Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insights into the Regulation of TNF-α Production in Human Mononuclear Cells: The Effects of Non-Specific Phosphodiesterase Inhibition

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine the effect of nonspecific phosphodiesterase inhibition on transcription factor activation and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) production in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated human mononuclear cells. INTRODUCTION The production of TNF-alpha following LPS stimulation is one of the key steps in bacterial sepsis and inflammation. The mechanism by which phosphodiesterase inhibition alters TNF-alpha production in the presence of LPS remains unclear. METHODS Human mononuclear cells were stimulated with LPS (1 microg/mL), in the presence and absence of Pentoxifylline (PTX; 20 mM), a nonspecific phosphodiesterase inhibitor. Western blotting of phosphorylated cytoplasmic I-kBalpha, nuclear factor-kB p65 (NF-kB), and nuclear cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB) was performed. DNA binding of NF-kB and CREB was verified by electrophoretic mobility shift assay. TNF-a levels were determined in the supernatant of stimulated cells in the presence and absence Protein kinase A inhibition by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS PTX was demonstrated to significantly reduce cytoplasmic I-kBalpha phosphorylation, nuclear p65 phosphorylation, and the DNA binding activity of NF-kB. In contrast, PTX markedly enhanced the phosphorylation and DNA binding activity of CREB. Cells concomitantly treated with PTX and LPS secreted similar levels of TNF-a in the presence and absence Protein kinase A inhibition. DISCUSSION The increased level of cAMP that results from phosphodiesterase inhibition affects cytoplasmic and nuclear events, resulting in the attenuation of NF-kB and the activation of CREB transcriptional DNA binding through pathways that are partially Protein kinase A-independent. CONCLUSION PTX-mediated phosphodiesterase inhibition occurs partially through a Protein kinase A-independent pathway and may serve as a useful tool in the attenuation of LPS-induced inflammation.
Individual and competitive adsorption of Lead(II) and Nickel(II) ions by chemically activated carbons

This work deals with the removal of heavy metals from wastewater which presents a major ecological problem. Recently, this has been solved by using adsorption techniques as a means to extract heavy metal ions. The present investigation was carried out on the adsorption of heavy metals from single and binary component aqueous solutions on activated carbons. The concentrations of heavy metals ions, Ni(II) and Pb(II), ranged from 10 to 100 mg.L-1 and 10 to 200 mg.L-1, respectively. A microporous KOH-activated carbon and a commercial mesoporous carbon were used. The first part focuses on the adsorption equilibrium of single-component metal ions solution. The KOH-activated carbon showed better performance for removal of both ions than H3PO4-activated carbon. The second part deals with adsorption competition between the two metals ions. The adsorption of each respective ion in a mixture was decreased compared to the single-component metal ions. Both activated adsorbents showed higher affinity for Pb(II) ions than for Ni(II) ions. The adsorption of both metal ions on adsorbents was modelled by applying Langmuir models. In addition, it has been found that the percent removal of both metallic ions is strongly concentration dependent; for low initial concentration of Ni(II) and Pb(II) it reaches 98%, while for higher initial concentrations the percent removal drops up to 78% with better performance for CKW-activated carbon. Key words: Activated carbon, Nickel, Lead, adsorption, binary adsorption, Langmuir, affinity.
A Reputation and Knowledge Based Trust Service Platform for Trustworthy Social Internet of Things

The Internet of Things has attracted a plenty of research in this decade and imposed fascinating services where large numbers of heterogeneous-features entities socially collaborate together to solve complex scenarios. However, these entities need to trust each other prior to exchanging data or offering services. In this paper, we briefly present our ongoing project called Trust Service Platform, which offers trust assessment of any two entities in the Social Internet of Things to applications and services. We propose a trust model that incorporates both reputation properties as Recommendation and Reputation trust metrics; and knowledge-based property as Knowledge trust metric. For the trust service platform deployment, we propose a reputation system and a functional architecture with Trust Agent, Trust Broker and Trust Analysis and Management modules along with mechanisms and algorithms to deal with the three trust metrics. We also present a utility theory-based mechanism for trust calculation. To clarify our trust service platform, we describe the trust models and mechanisms in accordance with a trust car-sharing service. We believe this study offers the better understanding of the trust as a service in the platform and will impose many trust-related research challenges as the future work.
The researcher's guide to the data deluge

There is a clear need for interactive exploration of extremely large databases, especially in the area of scientific data management where ingestion of multiple Terabytes on a daily basis is foreseen. Unfortunately, current data management technology is not well-suited for such overwhelming demands. In light of these challenges, we should rethink some of the strict requirements database systems adopted in the past. We envision that next generation database systems should interpret queries by their intent, rather than as a contract carved in stone for complete and correct answers. The result set should aid the user in understanding the database's content and provide guidance to continue the data exploration journey. A scientist can stepwise explore deeper and deeper into the database, and stop when the result content and quality reaches his satisfaction point. At the same time, response times should be close to instant such that they allow a scientist to interact with the system and explore the data in a contextualized way. Several research directions are carved out to realize this vision. They range from engineering a novel database kernel where speed rather than completeness is the first class citizen, up to refusing to process a costly query in the first place, but providing advice on how to reformulate it instead, or even providing alternatives the system believes might be relevant for the exploration patterns observed.
The Heritability of Mammographic Breast Density and Circulating Sex-Hormone Levels: Two Independent Breast Cancer Risk Factors

Background: Mammographic breast density and endogenous sex-hormone levels are both strong risk factors for breast cancer. This study investigated whether there is evidence for a shared genetic basis between these risk factors. Methods: Using data on 1,286 women from 617 families, we estimated the heritabilities of serum estradiol, testosterone, and sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG) levels and of three measures of breast density (dense area, nondense area, and percentage density). We tested for associations between hormone levels and density measures and estimated the genetic and environmental correlations between pairs of traits using variance and covariance components models and pedigree-based maximum likelihood methods. Results: We found no significant associations between estradiol, testosterone, or SHBG levels and any of the three density measures, after adjusting for body mass index (BMI). The estimated heritabilities were 63%, 66%, and 65% for square root–transformed adjusted percentage density, dense area, and nondense area, respectively, and 40%, 25%, and 58% for log-transformed–adjusted estradiol, testosterone, and SHBG. We found no evidence of a shared genetic basis between any hormone levels and any measure of density, after adjusting for BMI. The negative genetic correlation between dense and nondense areas remained significant even after adjustment for BMI and other covariates (ρ = −0.34; SE = 0.08; P = 0.0005). Conclusions: Breast density and sex hormones can be considered as independent sets of traits. Impact: Breast density and sex hormones can be used as intermediate phenotypes in the search for breast cancer susceptibility loci. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 21(12); 2167–75. ©2012 AACR.
The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - 11 Among a Portuguese Sample of Female Juvenile Delinquents and Community Youths

ABSTRACT Impulsivity among incarcerated female juvenile offenders is an understudied area of research. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale version 11 (BIS-11) among a Portuguese sample of female participants (N = 377, mean age = 16.23 years, SD = 1.38) recruited from forensic and school contexts. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed the expected six-factor first-order structure, but not the three-factor second-order structure. Acceptable levels of internal consistency were mostly obtained, but some dimensions showed somewhat lower than expected values. Convergent validity with measures of psychopathic and callous-unemotional traits, and discriminant validity with a measure of social anxiety was demonstrated. In terms of criterion-related validity significant associations were found with relevant variables (e.g., age of crime onset, conduct disorder symptoms, alcohol, and drug use). The use of the BIS-11 among female juvenile delinquents and community youth is psychometrically justified and it can be considered a useful measure to identify impulsive adolescents.
Alignment of Quality Management in SMEs with the Market Performance

The purpose of this research is to relate competitiveness through productivity on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with the level of quality that these companies are and the market segment they serve. The methodology used was a multiple case study using questionnaires and systematic observations in SMEs. Results showed that the quality of the companies surveyed is determined by the market segment in which they operate. Quality management is based on the end customer and the view of entrepreneurs look beyond the premises of their companies. The importance of this research is to relate the market segment with the quality level used in SMEs, a strategy required for the current competitiveness.
Running head : REPRESENTATION OF GLIMPSED PICTURES Pictorial and Conceptual Representation of Glimpsed Pictures

Pictures presented in a rapid sequence are remembered briefly, but most are forgotten within a few seconds (Potter, M. C., Staub, A., Rado, J., & O'Connor, D. H., 2002). The present study investigated the pictorial and conceptual components of this fleeting memory by presenting 5 pictured scenes and immediately testing recognition of verbal titles (e.g., "people at a table") or recognition of the pictures themselves, among distractors. Titles were about 80% as effective as pictures in cueing picture memory overall. Both picture recognition and title recognition declined significantly during testing, but initial performance was higher and the decline was steeper when the test stimuli were pictures. In a final experiment using only pictures in the test, 20% of the positive test pictures were replaced by distractors ("decoys") that were conceptually similar to the original picture. False yeses to decoys were significantly higher than to other distractors, but lower than true yeses to old pictures, particularly at the beginning of the test. These results indicate that fleeting memory for glimpsed pictures has a strong conceptual component (conceptual short term memory, CSTM), but show that at the beginning of testing (immediately after viewing 5 pictures) there is additional pictorial memory (pictorial short term memory, PSTM) that is highly volatile and that is not tapped by a gist title or decoy picture.
Electron-Ion Recombination Rate Coefficients and Photoionization Cross Sections for Astrophysically Abundant Elements. VIII. Ar XIII with New Features

Ar XIII is found to be unique with new features in electron-ion recombination not seen in any other ion. The ion has been studied with the unified method, which provides a theoretically self-consistent set of atomic parameters for the inverse processes of photoionization and total electron-ion recombination. Unified method subsumes both the radiative recombination (RR) and dielectronic recombination (DR) within the framework of close-coupling formulations using the R-matrix method. A set of four DR "bumps," two in the low-temperature and two in the high-temperature regions, is found to exist in the recombination rates of Ar + e → Ar . This is in contrast to two typical DR "bumps," one at high temperature common for most ions and one at low temperature depending on the presence of near threshold autoionizing resonances in the bound-free process.Large-scale ab initio calculations have been carried out for photoionization and electron-ion recombination cross sections of Ar XIII. The ion is represented by a large close-coupling eigenfunction expansion of 37 core Ar XIV states from n = 2 and 3 complexes. This enables core excitations of type Δn = 0 and 1. The Δn = 1 transitions have much higher radiative decay rates than those of Δn = 0 and cause the fourth DR bump around 2 × 106 K. For a large number of bound states, Ar XIII exhibits more extensive resonant structures and wider PEC (photoexitation-of-core) resonances for n = 3 core states than those of n = 2 states. Hence, the high-energy regions of photoionization and recombination are dominated by these structures. A total of 684 bound states with valence electron n ≤ 10 and l ≤ 9 are found for Ar XIII. Total and partial photoionization cross sections of all bound states, state-specific recombination rates of 561 bound states, and total recombination rate coefficients at a large temperature range are presented for Ar XIII.
Marcia B Cohen and Cheryl A Hyde, Empowering workers and clients for organizational change

people’s lives. something we all strive to achieve. Despite the potentially heavy intellectual flavour to this book, it is an accessible read, written in Howe’s familiar clear, unambiguous style, so don’t be put off. The author shines his light to illuminate each topic which is subject to the opposing or competing forces that he identifies and he draws on a wide range of his own and others’ literature and does use examples from practice. He is not reinventing perspectives on social work but consistently illustrating where tensions lie and resonate with current social work processes. Much of this is familiar, the tension between care and control, nature and nurture, between individual psychology and the sociological context, between fact and values. David Howe covers an enormous amount of material in this publication, tracing some of the historical perspectives which have shaped the direction and preferences of social work practice over past decades and leading up to the current day. He also reflects upon how an absence of societal nurture has a direct environmental influence on brain development, a focus for an upsurge of research on this topic. Social workers are therefore well placed to argue against, for example, the effects of austerity on the plasticity of the individual brain and the implications for the development of society. The author suggests that social work may be an uncertain ‘‘science,’’ but must also be practised as a craft in order to accommodate human ambiguity, uncertainty and use creative solutions to individual and societal difficulties. At the beginning of reading this book I experienced a sense of frustration and was looking for more, but was not disappointed as the book reaches a final crescendo of moral dilemmas, ethics, values and evidence. Surely this is the point of the book to stimulate debate so we can work out whether to preserve the status quo or seek radical change. Maybe we will never be ‘compleat’, but David Howe’s powerful message from service users to social work is ‘‘to work with me, you must first know me, and to know me you must be interested in how I got to be where I am today. ’’ I will certainly be drawing on this work as a resource and have already recommended it to those who are urgently discussing the meaning of social work in these uncertain times.
Why a Systems Thinking Perspective on Cognition Matters for Innovation and Knowledge Creation. A Framework towards Leaving behind Our Projections from the Past for Creating New Futures

We propose a systems perspective on the cognitive foundations of innovation and knowledge creation. We show that the (standard) way we perceive, think and act is opposed to creating (radically) new knowledge. For example, the predictive coding paradigm claims that our brain is a highly complex ‘prediction machine’ being mainly driven by its past experiences. Although this claim may initially seem counterintuitive from a systems thinking perspective, we will show in the first part of this paper that a systems thinking perspective provides a well-suited framework to explain this phenomenon. The second part proposes a framework to overcome these limitations of our common way of thinking and perceiving in the context of creating novelty. We argue that, in order to create (radically) new knowledge, we can (i) modify the knowledge structures underlying our perception of the world and (ii) affect the way we perceive our environment. We present a framework as well as concrete strategies and tools to do so. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Multi-rate opportunistic spectrum access in multi-hop ad hoc networks

Opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) is a suitable approach to increase spectrum efficiency for the current spectrum management. This paper considers the temporal aspect of 802.11-based OSA scenario. Firstly, we investigate the secondary users (SU) multi-rate transmission and number of hops effects to the SU performance when exploiting primary users (PU) idle duration. Numerical analysis and simulation results show that, during limited PU idle duration, higher data rate transmission is essential even though it results in more hops but as the SU source traffic is getting busier, the balance between the data rate and number of hops is required. Secondly, according to the multi-rate multi-hop investigation, we propose a rate adaption scheme with PU activity consideration, called Auto Rate Increase (ARI). ARI is based on the Auto Rate Fallback (ARF) scheme with the difference that ARI aims to increase the SU data rate whenever it detects PU interruption failure. ARI also adopts ARF simplicity, hence, there is no need for any prior nor additional knowledge of the networks environment. Simulation results show, under tight OSA environment, ARI scheme can increase the SU performance up to 56% compared with the original ARF scheme.
Relative frequencies of supernovae types: dependence on host galaxy magnitude, galactocentric radius, and local metallicity

Context. Stellar evolution theory suggests that the relationship between number ratios of supernova (SN) types and metallicity can provide important information about the physical properties of the progenitor stars (e.g., mass, metallicity, rotation, binarity). Aims. We investigate the metallicity dependence of the number ratios of various SN types, using a large sample of SN along with information about their radial position within, and magnitude of, their host galaxy. Methods. We derive global galaxy gas-phase metallicities (using the well-known metallicity-luminosity relation) and local metallicities, i.e., at the position of the SN. In the latter case, we use the empirical fact that the metallicity gradients in disk galaxies are ∼constant when expressed in dex/R25. Results. We confirm a dependence of the N(Ibc)/N(II) ratio on metallicity. Single star models with rotation and binary star models with no rotation appear to reproduce equally well the metallicity dependence. The size of our sample does not allow significant conclusions about the N(Ic)/N(Ib) ratio. Finally, we find an unexpected metallicity dependence of the ratio of thermonuclear to core collapse supernovae, which we interpret in terms of the star formation properties of the host galaxies.
Expression Profile of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 Enzymes in Colon and Bladder Tumors

Background The cytochrome P450 CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 enzymes are involved in carcinogenesis via activation of pro-carcinogenic compounds to carcinogenic metabolites. CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 have shown elevated levels in human tumors as determined by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemical studies. However studies that have examined CYP1 expression by enzyme activity assays are limited. Results In the current study the expression of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 was investigated in a panel of human tumors of bladder and colorectal origin by qRT-PCR and enzyme activity assays. The results demonstrated that 35% (7/20) of bladder tumors and 35% (7/20) of colon tumors overexpressed active CYP1 enzymes. CYP1B1 mRNA was overexpressed in 65% and 60% of bladder and colon tumors respectively, whereas CYP1A1 was overexpressed in 65% and 80% of bladder and colon tumors. Mean mRNA levels of CYP1B1 and CYP1A1 along with mean CYP1 activity were higher in bladder and colon tumors compared to normal tissues (p<0.05). Statistical analysis revealed CYP1 expression levels to be independent of TNM status. Moreover, incubation of tumor microsomal protein in 4 bladder and 3 colon samples with a CYP1B1 specific antibody revealed a large reduction (72.5 ± 5.5 % for bladder and 71.8 ± 7.2% for colon) in catalytic activity, indicating that the activity was mainly attributed to CYP1B1 expression. Conclusions The study reveals active CYP1 overexpression in human tumors and uncovers the potential use of CYP1 enzymes and mainly CYP1B1 as targets for cancer therapy.
Strongly anomalous diffusion in sheared magnetic configurations

The statistical behavior of magnetic lines in a sheared magnetic configuration with reference surface x=0 is investigated within the framework of the kinetic theory. A Liouville equation is associated with the equations of motion of the stochastic magnetic lines. After averaging over an ensemble of realizations, it yields a convection‐diffusion equation within the quasilinear approximation. The diffusion coefficients are space dependent and peaked around the reference surface x=0. Due to the shear, the diffusion of lines away from the reference surface is slowed down. The behavior of the lines is asymptotically strongly non‐Gaussian. The reference surface acts like an attractor around which the magnetic lines spread with an effective subdiffusive behavior. Comparison is also made with more usual treatments based on the study of the first two moments equations. For sheared systems, it is explicitly shown that the Corrsin approximation assumed in the latter approach is no longer valid. It is also concluded that the diffusion coefficients cannot be derived from the mean square displacement of the magnetic lines in an inhomogeneous medium.