Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Water Quality of a Polluted Pond at Mysore Using National Sanitation Foundation-Water Quality Index (NSF-WQI)

Microbes in freshwater often change the water quality and render it unfit for public use. Many methods of water quality determination have been discussed. A Simple but useful index is the National Sanitation Foundation-Water Quality Index (NSF-WQI). This index can be calculated by determining only nine physico-chemical parameters. Water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, total phosphorus, nitrates, total suspended solids, turbidity and faecal coliforms were used for the calculation of the index. The water quality of the pond was found to be medium.
Adaptive Sampling for SGD by Exploiting Side Information

This paper proposes a new mechanism for sampling training instances for stochastic gradient descent (SGD) methods by exploiting any side-information associated with the instances (for e.g. class-labels) to improve convergence. Previous methods have either relied on sampling from a distribution defined over training instances or from a static distribution that fixed before training. This results in two problems a) any distribution that is set apriori is independent of how the optimization progresses and b) maintaining a distribution over individual instances could be infeasible in large-scale scenarios. In this paper, we exploit the side information associated with the instances to tackle both problems. More specifically, we maintain a distribution over classes (instead of individual instances) that is adaptively estimated during the course of optimization to give the maximum reduction in the variance of the gradient. Intuitively, we sample more from those regions in space that have a larger gradient contribution. Our experiments on highly multiclass datasets show that our proposal converge significantly faster than existing techniques.
Influence of sarcopenia and functionality indicators on the frailty profile of community-dwelling elderly subjects: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND Frailty and sarcopenia are frequent conditions in the elderly and are related to inactivity and functionality. However, little is known about the influence of the sarcopenia indicators on the frailty profile or their functional implications. OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the indirect indicators of sarcopenia and functionality influence the frailty profile in elderly subjects. METHOD This was a cross-sectional study with 53 elderly subjects recruited by an active search in a secondary health care service. The indirect indicators of sarcopenia were body mass index (BMI), gait speed, Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA), Human Activity Profile (HAP), and handgrip strength. Frailty was characterized according to Fried's Frailty Phenotype. Functional capacity was assessed according to the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Physical activity level was assessed by HAP. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression. RESULTS Overall, 75.5% of the subjects were women, with a mean age of 76.72 (±5.89) years; 15.1% were frail and 54.7% pre-frail; and the level of physical activity was the most prevalent indicator of sarcopenia. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in both the physical activity level and gait speed between the non-frail and pre-frail groups and between the non-frail and frail groups. In addition, some sarcopenia indicators were associated with functional capacity and geriatric depression score. CONCLUSION The level of physical activity and gait speed appeared to be the most relevant factors in the development of frailty in the study sample, which may have functional implications.
Structural and ultrastructural evidence for telocytes in prostate stroma

The prostate comprises a glandular epithelium embedded within a fibromuscular stroma. The stroma is a complex arrangement of cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) components in addition to growth factors, regulatory molecules, remodelling enzymes, blood vessels, nerves and immune cells. The principal sources of ECM components are fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells (SMC), which synthesize the structural and regulatory components of the ECM. Telocytes (TCs) were recently described as a novel stromal cell type that exhibited characteristic features. The aim of this study was to confirm the presence of TCs in prostate stromal tissue of gerbils, as the stromal compartment of this gland is a dynamic microenvironment. We used transmission electron microscopy (TEM), light microscopy and immunohistochemistry methods to provide morphological evidence for the presence of TCs. Cells that resembled TCs were observed in gerbil prostatic stroma. These cells had small cellular bodies with very thin and extremely long cellular processes. They were found primarily in the subepithelial area and also at the periphery of SMC layers. TCs also exhibited moniliform processes, caveolae and nuclei surrounded by small amounts of cytoplasm. Close contacts between TC podomers were evident, particularly in the adjacent epithelial compartment. This morphological evidence supported the presence of TCs in the gerbil prostatic stroma, which we report for the first time.
Multisession rate control for layered video multicast

In a video multicast session, the receivers may possess different capabilities or be connected to the network through a variety of different access speeds. Multicasting video traffic at any one rate to all of the receivers can be unfair as some receivers may experience high losses while others find that their full reception capacity is not fully utilized. Layered video multicast protocols have been developed to address this intra-session fairness problem. In such protocols (e.g., RLM and LVMR), video is multicast in multiple layers over separate multicast groups. Receivers join as many layers as they can handle. While protocols such as RLM and LVMR have been shown to successfully address the intra-session fairness issue in video multicast, they do not address the issue of inter-session fairness, i.e., fair sharing between multiple video sessions and TCP sessions. In this paper, we demonstrate and develop insight into the inter-session fairness problem through a set of simulation experiments. We then propose a novel idea to improve inter- session fairness for layered video multicast protocol: layer-based congestion sensitivity mechanism, and finally evaluate it with some other end-to-end schemes designed to promote inter-session fairness when used to augment layered video multicast protocols.
Classification-based Retrieval Methods to Enhance Information Discovery on the Web

The widespread adoption of the World-Wide Web (the Web) has created challenges both for society as a whole and for the technology used to build and maintain the Web. The ongoing struggle of information retrieval systems is to wade through this vast pile of data and satisfy users by presenting them with information that most adequately it’s their needs. On a societal level, the Web is expanding faster than we can comprehend its implications or develop rules for its use. The ubiquitous use of the Web has raised important social concerns in the areas of privacy, censorship, and access to information. On a technical level, the novelty of the Web and the pace of its growth have created challenges not only in the development of new applications that realize the power of the Web, but also in the technology needed to scale applications to accommodate the resulting large data sets and heavy loads. This thesis presents searching algorithms and hierarchical classification techniques for increasing a search service's understanding of web queries. Existing search services rely solely on a query's occurrence in the document collection to locate relevant documents. They typically do not perform any task or topic-based analysis of queries using other available resources, and do not leverage changes in user query patterns over time. Provided within are a set of techniques and metrics for performing temporal analysis on query logs. Our log analyses are shown to be reasonable and informative, and can be used to detect changing trends and patterns in the query stream, thus providing valuable data to a search service.
Optical and nuclear imaging of glioblastoma with phosphatidylserine-targeted nanovesicles

Multimodal tumor imaging with targeted nanoparticles potentially offers both enhanced specificity and sensitivity, leading to more precise cancer diagnosis and monitoring. We describe the synthesis and characterization of phenol-substituted, lipophilic orange and far-red fluorescent dyes and a simple radioiodination procedure to generate a dual (optical and nuclear) imaging probe. MALDI-ToF analyses revealed high iodination efficiency of the lipophilic reporters, achieved by electrophilic aromatic substitution using the chloramide 1,3,4,6-tetrachloro-3α,6α-diphenyl glycoluril (Iodogen) as the oxidizing agent in an organic/aqueous co-solvent mixture. Upon conjugation of iodine-127 or iodine-124-labeled reporters to tumor-targeting SapC-DOPS nanovesicles, optical (fluorescent) and PET imaging was performed in mice bearing intracranial glioblastomas. In addition, tumor vs non-tumor (normal brain) uptake was compared using iodine-125. These data provide proof-of-principle for the potential value of SapC-DOPS for multimodal imaging of glioblastoma, the most aggressive primary brain tumor.
Early embolization and vasopressor administration for management of life-threatening hemorrhage from pelvic fracture.

BACKGROUND In this retrospective study, we reviewed our protocol for management of hemodynamically unstable patients with pelvic injury. METHODS We managed the patients with the same predetermined plan including controlled hemodynamic resuscitation with early use of vasopressors and pelvic angiography as a first-line treatment. RESULTS Of 311 patients with pelvic fracture, 32 hemodynamically unstable patients (10.3%) underwent pelvic angiography, which was followed by embolization in 25 cases. Angiography was successful for 24 patients (96%) and extrapelvic bleeding was diagnosed in 5 patients (15%). Three of six laparotomies performed before angiography were nontherapeutic. One of seven laparotomies performed after angiography was negative. CONCLUSION A protocol for management of patients with pelvic injury and hemodynamic instability that is associated with controlled resuscitation including vasopressor and early pelvic angioembolization is effective for treating pelvic hemorrhage and diagnosing extrapelvic hemorrhage. Further studies are needed to confirm the respective place of angiographic and surgical control of bleeding.
Line search for generalized alternating projections

This paper is about line search for the generalized alternating projections (GAP) method. This method is a generalization of the von Neumann alternating projections method, where instead of alternating projections, relaxed projections are alternated. The method can be interpreted as an averaged iteration of a nonexpansive mapping. Therefore, a recently proposed line search method for such algorithms is applicable to GAP. We evaluate this line search and show situations when the line search can be performed with little additional cost. We also present a variation of the basic line search for GAP—the projected line search. We prove its convergence and show that the line search condition is convex in the step length parameter. We show that almost all convex optimization problems can be solved using this approach and numerical results show superior performance with both the standard and the projected line search, sometimes by several orders of magnitude, compared to the nominal method.
Intracellular Na+ and K+ activities and membrane conductances in the collecting tubule of Amphiuma

Membrane potentials and conductances, and intracellular ionic activities were studied in isolated perfused collecting tubules of K+-adapted Amphiuma. Intracellular Na+ (aNai) and K+ (aKi) activities were measured, using liquid ion-exchanger double-barreled microelectrodes. Apical and basolateral membrane conductances were estimated by cable analysis. The effects of inhibition of the apical conductance by amiloride (10(-5) M) and of inhibition of the basolateral Na-K pump by either a low K+ (0.1 mM) bath or by ouabain (10(-4) M) were studied. Under control conditions, aNai was 8.4 +/- 1.9 mM and aKi 56 +/- 3 mM. With luminal amiloride, aNai decreased to 2.2 +/- 0.4 mM and aKi increased to 66 +/- 3 mM. Ouabain produced an increase of aNai to 44 +/- 4 mM, and a decrease of aKi to 22 +/- 6, and similar changes were observed when the tubule was exposed to a low K+ bath solution. During pump inhibition, there was a progressive decrease of the K+-selective basolateral membrane conductance and of the Na+ permeability of the apical membrane. A similar inhibition of both membrane conductances was observed after pump inhibition by low K+ solution. Upon reintroduction of K+, a basolateral membrane hyperpolarization of -23 +/- 4 mV was observed, indicating an immediate reactivation of the electrogenic Na-K pump. However, the recovery of the membrane conductances occurred over a slower time course. These data imply that both membrane conductances are regulated according to the intracellular ionic composition, but that the basolateral K+ conductance is not directly linked to the pump activity.
Empirical evaluation of changing crossover operators to solve function optimization problems

In this paper, the effectiveness of methodologies for changing crossover operators (CXOs) to solve function optimization problems (FOP) are empirically validated in order to solve the problems of premature convergence in genetic algorithms. CXOs are methods of finding solutions for combinatorial optimization problems through genetic algorithms (GAs) while maintaining the balance of satisfying the contrary requisites for GAs: to sustain the diversity of the population and to improve the efficiency of searching for solutions. CXOs measure the diversity of the population on each end of a generation and dynamically alternate global search methods and local search methods according to the degree of that diversity. With the above devices, CXOs can decrease the probability of falling into local optima compared to using only one kind of crossover operator in the crossover operation. In FOP, considering the continuity of functions, real-coded crossover operators such as BLX-α (Blend Crossover) and SPX (Simplex Crossover) are invented and added to general crossover operators such as Two-point Crossover operators. In our investigation, we studied CXOs that exchange Two-point crossover for BLX-α and SPX for BLX-α when the diversity of the generated children drops below the required threshold. We verified experimentally that CXOs can improve the accuracy of searched solutions beyond singly used crossover operators such as Two-point Crossover, BLX-α and SPX. Two well-known multimodal functions are also investigated in this report—Shubert's test function and the Six-hump camel back function.
Inhibition of Baicalin on Metabolism of Phenacetin, a Probe of CYP1A2, in Human Liver Microsomes and in Rats

Baicalin has been used as mainly bioactive constituent of about 100 kinds of traditional Chinese medicines in Chinese pharmacopoeia. The effect of baicalin on cytochrome P450 should be paid more attention because baicalin was used widely. The aim of this study was to investigate whether baicalin could inhibit CYP1A2 in pooled human liver microsomes (HLMs) and in rats in vivo and the gene polymorphisms could affect inter-individual variation in IC50 in 28 human livers. Phenacetin was used as probe of CYP1A2. Kinetic parameter of CYP1A2 and IC50 of baicalin on CYP1A2 to each sample were measured and the common CYP1A2 polymorphisms (−3860G>A and −163C>A) were genotyped. The results showed that baicalin exhibited a mixed-type inhibition in pooled HLMs, with a Ki value of 25.4 µM. There was substantial variation in Km, Vmax, CLint of CYP1A2 and IC50 of baicalin on CYP1A2 (3∼10-fold). The range was from 26.6 to 114.8 µM for Km, from 333 to 1330 pmol·min−1·mg−1protein for Vmax and from 3.8 to 45.3 µL·min−1·mg−1 protein for CLint in HLMs (n = 28). The Mean (range) value of IC50 in 28 HLMs was 36.3 (18.9 to 56.1) µM. The genotypes of −3860G>A and −163C>A had no significant effect on the inhibition of baicalin on CYP1A2. The animal experiment results showed that baicalin (450 mg/kg, i.v.) significantly decreased the Cmax and CL of phenacetin, and increased C60 min, t1/2, Vd and AUC (P<0.05). There were significant correlations between percentage of control in C60 min, t1/2, CL, AUC of phenacetin and Cmax of baicalin in 11 rats (P<0.05). Protein binding experiments in vitro showed that baicalin (0–2000 mg/L) increased the unbound phenacetin from 14.5% to 28.3%. In conclusion, baicalin can inhibit the activity of CYP1A2 in HLMs and exhibit large inter-individual variation that has no relationship with gene polymorphism. Baicalin can change the pharmacokinetics of phenacetin in rats.
Enhanced corticobulbar excitability in chronic smokers during visual exposure to cigarette smoking cues.

BACKGROUND Neuroimaging studies of chronic smokers report altered activity of several neural regions involved in the processing of rewarding outcomes. Neuroanatomical evidence suggests that these regions are directly connected to the tongue muscle through the corticobulbar pathways. Accordingly, we examined whether corticobulbar excitability might be considered a somatic marker for nicotine craving. METHODS We compared motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes recorded from the tongue and the extensor carpi radialis (control muscle) of chronic smokers under drug withdrawal and intake conditions as well as a nonsmoker group. All participants were tested during passive exposure to pictures showing a smoking cue or a meaningless stimulus. In the intake condition, chronic smokers were asked to smoke a real cigarette (CSn: group 1) or a placebo (CSp: group 2). RESULTS Results show that MEP amplitudes recorded from the tongues of participants in the CSn and CSp groups under the withdrawal condition were selectively enhanced during exposure to a smoking cue. However, this effect on tongue MEP amplitudes disappeared in the intake condition for both the CSn and CSp groups. LIMITATIONS Limitations include the fact that the study was conducted in 2 different laboratories, the small sample size, the absence of data on chronic smoker craving strength and the different tastes of the real and placebo cigarettes. CONCLUSION These results suggest that, in chronic smokers, tongue muscle MEP amplitudes are sensitive to neural processes active under the physiological status of nicotine craving. This finding implicates a possible functional link between neural excitability of the corticobulbar pathway and the reward system in chronic smokers.
Autophagy in microglia degrades extracellular β-amyloid fibrils and regulates the NLRP3 inflammasome

Accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) and resultant inflammation are critical pathological features of Alzheimer disease (AD). Microglia, a primary immune cell in brain, ingests and degrades extracellular Aβ fibrils via the lysosomal system. Autophagy is a catabolic process that degrades native cellular components, however, the role of autophagy in Aβ degradation by microglia and its effects on AD are unknown. Here we demonstrate a novel role for autophagy in the clearance of extracellular Aβ fibrils by microglia and in the regulation of the Aβ-induced NLRP3 (NLR family, pyrin domain containing 3) inflammasome using microglia specific atg7 knockout mice and cell cultures. We found in microglial cultures that Aβ interacts with MAP1LC3B-II via OPTN/optineurin and is degraded by an autophagic process mediated by the PRKAA1 pathway. We anticipate that enhancing microglial autophagy may be a promising new therapeutic strategy for AD.
Betulinic Acid Derivatives NVX-207 and B10 for Treatment of Glioblastoma—An in Vitro Study of Cytotoxicity and Radiosensitization

Betulinic acid (BA), a pentacyclic triterpene, represents a new therapeutic substance that has potential benefits for treating glioblastoma. Recently, new strategies for producing BA derivatives with improved properties have evolved. However, few studies have examined the combination of BA or BA derivatives using radiotherapy. The effects of two BA derivatives, NVX-207 and B10, on cellular and radiobiological behavior were analyzed using glioblastoma cell lines (U251MG, U343MG and LN229). Based on IC50 values under normoxic conditions, we detected a 1.3–2.9-fold higher cytotoxicity of the BA derivatives B10 and NVX-207, respectively, compared to BA. Incubation using both BA derivatives led to decreased cell migration, cleavage of PARP and decreased protein expression levels of Survivin. Weak radiation sensitivity enhancement was observed in U251MG cells after treatment with both BA derivatives. The enhancement factors at an irradiation dose of 6 Gy after treatment with 5 µM NVX-207 and 5 µM B10 were 1.32 (p = 0.029) and 1.55 (p = 0.002), respectively. In contrast to BA, neither NVX-207 nor B10 had additional effects under hypoxic conditions. Our results suggest that the BA derivatives NVX-207 and B10 improve the effects of radiotherapy on human malignant glioma cells, particularly under normoxic conditions.
Physiological Right Ventricular Adaptation in Elite Athletes of African and Afro-Caribbean Origin

Background— Regular, intensive exercise results in physiological biventricular cardiac adaptation. Ethnicity is an established determinant of left ventricular remodeling; black athletes (BAs) exhibit more profound LV hypertrophy than white athletes (WAs). Right ventricular (RV) remodeling has not been characterized in BAs, although the issue is pertinent because BAs commonly exhibit ECG anomalies that resemble arrhythmogenic RV cardiomyopathy. Methods and Results— Between 2006 and 2012, 300 consecutive BAs (n=243 males) from 25 sporting disciplines were evaluated by use of ECG and echocardiography. Results were compared with 375 WAs and 153 sedentary control subjects (n=69 blacks). There were no ethnic differences between RV parameters in control subjects. Both BAs and WAs exhibited greater RV dimensions than control subjects. RV dimensions were marginally smaller in BAs than in WAs (proximal outflow tract, 30.9±5.5 versus 32.8±5.3 mm, P<0.001; longitudinal dimension, 86.6±9.5 versus 89.8±9.6 mm, P<0.001), although only 2.3% of variation was attributable to ethnicity. RV enlargement compatible with diagnostic criteria for arrhythmogenic RV cardiomyopathy was frequently observed (proximal outflow tract ≥32 mm; 45.0% of BAs, 58.5% of WAs). Anterior T-wave inversion was present in 14.3% of BAs versus 3.7% of WAs (P<0.001). Marked RV enlargement with concomitant anterior T-wave inversion was observed in 3.0% of BAs versus 0.3% of WAs (P=0.005). Further investigation did not diagnose arrhythmogenic RV cardiomyopathy in any athlete. Conclusions— Physiological RV enlargement is commonly observed in both black and white athletes. The impact of ethnicity is minimal, which obviates the need for race-specific RV reference values. However, in the context of frequent ECG repolarization anomalies in BAs, the potential for erroneous diagnosis of arrhythmogenic RV cardiomyopathy is considerably greater in this ethnic group.