Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tanshinol Attenuates the Deleterious Effects of Oxidative Stress on Osteoblastic Differentiation via Wnt/FoxO3a Signaling

There is now increasing evidence which suggests a pivotal role for oxidative stress in the development and progression of osteoporosis. We confirm herein the protective effects of natural antioxidant Tanshinol against oxidative stress in osteoblastic differentiation and the underlying mechanism. Our results show that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) leads to accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), decrease in cell viability, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in a caspase-3-dependent manner, and inhibition of osteoblastic differentiation. Tanshinol reverses these deleterious consequence triggered by oxidative stress. Moreover, under the condition of oxidative stress, Tanshinol suppresses the activation of FoxO3a transcription factor and expressions of its target genes Gadd45a and catalase (CAT) and simultaneously counteracts the inhibition of Wnt signalling and expressions of target genes Axin2, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and Osteoprotegerin (OPG). The findings are further consolidated using FoxO3a siRNA interference and overexpression of Tcf4. The results illustrate that Tanshinol attenuates oxidative stress via down-regulation of FoxO3a signaling, and rescues the decrease of osteoblastic differentiation through upregulation of Wnt signal under oxidative stress. The present findings suggest that the beneficial effects of Tanshinol may be adopted as a novel therapeutic approach in recently recognized conditions of niche targeting osteoporosis.
0 50 40 76 v 4 1 5 O ct 2 00 5 The Topology of Gauge Groups-preprint

In this paper we develop an effective way to access the topology of the gauge group for a smooth K-principal bundle P = (K, π, P, M) with possibly infinite-dimensional structure group K over a compact manifold with corners M. For this purpose we introduce the concept of a not necessarily finite-dimensional manifold with corners and show that C ∞ (M, K) is a Lie group if M is a compact manifold with corners. This enables us in the second section to consider the gauge group Gau(P), with a natural topology on it, as an infinite-dimensional Lie group if M is compact and K is locally exponential. In the last section we discuss some applications. We show that the inclusion Gau(P) ֒→ Gauc(P) of smooth into continuous gauge transformations is a weak homotopy equivalence, apply this result to the calculation of πn(Gau(P)).
Specificity in the physical preparation of elite rugby union football players

The present thesis explored various applications of training specificity with regard to elite-level rugby union football players of various ages. A novel approach to metabolic conditioning employing skill-based conditioning games was investigated with elite-level senior professional players, during the course of a preseason training period. Training responses were assessed using a submaximal intermittent shuttle test performed at weekly intervals. Significant differences post-training (p<0.01) were observed for %HRmax reached during the final test stage and recovery of HR from the end of the final stage to the end of the final Iminute rest period. The second study examined effectiveness of a circuit format for strength training in elite senior professional players during a preseason training period. Following the circuit based strength training, deadlift and bench pull IRM strength scores were significantly improved both in comparison to pre-tests (p<0.01) and end season scores (p<0.01). Bench press scores were also significantly improved following the training period (p<0.01), and post-test bench press scores were improved relative to end season scores, albeit to a lesser extent (p<0.05). An Olympic lift training intervention was undertaken with Junior academy-level rugby union players. The effect of the application of these lifts on mean power output measured using test apparatus that simulated the ruck clean movement featured in rugby union football was examined. The considerably greater increases of the training group on this measure (28% vs 8%) were reflected in greater statistical significance (p<0.01) relative to the improvement for the control group (p<0.05). A significant interaction effect also indicated the training groups responded significantly differently on the test measure following training. A weighted ballistic push up training mode, incorporating a prototype shoulder harness, was investigated in a group of junior academy-level rugby football players. The training group recorded significant improvements in work output measured using a concentric-only push test (p<0.05), whereas countermovement push-up test scores approached significance (P=0.063). The final study employed an overweight ball complex training intervention. Following training the elite academy professional players who served as subjects showed significant improvements (p<0.05) in right-handed and left-handed mean and peak
Inter-Generational Thoughtfulness in a Dynamic Public Good Experiment

In a laboratory experiment groups of four played a 15-period Public Good game. Each period a player could either invest in a green sector or in a more profitable but polluting brown sector. The pollutant accumulated and decreased the players’ income in all following periods. We conducted several treatments including the existence of a future generation. In the latter case subjects were told that their final stock would be forwarded to another group in a later session. The framework allowed investigating learning, the effects of communication and the possibly different reactions to self-produced and inherited pollution. The most interesting result is that the existence of heirs restricts pollution. We find that the result may be driven partly by thoughtfulness and partly by the induced motivation for longer-term planning.
Simulating Tutors with Natural Dialog and Pedagogical Strategies

Studies indicate that human tutors provide the most effective form of instruction known They raise the mean performance about two standard deviations compared to students taught in classrooms. Intelligent tutoring systems offer excellent instruction, but not quite as good as human tutors. The best ones raise performance about one standard deviation above classroom instruction (e.g., Anderson, Corbett, Koedinger, & Pelletier, 1995). In other words, a human tutor can raise the student's grade by about two letter grades (e.g., from C to A) while a tutoring system can raise it by about one letter grade (e.g., from C to B). Our challenge is to create tutoring systems that are as effective as human tutors. The biggest remaining difference between human tutors and tutoring systems is that human tutors use natural language and most tutoring systems do not. Although tutoring systems print natural language and sometimes speak it, they do not let the student type or speak in natural language. They accept only constrained language such as menu selections, mathematical expressions, key words, etc. This limits students' opportunities to generate deep explanations and have the tutor critique them. Since student generation of explanations is known to increase learning, we hypothes ize that if tutoring systems could participate in natural language dialogs with students about deep explanations, then the systems would become much more effective, and possibly rival human tutors. This could have a significant impact on military, commerc ial and public education. The proposed research project will (1) develop tools for building tutoring systems that conduct explanation-based natural language dialogs, (2) use the tools to develop tutoring systems for at least two task domains, and (3) evaluate their effectiveness compared to expert human tutors and to versions of the systems that use constrained language instead of natural language. Our basic approach is to combine a shallow, statistical approach (Latent Semantic Analysis) with deep, symb olic approaches (the LCFlex parser, the Tacitus-Lite+ discourse interpreter, and the APE tutorial dialog manager). Although prototypes of these components have been developed in our earlier work, all require significant extensions to handle explanation-based tutorial dialogs. Such dialogs are less constrained than dialogs handled previously by symbolic approaches, and they require deeper processing than dialogs handled previously by statistical approaches. We believe our hybrid approach will yield both the robustness and depth of understanding that explanation-based tutorial dialogs require.
Repetitive Hyperbaric Oxygenation Attenuates Reactive Astrogliosis and Suppresses Expression of Inflammatory Mediators in the Rat Model of Brain Injury

The exact mechanisms by which treatment with hyperbaric oxygen (HBOT) exerts its beneficial effects on recovery after brain injury are still unrevealed. Therefore, in this study we investigated the influence of repetitive HBOT on the reactive astrogliosis and expression of mediators of inflammation after cortical stab injury (CSI). CSI was performed on male Wistar rats, divided into control, sham, and lesioned groups with appropriate HBO. The HBOT protocol was as follows: 10 minutes of slow compression, 2.5 atmospheres absolute (ATA) for 60 minutes, and 10 minutes of slow decompression, once a day for 10 consecutive days. Data obtained using real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence analyses revealed that repetitive HBOT applied after the CSI attenuates reactive astrogliosis and glial scarring, and reduces expression of GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein), vimentin, and ICAM-1 (intercellular adhesion molecule-1) both at gene and tissue levels. In addition, HBOT prevents expression of CD40 and its ligand CD40L on microglia, neutrophils, cortical neurons, and reactive astrocytes. Accordingly, repetitive HBOT, by prevention of glial scarring and limiting of expression of inflammatory mediators, supports formation of more permissive environment for repair and regeneration.
Steady-State Solution of the Deficient Length Constrained FBLMS Algorithm

In almost all analyses of the frequency-domain block least mean-square (FBLMS) algorithm, the length of the adaptive filter is assumed to be equal to that of the unknown system impulse response. However, in many practical situations, where the length of the system impulse response is extremely long, the adaptive filter usually works in an under-modeling situation. The analysis results for the sufficient length FBLMS algorithm are not applicable to the deficient length case. In this correspondence, the steady-state solution of the deficient length constrained FBLMS algorithm is analyzed. Simulations illustrate the accuracy of the theoretical results.
Ruling out Kozai resonance in highly eccentric galactic binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1903+0327

We investigate the observational signatures associated with one of the proposed formation scenario for the recently discovered highly eccentric binary millisecond pulsar (MSP) PSR J1903+0327 in the galactic plane. The scenario requires that the MSP to be part of a hierarchical triple (HT), consisting of inner and outer binaries, experiencing the Kozai resonance. Numerical modelling of a bound point-mass HT, while incorporating the effects due to the quadrupolar interactions between the binary orbits and dominant contributions to the general relativistic periastron precession in the inner binary, reveals that, at the present epoch, the orbital eccentricity of the binary MSP should decrease for reasonable ranges in the HT parameters. The estimated decrements in the orbital eccentricity of the inner binary are few parts in 10 5 , substantially higher than the reported accuracies in the estimation of the orbital eccentricity of the binary MSP, while employing various general relativistic timing models for isolated binary pulsars. For wide ranges in the allowed orbital parameters, the estimated rate of change in the eccentricity of the inner binary is orders of magnitude higher than the value recently measured by the pulsar timing analysis. Therefore, we rule out the scenario that the MSP is part of an HT undergoing the Kozai oscillations. The origin of this system in a typical globular cluster is also shown to be less likely than inferred in the discovery paper.
Bovine Tuberculosis in Cattle in the Highlands of Cameroon: Seroprevalence Estimates and Rates of Tuberculin Skin Test Reactors at Modified Cut-Offs

The aim of this study was to obtain epidemiological estimates of bovine tuberculosis (TB) prevalence in cattle in the highlands of Cameroon using two population-based tuberculin skin test (TST) surveys in the years 2009 and 2010. However, prior to the TST survey in 2010, blood was collected from already chosen cattle for serological assay. Anti-bovine TB antibodies was detected in 37.17% of tested animals and bovine TB prevalence estimates were 3.59%–7.48%, 8.92%–13.25%, 11.77%–17.26% and 13.14%–18.35% for comparative TST at ≥4 mm, ≥3 mm and ≥2 mm cut-off points and single TST, respectively. The agreement between TST and lateral flow was generally higher in TST positive than in TST negative subjects. The K coefficients were 0.119, 0.234, 0.251 and 0.254 for comparative TST at ≥4 mm, ≥3 mm and ≥2 mm cut-off points and the single TST groups, respectively. Chi square statistics revealed that strong (P < 0.05; χ 2 > 48) associations existed between seroprevalence rates and TST reactors. The study suggested that using lateral flow assay and TST at severe interpretations could improve the perception of bovine TB in Cameroon. The importance of defining TST at modified cut-offs and disease status by post-mortem detection and mycobacterial culture of TB lesions in local environments cannot be overemphasised.
Inverse problems for a class of measure dependent dynamical systems

We consider a class of probability measure dependent dynamical systems which arise in the study of multiscale phenomena in diverse fields such as immunological population dynamics, viscoelasticity of polymers and rubber, and polarization in dielectric materials. We develop an inverse problem framework for studying systems with distributed temporal delays. In particular, we establish conditions for existence and uniqueness of the forward problem and well-posedness (including method stability under numerical approximations) for the inverse problem of estimating the probability measures. We show that a motivating class of models of HIV infection dynamics satisfies all the conditions of our framework, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for inverse problem computations with these models.
Dendrimer-coupled sonophoresis-mediated transdermal drug-delivery system for diclofenac

The purpose of the present study was to develop a novel transdermal drug-delivery system comprising a polyamidoamine dendrimer coupled with sonophoresis to enhance the permeation of diclofenac (DF) through the skin. The novel transdermal drug-delivery system was developed by using a statistical Plackett–Burman design. Hairless male Wistar rat skin was used for the DF-permeation study. Coupling media concentration, ultrasound-application time, duty cycle, distance from probe to skin, and a third-generation polyamidoamine-dendrimer concentration were selected as independent variables, while in vitro drug release was selected as a dependent variable. Independent variables were found to be statistically significant (P<0.05). DF gel without dendrimer and ultrasound treatment to skin (passive delivery, run 13) showed 56.69 µg/cm2 cumulative drug permeated through the skin, while the DF-dendrimer gel without sonophoresis treatment (run 14) showed 257.3 µg/cm2 cumulative drug permeated through the skin after 24 hours. However, when the same gel was applied to sonophoresis-treated skin, drastic permeation enhancement was observed. In the case of run 3, the cumulative drug that permeated through the skin was 935.21 µg/cm2. It was concluded that dendrimer-coupled sonophoresis-mediated transdermal drug delivery system has the potential to enhance the permeation of DF through the skin.
Effect of Adequate Non-verbal Mnemonic Conflict Management: Comparing Brain Activity during Idea Incubation between Different Creativity Levels

Using electroencephalography, we analyzed differences in the brain activity of designers having different creativity levels for idea conception in design. The 30 designers’ conceptual imaginations were measured on the basis of five indicators: Intuition, sensibility, focus, effectiveness, and dialectics. The following results were obtained: (i) Design intuition is driven by verbal memory filtering; (ii) design sensibility mainly results from non-verbal semantic processing; (iii) design focus results from the coactivation of non-verbal communication and cognitive control; (iv) design effectiveness is closely associated with affective and cognitive control; and (v) design dialectic enables the leverage between nonverbal communication and emotional regulation. We differentiated the brain activity between the HC and LC participants for design idea conception which was primarily governed by how effectively non-verbal mnemonic conflict was managed.
Risk of Narcolepsy Associated with Inactivated Adjuvanted (AS03) A/H1N1 (2009) Pandemic Influenza Vaccine in Quebec

Context An association between an adjuvanted (AS03) A/H1N1 pandemic vaccine and narcolepsy has been reported in Europe. Objective To assess narcolepsy risk following administration of a similar vaccine in Quebec. Design Retrospective population-based study. Setting Neurologists and lung specialists in the province were invited to report narcolepsy cases to a single reference centre. Population Patients were interviewed by two sleep experts and standard diagnostic tests were performed. Immunization status was verified in the provincial pandemic influenza vaccination registry. Main Outcome Measures Confirmed narcolepsy with or without cataplexy with onset of excessive daytime sleepiness between January 1st, 2009, and December 31st, 2010. Relative risks (RRs) were calculated using a Poisson model in a cohort analysis, by a self-controlled case series (SCCS) and a case-control method. Results A total of 24 cases were included and overall incidence rate was 1.5 per million person-years. A cluster of 7 cases was observed among vaccinated persons in the winter 2009–2010. In the primary cohort analysis, 16-week post-vaccination RR was 4.32 (95% CI: 1.50–11.12). RR was 2.07 (0.70–6.17) in the SCCS, and 1.48 (0.37–7.03) using the case-control method. Estimates were lower when observation was restricted to the period of pandemic influenza circulation, and tended to be higher in persons <20 years old and for cataplexy cases. Conclusions Results are compatible with an excess risk of approximately one case per million vaccine doses, mainly in persons less than 20 years of age. However, a confounding effect of the influenza infection cannot be ruled out.
A biometric modality based on the seismocardiogram (SCG)

In this paper, a novel biometric modality is proposed based on the seismocardiogram (SCG). The SCG represents the mechanical activities generated by the heart, as measured using accelerometer sensors, and has been found to be an important biomarker for cardiac diseases. This paper explores the biometric potential of the SCG. To this end, an SCG-biometric verification system is designed, focusing mainly on the feature extraction and dimensionality reduction methods: the former is based on autocorrelation, while the latter is based on principal component analysis (PCA). To improve the system accuracy and robustness, a data fusion approach is also implemented, by combining the tri-axial SCG signals. The obtained results indicate that the SCG is a promising physiological signal for biometric applications.
oeeUPATIONAL EXPOSURES lN SPRAYING AND APPLieATION OF INSEeTICIDESl 1. Exposure Data

The use of inorganic chemicals to control insects possibly dates back to classical Greece and Rome. Homer mentioned the fumigant value of burning sulfur; Pliny the EIder advocated the insecticidal use of arsenic and referred to the use of soda and olive oil for treating legume seeds. The Chinese were employing moderate amounts of arsenICals as insecticides by the sixteenth century, and, not long afterwards, nicotine was used, in the form of tobacco extracts. By the nineteenth century, both pyrethrum (a natural insecticide obtained by extraction of chrysanthemum flowers) and soap were being used for insect control, as was a combined wash of tobacco, sulfur and lime to combat insects and fungi. The middle of the nineteenth century marked the first systematic scientific studies into the use of chemicals for crop protection. Work on arsenic compounds led to the introduction in 1867 of Paris green, an impure copper arsenite, used in the USA to check the spread of the Colorado beetle; by 1900, its use was so widespread that probably the first insecticide legislation in the world was enacted to control its use. ln the years between the two World Wars, both the number and the complexity of chemicals for crop protection increased. Tar oils, which include anthracene, creosote and naphtha, were used to control eggs of aphids on dormant trees. During the Second World War, the insecticidal potential of DDT was discovered in Switzerland and insecticidal organophosphorus compounds were developed in Germany. ln 1945, the first soil-active carbamate herbicides were discovered by researchers in the United Kingdom, and the organochlorine insecticide chlordane was introduced in the USA and in Germany. Shortly afterwards, the insecticidal carbamates were developed in Switzerland. During the 1970s and 1980s, many new insecticides were introduced. Typically, these are based on a new understanding of biological and biochemical mechanisms of pest control and
Comparing non-adequate test suites using coverage criteria

A fundamental question in software testing research is how to compare test suites, often as a means for comparing test-generation techniques. Researchers frequently compare test suites by measuring their coverage. A coverage criterion C provides a set of test requirements and measures how many requirements a given suite satisfies. A suite that satisfies 100% of the (feasible) requirements is C-adequate. Previous rigorous evaluations of coverage criteria mostly focused on such adequate test suites: given criteria C and C′, are C-adequate suites (on average) more effective than C′-adequate suites? However, in many realistic cases producing adequate suites is impractical or even impossible. We present the first extensive study that evaluates coverage criteria for the common case of non-adequate test suites: given criteria C and C′, which one is better to use to compare test suites? Namely, if suites T1, T2 . Tn have coverage values c1, c2 . cn for C and c′1, c′2 . c′n for C′, is it better to compare suites based on c1, c2 . cn or based on c′1, c′ 2 . c′n? We evaluate a large set of plausible criteria, including statement and branch coverage, as well as stronger criteria used in recent studies. Two criteria perform best: branch coverage and an intra-procedural acyclic path coverage.