Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expression of Myostatin and Follistatin in Mdx Mice, an Animal Model for Muscular Dystrophy

Follistatin is a functional antagonist of several members of the TGF-&bgr; family of secreted signaling factors, including myostatin, the most powerful inhibitor of muscle growth characterized to date. Myostatin inhibition offers a novel therapeutic strategy for muscular dystrophy by restoring skeletal muscle mass and suppressing the progression of muscle degeneration. To assess the potential benefits of follistatin in treating muscle degenerative diseases, we examined the expression of myostatin and follistatin in Mdx mice, a model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and in B10 mice as a control. Our results demonstrated a temporary and coincident expression of follistatin and myostatin in both mouse strains, but this expression was significantly higher in Mdx mice than in B10 mice. The maximum expression of follistatin and myostatin in the presence of restoring necrotic muscle was detected 4 weeks after birth in Mdx mice. Interestingly, during the stage of complete regeneration, the absence of myostatin and follistatin proteins and a marked decrease in the expression of both genes were observed 9 weeks after birth in both mouse strains. These findings suggest that follistatin not only blocks myostatin but also allows other activators to function in muscle development, emphasizing that follistatin could be a very potent molecule in combating muscle loss during dystrophies and muscle ageing, disuse, or denervation.
A new model for programming distributed computer based on GPU chip and mobile Agent

In this paper, we present a new model to describe and program a parallel clusters using graphic processing unit, multi agent and distributed systems. The model are based physically on a multitude of computer nodes arranged and coupled according to the paradigm and topology of multi agent system. Basing on the agent modelling technique and on the java and C/C++ language, we develop a framework to build efficient clusters that can run cumbersome applications which have parallel components targeted for execution on GPUs. Furthermore, an illustrative example with k-means algorithm will be given to show how cumbersome algorithm can be accelerated by our model.
The School as a Workplace: What Matters to Teachers?.

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to determine whether differences in teachers' perceptions of their jobs primarily reflect differences in the teachers themselves, or whether the variance in attitudes also re2lects significant differeaces in the characteristics of schools as workplaces. Data on seven dimensions of job satisfaction (teacher attitude's toward the school principal, curriculum, materials and procedures, colleagues, community attitudes toward education, teaching per se, and compensation) were collected from a questionnaire administered to 650 public school teachers in seven schools of a Midwest urban school district. Data analysis proceeded in two steps: (1) investigation of whether teachers in different schools have significantly different levels of job satisfaction. For all seven schools this significance did exist, indicating that the prediction of a teacher's job satisfaction necessitated knowing at which school the teacher worked; (2) Investigation of attributes affecting each dimension of job satisfaction. A priority specifications of characteristics believed to be determinants of each dimension of job satisfaction were made and compared to teacher questionnaire responses, and the resulting general themes presented. Teacher demographic characteristics and school characteristics explained only some variance in job satisfaction, suggesting a need for more detailed information on these characteristics and on the attitudes teachers bring to their jobs. Implications of the report indicate a need to recognize a multifaceted concept of job satisfaction, withsschool policies designed to take into account possible differential effects on various abrects of satisfaction. Tables presentins questionnaire results are appended. (MB)
Core–shell magnetic nanoparticles display synergistic antibacterial effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus when combined with cathelicidin LL-37 or selected ceragenins

Core–shell magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are promising candidates in the development of new treatment methods against infections, including those caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. In this study, the bactericidal activity of human antibacterial peptide cathelicidin LL-37, synthetic ceragenins CSA-13 and CSA-131, and classical antibiotics vancomycin and colistin, against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Xen 30 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Xen 5, was assessed alone and in combination with core–shell MNPs. Fractional inhibitory concentration index and fractional bactericidal concentration index were determined by microdilution methods. The potential of combined therapy using nanomaterials and selected antibiotics was confirmed using chemiluminescence measurements. Additionally, the ability of tested agents to prevent bacterial biofilm formation was evaluated using crystal violet staining. In most conditions, synergistic or additive effects were observed when combinations of core–shell MNPs with ceragenins or classical antibiotics were used. Our study revealed that a mixture of membrane-active agents such as LL-37 peptide or ceragenin CSA-13 with MNPs potentialized their antibacterial properties and might be considered as a method of delaying and overcoming bacterial drug resistance.
Crash Probability and Error Rates for Head-On Collisions Based on Stochastic Analyses

Active safety systems are developed in the automotive industry to help avoid or mitigate collisions. To develop collision-avoidance or mitigation systems, an appropriate lead time must be determined to provide a warning or action with acceptable false positive and negative rates. There has been much research on the lead time for the rear-end collision, but the lead time for the head-on collision has not been studied much because of the complexity of the loadcase. In this paper, the crash probabilities of the head-on collision were estimated, and adaptive lead times were proposed. In addition, false positive and false negative rates were assessed for some precrash sensor errors. For the assessment, an analytical vehicle model was validated against static and dynamic test data, and the driver's behaviors in normal and evasive maneuvers were surveyed and modeled. Using the analytical vehicle model and the driver models, stochastic analyses were conducted to assess the crash probability, the adaptive lead times, and the error rates.
The Liberalization of Postal Services – Israeli and European Perspectives

On 7 December 2005 the Minister of Communications and the Minister of Finance signed a decree in accordance with which the Israeli Postal Authority was transformed into Israel Post Ltd., a government-owned company, as of 1 March 2006. Prior to that date, on 31 January 2006, the postal services underwent an important liberalization phase, whereby 50% of the bulk mail were officially opened to competition.The European liberalization process has served as a model for the Israeli legislature. There is however a big difference. The Israeli legislature does not have the benefit (or burden) of the need to comply with the competition rules of the EC Treaty, especially those concerning undertakings entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest, which have played a vital role in shaping the liberalization process in Europe. Therefore, despite the similarity in the overall aim to be achieved (better, more efficient and more cost-effective postal services), the debate regarding how this should be done is markedly different and so are the consequences for the liberalization process.This paper critically analyzes, compares and evaluates the role of the legislature, the regulator and the courts in the liberalization process of postal services in the European Union and in Israel.
Nurse-Staffing Levels and the Quality of Care in Hospitals

Background It is uncertain whether lower levels of staffing by nurses at hospitals are associated with an increased risk that patients will have complications or die. Methods We used administrative data from 1997 for 799 hospitals in 11 states (covering 5,075,969 discharges of medical patients and 1,104,659 discharges of surgical patients) to examine the relation between the amount of care provided by nurses at the hospital and patients' outcomes. We conducted regression analyses in which we controlled for patients' risk of adverse outcomes, differences in the nursing care needed for each hospital's patients, and other variables. Results The mean number of hours of nursing care per patient-day was 11.4, of which 7.8 hours were provided by registered nurses, 1.2 hours by licensed practical nurses, and 2.4 hours by nurses' aides. Among medical patients, a higher proportion of hours of care per day provided by registered nurses and a greater absolute number of hours of care per day provided by registered nur.
A Robust Hybrid Steganography Mechanism for Security in Data Communication Networks

Steganography is an art and science of hiding the secret information into a carrier such as image, audio etc. in order to conceal the existence of the data. It can be broadly classified into two categories: Spatial (Time) and Frequency domain. The former technique preserves the quality of the cover image while the latter technique provides robustness during the embedding process. As mentioned, both the techniques have their certain pros. Therefore, in this paper a hybrid scheme based on the merits of the two has been proposed. The scheme is implemented in MATLAB-10 and various performance metrics such as Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Square Error (MSE), Correlation coefficient, Time Complexity, Bit Error Rate(BER), effect of Gaussian Noise & salt & paper noise on image are used to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed mechanism in comparison to others in literature. The results show that the proposed mechanism is highly robust to various kinds of attacks and has low time complexity. Index Terms – Time Complexity, Cropping attack, Noise, Steganography.
The Realized Yield Effect of Genetically Engineered Crops: U.S. Maize and Soybean

Yield improvements are critical to ensuring food security for a growing world population especially in view of the increasing potential for use of land in biofuel production. Efforts to sustain the impressive rate of past productivity gains, epitomized by such successes as the Green revolution, are bound to rely on biotechnology innovations such as those responsible for the development of genetically engineered (GE) crops. Some argue that the use of biotechnology can substantially improve yields relative to the trajectory established by traditional breeding in the 20th century. Because U.S. adoption of GE varieties has been very strong since their introduction in the late 1990s, we investigated empirically whether and to what extent the GE technology has improved realized yields. We study this question for nonirrigated U.S. maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr. ) yields over 1964 through 2010, having controlled for local effects, weather, fertilization, and the preexisting (non-GE) crop improvement trend. For maize we find that GE varieties have increased realized yields, with a stronger gain in the Central Corn Belt (CCB). For soybeans, GE varieties appear to have slightly reduced yields. For both crops we find a strong trend in yield growth, which may have accelerated in recent years within the CCB. However, the combined effects of yield trend and GE adoption are predicted to fall short of the growth rate envisioned by industry projections.
Neglected Tropical Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: Review of Their Prevalence, Distribution, and Disease Burden

The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are the most common conditions affecting the poorest 500 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and together produce a burden of disease that may be equivalent to up to one-half of SSA's malaria disease burden and more than double that caused by tuberculosis. Approximately 85% of the NTD disease burden results from helminth infections. Hookworm infection occurs in almost half of SSA's poorest people, including 40–50 million school-aged children and 7 million pregnant women in whom it is a leading cause of anemia. Schistosomiasis is the second most prevalent NTD after hookworm (192 million cases), accounting for 93% of the world's number of cases and possibly associated with increased horizontal transmission of HIV/AIDS. Lymphatic filariasis (46–51 million cases) and onchocerciasis (37 million cases) are also widespread in SSA, each disease representing a significant cause of disability and reduction in the region's agricultural productivity. There is a dearth of information on Africa's non-helminth NTDs. The protozoan infections, human African trypanosomiasis and visceral leishmaniasis, affect almost 100,000 people, primarily in areas of conflict in SSA where they cause high mortality, and where trachoma is the most prevalent bacterial NTD (30 million cases). However, there are little or no data on some very important protozoan infections, e.g., amebiasis and toxoplasmosis; bacterial infections, e.g., typhoid fever and non-typhoidal salmonellosis, the tick-borne bacterial zoonoses, and non-tuberculosis mycobaterial infections; and arboviral infections. Thus, the overall burden of Africa's NTDs may be severely underestimated. A full assessment is an important step for disease control priorities, particularly in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the greatest number of NTDs may occur.
Metaheuristics for the DNA Fragment Assembly Problem

As more research centers embark on sequencing new genomes, the problem of DNA fragment assembly for shotgun sequencing is growing in importance and complexity. Accurate and fast assembly is a crucial part of any sequencing project and since the DNA fragment assembly problem is NPhard, exact solutions are very difficult to obtain. Various heuristics were designed for solving the fragment assembly problem. But, in general, they are unable to sequence very large DNA molecules. In this work, we present several methods, a canonical genetic algorithm, a CHC method, a scatter search algorithm, and a simulated annealing, to solve accurately problem instances that are 77K base pairs long.
On Energy Detection for MIMO Decision Fusion in Wireless Sensor Networks Over NLOS Fading

We analyze sufficiency and optimality of energy detection (ED) for decision fusion. The considered scenario assumes on-off keying (OOK), statistical channel state information and a fusion center (FC) equipped with multiple antennas. The fading is modeled through zero-mean Gaussian mixtures (GM) to deal with arbitrary non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments. Theoretical findings are supported by numerical simulations.
SLAM-based grasping framework for robotic arm navigation and object model construction

A typical grasping system consists of three subtasks: object model acquisition, grasping point calculation and navigation of the robotic arm. These tasks are usually considered separately. In this paper, we present a framework that combines these steps together. Our main motivation is that as the robot are moving, new information should be obtained from the sensor and these information should be used to increase accuracy of the model of the object and the current position of the robot. In other words, our framework employs SLAM approach. We also provide several real world implementations of our framework and compare them to illustrate the benefit of our framework. In particular, we install a depth camera DepthSense DS325 on a Katana robotic arm and use this system to simulate the navigation of the robotic arm for grasping. The comparison of our implementation confirms effectiveness of our framework.
Verification Techniques for COTS Dedication of Commercial FPGA Tools

FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) has received much attention from nuclear industry as an alternative platform of digital I&C (Instrumentation & Control) in nuclear power plants [1,2]. Commercial FPGA synthesis tools synthesize gate-level designs mechanically from RTL (Register Transistor Logic) designs modeled with HDLs (Hardware Description Languages). Nuclear regulation authorities [3], however, require more considerate demonstration of the correctness of the mechanical logic synthesis (i.e., COTS dedication), even if the FPGA industry have acknowledged them empirically as correct and safe processes and tools. While the synthesis can be formally verified with compiler verification techniques [4] directly, it is hard to apply them to the products of 3rd-party developers. An alternative solution we propose is to do the demonstration indirectly. For a specific input program (e.g., Verilog program), if a synthesis tool produces a program (e.g., Netlist) which shows the same behavior for all possible cases, we can claim that the tool works correctly at least for the program. We could use various commercial formal verification tools such as ‘FormalPro’, ‘Encounter Conformal EC’ and ‘Formality,’ which can be used as a means of the indirect demonstration. They are, however, too casesensitive to use naively, as depending on the combination of synthesis and verification tools. For example, we cannot use ‘FormalPro’ for ‘Actel Libero IDE’ with ‘Synopsys Synplify Pro’ synthesizer, which is the combination of the project we are working with. We need to develop a new customized solution for the combination. We propose a VIS-based correctness verification technique [5] for commercial FPGA logic synthesis. It formally checks the behavioral equivalence between an RTL design (i.e. Verilog) and a subsequently synthesized gate-level design (i.e., Netlist) with the support of two transformations making the VIS verification possible. The technique targets the combination of ‘Actel Libero IDE’ and ‘Synopsys Synplify Pro’ synthesizer, which other commercial verification tools could not deal with. If the formal equivalence checking succeeds, we can assure that the logic synthesis worked correctly. A case study we conducted also showed that the VIS-based correctness verification technique can be used positively as a means of demonstrating the correctness [6] of commercial FPGA synthesis tools of 3rd-party developers.
Quality of life of adult congenital heart disease patients: a systematic review of the literature

Abstract Aims This review explores the quality of life of adult congenital heart disease patients and the relationship between disease severity and quality of life. Methods We searched seven electronic databases and the bibliography of articles. The 31 selected studies fulfilled the following criteria: adult population; quantitative; assessment of quality of life and/or impact of disease severity on quality of life using validated measures; English language. Data extraction forms were used to summarise the results. Results There are evident methodological limitations within the reviewed studies such as heterogeneous populations, designs, and quality of life conceptualisations and measurements. Despite these problems, findings suggest that the quality of life of adult congenital heart disease patients is compromised in the physical domain compared with their healthy counterparts, whereas no differences were found in relation to the psychosocial and environmental/occupational domain. Some severity variables appear to be significant correlates of quality of life and could be considered in a future standardised classification of disease severity. Conclusion The methodological limitations of past research in relation to the definition and measurement of quality of life, the study designs, and disease severity classifications need to be addressed in future studies in order to provide robust evidence and valid conclusions in this area of study. This will enable the development of targeted interventions for the improvement of quality of life in the adult population of congenital heart disease patients.
DECENTRALIZED COORDINATED TRANSCEIVER DESIGN WITH LARGE ANTENNA ARRAYS

The benefits of MIMO technology have made it a solution for the present and future wireless networking demands. Increasing the number of antennas is an intuitive approach for boosting the network capacity; however, processing load and implementation limitations put a practical bound on this goal. Recently a solution known as massive MIMO has shown that a very large antenna array at the base station can simplify the processing, in a way that even matched filter (MF) can be used for detection purpose. The ultimate performance of massive MIMO can be achieved only under some optimistic assumptions about the channel and hardware deployment. In practice, there are some restrictions that do not allow the ultimate performance for a massive MIMO system. Under some realistic assumptions, an efficient use of all the resources becomes important in a way that the application of simple algorithms like MF and zero forcing (ZF) becomes questionable. Thus, in this thesis work, more efficient approach based on optimal minimum power beamforming is considered as the benchmark. The idea is to investigate the behavior of this algorithm and the performance differences with respect to some sub-optimal methods when the system dimensions grow large. Two solutions for the minimum power beamforming are reviewed (SOCP and uplink-downlink duality). The solution that is on focus is based on the second order cone programming (SOCP). Intercell interference(ICI) plays a critical role in the SOCP algorithm as it couples the sub-problems at the base stations. Thus, a large dimension approximation for the optimal ICI, using random matrix theory tools, is derived which tackles both of the processing simplification and the backhaul exchange rate reduction goals. This approximation allows derivation of an approximated optimal intercell interference based on the channel statistics that results a procedure for decoupling the subproblems at base stations. The comparison between the SOCP algorithm and the sub-optimal methods is carried out via simulation. The results show that the performance gap with respect to the sub-optimal methods grows when correlation between the antenna elements at the BS side increase. In a network simulation with 7 cell and 28 users, this gap remains significant even with 100 antennas at the BS side. These performance differences justify the application of more complex algorithms like SOCP for a MIMO system with a large antenna array when the practical restrictions are taken into account.
Applications of ratio fluorescence microscopy in the study of cell physiology

Quantitative fluorescence microscopy is becoming an increasingly important tool in the study of cell biology. Fluorescence microscopy has long been used for qualitative characterizations of subcellular distributions of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and ions, but quantifying these distributions is complicated by a variety of optical, biological, and physical factors. Many factors that complicate quantification of fluorescence in cells can be circumvented by analyzing fluorescence ratios derived from pairs of fluorescence images. In this review we will discuss the factors that affect fluorescence quantification, the advantages of quantifying fluorescence as a ratio, and give examples of how fluorescence ratio microscopy is being applied in studies of cell biology. —Dunn, K. W. , Mayor, S. , Myers, J. N. , Maxfield, F. R. Applications of ratio fluorescence microscopy in the study of cell physiology. FASEB J. 8: 573‐582; 1994.