Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficient Total Chemical Synthesis of 13C=18O Isotopomers of Human Insulin for Isotope‐Edited FTIR

Isotope‐edited two‐dimensional Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (2 D FTIR) can potentially provide a unique probe of protein structure and dynamics. However, general methods for the site‐specific incorporation of stable 13C=18O labels into the polypeptide backbone of the protein molecule have not yet been established. Here we describe, as a prototype for the incorporation of specific arrays of isotope labels, the total chemical synthesis—via a key ester insulin intermediate—of 97 % enriched [(1‐13C=18O)PheB24] human insulin: stable‐isotope labeled at a single backbone amide carbonyl. The amino acid sequence as well as the positions of the disulfide bonds and the correctly folded structure were unambiguously confirmed by the X‐ray crystal structure of the synthetic protein molecule. In vitro assays of the isotope labeled [(1‐13C=18O)PheB24] human insulin showed that it had full insulin receptor binding activity. Linear and 2 D IR spectra revealed a distinct red‐shifted amide I carbonyl band peak at 1595 cm−1 resulting from the (1‐13C=18O)PheB24 backbone label. This work illustrates the utility of chemical synthesis to enable the application of advanced physical methods for the elucidation of the molecular basis of protein function.
An Approach toDynamic Grid Service Selection Based on Improved Reinforcement Q-learning

Reinforcement learning belongs to machine learning, with the autonomous learning method that can improve its action policy by interacting with environment. In order to improve the efficiency of grid service selection, a new approach based on improved reinforcement Q-learning for dynamic grid service selection is proposed. The environment of Grid service selection is a nondeterministic Markov decision processes (MDPs), and the study of grid service selection learning method is a challenge to current reinforcement learning which is based on MDPs. This paper proposes a correlative improved method for dynamic grid service selection. The experiment results show that the novel method is more effective in some aspects than traditional ones. Therefore it provides a good solution to select grid service.
Optimization of distributed free-viewpoint video synthesis

New type of video streaming may appear in the future networks, called Free-viewpoint Television (FTV) allowing customers to control their viewpoint and generate new views of a dynamic scene from any 3D position. The desired viewpoint is synthetized from two or more camera views requiring significant network and computational resources. We propose to distribute the viewpoint synthesis functionality in the network in so called proxy servers. In this paper we investigated how to localize the proxy servers in order to generate the lowest traffic load, but avoid the overload of the disposable resources. Finding the optimal layout is a NP-complete problem, so our goal was to analyze the achievable gain in a simple hierarchical network with several nodes, where the runtime of the brute force optimization algorithm is still acceptable. The obtained results paper showed that even 42% traffic decrease can be realized using distributed viewpoint synthesis for FTV services, so it is worth to continue our work and investigate new alternative optimization algorithms that are capable to find near optimal proxy server layouts and fast enough to adapt the proxy server arrangement continuously according to actual user requirements.
Studies on the comparative oviposition behavior of Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus and Aedes (Stegomyia) polynesiensis Marks.

Comparative studies on the oviposition behavior of Aedes (Stegomyia) albopictus and A. (S.) polynesiensis were initiated to determine whether these 2 species would select the same breeding sites and, therefore, whether co-habitation of the larval habitats would occur. The oviposition behavior was found to be nearly identical in that both species selected the same types of water containers, and preferred alkaline waters with low illumination and dark color. High concentrations of ammonia and protein solutions were repellent, whereas infusions were most attractive at high concentrations. However, A. polynesiensis females preferred grass over leaf infusion, whereas the reverse was true for A. albopictus. The presence of larvae and pupae in the breeding waters had no effect on the ovipositing females. However, it appeared that some oviposition attractant was liberated into the breeding waters by female A. albopictus; even A. polynesimsis females preferred waters contaminated by the previous presence of eggs of A. albopictus rather than of A. polynesiensis. While gravid females of both species apparently utilize sight, smell and contact chemoreception in choosing breeding waters, A. albopictus responded positively to water colored to mimic a leaf or grass infusion to a greater extent than A. polynesiensis did.
Dickkopf-related protein 3 promotes pathogenic stromal remodeling in benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer

Compartment‐specific epithelial and stromal expression of the secreted glycoprotein Dickkopf‐related protein (Dkk)‐3 is altered in age‐related proliferative disorders of the human prostate. This study aimed to determine the effect of Dkk‐3 on prostate stromal remodeling that is stromal proliferation, fibroblast‐to‐myofibroblast differentiation and expression of angiogenic factors in vitro.
Dependable multimodal communication and interaction with robotic assistants

To advance research in the field of multimodal human-robot communication we designed and built the humanoid robot Hermes. Equipped with an omnidirectional undercarriage and two manipulator arms it combines visual, kinesthetic, tactile, and auditory sensing with natural spoken language input and output and body expressions for natural communication and interaction with humans. Hermes was successfully tested in an extended six-month experiment in a museum where only naive users interacted with the robot. They chatted with Hermes in several languages and requested various services. Multimodal communication and an understanding of the current situation by the robot turned out to be the key to success.
Detection of Reinforcement Corrosion with a New Non-Destructive Test Method Using Induction Heating

In this study, a new nondestructive testing (NDT) method that employs induction heating (IH) and infrared thermography camera is investigated for its applicability in the measurement of extent of corrosion of steel in concrete. Corrosion products have a very low heat conductivity. The more there are corrosion products on the steel bar in an reinforced concrete (RC) specimen subjected to IH, the higher the temperature rise of the steel bar, while the temperature rise of concrete surface is slower. The larger the rebar diameter, the higher the temperature rise on the concrete surface, which makes detection of corrosion easier.
Opportunities and Challenges of HTTP Adaptive Streaming

HTTP-based Adaptive Streaming (HAS) has emerged as the prominent technology for the delivery of audiovisual content over the Internet in recent years and has a major impact on network traffic. Although traditional stateful session-based streaming solution based on UDP was used initially for media content delivery, researchers and practitioners soon realize that HAS technology, due to get through firewalls friendly ,transfer NAT easily ,effectively utilize the existing networking infrastructure and provide uninterrupted video streaming service to users with dynamic network conditions and heterogeneous devices, has the potential to improve the Quality of Experiments compared with traditional streaming technologies. Consequently, various HAS media streaming solutions have been proposed and deployed successfully. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of HAS technology and discoveries achieved by numerous researchers. We describe the basic taxonomy of HTTP adaptive streaming systems and summarize the major issues associated with HAS systems’ design. Then we outline the key challenges and open problems and highlight possible avenues for future directions.
Resilience and stability of a pelagic marine ecosystem

The accelerating loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services worldwide has accentuated a long-standing debate on the role of diversity in stabilizing ecological communities and has given rise to a field of research on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF). Although broad consensus has been reached regarding the positive BEF relationship, a number of important challenges remain unanswered. These primarily concern the underlying mechanisms by which diversity increases resilience and community stability, particularly the relative importance of statistical averaging and functional complementarity. Our understanding of these mechanisms relies heavily on theoretical and experimental studies, yet the degree to which theory adequately explains the dynamics and stability of natural ecosystems is largely unknown, especially in marine ecosystems. Using modelling and a unique 60-year dataset covering multiple trophic levels, we show that the pronounced multi-decadal variability of the Southern California Current System (SCCS) does not represent fundamental changes in ecosystem functioning, but a linear response to key environmental drivers channelled through bottom-up and physical control. Furthermore, we show strong temporal asynchrony between key species or functional groups within multiple trophic levels caused by opposite responses to these drivers. We argue that functional complementarity is the primary mechanism reducing community variability and promoting resilience and stability in the SCCS.
Nanocellulose-Based Polymer Nanocomposite: Isolation, Characterization and Applications

New and advanced properties and functions, including uniformity, durability, biodegradability and sustainability, are required for the next generation of cellulose based products and their engineering applications. Nanosize cellulosic materials, a good candidate for the preparation of polymer nanocomposites, have been gained a lot of attentions due to their low cost, biodegradability, abundance, high strength, renewability and some other excellent properties. Advantages in the use of nanosize cellulosic materials are related not only to these properties, in fact, its dimensions, in the nanometer scale, open a wide range of possible properties to be discovered. Nanosize cellulosic materials can be isolated from a variety of cellulosic sources, including plants, animals (tunicates), bacteria and algae and in principle could be extracted from almost any cellulosic material by using different procedures. However, main challenges in the field are related to an efficient separation of nanosize cellulosic materials from the natural resources. The noncompatible nature of nanocellulose with most of the polymers is also a crucial issue for its application in composites. In addition, drying process of nanocellulose for application in polymer composite is another challenge. Last but not least point is related to find a process for obtaining higher yield in nanocellulose isolation. All these challenges and drawbacks become the strong driving forces for discovering more efficient processes and technologies to produce nanocelluloses for application in nanocomposites, and for inventing new applications as well. This book chapter will concentrate on the isolation of nanocellulose from various sources and its utilization for fabrication methods, its characterization, drying processes and modification. We will also concentrate our discussion on application of nanoscale cellulosic materials in polymer nanocomposites.
A Novel One-Pot and One-Step Microwave-Assisted Cyclization-Methylation Reaction of Amino Alcohols and Acetylated Derivatives with Dimethyl Carbonate and TBAC

A simple and efficient microwave-assisted methodology for the synthesis of 4-substituted-3-methyl-1,3-oxazolidin-2-ones from amino alcohols catalyzed by a ionic liquid was developed. This novel one-pot and one-step cyclization-methylation reaction represents an easier and faster method than any other reported protocols that can be used to obtain the desired products in good yields and high purity. Applying microwave irradiation at 130°C in the presence of TBAC, dimethyl carbonate acts simultaneously as carbonylating and methylating agent and surprisingly promotes an in situ basic trans esterification when a N-acetylated amino alcohol is used as starting material. Furthermore, dimethyl carbonate worked better than diethyl carbonate in performing this reaction.
Asymptomatic Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Essential Hypertension: Prevalence, Determinants, and Prognostic Value

Prevalence, determinants, and prognostic value of asymptomatic left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) in uncomplicated subjects with essential hypertension are still incompletely known. We studied 2384 initially untreated subjects with hypertension, no previous cardiovascular disease, and no symptoms or physical signs of congestive heart failure (CHF). These subjects were studied at entry and followed for up to 17 years (mean 6.0). Asymptomatic LVSD (ALVSD), defined by an echocardiographic ejection fraction <50%, was found in 3.6% of subjects. Cigarette smoking (P=0.013), increased left ventricular (LV) mass (P=0.001), and higher 24-hour heart rate (P=0.014) were independent correlates of ALVSD. During follow-up, a first cardiovascular event occurred in 227 subjects, and 24 of these events were hospitalizations for symptomatic CHF. Incidence of CHF per 100 persons per year was 0.12 in patients without and 1.48 in patients with ALVSD (log-rank test P=0.0001). In a Cox model, after adjustment for age (P=0.0001), LV mass (P=0.0001), and cigarette smoking (P=0.039), LVSD conferred a markedly increased risk for CHF (odds ratio, 9.99; 95% confidence interval, 3.67 to 27.2). Incidence of coronary (0.84 versus 0.62×100 person years) and cerebrovascular (0.80 versus 0.62×100 person years) events did not differ (all P=NS) between subjects with and without ALVSD. ALVSD is a potent and early marker of evolution toward severe CHF requiring hospitalization in subjects with essential hypertension.
MIMO communication system's capacity: Impact of varying antenna array dimension and geometry

MIMO systems, employing array of antennas at both ends of the transmission link, provide significant increase in the achievable capacity. The ability to achieve this high capacity is greatly influenced by the geometry and dimensions of antenna array used and the correlation between the channel gains on each antenna element in the array. In this paper, the expression of capacity, derived from information-theoretic approach is altered to introduce the impact of antenna array on the system capacity. Using this expression, capacities with different antenna array geometries are compared. The influence of different array configurations on system capacity is modelled by using ‘array manifold vector’ in the expression of channel matrix.
A Machine Learning System for Routing Decision-Making in Urban Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), network topology and communication links frequently change due to the high mobility of vehicles. Key challenges include how to shorten transmission delays and increase the stability of transmissions. When establishing routing paths, most research focuses on detecting traffic and selecting roads with higher vehicle densities in order to transmit packets, thus avoiding carry-and-forward scenarios and decreasing transmission delays; however, such approaches may not obtain accurate real-time traffic densities by periodically monitoring each road because vehicle densities change so rapidly. In this paper, we propose a novel routing information system called the machine learning-assisted route selection (MARS) system to estimate necessary information for routing protocols. In MARS, road information is maintained in roadside units with the help of machine learning. We use machine learning to predict the moves of vehicles and then choose some suitable routing paths with better transmission capacity to transmit packets. Further, MARS can help to decide the forwarding direction between two RSUs according to the predicted location of the destination and the estimated transmission delays in both forwarding directions. Our proposed system can provide in-time routing information for VANETs and greatly enhance network performance.
Evidence of a Cyclooxygenase-related Prostaglandin Synthesis in Coral

Certain corals are rich natural sources of prostaglandins, the metabolic origin of which has remained undefined. By analogy with the lipoxygenase/allene oxide synthase pathway to jasmonic acid in plants, the presence of (8R)-lipoxygenase and allene oxide synthase in the coral Plexaura homomallasuggested a potential metabolic route to prostaglandins (Brash, A. R., Baertshi, S. W., Ingram, C.D., and Harris, T. M. (1987)J. Biol. Chem. 262, 15829–15839). Other evidence, from the Arctic coral Gersemia fruticosa, has indicated a cyclooxygenase intermediate in the biosynthesis (Varvas, K., Koljak, R., Järving, I., Pehk, T., and Samel, N. (1994) Tetrahedron Lett. 35, 8267–8270). In the present study, active preparations of G. fruticosa have been used to identify both types of arachidonic acid metabolism and specific inhibitors were used to establish the enzyme type involved in the prostaglandin biosynthesis. The synthesis of prostaglandins and (11R)-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid was inhibited by mammalian cyclooxygenase inhibitors (indomethacin, aspirin, and tolfenamic acid), while the formation of the products of the 8-lipoxygenase/allene oxide pathway was not affected or was increased. The specific cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, nimesulide, did not inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandins in coral. We conclude that coral uses two parallel routes for the initial oxidation of polyenoic acids: the cyclooxygenase route, which leads to optically active prostaglandins, and the lipoxygenase/allene oxide synthase metabolism, the role of which remains to be established. An enzyme related to mammalian cyclooxygenases is the key to prostaglandin synthesis in coral. Based on our inhibitor data, the catalytic site of this evolutionary early cyclooxygenase appears to differ significantly from both known mammalian cyclooxygenases.
Relda2: An effective static analysis tool for resource leak detection in Android apps

Resource leak is a common bug in Android applications (apps for short). In general, it is caused by missing release operations of the resources provided by Android (like Camera, Media Player and Sensors) that require programmers to explicitly release them. It might lead to several serious problems for the app and system, such as performance degradation and system crash. This paper presents Relda2, a light-weight, scalable and practical static analysis tool, for detecting resource leaks in the byte-code of Android apps automatically. It supports two analysis techniques (flow-insensitive for quick scanning and flow-sensitive for accurate scanning), and performs inter-procedural analysis to get more precise bug reports. In addition, our tool is practical to analyze real-world apps, and has been applied to 103 Android apps, including industry applications and open source programs. We have found 67 real resource leaks in these apps, which we confirmed manually. A demo video of our tool can be found at the website: https://www.youtube. com/watch? v=Mk-MFcHpTds.
[Suicidal impulses in patients with chronic viral hepatitis C during or after therapy with interferon alpha].

UNLABELLED We report 5 cases of psychiatric side effects in patients treated with alpha interferon for chronic viral C hepatitis. The first case includes depression with suicidal impulses without a suicide attempt; there was a positive rechallenge of interferon. In the second and third cases, depression occurred during interferon therapy, but has not disappeared after interferon withdrawal. In the 4th and 5th cases, depression occurred after interferon withdrawal. Overall, suicide was attempted in 4 cases after interferon withdrawal and was responsible for 2 deaths. The prevalence of suicide attempts during the 6 to 12 months of interferon therapy was 0% compared to 1.3% during the 6 months after interferon therapy (P < 0.05) in 306 patients with chronic hepatitis C treated by interferon in our local area network during the same period. IN CONCLUSION a) depression does not always disappear after interferon is discontinued; b) regular psychiatric follow-up is justified during treatment with interferon; c) psychiatric supervision should be continued, even more frequently after interferon withdrawal; d) the increased risk of psychiatric side-effect due to interferon as well as their severity suggest interferon should be administered with caution; e) the role of interferon can only be evaluated in controlled studies including the incidence and predictive value of emotional disorders.
Antennal lobe representations are optimized when olfactory stimuli are periodically structured to simulate natural wing beat effects

Animals use behaviors to actively sample the environment across a broad spectrum of sensory domains. These behaviors discretize the sensory experience into unique spatiotemporal moments, minimize sensory adaptation, and enhance perception. In olfaction, behaviors such as sniffing, antennal flicking, and wing beating all act to periodically expose olfactory epithelium. In mammals, it is thought that sniffing enhances neural representations; however, the effects of insect wing beating on representations remain unknown. To determine how well the antennal lobe (AL) produces odor dependent representations when wing beating effects are simulated, we used extracellular methods to record neural units and local field potentials (LFPs) from moth AL. We recorded responses to odors presented as prolonged continuous stimuli or periodically as 20 and 25 Hz pulse trains designed to simulate the oscillating effects of wing beating around the antennae during odor guided flight. Using spectral analyses, we show that ~25% of all recorded units were able to entrain to “pulsed stimuli”; this includes pulsed blanks, which elicited the strongest overall entrainment. The strength of entrainment to pulse train stimuli was dependent on molecular features of the odorants, odor concentration, and pulse train duration. Moreover, units showing pulse tracking responses were highly phase locked to LFPs during odor stimulation, indicating that unit-LFP phase relationships are stimulus-driven. Finally, a Euclidean distance-based population vector analysis established that AL odor representations are more robust, peak more quickly, and do not show adaptation when odors were presented at the natural wing beat frequency as opposed to prolonged continuous stimulation. These results suggest a general strategy for optimizing olfactory representations, which exploits the natural rhythmicity of wing beating by integrating mechanosensory and olfactory cues at the level of the AL.