Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Startle Disease Mutation E103K Impairs Activation of Human Homomeric α1 Glycine Receptors by Disrupting an Intersubunit Salt Bridge across the Agonist Binding Site

Glycine receptors (GlyR) belong to the pentameric ligand-gated ion channel (pLGIC) superfamily and mediate fast inhibitory transmission in the vertebrate CNS. Disruption of glycinergic transmission by inherited mutations produces startle disease in man. Many startle mutations are in GlyRs and provide useful clues to the function of the channel domains. E103K is one of few startle mutations found in the extracellular agonist binding site of the channel, in loop A of the principal side of the subunit interface. Homology modeling shows that the side chain of Glu-103 is close to that of Arg-131, in loop E of the complementary side of the binding site, and may form a salt bridge at the back of the binding site, constraining its size. We investigated this hypothesis in recombinant human α1 GlyR by site-directed mutagenesis and functional measurements of agonist efficacy and potency by whole cell patch clamp and single channel recording. Despite its position near the binding site, E103K causes hyperekplexia by impairing the efficacy of glycine, its ability to gate the channel once bound, which is very high in wild type GlyR. Mutating Glu-103 and Arg-131 caused various degrees of loss-of-function in the action of glycine, whereas mutations in Arg-131 enhanced the efficacy of the slightly bigger partial agonist sarcosine (N-methylglycine). The effects of the single charge-swapping mutations of these two residues were largely rescued in the double mutant, supporting the possibility that they interact via a salt bridge that normally constrains the efficacy of larger agonist molecules.
A Service-Oriented Approach for Network-Centric Data Integration and Its Application to Maritime Surveillance

Maritime-surveillance operators still demand for an integrated maritime picture better supporting international coordination for their operations, as looked for in the European area. In this area, many data-integration efforts have been interpreted in the past as the problem of designing, building and maintaining huge centralized repositories. Current research activities are instead leveraging service-oriented principles to achieve more flexible and network-centric solutions to systems and data integration. In this direction, this article reports on the design of a SOA platform, the “Service and Application Integration” (SAI) system, targeting novel approaches for legacy data and systems integration in the maritime surveillance domain. We have developed a proof-of-concept of the main system capabilities to assess feasibility of our approach and to evaluate how the SAI middleware architecture can fit application requirements for dynamic data search, aggregation and delivery in the distributed maritime domain.
Velocity Performance Analysis of a Novel 2-DOF Fully-Decoupled Spherical Parallel Mechanism

In this paper, the spatial model of a novel 2-DOF spherical parallel mechanism named as RR&IILR is established by employing the non-dimensional method to design mechanisms. The method of describing the performance indexes of velocity is given. Also, a novel method to describe the mechanism’s velocity performances by using the mean value of performance indexes and its fluctuation is proposed. And the atlases of velocity performance are drawn in the form of contour series. In addition, the effective ranges of the non-dimensionally designed linkage length are determined under different requirements for velocity performance indexes. This study will pave a way for the application of this kind of mechanism.
Design and Analysis of a 55–71-GHz Compact and Broadband Distributed Active Transformer Power Amplifier in 90-nm CMOS Process

A 55-71-GHz fully integrated power amplifier (PA) using a distributed active transformer (DAT) is implemented in 90-nm RF/MS CMOS technology. The DAT combiner, featuring efficient power combination and direct impedance transformation, is suitable for millimeter-wave (MMW) PA design. Systematic design procedures including an impedance allocation plan, a compensation line, and a gain boosting technique are presented for the MMW DAT PA. The monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) performs a high and flat small-signal gain of 26 plusmn1.5 dB from 55 to 71 GHz, which covers a full band for 60-GHz wireless personal area network applications. Using cascode devices and a DAT four-way power combination, the CMOS PA delivers 14.5- and 18-dBm saturated output power with 10.2% and 12.2% power-added efficiency under 1.8- and 3-V supply voltage, respectively, at 60 GHz. The maximum linear output power (P1 dB) is 14.5 dBm. To the best of our knowledge, the MMIC is the first demonstration of a V-band CMOS PA using a DAT combining scheme with highest linear output power among the reported 60-GHz CMOS PAs to date.
A non-standard-substance pesticide residue qualitative analysis method based on SVM

Currently, most pesticide residue analysis methods are based on mass spectrometry instruments, such as Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analyzers. However, using these methods, user has to send the chemical standard-substances (pure pesticides) and the samples needed checking simultaneously in order to detect the pesticide residues in foods and agricultural products. Support Vector Machines (SVM) is a statistical learning method based on small-sample set. It has the advantages in solving the small-sample set, nonlinear and high dimension problems and is widely used in classification. A non-standard-substance pesticide residue qualitative analysis method (NSS-QAM) is presented in this paper. NSS-QAM transforms qualitative analysis problem into a problem of classification of pesticide residues based on SVM and existing official standards for pesticide residue detection and experiment results. NSS-QAM is divided into two steps. The first one is to let SVM learning according to characteristic parameters of pesticide residue from existing standards and experiment results and get classification model. This step is executed by offline and applies one-versus-one multi-class classification SVM. The second step is to use the model to classify detecting data from GC-MS analyzer and implement qualitative analysis for pesticide residue without using chemical standard-substance. NSS-QAM has been experimented with 1500 samples from 50 pesticides. The classification results demonstrate that NSS-QAM is an effective qualitative analyzing method.
Estimating the financial losses due to bovine fasciolosis in Switzerland

In dairy cattle in Switzerland, the prevalence of infection with Fasciola hepatica is over 16 per cent. Previous studies have suggested that even subclinical infections with liver fluke may induce significant reductions in the performance of cattle. The financial losses attributable to F hepatica were estimated using a simple spreadsheet model to sum the individual losses that have been suggested in the literature. Because there is substantial variability in these production losses, Monte Carlo sampling techniques were used to model this variability. Each cost item and each data item related to the prevalence of F hepatica was assigned a mathematical distribution which took account of the variability of the experimental data and/or the sample size of the data. A total of 10,000 simulations were undertaken, with each item randomly varied through its mathematical distribution on each simulation. The results suggest that the median financial loss due to bovine fasciolosis in Switzerland is approximately €52 million, with probable 95 per cent confidence limits ranging from €22 million to €92 million per annum, which represents a median loss of €299 per infected animal. Most of the losses arise from reduced milk yield and reduced fertility, and smaller losses are due to reduced meat production and the condemnation of livers.
Differences in citation rates by country of origin for papers published in top-ranked medical journals: do they reflect inequalities in access to publication?

Background The acceptance of a paper in a top-ranked journal depends on the importance of the study, and should not depend on its country of origin. If the papers' citation rate is a proxy for their importance, and the threshold for acceptance is unrelated to the country of origin, papers from different countries published in the same journal should have a similar number of citations. Conversely, if the threshold is lowered for some countries, their papers will have a lower mean citation rate. Methods The number of citations and the corresponding author's country were obtained for 4724 papers published between 1998 and 2002 in the British Medical Journal, the Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association and New England Journal of Medicine. Countries were grouped according to the World Bank classification and geographical location: low–middle income countries; high-income European countries; high-income non-European countries; UK and USA. The probability of papers being poorly cited by country of origin was estimated, using domestic papers (British papers published in British journals and US papers published in US journals) as the reference. Results Compared with domestic papers, the OR of being poorly cited was 0.67 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.81) for papers from high-income European countries, 0.97 (0.76 to 1.24) for papers from high-income non-European countries and 1.93 (1.28 to 2.89) for papers from low–middle income countries. Conclusions Papers from different countries published in the same journal have different citation rates. This may reflect difficulties for researchers from some countries to publish their research in leading medical journals.
LEAF SHAPE EVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN GENUS PELARGONIUM L' HER. (GERANIACEAE)

Leaf shapes reflect complex assemblages of shape-determining elements, yet evolutionary studies tend to treat leaf shape as a single attribute, for example cordate or linear. As with all complex structures, individual elements of a leaf could theoretically evolve independently and at different rates to the extent permitted by genetic and functional limitations. We examined relative evolutionary lability of shape-determining elements in the highly diverse South African plant genus Pelargonium (Geraniaceae). We used SIMMAP to calculate Bayesian posterior probabilities for ancestral states of leaf-shape characters for major nodes across multiple phylogenetic trees. Trees were derived from a Bayesian analysis of DNA sequence data from four partitions. We found that shape elements differed in rates of character-state transformations across the tree. Leaf base, apex, and overall outline had low rates. Transformations in venation occurred at slightly higher rates and were associated with shifts in venation among major clades. Leaf margin type and overall leaf size showed intermediate rates, whereas high rates were observed in the extent of lamina lobing and functional leaf size. The results indicate that suites of elements characteristic of the recently evolved xerophytic lineage, for example pinnate venation, dissected lamina, and entire margins, were acquired piecemeal over nested levels of the phylogeny.
Applied research on reflective CORBA in distributed image retrieval system

With the development of Internet multimedia technology and mobile computing, reflective CORBA in distributed image retrieval system is becoming as one part of the system of CBIR (Content-Based Image Retrieval). The reflective middleware is a kind of middleware system which can be investigated and achieved the variability of the system behavior through certain appropriate causal connected itself statements, so it has some characters of openness, configurability and well adaptability to the dynamically changing environment. By analyzing the two-tier structure of reflective middleware, metalevel and grass-roots, calculating reflection and absorption of technology structure and behavior associated with the two specific, distributed image reflective middleware was applied into the feasibility of retrieval system. Finally, some data had been gained and a theoretical foundation has been laid for further research by setting up an experiment environment using OpenCORBA and testing system performance.
Metabolic syndrome with the atypical antipsychotics.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases are important causes of morbidity and mortality among patients with severe mental illnesses. Atypical or second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are associated with obesity and other components of metabolic syndrome, particularly abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism. This review aims to provide a summary of recent evidence on metabolic risks associated with SGAs, current recommendations for metabolic monitoring, and efficacy of treatment options currently available. RECENT FINDINGS Studies have identified younger, antipsychotic-naive patients with first-episode psychosis as a population vulnerable to adverse metabolic effects from SGAs. These patients gained more weight and developed evident lipid and glucose abnormalities as soon as 8-12 weeks after treatment initiation. Findings are more striking among children and adolescents. The differential effects of various SGAs are well described, with clozapine and olanzapine associated with the highest metabolic risk. In addition to behavioral therapy, emerging data suggest that pharmacological therapy, most notably metformin, is efficacious in the treatment and possibly prevention of SGA-associated metabolic derangements. SUMMARY More data have become available on the burden from metabolic complications associated with SGAs. New and effective treatment options are required in the near future to improve cardiovascular health in this susceptible population.
The Effects of Isoflurane and Halothane on Left Ventricular Afterload in Dogs with Dilated Cardiomyopathy

The effects of volatile anesthetics, including isoflurane (ISO) and halothane (HAL), on determinants of left ventricular (LV) afterload have not been comprehensively described in experimental models of, or patients with, heart failure.We tested the hypothesis that ISO and HAL produce beneficial alterations in LV afterload when evaluated with aortic input impedance and interpreted using a three-element Windkessel model in dogs before and after development of pacing-induced cardiomyopathy. Hemodynamics and aortic pressure and blood flow waveforms were recorded in the conscious state and during 1.1- and 1.5-minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration (MAC) ISO and HAL anesthesia on separate days in chronically instrumented dogs (n = 6). Dogs were then paced at 220-240 bpm for 20 +/- 3 days (mean = SEM) to develop cardiomyopathy, and the experiments were repeated after pacing had been temporarily discontinued. ISO decreased mean arterial pressure (MAP), mean aortic blood flow (MAQ), and total arterial resistance (R) and increased total arterial compliance (C) and characteristic aortic impedance (Zc) in dogs before pacing. HAL decreased MAP and MAQ and increased C but did not alter R and Zc. Chronic rapid LV pacing increased HR and LV end-diastolic pressure and decreased MAP, LV systolic pressure, and the peak rate of increase of LV pressure. MAQ, C, R, and Zc were unchanged. ISO and HAL decreased arterial pressure but did not affect C and Zc in the presence of LV dysfunction. HAL, but not ISO, increased R at 1.1 MAC, which indicates that this drug increases resistance to LV ejection. In contrast to findings in normal dogs, these results indicate that neither ISO nor HAL reduce arterial hydraulic resistance to LV ejection or favorably improve the rectifying properties of the aorta in dogs with pacing-induced cardiomyopathy. Implications: Isoflurane and halothane produce favorable alterations in the determinants of left ventricular afterload before, but not after, the production of experimental left ventricular dysfunction by sustained, rapid cardiac pacing in chronically instrumented dogs. (Anesth Analg 1997;85:979-86)
DNA Microarray‐based ecotoxicological biomarker discovery in a small fish model species

As potential biomarkers, gene classifiers are gene expression signatures or patterns capable of distinguishing biological samples belonging to different classes or conditions. This is the second of two papers on profiling gene expression in zebrafish (Danio rerio) treated with endocrine‐disrupting chemicals of different modes of action, with a focus on comparative analysis of microarray data for gene classifier discovery. Various combinations of gene feature selection/class prediction algorithms were evaluated, with the use of microarray data organized by a chemical stressor or tissue type, for their accuracy in determining the class memberships of independent test samples. Two‐way clustering of gene classifiers and treatment conditions offered another alternative to assess the performance of these potential biomarkers. Both gene feature selection methods and class prediction algorithms were shown to be important in identifying successful gene classifiers. The genetic algorithm and support vector machine yielded classifiers with the best prediction accuracy, regardless of sample size, nature of class prediction, and data complexity. A chemical stressor significantly altering the expression of a greater number of genes tended to generate gene classifiers with better performance. All combinations of gene feature selection/class prediction algorithms performed similarly well with data of high signal to noise ratio. Gene classifier discovery and application on the basis of individual sampling and sample data pooling, respectively, were found to enhance class predictions. Gene expression profiles of the top gene classifiers, identified from both microarray and quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays, displayed greater similarity between fadrozole and 17β‐trenbolone than either one to 17α‐ethinylestradiol. These gene classifiers could serve as potential biomarkers of exposure to specific classes of endocrine disruptors.
Estimation of Average Willingness to Pay from Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice Data: Does the “Follow Up” matter?†

In Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice (DBDC) Contingent Valuation (CV) studies estimated parameters of the first response equations are used to obtain Mean WTP because of the anchoring bias inherent in follow up responses. In this paper we show that through an efficient scheme of bid design and using a recursive probit model one can arrive at estimates of mean WTP using the follow up responses that are both efficient and robust compared to the standard Interval Data Model and Bivariate Probit Model. JEL Classifications: C 35, Q 51, Q 53.
An Introduction to Quantum Filtering

This paper provides an introduction to quantum filtering theory. An introduction to quantum probability theory is given, focusing on the spectral theorem and the conditional expectation as a least squares estimate, and culminating in the construction of Wiener and Poisson processes on the Fock space. We describe the quantum Ito calculus and its use in the modeling of physical systems. We use both reference probability and innovations methods to obtain quantum filtering equations for system-probe models from quantum optics.
Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion elicits neuronal apoptosis and behavioral impairment

CHRONIC reductions in cerebral blood flow associated with aging and progressive neurodegenerative disorders can precipitate cognitive failure. To assess whether chronic cerebrovascular insufficiency elicits neuronal apoptosis, apoptotic cell death in the hippocampus was quantitated in a rat model of permanent carotid occlusion. Bilateral carotid artery occlusion (2VO) was shown to induce apoptotic morphology and DNA strand breaks in hippocampal neurons 2 and 27 weeks after ligation. The rate of pyramidal cell apoptosis was higher at chronic (27 weeks) compared to sub-chronic (2 weeks) time points. 2VO-induced apoptosis resulted in a decrease in total pyramidal cell number at 27 weeks but not at earlier time points, indicating progressive neuronal loss. Working and reference memory errors in the radial arm maze were strongly correlated with the number of apoptotic neurons in CA1 but not CA3 pyramidal cell fields. These data provide the first indication that apoptotic loss of pyramidal neurons may play a role in memory impairment associated with clinical conditions of chronic cerebrovascular insufficiency.
Contribution of AIDS to the general mortality in Central Africa: evidence from a morgue‐based study in Brazzaville, Congo

Objective:To accurately measure AIDS-related mortality relative to other causes and its impact on life expectancy in Brazzaville, Congo. Design:Investigation of all deaths during a 1-month period in Brazzaville. Methods:From 10 July to 9 August 1996, all bodies handled by Brazzaville's three morgues were examined by a physician. Relatives were interviewed on the circumstances of death, while additional clinical data were gathered from hospital files. Blood samples were systematically drawn from the bodies in two of the three morgues and tested for HIV antibodies. Results:Amongst the 756 bodies examined at the three morgues, 149 (19.7%) AIDS cases were identified. HIV-1 prevalence was 26.2% (38 out of 145) amongst the subjects in the two morgues where HIV serology was systematically performed. AIDS was the leading cause of death in adults (age ≥ 15 years), with 25.1% (122 out of 487) of the adults diagnosed with AIDS. The proportion of adult female AIDS cases was significantly higher than the proportion of male cases (30.2 versus 21.0%; P < 0.05). Moreover, female AIDS cases were significantly younger than male cases (median age, 32 versus 42 years; P < 0.00001). Overall AIDS mortality rate amongst adults was 2.8 per 1000 for men and 3.2 per 1000 for women. The impact of AIDS on life expectancy at birth is 4.3 years for women and 3.3 years for men. Conclusion:Our study provides a direct measure of AIDS contribution to mortality relative to other causes, using a rapid, low cost, reliable and replicable method. Clearly, the impact of AIDS is strongest on female life expectancy.
Instant and Robust Authentication and Key Agreement among Mobile Devices

Device-to-device communication is important to emerging mobile applications such as Internet of Things and mobile social networks. Authentication and key agreement among multiple legitimate devices is the important first step to build a secure communication channel. Existing solutions put the devices into physical proximity and use the common radio environment as a proof of identities and the common secret to agree on a same key. However they experience very slow secret bit generation rate and high errors, requiring several minutes to build a 256-bit key. In this work, we design and implement an authentication and key agreement protocol for mobile devices, called The Dancing Signals (TDS), being extremely fast and error-free. TDS uses channel state information (CSI) as the common secret among legitimate devices. It guarantees that only devices in a close physical proximity can agree on a key and any device outside a certain distance gets nothing about the key. Compared with existing solutions, TDS is very fast and robust, supports group key agreement, and can effectively defend against predictable channel attacks. We implement TDS using commodity off-the-shelf 802.11n devices and evaluate its performance via extensive experiments. Results show that TDS only takes a couple of seconds to make devices agree on a 256-bit secret key with high entropy.