Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computer Education

Preparing the specialists who sustain computer progress has long been overlooked. The Computer Society has joined with the ACM to resolve the problem of educational standards for engineers, programmers, and technicians. The explosive growth ofcomputer technology during the last half of this century has been driven, in part, by contributions from institutions of higher education. But just as education has contributed to the growth of the computer field, computer technology has influenced all phases ofeducation. In most cases, this intimate connection between education and computer technology has produced positive results. However, as with any new field, there have been many false starts and unfulfilled hopes, the former stemming from a lack of knowledge and the latter from results that could not be achieved. The 1980's is the first decade in which computer technology has impacted all branches of education. Before this decade, computer education was a concern of a relatively small number of students interested in employment either in computer science or engineering or in a closely related area. The resulting computer education programs were very specialized and were based on the assumption that anyone planning on entering a career or occupation requiring extensive computer use had to have an in-depth understanding of the computing process. The computer field has matured to the point that most of us accept computers as a normal part of our professional and personal lives. However, the impact of advances in computer technology on education and the educational process is just starting to be realized.
Effects of Alcohol, Coffee, and Tobacco, Alone or in Combination, on Physiological Parameters and Anxiety in a Young Population.

OBJECTIVE The objective was to evaluate the effects of a single dose of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine, alone or in combination, on physiological parameters (systolic and diastolic blood pressure [SBP and DBP] and heart rate [HR]) and state-trait anxiety in healthy young volunteers. METHOD The procedure reproduces the conditions under which the subjects (n=76) usually ingest alcohol (through an alcoholic beverage), caffeine (through a cup of coffee), and nicotine (by smoking a cigarette), separately or in combination, according to their consumption habits of each individual. SBP and DBP, HR, and state anxiety (SA) were registered before (phase 1) and after (phase 2) treatment. RESULTS Intake of alcohol or alcohol-nicotine reduced DBP. Comparisons between control and combined treatment (coffee-alcohol-nicotine) groups revealed a decrease in HR in the former group but not in the latter. The coffee consumers alone exhibited a tendency toward an increase in SA, while the control group showed a tendency toward a decrease in this measure. When Phase 1 and Phase 2 were compared, a decrease was observed in SBP (alcohol and coffee-alcohol groups), DBP (alcohol and alcohol-nicotine groups), HR (all groups, except coffee-alcohol and coffee-alcohol-nicotine groups), and SA (coffee-alcohol-nicotine group). CONCLUSIONS (i) A low dose of alcohol, either alone or in combination with a cigarette, decreases DBP but not SBP; (ii) the polyconsumption of coffee, alcohol, and nicotine blocks the adaptation response (the reduction in HR in control subjects in the second phase); (iii) an increase of SA is observed after consuming coffee, while the opposite occurs in control subjects (a decrease of SA).
Protein Kinase C‐Mediated Down‐Regulation of Voltage‐Dependent Sodium Channels in Adrenal Chromaffin Cells

Abstract: Treatment of cultured bovine adrenal chromaffin cells with 12‐O‐tetradecanoylphorbol 13‐acetate (TPA), an activator of protein kinase C (PKC), decreased [3H]saxitoxin ([3H]STX) binding in a concentration (IC50 = 19 nM)‐ and time (t1/2 = 4.5 h)‐dependent manner. TPA (100 nM for 15 h) lowered the Bmax of [3H]STX binding by 53% without altering the KD value. Phorbol 12,13‐dibutyrate (PDBu) also reduced [3H]STX binding, whereas 4α‐TPA, an inactive analogue, had no effect. The inhibitory effect of TPA was abolished when H‐7 (an inhibitor of PKC), but not H‐89 (an inhibitor of cyclic AMP‐dependent protein kinase), was included in the culture medium for 1 h before and during TPA treatment. Simultaneous treatment with TPA in combination with either actinomycin D or cycloheximide, an inhibitor of protein synthesis, nullified the effect of TPA. TPA treatment also attenuated veratridine‐induced 22Na+ influx but did not alter the affinity of veratridine for Na channels as well as an allosteric potentiation of veratridine‐induced 22Na+ influx by brevetoxin. These results suggest that an activation of PKC down‐regulates the density of Na channels without altering their pharmacological features; this down‐regulation is mediated via the de novo synthesis of an as yet unidentified protein(s), rather than an immediate effect of Na channel phosphorylation.
Reversible Sketches: Enabling Monitoring and Analysis Over High-Speed Data Streams

A key function for network traffic monitoring and analysis is the ability to perform aggregate queries over multiple data streams. Change detection is an important primitive which can be extended to construct many aggregate queries. The recently proposed sketches are among the very few that can detect heavy changes online for high speed links, and thus support various aggregate queries in both temporal and spatial domains. However, it does not preserve the keys (e. g., source IP address) of flows, making it difficult to reconstruct the desired set of anomalous keys. To address this challenge, we propose the reversible sketch data structure along with reverse hashing algorithms to infer the keys of culprit flows. There are two phases. The first operates online, recording the packet stream in a compact representation with negligible extra memory and few extra memory accesses. Our prototype single FPGA board implementation can achieve a throughput of over 16 Gb/s for 40-byte packet streams (the worst case). The second phase identifies heavy changes and their keys from the representation in nearly real time. We evaluate our scheme using traces from large edge routers with OC-12 or higher links. Both the analytical and experimental results show that we are able to achieve online traffic monitoring and accurate change/intrusion detection over massive data streams on high speed links, all in a manner that scales to large key space size. To the best of our knowledge, our system is the first to achieve these properties simultaneously.
Aberrant monomethylation of histone H4 lysine 20 activates the DNA damage checkpoint in Drosophila melanogaster

PR-Set7 is a histone methyltransferase that specifically monomethylates histone H4 lysine 20 (K20) and is essential for cell proliferation. Our results show that in PR-Set7 mutants, the DNA damage checkpoint is activated. This phenotype is manifested by reduction in both the mitotic and the S phase indexes, a delay in the progression through early mitosis, and strong reduction of cyclin B. Furthermore, in a double mutant of PR-Set7 and mei-41 (the fly ATR orthologue), the abnormalities of mitotic progression and the cyclin B protein level were rescued. PR-Set7 also showed a defect in chromosome condensation that was enhanced in the double mutant. We therefore propose that monomethylated H4K20 is involved in the maintenance of proper higher order structure of DNA and is consequently essential for chromosome condensation.
Vestibular and Auditory Function in Usher's Syndrome

Usher's syndrome is a recessive hereditary disorder in which a congenital hearing loss is combined with nyctalopia, retinal degeneration, and restriction of visual fields. The results of a comprehensive ophthalmic and neurotologic study on 70 patients are reported. Two distinct clinical and presumed genetic types were discernible on the basis of hearing impairment and vestibular sensitivity and, to a lesser extent, deterioration of retinal photoreceptor function. Such a classification has proved valuable in diagnosis, prognosis, and genetic counselling.
A computational study of creativity in design: The role of society

Studies of creativity have tended to focus on isolated individuals, under the assumption that it can be defined as a characteristic of an extraordinary person, product, or process. Existing computational models of creative behavior have inherited this emphasis on independent generative processes. However, an increasing multidisciplinary consensus regards creativity as a systems property, and extends the focus of inquiry to include the interaction between generative individuals and evaluative social groups. To acknowledge the complementarity of evaluative processes by social groups, experts, and peers, this paper presents experimentation with a framework of design as a social activity. This model is used to inspect phenomena associated with creativity in the interaction between designers and their societies. In particular, this paper describes the strength of social ties as a mechanism of social organization, and explores its potential relation to creativity in a computational social simulation. These experiments illustrate ways in which the role of designers as change agents of their societies can be largely determined by how the evaluating group self-organizes over time. A key potential implication is that the isolated characteristics of designers may be insufficient to formulate conclusions about the nature and effects of their behavior. Instead, causality could be attributed to situational factors that define the relationship between designers and their evaluators.
Cellular and Infection Microbiology Comparative Genomics and Stx Phage Characterization of Lee-negative Shiga Toxin-producing Escherichia Coli

Infection by Escherichia coli and Shigella species are among the leading causes of death due to diarrheal disease in the world. Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) that do not encode the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE-negative STEC) often possess Shiga toxin gene variants and have been isolated from humans and a variety of animal sources. In this study, we compare the genomes of nine LEE-negative STEC harboring various stx alleles with four complete reference LEE-positive STEC isolates. Compared to a representative collection of prototype E. coli and Shigella isolates representing each of the pathotypes, the whole genome phylogeny demonstrated that these isolates are diverse. Whole genome comparative analysis of the 13 genomes revealed that in addition to the absence of the LEE pathogenicity island, phage-encoded genes including non-LEE encoded effectors, were absent from all nine LEE-negative STEC genomes. Several plasmid-encoded virulence factors reportedly identified in LEE-negative STEC isolates were identified in only a subset of the nine LEE-negative isolates further confirming the diversity of this group. In combination with whole genome analysis, we characterized the lambdoid phages harboring the various stx alleles and determined their genomic insertion sites. Although the integrase gene sequence corresponded with genomic location, it was not correlated with stx variant, further highlighting the mosaic nature of these phages. The transcription of these phages in different genomic backgrounds was examined. Expression of the Shiga toxin genes, stx 1 and/or stx 2 , as well as the Q genes, were examined with quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assays. A wide range of basal and induced toxin induction was observed. Overall, this is a first significant foray into the genome space of this unexplored group of emerging and divergent pathogens.
Drugs for Autoimmune Inflammatory Diseases: From Small Molecule Compounds to Anti-TNF Biologics

Although initially described as an anti-tumor mediator, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) is generally considered as the master pro-inflammatory cytokine. It plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inflammatory bowel disease, ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and psoriasis. Consequently, anti-TNF therapy has become mainstay treatment for autoimmune diseases. Historically, anti-inflammatory agents were developed before the identification of TNF. Salicylates, the active components of Willow spp. , were identified in the mid-19th century for the alleviation of pain, fever, and inflammatory responses. Study of this naturally occurring compound led to the discovery of aspirin, which was followed by the development of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) due to the chemical advances in the 19th–20th centuries. Initially, the most of NSAIDs were organic acid, but the non-acidic compounds were also identified as NSAIDs. Although effective in the treatment of inflammatory diseases, NSAIDs have some undesirable and adverse effect, such as ulcers, kidney injury, and bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract. In the past two decades, anti-TNF biologics were developed. Drugs belong to this class include soluble TNF receptor 2 fusion protein and anti-TNF antibodies. The introduction of anti-TNF therapeutics has revolutionized the management of autoimmune diseases, such as RA, psoriatic arthritis (PsA), plaque psoriasis (PP), AS, CD and ulcerative colitis (UC). Nevertheless, up to 40% of patients have no response to anti-TNF treatment. Furthermore, this treatment is associated with some adverse effects such as increased risk of infection, and even triggered the de novo development of autoimmune diseases. Such harmful effect of anti-TNF treatment is likely caused by the global inhibition of TNF biological functions. Therefore, specific inhibition of TNF receptor (TNFR1 or TNFR2) may represent a safer and more effective treatment, as proposed by some recent studies. In this review article, the historical development of anti-inflammatory drugs after World War II as briefly described above will be reviewed and analyzed. The future trend in the development of novel TNF receptor-targeting therapeutics will be discussed in the context of latest progress in the research of TNF biology.
Effect of Three Technical Arms Swings on The Elevation of the Center of Mass During a Standing Back Somersault

Abstract Arms swing during standing back somersaults relates to three different “gymnastics schools”, each is considered “optimal” by its adepts. In the three cases, technical performance, elevation and safety differ. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the mechanical variables of three different arms swing techniques in the performance of a standing back tucked somersault. Five high-level male gymnasts (age: 23.17±1.61 yrs; body height: 1.65±0.05 m; body mass: 56.80±7.66 kg) randomly performed standing somersaults under three conditions, each following a different arms’ swing technical angle (270°, 180° and 90°). A force plate synchronized with a three dimensional movement analysis system was used to collect kinetic and kinematic data. Significant differences were observed between somersaults’ performance. The back somersault performed with 270° arms swing showed the best vertical displacement (up to 13.73%), while the back somersaults performed with 180° arms swing showed a decrease in power (up to 22.20%). The back somersault with 90° arms swing showed the highest force (up to 19.46%). Considering that the higher elevation of the centre of mass during the flight phase would allow best performance and lower the risk of falls, this study demonstrated that optimal arms’ swing technique prior to back tucked somersault was 270°.
Serum amyloid A generates high density lipoprotein with cellular lipid in an ABCA1- or ABCA7-dependent manner Published, JLR Papers in Press, April 10, 2006.

Serum amyloid A (SAA) is an amphiphilic helical protein that is found associated with plasma HDL in various pathological conditions, such as acute or chronic inflammation. Cellular lipid release and generation of HDL by this protein were investigated, in comparison with the reactions by apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and several types of cells that appear with various specific profiles of cholesterol and phospholipid release. SAA mediated cellular lipid release from these cells with the same profile as apoA-I. Upregulation of cellular ABCA1 protein by liver X receptor/retinoid X receptor agonists resulted in an increase of cellular lipid release by apoA-I and SAA. SAA reacted with the HEK293-derived clones that stably express human ABCA1 (293/2c) or ABCA7 (293/6c) to generate cholesterol-containing HDL in a similar manner to apoA-I. Dibutyryl cyclic AMP and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, which differentiate apoA-I-mediated cellular lipid release between 293/2c and 293/6c, also exhibited the same differential effects on the SAA-mediated reactions. No evidence was found for the ABCA1/ABCA7-independent lipid release by SAA. Characterization of physicochemical properties of the HDL revealed that SAA-generated HDL particles had higher density, larger diameter, and slower electrophoretic mobility than those generated by apoA-I. These results demonstrate that SAA generates cholesterol-containing HDL directly with cellular lipid and that the reaction is mediated by ABCA1 and ABCA7.
Texture Synthesis with Spatial Generative Adversarial Networks

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are a recent approach to train generative models of data, which have been shown to work particularly well on image data. In the current paper we introduce a new model for texture synthesis based on GAN learning. By extending the input noise distribution space from a single vector to a whole spatial tensor, we create an architecture with properties well suited to the task of texture synthesis, which we call spatial GAN (SGAN). To our knowledge, this is the first successful completely data-driven texture synthesis method based on GANs. Our method has the following features which make it a state of the art algorithm for texture synthesis: high image quality of the generated textures, very high scalability w.r. t. the output texture size, fast real-time forward generation, the ability to fuse multiple diverse source images in complex textures. To illustrate these capabilities we present multiple experiments with different classes of texture images and use cases. We also discuss some limitations of our method with respect to the types of texture images it can synthesize, and compare it to other neural techniques for texture generation.
Botulinum toxin type A-a novel treatment for provoked vestibulodynia? Results from a randomized, placebo controlled, double blinded study.

INTRODUCTION Vestibulodynia is an increasingly recognized problem among women and is often difficult to treat. AIM This randomized, double blinded, placebo-controlled study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Botox in the treatment of vestibulodynia. METHODS Sixty-four women were randomized to receive Botox (N = 32) or saline placebo (N = 32). Botulinum toxin A (20 I.E.) diluted in 0.5 mL saline or 0.5 mL saline was injected in the musculus bulbospongiosus at baseline. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Pain was measured monthly on a visual analog scale (VAS) Likert scale. Sexual function was measured using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and the Female Sexual Distress Scale at baseline and at 3 and 6 months follow up. Quality of life was measured using the 36-item short-form (SF-36). RESULTS Sixty women (94%) completed the 6 months follow up. Both Botox and placebo produced significantly pain reduction (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the median VAS score between the groups at 6 months follow up (P = 0.984). An improvement on the FSFI full score from baseline until 6 months was not significantly different between the groups (P = 0.635). In the placebo group a statistical significant larger reduction in sexual distress was observed from baseline until 6 months follow up compared to the Botox group (P = 0.044). No statistical significant differences were observed between the B- and P-groups in regard to the SF-36 scores. CONCLUSION Injection of 20 I.E. Botox in the vestibule of women diagnosed with vestibulodynia does not reduce pain, improve sexual functioning, or impact the quality of life compared to placebo and evaluated at 3 and 6 moths follow up. Both the Botox group and the placebo groups experienced a reduction in pain on the VAS Likert scale at 6 months follow up. Women with vestibulodynia have difficulty with sexual function and present with sexual distress, which has to be addressed in conjunction with pain to eliminate the disorder.
Change in Plasma Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor after Gamma Knife Radiosurgery for Meningioma: A Preliminary Study

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in the plasma level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) after Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS) for the treatment of meningioma. Methods Fourteen patients with meningiomas had peripheral venous blood collected at the time of GKRS and at 1 week, 1 month, 3 month and 6 month visits. Plasma VEGF levels were measured using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. For controls, peripheral blood samples were obtained from 20 healthy volunteers. Results The mean plasma VEGF level (29.6 pg/mL) in patients with meningiomas before GKRS was significantly lower than that of the control group (62.4 pg/mL, p=0.019). At 1 week after GKRS, the mean plasma VEGF levels decreased to 23.4 pg/mL, and dropped to 13.9 pg/mL at 1 month, 14.8 pg/mL at 3 months, then increased to 27.7 pg/mL at 6 months. Two patients (14.3%) with peritumoral edema (PTE) showed a level of VEGF 6 months after GKRS higher than their preradiosurgical level. There was no significant association found in an analysis of correlation between PTE and tumor size, marginal dose, age, and sex. Conclusion Our study is first in demonstrating changes of plasma VEGF after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for meningioma. This study may provide a stimulus for more work related to whether measurement of plasma level has a correlation with tumor response after SRS for meningioma.
Genetic Map Construction and Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) Detection of Growth-Related Traits in Litopenaeus vannamei for Selective Breeding Applications

Growth is a priority trait from the point of view of genetic improvement. Molecular markers linked to quantitative trait loci (QTL) have been regarded as useful for marker-assisted selection (MAS) in complex traits as growth. Using an intermediate F2 cross of slow and fast growth parents, a genetic linkage map of Pacific whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeusvannamei , based on amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) and simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers was constructed. Meanwhile, QTL analysis was performed for growth-related traits. The linkage map consisted of 451 marker loci (429 AFLPs and 22 SSRs) which formed 49 linkage groups with an average marker space of 7.6 cM; they spanned a total length of 3627.6 cM, covering 79.50% of estimated genome size. 14 QTLs were identified for growth-related traits, including three QTLs for body weight (BW), total length (TL) and partial carapace length (PCL), two QTLs for body length (BL), one QTL for first abdominal segment depth (FASD), third abdominal segment depth (TASD) and first abdominal segment width (FASW), which explained 2.62 to 61.42% of phenotypic variation. Moreover, comparison of linkage maps between L . vannamei and Penaeus japonicus was applied, providing a new insight into the genetic base of QTL affecting the growth-related traits. The new results will be useful for conducting MAS breeding schemes in L . vannamei .