Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fullerene separation and identification by traveling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry in laser desorption processes during asphaltene analysis.

* Correspondence to: Hector Henrique Ferreira Koolen, Institute of Chemistry, University of Campinas, Campinas, SP 13083-970, Brazil. E-mail: hectorkoolen@gmail.com; hkoolen@uea.edu. br Asphaltenes constitute the heaviest polar fraction in crude petroleum, and the structural elucidation of its components has been a challenge for many analytical techniques. The structurally related components of asphaltenes normally associate in solution to form complex colloidal structures, and this behavior is responsible for many of its phenomenological properties, including some of practical relevance associated with oil transportation and storage, or with the behavior of the oil/water emulsions formed in marine spills and several problems such as rapid deactivation of catalysts, coking within the reactor or fractionator, and formation of sludge in the products. Ion mobility spectrometry, originally known as plasma chromatography, was introduced in the 1960s and consists of a gas-phase ion separation technique. Species are separated based on their charge states and sizes/shapes, the latter being more rigorously described as their collision cross sections (CCS). Resolution and sensitivity have significantly improved in the last years, and it has been explored to analyse carbon clusters, peptides and proteins, nucleotides, synthetic polymers, and petroleum samples. Traveling wave ion mobility (TWIM) has been introduced more recently as a new mode of ion propulsion and separation for ion mobility spectrometry experiments. Briefly, in TWIM, ions are accumulated and periodically released into a stacked-ring ion guide (T-wave cell), where they drift under the action of a continuous train of transient voltage pulses (traveling waves) applied to pairs of stacked ring electrodes, encompassing a very compact device (18.5 cm long) but with advantages in the ion transmission and resolution. Herein, we report the formation of fullerene compounds during the ionization process of asphaltene, its separation through TWIM, and its identification by an approach of CCS measurements and theoretical calculations. Asphaltene fractions were obtained from Brazilian crude oils, by precipitation with n-heptane according to the standard procedure IP143/96. A Brazilian coal sample was purchased from Copelmi Mineração Ltda. (Butiá, RS, Brazil) for comparison purposes. The samples were solubilized in toluene and spotted in steel plates suitable for laser desorption ionization (LDI) analysis. Thin layers of the carbonaceous material were obtained after application of 1μL of the samples and drying under atmospheric conditions. Mass spectrometric experiments were performed with a Waters Synapt G1 HDMS. Gas-phase ions were generated by a LDI probe operating in positive mode. LDI acquisitions were carried out using a 200-Hz solid state laser (Nd:YAG, UV 355nm) (Waters). LDIspecific instrumental parameters were as follows: pulse energy 400, focal length 60mm. The separations were carried out in the
Proteomics Identification of Acyl-acceptor and Acyl-donor Substrates for Transglutaminase in a Human Intestinal Epithelial Cell Line

Transglutaminase (TG)-catalyzed cross-linking of both intracellular and extracellular proteins is an important biochemical event. However, increased concentrations of cross-linked proteins have been observed in many disorders. Moreover, TG-catalyzed modification of proteins might generate new self-antigens responsible for the autoimmune response, as in celiac disease. The identification of available substrates may offer an understanding of how the TG-catalyzed post-translational modification has an impact on physiology and disease. We used a proteomic approach to identify TG-modified protein targets in human intestinal epithelial cells to determine the extent to which transglutaminase specifically contributes to celiac disease. Two probes were used for endogenous TG activity: 5-(biotinamido)pentylamine, which represents the acyl-acceptor, and a biotinylated glutamine-containing peptide, which represents the acyl-donor. This approach identified >25 proteins, which range from 30,000 to 300,000 Daltons and can serve as acyl-acceptor and/or acyl-donor for transglutaminase. Some of them were known transglutaminase substrates, whereas others had not been previously identified. These targets include proteins involved in cytoskeletal network organization, folding of proteins, transport processes, and miscellaneous metabolic functions.
Community Intercomparison Suite (CIS) v1.4.0: a tool for intercomparing models and observations

Abstract. The Community Intercomparison Suite (CIS) is an easy-to-use command-line tool which has been developed to allow the straightforward intercomparison of remote sensing, in situ and model data. While there are a number of tools available for working with climate model data, the large diversity of sources (and formats) of remote sensing and in situ measurements necessitated a novel software solution. Developed by a professional software company, CIS supports a large number of gridded and ungridded data sources "out-of-the-box", including climate model output in NetCDF or the UK Met Office pp file format, CloudSat, CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization), MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), Cloud and Aerosol CCI (Climate Change Initiative) level 2 satellite data and a number of in situ aircraft and ground station data sets. The open-source architecture also supports user-defined plugins to allow many other sources to be easily added. Many of the key operations required when comparing heterogenous data sets are provided by CIS, including subsetting, aggregating, collocating and plotting the data. Output data are written to CF-compliant NetCDF files to ensure interoperability with other tools and systems. The latest documentation, including a user manual and installation instructions, can be found on our website ( http://cistools.net ). Here, we describe the need which this tool fulfils, followed by descriptions of its main functionality (as at version 1.4.0) and plugin architecture which make it unique in the field.
The Market for High-Quality Medicine

This study examines the effect of chain store entry on drug quality and prices in the retail pharmacy market in Hyderabad, India. In contrast to prevailing mom-and-pop pharmacies, chains exploit scale economies to offer high-quality drugs at lower cost. With a unique data set and a natural experiment methodology, we show that chain entry leads to a relative 5 percent improvement in drug quality and a 2 percent decrease in prices at incumbent retailers. These changes do not depend on the socioeconomic status of consumers, suggesting that chain entry improves consumer welfare throughout the market. Despite the likely role of asymmetric information in this market, we show that consumers partially infer these quality improvements. Our findings suggest that in markets with asymmetric information, organizational technologies such as chains may play an important role translating greater demand into higher quality.
ATP Hydrolysis by RAD50 Protein Switches MRE11 Enzyme from Endonuclease to Exonuclease*

Background: RAD50-MRE11-Nbs1 complex is essential for DNA repair. Results: ATP binding by RAD50 closes the complex; MRE11 is an endonuclease. ATP hydrolysis opens the complex; MRE11 is an exonuclease. Conclusion: ATP hydrolysis is a switch converting MRE11 from an endonuclease to an exonuclease. Significance: ATP-dependent nuclease switch provides a mechanism of how RAD50-MRE11 complex is able to coordinate DNA repair. MRE11-RAD50 is a key early response protein for processing DNA ends of broken chromosomes for repair, yet how RAD50 nucleotide dynamics regulate MRE11 nuclease activity is poorly understood. We report here that ATP binding and ATP hydrolysis cause a striking butterfly-like opening and closing of the RAD50 subunits, and each structural state has a dramatic functional effect on MRE11. RAD50-MRE11 has an extended conformation in solution when MRE11 is an active nuclease. However, ATP binding to RAD50 induces a closed conformation, and in this state MRE11 is an endonuclease. ATP hydrolysis opens the RAD50-MRE11 complex, and MRE11 maintains exonuclease activity. Thus, ATP hydrolysis is a molecular switch that converts MRE11 from an endonuclease to an exonuclease. We propose a testable model in which the open-closed transitions are used by RAD50-MRE11 to discriminate among DNA ends and drive the choice of recombination pathways.
The composition and properties of jacalin, a lectin of diverse applications obtained from the jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) seeds.

The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is an evergreen tree which reaches upto several meters in height. It is considered to be native to India, where it has been cultivated from time immemorial. At present it is cultivated in several tropical regions of the world and is considered to be a very useful plant. The fruit is usually a pear- or barrel-shaped structure and is the largest edible fruit known (1). Lectins, present in many plant seeds, are proteins and glycoproteins that bind specifically to certain carbohydrate structures with high affinity (2). These are being widely used for preparative and analytical purposes in biochemistry, cell biology, immunology and related areas. Lectins are frequently used to study the mitogenic stimulation of lymphocytes. This process involves the binding of a lectin to the lymphocyte cell surface, transforming a resting lymphocyte into a rapidly proliferative cell. In 1981 a new lectin that stimulated human T lymphocytes was Isolated from jackfrutt seeds (3). It was s.
Predicate Detection in Asynchronous Pervasive Environments

An important task in sensor networks is to sense locally to detect global properties that hold at some instant in physical time, namely, Instantaneously. We propose software logical clocks, called strobe clocks, that can be implemented by the middleware when synchronized physical clocks are not available or are too expensive in resource-constrained environments. Strobe clocks come in two flavors--scalar and vector. Let (n) be the number of sensors and (p) be the upper bound on the number of relevant events sensed at a sensor. We propose an algorithm using vector strobes that can detect all occurrences of a conjunctive predicate in time (O(n3p)). The algorithm has some false negatives but this is the best achievable accuracy in the face of race conditions. We also present a variant algorithm using scalar strobes; it needs time (O(n2p)) but may also suffer from some false positives. We provide a characterization of the errors. Both algorithms can also detect relational predicates but with a greater chance of error. The message complexity of strobe clocks (scalar and vector) and both algorithms is (O(np)), which is the same as that of reporting each sensed event for detection of the predicate even with synchronized physical clocks. We formalize the physical time modality, Instantaneously, and show its relationship to the logical time modalities Definitely and Possibly.
Immunoreactivity Distribution of Vasotocin and Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide in Brain Nuclei of Two Songbird Species with Different Breeding Systems

Vasopressin influences social behaviour in mammals, in particular social recognition and bonding. However, much less is known about its avian analogue, vasotocin, although vasotocin appears to modulate singing behaviour and agonistic interactions together with vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) in some songbirds. The objectives of our study were to compare the expression of vasotocin and VIP in brain nuclei hypothetised to be part of the social behavioural network, i.e. septal areas, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and medial preoptic nucleus (POM), in two songbird species in the wild: the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) and European penduline tit (Remiz pendulinus). These two closely related passerine birds differ in their pair bonding and mating systems: blue tits are socially monogamous with extensive pair bond lasting for several months, whereas in the European penduline tit, pair bond is short and it dissolves during or after laying of the eggs. The two species did not differ in the distribution of vasotocin in the observed brain regions; however, VIP was more abundant in all three regions of penduline tits than in blue tits. We found a sex difference in favour of males in the distribution of vasotocin- and VIP-immunoreactive neurones, fibres and terminals in all three regions in penduline tits. In blue tits, such gender differences were only observed in the POM. The limited differences between the two species suggest that the levels of vasotocin and VIP in the socially relevant brain regions are likely influenced by many other social or environmental factors than just by differences in the duration of pair bonding.
A 0.1–6.0-GHz Dual-Path SDR Transmitter Supporting Intraband Carrier Aggregation in 65-nm CMOS

A 4.8-mm2 0.1-6.0-GHz dual-path software-defined radio transmitter supporting intraband carrier aggregation (CA) in 65-nm CMOS is presented. A simple approach is proposed to support intraband CA signals with only one I-Q baseband path. By utilizing the power-scalable and feedforward compensation techniques, the power of the wideband analog baseband is minimized. The transmitter consists of a high gain-range main path and a low-power subpath to cooperatively cover different standards over 0.1-6.0 GHz with more flexibility. The reconfigurable power amplifier (PA) driver achieves wideband frequency coverage with efficiency-enhanced on-chip transformers and improved switched-capacitor arrays. This transmitter achieves <;-50-dBc image rejection ratio and <;-40-dBc local oscillating signal leakage after the calibration. System verifications have demonstrated -31/- 51-dBc ACLR1/ACLR2 (adjacent channel leakage ratio) at 3-dBm output power for 2.3-GHz LTE20 in the main path and 1.7% error vector magnitude (EVM) at 1.5-dBm output for 1.8-GHz WCDMA in the subpath. Both paths enable SAW-less FDD operations with -153 or -156 dBc/Hz carrier-to-noise ratio at 200-MHz frequency offset. Finally, the dual CA signals with 55-MHz frequency spacing are verified, showing the EVM of 1.2% and 0.8%, respectively, and exhibiting the intraband CA capability.
Construction of Centrosomes and Spindle Poles by Molecular Motor‐Driven Assembly of Protein Particles

Centrosomes and other microtubule organizing centers are the largest non‐membranous organelles in most cells. This morphologically diverse class of organelles shares a common ability to nucleate and organize microtubules in interphase and participates in the formation of mitotic spindles during cell division. This review summarizes recent evidence suggesting that assembly of centrosomes and mitotic spindle poles require transport of large protein particles along microtubules by the molecular motor cytoplasmic dynein.
Bound water spectroscopy for the soils with varying mineralogy

A technique for estimating the data obtained on spectral dielectric properties of the soil bound water (BSW) as a function of the mineral composition are presented. The Debye spectroscopic parameters related to the BSW were derived with the use of the general refractive mixing dielectric model (GRMDM). The static dielectric constant (DC) of SBW was found to depend to a large extend on the content of humus. The static DC of the SBW present in the natrium humate sample (/spl epsiv//sub 0/= 22.3), which is one of the components of the soil humus matter, appeared to have the least static DC as compared to those for the natural humus soil (/spl epsiv//sub 0/ = 31.9), clay soil with low humus content (/spl epsiv//sub 0/ = 46.7), and coal ashes collected from the filter of energy power station is (/spl epsiv//sub 0/ = 64,9). At the same time, the relaxation times related to the all soil types considered were shown to be higher than that of the water out of soil, which does not interact with the soil mineral substance. The data obtained can be used for developing the moist soil spectroscopic dielectric data bases, which are used in the radar and radiometry remote sensing algorithms.
Telemedicine and Diabetic Retinopathy: Review of Published Screening Programs.

BACKGROUND Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness worldwide even though successful treatments exist. Improving screening and treatment could avoid many cases of vision loss. However, due to an increasing prevalence of diabetes, traditional in-person screening for DR for every diabetic patient is not feasible. Telemedicine is one viable solution to provide high-quality and efficient screening to large number of diabetic patients. PURPOSE To provide a narrative review of large DR telemedicine screening programs. METHODS Articles were identified through a comprehensive search of the English-language literature published between 2000 and 2014. Telemedicine screening programs were included for review if they had published data on at least 150 patients and had available validation studies supporting their model. Screening programs were then categorized according to their American Telemedicine Association Validation Level. RESULTS Seven programs from the US and abroad were identified and included in the review. Three programs were Category 1 programs (Ophdiat, EyePacs, and Digiscope), two were Category 2 programs (Eye Check, NHS Diabetic Eye Screening Program), and two were Category 3 programs (Joslin Vision Network, Alberta Screening Program). No program was identified that claimed category 4 status. Programs ranged from community or city level programs to large nationwide programs including millions of individuals. The programs demonstrated a high level of clinical accuracy in screening for DR. There was no consensus amongst the programs regarding the need for dilation, need for stereoscopic images, or the level of training for approved image graders. CONCLUSION Telemedicine programs have been clinically validated and successfully implemented across the globe. They can provide a high-level of clinical accuracy for screening for DR while improving patient access in a cost-effective and scalable manner.
Achieving Anonymous Communication in Ad Hoc Networks

Privacy and anonymity have become an increasing requirement in today's wireless networks. However, current mobile peer-to-peer architectures have not taken into account anonymity, especially the mutual anonymity between two nodes. In this paper, we propose a secure-information-dispersal-algorithm-based mutual anonymity protocol (SIDAM), for mobile P2P networks. SIDAM achieves mutual anonymity in mobile P2P networks. We simulate SIDAM in a prototyped test-bed and initiate comprehensive attacks on our protocol. The simulation results indicate that SIDAM provides high anonymity with a low cryptography processing overhead
Platelet activation, haemorheology and thrombogenesis in acute atrial fibrillation: a comparison with permanent atrial fibrillation

It has previously been believed that atrial thrombus, which is the source of thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation (AF), is formed after 48 hours of onset of AF, but there are limited clinical and pathophysiological data to confirm this convincingly.1 Therefore, oral anticoagulation treatment is recommended before and after cardioversion of AF of more than two days’ duration, to minimise thromboembolic complications.2 In contrast, restoration of sinus rhythm in patients with AF lasting less than two days has previously been regarded as “safe”, and prolonged anticoagulation treatment (except for heparin) was not thought to be mandatory.2 Despite these guidelines, many instances of thromboembolism still occur in acute AF and a better understanding of the pathophysiological processes leading the thromboembolism in acute AF is needed. Indeed, conversion to sinus rhythm may increase the thrombogenic milieu of the left atrium.1,3 Furthermore, evidence that AF confers a hypercoagulable state is growing.4 However, it is unclear exactly how long after the commencement of AF this increased risk of thrombosis becomes apparent and therefore clinically important. For example, does it take hours, days or weeks for the hypercoagulable state to develop? We hypothesised that platelet activation, haemorheology, and thrombogenesis occur within 48 hours of onset of AF, as a pathophysiological mechanism contributing to increased thromboembolism in this condition. To test this hypothesis, we measured indices of platelet activation (ex vivo platelet aggregation, as well as plasma soluble P-selectin and plasma β thromboglobulin (β-TG)), haemorheology (haematocrit and plasma viscosity), and thrombogenesis (fibrin D-dimer) in 31 patients with acute onset AF, who were compared with 93 patients with permanent AF and 31 healthy controls in sinus rhythm. Furthermore, 15 patients with acute AF from this same cohort were reanalysed for the above parameters after (spontaneous) reversion to sinus rhythm at outpatient follow …
An Unfitted Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Elliptic Interface Problems

An unfitted discontinuous Galerkin method is proposed for the elliptic interface problems. Based on a variant of the local discontinuous Galerkin method, we obtain the optimal convergence for the exact solution u in the energy norm and its flux p in the L2 norm. These results are the same as those in the case of elliptic problems without interface. Finally, some numerical experiments are presented to verify our theoretical results.
Elevated PI3K signaling drives multiple Breast Cancer subtypes

Most human breast tumors have mutations that elevate signaling through a key metabolic pathway that is induced by insulin and a number of growth factors. This pathway serves to activate an enzyme known as phosphatidylinositol 3' kinase (PI3K) as well as to regulate proteins that signal in response to lipid products of PI3K. The specific mutations that activate this pathway in breast cancer can occur in genes coding for tyrosine kinase receptors, adaptor proteins linked to PI3K, catalytic and regulatory subunits of PI3K, serine/threonine kinases that function downstream of PI3K, and also phosphatidylinositol phosphatase tumor suppressors that function to antagonize this pathway. While each genetic change results in net elevation of PI3K pathway signaling, and all major breast cancer subtypes show pathway activation, the specific mutation(s) involved in any one tumor may play an important role in defining tumor subtype, prognosis and even sensitivity to therapy. Here, we describe mouse models of breast cancer with elevated PI3K signaling, and how they may be used to guide development of novel therapeutics.