Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of a marsupial sperm protamine gene and its transcripts from the North American opossum (Didelphis marsupialis).

A synthetic oligonucleotide primer, designed from marsupial protamine protein-sequence data [Balhorn, R. , Corzett, M. , Matrimas, J. A. , Cummins, J. & Faden, B. (1989) Analysis of protamines isolated from two marsupials, the ring-tailed wallaby and gray short-tailed opossum, J. Cell. Biol. 107] was used to amplify, via the polymerase chain reaction, protamine sequences from a North American opossum (Didelphis marsupialis) cDNA. Using the amplified sequences as probes, several protamine cDNA clones were isolated. The protein sequence, predicted from the cDNA sequences, consisted of 57 amino acids, contained a large number of arginine residues and exhibited the sequence ARYR at its amino terminus, which is conserved in avian and most eutherian mammal protamines. Like the true protamines of trout and chicken, the opossum protamine lacked cysteine residues, distinguishing it from placental mammalian protamine 1 (P1 or stable) protamines. Examination of the protamine gene, isolated by polymerase-chain-reaction amplification of genomic DNA, revealed the presence of an intron dividing the protamine-coding region, a common characteristic of all mammalian P1 genes. In addition, extensive sequence identity in the 5' and 3' flanking regions between mouse and opossum sequences classify the marsupial protamine as being closely related to placental mammal P1. Protamine transcripts, in both birds and mammals, are present in two size classes, differing by the length of their poly(A) tails (either short or long). Examination of opossum protamine transcripts by Northern hybridization revealed four distinct mRNA species in the total RNA fraction, two of which were enriched in the poly(A)-rich fraction. Northern-blot analysis, using an intron-specific probe, revealed the presence of intron sequences in two of the four protamine transcripts. If expressed, the corresponding protein from intron-containing transcripts would differ from spliced transcripts by length (49 versus 57 amino acids) and would contain a cysteine residue.
CORTICOTROPHIN‐LIKE INTERMEDIARY LOBE PEPTIDE AS A MARKER OF ALTERNATE PRO‐OPIOMELANOCORTIN PROCESSING IN ACTH‐PRODUCING NON‐PITUITARY TUMOURS

In order to evaluate which of human (h) corticotrophin‐like intermediary lobe peptide (CLIP) or hβ‐melanocyte stimulating hormone5–22 (hβMSH5–22) was the better marker of alternate pro‐opiomelanocortin (POMC) processing, both peptides were simultaneously sought in the same tissue extracts from a normal human pituitary, six corticotrophic adenomas, and four non‐pituitary tumours responsible for an ectopic ACTH syndrome. Human CLIP was detected using a combination of gel exclusion chromatography and two different radioimmunoassays (RIAs): a mid‐ACTH RIA which recognized ACTH but not CLIP, and a COOH‐ACTH RIA which recognized both molecules. Human βMSH5–22 had been measured previously. Neither hCLIP nor hβMSH5–22 were detected in the normal or tumoural pituitaries. The four non‐pituitary tumours, in contrast, contained both peptides; the hCLIP and hβMSH5–22 ratios (CLIP/ CLIP + ACTH and hβMSH5–22/ hβMSH5–22+ hγLPH) ranged from 40 to 94% and from 24 to 46%, respectively. In a given tissue the hCLIP ratio was always higher than the hβMSH5–22 ratio. hCLIP is therefore the better marker of alternate POMC processing.
Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress, Sensitization, and Common Health Complaints

Abstract: According to the cognitive activation theory of stress (CATS), a formal system of systematic definitions, the term “stress” is used for stress stimuli, the stress experience, the nonspecific, general stress response, and the experience of the stress response. The stress response is normal, healthy, and necessary alarm. If sustained there may be a risk of illness and disease. The level and duration of the alarm depend on the expectancy of the outcome of stimuli and the specific responses available for coping. The most common health complaints are subjective health complaints like muscle pain, tiredness and mood changes. These are normal aches of short duration and low intensity for most people. For some the pains and complaints are substantial and longlasting with serious implications for functioning. There are no sharp or obvious limits in the distribution of health complaints, separating “normal” and endurable pain and complaints, and intolerable complaints that need professional help. These conditions are most often unspecific, and are the most common reason for encounters with health professionals, and the most frequent reason for sick leave and disability. There is a striking comorbidity for all these conditions. This may be explained by psychobiological sensitization within neural loops, maintained by sustained activation, which has been suggested as a mechanism for these conditions.
Expanding role of ATP as a versatile messenger at carotid and aortic body chemoreceptors

Abstract In mammals, peripheral arterial chemoreceptors monitor blood chemicals (e.g. O2, CO2, H+, glucose) and maintain homeostasis via initiation of respiratory and cardiovascular reflexes. Whereas chemoreceptors in the carotid bodies (CBs), located bilaterally at the carotid bifurcation, control primarily respiratory functions, those in the more diffusely distributed aortic bodies (ABs) are thought to regulate mainly cardiovascular functions. Functionally, CBs sense partial pressure of O2 (), whereas ABs are considered sensors of O2 content. How these organs, with essentially a similar complement of chemoreceptor cells, differentially process these two different types of signals remains enigmatic. Here, we review evidence that implicates ATP as a central mediator during information processing in the CB. Recent data allow an integrative view concerning its interactions at purinergic P2X and P2Y receptors within the chemosensory complex that contains elements of a ‘quadripartite synapse’. We also discuss recent studies on the cellular physiology of ABs located near the aortic arch, as well as immunohistochemical evidence suggesting the presence of pathways for P2X receptor signalling. Finally, we present a hypothetical ‘quadripartite model’ to explain how ATP, released from red blood cells during hypoxia, could contribute to the ability of ABs to sense O2 content.
ECG signal classification and parameter estimation using multiwavelet transform

The electrocardiogram (ECG) shows the plot of the bio-potential generated by the activity of the heart and is used by physicians to predict and treat various cardio vascular diseases. The QRS detection is a very important step in ECG signal processing. The main parameters concerned with QRS detection are sensitivity, accuracy, positive prediction and detection error. The methods used to detect QRS complex in ECG signals are Pan Tompkins algorithm, derivative based QRS detection and wavelet transform based QRS detection. In this paper performance comparison of wavelet transform based QRS detection with Pan Tompkins algorithm and derivative based QRS detection is done based on the characteristics of sensitivity, positive prediction and detection error. The accuracy of the proposed methodology is 93.35% and the specificity is 90%.
A digital 2-sliding control algorithm for a class of uncertain nonlinear plants

In this paper a digital variable structure control algorithm, directly derived from a continuous one, previously presented by the authors, is considered. The proposed algorithm is able to perform the second order sliding mode control of a large class of uncertain second order nonlinear SISO systems. The discretization effects of the control law on the system behaviour are analyzed, and the sufficient conditions under which the considered digital VSC is able to provide a real second order sliding motion are derived.
Kokono Search: A Location Based Search Engine

We have developed a location-based search system for web documents on the Internet. This system can find web documents based on the distance between locations that are described in web documents and a location specified by a user. It consists of three modules. (1) A robot that gathers documents from the Internet, (2) a parser that extracts address strings from web documents and associates latitude-longitude information to the original document and (3) a retrieval module. This system can retrieve location-related web documents overlooked by conventional keyword-based search engines. Keyword-based search engine overlooked more than 25% of location-related web documents compared with our search engine. We have served this location-based search as an experimental service named “kokono search” that is one of "Mobile Info. Search" [2] services on the Internet.
Approximately Solving Sequential Games With Incomplete Information

Games of incomplete information are notorious for their difficulty which usually makes finding an exact solution intractable. The problem is even harder when the game has multiple stages and sequential decision-making is required. Some efforts have therefore addressed the issue of finding approximate equilibria for various classes of games, but these have mostly been restricted to 1-stage games. We propose an anytime search algorithm for calculating ! -Bayes-Nash equilibria in sequential games of incomplete information. Our algorithm first collapses the game tree by making “obvious” decisions and backing up values wherever possible. It then searches the space of strategy profiles by iteratively improving a random starting point until either the desired level of stability is reached or no further improvement is possible, in which case the point is randomly perturbed and the process repeats. We identify a continuum of measures for the stability of a strategy profile that vary in their accuracy and ease of calculation. We use one such measure to obtain results of the performance of our algorithm on randomly generated game trees and compare it to the Quantal Response Equilibria algorithm. We also present results of both algorithms on games derived from random instances of the database view maintenance problem. These experimental results demonstrate our algorithm’s attractive anytime behavior which allows it to find good-enough solutions to large games within reasonable amounts of time.
Investigating Mixed Criticality Cyclic Executive Schedule Generation

Mixed Criticality systems require a difficult compromise to be drawn between efficient system utilisation and sufficient separation of critical components. In addition to these challenges, hardware platforms are becoming increasingly multicore in nature bringing up additional scheduling issues. Previous publications have met these challenges by suggesting a Cyclic Executive based approach for Mixed Criticality scheduling. They make use of a barrier protocol to separate the execution within each minor cycle, executing higher critical work, then less critical work. The barrier protocol allowed such a separation of criticalities to remain consistent across all cores in a given platform. This strict separation has the advantage that higher criticality work cannot suffer interference from lower, including communication and recourse access. One of the key challenges of using a Cyclic Executive is the construction of a valid schedule. In this work we consider the question, “Is it worth using an optimal solver such as Integer Linear Programming (ILP) for Cyclic Executive schedule generation? ”. We start by extending the Cyclic Executive model to include multiple minor cycles. An ILP model is described and evaluated against the heuristic worst fit. The results show that ILP significantly outperforms worst fit. Finally we show that ILP is not only effective, but also efficient in terms of runtime and scalability for the examples and parameters considered in this work, making it a practical choice for Cyclic Executive schedule generation of real systems.
Adaptive periodic movement control for the four legged walking machine BISAM

Presents an adaptive control architecture for the four legged walking machine BISAM. This architecture uses coupled neuro-oscillators as representation of periodic behaviours on different control levels such as joint movement, leg control and leg coordination. Coupled neuro-oscillators together with adaptive sensor based reflexes provide a robust and efficient representation for quadrupedal locomotion and support the use of online learning approaches to realize adaptation and optimization of locomotion behaviours.
Dimensionality reduction with isomap algorithm for EEG covariance matrices

This paper presents new approach to braincomputer interface construction. Most algorithms for EEG classification use spatial covariance matrices, that contain information about synchronisation and desynchronisation in human brain. Suggested algorithm involves Riemannian geometry in the space of symmetric and positive-definite matrices to measure distances between covariance matrices in more accurate fashion. Then Isomap algorithm is applied to the Riemannian pairwise distances to locate manifold, corresponding to human EEG signals, and arrange points, corresponding to covariance matrices, in low-dimensional space, preserving geodesical distances. Finally, linear discriminant analysis is applied for classification. Suggested algorithm is tested on Berlin BCI dataset and compared with state-of-the-art algorithms common spatial patterns and classification in tangent space.
Selection of bacterial virulence genes that are specifically induced in host tissues

A genetic system was devised that positively selects for bacterial genes that are specifically induced when bacteria infect their host. With the pathogen Salmonella typhimurium, the genes identified by this selection show a marked induction in bacteria recovered from mouse spleen. Mutations in all ivi (in vivo-induced) genes that were tested conferred a defect in virulence. This genetic system was designed to be of general use in a wide variety of bacterial-host systems and has several applications in both vaccine and antimicrobial drug development.
Familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Mutants of Copper/Zinc Superoxide Dismutase Are Susceptible to Disulfide Reduction*

We observed that 14 biologically metallated mutants of copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1) associated with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis all exhibited aberrantly accelerated mobility during partially denaturing PAGE and increased sensitivity to proteolytic digestion compared with wild type SOD1. Decreased metal binding site occupancy and exposure to the disulfide-reducing agents dithiothreitol, Tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP), or reduced glutathione increased the fraction of anomalously migrating mutant SOD1 proteins. Furthermore, the incubation of mutant SOD1s with TCEP increased the accessibility to iodoacetamide of cysteine residues that normally participate in the formation of the intrasubunit disulfide bond (Cys-57 to Cys-146) or are buried within the core of the β-barrel (Cys-6). SOD1 enzymes in spinal cord lysates from G85R and G93A mutant but not wild type SOD1 transgenic mice also exhibited abnormal vulnerability to TCEP, which exposed normally inaccessible cysteine residues to modification by maleimide conjugated to polyethylene glycol. These results implicate SOD1 destabilization under cellular disulfide-reducing conditions at physiological pH and temperature as a shared property that may be relevant to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mutant neurotoxicity.
Prion-Inducing Domain of Yeast Ure2p and Protease Resistance of Ure2p in Prion-Containing Cells

The genetic properties of the [URE3] non-Mendelian element of Saccharomyces cerevisiae suggest that it is a prion (infectious protein) form of Ure2p, a regulator of nitrogen catabolism. In extracts from [URE3] strains, Ure2p was partially resistant to proteinase K compared with Ure2p from wild-type extracts. Overexpression of Ure2p in wild-type strains induced a 20- to 200-fold increase in the frequency with which [URE3] arose. Overexpression of just the amino-terminal 65 residues of Ure2p increased the frequency of [URE3] induction 6000-fold. Without this “prion-inducing domain” the carboxyl-terminal domain performed the nitrogen regulation function of Ure2p, but could not be changed to the [URE3] prion state. Thus, this domain induced the prion state in trans, whereas in cis it conferred susceptibility of the adjoining nitrogen regulatory domain to prion infections.
The Influence of Whole Wheat Feeding on Salmonella Infection and Gut Flora Composition in Broilers

Abstract In an experiment with broilers infected with a rifampicin-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium strain at 15 days of age, it was demonstrated that whole wheat feeding influenced the course of infection. The pH in the contents of the gizzard decreased as the amount of whole wheat in the diet increased over time. Following infection, lower numbers of Salmonella Typhimurium were found in the gizzard and ileum of birds receiving whole wheat compared to pellet-fed birds. However, there was no difference with respect to the numbers of Salmonella Typhimurium in the ceca and rectum between the two experimental groups. Quantitative cultivation of different groups of bacteria belonging to the natural intestinal microflora showed that whole wheat feeding significantly reduced the numbers of Clostridium perfringens in the intestinal tract of the birds. The present results indicate that the gizzard has an important function as a barrier organ, one that prevents pathogenic bacteria from entering the distal digestive tract.
Stimulus intensity effects in electrodermal habituation.

Experiment 1 presented human subjects with 25 shocks of the same (.5, 1.5, or 2.5 mA:between-subjects design) or different (.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 mA:within-subjects design) intensities to test predictions of the dual-process, cortical-model, and adaptation-level theories concerning terminal electrodermal response (EDR) magnitudes in an habituation paradigm. Dual-process theory correctly predicted terminal EDR magnitudes and relative EDR habituation rates. Dual-process theory was further supported in Experiment 3 when EDR magnitude to a standard intensity shock (1.25 mA) decreased with the intensity of a second comparison shock (0, .5, 1.25, or 2.5 mA) only up to the 1.25-mA level, as the common-elements construct of the dual-process theory predicts. Adaptation level incorrectly predicted that standard stimulus EDR magnitude would decrease as comparison intensity, hence adaptation level, increased. Forewarning subjects of each shock intensity increased EDR magnitude in Experiments 2 and 3 contrary to the cortical-model theory's prediction based on subjective stimulus uncertainty.
Gas Classification Using Combined Features Based on a Discriminant Analysis for an Electronic Nose

This paper proposes a gas classification method for an electronic nose (e-nose) system, for which combined features that have been configured through discriminant analysis are used. First, each global feature is extracted from the entire measurement section of the data samples, while the same process is applied to the local features of the section that corresponds to the stabilization, exposure, and purge stages. The discriminative information amounts in the individual features are then measured based on the discriminant analysis, and the combined features are subsequently composed by selecting the features that have a large amount of discriminative information. Regarding a variety of volatile organic compound data, the results of the experiment show that, in a noisy environment, the proposed method exhibits classification performance that is relatively excellent compared to the other feature types.
Increasing the reach of enterprises through electronic commerce: A focus group study aimed at the cases of Portugal and Spain

E-commerce notably increases the reach of enterprises, bringing a firm's products and services into the international arena. In times of shrinking domestic markets, due to national crises, becoming available in global markets is essential for survival and growth. We have thus held three focus group interactions to produce a set of strategic recommendations with regards to how to improve e-Commerce adoption levels in Iberian enterprises, essential in times of local hardship and market contraction. Suggestions include creating actions to influence governments to re-evaluate the legislation that regulates e-Commerce, making it more transparent; encouraging venture capitalists, banks and business angels to finance such e-Commerce endeavors; encouraging higher education institutions (HEI) to partner with Iberian enterprises to ensure knowledge transfer in both directions; creating, with HEI and training organizations, a set of new training courses directed at Iberian enterprises and focusing on concepts such as Web 2.0 capabilities and a coherent online organizational identity. Fundamental is the perspective that e-Commerce is a strategic issue, warranting funds and qualified personnel, at different levels in the hierarchy, for adequate strategic e-intent, e-vision, and e-mission formulation, followed by effective e-process implementation.
Analysis of texture databases

In this paper, we present various databases of textures. We know that texture analysis has various applications in the field of computer vision and image processing. This paper summarizes and analyzes key databases and categorize them. A good number of databases are developed by different research groups for various texture analysis, in the field of medical analysis, robotics, recognition, analysis, image processing, etc. To our knowledge, there is no paper that covers various texture databases. Hence, we feel that this paper will be useful for related researchers.
Dynamic biasing: a low power linearisation technique

A highly linear opamp processed in a 0.25/spl mu/m 2 V CMOS technology suitable for an intermediate frequency (IF) continuous time sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter (/spl Sigma//spl Delta/ ADC) is presented. Due to an improved technique, called dynamic biasing, distortion components in an IF band, typically situated at frequencies from 1 to 10 MHz for a low-IF receiver architecture, are lowered without any signal degeneration. The circuit achieves an IIP3 and an IIP5 of more than 20 dBm. The power consumption is limited to 3.4 mW.
La proximité géographique comme stratégie concurrentielle face au leader : le cas des chaînes de restauration rapide à Paris entre 1984 et 2002

L’objectif de cette communication est de montrer comment les entreprises multi -marches en situation d’inferiorite sur un marche en termes de nombre d’unites, adaptent leur strategie d’implantation afin de pouvoir assurer leur survie face au leader. La recherche de proximite en tant que strategie de localisation est proposee comme solution optimale. L’etude des implantations des restaurants McDonald’s et Quick a Paris illustre comment chacune des deux firmes, en fonction de sa position relative sur le marche, a choisi de localiser ses unites a cote de celles de son concurrent afin d’exploiter la proximite geographique du reseau leader.