Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Transethnic replication of association of CTG18.1 repeat expansion of TCF4 gene with Fuchs' corneal dystrophy in Chinese implies common causal variant.

PURPOSE To test the association between the CTG18.1 trinucleotide repeat expansion of TCF4 gene and Fuchs' endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD) in a Chinese population. METHODS The trinucleotide repeat polymorphism CTG18.1 was genotyped using short tandem repeat and triplet repeat primed polymerase chain reaction assays in 57 Chinese subjects with FECD and 121 controls. Statistical association of the expanded CTG18.1 allele and 18 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across TCF4 with FECD was evaluated. To investigate the linkage disequilibrium structure of the TCF4 region, haplotype analysis was performed on our study subjects and compared with genotyping data of 97 Han Chinese and 85 Caucasians in the 1000 Genomes Project. RESULTS The expanded CTG18.1 allele was associated with FECD (P = 4.7 × 10(-14)), with the odds ratio of each copy of the expanded allele estimated to be 66.5 (95% confidence interval: 12.6-350.1). Five TCF4 SNPs showed association with FECD at a nominal level (P < 5.0 × 10(-2)); however, conditional on the expanded CTG18.1 polymorphism, none of the SNPs showed association with FECD. The only haplotype associated with the disease was the one with the expansion at the CTG18.1 locus. CONCLUSIONS Transethnic replication of the association between the CTG18.1 repeat expansion in the TCF4 gene and FECD suggests it is a common, causal variant shared in Eurasian populations conferring significant risk for the development of FECD. Our data suggest that the expanded CTG18.1 allele is the main, if not sole, causal variant at this gene locus in the Chinese population.
A tool for transient fault analysis in combinational circuits

With technology downscaling, the vulnerability of combinational logic circuits to transient faults has increased resulting in error rates approaching those of memories. Thus, to guarantee a good use of selective hardening techniques, fast and accurate approaches for transient fault analysis in logic circuits are needed. In this work, we describe a methodology for Soft Error Rate (SER) evaluation in combinational logic circuits that manages the dependency of logical and electrical masking effects in case of reconvergent fanouts. The approach combines analytical transient fault propagation model and fault simulation to speed up simulations.
Oxides and apoptosis in inflammatory myopathies

Reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) and nitric oxide (NO·) are produced in abundance in the inflammatory muscle diseases of autoimmune origin polymyositis (PM), dermatomyositis (DM), and inclusion body myositis (IBM). However, their role in the pathogenesis of these diseases is so far not clear. In contrast to demyelinating neuropathies, there is no convincing evidence for oxide‐induced apoptosis either in myocytes or in lymphocytes and phagocytes in inflammatory myopathies. On the contrary, NO· released at low concentrations at target sites may even have cell‐protective effects. A major mechanism of protection from apoptosis in both myocytes and inflammatory cells seems to be the upregulation of anti‐apoptotic proteins like Bcl‐2. Caution is warranted to apply antioxidative and anti‐apoptotic agents to patients with inflammatory myopathies as long as the pathogenic role of oxides and apoptosis in the individual case is not resolved. Microsc. Res. Tech. 55:249–258, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A survey of methods for classification of gene expression data using evolutionary algorithms

The rapid increase in the quantity of available biologic data over the last decade, brought about by the introduction of massively parallel methods for gene expression measurements, has highlighted the need for more efficient computational techniques for analysis. This paper reviews the use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) in connection with classification based on gene expression data matrices. Brief introductions to data classification methods and EAs are given, followed by a survey of studies dealing with the application of evolutionary algorithms to various (cancer related) data sets. The general conclusion, based on the published results surveyed here, is that EAs may constitute an efficient method for optimal gene selection, and can also help in reducing the size (number of features used) of classifiers. In many cases, the classification accuracy obtained using EAs, often in conjunction with other methods, represents a significant improvement over results obtained without the use of EAs. However, long-term, independent clinical follow-up studies will be essential to validate prognostic markers identified by the use of EA-based methods.
Conséquences de l'ischémie/reperfusion sur le pore de transition de perméabilité mitochondrial

Les dommages tissulaires associes a l'ischemie/reperfusion ont ete largement etudies. Plusieurs etudes ont montre que des dysfonctionnements mitochondriaux sont responsables de la survenue de ces dommages, et que la transition de permeabilite pourrait y etre impliquee. Cette transition de permeabilite est mediee par l'ouverture du pore de transition de permeabilite (PTP). Cette ouverture du PTP pourrait survenir pendant la phase d'ischemie ou pendant la phase de reperfusion. L'objectif de ce travail etait de visualiser l'ouverture du PTP dans des conditions d'ischemie/reperfusion sur cellules intactes (HMEC-1 et INS-1) et d'etudier son implication dans ce phenomene. Nous avons pu visualiser pour la premiere fois l'ouverture du PTP par le suivi des dommages qu'elle engendre (sortie du NADH et la chute du ΔΨ) induits par une ischemie/reperfusion. Nous avons constate que l'activation du PTP a lieu pendant la phase d'ischemie tant dans les cellules HMEC-1 que dans les cellules INS-1. Cette induction a ete prevenue dans les deux modeles cellulaires par la cyclosporine A. Nos resultats suggerent egalement que le complexe I pourrait etre implique dans la prevention de la chute du ΔΨ et de la sortie du NADH. Nous avons aussi montre que la capacite de retention calcique des cellules permeabilisees diminue a l'ischemie et que cette diminution disparait apres 60 minutes de reperfusion. Ainsi, la visualisation de l'ouverture du PTP dans un modele d'ischemie/reperfusion constituerait une piste interessante qui apporterait plus de certitude quant a l'implication du PTP dans ce phenomene. De plus, l'etude du phenomene d'ischemie in vitro, apporterait plus de reponses quant a l'implication des modifications du fonctionnement cellulaire dans les dommages tissulaires.
Experimental characterization of microwave self-complimentary metasurfaces for linear-to-circular polarization transform

Metasurfaces are artificial electromagnetic boundaries usually implemented as two-dimensional periodic arrays of engineered inclusions with sub-wavelength periodicity, which may serve as useful tools to control characteristics of electromagnetic fields. Recently the authors have proposed employing a class of frequency selective metasurfaces with self-complimentary patterns to construct optically thin linear-to-circular (LP-to-CP) polarization transformers. In contrast to previously known designs, such metasurfaces provide the phase shift of nearly 90° between two orthogonal transmitted linear polarizations at any frequency. This constancy of the phase shift makes the design procedure considerably simpler. In this contribution, we focus on experimental realization and characterization of self-complimentary LP-to-CP polarization transformers in the microwave range. By comparison of two particular metasurfaces (the narrowband and the broadband ones), we illustrate their reachable properties and practical design limitations.
Algorithmes de noyau pour des problèmes d'édition de graphes et autres structures. (Kernelization algorithms for graph and other structures modification problems)

Dans le cadre de cette these, nous considerons la complexite parametree de problemes NP- complets. Plus precisement, nous nous interessons a l'existence d'algorithmes de noyau polynomiaux pour des problemes d'edition de graphes et de relations. Nous introduisons en particulier la notion de branches, qui permet d'obtenir des algorithmes polynomiaux pour des problemes d'edition de graphes lorsque la classe de graphes cible respecte une decomposition d'adjacence. Cette technique nous permet ainsi d'elaborer les premiers algorithmes de noyaux polynomiaux pour les problemes CLOSEST 3-LEAF POWER, COGRAPH EDITION et PROPER INTERVAL COMPLETION. Concernant les problemes d'edition de relations, nous etendons la notion de Conflict Packing, qui a deja ete utilisee dans quelques problemes parametres et permet d'elaborer des algorithmes de noyau lineaires pour differents problemes. Nous presentons un noyau lineaire pour le probleme FEEDBACK ARC SET IN TOURNAMENTS, et adaptons les techniques utilisees pour obtenir un noyau lineaire pour le probleme DENSE ROOTED TRIPLET INCONSISTENCY. Dans les deux cas, nos resultats ameliorent la meilleure borne connue, a savoir un noyau quadratique. Finalement, nous appliquons cette tech- nique sur les problemes DENSE BETWEENNESS et DENSE CIRCULAR ORDERING, obtenant a nouveau des noyaux lineaires, qui constituent les premiers algorithmes de noyau polynomiaux connus pour ces problemes.
Metamemory for faces following frontal lobe damage

Previous research has provided evidence of metamemory impairments in patients with frontal lobe damage on verbal episodic memory tasks. In the present study, we employed metamemory paradigms to investigate whether patients with frontal lesions show monitoring deficits on semantic memory tasks involving facial stimuli. Patients with frontal lobe damage and healthy control subjects made memory decisions to famous faces in a retrospective confidence judgment task and in a prospective feeling-of-knowing (FOK) task. Results indicated that frontal patients performed worse than controls on the retrospective confidence task, but there were no differences between the groups on the FOK task. These findings suggest that metamemory deficits in frontal patients are not confined to specific stimulus domains (words vs. faces) or memory systems (episodic vs. semantic). In addition, the dissociation between retrospective confidence judgments and FOK accuracy documented in this study and also in a recent report by Schnyer et al. suggesting that metamemory should not be considered a unitary function with a single neuroanatomic substrate. (JINS, 2005, 11, 668–676.)
Blockchain and Privacy Protection in the Case of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A Delphi Study

The present work deals with the inter relationships of blockchain technology and the new European General Data Protection Regulation, that will be intact after May 28th, 2018. The regulation harmonises personal data protection across the European Union and aims to return the ownership of personal data to the individual. This thesis, therefore, addresses the question how this new technology that is characterised by decentralisation, immutability and truly digitised values will be affected by the strict privacy regulation and vice versa. The aim of this work is to clarify whether blockchains can comply with the new regulation on the one hand and to identify how blockchain could support its compliance, on the other hand. The questions are validated through an extensive literature review and are further investigated by using a Delphi study that asks a panel of 25 renowned experts to find opportunities, limitations and general suggestions about both topics. In addition, a framework is proposed to support the assessment of privacy and related risks of blockchains. As a result, it becomes apparent that blockchains can become more privacy friendly and comply with the regulation if an active dialogue between blockchain developers and regulatory authorities helps to strengthen their mutual understanding and work. With the support of this work and the blockchain Privacy Impact Assessment canvas a foundation for the necessary next steps is laid to overcome the challenges of defining a data controller or deleting personal data within a blockchain.
Breast cancer: cell and gene therapy.

INTRODUCTION Breast cancer will affect 1 in 9 women in the United States. Approximately 181,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. Despite early detection methods and advanced treatments, 46,000 women will die each year from breast cancer (1). Approximately 27% of all women's malignancies are breast cancer, and among women between the ages of 40 and 55, it is the leading cause of death. The primary treatments for breast cancer have not changed radically over the last 20 years and include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and endocrine therapy. Most newer developments involve combinational therapies, such as repetitive cycle chemotherapy together with growth factors and high-dose chemotherapy coupled with autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Each of these therapies relies on the use of cytotoxic agents that to some extent, preferentially target rapidly dividing or metabolizing cells. However, many debilitating side effects are associated with such relatively nonspecif.
Beamforming effects on generalized Nakagami imaging

Ultrasound tissue characterization is crucial for the detection of tissue abnormalities. Since the statistics of the backscattered ultrasound signals strongly depend on density and spatial arrangement of local scatterers, appropriate modeling of the backscattered signals may be capable of providing unique physiological information on local tissue properties. Among various techniques, the Nakagami imaging, realized in a window-based estimation scheme, has a good performance in assessing different scatterer statistics in tissues. However, inconsistent m values have been reported in literature and obtained only from a local tissue region, abating the reliability of Nakagami imaging in tissue characterization. The discrepancies in m values in relevant literature may stem from the nonuniformity of the ultrasound image resolution, which is often neglected. We therefore hypothesized that window-based Nakagami m estimation was highly associated with the regional spatial resolution of ultrasound imaging. To test this hypothesis, our study investigated the effect of beamforming methods, including synthetic aperture (SA), coherent plane wave compounding (CPWC), multi-focusing (MF), and single-focusing (SF), on window-based m parameter estimation from the perspective of the resolution cell. The statistics of m parameter distribution as a function of imaging depth were characterized by their mean, variance, and skewness. The phantom with a low scatterer density (16 scatterers mm−3) had significantly lower m values compared to the ones with high scatterer densities (32 and 64 scatterers mm−3). Results from the homogeneous phantom with 64 scatterers mm−3 showed that SA, MF, and CPWC had relatively uniform lateral resolutions compared to SF and thus relatively constant m estimates at different imaging depths. Our findings suggest that an ultrasound imaging regime exhibiting invariant spatial resolution throughout the entire imaging field of view would be the most appropriate for Nakagami imaging for tissue characterization.
Reason, Rationalization, and Professionalism in the Era of Managed Care

In his opening sentence of The Social Transformation of American Medicine (1982), Paul Starr writes, “The dream of reason did not take power into account” (3). He might have added, “The dream of power did not take reason into account. ” The thrust of the book is to examine the interplay of power and reason in the rise of American medicine as a sovereign profession. Starr portrays medicine’s rise as a three-act drama. The first act opens in the mid–nineteenth century to find the profession in disarray. In book one, the first step in Starr’s drama is the reestablishment of medical authority based on the creation of a new, science-based professional paradigm. In the second act, which straddles books one and two, medicine uses its newly restored authority to consolidate its political and economic power. It employs this power to reach a series of accommodations with hospitals and insurers that shapes systems of health care delivery and finance in the interest of the profession. These accommodations usher in a period of unprecedented prestige and prosperity. But they also contain contradictions (creating an essentially open-ended payment system), which ultimately usher in a health care spending “crisis. ” In the third, unfinished act, this crisis galvanizes powerful new external actors, government and private employers, into taking action, and their efforts to con-
Atp2c2 Is Transcribed From a Unique Transcriptional Start Site in Mouse Pancreatic Acinar Cells

Proper regulation of cytosolic Ca2+ is critical for pancreatic acinar cell function. Disruptions in normal Ca2+ concentrations affect numerous cellular functions and are associated with pancreatitis. Membrane pumps and channels regulate cytosolic Ca2+ homeostasis by promoting rapid Ca2+ movement. Determining how expression of Ca2+ modulators is regulated and the cellular alterations that occur upon changes in expression can provide insight into initiating events of pancreatitis. The goal of this study was to delineate the gene structure and regulation of a novel pancreas‐specific isoform for Secretory Pathway Ca2+ ATPase 2 (termed SPCA2C), which is encoded from the Atp2c2 gene. Using Next Generation Sequencing of RNA (RNA‐seq), chromatin immunoprecipitation for epigenetic modifications and promoter‐reporter assays, a novel transcriptional start site was identified that promotes expression of a transcript containing the last four exons of the Atp2c2 gene (Atp2c2c). This region was enriched for epigenetic marks and pancreatic transcription factors that promote gene activation. Promoter activity for regions upstream of the ATG codon in Atp2c2’s 24th exon was observed in vitro but not in in vivo. Translation from this ATG encodes a protein aligned with the carboxy terminal of SPCA2. Functional analysis in HEK 293A cells indicates a unique role for SPCA2C in increasing cytosolic Ca2+. RNA analysis indicates that the decreased Atp2c2c expression observed early in experimental pancreatitis reflects a global molecular response of acinar cells to reduce cytosolic Ca2+ levels. Combined, these results suggest SPCA2C affects Ca2+ homeostasis in pancreatic acinar cells in a unique fashion relative to other Ca2+ ATPases. J. Cell. Physiol. 231: 2768–2778, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Pengaruh Jumlah Dewan Komisaris, Leverage, Profitabilitas, Intensitas Modal, Cash Flow, Dan Ukuran Perusahaan Terhadap Konservatisme (Studi Empiris Pada Perusahaan Manufaktur Yang Terdaftar Di Bursa Efek Indonesia Tahun 2012-2017)

This study is aimed at examining the effects of the Number of Board of Commissioners, Leverage, Profitability, Capital Intensity, Cash Flow, and Company Size toward Conservatism in the manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX). The population used in this study is the yearly financial statements on firm of manufacturing listed at BEI period 2012-2017, using purposive sampling method. The type of data used is secondary data obtained from yerly financial reports published and downloaded through the official BEI website. Data analyzed with Descriptive statistics, test of classic assumption and exmination of hypothesis with multiple linier regression method. The result of hypothesis research shows variable Profitability and Cash Flow have a significant effect on the ability of Conservatism, while the Number of Board of Commissioners, Leverage, Capital Intensity, and Company Size has no effect on the ability of Conservatism.
Research and Application of Warehouse Receipt Transaction Based on Smart Contract on the Blockchain

To solve the credibility and supervision lacking problem in the OTC warehouse receipt trading system, a scheme of using smart contract on the blockchain to implement the OTC warehouse receipt trading system is presented. As a distributed ledger, blockchain has the advantages of decentralization, irreversibility and trustworthiness. The warehouse receipt transaction data is recorded on the blockchain, ensuring its safety and credibility. Smart contract is automatically executed code stored on the blockchain, it can directly control the transaction of digital assets. No participant can control and tamper it before the contract is lapsed. In the process of using the Ethereum smart contract to realize warehouse receipt transactions, consensus is reached by the PBFT consensus algorithm, Since the trusted third-party is not needed, the lack of supervision problem is solved. This paper introduces the application of blockchain and smart contract to the OTC warehouse receipt trading system. It includes the design of smart contracts, the verification of smart contracts security. This paper also verifies the feasibility of designing smart contracts by using the instance of listed transactions.
Finite Frequency $H_{\infty }$ Deconvolution With Application to Approximated Bandlimited Signal Recovery

This paper investigates a finite frequency <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${H_{\infty }}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> deconvolution problem for single-input–single-output discrete-time systems. Motivated by the fact that many practical signals are located in a finite frequency range, this paper is focused on developing a design method for achieving better deconvolution performance over a finite frequency range. First, a finite frequency <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${H_{\infty }}$</tex-math></inline-formula> deconvolution problem is formulated such that the deconvolution specification is characterized by a modified <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$H_{\mathbf {\infty }}$</tex-math></inline-formula> index associated with the corresponding finite frequency range. By an adapted generalized Kalman–Yakubovich–Popov lemma and an auxiliary vector approach, a matrix inequality condition is obtained for parameterizing a required deconvolution filter, based on which a simple iterative algorithm is then constructed for optimizing the filter performance. Multiobjective deconvolution is further discussed in the same framework. Compared with the traditional frequency weighting strategy, the proposed method can directly analyze and synthesize the deconvolution performance within finite frequency ranges, the advantage of which is demonstrated in a bandlimited signal recovery example.
Unusual lyotropic polymorphism of deoxyguanosine-5'-monophosphate: X-ray diffraction analysis of the correlation between self-assembling and phase behavior.

The concentration-temperature dependent phase diagram of the deoxyguanosine-5'-monophosphate [d(pG)]--water system was determined by x-ray diffraction measurements. The columnar lyotropic polymorphism has been confirmed. However, at medium concentrations and high temperatures, we found an unusual and large region of coexistence of isotropic and hexagonal phases (maybe in equilibrium with the cholesteric phase). Increasing the ionic strength of the solution by adding KCl, resulted in a stabilization of the high-temperature hexagonal phase and a direct isotropic to hexagonal (with increasing concentration) and a cholesteric to hexagonal (with increasing temperature) phase transition were observed. The phase diagrams completely agree with the one predicted for hard rod-shaped particles. In order to understand the phase behavior, the cholesteric and hexagonal unit cell parameters were analyzed at different temperatures as a function of the volume concentration of d(pG) on the basis of recent statistical-mechanical calculations. Moreover, by analyzing the high-angle [s=(3.4 \AA{}${)}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$] peak, the average number of coherently scattering tetramers was also determined. For d(pG) in pure ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$O, we obtained values between 35 and 53. After adding KCl, the functional dependence turned out to be more complex, and we obtained values between 26 and 58.