Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
apical brush border domain.

Biologists have long appreciated the intimate connection between morphology and function. Powerful examples are provided by the epithelial cells that line our hollow organs, including the gut, kidney, lung, and cochlea. The intestinal tract provides one of the most striking cases. Here, morphological adaptations at both the tissue and cellular level allow the intestinal epithelium to make close and prolonged contact with luminal contents, in turn promoting efficient uptake of available nutrients. The small intestinal mucosa features thousands of macroscopic (0.5 mm in length) fingerlike folds of tissue referred to as villi (Fig. 1, A, B, and D), which project into the lumen, increasing the tissue surface area available for nutrient absorption (Helander and Fändriks, 2014). The epithelium that lines each villus is composed of several cell types including goblet cells, enteroendocrine cells, Paneth cells, and enterocytes. Among these, enterocytes are by far the most abundant and are solely responsible for nutrient absorption. Because of the ever-present threat of chemical or physical damage, the intestinal epithelium is continuously renewed by stem cells found in the “crypts” at the base of each villus (Fig. 1, B and D; van der Flier and Clevers, 2009). As nascent epithelial cells emerge from the crypt, they undergo rapid differentiation (Fig. 1 C), and a subset takes on the attributes of mature enterocytes (Mariadason et al., 2005; Chang et al., 2008).
Perfil epidemiológico da população idosa de Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil

Este es un estudio descriptivo de la utilizacion de los datos secundarios de la secretaria municipal para la coordinacion de la politica social en Belo Horizonte, cuyo proposito fue describir el perfil epidemiologico de la poblacion de ancianos de esta ciudad. Las personas mayores en Belo Horizonte en 2000 representan el 9,1% del total de la poblacion que reside en ella. Poblacion de personas mayores, 60,5% son mujeres y el 39,4% son hombres, el 2,9% de las personas de edad tenian algun tipo de discapacidad fisica, 16,4% tiene la perdida de la audicion, 23,5% tienen dificultades para ver, 24,1% tienen dificultades para caminar o subir escaleras, y que el 3,8% tenia problemas mentales. Se concluyo que la proporcion de personas de edad avanzada, debilitados en Belo Horizonte estuvo representada por menos de uno con una buena salud. El envejecimiento no es sinonimo de incapacidad.
The Role of Uterine Infection in Pregnancy Outcome: A Case Report

Summary It was believed in the past that only the lower genital tract is inhabited by microorganisms, and the cervix was considered as a perfect barrier against the ascension of microbes. Nowadays, many studies using new sequencing technologies examining microbiomes with low biomass show that the microorganisms are gradually changing from the lower to the upper genital tract with decreasing bacterial abundance and increasing bacterial diversity. It is well documented that the endometrium is a non-sterile area, and in healthy women, the Lactobacillus spp. is the dominant flora. Lactobacillus - as a dominant endometrial microbiome, has a crucial role in implantation, early pregnancy development. It is also essential for a good pregnancy outcome. Non-Lactobacillus-dominant microbiome is associated with poor reproductive outcomes (recurrent implantation failure, recurrent miscarriages, outgoing pregnancy). This association is evidence of its significance for reproductive health. We present a case of unsuccessful first pregnancy with concurrent bacterial endometrial infection. A definitive antibiotic treatment resulted in a successful full-term second pregnancy. We present the influence of pathogenic microorganisms on uterine function and pregnancy development, current possibilities for diagnosis and treatment.
Explorer The ongoing impacts of hepatitis c - a systematic narrative review of the literature

Background: Many countries have developed, or are developing, national strategies aimed at reducing the harms associated with hepatitis C infection. Making these strategies relevant to the vast majority of those affected by hepatitis C requires a more complete understanding of the short and longer term impacts of infection. We used a systematic approach to scope the literature to determine what is currently known about the health and psychosocial impacts of hepatitis C along the trajectory from exposure to ongoing chronic infection, and to identify what knowledge gaps remain. Methods: PubMed, Current Contents and PsychINFO databases were searched for primary studies published in the ten years from 2000 – 2009 inclusive. Two searches were conducted for studies on hepatitis C in adult persons focusing on: outcomes over time (primarily cohort and other prospective designs); and the personal and psychosocial impacts of chronic infection. All retrieved studies were assessed for eligibility according to specific inclusion/exclusion criteria, data completeness and methodological coherence. Outcomes reported in 264 included studies were summarized, tabulated and synthesized. Results: Injecting drug use (IDU) was a major risk for transmission with seroconversion occurring relatively early in injecting careers. Persistent hepatitis C viraemia, increasing age and excessive alcohol consumption independently predicted disease progression. While interferon based therapies reduced quality of life during treatment, improvements on baseline quality of life was achieved post treatment – particularly when sustained viral response was achieved. Much of the negative social impact of chronic infection was due to the association of infection with IDU and inflated assessments of transmission risks. Perceived discrimination was commonly reported in health care settings, potentially impeding health care access. Perceptions of stigma and experiences of discrimination also had direct negative impacts on wellbeing and social functioning. Conclusions: Hepatitis C and its management continue to have profound and ongoing impacts on health and social well being. Biomedical studies provided prospective information on clinical aspects of infection, while the broader social and psychological studies presented comprehensive information on seminal experiences (such as diagnosis and disclosure). Increasing the focus on combined methodological approaches could enhance understanding about the health and social impacts of hepatitis C along the life course.
Toward a Synthetic Model for Distribution System Restoration and Crew Dispatch

Distribution service restoration (DSR) is critical for improving the resilience and reliability of modern distribution systems by strategically and sequentially energizing the system components and customer loads. Restoring electricity service to affected customers also requires multiple crews with different skill sets to perform multiple tasks that are procedurally interdependent with safety guaranteed. However, in existing DSR practices, switch operations and crew dispatch are scheduled separately, and their interdependence is not fully considered. As advanced technologies are enabling remote communication, control, and dispatch, utilities now desire an integrated DSR framework to achieve seamless coordination among multiple DSR tasks such as switch operation, crew dispatch, and component repair. In this paper, we introduce a synthetic model that integrates the service restoration model and the crew dispatch model based on a universal routing model. The proposed model can provide the estimated time of restoration for each load, the switching sequence for safely operating remotely/manually operated switches, and dispatch solutions for crews with different skill sets. The proposed synthetic model is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model, and its effectiveness is evaluated via the IEEE 123 bus test feeder and several large-scale test feeders (EPRI Ckt5, Ckt7, Ckt24, and IEEE 8500 node test feeder.
Analyse faciale avec dérivées Gaussiennes

Dans cette these, nous explorons l'utilisation des derivees Gaussiennes multi-echelles comme representation initiale pour la detection, la reconnaissance et la classification des visages humains dans des images. Nous montrons qu'un algorithme rapide, $O(N)$, de construction d'une pyramide binomiale peut etre utilise pour extraire des derivees Gaussiennes avec une reponse impulsionnelle identique a un facteur d'echelle $sqrt{2}$>. Nous montrons ensuite qu'un vecteur compose de ces derivees a differentes echelles et a differents ordres en chaque pixel peut etre utilise comme base pour les algorithmes de detection, de classification et de reconnaissance lesquels atteignent ou depassent les performances de l'etat de l'art avec un cout de calcul reduit. De plus l'utilisation de coefficients entiers, avec une complexite de calcul et des exigences memoires en $O(N)$ font qu'une telle approche est appropriee pour des applications temps reel embarquees sur des systemes mobiles. Nous testons cette representation en utilisant trois problemes classiques d'analyse d'images faciales : detection de visages, reconnaissance de visages et estimation de l'âge. Pour la detection de visages, nous examinons les derivees Gaussiennes multi-echelles comme une alternative aux ondelettes de Haar pour une utilisation dans la construction d'une cascade de classifieurs lineaires appris avec l'algorithme Adaboost, popularise par Viola and Jones. Nous montrons que la representation pyramidale peut etre utilisee pour optimiser le processus de detection en adaptant la position des derivees dans la cascade. Dans ces experiences nous sommes capables de montrer que nous pouvons obtenir des niveaux de performances de detection similaires (mesures par des courbes ROC) avec une reduction importante du cout de calcul. Pour la reconnaissance de visages et l'estimation de l'âge, nous montrons que les derivees Gaussiennes multi-echelles peuvent etre utilisees pour calculer une representation tensorielle qui conserve l'information faciale la plus importante. Nous montrons que combinee a l'Analyse Multilineaire en Composantes Principales et a la methode Kernel Discriminative Common Vectors (KDCV), cette representation tensorielle peut mener a un algorithme qui est similaire aux techniques concurrentes pour la reconnaissance de visages avec un cout de calcul reduit. Pour l'estimation de l'âge a partir d'images faciales, nous montrons que notre representation tensorielle utilisant les derivees de Gaussiennes multi-echelles peut etre utilisee avec une machine a vecteur de pertinence pour fournir une estimation de l'âge avec des niveaux de performances similaires aux methodes de l'etat de l'art.
Love, Money and Obligation: Transnational Marriage in a Northeastern Thai Village

the project investigators go to considerable lengths to ensure the data are consistent across countries and to avoid some of the most obvious potential biases. As with all data, the results cannot eliminate all problems associated with capturing and depicting complex concrete empirical processes, but the results that we are provided with give an important insight into the trends under observation. Overall, this book is a major contribution to the existing literature and must be a key reference point for any scholar seeking to understand the terrain of political and social conflict in post-global economic crisis Europe. The dataset on which it is based is the most comprehensive we have available to date regarding recent European protest events—and one can hope it will be made publicly available so that the research community can benefit from access to this excellent resource. The book helpfully makes a number of important corrections to the sweeping generalizations that are sometimes made regarding patterns of protest after 2011 and during the ‘‘age of austerity,’’ especially cautioning against a generalization to all of Europe trends that were really mostly apparent in southern Europe and especially Greece. The book represents a major advance in, and contribution to, contemporary scholarship on protests and social movements as they developed in the wake of the global economic crisis.
Discontinuous phase transitions in quantum lattice systems

These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 1845 (1998) Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-1845Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2016-08-08
Spatio-temporal dynamics of nuclear CREB1: what does it mean?

In the mammalian pineal gland (PG), cyclic AMP responsive element-binding protein 1 (CREB1) participates in the nocturnal melatonin synthesis that rhythmically modulates physiology and behavior. Phosphorylation of CREB1 present in pinealocyte nuclei is one of the key regulatory steps that drives pineal transcription. The spatio-temporal dynamics of CREB1 itself within PG cell types have not yet been documented. In this study we analyzed total CREB1 via Western blot, and the dynamism of CREB1 nuclear distribution in individual rat pinealocytes using fluorescence immunohistochemistry followed by confocal laser-scanning microscopy and quantitative analysis. Total CREB1 levels remained constant in the PG throughout the light:dark cycle. The distribution pattern of nuclear CREB1 did vary, however, among different PG cells. Pinealocytes emerged as having discrete CREB1 domains within their nucleoplasm that were especially distinct. The number, size, and location of CREB1 foci fluctuated among pinealocytes, within the same PG and among Zeitgeber times. A significantly larger dispersion of CREB1-immunoreactive nuclear sites was found at night. This was not accompanied by changes in the overall transcription activity, which was mostly conserved between the light and dark phases, as shown by the expression of a particular phosphorylated form of the RNA polymerase II (RNAPII-pSer5CTD). Suppression of the nocturnal norepinephrine pulse by chronic bilateral superior cervical ganglionectomy increased CREB1 dispersion in pinealocyte nuclei, as compared to sham-derived cells. In addition, differences in CREB1 distribution were found between sham-operated and non-operated rats at early night. Together, these data suggest that in mature pinealocytes nuclear CREB1 is subjected to a dynamic spatio-temporal distribution. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the underlying mechanisms, including the role of chromatin and interchromatin elements, and to understand the impact of CREB1 reorganization in the pineal transcriptome.
Mechanical loading is required for initiation of extracellular matrix deposition at the developing murine myotendinous junction

The myotendinous junction (MTJ) contributes to the generation of motion by connecting muscle to tendon. At the adult MTJ, a specialized extracellular matrix (ECM) is thought to contribute to the mechanical integrity of the muscle-tendon interface, but the factors that influence MTJ formation during mammalian development are unclear. Here, we combined 3D imaging and proteomics with murine models in which muscle contractility and patterning are disrupted to resolve morphological and compositional changes in the ECM during MTJ development. We found that MTJ-specific ECM deposition can be initiated via static loading due to growth; however, it required cyclic loading to develop a mature morphology. Furthermore, the MTJ can mature without the tendon terminating into cartilage. Based on these results, we describe a model wherein MTJ development depends on mechanical loading but not insertion into an enthesis.
Granger causality analysis for calcium transients in neuronal networks, challenges and improvements

One challenge in neuroscience is to understand how information flows between neurons in vivo to trigger specific behaviors. Granger causality (GC) has been proposed as a simple and effective measure for identifying dynamical interactions. At single-cell resolution however, GC analysis is rarely used compared to directionless correlation analysis. Here, we study the applicability of GC analysis for calcium imaging data in diverse contexts. We first show that despite underlying linearity assumptions, GC analysis successfully retrieves non-linear interactions in a synthetic network simulating intracellular calcium fluctuations of spiking neurons. We highlight the potential pitfalls of applying GC analysis on real in vivo calcium signals, and offer solutions regarding the choice of GC analysis parameters. We took advantage of calcium imaging datasets from motoneurons in embryonic zebrafish to show how the improved GC can retrieve true underlying information flow. Applied to the network of brainstem neurons of larval zebrafish, our pipeline reveals strong driver neurons in the locus of the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR), driving target neurons matching expectations from anatomical and physiological studies. Altogether, this practical toolbox can be applied on in vivo population calcium signals to increase the selectivity of GC to infer flow of information across neurons.
Spherical opacity sampling model atmospheres for M-giants and supergiants. II : A grid

A grid of spherically symmetric model atmospheres in hydrostatic equilibrium and LTE, with all opacities treated through the opacity sampling method is presented. New line-lists, calculated from up-to-date data for the TiO, VO and H 2 O molecules, have been included in the opacities. The program, methods and data used for computing the models is presented in Plez et al. (1992, A&A, 256)
Controller Design for Discrete-Time Nonlinear Markovian Jump Systems Using Fuzzy Logic

This paper considers the class of discrete-time nonlinear Markovian jump systems. The stochastic stability and stabilization problems are tackled. A model-based fuzzy stabilization design utilizing the concept of the so-called parallel distributed compensation (PDC) is employed to stochastically stabilize the class of systems under consideration. LMI-based sufficient conditions are developed to synthesize the state feedback controller that stochastically stabilizes the fuzzy stochastic system. Two examples are worked out to show the validness of the theoretical results.
A k-nearest-neighbour classifier for assessing consumer credit risk

SUMMARY The last 30 years have seen the development of credit scoring techniques for assessing the creditworthiness of consumer loan applicants. Traditional credit scoring methodology has involved the use of techniques such as discriminant analysis, linear or logistic regression, linear programming and decision trees. In this paper we look at the application of the k-nearest-neighbour (k-NN) method, a standard technique in pattern recognition and nonparametric statistics, to the credit scoring problem. We propose an adjusted version of the Euclidean distance metric which attempts to incorporate knowledge of class separation contained in the data. Our k-NN methodology is applied to a real data set and we discuss the selection of optimal values of the parameters k and D included in the method. To assess the potential of the method we make comparisons with linear and logistic regression and decision trees and graphs. We end by discussing a practical implementation of the proposed k-NN classifier.
Two-Phase Commit Using Blockchain

We created a decentralized system that uses a public blockchain as a two-phase commit (2PC) coordinator, so users can securely commit an atomic transaction across any databases that support our interface. Users treat our system as one large database with ACID, despite being composed of many individual databases that are unaware of each other’s existence. By using a blockchain as a coordinator, it is resilient to failures such as network outages, power outages, and disk failures that cause traditional 2PC implementations to block. Our initial integration is with the Ethereum blockchain and LMDB databases; however, our system provides a generic interface to integrate with other blockchains and databases.
THE CAUSES OF DELAYS AND DISRUPTION AT CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN SERDANG SELANGOR, MALAYSIA

Construction industry has become one of the greatest income provider as it has contributed to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Malaysia. However, construction sector has been much affected by unexpected situation such as construction delays and disruption. This research discusses the importance of studying the construction sector through the identification of gaps between theory and practice associated with delays in the completion of construction projects. The objectives of this research are; To identify the causes and factors contributing to delay and disruption in construction projects. To investigate the effect of delays and disruption in construction projects, to determine the methods that can be used to minimize delays and disruption in construction projects. These objectives achieved through viewing different research paper, articles from previous studies, by considering all viewpoint from various parties that are involved in construction process such as contractors, client, consultant, and others, the research identified the major factors, causes and effects that contributes to delays and disruption in Serdang, Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed among respondents that are involved in construction project in Serdang. The process of data analysis was conducted by using descriptive statistic that ranked the mean value of the factors, causes and effects that contributes to delays and disruption in construction project. By using the ranking method, financial difficulties were recognized as the most significant factor while cost, time overrun and dispute were recognized as the most significant effects that caused delays and disruption in construction projects. Based on the results and findings a framework has been developed to be an effective tool to help all parties to avoid causes of delay and disruption in construction projects. Finally, recommendations have been developed for each of the contracting parties (owner, consultant, contractor), in order to minimize and avoid the delays causes and get projects completed within the planned schedule.
Phytochemical study of the extracts of oilseeds of Staudtia kamerunensis var. gabonensis (Warb.) from Gabon and evaluation of their antiradical activity

The report focused on phytochemical tests and evaluation of the antiradical activity of seed extracts of Staudtia kamerunensis var. gabonensis . The successive extraction of seed powders from S. kamerunensis var. gabonensis was carried out by maceration at room temperature with solvents of increasing polarities: Cyclohexane, trichlorethylene, acetone, ethanol and distilled water. The antiradical activity was measured by trapping the radical cation of 2,2'-azinobis [3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid] (ABTS•+) with gallic acid as reference antioxidant. The total extraction yields were the order of 44.6%. Phytochemical tests demonstrated the presence of secondary metabolites of alkaloids, tannins, polyphenols types, reducing compounds, free anthracene derivatives, anthraquinones, total sugars, coumarins, free quinones, sterols and triterpenes, carotenoids, flavonoids, mucilages and traces of cardiac glycosides and saponins. The results of the anti-free radical activity showed that the polar extracts were much anti-free of the free radicals than the non-polar extracts. The ethanolic extract was the most active with an IC 50 of 20 µgmL -1 , followed by the aqueous and acetone extracts with IC 50 of 25 µgmL -1 . The cyclohexane and trichlorethylene extracts have lower antiradical activities with IC 50 of 400 µgmL -1 . Gallic acid, the reference antioxidant, showed an IC 50 of 0.37 µgmL -1 .