Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Compatibility of Acyclovir with Polyacrylonitrile in the Electrospun Drug-Loaded Nanofibers

Drug delivery systems (DDS) derived from drug-loaded fibers have attracted increasing attention in recent years. In this study, drug-loaded nanofibers with varying drug-to-polymer ratios were prepared using electrospinning with acyclovir (ACY) as the model drug and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as the filament-forming matrix polymer. The compatibility of ACY with PAN was investigated by FTIR, DSC, XRD, and morphological studies. The obtained results clearly demonstrated that ACY had good compatibility with PAN and was able to be evenly distributed in the polymer fiber matrix. ACY present in the drug-loaded fibers with a drug content of 10 wt % was in an amorphous state. As the ACY contents in the fibers increased up to 20 wt % drug crystals began to form and ACY separated from the fiber matrix. FTIR results illustrated that the main interactions between PAN and ACY was hydrogen bonding and data from (1)H-NMR showed that ACY was able to retain its chemical integrity during the electrospinning. All the fibers with varying drug content provided sustained drug release profiles over a 12-h period. The drug-loaded fibers prepared in this study could provide new approaches for developing novel transdermal DDS or skin topical DDS. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 117: 1509-1515, 2010
Diffusion in Nanocrystalline Metals and Alloys—A Status Report

Diffusion is a key property determining the suitability of nanocrystalline materials for use in numerous applications, and it is crucial to the assessment of the extent to which the interfaces in nanocrystalline samples differ from conventional grain boundaries. The present article offers an overview of diffusion in nanocrystalline metals and alloys. Emphasis is placed on the interfacial characteristics that affect diffusion in nanocrystalline materials, such as structural relaxation, grain growth, porosity, and the specific type of interface. In addition, the influence of intergranular amorphous phases and intergranular melting on diffusion is addressed, and the atomistic simulation of GB structures and diffusion is briefly summarized. On the basis of the available diffusion data, the diffusion‐mediated processes of deformation and induced magnetic anisotropy are discussed.
Children's processing of emotion in ironic language

In the present study we addressed two novel questions: (1) is children's irony appreciation and processing related to their empathy skills? and (2) is children's processing of a speaker's ironic meaning best explained by a modular or interactive theory? Participants were thirty-one 8- and 9-year-olds children. We used a variant of the visual world paradigm to assess children's processing of ironic and literal evaluative remarks; in this paradigm children's cognition is revealed through their actions and eye gaze. Results in this paradigm showed that children's irony appreciation and processing were correlated with their empathy development, suggesting that empathy or emotional perspective taking may be important for development of irony comprehension. Further, children's processing of irony was consistent with an interactive framework, in which children consider ironic meanings in the earliest moments, as speech unfolds. These results provide important new insights about development of this complex aspect of emotion recognition.
Social Metadata for Personal Photography

The increasing number of media creation devices is adding to the organization and media management problem for personal media. Content describing metadata is seen as the most prominent answer to this problem. However, current metadata standards have shortcomings when it comes to the domain of personal media. This is because the standards are designed for public and professional uses of media and in personal media some fundamental principles about public and professional media and metadata do not hold true. Based on our studies and literature on people’s photography habits we propose to use social information as a metadata resource for storing, retrieving, and enabling new applications. We argue that information on social activity around personal media is both important to the end-users and enables new kinds of applications for solving the personal media management problem, and that future work on personal media metadata should take into account the social information related to the media.
Re-encoding for low power state assignment of FSMs

The state assignment problem for nite state machines has been explored extensively by the logic synthesis and asynchronous design communities. In this paper, we introduce the concepts of base switching and relative switching. We present a fast intelligent exchange based re-encoding algorithm for reducing average switching. The reasons for the speed of this iterative algorithm are given along with an analysis of its time complexity. Experimental results on sequential circuits from the MCNC benchmark set show that switching activity can be reduced by 75%(max) and 35-47%(average). Power savings of 50%(max) and 10-18%(average) were obtained with negligible increase in area. Based on the experimental results we draw conclusions about the best choice of a starting point for the re-encoding algorithm.
Estrogen/isoflavone interactions in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Soy isoflavones are phytoestrogenic components of dietary soy, which are widely consumed for their potential health benefits. Soy isoflavones appear to decrease breast and endometrial cancer risk in human observational studies, but paradoxically stimulate growth of breast cancer cells in culture and uterine enlargement in rodents. We have shown that these compounds are not estrogenic in cynomolgus monkeys even at relatively high doses, but that they reduce estrogen‐induced proliferative responses of the breast and endometrium. This effect may be mediated through estrogen receptor interactions and/or modulation of endogenous estrogen metabolism. Interindividual variation in isoflavone absorption and metabolism contributes to the degree of estrogen antagonistic effect. Our recent studies have also shown that individual isoflavone metabolites such as glyceollins may have unique selective estrogen receptor modulator‐like activity, acting as tissue‐specific antagonists without agonist activity. Rodent studies and human epidemiologic data suggest that timing of exposure and dose relative to endogenous estrogen concentrations are important determinants of effect, and studies of dietary soy on breast development and pubertal maturation are under way. Because soy isoflavones are both abundant in standard monkey chow diets and widely available as dietary supplements for human beings, these findings have broad relevance to the health of human and nonhuman primates. Am. J. Primatol. 71:722–731, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of enzymatic pretreatment on the mechanical properties of jute fiber-reinforced polyester composites

The effect of various enzyme treatments on the mechanical properties of jute fiber-reinforced polyester composites was investigated in this study. Prior to composite production, jute fabrics were treated with pectinase, laccase, cellulase and xylanase enzyme solutions with varying enzyme mixtures and treatment time according to experimental design. The comparison of NaOH and enzyme-treated samples was also investigated. Jute fabric-reinforced polyester composite samples were produced using compression molding. The effect of enzymatic and NaOH treatment on fibers and fiber-matrix interface was investigated by scanning electron microscopy study. The mechanical properties of enzyme-treated and control (without enzyme treatment) samples were evaluated by means of tensile and flexural tests. It was observed that enzymes destroyed pectin, hemicelluloses and lignin substances from the fiber bundle interface which reduced the technical fiber diameter and hence increased the fiber aspect ratio. Therefore, a greater fiber-matrix interface area was created after enzymatic treatment, which facilitated better fiber-matrix adhesion and improved mechanical properties of the composites. The data indicated that enzyme treatment can be used as an effective, cheap and environmentally friendly fiber modification method for natural fiber-reinforced composite production.
THE FINE STRUCTURE OF THE NUCLEI OF TETRAHYMENA PYRIFORMIS THROUGHOUT THE CELL CYCLE

The fine structure of the nuclei of logarithmically growing Tetrahymena pyriformis, strain HSM, was studied at 30-minute intervals throughout the cell cycle. Organisms were selected at similar stages of cytokinesis by means of a braking pipette, incubated, fixed in OsO4, and embedded in agar to facilitate subsequent preparation for electron microscopy. Aggregates of micronuclear chromatin underwent a decrease in density and number with a concomitant increase in size throughout interphase. There were no impressive changes in macronuclear morphology. It was found possible to estimate a cell's progress through interphase by observation of micronuclear morphology, but attempts to correlate changes in fine structure with periods of DNA synthesis were unsuccessful.
Stimulus-category competition, inhibition, and affective devaluation: a novel account of the uncanny valley

Stimuli that resemble humans, but are not perfectly human-like, are disliked compared to distinctly human and non-human stimuli. Accounts of this “Uncanny Valley” effect often focus on how changes in human resemblance can evoke different emotional responses. We present an alternate account based on the novel hypothesis that the Uncanny Valley is not directly related to ‘human-likeness’ per se, but instead reflects a more general form of stimulus devaluation that occurs when inhibition is triggered to resolve conflict between competing stimulus-related representations. We consider existing support for this inhibitory-devaluation hypothesis and further assess its feasibility through tests of two corresponding predictions that arise from the link between conflict-resolving inhibition and aversive response: (1) that the pronounced disliking of Uncanny-type stimuli will occur for any image that strongly activates multiple competing stimulus representations, even in the absence of any human-likeness, and (2) that the negative peak of an ‘Uncanny Valley’ should occur at the point of greatest stimulus-related conflict and not (in the presence of human-likeness) always closer to the ‘human’ end of a perceptual continuum. We measured affective responses to a set of line drawings representing non-human animal–animal morphs, in which each continuum midpoint was a bistable image (Experiment 1), as well as to sets of human-robot and human-animal computer-generated morphs (Experiment 2). Affective trends depicting classic Uncanny Valley functions occurred for all continua, including the non-human stimuli. Images at continua midpoints elicited significantly more negative affect than images at endpoints, even when the continua included a human endpoint. This illustrates the feasibility of the inhibitory-devaluation hypothesis and the need for further research into the possibility that the strong dislike of Uncanny-type stimuli reflects the negative affective consequences of cognitive inhibition.
Effects of huperzine A on secretion of nerve growth factor in cultured rat cortical astrocytes and neurite outgrowth in rat PC12 cells

AbstractAim:To study the effects of huperzine A (HupA) on neuritogenic activity and the expression of nerve growth factor (NGF). Methods:After being treated with 10 μmol/L HupA, neurite outgrowth of PC12 cells was observed and counted under phase-contrast microscopy. Mitogenic activity was assayed by [3H]thymidine incorporation. Cell cytotoxicity was evaluated by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. AChE activity, mRNA and protein expression were measured by the Ellman's method, RT-PCR, and Western blot, respectively. NGF mRNA and protein levels were determined by RT-PCR and ELISA assays.Results:Treatment of PC12 cells with 10 μmol/L HupA for 48 h markedly increased the number of neurite-bearing cells, but caused no significant alteration in cell viability or other signs of cytotoxicity. In addition to inhibiting AChE activity, 10 μmol/ L HupA also increased the mRNA and protein levels of this enzyme. In addition, following 2 h exposure of the astrocytes to 10 μmol/L HupA, there was a significant up-regulation of mRNA for NGF and P75 low-affinity NGF receptor. The protein level of NGF was also increased after 24 h treatment with HupA.Conclusion:Our findings demonstrate for the first time that HupA has a direct or indirect neurotrophic activity, which might be beneficial in treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer disease.
5-Hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) in the gastrointestinal tract

Purpose of reviewAlthough the gut contains most of the body's 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), many of its most important functions have recently been discovered. This review summarizes and directs attention to this new burst of knowledge. Recent findingsEnteroendocrine cells have classically been regarded as pressure sensors, which secrete 5-HT to initiate peristaltic reflexes; nevertheless, recent data obtained from studies of mice that selectively lack 5-HT either in enterochromaffin cells (deletion of tryptophan hydroxylase 1 knockout; TPH1KO) or neurons (TPH2KO) imply that neuronal 5-HT is more important for constitutive gastrointestinal transit than that of enteroendocrine cells. The enteric nervous system of TPH2KO mice, however, also lacks a full complement of neurons; therefore, it is not clear whether slow transit in TPH2KO animals is due to their neuronal deficiency or absence of serotonergic neurotransmission. Neuronal 5-HT promotes the growth/maintenance of the mucosa as well as neurogenesis. Enteroendocrine cell derived 5-HT is an essential component of the gastrointestinal inflammatory response; thus, deletion of the serotonin transporter increases, whereas TPH1KO decreases the severity of intestinal inflammation. Enteroendocrine cell derived 5-HT, moreover, is also a hormone, which inhibits osteoblast proliferation and promotes hepatic regeneration. SummaryNew studies show that enteric 5-HT is a polyfunctional signalling molecule, acting both in developing and mature animals as a neurotransmitter paracrine factor, endocrine hormone and growth factor.
Familial Patterns in Ischaemic Heart Disease

Certain aspects of the problem of ischaemic heart disease have been studied very intensively, but of others we still know relatively little. Thus many of the personal characteristics of affected individuals are now well known; but the characteristics of their families have received little attention. It is widely held that the disease shows familial aggregation, largely because some families contain a remarkable number of cases. But the disease is very common, and such evidence could be misleading. The few reported controlled studies have involved a serious risk of bias in selection of controls or in reporting procedures (Gertler and White, 1954; Thomas and Cohen, 1955; Russek and Zohman, 1958; Shanoff, Little, Murphy, and Rykert, 1961) or in diagnostic accuracy (Ciocco, 1941). On the broader question of the general health characteristics of affected families there is even less information.
Tutorials in eLearning—How Presentation Affects Outcomes

The presentation of learning materials affects how we learn. In this paper, we use eye tracking to investigate how different sequences of text and test questions affect performance outcomes, eye movements, and reading behavior for first (L1) English language and second (L2) English language readers. We show that different presentation sequences induce different performance outcomes, eye movements, and reading behavior. The sequence can affect how a participant reads the text as well as their perceptions of how well they understood what they read. For instance, if questions and text are not shown together, this improves participants’ ability to accurately perceive their comprehension and promotes thorough reading. Alternatively, showing questions before the text promotes skimming behavior. Importantly, the presentation sequence affects both L1 and L2 readers in the same way. We observe that L2 reader take longer to read text but have the same comprehension levels as L1 readers; this difference comes primarily from longer fixation durations. The results from this paper can be used to design learning materials in eLearning environments to influence how students interact with the learning environment as well as how they learn. The purpose of this investigation is to make informative decisions about designing adaptive eLearning environments.
Fetal cortisol in relation to labour, intrapartum events and mode of delivery

We set out to measure fetal cortisol in the human umbilical vein in relation to onset of labour, intrapartum complications and mode of delivery. Umbilical cord venous samples were obtained after delivery from 98 infants and serum total cortisol was measured. The onset of spontaneous labour, induction of labour, elective caesarean section, spontaneous vaginal delivery, emergency caesarean section in labour, instrumental delivery, the presence of meconium staining of the liquor and umbilical artery pH were examined in relation to serum fetal cortisol. Spontaneous onset of labour, mode of delivery, meconium staining of the liquor and gestational age were independent predictors of umbilical venous cortisol levels. Those infants delivered by elective caesarean section had the lowest cortisol levels, while the highest levels were recorded in those infants following instrumental delivery. Fetal cortisol is significantly elevated in association with spontaneous human parturition and is highest Its among babies born by instrumental delivery.
DeepWriter: A Multi-stream Deep CNN for Text-Independent Writer Identification

Text-independent writer identification is challenging due to the huge variation of written contents and the ambiguous written styles of different writers. This paper proposes DeepWriter, a deep multi-stream CNN to learn deep powerful representation for recognizing writers. DeepWriter takes local handwritten patches as input and is trained with softmax classification loss. The main contributions are: 1) we design and optimize multi-stream structure for writer identification task, 2) we introduce data augmentation learning to enhance the performance of DeepWriter, 3) we introduce a patch scanning strategy to handle text image with different lengths. In addition, we find that different languages such as English and Chinese may share common features for writer identification, and joint training can yield better performance. Experimental results on IAM and HWDB datasets show that our models achieve high identification accuracy: 99.01% on 301 writers and 97.03% on 657 writers with one English sentence input, 93.85% on 300 writers with one Chinese character input, which outperform previous methods with a large margin. Moreover, our models obtain accuracy of 98.01% on 301 writers with only 4 English alphabets as input.
Simulation of Multiple Gate FinFET Device Gate Capacitance and Performance with Gate Length and Pitch Scaling

In this work, we simulate silicon-on-insulator (SOI) multiple gate FinFET (MuGFET) with the design targeting for the ITRS 2004 specifications for NMOSFET. A detailed fully 3D simulation and analysis of the parasitic capacitances is performed for the first time to study the impact of scaling and pitch spacing. Unlike planar devices, FinFET scaling does not always result in a straightforward performance improvement due to the current crowding effect and series resistance
Reduced de-etiolation of hypocotyl growth in a tomato mutant is associated with hypersensitivity to, and high endogenous levels of, abscisic acid.

A recessive single gene mutant, 7B-1, in tomato was originally selected for its photoperiod-dependent male sterility. The 7B-1 mutant also has some pleiotropic effects including reduced light-induced inhibition, i.e. de-etiolation, of the hypocotyl in long days (LD), increased seed size and weight, and reduced transpiration rate. These traits led us to investigate the sensitivity of 7B-1 to exogenous hormones and the interaction of these responses with daylength. In LD, but not in short days (SD), 7B-1 was more sensitive than wild-type (WT) to exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) for inhibition of seed germination, root elongation and transpiration rate. 7B-1 mutant also exhibited reduced responses to exogenous gibberellin (GA(3)) for hypocotyl elongation, and to inhibitors of GA biosynthesis for seed germination and root and hypocotyl elongation. 7B-1 hypocotyls contained a higher level of endogenous ABA than WT in both photoperiods, although ABA levels were higher in LD than in SD. In contrast, growth-active GAs, i.e. GA(1), GA(3) and GA(4), and IAA were low in the mutant hypocotyls. The 7B-1 mutant appears to be an ABA-overproducer, and the photoperiod-regulated ABA levels may be responsible for the hypersensitivity of the mutant to exogenous ABA.
Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Measure Facial Soft Tissue Depth

Objective: To investigate the feasibility of using magnetic resonance imaging to estimate facial tissue depth at standard anthropological facial landmarks. Design: Standard facial landmarks were marked with magnetic resonance imaging opaque markers on 10 normal subjects. Three observers estimated facial tissue depth at these landmarks on up to three separate occasions, and comparisons were made among the observers. Setting: The study was conducted with volunteers at the University of Alberta Biomechanical Engineering unit. Participants: The volunteers were healthy individuals of both sexes between the ages of 18 and 30 years. Main Outcome Measures: The technical error of measurement among observers was used as the main indicator of precision of measurement. Results: Measurements of tissue depth showed tolerable technical error of measurement and were precisely measured within and among observers. Conclusions: Magnetic resonance images can be used to estimate tissue depth in human faces with precision.