Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anticancer activity of cow, sheep, goat, mare, donkey and camel milks and their caseins and whey proteins and in silico comparison of the caseins

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate anticancer activity of cow, goat, sheep, mare, donkey and camel milks and their casein and whey proteins against MCF7 cell line. The structure-based properties of the casein proteins were also investigated, using bioinformatics tools to find explanation for their antitumor activities. The effect of different milks and their casein and whey proteins on MCF7 proliferation was measured using MTT assay at different concentrations (0.5, 1 and 2 mg/ml). The results showed that mare, donkey, cow and camel milks and their casein and whey proteins have potent cytotoxic activity against MCF7 cells in a dose dependent manner while sheep and goat milks and their proteins did not reveal any cytotoxic activity. The in silico results demonstrated that mare, donkey and camel caseins had highest positive and negative charges. The secondary structure prediction indicated that mare and donkey caseins had the maximum percentage of α helix and camel casein had the highest percentage of extended strand. This study suggests that there is a striking correlation between anti-cancer activity of milk caseins and their physicochemical properties such as alpha helix structure and positive and negative charges. In conclusion, the results indicated that mare, camel and donkey milks might be good candidates against breast cancer cells.
Tradeoff analysis of throughput and fairness on CDMA packet downlinks with location-dependent QoS

This work presents the quantitative tradeoff relation between system throughput and fairness on multirate code-division multiple-access (CDMA) downlinks. We develop and use an analytical model and a method for performance evaluation. The proposed model and method reflect the effects of multiplexing scheme, a limited data-rate set, log-normal shadowing, the best base station selection, and self-interference. System performance measures include asymptotic throughput, fairness performance factors, and outage probability . The performance of packet channels for delay-tolerant service is evaluated based on 3GPP wide-band code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) system model. Using the method developed, various algorithms for time resource assignment are applied and the system performance measures are derived and compared. We have derived the tradeoff between asymptotic throughput and fairness performance factors caused by the location-dependent carrier-to-interference ratio. The results show that we can control the tradeoff by applying various time resource-assignment schemes. It is also shown that the tradeoff in the system with the limited data-rate set can be improved by setting the number of simultaneous users properly.
Acellular Bone Marrow Extracts Significantly Enhance Engraftment Levels of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Mouse Xeno-Transplantation Models

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) derived from cord blood (CB), bone marrow (BM), or mobilized peripheral blood (PBSC) can differentiate into multiple lineages such as lymphoid, myeloid, erythroid cells and platelets. The local microenvironment is critical to the differentiation of HSCs and to the preservation of their phenotype in vivo. This microenvironment comprises a physical support supplied by the organ matrix as well as tissue specific cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. We investigated the effects of acellular bovine bone marrow extracts (BME) on HSC in vitro and in vivo. We observed a significant increase in the number of myeloid and erythroid colonies in CB mononuclear cells (MNC) or CB CD34+ cells cultured in methylcellulose media supplemented with BME. Similarly, in xeno-transplantation experiments, pretreatment with BME during ex-vivo culture of HSCs induced a significant increase in HSC engraftment in vivo. Indeed, we observed both an increase in the number of differentiated myeloid, lymphoid and erythroid cells and an acceleration of engraftment. These results were obtained using CB MNCs, BM MNCs or CD34+ cells, transplanted in immuno-compromised mice (NOD/SCID or NSG). These findings establish the basis for exploring the use of BME in the expansion of CB HSC prior to HSC Transplantation. This study stresses the importance of the mechanical structure and soluble mediators present in the surrounding niche for the proper activity and differentiation of stem cells.
Sex differences in the mechano‐energetic effects of genistein on stunned rat and guinea pig hearts

Although the phytoestrogen genistein (Gen) is considered protective in cardiovascular diseases, its direct effects on stunned hearts after transient ischemia‐reperfusion (I/R) are unknown. This report studied the effects of 20 μmol/L Gen on the mechano‐calorimetric behaviour during I/R of rat and guinea pig hearts to evaluate the energetics of Ca2+ homeostasis. Isolated beating hearts were perfused with control Krebs solution inside a calorimeter with or without perfusion of Gen before a transient period of I/R. Left ventricular pressure development (P) and total heat rate (Ht) were continuously measured. At 37°C, Gen did not change post‐ischemic contractile recovery (PICR), but it increased the relaxation rate. However, PICR was reduced in hearts of male rats and guinea pigs at 30°C. Total muscle economy (P/Ht) showed the same behaviour as P at each temperature. Inhibition of phosphatases with orthovanadate during Gen perfusion prevented a decrease in PICR in male rat hearts, suggesting that this effect is due to tyrosine kinase inhibition. Reperfusing ischemic hearts with 10 mmol/L caffeine‐36 mmol/L Na+‐Krebs induced contracture dependent on the sarcoreticular Ca2+ content. Contracture relaxation depends on mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake and Gen reduced the relaxation rate. Moreover, Gen prevented the increase in Rhod‐2 fluorescence (free [Ca2+]m) of rat cardiomyocytes. In guinea pig hearts, Gen maintained ischemic preconditioning, but was reduced by 5‐hydroxydecanoate, suggesting the participation of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate (ATP)‐dependent K channels. Results suggest that Gen acts on several mechanisms that regulate myocardial calcium homeostasis and energetics during I/R, which differ in a temperature‐ and sex‐dependent manner.
Elucidation of relaxin-3 binding interactions in the extracellular loops of RXFP3

Relaxin-3 is a highly conserved neuropeptide in vertebrate species and binds to the Class A G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) RXFP3. Relaxin-3 is involved in a wide range of behaviors, including feeding, stress responses, arousal, and cognitive processes and therefore targeting of RXFP3 may be relevant for a range of neurological diseases. Structural knowledge of RXFP3 and its interaction with relaxin-3 would both increase our understanding of ligand recognition in GPCRs that respond to protein ligands and enable acceleration of the design of drug leads. In this study we have used comparative sequence analysis, molecular modeling and receptor mutagenesis to investigate the binding site of the native ligand human relaxin-3 (H3 relaxin) on the human RXFP3 receptor. Previous structure function studies have demonstrated that arginine residues in the H3 relaxin B-chain are critical for binding interactions with the receptor extracellular loops and/or N-terminal domain. Hence we have concentrated on determining the ligand interacting sites in these domains and have focused on glutamic (E) and aspartic acid (D) residues in these regions that may form electrostatic interactions with these critical arginine residues. Conserved D/E residues identified from vertebrate species multiple sequence alignments were mutated to Ala in human RXFP3 to test the effect of loss of amino acid side chain on receptor binding using a Eu-labeled relaxin-3 agonist. Finally data from mutagenesis experiments have been used in ligand docking simulations to a homology model of human RXFP3 based on the peptide-bound chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) structure. These studies have resulted in a model of the relaxin-3 interaction with RXFP3 which will inform further interrogation of the agonist binding site.
The Role of Land Cover in the Propagation of Rainfall Into Streamflow Trends

The replacement of natural forests with agriculture is generally associated with modifications in the hydrological behavior of a basin. This is particularly notable in the tropics and subtropics. Southern Brazil is a region with extensive agricultural production, forest conservation, and a vast unexplored streamflow data despite substantial rainfall trends observed in recent decades. In this work, we explore trends in the streamflow regime in the majority of the monitored basins in Southern Brazil. Additionally, we evaluate if pristine forested basins and agricultural nonforested basins have significantly different streamflow responses to changes in rainfall. We analyzed annual averages, maxima, minima, and seasonality of a 36‐year data set (1975–2010) of 675 rainfall and 140 streamflow gauges. Results reveal that large trends are widespread in Southern Brazil, especially in basins with areas smaller than 10,000 km2. Changes in the rainfall regime did not directly translate into changes in the streamflow regime. Changes in the annual maximum flow of forested basins were not statistically significant even when the annual average and maximum rainfall increased significantly. Correlations between changes in rainfall and streamflow for two indices, namely, duration of low‐magnitude events and seasonality, were statistically significant (p < 0.05) only for agricultural basins. The results indicate a higher propagation of hydrological changes through anthropogenically modified systems, providing evidence that agricultural basins are more sensitive to changes in the rainfall regime.
A neural approach to topological optimization of communication networks, with reliability constraints

Consider network topological optimization under a reliability constraint. The objective is to find the topological layout of links, at minimal cost, under the constraint: all-terminal network reliability is not less than a given level of system reliability. The all-terminal reliability is Pr{every pair of nodes in the network can communicate with each other}. This paper presents a new approach based on artificial neural networks (ANN) for solving the problem. The problem is mapped onto an optimization ANN (OPTI-net) by constructing an energy function whose minimization process drives the neural network into one of its stable states. This stable state corresponds to a solution for the network design problem. The OPTI-net favors states that correspond to a selection of links with an overall reliability greater than or equal to a threshold value. Among these states it also favors the one which has the lowest total cost. Hysteresis McCulloch-Pitts neuron model is used in the solution, due to its performance and fast convergence. Considering the NP-hard complexity of the exact reliability calculation, together with the iterative behavior of the neural networks, bounds for the all-terminal reliability are used. This paper introduces new upper and lower bounds that are functions of the link selection and uses them to represent the network reliability. The neural network is tested via computer simulation using three problem sets. The first two sets are used to compare the results obtained by this method to those obtained by previous heuristics. The third test set contains five networks of larger sizes for which no results have been reported by previous methods. This paper rinds the optimal or near-optimal solutions for most of the problems in a relatively short time. The OPTI-net found many good solutions for a 50-vertex 1225-arc network in 1/2 CPU hour. For each problem instance, many solutions are found at each run of the simulator. The strengths of this neural network approach are very slowly increasing computation time with respect to network size, effective optimization, and flexibility. The OPTI-net is very effective in identifying optimal, or suboptimal, solutions even in search spaces up to /spl ap/10/sup 16/ for a fully connected network with 50 vertexes. The OPTI-net is the first approach to be applied on such large networks. The simulation results show that the neural approach is more efficient in designing networks of large sizes compared to other heuristic techniques.
Optimal algorithms for approximate clustering

In a clustering problem, the aim is to partition a given set of <italic>n</italic> points in <italic>d</italic>-dimensional space into <italic>k</italic> groups, called clusters, so that points within each cluster are near each other. Two objective functions frequently used to measure the performance of a clustering algorithm are, for any <italic>L<subscrpt>4</subscrpt></italic> metric, (a) the maximum distance between pairs of points in the same cluster, and (b) the maximum distance between points in each cluster and a chosen cluster center; we refer to either measure as the cluster size. We show that one cannot approximate the optimal cluster size for a fixed number of clusters within a factor close to 2 in polynomial time, for two or more dimensions, unless P=NP. We also present an algorithm that achieves this factor of 2 in time <italic>&Ogr;</italic>(<italic>n</italic> log <italic>k</italic>), and show that this running time is optimal in the algebraic decision tree model. For a fixed cluster size, on the other hand, we give a polynomial time approximation scheme that estimates the optimal number of clusters under the second measure of cluster size within factors arbitrarily close to 1. Our approach is extended to provide approximation algorithms for the restricted centers, suppliers, and weighted suppliers problems that run in optimal <italic>&Ogr;</italic>(<italic>n</italic> log <italic>k</italic>) time and achieve optimal or nearly optimal approximation bounds.
Quantitative Analysis of Terrestrial Water Storage Changes Under the Grain for Green Program in the Yellow River Basin

Afforestation‐induced changes in water resources have attracted worldwide attention. However, a clear picture of quantitative attribution of terrestrial water storage (TWS) variation from hydroclimatic and anthropogenic factors is still lacking. In this study, a quantitative analysis of TWS variation was conducted in the Yellow River basin of China under the Grain for Green project with consideration of irrigation. The results showed that the TWS has decreased (increased) more and more quickly (slowly) in the Loess Plateau (headwater region). The TWS increase corresponded to increased runoff and soil moisture in the headwaters, and the TWS depletion corresponded to decreased runoff and groundwater in the Loess Plateau and downstream regions. Regarding the TWS change (TWSC), it exhibited a negative trend across the basin. The increase in evapotranspiration (ET) dominated the basin‐averaged TWSC reduction, while the increase in ET was highly related to the increases in vegetation cover and irrigation water use. For spatial TWSC variations, the value of precipitation minus ET could account for most changes in TWSC, except for those in the headwater region and a region near the internally drained area. The increased vegetation coverage, which can affect multiple hydrological processes, played an important role in these two excluded regions. Importantly, the irrigation‐induced TWSC was considerable and varied with different irrigation water sources (i.e., surface water and groundwater). Overall, the impacts of afforestation and irrigation on TWS are sufficiently important. The research in this study can provide guidance for the water resource management during revegetation efforts.
Evaluation of Urban Ecological Carrying Capacity Based on State-space method

Urban ecological carrying capacity is an important standard to measure the sustainable development of urban ecology. In this paper, the evaluation index system of urban ecological carrying capacity is established from three aspects of the ecological elastic force, the supporting force of carrying media and the pressure of carrying objects. A new expression of state-space method for evaluation carrying capacity is presented innovatively. The new method and index system were applied to the evaluation of five provinces in the lower reaches of the Yangtze river. The results showed that the order of urban ecological carrying capacity was Jiangxi > Shanghai > Zhejiang > Jiangsu > Anhui. Finally, some suggestions for future development are put forward according to the evaluation results of each province, which is helpful to the formulation of ecological civilization construction policies.
Increased Serum Osteoprotegerin Level in Older and Diabetic Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract: Osteoprotegerin is a circulating osteoclastogenesis inhibitory factor and serum osteoprotegerin levels are elevated in hemodialysis patients. This study investigated whether osteoprotegerin levels correlated with various clinical parameters in hemodialysis patients. The subjects were 45 men and 37 women aged from 27 to 94 years (mean = 60.4 ± 13.9 years), and the duration of dialysis was 9–277 months (mean = 89.5 ± 64.7 months). Serum osteoprotegerin levels were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Data were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression analysis. The mean osteoprotegerin level of the hemodialysis patients was 303 ± 210 pg/mL, which was higher than in age‐matched healthy controls. Osteoprotegerin levels increased with age, a longer duration of dialysis, and the presence of diabetes. Skeletal resistance to parathyroid hormone might be increased by aging, a long dialysis period, and diabetes, perhaps explaining why adynamic bone disease is more common in older or diabetic patients.
Neuropsychologic Impairment and MRI Abnormalities Associated with Chronic Solvent Abuse

Objective: Individuals chronically abusing organic solvents have been reported in the medical literature for almost four decades to have a variety of neurological abnormalities. Most have been single case reports or studies in small numbers of individuals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the neurologic and neuropsychologic effects of chronic solvent abuse in a larger group of individuals and compare the results to a control group of other drug abusers. Attempts to estimate a dose–response relationship between solvent abuse and either neuropsychological tests or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities were also undertaken. Methods: A sample of 55 solvent abusers was compared to a sample of 61 users of other drugs, especially cocaine and alcohol, on a battery of cognitive and neuropsychological tests. Fifty of the solvent abusers and 51 members of the comparison sample also underwent MRI of the brain. Comparisons were made by means of multivariate analysis of variance and covariance. Results: Compared to the general population, both groups performed poorly, scoring below the mean on most neuropsychological measures. Solvent abusers performed more poorly than the comparison sample on measures of working memory and executive cognitive functions. Both groups showed evidence of abnormal MRI findings, but a greater percentage of the solvent abuse group showed such abnormalities. No clear dose–response relationship was seen between solvent abuse and abnormalities on neuropsychological tests, but a strong dose–response relationship was seen in the presence of MRI abnormalities. Conclusion: The findings in this study document widespread cognitive impairment, which could not be attributed to the effects of solvents entirely. These findings expand upon previous data regarding neurological abnormalities in solvent abusers, by demonstrating a dose–response relationship with MRI abnormalities. An unexpected finding was the high prevalence of neuropsychological impairment and MRI abnormalities among the comparison group. The results of this study has implications regarding low-level solvent exposure, as in the occupational setting, suggesting that MRI may be a more useful tool to sort out the presence of neurological abnormalities rather than neuropsychological tests. Since no dose–response relationship was seen between solvent abuse and neuropsychological testing, reliance upon these tests in assessing neurological injury from solvents is a highly dubious practice.
Risk factors for under-5 mortality: evidence from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2004–2011

Objective The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with mortality in children under 5 years of age using a nationally representative sample of singleton births for the period of 2004–2011. Design, setting and participants Pooled 2004, 2007 and 2011 cross-sectional data sets of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys were analysed. The surveys used a stratified two-stage cluster sample of 16 722 singleton live-born infants of the most recent birth of a mother within a 3-year period. Main outcome measures Outcome measures were neonatal mortality (0–30 days), postneonatal mortality (1–11 months), infant mortality (0–11 months), child mortality (1–4 years) and under-5 mortality (0–4 years). Results Survival information for 16 722 singleton live-born infants and 522 deaths of children <5 years of age included: 310 neonatal deaths, 154 postneonatal deaths, 464 infant deaths, 58 child deaths and 522 under-5 deaths. Multiple variable analysis showed that, over a 7-year period, mortality reduced significantly by 48% for postneonatal deaths, 33% for infant deaths and 29% for under-5 deaths, but there was no significant reduction in neonatal deaths (adjusted OR (AOR)=0.79, 95% CI 0.59 to 1.06) or child deaths (AOR=1.00, 95% CI 0.51 to 1.94). The odds of neonatal, postneonatal, infant, child and under-5 deaths decreased significantly among mothers who used contraceptive and mothers who had other children aged 3 years or older. The risk of neonatal, postneonatal, infant, child and under-5 deaths was significantly higher in mothers who reported a previous death of a sibling. Conclusions Our study suggests that family planning is needed to further reduce the overall rate of under-5 deaths in Bangladesh. To reduce childhood mortality, public health interventions that focus on child spacing and contraceptive use by mothers may be most effective.
A Latent Variable Model of Synchronous Syntactic-Semantic Parsing for Multiple Languages

Motivated by the large number of languages (seven) and the short development time (two months) of the 2009 CoNLL shared task, we exploited latent variables to avoid the costly process of hand-crafted feature engineering, allowing the latent variables to induce features from the data. We took a pre-existing generative latent variable model of joint syntactic-semantic dependency parsing, developed for English, and applied it to six new languages with minimal adjustments. The parser's robustness across languages indicates that this parser has a very general feature set. The parser's high performance indicates that its latent variables succeeded in inducing effective features. This system was ranked third overall with a macro averaged F1 score of 82.14%, only 0.5% worse than the best system.
Nicotine impairs endothelium‐dependent dilatation in human veins in vivo

Cigarette smoking is associated with impaired endothelium‐dependent dilatation in human veins and arteries. An in vivo study in animals suggests that nicotine may contribute to this abnormality. We tested the hypothesis that local administration of nicotine at a dose reproducing the plasma concentration observed during smoking would impair endothelium‐dependent vasodilatation in human veins in vivo.