Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 attenuates the toxicity of carbon tetrachloride

Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is routinely used as a model compound for eliciting centrilobular hepatotoxicity. It can be bioactivated to the trichloromethyl radical, which causes extensive lipid peroxidation and ultimately cell death by necrosis. Overactivation of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1) can rapidly reduce the levels of β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and adenosine triphosphate and ultimately promote necrosis. The aim of this study was to determine whether inhibition of PARP-1 could decrease CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity, as measured by degree of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation, serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), lipid peroxidation, and oxidative DNA damage. For this purpose, male ICR mice were administered intraperitoneally a hepatotoxic dose of CCl4 with or without 6(5H)-phenanthridinone, a potent inhibitor of PARP-1. Animals treated with CCl4 exhibited extensive poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation in centrilobular hepatocytes, elevated serum levels of LDH, and increased lipid peroxidation. In contrast, animals treated concomitantly with CCl4 and 6(5H)-phenanthridinone showed significantly lower levels of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation, serum LDH, and lipid peroxidation. No changes were observed in the levels of oxidative DNA damage regardless of treatment. These results demonstrated that the hepatotoxicity of CCl4 is dependent on the overactivation of PARP-1 and that inhibition of this enzyme attenuates the hepatotoxicity of CCl4.
The Dendritic Cell Populations of Mouse Lymph Nodes1

The dendritic cells (DC) of mouse lymph nodes (LN) were isolated, analyzed for surface markers, and compared with those of spleen. Low to moderate staining of LN DC for CD4 and low staining for CD8 was shown to be attributable to pickup of these markers from T cells. Excluding this artifact, five LN DC subsets could be delineated. They included the three populations found in spleen (CD4+8−DEC-205−, CD4−8−DEC-205−, CD4−8+DEC-205+), although the CD4-expressing DC were of low incidence. LN DC included two additional populations, characterized by relatively low expression of CD8 but moderate or high expression of DEC-205. Both appeared among the DC migrating out of skin into LN, but only one was restricted to skin-draining LN and was identified as the mature form of epidermal Langerhans cells (LC). The putative LC-derived DC displayed the following properties: large size; high levels of class II MHC, which persisted to some extent even in CIITA null mice; expression of very high levels of DEC-205 and of CD40; expression of many myeloid surface markers; and no expression of CD4 and only low to moderate expression of CD8. The putative LC-derived DC among skin emigrants and in LN also showed strong intracellular staining of langerin.
The influence of visual and tactile stimulation on growth and metamorphosis in anuran larvae

Summary 1. Sensory modalities that allow tadpoles to assess their environment, and subsequently mediate their development, are not well understood. 2. By putting clay model tadpoles into the tanks with live tadpoles we have enhanced tactile and visual stimuli for tadpoles of three species ( Rana sylvatica , Bufo americanus and Xenopus laevis ) in a controlled fashion. The goal was to determine whether visual and tactile cues in the absence of chemical signals influenced tadpole growth and development. 3. The response to enhanced visual and tactile stimuli was strong in Rana , intermediate in Xenopus , but absent in Bufo tadpoles. Rana tadpoles that experienced both stimuli enhanced developed the fastest and metamorphosed at the smallest body size. Development was slower in the treatments with only one stimulus enhanced, and slowest in the controls. 4. Our results suggest that tadpoles use both vision and mechanoreception for environment assessment, and that they are able to modify their growth and developmental rates in response to sensory enrichment. 5. Tadpoles exposed to the combination of visual and tactile stimulation showed the highest whole-body content of the stress hormone corticosterone, suggesting that the enhanced stimuli were experienced as stressful. Corticosterone is known to synergize with thyroid hormone to promote metamorphosis.
Bioactive Compounds from Carissa spinarum

In our continuing efforts to find new antiherpetic agents from plants, an extract prepared from the stems of Carissa spinarum L. was found to possess appreciable activity against herpes simplex viruses (HSV I and II). A chemical study of this plant was then initiated, and this led to the isolation of 12 compounds, including a coumarin, two cardiac glycosides and nine lignans. These isolated compounds were evaluated for several biological activities, including antiherpetic, cytotoxic, antioxidant and antibacterial effects. The cardiac glycoside evomonoside was found to be the only antiherpetic principle, showing moderate activity against herpes simplex virus types I and II in the inactivation method. The lignans (−)‐carinol, (−)‐carissanol and (−)‐nortrachelogenin exhibited cytotoxicity against breast (MCF7) and lung (A549) cancer cells. Moderate anti‐DPPH free radical activity was observed for all the lignans. None of the isolates showed antibacterial activity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Specificity of effects of chronically administered diazepam on the responding of rats under two different spaced‐responding schedules

Lever pressing of rats was maintained in different chambers during two different sessions each day. At 0900 h, responding was maintained under a two‐component multiple schedule in which responses initiated an interval that had to elapse before delivery of food (time delay of 20 s and 40 s). In this schedule, a ‘response‐pause’ sequence preceded reinforcers, and acutely administered diazepam only decreased responding. At 1400 h, responding by the same subjects was maintained under a different two‐component multiple schedule, in which individual responses initiated an interval that had to be terminated by another response before delivery of food (DRL 20 s and 40 s). In this second schedule, a ‘response‐pause‐response’ sequence preceded reinforcers, and acutely administered diazepam increased responding. After studying the acute behavioural effects of diazepam during each separate ‘timing’ schedule, animals systematically received 1.7 mg/kg per day diazepam 2–5 min prior to their different schedule components, in order to study the influence of reinforcement contingency on the chronic effects of this drug. Diminution of the initial effects of diazepam during daily drug administration prior to DRL 20 s responding did not extend to DRL 40 s responding or to time‐delay responding, and tolerance did not develop at all for time‐delay responding. When diazepam was again administered after all the daily schedules for approximately 1 month, and then given before the individual DRL schedules, DRL responding was increased again as it had been prior to chronic drug administration. These results suggest that the behavioural effects of acutely administered diazepam are influenced by different ‘timing’ requirements, and that the behavioural effects of chronically administered diazepam are influenced by ‘timing’ requirements and by drug‐ and chamber‐related stimuli.
Nectar: Automatic Management of Data and Computation in Datacenters

Managing data and computation is at the heart of datacenter computing. Manual management of data can lead to data loss, wasteful consumption of storage, and laborious bookkeeping. Lack of proper management of computation can result in lost opportunities to share common computations across multiple jobs or to compute results incrementally. Nectar is a system designed to address the aforementioned problems. It automates and unifies the management of data and computation within a datacenter. In Nectar, data and computation are treated interchangeably by associating data with its computation. Derived datasets, which are the results of computations, are uniquely identified by the programs that produce them, and together with their programs, are automatically managed by a datacenter wide caching service. Any derived dataset can be transparently regenerated by reexecuting its program, and any computation can be transparently avoided by using previously cached results. This enables us to greatly improve datacenter management and resource utilization: obsolete or infrequently used derived datasets are automatically garbage collected, and shared common computations are computed only once and reused by others. This paper describes the design and implementation of Nectar, and reports on our evaluation of the system using analytic studies of logs from several production clusters and an actual deployment on a 240-node cluster.
AFM Study on Surface Microtopography, Morphology and Crystal Growth of Hydrothermal Illite in Izumiyama Pottery Stone from Arita, Saga Prefecture, Japan

Atomic force microscope (AFM) observation and analysis of Izumiyama hydrothermal illite (the weaker al- tered illite-kaolinite zone (IZ-1) and the higher altered illite zone (IZ-2)) were performed to understand the crystal growth mechanism and the relation between morphology and polytype of the illites. Our AFM results suggest that growth of the Izumiyama illite was controlled by a mechanism of solution-mediated polytype and spiral-type transformations, based on the Ostwald ripening process. The sequential variations could follow the changes in supersaturation and/or temperature of the solution. The paths of the thermal and supersaturation condition changes of the hydrothermal solutions for the two samples were estimated from the saturation state of the solution, which was evaluated by the step separation, polytype and mineral assemblage of the samples.
Dynamic Spectrum Leasing With Two Sellers

This paper studies dynamic spectrum leasing in a cognitive radio network. There are two spectrum sellers, who are two primary networks, each with an amount of licensed spectrum bandwidth. When a seller has some unused spectrum, it would like to lease the unused spectrum to secondary users. A coordinator helps to perform the spectrum leasing stage-by-stage. As the two sellers may have different leasing periods, there are three epochs, in which seller 1 has spectrum to lease in Epochs II and III, while seller 2 has spectrum to lease in Epochs I and II. Each seller needs to decide how much spectrum it should lease to secondary users in each stage of its leasing period, with a target at revenue maximization. It is shown that, when the two sellers both have spectrum to lease (i.e., in Epoch II), the spectrum leasing can be formulated as a noncooperative game. Nash equilibria of the game are found in closed form. Solutions of the two sellers in their leasing periods are then derived.
Magnetic resonance imaging study determining cord level and occupancy at thoracolumbar junction in achondroplasia – A prospective study

Background Thoracolumbar (TL) stenosis in achondroplasia is frequently reported, and becomes symptomatic in adulthood. Hence we conducted a prospective study to determine cord level and occupancy at TL junction in symptomatic or asymptomatic achondroplasis patients in comparision to normal population by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods Cord level with its occupancy rate and TL kyphosis were measured on MRI and standing radiogram, respectively. We prospectively studied MRI of TL spine in 19 patients (7 males and 12 females) with achondroplasia. All the subjects were randomly selected from our outpatient clinic and divided into two groups: symptomatic and asymptomatic group. Symptomatic group had at least two of the following symptoms: back pain with spasticity and walking diffculty, radicular pain in upper thigh or girdle pain, tingling and numbness in the lower limbs, visible deformity at TL spine and brisk refexes in lower extremities. Asymptomatic group was selected from those patients who visited in outpatient clinic for consultation of limb lengthening. The third group was taken as control that comprised 11 nonachondroplasia otherwise normal patients (8 males and 3 females) who presented to our outpatient clinic for back pain. Results Results showed spinal cord level was higher in achondroplasia than nonachondroplasia ( P =0.003); however, no difference in cord level between symptomatic and asymptomatic group ( P =0.568). Comparing cord occupancy, no difference found among all three groups ( P =0.20). Kyphosis was increasing from nonachondroplasia, asymptomatic and symptomatic patient groups ( P <0.001). Average age was 22.4±14.2, 11.9±6.5, and 36.2±13.2 years in symptomatic, asymptomatic, and nonachondroplasia groups, respectively ( P <0.001). Conclusion Our results indicated high level of spinal cord in achondroplasia patients compared to nonachondroplasia individuals. High prevalence of neurological symptoms at TL level in such patients can be associated with high cord level and developing progressive kyphosis at TL level along with degenerative process.
Stress and well-being among parents of children with rare diseases: a prospective intervention study.

AIM This paper reports a study to assess stress, well-being and supportive resources experienced by mothers and fathers of children with rare disabilities, and how these variables were affected by an intensive family competence intervention. BACKGROUND Despite diagnosis-specific studies, little overall knowledge exists about life-consequences for families of children with rare disorders. METHOD We used a prospective design with baseline data and two follow-ups (at 6 and 12 months) after an intervention. The intervention aimed at empowering parents in managing their child's disability. Parents from all parts of Sweden visiting a national centre for families of children with rare disabilities were consecutively selected (n = 136 mothers, 108 fathers). Instruments of parental stress, social support, self-rated health, optimism and life satisfaction and perceived physical or psychological strain were used. Stratified analyses were carried out for mothers and fathers, and related to parental demands: single mothers, full-time employment, participation in a parent association, child's age and type of disability. RESULTS We found high parental stress, physical and emotional strain among mothers, especially among single mothers. Fathers showed high stress related to incompetence, which decreased after the intervention. Decreased strain was found among full-time working mothers and fathers after the intervention. Parents' perceived knowledge and active coping and mothers' perceived social support were increased at follow-up. Factors related to parents' overall life satisfaction (57-70% explained variance) changed after the intervention, from being more related to internal demands (perceived strain, incompetence and social isolation) to other conditions, such as problems related to spouse, paid work and social network. CONCLUSION Parents, especially fathers and full-time working parents, may benefit from an intensive family competence programme.
Eliciting And Connecting Information Requirements: A Study Of Brokering Situations In Data Warehouse Development

Information management and logistics rely on underlying data warehouse (DWH) systems. The development of DWHs brings together different communities of practice. In this paper, we concentrate on the role of DWH professionals as a brokering community in DWH development projects. We argue that each time they engage in brokering activities towards neighboring communities of practice, representatives from these communities take brokering roles as well. As a result, a so-called brokering situation resides within the social structure, which builds a brokering community. To closer observe the roles of DWH professionals within these brokering situations, we conducted in-depth interviews with experienced DWH professionals. Based on the analysis, we argue that the selection of the community’s representatives with experience in neighboring communities can improve brokering situations. Objects exchanged between communities of practice during brokering situations can have either positive or negative effects, depending on their capacity and the type of complexity on the boundary.
Judgment and decision making under time pressure: studies and findings

Reglet means, counterflashing, and connector and biasing means are provided having the reglet means adapted to be secured to a building wall to afford flashing above a roofing end reaching upwardly and lapping the wall. The reglet means includes hood structure which receives shaped upper end means of the counterflashing while apron means of the hood structure, and the connector and biasing means, are interrelated so that with the connector and biasing means being inserted into the hood structure from below, with bight means of the connector and biasing means leading, first presser means of the connector and biasing means and means on the apron means engage for stopping the connector and biasing means against being retracted from the hood structure, and second presser means of the connector and biasing means acts against the counterflashing for the latter to cover and urge the roofing end to be supported against the building wall while the connector and biasing means arrests the shaped upper end means of the counterflashing against downward movement from the hood structure.
Three-Dimensional Anderson Localization of Ultracold Matter

A localized and a propagating component appear when an ultracold atomic gas expands in a disordered optical potential. Anderson localization (AL) is a ubiquitous interference phenomenon in which waves fail to propagate in a disordered medium. We observe three-dimensional AL of noninteracting ultracold matter by allowing a spin-polarized atomic Fermi gas to expand into a disordered potential. A two-component density distribution emerges consisting of an expanding mobile component and a nondiffusing localized component. We extract a mobility edge that increases with the disorder strength, whereas the thermally averaged localization length is shown to decrease with disorder strength and increase with particle energy. These measurements provide a benchmark for more sophisticated theories of AL.
Scaling Up Ecosystem Services Values: Methodology, Applicability and a Case Study

The approach of using existing data on economic values of local ecosystem services for an assessment of these values at a larger geographical scale can be called “scaling up”. In a scaling-up exercise, economic values from a particular study site are transferred to another geographical setting, for instance to the regional, national or global scale. This paper proposes a methodology for scaling up ecosystem service values to a European level, assesses the availability of data for conducting this method, and illustrates the procedure with a case study on wetland values. The proposed methodology makes use of meta-analysis to produce a value function that is subsequently applied to individual European wetland sites. Site-specific, study-specific and context-specific variables are used to define a price vector that captures differences between sites and over time. The proposed method is shown to be practicable and to produce reasonably reliable aggregate value estimates.
Fall prediction based on biomechanics equilibrium using Kinect

The fall is one of the most important research fields of solitary elder healthcare at home based on Internet of Things technology. Current studies mainly focus on the fall detection, which helps medical staffs bring a fallen elder out of danger in time. However, it neither predicts a fall nor provides an effective protection against a fall. This article studies the fall prediction based on human biomechanics equilibrium and body posture characteristics through analyzing three-dimensional skeleton joints data from the depth camera sensor Kinect. The research includes building a human bionic mass model using skeleton joints data from Kinect, determining human balance state, and proposing a fall prediction algorithm based on recurrent neural networks by unbalanced posture features. We evaluate the model and algorithm on an open database. The performance indicates that the fall prediction algorithm by studying human biomechanics can predict a fall (91.7%) and provide a certain amount of time (333 ms) before the elder injuring (hitting the floor). This work provides a technical basis and a data analytics approach for the fall protection.
Method of power recycling in co-axial mach zender interferometers for low noise measurements

We present the first experimental study of a new type of power recycling microwave interferometer designed for low noise measurements. This system enhances sensitivity to phase fluctuations in a device under test, independent of input power levels. The single sideband thermal white phase noise floor of the system has been lowered by 8 dB (reaching 185 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset frequency) at relatively low power levels (13 dBm).
he processing of double-stranded DNA breaks for recombinational repair by elicase – nuclease complexes oseph

Double-stranded DNA breaks are prepared for recombinational repair by nucleolytic digestion to form single-stranded DNA overhangs that are substrates for RecA/Rad51-mediated strand exchange. This processing can be achieved through the activities of multiple helicases and nucleases. In bacteria, the function is mainly provided by a stable multi-protein complex of which there are two structural classes; AddAB-
Increasing Expression of MicroRNA 181 Inhibits Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus Replication and Has Implications for Controlling Virus Infection

ABSTRACT Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is one of the most important viral pathogens in the swine industry. Emerging evidence indicates that the host microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in host-pathogen interactions. However, whether host miRNAs can target PRRSV and be used to inhibit PRRSV infection has not been reported. Recently, microRNA 181 (miR-181) has been identified as a positive regulator of immune response, and here we report that miR-181 can directly impair PRRSV infection. Our results showed that delivered miR-181 mimics can strongly inhibit PRRSV replication in vitro through specifically binding to a highly (over 96%) conserved region in the downstream of open reading frame 4 (ORF4) of the viral genomic RNA. The inhibition of PRRSV replication was specific and dose dependent. In PRRSV-infected Marc-145 cells, the viral mRNAs could compete with miR-181-targeted sequence in luciferase vector to interact with miR-181 and result in less inhibition of luciferase activity, further demonstrating the specific interactions between miR-181 and PRRSV RNAs. As expected, miR-181 and other potential PRRSV-targeting miRNAs (such as miR-206) are expressed much more abundantly in minimally permissive cells or tissues than in highly permissive cells or tissues. Importantly, highly pathogenic PRRSV (HP-PRRSV) strain-infected pigs treated with miR-181 mimics showed substantially decreased viral loads in blood and relief from PRRSV-induced fever compared to negative-control (NC)-treated controls. These results indicate the important role of host miRNAs in modulating PRRSV infection and viral pathogenesis and also support the idea that host miRNAs could be useful for RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated antiviral therapeutic strategies.