Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ultrafast, multi-THz-detuning, third-order frequency conversion in semiconductor quantum-well waveguides

The near-band-edge resonance nonlinearity of semiconductor quantum wells has been used to obtain nondegenerate four-wave mixing over a multi-THz frequency detuning range, with large conversion efficiencies. In 1-mm-long, passive AlGaAs/GaAs single-quantum-well waveguides, conversion efficiencies up to -8.5 dB with relatively flat response have been observed over a 7.5-THz range (2.2% of the band gap). The nonlinearity is ultrafast and primarily reactive. The potential application of this technique to wavelength shifting devices is discussed. <<ETX>>
BIAS & CONFOUNDING

Introduction In epidemiologic research, it is essential to avoid bias, to control confounding and to undertake accurate replication. Bias, confounding and random variation/chance are the non-causal reasons for an association between an exposure and outcome. These major threats to internal validity of a study should always be considered as alternative explanations in the interpretation. Bias is a mistake of the researcher; confounding is not a mistake and when obvious, it can be controlled; replication is up to the researcher.
Assessment of Soil Aggradation through Soil Aggregation and Particulate Organic Matter by Riparian Switchgrass Buffers

The restoration of riparian zones has been an important issue in many regions for the recovery of ecosystem functions. The objective of this study was to assess soil aggradation in a 7-year established riparian switchgrass buffer (SGB) and in a non-buffered riparian zone with an annual row crop (ARC). We measured the aggregate size distribution and stability of macroaggregates, aggregate-associated soil organic carbon, soil organic matter fractions and the chemical composition of light particulate organic matter to monitor soil aggregation in a riparian soil following the conversion of agricultural row crops to switchgrass filters. Aggregate size fractions were separated by wet sieving using the aggregate size-stability protocol. The proportion of soil and total organic C was quantified for each aggregate size class. Soil organic matter fractions were isolated by size and density into light particulate organic matter and heavy particulate organic matter and mineral fraction organic matter. The categorization of aggregates by size and water stability (slaking resistance) showed a significantly larger (p 2000 µm) under SGB (34%) compared to that under ARC (29%), while the proportion of water-unstable small macroaggregates (250–2000 µm) was significantly higher under ARC (14%) than under SGB (10%). Our results showed that the amounts of light and heavy particulate organic matter did not change in the short-term (7 years) after SGB establishment. It appears that the lower soil stabilization and soil organic C storage under SGB is related to (i) the large number of coarse roots; (ii) lower inputs of light and heavy particulate organic matter; (iii) no changes in the alkyl-C/O-alkyl-C ratio over time; and (iv) light particulate organic matter with a high C/N ratio.
Congruence, Consensus, and the Comparative Phylogeography of Codistributed Species in California

Comparative phylogeography has emerged as a means of understanding the spatial patterns of genetic divergence of codistributed species. However, researchers are often frustrated because of the lack of appropriate statistical tests to assess concordancy of multiple phylogeographic trees. We develop a method for testing congruence across multiple species and synthesizing the data into a regional supertree. Nine phylogeographic data sets of species with different life histories and ecologies were statistically compared using maximum agreement subtrees (MAST) and showed a high degree of concordancy. A supertree combining the different phylogeographic trees was then computed using matrix representation with parsimony, and the groups defined by this supertree were tested against climatic data to investigate a potential mechanism driving divergence. Our data suggest that species and genetic lineages in California are shaped by climatic regimes. The supertree method in combination with MAST represents a new approach to test congruence hypotheses and detect common geographic signals in comparative phylogeography.
Design of a programmable pressure switch suspended gate MOSFET

A novel programmable pressure switch based on a SG-MOSFET is proposed. The SG-MOSFET structure, in a SOI wafer, is modified by etching the bulk from the back side to build a thin clamped membrane where the MOSFET channel is located in the center. The whole structure forms a diaphragm, in which the bottom plate is a pressure sensitive terminal and the top plate forms the MOSFET gate terminal. The suspended gate is charged by a driver voltage to snap down the gate plate, at the specified pressure, and increase the current across the MOSFET device. An analytical study is presented, in order to provide a design model for the pressure switch device. This device is introduced in the core of a three point oscillator circuit to send a RF signal in on-state and do not send it in off-state.
Bactericidal properties of Campylobacter jejuni-specific immunoglobulin M antibodies in commercial immunoglobulin preparations

Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common enterocolitis-causing microorganisms worldwide. It is of particular importance in immunodeficient patients, who frequently are prone to develop extraintestinal manifestations. Since these cases respond poorly to antibiotic treatment, a supportive immunomodulating therapy including the administration of C. jejuni-specific immunoglobulins would be desirable. In the present study, nine commercial immunoglobulin preparations for intravenous use were tested for the presence of C. jejuni lipopolysaccharide (LPS)- and outer membrane protein (OMP)-specific antibodies by using immunoblot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay techniques. The immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody reactivities against these antigens were comparable in eight of nine tested immunoglobulin preparations. Only in one preparation were C. jejuni OMP- and LPS-specific IgM antibodies found. In this preparation the immunoblot test revealed a strong reactivity against both flagellin and a major OMP. Moreover, all immunoglobulin preparations recognized OMPs of C. jejuni serotypes Lior 4, 9, 11, and 29 equally strongly, while the reactivity to an anti-Lior 36 isolate was less marked. Furthermore, the bactericidal properties of three immunoglobulin preparations were tested by means of chemiluminescence signaling in and bacterial killing by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL). The results show that the IgM preparation enhanced Campylobacter-triggered chemiluminescence signaling in PMNL as well as killing of C. jejuni by PMNL, while the other immunoglobulin preparations did not do so. These results suggest that the administration of immunoglobulin preparations containing C. jejuni-specific IgM antibodies would be beneficial for patients with severe C. jejuni infections.
Back and abdominal muscle function during stabilization exercises.

OBJECTIVES To assess the paraspinal and abdominal muscle activities during different therapeutic exercises and to study how load increment produced by varying limb movements and trunk positions could affect these muscle activities. DESIGN A cross-sectional study comparing muscle activities between men and women. SETTING Rehabilitation clinic in university hospital. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-four healthy volunteers (14 women, 10 men) aged 21 to 39 years. INTERVENTIONS Subjects performed 16 different therapeutic exercises commonly used to treat low back pain. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Surface electromyography was recorded from the paraspinal (T9, L5) and abdominal (rectus abdominis, obliquus externus) muscles during these exercises. Average electromyographic amplitudes obtained during the exercises were normalized to the amplitude in maximal voluntary contraction (% MVC) to produce interindividually comparable muscle activity assessments. RESULTS Mean average normalized electromyographic amplitudes (% MVC) of the exercises were below 50% MVC. At L5 level, the multifidus muscle activities were significantly higher (p <.05) in women than in men, whereas no significant difference was found at T9 level. Similarly, rectus abdominis and obliquus externus activities were significantly higher (p <.001, p <.05) in women than in men. Load increment in hands or unbalanced trunk and limb movements produced higher paraspinal and abdominal muscle activities (p <.05). CONCLUSIONS Simple therapeutic exercises are effective in activating both abdominal and paraspinal muscles. By changing limb and trunk positions or unbalancing trunk movements, it is possible to increase trunk muscle activities. Women were better able to activate their stabilizing trunk muscles than men; but it is also possible that men, having a much higher degree of strength on maximal contraction, only need to activate a smaller amount of that maximum to perform a similar activity.
Performance evaluation of the sonar detector using the frequency hopped orthogonal waveforms

Waveforms with good correlation properties are useful in several areas such as Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) sonar detection system. Most sonar systems have used CW (Continuous Wave) and Linear Frequency Modulation (LFM) signals. However, in MIMO sonar system, the waveforms have to be orthogonally condition. In this paper, we introduce the orthogonal frequency hopping waveforms and evaluate the performance of the sonar detector using these waveforms via simulation and sea trial.
Fluorescence-mediated visualization of actin and myosin filaments in the contractile membrane-cytoskeleton complex of Dictyostelium discoideum.

An intact complex that consisted of the cell membrane and cytoskeleton was prepared from Dictyostelium amoebae by an improved version of the method previously used by CLARKE et al. (1975). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. , 72: 1758-1762. After cells had attached tightly to a polylysine-coated coverslip in the presence of a divalent cation, the upper portions of the cells were removed with a jet of microfilament-stabilizing solution squirted from a syringe. The cell membranes left on the coverslip were immediately stained with tetramethylrhodamine-conjugated phalloidin for staining of actin filaments, and with antibody against myosin from Dictyostelium and a fluorescein-conjugated second antibody for staining of myosin. Networks of actin filaments and numerous rod-like structures of myosin (myosin filaments) aligned along them were observed on the exposed cytoplasmic surfaces of the cell membranes. These networks were similar to those observed in the cortex of fixed whole cells. Addition of ATP to these intact complexes of cell membrane and cytoskeleton caused the aggregation of both actin and myosin into several dot-like structures of actin on the cell membrane. Similar dot-like structures were also seen in the cortex of fixed whole cells, and their changes in distribution correlated with the motile activity of the cells. Transmission electron microscopy showed that these dot-like structures were composed of an electron-dense structure at the center, from which numerous actin filaments radiated outwards. These observations suggest that these novel dot-like structures are organizing centers for cortical actin filaments and may possibly be related to the adhesion of cells to the substratum.
Application of tissue engineering in stem cell therapy

Tissue engineering based on stem cells has gained interest recently as attempts are made to engineer scaffold environments mimicking the stem cell niche, which contains a reservoir of multipotent stem cells that can maintain normal tissue or restore unhealthy cell populations in response to mechanisms of quiescence, self-renewal, and differentiation of the stem cells. These cell behaviors are governed by soluble signals that are systemic or presented by local niche cells. In this review, current and emergent approaches based on stem cells in the field of tissue engineering are presented for specific applications of human tissues and organs. The combination of stem cells and tissue engineering opens new perspectives in tissue regeneration for stem cell therapy because of the potential to control stem cell behavior with the physical and chemical characteristics of the engineered scaffold environment.
Controlling a gas/odor plume-tracking robot based on transient responses of gas sensors

Gas sensors provide an artificial sense of smell for a mobile robot to track an airborne gas/odor plume and locate its source. However, a slow response of gas sensors has been the major factor limiting the development of plume-tracking robots. This paper describes a new control algorithm that breaks the limitation. The basic idea is to detect onsets of gas sensor response and starts of recovery by monitoring the relative change in each sensor output. Fast plume tracking is accomplished by making the robot take appropriate actions immediately when the sensor outputs start changing from one state to another. Growing sensor outputs evoke an increase in the robot speed for further acceleration of plume tracking, whereas insufficient sensor outputs slow down the robot to avoid degrading the search success rate. In contrast to the previous algorithm, based on the absolute sensor output levels, the detection of output change also leads to reliable plume detection, since it is insusceptible to drift in the gas sensor outputs. Experimental results have shown that the robot can track down a gas source within the distance of 2 m in 32 s, even though semiconductor gas sensors with a long recovery time (>60 s) are used.
Distributed transmit-power control in cognitive radio networks using a hybrid-adaptive game-theoretic technique

This paper studies game-theoretic distributed transmit-power control in a cognitive radio network. It presents a hybrid-adaptive algorithm that interfaces Iterative Water-Filling with two learning algorithms: the Hedging Algorithm and the Historical Matching Algorithm. Iterative Water-Filling helps achieve a fast convergence whereas the learning algorithms help guard against exploitation. The learning algorithms employed are selected based on their performance in deterministic and probabilistic network environments. The hybrid-adaptive algorithm is shown to offer improvements on other methods published. It also performs better than Iterative Water-Filling and the learning algorithms taken in isolation. The main metric is the utility achieved by the players in the game-theoretic setting.
Requirements and the concept of cooperative system management

Cooperation among various types of management functions is necessary to allow management functions to interwork in providing and using information and services for systems management. To understand these tasks from the point of view of cooperative working, this article discusses the requirements and presents the concept of cooperative system management. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An effective user revocation for policy-based access control schema in clouds

Cloud computing is becoming a widely adopted technology for delivering On-Demand IT Services via Internet. Despite the rapid advancement of cloud-based environments, security challenges have to be addressed to a greater extent. One of the major issues in modern clouds is to guarantee the privacy and security of resources after the process of user revocation. In fact, each of revocation requests should be mapped to defined security policies of associated resources in the request for evaluation of user revocation process and updating defined policies. Accordingly, an effective user revocation model is presented in this paper for mapping revocation requests to defined policies of associated resources. The proposed model uses a revocation engine associated with three other stand-alone components to guarantee the privacy of affected nodes after user revocation requests. Furthermore, the reliability and efficiency of the suggested schema has been evaluated by a performance, security and competitive analysis.
A variant form of hMTH1, a human homologue of the E coli mutT gene, correlates with somatic mutation in the p53 tumour suppressor gene in gastric cancer patients

Oxidative damage to diverse physiological molecules, including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, is an inevitable outcome of various cellular activities in living organisms. In particular, some oxidised forms of nucleotides cause miscoding of genetic information, and have therefore been present as a major threat for cells. Multigene systems to counteract such oxidative damage have evolved in diverse organisms. In E coli , several mutants designated ‘mutator’ have been isolated, and in these cells the mutation rate is significantly elevated, due to disruption of genes regulating the spontaneous mutation rate on the genome. Previous studies using these mutators have identified three genes that function in the system to counteract mutagenic oxidative damage. The mutT− strain is one of the mutators that exhibit the highest spontaneous mutation rate. Maki H et al have shown that the product of the mutT gene hydrolyses an oxidised form of guanine nucleotides, 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine 5′-triphosphate (8-oxo-dGTP). 1 8-oxo-dGTP incorporated into the genome stably pairs with adenine as well as cytosine in the template strand, accumulation of this oxidised form of guanine nucleotides leads to an increase in base substitution mutations—that is, A:T to G:C and G:C to T:A transversions. In the mutT− strain, the rate for A:T to C:G transversion is indeed elevated 1000 fold over the wild type level.2 The other two genes that function in cooperation with mutT are mutM (fpg) and mutY , both of which encode a DNA glycosylase to excise deleterious bases on the genome.3 The former excises 8-oxo-guanine in the opposite site of cytosine on the genome, the latter removing adenine that pairs with 8-oxo-guanine. Thus, even in cells lacking MUT , G:C to T:A transversions are suppressed low.4 Multiplicity of cellular anti-mutagenic systems guarantees the spontaneous mutation rate on the genome at an extremely low …
Insurgent Multiculturalism: Rethinking How and Why We Teach Culture in Medical Education

The author proposes a theoretical orientation for cultural competency that reorganizes common curricular responses to the study of culture in medical education. What has come to be known in medical education as cultural competency is theoretically truncated and may actually work against what educators hope to achieve. Using Giroux's concept of insurgent multiculturalism, she suggests that the critical study of culture might be a bridge to certain aspects of professional development. Insurgent multiculturalism moves inquiry away from a focus on nondominant groups to a study of how unequal distributions of power allow some groups but not others to acquire and keep resources, including the rituals, policies, attitudes, and protocols of medical institutions. This approach includes not only the doctor–patient relationship but also the social causes of inequalities and dominance. Linked to professional development efforts, insurgent multiculturalism can provide students with more opportunities to look at their biases, challenge their assumptions, know people beyond labels, confront the effects of power and privilege, and develop a far greater capacity for compassion and respect.
Study on business models for electronic commerce

The purpose of this study is to investigate the business model of electronic commerce (e-commerce), and proposed a framework of e-commerce business models based on the findings of literature review and in-depth interviews with experienced specialists. The proposed framework includes three roles (supplier-oriented, consumer-oriented, and supporter-oriented) and eight models (content provider, E-tailer, manufacturing, community, user creating, affiliate, brokerage, and trust intermediary). 70 commercial websites were selected from Alexa Top 100 Sites Taiwan to study which business models were applied for creating their own values. The results indicate that e-commerce business models tend to more interactive and participable. Contribution of this study lies in proposing a framework of e-commerce business models with new perspectives, and enhancing the understanding of e-commerce business models.
A fragmented adeno-associated viral dual vector strategy for treatment of diseases caused by mutations in large genes leads to expression of hybrid transcripts.

OBJECTIVE Dual vector AAV systems are being utilised to enable gene therapy for disorders in which the disease gene is too large to fit into a single capsid. Fragmented adeno-associated viral (fAAV) vectors containing single inverted terminal repeat truncated transgenes have been considered as one such gene replacement strategy. Here we aim to add to the current understanding of the molecular mechanisms employed by fAAV dual vector systems. METHODS Oversized (>8kb) transgene constructs containing ABCA4 coding sequence were packaged as truncated fragments <5kb in size into various AAV serotypes. In vitro transductions with these fAAV vector preparations were conducted with mRNA and protein expression products assessed by way of RT-PCR, qPCR and western blot techniques. RESULTS Transductions with fAAV vector preparations yielded ABCA4 mRNA, but did not generate detectable levels of protein. Sequencing of the transcript population revealed the presence of full length ABCA4 CDS with additional hybrid ABCA4 variants, indicating truncated transgenes without regions of overlap were joining and forming stable hybrid transgenes. In contrast, an ABCA4 overlapping dual vector system (OV) with a defined complementary region generated only full length mRNA transcripts plus detectable ABCA4 protein. CONCLUSION Despite previous success shown with the fAAV approach, the lack of repeatability and identification of stable hybrid transcripts capable of protein production suggests there is more refinement required before considering this approach in a clinical setting.
Ensemble algorithm of neural networks and its application

Neural network ensemble is a very hot topic in both neural networks and machine learning communities (A. Sharkey, 1999). A new approach named BAGAEN is proposed, in which adaptive genetic algorithm and bootstrap algorithms are employed to increase the different degrees among individual RBF neural networks in order to enhance the generalization ability of a neural network system. The training set for individual RBF neural network is generated by the algorithm based on bootstrap and the result can be obtained by using majority voting method or simple averaging method. Experimental results show that BAGAEN has preferable performance in generating ensembles with strong generalization ability. Finally, BAGAEN is applied to predict the magnitude of earthquake.
Post menopausal effect on calcium , bone mineralization and mood swing *

Copyright  2016 irjpbs When cessation of menstruation occurs there are lots of change occurs in the body. The factors like calcium, bone mineralization and mood swings in post menopause are well known. This review article focuses on the effect of these factors on nutrients intake and mood status. The intake of calcium in the diet is directly proportional to bone resorption. Thus calcium supplementation is effective to prevent the bone loss in post menopausal women. There is a high association between mood swing and menopause. The decline of the estrogen hormone controls the cognitive functions in post menopausal women. Hormone replacement therapy is the treatment method to prevent post menopause symptoms but currently dietary supplements are more preferable.