Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Response Characteristics of Soil Fractal Features to Different Land Uses in Typical Purple Soil Watershed

As a fundamental characteristic of soil physical properties, the soil Particle Size Distribution (PSD) is important in the research on soil moisture migration, solution transformation, and soil erosion. In this research, the PSD characteristics with distinct methods in different land uses are analyzed. The results show that the upper bound of the volume domain of the clay domain ranges from 5. 743μm to 5. 749μm for all land-use types. For the silt domain of purple soil, the value ranges among 286.852~286.966 μm. For all purple soil land-use types, the order of the volume domain fractal dimensions is Dclay<Dsilt<Dsand. However, the values of Dsilt and Dsand in the Pinus massoniana Lamb, Robinia pseudoacacia L and Ipomoea batatas are all higher than the corresponding values in the Citrus reticulate Blanco and Setaria viridis. Moreover, in all the land-use types, all of the parameters in volume domain fractal dimension (Dvi) are higher than the corresponding parameter values from the United States Department of Agriculture (Dvi(U)). The correlation study between the volume domain fractal dimension and the soil properties shows that the intensity of correlation to the soil texture and soil organic matter has the order as: Dsilt>Dsilt(U)>Dsand (U)>Dsand and Dsilt>Dsilt(U)>Dsand>Dsand(U), respectively. As it is compared with all Dvi, the Dsilt has the most significant correlativity to the soil texture and organic matter in different land uses of the typical purple soil watersheds. Therefore, Dsilt will be a potential indictor for evaluating the proportion of fine particles in the PSD, as well as a key measurement in soil quality and productivity studies.
MDA: an efficient directional MAC scheme for wireless ad hoc networks

This paper addresses the issue of deafness and hidden terminal problem in a mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) using directional antennas. To minimize these effects, we propose a MAC protocol for directional Antennas (MDA) which employs an enhanced directional network allocation vector (NAV) scheme and, a novel technique of diametrically opposite directions (DOD) transmission of RTS and CTS. We compare MDA with IEEE 802.11 and two recently proposed directional MAC protocols and results show that MDA outperforms these protocols in the majority of scenarios investigated. We also point out that the performance does depend on the network topology and the traffic pattern
The effect of aqueous extract of Carica papaya leaves on liver enzymes and blood cell counts of normal albino rats

The effects of crude leaf extract of Carica papaya (Linn) on aspartate aminostransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total white blood cells (WBC), lymphocytes, neutrophils, thrombocytes and on body weight of normal albino rats were investigated. Albino rats weighing between 74 g and 90.5 g, of both sexes were used for the study. 2 ml of 0.11 g/ml aqueous extract was administered daily to each of the experimented rats for the 7 and 14 days study periods respectively, using stomach canula and the parameters analysed using standard methods. Observations indicated that extract of C. papaya (Pawpaw) leaves did not induce any significant changes in the levels of AST and ALT. The results also showed that the C. papaya leaves extract influenced the immunological pathways. There was an increase in the levels of white blood cells, thrombocytes, lymphocytes and neutrophils of the test rats, and a significant weight gain in the animals at the end of the study period. Based on the findings in this work, the C. papaya leaves extract tested could hardly advance any adverse effects on the liver and also have immunological effect on the animal body. Keywords: Weight gain, Pawpaw leaves, liver enzymes, blood counts.
Molecular Characterization of BK and JC Viruses Circulating among Potential Kidney Donors in Kuwait

BK and JC polyomaviruses can be associated with nephropathy following renal transplantation. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, load, and genotypes of BK and JC viruses circulated in potential kidney donors in Kuwait. The detection of polyomavirus DNA was carried out in serum and urine samples of 165 potential kidney donors. Seventy (42%) individuals were tested positive for polyomavirus DNA, of whom 20 (12%) had detectable polyomavirus DNA in their serum samples, 40 (24%) in their urine samples, and 10 (6%) in both serum and urine samples. In the group of polyomavirus-positive patients, JC DNA could be detected in 78% of urine samples and 11% of serum samples, whereas BK DNA could be detected in 7% of urine samples and 3% of serum samples. The median polyomaviral load was low. The detected BK sequences in Kuwaiti adults formed new clusters sharing common ancestor with subgroups Ib1 and IVc, which are prevalent in Asia and Europe. Additionally, around half of the detected JCV sequences in Kuwaiti adults formed new clusters within the African subtype 3. Our results suggest high rate of polyomavirus shedding among healthy adults in Kuwait that can jeopardize their suitability for kidney donation.
Hybrid Composites of Phosphate Glass Fibre/Nano-Hydroxyapatite/Polylactide: Effects of Nano-Hydroxyapatite on Mechanical Properties and Degradation Behaviour

Hydroxyapatite/polylactide (HA/PLA) composites have been intensively investigated for their potential as biodegradable fixation devices to heal bone fractures. However, most of these composites failed to achieve a bone-mimicking level of mechanical properties, which is an essential demand of the targeted application. In this study, the nano-hydroxyapatite/polylactide composites were used as the matrix and continuous phosphate glass fibres (PGF) served as the major reinforcement to obtain the nano-HA/PGF/PLA hybrid composites. While the PGF volume fraction remained constant (25%), the nano-HA content (in weight) varied from 0% to 20%. As nano-HA loading increased, the flexural modulus of the composites increased from 8.70 ± 0.35 GPa to 14.97 ± 1.30 GPa, and the flexural strengths were enhanced from 236.31 ± 10.83 MPa to 310.55 ± 22.88 MPa. However, it is found that the degradation rates are higher with more nano-HA loaded. Enhanced water absorption ability, as well as increased voids in the composites is possible reasons for the accelerated degradation of composites with higher nano-HA loading. The hybrid composites possess mechanical properties that are superior to most of the HA/PLA composites in previous research while maintaining the biodegradability. With a proper loading of nano-HA in composites of 10 weight percent, the composites are also found with improved mechanical properties without catastrophic degradation. The composites developed in this study have great potential as biodegradable bone fixation device with enhanced load-bearing ability as confirmed and superior bioactivity as anticipated.
In a Subgroup of High-Risk Asians, Telmisartan Was Non-Inferior to Ramipril and Better Tolerated in the Prevention of Cardiovascular Events

Background and Objectives Results of the recently published ONTARGET study (The Ongoing Telmisartan Alone and in Combination with Ramipril Global Endpoint Trial) showed that telmisartan (80 mg/day) was non-inferior to ramipril (10 mg/day) in reducing cardiovascular events. Clinicians in Asia doubt tolerability of these doses for their patients. We therefore analyzed data from this study and a parallel study TRANSCEND (Telmisartan Randomized Assessment Study in ACE Intolerant Subjects with Cardiovascular Disease). Our objectives were to compare Asians and non-Asians with respect to the following: 1) Effectiveness of telmisartan vs. ramipril in reducing cardiovascular events; 2) Proportions who reached the full dose of telmisartan, ramipril or placebo; and 3) Proportions of overall discontinuations, and discontinuations due to adverse effects. Method The ONTARGET study randomized 25,620 patients at risk of cardiovascular events to ramipril, telmisartan, or their combination. The primary composite endpoint was death caused by cardiovascular disease, acute MI, stroke, and hospitalization because of congestive heart failure. TRANSCEND randomized 5926 high-risk patients with a history of intolerance to ACE-inhibitors to telmisartan or placebo. The primary outcome was the same. In this substudy, we compared Asians and non-Asians as to how well they tolerated telmisartan (given in both studies) and ramipril (given in ONTARGET). Results 1) Telmisartan was non-inferior to ramipril in lowering the primary endpoint among Asians (RR = 0.92; 95% CI: 0.74, 1.13); 2) more Asians achieved the full dose of either drug; 3) less withdrew (overall); and 4) less withdrew for adverse effects. Furthermore, telmisartan was better tolerated than ramipril. This advantage was greater among Asians. Conclusion and Significance Although Asians had lower BMI than non-Asians, Asians tolerated both drugs better. Regulatory agencies require reporting of safety and effectiveness data by ethnicity, but few comply with this requirement. This study shows that safety data in ethnic subgroups can help assess applicability of results to specific populations. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00153101
Poly(ADP-Ribosyl)ation of hnRNP A1 Protein Controls Translational Repression in Drosophila

ABSTRACT Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) regulates the posttranscriptional fate of RNA during development. Drosophila hnRNP A1, Hrp38, is required for germ line stem cell maintenance and oocyte localization. The mRNA targets regulated by Hrp38 are mostly unknown. We identified 428 Hrp38-associated gene transcripts in the fly ovary, including mRNA of the translational repressor Nanos. We found that Hrp38 binds to the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of Nanos mRNA, which contains a translation control element. We have demonstrated that translation of the luciferase reporter bearing the Nanos 3′ UTR is enhanced by dsRNA-mediated Hrp38 knockdown as well as by mutating potential Hrp38-binding sites. Our data show that poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation inhibits Hrp38 binding to the Nanos 3′ UTR, increasing the translation in vivo and in vitro. hrp38 and Parg null mutants showed an increased ectopic Nanos translation early in the embryo. We conclude that Hrp38 represses Nanos translation, whereas its poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation relieves the repression effect, allowing restricted Nanos expression in the posterior germ plasm during oogenesis and early embryogenesis.
Round Robin Classification

In this paper, we discuss round robin classiﬁcation (aka pairwise classiﬁcation), a technique for handling multi-class problems with binary classiﬁers by learning one classiﬁer for each pair of classes. We present an empirical evaluation of the method, implemented as a wrapper around the Ripper rule learning algorithm, on 20 multi-class datasets from the UCI database repository. Our results show that the technique is very likely to improve Ripper ’s classiﬁcation accuracy without having a high risk of decreasing it. More importantly, we give a general theoretical analysis of the complexity of the approach and show that its run-time complexity is below that of the commonly used one-against-all technique. These theoretical results are not restricted to rule learning but are also of interest to other communities where pairwise classiﬁcation has recently received some attention. Furthermore, we investigate its properties as a general ensemble technique and show that round robin classiﬁcation with C5.0 may improve C5.0 ’s performance on multi-class problems. However, this improvement does not reach the performance increase of boosting, and a combination of boosting and round robin classiﬁcation does not produce any gain over conventional boosting. Finally, we show that the performance of round robin classiﬁcation can be further improved by a straight-forward integration with bagging.
siRNA-Mediated Reduction of Inhibitor of Nuclear Factor-κB Kinase Prevents Tumor Necrosis Factor-α–Induced Insulin Resistance in Human Skeletal Muscle

OBJECTIVE—Proinflammatory cytokines contribute to systemic low-grade inflammation and insulin resistance. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α impedes insulin signaling in insulin target tissues. We determined the role of inhibitor of nuclear factor-κB kinase (IKK)β in TNF-α–induced impairments in insulin signaling and glucose metabolism in skeletal muscle. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Small interfering RNA (siRNA) was used to silence IKKβ gene expression in primary human skeletal muscle myotubes from nondiabetic subjects. siRNA gene silencing reduced IKKβ protein expression 73% (P < 0.05). Myotubes were incubated in the absence or presence of insulin and/or TNF-α, and effects of IKKβ silencing on insulin signaling and glucose metabolism were determined. RESULTS—Insulin increased glucose uptake 1.7-fold (P < 0.05) and glucose incorporation into glycogen 3.8-fold (P < 0.05) in myotubes from nondiabetic subjects. TNF-α exposure fully impaired insulin-mediated glucose uptake and metabolism. IKKβ siRNA protected against TNF-α–induced impairments in glucose metabolism, since insulin-induced increases in glucose uptake (1.5-fold; P < 0.05) and glycogen synthesis (3.5-fold; P < 0.05) were restored. Conversely, TNF-α–induced increases in insulin receptor substrate-1 serine phosphorylation (Ser312), Jun NH2-terminal kinase phosphorylation, and extracellular signal–related kinase-1/2 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation were unaltered by siRNA-mediated IKKβ reduction. siRNA-mediated IKKβ reduction prevented TNF-α–induced insulin resistance on Akt Ser473 and Thr308 phosphorylation and phosphorylation of the 160-kDa Akt substrate AS160. IKKβ silencing had no effect on cell differentiation. Finally, mRNA expression of GLUT1 or GLUT4 and protein expression of MAPK kinase kinase kinase isoform 4 (MAP4K4) was unaltered by IKKβ siRNA. CONCLUSIONS—IKKβ silencing prevents TNF-α–induced impairments in insulin action on Akt phosphorylation and glucose uptake and metabolism in human skeletal muscle.
Activation of Human ether-a-go-go-Related Gene Potassium Channels by the Diphenylurea 1,3-Bis-(2-hydroxy-5-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-urea (NS1643)

The cardiac action potential is generated by a concerted action of different ion channels and transporters. Dysfunction of any of these membrane proteins can give rise to cardiac arrhythmias, which is particularly true for the repolarizing potassium channels. We suggest that an increased repolarization current could be a new antiarrhythmic principle, because it possibly would attenuate afterdepolarizations, ischemic leak currents, and re-entry phenomena. Repolarization of the cardiac myocytes is crucially dependent on the late rapid delayed rectifier current (IKr) conducted by ether-a-go-go-related gene (ERG) potassium channels. We have developed the diphenylurea compound 1,3-bis-(2-hydroxy-5-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-urea (NS1643) and tested whether this small organic molecule could increase the activity of human ERG (HERG) channels expressed heterologously. In Xenopus laevis oocytes, NS1643 increased both steady-state and tail current at all voltages tested. The EC50 value for HERG channel activation was 10.5 μM. These results were reproduced on HERG channels expressed in mammalian human embryonic kidney 293 cells. In guinea pig cardiomyocytes, studied by patch clamp, application of 10 μM NS1643 activated IKr and significantly decreased the action potential duration to 65% of the control values. The effect could be reverted by application of the specific HERG channel inhibitor 4′-[[1-[2-(6-methyl-2-pyridyl)ethyl]-4-piperidinyl]carbonyl]-methanesulfonanilide (E-4031) at 100 nM. Application of NS1643 also resulted in a prolonged postrepolarization refractory time. Finally, cardiomyocytes exposed to NS1643 resisted reactivation by small depolarizing currents mimicking early afterdepolarizations. In conclusion, HERG channel activation by small molecules such as NS1643 increases the repolarization reserve and presents an interesting new antiarrhythmic approach.
Cardiovascular variability during periodic leg movements in sleep in children.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Periodic leg movements in sleep (PLMS) are episodes of repetitive and stereotypic leg movements occurring during sleep. In adults, research indicates that PLMS affects sleep quality and duration and are associated with a shift to relatively greater sympathetic influence over cardiovascular variables. However, little research has been performed to investigate the effect of PLMS episodes on cardiac autonomic control in children. This study aimed to quantify the effect of PLMS episodes during NREM2 sleep on heart rate variability (HRV) measures of sympathovagal balance in children. PARTICIPANTS Overnight polysomnography data from 20 children (7-12 y) referred for assessment of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) were analyzed retrospectively. Ten children with episodes of PLMS were matched for age and SDB severity with a control group of 10 children without PLMS episodes. RESULTS The LF/HF ratio was significantly higher in the PLM+ compared with both the PLM- periods from PLMS subjects (P < 0.001) and the periods from the control group (P < 0.001). However, this effect could not be parsimoniously interpreted due to the likelihood that leg movements had a direct effect on the lower frequencies. Analysis of the ratio PLM+ to PLM+ plus PLM- indicated parasympathetic inhibition during periods of periodic leg movement and the onset of individual leg movements were associated with cardiac acceleration followed by a return to pre-movement levels. CONCLUSION This study identified vagal inhibition in association with episodes of PLMS in children. Rapid cardiac acceleration occurring concurrently with the onset of individual leg movements also suggested decreased vagal activity associated with the movements.
Quantitative Study of Porosity and Pore Features in Moldavites by Means of X-ray Micro-CT

X-ray micro-computer aided tomography (μ-CT), together with optical microscopy and imaging, have been applied to the study of six moldavite samples. These techniques enabled a complete characterization to be made of the textural features of both Muong Nong-type and common splashform moldavites. A detailed study of the size and distribution of pores or bubbles confirmed the marked variability in pore size among the samples, as well as within each sample, and indicated in the Muong Nong-type moldavites the presence of at least two deformation stages which occurred before and after pore formation.
Contrasting Responses of Photosynthesis to Salt Stress in the Glycophyte Arabidopsis and the Halophyte Thellungiella: Role of the Plastid Terminal Oxidase as an Alternative Electron Sink1[C][OA]

The effects of short-term salt stress on gas exchange and the regulation of photosynthetic electron transport were examined in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and its salt-tolerant close relative Thellungiella (Thellungiella halophila). Plants cultivated on soil were challenged for 2 weeks with NaCl. Arabidopsis showed a much higher sensitivity to salt than Thellungiella; while Arabidopsis plants were unable to survive exposure to greater than 150 mm salt, Thellugiella could tolerate concentrations as high as 500 mm with only minimal effects on gas exchange. Exposure of Arabidopsis to sublethal salt concentrations resulted in stomatal closure and inhibition of CO2 fixation. This lead to an inhibition of electron transport though photosystem II (PSII), an increase in cyclic electron flow involving only PSI, and increased nonphotochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence. In contrast, in Thellungiella, although gas exchange was marginally inhibited by high salt and PSI was unaffected, there was a large increase in electron flow involving PSII. This additional electron transport activity is oxygen dependent and sensitive to the alternative oxidase inhibitor n-propyl gallate. PSII electron transport in Thellungiella showed a reduced sensitivity to 2′-iodo-6-isopropyl-3-methyl-2′,4,4′-trinitrodiphenylether, an inhibitor of the cytochrome b6f complex. At the same time, we observed a substantial up-regulation of a protein reacting with antibodies raised against the plastid terminal oxidase. No such up-regulation was seen in Arabidopsis. We conclude that in salt-stressed Thellungiella, plastid terminal oxidase acts as an alternative electron sink, accounting for up to 30% of total PSII electron flow.
Neural Semantic Role Labeling with Dependency Path Embeddings

This paper introduces a novel model for semantic role labeling that makes use of neural sequence modeling techniques. Our approach is motivated by the observation that complex syntactic structures and related phenomena, such as nested subordinations and nominal predicates, are not handled well by existing models. Our model treats such instances as subsequences of lexicalized dependency paths and learns suitable embedding representations. We experimentally demonstrate that such embeddings can improve results over previous state-of-the-art semantic role labelers, and showcase qualitative improvements obtained by our method.
Shared Neural Mechanisms for the Prediction of Own and Partner Musical Sequences after Short-term Piano Duet Training

Predictive mechanisms in the human brain can be investigated using markers for prediction violations like the mismatch negativity (MMN). Short-term piano training increases the MMN for melodic and rhythmic deviations in the training material. This increase occurs only when the material is actually played, not when it is only perceived through listening, suggesting that learning predictions about upcoming musical events are derived from motor involvement. However, music is often performed in concert with others. In this case, predictions about upcoming actions from a partner are a crucial part of the performance. In the present experiment, we use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure MMNs to deviations in one's own and a partner's musical material after both engaged in musical duet training. Event-related field (ERF) results revealed that the MMN increased significantly for own and partner material suggesting a neural representation of the partner's part in a duet situation. Source analysis using beamforming revealed common activations in auditory, inferior frontal, and parietal areas, similar to previous results for single players, but also a pronounced contribution from the cerebellum. In addition, activation of the precuneus and the medial frontal cortex was observed, presumably related to the need to distinguish between own and partner material.
Dynamic Systems and Applications 17 (2008) 139-148 OSCILLATION FOR SECOND ORDER NONLINEAR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS WITH DAMPING

Some new oscillation criteria are given for second order nonlinear differential equations with damping of the form (r (t) x) ′ + p (t) x + q (t) f (x) = 0. Our results are to develop oscillation criteria without any restriction on the signs of p (t) and q (t). These results generalize and extend some earlier results of Abdullah [1] and Zheng and Liu [12].
Comparison Between Finite-Element Analysis and Winding Function Theory for Inductances and Torque Calculation of a Synchronous Reluctance Machine

This paper compares the prediction of two independent methods for calculating electromagnetic torque and inductances of a synchronous reluctance machine under linear condition. One method is based on winding function analysis (WFA) and the other on finite-element analysis (FEA). Both methods take into account the rotor geometry, the stator slot effects and the stator winding connections. The simulation results obtained by the WFA are compared with the ones obtained by two-dimensional FEA. It is shown that the two methods give approximately the same results but require different computation times.