Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chimeric proteins tagged with specific 3xHA cassettes may present instability and functional problems

Epitope-tagging of proteins has become a widespread technique for the analysis of protein function, protein interactions and protein localization among others. Tagging of genes by chromosomal integration of PCR amplified cassettes is a widely used and fast method to label proteins in vivo. Different systems have been developed during years in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In the present study, we analysed systematically a set of yeast proteins that were fused to different tags. Analysis of the tagged proteins revealed an unexpected general effect on protein level when some specific tagging module was used. This was due in all cases to a destabilization of the proteins and caused a reduced protein activity in the cell that was only apparent in particular conditions. Therefore, an extremely cautious approach is required when using this strategy.
Cognitive abilities of ‘street children’ : A systematic review

Although relatively rare in industrialised and developed countries, the phenomenon of young people spending much of their time in urban environments in the context of extreme poverty is common in the cities of the developing world. Interventions are generally focused on bringing the children into education systems. However, the children have often been exposed to a range of factors likely to impair cognitive development, such as trauma and substance abuse, potentially limiting the efficacy of education programmes. A systematic review was performed of studies reporting cognitive function data of street children in developing countries. Only seven studies were found, which reported on 215 individuals. A review of the studies revealed a pattern of below normal general intellectual function and neuropsychological impairments. In those studies where measures of general intellectual functioning were reported, e.g. IQ, comparisons of effect sizes were made. This revealed that cognitive impairment appeared to be relatively minor in samples from Indonesia and South Africa but somewhat larger in samples from Ethiopia and Colombia. The results suggest cross-cultural variation in the effects of street living on cognitive development. However, in general, there is a pattern of lower than normal cognitive performance which is comparable to that observed in studies of homeless children in the USA.
Mapping genetic alterations in tumors with single nucleotide polymorphisms

Single nucleotide polymorphisms are the most abundant genetic markers in the human genome whose analyses can be easily conducted on a large scale. Most established methods for high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism analyses are qualitative and are not suitable for genetic analysis of archived tumor specimens, which have compromised tissue integrity and normal tissue contaminations. Recent studies have focused on the development of quantitative methods for single nucleotide polymorphism analyses that can tolerate such imperfections in archived tissues. These methods have been used to measure the rate of allelic imbalance in small adenocarcinomas and to reveal novel correlations between allelic imbalance and disease progression in colorectal cancer. Therefore, quantitative single nucleotide polymorphism analysis provides a powerful tool for the identification of novel tumor markers and for the characterization of genetic alterations in human tumors.
Immunolocalization of laminin and integrin in regenerating junctional epithelium of mice after gingivectomy.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The expression patterns of adhesive proteins and extracellular matrix proteins in regenerating gingival epithelium after gingivectomy are unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of laminin 1, laminin gamma(2) (a specific component of laminin 5), integrin beta(4) and integrin alpha(3) in the regenerating gingival epithelium in order to understand the mechanism of wound healing during reconstitution of the sulcular environment. MATERIAL AND METHODS The palatal gingivae of the maxillary molars of Institute of Cancer Research mice were excised, and the regenerating tissues were examined 1, 3, 5, 7 and 14 days later. Fresh, non-fixed and non-decalcified frozen sections were prepared and stained using immunofluorescence. RESULTS At 1 day post-surgery, intense expression of laminin gamma(2), integrin beta(4) and integrin alpha(3) was distinct in the frontal margin of the regenerating oral epithelium. Laminin gamma(2) was diffusely detected on the root surface and in connective tissues beneath the regenerating oral epithelium at 3 and 5 days. At 7 days, laminin gamma(2) was intermittently recognizable in the internal basal lamina (IBL) close to tooth-facing cells, while laminin gamma(2), integrin beta(4) and integrin alpha(3) were observed in the IBL and in the external basal lamina (EBL) of the regenerating junctional epithelium at 14 days. CONCLUSION These results suggest that secretion of laminin 5 in the connective tissue may induce epithelial cell migration, and that binding of laminin 5 to integrin alpha(6)beta(4) and integrin alpha(3)beta(1) in the IBL may provoke cell adhesion and migration of cells facing the tooth on the enamel surface of the regenerating junctional epithelium.
Abdominal obesity and its metabolic complications: implications for the risk of ischaemic heart disease

Although the health hazards of obesity are well established, obese individuals are not all at equal risk of developing a disease, which reflects the heterogeneity of this condition. The regional distribution of body fat is now recognized as a very important component of the obesity-related health hazards. Epidemiological studies have shown that abdominal obesity, that is, a preponderance of fat in the abdominal area, is a better predictor of both cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes than obesity per se. It is now generally accepted that the fat located within the abdominal cavity, the visceral fat, is the best correlate of most of the highly atherogenic metabolic complications seen in individuals with abdominal obesity. These include, among others, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, reduced plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations and an increased number of small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. This review summarizes the evidence that these metabolic complications may account to a large extent for the increased risk of cardiovascular disease associated with abdominal/visceral obesity. Abdominal obesity may be the most prevalent denominator of highly atherogenic dyslipidaemic and hyperinsulinaemic/insulin-resistant states in affluent, sedentary societies. Targeting individuals with this highrisk trait in primary prevention is therefore crucial if we are truly to have an impact on the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Coronary Artery Dis 9:473–481
Small Object Discovery and Recognition Using Actively Guided Robot

In the field of active perception, object search is a widely studied problem. To search for an object in large rooms, it would be expensive to explore and check each object's similarity with the object of interest. The expense could uncontrollably bloat as the number of objects to be searched increases. If the objects are of the order of a 2-5cm, they appear very small, making it difficult for the present algorithms to recognize them. A general human strategy in such cases is to sparsely identify, from far away (4-6m), if the object of interest is present in the scene. Subsequently, each of the possible objects is analysed from closer proximity to recognize, for further manipulation. In this work, we present a similar framework. We reduce search-space, by identifying existential probability of a small object from a distance followed by a closer 3-D analysis of its point cloud to accurately recognize it. This is achieved by 2-D modelling of the objects using Gaussian Mixture Models followed by recognizing objects using efficient RGB-Depth based algorithm.
Magia além das palavras: Uma experiência de ensino de contação de histórias em língua inglesa com Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, de J.K. Rowling

This article is a result of a teaching experience done in a state school of Porto Alegre. The objective of this experience was analyzing the possibility of an English teaching practice, based on the storytelling applied in the storytelling time that is linked to the school’s library. For this purpose, it was selected as a story to be told and worked in an elementary school’s 5 th -grade classroom, the novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling, due to the richness of vocabulary and by the imaginary teased on its reader with its text. From this experience provided by the Storytelling time applied into the English Language, it could be perceived the students’ engagement with the story, the words association present in the story with the ones found on their daily routine, what had provided a corrected learning of the pronunciation of keywords which had been studied.
Energy and area saving effect of Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration on a 28-nm process FPGA

We empirically evaluated the energy- and area-saving effect of Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) of a 28-nm process FPGA. DPR is a technology where a portion of the entire circuit is replaced with another one, while the other parts of the circuit still continue running. Using DPR, different functionalities are not necessarily implemented at once; only required modules need be implemented on the FPGA. Therefore, a DPR system requires less hardware resources, and consequently, can save the power consumption of the system. We explored the effectiveness of DPR in saving energy and area of a multi-algorithm cryptoprocessor on Kintex-7 FPGA on SASEBO-GIII board. The cryptoprocessor supports the six ISO/IEC 18033-3 block cipher algorithms: AES, Camellia, SEED, TDEA, MISTY1, and CAST-128. In a DPR cryptoprocessor, only one cipher module is implemented at once, and it is overwritten when a different algorithm is required. Compared to the non-DPR cryptoprocessor, the DPR cryptoprocessor can reduce up to 74% hardware resource (slice) and 3.4% energy consumption.
Pyramid Fully Convolutional Network for Hyperspectral and Multispectral Image Fusion

Low spatial resolution hyperspectral (LRHS) and high spatial resolution multispectral (HRMS) image fusion has been recognized as an important technology for enhancing the spatial resolution of LRHS image. Recent advances in convolutional neural network have improved the performance of state-of-the-art fusion methods. However, it is still a challenging problem to effectively explore the spatial information of HRMS image. In this paper, we propose a pyramid fully convolutional network made up of an encoder sub-network and a pyramid fusion sub-network to address this issue. Specifically, the encoder sub-network aims to encode the LRHS image into a latent image. Then, this latent image, together with a HRMS image pyramid input, is used to progressively reconstruct the high spatial resolution hyperspectral image in a global-to-local manner. Furthermore, to sharpen the blurry predictions easily obtained by the standard $l_{2}$ loss, we introduce the gradient difference loss as a regularization term. We evaluate the proposed method on three datasets acquired by three different satellite sensors. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better performance than several state-of-the-art methods.
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: Summary of an AASLD Single Topic Conference

Fatty liver disease that develops in the absence of alcohol abuse is recognized increasingly as a major health burden. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions at a Single Topic Conference held September 20‐22, 2002, and sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. The conference focused on fatty liver disorders. Estimates based on imaging and autopsy studies suggest that about 20% to 30% of adults in the United States and other Western countries have excess fat accumulation in the liver. About 10% of these individuals, or fully 2% to 3% of adults, are estimated to meet current diagnostic criteria for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Sustained liver injury leads to progressive fibrosis and cirrhosis in a fraction, possibly up to one third, of those with NASH, and NASH may be a cause of cryptogenic cirrhosis. NASH is now a significant health issue for obese children as well, leading to cirrhosis in some. The diagnostic criteria for NASH continue to evolve and rely on the histologic findings of steatosis, hepatocellular injury (ballooning, Mallory bodies), and the pattern of fibrosis. Generally recognized indications for biopsy include establishing the diagnosis and staging of the injury, but strict guidelines do not exist. Liver enzymes are insensitive and cannot be used reliably to confirm the diagnosis or stage the extent of fibrosis. Older age, obesity, and diabetes are predictive of fibrosis. The pathogenesis of NASH is multifactorial. Insulin resistance may be an important factor in the accumulation of hepatocellular fat, whereas excess intracellular fatty acids, oxidant stress, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) depletion, and mitochondrial dysfunction may be important causes of hepatocellular injury in the steatotic liver. Efforts are underway to refine the role of insulin resistance in NASH and determine whether improving insulin sensitivity pharmacologically is an effective treatment. An altered lifestyle may be a more effective means of improving insulin sensitivity. The research agenda for the future includes establishing the role of insulin resistance and abnormal lipoprotein metabolism in NASH, determining the pathogenesis of cellular injury, defining predisposing genetic abnormalities, identifying better noninvasive predictors of disease, and defining effective therapy.
Domain adaptive multiple kemel learning for handwritten digit recognition

Handwritten character recognition systems suffers from different training and testing sets distributions. In this paper, we propose a two-step domain adaptive multiple kernel learning algorithm, which learns a kernel function based on several kernels in the first step, and trains a target classifier by applying the learned kernel in the second step. Our method can be employed both in semi-supervised and unsupervised domain adaptation cases, while most of the previous domain adaptation methods work only in semi-supervised case. Experiments on adaptation to different databases in this field reveal the superiority of this algorithm in comparison with other adaptation algorithms.
The Listeria monocytogenes Protein InlB Is an Agonist of Mammalian Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase*

The Gram-positive pathogen Listeria monocytogenes induces its own internalization into some non-phagocytic mammalian cells by stimulating host tyrosine phosphorylation, phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinase activity, and rearrangements in the actin cytoskeleton. Entry into many cultured cell lines is mediated by the bacterial protein InlB. Here we investigate the role of InlB in regulating mammalian signal transduction and cytoskeletal structure. Treatment of Vero cells with purified InlB caused rapid and transient increases in the lipid products of the PI 3-kinase p85-p110, tyrosine phosphorylation of the mammalian adaptor proteins Gab1, Cbl, and Shc, and association of these proteins with p85. InlB also stimulated large scale changes in the actin cytoskeleton (membrane ruffling), which were PI 3-kinase-dependent. These results identify InlB as the first reported non-mammalian agonist of PI 3-kinase and demonstrate similarities in the signal transduction events elicited by this bacterial protein and known agonists such as epidermal growth factor.
Enriching Interpersonal Human Interactions towards Effective Personal and Professional Communications

This paper discusses the importance of understanding and modeling social interactions between individuals in personal and professional settings, with the focus of enriching personal interaction experience and professional interaction outcomes, respectively. Specific examples are used for illustrating and highlighting the importance of individual’s socio-behavioral attributes in everyday interpersonal interactions. From the perspective of personal social interactions, the problem of developing a social interaction assistive technology that can enable people who are visually impaired or blind to access the social scene in front of them is discussed. Similarly, from a professional setting, the problem of developing systems that can enhance communication between multi-disciplinary medical professionals in emergency rooms, towards increasing patient safety, is discussed in detail.
The hypoglossal canal: normal MR enhancement pattern.

PURPOSE To review the anatomy of the hypoglossal canal and present the normal precontrast and postcontrast MR appearance of axial posterior fossa images. METHODS Thirty-one axial MR examinations of the normal posterior fossa were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS The hypoglossal canals are well seen on 3-mm-thick axial MR images of the posterior fossa (28 [90%] of 31 patients). Symmetric intense intracanalicular enhancement after intravenous administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine is routine, typically with minor anterior extension into the nasopharyngeal region (28 [100%] of 28). A linear filling defect traversing the enhanced canal often is seen (21 [75%] of 28) and may represent hypoglossal nerve rootlets. Circumferential enhancement of the meninges at the level of the foramen magnum was a common finding (19 [64%] of 28). CONCLUSION Enhancement within the hypoglossal canal with anterior extension beneath the skull base is a normal finding. This pattern is characteristic enough on MR imaging to aid interpretation of skull base lesions and to exclude the possibility of a mass within the hypoglossal canal.
Regulation of adhesive interaction between podocytes and glomerular basement membrane

Glomerular filtration depends on well‐orchestrated cell–cell and cell–matrix contacts of glomerular podocytes. Over the last years critical constituents of these contacts have been identified via molecular approaches. Podocyte cell–matrix interactions have been shown to be mediated in part by α3β1‐integrin heterodimers. Disturbances of integrin matrix interaction lead to detachment of podocytes in vitro, corresponding to the critical event of foot process retraction and glomerular basement membrane (GBM) denudation in vivo. Further, dystroglycan‐mediated matrix attachment appears to play a critical role for podocyte foot process architecture. Downstream signaling events are currently elucidated concentrating mainly on integrin‐dependent cascades and their consequences for podocyte adhesion and proliferation. An activation of the integrin‐linked kinase in podocyte damage in vivo and in vitro makes this molecule a particularly interesting candidate for integrin‐mediated inside‐out and outside‐in signaling in podocytes. Podocyte cell–cell interaction has been characterized in a few studies in vitro, indicating the slit diaphragm to be a modified adherens junction. The structural link between the cell–matrix and cell–cell contacts is maintained by the actin cytoskeleton, which may also enable cross‐talk between these two cell contact sites. Examining podocyte function in tissue culture, animal models and human expression studies should allow further detailed dissection of the molecular pathways responsible for maintenance and failure of the glomerular filtration barrier. Microsc. Res. Tech. 57:247–253, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Infection with Mycobacterium avium complex in Australian patients with AIDS

Data supplied by tuberculosis reference laboratories in Australia indicate that from mid‐1985 to the end of 1988, 202 patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were diagnosed as having concomitant infection caused by organisms of the Mycobacterium avium complex. This figure represents 17.3% of all AIDS cases diagnosed. Serotyping showed that the majority of isolates were serovars of M. avium, namely serovars 1,4 and 8. There is evidence of geographic differences in the dominant serovar. Of 45 patients with isolates from more than one site of the body, 17 (38%) were infected with at least two different serovars. The findings show the importance of disseminated atypical mycobacteriosis in patients with AIDS, and they provide data for use in defining the epidemiology and natural history of such infections.
Decentralised output-feedback control design for switched fuzzy large-scale systems

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the output-feedback control design problem for a class of switched Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy large-scale systems with non-measurable premise variables. The considered fuzzy large-scale systems consist of several interconnected subsystems with different switching modes and there exists the asynchronous switching between the system switching modes and the controller switching modes. A decentralised state observer is proposed to estimate the unmeasured states, and a new output-feedback decentralised control scheme is developed by using the state observers and the switching functions. Based on the theory of Lyapunov stability and average dwell-time methods, the sufficient conditions of ensuring the switched control system stability are proposed and proved, which are formulated in the form of linear matrix inequalities. An applicable example is provided to show the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.
Baropodomètre écologique : développement d'un chausson à semelle instrumentée pour l'analyse de la marche

L'analyse des pressions plantaires est un procede auquel les praticiens recourent de plus en plus pour observer les troubles de l'equilibre et de la marche de leur patient. Qualifier et quantifier l'appui du pied au sol permet de juger de la sante du systeme neuro-musculaire, d'etablir un diagnostic medical, de realiser un suivi, mais aussi de prevenir de futurs traumatismes. Les outils d'acquisition des pressions plantaires, ou baropodometres, sont multiples et varies mais leur fonctionnalite ne repond pas completement au besoin medical. Peu d'entre eux permettent l'observation de la marche pieds nus et aucun ne la permet de facon reproductible sur de nombreux pas consecutifs. C'est pourquoi, cette etude porte sur un nouvel outil baropodometrique prealablement mis au point dans notre laboratoire: un chausson equipe de capteurs de force. Un premier prototype est d'abord analyse, teste et caracterise et se revele n'etre adapte qu'a une utilisation clinique avec des individus sains. Apres plusieurs ameliorations mecatroniques, un nouveau prototype est propose pour l'analyse de la marche de tout individu quelle que soit sa pathologie. Le traitement des donnees est egalement developpe a l'intention du praticien pour lui permettre une analyse aisee et rapide de la marche grâce a un systeme d'affichage graphique precis. Les premieres applications cliniques montrent que l'outil est encore perfectible quant a sa precision de mesure. Cependant, l'evolution de la repartition des pressions plantaires est clairement indiquee au cours du temps. L'outil est utilisable aussi bien en milieu clinique qu' en contexte ecologique chez le patient lui-meme. L'analyse de l'equilibre comme celle de la locomotion pourront se faire de facon plus spontanee et reguliere que ce soit chez les patients âges sujets aux risques de chutes, ou chez les patients diabetiques sujets aux risques d'ulceres, ou encore de facon post-operatoire chez un individu en reeducation, et de facon large queIle que soit la pathologie du sujet.
Improving the Performance and Partcipation of Female Footballers Focousing on Some Premier League Clubs in Addis Ababa

vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study.1 1.2 Statement of the problem . 4 1.3 Objective of the study . 5 1.4 Significance of the study.6 1.5 Limitation of the study . 6 1.6 Delimitation of the study.6 1.7 Operational definition of terms . 7 1.8 Organization of the study.8