Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urinary excretion of 5-oxoproline (pyroglutamic aciduria) as an index of glycine insufficiency in normal man

1. The evidence is accumulating to suggest that glycine, the simplest amino acid, is conditionally essential in man. Benzoic acid, by conjugation with glycine to form hippuric acid, is known to deplete the free glycine pool of the body. Glycine is one substrate for the enzyme glutathione synthase (EC 6.3.2.3) and in the inborn error of metabolism in which glutathione synthase function is defective, increased quantities of 5-oxoproline are excreted in the urine. 2. An oral dose of 4–10 g sodium benzoate was given to six normal adults to deplete the metabolic pool of glycine, and the urinary excretion of 5-oxoproline was followed for 6 h. In five of the six, a significant increase in the urinary 5-oxoproline was seen within 3 h. 3. These-findings show that 5-oxoprolinuria can result from limited glycine availability, and may provide a useful test for assessing glycine sufficiency in a range of physiological and pathological states.
Selecting Valuable Customers for Merchants in E-Commerce Platforms

An e-commerce website provides a platform for merchants to sell products to customers. While most existing research focuses on providing customers with personalized product suggestions by recommender systems, in this paper, we consider the role of merchants and introduce a parallel problem, i.e., how to select the most valuable customers for a merchant? Accurately answering this question can not only help merchants to gain more profits, but also benefit the ecosystem of e-commence platforms. To deal with this problem, we propose a general approach by taking into consideration the interest and profit of each customer to the merchant, i.e., select the customers who are not only interested in the merchant to ensure the visit of the merchant, but also capable of making good profits. Specifically, we first generate candidate customers for a given merchant by using traditional recommendation techniques. Then we select a set of the valuable customers from candidate customers, which has the balanced maximization between the interest and the profit metrics. Given the NP-hardness of the balanced maximization formulation, we further introduce efficient techniques to solve this maximization problem by exploiting the inherent submodularity property. Finally, extensive experimental results on a real-world dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.
Establishment of a Persistent Escherichia coli Reservoir during the Acute Phase of a Bladder Infection

ABSTRACT The vast majority of urinary tract infections are caused by strains of uropathogenic Escherichia coli that encode filamentous adhesive organelles called type 1 pili. These structures mediate both bacterial attachment to and invasion of bladder epithelial cells. However, the mechanism by which type 1 pilus-mediated bacterial invasion contributes to the pathogenesis of a urinary tract infection is unknown. Here we show that type 1-piliated uropathogens can invade the superficial epithelial cells that line the lumenal surface of the bladder and subsequently replicate, forming massive foci of intracellular E. coli termed bacterial factories. In response to infection, superficial bladder cells exfoliate and are removed with the flow of urine. To avoid clearance by exfoliation, intracellular uropathogens can reemerge and eventually establish a persistent, quiescent bacterial reservoir within the bladder mucosa that may serve as a source for recurrent acute infections. These observations suggest that urinary tract infections are more chronic and invasive than generally assumed.
Genomic Evidence for Island Population Conversion Resolves Conflicting Theories of Polar Bear Evolution

Despite extensive genetic analysis, the evolutionary relationship between polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and brown bears (U. arctos) remains unclear. The two most recent comprehensive reports indicate a recent divergence with little subsequent admixture or a much more ancient divergence followed by extensive admixture. At the center of this controversy are the Alaskan ABC Islands brown bears that show evidence of shared ancestry with polar bears. We present an analysis of genome-wide sequence data for seven polar bears, one ABC Islands brown bear, one mainland Alaskan brown bear, and a black bear (U. americanus), plus recently published datasets from other bears. Surprisingly, we find clear evidence for gene flow from polar bears into ABC Islands brown bears but no evidence of gene flow from brown bears into polar bears. Importantly, while polar bears contributed <1% of the autosomal genome of the ABC Islands brown bear, they contributed 6.5% of the X chromosome. The magnitude of sex-biased polar bear ancestry and the clear direction of gene flow suggest a model wherein the enigmatic ABC Island brown bears are the descendants of a polar bear population that was gradually converted into brown bears via male-dominated brown bear admixture. We present a model that reconciles heretofore conflicting genetic observations. We posit that the enigmatic ABC Islands brown bears derive from a population of polar bears likely stranded by the receding ice at the end of the last glacial period. Since then, male brown bear migration onto the island has gradually converted these bears into an admixed population whose phenotype and genotype are principally brown bear, except at mtDNA and X-linked loci. This process of genome erosion and conversion may be a common outcome when climate change or other forces cause a population to become isolated and then overrun by species with which it can hybridize.
Production of Fungal Amylases Using Cheap, Readily Available Agriresidues, for Potential Application in Textile Industry

The study aimed at isolation and screening of fungal amylase producer, optimization of solid state fermentation conditions for maximum amylase production by the best amylase producer, and characterization of the crude amylases, so produced. Aspergillus fumigatus NTCC1222 showed the highest amylase activity (164.1 U/mL) in secondary screening under SSF conditions and was selected for further studies. The test strain showed maximum amylase production (341.7 U/mL) and supernatant protein concentration (9.7 mg/mL) for incubation period (6 days), temperature (35°C), initial pH (6.0), nutrient salt solution as moistening agent, and beef extract as nitrogen source. Pomegranate peel produced maximum amylase activity, but wheat bran (only slightly lesser amylase activity as compared to that of pomegranate peel) was chosen for further studies, keeping in mind the seasonal availability of pomegranate peel. TLC confirmed the amylase produced to be α-type and 60 kDa was the molecular weight of the partially purified amylase. The enzyme showed maximum enzyme activity at pH 6.0, temperature of 55°C, and incubation time of 60 minutes. UV (616.0 U/mL) and chemical (814.2 U/mL) mutation enhanced amylase activity as compared to wild test strain. The study indicates that Aspergillus fumigatus NTCC1222 can be an important source of amylase and the crude enzyme, hence obtained, can be cost effectively applied in multiple sections of textile wet processing.
Effective Post-Exposure Treatment of Ebola Infection

Ebola viruses are highly lethal human pathogens that have received considerable attention in recent years due to an increasing re-emergence in Central Africa and a potential for use as a biological weapon. There is no vaccine or treatment licensed for human use. In the past, however, important advances have been made in developing preventive vaccines that are protective in animal models. In this regard, we showed that a single injection of a live-attenuated recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vector expressing the Ebola virus glycoprotein completely protected rodents and nonhuman primates from lethal Ebola challenge. In contrast, progress in developing therapeutic interventions against Ebola virus infections has been much slower and there is clearly an urgent need to develop effective post-exposure strategies to respond to future outbreaks and acts of bioterrorism, as well as to treat laboratory exposures. Here we tested the efficacy of the vesicular stomatitis virus-based Ebola vaccine vector in post-exposure treatment in three relevant animal models. In the guinea pig and mouse models it was possible to protect 50% and 100% of the animals, respectively, following treatment as late as 24 h after lethal challenge. More important, four out of eight rhesus macaques were protected if treated 20 to 30 min following an otherwise uniformly lethal infection. Currently, this approach provides the most effective post-exposure treatment strategy for Ebola infections and is particularly suited for use in accidentally exposed individuals and in the control of secondary transmission during naturally occurring outbreaks or deliberate release.
Chemical Profile of Pleurotus tuberregium (Fr) Sing's Sclerotia.

The proximate and phytochemical composition of Pleurotus tuberregium (Fr) sclerotia was determined. Our results show that Pleurotus tuberregium (Fr) sclerotia is rich in protein (64.31% WW and 71.21% DW) and carbohydrate (20.00% WW and 22.15% DW), with moderate contents of ash (2.20% WW and 2.44% DW), and crude fiber (2.89% WW and 3.20% DW). The phytochemical screening revealed moderate phytate content and low alkaloids, flavonoids (aurones, chalcones, flavones, flavonols and leucoanthocyanins), and tannins. Therefore, Pleurotus tuberregium (Fr) sclerotia are a rich source of proteins, fibers and carbohydrates, and are potential source of nutraceuticals.
Community Knowledge, Attitude and Practice About Malaria and Mosquito Biting Behavior in Southern Ethiopia

Malaria has been the leading cause of mortality for many years in underdeveloped countries like Ethiopia. Community Knowledge of cause and transmission of malaria and mosquito feeding behavior is key to design appropriate health communication strategies for malaria prevention and control. The present study aimed to assess knowledge and awareness on malaria and its association with mosquitoes in Dembele kebele, southeastern, Ethiopia. A community cross sectional study was carried out in Dembele kebele from January to February, 2017. A total of 159 randomly selected individuals were interviewed to assess their KAP about malaria. Data were collected by an interview based structured questionnaire after pre-tested. The collected data were entered in to SPSS for data coding and analysis. Binary logistic regressions analysis was applied and statistical significance test was declared at P-value <0.05 and OR with 95% CI. All respondents had ever heard of malaria and more than 86% of them believed that malaria was one of the most health problem diseases of the community. Most of the respondents (70.4%) were reported mosquito bite as the cause of malaria. The majority (79.2%) and (74.2%) of respondents had good levels of knowledge on transmission and prevention of malaria respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that, knowledge on mode of malaria transmission was positively associated with sex (male) (OR=3.3; CI, 1.27-7.22), age (OR=5.03; CI, 1.03-24.46) and education level (OR=3.30; 95% CI, 1.04-10.50). Among socio-demographic variables, only education level (OR=3.8; CI, 1.51-9.65) was significance factor to knowledge on malaria prevention. The study aimed to assess knowledge and awareness regarding the cause, transmission and preventive measures of malaria; it was found to be high. Use of mosquito net as protective measure against mosquito bites was high in the study area. However, distance of respondent house is near to the mosquito breeding site. Therefore, environmental management and use of other additional preventive methods is very important to reduce prevalence of malaria in study area. Sex, age and education level were strong predictors of knowledge on malaria.
Purification of a Lethal Toxin of Edwardsiella tarda

A toxin lethal to fish was purified from extracellular products (ECP) of Edwardsiella tarda by ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The purified toxin is a protein having proteolytic activities and lethal toxicity to Japanese eel Anguilla japonica with the LD50 of 1. 6μg per g of fish body weight. Molecular weight of the protein was estimated to be 37 kDa by SDS-PAGE. SDS-PAGE, Western blot and immunodiffusion analyses revealed that the 37 kDa protein was present in the ECP and ICC (intracellular components) of virulent strains of E. tarda but not in those of avirulent strains, indicating that this toxin plays an important role in the pathogenicity of E. tarda.
Bulk anisotropic excitons in type-II semiconductors built with 1D and 2D low-dimensional structures

Utilizamos un metodo variacional para tomar en cuenta la diferencia entre las masas efectivas del electron y del hueco en excitonesWannier-Mott en heteroestructuras semiconductoras tipo II en las que el electron esta constrenido en un alambre cuantico unidimensional (AC1D) y el hueco en un pozo cuantico bidimensional (PC2D) perpendicular al alambre o viceversa. La ecuacion de Schrodinger resultante es similar a la de un exciton en el bulto en 3D porque el numero de variables libres (no confinadas) es tres; dos que provienen del PC2D y una del AC1D. En este sistema interaccion efectiva electron-hueco depende de los potenciales de confinamiento.
Flexible Method Combination based on Mixin Subtyping

A mixin is a reusable module that provides uniform extensions and modifications to classes. It is an abstract subclass that is composable with a variety of superclasses. In mixin-based composition, however, the problem of accidental overriding arises. A method declared in a mixin may accidentally override its superclass’s method. To tackle this problem, we propose a selective method combination that selects where the method invocation starts, and where method body execution jumps in the case of super invocation, by using the static type information of the receiver. We use the flexible mixin-based subtyping rules that allow subtype relations to be not restricted to the immediate inheritance relations; therefore, flexible control of method combination is achieved. To describe precisely how selective method combination works, we formalize this mechanism over McJava, an extension of Java with mixin-types. We also implement this mechanism by source code translation to Java thus making it runnable on a standard Java virtual machine.
Neural encoding of single-formant stimuli in the cat. II. Responses of anteroventral cochlear nucleus units.

1. We have studied responses of anteroventral cochlear nucleus (AVCN) units to single-formant stimuli (SFS), in an effort to make quantitative comparisons with responses observed in auditory-nerve fibers (ANFs) to the same stimuli (Wang and Sachs 1993) and to reveal some of the signal processing mechanisms at the AVCN. Single-unit recordings and subsequent analyses were performed on each type of commonly recorded units, namely primarylike (Pri), primarylike with notch (PN), sustained chopper (ChS), transient chopper (ChT), and onset chopper (OnC), as well as a few onset (On) units, from the AVCN in anesthetized cats. The responses were obtained at a wide range of sound levels and at a frequency range of 1-10 kHz. Modulation in the envelopes of discharge patterns was quantified by a measure called modulation depth. 2. At moderate to high sound levels, most AVCN units were found to have enhanced modulation depth compared with that of ANFs, although the degree of enhancement varies among different types. All AVCN units, except Pri type, showed an enhancement in modulation depth over that of the highest of ANFs at moderate to high sound levels in the order of (from the highest to the lowest) On, OnC, ChT/PN, and ChS. Specifically, 1) modulation depth in Pri units was comparable to that of high spontaneous rate (SR) ANFs at low sound levels and to that of low/medium SR ANFs at high sound levels (in dB SPL). When sound level was normalized by unit threshold, Pri units, on average, exhibited only limited enhancement in envelope modulation at high sound levels (> 80 dB re threshold); 2) PN units showed substantially enhanced modulation depth over that of all SR groups of ANFs at moderate to high sound levels in dB SPL or dB re threshold scales; 3) significant enhancement in modulation depth was seen in both ChS and ChT units, with a slightly higher modulation depth in ChT type across sound levels (in dB SPL or dB re threshold); 4) modulation depth of OnC units was higher than those of primary-like (Pri and PN) and chopper (ChS and ChT) units at a wide range of sound levels; 5) responses from a limited sample of On units showed the highest modulation depth among all types of AVCN units. 3. Detailed analysis revealed that the enhanced modulation depth in the responses of AVCN units is the result of increased envelope peak height and decreased envelope minimum, relative to those of ANFs. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Virtual Reality Clinical Research: Promises and Challenges

Background Virtual reality (VR) therapy has been explored as a novel therapeutic approach for numerous health applications, in which three-dimensional virtual environments can be explored in real time. Studies have found positive outcomes for patients using VR for clinical conditions such as anxiety disorders, addictions, phobias, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, stroke rehabilitation, and for pain management. Objective This work aims to highlight key issues in the implementation of clinical research for VR technologies. Methods A discussion paper was developed from a narrative review of recent clinical research in the field, and the researchers’ own experiences in conducting VR clinical research with chronic pain patients. Results Some of the key issues in implementing clinical VR research include theoretical immaturity, a lack of technical standards, the problems of separating effects of media versus medium, practical in vivo issues, and costs. Conclusions Over the last decade, some significant successes have been claimed for the use of VR. Nevertheless, the implementation of clinical VR research outside of the laboratory presents substantial clinical challenges. It is argued that careful attention to addressing these issues in research design and pilot studies are needed in order to make clinical VR research more rigorous and improve the clinical significance of findings.
Juvenile Scleroderma-What has Changed in the Meantime?

BACKGROUND Juvenile scleroderma is a rarely seen chronic connective tissue disorder characterized by stiffening of the skin. The frequency of the disease was reported as one per million. According to organ involvement, the disease is divided into two main forms: systemic and localized scleroderma. OBJECTIVE Since it is uncommon in children, many aspects of the disease remain discussable. With this review, we aimed to revise recent findings and new developments in this rare condition. METHOD A systematic literature research was performed, using the following medical databases: Pubmed/ Medline and the Cochrane Library. We searched for up-to-date randomized controlled studies, case-control studies, and cohort studies and cases reports on juvenile scleroderma (both systemic and localized form). RESULTS Skin manifestations are most prominent features of the systemic form, followed by musculoskeletal and vascular involvement. Cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and renal disorders are rare in childhood. Combination of disease modifying anti- rheumatic drugs (methotrexate, mycophenolatemofetil, cyclosporine) and steroid reprents the first line therapy. Bosentan is used for cases with pulmonary hypertension and for extensive digital ulcerations. Biological treatment emerges as a useful treatment option in most severe form of the disease. Localized scleroderma is characterized with sclerodermatosis of the skin. Internal organ involvement is not expected. Classification of the local scleroderma is made according to the size and localization of the skin changes. There are few different therapeutical options but there is no specific therapy for the localized scleroderma. CONCLUSION Many data regarding disease features and treatment options in juvenile scleroderma are based on studies among adults. There is a striking need for multicentric, prospective studies among children with juvenile scleroderma, in order to elucidate some questions of clinical course and disease prognosis. Recent genetic studies have revealed the role of the genetic factors (namely HLA class II) in the pathogenesis of the disease. Emerging biological agents and new treatment options are showing promising results.
Parallel generation of architecture on the GPU

In this paper, we present a novel approach for the parallel evaluation of procedural shape grammars on the graphics processing unit (GPU). Unlike previous approaches that are either limited in the kind of shapes they allow, the amount of parallelism they can take advantage of, or both, our method supports state of the art procedural modeling including stochasticity and context‐sensitivity. To increase parallelism, we explicitly express independence in the grammar, reduce inter‐rule dependencies required for context‐sensitive evaluation, and introduce intra‐rule parallelism. Our rule scheduling scheme avoids unnecessary back and forth between CPU and GPU and reduces round trips to slow global memory by dynamically grouping rules in on‐chip shared memory. Our GPU shape grammar implementation is multiple orders of magnitude faster than the standard in CPU‐based rule evaluation, while offering equal expressive power. In comparison to the state of the art in GPU shape grammar derivation, our approach is nearly 50 times faster, while adding support for geometric context‐sensitivity.
Internet of Things: Security in the Keys

Security threats may hinder the large scale adoption of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Besides efforts have already been made in the direction of data integrity preservation, confidentiality and privacy, several issues are still open. The existing solutions are mainly based on encryption techniques, but no attention is actually paid to key management. A clever key distribution system, along with a key replacement mechanism, are essentials for assuring a secure approach. In this paper, two popular key management systems, conceived for wireless sensor networks, are integrated in a real IoT middleware and compared in order to evaluate their performance in terms of overhead, delay and robustness towards malicious attacks.
Adaptive Replication Method Based on Peer Behavior Pattern in Unstructured Peer-to-Peer Systems

In this paper, we propose replication methods to perform effective document sharing on a peer-to-peer(P2P) system where peers frequently join and leave the system. The proposed method uses the relevancy and usefulness of peers to determine how many replications should be made, and where to locate these replications. This paper shows empirically that the proposed method improves the efficiency of query processing.
Boosting the Accuracy of AdaBoost for Object Detection and Recognition

Recently, large number of object detection and recognition algorithms are playing a key role in several applications, such as security and surveillance. Although, these algorithms perform exceptionally well under normal lighting conditions, however their detection and recognition accuracy abruptly degrades under non-uniform illuminations, such as strong sunlight and bad lighting conditions. In this paper, we apply our own developed Multi-Scale Retinex (MSR) algorithm as a pre-processing module to boost the accuracy of the AdaBoost algorithm, which is considered to be state-of-the-art algorithm for robust object detection and recognition. Simulation results show that the MSR can be reliably and effectively used under non-uniform illuminations to boost the accuracy of the AdaBoost.