Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Site‐Specific Systematic Analysis of Lysine Modification Crosstalk

Research has revealed that post‐translational modifications (PTMs) that occur at lysine (PLMs) can cooperatively regulate various biological processes by crosstalk. However, the trend of the crosstalk between multiple PLMs and the properties of PLM crosstalk require additional investigation. Here, the crosstalk among acetylation, succinylation, and SUMOylation is systematically studied in a site‐specific waz. First, crosstalk between SUMOylation is detected and succinylation is found to be underexpressed, whereas succinylation tends to crosstalk with acetylation and SUMOylation on the same lysine residue while PLM crosstalk is tissue‐specific across different species. Further analysis reveals that different PLMs tend to occur crosstalk at diverse subcellular compartments and structural regions, and they participate in distinct biological processes and functions. Additionally, short‐term evolutionary analysis shows that there is no additional evolutionary pressure on PLMs crosstalk sites, as found by comparison with singly modified sites. Finally, phylogenetic classification reveals that genes with co‐occupied lysine crosstalk are more likely to have higher evolutionary similarity and possess a tendency to cluster in the specific branch. The integrated approach reported here has the potential for large‐scale prioritization of in situ crosstalk of PLM candidates and provides a profound understanding of the underlying relationship between different lysine modifications.
Preview : Published ahead of advance online publication Epidemiology and outcomes of community-acquired and hospital-acquired acute kidney injury in children and adolescents

This is a PDF file of an unedited peer-reviewed manuscript that has been accepted for publication. NPG are providing this early version of the manuscript as a service to our customers. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting and a proof review before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.
Evolution of phases during tempering of P91 steel at 760℃ for varying tempering time and their effect on microstructure and mechanical properties

In the present investigation, a systematic study has been undertaken with regard to the effects of tempering time on room temperature mechanical properties of P91 (X10CrMoVNNB9-1) steel. Samples cut from P91 (X10CrMoVNNB9-1) industrial pipe were normalized at 1040 ℃ for 40 min and then tempered at 760 ℃ for different tempering times starting from 2 h to 8 h. Detailed analysis of microstructure, particle size, inter-particle spacing, and secondary phase carbide particles of the tempered samples was conducted by secondary electron microscopy technique. Optical microscopy was also utilized to characterize the tempered samples and for the measurement of grain size. In order to reveal the various phases formed during tempering of P91 (X10CrMoVNNB9-1) steel, X-ray diffraction was carried out. To study the fracture surface morphology of tensile tested and impact tested specimen field-emission scanning electron microscopy was carried out. The effect of tempering time on the microstructural parameters revealed an increase in grain size up to 4 h of tempering and then decreased because of recrystallization. The coarsening of secondary phase carbide particles M23C6 was revealed with an increase in tempering time. As a consequence, yield strength, hardness, and ultimate tensile strength were observed to decrease with increase in the tempering time. However, a drastic change was observed in the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and toughness after tempering for 6 h. From the present study, it was concluded that optimum combination of yield stress, ultimate tensile strength, hardness, and toughness obtained after tempering at 760 ℃ for 6 h.
Hofstadter's problem for curious readers

This document summarizes the proofs made during a Coq development in Summer 2015. This development investigates the function G introduced by Hofstadter in his famous "Godel, Escher, Bach" book as well as a related infinite tree. The left/right flipped variant of this G tree has also been studied here, following Hofstadter's "problem for the curious reader". The initial G function is refered as sequence A005206 in OEIS, while the flipped version is the sequence A123070.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms: Host Response and Clinical Implications in Lung Infections

&NA; Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major health challenge that causes recalcitrant multidrug‐resistant infections, especially in immunocompromised and hospitalized patients. P. aeruginosa is an important cause of nosocomial and ventilator‐associated pneumonia characterized by high prevalence and fatality rates. P. aeruginosa also causes chronic lung infections in individuals with cystic fibrosis. Multidrug‐ and totally drug‐resistant strains of P. aeruginosa are increasing threats that contribute to high mortality in these patients. The pathogenesis of many P. aeruginosa infections depends on its ability to form biofilms, structured bacterial communities that can coat mucosal surfaces or invasive devices. These biofilms make conditions more favorable for bacterial persistence, as embedded bacteria are inherently more difficult to eradicate than planktonic bacteria. The molecular mechanisms that underlie P. aeruginosa biofilm pathogenesis and the host response to P. aeruginosa biofilms remain to be fully defined. However, it is known that biofilms offer protection from the host immune response and are also extremely recalcitrant to antimicrobial therapy. Therefore, development of novel therapeutic strategies specifically aimed at biofilms is urgently needed. Here, we review the host response, key clinical implications of P. aeruginosa biofilms, and novel therapeutic approaches to treat biofilms relevant to lung infections. Greater understanding of P. aeruginosa biofilms will elucidate novel avenues to improve outcomes for P. aeruginosa pulmonary infections.
A survey of procedural terrain generation techniques using evolutionary algorithms

This paper provides a review of existing approaches to using evolutionary algorithms (EA) during procedural terrain generation (PTG) processes in video games. A reliable PTG algorithm would allow game maps to be created partially or completely autonomously, reducing the development cost of a game and providing players with more content. Specifically, the use of EA raises possibilities of more control over the terrain generation process, as well as the ability to tailor maps for individual users. In this paper we outline the prominent algorithms that use EA in terrain generation, describing their individual advantages and disadvantages. This is followed by a comparison of the core features of these approaches and an analysis of their appropriateness for generating game terrain. This survey concludes with open challenges for future research.
A 15-V Bidirectional Current Clamp Circuit for Integrated Patch Clamp Electrophysiology

This brief presents a high-voltage low-noise current clamp circuit for patch clamp electrophysiology systems. The circuit includes a novel programmable bidirectional current source spanning a pA to nA range, while supporting an 11.1-V input voltage range and being insensitive to opamp offset voltage. The measured output current noise floor is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8.0\,\,\text{fA}/\boldsymbol {\sqrt {\mathrm {Hz}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> while sourcing 100 pA. For a measurement bandwidth of 1 kHz, the corresponding integrated noise current is 588 fA<sub>RMS</sub>. The system occupies an area of 0.2 mm<sup>2</sup> in 180-nm CMOS and consumes 4 mA from a 15-V supply.
Maternal CD4+ T cells protect against severe congenital cytomegalovirus disease in a novel nonhuman primate model of placental cytomegalovirus transmission

Significance Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the leading infectious cause of childhood hearing loss and brain damage worldwide. Yet, despite its high prevalence and ranking as a top priority for vaccine development, the immune correlates of protection that could guide vaccine development remain undefined. Using a novel nonhuman primate model of congenital CMV transmission, we demonstrate a critical role for maternal CD4+ T cells in the induction of protective maternal immune responses that prevent fetal demise. In addition to establishing placental CMV transmission for the first time (to our knowledge) in nonhuman primates, this study reveals an association between delayed maternal virus-specific neutralizing antibody responses and severe fetal outcome, providing insight into the mechanism by which maternal CD4+ T cells impact congenital CMV disease. Elucidation of maternal immune correlates of protection against congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) is necessary to inform future vaccine design. Here, we present a novel rhesus macaque model of placental rhesus CMV (rhCMV) transmission and use it to dissect determinants of protection against congenital transmission following primary maternal rhCMV infection. In this model, asymptomatic intrauterine infection was observed following i.v. rhCMV inoculation during the early second trimester in two of three rhCMV-seronegative pregnant females. In contrast, fetal loss or infant CMV-associated sequelae occurred in four rhCMV-seronegative pregnant macaques that were CD4+ T-cell depleted at the time of inoculation. Animals that received the CD4+ T-cell–depleting antibody also exhibited higher plasma and amniotic fluid viral loads, dampened virus-specific CD8+ T-cell responses, and delayed production of autologous neutralizing antibodies compared with immunocompetent monkeys. Thus, maternal CD4+ T-cell immunity during primary rhCMV infection is important for controlling maternal viremia and inducing protective immune responses that prevent severe CMV-associated fetal disease.
[Renal amyloidosis complicating the outcome of chronic inflammatory colitis].

INTRODUCTION In 4 patients we observed the association of an amyloid nephropathy and a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's' disease in 3 cases and ulcerative rectocolitis in 1 case). OBSERVATIONS These patients, aged a mean of 37 years (range: 28-48 years), had been admitted for exploration of a nephrotic syndrome associated with renal failure in 2 cases. The investigations lead to the diagnosis of AA type amyloidosis in the 4 cases. One patient was lost from follow-up. One patient was treated with salazopyrine, one with corticosteroids and one with colchicine. After a mean follow-up of 16 months (5-30 months), all the patients had persistent nephrotic syndrome, with end stage renal failure in one case, persistence of normal renal function in one case and improved renal function in one case. None of the patients exhibited remission in the nephrotic syndrome. The response of amyloidosis to the treatment of the chronic inflammatory bowel disease varied. Corticosteroids and colchicine stabilised renal function in 2 of our patients but without remission in the nephrotic syndrome. DISCUSSION AA amyloidosis is a rare complication of inflammatory bowel disease. The indication for colchicine is important to consider particularly since the response of amyloidosis to the treatment of the causal disease does not, in the majority of cases, lead to the remission of the amyloidosis, the prognosis of which is determined by the extent of renal involvement.
Experimental Comparison of Isolated Bidirectional DC–DC Converters Based on All-Si and All-SiC Power Devices for Next-Generation Power Conversion Application

In this paper, the application performances of isolated bidirectional dc-dc converters (IBDCs) based on all-Si and all-SiC power devices for next-generation power conversion application are comparatively analyzed and validated through experiments. Both the comparative theoretical analysis and experiments show that the SiC-based converter has better performance than the Si-based IBDC. The efficiency of all-SiC-based IBDC is higher than that of the previous reported IBDCs. The practical applications of IBDC for the next-generation power conversion are expected with the appearance and application of SiC-based power devices.
miR-17∼92 family clusters control iNKT cell ontogenesis via modulation of TGF-β signaling

Significance CD1d-restricted invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells are innate-like T lymphocytes that play fundamental roles in cancer, autoimmunity, and infections. iNKT cells acquire effector functions already in the thymus, because of a distinct developmentally regulated genetic program that is critically controlled by miRNAs. Our study unveils the unexpected requirement for miRNA-dependent fine-tuning of TGF-β signaling in the control of iNKT cell development and functional differentiation. The targeting of a lineage-specific cytokine signaling by miRNA represents a previously unknown level of developmental regulation in the thymus. Furthermore, our study provides a comprehensive atlas of miRNA-regulated molecular pathways involved in iNKT cell ontogenesis, and highlights molecular pathways targeted by defined miRNAs that are predicted to be involved in the development and maturation of CD1d-restricted iNKT cells. Invariant natural killer T cells (iNKT) cells are T lymphocytes displaying innate effector functions, acquired through a distinct thymic developmental program regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs). Deleting miRNAs by Dicer ablation (Dicer KO) in thymocytes selectively impairs iNKT cell survival and functional differentiation. To unravel this miRNA-dependent program, we systemically identified transcripts that were differentially expressed between WT and Dicer KO iNKT cells at different differentiation stages and predicted to be targeted by the iNKT cell-specific miRNAs. TGF-β receptor II (TGF-βRII), critically implicated in iNKT cell differentiation, was found up-regulated in iNKT Dicer KO cells together with enhanced TGF-β signaling. miRNA members of the miR-17∼92 family clusters were predicted to target Tgfbr2 mRNA upon iNKT cell development. iNKT cells lacking all three miR-17∼92 family clusters (miR-17∼92, miR-106a∼363, miR-106b∼25) phenocopied both increased TGF-βRII expression and signaling, and defective effector differentiation, displayed by iNKT Dicer KO cells. Consistently, genetic ablation of TGF-β signaling in the absence of miRNAs rescued iNKT cell differentiation. These results elucidate the global impact of miRNAs on the iNKT cell developmental program and uncover the targeting of a lineage-specific cytokine signaling by miRNAs as a mechanism regulating innate-like T-cell development and effector differentiation.
Smartphone authentication system using periocular biometrics

The increasing usage of smartphones has raised security concerns regarding these devices due to presence of high amount of personal and sensitive data. The risk is higher without a proper mechanism to handle the authentication to access the smartphone device. In this work, we present a standalone modular biometric system based on periocular information to authenticate towards device. The proposed system has been implemented on the Android operating system. We field tested and evaluated the proposed system using a new database acquired capturing samples with three different devices. We apply the three well known feature extraction techniques, SIFT, SURF and BSIF independently in the proposed peroicular based authentication system. The best performance achieved with GMR = 89.38% at FMR = 0.01% indicates the applicability of the proposed periocular based mobile authentication system in a real-life scenario.
MovieGraphs: Towards Understanding Human-Centric Situations from Videos

There is growing interest in artificial intelligence to build socially intelligent robots. This requires machines to have the ability to "read" people's emotions, motivations, and other factors that affect behavior. Towards this goal, we introduce a novel dataset called MovieGraphs which provides detailed, graph-based annotations of social situations depicted in movie clips. Each graph consists of several types of nodes, to capture who is present in the clip, their emotional and physical attributes, their relationships (i.e., parent/child), and the interactions between them. Most interactions are associated with topics that provide additional details, and reasons that give motivations for actions. In addition, most interactions and many attributes are grounded in the video with time stamps. We provide a thorough analysis of our dataset, showing interesting common-sense correlations between different social aspects of scenes, as well as across scenes over time. We propose a method for querying videos and text with graphs, and show that: 1) our graphs contain rich and sufficient information to summarize and localize each scene; and 2) subgraphs allow us to describe situations at an abstract level and retrieve multiple semantically relevant situations. We also propose methods for interaction understanding via ordering, and reason understanding. MovieGraphs is the first benchmark to focus on inferred properties of human-centric situations, and opens up an exciting avenue towards socially-intelligent AI agents.
A Synthetic Discrete Design Methodology of High-Frequency Isolated Bidirectional DC/DC Converter for Grid-Connected Battery Energy Storage System Using Advanced Components

This paper reviews recent advances of key components in isolated bidirectional dc-dc converter (IBDC) and discusses potential of IBDC based on advanced components. The concept of safe operation area of IBDC is proposed and clearly defined, which is determined by the intersection of the effective operation areas of transmission power, current stress, and current root mean square. By analyzing efficiency and power density characteristic, this paper points out that the efficiency optimization of IBDC needs to give way to the power density optimization. On this basis, a novel synthetic discrete optimization design methodology of IBDC based on advanced components for battery energy storage system (BESS) is proposed. Finally, an experimental prototype is implemented, and some design suggestions for hardware optimization are provided. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the designed BESS and show that the practical applications of next-generation high-frequency conversion system are expected with the appearance and application of advanced components.
Biometric Menagerie in Time-Span Separated Fingerprint Data

Multiple factors are influencing the performance of fingerprint recognition systems. Some of those depend on the used recognition implementations or datasets, while other factors like fingerprint ageing can be difficult to isolate. The aim of this research is the consideration of user related characteristics which have been introduced as the so called "Doddington's Zoo" to describe possible present template ageing influence. Certain user dependent weaknesses could be influenced by fingerprint ageing such that those system vulnerabilities are amplified or even attenuated. To investigate this aspect, the users in the databases (including a time separation of 4 years) are labelled according to the main model provided by the menagerie concept. The analysis of the single categories revealed that the animal groups are not extended (labelled users in the older datasets are not the same as in the newer ones) regardless which dataset and recognition system is considered.
Lipid sensing by mTOR complexes via de novo synthesis of phosphatidic acid

mTOR, the mammalian target of rapamycin, integrates growth factor and nutrient signals to promote a transformation from catabolic to anabolic metabolism, cell growth, and cell cycle progression. Phosphatidic acid (PA) interacts with the FK506-binding protein–12-rapamycin-binding (FRB) domain of mTOR, which stabilizes both mTOR complexes: mTORC1 and mTORC2. We report here that mTORC1 and mTORC2 are activated in response to exogenously supplied fatty acids via the de novo synthesis of PA, a central metabolite for membrane phospholipid biosynthesis. We examined the impact of exogenously supplied fatty acids on mTOR in KRas-driven cancer cells, which are programmed to utilize exogenous lipids. The induction of mTOR by oleic acid was dependent upon the enzymes responsible for de novo synthesis of PA. Suppression of the de novo synthesis of PA resulted in G1 cell cycle arrest. Although it has long been appreciated that mTOR is a sensor of amino acids and glucose, this study reveals that mTOR also senses the presence of lipids via production of PA.
Lessons learned in acute heart failure

Acute heart failure (HF) is a global pandemic with more than one million admissions to hospital annually in the US and millions more worldwide. Post‐discharge mortality and readmission rates remain unchanged and unacceptably high. Although recent drug development programmes have failed to deliver novel therapies capable of reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients hospitalized for worsening chronic HF, hospitalized HF registries and clinical trial databases have generated a wealth of information improving our collective understanding of the HF syndrome. This review will summarize key insights from clinical trials in acute HF and hospitalized HF registries over the last several decades, focusing on improving the management of patients with HF and reduced ejection fraction.
Curcuminoids Lower Plasma Leptin Concentrations: A Meta‐analysis

Curcumin is a naturally occurring polyphenol that has been suggested to improve several metabolic diseases. Leptin is an adipokine involved in metabolic status and appetite, with marked crosstalk with other systems. Available data suggest that curcumin may affect leptin levels; therefore, this meta‐analysis was performed to evaluate this. A systematic review and meta‐analysis were undertaken on all randomized controlled trials of curcumin studies that included the measurement of leptin. The search included PubMed‐Medline, Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar databases. Quantitative data synthesis was performed by using a random‐effects model, with standardized mean difference and 95% confidence interval as summary statistics. A funnel plot, Begg's rank correlation, and Egger's weighted regression tests assessed the presence of publication bias. Four eligible articles comprising five treatment arms were selected for the meta‐analysis. Meta‐analysis showed a significant decrease in plasma leptin concentrations following curcumin treatment (standardized mean difference: −0.69, 95% confidence interval: −1.16, −0.23, p = 0.003; I2 = 76.53%). There was no evidence of publication bias. This meta‐analysis showed that curcumin supplementation is associated with a decrease in leptin levels that may be regarded as a potential mechanism for the metabolic effects of curcumin. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ManySAT: a Parallel SAT Solver

In this paper, ManySAT a new portfolio-based parallel SAT solver is thoroughly described. The design of ManySAT benefits from the main weaknesses of modern SAT solvers: their sensitivity to parameter tuning and their lack of robustness. ManySAT uses a portfolio of complementary sequential algorithms obtained through careful variations of the standard DPLL algorithm. Additionally, each sequential algorithm shares clauses to improve the overall performance of the whole system. This contrasts with most of the parallel SAT solvers generally designed using the divide-and-conquer paradigm. Experiments on many industrial SAT instances, and the first rank obtained by ManySAT in the parallel track of the 2008 SAT-Race clearly show the potential of our design philosophy.