Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cloning of a Gene Cluster from Cellvibrio mixtus which Codes for Cellulase, Chitinase, Amylase, and Pectinase

The soil isolate Cellvibrio mixtus UQM2294 degraded a variety of polysaccharides including microcrystalline cellulose. Among 6,000 cosmid clones carrying C. mixtus DNA, constructed in Escherichia coli with pHC79, 50 expressed the ability to degrade one or more of the following substrates: carboxymethyl cellulose, chitin, pectin (polygalacturonic acid), cellobiose, and starch. These degradative genes are encoded in a single 94.1-kilobase segment of the C. mixtus genome; a preliminary order of the genes is starch hydrolysis, esculin hydrolysis, cellobiose utilization, chitin hydrolysis, carboxymethyl cellulose hydrolysis, and polygalacturonic acid hydrolysis. A restriction endonuclease cleavage map was constructed, and the genes for starch, carboxymethyl cellulose, cellobiose, chitin, and pectin hydrolysis were subcloned.
Motion Deblurring for Plenoptic Images

We address for the first time the issue of motion blur in light field images captured from plenoptic cameras. We propose a solution to the estimation of a sharp high resolution scene radiance given a blurry light field image, when the motion blur point spread function is unknown, i.e., the so-called blind deconvolution problem. In a plenoptic camera, the spatial sampling in each view is not only decimated but also defocused. Consequently, current blind deconvolution approaches for traditional cameras are not applicable. Due to the complexity of the imaging model, we investigate first the case of uniform (shift-invariant) blur of Lambertian objects, i.e., when objects are sufficiently far away from the camera to be approximately invariant to depth changes and their reflectance does not vary with the viewing direction. We introduce a highly parallelizable model for light field motion blur that is computationally and memory efficient. We then adapt a regularized blind deconvolution approach to our model and demonstrate its performance on both synthetic and real light field data. Our method handles practical issues in real cameras such as radial distortion correction and alignment within an energy minimization framework.
Properties of random coverings of graphs

In the thesis we study selected properties of random coverings of graphs introduced by Amit and Linial in 2002. A random n-covering of a graph G, denoted by G, is obtained by replacing each vertex v of G by an n-element set Gv and then choosing, independently for every edge e = {x, y} ∈ E(G), uniformly at random a perfect matching between Gx and Gy. The first problem we consider is the typical size of the largest topological clique in a random covering of given graph G. We show that asymptotically almost surely a random n-covering G of a graph G contains the largest topological clique which is allowed by the structure of G. The second property we examine is the existence of a Hamilton cycle in G. We show that if G has minimum degree at least 5 and contains two edge disjoint Hamilton cycles whose union is not a bipartite graph, then asymptotically almost surely G is Hamiltonian.
Epicardial Adipose Tissue Thickness in Young Indian Overweight and Obese Individuals

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has been found to be an important reliable marker for future coronary events. Deposition of the EAT in young individuals is not well known. We studied EAT in 25 young overweight or obese individuals. In spite of the high visceral fat and total body fat, EAT thickness was not found to be high in the participants of our study.
Vampire Bat Salivary Plasminogen Activator Evokes Minimal Bleeding Relative to Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator as Assessed by a Rabbit Cuticle Bleeding Time Model

Summary Cuticle bleeding time (CBT) measurements in anesthetized rabbits were performed to assess the potential bleeding risks which may accompany the administration of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) or vampire bat salivary plasminogen activator (BatPA). The dose of BatPA or tPA used in this study, 42 nmol/kg, was previously shown to be efficacious using a rabbit femoral artery thrombosis model (Gardell et al, Circulation 84:244, 1991). CBT was determined by severing the apex of the nail cuticle and monitoring the time to cessation of blood flow. CBT was minimally elevated (1.6-fold, p<NS) following bolus intravenous administration of BatPA; in contrast, bolus intravenous administration of tPA dramatically elevated CBT (6.2-fold, p<0.05). Rabbits treated with tPA, but not BatPA, displayed profound activation of systemic plasminogen and consequent degradation of Factor VIII and fibrinogen. Elevations in CBT after the administration of tPA were reversed by the replenishment of plasma Factor VIII activity to 40% of control, but were unaffected by complete replenishment of plasma fibrinogen. The results of this study suggest that the administration of BatPA, at a dose that promotes thrombolysis, may evoke a minimal bleeding risk, relative to an equi-efficacious dose of tPA. In addition, the tPA-provoked proteolytic consumption of Factor VIII may be a key contributor to the heightened bleeding risk.
Strengthening the Level of Integrity of Public Procurement at the Execution Phase: Evidence from the Italian National Frame Contracts

The risks of integrity arising at the execution stage of public procurement processes are often overlooked. When contract award and contract management are handled by different public authorities integrity concerns about contract execution become more acute. Data from the monitoring mechanism of the National Frame Contracts awarded by Consip S.p.A. - the Italian Public Procurement Agency - show a very weak level of contract enforcement. We conduct a regression analysis to assess to what extent contract mismanagement may depend upon the intrinsic characteristics of the contracts and/or the nature of the public authority using the contract itself.
Magnetron Simulations using a multiple wavelength computer code

A multiple wavelength extension (MWMAG) of a prior single moving wavelength code for the simulation of magnetrons (DEMAG) has been prepared and used to examine the operation of the 4J52 X-band magnetron. The multiple wavelength code simulates all of the wavelengths in the magnetron, eliminating the questionable assumption in the single wavelength code that all wavelengths are identical. The gross power, efficiency, and dissipation results obtained using the multiple wavelength code are close to those obtained using the single wavelength code. Details of the interaction are, however, significantly different-particularly when secondary emission is dominant as is the case in most magnetrons. In this case, there is a disturbance in the form of voids traveling through the space charge, which have a wavelength which is different from the radio frequency wavelength.
Skill Shortages and Advanced Technology Adoption

This paper investigates the extent to which establishments in the Canadian manufacturing sector experience occupational skill shortages, and to the extent that they do, whether these shortages appear to act as impediments to advanced technology adoption. Plants adopting advanced technology report shortages, particularly when it comes to professionals, such as scientists and engineers, and to technical specialists. Whether these shortages pose labour-market problems depends very much on the solutions adapted by the establishments experiencing the shortages. This paper finds that labour shortages did not appear to block technology adoption since those establishments that reported shortages were also the most technologically advanced. Although they faced a greater need for skilled labour, they were able to solve their shortages.
Evaluation of inflammatory markers interleukin-6 (IL-6) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) in asthma

ABSTRACT Introduction: Even though IL-6 and MMP-9 are associated with airway inflammation in asthma, there is paucity of data in Indian population. Objective: To determine the levels of IL-6 and MMP-9 in the serum of patients suffering from asthma, and correlate with (a) disease severity, as per GINA guidelines; (b) clinical phenotypes; and (c) response to treatment. Methodology: The levels of IL-6 and MMP-9 were compared between moderate persistent asthma (n = 25), severe persistent asthma (n = 25) and normal controls (n = 30). IL-6 and MMP-9 were measured by ELISA (R&D Systems Inc., USA and Canada) and compared between controls and asthmatics and between groups of different asthma severity, clinical variables, spirometry, and allergen sensitization. Spirometry was repeated after 2 months of ICS+LABA to assess response to treatment in relation to baseline IL-6 and MMP-9 levels. Results: We observed a significant difference in both IL-6 and MMP-9 levels among asthmatics versus controls (p < 0.001), moderate versus severe persistent asthma (p < 0.001). A significant negative correlation was observed between MMP-9 and pre-bronchodilator FEV1 and FVC, but not with IL-6. There was no association between IL-6 and MMP-9 with asthma duration, total IgE, AEC, number of allergens sensitized and degree of sensitization. No significant correlation (p > 0.5) was observed with IL-6 and MMP-9 levels and FEV1 improvement after 2 months of ICS+LABA. Conclusion: Higher levels of IL-6 and MMP-9 were observed in asthmatics as compared to controls and in severe persistent asthma as compared to moderate persistent asthma, higher levels of MMP-9 was associated with lower lung functions.
A low power control system for real-time tuning of a hybrid transformer-based receiver

This paper presents the analysis and hardware implementation of a low-power control system for a frequency-division duplexing 3G receiver with a tunable on-chip duplexer based on a hybrid-transformer. The maximum transmit-receive isolation exceeds 60dB and is limited by the precision of the on-chip balancing impedance. An optimization algorithm finds the optimal duplexer tuning condition in less than 100μs and a simple tracking algorithm operating in background preserves this condition over time. The algorithms are implemented in a FPGA and require minimal hardware overhead.
High brightness electron beam emittance evolution measurements in an rf photoinjector

The new generation of linac injectors driving free electron lasers in the self-amplified stimulated emission (SASE-FEL) regime requires high brightness electron beams to generate radiation in the wavelength range from UV to x rays. The choice of the injector working point and its matching to the linac structure are the key factors to meet this requirement. An emittance compensation scheme presently applied in several photoinjectors worldwide is known as the "Ferrario" working point. In spite of its great importance there was, so far, no direct measurement of the beam parameters, such as emittance, transverse envelope, and energy spread, in the region downstream the rf gun and the solenoid of a photoinjector to validate the effectiveness of this approach. In order to fully characterize the beam dynamics with this scheme, an innovative beam diagnostic device, the emittance meter, consisting of a movable emittance measurement system, has been designed and built. With the emittance meter, measurements of the main beam parameters in both transverse phase spaces can be performed in a wide range of positions downstream the photoinjector. These measurements help in tuning the injector to optimize the working point and provide an important benchmark for the validation of simulation codes. We report the results of these measurements in the SPARC photoinjector and, in particular, the first experimental evidence of the double minimum in the emittance oscillation, which provides the optimized matching to the SPARC linac. Â© 2008 The American Physical Society.
Acoustic Emission Crack Detection in Injection Molding

This paper presents the experimental results regarding acoustic emission signals measured during the injection molding of those standard test specimens commonly used for examining the shrinkage behaviour of various thermoplastic materials. In daily industrial production of different plastic products we often have to deal with various errors that practically occur on the mold primarily as a result of tool wear and tear, improper storage and improper settings on the injection molding machine. In the testing phase of plastic materials we use many times different inserts that are made from standard tool steels, such as OCR12VM. In case of tool steel inserts after some years of usage a few micro-cracks can occur in the early stage, which can later quickly spread according to the applied loading. With the help of different nondestructive testing methods we know that we can most certainly detect possible formation of cracks on the tool steel inserts. The acoustic emission was measured on an injection mold with the visible sign of a crack on the cavity's surface, using two contact PZT sensors under normal and increased injection pressure loads. In this paper, we focused exclusively on the acoustic emission signal acquisition by using two resonant 150 kHz piezoelectric AE sensors on such tool steel inserts that are already affected by macro-cracks. On such tool steel insert the obtained acoustic emission results were compared with those obtained from a brand new tool steel insert. The final obtained acoustic emission results on the crack defected tool steel insert revealed as expected that the energy and intensity of the captured AE signals is higher compared with the ones that were captured on the brand new engraving insert under same processing conditions.
Efficient Structured Inference for Stochastic Recurrent Neural Networks

Recent advances in sequential data modeling have suggested a class of models that combine recurrent neural networks with state space models. Despite the success, the huge model complexity has brought an important challenge to the corresponding inference methods. This paper introduces an structured inference algorithm to efficiently learn such models, including variants where the emission and transition distributions are modelled by deep neural networks. Our learning algorithm leverages a structured variational approximation parameterized by stochastic models and recurrent neural networks to approximate the posterior distribution. Experimental results on synthetic datasets have demonstrated the promising performance of the proposed method. In addition, our method has significantly outperformed the current state-of-the-art methods on music and speech modeling tasks.
Analysis of the Mechanism of Action of Biological Therapies in Monotherapy in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Beyond the ADACTA Study

The recently-published first head-to-head study comparing the efficacy of two biological drugs on monotherapy, tocilizumab and adalimumab, found better results for tocilizumab. Both are cytokine-specific antagonists: adalimumab targets tumor necrosis factor and tocilizumab targets interleukin-6 receptor . The aim of our review was to determine differences in the mechanisms of action of adalimumab and tocilizumab, in order to explain the differing results found, and to describe the immunologic and clinical aspects of the two drugs.
Targeting Ubc9 for cancer therapy

Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (Ubc9) was originally thought to be a conjugating enzyme for ubiquitylation, but was later shown to be responsible for the most recently identified type of post-translational modification, (i.e., SUMO [small ubiquitin-related modifier]) conjugation or sumoylation. Like ubiquitylation, sumoylation modulates protein function through post-translational covalent attachment to lysine residues within targeted proteins. However, although ubiquitylation can lead to protein degradation through the 26S proteasome, sumoylation does not cause protein degradation; instead, it has been implicated in other cellular processes, such as regulating the activity of transcription factors, mediating nuclear translocation of proteins or the formation of subnuclear structures. Interestingly, some proteins can be modified at the same lysine residue by both SUMO and ubiquitin, but with distinct functional consequences. Given that many proteins involved in cell-cycle regulation, proliferation, apoptosis and DNA repair are targets for sumoylation, alterations of sumoylation could ultimately have an impact on cell growth, cancer development and drug responsiveness. As Ubc9 is the sole E2-conjugating enzyme required for sumoylation, and, in particular, Ubc9 is upregulated in an increasing number of human malignancies, such as ovarian carcinoma, melanoma and lung adenocarcinoma, it is a potential target for cancer therapy.
Top Management Turnover, Firm Performance and Government Control: Evidence from China’s SOEs

This paper examines a sample of 916 China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) during 2001 - 2005 and finds a significantly inverse relationship between top management turnover and firm accounting performance in China's SOEs, suggesting that an effective method of corporate control, which tie top management turnover with poor firm performance, indeed exists in the Chinese political economy, which is a mixture of capitalism and socialism. We also find that the negative relationship between top management turnover and accounting performance is significantly stronger among SOEs with central government ownership and greater market power. There is no evidence that the relationship is affected by concentrated government ownership or whether the firms are in a strategic industry. Our findings have important implications on the method of corporate control adopted in SOE, especially, that high government control may enhance tight corporate control.
Code and Contribution in Interactive Systems Research

The scale and complexity of interactive systems research often require care in distinguishing: (1) the code that implements a system, versus (2) the research contribution demonstrated or embodied in a system. This position paper for the CHI 2017 workshop on #HCI.Tools reflects on this contrast and some common forms of contribution in interactive systems research. We explore several forms of interactive systems contribution based in differentiating: (1) what a system accomplishes, versus (2) how it accomplishes that. We argue some interactive systems should be considered sketches that use code as a medium to explore their research contributions, while others embody their contributions more directly in their code. Finally, we argue the progress and impact of our field requires diverse forms of contribution across interactive systems.
A PP2A Phosphatase High Density Interaction Network Identifies a Novel Striatin-interacting Phosphatase and Kinase Complex Linked to the Cerebral Cavernous Malformation 3 (CCM3) Protein*S

The serine/threonine protein phosphatases are targeted to specific subcellular locations and substrates in part via interactions with a wide variety of regulatory proteins. Understanding these interactions is thus critical to understanding phosphatase function. Using an iterative affinity purification/mass spectrometry approach, we generated a high density interaction map surrounding the protein phosphatase 2A catalytic subunit. This approach recapitulated the assembly of the PP2A catalytic subunit into many different trimeric complexes but also revealed several new protein-protein interactions. Here we define a novel large multiprotein assembly, referred to as the striatin-interacting phosphatase and kinase (STRIPAK) complex. STRIPAK contains the PP2A catalytic (PP2Ac) and scaffolding (PP2A A) subunits, the striatins (PP2A regulatory B‴ subunits), the striatin-associated protein Mob3, the novel proteins STRIP1 and STRIP2 (formerly FAM40A and FAM40B), the cerebral cavernous malformation 3 (CCM3) protein, and members of the germinal center kinase III family of Ste20 kinases. Although the function of the CCM3 protein is unknown, the CCM3 gene is mutated in familial cerebral cavernous malformations, a condition associated with seizures and strokes. Our proteomics survey indicates that a large portion of the CCM3 protein resides within the STRIPAK complex, opening the way for further studies of CCM3 biology. The STRIPAK assembly establishes mutually exclusive interactions with either the CTTNBP2 proteins (which interact with the cytoskeletal protein cortactin) or a second subcomplex consisting of the sarcolemmal membrane-associated protein (SLMAP) and the related coiled-coil proteins suppressor of IKKε (SIKE) and FGFR1OP2. We have thus identified several novel PP2A-containing protein complexes, including a large assembly linking kinases and phosphatases to a gene mutated in human disease.
Longitudinal adjustment patterns of boys and girls experiencing early, middle, and late sexual intercourse.

This study examined the association between psychosocial development and the timing offirst sexual intercourse in a sample of White, rural adolescents. Two theoretical models were tested. The first model, derived from problem behavior theory, proposed that earlier timing of first sexual intercourse is associated with longitudinal patterns of transition proneness and poor psychosocial adjustment. The second model, the stage termination model, proposed that early first sexual intercourse interferes with subsequent development, thereby resulting in negative developmental outcomes. Problem behavior theory was supported. For both boys and girls, earlier timing of first sexual intercourse was associated with longitudinal patterns of greater transition proneness and poorer psychosocial adjustment. The stage termination model was not supported. No evidence was found suggesting that early timing of first sexual intercourse results in negative psychosocial outcomes.