Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DECOMBIO - Contribution de la combustion de la biomasse aux PM10 en vallée de l’Arve : mise en place et qualification d’un dispositif de suivi

La vallee de l’Arve (Haute-Savoie), et plus generalement les vallees alpines, sont regulierement soumises a des phenomenes de pollution atmospherique, caracterises entre autres par des depassements frequents du seuil de 50 μg. m-3 en concentration journaliere des PM10 (45 jours en 2012, 58 en 2013 et 46 en 2014). Cette situation a conduit a l’etablissement d’un Plan de Protection de l’Atmosphere (PPA) sur une grande partie de la vallee de l’Arve. Dans ce contexte, une operation pilote (Fonds Air Bois), visant a reduire significativement les emissions de particules fines liees a l’utilisation du chauffage au bois, doit contribuer a terme a une amelioration de la qualite de l’air sur ce perimetre. Le programme de recherche DECOMBIO (DEconvolution de la contribution de COMbustion de la BIOmasse aux PM10, finance par le programme Primequal) a ete mis en place afin de proposer et valider des outils d’evaluation de cette operation. Depuis novembre 2013, trois sites representatifs de l’ensemble de la vallee de l’Arve (Marnaz, Passy et Chamonix) ont ainsi ete instrumentes afin d’etudier la composition chimique des particules et de realiser un suivi sur toute la periode du Fonds Air Bois de l’evolution des concentrations en carbone suie (Black Carbon, BC), permettant ainsi d’evaluer la part « biomasse » des emissions. Au cours de la premiere annee du projet, des prelevements sur filtres ont permis une speciation chimique detaillee des PM10. La quantification de nombreux marqueurs de differentes sources permet de faire ressortir des processus regionaux, ou au contraire tres locaux, impactant la qualite de l’air de la vallee, et de quantifier les contributions d’une dizaine de sources d’emission. Les mesures continues du BC par Aethalometre (AE33) sur les trois sites permettent une deconvolution directe de deux sources de BC (fuel fossile note BCff et combustion biomasse note BCwb). Ce suivi a mis en evidence la contribution tres importante de la combustion de la biomasse, pouvant atteindre presque 50 % du BC, notamment a Passy. La confrontation des deux types de mesures de traceurs de la combustion de biomasse (recherche de traceurs moleculaires sur filtre et mesure continue du BCwb par AE33) est discutee afin de valider l’utilisation des Aethalometres en vallees alpines et de determiner les facteurs de conversion les plus appropries pour deduire la part de PM10 issue de la combustion de biomasse (PM10wb) a partir des mesures de BCwb. A terme, la methodologie utilisee permettra la determination en continu de la fraction de la contribution PM10wb, et de suivre sur le long terme l’impact des mesures de changement de dispositifs de chauffage au bois par le Fonds Air Bois.
Frizzled homolog proteins, microRNAs and Wnt signaling in cancer

Wnt signaling pathways play important roles in tumorigenesis and are initiated by binding of Wnt to various receptors including frizzleds (FZDs). FZDs are one of several families of receptors comprised of FZD/LRP/ROR2/RYK in the Wnt signaling pathway. Expression of some FZD receptors are up regulated, thereby activating the Wnt signaling pathway and is correlated with cancer malignancy and patient outcomes (recurrence and survival) in many cancers. The FZD family contains ten genes in humans and their function has not been completely examined including the regulatory mechanisms of FZD genes in cancer. Knockdown of FZDs may suppress the Wnt signaling pathway resulting in decreased cell growth, invasion, motility and metastasis of cancer cells. Recently a number of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been identified and reported to be important in several cancers. MiRNAs regulate target gene expression at both the transcription and translation levels. The study of miRNA is a newly emerging field and promises to be helpful in understanding the pathogenesis of FZDs in cancer. In addition, miRNAs may be useful in regulating FZDs in cancer cells. Therefore, the aim of this review is to discuss current knowledge of the functional mechanisms of FZDs in cancer, including regulation by miRNAs and the potential for possible use of miRNAs and FZDs in future clinical applications.
Master/Slave assignment optimization for high performance computing in an EC2 cloud using MPI

For high performance computing, cloud services offer highly scaleable infrastructures on demand. Without requiring a great deal of maintenance and financial resources, which a datacenter would need, it is possible to obtain a huge set of computing instances from, e.g., the Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud (Amazon EC2). The downsides of cloud computing are that the set of computing instances is arbitrary and that communication speed varies greartly and affects the running time of algorithms. We present a master/slave selection algorithm for the EC2 cloud service based on a benchmark to counteract this disadvantage. The benchmark measures communication speed and the variance of communication in a NxN network consisting of N cloud instances. With the results of the benchmark, we perform a master/slave selection algorithm to maximize the number of messages between master and slaves. The results show that our proposed method greatly increases efficiency.
La production écrite vue comme un processus bilingue : dans quelle mesure les TIC peuvent-elles aider ?

Considerer la production ecrite en tant qu’activite individuelle monolingue empeche souvent les apprenants de langue 2 ou 3 de laisser libre cours a leur creativite et d’atteindre la complexite et la correction souhaitees. Les fondements theoriques qui expliquent l’ecriture comme un processus recursif, multimodal et bi-/plurilingue, ainsi que quelques experiences initiales menees sur le terrain ont revele que des dispositifs et tâches qui favorisaient ces aspects declenchaient un developpement langagier positif. La presente contribution synthetise deux experiences de recherche-action visant a etayer la production ecrite en francais dans des contextes universitaires bulgare et tunisien en s’appuyant sur le potentiel des technologies de l’information et de la communication. Malgre les differences des contextes et des caracteristiques du public, les resultats convergent : le dispositif qui organise dans un ensemble coherent l’accompagnement par le tuteur, les outils et les ressources numeriques, la collaboration et l’interaction avec des pairs ou des locuteurs natifs, favorise l’amelioration progressive de la production ecrite, la sensibilisation aux normes, la creativite et l’autonomisation des apprenants.
Current Protocols in Protein Science Unit 2.3 Computational Prediction of Protein Secondary Structure from Sequence

Computational approaches offer a cost-and time-efficient way to predict secondary structure of proteins from protein sequences. The current, third generation of these computational methods provides accurate predictions and is conveniently and freely available as webservers and standalone software. These predictions are widely used across the globe to facilitate prediction of the tertiary protein structure and various functional characteristics of proteins. We provide practical insights on how to perform and interpret the predictions for selected modern methods. ABSTRACT Secondary structure of proteins refers to local and repetitive conformations , such as α -helices and β -strands, which occur in protein structures. Computational prediction of secondary structure from protein sequences has long history with three generations of predictive methods. This unit summarizes several recent third-generation predictors. We discuss their inputs and outputs, availability, predictive performance, and explain how to perform and interpret their predictions. We cover methods for the prediction of the 3-class secondary structure states (helix, strand, and coil) as well as the 8-class secondary structure states. Recent empirical assessments and our small-scale analysis reveal that these predictions are characterized by high levels of accuracy between 70 and 80%. We emphasize that modern predictors are available to the end users in the form of convenient to use webservers and standalone software.
Mosaic upd(7)mat in a patient with Silver–Russell syndrome

Mosaic upd(7)mat in a Patient With Silver–Russell Syndrome Tomoko Fuke-Sato, Kazuki Yamazawa, Kazuhiko Nakabayashi, Keiko Matsubara, Kentaro Matsuoka, Tomonobu Hasegawa, Kazushige Dobashi, and Tsutomu Ogata* Department of Molecular Endocrinology, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan Department of Pediatrics, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Department of Maternal-Fetal Biology, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan Division of Pathology, National Medical Center for Children and Mothers, Tokyo, Japan Department of Pediatrics, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Department of Pediatrics, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan
A method for improving HEV motor system efficiency considering battery voltage variation

Interior Permanent-magnet Synchronous Motors (IPMSMs) are suitable for Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) due to their high efficiency and torque/power density. Since the torque of a PMSM is determined by the stator currents, stator current control is essential to the torque control. Also, the available torque of a PMSM is dependent on rotational speed and battery voltage (dc-link voltage of the inverter). In this paper, a new current reference generation method is proposed, which can improve the system efficiency with high control accuracy even when the battery voltage varies. The performance of the proposed method is verified by experimental results.
Expression of Leptin and Its Receptor in the Murine Ovary: Possible Role in the Regulation of Oocyte Maturation1

Abstract Leptin is a product of the ob gene that is produced primarily by adipose tissue. Leptin and its receptors are found within the ovary, but it is unclear what function this hormone has in the ovary. Using immunohistochemistry, we determined that leptin is found in most cell types in the murine ovary, with the highest staining levels observed in the oocyte. Leptin receptor was also expressed in all of the main ovarian cell types, with the thecal cell layer exhibiting the highest staining levels. Leptin administration did not affect spontaneous or induced maturation of either isolated denuded oocytes or cumulus-oocyte complexes, but it did significantly increase the rate of meiotic resumption in preovulatory follicle-enclosed oocytes (P < 0.01). Measurements of cAMP within oocytes cultured with leptin showed that this enhanced ability to resume meiosis does not occur via activation of phosphodiesterase 3B and subsequent cAMP reduction. These results provide evidence that leptin affects oocyte maturation when the oocyte is cultured within its normal follicular environment. It is suggested that leptin may induce the production of another factor, possibly from thecal cells, that directly or indirectly acts on the oocyte to initiate germinal vesicle breakdown in this species.
Mating Strategies in Relation to Sexually Selected Infanticide in a Non‐Social Carnivore: the Brown Bear

Based on the sexually selected infanticide (SSI) hypothesis, infanticide can be an adaptive mating strategy for males, but this is has rarely been documented in non-social mammals. This phenomenon should not benefit females, so one would expect females to evolve mating counter strategies in order to protect their infants from infanticidal males. Cases of SSI are extremely difficult to document in the field, especially for non-social species. Using field observations and genetic methods, we describe mating strategies employed by both sexes of brown bears (Ursus arctos) in relation to SSI. We present evidence for the first time suggesting that infanticide is an adaptive male mating strategy in this non-social carnivore, as all requirements for SSI are fulfilled (1) infanticide shortens the time to the mother's next estrus, (2) the perpetrator is not the father of the killed infants, and (3) putative perpetrators sire the next litter. Moreover, all infanticide cases occurred during the mating season. We expected that primarily immigrant males were infanticidal, as in social species. However, we found that resident adult males commonly committed infanticide. Perhaps they recognize females they have mated with previously. Moreover, we used DNA-based parentage testing to demonstrate a minimum of 14.5% of multiple paternities (up to 28% for litters with at least three young). Female promiscuity to confuse paternity may be an adaptive counter strategy to avoid infanticide.
Orthodontic status and treatment need of 12-year-old children in South Africa using the Dental Aesthetic Index.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and severity of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in a sample of 12-year-old South African school children using the Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI), and to assess the relationship between malocclusion and certain socio-demographic variables. METHODOLOGY The sample comprised 6142, 12-year-old children attending school in seven of the nine provinces of South Africa. For each subject the standard demographic information such as gender, population group, location type and employment status of the parents was collected, after which an intra-oral examination for occlusal status using the DAI was performed. Before the survey, the examiners were calibrated and trained and only examiners with an agreement score greater or equal to 80 per cent were included in the final study. RESULTS The results showed that 47.7 per cent of the children in the sample presented with good occlusion or minor malocclusion, just over 52.3 per cent presented with identifiable malocclusion, a DAI score larger than 26. Of these, 21.2 per cent had definite malocclusion, 14.1 per cent had severe malocclusion and 16.9 per cent had very severe or handicapping malocclusion. Malocclusion as defined in this study was found to be significantly associated with the different population groups in South Africa, with gender and with dentition stage, but not with the location type or the employment status of parents. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study show a high prevalence of malocclusion in 12-year-old South African children. The findings provide reliable base-line data regarding the prevalence, distribution and severity of malocclusion as well as useful epidemiological data on the orthodontic treatment needs of 12-year-old children in South Africa.
From Fine-Scale Foraging to Home Ranges: A Semivariance Approach to Identifying Movement Modes across Spatiotemporal Scales

Understanding animal movement is a key challenge in ecology and conservation biology. Relocation data often represent a complex mixture of different movement behaviors, and reliably decomposing this mix into its component parts is an unresolved problem in movement ecology. Traditional approaches, such as composite random walk models, require that the timescales characterizing the movement are all similar to the usually arbitrary data-sampling rate. Movement behaviors such as long-distance searching and fine-scale foraging, however, are often intermixed but operate on vastly different spatial and temporal scales. An approach that integrates the full sweep of movement behaviors across scales is currently lacking. Here we show how the semivariance function (SVF) of a stochastic movement process can both identify multiple movement modes and solve the sampling rate problem. We express a broad range of continuous-space, continuous-time stochastic movement models in terms of their SVFs, connect them to relocation data via variogram regression, and compare them using standard model selection techniques. We illustrate our approach using Mongolian gazelle relocation data and show that gazelle movement is characterized by ballistic foraging movements on a 6-h timescale, fast diffusive searching with a 10-week timescale, and asymptotic diffusion over longer timescales.
Energy-dependent cell cohesion in myxobacteria

Cohesion in the myxobacterium Stigmatella aurantiaca was characterized. Two classes of cohesion were revealed, termed class A and class B. Class A cohesion is a characteristic of vegetative cells grown in tryptone or casitone (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.), whereas class B cohesion requires the addition of calcium ion for induction. Class A cohesion occurs in the presence of any cation and is temperature independent. Class B cohesion requires the presence of a cation in the calcium group and is energy dependent. We conclude that S. aurantiaca responds to calcium ion by synthesizing the molecular components of a system of cell cohesion (class B) and that the functioning of this system requires the expenditure of metabolic energy.
Crowding Ratio in Young Normally Sighted Children

Purpose: To determine normal values of the crowding ratio (CR) in children.Methods: Of 62 normally sighted primary school children aged 4–12 years old the CR was determined both for distance and near vision. The examinations were performed using commonly available test charts based on the LEA symbols. Results: At near, the CR was significantly better than at distance and for all ages <2.0. The upper limit of the CR at distance was <2.0 from age six. Conclusion: With commonly available tests the CR can easily be determined in school age children. For children >6 years of age, a CR > 2.0 (i.e. at least 3 lines difference between the result of a single optotype acuity test and a line acuity test) is suspicious and warrants further investigation. It may, for example, be a sign of cerebral visual impairment (CVI).
Is antiretroviral treatment of primary HIV infection clinically justified on the basis of current evidence?

When antiretroviral therapy first became available, it was hypothesized that the modest clinical benefits seen in patients with advanced disease [1] would be more pronounced in acutely infected individuals [2]. Use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in chronically infected individuals has now been shown to be effective in suppressing viral replication and preventing immunological decline, as well as in significantly influencing clinical progression events [3]. As the duration and severity of the acute retroviral syndrome and the level of viral replication 6–12 months following resolution of the acute infection (viral set-point) are both strong predictors of long-term disease progression rates [4–11], initiation of HAART at this stage may influence disease progression. Indeed, although recent guidelines have suggested delaying treatment in persons with chronic infection, the same guidelines suggest that persons identified in acute infection may differ from other HIV-infected patients, and form a group where immediate treatment could be considered [12,13].
Efficient Derivation of Embryonic Stem Cells by Inhibition of Glycogen Synthase Kinase‐3

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass (ICM) of blastocysts. The use of ES cells as a source of differentiated cells holds great promise for cell transplantation therapy. The efficiency of ES cell derivation is affected by genetic variation in mice; that is, some mouse strains, such as C57BL/6, are amenable to ES cell derivation, whereas others, such as BALB/c, are refractory. Developing an efficient method to establish ES cells from strains of various genetic backgrounds should be valuable for derivation of ES cells in various mammalian species, including human. Although it is well‐established that various signaling pathways, including phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3K)/Akt and Wnt/β‐catenin, regulate the maintenance of ES cell pluripotency, little is known about the signaling pathways involved in the derivation of ES cells from ICMs. In this study, we demonstrated that inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase‐3 (GSK‐3), one of the crucial molecules in the regulation of the Wnt/β‐catenin, Hedgehog, and Notch signaling pathways, dramatically augmented ES cell derivation from both C57BL/6 and BALB/c mouse strains. In contrast, Akt signaling activation enhanced the growth of ICM but did not increase the efficiency of ES cell derivation. Our study establishes an efficient means for ES cell derivation by pharmacological inhibition of GSK‐3.
Petri Nets Identification Techniques for Automated Modelling of Discrete Event Processes

One of the ways to perform the reverse engineering of a reactive system is to analyze the model of such a system. However, this model could not exist, or the documentation could not be updated; then a model that describes the current behavior of the system has to be built. Automated modelling of reactive discrete event processes can be achieved through identification techniques, which yield suitable discrete event models from the observed behavior in the form of input-output sequences. This chapter presents an overview of input-output identification techniques that build Petri net models.
Mammalian and yeast U3 snoRNPs are matured in specific and related nuclear compartments

Nucleolar localization of vertebrate box C/D snoRNA involves transit through Cajal bodies, but the significance of this event is unkown. To define better the function of this compartment, we analyzed here the maturation pathway of mammalian U3. We show that 3′‐extended U3 precursors possess a mono‐methylated cap, and are not associated with fibrillarin and hNop58. Importantly, these precursors are detected at both their transcription sites and in Cajal bodies. In addition, mature U3, the core box C/D proteins and the human homolog of the methyltransferase responsible for U3 cap tri‐methylation, hTgs1, are all present in Cajal bodies. In yeast, U3 follows a similar maturation pathway, and equivalent 3′‐extended precursors are enriched in the nucleolus and in the nucleolar body, a nucleolar domain that concentrates Tgs1p under certain growth conditions. Thus, spatial organization of U3 maturation appears to be conserved across evolution, and involves specialized and related nuclear compartments, the nucleolus/nucleolar body in yeast and Cajal bodies in higher eukaryotes. These are likely places for snoRNP assembly, 3′ end maturation and cap modification.
An Asymptotic Analysis of a Queueing System with Markov-Modulated Arrivals

We study the mean delay and the mean number in queue in a single-server system whose arrivals are given by a nonhomogeneous Poisson process with rate equal to a function of the state of an independent Markov process. Models of this sort arise naturally in the study of packet arrivals to a local switch. There are, in general, no closed form expressions for these quantities. We consider the normalized delay and the normalized number in queue with respect to the equivalent quantity for an M/M/1 queue with the same arrival and service rates. We show that in light and heavy traffic these quotients converge to finite, nonzero quantities that can be calculated in terms of the original model parameters. When the arrival stream is the superposition of arrival processes, the overall limit is related to the individual limits for each of the separate arrival processes. These results lead to approximations for the mean delay and number in queue for intermediate traffic. We present several examples showing the accuracy of this approximation.