Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autoregulatory Mechanisms in Protein-tyrosine Kinases*

Protein-tyrosine kinases (PTKs), enzymes that catalyze the transfer of the g-phosphate of ATP to tyrosine residues of protein substrates, are critical components of signaling pathways that control cellular proliferation and differentiation. PTKs can be subdivided into two large families, receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and non-receptor tyrosine kinases (NRTKs) (1, 2). RTKs span the plasma membrane and contain an extracellular portion, which binds ligand, and an intracellular portion, which possesses catalytic activity and regulatory sequences. The RTK family includes the insulin receptor and the receptors for many growth factors such as epidermal (EGF), platelet-derived (PDGF), fibroblast (FGF), and nerve growth factors (1). NRTKs contain no extracellular or transmembrane portion but possess modular domains that are responsible for subcellular targeting and regulation of catalytic activity. The NRTK family includes Src, Abl, FAK, and the JAKs among many others (2). Because of the key roles PTKs play in cellular signaling processes, their catalytic activity is tightly controlled in normal cells by protein-tyrosine phosphatases, by other protein tyrosine or serine/threonine kinases (1), and by autoregulatory mechanisms. The recent crystallographic structures of several members of both the RTK and NRTK families, together with extensive biochemical studies, afford an understanding at the molecular level of the autoregulation mechanisms to which PTKs are subject.
Atrial fibrillation following coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

To the Editor. —The pathophysiological mechanisms responsible for the high incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after coronary artery bypass surgery remain rather unclear. Consequently, identification of clinical predictors remains the most practical approach, as Dr Mathew and colleagues 1 demonstrated. Among the predictors of postoperative AF, they listed advanced age and male sex. In a similar study published almost simultaneously, Aranki and colleagues 2 also found advanced age and male sex to be significant predictors. In addition, they found the need for an intraoperative intraaortic balloon pump (IABP) to be an independent predictor. I wonder if the MultiCenter Study of Perioperative Ischemia (McSPI) Research Group, which Mathew and colleagues represented, also found this. Another noteworthy difference between these 2 studies was in the estimation of utilization of hospital resources resulting from this complication. Whereas Mathew et al 1 found the occurrence of postoperative AF was associated with an increase of
Coil Batching to Improve Productivity and Energy Utilization in Steel Production

This paper investigates a practical batching decision problem that arises in the batch annealing operations in the cold rolling stage of steel production faced by most large iron and steel companies in the world. The problem is to select steel coils from a set of waiting coils to form batches to be annealed in available batch annealing furnaces and choose a median coil for each furnace. The objective is to maximize the total reward of the selected coils less the total coil–coil and coil–furnace mismatching cost. For a special case of the problem that arises frequently in practical settings where the coils are all similar and there is only one type of furnace available, we develop a polynomial-time dynamic programming algorithm to obtain an optimal solution. For the general case of the problem, which is strongly NP-hard, an exact branch-and-price-and-cut solution algorithm is developed using a column and row generation framework. A variable reduction strategy is also proposed to accelerate the algorithm. The algorithm is capable of solving medium-size instances to optimality within a reasonable computation time. In addition, a tabu search heuristic is proposed for solving larger instances. Three simple search neighborhoods, as well as a sophisticated variable-depth neighborhood, are developed. This heuristic can generate near-optimal solutions for large instances within a short computation time. Using both randomly generated and real-world production data sets, we show that our algorithms are superior to the typical rule-based planning approach used by many steel plants. A decision support system that embeds our algorithms was developed and implemented at Baosteel to replace their rule-based planning method. The use of the system brings significant benefits to Baosteel, including an annual net profit increase of at least 1.76 million U.S. dollars and a large reduction of standard coal consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
Improved Performances of InGaN Schottky Photodetectors by Inducing a Thin Insulator Layer and Mesa Process

The performances of InGaN Schottky photodetectors with varied fabrication processes were investigated. The photoresponse and dark current of InGaN Schottky photodetectors can be obviously improved by inserting a thin Si3N4 passivation layer between the InGaN layer and the Schottky metal. Furthermore, a mesa process gives not only a further increase in the photoresponse but also a pronounced reduction in the reverse leakage current of about two orders of magnitude. A lateral surface leakage current mechanism associated with the 2-D variable-range hopping conduction through high-density surface states in InGaN is proposed to explain the reduction of the reverse leakage current after etching the mesa.
El laberinto de la economia informal: estrategias de medicion e impactos

Uno de los factores que mayores trastornos genera a las perspectivas economicas de un pais es la alta presencia de economia informal. El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una aproximacion estadistica detallada que permita identificar la importancia de estos factores considerando estrategias econometricas relevantes, empleando diferentes muestras de mas de 160 paises.
Secondary prevention of HIV infection: the current state of prevention for positives

Purpose of reviewTo provide a state-of-the-science review of the literature on secondary prevention of HIV infection or ‘prevention for positives’ (PfP) interventions. Recent findingsEarly work on PfP focused on understanding the dynamics of risky behavior among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) and on designing, implementing, and evaluating a limited number of interventions to promote safer sexual and drug use behavior in this population (i.e., PfP interventions). Previous meta-analyses demonstrated that PfP interventions can effectively promote safer behavior. However, the understanding of risk dynamics among PLWH and the extant number and breadth of effective PfP interventions were scant. Recent work has addressed some of these problems, yielding greater understanding of risk dynamics and providing additional, effective interventions. Still, only a modest number of recent, rigorously evaluated, effective interventions have been identified. New ideas for creating stronger, more integrated, and effective PfP interventions have emerged that will guide future intervention research and practice. SummaryThere remains much to be done to understand why, when, and under what conditions PLWH practice risk. Substantial work also needs to be performed to design, implement, rigorously evaluate, and when effective, to disseminate widely, additional, evidence-based PfP interventions targeting diverse populations. Directing such interventions to populations of PLWH at greatest risk for transmission of HIV has the potential to yield significant impact on the pandemic.
Flexible loads for Intermittent Renewable generation Management

The Intermittent Renewable Management Pilot - Phase 2 was designed to study the feasibility of distributed demand-side resources to participate into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) wholesale market as proxy demand resources. The pilot study focused on understanding the issues related with direct participation of third-parties and customers including customer acceptance; market transformation challenges (wholesale market, technology); technical and operational feasibility; and value to demand response resource owners and the utility on providing an enabling mechanism for DR resources into the wholesale markets. Four participants successfully engaged in the pilot. We provide the description of the pilot, participant performance results, costs and value to participants as well as outline some of the issues encountered through the pilot. Results show that participants chose to participate mainly with storage and the value of CAISO settlements were significantly lower than the capacity payments provided by the utility as incentive payments.
A probabilistic union model with automatic order selection for noisy speech recognition.

A critical issue in exploiting the potential of the sub-band-based approach to robust speech recognition is the method of combining the sub-band observations, for selecting the bands unaffected by noise. A new method for this purpose, i.e., the probabilistic union model, was recently introduced. This model has been shown to be capable of dealing with band-limited corruption, requiring no knowledge about the band position and statistical distribution of the noise. A parameter within the model, which we call its order, gives the best results when it equals the number of noisy bands. Since this information may not be available in practice, in this paper we introduce an automatic algorithm for selecting the order, based on the state duration pattern generated by the hidden Markov model (HMM). The algorithm has been tested on the TIDIGITS database corrupted by various types of additive band-limited noise with unknown noisy bands. The results have shown that the union model equipped with the new algorithm can achieve a recognition performance similar to that achieved when the number of noisy bands is known. The results show a very significant improvement over the traditional full-band model, without requiring prior information on either the position or the number of noisy bands. The principle of the algorithm for selecting the order based on state duration may also be applied to other sub-band combination methods.
Prévention et traitement de la cataracte

La cataracte correspond a l'opacification du cristallin et represente la premiere cause de cecite dans le monde. Plus de 600 000 chirurgies de la cataracte sont pratiquees annuellement en France. Aucun traitement medical n'a pour le moment fait preuve d'efficacite, mais certaines mesures permettent de ralentir leur developpement. L'identification des facteurs de risque (tabac, radiation UV, .) doit conduire a suivre des regles hygieno-dietetiques susceptibles de ralentir l'evolution des opacites du cristallin. Des recentes etudes ont permis de decouvrir des molecules susceptibles de prevenir, voire de traiter la cataracte. Les resultats ne sont pour le moment qu'experimentaux mais si l'efficacite venait a etre averee, il s'agirait d'une revolution medicale et socioeconomique dans la prise en charge de cette pathologie.
Architectures of visibility and invisibility: a reflection on the secret affinities of Johannesburg’s cross-border shopping hub

The inner city of Johannesburg, South Africa, is the site of an intense wholesale and retail trade in fast fashion. Here mostly migrant entrepreneurs supply billions of rand worth of Chinese apparel to local and cross-border shoppers from across sub-Saharan Africa. The retail phenomenon pulsates from the incrementally adapted interiors of modernist office buildings. The buildings now host secret shopping centres, with mini retail outlets and coffee shops transforming dormant interior corridors and stairwells into lively internal streets. This compressed urban environment caters exquisitely to the ambiguous needs of being both visible and invisible — to display and to conceal — in this urban context. Walter Benjamin’s musings on the architectures and social positioning of mid-nineteenth century Parisian arcades offer insight into how adaptive, rogue architectures respond to mass consumption in contemporary Johannesburg. They support the argument that the arcades of “Jeppe” are deliberate, responsive architectures.
Die-to-die and within-die variation extraction for circuit simulation with surface-potential compact model

A 65nm CMOS TEG for die-to-die and within-die variation analysis is reported. From measured Vth and Ion variation data of transistor pairs, die-to-die and within-die microscopic-parameter variations of a surface-potential model are extracted. Consideration of only five microscopic parameters is found sufficient to capture the channel-length dependence of these variations.
Cache-aware reliability evaluation through LLVM-based analysis and fault injection

Reliability evaluation is a high costly process that is mainly carried out through fault injection or by means of analytical techniques. While the analytical techniques are fast but inaccurate, the fault injection is more accurate but extremely time consuming. This paper presents an hybrid approach combining analytical and fault injection techniques in order to evaluate the reliability of a computing system, by considering errors that affect both the data and the instruction cache. Compared to existing techniques, instead of targeting the hardware model of the cache (e.g., VHDL description), we only consider the running application (i.e., the software layer). The proposed approach is based on the Low-Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) framework coupled with a cache emulator. As input, the tool requires the application source code, the cache size and policy, and the target microprocessor instruction set. The main advantage of the proposed approach is the achieved speed up quantified in magnitude orders compared to existing fault injection techniques. For the validation, we compare the simulation results to those obtained with an FPGA-based fault injector. The similarity of the results proves the accuracy of the approach.
Optical Fiber Accelerometer System for Structural Dynamic Monitoring

In this study, the implementation of an optical accelerometer unit based on fiber Bragg gratings, suitable to monitor structures with frequencies up to 45 Hz, is reported. The developed optical system was used to estimate the structure eigenfrequencies of a steel footbridge, with a total length of 300 m, over the Sao Pedro Creek, located at University of Aveiro Campus, in Portugal. The acceleration records measured with this solution are compared with those obtained by traditional commercial electronic devices, revealing a root-mean-square error of 2.53 times 10-5 G.
Breaking a Hitag2 Protocol with Low Cost Technology

Hitag2 is an encryption algorithm designed by NXP Semicondu ctors that is used in electronic vehicle immobilizers and anti-theft devices. Hitag2 uses 48-bit keys fo r authentication and confidentiality, and due to that feature it is considered an insecure cipher. In this contrib ution we present a comparison of low cost technologies able to break a known protocol based on this cipher in a re asonable amount of time. Building on top of these solutions, it is possible to create an environment abl e to obtain Hitag2 keys in almost negligible time. The procedure can be easily expanded in order to consider oth protocols based on the same cipher.
Polyamine Synthesis from Proline in the Developing Porcine Placenta1

Abstract Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are essential for placental growth and angiogenesis. However, little is known about polyamine synthesis in the porcine placenta during conceptus development. The present study was conducted to test the hypothesis that arginine and proline are the major sources of ornithine for placental polyamine production in pigs. Placentae, amniotic fluid, and allantoic fluid were obtained from gilts on Days 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 60, 90, and 110 of the 114-day gestation (n = 6 per day). Placentae as well as amniotic and allantoic fluids were analyzed for arginase, proline oxidase, ornithine aminotransferase (OAT), ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), proline transport, concentrations of amino acids and polyamines, and polyamine synthesis using established radiochemical and chromatographic methods. Neither arginase activity nor conversion of arginine into polyamines was detected in the porcine placenta. In contrast, both proline and ornithine were converted into putrescine, spermidine, and spermine in placental tissue throughout pregnancy. The activities of proline oxidase, OAT, and ODC as well as proline transport, polyamine synthesis from proline, and polyamine concentrations increased markedly between Days 20 and 40 of gestation, declined between Days 40 and 90 of gestation, and remained at the reduced level through Day 110 of gestation. Proline oxidase and OAT, but not arginase, were present in allantoic and amniotic fluids for the production of ornithine (the immediate substrate for polyamine synthesis). The activities of these two enzymes as well as the concentrations of ornithine and total polyamines in fetal fluids were highest at Day 40 but lowest at Days 20, 90, and 110 of gestation. These results indicate that proline is the major amino acid for polyamine synthesis in the porcine placenta and that the activity of this synthetic pathway is maximal during early pregnancy, when placental growth is most rapid. Our novel findings provide a new base of information for future studies to define the role of proline in fetoplacental growth and development.
Base Level and Lithologic Control of Drainage Reorganization in the Sierra de las Planchadas, NW Argentina

Planform drainage reorganization in catchments is a common response to changes in boundary conditions. Rivers reorganize through two predominant mechanisms: discrete stream capture events and progressive divide migration. Using general geomorphic observations, flow azimuth analysis, χ anomalies, local headwater relief, and the normalized steepness index (ksn), we examine drainage reorganization, its potential controls, and the response timescales for drainages in the Sierra de las Planchadas, NW Argentina. We additionally expand on the comparison of trunk and tributary ksn values as a potential tool for recognizing drainage reorganization. We identify three significant patterns of reorganization: (1) the migration of the main drainage divide (MDD) toward the hinterland, (2) capture of longitudinal drainages by transverse reaches, and (3) shrinking foreland catchments that will result in changes to basin outlet spacing. We determine that the migration of the MDD is due to local base level differences between the major range‐bounding basins, while more local patterns, such as the capture of longitudinal drainages, are the result of the distribution of erosionally resistant lithologies. We additionally assess the response timescales required for topologic changes to the drainage network, such as divide migration; we conclude that, as suggested by modeling studies, they are longer than the timescale required for channel profile adjustment.
Urine NGAL and IL-18 are Predictive Biomarkers for Delayed Graft Function Following Kidney Transplantation

Delayed graft function (DGF) due to tubule cell injury frequently complicates deceased donor kidney transplants. We tested whether urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) represent early biomarkers for DGF (defined as dialysis requirement within the first week after transplantation). Urine samples collected on day 0 from recipients of living donor kidneys (n = 23), deceased donor kidneys with prompt graft function (n = 20) and deceased donor kidneys with DGF (n = 10) were analyzed in a double blind fashion by ELISA for NGAL and IL-18. In patients with DGF, peak postoperative serum creatinine requiring dialysis typically occurred 2–4 days after transplant. Urine NGAL and IL-18 values were significantly different in the three groups on day 0, with maximally elevated levels noted in the DGF group (p < 0.0001). The receiver– operating characteristic curve for prediction of DGF based on urine NGAL or IL-18 at day 0 showed an area under the curve of 0.9 for both biomarkers. By multivariate analysis, both urine NGAL and IL-18 on day 0 predicted the trend in serum creatinine in the posttransplant period after adjusting for effects of age, gender, race, urine output and cold ischemia time (p < 0.01). Our results indicate that urine NGAL and IL-18 represent early, predictive biomarkers of DGF.
Mucosal T cell distribution during infection with respiratory syncytial virus

Groups of 12‐week‐old Balb/c mice were inoculated intranasally with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and sacrificed at regular intervals after infection. T lymphocyte subset distribution was determined in lung tissue, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), peripheral blood, and spleen by means of flow cytometry employing monoclonal antibodies against the T cell membrane antigens Thyl.2 (pan‐T), Ly2 (CD8), and L3T4 (CD4). Thyl.2′ cells increased in the lung from 35.4% of total lymphocytes before infection to 47.6% on day 7 after infection. This increase was largely accounted for by an increase in Ly2+ cells, which manifested a rise from 7.8% preinfection to 19.8% on day 7. The level of L3T4+ cells remained constant (27.9% preinfection vs. 25.2% on day 7). The L3T4+/Ly2+ ratio in the lungs reached a nadir 7 days post infection (1.5 vs. 3.5 before infection). The total cell count in BAL increased more than tenfold during the first week after infection. At the same time Thyl.2+ cells in the BAL increased from 41.1% of total lymphocytes on day 1 to 85.3% on day 7. Ly2+ influx was the most important (5.8% on day 1 vs. 41.1% on day 7). L3T4+ cell levels increased from 17.2% on day 1 to 40.1% on day 7. RSV‐specific lymphocyte transformation was observed in BAL and blood but not in the lung tissue and spleen on day 7 postinfection. The disappearance of infectious virus in the lung correlated directly to the peak appearance of Ly2+ T cells in the lung tissue and BAL.
Skill transfer, expertise and talent development: An ecological dynamics perspective

In this paper, we propose an ecological dynamics perspective on expertise and talent development, with a focus on the role of skill transfer. The ecological dynamics theoretical framework provides an integrated explanation for human behaviour in sport, predicated on a conceptualisation including constraints on dynamical systems, ecological psychology and a complex systems approach in neurobiology. Three main pillars are presented (i.e. , individual-environment coupling as the smallest unit of analysis; adaptation of a complex dynamical system to interacting constraints; and the regulation of action with perception) in order to discuss the functional role of behavioural variability, the usefulness of perceptual-motor exploration and the importance of general and specific skill transfer in the development of talent and expertise in athletes. In addition, practical implications for coaches and instructors are discussed, notably regarding early diversification and unstructured play and activities in talent development programs, but also through variable practice and constraints manipulation.