Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6: questions and answers

Chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 (ciHHV‐6) is a condition in which the complete HHV‐6 genome is integrated into the host germ line genome and is vertically transmitted in a Mendelian manner. The condition is found in less than 1% of controls in the USA and UK, but has been found at a somewhat higher prevalence in transplant recipients and other patient populations in several small studies. HHV‐6 levels in whole blood that exceed 5.5 log10 copies/ml are strongly suggestive of ciHHV‐6. Monitoring DNA load in plasma and serum is unreliable, both for identifying and for monitoring subjects with ciHHV‐6 due to cell lysis and release of cellular DNA. High HHV‐6 DNA loads associated with ciHHV‐6 can lead to erroneous diagnosis of active infection. Transplant recipients with ciHHV‐6 may be at increased risk for bacterial infection and graft rejection. ciHHV‐6 can be induced to a state of active viral replication in vitro. It is not known whether ciHHV‐6 individuals are put at clinical risk by the use of drugs that have been associated with HHV‐6 reactivation in vivo or in vitro. Nonetheless, we urge careful observation when use of such drugs is indicated in individuals known to have ciHHV‐6. Little is known about whether individuals with ciHHV‐6 develop immune tolerance for viral proteins. Further research is needed to determine the role of ciHHV‐6 in disease. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Les compétences stratégiques des dirigeants : application au cas des entreprises canadiennes de biotechnologie

Prahalad et Hamel (1990) ont fait ressortir l'importance des competences strategiques de la firme. L'objectif de cette these est d'identifier les competences dont doivent faire preuve les dirigeants de firmes performantes. Notre choix s'est fixe sur des PME de biotechnologie etant donne l'essor que prend ce secteur a l'echelle mondiale, les caracteristiques particulieres de ce secteur et le lien tres etroit entre les competences des dirigeants en place et celles de la firme. Les theories fondees sur les competences, ont servi de cadre conceptuel pour notre recherche. 42 entrevues ont ete conduites aupres de dirigeants afin d'identifier les competences dont ils ont du faire preuve lors de diverses situations de gestion. Le corpus acte analyse avec un logiciel d'analyse semantique. Une cartographie des reseaux de similitudes de competences a pu etre realisee afin d'etablir les relations entre differentes variables. Les resultats obtenus ont permis de valider plusieurs competences strategiques tirees de notre revue de litterature. Par contre, un certain nombre de competences mises en evidence par la litterature ne se retrouvent pas dans nos resultats.
Interaction between quality control systems for ER protein folding and RNA biogenesis

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the intracellular organelle responsible for the synthesis, folding and assembly of proteins destined for secretion and the endomembrane system of the cell. ER quality control (ERQC) is an intensively studied surveillance mechanism that selectively degrades misfolded proteins to ensure that only properly folded proteins exit the ER en route to the Golgi compartment. Proper protein folding is indispensable for the differentiation and function of cells that secrete high levels of protein and defects in protein folding are implicated in many pathologies, including metabolic, genetic, neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases. Accumulation of misfolded proteins in the ER activates an adaptive set of signaling pathways, collectively known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), to resolve protein misfolding and restore ER homeostasis. Nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD) is an RNA surveillance system that selectively degrades nascent mRNAs containing premature termination codons (PTCs). Recently, we used a genetic screen to identify genes that interact with UPR signaling in C. elegans. These studies identified NMD-associated genes that are required for ER protein folding homeostasis. These findings link the quality control systems required for ER protein folding and RNA biogenesis, provide new insights into mechanisms of ERQC and have implications on diseases of ER dysfunction and therapeutic approaches based on NMD inhibition. Here, we discuss the biological significance of these findings and future directions for study.
Evidence for the Use of Ultrasound in Neuraxial Blocks

Goals: To summarize the existing evidence behind the role of ultrasonography in neuraxial anesthesia techniques. Methods: A literature search of the MEDLINE, PubMed, ACP Journal Club databases, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was performed using the term ultrasonography combined with each of the following: spinal, intrathecal, epidural, and lumbar puncture. Only studies related to regional anesthesia or acute pain practice were included. Case reports and letters to the editor were excluded. Seventeen relevant studies were identified and included in this review. Results: Neuraxial ultrasonography is a recent development in regional anesthesia practice. Most clinical studies to date come from a limited number of centers and have been performed by very few and highly experienced operators. The existing evidence may be classified in 2 main content areas: (a) ultrasound-assisted neuraxial techniques and (b) real-time ultrasound-guided neuraxial techniques. (a) Ultrasound-assisted neuraxial techniques: Two scanning planes have been identified to offer useful acoustic windows for the assessment of spinal sonoanatomy providing complementary information: A parasagittal scanning plane (paramedian, longitudinal window) and an axial plane (transverse midline window). A preprocedure ultrasound can more accurately determine the location of a specific vertebral interspace than physical examination alone. The epidural and intrathecal spaces may be identified by ultrasonography, and the skin-to-epidural space or skin-to-intrathecal space distances may be accurately predicted. The use of a preprocedure ultrasound is associated with a lower number of attempts and a lower number of interspaces attempted by experienced anesthesiologists inserting an epidural catheter for labor analgesia. It may improve learning curves of junior trainees. (b) Real-time ultrasound-guided neuraxial techniques: Fewer and more recent studies report the use of this modality, mostly in the pediatric population. When performed by experienced anesthesiologists on selected patients with otherwise normal anatomy, the resulting efficacy is similar to that of standard techniques, but it may result in a shorter procedure time and less instances of "bony contact. " A paucity of data exists in the nonobstetric adult population and on the impact of ultrasound use on safety profile. Conclusions: Neuraxial ultrasonography has been recently introduced to regional anesthesia practice. The limited data available to date suggest that it is a useful adjunct to physical examination, allowing for a highly precise identification of regional landmarks and a precise estimation of epidural space depth, thus facilitating epidural catheter insertion. Further research is needed to conclusively establish its impact on procedure success and safety profile, particularly in the adult nonobstetric population.
No surprise - fixed sequence event-related potentials for brain-computer interfaces

Introduction: In the field of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), the original two-class oddball paradigm has been extended to multiple stimuli with balanced probabilities and random presentation sequences. Exploiting the differences between standard and deviant ERP responses, these multi-class paradigms are suitable for communication and control. Methods: The present study investigates the effect of giving up the randomness of stimulation sequences in favor of a repeated, predictable pattern. Data of healthy subjects (n=10) who performed a single session with a 6-class spatial auditory ERP paradigm were analyzed offline. Their auditory evoked potentials (AEP) resulting from the potentially simpler task (using fixed sequences) are compared with the AEP evoked by pseudo-randomized stimulation sequences. Results: Class-discriminative EEG responses between target and non-target stimuli were observed for both conditions. The binary classification error estimated for standard epochs of was comparable for both conditions (random: 24%, fixed: 25%). Expanding the standard epochs to include pre-stimulus intervals, we found that the regular structure of the fixed sequence can be exploited. Compared to the standard epoch, the MSE improves by 7%, while in the random condition an improvement could not be observed.
The Rates of Ca2+ Dissociation and Cross-bridge Detachment from Ventricular Myofibrils as Reported by a Fluorescent Cardiac Troponin C*

Background: The rate-limiting step of cardiac muscle relaxation is not completely understood. Results: We were able to measure two proposed rate-limiting steps of relaxation in ventricular myofibrils. Conclusion: The rate of Ca2+ dissociation from troponin C may be rate-limiting during myofilament inactivation under physiological conditions. Significance: Strategies that target both troponin C and myosin will be needed to treat diastolic dysfunction. The rate-limiting step of cardiac muscle relaxation has been proposed to reside in the myofilament. Both the rates of cross-bridge detachment and Ca2+ dissociation from troponin C (TnC) have been hypothesized to rate-limit myofilament inactivation. In this study we used a fluorescent TnC to measure both the rate of Ca2+ dissociation from TnC and the rate of cross-bridge detachment from several different species of ventricular myofibrils. The fluorescently labeled TnC was sensitive to both Ca2+ dissociation and cross-bridge detachment at low Ca2+ (presence of EGTA), allowing for a direct comparison between the two proposed rates of myofilament inactivation. Unlike Ca2+ dissociation from TnC, cross-bridge detachment varied in myofibrils from different species and was rate-limited by ADP release. At subphysiological temperatures (<20 °C), the rate of Ca2+ dissociation from TnC was faster than the rate of cross-bridge detachment in the presence of ADP. These results support the hypothesis that cross-bridge detachment rate-limits relaxation. However, Ca2+ dissociation from TnC was not as temperature-sensitive as cross-bridge detachment. At a near physiological temperature (35 °C) and ADP, the rate of cross-bridge detachment may actually be faster than the rate of Ca2+ dissociation. This provides evidence that there may not be a simple, single rate-limiting step of myofilament inactivation.
Low complexity MPPT techniques for PV module converters

The paper discusses three maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques: voltage linear reference, ripple correlation and incremental conductance. Their minimum complexity makes them ideal candidates for low cost on-chip integration and suggests their employment in photovoltaic (PV) module applications. The basic operating principle, the main limitations and the expected effectiveness of each technique are illustrated. Experimental verification of the attainable performance from proof of concept circuit implementations is also provided.
Equivalence of regular matrix pencil DAE systems by bisimulation

In this paper, we define the notion of bisimulation relations for DAE systems having a regular matrix pencil. It is well-known that under the assumption of regularity of the matrix pencil the state vector of the DAE system can be split into two parts: one corresponding to the “ordinary” input-state-output behavior corresponding to a standard proper transfer matrix, and the other one related to a polynomial transfer matrix. Employing the corresponding Wong sequences, we develop the notion of bisimulation relation between two regular matrix pencil DAE systems, being the direct product of two partial bisimulation relations corresponding to the fast and the slow subsystems.
Sclerostin Is an Osteocyte-expressed Negative Regulator of Bone Formation, But Not a Classical BMP Antagonist

Sclerosteosis, a skeletal disorder characterized by high bone mass due to increased osteoblast activity, is caused by loss of the SOST gene product, sclerostin. The localization in bone and the mechanism of action of sclerostin are not yet known, but it has been hypothesized that it may act as a bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) antagonist. We show here that SOST/sclerostin is expressed exclusively by osteocytes in mouse and human bone and inhibits the differentiation and mineralization of murine preosteoblastic cells (KS483). Although sclerostin shares some of the actions of the BMP antagonist noggin, we show here that it also has actions distinctly different from it. In contrast to noggin, sclerostin did not inhibit basal alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in KS483 cells, nor did it antagonize BMP-stimulated ALP activity in mouse C2C12 cells. In addition, sclerostin had no effect on BMP-stimulated Smad phosphorylation and direct transcriptional activation of MSX-2 and BMP response element reporter constructs in KS483 cells. Its unique localization and action on osteoblasts suggest that sclerostin may be the previously proposed osteocyte-derived factor that is transported to osteoblasts at the bone surface and inhibits bone formation.
Improving the Prediction accuracy of Software Development Cost Models

Software development projects are notorious for being completed behind schedule and over budget and for often failing to meet user requirements. A variety of cost estimation models have been proposed to predict development costs early in the lifecycle with the hope of managing the project well within time and budget. However, studies have reported rather high error rates of prediction even in the case of the well-established and widely acknowledged models. This study focuses on the improvement and fine-tuning of the COCOMO 81 model through the application of the recently developed Swarm Intelligence techniques. Recent studies have used data mining techniques to improve the prediction accuracy of COCOMO 81. Our research reconfirms these studies and makes further improvement in the prediction accuracy. The wrapper data mining method is slow and is heavily dependent on the domain experts' heuristics. The Particle Swarm Optimization POS meta-heuristic algorithm is fast converging and relies neither on the knowledge of the problem nor on the experts' heuristics, making its application wide and extensive.
Methodology For Behavioral Synthesis-based Algorithm-level Design Space Exploration: DCT Case Study

Numerous fast algorithms for the DiscreteCosine Transform (DCT) have been proposed. Until recently, it has been difficult to compare different DCT algorithms and select one which is best suitedfor implementation under a given set of design goals.We propose an approach for design space explorationat the algorithm and behavioral levels using behavioral synthesis tools and demonstrate its effectiveness for designing DCT ASIC. In particular, we study andcompare the following nine DCT algorithms: Lee's,Wang's, DIT, DFT, Arai's, DIF, Vetterli's, planar rotation, and direct algorithm. The main conclusions of this study are (i) the best choice among fast DCT algorithms depends on a particular set of design goals and constraints and (ii) almost always more than anorder of magnitude improvement can be achieved using algorithm and behavioral design space exploration.
The Contribution of Brainstem and Cerebellar Pathways to Auditory Recognition

The cerebellum has been known to play an important role in motor functions for many years. More recently its role has been expanded to include a range of cognitive and sensory-motor processes, and substantial neuroimaging and clinical evidence now points to cerebellar involvement in most auditory processing tasks. In particular, an increase in the size of the cerebellum over recent human evolution has been attributed in part to the development of speech. Despite this, the auditory cognition literature has largely overlooked afferent auditory connections to the cerebellum that have been implicated in acoustically conditioned reflexes in animals, and could subserve speech and other auditory processing in humans. This review expands our understanding of auditory processing by incorporating cerebellar pathways into the anatomy and functions of the human auditory system. We reason that plasticity in the cerebellar pathways underpins implicit learning of spectrotemporal information necessary for sound and speech recognition. Once learnt, this information automatically recognizes incoming auditory signals and predicts likely subsequent information based on previous experience. Since sound recognition processes involving the brainstem and cerebellum initiate early in auditory processing, learnt information stored in cerebellar memory templates could then support a range of auditory processing functions such as streaming, habituation, the integration of auditory feature information such as pitch, and the recognition of vocal communications.
Benchmarking cloud security level agreements using quantitative policy trees

While the many economic and technological advantages of Cloud computing are apparent, the migration of key sector applications onto it has been limited, in part, due to the lack of security assurance on the Cloud Service Provider (CSP). However, the recent efforts on specification of security statements in Service Level Agreements, also known as "Security Level Agreements" or SecLAs is a positive development. While a consistent notion of Cloud SecLAs is still developing, already some major CSPs are creating and storing their advocated SecLAs in publicly available repositories e.g., the Cloud Security Alliance's "Security, Trust & Assurance Registry" (CSA STAR). While several academic and industrial efforts are developing the methods to build and specify Cloud SecLAs, very few works deal with the techniques to quantitatively reason about SecLAs in order to provide security assurance. This paper proposes a method to benchmark - both quantitatively and qualitatively -- the Cloud SecLAs of one or more CSPs with respect to a user-defined requirement, also in the form of a SecLA. The contributed security benchmark methodology rests on the notion of Quantitative Policy Trees (QPT), a data structure that we propose to represent and systematically reason about SecLAs. In this paper we perform the initial validation of the contributed methodology with respect to another state of the art proposal, which in turn was empirically validated using the SecLAs stored on the CSA STAR repository. Finally, our research also contributes with QUANTS-as-a-Service (QUANTSaaS), a system that implements the proposed Cloud SecLA benchmark methodology.
Comparison of methods to evaluate aspirin-mediated platelet inhibition after percutaneous intervention with stent implantation

Urinary 11-dehydro thromboxane B2 (d-TXB2) concentrations in the highest quartile have been associated with an increased risk of adverse outcomes in patients at high risk for atherothrombotic events. However, the determination of d-TXB2 is time consuming and not suitable for daily clinical routine. We therefore sought to determine the test correlating best with d-TXB2 to estimate aspirin-mediated platelet inhibition in 225 patients on dual antiplatelet therapy after percutaneous intervention with stent implantation. We selected light transmission aggregometry, the VerifyNow aspirin assay, the Platelet Function Analyzer-100, multiple electrode platelet aggregometry (MEA) and Impact-R for comparisons with d-TXB2. Cut-off values for high on-treatment residual arachidonic acid-inducible platelet reactivity (HRPR) were defined according to quartiles of each assay. Sensitivities and specificities of the different platelet function tests were based on d-TXB2 results. The results from all assays correlated poorly with d-TXB2. Only MEA showed a weak, but significant correlation with d-TXB2 (r = 0.14, p = 0.042). Further, the five platelet function tests showed a poor agreement with d-TXB2 regarding the determination of HRPR. Sensitivities and specificities for HRPR ranged from 17.5 to 44.6%, and from 70.8 to 77.9%, respectively. In conclusion, the evaluated assays did not mirror d-TXB2 results, suggesting that thromboxane inhibition can be circumvented in assays that determine platelet function. Therefore, large trials with clinical outcome data are needed to determine the diagnostic value of the various test systems and to define the gold standard method for assessing residual AA-inducible platelet reactivity.
On the quantitative assessment of class model compositions: An exploratory study

Model composition can be viewed in model-driven engineering as an operation where a set of activities should be performed to merge two input models into a single output model. The latter aggregates syntactical and semantic properties from the original models. However, given the growing heterogeneity of model composition strategies, it is particularly challenging for designers to objectively assess them given a particular problem at hand. The key problem is that there is a lack of canonical set of indicators to quantify harmful properties associated with the output models, such as composition conflicts and modularity anomalies. This paper presents an inquisitive study in order to capture an initial set of metrics for assessing and comparing model composition strategies in two case studies. We apply a number of metrics to quantify different conflict types and modularity properties arising at composite class models produced with override and merge-based strategies. We have observed that some of the quantitative indicators were effective to pinpoint when a model composition strategy is not properly chosen. In some cases, the output models exhibited non-obvious undesirable conflicts and anti-modularity factors.
WordNet: An electronic lexical database. Christiane Fellbaum (Ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. Pp. 423.

WordNet is an on-line relational database of the English lexicon developed by George Miller and coworkers at Princeton University (Miller, Beckwith, Fellbaum, Gross, & Miller, 1990). The meaning of a particular word in WordNet is expressed principally through its relations to other words and sets of synonyms, with the structure of the database reflecting the current psycholinguistic understanding of the mental lexicon.
Topic taxonomy adaptation for group profiling

A topic taxonomy is an effective representation that describes salient features of virtual groups or online communities. A topic taxonomy consists of topic nodes. Each internal node is defined by its vertical path (i.e., ancestor and child nodes) and its horizonal list of attributes (or terms). In a text-dominant environment, a topic taxonomy can be used to flexibly describe a group's interests with varying granularity. However, the stagnant nature of a taxonomy may fail to timely capture the dynamic change of a group's interest. This article addresses the problem of how to adapt a topic taxonomy to the accumulated data that reflects the change of a group's interest to achieve dynamic group profiling. We first discuss the issues related to topic taxonomy. We next formulate taxonomy adaptation as an optimization problem to find the taxonomy that best fits the data. We then present a viable algorithm that can efficiently accomplish taxonomy adaptation. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate our approach's efficacy for group profiling, compare the approach with some alternatives, and study its performance for dynamic group profiling. While pointing out various applications of taxonomy adaption, we suggest some future work that can take advantage of burgeoning Web 2.0 services for online targeted marketing, counterterrorism in connecting dots, and community tracking.