Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and Characterization of Cellulose-graft-poly(p-dioxanone) Copolymers via Homogeneous Ring-Opening Graft Polymerization in Ionic Liquids

Cellulose-graft-poly(p-dioxanone) copolymers (cellulose-g-PPDO) were homogeneously prepared via ring-opening graft polymerization (ROP) between p-dioxanone (PDO) and hydroxyl groups of cellulose using the catalyst 4-dimethylaminoptridine (DMAP) in the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BmimCl). Chemical structures and physical properties of the cellulose-g-PPDO copolymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (1H, 13C, 1H-13C 2D heteronuclear single quantum correlation (HSQC)-NMR)), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. By adjusting the reaction conditions, including the molar ratio of PDO to the anhydroglucose unit (AGU), amount of DMAP, and reaction temperature and time, the structure of the graft copolymers could be altered, and a series of copolymers with molar substitutions (MSs) in the range of 1.09 to 6.97 and polymerization degrees (DPs) varying from 1.85 to 2.88 were obtained. The graft copolymers exhibited a noticeably lower thermal stability than cellulose. After the attachment of PPDO groups, the crystalline structure of cellulose was disrupted because of the elimination of the inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds of cellulose chains.
Manual and automatic evaluation of summaries

In this paper we discuss manual and automatic evaluations of summaries using data from the Document Understanding Conference 2001 (DUC-2001). We first show the instability of the manual evaluation. Specifically, the low inter-human agreement indicates that more reference summaries are needed. To investigate the feasibility of automated summary evaluation based on the recent BLEU method from machine translation, we use accumulative n-gram overlap scores between system and human summaries. The initial results provide encouraging correlations with human judgments, based on the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient. However, relative ranking of systems needs to take into account the instability.
Investigation of the driver circuit for high-voltage cascode GaN device

GaN device has more potentiality over Si-based device in high frequency and high power density applications, but even a very small parasitic parameter makes the device hard to drive at MHz switching frequency. In practical applications, the leaded packages are still dominant because of their simplicity for PCB assembly and the capability for a wide variety of heat-sinking techniques. In this paper, the performance of driver circuit for high-voltage cascode GaN device in leaded package is evaluated. The reasons for oscillation on gate-source voltage are investigated and analyzed in details. Then the current source driver method is adopted to clamp the gate-source voltage and improve the driving performance, shortening switching period and reducing switching loss.
Extracorporeal blood treatment (EBT) methods in SIRS/Sepsis.

BACKGROUND Extracorporeal blood purification treatment (EBT) methods have been used in the treatment of experimental and human SIRS/Sepsis in a variety of settings and with variable reports of efficacy and safety. Their role in the management of SIRS/Sepsis remains controversial. OBJECTIVES To develop consensus statements regarding important aspects of research, practice and technical management concerning EBT. METHODS Systematic review of published study. Evidence-based grading of information available. Consensus development regarding fundamental questions about EBT. RESULTS Consensus was achieved on all questions posed during the conference. It was agreed that there is currently a clear biological rational for EBT in SIRS and Sepsis. It was agreed that conventional CVVH has sufficiently been shown not to be effective in SIRS/Sepsis in the absence of concomitant ARF and that other therapies such as plasmapheresis or high-volume hemofiltration or coupled plasma filtration adsorption appear more promising and should be tested in multicentre randomized controlled trials. Patients with ARF and SIRS/Sepsis should be treated differently from those with ARF alone even though current practice in this field is not well known. Patients with refractory septic shock should be considered for EBT. Appropriate end points for clinical trials can be defined and chosen according to the goals of the trial. Different technologies exist for EBT and better understanding of the merits and safety of each is needed as well as better standardization of methodology and dose. CONCLUSIONS Broad consensus can be achieved on several aspects of EBT and can be used to inform clinical practice and to help guide the establishment of a future research agenda.
A hierarchical non‐homogenous Poisson model for meta‐analysis of adenoma counts

We use a hierarchical model for a meta‐analysis that combines information from autopsy studies of adenoma prevalence and counts. The studies we included reported findings using a variety of adenoma prevalence groupings and age categories. We use a non‐homogeneous Poisson model for multinomial bin probabilities. The Poisson model allows risk to depend on age and sex, and incorporates extra‐Poisson variability. We evaluate model fit using the posterior predicted distribution of adenoma prevalence reported by the studies included in our analyses and validate our model using adenoma prevalence reported by more recent colonoscopy studies. For 1990, the estimated adenoma prevalence among Americans at age 60 is 40.3 per cent for men compared to 29.2 per cent for women. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Rare coincident NPM1 and RUNX1 mutations in intermediate risk acute myeloid leukemia display similar patterns to single mutated cases

Recently, Mendler et al . reported a low incidence of 4 of 472 (0.85%) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cases that carried concurrent NPM1 and RUNX1 mutations.20 Interestingly, they found that RUNX1 mutations in these rare cases with concurrent NPM1 mutations were structurally unusual when compared to
Blind channel equalization in the presence of co-channel interference using higher order statistics

This paper proposes an improved blind channel equalization method based on the generalized eigenvector algorithm (GEA). The new method can extract the desired signal in the presence of strong co-channel interference. The basic idea underlying the improved GEA method is that by exploiting higher order statistics that is sensitive to frequency offset, blind equalizer can be designed to equalize the desired signal with known frequency offset while suppressing the interference with a different frequency offset. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Hormonal regulation of sex differentiated parameters in liver nodules from rats treated in the resistant hepatocyte model.

Sex differentiation of liver functions has been shown to be attenuated in preneoplastic rat liver nodules. The present study was performed to investigate whether nodules from male rats are to some extent withdrawn from the normal growth hormone (GH) regulation of these functions. Male and female Wistar rats were treated according to a modified resistant hepatocyte model (RH-model), with diethylnitrosamine initiation and promotion with intragastric administration of 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) combined with partial hepatectomy (PH). Eleven months post-initiation male rats were treated with either human (hGH) or bovine growth hormone (bGH) or ovine prolactin (oPRL) by continuous infusion for 1 week. The mRNA expression of a number of genes known to be sex differentiated in liver from adult control rats was compared in nodular and surrounding tissue from nodule-bearing male, female and hormone-treated male rats. The basal mRNA expression of the female-predominant cytochrome P4502C12 (CYP2C12) was increased and the male-predominant CYP2C11 was decreased in liver nodules from male rats compared with the surrounding liver. Expression of the prolactin receptor (PRL-r; female > male) and the steroid 5 alpha-reductase (female > male) genes was decreased in male nodules, whereas no difference was observed with respect to GH-receptor (GH-r; female > male) expression in nodules versus surrounding tissue. Early nodules obtained from males treated according to the original RH-model (dietary 2-AAF, 0.02%) and isolated 2 weeks after completion of the 2-AAF/PH treatment showed significantly lower GH-r mRNA levels than the total liver tissue. In hepatocellular carcinomas from hormonally unmanipulated males 11 months post-initiation the decrease in PRL-r expression was even more pronounced than in the nodules and a significant decrease in GH-r expression was seen. In female nodules the only significant difference with respect to the sex differentiated parameters was a lower 5 alpha-reductase expression than in the surrounding tissue. Continuous infusion of both hGH and bGH feminized the expression of all the sex differentiated genes in male tissues and eliminated the previously detected differences between nodules and surrounding tissue. oPRL also eliminated the differences between nodules and surrounding tissue in males and partly feminized the expression of both the 5 alpha-reductase and the PRL-r genes. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Review article: locomotion systems for ground mobile robots in unstructured environments

Abstract. The world market of mobile robotics is expected to increase substantially in the next 20 yr, surpassing the market of industrial robotics in terms of units and sales. Important fields of application are homeland security, surveillance, demining, reconnaissance in dangerous situations, and agriculture. The design of the locomotion systems of mobile robots for unstructured environments is generally complex, particularly when they are required to move on uneven or soft terrains, or to climb obstacles. This paper sets out to analyse the state-of-the-art of locomotion mechanisms for ground mobile robots, focussing on solutions for unstructured environments, in order to help designers to select the optimal solution for specific operating requirements. The three main categories of locomotion systems (wheeled – W, tracked – T and legged – L) and the four hybrid categories that can be derived by combining these main locomotion systems are discussed with reference to maximum speed, obstacle-crossing capability, step/stair climbing capability, slope climbing capability, walking capability on soft terrains, walking capability on uneven terrains, energy efficiency, mechanical complexity, control complexity and technology readiness. The current and future trends of mobile robotics are also outlined.
Antral Follicle Count Reliably Predicts Number of Morphologically Healthy Oocytes and Follicles in Ovaries of Young Adult Cattle1

Abstract Methods to predict numbers of healthy oocytes in the ovaries of young adults could have important diagnostic relevance in family planning and animal agriculture. We have observed that peak antral follicle count (AFC) determined by serial ovarian ultrasonography during follicular waves is very highly reproducible within individual young adult cattle, despite 7-fold variation among animals. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that AFC is positively associated with the number of morphologically healthy oocytes and follicles in ovaries and with serum concentrations of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), an indirect marker for number of healthy follicles and oocytes in ovaries. In the present study, age-matched young adult cattle (12–18 mo old) were subjected to serial ultrasonography to identify animals with a consistently high (≥25 follicles that were ≥3 mm in diameter) or low (≤15 follicles) AFC during follicular waves. Differences in serum AMH concentrations, ovary weight, and number of morphologically healthy and atretic follicles and oocytes were determined. The phenotypic classifications of cattle based on AFC during follicular waves or AMH concentrations both predict reliably the relative number of morphologically healthy follicles and oocytes in ovaries of age-matched young adult cattle.
Serum prolactin concentrations in the captive female African elephant (Loxodonta africana): potential effects of season and steroid hormone interactions.

Research was conducted to determine whether seasonal changes in prolactin secretion occur in nonpregnant female African elephants and to examine potential functional interrelationships between secretion of prolactin, cortisol, and progesterone. Weekly blood samples were taken for 18 months from four female African elephants and the sera were analyzed by RIA for progesterone, cortisol, and prolactin concentrations. There was no significant effect of season on serum concentrations of prolactin. Estrous cycles averaged 14 weeks in length and were composed of a 9-week luteal phase and a 5-week follicular phase (based on progesterone concentrations consistently >200 and <200 pg/ml, respectively). Estrous cycle synchronicity was evident between pairs of elephants. Serum concentrations of prolactin (3.91 +/- 0.69 ng/ml; range: 0.84-15.8 ng/ml) were significantly lower during the luteal, compared with the follicular, phase (P < 0.0001; t test) and were positively correlated with serum concentrations of cortisol (r = 0.14; P < 0.05). Mean (+/-SE) serum concentration of cortisol was 5.7 +/- 1.3 ng/ml (range: 1.4-19.3 ng/ml), and concentrations of this adrenal steroid were negatively correlated with progesterone concentrations (r = -0.15; P < 0.01). Increased serum concentrations of prolactin detected during the follicular phase suggest that this hormone may be regulated by ovarian estrogens and may play a role in modulating ovarian function in the elephant.
Analysis of Aspergillus nidulans conidial antigens and their prevalence in other Aspergillus species

Aspergillus nidulans is an ascomycetous fungus that reproduces asexually by forming multicellular conidiophores and uninucleate spores called conidia. These elements constitute the main vehicle for the transmission of this and other pathogenic Aspergillus species and are the starting point of the different forms of aspergillosis. In order to use A. nidulans as a potential source of useful antigens for the immunodiagnosis of these diseases, we have examined the total protein composition of conidial extracts of this fungus by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in gels of different percent T. Injection of SDS-extracted conidial proteins into rabbits allowed us to raise a battery of polyclonal antibodies which have defined some important immunogenic polypeptides. Several of these immunogens were both present in mycelial extracts and recognized by antimycelium antibodies. Four of them, designated cdA, cdB, cdC, and cdE, were also found in conidial extracts of other pathogenic Aspergillus species. Only cdE was undetectable in cell extracts of the nonrelated species Fusarium culmorum and Phycomyces blakesleeanus.
Convergent gene loss following gene and genome duplications creates single-copy families in flowering plants

The importance of gene gain through duplication has long been appreciated. In contrast, the importance of gene loss has only recently attracted attention. Indeed, studies in organisms ranging from plants to worms and humans suggest that duplication of some genes might be better tolerated than that of others. Here we have undertaken a large-scale study to investigate the existence of duplication-resistant genes in the sequenced genomes of 20 flowering plants. We demonstrate that there is a large set of genes that is convergently restored to single-copy status following multiple genome-wide and smaller scale duplication events. We rule out the possibility that such a pattern could be explained by random gene loss only and therefore propose that there is selection pressure to preserve such genes as singletons. This is further substantiated by the observation that angiosperm single-copy genes do not comprise a random fraction of the genome, but instead are often involved in essential housekeeping functions that are highly conserved across all eukaryotes. Furthermore, single-copy genes are generally expressed more highly and in more tissues than non–single-copy genes, and they exhibit higher sequence conservation. Finally, we propose different hypotheses to explain their resistance against duplication.
IpaB mediates macrophage apoptosis induced by Shigella flexneri

Shigella flexneri kills macrophages through apoptosis, involving the induction of host cell DNA fragmentation and characteristic morphological changes. Shigella can only cause damage if it escapes from the phagolysosome into the cytoplasm. The S. flexneri cytotoxic genes have been localized to the ipa operon of shigella's virulence plasmid. ipaB, C and D deletion mutants are not invasive and therefore not cytotoxic. In order to distinguish genes involved in the escape from the phagolysosome as distinct from cytotoxicity, we constructed Shigella strains that secrete low amounts of Escherichia coli haemolysin (hlylow). These strains can escape into the cytoplasm of the macrophage even in the absence of the invasion plasmid as verified by electron microscopy and resistance to chloroquine. Macrophages were infected with different ipa mutants expressing hlylow. Both δipaC hlylow and δipaD hlylow were cytotoxic whilst δipaB hlylow and a hlylow strain cured of shigella's pathogenicity plasmid were not. Furthermore, both δipC ahlylow and δipaD hlylow killed through apoptosis as shown by both changes in ultrastructural morphology and fragmentation of the host ceil DNA. These results demonstrate that ipaB is essential for S. flexneri to induce apoptosis in macrophages.
Mapping Tumor-Specific Expression QTLs in Impure Tumor Samples

The study of gene expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) is an effective approach to illuminate the functional roles of genetic variants. Computational methods have been developed for eQTL mapping using gene expression data from microarray or RNA-seq technology. Application of these methods for eQTL mapping in tumor tissues is problematic because tumor tissues are composed of both tumor and infiltrating normal cells (e.g. immune cells) and eQTL effects may vary between tumor and infiltrating normal cells. To address this challenge, we have developed a new method for eQTL mapping using RNA-seq data from tumor samples. Our method separately estimates the eQTL effects in tumor and infiltrating normal cells using both total expression and allele-specific expression (ASE). We demonstrate that our method controls type I error rate and has higher power than some alternative approaches. We applied our method to study RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and illustrated the similarities and differences of eQTL effects in tumor and normal cells.
Stress signaling from the endoplasmic reticulum: A central player in the pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease characterized by the misfolding and aggregation of distinct proteins in affected tissues, however, the pathogenic cause of disease remains unknown. Recent evidence indicates that endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays a central role in ALS pathogenesis. ER stress activates the unfolded protein response (UPR), a homeostatic response to misfolded proteins. The UPR is initially protective by up‐regulation of specific ER stress‐regulated genes and inhibition of general protein translation. However, long‐term ER stress leads to cell death via apoptotic signaling, thus providing a link to neurodegeneration. Activation of the UPR is one of the earliest events in affected motor neurons of transgenic rodent models expressing ALS‐linked mutant superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1). Recently, genetic manipulation of ER stress in several different SOD1 mouse models was shown to alter disease onset and progression, implicating an active role for the UPR in disease mechanisms. Furthermore, mutations to vesicle‐associated membrane protein‐associated protein B (VAPB), an ER transmembrane protein involved in ER stress regulation, also cause some cases of familial ALS. ER stress also occurs in spinal cord tissues of human sporadic ALS patients, and recent evidence suggests that perturbation of the ER could occur in ALS cases associated with TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP‐43), fused in sarcoma (FUS) and valosin containing protein (VCP). Together these findings implicate ER stress as a potential upstream mechanism involved in both familial and sporadic forms of ALS. © 2011 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 63(9): 754–763, 2011
Power reduction through adaptive data compression in Network-on-Chip architectures

In this paper we present an adaptive compression technique that reduce the power consumption when compare to the compressed and original uncompressed data. We adapt a compression method by distances between transmitter and receiver. We show that compressing data for all of the distances is not useful. Experimental results indicate that our approach save power consumption as much as 24%. We also add encoding approach to compressor, to achieve both bit and transition reduction. Experimental results show that by using coder and decoder and adapting part, power saving can reach up to 30%.
Voices from the Interface

This is a fictional story, which marries technological advances in thefield of brain computer interfacing (BCI) with the writer’s interest in music, film,sport and science fiction. It occurs in two years, at the time of the LondonOlympics. The technology mentioned in the story is either working in specialistlaboratories around the world, or indeed is under development. The aspectwhereby the BCI provides a telepathic duplex communication system betweenhumans may be plausible sometime in the future, but currently is the realms ofscience fiction. The information provided as the context to the imagined dialog istrue and can be evidenced by appropriate searching.
Binge drinking, cognitive performance and mood in a population of young social drinkers.

BACKGROUND Binge drinking may lead to brain damage and have implications for the development of alcohol dependence. The aims of the present study were to determine individual characteristics as well as to compare mood states and cognitive function between binge and nonbinge drinkers and thus further validate the new tool used to identify these populations among social drinkers. METHODS The lowest and the highest 33.3% from a database of 245 social drinkers' binge scores derived from the Alcohol Use Questionnaire (AUQ) were used as cutoff points to identify nonbinge drinkers and binge drinkers in a further population of 100 young healthy volunteers. Personality characteristics, expectations of the effects of alcohol and current mood were evaluated. Cognitive performance was tested with a Matching to Sample Visual Search task (MTS) and a Spatial Working Memory task (SWM) both from the CANTAB battery, and a Vigilance task from the Gordon Diagnostic System. RESULTS The binge drinkers had less positive mood than the nonbinge drinkers. In the MTS choice time on an 8-pattern condition and movement time on an 8- and 4-pattern condition was found to be faster in the binge drinkers compared to nonbinge drinkers. A gender by binge drinking interaction in the SWM and the Gordon Diagnostic System task revealed that female binge drinkers were worse on both these tasks than the female nonbinge drinkers. CONCLUSIONS These results confirm previous findings in binge drinkers and suggest that in a nondependent alcohol-drinking group, differences can be seen in mood and cognitive performance between those that binge drink and those that do not.