Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrating noninterfering versions of programs

The need to integrate several versions of a program into a common one arises frequently, but it is a tedious and time consuming task to integrate programs by hand. To date, the only available tools for assisting with program integration are variants of <italic>text-based</italic> differential file comparators; these are of limited utility because one has no guarantees about how the program that is the product of an integration behaves compared to the programs that were integrated. This paper concerns the design of a <italic>semantics-based</italic> tool for automatically integrating program versions. The main contribution of the paper is an algorithm that takes as input three programs <italic>A</italic>, <italic>B</italic>, and <italic>Base</italic>, where <italic>A</italic> and <italic>B</italic> are two variants of <italic>Base</italic>. Whenever the changes made to <italic>Base</italic> to create <italic>A</italic> and <italic>B</italic> do not “interfere” (in a sense defined in the paper), the algorithm produces a program <italic>M</italic> that integrates <italic>A</italic> and <italic>B</italic>. The algorithm is predicated on the assumption that differences in the <italic>behavior</italic> of the variant programs from that of <italic>Base</italic>, rather than differences in the <italic>text</italic>, are significant and must be preserved in <italic>M</italic>. Although it is undecidable whether a program modification actually leads to such a difference, it is possible to determine a safe approximation by comparing each of the variants with <italic>Base</italic>. To determine this information, the integration algorithm employs a program representation that is similar (although not identical) to the <italic>dependence graphs</italic> that have been used previously in vectorizing and parallelizing compilers. The algorithm also makes use of the notion of a <italic>program slice</italic> to find just those statements of a program that determine the values of potentially affected variables. The program-integration problem has not been formalized previously. It should be noted, however, that the integration problem examined here is a greatly simplified one; in particular, we assume that expressions contain only scalar variables and constants, and that the only statements used in programs are assignment statements, conditional statements, and while-loops.
Novel Acetylcholinesterase Target Site for Malaria Mosquito Control

Current anticholinesterase pesticides were developed during World War II and are toxic to mammals because they target a catalytic serine residue of acetylcholinesterases (AChEs) in insects and in mammals. A sequence analysis of AChEs from 73 species and a three-dimensional model of a malaria-carrying mosquito (Anopheles gambiae) AChE (AgAChE) reported here show that C286 and R339 of AgAChE are conserved at the opening of the active site of AChEs in 17 invertebrate and four insect species, respectively. Both residues are absent in the active site of AChEs of human, monkey, dog, cat, cattle, rabbit, rat, and mouse. The 17 invertebrates include house mosquito, Japanese encephalitis mosquito, African malaria mosquito, German cockroach, Florida lancelet, rice leaf beetle, African bollworm, beet armyworm, codling moth, diamondback moth, domestic silkworm, honey bee, oat or wheat aphid, the greenbug, melon or cotton aphid, green peach aphid, and English grain aphid. The four insects are house mosquito, Japanese encephalitis mosquito, African malaria mosquito, and German cockroach. The discovery of the two invertebrate-specific residues enables the development of effective and safer pesticides that target the residues present only in mosquito AChEs rather than the ubiquitous serine residue, thus potentially offering an effective control of mosquito-borne malaria. Anti-AgAChE pesticides can be designed to interact with R339 and subsequently covalently bond to C286. Such pesticides would be toxic to mosquitoes but not to mammals.
Influence of Estimated Training Status on Anti and Pro-Oxidant Activity, Nitrite Concentration, and Blood Pressure in Middle-Aged and Older Women

The purpose of this study was to compare the association between anti and pro-oxidant activity, nitrite concentration, and blood pressure (BP) in middle-aged and older women with different levels of estimated training status (TS). The sample consisted of 155 females (50–84 years) who were submitted to a physical examination to evaluate estimated TS through the “Functional Fitness Battery Test,” BP measurements, and plasma blood samples to evaluate pro-oxidant and antioxidant activity and nitrite concentrations. Participants were separated by age into a middle-aged group (<65 years) and an older (≥65 years) group and then subdivided in each group according to TS. Blood biochemistry was similar between groups. On the other hand, protein oxidation was lower in participants with higher TS, independent of age. Older females with higher TS presented higher nitrite concentrations, lower lipoperoxidation, and lower values of BP compared with those with lower TS. Lower GPx activity was observed in participants with higher TS compared with middle-aged with lower TS. Thus, our results suggest that good levels of TS may be associated with lower oxidative stress and higher nitrite concentration and may contribute to maintain normal or reduced blood pressure values.
Ixodes ricinus and Its Transmitted Pathogens in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas in Europe: New Hazards and Relevance for Public Health

Tick-borne diseases represent major public and animal health issues worldwide. Ixodes ricinus, primarily associated with deciduous and mixed forests, is the principal vector of causative agents of viral, bacterial, and protozoan zoonotic diseases in Europe. Recently, abundant tick populations have been observed in European urban green areas, which are of public health relevance due to the exposure of humans and domesticated animals to potentially infected ticks. In urban habitats, small and medium-sized mammals, birds, companion animals (dogs and cats), and larger mammals (roe deer and wild boar) play a role in maintenance of tick populations and as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens. Presence of ticks infected with tick-borne encephalitis virus and high prevalence of ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. , causing Lyme borreliosis, have been reported from urbanized areas in Europe. Emerging pathogens, including bacteria of the order Rickettsiales (Anaplasma phagocytophilum, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis,” Rickettsia helvetica, and R. monacensis), Borrelia miyamotoi, and protozoans (Babesia divergens, B. venatorum, and B. microti) have also been detected in urban tick populations. Understanding the ecology of ticks and their associations with hosts in a European urbanized environment is crucial to quantify parameters necessary for risk pre-assessment and identification of public health strategies for control and prevention of tick-borne diseases.
Induced Production of 1-Methoxy-indol-3-ylmethyl Glucosinolate by Jasmonic Acid and Methyl Jasmonate in Sprouts and Leaves of Pak Choi (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis)

Pak choi plants (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis) were treated with different signaling molecules methyl jasmonate, jasmonic acid, linolenic acid, and methyl salicylate and were analyzed for specific changes in their glucosinolate profile. Glucosinolate levels were quantified using HPLC-DAD-UV, with focus on induction of indole glucosinolates and special emphasis on 1-methoxy-indol-3-ylmethyl glucosinolate. Furthermore, the effects of the different signaling molecules on indole glucosinolate accumulation were analyzed on the level of gene expression using semi-quantitative realtime RT-PCR of selected genes. The treatments with signaling molecules were performed on sprouts and mature leaves to determine ontogenetic differences in glucosinolate accumulation and related gene expression. The highest increase of indole glucosinolate levels, with considerable enhancement of the 1-methoxy-indol-3-ylmethyl glucosinolate content, was achieved with treatments of sprouts and mature leaves with methyl jasmonate and jasmonic acid. This increase was accompanied by increased expression of genes putatively involved in the indole glucosinolate biosynthetic pathway. The high levels of indole glucosinolates enabled the plant to preferentially produce the respective breakdown products after tissue damage. Thus, pak choi plants treated with methyl jasmonate or jasmonic acid, are a valuable tool to analyze the specific protection functions of 1-methoxy-indole-3-carbinole in the plants defense strategy in the future.
Validation of Abundance Map Reference Data for Spectral Unmixing

The purpose of this study is to validate the accuracy of abundance map reference data (AMRD) for three airborne imaging spectrometer (IS) scenes. AMRD refers to reference data maps (“ground truth”) that are specifically designed to quantitatively assess the performance of spectral unmixing algorithms. While classification algorithms typically label whole pixels as belonging to certain ground cover classes, spectral unmixing allows pixels to be composed of fractions or abundances of each class. The AMRD validated in this paper were generated using our previously-proposed remotely-sensed reference data (RSRD) technique, which spatially aggregates the results of standard classification or unmixing algorithms from fine spatial-scale IS data to produce AMRD for co-located coarse-scale IS data. Validation of the three scenes was accomplished by estimating AMRD in 51 randomly-selected 10 m×10 m plots, using seven independent methods and observers. These independent estimates included field surveys by two observers, imagery analysis by two observers and RSRD by three algorithms. Results indicated statistically-significant differences between all versions of AMRD. Even AMRD from our two field surveys were significantly different for two of the four ground cover classes. These results suggest that all forms of reference data require validation prior to use in assessing the performance of classification and/or unmixing algorithms. Given the significant differences between the independent versions of AMRD, we propose that the mean of all (MOA) versions of reference data for each plot and class is most likely to represent true abundances. Our independent versions of AMRD were compared to MOA to characterize error and uncertainty. Best case results were achieved by a version of imagery analysis, which had mean coverage area differences of 2.0%, with a standard deviation of 5.6%. One of the RSRD algorithms was nearly as accurate, achieving mean differences of 3.0%, with a standard deviation of 6.3%. Further analysis of statistical equivalence yielded an overall zone of equivalence between [ − 7.0 % , 7.2 % ] for this version of RSRD. The relative accuracy of RSRD methods is promising, given their potential to efficiently generate scene-wide AMRD. These results provide the first known validated abundance level reference data for airborne IS data.
Hybrid Mice Reveal Parent-of-Origin and Cis- and Trans-Regulatory Effects in the Retina

A fundamental challenge in genomics is to map DNA sequence variants onto changes in gene expression. Gene expression is regulated by cis-regulatory elements (CREs, i.e., enhancers, promoters, and silencers) and the trans factors (e.g., transcription factors) that act upon them. A powerful approach to dissecting cis and trans effects is to compare F1 hybrids with F0 homozygotes. Using this approach and taking advantage of the high frequency of polymorphisms in wild-derived inbred Cast/EiJ mice relative to the reference strain C57BL/6J, we conducted allele-specific mRNA-seq analysis in the adult mouse retina, a disease-relevant neural tissue. We found that cis effects account for the bulk of gene regulatory divergence in the retina. Many CREs contained functional (i.e., activating or silencing) cis-regulatory variants mapping onto altered expression of genes, including genes associated with retinal disease. By comparing our retinal data with previously published liver data, we found that most of the cis effects identified were tissue-specific. Lastly, by comparing reciprocal F1 hybrids, we identified evidence of imprinting in the retina for the first time. Our study provides a framework and resource for mapping cis-regulatory variants onto changes in gene expression, and underscores the importance of studying cis-regulatory variants in the context of retinal disease.
Evaluation of Fungicides, Phyto-extract and Biocontrol Agents against Root Rot of Ajwain in Southern Rajasthan, India

Ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi L.) known as Bishops weed and Carom seed, is one of the most important seed spice crop it belongs to family Apiaceae is a native of Egypt. Ajwain is erect, glabrous or minutely pubescent branched annual herb which grows up to 7580 cm in height. Stem is striate, leaves are distant and 2-3 innately divided segments linear. Flowers are different in colour. The seeds are small yellowish brown in colour. It is a popular seed spice crop in India. The major ajwain producing countries are India, Persia, Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Africa. In India it is widely distributed and its production is concentrated mainly in Rajasthan followed by Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Utter Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, respectively. Since ancient time the state of Rajasthan and Gujarat has emerged as “Seed spices bowl”. Whose dried fruit of seeds are used as spices.
The andrologist's contribution to a better life for ageing men: part 2

The long‐term intake of a judiciously composed nutriceutical containing low‐dose vitamins, antioxidants, minerals and particular herbal preparations seems justified for older persons who take medication, or who consume an unbalanced diet, or who are exposed to environmental toxins. Recent reports suggest these nutriceuticals may delay age‐related diseases and the occurrence of cancer, and reduce mortality in apparently healthy ageing men. Food supplementation with a nutriceutical that was formulated particularly for ageing men should result in an increase of at least one quality‐adjusted life year and may lower the financial and social burden of disease in elderly people.
Early release of soluble receptor for advanced glycation endproducts after severe trauma in humans.

BACKGROUND The receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) recognizes a variety of ligands that play an important role in the posttraumatic inflammatory response. However, whether soluble RAGE (sRAGE) is released early after trauma hemorrhage in humans and whether such a release is associated with the development of an inflammatory response and coagulopathy is not known and therefore constitutes the aim of this study. METHODS One hundred sixty-eight patients were studied as part of a prospective cohort study of severe trauma patients admitted to a single Level I Trauma center. Blood was drawn within 10 minutes of arrival to the emergency department before the administration of any fluid resuscitation. sRAGE, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, von Willebrand factor, angiopoietin-2, prothrombin time, prothrombin fragments 1 + 2, soluble thrombomodulin, protein C, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, and d-dimers (fibrin degradation products) were measured using standard techniques. Base deficit was used as a measure of tissue hypoperfusion. Measurements were compared with outcome measures obtained from the electronic medical record and trauma registry. RESULTS Plasma levels of sRAGE were increased within 30 minutes after severe trauma in humans and correlated with the severity of injury, early posttraumatic coagulopathy and hyperfibrinolysis, and endothelial cell activation (angiopoietin-1 and complement). Furthermore, we found that there was a significant relationship between plasma levels of sRAGE and the development of acute renal failure. This relationship was not quite significant for patients who developed acute lung injury (p = 0.11), although patients with <26 ventilator-free days had significantly higher plasma levels of sRAGE than those with >26 ventilator-free days. Finally, there was no relationship between plasma levels of sRAGE and mortality rate in trauma patients. CONCLUSION The results of this study demonstrate that the release of sRAGE in the bloodstream of trauma patients requires severe injury and is associated with coagulation abnormalities and endothelial cell and complement activation.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Color to Convey Alignment Quality in Macromolecular Structures

We investigated the effectiveness of colormapping as a means to convey uncertainty in sequence-to-structure align- ments for proteins. To this end, we evaluate a color modulation scheme to encode residue conservation by collecting human preference data for a set of structures and alignment qualities. To this end, we conducted a user study on Amazon Mechanical Turk with more than 40 participants expressing a preference in the choice of two images encoding different alignment qualities of the same structure. The results of this study suggest that there is a strong correlation between human preference of an image of a structure and the alignment quality encoded in that image.
Visual Attention Model Aided Non-Uniform Asymmetric Coding of Stereoscopic Video

Owing to its wide-interoperability, stereoscopic 3D video format in High Definition (HD) is a popular choice for 3D entertainment media distribution. However, the delivery over bandwidth constrained networks exhibits challenges in terms of intermittent congestions in the network traffic, which enforce the delivery system to perform perception-aware coding to save bandwidth. In the scope of stereoscopic 3D video, asymmetric quality adaptation has proved to be an effective method in terms of maintaining the perceived quality while reducing the required transmission bandwidth. On the other hand, Region-Of-Interest (ROI) based coding in accordance with the visual attention cues, which offers non-uniform quality assignment to regions of different saliency levels has not been widely studied in combination with asymmetric coding of stereoscopic 3D video. In this work, the effectiveness of using visual attention aided non-uniform asymmetric 3D video coding is explored. The importance of incorporating compression artefacts in the formulation of visual attention model is also revealed. The discussions in this paper are based on a comprehensive subjective test with 8 stereoscopic video sequences of different spatial and temporal characteristics at different conditions.
Effect of solvent removal on adhesive properties of simplified etch-and-rinse systems and on bond strengths to dry and wet dentin.

PURPOSE This study evaluated the resin-dentin microtensile bond strength (microTBS) of ethanol/water- (Single Bond, [SB] 3M ESPE), ethanol- (Optibond Solo Plus, [OP] Kerr) and acetone-based (One-Step, [OS] Bisco) two-step etch-and-rinse adhesives in the presence or absence of their respective solvents to dry and wet dentin. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and the degree of conversion (DC) of the materials were also evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS Solvent-based and solvent-free adhesives were vigorously applied to occlusal dentin surfaces after phosphoric acid etching. Composite crowns were built up incrementally. After 24-h water storage, the specimens were sectioned in x and y directions to obtain bonded sticks (1.0 mm2) which were immediately tested in tension (0.5 mm/min). The data were analyzed by three-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (alpha = 0.05). For the UTS measurement, hourglass-shaped specimens of adhesives were prepared and tested in tension. FTIR analysis was used to verify the DC of adhesives. The data from UTS and FTIR was analyzed by two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (alpha = 0.05). RESULTS High microTBS values were obtained for SB and OS, regardless of the presence or absence of solvents or the moisture condition of dentin. A lower microTBS mean was observed for the solvent-free OP compared to its solvent-based version. Significantly higher UTS values were obtained for all adhesives after removal of solvents. The DC of OS in the solvent-based condition was lower than SB and OP. After removal of solvents, only OS showed a significant increase in the DC. CONCLUSION The presence of solvents was not essential for SB and OS to achieve high bond strength values to both dry and wet dentin when applied under vigorous application.
Adjuvant chemotherapy with vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin after radiotherapy in local-regional nasopharyngeal cancer: results of a 4-year multicenter randomized study.

To evaluate the effect of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with local-regional nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) (squamous or undifferentiated) in complete remission at the end of curative radiotherapy (RT) 229 patients were randomized from 1979 to 1983 in a multicenter study to no further therapy (116 patients) or a combination of vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and Adriamycin (doxorubicin; Adria Laboratories, Columbus, OH) (VCA) for six monthly cycles (113 patients). The RT and RT + VCA groups were well balanced for median age (50 v 49 years), histology (undifferentiated carcinoma, 73% v 70%), tumor extent (tumor limited to nasopharynx, 57% v 57%), and nodal extent (negative nodes 26% v 24%, nodes in the lower cervical levels, 17% v 16%). RT was delivered to the nasopharynx, the base of the skull, and bilateral cervical nodes using a split course technique over 10 weeks up to the dose of 60 to 70 Gy in involved sites and 50 Gy to negative nodes. Response to RT was evaluated within 65 days post-RT treatment. Analysis at 48 months did not show significant difference between the two treatment groups in terms of relapse-free survival (RT, 55.8%, RT + VCA, 57.7%, P = .45) and overall survival (RT, 67.3%, RT + VCA, 58.5%, P = .13). The pattern of relapse was similar in the two treatment arms. Distant metastases were the cause of treatment failure in about 50% of relapsing patients. Although the results of the present study did not show any benefit from VCA administered after curative RT, combined systemic chemotherapy should be further explored due to the high incidence of local and distant failure after intensive RT.
EXORDIUM-LIKE1 Promotes Growth during Low Carbon Availability in Arabidopsis1[C][W]

Little is known about genes that control growth and development under low carbon (C) availability. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) EXORDIUM-LIKE1 (EXL1) gene (At1g35140) was identified as a brassinosteroid-regulated gene in a previous study. We show here that the EXL1 protein is required for adaptation to C- and energy-limiting growth conditions. In-depth analysis of EXL1 transcript levels under various environmental conditions indicated that EXL1 expression is controlled by the C and energy status. Sugar starvation, extended night, and anoxia stress induced EXL1 gene expression. The C status also determined EXL1 protein levels. These results suggested that EXL1 is involved in the C-starvation response. Phenotypic changes of an exl1 loss-of-function mutant became evident only under corresponding experimental conditions. The mutant showed diminished biomass production in a short-day/low-light growth regime, impaired survival during extended night, and impaired survival of anoxia stress. Basic metabolic processes and signaling pathways are presumed to be barely impaired in exl1, because the mutant showed wild-type levels of major sugars, and transcript levels of only a few genes such as QUA-QUINE STARCH were altered. Our data suggest that EXL1 is part of a regulatory pathway that controls growth and development when C and energy supply is poor.