Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Nutritional Rehabilitation on Whole Body Protein Metabolism of Children with Cystic Fibrosis

ABSTRACT: The effect of an increased energy and protein intake was studied on the whole body protein metabolism of 4− to 9-yr-old children with cystic fibrosis. The study was divided into an initial 1-yr period, followed by a treatment period of the same length. Rates of protein turnover were determined using a [15N]glycine label and the Picon and Taylor-Roberts model. The children had significantly higher intakes during the treatment year and grew faster. Nitrogen retention and utilization were significantly increased during the treatment year (p < 0.01). There were no changes seen in whole body amino nitrogen flux, or protein synthesis rates. However, protein breakdown rates were significantly reduced during the treatment period, with the result that net anabolism (synthesis-breakdown) was increased (p < 0.05). The protein synthesis rates of about 6 g/kg/day were similar to those reported for healthy children of the same age. It was concluded that the changes in protein turnover seen were in response to the nutritional intervention and not to the children's basic genetic disease process.
A simple approach for text segmentation in images based on curvelet transform

Text segmentation in image has become an active research area since recent decades. In this paper we present an efficient simple method to extract text regions from images possibly with complex background. The proposed method is to apply curvelet transform on an image to decompose it into set of directional sub-bands with texture details captured in different orientations and scales. Curvelets possess the main features of wavelets, namely, multi scale and time-frequency localization, but also offer a high degree of directionality and anisotropy. Instead of recognizing the edges in only horizontal, vertical & diagonal directions, the proposed system is designed to recognize the edges in multi directions taking care of text orientation. The proposed method is applied on different samples of images and encouraging results are obtained.
A theoretical field-analysis of automobile-driving

Of all the skills demanded by contemporary civilization the one of driving an automobile is certainly the most important to the individual, in the sense at least that a defect in it is the greatest threat to his life. But despite the consequent importance of knowledge about the nature and acquisition of this scale, no more than a beginning in this direction has been made by psychologists, and that chiefly in the field of devising tests to measure some of its inferred components. A systematic set of concepts is needed in terms of which we can describe precisely what goes on when a man drives an automobile, and such a theory, it is to be useful, must have practical as well as psychological validity. This paper has been written in the effort to make a systematic description of this sort. http://www.jstor. org/view/00029556/ap050198/05a00020/0 Keywords: Driver distraction;
Self-assembly of melem on Ag(111)—emergence of porous structures based on amino-heptazine hydrogen bonds

Self-assembly of melem on Ag(111) as studied by Scanning-Tunneling-Microscopy (STM) in ultra-high vacuum revealed a great structural variety. In total, five porous and two densely packed monolayer polymorphs were observed. All structures are stabilized by intermolecular hydrogen bonds, where melem–melem arrangements are based on very few basic motifs. Six out of seven polymorphs can be described by a unified concept.
Frank Parsons: His heritage leads us into the 21st century

ConclusionIn conclusion these are my hopes for career development in the year 2000, and beyond: 1.Empowering the individual through awareness of theprocesses which lead to continuous self understanding over the career span.2. Engagement of the individual in the process of acquiring knowledge of resources which can be used in a systematic continuous discovery of changing career opportunities.3. Enlightened counseling by empowering individuals to find career satisfaction through work and leisure options in the context of an ever changing developmental life span. It seems to me that is part of the Frank Parsons heritage from the past 85 years. This heritage seems well positioned to take us into the 21st century if we have the wisdom and insight necessary to utilize the best research and resources available to us now and in the future.
1 Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia : Current Practice and Future Prospects

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is a cancer of the hematopoietic system that arises from the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph1). This results from the reciprocal translocation of chromosomes 9 and 22 which generates a Bcr-Abl fusion gene encoding a 210kDa protein with constitutive tyrosine kinase activity (Ben-Neriah et al., 1986; Kuzrock et al., 1988). This constitutively active tyrosine kinase drives proliferation and survival through multiple downstream pathways (Reviewed in Cowan-Jacob et al., 2004; Ren et al., 2005). The disease is characterised by three stages; the chronic phase marked by an accumulation of mature granulocytes and myeloid precursors in the bone marrow and peripheral blood; the accelerated phase characterised by a rise in myeloid precursors and a blast crisis stage which is characterised by a marked accumulation of differentiation-arrested blast cells of either myeloid or lymphoid lineage (Calabretta & Perotti, 2004; Savage et al., 1997). The generation and clinical use of the Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) imatinib mesylate (IM) has revolutionised the treatment of CML patients (Druker et al., 1996; Druker et al., 2006) and has become the standard line of therapy for CML patients. Following treatment with imatinib, over 90% of patients obtain a complete haematologic response and more than 80% achieve a complete cytogenetic response. However, there are limitations associated with IM therapy. The drug is highly effective in the chronic phase of the disease but the response of patients in blast crisis is limited (Hehlman & Saussele, 2008). Furthermore, in approximately 40% of patients, resistance develops i.e. resistance in 100 patient years (Gorre et al., 2001). Great progress has been made over the last ten years in elucidating the molecular mechanisms of IM-resistance in vitro but correlating any of these individual resistance mechanisms in a clinical sample does not always indicate that it alone drives clinical progression as additional modes of resistance may be at work. The mechanisms by which patients become resistant to IM therapy include Bcr-Abl dependent mechanisms such as an increase in the levels of Bcr-Abl mRNA expression and corresponding upregulation of protein levels and amplification of the Bcr-Abl gene (Mahon et al. 2000). Bcr-Abl independent mechanisms include activation of signalling pathways downstream of Bcr-Abl including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt cell survival pathway or activation of signalling pathways separate to that of the Bcr-Abl gene and an efflux of IM via multidrug resistant proteins such as p-glycoprotein (Capdeville et al., 2002). The most well-characterised cooperating pathway involves the Src Family Kinases (SFKs) which have
Accessing language specific linguistic information for triphone model generation: feature tables in a speech recognition system

This paper is concerned with a method for generating phonetic questions used in tree-based state tying for speech recognition. In order to implement a speech recognition system, language-dependent knowledge which goes beyond annotated material is usually required. The approach presented here generates phonetic questions for decision trees based on a feature table that summarizes the articulatory characteristics of each sound. On the one hand, this method allows better language-specific triphone models to be defined given only a feature-table as linguistic input. On the other hand, the feature-table approach facilitates efficient definition of triphone models for other languages since again only a feature table for this language is required. The approach is exemplified with speech recognition systems for English and Thai.
Combined Application of Cheminformatics- and Physical Force Field-Based Scoring Functions Improves Binding Affinity Prediction for CSAR Data Sets

The curated CSAR-NRC benchmark sets provide valuable opportunity for testing or comparing the performance of both existing and novel scoring functions. We apply two different scoring functions, both independently and in combination, to predict the binding affinity of ligands in the CSAR-NRC data sets. One reported here for the first time employs multiple chemical-geometrical descriptors of the protein-ligand interface to develop Quantitative Structure Binding Affinity Relationships (QSBAR) models. These models are then used to predict binding affinity of ligands in the external data set. Second is a physical force field-based scoring function, MedusaScore. We show that both individual scoring functions achieve statistically significant prediction accuracies with the squared correlation coefficient (R(2)) between the actual and predicted binding affinity of 0.44/0.53 (Set1/Set2) with QSBAR models and 0.34/0.47 (Set1/Set2) with MedusaScore. Importantly, we find that the combination of QSBAR models and MedusaScore into consensus scoring function affords higher prediction accuracy than any of the contributing methods achieving R(2) values of 0.45/0.58 (Set1/Set2). Furthermore, we identify several chemical features and noncovalent interactions that may be responsible for the inaccurate prediction of binding affinity for several ligands by the scoring functions employed in this study.
Ambient Systems , Networks and Technologies ( ANT-2014 ) Connecting IoT Sensors to Knowledge-Based Systems by Transforming SenML to RDF

Applying Semantic Web technologies to Internet of Things (IoT) enables smart applications and services in a variety of domains. However, the gap between semantic representations and data formats used in IoT devices introduces a challenge for utilizing semantics in IoT. Sensor Markup Language (SenML) is an emerging solution for representing device parameters and measurements. SenML is replacing proprietary data formats and is being accepted by more and more vendors. In this paper, we suggest a solution to transform SenML data into a standardized semantic model, Resource Description Framework (RDF). Such a transformation facilitates intelligent functions in IoT, including reasoning over sensor data and semantic interoperability among devices. We present a fishery IoT system to illustrate the usability of this approach and compare the resource consumptions of SenML against other alternatives. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Elhadi M. Shakshuki.
On the use of independence relationships for learning simplified belief networks

Belief networks are graphic structures capable of representing dependence and independence relationships among variables in a given domain of knowledge. We focus on the problem of automatic learning of these structures from data, and restrict our study to a specific type of belief network: simple graphs, i.e., directed acyclic graphs where every pair of nodes with a common direct child has no common ancestor nor is one an ancestor of the other. Our study is based on an analysis of the independence relationships that may be represented by means of simple graphs. This theoretical study, which includes new characterizations of simple graphs in terms of independence relationships, is the basis of an efficient algorithm that recovers simple graphs using only zero and first‐order conditional independence tests, thereby overcoming some of the practical difficulties of existing algorithms. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
A New Human Somatic Stem Cell from Placental Cord Blood with Intrinsic Pluripotent Differentiation Potential

Here a new, intrinsically pluripotent, CD45-negative population from human cord blood, termed unrestricted somatic stem cells (USSCs) is described. This rare population grows adherently and can be expanded to 1015 cells without losing pluripotency. In vitro USSCs showed homogeneous differentiation into osteoblasts, chondroblasts, adipocytes, and hematopoietic and neural cells including astrocytes and neurons that express neurofilament, sodium channel protein, and various neurotransmitter phenotypes. Stereotactic implantation of USSCs into intact adult rat brain revealed that human Tau-positive cells persisted for up to 3 mo and showed migratory activity and a typical neuron-like morphology. In vivo differentiation of USSCs along mesodermal and endodermal pathways was demonstrated in animal models. Bony reconstitution was observed after transplantation of USSC-loaded calcium phosphate cylinders in nude rat femurs. Chondrogenesis occurred after transplanting cell-loaded gelfoam sponges into nude mice. Transplantation of USSCs in a noninjury model, the preimmune fetal sheep, resulted in up to 5% human hematopoietic engraftment. More than 20% albumin-producing human parenchymal hepatic cells with absence of cell fusion and substantial numbers of human cardiomyocytes in both atria and ventricles of the sheep heart were detected many months after USSC transplantation. No tumor formation was observed in any of these animals.
Constructing priors in synesthesia

Abstract A new theoretical framework (PPSMC) applicable to synesthesia has been proposed, in which the discrepancy between the perceptual reality of (some) synesthetic concurrents and their subjective non-veridicality is being explained. The PPSMC framework stresses the relevance of the phenomenology of synesthesia for synesthesia research—and beyond. When describing the emergence and persistence of synesthetic concurrents under PPSMC, it is proposed that precise, high-confidence priors are crucial in synesthesia. I discuss the construction of priors in synesthesia.
Radio metric alignment and vignetting calibration

This paper describes a method to photometrically align reg- istered and overlapping images which have been subject to vignetting (ra- dial light fallo), exposure variations, white balance variation and non- linear camera response. Applications include estimation of vignetting and camera response; vignetting and exposure compensation for image im- age mosaicing; and creation of high dynamic range mosaics. Compared to previous work white balance changes can be compensated and a com- putationally ecient algorithm is presented. The method is evaluated with synthetic and real images and is shown to produce better results than comparable methods.
Resection of nonresectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

OBJECTIVE The authors discuss the technique and evaluate the results of an aggressive surgical approach in patients with primarily unresectable colorectal liver metastases that were downstaged by chronomodulated chemotherapy. BACKGROUND Resection is the best treatment of colorectal liver metastases, but it may be achieved in only 10% of patients. In the remaining 90%, survival is poor, even after partial response to chemotherapy. Little is known about the results of curative hepatectomy in patients whose metastases are downstaged by chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifty-three patients with colorectal liver metastases initially unresectable because of ill located (8), large (8), multinodular (24) lesions, or because of extrahepatic disease (13) were downstaged by a systemic chronomodulated chemotherapy associating 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and Oxaliplatin to the point that operation could be performed. This consisted of a major hepatectomy in 37 patients and a minor resection in 16. Associated procedures (including 5 two-stage hepatectomies and 3 pulmonary resections) were performed in 25 patients. RESULTS There was no operative mortality. Complications occurred in 14 patients. The cumulative 3- and 5-year survival rates were 54% and 40% (according to the type of lesions: ill-located, 75% and 48%; large, 62% and 62%; multinodular, 54% and 40%; extrahepatic, 43% and 14%). Hepatic recurrence (34 patients, 64%) was amenable to repeat surgery in 15 cases. CONCLUSIONS Liver resection may be achieved in some previously unresectable patients with the help of an effective chemotherapy. The benefit in survival seems comparable to that obtained with primary liver resection (40% at 5 years). This therapeutic strategy involves a multimodal approach, including repeat hepatectomies and extrahepatic surgery.
Shared memristance restoring circuit for memristor-based Cellular Neural Networks

In this paper, a memristance restoring circuit in the memristor-based Cellular Neural Networks (CNNs) is proposed. The proposed restoring circuit of memristance can be shared among many rows of synaptic circuits in CNN array to minimize the area overhead. Assuming 10×10 CNN cell array, if we share the restoring circuit among 10 rows of synaptic circuits in CNN array, the area overhead of the restoring circuit can be reduced to 1/10. The circuit simulation results show that the proposed restoring circuit can reduce the percentage variation in memristance from 21.1% to 0.12% during the restoring cycles.
Ray Tracing with Selective Visibility

Abstract We propose a simple yet effective extension of the ray-tracing algorithm that allows selective visibility of objects for specific rays. Typically, rays are classified as pixel, shadow, reflected, and transmitted. We suggest adding to material descriptions a visibility mask which controls how these rays interact with the material. This addition can be incorporated seamlessly into any ray tracer and may help to generate visually interesting images.
Speeding up the optimal off-line algorithm for solving the k-server problem

In the k-server problem [6] one has to decide how k mobile servers should serve a sequence of requests. Each server occupies a location in a fixed, possibly infinite, metric space. Repeatedly, a new request appears at some location x. To serve the request, a corresponding algorithm must move a server to x unless it already has a server at that location. Whenever the algorithm moves a server from a location x to a location y, it incurs a cost equal to the distance between x and y. The goal of good serving is not only to serve requests, but also to minimize the total distance moved by all servers. It is usually required that the solution to the k-server problem is produced in online fashion [4], so that each request is served before the next request arrives. However, for various reasons, it is also useful to consider off-line solutions. Contrary to any on-line procedure, whose serving is never quite satisfactory due to lack of information on future requests, an off-line procedure knows the whole input in advance and can therefore provide optimal serving.
Lipid Status of the Two High Latitude Fish Species, Leptoclinus maculatus and Lumpenus fabricii

A comparative study of the lipid status (i.e., the total lipid and phospholipid concentrations and the percentage of fatty acids of the total lipids) of adult specimens of daubed shanny (Leptoclinus maculatus) from Svalbard waters (Isfjord) and slender eel blenny (Lumpenus fabricii) from the White Sea (Onega Bay and Tersky shore) was performed to study the metabolism and functions of lipids of these fishes in ontogeny and under various ecological conditions. Slender eel blenny from both areas of the White Sea were distinguished by a high level of sphingomyelin compared with the daubed shanny from Svalbard, and the amount of total phospholipids was higher in slender eel blenny from Onega Bay than in slender eel blenny from the Tersky shore. The extent of saturation and the signature of polyenic fatty acids varied according to the specific species of the Stichaeidae family under study. These results demonstrate the differences in the trophoecological and hydrobiological conditions of habitations of these species and highlighted the importance of considering certain trends in the lipid profiles of these fishes as specific features of the organization of the ecological and biochemical mechanisms of adaptation.
Identification of A3 adenosine receptor agonists as novel non‐narcotic analgesics

Chronic pain negatively impacts the quality of life in a variety of patient populations. The current therapeutic repertoire is inadequate in managing patient pain and warrants the development of new therapeutics. Adenosine and its four cognate receptors (A1, A2A, A2B and A3) have important roles in physiological and pathophysiological states, including chronic pain. Preclinical and clinical studies have revealed that while adenosine and agonists of the A1 and A2A receptors have antinociceptive properties, their therapeutic utility is limited by adverse cardiovascular side effects. In contrast, our understanding of the A3 receptor is only in its infancy, but exciting preclinical observations of A3 receptor antinociception, which have been bolstered by clinical trials of A3 receptor agonists in other disease states, suggest pain relief without cardiovascular side effects and with sufficient tolerability. Our goal herein is to briefly discuss adenosine and its receptors in the context of pathological pain and to consider the current data regarding A3 receptor‐mediated antinociception. We will highlight recent findings regarding the impact of the A3 receptor on pain pathways and examine the current state of selective A3 receptor agonists used for these studies. The adenosine‐to‐A3 receptor pathway represents an important endogenous system that can be targeted to provide safe, effective pain relief from chronic pain.
Transcription Factor Nuclear Factor-Kappa B is Activated in Neurons after Focal Cerebral Ischemia

Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) is a multisubunit transcription factor that when activated induces the expression of genes encoding acute-phase proteins, cell adhesion molecules, cell surface receptors, and cytokines. NF-kB is composed of a variety of protein subunits of which p50-and p65-kDa (RelA) are the most widely studied. Under resting conditions, these subunits reside in the cytoplasm as an inactive complex bound by inhibitor proteins, IkBα and IkBβ. On activation, IkB is phosphorylated by IkB kinase and ubiquitinated and degraded by the proteasome; simultaneously, the active heterodimer translocates to the nucleus where it can initiate gene transcription. In the periphery, NF-kB is involved in inflammation through stimulation of the production of inflammatory mediators. The role of NF-kB in the brain is unclear. In vitro, NF-kB activation can be either protective or deleterious. The role of NF-kB in ischemic neuronal cell death in vivo was investigated. Adult male rats were subjected to 2 hours of focal ischemia induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). At 2, 6, and 12 hours after reperfusion, the expression and transactivation of NF-kB in ischemic versus nonischemic cortex and striatum were determined by immunocytochemistry and by electrophoretic mobility gel-shift analysis. At all time points studied, p50 and p65 immunoreactivity was found exclusively in the nuclei of cortical and striatal neurons in the ischemic hemisphere. The contralateral nonischemic hemisphere showed no evidence of nuclear NF-kB immunoreactivity. Double immunofluorescence confirmed expression of p50 in nuclei of neurons. Increased NF-kB DNA-binding activity in nuclear extracts prepared from the ischemic hemisphere was further substantiated by electrophoretic mobility gel-shift analysis. Because the activation of NF-kB by many stimuli can be blocked by antioxidants in vitro, the effect of the antioxidant, LY341122, previously shown to be neuroprotective, on NF-kB activation in the MCAO model was evaluated. No significant activation of NF-kB was found by electrophoretic mobility gel-shift analysis in animals treated with LY341122. These results demonstrate that transient focal cerebral ischemia results in activation of NF-kB in neurons and supports previous observations that neuroprotective antioxidants may inhibit neuronal death by preventing the activation of NF-kB.