Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
N-acetylcysteine and meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid alleviate oxidative stress and hepatic dysfunction induced by sodium arsenite in male rats

Environmental exposure to arsenic represents a serious challenge to humans and other animals. The aim of the present study was to test the protective effect of antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) either individually or in combination with a chelating agent, meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), against sodium arsenite oral toxicity in male rats. Five groups were used: control; arsenic group (orally administrated in a concentration of 2 mg/kg body weight [b.w.]); the other three groups were orally administrated sodium arsenite in a concentration of 2 mg/kg b.w. followed by either NAC (10 mg/kg b.w., intraperitoneally [i.p.]), DMSA (50 mg/kg b.w., i.p.) or NAC plus DMSA. Arsenic toxicity caused significant rise in serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase and total bilirubin, and a significant decrease in total protein (TP) and albumin levels after 3 weeks of experimental period. In addition, arsenic-treated rats showed significantly higher arsenic content in liver and significant rise in hepatic malondialdehyde level. By contrast, sharp decreases in glutathione content and catalase and glutathione reductase activities were discernible. NAC and/or DMSA counteracted most of these physiologic and biochemical defects. NAC monotherapy was more effective than DMSA in increasing TP, while DMSA was more effective in decreasing alanine aminotransferase. The combined treatment was superior over monotherapies in recovery of TP and glutathione. Biochemical data were well supported by histopathological and ultrastructural findings. In conclusion, the combination therapy of NAC and DMSA may be an ideal choice against oxidative insult induced by arsenic poisoning.
Learning Embedding Representations for Knowledge Inference on Imperfect and Incomplete Repositories

This paper considers the problem of knowledge inference on large-scale imperfect repositories with incomplete coverage by means of embedding entities and relations at the first attempt. We propose IIKE (Imperfect and Incomplete Knowledge Embedding), a probabilistic model which measures the probability of each belief, i.e., in large-scale knowledge bases such as NELL and Freebase, and our objective is to learn a better low-dimensional vector representation for each entity (h and t) and relation (r) in the process of minimizing the loss of fitting the corresponding confidence given by machine learning (NELL) or crowdsouring (Freebase), so that we can use ||h+r–t|| to assess the plausibility of a belief when conducting inference. We use subsets of those inexact knowledge bases to train our model and test the performances of link prediction and triplet classification on ground truth beliefs, respectively. The results of extensive experiments show that IIKE achieves significant improvement compared with the baseline and state-of-the-art approaches.
How to Interpret Esophageal Impedance pH Monitoring

Esophageal impedance pH monitoring provides quantitative data on esophageal acid exposure and has the ability to correlate the symptoms with acid exposure events. The nomenclature for the reflux patterns detected in impedance pH monitoring as well as the normal values have been determined. Data interpretation is similar to 24-hour pH monitoring, ie, searching for an increase in the number of reflux episodes, prolonged acid or volume exposure or increased numbers of proximal reflux events. In particular, the key clinical measurements for impedance testing on proton pump inhibitor therapy are the number of acid and non-acid reflux episodes and their relationship with the symptoms using the symptom index or symptom-association probability.
Noise Balancing Block Diagonalization precoding for Base Station Cooperation

Previous studies on Base Station Cooperation (BSC) have shown its significant capacity gains. These studies usually ignore the fact that a practical cellular network has a large number of Base Stations (BSs) and to coordinate these BSs will incur heavy signalling overhead, high transmission latency. In order to utilize BSC, a network has to be divided into separate groups, each of which cooperate independently, limiting the number of BSs in one group. This arrangement will make a new kind of interference, which we name it Out of cooperative Group Interference (OGI). We show that OGI can cause severe performance degradation through our simulation study. To solve the problem, we propose a novel Noise Balancing Block Diagonal-ization (NB-BD) precoding algorithm to both cancel self-group interference and accommodate the OGI as extra noise. This NB-BD is simpler, more robust than traditional BD joint precoding and is shown to provide significant performance gains.
Web Service Provisioning on Android Mobile Host

This paper discusses Web Service provisioning from Android Smart Phone. Web Service provisioning is the art of hosting and offering Web Services for Android based mobile device. This is due to advancements in mobile device manufacturing and wireless communication ability. This has changed the role of the mobile devices of Web service consumers to Web service providers. Today there is not a single real-time reasonable approach exists to host lightweight Web Services on Android smart phone. This paper describes the design and implementation details of the Android mobile host. Implementation of Android mobile host uses open source technologies such as Android, Java programming language, Android libraries, and SQLite database. The goal is to create an efficient and reliable Android mobile host as a web service provider that includes web services deployed on the mobile host and clients access the content. The main aim is to create lightweight weight framework for Android host that takes care of resource limitations and battery life. The manuscript presents a detailed performance evaluation of REST architecture and compares the results with SOAP standard.
Isolation of a Novel Platelet-Derived Growth Factor-Responsive Precursor from the Embryonic Ventral Forebrain

Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells express platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor-α and, when expanded in PDGF only, have been shown to generate oligodendrocytes and astrocytes but never neurons. Recent evidence suggests that oligodendrocytes are generated by a common progenitor that also generates neurons but not astrocytes. We used the neurosphere culture system to isolate embryonic ventral forebrain, PDGF-responsive precursors (PRPs). We report that the medial ganglionic eminence is the source of PRP-generated neurospheres and that the progeny can differentiate into parvalbumin-positive interneurons, oligodendrocytes, and astrocytes. Thyroid hormone and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) promote the mutually exclusive differentiation of oligodendrocytes and neurons, respectively, whereas ciliary neurotrophic factor acts with BMP-2 to suppress OLIG2 expression and promote astroglial differentiation. PRPs require fibroblast growth factor-2 together with PDGF to maintain self-renewal, which is dependent on sonic hedgehog signaling. We present evidence for forebrain oligodendrocytes and parvalbumin-positive interneurons being generated by a common precursor and elucidate signals regulating the multiple differentiation routes of the progeny of this precursor.
Barriers to Innovation and Subsidy Effectiveness

This paper explores the effects of R&D commercial subsidies by means of a model of firms’ decisions about performing R&D when some government support can be expected. To estimate the parameters of interest we use an unbalanced panel sample of 1,800 performing and non-performing Spanish manufacturing firms. For the non-performing firms, we compute the trigger subsidies required to induce R&D spending (a measure of market failure). Among the performing …rms, we can detect the ones that would cease to perform R&D if subsidies were eliminated. We also explore the change in the privately financed R&D effort of the performing firms. Results support the claim that market failures are real and subsidies stimulate R&D activities, but also show that actual subsidies go to firms that would have performed R&D otherwise.
Whole-thorax irradiation induces hypoxic respiratory failure, pleural effusions and cardiac remodeling

Abstract To study the mechanisms of death following a single lethal dose of thoracic radiation, WAG/RijCmcr (Wistar) rats were treated with 15 Gy to the whole thorax and followed until they were morbid or sacrificed for invasive assays at 6 weeks. Lung function was assessed by breathing rate and arterial oxygen saturation. Lung structure was evaluated histologically. Cardiac structure and function were examined by echocardiography. The frequency and characteristics of pleural effusions were determined. Morbidity from 15 Gy radiation occurred in all rats 5 to 8 weeks after exposure, coincident with histological pneumonitis. Increases in breathing frequencies peaked at 6 weeks, when profound arterial hypoxia was also recorded. Echocardiography analysis at 6 weeks showed pulmonary hypertension and severe right ventricular enlargement with impaired left ventricular function and cardiac output. Histologic sections of the heart revealed only rare foci of lymphocytic infiltration. Total lung weight more than doubled. Pleural effusions were present in the majority of the irradiated rats and contained elevated protein, but low lactate dehydrogenase, when compared with serum from the same animal. Pleural effusions had a higher percentage of macrophages and large monocytes than neutrophils and contained mast cells that are rarely present in other pathological states. Lethal irradiation to rat lungs leads to hypoxia with infiltration of immune cells, edema and pleural effusion. These changes may contribute to pulmonary vascular and parenchymal injury that result in secondary changes in heart structure and function. We report that conditions resembling congestive heart failure contribute to death during radiation pneumonitis, which indicates new targets for therapy.
The Proper Forcing Axiom: a tutorial

In these notes we will present an exposition of the Proper Forcing Axiom (PFA). We will first discuss examples of the consequences of PFA. We will then present two proper partial orders which are used to force two combinatorial principles which follow from PFA: The P-Ideal Dichotomy (PID) and Todorcevic’s formulation of the Open Coloring Axiom. On one hand, these posets and the proofs of their properness are quite typical of direct applications of PFA. On the other hand, these principles already capture a large number of the consequences of PFA and do not use any terminology or technical tools from the theory of forcing.
Immunotoxins and Other Conjugates Containing Saporin-S6 for Cancer Therapy

Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) are a family of plant toxins that permanently damage ribosomes and possibly other cellular substrates, thus causing cell death. RIPs are mostly divided in two types: Type 1 RIPs that are single-chain enzymatic proteins, and type 2 RIPs that consist of an active A chain (similar to a type 1 RIP) linked to a B chain with lectin properties. RIP-containing conjugates have been used in many experimental strategies against cancer cells, often showing great efficacy in clinical trials. Saporin-S6, a type 1 RIP extracted from Saponaria officinalis L. seeds, has been extensively utilized to construct anti-cancer conjugates because of its high enzymatic activity, stability and resistance to conjugation procedures, resulting in the efficient killing of target cells. This review summarizes saporin-S6-containing conjugates and their application in cancer therapy, considering in-vitro and in-vivo studies both in animal models and in clinical trials. The review is structured on the basis of the targeting of hematological versus solid tumors and on the antigen recognized on the cell surface.
Education Policy Unravelled (Second edition)

Book Abstract Gillian Forrester and Dean Garratt critically examine the nature of contemporary education policy, its purposes and political formation. In this thoroughly revised edition Forrester and Garratt deal with a broad range of substantive issues relating to a variety of policy-making themes, including race, identity and citizenship in the context of education for improvement or control, social justice, primary education, early years, post-compulsory education, the economics of education, inclusive schools and globalization. In each case Forrester and Garratt chart educational change and the continuity of policy development along neoliberal lines, taking an historical perspective and moving towards the current Conservative government. They draw attention to the strong similarities and nuanced disagreements between successive modern governments. In this new edition Forrester and Garratt include: the developments in reforms in education which took place under the Coalition administration between 2010-2015; a brand new chapter on early years policy; a brand new chapter on inclusive schools, special educational needs and disability; new activities and illustrative case studies to challenge and inform student’s thinking and understanding around key policy issues; a discussion of new research and recent legislation to illuminate important and emergent issues in education. Using concrete examples and pertinent illustrations from a variety of sources Forrester and Garratt unravel some of the complexities involved in contemporary policy analysis and critique and bring life to the field of education policy. Forrester and Garratt write in an accessible style and, as such, Education Policy Unravelled is an invaluable guide for engaging students with education policy.
A Mini-Swarm for the Quadratic Knapsack Problem

The 0-1 quadratic knapsack problem (QKP) is a hard computational problem, which is a generalization of the knapsack problem (KP). In this paper, a mini-swarm system is presented. Each agent, realized with minor declarative knowledge and simple behavioral rules, searches on a structural landscape of the problem through the guided generate-and-test behavior under the law of socially biased individual learning, and cooperates with others by indirect interactions. The formal decomposition of behaviors allows understanding and reusing elemental operators, while utilizes the heuristic information on the landscape. The results on a collection of the QKP instances by mini-swarm versions are compared with that of both a branch-and-bound algorithm and a greedy genetic algorithm, which show its effectiveness
Nitrogen Substituted Phenothiazine Derivatives: Modelling of Molecular Self-Assembling

The study aims to present a detailed theoretical investigation of noncovalent intermolecular interactions between different π–π stacking nitrogen substituted phenothiazine derivatives by applying second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation (MP2), density functional (DFT) and semiempirical theories. The conformational stability of these molecular systems is mainly given by the dispersion-type electron correlation effects. The density functional tight-binding (DFTB) method applied for dimer structures are compared with the results obtained by the higher level theoretical methods. Additionally, the optimal configuration of the investigated supramolecular systems and their self-assembling properties are discussed.
The impact of the location on the price offered byaccommodation establishments in Urban areas

The aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between the price of accommodation and the urban space and character of the place. The price and spatial connections (together with the quality of the provided services) become an important motive for clients when choosing a concrete accommodation establishment. As the competition is very difficult in the field of accommodation establishments and the supply multiply surpasses the demand, there is an intensive search for miscellaneous strategies of engaging in the competition. The built-up territory of the town Ceske Budejovice was chosen as a model territory. The prices of the summer season 2012 have been entered into the analysis. The impact of the location was assessed on the level of the type of land-use. The distribution of the accommodation establishments in the studied is highly uneven, without any more significant tendency to the creation of the spatial clusters. It is fundamentally influenced especially by the distance of the historical center. A price map was formed identifying the zones with the above-average prices, as well as the zones with the highly below-average prices.
Learning of Behavior Trees for Autonomous Agents

In this paper, we study the problem of automatically synthesizing a successful behavior tree (BT) in an a priori unknown dynamic environment. Starting with a given set of actions, a reward function, and sensing in terms of a set of binary conditions, the proposed algorithm incrementally learns a switching structure, in terms of a BT, that is able to handle the situations encountered. Exploiting the fact that BTs generalize and–or-trees and also provide very natural chromosome mappings for genetic programming, we combine the long-term performance of genetic programming with a greedy element and use the and–or analogy to limit the size of the resulting structure. Finally, earlier results on BTs enable us to provide certain safety guarantees for the resulting system. Using the testing environment Mario AI, we compare our approach to alternative methods for learning BTs and finite state machines. The evaluation shows that the proposed approach generated solutions with better performance, and often fewer nodes than the other two methods.
Food for Thought: Cross-Classification and Category Organization in a Complex Real-World Domain

Seven studies examined how people represent, access, and make inferences about a rich real-world category domain, foods. The representation of the category was assessed by category generation, category ratings, and item sortings. The first results indicated that the high-level category of foods was organized simultaneously by taxonomic categories for the kind of food (e.g., vegetables, meats) and script categories for the situations in which foods are eaten (e.g., breakfast foods, snacks). Sortings were dominated by the taxonomic categories, but the script categories also had an influence. The access of the categories was examined both by a similarity rating task, with and without the category labels, and by a speeded priming experiment. In both studies, the script categories showed less access than the taxonomic categories, but more than novel ad hoc categories, suggesting some intermediate level of access. Two studies on induction found that both types of categories could be used to make a wide range of inferences about food properties, but that they were differentially useful for different kinds of inferences. The results give a detailed picture of the use of cross-classification in a complex domain, demonstrating that multiple categories and ways of categorizing can be used in a single domain at one time.
Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo: A Review on Its Ethnopharmacology, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Industrialization

Ethnopharmacological Relevance. Dendrobii Officinalis Caulis, the stems of Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo, as a tonic herb in Chinese materia medica and health food in folk, has been utilized for the treatment of yin-deficiency diseases for decades. Methods. Information for analysis of Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo was obtained from libraries and Internet scientific databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Wiley InterScience, Ingenta, Embase, CNKI, and PubChem. Results. Over the past decades, about 190 compounds have been isolated from Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo. Its wide modern pharmacological actions in hepatoprotective effect, anticancer effect, hypoglycemic effect, antifatigue effect, gastric ulcer protective effect, and so on were reported. This may mainly attribute to the major and bioactive components: polysaccharides. However, other small molecule components require further study. Conclusions. Due to the lack of systematic data of Dendrobium officinale, it is important to explore its ingredient-function relationships with modern pharmacology. Recently, studies on the chemical constituents of Dendrobium officinale concentrated in crude polysaccharides and its structure-activity relationships remain scant. Further research is required to determine the Dendrobium officinale toxicological action and pharmacological mechanisms of other pure ingredients and crude extracts. In addition, investigation is needed for better quality control and novel drug or product development.
Age-dependent alterations in spermatogenesis in itchy mice

Spermatogenesis is an intricate process in which spermatogonial stem cells divide and differentiate to produce mature sperm. This process strongly depends on protein turnover both in the developing germ cells and the supportive Sertoli cells, and recent evidence has demonstrated the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in this protein turnover in the testis. Itch, an E3 ligase important in the immune system, has been implicated in regulating the blood testis barrier. Although the specific role of Itch during spermatogenesis is not yet well understood, its ubiquitous expression and wide array of functional targets suggest multiple and tissue-specific roles. Here the testes of mice that lack Itch protein are evaluated at two developmental time points: peri-pubertal postnatal day (PND) 28 and adult PND 56. Itchy mice demonstrate an increased germ cell apoptotic index compared with wild type C57BL/6J mice at both PND 28 and PND 56. A corresponding 27% reduction in the total number of spermatid heads produced in PND 56 itchy mice was also evident. A histological evaluation of itchy mice revealed a delay in spermatogenesis at PND 28 and disorganization of late stage spermatids at PND 56. An analysis of several apoptotic markers revealed an age-dependent change in cleaved caspase 9, an intrinsic apoptosis mediator. The breeding success of the itchy mice was also significantly decreased, possibly due to a developmental defect. Taken together, these findings indicate that Itch is required for functional spermatogenesis, and that it may play differing cellular roles during development.
Dynamic memory optimization using pool allocation and prefetching

Heap memory allocation plays an important role in modern applications. Conventional heap allocators, however, generally ignore the underlying memory hierarchy of the system, favoring instead a low runtime overhead and fast response times. Unfortunately, with little concern for the memory hierarchy, the data layout may exhibit poor spatial locality, and degrade cache performance. In this paper, we describe a dynamic heap allocation scheme called pool allocation. The strategy aims to improve cache performance by inspecting memory allocation requests, and allocating memory from appropriate heap pools as dictated by the requesting context. The advantages are two fold. First, by pooling together data with a common context, we expect to improve spatial locality, as data fetched to the caches will contain fewer items from different contexts. If the allocation patterns are closely matched to the traversal patterns, the end result is faster memory performance. Second, by pooling heap objects, we expect access patterns to exhibit more regularity, thus creating more opportunities for data prefetching. Our dynamic memory optimizer exploits the increased regularity to insert prefetch instructions at runtime. The optimizations are implemented in DynamoRIO, a dynamic optimization framework. We evaluate the work using various bench-marks, and measure a 17% speedup over gcc −03 on an Athlon MP, and a 13% speedup on a Pentium 4.