Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Superoxide DismutasE in Spring Barley Caryopses

NATÁLIE BŘEZINOVÁ BELCREDI, KATEŘINA VACULOVÁ. 2016. Superoxide Dismutase in Spring Barley Caryopses. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 64(2): 411–416. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was determined in caryopses of spring barley grown in fi eld trials in 2004–2006. A total set under study included fi ve malting varieties with hulled grain, three waxy hull-less and hulled varieties (of US origin), seven lines formed by crossing of the above given varieties and four hull-less lines of Czech origin. SOD activity was determined by a modifi ed method using a Ransod diagnostic kit (RANDOX). The method employs xanthine and xanthine oxidase to generate superoxide radicals which react with 2-(4-iodophenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenol)-5phenyltetrazolium chloride (INT) to form a red formazan dye. Statistically signifi cantly higher activity was measured in the variety Nordus (131 U.g−1 d.m.) and line ME1 (128 U.g−1 d.m.) compared to the other varieties/lines (66–111 U.g−1 d.m.). The line ME1 had signifi cantly higher SOD activity in grain versus its parental varieties Kompakt (83 U.g−1 d.m.) and Krona (78 U.g−1 d.m.). The results of this study proved the availability of varieties/lines with a higher SOD content, the antioxidant eff ect of SOD can improve quality of beer and food made from barley.
Dissociation Rate Constants of Human Fibronectin Binding to Fibronectin-binding Proteins on Living Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Clinical Patients*

Background: Cardiovascular implants can become infected with Staphylococcus aureus. Results: Receptor proteins on S. aureus form a multivalent cluster bond with fibronectin, a human protein that coats implants. Conclusion: A more resilient bond is associated with infections observed in vivo. Significance: Normal microbial flora could be screened prior to surgery to determine risk in patients receiving cardiovascular implants. Staphylococcus aureus is part of the indigenous microbiota of humans. Sometimes, S. aureus bacteria enter the bloodstream, where they form infections on implanted cardiovascular devices. A critical, first step in such infections is a bond that forms between fibronectin-binding protein (FnBP) on S. aureus and host proteins, such as fibronectin (Fn), that coat the surface of implants in vivo. In this study, native FnBPs on living S. aureus were shown to form a mechanically strong conformational structure with Fn by atomic force microscopy. The tensile acuity of this bond was probed for 46 bloodstream isolates, each from a patient with a cardiovascular implant. By analyzing the force spectra with the worm-like chain model, we determined that the binding events were consistent with a multivalent, cluster bond consisting of ∼10 or ∼80 proteins in parallel. The dissociation rate constant (koff, s−1) of each multibond complex was determined by measuring strength as a function of the loading rate, normalized by the number of bonds. The bond lifetime (1/koff) was two times longer for bloodstream isolates from patients with an infected device (1.79 or 69.47 s for the 10- or 80-bond clusters, respectively; n = 26 isolates) relative to those from patients with an uninfected device (0.96 or 34.02 s; n = 20 isolates). This distinction could not be explained by different amounts of FnBP, as confirmed by Western blots. Rather, amino acid polymorphisms within the Fn-binding repeats of FnBPA explain, at least partially, the statistically (p < 0.05) longer bond lifetime for isolates associated with an infected cardiovascular device.
Mobile Banking Adoption: An Examination of Technology Acceptance Model and Theory of Planned Behavior

This study aims at extending our understanding regarding the adoption of mobile banking throughintegrating Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Analyzingsurvey data from 119 respondents yielded important findings that partially support research hypotheses.The results indicated a significant positive impact of attitude toward mobile banking and subjective normon mobile banking adoption. Surprisingly, the effects of behavioral control and usefulness on mobilebanking adoption were insignificant. Furthermore, the regression results indicated a significant impact ofperceived usefulness on attitude toward mobile banking while the effect of perceived ease of use onattitude toward mobile banking was not supported. The paper concludes with a discussion of researchresults and draws several implications for future research.
Multiple layers and conjugate materials for food emulsion stabilization

ABSTRACT A single emulsifier material is seldom sufficient to cater to the requirements of complex emulsion-based food formulations that have to function over a wide range of pH, ionic strength, storage time, and temperature. Food emulsions have to be designed to satisfy several requirements for use which could be achieved by combining the beneficial properties of multiple emulsifiers. The present article reviews novel biological materials that are used to design oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions. More specifically, the major focus is to discuss (o/w) interfaces stabilized by multiple biopolymers. Prevalent ways by which two or more emulsifiers could be combined is by (i) forming multi-layered emulsions and (ii) conjugation of two compounds of beneficial traits. Multilayer emulsions make use of a combination of protein, phospholipids, and carbohydrates to stabilize (o/w) interfaces. On the other hand, covalent bonding between a protein and polysaccharide is induced to form a single entity known as conjugate that is superior to the individual biopolymers in terms of emulsion stability. Therefore, properties required to maintain emulsion stability such as surface activity, solubility, steric and electrostatic repulsion, and antioxidant effects from two different hydrocolloids could be integrated.
A new Testing Framework for C-Programming Exercises and Online-Assessments

Difficulties with learning a programming language are wide spread in engineering education. The use of a single integrated programming environment for coding, debugging, automated testing and online assessment lowers the initial burdens for novice programmers. We have developed the Virtual-C IDE especially for learning and teaching the C programming language with an integrated framework for program visualizations, programming exercises and online assessments. A new enhancement of the IDE is a xUnit like testing framework allowing on the one hand larger sets of small, test-based programming exercises and on the other hand simplifying the development of programming assignments. The integration of the new testing framework in the assessment system gives students a better and direct feedback on their programming achievements and helps to find syntactic and semantic errors in their source code.
Senescence Alters PPAR&ggr; (Peroxisome Proliferator–Activated Receptor Gamma)-Dependent Fatty Acid Handling in Human Adipose Tissue Microvascular Endothelial Cells and Favors Inflammation

Objective— Adipose tissue (AT) dysfunction associated with obesity or aging is a major cause for lipid redistribution and the progression of cardiometabolic disorders. Our goal is to decipher the contribution of human AT microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) in the maintenance of fatty acid (FA) fluxes and the impact of senescence on their function. Approach and Results— We used freshly isolated primary microvascular ECs from human AT. Our data identified the endothelial FA handling machinery including FATPs (FA transport proteins) FATP1, FATP3, FATP4, and CD36 as well as FABP4 (FA binding protein 4). We showed that PPAR&ggr; (peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor gamma) regulates the expression of FATP1, CD36, and FABP4 and is a major regulator of FA uptake in human AT EC (hATEC). We provided evidence that endothelial PPAR&ggr; activity is modulated by senescence. Indeed, the positive regulation of FA transport by PPAR&ggr; agonist was abolished, whereas the emergence of an inflammatory response was favored in senescent hATEC. This was associated with the retention of nuclear FOXO1 (forkhead box protein O1), whereas nuclear PPAR&ggr; translocation was impaired. Conclusions— These data support the notion that PPAR&ggr; is a key regulator of primary hATEC function including FA handling and inflammatory response. However, the outcome of PPAR&ggr; activation is modulated by senescence, a phenomenon that may impact the ability of hATEC to properly respond to and handle lipid fluxes. Finally, our work highlights the role of hATEC in the regulation of FA fluxes and reveals that dysfunction of these cells with accelerated aging is likely to participate to AT dysfunction and the redistribution of lipids.
Carbohydrate dose influences liver and muscle glycogen oxidation and performance during prolonged exercise

This study investigated the effect of carbohydrate (CHO) dose and composition on fuel selection during exercise, specifically exogenous and endogenous (liver and muscle) CHO oxidation. Ten trained males cycled in a double‐blind randomized order on 5 occasions at 77% V˙O2max for 2 h, followed by a 30‐min time‐trial (TT) while ingesting either 60 g·h−1 (LG) or 75 g·h−1 13C‐glucose (HG), 90 g·h−1 (LGF) or 112.5 g·h−1 13C‐glucose‐13C‐fructose ([2:1] HGF) or placebo. CHO doses met or exceed reported intestinal transporter saturation for glucose and fructose. Indirect calorimetry and stable mass isotope [13C] tracer techniques were utilized to determine fuel use. TT performance was 93% “likely/probable” to be improved with LGF compared with the other CHO doses. Exogenous CHO oxidation was higher for LGF and HGF compared with LG and HG (ES > 1.34, P < 0.01), with the relative contribution of LGF (24.5 ± 5.3%) moderately higher than HGF (20.6 ± 6.2%, ES = 0.68). Increasing CHO dose beyond intestinal saturation increased absolute (29.2 ± 28.6 g·h−1, ES = 1.28, P = 0.06) and relative muscle glycogen utilization (9.2 ± 6.9%, ES = 1.68, P = 0.014) for glucose‐fructose ingestion. Absolute muscle glycogen oxidation between LG and HG was not significantly different, but was moderately higher for HG (ES = 0.60). Liver glycogen oxidation was not significantly different between conditions, but absolute and relative contributions were moderately attenuated for LGF (19.3 ± 9.4 g·h−1, 6.8 ± 3.1%) compared with HGF (30.5 ± 17.7 g·h−1, 10.1 ± 4.0%, ES = 0.79 & 0.98). Total fat oxidation was suppressed in HGF compared with all other CHO conditions (ES > 0.90, P = 0.024–0.17). In conclusion, there was no linear dose response for CHO ingestion, with 90 g·h−1 of glucose‐fructose being optimal in terms of TT performance and fuel selection.
GEMALS: A promising therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that currently has no cure. At present, the only approved treatment for ALS is Riluzole, a glutamate release blocker that improves life expectancy by 3–6 months. ALS-Endotherapia (GEMALS) is a novel therapeutic approach to treat ALS and the aim of the present study was to investigate the potential beneficial effects of this novel treatment. A total of 31 patients with ALS were assessed in the current study. Deceleration of the disease was observed in 83.87% (P<0.0001) of patients and mean life expectancy was increased by 38 months. Motor functions, including breathing, walking, salivation, speech, swallowing and writing, were also improved in patients treated with GEMALS. The results of the present study demonstrate that long-term treatment with GEMALS has a curative effect in patients with ALS. Furthermore, the overall effectiveness of GEMALS was assessed using the ALS Assessment Questionnaire. The score improvement was 76.2 and 100% for men and women, respectively (P<0.0001), compared with the worldwide reference score. The present study provides a promising basis for the use of GEMALS as a therapeutic treatment for patients with ALS; however, these results must be confirmed in a double-blinded and randomized clinical trial.
Interspecific Competition for Shelters in Territorial and Gregarious Intertidal Grazers: Consequences for Individual Behaviour

Experiments have shown that interspecific interactions within consumer guilds can alter patterns of distribution, abundance and size of species. Plastic behavioural responses can be modulated by agonistic interactions. In many cases, consumers compete for space and shelters, and these interactions change the manner in which they exploit food. This study investigates the consequences of competition in the spatial and temporal organization of behaviour of intertidal grazers, which share algal resources and the use of rock crevices while resting, but exhibit different body sizes, spatial behaviour and foraging modes. We evaluate interaction strength between small gregarious Siphonaria lessoni and the larger territorial keyhole limpet Fissurella crassa and between S. lessoni and the medium-size gregarious chiton Chiton granosus. Using field manipulations and artificial arenas in the laboratory, we tested whether the use of crevices, micro-spatial distribution and activity are modified by the density of conspecifics and the presence of heterospecifics. Our results show that small-scale spatial segregation observed in the field between S. lessoni and C. granosus result from species-specific differences in habitat use. In turn, we found evidence that spatial segregation between F. crassa and S. lessoni results from highly asymmetric interference competition in the use of shelters. The presence of F. crassa reduced the use of crevices and growth rates of S. lessoni. Effects on growth rates are assumed to result from exposure to harsh environmental conditions rather than food limitation. Thus, neither gregarious behaviour nor differences in activity were sufficient to prevent competition with the larger grazer. Our study illustrates the importance of competition for shelters, which results in behavioural changes of the smaller-sized species, and how these plastic responses can translate into differences in growth rates. Use of shelters can thus be modulated by environmental conditions in a species-specific as well as an interactive manner within consumers’ guilds.
Beyond Precision and Recall: Understanding Uses (and Misuses) of Similarity Hashes in Binary Analysis

Fuzzy hashing algorithms provide a convenient way of summarizing in a compact form the content of files, and of looking for similarities between them. Because of this, they are widely used in the security and forensics communities to look for similarities between binary program files; one version of them, ssdeep, is the de facto standard to share information about known malware. Fuzzy hashes are quite pervasive, but no study so far answers conclusively the question of which (if any) fuzzy hashing algorithms are suited to detect similarities between programs, where we consider as similar those programs that have code or libraries in common. We measure how four popular algorithms perform in different scenarios: when they are used to correlate statically-compiled files with the libraries they use, when compiled with different flags or different compilers, and when applied to programs that share a large part of their source code. Perhaps more importantly, we provide interpretations that explain the reasons why results vary, sometimes widely, among apparently very similar use cases. We find that the low-level details of the compilation process, together with the technicalities of the hashing algorithms, can explain surprising results such as similarities dropping to zero with the change of a single assembly instruction. More in general, we see that ssdeep, the de facto standard for this type of analysis, performs definitely worse than alternative algorithms; we also find that the best choice of algorithm to use varies depending on the particularities of the use case scenario.
Distinct Spatiotemporal Activation Patterns of the Perirhinal-Entorhinal Network in Response to Cortical and Amygdala Input

The perirhinal (PER) and entorhinal cortex (EC) receive input from the agranular insular cortex (AiP) and the subcortical lateral amygdala (LA) and the main output area is the hippocampus. Information transfer through the PER/EC network however, is not always guaranteed. It is hypothesized that this network actively regulates the (sub)cortical activity transfer to the hippocampal network and that the inhibitory system is involved in this function. This study determined the recruitment by the AiP and LA afferents in PER/EC network with the use of voltage sensitive dye (VSD) imaging in horizontal mouse brain slices. Electrical stimulation (500 μA) of the AiP induced activity that gradually propagated predominantly in the rostro-caudal direction: from the PER to the lateral EC (LEC). In the presence of 1 μM of the competitive γ-aminobutyric acid (GABAA) receptor antagonist bicuculline, AiP stimulation recruited the medial EC (MEC) as well. In contrast, LA stimulation (500 μA) only induced activity in the deep layers of the PER. In the presence of bicuculline, the initial population activity in the PER propagated further towards the superficial layers and the EC after a delay. The latency of evoked responses decreased with increasing stimulus intensities (50–500 μA) for both the AiP and LA stimuli. The stimulation threshold for evoking responses in the PER/EC network was higher for the LA than for the AiP. This study showed that the extent of the PER/EC network activation depends on release of inhibition. When GABAA dependent inhibition is reduced, both the AiP and the LA activate spatially overlapping regions, although in a distinct spatiotemporal fashion. It is therefore hypothesized that the inhibitory network regulates excitatory activity from both cortical and subcortical areas that has to be transmitted through the PER/EC network.
Effects of Trophic Level and Metamorphosis on Discrimination of Hydrogen Isotopes in a Plant-Herbivore System

The use of stable isotopes in ecological studies requires that we know the magnitude of discrimination factors between consumer and element sources. The causes of variation in discrimination factors for carbon and nitrogen have been relatively well studied. In contrast, the discrimination factors for hydrogen have rarely been measured. We grew cabbage looper caterpillars (Trichoplusia ni) on cabbage (Brassica oleracea) plants irrigated with four treatments of deuterium-enriched water (δD = −131, −88, −48, and −2‰, respectively), allowing some of them to reach adulthood as moths. Tissue δD values of plants, caterpillars, and moths were linearly correlated with the isotopic composition of irrigation water. However, the slope of these relationships was less than 1, and hence, discrimination factors depended on the δD value of irrigation water. We hypothesize that this dependence is an artifact of growing plants in an environment with a common atmospheric δD value. Both caterpillars and moths were significantly enriched in deuterium relative to plants by ∼45‰ and 23‰ respectively, but the moths had lower tissue to plant discrimination factors than did the caterpillars. If the trophic enrichment documented here is universal, δD values must be accounted for in geographic assignment studies. The isotopic value of carbon was transferred more or less faithfully across trophic levels, but δ15N values increased from plants to insects and we observed significant non-trophic 15N enrichment in the metamorphosis from larvae to adult.
Adding Celecoxib With or Without Zoledronic Acid for Hormone-Naïve Prostate Cancer: Long-Term Survival Results From an Adaptive, Multiarm, Multistage, Platform, Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose Systemic Therapy for Advanced or Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Evaluation of Drug Efficacy is a randomized controlled trial using a multiarm, multistage, platform design. It recruits men with high-risk, locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer who were initiating long-term hormone therapy. We report survival data for two celecoxib (Cel)-containing comparisons, which stopped accrual early at interim analysis on the basis of failure-free survival. Patients and Methods Standard of care (SOC) was hormone therapy continuously (metastatic) or for ≥ 2 years (nonmetastatic); prostate (± pelvic node) radiotherapy was encouraged for men without metastases. Cel 400 mg was administered twice a day for 1 year. Zoledronic acid (ZA) 4 mg was administered for six 3-weekly cycles, then 4-weekly for 2 years. Stratified random assignment allocated patients 2:1:1 to SOC (control), SOC + Cel, or SOC + ZA + Cel. The primary outcome measure was all-cause mortality. Results were analyzed with Cox proportional hazards and flexible parametric models adjusted for stratification factors. Results A total of 1,245 men were randomly assigned (Oct 2005 to April 2011). Groups were balanced: median age, 65 years; 61% metastatic, 14% N+/X M0, 25% N0M0; 94% newly diagnosed; median prostate-specific antigen, 66 ng/mL. Median follow-up was 69 months. Grade 3 to 5 adverse events were seen in 36% SOC-only, 33% SOC + Cel, and 32% SOC + ZA + Cel patients. There were 303 control arm deaths (83% prostate cancer), and median survival was 66 months. Compared with SOC, the adjusted hazard ratio was 0.98 (95% CI, 0.80 to 1.20; P = .847; median survival, 70 months) for SOC + Cel and 0.86 (95% CI, 0.70 to 1.05; P =.130; median survival, 76 months) for SOC + ZA + Cel. Preplanned subgroup analyses in men with metastatic disease showed a hazard ratio of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.62 to 0.98; P = .033) for SOC + ZA + Cel. Conclusion These data show no overall evidence of improved survival with Cel. Preplanned subgroup analyses provide hypotheses for future studies.
Deterministic gossiping with a periodic protocol

A sequence of allowable gossips between pairs of agents in a group is complete if the gossip graph which the sequence generates is a connected spanning subgraph of the graph of all allowable gossip pairs; such a sequence is minimally complete if there is no shorter sequence which is complete. An infinite sequence of gossips is repetitively complete with period T if each successive subsequence of length T within the gossip sequence is complete. Any such sequence converges exponentially fast. A repetitively complete gossip sequence is periodic with period T if each gossip in the sequence is repeated once every T time steps. The rate of convergence of a periodic gossiping process is determined by the Tth root of the second largest eigenvalue in magnitude of the stochastic matrix of the complete gossip subsequence. In the case when the graph of allowable gossips is a tree and the complete gossip subsequence is minimally complete, this eigenvalue is independent of the order in which the gossips occur within the complete gossip subsequences.