Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immunochemical assay of hemoglobin with N(epsilon)-(carboxymethyl)lysine at lysine 66 of the beta chain.

BACKGROUND N(epsilon)-(Carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), a well-characterized and major advanced glycation end product structure, is produced via a Maillard reaction by nonenzymatic glycation and/or oxidation. Although few of the carboxymethylation sites of lysine residues on proteins have been identified, it is known that the possible lysine glycation site in hemoglobin (Hb) is Lys-66 on the beta chain. We aimed to develop an assay for the Hb with a CML (CML-Hb) site specific to Lys-66 on the Hb beta chain and to determine whether the lysine residue at that site is carboxymethylated. METHODS Ala-His-Gly-Lys-Lys(CM)-Val-Leu-Gly-Ala-Phe-Ser-Cys, the peptide derived from the beta chain of human Hb, was synthesized as an immunogen, and a monoclonal antibody against the peptide was prepared. A latex immunoassay method was established using the antibody on an automatic analyzer. In this study, 20 samples from healthy subjects and 80 samples from nondiabetic patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) were analyzed. RESULTS The latex immunoassay method using the antibody correlated significantly with the ELISA method using the antibody (r = 0.95; P <0.001). Between healthy subjects (n = 20) and nondiabetic HD patients (n = 80), a significant difference was seen in circulating CML-Hb (525 +/- 76 vs 778 +/- 137 pmol CML/mg of Hb; P <0.0001). CONCLUSION The latex method for the CML-Hb site specific to Lys-66 on the beta chain can measure large numbers of samples on an automatic analyzer.
Fast-Switching Printed Organic Electrochemical Transistors Including Electronic Vias Through Plastic and Paper Substrates

A novel vertical architecture for all-printed organic electrochemical transistors, based on poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate), realized on flexible substrates, is reported. The transistors are manufactured along both faces of plastic or paper substrates and via connections are realized using laser ablation or simple punch through using a pin. Successful modulation of the electric current that flows between the two sides of the substrate is achieved using electrolyte-gating and electrochemical modulation of the electronic charge transport of the bulk of the transistor channel. In addition to this, the transistors are exhibiting fast switching and high ON/OFF current ratios.
Translating Pronouns with Latent Anaphora Resolution

We discuss the translation of anaphoric pronouns in statistical machine translation from English into French. Pronoun translation requires resolving the antecedents of the pronouns in the input, a classic discourse processing problem that is usually approached through supervised learning from manually annotated data. We cast cross-lingual pronoun prediction as a classification task and present a neural network architecture that incorporates the links between anaphors and potential antecedents as latent variables, allowing us to train the classifier on parallel text without explicit supervision for the anaphora resolver. We demonstrate that our approach works just as well for classification as using an external coreference resolver whereas its impact in a practical translation experiment is more limited.
An Analytic Hierarchy Process Framework for Technology Acquisition Decisions Related to Library Information Services

This paper discusses a framework for the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a technologyacquisition decision related to library information services. By the year 2002, the Public Access Library System (PALS) will no longer be supported; PALS is an automated, integrated, modular-based public-access system used by libraries worldwide. This paper discusses an AHP framework that has been used successfully in a PALSreplacement decision by a university Library System Task Force (LSTF) that represented the various stakeholders who have interests in diverse functions of the technologies that are being considered as replacements for the PALS system. The AHP framework was robust enough to easily facilitate issues such as inconsistencies in judgments and conflict resolution within and among groups. It also provided a simple structure that facilitated sensitivity analysis. Thus, the AHP provided an organized analytical approach that proved extremely valuable in dealing with problems in a consistent manner, and which brought various factions of the LSTF together, thereby avoiding much of the contention that otherwise may have occurred.
Identifying criteria for evaluating Cloud Services in the Colombian public sector

The Colombian e-government strategy, defined by the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (MinTIC), advises Colombian public entities to evaluate the possibility of adopting cloud services instead of acquiring and implementing technology infrastructures. In addition, the MinTIC defined the government's reference framework for enterprise architecture, which establishes a set of guidelines to ensure the quality of IT services. Public institutions should comply with these directives even when they contract services with external providers. In this context, this article aims at identifying evaluation criteria to enable Colombian state institutions to assess the convenience of adopting cloud services in compliance with the MinTIC’s guidelines. To this end, we review the research literature in the field and analyze the e-government guidelines to extract evaluation criteria. As a result, 48 criteria were found and classified in six evaluation categories.
Overview of the SBS 2016 Mining Track

In this paper we present an overview of the mining track in the Social Book Search (SBS) lab 2016. The mining track addressed two tasks: (1) classifying forum posts as book search requests, and (2) linking book title mentions in forum posts to unique book IDs in a database. Both tasks are important steps in the process of solving complex search tasks within online reader communities. We prepared two data collections for the classification task: posts from the LibraryThing (LT) forum and a smaller number of posts from Reddit. For the linking task we used annotated LT threads. We found that the classification task was relatively straightforward, achieving up to 94% classification accuracy. The book linking task on the other hand turned out to be a difficult task: here the best system achieved an accuracy of 41% and F-score of 33.5%. Both the automatic classification of book search requests as the automatic linking of book mentions could next year be part of the pipeline for processing complex book searches.
Multiple Sequence Alignment for Characterizing the Lineal Structure of Revision

We present a first approach to the application of a data mining technique, Multiple Sequence Alignment, to the systematization of a polemic aspect of discourse, namely, the expression of contrast, concession, counterargument and semantically similar discursive relations. The representation of the phenomena under study is carried out by very simple techniques, mostly pattern-matching, but the results allow to drive insightful conclusions on the organization of this aspect of discourse: equivalence classes of discourse markers are established, and systematic patterns are discovered, which will be applied in enhancing a discursive parser.
Dynamic load balancing without packet reordering

Dynamic load balancing is a popular recent technique that protects ISP networks from sudden congestion caused by load spikes or link failures. Dynamic load balancing protocols, however, require schemes for splitting traffic across multiple paths at a fine granularity. Current splitting schemes present a tussle between slicing granularity and packet reordering. Splitting traffic at the granularity of packets quickly and accurately assigns the desired traffic share to each path, but can reorder packets within a TCP flow, confusing TCP congestion control. Splitting traffic at the granularity of a flow avoids packet reordering but may overshoot the desired shares by up to 60% in dynamic environments, resulting in low end-to-end network goodput Contrary to popular belief, we show that one can systematically split a single flow across multiple paths without causing packet reordering. We propose FLARE, a new traffic splitting algorithm that operates on bursts of packets, carefully chosen to avoid reordering. Using a combination of analysis and trace-driven simulations, we show that FLARE attains accuracy and responsiveness comparable to packet switching without reordering packets. FLARE is simple and can be implemented with a few KB of router state
Query Optimization for Semistructured Data

XML is an emerging standard for data representation and exchange on the World-Wide Web. Due to the nature of information on the Web and the inherent flexibility of XML, we expect that much of the data encoded in XML will be semistructured: the data may be irregular or incomplete, and its structure may change rapidly or unpredictably. This paper describes the query processor of Lore, a DBMS for XML-based data supporting an expressive query language. We focus primarily on Lore's cost-based query optimizer. While all of the usual problems associated with cost-based query optimization apply to XML-based query languages, a number of additional problems arise, such as new kinds of indexing, more complicated notions of database statistics, and vastly different query execution strategies for different databases. We define appropriate logical and physical query plans, database statistics, and a cost model, and we describe plan enumeration including heuristics for reducing the large search space. Our optimizer is fully implemented in Lore and preliminary performance results are reported
Unsupervised Cryo-EM Data Clustering through Adaptively Constrained K-Means Algorithm

In single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), K-means clustering algorithm is widely used in unsupervised 2D classification of projection images of biological macromolecules. 3D ab initio reconstruction requires accurate unsupervised classification in order to separate molecular projections of distinct orientations. Due to background noise in single-particle images and uncertainty of molecular orientations, traditional K-means clustering algorithm may classify images into wrong classes and produce classes with a large variation in membership. Overcoming these limitations requires further development on clustering algorithms for cryo-EM data analysis. We propose a novel unsupervised data clustering method building upon the traditional K-means algorithm. By introducing an adaptive constraint term in the objective function, our algorithm not only avoids a large variation in class sizes but also produces more accurate data clustering. Applications of this approach to both simulated and experimental cryo-EM data demonstrate that our algorithm is a significantly improved alterative to the traditional K-means algorithm in single-particle cryo-EM analysis.
Concurrent C

Concurrent programming is becoming increasingly important because multicomputers, particularly networks of microprocessors, are rapidly becoming attractive alternatives to traditional maxicomputers. Effective use of such network computers requires that programs be written with components that can be executed in parallel. The C programming language does not have concurrent programming facilities. Our objective is to enhance C so that it can be used to write concurrent programs that can run efficiently on both single computers and multicomputers. Our concurrent programming extensions to C are based on the rendezvous concept. These extensions include mechanisms for the declaration and creation of processes, for process synchronization and interaction, and for process termination and abortion. We give a rationale for our decisions and compare Concurrent C extensions with the concurrent programming facilities in Ada. Concurrent C has been implemented on the UNIX system running on a single processor. A distributed version of Concurrent C is being implemented.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell envelope lipids and the host immune response

, 1999). The organism is a slow-growing bacillusthat is transmitted by the respiratory route. Although it iscapable of causing disease in most organs, pulmonaryinvolvement is most common. Soon after infection, thebacilli are phagocytosed by alveolar macrophages andsurvive within early phagosomes. Innate immuneresponses directed by macrophages predominate early ininfection. Subsequent recruitment of dendritic cells leadsto cell-mediated responses involving CD4
UHF RFID Localization Based on Synthetic Apertures

Reading ranges are being extended in the wake of recent advances in UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, and with the advent of larger reading ranges, tag localization has moved into the spotlight. Recently, we introduced a new UHF RFID tag localization technique. The proposed method is based on phase measurements taken along a synthetic aperture. A holographic image is calculated based on the scanned phase values. The image represents the spatial probability density function for the actual tag location. This paper presents this innovative method in detail. Simulations that illustrate the effect of the given trajectory are included. Extensive measurements obtained in a reflective lab environment are presented. We discuss the method's effectiveness with respect to measurement errors, antenna phase center distortions, and the available phase information. The results show the potential practical applications for the method in moving reader antennas, such as handheld readers or readers mounted on vehicles like forklifts or mobile robotic systems.
Voltage-Clamp Studies on Uterine Smooth Muscle

These studies have developed and tested an experimental approach to the study of membrane ionic conductance mechanisms in strips of uterine smooth muscle. The experimental and theoretical basis for applying the double sucrose-gap technique is described along with the limitations of this system. Nonpropagating membrane action potentials were produced in response to depolarizing current pulses under current-clamp conditions. The stepwise change of membrane potential under voltage-clamp conditions resulted in a family of ionic currents with voltage- and time-dependent characteristics. In sodium-free solution the peak transient current decreased and its equilibrium potential shifted along the voltage axis toward a more negative internal potential. These studies indicate a sodium-dependent, regenerative excitation mechanism.
Properties of the intercarrier interference due to phase noise in OFDM

We present a unified analysis of intercarrier interference (ICI) which is caused by phase noise in OFDM. The "small" phase noise approximation known from the literature is dropped and analysis applies to a general phase noise model. The power of intercarrier interference is calculated in two ways, namely using an integral form and using an ICI correlation matrix which we also derive. As two special cases, the Wiener and Orastein-Uhlenbeck phase noise models, which are typical for free-running and PLL synthesizer realizations of the local oscillator, respectively, are presented. Closed form expressions of the respective powers are calculated. We show that these theoretical considerations fit well to numerical experiments. The calculated ICI distribution show that ICI cannot be approximated by a Gaussian random variable for a wide range of phase noise strengths contradicting the usual assumptions on the ICI.
A Weighted Moving Average-based Approach for Cleaning Sensor Data

Nowadays, wireless sensor networks have been widely used in many monitoring applications. Due to the low quality of sensors and random effects of the environments, however, it is well known that the collected sensor data are noisy. Therefore, it is very critical to clean the sensor data before using them to answer queries or conduct data analysis. Popular data cleaning approaches, such as the moving average, cannot meet the requirements of both energy efficiency and quick response time in many sensor related applications. In this paper, we propose a hybrid sensor data cleaning approach with confidence. Specifically, we propose a smart weighted moving average (WMA) algorithm that collects confidence data from sensors and computes the weighted moving average. The rationale behind the WMA algorithm is to draw more samples for a particular value that is of great importance to the moving average, and provide higher confidence weight for this value, such that this important value can be quickly reflected in the moving average. Based on our extensive simulation results, we demonstrate that, compared to the simple moving average (SMA), our WMA approach can effectively clean data and offer quick response time.
Sea urchin tube feet are photosensory organs that express a rhabdomeric-like opsin and PAX6

All echinoderms have unique hydraulic structures called tube feet, known for their roles in light sensitivity, respiration, chemoreception and locomotion. In the green sea urchin, the most distal portion of these tube feet contain five ossicles arranged as a light collector with its concave surface facing towards the ambient light. These ossicles are perforated and lined with pigment cells that express a PAX6 protein that is universally involved in the development of eyes and sensory organs in other bilaterians. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based sequencing and real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) also demonstrate the presence and differential expression of a rhabdomeric-like opsin within these tube feet. Morphologically, nerves that could serve to transmit information to the test innervate the tube feet, and the differential expression of opsin transcripts in the tube feet is inversely, and significantly, related to the amount of light that tube feet are exposed to depending on their location on the test. The expression of these genes, the differential expression of opsin based on light exposure and the unique morphological features at the distal portion of the tube foot strongly support the hypothesis that in addition to previously identified functional roles of tube feet they are also photosensory organs that detect and respond to changes in the underwater light field.
The Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha ( HNF1A) gene is associated with fatness and loin muscle area in the pig.

The significance of hepatocyte nuclear factors (HNFs) in β-cell development and function has been generally recognized in humans, as evidenced by their associations with cases of maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY). Common Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha (HNF1A), Hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 beta (HNF1B) and Hepatocyte nuclear factor-4 alpha (HNF4A) mutations could lead to monogenic forms 3, 5 and 1 of diabetes mellitus, respectively, and were characterized by MODY in humans. In this study, multiple variants were discovered in the porcine HNF1A and HNF4A genes, and one single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) was detected in the HNF1B gene. Using the Iowa State University Berkshire × Yorkshire pig resource population, the HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes were mapped on chromosomes 14, 12 and 17, respectively. The linkage disequilibrium (LD) analyses indicated that most of the HNF1A variants were not in strong LD with each other; however, nearly all of them were highly significantly (P < 0.01) associated with loin muscle area (LMA). The SNPs c.327-19G>T and c.1768+40_23del were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with backfat and total lipid percentage, and the latter was also associated with muscle glycogen metabolism measures. Four major haplotypes were observed and the association analyses suggested that haplotype 3 (-CGCGD-, I indicates Insertion and D indicates Deletion) was favorable for reduced backfat, while haplotype 1 (-CACGI-) was unfavorably associated with backfat and LMA. There was no significant interaction effect on backfat among the SNPs c.327-19G>T, c.1768+40_23del of the HNF1A gene and c.646C>T of the transcription factor-7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene. These findings suggest that the HNF1A gene has significant effects on both fatness- and meat production-related traits. No significant associations with production traits with the SNPs from the HNF1B and HNF4A genes were observed in the study.
Processes Underlying the Cross-Race Effect: An Investigation of Holistic, Featural, and Relational Processing of Own-Race versus Other-Race Faces

Adults are often better at recognising own-race than other-race faces. Unlike previous studies that reported an own-race advantage after administering a single test of either holistic processing or of featural and relational processing, we used a cross-over design and multiple tasks to assess differential processing of faces from a familiar race versus a less familiar race. Caucasian and Chinese adults performed four tasks, each with Caucasian and Chinese faces. Two tasks measured holistic processing: the composite face task and the part/whole task. Both tasks indicated holistic processing of own-race and other-race faces that did not differ in degree. Two tasks measured featural and relational processing: the Jane/Ling task, in which same/different judgments were made about face pairs that differed in features of their spacing, and the scrambled/blurred task, in which test faces were scrambled (isolates memory for components) or blurred (isolates memory for relations). Both tasks provided evidence of an own-race advantage in both featural and relational processing. We conclude that even when adults process other-race faces holistically, other manifestations of an own-race advantage remain.
Dietary Patterns and CKD Progression

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients and their clinicians seek ways to mitigate the risk of CKD progression and its associated complications. Emerging data suggest that dietary modifications may be beneficial adjuvant approaches to reducing the risk of adverse CKD outcomes. Summary: This review focuses on several different dietary patterns, including the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and Mediterranean diets, and their kidney health benefits. We discuss how healthful dietary patterns are lower in dietary acid load and how improving diet quality may slow the progression of CKD. We also discuss some barriers that may impede socially disadvantaged individuals from following healthful diets. Key Points: Dietary patterns low in dietary acid load might slow the progression of CKD. Current evidence suggests that a reduction in dietary acid load could be beneficial in patients with CKD, but the supremacy of any particular diet is yet to be established. Additional randomized controlled dietary interventions among CKD patients are needed to inform evidence-based recommendations, which can be tailored to an individual's preferences and ability to access healthful foods.
The putative tumor suppressor, miR-199a, regulated by Snail, modulates clear cell renal cell carcinoma aggressiveness by repressing ROCK1

Background Aberrant expression of miR-199a has been frequently reported in cancer studies; however, its role in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has not been examined in detail. Results Here, we showed that miR-199a was downregulated in RCC and associated with poor prognostic phenotype. Using luciferase and western blot assays we identified that Rho-associated coiled coil-containing protein kinases 1 (ROCK1) was a direct target gene for miR-199a. miR-199a regulated proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) cells by modulating ROCK1 expression. Interestingly, we also found that miR-199a was modulated by snail in ccRCC cells. Snail elevated ROCK1 expression by repressing miR-199a activity. Conclusion Altogether, our results identify a crucial tumor suppressive role of miR-199a in the progression of ccRCC and suggest that miR-199a might be an anticancer therapeutic target for ccRCC patients.