influence of prior thought and intent about organ donation on these reactions also was explored. Cognitive reactions examined included total, positive, and negative thoughts about organ donation, message ratings, and assessments of causal relevance, while affective reactions examined included positive and negative emotions about organ donation and anxiety. Results indicated a main effect for evidence type such that statistical evidence messages produced greater results in terms of all the cognitive reactions, while narratives produced greater results for all of the affective reactions. A mai.
Responses to Corticotrophin‐Releasing Hormone and Dexamethasone in a Large Series of Human Adrenocorticotrophic Hormone‐Secreting Pituitary Adenomas In Vitro Reveal Manifold Corticotroph Tumoural Phenotypes

Patients with Cushing’s disease are known to present a variable secretory response to stimulatory and inhibitory challenges. Evaluation of the secretory behaviour of pituitary adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH)‐secreting adenomas in vitro aids in the comprehension of its behaviour in vivo; however, given the small size of these tumours and the consequent paucity of material available to in vitro studies, a comprehensive study on the secretory behaviour of human corticotroph tumours has not yet been performed. The present study aimed to assess the spectrum of responses to the two main corticotroph modulators, corticotrophin‐releasing hormone (CRH) and dexamethasone, in a large series of human ACTH‐secreting pituitary tumours. Seventy‐two ACTH‐secreting pituitary tumours were collected during surgery and established in culture. Specimens were incubated with 10 nm CRH and/or 10 nm dexamethasone for 4 h and 24 h. Secretion in unstimulated, control wells was set at 100% and changes in ACTH concentrations by at least 20% were considered as responses. Parallel experiments in 12 rat anterior pituitary primary cultures were evaluated. A marked ACTH increase was observed during incubation with CRH in 70% of tumoural specimens at 4 h (range 124–3500% of control wells) and in 57% at 24 h (range 122–3323%). Dexamethasone reduced ACTH secretion in almost 50% of tumours (range 78–2% of control at 4 h; 76–3% at 24 h), whereas it did not affect ACTH medium levels in 30% of specimens and induced a paradoxical ACTH increase in 20% of tumours (range 130–327% of control at 4 h; 156–348% at 24 h). By comparison, CRH uniformly increased ACTH levels in rat anterior pituitary primary cultures (mean 745 ± 84% at 4 h; 347 ± 25% at 24 h), whereas dexamethasone decreased ACTH levels by 40–50% in all experiments. In conclusion, the present study of a large series of human ACTH‐secreting pituitary tumours in vitro revealed a considerable variability in the responses to CRH and dexamethasone. This finding indicates the existence of multiple corticotroph tumoural phenotypes and may account for the different responses to physiological and pharmacological modulators in vivo.
Theorising the Rise of Regionness

We are witnessing a resurgence of regionalism in world politics. Drawing on the significant but rather diverse old and new theorising in the field, this article seeks to move towards a more coherent construction of a New Regionalism Theory (NRT), built around the core concept of ‘regionness’, indicating the multidimensional result of the process of regionalisation of a particular geographic area. The concept of regionness — ranging from regional space, regional complex, regional society, regional community to region-state — is outlined and suggested as a comparative analytical tool for understanding the emergence and construction of regions and the formation of relevant actors in a historical and multidimensional perspective. To some extent the five levels express a certain evolutionary logic, but there is, for sure, nothing deterministic with the rise of regionness. Furthermore, there are many regionalisms and the processes of regionalisation at different points in time provides various entry points into the globalised order for particular regions.
A lane change detection approach using feature ranking with maximized predictive power

Risk estimation for the current traffic situation is crucial for safe autonomous driving systems. One part of the uncertainty in risk estimation is the behavior of the surrounding traffic participants. In this paper we focus on highway scenarios, where possible behaviors consist of a change in acceleration and lane change maneuvers. We present a novel approach for the recognition of lane change intentions of traffic participants. Our novel approach is an extension of the Naïve Bayesian approach and results in a generative model. It builds on the relations to the directly surrounding vehicles and to the static traffic environment. We obtain the conditional probabilities of all relevant features using Gaussian mixtures with a flexible number of components. We systematically reduce the number of features by selecting the most powerful ones. Furthermore we investigate the predictive power of each feature with respect to the time before a lane change event. In a large scale experiment on real world data with over 160.781 samples collected on a test drive of 1100km we trained and validated our intention prediction model and achieved a significant improvement in the recognition performance of lane change intentions compared to current state of the art methods.
Effects of high-intensity resistance exercise on bone mineral density and muscle strength of 40-50-year-old women.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of six months of heavy resistance training (weightlifting) on the bone density of premenopausal women. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN A 6-month prospective design with random assignment to groups. SETTING Measurements of bone mineral density (BMD) were obtained from the Radiology Clinic at North Carolina Memorial Hospital. Exercise sessions were completed in the Physical Education Department facilities at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-five premenopausal women, 40-50 years of age, were randomly assigned to either a resistance training (RT) and sedentary control (CON) group. The study finished with 12 women exercising and 14 in the control group. INTERVENTION The resistance training consisted of three days per week of high-intensity weightlifting specifically designed to place strain on the spine and hips. MEASURES Bone density of the lumbar vertebrae, femoral neck, and distal radius, were determined prior to and at the end of the exercise program using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). RESULTS Resistance-training produced strength gains: overhead press = 125%, leg press = 86%, and calf raises = 91% (p < 0.001). RT tended to increased lumbar BMD 1.03%, while the CON decreased 0.36% (p = 0.072). Both groups lost radial BMD (CON = -0.45%; RT = -1.04%). Both groups gained femoral neck BMD (CON = 1.26%; RT = 1.22%). CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that even a short-term weight training program can either maintain or improve the BMD of the femoral neck and lumbar vertebrae in premenopausal women.
Creating a GPGPU-accelerated framework for pattern matching using a case study

Nowadays, general purpose personal computers often contain a separated GPU card. The card can be used to extend the computing power of the CPU. This possibility is getting bigger and bigger focus in several areas such as bioinformatics or audio signal processing. Our goal is to build a heterogeneous GPU-CPU based framework which can search for user defined patterns in a domain-specific model. Efficient pattern matching is useful in various fields, for example in refactoring software systems, or in financial analysis applications. We started building the framework by defining and solving a simple case study to analyze the difficulties in the field and find the keys of success based on a practical example. Several challenges were faced and solved including performance and scalability. At the end, we gained enough experience to create a robust and performant framework. The paper presents the case study, its solution and the architecture of our general, GPU-based pattern matching framework.
Commentary on: volumizing viaducts of the midface: defining the Beut techniques.

The authors of the manuscript “Volumizing Viaducts of the Midface: Defining the Beut Techniques” reveal their mastery of fat compartments and anatomical spaces by providing a comprehensive approach to midface rejuvenation.1 The discussion will focus on the ports, techniques, and concepts inherent in the authors’ approach to facial augmentation. The authors’ technique is a noteworthy departure from earlier attempts at midface rejuvenation that relied on en bloc repositioning of soft tissue. Rather than visualizing the midface as “malar fat,” the authors view the midface as a set of independent compartments and spaces, each of which contributes to overall morphology. Their use of ports or viaducts is a direct extension of this concept. Three ports enable access to the compartments and spaces that may require augmentation. This approach to facial rejuvenation by augmentation specifically addresses shape, support, and structure prior to augmentation of folds and creases. The authors suggest this approach improves the final dynamic result. In addition, augmentation of key regions as a preliminary step may decrease the volume required to improve some creases. The example of deep cheek fat augmentation and the nasolabial crease supports an approach directed primarily at support and secondarily at creases and wrinkles. This approach may also help to limit one of the most common unsolved problems in facial augmentation: prolonged refractory edema. If one dissects either the nasolabial crease or the vermillion white roll carefully under high power magnification, large lymphatic vessels will be noted to travel parallel within these structures. This is in keeping with the concept that creases do not occur sporadically nor in an arbitrary manner, but rather form over subsurface structures, including lymphatic vessels. Malar edema after injection of the nasojugal crease is …
The Integrated Decision Model in Emergency Dispatch Management and It's Implications for Design

This paper reports on a review of a number of well-known naturalistic decision making. NDM, models (Zsambok & Klein, 1997). Key features of these models were identified and were found to represent different views of the same naturalistic decision making process. The key features of these different views were then integrated into a single model called the Integrated Decision Model. To validate the model, a study of emergency dispatch co-ordinators was conducted to determine the 'goodness of fit' of the model in a naturalistic domain. A Critical Decision Method-based study (Klein et al., 1989) was conducted and found enough evidence in the emergency dispatch management process to support the proposal of the Integrated Decision Model.
Who is not adhering to physical activity referrals, and why?

Objective. To analyse patients’ self-reported reasons for not adhering to physical activity referrals (PARs). Design and setting. Data on 1358 patients who did not adhere to PARs were collected at 38 primary health care (PHC) centres in Sweden. Intervention. PHC providers issued formal physical activity prescriptions for home-based activities or referrals for facility-based activities. Subjects. Ordinary PHC patients whom regular staff believed would benefit from increased physical activity. Main outcome measure: Reasons for non-adherence to PARs: “sickness”, “pain”, “low motivation”, “no time”, “economic factors”, and “other”. Results. Sickness and pain were the most common motives for non-adherence among older patients. The youngest patients blamed economic factors and lack of time more frequently than those in the oldest age group. Economic factors was a more common reason for non-adherence among those referred for facility-based activities compared with those prescribed home-based activities. Low motivation was a more frequent cause of non-adherence among those prescribed home-based activities compared with those referred for facility-based activities. Furthermore, lack of time was a more common reason for non-adherence among patients issued with PARs due to high blood pressure than other patients, while low motivation was a more common reason among patients issued with PARs because of a BMI of > 25. Conclusion. The reasons for non-adherence differ between patients prescribed home-based activities and referred for facility-based activities, as well as between patients with different specific characteristics. The information obtained may be valuable not only for the professionals working in PHC, but also for those who work to develop PARs for use in different contexts.
Video Object Segmentation using Tracked Object Proposals

We present an approach to semi-supervised video object segmentation, in the context of the DAVIS 2017 challenge. Our approach combines category-based object detection, category-independent object appearance segmentation and temporal object tracking. We are motivated by the fact that the objects semantic category tends not to change throughout the video while its appearance and location can vary considerably. In order to capture the specific object appearance independent of its category, for each video we train a fully convolutional network using augmentations of the given annotated frame. We refine the appearance segmentation mask with the bounding boxes provided either by a semantic object detection network, when applicable, or by a previous frame prediction. By introducing a temporal continuity constraint on the detected boxes, we are able to improve the object segmentation mask of the appearance network and achieve competitive results on the DAVIS datasets.
Community composition of ammonia-oxidizing archaea from surface and anoxic depths of oceanic oxygen minimum zones

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) have been reported at high abundance in much of the global ocean, even in environments, such as pelagic oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), where conditions seem unlikely to support aerobic ammonium oxidation. Due to the lack of information on any potential alternative metabolism of AOA, the AOA community composition might be expected to differ between oxic and anoxic environments. This hypothesis was tested by evaluating AOA community composition using a functional gene microarray that targets the ammonia monooxygenase gene subunit A (amoA). The relationship between environmental parameters and the biogeography of the Arabian Sea and the Eastern Tropical South Pacific (ETSP) AOA assemblages was investigated using principal component analysis (PCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA). In both the Arabian Sea and the ETSP, AOA communities within the core of the OMZ were not significantly different from those inhabiting the oxygenated surface waters above the OMZ. The AOA communities in the Arabian Sea were significantly different from those in the ETSP. In both oceans, the abundance of archaeal amoA gene in the core of the OMZ was higher than that in the surface waters. Our results indicate that AOA communities are distinguished by their geographic origin. RDA suggested that temperature (higher in the Arabian Sea than in the ETSP) was the main factor that correlated with the differences between the AOA communities. Physicochemical properties that characterized the different environments of the OMZ and surface waters played a less important role, than did geography, in shaping the AOA community composition.
4DCov: A Nested Covariance Descriptor of Spatio-Temporal Features for Gesture Recognition in Depth Sequences

In this paper we propose a novel covariance-based framework for the robust characterization and classification of human gestures in 3D depth sequences. The proposed 4DCov descriptor uses the notion of covariance to create compact representations of complex interactions between variations of 3D features in the spatial and temporal domain, instead of using the absolute features themselves. Despite the compactness of this representation, it still offers discriminative power for human-gesture classification. The codification of feature variations along a scene makes our descriptor robust to inter-subject and intra-class variations, periodic motions and different speeds during gesture executions, compared to other key point or histogram-based descriptor approaches. Furthermore, a sparse collaborative classification method is also presented, taking advantage of our descriptor laying on a specific manifold topology and observing that similar motions are geometrically clustered in the descriptor space. Classification accuracy results are presented against state-of-the-art approaches on top of four public human gesture datasets acquired with 3D depth sensor devices, including complex gestures from different natures.