Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Roflumilast restores cAMP/PKA/CREB signaling axis for FtMt-mediated tumor inhibition of ovarian cancer

The abrogation of cAMP generation by overexpression of PDE isoforms promotes the inflammatory pathology, and the PDE inhibitors have showed the potential anti-inflammation effects in clinical. However, the function of PDE inhibitors in cancer treatment remains unclear. We here investigated the role of PDE4 inhibitor Roflumilast in the treatment of ovarian cancer. We found that Roflumilast could effectively inhibit the proliferation, and induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in two ovarian cancer cell lines OVCAR3 and SKOV3. Meanwhile, the cAMP/PKA/CREB signals was activated by Roflumilast, which was accompanied by the up-regulation of mitochondrial ferritin (FtMt) level. Interestingly, forced expression of FtMt in ovarian cancer enhanced the apoptosis and inhibited tumor growth and the PKA inhibitor H89 and knockdown of CREB significantly repressed the expression of FtMt to restore the tumor proliferation and inhibit apoptosis. In addition, we found that Roflumilast-induced phosphorylated CREB directly promoted transcription of FtMt, indicating that Roflumilast up-regulated the expression of FtMt in ovarian cancer via cAMP/PKA/CREB signals. The anti-tumor role of Roflumilast in vivo was also demonstrated, the treatment of roflumilast effectively inhibited tumor proliferation and elevated the FtMt expression to restrict the tumor growth via the activation of cAMP/PKA/CREB signals in ovarian cancer.
Dynamic Modeling of Floating Valve Plate Motion in an Axial Piston Pump

ABSTRACT The objectives of this study were to analytically and experimentally investigate the motion of the floating valve plate in an axial piston pump under various operating conditions. To achieve the objectives of the analytical investigation, the equations of motion for the valve plate were coupled with a time-dependent lubrication model. The balance pistons that support the floating valve plate were represented by equivalent spring and dashpot systems. The system of equations was then solved using the Runge-Kutta and the control volume finite difference methods to determine the pressure, film thickness, and motion of the valve plate for various operating conditions. To achieve the experimental objectives, a previously developed axial piston pump test rig was instrumented with proximity probes to measure the motion of the valve plate. The stiffness and damping of the balance pistons supporting the floating valve plate were determined using the impact and frequency response methods. Using the experimentally determined stiffness and damping coefficients in the coupled dynamic lubrication model, the analytical and experimental results of the valve plate motions were compared. The model was then used to conduct a parametric study to determine the overall system stiffness and damping coefficients during pump operation. Using the stiffness and damping coefficients from the parametric study in the dynamic lubrication model, the pressure, film thickness, and motion of the valve plate were calculated for various operating conditions. The experimental and analytical displacements of the valve plate were then corroborated and found to be in good agreement.
A three-dimensional approach to Visual Speech Recognition using Discrete Cosine Transforms

Visual speech recognition aims to identify the sequence of phonemes from continuous speech. Unlike the traditional approach of using 2D image feature extraction methods to derive features of each video frame separately, this paper proposes a new approach using a 3D (spatio-temporal) Discrete Cosine Transform to extract features of each feasible sub-sequence of an input video which are subsequently classified individually using Support Vector Machines and combined to find the most likely phoneme sequence using a tailor-made Hidden Markov Model. The algorithm is trained and tested on the VidTimit database to recognise sequences of phonemes as well as visemes (visual speech units). Furthermore, the system is extended with the training on phoneme or viseme pairs (biphones) to counteract the human speech ambiguity of co-articulation. The test set accuracy for the recognition of phoneme sequences is 20%, and the accuracy of viseme sequences is 39%. Both results improve the best values reported in other papers by approximately 2%. The contribution of the result is three-fold: Firstly, this paper is the first to show that 3D feature extraction methods can be applied to continuous sequence recognition tasks despite the unknown start positions and durations of each phoneme. Secondly, the result confirms that 3D feature extraction methods improve the accuracy compared to 2D features extraction methods. Thirdly, the paper is the first to specifically compare an otherwise identical method with and without using biphones, verifying that the usage of biphones has a positive impact on the result.
Explorer Practice organisational characteristics can impact on compliance with the BTS / SIGN asthma guideline : Qualitative comparative case study in primary care

Background: Although the BTS-SIGN asthma guideline is one of the most well known and widely respected guidelines in the world, implementation in UK primary care remains patchy. Building on extensive earlier descriptive work, we sought to explore the way teamwork and inter-professional relationships impact on the implementation of the BTS-SIGN guideline on asthma in general practice. Methods: Qualitative comparative case study using nine in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups with general practitioners and practice nurses, involved in delivering asthma care. Participants were purposively recruited from practices in a Scottish health board with high and low compliance with the BTS-SIGN asthma guideline. Results: There was a marked difference in the way respondents from practices with high compliance and respondents from practices with low compliance spoke about the value of guidelines and the challenges of implementing them. On both accounts, the former were more positive than the latter and were able to be more specific about the strategies they used to overcome barriers to implementation. We explored the reason for this difference in response and identified practice organisation, centring on delegation of work to nurses, as a factor mediating the practice's level of compliance. Effective delegation was underpinned by organisation of asthma work among practice members who have the appropriate level of skills and knowledge, know and understand each others' work and responsibilities, communicate well among themselves and trust each others' skills. It was the combination of these factors which made for successful delegation and guideline implementation, not any one factor in isolation. Conclusion: In our sample of practices, teamwork and organisation of care within practices appeared to impact on guideline implementation and further larger studies are needed to explore this issue further. Isolated interventions such as measures to improve staff's knowledge or increased clinical resource and time, which are currently being considered, are unlikely to be effective unless practices are supported in developing their teams in a way which supports the deployment of these resources. Published: 4 June 2008 BMC Family Practice 2008, 9:32 doi:10.1186/1471-2296-9-32 Received: 16 January 2008 Accepted: 4 June 2008 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-2296/9/32 © 2008 Wiener-Ogilvie et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. BMC Family Practice 2008, 9:32 http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-2296/9/32
Repeated Blockade of NMDA Receptors During Adolescence Impairs Reversal Learning and Disrupts GABAergic Interneurons in Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Adolescence is of particular significance to schizophrenia, since psychosis onset typically occurs in this critical period. Based on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor hypofunction hypothesis of schizophrenia, in this study, we investigated whether and how repeated NMDA receptor blockade during adolescence would affect GABAergic interneurons in rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and mPFC-mediated cognitive functions. Specifically, adolescent rats were subjected to intraperitoneal administration of MK-801 (0.1, 0.2, 0.4 mg/kg), a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, for 14 days and then tested for reference memory and reversal learning in the water maze. The density of parvabumin (PV)-, calbindin (CB)- and calretinin (CR)-positive neurons in mPFC was analyzed at either 24 h or 7 days after drug cessation. We found that MK-801 treatment delayed reversal learning in the water maze without affecting initial acquisition. Strikingly, MK-801 treatment also significantly reduced the density of PV+ and CB+ neurons, and this effect persisted for 7 days after drug cessation at the dose of 0.2 mg/kg. We further demonstrated that the reduction in PV+ and CB+ neuron densities was ascribed to a downregulation of the expression levels of PV and CB, but not to neuronal death. These results parallel the behavioral and neuropathological changes of schizophrenia and provide evidence that adolescent NMDA receptors antagonism offers a useful tool for unraveling the etiology of the disease.
Using Robotics as a Learning Tool in Latin America and Spain

Robotics has become a learning tool for multiple environments in ordinary school and after-school programs. This paper presents the perceptions of 127 teachers who teach educational robotics (ER) in Latin America and Spain at several preuniversity education levels. The studied dimensions were: 1) teacher profile; 2) technological resources; 3) learning activities; 4) environmental characteristics; and 5) learning outcomes. The analysis suggests that learning outcomes in ER activities are related to attributes of the learning environment and the pedagogical approach.
Maritime climate influence on chaparral composition and diversity in the coast range of central California

We investigated the hypothesis that maritime climatic factors associated with summer fog and low cloud stratus (summer marine layer) help explain the compositional diversity of chaparral in the coast range of central California. We randomly sampled chaparral species composition in 0.1-hectare plots along a coast-to-interior gradient. For each plot, climatic variables were estimated and soil samples were analyzed. We used Cluster Analysis and Principle Components Analysis to objectively categorize plots into climate zone groups. Climate variables, vegetation composition and various diversity measures were compared across climate zone groups using ANOVA and nonmetric multidimensional scaling. Differences in climatic variables that relate to summer moisture availability and winter freeze events explained the majority of variance in measured conditions and coincided with three chaparral assemblages: maritime (lowland coast where the summer marine layer was strongest), transition (upland coast with mild summer marine layer influence and greater winter precipitation), and interior sites that generally lacked late summer water availability from either source. Species turnover (β-diversity) was higher among maritime and transition sites than interior sites. Coastal chaparral differs from interior chaparral in having a higher obligate seeder to facultative seeder (resprouter) ratio and by being dominated by various Arctostaphylos species as opposed to the interior dominant, Adenostoma fasciculatum. The maritime climate influence along the California central coast is associated with patterns of woody plant composition and β-diversity among sites. Summer fog in coastal lowlands and higher winter precipitation in coastal uplands combine to lower late dry season water deficit in coastal chaparral and contribute to longer fire return intervals that are associated with obligate seeders and more local endemism. Soil nutrients are comparatively less important in explaining plant community composition, but heterogeneous azonal soils contribute to local endemism and promote isolated chaparral patches within the dominant forest vegetation along the coast.
Stable Isotope Ratios of Combustion Iron Produced by Evaporation in a Steel Plant

Combustion iron (Fe) in aerosols is one of the sources of dissolved Fe in the surface ocean. The iron isotope ratio (δ56Fe) is an important tool for source apportionment of Fe because combustion Fe emitted by evaporation possibly yields lower δ56Fe values than natural materials. However, there are insufficient data of δ56Fe for combustion Fe. Hence, δ56Fe values of Fe emitted from a steel plant were investigated, and the representative δ56Fe value of combustion Fe was discussed. The presence of a large number of submicron spherical Fe oxide particles suggested that the particles were emitted by high-temperature evaporation. Fine particles yielded much lower δ56Fe (as low as −3.53‰) than original materials, indicating that Fe isotope fractionation occurred during evaporation. Based on this study and our previous data, we suggest −3.9‰ to −4.7‰ as the representative δ56Fe range of combustion Fe. Mass balance calculations using this range suggest that the contribution of combustion Fe is approximately 57–83%.
Assessing the applicability of OpenStreetMap data to assist the validation of land use/land cover maps

ABSTRACT The validation of land use/land cover (LULC) maps is usually performed using a reference database consisting of a sample of points or regions to which the ‘real’ class is assigned. This assignment is usually performed by specialists using photointerpretation (PI) of high-resolution imagery and/or field visits, which are time consuming and expensive processes. The aim of this article is to assess if the data available in the collaborative project OpenStreetMap (OSM) may be used as a source of data to assist the creation of these reference databases, reducing the time spent and costs associated with their generation. For this aim, two case studies were used, where the validation of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security Urban Atlas (UA) was performed. The used methodology requires the harmonization of the data available in OSM with the UA nomenclature, and the subsequent creation of a LULC map from the OSM data. This map was then compared to UA to assess the similarity of the regions mapped in both. To test the usefulness of OSM data to assess the accuracy of UA, a sample of points was created and two reference databases generated, one assigning the data extracted automatically from OSM to the points where these data were available, and PI for the remaining points, and the other using only PI. The accuracy assessment of UA for the two case studies was then made building confusion matrixes and computing accuracy indicators. The results showed that for the two study areas, only low percentages of points had to be photo interpreted in the first reference database (respectively, 12% and 2% for the two study areas), decreasing the work load considerably. The results obtained with both reference databases are comparable for level 1 classes. For level 2 classes, worse results were obtained for some classes, showing that the OSM data used are not enough to create reliable reference data.
Prevalence and Factors Associated with Stunting, Underweight and Wasting: A Community Based Cross Sectional Study among Children Age 6-59 Months at Lalibela Town, Northern Ethiopia

Background: Children are most vulnerable to malnutrition in developing countries because of low dietary intakes, lack of appropriate care, and inequitable distribution of food within the household. Malnutrition remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children throughout the world. Malnutrition In Ethiopia, in the form of stunting, underweight and wasting were identified as 44%, 29% and 10% and Amhara National region state 52%, 33.4% and 9.9%, respectively in children under five. Objective: To determine the prevalence of malnutrition and associated factors among Children age 6-59 Months in Lalibela Town, Northern Ethiopia Methods: A-Community based cross-sectional study was conducted from August 19 to September 13, 2012 in Lalibela town, Northern Ethiopia which includes both urban and rural settings. Data were collected from 844 households with children age 6-59 months using pre tested structured questionnaires and measuring weight and height of children. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used using SPSS version 16 computer software to see the relevant associations. Anthropometric data were also converted into indices of nutritional status using Emergency Nutrition Assessment for SMART special software, 2012. Results: A total of 844 households were included in the study giving the response rate 100%. The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 47.3% (95%CI: 43.2-51.1), 25.6% (95%CI: 20.6-30.6) and 8.9% (95% CI: 6.9-10.2), respectively. Among the various socio-economic,demographic and child health and care practices characteristics considered, age of the child 11-23 months (AOR= 2.30; (95%CI: 1.28-4.12), Deworming status (AOR=2.19; (95% CI: 1.41-3.39), sex of the child(AOR= 0.75; (95% CI: 0.57-1.00) and breast feed the child still now(AOR= 0.40;(95% CI: 0.20-0.78) remained to be significantly associated with stunting. Middle wealth quintile to the households (AOR=0.51; (95%CI: 0.28-0.91), age of the child 23-35 months(AOR=2.29; (95%CI: 1.14-4.61), number of children aged 6-59 months in the household (AOR=1.61; (95%CI: 1.08-2.41) and giving honey to the child in the morning (AOR=1.52; (95%CI: 1.03-2.24) were remained to be significantly and independently associated withm underweight. Conclusion: The prevalence rate of malnutrition in the study area was found high and this was coupled with association of many independent variables. This needs appropriate factor specific interventions.
Athletic Trainers' Roles and Responsibilities Regarding Academic Adjustments as Part of the Concussion-Management Process in the Secondary School Setting.

CONTEXT Athletic trainers (ATs) play a vital role in managing the care of student-athletes after a sport-related concussion, yet little is known about their specific involvement in the implementation of academic adjustments as part of the concussion-management plan. OBJECTIVE To explore ATs' perceived roles and responsibilities regarding the implementation of academic adjustments for concussed student-athletes. DESIGN Qualitative study. SETTING Individual telephone interviews. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Sixteen ATs employed in the secondary school setting (8 women, 8 men; age = 39.6 ± 7.9 years; athletic training experience = 15.1 ± 5.6 years), representing 12 states, were interviewed. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS One telephone interview was conducted with each participant. After the interviews were transcribed, the data were analyzed and coded into themes and categories, which were determined via consensus of a 4-person research team. To decrease researcher bias, triangulation occurred through participant member checking, the inclusion of multiple researchers, and an internal auditor. RESULTS Several categories related to participants' perceptions regarding their roles and responsibilities within the academic-adjustments process emerged from data analysis: (1) understanding of academic adjustments, (2) perceptions of their roles in academic adjustments, (3) initiation of academic adjustments, (4) facilitation of academic adjustments, and (5) lack of a role in the academic-adjustments process. Although most ATs perceived that they had a role in the initiation and facilitation of academic adjustments for concussed student-athletes, some reported they did not want a role in the process. Regardless, participants frequently suggested the need for further education. CONCLUSIONS These findings highlight that ATs either wanted to be involved in the implementation of academic adjustments but felt further education was needed or they did not want to be involved because they felt that it was not in their area of expertise. To create a cohesive concussion-management team, it is vital that ATs understand their individual and collaborative roles in the secondary school setting.
Evaluation of cardiovascular risk predicted by different SCORE equations: The Netherlands as an example

Background In Europe, for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), the Systematic COronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) risk charts for high-risk and low-risk regions (SCORE-high and SCORE-low, respectively) are used. For the Dutch ‘Clinical Practice Guideline for Cardiovascular Risk Management’ an adapted SCORE risk chart (SCORE-NL) was developed in collaboration with the SCORE group. We evaluated these three SCORE equations using Dutch risk factor and mortality data. Design Prospective cohort study with 10-year follow-up. Methods Baseline data were collected between 1987 and 1997 in 32 885 persons aged 37.5–62.5 years. Vital status was checked and causes of death were obtained from Statistics Netherlands. On the basis of the level of risk factors, the expected number of CVD deaths was calculated by applying the three SCORE equations and compared with the observed number. Results The observed CVD mortality was three-fold higher in men (n = 242; 1.6%) than in women (n = 83; 0.5%). On the basis of SCORE-NL, 8.5% of the men and 0.8% of the women had a CVD mortality risk of 5% or more. The ratio of the observed-to-expected number of CVD deaths was 0.75 for men and 0.55 for women using SCORE-NL, 0.54 and 0.56 using SCORE-high, and 1.11 and 0.95 using SCORE-low. Conclusion At the population level, SCORE-low predicts the number of CVD deaths well, whereas both SCORE-NL and SCORE-high overestimate the number of CVD deaths by a factor 1.5–2.
Simulation of a Rod Ejection Transient in VVER‑1000 with COBAYA4‑CTF

The objective of this work is to analyze hypothetical reactivity insertion accidents including control rod ejection in a VVER-1000 V320 reactor using the coupled best-estimate COBAYA4/CTF neutronics/thermal hydraulics codes. A specific objective is to explore the adequacy of two-group diffusion cross-section libraries of different detail for such simulations. A full-core COBAYA4/CTF nodal calculation model was verified in code-to-code comparison with COBAYA3/FLICA4 results in steady state and control rod withdrawal simulation. This model was used to analyze a rod ejection transient from hot zero power. The results show that the computed local parameters do not exceed the safety limits. The impact of cross-section libraries on the inserted reactivity and transient peak power was assessed by comparing calculations with two variants of the table-interpolation cross-section library. The first one is simplified, as used in some OECD/NEA benchmarks, and the second is full-scope in general multi-group format. The results show that a library in general multi-group format with feedback-dependent kinetic parameters is the reasonable choice for the analysis of such transients.