Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knotting nets: Molecular junctions of interconnecting endocrine axes identified by application of the adverse outcome pathway concept

To be defined as an endocrine disruptor, a substance has to meet several criteria, including the induction of specific adverse effects, a specific endocrine mode of action, and a plausible link between both. The latter criterion in particular might not always be unequivocally determined, especially because the endocrine system consists of diverse endocrine axes. The axes closely interact with each other, and manipulation of one triggers effects on the other. The present review aimed to identify some of the many interconnections between these axes. The focus was on fish, but data obtained in studies on amphibians and mammals were considered if they assisted in closing data gaps, because most of the endocrine mechanisms are evolutionarily conserved. The review includes data both from ecotoxicological studies and on physiological processes and gives information on hormone/hormone receptor interactions or gene transcription regulation. The key events and key event relationships identified provide explanations for unexpected effects on one axis, exerted by substances suspected to act specifically on another axis. Based on these data, several adverse outcome pathway (AOP) segments are identified, describing connections between the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) and hypothalamic–pituitary–thyroid (HPT) axes, the HPG and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal/interrenal (HPA/I) axes, and the HPT and HPA/I axes. Central key events identified across axes were altered aromatase activity as well as altered expression and function of the proteins 11β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β‐HSD) and steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein. Substance classes that act on more than one endocrine axis were, for example, goitrogens or aromatase inhibitors. Despite the wealth of information gathered, the present review only provides a few insights into the molecular nets of endocrine axes, demonstrating the complexity of their interconnections. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:318–328. © 2017 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.
Bandwidth-reduced supply modulation of a high-efficiency X-band GaN MMIC PA for multiple wideband signals

This paper introduces bandwidth reduction methods for supply modulation when multiple broadband signals spread over a wide RF bandwidth are simultaneously amplified by a high-efficiency PA. The PA is a GaN on SiC MMIC in the Qorvo 150-nm process with two stages and power combining at the output. With a CW signal at 9.8 GHz, the peak power is 8W with a peak efficiency of 56% and a saturated gain greater than 23 dB. Three 16QAM signals with bandwidths of 1, 2 and 5 MHz, separated by 70 and 130 MHz and centered around 9.8 GHz have a combined envelope bandwidth of > 800 MHz and a PAR around 9.5 dB, which is too large for an efficient envelope modulator. We show that the tracking bandwidth can be significantly reduced when the envelopes of the individual signals are summed at baseband. Measured results show 42.4% PAE and 18.8% worst-case EVM when tracking is used, compared to 29.7% PAE and 14.4% EVM for a fixed supply with no linearization.
Characterization of a Domain That Transiently Converts Class 2 DYRKs into Intramolecular Tyrosine Kinases

An N-terminal region of a dual-specificity kinase temporarily enables it to phosphorylate a tyrosine rather than a serine or a threonine residue. Temporary Specificity Many protein kinases must undergo phosphorylation of particular amino acid residues in their activation loops to become activated. Such reactions can occur in an intermolecular manner, either by another kinase or by another molecule of the same kinase, or through an intramolecular mechanism. The dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation–regulated kinases (DYRKs) represent one of two families of kinases whose activation loop tyrosine residue is phosphorylated intramolecularly. However, DYRKs phosphorylate their substrates on serine or threonine residues, so it is unclear how a single kinase domain can have both activities. Kinstrie et al. characterized deletion mutants of the Drosophila class II DYRK, dDYRK2, and demonstrated that a noncatalytic, N-terminal region of the protein was required for autophosphorylation of the activation loop tyrosine, but not for the serine-threonine phosphorylation of substrates. The authors propose that this region, which they term the NAPA domain, acts as a chaperone, analogous to the function of heat shock protein 90 in mediating the autophosphorylation of activation loop tyrosines by the GSK-3 family of kinases, the other family to undergo intramolecular phosphorylation. Dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation–regulated kinases (DYRKs) autophosphorylate an essential tyrosine residue in their activation loop and phosphorylate their substrates on serine and threonine residues. Phosphorylation of the activation loop tyrosine occurs intramolecularly, is mediated by a short-lived transitional intermediate during protein maturation, and is required for functional serine-threonine kinase activity of DYRKs. The DYRK family is separated into two subclasses. Through bioinformatics and mutational analyses, we identified a conserved domain in the noncatalytic N terminus of a class 2 DYRK that was required for autophosphorylation of the activation loop tyrosine but not for the phosphorylation of serine or threonine residues in substrates. We propose that this domain, which we term the NAPA domain, provides a chaperone-like function that transiently converts class 2 DYRKs into intramolecular kinases capable of autophosphorylating the activation loop tyrosine. The conservation of the NAPA domain from trypanosomes to humans indicates that this form of intramolecular phosphorylation of the activation loop is ancient and may represent a primordial mechanism for the activation of protein kinases.
Two types of ipsilateral reorganization in congenital hemiparesis: a TMS and fMRI study.

Reorganization after early brain injuries is not only determined by the maturational stage of the CNS at the time of the insult (timing), but also by the structural properties, location and extent of the lesion. This study addresses the impact of different lesion extents on the type of reorganization induced in a cohort of patients with lesions of uniform structure and location (unilateral periventricular defects) and similar timing (early third trimester of pregnancy). Twelve young adult patients with congenital hemiparesis and 10 age-matched controls were studied. The severity of structural damage to hand motor projections of the cortico-spinal tract was assessed on semi-coronal MRI reconstructions along anatomical landmarks of cortico-spinal tract somatotopy. The functional integrity of these crossed cortico-spinal projections in the affected hemisphere, as well as the presence of any abnormal ipsilateral projections to the paretic hand, was examined by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Cortical activation during simple voluntary hand movements was studied by functional MRI (fMRI). Patients with small lesions (SL; n = 4) and only mild hand motor impairment possessed intact crossed cortico-spinal projections to the paretic hand, whereas no motor response could be elicited by TMS of the affected hemisphere in those with large lesions (LL; n = 6) and more severe hand motor impairment. Evidence for compensatory recruitment of the unaffected hemisphere was found in both subgroups. In the SL group, fMRI demonstrated ipsilateral activation of premotor areas, without any abnormal projections to the paretic hand originating from these sites. In the LL group, such abnormal ipsilateral projections to the paretic hand were indeed found, and fMRI confirmed cortical activation of an abnormal ipsilateral hand motor representation in the primary sensorimotor region of the unaffected hemisphere. Two patients with intermediate-sized lesions presented combined features of both groups (SL, LL). In conclusion, this study provides evidence that the type of cortico-spinal reorganization depends on the extent of the brain lesion. We propose that involvement of the ipsilateral hemisphere can be (i) of the premotor type, i.e. without ipsilateral motor projections but with significant activation of ipsilateral premotor areas, or (ii) of the primary motor type, i.e. with abnormal ipsilateral cortico-spinal projections to the paretic hand.
Eight 7-benzyl-3-tert-butyl-1-phenylpyrazolo[3,4-d]oxazines, encompassing structures containing no intermolecular hydrogen bonds, and hydrogen-bonded structures in one, two or three dimensions.

7-Benzyl-3-tert-butyl-1-phenyl-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C22H25N3O, (I), and 3-tert-butyl-7-(4-methylbenzyl)-1-phenyl-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C23H27N3O, (II), are isomorphous in the space group P2(1), and molecules are linked into chains by C-H.O hydrogen bonds. In each of 3-tert-butyl-7-(4-methoxybenzyl)-1-phenyl-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C23H27N3O2, (III), which has cell dimensions rather similar to those of (I) and (II), also in P2(1), and 3-tert-butyl-1-phenyl-7-[4-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl]-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C23H24F3N3O, (IV), there are no direction-specific interactions between the molecules. In 3-tert-butyl-7-(4-nitrobenzyl)-1-phenyl-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C22H24N4O3, (V), a combination of C-H.O and C-H.N hydrogen bonds links the molecules into complex sheets. There are no direction-specific interactions between the molecules of 3-tert-butyl-7-(2,3-dimethoxybenzyl)-1-phenyl-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C24H29N3O3, (VI), but a three-dimensional framework is formed in 3-tert-butyl-7-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl)-1-phenyl-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C23H25N3O3, (VII), by a combination of C-H.O, C-H.N and C-H.pi(arene) hydrogen bonds, while a combination of C-H.O and C-H.pi(arene) hydrogen bonds links the molecules of 3-tert-butyl-1-phenyl-7-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzyl)-6,7-dihydro-1H,4H-pyrazolo[3,4-d][1,3]oxazine, C25H31N3O4, (VIII), into complex sheets. In each compound, the oxazine ring adopts a half-chair conformation, while the orientations of the pendent phenyl and tert-butyl substituents relative to the pyrazolo[3,4-d]oxazine unit are all very similar.
Crowded Spectrum in Wireless Sensor Networks

With the exciting progress of wireless sensor network (WSN) research, we envision that in 5-10 years, the world will be full of low power wireless sensor devices. Due to the independent design and development, together with the unexpected dynamics during deployment of co-existing networks and devices, the limited frequency spectrum will be extremely crowded. Plus, existing electric appliances like microwaves make the congestion even worse. This paper proposes to develop new suites of WSN protocols along three complementary dimensions: (1) to achieve high communication throughput within a single WSN, (2) to achieve multi-frequency functionality among overlapping but cooperative WSNs and (3) to resolve the crowded spectrum issue caused by any reason, such as random transmitting devices, other nearby sensor networks, or even co-existing electric appliances.
Effect of saponin treatment on the sarcoplasmic reticulum of rat, cane toad and crustacean (Yabby) skeletal muscle

1 Mechanically skinned fibres from skeletal muscles of the rat, toad and yabby were used to investigate the effect of saponin treatment on sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+ loading properties. The SR was loaded submaximally under control conditions before and after treatment with saponin and SR Ca2+ was released with caffeine. 2 Treatment with 10 μg ml−1 saponin greatly reduced the SR Ca2+ loading ability of skinned fibres from the extensor digitorum longus muscle of the rat with a rate constant of 0.24 min−1. Saponin concentrations up to 150 μg ml−1 and increased exposure time up to 30 min did not further reduce the SR Ca2+ loading ability of the SR, which indicates that the inhibitory action of 10–150 μg ml−1 saponin is not dose dependent. The effect of saponin was also not dependent on the state of polarization of the transverse‐tubular system. 3 Treatment with saponin at concentrations up to 100 μg ml−1 for 30 min did not affect the Ca2+ loading ability of SR in skinned skeletal muscle fibres from the twitch portion of the toad iliofibularis muscle but SR Ca2+ loading ability decreased markedly with a time constant of 0.22 min−1 in the presence of 150 μg ml−1 saponin. 4 The saponin dependent increase in permeability could be reversed in both rat and toad fibres by short treatment with 6 μM Ruthenium Red, a potent SR Ca2+ channel blocker, suggesting that saponin does affect the SR Ca2+ channel properties in mammalian and anuran skeletal muscle. 5 Treatment of skinned fibres of long sarcomere length (> 6 μM) from the claw muscle of the yabby (a freshwater decapod crustacean) with 10 μg ml−1 saponin for 30 min abolished the ability of the SR to load Ca2+, indicating that saponin affects differently the SR from skeletal muscles of mammals, anurans and crustaceans. 6 It is concluded that at relatively low concentrations, saponin causes inhibition of the skeletal SR Ca2+ loading ability in a species dependent manner, probably by increasing the Ca2+ loss through SR Ca2+ release channels.
In-flight corrections in free-flying barn owls (Tyto alba) during sound localization tasks

SUMMARY Barn owls localize a stationary auditory target with high accuracy. They might also be able to hit a target that is intermittently moving while the owl is approaching. If so, there should be a critical delay before strike initiation, up to which the owl can adapt its flight path to a new stimulus position. In this study, this critical stimulus delay was determined in a three-dimensional free-flight paradigm. Barn owls localized a pulsed broadband noise while sitting on a perch in total darkness. This initial signal stopped with the owl's take-off and an in-flight stimulus (target sound), lasting 200 ms, was introduced at variable time delays (300–1200 ms) during the approximate flight time of 1300 ms. The owls responded to the in-flight signal with a corrective head and body turn. The percentage of trials in which correction turns occurred (40–80%) depended upon the individual bird, but was independent of the stimulus delay within a range of 800 ms after take-off. Correction turns strongly decreased at delays ≥800 ms. The landing precision of the owls, defined as their distance to the in-flight speaker, did not decrease with increasing stimulus delay, but decreased if the owl failed to perform a correction turn towards that speaker. Landing precision was higher for a short (50 cm) than for a large (100 cm) distance between the initial and the new target. Thus, the ability of barn owls to adapt their flight path to a new sound target depends on the in-flight stimulus delay, as well as on the distance between initial and novel targets.
Cloud-COVER: Using User Security Attribute Preferences and Propagation Analysis to Prioritise Threats to Systems

We present Cloud-COVER (Controls and Orderings for Vulnerabilities and ExposuRes), a cloud security threat modelling tool. Cloud-COVER takes input from a user about their deployment, requiring information about the data, instances, connections, their properties, and the importance of various security attributes. This input is used to analyse the relevant threats, and the way they propagate through the system. They are then presented to the user, ordered according to the security attributes they have prioritised, along with the best countermeasures to secure against the dangers listed.
Modal Decomposition of the Velocity Field near the Oregon Coast

Abstract The low-frequency [ω<0.5 cycle per day (cpd)] current fluctuations at four depths in 100 m of waterhave been investigated for two stations on the continental shelf off the coast of Oregon. One station, DB-7,was maintained during the summer of 1972 as part of the Coastal Upwelling Experiment-1 (CUE-I), and theother station, Carnation, was maintained during the summer of 1973 as part of CUE-II. A decomposition ofthe north-south (almost alongshore) v and the east-west (onshore-offshore) u components of the current hasbeen performed in terms of two types of modal structures in the vertical direction: (i) dynamic modes determined by the separable solutions of the appropriate equations of motion, and (ii) empirical orthogonal modeswhich are the eigenvectors of the correlation matrix and depend only on the statistics of the data. For thealongshore currents, the standard deviation of the dynamic barotropic mode is found to be twice as large asthat of the first baroclinic mode. The barotropic part is foun.
ARRAY SEISMOLOGY: METHODS AND APPLICATIONS

Since their development in the 1960s, seismic arrays have given a new impulse to seismology. Recordings from many uniform seismometers in a well‐defined, closely spaced configuration produce high‐quality and homogeneous data sets, which can be used to study the Earth's structure in great detail. Apart from an improvement of the signal‐to‐noise ratio due to the simple summation of the individual array recordings, seismological arrays can be used in many different ways to study the fine‐scale structure of the Earth's interior. They have helped to study such different structures as the interior of volcanos, continental crust and lithosphere, global variations of seismic velocities in the mantle, the core‐mantle boundary and the structure of the inner core. For this purpose many different, specialized array techniques have been developed and applied to an increasing number of high‐quality array data sets. Most array methods use the ability of seismic arrays to measure the vector velocity of an incident wave front, i.e., slowness and back azimuth. This information can be used to distinguish between different seismic phases, separate waves from different seismic events and improve the signal‐to‐noise ratio by stacking with respect to the varying slowness of different phases. The vector velocity information of scattered or reflected phases can be used to determine the region of the Earth from whence the seismic energy comes and with what structures it interacted. Therefore seismic arrays are perfectly suited to study the small‐scale structure and variations of the material properties of the Earth. In this review we will give an introduction to various array techniques which have been developed since the 1960s. For each of these array techniques we give the basic mathematical equations and show examples of applications. The advantages and disadvantages and the appropriate applications and restrictions of the techniques will also be discussed. The main methods discussed are the beam‐forming method, which forms the basis for several other methods, different slant stacking techniques, and frequency–wave number analysis. Finally, some methods used in exploration geophysics that have been adopted for global seismology are introduced. This is followed by a description of temporary and permanent arrays installed in the past, as well as existing arrays and seismic networks. We highlight their purposes and discuss briefly the advantages and disadvantages of different array configurations.
Towards a semantic- and context-based approach for composing web services

Despite the widespread adoption of web services, several obstacles still hinder their smooth automatic composition. First, techniques that exploit semantic information during web services discovery are still lagging behind despite multiple initiatives like OWL-S. Second, the context in which web services evolve is, to a certain extent, ignored. This prevents deploying adaptable web services. In this paper, we propose a semantic- and context-based approach for web services composition. By semantics, we mean the capacity of web services, which are engaged in interactions, to understand what these interactions are about and how to carry out these interactions. By context, we mean the capacity of web services to assess their current capabilities and ongoing commitments before these services participate in any composition.
Soil‐water Properties as Affected by Twelve Annual Applications of Cattle Feedlot Manure

A long-term study was set up to determine the effects of annual applications of manure, at rates in excess of the recommended, on a Dark Brown Chernozemic (Typic Haploborolls) soil. Cattle (Bos taurus) feedlot manure was applied at 0, 30, 60 and 90 Mg ha⁻¹ to nonirrigated and 0, 60, 120, and 180 Mg ha⁻¹ to irrigated land at the Lethbridge Research Station. Soil-water properties of the soil at 0- to 15- and 15- to 30-cm depths, as affected by the manure, are reported. In the surface 15 cm of soil, the mean volume of plant-available water retained by the soil between 20 and 1500 kPa tension decreased with increasing rates of manure on both the nonirrigated and irrigated blocks of land. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil cores and the infiltration rate of the soil in the field were unaffected by the applied manure.
Personal Mobile Sports Companion: Design and Evaluation of IT-Supported Product-Service-Bundles in the Sports Industry

Integrated product-service packages (hybrid products) can open new markets and target groups to companies. However, existing approaches to service or product development do not sufficiently address simultaneous development and domain-specific issues. A very promising new field for such bundles is the health and fitness industry. In this research, we designed and built an IT-supported training system for running (the Mobile Sports Companion, MSC) that closely interlocks a product and corresponding services using an iterative development process. We tested the pilot system with 14 recreational athletes. The results of the field test show that the MSC proved to be a promising tool to offer athletes an effective individual, flexible and mobile training. However, the system, as it is, did not sufficiently represent the human trainer behind it, thus lowering its acceptance and the credibility of its recommendations. Our next step is to integrate features that could strengthen the athlete-trainer relationship. The MSC could turn out to be a promising field for future ebusiness applications.
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto di Calcolo e Reti ad Alte Prestazioni 2 LEVDD-PSBLAS : a package of high-performance preconditioners for scientific and engineering applications

We present a package of parallel algebraic two-level Schwarz preconditioners, which has been developed on the top of the Parallel Sparse BLAS (PSBLAS) library. The package, named 2LEVDD-PSBLAS, currently includes various versions of additive Schwarz preconditioners that are combined with a coarselevel correction, in either additive or multiplicative ways, to obtain two-level preconditioners; a smoothed aggregation algorithm is implemented to build the coarse-level correction. 2LEVDD-PSBLAS was designed to fully exploit the basic linear algebra kernels provided by PSBLAS; nevertheless, it required the implementation of a few more matrix operators, thus leading to an extension of the original PSBLAS version. The package, used with Krylov solvers implemented in PSBLAS, was tested on linear systems arising from di®erent large-scale applications. Performance results are discussed in the paper.