Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Garlic-Derived S-Allylmercaptocysteine Ameliorates Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in a Rat Model through Inhibition of Apoptosis and Enhancing Autophagy

Our previous study demonstrated that administration of garlic-derived antioxidant S-allylmercaptocysteine (SAMC) ameliorated hepatic injury in a nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rat model. Our present study aimed to investigate the mechanism of SAMC on NAFLD-induced hepatic apoptosis and autophagy. Adult female rats were fed with a high-fat diet for 8 weeks to develop NAFLD with or without intraperitoneal injection of 200 mg/kg SAMC for three times per week. During NAFLD development, increased apoptotic cells and caspase-3 activation were observed in the liver. Increased apoptosis was modulated through both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways. NAFLD treatment also enhanced the expression of key autophagic markers in the liver with reduced activity of LKB1/AMPK and PI3K/Akt pathways. Increased expression of proapoptotic regulator p53 and decreased activity of antiautophagic regulator mTOR were also observed. Administration of SAMC reduced the number of apoptotic cells through downregulation of both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic mechanisms. SAMC also counteracted the effects of NAFLD on LKB1/AMPK and PI3K/Akt pathways. Treatment with SAMC further enhanced hepatic autophagy by regulating autophagic markers and mTOR activity. In conclusion, administration of SAMC during NAFLD development in rats protects the liver from chronic injury by reducing apoptosis and enhancing autophagy.
Improving Coverage of Design in Information Systems Education

The Association for Computing Machinery and the Association for Information Systems publish guidelines for undergraduate programs in software engineering and information systems (model curricula). While design is a core topic in both disciplines, this paper reveals that both model curricula omit core design topics. Coding the model curricula using concepts from Herbert Simon’s suggested topics in design science and Sensemaking-Coevolution-Implementation Theory (an explanatory theory of software development practice) reveals a specific gap ‐ neither model curricula covers how to generate design candidates. Consequently, the paper recommends adding numerous topics related to design candidate generation including means-ends analysis, sketching, storyboarding and problem modeling. Revising these influential model curricula to improve coverage of crucial design topics may positively influence many degree programs around the world.
Duration of Party Control in Parliamentary and Presidential Governments

Most of the previous work on political stability uses cabinet duration or leadership duration to measure stability. This study, however, focuses on another area of stability, namely the party control of the executive branch. This approach not only allows us to compare political durability in presidential and parliamentary systems directly, but it also, we believe, better reflects policy changes that stem from government party composition. Our analysis of longitudinal data from 65 democracies reveals that presidential and parliamentary governments create different patterns of government survival. Ruling parties in parliamentary systems encounter a declining hazard rate over time, whereas those in presidentialism face an increasing hazard rate in their survival. We explain this difference by focusing on how parliamentary and presidential systems create different incentive structures for political parties.
Commuting quantum circuits: efficient classical simulations versus hardness results

The study of quantum circuits composed of commuting gates is particularly useful to understand the delicate boundary between quantum and classical computation. Indeed, while being a restricted class, commuting circuits exhibit genuine quantum effects such as entanglement. In this paper we show that the computational power of commuting circuits exhibits a surprisingly rich structure. First we show that every 2-local commuting circuit acting on d-level systems and followed by single-qudit measurements can be efficiently simulated classically with high accuracy. In contrast, we prove that such strong simulations are hard for 3-local circuits. Using sampling methods we further show that all commuting circuits composed of exponentiated Pauli operators eiθP can be simulated efficiently classically when followed by single-qubit measurements. Finally, we show that commuting circuits can efficiently simulate certain non-commutative processes, related in particular to constant-depth quantum circuits. This gives evidence that the power of commuting circuits goes beyond classical computation.
Factors Associated with Awareness, Attitudes and Practices Regarding Common Eye Diseases in the General Population in a Rural District in Bangladesh: The Bangladesh Population-based Diabetes and Eye Study (BPDES)

Background To assess the awareness, attitudes, and practices associated with common eye diseases and eye care utilization in a rural district of Bangladesh. Methods Data were collected using a multilevel cluster random sampling technique from 3104 adults aged ≥30 years from the Banshgram union with a questionnaire assessing the awareness, attitudes and practice about diabetes and common eye diseases, educational attainment, socio-economic status, and medical history. Results Participants were aged between 30 and 89 years with a mean (SD) age of 51 (12) years and 65% were female. The majority of participants had heard of cataracts (90%), trachoma (86%) and Pterygium (84%), yet only 4% had heard of diabetic retinopathy (DR), 7% of glaucoma and 8% of Age-related macular degeneration (AMD). However, 58% of participants did not know vision loss could be prevented. Factors associated with lower awareness regarding common eye diseases were increasing age, lack of formal schooling, and lower socio-economic status. A lower proportion (57%) of people with no schooling compared to those who had attained at least secondary school certificate education (72%) reported that they knew that vision loss could be prevented (p<0.001). Overall 51% of people had heard of at least six (67%) out of nine items relating to awareness of common eye diseases. This included 41% of participants aged 65 years or older compared to 61% of those aged 30–35 years (p<0.001). Only 4% had an eye check at least once a year and higher education and better SES were associated with higher frequency of eye checks. Conclusions In rural Bangladesh awareness of cataract, trachoma and pterygium was good but limited in relation to the potentially blinding conditions of glaucoma, DR, and AMD. The results show a large gap between public awareness and treatment practices about common eye diseases. Public health promotion should be designed to address these knowledge gaps.
A Computational Analysis of Galactic Exploration with Space Probes: Implications for the Fermi Paradox

Temporal explanations to the Fermi paradox state that the vast scale of the galaxy diminishes the chances of establishing contact with an extraterrestrial technological civilization (ETC) within a certain time window. This argument is tackled in this work in the context of exploration probes, whose propagation can be faster than that of a colonization wavefront. Extensive computational simulations have been done to build a numerical model of the dynamics of the exploration. A probabilistic analysis is subsequently conducted in order to obtain bounds on the number of ETCs that may be exploring the galaxy without establishing contact with Earth, depending on factors such as the number of probes they use, their lifetime and whether they leave some long-term imprint on explored systems or not. The results indicate that it is unlikely that more than ~10^2-10^3 ETCs are exploring the galaxy in a given Myr, if their probes have a lifetime of 50 Myr and contact evidence lasts for 1 Myr. This bound goes down to ~10 if contact evidence lasts for 100 Myr, and is also shown to be inversely proportional to the lifetime of probes. These results are interpreted in light of the Fermi paradox and are compatible with non-stationary astrobiological models in which a few ETCs have gradually appeared in the Fermi-Hart timescale.
Molecular microbial diversity in soils from eastern Amazonia: evidence for unusual microorganisms and microbial population shifts associated with deforestation

Although the Amazon Basin is well known for its diversity of flora and fauna, this report represents the first description of the microbial diversity in Amazonian soils involving a culture-independent approach. Among the 100 sequences of genes coding for small-subunit rRNA obtained by PCR amplification with universal small-subunit rRNA primers, 98 were bacterial and 2 were archaeal. No duplicate sequences were found, and none of the sequences had been previously described. Eighteen percent of the bacterial sequences could not be classified in any known bacterial kingdom. Two sequences may represent a unique branch between the vast majority of bacteria and the deeply branching, predominantly thermophilic bacteria. Five sequences formed a clade that may represent a novel group within the class Proteobacteria. In addition, rRNA intergenic spacer analysis was used to show significant microbial population differences between a mature forest soil and an adjacent pasture soil.
Inequality, Trade and Defensive Innovation in the USA

This paper investigates the reasons behind this rise in inequality in the United States during the early 80's by evaluating the impact of imports and technological change on the wage bill and employment shares of skilled workers in the USA. Using highly disaggregated data, which allow us to distinguish between imports from high- and low-wage countries at a highly detailed industry level, we find that an increase in US imports from low-wage countries seems to explain part of the rise in US inequality in low-skill-intensive sectors, while technological change (proxied by R&D expenditure) explains the rise in inequality in high-skill-intensive sectors. However, we also find that increased trade with high-wage countries had an indirect effect on inequality in the more high-skill-intensive sectors through its positive impact on investment in R&D. Accordingly, it seems that the technology-based explanation for rising inequality in the USA is actually partly a trade-based explanation via the mechanism of 'defensive innovation'.
Comparison of the Effects of NBPTS Certified Teachers with Other Teachers on the Rate of Student Academic Progress. Final Report.

National Board Certification is a voluntary process established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) to measure what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. Certification is achieved through a rigorous performance-based assessment that takes between one and three years to complete. As of November 2004, approximately 40,200 teachers had earned National Board Certification. This study was undertaken as part of the National Board’s continuing effort to measure the impact of National Board Certification and the effects of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) on the quality of teaching and student achievement in America’s schools. End-of-grade mathematics and reading test scores from two large North Carolina school districts (Charlotte-Mecklenberg and Wake County) from the 1999-2000 through 2002-2003 school years, grades 4 through 8 were analyzed to compare NBCTs with other teachers. Over 260,000 student records (about half in mathematics and half in reading), representing over 4600 teacher-subject-grade-year combinations, were included in the analyses. Of that 4600+, 281 represented National Board Certified mathematics teacher-years, 306 represented National Board Certified reading teacher-years.
Exchange Diffusion Effect and Euryhalinity in Teleosts

The sea water (SW)-adapted euryhaline Platichthys flesus, and the marine Serranus exchange about 50% of their internal sodium with the external sodium per hour. This rate of exchange decreases with decreasing salinity of the adaptation medium. When the flounder is transferred from SW to FW an instantaneous 90% reduction of the Na and Cl outflux is observed. About 30 min later a second, progressive, reduction occurs. The outflux reductions appear to result from two types of regulatory mechanisms reducing gill permeability and preventing excessive salt loss. The first reduction corresponds to independent "Na- and Cl-free effects" as shown by transfers to artificial media containing either Na or Cl with an impermeant co-ion. The pattern of simultaneous rapid variations of Na influx and outflux for a range of salinity changes in flounder adapted to SW, ½ SW, or ¼ SW has been studied. The data are compatible with the hypothesis of an exchange diffusion mechanism characterized by a coupling of both unidirectional fluxes. The affinity of the exchange diffusion carrier for sodium has been measured (Km ≃ 400 mM). The delayed reduction would result from a progressive diminution of the quantity of carrier available but without modification of its affinity for sodium. When the stenohaline marine perch is transferred from SW to FW, a 40% reduction of the outflux is observed. But it is not the result of an exchange diffusion effect as it is related to the external osmolarity change and not to the NaCl concentration change. Furthermore no delayed reduction is observed after transfer into FW. This transfer is accompanied by a heavy loss of electrolytes resulting in a rapid decline of the plasma electrolyte level and death. A comparative survey of the relative importance of these regulatory mechanisms has been made.
Attribution of high resolution streamflow trends in Western Austria - an approach based on climate and discharge station data

The results of streamflow trend studies are often characterized by mostly insignificant trends and inexplicable spatial patterns. In our study region, Western Austria, this applies especially for trends of annually averaged runoff. However, analysing the altitudinal aspect, we found that there is a trend gradient from higher-altitude to lower-altitude stations, i.e. a pattern of mostly positive annual trends at higher stations and negative ones at lower stations. At mid-altitudes, the trends are mostly insignificant. Here we hypothesize that the streamflow trends are caused by the following two main processes: on the one hand, melting glaciers produce excess runoff at higher-altitude watersheds. On the other hand, rising temperatures potentially alter hydrological conditions in terms of less snowfall, higher infiltration, enhanced evapotranspiration, etc., which in turn results in decreasing streamflow trends at lower-altitude watersheds. However, these patterns are masked at mid-altitudes because the resulting positive and negative trends balance each other. To support these hypotheses, we attempted to attribute the detected trends to specific causes. For this purpose, we analysed trends of filtered daily streamflow data, as the causes for these changes might be restricted to a smaller temporal scale than the annual one. This allowed for the explicit determination of the exact days of year (DOYs) when certain streamflow trends emerge, which were then linked with the corresponding DOYs of the trends and characteristic dates of other observed variables, e.g. the average DOY when temperature crosses the freezing point in spring. Based on these analyses, an empirical statistical model was derived that was able to simulate daily streamflow trends sufficiently well. Analyses of subdaily streamflow changes provided additional insights. Finally, the present study supports many modelling approaches in the literature which found out that the main drivers of alpine streamflow changes are increased glacial melt, earlier snowmelt and lower snow accumulation in wintertime.
The Impact of the Euro on Equity Markets: A Country and Sector Decomposition

This paper investigates whether comovements between euro area equity returns at national and industry level have changed after the introduction of the euro. By adopting a regression quantile-based methodology, we find that after 1999 the degree of comovements among euro area national equity markets has augmented. By explicitly controlling for the impact of global factors, we show that this result cannot be explained away by recent world-wide trends. A more refined analysis based on an industry breakdown suggests that the increase in national index comovements is mainly driven by financial, industrials and consumer services sectors.
Acute Undifferentiated Febrile Illness in Rural Cambodia: A 3-Year Prospective Observational Study

In the past decade, malaria control has been successfully implemented in Cambodia, leading to a substantial decrease in reported cases. Wide-spread use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) has revealed a large burden of malaria-negative fever cases, for which no clinical management guidelines exist at peripheral level health facilities. As a first step towards developing such guidelines, a 3-year cross-sectional prospective observational study was designed to investigate the causes of acute malaria-negative febrile illness in Cambodia. From January 2008 to December 2010, 1193 febrile patients and 282 non-febrile individuals were recruited from three health centers in eastern and western Cambodia. Malaria RDTs and routine clinical examination were performed on site by health center staff. Venous samples and nasopharyngeal throat swabs were collected and analysed by molecular diagnostic tests. Blood cultures and blood smears were also taken from all febrile individuals. Molecular testing was applied for malaria parasites, Leptospira, Rickettsia, O. tsutsugamushi, Dengue- and Influenza virus. At least one pathogen was identified in 73.3% (874/1193) of febrile patient samples. Most frequent pathogens detected were P. vivax (33.4%), P. falciparum (26.5%), pathogenic Leptospira (9.4%), Influenza viruses (8.9%), Dengue viruses (6.3%), O. tsutsugamushi (3.9%), Rickettsia (0.2%), and P. knowlesi (0.1%). In the control group, a potential pathogen was identified in 40.4%, most commonly malaria parasites and Leptospira. Clinic-based diagnosis of malaria RDT-negative cases was poorly predictive for pathogen and appropriate treatment. Additional investigations are needed to understand their impact on clinical disease and epidemiology, and the possible role of therapies such as doxycycline, since many of these pathogens were seen in non-febrile subjects.
Cerias Tech Report 2003-55 Resilient Video Transmission over Wireless Networks

An error resilient architecture for video transmission over mobile wireless networks is presented. Radio link layer, transport layer, and application layer are combined to deal with high error rate in wireless environments. The algorithms for both sender and receiver are given. An adaptive algorithm is presented to automatically adjust parity data length in error control. The performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed through experimental studies.
The Influence of Leadership in Teachers' Practice in Bedouin High Schools

The purpose of this paper is to explore the Bedouin educational system from the leadership context and its influence in the teachers practice mediation by motivation and professional development. The research relies on the theory of full range leadership model and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and professional development. Design/methodology/approach - the questionnaires assessing the variables of interest were completed by 306 teachers in 22 Bedouin high schools in the Negev. The main finding of this research that charismatic leadership influenced positively intrinsic and extrinsic motivation while develops leadership influenced only the extrinsic motivation of teachers. In the other hand laissez- fair leadership influenced teacher's motivation negatively. The research finding also shows that is no relationships between leadership styles and professional development and that motivation and professional development have positive influence in teachers' practice. The conclusion of the research results is that charismatic leadership influenced positively the teacher's practice mediated by extrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Circadian Misalignment Augments Markers of Insulin Resistance and Inflammation, Independently of Sleep Loss

Shift workers, who are exposed to irregular sleep schedules resulting in sleep deprivation and misalignment of circadian rhythms, have an increased risk of diabetes relative to day workers. In healthy adults, sleep restriction without circadian misalignment promotes insulin resistance. To determine whether the misalignment of circadian rhythms that typically occurs in shift work involves intrinsic adverse metabolic effects independently of sleep loss, a parallel group design was used to study 26 healthy adults. Both interventions involved 3 inpatient days with 10-h bedtimes, followed by 8 inpatient days of sleep restriction to 5 h with fixed nocturnal bedtimes (circadian alignment) or with bedtimes delayed by 8.5 h on 4 of the 8 days (circadian misalignment). Daily total sleep time (SD) during the intervention was nearly identical in the aligned and misaligned conditions (4 h 48 min [5 min] vs. 4 h 45 min [6 min]). In both groups, insulin sensitivity (SI) significantly decreased after sleep restriction, without a compensatory increase in insulin secretion, and inflammation increased. In male participants exposed to circadian misalignment, the reduction in SI and the increase in inflammation both doubled compared with those who maintained regular nocturnal bedtimes. Circadian misalignment that occurs in shift work may increase diabetes risk and inflammation, independently of sleep loss.
Distributed randomized control for demand dispatch

The paper concerns design of control systems for Demand Dispatch to obtain ancillary services to the power grid by harnessing inherent flexibility in many loads. The role of “local intelligence” at the load has been advocated in prior work; randomized local controllers that manifest this intelligence are convenient for loads with a finite number of states. The present work introduces two new design techniques for these randomized controllers: (i) The Individual Perspective Design (IPD) is based on the solution to a one-dimensional family of Markov Decision Processes, whose objective function is formulated from the point of view of a single load. The family of dynamic programming equation appears complex, but it is shown that it is obtained through the solution of a single ordinary differential equation. (ii) The System Perspective Design (SPD) is motivated by a single objective of the grid operator: Passivity of any linearization of the aggregate input-output model. A solution is obtained that can again be computed through the solution of a single ordinary differential equation. Numerical results complement these theoretical results.