Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immortelle (Xeranthemum annuum L.) as a natural source of biologically active substances

Antioxidant and antimicrobial effects, total phenolic content and flavonoid concentrations of methanolic, acetone and ethyl acetate extracts from Xeranthemum annuum L. were investigated in this study. The total phenolic content was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and ranged between 101.33 to 159.48 mg GA/g. The concentration of flavonoids in various X. annuum extracts was determined using spectrophotometric method with aluminum chloride and the results varied from 22.25 to 62.42 mg RU/g. Antioxidant activity was monitored spectrophotometrically using DPPH reagent and expressed in terms of IC50 (µg/ml), and it ranged from 59.25 to 956.81 µg/ml. The highest phenolic content and capacity to neutralize DPPH radicals were found in the acetone extract. In vitro antimicrobial activity was determined by microdilution method. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum microbicidal concentration (MMC) have been determined. Testing was conducted against 24 microorganisms, including 15 strains of bacteria (standard and clinical strains) and 9 species of fungi. Statistically significant difference in activity between the extracts of X. annuum L. was observed and the acetone extract was found most active. The activity of acetone extract was in accordance with total phenol content and flavonoid concentration measured in this extract. The tested extracts showed significant antibacterial activity against G+ bacteria and weak to moderate activity against other microorganisms. Based on the obtained results, X. annuum can be considered as a rich natural source of polyphenolic compounds with very good antioxidant and antimicrobial activity.
An improved query for the hidden subbroup problem

The Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP) is at the forefront of problems in quantum algorithms. In this paper, we introduce a new query, the character query, generalizing the well-known phase kickback trick that was first used successfully to efficiently solve Deutsch's problem. An equal superposition query with 〈0〉 in the response register is typically used in the "standard method" of single-query algorithms for the HSP. The proposed character query improves over this query by maximizing the success probability of subgroup identification under a uniform prior, for the HSP in which the oracle functions take values in a finite abelian group. We apply our results to the case when the subgroups are drawn from a set of conjugate subgroups and obtain a success probability greater than that found by Moore and Russell.
Differences in Recruitment and Life-History Strategy Alter Zooplankton Spring Dynamics Under Climate-Change Conditions

In recent decades temperature elevation has been the focus of many studies on climate change, including effects on planktonic communities, but few studies have examined the effects of increased water color ("brownification"). Since these changes are likely to occur simultaneously, it is important to investigate their potential interactive effects. Accordingly, we performed a mesocosm experiment where we combined a 3°C increase in temperature with a doubling in water color to study how these factors affect zooplankton. In particular, we looked at recruitment of cladocerans and copepods from the sediment in spring, as well as their establishment in the water column. Our results show that an elevated temperature will have considerable effects on recruitment as well as on pelagic abundances of both cladocerans and copepods, whereas increases in water color will have less effects on the recruitment and pelagic establishment. But more importantly, the proportion of cladocerans in the water column, relative to copepods, increased at higher temperature, suggesting that cladocerans benefit more from elevated temperatures than copepods do. Overall, these results likely stem from the combined effect of changes in recruitment and differences in life history between copepods and cladocerans. Taking a wider outlook, this suggests that future climate warming will change the dominance pattern of zooplankton communities in spring, and, in accordance with the experimental data, we here show that cladocerans are more abundant than copepods in natural lake ecosystems during warmer rather than cooler years.
Single‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation over the frontal eye field can facilitate and inhibit saccade triggering

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of single‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation on the triggering of saccades. The right frontal eye field was stimulated during modified gap and overlap paradigms with flashed presentation of the lateral visual target of 80 ms. In order to examine possible facilitating or inhibitory effects on saccade triggering, three different time intervals of stimulation were chosen, i.e. simultaneously with onset of the target, during the presentation and after target end. Stimulation applied simultaneously with target onset significantly decreased the latency of contralateral saccades in the gap but not in the overlap paradigm. Stimulation after target end significantly increased saccade latency for both sides in the gap paradigm and for the contralateral side in the overlap paradigm. Stimulation during presentation had no effect in either paradigm. The results show that, depending on the time interval and the paradigm tested, a facilitation or inhibition of saccade triggering can be achieved. The results are discussed in a context of two probable transcranial magnetic stimulation effects, a direct interference with the frontal eye field on the one hand and a remote interference with the superior colliculus on the other hand.
Indoor Positioning Method Based on Metameric White Light Sources and Subpixels on a Color Image Sensor

An indoor positioning method based on metameric white light sources and subpixels on a color image sensor is proposed in this paper. Metameric white light sources are obtained by merging multiple-color light-emitting diode (LED) chips with different intensity ratios. The output intensity ratios of subpixels on color image sensor at the receiver are employed to identify the respective metameric white light sources. Proof of concept experiments demonstrates that the average error of 2-D indoor positioning is 1.50 cm and 3-D indoor positioning is 3.58 cm. The indoor positioning system with the proposed method is cost effective and convenient because image sensors in nowadays available mobile devices can be utilized.
Mesenchymal stromal cells from pooled mononuclear cells of multiple bone marrow donors as rescue therapy in pediatric severe steroid-refractory graft-versus-host disease: a multicenter survey

To circumvent donor-to-donor heterogeneity which may lead to inconsistent results after treatment of acute graft-versus-host disease with mesenchymal stromal cells generated from single donors we developed a novel approach by generating these cells from pooled bone marrow mononuclear cells of 8 healthy “3rd-party” donors. Generated cells were frozen in 209 vials and designated as mesenchymal stromal cell bank. These vials served as a source for generation of clinical grade mesenchymal stromal cell end-products, which exhibited typical mesenchymal stromal cell phenotype, trilineage differentiation potential and at later passages expressed replicative senescence-related markers (p21 and p16). Genetic analysis demonstrated their genomic stability (normal karyotype and a diploid pattern). Importantly, clinical end-products exerted a significantly higher allosuppressive potential than the mean allosuppressive potential of mesenchymal stromal cells generated from the same donors individually. Administration of 81 mesenchymal stromal cell end-products to 26 patients with severe steroid-resistant acute graft-versus-host disease in 7 stem cell transplant centers who were refractory to many lines of treatment, induced a 77% overall response at the primary end point (day 28). Remarkably, although the cohort of patients was highly challenging (96% grade III/IV and only 4% grade II graft-versus-host disease), after treatment with mesenchymal stromal cell end-products the overall survival rate at two years follow up was 71±11% for the entire patient cohort, compared to 51.4±9.0% in graft-versus-host disease clinical studies, in which mesenchymal stromal cells were derived from single donors. Mesenchymal stromal cell end-products may, therefore, provide a novel therapeutic tool for the effective treatment of severe acute graft-versus-host disease.
S-duality action on discrete T-duality invariants

In heterotic string theory compactified on T6, the T-duality orbits of dyons of charge (Q, P) are characterized by O(6, 22; ) invariants Q2, P2 and Q ⋅ P together with a set of invariants of the discrete T-duality group O(6, 22; ). We study the action of S-duality group on the discrete T-duality invariants and study its consequence for the dyon degeneracy formula. In particular we find that for dyons with torsion r, the degeneracy formula, expressed as a function of Q2, P2 and Q ⋅ P, is required to be manifestly invariant under only a subgroup of the S-duality group. This subgroup is isomorphic to Γ0(r). Our analysis also shows that for a given torsion r, all other discrete T-duality invariants are characterized by the elements of the coset SL(2, )/Γ0(r).
Partially Acetylated Sugarcane Bagasse for Wicking Oil from Contaminated Wetlands

Sugarcane bagasse was partially acetylated to enhance its oil-wicking ability in saturated environments while holding moisture for hydrocarbon biodegradation. The water sorption capacity of raw bagasse was reduced fourfold after treatment, which indicated considerably increased hydrophobicity but not a limited capability to hold moisture for hydrocarbon biodegradation. Characterization results by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and surface area analyzer suggested that treated bagasse exhibited enhanced hydrophobicity and surface area. Oil wicking test results indicate that treated bagasse is more effective in wicking oil from highly saturated environments than raw bagasse and suggest that application of this material in remediation of oil spills in highly saturated wetlands is promising.
Replication fork reversal and the maintenance of genome stability

The progress of replication forks is often threatened in vivo, both by DNA damage and by proteins bound to the template. Blocked forks must somehow be restarted, and the original blockage cleared, in order to complete genome duplication, implying that blocked fork processing may be critical for genome stability. One possible pathway that might allow processing and restart of blocked forks, replication fork reversal, involves the unwinding of blocked forks to form four-stranded structures resembling Holliday junctions. This concept has gained increasing popularity recently based on the ability of such processing to explain many genetic observations, the detection of unwound fork structures in vivo and the identification of enzymes that have the capacity to catalyse fork regression in vitro. Here, we discuss the contexts in which fork regression might occur, the factors that may promote such a reaction and the possible roles of replication fork unwinding in normal DNA metabolism.
Noisy speech enhancement by fusion of auditory and visual information: a study of vowel transitions

This paper deals with a noisy speech enhancement technique based on the fusion of auditory and visual information. We first present the global structure of the system, and then we focus on the tool we used to melt both sources of information. The whole noise reduction system is implemented in the context of vowel transitions corrupted with white noise. A complete evaluation of the system in this context is presented, including distance measures, gaussian classification scores, and a perceptive test. The results are very promising.
Flow field downstream of individual aquatic plants—Experiments in a natural river with Potamogeton crispus L. and Myriophyllum spicatum L.

Flow disturbances generated by individual patches of submerged, flexible aquatic vegetation were investigated for two naturally growing macrophyte species, Potamogeton crispus L. and Myriophyllum spicatum L. , in a sandy lowland river. Through acoustic Doppler velocimetry, 24 vertical profiles of the 3D velocity field were recorded downstream of each of the patches. The morphological features and biomechanical properties of the plants were also evaluated. The experiments showed the relationship between biomechanical characteristics and turbulence statistics. M. spicatum, which was stiffer and therefore less prone to dynamic reconfiguration, showed a greater effect on velocity damping, causing an increase in Reynold stresses, turbulence intensities, and turbulent kinetic energy downstream of the patch. These effects were present in regions both above and below plant height. In contrast for P. crispus, these effects were present only below plant height. The stiffer plant produced a mixing layer in its wake similar to that of dense plant canopies. The patch of less stiff and more streamlined P. crispus with longer leaves presented a much weaker effect on the flow. In contrast to previous studies conducted with rigid plant surrogates, we concluded that reconfiguration of the living flexible plants allows the plants to minimize drag forces, and therefore, their influence on the flow field was weaker than the effects reported for rigid surrogates.
The big Chern classes and the Chern character

Let $X$ be a smooth scheme over a field of characteristic 0. Let $\dd^{\bullet}(X)$ be the complex of polydifferential operators on $X$ equipped with Hochschild co-boundary. Let $L(\dd^1(X))$ be the free Lie algebra generated over $\strc$ by $\dd^1(X)$ concentrated in degree 1 equipped with Hochschild co-boundary. We have a symmetrization map $I: \oplus_k \sss^k(L(\dd^1(X))) \rar \dd^{\bullet}(X)$. Theorem 1 of this paper measures how the map $I$ fails to commute with multiplication. A consequence of Theorem 1 and Theorem 2 is Corollary 1, a result "dual" to Theorem 1 of Markarian [3] that measures how the Hochschild-Kostant-Rosenberg quasi-isomorphism fails to commute with multiplication. In order to understand Theorem 1 conceptually, we prove a theorem (Theorem 3) stating that $\dd^{\bullet}(X)$ is the universal enveloping algebra of $T_X[-1]$ in $\dcat$. An easy consequence of Theorem 3 is Theorem 4, which interprets the Chern character $E$ as the "character of the representation $E$ of $T_X[-1]$" and gives a description of the big Chern classes of $E$. Finally, Theorem 4 along with Theorem 1 is used to give an explicit formula (Theorem 5) expressing the big Chern classes of $E$ in terms of the components of the Chern character of $E$.
Ferritinophagy via NCOA4 is required for erythropoiesis and is regulated by iron dependent HERC2-mediated proteolysis

NCOA4 is a selective cargo receptor for the autophagic turnover of ferritin, a process critical for regulation of intracellular iron bioavailability. However, how ferritinophagy flux is controlled and the roles of NCOA4 in iron-dependent processes are poorly understood. Through analysis of the NCOA4-FTH1 interaction, we demonstrate that direct association via a key surface arginine in FTH1 and a C-terminal element in NCOA4 is required for delivery of ferritin to the lysosome via autophagosomes. Moreover, NCOA4 abundance is under dual control via autophagy and the ubiquitin proteasome system. Ubiquitin-dependent NCOA4 turnover is promoted by excess iron and involves an iron-dependent interaction between NCOA4 and the HERC2 ubiquitin ligase. In zebrafish and cultured cells, NCOA4 plays an essential role in erythroid differentiation. This work reveals the molecular nature of the NCOA4-ferritin complex and explains how intracellular iron levels modulate NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy in cells and in an iron-dependent physiological setting. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.10308. 001
Late Mesoproterozoic – early Neoproterozoic organic‐walled microfossils from the Madhubani Group of the Ganga Valley, northern India

The age of the sedimentary basement of the Ganga Valley in northern India, which is represented by the entirely subsurface Ganga Supergroup, is key for addressing issues related to the tectonic history of the Himalaya. However, the stratigraphic correlations between the Ganga Supergroup in the Ganga Valley, the Vindhyan Supergroup in cratonic India to the south, and Proterozoic successions in the Lesser Himalaya to the north have long been a matter of controversy. This is largely because of the poor age constraint of the Madhubani Group of the upper Ganga Supergroup, which has been variously interpreted as Proterozoic, lower Palaeozoic, or even Mesozoic. To address this issue, we used a low manipulation maceration technique to extract organic‐walled microfossils from the Ujhani and Tilhar formations of the lower Madhubani Group. Our study recovered a total of 24 taxa, including Devisphaera corallis gen. et sp. nov. The co‐occurrence of Trachyhystrichosphaera aimika, Caudosphaera expansa and Annulusia annulata in the lower Madhubani Group indicates a late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic age. Thus, the biostratigraphical data suggest a >300 myr depositional gap between the Madhubani Group and the immediately underlying Bahraich Group, which has been independently constrained to be upper Palaeoproterozoic to lower Mesoproterozoic in age. Therefore, the first‐order stratigraphic architecture, with a Palaeoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic succession unconformably overlain by a Mesoproterozoic–Neoproterozoic succession, is closely similar throughout the Vindhyan Basin, Ganga Valley and Lesser Himalaya, suggesting a shared sedimentary and tectonic history among them.
On the Neural Mechanisms Subserving Consciousness and Attention

Consciousness, as described in the experimental literature, is a multi-faceted phenomenon, that impinges on other well-studied concepts such as attention and control. Do consciousness and attention refer to different aspects of the same core phenomenon, or do they correspond to distinct functions? One possibility to address this question is to examine the neural mechanisms underlying consciousness and attention. If consciousness and attention pertain to the same concept, they should rely on shared neural mechanisms. Conversely, if their underlying mechanisms are distinct, then consciousness and attention should be considered as distinct entities. This paper therefore reviews neurophysiological facts arguing in favor or against a tight relationship between consciousness and attention. Three neural mechanisms that have been associated with both attention and consciousness are examined (neural amplification, involvement of the fronto-parietal network, and oscillatory synchrony), to conclude that the commonalities between attention and consciousness at the neural level may have been overestimated. Last but not least, experiments in which both attention and consciousness were probed at the neural level point toward a dissociation between the two concepts. It therefore appears from this review that consciousness and attention rely on distinct neural properties, although they can interact at the behavioral level. It is proposed that a “cumulative influence model,” in which attention and consciousness correspond to distinct neural mechanisms feeding a single decisional process leading to behavior, fits best with available neural and behavioral data. In this view, consciousness should not be considered as a top-level executive function but should rather be defined by its experiential properties.
The effect of guided imagery on the third stage of labor: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this pilot study was to test the effects of guided imagery on blood loss during the third stage of labor. DESIGN AND SETTING This was a three-group randomized controlled trial. Recruitment was conducted from a university nurse-midwifery practice. SUBJECTS Sixty (60) women between pregnancy weeks 36 and 38 participated. INTERVENTIONS The women were randomized into experimental, placebo, and control groups. OUTCOME MEASURES Intrauterine pressure catheters were used to measure uterine contraction frequency and intensity. Blood loss was measured. Analysis of variance was used to compare the three groups on continuous variables. RESULTS Complete data were collected on 41 subjects. No significant differences were found among the groups on demographic or potentially confounding variables. CONCLUSIONS Blood loss was nominally lower in the experimental group, but conclusions cannot be drawn due to the sample size.
Decentralized Jini Security

Among the different approaches to distributed computing, the Jini technology provides a number of very promising methods for attacking the fundamental problems involved. Programs built according to the Jini principles will be able to function and survive in highly dynamic network environments, allowing applications to adapt their behaviour to the requirements of the current context. Unfortunately, the security problems that are bound to be present in any large scale deployment of Jini are not adequately addressed by either the current revisions of Jini technology or the underlying Java security solutions. In particular, the solutions proposed so far are either bound to a specific communication protocol—thereby hampering the protocol independence of Jini—or rely on centralized security servers, thereby losing the benefits of the ad hoc nature of Jini. In this paper, we present results of our research that act as stepping stones towards a fully decentralized, complete Jini security architecture. In particular, we describe our experimental implementation that separates the Java 2 access permissions of Jini clients, service proxies, and services, while allowing natural delegation of Java 2 permissions between Jini enabled devices. Our solution integrates seamlessly to the underlying Java 2 security, and allows all of Jini’s benefits to be utilized in a secure way.
Evaluation of Glaucomatous Damage via Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and Correlations Thereof with Anatomical and Psychophysical Ocular Findings

Purpose To evaluate the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) response to binocular visual stimulation and the association thereof with structural ocular findings and psychophysical test results in patients with glaucoma, and controls. Methods Cross-sectional study. Participants underwent a complete ophthalmic examination, including Humphrey 24-2 visual field (VF) testing and optical coherence tomography. Binocular VF in each quadrant was determined using an integrated method. Patients with glaucoma were assigned to three subgroups: initial, asymmetrical and severe glaucoma. Regions of interest (ROIs) were determined anatomically. fMRI (3 T) was performed using a bilaterally presented polar angle stimulus, and the accompanying changes in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals were obtained from the occipital poles and calcarine ROIs. We used generalized estimation equation models to compare anatomical and functional data between the groups. Results A total of 25 subjects were enrolled, of whom 17 had glaucoma and 8 were controls. Significant associations between quadrant binocular VF sensitivities and fMRI responses were found in the occipital pole ROIs (p = 0.033) and the calcarine ROIs (p = 0.045). In glaucoma severity subgroup analysis, retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness was associated with the BOLD response of the calcarine and occipital pole ROIs (p = 0.002 and 0.026, respectively). The initial and asymmetrical glaucoma subgroups had similar binocular VF sensitivities and RNFL thicknesses, but distinct BOLD responses. Conclusions The response of the visual cortex to binocular stimulation was associated with binocular VF sensitivity. RNFL thickness was associated with the BOLD response of the calcarine and occipital pole ROIs.