Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stability measurements of Rutherford cables with various treatments

To improve the stability of Rutherford type superconducting cables, various methods of treating cables were considered and tested. These treatments include strand coating, partial soldering, "barber-pole" insulation and "porous metal" solder filling. To study the effect of these treatments, several cables were prepared and MQE (minimum quench energy) values were measured. Coating, partial soldering or "barber-pole insulation" improved the relative stability for some cables. The "porous metal" filled cables showed higher MQE. However the results suggest that the porous metal process needs to be improved. The measured data for cables with various treatments are presented.
Hybrid Structure-Based Virtual Screening Protocol for the Identification of Novel BACE1 Inhibitors

BACE1, also called beta-secretase or memapsin 2, is an extensively studied aspartic protease, involved in etiopathogenesis and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We report herein a modified structure-based virtual screening protocol that augments the lead identification process against BACE1 during virtual screening endeavors. A hybrid structure-based virtual screening protocol that incorporates elements from both ligand-based and structure-based techniques was used for the identification of prospective small molecule inhibitors. Virtual screening, using an active-site-derived pharmacophore, followed by ROCS (rapid overlay of chemical structures)-based GOLD (genetic optimization in ligand docking) docking was used to identify a library of focused candidates. The efficacy of the ROCS-based GOLD docking method together with our customized weighted consensus scoring function was evaluated against conventional docking methods for its ability to discern true positives from a screening library. An in-depth structural analysis of the binding mode of the top-ranking molecules reveals that emulation of the curial interaction patterns deemed necessary for BACE1 inhibition. The results obtained from our validation study ensure the superiority of our docking methodology over conventional docking methods in yielding higher enrichment rates.
Levator Veli Palatini Muscle Fatigue during Phonation in Speakers with Cleft Palate with Borderline Velopharyngeal Incompetence

Objective This study examined whether the levator veli palatini muscle in speakers with borderline velopharyngeal incompetence (BVP) with surgically treated cleft palate might be more fatigable during speech than that in speakers without clefts. Design Each subject was asked to pronounce the syllable /pu/ more than 50 times at a rate of one time per second. Mean power frequency (MPF) of one syllable was obtained from electromyogram data of the levator muscle by power spectral analysis. Participants Five patients with postsurgical cleft palates, who were identified as having BVP by nasopharyngeal fiberscopy, served as subjects, and five participants without clefts served as the control group. Results In all participants without clefts, the slopes of the regression line relating MPF to the course of syllable repetition were negative but not significant. However, in all participants with BVP, the slopes of the regression line were significantly negative. Conclusions These findings demonstrated that the levator muscle of speakers with BVP was more fatigable than that of speakers without clefts during repetition of syllables. This study suggests that the fatigability of levator muscle contributed to mild hypernasality in patients with BVP.
Structure of the Mesothelin/MPF gene and characterization of its promoter.

Mesothelin is a cell-surface antigen of unknown function that is expressed in a highly tissue-specific manner. Expression of the protein is limited to mesothelium, the tissue forming the pleural, pericardial, and peritoneal membranes. The purpose of this study was to characterize the gene and identify elements responsible for its transcription. The gene contains an 1884-bp open reading frame encoded by 15 exons occupying 8 kb of human chromosome 16. An 1850-bp region of genomic DNA at the 5' end of the gene encompassing the proposed transcriptional start site was cloned. This region lacks a TATA box and other regulatory elements such as SP1 sites, which are commonly found in promoters. Transient transfection analyses demonstrated that mesothelium-specific control elements are present within the 1.85-kb region. Minimal constitutive promoter elements were localized to a 317-bp region. Tissue-specific enhancer elements upstream of the minimal promoter were found to activate transcription from the homologous and a heterologous promoter in a position- and orientation-independent manner.
The Major Vault Protein (MVP100) Is Contained in Cholinergic Nerve Terminals of Electric Ray Electric Organ*

A protein of Mr 100,000 (MVP100) is highly enriched in the electromotor system of electric rays. Biochemical analysis indicates that MVP100 is contained in the cholinergic nerve terminals of Torpedo electric organ as part of a large cytosolic complex. On sucrose density gradient centrifugation MVP100 comigrates with synaptic vesicles or synaptosomes. It can be partially separated from synaptic vesicles by gel filtration or glycerol velocity gradient centrifugation. Within the complex MVP100 behaves like a hydrophobic protein and is protected against proteolytic attack. MVP100 can be immunodetected by an antibody against phosphotyrosine, and it becomes phosphorylated on incubation with [γ-32P]ATP. By screening an electric ray electric lobe cDNA library the primary structure of MVP100 was analyzed. MVP100 is highly homologous to the major vault proteins of slime mold and rat and to the human lung resistance-related protein. Compared with non-neural tissues the expression of MVP100 is highest in brain and enriched in the electric lobe that contains the somata of the electromotor neurons. Immunoelectron microscopic analysis reveals a close association of MVP100 and synaptic vesicles in the nerve terminals of the electric organ.
Increasing threat of Gram-negative bacteria

The widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics has led to emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of many Gram-negative organisms. This problem is particularly serious in critically ill patients, especially those with ventilator-associated pneumonia. Extensive antibiotic resistance has developed in Gram-negative bacteria, due both to innate resistance in some species and the fact that they are highly adept at acquiring antibiotic-resistant determinants from each other. Antibiotic resistance develops through the following three basic mechanisms: alteration of the drug target, prevention of drug access to the target (including actively removing the drug from the bacteria), and drug inactivation. Certain Gram-negative microorganisms are particular problems in the intensive care unit, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter spp. , Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and the Enterobacteriaceae. The combination of an increasing population at risk, and the natural virulence and adaptability of Gram-negative bacteria guarantees that critical care physicians will face a persistent and increasing challenge from these pathogens.
Improvement of hydrogen passivation via the template of acid textured surface

In solar cell manufacturing, surface texturing plays an important role in light trapping. Besides optical performance, it was revealed to be also critical to passivation performance of solar cells in this study. Among wafers textured with different chemicals (HNO3, KOH and KOH with IPA) and deposited with PECVD SiNx:H films, the acid HNO3 textured wafers showed the highest bulk lifetime, while the alkaline KOH textured ones showed the lowest surface recombination velocity (SRV). With the advantage of bulk lifetime improvement from acid textured surface, an additional passivation process via the template of acid textured surface prior to KOH or KOH+IPA texturing was testified to be able to enhance bulk lifetime and reduce SRV of wafers. Besides bulk lifetime and SRV, the density of interface trap (Dit) also shows the same correlation with the passivation performance mentioned above, as revealed by CV measurement in this study.
Uplink Nonorthogonal Multiple Access in 5G Systems

In order to achieve diverse arrived power in uplink nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA), an uplink power control scheme is proposed. The proposed scheme makes evolved NodeB (eNB) distinguish the multiplexing user equipments (UEs) in power domain. The outage performance and the achievable sum data rate for the proposed scheme are theoretically analyzed, and the closed-form expressions of outage probability and achievable sum data rate are derived. By simulation, we show that the outage performances are related to both the power backoff step and the target data rate. Compared with the traditional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme, the proposed NOMA scheme significantly improves the achievable sum data rate.
Structural Basis for a Unique ATP Synthase Core Complex from Nanoarcheaum equitans*

Background: Structural asymmetry upon nucleotide binding is crucial for catalytic activity of ATP synthases. Results: The structures of apo and bound A3B3 hexamer of N. equitans ATP synthase show conformational inflexibility. Conclusion: The N. equitans A3B3 hexamer is an inactive form. Significance: The structure of inactive form of N. equitans ATP synthase A3B3 is shown for the first time. ATP synthesis is a critical and universal life process carried out by ATP synthases. Whereas eukaryotic and prokaryotic ATP synthases are well characterized, archaeal ATP synthases are relatively poorly understood. The hyperthermophilic archaeal parasite, Nanoarcheaum equitans, lacks several subunits of the ATP synthase and is suspected to be energetically dependent on its host, Ignicoccus hospitalis. This suggests that this ATP synthase might be a rudimentary machine. Here, we report the crystal structures and biophysical studies of the regulatory subunit, NeqB, the apo-NeqAB, and NeqAB in complex with nucleotides, ADP, and adenylyl-imidodiphosphate (non-hydrolysable analog of ATP). NeqB is ∼20 amino acids shorter at its C terminus than its homologs, but this does not impede its binding with NeqA to form the complex. The heterodimeric NeqAB complex assumes a closed, rigid conformation irrespective of nucleotide binding; this differs from its homologs, which require conformational changes for catalytic activity. Thus, although N. equitans possesses an ATP synthase core A3B3 hexameric complex, it might not function as a bona fide ATP synthase.
The Idea Maturity Model — A Dynamic Approach to Evaluate Idea Maturity

In idea creation and assessment processes, the accruement and the description of an idea are mostly allocated to a fixed point in time, defined as the end of the generating process and the start of the idea assessment. This static approach does not fit the reality in industrial idea processes. A dynamic approach for idea assessment is therefore introduced. An idea is not seen as a static but as a dynamic state, characterized by different degrees of maturity. Maturity is understood as a measure of the assessability of the individual evaluation characteristics. Based on Crosby’s maturity model and classical capability maturity models, a new idea maturity model (IMM) has been developed and is introduced for the first time. The five idea maturity levels (IML) are named Initial, Awareness, Appraisability, Valuation and Realizability and harmonize well with other maturity models. The levels are described by general characteristics, although the development of the maturity model focussed on new product or service development. The compatibility of the IMM with idea assessment processes and conditions in organizations and companies has been checked.
Can the kidney function as a lung? Systemic oxygenation and renal preservation during retrograde perfusion of the ischaemic kidney in rabbits

To investigate renal preservation by a novel method of perfusion using an oxygenated perfluorocarbon (PFC) emulsion via retrograde access to the kidney, as preserving renal function during urological surgery has been elusive, and the recognized technique of nephron‐sparing surgery has increased its application and practice in modern urology.
Alcohol, hypertension and the cardiovascular system: a critical appraisal

Abstract Cross‐sectional and longitudinal population studies have provided a considerable corpus of evidence for an inverse association between light to moderate alcohol intake and both coronary artery disease and stroke. The formulation of balanced public health advice on the basis of such studies, however, needs to take into account the full spectrum of the effects of alcohol on the cardiovascular system, particularly its equally well documented effect to increase level of blood pressure and prevalence of hypertension. In this review, the broader implications of the association of alcohol with hypertension are discussed, principally in the context of the effect of higher levels of alcohol consumption to increase ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke, left ventricular hypertrophy, congestive cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death.
Estimating price cost margins, scale economies and workers' bargaining power at the firm level

This paper presents a model for estimating price cost margins, scale economies and the workers' bargaining power from a panel of firm level data. The model extends Hall’s framework, based on the « Solow residual » under imperfect competition on the product markets, to allow for the possibility that wages are bargained off the labor demand curve, according to an efficient bargaining model. One interesting aspect of our methodology is that it does not require to measure the opportunity cost of labor for the estimation of the union bargaining power as in the case of most studies about negociation models. Our model is estimated on a panel of French manufacturing firms using the Chamberlain Π matrix framework. We find substantial imperfections in both the product and labor markets in French manufacturing. We also show that the lack of explicit consideration of labor market imperfection results in a significant underestimation in markups, due to the omission of the part of product rents captured by workers. Our estimate of the workers’ bargaining power is of an order of 0.25 on a scale going from 0 to 1, while our mark-up estimate is of about 1.6, as compared with 1.3 when ignoring workers’ bargaining power.
Deep learning on symbolic representations for large-scale heterogeneous time-series event prediction

In this paper, we consider the problem of event prediction with multi-variate time series data consisting of heterogeneous (continuous and categorical) variables. The complex dependencies between the variables combined with asynchronicity and sparsity of the data makes the event prediction problem particularly challenging. Most state-of-art approaches address this either by designing hand-engineered features or breaking up the problem over homogeneous variates. In this work, we formulate the (rare) event prediction task as a classification problem with a novel asymmetric loss function and propose an end-to-end deep learning algorithm over symbolic representations of time-series. Symbolic representations are fed into an embedding layer and a Long Short Term Memory Neural Network (LSTM) layer which are trained to learn discriminative features. We also propose a simple sequence chopping technique to speed-up the training of LSTM for long temporal sequences. Experiments on real-world industrial datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Distribution of protein kinase C isoforms in the cat retina

Immunocytochemical localization was carried out for five isoforms of protein kinase C (PKC) in the cat retina. In common with other mammalian species, PKCα was found in rod bipolar cells. Staining was also seen in a small population of cone bipolar cells with axon terminals ramifying near the middle of the inner plexiform layer (IPL). PKCβI was localized to rod bipolar cells, one class of cone bipolar cell, and numerous amacrine and displaced amacrine cells. Staining for PKCβII was seen in three types of cone bipolar cells as well as in amacrine and ganglion cells. Immunoreactivity for both PKCε and PKCζ was found in rod bipolar cells; PKCε was also seen in a population of cone bipolar cells and a few amacrine and ganglion cells whereas PKCζ was found in all ganglion cells. Double-label immunofluorescence studies showed that dendrites of the two PKCβII-positive OFF-cone bipolar cells exhibit immmunoreactivity for the kainate-selective glutamate receptor GluR5. The third PKCβII cone bipolar is an ON-type cell and did not stain for GluR5. The retinal distribution of these isoforms of PKC is consistent with a role in modulation of various aspects of neurotransmission including synaptic vesicle release and regulation of receptor molecules.
HIV‐1 matrix protein p17 binds to monocytes and selectively stimulates MCP‐1 secretion: role of transcriptional factor AP‐1

HIV‐1 matrix protein p17 activates a variety of cell responses which play a critical role in viral replication and infection. Its activity depends on the expression of p17 receptors (p17R) on the surface of target cells. Whether p17 also plays a role in stimulating human monocytes, a major HIV‐1 reservoir, is not known. Here we show that human monocytes constitutively express p17Rs and that p17 selectively triggers these cells to produce MCP‐1. The effect of p17 on MCP‐1 expression was observed at the transcriptional level and was primarily dependent on the activation of the transcription factor AP‐1. p17 increased the binding activity of AP‐1 complexes in a time‐ and dose‐dependent manner. Deletion of the AP‐1 binding sites in the MCP‐1 promoter resulted in the lack of p17‐induced MCP‐1 transcription. In particular, the P3 binding site located between −69 and −63 position seems to be essential to MCP‐1 mRNA induction in p17‐treated monocytes. An ever increasing amount of evidences shows a tight link between biologically dysregulated monocytes, AP‐1 activation, MCP‐1 release and HIV‐1 pathogenesis. Overall our results suggest that p17 may play a critical role in the monocyte‐mediated inflammatory processes, which are suspected to be major precipitating events in AIDS‐defining diseases.
A new approach to create 3D fixation density maps for stereoscopic images

An approach to create fixation density maps(FDM) for stereoscopic images is proposed in this paper, overcoming the shortages of current methods. A new representation of stereoscopic images like Computed Tomography (CT) is used, which can show more information such as depth and discomfort zone. Apart from this, we follow the protogenetic 2D calibration of eyetracker by a 3D offline calibration to gain accuracy of 3D gaze points, tuned to a particular user. We combine these two parts through classifying eyetracking data to several depth planes which are segmented in the procedure of the representation method like CT, and obtain the fixation distribution in different depth levels for a stereoscopic image.
Comparison of propofol and increased doses of thiopentone for laryngeal mask insertion

Conditions for insertion of the laryngeal mask were assessed following induction of anaesthesia with either propofol 2.5 mg/kg, thiopentone 5.0 mg/kg or thiopentone 6.0 mg/kg in 120 patients premedicated with diazepam 10 mg. Insertion following induction with thiopentone 5.0 mg/kg and 6.0 mg/kg resulted in a greater incidence of gagging (P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively) compared with propofol 2.5 mg/kg.
Identification of Soil Bacteria Susceptible to TiO2 and ZnO Nanoparticles

ABSTRACT Because soil is expected to be a major sink for engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) released to the environment, the effects of ENPs on soil processes and the organisms that carry them out should be understood. DNA-based fingerprinting analyses have shown that ENPs alter soil bacterial communities, but specific taxon changes remain unknown. We used bar-coded pyrosequencing to explore the responses of diverse bacterial taxa to two widely used ENPs, nano-TiO2 and nano-ZnO, at various doses (0, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg g−1 soil for TiO2; 0.05, 0.1, and 0.5 mg g−1 soil for ZnO) in incubated soil microcosms. These ENPs significantly altered the bacterial communities in a dose-dependent manner, with some taxa increasing as a proportion of the community, but more taxa decreasing, indicating that effects mostly reduced diversity. Some of the declining taxa are known to be associated with nitrogen fixation (Rhizobiales, Bradyrhizobiaceae, and Bradyrhizobium) and methane oxidation (Methylobacteriaceae), while some positively impacted taxa are known to be associated with the decomposition of recalcitrant organic pollutants (Sphingomonadaceae) and biopolymers including protein (Streptomycetaceae and Streptomyces), indicating potential consequences to ecosystem-scale processes. The latter was suggested by a positive correlation between protease activity and the relative abundance of Streptomycetaceae (R = 0.49, P = 0.000) and Streptomyces (R = 0.47, P = 0.000). Our results demonstrate that some metal oxide nanoparticles could affect soil bacterial communities and associated processes through effects on susceptible, narrow-function bacterial taxa.
Safety of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors for treating type 2 diabetes

Introduction: Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors (gliptins) occupy a growing place in the armamentarium of drugs used for the management of hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes, although some safety concerns have been raised in recent years. Areas covered: An updated review providing an analysis of available safety data (meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, observational cohort and case–control studies and pharmacovigilance reports) with five commercialized DPP-4 inhibitors (sitagliptin, vildagliptin, saxagliptin, alogliptin, linagliptin). A special focus is given to overall safety profile; pancreatic adverse events (AEs) (acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer); overall cardiovascular safety (myocardial infarction and stroke); congestive heart failure concern and finally, safety in special populations (elderly, renal impairment). Expert opinion: The good tolerance/safety profile of DPP-4 inhibitors has been largely confirmed, including in more fragile populations (elderly, renal impairment) with almost no increased risk of infection or gastrointestinal AEs, no weight gain and a minimal risk of hypoglycemia. Although an increased risk of acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer was suspected, the complete set of available data appears reassuring so far. Cardiovascular safety of DPP-4 inhibitors has been proven but an unexpected increased risk of heart failure has been reported which should be confirmed in ongoing trials and better understood. Further postmarketing surveillance is recommended.
Experience‐Dependent Affective Learning and Risk for Psychopathology in Children

Abstract: The influence of childhood affective experiences across development may be understood in terms of preparedness to learn about emotion, combined with general immaturity and neuro‐plasticity of perceptual systems. Early in development, processing resources are relatively immature and limited in capacity, thereby constraining how much information the young child can absorb. But it is clear that learning about emotions proceeds swiftly in nearly all children, suggesting biological preparedness to track associations between certain stimuli and outcomes. It is proposed here that limited processing capacity, in tandem with dispositions to filter or select key privileged stimuli in the environment, facilitates adaptive, rapid, affective learning. The developmental organization of affective systems is contingent upon those features of input that are most learnable, such as signals that are particularly salient, frequent, or predictable. Therefore, plasticity confers risk for maladaptation in that children's learning will be based upon these prominent features of the environment, however aberrant.