Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studying the Effects of Heat and Cold Shock on Cell wall Microstructure and Survival of Some LAB in Milk

In this study we investigated the effect of heat shock (42-45°C for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 minutes) cold shock (4, 0, -5, -10 and -20°C for 2h) on cell wall Microstructure of LAB. Cell wall Changes and micro -damage behavior of LAB under the impact of heat and cold shock was studied by optical microscope and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Treatment of LAB with heat and cold shock had significant effects on permeability properties of LAB just in long heat exposures and very cold temperatures. The survival of LAB was just affected by the heat shock.
Pulmonary complications of sickle cell disease.

From the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine and the Hemostasis and Vascular Biology Research Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, (M.T.G.); and Children’s Hospital and Research Center at Oakland, Oakland, CA (E.V.). Address reprint requests to Dr. Gladwin at the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, NW 168 Montefiore Hospital, 354 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, or at gladwinmt@upmc.edu.
Multivariate analysis of behavioural response experiments in humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae)

SUMMARY The behavioural response study (BRS) is an experimental design used by field biologists to determine the function and/or behavioural effects of conspecific, heterospecific or anthropogenic stimuli. When carrying out these studies in marine mammals it is difficult to make basic observations and achieve sufficient samples sizes because of the high cost and logistical difficulties. Rarely are other factors such as social context or the physical environment considered in the analysis because of these difficulties. This paper presents results of a BRS carried out in humpback whales to test the response of groups to one recording of conspecific social sounds and an artificially generated tone stimulus. Experiments were carried out in September/October 2004 and 2008 during the humpback whale southward migration along the east coast of Australia. In total, 13 ‘tone’ experiments, 15 ‘social sound’ experiments (using one recording of social sounds) and three silent controls were carried out over two field seasons. The results (using a mixed model statistical analysis) suggested that humpback whales responded differently to the two stimuli, measured by changes in course travelled and dive behaviour. Although the response to ‘tones’ was consistent, in that groups moved offshore and surfaced more often (suggesting an aversion to the stimulus), the response to ‘social sounds’ was highly variable and dependent upon the composition of the social group. The change in course and dive behaviour in response to ‘tones’ was found to be related to proximity to the source, the received signal level and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This study demonstrates that the behavioural responses of marine mammals to acoustic stimuli are complex. In order to tease out such multifaceted interactions, the number of replicates and factors measured must be sufficient for multivariate analysis.
Carbon Nanopipettes for Advanced Cellular Probing and Microinjection

Carbon nanopipettes (CNPs) consist of a pulled-quartz micropipette with a thin layer of amorphous carbon deposited along its entire interior surface via chemical vapor deposition. The micropipette maintains a continuous fluidic pathway from its nanoscopic tip to its distal macroscopic end, while the insulated carbon film provides an electrical path to the tip that can be used as a working electrode. The quartz at the tip of the CNP can be chemically etched to expose a desired length of a carbon pipe to control the size and characteristics of the electrode. CNPs are inexpensive, batchfabricated, and can be made hollow or solid. They can be used as nanoelectrodes, nanoinjectors, or both simultaneously, with improved durability and biocompatibility compared with glass micropipettes. Here, I will describe work stemming from CNP technology. We have developed an impedimetric AC technique for detecting cellular and nuclear penetration during microinjection and cellular probing with CNPs. The technique has submicron spatial and millisecond temporal resolution. Signal magnitude can be used to discern between penetration into the cytoplasm or nucleus, and using the CNPs as nanoelectrodes. We find a monotonic dependence of the signal on penetration depth. The behavior of this system is well-predicted by an equivalent circuit model, and could be used to provide electrical feedback during single-cell microinjection, nanosampling, or electrochemical studies. Using solid CNP electrodes (CNPEs), we have also characterized CNPs for use in fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to measure neurotransmitter concentrations in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly). CNPEs are sharper and smaller than commonly used carbon-fiber microelectrodes (CFMEs), allowing them to penetrate the tough glial sheath of the fly brain and perform more localized measurements. CNPEs are also easier to batch fabricate and have better dimensional control than CFMEs. As a target biological application of microinjection, we are using injection of fluorescently labeled tRNA to monitor subcellular tRNA dynamics in real time. We have developed a simple model to capture trafficking dynamics, and fit our model to experimental data for the measurement of nuclear/cytoplasmic trafficking kinetics of tRNA during nutrient deprivation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts. This data confirms that cells have mechanisms for the regulation of tRNA transport, and suggests that we can use our microinjection technique to perform quantitative studies of tRNA trafficking. In order to facilitate microinjection studies such as these, we have developed an adaptable Matlab-based semiautomated injection system. We have incorporated our electrical feedback signal, with the goal of improving success rates and throughput of microinjection, while minimizing difficulty and user error. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn. edu/edissertations/1005 First Advisor Haim H. Bau
Effect on Kalman based underwater tracking due to ocean current uncertainty

Although it was recognized that an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) in reality might experience changing ocean current along its mission trajectory, most published papers related to the single beacon underwater navigation assumed a constant ocean current over the whole duration. When this assumption is against the reality, those underwater tracking models not only will fail to adequately describe the change of ocean current over the duration, but also may introduce large error to their position estimation. In this paper, by including adequate ocean current uncertainty in the process model at each discrete time, the estimated ocean current can exhibit time-varying and location-dependent characteristics. The effect on the accuracy of underwater tracking due to the inclusion of the ocean current uncertainty is investigated through a kinematic model that treats the unknown effective sound velocity (ESV) as a state variable. In addition to the Kalman filter, the performance of the corresponding Rauch-Tung-Striebel (RTS) smoother is also studied. Both simulation and filed data are used to study the effect on the accuracy of underwater tracking.
Mechanism of activation of liver acetyl-CoA carboxylase by cell swelling.

The activation of hepatic glycogen synthase by the amino-acid-induced cell swelling has been attributed to the stimulation of [glycogen-synthase]-phosphatase resulting from an increase in the intracellular content in glutamate and aspartate, and a decrease in intracellular Cl-, which is a compensatory response to cell swelling [Meijer, A. J., Baquet, A. , Gustafson, L. , van Woerkom, G. M. & Hue, L. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 5823-5828]. Here we studied whether the activation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase by cell swelling could be explained by the same mechanism. The activation of endogenous or purified acetyl-CoA carboxylase was measured in gel-filtered liver extracts or cytosols. No activation could be observed under basal conditions but a fivefold stimulation was obtained with concentrations of glutamate (20-25 mM) found in hepatocytes incubated with glutamine. A similar stimulation was also observed with other dicarboxylic acids such as malonate and succinate, or with metal ions like Mg2+, Ca2+ and Mn2+ (10 mM). The addition of 50-100 mM Cl- was found to inhibit the activation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase by some 20-30%. Mg2+ was also found to stimulate the activation of the endogenous glycogen synthase. The glutamate-stimulated and Mg(2+)-stimulated activation of glycogen synthase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase was unaffected by 10 microM inhibitor-2, a specific inhibitory protein of protein phosphatase-1, but could be nearly completely blocked by the phosphatase inhibitor microcystin-LR. Our data suggest that the amino-acid-induced activation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and glycogen synthase in the liver occurs by a common ionic mechanism.
HAS-1 genetic polymorphism in sporadic abdominal aortic aneurysm

The hyaluronan synthase 1 (HAS-1) gene encodes a plasma membrane protein that synthesizes hyaluronan (HA), an extracellular matrix molecule. Accumulating evidence emphasizes the relevance of HA metabolism in an increasing number of processes of clinical interest, including abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The existence of aberrant splicing variants of the HAS-1 gene could partly explain the altered extracellular matrix architecture and influence various biological functions, resulting in progressive arterial wall failure in the development of AAA. In the present study, we assessed the hypothesis that HAS-1 genetic 833A/G polymorphism could be associated with the risk of AAA by performing a case-control association study, involving AAA patients and healthy matched donors.
Celiac sprue (the great modern-day imposter)

Purpose of reviewTo review the current epidemiological information on celiac disease and the various presentations and associated. Recent findingsEpidemiologic studies reveal celiac disease to be common, occurring in approx. 1% of the population. It is being diagnosed worldwide, even in developing countries. The classic mode of presentation has become less common, with diarrhea or a malabsorption syndrome as the mode of presentation in fewer than 50% of individuals. The other major modes of presentation are iron-deficiency anemia, osteoporosis, screening of family members, or incidentally at endoscopy done for dyspepsia or reflux. Neurological presentations may include peripheral neuropathy or ataxia. Arthritis is commonly found in patients with celiac disease when systematically sought. Patients often have a previous diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome. Autoimmune diseases occur more frequently (three to ten times more) in those with celiac disease than the general population. However, this increased incidence of autoimmune diseases is not prevented by early diagnosis of celiac disease. SummaryWe will review the various associated diseases/presentations of celiac disease. The heterogeneity of the symptoms can make the diagnosis challenging and certainly the great modern-day imposter.
Internal stresses in two phases polycrystalline materials

The X-ray diffraction method has been applied to determine the internal stresses in two phases austeno-ferritic steel during uniaxial tensile test. The elasto-plastic deformation model was used to predict internal stresses and critical resolved shear stress for the both phases. The model calculations were successfully compared with the information obtained from the shift and broadening of diffraction peak. Finally, the parameters characterising elasto-plastic deformation for duplex steel were determined.
Views from Below: Academics coping with quality

This paper reports on an investigation, ongoing since the early 1990s, and now in its second phase, of how academics have sought to make sense of the 'quality revolution' which has been such a dominant feature of UK higher education in the last decade or so. The paper begins by considering the turbulence and uncertainty which has become characteristic of today's higher education systems, and which has provided the context in which academics have been required to adjust to invasive quality monitoring arrangements. The paper goes on to consider whether quality monitoring has led to improvement, or whether it has produced somewhat sterile and ritualistic 'game-playing', with 'performances' and 'impression management' carefully designed to fulfil the requirements of quality assurance and monitoring processes. By plotting the 'career' of the notion of quality through the 1990s to the present, and by applying a deconstructionist test, some of the lessons learned over that period are identified. Drawing on interview data and results from each phase of the research, including recent focus group interviews, the paper makes a distinction between the dominant 'formal' meanings of quality which were prevalent in the early 1990s, and the 'situated' perceptions of quality revealed by 'close-up' study of academics working with quality systems on a day-to-day basis. Categorisations of various types of behavioural response to quality policy by academic staff are presented, and academics' perceptions of prospects for coping with the emerging QAA framework for quality and standards are also considered. The paper concludes by reasserting the merits of fine-grained, close-up study of academics engaged with higher education policy.
Breaking the O(n2) bit barrier: Scalable byzantine agreement with an adaptive adversary

We describe an algorithm for Byzantine agreement that is scalable in the sense that each processor sends only Õ(&sqrt;n) bits, where n is the total number of processors. Our algorithm succeeds with high probability against an adaptive adversary, which can take over processors at any time during the protocol, up to the point of taking over arbitrarily close to a 1/3 fraction. We assume synchronous communication but a rushing adversary. Moreover, our algorithm works in the presence of flooding: processors controlled by the adversary can send out any number of messages. We assume the existence of private channels between all pairs of processors but make no other cryptographic assumptions. Finally, our algorithm has latency that is polylogarithmic in n. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first algorithm to solve Byzantine agreement against an adaptive adversary, while requiring o(n2) total bits of communication.
An algorithm for synthesis of large time-constrained heterogeneous adaptive systems

Large time-constrained applications are highly computer-intensive and are often implemented as a complex organization of pipelined data parallel tasks on a pool of embedded processors, DSP processors, and FPGAs. The large number of design alternatives available at each task level, the application as a whole, and the special needs of the reconfigurable devices (such as the FPGA) make the manual synthesis of such systems very tedious. The automatic synthesis algorithm in this paper combines exact (MILP-based) and heuristic techniques to solve this problem, which basically involves (1) propagation of timing constraints; (2) pipelining the loops to meet throughput requirements; (3) resource selection and scheduling, keeping the processing requirements and the timing constraints in view; (4) scheduling the resources across the tasks to ensure maximum utilization; and (5) hiding the reconfiguration delays of the FPGAs. While the use of MILP techniques helps in getting high-quality results, combining them with heuristics ensures acceptable synthesis times, striking a good balance between quality of results and synthesis time. Our experimental evaluation of the algorithm shows an average 40% in resource cost reduction (compared to manual synthesis) with synthesis times from minutes to as low as a few seconds in some cases.
Laser highlighting on a flat panel display coated with a double-layered anti-reflection film containing a europium(III) complex

We report a photosensitive, double-layered anti-reflection film, which is composed of a UV cured acrylate film containing a photoluminescent europium(III) complex as a high refractive index layer and a film of a colloidal nano-silica as a low refractive index layer. The refractive index of the high refractive index layer can be tuned from 1. 53 to 1.69 as the composition of the europium(III) complex increases. The reflectance of the anti-reflection film on the glass substrate is as low as 0.48% when the refractive indices and thicknesses of the two layers are controlled. The anti-reflection film is applied as the top layer of a liquid crystal display (LCD). Since the absorption and excitation spectra of the europium(III) complex barely overlap with the backlight spectrum of the LCD, the europium(III) complex in the anti-reflection film does not disturb the display images. The images are visible even under irradiation using an indoor fluorescent lamp. It is also possible to highlight a specific point on the display screen using laser light. When a 405 nm laser pointer is aimed at a specific area, the area appeared as a bright red spot.
Decorative Multi-Component Alkali Activated Cements for Restoration and Finishing Works

The paper is devoted to development and research of decorative multi-component alkali activated cements with enhanced quality characteristics. The use of finely dispersed mineral additives and alkali metal salts allows to obtain multi-component cements with the lower content of OPC clinker. In chemical composition these decorative multi-component cements are similar to Roman cement. The developed multi-component cements have comparable or better performance properties compared to Roman cement and allow for to use them successfully in making plasters, mortars, etc. for restoration, finishing works and decoration of facades.
A Smart Card Based Internet Micropayment Infrastructure: Technical Development and User Adoption

As online shopping services proliferate, the need for a secure and convenient payment infrastructure becomes critical. While credit card payment has become common for online purchases, a payment solution has not yet been developed that can be used to support transactions involving a monetary value in the range of a few dollars or even cents. In this study, the authors report their experience in developing a smart card based micropayment infrastructure in collaboration with a major bank. The infrastructure makes use of Mondex, a cash card standard adopted by major financial institutions worldwide. The infrastructure provides a platform to support online transfer of Mondex value over the Internet. Unlike other cash card products, Mondex is the only standard that can support card-to-card transfer without a mediating party. The transactions are immediate and anonymous. This article outlines the technical approach used in the development of the infrastructure and presents a behavioral adoption model to identify and assess factors that may affect its adoption. The findings indicate that the use of the adoption model in the early stages of product development can provide valuable insights to a development team. Theoretical contributions and practical implications specific to the Mondex Internet micropayment infrastructure are also discussed.
In Vivo changes in the lengths of carpal ligaments after mild dorsal angulation of distal radius fractures

The need for surgical correction in patients with malunion with mild dorsal angulation after a distal radius fracture is controversial. We specifically investigated in vivo changes in the lengths of carpal ligaments in a group of patients with mild-degree dorsal angulation following a distal radial fracture. We obtained computed tomography scans of both wrists in eight patients, whose distal radius on one side had united with dorsal angulation from 10° to 20°. The three-dimensional images of the carpus were reconstructed and the lengths of wrist ligaments were measured based on known anatomical landmarks. Compared with the contralateral uninjured side, the dorsal radiocarpal ligament and ulnotriquetral ligament were substantially lengthened (p < 0.05) and the long radiolunate ligament was substantially shortened (p < 0.05) at most wrist positions except extension. However, five other ligaments that we measured did not show significant differences in length compared with those of the uninjured side (p > 0.05). The lengths of some ligaments are substantially altered even by mild dorsal angulation of the distal radius, while the lengths of most other ligaments are not substantially affected.
Technologies and Research Trends in Wireless Body Area Networks for Healthcare: A Systematic Literature Review

Owing to the increasing interest in the integration of the medical technology and the information and communications technology, research on wireless body area networks (WBANs), which apply a sensor network to the human body, is being actively conducted. Existing sensor network technology has the potential to be used in a WBAN; however, it has some limitations. In particular, a WBAN has a very different network environment compared to a sensor network that uses free space, because wireless sensors in a BAN transmit through parts of the human body. Therefore, research on WBANs involves a variety of research areas that differ slightly from those of conventional sensor networks and take into account the characteristics of the human body. This study investigates the environmental characteristics of a WBAN that differ from conventional sensor networks and examines the areas that have been studied in academia to realize more efficient WBANs. From studies published since 2001, when the concept of the WBAN was introduced, research trends in WBANs were investigated using the systematic literature review (SLR) technique. The investigation in this study includes the classification of research and research fields in line with research content. Further, survey results are presented and the outlook for further study is summarized.
SAP HANA: The Evolution from a Modern Main-Memory Data Platform to an Enterprise Application Platform

SAP HANA is a pioneering, and one of the best performing, data platform designed from the grounds up to heavily exploit modern hardware capabilities, including SIMD, and large memory and CPU footprints. As a comprehensive data management solution, SAP HANA supports the complete data life cycle encompassing modeling, provisioning, and consumption. This extended abstract outlines the vision and planned next step of the SAP HANA evolution growing from a core data platform into an innovative enterprise application platform as the foundation for current as well as novel business applications in both on-premise and on-demand scenarios. We argue that only a holistic system design rigorously applying co-design at different levels may yield a highly optimized and sustainable platform for modern enterprise applications.