Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Rearrangements of the Kv2.1 Potassium Channel Termini Associated with Voltage Gating*

The voltage-gated Kv2.1 channel is composed of four identical subunits folded around the central pore and does not inactivate appreciably during short depolarizing pulses. To study voltage-induced relative molecular rearrangements of the channel, Kv2.1 subunits were genetically fused with enhanced cyan fluorescent protein and/or enhanced yellow fluorescent protein, expressed in COS1 cells, and investigated using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy combined with patch clamp. Fusion of fluorophores to either or both termini of the Kv2.1 monomer did not significantly affect the gating properties of the channel. FRET between the N- and C-terminal tags fused to the same or different Kv2.1 monomers decreased upon activation of the channel by depolarization from -80 to +60 mV, suggesting voltage-gated relative rearrangement between the termini. Because FRET between the Kv2.1 N- or C-terminal tags and the membrane-trapped EYFPN-PH pleckstrin homology domains did not change on depolarization, voltage-gated relative movements between the Kv2.1 termini occurred in a plane parallel to the plasma membrane, within a distance of 1-10 nm. FRET between the N-terminal tags did not change upon depolarization, indicating that the N termini do not rearrange relative to each other, but they could either move cooperatively with the Kv2.1 tetramer or not move at all. No FRET was detected between the C-terminal tags. Assuming their randomized orientation in the symmetrically arranged Kv2.1 subunits, C termini may move outwards in order to produce relative rearrangements between N and C termini upon depolarization.
Transfusion Transmitted Hepatitis: Where Do We Stand Now? A One Center Study in Upper Egypt

Background Despite progress made in the prevention of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTI) over the last few years, they continue to be a problem in many parts of the world, particularly in multitransfused patients. Objectives The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and to evaluate the screening and vaccination program among our cohort of multitransfused children from Qena, Upper Egypt. Patients and Methods One-hundred children suffering from diseases requiring repeated blood transfusions were included in the study. They were classified into group 1, which included 67 children with thalassemia, and group 2, which included 33 children with hemophilia. Screening for hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis B surface antibody, hepatitis B core antibody and antibody to HCV was done using a second-generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. Results Only 12% of all patients were either acutely or chronically infected with HBV. 46% were immune due to previous vaccination, whereas 39% of patients were not protected from HBV infection. HCV antibodies were positive in 45% of cases. Seventy-eight patients had a complete hepatitis B vaccination in the form of three doses as documented by birth certificate. Thirty-six patients mentioned history suggestive of hepatitis. The prevalence of the studied hepatitis markers was similar in both the thalassemia and hemophilia groups of children. Conclusions Transfusion-transmitted hepatitis is still a major problem for multitransfused children in Egypt. More effort is required to reduce the infection rate through proper screening of blood and blood products, strict emphasis on receiving the vaccine, regular follow-up for those children with a hepatitis B antibody titer, and providing booster doses for those in need.
Physical limits to magnetogenetics

This is an analysis of how magnetic fields affect biological molecules and cells. It was prompted by a series of prominent reports regarding magnetism in biological systems. The first claims to have identified a protein complex that acts like a compass needle to guide magnetic orientation in animals (Qin et al., 2016). Two other articles report magnetic control of membrane conductance by attaching ferritin to an ion channel protein and then tugging the ferritin or heating it with a magnetic field (Stanley et al., 2015; Wheeler et al., 2016). Here I argue that these claims conflict with basic laws of physics. The discrepancies are large: from 5 to 10 log units. If the reported phenomena do in fact occur, they must have causes entirely different from the ones proposed by the authors. The paramagnetic nature of protein complexes is found to seriously limit their utility for engineering magnetically sensitive cells. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.17210. 001
Pass-Over Problem in Wireless Sensor Networks

Pass-over in wireless sensor network routing occurs when a query agent passes over an event agent without discovering each other. Even if the two agents eventually meet, the number of hop count may add up as a result of that. In this paper we examine the pass-over problem extensively through numerical analysis and simulations. Numerical analyses (and simulation results) reveal that probability of pass- over in the context of rumor routing can be as high as 97.5% (and 92%). The outcomes indicate the seriousness of pass-over and should not be overlooked. Technique is proposed to resolve the issue. By integrating the proposed technique into rumor routing, pass-over occurrences can be eliminated completely according to our simulations, which then results in higher routing success rate and shorter routing paths.
On Bi-Decompositions of Logic Functions

Abstract : A logic function f has a disjoint bi-decomposition iff f can be represented as f = h(g1(X1); g2(X2)), where X1 and X2 are disjoint set of variables, and h is an arbitrary two-variable logic fuction. f has a non-disjoint bidecomposition i f can be represented as f(X1;X2; x) = h(g1(X1; x); g2(X2; x)), where x is the common variable. In this paper, we show a fast method to find bidecompositions. Also, we enumerate the number of functions having bidecompositions.
Statistical data mining of streaming motion data for fall detection in assistive environments

The analysis of human motion data is interesting for the purpose of activity recognition or emergency event detection, especially in the case of elderly or disabled people living independently in their homes. Several techniques have been proposed for identifying such distress situations using either motion, audio or video sensors on the monitored subject (wearable sensors) or the surrounding environment. The output of such sensors is data streams that require real time recognition, especially in emergency situations, thus traditional classification approaches may not be applicable for immediate alarm triggering or fall prevention. This paper presents a statistical mining methodology that may be used for the specific problem of real time fall detection. Visual data captured from the user's environment, using overhead cameras along with motion data are collected from accelerometers on the subject's body and are fed to the fall detection system. The paper includes the details of the stream data mining methodology incorporated in the system along with an initial evaluation of the achieved accuracy in detecting falls.
Secure kNN queries over outsourced spatial data for location-based services

Cloud computing allows data owners to outsource their databases, eliminating the need for costly storage and computational resources. The key is to maintain data confidentiality with respect to third-party service providers along with providing query results in real-time to authorized users. In this paper, a transformation and encryption approach is proposed for spatial databases, where the service provider executes queries and returns results to the users. First, the approach uses the space-filling Hilbert curve to map each spatial point in the multidimensional space to a one-dimensional space. Next, the order-preserving encryption technique is applied to the transformed spatial data. The user issues spatial kNN queries to the service provider based on the Hilbert values and then uses the encryption key to decrypt the query response returned. Experiments are conducted to show that this approach reduces the query communication cost between the authorized user and the service provider.
Estimation of the light source position on the basis of the light point figure

The light point figure is an image of a source of light seen in the reflector surface of a headlight. The source location is one of decisive parameters that influence the shape of the figure. The paper is an attempt to estimate the source of light location on the basis of the shape of the light point figure. The location in the reflector focus was assumed as a standard position. The displacement along an optical axis and perpendicular axis was considered. A set of factors that describe the shape of the figure was introduced. Through using them the functional dependencies between source's displacement and shape of figure were defined. An algorithm for determining the source location (displacement in relation to standard position) was introduced. This algorithm uses proposed functional dependencies and nonlinear programming methods. The light point figure is calculated using ray tracing.
Impact of hearing impairment on fricative intelligibility for artificially bandwidth-extended telephone speech in noise

Because of its limited bandwidth, telephone speech is poorly intelligible. Artificial bandwidth extension (ABWE) reconstructs themissing frequencies aiming at, e.g., higher intelligibility. It was recently demonstrated that hearing-impaired persons wearing a hearing aid benefit from ABWE-enhanced telephone speech. However, it is unclear, whether persons without hearing impairment also take profit from ABWE in the same test conditions and if so, to what extent. This paper presents a subjective listening test with normal-hearing subjects based on meaningless German syllables simulating narrowband (NB), ABWE-enhanced and wideband (WB) telephone speech in two noisy listening conditions. The test results reveal a clear impact of hearing impairment on the ABWE capability to improve telephone intelligibility. For a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 0 dB, subjects with and without hearing impairment similarly benefit from ABWE. At 20 dB SNR, hearing-impaired subjects take even more profit in contrast to normal-hearing subjects.
Low-complexity equalization of time-varying channels with precoding

This correspondence deals with time-varying (TV) single-input multiple-output (SIMO) channels, which are both frequency selective (due to high data rate) and time selective (due to mobility). A complex exponential basis expansion model (CE-BEM) is used to model the channel. We consider a block transmission system, where on the transmit side a precoder is employed to enable the maximum available diversity for a CE-BEM channel. After direct decoding on the receive side, the resulting channel resembles a finite-impulse-response (FIR) filter on both block and symbol level. We therefore propose an equalizer that bears a structure analogous to the effective channel. In comparison with a standard block minimum mean-square error decision-feedback equalizer (BMMSE-DFE) that involves the inversion of a large-size matrix, the proposed parametric equalizer renders a similar performance but at a lower computational cost if there are multiple outputs present. Another contribution of this correspondence is a semiblind algorithm to estimate this equalizer when the channel state information is not available: the equalizer taps and the information symbol estimates are refined recursively by means of normalized least-mean-squares (NLMS) adaptation
Connectivity‐based parcellation: Critique and implications

Regional specialization and functional integration are often viewed as two fundamental principles of human brain organization. They are closely intertwined because each functionally specialized brain region is probably characterized by a distinct set of long‐range connections. This notion has prompted the quickly developing family of connectivity‐based parcellation (CBP) methods in neuroimaging research. CBP assumes that there is a latent structure of parcels in a region of interest (ROI). First, connectivity strengths are computed to other parts of the brain for each voxel/vertex within the ROI. These features are then used to identify functionally distinct groups of ROI voxels/vertices. CBP enjoys increasing popularity for the in‐vivo mapping of regional specialization in the human brain. Due to the requirements of different applications and datasets, CBP has diverged into a heterogeneous family of methods. This broad overview critically discusses the current state as well as the commonalities and idiosyncrasies of the main CBP methods. We target frequent concerns faced by novices and veterans to provide a reference for the investigation and review of CBP studies. Hum Brain Mapp 36:4771–4792, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Accuracy and Repeatability of an Anterior Segment Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomographer

Objectives: To assess accuracy and repeatability of the CASIA swept-source optical coherence tomographer (SS-OCT) in measuring contact lens (CL) radii of curvature and thicknesses compared with verified CL parameters and to investigate intrasession and intersession repeatability of the CASIA SS-OCT in measuring epithelial and total corneal thicknesses. Methods: Rigid CLs with varying radii of curvature (front, rf; back, rb) and thicknesses were imaged with the CASIA SS-OCT across two sessions. Contact lens parameters were measured from processed images using an automated MATLAB program and were compared with parameters verified using standard techniques. Central epithelial and total corneal thicknesses of 43 normal subjects were measured to assess intrasession and intersession repeatability of the CASIA SS-OCT. Results: No significant differences (P>0.05) were found in rigid CL rf and central and peripheral thickness measurements compared with verified CL parameters. However, the rb values obtained from the CASIA SS-OCT were consistently 0.2 mm flatter than the verified rb values (P<0.001) along horizontal and vertical meridians. Bland–Altman analysis revealed excellent intrasession agreement with mean differences of 0.004 and 0.003 mm for rf and rb, 0.000 mm for CL thickness and 0.372 and 0.395 &mgr;m for epithelial and total corneal thicknesses, respectively. Similarly, mean intersession differences of 0.020 and 0.000 mm for rf and CL thickness and 0.100 and 0.984 &mgr;m for epithelial and total corneal thicknesses were found, respectively. Ninety-five percentage confidence intervals across one or two sessions indicated insignificant undermeasurement or overmeasurement for CL rf, and corneal thicknesses, but significant bias toward overmeasurement for CL rb was found across two sessions. Conclusions: The CASIA SS-OCT produces accurate measurements of CL parameters compared with verified values. Inbuilt distortion correction in this instrument necessitated no further correction of scanned images and provided high intrasession and intersession repeatability in measuring both CLs and corneal thicknesses. Further investigation of discrepancies in rb measurements is warranted.
How a well-adapted immune system is organized

Significance The adaptive immune system uses the experience of past infections to prepare its limited repertoire of specialized receptors to protect organisms from future threats. What is the best way of doing this? Building a theoretical framework from first principles, we predict the composition of receptor repertoires that are optimally adapted to minimize the cost of infections from a given pathogenic environment. A naive repertoire can reach these optima through a biologically plausible competitive mechanism. Our findings explain how limited populations of immune receptors can self-organize to provide effective immunity against highly diverse pathogens. Our results also inform the design and interpretation of experiments surveying immune repertoires. The repertoire of lymphocyte receptors in the adaptive immune system protects organisms from diverse pathogens. A well-adapted repertoire should be tuned to the pathogenic environment to reduce the cost of infections. We develop a general framework for predicting the optimal repertoire that minimizes the cost of infections contracted from a given distribution of pathogens. The theory predicts that the immune system will have more receptors for rare antigens than expected from the frequency of encounters; individuals exposed to the same infections will have sparse repertoires that are largely different, but nevertheless exploit cross-reactivity to provide the same coverage of antigens; and the optimal repertoires can be reached via the dynamics of competitive binding of antigens by receptors and selective amplification of stimulated receptors. Our results follow from a tension between the statistics of pathogen detection, which favor a broader receptor distribution, and the effects of cross-reactivity, which tend to concentrate the optimal repertoire onto a few highly abundant clones. Our predictions can be tested in high-throughput surveys of receptor and pathogen diversity.
Novel synthesis of AlN nanowires with controlled diameters

A relatively low-cost, high-efficiency method is reported to synthesize AlN nanowires, using carbon nanotubes as templates. The AlN nanowires were fabricated at 1100 °C, for 60 min. The diameters of the product could be roughly controlled by the sizes of carbon nanotubes selected as starting materials. The AlN nanowires obtained were among the thinnest ever known. X-ray diffraction, selected-area diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, etc. were employed to characterize the products, which were found to be single crystals with some defects. The axes of the nanowires are normal to {1010} crystal planes. A new synthesis mechanism is proposed.
Visible‐light‐activated photocatalysis of malodorous dimethyl disulphide using nitrogen‐enhanced TiO2

This study evaluated the feasibility of applying a visible‐light‐activated photocatalytic technique to cleanse air dimethyl disulphide (DMDS) at low concentration conditions (0.027–5.4 ppm), by using nitrogen‐enhanced TiO2. In addition, the applicability of a backup adsorption unit for the secondary control of DMDS exiting from the photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) unit was investigated. The PCO unit functioned effectively for the control of DMDS at low concentration levels (≤0.027 ppm) for long‐time periods (at least 603 h). However, rapid photocatalyst deactivation levels were observed during photocatalytic processes with a higher DMDS input concentration (IC) (2.7 ppm). The photocatalyst reactivated with humidified or dried air, under visible‐light irradiation, did not regain all its initial activities. The photocatalytic degradation efficiencies (PDEs) for DMDS were close to 100% for the relative humidity (RH) range of 45–55%, whereas they were between 86% and 91% and between 78% and 82% regarding the RH ranges of 10–20% and 80–90%, respectively. The PDEs via the PCO alone were close to 100% during this time period for the lowest IC conditions (0.027 ppm), whereas they decreased gradually for the other ICs. The FTIR spectra of the photocatalysts, as well as a solid‐liquid extraction method, suggested the formation of sulphate groups on the catalyst surface during a photocatalytic process. Methanol was identified as a gaseous by‐product. In addition, the backup adsorption unit could be effectively utilized to remove methanol, under a broad indoor pollution level (0.027–5.4 ppm), as well as DMDS exiting from the PCO units.
Digital and physical layer network coding performance in the context of enforced fairness

In this paper, we investigate the performance of the so-called Cross Network operating under diverse Network Coding (NC) techniques. We study the impact of Medium Access Control (MAC) layer fairness on the throughput performance of the network for the cases of pure relaying, digital NC with and without overhearing and physical layer NC with and without overhearing. We provide a comparison among these techniques and we discuss the throughput bounds, due to MAC layer limitations, imposed to the system operation by broadly adopted short range communication protocols that provide for fair resource allocation such as IEEE 802.11. Furthermore, we show that significant coding gains are achieved with digital and physical layer NC and we discuss on the energy efficiency performance of each NC case when applied on the Cross Network.
IL-12Rβ1 Deficiency in Two of Fifty Children with Severe Tuberculosis from Iran, Morocco, and Turkey

Background and Objectives In the last decade, autosomal recessive IL-12Rβ1 deficiency has been diagnosed in four children with severe tuberculosis from three unrelated families from Morocco, Spain, and Turkey, providing proof-of-principle that tuberculosis in otherwise healthy children may result from single-gene inborn errors of immunity. We aimed to estimate the fraction of children developing severe tuberculosis due to IL-12Rβ1 deficiency in areas endemic for tuberculosis and where parental consanguinity is common. Methods and Principal Findings We searched for IL12RB1 mutations in a series of 50 children from Iran, Morocco, and Turkey. All children had established severe pulmonary and/or disseminated tuberculosis requiring hospitalization and were otherwise normally resistant to weakly virulent BCG vaccines and environmental mycobacteria. In one child from Iran and another from Morocco, homozygosity for loss-of-function IL12RB1 alleles was documented, resulting in complete IL-12Rβ1 deficiency. Despite the small sample studied, our findings suggest that IL-12Rβ1 deficiency is not a very rare cause of pediatric tuberculosis in these countries, where it should be considered in selected children with severe disease. Significance This finding may have important medical implications, as recombinant IFN-γ is an effective treatment for mycobacterial infections in IL-12Rβ1-deficient patients. It also provides additional support for the view that severe tuberculosis in childhood may result from a collection of single-gene inborn errors of immunity.
Shape memory alloy volume fraction of pre-stretched shape memory alloy wire-reinforced composites for structural damage repair

Shape memory alloy (SMA)-reinforced composite patches not only provide non-intrusive and flexible structural damage repair like normal polymer composite patches, but are also able to enhance the repair efficiency by applying active closure stress. The active closure stress is produced by shape recovery of pre-stretched SMA wires which are embedded in the composites. This paper describes the modelling of a cracked structure repaired by SMA wire-reinforced composite patches, and further evaluates the active closure stress. The issue of debonding at the interface between SMA wires and a polymer matrix is addressed to determine the maximum pre-strain that may be applied on SMA wires before they are embedded in composites. The minimum volume fraction of SMA wires required to produce the active closure stress specified in the design is then estimated, subject to a limitation no greater than 1.