Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Crystal structure of an archaeal DNA sliding clamp: Proliferating cell nuclear antigen from Pyrococcus furiosus

The proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is now recognized as one of the key proteins in DNA metabolic events because of its direct interactions with many proteins involved in important cellular processes. We have determined the crystal structure of PCNA from a hyperthermophilic archaeon, Pyrococcus furiosus (PfuPCNA), at 2.1 Å resolution. PfuPCNA forms a toroidal, ring‐shaped structure consisting of homotrimeric molecules, which is also observed in the PCNA crystals from human and yeast. The overall structure of PfuPCNA is highly conserved with other PCNA proteins, as well as with the bacterial β clamp and the bacteriophage gp45. This result shows that the three‐dimensional structure of the sliding clamp is conserved in the three domains of life. PfuPCNA has two remarkable features compared with the human and yeast PCNA molecules: it has more ion pairs and fewer intermolecular main chain hydrogen bonds. The former may contribute to the thermal stability of PfuPCNA, and the latter may be the cause of the stimulatory effect of PfuPCNA on the DNA synthesizing activity of P. furiosus DNA polymerases in the absence of the clamp loader replication factor C in vitro.
Visual saliency in image quality assessment

Advances in image quality assessment have shown the benefits of modelling functional components of the human visual system in image quality metrics. Visual saliency, a crucial aspect of the human visual system, is increasingly investigated recently. Current applications of visual saliency in image quality metrics are limited by our knowledge on the relation between visual saliency and quality perception. Issues regarding how to simulate and integrate visual saliency in image quality metrics remain. This thesis presents psychophysical experiments and computational models relevant to the perceptually-optimised use of visual saliency in image quality metrics. We first systematically validated the capability of computational saliency in improving image quality metrics. Practical guidance regarding how to select suitable saliency models, which image quality metrics can benefit from saliency integration, and how the added value of saliency depends on image distortion type were provided. To better understand the relation between saliency and image quality, an eye-tracking experiment with a reliable experimental methodology was first designed to obtain ground truth fixation data. Significant findings on the interactions between saliency and visual distortion were then discussed. Based on these findings, a saliency integration approach taking into account the impact of distortion on the saliency deployment was proposed. We also devised an algorithm which adaptively incorporate saliency in image quality metrics based on saliency dispersion. Moreover, we further investigated the plausibility of measuring image quality based on the deviation of saliency induced by distortion. An image quality metric based on measuring saliency deviation was devised. This thesis demonstrates that the added value of saliency in image quality metrics can be optimised by taking into account the interactions between saliency and visual distortion. This thesis also demonstrates that the deviation of fixation deployment due to distortion can be used as a proxy for the prediction of image quality.
A Prospective Duplex Doppler Ultrasonographic Study in Women with Sexual Arousal Disorder to Objectively Assess Genital Engorgement Induced by EROS Therapy

The EROS therapy device is FDA-approved for the treatment of women with sexual dysfunction and has been shown to improve sexual function and satisfaction. The aim of this study was to obtain objective information regarding the ability of the EROS Therapy device to induce clitoral and corpus spongiosum volumetric and hemodynamic changes following therapeutic use in women with sexual arousal disorder. Seven patients with sexual arousal disorder formed the study population. All seven subjects met inclusion and exclusion criteria, including having normal hormonal values at the time of the study. All seven subjects were able to comfortably operate the device. All seven reported either slight-to-moderate pleasure or orgasm at home with the device. We observed no adverse events. This study shows that EROS therapy is associated with significant increases in clitoral and corpus spongiosum diameter as well as with clitoral and corpus spongiosum peak systolic and enddiastolic velocity values.
Direct Evidence for Interferon- (cid:1) Production by Effector-Memory-Type Intraepidermal T Cells Residing at an Effector Site of Immunopathology in Fixed Drug Eruption

Effector-memory T cells are strategically placed to epithelial tissues to provide frontline immune protection against pathogens. Their detrimental effects, however, have been rarely examined because of dif-ficulty in sampling these T cells in pathological settings. Our previous studies suggested persistence of a similar subset of intraepidermal CD8 (cid:1) T cells at high frequencies in the lesions of fixed drug eruption, a localized variant of drug-induced dermatoses. In situ activation of this subset resulting in localized epidermal injury can be traced in the lesions after antigen challenge by paired immunohistochemical staining, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction in situ , and flow cytometry of dispersed cells. Here we show that effector-memory T cells were greatly enriched in these intraepidermal CD8 (cid:1) T cells, but not dermal and circulating counterparts, and that they constitutively express an early activation marker CD69 even before challenge. Surprisingly, a large proportion of these T cells expressed immediate effector function as evidenced by the rapid production of high levels of interferon- (cid:2) in situ with much faster kinetics than their counterparts at the mRNA and protein levels after challenge. This was followed by localized epidermal injury. The intracellular cytokine assay ex vivo shows that the great majority of these dispersed T cells produce interferon- (cid:2) . This study provides the first in situ description of the detrimental effects specifically
The Countermeasures of villagers' interests under the perspective of game theory

In recent years, with the rapid development of economy in order to accelerate the pace of urbanization, all cities in China are carrying on the transformation of “village in the city”. However there isn't perfect legal system to ensure the villagers' interests in the village reform. The thesis on the basis of this background, firstly, discuss the fundamental reasons of the difficult transformation of “village in the city” briefly; and then, from the perspective of game theory, analysis the contradiction of the three stakeholders, from the results of the game we can see the villagers' interests are threatened easily; in this paper I hope to raise some counter measures to solve the question how to guarantee the villagers' interest in the village reform.
Prévision de nouveaux liens dans les réseaux d'interactions bipartis : Application au calcul de recommandation

Dans cette these, nous etudions le probleme de la prevision d’apparition de nouveaux liens dans les reseaux d’interactions, Nous nous interessons en par-ticulier aux reseaux dynamiques ayant une structure bipartite. Nous propo Sons un modele de prevision de liens utilisant les techniques d’apprentissage automatique supervise. Le probleme de prevision de liens est considere dansce cas comme un probleme de classification binaire. Notre approche applique un schema de propositionnalisation ou chaque paire de noeuds est decrite par un ensemble d’attributs representant des mesures topologiques. Ces mesures sont calculees dans le graphe biparti et dans les graphes projetes qui en decoulent. Nous montrons que ces nouvelles similarites dites « indirectes » apportent un gain d’information benefique par rapport aux seules similarites directes. Cette these apporte aussi de nouvelles solutions au probleme de desequi libre des donnees du a la disproportion inherente entre le nombre de liens qui peuvent se former et le nombre de liens qui se forment reellement. Nous pro- posons tout d’abord d’utiliser des methodes de soue-echantillonnage informe pour reduire le desequilibre. Une deuxieme solution au niveau algorithmique consiste en une approche d’apprentissage semi-supervise. Dans ce cas, le probleme de prevision de liens est vu comme un probleme d’apprentissage a partir d’un ensemble d’instances etiquetees (classe minoritaire) et un en- semble d’instances non-etiquetees (classe majoritaire) . Nous montrons que cette nouvelle approche permet d’ameliorer les performances du classifieur sur la classe minoritaire. Les differentes approches proposees sont appliquees sur les donnees reelles dans le cadre de deux applications : recommandation de collaborations aca demiques et recommandation de produits dans un site de vente de musique en ligne.
A branch and bound algorithm for scheduling unit size jobs on parallel batching machines to minimize makespan

In this paper, we present a branch and bound algorithm for the parallel batch scheduling of jobs having different processing times, release dates and unit sizes. There are identical machines with a fixed capacity and the number of jobs in a batch cannot exceed the machine capacity. All batched jobs are processed together and the processing time of a batch is given by the greatest processing time of jobs in that batch. We compare our method to a mixed integer program as well as a method from the literature that is capable of optimally solving instances with a single machine. Computational experiments show that our method is much more efficient than the other two methods in terms of solution time for finding the optimal solution.
Trouble de l'acquisition de la coordination et troubles de l'écriture : peut-on parler de comorbidité ?

La comorbidite dans les troubles developpementaux a une importance theorique mais aussi clinique, il est cependant important de definir ce qu’on entend par « comorbidite ». Le terme de comorbidite designe toute entite diagnostique additionnelle qui apparait ou existe durant l’histoire clinique d’un patient (Feinstein, 1970). Cette acception necessite toutefois d’etre precisee dans le contexte des classifications diagnostiques des troubles mentaux. Il s’agit en effet de definir si des liens existent entre les deux pathologies concomitantes. Pour ce qui concerne la dysgraphie et le trouble de l’acquisition de la coordination (TAC), plusieurs elements permettent de repondre a la question posee dans le titre. Tout d’abord, les classifications usuelles ne comportent pas la categorie « dysgraphie », qui n’est donc pas une entite diagnostique a proprement parler. Ensuite, un certain nombre de recherches montre que dysgraphie et TAC sont tres frequemment presents en meme temps, ce qui suggere l’existence d’un dysfonctionnement commun. Enfin, les modeles d’explication de la dysgraphie envisagent, dans leur tres grande majorite, diverses origines a ce trouble, ecartant ipso facto l’hypothese d’une entite morbide unique. En consequence, il nous parait inapproprie d’utiliser le terme de comorbidite pour rendre compte de la presence d’une dysgraphie chez un enfant presentant un TAC.
Ghrelin: a hypothalamic GH-releasing factor in domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus).

Ghrelin, a recently discovered peptide in the mammalian hypothalamus and gastrointestinal tract is thought to be the endogenous ligand for the GH secretagogue (GHS) receptor and it stimulates GH release in rats and humans. The possibility that ghrelin is present in birds was therefore assessed, since a GHS receptor is present in the chicken pituitary gland. Although immunoreactive ghrelin is readily detectable in the rat stomach and ileum, ghrelin immunoreactivity could not be detected in the chicken proventriculus, stomach, ileum or colon, whereas somatostatin immunoreactivity, in contrast and as expected, was readily detectable in the chicken gastrointestinal tract. Ghrelin immunoreactivity was, however, present in the chicken hypothalamus, although not in the arcuate (infundibular) nucleus, as in rats. Discrete parvocellular cells and neuronal fibers with ghrelin immunoreactivity were present in the anterior medial hypothalamus. This immunoreactivity was specific and completely abolished following the preabsorption of the antibody with an excess of human ghrelin. Ghrelin immunoreactivity was also present in clusters of large ovoid magnocellular cells in the nucleus magnocellularis preopticus pars medialis, nucleus magnocellularis preopticus supraopticus and in the chiasmaopticus. Immunoreactivity for ghrelin was restricted to the cytoplasm of the perikarya and their axonal sprouts. Immunoreactivity for ghrelin was not seen in any other hypothalamic nuclei. In a preliminary experiment, circulating GH concentrations in conscious immature chicks were promptly increased following bolus i.v. administration of human ghrelin. The increase in GH concentration (approximately three times that in the controls) was comparable with that induced by the same dose (10 microg/kg) of human GH-releasing hormone, although less than that (approximately sixfold) induced by thyrotropin-releasing hormone. These results demonstrate the presence of a ghrelin-like protein in the chicken hypothalamus and suggest that it participates in the regulation of GH secretion in birds.
Genotypic analysis of Burkholderia cepacia isolates from 13 French cystic fibrosis centers

Burkholderia cepacia has been involved in outbreaks of pulmonary infection among patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), and the spread of a highly transmissible clone has been reported throughout the United Kingdom and Canada. These data prompted a DNA-based typing study of the strains recovered in French CF centers. Ninety-five isolates recovered from 71 patients attending 13 CF centers in 9 regions of France were characterized by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Twenty-one genotypes were identified among the 95 isolates, and the results of RAPD and PFGE were concordant for 89 isolates (94%). Cross-colonization was demonstrated in 7 of the 13 CF centers. The investigation of serial isolates showed that most chronically colonized patients harbored a single B. cepacia strain. A geographically clustered distribution of B. cepacia genotypes was observed, except for one genotype, which was detected in four regions but was proven to be different from the genotype of the British-Canadian highly transmissible strain. The present study confirms the ability of B. cepacia to spread among CF communities in France and the importance of epidemiological surveys in the institution of prevention policies.
Purification and Characterization of -Amylase and -Galactosidase from Bacillus Sp. MNJ23 Produced in a Concomitant Medium

3 Abstract: Purification of two industrially important enzymes namely -amylase and -galactosidase in a concomitant production medium was carried out. Characterization of the purified enzymes was checked for its pH and temperature stability, effect of various metal ions and reagents on enzyme activity. The specific activity of the purified -amylase after complete chromatographic steps was about 2358 U/mg and had a molecular mass of 25 kDa in SDS-PAGE. The purified -galactosidase was a 70 kDa protein. Both the purified enzymes were stable around pHs8-10 and 50°C. -amylase activity was enhanced by calcium and cobalt, while magnesium and sodium ions inhibited enzyme activity. -galactosidase was completely inhibited by Ag , Hg and Cu ions
The Two-User Seating Buck: Enabling Face-to-Face Discussions of Novel Car Interface Concepts

The automotive industry uses physical seating bucks, which are minimal mockups of a car interior, to assess various aspects of the planned interior early in the development process. In a virtual seating buck, users wear a head-mounted display (HMD) which overlays a virtual car interior on a physical seating buck. We have developed a two-user virtual seating buck system, which allows two users to take the role of the driver and co-driver respectively. Both users wear tracked head-mounted displays and see the virtual car interior from the respective view points enabling them to properly interact with the interface elements of a car. We use this system for the development, test and evaluation of novel human-machine interface concepts for future car models. We provide each user with an avatar, since the two co-located users need to see each others' actions. Our evaluation of different head and hand models for representing the two users indicate that the user representations and motions should be as realistic as possible even though the focus is on testing interface elements operated by the users' fingers. The participants of our study also expressed that they clearly prefer the two-user seating buck over a single-user system since it directly supports the face-to-face discussions of features and problems of a newly developed interface.
Modelo de gestión para la responsabilidad social en cooperativas

Nos centramos en este trabajo en la Responsabilidad Social aplicada a cooperativas, la llamada RSCoop, entendiendo por este concepto cualquier tipo de actuacion social al amparo o no de sus principios y valores especificos. Para su gestion y como objetivo de este trabajo se presenta un modelo teorico que permite profundizar en las implicaciones sociales y competitivas de la RSCoop con el interes de apoyar la implementacion de estas actuaciones asi como su revelacion. Entendemos que la gestion de la RSCoop es fundamental por los beneficios asociados a la misma y con el modelo que planteamos pretendemos igualmente cubrir un hueco en la investigacion en este tema no tratado hasta la fecha.
Synthesis and Application of Peptide Arrays: Quo Vadis SPOT Technology

Hitting the SPOT: In 1992, Ronald Frank published the first seminal paper on simultaneous parallel synthesis of multiple peptides on filter paper. He defined the approach as SPOT synthesis, an easy technique for positionally addressable, parallel chemical synthesis on a membrane support. Here, a basic overview of this technology is presented and a recently published applications are highlighted. At the end, the future of peptide arrays is discussed.
The effectiveness of anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy in preventing progressive radiographic joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis: a population-based study.

OBJECTIVE To compare the effectiveness of 3 therapeutic strategies in preventing progressive joint damage, in a population-based cohort. The 3 strategies were infliximab with concomitant disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), etanercept with concomitant DMARDs, and etanercept alone. METHODS We used sequential radiographs to assess all patients who were treated with infliximab or etanercept for >10 months. The rates of erosion progression and joint space narrowing (JSN) were analyzed using multivariate regression models for longitudinal data, with adjustment for potential confounders. RESULTS A total of 372 patients treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapies met the inclusion criteria. The baseline characteristics of the patients assigned to the 3 strategies were not significantly different, except that, as expected, more patients were receiving combination therapy with infliximab. The combination of infliximab plus DMARDs was significantly more effective than etanercept alone for controlling erosion progression (P < 0.001), but the effectiveness of the 2 combination-treatment strategies was similar (P = 0.07). The combination of infliximab plus DMARDs was also more effective at controlling progressive JSN compared with etanercept alone (P = 0.04) or etanercept plus DMARDs (P = 0.02). Treatment with anti-TNF agents (infliximab or etanercept) plus concomitant DMARDs was more effective than treatment with etanercept alone for controlling erosion progression (P = 0.045). CONCLUSION When combined with traditional DMARDs, both etanercept and infliximab appear to offer similar protection against progressive structural joint damage, and combination therapy with either of these agents appears to be more effective than treatment with etanercept alone.
RedScarf: A User-Friendly Multi-Platform Network-on-Chip Simulator

The design space exploration of Networks-on-Chip (NoC) requires tools to evaluate the network performance, tune its parameters and achieve the requirements of the target application. In this context, this paper presents RedScarf, a simulation environment with graphical user interface and a set of tools that automate the design space exploration of NoCs. It presents many resources that make RedScarf a powerful tool for Research and Education on NoCs. RedScarf is user friendly, platform-independent and offers a diversity of topologies and communication mechanisms, thus covering the main on-chip interconnect architectures described in the literature. Experimental results demonstrate how the tool is useful for performance analysis of on-chip interconnect architectures.
Geo-Hazard Detection and Monitoring Using SAR and Optical Images in a Snow-Covered Area: The Menyuan (China) Test Site

In this work, we combine SAR and optical images for geo-hazard detection and monitoring in Western China. An extremely small baseline of C-band SAR image pairs acquired from Sentinel-1A at Menyuan, China, is analyzed. Apart from the large area of coseismal deformation, we proposed an earthquake-derived landslide detecting method by removing the coseismal deformation with polynomial fitting, then the detected moving areas were confirmed with Chinese Gaofen-1 optical satellite images. Sentinel-1A C-band interferograms show about a 7-cm line of sight movement caused by the MS 6.4 Menyuan earthquake; meanwhile, several features indicative of ground movement were detected by the proposed method and demonstrated by the Gaofen-1 optical images; the interpretation of high-resolution optical data complemented the goal of better understanding the behavior of geo-hazard disasters. InSAR time series analysis provides an opportunity for continuous monitoring of geo-hazards in remote areas, while the optical image method is easily affected by decorrelation due to snowfall.
Unterrichtsmomente als explizite Lernanlässe in fachinhaltlichen Veranstaltungen Ein Ansatz zur Stärkung der mathematischen Fundierung unterrichtlichen Handelns

Zusammenfassung: Ein wesentliches Problemfeld der zweiten Diskontinuitat der Lehrerbildung liegt darin, dass viele Lehrerinnen und Lehrer das im Studium erworbene fachinhaltliche Wissen und Konnen fur spateres fachdidaktisches Handeln im Unterricht nur eingeschrankt aktivieren. Dagegen postuliert der Beitrag als zentrales Ziel der fachinhaltlichen Lehrerbildung, die didaktische Handlungsfahigkeit angehender Lehrkrafte mathematisch zu fundieren. Mit geeigneten authentischen Lernanlassen sollen kunftige Lehrkrafte die Notwendigkeit des Ziels der mathematischen Fundierung didaktischer Handlungsfahigkeit begreifen und sich ihm annahern. Wie didaktische Handlungsanforderungen in sogenannte Unterrichtsmomente als authentische und explizite Lernanlasse transformiert werden konnen, wird an praktisch erprobten Beispielen aus den fachinhaltlichen Veranstaltungen Analysis und Elementare Zahlentheorie illustriert und diskutiert. Um das Ziel moglichst plastisch zu machen, auf das dieser Beitrag hinarbeitet, beginnt der erste Abschnitt mit einer exemplarischen Unterrichtsszene, in der es einer Lehrerin hervorragend gelingt, ihr breites und tiefgehendes fachwissenschaftliches Wissen zu aktivieren, um didaktische Handlungsentscheidungen mathematisch zu fundieren. Da eine solch breite Fundierung nicht fur alle Lehrkrafte selbstverstandlich ist, wird das Ziel im zweiten Abschnitt naher begrundet. Es werden Wege aufgezeigt, damit mehr kunftige Lehrkrafte ihm naher kommen. Diese Wege werden im dritten Abschnitt konkretisiert und diskutiert.