Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ab Initio Finite Element Coupled Investigation of the Effect of C on the Property of TRIP Steel

Transformation induced plasticity steels (TRIP steel) is attracting more and more attention for the past decades for its special property of good combination of strength and plasticity. To enhance the strength, C is typical alloy element of TRIP steel, which plays an important role on the property of trip steel, not only on the macro property but on the micro structure. To investigate the effect of C on the property on TRIP steel, Ab initio calculation and finite element simulation multi-scale simulation framework was set up to discuss the effect of C on the property on TRIP steel. For ab initio and finite element the fundamental equation was introduced and transformation technology between ab inito and finite element by internal variable was considered. In conclusion, C was important reinforcement element of TRIP steel and ab inito finite element coupled simulation of TRIP steel was efficient in the investigation of the micro and macro property of TRIP steel.
An improved compound image encryption scheme

With the development of network technique, the research of information security technique is becoming more and more important. In this paper, we propose an improved image encryption scheme. The image is encrypted through the combination of a new gray value substitution operation and position permutation which makes the encryption system strong. Experimental results show that the scheme proposed in this paper can resist the attack of selective plaintext and has a high security level.
A novel Erm monomethyltransferase in antibiotic‐resistant isolates of Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida

Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida are aetiological agents commonly associated with respiratory tract infections in cattle. Recent isolates of these pathogens have been shown to be resistant to macrolides and other ribosome‐targeting antibiotics. Direct analysis of the 23S rRNAs by mass spectrometry revealed that nucleotide A2058 is monomethylated, consistent with a Type I erm phenotype conferring macrolide‐lincosamide resistance. The erm resistance determinant was identified by full genome sequencing of isolates. The sequence of this resistance determinant, now termed erm(42), has diverged greatly from all previously characterized erm genes, explaining why it has remained undetected in PCR screening surveys. The sequence of erm(42) is, however, completely conserved in six independent M. haemolytica and P. multocida isolates, suggesting relatively recent gene transfer between these species. Furthermore, the composition of neighbouring chromosomal sequences indicates that erm(42) was acquired from other members of the Pasteurellaceae. Expression of recombinant erm(42) in Escherichia coli demonstrated that the enzyme retains its properties as a monomethyltransferase without any dimethyltransferase activity. Erm(42) is a novel addition to the Erm family: it is phylogenetically distant from the other Erm family members and it is unique in being a bona fide monomethyltransferase that is disseminated between bacterial pathogens.
Family‐based interventions to increase physical activity in children: a systematic review, meta‐analysis and realist synthesis

© 2017 World Obesity Federation Subsequent to the publication, several errors have been found in the paper and can be corrected as follows: The labelling on the studies in Figure 2 is incorrect. The referencing in Table 1 is inconsistent with the manuscript reference list. The correct Figure 2 and Table are shown here. 2 (Figure presented.) Effect on child physical activity from random effects meta-analysis of eligible studies. Overview of characteristics of 47 studies included in systematic review of family-based physical activity promotion (Table presented.) #Corresponds with a significant, positive change in outcome (see Supplementary Table 1 for full details) +Singapore, Mexico, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, Germany *Some studies employed both subjective and objective methods to measure physical activity †Some studies employed more than one intervention strategy.
DEPARTMENT FIRM BEHAVIOR AND IMMIGRANT LABOR PRODUCTIVITY

The goal of the paper is the estimation of the marginal productivity of immigrants relative to natives. One reason why rms may hire immigrants is because immigrants are more productive than natives. I test this hyphotesis using a con dential matched employer-employee dataset from Germany for the years 1996-2004. Using a production function approach, I nd that immigrants are similar to natives in terms of productivity and wages. Hence, the bene ts of immigration need to come from non-wage sources or immigrant labor exibility.
Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein Taq I B2B2 Genotype Is Associated With Higher HDL Cholesterol Levels and Lower Risk of Coronary Heart Disease End Points in Men With HDL Deficiency: Veterans Affairs HDL Cholesterol Intervention Trial

Objective—We have previously reported that genetic variation at the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) Taq IB locus is correlated with plasma lipid levels and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in the Framingham Offspring Study (FOS). In FOS, the B2 allele was associated with increased levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (HDL-C), decreased CETP activity, and reduced CHD risk for men having the B2B2 genotype. The present study was undertaken to further define the relationship between this polymorphism and CHD risk at the population level. Methods and Results—We tested for associations between the CETP Taq IB genotype and plasma lipoprotein levels, response to gemfibrozil therapy, and CHD end points in 852 men participating in the Veterans Affairs HDL-C Intervention Trial (VA-HIT), a study designed to explore the potential benefits of raising HDL levels in men having established CHD with low HDL-C (≤40 mg/dL) as their primary lipid abnormality. In VA-HIT, 13.9% of the men had the B2B2 genotype relative to 19.1% of the men in FOS (−27%, P <0.03), whereas more men in VA-HIT had the B1B1 genotype (15%, P <0.05). Similar to our finding in FOS, B2B2 men in VA-HIT had the highest mean level of HDL-C (32.6±4.8 mg/dL), followed by B1B2 men (32.0±5.3 mg/dL), and, last, by B1B1 men (30.9±4.9 mg/dL). Interestingly, B1B1 men, who had the least favorable plasma lipid profile at baseline, had the greatest triglyceride-lowering response to gemfibrozil (−34%, P =0.006). CETP Taq IB genotype was also associated with the risk of CHD end points in VA-HIT, with an adjusted risk ratio of 0.52 for B2B2 men (P =0.08). Conclusions—Our data demonstrate that in men with CHD and HDL deficiency, the CETP Taq I B2B2 genotype is (1) significantly reduced and (2) associated with higher levels of plasma HDL-C and lower CHD risk. Together with our earlier report, these results support the concept that increased HDL-C levels, resulting from reduced CETP activity, are associated with decreased CHD risk.
Different Subthreshold Mechanisms Underlie Song Selectivity in Identified HVc Neurons of the Zebra Finch

Songbirds learn and maintain their songs via auditory experience. Neurons in many telencephalic nuclei important to song production and development are song selective, firing more to forward auditory playback of the bird's own song (BOS) than to reverse BOS or conspecific songs. Elucidating circuits that generate these responses can localize where auditory experience influences vocalization, bridging cellular and systems analyses of song learning. Song-selective responses in many song nuclei, including the vocal premotor nucleus robustus archistriatalis (RA) and the basal ganglia homolog area X, are thought to originate in nucleus HVc (used as a proper name), which contains interneurons and relay cells that innervate either RA or area X. Previous studies indicated that only X-projecting neurons have auditory responses, leaving open the source of RA's auditory input and the degree to which song selectivity may be refined in HVc. Here,in vivo intracellular recordings from morphologically and electrophysiologically identified HVc neurons revealed that both relay cell types fire song-selectively. However, their firing arises via markedly different subthreshold processes, and only X-projecting neurons appear to be sites for auditory refinement. RA-projecting neurons exhibited purely depolarizing subthreshold responses that were highly song selective and that were excitatory. In contrast, subthreshold responses of X-projecting neurons included less-selective depolarizing and highly selective hyperpolarizing components. Within individual birds, these BOS-evoked hyperpolarizations closely matched interneuronal firing, suggesting that HVc interneurons make restricted inputs onto X-projecting neurons. Because of the two relay cell types' subthreshold differences, factors affecting their resting membrane potentials could enable them to transmit distinct song representations to their targets.
Analytical Methods for Quantification of Drug Metabolites in Biological Samples

© 2012 Roskar and Trdan Lusin, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Analytical Methods for Quantification of Drug Metabolites in Biological Samples
Immunoglobulin class switch recombination: study through human natural mutants

Immunoglobulin class switch recombination deficiencies in humans are exquisite models to analyse the mechanisms of class switch recombination (CSR). Besides defects in CD40L/CD40 interaction, others result from an intrinsic B-cell deficiency. The recent elucidation of the molecular basis of some of them has made it possible to delineate the molecular events involved in antibody maturation. Activation-induced (cytidine) deaminase (AID) and uracil-N-glycosylase deficiencies have demonstrated the role of AID as the inducer of DNA lesions in switch and variable regions. However, most of these CSR deficiencies remain molecularly undefined. Their characterization would lead to a better understanding of the complex machinery involved in CSR.
If I can stop one heart from breaking.

If I can stop one heart from breaking — -Emily Dickinson 1 In the Ode to Broken Things , Pablo Neruda tenders a powerful metaphor of existence.2 It is not difficult to recognize the unwinding of human life in the broken clock that was once “the secret thread of our weeks” and now, with its “blue guts” exposed and its “wide heart unsprung,” is the symbol of agony and death. The beginning and ending of life are embraced in a poem about simple and ordinary things that accompany human beings throughout life and then are lost, together with the feelings and significance that were assigned to them. All things break, even the heart. What to do for broken things and broken hearts? The poet suggests collecting our treasures and sinking them in the ocean with the hope that the “long labor of its tides” may give back wholeness to the fragments. While we wait for the sea to reveal its strength and miraculous effects, the discovery that stem cells repair broken organs projects a more hopeful view of medicine and the way it is practiced. Article p 896 Soon after the first experimental evidence that bone marrow cells (BMCs) induce cardiac repair in the postinfarcted heart,3 unfractionated mononuclear BMCs and CD34-positive cells were given to patients affected by acute myocardial infarction or chronic ischemic heart failure.4,5 Results accumulated so far have documented the feasibility of this therapeutic approach with indications of potential beneficial effects on cardiac function and critical clinical end points. Although the mechanisms by which BMCs improve ventricular performance in humans are currently unknown, experimental evidence favors cardiac regeneration and the production of paracrine factors by these cells.6 New myocytes and coronary vessels are formed by transdifferentiation of the delivered cells, a process that …
Repeat polymorphisms in ESR 2 and AR and colorectal cancer risk and prognosis : results from a German population-based case-control study

Background: Evidence has accumulated which suggests that sex steroids influence colorectal cancer development and progression. We therefore assessed the association of repeat polymorphisms in the estrogen receptor β gene (ESR2) and the androgen receptor gene (AR) with colorectal cancer risk and prognosis. Methods: The ESR2 CA and AR CAG repeat polymorphisms were genotyped in 1798 cases (746 female, 1052 male) and 1810 controls (732 female, 1078 male), matched for sex, age and county of residence. Colorectal cancer risk associations overall and specific for gender were evaluated using multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for sex, county of residence and age. Associations with overall and disease-specific survival were evaluated using Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for established prognostic factors (diagnosis of other cancer after colorectal cancer diagnosis, detection by screening, treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy, tumour extent, nodal status, distant metastasis, body mass index, age at diagnosis and year of diagnosis) and stratified for grade of differentiation. Heterogeneity in gender specific associations was assessed by comparing models with and without a multiplicative interaction term by means of a likelihood ratio test. Results: The average number of ESR2 CA repeats was associated with a small 5% increase in colorectal cancer risk (OR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.01-1.10) without significant heterogeneity according to gender or tumoural ESR2 expression. We found no indication for an association between the AR CAG repeat polymorphisms and risk of colorectal cancer. The ESR2 CA and AR CAG repeat polymorphisms were not associated with overall survival or disease specific survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis. Conclusions: Higher numbers of ESR2 CA repeats are potentially associated with a small increase in colorectal cancer risk. Our study does not support an association between colorectal cancer prognosis and the investigated repeat polymorphisms.
Atmospheric total precipitable water from AIRS and ECMWF during Antarctic summer

This study compares the atmospheric total precipitable water (PWV) obtained by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) with radiosondes and the European Centre for Medium‐range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) operational analysis products during December 2003 and January 2004. We find that PWV from AIRS Level 3 (daily gridded) data is about 9% drier while ECMWF is 14% moister than sondes at the two grid points closest to the Dome C radiosonde site on the Antarctic Plateau at 3233 m elevation. The largest ECMWF moist biases occur on warmer days at Dome C. When AIRS Level 3 data are compared with ECMWF over the entire Antarctic continent, AIRS and ECMWF PWV have similar variability (correlation coefficients are predominantly 0.8 or higher), but with AIRS drier over most of the Antarctic by a consistent offset of about 0.1–0.2 mm. Because of this constant difference, the largest percentage differences are found over the highland areas of about 2500 meters and above, where absolute water vapor amounts are smallest.
Pine invasions in treeless environments: dispersal overruns microsite heterogeneity

Abstract Understanding biological invasions patterns and mechanisms is highly needed for forecasting and managing these processes and their negative impacts. At small scales, ecological processes driving plant invasions are expected to produce a spatially explicit pattern driven by propagule pressure and local ground heterogeneity. Our aim was to determine the interplay between the intensity of seed rain, using distance to a mature plantation as a proxy, and microsite heterogeneity in the spreading of Pinus contorta in the treeless Patagonian steppe. Three one‐hectare plots were located under different degrees of P. contorta invasion (Coyhaique Alto, 45° 30′S and 71° 42′W). We fitted three types of inhomogeneous Poisson models to each pine plot in an attempt for describing the observed pattern as accurately as possible: the “dispersal” models, “local ground heterogeneity” models, and “combined” models, using both types of covariates. To include the temporal axis in the invasion process, we analyzed both the pattern of young and old recruits and also of all recruits together. As hypothesized, the spatial patterns of recruited pines showed coarse scale heterogeneity. Early pine invasion spatial patterns in our Patagonian steppe site is not different from expectations of inhomogeneous Poisson processes taking into consideration a linear and negative dependency of pine recruit intensity on the distance to afforestations. Models including ground‐cover predictors were able to describe the point pattern process only in a couple of cases but never better than dispersal models. This finding concurs with the idea that early invasions depend more on seed pressure than on the biotic and abiotic relationships seed and seedlings establish at the microsite scale. Our results show that without a timely and active management, P. contorta will invade the Patagonian steppe independently of the local ground‐cover conditions.
Rett syndrome: the late infantile regression period‐a retrospective analysis of 91 cases

The late infantile regression period of Rett syndrome was analysed in a consecutively collected series of females, born 1945–87 (median 17 1/2 years), fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for classic Rett syndrome. For general information, data from 91 girls and women were used (group A), while more detailed analysis was based on the youngest 20, all born during the last decade (group B). Median ages at onset of developmental stagnation (stage I) were 11 (5–24) and 10 (5–18) months for groups A and B, respectively. Loss of acquired skills (stage II) began at 19 (12–36) and 17(13–25) months, and lasted for 19 (2–53) and 13 (2–32) months. Onset of the period of loss was distinctly marked in 43%, dramatic in 16% and insidious in 41%. Gross motor delay and aberrant behaviour raised the first suspicions of disease, while a more specific pattern comprising a triad of manifestations, i. e. contact/communication, hand use/skill, babble/words, characterized the loss of acquired skills. Although development invariably came to a definite break at a crucial stage of maturation, an “awakening” (stage III) and return of interest to act and interact astonishingly followed the period of withdrawal. Apraxia was found in all, but some use of the hands could be enticed in engaging and non‐demanding situations. The observed preference for use of the left hand (9/11), compared to the right (2/11), suggested a reflection of an underlying dysfunction/disease process, also displayed as spike activity in left central leads in EEGs from 13/20 girls.
Systematic Isotropy Analysis of Caster Wheeled Mobile Robots with Steering Link Offset Different from Wheel Radius

Previous isotropy analysis of a caster wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot (COMR) has been made under the assumption that the steering link offset is equal to the caster wheel radius. Nevertheless, many practical COMRs in use take advantage of the steering link offset different from the wheel radius. This paper presents a systematic isotropy analysis of a fully actuated COMR with variable steering link offset, which can be considered as the generalization of the previous analysis. First, with the characteristic length introduced, the kinematic model of a COMR is obtained based on the orthogonal decomposition of the wheel velocities. Second, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the isotropy of a COMR are examined to categorize three different groups, each of which can be dealt with in a similar way. Third, the isotropy conditions are further explored to identify four different sets of all possible isotropic configurations. Fourth, the expressions of the isotropic characteristic length required for the isotropy of a COMR are obtained.
Comparing high resolution timestamps in computer clusters

Gaining a deep understanding of the detailed execution behavior and performance of complex software systems requires accurate tracing and analysis tools. Tracing tools such as the Linux trace toolkit (LTT) provide a detailed log of both system and user level events which may later be accessed and visualized. The information logged for each event includes the event type, a timestamp, and event type specific information. Most computer central processing units (CPU) now come with a cycle counter, thus enabling fast access, very high resolution (cycle level), timestamp values for events. Problems arise when tracing events from computer clusters containing numerous CPUs with independent clocks. Even CPUs in the same multiprocessor computer may not be fully synchronized, and in some cases run at different clock frequencies. Visualization tools, when presenting a timeline of events logged on different CPUs must therefore translate the individual timestamps to a common time reference, thus taking into account the clock delay for each CPU. Several experiments were conducted in order to characterize the CPU cycle counter accuracy and measure the synchronization accuracy achievable using conventional computer networks. The resulting data is of immediate use for all applications concerned with computer clocks or network synchronization accuracy. It is used in the forthcoming version of the Linux trace toolkit to select the most appropriate mechanisms to compute a common time reference for events coming from different CPUs
Analysing Agricultural Productivity Across Countries : A Common Factor Approach ∗

In this paper we investigate whether we can identify a ‘global’ production function for agriculture, using FAO data for 128 countries from 1961-2002. Standard panel econometric approaches to cross-country production function estimation commonly assume that technology is homogeneous across countries, that panels are cross-sectionally independent and that the data are stationary and weakly dependent over time. Recent econometric theory however indicates that the interplay of nonstationarity, crosssection dependence and parameter heterogeneity can lead to inefficient and even biased estimates. We motivate the case for technology heterogeneity and present statistical tests indicating nonstationarity and cross-section dependence in the data. Our empirical approach deals with these difficulties by adopting the Pesaran (2006) CCE estimators, which we extend by using alternative weight-matrices to model the nature of the cross-section dependence. Furthermore we investigate returns to scale of production and production dynamics. Our results seem to vindicate the specification of a common factor model in intercountry production analysis, highlight the rejection of CRS in pooled models as an artefact of empirical misspecification and suggest that agro-climatic environment, rather than neighbourhood or distance, drives similarity in TFP evolution across countries. The latter finding has important implications for success or failure of cross-country technology transfer in agriculture. JEL classification: O13, O47, C33