Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolomics and Ionomics of Potato Tuber Reveals an Influence of Cultivar and Market Class on Human Nutrients and Bioactive Compounds

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important global food crop that contains phytochemicals with demonstrated effects on human health. Understanding sources of chemical variation of potato tuber can inform breeding for improved health attributes of the cooked food. Here, a comprehensive metabolomics (UPLC- and GC-MS) and ionomics (ICP-MS) analysis of raw and cooked potato tuber was performed on 60 unique potato genotypes that span 5 market classes including russet, red, yellow, chip, and specialty potatoes. The analyses detected 2,656 compounds that included known bioactives (43 compounds), nutrients (42), lipids (76), and 23 metals. Most nutrients and bioactives were partially degraded during cooking (44 out of 85; 52%), however genotypes with high quantities of bioactives remained highest in the cooked tuber. Chemical variation was influenced by genotype and market class. Specifically, ~53% of all detected compounds from cooked potato varied among market class and 40% varied by genotype. The most notable metabolite profiles were observed in yellow-flesh potato which had higher levels of carotenoids and specialty potatoes which had the higher levels of chlorogenic acid as compared to the other market classes. Variation in several molecules with known association to health was observed among market classes and included vitamins (e.g., pyridoxal, ~2-fold variation), bioactives (e.g., chlorogenic acid, ~40-fold variation), medicinals (e.g., kukoamines, ~6-fold variation), and minerals (e.g., calcium, iron, molybdenum, ~2-fold variation). Furthermore, more metabolite variation was observed within market class than among market class (e.g., α-tocopherol, ~1-fold variation among market class vs. ~3-fold variation within market class). Taken together, the analysis characterized significant metabolite and mineral variation in raw and cooked potato tuber, and support the potential to breed new cultivars for improved health traits.
Nonlinear Conductivity of Polymer Nanocomposites: A Study on Epoxy Resin\/Silicon Carbide Materials

The nonlinear conductivity of polymer composites is helpful in regulating electric field distribution and dissipating surface charge and/or space charge. In this article, silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles are used as the nonlinear filler and added to epoxy resin. The filler loadings were 0, 1, 3, 7, and 10 wt%. The glass transition temperature, dielectric spectroscopy, and nonlinear conductivity are investigated. The results show that the glass transition temperature and the real part of the complex permittivity are closely related to the interaction zone surrounding the nanoparticles. The epoxy/SiC nanocomposites present distinct nonlinear conduction characteristics. By considering the effect of the interaction zone around the nanoparticles, a theoretical model is used to qualitatively explain the field dependence and temperature dependence of the nonlinear conductivity.
Synbiotic supplementation, systemic inflammation, and symptoms of brain disorders in elders: A secondary study from a randomized clinical trial

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the effect of a symbiotic substance on symptoms of brain disorders and inflammation in the elderly. Methods: Forty-nine elders, both genders, assigned into two groups: S-group (synbiotic) and P-group (placebo). Evaluations at the beginning and at the end of the experiment: geriatric depressive symptoms scale-15 (GDS-15); mini-mental status examination (MMSE); % of body fat (%fat); serum IL-6, TNF-α and IL-10; serum diamine-oxidase (DAO), intestinal fatty-acid binding protein (IFABP), and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Results: Both groups had reduced their %Fat, TNF-α, and DAO. The IL-6, GDS-15, and MMSE were increased in both groups. IL-10 was significantly increased only in the S-group, and LPS was significantly reduced only in the P-group. The GDS-15final was negatively explained by DAO, IL-10, TNF-α, %Fat, being woman, and being allocated in the P-group. The variables that positively explained the GDS-15final were the IL-6, the IFABP, and the LPS. MMSEfinal was positively associated with the IL-10, DAO, being woman, and being allocated in the P-group; and negatively associated with IL-6, TNF-α, %Fat, IFABP, and LPS. Conclusions: We found weak effects of symbiotic on depressive symptoms and more optimistic effects on cognition in apparently healthy elderly. Other studies, with individuals diagnosed with depressive morbidity or cognitive decline, are needed. Registration of Clinical Studies – REBEC (RBR-6qr9xx)].
2D vs 3D NAND technology: Reliability benchmark

In this paper, the key reliability characteristics of the 3D NAND technology are discussed and compared to the 2D NAND corresponding features. It is shown that 3D NAND can achieve up to 50% improvement of the intrinsic cell threshold voltage (VT) distribution width, due to increased cell size and between — cell distance. Two 3D NAND specific reliability aspects are discussed in detail. The presence of the polysilicon channel in 3D NAND array causes temperature related cell current and threshold voltage variations. Also, the CMOS Under the Array (CuA) architecture requires the introduction of the GIDL — Assisted Erase technique, which must be properly designed and optimized not to impact the array reliability performance.
The lilian Cold Start System for TAC 2016

This paper describes the full pipeline KBP system implemented by lilianinfo.com for the TAC KBP 2016. In TAC KBP 2016, lilianinfo.com participated in one track: Cold Start Track and focused on English Cold Start KB Construction tasks. Our pipeline is based on RelationFactory, which include 4 parts : preprocessing, candidate generation, candidate validation and post-processing. In candidate validation part, besides the pattern and SVM model provided by RelationFactory, we propose a simple fuzzy match to improve the validation performance and show a considerable improvement in the final result.
Surpoids, normes et jugements en matière de poids : comparaisons européennes

Si la corpulence moyenne, mesuree par l'indice de masse corporelle (IMC), est de 23,2 pour les Francaises et de 26,2 pour les femmes britanniques, le poids ideal qu'elles declarent se situe plus bas, et correspond a l'indice 19,5 en France et 20,7 au Royaume-Uni. Le sous-poids est particulierement valorise chez les Francaises par rapport aux autres Europeennes. Les femmes sont de facon generale en Europe moins satisfaites de leur poids que les hommes, pour qui c'est le sous-poids qui peut poser probleme. En France, l'indice de masse corporelle ideal pour les hommes est de 22,0 (a cette corpulence, ils sont aussi nombreux a trouver leur poids excessif qu'a le trouver insuffisant), alors qu'il est plus eleve chez les Britanniques (22,5), les Danois (22,8) et surtout les Grecs (23,4).
Hardware-accelerated multimodality volume fusion

In this paper, we propose a novel technique of multimodality volume fusion using a graphics hardware. Our 3D texture based volume fusion algorithm consists of three steps: First, two volumes of different modalities are loaded into the texture memory in the GPU. Second, textured slices of two volumes along the same proxy geometry are combined with various compositing functions. Third, all the composited slices are alpha blended. We have implemented our algorithm using HLSL (High Level Shader Language). Our method shows that the exact depth of each volume and the realistic views with interactive rate in comparison with the software-based image integration. Experimental results using MR and PET brain images and the angiography with a stent show that over composting operation is more useful for clinical application.
Concepts and Methods to Access Novel Antibiotics from Actinomycetes

Actinomycetes have been proven to be an excellent source of secondary metabolites for more than half a century. Exhibiting various bioactivities, they provide valuable approved drugs in clinical use. Most microorganisms are still untapped in terms of their capacity to produce secondary metabolites, since only a small fraction can be cultured in the laboratory. Thus, improving cultivation techniques to extend the range of secondary metabolite producers accessible under laboratory conditions is an important first step in prospecting underexplored sources for the isolation of novel antibiotics. Currently uncultured actinobacteria can be made available by bioprospecting extreme or simply habitats other than soil. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis of genomes reveals most producers to harbour many more biosynthetic gene clusters than compounds identified from any single strain, which translates into a silent biosynthetic potential of the microbial world for the production of yet unknown natural products. This review covers discovery strategies and innovative methods recently employed to access the untapped reservoir of natural products. The focus is the order of actinomycetes although most approaches are similarly applicable to other microbes. Advanced cultivation methods, genomics- and metagenomics-based approaches, as well as modern metabolomics-inspired methods are highlighted to emphasise the interplay of different disciplines to improve access to novel natural products.
A new steganography algorithm using polar decomposition

ABSTRACT Nowadays, the security of communication becomes very important with the rapid development of network technology. So, the transmission and distribution of the several digital information must be protected and secured against other users. Many steganography techniques have been proposed for embedding secret digital data in other digital data. In this article, we propose a new steganography algorithm based on a linear algebraic tool that is the polar decomposition (PD) for hiding secret data in an image. A host image is selected and divided into blocks of size 2 × 2, a PD is applied on each block, and the secret data are embedded in suitable blocks. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm gives a higher hiding capacity, achieves good imperceptibility, and also provides a high degree of security against common types of attacks such as compression attack with quality 10%, gamma correction attack, and impulse noise attack.
Zebrafish Models of Rare Hereditary Pediatric Diseases

Recent advances in sequencing technologies have made it significantly easier to find the genetic roots of rare hereditary pediatric diseases. These novel methods are not panaceas, however, and they often give ambiguous results, highlighting multiple possible causative mutations in affected patients. Furthermore, even when the mapping results are unambiguous, the affected gene might be of unknown function. In these cases, understanding how a particular genotype can result in a phenotype also needs carefully designed experimental work. Model organism genetics can offer a straightforward experimental setup for hypothesis testing. Containing orthologs for over 80% of the genes involved in human diseases, zebrafish (Danio rerio) has emerged as one of the top disease models over the past decade. A plethora of genetic tools makes it easy to create mutations in almost any gene of the zebrafish genome and these mutant strains can be used in high-throughput preclinical screens for active molecules. As this small vertebrate species offers several other advantages as well, its popularity in biomedical research is bound to increase, with “aquarium to bedside” drug development pipelines taking a more prevalent role in the near future.
N-Point Moving Average: A Special Generalized Transfer Function Method for Estimation of Central Aortic Blood Pressure

<italic>Objective:</italic> N-point moving average (NPMA) is a simplified method of central aortic systolic pressure (CASP) estimation in comparison with the generalized transfer function (GTF). The fundamental difference or similarity between the methods is not established. This study investigates theoretical properties of NPMA relative to GTF and explores the integer and fractional denominator for the averaging process in the NPMA. <italic>Methods:</italic> Convolution of a specified square wave and the radial (or brachial) blood pressure waveform constituted the NPMA <italic>. </italic> A single uniform tube model-based TF (MTF) was employed to investigate potential physiological meaning of NPMA. In experimental analysis, invasive, simultaneously recorded aortic and radial pressure waveforms were obtained in 62 subjects under control conditions and following nitroglycerin administration. CASP was estimated by NPMA (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\rm{CASP}}_{{\rm{NPMA}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>), GTF ( <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\rm{CASP}}_{{\rm{GTF}}}$</tex-math></inline-formula>), and MTF (CASP<sub> MTF</sub>) from radial waveforms by tenfold cross validation. <italic>Results:</italic> Theoretical analysis showed that NPMA was an inversed constant TF. Its spectrum matched that of MTF in low frequency (<4 Hz for radial and <5 Hz for brachial) by optimizing reflection coefficient and propagation time. Experiment results showed the NPMA optimized fractional denominator of <italic>K</italic> = 4.4 significantly decreased the mean difference between CASP<sub>NPMA</sub> and measured CASP to 0.0 ± 4.7 mmHg from –1.8 ± 4.6 mmHg for integer denominator of <italic>K</italic> = 4. CASP<sub>NPMA</sub> correlated with CASP<sub>MTF</sub> and CASP <sub>GTF</sub> (<italic>r</italic><sup>2</sup> = 0.99 and 0.97, mean difference: –0.3 ± 1.8 and 0.5 ± 2.7 mmHg). <italic>Conclusion:</italic> This study demonstrated that NPMA is similar in nature to the GTF.
Three-Dimensional Weighting in Cone Beam FBP Reconstruction and Its Transformation Over Geometries

Goals: With substantially increased number of detector rows in multidetector CT (MDCT), axial scan with projection data acquired along a circular source trajectory has become the method-of-choice in increasing clinical applications. Recognizing the practical relevance of image reconstruction directly from the projection data acquired in the native cone beam (CB) geometry, especially in scenarios wherein the most achievable in-plane resolution is desirable, we present a three-dimensional (3-D) weighted CB-FBP algorithm in such geometry in this paper. Methods: We start the algorithm's derivation in the cone-parallel geometry. Via changing of variables, taking the Jacobian into account and making heuristic and empirical assumptions, we arrive at the formulas for 3-D weighted image reconstruction in the native CB geometry. Results: Using the projection data simulated by computer and acquired by an MDCT scanner, we evaluate and verify performance of the proposed algorithm for image reconstruction directly from projection data acquired in the native CB geometry. Conclusion: The preliminary data show that the proposed algorithm performs as well as the 3-D weighted CB-FBP algorithm in the cone-parallel geometry. Significance: The proposed algorithm is anticipated to find its utility in extensive clinical and preclinical applications wherein the reconstruction of images in the native CB geometry, i.e., the geometry for data acquisition, is of relevance.
Comparison of 3D dense deformable registration methods for breath-hold reproducibility study in radiotherapy

Breath holding (BH) allows to immobilize organs during radiotherapy treatment of lung cancer. Deformable registration methods applied on 3D Computerized Tomography (CT) scans acquired in BH can be used to evaluate the breath holding reproducibility. Resulting 3D vector fields could then be used to adapt internal margins for each patient. In this work we compare three non-rigid registration schemes with Gaussian, linear-elastic and Nagel-Enckelmann based regularizations. As we do not dispose of gold standard, we analyze vector fields by several operators (transitivity, symmetry, volume dilatation, Jacobian). Experiments were based on clinical data sets of two patients: one with normal lung behavior and second with lung discrepancies which lead to bad BH reproducibility. Results show that none of operators allows to clearly highlight the superiority of a method, except for convergence rapidity and Jacobian.
DoughnutPRIS at TAC KBP 2016

This paper describes doughnutPRIS system for two tasks in TAC KBP 2016 track, Cold Start Slot Filling and Event Argument Extraction and Linking. Compared with the adopted systems last year, we continue to use end-toend neural networks to tackle these information extraction problem; however, some latest architectures and tricks are integrated into the presented system. Moreover, we draw a lesson from the deficiencies of past, and make some specific adjustments in pre-processing and post-processing.
Une méthode pour l'estimation désagrégée de données de population à l'aide de données ouvertes

Nous presentons dans ce travail une methode de desagregation pour l'estimation de population a l'echelle locale a partir de donnees ouvertes globales. Notre but est d'estimer notamment le nombre de personnes residant dans chaque bâtiment de la zone d'interet, a partir de donnees a plus grande echelle. Une description fine a l'echelle residentielle est tout d'abord effectuee a partir des donnees d'OpenStreetMap. Les surfaces des bâtiments d'habitation ou d'usage mixte (habitation et activites) sont notamment identifiees. Nous effectuons ensuite une desagregation a partir de donnees de grille de population a grande echelle (1km2 par carreau), guidee par les surfaces des bâtiments compris dans chaque carreau de la grille. Ensuite, nous effectuons une desagregation a partir de donnees de grille de population a grande echelle (1km2 par carreau), guidee par les distributions spatiales decouvertes a l'etape precedente. Nous utilisons exclusivement des donnees ouvertes pour favoriser la replicabilite et pour pouvoir appliquer notre methode a toute region d'interet, pour peu que la qualite des donnees soit suffisante. L'evaluation et la validation du resultat dans le cas de plusieurs villes Francaises sont effectuees a l'aide de donnees de recensement INSEE.
Nav1.7 is phosphorylated by Fyn tyrosine kinase which modulates channel expression and gating in a cell type-dependent manner

Voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.7 is a key molecule in nociception, and its dysfunction has been associated with various pain disorders. Here, we investigated the regulation of Nav1.7 biophysical properties by Fyn, an Src family tyrosine kinase. Nav1.7 was coexpressed with either constitutively active (FynCA) or dominant negative (FynDN) variants of Fyn kinase. FynCA elevated protein expression and tyrosine phosphorylation of Nav1.7 channels. Site-directed mutagenesis analysis identified two tyrosine residues (Y1470 and Y1471) located within the Nav1.7 DIII-DIV linker (L3) as phosphorylation sites of Fyn. Whole-cell recordings revealed that FynCA evoked larger changes in Nav1.7 biophysical properties when expressed in ND7/23 cells than in Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK) 293 cells, suggesting a cell type-specific modulation of Nav1.7 by Fyn kinase. In HEK 293 cells, substitution of both tyrosine residues with phenylalanine dramatically reduced current amplitude of mutant channels, which was partially rescued by expressing mutant channels in ND7/23 cells. Phenylalanine substitution showed little effect on FynCA-induced changes in Nav1.7 activation and inactivation, suggesting additional modifications in the channel or modulation by interaction with extrinsic factor(s). Our study demonstrates that Nav1.7 is a substrate for Fyn kinase, and the effect of the channel phosphorylation depends on the cell background. Fyn-mediated modulation of Nav1.7 may regulate DRG neuron excitability and contribute to pain perception. Whether this interaction could serve as a target for developing new pain therapeutics requires future study.
NPC AI System Based on Gameplay Recordings

A well optimized Non-Player Character (NPC) as an opponent or a teammate is a major part of the multiplayer games. Most of the game bots are built upon a rigid system with numbered decisions and animations. Experienced players can distinguish bots from human players and they can predict bot movements and strategies. This reduces the quality of the gameplay experience. Therefore, multiplayer game players favour playing against human players rather than NPCs. VR game market and VR gamers are still a small fraction of the game industry and multiplayer VR games suffer from loss of their player base if the game owners cannot find other players to play with. This study demonstrates the applicability of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system based on gameplay recordings for a Virtual Reality (VR) First-person Shooter (FPS) game called Vrena. The subject game has an uncommon way of movement, in which the players use grappling hooks to navigate. To imitate VR players’ movements and gestures an AI system is developed which uses gameplay recordings as navigation data. The system contains three major functionality. These functionalities are gameplay recording, data refinement, and navigation. The game environment is sliced into cubic sectors to reduce the number of positional states and gameplay is recorded by time intervals and actions. Produced game logs are segmented into log sections and these log sections are used for creating a look-up table. The lookup table is used for navigating the NPC agent and the decision mechanism followed a way similar to the stateaction-reward concept. The success of the developed tool is tested via a survey, which provided substantial feedback for improving the system.
Late-glacial to late-Holocene shifts in global precipitation δ 18 O

Abstract. Reconstructions of Quaternary climate are often based on the isotopic content of paleo-precipitation preserved in proxy records. While many paleo-precipitation isotope records are available, few studies have synthesized these dispersed records to explore spatial patterns of late-glacial precipitation δ18O. Here we present a synthesis of 86 globally distributed groundwater (n = 59), cave calcite (n = 15) and ice core (n = 12) isotope records spanning the late-glacial (defined as ~ 50 000 to ~ 20 000 years ago) to the late-Holocene (within the past ~ 5000 years). We show that precipitation δ18O changes from the late-glacial to the late-Holocene range from −7.1 ‰ (δ18Olate-Holocene > δ18Olate-glacial) to +1.7 ‰ (δ18Olate-glacial > δ18Olate-Holocene), with the majority (77 %) of records having lower late-glacial δ18O than late-Holocene δ18O values. High-magnitude, negative precipitation δ18O shifts are common at high latitudes, high altitudes and continental interiors (δ18Olate-Holocene > δ18Olate-glacial by more than 3 ‰). Conversely, low-magnitude, positive precipitation δ18O shifts are concentrated along tropical and subtropical coasts (δ18Olate-glacial > δ18Olate-Holocene by less than 2 ‰). Broad, global patterns of late-glacial to late-Holocene precipitation δ18O shifts suggest that stronger-than-modern isotopic distillation of air masses prevailed during the late-glacial, likely impacted by larger global temperature differences between the tropics and the poles. Further, to test how well general circulation models reproduce global precipitation δ18O shifts, we compiled simulated precipitation δ18O shifts from five isotope-enabled general circulation models simulated under recent and last glacial maximum climate states. Climate simulations generally show better inter-model and model-measurement agreement in temperate regions than in the tropics, highlighting a need for further research to better understand how inter-model spread in convective rainout, seawater δ18O and glacial topography parameterizations impact simulated precipitation δ18O. Future research on paleo-precipitation δ18O records can use the global maps of measured and simulated late-glacial precipitation isotope compositions to target and prioritize field sites.