Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design and Fabrication of Strong Parts from Poly (Lactic Acid) with a Desktop 3D Printer: A Case with Interrupted Shell

The ability to form closed cavities inside the part printed is an important feature of Fused Filament Fabrication technology. A typical part consists of a dense shell bearing the primary load, filled with low-density plastic scaffold (infill). Such a constitution of the part provides in most cases appropriate strength and low weight. However, if the printed part shape includes horizontal (orthogonal to printer’s Z axis) flat surfaces other than its top and bottom surface, then the shell of the part becomes interrupted, which may lead to drastic drop in the ability of the part to withstand loads. In the current study, a representative sample of a part with interrupted shell and testing apparatus is developed. Influence of shell and base thicknesses, as well as influence of the infill density on the part strength, are studied. Different approaches to the sample shape modification were applied and tested. The part shape optimization made with respect to peculiarities of Fused Filament Fabrication technology resulted in increment of the force, required to fracture the part from 483 to 1096 N and in decreased part mass from 36.9 to 30.2 g.
Acculturation and Psychiatric Morbidity Among Cambodian Refugees in New Zealand

A community survey examining the relationship between acculturation and minor psychiatric morbidity among 223 Cambodians living in Dunedin, New Zealand was conducted. Most subjects would like to retain their parent culture but would also like to assimilate into the host culture, indicating a preference for an integrated mode of acculturation. Those who were older, widowed, less educated, had shorter duration of stay in New Zealand, and of lower socioeconomic status, were less acculturated. Overall, the least acculturated were found to have the highest rate of psychiatric morbidity. When age and sex were controlled, the association between acculturation and psychiatric morbidity remained significant only for women aged 31 to 50. Overall, the associations between psychiatric morbidity and acculturation held true for marital status, duration of stay in N.Z. , educational level, and socioeconomic status. The relevant conceptual and methodological issues in acculturation studies were discussed.
Laminaria japonica Extract Enhances Intestinal Barrier Function by Altering Inflammatory Response and Tight Junction-Related Protein in Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Caco-2 Cells

In the normal physiological state, intestinal epithelial cells act as a defensive frontline of host mucosal immunity to tolerate constant exposure to external stimuli. In this study, we investigated the potential anti-inflammatory and gut permeability protective effects of Laminaria japonica (LJ) water extract (LJE) and three types of fermented Laminaria japonica water extracts (LJE-F1, LJE-F2, and LJE-F3) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated Caco-2, human intestinal epithelial cells. All four extracts significantly decreased the production of nitric oxide and interleukin-6 induced by LPS stimulus. In addition, LJE and the three types of LJE-Fs also inhibited LPS-induced loss of monolayer permeability, as assessed by changes in transepithelial electrical resistance. All four LJ extracts significantly prevented the inhibition of the protein levels of occludin, whereas LJE, LJE-F1, and LJE-F3 significantly attenuated the reduction in phosphorylation of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase compared with the LPS-treated group in Caco-2 cells. In conclusion, LJE and its fermented water extracts appear to have potential gut health-promoting effects by reducing inflammation and partially regulating the tight junction-related proteins in human intestinal epithelial cells. Thus, additional studies are warranted to evaluate Laminaria japonica as a therapeutic agent for inflammatory bowel diseases.
Hypoxia Selectively Impairs CAR-T Cells In Vitro

Hypoxia is a major characteristic of the solid tumor microenvironment. To understand how chimeric antigen receptor-T cells (CAR-T cells) function in hypoxic conditions, we characterized CD19-specific and BCMA-specific human CAR-T cells generated in atmospheric (18% oxygen) and hypoxic (1% oxygen) culture for expansion, differentiation status, and CD4:CD8 ratio. CAR-T cells expanded to a much lower extent in 1% oxygen than in 18% oxygen. Hypoxic CAR-T cells also had a less differentiated phenotype and a higher CD4:CD8 ratio than atmospheric CAR-T cells. CAR-T cells were then added to antigen-positive and antigen-negative tumor cell lines at the same or lower oxygen level and characterized for cytotoxicity, cytokine and granzyme B secretion, and PD-1 upregulation. Atmospheric and hypoxic CAR-T cells exhibited comparable cytolytic activity and PD-1 upregulation; however, cytokine production and granzyme B release were greatly decreased in 1% oxygen, even when the CAR-T cells were generated in atmospheric culture. Together, these data show that at solid tumor oxygen levels, CAR-T cells are impaired in expansion, differentiation and cytokine production. These effects may contribute to the inability of CAR-T cells to eradicate solid tumors seen in many patients.
FolkRank : A Ranking Algorithm for Folksonomies

In social bookmark tools users are setting up lightweight conceptual structures called folksonomies. Currently, the information retrieval support is limited. We present a formal model and a new search algorithm for folksonomies, called FolkRank, that exploits the structure of the folksonomy. The proposed algorithm is also applied to find communities within the folksonomy and is used to structure search results. All findings are demonstrated on a large scale dataset. A long version of this paper has been published at the European Semantic Web Conference 2006 [3].
Why community physicians teach students (or not): barriers and opportunities for preceptor recruitment

The recent trend towards ambulatory teaching can pose challenges in terms of recruitment of ambulatory teachers. In order to improve recruitment efforts, we examined the reasons that community preceptors who teach and those who do not teach give for teaching or not teaching students in their offices. Physicians who teach students in their offices report they do so for the enjoyment and for the opportunity to provide teaching to these students. Physicians who do not teach in their offices report constraints of their practice situation, having other non-teaching challenges and being unaware of the teaching possibilities as barriers to teaching. Community preceptors were more likely to be alumni (medical school or postgraduate training) than those who were not preceptors. This study provides insight into the motivators and barriers for ambulatory teachers and has implications for recruiting and rewarding community preceptors.
Optimization of Ultrasonic-Assisted Extraction of Flavonoid Compounds and Antioxidants from Alfalfa Using Response Surface Method

Ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) was used to extract flavonoid-enriched antioxidants from alfalfa aerial part. Response surface methodology (RSM), based on a four-factor, five-level central composite design (CCD), was employed to obtain the optimal extraction parameters, in which the flavonoid content was maximum and the antioxidant activity of the extracts was strongest. Radical scavenging capacity of the extracts, which represents the amounts of antioxidants in alfalfa, was determined by using 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonicacid) (ABTS) and 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) methods. The results showed good fit with the proposed models for the total flavonoid extraction (R2 = 0.9849), for the antioxidant extraction assayed by ABTS method (R2 = 0.9764), and by DPPH method (R2 = 0.9806). Optimized extraction conditions for total flavonoids was a ratio of liquid to solid of 57.16 mL/g, 62.33 °C, 57.08 min, and 52.14% ethanol. The optimal extraction parameters of extracts for the highest antioxidant activity by DPPH method was a ratio of liquid to solid 60.3 mL/g, 54.56 °C, 45.59 min, and 46.67% ethanol, and by ABTS assay was a ratio of liquid to solid 47.29 mL/g, 63.73 °C, 51.62 min, and 60% ethanol concentration. Our work offers optimal extraction conditions for total flavonoids and antioxidants from alfalfa.
Performance Evaluation of Analytical Queries on a Standalone and Sharded Document Store

Numerous organizations perform data analytics using relational databases by executing data mining queries. These queries include complex joins and aggregate functions. However, due to an explosion of data in terms of volume, variety, veracity, and velocity known as Big Data [1], many organizations such as Foursquare, Adobe, and Bosch have migrated to NoSQL databases [2] such as MongoDB [3] and Cassandra [4]. We investigate the performance impact of analytical queries on a NoSQL document store. We benchmark the performance of MongoDB [3], a cross-platform document-oriented database, in a stand-alone environment and a sharded environment. The TPC-DS benchmark [5] is used to generate data of different scales and selected data mining queries are executed in both the environments. Our experimental results show that along with choosing the environment, data modeling in MongoDB also has a significant impact on query execution times. Analytical query performance is best when data is stored in a denormalized fashion. When the data is sharded, due to multiple query predicates in an analytical query, aggregating data from a few or all nodes proves to be an expensive process and hence performs poorly when compared to the alternative process of executing the same in a stand-alone environment.
The Water-Soluble Triptolide Derivative PG490-88 Protects against Cisplatin-Induced Acute Kidney Injury

Triptolide, a traditional Chinese medicine, has anti-inflammatory, antiproliferative, and proapoptotic properties. As interstitial inflammation and tubular apoptosis are features of cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (AKI), we determined the effect of the water-soluble triptolide derivative 14-succinyl triptolide sodium salt (PG490-88) in a mouse model of cisplatin-induced AKI. PG490-88 resulted in a significant decrease in blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine, and acute tubular necrosis (ATN) score, and a nonsignificant increase in tubular apoptosis score in AKI. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway is activated in AKI. On immunoblot analysis, phosphoextracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) was increased 3.6-fold in AKI and 2.0-fold inhibited by PG490-88. Phospho-c-Jun N-terminal kinase (p-JNK) was increased in AKI. PG490-88 resulted in a nonsignificant decrease in p-JNK. Phospho-p38 was not affected by cisplatin or PG490-88. MAPK phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) that negatively regulates MAPK signaling has not previously been studied in AKI. MKP-1 activity was not affected by cisplatin or PG490-88. Changes in p-ERK, p-JNK, and MKP-1 were confirmed on reverse protein phase analysis. The ERK inhibitor U0126 resulted in lower BUN and serum creatinine, suggesting a mechanistic role of ERK in AKI. The increase in interleukin-1α (IL-1α), IL-1β, IL-6, CXCL1, and IL-33 in the kidney in AKI was unaffected by PG490-88. In summary, PG490-88 protects against AKI and ATN despite no decrease in tubular apoptosis. The protection of PG490-88 against AKI was associated with a decrease in p-ERK and was independent of MKP-1 and proinflammatory cytokines. In conclusion, PG490-88 protects against cisplatin-induced AKI possibly by decreasing p-ERK.
Novel Therapeutic Potentials of Taxifolin for Amyloid-β-associated Neurodegenerative Diseases and Other Diseases: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

Amyloid-β (Aβ) has been closely implicated in the pathogenesis of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the major causes of dementia. Thus, Aβ could be a target for the treatment of these diseases, for which, currently, there are no established effective treatments. Taxifolin is a bioactive catechol-type flavonoid present in various plants, such as herbs, and it exhibits pleiotropic effects including anti-oxidant and anti-glycation activities. Recently, we have demonstrated that taxifolin inhibits Aβ fibril formation in vitro and have further shown that it improves cerebral blood flow, facilitating Aβ clearance in the brain and suppressing cognitive decline in a mouse model of CAA. These findings suggest the novel therapeutic potentials of taxifolin for CAA. Furthermore, recent extensive studies have reported several novel aspects of taxifolin supporting its potential as a therapeutic drug for AD and metabolic diseases with a high risk for dementia as well as for CAA. In this review, we have summarized the recent advances in taxifolin research based on in vitro, in vivo, and in silico approaches. Furthermore, we have discussed future research directions on the potential of taxifolin for use in novel therapeutic strategies for CAA, AD, and metabolic diseases with an increased risk for dementia.
A Framework for Classifying Unstructured Data of Cardiac Patients: A Supervised Learning Approach

Data mining has recently emerged as an important field that helps in extracting useful knowledge from the huge amount of unstructured and apparently un-useful data. Data mining in health organization has highest potential in this area for mining the unknown patterns in the datasets and disease prediction. The amount of work done for cardiovascular patients in Pakistan is scarcely very less. In this research study, using classification approach of machine learning we have proposed a framework to classify unstructured data of cardiac patients of the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC), Pakistan to four important classes. The focus of this study is to structure the unstructured medical data/reports manually, as there was no structured database available for the specific data under study. Multi-nominal Logistic Regression (LR) is used to perform multi-class classification and 10-fold cross validation is used to validate the classification models. In order to analyze the results and the performance of Logistic Regression models. The performance-measuring criterion that is used includes precision, f-measure, sensitivity, specificity, classification error, area under the curve and accuracy. This study will provide a road map for future research in the field of Bioinformatics in Pakistan.
Circadian Transcription Contributes to Core Period Determination in Drosophila

The Clock–Cycle (CLK–CYC) heterodimer constitutes a key circadian transcription complex in Drosophila. CYC has a DNA-binding domain but lacks an activation domain. Previous experiments also indicate that most of the transcriptional activity of CLK–CYC derives from the glutamine-rich region of its partner CLK. To address the role of transcription in core circadian timekeeping, we have analyzed the effects of a CYC–viral protein 16 (VP16) fusion protein in the Drosophila system. The addition of this potent and well-studied viral transcriptional activator (VP16) to CYC imparts to the CLK–CYC-VP16 complex strongly enhanced transcriptional activity relative to that of CLK–CYC. This increase is manifested in flies expressing CYC-VP16 as well as in S2 cells. These flies also have increased levels of CLK–CYC direct target gene mRNAs as well as a short period, implicating circadian transcription in period determination. A more detailed examination of reporter gene expression in CYC-VP16–expressing flies suggests that the short period is due at least in part to a more rapid transcriptional phase. Importantly, the behavioral effects require a period (per) promoter and are therefore unlikely to be merely a consequence of generally higher PER levels. This indicates that the CLK–CYC-VP16 behavioral effects are a consequence of increased per transcription. All of this also suggests that the timing of transcriptional activation and not the activation itself is the key event responsible for the behavioral effects observed in CYC-VP16-expressing flies. The results taken together indicate that circadian transcription contributes to core circadian function in Drosophila.
Increases in Colonic Bacterial Diversity after ω-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Predict Decreased Colonic Prostaglandin E2 Concentrations in Healthy Adults.

BACKGROUND The intestinal microbiome is an important determinant of inflammatory balance in the colon that may affect response to dietary agents. OBJECTIVE This is a secondary analysis of a clinical trial, the Fish Oil Study, to determine whether interindividual differences in colonic bacteria are associated with variability in the reduction of colonic prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) concentrations after personalized supplementation with ω-3 (n-3) fatty acids. METHODS Forty-seven healthy adults (17 men, 30 women, ages 26-75 y) provided biopsy samples of colonic mucosa and luminal stool brushings before and after personalized ω-3 fatty acid supplementation that was based on blood fatty acid responses. Samples were analyzed using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing. The data analyses focused on changes in bacterial community diversity. Linear regression was used to evaluate factors that predict a reduction in colonic PGE2. RESULTS At baseline, increased bacterial diversity, as measured by the Shannon and Inverse Simpson indexes in both biopsy and luminal brushing samples, was positively correlated with dietary fiber intakes and negatively correlated with fat intakes. Dietary supplementation with ω-3 fatty acids increased the Yue and Clayton community dis-similarity index between the microbiome in luminal brushings and colon biopsy samples post-supplementation (P = 0.015). In addition, there was a small group of individuals with relatively high Prevotella abundance who were resistant to the anti-inflammatory effects of ω-3 fatty acid supplementation. In linear regression analyses, increases in diversity of the bacteria in the luminal brushing samples, but not in the biopsy samples, were significant predictors of lower colonic PGE2 concentrations post-supplementation in models that included baseline PGE2, baseline body mass index, and changes in colonic eicosapentaenoic acid-to-arachidonic acid ratios. The changes in bacterial diversity contributed to 6-8% of the interindividual variance in change in colonic PGE2 (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Dietary supplementation with ω-3 fatty acids had little effect on intestinal bacteria in healthy humans; however, an increase in diversity in the luminal brushings significantly predicted reductions in colonic PGE2. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials. gov as NCT01860352.
Different adaptive NO-dependent Mechanisms in Normal and Hypertensive Conditions

Myocardial infarction (MI) remains the leading cause of death worldwide. We aimed to investigate the effect of NO deficiency on selective biochemical parameters within discreet myocardial zones after experimentally induced MI. To induce MI, the left descending coronary artery was ligated in two groups of 16-week-old WKY rats. In one group, NO production was inhibited by L-NAME (20 mg/kg/day) administration four weeks prior to ligation. Sham operations were performed on both groups as a control. Seven days after MI, we evaluated levels of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, eNOS, iNOS, NFҡB/p65 and Nrf2 in ischemic, injured and non-ischemic zones of the heart. Levels of circulating TNF-α and IL-6 were evaluated in the plasma. MI led to increased NOS activity in all investigated zones of myocardium as well as circulating levels of TNF-α and IL-6. L-NAME treatment decreased NOS activity in the heart of sham operated animals. eNOS expression was increased in the injured zone and this could be a compensatory mechanism that improves the perfusion of the myocardium and cardiac dysfunction. Conversely, iNOS expression increased in the infarcted zone and may contribute to the inflammatory process and irreversible necrotic changes.
STDMA for vehicle-to-vehicle communication in a highway scenario

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication within the intelligent transportation systems has been a hot topic recent years. In this paper the medium access control (MAC) method self-organizing time division multiple access (STDMA) has been simulated in a highway scenario with periodic broadcast packets. Rapidly changing road conditions requires a real-time deadline, so timely and predictable access is especially important to the channel. However, the traditional medium access method used in 802.11p makes a node drop over 80% of its heartbeat messages and as a result, 802.11p using carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) does not support real-time communications. With STDMA, nodes always get predictable channel access regardless of the number of competing nodes and the maximum delay can be expected. In this paper, we build a simulation platform where the topology dynamically changes and all the nodes need to communicate during the whole simulation in a highway scenario. Then we elaborate with different parameter settings and the results illustrate the relationship between the ratio of reuse and other parameters. Finally we come to a conclusion that with system load increasing, it is helpful to change sensing range and other configuration to reduce the probability of reusing slots by about 10% in order to improve the system performance.
Over Restriction of Dietary Protein Allowance: The Importance of Ongoing Reassessment of Natural Protein Tolerance in Phenylketonuria

Phenylalanine (Phe) tolerance is highly variable in phenylketonuria (PKU) and rarely described in patients aged ≥12 years. Patients ≥12 years of age with PKU were systematically challenged with additional natural protein (NP) if blood Phe levels remained below 480 µmol/L (i.e., upper target blood Phe level for patients aged ≥12 years using Portuguese PKU guidelines). In PKU patients, NP tolerance was calculated at baseline and a median of 6 months after systematic challenge with NP whilst patients were maintaining a blood Phe ≤480 μmol/L. Anthropometry was assessed at both times. Routine blood Phe levels were collected. We studied 40 well-controlled PKU patients (10 hyperphenylalaninemia (HPA), 23 mild and 7 classic PKU), on a low-Phe diet with a mean age of 17 years (12–29 years). Median daily NP intake significantly increased between assessments (35 vs. 40 g/day, p = 0.01). Twenty-six patients (65%) were able to increase their median NP intake by a median 12 g/day (2–42 g)/day and still maintain blood Phe within target range. Out of the previous 26 patients, 20 (77%) (8 HPA, 11 mild and 1 classical PKU) increased NP from animal sources (e.g., dairy products, fish and meat) and 6 patients (23%) (3 mild and 3 classical PKU) from plant foods (bread, pasta, potatoes). Median protein equivalent intake from Phe-free/low-Phe protein substitute decreased (0.82 vs. 0.75 g/kg, p = 0.01), while median blood Phe levels remained unchanged (279 vs. 288 μmol/L, p = 0.06). Almost two-thirds of patients with PKU tolerated additional NP when challenged and still maintained blood Phe within the national target range. This suggests that some patients with PKU treated by a low-Phe diet only may over restrict their NP intake. In order to minimise the burden of treatment and optimise NP intake, it is important to challenge with additional NP at periodic intervals.