Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the mitochondrial cardiomyopathy of Barth syndrome with iPSC and heart-on-chip technologies

Studying monogenic mitochondrial cardiomyopathies may yield insights into mitochondrial roles in cardiac development and disease. Here, we combine patient-derived and genetically engineered iPSCs with tissue engineering to elucidate the pathophysiology underlying the cardiomyopathy of Barth syndrome (BTHS), a mitochondrial disorder caused by mutation of the gene Tafazzin (TAZ). Using BTHS iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs), we defined metabolic, structural, and functional abnormalities associated with TAZ mutation. BTHS iPSC-CMs assembled sparse and irregular sarcomeres, and engineered BTHS “heart on chip” tissues contracted weakly. Gene replacement and genome editing demonstrated that TAZ mutation is necessary and sufficient for these phenotypes. Sarcomere assembly and myocardial contraction abnormalities occurred in the context of normal whole cell ATP levels. Excess levels of reactive oxygen species mechanistically linked TAZ mutation to impaired cardiomyocyte function. Our study provides new insights into the pathogenesis of Barth syndrome, suggests new treatment strategies, and advances iPSC-based in vitro modeling of cardiomyopathy. replicate mutation phenotypes are not ATP we show that the BTHS cardiomyopathic phenotype is reversed by reintroduction of wild-type TAZ, or by suppression of excessive reactive oxygen species produced by mitochondria. These results provide new data show that the contracile deficit of BTHS iPSC-CMs is not a result of global cellular energy depletion. Rather, we show that TAZ deficiency in BTHS impairs sarcomere assembly and contractile stress generation. It is likely that sarcomere assembly is only one of several factors that lead to reduced twitch stress in BTHS iPSC-CMs, since the extent of sarcomere disarray did not necessarily correlate with impairment of twitch stress across our assays. We found that TAZ deficiency in BTHS caused markedly increased ROS production, and suppression of ROS normalized the metabolic, sarcomerogenesis, and contractile phenotypes of BTHS iPSC-CMs. These data indicate that excessive ROS production contributes to sarcomere disarray and reduced contractile stress generation in BTHS iPSC-CMs. ROS has been implicated in cardiomyocyte differentiation, sarcomerogenesis, and
Robust filtering for discrete-time Markovian jump delay systems

In this letter, we study the robust filtering problem for linear uncertain discrete time-delay systems with Markovian jump parameters. The system under consideration is subjected to time-varying norm-bounded parameter uncertainties, time-delay in the state, and Markovian jump parameters in all system matrices. A filter is designed to guarantee that the dynamics of the estimation error is robustly stochastically stable in the mean square, irrespective of the admissible uncertainties as well as the time-delay. It is shown that the problem addressed can be solved in terms of the solutions to a set of coupled matrix Riccati-like inequalities.
Magnetic Reconnection, Turbulence, and Particle Acceleration: Observations in the Earth's Magnetotail

We report observations of turbulent dissipation and particle acceleration from large‐amplitude electric fields (E) associated with strong magnetic field (B) fluctuations in the Earth's plasma sheet. The turbulence occurs in a region of depleted density with anti‐earthward flows followed by earthward flows suggesting ongoing magnetic reconnection. In the turbulent region, ions and electrons have a significant increase in energy, occasionally >100 keV, and strong variation. There are numerous occurrences of |E| >100 mV/m including occurrences of large potentials (>1 kV) parallel to B and occurrences with extraordinarily large J · E (J is current density). In this event, we find that the perpendicular contribution of J · E with frequencies near or below the ion cyclotron frequency (fci) provide the majority net positive J · E. Large‐amplitude parallel E events with frequencies above fci to several times the lower hybrid frequency provide significant dissipation and can result in energetic electron acceleration.
Secure XML querying with security views

The prevalent use of XML highlights the need for a generic, flexible access-control mechanism for XML documents that supports efficient and secure query access, without revealing sensitive information unauthorized users. This paper introduces a novel paradigm for specifying XML security constraints and investigates the enforcement of such constraints during XML query evaluation. Our approach is based on the novel concept of security views, which provide for each user group (a) an XML view consisting of all and only the information that the users are authorized to access, and (b) a view DTD that the XML view conforms to. Security views effectively protect sensitive data from access and potential inferences by unauthorized user, and provide authorized users with necessary schema information to facilitate effective query formulation and optimization. We propose an efficient algorithm for deriving security view definitions from security policies (defined on the original document DTD) for different user groups. We also develop novel algorithms for XPath query rewriting and optimization such that queries over security views can be efficiently answered without materializing the views. Our algorithms transform a query over a security view to an equivalent query over the original document, and effectively prune query nodes by exploiting the structural properties of the document DTD in conjunction with approximate XPath containment tests. Our work is the first to study a flexible, DTD-based access-control model for XML and its implications on the XML query-execution engine. Furthermore, it is among the first efforts for query rewriting and optimization in the presence of general DTDs for a rich a class of XPath queries. An empirical study based on real-life DTDs verifies the effectiveness of our approach.
Interrupted cognition and design for non-disruptiveness: the skilled memory approach

Interruptions have gained in importance as a topic in current HCI research. Through a series of experiments, we take a step toward analyzing the active role of human memory in controlling interruptions. The results of these experiments lead us to propose a novel approach, the skilled memory approach, to how UIs can support memory in skilled man-agement of and recovery from interruptions.
Iterative log thresholding

Sparse reconstruction approaches using the re-weighted ℓ1-penalty have been shown, both empirically and theoretically, to provide a significant improvement in recovering sparse signals in comparison to the ℓ1-relaxation. However, numerical optimization of such penalties involves solving problems with ℓ1-norms in the objective many times. Using the direct link of reweighted ℓ1-penalties to the concave log-regularizer for sparsity, we derive a simple proximal-like algorithm for the log-regularized formulation. The proximal splitting step of the algorithm has a closed form solution, and we call the algorithm log-thresholding in analogy to soft thresholding for the ℓ1-penalty. We establish convergence results, and demonstrate that log-thresholding provides more accurate sparse reconstructions compared to both soft and hard thresholding. Furthermore, the approach can be directly extended to optimization over matrices with penalty for rank (i.e. the nuclear norm penalty and its re-weighted version), where we suggest a singular-value log-thresholding approach.
Back signaling by the Nrg-1 intracellular domain

Transmembrane isoforms of neuregulin-1 (Nrg-1), ligands for erbB receptors, include an extracellular domain with an EGF-like sequence and a highly conserved intracellular domain (ICD) of unknown function. In this paper, we demonstrate that transmembrane isoforms of Nrg-1 are bidirectional signaling molecules in neurons. The stimuli for Nrg-1 back signaling include binding of erbB receptor dimers to the extracellular domain of Nrg-1 and neuronal depolarization. These stimuli elicit proteolytic release and translocation of the ICD of Nrg-1 to the nucleus. Once in the nucleus, the Nrg-1 ICD represses expression of several regulators of apoptosis, resulting in decreased neuronal cell death in vitro. Thus, regulated proteolytic processing of Nrg-1 results in retrograde signaling that appears to mediate contact and activity-dependent survival of Nrg-1–expressing neurons.
Mixing multi-core CPUs and GPUs for scientific simulation software

Recent technological and economic developments have led to widespread availability of multi-core CPUs and specialist accelerator processors such as graphical processing units (GPUs). The accelerated computational performance possible from these devices can be very high for some applications paradigms. Software languages and systems such as NVIDIA’s CUDA and Khronos consortium’s open compute language (OpenCL) support a number of individual parallel application programming paradigms. To scale up the performance of some complex systems simulations, a hybrid of multi-core CPUs for coarse-grained parallelism and very many core GPUs for data parallelism is necessary. We describe our use of hybrid applications using threading approaches and multi-core CPUs to control independent GPU devices. We present speed-up data and discuss multi-threading software issues for the applications level programmer and oer some suggested areas for language development and integration between coarse-grained and ne-grained multi-thread systems. We discuss results from three common simulation algorithmic areas including: partial dierential equations; graph cluster metric calculations and random number generation. We report on programming experiences and selected performance for these algorithms on: single and multiple GPUs; multi-core CPUs; a CellBE; and using OpenCL. We discuss programmer usability issues and the outlook and trends in multi-core programming for scientic applications developers.
Consistent size-independent harvest selection on fish body shape in two recreationally exploited marine species

Harvesting wild animals may exert size-independent selection pressures on a range of morphological, life history, and behavioral traits. Most work so far has focused on selection pressures on life history traits and body size as morphological trait. We studied here how recreational fishing selects for morphological traits related to body shape, which may correlate with underlying swimming behavior. Using landmark-based geometric morphometrics, we found consistent recreational fishing-induced selection pressures on body shape in two recreationally exploited marine fish species. We show that individuals with larger-sized mouths and more streamlined and elongated bodies were more vulnerable to passively operated hook-and-line fishing independent of the individual's body size or condition. While the greater vulnerability of individuals with larger mouth gapes can be explained by the direct physical interaction with hooks, selection against streamlined and elongated individuals could either involve a specific foraging mode or relate to underlying elevated swimming behavior. Harvesting using passive gear is common around the globe, and thus, size-independent selection on body shape is expected to be widespread potentially leaving behind individuals with smaller oral gapes and more compact bodies. This might have repercussions for food webs by altering foraging and predation.
A Declarative Optimization Engine for Resource Provisioning of Scientific Workflows in Geo-Distributed Clouds

Geo-distributed clouds are becoming increasingly popular for cloud providers, and data centers with different regions often offer different prices, even for the same type of virtual machines. Resource provisioning in geo-distributed clouds is an important and complicated problem for budget and performance optimizations of scientific workflows. Scientists are facing the complexities resulted from various cloud offerings in the geo-distributed settings, severe cloud performance dynamics and evolving user requirements on performance and cost. To address those complexities, we propose a declarative optimization engine named Geco for resource provisioning of scientific workflows in geo-distributed clouds. Geco allows users to specify their workflow optimization goals and constraints of specific problems with an extended declarative language. We propose a novel probabilistic optimization approach for evaluating the declarative optimization goals and constraints to address the cloud dynamics. Additionally, we develop runtime optimizations to more effectively utilize the cloud resources at runtime. To accelerate the solution finding, Geco leverages the power of GPUs to find the solution in a fast and timely manner. Our evaluations with four common workflow provisioning problems demonstrate that, Geco is able to achieve more effective performance/cost optimizations in geo-distributed cloud environments than the state-of-the-art approaches.
The Internet, Social Networks and Loneliness

As the Internet has rapidly become a mainstream medium, some studies have found that Internet use is associated with reduced social networks and increased loneliness, whereas other research has suggested virtually the opposite. Still other studies have found no associations at all between Internet use, social networks and level of loneliness. Some authors who have found that the Internet has a negative impact on social relationships and psychological well-being have hypothesized that Internet use encourages the creation of online relationships, which in turn replace face-to-face contacts (displacement). Since this results in an overall loss of depth that is more important than breadth for psychological well-being, Internet use consequently increases loneliness. Using a sample of 2096 Americans surveyed in 2000 to test this theory produces results that are complex. There is no evidence of displacement of face-to-face relationships with online ones, and Internet use is slightly associated with a decreased level of loneliness. However, people who have online friends are more lonely than those who do not. In this way the Internet seems to have both positive and negative effects on psychological well-being. Some suggestions are offered to explain this paradoxical finding.
Overexpression of Phospho-eIF4E Is Associated with Survival through AKT Pathway in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer

Purpose: The eukaryotic translation initiation factor complex 4E (eIF4E) is downstream in the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. This study explored expression of eIF4E and its relationship with the PTEN/AKT and RAS/MEK/ERK pathways in non–small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Experimental Design: The status of phosphorylated eIF4E (p-eIF4E), phosphorylated AKT (p-AKT), PTEN, phosphorylated tuberin (p-TSC2), phosphorylated mTOR (p-mTOR), phosphorylated S6 (p-S6), and phosphorylated Erk1/2 (p-Erk1/2) was studied using immunohistochemical analysis applied to a tissue microarray containing 300 NSCLCs. Staining results for each antibody were compared with clinical and pathologic features, and the relationship between staining results was explored. Results: Overexpression of p-eIF4E, p-AKT, p-TSC2, p-mTOR, p-S6, and p-Erk1/2 in NSCLC was found in 39.9%, 78.8%, 5.1%, 46.7%, 27.1%, and 16.6% of tumors, respectively. The phenotype of p-eIF4E correlated positively with that of p-AKT, p-TSC2, and p-S6 (P < 0.001). Overall survival in NSCLC patients was significantly shorter in cases with overexpression of p-eIF4E and p-AKT alone and in combination (log-rank P < 0.001, each). Cases with underexpression of PTEN were limited (6.4%), and this phenotype did not correlate with any clinical variable. In cluster analysis, the p-AKT/p-mTOR/p-eIF4E/p-S6–positive group had significantly shorter survival compared with the survival of all cases (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that p-eIF4E overexpression is an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC (P = 0.004). Conclusions: This study shows that p-eIF4E expression in addition to p-AKT predicts poor prognosis in NSCLC. Moreover, the correlation between expression of p-eIF4E with p-AKT, as well as p-TSC2 and p-S6, indicates that eIF4E activation through the AKT pathway plays an important role in the progression of NSCLC. Clin Cancer Res; 16(1); OF1–9
Does Familial History of Cancer Affect the General Health Conditions and Healthy Lifestyle Behavior of Nursing and Midwifery Students

Aim: This study was performed with the aim of determining the effect of status regarding having a cancer patient in the family to the general health condition and healthy lifestyle behavior of nursing and midwifery students. Method: A total of 713 students participated in the comparative and descriptive study. Data was collected using the student identification form, the General Health Questionnaire-12, and the Healthy Lifestyle Behavior ScaleII. Results: Among the students, 23.7% had a cancer patient in their family, and those students were found to think they carried a higher risk for cancer (p<0.01). It was determined that the general health statuses of the students with cancer patients in their families were affected on a higher level, although this difference was not statistically meaningful (p>0.05). Additionally, the health responsibility and interpersonal relationships score averages, as well as the total scores of the students who had a cancer patient in their family were found to be higher compared to the students who didn’t (p<0.05). In the study, status regarding considering oneself under risk of cancer was found to affect general health negatively (p<0.01), and age and education level was found to positively affect healthy lifestyle behavior (p<0.05). Conclusion: Status regarding having a cancer patient in the family was found to not affect general health status and affect healthy lifestyle behavior positively in nursing and midwifery students.
Motion Control of Passive Intelligent Walker Using Servo Brakes

We propose a new intelligent walker based on passive robotics that assists the elderly, handicapped people, and the blind who have difficulty in walking. We developed a prototype of the robot technology walker (RT walker), a passive intelligent walker that uses servo brakes. The RT walker consists of a support frame, two casters, two wheels equipped with servo brakes, and it has passive dynamics that change with respect to applied force/moment. This system is intrinsically safe for humans, as it cannot move unintentionally, i.e., it has no driving actuators. In addition, the RT walker provides a number of navigational features, including good maneuverability, by appropriately controlling the torque of servo brakes based on RT. We propose a human adaptive motion control algorithm that changes the apparent dynamics to adapt to user difficulties, and an environmentally adaptive motion control algorithm, which incorporates environmental information to provide obstacle/step avoidance and gravity compensation functions. The proposed control algorithms are experimentally applied to the RT walker to test their validity.
Multimodal Biometric System Based on Feature Level Fusion of Palmprint and Fingerprint Using Gabor Hidden Markov Model

Biometric technology has become extensively popular and getting more importance due to the ever increasing demand on access control, public security, forensics and e-banking. The development of accurate and reliable security systems is a matter of wide interest, and in this context biometrics is seen as a highly effective automatic mechanism for personal identification. The hand based biometrics is one of the most popular biometric technologies and is used largely in the market of biometric. The main aim of this paper is consists of developing an accurate hand based biometric system. In this context, for developing an efficient multimodal biometric recognition system, palmprint and fingerprint are used collectively. The features for both modalities are computed using binarization. The Hidden Markov Model(HMM) is used for developing feature vector. The modalities are fused using feature level fusion. The proposed work is tested and evaluated using casia database. The proposed work is highly effective and reliable as results shows that it brings high accuracy and identification rate.
Antimicrobial Susceptibility/Resistance of Streptococcus Pneumoniae

Introduction: Pneumococcal infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, whose treatment is threatened with an increase in the number of strains resistant to antibiotic therapy. Goal: The main goal of this research was to investigate the presence of antimicrobial susceptibility/resistance of S. pneumoniae. Material and methods: Taken are swabs of the nose and nasopharynx, eye and ear. In vitro tests that were made in order to study the antimicrobial resistance of pneumococci are: disk diffusion method and E-test. Results: The resistance to inhibitors of cell wall synthesis was recorded at 39.17%, protein synthesis inhibitors 19.67%, folate antagonists 47.78% and quinolone in 1.11%. S. pneumoniae has shown drug resistance to erythromycin in 45%, clindamycin in 45%, chloramphenicol–0.56%, rifampicin–6.11%, tetracycline–4.67%, penicillin-G in 4.44%, oxacillin in 73.89%, ciprofloxacin in 1.11% and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in 5.34% of cases. Conclusion: The highest resistance pneumococcus showed to erythromycin, clindamycin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and these should be avoided in the treatment. The least resistance pneumococcus showed to tetracycline, rifampicin, chloramphenicol, penicillin-G and ciprofloxacin.
Image analysis by discrete orthogonal Tchebichef Moments for 3 D Object Representation

Discrete Tchebichef moments are wid ely used in the field of image processing application and pattern recognition. In this paper we propose a compact method of 3D Tchebichef moments computation. This new method based on Clenshaw’s recurrence formula and the symmetry property produces a drastic reduction in the complexity and computational time. The recursive algorithm is then developed for fast computation of inverse Tchebichef moments transform for image reconstruction. We also extract scale and translation 3D moment invariants using a proposed direct method. The validity of the proposed algorithm is prov ed by simulated experiments using 3D image/Object. Key-Words: Digital image processing, Pattern analysis, Image reconstruction techniques, Three-dimensional image processing, Moment methods.
Respiratory hazards of metal smelting

Purpose of review The metal smelting industry is an important industry in the majority of countries in the world and employs millions of workers. In most of the production types, a variety of pollutants are emitted into the workplace atmosphere. Some of these pollutants have sensitizing properties, whereas other act as irritants in the respiratory tract. This review will explore the recent studies (2010–2012) which address the impact of exposure to pollutants in the smelting industry on nonmalignant respiratory disorders. Recent findings The association between different respiratory symptoms as well as pulmonary function and the level of exposure to different agents has been investigated. Likewise, the effect of primary prevention (exposure reduction) and secondary prevention (relocation) has been studied. Finally, the association between the incidence of community-acquired pneumonia and exposure to pollutants encountered at work in the smelting industry and the results from mortality studies are reported. Summary It appears that exposure to emissions of pollutants in the smelting industry is associated with respiratory symptoms, including asthma, lung function decline and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depending on the type of production. Moreover, it is possible that these exposures may enhance the risk of infectious pneumonia.