Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The human prion protein α2 helix: A thermodynamic study of its conformational preferences

We have synthesized both free and terminally‐blocked peptide corresponding to the second helical region of the globular domain of normal human prion protein, which has recently gained the attention of structural biologists because of a possible role in the nucleation process and fibrillization of prion protein. The profile of the circular dichroism spectrum of the free peptide was that typical of α‐helix, but was converted to that of β‐structure in about 16 h. Instead, below 2.1 × 10−5 M, the spectrum of the blocked peptide exhibited a single band centered at 200 nm, unequivocally associated to random conformations, which did not evolve even after 24 h. Conformational preferences of this last peptide have been investigated as a function of temperature, using trifluoroethanol or low‐concentration sodium dodecyl sulfate as α‐ or β‐structure inducers, respectively. Extrapolation of free energy data to zero concentration of structuring agent highlighted that the peptide prefers α‐helical to β‐type organization, in spite of results from prediction algorithms. However, the free energy difference between the two forms, as obtained by a thermodynamic cycle, is subtle (roughly 5–8 kJ mol−1 at any temperature from 280 K to 350 K), suggesting conformational ambivalence. This result supports the view that, in the prion protein, the structural behavior of the peptide is governed by the cellular microenvironment. Proteins 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparison of genetic algorithms used to evolve specialisation in groups of robots

This paper investigates the role of genetic algorithms in determining which kind of specialisation emerges in decentralised simulated teams of robots controlled by evolved neural networks. As shown in previous works, different tasks may be better solved by robots specialized in a particular manner. However it was not clarified how much the genetic algorithm used might drive the evolution of one kind of specialisation or another: this is the goal of this paper. The study is conducted by evolving teams of robots that have to solve two different tasks that are better accomplished by using different types of specialisation (innate versus situated). Results suggest that the type of genetic algorithm employed plays a major role in determining how robots specialize and in most of the cases the algorithms used tend to always yield the same specialization. Only one of the algorithms tested led to the emergence of the most suitable kind of specialisation for each one of the two tasks.
Measurement of supply risk and determining supply strategy, case study: A refrigerator making company

One of the initial researches on supply risk criteria in a supply chain is that of Kraljic [1]. This research gives a method to classify supplied items into four categories in terms of risk and price share and presents a set of strategies to supply the items of each category. Although the addressed research gives some criteria to measure supply risk but it is not applicable in each industry due to lack of adequate criteria and the way to measure and quantify the supply risk. In this paper, we consider a refrigerator making company whose the whole items are classified into 61 groups. Reviewing the literature shows that the supply risk of each item can be precisely measured with respect to the availability of the corresponding suppliers, number of suppliers, competitive demand, purchasing or making opportunities, storage possibilities, limitations and barriers against importing, replacement possibility and exclusiveness for a refrigerator making company. We have proposed using fuzzy numbers in order to quantify most of the qualitative criteria. Measuring the supply risk and computing the price share of each item, the whole items are classified into four categories as the method given by Kraljic [1] and accordingly the corresponding supply strategy is determined.
Virtual Reality Active Games as a Potential Tool to Enhance Movement Skills and Promote Participation in Physical Activities for Children with DCD: Pilot Study

Children with developmental coordination problems exhibit difficulties performing even seemingly simple motor tasks, discouraging them from engaging in age appropriate physical activities. It appears that playing active video games may have a positive impact on certain aspects of their motor performance and the willingness to be physically active. The purpose of the present pilot study was to examine if these positive effects can be evident in two children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) playing selected Xbox Kinect sports games. One eleven year old boy and a nine year old girl, diagnosed with DCD, were assessed using Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC2) and selected components of Bruininks Oseretsky Test (BOT2) at pre, mid, and post sessions, and two weeks after the program. Children engaged in Wake Racing, Climbing, Soccer, and Tennis games, in two 40-minute sessions per week, for 6 weeks. The parents and the children were also involved in an interview at the end of the study. The results from the formal assessment tools showed that both children improved in balance and ball skills subsections of the MABC2. However, the data from BOT2 failed to show the expected effects on running speed and agility, and in the strength domain. The interviews with children revealed that playing games was enjoyable and could potentially affect their willingness to take part in active play. This was confirmed by parents, who also were interested in implementing this protocol within the home setting. However, the degree to which the skills acquired/refined while playing active video games transfer to real-life tasks requires further investigation.
Prevalence of OME Is Reduced in Young Children Using Chewing Gum

Objective: The present study investigates a possible relationship between use of chewing gum and otitis media with effusion (OME) in children. Chewing obviously activates jaw movements, increases salivary flow, and, by the way, the rate of swallowing and the rate of activations of peritubal muscles and tubal openings. Chewing also requires nasal respiration, thus preventing mouth breathing. Design: Cross-sectional study: 1756 children (2 to 6 yr of age), apparently in good health and visiting different Dutch child health centers in the region of Utrecht were examined between September 1999 and April 2002. OME was diagnosed by combined tympanometry and otoscopy. The criterion for OME was unilateral or bilateral type B tympanogram, according to Jerger. The parents had to fill out a questionnaire with a question pertaining to the chewing habits of their child. Results: Logistic regression points out that age and season as well as chewing gum–consuming habits significantly influence the prevalence of OME. The strongest effects are age (OME becomes less frequent with age) and season (OME occurs less when climate is more favorable), but—ceteris paribus—a child consuming daily or at least weekly chewing gum shows significantly less chance for OME than a child who seldom consumes or consumes no chewing gum (p = 0.023). Conclusions: In the case of regular use of chewing gum, the probability of having OME in children is reduced by 40%. It seems plausible that children with immature oral motorics do not like chewing gum.
ONIOM Study on the DNA Interstrand Crosslinks by the Chloroethylnitrosoureas

Chloroethylnitrosoureas (CENUs) are clinically useful anticancer agents. Their cytotoxicity has been proved to be associated with the generation of DNA interstrand crosslinks. In the present work, QM/MM computations are carried out to investigate the crosslinks of DNA complementary bases by the CENUs with ONIOM hybrid method. DNA double helix containing crosslinked base pairs are established as the computational models. The crosslinked DNA are subdivided into three layers, each of which are described at B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p), AM1 and UFF level of theory respectively. The result shows that the covalent crosslink between guanine N1 and complementary cytosine N3 is the most favorable crosslinking product. This crosslink is characterized by its less deformation of DNA double helix and higher stability than the other crosslinks on the complementary base pairs. The results of the ONIOM computations explain the phenomenon that 1-(N3-deoxycytidyl)-2-(N1-deoxyguanosinyl)ethane is the main crosslink product in the in vivo an the in vitro experiments.
Clock-Less Analog-to-Digital Converter

This article presents a new clock-less analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based on a full analog signal processing. The main innovative feature of the proposed ADC is that, for a sampled input signal, a cascade of identical stages may operate without timing signal (clock) with its analog processing independent of the output digital signal’s generation. Clock-less converters are used in the medical area, in control equipment, and portable equipment of low consumption. In this work, time of conversion of 0.5 μs was obtained by simulations with spice macromodels, for a converter of 8 bits resolution, with 8 mW consumption. The Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) reaches 60 dB. Index Terms – Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC), Analog Signal Processing, Asynchronous, Analog, Irregular Sampling, CMOS.
In vitro pharmacologic effect of two endothelin-1 antagonists on equine colonic arteries and veins.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of 2 potential endothelin (ET)-1 antagonists in blocking the contractile responses of equine colonic vessels to increasing concentrations of ET-1. SAMPLE POPULATION Mesenteric vessels from 6 clinically healthy horses. PROCEDURE Colonic vessels (arterial and venous rings) were placed in organ baths with oxygenated Tyrode solution at 37 C. Each was attached to a force transducer interfaced with a polygraph, and 2 g of tension was applied and equilibrated for 45 minutes. Then, B-1 (PD 142893) and B-2 (PD 145065) ET-1 antagonists were tested. One ring from each vessel type was used as a control for determining concentration-response relationships of ET-1 (10(-10) to 10(-6)M). Three rings of each vessel type were incubated with 3 concentrations of each antagonist (10(-7), 10(-6), and 10(-5) M) for 30 minutes before ET induced contractions were determined. The maximum contractile response and pA2 values were determined. RESULTS Vessels contracted in a concentration-dependent manner to ET-1. Arteries responded slowly but reached greater contractions. Veins responded immediately with sustained contractions. Both antagonists inhibited contractions in a concentration-dependent manner with significant differences at 10(-6) and 10(-5)M for arteries and 10(-5) M for veins. Complete blockade of contractions was observed with B-2 (10(-5)M). The pA2 values for B-1 were 8.26 and 6.82 for arteries and veins, respectively, whereas they were 8.25 and 7.21 for B-2. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Both antagonists effectively blocked ET-1-induced contractions of equine colonic vessels. Because B-2 is water soluble and caused complete blockade at 10(-5) M, it appears to be the preferred antagonist.
Trauma Systems Origins in the United States

The origins of the US Civilian Trauma and Emergency Medical Services Systems (EMSS) started in the 1970s are presented. The conceptual basis, strategic, and tactical implementation approaches used to establish the national program are described. The trauma and other clinical systems were extensions of proven clinical methods initially from cardiac and trauma units and deployed in new settings. The overall systems design was regionalization. Professionals, governmental agents, the public, and politicians all worked together to establish local, regional, state, and a nationwide comprehensive trauma/EMSS program that touch every state, territory, and community. A historical narrative is presented.
Delamination analysis and reliability design for CMOS image sensors packages

Through-silicon via (TSV) technology known as the core of the next generation of 3D integration has drawn more and more attention. However, due to its high cost and yield problems, it has not been used widely. Nevertheless, TSV is becoming a main stream interconnect method for CIS (CMOS image sensors) packaging. In order to assess the reliability behavior of typical CMOS image sensor such as delamination during CIS packaging and reliability testing, CSP packages are subjected to JEDEC reliability test to identify the failure modes and failure locations. According to the subsequent cross-section analysis, delamination occurs between the bonding attach and oxide layer. The glass crack after reliability test is observed, the crack propagates from the interface between the glass and cavity wall into the interior of the glass. Regarding the experimental results, a plane strain finite element model (FEM) is established to study the underlying mechanisms of reliability problems. According to the FEM results, the maximum shear stress in cavity wall occurs at the outside interface between cavity wall and the glass. The maximum shear stress in bonding attach occurs at the outside interface between the bonding attach and oxide layer. Besides, the maximum stress occurs in the low-temperature phase, which is correlated well with the SEM results. Based on the FEM analysis, the influence of geometric parameters such as the height and width of cavity wall, the thickness of the backside SMF, the thickness of silicon are also investigated to develop the guidelines for CIS packaging design.
A randomized trial of vitamin A supplements in relation to mortality among human immunodeficiency virus-infected and uninfected children in Tanzania.

OBJECTIVES To determine whether vitamin A supplements result in reduced mortality among HIV-infected and uninfected children. DESIGN Randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial. METHODS Starting in April, 1993, we randomized 687 children age 6 months to 5 years who were admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Children who were severely malnourished or had clinical signs of vitamin A deficiency were excluded. At baseline children received placebo or 400 000 IU (or half that for infants) of vitamin A, in addition to standard treatment for pneumonia. They received further doses of the same regimen 4 and 8 months after hospital discharge. Sera from children were tested for HIV antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot tests. For positive children <15 months of age, HIV infection was confirmed by amplified heat-denatured HIV-p24 antigen assays with confirmatory neutralization assays. HIV status was ascertained for 648 of 687 enrolled children. The mean duration of follow-up was 24.4 months (SD = 12.1). RESULTS Of 648 children 58 (9%) were HIV-infected. Compared with uninfected children, all-cause mortality was higher among HIV-infected children, as was mortality caused by pneumonia or diarrhea (P < 0.001 for each). Overall vitamin A supplements resulted in a 49% reduction in mortality [relative risk (RR), 0.51; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.29 to 0.90, P = 0.02]. Vitamin A supplements reduced all-cause mortality by 63% among HIV-infected children (RR 0.37; CI 0.14 to 0.95, P = 0.04) and by 42% among uninfected children (RR 0.58, CI 0.28 to 1.19, P = 0.14). Vitamin A supplements were also associated with a 68% reduction in AIDS-related deaths (P = 0.05) and a 92% reduction in diarrhea-related deaths (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION Vitamin A deficiency, which is common among children in many developing countries, is particularly severe among HIV-infected children. Our findings indicate that vitamin A supplements, a low cost intervention, reduce mortality of HIV-infected children.
THE EFFECT OF SODIUM SALICYLATE ON CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW AND METABOLISM

1 The effect of intravenous sodium salicylate on cerebral oxygen consumption and cerebral blood flow and its response to hypercapnia was measured by the 133Xenon intracarotid injection technique in ten baboons. 2 After an initial peak, the plasma salicylate level maintained a stable value for 2 h of 1 mmol/l with 50 mg/kg sodium salicylate and 2.5 mmol/l with 200 mg/kg sodium salicylate. 3 Sodium salicylate (50 mg/kg) produced no change in baseline cerebral blood flow (CBF) or cerebral oxygen consumption (CMRO2) but the CBF response to hypercapnia was reduced by 41% during the first hour. During the second hour after salicylate administration, CMRO2 increased by 26%, CBF at normocapnia increased by 31% and the CBF response to hypercapnia was 67% of the baseline value. 4 Sodium salicylate (200 mg/kg) increased CMRO2 by 65%. There was no significant change in CBF at normocapnia or hypercapnia. 5 These results confirm that inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis, which can cross the blood brain barrier in sufficient quantity, reduce the response of the cerebral circulation to hypercapnia. The difficulties in interpreting changes in the CBF CO2 response in the presence of increases in CMRO2 are discussed. It is suggested that the respiratory stimulation seen in salicylate intoxication is the result of a central metabolic stimulation.
Hybrid Fuzzy Vector Control for Single Phase Induction Motor

The single phase induction motors are the ones which have the widest applications in small power operation circmstance. The research on them mainly base on the finite model, and generally does not consider the effect of the infinite time-vary parameters. So, the sensorless vector control scheme based on hybrid fuzzy controller is presented to improve the robust and adaptive characteristics of system. At first, the indirect field oriented control can be obtained according to the general mathematical model of the single phase induction motor. The current controllers are constructed by the hybrid fuzzy controller after decoupling them to attain effective and easily realizable control characteristics. The design of rotor speed estimator is carried on, the rotor estimating speed is used instead of the rotor speed. The two sets of windings of stator of single-phase induction motors are controlled by SPWM inverters. The control schemes presented are realized by the physical prototype. The experiment results prove that the system has the advantage such as the sensorless speed measure, the easily realizable control and the high control efficiency.
3D neuron dendritic spine detection and dendrite reconstruction

Recent research reveals that there is a close relationship between neurological functions of neuron and its morphology. As manual analysis of large datasets is too tedious and may be subjected to user bias, a computer aided processing method is urgently desired. In this paper, we propose an automatic approach for 3D dendritic spine detection and dendrite reconstruction, which can greatly help neuron-biologists to obtain morphological information about a neuron and its spines. The segmentation of dendrite and spine components is carried out by means of 3D level set based on local binary fitting model, which yields better results than global threshold method. As for spine component detection, an efficient approach is presented, which consists of backbone extraction, detached and attached spine components detection. The detection is robust to noise and the detected spines are well represented. We validate our algorithm with real 3D neuron images and the result reveals that it works well.
Site‐Occupancy Distribution Modeling to Correct Population‐Trend Estimates Derived from Opportunistic Observations

Abstract: Species’ assessments must frequently be derived from opportunistic observations made by volunteers (i.e., citizen scientists). Interpretation of the resulting data to estimate population trends is plagued with problems, including teasing apart genuine population trends from variations in observation effort. We devised a way to correct for annual variation in effort when estimating trends in occupancy (species distribution) from faunal or floral databases of opportunistic observations. First, for all surveyed sites, detection histories (i.e., strings of detection–nondetection records) are generated. Within‐season replicate surveys provide information on the detectability of an occupied site. Detectability directly represents observation effort; hence, estimating detectablity means correcting for observation effort. Second, site‐occupancy models are applied directly to the detection‐history data set (i.e., without aggregation by site and year) to estimate detectability and species distribution (occupancy, i.e., the true proportion of sites where a species occurs). Site‐occupancy models also provide unbiased estimators of components of distributional change (i.e., colonization and extinction rates). We illustrate our method with data from a large citizen‐science project in Switzerland in which field ornithologists record opportunistic observations. We analyzed data collected on four species: the widespread Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) and Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) and the scarce Rock Thrush (Monticola saxatilis) and Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria). Our method requires that all observed species are recorded. Detectability was <1 and varied over the years. Simulations suggested some robustness, but we advocate recording complete species lists (checklists), rather than recording individual records of single species. The representation of observation effort with its effect on detectability provides a solution to the problem of differences in effort encountered when extracting trend information from haphazard observations. We expect our method is widely applicable for global biodiversity monitoring and modeling of species distributions.
First report ofAlternaria blight ofPaulownia spp.

A severe disease was observed in Western Australian plantations ofPaulownia fortunei in October 2001. Symptoms included black and light brown leaf lesions, and sunken cankers on petioles, branches and trunks of many trees.Alternaria spp. were isolated from 100% of all diseased tissues. Sequence data from the ribosomal ITS operon placed all isolates within theA. alternata complex. This is the first report ofAlternaria blight of Paulownia spp.
G Protein-Mediated Neuronal DNA Fragmentation Induced by Familial Alzheimer's Disease-Associated Mutants of APP

Missense mutations in the 695-amino acid form of the amyloid precursor protein (APP695) cosegregate with disease phenotype in families with dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease. These mutations convert valine at position 642 to isoleucine, phenylalanine, or glycine. Expression of these mutant proteins, but not of normal APP695, was shown to induce nucleosomal DNA fragmentation in neuronal cells. Induction of DNA fragmentation required the cytoplasmic domain of the mutants and appeared to be mediated by heterotrimeric guanosine triphosphate-binding proteins (G proteins).
A Conical Algorithm for Globally Minimizing a Concave Function Over a Closed Convex Set

In this paper we are concerned with the problem of finding the global minimum of a concave function over a closed, convex, possibly unbounded set in R n . The intrinsic difficulty of this problem is due to the fact that a local minimum of the objective function may fail to be a global one---which makes the conventional methods of local optimization almost useless.