Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlative studies of urine fluorescence and free radical indicators.

AIMS Inflammation results in the production of free radicals which damage proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. The products of these reactions are cleared, in part, by the kidney and appear in the urine. In this study, urine fluorescence was measured in individuals with various nephropathies to determine the value of these assays for detecting the excretion of end products of radical-mediated chemical reactions. METHODS Urine fluorescence was quantified at wavelengths which correspond to the presence of advanced glycosylation endproducts (AGE) and dityrosine (di-TYR). The samples were also tested for isoprostanes, nitrite/nitrate, hydrogen peroxide, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). RESULTS Fluorescence values, expressed per ml urine or per mg creatinine (crt), were not normally distributed and covered a wide range. There were significant differences in fluorescence among groups of patients classified by diagnosis, but the differences did not allow sharp distinction of diagnostic categories. Fluorescence assays correlated significantly with TBARS but not with isoprostanes, nitrite/nitrate, or hydrogen peroxide. Fluorescence tended to increase with age. Gender and race did not affect the results. CONCLUSIONS Because of the many factors which can affect free radical production and tissue injury, the value of urine fluorescence assays to screen for radical-mediated toxicity appears to be limited. Serial studies of patients will be needed to determine whether urine fluorescence will be useful to monitor responses to treatment or be predictive of progression vs. remission of renal disease.
Improved Trustful Routing Protocol to Detect Wormhole Attack in MANET

Mobile ad hoc networks are comprised of nodes that must cooperate to dynamically establish routes using wireless links. Routes may involve multiple hops with each node acting as a host and router. Since ad hoc networks typically work in an open un-trusted environment with little physical security, they are subject to a number of unique security attacks like wormhole attack. The wormhole attack is considered to be a serious security attack in multi-hop ad hoc networks. In wormhole attack, attacker makes tunnel from one end of the network to the other, nodes stay in different location on two ends of tunnel believe that they are true neighbours and makes conversation through the wormhole link. Unlike many other attacks on ad-hoc routing, a wormhole attack cannot be prevented with cryptographic solutions because intruders neither generate new, nor modify existing, packets, but rather forward existing ones. In this paper a simple technique to effectively detect wormhole attacks without the need for special hardware and/or strict location or synchronization requirements is proposed. The proposed technique makes use of variance in routing information between neighbours to detect wormholes. The base of dissertation is to find alternative path from source to second hop and calculate the number of hops to detect the wormhole.
Sodium Loading and Posture Modulate Human Atrial Natriuretic Factor Plasma Levels

Atrial natriuretic factor is postulated to act through atrial stretch receptors as a volume regulatory hormone that stimulates diuresis and natriuresis in response to increased atrial pressure. To characterize the stimuli associated with the release of atrial natriuretic factor in humans, we studied 14 normal subjects, both in the supine position and after 10 minutes in an upright posture, while they were on a regular diet (Day 0) and during 3 days of supplemental sodium chloride intake (8 g/day). Radioimmunoassay of plasma atrial natriuretic factor was performed with rabbit antibody to the human hormone amino acids (102–126). Urinary sodium excretion increased from 111 ± 13 mEq/day (mean ± SEM) on Day 0 to 275 ± 15 mEq/day by the third day (Day 3) of high sodium intake. The level of atrial natriuretic factor in the supine position rose from 17 ± 4 pg/ml (Day 0) to 76 ± 13 pg/ml on Day 3 (p < 0.001) and after 10 minutes in an upright posture on Day 3, the level fell to 32 ± 10 (p < 0.005). Plasma concentrations of atrial natriuretic factor correlated positively with spot and 24-hour urinary sodium excretion and weight gain, and correlated negatively with plasma aldosterone and renin activity. We conclude that the response of atrial natriuretic factor to sodium loading and posture change in humans is appropriate for a volume regulatory hormone.
Design of the 64-bit Option for the Oracle7 Relational Database Management System

Historically, the limiting factor for the Oracle7 relational database management system (RDBMS) performance on any given platform has been the amount of computational and I/O resources available on a single node. Although CPUs have become faster by an order of magnitude over the last several years, I/O speeds have not improved commensurately. For instance, the Alpha CPU clock speed alone has increased four times since its introduction; during the same time period, disk access times have improved by a factor of two at best. The overall throughput of database software is critically dependent on the speed of access to data. To overcome the I/O speed limitation and to maximize performance, the standard Oracle7 database server already utilizes and is optimized for various parallelization techniques in software (e.g., intelligent caching, data prefetching, and parallel query execution) and in hardware (e.g., symmetric multiprocessing [SMP] systems, clusters, and massively parallel processing [MPP] systems). Given the disparity in latency for data access between memory (a few tens of nanoseconds) and disk (a few milliseconds), a common technique for maximizing performance is to minimize disk I/O. Our project originated as an investigation into possible additional performance improvements in the Oracle7 database server in the context of increased memory addressability and execution speed provided by the AlphaServer and DIGITAL UNIX system. Work done as part of this project subsequently became the foundation for product development of the Oracle 64 Bit Option. Of the memory resource that the Oracle7 database uses, the largest portion is used to cache the most frequently used data blocks. With hardware and operating system support for 64-bit memory addresses, new possibilities have opened up for high-performance application software to take advantage of large memory configurations. Two of the concepts utilized are hardly new in database development, i.e., improving database server performance by caching more data in memory and improving I/O subsystem throughput by increasing data transfer sizes. However, various conflicting factors contribute to the practical upper bounds on
Gravitational Energy as Dark Energy: Concordance of Cosmological Tests

We provide preliminary quantitative evidence that a new solution to averaging the observed inhomogeneous structure of matter in the universe may lead to an observationally viable cosmology without exotic dark energy. We find parameters which simultaneously satisfy three independent tests: the match to the angular scale of the sound horizon detected in the cosmic microwave background anisotropy spectrum; the effective comoving baryon acoustic oscillation scale detected in galaxy clustering statistics; and Type Ia supernova luminosity distances. Independently of the supernova data, concordance is obtained for a value of the Hubble constant which agrees with the measurement of the Hubble Key team of Sandage and coworkers. Best-fit parameters include a global average Hubble constant H0 = 61.7−1.1+1.2 km s−1 Mpc−1, a present epoch void volume fraction of fv 0 = 0.76−0.09+0.12, and an age of the universe of 14.7−0.5+0.7 billion years as measured by observers in galaxies. The mass ratio of nonbaryonic dark matter to baryonic matter is 3.1−2.4+2.5, computed with a baryon-to-photon ratio that is in concordance with primordial lithium abundances.
Identification of a sequence element on the 3' side of AAUAAA which is necessary for simian virus 40 late mRNA 3'-end processing

Our previous studies of the 3'-end processing of simian virus 40 late mRNAs indicated the existence of an essential element (or elements) downstream of the AAUAAA signal. We report here the use of transient expression analysis to study a functional element which we located within the sequence AGGUUUUUU, beginning 59 nucleotides downstream of the recognized signal AAUAAA. Deletion of this element resulted in (i) at least a 75% drop in 3'-end processing at the normal site and (ii) appearance of readthrough transcripts with alternate 3' ends. Some flexibility in the downstream position of this element relative to the AAUAAA was noted by deletion analysis. Using computer sequence comparison, we located homologous regions within downstream sequences of other genes, suggesting a generalized sequence element. In addition, specific complementarity is noted between the downstream element and U4 RNA. The possibility that this complementarity could participate in 3'-end site selection is discussed.
Application of Work Psychodynamics to the Analysis of CEOs' 'Presentation of Self': Resorting to an 'Astute' Clinical Methodology

Does work psychodynamics--a sub-discipline of clinical psychology in the field of work sciences--offer a relevant methodological reference to analyze the psychological processes that come into play when a CEO is working? The objective of this article is to propose an answer to this question by going back to a doctoral research, which focused on the clinical analysis of the CEOs' "presentation of self," noted as one aspect of their work. The author's arguments for a clinical approach are presented as well as the later decision to resort to "astute" tactics that, beyond the traditional frameworks of work psychodynamics, were required to have access to the CEOs' presentation of self. Following the presentation of the research's achievements, the article shows that, while methodologically unconventional, the astute tactics proved useful in ushering in new elements of knowledge that otherwise would have remained inaccessible. Notably, the specifics of the intersubjective relationship that was established between the author and each CEO had a major positive impact on the interpretations. To legitimize this clinical approach further, the conclusion draws a few indications on criteria that could be investigated to scientifically validate the qualitative methods and their interpretive results.
Two alanine racemase genes in Salmonella typhimurium that differ in structure and function

Mutations were isolated in a previously undescribed Salmonella typhimurium gene encoding an alanine racemase essential for utilization of L-alanine as a source of carbon, energy, and nitrogen. This new locus, designated dadB, lies within one kilobase of the D-alanine dehydrogenase locus (dadA), which is also required for alanine catabolism. The dadA and dadB genes are coregulated. Mutants (including insertions) lacking the dadB alanine racemase do not require D-alanine for growth unless a mutation is introduced at a second locus, designated dal. Two genes specifying alanine racemase activity were cloned from S. typhimurium. The two cloned DNA sequences do not cross-hybridize with each other; one was shown to contain the dadB gene.
Multiple structural alignment by secondary structures: Algorithm and applications

We present MASS (Multiple Alignment by Secondary Structures), a novel highly efficient method for structural alignment of multiple protein molecules and detection of common structural motifs. MASS is based on a two‐level alignment, using both secondary structure and atomic representation. Utilizing secondary structure information aids in filtering out noisy solutions and achieves efficiency and robustness. Currently, only a few methods are available for addressing the multiple structural alignment task. In addition to using secondary structure information, the advantage of MASS as compared to these methods is that it is a combination of several important characteristics: (1) While most existing methods are based on series of pairwise comparisons, and thus might miss optimal global solutions, MASS is truly multiple, considering all the molecules simultaneously; (2) MASS is sequence order‐independent and thus capable of detecting nontopological structural motifs; (3) MASS is able to detect not only structural motifs, shared by all input molecules, but also motifs shared only by subsets of the molecules. Here, we show the application of MASS to various protein ensembles. We demonstrate its ability to handle a large number (order of tens) of molecules, to detect nontopological motifs and to find biologically meaningful alignments within nonpredefined subsets of the input. In particular, we show how by using conserved structural motifs, one can guide protein–protein docking, which is a notoriously difficult problem. MASS is freely available at http://bioinfo3d.cs. tau.ac. il/MASS/.
Risk-taking tendencies in prisoners and nonprisoners: Does gender matter?

Several investigations have found that prisoners are more likely than nonprisoners to engage in risky behavior, which may contribute to their propensity to commit criminal offenses. However, this research has been limited by an almost exclusive focus on male samples. Given the established link between risk taking and gender, it is thus unclear how findings on the risk-taking propensities of prisoners also hold in women. The present study uses both a self-report questionnaire (Domain-Specific Risk Taking scale, DOSPERT) and a behavioral task (Balloon Analogue Risk Task, BART) to investigate risk-taking tendencies in a Chinese prisoner group and a nonprisoner control group with balanced gender proportions. Across both genders, prisoners both indicated a higher risk-taking tendency on the DOSPERT and showed more risk-taking behavior on the BART than did nonprisoners. Importantly, the differences were considerably more pronounced in women than in men. Relative to nonprisoners, gender differences in risk taking were substantially smaller, or even reversed, in prisoners. Computational modeling of respondents' behavior in the BART revealed that the prisoners had higher reward sensitivity and lower response consistency than the nonprisoners; these differences were again more pronounced among women. Our results suggest that previous studies based primarily on male prisoners may have underestimated differences in risk taking between prisoners and nonprisoners, and that female prisoners may represent an even more extreme subpopulation than male prisoners
Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications Practical Sahn Clustering for Very Large Data Sets and Expensive Distance Metrics

Sequential agglomerative hierarchical non-overlapping (SAHN) clustering techniques belong to the classical clustering methods applied heavily in many application domains, e.g., in cheminformatics. Asymptotically optimal SAHN clustering algorithms are known for arbitrary dissimilarity measures, but their quadratic time and space complexity even in the best case still limits the applicability to small data sets. We present a new pivot based heuristic SAHN clustering algorithm exploiting the properties of metric distance measures in order to obtain a best-case runtime of O(n log n) for the input size n. Our approach requires only linear space and supports median and centroid linkage. It is especially suitable for expensive distance measures, as it needs only a linear number of exact distance computations. This aspect is demonstrated in our extensive experimental evaluation, where we apply our algorithm to large graph databases in combination with computationally demanding graph distance metrics. We compare our approach to exact state-of-the-art SAHN algorithms in terms of quality and runtime on real-world and synthetic instances including vector and graph data. The evaluations show a subquadratic runtime in practice and a very low memory footprint. Our approach yields high-quality clusterings and is able to rediscover planted cluster structures in synthetic data sets. A preliminary version of this paper [22] was published in the proceedings of WALCOM 2014.
A method for reducing the search space in test pattern generation

This paper introduces the new concept of an implying node by which an efficient decision point can be selected. The implying node is a signal line whose value implies the values of the primary inputs. This means that a decision on the implying node is equivalent to several decisions on the primary inputs. As a result, a decision on the implying node is able to induce more implications. This effect causes significant reduction of the search space in test generation. The process of finding the implying node can be combined with the conventional backtrace process. Additionally, a D frontier intercept check is introduced to find necessary assignments for fault propagation. The technique can identify some necessary assignments that the dynamic learning of SOCRATES fails to find. Experimental results using ISCAS benchmark circuits show the efficiency of the proposed method. <<ETX>>
An Integrated and Sharable Learning Resources Repository Based Semantics

The Amount of e-learning resources available in the internet or local corpora has increased while our ability to search and retrive relevant information is being reduced. So the distributed e-learning resources integration is significant for the enforcement of novel searching mechnisms in distributed e-learing repositories. Our apparoach introduces an advanced learning resources organization framework and search mechanism which initializes a semantic model representing the digital content stored in distributed e-learning servers through the use of ontologies. In this way, the tearing materials are separated from the knowlege structure related to a subject, which facilitates searching and locating the desirable data avoiding the executing of a query to e-learning systems, also facilitates the management and maintenance of all kinds of learning resources.
A Multi-Stakeholder Multi-Criteria Assessment Framework of Mobile Payments: An Illustration with the Swiss Public Transportation Industry

As wireless technologies are becoming more mature for payment systems, the public transportation companies are facing great challenges in designing their next fare collection system. They have to decide whether they want to keep their legacy systems or innovate with the implementation of new mobile technologies for their upcoming payment instrument. Therefore, they need to consider various technical and business aspects during the design process. Moreover, in such an industry, a technological consensus between the stakeholders involved is desirable to eventually reach a global market. In this paper, we propose a multi-actor multi-criteria framework to facilitate the assessment of mobile payments for the Swiss public transportation industry. To compute our proposed model, we recently conducted a first set of structured interviews with Swiss key experts to collect data.
Development and Plasticity of the Corticospinal System in Man

The young human brain is highly plastic, thus brain lesions occurring during development interfere with the innate development of the architecture, connectivity, and mapping of functions and trigger modifications in structure, wiring, and representations (for review see Payne & Lomber, 2001). In childhood, the motor cortex and/or the corticospinal tract is a common site of brain damage and the prenatal or immediately perinatal period is the most common time for brain damage to occur. It is now increasingly appreciated that the corticospinal system is capable of substantial reorganization after lesions and such reorganization is likely to underlie the partial recovery of function (Terashima, 1995; Eyre et al., 2001; Eyre et al., 2002). Clearly the developing nervous system has a much greater potential for plasticity, which can involve plasticity not only of the motor areas of the ipsi-lesional cerebral cortex but also of the contralesional cortex, the corticospinal tract, and the spinal cord network (Benecke et al., 1991; Carr et al., 1993; Cao et al., 1994; Lewine et al., 1994; Maegaki et al., 1995; Terashima, 1995; Nirrko et al., 1995; O’Sullivan et al., 1998; Balbi et al., 2000; Eyre et al., 2000a; Eyre et al., 2001). Functional and anatomical evidence demonstrates that spontaneous plasticity can be potentiated by activity and by
Visual object category recognition

A cassette tape recorder in which a supply turntable and a take-up turntable supported by a base are respectively disposed for rotating engagement with a pair of hubs in a cassette, and a pinch roller and magnetic heads are disposed on the base on the front wall side of the cassette for recording and reproducing engagement with a magnetic tape. An actuating push button group including a play button is pivoted to the base on the rear wall side of the cassette by a pivot extending beneath the base. In response to the depression of the play button, the pinch roller and magnetic heads are advanced toward the cassette, and the tape is fed in the take-up direction at a predetermined take-up speed.
Machine learning methods for acoustic-based automatic Posidonia meadows detection by means of unmanned marine vehicles

This work describes the exploitation of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), equipped with a multi-parametric sensors package (acoustic and video), for the exploration and characterisation of sea-bottoms covered with Posidonia oceanica seagrass, which represents a valuable indicator of the environmental health. The data collection is achieved by the employment of a single beam echosounder and a down-looking underwater camera. An acoustic data procedural analysis based on machine learning methods was developed to automatically detect the Posidonia presence, so that in future works it will be possible to operate also in low-visibility conditions, using only the acoustic sensors. Data acquisition was carried out over different seafloor types in coastal area near Biograd Na Moru (Croatia) and the preliminary results are reported in the paper.