Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Lutein on L-NAME-Induced Hypertensive Rats

We investigated the antihypertensive effect of lutein on NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-NAME)-induced hypertensive rats. Daily oral administration of L-NAME (40 mg/kg)-induced a rapid progressive increase in mean arterial pressure (MAP). L-NAME significantly increased MAP from the first week compared to that in the control and reached 193.3±9.6 mmHg at the end of treatment. MAP in the lutein groups was dose-dependently lower than that in the L-NAME group. Similar results were observed for systolic and diastolic blood pressure of L-NAME-induced hypertensive rats. The control group showed little change in heart rate for 3 weeks, whereas L-NAME significantly reduced heart rate from 434±26 to 376±33 beats/min. Lutein (2 mg/kg) significantly prevented the reduced heart rate induced by L-NAME. L-NAME caused hypertrophy of heart and kidney, and increased plasma lipid peroxidation four-fold but significantly reduced plasma nitrite and glutathione concentrations, which were significantly prevented by lutein in a dose-dependent manner. These findings suggest that lutein affords significant antihypertensive and antioxidant effects against L-NAME-induced hypertension in rats.
On the computational complexity of Ham-Sandwich cuts, Helly sets, and related problems

We study several canonical decision problems arising from some well-known theorems from combinatorial geometry. Among others, we show that computing the minimum size of a Caratheodory set and a Helly set and certain decision versions of the hs cut problem are W[1]-hard (and NP-hard) if the dimension is part of the input. This is done by fpt-reductions (which are actually ptime-reductions) from the d-Sum problem. Our reductions also imply that the problems we consider cannot be solved in time n^{o(d)} (where n is the size of the input), unless the Exponential-Time Hypothesis (ETH) is false. The technique of embedding d-Sum into a geometric setting is conceptually much simpler than direct fpt-reductions from purely combinatorial W[1]-hard problems (like the clique problem) and has great potential to show (parameterized) hardness and (conditional) lower bounds for many other problems.
ov 2 00 5 Vanishing viscosity solutions of a 2 × 2 triangular hyperbolic system with Dirichlet conditions on two boundaries

on a domain (t, x) ∈ ]0, +∞[×]0, l[ with Dirichlet boundary conditions imposed at x = 0 and at x = l. The matrix A is assumed to be in triangular form and strictly hyperbolic, and the boundary is not characteristic, i.e. the eigenvalues of A are different from 0. We show that, if the initial and boundary data have sufficiently small total variation, then the solution u exists for all t ≥ 0 and depends Lipschitz continuously in L on the initial and boundary data. Moreover, as ε → 0, the solutions u(t) converge in L to a unique limit u(t), which can be seen as the vanishing viscosity solution of the quasilinear hyperbolic system
Risk factors for development of incipient and overt diabetic nephropathy in type 1 diabetic patients: a 10-year prospective observational study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate prospectively putative risk factors for development of microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria in type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Prospective observational study of a cohort of type 1 diabetic patients followed in the outpatient clinic at Steno Diabetes Center for < or =10 years (median 9 years). We followed 537 patients aged > or =18 years with type 1 diabetes, with duration of diabetes > or =5 years, with normoalbuminuria (urinary albumin excretion rate < or =30 mg/24 h), and who were not taking antihypertensive medication. Risk factors for development of microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria were evaluated. RESULTS The mean progression of urinary albumin excretion rate was 7.6% (SE 0.8) per year. During follow-up, 134 patients (25%) progressed to persistent microalbuminuria or macroalbuminuria (>30 mg/24 h in two of three consecutive urine samples). Cox multiple regression analysis using baseline values of putative predictors of progression showed the following significant predictors of progression from normoalbuminuria to microalbuminuria or macroalbuminuria: baseline log urinary albumin excretion rate 2.63 (relative risk; 95% CI 1.65-4.19), HbA(1c) 1.13% (1.04-1.23), presence of any retinopathy 1.90 (1.26-2.88), and smoking 1.61 (1.11-2.33). Sex, duration of diabetes, arterial blood pressure, serum creatinine, height, and social class were not risk factors. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that several potentially modifiable risk factors predict the development of microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria in type 1 diabetic patients.
Efficient Mobile Content Delivery Based on Co-Route Prediction in Urban Transport

Routing is one of the most challenging open problems in pocket-switched-networks (PSN). In this paper, we propose a novel co-route media content forwarding scheme (CRMF), in which new contact opportunities are created for occasionally disconnected mobile users. Our study is inspired by two observations: one is that many people tend to make regular journeys to the same place, so their trajectories show a high degree of temporal and spatial regularity. The other is that the number of repeated journeys for an individual commuter is greater than that of the repeated contacts with another commuter who possess similar seasonal movement patterns. Our main contributions include: we properly install store-and-forward routers based on vehicle mobility patterns and human regular movement behaviors; we also propose a router-centric prediction scheme that collects passenger historical trajectory information to determine the delivery scheme. The simulation results demonstrate that this approach improves delivery ratio and also reduces the delivery latency compared to memory (history)-less delivery scheme.
E-commerce in Your Inbox: Product Recommendations at Scale

In recent years online advertising has become increasingly ubiquitous and effective. Advertisements shown to visitors fund sites and apps that publish digital content, manage social networks, and operate e-mail services. Given such large variety of internet resources, determining an appropriate type of advertising for a given platform has become critical to financial success. Native advertisements, namely ads that are similar in look and feel to content, have had great success in news and social feeds. However, to date there has not been a winning formula for ads in e-mail clients. In this paper we describe a system that leverages user purchase history determined from e-mail receipts to deliver highly personalized product ads to Yahoo Mail users. We propose to use a novel neural language-based algorithm specifically tailored for delivering effective product recommendations, which was evaluated against baselines that included showing popular products and products predicted based on co-occurrence. We conducted rigorous offline testing using a large-scale product purchase data set, covering purchases of more than 29 million users from 172 e-commerce websites. Ads in the form of product recommendations were successfully tested on online traffic, where we observed a steady 9% lift in click-through rates over other ad formats in mail, as well as comparable lift in conversion rates. Following successful tests, the system was launched into production during the holiday season of 2014.
Exome Sequencing Identifies Compound Heterozygous Mutations in CYP4V2 in a Pedigree with Retinitis Pigmentosa

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a heterogeneous group of progressive retinal degenerations characterized by pigmentation and atrophy in the mid-periphery of the retina. Twenty two subjects from a four-generation Chinese family with RP and thin cornea, congenital cataract and high myopia is reported in this study. All family members underwent complete ophthalmologic examinations. Patients of the family presented with bone spicule-shaped pigment deposits in retina, retinal vascular attenuation, retinal and choroidal dystrophy, as well as punctate opacity of the lens, reduced cornea thickness and high myopia. Peripheral venous blood was obtained from all patients and their family members for genetic analysis. After mutation analysis in a few known RP candidate genes, exome sequencing was used to analyze the exomes of 3 patients III2, III4, III6 and the unaffected mother II2. A total of 34,693 variations shared by 3 patients were subjected to several filtering steps against existing variation databases. Identified variations were verified in the rest family members by PCR and Sanger sequencing. Compound heterozygous c.802-8_810del17insGC and c.1091-2A>G mutations of the CYP4V2 gene, known as genetic defects for Bietti crystalline corneoretinal dystrophy, were identified as causative mutations for RP of this family.
Young people's relation to academic study : a theoretical and empirical study of sixth form students to inform student-centred teaching in Brunei Darussalam

Whilst there are numerous studies on young people’s engagement in academic study, the internal relationship between young people and academic study is still unclear. This thesis seeks to explain the relation of young people to their academic study, in the context of Brunei Darussalam, through analysing young people’s motive hierarchy. The research is based on the understanding that young people are faced with multiple contradicting demands from the society, which evolve with their developmental age. The contradicting demands generate conflicts for young people as they participate across the different institutional practices in their everyday lives. The research entailed a semi-participatory research approach, which emphasised young people’s lived experiences, from a first-person perspective. Eight (8) young people aged 16-18 years who are studying for their GCE A Level examinations, played roles as both trained Student Researchers, as well as participants in this research. Data were collected from focus group discussions, annotated photo albums (MyAlbum) and a ‘participant self-generated’ questionnaire (MyQuestionnaire). The focus of the data collection was on the young people’s experiences of conflicts with respect to their academic study and the different agendas in their everyday lives. Intermediary tools were developed to focus the data analysis to identify motive-orientations and their relative importance in the construct of the motive hierarchy of a young person. An initial general model of motive hierarchy was developed from this study too. It is a societal demand for young people in late adolescence to be vocational and career oriented. However this study shows the eight (8) young people are also oriented towards other objects, apart from being future oriented. They can still have a dominant motive-orientation towards intimate personal relations, which usually prevails for early adolescence. Two other motive-orientations have also emerged from this study, i.e. the societal value system and self-comfort related. These different motive-orientations of the young people contradict the societal demands and create conflicts for the young people as they participate in and across the practices. These findings are important in informing intervention programmes to improve young people’s engagement in academic study.
Theoretically robust but empirically invalid? An experimental investigation into tax equivalence

Summary. The idea that the final distribution of the tax burden (economic incidence) does not depend on the initial distribution of tax liabilities (statutory incidence) is referred to as the Liability Side Equivalence principle. This paper tests this principle in the laboratory and finds that subjects who actually have to pay the tax carry a higher tax burden. It is argued that this violation of Liability Side Equivalence is due to the fact that a change in the distribution of tax liabilities induces a shift in behaviorally relevant social norms. This shift, in turn, affects the impact of the tax. Our results explain some striking empirical observations and have important theoretical and practical implications.
PPARα Agonists Reduce Alcohol Drinking: Do They Act in the Brain or in the Liver?

There are good news for the alcohol field. In the past few years, peroxisome proliferator-activator drugs were reported to reduce voluntary alcohol intake in animal models. Barson et al. (2009) showed that gemfibrozil reduced alcohol drinking in rats. Recently, similar results were obtained with fenofibrate in high-alcohol-drinker UChB rats (Karahanian et al. , 2014) and mice (Blednov et al. , 2015). Moreover, a phase 2 clinical trial led by Barbara Mason (The Scripps Research Institute) was started to test the hypothesis that alcohol-dependent subjects treated with fenofibrate will report decreased craving for alcohol following cue-exposure and will report less drinking post treatment (clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02158273). The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are transcription factors (nuclear receptors) that play essential roles in the regulation of cellular differentiation, development and metabolism. Three types of PPARs have been identified: alpha, gamma and beta/delta. PPARα is the most abundant isoform in the liver; PPARβ/δ is expressed ubiquitously in all tissues; and PPARγ is expressed mainly in adipose tissue. PPARα is activated by natural ligands (some types of fatty acids) and by synthetic agonists such as fibrate drugs (clofibrate, gemfibrozil, ciprofibrate, bezafibrate and fenofibrate). Fibrates are widely used in the clinic for the treatment of high blood-triglyceride levels. The mechanisms by which PPARα agonists are effective in reducing alcohol consumption are not fully understood. Currently, there are two views: (a) fibrates would act in the brain, changing the expression of genes …
The Supernova Rate in Starburst Galaxies

We conducted an optical CCD search for supernovae in a sample of 142 bright [m(B)≤16 mag], nearby (z≤0.03) starburst galaxies over the period 1988 December to 1991 June, to a limiting R‐band magnitude of 18. Five supernovae were found, in all cases outside the host galaxy's nucleus. We determine supernova rates (in supernova units or SNU) in the extranuclear regions to be 0.7 h2 SNU for Type Ia, 0.7 h2 SNU for Type Ib/c, and ∼0.6 h2 SNU for Type II, with large uncertainties but upper limits of 2.2 h2, 2.5 h2, and 1.7 h2 SNU, respectively. These rates are similar to those measured in “normal” galaxies. We found no evidence for a supernova‐induced brightening in any galactic nucleus and, with a few reasonable assumptions, can place upper limits of 9 h2, 12 h2, and 7 h2 SNU on the rates of unobscured supernovae Types Ia, Ib/c, and II, respectively, inside the nuclei.
Interactive 3D Simulations in Measuring Consumer Preferences: Friend or Foe to Test Results?

ABSTRACT With the inexorable progression of technological development, more and more technological solutions are gaining access to market research processes (e.g., online panels, mobile surveys). A promising tool in this context involves interactive, three-dimensional, virtual reality techniques to measure consumer preferences. Many benefits are conceivable: Artificial lab environments can use more realistic designs and improve cost efficiency and “time to market” factors. However, the increasing degree of reality and respondent immersion into the interactive three-dimensional (3D) environment could cause a market research task to fall prey to a tense virtual reality adventure. This study tests an interactive 3D technique empirically in terms of its usability in a choice-based conjoint study. The 3D simulation does not create bias as a result of immersion, and it provides much better test results in terms of estimated utilities and conjoint importance than simple two-dimensional stimuli.
Optimal control for haptic rendering: Fast energy dissipation and minimum overshoot

Controlling haptic devices in an optimal way is crucial to achieve both, best performance and most realistic haptic feedback. The present article investigates control design of a single degree of freedom haptic device that is interacting with a human operator and rendering a virtual wall affected by time delay. To this end, it suggests different optimization criteria based on the step response of the haptic system. These criteria cover fundamental requirements for efficiently using haptic devices, particularly fast settling and minimum overshoot. For each criterion an optimal path and point inside the stable region of the virtual wall parameters is derived. These optima depend mainly on the system mass, sampling time and time delay. This approach is supported by experiments on two devices, a Falcon haptic device and a DLR/KUKA Light-Weight Robot arm.
High-flow nasal oxygen availability for sedation decreases the use of general anesthesia during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic ultrasound

AIM To examine whether high-flow nasal oxygen (HFNO) availability influences the use of general anesthesia (GA) in patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and associated outcomes. METHODS In this retrospective study, patients were stratified into 3 eras between October 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014 based on HFNO availability for deep sedation at the time of their endoscopy. During the first and last 3-mo eras (era 1 and 3), no HFNO was available, whereas it was an option during the second 3-mo era (era 2). The primary outcome was the percent utilization of GA vs deep sedation in each period. Secondary outcomes included oxygen saturation nadir during sedation between periods, as well as procedure duration, and anesthesia-only time between periods and for GA vs sedation cases respectively. RESULTS During the study period 238 ERCP or EUS cases were identified for analysis. Statistical testing was employed and a P < 0.050 was significant unless the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons was used. General anesthesia use was significantly lower in era 2 compared to era 1 with the same trend between era 2 and 3 (P = 0.012 and 0.045 respectively). The oxygen saturation nadir during sedation was significantly higher in era 2 compared to era 3 (P < 0.001) but not between eras 1 and 2 (P = 0.028) or 1 and 3 (P = 0.069). The procedure time within each era was significantly longer under GA compared to deep sedation (P ≤ 0.007) as was the anesthesia-only time (P ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION High-flow nasal oxygen availability was associated with decreased GA utilization and improved oxygenation for ERCP and EUS during sedation.
When AIMD meets ICN: A bandwidth sharing perspective

Information-centric networking (ICN) leverages content demand redundancy and proposes in-network caching to reduce network and servers load and to improve quality of experience. In this paper, we study the interaction between in-network caching of ICN and Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease (AIMD) end-to-end congestion control with a focus on how bandwidth is shared, as a function of content popularity and cache provisioning. As caching shortens AIMD feedback loop, the download rate of AIMD is impacted. Supported by an analytical model based on Discriminatory Processor Sharing and real experiments, we observe that popular contents benefit from caching and realize a shorter download time at the expense of unpopular contents, which see their download time inflated by a factor bounded by 1/1-ρ where ρ is the network load. This bias can be removed by redefining congestion control to be delay independent or by over-provisioning link capacity at the edge so that to compensate for the greediness of popular contents.
CASP8 SNP D302H (rs1045485) Is Associated with Worse Survival in MYCN-Amplified Neuroblastoma Patients

Background Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer that exhibits a wide clinical spectrum ranging from spontaneous regression in low-risk patients to fatal disease in high-risk patients. The identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) may help explain the heterogeneity of neuroblastoma and assist in identifying patients at higher risk for poor survival. SNPs in the TP53 pathway are of special importance, as several studies have reported associations between TP53 pathway SNPs and cancer. Of note, less than 2% of neuroblastoma tumors have a TP53 mutation at diagnosis. Patients and Methods We selected 21 of the most frequently studied SNPs in the TP53 pathway and evaluated their association with outcome in 500 neuroblastoma patients using TaqMan allelic discrimination assays. Results and Conclusion We investigated the impact of 21 SNPs on overall survival, event-free survival, age at diagnosis, MYCN status, and stage of the disease in 500 neuroblastoma patients. A missense SNP in exon 10 of the CASP8 gene SNP D302H was associated with worse overall and event-free survival in patients with MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma tumors.
Structural Features of Antiviral APOBEC3 Proteins are Linked to Their Functional Activities

Human APOBEC3 (A3) proteins are cellular cytidine deaminases that potently restrict the replication of retroviruses by hypermutating viral cDNA and/or inhibiting reverse transcription. There are seven members of this family including A3A, B, C, DE, F, G, and H, all encoded in a tandem array on human chromosome 22. A3F and A3G are the most potent inhibitors of HIV-1, but only in the absence of the virus-encoded protein, Vif. HIV-1 utilizes Vif to abrogate A3 functions in the producer cells. More specifically, Vif, serving as a substrate receptor, facilitates ubiquitination of A3 proteins by forming a Cullin5 (Cul5)-based E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, which targets A3 proteins for rapid proteasomal degradation. The specificity of A3 degradation is determined by the ability of Vif to bind to the target. Several lines of evidence have suggested that three distinct regions of A3 proteins are involved in the interaction with Vif. Here, we review the biological functions of A3 family members with special focus on A3G and base our analysis on the available structural information.
Replication and Relevance of Multiple Susceptibility Loci Discovered from Genome Wide Association Studies for Type 2 Diabetes in an Indian Population

Aim Several genetic variants for type 2 diabetes (T2D) have been identified through genome wide association studies (GWAS) from Caucasian population; however replication studies were not consistent across various ethnicities. Objective of the current study is to examine the possible correlation of 9 most significant GWAS single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for T2D susceptibility as well as the interactive effect of these variants on the risk of T2D in an Indian population. Methods Case-control cohorts of 1156 individuals were genotyped for 9 SNPs from an Indian population. Association analyses were performed using logistic regression after adjusting for covariates. Multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) analysis was adopted to determine gene–gene interactions and discriminatory power of combined SNP effect was assessed by grouping individuals based on the number of risk alleles and by calculating area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (AUC). Results We confirm the association of TCF7L2 (rs7903146) and SLC30A8 (rs13266634) with T2D. MDR analysis showed statistically significant interactions among four SNPs of SLC30A8 (rs13266634), IGF2BP2 (rs4402960), HHEX (rs1111875) and CDKN2A (rs10811661) genes. Cumulative analysis showed an increase in odds ratio against the baseline group of individuals carrying 5 to 6 risk alleles and discriminatory power of genetic test based on 9 variants showed higher AUC value when analyzed along with body mass index (BMI). Conclusion These results provide a strong evidence for independent association between T2D and SNPs for in TCF7L2 and SLC30A8. MDR analysis demonstrates that independently non-significant variants may interact with one another resulting in increased disease susceptibility in the population tested.