Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating the Entropic Cost of Self-Assembly of Multiparticle Hydrogen-Bonded Aggregates Based on the Cyanuric Acid·Melamine Lattice

The entropic component of the free energy of assembly for multiparticle hydrogen-bonded aggregates is analyzed using a model based on balls connected by rigid rods or flexible strings. The entropy of assembly, ΔS, is partitioned into translational, rotational, vibrational, and conformational components. While previously reported theoretical treatments of rotational and vibrational entropies for assembly are adequate, treatments of translational entropy in solution and of conformational entropyoften the two largest components of ΔSare not. This paper provides improved estimates and illustrates the methods used to obtain them. First, a model is described for translational entropy of molecules in solution (ΔStrans(sol)); this model provides physically intuitive corrections for values of ΔStrans(sol) that are based on the Sackur−Tetrode equation. This model is combined with one for rotational entropy to estimate the difference in entropy of assembly between a 4-particle aggregate and a 6-particle one. Second,.
Detection of Brucella melitensis in bovine milk and milk products from apparently healthy animals in Egypt by real-time PCR.

INTRODUCTION Brucellosis in Egypt is an endemic disease among animals and humans. In endemic developing countries, dairy products produced from untreated milk are a potential threat to public health. The aim of this study was to detect brucellae in milk and milk products produced from apparently healthy animals to estimate the prevalence of contamination. METHODOLOGY Two hundred and fifteen unpasteurized milk samples were collected from apparently healthy cattle (n = 72) and buffaloes (n = 128) reared on small farms, and from milk shops (n = 15) producing dairy products for human consumption. All milk samples were examined by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) and real-time PCR (RT-PCR) to detect Brucella antibodies and Brucella-specific DNA, respectively. RESULTS Using iELISA, anti-Brucella antibodies were detected in 34 samples (16%), while RT-PCR amplified Brucella-specific DNA from 17 milk samples (7.9%). Species-specific IS711 RT-PCR identified 16 of the RT-PCR-positive samples as containing B. melitensis DNA; 1 RT-PCR-positive sample was identified as containing B. abortus DNA. CONCLUSIONS The detection of Brucella DNA in milk or milk products sold for human consumption, especially the highly pathogenic species B. melitensis, is of obvious concern. The shedding of Brucella spp. in milk poses an increasing threat to consumers in Egypt. Consumption of dairy products produced from non-pasteurized milk by individual farmers operating under poor hygienic conditions represents an unacceptable risk to public health.
Speaker Recognition Systems: A Tutorial

Abstract This paper gives an overview of speaker recognition systems. Speaker recognition is the task of automatically recognizing who is speaking by identifying an unknown speaker among several reference speakers using speaker-specific information included in speech waves. The different classification of speaker recognition and speech processing techniques required for performing the recognition task are discussed. The basic modules of a speaker recognition system are outlined and discussed. Some of the techniques required to implement each module of the system were discussed and others are mentioned. The methods were also compared with one another. Finally, this paper concludes by giving a few research trends in speaker recognition for some year to come.
Effects of hormone replacement therapy on cognitive aging and dementia risk in postmenopausal women: a review of ongoing large-scale, long-term clinical trials

The aim of this review is to discuss the purpose, design, and expected findings of several ongoing large-scale, long-term clinical trials studying the effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on cognitive aging and risk of developing dementia. The Women's Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging (WHISCA) and the cognitive component of the Women's International Study of long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause – Cognition (WISDOM-COG) (to be completed in 2005 and 2006, respectively) will provide information about the effects of HRT on cognitive aging. The Preventing Postmenopausal Memory Loss and Alzheimer's with Replacement Estrogens study (PREPARE), the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) and the dementia component of WISDOM-COG (to be completed in 2003, 2005 and 2009, respectively) will address the question of whether estrogens can delay or prevent dementia. These ongoing clinical trials will also be the first to study the effects of estrogen with and without progesterone, and the effects of HRT in women with natural versus surgical menopause, on cognitive aging and risk of dementia. Based on the existing literature, we discuss which specific cognitive areas are most likely to be affected by HRT. We also raise the issue that the type of estrogen agent may affect the outcome of these studies.
Synthèse des tolérances thermiques des principales espèces de poissons des rivières et fleuves de plaine de l’ouest européen

L’effet de l’elevation de la temperature des cours d’eau sur le milieu aquatique a ete largement debattu a la fin des annees 70 qui ont vu le developpement des centrales thermiques de grande puissance. Ces etudes ont genere de nombreux programmes de recherche sur le sujet. Le rechauffement climatique actuel et en particulier l’episode caniculaire de 2003 a mis de nouveau ce theme sur le devant de la scene. Le travail de synthese presente a consiste a analyser des donnees historiques et contemporaines presentes dans la litterature, afin de mettre a jour les connaissances de base sur les tolerances thermiques de 19 especes de poissons d’eau douce. Cette synthese a ensuite ete validee et completee par des specialistes europeens. Elle s’est appuyee sur plus de 300 references qui detaillent les tolerances thermiques de chacun des stades du cycle de vie des especes etudiees : la reproduction, les stades embryonnaire, larvaire, juvenile et adulte. Cette mise a jour est essentielle pour comprendre les tendances d’evolution deja constatees des communautes de poissons et prevoir les futures evolutions selon les scenarios de changement climatique.
Prognostic and Therapeutic Implications of Statin and Aspirin Therapy in Individuals With Nonobstructive Coronary Artery Disease: Results From the CONFIRM (Coronary CT Angiography Evaluation For Clinical Outcomes: An International Multicenter Registry) Registry

Objective— We sought to examine the risk of mortality associated with nonobstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) and to determine the impact of baseline statin and aspirin use on mortality. Approach and Results— Coronary computed tomographic angiography permits direct visualization of nonobstructive CAD. To date, the prognostic implications of nonobstructive CAD and the potential benefit of directing therapy based on nonobstructive CAD have not been carefully examined. A total of 27 125 consecutive patients who underwent computed tomographic angiography (12 enrolling centers and 6 countries) were prospectively entered into the COronary CT Angiography EvaluatioN For Clinical Outcomes: An InteRnational Multicenter (CONFIRM) registry. Patients, without history of previous CAD or obstructive CAD, for whom baseline statin and aspirin use was available were analyzed. Each coronary segment was classified as normal or nonobstructive CAD (1%–49% stenosis). Patients were followed up for a median of 27.2 months for all-cause mortality. The study comprised 10 418 patients (5712 normal and 4706 with nonobstructive CAD). In multivariable analyses, patients with nonobstructive CAD had a 6% (95% confidence interval, 1%–12%) higher risk of mortality for each additional segment with nonobstructive plaque (P=0.021). Baseline statin use was associated with a reduced risk of mortality (hazard ratio, 0.44; 95% confidence interval, 0.28–0.68; P=0.0003), a benefit that was present for individuals with nonobstructive CAD (hazard ratio, 0.32; 95% confidence interval, 0.19–0.55; P<0.001) but not for those without plaque (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.30–1.43; P=0.287). When stratified by National Cholesterol Education Program/Adult Treatment Program III, no mortality benefit was observed in individuals without plaque. Aspirin use was not associated with mortality benefit, irrespective of the status of plaque. Conclusions— The presence and extent of nonobstructive CAD predicted mortality. Baseline statin therapy was associated with a significant reduction in mortality for individuals with nonobstructive CAD but not for individuals without CAD. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier NCT01443637
Lymphocyte apoptosis in systemic lupus erythematosus: relationships with Fas expression, serum soluble Fas and disease activity

Lupus specific autoantigens are exposed on apoptotic cells. The increased number of apoptotic lymphocytes reported in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may be attributable to abnormalities of lymphocyte Fas expression or serum soluble Fas. In the present study we analysed the count of circulating apoptotic lymphocytes in SLE patients (n ‘ 50), by flow cytometry using Annexin V, compared to rheumatoid arthritis patients (RA, n ‘ 20), inflammatory bowel disease patients (IBD, n ‘ 20) and normal controls (n ‘ 20). Lymphocyte Fas expression and serum soluble Fas were measured and related to numbers of apoptotic lymphocytes. The percentage of apoptotic lymphocytes, determined by Annexin V binding, was significantly increased in peripheral blood of SLE patients (median ‘ 4.2%) compared with normal healthy donors (median ‘ 1.1%) and IBD patients (median ‘ 2.0%) but not RA (median ‘ 3.9%). SLE lymphocyte Fas expression was not significantly different from RA or IBD patients. Serum soluble Fas in SLE patients correlated positively with apoptotic lymphocytes and antibodies to double stranded DNA. This study suggests that increased apoptotic lymphocytes and increased lymphocyte Fas expression may not be specific to SLE. Serum soluble Fas may have a role in the regulation of lymphocyte apoptosis in SLE.
3 Diversity in wireless systems

The main impairment in wireless channels is the fading or random fluctuation of the signal level. This signal fluctuation happens across time, frequency, and space. Diversity techniques provide the receiver with multiple independent looks at the signal to improve reception. Each one of those independent looks is considered a diversity branch. The probability that all diversity branches will fade at the same time goes down as the number of branches increase. Hence, with a high probability, there will be at least one branch or link with a good signal such that the transmitted data can be detected reliably. Wireless channels are, in general, characterized by frequency selective multipath propagation, Doppler-induced time selective fading, and space selective fading. An emitted signal propagating through the wireless channel is reflected and scattered from a large number scatterers, thereby arrive at the receiver through different paths and hence arrive at different times. This results in the time dispersion of the transmitted signal. A measure of this dispersion is called the channel delay spread τmax. The coherence bandwidth of the channel Bc ≈ 1/τmax measures the frequency bandwidth over which the propagation channel remains correlated. Therefore, a propagation channel with a small delay spread will have a large coherence bandwidth, i.e., the channel frequency response will remain correlated over a large bandwidth, and visa versa. In addition, transmitter and receiver mobility as well as changes in the propagation medium induce time variations in the propagation channel.This time variation is characterized by the Doppler spread Fd, which measures the width of the received signal spectrum when a single sinusoid is transmitted. The coherence time Tc ≈ 1/Fd measures the amount of time over which the
Perceptually-based representation of network diagrams

A pen based interactive editor for network diagrams is proposed. The network diagrams are composed of geometrical figures and connecting lines. The user may hand-sketch a first diagram and then, modify it by adding new components or by erasing, replacing or moving the existing ones. The machine beautifies the draft and updates the whole structure of the diagram when the user produces local modification. Graphic communication implies that the layout of the diagram follows principles which are grounded on visual perception. The machine must be able to detect perceptual constraints (alignments, equality of sizes etc.) for beautification and updating. A perceptually structured representation (PSR) of the diagram is built automatically. A formal model of diagram perception is defined as a set of rules which are applied during the global analysis following the local analysis where the figures are detected and recognised.
Structure, Microtubule Interactions, and Phosphorylation of Tau Protein a

This paper summarizes recent structural and functional studies on tau protein, its interactions with microtubules, its self‐assembly into paired helical filaments (PHF)‐like fibers, and its modification by phosphorylation. The structure of tau in solution resembles that of a random coil. Both tau and Alzheimer PHFs have very little secondary structure, making it improbable that the assembly of tau into PHFs is based on interacting beta sheets. Tau's binding to microtubules can be described by a “jaws” effect. The domain containing the repeats binds very weakly, while the flanking regions (jaws) bind strongly, even without the repeats. However, only the combination of flanking regions and repeats makes binding productive in terms of microtubule nucleation and assembly. Although the majority of Alzheimer‐like phosphorylation sites are outside the repeats they have only a weak influence on binding, whereas the phosphorylation at Ser262 inside the repeats inhibits binding and makes microtubules dynamically unstable. This site can be phosphorylated by kinases present in brain tissue, and it is uniquely phosphorylated in Alzheimer brain.
First Genome-Wide Mutational Map of Macaques a Boon for Evolutionary Studies.

Scientists have long used comparative animal studies to better understand the nuances of human evolution, from making diverse body plans to the emergence of entirely powerful and unique features structures, including the human brain. Now, in a new study appearing in the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution, corresponding authors Perdomo-Sabogal et al. (2016) have explored the global gene regulator GABPa to better understand its influence as a master switch. Their work honed in on human-specific DNA regions potentially contributing to human evolution in key functions including cell energy, division and death, and diseases ranging from brain disorders to diabetes. Many of the GABPa gene regulatory sites were found to be significantly enriched at genes important for brain, central nervous system and spinal cord functions that are unique to humans, an area ripe for future research, and GABPa deficits linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson diseases, breast cancer, and autism. GABPa exerts its profound genomic influence by a tandem repeat of four highly conserved DNA letters. The GGAA consensus motif is found to control genes in all primates, mice, dogs, and cows, underscoring its importance in these animals. By performing ChIP-Seq experiments in a human cell line, the group found that GABPa exercises its influence across the genome at 11,619 putative GABPa binding sites representing nearly 4,000 genes. Through a tour de force sequence comparison of the human GABPa binding sites with similar sequences from 34 mammals, they identified 224 GABPa binding sites unique to humans. Comparing chimpanzee, macaque, and human cell lines and mutating the GGAA sequence to more ancestral states to determine how these changes affected GABPa function, they further narrowed down their function. For instance, when the human GABPa binding sites were introduced into primate cells, gene expression was increased up to five times in 17 out of 18 cases, indicating that a recent human mutation in GABPa resulted in higher gene expression and forces behind the evolution of novel, uniquely human functions. “Mutations that cause changes in the regulation of gene activities are one of the major factors in shaping species during evolution,” said corresponding author Robert Querfurth. “Our study demonstrates how, out of the millions of DNA regions, in which we differ from other apes, we can sift out those that, in response to a specific regulatory protein, cause gene activity changes in human cells. In this set, we find genes involved in brain and breast development and also in diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. ”
Epigenetik - Vermittlung zwischen Anlage und Umwelt

Zusammenfassung Die Erforschung der molekularen Ursachen psychischer Eigenschafen oder Erkrankungen ist schwierig. Trotz intensiver Forschung ist über deren molekulare Basis wenig bekannt. Es steht außer Frage, dass an der Entstehung eines spezifischen Phänotyp viele Faktoren beteiligt sind. Bisher galt, dass hierfür neben einer komplexen polygenen erblichen Basis exogene Einflussfaktoren verantwortlich sind. Die Schwierigkeit, die verantwortlichen Gene zu identifizieren aber auch Hinweise für die Weitergabe erworbener Zustände der Genregulation haben die Epigenetik in den letzen Jahren zu einem zentralen Forschungsgegenstand werden lassen. Das faszinierende Gebiet der Epigenetik beschäftigt sich mit der Analyse von Veränderungen von Phänotypen, die nicht Ergebnis von Veränderungen der DNA-Sequenz sind. Stattdessen können andere Faktoren wie Umwelteinflüsse die Expression spezieller Gene beeinflussen und Prozesse wie Entwicklung, Verhalten und Krankheitsmechanismen beeinflussen. Epigenetische Veränderungen können als eine Art Speichermedium über längere Zeit, unter Umständen über mehrere Generationen hinweg als sog. Transgenerationeneffekte wirksam werden.
Hierarchical grouping of association rules and its application to a real-world domain

One common problem in association rule mining is that often a very large number of rules are generated from the database. The sheer volume of these rules makes it difficult, if not impossible, for human users to analyze and make use of the rules. In this article, we propose two algorithms for grouping and summarizing association rules. The first algorithm recursively groups rules according to the structure of the rules and generates a tree of clusters as a result. The second algorithm groups the rules according to the semantic distance between the rules by making use of a semantic tree-structured network of items. We propose an algorithm for automatically tagging the semantic network so that the rules can be represented as directed line segments in a two-dimensional space and can then be grouped according to the distance between line segments. We also present an application of the two algorithms, in which the proposed algorithms are evaluated. The results show that our grouping methods are effective and produce good grouping results.
SUGGESTION OF A FUZZY AHP APPROACH FOR EVALUATION AND RANKING OF ORGANIZATIONS ( CASE STUDY : INSURANCE INDUSTRY )

The insurance industry as a service sector has compensation and protective role in the economy of any country; so that successful action in this industry will develop motivation for other industries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance and ranking of insurance companies using fuzzy AHP approach. To achieve this object, the affecting criteria of the insurance companies’ performance should be specified in the insurance industry. Firstly, a comprehensive list of factors affecting the performance of insurance companies prepared using literature and experts for effective localization and completion criteria in the performance evaluation of insurance companies so that the criteria was in accordance with the conditions of country with the highest correlation and the necessary adaptation with the case study. Finally, in this study, to evaluate the performance of the insurance companies, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process are used as one of the most versatile techniques of decision making and management for complex situations where there are multiple and different measures.
Microbiological performance of a water treatment unit designed for household use in developing countries

Interventions to improve water quality, particularly when deployed at the household level, are an effective means of preventing endemic diarrhoeal disease, a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Following a national survey indicating widespread faecal contamination of drinking water in Indian cities, a point‐of‐use water treatment unit was developed, which combines filtration and disinfection, does not require power or water pressure and has an operating cost of Rs. 0.25 (US$0.0057) per litre. We assessed the microbiological performance of the unit in the laboratory over the full 1500 l design life of the unit's consumable components. Geometric mean reductions for the units were more than 6 logs (99.9999%) for bacteria, more than 7 logs (99.99999%) for viruses and more than 3 logs (99.9%) for the test surrogate for protozoan cysts. Geometric mean reductions exceeded levels established for microbial water purifiers. The product water was free of detectable chlorine. If these results are validated in field trials, the deployment of the unit on a wide scale among vulnerable populations may make an important contribution to public health efforts to control intractable waterborne diseases.
Characterization of Two [3H]Glutamate Binding Sites in Rat Hippocampal Membranes

Abstract: The specific binding of l‐[3H]glutamate was investigated in the presence and the absence of sodium ions in freshly prepared membranes from rat hippocampus. Sodium ions were found to have a biphasic effect; low concentrations induced a marked inhibition of the binding (in the range 0.5‐5.0 mM), whereas higher concentrations resulted in a dose‐dependent stimulation of binding (in the range 10‐ 150 mM). These results permit the discrimination of two binding sites in hippocampal membranes. Both Na+‐independent and Na+‐dependent binding sites were saturable, exhibiting dissociation constants at 30°C of 750 nM and 2.4 μM, respectively, with Hill coefficients not significantly different from unity, and maximal number of sites of 6.5 and 75 pmol/mg protein, respectively. [3H]Glutamate binding to both sites reached equilibrium between 5 and 10 min and was reversible. The relative potencies of a wide range of compounds, with known pharmacological activities, to inhibit [3H]glutamate binding were very different for the Na+‐independent and Na+‐ dependent binding and suggested that the former sites were related to postsynaptic glutamate receptors, whereas the latter were related to high‐affinity uptake sites. This conclusion was also supported by the considerable variation in the regional distribution of the Na+‐dependent binding site, which paralleled that of the high‐affinity glutamate uptake; the Na+‐independent binding exhibited less regional variation.