Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aortic Disease Presentation and Outcome Associated With ACTA2 Mutations

Background—ACTA2 mutations are the major cause of familial thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections. We sought to characterize these aortic diseases in a large case series of individuals with ACTA2 mutations. Methods and Results—Aortic disease, management, and outcome associated with the first aortic event (aortic dissection or aneurysm repair) were abstracted from the medical records of 277 individuals with 41 various ACTA2 mutations. Aortic events occurred in 48% of these individuals, with the vast majority presenting with thoracic aortic dissections (88%) associated with 25% mortality. Type A dissections were more common than type B dissections (54% versus 21%), but the median age of onset of type B dissections was significantly younger than type A dissections (27 years versus 36 years). Only 12% of aortic events were repair of ascending aortic aneurysms, which variably involved the aortic root, ascending aorta, and aortic arch. Overall, cumulative risk of an aortic event at age 85 years was 0.76 (95% confidence interval, 0.64–0.86). After adjustment for intrafamilial correlation, sex and race, mutations disrupting p.R179 and p.R258 were associated with significantly increased risk for aortic events, whereas p.R185Q and p.R118Q mutations showed significantly lower risk of aortic events compared with other mutations. Conclusions—ACTA2 mutations are associated with high risk of presentation with an acute aortic dissection. The lifetime risk for an aortic event is only 76%, suggesting that additional environmental or genetic factors play a role in expression of aortic disease in individuals with ACTA2 mutations.
Personalizing Software Development Practice Using Mastery-based Coaching

The authors previously developed a system to facilitate the self-directed learning and practicing of software languages in Singapore. One of the goals of this self-directed learning was to enable the development of student mentors who would then be able to assist other students during classroom sessions. Building on this work, the authors extended the platform to support personalized coaching with the goals of further enabling and preparing students to mentor their peers. This paper covers the challenges, insights, and features that were developed in order to develop and deploy this mastery-based coaching feature.
Lysosomal Targeting of P-selectin Is Mediated by a Novel Sequence within Its Cytoplasmic Tail*

Signals controlling the intracellular targeting of many membrane proteins are present as short sequences within their cytoplasmic domains. P-selectin is a type I membrane protein receptor for leukocytes, acting during the inflammation response. Heterologous expression experiments have demonstrated that its 35-residue cytoplasmic tail contains signals for targeting to synaptic-like microvesicles, dense-cored granules, and lysosomes. We have examined the lysosomal targeting information present within the cytoplasmic tail by site-directed mutagenesis of horseradish peroxidase-P-selectin chimeras followed by transient transfection in H.Ep. 2 cells. Assaying lysosomal targeting by subcellular fractionation as well as intracellular proteolysis, we have discovered a novel lysosomal targeting signal, KCPL, located within the C1 domain of the cytoplasmic tail. Alanine substitution of this tetrapeptide reduced lysosomal targeting to the level of a tailless horseradish peroxidase-P-selectin chimera, which was previously found to be deficient in both internalization and delivery to lysosomes. A proline residue within this lysosomal targeting signal makes a major contribution to the efficiency of lysosomal targeting. A diaminobenzidine density shift procedure established that chimeras with an inactivated KCPL sequence are present within transferrin-positive compartments. Such a mutant also displays an increased level of expression at the plasma membrane. Our results indicate that the sequence KCPL within the cytoplasmic tail of P-selectin is a structural element that mediates sorting from endosomes to lysosomes.
Evaluation of inner retinal layers in eyes with temporal hemianopic visual loss from chiasmal compression using optical coherence tomography.

PURPOSE We measured macular inner retinal layer thicknesses using frequency-domain optical coherence tomography (fd-OCT) and correlated these measures with visual field (VF) in eyes with temporal hemianopia from chiasmal compression and band atrophy (BA) of the optic nerve. METHODS Macular fd-OCT scans and VFs were obtained from 33 eyes of 33 patients with temporal hemianopia and 36 control eyes. The macular retinal nerve fiber layer (mRNFL), combined retinal ganglion cell and inner plexiform layers (RGCL+), and the inner nuclear layer (INL) were segmented. Measurements were averaged for each macula quadrant. Scans were assessed qualitatively for microcysts in the INL. The VF was estimated from the central 16 test points. The two groups were compared. Correlations between VF and OCT measurements were assessed. RESULTS The mRNFL, RGCL+, and total retinal (TR) macular thickness measurements were significantly smaller in BA eyes than controls. In the nasal quadrants, INL measurements were significantly greater in BA eyes than controls. The mRNFL and RGCL+ measurements had greater discrimination ability than TR measurements in the temporal quadrants. A significant correlation was found between most OCT parameters and their corresponding VF parameters. The strongest association was observed between RNFL and RGCL+ thickness, and VF loss in the corresponding area. The INL microcysts were found in seven eyes with BA, but not in controls. CONCLUSIONS Band atrophy leads to mRNFL and RGCL+ thinning, and INL thickening, and mRNFL and RGCL+ measurements are correlated strongly with VF loss. Segmented macular thickness measurements may be useful for quantifying neuronal loss in chiasmal compression.
CEJVM: "cluster enabled Java Virtual Machine"

CEJVM is a cluster enabled Java Virtual Machine, which executes in a distributed fashion among collaborating nodes of a dedicated cluster. It extends Java's multithreading mechanism to the parallel computing paradigm by transparent migration of independent application threads modeled in master worker paradigm. The goal is to obtain improved performance for computationally-intensive multi-threaded Java programs without modifying traditional JVM code, Java language or compiler implementation. Deploying a master worker relationship among the nodes in the cluster, CEJVM monitors, packs, transports and resurrects the Java threads on "Master JVM" and helper "Worker JVMs". Currently, we have created a prototype that runs pure Java applications on the local Ethernet based cluster of Win2K computers. We have achieved appreciable speedup for an ANN training program written in Java (with independent threads) on CEJVM without any modification to the program's source code.
Wi-Wave: urban furniture for browsing internet contents in public spaces

Motivation -- The socio-technical challenges created by Tangible User Interfaces with regards to invasiveness, privacy, visibility, control, etc. have been pointed out by several authors, but this case study focuses on two, more basic socio-technical aspects regarding the user's perspective and interaction with others. The paper presents a case study regarding the design of the interaction of interactive urban furniture, Wi-roni, for browsing information on the Web through a gesture-based interface in a public space. Research approach -- The interaction modalities options were discussed and analyzed during the convergence phase, in which designers, technicians and users worked on the design of a prototype that could respond to the activity analysis and the shaping of physical factors. Findings/Design -- The prototypes evaluation and assessment with users revealed many interesting aspects that mainly regard the interaction modality that changed significantly according to the shape of the artefact. Research limitations/Implications -- Wi-roni is just a first exercise in this research direction. The design of other furniture will allows a more complete study regarding the emerging behaviour of the people involved in new and old convivial activities in public spaces. Originality/Value -- We propose to respond to sociotechnical challenges by conceiving interaction modalities suitable for social activities complementing distant communication with in-presence communication and harmonizing "everywhere" with the specific values of a given location. Take away message -- Designing unique artefact needs a big effort that is necessary in order to design a set of devices with an aesthetic and imaginative values.
Inter-Organizational Controls in Public Land Concession Contracts

Research into the inter-organizational relationship (IOR) is proliferating. In several social science disciplines, such as economy, strategy, organizational and management research the IOR has become a topic of substantial importance. Accounting researchers have been slow to explore the control mechanisms within IOR but, for some years now, have started to give some attention to it. After introducing the recent works on the subject, this study applies a framework of concrete control modes to the French public-private partnership model: the concession contract. Drawing from a case study, it highlights the complementarities between formal and informal controls. It also clearly shows the nonlinearity of the link between trust and controls.
Starting at Home: Caring and Social Policy

Starting at Home: Caring and Social Policy. Nel Noddings. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 2002. 342 pp. ISBN 0-52022556-2. $19.95 (paperback). Nel Noddings `starts at home' to develop an ethic of care to guide how social policies should cope with social problems. Beautifully and clearly written, she engages an extensive literature on ethics and care to challenge conventional scholarly work on the family and state. Philosophers have long thought it important to first envision an ideal state and then look to how families could support that state. In contrast, Noddings starts with ideal families and then looks to how the state can support those families. The result is her emphasis on an ethic of care, which underscores needs, as opposed to an ethic of justice, which more common to traditional liberal thought, underscores rights. The first section articulates a carefully thought out theory of care. First, she establishes that an ethic of care must `prevent or alleviate harm to others and to oneself' as well as responds to both the expressed and inferred needs of others. She critiques the liberal rational individual by emphasizing coercion can be necessary to meet inferred needs, such as preventing individuals from harming themselves. Moreover, in an insightful critique of liberalism's focus on `rights,' she argues that rights must be based on needs. Thus needs must be understood before rights can be established. Finally, she develops the concept of a relational self that beautifully challenges the liberal concept of a rational individual by emphasizing interdependence over autonomy. The concept of relational selves leads to the next section, which sets policy guidelines by establishing how `strong selves' are developed in `ideal homes. ' Basic needs like shelter and adequate material resources are integral to all `ideal homes. ' Further, careers must never inflict unnecessary pain and must attempt to remove or alleviate pain. In regard to shaping behavior, she makes a distinction between positive and negative desert. With negative desert pain is deliberately used to discourage unwanted behavior. Instead, she argues for positive desert, which structures positive incentives for acceptable behavior. In the final section she draws on lessons learned from ideal homes to inform policy approaches to three specific social problems: homelessness, deviance, and education. Homelessness is an expressed need that must be eradicated because a home is both a basic need and a part of one's identity. Deviance, in contrast, is an inferred need. Policies aimed at punishing deviance should be reconceptualized to meet the concept of positive desert. For example, instead of maintaining what is increasingly a destructive drug policy, policies should address the social problems that lead to problematic drug use. Finally, she argues education policy can both improve home life and make society more caring by educating for both private and public life. …
Electromagnetic Interference-Aware Transmission Scheduling and Power Control for Dynamic Wireless Access in Hospital Environments

We study the multiple access problem for e-Health applications (referred to as secondary users) coexisting with medical devices (referred to as primary or protected users) in a hospital environment. In particular, we focus on transmission scheduling and power control of secondary users in multiple spatial reuse time-division multiple access (STDMA) networks. The objective is to maximize the spectrum utilization of secondary users and minimize their power consumption subject to the electromagnetic interference (EMI) constraints for active and passive medical de vices and minimum throughput guarantee for secondary users. The multiple access problem is formulated as a dual objective optimization problem which is shown to be NP-complete. We propose a joint scheduling and power control algorithm based on a greedy approach to solve the problem with much lower computational complexity. To this end, an enhanced greedy algorithm is proposed to improve the performance of the greedy algorithm by finding the optimal sequence of secondary users for scheduling. Using extensive simulations, the tradeoff in performance in terms of spectrum utilization, energy consumption, and computational complexity is evaluated for both the algorithms.
Carbon distribution, fluxes, and budgets in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean (24.5°N)

[1] Hydrographic CO2 system data obtained from World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) transatlantic zonal section A5 across 24.5°N and Florida Straits are described. By combining CO2 measurements with hydrographic velocity calculations, the zonal and vertical variability of meridional fluxes of total alkalinity (TA), total dissolved inorganic carbon (TIC), and anthropogenic CO2 (δC) are estimated. The resulting CO2 fluxes are examined in four geostrophic mid-ocean zones as well as in the Gulf Stream flow through Florida Straits and in the surface ageostrophic Ekman flow. This method allows an estimate of the net budgets of these chemical species in the system considering together the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans north of 24.5°N. Taking into account the net flux contribution through Bering Strait, total meridional transports of chemical properties across 24.5°N latitude are also estimated. The slightly divergent net TA budget (−460 ± 200 kmol s−1) suggests that the North Atlantic is a small alkalinity source. The divergent TIC budget (−2430 ± 200 kmol s−1 or −0.92 ± 0.08 GtC yr−1) suggests that the North Atlantic is a source of TIC and therefore a net sink for atmospheric CO2. This value is twice as large as a previous estimation made from a poorly sampled section. Surprisingly, the North Atlantic Ocean appears to act as a net sink of anthropogenic CO2 (+630 ± 200 kmol s−1 or +0.24 ± 0.08 GtC yr−1) and therefore a weak source of anthropogenic CO2 to the atmosphere. Its main contributor is the intense northward flux in the Florida Current (+1280 ± 100 kmol s−1). The calculations imply a divergent inorganic carbon budget of −3060 ± 200 kmol s−1 or −1.16 ± 0.08 GtC yr−1 in preindustrial times (TIC278, when the molar fraction of CO2 in the atmosphere was 278.2 ppm). This means that the North Atlantic would have had a 25% stronger divergence of TIC prior to the beginning of anthropogenic CO2 penetration.
A Systematic Mapping on Supporting Approaches for Requirements Traceability in the Context of Software Projects

— The Requirements Traceability is seen as a quality factor with regard to software development, being present in standards and quality models. In this context, several techniques, models, frameworks and tools have been used to support it. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a systematic mapping carried out in order to find in the literature approaches to support the requirements traceability in the context of software projects and make the categorization of the data found in order to demonstrate, by means of a reliable, accurate and auditable method, how this area has developed and what are the main approaches are used to implement it.
Seasonal mixed layer heat budget of the tropical Atlantic Ocean

[1] This paper addresses the atmospheric and oceanic causes of the seasonal cycle of sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Atlantic on the basis of direct observations. Data sets include up to 4 years (September 1997 to February 2002) of measurements from moored buoys of the Pilot Research Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA), near-surface drifting buoys, and a blended satellite in situ SST product. We analyze the mixed layer heat balance at eight PIRATA mooring locations and find that the seasonal cycles of latent heat loss and absorbed shortwave radiation are responsible for seasonal SST variability in the northwest basin (8°N–15°N along 38°W). Along the equator (10°W–35°W), contributions from latent heat loss are diminished, while horizontal temperature advection and vertical entrainment contribute significantly. Zonal temperature advection is especially important during boreal summer near the western edge of the cold tongue, while horizontal eddy temperature advection, which most likely results from tropical instability waves, opposes temperature advection by the mean flow. The dominant balance in the southeast (6°S–10°S along 10°W) is similar to that in the northwest, with both latent heat loss and absorbed solar radiation playing important roles.
Resolution and Characterization of Distinct cpn60-Based Subgroups of Gardnerella vaginalis in the Vaginal Microbiota

Bacterial vaginosis (BV), characterized by a shift of the vaginal microbiota from a Lactobacillus-dominated community to a dense biofilm containing a complex mixture of organisms, is an important risk factor in poor reproductive health outcomes. The Nugent score, based on Gram stain, is used to diagnose BV and Gardnerella vaginalis abundance in the sample is one factor determining Nugent score. A high Nugent score is indicative of BV but does not always correspond to the presence of clinical symptoms. G. vaginalis is recognized as a heterogeneous group of organisms, which can also be part of the normal, healthy vaginal microbiome. In addition, asymptomatic BV and non-Gardnerella types of BV are being recognized. In an attempt to resolve the heterogeneous group of G. vaginalis, a phylogenetic tree of cpn60 universal target sequences from G. vaginalis isolates was constructed that indicates the existence of four subgroups of G. vaginalis. This subdivision, supported by whole genome similarity calculation of representative strains using JSpecies, demonstrates that these subgroups may represent different species. The cpn60 subgroupings did not correspond with the Piot biotyping scheme, but did show consistency with ARDRA genotyping and sialidase gene presence. Isolates from all four subgroups produced biofilm in vitro. We also investigated the distribution of G. vaginalis subgroups in vaginal samples from Kenyan women with Nugent scores consistent with BV, Intermediate and Normal microbiota (n = 44). All subgroups of G. vaginalis were detected in these women, with a significant difference (z = −3.372, n = 39, p = 0.001) in frequency of G. vaginalis subgroup B between BV and Normal groups. Establishment of a quantifiable relationship between G. vaginalis subgroup distribution and clinical status could have significant diagnostic implications.
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL STUDIES ON COMPLEMENT OR ALEXIN

Whether complement or alexin be measured in hemolytic, opsonic, bactericidal, or combining units, these units refer only to the smallest volume of guinea pig or other serum producing the effect in question and give no indication of the actual amount of complement involved. The present study was undertaken in the hope of filling this gap and providing, in place of these relative and often variable units, an absolute measure of complement in weight units. The need for this seemed all the more indicated by the extension of knowledge and the results of theoretical and practical interest that followed substitution of the old relative dilution methods by quantitative, absolute methods of antigen and antibody estimation conforming to the criteria of analytical chemistry (l-3). It has been known for many years that the titer of added complement or alexin is reduced by antigen-antibody precipitation in rabbit antisera; but the actual riddition of a complement component to such precipitates has not been shown directly although hemolysis is generally interpreted as mediated by the addition of complement to the red cell. Indeed, Muir (4) has defined complement as “that labile substance of normal serum which is taken up by the combination of an antigen and its anti-substance (immune-body) . ” Owing to the accuracy with which specifically precipitable nitrogen may be measured, the quantitative precipitin method (5) seemed worthy of trial as a means of estimating any actual uptake of complement. It was thought that any difference between the amounts of specifically precipitable nitrogen found in the presence of active complement, on the one hand, and in the presence of inactivated complement on the other, might serve as a measure, in milligrams of nitrogen per milliliter,
Scaling Effects on Static Metrics and Switching Attributes of Graphene Nanoribbon FET for Emerging Technology

In this paper, we have investigated the static metrics and switching attributes of graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors (GNR FETs) for scaling the channel length from 15 nm down to 2.5 nm and GNR width by approaching the ultimate vertical scaling of oxide thickness. We have simulated the double-gate GNR FET by solving a numerical quantum transport model based on selfconsistent solution of the 3D Poisson equation and 1D Schrödinger equation within the non-equilibrium Green's function formulism. The narrow armchair GNR, e.g. (7,0), improved the device robustness to shortchannel effects, leading to better OFF-state performance considering OFF-current, ION/IOFF ratio, subthreshold swing, and drain-induced barrier-lowering. The wider armchair GNRs allow the scaling of channel length and supply voltage, resulting in better ON-state performance, such as the larger intrinsic cut-off frequency for the channel length below 7.5 nm at smaller gate voltage as well as smaller intrinsic gate-delay time with the constant slope for scaling the channel length and supply voltage. The wider armchair GNRs, e.g. (13,0), have smaller power-delay product for scaling the channel length and supply voltage, reaching to ~0.18 (fJ/μm).